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Page 28
"That you, Rod?"
"I came as soon as I could, Brocky." Norton, standing close to a big
outjutting boulder upon the far side of the cup, was bending over the
cattleman. "How are you making out, old man?"
"I've sure been having one hell of a nice little party," grunted Brocky
Lane faintly. "A man's so damn close to heaven on these mountain
tops. . . . Who's that?"
Virginia came forward quickly and went down on her knees at Lane's side.
"I'm Dr. Page," she said quietly. "Now if you'll tell me where you're
hit . . . and if Mr. Norton will get me some sort of a light. A fire
will have to do. . . ."
Another little grunt came from Brocky Lane's tortured lips, this time a
wordless expression of his unmeasured amazement.
"I didn't want Patten in on this," Norton explained. "Miss Page is a
doctor; just got into San Juan to-day. She's a cousin of Engle. And
she knows her business a whole lot better than Patten does, besides."
"Will you get the fire started immediately, Mr. Norton?" asked Virginia
somewhat sharply. "Mr. Lane has waited long enough as it is."
"I'll be damned!" said Brocky Lane weakly. And then, more weakly
still, in a voice which broke despite a manful effort to make it both
steady and careless, "I never cuss like that unless I'm delerious,
anyhow I never cuss when there's a lady. . . ."
"If you'll keep perfectly still," Virginia admonished him quickly,
"I'll do all the talking that is necessary. Where is the wound?"
"You don't have to have a light, do you?" Brocky insisted on being
informed. "You see, we can't have it. Where'm I hurt, you want to
know? Mostly right here in my side."
Virginia's hands found the rude bandage, damp and sticky.
"It's nonsense about not having a light," she said, turning toward
Norton.
"No," said the wounded man. "Nonsense nothing, is it Rod? How're we
going to have a fire when my matches are all gone and Rod's
matches. . . ."
"Mr. Norton," Virginia cut in crisply, "in spite of your friend's talk
and in spite of the bluff he is putting up he is pretty badly hurt.
You give me some sort of a light, I don't care if they see it down at
San Juan, or you shoulder the responsibility. Which is it?"
Norton turned and was gone in the darkness; to Virginia's eyes it
seemed that he was swallowed up by the cliff's themselves, as though
they had opened and accepted him and closed after him. She supposed
that he had gone to seek what scanty dry fuel one might find here. But
in a moment he was back carrying a lighted lantern.
"Look here, Rod. . . ." expostulated Brocky.
"Shut up, Brocky," answered Norton quietly. And, passing the lantern
to the girl. "If you'll carry that I'll carry Brocky. It's only a few
steps and I won't hurt him. We can make him more comfortable there;
and besides, we can't leave him out here in the sun to-morrow."
Somewhat mystified, Virginia took the lantern and her own surgical case
from the sheriff and watched him stoop and gather the tall form of his
friend into his arms. Then going the way he indicated, straight across
the tiny flat, she lighted the way. She heard the wounded man groan
once; then, his teeth set to guard his lips, Brocky was silent.
After a dozen steps she came to a steep-sided, narrow chasm giving
passageway not six feet wide which twisted this way and that before her.
"Look out," called Norton sharply. "Watch where you step now. Go
slow."
Virginia swinging her lantern up shoulder-high, looking ahead, grew
instantly stock-still, a shiver tingling along her spine. The narrow
defile through which she had passed had led out of the ring of peaks
and now abruptly debouched into nothingness. As she had turned with
the twisting passageway, expecting to see another wall of rock before
her, she saw instead the sky filled with stars. She stood almost at
the edge of a sheer precipice.
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