Polly and Eleanor Part 29

Jeb spurred his horse at that, and was soon out of sight, but Polly and Eleanor continued in the same direction, to see if all turned out well for the riders.

Having reached and pa.s.sed the last spur of the Rainbow Cliffs, and then climbing the steep ascent to the top-trail, they finally came to a rise whence the whole shale-field could be seen. But not a sign of hors.e.m.e.n could be seen. Jeb, riding like mad, right across the loose shale in reckless risk of breaking his broncho's legs, was the only man visible.

Eleanor turned and looked in wonderment at Polly, but when she saw the look of horror on her friend's face, she caught at her arm.

"Polly! What do you think has happened?"

"Oh, Nolla! I fear they are down in that gulch! Most likely the shale started sliding under their horses' hoofs, and before they realized their danger, they were swept along over the top!"

"Oh, mercy! Polly--never that! Why they will be killed!"

Polly never said a word but watched Jeb as he reined in his horse.

Jumping from the saddle and hobbling the animal, he very carefully crawled over the apparently safe surface between himself and the ravine.

"Now I'm sure that's what happened, Nolla, or Jeb wouldn't try to get over there. He's going to see just how bad things are."

"Poll, we'd better run as fast as we can, and get things ready at the ranch. Your father ought to know this, so he can hitch a cart to two strong horses and drive there to help carry the men to the house."

"Nolla, I fear there will be nothing left to carry away. Once the shale starts to slide down that gulch, it goes like the wind and buries everything under its weight and bulk."

"All the same, I will feel that I am doing something to help--let's go!"

So Polly and her companion turned and ran back along the Rainbow Cliffs trail, until they reached the spot whence they had called to Jeb. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath, and while straining their eyes towards the house, saw Mr. Brewster just leaving it.

His horse was waiting at the block, so both girls instantly began shouting to attract his attention. He had keen hearing, and turned to see what might be wrong in the direction of the Cliffs. When he saw the two girls wildly beckoning him to come, he sprang into the saddle and galloped the horse over the intervening s.p.a.ce to meet them.

Their story was told in a few words, and Sam Brewster immediately surmised who the riders were. He told the girls to go on to the house and tell Mrs. Brewster to be ready with emergencies, in case either of the travelers were found. Then he turned his horse and galloped to the barns where he called several of the men to help in the rescue work.

Polly and Eleanor would have preferred to go back to the shale-fields and watch the men, but they had to go where they could be of most service in the case.

"Where shall we put them, mother, if father brings both back to the house?" asked Polly.

"There is only one thing we can do, and that is to prepare the cots in the harness-room for them. It is in times of need, like this, that I wish we had a large house."

Down on the shale-fields, Jeb had crept to the edge of the gully and peered over. Far, far below, where the stream roared over the rocks and down waterfalls like a miniature Niagara, he saw one horse doubled up in an unnatural heap. He surmised at once, that it was dead. But half-way up he spied hoofs protruding from the shale, and to this spot he tried to make his way.

As he thought, the rider was still entangled with the stirrups of the horse and could not jump free when the accident had occurred.

By dint of working down, clinging like lichen to the shale surface, Jeb reached the animal whose hoofs stuck pathetically upward. He carefully sc.r.a.ped away the shale and exposed the head of a man. He could not say whether the victim was alive or dead, and he dared not dig away more shale, just then, or the whole side would begin to move again. Having cleared the head so the man could breathe, if possible, he looked anxiously around for the second rider. Not a sign of him was seen from the place where Jeb clung.

Believing that one live man was worth two dead ones, Jeb returned to the task of unearthing the one he had found. Every slab of shale was slowly removed, meanwhile Jeb watched the loose sides above him for the least intimation that it might slide again. But so careful was he, that the body was uncovered without the surrounding shale being disturbed. Jeb felt of the man's heart and found a very slight pulsation there. He was alive!

But how to get his feet free from the leather on the horse, and how to carry the big heavy fellow up that treacherous side? Jeb never lost his presence of mind, nor did he ever feel unduly excited over what he thought could not be helped; had he known what a fatalist was, he would have told you that that is what _he_ was.

He sat perfectly still, because the unwary movement of a single muscle might move that mountain-side down upon him, but he could _think_ and what could hinder him from doing it? As if the very discovery that he was superior in that way, to the senseless shale all about him, made him master of the situation, so he smiled and patiently waited.

"'Cuz Ah knows Polly and Miss Nolla'll get word to Mis'r Brews'er an'

he'll know what to do fer us." So he sat and waited.

It's all well enough to say, "Oh, he wouldn't do anything else. Any one could have waited!" But how many would have waited in that same situation, without a qualm of fear, or without doubting the simple a.s.surance that the master of the ranch would know best what to do to help?

As if to reward this faith, Jeb soon heard voices shouting back and forth above his head, and after a time, he saw the noose of a stout rope falling down in his direction.

He grinned. "Ah never thought of _that_!" murmured he.

"Jeb," came the deep tones of Mr. Brewster from above, "try to fix this safely around you, and then see if there is anything down there that you can do. Shout up if you want help, and we will try to let another man down to work with you."

Jeb soon had the rope about his body, and feeling free to dig, went to work to pull the unconscious man out of the saddle. The side that the dead horse had fallen upon pinned the man's one leg down so securely that Jeb could not manage to extricate it without help. So he held on to the body he had thus far brought out from the shale, and then called up to his master.

"Ah cain't git his left laig out from the sturrup! This dead hoss is too heavy fer me to shove over. Ef some one'll come down an' use a crow-bar Ah reckon we-all kin manage it all right."

With all the tension and doubt of being of any use in this accident, Mr.

Brewster could not help thinking of Jeb's way of asking a.s.sistance--as if he was in the kitchen of the house and told Sary to come downstairs to entertain him.

Another man was lowered by means of a second rope, and as he came opposite the dead horse, he called a halt on the pulley above. With his crow-bar, he worked just as carefully as Jeb had done in loosening the shale about the body. But the moment Jeb found he could extract the crushed foot from the side that had been buried in the stone, the other man ceased prodding, as one little prod too many might turn the whole loose lava upon them again.

"Lower another rope fer the stranger!" shouted the hired man. And soon the limp body was drawn slowly up to safety.

"What about the other one, Jeb?" shouted Mr. Brewster.

"Reckon he went on down, 'cuz his hoss is down thar. Shall Ah go on down and see?"

"No! we-all can get down from the Devil's Causeway, without taking any risks on this loose wall. Better see if you-all can find any papers or wallet in the panniers of that horse."

Jeb then felt and brought forth a fine leather bag shaped like a knap-sack. But he was not aware that most lawyers and professional men in cities use similar bags. Then the word was given to hoist, and both men were soon up beside the unconscious stranger.

While Mr. Brewster used first-aid on the stranger, several men of the party started for the cleft back of the Cliffs from which one could get down in to the gulch. In fact, it was the great flood of water that ran from the back of the Cliffs that caused this deep washout, or gully.

Having taken hold of the unknown man and suddenly turned him so that he hung limply over the back and shoulders of his carrier, Mr. Brewster started his horse across the shale, and then turned in on the Cliff trail. The sooner the unconscious man was treated the better, thought the ranch-man.

Jeb and his men were left to help the others who, after having carefully picked a way over the shale, would search in the gulch for any signs of the second man.

By the time the would-be rescuers reached the place where the dead horse was seen doubled up, moans attracted their attention to a clump of buffalo gra.s.s that had forced its way up beside the stream.

There, almost hidden by great bowlders that had caught the drift of shale as it swept down from the top of the ravine, they found the second rider. As the horse was more than forty feet above this spot, they figured that the man must have shot from the saddle when all were precipitated over the top, and landed as if by a miracle in this comparatively safe niche made by the rocks.

The moment the man heard human voices he tried to attract their attention, but they had already heard and planned how best to reach him.

He could not move, as those limbs which had not suffered fractures, were rendered helpless by the weight of shale pinning them down. His chest was free, however, and in spite of the gashes and bruises all over his face and neck, he could breathe easily.

"Ah reckon we-all had better carry him up the gulch to the Devil's Causeway, and git out by that route," suggested one of the men.

"Yeh! Let's call to Jeb to go back and meet we-all at the Cliffs so's we kin put him acrost one of the hosses."

In half an hour, therefore, Mr. Ratzger, the senior member of the law firm of Riggley and Ratzger, of New York, was carried in front of the Rainbow Cliffs and placed in Jeb's arms, while another man led Jeb's horse carefully towards the ranch-house.

"Ah, so these are Rainbow Cliffs, are they! Shall I ever forget them?

Had Riggley listened to my advice we both would now be sitting in our comfortable office-chairs in New York. But no! he must needs try to force gold from a stone-wall!" As Ratzger sighed, Jeb remarked philosophically: "Ef _you_-all'd rather be sittin' at home than a galavantin' round places where money kin be found, Ah b'lieves it's the onny reason you-all is spared whiles your friend is locooed."