CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE PURSUIT.

"I'll go down again, sir," said Cyril, when the colonel had turned back, and he had tried to make him understand the nature of the place, as far as he had been able to make out.

But the colonel shook his head.

"We must go back, and try to reach the stream where it flows out, my boy," he said. "We can do no good here.--Come, Manning, and fetch the mules."

John Manning stared, and seemed as if he could not understand.

"The mules, sir--go back and find the stream? What about the Indians, if they are coming on?" The colonel had forgotten their pursuers. "The mules," he said then; and he led the way on into the mist, Cyril following him wonderingly along the continuation of the rocky shelf for about a hundred yards, and glancing back from time to time to see that John Manning was close behind, untying the knots of the hide ropes as he came.

Every step took them nearer to the great waterfall, and in the dim light Cyril now made out that the path was wider; but all at once it seemed to end in front of a gleaming sheet of water reaching from the thick mist below right up to where the rock-walls appeared to give place to the spray-clouded sky. And there, just before them, all huddled together, stood the mules, ready to turn toward them as they approached.

"They brought me as far as this last night," said the colonel, "and then stopped. No wonder, poor brutes, they would go no farther; and I was lost in the darkness, and dared not turn back. I stood with them till daybreak, hoping you all were safe, and then--"

Cyril uttered a wild cry of joy, one which made itself heard by all, for a bare-headed misty figure, whose presence they had not been aware of as it followed them, suddenly caught the colonel's arm, placed its lips to his ear, and cried:

"Quick, father--the Indians; they're coming down the valley fast."

In the face of such news as Perry bore, there was no time to ask questions about his escape, but as the colonel grasped the boy's arm, trembling the while with excitement, his heart throbbing with joy, he cried:

"How far away?"

"Not half a mile. I could see them coming down the valley."

"This way," said the colonel promptly, and he supplemented his words with gestures, as, still holding his son's arm tightly, he led them on through the mist of fine spray inward toward where the mules were standing together. And now as they approached the fall, a great deal of the horror caused by the darkness and noise pa.s.sed away, for the mist grew opalescent from the sunshine far above, and though progress looked terribly perilous, they could see the extent of their danger, and there was no mystery of hidden peril, no constant dread of unknown chasms waiting to engulf them at their next stride.

For they knew now that they were in one of Nature's wildest and grandest rifts, where a goodly-sized river, after tearing its way along the profound depths of a narrow gorge, had reached a spot where by some earthquake convulsion this gorge had suddenly, as it were, broken in two. One part had dropped several hundred feet, forming a profound chasm into which the water from above leaped in one great glistening wave, smooth as so much gleaming gla.s.s, to be broken up into spray as it reached the jagged rocks below, and there eddy and foam in what was undoubtedly a huge basin, from which the mist arose, while the broken water swept on down into the valley to join the little stream by whose side they had come.

The leading mule threw up its head as the colonel approached, and its parted teeth and drawn-back lips suggested that it was whinnying a welcome or a demand for food. But the great fall before them, and the knowledge that at any time the Indians might appear from out of the dense mist and commence their attack, gave the colonel eyes for only one thing, and that a way out of what seemed to be a perfect _cul de sac_.

The deafening roar, of course, prevented all consultation, and the mist added to the confusion; but these had their advantages for the fugitives, veiling their actions from their pursuers, and preventing any sound made by the mules from being heard.

And as Cyril watched their leader's actions, and then caught an encouraging look from John Manning, who gave his head a jerk in the colonel's direction, as if to say: "It's all right, he'll find his way out," the boy felt in better spirits. The terrors of the night were gone; they were all there safe, and there was the possibility of the Indians feeling as much in awe of the terrible chasm as they had themselves, and hence shrinking from making their way through the mist, and giving them the credit of going on down the valley by the greater stream which issued from beneath the falls.

Cyril's thoughts were many, and in the reaction from the terrible despair from which he had suffered, he was ready to accept anything short of the marvellous; and consequently he was in nowise surprised on seeing their leader go right on into the darkness, peering here and there, and the leading mule follow him and Perry, the rest getting in motion directly, and going on into the mist till the last had disappeared.

Just then John Manning, who had turned to look back, wiping the moisture from his face, clapped Cyril on the shoulder, and placed his lips close to the boy's ear.

"Can't see 'em coming. This'll scare 'em from following. They'll think n.o.body but mad folk would ever come along here. I say, he's found a way behind the fall."

But John Manning was wrong.

They followed the direction taken by the last mule, together stepping cautiously onward through the mist, for the rugged shelf they were on was dripping with moisture, and felt slippery beneath their feet, while to their left there was the huge body of water always gliding down into the spray which eddied up to meet it. Then, to their intense astonishment, they stepped right out of the dense, clinging mist, which hid everything, into a clear atmosphere. It was quite in twilight that they stood, but the falling water brought with it a cool current of air; and as they both stopped for a moment to gaze and wonder, there to their left was the great fall rushing down clear of the rock behind, and leaving plenty of room for any one to pa.s.s through to the other side, beneath the water, had the shelf been continued there; but it pa.s.sed round to their right, as if Nature had made a natural staircase, zigzagging up the side of the gorge; and there, some distance above them, were the colonel and Perry, mounting slowly after the leading mule, which showed no hesitation about proceeding now that it was day.

John Manning nodded, and they followed up and up the giddy path, now leaving the fall some distance behind, now approaching it again, but always near enough to be terribly impressed by the vast curve of gleaming black water, which, as they rose higher, could be plainly seen plunging down into what appeared to them as a dark grey cloud.

From time to time the colonel looked back and waved his hand, stopping at last at a spot where the natural track curved suddenly round a sharp point of rock. The mules followed one by one, their heads right down, and their feet carefully planted at every step, till the last had gone round; and then in turn Cyril and John Manning climbed up, and before pa.s.sing the sharp rock, stopped to gaze down into the vast rift up whose side they had mounted so far.

From this point the whole of the wild zigzag was visible right to where the grey veil of mist shut off the level shelf where they had pa.s.sed the night, and John Manning's lips had just parted to utter some words about the horrible nature of the place, when Cyril started back and jerked his garment, to make him follow suit.

The old soldier was keenly alive to danger, and dropping upon his knees, he joined Cyril in cautiously looking over the edge of the rocks they had just ascended, softly bringing the muzzle of his piece to bear upon what he saw.

For, as he gazed down, there in the gloom, not two hundred yards away as an arrow would fly, but at a distance which it had taken them nearly half an hour to climb by the gradual ascent, was the figure of an Indian standing out just clear of the mist, and peering cautiously about, as if searching every rock and crevice around.

The next minute another had joined him, coming out of the mist cautiously, and with the tentative motion of one who was on strange ground.

Then came another and another, with their figures looking huge and grotesque as they stood in the mist, and then suddenly shrinking into the stature as of dwarfs, as soon as they were clear.

One by one they came on, till there were at least thirty collected together, and all gazing about cautiously, as if in dread.

As Cyril knew from his own experience, they could only converse with difficulty, so that he was not surprised to see that one of them, who appeared to be the leader, was gesticulating and pointing here and there, and finally upward toward where the two fugitives were watching every act.

But, as the boy watched the Indians keenly, it was very evident that they were far from confident, and he soon decided that they were as much panic-stricken by the horror of the place as he and his friends had been overnight. At last, though after a great deal of pointing upward and hesitation, it seemed as if they were all reluctantly about to continue the pursuit, for their leader took a few steps forward and waved them on.

But they did not stir, save to crowd together a little more and press toward the wall of rock, away from the fall.

"They don't like it," whispered John Manning, for it was becoming possible, where they lay, to make a few words audible without shouting.

"Strikes me they're so scared, that if we were to send one of these big pieces of rock rolling down, they'd beat a retreat."

"Look, look!" whispered Cyril.

"I am," said John Manning, for all at once a couple more of the Indians suddenly appeared from out of the mist, in whom they recognised Diego and his fellow-guide, the former holding something in his hand which he was showing to all in turn with a great deal of gesticulation, accompanied by eager pointings down into the depths below the fall, and back through the mist.

"What's he got there?" whispered John Manning. "Something to eat? He wants them to go back."

"I know," said Cyril so loudly that his companion caught his arm. "It's Perry's cap."

"What!" cried the old soldier. "I know how it is. They've found it somewhere down the stream, where it had been washed, and he's saying that we must all have tumbled in there and been swept away."

This appeared to be a very likely interpretation, for, with a great display of eagerness, the men hurried back through the mist till all were gone.

"Let's make haste on and overtake them," said Cyril eagerly. "I want to ask Perry where he left his cap."

"And he'll tell you, sir, that he didn't leave it anywhere, but had it took away by the water."

"Are they in sight?" said the colonel, bending down over them. "You were quite right. This is an excellent place to keep them back. Yes,"

he continued, on hearing the surmises of the two watchers, "that must be it, and they have gone back to follow the stream."

He led the way again, and they followed to where Perry was anxiously looking back, as the mules steadily went on higher and higher up the gloomy gorge, where the great stream was hurrying and foaming along toward where it would make its plunge; while the thunderous roar of the fall was rapidly dying away, shut out, as it now was, by curve after curve of the valley.

The place was black and forbidding enough, but as they got on another mile or two, their journey was brightened by the glow upon the ridges and slopes on high where the sun reached, and the gra.s.sy sides of the lower mountains looked delightful after their long experience of black, dripping stone.

Many a look back was given as they went on higher and higher, every step taking them more into the mighty range, and fortunately due west; and, weary as they all were, intense was the longing to hurry their steps.

But that last was impossible. They were dependent upon the mules for their supply of food, and the cautious animals only had one pace, and this regulated their masters'.

At last, when utterly exhausted, a halt was called just at a sharp turn in the gorge, where water could be reached, and the rocks sheltered them and the mules from pursuers; while they gave them the opportunity of scanning the narrow way for nearly a mile, so that if a watch was kept, it was impossible for them to be taken by surprise.