Once astride the horse again, Helen had to congratulate herself upon not
being so crippled as she had imagined. Indeed, Bo made all the audible
complaints.
Both girls had long water-proof coats, brand-new, and of which they were
considerably proud. New clothes had not been a common event in their
lives.
“Reckon I'll have to slit these,” Dale had said, whipping out a huge
knife.
“What for?” had been Bo's feeble protest.
“They wasn't made for ridin'. An' you'll get wet enough even if I do cut
them. An' if I don't, you'll get soaked.”
“Go ahead,” had been Helen's reluctant permission.
So their long new coats were slit half-way up the back. The exigency of
the case was manifest to Helen, when she saw how they came down over the
cantles of the saddles and to their boot-tops.
The morning was gray and cold. A fine, misty rain fell and the trees
dripped steadily. Helen was surprised to see the open country again and
that apparently they were to leave the forest behind for a while. The
country was wide and flat on the right, and to the left it rolled and
heaved along a black, scalloped timber-line. Above this bordering of
the forest low, drifting clouds obscured the mountains. The wind was at
Helen's back and seemed to be growing stronger. Dale and Roy were ahead,
traveling at a good trot, with the pack-animals bunched before them.
Helen and Bo had enough to do to keep up.
The first hour's ride brought little change in weather or scenery, but
it gave Helen an inkling of what she must endure if they kept that up
all day. She began to welcome the places where the horses walked, but
she disliked the levels. As for the descents, she hated those. Ranger
would not go down slowly and the shake-up she received was unpleasant.
Moreover, the spirited black horse insisted on jumping the ditches and
washes. He sailed over them like a bird. Helen could not acquire the
knack of sitting the saddle properly, and so, not only was her person
bruised on these occasions, but her feelings were hurt. Helen had
never before been conscious of vanity. Still, she had never rejoiced
in looking at a disadvantage, and her exhibitions here must have been
frightful. Bo always would forge to the front, and she seldom looked
back, for which Helen was grateful.
Before long they struck into a broad, muddy belt, full of innumerable
small hoof tracks. This, then, was the sheep trail Roy had advised
following. They rode on it for three or four miles, and at length,
coming to a gray-green valley, they saw a huge flock of sheep. Soon the
air was full of bleats and baas as well as the odor of sheep, and a
low, soft roar of pattering hoofs. The flock held a compact formation,
covering several acres, and grazed along rapidly. There were three
herders on horses and several pack-burros. Dale engaged one of the
Mexicans in conversation, and passed something to him, then pointed
northward and down along the trail. The Mexican grinned from ear to ear,
and Helen caught the quick “SI, SENOR! GRACIAS, SENOR!” It was a pretty
sight, that flock of sheep, as it rolled along like a rounded woolly
stream of grays and browns and here and there a black. They were keeping
to a trail over the flats. Dale headed into this trail and, if anything,
trotted a little faster.
Presently the clouds lifted and broke, showing blue sky and one streak
of sunshine. But the augury was without warrant. The wind increased. A
huge black pall bore down from the mountains and it brought rain that
could be seen falling in sheets from above and approaching like a
swiftly moving wall. Soon it enveloped the fugitives.
With head bowed, Helen rode along for what seemed ages in a cold, gray
rain that blew almost on a level. Finally the heavy downpour passed,
leaving a fine mist. The clouds scurried low and dark, hiding the
mountains altogether and making the gray, wet plain a dreary sight.
Helen's feet and knees were as wet as if she had waded in water. And
they were cold. Her gloves, too, had not been intended for rain, and
they were wet through. The cold bit at her fingers so that she had to
beat her hands together. Ranger misunderstood this to mean that he was
to trot faster, which event was worse for Helen than freezing.
She saw another black, scudding mass of clouds bearing down with its
trailing sheets of rain, and this one appeared streaked with white.
Snow! The wind was now piercingly cold. Helen's body kept warm, but
her extremities and ears began to suffer exceedingly. She gazed ahead
grimly. There was no help; she had to go on. Dale and Roy were hunched
down in their saddles, probably wet through, for they wore no rain-proof
coats. Bo kept close behind them, and plain it was that she felt the
cold.
This second storm was not so bad as the first, because there was less
rain. Still, the icy keenness of the wind bit into the marrow. It lasted
for an hour, during which the horses trotted on, trotted on. Again the
gray torrent roared away, the fine mist blew, the clouds lifted and
separated, and, closing again, darkened for another onslaught. This one
brought sleet. The driving pellets stung Helen's neck and cheeks, and
for a while they fell so thick and so hard upon her back that she was
afraid she could not hold up under them. The bare places on the ground
showed a sparkling coverlet of marbles of ice.
Thus, storm after storm rolled over Helen's head. Her feet grew numb
and ceased to hurt. But her fingers, because of her ceaseless efforts
to keep up the circulation, retained the stinging pain. And now the wind
pierced right through her. She marveled at her endurance, and there were
many times that she believed she could not ride farther. Yet she kept
on. All the winters she had ever lived had not brought such a day as
this. Hard and cold, wet and windy, at an increasing elevation--that was
the explanation. The air did not have sufficient oxygen for her blood.
Still, during all those interminable hours, Helen watched where she was
traveling, and if she ever returned over that trail she would recognize
it. The afternoon appeared far advanced when Dale and Roy led down into
an immense basin where a reedy lake spread over the flats. They rode
along its margin, splashing up to the knees of the horses. Cranes and
herons flew on with lumbering motion; flocks of ducks winged swift
flight from one side to the other. Beyond this depression the land
sloped rather abruptly; outcroppings of rock circled along the edge of
the highest ground, and again a dark fringe of trees appeared.
How many miles! wondered Helen. They seemed as many and as long as
the hours. But at last, just as another hard rain came, the pines
were reached. They proved to be widely scattered and afforded little
protection from the storm.
Helen sat her saddle, a dead weight. Whenever Ranger quickened his gait
or crossed a ditch she held on to the pommel to keep from falling
off. Her mind harbored only sensations of misery, and a persistent
thought--why did she ever leave home for the West? Her solicitude for Bo
had been forgotten. Nevertheless, any marked change in the topography
of the country was registered, perhaps photographed on her memory by the
torturing vividness of her experience.
The forest grew more level and denser. Shadows of twilight or gloom lay
under the trees. Presently Dale and Roy, disappeared, going downhill,
and likewise Bo. Then Helen's ears suddenly filled with a roar of rapid
water. Ranger trotted faster. Soon Helen came to the edge of a great
valley, black and gray, so full of obscurity that she could not see
across or down into it. But she knew there was a rushing river at
the bottom. The sound was deep, continuous, a heavy, murmuring roar,
singularly musical. The trail was steep. Helen had not lost all feeling,
as she had believed and hoped. Her poor, mistreated body still responded
excruciatingly to concussions, jars, wrenches, and all the other
horrible movements making up a horse-trot.
For long Helen did not look up. When she did so there lay a green,
willow-bordered, treeless space at the bottom of the valley, through
which a brown-white stream rushed with steady, ear-filling roar.
Dale and Roy drove the pack-animals across the stream, and followed,
going deep to the flanks of their horses. Bo rode into the foaming water
as if she had been used to it all her days. A slip, a fall, would have
meant that Bo must drown in that mountain torrent.
Ranger trotted straight to the edge, and there, obedient to Helen's
clutch on the bridle, he halted. The stream was fifty feet wide, shallow
on the near side, deep on the opposite, with fast current and big waves.
Helen was simply too frightened to follow.
“Let him come!” yelled Dale. “Stick on now!... Ranger!”
The big black plunged in, making the water fly. That stream was nothing
for him, though it seemed impassable to Helen. She had not the strength
left to lift her stirrups and the water surged over them. Ranger, in two
more plunges, surmounted the bank, and then, trotting across the green
to where the other horses stood steaming under some pines, he gave a
great heave and halted.
Roy reached up to help her off.
“Thirty miles, Miss Helen,” he said, and the way he spoke was a
compliment.
He had to lift her off and help her to the tree where Bo leaned. Dale
had ripped off a saddle and was spreading saddle-blankets on the ground
under the pine.
“Nell--you swore--you loved me!” was Bo's mournful greeting. The girl
was pale, drawn, blue-lipped, and she could not stand up.
“Bo, I never did--or I'd never have brought you to this--wretch that I
am!” cried Helen. “Oh, what a horrible ride!”
Rain was falling, the trees were dripping, the sky was lowering. All the
ground was soaking wet, with pools and puddles everywhere. Helen could
imagine nothing but a heartless, dreary, cold prospect. Just then home
was vivid and poignant in her thoughts. Indeed, so utterly miserable
was she that the exquisite relief of sitting down, of a cessation of
movement, of a release from that infernal perpetual-trotting horse,
seemed only a mockery. It could not be true that the time had come for
rest.
Evidently this place had been a camp site for hunters or sheep-herders,
for there were remains of a fire. Dale lifted the burnt end of a log
and brought it down hard upon the ground, splitting off pieces. Several
times he did this. It was amazing to see his strength, his facility, as
he split off handfuls of splinters. He collected a bundle of them, and,
laying them down, he bent over them. Roy wielded the ax on another log,
and each stroke split off a long strip. Then a tiny column of smoke
drifted up over Dale's shoulder as he leaned, bareheaded, sheltering the
splinters with his hat. A blaze leaped up. Roy came with an armful of
strips all white and dry, out of the inside of a log. Crosswise these
were laid over the blaze, and it began to roar. Then piece by piece the
men built up a frame upon which they added heavier woods, branches
and stumps and logs, erecting a pyramid through which flames and smoke
roared upward. It had not taken two minutes. Already Helen felt the
warmth on her icy face. She held up her bare, numb hands.
Both Dale and Roy were wet through to the skin, yet they did not tarry
beside the fire. They relieved the horses. A lasso went up between two
pines, and a tarpaulin over it, V-shaped and pegged down at the four
ends. The packs containing the baggage of the girls and the supplies and
bedding were placed under this shelter.
Helen thought this might have taken five minutes more. In this short
space of time the fire had leaped and flamed until it was huge and hot.
Rain was falling steadily all around, but over and near that roaring
blaze, ten feet high, no water fell. It evaporated. The ground began to
steam and to dry. Helen suffered at first while the heat was driving out
the cold. But presently the pain ceased.
“Nell, I never knew before how good a fire could feel,” declared Bo.
And therein lay more food for Helen's reflection.
In ten minutes Helen was dry and hot. Darkness came down upon the
dreary, sodden forest, but that great camp-fire made it a different
world from the one Helen had anticipated. It blazed and roared, cracked
like a pistol, hissed and sputtered, shot sparks everywhere, and sent
aloft a dense, yellow, whirling column of smoke. It began to have a
heart of gold.
Dale took a long pole and raked out a pile of red embers upon which the
coffee-pot and oven soon began to steam.
“Roy, I promised the girls turkey to-night,” said the hunter.
“Mebbe to-morrow, if the wind shifts. This 's turkey country.”
“Roy, a potato will do me!” exclaimed Bo. “Never again will I ask for
cake and pie! I never appreciated good things to eat. And I've been a
little pig, always. I never--never knew what it was to be hungry--until
now.”
Dale glanced up quickly.
“Lass, it's worth learnin',” he said.
Helen's thought was too deep for words. In such brief space had she been
transformed from misery to comfort!
The rain kept on falling, though it appeared to grow softer as night
settled down black. The wind died away and the forest was still, except
for the steady roar of the stream. A folded tarpaulin was laid between
the pine and the fire, well in the light and warmth, and upon it the
men set steaming pots and plates and cups, the fragrance from which was
strong and inviting.
“Fetch the saddle-blanket an' set with your backs to the fire,” said
Roy.
Later, when the girls were tucked away snugly in their blankets and
sheltered from the rain, Helen remained awake after Bo had fallen
asleep. The big blaze made the improvised tent as bright as day. She
could see the smoke, the trunk of the big pine towering aloft, and
a blank space of sky. The stream hummed a song, seemingly musical at
times, and then discordant and dull, now low, now roaring, and always
rushing, gurgling, babbling, flowing, chafing in its hurry.
Presently the hunter and his friend returned from hobbling the horses,
and beside the fire they conversed in low tones.
“Wal, thet trail we made to-day will be hid, I reckon,” said Roy, with
satisfaction.
“What wasn't sheeped over would be washed out. We've had luck. An' now I
ain't worryin',” returned Dale.
“Worryin'? Then it's the first I ever knowed you to do.”
“Man, I never had a job like this,” protested the hunter.
“Wal, thet's so.”
“Now, Roy, when old Al Auchincloss finds out about this deal, as he's
bound to when you or the boys get back to Pine, he's goin' to roar.”
“Do you reckon folks will side with him against Beasley?”
“Some of them. But Al, like as not, will tell folks to go where it's
hot. He'll bunch his men an' strike for the mountains to find his
nieces.”
“Wal, all you've got to do is to keep the girls hid till I can guide him
up to your camp. Or, failin' thet, till you can slip the girls down to
Pine.”
“No one but you an' your brothers ever seen my senaca. But it could be
found easy enough.”
“Anson might blunder on it. But thet ain't likely.”
“Why ain't it?”
“Because I'll stick to thet sheep-thief's tracks like a wolf after a
bleedin' deer. An' if he ever gets near your camp I'll ride in ahead of
him.”
“Good!” declared Dale. “I was calculatin' you'd go down to Pine, sooner
or later.”
“Not unless Anson goes. I told John thet in case there was no fight on
the stage to make a bee-line back to Pine. He was to tell Al an' offer
his services along with Joe an' Hal.”
“One way or another, then, there's bound to be blood spilled over this.”
“Shore! An' high time. I jest hope I get a look down my old 'forty-four'
at thet Beasley.”
“In that case I hope you hold straighter than times I've seen you.”
“Milt Dale, I'm a good shot,” declared Roy, stoutly.
“You're no good on movin' targets.”
“Wal, mebbe so. But I'm not lookin' for a movin' target when I meet up
with Beasley. I'm a hossman, not a hunter. You're used to shootin' flies
off deer's horns, jest for practice.”
“Roy, can we make my camp by to-morrow night?” queried Dale, more
seriously.
“We will, if each of us has to carry one of the girls. But they'll do it
or die. Dale, did you ever see a gamer girl than thet kid Bo?”
“Me! Where'd I ever see any girls?” ejaculated Dale. “I remember some
when I was a boy, but I was only fourteen then. Never had much use for
girls.”
“I'd like to have a wife like that Bo,” declared Roy, fervidly.
There ensued a moment's silence.
“Roy, you're a Mormon an' you already got a wife,” was Dale's reply.
“Now, Milt, have you lived so long in the woods thet you never heard of
a Mormon with two wives?” returned Roy, and then he laughed heartily.
“I never could stomach what I did hear pertainin' to more than one wife
for a man.”
“Wal, my friend, you go an' get yourself ONE. An' see then if you
wouldn't like to have TWO.”
“I reckon one 'd be more than enough for Milt Dale.”
“Milt, old man, let me tell you thet I always envied you your freedom,”
said Roy, earnestly. “But it ain't life.”
“You mean life is love of a woman?”
“No. Thet's only part. I mean a son--a boy thet's like you--thet you
feel will go on with your life after you're gone.”
“I've thought of that--thought it all out, watchin' the birds an'
animals mate in the woods.... If I have no son I'll never live
hereafter.”
“Wal,” replied Roy, hesitatingly, “I don't go in so deep as thet. I mean
a son goes on with your blood an' your work.”
“Exactly... An', Roy, I envy you what you've got, because it's out of
all bounds for Milt Dale.”
Those words, sad and deep, ended the conversation. Again the rumbling,
rushing stream dominated the forest. An owl hooted dismally. A horse
trod thuddingly near by and from that direction came a cutting tear of
teeth on grass.
A voice pierced Helen's deep dreams and, awaking, she found Bo shaking
and calling her.
“Are you dead?” came the gay voice.
“Almost. Oh, my back's broken,” replied Helen. The desire to move seemed
clamped in a vise, and even if that came she believed the effort would
be impossible.
“Roy called us,” said Bo. “He said hurry. I thought I'd die just sitting
up, and I'd give you a million dollars to lace my boots. Wait, sister,
till you try to pull on one of those stiff boots!”
With heroic and violent spirit Helen sat up to find that in the act
her aches and pains appeared beyond number. Reaching for her boots,
she found them cold and stiff. Helen unlaced one and, opening it wide,
essayed to get her sore foot down into it. But her foot appeared swollen
and the boot appeared shrunken. She could not get it half on, though
she expended what little strength seemed left in her aching arms. She
groaned.
Bo laughed wickedly. Her hair was tousled, her eyes dancing, her cheeks
red.
“Be game!” she said. “Stand up like a real Western girl and PULL your
boot on.”
Whether Bo's scorn or advice made the task easier did not occur to
Helen, but the fact was that she got into her boots. Walking and
moving a little appeared to loosen the stiff joints and ease that tired
feeling. The water of the stream where the girls washed was colder than
any ice Helen had ever felt. It almost paralyzed her hands. Bo mumbled,
and blew like a porpoise. They had to run to the fire before being able
to comb their hair. The air was wonderfully keen. The dawn was clear,
bright, with a red glow in the east where the sun was about to rise.
“All ready, girls,” called Roy. “Reckon you can help yourselves. Milt
ain't comin' in very fast with the hosses. I'll rustle off to help him.
We've got a hard day before us. Yesterday wasn't nowhere to what to-day
'll be.”
“But the sun's going to shine?” implored Bo.
“Wal, you bet,” rejoined Roy, as he strode off.
Helen and Bo ate breakfast and had the camp to themselves for perhaps
half an hour; then the horses came thudding down, with Dale and Roy
riding bareback.
By the time all was in readiness to start the sun was up, melting the
frost and ice, so that a dazzling, bright mist, full of rainbows, shone
under the trees.
Dale looked Ranger over, and tried the cinches of Bo's horse.
“What's your choice--a long ride behind the packs with me--or a short
cut over the hills with Roy?” he asked.
“I choose the lesser of two rides,” replied Helen, smiling.
“Reckon that 'll be easier, but you'll know you've had a ride,” said
Dale, significantly.
“What was that we had yesterday?” asked Bo, archly.
“Only thirty miles, but cold an' wet. To-day will be fine for ridin'.”
“Milt, I'll take a blanket an' some grub in case you don't meet us
to-night,” said Roy. “An' I reckon we'll split up here where I'll have
to strike out on thet short cut.”
Bo mounted without a helping hand, but Helen's limbs were so stiff that
she could not get astride the high Ranger without assistance. The hunter
headed up the slope of the canyon, which on that side was not steep.
It was brown pine forest, with here and there a clump of dark,
silver-pointed evergreens that Roy called spruce. By the time this slope
was surmounted Helen's aches were not so bad. The saddle appeared to
fit her better, and the gait of the horse was not so unfamiliar. She
reflected, however, that she always had done pretty well uphill. Here it
was beautiful forest-land, uneven and wilder. They rode for a time along
the rim, with the white rushing stream in plain sight far below, with
its melodious roar ever thrumming in the ear.
Dale reined in and peered down at the pine-mat.
“Fresh deer sign all along here,” he said, pointing.
“Wal, I seen thet long ago,” rejoined Roy.
Helen's scrutiny was rewarded by descrying several tiny depressions in
the pine-needles, dark in color and sharply defined.
“We may never get a better chance,” said Dale. “Those deer are workin'
up our way. Get your rifle out.”
Travel was resumed then, with Roy a little in advance of the pack-train.
Presently he dismounted, threw his bridle, and cautiously peered ahead.
Then, turning, he waved his sombrero. The pack-animals halted in a
bunch. Dale beckoned for the girls to follow and rode up to Roy's horse.
This point, Helen saw, was at the top of an intersecting canuon. Dale
dismounted, without drawing his rifle from its saddle-sheath, and
approached Roy.
“Buck an' two does,” he said, low-voiced. “An' they've winded us, but
don't see us yet.... Girls, ride up closer.”
Following the directions indicated by Dale's long arm, Helen looked down
the slope. It was open, with tall pines here and there, and clumps of
silver spruce, and aspens shining like gold in the morning sunlight.
Presently Bo exclaimed: “Oh, look! I see! I see!” Then Helen's roving
glance passed something different from green and gold and brown.
Shifting back to it she saw a magnificent stag, with noble spreading
antlers, standing like a statue, his head up in alert and wild posture.
His color was gray. Beside him grazed two deer of slighter and more
graceful build, without horns.
“It's downhill,” whispered Dale. “An' you're goin' to overshoot.”
Then Helen saw that Roy had his rifle leveled.
“Oh, don't!” she cried.
Dale's remark evidently nettled Roy. He lowered the rifle.
“Milt, it's me lookin' over this gun. How can you stand there an' tell
me I'm goin' to shoot high? I had a dead bead on him.”
“Roy, you didn't allow for downhill... Hurry. He sees us now.”
Roy leveled the rifle and, taking aim as before, he fired. The buck
stood perfectly motionless, as if he had indeed been stone. The does,
however, jumped with a start, and gazed in fright in every direction.
“Told you! I seen where your bullet hit thet pine--half a foot over his
shoulder. Try again an' aim at his legs.”
Roy now took a quicker aim and pulled trigger. A puff of dust right at
the feet of the buck showed where Roy's lead had struck this time. With
a single bound, wonderful to see, the big deer was out of sight behind
trees and brush. The does leaped after him.
“Doggone the luck!” ejaculated Roy, red in the face, as he worked the
lever of his rifle. “Never could shoot downhill, nohow!”
His rueful apology to the girls for missing brought a merry laugh from
Bo.
“Not for worlds would I have had you kill that beautiful deer!” she
exclaimed.
“We won't have venison steak off him, that's certain,” remarked Dale,
dryly. “An' maybe none off any deer, if Roy does the shootin'.”
They resumed travel, sheering off to the right and keeping to the edge
of the intersecting canuon. At length they rode down to the bottom,
where a tiny brook babbled through willows, and they followed this for
a mile or so down to where it flowed into the larger stream. A dim trail
overgrown with grass showed at this point.
“Here's where we part,” said Dale. “You'll beat me into my camp, but
I'll get there sometime after dark.”
“Hey, Milt, I forgot about thet darned pet cougar of yours an' the rest
of your menagerie. Reckon they won't scare the girls? Especially old
Tom?”
“You won't see Tom till I get home,” replied Dale.
“Ain't he corralled or tied up?”
“No. He has the run of the place.”
“Wal, good-by, then, an' rustle along.”
Dale nodded to the girls, and, turning his horse, he drove the
pack-train before him up the open space between the stream and the
wooded slope.
Roy stepped off his horse with that single action which appeared such a
feat to Helen.
“Guess I'd better cinch up,” he said, as he threw a stirrup up over the
pommel of his saddle. “You girls are goin' to see wild country.”
“Who's old Tom?” queried Bo, curiously.
“Why, he's Milt's pet cougar.”
“Cougar? That's a panther--a mountain-lion, didn't he say?”
“Shore is. Tom is a beauty. An' if he takes a likin' to you he'll love
you, play with you, maul you half to death.”
Bo was all eyes.
“Dale has other pets, too?” she questioned, eagerly.
“I never was up to his camp but what it was overrun with birds an'
squirrels an' vermin of all kinds, as tame as tame as cows. Too darn
tame, Milt says. But I can't figger thet. You girls will never want to
leave thet senaca of his.”
“What's a senaca?” asked Helen, as she shifted her foot to let him
tighten the cinches on her saddle.
“Thet's Mexican for park, I guess,” he replied. “These mountains are
full of parks; an', say, I don't ever want to see no prettier place till
I get to heaven.... There, Ranger, old boy, thet's tight.”
He slapped the horse affectionately, and, turning to his own, he stepped
and swung his long length up.
“It ain't deep crossin' here. Come on,” he called, and spurred his bay.
The stream here was wide and it looked deep, but turned out to be
deceptive.
“Wal, girls, here beginneth the second lesson,” he drawled, cheerily.
“Ride one behind the other--stick close to me--do what I do--an' holler
when you want to rest or if somethin' goes bad.”
With that he spurred into the thicket. Bo went next and Helen followed.
The willows dragged at her so hard that she was unable to watch Roy, and
the result was that a low-sweeping branch of a tree knocked her hard
on the head. It hurt and startled her, and roused her mettle. Roy was
keeping to the easy trot that covered ground so well, and he led up
a slope to the open pine forest. Here the ride for several miles was
straight, level, and open. Helen liked the forest to-day. It was brown
and green, with patches of gold where the sun struck. She saw her first
bird--big blue grouse that whirred up from under her horse, and little
checkered gray quail that appeared awkward on the wing. Several times
Roy pointed out deer flashing gray across some forest aisle, and often
when he pointed Helen was not quick enough to see.
Helen realized that this ride would make up for the hideous one of
yesterday. So far she had been only barely conscious of sore places
and aching bones. These she would bear with. She loved the wild and the
beautiful, both of which increased manifestly with every mile. The sun
was warm, the air fragrant and cool, the sky blue as azure and so deep
that she imagined that she could look far up into it.
Suddenly Roy reined in so sharply that he pulled the bay up short.
“Look!” he called, sharply.
Bo screamed.
“Not thet way! Here! Aw, he's gone!”
“Nell! It was a bear! I saw it! Oh! not like circus bears at all!” cried
Bo.
Helen had missed her opportunity.
“Reckon he was a grizzly, an' I'm jest as well pleased thet he loped
off,” said Roy. Altering his course somewhat, he led to an old rotten
log that the bear had been digging in. “After grubs. There, see his
track. He was a whopper shore enough.”
They rode on, out to a high point that overlooked canuon and range,
gorge and ridge, green and black as far as Helen could see. The ranges
were bold and long, climbing to the central uplift, where a number of
fringed peaks raised their heads to the vast bare dome of Old Baldy.
Far as vision could see, to the right lay one rolling forest of pine,
beautiful and serene. Somewhere down beyond must have lain the desert,
but it was not in sight.
“I see turkeys 'way down there,” said Roy, backing away. “We'll go down
and around an' mebbe I'll get a shot.”
Descent beyond a rocky point was made through thick brush. This slope
consisted of wide benches covered with copses and scattered pines and
many oaks. Helen was delighted to see the familiar trees, although these
were different from Missouri oaks. Rugged and gnarled, but not tall,
these trees spread wide branches, the leaves of which were yellowing.
Roy led into a grassy glade, and, leaping off his horse, rifle in hand,
he prepared to shoot at something. Again Bo cried out, but this time it
was in delight. Then Helen saw an immense flock of turkeys, apparently
like the turkeys she knew at home, but these had bronze and checks
of white, and they looked wild. There must have been a hundred in the
flock, most of them hens. A few gobblers on the far side began the
flight, running swiftly off. Helen plainly heard the thud of their
feet. Roy shot once--twice--three times. Then rose a great commotion and
thumping, and a loud roar of many wings. Dust and leaves whirling in the
air were left where the turkeys had been.
“Wal, I got two,” said Roy, and he strode forward to pick up his game.
Returning, he tied two shiny, plump gobblers back of his saddle and
remounted his horse. “We'll have turkey to-night, if Milt gets to camp
in time.”
The ride was resumed. Helen never would have tired riding through those
oak groves, brown and sear and yellow, with leaves and acorns falling.
“Bears have been workin' in here already,” said Roy. “I see tracks all
over. They eat acorns in the fall. An' mebbe we'll run into one yet.”
The farther down he led the wilder and thicker grew the trees, so that
dodging branches was no light task. Ranger did not seem to care how
close he passed a tree or under a limb, so that he missed them himself;
but Helen thereby got some additional bruises. Particularly hard was it,
when passing a tree, to get her knee out of the way in time.
Roy halted next at what appeared a large green pond full of vegetation
and in places covered with a thick scum. But it had a current and an
outlet, proving it to be a huge, spring. Roy pointed down at a muddy
place.
“Bear-wallow. He heard us comin'. Look at thet little track. Cub track.
An' look at these scratches on this tree, higher 'n my head. An old
she-bear stood up, an' scratched them.”
Roy sat his saddle and reached up to touch fresh marks on the tree.
“Woods's full of big bears,” he said, grinning. “An' I take it
particular kind of this old she rustlin' off with her cub. She-bears
with cubs are dangerous.”
The next place to stir Helen to enthusiasm was the glen at the bottom
of this canuon. Beech-trees, maples, aspens, overtopped by lofty
pines, made dense shade over a brook where trout splashed on the brown,
swirling current, and leaves drifted down, and stray flecks of golden
sunlight lightened the gloom. Here was hard riding to and fro across the
brook, between huge mossy boulders, and between aspens so close together
that Helen could scarce squeeze her knees through.
Once more Roy climbed out of that canuon, over a ridge into another,
down long wooded slopes and through scrub-oak thickets, on and on
till the sun stood straight overhead. Then he halted for a short rest,
unsaddled the horses to let them roll, and gave the girls some cold
lunch that he had packed. He strolled off with his gun, and, upon
returning, resaddled and gave the word to start.
That was the last of rest and easy traveling for the girls. The forest
that he struck into seemed ribbed like a washboard with deep ravines
so steep of slope as to make precarious travel. Mostly he kept to the
bottom where dry washes afforded a kind of trail. But it was necessary
to cross these ravines when they were too long to be headed, and this
crossing was work.
The locust thickets characteristic of these slopes were thorny and close
knit. They tore and scratched and stung both horses and riders. Ranger
appeared to be the most intelligent of the horses and suffered less.
Bo's white mustang dragged her through more than one brambly place. On
the other hand, some of these steep slopes, were comparatively free of
underbrush. Great firs and pines loomed up on all sides. The earth was
soft and the hoofs sank deep. Toward the bottom of a descent Ranger
would brace his front feet and then slide down on his haunches. This
mode facilitated travel, but it frightened Helen. The climb out then on
the other side had to be done on foot.
After half a dozen slopes surmounted in this way Helen's strength was
spent and her breath was gone. She felt light-headed. She could not get
enough air. Her feet felt like lead, and her riding-coat was a burden.
A hundred times, hot and wet and throbbing, she was compelled to stop.
Always she had been a splendid walker and climber. And here, to break up
the long ride, she was glad to be on her feet. But she could only drag
one foot up after the other. Then, when her nose began to bleed, she
realized that it was the elevation which was causing all the trouble.
Her heart, however, did not hurt her, though she was conscious of an
oppression on her breast.
At last Roy led into a ravine so deep and wide and full of forest
verdure that it appeared impossible to cross. Nevertheless, he started
down, dismounting after a little way. Helen found that leading Ranger
down was worse than riding him. He came fast and he would step right
in her tracks. She was not quick enough to get away from him. Twice
he stepped on her foot, and again his broad chest hit her shoulder and
threw her flat. When he began to slide, near the bottom, Helen had to
run for her life.
“Oh, Nell! Isn't--this--great?” panted Bo, from somewhere ahead.
“Bo--your--mind's--gone,” panted Helen, in reply.
Roy tried several places to climb out, and failed in each. Leading down
the ravine for a hundred yards or more, he essayed another attempt.
Here there had been a slide, and in part the earth was bare. When he had
worked up this, he halted above, and called:
“Bad place! Keep on the up side of the hosses!”
This appeared easier said than done. Helen could not watch Bo, because
Ranger would not wait. He pulled at the bridle and snorted.
“Faster you come the better,” called Roy.
Helen could not see the sense of that, but she tried. Roy and Bo had dug
a deep trail zigzag up that treacherous slide. Helen made the mistake
of starting to follow in their tracks, and when she realized this Ranger
was climbing fast, almost dragging her, and it was too late to get
above. Helen began to labor. She slid down right in front of Ranger. The
intelligent animal, with a snort, plunged out of the trail to keep from
stepping on her. Then he was above her.
“Lookout down there,” yelled Roy, in warning. “Get on the up side!”
But that did not appear possible. The earth began to slide under Ranger,
and that impeded Helen's progress. He got in advance of her, straining
on the bridle.
“Let go!” yelled Roy.
Helen dropped the bridle just as a heavy slide began to move with
Ranger. He snorted fiercely, and, rearing high, in a mighty plunge he
gained solid ground. Helen was buried to her knees, but, extricating
herself, she crawled to a safe point and rested before climbing farther.
“Bad cave-in, thet,” was Roy's comment, when at last she joined him and
Bo at the top.
Roy appeared at a loss as to which way to go. He rode to high ground and
looked in all directions. To Helen, one way appeared as wild and rough
as another, and all was yellow, green, and black under the westering
sun. Roy rode a short distance in one direction, then changed for
another.
Presently he stopped.
“Wal, I'm shore turned round,” he said.
“You're not lost?” cried Bo.
“Reckon I've been thet for a couple of hours,” he replied, cheerfully.
“Never did ride across here I had the direction, but I'm blamed now if I
can tell which way thet was.”
Helen gazed at him in consternation.
“Lost!” she echoed.