THE LANDSLIDE.
When Frank regained consciousness and opened his eyes he found he was
lying on the rocky floor of a cave, his arms being bound at his sides.
The place was lighted by two flaring torches thrust in crevices of the
rocks.
Near at hand were three men. One was Del Norte, pale from loss of blood,
yet with a murderous light gleaming in his eyes. Another man was Red
Ben, who stood with folded arms, silently watching. The third man was
unknown to Merry.
The Mexican uttered an exclamation of satisfaction as he saw Frank's
eyes unclose.
"At last he is conscious," said Del Norte. "I wished him to have his
reason when he died. Look you, dog of a gringo, your time has come. I
bear many wounds on my body and limbs made by the knife in your hand.
You have only one scratch on your knuckles. But soon you will have this
knife of mine in your heart!"
He displayed the weapon, stooping to sweep it flashing in the torchlight
before the eyes of the helpless youth.
Frank did not shrink in the least.
"Oh, you're defiant, I see, Senor Gringo!" snarled Merry's enemy. "Soon
I will make you groan with agony. Your sweet senorita is near in this
very cave, but you shall not see her. She is guarded by one of my
faithful ones. When I take her from here we'll leave your lifeless
carcass behind. Have you still a grain of hope in your soul? Cast it
away. Even though thousands of your friends were near they could not
find you in this place. You are doomed."
He took savage pleasure in taunting Frank thus. Again he swept the knife
before the eyes of the helpless youth, repeating his threats.
"Beg, gringo dog!" he exclaimed--"beg for your worthless life!"
"A thousand greasers could not make me do that!" declared the defiant
captive.
"Do you think so? We'll see! Remember that once I vowed to cut from your
mouth your stinging tongue? That was when we stood face to face in New
York. You thought my opportunity to keep that oath would never come, did
you? It has come at last! Before I kill you I shall cut out your tongue!
Ha! ha! ha! How like you the prospect, brave gringo?"
Again Frank looked around. Surely he could expect no assistance from
either of the mad Mexican's companions. The white man stood looking on
with an air of indifference. Red Ben was motionless, his rifle leaning
against the wall at his side.
"You see there is no escape," laughed Del Norte. "At last you begin to
understand. You have triumphed over others, but in me you meet your
master."
"My master--no! I had you at my mercy when I was treacherously struck
down from behind. This Indian knows it, for he saw it all. Porfias del
Norte, of all vile things in human form you are the vilest! The mongrel
dog that bites the hand that feeds it is your superior. You are----"
With a furious oath, the taunted man flung himself on the speaker,
clutching him by the throat.
"Out with your tongue!" he cried. "I'll choke you till it protrudes from
your mouth, and then I'll cut it off!"
A feminine shriek rang through the cave, and out of the darkness into
the light of the flaring torches rushed Inza Burrage, followed by the
man who had been guarding her. She sprang at Del Norte with both hands
outthrust and flung him from the prostrate form of her lover, sending
him rolling over and over on the rocky floor of the cave, snarling forth
profanity in Spanish.
He dropped the knife, and she caught it up, ready to stand over Frank
and defend him to the last.
But to the aid of the frenzied girl came most unexpectedly another. Red
Ben grasped his rifle and with the butt of the weapon struck down the
man who had pursued Inza. Quickly reversing the weapon, he held it ready
to shoot, at the same time saying:
"Red Ben him say he see fair play an' best man git gal. Merriwell him
best man, but he no have fair play. Now Ben see him git it! I shoot
first man who touch him or touch gal!"
They knew he meant it. Del Norte sat up, his pale face contorted with
fury.
"Um better stay still," said the redskin, turning the muzzle of the
rifle on the Mexican.
"Quick, Inza!" urged Frank--"cut these ropes! Set me free! It's our
opportunity!"
Immediately she stooped and obeyed. Frank rose as quick as possible.
"Red Ben," he declared, "you'll not lose by this act of manhood! I'll
remember you."
"Take gal that way," urged the Indian, with a jerk of his head. "Git out
of cave that way! Quick! Ben him foller."
Merry did not delay. Grasping Inza, he hurried her into the darkness.
The cave narrowed, the walls closed in, and the roof came down.
Crouching and feeling their way, they pressed on. Almost on hands and
knees they crept out into the open air amid a thick screen of brush and
shrubbery that concealed the mouth of the cave.
"Thank Heaven!" murmured Inza, on the verge of collapsing.
"Where is that Indian?" cried Frank. "I cannot leave him alone to face
those men."
"No leave him," said a voice, as Red Ben came leaping out from the cave.
"Him here. Back up, keep um odders front of gun all time. They come now
prit' quick. Go, Merriwell, with gal. Ben stop um here."
He sought cover near the mouth of the cave, urging Merry to get Inza
away. Then came one of the baffled villains hurrying from the cave. A
spout of flame leaped from Red Ben's rifle and the report awoke the
mountain echoes and started a few loose pebbles rolling on the steep
slope above them.
The pursuer dropped just outside the mouth of the cave. If others were
close behind him, they halted instantly, not caring to show themselves
and share his fate.
Frank had lifted Inza and carried her through the brush and shrubbery.
As he emerged he found himself face to face with several men, and his
heart bounded when the voice of Hodge joyously shouted his name. With
Hodge was Bruce Browning, Belmont Bland, and others.
"Merry, you've found her--you've rescued her!" burst delightedly from
Hodge.
"Listen!" gasped Belmont Bland. "What is that sound?"
On the steeps above there was a murmuring movement, and, looking upward,
they seemed to see the mountain stirring slightly in the moonlight. The
rushing murmur grew louder, and pebbles began to rattle amid the
bowlders and ledges near at hand.
"A landslide!" shouted Frank, horrified. "Flee for your lives!"
As he uttered the words he saw Red Ben come leaping like a deer from the
shrubbery.
"Follow!" cried the Indian as he passed them, and fled along the side of
the mountain.
What ensued was like a terrible nightmare to Merriwell. He remembered
lifting Inza bodily and running for their lives with her in his arms.
Pebbles and small stones rained about him, while the rushing murmur grew
louder and louder. Beneath his feet at one time the whole mountain side
seemed sliding into the valley. A great bowlder, weighing many tons,
went bounding and crashing past them like a living thing seeking escape
from the awful peril. Small trees were slipping and moving toward the
valley.
On and on Frank raced, straining every nerve. Not one of his companions
was burdened like him, yet not one of them made greater speed in the
effort to escape. His exertions were almost superhuman. It seemed that
the knowledge of Inza's awful peril actually lifted him over every
obstacle.
Finally some one clutched and stopped him. He found it was Red Ben, who
said:
"All right now. Mountain him no run down hill here."
It was true Frank had escaped from the track of the landslide and had
brought his sweetheart to safety. Behind them the avalanche of earth,
and stones, and timber was heaping itself on the tiny plateau and
pouring over the brink of the cliff in a cascade that thundered into the
valley below. All around the rocky slopes and wooded steeps were roaring
back the sounds like monsters awakened from peaceful slumber and enraged
at being thus disturbed.
All this had been brought about by the shot fired by Red Ben. That small
concussion had started rolling a single pebble that was the keystone.
Recent rains had loosened that pebble. Others followed it, and a bit of
earth began to slip downward. This dislodged larger stones, and soon the
landslide was under way.
It ceased almost as quickly as it began. The grumbling, roaring
mountains continued raging for a few moments, and then they, too, became
silent. The bright moonlight revealed the change wrought by the
landslide, and it told those who had escaped that the mouth of the cave
that had been the hiding place of Del Norte and his companions was
closed forever by tons of earth, burying the wretches in a living tomb.
Slowly Frank's friends gathered around him. They were all there; all had
escaped. Of the entire party Belmont Bland was the only one missing. One
remembered having seen Bland running blindly toward the brink of the
precipice, apparently having forgotten its existence. No human eye ever
beheld him afterward. If he did not rush blindly over the precipice, it
is likely he halted on the brink and turned to escape in another
direction when it was too late, being swept over by the rushing
landslide.
At the foot of that precipice the body of Pat O'Toole was also buried
where Frank had left it when he lost no time in climbing the mountain
side.