CHAPTER VIII
I begin my Letters to my Mother and start my Fortifications: then Ivery foolishly go away, meet with an Accident, and see Something whichthrows me into the utmost Terror.
The next day, the nineteenth of December, was Sunday. I had been leftalone (or, rather, let me say the truth, I had like a fool refused togo) on Friday, which seems in this case to have been unlucky for me,however it may ordinarily be. I woke up early, half cramped with theweight of the bed-clothes, I had piled on so many; but I was none toowarm, either. I put out my drawbridge and got back to the hotel andstarted the fire. Outside the thermometer stood close to thirty-fivedegrees below zero, but the sun was rising bright and dazzling into aclear, blue sky.
Kaiser's leg was no better, and Pawsy was still nervous and keptlooking at the windows as if she expected wolves to bolt inhead-first; and I did not blame her much. It seemed to me that thewolves had howled most of the night. I only wished that the timberbeyond Frenchman's Butte and the coteaux and the Chain of Lakes were ahundred miles away, for without them there would have been no wolves,or nothing but little prairie wolves or coyotes, which, of course,don't amount to much.
As soon as my own fire was started I went about town and got theothers going; this I called "bringing the town to life." As I stood atthe depot and watched the long columns of smoke from the chimneys itscarcely seemed that I was the only inhabitant of the town. After Ihad had breakfast and done up the work at the barn, I sat down in theoffice and was glad enough that it was Sunday. I suddenly thought of away to spend the day, and in ten minutes I was at something which Idid every Sunday while I stayed at Track's End.
This was to write a letter to my mother, stamp and direct it, and dropit in the slot of the post-office door. Of course it would not govery soon, but if nothing happened it would go some time; and, Ithought, if I am killed or die in this dreadful place, the letters maybe the only record she will ever have of my life here.
I accordingly set to work and wrote her a long letter, telling herfully everything that had happened so far, but without much of myfears for the future. I told her I was sorry that I had got myselfinto such a scrape, but that, now being in, I meant to go through itthe best I could.
The next morning, Monday, I began work on my fortifications, by whichname I included everything that would help to keep off invaders. Istarted two more fires, one in Townsend's store, at the south end ofthe street, and the other in Joyce's store, at the north end of townand nearly opposite the harness shop. I made another visit toTaggart's, and found some barrels of kerosene, which I needed, andmore ammunition. Still another thing was a number of door-keys, sothat I made up a string of them with which I could unlock almost everydoor in town. In Joyce's, besides groceries and such things, I found abuffalo overcoat, which I took the liberty of borrowing for thewinter. It was so large for me that it almost touched the ground, butit was precisely what I needed, and, I think, once saved my life; andthat before long.
I kept at the fortification-work for four days pretty steadily, thoughI did not use the best judgment in picking out what to do first. I wasfascinated, boy-like, with the tunnel idea, when, I think, with theknowledge I then had, it would have been wiser to have paid moreattention to some other things; but, as luck would have it, it allcame out right in the end. I boarded up a few of the windows, but notmany, and did nothing whatever at providing a secret retreat in caseof fire, though I had a plan in mind which I thought was good. Worstof all, I left the Winchesters about here and there without anyparticular attempt at hiding them. But I kept at the tunnel hammer andtongs.
There were two front windows in the hotel office. At one of these thesnow came only a little above the sill, which was the one where thewolf had come in; but the other was piled nearly to the top. It waseven higher against the bank front opposite, and at no place in thestreet between was it less than four feet deep. Both buildings stoodalmost flat on the ground. I took out the lower sash of the window inthe hotel and began work. I made the tunnel something over two feetwide and about four high, except where the drift was no more thanthis, where I did not think it safe to have the tunnel over three feethigh. The snow was packed remarkably hard, and, as it all had to becarried out through the office in a basket and emptied in the street,it was slow work. But at last, on Thursday evening, it was done, andKaiser and I passed through it; but nothing could induce the cat tocome nearer than the window. I was very proud of my work, and wentthrough the tunnel twenty times with no object whatever.
The next morning I ought to have gone at other fortification-work, butinstead I thought up the foolish notion that I ought to go out to BillMountain's to see if Pike had got our letter and had left any inreply. It was Friday, the day before Christmas, and I thought that theholiday would be more satisfactory if I knew about this; though, totell the truth, I had not worried much about the gang's coming sinceI had been so taken up with the tunnel. I had been so careless that Imight have been surprised twenty times a day.
It was a pleasant morning, and not very cold. Andrew had left behind apair of skees, or Norwegian snow-shoes--light, thin strips of wood,four inches wide and eight or ten feet long--and, though I had neverbeen on them but once or twice, I determined to use them in going. Ifixed the fires well, made everything snug about town, gave the stockin the barn some extra feed, put on my big overcoat, with a luncheonin one pocket and Sours's revolver in the other, and started. Kaiser'sleg was still a little stiff, but I let him go along.
I think I fell down three times before I got out of town; it was asmany as this at least; and outside of town, there being more room, Ifell oftener. But I soon began to improve and get along better. Idecided to follow the railroad grade west, as it was most of the wayhigher than the prairie, and the snow on it was smoother.
When I got opposite Mountain's I found the grade some ten or twelvefeet above the prairie, but it looked a very easy matter to slidedown on the skees. I had seen Andrew go down the steep side ofFrenchman's Butte. I accordingly slid, went wrong, fell, turned myankle, and found myself on the hard snow at the bottom unable to standon my feet.
I lay still some time thinking that perhaps my ankle might get better;but it got worse. It was still almost half a mile to Mountain's, butit was over two miles back to town. I felt that I might be able tocrawl the half-mile, so I started, with the skees on my back. I hope Imay never again have to do anything so slow and painful. Kaiser wasprodigiously excited, and jumped around me and barked and said asplainly as words that he would like to help if he could. But, though Ithought a hundred times that I should never reach there, I keptburrowing and floundering along and did accomplish it at last. It wasfar past noon. The sky had clouded over. I saw a new letter behind theboard, but could not rise up to get it. I pushed open the door,crawled to the heap of hay by the stove, and lay on it, moremiserable, it seemed, than ever before.
I scarcely stirred till I noticed that it was beginning to get dark.Then I crept to the door and looked out; the snow was falling fast andin big flakes. I shut the door and crawled back to the hay. Thereseemed to be nothing to do. I knew I could not keep up a hay fire,even if I could start one. Besides, I had a sudden fear that some ofthe Pike gang might visit the shanty to look for an answer to theirletter, and I thought if I simply lay still I might escape, even ifthey did come. I ate part of my luncheon, and gave Kaiser part. Then Idrew my big overcoat around me as best I could, made the dog lie closeup to me on the hay, and tried to sleep.
My ankle pained me a good deal, and the bed was not comfortable. Ithought as I lay there that my mother and father and all the folks athome must then be at the church for the Christmas-tree; and I couldsee the lights, and the bright toys on the tree, and all the boys andgirls I knew getting their presents and laughing and talking; and thesinging and the music of the organ came to me almost as if I had beenthere. Then I thought of how, if I were home, later I should hang upmy stocking and find other gifts in it in the morning, and of what apleasant time Christmas was at home.
r /> Every few minutes a sharp twinge of pain in my ankle would bring meback to my deplorable condition there in that deserted shack sunk inthe frozen snow, and I would be half ready to cry; but, with all mythinking of both good and bad, I did at last get to sleep. Once, sometime in the night, I woke up with a jump at a strange, unearthly,whooping noise which seemed to be in the room itself, but at last Imade it out to be an owl to-whooing on the roof. Again I heard wolves,very distant, and twenty times in imagination there sounded in my earsthe tramp of Pike's horses.
When morning came I crawled to the door again. There were six inchesof soft, new snow, but the sun was rising clear, and there were nosigns of a blizzard. I got back to the hay and for a long time rubbedmy ankle. I thought it was a little better. I ate the rest of the foodand called myself names for ever having left the town. The fires, Iknew, were out, and everything invited an attack of the robbers, whileI lay crippled in a cold shack two miles away, on the road along whichthey would come and go. I had been in no greater terror at any timesince my troubles began than I was now on this Christmas morning.
Perhaps it was nine o'clock when I noticed that Kaiser was acting verypeculiarly. He stood in the middle of the room with his head loweredand a scowl on his face. Then I saw the hair on his back slowly beginto rise; next he growled. I told him to hush, and waited. I could hearnothing, but I knew there must be good cause for his actions.
At last I could stand it no longer. I dared not open the door, but Iseized one corner of the dry-goods box, drew myself up, and hobbled tothe window, regardless of the pain. Going straight for the town, aquarter of a mile away, were a dozen men on horseback. I could see bytheir trail that they had passed within fifty yards of where I was.