CHAPTER VIII
THE SNOW-SLIDE
"I'm glad they got in a few hours' sleep this noon," solicitized Rosa,placing homemade bread and coffee before the Ranger, then dipping up abowl of soup. She looked fagged to death herself, and Radcliffe made herpromise to roll up in a blanket on a browse bed.
"Oh, if only it would rain!" she sighed, "and put out the fire!"
"Sure wish it would!" he agreed. "Haven't had such a big one in years."
"The DeHaviland was back with more supplies," one of the men reported.
"It sure takes tons of grub to keep these firemen stoked," sighed Rosadrowsily from her blankets. "But they work like lumbermen, and I'd giveevery last man here a medal if I could."
Norris and Long Lester skirted the South slope its whole length withoutfinding the cave mouth from which Norris had exited. But by now it wasdark, and the task doubly difficult. "If it wasn't for them boys beingmost likely just plumb panicky from being lost," said the old man, "I'dcall it sense to camp for the night. Once it's sun-up, we'll find theplace easy enough."
But Norris was too uneasy to leave any stone unturned. What might nothave happened in the hours since he had last seen his charges! Hisimagination, given free rein, pictured everything from murder to ravingmania.
As they neared the head of the gulch, they could see, on the side of themain ridge that towered above them, patches of snow that gleamed white inthe star-light. The canyon here headed sharply to the left.
The side they were on, the short side of the turn, was becomingimpassable with rough bowlders and tangling underbrush.
Of a sudden a low rumbling sounded faintly from seemingly beneath theirfeet. The ground wavered dizzily. Trees swayed, rocks started rollingdown the canyon side, and the very bowlder they were on tilted till theyhad to make a quick leap for it. It was just one of the slightearthquake shocks to which all Californians are accustomed. But neverbefore had either Norris or Long Lester been on such dangerous footingwhen one happened.
Quick as thought, the old man went leaping up over the bowlders, yellingfrantically to Norris to follow him. The geologist knew in a theoreticalway what to do when a snow-slide threatened, and with that lightningspeed with which our minds work in an emergency he had seen that theshock of the 'quake would precipitate snow-slides, and that they weredirectly in the path of one.
He knew theoretically,--as the old prospector knew from observation ofseveral tragedies,--that the river of snow and rock-slide would flooddown canyon till it came to a turn, then hurtle off in fine spray--on theside of the curve! (It all happened in an instant.) Their one salvationlay in taking the _short_ side of the curve,--though the going wasrougher.
With the roar of an express train,--whose speed it emulated,--theoncoming slide tore down at them. Down 3,000 feet of canyon the crustedsnows of what was still spring at that altitude rushed like a river atflood. The wind of its coming swayed tall trees.
The two men escaped by the skin of their teeth!
"It shore would'a scrambled us up somethin' turrible!" the old man keptexclaiming.
Next day, he knew, they would find a clean swath cut down themountainside,--tall pines swept away, root and branch. He had seen manyof these scars, which in later years had become a garden of fire-weed andwild onion, a paradise for birds and squirrels and onion loving bears.
He had seen steep mountains fairly striped by the paths of slides, theforest still growing between stripes. For the steeper the slope, theswifter the slide, as might be expected.
Lucky for them this had been a Southwest slope; for on the North, awayfrom the sun, a slide is even swifter!
He had seen one man buried by crossing the head of a slide which gave wayunder his foot. Its roar had been heard for miles. Frost-cracked from thesolid granite, the side rock that accompanied it had been weathered fromthe peak. Thus are high mountains worn away.
For perhaps an hour after the near-catastrophe, the air was filled withblinding snow,--not that from the skies, but that of the snow dust raisedby the slide.
The circle of the rising moon threw a silver glamor over the scene. "Whatdo you figure makes these 'quakes, anyway?" asked Long Lester.
"The boys have asked that too, and I can't give it to you all in abreath. But I'll give you the story before we end this trip."
At the moment of the earthquake, Ace and Ted, immured on a lower level ofthe cave, were following a subterranean river. They got well splashed bythe waves set up, and worse scared, but it was all over in a minute andthey were only a degree more uncomfortably damp than they had beenbefore. Suddenly Ted gave an exclamation. A crag of drip-rock had beenshaken from the roof, and there, imbedded in the limestone, lay the plainfootprint of--it might have been a giant!
The boys stared, marveling a moment, then Ted voiced his guess. Thefossil of some giant of prehistoric ages! "A fossil, all right," Aceagreed. "But that isn't a human footprint, even if there had been menthat size. That was made by some animal! If we ever get out of here,let's bring Norris and come back with picks and find out."
"Then I can quarry this fossil out and sell it?" ventured Ted.
"Right-o!" with a congratulatory slap that made Ted wince.
But the inky stream had once more become placid, and skirting the muddyledge alongside, they threaded their way through arches of varying heighttill finally the roof was so low that they had to go on hands and knees.Then the bank became so narrow that Ace slipped off into the unknowndepths. To his surprise, his feet touched bottom. Moreover, the waterwas not so cold as he had imagined. (It was about the same temperature asthe air).
"Come on in, the water's fine!" he encouraged Ted. "Do you know, we couldswim this if we had to, and don't you think it must lead out?"
"Stands to reason. But how about our candles?"
"Hold 'em in your teeth. Haven't you ever seen any one smoke a cigarettewhen he was in swimming? It's a stunt, but----"
"Ever tried it?"
"Sure. Have you?"
"No." And the deepening water soon proved that he could not keep hiscandle going. But Ace managed it for a few strokes. Then they had to swimin darkness. An increasing roar told them that they were nearing whitewater, possibly the outlet, and just as the current from a branch streamwould have caught them, they felt an overhanging ledge and scrambled upon it, Ace lending a hand to his less proficient chum.
From the far end of the tunnel shone a faint glow, as through a sheet ofwater! They had reached a cave mouth.
Creeping cautiously along the ledge, they approached the light. From itspallor and from the roaring of the rapids they at first thought they werebehind a waterfall. But a closer approach showed them that it shonethrough leaves of plants that grew just outside, where they over-archedthe escaping stream (gooseberries, they later found, and other vinesthat completely hid the exit of the stream).
It was a ticklish proposition getting out along the rock ledge, whichnarrowed to a mere rough crack into which they could dig the sides oftheir soles. But by holding hands and clinging with all their might,while they propitiated the law of gravity by leaning their weight againstthe wall, they slowly scaled a way above the churning stream, and so towhere they could cling to the thorny bushes.
It was night. The light had been the moon shining straight into the cavemouth. But where they were, on what side of the ridge, they could nottell.
They were safe, though! Saved from the blind horror of being lost in thecave! But wet and chilled to the marrow now in the night wind that blewdown canyon, famished, footsore, and aching for sleep. Still howwonderfully fresh and perfumed everything smelled after the cave.
"Got any matches in your waterproof match box?" asked Ted with chatteringteeth, throwing himself flat on the up side of a rock that would keep himfrom rolling. "Why, this is funny!" for there was no sign of the stream afew yards beyond the cave mouth. They were at the head of some formerrock slide, and the stream simply disappeared, percolating underneath itto its destination, (wherever that might be).
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But an exclamation from Ace caused him to look in the direction of hispointing arm. In the canyon below them a bon-fire burst into bloom. "Thefolks?" cried Ace joyously.
"Maybe the Mexicans," Ted restrained him.
"Let's slip up on them and find out," urged the other. "Thunder! Wouldn'tit be great if it was our bunch?"
"All the same, we gotta act just as if it was the Mexicans, till we knowfor sure."
"They've sure got a good fire," Ace shivered. "Let's hurry."
"All right, maybe it's Radcliffe come clear through the cave on a higherlevel, and maybe he's got the Mexicans."
"And Pedro?"
"And Pedro!"
"Sure, who else could it be?" they cheered each other.
But it was neither.