“Percy,” he exclaimed, “run at once to the fort, bring down the blankets, and then put the packs together. Tom, take a turn up the valley and look for the horses. I will go down-stream. If you find them, fire your rifle. I will do the same. Hurry!”
Away we all went, in three different directions; but Jack and I had not gone far ere we heard the report of a rifle in the direction of the cañon. Back we hurried at once, to meet Percy coming down to the camp at a run. His face was pale, and he was so out of breath, more from agitation seemingly than from exertion, that he could not speak.
“What’s the matter?” cried Jack, sharply, feeling a vague alarm at the sight of Percy’s troubled countenance. “Anything wrong?”
“The horses are stolen!” he gasped.
Most boys who have played through a football season will remember the sensation of being knocked over backwards by one of his opponents taking him “in the wind” with the point of his shoulder. It was some such sensation that Percy’s announcement produced upon us. It did not knock us over, but it deprived us for the moment of the power of speech. Only for a moment, however.
“How do you know?” asked Jack, as soon as he had recovered from the first shock of this staggering news.
“The bars are down, and the dead trees are all pulled to one side,” replied Percy. “They must have done it yesterday when Tom and I were down the valley; and we didn’t notice it because of the darkness. What’s to be done, Jack?”
“Done?” cried our leader. “Clap some bread and meat into our pockets, and follow at once. I don’t suppose we can overtake them, but we must get out of this place as fast as we can; the snow is coming down harder than ever.”
Without more words we set off, and having toiled up the steep, snow-cumbered cañon and waded waist-deep through the tunnel, we carefully descended the water-slope and turned into the dry gorge. But no sooner had we turned the corner than we stopped short, with an exclamation of dismay; for a new misfortune, and one even more serious than the loss of our horses, had overtaken us. The great wedge-shaped rock had fallen, or had been upset, from above. The gorge was blocked. We could not get out!
