A Desperate Chance | Page 6

would take an observation. After a little he returned and said:
"It's all right; come out."
Creedon said he had discovered evidence that the redskins had really gone away.
"Why couldn't you have found that out sooner?"
The woodsman laughed and said:
"They might have found me out then; as it was, according to the tales you and Brooks tell, I took a desperate chance."
"Shall we get to work and have a meal?"
"Not much, young man, you will have to control your appetite for awhile. Remember, I am captain of this squadron. I'll lead you to a place, however, where we can build a fire and camp and eat without fear. I am posted around here; I know the safe places."
The party started on the march, and Desmond felt quite irritated; he had gone nearly twenty-four hours without eating, and he said:
"I am ready to even fight for a meal."
Creedon laughed and said in reply:
"You may have a stomach full of fighting yet before we find the mine."
"I thought you had located it?"
"Yes, but it's a week's tramp from where we are at present, and we may have some lively times before we arrive at the place."
It was nine o'clock at night when the party arrived at one of the most peculiar natural retreats Desmond had ever seen. It was a cave, as we will call it, in the side wall of a cliff rising from a gulch even more wild and rugged than the one where the party had camped the previous night. Some mighty convulsion of the mountain had separated the whole front of the cliff from the main rock, so that a space of at least twenty feet intervened, and between yawned a dark abyss that led down to where no man had yet penetrated. Creedon led the way up along a ledge of ascent which lined the outer edge of the great mass of detached cliff. Once at the top he descended on the inner side. It was night, but he had taken advantage of a mask lantern which he carried with him, and which he said was the most useful article in his possession. He added:
"These lanterns may belong to the profession of detectives and burglars, but I've found them the most useful articles a cliff-climber can own. They are different from other lamps and torches; you can control the one ray of light and indicate your path without any trouble whatever."
This was true, as the guide demonstrated, and his party walked along the narrow ledge without any fear of being precipitated over; all it required was a good eye and a steady nerve, and they possessed these necessary qualifications.
The guide at length came to a halt, and said:
"You stand here and I'll get my bridge."
He proceeded along alone, but soon returned with two saplings, which he had strung together, and of which he had made a rope ladder.
Desmond was greatly interested, and watched the guide as he threw his ladder across the intervening abyss, and then he said:
"It will take a little nerve to crawl over, but once over we are all safe, and I've got a storehouse over there. I prepared this place with a great deal of patience and labor. We can spend two or three days here. I know you will enjoy it, and we can take a good long rest. I will go over first and then hold the light so you two can follow."
Desmond glanced at Brooks, and asked:
"Will you risk it?"
"Yes, I will, lad; I am not the fellow I was about six months ago; I can climb a steeple now."
The guide went over, creeping across. The saplings bent under his weight and made a downward curve, so that when he attempted so ascend on the opposite side it was a climb up, but with the ropes made of woven prairie grass and sticks and boughs he easily ascended. He had carried his lantern with him, and he flashed its light across his bridge and asked, "Who will come next?"
"You go," said Desmond to Brooks.
The tramp did not hesitate, but started to crawl over the oddly constructed bridge, and he did so as well as the guide had done. Then Desmond crossed and the instant all hands were over the guide took up his bridge stowed it away, and said:
"When we cross back it will be in the daytime, and much harder."
"Much harder in the daytime?"
"Yes."
"I should think it would be easier."
The guide laughed and said:
"It might appear so, but in the daytime you will realize just what you are doing. You will see the dark abyss beneath you, and when the bridge sways downward your heart will be in your throat, I tell you. At night, however, you do not know just what you are doing."
Desmond saw the truth of what the