The Cave in the Mountain / A Sequel to In the Pecos Country

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Table of

e Cimmerian gloom of the mountain cave into the glorious sunlight again. When the glare of light burst up

ime that the retina was overpowered by the sudden flood of it and required time to accommodate itself to the new order of things. A few minutes were sufficien

hand that sufficed to keep his voice toned down. But he danced and swung his arms, and threw himself here and there in a way that would have made a spectator certain that he was

o make me feel I couldn't do anything, and then He stepped in. The wolf came. I didn't think I could

observed that the forenoon was only fairly under way, the sun having risen just high enough to be visible

ot find the opening when the

ufficient to know and feel that he was back again in the bus

by rocks and boulders, and the opening through which he had scrambled was situated sidewise, so that at a distance of ten feet it could not be seen. This accounted for the fact that none of the

folly of such an attempt. In the first place, should he re-enter the cave, he would be lost again, not knowing in what direction to turn to find his friend and entirely unable to communicate with him by signal, as had been their custom when separated and looking for each other. Should he venture away from the tunnel to renew his search, it was scarcely possible that he could find his way back again

with the main plateau. There, his view, although broken and interrupted in many directions, was quite extended in others, and his eye roamed over a large extent of that broken section of the country. He was utterly unable to recognize anything he saw, but he was confident th

the boy decided upon the direction in which the opening lay, and he made toward a small peak from which, in case his calculations were correct, he knew he would see it. Strange to say, his reckoning wa

quite so pleasant. Six Apache warri

ch came to Fred, as he peered down upon the savages, and counted them over several times. "I

eep, with his face turned to the ground, and looking like a warrior that had fallen from some balloon, and, striking on his stomach, lay just as he was flattened out. Another was half-sitting and half-reclining, smoking a pipe with a very long stem. His face was directly toward Fred, who noticed that his eyes were cast downward, as though he were gazin

onceive what the Indians expected to accomplish by such an act, as it only served to

tched out upon the ground, with their heads close to the orifice, down which they seeme

muttered, with a feeling of inexpressible relief; "fo

a number of them somewhere in the neighborhood. An Apache or Comanche

head, and looking back of him. "I'd take one and sta

mmediate neighborhood would discover the mustangs of his enemies, which, as a matter of course, were unguarded, the owners anticipating no trouble from

cavern at that minute but for his efforts to rescue him from the same prison. It was hard to tell in what

I should be gone and never see him again, I should

d, and was drawing it up from the cave. He pulled it up with one hand, while he caught and looped it with the other, until he had nearly a score of the coils in his grasp. This could not have been the cord which held the blanket when the

e youngster; "but I don't believe that Micke

in a group and began discussing matters in their earnest fashion, gesticulating and grunting so loud th

attached to it. The Apaches experimented with it for several minutes before putting it to the test, but at last everything was satisfac

st was intense, for they had mapped out their programme, and much depended upon the result of this venture. But among the half dozen the