A Waif of the Mountains, Edward Sylvester Ellis [reading a book .txt] 📗

the company without a word rode forward and placed themselves beside the corporal.

"Now, we'll face the other way."

His suggestion was followed. The three wheeled their animals around, so that their riders, like the footmen, were in a line confronting Colonel Briggs and his astonished company.

"Dress," said the corporal, looking down and moving his mule about until the alignment would have drawn a compliment from a West Point cadet.

"Now, boys, are your shooting irons ready?"

"They gin'rally air," was the significant response of one of the men.

"All right, colonel," added the corporal making a military salute; "everything being in readiness please let the skirmish proceed."

Colonel Briggs emitted a forceful exclamation.

"What's the meaning of all this? I don't understand it."

"There are six on each side; that evens matters; shall you start the music or do you prefer to have the captain fire the opening gun?"

"But you haven't told me what this means."

"It means that Captain Dawson and Corporal Bob Parker have drunk from the same canteen."

It must be conceded that Colonel Briggs had one merit; no one was quicker than he to grasp a situation. So long as there were nine men on one side and three on the other, the success of the former was promising. He meant to crowd the defiant miners to the wall and would have done so but for the unprecedented turn of affairs. Now it was six to six and he knew the mettle of the three recruits that had joined the miners. Bob Parker was the most terrific fighter in the whole company. He was one of those men, occasionally seen, who was absolutely without fear. He would have stood up alone and fought the other eight. During that single week in Sacramento, he gained the name of a terror and caused a sigh of relief on the part of the authorities when he left for the mountains.

The corporal always fired to kill, and his skill with rifle and pistol was marvelous. While talking with Colonel Briggs, he fixed his brilliant black eyes on him, as if to intimate that he had selected _him_ for his pet antagonist. All this was disconcerting.

In this crisis, when every nerve was drawn tense and the question of life and death hung on the passing of a breath, Colonel Briggs leaned backward and elevating his chin in the way that had become familiar, emitted one of his resounding laughs. Then he abruptly snapped his jaws together like the springing of a trap.

"Why, Bob, this puts a different face on things," he said cheerily; "if the man's a friend of yours, of course we can't quarrel with him."

"I rather think not," replied the corporal.

"I was in the army myself," added the colonel, "but didn't stay long; me and General Grant couldn't agree as to how the war should be run, and one night when no one was around, I resigned and left."

"Then you didn't win your title in the service," remarked Captain Dawson, who felt that he could afford to show good will, now that the situation had taken so remarkable a turn.

"Scarcely; the boys think that no officer lower than a colonel is fit to command this crowd, so that's how I got the handle."

Captain Dawson could not forbear saying:

"I think it much more befitting that a true and tried soldier, like Corporal Parker, should be in your place."

"It was offered to me," said the corporal, "but I refused it."

"No; we agreed to make him a full-fledged major-general, but he declined the honor with some sarcastic remarks," said the colonel; "howsumever, boys, now that things have been straightened out, do you intend to go with the captain or with us?"

Corporal Parker addressed his two comrades.

"Wheel and salute!"

They faced their animals around, and, taking the cue from the corporal, made an elaborate military salutation to Captain Dawson and his companions. Then they wheeled again and rode back to their former places.

"With my best regards," added the colonel, also saluting, while the rest half-nodded and grinned over the odd turn of affairs. Dawson, Brush and Ruggles unbent sufficiently to respond, but kept their places, side by side, and watched the curious procession until it passed out of sight beyond a sweeping curve in the canyon.

"I wonder if we are likely to see any more of them," said the parson; "they are an ugly lot and badly want our horses."

"Not badly enough to fight Corporal Parker and his two friends. The corporal is the bravest man I ever saw. I know he was disappointed when the colonel was so quick in backing down. He will go hungry for two or three days, for the sake of a fight. It is he and not the colonel or any one in the company that is spoiling for a row."

"And I picked him out as the first one to shoot," grimly remarked Brush.

"The chances are ten to one that he would have dropped you first, but it shows how easily one may be mistaken."

"I tell you," said Ruggles earnestly, "when that gang strikes New Constantinople, there'll be trouble."

"There's no doubt of it," commented Brush; "the forces will be about equal; if the boys at home could have warning of what is coming, they would make it so hot for Colonel Briggs and his tramps that they would be glad to camp somewhere else."

"That wouldn't improve matters, for of necessity there would be passing back and forth, and there are some people at New Constantinople who would welcome the change. That's the worst of it; a good deal of this evil seed will fall on soil waiting for it."

"We may be back in time to take a hand in the business," said the parson; "I don't know whether your friend, the corporal, can be secured as an ally."

"It is doubtful, for about the only merits he has are his bravery and his loyalty to his friends."

"In my 'pinion the same is considerable," commented Ruggles.

"He would be a powerful friend to Nellie, because she is a female and because she is my daughter, but," added the father with a sigh, "I have my doubts whether I shall ever take her to the settlement again."

This announcement strangely affected the two who heard it, for the dearest schemes which they secretly nourished included the spending of their days in the mining settlement. The hope of each had flickered into life once more with the prospect of recovering and punishing her abductor. They knew that she would bitterly mourn his loss, and would probably be inconsolable for a time, but the months and years would bring forgetfulness and then--who should say what _might_ come to pass?

"We thought," remarked Ruggles, as they resumed their seats, "that we should have a weary wait for Vose, but it didn't prove so dull after all."

The captain looked at his watch.

"He has been gone more than an hour, and there's no saying when he will be back. He has his own way of managing this business, and, though I concede his skill and superior knowledge in this part of the world, it is hard to keep my patience when I see the hours slipping away without bringing any results."

But the patience of the three men was tried more sorely than ever before, and to a greater extent than any one of them anticipated. Noon came and passed and without bringing Vose Adams. The party partook sparingly of their lunch, leaving enough for their absent friend, but the lagging hours wore away and they still waited. They said little to one another, but the captain, unable to restrain his restlessness, wandered down the canyon. The two left behind watched him until he passed from view in the direction taken by Colonel Briggs and his company. A few minutes later, the report of his rifle came back to them.

"I wonder if _he's_ got into trouble," exclaimed the parson, rising to his feet and peering to their left, without seeing everything to explain the sound that had reached them.

"I shouldn't wonder," replied Ruggles; "everything is going wrong; Vose wouldn't stay away so long, unless he, too, was in difficulty."

"The captain may need us; he can't be far off."

Gun in hand, the couple walked hurriedly down the canyon, on the alert for Indians, for it seemed more likely that if any danger threatened, it was from them. To their relief, however, they soon found their alarm groundless. The captain was seen coming, apparently as well as ever.

"Nothing is wrong," he explained when they were within speaking distance; "I saw an antelope among the rocks and took a shot at him."

"How near did you come to hitting him?"

"He made only a single jump after he received my bullet; it's a pity he didn't make a couple of them."

"Why?"

"It would have brought him over the outer rock and into the ravine; then we should have had something for supper. Haven't you seen Adams yet?"

Instead of answering directly the three looked toward the fissure in the side of the canyon, and there, to their unspeakable relief, they saw the man who had been absent for so many hours. As is the rule at such times, their ill-humor deepened.

"Why didn't you wait till morning?" was the question of the captain.

"I was afraid I would have to do so," replied the guide, whose flushed face and agitated manner proved that he brought important news; "but I didn't have to, and got away in time to reach you afore night."

"Not much before," commented the parson; "you must have had a remarkable experience to detain you so long."

"Rather, but I'm starving, give me something to eat, while I talk."

The lunch was produced, and he fell to with avidity, but he saw they were in no mood for frivolity, and he did not presume upon their indulgence.

"Wal, pards, after leaving you, I picked my way as best I could up the gorge, which runs back, with the bottom rising more or less all the way, for 'bout two hundred yards when you reach level ground. That is to say, the gorge ends, but the ground is anything but level."

"And they went all that distance ahead of you with their animals?" asked Brush.

"That's what they done; the tracks of the horses were so plain there couldn't be any mistake 'bout it. At the top of the gorge, the trail slanted off to the right, toward a big pile of rocks, caves and gullies, where it didn't look as if a goat could travel. There was so much stone that it was mighty hard to keep on the trail and I lost it."

"And didn't you find it again?" demanded the captain.

"Yes, but it took a good deal of time; that's one reason why I was gone so long, but it wasn't the only reason by a jug full. When I struck it agin, it led straight toward a high rocky place to the left, where I made up my mind the two were hidin'."

"That would imply that they knew we were close behind them."

"There can't be any doubt of that. What bothered me was to learn what they had done with their horses, fur the prints that I followed was made by the folks' feet. I couldn't figger out what