The trail remained so favorable for a couple of miles further, that it was passed at the same easy, swinging gallop6. Vose Adams retained his place a few paces in advance of the others, who saw him glance sharply to the right and left, often to the ground and occasionally to the rear, as if to assure himself that none of his friends was going astray.
The moderate but continuous descent of the path took them so far downward that the change of temperature again became noticeable. The ground was rough and uneven7 and the animals dropped to a walk. Sometimes the course led around boulders8, through sparse9 growths of cedar10, beside brawling11 torrents12, two of 232 which they were compelled to ford13, where it was hard for their animals to keep their feet.
“Last fall,” remarked the guide, at the most difficult of these passages, “I had to wait two days before I dared try to cross with Hercules and one of the other mules15.”
His companions nodded their heads but made no other answer. They were not in the mood for talking.
They were now making their way through a cañon similar to Dead Man’s Gulch16, with rents and yawning ravines opening on the right and left, before which the party might have halted in perplexity, had it been in the night time. But the path showed plainly and the familiarity of the guide prevented any mistake on his part.
Adams had intimated that by a certain line of procedure the watchful17 fugitives18 could be prevented from discovering the approach of the pursuers until too late to escape them. In counting upon his ability to do this, he overestimated19 his skill, for the task was clearly impossible, and it was because of his efforts in that direction that he made a serious blunder. He had crossed for the third time a stream which was shallow, and, upon reaching the opposite bank, where the ground was moist and soft, he reined20 up with an exclamation22 of impatience23.
233
“What’s the matter?” asked Captain Dawson, in the same mood.
“We’ve passed ’em,” was the reply; “they’re somewhere behind us.”
“How far?”
“That remains24 to be found out, but I don’t think it’s a great distance.”
The captain angrily wheeled his horse and re-entered the stream.
“If they don’t get away, it won’t be our fault,” was his ungracious comment; “we have done little else than throw away our chances from the first.”
The guide made no response, and the next minute the four were retracing25 their course, their animals at a walk, and all scanning the rocks on either hand as they passed them.
It was clear by this time that the fugitives held one important advantage over their pursuers. The route that they were following was so devious26 and so varied27 in its nature, that only at rare intervals29 could it be traced with the eye for a quarter or half a mile. Certain of pursuit, Lieutenant30 Russell and his companion would be constantly on the lookout31 for it. They were more likely, therefore, to discover the horsemen than the latter were to observe them. Even if their flight was interrupted, there were innumerable places in this immense solitude32 where they could conceal33 themselves for an indefinite period.
234
The question the pursuers asked themselves was whether the others had strayed unwittingly from the trail, or whether they had turned off to elude34 their pursuers, whose desperate mood they could not but know. The latter supposition seemed the more likely, since the path was marked so plainly that it could be lost only by unaccountable carelessness.
At the first break in the side of the vast mountain walls Vose Adams again slipped from his mule14 and spent several minutes in studying the ground.
“They haven’t gone in here,” was his comment, as he remounted.
“Make certain that we are not too far back,” said the captain.
“I have made no mistake,” was the curt35 reply of the guide. The party had gone less than twenty rods further, when another rent opened on the other side of the cañon, which was about an eighth of a mile wide. It would not do now to slight anything, and Adams headed his mule diagonally across the gorge36, the animal walking slowly, while the rider leaned over with his eyes on the ground. Suddenly he exclaimed:
“We’ve hit it this time! Here’s where they went in!”
All four leaped from the back of their animals. Adams pointed37 out the faint indentations made by the hoofs39 of two horses. Less accustomed than he to study 235 such evidence, they failed to note that which was plain to him; the hoof38 prints of one of the animals were smaller than those of the other, since they were made by Cap, the pony40 belonging to Nellie Dawson. There could no longer be any doubt that the pursuers were warm on the trail of the fugitives.
Such being the fact, the interest of the men naturally centered on the avenue through which the others had made their way.
It was one of those fissures41, sometimes seen among enormous piles of rock, that suggest that some terrific convulsion of nature, ages before, has split the mountain in twain from top to bottom. The latter was on a level with the main cañon itself, the chasm42 at the beginning being ten or twelve yards in width, but, occurring in a depression of the mountain spur, its height was no more than five or six hundred feet, whereas in other localities it would have been nearly ten times as great. The base was strewn with fragments of sandstone, some of the pieces as large as boulders, which had probably been brought down by the torrents that swept through the ravine in spring or when a cloudburst descended43 upon the upper portion.
Standing44 at the entrance, it was observed that the gorge trended sharply to the left, so that the view was shut off at a distance of fifty yards. It was noticeable, 236 too, that the path taken by the fugitives sloped upward at so abrupt45 an angle that it must have sorely tried the horses.
“I thought so,” was the comment of Vose Adams, when he returned from a brief exploration of the ravine; “they got off and led their animals.”
“Have you any idea of the distance they went?” asked Captain Dawson, who was in a more gracious mood, now that he appreciated the value of the services of their guide.
“No; I’ve rid in front of that opening a good many times, but this is the first time I ever went into it.”
“Well, what is to be done?” asked Parson Brush.
“Why, foller ’em of course,” Wade46 Ruggles took upon himself to reply.
“That won’t do,” replied Adams, “for it is likely to upset everything; I’ll leave Hercules with you and sneak47 up the gorge far enough to find how the land lays. I’ll come back as soon as I can, but don’t get impatient if I’m gone several hours.”
Brush and Ruggles showed their displeasure, for, while admitting the skill of the guide, they could not see adequate cause for the impending48 delay. They had made so many slips that it seemed like inviting49 another. It was clear that they were close upon the fugitives, and the two believed the true policy was to press the pursuit without relaxing their vigor50. But Captain Dawson, 237 the one who naturally would have been dissatisfied, was silent, thereby51 making it apparent that Adams was carrying out a plan previously52 agreed upon by the two.
Vose paid no heed53 to Ruggles and the parson, but started up the ravine, quickly disappearing from view. Believing a long wait inevitable54, the three prepared to pass the dismal55 interval28 as best they could. Here and there scant56 patches of grass showed in the cañon, and the animals were allowed to crop what they could of the natural food. The men lounged upon the boulders at hand, smoked their pipes and occasionally exchanged a few words, but none was in the mood for talking and they formed a grim, stolid57 group.
Hardly ten minutes had passed, when Ruggles, with some evidence of excitement, exclaimed in a guarded undertone:
“Helloa! Something’s up!”
He referred to the horses, who are often the most reliable sentinels in the presence of insidious58 danger. Two of them had stopped plucking the grass, and, with their ears pricked59, were staring up the cañon at some object that had attracted their attention and that was invisible to their owners in their present situation.
Convinced that something unusual had taken place, Ruggles walked out into the cañon where he could gain a more extended view. One sweeping60 glance was enough, when he hurried back to his companions.
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