CHAPTER XLI.

A GIRL’S HEROISM.

When the first shock of fright and terror had passed away, Ellen West began to consider her situation with more calmness.

The feeling that she must escape was so strong that she searched the little hut carefully, trying to discover some method of breaking out.

It would not have resisted the efforts of a good burglar, but it was built too strongly for her to make any breach in the walls or door.

She studied the floor of hard-beaten earth, wondering if she could not tunnel under the walls. With this thought in view she inspected the little table. Finally, she tried to break the table up, hoping to get a substitute for a spade from one of the boards.

She succeeded in breaking off one of the table legs, but that was as far as she could go in demolishing the table.

The table leg made a good club, but a poor digging implement. In despair she began to try to claw a hole under the wall with her fingers; but made such poor progress that she desisted after a time, breathless and discouraged, although she still was resolved to get out, and to get out before the return of the human fiend who had captured her.

Making the round of the room again, and studying it by the light of the lamp burning on the floor--she had placed it there when she took it from the table--she observed that over the door was a projection of the upper door ledge. Back of that was a small space, where the stout logs fell away, making a sort of cranny, or cupboardlike hole, over the door and under the roof.

She wondered if, by reaching that, she could not with the club poke a hole in the roof, and so get out that way.

She drew the broken table up by the side of the door, and, mounting it, she reached up and took hold of the door ledge. To get up into that cranny would require the exertion of all her strength and climbing skill.

She made the attempt, holding in one hand the table leg; and, in doing so, overturned the table, and for a moment or so hung suspended there by her hands.

But she drew herself up pluckily, and by gaining a foothold in some inequalities of the wall she, with great exertion, climbed up to the ledge. Having gained the cranny, she dropped down, breathless and nearly exhausted.

Before she had sufficiently regained her strength to attack the roof with the table-leg club, she heard footsteps outside, sounding like the footsteps of Panther Pete.

If he came into the house, she felt that she was lost. He would at once see the broken and overturned table, and find her above the door, and would drag her down and take steps to prevent her escape.

The thought nerved her to desperation.

She heard him come up to the door, and heard him fumbling with the key in the lock.

In very desperation she crouched above the door, holding the club.

The door flew open, and he started to enter the room.

She steeled her nerves and summoned all her strength. Then, quick as a flash, and before he could do anything, she brought the table-leg club down on his head with all her might.

The blow was a heavy one, and, without a moan or a groan, Panther Pete fell forward into the room, lying in a heap just where he fell.

The girl almost collapsed with horror at the deed she had done; but she saw that now was her time to escape, before this deed was discovered by his followers, or he returned to consciousness, if she had not killed him.

She feared she had killed him, he lay so still.

The thought held her, trembling, for a full minute on the ledge. Then she climbed down, stumbling against him as she half fell to the floor.

He moaned and moved, and this so frightened her that she sprang through the doorway to the outside.

She still held the club; but she was too frightened to stop and close the door, or put out the light. All she could do was to run; and she ran as fast as she could, with trembling limbs, straight away from the horror of that hut.

She saw other huts not far off, and from the window of one a light gleamed. She thought she heard men talking, and the bark of a dog, yet she hardly knew what she saw or heard, the horror of the thing she had done so filled and terrified her.

To her mind, it was an awful thing to take a human life, even the life of such a man as Panther Pete. So she ran on blindly, almost heedlessly, yet somehow managed to avoid the other huts, and was not observed by either the men or the dogs.

Soon she found herself close up by a wall of rock that formed part of the rocky hill on that side.

As she could not climb over the hill, she ran on along its base.

This hill formed one side of the little valley containing the lair of Panther Pete, and as she followed on she was taken toward the narrow entrance, where, as she knew from his words, guards were stationed.

She thought of this as she stumbled on, and slowed her pace, trying to become wary, and listened for some sound which would tell her where the guards were located.

Every moment she expected to hear a clamor behind her, announcing the discovery of her flight from the hut and the condition of Panther Pete.

When she thought of what a pursuit by the dogs meant, she could hardly hurry on at all, so weak did that thought make her. But the discovery of Panther Pete was delayed, and she continued to advance along the base of the hill toward the entrance.

As she approached it, she recalled its shape, for through it she had been brought. It was like the neck of a bottle, the valley forming the bottle. High walls were on either side, and the bottle neck was the pass, guarded by sentries probably stationed in the trail, and by others watching on the sides of the walls.

The darkness aided her. She grew more and more cautious, and was able after a time to control her shaking nerves and her fear-wrought fancies, when a pursuit by the dogs and the outlaws was not made.

She saw before her the narrow opening, the sky above making the upper parts of the walls visible.

She crouched low, and almost crawled forward, her listening strained to the utmost tension.

She tried to subdue her hurried breathing, and realized that to do so she must go very slow, and so permit herself to regain breath. At times she seemed hardly to move at all, as she kept close by one of the dark walls, seeking the deepest shadows for security.

She saw no guard, yet was sure they were there.

Perhaps for the reason that the sentries did not expect any one to come from the valley, and therefore were directing all their attention to the front, where if danger came it would be in the form of pursuers, she passed the sentinels on the walls without being seen, and also came close up to the one who was stationed down in the pass.

Luckily she saw this man, for he was moving about, his gun on his arm.

She dropped to the ground as if dead when she discovered him, and lay there studying the situation, wondering how she was to get by without discovery.

She saw that he walked a beat like a sentinel, from one wall to the other, and that always, when he looked at all, he looked toward the outer entrance.

When she had discovered this, she waited until he turned to walk toward the opposite wall, and then crawled on with the utmost care. She meant to spring to her feet and make a wild dash to pass him if he saw her.

When he had reached the opposite wall, and before he turned, she was lying flat on her face, and could not be seen by him.

As she made a second advance it brought her so near to him that, when he returned, she was within two yards of him.

She was almost sure he could hear her breathing and the heavy beating of her heart; for both sounded to her very loud. But he turned back again, toward the other wall.

She crawled on, and was beyond him when he came back.

When she made her next advance and stopped, she was well beyond him.

Then came a terrifying thing.

The discovery of her escape was announced by low calls from the huts, and by the hurried tramp of feet. Men were rushing about in there, and she knew what it meant.

The guard heard the sound, and turned his attention to the valley.

“What’s broke loose?” she heard one of the sentries ask on the wall.

She crept on, snaillike, it seemed to her, hugging the ground. Then she heard the dogs being called, and their baying, as they began to search for her trail.

One of the guards on the wall voiced his disapproval of this move.

“I dunno what the boss is thinkin’ ’bout, makin’ sech a racket! That row kin be heerd a mile.”

The girl took advantage of the talk that followed to slip on a short distance. She discerned that the confused sounds of the men and the dogs were coming toward the pass, and regardless of the guards, who were still near, she rose to a more erect posture, and stole on along the wall, keeping well within the shadows. Soon she was running; and, as she got farther on, she ran the faster.

Then before her opened the more open country, which gave a better light, and she realized that she had got through the pass and was outside of the hidden valley.

It gave her hope. Only a terrible fear of those mouthing dogs clung to her, and this fear made her run on and on.

As soon as she was able, she shifted her course, and climbed the high ridge on that side. She stumbled and slipped, and more than once fell; but the courage of fear kept up her strength and sent her on.

When she gained the top of the ridge, the valley lay below her and the pass also, both dark as pockets. She could see nothing down there, but above her the stars shone brightly, and the light on the high ridge was good enough to enable her to see her way.

She was breathing hard, and trembling; but her determination to escape was in no wise abated.

Then she began the descent, knowing not what was before her, although behind her she knew were those dogs and outlaws, and perhaps the dead body of Panther Pete.

She shuddered at that, and at the recollections conjured up by his name, and the recollections of the time when she had believed him to be Buffalo Bill. And she thought of her father, and of her lover, Ben Denton. It should be said that she thought of Denton continuously. Fortunately for her peace of mind, she did not know that he had been shot down in the town by Panther Pete.

By the time she had descended from the high ridge, her clothing was torn, her hands scratched, and her shoes were becoming ragged; but still she kept on.

Then, to her alarm, she heard the dogs more distinctly. They seemed to have gained the top of the ridge, and their loud baying rang out.