By Right of Conquest Part 24

Chapter 12: The Fugitives.

At nightfall Roger and his guide continued their journey, but now moved with great caution, keeping but a short distance from the road. Several times they saw fires burning, and had to take long detours to avoid them. Consequently the moon had set when they were still more than ten miles from the pa.s.s. Next morning they continued their journey, avoiding as much as possible crossing tracts of cultivated land; and when forced to do so, lying down and crawling between the rows of the maize or yuccas.

"They are sure to have scouts, high up on the mountainside," Bathalda said; "and they thence can look down upon all these fields; and although, as we cross them we are perfectly hidden from people standing on the same level, they can see us clearly enough from there."

"The distance is very great to make out a man."

"The air is very clear, my lord, in these mountains; and a figure can be seen a vast distance off. However, we can do nothing but what we are doing, and must take our chance."

"If we are attacked," Roger said, "we must make straight up the mountains. Steep as they may be, there are few places where active men cannot climb, and numbers would avail nothing if we once got up among those heights."

They were now mounting rapidly towards the pa.s.s. The country was still thickly wooded, but Bathalda said that in the narrowest part of the pa.s.s there were no trees, and it was here that the danger would be greatest.

As they neared the mouth of the gorge they moved with the greatest care, keeping their eyes in every direction. Presently Bathalda stopped, and held up his hand. Roger listened.

"They are coming behind us," Bathalda said. "They must have made us out in the distance, and have sent a party down the road to enter the wood behind us, and so prevent us from retreating."

"Then we had better bear away to the left, Bathalda. They are sure to be in force in the pa.s.s; and since they are behind us, also, our only hope is to try and scale the hill to the left."

Bathalda, without a word, moved forward in the direction indicated. The trees grew thinner in front, and through them they could see rocky ground rising steeply up. They issued out and began to climb, when the sound of a horn rose loudly in the air, and a moment afterwards a number of men were seen, running from the right along the edge of the trees.

"They will not shoot," Roger said. "They want to take me alive. Never mind their arrows, it is a question of legs, at present."

The rocks were extremely steep, and in many places they had to use their hands, as well as their feet, in making the ascent. The Aztecs, who had on first seeing them broken into loud cries, were now silent, and were toiling up the hillside in pursuit.

"Now," Roger said, after a very severe piece of climbing, "we must stop them."

He strung his bow and, placing an arrow to the string, shouted to the Aztecs that he should shoot unless they desisted from pursuit. They paid no attention, their officer shouting to them to press on. They were now less than a hundred yards behind.

Roger drew his bow to the fullest, and the arrow whizzed through the air. It struck the officer in the throat, and he fell p.r.o.ne. A cry of astonishment broke from the soldiers; however they did not hesitate a moment, but pushed on with loud shouts. Roger discharged six arrows in rapid succession, and five of them flew true to the mark.

The Aztecs paused, the distance to which the arrows were sent, and the accuracy of the shooting struck them with consternation; and it was evident to them that before they could climb the steep ascent, the greater portion of them would be shot down. Some took shelter behind rocks, and began to discharge their arrows. Others fell back in haste.

"Now we will be moving on again, Bathalda," Roger said. "We have taught them a lesson of caution."

They proceeded on their way, until they reached a shoulder which led straight up the mountain. Just as they stopped to draw breath there was a shout, and a party of twenty men, who had evidently climbed straight up from the pa.s.s to cut them off, rushed at them. Roger rapidly discharged five arrows into the midst of them, and then slipped the string from the notch, and seized the bamboo as a quarterstaff.

At the order of their leader, the Aztecs threw down their spears and flung themselves on him, with the intention of dragging him to the ground; but making his quarterstaff swing round his head, he brought the ends down upon them with tremendous force, striking them to the ground as if they had been ninepins. Bathalda seconded him well, by guarding him from attack behind.

Finding that, in spite of his efforts, he could not keep back his a.s.sailants, Roger threw down the quarterstaff and seized his ax. Four more of them fell, cleft through the head; and then four of them sprang upon him together, but Roger's practice in Devons.h.i.+re wrestling now stood him in good service; and although in a moment the four were hanging upon him, they could neither get him off his legs, nor hold his arms; and he beat three of them down with heavy blows on their faces, while Bathalda freed him from one on his back, by a thrust with his spear.

Roger again caught up the ax, which he had let fall to have the use of both of his fists, but the fight was over. The five Aztecs still remaining on their feet, appalled at the, to them, supernatural strength of their gigantic foe, fled to join their comrades, who had now nearly reached the crest on which the combat had taken place.

"Come on, Bathalda," Roger exclaimed. "We have not a moment to lose. They will shoot now, seeing that they have little chance of taking me alive."

And they accordingly started up the steep ascent, as rapidly as their breathless condition would allow. Their pursuers paused a moment on gaining the brow to get their wind, and then followed; but as soon as the ground again became too steep to allow of rapid movement, Roger turned and, betaking himself to his bow and arrows, speedily checked the pursuit; the Aztecs being unable to stand against these terrible weapons, whose force and accuracy seemed to them supernatural.

The sight, too, of the heap of their comrades lying on the slope had greatly cooled their courage. Their officers had all fallen under Roger's arrows, together with most of their bravest comrades; and although the rest still continued the pursuit, it was at a distance that showed that they had no intention, whatever, of closing again.

Paying no further heed to them, Roger and his companion now directed their whole attention to the work of climbing. At times they came on perpendicular precipices, and had to make long detours to surmount them. After some hours' labor they reached the snow. They were now near a shoulder between two lofty peaks, and after an hour's climbing stood on its crest. The Aztecs were now mere spots, far behind them.

"They will be an hour before they are here," Roger said. "We need fear no more trouble with them. It was a sharp fight while it lasted, Bathalda."

These were the first words they had spoken, beyond a momentary consultation, now and then, as to the best mode of surmounting difficulties.

"My lord is wonderful," the hunter said. "Never did I see such strength and skill. It was like a mountain tiger attacked by jackals."

"You did your share, too, Bathalda. Your spear rid me of several of them."

"I did what I could, my lord; but that was little enough. A few men like you would defeat an army."

"Well, Bathalda, now we will be moving on again. We will keep straight down this slope, until we are off the snow; for they can follow our footsteps. Beyond that we must press on until we get into the woods again, and there we can turn right or left, as we please, and throw them off the scent altogether. We shall then be safe until we leave the forest, and begin to descend into the hot country."

Another hour, and they had left the snow behind them; and after two more hours on the rocky hillside, they again entered a forest. As soon as they were well among the trees, they turned to the right again, and after traveling through the wood for two or three miles they halted, secure now against any search on the part of their pursuers.

Just before halting they had the good luck to come across a small bear, which Roger wounded with an arrow, and his companion dispatched with his spear. Bathalda speedily made a fire by rubbing two sticks together, and after skinning the bear, cut it up; and while Roger was superintending the roasting of some pieces over the fire, Bathalda searched in the wood, and speedily returned with some roots, which he placed in the ashes, and which turned out excellent eating with the bear's flesh.

As it was now far on in the afternoon, and as they had already performed a very fatiguing day's work, they resolved to wait where they were until the morning.

"What do you think would be our best course, now?" Roger asked, after they had eaten their meal, and were stretched close to the fire for warmth--for at this elevation the cold was great.

Bathalda did not reply, but sat pouring out volumes of smoke from the pipe he had just filled. At last Roger repeated the question.

"I am ready to go where my lord wills."

"Yes, Bathalda; but that is no answer to my question. You know the ways of your people, and I do not. We have had a sharp fight with them today. What is likely to come of it?"

Bathalda shook his head.

"The news will, long before this, have been sent by swift runners to every town and village on this slope of the mountains. The garrisons of Perote, Tlatlanquitepec, Xalapa, and Naulinco will all be in movement. Naulinco is but some eight or ten miles away down the pa.s.s; and not only the soldiers, but every man in the town will be ordered out. They will be posted as thick as blades of gra.s.s at the mouth of every valley leading down from the mountains.

"You have resisted the emperor's officers, and have killed numbers of his soldiers. They will know that the wrath of Montezuma will be terrible, if they fail to arrest you."

"Then you think that it will almost be impossible to make our way through them?"

Bathalda nodded his head.

"And in time, I suppose, they will search these woods?"

"Every foot of them, wide though they are, my lord."

"Then what is your advice, Bathalda?"

"It depends whether my lord's mind is altogether set upon joining the white men of the sea, at once."