CHAPTER XV.
A FLAG OF TRUCE.
From the woods beyond the barricade the convicts were pouring in arapid fire upon its defenders. Luckily the little band of hunters wereso placed that the shower of bullets pinged harmlessly against thethick logs. Whenever a convict showed an arm or leg one of thedefenders' rifles cracked and a howl of pain from the forest sometimesfollowed the report.
Charley crept to where Walter was crouching, his face flushed and eyesshining as he peered eagerly through a crack between the logs watchingfor a chance to shoot. "Gee, this is great sport," he exclaimed as hecaught sight of his chum. "They are afraid to cross that open spaceand are hiding amongst the trees just wasting powder and lead on theselogs."
Charley looked up thoughtfully at the sun, which was now less than twohours high. "You saw the killing of those innocent Indians," he saidgravely. "It was terrible."
"It was grand the way they stayed to the last man and died that theirchief might escape," declared Walter with boyish enthusiasm.
"Grand but terrible," his chum agreed. "But we must look out forourselves, now. They are not going to let us get back to town, now,with our tale of their crime and whereabouts. We can keep them offfrom this barricade until night, but what then? They have boats now,and can attack by land and water at the same time. We are too few innumbers to defend both ends of the point."
"What can we do, then?" demanded the other.
Charley smiled grimly. "I am not going to trust my own judgment alonethis time, after the terrible mistake I've made. We must scare thosefellows off for a bit and then hold a council to decide on the wisestcourse. Thank goodness we have cartridges to burn. Fill your magazinefull, and when you see me raise my hand pour all sixteen shots into thewood. I'll have the captain do the same at the same time. Chris and Iwill fire while you two are reloading. If we keep that up for a fewminutes, I think we will drive them off long enough to talk over thesituation."
Walter nodded comprehension and began stuffing shells into the magazineof his Winchester.
From him, Charley passed on to the captain and Chris, to whom he gavethe same explanations and instructions. As he took his own placebehind the barricade, the young Indian crawled quietly up beside him.
"Why did you not stay with your father?" said Charley, impatiently.The little Indian drew himself up proudly and recklessly to his fullheight, inviting a storm of bullets, all of which happily missed theirmark. Before the volley could be repeated, Charley pulled him down onthe turf beside him out of danger.
"The chief has awakened from his sleep," said the young Seminole withdignity. "Of the things you had told me and I had seen, I told him alland he believed. Then he bade me come forth, saying, 'Where thebullets sing is the place for the son of a chief.'"
"Then keep close to me and shoot when I do," Charley ordered. Heraised his right hand in the air and the captain's and Chris' riflessent thirty-two bullets zipping and singing in amongst the trees.Before the convicts recovered from their surprise, forty-eight moreleaden messengers whined through the air above them. The effect wasmagical, the convicts ceased their fire, and puzzled and alarmed by thesudden leaden hail, sought shelter behind the largest trees they couldfind.
For ten minutes the hunters poured volley after volley of lead into theforest. Suddenly a white rag tied to a stick was thrust out frombehind a tree.
Instantly Charley gave the signal to stop firing. As it ceased, a manstepped out into the open, bearing the flag of truce in his hand.
Charley laid down his smoking rifle and leaped lightly over thebarricade.
"Don't go to meet him, Charley," Walter implored, "anyone of thosemurderers are likely to take a pot shot at you. Do come back."
"Better listen to the lad, Charley," said the captain, earnestly. "Youcan't count on that gang respecting a truce flag. Don't go, my boy."
But Charley only smiled determinedly. "I want to hear what he has tosay, and I don't want him to see the weak points in our barricade," hesaid, "besides, the other day, I was noticing that fellow coming.Criminal he may be, but he is far too good for the company he's in.I've got a feeling that he would not stand to be a decoy. Here goes,anyway. Don't worry."
Midway of the open space the two met. The convict was a young man,with a dark, handsome face and bold, reckless eyes. He greeted theyoung hunter as coolly as though they were meeting for a pleasantsocial chat.
"I came because the rest were afraid," he explained, cheerfully, eyeingthe other from head to foot with cool assurance. "They are so crookedand treacherous themselves that they think that your companions will doas they would do,--not hesitate to fire on the bearer of a white flag."
"They have a good chance at me now," said Charley with a smile.
The stranger grinned as he skilfully rolled a cigarette with one hand."I gave them to understand before I left that they would have to reckonwith me if they tried any such trick," he remarked, cheerfully. "Iguess that will keep the brutes quiet for a while. But let's get downto business. I have," he said ironically, "the distinguished honor tobe their messenger, but first let me say that, although with that gangof beasts, I am not of them. I've killed my man, but it was in fairfight, and not by a knife in the back. I have no kick coming over whatthe law dealt out to me. Furthermore, if I had known the animals, Iwould have to travel with, I would not have let my longing for freedomdraw me away from the turpentine camp. Lord knows, I wish I was backthere now." His voice, which had grown earnest, dropped again into asarcastic note. "But I am wandering, as I said before, my noble,gallant friends have made me their messenger and agent. It will helpyou to understand their demands if I state that the afternoon's workhas been far from satisfactory. So many of the canoes were overturnedthat the plumes secured will not amount to more than seven hundreddollars where my friends expected to reap as many thousand as the fruitof their labor."
"Come to the point," said Charley, impatiently, his eyes shiftinganxiously to the declining sun.
The other's tone grew still more bitterly sarcastic. "We have beenbitterly disappointed," he declared. "My brave, valiant companionshave suffered sorely in body and spirit. You saw them engage a mightyfleet of a race whose color was an offense in their eyes. It was alsorumored that the fleet contained many thousands of dollars in birdplumes which it was clearly wrong to leave in the possession of thosewho would not know how to spend the money intelligently.
"It is true my dear companions kept in the shelter of the largesttrees, but the incautious ones,--there was an arm barked here and a legscratched there, and pain stalked abroad in our midst. Then, when thebattle was over, judge of the bitterness of mind of my noble comradeswhen they searched the canoes not overturned and found less than sevenhundred dollars' worth of plumes, barely enough for one good right'sdrunk and carouse in town."
Charley was interested in spite of himself in this gay, humorous youngoutlaw, who was so evidently superior to his brutal companions, and hewould have liked to let him come to the point in his own amusing way,but the sun was getting low, and he feared to waste more time. "Cutout your nonsense and come to the point," he said curtly. "What do youwant with us?"
The other dropped his mocking tone. "We want that chief and his boy,whom you are harboring in your camp. According to our Indiancompanion, they own, or know of the hiding-place of, a fortune inplumes. If the plumes are not to be easily reached, we can still holdthe chief and boy for a big ransom. His people will raise it quickenough, for he is a big man among them." He hesitated and then wenton. "The gang said for me to tell you, if the chief and boy were givenup, your party would not be troubled further."
Charley smiled incredulously. "And what do you say?" he demanded.
"That whether you give them up or not, you are all as good as dead,"exclaimed the other in a burst of frankness. "Good Lord, boy, do youdream that they figure on letting any eyewitness escape to a town andset the officers of law on their trail? You can hold them off he
reuntil night, but when darkness comes you'll be wiped out like theblowing out of a candle."
Charley laid his hand on the other's arm. "You are too good for thatgang, better come over to our side," he said, earnestly.
The young outlaw hesitated for the fraction of a second, then shook offthe hand roughly. "No matter how bad they are, they are my comrades,and I am no traitor," he said curtly. "Your answer, please."
"Tell them we will not give up the chief or boy," said the young envoyearnestly. "Tell them that they have not got us yet by a long shot.Tell them that the one object we are going to work for from now on, isto get them back into the hands of the law."
The young outlaw gave him a look of admiration. "You've got the nerve,all right," he said. "Well, so long, till we meet again," and whirlingaround he sauntered slowly off in the direction of the forest, merrilywhistling as he went.
Charley for a moment looked after him regretfully, then turning, hequickly rejoined his companions behind the barricade.