AT BAY IN THE CANYON.
"Dodge back!" suddenly snapped Ned, as he seized hold of Jimmy and
half-pulled him along; while Harry and Jack, although they did not
understand what it was all about, made haste to tumble pellmell in the
direction the scout master was dragging the fourth chum.
A gun cracked and chips of stone flew up very close to their feet. This
was quite enough to tell the others what sort of danger menaced them.
It doubtless acted as a spur to hasten their departure from the open,
for in another moment they were to be seen huddled under a shelf of
rock, each fellow eagerly handling his rifle as though ready to give a
good account of himself.
"Was it just one man made us skip out like all that?" Jimmy wanted to
know, for he was proud, and the thought would have come back to him
many times later on, to cause heartburnings and keen regrets.
"No, there was a bunch of them there," Ned informed them. "I recognized
Ally Sloper, Coyote Smith and Lefty Louie. There was another big man
along, a regular giant, with a bushy head of hair and the look of a
terror!"
"Wow! I wonder now if that wasn't Amos's awful dad?" Jimmy exclaimed.
"But what are we going to do about it, Ned?" Harry wanted to know.
"Here we are, caught in a little rat-trap, seems like. If we start to
run out of this canyon, how do we know what they'll do? They've shot
once already and, perhaps, stand ready to give us a volley. This is a
bad job, seems to me. See what your everlasting teasing of Ned gets us
into, Jimmy."
"Well, we ain't all dead yet, are we?" the other naively wanted to
know, "and our guns ought to shoot just as straight as the ones they
handle, which I reckon now are only the kind punchers carry, and no
good at a distance. Chirk up, Harry, and listen to what Ned's goin' to
say."
Instead of speaking Ned crept cautiously forward a little ways, and
when he returned again, reported that so far as he could see the men on
the ledge had disappeared.
"But that's not saying they're gone, is it?" asked Jack.
"I'm afraid not," replied the scout master. "You see, they command the
passage from up there on that ledge. If we try and go out, they can
drop rocks down and give us a volley from their guns, while we wouldn't
be able to sight them."
"Two might stay here and keep the ledge covered while the others went
out," suggested Harry, "and play the game that way. With our rifles
we'd make things so warm for the bunch they'd hardly dare show
themselves. And after the first two got out, why, they could hold the
fort for the others. How's that, Ned?"
"Not bad," replied the one addressed, "only I'm afraid there may be
others near by. I heard some one shout just then, which I take it must
be a signal. There goes another yell from across the canyon."
"By jinks! I believe we're surrounded!" ejaculated Jimmy, and strange
as it might seem, there was something not unlike a vein of
gratification in his voice, as though the boy really felt pleased to
know they were in for another spell of action.
"We're going to have a fight, that's certain!" announced Jack, handling
his weapon with nervous fingers, in sharp contrast to Ned's steady ways.
"Well, this ought to make a pretty fair sort of a fort, I should
think," Harry remarked, as he indicated the slanting rock under which
they had crawled, and which sheltered them fairly well from any peril
that might be hovering above.
"But if they once get up above us in the canyon, and below as well,
they could pour in what is called an enfilading fire, and make it
mighty unpleasant under our rock mushroom fort," Jack explained.
"Which will be apt to happen, sooner or later, if they mean to give us
trouble," assented Ned.
"Then we'd better get a hustle on and see if we c'n side-step any,"
Jimmy was heard to remark.
"Keep watching, up and down, and shoot at any moving thing you
glimpse," Ned told them, as he started to creep further under the shelf.
"Where are you going, Ned?" Harry asked, filled with curiosity.
"To see what chance there is of our finding a safer refuge than this,"
replied the scout master. "Somehow, I seem to have a notion that
there's a sort of crevice in the canyon wall close by. If it turns out
that way and it's big enough for us to crawl in, why, we'll be better
fixed to stand that crowd off."
"Good luck to you!" Jimmy called after him.
"Don't watch what I'm doing, but keep guard in front!" were the last
words Ned sent back over his shoulder.
A minute later and Jack announced that he believed there was some one
moving up amidst some scraggy bushes growing in a spot where earth had
fallen down into the rocky cut.
"I've got half a mind to send a shot up there and rout him out," he
declared.
"Cut her loose then," Jimmy told him.
"If it doesn't do anything else," Harry observed, "you'll publish plain
warning of our intention to fight back and give as good as we take.
When they hear the crack of a rifle, perhaps, they'll make up their
minds they don't want to bother us as much as they thought they did in
the start."
So Jack pressed the trigger of his weapon, which promptly went off with
a roar, owing to the fact that at the time he was crouching in a
confined space under the shelf of rock.
"Look at that, would you?" cried Jimmy.
A man had jumped into momentary view, in the midst of the leafless
bushes, and making a wild spring, vanished back of a neighboring spur
of rock.
"He thought it was too hot out in the open," said Harry. "I wonder if
you winged him with that shot, Jack?"
"I'd like to believe I did," came the answer, as Jack worked the
mechanism of his rifle, so as to send out the useless brass shell, and
shoot another cartridge from the magazine into the firing chamber; "but
from the way he jumped, in didn't look much like he'd been struck.
Don't forget to watch the other side, too. If they get started coming
in on us, we'd be in a peck of trouble."
He had hardly spoken when a gun sounded, and they heard the splash of
the bullet mushrooming against the stone close by.
"Wow! that's getting pretty close, let me tell you!" cried Jimmy,
stooping to pick up the rough-edged, flattened circle of lead, and then
immediately dropping it with a cry: "Say, that's as hot as anything! It
burned my fingers to beat the band. And there goes another shot down
the canyon. They're meanin' business this time, boys! If one of us gets
in line with a bullet, his name will be Dennis."
In the temporary absence of the scout master Jack thought that the duty
of looking after their safety devolved on him.
"Here, creep back more, everybody!" he ordered, "and snuggled down the
best you can behind any stones you find. Make yourself as small as
anything, while that lead's singing around here."
"Wish I could find a chance to bang away back at the nervy crowd,"
grumbled Jimmy, as he sprawled out like a huge frog and listened to
several shots from as many different quarters. "What's sauce for the
goose ought to be sauce for the gander, too. It's a poor rule, I always
heard, that don't work both ways."
Try as hard as he would, however, Jimmy seemed unable to find a chance
to discharge his gun with anything like a prospect of results. The
bullets continued to flit around them, making all sorts of queer and
blood chilling noises. There were several narrow escapes, too; and once
Harry actually felt a tug at his arm that, upon investigation, showed
him a slit in the khaki material of which the sleeve of his coat was
made, proving that a passing bullet had almost drawn blood.
Several minutes had passed since this bombardment commenced, and it
showed no signs of slackening. If it continued much longer there was a
chance that one of the scouts might stop a bullet, and the prospect did
not seem very pleasant, to say the least.
While this was going on, and all hands were grumbling, because they
found so little use for their trusty rifles, Jack heard some one gently
calling his name.
"Hello! is that you, Ned?" he asked joyfully, for he felt sure that the
return of the scout master would mean a new rift in the clouds.
"Yes, tell the other boys to back in here after you!" the other scout
went on to say.
"Yes, it's here, but hurry and get started!" Ned continued, from the
darker depths beyond.
Of course, when the others heard that there was an opportunity to creep
out of the fire zone they lost no time in making a move. Jimmy was
declaring at the same time that it certainly gave him a pain to be
compelled to "take water" in that way, and without having inflicted any
material damage that they knew of on the enemy.
"If we'd only knocked half a dozen of the skunks off their pins, it
wouldn't be so bad," he lamented; "but I ain't had any chance. It ain't
fair, that's what; and me just crazy to try my Marlin on that lot of
mutts. But wait, that's all; my time's agoin' to come yet, and then,
look out, that's what!"
When they had backed some ten feet or more they came to the wall of the
canyon. Ned was waiting to show them where he had found a fissure into
which he must undoubtedly have crawled some little ways, seeking to
find out what sort of a haven of refuge it would turn out to be.
"I struck a match," he told his comrades, as they pushed into the split
in the wall, "and as near as I could make out, there's a little cave
right here. We'll take possession and hold the fort against a hundred
enemies."
"Hurrah! that's right, we will!" shrilled the irrepressible Jimmy,
always quick to seize upon any excuse for giving tongue.
Already they seemed to have passed beyond the reach of the flying
bullets, although, of course, the ambitious rustlers did not know that
and were still banging away right merrily.
"If only they'd keep that up until they'd fired away every scrap of
their ammunition, wouldn't it be just fine," Harry suggested, "then we
could go out and do a little holding-up on our own hook."
Ned lighted another match, so that all of them might see what manner of
refuge had been found in this emergency. It turned out to be a
fair-sized cavity, nothing unusual, but capable of answering their
needs.
There was, of course, no way of blocking the entrance, but with four
guns to stand guard there did not seem to be much reason to fear that
the enemy could ever rush their fortress.
"But it makes me clear mad to think that while we're cooped up here,
like rats in a trap, that crowd can hunt around for our ponies and get
away with the lot," Jack complained.
At that Jimmy raised a row.
"And that'd be the last I'd see of my calico broncho, just when I was
growing attached to him, too!" he bleated.
"But from what you told us," Jack remarked, bitingly, "there was a time
when you had to throw your arms around his neck in order to become
_attached_ to him. But never mind, Jimmy, the rustler that gets your
Spot will be sorry for it, if I'm any judge of tricky horses. It may be
the best thing that ever happened to you. Some times blessings come in
disguise; and, if the pony's stolen, it may save you from getting a
broken collarbone."
The shooting presently ceased. Whether the rustlers considered that
they had accomplished the end they had in view and utterly demoralized
the enemy; or, discovered the change of base on the part of the four
scouts, no one was able to more than guess.
"Seems to me I can hear somebody talking close by," Jack remarked, when
some time had passed without any renewal of the bombardment.
"Get ready to repel boarders, then!" urged Harry, "for they must have
discovered where we've crawled. Do you think they'll try to carry the
fort by assault, Ned?"
"I don't believe so, if they're the kind of men I take them to be,"
replied the scout master. "It would take more than a dozen desperate
men to get in here past the hot fire we'd start playing on them, and I
reckon there isn't that many in the bunch. No, if they do anything at
all, look out for some trick."
"But they can't drop down on us, because there's only one entrance and
we've got that covered," Jack asserted. "It's dark enough in here, but
we could see if anybody came against that line of light, and pepper him
in a jiffy. I don't see what way they could fool us, Ned."
"I hope I'm mistaken, that's all," the other returned, but his
vigilance did not relax a particle, nor was he at all sanguine as to
the rustlers going away and leaving them to make their escape as they
pleased.
The minutes dragged along. Every little while Jimmy would declare that
he caught those low voices again, or it might be a rustling sound that
puzzled him. Some of the other scouts admitted that they heard
something of the same sort, though unable to explain what it might mean.
These things kept them constantly on the alert. Their nerves were held
up at a high tension all the while they crouched there, keeping
continual watch and ward.
Jimmy had several times grumbled that it seemed like a shame, that four
able-bodied scouts should be bottled up in this silly way, and begged
Ned to think up a plan that would change the situation around, giving
them a chance to play the aggressor.
He was about starting in for the third time to vent his disgust, when
the others heard him begin to sniff.
"What's the matter, Jimmy; think you smell dinner cooking?" jeered Jack.
"No, I don't, more's the pity; but I did get a whiff of the most
disagreeable smoke that ever was, or could be. There she comes again,
with the breeze sendin' the same right into this little snuggery,
hot-footed. Oh! my, don't that take the cake, though? Whatever can they
be burnin' and how does it happen to get in here?"
"It's the trick I told you they'd be playing on us, Jimmy," said Ned,
seriously. "That's what they call the stink weed, and the smoke'll
drive us out of here yet."