Chapter IX
ON THE TRAIL
"Did you kill him, I hope?" Janet asked with keen excitement.
Valerie was in her tent asleep while Gale, after a substantial supper,told the others of what had happened to them. She had come to the partin their escape when she stopped and fired at the bandit when Janetvoiced her opinion.
Gale shivered. "I hope I didn't," she declared. "I wouldn't care to be amurderess."
"I think there is not much danger of that," Tom reassured her. "Thosefellows are pretty hard to kill."
"We were all nearly frantic," Virginia said, a fond arm about Gale'sshoulders. "First we saw the rock fall and then when you didn't comeback--we didn't know what to think or do!"
"That's something else," Gale said, "that rock didn't fall of its ownaccord. It was pushed."
"Are you sure?" Carol demanded.
"I saw the man," Gale said positively. "Something, I don't know what,made me look up just as we were walking under it."
"That something saved you from being smashed flatter than a pancake,"Janet said wisely.
"But who would push the rock?" Madge asked wonderingly. "Those mendidn't actually want to--murder you, did they?"
Gale laughed nervously. "Let's hope they didn't; they might try again."
"Hereafter none of you go wandering away by yourselves from camp," Jimsaid sternly. "To-morrow Tom and I will go see those fellows, since theydidn't come to see us," he added grimly.
"But you----" Virginia was beginning when her voice died away intosilence.
The thunder of hoofs echoed down into the valley to them. All eyesturned up to where the rim of the mountain was silhouetted against themoonlit sky. Three black mounted figures were picking their way slowlyacross the trail. In a moment they were swallowed up in the blackness ofa forest as they made their way down to the valley some distance fromthe Adventure Girls' camp.
"Three of them," Tom murmured. "Evidently you didn't kill that fellowafter all, Gale."
"And I'm afraid we won't be able to get a look at them tomorrow," Jimadded. "We'll follow their trail of course to see in what direction theyare heading. I think, Virginia, you had better lead the girls back tothe K Bar O. There is too much danger in these hills."
"Nothing doing," Janet interrupted, flatly. "We like danger and we don'twant to go home. If you follow the bandits, so do we!"
"I'm afraid we're all agreed on that," Gale nodded.
"So you see it is useless for you to argue," Virginia added, as Jimopened his mouth to protest.
"But Dad wouldn't like it, Virginia," Tom said with a frown. "Jim and Iare responsible for you girls. If anything happens----"
"Nothing will," Carol assured him. "We all bear charmed lives. We shallreturn to the K Bar O when our trip is over just as we started out," shedeclared.
"But what about Valerie?" Madge put in. "Do you think she can stand alot of hard riding?"
Gale grew thoughtful. "She came through tonight with never a protest. Ibelieve Val can stand a lot more than we give her credit for."
Later, lying on her bed of pine boughs beside Phyllis, Gale thought ofValerie again. It had been strenuous, climbing down from the roof andlater fleeing through the underbrush and over that huge boulder had beenparticularly wearying, without considering that they did it all on topof a day's riding. Val had borne up marvelously well. True she had beennear collapse at the end, but then she herself had not had much vitalityleft and she had always been stronger than Valerie. Yes sir, Val was ina much better physical condition than when they had started for theWest.
The morning, however, found Valerie not as robust as Gale's optimisticthoughts had pictured her. Breaking camp was delayed until lunch time inorder to give Val the benefit of a few more hours rest. After luncheon,the party saddled and mounted their horses. After a while, Jim picked upthe trail of the outlaws and they followed it a short distance. But thebandits had evidently suspected a chase and rode their horses into astream. From there all trace of trail was wiped out.
Sunset found them miles from the scene of the girls' adventure. Supperwas prepared and after it had disappeared they sat about the campfiretelling stories or singing songs. They retired early and were up withthe first rays of the sun.
Day after day they followed the same procedure. Their skins were gettingtanned and their appetites were enormous.
"I never thought I could eat so much," wailed Janet, after aparticularly hearty meal.
"You'll look like a baby elephant when we get back home," prophesiedCarol encouragingly.
They rode like regular westerners now, and every day they appreciatedmore and more the beauty of the country through which they rode. If Jimhad planned on showing them the loveliest scenery, he was running trueto plan. The girls had never realized before that nature, untamed byman, could be so lovely. They never realized that just to sit and gazeat a sunset could bring such a thrill. In every way the country wasaffecting them. Physically they were healthier than they had ever been.Their mental outlook was brighter, more cheerful. Here in limitlessspace, mid tall mountains, they felt more drawn to one another. Theirfriendships grew and flourished.
One day they camped close to the mighty Colorado River that flowsthrough the Grand Canyon. The cliffs of sandstone and limestone, almosta mile high, were so rugged and majestic as to fill the girls with awe.All the colors of the rainbow were in the rocks and under the influenceof the sun and the shadows cast by it, formed pictures of entrancingbeauty, pictures too beautiful to ever be put down on canvas. Rain andwind had sculptured the cliffs into bewildering and fantastic formswhich added to their brilliant coloring.
"Doesn't it make you feel tiny?" murmured Janet, scarcely above awhisper, afraid to disturb the great hush that hung over the Canyon.
"The Canyon was first seen by white men in 1541," Tom told them. "TheColorado River where it runs through the Canyon there is three hundredfeet wide, and in times of freshets it's a mighty torrent."
"You sound like a traditional guide book," Janet told him.
"It's wonderful," Valerie murmured, voicing the feelings of all of them.
Another day found the Adventure Girls and their friends examining thecolossal stone tree trunks of the Petrified Forest. Here they found moreto awe and surprise them. Still another day found them at the rim of thePainted Desert, the desert with its multi-colored plains alive withsomber, purple shadows.
"I'm overwhelmed!" Carol declared. "From now on I shall be a strongadvocate of See America First!"
Valerie had out the little sketching block she always carried with her.With a strong talent for sketching and limitless subjects on which totry her skill, Val rode with her pencil and pad in her hands nearly allday. She wanted to take back home sketches of the spots that interestedher most on this trip.
"I'll never be able to make it look as beautiful on paper as it reallyis," she sighed. "No one could really hope to."
"I'd like to have one of the sketches you made of the Canyon the otherday," Gale said. "I intend to frame it and keep it as a memento."
"Isn't it funny, Gale," Val mused aloud, "how you never miss anythinguntil you've seen it."
"You might feel as though you miss something," Gale agreed, "but youdon't know what it is."
"I shall miss all this a lot when we go back East," Val declared,looking about at the Arizona sunset. "Everything is so--big out here. Ifeel awf'ly small. When I think of the silly things we quarrel over inschool and the things we think we can't get along without in the city,it makes me ashamed of myself."
Gale laughed. "If you lived out here long enough, I'm afraid you wouldhave a bad inferiority complex."
"No, but don't you feel that way?" Val demanded. "Tomorrow we start forMonument Valley near Kayenta. That's one hundred and seventy-five milesfrom the nearest telephone. Imagine what that means! Back home we don'tthink anything of a telephone because nearly everybody has one."
"Yes, and just th
ink, I haven't had a chocolate soda since I came outhere," chimed in Janet, coming up behind them. "I hope I shall survive."
"You look as though you might pull through," Valerie laughed.
"Come and get it!" Tom called and there was a concerted rush for themakeshift supper table.
Day after day they rode through canyons and winding intermittent gullies,shallow basins, and dry washes. They followed trails through thicksagebrush and cottonwoods, over dry beds of streams and sunken deserts,marveling how the dull gray and olive of the sagebrush and treesmingled. They learned that many of the mountains were extinct volcanoesand admired the brilliant colored sandstone and shale formations. Onceor twice they ran into heavy thunderstorms that turned dried-up streamsinto rushing torrents of muddy swirling waters.
They explored with keen interest Monument Valley with the spire-likerock of El Capitan at its head, and its fantastic flat topped pillarsrising thousands of feet into the air. A day's ride from Kayenta theriders came upon Betatakin, one of the most interesting, although leastknown, of the cliff dwellings, standing silent within its mammoth cave.
"Just think, hundreds of people lived and died here a thousand yearsago," Virginia commented.
"I'm glad we don't live in houses like these," Janet said, as sheclimbed up the worn stone steps to the next level. "I've no desire toclimb all these steps every time I want to go home."
"If you walked in your sleep it was just too bad," added Carol, lookingback down at the stones over which they had come.
"It gives me an appetite," Madge complained. "When do we eat?"
"The sooner the better," put in Phyllis.
For hours the girls prowled around in the dark houses of the cliffdwellers, taking their time to examine everything of interest. The nextday they resumed their riding, heading south toward the K Bar O.
During the days Gale and Phyllis had a lot of practice with theirrevolvers and now could succeed in coming fairly close to the bull's eyeevery time they tried. Gale, too, was becoming proficient with her rope.Jim spent hours teaching her and she proved an apt pupil.
Riding with Virginia behind Jim as they swung along the trail, Gale waslooking up at the trees and the blue sky, thinking how she would hate toleave all this when it came time for the Adventure Girls to go backEast.
"Look out, Jim!" Virginia screamed suddenly.
There was a snarl and a streak of yellow leaped from the low-hanginglimb of a tree. Jim's horse reared wildly and plunged away as its riderwas dragged from the saddle by the impact of the cougar's weight.
For a second none of the riders could do anything but check theirmounts. All the horses threatened to run away and careened wildly,almost unseating their riders. Meanwhile, Jim was thrashing about on theground, struggling for his life while his companions watched helplessly.
"Quiet, boy," Gale said, a soothing hand on her trembling pony's neck.With her other hand she unfastened her rope.
"Look out, I'm going to shoot," Tom said, raising his rifle to hisshoulder.
"Don't!" Carol cried. "You might hit Jim."
"But the beast is killing him," Janet said with a shudder. "Somebody dosomething!"
Despite Carol's warning, Tom discharged his gun and succeeded only infrightening the ponies more. Jim was fighting madly to keep the sharpclaws and teeth away from his face and throat.
Once more Gale spoke to her pony and patted him reassuringly. He jerkednervously under her hand, but he was by far the quietest one of thebeasts. During the days in the saddle Gale had learned the tricks andtendencies of her mount and she had instilled a trust in him for hisrider. Now, though he longed to flee from this spot with its danger, hestood quietly obedient to her voice and touch. In her hand Gale held hercoiled rope. Tom had dismounted and handed the reins of his horse and ofthe pack horses to Carol and was edging nearer to those thrashingfigures on the ground. Virginia, too, had dismounted.
At the first opportune moment, Gale's rope slithered out and fell overthe two. The loop caught a hind leg of the cougar. Immediately ittightened and the snapping teeth were diverted from Jim to the ropeabout its leg.
"Go it, boy!" Gale urged her horse.
The horse darted forward. Behind her the rope pulled the cougar clearfrom Jim. The pony sped down the trail, its rider bent low in thesaddle, the rope dragging the squirming, struggling mountain lion overthe stony ground. Gale did not slow her mount till she was sure that theanimal was dead. Then she turned her horse and trotted him slowly backto the group.
Tom and Virginia were busy with Jim. The cowboy's shirt hung in ribbons,and the flesh of his shoulders and arms was streaming with blood. He hada long scratch along his cheek, but otherwise he was safe and sound.
"Never thought that rope trainin' would come in so handy," he grinned ather. "Reckon I owe you a heap for pullin' that fella offa me, MissGale."
"Is he dead?" Janet asked tremulously with a glance for the dust coveredthing at the end of Gale's rope.
"If he isn't, he ought to be," Gale replied, dismounting. "Are you hurtmuch, Jim?"
The cowboy insisted that they should not stop their day's ride on hisaccount. After Tom's first aid treatment had been administered and Jimremounted his horse, they started forward again. Tom had cut the cougarloose from Gale's rope and pulled him to one side of the trail.
"That's what I like about the country out here," Janet said to no one inparticular. "Always something doing. Any time at all you might step on arattlesnake or get jumped on by a ferocious animal. Nice country!" shedeclared with a grin.
"Pleasant thoughts you have," Carol laughed. "It's no worse than backhome. There we have to dodge street cars and taxi cabs."
"Give me the taxi cabs," Madge murmured. "They at least give you awarning."
It was late when they stopped for their camp. Riding and excitement hadwhetted their appetites and while they ate, Tom and Jim told them ofother experiences each had had with animals in the surrounding country.Jim took the whole affair as all part of the day, and refused to declarehimself a bit thrilled over it.
"At least we'll have something to talk about when we get home," Phyllissmiled.
"We've got a lot to talk about," Valerie declared. "We've met nearlyeverything the West can produce, haven't we?"
"Nearly," Virginia laughed. "Do you feel like going home now?"
"No!" came unanimously from all the girls.
"Well, whether you like it or not, we are," Tom declared. "Tomorrow weget back on K Bar O soil. Two more days and we'll be at the ranchhouse."
"We've got to go home, our supplies are running low," Virginiaexplained.
"Can we go on another trip then?" Carol asked immediately.
"If we have enough time," Valerie commented. "The days have gone soquickly. We'll be going home soon."
"We'll refuse to think of that," Phyllis said firmly. "Let's hear somemore of your experiences," she suggested to Jim and Tom.
For another hour while the fire crackled and shadows danced over thetents and figures around it, Jim entertained them with memories of therange lands. Valerie and Phyllis retired first. After them went theother four girls. Gale alone remained beside the fire with her cousinand the cowboy.
"Tom----" Gale began hesitantly.
"Yes?" Tom encouraged, tossing another log on the fire.
"That trail we passed just before we camped--was it the bandits'?" sheasked.
Tom and Jim exchanged a fleeting glance.
"What made you think of them?" Tom asked.
"Before we started on this trip," Gale said, "Valerie and I overheardyou and your dad talking about rustlers. We didn't mean to listen, butwe did. Had that trail today anything to do with them? I thought youboth looked worried when you saw it."
"We were worried," Jim admitted. "It was a fresh trail and the same menwho held you prisoner that night in the hills, made that trail. Wethought we had lost them sure, but it doesn't look that way."
"What are you going to do?" Gale wanted to know.
"N
othing," Tom said promptly. "We are going to take you girls safelyback to the K Bar O."
"The bandits are probably making for the border into Mexico," Jimmurmured. "The Sheriff and his men will catch 'em."
Tom laughed. "They haven't done much catching so far. I'll bet thebandits get clean away."
"Then there is nothing to worry about," Gale said.
"No, nothing to worry about," agreed Tom.
When Gale had entered the tent she shared with Valerie and Phyllis, shewent immediately to sleep and did not know that long after she retired,Tom and Jim talked seriously and long about the possibility of meetingthe rustlers before they reached the ranch safely.