In the Mine Shafts
There was dense opaqueness within the bosom of the gigantic mountain
which the industry of man in Utah has honeycombed with passages, and
once the search-party, with Jim at the head, had gained some distance
from the exit and had turned abruptly to their left, thereby cutting
themselves off, as it were, from the few stray rays of daylight which
filtered in through the arched entrance, the darkness seemed to become
accentuated, while the silence was positively startling.
"Stop!"
Jim touched the Sheriff on the sleeve, and the latter signalled to the
next man behind him, and so they all came to a halt. There they stood
listening for three or four minutes.
"Pat-a-pat! pat-a-pat!" they heard, and then a deep splash. "Pat-a-pat!
pat-a-pat!" once more, and then a bubbling sound, only to give way to
that same refrain: "Pat-a-pat! pat-a-pat!"
"It's----!" gasped the Sheriff, for he was an open-air man, a farmer in
the neighbourhood, and these inner workings rather tended to overawe
him. "What is it?" he whispered.
"Water falling from the roof into a pool; there's lots of it," Jim told
him, _sotto voce_. "Come along!"
Once more they were threading their way onward, each man with his left
hand outstretched, feeling the damp, roughly-hewn side of the tunnel,
while with his other hand he held the tail of the coat of the comrade
in front of him. As for Jim, he gripped the electric torch in his
right hand, ready at any moment to switch the light on and project the
beams in any direction. A hundred, two hundred yards they gained, five
hundred yards, without having heard a single sound to disturb them,
save occasionally that pat-a-pat, the often tuneful dripping of water
from the roof into some rocky pool beneath, water through which their
feet splashed when they came to it. Then of a sudden a rumbling roar
smote upon their ears, advanced swiftly towards them, met them, as it
were, and then, racing past their ears, went on along the dark gallery,
and so towards the open, bringing the party to a halt.
"A shot," Jim whispered. "That fellow's fired his gun somewhere on
beyond us, and a goodish way, I'd say, for the gallery carries sound
like a speaking-tube, and you can hear a man shout, for instance, more
than a quarter of a mile away. Let's move forward faster."
"Get in at it," the Sheriff answered.
And then they were moving again, on through the darkness, stumbling
over rough tram-lines, through pools of water, over fallen boulders,
round acute corners, and so on and on, while behind them first one
and then others of the party they had left at the entrance crept in,
forming that communicating chain which the Sheriff had so thoughtfully
ordered.
"H--hush!" The Sheriff's bony fingers gripped Jim's arm, and, unmindful
of the fact that darkness surrounded them, he stretched forth his other
hand and pointed into the void in front. "The varmint's there," he
whispered hoarsely. "I heard him move. Listen!"
Yes, something or someone was moving. Whether in the near distance or
far it was impossible to state definitely, though every member of the
search-party stretched his ears to the fullest extent and listened
eagerly, head forward, horny palm making a funnel in the endeavour to
catch more sound waves, and so to unfathom what was then a mystery.
"Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat!" went those lugubrious drops into the pools of
water underfoot, "pit-a-pat!" they tumbled from the arched roof of the
gallery on to the persons of that listening search-party, while water
streamed down the rough-hewn sides and dribbled over the fingers which
they had placed there to guide them.
Yes, someone moved.
"Farther along," Jim hardly whispered, tugging at the Sheriff's coat.
"Let Larry come along!"
The giant form of the Sheriff unbent a little when he turned, stretched
out a hand and gripped that youth by the shoulder.
"I heard," came a whisper. "I've got me gun, and all's well. You get
in, Jim, I'm following."
The party they left heard them stumbling along, their feet making
mysterious sounds as they splashed along the floor of the tunnel, and
then of a sudden the blackness in front of them was illuminated by
one piercing beam which cut its way through the darkness, its edges
brilliant, its centre blurred. That beam hit upon the dripping side of
the tunnel some yards ahead, painted a brilliant circle on it, hovered
to one side, then flicked back, and later showed in its very centre the
figure of a man bent almost double crouching beside the wall, a metal
object on one knee gripped by one hand, an object which reflected the
beam brightly.
"It's----" shouted the Sheriff, and then a sharp crack from a revolver
drowned his voice and stunned the ears of all present. They saw the
flash of the weapon, and a moment later watched as the crouching figure
darted along the side of the tunnel, and swept round a corner, while a
second shot, a second reverberation, wakened the echoes, and a bullet
flicked a piece out of the edge of rock round which that crouching
figure had doubled.
"Come on," shouted Jim, while Larry beat himself on the breast, vexed
that he should have missed such a shot.
"It's the light," he cried angrily, "it put me out; I wasn't expecting
it. Seems to me I'd better have a torch, too. Here! hand one over,
Jim, then I shall know when to put it on and be ready."
For five minutes or more they struggled on, running at times, and then
halting to listen. Finally Larry clapped a wet and perspiring hand on
Jim's shoulder.
"Gee!" he said; "it ain't no good, this here runnin' up and down like
rabbits. Every time we moves the fellow hears us. This party's too big.
Let's divide, or, better still, supposin' we post sentries who will
block the tunnel. You see the skunk we're after is mebbe bolting round
and round in a circle."
"That's true," Jim assured him. "There are burrows leading in all
directions here, and it's not at all difficult to miss anyone."
"Particularly if you're anxious to avoid a meeting, same as this
white-livered German," grunted the Sheriff, who was panting after his
exertions.
"And you've got to remember," said Larry, "that every time we moves
he hears us. Listen! There, didn't I say so? That's the varmint we're
after, and mebbe he's two or three hundred yards away, yet you can hear
his feet splash in a pool of water."
There echoed along the wet walls of the gallery the sound of a distant
splash, and then there was silence for a few moments, broken again by
the clatter of someone's heel against a piece of rock.
"Same as he hears us," growled the Sheriff. "Larry's right, and we've
got to break up this party. Well then----?"
He plucked at Jim's shoulder, and the latter at once responded.
"Larry and Dan and I will go on," he said abruptly. "You, Mr. Sheriff,
and the others had best divide into two--half here and half farther
back. That may trap the fellow we're after. Meanwhile we three who are
going on can crawl very carefully and slowly beside the wall of the
gallery and halt after a while. If we hear our man we will try and get
nearer, but our main object will be to get him to move nearer to us,
then we'll have our lights on him in a moment."
"Not forgettin' guns," laughed Larry, "not forgettin' this here, this
shooter! It's just horse sense that, Mr. Sheriff. Jim's been long
enough in the mine to know his way about, and he's listened hours and
hours, same as me, and knows what it is to hear a man a-comin'. When he
sits down and listens to you movin' along to him, and it's a case of
shootin' between two people, it's the man who sits tight and does the
listening has all the chances. Shucks! Jim's given us an idea what's
worth followin'."
It took but very little time to make their preparations, when Jim
and Dan and Larry again crept away, this time at a much slower pace,
halting when they had proceeded some two hundred yards. Here they were
at a point where a smaller gallery left the main one, and ensconcing
themselves at the entrance they lay down and listened.
"Seems to me as the skunk's got right away," said Larry, his patience
nearly exhausted when they had lain there nearly half an hour and not a
sound had reached their ears, save those made by their distant friends
who were patrolling the main gallery, "suppose----"
Dan gripped him by the shoulder.
"H--h--ush!" he whispered.
Jim pushed his torch forward and made ready.
"Aye!" grunted Larry, and then there was a faint click as he prepared
his revolver.
"Wait!" Someone was coming toward them. A sound of stealthy footsteps
reached their ears, though whether coming from the left or the right
was at that moment uncertain. Peering in both directions, the three lay
there with bated breath, endeavouring to remain cool and yet almost
trembling with suppressed excitement. Then, of a sudden, the sound of
a splash only a few yards away arrested their attention, and caused
them to start to their knees. An instant later their two torches cast
beams into the gallery, and centred themselves with a flash upon an
individual creeping along some twenty yards from them. It was the
German without a doubt, hatless, dishevelled, sopping wet, and bearing
a haunted, hunted expression. He blinked as the light fell full in
his face, and then snatched at a weapon which he held concealed in a
pocket. At the same moment Larry's pistol spoke, and with a howl the
man dropped his left arm helpless beside him. But a moment later a
flame flashed from beneath his coat, and one of the three fell with
a dull thud on to the wet ground which floored the tunnel, his fall
pushing Larry aside and upsetting his aim so that his second bullet
went wide of the mark. A moment later the man was gone, and could be
heard scuttling along into the distance.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE THREE FELL WITH A DULL THUD]
"Show a light," said Jim hoarsely, as he bent over Dan's prostrate
figure; "where's he hit, Larry? Ah!--look!"
Beneath the wide-open shirt which Dan wore there was a splash of colour
extending over his broad chest, a splash of red running down beneath
the cotton. The young fellow's eyes were closed, his face, brilliant in
the rays of the electric torch, was desperately pale, while he seemed
to have ceased breathing.
"Hard hit!" said Larry. "If I don't rip the heart of that darned
German! And next time I don't shoot only to wound, to make him
helpless, same as I did this time, I shoot to kill, Jim, shoot to
exterminate the varmint."
They debated for a while what they would do, and then whistled for the
Sheriff and his party to join them.
"It's a bad do!" the latter said when he came up and looked at Dan,
bending over him and feeling his pulse and then counting his breathing.
"Hard hit, as you say, Larry, but he's young and strong and ain't taken
to liquor; if anyone can pull through it's Dan. Only, he's got to get
every chance, which means that the sooner we've got him out of here
the better. Let's carry him, boys; later on we'll hunt out this German."
"Later on?" said Jim, who had now recovered a little from the shock
which Dan's condition had caused him. "No, Mr. Sheriff, I'm going on
at once, there's no time to be lost, for when it gets dark a fellow's
chance for creeping out of the mine will be enormously improved. I'm
going to hunt him down and either shoot or capture him, which it don't
matter."
"Same here," declared Larry, "same here, Mr. Sheriff; now's the time,
as Jim says. We've winged our man, and chances are he's bled quite
a heap and will be weak like and more easily taken. If we wait till
to-morrow he may have got away or got his arm tied up, and be in better
shape to meet us. Now's the time. You pull out, Mr. Sheriff, with Dan,
for the boy's life depends on it; me and Jim's goin' forward."
They parted, the Sheriff and his men to pick Dan up with every care and
bear him along as gently as they could to the entrance; there he was
put in a car and hurried down to the mining hospital below, where, in
case of casualties occurring, the surgeon was already in attendance.
"Hum!" he said; "a close call, Mr. Sheriff. I don't know! I don't
know! Indeed," he continued, shaking his head as he bent over Dan's
almost lifeless figure and put his stethoscope to his chest, "slick
through--small-calibre bullet, and not over-much bleeding. Missed the
heart by two or three inches, which is lucky. Well, it might have
been worse, Mr. Sheriff, it might have caught him right through the
heart, or that bullet might have lodged in his lung and set up no end
of trouble in the future. If he lives for a few days, he will pull
round. You and your men get off now and leave Dan to me and the nurses;
but----" he shook his head again, "but, Mr. Sheriff, don't count on
anything wonderful."
Meanwhile, Jim and Larry had pushed on resolutely into the darkness of
the tunnel.
"Hold hard!" said Jim after a while, when they had crawled some
distance and had listened on many occasions, only to hear nothing which
told them of the near presence of the man they were seeking.
To be sure, there came to their ears the steady dripping of water as
it splashed into the inky-black pools on the floor of the tunnel, and
now and again a distant echo which reverberated gently along the whole
length of the gallery.
"It's the Sheriff talking in that big voice of his to the men in the
opening," Larry explained. "This here tunnel's like a speaking-tube.
Well, what is it, Jim?"
"I've been thinking. This is like hunting for a needle in a bundle
of hay. We've nothing to go on, Larry, except sounds, and they're
uncertain; it seems to me that we must pursue a different course."
"A different course?" asked his companion, a little astonished. "How?
which way?"
"I don't mean in direction; I mean course of action. See here," said
Jim, "you've winged the German."
"Winged!" said Larry, his tones now those of disgust. "If I was worth
a cent with a gun I'd have drilled a hole clean through him. I could
'a done, Jim. Ef you was to put up a dollar at ten paces distant, end
ways on, I'd hit it slick ten times out of ten, and I ain't boastin'
now----" he ended, with a low hiss of annoyance.
"Everyone knows what you can do, Larry," Jim told him. For indeed
Larry's prowess with a revolver was known throughout the mine.
"If you couldn't shoot straight you wouldn't have been able to hit
his arm; for you've told us you meant only to wound him. Of course I
understand that you wish now that you'd killed him, for then Dan might
not have fallen, but you've winged him and probably he's bleeding.
Perhaps if we use our torches, we shall be able to follow a trail if by
chance he's left one."
The suggestion cannot be described as one of any brilliance, for indeed
it was so very obvious; yet in the excitement of the chase it had not
occurred to either of them before, and now the prospect it offered
caused Larry to grip Jim by the shoulder eagerly.
"It's it! Gee," he whispered excitedly, "ef it don't offer the only
chance! And then?"
"And then," said Jim, "if we get on his trail we shoot off our lights
and go forward say twenty yards and pick it up again. In that way,
sooner or later, we may get him cornered. He'll shoot."
"Aye, he'll shoot," agreed Larry, "and we'll chance that, Jim. Only, if
the chance comes, you can lay it that we'll flatten out our man with
one of these bullets. Pity you ain't armed, Jim, you ought to 'a had a
gun along with you; but you ain't fearful."
"Fearful! Let's move on. Now search the ground with your light."
It was not until ten minutes or more had passed that the two as they
crept along the floor of the gallery came upon a patch brighter than
that they had been traversing, and here on the wall, about three feet
from the floor, there was the impression of a hand--a blood-stained
impression. For the outline of the fingers and the palm of a man's hand
were imprinted upon the stone in a brilliant red--sure sign that the
German had gone in that direction.
"And here's his boot-mark in the mud at the foot of the wall," said
Larry, pointing it out to Jim, "and right here's another and another.
He was going along this way. See, here, Jim," he whispered, putting his
lips close to the ear of the young fellow who was his companion, "ef it
was me alone as was leading this expedition, I'd turn off me light here
and get ready with the feet. I'd move along quick, say a hundred yards
or more, and then lie low and listen."
"Same as I was going to suggest," Jim answered. "Come on, let's hold
hands so that we don't get separated; and after this, not a word, not a
sound!"
Hurrying forward, they stopped again when they thought they had covered
the distance agreed upon, and then sat down with their backs against
the wall of the gallery, listening and waiting. It was some ten minutes
later that the faintest whisper of a sound was heard, a whisper which
appeared to be approaching them, although that was a matter for
conjecture. They listened intently till both were certain that someone
was approaching them, though whether in the gallery in which they
themselves were waiting, or in some other of the numerous burrows which
honeycombed the mountain, was a matter they could only guess at. Then,
of a sudden, they became aware of the fact that whoever gave rise to
the sound was very near them. Almost instantly they switched on their
lights, and just as rapidly one of them went out, while at the same
moment Larry gave vent to a shrill exclamation, and a flash of flame on
the far side of the gallery and a loud report accompanied the cry he
gave.
When Jim contrived to turn his own torch on the point where the flame
of a pistol-shot had illuminated the darkness, the tunnel was bare,
there was not a sign of anyone, though rapidly moving away were the
sounds of retreating footsteps. By his side lay Larry, groaning and
muttering and growling.
"Guess that there fox has managed to do us in again," he managed to
tell Jim. "You lay hold o' me, young fellow, and carry me under yer
arm. I'm only a small bit of a chap, and of no great account, but, Gee,
if I get hold o' that chap! If I ever gets square face to face o' that
feller!"
It was indeed a sorry finish to what might have been quite an
exhilarating affair. Undoubtedly the German had got the better of the
bargain. In some uncanny manner, indeed, he had contrived to hoodwink
all his pursuers, and late that night was clever enough to slip out of
one of the exits and escape from the mountain. All that could be heard
of him after that was that he had managed to reach the Pacific coast,
and had taken ship no doubt for Germany. One clue he left: a photograph
of himself, which was found in his lodgings. Below the portrait the
man's signature was scrawled in a calligraphy decorated with many
flourishes.
"Perhaps we'll see him over t'other side," said Larry, a few days
later. "Guess we'll find no difficulty in recognizing that ugly mug
wherever we come across it."
"And I just hope that happy meeting 'll come along pretty quick,"
agreed Jim. "As soon as you are fit to move we'll get off there and
make tracks."
"Aye, aye, make tracks!" cried Larry, for they had talked the matter
over and decided to leave for France at the very first opportunity.
"Our chaps will be trained over this side," Larry had said, "but
that's too slow a job for me. Reckon a man as can shoot same as I can,
and same as you, will be useful over yonder. Pity Dan can't come."
Dan couldn't, and indeed would hardly be fitted for the duties of a
soldier for many months to come, for the German's bullet had wounded
him severely. But his place was taken almost at once by English Bill, a
mere stripling.
"Son o' Charlie, down in the saloon in the camp," he told Jim. "You
see, mother's an English-born woman; father came over here seven years
ago, leaving me and mother to follow. I've been here just a year."
"Just a year!" repeated Larry, looking the stripling over. "And what
may be your age, young feller? Yer size and yer cheek, don't yer know,
make yer out to be a good twenty; yer face, and what-not, says that yer
barely eighteen."
"Seventeen this last fall--old enough to come along o' you and do
something to them Germans," came the quick answer. "I can shoot, too,
Larry. You ain't the only one that knows how to hold a gun. Father
taught me. Besides, didn't this low-down hound murder him? Wasn't he
a German agent? Hasn't England been fighting Germany this last three
years? What's the good of me here then? I've something to do in France,
same as you have. I'll come right along."
And come right along English Bill did, stripling though he was, and
made quite an excellent companion for Jim and Larry. Indeed the three
of them were to meet with many adventures before they reached France
itself, and there, with British and French and American troops round
them, were to see quite a deal of fighting.