Skeleton Lode (16 page)

“We’re all in this together,” said Kelly with fire in her eyes, “and that means we share the risk. I’d rather break my neck than be a helpless female who’s afraid to move without some man having a grip on my shirttail.”

“That goes for me too,” Kelsey assured them. “I can climb that rope as quick as any of you.”

Dallas dropped his loop over the nub of rock, but the rope jumped off. He tried again with the same result.

“Let me try,” said Arlo.

“No,” Dallas said, his pride at stake. “I can do it. Loop’s too wide.”

He reduced the size of the loop until it seemed barely large enough to drop over the protruding stone. The throw was more difficult, but it was successful, and this time it held. Dallas took a step up the mountain, throwing all his weight on the rope, and it seemed secure.

“Solid enough,” said Arlo.

“Even if it is, I still want to go up first,” said Kelly.

Dallas stepped back, and without a word, handed her the end of the rope. He looked at Arlo, and his partner winked. They would allow these females to prove themselves and get it over with. Hand over hand, Kelly walked up the side of the mountain to the first jagged break.

“I don’t see anything else to fasten the rope to,” she called down.

“Then leave it where it is,” Arlo said. “How far back into the mountain does that cut go?”

“Not even deep enough to get out of the rain,” answered Kelly.

“I’m going up next,” Kelsey said.

“Go on,” said Arlo. He still had his own lariat coiled over his shoulder. Before they were done, they might need it.

Kelsey reached the first ledge as easily as Kelly had, and Dallas went next. When Arlo made the ascent, Dallas loosened his lariat, and they began looking to the next level in their climb.

“It’s gonna be damn funny,” Dallas said, “if we fight our way to the top of this thing and don’t find a hole big enough for a prairie dog to squeeze through.”

“You can do my share of the laughing,” said Kelly. “If we’re to believe the map with the death’s head, there has to be something here.”

They reached the next level without using the lariats. Earth and rock had been torn loose in such a way that the second crevice angled downward into one end of the first, like a giant V laid on its side.

“That was too easy,” Kelsey said. “We won’t find anything here.”

She was right. They began looking for some means of climbing higher.

“From here on,” said Dallas, “it won’t be easy gettin’ a loop on anything. Step back far enough for a good throw, and you’ll fall off the mountain.”

“How disappointing,” Kelly mocked. “Uncle Henry was always telling us a cowboy could rope
anything
, even standing on his head.”

She tried to keep a straight face, but Dallas looked at her in such a way that she had to laugh. They soon discovered, though, that there was nothing amusing about their situation. The next gap in the side of the mountain was a good twenty feet above their heads, without any apparent abutment they could rope from below.

“One of us is goin’ to have to lizard his way up there and find a nub of rock that’ll hold a loop,” Arlo said.

“Hold it,” said Dallas. “There’s riders coming.”

Four rode in from the north.

“Flatten out along this ledge,” Arlo said quickly, “and don’t move. Let’s just hope they don’t ride close and look up.”

The four rode on, but came close enough to be spotted. Yavapai and Sanchez were leading, Gary Davis and R. J. Bollinger following.

“Barry Rust is missing,” said Kelsey.

“Those pistol shots we heard might explain that,” Arlo said. “Might have been a disagreement that ended in a shoot-out.”

“Murder, maybe,” said Kelly, “but no shoot-out. Barry carried a gun, but he was no gunman. He and Bollinger were always fighting with Davis over something. Or nothing at all.”

“If Davis did something as brutal as that,” Kelsey said, “I can’t believe Bollinger, Yavapai, and Sanchez would still be with him. How could they trust such a cruel devil of a man?”

“Thieves and killers have a tolerance for one another,” said Dallas, “until it suits their purpose to split the blanket.”

“That’s gospel,” Arlo said. “Let that bunch come within hollerin’ distance of gold, and none of their lives will be worth a plugged
peso
. Those Mex owl-hoots will be out to kill Bollinger and Davis, while Bollinger and Davis will be gunning for the Mexicans, as well as one another.”

“Thank God we’re away from them,” said Kelly. “Mother allowed Davis to slap us around and punish us, but he never tried to … take advantage of us. But with Mother gone, he’d have moved in on us. Him and Bollinger both.”

“Davis accused us of wanting to become camp whores,” Kelsey said. “Once he learns we’re alive and sharing your camp, he’ll destroy us.”

“Not if somebody destroys him first,” said Dallas. “In the West, a man that mistreats a woman had better keep him a set of buryin’ clothes handy.”

“Davis and his pards are gone,” Arlo said. “We’d better try to finish our climb before they ride back. They may be looking for a place near water to set up their camp.”

“I don’t see any holds for hands or feet up there,” said Kelly, “but one of us has to reach that ledge and secure a rope. I’m willing to try.”

“It’s my turn,” Arlo said, “and I’m goin’ at it the way I used to climb trees when I was a youngun.”

He sat down and worked off his boots. His heels and big toes had eaten their way through his socks.

“Careful you don’t rip your socks on the way up,” said Dallas dryly.

“Shut up,” Arlo said, “or I’ll let
you
do this, and we’ll see what kind of shape
your
socks are in.”

Standing on Dallas’s shoulders, Arlo explored the mountain’s face until he found protruding rock that his hands could grip. He hoisted himself upward, and incredibly, his bare feet sought and found support. Like an enormous spider, he slid to the edge, reaching up when he had a strong enough hold. Below, Dallas and the girls held their breath, releasing a threefold sigh when Arlo got one hand on the ledge he had to reach. He got a leg up, pulled himself over the edge, and lay there fighting for his wind. When he had his strength back, he sleeved the sweat out of his eyes and looked around. Lightning had undoubtedly struck the mountain at this point, for a substantial amount of earth and rock had been torn loose. The gash hadn’t been fully visible from below because it was hidden by the protruding lip over which he had climbed. It looked as though the Almighty might have driven a huge shovel into the mountainside from above, tearing into the wall at a downward angle. Quickly Arlo found a jutting finger of rock and secured the end of the rope to it. Then he turned to his anxious companions below and dropped the loose end of the rope to them.

“I think this is it,” Arlo said. “Come on up, and don’t forget to bring my boots.”

Kelsey came first, then Kelly, and finally Dallas. Arlo pulled on his boots, and they turned to the hole that had been torn into the side of the mountain. The aperture didn’t open straight out, but veered to the left, and there was barely room for them to move on hands and knees. Arlo went first, followed by Dallas, Kelsey, and Kelly. Strangely, as they progressed, the darkness became less intense. Suddenly Arlo paused, startled by the eerie, macabre item resting directly in their path. It was a human skeleton with the skull missing. Arlo attempted to shove the skeleton aside, but the ghastly thing was unable to survive the movement. It crumbled into an array of individual bones.

“Bones ahead,” warned Arlo. “Human bones.”

As poised and self-reliant as Kelly and Kelsey seemed, Arlo wasn’t willing to risk any shrieks of alarm. If the bloody Superstitions lived up to their reputation, these strange old mountains might prove the last resting place for many human bones. Including their own if something went wrong.

“It’s not as dark in here as it oughta be,” Dallas said. “Where’s the light comin’ in?”

“Higher up,” said Arlo. “This won’t be the only hole to the outside, I’m thinking. I suspect there may be several others.”

While entry hadn’t been easy, they soon discovered they’d made the right choice. When they finally reached a cavern where they could get to their feet, they discovered the source of the light. The next entry was thirty or more feet above the stone surface on which they stood. Suddenly, far below them, there was a rumble, like distant thunder. The entire mountain trembled, with earth and stone rattling down from above.

“The Thunder God!” Kelly cried.

“Volcano,” corrected Arlo. “It’s still all growl and no bite, but that may change someday. Hoss always believed these old volcanoes had life left in them.”

“I agree with him,” Dallas said. “It’s easy, blamin’ all these rockslides on lightning, and I don’t doubt that’s caused some of ’em. But a good shaking, like we just felt, could have the same effect. At some weak point, earth and stone could be torn loose by the vibration.”

“The western face of the mountain, where the death’s head shows up, is unscarred,” said Kelly. “Why have all the slides been on the eastern face?”

“This cavity within the mountain is nearer the eastern face,” Arlo said, “and being the weaker side, it’s taken most of the beating. I don’t think we should spend any more time here than we have to. I’m gambling that somewhere in here there’ll be a way out, the one Hoss depended on.”

“Once we leave this place with its little bit of overhead light,” said Kelsey, “it’s going to be awful dark.”

“I still have a few matches from our camp,” Dallas said, “but they won’t burn long enough to be of any help to us. Somewhere in here, maybe in the mouth of that tunnel, I’m bettin’ Hoss stashed some pine pitch splinters. Let’s look for them.”

There was no evidence of fire, not a stick of wood, and their search for some of the pine pitch torches proved fruitless.

“There’s just nothing here,” said Kelly in disappointment, “except that pile of rocks over there.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Arlo muttered in disgust, “we’re not using our heads. That pile of rocks is against the
west
wall of this hole, and that’s the side of the mountain that’s strongest. No rock or debris would have fallen there, and look—there’s no breaks in the wall.”

He hunkered down and began digging into the pile of stone. He quickly uncovered a dozen foot-long slivers of pine, which hid a small hole at the bottom of the wall.

“Lord, I hope it’s enough to get us out of here,” said Kelsey.

“Hoss wouldn’t have shorted us,” Arlo said. “There’ll be enough to see us back to daylight, unless we take a wrong turn somewhere. Let’s go.”

Arlo lit one of the pine splinters, and they moved into the darkness of a downward passage. Air sucked at the meager flame, and Arlo shielded it with his hat.

“There’s a draft,” Dallas said, “and that means that somewhere ahead there’s a way out of here.”

“Let’s just hope it won’t be thirty feet over our heads and the size of your hat,” said Arlo. “Or through the floor, a hundred feet straight down.”

“Oh, Arlo,” Kelsey said, “you’re
so
encouraging.”

They had covered no more than a hundred yards when Arlo stopped. A clammy moisture enveloped them like a fog. Sounding dim and far away, there was a roar, like a mighty wind moving ahead of a storm.

“Underground river,” said Arlo. “We’d better take it slow from here on.”

Careful as they were, they almost stumbled into the yawning abyss that had swallowed more than a dozen feet of the passage floor. In the flickering light of their torch, they were barely able to see the distant ragged edge of the hole.

“Dear God,” said Kelsey, “this accounts for some of those who came to the Superstitions and were never seen again.”

“I reckon it does,” Arlo said. “Once more, it justifies Hoss Logan cuttin’ Dallas and me in for a piece of the mine. We don’t know the mountains as well as he did, but we know enough to come in here and stay alive. I think Hoss knew that before we played out the string, you and Kelly would be with us. Now we have to figure some way to get around this death trap.”

“It doesn’t cover all the floor,” Dallas observed. “There’s a narrow ledge along each side. Maybe with our backs against the wall, we can inch our way across.”

Their torch had burned low, and Dallas lit a second one from the first. Arlo looped one end of the lariat around a boulder that looked solid and tied it securely.

“Now,” he told Dallas, “tie this other end under your arms. Kelly, you take the light from him. He’ll need both hands free to keep his balance.”

“Lord,” Kelly said nervously, “I wish there was some other way. I … I’m scared, but I’ll go with you if it’ll help.”

“No,” said Dallas, touched by her concern. “One slip and we’d both end up dangling from the end of this rope. If anything goes wrong—if that ledge crumbles—I’ll need all of you to get me out of that hole.”