The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 26, 1905, Page 4

reply, d burned of the tail Chinn, n which up there would to strike tisfactl face s It ng and drov the feed corral, as hot within him t the boss “fire’ d jump y mat- man these r might not be slide out with > boot, then boss W ter ork on the to him the pitchs “who-00" came narrow trail > above the pickets in front of anger slid tossed a eoft the ps unnoticed ground. 1 the shoulders to the 1t wag Bessie, old Beasl Billy had forgotten her while he cursed his luck and Charley and old Beasly and the mules all in 2 bunch. The kitten has fallen into the well and Johnny and 1 can't get her out,” she ied to him Billy strode across o the ence, leap- ed over and stood beside the girl. tily winsome she looked as she there in the late afternoon light. you so late to-day, asked he followed her well nswered slowly, “I played 5 ly up at him for an net but nothipg, then their heads bent close together over the high curbing ‘When Billy let himself down into the ten from his poc g in the curbing mc He was rather glad puss up bucketful after er into which the the pulley drawin bucketful of the ad taken her Bessie chatted cugh to water 1h~ geranium beds. ('L..: '~|md>n'\ Bessie aske ‘What is it, Biliy “What's what?"” he asked in reply, h you,” sh y at this tall p n he answered th bucket on the cu ’\‘: oked at him evenly for a mo- then with her he 1d walked towar he called anything only ‘e to-day.” hed his reddening cheeks for Don’t do it, Billy.” “Do what,” he asked , quit the job a thinking of doing.” he asked she cried softly. been ot ?"” you've . why exclaimed, *“and Ilet get ahead of you? I nfully. low soft tones but the slam tartled them caught her hand. of the little garden & and ( le t on the back bis head in his peckets ard the s still cn the corner of his lounged toward them between the gerarnium beds Billy bit his lip and swore roundiy under his hreath. He turned and str away. He would not walit lr; wi the ancing of the scc Miss E did it with such ¢ that the most imp jal o t told which of th stood first. Billy's train with Billy in the of the hind mule pulled out for Willow Springs the next morning before the eun capped the peaks that towered abyve the little hamlet, and he jingled in and out regularly twice a week for months, then one trip the boy who rode the lead mule was taken down with the measles and Billy wgs left without a leader till Johnny jumped at the chance and begged so hard for “just this one trip” that Beasly, who de- nied the boy nothing, let him go. The next trip and the next found the boy astride Old Gray’s back jogging down the trail till Bessie was near driven distracted with fear and worry from the time the little fellow’s old straw hat sank below the banks down the trail till it rose above them on his return. In the meantime Charley lost a mule and then a pack till he had not &o much to brag over Billy, yet not a whit of the swagger dropped from his gait. As for Billy, he never rode a trip that he did not give a sigh of relief when his train was safely landed. So the rivalry increased and each smile of Bessie's and each successful trip of Billy's added fuel to the flame of the other's passion till there was like to be a conflagratign along the Trinity. And so Bjlly's year drew to & close. One more down trip, one more up trip completed his months of grace. As it happened some of the young fellows from the scattered ranches planned a dance for that particular Friday night. Billy didn’t hear of the party till after he had-eaten his supper Tuesday night and when he went over to the Beasley cottage Bessie had promised her company to Charley for the dance, Billy’s defeat this time was like gall. ummate skill L7 COMING, "BlZlYy The bitterness of it clung round him all the long way dswn to Korbel, where he was to load up with goods from Eureka for the return trip. But for all that Billy could not resist a ring that caught his eye in at the watchmaker's where he went to get his watch that evening. He was quite car- ried av with two hands clasping two hearts and bought it then and there, calling himeelf a fool all the time he was doing it and doubting that she would let him give it to her. The second morning out from Kor- bel Billy looked to the loading of the packs himself. He tried each rope and D to test the strength of its fasten- “ ing Each nack must be bLalanced to the ‘r n of an ounce. With Jthnny in the lead on Old Gray they were off up the river be- ti Aci®sg the ford the trail turned sharply to the right up stream over a level strip three or four rods wide. For @« mile or more the path kept its mar- gin, then all at once the crowding mountain wall pushed it over to the very river's brink. Just here Billy halted the train and went from pack to pack retying a rope, recasting a diamond hitch, loos- ning and regetting a pack, ghaking an. ther to find out if it were firm, till he had made each secure for the perilous trail beyond. Zaslly round to the left swung the trail. It bore round a dip in the can- wall, cut again round a sharper 1t where the basalt wall fell pre- tately almost from the, mules’ feet cighty, a hundred feet to the ing, turbid waters of the Trinity below. Johnny slid from Old Gray's shoul- ders ta the trail and ran on into tha deep bend of Devil's Elbow, where a cluster of pepperwoods and holly found root in the scanty sbil in the scams of the rocks. Billy watched Uld Gray away at the lead jinglé-jangling slowly round into the Elbow, passing in behind the shrubs and’ jangle-jingling leisurely cut again on the other side coming on toward him not two rods off across the bend. The train followed «won at a snail's pace behind her. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, then Johnny car- rying a partly skinned rattiesnake came in sight. Round out of Devil's Elbow Billy jogged behind the train, this last out- ward curve furned round to a straight stretch, with smoother walls below, more threatening masses above than any they had yet passed. Away on bevond there it ran safely out into o grove of pines. Billy felt an uneasy thrill every time the train came to this part of the trail, with its ledge so. narrow there was just room for the mules’ feet, so narrow he must take infinite care lest some bulky pack hang out and brush the canyon wall Across the river, tier on tier, rank on rank, rose the pines. An criole somewhere in a bend llted and trilled in an ecstacy of song. Below, the river, narrow and deep and yellow— from the washings of the mines— thundered over {ts bowldery bed. Billy reached out and loosened a bit of rock and flung it into the depths below. A long way down it was. Then he watched a buzzard sparing round and back and round again in the blue, cloudiess sky. Had somebody's mule gone down the bank, he wondered, that this creature was sailing about in search of? His eyes roamed. back to the mujes in front, toiling on, each with muzzle close to the heels of the next, only a step between, pacing steadily on to the ting, ting-a-ling of the bell..- A long string they made of dun and gray and brown, their heads low with only now and then a pair of ears flapping ax~ cf(/,sr 3 Mzszz SEHOUTED CONFIOENTLY N above their packs. He watched the creases roll up and disappear on old Mike's hips. The old rascal kept fat, if he did carry the heaviest load of the lot, Old Gray was past the middle of the danger ground and Billy was beginning to breathe freer and to tell himself that his last load was safe when with a sudden jangle the bell ceased and the whole trafn 'halted. Billy glanced ahead in wonder along a line of humpy bumpy packs, along a line of nineteen or twenty patient drcoping mules to where Old Gray, al- most to the safety limit on the pines, with three or four mules behind her, stood with heads on high and ears flung far forward snorting with fright. Billy could see something black; he could rot make out what it was for the mules’ heads partly hid the object in front of them. Old Gray with the other three or four turned on the instant and leaped and plunged back on the animals behind them and on each other. + A rearing, a pounding of fore feet on boxes and packs and shoulders, brays of intense fear, through it "all the clang-lang of the bell. The sudden fali- ing of four bodies, Old Gray in the midst, the whirling, the tumbling, packs up, heels up, the sudden final bang of the bell, » gickening splash below, all stunned Billy. He sat and chewed the end of a holly branch and thought how bitter the bark was. The open space made by the falling mules discloged to Billy and to several more of the mules a black bear stand- ing on the trail. Two more mules went down. The clinging prolonging agony of slipping, slipping, clinging with their fore feet to the trail tore Billy with pify. He waked to gense ghe fact that, should the bear come o, even If he remaiped in his tracks, all the mules would go down the precipice. He whooped and shouited and popped his quirt and swung his hat to frighten the bear.” He seized his horn and blew a Dblast, the assembly, the reveille, boots and saddles. He coaxed and ca- Joled the mules. “Basy, now; easy, old girl, no fear. He's ag much afald of us as we are ut him.” The next two or three mules were backing and turning Wwith noses out and cars back. They trampled and surged. on the quivering animals be- hind them. A brown mass swung out- ward, ‘paused an instant, down, down -it went like a shot. It was followed by the next two or three that caught sight of the bear. Billy called and whistled agd blew FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. his horn in franiic horror. The crowding line settled back like the Jjolting together of a train of cars. The hindmost mules could not see the bear, but they might soon be shoved oft by the ones that could see him. Suddenly Bfily thought of Jchnny. *“My God! where is the boy?” He shcuted, *“Johnny, Johnny, you there?” are “Here, what are you stopping for? ~ Qld RBetsy, you are crowding me,” came in Johnny's high voice. For an instant Billy sat numb with fear. If those in front kept plunging out into space, those behind would see the bear and whirl to certain death be- low. Johnny was there between them. Nothing could save him. If he were not thrown off he would be trampled to death. The cold sweat broke out on Billy’s face. - The trail would be a blank without Johnny Once he glanced down, think- ing the boy had surely gone; he could see his red calico waist dashing down the descent. A strong sense of shame swent over him as he thought of telling the boy's folks at home. ’ Then the instant’s torpor left him. He knew what to do—the only thing left to do. He spring up in the saddle and ‘crawled carefully over to the back of the mule in front. The beast already carried its full burden in its pack. He must move with care, weight cause it to sway omtward, or, lest the extra worse still, to step back d fall oft the narrow footing. Straight over the center of its back he crept; on to its shoulders; over to the hips of the one in front. This one moved slightly, and Billy braced himself for a struggle. The trail looked narrower than ever as he glanced down at it. On to the next he cautiously ecrept, holding himself ever ready to make the attempt to swing in-to the empty trail if the mule went down. The shov- ing and straining increased, and John- ny's voice called in quernlous, appeal- ing tones: “Billy, Billy, old Betsy is squeezing me to death. Make her get up.” “Yes, yes, Johnny: hold on just a minute. I'm coming,” Billy shouted confidently. On over the next and the next he made his way. When he reached down from Tony’s back and took hold of Johnny's arm and tried tc drag him from between the mules he couldn’t move the boy. “You hurt my Johnny. 5 “I must if T get you out.” Billy ex- claimed, desperately. “‘Get up, there, Betsy. Go on: move an inch,” he screamed, as he struck her flercely with his quirt. The blow forced her forward and crowded the next but one off the trail. The sudden ceasing of the strain arm,” whined almost threw Billy off Tony's back, but he seized. the mule’s neck with one arm and dragged Johnny up with the other. “Would it be safe to stay with Tony?” Billy thought for a moment. The boy was limp and fainting. Billy glanced forward. The horrible melee continued ever nearer amd nearer. He took Johnny under one arm and crawled over the pack, reached " out and’ threw 'his arm over the- mnext mule's neck, drew his burdén on this beast’s shoulders, back over his pack, on to his hips. A jar from the back- ward struggling mules tippéd “hm toward the gulf below. He clung with his heels to the mule’s flanks. He clutched at the roach of ‘the next animal and saved himself. Two more he must clamber over before he and Johnny were in safety at the énd of the line. 3 Over shoulders and packs and hips in feverish haste yet eyer slower and slower he made his way. His own mule backed a step and ®illy stumbled as he slipped to the trail safe at last. He carried Johi#ty back into the elbow and laid him down in . the shade. ‘When Billy ran back to the mules but six were left on the trail and the bear was nowhere in sight. . Billy was stunned with his loss.. He stood and stared at the blank trail and down at the swirling flood ‘below him: It had swallowed up eighteen of his twenty-four mules. . How could he tell them up at Beas- ley’s? His fate was sealed now. - His shimmery castles were shattered by one littie tap from Luck’'s gnavled, scraggy stick. Besides his anguish for the loss of the gifl~which he now feit was a cer- tainty—stood his pity for his. bess. This last would almost ruin ' the ald man. He stood and looked blankly down at,the waters that covered'a lit~ i tle fartune. Then numb and heartsick he went back and sat down beside the I’cv uf the lad revivad. Etolidly on behbind the little ml-t of the train they trudged, rot yet trust- ing' themselves to Jack's back tifl they came to the pines, then Billy~ Iwk ‘ Johnny up behind him. e e iy (Concluded on Following Paga)