"I will," answered the boy, though far from relishing the task a.s.signed to him.
"You have your rifle. Signal us by shooting into the air if anything happens. But be careful. Don"t get the "buck fever" and let go at us, or at Tad, if he should return before we get back."
"I"ll be careful," answered the boy. "Please don"t worry about me. Any danger of that cougar jumping down on me here?" he asked, glancing apprehensively at the rocks overhead.
"I think not. He"s gone. We shall be more likely to see him than you will. It"s the ponies the brute"s after. And he may have gotten one of them before this," added the guide.
Ned pluckily took his station just outside the circle of light formed by the replenished fire, and sat down with rifle laid across his knees.
The guide, with Walter Perkins and Stacy Brown, set off at a trot in search of the stampeded ponies. At Lige"s direction they spread out so as to cover as much ground as possible, the torches making it well nigh impossible for any of them to get lost.
"Call your ponies," advised the guide. "We may be able to pick up some of them in that way after they have spent themselves."
Yet, though the forest rang with their calls, no trace were they able to find of the missing animals.
"No use," announced Lige finally. "We shall only get lost ourselves. It will be better to return to camp and wait for daylight. If the cougar is going to eat any of them, he probably has them by this time. However, I think my shooting has frightened him off, and that he is several miles from here by now. That was my main object in wasting so much ammunition on the beast."
"Yes, but what are we going to do about Tad?" insisted Walter.
"If he has not returned, we can do nothing more than to keep the fire burning and discharge our guns now and then to let him know where we are. When daylight comes, I probably shall be able to follow his trail. But first of all we must get the ponies. We can do nothing without them."
"Do you think we ever shall find them?" asked Stacy.
"I most certainly hope so. At least, I expect to get some of them. If any are then missing, we can buy a couple at Eagle Pa.s.s, which is not very far. But you trust Master Tad to take care of himself. He"ll get back somehow, My duty is to remain with you boys. We will look him up together when we get something to ride on."
The little band trudged ruefully through the dark forest on their return to camp, guided carefully by Lige, without whom they surely would have lost their way.
In the meantime, Tad had been dragged over an entire mountain range, the ranges in this case, however, being no more than a succession of summits of low peaks. The pony had reached the top of one of these when, without pausing in its mad course, it dashed on over the crest, and started down the opposite side.
All at once Tad realized that they were treading on thin air. The meaning of it all, smote him like a blow.
"We"re over the cliff!" he groaned.
CHAPTER XIX
LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS
Fortunately, however, their fall proved to be a very short one, though to Tad it seemed as if they had been falling for an hour. Boy and horse landed on a soft, mossy bank, rolling over and over, the pony kicking and squealing with fear, until, finally, both came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.
Tad was unharmed, save for the unmerciful treatment he had received during his record-breaking journey. Yet, he proposed to take no further chances of losing his horse, if he had the good fortune to find the animal still alive. Tad came up like a rubber ball. With a quick leap, he threw himself fairly on the pony"s side. The impact made the little horse grunt, his feet beating a tattoo in the air in his desperate struggles to free himself.
"Whoa!" commanded Tad sharply, sliding forward and sitting on the animal"s head, which position he calmly maintained, until the pony, realizing the uselessness of further opposition, lay back conquered.
Yet the boy did not rise immediately. Instead, he patted the pony"s neck gently, speaking soothing words and calming it until the animal"s quivering muscles relaxed and it lay breathing naturally.
"Good boy, Jimmie," he said, recognizing the pony as Ned"s. "Now, after you have rested a bit we"ll see what we can do about getting back to camp. If I"m any judge, you and I are not going to have a very easy time of it on the back track, either, Jimmie."
Without a compa.s.s, with only a hazy idea of the direction in which they had been traveling, Tad"s task indeed was a difficult one.
"I think we"ll walk a bit, Jimmie," he confided to the pony, and, taking the little animal by the bridle, began leading it cautiously up the slope, which he ascended by a roundabout course, remembering the jump they had taken on the way down. Tad was not likely to forget that.
The boy"s eyes were heavy for want of sleep and his wounds pained him beyoud words. After somewhat more than an hour"s journey he pulled up, looking about him.
"I am afraid we two pards are lost, Jimmie."
The pony rubbed its nose against him as if in confirmation of the lad"s words.
"And the further we go, the more we shall be lost. Jimmie, the best thing for you and me to do will be to go to bed. Lie down, Jimmie, that"s a good boy."
As Tad tapped the pony gently on the knees the little animal slowly lowered himself to the ground, finally rolling over on his side with a snort.
"Good boy," soothed Tad. Then snuggling down, with the pony"s neck for his pillow, the bridle rein twisted about one hand, Tad went as sound asleep as if he had not a care in the world, and without thought of the perils which the mountains about them held.
Yet some good fairy must have been watching over Tad Butler, for not a sound broke the stillness until a whinny from Jimmie at last disturbed his slumbers.
The boy opened his eyes in amazement. It was broad daylight.
Tad"s first care was to tether the pony to a sapling, after which he searched about until he found a mountain stream, in which he washed, feeling greatly refreshed afterward. He then treated the pony as he had himself, washing the animal down, and allowing it to quench it"s thirst in the stream.
"Not much of a breakfast, is it, Jimmie? But you can help yourself to leaves. That"s where you have the best of me. Not being a horse, I can"t eat leaves. I wonder where I am!"
Gazing about him inquiringly, the boy failed to recognize the landscape at all. In fact, he did not believe he ever had seen it before. When the sun rose he declared to himself that it had come right up out of the west. What little sense of direction he might have had left was entirely lost after this, and Tad sat down to think matters over.
Once he raised his head sharply and listened. He was sure that he had heard a shot, far off toward the rising sun.
Tad wished with all his heart, that he had his rifle with him, for he realized that with it he might be able to attract attention.
"I certainly cannot sit here and starve to death," he decided after Jimmie had satisfied his own hunger from the fresh green leaves. "Come on, Jimmie; we"ll go somewhere, anyway."
Saying which, Tad methodically patched the broken bridle rein together, mounted the pony"s bare back and set off to climb the low mountain that loomed ahead of him.
He had gone on thus for nearly two hours, without finding any trace of either the camp or his late companions, when a sound off in the bushes to the right of him caused him to pull Jimmie up sharply. Jimmie p.r.i.c.ked up his ears and whinnied.
"That"s strange," muttered Tad. "He wouldn"t be likely to do that if it was a wild animal over there. Judging from past experiences, he"d run."
Once more did Jimmie set up a loud whinny, and to Tad"s surprise and delight, the signal was answered by a similar call off in the sage brush.
"It"s a horse. I believe it"s one of the ponies," cried Tad, turning his mount in the direction from which the sounds had seemed to come, and galloping rapidly toward the place. Next, the boy uttered a shout of joy.
His delight was great, after he had penetrated the sage, to come suddenly upon a pony contentedly munching a mouthful of green leaves, and gazing at him with great wondering eyes.
"Texas!" shouted the boy.
Tad had indeed come upon his own faithful little pony.