The Mynns' Mystery

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  DAN PORTWAY THINKS AND ACTS.

  "It will make assurance doubly sure," Dan Portway thought, and, quick aslightning, he recalled the discovery of a murdered family of settlers hehad seen on the plains, where, after death had been dealt with arrow andtomahawk, each poor creature had been scalped.

  Dan Portway had exchanged friendly grips of the hand with his victimscores of times, had shared luxuries with him in hours of plenty, andthe last scrap in those of famine. More than that, upon one occasion,during their hunting-trip, when he had slipped, fallen, and hung indeadly peril over a terrible chasm, George Harrington had risked his ownlife to save that of his companion by descending and grasping his wristsjust as his strength was failing and he was about to drop. But therewas wealth in the way--a chance of gaining possession of position inanother land, and at that time the sphere of the scoundrel's actions wasgrowing limited, for in several districts a vigilance committee hadhunted him with dire intentions connected with a lariat and the nearesttree.

  And now his opportunity had come, and he seized it with the coolness ofthe hardened villain, free from all remorse.

  "Dead or not quite dead, he can't feel," he muttered, as the point ofhis knife pierced George Harrington's scalp, and then the poor fellow'shead dropped with a heavy thud upon the rocks, while, bending down, theruffian seemed as if turned to stone, and gazed before him at the animalwhich had silently approached to within half-a-dozen yards, and thenuttered a low sound like a heavy sigh.

  They had seen sign of bear up above: here was the bear himself--a hugebrute of the variety known to hunters as the cinnamon, at home here inhis native wilds, glaring red-eyed and savage at the intruder upon hisdomains, and ready to make him pay dearly for his audacity.

  Portway held his keen knife in his hand, but he could not stir; hisrifle, ready charged, was almost within reach of his hand, but he didnot try to seize it, and for fully a minute the huge beast and thehunter remained perfectly motionless.

  Then the paralysis of mind and muscle passed away, and Portway stretchedout his hand slowly towards where he had placed his rifle but withoutmoving his eyes from the bear. On his right was the steep rocky wallthat he had descended, on his left the terrible precipice, behind him anarrow shelf, and, in front the bear, with George Harrington between.

  "If I can get the rifle?" thought Portway; and his hand searched for it,but in his heart he felt that it would be better to try and retreatslowly, while the bear would stop and wreak his anger upon the fallenman. Dan Portway knew better as regards the nature of the beast, but hecould not think coolly and clearly then--he could not recall in theleast that the grizzly and his relatives preferred to attack an activeenemy when brought face to face with him, and that, at such a time, therecumbent body was no more to it than the rocks around--till he saw itrear up on its hind legs, a monster fully seven feet in height, itslittle eyes red with rage, its fangs bared, and its huge paws raisedwith the great claws spread.

  There was a tremendous roar, full-throated, from the creature's jaws, arush as it leaped over George Harrington; the rifle was falling down thegulch, crashing from stone to stone; and, knife in hand, and uttering ahoarse shriek of horror, Dan Portway was bounding from rock to rock,striving to mount the steep side of the rugged place, and with the bearin full pursuit.

  They were moments of agony, such as add years to a man's life, and,listening to the panting breath of his pursuer, and his low snufflingsnarl, Portway climbed on, expecting, moment by moment, to feel themonster's huge claws upon his shoulder, and his half-inanimate bodysnatched back into the creature's grasp. There was no chance of escape,for there, in its natural haunts, the bear could shuffle along at doublethe rate of a man, but still, for what seemed like an eternity ofhorror--really, but a fraction of a minute--Portway climbed on, till instruggling round a projecting rock, he slipped, and fell some twentyfeet, to be caught up by a gnarled and distorted pine-trunk, which, withits roots in a crevice of the mountain side, projected almost at rightangles over the gulch.

  Half maddened by fear, the wretched man instinctively clung to theboughs, and saved himself from falling farther, and then, with his eyesfixed and staring up at his enemy steadily descending in pursuit, hecrept along the bending stem, seating himself astride the tree, andgetting farther and farther from the side of the gulch, till a warningcrack told him of danger, while the swaying motion of the little trunkshowed that he had reached the farthest point which the tree would bear.

  "Grizzlies can't climb trees," he thought, and he watched his enemy asit came on, deliberately and cautiously, until it reached the spot fromwhence the fir-tree sprang. Here it paused, snuffed the ground, andstretched out its neck toward the trembling man, who shifted hisposition a little, so as to be ready to use his knife with effect.

  The bear's movements were as cautious and deliberate as it is possibleto conceive; it placed one paw on the trunk, and then, reaching out theother with its terrible array of hooked talons, made as if to clawPortway from where he sat, and to draw him to the rocks.

  As the bear strained to reach him, Portway backed slowly towards thebranches, shuddering as he glanced downward into the gulf, and realisedthat the thin elastic trunk was all that he had to depend upon to savehim from the two terrible forms of death so close at hand. At anymoment he felt that the weight upon the tree might act as a lever ofsufficient power to tear the roots out of the crevice in which theygrew, and this kept him from moving another inch, though the bear wascautiously trying the tree, and while keeping its hind-quarters wellupon the substantial rocks, stretching out farther and farther with itshuge length of reach, till the terrible claws came within a foot or twoof his breast.

  And now a curious feeling, akin to nightmare, came over the man, and hesat astride that frail trunk, gazing wildly at the red glaring eyes ofthe animal, but closing his own each time the huge paw swept toward him,and he saw himself, in imagination, swept from his hold.

  But the bear uttered a strange gasping growl, full of disappointment,and with an action that seemed eminently human, it altered its position,creeping more over the precipice, and clasping the tree with its hindpaws, so that the next time it stretched itself out, Portway saw that hewould be within its reach.

  Still he could not move; only sit there, watching every deliberate actof the determined creature till it had finished its preparations, andwas about to make its final stroke; the paw was even in motion, when,with a yell of horror, Portway threw himself back among the boughs.

  The effect was immediate. The weight placed upon the trunk was the fullextent of that which it would bear; the extra leverage produced byPortway's action did the rest. There was a sharp, snapping, crackingnoise, the tree was torn out by the roots, and in company with anavalanche of stones and earth, man, tree, and bear plunged crashing downinto the great chasm yawning beneath.

  The effect was varied.

  The bear, whose hind paws clung to the root and rock, went down headfirst, and its fore paws touched the bushes beneath, clung to them, andheld on, while, following the tree, its hind-quarters went right over,making the animal turn an involuntary somersault. Then its fore pawswere snatched from their hold by its weight, and it fell some twentyfeet, from tree to tree, where they bristled from the side before itcould check its downward course, after which the huge beast coolly beganto climb diagonally upward, till it reached the shelf from which it hadfallen, and, after shaking itself, began slowly to retrace its stepsupward, when it came upon the rifle Portway had dropped, stopped tosnuffle round it for a few moments, and then proceeded toward where theencounter had first taken place, and where lay ready for him a feastsuch as did not often come in his generally vegetarian way.

  Meanwhile, with a terrible rush, the tree, with its occupant, had gonedown into the gulf, plunging from rock to bush and clump of pine,Portway clinging to it desperately, till it fell athwart a couple moretrunks, and there lodged, but with such a jerk that the man was thrownfrom where he clung, to
continue his descent alone crashing through treeand bush, till he was brought up suddenly and lay stunned and insensibleto what had been going on.

  At the end of a few minutes Portway unclosed his eyes and lay staring upat the sky, through the thick, ragged growth which sprang everywherefrom the sides of the chasm. Then by degrees he realised that he hadescaped, so far, from a terrible death, but it was some time longerbefore he dared to move.

  When he did venture he uttered a cry of agony, and lay perfectly stillagain, for an acute pain had shot through his side, telling him plainlythat he had not escaped free. At last though the cold sweat seemed todry upon his brow, and he began to look round and upward so asthoroughly to grasp his position.

  The side of the gulch projected where he lay, and quite a clump of pineshad found sustenance, sufficient to grow into a bushy patch, among whoseboughs Portway had fallen, the tops proving sufficiently elastic anddense to break his descent, though he had torn off enough to form quitea bed, upon which he rested.

  He listened and looked about him, but he could neither see nor hearanything of his enemy, and at last, with his confidence returning, hedrew himself into a sitting posture in spite of the pain, took a flaskfrom his breast, drank a dram of whiskey, and began once more to lookaround.

  His first shuddering gaze was upward, and something like a feeling ofsatisfaction gave him encouragement to proceed, as he grasped the factthat to climb back was impossible, for if the bear had escaped fallingwith him, the beast was probably waiting his return.

  "No, it must be downward," he muttered; and in spite of his agony, heset about the task of descent, at once finding it less difficult than hehad anticipated; for the tough roots and bushes, which projectedeverywhere, gave him foot and hand hold, as he let himself down, lowerand lower.

  But there was a fresh difficulty awaiting him, for the lower he went thedarker it seemed to grow. The sun had sunk behind the mountains, and inhalf an hour it would be perfectly black where he hung, and any attemptto continue the descent so much madness.

  It was, then, with a sense of relief that he reached a sharp slopewhere, among the bushes and creepers that tangled the side of the gulch,he was able to find a resting-place where there was no danger offalling, and as he lay down here, hot, exhausted, and in pain, he sawthe twilight fade into darkness, and thought of the body of hiscompanion lying somewhere above.

  A shudder ran through him at the thought--a shudder of dread--but it wasonly compounded of fear lest he should not have effectually completedhis deadly work, and with the full determination of revisiting the spot,so as to secure Harrington's rifle and make perfectly sure of his death,providing he could avoid the bear, he dropped off into a heavy sleepwhich lasted till the soft grey light was beginning to fill the valleyonce again.

  He was so stiff, and suffered such agony from the injury to his side,that for some time he did not care to stir; but at last, bringing allhis energies to bear, he rose carefully, looked round, and began todescend, reaching the bottom with no very great difficulty, and thenpausing to consider as to what course he should pursue.

  His desire was to make for the camp at once, but he felt that he mustsee the spot where he had left George Harrington; and to do this hedoggedly set forth, making his way to the mouth of the gulch, and thenspending half the day in getting round and back to the ledge, alongwhich he and his companion had passed the day before.

  It was nearly midday when he passed the spot where they had lain downand slept, and he would have given anything to have rested, but hecontented himself with slaking his thirst at a trickling spring anddoggedly went on.

  "I must see him, and get his rifle," he muttered, as he trudged on, tillat last, peering cautiously about the while, he reached the place whereHarrington had stood gazing down, and he had delivered that cowardlyblow.

  For a moment or two he hesitated and stood panting, with his hand to hisside. Then, taking a step forward, he peered down to gaze upon hisghastly work, and stood there, as if fascinated, before he made aterrible effort, and turned and fled.

  For there below him, and interposed between him and that he wished tosee, was his huge enemy of the previous day, bending down, and evidentlylicking the rock; till, divining danger, it looked up suddenly, uttereda low fierce growl, and began to climb.

  But by the time it reached the rocky path, Dan Portway was out of sight,and he did not pause till he reached the little camp, from which he tookthe few things he sought, refreshed himself, made ready a pack ofnecessaries, set fire to the rest, and mounting the horse left hobbledin a grassy hollow, rode slowly away.

  "To seek my fortune," he said with a curious laugh; and then, with benthead and thoughtful brow, he let the reins drop on the horse's neck,took a pin from out of his knife, and began to make experiments bypricking the skin of his wrist till it bled, and rubbing in gunpowder.

  "Easy enough," he said, with a laugh. "Now we shall see what change ofscene will do. Nothing like a removal when a place grows too hot."