“That there powder-burnin’s a good sign,” he commented calmly. “Hit shows they ain’t got him yet, and ain’t rushin’ him. Keep me steered right. You know the lay o’ the land, and I don’t.”
“To your left again, now,” Philip directed. “There’s a little side gully along here somewhere ... if we can find it in the dark——”
As capably as if the darkness were interposing no obstacle, Garth found the head of the dry arroyo and the descent into the gulch of the mine was begun.
“Right careful, now,” he cautioned; “no slippin’ ’r slidin’ to make a fuss! Got to work Injun medicine on that crowd.”
Silently, the snow serving to deaden their footfalls, they worked their way to the gulch bottom and along its windings until Philip whispered: “Around the next turn ahead ... if there’s light enough, you’ll see our dump and the cabin.”
“Kee-rect,” Garth mumbled. “Stick to the shadders and keep that old hoss-pistol handy. Yuh ain’t no ways back’ard about aimin’ it straight, are yuh?”
“No,” said Philip; but he was promising for the intention rather than for the ability. He was trembling like a leaf in the wind. It was one thing to go into battle on the crest of a wave of berserker rage, and quite another to face the hazards deliberately and in cold blood.
With caution redoubled they turned the last of the jutting promontories obstructing a view of the lower reaches of the gulch. The young moon had long since dropped behind the western ranges, but the reflection of the starlight upon the white mantling of snow made the dump of broken rock and ore marking the tunnel site, and beyond it the larger bulking of the cabin, dimly discernible. Garth thrust a hand backward to signal a halt, and as he did so, a jet of flame shot from a thick graving of young firs on the right-hand slope of the gulch opposite the cabin, and, preceding the jarring report by a fraction of a second, they heard the smack of the bullet as it struck its target.
“Reckon I called the turn,” Garth whispered. “Yer pardner’s holdin’ the cabin ag’in ’em. Ain’t no back door to that shack, is there?”
“No.”