Bob Hampton of Placer | Page 9

an upstretched arm, the sharp outcropping of rock-edges
here and there, the deep gash as though some giant axe had cleaved the
stone, those sturdy cedars growing straight out over the chasm like the
bowsprits of ships, while all along the way, irregular and ragged, varied
rifts not entirely unlike the steps of a crazy staircase.
The very conception of such an exploit caused his flesh to creep. But he
was not of that class of men who fall back dazed before the face of
danger. Again and again, led by an impulse he was unable to resist, he
studied that precipitous rock, every nerve tingling to the newborn hope.
God helping them, even so desperate a deed might be accomplished,
although it would test the foot and nerve of a Swiss mountaineer. He
glanced again uneasily toward his companion, and saw the same
motionless figure, the same sober face turned deliberately away.
Hampton did not smile, but his square jaw set, and he clinched his
hands. He had no fear that she might fall him, but for the first time in
all his life he questioned his own courage.
CHAPTER III
BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH
The remainder of that day, as well as much of the gloomy night
following, composed a silent, lingering horror. The fierce pangs of
hunger no longer gnawed, but a dull apathy now held the helpless
defenders. One of the wounded died, a mere lad, sobbing pitifully for
his mother; an infantryman, peering forth from his covert, had been
shot in the face, and his scream echoed among the rocks in multiplied
accents of agony; while Wyman lay tossing and moaning, mercifully
unconscious. The others rested in their places, scarcely venturing to stir
a limb, their roving, wolfish eyes the only visible evidence of
remaining life, every hope vanished, yet each man clinging to his
assigned post of duty in desperation. There was but little firing--the
defenders nursing their slender stock, the savages biding their time.

When night shut down the latter became bolder, and taunted cruelly
those destined to become so soon their hapless victims. Twice the
maddened men fired recklessly at those dancing devils, and one pitched
forward, emitting a howl of pain that caused his comrades to cower
once again behind their covers. One and all these frontiersmen
recognized the inevitable--before dawn the end must come. No useless
words were spoken; the men merely clinched their teeth and waited.
Hampton crept closer in beside the girl while the shadows deepened,
and ventured to touch her hand. Perhaps the severe strain of their
situation, the intense loneliness of that Indian-haunted twilight, had
somewhat softened her resentment, for she made no effort now to
repulse him.
"Kid," he said at last, "are you game for a try at getting out of this?"
She appeared to hesitate over her answer, and he could feel her
tumultuous breathing. Some portion of her aversion had vanished. His
face was certainly not an unpleasant one to look upon, and there were
others other sex who had discovered in it a covering for a multitude of
sins. Hampton smiled slightly while he waited; he possessed some
knowledge of the nature feminine.
"Come, Kid," he ventured finally, yet with new assurance vibrating in
his low voice; "this is surely a poor time and place for any indulgence
in tantrums, and you 've got more sense. I 'm going to try to climb up
the face of that cliff yonder,--it's the only possible way out from
here,--and I propose to take you along with me."
She snatched her hand roughly away, yet remained facing him. "Who
gave you any right to decide what I should do?"
The man clasped his fingers tightly about her slender arm, advancing
his face until he could look squarely into hers. She read in the lines of
that determined countenance an inflexible resolve which overmastered
her.
"The right given by Almighty God to protect any one of your sex in

peril," he replied. "Before dawn those savage fiends will be upon us.
We are utterly helpless. There remains only one possible path for
escape, and I believe I have discovered it. Now, my girl, you either
climb those rocks with me, or I shall kill you where you are. It is that,
or the Sioux torture. I have two shots left in this gun,--one for you, the
other for myself. The time has come for deciding which of these
alternatives you prefer."
The gleam of a star glittered along the steel of his revolver, and she
realized that he meant what he threatened.
"If I select your bullet rather than the rocks, what then?"
"You will get it, but in that case you will die like a fool."
"You have believed me to be one, all this afternoon."