IN THE WILDERNESS
Each day the four girls rode along various trails until, in the
judgment of Jeb, they were practiced enough to take a longer ride in
the mountains.
Polly had been urging Jeb to give a favorable opinion on their ability
to stand a prolonged ride to the Flat Tops, but he was careful and
practical and persisted in making them try a greater distance daily to
finally harden them to a rough trail.
Then Jeb said he reckoned the girls could start for a real outing.
Immediately, they planned where to go and what to see.
Polly outlined a trip that might take a whole day, so they would have
to take food and kit for cooking purposes. Each girl would ride her
favorite horse or burro and the extra burro, Choko, could carry the
outfit.
Of course, Polly decided to ride Noddy, as the burro was well
acquainted with her mistress's ways and the mountains. Eleanor
preferred a burro also, because, as she said comically, "if one falls
from a burro's back it is not far to Mother Earth." The two other girls
selected horses, sure-footed and trained for climbing.
On the morning chosen for the trip, Mrs. Brewster and Sary were up at
day-break preparing the kit and packing the panniers. At breakfast,
four eager girls, with wide sombreros on their heads, heavy
mountain-shoes and leather puttees covering feet and limbs, talked of
the great adventures they were about to meet with.
Sam Brewster laughed at their wild imaginings and said: "Ah shouldn't
wonder but what you-all will find a second 'Aladdin's Lamp' hiding
place. Just think of the fun to be had by rubbing the Lamp and wishing
for things!"
Then Jeb brought the mounts from the barn and Sary helped him strap the
panniers and kit to Choko. Just as they were ready to start, Sary flew
out with a paper package carefully held.
"Polly, Ah made a s'prise fer you-all, but don't let Choko roll in it
er run away, er my work will go fer nuthin'."
"Don't worry about Choko, Sary, he's too trustworthy to serve us such a
trick," bragged Polly, petting the burro on the head.
"Wall, then, see thet it hain't shooken up too much er gittin' mashed
under the ax," were the parting words from Sary, as she shifted the
short ax, which is an important item in every outfit.
It was a wonderful summer day--the kind that makes one feel happy in
mere living, and the anticipation of wonders to come added a zest to
the outing for the girls.
They left the trail leading from Pebbly Pit and picked up the rough
mountain trail at the Forks, Barbara and Eleanor exclaiming constantly
at the gorgeous wild flowers growing wherever the roots could find
lodgment.
"I never saw such columbines! Four times the size of ours in the East,"
cried Eleanor.
"And those marvelous orange-colored blossoms! They look like a rare
exotic, with their huge clusters and flaunting colors!" exclaimed
Barbara.
"If you girls think these are so beautiful, just wait till we reach the
'bottoms'--there you will see size and color enough to make you wonder
if you accidentally struck Paradise," said Anne.
"And our ferns and mosses, girls! You never saw such specimen,
elsewhere," added Polly, churking to Choko to hurry on.
"Polly, why did Jeb over-load that poor little burro?" now asked
Barbara, having lost her momentary interest in flora.
"Choko isn't over-loaded at all. Of course it looks as if he had a
great load to carry, but pans and woolen blankets look more than they
weigh, you see. The heaviest thing he carries is my ax, I reckon."
"Ax! What do you want of an ax?" wondered Barbara.
"Can't tell how cold it may be up on the mountain-top, so I brought the
sheath-knife, ax, rifle, and other things in case we get the tail-end
of a blizzard."
"And the blankets in case we get lost and need to camp out all night,"
added Anne, teasingly, seeing the city girls' fears.
"You can't really mean it, Anne! Surely we won't lose our way, and as
for a blizzard! Well, it is July," laughed Barbara.
"It wouldn't be the first time we ran into a blizzard in July,"
commented Polly.
"But how is it possible, girl alive!" cried Barbara.
"Possible enough on the Flat Tops. The merest rag of a cloud finds an
excuse to carry snow from the peaks. The wonder will be if we come away
without seeing snow fall."
"Oh, Polly, how thrilling!" exclaimed Eleanor.
"Once when father and I rode over this same trail to find a trapper who
had pelts for sale, we got caught in a blizzard. We got the pelts but
we also got the storm, and lucky for us that we had the pelts first.
"I never had experienced a real mountain storm, but father had, so he
showed me what to do. I think I would know now just what to do in case
of another surprise."
"Bu-r-r-r! Let's hope you won't have to practice on us," laughed
Eleanor, pretending to shiver.
"Stop your nonsense, Nolla! I don't want to think of such dreadful
things," cried Barbara.
"And I want to hear about how the pelts saved her life," added Anne.
"It's real interesting, Bob, so let me tell them," asked Polly, and
receiving no unfavorable word or look, she proceeded:
"It was the Fourth of July, and of course no one would start on a ride
wearing a fur-lined coat, so father and I had on our summer clothes.
"After riding along Top Notch Trail for a time, we met the trapper and
bargained for the furs, then started back by a new trail he told us of.
It led past Pagoda Peak, and just as we got to the base of the peak and
discovered the down-trail, the blizzard came swooping upon us without
warning.
"Father and I tried to keep going, but the gale traveled too fast and
blew in whirling eddies, so we got the pelts out of the bundle, and
wrapped ourselves in the largest ones. The smaller ones we used for our
feet. Father found two great bear-skins and covered the horse--that
acted as a shield on one side from the storm--the other horses stood in
front and back of us, making three sides protected.
"Father then made me creep with him to the refuge made by the three
horses and there we remained. The horses stood perfectly still
throughout the blizzard, which lasted only an hour at most, and the
steam they exuded from their bodies kept us quite warm as we crouched
under them.
"When the storm blew over, we dug a way out and removed the horse
blankets and fur pelts from the horses. Then we rolled our own
coverings into the bundle and started on down-trail. But the floods of
melting snow caused wash-outs and it was risky going. When we reached
the first Park never a sign of snow was there, and the only result of
that mountain blizzard was an added flood of water pouring down the
gulleys to the bottoms and valley."
"Oh, Polly, what an interesting book your adventures would make!"
exclaimed Eleanor.
"I'd like to write it down as you tell it, Polly, and we can surely
find a publisher for it," added Anne, eagerly.
"Really! Oh, how I'd love to tell such a story!" said Polly, all
enthusiasm.
"We'll try it as soon as we get back to-night!" promised Anne.
The going was easy, so Polly told of other adventures: of the trip to
Buffalo Park when a bear chased them; of her meeting with Old
Montresor, the gold-seeker of Grizzly Slide and his pitiful story; of
the nights spent out on the mountains, watching beside a dying
camp-fire, or listening to the call of the moose to his mate on a
moonlit night; of the wonderful sport fishing in trout-filled streams,
or seeking gorgeous flora and strange fauna on the peaks, and again
photographing wild beasts and birds that never showed a fear of her as
she traversed their domains. The three girls were spell-bound at her
vivid descriptions and Anne sighed with desire to put it all down on
paper for future publication.
"Montresor's Mine is in this mountain that I want to show you to-day.
He was a dear old man who lived a solitary life in a cabin near Buffalo
Park. Patsy, his dog, was his only companion. But he died and left me
his mine--that we never found again," sighed Polly.
"Oh, Polly! Tell us the story!" chorused the girls.
Polly laughed: "It isn't a story, 'cause there never was a climax as
real stories have to have, you know. But I'll tell you how I met Mr.
Montresor. I was out with Noddy, one day, and we traveled farther than
usual.
"In leaving a bad trail to take a good one, I met the gray-haired man
slowly riding up. An Irish terrier ran back of his horse, sniffing,
sniffing, and whining as if distracted. I was so surprised at the dog's
actions that I stopped to ask the man what ailed him.
"'Ah, my child, Patsy is seeking for my lost mine!'
"'Your lost mine!' I gasped, for I had never heard of him or his mine,
although folks said there was a rich vein of gold somewhere in the
mountain.[Footnote: This is a true incident.] "'Yes, child, I am the
unfortunate Montresor. Haven't you heard of my great loss?'
"I thought the poor man was foolish, so I humored him by saying, 'No,
sir, I never did, Won't you tell me about it?'
"Then he told me the story. He had been an old prospector in the
Klondike, but not a successful one, as he was too honest. On his
return, from Alaska, he had to stop in Denver and work for his fare
back to the East where he came from. Being a splendid engineer as well
as a mineralogist, he found a place with a crew of mining engineers
about to inspect Pagoda Peak section and Lost Lake district. He came
with them.
"After he had been in these mountains for a time, he was so certain of
finding gold that he remained when the rest of the crew went back to
Denver. After two years of patient digging and prospecting he took a
new trail that was later found to be Red Man's Trail, seldom traveled,
as it was such dangerous and hard going.
"He was climbing along an awful place where the ledge hung over a
chasm, when he spied a small yellow nugget on the ground. He examined
it and found it to be fine red-gold. Upon looking about, he found a few
more, but there seemed to be no sign of gold in the ledge or in the
rocks about him. Still he staked out a claim on the spot in hopes of
later finding gold hidden in the ground.
"He hobbled his horse and made a good circuit of the place and then
discovered that the opposite ledge of the abyss towered up hundreds of
feet higher than the one he was on. That gave him an idea.
"He rode the horse carefully along his ledge until he reached a slope
where both ledges met an up-grade of mountain-side. Leaving the lower
ledge and back-trailing on the higher one, he stopped opposite the
place where he had found the nuggets. He dismounted, sought carefully
about, and to his joy found more nuggets exactly like the ones picked
up on the opposite lower side.
"He took the pick from the saddle and worked at the wall facing him,
and discovered a rich lode running straight in through the solid rock.
He was so excited that he started off without staking a claim or
otherwise marking the place. But he soon remembered and went back. He
made out a correct claim and fastened it to a tree, then piled up the
necessary heaps of stone with his stakes in the middle. Doing all he
could think of to legally hold the right to mine the ore, he started
back along the dangerous ledge. It was so dark by this time, that he
could not find the way he came, and knowing it was almost impassable,
he permitted the horse to choose a way out by going up the
mountain-side, and so he finally reached the summit. Here he camped for
the night and early in the morning he kept on till he struck Top Notch
Trail, but so circuitous had been the route that he never could
describe the pathway his horse took.
"Unfortunately, he had left Patsy home that day to guard supplies in
the cabin, and he did not return there at once, thinking it wiser to
first file his claims in Oak Creek. The clerk asked for section-corners
or distances from the nearest surveyor's blaze, but Montresor had not
found any.
"It was a question whether the claim would be legal, but the worried
old man refused to give full details of the spot, as he feared the
claim would be jumped, and he purposed going back again to make a
survey for himself.
"On his way to the cabin for Patsy, a dreadful storm came over the
mountains and lasted for three days. Snow, hail and wind blew down the
sides until it seemed as if winter had come in full blast. Of course,
no one would attempt climbing in that storm and Montresor had to remain
in his cabin for the blizzard to pass.
"When he was able to travel again, he took Patsy to help find the
place, but the rain had washed away all scent for the dog. After a
tortuous climb on the trail, made ten-fold worse by the down timber and
wash-outs, Montresor discovered land-marks and knew he was on the right
pathway.
"However, he could see no ravine or ledges, and after hunting day after
day, without locating a spot that resembled his claim, he well-nigh
caved in. There was no gully, no ledge, no wall of rock with
fresh-picked vein of gold showing in its face! In fact, so much rock
and earth and trees had been washed down from Top Notch Trail during
the great storm that the whole area he had previously covered had
changed form and appearances.
"The poor man then tried to find his claim by following Top Notch Trail
and coming down from the summit, but he was taken ill and laid up in
his cabin for a long time.
"I rode up to see him whenever I could, and father wanted him to have
some one stay with him, but the old man would not. Patsy was his only
nurse. The ranchers laughed and said he was luny over gold, and that he
never had seen any. Still there was the ore to cause wonderment, until
a miner declared it was some the old man had left in his kit from
Klondike. The report that he was trying to sell a claim that never
existed, made folks shun him even when they heard he was sick.
"Cold weather was coming on and mother would not let me risk the long
ride to his cabin so often, but one warm Saturday I packed supplies and
rode Noddy up there. I found the poor man unconscious. Patsy stood by
the bunk licking the limp hand. I looked about but no food or drink
could I see. I lifted his gray head and tried to make him sip water
from my bottle, but he merely opened his eyes and smiled.
"He tried to take something from under his head and I helped him. I
found a scrawl saying, 'Look on Patsy's collar.'
"He tried to mumble and I stooped low but he relaxed suddenly and
seemed to shrink. I felt his heart but it was still. I tried his eyes
and they were sightless. Patsy sent up a heartrending wail and crawled
over behind his master's gun and knapsack, so I knew my old friend was
dead.
"I removed the paper from Patsy's collar and saw my name on it. Upon
opening it, I found the dear man had left me all his interests in the
claim filed at Oak Creek offices. I tried to coax Patsy to come with
me, but he would not desert his master. Then I placed water in a dish
and gave the animal my food, but he would not eat or drink.
"I hurried home to tell father and he rode back that same evening, to
arrange for the old man's burial. Jeb and John went with him, and the
coroner from Oak Creek, who is a friend of ours.
"When they reached the cabin they found faithful Patsy stretched across
his master's body dead also. So both old comrades were buried together,
although the minister from over the mountain said it was a sin to place
both in one grave. When John told me, I said I was glad the two could
travel the same trail together, for Old Man Montresor had found Patsy
his best friend for ten years.
"We found no clew to his eastern friends, and when the last will and
testament of Ralph Montresor was filed at Oak Creek, every one laughed
at us for believing the fairy-tale of a crazy man. But I never believed
he was crazy, and I do believe he once discovered that gold-mine!"
"Oh, Polly!" wept Anne and Eleanor, deeply affected by the tale, but
Barbara plaintively remarked, "Do talk of something cheerful!"
"All right, Bob, I'll tell you something that will cheer your woeful
heart!" jeered Eleanor, impatiently. "I'm going to take that Red Man's
up-trail, soon, and rediscover the mine, then I'll give it to Polly for
a present for her loyalty to Old Montresor!"
"Don't be silly! If you ever did find a gold-mine you'd hold on to it,
fast enough!" retorted Barbara.
Eleanor winked at Polly and Polly smiled gratefully at her, but Anne
broached another subject to spare the sisters an argument.
The horses had been jogging along a trail that now turned off to what
looked like a wide plain.
"Here's the bridge I've been heading for," said Polly. "From here on,
it's clear going to Lone Pine Blaze."
"Bridge! Do you call this a bridge," laughed Eleanor.
"It's a forest ranger's bridge. They build these over chasms and
streams so horses and men can quickly reach any part of the forest when
there is a fire. If they had to ford swift streams, or go round about,
much time would be lost."
The bridge in question was made of loose tree-trunks thrown across the
river and pegged down on either side where the ends rested upon the
steep banks.
After crossing the log-bridge, Polly led the way towards what seemed to
be a veritable wilderness of forest. Giant pines thrust their green
tops far above trees that would have been considered landmarks in the
East, but were deemed quite ordinary in the West. Next in height to the
commonly-sized pines came gigantic oaks and then the still shorter
aspens and lodge-pole pine.
"You never intend breaking through that tangle of trees, I hope,
Polly!" cried Barbara, who had never seen such a bewildering growth of
forest in her life.
"No, not this time! I'm making for that pine that you can see way above
all of the others. That is Lone Pine Blaze, because it bears the blaze
that shows the way to the up-trail!"
Noddy must have been a frequent traveler to this tree for she knew
exactly the way to go and when she came opposite the pine that bore the
blaze, she stopped of her own accord.
"Now, wasn't that cute?" cried Eleanor, riding her burro directly
behind Noddy.
Polly jumped from her burro's back and went over to Choko. She removed
the ax from the pack and chopped a way through the slender undergrowth
which had grown up that season.
"Yes, here's the blaze as plain as day! Any of you girls want to read
it for me?" laughed Polly.
The three curious girls jumped from their mounts and pushed a way over
to the tree where they saw a queer mark made deep in the tree where the
bark could not over-grow it.
"What does it say, Poll!" asked Eleanor.
"It means for us to turn to the left and follow the trail upwards!"
said Polly, pointing to the signs.
"I should think the ranchers would put up sign-posts to guide
travelers!" said Barbara.
"How long do you suppose a post would last in a mild little wind-storm
that uproots trees and tosses them about like wisps of hay?" laughed
Polly.
"Oh, Polly! You surely are making fun of us!" said Eleanor, doubtfully.
"No, indeed, she is not! In the three months' time I was at the Cobb
School, I saw some terrific gales sweep over the country!" added Anne.
But sign-posts and wind-storms were forgotten for the time when the
horses came out on a strange road they had to travel. The wilderness of
pine forest had been left on the right after leaving Lone Pine, and the
trail led down gradually to a bottomland of brilliant green herbage.
Directly over this emerald valley ran a corduroy roadway.
"There must have been a brook under this at one time!" stated Eleanor,
finding the logs partly embedded in caked mud.
"No, this too, is built by our forest-rangers who help the timber jacks
build these roads. You see, while frost holds good the heaviest tree
trunks can be readily moved over icy swamp bottoms, but in the spring,
when thaw and freshets begin, the bottoms are more like a marsh, or
shallow lake, than anything else I know of. Then these corduroy roads
are a make-shift for hard ground," explained Polly, while Noddy started
to clip-clop over the firmly-set logs.
"Why don't the men wait for the next frost?" asked Barbara.
"Hoh! Don't you know the trees would be worthless if they were left for
a season? Decay and mold or worms would destroy the finest wood.
Besides, these logs, or poles, laid side by side in the mud, soon get
to be as solid as a rock, for the mud, oozing up between the chinks of
the logs, dries out and leaves them baked tight in the grooves."
Having heard the way this novel roadway was made, the girls took a
lively interest in crossing it. No more questions were asked until
Polly reached the trail that led up through the forest. Then Eleanor
spoke.
"Polly, you're sure you know the road?"
"We can't go very far wrong! If we keep to the trail we are bound to
come out on the top--somewhere!" laughed Polly, giving Noddy her head
in selecting a safe footing on the rough trail.
Eleanor, eager to show how well she could ride, forced her burro past
Noddy while the latter was making a slight detour about a sage-brush.
She turned partly around to laugh at Polly, when her burro made a
sudden lunge away from the trail, and at the same time, a
diamond-backed rattlesnake struck out from its coil, reaching at least
two-thirds the full length of its body.
"Help! Save me!" screamed Eleanor, frantically, but the brave little
burro knew how to carry his rider safely out of the way of the reptile.
Polly saw the snake coil for another strike at Barbara's horse, which
had almost reached the place before Eleanor screamed. The whole
occurrence was so unexpected and sudden that Barbara had not seen the
swift flash of cinnamon-red and dark diamond-patterned rattler.
With great presence of mind, Polly instantly pulled Noddy up on a mound
of ground just above the reptile, and caught hold of a long supple
branch of wood. In another instant she was whipping the snake until it
could not tell from which direction the blows were descending--right,
left, front or back! In a moment of indecision, the snake remained
quiet and in that second Polly brought down her solid heel upon its
flat head.
The other girls screamed and turned pale for they thought Polly had
fallen from her burro upon the rattler--so quick had been her action.
But the moment the daring girl looked up and laughed at them, they also
jumped from their saddles and ran up to help.
Polly made sure the rattler was quite dead, then took a forked stick
and held it up to view. It had beautiful diamond markings of
dark-colors on cinnamon-red ground. The belly was of creamy white, and
the tail had eight rattles attached to it by means of a peculiar
fibrous ribbon. These rattles seemed to be of dry horny skin that made
the buzz-sound when shaken. The head had been so crushed open that
Polly could easily show the curious girls the poison-fangs which were
hinged to the upper jaw.
"When a rattler intends to bite, its mouth grasps the object and these
fangs drop down into the flesh, puncturing tiny holes into which the
fatal poison flows."
Polly described the action of the bite minutely, causing her hearers to
shiver with dread. Seeing the effect her words had made, she laughed,
adding, "A snake does not always bite clear! I mean, the least thing
keeps his teeth from driving straight into the flesh, so that the
poison bag cannot empty its fluid under the skin. It is often a loose
or sidewise bite, so that much of the poison never enters the wound.
That is why so many folks survive rattle-snake bites. If it went clean,
and the poison bag was emptied under the skin,--pwhew!"
Polly whistled to denote her sense of the outcome of such a bite, and
Barbara cried, "Oh, mercy, Polly! I feel so sick after hearing you,
that I want to go back to Chicago!"
Anne laughed at Barbara's fears, saying, "We may not see another
rattler all summer!"
"Anyway, Bob, you're perfectly safe while on a horse, for they can
always tell when a rattler is near and they avoid it. A rattler will
never go out of its own course to strike--only biting when one passes
too near it for its safety!" said Polly.
"Well, that's some consolation, anyway!" sighed Eleanor.
"What do you want to do with this snake, Poll?" asked Anne, as the
sisters climbed back into their saddles.
"Goodness me! What would she do with it, except to kick it over into
the bushes!" cried Barbara.
"Polly is laughing! She thinks you are crazy, Anne!" added Eleanor,
impatiently, for she was eager to proceed on the trail.
"Well, Polly, I think we will have it skinned and sent to Denver to be
made into an odd handbag for your mother!" suggested Anne.
"Oh, Anne, how splendid! I wish I could find a snake skin!" cried
Eleanor.
"Yes, Anne, I think mother will love that!" added Polly, gratefully, so
the rattler was moved carefully over to a large flat rock near the
trail, where they could readily find it on their way back.