CHAPTER XIX.
IN THE RAVINE
THE discovery that he was so near the party caused Herbert’s heart to beat faster than usual. He felt the need of prudence and caution at every step, since he could not know whether Rickard was aware of his pursuit. It might be that the fellow had discovered it and laid an ambush for him.
But, in accordance with his previous resolution, he pushed on, leading his pony by the bridle, until he had penetrated a number of rods among the hills, when he once more paused.
He was struck by the resemblance between the ridge and the one where he had spent the previous night. The curious exception, however, was that the trail that he was following was without any ascent. Thus it was that, when he stopped, he found the rocks and trees rising on either hand, as if he was entering a cañon or deep ravine. The ground showed no grass, but was so gravelly under his feet, and so filled with stones and hollows, that he was sure a torrent or river, at some time or other, had forced its way over the bed.
That which checked him abruptly was his stepping into a pool of water, into which one foot sank to the knee. He hastily drew back, with a slight gasp caused by its coolness, and then, observing nothing distinctly in the gloom, struck a match.
The air was as still as in a vault, and it was unnecessary to shade the little blaze which he held in front and above his head.
The pool was so narrow that he could easily leap to the other side. It was clear, and Jill showed his appreciation of the boon by thrusting his nose into it and drinking his fill. Herbert himself was thirsty enough to lie down on his face and do the same.
He found that the ravine which he had entered had a varying width of a dozen to fifty feet, with precipitous sides, composed of such a mass of jagged and projecting rocks that it was easy to climb out of it from any point. Not a particle of grass was visible, though possibly it was to be found further on.
Herbert’s conclusion was that the ravine cut through the hills, and had been used by Rickard and his party to reach the other side. Whether he was correct or not remained to be learned.
It struck him, however, as imprudent to take his pony further. The sound of his hoofs were quite certain to betray him to anyone on the watch, while the youth himself could steal forward without noise. The light of the burning match had revealed a gnarled root projecting from the side of the ravine. He carefully tied the bridle to this, for the place was so unique in its way that he was resolved to take no chances of Jill going astray. He would lose nothing by the detention, because, as has been shown, food was unobtainable and his master did not expect to be long absent.
Pausing a minute to make sure his pony was securely fastened, Herbert pushed into the ravine, on the alert for the first sign of the criminals and their prisoner. It was an impressive situation, and, mindful of his slight mishap, he moved with great care, occasionally burning a match when afraid of a misstep.
Ten minutes after leaving his horse, he turned an abrupt bend in the ravine and was startled by observing the light of a camp fire. It was only a little way ahead, and directly in front, so that, had he continued his walk without variation, he must have stepped into the blaze itself.
The gorge, which was comparatively narrow up to this point, expanded into a width of fully a hundred yards, in the middle of which a large fire had been kindled, that lit up the surrounding gloom, and threw a faint illumination almost to the feet of Herbert, who stood silently studying it.
That the site was well chosen was proven by the gleam of another pool of water, much larger than the former, while a patch of green grass extended from the fire beyond until lost in the darkness.
The first glance at the camp was with the conviction that he had overtaken the party he was after, but the second look raised strong doubts in his mind, for he failed to observe that which until that moment he was confident of seeing.
The party that he had followed so far across the prairie, consisted of four horsemen, one of whom was Nick Ribsam, but only two were now in sight, and neither was the lad. Nor were the pack horses visible.
The reader must not forget that Herbert was asleep during Bell Rickard’s forced visit to camp the night before and a long distance had separated the two until now. It was impossible, therefore, for him to know whether either of the parties before him was that worthy or not.
The light of the fire was sufficiently strong to bring out in relief the two horses, grazing on the luxuriant patch of grass, but, as I have said, no other animals were in sight.
One man was sitting on a stone near the fire, smoking a pipe, while the other stood in front of him, whittling a stick in the indifferent fashion that a person shows when his thoughts are otherwise occupied. He faced the one sitting on the bowlder, and the murmur of their voices was heard, as they talked, though no words were intelligible.
They were dressed in cowboy fashion, with their broad-brimmed hats, long hair, hickory shirts, and slouchy trousers tucked in their boot tops, not forgetting the belt around the waist for cartridges and pistols.
Herbert judged they were white men, though it was easy to be mistaken, since they might have been of mixed blood without its being betrayed in the firelight. He fancied one was the notorious horse thief, Belden Rickard, and the other the equally well-known half-breed, Jim-John; but this had to remain conjecture until someone confirmed or disproved it.
The bitter disappointment was his failure to see Nick, who he was confident of overtaking at the first camp reached. The only theory by which he could explain matters was that the party had divided, and one of the men had pushed on with Nick as his companion. If this were so, that one must have been Rickard. Possibly he feared pursuit, and was using the darkness to get further on with the pack horses, which could not travel as fast as the others. This might be readily done, a rendezvous having been agreed upon beforehand.
Herbert remained, viewing the fire, for a time, thinking it possible that Nick and the other man might put in an appearance, but as the minutes passed, he was confirmed in the belief named.
He determined to continue the hunt until he learned the truth. The expansion of the ravine where the fire had been kindled was so great that he could readily pass it without detection, but it would hardly do to venture upon so uncertain a journey on foot, when there was urgent need of a horse.
His plan, therefore, was to return for his pony and try to flank the camp, by leading him past. If he were discovered and challenged, he would boldly advance and make his business known, demanding that he be told where he could find his missing friend.
He took a parting look at the couple in whom he was so interested. They held the same positions as before, one sitting on the stone smoking, and the other standing in front, slowly whittling, while they discussed some matter in which neither seemed to feel a very deep interest.
Nothing was to be gained by waiting, and Herbert started back to get his horse. He had fixed the points so well in mind, that, when he supposed he was near the pool and ignited a match, he saw he was on the edge of it. He leaped lightly across, and, with the tiny flame still in his hand, walked to where his pony was tied a short time before.
Jill was gone! Since he could not have freed himself, someone had removed him.
While Herbert stood silent and dismayed, he caught the sound of a footfall, accompanied by a chuckle of triumph.
CHAPTER XX.
REINFORCEMENTS
HERBERT WATROUS was dumbfounded. He had stolen up the ravine and spent some time in studying the campfire and the two strangers, and now, on his return to where his pony had been tied, the animal was gone. While he was acting the spy, the same trick had been successfully played on him.
But he roused quickly, and running a few steps in the direction of the retreating horse and his captor, called:
“Stop, or I’ll shoot! You can’t steal my animal!”
It was an idle threat, for, in the gloom, he only knew the direction taken by the man and beast, and his shot, therefore, must have been at random.
“Shoot if you want to,” was the defiant reply; “but the flash of your gun will give us the show to drop you!”
Surely he had heard that voice before.
“Strubell, is that you?” he called, still hurrying forward, but with his weapon lowered.
Two persons now laughed, and the well-known tones of the Texan called back:
“You’ll have to practise a while, young man, before you learn how to trail Indians and horse thieves.”
Delighted beyond measure, Herbert quickly joined the friends, whom he had hardly expected to meet again.
“I was afraid you were killed,” said he, “and had no idea you were near me. Where did you come from?”
“We have been following you most of the day,” said Strubell, “but your horse went so fast we couldn’t overtake you, and, when you slowed him down, we concluded to let you go ahead, while we learned what you were driving at.”
“When you are at this business,” added Lattin, “you want to keep an eye to the rear as well as to the front.”
The Texans had their own ponies with them, and, so far as could be judged in the gloom, were suffering no ill effect from their sharp brush with their enemies the night before.
“Why did you take my horse?” asked Herbert.
“We wanted to give you a little scare, but you came back sooner than we expected. I followed after you, and, while you were viewing the camp fire, I did the same. I walked in front of you on the return, but your Jill was tied so fast that it took me longer than I expected to unfasten him.”
“Did you see Belden at the camp up the ravine?”
“No; and you didn’t either, for he isn’t there.”
“Who are those fellows?”
“One is Jim-John the half breed, and the other a fellow named Brindage – Homer Brindage, I believe.”
“They belong to Rickard’s gang?”
“Yes – two worse scamps never went unhanged; I was afraid you were going forward to talk with them, and stood ready to stop you, if you made the start.”
“Why, that’s exactly what I would have done, if Nick had been with them,” said the surprised Herbert; “would they have harmed me?”
“You would have found out mighty sudden; they are the kind that shoot first, and inquire afterward whether there was any reason for their haste.”
While the brief conversation was going on, Strubell remounted his horse and the lad did the same. Lattin had been in the saddle from the first.
“You had a fight with them last night?”
“How did you know that?” asked Lattin.
“I heard the sounds of your guns as well as theirs.”
“I guess not,” replied the Texan, “we didn’t have any scrimmage with them.”
“But there was plenty of firing.”
“Nobody denies that, but I’m tellin’ you the truth, when I say we haven’t traded a single shot with Bell Rickard or any of his men.”
Since the Texan had made this remark, Herbert expected he would follow it with an explanation of the previous night’s experience. He did not deny that there had been a fight, only that Rickard and his men were not in it. With whom, therefore, were their shots exchanged?
Both Strubell and Lattin showed the same annoying reticence about certain matters that they had displayed more than once before. Neither offered a reply to the question that was asked by Herbert’s expressive silence, which lasted for some moments.
A touch of impatience disturbed the youth. He felt like Nick when similarly annoyed. If they chose to affect so much mystery, he was not the one to gratify them by showing curiosity.
But a more important subject filled his mind. The fate of Nick Ribsam outweighed everything else, and on that he was not to be denied all the information they could furnish. Their help was needed and that without delay.
“From what you have said, Strubell, there is no doubt that Rickard has ridden away with Nick.”
“I agree with you that far.”
“Where has he gone?”
“How can you expect me to know any more about that than you?”
“But you do know more. What do you suppose?”
“They are pushing toward New Mexico.”
“But that is hundreds of miles off.”
“That doesn’t hinder their riding that way more than it does us; they may never get there, but I suspect they are aiming for that country.”
“Do you believe Rickard is an enemy of Nick?”
“There’s no doubt of it; that little affair last night, which he must have explained to you, has stirred up all the ugliness in Bell’s nature, and he is full of it.”
“What do you think he means to do with Nick?”
“I would like to answer that question,” said Strubell, who evidently sympathized with his young friend; “but I cannot.”
“Do you fear he means to kill him?”
“I hope not.”
“Heavens,” exclaimed the agonized Herbert, “and are we to sit here and allow such a crime to be committed?”
“We are going to do our best to prevent it,” was the response of Lattin, which struck fire in the hearts of the others.
“Yes,” spoke Strubell again, “that’s what we’re here for; but before going further, I want you to tell me what took place after you left us yesterday afternoon.”
“I can’t tell you all, though most of it.”
Thereupon, Herbert gave his experience with the norther, when for a while he believed he was doomed to freeze to death, ending with his search for Nick and the discovery, through the aid of his field glass, that he was riding away in company with Rickard and his companions. He had followed the party, doubting whether he could do anything to help him, but determined not to stay behind while Nick was in peril.
“Well,” said Strubell, who, like Lattin, listened attentively to the story, “you must understand that we shall never let up till we have straightened out this matter. Rickard has started toward New Mexico, and he means to get there with the boy; the two are riding hard at this minute and will press their horses to the utmost.”
“But what is their purpose?” asked the mystified Herbert.
“What is to be gained by puzzling our heads over the meaning of things, when we have the things themselves to deal with? I have my suspicion of what Bell is driving at, but I must get a little further along before I say what it is. Lattin disagrees with me, and a fellow doesn’t like to find he’s mistaken. Let that go while we bend all our energies toward righting the wrong.”
“It strikes me as strange that if Rickard is in such haste, he should take the pack horses with him.”
“He hasn’t.”
“But they are not in camp,” said Herbert.
“No; he has taken them to some point not far off, probably on the other side of the hills, where they will be left for Brindage and Jim-John to take care of. You understand the object of this,” the Texan hastened to add; “they want to give the impression that they are going slow, as they would have to do if they kept the pack animals with them. That is to throw dust in the eyes of Nick’s friends; but you can depend upon it that it is not far from camp that they have left them, and they are now devoting themselves to speed. You know that pony of your friend is as fleet as any in this crowd.”
“There is no doubt of that; Nick is a good judge of horses, and he studied him closely in San Antonio before buying him.”
“Well, Bell has had so many dealings in the same line that you can make up your mind, when he trusts his worthless life on the back of an animal, that creature must know something about grabbing ground.”
“That being so, tell me what your plan is, Strubell.”
“Now it happens that Baker and I know a little more about this part of the country than Bell and his folks, though this isn’t the first time they have traveled through it; they think this ravine is the only pass through the hills, for a long distance, but there’s where they make a mistake.”
“But what of that?”
“We’ll take a ticket over the new route.”
This odd remark caused a laugh from Lattin, who, unlike Herbert, caught its whole significance.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PURSUIT
MEN trained in the profession of the cowboys think and act quickly. Within a half hour following their meeting with Herbert Watrous, the party were travelling the other way, and shortly after emerged from the hills, where the ground was perfectly level, and advantage could be taken of the faint moonlight which would soon aid them.
As soon as they were fairly out in the open country, the Texans halted and sat motionless for a moment. They were listening for sounds which they heard not. Then Lattin slipped from the saddle and held his ear for a full minute pressed flat against the earth.
“It’s all right,” he remarked, swinging himself over the back of his pony. The three broke into a moderate gallop, riding almost abreast, for there was abundant room for them to do so.
It was about a mile from where the last change of direction took place that Strubell drew his horse down to a walk and edged in as close as he could to the hills, his companions, of course, doing the same. It was apparent that he was looking for the “new route” that had been spoken of. Herbert did all he could to aid, but when an abrupt change was made he saw no cause for it.
“That’s the reason why so few know about this,” explained the elder Texan, after stating that they had struck the right spot; “if it was plain enough to be seen miles off, Bell would have known all about it.”
“Ard and me found it out by accident,” added Lattin; “you observe how you turn here, just as if you was passing behind a door, before you hit the pass: that door hides it from the sight of anyone out on the prairie.”
The peculiar conformation had been noticed by Herbert, who replied that he could not have noticed it at noonday.
“The queerest thing,” added Lattin, “is that it’s just the same on the other side; if it wasn’t, the pass would have been found from that direction; me and Ard was chasin’ a couple of Kioways one day that had stolen a horse, when they dodged in here and gave us the slip; that’s the way we hit it.”
An expert engineer could not have constructed a finer cut through the ridge – that is, for the present purpose. At no place was it more than a hundred or less than fifty feet in width, and the ground was so level that, had they chosen, their horses might have galloped the whole distance. There was little doubt that the ridge had been broken apart at this point by some terrific convulsion of nature, the opposite sides corresponding so perfectly that they would have dovetailed, could they have been pushed together.
This being the fact, a brief time only elapsed, when the three horsemen, whose sole purpose now was to overtake the party that was making off with Nick Ribsam, rode out upon the open plain beyond.
Here was another brief halt, while the younger Texan held his ear against the earth, the other neither moving nor speaking. He remained in his prone posture so long that it was evident he had detected something. He must have caught a suspicious sound and was trying to locate it.
“It’s right ahead,” he said, as he once more climbed into the saddle, “and not fur off.”
Since the movements were now based on the discovery of the younger cowboy, the elder dropped slightly back and joined Herbert as an intimation that Lattin had become the leader.
The latter kept his pony on a walk, and the youth was close enough to him to observe that he frequently turned his head in different directions, showing that he was looking and listening with the utmost care. All at once he drew rein and the others halted by his side.
“Sh! you hear ‘em,” he whispered.
Herbert noticed the stamp of a horse, as he judged it to be, which could not have been far in advance, though the night was so still that a slight sound could be heard a long way. He was tempted to ask whether it was not true that if they could discover others close by, the strangers had the same chance of learning about them, but he was sure his friends understood themselves too well to commit a blunder which he would detect.
Without another word between the men the younger let himself silently to the ground and moved forward in the gloom. It seemed to the youth that he showed rashness by this act, for, instead of crouching over and stealing along, step by step, he remained erect and walked with his ordinary gait, except perhaps he lifted and set down his feet more lightly.
It need not be said, however, that Baker Lattin understood what he was doing, and, when at the end of a few minutes he came back, he brought the very news which Strubell expected and which confirmed the theory formed by the cowboys.
The three pack horses belonging to the Americans were less than two hundred yards distant. A couple were lying down while the third was cropping the grass. No person was nearer than the owners, so that it was proven that they had been left there by Bell Rickard and his companion to be picked up by Jim-John and Brindage, who were to follow them at a more leisurely pace.
The animals were not picketed, for they were not likely to wander beyond easy reach during the few hours that must elapse before the rear guard could come up with them. Their loads had been placed on the ground and their bridles removed, so that they were free to wander whither they chose.
The tidings were pleasing to our friends, who were thus given the means of procuring what they were sure to need before reaching the end of their journey. Strubell brought forth the blankets, extra suits for stormy weather, and a goodly number of articles that insured comfort for a good while to come.
It seemed odd that after recovering their animals and property the Texans should coolly turn them over to the thieves, but the reader will see that it was the only thing to be done. Rickard and Slidham had abandoned them for the sake of speed, and for their pursuers to take them up would be to handicap themselves in the same fatal fashion.
The fugitives, as they may be called, had got what they wanted from the pack horses, and, when Strubell and Lattin did the same, the loads were much lightened.
It was, therefore, without the slightest hesitation that, after procuring their supplies, our friends resumed their advance, leaving the couple among the hills to explain by what means the Texans had flanked them.
Strubell had hopes of overtaking Rickard and Slidham before daylight, his belief being that they would go into camp after riding a number of miles. They had been in the saddle so continuously during the last few days, it would seem they ought to need rest as much as their animals, but as the darkness wore on without sight or sound of them, he and Lattin agreed that the scamps were pushing their horses to the utmost.
The pursuers were also pressing their animals hard, and to a higher degree than they would have done under other circumstances, but the Texans showed an eagerness to reach the other party that caused Herbert alarm. He was certain there must be a cause for this haste which they refused to explain to him.
At long intervals one of the men resorted to the usual test of placing his ear to the ground with the hope of catching the sounds of footsteps. Once he stated that he heard something of the kind, and for a half hour they believed they were coming up with the company in front. It proved, however, that some kind of animals were moving across the country that were not likely to be those they were seeking.
To settle the question the pursuit was forced, and they overtook a couple of mavericks or stray cattle. One of them was turned to account, for Strubell shot it, and the party went into camp.
It was high time they did so, for their ponies were worn out and they themselves were tired and sleepy. Enough fuel was found to start a fire, over which a good meal was prepared, sufficient being cooked and laid aside to allow them to keep up the pursuit for a couple of days without stopping for food.
The fear of Herbert Watrous was that a mistake had been made by his friends who had wandered from the trail, but when daylight dawned, and the Texans made an investigation, they found they were right. Rickard and Slidham were following the very course named by them – that is, in the direction of New Mexico.
“It looks as if it’s going to be a long chase,” said Strubell; “but unless something unexpected happens we shall win.”