Part 26 (1/2)
”Me either. I'll fight first!”
With set faces the brothers urged their horses on. But now their pursuers had gained the turn, and were thundering down the second valley after them.
”Stop! stop!” yelled Morton.
Jed and Will returned no answer.
”If you don't halt we'll shoot!” added Haverhill.
”Do you suppose they will?” asked Jed's brother anxiously. ”One of them has a revolver out,” he added, as he gave a hasty backward glance.
”I don't believe so. They can't shoot very straight anyhow, with the way their horses and ours are going.”
”Are you going to stop?” yelled Morton again.
”No!” cried Jed, as he urged his horse on down the mountain slope, while the pursuers came galloping on behind them.
CHAPTER XXI
WHAT HAPPENED TO GABE
When Gabe Harrison started up the mountain, with the intention of prospecting around a bit, seeking for indications of gold, he fully expected to be back within two hours. It was his idea that he might see signs of a lead which would be better than the one he and the boys were on.
Now if Gabe had had a horse that was used to mountain climbing several things in this story would not have happened. For a steed accustomed to scrambling over loose rocks, up steep slopes and down others still steeper, would have kept its footing, and not stumbled, as did Gabe's animal.
The old miner had ridden a few miles, and was convinced that no gold could be found in that direction. He was on the point of returning when something happened.
The horse stepped on a loose rock, on the edge of a gully, tried to recover its balance, in obedience to the frantic calls of Gabe, and his yankings on the bridle, and then pitched forward, throwing the old man off its back.
When Gabe recovered his senses, after many hours of unconsciousness, he found himself lying on the cold ground. He was quite wet with the dew, and lame and stiff. It was dark, and when he tried to move such a pain shot through his left leg that he had to lie quietly.
”Well, I wonder what in the world happened to me,” said Gabe, speaking aloud. Then it came back to him, how his horse had stumbled with him, and how he had fallen into the gully, the last thing he remembered being when his head hit a stone.
”And I reckon I didn't hurt that rock as much as it hurt me,” mused the old man, feeling of a large lump on the back of his head. ”This is tough luck. My leg must be broken by the way it feels. Here I am, all alone in these mountains, and n.o.body knows where I am. Even the boys can't find me in this place.”
He managed to get to a sitting position, moving cautiously because of his leg. Then he felt in his pocket and got a match, which he struck. By the glare of it he looked around. He saw nothing but a bowlder-strewn expanse. Then something moving, about a hundred feet away from him, attracted his attention.
”It's my horse!” he exclaimed. ”If I can only get the animal over here, maybe I can crawl on his back and he'll take me to camp.”
He called to the steed, but the animal gave no sign that it heard him.
It continued to crop what scanty herbage there was.
”I've got to crawl over to it,” mused poor Gabe, ”and how I'm going to do it with a busted leg is more than I know. But it's got to be done.
Something may happen to the boys. Here goes.”
He started to crawl, but such an intense pain shot through his leg that it made him sick and faint. He leaned back against a big rock with a groan.
”No use!” he murmured. ”I'm done for, I guess. Old Gabe Harrison has done his last prospecting. I'll die here--all alone. If I only knew the boys were safe!”