CHAPTER XL
GURLEY'S GET-AWAY
The boulder cave to which the Apaches had driven Dinsmore and Ramona hadlong since been picked out by the outlaws as a defensible position incase of need. The ledge that ran up to it on the right offered no coverfor attackers. It was scarcely three feet wide, and above and below itthe wall was for practical purposes perpendicular. In anticipation of aday when his gang might be rounded up by a posse, Pete Dinsmore had goneover the path and flung down into the gulch every bit of quartz bigenough to shelter a man.
The contour of the rock face back of the big boulders was concave, sothat the defenders were protected from sharpshooters at the edge of theprecipice above.
Another way led up from the bed of the creek by means of a very roughand broken climb terminating in the loose rubble about the point wherethe ledge ran out. This Dinsmore had set Gurley to watch, but it was notlikely that the Indians would reach here for several hours a pointdangerous to the attacked.
Of what happened that day Ramona saw little. She loaded rifles andpushed them out to Dinsmore from the safety of the cave. Once he hadshouted out to her or to Gurley news of a second successful shot.
"One more good Indian. Hi-yi-yi!" The last was a taunt to the Apacheshidden below.
There came a time late in the afternoon when the serious attack of theredskins developed. It came from the left, and it was soon plain that anumber of Apaches had found cover in the rough boulder bed halfway upfrom the creek. Ramona took Dinsmore's place as guard over the pathwaywhile he moved across to help Gurley rout the sharpshooters slowlyedging forward.
One hour of sharp work did it. Man for man there never was anycomparison between the Indians and the early settlers as fighting men.Dinsmore and Gurley, both good shots, better armed and better trainedthan the Apaches, drove the bucks back from the boulder bed where theywere deployed. One certainly was killed, another probably. As quickly asthey could with safety disengage themselves the braves drew down intothe shelter of the brush below.
But Dinsmore knew that the temporary victory achieved could not affectthe end of this one-sided battle. The Apaches would wipe all three ofthem out--unless by some miracle help reached them from outside. Ramona,too, knew it. So did Gurley.
As the darkness fell the fingers of 'Mona crept often to the littlerevolver by her side. Sometime soon--perhaps in three hours, perhaps intwelve, perhaps in twenty-four--she must send a bullet into her brain.She decided quite calmly that she would do it at the last possiblemoment that would admit of certainty. She must not make any mistake,must not wait till it was too late. It would be a horrible thing to do,but--she must not fall alive into the hands of the Apaches.
Crouched behind his boulder in the darkness, Gurley too knew that theparty was facing extinction. He could not save the others by staying.Was it possible to save himself by going? He knew that rough climb downthrough the boulder beds to the canon below. The night was black asEgypt. Surely it would be possible, if he kept well to the left, tododge any sentries the Indians might have set.
He moistened his dry lips with his tongue. Furtively he glanced backtoward the cave where the girl was hidden. She could not see him. Norcould Dinsmore. They would know nothing about it till long after he hadgone. Their stupidity had brought the Apaches upon them. If they hadtaken his advice the savages would have missed them by ten miles. Whyshould he let their folly destroy him too? If he escaped he might meetsome freight outfit and send help to them.
The man edged out from his rock, crept noiselessly into the night. Hecrawled along the steep rubble slide, wary and soft-footed as apanther. It took him a long half-hour to reach the boulder bed. Rifle inhand, he lowered himself from rock to rock, taking advantage of everyshadow....
An hour later Dinsmore called to 'Mona. "Asleep, girl?"
"No," she answered in a small voice.
"Slip out with these cartridges to Steve and find out if anythin'sdoin'. Then you'd better try to sleep. 'Paches don't attack at night."
Ramona crept along the ledge back of the big boulders. Gurley hadgone--vanished completely. Her heart stood still. There was some vaguethought in her mind that the Indians had somehow disposed of him. Shecalled to Dinsmore in a little stifled shout that brought him on therun.
"He's gone!" she gasped.
The eyes of Dinsmore blazed. He knew exactly how to account for theabsence of the man. "I might 'a' known it. The yellow coyote! Left us inthe lurch to save his own hide!"
"Perhaps he's gone for help," the girl suggested faintly.
"No chance. He's playin' a lone hand--tryin' for a get-away himself,"her companion said bitterly. "You'll have to take his place here. If yousee anything move, no matter what it is, shoot at it."
"If I call you will you come?" she begged.
"On the jump," he promised. "Don't go to sleep. If they should come itwill be up through the boulder bed. I'm leavin' you here because you canwatch from cover where you can't possibly be seen. It's different on theother side."
She knew that, but as soon as he had left her the heart of the girlsank. She was alone, lost in a night of howling savages. The horriblethings they did to their captives--she recalled a story whispered to herby a girl friend that it had been impossible to shake out of her mind.In the middle of the night she had more than once found herself sittingbolt upright in bed, wakened from terrible dreams of herself as aprisoner of the Apaches.
'Mona prayed, and found some comfort in her prayers. They were thefrank, selfish petitions of a little child.
"God, don't let me die. I'm so young, and so frightened. Send Daddy tosave me ... or Jack Roberts."
She recited the twenty-third Psalm aloud in a low voice. The fourthverse she went back to, repeating it several times.
"'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I willfear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfortme.'"
And the last verse:
"'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.'"
Somehow she felt less lonely afterward. God was on her side. He wouldsend her father or Jack Roberts.
Then, into her newborn calm, there came a far cry of agony thatshattered it instantly. Her taut nerves gave way like a brokenbow-string. Her light body began to shake. She leaned against the coldrock wall in hysterical collapse.
The voice of Dinsmore boomed along the passageway. "It's a cougar, girl.They've got a yell like the scream of lost souls. I've often heard ithere."
Ramona knew he was lying, but the sound of his cheerful voice wassomething. She was not utterly alone.
Again that shriek lifted into the night and echoed up the canon. Thegirl covered her ears with her hands and trembled violently. A shot rangout from the other end of the passage.
"Saw one of 'em movin' down below," the outlaw called to her.
But Ramona did not hear him. She had fainted.