With the first glimmer of day the following morning all were awake, and
a very light breakfast was made of the root bread, which the chief
distributed with great fairness as far as it went.
As Sam had agreed, he turned over to the chief the rifles, pistols,
knives and blankets belonging to his party, keeping back only the
canteens, which had been filled with water, and the saddle-bags.
"I should like to borrow my own rifle from you," said Sam, after he had
made the transfer, "for it is not safe to travel through this land
without a weapon to defend one's self from foe or wild beasts. I shall
return it when I send you the other things."
"I let you have dis gun," said the chief, pointing to the old rusty
shot-gun that had been the special object of Ike's care and the delight
of his heart for so long.
"Take her, Mistah Sam, take her," urged Ike. "Dar ain't anodder gun like
her--no, not in all dis yar land."
This was certainly the truth, yet "she" was rather an unreliable weapon
to depend on in a trying emergency.
"That is a shot-gun, no good to you or to me. Let me have my own rifle
with some ammunition, and I pledge my life to send it back and six more
equally good with it."
"I tell you what I do," said the chief, after some deliberation and a
good deal of whispering with his own people.
"What?"
"You got dog?"
"Yes."
"Well, you give me dog, I give you rifle."
Sam had always been attached to Maj, and the adventures they had shared
together made him even dearer, so that to lose him would be like parting
with a friend; still, he knew that a sacrifice might have to be made.
"What do you want with the dog?" he asked.
"Eat him," grunted the chief.
"I will give you the dog if you pledge me your word that you will not
kill him for three days," said Sam, stooping and patting Maj on the
head, while the faithful creature, in its turn, licked his hand.
"But we no find game then we get hungry," said the chief.
"You can find game. Agree to this, for the dog is my friend," said Sam
with much feeling.
"An' my frien', too," added Ike.
"All right; I no kill for three days," said the chief.
With this understanding Sam received his rifle and the belt containing
his ammunition, and one of the Apaches fastened a cord about the dog's
neck and dragged the reluctant creature to his own side.
The chief pointed to a distant elevation--it looked to be only a few
miles away, though it was actually thirty or more--and said:
"That mountain back Hurley's Gulch. Go there. Keep north side. You find
'em before dark. I come here three days. You bring all things, rifles,
pistols, knives, and--and one more thing."
"What is that?" asked Sam.
"Heap tobacco, much lot whisky."
"I will keep my promise," said Sam, who could not but feel that the
Indian was decidedly "on the make."
With this understanding Sam and his friends parted from the Apaches, and
with their eager eyes fixed on the mountain that marked the site of
Hurley's Gulch they hurried on.
The thought that he should meet his father that night gave strength and
elasticity to Sam's limbs and filled his heart with a hope that was
thrilling in its ecstacy.
He felt that their troubles were near an end, and that before the sun
went down his father's innocence would be established, and the little
band of Gold Cave Campers would be happily together once more.
He walked with such a long, quick stride that Ike and Wah Shin could
only keep up with him by breaking into a dog-trot, that made them puff
with the exertion.
"See h'ar, Mistah Sam!" called out Ike, after they had been traveling
for two hours and the heat waves began to distort the landscape again.
"Does yeh expeck a feller foh to run like a race-horse, w'en he ain't
got nothin' in his inside but a bit ob dem dar roots? Foh de Lor', if
you keeps up dis yar like all day, you'll fine yerself alone, foh dis
chile's so holler he's nigh done gin out," and Sam came to a halt and
wiped his perspiring face with his ragged coat-sleeve.
"Me hungly allee same like Ike, but me no say any-tlings," said Wah Shin
as he stood panting like a hunted hare.
"I know, boys, that I've been hurrying more than I should in justice to
you, but the thought that every step is taking me nearer to my father
makes me forget how weary you must be," said Sam, his own brown face
showing how the terrible pace told on him.
"Mistah Sam, dar's a sight more reason w'y you should be tireder an'
hungrier dan we," said Ike, the better part of his nature asserting
itself, as it always did in an emergency. "But we'll git dar long afore
dark widout so much hurryin', an' yer fadder'll be a heap sight more
pleased if we all shows up fresh an' smilin', eben if we is so holler."
Sam slackened his pace, but he was making fully four miles an hour when
under way again.
The water in their canteens became very warm in the blistering heat of
that dry atmosphere, but they had to drink, and as a consequence their
supply was exhausted by the middle of the afternoon.
They had no food with them, and all were very hungry, but the prospect
ahead made them forget their sufferings; for soldiers do not feel the
pain of wounds received in the excitement of battle.
Sam reasoned that two hours more would see them at Hurley's Gulch, and
had so told his companions, when Ike called out:
"Hello! Wat on earf is dem?"
Sam turned in the direction pointed out by Ike, and to his amazement he
saw the forms of four gigantic horsemen; but, instead of their riding
along the solid earth, they appeared to be moving far up in the sky.
All were familiar enough with the phenomena of this land to know that
the riders were on the ground and that the spectral figures,
representing them in the heavens had their origin in the mirage which is
so frequent and delusive in this land.
"Ulna has reached Hurley's Gulch, and those must be men who have come to
search for us," said Sam after he had surveyed the figures for some
seconds.
About the same time the horsemen must have discovered Sam and his
friends, for the giant figures could be seen pointing and waving their
arms, while the monstrous horses plunged across the sky with mighty
bounds.
Again Sam hurried on till he came to a towering rock that commanded from
its summit a view of the country round about.
Up this he clambered, Ike and Wah Shin following him with great
activity.
On the summit of the rock there were a series of excavations, some of
which were partly filled with water left there by the late storm.
This water was comparatively cool, and after drinking till satisfied,
Sam looked in the direction from which he expected the riders.
To his surprise, they were only a few hundred yards away, and it did not
need a second glance to convince him that one of these riders was Frank
Shirley, and another was the man with one eye who had accompanied him on
that day, that seemed so far away, to Gold Cave Camp.
"Surely," he reasoned, "these would not be the men my father would send
out from Hurley's Gulch to find me."
Instinctively he felt that the presence of these men meant him no good,
and he made up his mind not to place himself in their power till assured
that they were friendly.
The two horsemen with Frank Shirley and Badger were the landlord of the
hotel at Hurley's, and a wretched creature of the same stripe who had
been a partner and friend of Tom Edwards.
"Halloo! Halloo, Sam Willett! We've come out to find you!" called out
Shirley when he came within hearing distance.
"Who sent you?" was Sam's salutation.
"Your father."
"How did he know I was here?"
"Ulna told him."
"Then why didn't he or Hank Tims come?"
"There are good reasons why they could not get off, so we have come in
their stead. Get down from the rocks; we've been searching for you since
before daylight," said Shirley, as he and Badger dismounted from their
horses not a hundred feet away.
Slipping into one of the excavations so that he could see what was going
on below without exposing himself, Sam called down:
"Frank Shirley, my father never sent you to find me."
"What! do you think Mr. Shirley's a-lyin'?" shouted Badger, at the same
time unstringing his rifle and assuming a position as if about to fire.
"Yes, I do," said Sam boldly.
Badger would have fired, though Sam was out of sight had not Shirley
laid his hand on his arm and said pleadingly:
"Don't do that, Badger; you'll spill all the fat in the fire. That young
fellow has a rifle, and he knows how to use it."
Sam heard all this distinctly and he called out:
"Yes, and I will use it if you fellows don't get back and mount your
horses while I count ten. One, two, three, four----"
Neither Shirley nor Badger waited to hear more, for as "one" was called
out they saw the muzzle of a rifle pointing down at them from the top of
the rock.
With the alacrity of acrobats the two men scrambled into their saddles,
and as they did so the word "Two!" rang out.
"There, you see, we want to humor you, and if we were not friends we
shouldn't do that," said Frank Shirley, trembling in voice and frame
from his recent effort.
Sam's reply showed that he had no faith in this.
"My rifle is good for a half-mile. If you are within reach in ten
minutes I'll begin to fire."
"See h'ar, young feller," called out Badger, "do you know what I think
of you?"
"No, and I don't care."
"I think you're a devil."
"All right. Start, for the ten minutes have begun."
The four men did start. It would have been nothing less than suicide,
the landlord said, to remain there and be shot at, "more particlar whin
there was no show to shoot back."
Sullenly the men rode off, and when they had gone out of rifle-reach
they came to a halt, and after much swearing all round, Shirley asked:
"Well, gentlemen, what's to be done next?"
"Nothing, till dark," said Badger.
"And what then?"
"Then we ken get at 'em."
"But how?"
"While two of us shoot at the front of the rock to attract 'em, two
others can climb up behind and finish the job for good," said Badger.