"Told her to sit on top of the wall, and watch," Grylls carelessly
answered. "They can't cross the river until morning, but we're not
taking any chances, just the same. She's to watch, too, that the lady
doesn't try to sneak the raft across to her friends."
"You're going to clear out in the morning?" Mabyn asked anxiously.
"Not on your life!" the other coolly returned. "We got shelter and good
water here, the horses are safe above; and we command the only crossing
of the river. We'll sit right here until their grub runs out. They can't
have brought much!"
"The police may hear," Mabyn murmured.
"Let 'em come and welcome," said Grylls. "They know me! As for you, I
guess a man can take a journey with his lawful wife, can't he?"
There was a pause. A match was struck. Garth guessed that Grylls was
resuming his interrupted smoke.
"Seems to me we hold pretty much all the trumps," he went on complacently.
"My idea is, Pevensey's all alone over there. That was a pretty smart rap
on the nut, the boy got. But even if there's two of them, what can they
do? We've got cover, and they've got to show themselves; it's a funny
thing if we can't pot them easy. We got a right to; they killed our man
first."
"Hadn't I better ride on with her to the Slavi Indians?" Mabyn suggested
in a tone that he laboured to make sound off-hand.
Grylls chuckled fatly. "What! And deprive me of the pleasure of her
company!" he said mockingly. "I guess not!"
Mabyn was silent. Garth dimly apprehended what a torment of impotent
fear and rage the creature must be enduring. He had delivered himself
hand and foot into Grylls's power; and Grylls no longer even kept up a
pretense of hiding his own designs on Natalie.
"Better turn in," Grylls said indifferently. "No need for you to watch
to-night. I'll have a snooze myself, and go out and relieve Mary before
dawn."
Garth had heard enough; they were all placed for him; and his way was
clear. He softly drew himself around the further side of the tepee,
pausing long between every move, to listen. Both their lives depended on
his making no sound now; every faculty he possessed was bent on it; he
took half an hour to make thirty feet. He circled the inside edge of the
little triangle of flat ground, keeping in the shadow of the piled
rocks. Crossing the little stream that issued over the flat was hardest;
but he managed it; patiently studying each move in advance. Finally he
approached the tent. Beyond, he fancied he could distinguish the vague
outline of the wall running across; and upon it a huddled figure, a mere
hint of substance against the pit of darkness behind.
He felt his way around the tent. He found the canvas of the back wall
was made in one piece. With shaking fingers, he drew his knife out of
its sheath; and inserting the point in the centre of the stuff, softly
drew it back and forth, a stroke at a time. His heart was beating like a
steam drill; he swallowed his sobbing breath. Every instant he expected
to hear Natalie scream from within.
He severed the last thread at last; and put up his knife. He parted the
flaps; and listened for sounds from within in an agony of indecision. He
could not tell if she slept or was awake; he dared not so much as
whisper her name; and if he touched her and she slept, how could she
help but awake with a cry!
But she was not asleep; and she had all her wits about her. Close to his
ear, a voice soft as a zephyr in the grass whispered his name. A
trembling breath of relief escaped his lips; and instantly an arm was
wreathed about his neck; and a soft cheek pressed against his rough
one. He caught her to him; her slim frame quivered through and through.
It was his own Natalie; the feel of her! the fragrance of her! Life
holds but one such moment.
"I knew you'd come! I knew you'd come!" she breathed in his ear.
Her terrible agitation was the means of calming his own. He had to be
cool for both. He pressed her close to him, stroking her hair.
"Brave, _brave_ Natalie!" he whispered. "Not a sound, till we are
clear!"
He gave her a moment to recover herself, letting his encircling arms
speak the comfort and cheer he could not utter. Little by little the
piteous trembling subsided and the rigid form relaxed.
"Ready, now?" he whispered.
She eagerly nodded.
"I lead the way," he breathed in her ear; "and you keep close at my
heels. Take it easy. It must be hands and knees, and an inch at a time."
Natalie pressed his hand to her lips.
He crawled through the hole, and waited for her outside. She made no
sound. He touched her reassuringly; and realized with a pang how she was
handicapped, with one arm in a sling. They crept back around the foot of
the piled rocks, dragging themselves with tense muscles, a foot at a
time and waiting long between. By the touch of her hand on his foot he
knew she followed close. Looking over his shoulder, he sensed the
huddled figure still motionless on the wall.
He could not have told what gave the alarm. They had reached the
rivulet, when suddenly Mary leaped off the wall with a cry that brought
the two men tumbling out of the tepee.
Garth, springing to his feet, seized Natalie's hand, and pulled her
after him.
"Come on!" he whispered cheerily. "We're safe now!"
They scrambled up over the stones of the watercourse, careless of the
noise they made.
"What is it?" they heard Grylls shout below.
A sentence in Cree explained.
"Watch the raft!" he shouted. "I'll bring her back!"
They heard him run heavily toward them. Hastily unslinging his gun,
Garth sent a shot at random through the darkness. They heard the bullet
spring off a stone. The steps ceased.
"By God! _he's_ up there!" cried Grylls thickly. "Come back, Mabyn!
We'll get 'em easy in the morning!"
There was no further sound of pursuit.
As they climbed, Garth searched from side to side, as well as he could
in the darkness, for a suitable spot to make a stand. High above the
level of the river, a huge cube of rock resting squarely in the bottom
of the ravine, and forcing the stream to travel around it, offered what
he wanted. One side of the boulder lay against a steep rocky wall; and
in the angle was a secure niche for Natalie.
Her courage failed a little when she saw he meant to stop. "Not here!
Not here!" she protested nervously. "We must put miles between us before
morning!"
"The way home lies back across the river," Garth said gently.
"Then why did you come up here?" she said a little wildly. "They'll
never let us back!"
His heart ached for her, at the thought of what she must still go
through. "Courage! for one more day, my Natalie!" he urged, drawing her
to him. "We can't start without horses and food, and those I have to win
for you!"
"You make me ashamed!" she whispered.
He heard no more whimpering.
Garth, appreciating the vital necessity of sleep, if he was to keep his
wits about him next day, lay down in his blankets while Natalie kept
watch. With the first tinge of gray overhead, she woke him, as he had
bidden her.
"If we only had a good breakfast to begin on!" were his waking words;
"and there's nothing but raw flour and water."
Natalie, in answer to this prayer, produced a flat package from her
dress which proved to contain bread and meat. "I always kept something,
in case I should be able to get away," she explained.
They ate, sitting quietly side by side in the darkness--they could even
laugh a little together now--and they arose vastly refreshed.
Garth climbed the big rock to wait for daylight to reveal the strength
and the weakness of the position he had chosen. The top of the rock
formed a flat plane slightly inclined toward their rear; and, lying at
full length upon it, he could shoot over the edge without exposing more
than the top of his head. He lifted up a heavy stone or two; and stood
them along the edge for further protection. Then he waited--waited for
hours it seemed to him; looking and looking down the ravine until his
eyes were fit to start out of his head; and he could see nothing; but
lo! when he looked again the light was there!
On the whole he was satisfied. His rock commanded the entire ravine
below; it was as steep as a pair of stairs. There was not a stick of
herbage below; only a trough of heaped and broken rock masses. On either
hand they were shut in by straight lead-coloured walls of rock; and at
the bottom of the ravine, the forbidding, mist-gray wall of the main
gorge cut off the view. In front and on the left they were amply
protected; their right flank was the weak spot. Above them on this side,
part of the wall of the ravine had given way some ages past; and a bit
of the plain had sunk down. The hollow thus formed contained a grove of
gaunt trees and underbrush. If their assailants, under cover of the
rocks on the way, ever climbed to it, Garth and Natalie would be badly
off indeed.
It was a grim figure that the first rays of light revealed sitting on
the big rock. Garth had lost his hat long ago; and he was both unshaven
and unshorn. He crouched, hugging his knees, with his rifle across his
thighs; and his sheepskin coat hung over his shoulders ready to fling
off, when he needed to act. The flannel shirt beneath was in rags; and
his moccasins, mere apologies for foot-coverings. But to Natalie,
regarding the cool, bright shine of his eyes, as he smiled down on her,
he was wholly beautiful. She was scarcely better off; her pale face was
enframed in a sad wreck of a limp, stained felt hat; but she could smile
too; and Garth had never found her lovelier in her bravery.
The suspense was well-nigh intolerable--and so they fell to chaffing.
"If mother could only see us now!" said Garth with a grin.
"I feel like a white cat coming out of a coal-bin," said Natalie.
"'What's the use!' she says, looking round at herself. 'The job is too
big to tackle. If I was only a black cat it wouldn't show!'"
"You could walk right on as Liz, the girl bandit of the Rockies," said
Garth.
"Don't you talk!" she retorted. "You look as if Liz had missed her cue,
and you'd been through the sawmill!"
And then Garth saw a black sleeve sticking out from behind a rock in
the ravine below; and he got down to business. A little sigh of relief
escaped him at the sight of his enemies at last. He fired. The shot went
wide.
Natalie sank back in her corner, deathly pale; and with a hand over her
lips, to keep from crying out. Her part was harder than his.