CHAPTER XV.
THE MOTOR RANGER'S PERIL.
"Reckon Nat must have forgotten to fire the signal," thought Joe,sinking down on a rock, some little time before the former had haltedto listen intently to the approaching noise.
Suddenly, however, the distant report came, borne clearly to his ears.
"There it goes," thought Joe. "One shot. I guess that means good-bye tothe Dutchman's horse."
Knowing that it would be no use looking about for Nat, for evidentlyfrom the faint noise of the shot it had been fired at some distance,Joe faced about and started back for the camp. When he reached it, hefound to his surprise, that Herr Muller had returned some time before.As a matter of fact, Joe formed a shrewd suspicion from the rapid timehe must have made on his return, that Herr Muller had sought a snugspot and dozed away the interval before Nat's shot was heard.
As it so happened he was not very far from the truth. The German,having tramped quite a distance into the woods, had argued to himselfthat he stood about as good a chance of recovering his horse byremaining still as by proceeding. So he had seated himself with a bigchina-bowled pipe, to await the recall signal. He had started on thehunt with much enthusiasm, but tramping over rough, stony ground, undera hot sun, is one of the greatest solvents of enthusiasm known. And soit had proved in the German's case.
He had, however, a fine tale to tell of his tramp, and to listen tohim one would have thought that he was the most industrious of thesearchers.
"Guess we'd better start dinner without Nat," said Cal, after they hadhung around, doing nothing but watching the pots simmer over the campfire, for an hour or two.
"That's a gug-g-g-good idea," agreed Ding-dong.
Joe demurred a bit at the idea of not waiting for their young leader,but finally he, too, agreed to proceed with the meal. As will be seenby this, not much anxiety was yet felt in the camp over Nat's absence.He was stronger and much more wiry than the other two searchers, andit was altogether probable that he had proceeded much farther than hadthey.
But, as the afternoon wore on and no Nat put in an appearance,conversation seemed to languish. Anxious eyes now sought the rim ofthe woods on the opposite side of the clearing. Nobody dared to voicethe fears that lay at their hearts, however. Cal, perhaps, alone amongthem, realized the extent of the peril in which Nat stood, if he werelost in the mountains. It was for this reason that he did not speakuntil it became impossible to hold out hope any longer.
This was when the shadows began to lengthen and the western sky burneddull-red, as the sun sank behind the pine-fringed mountain tops. Then,and not till then, Cal spoke what was on his mind.
His comrades received the news of Cal's conviction that Nat waslost without the dismay and outward excitement that might have beenexpected. As a matter of fact, the dread that something had happened tothe lad had been in the minds of all of them for some hours, althougheach tried to appear chipper and cheerful. There was no evading thefacts as they stood, any longer, however.
Very soon night would fall, with its customary suddenness in theseregions. Unless Nat returned before that time--which was so improbableas to hardly be worth considering--there remained only one conclusionto be drawn.
"Whatever can we do?" demanded Joe, in a rather shaky voice, as hethought of his comrade out on the desolate mountain side, hungry andperhaps thirsty, looking in vain for a trace of a trail back to camp.
"Not much of anything," was Cal's disquieting reply, "except to stayput."
"You mean stay right where we are?"
"That's right, boy. There's a chance that Nat may be back before long.Only a chance, mind you, but in that case we want ter be right here."
"Suppose he is h-h-h-h-hurt?" quavered out Ding-dong, voicing a fearthey had all felt, but had not, so far, dared to speak of.
Cal waved his hand in an inclusive way at the range opposite.
"That will mean a search for him," he said, "and he may be any place inthose hills within a ten-mile radius. Talk about lookin' fer a needlein a haystack. It 'ud be child's play, to finding him in time to doanything."
They could not but feel the truth of his words.
"Besides," went on Cal, "there's another thing. We know that thatornery bunch of skunks and coyotes of Morello's is sky-hootin' roundhere some place. If we leave the camp they might swoop down on it andclean it out, and then we'd be in a worse fix than ever."
"That's right," admitted Joe, "but it seems dreadfully tough to have tosit here with folded hands and doing nothing; while Nat----"
His voice broke, and he looked off toward the mountains, now dim anddun-colored in the fast gathering night.
"No use giving way," said Cal briskly, "and as fer sitting with foldedhands, it's the worst thing you could do. Here you," to Herr Muller,"hustle around and git all ther wood you can. A big pile of it. We'llkeep up a monstrous fire all night in case the lad might happen to seeit."
"It will give us something to think about anyhow," said Joe, catchingthe infection of Cal's brisk manner; "come on, Herr Muller, I'll helpyou."
They started off to collect wood, while Ding-dong Bell and Cal busiedthemselves with the supper dishes and then cleaned up a variety ofsmall jobs around the camp.
"Jes' stick this bit of advice in your craw, son," advised Cal as hewent briskly about his tasks, "work's the thing that trouble's mostscart of, so if ever you want to shake your woes pitch in an' tacklesomething."
While Nat's comrades are thus employed, let us see for ourselveswhat has become of the lad. We left him listening intently to someapproaching horsemen. He remained in this attentive attitude only longenough to assure himself that they were indeed coming toward him, andthen, like a flash, his mind was made up.
It was clear to the boy that travellers in such a remote part of theSierras were not common. It also came into his mind that Col. Morello'sband was reputed to have their hiding place somewhere in the vicinity.The brief glance about him that Nat had obtained had shown him that itwas just the sort of place that men anxious to hide themselves from thelaw would select. In the first place, it was so rugged and wild as tobe inaccessible to any but men on foot or horseback, and even then itwould have been a rough trip.
The valley, or rather "cut," in the hills, up which the sound of hoofswas coming, was, as has been said, narrow and deep in the extreme.From the summits of its cliffs a defence of the trail that lay beneathwould be easy. Stationed on those pinnacled, natural turrets, twomight, if well supplied with ammunition, have withstood an army. Allthese thoughts had occurred to Nat before he made his resolution--andturning, started to run.
But as he sped along a fresh difficulty presented itself. The hillsideat this point seemed to be alive with blue-jays. They flew screamingup, as he made his way along, and Nat knew that if they had acted asa warning to him of approaching danger the vociferous birds would beequally probable to arouse the suspicions of whoever was coming his way.
He paused to listen for a second, and was glad he had done so. Thehorsemen, to judge from their voices, had already reached the spot uponwhich he had been standing when he first heard them. What wind therewas blew toward him and he could hear their words distinctly.
"Those jays are acting strangely, Manuello. I wonder if there isanybody here."
"I do not know, colonel," was the reply from the other unseen speaker,"if there is it will be to our advantage to find him. We don't wantspies near the Wolf's Mouth."
"Wolf's Mouth," thought Nat, "If that's the name of that abyss it'swell called."
"You are right, Manuello," went on the first speaker, "after whatDayton told us about those boys I don't feel easy in my mind as longas they are in our neighborhood. If Dayton and the others had notmiscalculated yesterday we shouldn't have been bothered with them anylonger."
"No," was the rejoinder, "it's a pity that boulder didn't hit them andpound them into oblivion. Just because they happen to be boys doesn'tmake them any the less dangerous to us."
At this unlucky moment,
while Nat was straining his ears to catch everyword of the conversation a stone against which he had braced one of hisfeet gave way. Ordinarily he would have hardly noticed the sound itmade as it went bounding and rolling down the hillside, but situated ashe was, the noise seemed to be as startling and loud as the dischargeof a big gun.
"What was that?" asked the man who had been addressed as "colonel."
"A dislodged stone," was the reply, "someone is in there; the blue-jaysdidn't fly up for nothing."
"So it would seem. We had better investigate before going farther."
"Still, it is important that we find where those boys are camped."
"That is true, but it is more important that we find out who is in thatbrush."
Without any more delay, the two horses were turned into the hillsidegrowth. Nat could hear their feet slipping and sliding among the looserocks on the mountain as they came toward him. He did not dare to runfor fear of revealing his whereabouts.
Close at hand was a pinon tree, which spread out low-growing branchesall about. Nat, as he spied it, decided that if he could get withinits leafy screen unobserved he would, if luck favored him, escape theobservation of the two men--one of whom he was certain now, must bethe famous, or infamous, Col. Morello himself.
Without any repetition of the unlucky accident of the minute before, hecrept to the trunk of the tree and hoisted himself noiselessly up. Ashe had surmised, the upper branches made a comfortable resting placeimpervious to the view from below.
Hardly had he made himself secure, before the horses of the two outlawsapproached the tree and, rather to Nat's consternation, halted almostimmediately beneath it.
Could the keen-eyed leader of the outlaw band have discovered hishiding place? It was the most anxious moment of the boy's life.