CHAPTER FORTY SIX.
A CONFLICT WITH CLOSED DOORS.
The occurrence did not improve the temper of either party, particularlythat of the hunters. The Indians were triumphant, but not a whit theless inclined to obstinacy and exaction. They now returned to theirformer offer. For those of our captives that were woman-grown theywould exchange one for one, and for their chief Dacoma they offered togive two; for the rest they insisted on receiving two for one.
By this arrangement, we could ransom only about twelve of the Mexicanwomen; but finding them determined, Seguin at length assented to theseterms, provided they would allow us the privilege of choosing the twelveto be exchanged.
To our surprise and indignation this was refused!
We no longer doubted what was to be the winding up of the negotiation.The air was filled with the electricity of anger. Hate kindled hate,and vengeance was burning in every eye.
The Indians scowled on us, glancing malignantly out of their obliqueeyes. There was triumph, too, in their looks, for, they believedthemselves far stronger than we.
On the other side sat the hunters quivering under a double indignation.I say double. I can hardly explain what I mean. They had never beforebeen so braved by Indians. They had, all their lives, been accustomed,partly out of bravado and partly from actual experience, to consider thered men their inferiors in subtilty and courage; and to be thus beardedby them, filled the hunters, as I have said, with a double indignation.It was like the bitter anger which the superior feels towards hisresisting inferior, the lord to his rebellious serf, the master to hislashed slave who has turned and struck him. It was thus the huntersfelt.
I glanced along their line. I never saw faces with such expressions asI saw there and then. Their lips were white, and drawn tightly overtheir teeth; their cheeks were set and colourless; and their eyes,protruding forward, seemed glued in their sockets. There was no motionto be detected in the features of any, save the twitching of angrymuscles. Their right hands were buried in the bosoms of their half-openshirts, each, I knew, grasping a weapon; and they appeared not to sit,but to crouch forward, like panthers quivering upon the spring.
There was a long interval of silence on both sides.
It was broken by a cry from without--the scream of the war-eagle!
We should not have noticed this, knowing that these birds were common inthe Mimbres, and one might have flown over the ravine; but we thought,or fancied, that it had made an impression upon our adversaries. Theywere men not apt to show any sudden emotion; but it appeared to us that,all at once, their glances grew bolder, and more triumphant. Could ithave been a signal?
We listened for a minute. The scream was repeated; and although it wasexactly after the manner of a bird well known to us--the white-headedeagle--we sat with unsatisfied and tearful apprehensions.
The young chief, he in the hussar dress, was upon his feet. He had beenthe most turbulent and exacting of our opponents. He was a man of mostvillainous and licentious character, so Rube had told us, butnevertheless holding great power among the braves. It was he who hadspoken in refusal of Seguin's offer, and he was now about to assign hisreasons. We knew them without that.
"Why," said he, looking at Seguin as he spoke, "why is it that the whitechief is so desirous of choosing among our captives? Is it that hewishes to get back the yellow-haired maiden?"
He paused a moment, as if for a reply; but Seguin made none.
"If the white chief believes our queen to be his daughter, would not hewish that her sister should be her companion, and return with her to ourland?"
Again he paused; but, as before, Seguin remained silent.
The speaker proceeded.
"Why not let the yellow-haired maiden return with us, and become mywife? Who am I that ask this? A chief of the Navajoes, the descendantsof the great Montezuma; the son of their king!"
The savage looked around him with a vaunting air as he uttered thesewords.
"Who is she," he continued, "that I am thus begging for a bride? Thedaughter of one who is not even respected among his own people: thedaughter of a culatta!"
I looked at Seguin. I saw his form dilating. I saw the big veinsswelling along his throat. I saw gathering in his eyes that wildexpression I had once before noticed. I knew that the crisis was near.
Again the eagle screamed!
"But," proceeded the savage, seeming to draw new boldness from thesignal, "I shall beg no more. I love the white maiden. She must bemine; and this very night shall she sleep--"
He never finished the sentence. Seguin's bullet had sped, piercing thecentre of his forehead. I caught a glimpse of the red round hole, withits circle of blue powder, as the victim tell forward on his face!
All together we sprang to our feet. As one man rose hunters andIndians. As if from one throat, pealed the double shout of defiance;and, as if by one hand, knives, pistols, and tomahawks were drawntogether. The next moment we closed and battled!
Oh! it was a fearful strife, as the pistols cracked, the long knivesglittered, and the tomahawks swept the air; a fearful, fearful strife!
You would suppose that the first shock would have prostrated both ranks.It was not so. The early blows of a struggle like this are wild, andwell parried, and human life is hard to take. What were the lives ofmen like these?
A few fell. Some recoiled from the collision, wounded and bleeding, butstill to battle again. Some fought hand to hand; while several pairshad clutched, and were striving to fling each other in the desperatewrestle of death!
Some rushed for the door, intending to fight outside. A few got out;but the crowd pressed against it, the door closed, dead bodies fellbehind it; we fought in darkness.
We had light enough for our purpose. The pistols flashed at quickintervals, displaying the horrid picture. The light gleamed uponfiend-like faces, upon red and waving weapons, upon prostrate forms ofmen, upon others struggling in every attitude of deadly conflict!
The yells of the Indians, and the not less savage shouts of their whitefoemen, had continued from the first; but the voices grew hoarser, andthe shouts were changed to groans, and oaths, and short, earnestexclamations. At intervals were heard the quick percussions of blows,and the dull, sodden sound of falling bodies.
The room became filled with smoke and dust, and choking sulphur; and thecombatants were half-stifled as they fought.
At the first break of the battle I had drawn my revolver, and fired itin the face of the closing foemen. I had fired shot after shot, some atrandom, others directed upon a victim. I had not counted the reports,until the cock "checking" on the steel nipple told me I had gone theround of the six chambers.
This had occupied but as many seconds of time. Mechanically I stuck theempty weapon behind my belt, and, guided by an impulse, made for thedoor. Before I could reach it, it was closed, and I saw that to get outwas impossible.
I turned to search for an antagonist; I was not long in finding one. Bythe flash of a pistol I saw one of the Indians rushing upon me withupraised hatchet. Up to this time something had hindered me fromdrawing my knife. I was now too late; and, holding out my arms to catchthe blow, I ducked my head towards the savage.
I felt the keen blade cutting the flesh as it glanced along my shoulder.I was but slightly wounded. He had missed his aim from my stooping sosuddenly; but the impetus brought our bodies together, and the nextmoment we grappled.
We stumbled over a heap of rock, and for some moments struggled togetherupon the ground, neither able to use his weapon. Again we rose, stilllocked in the angry embrace; again we were falling with terrible force.Something caught us in our descent. It shook; it gave way with acrashing sound, and we fell headlong into the broad and brilliant light!
I was dazzled and blinded. I heard behind me a strange rumbling likethe noise made by falling timbers; but I heeded not that: I was too busyto speculate upon causes.
The sudden shock had separated us, and both rose a
t the same instant,again to grapple, and again to come together to the earth. We twistedand wriggled over the ground, among weeds and thorny cacti. I was everymoment growing weaker, while the sinewy savage, used to such combats,seemed to be gaining fresh nerve and breath. Thrice he had thrown meunder; but each time I had clutched his right arm, and prevented thedescending blow. I had succeeded in drawing my knife as we fell throughthe wall; but my arm was also held fast, and I was unable to use it.
As we came to the ground for the fourth time, my antagonist fell underme. A cry of agony passed from his lips; his head "coggled" over amongthe weeds; and he lay in my arms without struggling.
I felt his grasp gradually relaxing. I looked in his face. His eyeswere glassy and upturned. Blood was gurgling through his teeth. I sawthat he was dead.
To my astonishment I saw this, for I knew I had not struck him as yet.I was drawing my arm from under him to do so, when I noticed that heceased to resist. But the knife now caught my eye. It was red, bladeand haft, and so was the hand that clasped it.
As we fell I had accidentally held it point upward. My antagonist hadfallen upon the blade!
I now thought of my betrothed, and, untwining myself from the lithe andnerveless limbs of the savage, I rose to my feet. The ranche was inflames!
The roof had fallen in upon the brazero, and the dry shingles had caughtthe blaze. Men were crawling out from the burning ruin, but not to runaway. No! Under its lurking flames, amidst the hot smoke, they stillbattled fierce, and foaming, and frenzied.
I did not stay to recognise whom they were, these tireless combatants.I ran forward, looking on all sides for the objects of my solicitude.The wave of female dresses caught my eye, far up the cliff, on the roadleading to the Navajo captives. It was they! The three were climbingthe steep path, each urged onward by a savage.
My first impulse was to rush after; but at that moment fifty horsemenmade their appearance upon the hill, and came galloping downward.
I saw the madness of attempting to follow them, and turned to retreattowards the other side, where we had left our captives and horses. As Iran across the bottom, shots rang in my ear, proceeding from our side ofthe barranca. Looking up, I descried the mounted hunters coming down ata gallop, pursued by a cloud of savage horsemen. It was the band ofDacoma!
Uncertain what to do, I stood for a moment where I was, and watched thepursuit.
The hunters, on reaching the ranches, did not halt, but galloped on downthe valley, firing as they went. A body of Indians swept on after them,while another body pulled up, clustered around the blazing ruin, andcommenced searching among the walls.
I was yet screened in the thicket of cacti; but I saw that myhiding-place would soon be pierced by the eyes of the subtle savages;and dropping upon my hands and knees, I crept into the cliff. Onreaching it, I found myself close to the mouth of a cave, a small shaftof the mine, and into this I at once betook myself.