The Trail of The Badger: A Story of the Colorado Border Thirty Years Ago

by Anonymous

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE BRIDGE

  As the pack came racing up the gulch, we waited an instant until anarrow place crowded them into a bunch, when Dick called out, "Now!" andwe all fired together into the midst of them. Three of the wolves fell,two dead--I could see the feather of Pedro's arrow sticking out of theribs of one of them--and one with its back broken.

  I had hoped that the strange thunder of the rifles would send themflying--but no. They all stopped again for a moment, and then, maddenedseemingly at the sight of the broken-backed wolf dragging itself aboutand screeching with pain--poor beast--they all fell upon the unfortunatecreature and worried it to death. Then, with yells of rage, on they cameagain.

  The pause had given us time to re-load. Dick and Pedro, quicker than I,fired a second shot, and once more two wolves fell writhing among thestones. The next moment we were surrounded, and for a minute or twoafter that I was too much engaged myself to note what the others weredoing.

  A gaunt, long-legged wolf sprang up on the rock within three feet of me.I fired my rifle into his chest. Another, close beside him, was withinan ace of scrambling up when I hit him across the side of his head afearful crack with the empty rifle-barrel and knocked him off again.Then, seeing a third with his feet on top of the rock, his head thrownback in his straining efforts to get up, I sprang to that side, kickedthe beast under his chin and knocked him down.

  Meanwhile my companions had been similarly engaged and similarlysuccessful. Pedro in particular, having dropped his bow and taken in onehand the short-handled ax he always carried with him, while in the otherhe held his big sheath-knife, had laid about him to such effect that hehad put four of the enemy out of the fight--two of them permanently.

  Dick was the only one who had received any damage, and that was to hisclothes and not to himself. His rifle being empty, he had used it topush back the wolves as they jumped up. In doing so he had stepped toonear the edge of the rock, and one of the watchful beasts, springing upat that moment, had caught the leg of his trousers with its teeth,tearing it from end to end and coming dangerously near to pulling mypartner down. Pedro, however, quick as a flash, had delivered aback-handed "swipe" with his ax at the wolf's neck, nearly cutting offits head, and Dick was saved. It was an unpleasantly close thing,though.

  It was a short, sharp tussle, and at the end of it nine of the sixteenwolves lay scattered about the bed of the ravine, dead or helpless. Thisseemed to take the fight out of the remaining seven--as well itmight--who retreated down the arroyo, turning at the corner and lookingback at us with their lips drawn up and their teeth showing, seeming toconvey a threat, as though they would say, "Your turn this time--butjust you wait a bit."

  Such unexpected fierceness and such determination on the part of thewolves--by daylight, too--scared me rather; Dick also, I noted, lookedpretty sober, as, turning to the Mexican, he said:

  "You were right, Pedro: these wolves _are_ dangerous--a good deal moreso than I had supposed. Our chances would have been pretty slim if wehadn't had this rock so handy. If this sort of thing is going to happenat any time, day or night, it will add very much to the difficulty ofthe work up here. We shall have to be continuously on the lookout; itwon't do to separate; and wherever we are at work, we shall have toprepare a place of refuge near at hand. I don't like it. I've seenwolves by the hundred, but I never saw any before so savage and sopersistent as these. I tell you, I don't half like it."

  "And I don't either," said I, glad to find that I was not the only oneto feel uneasy. "Did you notice, Dick, how thin they all were? I'veoften heard the expression, 'gaunt as a wolf,' and now I know what itmeans. They seemed half-starved."

  "That is it, senor," remarked Pedro. "The wolves up here are verymany--too many for the space they have. Here they are, the canons allround them, they cannot get away. All the time they are half-starved,all the time they hunt for food, all the time they are dangerous. Oftenin winter they eat each other. It is well if we move away from here.Pretty soon there will come another pack to eat up these dead ones."

  "Let us get out, then!" I cried. "I've had enough of them for one day!"

  The others were quite ready to move, so, jumping down from our fortresswe started along the ravine again, this time keeping our ears wide openfor suspicious sounds, and feeling a good deal relieved when, on theedge of the lake, we sat down to our lunch with an old low-branchingpine tree close by, up which we could go in a jiffy if need be.

  But though the presence of so many wolves on the "island" was somethingwe had not anticipated, something, moreover, which was likely to addvery much to the difficulty of our undertaking, we did not for a momentcontemplate its abandonment. It meant the use of great caution in goingabout the work, but as to backing out, I do not think the idea so muchas occurred to either of us.

  As soon as we had sat down to our lunch, therefore, we began thediscussion of the best method of procedure.

  "It is a big undertaking, Dick," said I, "a very big undertaking; but itlooks like a straightforward piece of work; and it seems to me that whathas been done once can certainly be done again, especially as we haveour line already laid out for us. Don't you think so?"

  "Yes, I certainly think so," replied my partner. "What those Pueblosaccomplished with their poor implements, we can surely do again withour superior tools. And some of it, at least, we can do ourselves, Ibelieve--with our own hands, I mean. When it comes to digging out theditch on the other side of the canon, it will pay us to hire Mexicans;but the preliminary work of bringing the water down to the canon, and,perhaps, the building of the flume, I believe we can do ourselves."

  "The building of the flume," said I, "is likely to be a pretty big jobby itself. We can undoubtedly get the water down that far--that issimple--but the building of the flume is quite another thing. A smallflume won't do; it has to be a big, strong, solid structure, and itstrikes me that the very first thing to be done--the laying of the twobig stringers across the canon--is going to take us all we know, and atrifle over. In fact, I don't see myself how we are to do it."

  "I think I do," rejoined my partner; "but we shall need tools for thepurpose. We can't build a big, solid flume with one pick, one shovel andtwo axes."

  "No, we certainly can't," I replied.

  "We shall need, too, a large amount of lumber," continued Dick, "heavypieces, besides boards for floor and sides--two inch planks, atleast--three inch would be better. We shall need several thousand feetaltogether."

  "Well?"

  "Well, there is no lumber to be had nearer than Mosby, and to bring itfrom Mosby is out of the question. In the first place it would cost toomuch; and in the second place it is too far to pack it on mule-back."

  I nodded. "You mean we shall have to cut it out ourselves, here on thespot."

  "Yes; and to do that we shall need a long, two-handled rip-saw, and asaw-pit to work in. Besides this, the other tools we shall require, asfar as I can think of them on the spur of the moment, are two or threepulley-blocks for placing the big timbers, hammers, nails, cross-cutsaws and a big auger; for I propose that we pin the heavy parts togetherwith wooden pins: it will save the carriage on spikes, and be just asgood, if not better. Don't you think so, Pedro?"

  Pedro approved of the idea, and we were about to continue thediscussion, when there broke out a great yelling and snarling of wolvesup the arroyo. Dick and I sprang to our feet, and instinctively cast aneye up into the adjacent tree in search of a convenient limb; butPedro, unconcernedly continuing his meal, remarked:

  "It is only that they eat the dead ones."

  "Well, they're a deal too close to be pleasant," said Dick. "I vote wemove on down to the canon and get a little further away from them."

  As I was heartily of the same opinion, we moved down accordingly, andthere on the brink of the gorge surveyed the scene of our future labors.

  "Look here," said Dick. "Here's where we shall have to cut ourtimbers--on this side. See what a splendid supply there is right athand."


  He pointed to a scar on the mountain close by where a landslide hadbrought down scores of trees of all sizes.

  "When did that come down, Pedro?" he asked.

  "Only last spring, senor," replied the Mexican. "And the trees are soundand good."

  "Mighty lucky for us," continued my partner; "for, you see, on the otherside trees are scarce and they average rather small. But on this side,there are not only seasoned trees of all sizes in abundance, but it willbe a down-hill pull to get them into place--a big item by itself.Besides that, just back here on this little level spot we can dig oursaw-pit very conveniently. The only question to my mind is, whether weshould not move our camp over to this side. If it were not for thewolves I should certainly say, 'Yes'; but as it is, I feel ratherdoubtful. The nearest water is up there at the lake, and if we did moveover to this side that is where we should have to make our camp."

  "It's a long way up to the lake, Dick," said I, "and it might bedangerous going to and from our work--especially going back in theevening. In fact, it might easily happen that we couldn't get back atall."

  "That's what I was thinking of," replied my partner.

  "On the other hand," I continued, "if we keep our present camp, it willbe very inconvenient, and will waste a great deal of time, to come toour work every day by way of those stone steps we climbed this morning."

  "Yes, that's it. But there's yet another way which, I think, would getus over both difficulties; one which would combine all the advantagesand at the same time do away with the danger--or, to say the least, theinconvenience--of being harried by the wolves, and that is to build abridge here. Then, if we move our camp to that little 'park' just belowhere, where we found that spring yesterday, it would only take us fiveminutes in the morning to come up here, cross the bridge and go to work.How does that strike you? What do you think, Pedro?"

  "It is good," replied Pedro. "First thing of everything a bridge; andthat is easy. We make it to-day before the sun set."

  "We do, do we?" cried Dick, laughing. "That will be pretty expeditious;but if you think you know how, Pedro, go ahead and we'll follow."

  Pedro's eye twinkled. "The senor means it?" he asked.

  "Certainly," replied Dick.

  "_Bueno_," said Pedro, briefly.

  There was a little pine tree growing just on the brink of the chasm, andwithout another word the Mexican drew his ax from his belt, stepped upto the tree and cut it off about four feet from the ground, allowing thetop to fall from the precipice into the stream below.

  "What's that for, Pedro?" I asked, in surprise.

  Pedro grinned. "I show you pretty quick," said he. "Come, now. We goback to the other side."

  Though we could not fathom his plan, having voluntarily made him captainfor the time being we could not do less than obey orders; so away wewent at a brisk walk back to the crack in the wall, down the steps inthe rock, along the bank of the creek to camp--where we picked up ourown ax--then up the ledge to the point opposite the one we had justleft--a two-mile walk to accomplish thirty feet.

  Here, the first thing Pedro did was to take his lariat, abeautifully-made rawhide rope strong enough to hold a thousand-poundsteer, tie a stone to one end and throw the stone across the canon. Icould not think what he was doing it for, until I saw that he wasmeasuring the width. We made it about twenty-seven feet, its remarkablenarrowness being accounted for by the great overhang of the cliff on ourside.

  "I COULD NOT THINK WHAT HE WAS DOING IT FOR."]

  "Now," said Pedro, "we go up the mountain here a little way and cut somepoles. It is just close by up here."

  We soon found the place, and there we cut off three poles about thirtyfeet long and eight inches thick at the small end. These we trimmeddown to about the same thickness at the butt, and having roughly squaredthem, we dragged them down to the edge of the gorge.

  So far it had been a simple proceeding, but what puzzled me was howPedro proposed to lay these sticks across the canon. This, too, as itturned out, proved to be a simple matter, but its first step was one tomake your hair stand on end to look at, nevertheless.

  It was now we found out why Pedro had cut off the little tree on theother side. Taking his lariat, he swung the loop above his head a timeor two and cast it across the gorge. The loop settled over thetree-stump, when the Mexican pulled it tight and then proceeded withgreat care to tie the other end of the rope to a tree which stood veryconvenient on our side.

  What was he up to?

  Dick and I stood watching him in silence, when he stepped to the edge ofthe cliff, took hold of the rope with both hands, and swung himself offinto space!

  My! It gave me cold shivers all down my back to see him hanging therewith nothing but that thread of a rope to prevent his falling on therocks a thousand feet below!

  Motionless and breathless, Dick and I watched him as he went swingingacross, hand over hand--the rope sagging in the middle in an alarmingmanner--and profound was our relief when he drew himself up and steppedsafely upon the opposite wall.

  But though this tight-rope performance had given us palpitation of theheart, Pedro himself appeared to be absolutely unaffected. With perfectcalmness and unconcern, he turned round and said in the mostmatter-of-fact tone:

  "Now undo the rope and tie it to the end of one of those poles."

  As Pedro evidently regarded his feat of gymnastics as nothing out of thecommon, we affected to look upon it in the same light, so, following hisdirections, we tied the rope to one of the poles, when the Mexican beganpulling it toward him, we pushing at the other end. Presently the polewas so far over the edge that it began to teeter, when Pedro called tous to go slowly. Then, while we pried it forward inch by inch, Pedroretreated backward up the gully until the end of the pole bumped againstthe wall on his side, when he came forward, keeping the rope taut allthe time, lifted the pole and set its end on the rocks. The first beamof our bridge was laid.

  The other two poles we sent across by the same process, and then,scraping a bed for them in the sand and gravel, we laid them side byside, two with their butt-ends on our side, the other--the middleone--reversed.

  Pedro then took from his pocket a long strip of deer-hide with which hebound the three poles together, when we, at his request, having oncemore tied the rope to the tree, he laid his hand upon it, using it as ahand-rail, and walked across to our side, where with a second buckskinthong he bound the poles together at that end.

  Next he walked back to the middle of the bridge, and holding the ropewith both hands, jumped up and down upon the poles, to make sure oftheir solidity, and finding them all right, he went to the far end,loosened the loop from the tree-stump, threw it across to us, and then,without any hand-rail this time, walked back across the flimsy-lookingbridge to our side!

  What a head the man must have had! The bridge at its widest did notmeasure thirty inches, and yet the Mexican--barefooted, to besure--walked erect across that fearful chasm without a thought ofturning dizzy. I suppose he was born without nerves, and had nevercultivated any, as we more civilized people do by our habits of life.For years he had lived out-of-doors, always at exercise, used toclimbing in all sorts of dangerous places, and what perhaps may havecounted for as much as anything else, he was one of the few Mexicans Ihave known who abjured that habit so common among his people--the habitof smoking cigarettes.

  I know very well that I, though I did not smoke cigarettes either, andthough I thought myself pretty clear-headed, would never have dared sucha thing, unless under pressure of great and imminent danger.

  "What did you untie the rope for, Pedro?" I asked. "Why not leave it fora hand-rail?"

  "Because the wolves will eat it," replied Pedro. "We will bring one ofyour hempen ropes and tie there: the wolves will not trouble that."

  "By the way, Pedro!" cried Dick. "How about those wolves? Won't theycome across the bridge?"

  "I think not," the Mexican answered. "They are wary and suspicious--itis the nature of a wolf--and I think they will fear to venture.
"

  At that moment the sun set behind the peak, and as though its settinghad been a signal, there arose in three or four different directions thehowls of wolves. They were coming out for their nightly hunt.

  "Senores," said Pedro, "we will see very soon if the wolves will crossthe bridge. It will not be long before they find our trail and then theywill come down here. Let us hide us and watch. Up here, behind theserocks, is a good place."

  A little way up the bank, only a few steps back from the edge of thegorge, we lay down and waited. Presently, from the direction of thelake, there suddenly arose a joyous chorus of yelps, which proclaimedthat our trail had been discovered. And not to us only was the "find"proclaimed. A second pack, hearing the call, hastened to join the hunt,hoping for a share in the spoil; we caught a glimpse of them as theycame racing down one of the slopes which bordered the gully. Theswelling clamor drew nearer and nearer, and pretty soon, with a rush ofpattering feet, the wolves appeared; there must have been thirty ofthem.

  Down to the edge of the canon they came, and there they drew up. One ofthem, a big, gray old fellow, the leader of one of the packs, probably,advanced to the end of the bridge, sniffed at it and drew hastily back.One after another, other wolves came forward, sniffed and withdrew. Itwas evident that Pedro had guessed right: they dared not cross.

  At this balking of their hopes they set up a howl of disappointment.Poor things! I felt quite sorry for them. They were _so_ hungry; and yetthey dared not cross. Nevertheless, though I might feel sorry for them,I was more than glad that they feared to venture, for against such apack as that our chances would have been small indeed.

  "Senores," whispered Pedro, "I try them yet a little more. It is quitesafe. Stay you here and watch."

  With that, taking his ax in his hand, he rose up in full view of thepack and walked down to the end of the bridge.

  Such an uproar as broke forth I never heard. Many of the wolves ran upthe banks on either side of the gully in order to get a sight of Pedro,and every one of them, those in front, those behind and those on thesides, lifted their heads and yelled at the man calmly standing there,scarce ten steps away.

  But they dared not cross.

  One of them, indeed, crowded forward against his will by those behind,was pushed out on to the bridge a little way, when, striving to getback, his hind feet slipped off. I thought he was gone, but by desperatescratching he succeeded in saving himself, when, rendered crazy byfright and rage he attacked the nearest wolves, fought his way throughto the rear and fled straight away up the gully.

  This seemed to settle the matter. The whole pack, as though struck withpanic, turned and pursued him. In ten seconds not one of them was to beseen.

  As Dick and I rose up from our hiding-place, Pedro came back to us.

  "You see," said he, "we are quite safe."

  "Yes," replied Dick. "It is evident we have nothing to fear from them onthis side--and I'm mighty glad of it. Well, let us get down to camp. Ithink we've done a pretty good day's work, taking it all round, and Ishall be glad of a good supper and a good rest."

  "So shall I," was my response. "And as to our day's work, Dick, I'm muchmistaken if it isn't by long odds the most important one to us thateither you or I ever put in."