CHAPTER XXXII.--IN GREATER PERIL STILL.
With the first glimmer of day the following morning all were awake, anda very light breakfast was made of the root bread, which the chiefdistributed with great fairness as far as it went.
As Sam had agreed, he turned over to the chief the rifles, pistols,knives and blankets belonging to his party, keeping back only thecanteens, which had been filled with water, and the saddle-bags.
"I should like to borrow my own rifle from you," said Sam, after he hadmade the transfer, "for it is not safe to travel through this landwithout a weapon to defend one's self from foe or wild beasts. I shallreturn it when I send you the other things."
"I let you have dis gun," said the chief, pointing to the old rustyshot-gun that had been the special object of Ike's care and the delightof his heart for so long.
"Take her, Mistah Sam, take her," urged Ike. "Dar ain't anodder gun likeher--no, not in all dis yar land."
This was certainly the truth, yet "she" was rather an unreliable weaponto depend on in a trying emergency.
"That is a shot-gun, no good to you or to me. Let me have my own riflewith some ammunition, and I pledge my life to send it back and six moreequally good with it."
"I tell you what I do," said the chief, after some deliberation and agood deal of whispering with his own people.
"What?"
"You got dog?"
"Yes."
"Well, you give me dog, I give you rifle."
Sam had always been attached to Maj, and the adventures they had sharedtogether made him even dearer, so that to lose him would be like partingwith a friend; still, he knew that a sacrifice might have to be made.
"What do you want with the dog?" he asked.
"Eat him," grunted the chief.
"I will give you the dog if you pledge me your word that you will notkill him for three days," said Sam, stooping and patting Maj on thehead, while the faithful creature, in its turn, licked his hand.
"But we no find game then we get hungry," said the chief.
"You can find game. Agree to this, for the dog is my friend," said Samwith much feeling.
"An' my frien', too," added Ike.
"All right; I no kill for three days," said the chief.
With this understanding Sam received his rifle and the belt containinghis ammunition, and one of the Apaches fastened a cord about the dog'sneck and dragged the reluctant creature to his own side.
The chief pointed to a distant elevation--it looked to be only a fewmiles away, though it was actually thirty or more--and said:
"That mountain back Hurley's Gulch. Go there. Keep north side. You find'em before dark. I come here three days. You bring all things, rifles,pistols, knives, and--and one more thing."
"What is that?" asked Sam.
"Heap tobacco, much lot whisky."
"I will keep my promise," said Sam, who could not but feel that theIndian was decidedly "on the make."
With this understanding Sam and his friends parted from the Apaches, andwith their eager eyes fixed on the mountain that marked the site ofHurley's Gulch they hurried on.
The thought that he should meet his father that night gave strength andelasticity to Sam's limbs and filled his heart with a hope that wasthrilling in its ecstacy.
He felt that their troubles were near an end, and that before the sunwent down his father's innocence would be established, and the littleband of Gold Cave Campers would be happily together once more.
He walked with such a long, quick stride that Ike and Wah Shin couldonly keep up with him by breaking into a dog-trot, that made them puffwith the exertion.
"See h'ar, Mistah Sam!" called out Ike, after they had been travelingfor two hours and the heat waves began to distort the landscape again."Does yeh expeck a feller foh to run like a race-horse, w'en he ain'tgot nothin' in his inside but a bit ob dem dar roots? Foh de Lor', ifyou keeps up dis yar like all day, you'll fine yerself alone, foh dischile's so holler he's nigh done gin out," and Sam came to a halt andwiped his perspiring face with his ragged coat-sleeve.
"Me hungly allee same like Ike, but me no say any-tlings," said Wah Shinas he stood panting like a hunted hare.
"I know, boys, that I've been hurrying more than I should in justice toyou, but the thought that every step is taking me nearer to my fathermakes me forget how weary you must be," said Sam, his own brown faceshowing how the terrible pace told on him.
"Mistah Sam, dar's a sight more reason w'y you should be tireder an'hungrier dan we," said Ike, the better part of his nature assertingitself, as it always did in an emergency. "But we'll git dar long aforedark widout so much hurryin', an' yer fadder'll be a heap sight morepleased if we all shows up fresh an' smilin', eben if we is so holler."
Sam slackened his pace, but he was making fully four miles an hour whenunder way again.
The water in their canteens became very warm in the blistering heat ofthat dry atmosphere, but they had to drink, and as a consequence theirsupply was exhausted by the middle of the afternoon.
They had no food with them, and all were very hungry, but the prospectahead made them forget their sufferings; for soldiers do not feel thepain of wounds received in the excitement of battle.
Sam reasoned that two hours more would see them at Hurley's Gulch, andhad so told his companions, when Ike called out:
"Hello! Wat on earf is dem?"
Sam turned in the direction pointed out by Ike, and to his amazement hesaw the forms of four gigantic horsemen; but, instead of their ridingalong the solid earth, they appeared to be moving far up in the sky.
All were familiar enough with the phenomena of this land to know thatthe riders were on the ground and that the spectral figures,representing them in the heavens had their origin in the mirage which isso frequent and delusive in this land.
"Ulna has reached Hurley's Gulch, and those must be men who have come tosearch for us," said Sam after he had surveyed the figures for someseconds.
About the same time the horsemen must have discovered Sam and hisfriends, for the giant figures could be seen pointing and waving theirarms, while the monstrous horses plunged across the sky with mightybounds.
Again Sam hurried on till he came to a towering rock that commanded fromits summit a view of the country round about.
Up this he clambered, Ike and Wah Shin following him with greatactivity.
On the summit of the rock there were a series of excavations, some ofwhich were partly filled with water left there by the late storm.
This water was comparatively cool, and after drinking till satisfied,Sam looked in the direction from which he expected the riders.
To his surprise, they were only a few hundred yards away, and it did notneed a second glance to convince him that one of these riders was FrankShirley, and another was the man with one eye who had accompanied him onthat day, that seemed so far away, to Gold Cave Camp.
"Surely," he reasoned, "these would not be the men my father would sendout from Hurley's Gulch to find me."
Instinctively he felt that the presence of these men meant him no good,and he made up his mind not to place himself in their power till assuredthat they were friendly.
The two horsemen with Frank Shirley and Badger were the landlord of thehotel at Hurley's, and a wretched creature of the same stripe who hadbeen a partner and friend of Tom Edwards.
"Halloo! Halloo, Sam Willett! We've come out to find you!" called outShirley when he came within hearing distance.
"Who sent you?" was Sam's salutation.
"Your father."
"How did he know I was here?"
"Ulna told him."
"Then why didn't he or Hank Tims come?"
"There are good reasons why they could not get off, so we have come intheir stead. Get down from the rocks; we've been searching for you sincebefore daylight," said Shirley, as he and Badger dismounted from theirhorses not a hundred feet away.
Slipping into one of the excavations so that he could see what was goingon
below without exposing himself, Sam called down:
"Frank Shirley, my father never sent you to find me."
"What! do you think Mr. Shirley's a-lyin'?" shouted Badger, at the sametime unstringing his rifle and assuming a position as if about to fire.
"Yes, I do," said Sam boldly.
Badger would have fired, though Sam was out of sight had not Shirleylaid his hand on his arm and said pleadingly:
"Don't do that, Badger; you'll spill all the fat in the fire. That youngfellow has a rifle, and he knows how to use it."
Sam heard all this distinctly and he called out:
"Yes, and I will use it if you fellows don't get back and mount yourhorses while I count ten. One, two, three, four----"
Neither Shirley nor Badger waited to hear more, for as "one" was calledout they saw the muzzle of a rifle pointing down at them from the top ofthe rock.
With the alacrity of acrobats the two men scrambled into their saddles,and as they did so the word "Two!" rang out.
"There, you see, we want to humor you, and if we were not friends weshouldn't do that," said Frank Shirley, trembling in voice and framefrom his recent effort.
Sam's reply showed that he had no faith in this.
"My rifle is good for a half-mile. If you are within reach in tenminutes I'll begin to fire."
"See h'ar, young feller," called out Badger, "do you know what I thinkof you?"
"No, and I don't care."
"I think you're a devil."
"All right. Start, for the ten minutes have begun."
The four men did start. It would have been nothing less than suicide,the landlord said, to remain there and be shot at, "more particlar whinthere was no show to shoot back."
Sullenly the men rode off, and when they had gone out of rifle-reachthey came to a halt, and after much swearing all round, Shirley asked:
"Well, gentlemen, what's to be done next?"
"Nothing, till dark," said Badger.
"And what then?"
"Then we ken get at 'em."
"But how?"
"While two of us shoot at the front of the rock to attract 'em, twoothers can climb up behind and finish the job for good," said Badger.