A PERILOUS JOURNEY
THE following morning the three inhabitants of Meadow Creek Valley began
work again in the tunnel. The air was filled with a smother of snow which
fell unaccompanied by wind. When, the following day, the sky cleared,
over the path of the avalanche and over the ruins of Soapweed Ledge
lay a concealing blanket of snow three feet deep.
"Whew!" shivered Ross as he led the goggled Weimer over the snow to the
tunnel that morning. "Wish we had a thermometer up here. This is some
cold. Must be minus zero by a long way."
"Mine nose ist my thermometer," complained Weimer, rubbing that whitening
member. "Aber dis weather it holds nicht. Anoder snow falls in dree, four
days."
The third day proved the truth of this prophecy. The atmosphere became
many degrees warmer and the sky lowering.
"More snow," sighed Leslie, looking over the silent, white sheeted valley
with homesick eyes.
"Und den more," added Weimer complacently. "More und more till June."
That noon it chanced that Weimer, being afflicted with a headache, left
the tunnel early. A little later, Ross, pushing the little car out to
the dump, called back to Leslie at work with the drill:
"Guess I'll go down and rustle the grub for Uncle Jake. That headache of
his is genuine."
"All right," assented Leslie, "I'll be down in half an hour or so. I
want to put this shot before I go."
Ross found Weimer in a state of great excitement, the headache forgotten.
He stood at the door of the shack, peering up toward the tunnel, both
hands shielding his blinking eyes.
"Who vas dot man?" he demanded in a high, eager voice.
"What man, Uncle Jake?" Ross stopped short, staring at Weimer as though
he were bereft of his senses.
"I see him!" declared Weimer. "He vas shust startin' up dot trail py
de tunnel. I see his pack. He vore ein pag on it. He vore ein cap mit
goggles. I see him."
Ross looked up the mountainside incredulously. "Why, Uncle Jake, I
just left the tunnel and there was no one there but Leslie. I guess,"
jocosely, "your headache has made you 'see things at night,' hasn't
it? No one can get into the valley now, you know."
Excitedly protesting and expostulating, half in English and half in
German, Uncle Jake retreated inside the door, and taking up his position
beside one of the little windows watched the trail to the tunnel while
Ross, smiling at his partner's hallucination, built up the fire,
cheerfully banging the covers of the stove as he filled the fire-box
with dry pine sticks. In the midst of this racket there entered the
sound of crunching footsteps on the side opposite the shack from that
occupied by Weimer.
"Hein!" yelled the latter springing up. "Was sagen sie? It ist somepody!"
A rap thundered on the door, and it was thrust open at the same time
unceremoniously, while a low, gruff voice inquired abruptly:
"Is there a young doctor here?"
A man a little above medium height stood on the threshold. He wore
buckskin trousers and a buckskin coat over a heavy sweater, giving
him a bulky appearance. He had on snow-shoes, and strapped over his
shoulder, a large leather game pouch sagged. Behind smoked goggles
his eyes were blinking, like Weimer's, almost closed. His head and
ears were covered with a shaggy fur cap, which met his turned-up coat
collar. His face was smooth above a fringe of black stubby whiskers,
which ran from ear to ear under the chin. His voice, though gruff, was
not unpleasant as he explained.
"Of course 'twas a month and more ago since they told me over t'
Red Lodge that----" His eyes fell on Ross. "You're him they call Doc
Tenderfoot, ain't ye?"
"Why--yes," answered Ross. There was a pause between the two words caused
by the speaker's amazement at seeing a man drop in from--where?
"Come in," invited Weimer, "und set down."
"Don't care if I do," assented the stranger.
He unbuckled his snow-shoes, and, leaving them outside, entered the
shack. Turning down his coat collar, he loosened his cap, pushing it
back on his head, thereby revealing the ends of short black hair.
"Haf you peen up to dat tunnel, hein?" demanded Weimer with a triumphant
glance at Ross.
The stranger nodded, "Yep. Didn't see no signs of livin' here and I
did see some signs up t' the mouth of the tunnel, but I didn't see no
good way of gittin' up t' it. When I got there I was over t' other
side of the dump and when I got up on top of it I heard voices down here,
so down here I put agin!"
"Did you come up from Miners' Camp?" asked Ross eagerly.
The stranger shook his head. "No, I live toward the Divide on----" The
stranger interrupted himself to ask, "Know the country over there, do
you?"
Weimer shook his head. "Only py hearsay."
"Well, we located on Sagewood Run, my pal and me, and----"
"Didn't know dere vas a soul livin' in dem parts," exclaimed Weimer.
"Me and my pal," returned the stranger. "We hain't got no neighbor near
enough to throw kisses to, that's sartain. You're the nighest."
"Prospector?" asked Weimer.
"Coal," returned the stranger. "We're tryin' to hold down half a dozen
claims."
He turned from Weimer, and changed the subject in his queer, abrupt way.
"Pard's sick--hurt. Guess he'll pass up his checks afore long if he
don't git help."
He squinted through his goggles at Ross. "Over t' Red Lodge they said
you fixed up a feller down in Dry Creek good's new. So I come after ye
fer a couple of days."
Instantly Weimer became alarmed. "Ross, he can't go und leave us, hein!
When the sun pe shinin', I can't get 'round. Ross, he must pe here
to work. He can't go mit you."
Ross drew a long, perplexed breath, and said nothing. The stranger looked
attentively at Weimer for the first time.
"Got a touch of the sun, too, have ye?" he asked.
Weimer removed his goggles, and pressed his hands over his eyes. "Yah,
dot I has, a touch und more dan a touch. Ross here, he ain't leavin'
us to go mit you."
Still Ross stood silent. The stranger made no response to Weimer's
protestations, but, bending forward, regarded him closely.
"What?" he burst out. "Are you Dutch Weimer?"
"Dot ist vat dey call me," assented Weimer, turning his bloodshot eyes
on the stranger.
The latter persisted in an incredulous voice, "The Dutch Weimer who used
to run a miners' supply store down in Butte?"
"Dot same," assented Weimer. "Und who might you pe?"
The stranger grinned, a one-sided grin which sent his right cheek up
under the smoked goggles. "Well, Uncle Jake, do you remember a little
black-headed rascal that uster hang his chin on the edge of yer counter
about once a day and get a nickel's worth of candy?"
Weimer wrinkled his brow in perplexity. "Dere vas so many plack-heads,"
he muttered, scratching his head.
The stranger grinned delightedly, and again his right cheek was pushed
up under the goggles. "Of course there was. I wa'n't the only calf
running around loose, I know. Well, do you remember Marvin Miller?"
"Hein!" cried Weimer. He held out his hand impulsively. "Und are you
Marvin Miller's poy?"
"The same," declared the stranger, grasping the hand. "And didn't you
have a younger pard by the name of Grant?"
"Yah!" Weimer fairly shouted. "Dot I did, and he's my pard yet."
"Uster git his eyes about shut, and tighten his lips, when things didn't
go to suit 'im," grinned Marvin Miller's son.
"That's my father all right!" cried Ross.
The stranger drew back and whistled. "Your dad!" he exclaimed. "Sho, now;
that's not so?"
"It ist so," Weimer broke in. "His fader sends him to help me mit der
vork in dese claims, und den dis consarned gang of McKenzies go and
pack off der sticks----" and Weimer was launched on an account of their
troubles, feeling perfectly at home with the man who as a boy had hung
over his counter in the old days when he was merchant and not prospector.
Ross, too, felt his heart warm toward the man who had known his father;
and for an instant the present faded, and he was back East again among
the old familiar surroundings. He was being looked over by the father
who "got his eyes about shut" when the son did not please him; he was
being affectionately scolded by Aunt Anne and advised by Dr. Grant--but
the thought of the doctor brought Ross up sharply against the purpose of
the stranger's visit.
A sick partner, Miller had said: but he, Ross, also had a sick partner,
although the sickness was more of the mind than the body; and that
partner objected to his going. What should he do? His training with
his uncle would leave him no choice if he had only himself to consult
in the matter. He was better than no doctor at all, and he was called
on for help; therefore he must obey the call. But there was Weimer, who
had learned to depend on him, and who, he feared, might relapse during
his absence, however brief, into his former irresponsible state, for
Leslie was, of course, a stranger to the methods which Ross had been
obliged to employ to keep Weimer busy. Nor was Leslie, who had acted
under Wilson's direction, accustomed to going ahead with the work as
Ross had been obliged to do. But if the trip would occupy only a couple
of days--well, he could not refuse to go.
Here he became conscious that Miller was addressing him, and that Uncle
Jake was leaning eagerly toward him.
"If Doc here is willin'," Miller was saying, "we might go into cahoots
this way: If my pard needs 'im longer than a day 'r two, I'll come
along back and buckle down t' work here 'n' help you out while he's
there a-nussin'----"
"Yah, yah!" consented Weimer eagerly. "Den he may mit you go. You could
do more vork dan Doc. You come pack und mit us vork."
Ross, relieved, turned to the peg where hung his cap. "I'll go up to
the tunnel and get Leslie, Uncle Jake, and you take hold of the dinner."
"Leslie," repeated Miller carelessly. "Who's he?"
Ross, leaving Weimer to relate Leslie's history, hurried up to the
tunnel. He wanted to see Leslie alone and give him numerous suggestions
and directions beyond the reach of Weimer's ears.
"Of course, Less," he ended as the two finally started toward the shack
together, "even if I do have to stay, and Miller comes back, he won't
know how to manage Uncle Jake in case he has a relapse into the state
that I found him in. And Miller looks like a strong willing fellow to
work, so guess we won't lose anything by my going. Anyway I've got to
go, for he says his partner is in a bad way." Miller's partner, it
seemed, had been caught under a log they were "snaking" down to the
cabin. His arm was crushed and in bad shape.
"Some way, Ross," Leslie burst out uneasily, "I mightily hate to have you
go. I'll be deadly lonesome up here without you even for a couple of
days."
"But if I'm not back then this Miller will be," returned Ross hopefully,
"and he shows up rather agreeably."
After a hasty dinner, Ross selected from his chest all that he
considered would be required. Some of the articles Miller put into his
game pouch, Ross making up a bundle himself to bind on his own back
and so divide the load. At one o'clock they started, with Weimer and
Leslie standing in the doorway, the former urging them on with many
expressions of hope for a speedy return that they might get ahead of
"dose consarned gang."
Ross walked after Miller easily. Those past few days on the mountainsides
had accustomed him to the use of snow-shoes. Almost in silence they
crossed the valley and began the ascent of what remained of Soapweed
Ledge.
During the last hour the light had faded, and snow began to fill the
air. From the base of the ledge the cabin on the other valley was barely
visible, and Ross could scarcely make out the figures standing in front
of the door.
Suddenly Miller turned with an exclamation. "There! I forgot something
that I wanted t' tell Uncle Jake. Wait here a minute, will ye? It'll
not take me long t' go back."
He walked rapidly over the snow across the valley, and disappeared into
the cabin. Five minutes passed. He reappeared, and made his way more
slowly back again.
"All right," he shouted from the foot of the ledge. "Turn to the right,
and go along above them rocks. That's the trail."
At the top of the mountain Miller again took the lead. He had shifted
the pouch to the front, and eased its weight with one hand. Ross noticed
that it seemed much heavier than when he entered the cabin, but thought
nothing further of the matter.
Half an hour later he was on totally unfamiliar ground among a labyrinth
of "sugar loaf" peaks which they skirted and climbed, Miller pushing on
steadily and without words.
"Hold yer wind," he directed Ross; "ye'll have need of it before we
reach camp."
The sky and earth were nearly blotted out now by the falling snow. Ross
could see scarcely a dozen paces ahead. He could not tell whether they
were headed east or west, north or south. They twisted and turned and
turned again. The boy became leg-weary; but Miller pressed on, seemingly
unexhausted, the heavy game pouch dragging at his shoulder.
"We--we can't reach there to-night, can we?" Ross gasped at last.
Miller turned his head but did not pause. "Yep," he answered, "about
dark."
Again in silence they went on.
Finally, at five o'clock, they began to climb the gentle slope of a
mountain which seemed to have no summit. Here for the first time his
guide stopped to allow Ross to rest. Then he advanced slowly, step by
step, prodding the snow deeply at the left of the blind trail he was
following.
"What's the matter?" Ross called the first time he saw Miller taking
measure of the snow in this way.
"Gorge somewhere here," Miller had replied. "Wind's filled it up even
from bank t' bank. If we sh' step off--why, there's a hundred feet or
so below made up of spruces and snow. I don't want t' go down int' no
such landscape."
Ross involuntarily hugged the upper side of the mountain. He longed for
their journey's end. As they neared the top, the wind became active,
cutting their faces and forcing Ross to turn his back and gasp for breath.
Then came the descent, the storm thickening about them. Occasionally
Miller threw a direction or a warning over his shoulder, which always
caused Ross's heart to leap fearfully.
"Don't go outside my tracks here. There's a flat rock on the down side
that ends in a ledge. Not a pretty slide t' take," he shouted once.
Again it was: "Be careful ahead here under that rock. Brace toward the
inside of the trail. We may get a few pounds of snow on our heads."
For half an hour longer they tramped on steadily. Ross ached in every
muscle. His feet were beginning to cramp. They almost refused to raise
the snow-shoes and push them forward. Miller slackened his speed when
he saw that Ross was nearly played out.
"A few minutes more, and we're there," he explained. "Keep up your
courage."
And at that moment Ross thought he had need of courage. They had been
descending the mountain gradually above timber-line, zigzagging back and
forth across the face in such a way as would enable them to use their
snow-shoes to the best advantage. Now the storm lightened just enough to
enable Ross to see they were traveling along the edge of a cliff with
an overhanging fringe of trees, and the cliff appeared to the boy to be
the jumping off place into space. Right and left as far as the falling
snow permitted him to see the cliff extended. Above was the white bulk
of the mountain; below was nothing but storm.
Along this cliff Miller had walked slowly, pausing occasionally to look
up into the trees. Finally he gave a grunt of satisfaction, and, throwing
his staff and the heavy pouch on the rock, took from the snow-laden
branches of a pine a coil of slender new rope.
"Nerves good?" he asked jokingly.
"For what?" was Ross's startled response.
Miller explained. Ross saw that for the first time the colored goggles
were no longer astride the other's nose. His cap was drawn down over
his eyes, however, and his coat collar was turned up so that not much
of his face was visible save his nose.
"If it was summer," began Miller, busying himself with the rope, "we
could get around this here little rock. But now there's nothin' t'
do but go over it, because the mountain on each side shelves down so
steep now we couldn't git down on snow-shoes or off 'em to save our
necks. We'd bring down a load of snow on our heads if we should try."
As he talked, he knotted the rope securely around a tree standing near
the edge of the rock. "Right here the cliff slopes so I can just slide
you down," Miller's gruff voice ran on in jerks, "and then I can slide
after ye. But I take it you ain't used to mountains and this sort of
game, and so I guess ye'd better hitch the end round yer waist."
He tossed the end of the rope to Ross. "Take off yer shoes, and pack 'em
in your hand," he directed when with numb, trembling fingers the boy had
knotted the rope. "Forty feet down," Miller continued, "you'll come to
a ledge. Stop there, and free the line."
A moment more, snow-shoes in hand, Ross was on his back sliding down an
almost perpendicular wall, his hair doing its best to raise his cap from
his head. Slowly he was let down, down, so far as he could see, into
space. Then suddenly, just as he had closed his eyes in dizzy terror,
his feet struck snow into which he sank to his knees, and the rope above
slackened.
The ledge had stopped him, but it seemed to Ross but an insecure footing
hung between heaven and earth. It was a mere path across the face of the
cliff not more than three feet wide at the widest part.
Ross untied the end; and then, as he felt it jerked from behind him, he
covered his eyes with his hand and stood shivering, crowding back against
the cliff.
It was the work of a moment only for Miller to slide down the rope and
stand beside him.
"Hug the cliff," directed Ross's conductor shortly, "and follow me. No,
don't put on your shoes. I'll break the trail fer ye."
Slowly they crawled across the face of the cliff, the ledge leading
downward. At the base they were in a winding canon scarcely twenty yards
wide. Here they buckled on their snow-shoes again.
"If," said Miller, bending over the straps, "we see it's best fer you
t' stay a few days with my pard and let me go back and help Uncle Jake,
I wouldn't do much investigatin' of the premises around here if I was
you."
Ross shuddered, and looked up at the face of the cliff, obscured now not
only by the storm, but by the coming darkness.
"No investigating for me!" he exclaimed forcefully.
Then they began the tramp up the canon, the shadow from the wooded
mountains deepening every moment. Finally, Miller made a sharp turn
around a group of seven spruces standing at the foot of a peak, and
cautiously approached a log shack that stood half buried in the snow, and
had as its corner posts four tall trees. The snow was shoveled away from
the door and window, and a light smoke arose from the joint of stovepipe
projecting from the roof.
At the door Miller stopped and listened. "Guess he's asleep," he
whispered. "Take off yer shoes out here."
Ross stooped, and unbuckled his snow-shoes.
"Guess the fire must be low," whispered Miller. "Wisht you'd go round
the corner there, and load up with wood while I go in and see what he's
up to. But don't come in till I tell ye to. I'll sort of prepare him
to see ye."
Ross did as he was bidden. He found the path to the pile of pine chunks
partly broken; but, with his numb fingers incased in huge mittens,
it was not easy work to dig out the wood frozen under its covering of
snow. But finally, his arms full, he staggered around the corner of
the shack, and stood again in front of the door. So busy had he been at
the wood-pile that he had not thought of listening for sounds within
the shack.
Now, as he stood in the dusk before the door, he was surprised at the
stillness within, and also by the fact that the window beyond the door
showed no light. With a growing but vague uneasiness he waited, chilled
to the bone by the wind, which had begun to suck through the canon and
whistle along the sides of the mountains.
The few moments during which he waited seemed to him like years. Then he
raised the wooden latch softly, and opened the door. Darkness and silence
greeted him.
"Mr. Miller," he whispered.
No reply.
"Miller!" His voice rose sharply.
The wind soughed through the branches over his head; and a sharp flurry
of snow, forerunner of the blizzard, assailed him, while from the open
door came a whiff of warmth.
Ross dropped the wood outside, and, stepping within the shack, closed
the door, and groped his way toward the stove, from the front of which
came a faint glow.
Pulling off his mittens, he held his hands over the heat, at the same
time holding his breath that he might hear the breathing of the sick man.
But all he heard was the beating of the blood in his own ears.
Working some life into his fingers, he tore open the front of his
fur-lined coat, and, pulling a match out of his pocket, lighted it,
and held it above his head. In the further corner of the cabin was a
bunk, from beneath the blankets of which the straw protruded. Trembling
so that he could scarcely walk, Ross started across the floor. Half-way
to the bunk his match burned out. He retreated to the stove, and lit
another. This time he succeeded in reaching the bunk. Several blankets
were spread over a foundation of straw. Otherwise the bunk was empty.
A panic seized Ross. "Miller!" he shouted, "Miller!"
The wind howled through the canon. The trees above the shack swayed and
grated their interlocked branches together.
Striking a third match, Ross observed a candle stuck into a hole in a
piece of wood which lay on the table. He lighted it, and sank into a
chair beside the table.
What had happened? Where was Miller? Where was the sick partner?
Ross took off his cap, and laid it on the table. In bewilderment he ran
his fingers through his hair.
Suddenly his eyes fell on something in the shadow beside the door. He
went to it. It was the heavily loaded game pouch. Evidently Miller had
opened the door, dropped that inside, and vanished into the night.
Ross was reaching for the pouch when another thought struck him so
forcibly that he jerked himself to a standing posture with a loud
exclamation. Hastily opening the door, he stopped and, throwing the
wood about, peered through the darkness, searching the open space
where he had parted from Miller.
His snow-shoes were gone.