THE SPANISH TRAIL
"Dick," said I, as we sat together that evening beside our camp-fire,
"what do you make of it? That was a queer thing, that young fellow
coming inquiring for El Tejon. I confess, for my part, I can't make head
or tail of it."
"I can't either," replied Dick; "at least, as far as this stranger is
concerned. I'm quite in the dark on that point. As to the padron and The
Badger, though, that seems to me simple enough. It is some old feud
between the two which concerns nobody but themselves."
"That is how it strikes me. You don't think, then, that there is any
danger to us?"
"No, I don't. In fact, I feel sure of it. It is just a personal quarrel
of long standing between those two--that's all. I have no more fear of
El Tejon than I have of any other Mexican. All the same, old chap, if
you have any doubt about it, I'm ready to quit and go home again."
"No," I replied, emphatically. "I vote we go on. And I'll tell you why,
Dick. For one thing, I always did hate to give up."
My partner nodded appreciation.
"For another thing, I have gathered the notion that this Badger is not a
bad fellow; not at all the kind that would murder a man in his sleep or
shoot him from behind a rock. The fact that he let old Galvez go that
time when he had him helpless, seems to me pretty good evidence that he
is a man of some generosity and above-boardness."
"That's a fact," Dick assented; "it was rather a fine action, as it
seems to me. And unless I'm vastly mistaken, Frank," he went on, "if the
cases had been reversed, and the padron had caught The Badger as The
Badger caught the padron, it would have been all up with El Tejon. I
never saw a harder-looking specimen in my life than old Galvez. I know,
if he were my enemy, I should be mighty sorry to fall into his hands."
"So should I; and the less we have to do with him the better, to my
notion. I think we shall do well to steer clear of him."
"Yes; and there won't be any temptation to go near him, anyhow,
especially as Antonio won't be there to act as a buffer. So, we decide
to go on, do we?" Dick concluded, as he arose to put two big logs on the
fire for the night. "All right. Then we'll get out to-morrow morning.
We'll take the line of the old trail and follow it up into the mountain
as far as it goes--or as far as we can, perhaps I should say."
"Very well," I agreed. "And we may as well abandon this camp, take old
Fritz and all our belongings with us, and find another place more
suitable higher up the mountain."
"Yes; so now to bed."
We were up betimes next morning, and having packed our traps away we
went, Dick in the lead, Fritz following, and I bringing up the rear.
Climbing over the big ridge from whose crest we had surveyed the valley
the day before, we rode down its other side to the line of the old
trail, and there, turning to the right, we followed it as it gradually
ascended, until presently at the head of the ravine the trail, greatly
to our perplexity, came to an end altogether.
The ravine itself had become so narrow and its sides so precipitous that
there appeared to be no way of climbing out of it, and we began to have
our doubts as to whether it could really be an old trail that we had
been following after all, when Dick, spying about, discovered a
much-washed-out crevice on the right-hand side, so grown up with trees
and brush as to be hardly distinguishable.
"Frank," said he, "they must have come down here--there's no other way
that I can see. Wait a moment till I get up there and see if the trail
isn't visible again up on top."
It was a pretty stiff scramble to get up, but as soon as he had reached
the top my partner shouted down to me to come up--he had found the trail
once more.
If it had been a stiff climb for Dick's horse, it was stiffer still for
old Fritz with his bulky pack. But Fritz was a first-rate animal for
mountain work, having had lots of practice, and being allowed to choose
his own course and take his own time he made the ascent without damaging
himself or his burden.
As soon as I had rejoined him, Dick pointed out to me the line of the
trail, which, bearing away northward now, was much more distinct than it
had been down below. For one thing, the ground here was a great deal
harder; and for another, being well sheltered by the pine woods, the
trail had not drifted full of sand as it had out on the unprotected
valley. There were, it is true, frequent places where the rains of many
years had washed the soil down the hillsides and covered it up, but in
general it was easily distinguishable as it went winding along the base
of the mountain proper, at the point where the steeper slopes merged
into the great spurs which projected out into the valley.
The distinctness of the old trail was, indeed, a surprise to me, its
line was so much easier to follow than I had expected. If it continued
to be as plain as this, we should have no trouble in keeping it; and so
I remarked to my companion.
"That's true," Dick assented, adding: "I'll tell you what, Frank: this
must surely have been a government enterprise. Just see how much work
has been expended on this trail--and needlessly, I should say--no
private individual or corporation would have taken the trouble to make a
carefully graded road like this--for that is what it really was
apparently. It must have been some manager handling government funds and
not worrying himself much about the amount he spent."
"I shouldn't wonder," said I.
"Just notice," Dick continued, pointing out the places with his finger.
"See what useless expenditure they made. Whenever they came to a dip,
big or little, instead of going down one side and up the other, as any
ordinary human being would do, they carried their road round the end of
the gully--just as though a loaded burro would object to coming up a
little hill like this one, for instance, here in front of us."
"It does seem rather ridiculous," I assented. "And they must have laid
out their line with care, too, for, if you notice, Dick, it goes on
climbing up the mountain with a grade which seems to be perfectly
uniform as far as we can see it. It is more like a railroad grade than a
trail. It isn't possible, is it, Dick," I asked, as the thought suddenly
occurred to me, "it isn't possible that they can have used wheeled
vehicles?"
"Hm!" replied my companion, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "No, I think
not. It would be extremely improbable, to say the least. No, I think it
is more likely to be as I said: some lordly government official,
spending government funds, and not troubling himself whether the income
would warrant the expenditure or not."
"I suppose that was probably it," said I. "There's one thing sure,
Dick," I added: "if the income did warrant the expenditure, that old
copper mine must have been a staver and no mistake."
"That's a fact. Well, come on; let us go ahead and see where the trail
takes us."
This following of the trail was a perfectly simple matter; the animals
themselves, in fact, took to it and kept to it as naturally as though
even they recognized it as a road. So, on we went, climbing gradually
higher at every step, when, on rounding the shoulder of a big spur, we
were brought to a sudden and most unexpected halt by coming plump upon
the edge of a deep and very narrow cañon. Right up to the very brink of
this great chasm the trail led us, and there, of necessity, it abruptly
ended.
This gorge, which was perhaps a thousand feet deep, and, as I have said,
extremely narrow--not more than thirty feet wide at the point where we
had struck it--came down from the north face of the mountain, and, as we
could see from where we stood, ran out eastward into the plain. It was
undoubtedly the stream upon which we had camped when we had come across
the valley two days before.
Looking the other way--to the left, that is: up stream--our view was
limited, but from what we could see of it, the country in that
direction bade fair to be inaccessible, for horses, at least; while as
to the cañon itself, it curved first to the left and then to the right
in such a manner that we could not see to the bottom. Moreover a large
rock, rising from the edge of the gorge, and in fact overhanging it a
little, cut off our view up stream.
On the opposite side of the chasm the ground rose high and rocky, an
exceedingly rough piece of country; for though it was in general well
clothed with trees, we could see in a score of places great bare-topped
ridges and pinnacles of rock projecting high above the somber woods.
"Dick," said I, "this looks rather like the end of things. What are we
to do now?"
"The end of things!" cried Dick. "Not a bit of it! Don't you see, on the
other side of the cañon, exactly opposite, that little ravine which goes
winding up the mountain until it loses itself among the trees? Well,
that is the continuation of the trail. Come down here to the edge and
I'll show you."
Dismounting from our horses, we advanced as near the rim of the chasm as
we dared, when Dick, pointing across to the other side, said:
"Look there, Frank, about a foot below the top. Do you see those two
square niches cut in the face of the rock? This place was spanned by a
bridge once, and those two niches are where the ends of the big
stringers rested."
"It does look like it!" I exclaimed. "If there are other similar niches
on this side, that would settle it. Take hold of my feet, will you,
while I stick my head over the edge and see?"
With Dick firmly clasping my ankle by way of precaution, I crept to the
rim and craned my neck out over the precipice as far as I dared venture.
As we had expected, there were the two corresponding niches, while about
ten feet below them were two others, the existence of which puzzled me.
Squirming carefully back again, I rose to my feet and told Dick what I
had seen.
"Two others, eh?" said he. "That's easily explained. Look across again
and you will see that there are two in the face of the opposite cliff to
match them. Those people not only laid two big stringers across the
cañon, but they supported them from below with four stays set in those
lower holes."
"That must be it!" I exclaimed. "They did things well, didn't they--it
is on a par with the work they expended on the trail. The trail itself,
of course, went on up that little ravine and has since been washed out
by the rains."
"Yes; and the bridge has rotted and fallen into the stream; unless they
destroyed it purposely when they abandoned the mine."
"Well, Dick," said I. "It seems fairly sure that the mine was over
there, somewhere in the rough country on the other side of the cañon.
The question is, how are _we_ to get over there?"
"Yes, that's the question all right. We can't get down here. That is
plain enough. We shall have to find some other way. And that there is
another way is pretty certain. See here! This cañon comes down from the
north side of the mountain, runs out into the valley to the point where
we struck it day before yesterday, doubles back, and joins the streams
coming down from Mescalero, as well as those others which flow down from
the north side of the peak."
"Well?"
"Well, this piece of country before us is therefore a sort of island,
surrounded, or nearly surrounded, by cañons."
I nodded. "Yes," said I. "Or more like a fortress with a thousand-foot
moat all round it."
"Well," continued my partner, "the original discoverers of the mine,
whether Indians or Spaniards, did not cross here by a bridge, of course;
they climbed up from the bottom of one of these cañons somewhere, and at
first, probably, brought out the copper the same way, until, finding how
much easier it would be to come across here, they built a bridge and
made this road for the purpose."
"That sounds reasonable," I assented. "So if we want to find the place
where they used to get up, we must climb down into the bottom of the
cañon ourselves and hunt for it."
"Yes," replied Dick. "And from the look of it, I shouldn't wonder if we
don't have to go all the way back to our old camping-place in order to
get down!"
"Hm!" said I, puckering up my lips and rubbing my chin. "I hope we don't
have to go that far; but if we must, we must. Anyhow, Dick, before we go
all the way down to the bottom of the mountain again, let us climb up
above this big rock here and take a look up stream. It is just possible
there may be a way down in that direction."
"Very well," replied my partner. "I don't suppose there is, but we'll
try it anyhow."
Leaving our horses standing, we went back a little way along the trail,
and climbing upward, presently reached a point level with the top of the
big rock which rose above the edge of the gorge. There we found several
little gullies leading down to the ravine, and Dick taking one of them
and I another, we thus became separated for a few minutes. Only for a
few minutes, however, for very soon I heard my partner hailing me to
come back. From the tone of his voice I felt sure he had discovered
something.
"What is it, Dick?" I asked. "Found a way down?"
"That's what I have, Frank, I'm pretty sure. Come here and look!"