CHAPTER TWO.
A FRIEND IN NEED--HOW TWO PEOPLE MAY LIVE WHILE ONE WILL STARVE--OBEDGOES IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURES, AND I AWAKE TO FIND A RATTLESNAKE CLOSE TOMY NOSE--I AM SAVED--OBED RETURNS, BUT FOLLOWED BY A GENTLEMAN WHOSEROOM WOULD BE MORE PLEASANT THAN HIS COMPANY--OBED CANNOT FIRE, AND ICANNOT RUN, BUT I SAVE HIM BY SITTING STILL--WE ANTICIPATE THE PLEASUREOF DINING ON BEAR'S FLESH--OBED FETCHES AND CARRIES LIKE A DOG, AND WEFARE SUMPTUOUSLY--I TAKE TO CRUTCHES--WE COLLECT STORES AND MAKE ATENT--A RED-SKIN VISITOR.
I kept, as I was saying, my finger on the trigger, and my eye along thebarrel of my rifle, fully expecting to see a Pawnee's red visage appearthrough the bushes. I knew that the dead racoon would betray me; so Iresolved to fight it out to the last, and to sell my life dearly. Iheard footsteps approaching--slowly and watchfully I thought: I peereddown out of my leafy cover; the branches of the surrounding shrubs werepushed aside, and there, instead of the feathers and red face of anIndian, I saw the honest countenance of young Obed Ragget, lookingcautiously about him on every side.
"Obed! Obed! I am here," I sung out; "come and help me, lad." Hesprang on when he heard my voice.
"What, Dick! is that you? Well, I am glad you have escaped, that I am,"he exclaimed, looking up into the tree.
"So am I to see you," I cried; "but help me down, lad, for I cannot helpmyself, I fear."
"That is more than I can do," said he. "Look; the red-skins have shotme through both arms, and I can no more use them than I can fly."
I now observed that he looked very pale and weak, and that both his armshung down uselessly by his side. One thing also I saw, that as he couldnot manage to get up to me, I must contrive to descend the tree to meethim. Tearing, therefore, a neck-kerchief up into strips, I lowered mygun and pistols down by it, and then prepared to descend myself. I madeit secure, as close to the trunk as I could, and grasping the shortboughs which grew out from the trunk, I threw my chief weight upon them,while I steadied myself with the line I had made; keeping my uselesslegs stretched out, lest I should fall on them, I gradually loweredmyself to the foot of the tree. We could not shake hands, but wegreeted each other most warmly. Obed complained bitterly of thirst, forhe had not moved out of the first shelter into which he had crawled, anddid not know how near the stream was. I accordingly put my hat into hismouth, and told him to stoop down where the stream was deepest, and toladle up some water. This he did, and then kneeling down I held the hatto his mouth, while he drank. I took a draught myself, and never have Ienjoyed so much the choicest beverage in my father's house as I did thatcool draught.--I now pointed to the racoon, and asked him if he washungry.
"Very," was his answer; "I could eat that brute raw."
"No need of that," said I; "just collect materials, and we will quicklyhave a fire." Obed understood me, and with his feet soon kickedtogether a pile of sticks and leaves sufficient to make a good fire. Ihad a flint and steel, and we speedily had the bacon spitted androasting on some forked sticks before it in proper woodman's style. Thefood revived us both, and restored our spirits. We neither of us wereinclined to despondency; still we could not help thinking, with sadfeelings, of what might have befallen our friends, and what might tooprobably be our own fate. As Obed could not help himself, he had to sitdown close to me while I fed him; and when we had done, he assisted meto remove myself away from the fire. I then dressed his wounds as wellas I could, bathing them freely in cold water. Some sinews were cutthrough, I suspected, which prevented him from moving his arms, but nobones were broken; and, in consequence of his fine constitution andtemperate habits, I trusted that he would recover the use of them. Iwas in a worse condition, for both my legs were so much hurt that Icould not hope to walk on them for many weeks to come. However, myupper limbs were in good case; and we agreed that, with a pair of strongarms and stout legs between us, we might both get on very well. Obedhad left his gun in the thicket into which he had dragged it when hefell. It was discharged, and so he went for it, bringing it to me inhis teeth, that I might clean and reload it. As he could not use it, heleft it by my side; and we had now our two rifles, and his and myrevolver pistols; so that I felt, with my back to a tree, cripple as Iwas, I might prove a formidable adversary either to man or beast. WhileObed and I sat near the fire, talking over our prospects, we rememberedthat a number of things had dropped from the wagons; so he volunteeredto set out in order to discover whether they had been carried off by theIndians.
"Farewell, Dick," said he, as he rose to go. "If I don't come backyou'll know those varmint redskins have got my scalp; but though I can'tuse my arms, they'll find I can use my legs before they catch me."
With many misgivings I saw him make his way out from the thicket. Whenhe was gone I lay back with my head on my arm, thinking over many of theevents of my past life, and contrasting them with my present condition,till at length my eyes closed, and I forgot all recent events in sleep.I believe that I slept very soundly without stirring my legs or arms.At last my eyes slowly opened, and horrible indeed was the spectaclewhich met them. The embers of the fire were before me, and close to it,as if to enjoy its warmth, lay coiled up a huge rattlesnake not twoyards from me. In an instant of time I felt that its deadly fangs mightbe fixed in my throat. What use to me now were my fire-arms? I darednot move my hand to reach my revolver. I knew that I must not wink evenan eyelid, or the deadly spring might be made. The snake was, I daresay, nearly six feet long. It had a body almost as thick as my leg--ofa yellowish-brown colour, with some dark-brown spots reaching from oneend to the other; and oh, that head, as it slowly raised it with itsvicious eyes to have a look at me! It was of large size, flat, andcovered with scales. I gazed at the rattlesnake, and the rattlesnakegazed at me. What he thought of me I do not know; I thought him a mosthideous monster, and wished him anywhere but where he was. It seemed anage that I thus lay, not daring even to draw a breath. I felt at lastthat I must give up the contest. I prayed for mercy. The oppression onmy chest became almost insupportable. Still I dared not move. Thedeadly reptile stretched out its head--slowly it began to uncoilitself--the dread sound of its rattle struck my ear. I felt that now Imust muster all my nerve and resolution, or be lost; the huge reptilestretched itself out and slowly crawled on--oh, horror!--it passeddirectly over my wounded legs! Not a muscle quivered. I dared not lookup to ascertain whether it was gone. A minute must have elapsed--itseemed to me a much longer time--and then, and not till then, a shoutreached my ear. It was the voice of Obed. Probably the snake had heardit, and it was that, I have no doubt, which made him move away under thebelief that I was a dead person, who at all events could do him no harm.My first impulse was to look round to discover what had become of thesnake. He was nowhere to be seen! My next was to turn my eyes in thedirection whence the shouting proceeded. There I saw Obed rushing alongas fast as his legs could carry him among the trees.
"Be ready with your rifle, Dick," he shouted out at the top of hisvoice; "not a moment to lose, man."
I fully expected to see half a dozen red-skins following close at hisheels, and resolved to defend him to the last, and to sell my own lifedearly, although I had to fight on my stumps, when the boughs of thetrees were torn away behind him, and a huge bear appeared, grinninghorribly, in a great rage, and evidently prepared to do mischief tosomebody or something. Had Obed been able to use his arms, he was thelast person to have placed another in danger for the sake of trying tosave himself. Now, however, he had no choice but to run behind me andthe fire. Bruin trotted on, growling angrily. He was one of thoselong-headed, small-eyed fellows, with pointed nose, clumsy body, andsmooth, glossy, black hair, which have a fancy for pork and ham, andwill put their paws into a corn bin if they find it open. When he gotnear, as he reared up on his hind paws ready for a fight, and came ontowards me, I grasped my rifle and aimed at his head. If I missed him,I should scarcely have had time, I feared, to seize Obed's rifle beforehe would have been upon me. I knew that his body was so encase
d withfat that it would be difficult to wound him vitally through that. Ifired: the bullet hit him in the head, but still he came on, gnashinghis teeth. I lifted my second rifle. I could not well have missed himhad I been standing up or kneeling, but sitting, as I was, it wasdifficult to take a steady aim. He was about ten paces off: again Ifired. I felt sure that I had not missed, but with a terrific growl hebounded on towards me. I had barely time to grasp a revolver when hewas close up to me. Already I felt his hot breath in my face; his hugeclaws had hold of my limbs; he was trying to clasp me round the body:his muzzle, with its sharp teeth, touched on my shoulder. Poor Obed,who was standing behind me, unable to render me assistance, literallyshrieked with fear, not for himself, but for me. In another moment Ifelt that I must be torn to pieces. I mustered all my nerve. It wasmuch wanted. I waited a moment till I could aim steadily at his head.I fired. He gave me a terrific hug. It was his death grapple. As itwas, it very nearly squeezed the breath out of my body. Then he rolledover and lay motionless. I did not roll after him, but lest he shouldonly be shamming 'coon, I dragged myself as far-off as I could to reloadmy weapons.
"No fear, Dick, he's dead," cried Obed joyfully. "Well, you're a friendat a pinch, as I always thought you."
It would not have been in his way to express his thanks by more thanthis, still I knew by his looks that he was grateful to me. In realityI had only fought in self-defence, so I do not know that he had anythingto thank me for.
"Old Bruin will afford us many a good dinner, at all events, I hope,"said I. "And do you know, Obed, you and the bear saved my life just nowbetween you." And then I told him how his shouts had, I believed,scared away the rattlesnake. "So you see, old fellow, we are quits."
Obed having ascertained by a hearty kick that Bruin was really dead, Iattached my rope to his waist and then to the bear, and by its means wedragged the carcass a little way from our camping-ground. He then cameback and helped me along that I might cut some steaks for our supper.We cooked them in the same way we had done the racoon. While theoperation was going forward he gave me an account of his adventures. Hehad found a number of things which had fallen from the wagon, and,wonderful to relate, they were untouched. There was the skin tent whichwe had not put into the wagon, and a cask of flour and one of beef, and,what we thought of still more value, a bag of bullets and some smallshot, and a keg of powder, besides another rifle and an axe; whilefarther on, he said that there were several other smaller articles alongthe road the wagon had gone. It was close to the cask of flour he hadencountered Bruin, who had undoubtedly been attracted to the spot withthe hope of appropriating it. One prize Obed brought in his mouth; itwas a tin saucepan, and very valuable we found it. Our difficulty wasnow to collect all these things. Obed offered to try and drag themtogether to one spot, if he could but manage to hook himself on to them.That day we could do nothing; so that after he had collected a largesupply of firewood, we placed our backs to a tree and commendedourselves to the care of that great God who had so mercifully preservedour lives. We agreed that one should watch while the other slept, andmost faithfully did we keep our pledge to each other. Several dayspassed without any great variation in our mode of proceeding. We cutthe bear up into thin slices, and dried them in the sun. Obed also wentround about the wood and drove in the wild turkeys, racoons, squirrels,and other small game, which I shot. We were thus supplied with meat.There were also plenty of herbs, the nature of which both he and I knew,and which, though not of delicate flavour, were wholesome, and helped tokeep us in health. The weather also was very fine, and thus severaldays passed away. At last I bethought me that if I could make a pair ofcrutches, I might, with Obed's help, get over the ground. Two youngsaplings, towards which I dragged myself, were soon cut down, and in acouple of days I was once more upright. I could only at first move veryslowly, and with great dread of falling; but by constant practice, inthe course of a week I thought I might venture out of the wood. Obed'sarms were also gaining strength, and one of them he could already use alittle, and was thus enabled to help me. I slung the rifles over hisback, and, sticking the revolvers in my belt, off we set together. Wemoved slowly, but still we went ahead. At last we reached the tent. Itstruck us at once that it would be well to pitch it where it lay on ourold camping-ground. Wherever we might be Indians would find us out, sothat it would make no difference whether we were in or out of the wood,and we might see either emigrants to California moving west, or the postto one of the forts, and thus obtain assistance. Obed and I soon got upthe tent. I sat down, and he made his shoulders serve as a prop while Istuck in the pole, and thus in a few minutes we had a comfortable roofover our heads.
While we were at work, it struck me that if I could make a sort ofsleigh, it would facilitate the operation of bringing in our goods. Iset to work immediately, and in the course of two days, manufactured amachine which answered our purpose. The season was advancing, thenights were getting cold, and there was no time to be lost in collectingthe articles which we might require to preserve our lives through thewinter, should no one, before it set in, pass that way to rescue us.Accordingly, we once more proceeded on our expedition. Sometimes Iwalked on my crutches, and at others Obed dragged me along on thesleigh. Certainly we were a notable example of the advantage of twopeople working in concert. Alone we must have perished; together,though injured so severely, we were able to live and comfort each other.We never had even the slightest dispute; and though surrounded bydifficulties and dangers, and anxious about our friends, we were farfrom unhappy. I have often thought that if people who are living in themidst of all sorts luxuries and advantages would but follow the exampleof Obed Ragget and me, they would be very much the happier.
Our first care was to get the kegs of powder and shot, for our stock wasalmost exhausted; and with those, and a bundle of blankets, we returnedto our tent.
To make a long story short, in the course of a week we had collectedeverything to be seen; and had settled ourselves very comfortably in ournew home. We also surrounded our tent with stacks of firewood, whichwould serve as a barricade should we be attacked, at any time, by thered-skins.
The exertion we went through, however, had fatigued us excessively, andopened our wounds afresh; so that for some days we were unable to quitthe precincts of our tent. We had made ourselves beds by placing sticksclose together on the ground, and covering them with leaves, over whichwe spread our blankets; and we agreed, as we lay stretched out on them,that we were much better off than many poor fellows who had not beds tolie on. I crawled out occasionally to light the fire, and to cook ourfood, while Obed had to go to the river to get water. To prevent thenecessity of doing this so frequently, after we were both a littlerested, we emptied our beef cask, and carried it down on the sleigh tothe river, that we might fill it with water. This being done, we foundthat we had over-calculated our strength, and had once more to take toour beds. Several days more passed away, during which we scarcelymoved. Obed, too, had become very silent. I saw that something waspassing in his mind. After a time I asked him what it was.
"Why, Dick," said he, "I'm thinking that though we seem to have a goodsupply of food, it won't last two hungry fellows all the winter, even ifwe were to put ourselves on half allowance. Now my arms will soon bewell, and if I could make my way to one of the forts, I might bring youassistance. I'll take a supply of powder and shot, and keep my eyesopen to look out for the red-skins. What do you say to it?"
I told him that I did not like the idea of his running so great a riskfor my sake.
"Oh, don't fear for me," he replied; "it's right that it should be done,I'm certain of that, so I'll do it."
I said nothing more. I knew when Obed thus expressed himself, he was inearnest. Several more days rolled slowly by. We slept a good deal inthe daytime; perhaps under our circumstances it was the best thing wecould do. One afternoon I had been asleep some time, and Obed wassnoring away on the other side of the tent, when I opened my eyes, an
dthen I saw, glaring at me through the doorway of the tent, the hideouscountenance of a red-skin warrior, horribly covered with paint anddecked with coloured feathers. While with his left hand he lifted upthe curtain, in his right he grasped his tomahawk, which quivered with_his_ eagerness to take possession of our scalps.