The Hunters of the Ozark

  CHAPTER XXXIII.

  FRED LINDEN AWAKENS TO AN ALARMING FACT.

  The approach of the cyclone was attended by an appalling roar, and amass of branches and trees flying through the air, which warned the boysof their danger.

  "Terry, it won't do to stay here," shouted Fred, casting about for someplace of refuge; "where shall we go?"

  Quite close to the stream which they had just crossed was an enormousrock. Its irregular surface, a dozen feet in extent each way, must havereached far down in the ground, so that nothing could have been moreimmovable. It was not the refuge that the boys would have taken, hadthey been given time to hunt for one, but surely they could not havefound a better.

  A couple of leaps took Terry to the place, and, as he threw himself onhis face, Fred was directly behind him. As they lay, the shelving rockwas less than two feet above their heads. Though they could hear, theycould not see what was coming. They could look to the right and left,but only for a few seconds in front.

  Using their eyes as best they could, they saw the air filled withleaves, twigs, branches, huge limbs and trunks, which spun forward andover and over, like so many feathers in a tornado.

  The first shock that came to the boys crouching behind the rock was adead thump near their heads. An uprooted tree had been hurled from somepoint above, like an enormous spear, and, striking the rock at a slant,slid over the rough surface like the finger of a player over the face ofa tambourine and out beyond, hunting for some spot where it couldpenetrate. It found it on the ground, but it was instantly wrenchedloose by the resistless power that had first thrown it forward, and wentend over end into the general wreck and ruin beyond.

  The next sight which startled the boys was on their left, directly overthe stream. The air was filled apparently with snow, as if a violentsquall had suddenly sprung up. It was accompanied by a hissing noise,which mingled with the fearful roar that had not stopped and was likethat of the stormy Atlantic beating upon the rock-bound coast.

  Striking the stream, the cyclone whirled most of the water from its bed,scattered the mist and foam among the trees, and saturated the boyswhere they lay. The huge torch was quenched as suddenly as it waslighted.

  The most terrifying moment to Fred and Terry was when they felt the rockin front of them move. It was turned several inches to one side, and forone frightful moment, they believed that that too would be sent skimmingthrough the air, or whirled over upon them. But there was no otherrefuge to which they could fly; had they attempted to rise to theirfeet, they would have been snatched up and dashed to death. So theyflattened themselves as much as they could on their faces, and theterrific outburst could not reach them.

  Such an elemental fury can not last long. Having torn up the ponderoustrees, overturned rocks, and cleaned out the stream, the cyclone seemedto mount upward and leave the earth entirely, probably to descend somemiles away and continue its work of destruction.

  Fred lay still several minutes after it had passed, and then turned tolook at his companion. He had unrolled the package and taken therefromthe cooked buffalo steak, which had been so roughly handled during hisride on the bull.

  "Well, well," said the astonished Fred, "I believe you are the onlyperson in the world who could eat his dinner in the middle of such astorm as this."

  "I was thinkin', bein' as we are in so much of a hurry, that I wouldsave some toime by dinin' without delay, though ye do me an injoosticeby sayin' I'm through the same; I'm jist about to begin and I'll beplaised to have yer company."

  Terry may not have had much sentiment, but he was sensible. Fred sat up,his head just rising above the rock, and, for a few minutes, they gavetheir attention to their meal. There was enough for a fair lunch, but nomore. A gentle wind blew against them, being the remnant left by thecyclone, and while they ate, you need not be told they used their eyes.

  The sight was a striking one: the trees lay across each other, many withtheir prong-like roots pointing toward the sky, limbs and trunks havingbeen tossed about in the most bewildering confusion. The water that hadbeen lifted from the creek rendered not only their clothing wet, butevery thing around them was saturated. Walking to the side of thestream, they looked down at the sloping banks, wet and muddy, but withlittle water except in the bottom. The current, however, was pouring soswiftly from above that this was rapidly filling up, and before longwould reach its former level.

  Now that the cyclone had passed, the sky rapidly cleared. There was achilliness in the air, and the sun did not show itself.

  The boys took but a short time to view the destruction, great as it was,when they faced about in the direction of the camp which was theirdestination from the first. It looked as though they were finallyseparated from the trail, for since it was so covered by fallen treesand limbs, not the slightest trace of it was seen. They were filled withdismay, and indeed would have been at their wits' end had not thecyclone confined its fury to exceedingly narrow limits. All itsprodigious force was spent in and directly along the stream. Twentyyards away, the forest was undisturbed, so that the elemental scythe hadmade a clean swath as it sped along.

  "Hurrah!" called out Terry, "here's the path; I follyed a straight lineas I could from the water here, so I'm sure I couldn't coom out very farfrom the right place."

  Fred hurried over the ruins to his side, and a glance at the groundshowed that his friend was right: there was the trail at their feet.

  "Now," said Terry, recovering his spirits, "if we had only knowed thatthat storm was coomin', we could have fastened our guns to our backs andswum across, without waitin' to build the raft, and saved all the timethat we lost."

  "But we would have been wetted all the same, had we done so."

  "And gained that much time; do ye know," added Terry, in a halffrightened voice, "what I obsarved?"

  "I suppose you saw what I did,--the air full of water, trees, limbs,stones and lightning."

  "While we were peepin' over the edge of the rock, ye moind that the windcut our faces so we had to lower 'em to keep our heads flyin' off wherewe couldn't find 'em agin. It was yersilf that stuck yer nose in theground, but I took a paap off beyanst the creek and I saan one of theWinnebagos."

  "Can it be possible! what was he doin'?"

  "Turnin' summersets at the rate of twinty to the second and about adozen faat above the ground; I had only the one glimpse of him, but whinI obsarved him it looked to me as if his head and one leg wint off indifferent directions; I s'pose he's lookin' for the same."

  Fred Linden could hardly believe that Terry had seen one of theirenemies, though, as you can well understand, from what cyclones havedone in recent years, it was not at all impossible. The youth insistedso strongly on the first part of his statement, that Fred decided thatat the time the storm burst, one at least of their foes was on the bankbehind them.

  All this confirmed the belief he had expressed that they had lostinvaluable time by wandering from the trail, and that they would havehard work to keep far enough in advance to reach the camp before theWinnebagos. The proof that they had received too of some of theWinnebagos being in front complicated the situation and added to themental discomfort of both.

  The sky which, as you will remember, had become overcast sometime beforethe bursting of the cyclone, continued to clear, and to the surprise ofthe young hunters, about the middle of the afternoon the sun showeditself. The chilliness, however, remained, though the two walked sobriskly that they could have well stood a still lower temperature.

  Fortunately for them (though it also operated in favor of their enemies)the trail was traveled without difficulty. The ground was uneven,sometimes up and sometimes down, but it was not hard for the feet andthey made good progress. The distance they had to go was too great forthem to hope to reach the end of the journey before the morrow, even ifthey traveled most of the night. They had already proven their pluck andresolution, and you may be sure, now that they were on the right path,that they did not throw away any minutes.

  They had e
aten the extra buffalo steak sooner than was intended, butthey could afford to wait until the morrow before partaking of any morefood.

  The afternoon was far along and they were pushing forward in their usualvigor, talking in a hopeful strain now and then, when both were startledby the report of a rifle. It did not sound in front nor to the rear, butonly a moderate distance to the left. The boys stopped and looked ineach other's face.

  "Anither of the spalpeens," whispered Terry; "now there ought to be agun fired on tother side of us and one in front and one behind us."

  "They may be there, all the same," replied Fred, staring in thedirection whence came the report, as though he expected the appearanceof the one who had caused it. They looked and listened for severalminutes, but saw and heard nothing more, and resumed their hurried pace,frequently glancing behind, for they were in that distrustful state ofmind which comes to one who has a strong suspicion that an enemy istrying to steal behind him unawares. The actual presence of such anenemy is no more trying than the suspense itself.

  The shot might have been innocent--that is, fired by some wanderingwhite man or Indian who had not the remotest thought that any otherperson was within hearing. Probably such was the fact, though there wasenough uncertainty about it to prevent the theory affording the youththe comfort it otherwise would have done.

  The lads, as you may well believe, did not stop to look into the matter,but pressed on at a gait which they were confident would prevent any oftheir enemies overtaking them, unless they broke into their loping trot,which was hardly likely.

  Somehow or other, Terry seemed to be thinking more about the threeWinnebago horsemen with whom Fred Linden had had his encounter than hedid about his own experience.

  "How thim spalpeens could be ridin', whin all the rist are afoot, issomethin' that puzzles me," said he, after they had walked some distancefurther; "can't ye give some explanation that will relaave me mind,Fred?"

  "I can certainly know no more about it than you do."

  "Didn't ye obsarve them with particularity?"

  "I can't say that I did; they were rather small, tough-looking; two werebay in color, while one was black: I noticed the black one more than theothers, because the Indian that I hit was riding on him; I remember thathe had a star in his forehead."

  "Who? The Winnebago?"

  "You know well enough that I meant the horse----"

  Fred Linden stopped short, and turned his white, scared face upon hisfriend. He had just awakened to an astounding fact.

  "What's the matter, Fred? Are ye ill?"

  "My gracious! why didn't I think of that before? Those three horsesbelong to father, Mr. Hardin and Mr. Bowlby."

  "Are ye sure of the same?"

  "Why, of course; I can't understand why I did not notice it the moment Isaw them!"