CHAPTER XVII--Tom Sees Both Mountain Sheep and Goats Do Their WildLeaps Down Dizzy Ledges
Below the great wall up which they had climbed lay the little greenlake, and now they could see a horseback party which had come up to theshore, see them with the utmost distinctness, like tiny toys. Out beyondthe lake stretched the green canyon, back to camp, and all to the souththe piled up peaks and white snow-fields. But it was to the north thatthe view was best. The spot where they stood was not on the Divide, buta spur, or spine of rock running east from the Divide. This spine wasonly thirty or forty feet wide in places, and plunged down to the north,not quite so steeply, but quite steeply enough, to another little lake,and beyond that lake shot up the ragged gray and brown and redbattlements of Mount Merritt. Merritt also stands just east of theDivide, so that they were looking into a second horseshoe amphitheatre,and on the high, steep sides of this amphitheatre, extending almost tothe top of Mount Merritt, were no less than five glaciers. It was awild, desolate picture, far wilder than the Iceberg Lake cirque, becausethere was less verdure, and not a trail or human being in it--onlyglaciers and precipices and wild, tumbled, jagged mountains.
The doctor gazed in silence for several minutes, and then he said,
"Tom, how do you like it?"
"Oh, it's wonderful! I never knew anything in the world could be so--sobig and lonely and sort of endless."
The doctor smiled. "My family and a lot of my friends think I'm crazy torisk my neck climbing," he went on, "but they don't know. They don'tknow the fun of pitting your human cunning and will power against aprecipice, and then, when you've conquered it, reaching a wild spot likethis and seeing the whole world spread out at your feet. There's nothinglike it. I give my patients pills, but this is the medicine I takemyself."
They now ate their sandwiches, which were pretty well mashed up in theirpockets, and quenched their thirst as best they could by eating snow.Then they explored along the ragged ridge a bit, finding in the centreof the spine, winding in and out amid the rough battlements, a distinctgame trail, like a foot-path. In spots it was so plain that you wouldhave thought men walked over it every day.
Mills presently went on ahead, softly, and after a while they saw himbeckoning to them, and cautioning silence. He was at the edge of thecliff, peering over. Tom and the doctor tiptoed up and looked over,also.
There, not a hundred feet below them, on a wide ledge, were five goats!There was an old billy, standing on the edge, looking off and down,evidently inspecting with some suspicion the party which was nowlighting a camp-fire for luncheon down on the lake shore. There were twonannies, one eating moss and one scratching herself with her hind leg.And, finally, there were two kids, as playful as kittens, jumpingaround. Now and then one of the kids would give a leap and go up thecliff to a rock projection higher than his head, jump from that toanother, and so climb ten or a dozen feet. Then he would jump off, headforemost, and land beside the old goats.
The three unsuspected human beings watched them for several minutes. Itcertainly was a pretty sight, and the most wonderful part of it to Tomwas that these kids were born up here, thousands of feet above the levelearth, and perhaps would never get lower in their lives than the shaleslide above Iceberg Lake!
"You always have to get at 'em from above," Mills whispered. "They don'tseem to expect danger from that quarter. It's below that they watch out.Want to see 'em dive?"
The doctor nodded, and the Ranger suddenly gave a loud shout.
The old billy did not even look up. He simply went head foremost overthe edge of the shelf, where he had been standing, and disappeared. Oneby one, in exactly the same place, the others followed him, a kid goinglast. From where the men lay, a hundred feet above, the goats appearedto be dropping off into space, and to certain death.
"Good gracious!" Dr. Kent exclaimed. "Where'd they go to?"
Mills didn't answer. His eyes were scanning the cliff wall below.Suddenly he pointed to the left, at least two hundred yards away andlower down the slope. There were the five goats, trotting along likethree big snowballs and two little ones, on a shelf not a foot wide.They went around a sort of cornice on a shelf so narrow that the men, aquarter of a mile away, actually could not see it at all--the goatsseemed to be just moving like flies on a wall--and disappeared. A momentlater they came in sight again, farther around on the cliff, climbingrapidly up a gully, or chimney, by sharp, quick leaps from side to side,each leap landing them higher, and at the top they reached a shelf whichled to the summit, and disappeared.
"They'll go down on the other side, and be over on Mount Merritt in anhour," said Mills. "Oh, you get a lot of exercise hunting 'em!"
"We could have got a shot at 'em at the very start, before you scaredthem," said the doctor, "and after that there wasn't a spot they tookwhere a man could follow till they were out of range, or a spot where hecould have shot one without its falling so far it would smash the headto bits. If I hunted, that's the sport I'd like! The game has a betterchance than you do. But I don't hunt, thank the Lord."
"You'd better not, in the Park," Mills laughed. "I wish I could show youa bighorn, now. They beat the goats at diving, though they don't climbup so well, or no better."
The men went back to the place where they had left the rope, and decidedit was time to begin the descent. But before starting, the Ranger madeanother little trip along the top, in the opposite direction, in thehopes of seeing a sheep, for he said he knew sheep were around there.
"If I signal, bring the rope along," he said, "and come softly. We mightbe able to make one take a good jump."
He must have been nearly a quarter of a mile away when he waved hishand, and Tom and the doctor hurried toward him. Again he was peeringover the cliff, this time on the north side, at a point where it wasvery steep. It dropped straight down about forty feet to a ledge, and onthis ledge was a fine old ram, with magnificent curling horns, two ewes,and one lamb. They were all feeding, quite unaware of danger, evidentlysecure in the knowledge that no prowling mountain lion would drop downthose forty feet of precipice from above. The ledge on one side led outto an easy slope. On the other side it narrowed to about four feet, andthen ended abruptly.
"Quick!" Mills whispered, taking the rope. Softly, without a sound, hehitched it around a rock pile, and held the free end. "Now, the instantI throw this over," he whispered again, "you and Tom go down it. Thesheep will be cut off, and have to jump from the other end of the ledge.They'll go quick, and you'll have to, also, to see 'em."
The doctor and Tom stood by, Mills dropped the rope over the edge, andfirst Dr. Kent and then Tom slid down it, so fast their hands burned.But the sheep were quicker. Before they reached the ledge, the last onewas overboard. Tom and his companion dashed to the end where they hadjumped, lay on their stomachs, and peered down over.
It was a drop of twenty feet or so to the first shelf below. On thisshelf were the two ewes and the lamb. The old ram had already jumped tothe next one, another twenty feet lower. This second shelf was tiny, andwould hold only one sheep at a time. More than that, it was not directlyunder the first, but six or eight feet to the left. As the man and boyreached the edge, they saw the ram leave this shelf head foremost, andgo down the cliffside, kicking the wall as he went with his hoofs, andland on a third ledge, seventy-five feet below them. No sooner was heoff, than one of the ewes jumped for the shelf he had just deserted.She, too, kicked the wall with her hoofs, striking hard, incrediblyrapid blows, and these kicks, very carefully directed, propelled herjust far enough to one side as she fell to enable her to reach theshelf. When she landed on it, with all four feet bunched, it looked fromabove as if her shoulders were coming up through the brown wool on herback. She seemed to bounce as she hit, and with the bounce went rightoff again, to the ledge below, which the old ram had already left, andwas now on a safe, wide shelf far beneath, and trotting off toward theslopes that led around to the wall of the Great Divide. The second ewefollowed her, with exactly the same tactics, and then the lamb we
ntbouncing down, as if it was all a game, landed almost like a rubberball, bounced off to the next ledge, kicking the cliff wall with hislittle hoofs faster than a cat can strike with its paw.
In much less time than it has taken to tell it, all the sheep were onthe slope a hundred feet below, and before the doctor and Tom could getup on their feet again, the little flock was out of sight around ashoulder of the cliff!
"Well! I've seen chamois in the Alps, but I never saw anything likethat!" the doctor cried. "The cool nerve of that lamb! Why, they goright off into space, and their eyes are so accurate and their feet soquick that they kick themselves six feet to one side in falling twenty,and land safely on a shelf not big enough for a boy to stand on!"
The two climbed back up the rope to Mills.
"Get a good show?" he asked.
"That was the most interesting and thrilling exhibition of animalstrength and skill I ever witnessed," Dr. Kent answered. "And what ahandsome creature the old ram is, with those great, curving horns! Why,a monkey in a tree isn't so active and daring! Besides, the monkey hasbranches to fall into, and the sheep have only space, with sure deathbelow. Aren't they ever killed? Don't they ever miss?"
"Oh, yes," said the Ranger. "But in all the years I used to hunt 'em, Inever saw one miss badly enough to be killed on a cliff he knew. It'swhen they get surprised and have to jump on a strange wall, maybe on theway to some new feeding ground, that they hit an impossible dive. Ontheir regular beats, they seem to know every foot of the rocks.Sometimes the snowslides catch 'em in winter, though."
They were walking back, or, rather, scrambling back, toward the pointwhere their chimney came up, as Mills talked. It was getting along inthe afternoon now, the tourist party was leaving Iceberg Lake andwinding down the trail like ants, and the three, without further delay,prepared to descend.
And now, for the first time, Tom learned the use of the doubled rope, inthe descent. The doctor's rope, which had seemed clumsily long to him onthe way up--a hundred feet for only three men--now was not long enough!They did not fasten themselves to it at all, except on the dangeroustransverses. Instead, they hung it at the centre around some firm rock,dropped the two ends down the cliff, and then, grasping both strands,slid down them to the farthest ledge below which they could reach. Thatmeant a possible slide of fifty feet, of course, with a hundred footrope. Then, when all three were at the bottom, all they had to do was topull on one strand, and the other side would go up till the end wasfreed from the rock above and came tumbling down. By this method theycould take straight drops down the very steepest places, when, on theascent, they had been obliged to work in the gully, with falling rocksthreatening them. It amounted to descending by fifty foot jumps, and assoon as Tom learned to keep both strands of the rope equally firm in hishands so that there was no play whatever, he felt quite confident.
Of course, to let go of either strand while you are descending thedoubled rope means that all your weight comes on one side, the top willslip, and down you will go. To avoid that, either Mills or the doctorcame last for several hundred feet, keeping a hand on the rope while Tomslid down. But they soon saw he had the hang of it, and let him gofirst, or last, or in the middle, as it chanced, without any more worry.
By this method, their descent was rapid. Of course, it took time, forthey had a long way to go, and you never hurry on a dangerous cliff. Yougo cautiously, deliberately, and sometimes you have to hunt three orfour minutes to find a strong enough hold for the rope. But it was muchfaster than the ascent, and even though Tom's hands were soon red andburning from sliding down the rope, for he had no leather gloves, heenjoyed this new sport more than anything he had ever done.
They reached the top of the shale pile at last, at half-past six, havingkept to the goat trail all the way down, out of the gully. They coiledup the rope, and went lunging down over the loose shale and then throughthe scrub trees and bushes, to the brook which flowed out to the lake.Here, as if on a signal, all three of them dropped on their knees on thestones, buried their faces in the ice water, and drank, and drank, anddrank.
"So much perspiring, and such rapid evaporation in the wind up there,certainly does use up the water in your system," the doctor said, as hisface emerged dripping from the brook, and he put on his glasses again."Free ice water, too. Look at the chunks of ice floating around init--and here it is August, and flowers growing on the bank!"
Mills got the horses, and they mounted. Tom could hardly have truthfullysaid he "vaulted into the saddle," however. He got up with considerabledifficulty, for he was stiff and lame, and his arms were trembling fromsuch long, hard strain in going up and then down the rope. But it wascertainly good to be in the saddle, once you got there, and findyourself being carried, instead of having to do the work.
The Ranger at once began to trot. The trail to Iceberg Lake is such agood one, and the grade is so easy, that you can trot over a good dealof the distance, and Mills did not let any grass grow under their feet,especially as the horses were fresh. When they reached the woods nearhome, and the trail was almost level, he broke into a gallop, and withthe doctor (who was not a good rider) wildly hanging to the horn of hissaddle, they tore past a party just coming in from Swift Current, anddashed up to the tepee camp, where Joe was waiting for them.
The camp was full of hikers--a whole party of men and women, ten or adozen. They were busily cooking on the stove, and the doctor lookedanything but pleased.
"Where do I come in, Joe?" he asked, as he climbed from his horse.
"I thought maybe you'd rather come down to our little camp for supper,"said Joe. "I can't use the stove here till this gang gets through, andTom and I have a rough sort of table at our camp, and I have supper allready to cook there, and I planned to have Mr. Mills come, too. Tom andI will sort of give a party."
"Well, now, that's fine!" said the doctor. "Mills and I accept. Let mewash up in my tepee first, and I'll be with you."
He went into his tepee.
"I'll take the horses up to the cabin," said the Ranger, "and be withyou in a jiffy. Say, Tom," [he added this in a low tone] "we had hisnumber wrong. He knows the climbing game from the bottom up--he'scareful, he's got nerve, he can pick a hold every time, and he don'tgas. He gets my vote."
"Mine, too!" Tom answered.
"Everything O.K. here?" Tom asked Joe. "These people got wood, and cots,and everything?"
"Sure--beat it, and wash your mug. Gee, you're dirty!" Joe laughed.
"Well, I guess you'd be if you'd been kissin' an old precipice all day,"Tom retorted. "Oh, gee, Joe--this is the life! Some climb! Some oldgoats and sheep! Some Park!"
"Yes, and go and wash up if you want some supper."
Joe made sure the hikers had everything they needed or wanted, andhurried down the path to the scout camp, where he began to cook thesupper, while Tom was having a wash and getting into dry underclothesand shirt. He had been to the chalet store that afternoon and restockedthe larder, and secured a piece of a big, fresh steak which had justcome in by motor bus. This he now broiled over as good a bed of coals ashe could get from his soft wood fire. He had coffee already boiling, andhot soup, and some nice canned beans, and French fried potatoes, and asurprise for dessert--nothing less than four plates of freshhuckleberries, which he had stumbled upon while taking a walk that noon,and picked into his hat.
When Mills and the doctor arrived, this supper was all ready, and thetwo men and two boys sat down on the log seats around the rough table ofboards, and ate and talked, and talked and ate, while the eveningshadows crossed the lake and the lights of the big hotel could be seentwinkling through the trees. It was a jolly meal, and a good one, andTom had never in his life felt so hungry, and deliciously lame and soreand tired, so that a long draught of hot coffee seemed to go warming andtingling through all his body.
After supper, Joe would not let him go back to the tepee camp, but wenthimself to see that everything was fixed for the night. Tom just sat bythe blazing camp-fire, while Mills and Dr. Kent smok
ed, and listened tothe talk of the two men, who swapped yarns about mountain climbing. Thedoctor had been up rock crags in the Austrian Tyrol, thrillingprecipices steeper than the wall of Iceberg Lake, and he had climbedover ice and snow, also, where you had to cut steps with an ice axe. ButMills, who had never been east of Omaha in his life, had once riddendown a mountain on a snow avalanche, (needless to say, without intendingto!) and had seen a mother goat standing over her kid on the ledge of aprecipice fighting off a bald eagle. Tom listened with ears wide open,and though he was sleepy and tired, he was sorry when the men rose todepart.
"I'll come here for breakfast, boys, if you don't mind," the doctorsaid. "Those hikers may be an estimable collection of citizens andcitizenesses, but I came out here to get away from folks. Good-night,Tom. We'll have to have one more climb before I go--day after to-morrow,I guess. To-morrow I'm going back to Iceberg Lake and look at theflowers more carefully. Good-night, Joe. Good-night, Mills. Thanks forcoming to-day. You Rocky Mountain goat hunters don't need any course oftraining in the Alps."
"Good-night," the scouts called, as the two men disappeared in oppositedirections.
Tom told Joe all that had happened as they got ready for bed, and endedby declaring he was too excited still to go to sleep.
Joe laughed.
"I thought I was, the first day over Piegan," said he. "But the oldRockies fooled me. I slept, all right. So'll you."
And Tom did. In fact, it is doubtful if he heard the tail end of Joe'ssentence.