XI

The boys turned and fled, scrambling blindly upwards. Instinctively

they ran in the direction of the pueblo, and when they were finally

obliged to sit down and fight for their lost breath they realised the

course they had taken.

The horror was still in their eyes, but neither spoke of what for a

long while to come must be uppermost in his mind.

"I think we may as well go to the pueblo," said Roldan, as soon as he

could speak. "We must have food, and we are very tired. We can rest

there a few days, then take two of the horses--we can do nothing

without horses--and start out again. If any of the Indians escape and

come back, they will not have spirit enough left to touch us."

"Bueno," said Adan. "The Mission blankets are there and they are soft,

and that oven makes good cakes. I hope the Indians go all with the

soldiers. I never want to see another."

The boys resumed their flight, but more leisurely. They had no

difficulty in keeping to the trail, but it wound over many a weary

mile. Night comes early in the mountain forest, and before two hours

had passed they were groping their way along the narrow road cut

through the dense brush, and clinging to each other. They were brave

lads; but long fasting, and excitement, and a terrible climax to the

most trying day of their lives, had flung gunpowder among their nerves.

It was midnight when they reached the pueblo. The stars illumined

fitfully the deserted huts, black in the heavy shadows. A coyote was

yapping dismally, owls hooted in the forest. Both boys had a vision of

deep beds and hot suppers on the ranchos of their respective parents,

but they shut their teeth and raided the larder. There they found

well-cured meats and dried fruits, which appeased their mighty

appetites; then they went into Anastacio's hut, and wrapping themselves

in the Mission blankets were soon asleep.

It was Adan who awoke Roldan violently in the morning.

"The soldiers!" he whispered hoarsely.

Roldan, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, peered through a rift between

the wall of the hut and the shrunken hide which formed the door. A half

dozen soldiers stood in the plaza, glancing speculatively about.

"I see no trace of them," said one. "I cannot believe they would come

back to this place. Surely it was, as I said, more natural for them to

hide at the edge of the forest until we had gone."

"That dog said there was food here, and that they were more afraid of

us than of a long walk at night. Wherever they are, we find them. They

are a prize second only to the head of Anastacio. Search the huts."

Roldan sprang to his feet, pulling Adan with him. "Come," he said;

"follow me, and run as if you were as lean as a coyote. Remember they

won't shoot."

He flung aside the hide door. The two boys flashed out and round the

corner of the hut before the tired eyes and brains of the soldiers had

time to grasp the happening. A moment later they were in hot pursuit,

firing in the air, shouting terrific threats. But the rested and agile

legs of the boys had a good start, and plunged into narrow ways where

horses could not follow; and doubling, twisting, following paths but

recently beaten by Anastacio in pursuit of deer, Roldan and Adan were

soon far beyond the reach or ken of the men of war. It was an hour,

however, before they thought it wise to arrest their flight and pause

to recuperate in a redwood tree hollowed by fire. Two weeks of exposure

and unwonted exertions had hardened Adan's superfluous flesh, and he

was scarcely more spent than his clean-limbed friend, although every

step had been taken with protest.

"Caramba!" he said, in a hoarse whisper at length. "When I am back on

the rancho I won't walk for a year."

"You will have the habit by that time, my friend, and will walk in your

sleep. When I am governor you will be generalissimo of all the forces

and will keep your army as lively as an ant-hill."

"That is too long ahead, and we have not enough wind to argue about it.

What are we going to do now? How shall we get horses to leave this

forest? Where shall we sleep to-night? What shall we have for dinner? I

could eat a whole side of venison."

"Well, you won't, my friend. Let me think."

After a time he said: "We must stay here until night. Then we will go

back to the pueblo if we can find the way. As for food, we can have

none to-day. There are no berries at this time of year, and we have

nothing to shoot game with. Other people have gone the day without

food, and we can. When we get back to the pueblo, even if we cannot

reach the larder, we can find the corral without being seen. I don't

believe that the soldiers have found it, and the Indians in charge of

the mustangs will let us have two when they know what has happened.

Now, do not let us talk. It will make us more hungry."

Adan groaned, but accepted the decree of silence. The day wore on to

noon, and in the unbroken stillness the boys ventured out of the grimy

tree and lay at full length on the turf. The great redwoods towered in

endless corridors, their straight columns unbroken by branch or twig

for a hundred and fifty feet. Through the green close arbours above

came an occasional rift of sunshine, but the aisles were full of cold

green light. The boys shivered in their coyote skin coats and drew

close together; they dared not run about to keep warm; they must

husband their strength, and hunger was biting. There was no wind in the

tree-tops, no murmur of creek, only the low hum of the forest, that in

their strained ear-sense grew to a roar. Finally they fell asleep, and

it was dark when Roldan awoke. He shook Adan.

"Come," he said; and his partner, grumbling but acquiescent, got to his

feet and tramped heavily over the soft ground.

They had fled beyond paths, and Roldan could only trust to his locality

sense, which he knew to be good. But more than once they were brought

to halt before a wall of brush, which no man could have penetrated

without an axe. Then they would feel their way along its irregular

bristling side for a mile or more before it thinned sufficiently for

egress. Frequently they heard the deadly rattle, and more than once the

near cry of a panther, but there was nothing to do but push on.

Precautions would have availed them nothing, and there was no refuge

nearer than the pueblo. Sometimes they walked down aisles unchoked by

brush but full of moving shadows, above which sounded the lonely

continuous hooting of the owl. Now and again bats whirred past, and

once a startled wildcat scurried across the path and darted up a tree,

crying with terror.

"If we only don't meet a bear," thought Roldan, who dared not speak

lest his voice should shake courage and terrors apart.

It was midnight when Adan announced with what emphasis was left in

him,--

"We are lost."

Roldan answered through his teeth: "Yes, but I think I hear the creek.

When we find that, all we have to do is to follow it south."

"My heart is in the South," muttered Adan. "We might follow that."

"I am ashamed of you," said Roldan, with a lofty scorn which was good

for five words and no more.

It was a half hour later that they stood upon the high bank of the

creek and looked gratefully up at the broad strip of night light. After

the dense shadows of the forest the cold light of stars seemed more

radiant than noon-day.

"We cannot follow along the bank for more than a little way at a time,

on account of the ferns and brush," said Roldan. "We should walk three

times the distance, and perhaps get lost again. I am going to wade.

Will you?"

"Madre de dios! And get rheumatism? My teeth clack together at the

thought."

"You will not be able to keep still long enough to get rheumatism, my

friend. By the grace of Mary we shall be on horseback all day

to-morrow. The water is not a foot deep, and the chill only lasts a

moment. Take off your boots."

"What is left of them," muttered Adan. But they were better than no

boots, and he took them off, and slung them round his neck. Roldan

scrambled down the bank and plunged into the creek. Adan, after a

moment's hesitation, followed with audible reluctance. He thrust the

tip of one foot into the icy water, withdrew it with a shout, tried the

other; then seeing that Roldan was splashing far ahead, jumped in with

both feet and ran along the slippery rocks, wondering when the change

of temperature would occur. His teeth clattered loudly. He pulled in

and executed a war-dance on the stones, then sat down on a fallen

boulder and rubbed his feet violently. Roldan kept steadily on, mindful

of his dignity as leader; but only as Adan joined him had his teeth

ceased from clattering and the warmth crawled back to his feet.

Cold, hungry, inexpressibly weary, the boys plodded on, sometimes in

the clear light of stars, sometimes under the chill blackness of

meeting trees. Fish and other slimy things darted across their feet;

they stepped to their waists into more than one treacherous pool. The

dark blue of the sky had turned to grey when Roldan raised his arm and

pointed to a squat dark object on the summit of the cliff.

"A hut," he said. "We are at the pueblo."

The boys crawled softly up the almost perpendicular bank and peered

over the edge. To all appearances the pueblo was deserted. If the

soldiers were there--and their horses were not--they slept within the

huts. The animal instinct, so bravely repressed, overcame the

adventurers. They ran across the open to the hut where the food was

kept, and ate for fifteen minutes without speaking or taking the

trouble to hide themselves.