The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains Read online

  CHAPTER TEN.

  A SURE-FOOTED BEAST.

  An early start was made next morning, and following the course mappedout by the Doctor, they soon reached an opening in the hills, up whichthey turned, to find in the hollow a thread-like stream and that, asthey proceeded, the mountains began to open out before them higher andhigher, till they seemed to close in the horizon like clouds of delicateamethystine blue.

  Every now and then the travelling was so bad that it seemed as if theymust return, but somehow the waggon and horses were got over theobstacles, and a short level cheered them on to fresh exertions, while,as they slowly climbed higher and higher, there was the satisfaction ofknowing that there was less likelihood of molestation from Indians, thedangerous tribes of the plains, Comanches and Apaches, rarely takingtheir horses up amongst the rugged portions of the hills.

  Maude, in her girlish freshness of heart, was delighted with the varietyof scenery, while to Bart all was excitement. Even the labour toextricate the waggon from some rift, or to help to drag it up sometremendous slope, was enjoyable.

  Then there were little excursions to make down moist ravines, where anantelope might be bagged for the larder; or up to some dry-looking flat,shut in by the hills, where grouse might be put up amongst thesage-brush and other thin growth, for six hard-working men out in thesebrisk latitudes consume a great deal of food, and the stores in thewaggon had to be saved as much a possible.

  One way and the other the larder was kept well supplied, and while DrLascelles on the one hand talked eagerly of the precious metal he hopedto discover, Joses was always ready with promises of endless sport.

  "Why, by an' by, Master Bart," he said one day as they journeyed slowlyon, "we shall come to rivers so full of salmon that all you've got to dois to pull 'em out."

  "If you can catch them," said Bart, laughing.

  "Catch 'em, my boy? Why, they don't want no catching. I've known 'emcome up some rivers so quick and fast that when they got up to theshallows they shoved one another out on to the sides high and dry, andall you'd got to do was to catch 'em and eat 'em."

  "Let's see, that's what the Doctor calls a traveller's tale, Joses."

  "Yes; this traveller's tale," said Bart's companion gruffly. "Youneedn't believe it without you like, but it's true all the same."

  "Well, I'll try and believe it," said Bart, laughing, "but I didn't knowsalmon were so stupid as that."

  "Stupid! they aren't stupid, my lad," replied Joses sharply. "Supposeyou and millions of people behind you were walking along a narrow bit o'land with a river on each side of you, and everybody was pushing on frombehind to get up to the end of the bit of land, where there wasn't roomfor you all, and suppose you and hundreds more got pushed into the wateron one side or on the other, that wouldn't be because you were so verystupid, would it?"

  "No," said Bart, "that would be because I couldn't help it."

  "Well, it's just the same with the salmon, my lad. Millions of 'em comeup from out of the sea at spawning time, and they swim up and up tillthe rivers get narrower and shallower, and all those behind keep pushingthe first ones on till thousands die on the banks, and get eaten by thewolves and _coyotes_ that come down then to the banks along with eaglesand hawks and birds like them."

  "I beg your pardon, Joses, for not believing you," said Bart, earnestly."I see now."

  "Oh, it's all right enough," said the rough fellow bluntly. "Ishouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, and of course it's onlyup the little shallow streams that shoot off from the others."

  This conversation took place some days after they had been in themountains, gradually climbing higher, and getting glorious views attimes, of hill and distant plain. Bart and Joses were out "after thepot," as the latter called it, and on this occasion they had been veryunfortunate.

  "I tell you what it is," said Joses at last, "we shall have to go lowerdown. The master won't never find no gold and silver up here, andfood'll get scarcer and scarcer, unless we can come upon a flock ofsheep."

  "A flock of sheep up here!" said Bart incredulously.

  "I didn't say salmon, I said sheep," grunted Joses. "Now, say you don'tbelieve there is sheep up here."

  "You tell me there are sheep up here," said Bart, "and I will believeyou."

  "I don't say there are; I only hope there are," said Joses; "for if wecould get one or two o' them in good condition, they're the best eatingof anything as goes on four legs."

  "But not our sort of sheep?"

  "No, of course not. Mountain sheep, my lad, with great horns twistedround so long and thick you get wondering how the sheep can carry 'em,and--there, look!"

  He caught Bart by the shoulder, and pointed to a tremendous slope, aquarter of a mile away, where, in the clear pure air, the lad could seea flock of about twenty sheep evidently watching them.

  "They're the shyest, artfullest things as ever was," whispered Joses."Down softly, and let's back away; we must circumvent them, and getbehind 'em for a shot."

  "Too late," said Bart; and he was right, for suddenly the whole herdwent off at a tremendous pace along a slope that seemed to be quite aprecipice, and the next moment they were gone.

  "That's up for to-day," said Joses, shouldering his rifle. "We may goback and try and pick up a bird or two. To-morrow we'll come strong,and p'r'aps get a shot at the sheep, as we know they are here."

  They were fortunate enough to shoot a few grouse on their way back, andnext morning at daybreak, Bart and the four men started after the sheep,the Doctor preferring to stay by the waggon and examine some of therocks.

  As the party climbed upwards towards the slope where the sheep had beenseen on the previous day, Joses was full of stories about the shy natureof these animals.

  "They'll lead you right away into the wildest places," he said, "andthen, when you think you've got them, they go over some steep cut, andyou never see 'em again. Some people say they jump head first down onto the rocks, and lets themselves fall on their horns, which is made bigon purpose, and then bounces up again, but I don't believe it, for ifthey did, they'd break their necks. All the same, though, they do jumpdown some wonderful steep places and run up others that look like walls.Here, what's Sam making signals for! Go softly."

  They crept up to their companion, and found that he had sighted a flockof eleven sheep on a slope quite a couple of miles away, and but for theassurance of Joses that it was all right, and that they were sheep, Bartwould have said it was a patch of a light colour on the mountain.

  As they approached cautiously, however, trying to stalk the timidcreatures, Bart found that his men were right, and they spent the nexttwo hours in cautious approach, till they saw that the sheep took alarmand rushed up to the top of the slope, disappeared for a moment, andthen came back, to stand staring down at their advancing enemies.

  "It's all right," exclaimed Joses, "we can get the lot if we like, forthey can't get away. Yonder's a regular dip down where they can't jump.Keep your rifles ready, my boys, and we'll shoot two. That'll beenough."

  As they spread out and slowly advanced, the sheep ran back out of sight,but came back again, proving Joses' words, that there was a precipicebeyond them and their enemies in front.

  Four times over, as the hunting party advanced, did the sheep performthis evolution, but the last time they did not come back into sight.

  "They're away hiding down among the bushes," said Joses. "Be ready.Now then close in. You keep in the middle here, Master Bart, and havethe first shot. Pick a good fat one."

  "Yes," panted Bart, who was out of breath with the climbing, and to resthim Joses called a halt, keeping a sharp look-out the while to left andright, so that the sheep might not elude them.

  At the end of a few minutes they toiled up the slope once more, Josesuttering a few words of warning to his young companion.

  "Don't rush when you get to the top, for it slopes down there with a bigwall going right down beyond, and you mightn't be able to stop yourself.Keep
cool, we shall see them together directly."

  But they did not see the sheep cowering together as they expected, forthough the top of the mountain was just as Joses had described, slopingdown after they had passed the summit and then going down abruptly in anawful precipice, no sheep were to be seen, and after making sure thatnone were hidden, the men passed on cautiously to the edge, Bart being alittle way behind, forcing his way through some thick bushes.

  Just then a cry from Joses made him hurry to the edge, but he was toolate to see what three of them witnessed, and that was the leap of amagnificent ram, which had been standing upon a ledge ten feet belowthem, and which, as soon as it heard the bushes above its head parted,made a tremendous spring as if into space, but landed on another ledge,fifty feet below, to take off once more for another leap right out ofsight.

  "We must go back and round into the valley," said Juan. "We shall findthem all with their necks broken."

  "You'll be clever if you do," said Joses, in a savage growl. "They'vegone on jumping down like that right to the bottom, Master Bart, and--"

  "Is that the flock?" said Bart, pointing to where a similar wall of rockrose up from what seemed to be part of a great canyon.

  "That's them," said Joses, counting, "eight, nine, ten, eleven, and allas fresh as if they'd never made a jump. There, I'll believe anythingof 'em after that."

  "Why, it makes one shudder to look down," said Bart, shrinking back.

  "Shudder!" said Joses, "why, I'd have starved a hundred times before I'dhave made a jump like that. No mutton for dinner to-day, boys. Let'sget some birds."

  And very disconsolately and birdless, they made their way back to thecamp.