Out of the Depths: A Romance of Reclamation

  CHAPTER XXIV

  BLIND LOVE

  At sunrise the harassed dreamer awoke to find Gowan gazing down at himsomberly.

  "You--you here?" he exclaimed, starting up on his elbow. "What is--" Hechecked himself and muttered brokenly, "I've been dreaming--horriblenightmares."

  "He's down there overhauling his outfit," said Gowan. "Hope you'vethought the matter over."

  "My answer must be the same. I cannot do it, I cannot!" repliedAshton. He spoke hurriedly, as if afraid to linger on the thought.

  "You can't--not to save her and have me give her to you?" askedGowan.

  Ashton clenched his hands and bent over in an agony of doubt andindecision.

  "You devil!" he groaned.

  "What! Because I'm willing to give her up, in order to see hersaved?"

  "Why don't you shoot him, if you're so anxious?" queried Ashton.

  "And hang for it," retorted the puncher. "You can do it with anaccident, and no risk. Anyway, that'll make things easier for hiswife--to have him meet a natural death. Won't be anything said aboutwhy he was taken off. She hasn't begun to suspect what's going onbetween him and--"

  Gowan paused, looked at the tent, and concluded: "I've done my part. Iwon't say any more. But just you remember what I've told you. Youwon't run any risk. Mr. Knowles hasn't come back yet. There'll be onlythem and me along, and we won't be able to see you do it. Justremember what it will mean to her--just remember that--when you gethim where a shove or a loosened spike--Savvy?"

  He went to loosen the diamond hitch of the packs that he had broughtwith him from the ranch. Ashton sank back and lay brooding until thegirl came from the tent and called to inquire how he felt. Toowretched to care about his appearance, he rose and went over to her.

  "Oh!" she exclaimed at sight of his haggard face. "You are ill!"

  "Only an attack of indigestion and loss of sleep--something I oftenhave," he lied. "A cup of coffee will set me up. Don't worry. I'mstrong--head doesn't bother me at all this morning, except a numbfeeling inside."

  "I shall dress the wound at once, while the coffee is boiling," shereplied.

  He would have objected. She silenced him with a look that acted on hischafed spirit like oil upon a burn. Her kind, almost tender voice andthe soft touch of her fingers on his head soothed his anguish andseemed to counteract the poison instilled by Gowan. He began to doubtthe puncher and the witness of his own eyes.

  When Blake and his wife came to breakfast, Ashton was so cheerful thatthey hardly noticed the traces of haggardness that yet lingered in hisface. Blake at once centered the attention of all by explaining hisplans for the exploration of the canyon. In addition to the surveyor'schain, a hammer, and the rope and spikes,--which were to be used onlyin making the descent,--he and Ashton were to carry the level and rodand a quantity of food. At the suggestion of Isobel, he agreed to takeher father's revolver and fire it at intervals, on the chance that thewatchers above might see the flash of the shots and so be able tofollow the progress of the explorers down in the depths.

  Genevieve quickly thought out signals to be given in response. If atnight, a torch was to be cast down into the chasm; if in the daytime,a white flag, made of a sheet sent by Yuki, was to be waved out overthe brink. As the explorers might become confused in the gloom of thecanyon bottom, the point of the bend opposite Dry Fork Gulch was to bemarked by a beacon fire built on the verge of the canyon wall.

  Blake had already arranged everything that he and Ashton were to takedown with them. Immediately after breakfast the outfit was fastened onthe packhorses, together with food, water and blankets for those whowere to remain on the heights. The ladies were determined to keepabove the explorers at all points where the rim of the canyon could beapproached. Gowan was to fetch and carry for them and take the horsesdown to the pool for water at night.

  Within half an hour after breakfast the party was jogging away fromcamp, fully equipped for the great undertaking. Gowan was afoot. Hishorse, as well as the regular pack animals, was heavily loaded withstores. He walked with Isobel, who had insisted that Ashton shouldride her pony. Blake strode along at his wife's stirrup, carrying hisson in a clasp as tender as it was strong.

  The engineer was the only cheerful member of the party. Even ThomasHerbert, that best tempered of babies, was peevish and fretful. He wasinstinctively reflexing the suppressed nervousness and anxiety of hismother. Gowan and Ashton were as gloomy in look and speech as theshadowy depths of the canyon. Isobel bravely sought to respond toBlake's confidence in the favorable outcome of the survey; but hersmile, like Genevieve's, was forced and her eyes were troubled.

  They reached the point of attack as the rays of the morning sun werebeginning to strike down into the side gorge. This was as Blake hadplanned. He at once began to direct the preparations for the descent,himself doing the lion's share of the work.

  A long detour to a point higher up the ravine offered an easy descentof its bottom to the place where it pitched steeply into the canyon.Blake preferred to take a short cut down the almost vertical side ofthe gulch. The three pieces of rope, each a hundred feet long, wereknotted together and used to lower a grass-padded package containingall the equipment of the explorers except the level. The bundle waslodged on a broad shelf of rock, over two hundred and fifty feetdown.

  "Our first measurement," remarked Blake, as he subtracted from threehundred feet the length of the line left above the edge of the cliff.He jotted down the remainder in his notebook, and nodded to Ashton,who, with Gowan and Isobel, was holding the end of the rope. "You seewhy I had Mr. Gowan bring gloves and chaps and your leggins. We willmake the line fast around that rock, and follow our outfit."

  Ashton stared, slack jawed. "Really, you cannot mean--?"

  "Yes. Why not?" asked Blake. "There's nothing to a slide like thisexcept the look of it."

  "Oh, Tom!" breathlessly cried Genevieve. "Are you sure--quite sure!"

  "Sure I'm sure, little woman," he replied. "There's not the slightestdanger. This is a new manila rope, and the package, with all thosespikes in it, weighs as much as I do. That gives us a sure test."

  "I might have known!" she sighed her relief.

  "Still it does look a bit stiff for a start-off," he admitted. "IfLafe prefers, he can go around and come down the ravine bed. I shallslide the line and be getting the outfit in shape for shooting thechutes."

  "How about the rope?" asked Isobel.

  "You are to drop it to me as soon as I get down and stand from under,"directed Blake. He examined with minute care the loop and knot withwhich Gowan and Isobel had made the rope fast around the point ofrock. Having satisfied himself that the knot was perfectly secure, heturned to his wife and opened his arms. "Now, Sweetheart! Wish us goodluck and a quick journey!"

  Gowan and Ashton drew back and looked away as Genevieve flung herselfon her husband's broad chest, unable to restrain her tears.

  "Now, now, little woman," he soothed, patting her shoulder. "There'snothing to be afraid of, and you know it."

  "If--if only we could see you down there!" she sobbed.

  "You will, part of the time, with your glasses. And you'll be sure tosee the flash of some of my shots. That's all that I'm worryingabout--you'll be skirting along the canyon rim. Promise me you'll notgo near the edge except where the footing is perfectly safe."

  "Yes, Dear. I shall have Thomas to remind me to be careful. But you?"

  "I shall have the thought of you both to keep me from being rash.Remember that."

  "You will not be rash, I know," she answered, smiling up at himbravely. "You will go and come back to us soon. Now kiss me andThomas. I shall not detain you from your work."

  "Spoken like my partner," he quietly praised her.

  Both by tone and manner he was plainly seeking to ease the parting tothe calmness of an ordinary farewell. His wife responded to this,outwardly at least. Not so Isobel. From the moment he had turned toGenevieve, the girl had betrayed a rapidly increasing agitation.

 
He went to kiss his baby, who had fallen asleep during the last halfmile of the trip and lay sprawled in the shade of a bowlder. As hecame back, Genevieve lingered beside the child, as if half fearful ofwatching her husband begin his dizzy descent of the rope.

  Isobel was standing close to the verge, her bosom heaving withquick-drawn breaths, her excited face flushing and paling in rapidalternation. Blake had pulled on his left glove, but had kept hisright hand bare for her. As he held it out he looked up from the tautrope at his feet and saw her excessively agitated face.

  "You have something to tell me--your voice--your eyes--"]

  "Why, Miss Chuckie!" he remonstrated, "you're not going to break downnow. You see how Jenny takes it. There's nothing to fear."

  "Oh, but, Tom!" she panted, "you--you don't understand! you don'tknow! It's not merely the danger! It's the dreadful thought that ifyou--if you should not--come back--and I hadn't told you!"

  "Told me?" he echoed in hushed wonderment as her anguished soul lookedout at him through her wide eyes and he sensed the first vagueforeshadowing of the truth. "You have something to tell me--yourvoice!--your eyes!--"

  "You see it! You know me!" she gasped, and she flung herself into hisarms. Straining herself to him in half frantic ecstasy, she murmuredin a broken whisper: "Yes! I am--am Belle! It is wicked and selfish totell you; but to have you go down there without first--I could notbear it! Yet I--I shall not drag you down--disgrace you. Never that!I'll go away!... Oh, Tom! dear Tom!"

  He had stood dumfounded by the revelation of her identity. At first hecould not speak; hardly could he think. His eyes stared into hers witha dazed look. But before she could finish her impassioned declarationof self-abnegation he roused from his bewilderment, and his greatarms closed about her quivering body. He crushed her to him andpressed his lips upon her white forehead.

  "Belle!--poor little Belle!... But why? Tell me why? All this time,and you never showed by a single word or look!"

  "I did!" she sought to defend herself from the tender reproach. "Idid, but I--I was afraid to tell."

  "Afraid?"

  The girl's face flamed scarlet with shame. She sought to draw awayfrom him. "Let me go, Tom! oh, please, let me go! I am a selfish,wicked girl! I have done it! I have done it! Now there is no help forit! She must be told--all!"

  "All?" he questioned.

  "Yes, all, Tom! I cannot deny Mary! She saved me! I believe she is inHeaven. She could not help doing what she did. She could not help it,Tom--and she saved me! I must give you up--go away; but I can never,never deny my sister!"

  Blake swung half around with the quivering girl, and looked over herdownbent head at his wife. Genevieve stood almost within arm's-lengthof them. He met her gaze, and immediately pushed the girl out towardsher.

  "Listen, Belle," he said. "It is all right. Here is Jenny waiting foryou. She understands."

  Gowan, watching rigid and tense-lipped, with his hand clenched on thehilt of his half-drawn Colt's, was astonished to see Mrs. Blake stepforward and clasp Isobel in her arms. But Ashton did not see thestrange act that checked the puncher's vengeful shot. While the girlwas yet clinging to Blake, he had turned and fled along the edge ofthe ravine, for the moment stark mad with rage and despair.

  He rushed off without a cry, and the others were themselves far toosurcharged with emotion to heed his going until he had disappearedaround a turn in the ravine. When at last, almost spent with exertion,he staggered up a ridge to glare back at those from whom he had fled,his bloodshot eyes could perceive only three figures on the brink ofthe gorge. They were kneeling to look over into the ravine.

  His thoughts were still in a wild whirl, but the heat of his mad ragehad passed and left him in a cold fury. He instantly comprehended thatBlake had swung over the edge and was descending the rope down thealmost sheer face of the ravine wall.

  Now was the time! A touch of a knife-edge to the rope, and the girlwould be saved. Would Gowan think of it?... Of course he wouldthink of it. But he would not do it. He would leave the deed to bedone by the man to whom he had relinquished Miss Chuckie. It wasfor that man to save her--to destroy the tempter and break thespell of fascination that was drawing her over the brink of a pitfar deeper than any earthly canyon. He, Lafayette Ashton--notGowan--was the man. He must save her--down there in the depths, whereno eye could see.

  [Transcriber's Note: Map of High Mesa and Dry Mesa with place ofdescent and other landmarks shown appears here.]