The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-12-06

outwearied men. well spent In the long
chase. with never a leg among us fit to
pace a sentry beat nor a decent wakeful
eye to keep 1t company. So, as have
said. we took the risk and slept; would
have slept soundly, l dare say, had the
risk been twice as great.
We were astir at the earliest grazing
or the dawn. Richard and I. and were the
laggards of the company at that, since
the old hunter WIS already out and away
and the Indian had kindIed a fire and
was grinding more of the parched corn
for the morning meal. Ephraim Yeates
at that moment returned with the, hind
quarters OF a fine yearling buck, fresh
killed. across his shoulders
Seeing the deers meat, we would think
the old hunters thrift of the dawn suffi-
clently accounted for; but when the cuts
were a-oroii we were made to know that
the buck was merely lucky incident in
the early morning scouting
Faking time by the forelock, the old
porderer had swept circle of reconnais-
sance around our hating place ito get
the p'ints of the compass" as he would
say. His first discovery was that the
fora we lad found in the darkness served
as the river crossing Of an ancient and
well-used Indian trace. Along this trace
from the eastward the powder train had
come no longer ago than mid-afternoon
OF yesterday and arguing from this that
the night camp of the band would be
out short march to the Westward
feates had pushed on to feel out the en-
e.ny's position.
For a mile or more beyond the ford he
had trailed the convoy easily. The Indian
trace or path. we'll trampled by the nu-
merous horses Of the cavalcade followed
the upstream windings of the swift river
straight into the eye of the western
1OaTT1f nfr DIT
defile where the slopes on each hand be-
came frowning battlements to narrow val
ley and stream, the one to a darkling
gorge, the other to a laundering torrent
the trail was lost as completely as IL the
powder convoy had vanished into thin
air.
Here was fresh complication and one
that called for instant action. We had
counted upon battle royal in any at
tempt to rescue the women, but that Fall
comet, impeded as he was by the slow
movements Of the powder cargo, could
slip away, was a contingency for which
we were wholly unprepared.
So, as you would guess, the hunter
breakfast was hurriedly dispatched, and
by the time the sun was shoulder high
over the eastern hills we had broken
camp and crossed the river and were
pressing forward to the gorge of disap-
pearance.
On each hand the mountains rose pre-
cipitous, the one on the left swelling I'M
broken to a bald and rounded summit
forest covered save for it's tonsured head
high in air, while that on the right was
sleeper and lower, with a line of cliffs at
the top. AS we Jared on the valley mar
rowed to a mere chasm. with the river
laundering along the base of the tom
sured mountain and the Indian path
-, oTsf ft,a
In the gloomiest depths of this defile we
came upon the hunters stumbling block
A tributary stream, issuing from a low
cavern in the right-hand cliff, crossed the
Indian path and the chasm at a bound
and plunged noisily into the food of the
larger river. On the hither side of this
barrier stream the trail of the powder
convoy led plainly down into the water,
and, so far as one might see. that was
the end of It,
AS we made sure, we left no stone I'M
turned in the effort to solve the mystery.
No horse. ridden or led, could have lived
to cross the pouring torrent of the main
river or to wade uD or down its bed. and
II the cavalcade had turned uD the bar
rier stream its progress must have ended
abruptly against the sheer wall of the
cliff at the entrance Of the low-arched
cavern whence the tributary came into
had ridden neither up nor down the bed
OF the barrier stream, It seemed equally
certain that no horse Of the troop had
crossed 1t. The Indian trace, which held
straight on I'D the gorge and presently
came out above into high upland valley,
was unmarked by any hoof print, new or
Did
.sWell. now, I'll be daddled II this
here amt about the beatin'est thing l
ever cf1uggcd up ag'inst." was
the old borderer's comment. when we had
logged our wits to small purpose for
some clevv to the mystery. Whats your
mind about It, hey, chief?'
Uncanoola shook his head. Heap
plenty slick. No go upstream, no go
down. no eross over, no go back. Mebbe
20 UP like smoke-w at?"
The hunter shook his head and would
by no means admit the alternative. ''Ez
allow, that would ak for a merricle, and
reckon ez how when the good Lord
sends chariot o. fire after sech a clan
Iamfrey as this'n o. the hoss-captain's,