Taken Into The Mountains
: The Young ForesterWe climbed to another level bench where we branched off the trail. The
forest still kept its open, park-like character. Under the great pines
the ground was bare and brown with a thick covering of pine-needles, but
in the glades were green grass and blue flowers.
Once across this level we encountered a steeper ascent than any I had
yet climbed. Here the character of the forest began to change. There
were
symmetrical, and bright, which Dick called a silver spruce. I was glad
it belonged to the conifers, or pine-tree family, because it was the
most beautiful tree I had ever seen. We climbed ridges and threaded
through aspen thickets in hollows till near sunset. Then Stockton
ordered a halt for camp.
It came none too soon for me, and I was so exhausted that I had to be
helped off my mustang. Stockton arranged my blankets, fed me, and bathed
the bruise on my head, but I was too weary and sick to be grateful or
to care about anything except sleep. Even the fact that my hands were
uncomfortably bound did not keep me awake.
When some one called me next morning my eyes did not want to stay open.
I had a lazy feeling and a dull ache in my bones, but the pain had gone
from my head. That made everything else seem all right.
Soon we were climbing again, and my interest in my surroundings grew as
we went up. For a while we brushed through thickets of scrub oak. The
whole slope of the mountain was ridged and hollowed, so that we were
always going down and climbing up. The pines and spruces grew smaller,
and were more rugged and gnarled.
"Hyar's the canyon!" sang out Bill, presently.
We came out on the edge of a deep hollow. It was half a mile wide. I
looked down a long incline of sharp tree-tips. The roar of water rose
from below, and in places a white rushing torrent showed. Above loomed
the snow-clad peak, glistening in the morning sun. How wonderfully far
off and high it still was!
To my regret it was shut off from my sight as we descended into the
canyon. However, I soon forgot that. I saw a troop of coyotes, and many
black and white squirrels. From time to time huge birds, almost as big
as turkeys, crashed out of the thickets and whirred away. They flew
swift as pheasants, and I asked Dick what they were.
"Blue grouse," he replied. "Look sharp now, Ken, there are deer ahead of
us. See the tracks?"
Looking down I saw little, sharp-pointed, oval tracks. Presently two
foxes crossed an open patch not fifty yards from us, but I did not get
a glimpse of the deer. Soon we reached the bottom of the canyon, and
struck into another trail. The air was full of the low roar of tumbling
water. This mountain-torrent was about twenty feet wide, but its
swiftness and foam made it impossible to tell its depth. The trail led
up-stream, and turned so constantly that half the time Bill, the leader,
was not in sight. Once the sharp crack of his rifle halted the train. I
heard crashings in the thicket. Dick yelled for me to look up the slope,
and there I saw three gray deer with white tails raised. I heard a
strange, whistling sound.
On going forward we found that Bill had killed a deer and was roping it
on his pack-horse. As we proceeded up the canyon it grew narrower,
and soon we entered a veritable gorge. It was short, but the floor was
exceedingly rough, and made hard going for the horses. Suddenly I was
amazed to see the gorge open out into a kind of amphitheatre several
hundred feet across. The walls were steep, and one side shelved out,
making a long, shallow cave, In the center of this amphitheatre was a
deep hole from which the mountain stream boiled and bubbled.
"Hyar we are," said Bill, and swung out of his saddle. The other men
followed suit, and helped Dick and me down. Stockton untied our hands,
saying he reckoned we would be more comfortable that way. Indeed we
were. My wrists were swollen and blistered. Stockton detailed the
Mexican to keep guard over us.
"Ken, I've heard of this place," said Dick. "How's that for a spring?
Twenty yards wide, and no telling how deep! This is snow-water straight
from the peaks. We're not a thousand feet below the snow-line."
"I can tell that. Look at those Jwari pines," I replied, pointing up
over the wall. A rugged slope rose above our camp-site, and it was
covered with a tangled mass of stunted pines. Many of them were twisted
and misshapen; some were half dead and bleached white at the tops. "It's
my first sight of such trees," I went on, "but I've studied about them.
Up here it's not lack of moisture that stunts and retards their growth.
It's fighting the elements--cold, storm-winds, snowslides. I suppose
not one in a thousand seedlings takes root and survives. But the forest
fights hard to live."
"Well, Ken, we may as well sit back now and talk forestry till Buell
skins all he wants of Penetier," said Dick. "It's really a fine
camping-spot. Plenty of deer up here and bear, too."
"Dick, couldn't we escape?" I whispered.
"We're not likely to have a chance. But I say, Ken, how did you happen
to turn up? I thought you were going to hop on the first train for
home."
"Dick, you had another think coming. I couldn't go home. I'll have a
great time yet--I'm having it now."
"Yes, that lump on your head looks like it," replied Dick, with a laugh.
"If Bud hadn't put you out we'd have come closer to licking this bunch.
Ken, keep your eye on Greaser. He's treacherous. His arm's lame yet."
"We've had two run-ins already," I said. "The third time is the worst,
they say. I hope it won't come.... But, Dick, I'm as big--I'm bigger
than he is."
"Hear the kid talk! I certainly ought to have put you on that train--"
"What train?" asked Stockton, sharply, from our rear. He took us in with
suspicious eyes.
"I was telling Ken I ought to have put him on a train for home,"
answered Dick.
Stockton let the remark pass without further comment; still, he appeared
to be doing some hard thinking. He put Dick at one end of the long cave,
me at the other. Our bedding was unpacked and placed at our disposal. We
made our beds. After that I kept my eyes open and did not miss anything.
"Leslie, I'm going to treat you and Ward white," said Stockton. "You'll
have good grub. Herky-Jerky's the best cook this side of Holston, and
you'll be left untied in the daytime. But if either of you attempts to
get away it means a leg shot off. Do you get that?"
"All right, Stockton; that's pretty square of you, considering," replied
Dick. "You're a decent sort of chap to be mixed up with a thief like
Buell. I'm sorry."
Stockton turned away at this rather abruptly. Then Bill appeared on
the wall above, and began to throw down firewood. Bud returned from the
canyon, where he had driven the horses. Greaser sat on a stone puffing a
cigarette. It was the first time I had taken a good look at him. He was
smaller than I had fancied; his feet and hands and features resembled
those of a woman, but his eyes were live coals of black fire. In the
daylight I was not in the least afraid of him.
Herky-Jerky was the most interesting one of our captors. He had a short,
stocky figure, and was the most bow-legged man I ever saw. Never on
earth could he have stopped a pig in a lane. A stubby beard covered
the lower half of his brick-red face. The most striking thing about
Herky-Jerky, however, was his perpetual grin. He looked very jolly, yet
every time he opened his mouth it was to utter bad language. He cursed
the fire, the pans, the coffee, the biscuits, all of which he handled
most skillfully. It was disgusting, and yet aside from this I rather
liked him.
It grew dark very quickly while we were eating, and the wind that dipped
down into the gorge was cold. I kept edging closer and closer to the
blazing campfire. I had never tasted venison before, and rather disliked
it at first. But I soon cultivated a liking for it.
That night Stockton tied me securely, but in a way which made it easy
for me to turn. I slept soundly and awoke late. When I sat up Stockton
stood by his saddled horse, and was giving orders to the men. He
spoke sharply. He made it clear that they were not to be lax in their
vigilance. Then, without a word to Dick or me, he rode down the gorge
and disappeared behind a corner of yellow wall.
Bill untied the rope that held Dick's arms, but left his feet bound. I
was freed entirely, and it felt so good to have the use of all my limbs
once more that I pranced round in a rather lively way. Either my antics
annoyed Herky-Jerky or he thought it a good opportunity to show his
skill with a lasso, for he shot the loop over me so hard that it stung
my back.
"I'm all there as a roper!" he said, pulling the lasso tight round my
middle. The men all laughed as I tumbled over in the gravel.
"Better keep a half-hitch on the colt," remarked Bud.
So they left the lasso fast about my waist, and it trailed after me as
I walked. Herky-Jerky put me to carrying Dick's breakfast from the
campfire up into the cave. This I did with alacrity. Dick and I
exchanged commonplace remarks aloud, but we had several little whispers.
"Ken, we may get the drop on them or give them the slip yet," whispered
Dick, in one of these interludes.
This put ideas into my head. There might be a chance for me to escape,
if not for Dick. I made up my mind to try if a good chance offered, but
I did not want to go alone down that canyon without a gun. Stockton had
taken my revolver and hunting-knife, but I still had the little leather
case which Hal and I had used so often back on the Susquehanna. Besides
a pen-knife this case contained salt and pepper, fishing hooks and
lines, matches--a host of little things that a boy who had never been
lost might imagine he would need in an emergency. While thinking and
planning I sat on the edge of the great hole where the spring was.
Suddenly I saw a swirl in the water, and then a splendid spotted fish.
It broke water twice. It was two feet long.
"Dick, there's fish in this hole!" I yelled, eagerly.
"Shouldn't wonder," replied he. "Sure, kid, thet hole's full of
trout--speckled trout," said Herky-Jerky. "But they can't be ketched."
"Why not?" I demanded. I had not caught little trout in the Pennsylvania
hills for nothing. "They eat, don't they? That fish I saw was a whale,
and he broke water for a bug. Get me a pole and some bugs or worms!"
When I took out my little case and showed the fishing-line, Herky-Jerky
said he would find me some bait.
While he was absent I studied that spring with new and awakened eyes.
It was round and very deep, and the water bulged up in great greenish
swirls. The outlet was a narrow little cleft through which the water
flowed slowly, as though it did not want to take its freedom. The rush
and roar came from the gorge below.
Herky-Jerky returned with a long, slender pole. It was as pliant as a
buggy-whip, and once trimmed and rigged it was far from being a poor
tackle. Herky-Jerky watched me with extreme attention, all the time
grinning. Then he held out a handful of grubs.
"If you ketch a trout on thet I'll swaller the pole!" he exclaimed.
I stooped low and approached the spring, being careful to keep out of
sight.
"You forgot to spit on yer bait, kid," said Bill.
They all laughed in a way to rouse my ire. But despite it I flipped the
bait into the water with the same old thrilling expectancy.
The bait dropped with a little spat. An arrowy shadow, black and gold,
flashed up. Splash! The line hissed. Then I jerked hard. The pole bent
double, wobbled, and swayed this way and that. The fish was a powerful
one; his rushes were like those of a heavy bass. But never had a bass
given me such a struggle. Every instant I made sure the tackle would be
wrecked. Then, just at the breaking-point, the fish would turn. At last
he began to tire. I felt that he was rising to the surface, and I put on
more strain. Soon I saw him; then he turned, flashing like a gold bar. I
led my captive to the outlet of the spring, where I reached down and
got my fingers in his gills. With that I lifted him. Dick whooped when I
held up the fish; as for me, I was speechless. The trout was almost two
feet long, broad and heavy, with shiny sides flecked with color.
Herky-Jerky celebrated my luck with a generous outburst of enthusiasm,
whereupon his comrades reminded him of his offer to swallow my fishing
pole.
I put on a fresh bait and instantly hooked another fish, a smaller one,
which was not so bard to land. The spring hole was full of trout. They
made the water boil when I cast. Several large ones tore the hook loose;
I had never dreamed of such fishing. Really it was a strange situation.
Here I was a prisoner, with Greaser or Bud taking turns at holding the
other end of the lasso. More than once they tethered me up short for no
other reason than to torment me. Yet never in my life had I so enjoyed
fishing.
By-and-by Bill and Herky-Jerky left the camp. I heard Herky tell Greaser
to keep his eye on the stew-pots, and it occurred to me that Greaser had
better keep his eye on Ken Ward. When I saw Bud lie down I remembered
what Dick had whispered. I pretended to be absorbed in my fishing, but
really I was watching Greaser. As usual, he was smoking, and appeared
listless, but he still held on to the lasso.
Suddenly I saw a big blue revolver lying on a stone and I could even
catch the glint of brass shells in the cylinder. It was not close to Bud
nor so very close to Greaser. If he should drop the lasso! A wild idea
possessed me--held me in its grip. Just then the stew-pot boiled over.
There was a sputter and a cloud of steam, Greaser lazily swore in
Mexican; he got up to move the stew-pot and dropped the lasso.
When he reached the fire I bounded up, jerking the lasso far behind
me. I ran and grabbed the revolver. Greaser heard me and wheeled with
a yell. Bud sat up quickly. I pointed the revolver at him, then at
Greaser, and kept moving it from one side to the other.
"Don't move! I'll shoot!" I cried.
"Good boy!" yelled Dick. "You've got the drop. Keep it, Ken, keep it!
Don't lose your nerve. Edge round here and cut me loose.... Bud, if you
move I'll make him shoot. Come on, Ken."
"Greaser, cut him loose!" I commanded the snarling Mexican.
I trembled so that the revolver wabbled in my hand. Trying to hold it
steadied, I squeezed it hard. Bang! It went off with a bellow like a
cannon. The bullet scattered the gravel near Greaser. His yellow face
turned a dirty white. He jumped straight up in his fright.
"Cut him loose!" I ordered.
Greaser ran toward Dick.
"Look out, Ken! Behind you! Quick!" yelled Dick.
I beard a crunching of gravel. Even as I wheeled I felt a tremendous
pull on the lasso and I seemed to be sailing in the air. I got a blurred
glimpse of Herky-Jerky leaning back on the taut lasso. Then I plunged
down, slid over the rocks, and went souse into the spring.
More
-
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"It's Dan," whispered Kate. "He's come." "Maybe Daddy Dan sent Bart back alone, munner." "Does he do that often? Come quickly, Joan. Run!" She ran towards the entrance, stumbling over the uneven ground and dragging Joan behind her, but when t... The Battle At The Ranch
When Wade and Santry approached the big pine, the waiting men came out from its shadow and rode forward, with the borrowed rifles across their saddle horns. "All right, boys?" the rancher asked, taking Trowbridge's new rifle, a beautiful weapon... The Bear Hunt
"Is Don round, Mrs. Cameron?" "Mercy me, Hughie! Did ye sleep in the woods? Come away in. Ye're a sight for sore eyes. Come away in. And how's ye're mother and all?" "All right, thank you. Is Don in?" "Don? He's somewhere about the barn. Bu... The Bear Wheat At Sixty-two
As Sam Lewiston backed the horse into the shafts of his backboard and began hitching the tugs to the whiffletree, his wife came out from the kitchen door of the house and drew near, and stood for some time at the horse's head, her arms folded and he... The Beginning Of A Perilous Journey
"Hitch yer cheers up t' the blaze; it's a cool night fer September," said Captain Bowen, drawing his own splint-bottom chair toward the great fire-place of his homely but thoroughly comfortable home, and slowly sipping new cider, just old enough t... The Belt Line
On a certain day toward the middle of the month, at a time when the mysterious Bear had unloaded some eighty thousand bushels upon Hornung, a conference was held in the library of Hornung's home. His broker attended it, and also a clean-faced, brigh... The Besetment Of Kurt Lieders
A SILVER rime glistened all down the street. There was a drabble of dead leaves on the sidewalk which was of wood, and on the roadway which was of macadam and stiff mud. The wind blew sharply, for it was a December day and only six in the mornin... The Big Reuben Vein
But it seemed as though Joe were destined never to get to Sulphide. I was still in the kitchen, when, not more than twenty minutes later, I heard the rattle of wheels again, and looking out of the window, there I saw my partner by the stable tying... The Bigger The Hat The Smaller The Herd
Combing Crooked Wash that afternoon Bob rode with a heavy and despondent heart. It was with him while he and Dud jogged back to the ranch in the darkness. He had failed again. Another man had trodden down the fears to which he had afterward lightl... The Bite Of Memory
The heavy boom of a dynamite blast rolled across the fiat to the hills that flung it back in a tardy echo like a spent ball of sound. A blob of blue smoke curled out of a hole the size of a hogshead in a steep bank overhung with alders. Outside, the wi... The Black-bearded Man
It was Strom Rogers who indicated to the outlaws at the Star that henceforth Harlan was to exercise authority of a kind that had formerly been vested in Haydon and Deveny. The corral was packed to suffocation with cattle, threatening the health ...