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To The West, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 27. How We Found Out A Puzzle |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. HOW WE FOUND OUT A PUZZLE "Ah!" said Quong, getting up and shaking his legs; "got velly wet." "You stupid fellow! you nearly lost your life," said Gunson, angrily. "Lose life?" said Quong, looking puzzled; "who lose life? Don't know." "There, go on up and take the pack. Can you climb up, my lad?" I replied that I could, and followed Gunson, who showed me the way he had descended by the help of the rocks, and projecting roots of the dwarf firs which began to grow freely as soon as the slaty shale ceased. Esau was waiting at the top, ready to lend me a hand, smiling triumphantly as soon as we were alone. "You should have tried to go up all of a slope as I did," he said, "not down of a slope as you did." "I tried my best, Esau," I said, sadly. "Of course you would. Well, I hope there isn't going to be much more like that for us to do. Once is enough." By this time Quong was back at his fire, and we soon after partook of our mid-day meal, with copious draughts of tea for washing it down, and after an hour's good nap started off again to find no further difficulties that afternoon, for our journey was through pine forest once more, where the grey moss hung like strands from the older branches, and in the more open places the dark, bronze-leaved barberry grew plentifully, with its purple-bloomed fruit which hung in clusters, and had won for themselves the name of "Oregon Grapes." They did not prove to be grapes, though, that we cared to eat, for Esau's testing of their flavour was quite enough for both. The report he gave me was "Horrid"; so I contented myself with the little bilberries and cranberries we came upon from time to time. It was on the second day after our struggle across the slope, that we came to a complete change in the scenery. The valley had been contracting and opening out again and again; but now we seemed to come at once upon a portion of the river where the sides rose up almost perpendicularly, forming a wild, jagged, picturesque, but terrible gorge, down which the river came thundering, reduced to narrow limits, and roaring through at a terrible speed. The noise, multiplied as it was by echoes, was deafening, and as we stood gazing at the vast forbidding chasm, our journey in this direction seemed to have come suddenly to an end. I looked up at Gunson, and found he was looking at me, while Esau had got his hat off scratching his head, and Quong had placed his bundle on the ground, seated himself, and was calmly resting as if there were no difficulties before him--nothing troublous in the least. "Well," said Gunson, looking at Esau, "what do you think of the canon?" "Don't see that it'll bear thinking about," replied Esau. "Going back now, ain't we?" "Going back? I thought you were making for Fort Elk." "Yes, but that ain't the way," said Esau. "Nobody couldn't go along a place like that." "We shall have to climb up the side, and go round somehow, shall we not?" I said to Gunson. "That seems to be the most sensible way, my lad," he replied; "but how are we to get up the side? We might perhaps manage if we were across the river, but this wall of rock is so nearly perpendicular that it would puzzle an engineer. We could not scale that without ladders, ropes, and spikes." Both Esau and I stared up at the precipice which towered above our heads, and my companion took off his cap and rubbed his curly hair again. "We couldn't get up there?" he said, looking at me. "I'll try if you do." "Oh, impossible," I cried. "We shall have to go on along the side just above the river." "What? In there!" cried Esau. "Yes." "Why, you must be mad," he said. "Isn't he? No man couldn't get along there. It would want a cat." "I don't know," said Gunson, thoughtfully. "Here, let's camp for a bit." At these words, Quong, who had been rocking himself quietly to and fro, jumped off his bundle, looked sharply about him, and then made a run for a niche in the side of the gorge right up in the entrance, where the sides literally overhung. Here he placed his pack, and began to collect wood, descending toward the river to where a large tree, which had been swept down the gorge when the river was much higher, now lay beached and stripped, and thoroughly dry. He attacked it at once with the axe, and had soon lopped off enough of the bare branches to make a fire, and these he piled up in the niche he had selected, and started with a match, the inflammable wood catching at once; while I took the axe and went on cutting, as Quong unfastened the kettle and looked around for water. There was plenty rushing along thirty or forty feet below us, but it was milky-looking with the stone ground by the glaciers far up somewhere in the mountain. That, of course, had to be rejected. "Make mouth bad," Quong said, and he climbed up to where a tiny spring trickled down over a moss-grown rock so slowly that it took ten minutes to fill our kettle. "This is a bit of a puzzle," said Gunson, as he sat calmly smoking his pipe and gazing up the terrible gorge; and I was returning from the fire, where I had been with a fresh armful of wood, leaving Esau patiently chopping in my place. "Puzzles can be made out," I said. "Yes, and we are going to make this one out, Gordon, somehow or another. What an echo!" He held up his hand, and we listened as at every stroke of Esau's axe the sound flow across the river, struck the rock there and was thrown back to our side, and then over again, so that we counted five distinct echoes growing fainter as they ran up the terribly dark, jugged rift, till they died away. "Can't we find some other way?" I said, for I felt awe-stricken by the rushing water, the forbidding nature of the rocks as they towered up, and the gloom of the place, in which quite a mist arose, but there was no sun to penetrate the fearful rift, and tint the thin cloud with rainbow hues. "I'm afraid not, Gordon," he replied. "I fancy that there is a track along there that has been used, and that we might use in turn. If I can convince myself that it is so, we English folk must not turn our backs upon it. Such a ravine as that cannot be very long. Will you try?" I wanted to say _no_, but something within me made me say _yes_, and I saw Gunson smile. "Why are you laughing?" I said, with my cheeks feeling warm. "Because I was pleased. I like to see a lad like you master himself." "Ahoy! wood ho!" shouted Esau from below; and I gladly seized the opportunity to end a conversation which troubled me. Half an hour later, we were seated together enjoying a hearty meal, which had the peculiarity of making the canon seem less terrible to us, while as to Quong, everything was the same to him, and he was ready to go anywhere that Gunson indicated as the way. "Now," said the latter, as we finished, and Quong took our place as a matter of course, "what do you say? It must be midday, when we always have a nap till it grows cooler. Shall we have one now or start at once?" "It will be cool enough in there," I said. "Have a nap," said Esau; "we're all tired." "But it may take us a long time to get through, and we don't want to be caught in a place like that at night." "Right, Gordon," said Gunson. "Dean, you are in the minority. We must either start as soon as we can or wait till morning." "That is the best," said Esau, uneasily. "I don't want to show no white feathers, but I ask any one--Is that a nice place to tackle after being walking all the morning with a load?" "No; I grant that," said Gunson. "But come along, Gordon, and lot's explore it a little way." He led off and I willingly followed him, to descend close to the rushing waters, and then climb up again, looking in every direction for something in the way of a track, but without avail. On every hand were piled-up rocks, and though we climbed on one after another and stood looking into the gorge, there was nothing to be seen. As far as we could make out the place had never been trodden by the foot of man. We had penetrated about a hundred yards, and stood upon a flat-topped rock, looking down at the roaring, swishing water, while before us everything appeared of a dark forbidding grey, in strange contrast to the bright slit of mossy green we could see when we looked back, in the midst of which rose up a column of smoke, and beside it the dark figure of Esau with his hand over his eyes, evidently peering in after us. "The puzzle is difficult to make out, my lad," said Gunson. "It's hard work making your way through a country that has not been thoroughly mapped. Can't get along here, eh?" "No," I said, rather despondently, and then I started, for Esau hailed us to come back, and we could see him shouting with his hands to his mouth, evidently in a great state of excitement. We waited till the echoes of his voice had died away, and then I shouted back, and a curious creeping sensation ran through me at the sound of my voice. It was impossible to hurry back, for there were too many impediments in the way, but we made all the haste we could, for there was evidently something wrong, though what that might be was invisible to us, as we descended and climbed, and wound our way in and out in places that Gunson confessed were "ticklish," as he called it, and where he always paused in his firm, quiet way to offer me his help. At last we were close to Esau, who was waiting anxiously with the rifle in his hand, ready to thrust it into Gunson's. "Indians, eh?" said the latter, as we now saw what had been hidden from us by the shape of the valley--a group of half a dozen spear-armed Indians, who drew back a little and stood watching us on seeing the accession made by our crossing to the group by the fire. Gunson did not hesitate. He took the rifle, and felt whether his revolver was ready to his hand before walking straight up to the group, making signs intended to be friendly. They had their effect, for the men came forward, one of them holding out a freshly-opened salmon as a token of good-will. That was enough for Quong, who ran forward smiling, whilst Gunson tried the men with such Indian words as he could remember. But it was all in vain. They gave up the great fish to the Chinaman quietly enough, and stood staring at us in a stolid way, till our leader took out his tobacco-pouch and gave each a good pinch. They were friends directly; and now by signs Gunson tried to make them understand that he wanted to go through the canon, and that he would give them a present if they would guide us. "I can't make them understand, my lad," he said at last. "But I think they do understand," I said. "Let's shoulder our packs, and see if they will lead the way." "Must be going our way," said Esau, "because they overtook us." "Well, let's try," said Gunson; and in a couple of minutes we were standing loaded, Gunson pointing up the gorge. One of the Indians showed his teeth, said a few words to his companions, and they all faced round, and began to lead the way back. "No, no," I shouted, and I pointed up the gorge, when the leading Indian smiled and went on again. "This will not do," I said to Gunson. "Stop a few minutes," he said, thoughtfully.--"Let's see. I think they understand us." So we followed them back for a couple of hundred yards or so, when they stopped short, pointed upwards, and began to ascend the side of the valley at a spot where it was too stony for any trace of a track to be seen, but where it was possible to climb up and up, with the way growing more giddy moment by moment, and the exertion so great that we were soon glad to shift our packs. This brought the Indians to a stand, and their leader said something which was responded to by four of the men taking our packs and bearing them for us, the chief going first, and the other man taking the spears of those who carried the loads, and walking last. In a few minutes we were where the smoke of our fire rose up in faint blue wreaths right above our heads, and all doubts of there being a way was at an end, for without the slightest hesitation the Indians went on, their leader evidently quite at home, though as I looked down I could only see rugged stones, without a trace of their having been worn by feet, while above us was the vast wall of rock along whose side we crept like so many ants, and below there was the river foaming and roaring along toward the mouth. _ |
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