Part 6 (1/2)
”We can't do anything until Allen returns,” sighed Paul.
”Then we will hope that your brother returns speedily, and with good news.”
”The best news will be his return with all our horses,” returned Chet.
”We can do nothing without our animals.”
Alas! How little did both Chet and Paul dream of the terrible ordeal through which Allen was at that moment pa.s.sing!
CHAPTER VI.
From One Peril to Another
”I am lost! Nothing can save me!”
Such was the agonizing thought which rushed into Allen Winthrop's mind as he felt himself plunging madly downward to the glittering waters far beneath him.
It must be confessed that the otherwise brave young ranchman was fearfully frightened at the dreadful peril which confronted him. He and his faithful mare were going down, and certain death seemed inevitable.
”Heaven help me!” he murmured to himself, and shutting his teeth hard, clung grimly to the saddle.
Out of the sunlight into the gloom and mist below descended horse and rider.
Scarcely two seconds pa.s.sed and then, with a resounding splash, the animal and its living burden disappeared beneath the surface of the river and out of the sight of the rascals on the opposite side of the canyon.
”That settles him,” cried one of the horse thieves, grimly. ”He was a fool to follow us.”
”Maybe he'll escape,” ventured a second.
”Wot! Arfter sech a plunge?” returned the first speaker, sarcastically.
”Wall, hardly, ter my reckonin'.”
They s.h.i.+fted their positions on the brink of the opening, but try their best, could see nothing more of the young man or the mare.
It was now growing darker rapidly, and fifteen minutes later, satisfied that Allen had really taken a fall to his death, they continued on their way.
And poor Allen?
Down, down, down sank the mare and her hapless rider, until the very bottom of the river was struck.
The swiftly flowing tide caught both in its grasp, tumbled them over and over and sent them spinning onward. Allen's grasp on the saddle relaxed, and as it did so the young man lost consciousness.
How long he remained in this state Allen never knew. When he came to he was lying among brush, partly in the water and partly out.
He attempted to sit up and in doing so, slipped back beyond his depth.
But the instinct of self-preservation still remained with him, and he made a frantic clutch at the brush and succeeded in pulling himself high and dry upon a gra.s.sy bank.
Here he lay for several minutes exhausted. He could not think, for his head felt as if it was swimming around in a balloon.
At last he began to come to himself and after a bit sat up to gaze about him. But all was dark and he could see little or nothing.