THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS.
The moon was high in the sky, and it was near midnight. O'Rooney, who had
taken upon himself the task of guiding the mustang, continued him on up
the ridge, directly toward the spot where Fred had lain so long watching
the action of the Apaches gathered around the opening of the cave.
The mustang walked along quite obediently, seeming to feel the load no
more than if it was only one half as great. But those animals are like
their native masters--cunning and treacherous, ready to take advantage of
their riders whenever it happens to come in their way.
"Which is the raison I cautions ye to be riddy for a fall," said Mickey,
after referring to some of the peculiarities of these steeds of the
Southwest. "The minute he gits it into his head that we ain't paying
attention, he'll rear up on his fore-feet, and walk along that way for
half a mile. Not having any saddle, we'll have to slide over his neck,
unless I can brace me feet agin his ears, and ride along standing straight
up."
The constant expectation of being flung over the head of a horse is not
the most comforting sensation that one can have, and the lad clung fast to
his friend in front, determined not to go, unless in his company. Upon
reaching the top of the ridge, the horse was reined up for a few minutes,
as Mickey, like the mariner at sea, was desirous of taking an observation,
so as to prevent himself going astray.
"Can you remember how you were placed?" asked the lad, after he had spent
several minutes in the survey; "that is, do you know which way to go for
the horse you left eating grass?"
"I was a little puzzled at first, as me father obsarved to the
school-teacher when he said I had been a good boy, but I see how it is
now. It must have been that I got a little turned round when I was down in
the basemint of these mountains, but I see how it is now. Right yonder,"
he added, pointing toward the Northwest, "is where I left my hoss, and
there is where I hope I'll find him again."
"Is the road so that we can ride the mustang all the way there, or must we
walk?"
"I remember I come right along some kind of a path, made by animals, after
leaving the beast. I s'pose it's the route taken by the crathurs in going
to the water, for there's a splendid spring right there, and the path that
I was just tilling you 'bout leads straight to it."
"Then keep the horse from throwing us off, and we're all right. After we
find your horse, Mickey, or don't find him, what are we to do, then?"
"Set sail for New Boston."
"But we can't ride through these mountains, if we don't find the pass."
"And the same is what we're going to do, barring that it hasn't been lost
yet."
"Are you sure you know the way to it from where you left your horse? I've
been hunting for it for hours, but couldn't any more tell where it was
than the man in the moon. What course would you have to take to reach it?"
"Right off yonder," replied Mickey, pointing to the left.
"And I was sure that it was here," said Fred, pointing his hand in nearly
an opposite direction.
"Which the same is a good raison why you're wrong. When you git lost, and
think you're on the right way, ye may be sure that ye're wrong; and after
figuring the whole thing over, and getting sartin of the right coorse, all
you've got to do is not to take it, and ye're sartin of saving yerself."
"Then, according to that, you ought not to take the route which you have
said is the right one."
"I'm spaking for lost spalpeens like yoursilf," said Mickey, severely. "I
haven't been lost since I parted company with Soot Simpson, and, begorrah,
that minds me that we ought to saa something of him. Just look around and
obsarve whether he is standing anywhere beckoning to us."
Both used their eyes to the extent of their ability, but were unable to
discover anything that bore a suspicious resemblance to a man.
So far as they could judge, they were entirely alone in this vast
solitude.
"Do you expect to meet Sut very soon?"'
"Av coorse I do; why shouldn't I?"
"But he went another way from you altogether after Lone Wolf."
"That's just it. He wint another way, and wint wrong, and he has been gone
long 'nough to find out the same."
"When he will turn back and follow you?"
"As soon as he finds he's wrong, he'll go right, and as I wint right,
he'll be on my heels."
"But you know both of us have strayed a good deal off the track, and we
have traveled in many places, where we haven't made the slightest trail.
How is he going to follow us then?"
The Irishman gave utterance to a scornful exclamation.
"I've been with that Soot Simpson long enough to learn something. I've
saan some specimens of what he kin do. Rocks don't make no difference to
him. When he gits on the track of a wild bird, if it don't take extra
pains to dodge and double, he'll foller its trail through the air. Oh,
he's there all the time, and the wonder with me is that he hasn't turned
up before."
"What would he have done had he come along and found us both in the cave,
and the Apaches watching?"
"He would have tracked that wolf back to his hole, come in and fetched us
out, and then slipped up behind the six, and tumbled them all in like so
many tenpins."
"If he's such a wonderful man as that, it's a pity we couldn't have kept
him with us all the time, and if we do run against him, we can afford to
stop thinking about Apaches, as they will be of no account."
"Yees are right; but the trouble is to find him, as the man said when the
British Government condemned John Mitchel, and him thousands of miles away
in Ameriky. This thramping about at night in the mountains isn't the
aisiest way to diskiver a man, and it's him that will have to find us,
instead of we him. But we'll keep it up."
If the Apache mustang which they were riding meditated any mischief, he
seemed to be of the opinion that the occasion was not the most suitable.
He walked along with great docility and care, picking his way with a skill
that was wonderful. Several times they approached places where it seemed
impossible for an equine to go forward, but the horse scarcely hesitated,
toiling onward like an Alpine chamois, until, at last, they drew up in a
small valley, through the middle of which ran a small stream, that
sparkled brightly in the moonlight.
"Here we are," said Mickey. "here's the spot where I left my cratur a
couple of days ago, and where I don't see him just now. Use your eyes a
bit, and tell me whether you obsarve him."
Fred was scarcely less anxious than his friend to recover the steed, for,
recalling his experience in that line, he had good reason to mistrust
Indian horses. It would be very awkward, when they should find a party of
Apaches howling and rushing down upon them, to have the animal turn calmly
about and trot back to his former friends, carrying his two riders into
captivity, or leaving them to shift for themselves.
Nothing could be seen of the creature, but there was a fringe of wood on
the opposite side where he might be concealed, and Mickey slid off the
blanket with the intention of hunting for him.
"Don't let this spalpeen give ye the slip," he cautioned the lad, as he
gave the lariat into his hand; "for if mine is gone, this is the only one
we have to depend on, and we can't spare him."
Fred felt a little uncomfortable when he found himself alone and astride
of the fiery steed, which pricked up his ears as though he meditated
mischief; but the horse seemed to think better of it, and continued so
quiet that the young rider ventured to transfer his attention from him to
Mickey, who was moving across the open space in the direction of the wood
upon the opposite side.
The moonlight was so clear that he could be as plainly seen, almost, as if
it were midday. As he moved along, he brought his rifle around to the
front, so that he could use it at a moment's need, for he could not but
see the probability that, if his horse had been lately disturbed, it was
likely that those who did so were still in the vicinity, and no place was
more likely to be used for a covert than the same patch of timber which he
was approaching.
"Be the powers! but it looks a little pokerish!" he said to himself,
slowing his gait, and surveying the wood with no little distrust. "There
might be a dozen of the spalpeens slaaping there wid one eye open, or all
sitting up and expicting me."
He had proceeded so far however, that it was as dangerous to turn back as
it was to go on, for if any enemies were there, they were so close at hand
that they could easily capture or shoot him before he could reach his
horse. He was scarcely moving, and doing his utmost to penetrate the deep
shadow, when, beyond all question, he heard a movement among the trees. He
paused as if he had been shot and cocked his rifle, looking toward the
point from whence came the noise.
"Aisy there, now," he said in a solemn voice. "I won't stand any of your
thricks. I'm savage, and when I'm that way I'm dangerous, so if yees are
there spake out, or else come out like a man, and tell me your name, be
the token of which mine is Mickey O'Rooney from Ireland."
This characteristic summons produced no response, and, feeling the
peculiar peril of his exposed position, the Irishman determined upon
changing it and securing the shelter of a tree for himself. It was not
prudent to move directly toward the spot which gave forth the rustling
sound, as that would be likely to draw out a shot from a foe if he desired
to avoid a personal encounter. Accordingly, the Irishman made what might
be termed a flank movement by turning to the right, running rapidly
several paces and then diving in among the trees, as though he were
plunging into the water for a bath.
The few minutes occupied in making this change were those which Mickey
felt were of great danger; for, if he should reach the wood and find
himself opposed to but a single man, or even two, the situation would not
be so uneven by any means. No shots were fired, and he drew a great sigh
of relief when he gained the desired covert.
"Now I can dodge back and forth, and work me way up to them," he
concluded; "and when they stick their heads out from behind the trees,
I'll whack 'em for 'em, just as we used to do at Donnybrook when the fun
began."
He waited where he was for some time, in the expectation that his foe
would reveal himself by an attempt to draw out. But if there is any one
thing which distinguishes a scout, whether white or red, at such a time,
it is his patience. It is like that of the Esquimaux, who will sit for
sixteen hours, without stirring, beside an airhole in the ice, waiting for
a seal to appear. Mickey O'Rooney was not burdened with overmuch patience,
and acted upon the principle of Mohammed going to the mountain. He began
picking his way through the shadows and among the trees, determined to
keep forward until the mystery was solved.