CHAPTER XIX.
AT BAY IN THE CANYON.
"Dodge back!" suddenly snapped Ned, as he seized hold of Jimmy andhalf-pulled him along; while Harry and Jack, although they did notunderstand what it was all about, made haste to tumble pellmell in thedirection the scout master was dragging the fourth chum.
A gun cracked and chips of stone flew up very close to their feet. Thiswas quite enough to tell the others what sort of danger menaced them.It doubtless acted as a spur to hasten their departure from the open,for in another moment they were to be seen huddled under a shelf ofrock, each fellow eagerly handling his rifle as though ready to give agood account of himself.
"Was it just one man made us skip out like all that?" Jimmy wanted toknow, for he was proud, and the thought would have come back to himmany times later on, to cause heartburnings and keen regrets.
"No, there was a bunch of them there," Ned informed them. "I recognizedAlly Sloper, Coyote Smith and Lefty Louie. There was another big manalong, a regular giant, with a bushy head of hair and the look of aterror!"
"Wow! I wonder now if that wasn't Amos's awful dad?" Jimmy exclaimed.
"But what are we going to do about it, Ned?" Harry wanted to know."Here we are, caught in a little rat-trap, seems like. If we start torun out of this canyon, how do we know what they'll do? They've shotonce already and, perhaps, stand ready to give us a volley. This is abad job, seems to me. See what your everlasting teasing of Ned gets usinto, Jimmy."
"Well, we ain't all dead yet, are we?" the other naively wanted toknow, "and our guns ought to shoot just as straight as the ones theyhandle, which I reckon now are only the kind punchers carry, and nogood at a distance. Chirk up, Harry, and listen to what Ned's goin' tosay."
Instead of speaking Ned crept cautiously forward a little ways, andwhen he returned again, reported that so far as he could see the men onthe ledge had disappeared.
"But that's not saying they're gone, is it?" asked Jack.
"I'm afraid not," replied the scout master. "You see, they command thepassage from up there on that ledge. If we try and go out, they candrop rocks down and give us a volley from their guns, while we wouldn'tbe able to sight them."
"Two might stay here and keep the ledge covered while the others wentout," suggested Harry, "and play the game that way. With our rifleswe'd make things so warm for the bunch they'd hardly dare showthemselves. And after the first two got out, why, they could hold thefort for the others. How's that, Ned?"
"Not bad," replied the one addressed, "only I'm afraid there may beothers near by. I heard some one shout just then, which I take it mustbe a signal. There goes another yell from across the canyon."
"By jinks! I believe we're surrounded!" ejaculated Jimmy, and strangeas it might seem, there was something not unlike a vein ofgratification in his voice, as though the boy really felt pleased toknow they were in for another spell of action.
"We're going to have a fight, that's certain!" announced Jack, handlinghis weapon with nervous fingers, in sharp contrast to Ned's steady ways.
"Well, this ought to make a pretty fair sort of a fort, I shouldthink," Harry remarked, as he indicated the slanting rock under whichthey had crawled, and which sheltered them fairly well from any perilthat might be hovering above.
"But if they once get up above us in the canyon, and below as well,they could pour in what is called an enfilading fire, and make itmighty unpleasant under our rock mushroom fort," Jack explained.
"Which will be apt to happen, sooner or later, if they mean to give ustrouble," assented Ned.
"Then we'd better get a hustle on and see if we c'n side-step any,"Jimmy was heard to remark.
"Keep watching, up and down, and shoot at any moving thing youglimpse," Ned told them, as he started to creep further under the shelf.
"Where are you going, Ned?" Harry asked, filled with curiosity.
"To see what chance there is of our finding a safer refuge than this,"replied the scout master. "Somehow, I seem to have a notion thatthere's a sort of crevice in the canyon wall close by. If it turns outthat way and it's big enough for us to crawl in, why, we'll be betterfixed to stand that crowd off."
"Good luck to you!" Jimmy called after him.
"Don't watch what I'm doing, but keep guard in front!" were the lastwords Ned sent back over his shoulder.
A minute later and Jack announced that he believed there was some onemoving up amidst some scraggy bushes growing in a spot where earth hadfallen down into the rocky cut.
"I've got half a mind to send a shot up there and rout him out," hedeclared.
"Cut her loose then," Jimmy told him.
"If it doesn't do anything else," Harry observed, "you'll publish plainwarning of our intention to fight back and give as good as we take.When they hear the crack of a rifle, perhaps, they'll make up theirminds they don't want to bother us as much as they thought they did inthe start."
So Jack pressed the trigger of his weapon, which promptly went off witha roar, owing to the fact that at the time he was crouching in aconfined space under the shelf of rock.
"Look at that, would you?" cried Jimmy.
A man had jumped into momentary view, in the midst of the leaflessbushes, and making a wild spring, vanished back of a neighboring spurof rock.
"He thought it was too hot out in the open," said Harry. "I wonder ifyou winged him with that shot, Jack?"
"I'd like to believe I did," came the answer, as Jack worked themechanism of his rifle, so as to send out the useless brass shell, andshoot another cartridge from the magazine into the firing chamber; "butfrom the way he jumped, in didn't look much like he'd been struck.Don't forget to watch the other side, too. If they get started comingin on us, we'd be in a peck of trouble."
He had hardly spoken when a gun sounded, and they heard the splash ofthe bullet mushrooming against the stone close by.
"Wow! that's getting pretty close, let me tell you!" cried Jimmy,stooping to pick up the rough-edged, flattened circle of lead, and thenimmediately dropping it with a cry: "Say, that's as hot as anything! Itburned my fingers to beat the band. And there goes another shot downthe canyon. They're meanin' business this time, boys! If one of us getsin line with a bullet, his name will be Dennis."
In the temporary absence of the scout master Jack thought that the dutyof looking after their safety devolved on him.
"Here, creep back more, everybody!" he ordered, "and snuggled down thebest you can behind any stones you find. Make yourself as small asanything, while that lead's singing around here."
"Wish I could find a chance to bang away back at the nervy crowd,"grumbled Jimmy, as he sprawled out like a huge frog and listened toseveral shots from as many different quarters. "What's sauce for thegoose ought to be sauce for the gander, too. It's a poor rule, I alwaysheard, that don't work both ways."
Try as hard as he would, however, Jimmy seemed unable to find a chanceto discharge his gun with anything like a prospect of results. Thebullets continued to flit around them, making all sorts of queer andblood chilling noises. There were several narrow escapes, too; and onceHarry actually felt a tug at his arm that, upon investigation, showedhim a slit in the khaki material of which the sleeve of his coat wasmade, proving that a passing bullet had almost drawn blood.
Several minutes had passed since this bombardment commenced, and itshowed no signs of slackening. If it continued much longer there was achance that one of the scouts might stop a bullet, and the prospect didnot seem very pleasant, to say the least.
While this was going on, and all hands were grumbling, because theyfound so little use for their trusty rifles, Jack heard some one gentlycalling his name.
"Hello! is that you, Ned?" he asked joyfully, for he felt sure that thereturn of the scout master would mean a new rift in the clouds.
"Yes, tell the other boys to back in here after you!" the other scoutwent on to say.
"Yes, it's here, but hurry and get started!" Ne
d continued, from thedarker depths beyond.
Of course, when the others heard that there was an opportunity to creepout of the fire zone they lost no time in making a move. Jimmy wasdeclaring at the same time that it certainly gave him a pain to becompelled to "take water" in that way, and without having inflicted anymaterial damage that they knew of on the enemy.
"If we'd only knocked half a dozen of the skunks off their pins, itwouldn't be so bad," he lamented; "but I ain't had any chance. It ain'tfair, that's what; and me just crazy to try my Marlin on that lot ofmutts. But wait, that's all; my time's agoin' to come yet, and then,look out, that's what!"
When they had backed some ten feet or more they came to the wall of thecanyon. Ned was waiting to show them where he had found a fissure intowhich he must undoubtedly have crawled some little ways, seeking tofind out what sort of a haven of refuge it would turn out to be.
"I struck a match," he told his comrades, as they pushed into the splitin the wall, "and as near as I could make out, there's a little caveright here. We'll take possession and hold the fort against a hundredenemies."
"Hurrah! that's right, we will!" shrilled the irrepressible Jimmy,always quick to seize upon any excuse for giving tongue.
Already they seemed to have passed beyond the reach of the flyingbullets, although, of course, the ambitious rustlers did not know thatand were still banging away right merrily.
"If only they'd keep that up until they'd fired away every scrap oftheir ammunition, wouldn't it be just fine," Harry suggested, "then wecould go out and do a little holding-up on our own hook."
Ned lighted another match, so that all of them might see what manner ofrefuge had been found in this emergency. It turned out to be afair-sized cavity, nothing unusual, but capable of answering theirneeds.
There was, of course, no way of blocking the entrance, but with fourguns to stand guard there did not seem to be much reason to fear thatthe enemy could ever rush their fortress.
"But it makes me clear mad to think that while we're cooped up here,like rats in a trap, that crowd can hunt around for our ponies and getaway with the lot," Jack complained.
At that Jimmy raised a row.
"And that'd be the last I'd see of my calico broncho, just when I wasgrowing attached to him, too!" he bleated.
"But from what you told us," Jack remarked, bitingly, "there was a timewhen you had to throw your arms around his neck in order to become_attached_ to him. But never mind, Jimmy, the rustler that gets yourSpot will be sorry for it, if I'm any judge of tricky horses. It may bethe best thing that ever happened to you. Some times blessings come indisguise; and, if the pony's stolen, it may save you from getting abroken collarbone."
The shooting presently ceased. Whether the rustlers considered thatthey had accomplished the end they had in view and utterly demoralizedthe enemy; or, discovered the change of base on the part of the fourscouts, no one was able to more than guess.
"Seems to me I can hear somebody talking close by," Jack remarked, whensome time had passed without any renewal of the bombardment.
"Get ready to repel boarders, then!" urged Harry, "for they must havediscovered where we've crawled. Do you think they'll try to carry thefort by assault, Ned?"
"I don't believe so, if they're the kind of men I take them to be,"replied the scout master. "It would take more than a dozen desperatemen to get in here past the hot fire we'd start playing on them, and Ireckon there isn't that many in the bunch. No, if they do anything atall, look out for some trick."
"But they can't drop down on us, because there's only one entrance andwe've got that covered," Jack asserted. "It's dark enough in here, butwe could see if anybody came against that line of light, and pepper himin a jiffy. I don't see what way they could fool us, Ned."
"I hope I'm mistaken, that's all," the other returned, but hisvigilance did not relax a particle, nor was he at all sanguine as tothe rustlers going away and leaving them to make their escape as theypleased.
The minutes dragged along. Every little while Jimmy would declare thathe caught those low voices again, or it might be a rustling sound thatpuzzled him. Some of the other scouts admitted that they heardsomething of the same sort, though unable to explain what it might mean.
These things kept them constantly on the alert. Their nerves were heldup at a high tension all the while they crouched there, keepingcontinual watch and ward.
Jimmy had several times grumbled that it seemed like a shame, that fourable-bodied scouts should be bottled up in this silly way, and beggedNed to think up a plan that would change the situation around, givingthem a chance to play the aggressor.
He was about starting in for the third time to vent his disgust, whenthe others heard him begin to sniff.
"What's the matter, Jimmy; think you smell dinner cooking?" jeered Jack.
"No, I don't, more's the pity; but I did get a whiff of the mostdisagreeable smoke that ever was, or could be. There she comes again,with the breeze sendin' the same right into this little snuggery,hot-footed. Oh! my, don't that take the cake, though? Whatever can theybe burnin' and how does it happen to get in here?"
"It's the trick I told you they'd be playing on us, Jimmy," said Ned,seriously. "That's what they call the stink weed, and the smoke'lldrive us out of here yet."