it proved to lead nowhither; its head was a wall of rock around three hundred feet in height, closing the end of a traplike chasm.
A trap, indeed, now that the report of the rifle advised them that their retreat was cut off!
A hasty council of war armed Alan with Judith's revolver and posted him behind a boulder commanding the approaches to the chasm. The weapon, a powerful .45, had a range sufficient to numb the impetuosity of the assassins and keep them under cover and out of sight of the desperate essays the fugitives were making to compass an escape.
For in the shed behind an abandoned log-cabin—souvenir, no doubt, of some long-forgotten prospector—Barcus had unearthed a length of stout rope. He had hacked this into two equal lengths. One of these lengths he proceeded to make fast round his own waist, then round Rose's. The other he left to be similarly employed by Alan and Judith. For it was agreed that they must climb, and while the cliff offered no problem to daunt a skilled mountain-climber, it was considered best that the fugitives should be hitched up in pairs against any possibility of a slip. The manner of the pairing had been determined by the fact that Barcus boasted some experience in mountaineering, while Rose was plainly the most exhausted of the two women, the least able to help herself in an emergency.
