“We must make our start at once,” said Jefferson Hope,speaking in a low but resolute voice,like one who realizes the greatness of the peril,but has steeled his heart to meet it.“The front and back entrances are watched,but with caution we may get away through the side window and across the fields.Once on the road we are only two miles from the Ravine where the horses are waiting. By daybreak we should be half-way through the mountains.”
“What if we are stopped,” asked Ferrier.
Hope slapped the revolver butt which protruded from the front of his tunic.“If they are too many for us we shall take two or three of them with us,” he said with a sinister smile.
The lights inside the house had all been extinguished,and from the darkened window Ferrier peered over the fields which had been his own, and which he was now about to abandon for ever. He had long nerved himself to the sacrifice, however, and the thought of the honour and happiness of his daughter outweighed any regret at his ruined fortunes. All looked so peaceful and happy, the rustling trees and the broad silent stretch of grain-land, that it was difficult to realize that the spirit of murder lurked through it all. Yet the white face and set expression of the young hunter showed that in his approach to the house he had seen enough to satisfy him upon that head.
Ferrier carried the bag of gold and notes,Jefferson Hope had the scanty provisions and water,while Lucy had a small bundle containing a few of her more valued possessions.Opening the window very slowly and carefully,they waited until a dark cloud had somewhat obscured the night,and then one by one passed through into the little garden.With bated breath and crouching figures they stumbled across it,and gained the shelter of the hedge,which they skirted until they came to the gap which opened into the cornfields.They had just reached this point when the young man seized his two companions and dragged them down into the shadow, where they lay silent and trembling.
It was as well that his prairie training had given Jefferson Hope the ears of a lynx. He and his friends had hardly crouched down before the melancholy hooting of a mountain owl was heard within a few yards of them, which was immediately answered by another hoot at a small distance. At the same moment a vague shadowy figure emerged from the gap for which they had been making, and uttered the plaintive signal cry again, on which a second man appeared out of the obscurity.
“To-morrow at midnight,” said the first who appeared to be in authority.“When the Whip-poor-Will calls three times.”
“It is well,” returned the other.“Shall I tell Brother Drebber?”
“Pass it on to him, and from him to the others. Nine to seven!”
“Seven to five!” repeated the other,and the two figures flitted away in different directions.Their concluding words had evidently been some form of sign and countersign.The instant that their footsteps had died away in the distance,Jefferson Hope sprang to his feet,and helping his companions through the gap,led the way across the fields at the top of his speed,supporting and half-carrying the girl when her strength appeared to fail her.
“Hurry on!hurry on!” he gasped from time to time.“We are through the line of sentinels.Everything depends on speed. Hurry on!”
Once on the high road they made rapid progress.Only once did they meet anyone,and then they managed to slip into a field,and so avoid recognition.Before reaching the town the hunter branched away into a rugged and narrow footpath which led to the mountains. Two dark jagged peaks loomed above them through the darkness, and the defile which led between them was the Eagle Cañon in which the horses were awaiting them. With unerring instinct Jefferson Hope picked his way among the great boulders and along the bed of a dried-up watercourse, until he came to the retired corner, screened with rocks, where the faithful animals had been picketed. The girl was placed upon the mule, and old Ferrier upon one of the horses, with his money-bag, while Jefferson Hope led the other along the precipitous and dangerous path.
It was a bewildering route for anyone who was not accustomed to face Nature in her wildest moods. On the one side a great crag towered up a thousand feet or more, black, stern, and menacing, with long basaltic columns upon its rugged surface like the ribs of some petrified monster. On the other hand a wild chaos of boulders and debris made all advance impossible. Between the two ran the irregular track, so narrow in places that they had to travel in Indian file, and so rough that only practised riders could have traversed it at all. Yet in spite of all dangers and difficulties, the hearts of the fugitives were light within them, for every step increased the distance between them and the terrible despotism from which they were flying.
They soon had a proof, however,that they were still within the jurisdiction of the Saints.They had reached the very wildest and most desolate portion of the pass when the girl gave a startled cry, and pointed upwards. On a rock which overlooked the track, showing out dark and plain against the sky, there stood a solitary sentinel. He saw them as soon as they perceived him, and his military challenge of “Who goes there?” rang through the silent ravine.
“Travellers for Nevada,” said Jefferson Hope,with his hand upon the rifle which hung by his saddle.
They could see the lonely watcher fingering his gun,and peering down at them as if dissatisfied at their reply.
“By whose permission?” he asked.
“The Holy Four,” answered Ferrier.His Mormon experiences had taught him that that was the highest authority to which he could refer.
“Nine from seven,” cried the sentinel.
“Seven from five,” returned Jefferson Hope promptly,remembering the countersign which he had heard in the garden.
“Pass, and the Lord go with you,” said the voice from above.Beyond his post the path broadened out,and the horses were able to break into a trot.Looking back, they could see the solitary watcher leaning upon his gun,and knew that they had passed the outlying post of the chosen people,and that freedom lay before them.
CHAPTER V. THE AVENGING ANGELS.
All night their course lay through intricate defiles and over irregular and rock-strewn paths. More than once they lost their way, but Hope’s intimate knowledge of the mountains enabled them to regain the track once more. When morning broke, a scene of marvellous though savage beauty lay before them. In every direction the great snow-capped peaks hemmed them in, peeping over each other’s shoulders to the far horizon. So steep were the rocky banks on either side of them, that the larch and the pine seemed to be suspended over their heads, and to need only a gust of wind to come hurtling down upon them. Nor was the fear entirely an illusion, for the barren valley was thickly strewn with trees and boulders which had fallen in a similar manner. Even as they passed, a great rock came thundering down with a hoarse rattle which woke the echoes in the silent gorges, and startled the weary horses into a gallop.
As the sun rose slowly above the eastern horizon,the caps of the great mountains lit up one after the other,like lamps at a festival,until they were all ruddy and glowing.The magnificent spectacle cheered the hearts of the three fugitives and gave them fresh energy. At a wild torrent which swept out of a ravine they called a halt and watered their horses, while they partook of a hasty breakfast. Lucy and her father would fain have rested longer, but Jefferson Hope was inexorable. “They will be upon our track by this time,” he said. “Everything depends upon our speed. Once safe in Carson we may rest for the remainder of our lives.”