CHAPTER XX. PRISONERS!

“W-w-w-what under the canopy was that?” stammered Ralph as soon as he had recovered himself somewhat from his surprise.

“Mountain lion, cougar, some calls ’em. Lucky she didn’t claw you, boy,” responded Mountain Jim. “If she hadn’t dived off so quick I’d have shot her. But hullo, what’s that?”

From the back of the cave came a plaintive sound of mewing, as if there were a litter of kittens concealed there.

“Young ones, by the Blue Bells of Scotland!” exclaimed Mountain Jim. “Say, we’re mighty lucky that the old lioness didn’t attack us.”

“Why didn’t she?” asked Ralph.

“Dunno. There’s no accountin’ for the freaks of wild things. At one time they’d attack a[193] battleship, at another time they’ll run like cotton-tails. But I reckon this old lioness is off looking for her mate.”

“And they will come back and attack us?”

“That ain’t worryin’ me. We’ve got good rifles, and cougars are mostly dumb cowards anyhow.”

“I hope these are,” said Ralph fervently, “although I’d like a shot at one, all right.”

They went to the back of the cave to look at the kittens. There were four of them, pretty little fluffy, fawn-colored creatures, whose eyes had apparently only just opened. They blinked as the lightning flashed and the thunder roared outside the cave.

But the two did not bend over the litter of lion cubs for long. The stench of decaying meat around the den was terrible. The carcasses of at least a dozen deer lay there, besides the bones of smaller creatures.

“The old man goes hunting and brings all that[194] truck back,” said Mountain Jim as they sought the front of the cave where the air was fresher.

“I’d like to get one of those cubs and tame it,” said Ralph.

“What for? He’d get so savage when you raised him that you couldn’t do much with him ’cept shoot him. Puts me in mind of a fellow that used to live back of Bear Mountain long time ago, and trained a grizzly so that he could ride him. Like to hear the yarn?”

There was a twinkle in Mountain Jim’s eye as he spoke that warned Ralph to prepare for a wonderful tale of some sort; but anything would serve to pass the time, so as Jim drew out his old brier and lighted up, the boy nodded.

“Well, this here fellow, Abe Brown his name was, Abe J. Brown, caught this grizzly young and trained him so as he was most as good as a saddle horse. Abe and his bear was known all over the country thereabouts, and was accounted no common wonder.”

[195]

“I should think not. Do you mean to say that this fellow actually rode his bear just like a horse?”

“The very same identical way—Wow, what a flash!—Well, as I was sayin, Abe, he’d ride this bear all about, huntin’, fishin’, and all. Well, sir, one day Abe goes up on the mountain after a deer. The mountain was a famous place for grizzlies in them days, and what does Abe do but ride plumbbango right into the middle of a convention of sixteen of them that was discussing bear business.

“Well, Abe and his bear got mixed up right away, and Abe’s bear got killed in the scrap, being sort of soft from having been raised a pet.”

“But what happened to Abe?” asked Ralph.

“He wasn’t no ways what you might call communicative about what happened in that canyon on the mountain, Abe wasn’t,” went on Mountain Jim, fixing Ralph with his eye as if to challenge any doubt in his story, “but the next day[196] Abe come into Baxter’s cross-roads riding one of them wild bears, and with sixteen skins, includin’ that of his tame beast, tied on behind. He was some hunter, Abe was.”

“And some story teller, too,” laughed Ralph. “Do you believe that, Jim?”

“I ain’t sayin’ no and I ain’t sayin’ yes. I’m jes’ relatin’ the facts as they was told to me,” said Jim, with a twinkle in his eye.

Ralph had half a mind to tell Mountain Jim some of the staggering yarns he had heard along the southwestern border during his experiences in that country of tall men and tall stories; but at that instant something happened that quite put everything else out of his head.

Just above the entrance to the cave there was a huge rock which appeared, either from constant frost and thaw or from some other cause, to have slipped from its position among the other giant boulders, for it was now perilously poised just above the small entrance to the cavern. The[197] boy had noticed this rock when they slipped into the cave, but with the excitement of the cougar and the roar and crash of the storm, which was now at its height, he had quite forgotten it.

He now noticed that all around this rock the water from the hillside above was pouring in a perfect torrent. The rain was coming down so hard that it fairly hissed on the ground as it fell. Under these conditions the whole steep hillside was a roaring sheet of water, but just above the pile of rocks under which they crouched was a small gully which, of course, attracted more water than any part of the hillside in the vicinity.

“That water’s coming down in a pretty considerable waterspout,” remarked Mountain Jim, as he followed the direction of Ralph’s eyes and noticed the cascade of rain water that was pouring like a veil in front of the cave mouth.

“Yes, Jim, and I’ve noticed something else, too. See that rock up there?”

[198]

“Yes, what of it? The water’s coming against it and it is dividing the cataract so that it doesn’t splash back in here.”

“Not only that; but it’s doing something else; something that may make trouble for us.”

“How do you mean?”

“Why, I’m certain that I saw the rock move.”

“Great Blue Bells of Scotland, you’re dreamin’, boy. That rock is as solid as the etarnal hills.”

“I’m not so sure. I’m sure I saw it quiver a minute back, when that roll of thunder shook the ground.”

“Guess you’re mistaken, boy. Jumpin’ Jehosophat! Come back here! Quick!”

Ralph had stepped forward to gaze up at the big poised rock. As he did so, there had come a brilliant flash and an earth-shaking peal of thunder.

The ground quivered and shook, and as it did so the great stone gave a lurch forward. The next instant it crashed downward right upon the[199] spot where Ralph had been standing. But the boy had been snatched back by Jim’s muscular arm.

“Safe! Thank the Lord!” gasped out Mountain Jim fervently.

“But look at the rock, Jim! It has blocked the entrance to this place! We’re prisoners!”

It was only too true. The big stone was lodged in front of the small cave mouth, shutting out the light and almost excluding the air except for a small space at the top. To all intents and purposes they were as much captives as if a jailer had clanged a steel gate upon them and locked it securely.