CHAPTER XXV.
THE COMING OF DONALD.
"Oh! the brazen face of that old rascal, Braddon!" muttered Billie."_Please_ let me give him my compliments in his shoulder, Adrian! I'mlooking along the barrel of my trusty gun right now, and have got thenicest bead on him you ever saw. Not that I'm savage by nature, or liketo inflict pain; but he deserves it, sure he does, Adrian. Can I pullthe trigger, did you say?"
His voice was really pleading, showing that Billie had been considerablyworked up by the duplicity of the pretended showman; for, as he said,usually the stout chum was averse to scenes of violence, and avoidedthem whenever he could, without feeling that he was bringing disgrace onhis head in so doing.
"No, no, don't think of it--yet!" said the other, hastily, butpositively. "We haven't got to the end of our rope. If they do attackus, remember that under no conditions are you to injure a hair on thehead of a Zuni brave. Give the white men all the wounds, because it istheir doing."
"But what can we do to stave it off any longer, Adrian?" begged the fatchum.
"I hardly know," replied Adrian, himself at a loss to grasp any ideathat promised hope; "if only Donald would hurry along everything mightbe well. You don't see anything of him, do you, Billie?"
"Not a thing, Adrian; and the way you say that makes me think of the oldfairy story of Bluebeard, where the wife who is to go down to the oldfellow, because she has seen the room where the heads of all his otherwives are hanging, asks her sister to look, and see if the brothers arenot coming on their horses to save her. Don't you remember she criesagain and again: 'Sister Ann, sister Ann, look and see if there isn't acloud of dust along the road; don't you see anybody coming this way?'But Adrian, I don't glimpse even a cloud of dust. Donald sure isaholding back the worst ever; looks like he might get here too late,after all."
Once Billie got started talking it was difficult to stop him. Besides,Adrian did not make any attempt to do so, because every second theycould delay matters counted for just so much in their favor.
Of course the medicine man was waiting impatiently to hear what theresult of his last demand would be. When he saw the two lads talking hesupposed they must be conferring, in order to reach a definiteconclusion. And after all, what did a minute, or several of them forthat matter, count; there was plenty of time still, before the exercisesof the afternoon would be starting.
So he waited, calm and reserved, yet undoubtedly anxious; for therecovery of the precious belt meant much to him; even some shreds of hissacred office might be associated with the return of the belt, forunless this were done how could he convince his people that nothing wasimpossible with him?
No matter what happened, Adrian was grimly determined that neither ofthe white men must be allowed to enter that tent. He would, if pushed tothe wall, advise that it be taken down, and everything connected with itappropriated by the Indians. Surely that ought to assure the medicineman that they had nothing concealed under the old canvas that had beendonated to the trip by their friend at the mine.
The question was, how could he continue the delay any longer? Already hebelieved that Braddon was beginning to grow suspicious, for severaltimes the showman cast quick glances toward the village beyond therocks, as though half anticipating seeing some one coming on the run,perhaps the third paleface boy.
So Adrian once more started to speak, being as slow and deliberate aspossible.
"Pick-ne-quan-to would be fair with his white brothers," he said. "Hehas looked in their tent, and did not find the Sacred Belt. If it werethere it could not escape the eye of Manitou's messenger. Then whyshould a white man be able to find it? These white men do not like us.They have tried to drive us away from the village of our friends, theZunis. The chief knows why this should be so. Send then a warrior to thevillage to fetch your chief here, Pick-ne-quan-to, that he may be theone to judge what shall be done. If he says that a paleface can do whata Zuni medicine man is unable to accomplish, then we will agree toletting that man enter our tent. But not unless the chief says it. Ihave spoken."
Apparently the medicine man hardly knew what to say to this. Adrian hadmanaged to get several clever little hints in his speech that appearedto satisfy the other he meant to be honest with the Zunis. And hisproposal that they send for the head man of the tribe, was not thatright?
Braddon immediately saw that there was a chance of a cog slipping in hiscleverly arranged scheme unless he could manage in some way to inflamethe other; so as to cause him to order his men to seize upon the twoboys. He had found a convenient rock behind which he could drop, in casehe had cause to believe the others meant to open fire on him; and thisgave him new assurance.
"Don't listen to him, Pick-ne-quan-to!" he called out, lustily; "he'sgot a glib tongue for a boy, and means to deceive you. While we arewaiting for the chief to come they will be doing something to make awaywith that belt. I tell you the chances are it must be there inside thattent; and if they let my friend assist you in the hunt, he is sure tofind it. Don't you see that they are afraid to say yes to that,Pick-ne-quan-to? And if they were innocent would it matter at all tothem who made the search? There is only one thing to be done, then; youshould order your braves to make them prisoners. Then whatever you say,it shall be done."
Adrian himself was afraid that the old medicine man might be tempted togive the word that would send those three sinewy warriors flying acrossthe ground that separated them from the two white boys. He hardly knewwhat they should do under such distressing circumstances, except that hehoped Billie might succeed in at least giving that treacherous pretendedshowman a severe wound when he fired, as he had promised to do.
It is always darkest before dawn, they say, and in his own limitedexperience Adrian had found the truth of this more than once. Ithappened now; and Billie, with his cheek pressing on the butt of hisleveled gun, was suddenly electrified to hear his comrade call out:
"Wait! it will be all right now, because there comes the chief!"
"Hurrah!" cried Billie, even raising his head to see for himself, nomatter if he did lose that splendid aim on the left shoulder of Braddon,which he had been holding so steadily for at least one full minute now.
Yes, there were two figures approaching on the run, one of them the Zunichief, and the other their own good chum, Donald.
No wonder Billie immediately felt so happy that he tore off his cowboyhat, and waved it wildly in the air as he let out a couple of whoopsthat would have done credit to Bunch, Corney, Alkali, or any of theother punchers who were his friends at Keystone Ranch.
Braddon seemed to be furious at sight of the two who were advancing sohurriedly. It may be that he feared the worst--something in the situationbegan to warn him that his missile had recoiled on his own head, andthat the signs were not altogether so promising as they may have seemeda short time before.
He could be seen arguing with the medicine man, and the boys felt surehe must be trying to induce him to make prisoners of the young palefacesbefore the chief arrived, and took the power out of his hands.
But Pick-ne-quan-to was shrewd enough to see that Braddon was undulyexcited over a matter that should not have concerned him to any greatextent at all. He may have begun to entertain a dim suspicion of thetruth about that time, and wondered just how it was one of the white mencould be more successful than himself with regard to finding the lostemblem, _unless they knew just where it had been placed_!
At any rate he persistently shook his head in the negative, nor couldany of the other's arguments convince him that he should proceed to actbefore the arrival of the head man of the Zuni tribe, who was coming ata faster gait than he had been known to undertake for many moons, hebeing an old man.
"Is it all right, Adrian?" asked Billie, his voice trembling withexcitement.
"Looks that way," replied the other, scarcely able himself to restrainhis feelings, so as to appear reasonable and calm.
"Then I don't get my chance to peg that Braddon, do I?" continued thefat chum, with a vein of dejection
in his voice.
"Well, just keep an eye on him, Billie; and if either of them tries torush the tent, let him have it; because they might mean to drop someother article they've gone and stolen, so as to put it on us," was whatAdrian advised.
But neither Braddon nor his younger ally, whom the boys had dubbedJunior, seemed willing to take the risk of being shot; at any rate theygave up trying to induce the medicine man to lead a sudden swoop down onthe boys, and standing moodily there, waited to see what was going tohappen.
Of course the two defenders of the camp knew full well; since Donald hadleft them with the full intention of telling the old chief everything;and the presence of the latter at this critical juncture was prettyplain evidence that he had finally come to understand what a narrowescape he had had from falling into a trap, and being deceived by theman who claimed to own the greatest Wild West Combination in thecountry, and which allowed him to offer them wonderful terms to travelwith his show, in order to exhibit the customs of the Zuni people in theFar East.
Donald had doubtless been very anxious when he first saw that the campwas in peril; but on discovering how his two dauntless chums seemed tobe holding the allied foes in check, his face relaxed in a broad grin;and he waved his hand toward Adrian and Billie, as in company with thechief he arrived on the spot.
In his native tongue the head man addressed the Witch Doctor, and therecould be no doubt but what he was asking what all this excitement meant.Then Pick-ne-quan-to started to reply, in his slow and vigorous way.From his gestures--for of course they could not understand his words--theboys knew he was telling how he had made the startling discovery thathis lodge had been entered during his temporary absence, and thewonderful gift of the Manitou, being nothing less than the Sacred Belt,carried away. Then must have followed an account of how his suspicionswere directed toward the white boys, and how he had come, backed by thestrangers in the village who had expressed much interest in the recoveryof the emblem, to demand the return of the belt; but that a search ofthe tent had failed to disclose the same.
And then came the grand surprise, just as Adrian and Billie anticipated,when the chief suddenly drew something out from under his blanket, andheld it aloft, so that every one might see--the glittering Sacred Beltthat had come from Manitou!