A DINNER IN THE MOUNTAINS.
Pass Christian--for that was the name of the gorge--was two miles long.
About half that distance from the entrance, was a natural recess in the
mountains, comprising perhaps half an acre, which was covered with grass
and stunted oaks, and watered by a spring that gushed out from under a
huge bowlder, which had fallen into the glade from the mountains above.
Here the robber chief had decided to remain long enough to send a
message to Mr. Winters. The horses had been unsaddled, and were cropping
the grass, and the Rancheros were stretched out under the shade of the
trees--all except two of their number, one of whom, having lighted a
fire, was engaged in cooking the dinner, and the other was standing near
the entrance to the glade, leaning on his rifle, and keeping a close
watch over the prisoners. Frank and his two friends were reposing on
their blankets near the spring, and when Arthur rode up, they greeted
him with a broad grin.
"Well, Colonel," said Frank, "you come near going back to India by a
short route, didn't you?"
"Did you ever travel on horseback in such frightful places as this,
during your wanderings in Europe?" asked Johnny.
Arthur had, by this time, somewhat recovered from his fright, though his
face was still very pale, and he drew a long breath every now and then,
when he thought of the dangers he had passed through.
"No," he replied, to Johnny's question. "I never traveled much among the
mountains. It always makes my head dizzy, to look down from a height."
"How, then, did you stand it," said Archie, with a sly wink at his
companions, "when you were perched upon the 'very top of the middle
mast' of your ship, looking out for whales?"
"Eh?" exclaimed Arthur. "Why--I--you know"--
Arthur was cornered. He did not know how to answer this question, so he
kneeled down by the spring, and took a drink, in order to gain time to
reflect. "I was obliged to stand it," said he, at length, looking up at
his companions. "I couldn't help myself. I say, boys," he added,
desiring to turn the conversation into another channel, "you've got us
into a nice scrape by your cowardice. If you had followed me, those
fellows would have been the prisoners now."
At this moment the robber chief approached the group, holding in his
hand a sheet of soiled paper and a lead pencil. "Take these," said he,
handing the articles to Frank, "and write to your uncle, telling him how
matters stand. Say to him that you and your friends are prisoners, that
I am going to take you where no one will ever think of looking for you,
and that when I am paid eighty thousand dollars in gold, I will set you
at liberty, and not before. Tell him, further, that I shall send this
note to him by one of my men; and that if he does not return in safety
by sunrise to-morrow morning, I will make scare-crows of you."
Frank picked up his saddle-bags, which he used as a desk, and, after
borrowing the robber's bowie-knife to sharpen his pencil, he began the
letter, and wrote down what Pierre had dictated, using as nearly as
possible the chief's own words.
"That's all right," said the latter, when his prisoner had read the
letter aloud.
"Now," said Frank, "may I not add a postscript, telling Uncle James that
we are well and hearty, and that we have been kindly treated, and so
on."
"Certainly; only be careful that you do not advise him to capture my
messenger."
Frank again picked up his pencil, and wrote as follows:
"The above was written by Pierre's command, and I have his
permission to say a word for ourselves. You need not pay out any
money for Archie and me; and I know that if I was allowed an
opportunity to talk to Johnny, he would send the same message to
his father. We are now in Pass Christian--a difficult place to
escape from, but we intend to make the attempt this very night.
Detain Pierre's messenger, by all means; then send Dick and Bob
with a party of men up here by daylight, and they can capture
every one of these villains."
That was what Frank added to the letter, but, when Pierre ordered him to
read it, he made up a postscript as he went along; for he knew that if
the chief were made acquainted with the real contents of the note, he
would not send it. The Ranchero did not know one letter from another,
and he was obliged to rely entirely upon Frank, who read:
"We're all hunky-dory thus far. Pierre don't seem to be so bad a fellow,
after all; in fact, he's a brick. He treats us like gentlemen; but, of
course, we'd rather be at home, so please send on the money for Archie
and me, and see that Mr. Harris and Mr. Vane do the same for Johnny and
Arthur."
"You're sure, now," said Pierre, as Frank handed him the letter, after
addressing it to Mr. Winters, "that you haven't told your uncle where we
are, or advised him to try to rescue you?"
"There's the note," replied the prisoner, "and if you think I have been
trying to deceive you, read it yourself."
"I guess it's all right," said the chief. "At any rate, I'll run the
risk. I have treated you like gentlemen, and if you want me to continue
to do so, you must behave yourselves, and not try to play any tricks
upon me. Now, mind what I say. If any of you hear the others talking of
escape, and don't tell me of it, I'll pitch every one of you into that
gully."
Having given utterance to this threat, and emphasized it by scowling
savagely at his prisoners, Pierre turned on his heel and walked away.
By this time, dinner was ready, and the boys were invited to sit down
and help themselves. The principal dish was dried meat, but there were
luxuries in the shape of sandwiches, cakes, crackers, and tea and
coffee, which the cook had found in the pack-saddle, and which he did
not hesitate to appropriate. The table was the ground under one of the
trees, and the grass did duty both as table-cloth and dishes.
"Now, boys," said the chief, "here's a dinner fit for a king. Pitch in,
and don't stand upon ceremony."
"I don't think you will find us at all bashful," said Archie, dryly,
"seeing that the most of this grub belongs to us."
As the robbers and their prisoners were hungry after their long ride,
they fell to work in earnest. Archie sat on his knees in the midst of
the group, and, while his teeth were busy upon a sandwich, his eyes
wandered from one to another of the Rancheros, and finally rested upon
Mr. Mercedes, whose actions instantly riveted his attention. It had
evidently been a long time since the robbers had sat down to a
respectable dinner, and they all seemed determined to make the most of
it--especially Antoine, who devoted his attention entirely to the
eatables that had been found in the pack-saddle. He lay stretched out at
full length on the ground, one hand being occupied in supporting his
head, and the other in transferring the sandwiches from the table to his
capacious mouth. Two of the sandwiches would have made a good meal for
an ordinary man, unless he was very hungry; but they did not go far
toward satisfying the appetite of Mr. Mercedes, for, during the short
time that Archie sat looking at him, he put no less than half a dozen
out of sight, and seemed to have room for plenty more. Archie began to
be alarmed. By the time he could finish one sandwich, Antoine would have
swallowed every one on the table, and there would be nothing left but
the dried meat.
"Will the small gentleman from Maine be kind enough to pass the
plum-pudding--I mean the one that's got the most raisins in it?" said
Johnny, who was inclined to be facetious.
"See here, fellows!" exclaimed Archie, and the earnest expression of his
countenance arrested the laughing at once. "This is no time for joking.
The rule of this boarding-house seems to be, Look out for number one. I
intend to do it; and, if you want to get any thing to eat, you had
better follow my example."
So saying, he caught up three or four sandwiches, and half a dozen
cakes, and started toward the spring, where he sat down to finish his
dinner. The other boys comprehended this piece of strategy, and, in less
time than it takes to tell it, the table was cleared of every thing
except the dried meat. Mr. Mercedes uttered an angry growl, and gazed
after Johnny, who had snatched the last sandwich almost out of his hand,
and then whipped out his knife, and turned his attention to the meat.
When the robbers had finished their dinner, Pierre held a whispered
consultation with one of his men, who, after placing Frank's letter
carefully away in the crown of his sombrero, mounted his horse, and rode
down the pass. The others, with the exception of a solitary sentinel,
sought their blankets, and the boys were left to themselves.
"Now," said Johnny, in a whisper, addressing himself to Frank, "tell us
what you wrote in that postscript. You surely did not ask your uncle to
send any money for you and Archie?"
"Of course not!" replied Frank. "I, for one, am not worth twenty
thousand dollars; and I would rather stay here until I am gray-headed,
and live on nothing but dried meat all the while, than ask Uncle James
to give twenty cents for me."
"That's the talk," said Johnny, approvingly, while Archie raised himself
on his elbow, and patted his cousin on the back. Frank then repeated
what he had written in the postscript, as nearly as he could recollect
it, and it was heartily indorsed by all the boys, even including Arthur
Vane, who said:
"I am glad to see that you are recovering your courage, Frank. If you
had all showed a little pluck, when Pierre attacked us this morning, we
should not have been in this predicament."
"We'll not argue that point now," said Archie. "Let's talk about our
plans for escape. By the way, what sort of fellows do you suppose Pierre
takes us for, if he imagines that he can frighten us into carrying tales
about one another?"
"I'd like to know, too," said Arthur, sitting up on his blanket, and
looking very indignant. "I wonder if he is foolish enough to believe
that one of us would tell him, if he heard the others talking of escape!
If I thought there was one in this party mean enough to do that, I
would never speak to him again."
"Now, don't you be alarmed," said Johnny. "We've been through too much
to go back on each other. But how shall we get away? that's the
question."
"Let us rush up and knock them down, and pitch them over into the
gully," said Arthur. "Follow me; I'll get you out of this scrape."
"We couldn't gain any thing by a fight," said Frank. "Four boys are no
match for five grown men."
"I'd give Sleepy Sam if I could only see Dick and Bob poke their noses
over some of these rocks around here," said Archie. "They will be after
us, as soon as they find out that we are captured; and when they get
their eyes on these 'Greasers,' as they call them, there'll be fun."
"But we don't want to wait for them," said Frank. "We must escape
to-night, if possible. We can find our way home from here; but, if we
stay with these villains two or three days longer, they will have taken
us so far into the mountains, that we never can get out. I propose that
we wait until dark, and see what arrangements they intend to make for
the night, before we determine upon our plans. If they allow us to
remain unbound, and leave only one sentinel to guard us, we'll see what
can be done. In the meantime, I move that we all take a nap."
The prisoners settled themselves comfortably on their blankets, and, in
a few moments, three of them were sleeping soundly, all unconscious of
the fact that their wide-awake companion was impatiently awaiting an
opportunity to repeat to the robber chief every word of their recent
conversation.
"Pierre said, that if any of us heard the others talking of escape, and
didn't tell him of it, he would pitch us over that precipice," muttered
Arthur. "He looked straight at me when he said it; so I shall take him
at his word, and put him on his guard against these fellows. I'll not go
back on them--O, no! Johnny Harris didn't call me a coward, did he? And
that little spindle-shanked Yankee, and his cousin, didn't insult me, by
sending me my hat and gun, and the skin of that wolf, and by telling
every body in the settlement that I was frightened out of my senses,
without seeing any thing to be frightened at, did they? I'd like to
catch that Archie Winters by himself. He's little, and I am sure that I
could whip him. I'll pay them all for what they have done to me, and
before I get through with them, they will learn, that it is always best
to treat a gentleman with respect."
As Arthur said this, he looked contemptuously at his slumbering
companions, and then turned his back to them, and went to sleep.