Wellesly waited in silence and apparent resignation until his captors
disappeared down the canyon and the last sound of the horses' feet
stumbling over the boulders melted into the distance. Then he began
wriggling his body and twisting his arms to see if there were any
possibility of loosening the rope. It would give just enough
everywhere to allow a very slight movement of limbs and body, but it
was impossible to work this small slack from any two of the loops into
one. Wellesly pulled and worked and wriggled for a long time without
making any change in his bonds. Then he put all his attention upon his
right arm, which he could move up and down a very little. He had a
narrow hand, with thumb and wrist joints as supple as a conjurer's, so
that he could almost fold the palm upon itself and the hand upon the
arm. One turn of the rope which bound his arms to his body was just
above the wrist, and by working his hand up and down, until he rubbed
the skin off against the bark of the tree, he managed to get this band
a little looser, so that, by doubling his hand back, he could catch it
with his thumb. Then it was only a matter of a few minutes until he
had the right arm free to the elbow. On the ground at his feet lay a
match, which had dropped there when his captors rifled his pockets. If
he could only get it he might possibly burn through some of the bands
of rope. He thought that if he could get rid of the rope across his
chest he might be able to reach the match. He worked at this with his
one free hand for some time, but could neither loosen nor move it. He
picked at it until his finger-ends were bleeding, but he could make no
impression on its iron-like strands.
A breeze blew the lapel of his light coat out a little way and there
his eye caught the glint of a pin-head. He remembered that Marguerite
Delarue had pinned a rose in his buttonhole the day before he left Las
Plumas. He had been saying pretty, half-loverlike nothings to her
about her hair and her eyes, and to conceal her embarrassed pleasure
she had turned away and plucked a rosebud from the vine that clambered
over the veranda. He had begged for the flower, and she, smiling and
blushing so winsomely that he had been tempted to forget his
discretion, had pinned it in his buttonhole. It had fallen out
unnoticed and he had forgotten all about it until the welcome sight of
the pin brought the incident back to his memory. With a little
exclamation of delight he thrust his free hand upward for the pin, but
he could not reach it. Neither could he pull his coat down through the
bands of rope. He worked at it for a long time, and finally stopped
his efforts, baffled, despairing, his heart filled with angry
hopelessness. Again the breeze fluttered the lapel, and with a sudden
impulse of revengeful savagery he thrust down his head and snapped at
the coat. Unexpectedly, he caught it in his teeth. Filled with a new
inspiration, he kept fast hold of the cloth and by working it along
between his lips, he finally got the head of the pin between his
teeth. Then he easily drew it out, and, leaning his head over,
transferred it to his fingers.
He drew a deep breath of exultation. "Now," he thought, "this settles
the matter, and I'll soon be free--if I don't drop the pin. My blessed
Marguerite! I could almost marry you for this!"
Carefully he began picking the rope with the pin, fiber by fiber, and
slowly, strand by strand, the hard, twisted, weather-beaten cords gave
way and stood out on each side in stubby, frazzled ends. The pin bent
and turned in his fingers, and the blood oozed from their raw ends.
But he held a tight grip upon his one hope of freedom, and finally the
rope was so nearly separated that a sudden wrench of his body broke
the last strands. He put the bent, twisted, bloody pin carefully away
in his pocket and, stooping over, found that he could barely reach the
match on the ground. He was able to grasp also two or three dry twigs
and sticks that lay near it. On the bark of the pine tree to which he
was tied were many little balls and drops of pitch. He felt over the
surface of the tree as far as he could reach and pulled off all that
he could get of this. Then he found that the only part of the rope
that he could at once reach and see was that directly in front of his
body. He turned and twisted, but there was no other way. If he
attempted to burn it anywhere else he would have to guess at the best
way to hold the match, and he might waste the precious heat in which
lay his only hope.
He stuck the pitch in a ring around the rope where it circled his body
just below the stomach. Then he set his teeth together, and with his
face gone all white and sick-looking, lighted the match and held it
under the pitch. Eagerly he watched the little flames dart upward over
the rope. He flattened his body against the tree as the scorching heat
reached his skin. The match burned low, and by its dying flame he
lighted one of the dry twigs. It was full of pitch and burned up
brightly. The flame leaped up and caught his shirt. Holding the
burning stick in his mouth he slapped the fire with the palm of his
one free hand and soon smothered it, before it had done more than
scorch the skin of his chest. The cloth of his trousers charred under
the fire and held a constant heat against his body, and the pain from
the blistering wound almost made him forget his desperation. Twice he
started impulsively to fling away the tiny brand, but quick
remembrance of his desperate situation stopped the instinctive
movement, and, with grinding teeth, he held it again under the rope.
The smell of the burning flesh rose to his nostrils and sickened him.
He felt himself turning faint. "I can not stand it!" he groaned and
flung away the burning twig. In an instant he realized what he had
done, and stooping over he tried to reach it where it blazed upon the
ground. But it was too far away. In an agony of hopelessness he seized
the rope with his one free hand and jerked it with all his strength.
It broke at the burned place and left him free as far as the hips,
although the left arm was still bound to his body.
An empty tin can caught his eye in the grass a little way off. It was
out of his reach, but he saw a stick on the ground part way around the
tree. By twisting and stretching his body to the utmost he could reach
the stick, and by its aid he soon had the can in his hand. The top had
been almost cut out, and holding the can in his hand and the flying
leaf of tin in his teeth he worked and twisted and pulled until he
tore it out. Its edge was sharp and jagged, and sawing and cutting
with it he soon freed himself from the remaining bonds of rope. As the
last one dropped away and he stood up and stretched himself in the
shade of the pine tree he found that he was trembling like a leaf and
that a cold sweat covered him from head to foot. Shivering, he stepped
out into the hot sunshine.
But he had no time to waste on a nervous collapse. He found some tea
in the pack, and hastily stirring up the embers of the breakfast fire,
he made the coffee pot full of a brew as strong as he could drink.
There was also part of a small sack of flour, and he quickly mixed a
paste of flour and water and spread it over the deep, blistered burn
on his abdomen. Then, with a can of baked beans in one hand and the
coffee pot of tea in the other, he started down the canyon.
The tiny stream from the spring grew smaller and smaller and finally
lost itself in the thirsty earth. For a little way farther the
straggling vegetation and the moist sand showed its course, but long
before he reached the mouth of the canyon all sign of water
disappeared and nothing remained but hot sand and barren rocks. When
he reached the larger canyon through which they had come up from the
plain two days before, he hid behind some huge boulders and watched
and listened for sign of his captors. He thought he heard the faint
sound of a horse's hoofs far in the distance. He started from his
hiding-place and ran down the canyon, hoping to get out of sight, if
it should be his two enemies returning, before they could reach the
place. He was still trembling with the exhaustion of the forenoon's
long nervous strain, and when his foot slipped upon a stone he could
not save himself from a fall. He went down full length upon the sand,
and half his precious store of tea was spilled. He dared not take the
time to go back and make more. There was still left nearly a quart of
the strong liquid, and he thought that if he would be very careful and
remember to swallow only a little each time it might take him safely
across the desert. He hurried on, running where the way was smooth and
hard enough, and again clambering over boulders or ploughing heavily
through the sand.
When he came to the mouth of the canyon and looked out over the low,
rocky hills and the sandy, white waste beyond, the sun was already in
its downward course. He was red and panting with the heat, which had
been well nigh intolerable between the high, narrow walls of the
canyon, and his whole body smarted and glowed as if it had been
encased in some stinging hot metal. He carefully studied the sky line
of the Fernandez mountains, which rimmed the desert on the west, and
marked the pass through which he and his companions had come,
impressing it upon his mind that he must keep that constantly before
his eyes. It seemed easy enough, and he said to himself that if he
just kept his face toward that pass he would have no trouble and that
he would certainly reach it before noon the next day. He listened
intently for sounds from the canyon, but could hear nothing, and with
much relief he decided that he must have been mistaken and that he
would be safe from immediate pursuit.
"I'm lucky so far," he said to himself as he started on the faintly
marked trail across the barren foothills, "even if I did spill my tea.
If they should follow me, it would be my last day on earth. That
damned Jim would shoot me down as soon as he could get near enough."
Then he remembered that this was Thursday, and that Colonel Whittaker
would expect him in Las Plumas that afternoon. "He'll send to the
ranch to inquire about me when I don't show up to-morrow," Wellesly
thought, "and then everybody will turn out to search for me. But, Good
Lord! I needn't pin any hopes to that! I'd be dead and my bones picked
and bleached long before anybody would think of looking in this hell
hole for me. There would be absolutely no way of tracing me. My only
hope is to--now, where is that pass! Yes, there it is. I'm headed all
right."
He walked rapidly over the low, rocky hills, still fearing possible
pursuit and frequently looking back, until he reached the sandy levels
of the desert. There the trail was so faint that he could scarcely
follow it with his eye. He stopped, perplexed and doubtful, for he
could not remember that it seemed so blind when he traveled it before.
"But there is the pass," he thought. "I'm headed all right, and this
must be the road. It is just another indication of my general
stupidity about everything out of doors. I never look at a road, or
think about directions, or notice the lay of the land, as long as
there is anybody with me upon whom I can depend. I might as well pay
no more attention to this trail and strike straight across the desert.
If I keep my face toward the pass I'm all right."
As long as the road kept a straight course across the sand and alkali
wastes he followed it. But when it bent away in a detour he chose the
air line which he constantly drew from his objective point, and
congratulated himself that he would thus save a little space. He
tramped along, in and out among the cactus and greasewood, and
finally, near sunset, he came upon a great, field-like growth of
prickly-pear cactus. The big, bespined joints spread themselves in a
thick carpet over the sand and climbed over one another in great
hummocks and stuck out their millions upon millions of needles in
every direction. The growth looked as if it might cover hundreds of
acres.
"So that's the reason the trail bent like a bow," thought Wellesly as
he looked at the field of cactus in dismay. "I ought to have known
there was some good reason for it. If I'm lucky enough to find it
again I'll know enough to stick to it. Well, I must skirt along this
field of devil's fingers till I find the road again. I wonder if I'll
know it when I see it."
The sun went down, a dazzling ball of yellow fire, behind the rounded,
rolling outlines of the Fernandez mountains, and from out the towering
crags of the Oro Fino range the moon rose, white and cool, looking
like a great, round wheel of snow. Wellesly had planned to keep on
with his journey through the greater part of the night, in order to
take advantage of the cooler atmosphere. But the trail was so faint he
feared he might not recognize it in the less certain light of the
moon, and so he decided to stop where he was for the night. With his
heel and a sharp-edged stone he stamped in the head of the can of
baked beans and with his fingers helped himself to a goodly share of
its contents. He forced himself to drink sparingly of what remained of
his tea. Not more than a pint was left and he dared take no more than
a few sips. To keep from pouring the whole of it down his throat in
great gulps strained his will power to the utmost. His whole body
clamored for drink. He would seize the coffee pot with a savage grip
and carry it half way to his lips, stop it there with gritting teeth,
and with conjured visions of men dying with thirst force himself to
put it down again. He said to himself that of all the times in his
life which had required self-control none had ever made such sweeping
demands upon his will power as did this. After he had finished his
supper and was ready to lie down on the sand to sleep, he carried the
coffee pot some rods away, to the edge of the growth of cactus, and
hid it there under the protection of the branching, needle-covered
joints of the prickly-pear, where he could not get it without having
his hands pierced and stung by the spines. For he feared that his
thirst might rouse him in the night and that, with his faculties
benumbed with sleep, he might drink the whole of the precious store.
By midnight the air of the desert had cooled enough for him to sleep
with comfort, save for the thirst that now and again wakened him with
parched mouth and clinging tongue. In the morning, he resolutely ate
his breakfast of cold baked beans, helping himself with his fingers,
forcing himself to swallow the very last morsel he could choke down,
before he took the coffee pot from its hiding-place. His eyelids fell,
and with a gasping breath he put it to his lips. Then he summoned all
his will power and took two small swallows.
As he plodded through the sand he wondered what would be the outcome
of his journey, even if he should succeed in getting safely across the
desert and beyond the mountain pass. He remembered that there was no
sign of water and no human habitation between the desert and the ranch
where his misfortunes had begun. He had seen no one there but the
Englishman, and he wondered whether he would find the place deserted
or whether he would run into the arms of other members of the same
gang that had lured him away. No matter. He would find water there,
and he was ready to face any danger or run any risk for the chance of
once more having all the water he could drink.
The sun was well up in the sky and the desert glowed like an oven. Hot
winds began to blow across it--light, variable winds, rushing now this
way and now that. They made little whirlwinds that picked up the sand,
carried it some distance, and then dropped it and died away. Wellesly
saw one of these sand clouds dancing across the plain not far away,
and instantly the hopeful thought flashed upon him that it was the
dust raised by some horsemen. He ran toward it, shouting and waving
his hat. It turned and whirled along the sandy levels in another
direction, and he turned too and ran toward a point at which he
thought he could intercept it. Presently it vanished into the heated
air and he stopped, bewildered, and for a moment dazed, that no
horsemen came galloping out of the cloud. He looked helplessly about
him and saw another, a high, round column that reached to mid-sky,
swirling across the plain. Then he knew that he had been chasing a
"dust-devil." He swore angrily at himself and started on, and when
next he swept the mountain range with his eye for the pass that was
his objective point he could not find it. Suddenly he stopped and shut
his eyes, and a shuddering fear held his heart. Slowly he turned
squarely around and looked up, afraid and trembling. There were the
Fernandez mountains and there was the pass he wished to reach. He had
no idea how long he had been traveling in the backward direction. A
sudden panic seized him and he ran wildly about, now in one direction
and now in another. Panting with the exertion he savagely grasped the
coffee pot and drained it of its last drop.
"Now I have signed my death warrant," he thought, as he threw away the
empty vessel. He sank down on the hot sands and buried his face in his
arms. For the first time his courage was all gone. Presently he felt
the effects of the tea and he stood up, ready to go on.
"It is no use trying to find the road again," he mused. "It would be
just so much lost time and effort. I'll just keep my eye on the pass
and go directly toward it, as nearly as I can."
He tried to eat more of the beans, but they stuck in his parched
throat. The tin was so hot that it burned his fingers, and, believing
they would be of no more use to him, he threw them away. The draught
of tea had much refreshed him and he started across the trackless
waste of sand and alkali with renewed determination.
He tramped on and on, the sun blazed down from a cloudless sky and
beat upon the level plain, and the sand, filled with heat, threw back
the rays into the scorching air. The heat seemed to fill the plain as
if it were a deep, transparent lake of some hot, shimmering liquid. At
a little distance every object loomed through the heat-haze distorted,
elongated and wavering. The hot sand burned Wellesly's feet through
his boots. The notion seized him that if he touched his body anywhere
it would blister his fingers. Even the blood in his veins felt fiery
hot and as if it were ready to burst through its channels. The sun
seemed to follow him and blaze down upon him with the malicious
persecution of a personal enemy. He shook his fist and swore at the
ball of fire.
For a long time he kept his eyes resolutely upon the Fernandez pass
and would look neither to left nor right. But after a while his brain
grew dizzy and his determination faltered. He stopped and looked
about him. Off to one side he thought he saw a lake, lying blue and
limpid in a circlet of gray sand, and he ran panting toward it,
reaching out his hands, and ready to plunge into its cool depths. He
ran and ran, until he stumbled and fell with exhaustion. It happened
that he lay in the shadow of a big clump of greasewood, and after a
little he revived and sat up. Then he rose and looked all about--and
knew that the longed-for lake was only the lying cheat of the desert
sands. He fastened his eyes again upon the mountain pass and trudged
on over the burning waste and through the burning heat, mumbling oaths
of threat and anger. His tongue seemed to fill his whole mouth, and
tongue and mouth and throat burned like red-hot metal.
The stories he had heard from Jim and Haney constantly haunted him. He
could not drive them away. In imagination he saw himself lying on the
white, hot sands with open mouth, protruding tongue, black face and
sightless eyes. The picture sent a thrill of horror through him and
moved his dizzy, flagging brain to fresh resolution. He stumbled on
through the blazing, parching, cruel heat, sometimes falling and lying
motionless for a time, then pulling himself up and going on with will
newly braced by the fear that he might not rise again. Once he sank,
groaning, his courage quite broken, and mumbled to himself that he
could go no farther. As he fell the loud whirr of a rattlesnake
sounded from the bush of greasewood beside him. Instinctive fear
instantly mettled his nerves and he sprang up and leaped away from the
hidden enemy. The fear of this danger, of which he had not thought
before, steadied his brain once more and helped him bend his will
unyieldingly to the task of going on and on and on, forever and
forever, through the burning, blasting heat.
Often he turned from his course and wandered aimlessly about in wrong
directions, forgetting for a time his objective point and remembering
only that he must keep going. Once he came upon human bones, with
shreds of clothing lying about, and stood staring at them, his eyes
held by the fascination of horror. Finally he forced himself to move
on, and after he had tramped through the scorching sand for a long
time, he found himself staring again at the bleaching skeleton.
Through his heat-dazed brain the thought made way that the fascination
of this white, nameless thing had cast a spell upon him and had drawn
him back to die here, where his bones might lie beside these that had
whitened this desert spot for so many months. Perhaps this poor
creature's soul hovered over his death place and in its loneliness and
desolation had fastened ghoulish talons into his and would pin him
down to die in the same spot. The idea took instant possession of his
bewildered mind and filled him with such quaking fear and horror that
he turned and ran with new strength and speed, as if the clawing,
clamoring ghost were really at his heels.
By mere blind luck he ran in the right direction, and when next he had
conscious knowledge of his surroundings he was lying on the ground at
the mouth of the Fernandez pass, well up in the mountains, with the
white moonlight all about him. Dazedly he thought it would be better
for him to lie still and rest, but from somewhere back in his mind
came the conviction that there was something upon which he must keep
his eyes fastened, some place toward which he must go, and that he
must keep on going and going, until he should reach it. Determination
rose spontaneously, and he got up and stumbled on, frequently falling,
but always soon rising again and keeping on with his journey. After a
long time he saw something that glittered in the moonlight. His first
thought was "water!" and with a cry that died in his parched, swollen
throat he sprang forward and seized it. But it was only a bottle, a
flat, empty whisky flask. He turned it over and over in his hands with
a haunting notion that in some way it was connected with his past.
Slowly the recollection shaped itself in his heat-bewildered faculties
that he and the two men who were luring him away had drunk from this
flask here and that then he had thrown it beside the road. Presently
the idea grew out of this recollection that he was on the right road
and that soon he would come to the house where there was water. The
thought made him spring forward again, and he rushed on aimlessly,
thinking of nothing but that somewhere ahead of him there was water.
He ran on and on, now this way and now that, falling and lying
unconscious, then, revived by the cool night air of the mountains,
rising and staggering on again. The sun rose and looked hotly down
upon him as he dragged himself along, hatless, haggard, his skin
burned to a blister, his eyes red and his swollen, blackened tongue
hanging from his mouth.
After a time he caught sight of a clump of green trees with something
shining behind them, which he thought was the water he was looking
for--water, for which every boiling drop of blood in his body was
fiercely calling; water, which his blistering throat and tongue must
have; water, for which the very marrow of his bones cried
out--water--water--and he ran with all the speed his frenzied longing
could force into his legs. Presently he could hear the rustle of green
leaves, and he thought it was the purring of wavelets on the bank, the
white, shining bank that beckoned him on. He put out his hands to
plunge into the cool, bright waves. They struck a blank, white hall,
and he fell unconscious beside the doorway of Emerson Mead's ranch
house.