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The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 17. Untrustworthy Sentinels |
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_ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. UNTRUSTWORTHY SENTINELS They soon reached the little camp, where the Doctor eagerly communicated his news to his child, and then taking Joses aside he repeated it to him. "Well, that's right, master. I'm glad, of course; and I hope it'll make you rich, for you want it bad enough after so many years of loss with your cattle." "It has made me rich--I am rich, Joses!" cried the Doctor, excitedly. "That's good, master," said the man, coolly. "And now what's going to be done? Are we to carry the mountain back to the old ranche?" The Doctor frowned. "We shall have to return at once, Joses, to organise a regular mining party. We must have plenty of well-armed men, and tools, and machinery to work this great find. We must go back at once." "Now, master?" "No, no, perhaps not for a week, my man," said the Doctor, whose nervous excitement seemed to increase. "I must thoroughly investigate the extent of the silver deposit, descend into the canyon, and ascend the mountain. Then we must settle where our new town is to be." "Ah, we're going to have a new town, are we, master?" "To be sure! Of course! How could the mining adventure be carried on without?" Joses shook his head. "P'r'aps we shall stay here a week then, master?" he said at last. "Yes; perhaps a fortnight." "Then if you don't mind, master, I think we'll move camp to that little patch of rocks close by that old blasted tree that stands up like a post. I've been thinking it will be a better place; and if you'll give the word, I'll put the little keg of powder in a hole somewhere. I don't think it's quite right to have it so near our fire every day." "Do what you think best, Joses," said the Doctor, eagerly. "Yes; I should bury the powder under the rocks somewhere, so that we can easily get it again. But why do you want to move the camp?" "Because that's a better place, with plenty of rocks for cover if the Injuns should come and look us up." "Let us change, then," said the Doctor, abstractedly; and that afternoon they shifted to the cluster of rocks near the blasted tree, close under the shelter of the tall wall-like mountain-side. Rocks were cleared from a centre and piled round; the waggon was well secured; a good place found for the horses; and lastly, Joses lit his cigarette, and then took the keg of gunpowder, carried it to a convenient spot near the withered tree, and buried it beneath some loose stones. The Beaver smiled at the preparations, and displayed his knowledge of English after a short conversation with the interpreter by exclaiming: "Good--good--good--very good!" A hasty meal was snatched, and then the Doctor went off again alone, while the Beaver signed to Bart to follow him, and then took him past the narrow opening that led to the way up the mountain, and showed him a second opening, through which they passed, to find within a good open cavernous hollow at the foot of the mountain wall, shut in by huge masses of rock. "Why, our horses would be safe here, even if we were attacked," exclaimed Bart. "Horses," said the Beaver, nodding. "Yes; horses." There was no mistaking the value of such a place, for there was secure shelter for at least a hundred horses, and the entrance properly secured--an entrance so narrow that there was only room for one animal to pass through--storm or attack from the hostile Indians could have been set at defiance. "Supposing a town to be built here somewhere up the mountain, this great enclosure would be invaluable," said Bart, and, hurrying back, he fetched Joses to inspect the place. "Ah, that's not bad," said the rough frontier man. "Why, Master Bart, what a cattle corral that would make! Block the mouth up well, they'd be clever Injuns who got anything away. Let's put the horses in here at once." "Do you think it is necessary, Joses?" said Bart. "It's always necessary to be safe out in the plain, my lad," replied Joses. "How do we know that the Injuns won't come to-night to look after the men they've lost? Same time, how do we know they will? All the same, though, you can never be too safe. Let's get the horses inside, my lad, as we have such a place, and I half wish now we'd gone up the mountain somewhere to make our camp. You never know when danger may come." "Horses in there," said Bart to the Beaver, and he pointed to the entrance. The chief nodded, and seemed to have understood them all along by their looks and ways, so that when the horses belonging to the English party were driven in that evening he had those of his own followers driven in as well, and it was settled that Joses was to be the watchman that night. It was quite sundown when the Doctor returned, this time with Maude, whom he had taken to be an eye-witness of his good fortune. Bart went to meet them, and that glorious, glowing evening they sat in their little camp, revelling in the soft pure air, which seemed full of exhilaration, and the lad could not help recalling afterwards what a thoroughly satisfied, happy look there was in his guardian's countenance as he sat there reckoning up the value of his grand discovery, and making his plans for the future. Then came a very unpleasant episode, one which Bart hid from the Doctor, for he would not trouble him with bad news upon a night like that; but all the same it caused the lad intense annoyance, and he went off to where Joses was smoking his _cigarito_ and staring at the stars. "Tipsy! drunk!" he exclaimed. "What! Sam and Juan? Where could they get the stuff?" "They must have crept under the waggon, and broken a hole through, for the brandy lay there treasured up in case of illness." "I'll thrash 'em both till they can't crawl!" cried Joses, wrathfully. "I didn't think it of them. It's no good though to do it to-night when they can't understand. Let them sleep it off to-night, my boy, and to-morrow morning we'll show the Beaver and his men what we do to thieves who steal liquor to get drunk. I wouldn't have thought it of them." "What shall you do to them, Joses?" said Bart. "Tie them up to that old post of a tree, my boy, and give them a taste of horse-hair lariat on the bare back. That's what I'll do to them. They're under me, they are, and I'm answerable to the master. But there, don't say no more; it makes me mad, Master Bart. Go back now, and let them sleep it out. I'm glad I moved that powder." "So am I, Joses," said Bart; and after a few more, words he returned to the little camp, to find the two offenders fast asleep. Bart was very weary when he lay down, after glancing round to see that all proper precautions had been taken; and it seemed to him that he could not have been asleep five minutes when he felt a hand laid upon his mouth, and another grasp his shoulder, while on looking up, there, between him and the star-encrusted sky, was a dark Indian face. For a moment he thought of resistance. The next he had seen whose was the face, and obeying a sign to be silent, he listened while the Beaver bent lower, and said in good English, "Enemy. Indians coming." Bart rose on the instant, and roused the Doctor, who immediately awakened Maude, and obeying the signs of the Indian, they followed him into the shadow of the mountain, for the Beaver shook his head fiercely at the idea of attempting to defend the little camp. It all took place in a few hurried moments, and almost before they were half-way to their goal there was a fierce yell, the rush of trampling horses, and a dark shadowy body was seen to swoop down upon the camp. While before, in his excitement, Bart could realise his position, he found himself with the Doctor and Maude beyond the narrow entrance, and on the slope that seemed to lead up into the mountains. As soon as Maude was in safety, Bart and the Doctor returned to the entrance, to find it well guarded by the Indians; and if the place were discovered or known to the enemy, it was very plain that they could be easily kept at bay if anything like a determined defence were made, and there was no fear of that. Then came a sort of muster or examination of their little force, which, to Bart's agony, resulted in the discovery that while all the Indians were present, and Harry was by their side, Joses, Sam, and Juan were away. In his excitement, Bart did not realise why this was. Now he recalled that when he lay down to sleep the two offenders had been snoring stertorously, and it was evident that they were helplessly stupefied when the Indians came, and were taken. But Joses? Of course he was at his post, and the question now was, would he remain undiscovered, or would the Indians find the hiding-place of the horses, and after killing Joses sweep them all away? It was a terrible thought, for to be left alone in that vast plain without horses seemed too hard to be borne. At the first blush it made Bart shudder, and it was quite in despair that with cocked rifle he waited for morning light, which seemed as if it would never come. Bart's thoughts were many, and frequent were the whispered conversations with the Doctor, as to whether the Indians would not find the _cache_ of the horses as soon as it was daylight by their trail, though to this he had answered that the ground all around was so marked by horses' hoofs that it was not likely that any definite track would be made out. Then moment by moment they expected their own hiding-place to be known, and that they would be engaged fighting for their lives with their relentless foes; but the hours wore on, and though they could hear the buzz of many voices, and sometimes dark shadowy forms could be made out away on the plain, the fugitives were in dense shadow, and remained unmolested till the break of day. By this time Bart had given Maude such comforting intelligence as he could, bidding her be hopeful, for that these Indians must be strangers to the place, or they would have known of the way up the mountain, and searched it at once. "But if they found it in the morning, Bart," she said, "what then?" "What then?" said Bart, with a coolness he did not feel. "Why, then we shall have to kill all the poor wretches--that's all." Maude shuddered, and Bart returned to where the Beaver was at the opening, watching the place where the enemy had been plundering the waggon, and had afterwards stirred up the camp fire and were seated round. "Joses was glad that he had put away the powder," thought Bart, as he saw the glare of the fire. "I begin to wish it had been left." _ |
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