CHAPTER VII.
IN THE MOUNTAINS.
"Well, this beats me completely. That old medicine-man that Archie and Iwanted to shoot so badly was Bob Kelly; and, of course, he did not makea mistake when he cut that bark with his tomahawk--he did it on purpose.Didn't he play his part well? The old fellow must have a steady hand tosend those weapons so close to Dick without hitting him. Where did heget this disguise, I wonder; and how is he going to escape from thatlodge? This night's work is a little ahead of any thing I ever heardof."
Frank was sitting on the ground in a thicket of bushes on the outskirtsof the village, where he had concealed himself, to obtain a few minutes'rest, and to decide what he should do next. He had passed through thecamp in safety, and without attracting especial attention from any ofthe Indians. He had met several warriors on his way, but his disguisewas complete, and they, supposing him to be the medicine-man, steppedaside to let him pass, and did not trouble themselves to take a secondlook at him. He had been emboldened by his success thus far, and adaring project had entered his head. It was to go back to the village,and find and liberate Archie.
There were a good many dangers and difficulties to be overcome incarrying out this plan. The outlaw had said that it was his intention totake Archie to his lodge, where he knew he would be safe; but Frank didnot know where that lodge was. And suppose, if he succeeded in findingit, that Black Bill and his companions should be there guarding theirprisoner! What would they do to him if they caught him prowling around?Frank did not care to enrage them, for he knew what manner of men theywere; but still he was determined that he would not leave his cousin tohis fate without making at least an attempt to save him. The village wasnearly deserted, except by the women and children, and he couldscarcely encounter more danger there than he would in attempting to findhis way to the valley. The mountains were filled with Indians, who weresearching for the trapper, and he could not hope to avoid meeting someof them. His disguise would protect him as long as he remained near thevillage, but wouldn't the warriors suspect something if they found himmaking his way toward the fort?
"I'll be in danger, no matter what I do," said Frank, to himself; "and Iam going to try to find Archie. If he isn't liberated I would just assoon be recaptured as not, for I could never live without him. How wouldI feel to go back to our hunting and fishing grounds about Lawrence, andknow that he was kept a prisoner among these savages? I won't do it. Ifhe must stay here, I shall stay with him."
So saying, Frank crawled out of the bushes, and started back toward thevillage. Not knowing how many eyes there might be watching him, he triedto imitate the medicine-man's movements--walking with his form halfbent, and assuming a feeble, tottering step which he was sure wouldpass in the darkness for that of a very old man. He reached the villageat last--passing the chief's wigwam on the way, where the guards stoodin blissful ignorance of the fact that the captive they had been set towatch had crawled out of his prison under their very noses--and beganlooking about for the outlaw's lodge. How should he know it when he sawit? was a question he had asked himself over and over again. There wasplainly but one way to proceed, and that was to visit every wigwam inthe village until he found the one of which he was in search. This wassomething that more than one old trapper would have shrunk fromundertaking; but, relying entirely upon his disguise, and rememberingwhat Bob had told him--that he might go all over the village and intoevery lodge without being questioned--Frank resolved to attempt it. Ifhe were captured it would be nothing more than what would most likelybefall him if he tried to reach the fort; and he had the satisfaction ofknowing that the Indians would not harm him.
The first lodge that Frank looked into was empty. The door had beenthrown back, and by the flickering light of a fire which was burning inthe center of the lodge, he was able to take a good survey of itsinterior. There were the skins on which the warriors had been sleepingwhen they were aroused by the chief's "death-whoop," but no one was insight. An Indian woman came in just as he completed his investigations,but did not appear to notice him, and he hurried off to visit the nextlodge. Just as he was about to place his hand upon the door, it wasraised by some one on the inside, and Frank's heart fairly came up intohis mouth when one of the outlaws stepped out. He looked savagely at theboy for a moment, and then shouldered his rifle and walked away; andpresently Frank saw him mounted on his horse, and galloping toward theravine.
"This is the place," said our hero, to himself. "Archie is in here; butnow that I have found him, how am I going to get him out? That's adifficulty I did not think of before."
With a trembling hand Frank raised the door and peered under it, halfexpecting that Black Bill or some of his companions would jump out andmake a prisoner of him; but there was no one in the lodge--no one exceptArchie, who lay in one corner, bound hand and foot. But if his body wasconfined, his tongue was free, and his spirit as undaunted as ever.
"You here!" he exclaimed, when he saw his cousin approaching him. "Clearout; I've seen enough of you for one night. If I could use my hands forabout a minute, I would pay you for what you did to Dick Lewis. Keepaway from me."
"Silence!" whispered Frank, as he kneeled down beside his cousin, andbegan untying his hands. "Don't say a word."
Archie was as surprised now as Frank had been when old Bob appeared tohim in the chief's wigwam. He recognized the voice that addressed him,but he could hardly bring himself to believe that the hideous-lookingobject bending over him was Frank Nelson. He would have asked a hundredquestions had not the latter interrupted him.
"We've no time to talk," he whispered, hurriedly, as he assisted hiscousin to his feet. "I will explain every thing when we are out ofdanger. Now, then, you can never go through the village in that dress."
"I am afraid I can't go through it at all," replied Archie.
"Yes, you can. I don't believe there is a single warrior in the campnow, except the two who are guarding the chief's wigwam. They are allout looking for Dick. We have little to fear from the women andchildren, for they couldn't stop us if they tried. Is there any clothingin here?"
"I believe there is a hunting-shirt and cap in that corner."
"Well, get into them as quickly as possible, and I will go out and seeif the coast is clear."
Frank, knowing that a medicine-man was expected to do things differentfrom any body else, did not go out at the door, but crawled under theskins at the back of the lodge. It was well for him that he did so; forscarcely had he left Archie, when the door was raised and Black Billcame in, and was astonished to see his prisoner, whom he had leftsecurely bound, standing in the middle of the lodge arraying himself ina hunting-shirt which he (the outlaw) had thrown off a little whilebefore.
"Hallo!" he exclaimed, "what's all this yere? Ah ha! You were trying toescape, were you? Who turned you loose?"
Archie, seeing that his cousin's plans for liberating him had beennipped in the bud, put on a bold face, and made the best of thesituation. He took all the blame upon himself. He knew that if he toldthe outlaw that he had had assistance, he would, of course, investigatethe matter; and if he found Frank in the vicinity of the lodge, it mightarouse his suspicions to such a degree that he would examine hisdisguise; and that would be very disagreeable for Frank.
"I have a way of turning myself loose whenever I feel like it," repliedArchie. "Why didn't you stay away about five minutes longer? You can'tkeep me a prisoner."
"Can't!" exclaimed the outlaw. "Wal, I'll see about that. I knowed youwere a slippery customer--all the Brents are--an' I kinder thought itwould be a good plan fur me to come back here an' keep an eye on you,an' leave the others to hunt up Dick Lewis. It seems I got here jest intime. Now, crawl out of that huntin' shirt, an' I'll tie you up so tightthat you won't get loose agin in a hurry."
Frank, who was lying flat on the ground at the back of the lodge,listened with a heavy heart to this conversation. His plans had failed,and it was useless to think of attempting to liberate his cousin again,for the outlaw had said t
hat it was his intention to remain in the lodgeand watch him. There was but one thing he could do now, and that was tolook out for himself. His first hard work must be to find Dick Lewis; hewould know just what ought to be done. Having come to thisdetermination, Frank crawled slowly and cautiously away from the lodge,and finally, rising to his feet, hurried through the village; and havingsatisfied himself that there was no one observing his movements, heplunged into the willows that fringed the base of the mountains. It wasnot his intention to travel directly toward the fort, but to attempt toreach it by some roundabout way, and thus avoid meeting the Indians whowere in pursuit of the trapper. He had something of an undertakingbefore him now, for he was in a strange country, and had not the leastidea in which direction he ought to go to find his friends. When hereached the mountains he was as effectually lost as he had been on theday that he and Archie killed their first antelope; but trusting everything to luck, he made his way through the thick woods as rapidly as thedarkness would permit, and after stumbling about among logs and rocksuntil he was almost exhausted, he removed his mask, which, on account ofthe long bill attached to it had considerably impeded his progressthrough the bushes, and sat down to wait until daylight.
His thoughts and feelings were what any other boy's would have beenunder the same circumstances. His courage had been tested more than onceduring the few months he had passed in the Far West, and he had neveryet shown himself to be a coward; on the contrary, his attempt to rescueArchie had proved that in an emergency he could be as daring andreckless as Dick Lewis himself. He could keep up his courage, and showa bold front while in the presence of his enemies, but to be alone inthe mountains, with no weapon but his pocket-knife with which to defendhimself, and nothing to occupy his mind, or draw his thoughts from thedangers yet to be encountered--this it was that tried his nerves; andhis face was whiter, and he was more nearly overcome with fear now, thanat any time during the day. His situation was scarcely more encouragingthan when he was a prisoner. How could he hope to find the valley whenhe did not know where to look for it; and what if he did succeed inreaching it, and should find the fort in ashes, and the soldiers andtrappers all massacred? What would become of him? He might starve todeath, or be devoured by the grizzlies there in the mountains, and noone would ever know what had become of him.
"But I am not starved yet," said Frank, when he had reached this pointin his meditations, "and thus far I haven't seen any wild animals to beafraid of. As long as I can lift a finger, I shall live in hopes ofgetting safely out of this scrape. Now, I am going to sleep. There isno knowing what is in store for me, and I may have need of all mystrength before I see the sun set again."
Frank stretched himself upon the ground, with the medicine-man's maskunder his head for a pillow, and soon forgot the Indians, grizzlies, andall the other perils with which he was surrounded, in a sound sleep.When he awoke it was broad daylight. He had had one visitor during thenight, and that was a large gray wolf, which sat on his haunches at alittle distance regarding Frank intently, and which took to his heelsand quickly disappeared when the boy raised himself on his elbow.
"I don't think I should have slept so soundly if I had known that I hadsuch a neighbor as that," thought Frank. "But after all, I wish I wassure that I had nothing worse than wolves to fear, although they didfrighten me considerably when we had that race on the ice with them lastwinter. Now, if I only had a cup of Dick's coffee, and a venison-steak,I should be ready for work; but I don't see much chance to get any thingto eat up here."
Frank picked up his mask, looked at the sun, and struck off through thewoods in the direction he supposed the fort to be. He had not made manysteps before he found himself on the brink of a narrow gorge, whichextended up and down the mountain. Its sides were thickly covered withbushes and rocks, and it was so deep that the roar of themountain-torrent which ran through it came but faintly to his ears. Wasit not fortunate for him that he had camped before reaching the gully?He might have fallen into it in the darkness, and that would have beeninfinitely worse than remaining a prisoner among the Indians. Hewondered if he could jump it, but concluded that he would not make theattempt, when he discovered, a short distance from him, a small treelying across the gorge. Upon examining it closely, however, he foundthat it would prove rather a perilous undertaking to cross it, for thebark was slippery, the tree was more than half decayed, and its toprested but lightly on the opposite bank. He was not allowed many minutesin which to make up his mind what he would do, for while he stoodlooking, first at the tree, and then up and down the gorge, in thehope of finding some better way of crossing, he was startled by awhistling sound in the air, an arrow whizzed by much too close to hishead for comfort, and glancing from a tree on the opposite bank, felldown into the gorge.
Frank was so frightened that for a moment he was deprived of all powerof action; and before he could look around to see where the missile camefrom, another arrow whistled by, a little closer to him than the other,and then came a third, which found a lodgment in the mask which hecarried in his hand. Then Frank began to realize that it was dangerousto stand there in that exposed position; and in the excitement of themoment, scarcely knowing what he was about, he gathered all his energiesfor the effort, bounded into the air, alighted in safety on the otherside of the gorge, and in a moment more was concealed behind a treewhich grew on the edge of the precipice. This feat called forth anexclamation of amazement from his concealed enemy; and when Frank lookedback at the gorge, he was astonished himself. He never could have madea standing jump like that in his sober moments.
THE LEAP FOR LIFE.]
Scarcely had Frank disappeared behind his tree, when a young Indianstepped from the bushes, and stood out in full view of him. It was hisrival of the morning--the one with whom he had run the foot-race. Hecarried a bow, and a quiver full of arrows, in his hand, and stoodgazing earnestly at the gorge, as if mentally calculating its width; andthe more he looked at it, the more astonished he became.
"Ugh!" he grunted, at last. "Good boy! Make good jump, make _very_ goodjump!" Then looking toward the place where Frank was concealed, hecalled out: "Hay, you!"
The young Indian did not speak these words as plainly as we have writtenthem. He uttered them with his teeth closed, and with a grunting,guttural sound, that can not be imitated on paper.
"What do you want?" asked the fugitive, surprised to hear himself thusaddressed.
"You come over, and I no shoot," replied the young Indian.
"Go over there!" exclaimed Frank, "I guess not. If you want to see memore than I want to see you, you must come over here. What do you want,any how?"
"We go back to chief. I no shoot."
"Well, if it's all the same to you, I'll wait awhile before I go back tothe chief. You want the honor of taking me prisoner, but you sha'n'thave it."
"You no come?" asked the savage.
"No, I no come. I'll stay here."
"You no come, I shoot."
"Go ahead; but keep yourself pretty close over there, or I may shoottoo."
"Oh, no," laughed the Indian. "You got no gun, no pistol, no knife--nonothing."
If the young warrior had only known it, he was mistaken in this. Frankhad something, which, although by no means as serviceable as a rifle orrevolver would have been, was still effective enough in his hands tokeep his enemy from crossing the gorge. While this conversation wasgoing on, he had taken a good view of his situation, and finding that hehad no way of retreat, he had prepared himself to stand a siege. Thetree behind which he had taken refuge was a very small one, not morethan half large enough to conceal him from the view of the Indian, andstood, as we have said, on the very brink of the gorge. It afforded himbut a poor protection, but he knew that he must remain there, for therewas not another tree or rock, or even a thicket of bushes large enoughto conceal him, within twenty yards, and the mountain at his back wasmuch too steep to be scaled. If he left his tree to find a better placeof concealment, he would present a fair mark for the arrows of t
heIndian, who handled his bow with so much skill that Frank did not careto expose himself.
Frank, seeing that he was fairly cornered, began making preparations forcompelling his enemy to remain on his own side of the gully; for henoticed that the young warrior carried a knife and tomahawk in his belt,and he was afraid that, if he allowed him to come to close quarters, hemight not be able to vanquish him as easily as he had done before. Atthe foot of the tree was a rock which had begun crumbling away; andwhile he was talking to the Indian, Frank had busied himself incollecting the pieces that were of a size and weight convenient tothrow. He had played ball so often that he had become a swift andaccurate thrower, and he told himself that if the Indian did not mindwhat he was about, the interview would end in a way he had not dreamedof.
"He thinks he has got me fast now," thought Frank; "but I shouldn'twonder if he found himself mistaken. If he gives me a fair chance, I'llknock him down with one of these rocks, and go over there and take hisweapons away from him. Then I'll make him guide me to the fort by theshortest route."
"Hay, you white boy! You no come I shoot!" exclaimed the Indian again;and, as he spoke, he fitted an arrow to his bow, and pointed it atFrank.
"Shoot away!" replied the latter.
The Indian let fly the arrow, and Frank threw a stone at the sameinstant. Both made good shots. The arrow struck the tree behind whichour hero was concealed, and the stone whistled through the feathers onthe young warrior's head-dress. He escaped by an inch.
"Ugh!" he ejaculated, in great astonishment.
"Ugh!" echoed Frank. "Didn't I tell you that you had better keep close?Look out! Here comes another!"
Away flew a second stone, and the Indian dived into the bushes just intime to avoid it, for it went straight toward the mark. He began to havesome respect for the white boy, who, although he was without a weapon ofany kind, was still brave enough to stand his ground.
The contest thus commenced was kept up for a quarter of an hour. Thearrows whistled by the tree whenever Frank showed so much as an inch ofhis head, and were always answered by a volley of stones, which flewlike bullets through the bushes where the Indian was concealed,compelling him more than once to change his position. Then there wasquiet for awhile, and the combatants stood watching one another, Frankkeeping a sharp lookout for any tricks on the part of his antagonist,and wondering what would be his next move. He was not long in findingout, for presently the young warrior set up a whoop which echoed andre-echoed among the mountains, until it seemed to Frank that the woodswere full of yelling savages.
"If he is trying to frighten me, I hope he will have a good time of it,"thought Frank. "Perhaps he has settled himself down there with theintention of starving me out. If he has, he will find it up-hillbusiness, for I can go without food and water as long as he can. If Ionly had my rifle, wouldn't I show him something?"
The Indian waited a few minutes, and repeated the yell; and this time,to Frank's utter amazement and consternation, there was an answer. Itcame faintly to his ears, but still it was so plain and distinct that heknew he could not be mistaken. Had his rival been calling forassistance? The question was scarcely formed in his mind, when thesavage raised his head above the bushes, and coolly announced:
"Hay, you white boy! More Indian coming!"
At that moment Frank's body, being but partially protected by his tree,offered a fair mark, and the young savage was prompt to take advantageof it. Another arrow flew across the gully, and this time it was notthrown away. Frank reeled a moment, threw his arms wildly about hishead, and fell heavily to the ground.