The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  THE NIGHT ALARM.

  Bart Woodlaw had not been keeping his renewed watch long before he hearda step behind him, and, turning sharply, found himself face to face withDr Lascelles.

  "Well, my boy," he said, "is all right?"

  "I think so, sir. Did you hear anything?"

  "No, my boy, I woke up and just came to see how matters were going. Anyalarm?"

  "Yes, sir, and no, sir," replied Bart.

  "What do you mean?" exclaimed the Doctor sharply.

  "Only that Joses woke up, sir, and I found him watching that mass ofrock which you can see out yonder. That one sir--or--no!--I can't seeit now."

  "Why?" said the Doctor, in a quick low decisive tone; "is it darkernow?"

  "Very little, sir; but perhaps Joses was right: he said he thought theremust be a fire out there to make it stand out so clearly, and--"

  "Well? speak, my boy! Be quick!"

  "Perhaps he was right, sir, for I cannot see the rock there at all."

  "Where is Joses? Why did he not go and see?" exclaimed the Doctorsharply.

  "He has been gone nearly an hour, sir, and I was expecting him back whenyou came."

  "That's right! But which way? Joses must feel that there is danger, orhe would not have left the camp like this."

  Bart pointed in the direction taken by their follower, and the Doctortook a few hasty strides forward, as if to follow, but he came backdirectly.

  "No. It would be folly," he said; "I should not find him out in thiswild. Depend upon it, Bart, that was an Indian fire and camp out beyondthe ridge yonder, and he suspected it. These old plainsmen read everysign of earth and sky, and we must learn to do the same, boy, for it maymean the saving of our lives."

  "I'll try," said Bart earnestly. "I can follow trail a little now."

  "Yes, and your eyes are wonderfully keen," replied the Doctor. "Youhave all the acute sense of one of these hunters, but you want the powerof applying what you see, and learning its meaning."

  Bart was about to reply, but the Doctor began walking up and downimpatiently, for being more used than his ward in the ways of theplains, he could not help feeling sure that there was danger, and thisidea grew upon him to such an extent that at last he roused the men fromtheir sleep, bidding them silently get the horses ready for an immediatestart, should it be necessary; and while this was going on, he went intothe tent.

  "Maude--my child--quick!" he said quietly. "Don't be alarmed, but wakeup, and be ready for a long ride before dawn."

  Maude was well accustomed to obey promptly all her father's orders, andso used to the emergencies and perils of frontier life that she saidnothing, but rapidly prepared for their start, and in a few minutes shewas ready, with all her little travelling possessions in the saddle-bagsand valise that were strapped to her horse.

  Just as the Doctor had seen that all was nearly ready, and that scarcelyanything more remained to be done than to strike the little tent, Josescame running up.

  "Well! what news?" said the Doctor, hurriedly.

  "Injun--hundreds--mile away," said the plainsman in quick, sharp tones."Hah! good!" he added, as he saw the preparations that had been made.

  "Bart, see to Maude's horse. Down with the tent, Joses; Harry, helphim. You, Juan and Sam, see to the horses."

  Every order was obeyed with the promptitude displayed in men accustomedto a life on the plains, and in a very few minutes the tent was down,rolled up, and on the side of the waggon, the steeds were ready, and allmounting save Juan, who took his place in front of the waggon to driveits two horses, Dr Lascelles gave the word. Joses went to the front toact as pioneer, and pick a way unencumbered with stones, so that thewaggon might go on in safety, and the camp was left behind.

  Everything depended now upon silence. A shrill neigh from a mare wouldhave betrayed them; even the louder rattle of the waggon wheels mighthave had that result, and brought upon them the marauding party, with aresult that the Doctor shuddered to contemplate. There were momentswhen, in the face of such a danger, he felt disposed to make his wayback to civilisation, dreading now to take his child out with him intothe wilderness. But there was something so tempting in the freedom ofthe life; he felt so sanguine of turning his knowledge of metallurgy tosome account; and what was more, it seemed so cowardly to turn back now,that he decided to go forward and risk all.

  "We always have our rifles," he said softly to himself, "and if we canuse them well, we may force the Indians to respect us if they will nottreat us as friends."

  And all this while the waggon jolted on over the rough ground or rolledsmoothly over the flat plain, crushing down the thick buffalo-grass, orsmashing some succulent, thorny cactus with a peculiar whishing soundthat seemed to penetrate far through the silence of the night. Theywere journeying nearly due north, and so far they had got on quite acouple of miles without a horse uttering its shrill neigh, and it waspossible that by now, silent as was the night, their cry might not reachthe keen ears of their enemies, but all the same, the party proceeded ascautiously as possible, and beyond an order now and then given in a lowvoice, there was not a word uttered.

  It was hard work, too, for, proceeding as they were in comparativedarkness, every now and then a horse would place its hoof in the burrowof some animal, and nearly fall headlong. Then, too, in spite of allcare and pioneering, awheel of the waggon would sink into some hollow orbe brought heavily against the side of a rock.

  Sometimes they had to alter their direction to avoid heavily-risingground, and these obstacles became so many, that towards morning theycame to a halt, regularly puzzled, and not knowing whether they werejourneying away from or towards their enemies.

  "I have completely lost count, Bart," said the Doctor.

  "And if you had not," replied Bart, "we could not have gone on with thewaggon, for we are right amongst the rocks, quite a mountain-side."

  "Let's wait for daylight then," said the Doctor peevishly. "I begin tothink we have done very wrong in bringing a waggon. Better have trustedto horses."

  He sighed, though, directly afterwards, and was ready to alter hiswords, but he refrained, though he knew that it would have beenimpossible to have brought Maude if they had trusted to horses alone.

  A couple of dreary hours ensued, during which they could do nothing butwait for daybreak, which, when it came at last, seemed cold and blankand dreary, giving a strange aspect to that part of the country wherethey were, though their vision was narrowed by the hills on all sidessave one, that by which they had entered as it were into what was quitea horse-shoe.

  Joses and Bart started as soon as it was sufficiently light, rifle inhand, to try and make out their whereabouts, for they were now beyondthe region familiar to both in their long rides from ranche to ranche inquest of cattle.

  They paused, though, for a minute or two to gain a sort of idea as tothe best course to pursue, and then satisfied that there was noimmediate danger, unless the Indians should have happened to strike upontheir trail, they began to climb the steep rocky hill before them.

  "Which way do you think the Indians were going, Joses?" said Bart, asthey toiled on, with the east beginning to blush of a vivid red.

  "Way they could find people to rob and plunder and carry off," saidJoses gruffly, for he was weary and wanted his breakfast.

  "Do you think they will strike our trail?"

  "If they come across it, my lad--if they come across it."

  "And if they do?"

  "If they do, they'll follow it right to the end, and then that'll be theend of us."

  "If we don't beat them off," said Bart merrily.

  "Beat them off! Hark at him!" said Joses. "Why, what a boy it is. Hetalks of beating off a whole tribe of Indians as if they were so manyJack rabbits."

  "Well, we are Englishmen," said Bart proudly.

  "Yes, we are _Englishmen_," said Joses, winking to himself and layingjust a little emphasis upon the men; "but we can't do impossibilities
ifwe bes English."

  "Joses, you're a regular old croaker, and always make the worst ofthings instead of the best."

  "So would you if you was hungry as I am, my lad. I felt just now as ifI could set to and eat one o' them alligators that paddles about in thelagoons, whacking the fishes in the shallows with their tails tillthey're silly, and then shovelling of them up with their great jaws."

  "Well, for my part, Joses, I'd rather do as the alligators do to thefish."

  "What, whack 'em with their tails? Why, you ain't got no tail, MasterBart."

  "No, no! Eat the fish."

  "Oh, ah! yes. I could eat a mess o' fish myself, nicely grilled on somebits o' wood, and yah! mind! look out!"

  Joses uttered these words with quite a yell as, dropping his rifle, hestooped, picked up a lump of rock from among the many that lay about onthe loose stony hill slope they were climbing, and hurled it with suchunerring aim, and with so much force, that the hideous grey reptile theyhad disturbed, seeking to warm itself in the first sunbeams, and whichhad raised its ugly head threateningly, and begun to creep away with alow, strange rattling noise, was struck about the middle of its back,and now lay writhing miserably amidst the stones.

  "I don't like killing things without they're good to eat," said Joses,picking up another stone, and seeking for an opportunity to crush theserpent's head--"Ah, don't go too near, boy; he could sting as bad asever if he got a chance!"

  "I don't think he'd bite now," said Bart.

  "Ah, wouldn't he! Don't you try him, my boy. They're the viciousestthings as ever was made. And, as I was saying, I don't--there, that'sabout done for him," he muttered, as he dropped the piece of rock heheld right upon the rattlesnake's head, crushing it, and then takinghold of the tail, and drawing the reptile out to its full length--"as Iwas a-saying, Master Bart, I don't like killing things as arn't good toeat; but if you'll put all the rattlesnakes' heads together ready forme, I'll drop stones on 'em till they're quite dead."

  "What a fine one, Joses!" said Bart, gazing curiously at the venomousbeast.

  "Six foot six and a half," said Joses, scanning the serpent. "That'shis length to an 'alf inch."

  "Is it? Well, come along; we are wasting time, but do you thinkrattlesnakes are as dangerous as people say?"

  "Dangerous! I should think they are," replied Joses, as he shoulderedhis rifle; and they tramped rapidly on to make up for the minutes lostin killing the reptile. "You'd say so, too, if you was ever bit by one.I was once."

  "You were?"

  "I just was, my lad, through a hole in my leggings; and I never couldunderstand how it was that that long, thin, twining, scaly beggar shouldhave enough brains in her little flat head to know that it was thesurest place to touch me right through that hole."

  "It was strange," said Bart. "How was it?"

  "Well, that's what I never could quite tell, Master Bart, for that bite,and what came after, seemed to make me quite silly like, and as if ittook all the memory out of me. All I can recollect about it is that Iwas with--let me see! who was it? Ah! I remember now: our Sam; andwe'd sat down one hot day on the side of a bit of a hill, just to restand have one smoke. Then we got up to go, and, though we ought to havebeen aware of it, we warn't, there was plenty of snakes about I was justsaying to Sam, as we saw one gliding away, that I didn't believe as theycould sting as people said they could, when I suppose I kicked again'one as was lying asleep, and before I knew it a'most there was a sharpgrab, and a pinch at my leg, with a kind of pricking feeling; and as Igave a sort of a jump, I see a long bit of snake just going into a holeunder some stones, and he gave a rattle as he went.

  "`Did he bite you?' says Sam.

  "`Oh, just a bit of a pinch,' I says. `Not much. It won't hurt me.'

  "`You're such a tough un,' says Sam, by way of pleasing me, and being abit pleased, I very stupidly said,--`yes, I am, old fellow, regulartough un,' and we tramped on, for I'd made up my mind that I wouldn'ttake no more notice of it than I would of the sting of a fly."

  "Keep a good look-out all round, Joses," said Bart, interrupting him.

  "That's what I am doing, Master Bart, with both eyes at once. I won'tlet nothing slip."

  In fact, as they walked on, Joses' eyes were eagerly watching on eitherside, nothing escaping his keen sight; for frontier life had made him,like the savages, always expecting danger at every turn.

  "Well, as I was a saying," he continued, "the bite bothered me, but Iwasn't going to let Sam see that I minded the least bit in the world,but all at once it seemed to me as if I was full of little strings thatran from all over my body down into one leg, and that something had holdof one end of 'em, and kept giving 'em little pulls and jerks. Then Ilooked at Sam to see if he'd touched me, and his head seemed to haveswelled 'bout twice as big as it ought to be, and his eyes looked wildand strange.

  "`What's matter, mate?' I says to him, and there was such a ding in myears that when I spoke to him, Master Bart, my voice seemed to come fromsomewhere else very far off, and to sound just like a whisper.

  "`What's the matter with you?' he says, and taking hold of me, he gaveme a shake. `Here, come on,' he says. `You must run.'

  "And then he tried to make me run, and I s'pose I did part of the time,but everything kept getting thick and cloudy, and I didn't know a bitwhere I was going nor what was the matter till, all at once like, I waslying down somewhere, and the master was pouring something down mythroat. Then I felt him seeming to scratch my leg as if he was tryingto make it bleed, and then I didn't know any more about it till I foundI was being walked up and down, and every now and then some one give mea drink of water as I thought, till the master told me afterwards thatit was whisky. Then I went to sleep and dropped down, and they pickedme up and made me walk again, and then I was asleep once more, andthat's all. Ah, they bite fine and sharp, Master Bart, and I don't wantany more of it, and so I tell you."

  By this time they had pretty well reached the summit of the rocky hillthey had been climbing, and obeying a sign from his companion, Bartfollowed his example, dropping down and crawling forward.

  "I 'spect we shall find we look right over the flat from here,"whispered Joses, sinking his voice for no apparent reason, save thecaution engendered by years of risky life with neighbours at hand alwaysready to shed blood.

  "And we should be easily seen from a distance, I suppose?" respondedBart.

  "That's so, Master Bart. The Injun can see four times as far as we can,they say, though I don't quite believe it."

  "It must be a clever Indian who could see farther than you can, Joses,"said Bart quietly.

  "Oh, I don't know," said the other, with a quiet chuckle; "I can seepretty far when it's clear. Look out."

  Bart started aside, for he had disturbed another rattlesnake, whichglided slowly away as if resenting the intrusion, and hesitating as towhether it should attack.

  "You mustn't creep about here with your eyes shut," said Joses quietly."It isn't safe, my lad,--not safe at all. Now you rest there behindthat stone. We're close up to the top. Let me go the rest of the way,and see how things are down below."

  Bart obeyed on the instant, and lay resting his chin upon his arms,watching Joses as he crept up the rest of the slope to where a few roughstones lay about on the summit of the hill, amongst which he glided andthen disappeared.

  Bart then turned his gaze backward, to look down into the Horse-shoeValley he had quitted, thinking of his breakfast, and how glad he shouldbe to return with the news that all was well, so that a fire might belighted and a pleasant, refreshing meal be prepared. But the curve ofthe hill shut the waggon and those with it from view, so that he glancedround him to see what there was worthy of notice.

  This was soon done. Masses of stone, with a few grey-looking plantsgrowing amidst the arid cracks, a little scattered dry grass in patches,and a few bushy-looking shrubs of a dull sagey green; that was all.There were plenty of stones near, one of which looked like a safeshelter for serpent o
r lizard; and some horny-looking beetles werebusily crawling about. Above all the blue sky, with the sun now wellover the horizon, but not visible from where Bart lay, and havingexhausted all the things worthy of notice, he was beginning to wonderhow long Joses would be, when there was a sharp sound close at hand, asif a stone had fallen among some more. Then there was another, and thiswas followed by a low chirping noise like that of a grasshopper.

  Bart responded to this with a very bad imitation of the sound, and,crawling from his shelter, he followed the course taken by his companionas exactly as he could, trying to track him by the dislodged stones andmarks made on the few patches of grass where he had passed through.But, with a shrug of the shoulders, Bart was obliged to own that hispowers of following a trail were very small. Not that they were wantedhere, for at the end of five minutes he could make out the long bonybody of Joses lying beside one of the smaller masses of stone thatjagged the summit of the hill.

  Joses was looking in his direction, and just raising one hand slightly,signed to him to come near.

  There seemed to be no reason why Bart should not jump up and run to hisside, but he was learning caution in a very arduous school, andcarefully trailing his rifle, he crept the rest of the way to where thegreat stones lay; and as soon as he was beside his companion, he found,as he expected, that from this point the eye could range for miles andmiles over widespreading plains; and so clear and bright was the morningair that objects of quite a small nature were visible miles away.

  "Well!" said Joses gruffly, for he had volunteered no information, "seeanything?"

  "No," said Bart, gazing watchfully round; "no, I can see nothing. Canyou?"

  "I can see you; that's enough for me," was the reply. "I'm not going totell when you ought to be able to see for yourself."

  "But I can see nothing," said Bart, gazing eagerly in every direction."Tell me what you have made out."

  "Why should I tell you, when there's a chance of giving you a lesson incraft, my lad,--in craft."

  "But really there seems to be nothing, Joses."

  "And he calls his--eyes," growled the frontier man. "Why, I couldpolish up a couple o' pebbles out of the nearest river and make 'em seeas well as you do, Master Bart."

  "Nonsense!" cried the latter. "I'm straining hard over the plain.Which way am I to look?"

  "Ah, I'm not going to tell you."

  "But we are losing time," cried Bart. "Is there any danger?"

  "Yes, lots."

  "Where?"

  "Everywhere."

  "But can you see immediate danger?" cried Bart impatiently.

  "Yes; see it as plain as plain."

  "But where? No; don't tell me. I see it," cried Bart excitedly.

  "Not you, young master! where?"

  "Right away off from your right shoulder, like a little train of antscrawling over a brown path. I can see: there are men and horses. Is ita waggon-train? No, I am sure now. Miles away. They are Indians."

  "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Joses. "That's better. That's a good lessonbefore breakfast, and without a spy-glass. I shall make a man of youyet, Master Bart."

  "Which way are they going?"

  "Nay, I shan't tell you, my lad. That's for you to find out."

  "Well, I will directly," said Bart, shading his eyes. "Where are wenow? Oh, I see. Now I know. No; I don't, they move so slowly. Yes, Ican see. They are going towards the north, Joses."

  "Nor'-west, my lad," said the frontier man; "but that was a pretty goodhit you made. Now what was the good of my telling you all that, andletting you be a baby when I want to see you a man."

  "We've lost ever so much time, Joses."

  "Nay, we have not, my lad; we've gained time, and your eyes have hadsuch a eddication this morning as can't be beat."

  "Well, let's get back now. I suppose we may get up and walk."

  "Walk! what, do you want to have the Injuns back on us?"

  "They could not see us here."

  "Not see us! Do you suppose they're not sharper than that. Nay, mylad, when the Injuns come down upon us let's have it by accident. Don'tlet's bring 'em down upon us because we have been foolish."

  Bart could not help thinking that there was an excess of care upon hiscompanion's side, and said so.

  "When you know the Injuns as well as I do, my lad, you won't think itpossible to be too particular. But look here--you can see the Injunsout there, can't you?"

  "Yes, but they look like ants or flies."

  "I don't care what they look like. I only say you can see them, can'tyou?"

  "Yes."

  "And you know Injuns' eyes and ears are sharper than ours?"

  "Not than yours."

  "Well, I know that they are sharper than yours, Master Bart," saidJoses, with a chuckle; "and now look here--if you can see them out thereagainst the dry brown plain miles away, don't you think they could seeus stuck up against the sky here in the bright morning sunshine, allthis height above the ground?"

  "Well, perhaps they could, if they were looking," said Bart rathersulkily.

  "And they are looking this way. They always are looking this way andevery way, so don't you think they are not. Now let's go down."

  He set the example of how they should go down, by crawling back for somedistance till he was below the ridge and beyond sight from the plain,Bart carefully following his example till he rose, when they starteddown the hill at as quick a trot as the rugged nature of the groundwould permit, and soon after reached the waggon, which the Doctor haddrawn into a position which hid it from the view of any one coming upfrom the entrance of the valley, and also placed it where, in time ofperil, they might hold their own by means of their rifles, and keep anenemy at bay even if they did not beat him off.