“All right.”
Sleepy slipped off his cartridge belt, containing rifle cartridges, and handed it to Musical, who also took charge of Sleepy’s rifle. He intended to travel as light as possible.
It did not take Sleepy long to find that it was impossible to use his horse, unless he was equipped to cut a trail through the brush, so he left the animal with the others and went on. By a dint of maneuvering he was able to work his way across the hills, in and out of narrow cañons, where the mesquite threatened to make rags of all of his clothes.
It took him at least an hour to gain the foot of the tall bluff, and another hour to reach the top. He was thoroughly tired out and bleeding from innumerable scratches. The ranch-house was not visible, nor could he determine just which pinnacle the gang were inhabiting, so he waved his hat wildly several times, hoping that they would catch his signal.
Then he began the descent. He was about to remove his boots, thinking that it might lessen the sound of his approach, but a big rattler buzzed at him from a rubble of rocks, and he voted to keep his boots where they belonged.
Darkness follows the sunset quickly in the border country; there is no twilight worthy of the name, and the sun had set. Sleepy knew that he was getting well down the bluff, and that it behooved him to go softly. A dislodged stone would probably roll all the way to the ranch-house, so Sleepy peered closely before placing his heels.
It was very brushy; dry brush, which crackled at the touch. And the light was failing very fast. Already the darkness had blotted out the pinnacle beyond.
Sleepy felt that he was near the edge of the bluff. He could smell the odors of cooking and of wood smoke. He eased his foot through a tangle of brush, tested the ground, and swung his body forward.
As he brought his two feet together, something seemed to jerk the ground from under his feet and he shot downward into a hole. He seemed to be falling down an incline, fairly going end over end, the bottom of the fall ending in a blaze of glory, in which Sleepy lost all interest in things.