Lost in the Cañon
Herbert Strang
Produced by Roger Frank, Mary Meehan, and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
THE STORY OF Sam Willett's Adventures on the Great Colorado of the West.
_By_ ALFRED R. CALHOUN,
_Author of_ "Cochise," "Excelsior," "The Californians," etc., etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
NEW YORK: A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER.
_Copyright 1888, by A. L. Burt._
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_Sam succeeded in guiding the raft to a ledge of slopingrocks._]
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.--A REMARKABLE CAMP. CHAPTER II.--LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD. CHAPTER III.--SAM'S TRIALS BEGIN. CHAPTER IV.--A PERILOUS SITUATION. CHAPTER V.--AT HURLEY'S GULCH. CHAPTER VI.--WHY THE PAPERS WERE NOT BROUGHT. CHAPTER VII.--THE WONDERFUL VOYAGE BEGINS. CHAPTER VIII.--MR. WILLETT AND HANK TIMS. CHAPTER IX.--A FRUITLESS EFFORT. CHAPTER X.--A NIGHT OF AWFUL GLOOM. CHAPTER XI.--A TRYING SITUATION. CHAPTER XII.--THE VOYAGE IS RESUMED. CHAPTER XIII.--WHIRLED AWAY. CHAPTER XIV.--ORDER AND DISORDER. CHAPTER XV.--THE PROVISIONS ALL GONE. CHAPTER XVI.--DANGER AHEAD. CHAPTER XVII.--MR. WILLETT LEARNS THE NEWS. CHAPTER XVIII.--IN THE RAPIDS. CHAPTER XIX.--AFLOAT AGAIN. CHAPTER XX.--THE TRIAL BEGINS. CHAPTER XXI.--A BREAK IN THE CLOUDS. CHAPTER XXII.--"JOY! JOY! IT IS ULNA AGAIN!" CHAPTER XXIII.--THE TRIAL IN PROGRESS. CHAPTER XXIV.--OUT OF THE DEPTHS. CHAPTER XXV.--FROM SAFETY INTO DANGER. CHAPTER XXVI.--THE TRIAL ENDS. CHAPTER XXVII.--THE APACHES HAVE THEIR WAY. CHAPTER XXVIII.--A BOLD MOVE. CHAPTER XXIX.--THE VERDICT AND SENTENCE. CHAPTER XXX.--SURPRISE FOR HURLEY'S GULCH. CHAPTER XXXI.--HOW IT FARED WITH SAM AND HIS FRIENDS. CHAPTER XXXII.--IN GREATER PERIL STILL. CHAPTER XXXIII.--IN A TRAP. CHAPTER XXXIV.--A BRIEF TRUCE AND WHAT FOLLOWED IT. CHAPTER XXXV.--A NIGHT BATTLE. CHAPTER XXXVI.--TO THE RESCUE. CHAPTER XXVII.--SAM'S DEVOTION IS REWARDED. CHAPTER XXXVIII.--THE LAST, BUT NOT THE LEAST IMPORTANT. LOST. FATE OF AN ENTRAPPED BEAR. A FIGHT IN THE WOODS.
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LOST IN THE CANYON.
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CHAPTER I.--A REMARKABLE CAMP.
The scene of this narrative is laid in Southwestern Colorado, and thedate is so recent that boys living out there at that time are only justbeginning to think themselves young men--and it is really astonishinghow soon boys leap into vigorous manhood in that wild, free land.
"We's 'bleeged to hab 'im, for dah ain't de least scrap ob meat in decamp!"
This stirring information was shouted by a stout negro boy of fifteen orsixteen years of age, who, with a long, rusty, single-barrel shot-gun inhis arms, stood at the base of a towering mass of bare rocks, and lookedeagerly up at two other youths creeping along the giddy heights, andevidently in eager search of something that had escaped them, but whichthey were determined to overtake.
The lithe form, long black hair, and copper-colored skin of one of theyoung hunters bespoke him an Indian of the purest type. He wore aclose-fitting buckskin dress, and slung at his back was a shortrepeating rifle.
The other youth up the rocks, though bronzed on the hands and face to acolor as dark as the young Ute's, had the blue eyes and curly yellowhair that told of a pure white ancestry. His name was Samuel Willett,and though not much more than sixteen years of age, his taller form andmore athletic build made him look several years the senior of his redand black companions.
Sam Willett was armed and dressed like a hunter, and his well-wornequipments told that he was not out masquerading in the costume of atheatrical Nimrod.
The Indian youth, Ulna, and Sam Willett had chased a Rocky Mountain orbighorn sheep into the mass of towering rocks which they were nowsearching; and that they were not hunting for mere sport was proven byIke, the black boy's repeated cry:
"We's 'bleeged to hab 'im, foh dar ain't de least scrap ob meat in decamp!"
"I want to get the meat as much as you do, Ike, so have patience!" Samshouted down, without stopping in his pursuit an instant.
The two daring hunters disappeared, and Ike, whose desire for meat wasgreater than his love for the chase, began circling about the confusedpile of rocks so as to keep his companions in sight.
The bighorn "sheep" is in reality not a sheep at all, but a variety ofpowerful mountain antelope, whose strength, speed and daring among therocks and canyons are not the least wonderful things about the wonderfulland in which he makes his exclusive home.
Even old Western hunters believe that these animals can leap fromimmense heights and land on their horns without harm, but this is anerror.
While Ike was gazing with eager eyes and open mouth at the towering,volcanic cliffs, the bighorn came to view on a rock five hundred feetoverhead.
The hunters were close behind, and the creature's only means of escapewas to leap across a chasm fully thirty feet wide to another rock of alittle lower elevation.
"Shoot! shoot!" yelled the excited Ike, as the bighorn gathered himselfup and eyed the terrific gorge that beset his course.
As if stung to desperation by the shout the creature leaped forward witha force that must have cleared the gulf, and an accuracy that would haveinsured a landing on the other side, but just as it sprang into mid-airtwo shots rang out within a small fraction of a second of each other,and the bighorn came crashing down and fell dead at the black boy'sfeet.
In his wild excitement Ike discharged the rusty single-barrel shot-gun,which he had been hugging in his arms as if it were a baby. All thepower of the old-fashioned weapon must have been in the report andrecoil, for the former sounded like the explosion of a howitzer, and thelatter was so terrific as to send the holder sprawling across thecarcass of the bighorn.
Sam Willett saw all this as he hurried down the rocks, otherwise hemight have thought when he had reached the bottom that the animal hadfallen on his companion and faithful servant and killed him.
"Hello, Ike, old fellow, what's up?" asked Sam, as he helped the ownerof the shot-gun to his feet.
"Is I all alive, foh shuah, Mistah Sam?" demanded Ike, as he staredwildly about him.
"Of course you are, and here is the meat you have been so eager for,"said Sam.
"Wa'll, Mistah Sam, it's dat ar gun," said Ike, gazing sadly at the oldweapon which he still held in his arms. "I ain't used her bad; ain'tfired her off for more'n six months afore we kem out har fromMichigan--dat's five months ago--an' now only to tink she's done goneback on me in dat are way."
The Indian youth, Ulna, had come down by this time, and when he took inthe situation his fine, almost effeminate face was wreathed in smiles,that displayed a beautiful set of white teeth.
In a low, musical voice and without any accent, he said in excellentEnglish:
"The sun is setting and we must hurry if we would reach the camp beforedark."
"An' more partikler ez we've got to tote dis ar venizon home," said Ike,now wide awake to the necessities of the situation.
Each of the youths had a hunting knife in his belt, and they soon provedthat these weapons were not carried for ornament.
With a rapidity and skill that would have won the admiration of aneastern butcher, they skinned and cleaned the animal, severed themammoth head and then divided the meat into three parcels.
Each had to shoulder about fifty pounds, but being sturdy, healthy youngfellows they did not seem to mind their burdens, as they started offwith long, vigorous strides
toward the west.
The sun in all his course does not look down on a wilder, grander ormore desolate land than that which met the gaze of the young hunters, nomatter to which side they turned.
Verdureless mountains of fantastic shapes rose into the cloudless sky onevery hand.
Here and there in the crevices of the black volcanic rocks, over whichthey hurried, a stunted sagebush or a dwarf cactus suggested the awfulbarrenness of the place rather than told of vegetation.
They were in the land of canyons and drought, on the summit of the GreatAmerican Plateau where rain but seldom falls, where the streams flowthrough frightful gorges, and where men and animals have often perishedfrom thirst within sight of waters which they could not reach.
Bleak and sublime as the land was, is, and ever must be, yet thebelief--a well founded belief by the way--that its gloomy ravinescontained gold, led hundreds of hardy miners and adventurers to lookupon it as that El Dorado for which the early Spanish explorers in thesewilds had sought in vain.
As the leader of the little party, Sam Willett, strode ahead, thedeepening shadows of the mountains impelled him each instant to aquicker pace.
There was no apparent trail, yet Sam never hesitated in his course, butkept on as unerringly as a bird of passage, till he came to a greatblack rift that seemed to suddenly open at his feet.
Away down in the shadowy depths he could see a white band that told ofmoving water.
A glow, the source of which could not be seen, indicated a fire downnear the base of the cliff, and the barking of a dog--the sound appearedto come from the depths of a cave--suggested a human habitation.
On reaching the crest of the chasm Sam Willett did not hesitate, but atonce plunged down to what, to a stranger, would appear certain death.
Along the canyon wall there was a steep but well constructed trail thatafforded secure footing to a traveler who was not troubled withgiddiness.
Without once stopping, Sam and his companions made their way to thebottom of the rift and forded the roaring torrent that thundered overits uneven bed.
On the canyon wall, opposite to that by which they had descended, theysaw about a hundred feet above the stream, what seemed like a number ofilluminated pigeon holes. This was their home, the place to which hadbeen given the not inappropriate name of "Gold Cave Camp."
With barks of delight, a big dog met them near the water and joyouslyescorted them up the other side to an irregular plateau, about a hundredfeet in diameter, that shot out like the once famous Table Rock atNiagara.
This plateau was in front of the cave, in which the miners had madetheir home.
The background of light revealed the forms of three men. The dress andlong cue of one bespoke him a Chinaman, the second was dressed like ahunter, and the third, a tall, powerful figure, had only his heavy beardand striking stature to distinguish him.
"Is that you, Sam?" called out the tall man, as the foremost of theparty reached the plateau.
"Yes, father," was the reply, "and we have brought back some meat."
"Wa'll!" exclaimed the second man, "I didn't think thar was a pound oflive meat left within twenty mile of yar."
"Hoolay! Bully! Now me gettee suppel!" cried the excited Chinaman, whowas known by the fitting name of Wah Shin.
Preceded by Maj, the dog, Sam and his fellow hunters entered theremarkable cave--of which we shall speak hereafter--and laid the meat onthe floor.
"I began to grow uneasy about you, my boy," said Mr. Willett, as hefondly kissed his son, "meat is very desirable, but I would rathersuffer for it than be worried at your absence."
Sam explained about the delay in the hunt, and then went to a springthat rose from the floor of the cave close to the fire, and here he setthe example of drinking and washing himself.
Meanwhile Wah Shin began to demonstrate his position in that strangelymixed company. In nearly no time he had steaks broiling on the coals,the savory odor of which made Hank Tims, the old guide, take longinhalations with great enjoyment.
Apart from meat there was an abundance of other food in this strangecamp, so that in a very short time Wah Shin, with Ike's aid, had a mostexcellent supper spread on a table consisting of two roughly-hewn cedarslabs, supported at either end by a square stationary stone, that hadbeen placed there by the original but unknown cave dwellers.
