CHAPTER XXV
AN HOUR OF SUSPENSE
As the girls neared the Second Peak their anxiety increased. They could see men hurrying about near the mine and they urged their horses to greater speed. However, one man, chancing to look in their direction, seemed to be much concerned because of their rapid approach and, seizing a red flag, he climbed out on the over-hanging rocks and waved frantically, while another, leaping to his side, motioned the girls to stay back.
They then drew rein and Margaret exclaimed: “What can it mean, do you suppose?”
“I think they must be going to blast,” Virginia replied, her face white as she shaded her eyes and gazed intently in the direction of the seemingly excited men.
“But, how can they blast if Malcolm, if anyone is buried in the mine?”
“I don’t understand,” Virg told her, “but I’m not going to worry more than I can help until I know that there is really something to worry about.”
“One of the men is mounting a horse now,” Margaret said. “Perhaps he is coming to explain to us what is happening.”
This surmise proved true, for they saw a cowboy approaching them on a racing mustang. “It’s Rusty Pete from the Slater Ranch. At least our suspense will soon be over, for he will tell us what it all means.”
It was very evident by the expression on the face of the cowboy that he dreaded telling the message he had been sent to convey. So pre-occupied and concerned was he that he jerked upon the reins of his mustang in a manner which his steed wrongly interpreted and the result was that it reared and plunged and arrived in the neighborhood of the girls in so nervous a state that it was with difficulty quieted long enough for the rider to speak.
“What have you to tell us, Pete?” Virginia eagerly inquired, when at last the restive horse was for a moment standing with all four feet upon the ground, although it continued to whistle and paw the sand with its right fore foot.
Rusty Pete was evidently at a loss for words to express his message. “Your brother, Miss Virginia,” he began, “that is, they’re going to blast,” he hurried on as though he couldn’t complete the sentence he had started, “and they sent me to say, don’t come nearer, till they signal.”
Virg, believing that the cowboy was about to ride away again, leaned over and put her hand on his arm. “Tell me, Pete,” she implored, “what has happened to my brother?”
Before the cowboy could reply there was a flash of fire on Second Peak, an upheaval of rock and smoke, and a thundering noise that reverberated through the mountains echoing back from the far peaks, and then a shower of sand and bits of stone fell all about them. The horses, stung by the sharp edges of this unexpected fusilade, leaped and plunged, and it was sometime before they could be quieted. Excited shouts from the mine then attracted their attention. They turned to see another rider approaching them with all haste.
“It’s Uncle Tex, and he has good news, I am sure,” Virg exclaimed, “for see, he is waving his sombrero and shouting joyfully.”
Virginia leaped to the ground and ran toward the approaching horseman, who also dismounted and took the sobbing girl in his arms.
“Uncle Tex! Uncle Tex!” she cried “Tell me, has anything happened to my brother?”
“Thar! Thar! Miss Virginia, dearie,” the old man said, consolingly, though tears were trembling on his wrinkled cheeks, “something did happen to Master Malcolm, but he’s all right now. We sure had to take an awful big chance blastin’ that way, but we didn’t durst wait to ask what you’d have us do, we just had to do it, and Heaven be praised ’twas the right thing. Master Malcolm’s safe and they’ll be fetchin’ him along in a minute.
“You see, Miss Virginia, dearie, ’twas this a-way,” the old man continued. “Master Malcolm was bent on goin’ into a new tunnel along side of a vein that had just been opened. Pat Mahoy warned him as ’twasn’t safe yet, bein’ as the struts weren’t all up, but Master Malcolm said he was in a hurry to get back to V. M., to be thar when you gurls returned, and so he took the chance. Wall, Pat Mahoy says ’twas just as he prognosticated. Master Malcolm hadn’t no more’n disappeared into the new tunnel when there was a rumblin’ noise as Pat knew meant trouble. He ran shouting, but though he saw Master Malcolm turn back ’twas too late. The rocks and dirt up above crushed down, shuttin’ him out, but more rocks kept slidin’ down and ’twasn’t safe no how. Then ’twas they took the chance to blast the big rock from the openin’. When ’twas all over, they found Master Malcolm a little way in lying white as a ghost and most smothered, seemed like, but he came to, quick enough, when he was fetched out. Howsomever it will be a long time before he gets his strength back, I’m a-thinkin’. He’s all wore out anyway. I’ve been noticin’ it for months past, but he wouldn’t stop a peggin’, but now I guess as he’ll have to take a rest.”
Virginia saw a slow moving procession leaving the mine. She again mounted her pony and rode in that direction, closely followed by the others. A wagon that was used for hauling timber had been quickly changed by the miners into an ambulance, bedding having been piled on the cross boards, and, as it neared, the girls saw Malcolm lying listless as though he were too weary to move. However, when Virginia rode up alongside, her brother smiled wanly.
“I’m all right, Sis,” he said. “I tried to get buried too soon, I guess.” Then with a sigh as though the exertion of speaking had been too much for him, he closed his eyes, nor did he open them again during the long, slow ride over the desert.
It was with great difficulty that the crossing of the Dry Creek was made, but, in the late afternoon the anxious Mrs. Mahoy saw the procession slowly climbing up the sloping trail back of the ranch house. She hurried out to meet them.
“Was me Pat all right?” was her first query, and when she had received a reply in the affirmative, the little woman added: “It’s bakin’ I’ve been all the arternoon, Miss Virginia, for I was thinkin’ as thar’d be many to feed.”
“Thank you for you thoughtfulness,” the young mistress of V. M. said, with sincere appreciation.
Margaret assisted Mrs. Mahoy to spread the many good things on the long kitchen table that the miners who had accompanied them might have a hearty supper before their return to Second Peak.
Uncle Tex and Virginia meanwhile helped Malcolm into his own bed, and for the first time in many years the lad turned toward his sister and said: “Virgie, I’m so tired, tired clear through.”
“I know you are brother, dear,” Virginia said, as she knelt by his side and held his listless hand to her cheek. “I haven’t mothered you as much as I should have done, but from now on you are going to just rest. I don’t know yet what we’re going to do, but it’s going to be something different and wonderful.”