Nux nodded, and obeyed without a word. It was often hard to tell, by the sound of their voices, just how far up the ledge the men had progressed; but fortune favored us, and only once did we lag behind enough for the first of the robber band to espy us. But that first person, by good luck, proved to be Bryonia, and the clever black at once pretended to stumble and fall, and so held the men that followed him in check until Nux and I had escaped around the crag.
Soon after this the robbers reached the cave, which they entered, thus enabling us to reach the top of the crag at our leisure.
Nux was nearly spent when at last he threw the laden trousers upon the flat top and tried to draw his tired body after them; but I gave him a hearty boost from behind, and then scrambled to the top unaided, nerved by the excitement of the moment.
For several minutes neither of us spoke. The black man lay panting for breath, with the perspiration streaming from every pore of his body, and I, filled with gratitude at our escape and the successful accomplishment of our plan, sat beside my faithful friend and fanned him with my straw hat.
The sun was sinking fast, by this time, and the shadows of the three tall pine trees that grew upon this isolated peak fell upon the spot where we rested, and cooled our sun-parched bodies.
Although at times a rough laugh or a shouted curse reached our ears from the cavern below, there was no indication that Daggett or his band had yet made the discovery that the place had been visited in their absence, and the treasure for which they had risked so much abstracted from its sandy grave.
When twilight fell I arose and with some difficulty rolled the trousers to a place nearer the center of the rock, where there was a small natural hollow; and then Nux and I sat beside it and ate again sparingly of the food we had brought.
It was while we were thus occupied that an incident occurred that filled us with sudden panic. For before our faces a man’s head appeared above the edge of rock, and two dark eyes glared fixedly into our own.
At the moment I almost screamed with fright, so unnerved had my recent adventures rendered me; but Nux laid his broad hand across my mouth and arrested the outcry.
“It’s Bry,” he whispered, and even as he spoke the newcomer drew himself over the edge and crept on all fours to our side. I had no trouble in recognizing the friendly features then.