In making his bold dash, Walt Wilder was not acting2 without a preconceived plan. He had one. The smoke, with its covering cloud, might be the means of concealment3, and ultimate salvation4; at all events, it would cover their retreat long enough to give them a start of the pursuers, and then the speed of their horses might possibly be depended upon for the rest.
They at first followed this plan, but unfortunately soon found that it would not long avail them. The smoke was not drifting in the right direction. The breeze carried it almost straight towards the line of the cliffs, while their only chance was to strike for the open plain. At the cliffs their flight would be stopped.
So far the smoke had favoured them. Thick and stifling5 in the immediate6 vicinity of the waggons7, it enabled them to slip unobserved through the ruck of savages8. Many of these, still mounted, had seen them pass outward, but through the blue film had mistaken them for two of their own men. They perhaps knew nothing of there having been horses inside the corral, and did not expect to see any of their caged enemies attempting to escape in that way. Besides, they were now busy endeavouring to extinguish the fires, all resistance being at an end.
As yet there was no sign of pursuit, and the fugitives9 rode up with the projecting nimbus around them. In the soft sand their horses’ hoofs11 made no noise, and they galloped12 towards the cliff silent as spectres.
On reaching its base, it became necessary for them either to change the direction of their flight, or bring it to a termination. The bluff13 towered vertically14 above them, like a wall of rude masonwork. A cat could not have scaled it, much less horse, or man. They did not think of making the attempt.
And now, what were they to do? Ride out from the smoke-cloud, or remain under its favouring shelter? In either case they were sure of being discovered and pursued. It would soon clear off, and they would be seen from the waggons. Already it was fast thinning around them; the Indians having nearly extinguished the fires in order to save the treasure, which had no doubt been their chief object for attacking the caravan15. Soon there would be no smoke—and then?
The pursued men stayed not to reflect further. Delay would only add to their danger; and with this thought urging them on, they wheeled their horses to the left, and headed along the line of the bluff. Six seconds after they were riding in a pure atmosphere, under clear dazzling sunlight.
But it gave them no delight. A yell from the savages told them they were seen, and simultaneously16 with the shout, they perceived a score of horsemen spurring from the crowd, and riding at full speed towards them.
They were both splendidly mounted, and might still have had a fair chance of escape; but now another sight met their eyes that once more almost drove them to despair.
A promontory17 of the cliff, stretching far out over the sandy plain, lay directly in their track. Its point was nearer to the pursuers than to them. Before they could reach, and turn it, their retreat would be intercepted18.
Was there still a chance to escape in the opposite direction?
Again suddenly turning, they galloped back as they had come; again entered the belt of smoke; and, riding on through it, reached the clear sunlight beyond.
Again a torturing disappointment. Another promontory—twin to the first—jutted out to obstruct19 them.
There was no mystery in the matter. They saw the mistake they had made. In escaping under cover of the cloud they had gone too far, ridden direct into a deep embayment of the cliff!
Their pursuers, who had turned promptly20 as they, once more had the advantage. The outlying point of rocks was nearer to them, and they would be almost certain to arrive at it first.
To the fugitives there appeared no alternative but to ride on, and take the chance of hewing21 their way through the savages surrounding—for certainly they would be surrounded.
“Git your knife riddy, Frank!” shouted Wilder, as he dug his heels into his horse’s side and put the animal to full speed. “Let’s keep close thegither—livin’ or dead, let’s keep thegither!”
Their steeds needed no urging. To an American horse accustomed to the prairies there is no spur like the yell of an Indian; for he knows that along with it usually comes the shock of a bullet, or the sting of a barbed shaft22.
Both bounded off together, and went over the soft sand, silent, but swift as the wind.
In vain. Before they could reach the projecting point, the savages had got up, and were clustering around it. At least a score, with spears couched, bows bent23, and clubs brandishing24, stood ready to receive them.
It was a gauntlet the pursued men might well despair of being able to run. Truly now seemed their retreat cut off, and surely did death appear to stare them in the face.
“We must die, Walt,” said the young prairie merchant, as he faced despairingly toward his companion.
“Maybe not yet,” answered Wilder, as with a searching glance, he directed his eye along the façade of the cliff.
The red sandstone rose rugged25 and frowning, full five hundred feet overhead. To the superficial glance it seemed to forbid all chance either of being scaled, or affording concealment. There was not even a boulder26 below, behind which they might find a momentary27 shelter from the shafts28 of the pursuers. For all that, Wilder continued to scan it, as if recalling some old recollection.
“This must be the place,” he muttered. “It is, by God!” he added more emphatically, at the same time wrenching29 his horse around, riding sharp off, and calling to his companion to follow him.
Hamersley obeyed, and rode after, without knowing what next. But, in another instant, he divined the intent of this sudden change in the tactics of his fellow fugitive10. For before riding far his eyes fell upon a dark list, which indicated an opening in the escarpment.
It was a mere30 crack, or chine, scarce so wide as a doorway31, and barely large enough to admit a man on horseback; though vertically it traversed the cliff to its top, splitting it from base to summit.
“Off o’ yur hoss!” cried Wilder, as he pulled up in front of it, at the same time flinging himself from his own. “drop the bridle32, and leave him behint. One o’ ’em’ll be enough for what I want, an’ let that be myen. Poor critter, it air a pity! But it can’t be helped. We must hev some kiver to screen us. Quick, Frank, or the skunks33 will be on to us!”
Painful as it was to abandon his brave steed, Hamersley did as directed without knowing why. The last speeches of the guide were somewhat enigmatical, though he presumed they meant an important signification.
Slipping down from his saddle, he stood by his horse’s side, a noble steed, the best blood of his own State, Kentucky, famed for its fine stock. The animal appeared to know that its master was about to part from it. It turned its head towards him; and, with bent neck, and steaming nostrils34, gave utterance35 to a low neigh that, while proclaiming affection, seemed to say, “Why do you forsake36 me?”
Under other circumstances the Kentuckian would have shed tears. For months he and his horse had been as man and man together in many a long prairie journey—a companionship which unites the traveller to his steed in liens37 strong as human friendship, almost as lasting38, and almost as painful to break. So Frank Hamersley felt, as he flung the bridle back on the animal’s withers—still retaining hold of the rein39, loth to relinquish40 it.
But there was no alternative. Behind were the shouting pursuers quickly coming on. He could see their brandished41 spears glancing in the sun glare. They would soon be within reach, thrusting through his body; their barbed blades piercing him between the ribs42.
No time for sentiment nor dallying43 now, without the certainty of being slain44.
He gave one last look at his steed, and then letting go the rein, turned away, as one who, by stern necessity, abandons a friend, fearing reproach for what he does, but without the power to explain it.
For a time the abandoned steed kept its place, with glances inquiringly sent after the master who had forsaken45 it. Then, as the yelling crew came closer behind, it threw up its head, snorted, and tore off with trailing bridle.
Hamersley had turned to the guide, now also afoot, but still retaining hold of his horse, which he was conducting towards the crack in the cliff, with all his energies forcing it to follow him; for the animal moved reluctantly, as though suspecting danger inside the darksome cleft46.
Still urging it on, he shouted back to the Kentuckian, “You go first, Frank! Up into the kanyon, without losin’ a second’s time. Hyar, take my gun, an’ load both, whiles I see to the closin’ o’ the gap.”
Seizing both guns in his grasp, Hamersley sprang into the chine, stopping when he got well within its grim jaws47.
Wilder went after, leading his steed, that still strained back upon the bridle.
There was a large stone across the aperture48, over which the horse had to straddle. This being above two feet in height, when the animal had got its forelegs over Wilder checked it to a stand. Hitherto following him with forced obedience49, it now trembled, and showed a strong determination to go back. There was an expression, in its owner’s eye it had never seen before—something that terribly frayed50 it. But it could not now do this, though ever so inclined. With its ribs close pressing the rocks on each side, it was unable to turn; while the bridle drawn51 firmly in front hindered it from retiring.
Hamersley, busily engaged in loading the rifles, nevertheless found time to glance at Wilder’s doings, wondering what he was about.
“It air a pity!” soliloquised the latter, repeating his former words in similar tones of commiseration52. “F’r all that, the thing must be done. If thar war a rock big enough, or a log, or anythin’. No! thar ain’t ne’er another chance to make kiver. So hyar goes for a bit o’ butcherin’.”
As the guide thus delivered himself, Hamersley saw him jerk the bowie knife from his belt, its blade red and still reeking53 with human gore54. In another instant its edge was drawn across the throat of the horse, from which the blood gushed55 forth56 in a thick, strong stream, like water from the spout57 of a pump. The creature made a last desperate effort to get off, but with its forelegs over the rocks and head held down between them, it could not stir from the spot. After a convulsive throe or two, it sank down till its ribs rested upon the straddled stone; and in this attitude it ended its life, the head after a time drooping58 down, the eyes apparently59 turned with a last reproachful look upon the master who had murdered it!
“It hed to be did; thar war no help for it,” said Wilder, as he hurriedly turned towards his companion, adding: “Have you got the guns charged?”
Hamersley made answer by handing him back his own rifle. It was loaded and ready. “Darn the stinkin’ cowarts!” cried the guide, grasping the gun, and facing towards the plain. “I don’t know how it may all eend, but this’ll keep ’em off a while, anyhow.”
As he spoke60 he threw himself behind the body of the slaughtered61 steed, which, sustained in an upright position between the counterpart walls, formed a safe barricade62 against the bullets and arrows of the Indians. These, now riding straight towards the spot, made the rocks resound63 with exclamations64 of surprise—shouts that spoke of a delayed, perhaps defeated, vengeance65.
They took care, however, not to come within range of that long steel-grey tube, that, turning like a telescope on its pivot66, commanded a semicircle of at least a hundred yards’ radius67 round the opening in the cliff.
Despite all the earnestness of their vengeful anger, the pursuers were now fairly at bay, and for a time could be kept so.
Hamersley looked upon it as being but a respite—a mere temporary deliverance from danger, yet to terminate in death. True, they had got into a position where, to all appearance, they could defend themselves as long as their ammunition68 lasted, or as they could withstand the agony of thirst or the cravings of hunger. How were they to get out again? As well might they have been besieged69 in a cave, with no chance of sortie or escape.
These thoughts he communicated to his companion, as soon as they found time to talk.
“Hunger an’ thirst ain’t nothin’ to do wi’ it,” was Wilder response. “We ain’t a goin’ to stay hyar not twenty minutes, if this child kin1 manage it as he intends ter do. You don’t s’pose I rushed into this hyar hole like a chased rabbit? No, Frank; I’ve heern o’ this place afore, from some fellers thet, like ourselves, made caché in it from a band o’ pursuin’ Kimanch. Thar’s a way leads out at the back; an’ just as soon as we kin throw dust in the eyes o’ these yellin’ varmints in front, we’ll put straight for it. I don’t know what sort o’ a passage thar is—up the rocks by some kind o’ raven70, I b’lieve. We must do our best to find it.”
“But how do you intend to keep them from following us? You speak of throwing dust in their eyes—how, Walt?”
“You wait, watch an’ see. You won’t hev yur patience terrifically tried: for thar ain’t much time to spare about it. Thar’s another passage up the cliffs, not far off; not a doubt but these Injuns know it; an’ ef we don’t make haste, they’ll git up thar, and come in upon us by the back door, which trick won’t do, nohowsomdever. You keep yurself in readiness, and watch what I’m agoin’ to do. When you see me scoot up back’ards, follor ’ithout sayin’ a word.”
Hamersley promised compliance71, and the guide, still kneeling behind the barricade he had so cruelly constructed, commenced a series of manoeuvres that held his companion in speechless conjecture72.
He first placed his gun in such a position that the barrel, resting across the hips73 of the dead horse, projected beyond the tail. In this position he made it fast, by tying the butt74 with a piece of string to a projecting part of the saddle. He next took the cap from his head—a coonskin it was—and set it so that its upper edge could be seen alongside the pommel, and rising about three inches above the croup. The ruse75 was an old one, with some new additions and embellishments.
“It’s all done now,” said the guide, turning away from the carcase and crouching76 to where his comrade awaited him. “Come on, Frank. If they don’t diskiver the trick till we’ve got time to speed up the clift, then thar’s still a chance for us. Come on, an’ keep close arter me!”
Hamersley went, without saying a word. He knew that Wilder, well known and long trusted, had a reason for everything he did. It was not the time to question him, or discuss the prudence77 of the step he was taking. There might be danger before, but there was death—sure death—behind them.
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收听单词发音
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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2
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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7
waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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8
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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9
fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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13
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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14
vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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intercepted
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| 拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻 | |
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obstruct
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| v.阻隔，阻塞(道路、通道等)；n.阻碍物，障碍物 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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21
hewing
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| v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的现在分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟 | |
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22
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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23
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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24
brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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29
wrenching
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| n.修截苗根，苗木铲根（铲根时苗木不起土或部分起土）v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的现在分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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30
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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skunks
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| n.臭鼬( skunk的名词复数 )；臭鼬毛皮；卑鄙的人；可恶的人 | |
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34
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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35
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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36
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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liens
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| n.留置权，扣押权( lien的名词复数 ) | |
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38
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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39
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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40
relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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41
brandished
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| v.挥舞( brandish的过去式和过去分词 )；炫耀 | |
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42
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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43
dallying
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| v.随随便便地对待( dally的现在分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
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44
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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45
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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46
cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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47
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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48
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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49
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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50
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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52
commiseration
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| n.怜悯，同情 | |
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53
reeking
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| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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54
gore
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| n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶 | |
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55
gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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56
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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57
spout
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| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
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58
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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59
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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60
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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61
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
barricade
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| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
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63
resound
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| v.回响 | |
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64
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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65
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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66
pivot
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| v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的 | |
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67
radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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68
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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69
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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71
compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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72
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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73
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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74
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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75
ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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76
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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77
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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