"We"ve beat "em to it!" said Eric.
"That country out there is washed out something terrible, for all it looks so flat," said Jim Scarboro sympathetically. "They"ve got to ride slow. Gee, I bet it"s hot out there!"
"One thing sure," said Eric: "there"s no such mine as that on Fishhook.
I"ve prospected every foot of it."
"They"ll noon at Sweet.w.a.ter," said Zurich. "You boys go on up to Hardscrabble. Take my horse. I"ll go over to Sweet.w.a.ter and hide out in the rocks to see what I can find out. There"s a stony place where I can get across without leaving any trail.
"Unsaddle and water. Leave the pack here, you"d better, and my saddle.
They are not coming here--nothing to come for. You can sleep, turn about, one watching the horses, and come on down when you see me coming back."
It was five hours later when the watchers on Hardscrabble saw the Johnson party turn south, up the valley between barb and shank of the mountain; an hour after that Zurich rejoined them, as they repacked at the trail foot, and made his report:
"I couldn"t hear where they"re going; but it is somewhere west or westerly, and it"s a day farther on. Say, it"s a good thing I went over there. What do you suppose that fiend Johnson is going to do? You wouldn"t guess it in ten years. You fellows all know there"s only one way to get out of that Fishhook Valley--unless you turn round and come back the way you go in?"
"I don"t," said Bill. "I"ve never been down this way before."
"You can get out through Horse-Thief Gap, "way in the southwest. There"s a place near the top where there"s just barely room for a horse to get through between the cliffs. You can ride a quarter mile and touch the rocks on each side with your hands. Johnson"s afraid some one will see those tracks they"re makin" and follow "em up. I heard him tellin" it. So the d.a.m.ned old fool has lugged dynamite all the way from Tucson, and after they get through he"s going to stuff the powder behind some of those chimneys and plug Horse-Thief so d.a.m.n full of rock that a goat can"t get over," said Zurich indignantly. "Now what do you think of that?
Most suspicious old idiot I ever did see!"
"I call it good news. That copper must be something extraordinary, or he"d never take such a precaution," said Eric.
Zurich answered as they saddled:
"If we had followed them in there, we would have lost forty miles. As it is, they gain twenty miles on us while we ride back round the north end of the mountain, besides an hour I lost hoofing it back."
"I don"t see that we"ve lost much," said Jim Scarboro. "We"ve got their direction and our horses are fresh beside of theirs. We"ll make up that twenty miles and be in at the finish to-morrow; we"re four to four. Let"s ride."
Tall Eric rubbed his chin.
"That Benavides," he said, "is a tough one. He is a known man. He"s as good as Johnson when it comes to shooting."
"I"m not afraid of the shooting, and I"m not afraid of death," said Zurich impatiently; "but I am leery about that cussed old man. He"ll find a way to fool us--see if he don"t!"
A strong wind blew scorching from the south the next day; Johnson turned aside from the sagebrush country to avoid the worst sand, and bent north to a long half-circle, through a country of giant saguaro and clumped yuccas; once they pa.s.sed over a neck of lava hillocks thinly drifted over with sand. The heat was ghastly; on their faces alkali dust, plastered with sweat, caked in the stubble of two days" growth; their eyes were red-rimmed and swollen. Boland, bruised and racked and cramped, suffered agonies.
It was ten in the morning when Joe touched Pete"s arm:
"_Que cosa?_" He pointed behind them and to the north, to a long, low-lying streak of dust.
"Trouble, Don Hooaleece? I think so--yes."
They had no spygla.s.s; but it was hardly needed. The dust streak followed them, almost parallel to their course. It gained on them. They changed their gait from a walk to a trot. The dust came faster; they were pursued.
That was a weird race. There was no running, no galloping; only a steady, relentless trot that jarred poor Boland to the bone. After an hour, during which the pursuers gained steadily, Pete called a halt. They took the packs from the led animals and turned them loose, to go back to Fishhook Mountain; they refilled their canteens from the kegs and pressed on. The pursuit had gained during the brief delay; plainly to be seen now, queer little bobbing black figures against the north.
They rode on, a little faster now. But at the end of half an hour the black figures were perceptibly closer.
"They"re gaining on us," said Boland, turning his red-lidded eyes on Stan. "They have better horses, or fresher."
"No," said Stan; "they"re riding faster--that"s all. They haven"t a chance; they can"t keep it up at the rate they"re doing now. They"re five miles to the north, and it isn"t far to the finish. See that huddle of little hills in the middle of the plain, ahead and a little to the south?
That"s our place, and we can"t be caught before we get there. Pete is saving our horses; they"re going strong. These fellows are five miles away yet. They"ve shot their bolt, and they know it."
He was right. The bobbing black shapes came abreast--held even--fell back--came again--hung on, and fell back at last, hopelessly distanced when the goal was still ten miles away. Pete and his troop held on at the same unswerving gait--trot, trot, trot! The ten miles became nine--eight--seven--
Sharp-eyed Benavides touched Pete"s arm and pointed. "What"s that? By gar, eet is a man, amigo; a man in some troubles!"
It was a man, a black shape that waved a hat frantically from a swell of rising ground a mile to the south. Pete swerved his course.
"You"ve got the best horse, Joe. Gallop up and see what"s wrong. I"m afraid it"s Jackson Carr."
It was Jackson Carr. He limped to meet Benavides; the Mexican turned and swung his hat; the three urged their wearied horses to a gallop.
"Trouble?" said Pete, leaping down.
"Bobby. I tied up his pony and hobbled the rest. At daylight they wasn"t in sight. Bobby went after "em. I waited a long time and then I hobbled off down here to see. Wagon"s five or six miles north. One of my spans come from down in Sonora, somewhere--Santa Elena, wherever that is--and I reckon they"re dragging it for home and the others have followed, unless--unless Bob"s pony has fallen, or something. He didn"t take any water. He could follow the tracks back here on this hard ground. But in the sand down there--with all this wind--" His eye turned to the shimmering white sandhills along the south, with the dust clouds high above them.
"Boland, you"ll have to give Carr your horse," said Pete. "It"s his boy; and you"re "most dead anyhow. We"ll light a big blaze when we find him, and another on this edge of the sandhills in case you don"t see the first. We"ll make two of "em, a good ways apart, if everything is all right. You take a canteen and crawl under a bush and rest a while. You need it. If you feel better after a spell, you can follow these horse tracks back and hobble along to the wagon; or we can pick you up as we come back. Come on, boys!"
"But your mine?" said Carr. He pointed to a slow dust streak that pa.s.sed along the north. "I saw you coming--two bunches. Ain"t those fellows after your mine? "Cause if they are, they"ll sure find it. You"ve been riding straight for them little hills out there all alone in the big middle of the plain."
"d.a.m.n the mine!" said Pete. "We"ve been playing. We"ve got man"s work to do now. No; there"s no use splitting up and sending one or two to the mine. That mine is a four-man job. So is this; and a better one. We"re all needed here. To h.e.l.l with the mine! Come on!"
They found Bobby, far along in the afternoon, in the sandhills. His lips were cracked and bleeding; his tongue was beginning to blacken and swell; his eyes were swollen nearly shut from alkali dust, and there was an ugly gash in the hair"s edge above his left ear; he was caked with blood and mire, and he clung to the saddle horn with both hands--but he drove six horses before him.
They gave him, a little at a time, the heated water from their canteens.
A few small drinks cheered him up amazingly. After a big soapweed was touched off for a signal fire, he was able to tell his story.
"Naw, I ain"t hurt none to speak of; but I"m some tired. I hit a high lope and catched up with them in the aidge of the sandhills," he said.
"I got "em all unhobbled but old Heck; and then that ornery Nig horse kicked me in the head--d.a.m.n him! Knocked me out quite a spell. Sun was middlin" high when I come to--horses gone, and the cussed pony trailed along after them. It was an hour or two before I caught sight of "em again. I was spitting cotton a heap. Dad always told me to carry water with me, and I sure was wishing I"d minded him. Well, I went "way round and headed "em off--and, dog-gone, they up and run round me. That Zip horse was the ringleader. Every time, just as I was about to get "em turned, he"d make a break and the rest would follow, h.e.l.lity-larrup! Old Heck has cut his feet all to pieces with the hobbles--old fool! I headed "em four or five times--five, I guess--and they kept getting away, and running farther every time before they stopped and went to grazing. After a while the pony snagged his bridle in a bush and I got him. Then I dropped my twine on old Heck and unhobbled him, and come on back. Give me another drink, Pete."
They rode back very slowly to the northern edge of the sandhills and lighted their two signal fires. An answering fire flamed in the north, to show that Boland had seen their signals.
"I reckon we"ll stop and rest here a while till it gets cooler," observed Pete. "Might as well, now. We can start in an hour and get in to the wagon by dark. Reckon Frank Boland was glad to see them two fires! I bet that boy sure hated to be left behind. Pretty tough--but it had to be done. This has been a thunderin" hard trip on Frankie and he"s stood up to it fine. Good stuff!" He turned to the boy: "Well, Bobby, you had a hard time wranglin" them to-day--but you got "em, didn"t you, son?"
"That"s what I went after," said Bobby.
Boland stiffened after his rest. He made two small marches toward the wagon, but his tortured muscles were so stiff and sore that he gave it up at last. After he saw and answered the signal fires he dropped off to sleep.
He was awakened by a jingling of spurs and a trampling of hoofs. He got to his feet hurriedly. Four hors.e.m.e.n reined up beside him--not Pete Johnson and his friends, but four strangers, who looked at him curiously.
Their horses were sadly travel-stained.