CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
ANOTHER "COUP."
A shot ringing in my ears caused me to withdraw my attention from theproceedings of the earless trapper. As I turned I saw a blue cloudfloating away over the prairie, but I could not tell at what the shothad been fired. Thirty or forty of the hunters had surrounded themotte, and, halted, were sitting in their saddles in a kind of irregularcircle. They were still at some distance from the timber, as if keepingout of arrow-range. They held their guns crosswise, and were shoutingto one another.
It was improbable that the savage was alone; doubtless there were someof his companions in the thicket. There could not be many, however, forthe underwood was not large enough to conceal more than a dozen bodies,and the keen eyes of the hunters were piercing it in every direction.
They reminded me of so many huntsmen in a gorse waiting the game to besprung; but here, the game was human.
It was a terrible spectacle. I looked towards Seguin, thinking that hemight interfere to prevent the barbarous battue. He noticed myinquiring glance, and turned his face from me. I fancied that he feltashamed of the work in which his followers were engaged; but thekilling, or capture, of whatever Indians might be in the motte had nowbecome a necessary measure, and I knew that any remonstrance of minewould be disregarded. As for the men themselves, they would havelaughed at it. This was their pastime, their profession, and I amcertain that, at that moment, their feelings were not very differentfrom those which would have actuated them had they been driving a bearfrom his den. They were, perhaps, a trifle more intense; certainly notmore inclined towards mercy.
I reined up my horse, and awaited with painful emotions the _denouement_of this savage drama.
"Vaya, Irlandes! What did you see?" inquired one of the Mexicans,appealing to Barney. I saw by this that it was the Irishman who hadfired the shot.
"A rid-skin, by japers!" replied the latter.
"Warn't it yer own shadder ye sighted in the water?" cried a hunter,jeeringly.
"Maybe it was the divil, Barney?"
"In trath, frinds, I saw a somethin' that looked mighty like him, and Ikilt it too."
"Ha! ha! Barney has killed the devil. Ha! ha!"
"Wagh!" exclaimed a trapper, spurring his horse toward the thicket; "thefool saw nothin'. I'll chance it, anyhow."
"Stop, comrade!" cried the hunter Garey; "let's take a safer plan.Redhead's right. Thar's Injuns in them bushes, whether he seen it ornot; that skunk warn't by himself, I reckin; try this a way!"
The young trapper dismounted, and turned his horse broadside to thebushes. Keeping on the outside, he commenced walking the animal in aspiral ring that gradually closed in upon the clump. In this way hisbody was screened; and his head only could be seen above the pommel ofhis saddle, over which he rested his rifle, cocked and ready.
Several others, observing this movement on the part of Garey,dismounted, and followed his example.
A deep silence prevailed as they narrowed the diameters of theircircling courses.
In a short time they were close in to the motte, yet still no arrowwhizzed out. Was there no one there? So it seemed; and the men pushedfearlessly into the thicket.
I watched all this with excited feelings. I began to hope there was noone in the bushes. I listened to every sound; I heard the snapping ofthe twigs and the muttering of the men. There was a moment's silence asthey pushed eagerly forward.
Then I heard a sudden exclamation, and a voice calling out--
"Dead red-skin! Hurrah for Barney!"
"Barney's bullet through him, by the holies!" cried another. "Hollo,old sky-blue! Come hyar and see what ye've done!"
The rest of the hunters, along with the _ci-devant_ soldier, now rodeforward to the copse. I moved slowly after. On coming up, I saw themdragging the body of an Indian into the open ground: a naked savage,like the other. He was dead, and they were preparing to scalp him.
"Come now, Barney!" cried one of the men in a joking manner, "the har'syour'n. Why don't ye off wid it, man?"
"It's moine, dev yez say?" asked Barney, appealing to the speaker.
"Sartinly; you killed him. It's your'n by right."
"An' it is raaly worth fifty dollars?"
"Good as wheat for that."
"Would yez be so frindly, thin, as to cut it aff for me?"
"Oh! sartinly, wid all the plizyer of life," replied the hunter,imitating Barney's accent, at the same time severing the scalp, andhanding it to him.
Barney took the hideous trophy, and I fancy that he did not feel veryproud of it. Poor Celt! he may have been guilty of many a breach in thelaws of garrison discipline, but it was evident that this was his firstlesson in the letting of human blood.
The hunters now dismounted, and commenced trampling the thicket throughand through. The search was most minute, for there was still a mystery.An extra bow--that is to say, a third--had been found, with its quiverof arrows. Where was the owner? Could he have escaped from the thicketwhile the men were engaged around the fallen buffaloes? He might,though it was barely probable; but the hunters knew that these savagesrun more like wild animals, like hares, than human beings, and he mighthave escaped to the chapparal.
"If that Injun has got clar," said Garey, "we've no time to lose inskinnin' them bufflers. Thar's plenty o' his tribe not twenty milesfrom hyar, I calc'late."
"Look down among the willows there!" cried the voice of the chief;"close down to the water."
There was a pool. It was turbid and trampled around the edges withbuffalo tracks. On one side it was deep. Here willows dropped over andhung into the water. Several men pressed into this side, and commencedsounding the bottom with their lances and the butts of their rifles.
Old Rube had come up among the rest, and was drawing the stopper of hispowder-horn with his teeth, apparently with the intention of reloading.His small dark eyes were scintillating every way at once: above, aroundhim, and into the water.
A sudden thought seemed to enter his head. I saw him push back theplug, grasp the Irishman, who was nearest him, by the arm, and mutter,in a low and hurried voice, "Paddy! Barney! gi' us yur gun; quick, man,quick!"
Barney, at this earnest solicitation, immediately surrendered his piece,taking the empty rifle that was thrust into his hand by the trapper.
Rube eagerly grasped the musket, and stood for a moment as if he wasabout to fire at some object in the pond. Suddenly he jerked his bodyround, and, poising the gun upward, fired into the thick foliage.
A shrill scream followed; a heavy body came crashing through thebranches, and struck the ground at my feet. Warm drops sparkled into myeyes, causing me to wince. It was blood! I was blinded with it; Irubbed my eyes to clear them. I heard men rushing from all parts of thethicket. When I could see again, a naked savage was just disappearingthrough the leaves.
"Missed him!" cried the trapper. "Away wi' yur sodger gun!" he added,flinging down the musket, and rushing after the savage with his drawnknife.
I followed among the rest. I heard several shots as we scrambledthrough the brushwood.
When I had got to the outer edge I could see the Indian still on hisfeet, and running with the speed of an antelope. He did not keep in adirect line, but zigzag, leaping from side to side, in order to bafflethe aim of his pursuers, whose rifles were all the time ringing behindhim. As yet none of their bullets had taken effect, at least so as tocripple him. There was a streak of blood visible on his brown body, butthe wound, wherever it was did not seem to hinder him in his flight.
I thought there could be no chance of his escape, and I had no intentionof emptying my gun at such a mark. I remained, therefore, among thebushes, screening myself behind the leaves and watching the chase.
Some of the hunters continued to follow him on foot, while the morecunning ones rushed back for their horses. These happened to be all onthe opposite side of the thicket, with one exception, and that was themare of the trapper Rube. She was browsing
where Rube had dismounted,out among the slaughtered buffaloes, and directly in the line of thechase.
As the savage approached her, a sudden thought seemed to strike him, anddiverging slightly from his course, he plucked up the picket-pin, coiledthe lasso with the dexterity of a gaucho, and sprang upon the animal'sback.
It was a well-conceived idea, but unfortunate for the Indian. He hadscarcely touched the saddle when a peculiar shout was heard above allother sounds. It was a call uttered in the voice of the earlesstrapper. The mustang recognised it; and instead of running forward,obedient to the guidance of her rider, she wheeled suddenly and camegalloping back. At this moment a shot fired at the savage scorched herhip, and, setting back her ears, she commenced squealing and kicking soviolently that all her feet seemed to be in the air at the same time.
The Indian now endeavoured to fling himself from the saddle; but thealternate plunging of the fore and hind quarters kept him for somemoments tossing in a sort of balance. He was at length pitched outward,and fell to the ground upon his back. Before he could recover himself aMexican had ridden up, and with his long lance pinned him to the earth.
A scene followed in which Rube played the principal character; in fact,had "the stage to himself."
"Sodger guns" were sent to perdition; and as the old trapper was angryabout the wound which his mare had received, "crook-eyed greenhorns"came in for a share of his anathemas. The mustang, however, hadsustained no serious damage; and after this was ascertained, theemphatic ebullitions of her master's anger subsided into a low growling,and then ceased altogether.
As there appeared no sign that there were other savages in theneighbourhood, the next concern of the hunters was to satisfy theirhunger. Fires were soon kindled, and a plenteous repast of buffalo meatproduced the desired effect.
After the meal was ended, a consultation was held. It was agreed thatwe should move forward to the old mission, which was known to be notover ten miles distant. We could there defend ourselves in case of anattack from the tribe of Coyoteros, to which the three savages belonged.It was feared by all that these might strike our trail, and come upwith us before we could take our departure from the ruin.
The buffaloes were speedily skinned and packed, and taking a westerlycourse, we journeyed on to the mission.