RELICS OF AN ANCIENT RACE
The Gordons and Cartwrights had engaged a conveyance to take them to
the point on the Apache Trail where they must turn off and walk about
a mile to reach the homes of the Cliff Dwellers. The Overland Riders
preferred to ride their ponies, Ike taking his team to carry himself
and the rations for the day.
Tucked away with the equipment was a strong rope several hundred feet
in length, Ike, at Grace’s request, having provided this and other
equipment without asking too many questions.
An early start was made, both parties reaching the turning-off place at
about the same time, and shortly thereafter a merry company, carrying
picnic baskets, was ascending the steep, narrow trail that led to the
Tonto Cliff Dwellings.
They found the first of the two main groups of prehistoric community
dwellings free of tourists, and the Overton College girls stood in awe
as they gazed on the massive masonry of this relic of an unknown past.
“Are you familiar with the history of these cliff dwellings, Mrs.
Gray?” asked the general.
“I must confess that I am not wholly familiar with the subject, sir.
Will you tell us what you know about them?”
“No one knows of their beginning, nor of the people who inhabited them.
We do know that Coronado’s Scouts discovered them nearly four hundred
years ago. The Coronado Scouts, it is said, believed that they found
the frontier fortresses of that rich kingdom of Tontonteac, which was
one of the seven they sought.”
“The dwellings were not then occupied, were they?” asked Anne.
“Oh, no,” responded the general. “They were in ruins as you see them
now, so you can form some idea of the antiquity of the dwellings.”
“Do you know whether or not the Cliff Dwellers were here ahead of the
Indians, sir?” asked Grace.
“It is supposed that they were, for the Indians of the present day do
not even know of them in legend. The dwellers must have had enemies,
man or beast, for you see they built their castles in out-of-reach
spots. They builded them well, too, high under leaning walls of rock,
of blocked stone, set with strong adobe mortar. They were architects,
and they were builders, were those ancients,” declared the general.
“A peculiar feature of their homes is that each community lived in
a community house, said to have included sixty to seventy rooms.
The three dwellings that are accessible do not show what the inner
arrangements were, but a fourth one, that has never been explored, is
believed to be in a better state of preservation.”
“That is the one I propose to have a look at,” declared Grace.
“I suspected as much,” nodded the general. “Don’t try it, is my advice.
You don’t know what kind of a precipice one would have to pass over to
get there.”
“I know the precipice, for I have examined it through my glasses, but I
am not convinced that there is no other entrance to the place.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The formation of the sheer wall that falls away from their front
dooryard shows that it has been in that same condition for perhaps
thousands of years, and probably was in the same condition in the days
of the Cliff Dwellers. Suppose we have our luncheon here and then have
a look at the top of this unknown cliff home.”
All through the luncheon that was eaten in an ancient community house,
with the magnificent view of mountain and canyon spread out before
them, General Gordon was regarding Grace perplexedly.
“I believe she really intends to try it,” he muttered. “How, I do not
know. She does, though, and I have no doubt the plan is already clearly
outlined under that head of fair brown hair.”
“So you do not believe I can do it, eh?” chided Grace, favoring the
officer with a brilliant smile.
“Do not believe--Mrs. Gray, are you a mind reader?” demanded the
general.
“When a mental process is reflected in a face as it has been in yours
for the last five minutes, the reading is easy.”
The general shrugged his shoulders in true French form.
“I give up,” he exclaimed.
“I wish the walls of this ancient place might be read as easily,” added
Grace. “Do you think the ladies can stand a climb to the top of the
mountain?”
“Oh, yes; it is not a long nor a very hard climb, I should judge from
the looks of it,” replied the general.
It was decided to leave the hampers at the lunching place, but to carry
their mess kits. Grace told Ike Fairweather to take the rope with
him, as it might be needed. In her own kit she carried a ball of stout
twine, ammunition for her rifle and for the automatic that swung in its
holster.
“All is ready. Please take your time, ladies, and if you tire, you must
say so,” she directed.
“We follow where you lead, Mrs. Gray,” promised Miss Cartwright
dramatically.
“Don’t make rash promises, Miss Cartwright,” warned the general. “You
don’t know what you are promising. I think _I_ do.”
“Just wait and see,” teased the young woman.
It was a hard hike to the brow of the mountain, taking nearly two
hours, at the rate they traveled. The party finally came out on a broad
table of rock, from which the mountain sloped away a short distance,
then took a sheer drop of a thousand feet.
None of the party ventured to look over the brink until Grace finally
did so, then turned laughingly to Miss Cartwright.
“Are you following?”
“Yes.” Miss Cartwright stepped up beside Grace and gazed off over the
great precipice.
[Illustration: Grace Disappeared Over the Edge.]
Suddenly the army officer’s sister swayed dizzily, and, had Grace lost
her head for a second, a disaster probably would have resulted. Grace’s
arm quickly encircled the waist of Miss Cartwright and drew her back,
now in a fainting condition. The dizzy height had been too much for
the young woman’s nerves. Grace gravely handed her over to Colonel
Cartwright.
“I am sorry, sir, that I encouraged her. It was not prudent of me at
all,” she said.
Grace, after studying the face of the cliff for a few moments, stepped
back and spoke to Ike Fairweather, pointing to a projecting tower of
rock that crowned the tableland like a monument.
“You can snub the rope around that,” she said.
“Mrs. Gray, surely you are not going to try that desperate descent?”
begged General Gordon.
“Try is the word, General. If you think it advisable, take Mrs. Gordon
and Miss Cartwright for a walk. To see me go over may upset them. The
descent is perfectly safe, provided the rope doesn’t break. I have
my reasons, other than mere curiosity, for attempting to get to the
Community House down there.”
“Very good, Mrs. Gray. Depend upon me for whatever I may be able to do.
I think I understand your real motive. Do not worry about the ladies;
if they cannot stand it to see you go over they can turn their backs on
you.”
Preparations were quickly made, Miss Cartwright observing wide-eyed
and a little pale. Ike had made a sling with a board bottom for Grace
to sit in. In addition to this, she slipped a loop of the rope under
her shoulders. Grace then produced the ball of strong twine from her
kit, and made an end fast to the “monument.” She directed that some one
keep hold of the twine at all times for signals.
“One pull will mean that I have a message to send up; two pulls will
advise you that I am to be hauled up,” Grace informed them. “Are you
ready?”
“Ready!” announced the four men in chorus. General Gordon added that
he would stand at the upper edge of the slope and watch Grace over its
lower edge, from which point she would have a sheer drop of what he
estimated to be about three hundred feet to the cliff dwelling.
“Loyalheart! Do be careful,” admonished Elfreda anxiously. “I know
there is no use trying to dissuade you from attempting this foolish
thing, so we can do nothing except to wish you luck.”
“Yes you can--you can hold fast to the rope,” corrected Grace. Smiling
and nodding to her companions, she took a final look about, then crept
cautiously down to the edge of the slope, where the sheer drop began,
waved a hand and disappeared over the edge of the precipice.