The Hunters of the Ozark
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE DEFIANCE.
The expression of the face of Deerfoot was terrible. The whole fury ofhis nature was at white heat. He knew that the two Winnebagos had setout to commit a fearful crime, and it was his work to stay their hands.There was but the single way in which they could be stayed.
The young Shawanoe kept back a couple of paces from the edge of theravine, where the shadow of the stunted trees above would hide him fromhis foes when they should come in sight. He held his gun pointed andcocked. Though his passion had the glow of the furnace, he was as calmas death.
"There was a fierce whizz like the rush of an eagle'swing."]
He had not long to wait. By and by a low guttural exclamation struck hisear, and his hearing, strung to a marvelously fine point, caught thesound of the soft moccasins on the hard earth. Less than a minute laterthe form of the Wolf came into the moonlight, as a bather emerges fromthe side of a lake. Seeing the open ravine at his feet, he stopped, andinstantly his companion, Wau-ko-mia-tan, appeared at his side.
They quickly saw that the leap was an easy one.
"Wau-ko-mia-tan will leap across," said that warrior, "then the Wolfwill follow; let us lose no time, for the Shawanoe may be gone."
The speaker recoiled a single pace and gathered his muscles for theleap. He took one quick step and made a terrific bound upward andoutward, straight for the rocky brink whereon Deerfoot the Shawanoeinstantly stepped into the moonlight.
The Winnebago was in mid-air, crouching like a leaper, with his legsgathered under him and his arms at his side, when there was a fiercewhiz, like the rush of an eagle's wing, something flashed in themoonlight, and the tomahawk, driven by a lightning-like sweep of theShawanoe's arm, was buried in the chest of the Winnebago as it wouldhave sunk in so much sodden earth.
An ear-splitting screech burst from the throat of the smitten warrior,who struck the edge of the ravine like a bundle of rags flung thither,and then tumbled to the bottom as dead as the jagged rock on which helay.
The Wolf stood transfixed, unable to understand what had taken place.Then he saw the figure of the youthful warrior on the other side andheard his voice.
"Rattlesnake of a Winnebago! Die the death of the rattlesnake!"
The wretch was given no time to protest again, for the words were yet inthe mouth of Deerfoot when the flash of his rifle lit up the partialgloom, and the crack of the weapon mingled with the death shriek of theredskin, who slumped end over end down the ravine and lay beside thebody of Wau-ko-mia-tan as dead as he.
"Thus shall die all that seek to follow your footsteps," muttered theShawanoe, who, standing where he stood when he slew both, proceeded toreload his rifle with as much coolness as though he had just fired at atarget on a tree.
This finished, he let himself over the edge of the ravine, holding fasta moment by one hand, and then letting go, dropped lightly beside thetwo bodies that lay below. His face showed no excitement now, and hemoved with his usual care and deliberation. Drawing the hunting-knifewhich he had taken from the Wolf, he partly bent over, but straightenedup again, saying to himself:
"Deerfoot is a Christian Indian and can not scalp a foe though as baseas they."
Picking up each rifle (that of Wau-ko-mia-tan being still clutched byhis nerveless fingers while the Wolf's had fallen from his grasp), hedeliberately broke the locks of each by striking them on the stones. Hethen recovered his own tomahawk, and carried off the useless weaponswith him.
He passed down the ravine until he reached a point where the sides werenot so high. There he clambered out, still keeping the two broken guns.He had reached high ground on the side from which had come theWinnebagos, and he walked grimly forward, until in a brief while hereached the main trail over which he and the boys had passed a briefwhile before.
He turned toward the left, which led him in the direction of the camp ofthe Ozarks as well as toward the camp of Black Bear and his Winnebagos.He took longer steps than usual, but did not trot or run.
When he once more caught the glimmer of the camp-fire among the trees,he slackened his pace and drew nigh with the caution that had become asecond nature to him. He quickly saw that the Winnebagos had disposed ofthemselves for the night. The fire was burning as brightly as ever,because of the attention it received from the two warriors who werestanding on guard.
The party were in a portion of the country where they knew there wasscarcely a possibility of their being molested by any one; but theAmerican Indian loves nothing like laziness and war; and, treacherous bynature himself, he expects treachery at all times in others. And so,although they knew of no enemies within miles of them (unless it wasDeerfoot, whom they did not fear) they had two vigilant sentinels onduty. The rest were stretched out on their blankets with their feetturned toward the blaze, sleeping like so many tired animals.
At the moment of Deerfoot's approach, the Winnebagos on guard werestanding some twenty feet apart, with the fire burning between them.Each held a loaded gun in hand and cast his keen glance hither andthither in the gloom, eyes and ears alert for the first suspicious sightor sound.
The sentinel nearer Deerfoot was Black Bear himself. The chieftainevidently believed that the best way to instruct his warriors in theirduty was to set the example. His attitude showed that something hadarrested his attention. Deerfoot knew that the sound had been made byhis moccasin, for he purposely rustled the leaves.
Black Bear looked intently off in the gloom, but seeing nothing, turnedhis head and told the other guard to fling more wood upon the fire. Heobeyed, and the circle of light quickly extended out among the trees.
It would have been an easy matter for the Shawanoe to slay both, but hehad no thought of doing so. That would have been killing withoutjustification.
The Winnebago chieftain was gazing intently into the night, when frombehind a tree, no more than a dozen steps distant, softly stepped theyoung Shawanoe.
"Listen, Black Bear," said he, "to the words of Deerfoot the Shawanoe.Twice did he spare the life of the Wolf and the Wolf thanked him, but hewent out a third time to take his life; he was a rattlesnake, but he hadnot the courage of the rattlesnake, for he took with him Wau-ko-mia-tan,whose heart was that of a rattlesnake also; they bent their steps wherenone but Deerfoot has the right to go; therefore Deerfoot killed themand took away their guns. _There they are!_"
In the same minute that Deerfoot began speaking, the second sentinelstepped forward and took his place beside his chief. That both wereamazed need not be said. Each stood with the muzzle of his gun lowered,neither dreaming that the youth thought of assailing them.
Deerfoot spoke in the slow but impressive voice natural to his race. Butthe last exclamation escaped him like the discharge from a Leyden jar.So quickly that neither saw a movement, he hurled the broken gun of thechief straight at him, following it with the second gun driven at hiscompanion.
Both hit their mark. Black Bear was struck in the chest with such force,that he was carried off his feet and knocked half fainting to the earth.The other was hit and compelled to recoil a step, but the weapon struckhim lengthwise, and he was not harmed. He rallied and brought his gun tohis shoulder, but by the time it was leveled, the Shawanoe had vanished.
Such an exploit, as you may well suppose, caused consternation among theWinnebagos for the space of several minutes. No gun had been fired, butthe American Indian is a light sleeper, and slight as was thedisturbance, it aroused every one. There was a gathering about thefallen chieftain, who, however, came to his feet without help, though hegasped and was weak for a few moments. The explanation given by theother sentinel removed the general fear of an attack, but three of thewarriors scattered through the wood to make sure that no surpriseovertook them, while the others with an agitation rare among red mentalked over the astounding occurrence.
The broken rifles lying on the ground left no doubt that when theShawanoe declared he had slain both the Wolf and Wau-ko-mia-tan he spokethe truth. Else, how could their shattered gun
s be in his possession?
And this same youth, with an audacity beyond comprehension, had flungthe two guns at the chieftain and his brother warrior and defied them.It seemed as though he must be more than a human being, to be capable ofsuch deeds. Legends had reached them of some of the exploits of thewonderful young Shawanoe, but this surpassed them all.
The Winnebagos, however, were among the bravest tribes in the west, andwhen they broke camp at early dawn, Deerfoot, who was on the watch, knewthat it was their determination to slay every one of the three huntersin the camp at the foot of the Ozarks, as soon as they could reachthem.