*CHAPTER XVI*
*THE PALEFACE HUNTER*
Jamie half rose from the ground, rubbed his eyes, and appeared surprisedand mystified at this unexpected turn of events.
"Am I still dreaming?" he wondered. "I have seen this man many a timein my dreams, but never, to my knowledge, have I seen him before in theflesh. Who can he be, that he thus haunts me, asleep and awake?"
"So you've woke up at last, youngster! I was beginning to fear that youmight never wake again," said the stranger, in a kindly and notunfamiliar voice that awoke the echoes of memory.
"Then you've been watching over me? Guarding me, perhaps, whilst Islept?"
The stranger nodded assent.
"Who are you? Tell me your name, that I may thank you, for friends arenot too numerous hereabouts, and I have already lost two comrades sinceI came on this trail. Tell me who you are, if you please?" for the ladsaw by the stranger's kindly manner, his honest, sunburnt face, and hisclear but piercing eyes, that he was no enemy.
"My real name doesn't matter, my lad, though I am well known in theseparts, for the Indians on this side the lakes know me for a trapper, andthey call me the 'Paleface Hunter,' and sometimes the 'Grey Badger.'
"But how came you here?"
"This is my home--this forest! I have lived here for fifteen years,"said the trapper, indicating the wide stretch of forest land with abroad sweep of his hand.
"And how did you happen to find me, just when I needed a friend, too?When I sank down last night I never expected to see the light of anothersun."
"I stumbled across you here at dawn. You were fast asleep, and I saw byyour torn clothes and the scratches and flesh wounds on your hands andface that the Indians had been hot on your trail. I half feared to findyour scalp-lock missing, but when I examined you I found that you wereliving, but so exhausted and dead-beat that to wake you up might finishyou, so I just carried you in here, covered up your trail, and waitedfor you to awake."
"And for four hours," replied Jamie softly, and with tears in hisvoice--"for four hours, since dawn, you have watched over me like achild in a cradle, though any moment the Algonquins might havediscovered your trail."
"Tut! tut! my lad! That's nothing----"
"Paleface--if I may so call you--you have saved my life, and I thank youwith all my heart, though last night, when I lost my best friend, Icursed my fate and wished to die."
"'Tis more likely you who have saved my life."
"How so?"
"Was it you who fired that shot last evening just before sunset?"
"Which shot?"
"The one that alarmed the camp!";
"You mean when the scout was----"
"Scalped."
"Yes, I fired it."
"Who took the scalp? I reckon that is not your gift, my lad."
Jamie shuddered at the remembrance, and said, "No. I should hope not."
"Then you were not alone? Who was the redskin that was with you?"
"An Iroquois youth, named 'Young Eagle.'"
"The son of White Eagle, the great chief?"
"The same. There was another also--a young paleface friend of mine. Welost each other in the forest, after dark, when the redskins were hot onour trail. After that I missed my way, and wandered back to the camp inmistake. Then, filled with terror and despair, I plunged madly backinto the forest, until I sank exhausted, where you found me; but tellme, trapper, how did I save your life? for 'tis all a mystery to me."
"When you fired that shot at sunset, I was in a tight corner, for I wasa prisoner in the Algonquin camp. Red Wolf, the Algonquin chief, is agreat enemy of mine. Long he has tried to trap me, but I have alwaysbeen able to circumvent him. This time he took me unawares. He and sixof his braves pounced upon me suddenly in the forest three days ago,when I was splitting a few logs for my fire, and before I had a chanceto defend myself I was tied up."
"And they tortured you, did they not?" asked Jamie.
"See here what the fiends did!" and the hunter showed a dozen scars andopen wounds that had not yet healed.
"The monsters! How did you escape?"
"You know their custom of torturing their prisoners from sunset tilldawn."
"Yes."
"Well, after all this they made a fire, and after a few more tortures Ibelieve the varmint would have burnt me to death, for one fiend had madean iron red-hot, with which to sear and brand me, when suddenly thehalf-uttered yell of their scout, followed by the crack of your rifle,burst upon their ears."
"Yes! yes! What happened then?" asked Jamie impatiently.
"Why, every man Jack of them seized their rifles and tomahawks, andbolted out of the camp to the help of the scout, leaving me alone, boundhand and foot to a tree."
"And how did you free yourself?"
"Why, the scamp who had been threatening to brand me, when he boltedwith the rest, dropped the hot iron at my feet, so that it burnt thishole in my moccasin. See here. The opportunity was too good to be lost,so I wriggled and shuffled my feet till the iron came in contact withthe lowest thong. It was burnt through in less than a minute, and inanother five minutes I was free."
"That was worthy of a trapper and a frontiersman. The implement oftorture was a blessing in disguise."
"I didn't remain long in the camp, I can tell you, for at any moment theredskins might have returned, and there is no doubt that they would havescalped me on the spot, in revenge for what the Young Eagle had done. Iwas unable to walk for a few minutes, so tightly had they bound me; butI rubbed and chafed my limbs till the circulation was restored, and thenI seized my rifle and knife and walked off. At dawn I stumbled acrossyou, and--here we are; a match for a dozen Indians yet, let them comewhen they will," and the trapper laughed silently.
"Paleface, I'm glad to have met you," said Jamie, rising from the groundand extending his hand to his new friend. "I have had so many unhappyexperiences during the past twenty-four hours, that I had begun to doubtthe Providence which has delivered me so often, but I shall never doubtagain, for God has never failed me yet."
There was something very much like a tear that trickled down the roughface of the trapper as he grasped the extended hand and said, in quietbut earnest tones--
"He never will fail you--if you trust Him."
"If only my two comrades were alive I should be the happiest creature inall this wide forest."
"They are both alive."
"What!" exclaimed the lad. "Both alive? How do you know that?"
"Before dawn I heard the Indians return to camp, and their yells oftriumph told me that they had either brought in prisoners or scalps.Being anxious to know whether their prisoners were Indians or Yengeese,I crept back again to the edge of the camp."
"Indeed!" interposed Jamie, interrupting the narrative. "Weren't youafraid of being captured again?"
"Tut! tut! He'll be a smart Indian who can catch an old trapper twice."
"Well, what did you discover?"
"Before I reached the spot I heard a fierce yell of anger. That I knewto be caused by the discovery that I had escaped. When at last Ireached a little rising ground overlooking the camp, where the shrub wasvery thick, I saw two prisoners tied to the self-same tree to which Ihad been tied but a few hours before."
"What were they like?"
"One was an Indian youth. I knew him at once. He was the eldest son ofWhite Eagle, and the other was a stranger to me. He was a paleface inthe garb of an Indian hunter, and he must have been your companion.This only I discovered, for my stay was a brief one, and the reason whyI have remained in the vicinity of the Algonquins is because I have beenhopeful that an opportunity will occur to save them, else they willeither be tortured to death, or carried to the Canada lodges."
"You fill me with joy and with hope, trapper. We must and will savethem! Nothing shall prevent us!" exclaimed Jamie, who was overjoyed atthis good news.
"If only we had White Eagle
and twenty of his Iroquois braves here wemight do something, before it is too late."
"White Eagle will be here with some of his warriors by noon to-morrow,"replied the lad.
"What's that you say? Who has gone for him?"
"Swift Arrow. We dispatched him at dawn yesterday, as soon as we foundthat you were a prisoner." And then Jamie told the old man all heknew--how they had struck the trail of the Algonquins, how the Indianlad had scouted all night, and had crept up to the enemy's camp, andreported that they held as a prisoner a great paleface hunter, who wasthe friend of White Eagle, and how Swift Arrow had departed forassistance. He told all, except his dream.
The hunter was bewildered when he heard all this, but merely remarked--
"Swift Arrow. I know the lad. He has the swiftest foot in all the SixNations, and he will bring the warriors back, but whether they willarrive in time is another matter. And now there is something for us todo."
"What can we do, trapper? Speak, for I am ready. Inaction alone isinglorious, while my comrades are in the hands of those fiends. What canwe do?"
"We must hold the trail till the chief comes up. The Algonquins arepretty sure to clear off quickly, for they are in the hunting-grounds ofthe Iroquois, and my escape will have hurried their departure. Probablythey are already preparing to move. Let us go. But stay, you arefamished, and cannot stand a long journey. We must have breakfast, andthen we will hasten, lest the game should slip through our hands."
They made a hasty breakfast of some dried venison and half-cookedhominy, which the trapper bad snatched from a cooking-pot when hehurried away from the deserted camp; then feeling much refreshed by thisrude but welcome meal, they shouldered their rifles and departed in thedirection of the camp.
They cautiously continued their way through the forest, sometimes wadingin narrow streams in order to hide their trail; sometimes crawling onall fours through the dense undergrowth, till they reached the outskirtsof the camp.
Not a word was spoken during this tedious journey, which took upwards ofan hour, lest a solitary sentinel should discover their approach. Once,indeed, they passed within a hundred feet of a scout, without evenraising his suspicions. At length they paused for a moment to rest atthe bottom of a little densely-wooded hillock, scarce an arrow-flightfrom the camp. They were entirely hidden in the thick shrub, and wereso close to the enemy that they could hear the voices of the Indians,and see the blue smoke curling up from their fire, though the fireitself they could not see, because of the little brow or hillock thatintervened.
Then they crawled from their hiding-place, through the brush to the topof the brow, and looked down upon the encampment. They doffed theirbeaver caps, and only permitted their eyes to peep for an instant at thescene below, lest the sharp glance of a warrior should chance to seethem, but what a thrill came to Jamie's heart!
Thirty or forty braves were standing or lying about, some of them inlittle groups occasionally pointing to the forest. Others wereexamining their rifles and knives, as though expecting to be attacked.A few were hanging over the remains of a feast, the remnants of a deer.But what remained longest in Jamie's memory, during that brief glance,and excited his feelings most, was the sight of his two comrades boundto a huge tree near the middle of the camp. Whether they had alreadysuffered torture or not, or were merely waiting helplessly until suchtime as pleased their captors to commence their vile and fiendishpractices, he knew not; but his own feelings were roused to such a pitchof fury by the sight that it needed all his strength of will to commandhis feelings, and to restrain his desire to rush forward and liberatethe prisoners.
Just at that moment a hand was placed upon his shoulder, and a voicewhispered--
"Come!"
He turned and followed the trapper quietly until they were once moreensconced in their late hiding-place.
They were not a moment too soon, for scarcely had they hidden themselveswhen a scout came along, peering amongst the trees and bushes, as thoughexpecting to find an enemy behind every cover. Suddenly he stoppedalmost opposite to them, and looked suspiciously at the ground.
Something unusual had evidently attracted his attention. What was it?He was within a few feet of their trail. Had he discovered it? It was acritical moment for the two palefaces. A single movement, howeverslight, would betray them. It was dangerous to breathe even, or to stiran inch, for the crackling of a twig would have been fatal. Their verylives hung on a slender thread.