AN ATTEMPT THAT FAILED
Once within the cave, Belle took a deep breath. Nothing had happened
yet. They were still alive, at all events. She led the way toward the
light they had seen, and, to her amazement, she discovered that on the
left a passageway led to another cavern, larger than the first, which
also was illuminated.
Hearing a shuffling step behind them, the girls turned swiftly, but it
was only the old woman, the light from the lamp in the wall shining on
the metal of her leveled revolver. Whatever else might be said for her,
she allowed her charges no chance to escape.
“Ahead,” she grunted, and slowly the girls entered the second cave. This
had a high, rocky roof. Several lighted lamps were fastened to the
walls. There was furniture of a sort, there being a heavy table in the
center, while arranged along the wall were makeshift cots, five of them.
With a slight gasp, Ethel leaned against the table. The woman grinned.
“No get scared,” she said. “All right. You safe in here. We wait now
till men come. But you no worry. I here. You all safe.”
“That isn’t much assurance,” Nell whispered to Belle. “What a strange
place! Surely they can’t mean to keep us here! Ethel will almost die of
fright.”
She cast a swift look at her cousin, but the girl seemed more courageous
than she had been, probably realizing that nothing could be gained by
showing her fear. So, although her underlip trembled pitifully, Ethel
suddenly approached their guard.
“Do you think we’re going to submit to this?” she demanded, a high color
in her cheeks. “That you—an old woman—can keep us here? Don’t think
we’re afraid of you! We could— What’s that?” she broke off suddenly,
pointing to the doorway.
Unsuspectingly, the woman turned. The next moment Ethel’s two hands had
closed over the gun, and, with a fierce look of determination in her
eyes, she struggled fiercely. In a flash the other two leaped to her
assistance, and the woman was disarmed. Ethel, the one who had been most
frightened, had done what the others dared not do!
“Now,” she panted, trembling so that she could scarcely stand, “the
tables are turned! Let us out of here!”
The woman shrugged her shoulders stolidly, and stood to one side.
“Where you go?” she muttered. “Horses gone. They go by themselves where
you no find them. You want to walk, all right. Long ways,” and she
grinned.
Ethel threw the gun on the table in despair.
“We could never make it,” she stammered, her breath choked in her
throat. “It’s too far! This horrible canyon—” she could not finish.
“Where are the horses?” Bell asked, stepping forward.
Once more Clovita shrugged her shoulders, spreading her hands wide.
“You look,” she said indifferently. “You no find. They far away.
Besides—” she stopped, holding her hand to her ear—“I hear men
coming,” she concluded, with another grin.
“The rustlers!” Nell gasped, seizing Belle’s arm. “They’re coming here!”
A clatter of horses’ feet sounded on the path outside. There were some
muttered sentences, which the girls could not catch, and a figure filled
the doorway. It was Richmond, the man who had driven the car.
“Evenin’ ladies,” he greeted them, smiling sardonically, his hat
sweeping the ground. Another smile was on his face as he turned to the
men behind him. “Our guests,” he added, and the girls detected a
sarcastic note.
Belle recognized the four men who had met them at the entrance to the
canyon, but this time there were two others with them. One of them
looked vaguely familiar, but Belle could not remember where she had seen
him before.
Ethel shrank against the wall.
“Don’t be scared—we’re not poison,” Richmond sneered. “Though your dad
seems to think we are,” he added, looking at Belle Ada. “I see you got
here all right,” he said to Clovita.
The woman nodded, but made no answer. She glared at Richmond from
beneath beetled brows, her head bent low. Belle, observing this by-play,
was at a loss to account for the woman’s apparent antagonistic attitude
toward Richmond until she recalled the episode at the canyon’s mouth,
when Clovita had protested at the garbling of her name. Yet it did not
seem reasonable that any one would hate a man simply because he had
called her by a name not her own.
Richmond motioned Clovita to him, and for some moments the two remained
in low-voiced conversation. Then Richmond spoke to the girls:
“We have to leave now, sorry as you are to see us go,” he said,
grinning. “But remember this—two of us will be on guard all night at
the door of this cave. If any of you try to get out—” his eyes
glittered dangerously—“you’ll wish you hadn’t, that’s all. Clove, here,
will get you anything you want in the line of food. She knows where the
grub an’ water is. As for beds—” he motioned toward the rude cots.
“This ain’t no hotel, an’ you’ll have to make out the best you can. The
sooner yore dad comes through, the sooner you’ll be out of here. We’ll
send him a note to-morrow or the next day—give him a little time to
think it over first. In the meanwhile, as long as you girls behave,
you’ll be safe. If you don’t—well, that’s up to you. Come on, boys—we
vamose. _Adios, señoritas! Hasta mañana!_”
He was gone. The old woman walked slowly over to the table and casually
picked up the gun Ethel had thrown there. She carried it to one of the
couches and tossed it down as though it was of no consequence. Then,
shuffling across the cave, she disappeared into the other room.
The three girls, with heavy hearts, watched her depart. Escape seemed
impossible, and even rescue appeared unthinkable in this dismal cave.
Ethel struggled hard against tears, and succeeded for a time in holding
them back. Belle and Nell themselves were not far from weeping. Outside,
the sun was casting its last rays on the walls of the canyon, but those
within the cavern knew nothing of this. They were held in a rocky jail,
and guarding them were two outlaws who would not hesitate to shoot if
the prisoners tried to escape. Small wonder that hope departed from them
and for the first time they clung together, at length finding relief in
the tears which had been for so long repressed.
Until far in the night the three girls sat on one of the cots, huddled
close. The supper they had been given was coarse, but there was plenty
of it. Yet they could not have eaten much had the meal been a royal
banquet. It is impossible to feast when a lump keeps coming into one’s
throat and tears to the eyes.
But as time went on, and they still remained unmolested, they took heart
again and conversed more cheerfully. True, it was lonesome and cold in
the cave. But to-morrow, surely, help would come. To-morrow—that seemed
so far away, looking now into the blackness of the cave. Even the
friendly stars were hidden from them!
But morning came at last, and with it hope. Clovita, who had slept near
them, greeted them with a toothless smile and informed them that
breakfast would soon be ready. With shudders, they disclaimed any desire
to eat, but when they saw the food before them their appetites conquered
and they fell to with a will. About two hours after sunrise Richmond
appeared and suggested they “come out an’ get a breath of fresh air.”
Realizing that they must preserve their strength, the girls walked
slowly to the mouth of the cave. The canyon was drenched with the
morning sun, and it seemed impossible that any villainy could exist amid
such pleasant surroundings. Belle caught Richmond watching her with an
amused smile on his lips, as though he read her thoughts, and she turned
her back on him coolly.
“As you please,” he said shortly, as he walked toward one of his
companions. “Like it or not—you stay here until we hear from yore dad.
We send the note to-morrow, askin’ fer a certain amount of money. And if
you’re wise, you’ll hope he sends it, _pronto_! We’ve got to get paid
for the time we spent in jail, due to your respected parent’s
activities,” and he grinned again sardonically.
“You’ll not get dad to send you any money!” Belle exclaimed hotly. “The
only thing he’ll send you will be hot lead!”
For a moment Richmond looked at her, then he laughed.
“What d’you think of little Miss Spitfire?” he asked his companions.
“I’ll be sort of sorry to see her leave, I’m gettin’ so used to her!”
Then, changing his tone, he added:
“As far as slingin’ lead goes, we got two men who are experts in that
line. They come from—well, not from around here, at any rate. An’ if
yore old man wants to try a little gun play, we’re all set. In fact,
anxious! I ain’t forgot the fact that he rode all the way over to Hawley
just to see that we got ours. Nor we ain’t forgot—some other things,
too. So let him come on.” His eyes narrowed. “But if he knows what’s
good for him, he’ll bring an army when he arrives, ’cause if we start
shootin’, it ain’t goin’ to be safe fer himself nor fer them two
brothers of yours, either!”
Turning on his heel, he walked up the trail, his heavy colt swinging at
his side. Belle felt a shudder pass over her.
How much longer were they to be kept in the lonesome place with only a
fierce old woman as a companion? How long?