CHAPTER XV.
A “BLANK WALL.”
“He’s drowning!” cried Walt in alarmed tones.
“It is just as I feared,” cried Captain Atkinson, “the pony struck awater hole and————”
“Look, there’s the pony now!” cried Walt as the little animalreappeared and began swimming for the bank.
“But where is Ralph?”
Without waiting to make any reply to Captain Atkinson, Walt suddenlywheeled his pony. Down the stream he had seen an arm extended above themuddy current. He knew that it was Ralph’s.
There was no hesitation in the boy’s manner as he turned his pony, and,plunging the spurs in deep, drove him through the water. All at onceWalt and his pony floundered into the same hole that had been Ralph’sundoing. At the same instant a sudden swirl of the current caughtRalph, who, though half drowned, was making a brave struggle. Themomentary halt was the chance that Captain Atkinson had been lookingfor.
He had followed close on Walt’s heels and now, while the latter wasstruggling to maintain a hold on his swimming pony, the captain of theRangers uncoiled his lariat.
Swish! It shot out in a long rolling coil and fell fairly about theshoulders of the struggling Ralph Stetson. Although half choked intoinsensibility with the water he had swallowed, Ralph still maintainedenough sense to grasp the rawhide while Captain Atkinson drew it tight.
When the coil was fast the captain backed his pony upstream until Ralphhad been dragged to shallow water. Then he pulled him out and laid himon the bank, gasping and almost drowned. In the meantime Walt Phelpshad succeeded in extricating himself from his perilous position, andhe and his pony, drenched through and dripping, arrived on the bankalmost at the same time as Ralph was dragged ashore.
Captain Atkinson had some simple remedies in his kit and he appliedthese to Ralph, who was soon able, as he put it, “to sit up and takenotice.” As he did so the stumbling pony, which had been the cause ofall the trouble, came up and sniffed at his master curiously.
“Well, Spot–nose,” said Ralph, using the name he had given the littlebeast, “you almost caused me to find a watery grave.”
The pony whinnied as if to show that he was sorry and was willing toapologize. This view of the circumstance made them all laugh. By thistime Captain Atkinson had a roaring fire going, by the side of whichthey dried themselves, and there was soon a decidedly more cheerfultone to the party.
“It makes me shiver, though, when I think of that narrow escape,” saidRalph as they prepared to continue their journey.
“That is just an incident of life here on the Border,” declared CaptainAtkinson. “It’s such things as those that make a man or a boy know thatthere is a divine Providence watching over us. No man who has livedon the desert or at sea doubts that there is a watchful eye upon us,saving by seeming miracles from disaster and death.”
“That is so,” agreed Walt soberly, “I’ve often heard my father say thatthe best cure for religious doubts is to have a man come out here onthe Borderland. He says that heaven and earth are closer here than inthe cities or in the more civilized portions of the country.”
They rode on, following the branch of the Rio, tracing, although theydid not at the time know it, the course of the runaway raft on whichJack had made his wild trip.
It was late that afternoon that they came to the falls that thundereddown into the Pool of Death.
Awe–struck by the wild and gloomy majesty of the scene, not one of theparty spoke for a time. It was Walt who broke the silence, shoutingabove the mighty roaring of the falls.
“Can Jack have gone over this cataract and lived?” he said.
Captain Atkinson shook his head gloomily.
“It looks bad,” he said. “If the boy was plunged over such a place onlyone of those miracles of which we spoke awhile back can have saved hislife.”
“How can we reach the foot of the falls?” asked Ralph in a quavery tone.
The sublimity of the scene and its suggestion of ruthless power andpitiless force had overawed him.
“We must look about for a way,” declared Captain Atkinson, “at any ratewe won’t turn back till we know, or at least are reasonably certain,of Jack’s fate.”
For some time they searched about the summit of the steep cliffssurrounding the Pool of Death without coming on any path or series ofledges by which they could hope to gain the foot of the falls. But atlast Captain Atkinson halted by a rock that towered up like a pinnacleor obelisk. It stood at the edge of the cliffs, at a spot where theydid not appear more than a hundred feet or so high.
“We might be able to get down from here,” he decided.
The boys peered over the edge of the cliff. It was perpendicular andsteep as a wall. It was hard to imagine even a fly maintaining a holdon it.
But they knew that Captain Atkinson was not the man to speak withoutreason, and so they respectfully waited for him to continue.
“I estimate the height of this cliff at a trifle under one hundredfeet,” he said, “therefore we have a means of getting to the bottom.”
“I don’t see how,” rejoined Ralph.
“My boy, you will never make a Ranger if you can’t make the best of asituation,” said Captain Atkinson in a tone of mild reproof. “We havethe three lariats. Their united length is one hundred and twenty feet.That will allow us a chance to knot some sticks into the united ropesand thus make a sort of rope ladder. We can secure it ’round thisspindle–shaped rock and so reach the foot of the falls without muchdifficulty.”
The boys hailed the idea with enthusiasm, Ralph saying:
“Well, I am a chucklehead. Why on earth didn’t I think of that?”
“Because you’re not a full–fledged Texas Ranger,” laughed Walt. “Iguess there’s more to being a Ranger than we thought.”
“I guess there is,” agreed Ralph contritely.
The three ropes were fetched from the saddles and one long one made outof them. Then stout sticks were knotted in at long intervals so as toform a rough kind of ladder.
“Now, then,” said Captain Atkinson, when he had fastened the rope aboutthe obelisk–shaped rock, “I will go first and test it.”
“Would it not be better if one of us, who are lighter, took yourplace?” asked Ralph, unwilling to see the daring Texas Ranger risk hislife.
“No. It is my duty to go first. If it will bear me, it will bear you.”
So saying, Captain Atkinson began that thrilling descent. The boys,lying flat, with their heads extended over the rim of the Pool ofDeath, watched him till he reached the ground. They could not restraina cheer when they saw that the feat had been accomplished in safety. Inresponse Captain Atkinson waved his hand up to them.
“Now, boys, it is your turn,” he cried encouragingly.
After a moment’s argument, for each wished the other to have the honorof going first, Ralph was persuaded to make the descent. He reached theground safely, and was soon standing beside Captain Atkinson. Then cameWalt’s turn, after which the three adventurers were united.
“What an awful place!” shuddered Ralph, glancing about him nervously.
“Yes, let us be pushing on. It is high time we—Great heavens, lookhere!”
The captain had stopped abruptly at the rock on which Jack had driedout his dripping garments. What he had seen had been the ashes of thefire the lad had kindled.
“Some one has lit a fire here,” cried Ralph as he, too, saw the embers.
“Yes, and not long ago, either.”
Captain Atkinson bent over and picked up a handful of the blackenedembers, examining them carefully.
“This fire is not over forty–eight hours old,” he exclaimed in a voicethat fairly shook with suppressed excitement.
“And that means that Jack has————”
“In some miraculous way been swept over those falls and survived. Letus press on at once. Before dark we may have him with us again.”
At these words new life seemed to course th
rough the veins of the twoexhausted young Rangers. They plucked up energy and courage from thecaptain’s manner.
“Forward,” cried their leader, plunging into the narrow passage whichwe have seen Jack traverse.
Entering the valley, they had hardly gotten over the first shock oftheir surprise at its extent and formation when the keen eyes ofCaptain Atkinson discovered the figure of the Mexican.
“What can this mean?” he exclaimed. “Yonder is a man watching us. Letus go up to him at once and find out what this means; perhaps Jack hasfound friends; perhaps the valley is inhabited.”
It was a moment later that the scene of recognition which we havedescribed took place.
“How came you here, señors?” demanded the Mexican, who, seemingly, wasthe first to recover his self–possession.
For reply Captain Atkinson whipped out his revolver with incredibleswiftness and leveled it at the fellow’s head.
“Speak the truth, Alvarez,” he snapped, “or it will be the worse foryou. Where is Jack Merrill?”
“If you mean the boy who was dashed over the falls with me,” was thereply, “he has gone.”
“Gone?”
“Si, señor.”
“Where?”
“Quien sabe.”
“Answer me quick, Alvarez.”
The brow of Captain Atkinson puckered angrily, his countenance grewdark.
“It is as I say, señor. What object would I have in lying to you? Theboy climbed yonder cliff but this minute and has vanished.”
Although they would have liked to disbelieve the fellow’s story, andincredible as it seemed that a human being could have climbed thatcliff, there was an unmistakable ring of sincerity in the man’s tone;it was impossible to make light of his tale.
“Boys, we have run against a blank wall,” spoke Captain Atkinson atlength, with heavy anxiety in his tone.
“Do you think Jack is safe?” breathed Ralph.
“Heaven, in whose power he is, alone knows,” was the earnest rejoinder.
The Border Boys with the Texas Rangers Page 16
