A Waif of the Mountains

“Oh, I am as much down on him as any of you,” airily responded Vose; “and, if I git the chance to draw bead on him, I’ll do it quicker’n lightning. Fact is, the hope of having that same heavenly privilege was as strong a rope in pulling me up the trail after you as was the wish to keep you folks from gettin’ lost. But, pards, Hercules is rested and I guess likely your animals are the same, so let’s be moving.”

Although Captain Dawson had been silent during the last few minutes, he did not allow a word to escape him. He knew Vose Adams was talkative at times, due perhaps to his enjoyment of company, after being forced to spend weeks without exchanging a word with any one of his kind, but there was no overestimating his value, because of his knowledge of the long, dangerous route through the mountains. When, therefore, the party were about to move on, the captain said:

“Vose, from this time forward you are the guide; the place for you is at the head; you will oblige me by taking the lead.”

Vose accepted the post of honor, which was also the one of peril, for it is the man in his position whose life hangs in the balance when Indians are concerned. But there was no hesitancy on his part, though he was well aware of the additional risks he incurred.

“There’s one good thing I can tell you,” he said, just before they started.

They looked inquiringly at him and he explained:

“The hardest part of the climbing is over,–that is for the time,” he hastened to add, seeing that he was not understood; “you’ll have plenty more of it before we see Sacramento, but I mean that we have struck the highest part of the trail, and it will be a good while before there’s any more climbing to do.”

“That is good news,” said Ruggles heartily, “for it has been mighty tough on the animals; I ’spose too, the trail is smoother.”

Adams laughed.

“I am sorry to say it’s rougher.”

Ruggles muttered impatiently, but the four took up the task, Adams in the lead, with the rest stringing after him in Indian file. The declaration of Vose was verified sooner than was expected. While the mule was so sure-footed that he seemed to meet with no difficulty, it was excessively trying to the horses, who stumbled and recovered themselves so often that Captain Dawson began to fear one or more of them would go lame. Still in his anxiety to get forward, he repressed his fears, hoping that there would be some improvement and cheering himself with the belief that since all had gone well for so long, it would continue on the same line.

Once, however, his horse made such an abrupt stumble that the captain narrowly saved himself from being unseated. On the impulse of the moment he called to Adams in advance:

“Vose, I am afraid this won’t do!”

The leader did not look around and acted as if he had not heard him.

“I say, Vose, isn’t it better that we should wait till our horses can see the way?”

Since the leader took no notice of this demand, the captain concluded his fears were groundless and said no more.

“If he thinks it safe for us to keep on, I shall not oppose.”

But Captain Dawson might have opposed, had he known the truth, for, strange as it may seem, Vose Adams did not hear the words addressed to him, because he was asleep on the back of his mule Hercules, as he had been many a time while riding over the lonely trail. In truth, there was some foundation for his declaration that he could sleep more soundly on the back of his animal than while wrapped up in his blanket in some fissure among the rocks. Fortunately for him, however, these naps were of short duration, and, while indulging in them, he relied upon his animal, which had acquired a wonderful quickness in detecting danger. The slightest lagging in his gait, a halt, a turning to one side or a whinny was sufficient to bring back on the instant the wandering senses of the rider. In the present instance his slumber was not interrupted until Hercules, seeing exactly where he was, dropped his walk to a lagging gait.

On the very second Vose Adams opened his eyes. So naturally that no one suspected anything, he checked his animal and looked around.

“Pards, we’ve reached a ticklish spot, and it’s for you to say whether we shall wait for daylight afore trying it.”

“What is its nature?” asked the captain, as he and the two behind him also reined up their animals.

“The trail winds through these peaks in front, and instead of being like that we’ve been riding over all along, keeps close to the side of the mountain. On the right is the solid rock, and on the left it slopes down for I don’t know how many hundred feet, afore it strikes bottom. Once started down that slide, you’ll never stop till you hit the rocks below like that mass of stone that tumbled over in front of you.”

“How wide is the path?” asked the parson.

“There’s more than a mile where it isn’t wide enough for two of us to ride abreast, and there are plenty of places where a horse has got to step mighty careful to save himself. Hercules knows how to do it, for he larned long ago, but I have my doubts about your hosses.”

“It might have been better after all if we had brought the mules,” said the captain.

“Not a bit of it, for Hercules is the only one that knows how to git over such places.”

“How do the others manage it?”

“They’ve never tried it in the night time; that’s what I’m talking ’bout.”

Adams’s description enabled the others to recall the place. It was all that had been pictured and they might well pause before assuming the fearful risk. One reason for wishing to press forward was the knowledge that at the termination of the dangerous stretch, the trail was so smooth and even that for a long distance it would be easy to keep their animals at a gallop, while still further the peril appeared again.

Captain Dawson once more struck a match and looked at his watch.

“Half-past three; in two hours it will begin to grow light; if no accident happens we shall be at the end of the ugly piece of ground by that time, where the traveling is good. It is a pity to lose the opportunity, but I will leave it to you, parson and Ruggles; what do you say?”

“Our horses have been pushed pretty hard, but they are in good condition. I hate to remain idle.”

“Then you favor going ahead?”

“I do.”

“And you, Ruggles?”

“I feel the same way.”

“That settles it; lead on, Vose.”

“I’m just as well suited, but keep your wits about you,” was the warning of the leader, whose mule instantly responded, stretching his neck forward and downward and occasionally snuffing the ground, as if he depended on his sense of smell more than that of hearing.

The task was a nerve-wrenching one, and more than once each of the three regretted their haste in not waiting for daylight; but, having started, there was no turning back. To attempt to wheel about, in order to retrace their steps, was more perilous than to push on, while to stand still was hardly less dangerous.

The moonlight gave such slight help that the four depended almost wholly upon the instinct of their animals. Hercules never faltered, but advanced with the slow, plodding, undeviating certainty of those of his kind who thread their way through the treacherous passes of the Alps. Once his hind hoof struck a stone which went bounding down the precipice on his left, until at the end of what seemed several minutes, it lay still at the bottom. Neither animal nor rider showed the least fear, for in truth both were accustomed to little slips like that.

“I’m blessed if this isn’t the most ticklish business that I ever attempted,” muttered Captain Dawson; “I never had anything like it in the army; it reminds me of scouting between the lines, when you expect every second a bullet from a sharpshooter–”

At that instant his horse stepped on a round, loose stone which turned so quickly that before he could recover himself the hoof followed the stone over the edge of the precipice. The horse snorted and struggled desperately, and the brave rider felt an electric shock thrill through him from head to foot, for there was one moment when he believed nothing could save them from the most frightful of deaths.

The left hind leg had gone over the rocky shelf, which at that point was very narrow, and the hoof was furiously beating vacancy in the despairing effort to find something upon which to rest itself. His body sagged downward and the rider held his breath.

“Steady, my boy!” he called, and with rare presence of mind allowed the rein to lie free so as not to disconcert the steed.

The tremendous struggle of the intelligent animal prevailed and with a snort he recovered his balance and all four feet stood upon firm support.

“That was a close call,” observed the parson, whose heart was in his mouth, while the brief fight for life was going on.

“It was so close that it couldn’t have been any closer,” coolly commented the captain, fully himself again.

CHAPTER XIX

A COLLISION

At this moment, the cheery voice of Adams called: