The horses had been jogging along a trail that now turned off to what looked like a wide plain.
"Here"s the bridge I"ve been heading for," said Polly. "From here on, it"s clear going to Lone Pine Blaze."
"Bridge! Do you call this a bridge," laughed Eleanor.
"It"s a forest ranger"s bridge. They build these over chasms and streams so horses and men can quickly reach any part of the forest when there is a fire. If they had to ford swift streams, or go round about, much time would be lost."
The bridge in question was made of loose tree-trunks thrown across the river and pegged down on either side where the ends rested upon the steep banks.
After crossing the log-bridge, Polly led the way towards what seemed to be a veritable wilderness of forest. Giant pines thrust their green tops far above trees that would have been considered landmarks in the East, but were deemed quite ordinary in the West. Next in height to the commonly-sized pines came gigantic oaks and then the still shorter aspens and lodge-pole pine.
"You never intend breaking through that tangle of trees, I hope, Polly!" cried Barbara, who had never seen such a bewildering growth of forest in her life.
"No, not this time! I"m making for that pine that you can see way above all of the others. That is Lone Pine Blaze, because it bears the blaze that shows the way to the up-trail!"
Noddy must have been a frequent traveler to this tree for she knew exactly the way to go and when she came opposite the pine that bore the blaze, she stopped of her own accord.
"Now, wasn"t that cute?" cried Eleanor, riding her burro directly behind Noddy.
Polly jumped from her burro"s back and went over to Choko. She removed the ax from the pack and chopped a way through the slender undergrowth which had grown up that season.
"Yes, here"s the blaze as plain as day! Any of you girls want to read it for me?" laughed Polly.
The three curious girls jumped from their mounts and pushed a way over to the tree where they saw a queer mark made deep in the tree where the bark could not over-grow it.
"What does it say, Poll!" asked Eleanor.
"It means for us to turn to the left and follow the trail upwards!"
said Polly, pointing to the signs.
"I should think the ranchers would put up sign-posts to guide travelers!" said Barbara.
"How long do you suppose a post would last in a mild little wind-storm that uproots trees and tosses them about like wisps of hay?" laughed Polly.
"Oh, Polly! You surely are making fun of us!" said Eleanor, doubtfully.
"No, indeed, she is not! In the three months" time I was at the Cobb School, I saw some terrific gales sweep over the country!" added Anne.
But sign-posts and wind-storms were forgotten for the time when the horses came out on a strange road they had to travel. The wilderness of pine forest had been left on the right after leaving Lone Pine, and the trail led down gradually to a bottomland of brilliant green herbage.
Directly over this emerald valley ran a corduroy roadway.
"There must have been a brook under this at one time!" stated Eleanor, finding the logs partly embedded in caked mud.
"No, this too, is built by our forest-rangers who help the timber jacks build these roads. You see, while frost holds good the heaviest tree trunks can be readily moved over icy swamp bottoms, but in the spring, when thaw and freshets begin, the bottoms are more like a marsh, or shallow lake, than anything else I know of. Then these corduroy roads are a make-shift for hard ground," explained Polly, while Noddy started to clip-clop over the firmly-set logs.
"Why don"t the men wait for the next frost?" asked Barbara.
"Hoh! Don"t you know the trees would be worthless if they were left for a season? Decay and mold or worms would destroy the finest wood.
Besides, these logs, or poles, laid side by side in the mud, soon get to be as solid as a rock, for the mud, oozing up between the c.h.i.n.ks of the logs, dries out and leaves them baked tight in the grooves."
Having heard the way this novel roadway was made, the girls took a lively interest in crossing it. No more questions were asked until Polly reached the trail that led up through the forest. Then Eleanor spoke.
"Polly, you"re sure you know the road?"
"We can"t go very far wrong! If we keep to the trail we are bound to come out on the top--somewhere!" laughed Polly, giving Noddy her head in selecting a safe footing on the rough trail.
Eleanor, eager to show how well she could ride, forced her burro past Noddy while the latter was making a slight detour about a sage-brush.
She turned partly around to laugh at Polly, when her burro made a sudden lunge away from the trail, and at the same time, a diamond-backed rattlesnake struck out from its coil, reaching at least two-thirds the full length of its body.
"Help! Save me!" screamed Eleanor, frantically, but the brave little burro knew how to carry his rider safely out of the way of the reptile.
Polly saw the snake coil for another strike at Barbara"s horse, which had almost reached the place before Eleanor screamed. The whole occurrence was so unexpected and sudden that Barbara had not seen the swift flash of cinnamon-red and dark diamond-patterned rattler.
With great presence of mind, Polly instantly pulled Noddy up on a mound of ground just above the reptile, and caught hold of a long supple branch of wood. In another instant she was whipping the snake until it could not tell from which direction the blows were descending--right, left, front or back! In a moment of indecision, the snake remained quiet and in that second Polly brought down her solid heel upon its flat head.
The other girls screamed and turned pale for they thought Polly had fallen from her burro upon the rattler--so quick had been her action.
But the moment the daring girl looked up and laughed at them, they also jumped from their saddles and ran up to help.
Polly made sure the rattler was quite dead, then took a forked stick and held it up to view. It had beautiful diamond markings of dark-colors on cinnamon-red ground. The belly was of creamy white, and the tail had eight rattles attached to it by means of a peculiar fibrous ribbon. These rattles seemed to be of dry h.o.r.n.y skin that made the buzz-sound when shaken. The head had been so crushed open that Polly could easily show the curious girls the poison-fangs which were hinged to the upper jaw.
"When a rattler intends to bite, its mouth grasps the object and these fangs drop down into the flesh, puncturing tiny holes into which the fatal poison flows."
Polly described the action of the bite minutely, causing her hearers to shiver with dread. Seeing the effect her words had made, she laughed, adding, "A snake does not always bite clear! I mean, the least thing keeps his teeth from driving straight into the flesh, so that the poison bag cannot empty its fluid under the skin. It is often a loose or sidewise bite, so that much of the poison never enters the wound.
That is why so many folks survive rattle-snake bites. If it went clean, and the poison bag was emptied under the skin,--pwhew!"
Polly whistled to denote her sense of the outcome of such a bite, and Barbara cried, "Oh, mercy, Polly! I feel so sick after hearing you, that I want to go back to Chicago!"
Anne laughed at Barbara"s fears, saying, "We may not see another rattler all summer!"
"Anyway, Bob, you"re perfectly safe while on a horse, for they can always tell when a rattler is near and they avoid it. A rattler will never go out of its own course to strike--only biting when one pa.s.ses too near it for its safety!" said Polly.
"Well, that"s some consolation, anyway!" sighed Eleanor.
"What do you want to do with this snake, Poll?" asked Anne, as the sisters climbed back into their saddles.
"Goodness me! What would she do with it, except to kick it over into the bushes!" cried Barbara.
"Polly is laughing! She thinks you are crazy, Anne!" added Eleanor, impatiently, for she was eager to proceed on the trail.
"Well, Polly, I think we will have it skinned and sent to Denver to be made into an odd handbag for your mother!" suggested Anne.
"Oh, Anne, how splendid! I wish I could find a snake skin!" cried Eleanor.
"Yes, Anne, I think mother will love that!" added Polly, gratefully, so the rattler was moved carefully over to a large flat rock near the trail, where they could readily find it on their way back.
CHAPTER XII