"I saw Frank Shirley here yesterday afternoon in company with a well-known desperado who goes by the name of "One-Eyed Badger."
I cannot but think that these two men are at the bottom of this new trouble, but what their reasons can be I cannot even guess; certain it is that I have never done them or any one else a wrong knowingly.
"Do not lose heart, for I have no fear as to the result: only come as soon as you can to your loving father,
"_Samuel Willett._"
Sam read this over rapidly, then he read it a second time with more deliberation.
"De boss am in a bad fix," groaned Ike, "an" I jest wish I could take his place."
"I shall go to my father at once," said Sam, stoutly.
He went to the saddle-bags, got the necessary papers-the receipt and deed-and placed them securely in the inner breast pocket of his buckskin tunic.
"You no gettee on holse an" lide such night as deez coz it was so muchee stolmy?" said Wah Shin when he saw Sam getting out his saddle, bridle and rifle.
"I must get to Hurley"s Gulch before another day," was the resolute reply, "if I have to go there on my hands and knees."
"But you cannot go to-night," protested Ulna. "Come and see the danger."
He took Sam by the arm and led him out to the plateau before the entrance to the cave.
It has been said that it but seldom rains in this land, but when it does the watery torrents come down with a continued fury, of which the dwellers in more favored climes can have only the faintest conception.
The bare rocks refuse to absorb the rain as it falls, and so the ever-acc.u.mulating waters sweep into the canons and fill the narrow beds between the precipitous banks with wild torrents, that must be once seen before an adequate idea can be formed of the tremendous and seemingly irresistible power of water in action.
The four occupants of the caves, all fine types of four human races, went out to the plateau.
The light, streaming through the cave opening, cut across the inky blackness of the canon like a solid yellow shaft, that made the surrounding darkness more impenetrable.
Laden with sheets rather than drops of rain, the wind swept down the ravine with a force that threatened to tear the observers from the rocks and hurl them into the seething torrent.
"Before this time," said Ulna, speaking with the calmness that distinguished all he said, "the valley is flooded and the horses up there are drowned."
Sam shuddered but made no reply.
He went back to the cave, secured a lighted brand, and, returning to the edge of the plateau, he dropped it over.
It went hissing down. If the current were as low as the day before it should have fallen sheer down for a hundred feet, but before going half that distance, it lit up an expanse of water white with foam, and was extinguished.
The result of this experiment brought Sam"s heart to his mouth, and he could not have uttered a word if the life of the father he so well loved depended on it.
"If she keeps on a-climbin" up dat way," groaned Ike, "de watah"ll be nigh into de cave by mawnin"."
Sam now recalled that he had found drift-wood lodged in the crevices of the rocks, even higher than the entrances to the cave, and from this he inferred that at the highest water no one could stay in the cave and live.
Maj, the fine setter dog, had been moaning beside the fire all the evening, but now he came out and crouched at his young master"s feet, as if his instinct told him of the danger and that he wanted protection.
Fearing that the poor horses were gone, and well knowing that it would be madness to attempt to cross the canon that night, Sam turned sadly to his companions and said:
"We can do nothing till daylight comes. Let us get in out of the storm."
They returned to the cave and silently sat down on the stones that had been placed for seats near the fire.
It was a most trying situation.
Even if Mr. Willett and Hank Tims had been safely there in the cave, the ever-increasing storm and the possibility, or rather the certainty of its danger if it continued would have been sufficient to drive sleep from the eyes of all.
But Sam Willett, brave, unselfish youth that he was, gave no thought to the peril of his own surroundings.
With his chin resting between his up-turned palms, he looked steadily at the dying fire without seeing it.
His heart and his thoughts were ever with his sorely-tried father at Hurley"s Gulch, and he groaned as he read in the beating of the storm the edict that might bar his going to the rescue.
But though unmindful of himself, it was not in Sam"s nature to neglect the comfort of others.
"Lie down, all of you," he said to his companions, "and I will stand guard till daylight comes."
After a weak protest, Wah Shin, Ulna and Ike brought in their blankets and lay down before the fire.
Ike pretended that he did not want to sleep, but, after an attempt at desultory talk, his eyes closed and he soon became oblivious to his surroundings.
Maj continued to be restless and frightened. Now and then, as if to judge for himself how the storm was getting on, he would go to the cave opening, and, after whining in a pained way for some seconds, he would come back and crouch down near the fire with his nose resting on his young master"s knees.
To sorrow-stricken Sam Willett that night seemed like an eternity of darkness.
He was beginning to feel that the storm had destroyed the sun, when the grey light of another day began to creep slowly into the cave.
CHAPTER V.-AT HURLEY"S GULCH.
Hurley"s Gulch, though subsequently called "Hurley City," has no right on the map if it ever had a place there, for, like many other more ambitious and important cities, it has ceased to be the abode of man and returned to its original state of barrenness and desolation.
It was at this time a mining camp that had sprung up in a night, as it were, when a man named Hurley-after whom the place was named-had discovered gold in a little creek near the spot that so suddenly became the site of busy mining life.
Though less than six months old and destined not to survive a second birthday, Hurley"s Gulch had nearly a thousand inhabitants, with stores, saloons, a.s.say offices, hotels and all the business establishments that characterize such places.
There were a few women in the camp and a sprinkling of Indians, Negroes and Mexicans, but the great ma.s.s of the inhabitants were miners, rough in appearance and even rougher in speech.
A more picturesque and novel settlement than Hurley"s Gulch it would be impossible to find outside the peculiar mining camps of the West.
Two little streaks of gra.s.s could be found growing beside the creek on the bluff above which the camp had been established; but beyond this there was hardly a sign of vegetation in sight.
All about the place, far as the eye could reach, was a tempest-tossed expanse of dry, glistening rocks.
As there was neither timber for building nor material for bricks, the dwellings, stores, saloons, hotels and offices were necessarily of canvas.