Part 34 (1/2)

Nasmyth flung a sharp glance at the big iron holdfast sunk in the rock above. There would, he knew, be trouble if that or the wire guy gave way, but it was only at some hazard that anything could be done in the canon.

”Hold on!” he said hoa.r.s.ely. ”Slack that guy, and let her swing.”

There was a clink and jar as the clutch took the weight off them; a wire rope set up a harsh rasping, and as Gordon jerked a guiding-line across the river, the great boom swung, trailing the heavy stone just above the water. Then the ominous creak grew sharper, and one of them shouted.

”Jump!” he said. ”She's going!”

Two of them sprang on the instant into the pool, and washed out with the crackling ice-cake into the rapid at the tail of it. It was precisely what most men who could swim would have done, but Nasmyth stayed, and Mattawa stayed with him. Nasmyth did not think very clearly, but he remembered subconsciously what the construction of that derrick had cost him. There was a lever which would release the load and let it run. He had his hand on it when he turned to his companion.

”Strip that handle, Tom,” he said.

The iron crank that would have hurled him into the river as its span fell with a rattle, and that was one peril gone; but the lever he grasped was difficult to move, and his hands were stiff and numb.

Still he persisted, and Mattawa watched him, because there was only room for one, until there was a crash above them, and the tilted top of the great boom came down. Mattawa, flattened against the rock side, held his breath as the ma.s.s of timber rushed towards the pool, and next moment saw that Nasmyth was no longer standing on the shelf.

Nasmyth lay partly beneath the shattered winch, and his face was grey, except for a red scar down one side of it. His eyes, however, were open, and Mattawa gasped with relief when he heard the injured man speak.

”It cleared my body. I'm fast by the hand,” said Nasmyth.

Three or four minutes had slipped by before the rest scrambled upon the ledge with handspikes, and then it cost them a determined effort before they moved the redwood log an inch or two. Gordon, kneeling by Nasmyth's side, drew the crushed arm from under it. Nasmyth raised himself on one elbow, and lifted a red and pulpy hand that hung from the wrist. With an effort that set his face awry, he straightened it.

”I can move it,” he said. ”I don't know how it got under the thing, or what hit me in the face.”

”It doesn't matter, either,” said Gordon quietly. ”Can you get up?”

Nasmyth blinked at him. ”Of course,” he answered. ”As a general thing, I walk with my legs. They're not hurt.”

Nasmyth staggered to his feet, and, while Gordon grasped his shoulder, floundered over the log staging laid athwart the fall and back to the shanty. Gordon was busy with him there for some time. After the crushed hand had been bound up Gordon flung the door open and spoke to the men outside.

”It's only his hand, and there's nothing broken,” he announced. ”You can get your dinner. We'll see about heaving the derrick up when you've eaten.”

He went back and filled Nasmyth's pipe.

”I expect it hurts,” he said.

Nasmyth nodded. ”Yes,” he replied, ”quite enough.”

”Well,” said Gordon, ”I don't know that it's any consolation, but if you expose it at this temperature, it's going to hurt you considerably more. You can't do anything worth while with one hand, and that the one you don't generally use, either. There's a rip upon your face that may give you trouble, too. I'm going to pack you out to-morrow.”

”The difficulty is that I'm not disposed to go.”

”Your wishes are not going to be consulted. If there's no other way, I'll appeal to the boys. I'd let you stay if you were a reasonable man, and would lie quiet beside the stove until that hand got better; but since it's quite clear that n.o.body could keep you there, you're starting to-morrow for Waynefleet's ranch.”

Gordon turned to Waynefleet. ”We'll lay you off for a week. There's a little business waiting at the settlement, anyway, and you can see about getting the new tools and provisions in.”

Waynefleet's face was expressive of a vast relief. The few bitter weeks spent in the canon had taken a good deal of the keenness he had once displayed out of him.

”I certainly think the arrangement suggested is a very desirable one,”

he agreed ”I am quite sure that Miss Waynefleet will have much pleasure in looking after Nasmyth.”