CHAPTER XVI.THE CURTAIN-ROCK.
The scout, his girl pard, and Wah-coo-tah, it will be recalled, were left in the level of the Forty Thieves, hurrying, as fast as the Indian girl’s wound would permit, toward the shaft.
Dell, returning from the drift with a flask of water, was about to hand the flask to Buffalo Bill when Wah-coo-tah started forward with a sudden access of strength.
“Pronto, pronto,” breathed the girl; “mebbyso I live to fool Lawless and save um Pa-e-has-ka—mebbyso.”
“What is it?” asked Dell wildly, following the scout and Wah-coo-tah and listening to the seething roar.
“Nuzhee Mona, Nuzhee Mona!” wailed Wah-coo-tah; “him Rain Walker, Big Water, Flood!”
“Ah!” muttered the scout: “there has been a cloud-burst in the cañon, and the water is coming down on us!”
“No cloud-burst, Pa-e-has-ka,” said Wah-coo-tah huskily; “Nuzhee Monaall same lake, close to cañon, high up. Lawless him use giant-powder, blow away rock, letNuzhee Monadown into the cañon——”
The girl broke off abruptly. They had reached the shaft, and Wah-coo-tah, throwing herself down, tried to pull a boulder away from the foot of the wall. The task was too much for her strength.
“Quick, Pa-e-has-ka!” she panted.
The scout laid hold of the stone, Dell holding the candle for him to see, and threw the stone to one side.
“See um iron?” gasped Wah-coo-tah. “My eyes all same go blind, no can see.”
Dell, her hands shaking under the menace of weird, unknown perils, held the candle lower.
“Here’s an iron bar, Wah-coo-tah!” cried the scout.
The roar from the cañon was now so great that it was necessary for him to raise his voice in order to be heard.
“Pull um bar, Pa-e-has-ka,” screamed Wah-coo-tah, “pronto, pronto!”
Seizing the bar with both hands, Buffalo Bill gave a long, steady pull. A screech of rusted machinery followed, and the bar gave slowly; and slowly, high up toward the top of the shaft, a curtain of rock obtruded itself across the well, and by degrees closed out the daylight.
Then, when the bar would yield no more, and not a ray of light came from above, Buffalo Bill took his hands from the lever and straightened up.
A swishing roar passed over their heads, and drops of water trickled down on them.
“Saved!” murmured Dell, leaning nervelessly against the side of the shaft.
“Aye,” said the scout, as the baffled waters thrashed and tossed about the ore-dump, “saved in the nick of time, and by a method I had not dreamed of. That bar, Dell, works a rock curtain near the mouth of the shaft. By pulling the bar, the curtain is shoved across the opening, below the platform. When I first saw this mine, I wondered if it was not in danger of being flooded by a cloud-burst. In order to avoid the danger, it must be that Lawless contrived the rock curtain. Was that the way of it, Wah-coo-tah?”
There was no answer from the Indian girl, and the scout looked down, to discover that she had fallen in a limp heap on the shaft bottom.
“We have neglected her wound too long, Dell,” said the scout. “She has fainted, I suppose, as she came so near doing while we were on our way to the shaft. We will get her back to the ‘drift’ and do what we can for her.”
Picking Wah-coo-tah up in his arms, Buffalo Bill carried her back along the level and into the “drift.” There she was laid down on the rocky floor, the scout’s rolled-up coat serving as a pillow for her head.
While Dell bathed the Indian girl’s face with water, and chafed her temples, the scout was examining her wound.
“What do you think, Buffalo Bill?” Dell asked, as the scout straightened up on his knees.
“It’s a bad wound,” he answered, shaking his head. “What the girl needs is a doctor, and there is not much time to lose. And to think,” he added, in a fierce undertone, “that it was her own father’s men who did this! I always knew a squawman was pretty low down, but I never thought him as mean as that.”
With handkerchiefs and torn cloths they made shift to get a bandage about Wah-coo-tah’s wound; then they sat beside her and waited for her to recover consciousness.
“She saved us,” said Dell tremulously, “and it may be that she has given her life to do it.”
“The girl has a good heart,” returned the scout, “and you might wonder at that, considering what sort of a father she had.”
“ThisNuzhee Monais a lake, then?” asked Dell.
“I believe, now, that I have heard of such a lake, but this is the first time I have connected that name with it.”
“I thought Wah-coo-tah said it was the name of an Indian deity.”
“All same,” came softly from the lips of Wah-coo-tah, and the scout and Dell looked, to see that her eyes had opened. “Nuzhee Monaall same god, Rain Walker, Flood. Yousabe?”
“The god of the waters, Wah-coo-tah?” returned the scout.
“Ai,” she answered; “him god of waters and name of lake, ’way up, alongside cañon. Lawless blow out um rock, and let water come. Him think Pa-e-has-ka no understand about rock door at top of shaft, and thatNuzhee Monacome into mine, fill it, strangle scout. Ai, ai! but we fool um. Lawless shoot Wah-coo-tah so she no tell Pa-e-has-ka.”
“Was it Lawless himself who fired that shot?” demanded Buffalo Bill.
“Ai. Me speak to um first.”
“What did you say to him, Wah-coo-tah?”
“Me say, let Pa-e-has-ka out through secret door with Wah-coo-tah. If you no let us out, me say, Wah-coo-tah show Pa-e-has-ka how to slide door across shaft. That make Lawless heap mad, and he shoot. But we fool um,” she crooned; “Pa-e-has-ka live, and we fool um Lawless. Ah, ah!”
“How do you feel, Wah-coo-tah?” the scout asked, in a kindly tone.
“Like pretty soon me go to better place, to the hunting-grounds of all good Cheyennes.”
“No, no, Wah-coo-tah,” whispered Dell, bending downand taking one of the girl’s hands; “you are going to get well. We shall take you to a doctor, at Sun Dance, and he will cure you.”
“You like Wah-coo-tah to get well?” the Indian girl asked.
“Yes, yes,” breathed Dell tearfully; “I want you to live so I can prove to you that I am your friend, always your friend.”
“Mebbyso Yellow Hair talk with two tongues?”
“No, Wah-coo-tah,” said Dell earnestly, “I never talk with two tongues.”
“Mebbyso; but Wah-coo-tah Injun. If she get well, go back to Cheyennes, mebbyso her sold again to some Injun she no like. Better Wah-coo-tah die, better Yellow Hair stay with Pa-e-has-ka, be Pa-e-has-ka’s pard.”
“Wah-coo-tah,” interposed the scout, “will Lawless and his men stay in the other part of the mine?”
“No; him leave when him think flood come. Him thinkNuzhee Monacome into other part of mine, too, yousabe?”
“Then we can get out through that secret door?”
“Ai.”
“The quicker we get out the quicker we can take you to Sun Dance; and the quicker you get into the doctor’s hands, the more chance there is of saving your life.”
Wah-coo-tah smiled a little at that.
“You like to save Wah-coo-tah, but Wah-coo-tah no care. Ou, di! Take me to secret door, Pa-e-has-ka. Me show you how to get through.”
Cody looked at Dell, and nodded. Thereupon Dell picked up the candle, and the scout gathered the Indian girl in his arms. With the coat under her arm, Dell ledthe way along the level to the place where she and Buffalo Bill had seen the glare breaking through the wall.
Here the scout laid Wah-coo-tah down, took the candle, and hunted over the wall for the crevice that would mark the edge of the stone door. So cleverly was the door fitted into the rock that it defied detection.
“See um big black stone, Pa-e-has-ka?” Wah-coo-tah asked, turning her head toward the wall.
The scout saw the stone, and laid his hand on it.
“Push,” said the girl.
Cody made ready to use considerable strength, but found that it was not necessary, for the big stone was so nicely balanced that it yielded at a touch. The entire stone swung outward, leaving a ragged gap two feel wide by three feet in height. Beyond the gap was darkness.
“Lawless gone,” said Wah-coo-tah weakly; “all safe, Pa-e-has-ka. We go on now. Go on till you see um daylight.”
“That’s our cue, Dell,” said the scout. “The outlaws must all be gone. If water had come into the mine, the flood would surely have forced the stone door and let it into the secret level. Lawless and his men would not dare to remain here. Take the candle, pard, and lead the way.”
After the scout had again taken Wah-coo-tah in his arms, Dell picked up the coat and the candle and forced her way through the secret door.
The passage in which the scout and Dell found themselves ran at right angles with the main level. It was no larger than the passage they had left, but presently it opened out and formed a sort of chamber.
In this chamber there were evidences that both men and horses had recently made the place a rendezvous.
“Horses in a mine!” exclaimed the scout. “I wonder how Lawless got the animals down here?”
“Plenty soon you find um out, Pa-e-has-ka,” murmured Wah-coo-tah.
After leaving the wide part of the passage, the bore narrowed to its original dimensions, and the floor took the form of a slope.
“We’re climbing!” exclaimed Dell.
“This secret shaft is an incline,” returned the scout. “It’s clear, now, how the horses got down here. I’m beginning to understand, too, how it was that Lawless and his men disappeared so mysteriously that time we thought we had chased them out of the cañon. All they did, then, was to ride to the top of this incline and hide themselves away in the underground workings of the Forty Thieves.”
It was a long climb they had to the top of the subterranean slope; but after a while they saw a glow of daylight ahead of them. The glow brightened and brightened, until they came out of the inclined shaft and stood upon a brush-grown shelf jutting out from the cañon wall. Here the scout put down his burden, and all of them rested and filled their lungs with the pure outdoor air.
“I never expected to get out of that hole alive,” said the scout. “If I had known more about the mine than I did, I should not have been so brash about going into it; but who’d ever have expected to find such a layout of secret passages and inclined shafts? Lawless did a good deal of dead work hunting for that lost vein.”
“If we only knew where Nomad and Wild Bill were,” said Dell, “I should feel easier in my mind.”
The scout’s brow clouded.
“Of course Lawless and his men took them along when they left the mine.” The scout turned to Wah-coo-tah. “Where would Lawless be apt to go from here, Wah-coo-tah?” he asked.
“Mebbyso to Medicine Bluff,” the girl answered.
“Then, as soon as I get you to Sun Dance, I’m going to pick up a few men and ride post-haste for Medicine Bluff. I can’t believe that Lawless would put Nomad and Wild Bill out of the way; still, a scoundrel who would shoot his own daughter would be capable of anything.”
“He would!” averred Dell fervently. “I’m worried about Nomad and Wild Bill, and we must ride for Medicine Bluff as soon as we can.”
“I wonder just where we are?” said the scout, getting to his feet and pushing through the bushes to the edge of the shelf.
Dell did not follow but remained beside Wah-coo-tah.
“You tell Wah-coo-tah,” said the Indian girl, as soon as they were alone, “that you leave Pa-e-has-ka as soon as Wah-coo-tah get you out of mine; and you say,” the girl added sharply, “that you no talk with the double tongue.”
“If you insist that I leave the scout and his pards,” said Dell, “I will. I have a ranch in Arizona, and my mother is there. I intended to leave my pards very soon, anyway, but I should like to stay with them until Lawless is captured and forced to pay the penalty of his crimes.”
“You go then?”
“Yes.”
“Then Wah-coo-tah glad you stay. Mebbyso Yellow Hair got good heart, and Wah-coo-tah got bad heart?Quien sabe?”
“No, no, Wah-coo-tah,” whispered Dell, “you’ve got a good heart, and you’re a brave girl; only there are some things you don’t understand.”
She took the girl’s hand, bent over, and touched her lips to her forehead. Wah-coo-tah’s eyes softened under the caress.
“Me no hate you any more,” the Indian girl whispered. “Wah-coo-tah all same Yellow Hair’s friend.”
Just then the scout came back from the edge of the shelf and noticed, with much satisfaction, the friendliness of the two girls toward each other.
“We’re on a little ledge, half-way up the cañon wall,” he announced. “From the edge of the shelf I could look down on the ore-dump and shaft of the Forty Thieves. The flood has been ’way over the top of the dump, for the platform, and the stones are dripping wet, but the water is receding rapidly.”
“How are we to get away from here?” asked Dell.
“There’s a bridle-path to the top of the cañon and another one to the bottom, but I think we had better get out by the top of the cañon and take that route to Sun Dance. There’s no telling how much water we would find between here and the camp if we tried to follow the bottom of the gulch. Our first move must be to get the horses from the gully. I suppose it will be best to leave you here, Dell, to stay with Wah-coo-tah, while I go for the horses.”
“I will take care of Wah-coo-tah, pard,” returnedDell, pressing the Indian girl’s hand affectionately as she spoke. “You ought to find Cayuse in the gully.”
“Wherever the horses are, I think I am pretty certain to find the boy. Whenever he is told to do a thing, he generally does it, so I feel confident he has stayed with the live stock. I won’t be gone long,” the scout added, as he took to the bridle-path and began the ascent.
In mounting to the top of the cañon the scout was able to observe below him the extent of the flood which had been turned into the defile by the blasting operations of Captain Lawless.
A line on the opposite wall of the gulch showed him the height the water had reached, and indicated how quickly the Forty Thieves would have been flooded had not the curtain of rock been thrown across the top of the shaft.
He shivered as his imagination pictured the plight of Dell and Wah-coo-tah and himself, down in the level, with the water pouring in upon them, and Lawless and his men keeping them back from the secret door with their rifles.
“It’s a long road that has no turning,” thought the scout grimly, “and Lawless has run up a score which I shall call upon him to settle. When I am done with him, I shall come back to the Forty Thieves and stay out the three consecutive days and nights; then, when I have earned the deed, I shall turn the property over to Wah-coo-tah—if she lives; and if she does not live, then it shall go to Wah-coo-tah’s mother, the Cheyenne woman.”
This procedure was strictly in line with the scout’s generous nature. As for staying in Sun Dance Cañonand developing the Forty Thieves, the very thought of it brought a smile to his lips.
He could not imagine himself turning from the free life of the plains and mountains to the narrow confines of a mine and the life of a miner.
First, however, he must trail down Captain Lawless and rescue old Nomad and Wild Bill. He would not allow himself to suppose that Lawless would deal cold-bloodedly with his pards, and thought only of pursuing the outlaw to Medicine Bluff and effecting a rescue.
While he was climbing upward, and turning these matters over in his mind, he little dreamed that within a few minutes Chance was to strike one more unexpected note in the odd tune she had recently been playing for his benefit.
Yet so it fell out when, presently, Buffalo Bill stepped from the path he had been following onto level ground at the brink of the cañon.
What he saw first was a dead Cheyenne; beyond the Cheyenne was a group consisting of five men and a boy. The men were in close and animated conversation, and did not see the scout.
To his amazement, the scout discovered that two of the men were Nomad and Wild Bill; the other three were Lonesome Pete, Hank Tenny, and Henry Blake. The boy, of course, was Cayuse.
“Buffler has been my pard fer many a year,” old Nomad was saying, in a husky voice, “an’ I was hopin’, when he cashed in, thet fate might let the pair o’ us be standin’ shoulder ter shoulder, so thet we both mout begin ther long trail tergether. I’ve never felt wuss in my life than what I does this minit, Buffler!” and theold trapper lifted his face skyward, “whyever didn’t ye wait fer yer old pard Nick?”
“How long do you want me to wait, Nick?” called the scout.
For an instant the entire group seemed paralyzed; then Nomad turned slowly around, stared for a moment, let off a cry that was half-joy and half-consternation, and galloped toward the scout with both hands outstretched.