AWAY WE GO!
One recourse was before the pursuing Sioux from the start: that was to
shoot the horses of the fugitives. The wonder was that they had not
aimed to do so from the first. With the couple dismounted, they would be
at their mercy.
It was the fear of this that caused Warren to ask his friend to draw up
as near to him as he could. It was not likely that both ponies would
fall at once, and the survivor might be able to carry the couple to
safety.
"I tell ye we are gaining," said the Irishman, with far more hope in his
manner than Warren thought was warranted.
"We must gain a good deal before getting out of the woods," was the
reply of the other, who devoted every energy to forcing his animal to
his best pace.
"Look out! they're going to shoot again," said Tim.
Throwing himself forward, Warren hugged his pony closer than ever, his
companion doing the same, instead of trying to use his gun. The volley
came while the words were in course of utterance, but neither of the
youths was touched. The Sioux must have found it equally hard to fire
with their animals on a full run.
"Why don't the spalpeens save their powder?" was the disgusted question
of Tim, but his feelings changed a minute later, when his own pony
showed by his actions that he had been hit hard. He uttered a low,
moaning cry, and staggered as if about to fall.
Warren was the first to notice it.
"Tim, Billy is going to drop; ride closer and mount Jack behind me."
"Not a bit of it! I'll see you hanged first," was the characteristic
reply of the brave fellow, who sturdily refused to heed the urgent
appeal of his friend.
"Why not?"
"Jack can't carry us both."
"He can until we reach the ridge."
"But we're not going toward it," insisted Tim, too observant to be
deceived.
"Turn Billy's head that way," said Warren, growing desperate in the
imminence of the peril, and swerving his pony to the right; "Jack can
carry us both as well as one."
Still the Irishman hesitated. It might be as his companion said, but he
was unwilling to imperil Warren, and destroy the chances of both, when
everything looked so favorable for one.
Meanwhile, the stricken Billy was fast giving out. He struggled gamely,
but it was evident that he must quickly succumb. At the most, he could
go but a short distance farther.
The Sioux fired again, but nothing was accomplished. If Jack was hit, he
did not show it during the few seconds that his rider held his breath.
Still Tim held back in the face of the pleadings of his friend. Two
discoveries, however, led him to yield.
They were now heading straight for the ridge, which was barely half a
mile distant. It must soon be attained, unless something happened to
Jack. The foremost Sioux had fallen so perceptibly behind that there was
reason to believe the horse could carry both riders to safety, or rather
to the refuge which they hoped to find at the base of the ridge.
"I'll do the same, being it's yerself that asks it----"
"Quick! Billy is falling!" called Warren, far more excited than his
companion.
The crisis had come. The poor animal could go no farther, and was
swaying from side to side like a drunken person, certain to fall with
the next minute.
Tim released his foot from the stirrup on his right, swung his leg over
the saddle, as only a skilful horseman can do, and, holding his gun with
one hand, grasped the outstretched one of Warren and made a slight leap,
which landed him behind him.
It was a delicate and difficult task, and despite the skill with which
it was executed, both came within a hair of tumbling headlong to the
ground.
Quickly as it was done, it was not a moment too soon. The mortally
wounded Billy suddenly went forward, his nose ploughing up the snow and
earth, and after a few struggles all was over.
The action had not only increased the danger of both of the fugitives,
but it rendered the situation of the Irishman doubly perilous. Although
both leaned forward, they could not do so as effectually as when each
was on his own horse, and Tim of necessity was the more exposed of the
two.
Leaving Warren to guide and urge Jack, he gave his attention to the
Sioux, who did not relax their efforts, but whose relative situations,
owing to the varying speed of their horses, underwent a curious change
of position.
Two were riding abreast, and so far as Tim could see there was not the
least difference in the speed of their ponies. Behind them at a distance
of several rods came two others, holding precisely the same relative
positions, while the rest were strung along over the prairie, until it
looked as if the hindmost was a third of a mile distant.
Nothing was to be feared from them, but what of those that were so much
nearer?
That was the vital question that must soon be answered.
While the position of the Irishman was anything but pleasant, and with
the horse on a jump he was required to take the utmost care to maintain
his seat, he decided to try his gun once more.
This proved harder than he supposed. He could make no use of the saddle
in which young Starr sat, and when he sought to turn he would have
fallen, had he not kept one arm about the waist of his friend. And yet,
in the face of all this, he managed to get his Winchester in position
with the muzzle toward the leading Sioux.
Anything like aiming the weapon was out of the question, and it would
have been folly to expect that a second chance shot would favor him.
Nevertheless, the demonstration accomplished something unexpected. He
had done execution with one shot, and when the bucks saw the muzzle
pointing backward, they were scared.
The leaders naturally supposed they were the ones intended to serve as
targets, and they ducked their heads with such suddenness that the
Irishman grinned. Not only that, but one of them caused his
pony--probably through some inadvertent act on the part of the rider--to
swerve from his course, thereby interfering with those immediately in
the rear.
Even the companion at his side was thrown somewhat out of "plumb," and
lost a few paces, much to the delight of Tim, who gleefully told Warren
of what had taken place.
The advantage to the fugitives will be understood when it is remembered
that they were rapidly drawing near the ridge, now at no great distance
in front.
True, there was no certainty that it would prove a refuge to them, if
attained; but it would be more of a shelter than the open prairie,
where, if driven to bay, there was not the slightest protection against
the bullets of the Sioux, unless the body of Jack should be used as a
breastwork.
The confusion of the bucks was only temporary. They needed no one to
tell them what the aim of the youths was when they changed the line of
their flight, nor could they fail to see that the ridge would be
attained quite soon, unless they were checked.
Tim Brophy suspected that such thoughts were passing through their
minds, and despite the hopelessness of the effort, he discharged his
rifle toward them; and when it is stated that it was discharged "toward
them," no more can be said. There is no reason to believe that he came
within twenty feet of hitting any one of the Sioux.
It may be doubted, therefore, whether this essay on his part was
beneficial to himself and companion, inasmuch as it must have lowered
their opinion of his marksmanship and convinced the red men that they
were altogether mistaken in giving heed to any more shots fired by him
from the back of the pony, which was not only going at full speed, but
was carrying a double burden.