CHAPTER XX.
SMOKED OUT.
What Ned had said appalled them all. The situation had seemed peculiarand distressing before, because they could not see far enough ahead toeven guess how it might turn out; it became positively terrifying now.
They had heard some of the punchers speak about the powerful agency ofthe weed mentioned by the scout master. One man had told how it wasoften used to force wolves from their rocky dens. When set tosmouldering, it produced a smoke that was quite irresistible, and whichoverpowered man or beast.
"Why can't we find a way to keep it out of the cave?" Jack presentlydemanded, when they found themselves rubbing their eyes, in spite ofthemselves, and beginning to feel half choked in the bargain.
"The opening is too wide to think of closing it, more's the pity,"Harry answered, with deep regret in his voice.
"And even then we couldn't keep the smoke out," Ned told them; "becausewe'd have to get air, and where that can enter the smoke could too."
"This is sure the worst deal I ever struck!" gasped Jimmy. "It takesyour breath away like fun, and makes you think your eyes are bored inyour head. They call it by the right name, I tell you, for it certainlydoes smell rank. Whew! somebody fan me, or I'll go under."
Nobody took the trouble to oblige Jimmy. The fact was they all felt itjust as badly as the freckled-faced scout; and each fellow was tryingthe best he knew how to get temporary relief.
"How's it going to end, Ned?" asked Jack, and his voice sounded veryqueer, for he was talking between his teeth, not wishing to open hismouth wider than he could possibly help.
"One of two ways," returned the scout master, gloomily.
"You mean we'll just have to hoist the white rag and give up?"continued Jack, in deep disgust.
"Either that or be overcome here; and nobody wants to let that happen,because some of us might suffocate. Anything would be better than that,it strikes me," was what the leader told Jack.
"What if we rushed out and started to fight our way through?" suggestedHarry, who had been listening to what his comrades said; and thesurprise of it all was that he, the peace-loving member of the littleband, should so suddenly display such ferocity; but then it could belaid to the terrible fumes that were driving them all nearly distracted.
Ned shook his head, though, of course, none of them saw this, for itwas next door to dark under the protecting ledge, and particularly inthe little cave that Nature had scooped out of the solid rock.
"It would be useless," he told them.
"Yes, I reckon they're all ready to meet us with a hot fire and some ofus would go under," Harry admitted, sadly. "But we can't stand thismuch longer, Ned. Oh! if only there was another opening to the cave,how fine it would be to slip out and leave them doing their grandsmoking act."
"But there isn't, I'm sorry to say," admitted Ned. "I took the troubleto explore it through and through, and there's not the first chance tofind another crack."
"Have you any plan, Ned?" pleaded Jimmy, who was choking at a terriblerate and seemed half-blinded already.
"Only a half-way idea," replied Ned. "Here it is for what it's worth.Three of us will surrender, by walking out and shouting that we givein. Jack must manage to hide somewhere in here and stand for it alittle while longer. There's just the smallest chance going thatthey'll skip him; and, if it happens, he can hang around and help usout later."
"I'm afraid it won't work, Ned; because they must have seen that therewere just four in our bunch, all told; and they'll never be happy tillthey root me out," was the opinion Jack expressed.
"All the same it may be worth trying," Ned declared; "and even ifyou're found out we can be no worse off than if we all gave up. This isa case that needs quick action."
"Then just as you say, Ned, we'll try it," Jack agreed. "I'll see if Ican stand this rank smell a little while longer. Perhaps it may seem sobad that none of the rustlers'll care to crawl in and look around. Youcan kind of give them to understand that one of your crowd has keeledover earlier in the fight. There's just a little hope it may pan out.Now, for goodness' sake get a move on as soon as you can. I'll find aplace behind some loose stones to lie down and play dead. Hope when thetime comes for me to crawl out I won't be too weak to move."
Each of the other scouts squeezed Jack's hand. He was a prime favoritein the troop, and they disliked leaving him behind more than they couldtell; but there seemed little choice and Jack was always so willing tosacrifice himself for the good of others.
Ned took the lead.
"Keep close behind me," he told Harry and Jimmy, as they started tocrawl over to where they knew the exit must be; for the smoke was nowgetting so dense that even the faint light was shut out.
Reaching this place Ned shouted, though he found himself so hoarse thathe hardly knew his own voice; and several times choked, as though hewas close to the border of having a fit.
"Hello! hello out there! we want to surrender! We're choking, and can'tstand it any longer. Don't fire on us, and we'll come out! Hello!hello!"
There came an answering hail, close at hand.
"All right, come along, but be sure and hold your hands up over yerheads, or you might get hurt! understand that, kids?"
"Yes we're nearly all in! Here we come!"
With that Ned led the way, and staggering weakly, the three scoutsgroped their passage through the haze of bitter smoke toward the faintgleam of daylight that they could begin to see through the pall.
While they were still engulfed in this mantle they felt their gunsrudely jerked from their hands and fierce clutches taken upon theirgarments. But the relief was so great when they reached the blessed airin the canyon, almost free from the acrid fumes of that terrible stinkweed, that for the moment they could think of nothing else.
Each of them stood there, blinking, and rubbing their smarting eyes.Rude laughter jarred on their nerves, and they began to observe that acircle of lawless punchers stood around, apparently quite amused at thesight of their agony.
"Seems ter me thar was four o' the tenderfeet kids; how 'bout that,Ally?" one of the rustlers observed in a voice that sounded like thegrumble of thunder.
Ned managed to look at the speaker, and he just seemed to know withoutbeing told that this giant must be the "awful dad" of the lad Amos,whom they had helped out of the quicksand. He was indeed a strikingfigure, and must inspire terror in almost any man who happened to runcounter to his will. When Hy Adams growled his dislike for anything,plans were apt to be hastily changed, and in a fashion calculated tosuit his whim.
There was another alongside who caught Ned's especial attention, too.He had only to take note of the fact that this tall party bore a scaron his left cheek to feel confident that this must be the rustlerchief, Clem Parsons, who had played fast and loose with the UnitedStates Government, so that his apprehension by the Secret Serviceofficers was apt to put quite a feather in the cap of the one fortunateenough to cause his arrest.
"There was four of 'em," Ally Sloper observed, as he pushed forward atthis juncture and faced the prisoners; and raising his voice he turnedto Ned and added: "Where'd that other feller skip out to? Was heknocked over by our fire? We know that he never got away, we had thecanyon blocked with a cork in the neck of the bottle."
"We've lost him, somehow," Ned replied, brokenly, as though deeplygrieved by the fact; "and we hope you'll look around and find our chum,who may be bleeding to death somewhere in the canyon behind a rock."
His eagerness to have them search seemed to allay any suspicion thatmay have started to arise.
"Oh! we'll give a sort of look when we're getting out of this hole,"the man Ned took to be Clem Parsons observed carelessly; "but it's toounpleasant around these diggings right now to stay any longer than wehave to. Later on, if we happen to think of it, we may come back andlook him up. Get a move on now, boys, and we'll strike for the uppercamp."
Those who had hold of the three prisoners urged
them forward, and itwas evident that they meant to leave the vicinity of the recent fight.When Ned was sure of this he allowed himself to have a most violent fitof coughing, and managed to mix in several significant signals thatwere not unlike the howl of the wolf in the stillness of a night on theopen plain.
This he knew must be heard by the suffering scout inside the cave. Itwould tell Jack they were going, and that he could immediately make astart looking toward relief from the overpowering fumes.
Ned would have been better satisfied could he have received a returnsign from the devoted chum, to assure him all was well; but of coursethat was utterly out of the question. He could only hope that dear oldJack would not by this time have become so weak from his sufferings asto be unable to make his crawl out to the pure air, and then followafter them.
The three scouts looked quite dejected at first. They were soaccustomed to having things come their way that this thing of beingmade prisoners galled them. Jimmy in particular bewailed thecircumstances attending their capture. He seemed to think that it wasnext door to a disgrace because they had not been able to put up adesperate resistance, and at least disable several of the foe beforeyielding to superior force.
"'Tis a shame, that's what it is," he kept on muttering, grimly, "tohave to put up your hands like we did without knockin' the stuffin' outof a few of the enemy. I'll never be able to look myself in the faceagain, sure I won't."
"Oh! yes you will, Jimmy," Harry assured him; "I expect to live to seethe time when you sit beside a fire, gobbling your rasher of bacon andfried potatoes, and telling the story of this adventure to some of theother boys in the troop."
"Now, that's adding insult to injury!" declared Jimmy, sadly; "when yougo and make my mouth water tellin' about breakfast stuff. Chances arethey'll try to starve us while they hold the lot for ransom."
Ned gave him a punch in the side when he said this.
"Let up on that kind of talk, Jimmy," he whispered sternly; "don't putthe notion in their heads. If they once knew who Harry was, and what hecame out here to do, they'd think up some scheme to get even withColonel Job. Even Ally Sloper didn't hear what our mission was, andthinks we're just on the plains to have a good time. And keep up yourspirits. Leave it to Jack; he's our best hope just now."
They were walking by themselves at the time, the rustlers forming asort of cordon around them though separated by a dozen or two feet; andhence the scouts found an opportunity to exchange a few remarks inwhispers without being overheard.
After that Harry and Jimmy did pluck up a little more hope. So long asJack was free to move around they might expect assistance, though noneof them could give more than a vague guess what shape it might take.Jack was to decide upon his own course. He might think it best tofollow them up, and then, after seeing where the cattle thieves hadtheir secret camp, make his way back to where the ponies had been left,mount, and head for the ranch at top speed in order to bring a rescueparty to their relief.
How they hugged that hope to their hearts as they climbed upward afterthose of their captors who were in the van. Ned was wideawake all thewhile. He believed that Jack must surely follow them, and in order tomake his task as easy as possible the scout master was trying in everyway he knew how to leave plain indications of their having passed alongthis way.
All this had to be done in a fashion calculated not to attract theattention of the rustlers. If they realized that he was purposelyturning over stones every now and then by pretending to stumble, theywould know what this implied; consequently the rustlers would lay atrap for the comrade who was expected to follow; and hence Jack, whencoming creeping along the trail, might walk into an ambush, so that hetoo be taken prisoner.
An hour passed, and all of the scouts were becoming very weary ofclimbing, much against their will, when indications ahead told themthey must be getting close to the rustlers' camp.
It was hidden in the most isolated part of the mountain range, andwhere there did not seem to be one chance in ten that any cow puncherwould ever stray in search of lost steers. Faint wreaths of smoke firsttold the sharp-eyed Ned that the camp was near by; then he heard a dogbark, and a horse neigh, as well as sounds very similar to the rattleof steers' horns when being driven from one pasturage to another.
Ten minutes later and they were walking into the camp. They boysobserved everything closely, for they never expected to again findthemselves in the midst of a gang of reckless rustlers, and it wastheir policy to "make hay while the sun shone."
Strange to say they had not been searched up to now for any valuables,though the man who was leader of the rustlers had looked to make surethey were not armed with any weapons besides their rifles and huntingknives, both of which had been taken away from them.
Harry wished now he had thought to ask Jack to lend him his littlecamera, for the spectacle of that camp was one they must often wish toremember in future days. Still, as those who dwelt in the heart of themountains were mostly fugitives from justice, it was hardly likely theywould permit any one to snap off a picture that must prove of value tothe officers who were often looking for them far and wide.
The afternoon was pretty well done by now. Had their original plansbeen carried out the boys would have been entering camp by this time.Instead they found themselves in one of the most distressing situationsin their career; prisoners among the lawless rustlers, who must knowthat much of their recent defeat was due to the coming of these BoyScouts to the cattle ranch bordering the Colorado country.