John Henry Goldfrap

“ But as he moved his legs an alarming thing happened. The rock upon which he had been resting gave way without the slightest warning. Jack made a desperate effort to avoid crashing down with it, but he was unsuccessful. With a roar and crash, amid a flying cloud of dust, stones and twigs, the rock and the Border Boy slid together into the midst of the camp of the man whom Jack had every reason on earth both to fear and detest.
But even as he was making his avalanche-like slide down the steep bank. Jack’s active mind was at work. ”

“ One chance of escape only, had he. On the opposite side of the defile lay a narrow ledge running to the top of the sheer cliff. Could he gain that he might stand a chance of escape. Before they realized what he was about to do, Ramon saw the desperate loophole and gathered his horse for the impossible leap across the chasm.
The gallant black, true as steel to his unworthy master to the last, never faltered. Straight out into the air he shot, while the Border Boys and the Rangers alike sat spellbound by the scene. ”

“ The next instant Jack and Coyote were on the ground while Firewater, thoroughly scared now, dashed off, whinnying wildly in his terror.
Pete, too, was up in a flash, but Jack lay quite still. The force of the fall had stunned him. The cow-puncher caught him up in a jiffy and [80] set off clumsily, running from the menace behind with the unconscious boy in his arms.
But like most men whose lives have been spent in the saddle in our great west, Pete was an indifferent runner. Then, too, his heavy leather “chaps,” which he had not removed while on watch, hampered him. ”

“ Their hearts beat fast with apprehension for the brave plainsman, as Ramon, coming out of his swoon, ordered the now aroused camp to saddle at once and scatter in pursuit of the refugee. The outlaw chief himself took part in the search, leaving only three men in the camp to guard the captives. As the sound of the pursuing hoofs grew faint and far the boys interchanged gloomy looks. If Coyote had not seized a horse the chances were all against his making good his escape, however he had managed it. ”

“ It is El Diablo,” shrilled some of the Mexicans. But Ramon, superstitious as he was, was not to be thus easily alarmed.
“It’s a man!” he shouted, and then the next instant:—
“Santa Maria! It’s one of the Border Boys!”
But so quickly had Jack moved that by the time Ramon, the first to regain his wits, had recovered from his surprise, the lad was already among the Mexicans’ horses which were tethered at some little distance. Jack’s quick eye had noted that one of them was saddled and bridled. Like a flash he was in the saddle, and plying the quirt with might and main. ”

“ Jack felt himself coloring under his minstrel-like coating of soot as the girl spoke. The lad was somewhat susceptible, and the dark eyes of the senorita had made quite an impression on him.
“The pleasure is all ours, senorita,” he said, with a vague recollection of having seen that phrase in print somewhere.
The young Mexican girl sat her saddle as lightly as a bird on a bough, and the mount they had selected for her,—“borrowing” one of the outlaws’ animals for the purpose,—was a fine, springy-stepping creature, full of life and action. ”

“ But before he could move, a dozen hands laid hold of the timber and began to roll it toward the cliff edge.
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“Stop!” shouted Pete.
“Ha!” exclaimed Ramon, “then I was not mistaken. Good! Go to your grave, you Yankee pig, in the coffin you have made for yourself!”
Faster and faster the log rolled, while cries of real fear and entreaty broke from Coyote’s lips. In vain he tried to extricate himself.
All at once, the log gave a clumsy leap, and, amid a brutal shout from the Mexicans, it spun over the edge of the gulch and shot sheer over into the black void that yawned below. ”

“ It was many years since Coyote Pete had prayed, but he did so then, commending his soul to his Maker, for that he would ever escape from his frightful predicament he did not dare to hope. Somewhat calmer after his devotions he lay still, not daring to move lest the motion of his body might dislodge some of the rotten wood, and he could not bear to think of hearing it go dropping down into that awful gorge beneath, finally losing all sound in the dread profundities. ”

“ There was the clean-cut American lad sitting tailor fashion opposite the young officer who listened eagerly, while all about hovered the forms of the rangers, clad in bright sashes and brilliant-hued serapes, with immense cone-topped hats lavishly decorated with gold and silver braid. Jack learned later that some of these men oftentimes pay as high as two hundred dollars for their headgear, and that a good sombrero will pass down from father to son and grandson without deteriorating. ”

“ What Coyote Pete had at the end of his lariat was now at once apparent. It was a human being who struggled to his feet as the cow-puncher drew rein. Covered with dust as the man was, and bleeding from his not over gentle treatment by the first of the crowd who had rushed in on him, Jack yet had no difficulty in recognizing the man as the tall Mexican who had been defeated, and who had declared his intention of shutting out the American boy by fair means or foul. ”

“ The lad noted that, before rising, the glutted creatures had to run several yards with outspread wings before they could gain an upward impetus.
The crisp beauty of the morning, the smiling [26] greenery of the trees, and the thousand odors and sounds about him all combined to make Jack wander rather further than he had intended. Then, too, a boy with a rifle always does go a longer distance than he means to. That’s boy nature.
All at once he found himself emerging from the brush at a point rather higher up the canyon side than their camp in the abyss. ”

“ It had ceased to be a game of tilting the ring. It was a contest for the supremacy of Mexico at one of her favorite games.
“Now, Jack, old chap, no misses,” cried Ralph from the crowd.
“Go in and win, old boy. You can do it!” came from Walt.
Jack said nothing, but in his heart was a determination to get that ring at any cost but that of fair play. The tall Mexican now regarded the Border Boy with open looks of enmity. He made no attempt to conceal his hatred of the young American boy who had made the best horsemen in Sonora look to their laurels. ”

“ But the others fell to heartily enough; the boys, because they were boys, with appetites that nothing could upset, and Coyote Pete, with the idea of “firing up” with nourishment in case he might find some way out of it for all of them.
All the afternoon they traveled, reaching higher and higher altitudes. Every now and again Ramon would consult earnestly with the red-haired outlaw of unmistakably American origin, who had, as Jack felt certain, left the warning notes on two occasions,—once at the camp in the canyon, and again at Don Alverado’s fete. ”

“ Aiming as carefully as he could for a death shot, he pressed the trigger and the wretched animal,—the victim of its own curiosity,—plunged over and lay still.
“Poor creature,” quoth Jack to himself, “you are not the first to pay the toll of too much inquisitiveness. Gee whiz!” he broke off the next instant with one of his hearty, wholesome laughs, “I’m getting to be as much of a moralist as the professor.”
Having ascertained that the bear was quite dead and out of its suffering, the Border Boy remounted his pony and pressed back toward camp. ”

“ An hour later, without any incident worthy of mention having occurred, they clattered through the sleeping town of Santa Anita, and, as daylight broke wanly, they found themselves outside the white walls surrounding the princely hacienda of the wealthy Don Alverado. But if the town was asleep, all seemed to be awake here. Lights could be seen flashing in the house which stood on a small eminence some distance from the outer walls.
As they neared the gate of the estate, it flew open and a dozen horsemen, fully armed, dashed out. ”

“ In the very indefiniteness of its form there was something that gripped them all with a cold chill of alarm, the keener for its very lack of understanding of the nature of the approaching mass. Ralph snatched up a rifle, but Coyote, seizing his arm, checked him in a flash.
“Don’t do that, son. It’s not a mite of good,” he cried, and then the next instant:—
“Run for your lives, everybody! Thar’s bin a cloudburst in ther mountains, and here comes ther gosh darndest flood since Noah’s!” ”

“ They were in the hands of the most bloodthirsty band of rascals in Mexico. Even if they escaped, they would be bound to perish miserably in those rugged wilds without food or the weapons to procure any. The nearest settlement, Pete knew, must be at least two hundred miles away, and probably more.
Truly, it was not a cheerful predicament. In fact, as Ralph had said, it looked very much like the last ditch. But Coyote was not of the kind of human that gives in and throws up its hands just because on the surface of things it seems time to abandon hope. ”

“ As they were still looking upward, the men on the cliff summit began to pump down lead, the bullets singing and droning and pattering about them like a leaden hail storm.
“Hot work,” grunted Pete, noting with enthusiasm the absolute collectedness of the leader of the Rangers. He gave a sharp command and his men swung into single file and pulled their [235] ponies over till they were riding so close to the rock wall of the canyon that it was necessary for the riders to throw one leg up on the saddle. ”

“ Then again at Don Alverado’s fete I despatched another one. It was Ramon’s intention to shoot Jack Merrill that day, but the vengeful Mexican, Jose, took the task out of his hands.”
“Was Ramon in the crowd?” gasped Coyote in astonishment.
“Yes. But he is as skillful in disguise as he is in most other things. He was disguised as an old peddler of sweetmeats. But in his basket he had hidden a carbine, which if he had ever used it, would have put that young Merrill out of the way forever.” ”

“ It is true that he “got it” in one sense, but instead of getting the ring he got the bag with a force that sent his sombrero spinning into the crowd.
“Not so easy as it looks, eh?” laughed Jack, as the discomfited Mexican came riding back with a black frown on his face.
“Santa Maria, it was my horse’s fault,” he declared, “the brute is no good. He is a beast; what you Gringoes call a ‘skate.’”
He began spurring the animal savagely, making the poor creature jump and caper about in its agony. ”

“ Look there!” shouted Walt, suddenly pointing off to one side of the valley.
“By Jee-hos-o-phat—smoke!” yelled Pete, fairly startled out of his usual composure.
“A volcano!” cried Walt “Hadn’t we better be getting away from here?”
“This is most extraordinary,” exclaimed the man of science, “there is every evidence here that the internal fires have been long extinct and yet, as if to confound us, smoke comes pouring from that fissure yonder.”
“Wall, my vote is that we git right out of hyar quick,” declared Pete, “volcanoes and Peter de Peyster never did agree.” ”

“ The boys and the professor were hustled into saddles and their legs tied together under the ponies’ bellies. Ramon stood by looking on sardonically while this was being done.
“You are not at the lone rancho now,” he chuckled, “but in the heart of the most lonesome range of mountains in Mexico. That was a clever trick of yours to escape with the senorita, but now you are going to pay for it. Ah, yes, I shall have a revenge, and such a revenge it will be, too!” ”

“ The fiend himself is in those Gringoes,” he raved, “I think they have broken every bone in my body.”
“More fool you, for not being more cautious,” growled Ramon, and then, raising his voice, he shouted up in English:
“It will be of no use to you to resist. I have a superior force and if you injure another of my men when I do get you it will go hard with you. Surrender and give me the money and no harm will come to you with the exception of Jack Merrill. I mean to deal with him as I choose.”
“When you get him, you dog,” shouted Coyote Pete, “which won’t be yet or for a long time to come,—ah! ”

“ At a single glance he could see that there was no hope of getting out of the subterranean trap by means of climbing up the walls. Although they were rough and might have afforded a foothold, they overhung the floor of the pit at such an angle that even a fly would have found it difficult to maintain a foothold on them.
Yet rescue himself he must, or face death in that gloomy place. Without any definite idea in his mind, Jack struck off along the bottom of the abyss, which was overgrown with a short, coarse sort of grass of a pallid green color. ”

“ As the Don finished announcing the rules, the Mexicans gave a yell and a flourish of their lances and galloped off to the starting point.
Jack, Ralph and Walt saluted with a wave of [165] their hats and flourish of their lances, and then headed off after them. Their little display of gallantry caused quite a murmur of admiration to run through the crowd. This was increased to enthusiasm when it was seen how easily and well they sat their active little horses.
“Diablo! Those Gringoes can ride!” exclaimed more than one Mexican in evident amazement that any American could sit on a horse at all. ”