He leaped backward to escape from beneath it.
Barely in time.
It fell, and a portion of it hurled him down and caught his feet and legs, pinning him fast.
The torch was extinguished.
At first Del Norte thought the end had come. As he lay with the weight of earth holding his legs fast, he fully expected another ma.s.s to follow the first and end his life without delay.
A sudden feeling of indifference came over him, and calmly he waited for the end.
"Come, death!" he urged. "Get it over quickly!"
But no more of the roof fell.
After a little he found himself looking upward into the opening, and far, far away, seemingly miles distant, he imagined he could detect a ray of light.
Lifting the upper part of his body, he began dragging away, with his hands, the earth and stones which had fallen on his legs. It did not take him long to clear his feet.
Next he sought for the torch, but it was buried and lost beneath the fallen ma.s.s.
This ma.s.s had made a great mound almost as high as the roof of the pa.s.sage.
He crawled upon it and finally succeeded in straightening up in the opening left when it fell. This opening was plenty large enough for his body; he could move his arms freely; and with his outstretched elbows he was able to touch either side.
Standing there, he tipped back his head and looked upward.
His heart gave a fearful throb as if bursting, and through it shot a sharp pain.
It was no fancy, no hallucination of his deranged brain; away up there he could see light!
"If I could climb up there I might escape!" he whispered. "But how can I do it--how?"
With his hands he felt of the rocky sides of the place where he stood.
The walls were rough, with many niches and protrusions.
He resolved at once to make the attempt, well knowing it might cause another fall of earth and rocks, which would crush him to death.
He found a niche on one side for one foot and a protruding bit of ledge on the other side for the other foot. He fastened his fingers in a cleft and slowly succeeded in dragging himself up into the crack, which was now quite wide enough for him to accomplish this.
He felt about and found other cracks and protrusions. Little by little he climbed higher.
Once his foothold gave way and he came near falling. By bracing across the cleft he succeeded in preventing such a calamity.
Then he found the cleft was growing narrower and narrower. It closed in until it threatened to stop him.
He choked as he thought of the possibility. It was the most fearful thing thus almost to get a taste of liberty and then have it denied him.
At last he was checked. For the time being he could force his way no higher.
He felt his strength leaving him. A dizziness came upon him, and he knew he was on the verge of falling. But he maintained his hold and began to feel about. By working his way cautiously some distance along the cleft, he finally came to a point where the walls were wide enough apart for him to slowly drag his body through. Above that point was a narrow ledge, on which he paused to rest.
Still that rift of light was far above his head. Could he ever reach it?
For some time he rested on the ledge, seeking to summon back all the natural strength he possessed. Finally he resumed his almost superhuman efforts.
Occasionally he paused to look up at the cleft of light. At first it had seemed very narrow, but now it was growing wider. Each time he looked it appeared wider than before.
"I"ll reach it!" he told himself, with absolute confidence. "Porfias del Norte still lives, Senor Merriwell, as you shall have good cause to know!"
Now the air seemed sweeter and purer. He realized how stagnant and stifling it had been away down there in the cave of death. He turned his face up to it and drew in deep breaths.
Finally he came to a place where the cleft widened on either hand until it was impossible to mount higher by clinging to opposite sides.
At that point he seemed baffled.
Was it possible he could fail and perish with life and liberty almost in his very grasp?
There was but one course for him to pursue. He would have to abandon the attempt to climb with the a.s.sistance of both walls; he must take to one wall and make his way up that in some manner.
A little light came down to him from the opening, enabling him to choose the holds for his feet and hands.
At last he came to another ledge, where he lay at full length and rested, although the fear of slipping from it and falling back through that fissure into the heart of the mountain caused him to suffer intense torture. His fancy led him to imagine himself slipping, sliding, falling, seeking to grasp the walls with his torn hands, but failing utterly and dropping at last into the cave, where he found the dead man laughing at him.
Above the ledge at that point he could creep no farther. He aroused himself and crawled slowly along it. It led him out to a place where the light shone in and the cleft was wide above his head.
"Almost free!" he panted.
Had it not been for his life that he was struggling he could never have made that last ascent. In some mysterious manner he accomplished it, dragging himself at last by the aid of some bushes on the brink over the edge and dropping unconscious on the rocky mountain side.
In a little time the air revived him. He lifted his head and looked around. A cry of joy burst from his lips, and he managed to stagger to his feet. Around him on every side lay the beautiful world, the mountains, the autumn-tinted woods and the blue lakes. Above him was the sapphire sky and the gloriously golden sun, for the night had pa.s.sed and another day was well advanced. He drew in deep breaths of the clear, sweet air, and his blood leaped in his veins.
Yet a marvelous change had taken place. At the time when he entered that cave his hair was as black as a raven"s wing; now his face was like that of an old man, and his hair was snowy white!
"Free!" he cried. "I have escaped! But how I have suffered! That dog of a gringo, Frank Merriwell, caused it all! He thinks me dead and out of his path forever. I am alive, and I swear to make Merriwell suffer even as I have suffered! I"ll not kill him at one blow, but I"ll rob him of all he holds dear, his sweetheart, his beauty, his strength, his wealth, and then I will find a way to destroy him at last!
"This is the oath of Porfias del Norte!"
CHAPTER XIII.
HOW RAILROADS ARE BUILT.
Four men of great power and influence in the financial world had gathered in the offices of Scott & Rand, brokers, New York City.
Of course, old Gripper Scott himself was one of the four. Two more were Sudbury Bragg and Warren Hatch.