Perplexities--Our hunters plan theirescape--Unexpected interruption--The tablesturned--Crusoe mounts guard--The escape. Dick Varley sat before the fire ruminating. Wedo not mean to assert that Dick had been previouslyeating grass. By no means. For several dayspast he had been mentally subsisting on the remarkablethings that he heard and saw in the Pawnee village,and wondering how he was to get away without beingscalped. He was now chewing the cud of this intellectualfare. We therefore repeat emphatically--in case anyreader should have presumed to contradict us--thatDick Varley sat before the fire ruminating!
Joe Blunt likewise sat by the fire along with him,ruminating too, and smoking besides. Henri also satthere smoking, and looking a little the worse of hislate supper.
"I don't like the look o' things," said Joe, blowinga whiff of smoke slowly from his lips, and watching itas it ascended into the still air. "That blackguardMahtawa is determined not to let us off till he gits allour goods; an' if he gits them, he may as well take ourscalps too, for we would come poor speed in the prairieswithout guns, horses, or goods."Dick looked at his friend with an expression of concern.
"What's to be done?" said he.
"Ve must escape," answered Henri; but his tone wasnot a hopeful one, for he knew the danger of theirposition better than Dick.
"Ay, we must escape--at least we must try," saidJoe. "But I'll make one more effort to smooth overSan-it-sa-rish, an' git him to snub that villain Mahtawa."Just as he spoke the villain in question entered thetent with a bold, haughty air, and sat down before thefire in sullen silence. For some minutes no one spoke,and Henri, who happened at the time to be examiningthe locks of Dick's rifle, continued to inspect them withan appearance of careless indifference that he was farfrom feeling.
Now, this rifle of Dick's had become a source ofunceasing wonder to the Indians--wonder which wasgreatly increased by the fact that no one could dischargeit but himself. Dick had, during his short stay at thePawnee village, amused himself and the savages by exhibitinghis marvellous powers with the "silver rifle."Since it had been won by him at the memorable matchin the Mustang Valley, it had scarce ever been out ofhis hand, so that he had become decidedly the best shotin the settlement, could "bark" squirrels (that is, hitthe bark of the branch on which a squirrel happenedto be standing, and so kill it by the concussion alone),and could "drive the nail" every shot. The silver rifle,as we have said, became "great medicine" to the Red-menwhen they saw it kill at a distance which the fewwretched guns they had obtained from the fur-traderscould not even send a spent ball to. The double shot,too, filled them with wonder and admiration; but thatwhich they regarded with an almost supernatural feelingof curiosity was the percussion cap, which, in Dick'shands, always exploded, but in theirs was utterly useless!
This result was simply owing to the fact that Dick,after firing, handed the rifle to the Indians withoutrenewing the cap; so that when they loaded and attemptedto fire, of course it merely snapped. When hewished again to fire, he adroitly exchanged the old capfor a new one. He was immensely tickled by thesolemn looks of the Indians at this most incomprehensibleof all "medicines," and kept them for some daysin ignorance of the true cause, intending to reveal itbefore he left. But circumstances now arose whichbanished all trifling thoughts from his mind.
Mahtawa raised his head suddenly, and said, pointingto the silver rifle, "Mahtawa wishes to have the two-shottedmedicine gun. He will give his best horse in exchange.""Mahtawa is liberal," answered Joe; "but the pale-facedyouth cannot part with it. He has far to travel,and must shoot buffaloes by the way.""The pale-faced youth shall have a bow and arrowsto shoot the buffalo," rejoined the Indian.
"He cannot use the bow and arrow," answered Joe.
"He has not been trained like the Red-man."Mahtawa was silent for a few seconds, and his darkbrows frowned more heavily than ever over his eyes.
"The Pale-faces are too bold," he exclaimed, workinghimself into a passion. "They are in the power ofMahtawa. If they will not give the gun he will takeit."He sprang suddenly to his feet as he spoke, andsnatched the rifle from Henri's hand.
Henri being ignorant of the language had not beenable to understand the foregoing conversation, althoughhe saw well enough that it was not an agreeable one;but no sooner did he find himself thus rudely and unexpectedlydeprived of the rifle than he jumped up,wrenched it in a twinkling from the Indian's grasp, andhurled him violently out of the tent.
In a moment Mahtawa drew his knife, uttered asavage yell, and sprang on the reckless hunter, who,however, caught his wrist, and held it as if in a vice.
The yell brought a dozen warriors instantly to the spot,and before Dick had time to recover from his astonishment,Henri was surrounded and pinioned despite hisherculean struggles.
Before Dick could move, Joe Blunt grasped his arm,and whispered quickly, "Don't rise. You can't helphim. They daren't kill him till San-it-sa-rish agrees."Though much surprised, Dick obeyed, but it requiredall his efforts, both of voice and hand, to control Crusoe,whose mind was much too honest and straightforwardto understand such subtle pieces of diplomacy, and whostrove to rush to the rescue of his ill-used friend.
When the tumult had partly subsided, Joe Blunt roseand said,--"Have the Pawnee braves turned traitors that theydraw the knife against those who have smoked with them the pipe ofpeaceand eaten their maize? ThePale-faces are three; the Pawnees are thousands. Ifevil has been done, let it be laid before the chief.
Mahtawa wishes to have the medicine gun. Althoughwe said, No, we could not part with it, he tried to takeit by force. Are we to go back to the great chief ofthe Pale-faces and say that the Pawnees are thieves?
Are the Pale-faces henceforth to tell their children whenthey steal, 'That is bad; that is like the Pawnee?'
No; this must not be. The rifle shall be restored, andwe will forget this disagreement. Is it not so?"There was an evident disposition on the part ofmany of the Indians, with whom Mahtawa was no favourite,to applaud this speech; but the wily chief sprangforward, and, with flashing eyes, sought to turn thetables.
"The Pale-face speaks with soft words, but his heartis false. Is he not going to make peace with the enemiesof the Pawnee? Is he not going to take goods tothem, and make them gifts and promises? The Pale-facesare spies. They come to see the weakness of thePawnee camp; but they have found that it is strong.
Shall we suffer the false hearts to escape? Shall theylive? No; we will hang their scalps in our wigwams,for they have struck a chief, and we will keep all theirgoods for our squaws--wah!"This allusion to keeping all the goods had more effecton the minds of the vacillating savages than the chief'seloquence. But a new turn was given to their thoughtsby Joe Blunt remarking in a quiet, almost contemptuoustone,--"Mahtawa is not the great chief.""True, true," they cried, and immediately hurried tothe tent of San-it-sa-rish.
Once again this chief stood between the hunters andthe savages, who wanted but a signal to fall on them.
There was a long palaver, which ended in Henri beingset at liberty and the rifle being restored.
That evening, as the three friends sat beside theirfire eating their supper of boiled maize and buffalo meat,they laughed and talked as carelessly as ever; but thegaiety was assumed, for they were at the time planningtheir escape from a tribe which, they foresaw, wouldnot long refrain from carrying out their wishes, androbbing, perhaps murdering them.
"Ye see," said Joe with a perplexed air, while hedrew a piece of live charcoal from the fire with hisfingers and lighted his pipe--"ye see, there's more difficultiesin the way o' gettin' off than ye think--""Oh, nivare mind de difficulties," interrupted Henri,whose wrath at the treatment he had received had notyet cooled down. "Ve must jump on de best horsesve can git hold, shake our fists at de red reptiles, andgo away fast as ve can. De best hoss must vin derace."Joe shook his head. "A hundred arrows would bein our backs before we got twenty yards from thecamp. Besides, we can't tell which are the best horses.
Our own are the best in my 'pinion, but how are we togit' em?""I know who has charge o' them," said Dick. "Isaw them grazing near the tent o' that poor squawwhose baby was saved by Crusoe. Either her husbandlooks after them or some neighbours.""That's well," said Joe. "That's one o' my difficultiesgone.""What are the others?""Well, d'ye see, they're troublesome. We can't gitthe horses out o' camp without bein' seen, for the redrascals would see what we were at in a jiffy. Then, ifwe do git 'em out, we can't go off without our bales,an' we needn't think to take 'em from under the noseo' the chief and his squaws without bein' axed questions.
To go off without them would niver do at all.""Joe," said Dick earnestly, "I've hit on a plan.""Have ye, Dick--what is't?""Come and I'll let ye see," answered Dick, risinghastily and quitting the tent, followed by his comradesand his faithful dog.
It may be as well to remark here, that no restraintwhatever had yet been put on the movements of ourhunters as long as they kept to their legs, for it waswell known that any attempt by men on foot to escapefrom mounted Indians on the plains would be hopeless.
Moreover, the savages thought that as long as there wasa prospect of their being allowed to depart peaceablywith their goods, they would not be so mad as to flyfrom the camp, and, by so doing, risk their lives anddeclare war with their entertainers. They had thereforebeen permitted to wander unchecked, as yet, farbeyond the outskirts of the camp, and amuse themselvesin paddling about the lake in the small Indian canoesand shooting wild-fowl.
Dick now led the way through the labyrinths oftents in the direction of the lake, and they talked andlaughed loudly, and whistled to Crusoe as they went,in order to prevent their purpose being suspected. Forthe purpose of further disarming suspicion, they wentwithout their rifles. Dick explained his plan by theway, and it was at once warmly approved of by hiscomrades.
On reaching the lake they launched a small canoe,into which Crusoe was ordered to jump; then, embarking,they paddled swiftly to the opposite shore, singinga canoe song as they dipped their paddles in the moonlitwaters of the lake. Arrived at the other side, theyhauled the canoe up and hurried through the thin beltof wood and willows that intervened between the lakeand the prairie. Here they paused.
"Is that the bluff, Joe?""No, Dick; that's too near. T'other one'll be best--faraway to the right. It's a little one, and there'sothers near it. The sharp eyes o' the Redskins won'tbe so likely to be prowlin' there.""Come on, then; but we'll have to take down by thelake first."In a few minutes the hunters were threading theirway through the outskirts of the wood at a rapid trot,in the opposite direction from the bluff, or wooded knoll,which they wished to reach. This they did lest pryingeyes should have followed them. In quarter of an hourthey turned at right angles to their track, and struckstraight out into the prairie, and after a long run theyedged round and came in............