THE CAVE-DWELLERS
Three days later the party stood on the brow of a steep bluff looking
down upon the Colorado Chiquita river. It had been a weary journey. It
was evident that the girl had, after the second day's riding, allowed
the horse to go its own way, trusting perhaps to its instinct to make
for some habitation, should there be any in the region. There had been
no difficulty in following its footsteps until the third day, when they
were passing over a stony plateau. Here even the keen sight of the
Indians sometimes failed them, and hours were lost in taking up the
trail. There was no water to be met with here, and the Indians agreed
that the horse was going slowly and weakly, and the girl for the most
part walking beside it, as they pointed out by a crushed blade of grass
or flattened lichen by the side of the horse's track. Later in the day
the trail was straighter, and the chief said confidently, "The horse
smells water; the river cannot be many miles away."
It was an hour after starting, on the third morning, that they reached
the bluff opposite to them. For a distance of a couple of miles rose a
steep island of basalt, some hundreds of feet above the plain around it,
and on the summit a large village could be seen.
"Moquis," the Indian said, pointing to it.
"Then she must have got there in safety!" Will exclaimed in delight. The
chief shook his head. "Horse not able to swim river, must stop a day to
eat grass. There horse!" and he pointed to an animal seven hundred or
eight hundred feet below them.
"That is its colour, sure enough," Antonio exclaimed, "but I don't see
the señorita."
"She may be asleep," Will suggested.
"Likely enough, señor; we shall soon see."
Dismounting, they made their way down the steep descent. Then all leaped
into their saddles and galloped forward to the edge of the stream, a
quarter of a mile away. The mare, which evidently scented that the
new-comers were not Indians, cantered to meet them with a whinny of
pleasure. There were no signs of the girl, and all dismounted to search
among the low bushes for her, Will loudly calling her name. Presently
the Indian, who, with his follower, had moved along the bank, called
them.
"She slept here yesterday," he said, and the level grass close to a
shrub testified to the truth of the exclamation. The two Indians looked
serious.
"What is it, chief?"
"Indians," he said. "White girl come down to river to drink; then she
lay down here; then Indians come along; you see footprints on soft earth
of bank; they catch her when asleep and carry her off. Teczuma and the
Wolf have looked; no marks of little feet; four feet deeper marks than
when they came along; Indian carry her off."
"Perhaps they have taken her along the river to some ford, and carried
her up to their village."
"Soon see;" and he and the Wolf moved along the bank, the others
following at a short distance, having first taken off their horses'
bridles, allowing them to take a good drink, and turned them loose to
feed.
"Small men," the chief said, when Will with the two chief vaqueros came
up to him. "Short steps; got spears and bows."
"How on earth does he know that?" Will said, when the words were
translated to him. Sancho pointed to a round mark on the ground.
"There is the butt end of a spear, and I dare say the chief has noticed
some holes of a different shape made by the ends of bows."
Half a mile farther the bluffs approached the river and bordered it with
a perpendicular cliff, which had doubtless been caused by the face of
the hill being eaten away by the river countless ages before. The stream
was here some thirty yards from the foot of the cliff. More and more
puzzled at the direction in which Clara had been carried, the trackers
followed. They had gone a hundred yards along the foot of the cliff when
a great stone came bounding down from above, striking the ground a few
yards in front of the Indians, who leaped back. Almost instantly a
shrill voice shouted from above, and, looking up, they saw a number of
natives on a ledge a hundred feet above them, with bows bent
threateningly.
"Back, all of you!" Sancho shouted. "Their arrows may be poisoned."
Seeing, however, that the party retreated in haste, the Indians did not
shoot; when a short distance away a council was held, and all returned
to their horses, mounted, and swam the river; then they rode along to
view the cliff. Three or four openings were seen on the level of the
ledge on which the Indians were posted, and Will was astonished to see
that above, the cliff, which was here quite perpendicular, was covered
with strange sculptures, some of which still retained the colour with
which they had in times long past been painted.
"They are the old people, the cave-dwellers," Sancho said. "I have heard
of them; they were here long before the Moquis were here. They were a
people dwelling in caves. There are hundreds of these caves in some
places. They have always kept themselves apart, and never made friends
with the Moquis. In the early times with the Spaniards there were
missionaries among the Moquis, but they could never do anything among
the cave people, who are, they say, idolaters and offer human
sacrifices."
"How do the people live?" Antonio asked.
"They fish, and steal animals from the Moquis when they get a chance,
and they dwell in such inaccessible caves that, once there, they are
safe from pursuit.
"If you like, señor, I will go up to the Moquis village, and try to find
out something about them. I don't know the Moquis language, but I
understand something of the sign language, which is understood by all
Indians, and I dare say that I shall be able to learn something about
these people."
Will dismounted as the vaquero rode off, and, bidding Antonio do the
same, told the man to take their horses a quarter of a mile away, and
there to dismount and cook a meal.
"Now, Antonio," he said, "we have to see how this place can be climbed."
Antonio shook his head. "I should say that it was altogether impossible,
señor. You see there is a zigzag path cut in the face of the cliff up to
that ledge. In some places the rock is cut away altogether, and then
they have got ladders, which they would no doubt draw up at once if they
were attacked. You see the lower ones have already been pulled up. Like
enough sentries are posted at each of those breaks when they are
threatened with an attack. Besides, the chances are that if they thought
there were any risk of our getting up, they would kill the señorita."
"I see all that, Antonio, and I have no thought of making my way up by
the steps; the question is, could it be climbed elsewhere? The other end
of the ledge would be the best point to get up at, for any watch that is
kept would certainly be where the steps come up."
Antonio shook his head. "Unless one could fly, señor, there would be no
way of getting up there."
"I don't know that," Will said shortly; "wait till I have had a good
look at it."
Lying on the ground, with his chin resting on his hands, he gazed
intently at the cliff, observing even the most trifling projections, the
tiny ledges that here and there ran along the face.
"It would be a difficult job and a dangerous one," he said, "but I am
not sure that it cannot be managed. At any rate, I shall try. I am a
sailor, you know, Antonio, and am accustomed, when we have been sailing
in the gale, to hold on with my toes as well as my fingers. Now, do you
go back to the others. I shall want two poles, say fifteen feet long,
and some hooks, which I can make from ramrods. Do you see just in the
middle of that ledge, where the large square entrance is, the cliff
bulges out, and I should say the ledge was twenty feet wide; this is
lucky, for if there are sentries on the steps they would not be able to
see beyond that point. If they could do so, I should not have much
chance of getting up, for it will be a bright moonlight night. When I
get to the top--that is, if I do get there--I shall lower down a rope.
You can fasten the lariats together. They would hold the weight of a
dozen men. The lightest and most active of you must come up first. When
two or three are up we can haul the rest up easily enough. Now you can
go. I shall be here another half-hour at least. I must see exactly the
best way to climb, calculate the number of feet along each of those
little ledges to a point where I can reach the one above with my hook,
and get the whole thing well in my mind."
Antonio went away shaking his head. To him the feat seemed so impossible
that he thought that it was nothing short of madness to attempt it. Such
was the opinion of the rest of the vaqueros and the two Indians when, on
arriving at the fire, he told them what Will proposed doing. Their
leader, however, when he joined them, had a look of confidence on his
face.
"I am more convinced than ever that it can be done," he said. When the
meal of bear's flesh had been eaten, he lit his pipe and began to smoke
quietly. The chief came up and spoke to him.
"What does he say, Antonio?"
"He says that you are a brave man, señor, but that no man could do what
you are talking of, and that you will throw away your life."
"Tell him I will bet my horse against his that I shall succeed, and you
shall be witness to the bet in case I don't come back again."
The chief nodded gravely when the offer was made to him. Indians of all
tribes are given to wagering, and as the horse Will was riding was a far
better one than his own, he regarded the matter rather as a legacy than
a bet.
An hour later Sancho came down, accompanied by several of the Moquis
Indians, leading four sheep as a present, and followed by women carrying
pans of milk, baskets of eggs, and cakes of various descriptions. Sancho
presented the chief to Will.
"They are quite friendly, señor; they hate the cave-dwellers, who are
constantly robbing them, and who compel them to keep guard over the
animals at night. I can understand them pretty well; they bid me tell
you that they would gladly assist you against the cave-dwellers, but
that it is impossible to reach the caves."
Will shook hands with the chiefs, and asked Sancho to explain by signs
that he was much obliged for their presents.
"Tell them, Sancho, that I am going to try to scale the cliff
to-night."
"You are going to scale the cliff?" the vaquero asked incredulously.
"I did not say that I was going to scale it, but that I was going to
try; and I may add that I hope that I shall succeed. Will you ask if the
cave-dwellers poison their arrows?"
"I have already asked that, señor, but he said no. The cattle have often
been wounded by them, and unless the wound is a mortal one, they
recover."
"That is very satisfactory," Will said, "for I own I have more fear of
being hit by a poisoned arrow than I have of scaling the cliff."
"The chief says that if you will go up to their village he will place a
house at your disposal, señor."
"Tell him that I am much obliged, and that to-morrow I may accept their
invitation. Our horses will require three or four days' rest before
starting back, and I can hardly hope that the señorita will be fit to
travel for a good deal longer than that."
Although they had but just eaten a meal, the vaqueros were perfectly
ready to begin another. A number of eggs were roasted in the ashes, and
washed down by long draughts of milk. The chiefs then left them, but a
number of the villagers came down and watched the proceedings of the
strangers with great interest. Will at once proceeded to carry out his
plan of bending the ramrods: a hot spot in the fire was selected, and
two of the vaqueros increased the intensity of the heat by fanning it
with their sombreros. Three others went down to the river and brought up
a large flat boulder and two or three smaller ones, and, using the large
one as an anvil, the ends of the hooks were hammered into sharp, broad,
chisel-shaped blades. Sancho had explained to the chiefs that two poles,
some fifteen feet long, were required, and when these were brought down
the ramrods were securely bound to them with strips of wetted hide.
Other strips were, by Will's directions, bound round the pole so as to
form projections a foot apart.
"That will greatly assist me in climbing it," he said. "I don't say I
could not do without it, but it will make it very much easier."
In order to lull the cave-dwellers into security, the camp was shifted
in the afternoon to the foot of the Moquis hill, and there Will gave his
men instructions as to the operations.
"We will cross the river on the horses a mile above the cave," he said;
"we must use them, or we could not keep our rifles and pistols dry. You
must all remove your boots as soon as you dismount, and we will now tear
up two or three blankets, and twist strips round the barrels of the
guns, so that, should they strike against the rocks, no sound shall be
made. You had better do the same with the barrels of your pistols."
Then he chose the lightest of the vaqueros to follow him. Another
light-weight was to be third. Antonio was to follow him, and then
Sancho, and the order in which all the others were to go was arranged.
Lariats were securely knotted together, and the knots tied with strips
of hide, to prevent the possibility of their slipping. The men carried
out his orders, but it was evident from their manner that they had not
the slightest hope that his attempt would be successful. An hour after
sunset they started. It was two days after full moon, and they had,
therefore, as many hours to reach the foot of the cliffs before it rose.
An hour was sufficient to traverse the distance, and they therefore
rested for that time, after darkness set in, before starting, swam the
river, and after removing their boots made their way noiselessly along,
keeping some distance from the river bank until they reached the spot
where the cliff rose perpendicularly; then, keeping close to its foot,
they held on until they arrived at the spot Will had fixed upon. There
all lay down among the boulders close to the rock wall, and remained
there until the moon rose.
There had been several discussions as to the best way to get the lariat
up, as it was agreed that, whether carried in a coil over the shoulder
or wound round the body, it would hamper the climber's movements. The
question was finally solved by his taking a coil of thin hide, which,
while little thicker than string, was amply strong enough to support the
weight of the lariat. Four or five bullets had been sewn up in a piece
of skin and attached to one end. A strap was fastened to each pole so
that these could be slung behind him, so permitting him the free use of
both hands where it was not needful to use them.
"The saints watch over you, señor!" Antonio whispered, as Will prepared
to start, and he and Sancho gave him a silent grip of the hand, while
the Indian chief laid his hand on his shoulder and muttered, "Ugh, heap
brave!"
For a short distance the ascent was comparatively easy. Then he arrived
at the first of the ledges he had noticed. It was some ten inches wide,
and, keeping his face to the wall and using his hands to grip the most
trifling irregularity, or to get a hold in small crevices, he made his
way along until he arrived at a projection which barred farther
progress. Slipping one of the slings from his shoulder, he reached up
until the hook caught the next ledge, and obtained a good hold there. He
then climbed the pole until his fingers got a grip of the ledge, when he
hauled himself up to it. It was some fifteen inches wide here, and
without difficulty he obtained a footing, again slung the pole on his
shoulder and went on. The ledge narrowed rapidly, and he was now at one
of the points which appeared to him the most difficult, for from where
he had been lying the ledge seemed almost to cease, while the next ledge
above it was also so narrow that he knew he could not obtain standing
room upon it.
As he approached the narrow path he took the poles, one in each hand,
and obtained a grip of the upper ledge. He now made his way along on
tiptoe, having his weight almost entirely on the poles, shifting them
alternately. To a landsman this would have been an extraordinary feat,
but, accustomed to hang to the ropes by one hand, it was not so
difficult for him, especially as he obtained some slight support from
his feet. Without the poles it would have been impossible for him to
have passed, as the ledge in some places was only three inches wide. At
the end of some thirty feet it again widened; the next forty or fifty
feet upward were comparatively easy, for the rock sloped to some extent
inward, and there were many fissures in which he was enabled to get a
firm grip with his fingers. Then came several difficult places, but he
was confident now in the hold the hooks had on the rocks, and, always
working with great caution and using sometimes his hands, sometimes the
poles, he reached the top in half an hour after starting.