In the Hands of the Cave-Dwellers

  CHAPTER III

  AN AMBUSH

  The night passed quietly. The soil was soft and sandy, and, rolled inhis poncho, Will slept as comfortably as if in a hammock. They were inthe saddle early, for the day's ride would be a very long one, and Juanintended to give the horses a day's rest at Martinez.

  "We don't consider sixty miles to be a long journey here," Juan said, asthey started, "and, indeed, if one starts on fresh horses it is a merenothing; but when one rides the same, day after day, forty is as much asone has a right to expect from them after one is once fairly on his way.We shall meet with no water to-day, and it is specially for this part ofthe journey that we brought the water-skins with us."

  "I noticed that you did not fill them half full at the last stream wecrossed."

  "No, it was not necessary; the horses will have a good drink at a streamwe shall cross in a couple of hours, and we shall fill the skins there;beyond that we enter the mountains and travel through an extremelydifficult pass, or, rather, I should say, passes, till we come down intothe valley. The carts do not come this way; they strike the ColoradoRiver many miles down and follow its bank. It is at least a thirdlonger, but if it were three times as long they would have to go thatway; the passes are difficult enough for horses, but they would beimpossible for wheeled carriages."

  After riding for thirty miles they halted for half an hour; the horseswere watered, and the men ate some of the meat they had cooked overnightand some cold pancakes that had been fried in deer's fat. They were nowfar up on the hillside and following a regular track.

  "Another hour's sharp climbing and we shall be on the top summit of thepass. See to the priming of your rifles and pistols. If we are notattacked before we reach the top I shall admit that I have been wrong,and that the attack upon me was, after all, the work of streetruffians."

  The four vaqueros were ordered to look to their pistols beforeremounting; they did not carry guns.

  "Do you expect an attack, master?" one asked. "I have not heard ofthere being any bands on the road just lately, but of course there maybe some, and this bit of road is their favourite lurking-place, as thetraffic between San Filepi and the Chatenezonais Valley all comes thisway."

  "I do not know that I expect to be attacked, Lopez, but I have groundsfor suspecting that it is possible. If we should be ambushed, dismountat once, and take up your position behind the rocks and fight them intheir own way. If the road were good enough I should say gallop on, butit is too steep and too rough for that."

  Will Harland soon found that his friend had not exaggerated thedifficulty of the pass. On both sides the hills sloped very steeply andwere covered by boulders. The track in the middle of the ravine was justwide enough for a cart, but at distances of two hundred or three hundredyards apart the rock had been cut away for some twenty yards, so thattwo or three carts could draw aside there to allow others coming theother way to pass. As it was inconvenient for two to ride abreast, Juansaid: "We had better go in single file."

  "Yes, and I will ride first," Will replied. "If there should be a fellowhiding among these rocks, it will be you they are after, and, ridingfirst, you would present an easy mark for them; whereas, if I am first,they won't be able to aim at you till you are pretty nearly abreast ofthem."

  "I don't like that," Juan began, but Will pushed his horse forward. Bothhad unslung their rifles from their shoulders, and were carrying them inreadiness for instant use.

  "Keep your eyes on the rocks," Juan said to the men behind him; "if oneof you sees the least movement give a shout, and all throw yourselves atonce off your horses."

  It would, however, have been no easy matter to distinguish a man's headamong the masses of rock and boulders through which in many placesbrushwood and small trees had sprung up, and, although all kept scanningthe hillsides minutely, nothing suspicious was heard, until suddenly ashot was fired from a spot some forty feet up the rocks on the left-handside. Will instantly swung himself to the ground, gave a sharp slap onhis horse's quarters, and ensconced himself behind a rock, while theanimal, relieved from the weight of his rider, made his way rapidlyalong the path. The first shot had been followed by half a dozen others.These came from both sides of the ravine, and a ball striking the rockclose to Will's head, showed him that his position was no more safethere than it would have been on horseback. He therefore made a rushupward, and took up a position between two rocks which covered him fromeither side. Then he took advantage of some bushes and crawled someyards farther along, until he came to a spot where he could lie inshelter, and yet obtain a view through the bushes both above and belowhim.

  "Are you all right, Juan?" he shouted.

  The answer came from rocks on the other side. "Yes; the ball aimed at mehas killed my horse, but I am unhurt. Lopez is killed."

  For some time shots were fired at intervals. Juan shouted to thevaqueros not to use their pistols.

  "You would have no chance of hitting them," he said, "and they wouldonly pick you off one by one. Lie quiet for the present; keep your shotstill they come to close quarters. Now, Will," he said in English, "youwatch the rocks above me, and I will watch those above you. Mark, if youcan, where a shot is fired; lie with your rifle pointed at it until thefellow stands up to fire again, and then let him have it."

  Four shots were fired almost together from Will's side, the assailantsaiming in the direction from which the voice had come, but Will had nodoubt that Juan had foreseen this and was in shelter when he spoke.Presently he saw a puff of smoke shoot out from the side of a largerock. He brought his rifle to bear upon it and watched intently. Threeminutes later a head appeared cautiously round the rock, then a shoulderappeared, and a rifle was pointed towards the spot behind which he hadfirst sheltered. He fired, there was a sharp scream, and the rifle wentclattering down, exploding as it fell. The moment that he had fired,Will drew back into the shelter of the stone. Two other shots rang out,and the balls cut up and scattered the small pebbles on which he hadbeen lying. He was able to observe, however, the position of one of hisassailants. While he was reloading he heard the crack of Juan's rifle,followed by an exclamation of satisfaction.

  "That is two of them, Will. They will soon get tired of this game."

  The distances were so short, in fact, that it was almost impossible foreven an indifferent shot to miss his aim when he once caught sight ofthe head of an enemy. Presently another shot struck the rock close toWill. It was fired some paces from the stone that he was watching, andshowed that the assailants were using the same tactics that he had done,and were shifting their positions after firing. He moved a few yardsaway, and did not answer to the next two or three shots that werefired.

  "He is done for," he heard one of the men on the other side of theravine say. They were but some fifty feet away from him, and it was,therefore, easy to catch their words as they shouted from one to theother.

  "Well, then, go down and attack the man we want," another voice said."No one but the Englishman had a rifle over there, so you are quitesafe."

  "You had better come and show us the way. We did not bargain for thissort of thing. You said we should settle it all in one volley."

  "So you would have done, you fools, if you could have shot straight. Whocould have supposed that you were all going to miss at that distance.Why, a child of ten years old would have fired straighter. However, I amready to lead the way. You, over there, make a rush when we do."

  Will marked the exact position of the speaker. It was behind a largeboulder some fifteen yards up the hill and as much ahead of him; he sawthat to join the men who had been firing he would have to pass an openspace between that and some other large masses of rock, and he laid hissights on that spot. The speaker, who was evidently confident that hewas killed, and that therefore there was no danger of a shot being firedat him while he moved to join the others, appeared half a minute later.He was stooping, and held a pistol in each hand. The moment his bodyappeared in the line of fire Will pressed the trigger, and the manrolled over like a
log. A cry of dismay burst from the hillside aboveHarland, where the men had evidently been watching also for their leaderto join his comrades and give the signal for a rush.

  "I have shot Melos, Juan!" Will shouted. "At least if he is, as yousuppose, their leader."

  "Well done, indeed! We shall have no difficulty with the rest of them iftheir paymaster is dead; they will think of nothing now but saving theirown wretched lives."

  The parties on the opposite sides of the ravine now shouted to eachother. Two or three of them urged their companions to make a generalrush, but the majority were altogether against this.

  "Why should we throw away our lives?" one said. "They have all gotpistols, and even if we got the better of them, four or five of us wouldbe likely to go down before we had finished with them. Indeed, theywould shoot us down directly we showed ourselves, and half of us wouldnever reach the bottom."

  There was a silence which showed that there was a general feeling thathe was right. Then the same speaker went on:

  "Caballeros, we have been cruelly misled; we are poor men, and have beenled into this. Two of us have been killed; we ask your mercy."

  As he ceased there was a general cry of "Mercy! mercy!"

  "You dogs!" Juan shouted back, "if it were not that all of your livesare not worth as much as a drop of the honest blood of those with me, Iwould not move from here until I had put an end to the last of you.However, you have had a lesson now. Come down one at a time into theroad. When you get there drop your pistols and knives to the ground, andthen go down the hill. When one man has started let the next man comedown. How many are there of you?"

  "There are six of us alive," the man answered. "We were eight besidesour leader. My brother was killed by you in San Diego the other night,and if it had not been for that I should not have come."

  "Look here," Juan said, "I shall see every one of your faces plainly asyou come down, and when you have thrown down your arms you will standand face this rock so that I may have a good look at you. I warn you toleave San Diego as soon as you get back, for when I return I will havethe town searched for you, and any of you found there will pay for thiswith your lives. Now you come down first."

  One by one the six men came down, placed their weapons upon the ground,turned to the rock where Juan was lying, and then went down the passwithout a word being uttered. When the last had gone Juan stepped downinto the road, and was at once joined by Will, who had kept his riflepointed on each man as he reached the road, in case he should intendtreachery against Juan. Two of the vaqueros also stepped out.

  "Where is Pedro?" Juan asked.

  "He is dead, sir. He was shot through the body, but had just strength tothrow himself in among the rocks. I heard him groaning just at first,but he was soon silent; I could see him from where I lay, and he has notmoved since."

  "See if he is dead, Sancho. This is a bad business."

  The man returned in a minute.

  "He is quite dead, senor."

  "Where is the man you shot, Will? Let us see if my suspicions arecorrect."

  Will led the way to the spot, followed by the others. Juan glanced atthe dead man.

  "It is as I thought," he said. Then he turned to the vaqueros. "You mayas well search him. It is likely he has money upon him."

  "He has a bag, and a heavy one, sir," one of them said, as he lifted acanvas bag from the dead man's sash.

  "Let us see what he valued my life at," Juan replied.

  The two vaqueros counted over the gold pieces.

  "There are eighty of them."

  "Ten apiece," Juan remarked. "Put aside sixty for the widows of Pedroand Lopez, and take ten each yourselves."

  "Shall we do anything with the body, senor?"

  "Fetch some big stones and pile them over it. There will be no searchfor him, for you may be sure he has not mentioned to anyone in the townwhat he was going to do, or where he was going. He probably asked for aweek's leave of absence, and would likely enough say that he was goingup to Los Angeles or Santa Barbara, and when he does not return it willbe supposed that he has been murdered on the way. When you have donewith him you had better do the same thing with the bodies of your twocomrades. The ground is too rocky to dig graves, and they will sleep aswell there as elsewhere. It would be impossible for us to carry themhome."

  An hour's labour and the work was finished. Will assisted the men in thework. Juan did not offer to do so.

  "I have a bullet in my shoulder," he said. "Another fellow fired theinstant that I shot his comrade. He luckily hit my shoulder instead ofmy head. I will get you to fetch Pedro's sash and make a sling for myarm. We can do nothing for it until we go down to Monterey."

  "Have the horses gone far, do you think, Juan?"

  "No, we shall probably find them a few hundred yards up the pass. Theyare trained not to go on without riders, and when their first alarm atthe firing has ceased they will halt."

  When the cairns were finished the vaqueros cut down two saplings andmade a couple of rude crosses, which they fixed above their fallencomrades. Then they all proceeded up the pass, and soon came upon thehorses, and, mounting, continued their way down into Monterey, wherethey arrived just as the sun was setting. Here Juan's wound was attendedto. The injury was to the left arm, which had been thrown forward in theact of firing. The ball struck just above the elbow, and had cut agroove from that point nearly up to the shoulder.

  "This is evidently my unlucky arm at present, Will," he said, with asmile; "after having had three gashes below the elbow a week ago, it nowgets ploughed with a rifle-bullet."

  "I should call it a lucky limb, Juan, considering that they are nothingbut flesh wounds, and that had not the arm received them, both knife andbullet might have given you a vastly more serious wound elsewhere."

  "Yes, that is true enough. There is one comfort in being wounded inthis country. You can't go into the smallest village without findinghalf a dozen people capable of dressing an injury, more especially aknife wound. In fact, knife fights are so common that very little isthought of them unless really dangerous injury is inflicted."

  "Will not this prevent your riding for a day or two, Juan?"

  "Not a bit of it. We had intended to stop here to-morrow to give a restto the horses, but the next day we will push on. Happily, we shall nothave to be on our guard against danger, for the risk of falling in withmarauding red-skins is too slight to be thought of. Our next day's ridewill be an easy one, across a cultivated country. Then we have a longday and a half of mountain work."

  The passes which they had to traverse before arriving at Senor Sagasta'sranch astonished Harland, who had no previous experience of suchscenery. Sometimes they were travelling up ravines so deep and ruggedthat it was almost twilight below, while at others they wound along onnatural ledges on the face of precipices where a stumble of the horsewould mean certain death to it and its rider. Higher and higher theywound, until, crossing a narrow shoulder of bare rock, they looked downinto the broad valley owned by Juan's father.

  "Do you see that white speck in front of the dark patch of trees? Thatis the hacienda. As the crow flies, I do not suppose it is more thanseven or eight miles away, but by the way we have to go it is five timesthat distance, and if we are there by this time to-morrow we shall haveevery reason to be satisfied."

  When they started the next morning, Juan sent one of the vaqueros onwith the news that he would arrive two hours after his messenger.

  "It is just as well to give them notice," he said to Will. "I told himto mention that I have my arm in a sling, but that I have no seriousinjury. It has been hurting me a good bit for the past two days, and asI have not got much sleep I expect that I am not looking what you callvery fit, therefore it is as well that they should not think me in avery bad way when I ride up; besides, I dare say they are gettinganxious about me. You see, they will have calculated upon my havingridden a good deal faster than we have done, for with the two horses onecan push on rapidly, and, knowing when the horses would have
arrived atSan Diego, they have, I am sure, been on the look-out for me for thepast three or four days. Of course the wound was nothing in itself, butin such rough riding as we have had one gets sudden jerks that do notimprove its condition. You have bathed it for me night and morning, butthere is no doubt it has become a good deal inflamed, and I shall haveto keep quiet for a few days after we get there."

  Will himself was by no means sorry that the journey was approaching itsend. Wholly unaccustomed to riding, he had been so stiff at the end ofthe second day's journey that he could scarcely dismount unassisted fromhis horse. This had to some extent worn off, but he still felt thatevery bone in his body ached. The last ten miles were performed at acanter. The horses seemed as glad as their riders at being on levelground again, and were doubtless well aware that they were close totheir home once more. They were within three miles of the hacienda, whenthey saw two mounted figures riding to meet them.

  "It is my father and sister," Juan said. "I thought that they would loseno time in starting after Antonio arrived with the news that I was closeat hand."