careful listening convinced fred that there were two red-skins groping around in the darkness. after making himself certain on that point, he reached his hand over, and, grasping the muscular arm of mickey o'rooney, shook his companion quite vigorously.
fred was afraid that, in waking, the irishman would utter some exclamation, or make such a noise that he would betray their location. when, therefore, several shakings failed to arouse him, the boy easily persuaded himself that it was best to leave him where he was for a time.
“i can tell when they come too close,” he reflected, “and then i will stir him up.”
a few minutes later he found that he could hear the noise without placing his ear against the blanket; so he lay flat on his face, resting the upper part of his body upon his elbows, with his head thrown up. he peered off in the gloom, in the direction whence the footsteps seemed to come, looking with that earnest, piercing gaze, as if he expected to see the forms of the dreaded apaches become luminous and reveal themselves in the black night around.
no ray of light relieved the egyptian blackness. the camp-fire had been allowed to die out completely, and no red ember, glowering like a demon's eye, showed where it had been. the trained eye might have detected the faintest suspicion of light near the opening overhead, but it was faint indeed.
“they keep together,” added fred to himself, as he distinguished the soft, stealthy tread over the ground. “i should think they would separate, and they would be the more likely to find the place between them; but they want to be together when they run against mickey, i guess.”
the shadowy footsteps were not regular. occasionally they paused, and then they hurried on again, and then they settled down into the stealthiest kind of movement. the lad, it is true, had the newly found revolver, with several of its chambers loaded, at his command. there was some doubt, however, whether it could be relied upon, owing to the probable length of time that had elapsed since the charges were placed there.
as a precaution, mickey o'rooney had placed new caps upon the tubes, but had chosen to leave the charges themselves undisturbed. this beautiful weapon the lad held grasped in his hand, determined to blaze away at the prowling murderers the instant they should reveal themselves with sufficient distinctness to make his shots certain.
an annoying delay followed. the apaches seemed to know very nearly where the right spot was, without being able to locate it definitely. the footsteps were heard first in one direction and then they changed off to another. the warriors acted precisely as if they knew the location of their intended victims, but were seeking to find whether they were in the right position to be easily attacked.
thus matters remained for ten or fifteen minutes longer, during which the lad held himself on the alert, and was no little puzzled to comprehend the meaning for the course of their enemies.
“they daren't do anything, now that they know where we are. they're afraid we're on the watch, and think if they wait a while longer, we will drop off to sleep; but they will find—-”
a sudden light just then broke in upon young munson. he was looking off in the direction of the sound, when the phosphorescent gleam of a pair of eyes shot out from the darkness upon him.
there was a greenish glare in the unexpected appearance that left no doubt of their identity. instead of indians, as he had imagined at first, there was some kind of a wild animal that was prowling about them. none of the apaches had entered the cave at all—only a single beast.
but where had he come from? by what means had he entered the cave?
these were very significant questions, of the greatest importance to the two who were shut within the subterranean prison. fred did not feel himself competent to answer, so he reached over and shook mickey harder than ever, determined that he should arouse.
“come, wake up, you sleepy head,” he called out. “there might a dozen bears come down on you and eat you up, before you would open your eyes! come, mickey, there is need of your waking!”
“begorrah—but—there's more naad of me slaaping,” muttered the irishman, gradually recalling his senses. “i was in the midst of a beautiful draam, in which there came two lovely females, that looked like bridget o'flaherty and molly mcfizzle. both were smiling in their winsome way on me, and both were advancing to give me a swaat kiss, or a crack over the head, i don't know which, when, just before they raiched me, you sticks out your paw and gives me a big shake. arrah, ye spalpeen, why did ye do that?”
“didn't you hear me say there was something in the cavern? i thought there were a couple of apaches at first, but i guess it is a wild animal.”
the irishman was all attention on the instant, and he started bolt upright.
“whisht! what's that ye're saying? will ye plaze say it over again?”
the lad hurriedly told him that an animal of some kind was lurking near them. mickey caught up his rifle, and demanded to know where he was. in such darkness as enveloped them it was necessary that the eyes of the beast should be at a certain angle in order to become visible to the two watchers. both heard his light footsteps, and knew where the eyes were likely to be discerned.
“there he is!” exclaimed fred, as he caught sight of the green, phosphorescent glitter of the two orbs, which is peculiar to the eyes of the feline species.
mickey detected them at the same moment, and drew his rifle to his shoulder. he kept the kneeling position, fearing that the target would vanish if he should wait until he could rise. it is no easy thing for a hunter to take aim when he is utterly unable to detect the slightest portion of his weapon, and it was this fact which caused mickey to delay his firing. however, before he could make his aim any way satisfactory, a bright thought struck him, and he lowered his gun, carefully letting the hammer down upon the tube.
“ain't you going to fire?” asked the lad, who could not understand the delay.
“whisht, now! would ye have me slay me best friend?”
“i don't understand you, mickey.”
“s'pose i'd shot the baste, whatever he is, that would be the end of him; but lave him alone, and he'll show us the way out.”
“how can he do that?”
“don't you obsarve,” said the man, who haf got the theory all perfectly arranged in his mind, “that that creature couldn't get into this cave without coming in some way?”
there was no gainsaying such logic as that, but fred knew that his friend meant more than he said.
“of course he couldn't get in here without having some way of doing it. but suppose he took the same means as we did? how is that going to help us?”
but the irishman was certain that such could not be the case.
“there ain't any wild beasts as big fools as we was. ye couldn't git 'em to walk into such a hole, any more than ye could git an irisman to gaze calmly upon a head without hitting it. ye can make up your mind that there's some way leading into this cavern, which nobody knows anything about, excepting this wild creature, and, if we let him alone, he'll go out again, showing us the path.”
“i should think if he knew the route some of the indians would learn it.”
“so anybody would think; but the crayther has not given 'em the chance—so how can they larn it? if we play our cards right, me laddy, we're sure to win.”
“what kind of an animal is it?”
they were all the time gazing at the point where the eyes were last seen, but the beast was continually shifting its position, so that the orbs were no longer visible. the faint tipping of his feet upon the gravely earth was heard, and now and then the transient flash of his eyes, as he whisked back and forth, was caught, but all vanished again almost as soon as seen. all that could be learned was, that whatever the species of the animal, he owned large eyes, and they were placed close together. neither of the two were sufficiently acquainted with the peculiarities of the different animals of the west to identify them by any slight peculiarities.
“i don't think he can be an ilephant or a rhinoceros,” said mickey, reflectively, “because such crathurs don't grow in these parts. what about his being a grizzly bear?”
“he can't be that,” said fred, who had been given time to note the special character of the footsteps before he awoke his companion. “he walks too lightly.”
“what do you conclude him to be?”
“if there were such things as wild dogs, i would be sure he was one.”
“then i have it; he must be a wolf.”
“i guess you're right. he acts just like one—trotting here and there, while his eyes shine like we used to see them when we were camped on the prairie, and they used to hang round the camp waiting for a chance to get something to eat.”
“it's aisy to double him up,” said mickey,who just then caught a glimpse of the eyes again; “but if he'll show the way out of here, i'll make a vow never to shoot another wolf, even if he tries to chaw me head off.”
“how are we going to discover the place?”
“just foller him. he'll hang round a while, very likely all night, and when he finds out there's nothing to make here, he'll trot off agin. all we've got to do is to do the same, and he'll show the way out.”
“it don't look so easy to me,” said fred, a few minutes later, while he had been busily turning the scheme over in his mind. “if we only had the daylight to see him, it wouldn't be so hard, but here he is right close to us, and it is only now and then that we can tell where he is.”
“yees are right, for it is n't likely that we can walk right straight out by the way that he does; but we can larn from his movements pretty nearly where the place is, and then we can take a torch and hunt for a day or two, and i don't see how we can miss it.”
there seemed to be reason in this, although the lad could not feel as sanguine as did his companion. the wolf, as he believed it to be, was doubtless familiar with every turn of the cave, and, when he was ready to go, was likely to vanish in a twinkling—skurrying away with a speed that would defy pursuit. however, there was a promise, or a possibility, at least, of success, and that certainly was something to be cheerful over, even though the prospect was not brilliant, and fred was resolved that failure should not come through remissness of his.
the continuation of this absorbing story is entitled “the cave in the mountain.”
