CHAPTER XXIII.
DRIFTING AWAY.
The bullet of the treacherous Indian had indeed whizzed harmlessly bythe head of Tim O'Rooney and when he fell to the bottom of the canoe itwas for the purpose of preventing any more of their missiles passing toonear him.
The savages, hastily driven to shelter by the unexpected shot from theisland, did not by any means relinquish their designs upon theunfortunate white man in the canoe. He who had taken the quick aim andfired saw that his bullet missed, but he understood the disadvantage ofhis enemy, and was confident that he would still fall into their hands.
As we have shown, when the Irishman was thus suddenly interrupted, hewas but a short distance from the shore. So abruptly compelled torelinquish his paddle and simply shelter his person, the current carriedhim quite rapidly down the stream.
Tim did not become sensible of his disadvantage until he had driftedbelow the island, and then upon partly rising to use his paddle thecrack of a gun from the shore told him that he was watched by vigilanteyes, and that _that_ occupation was vetoed most unmistakably.
Forced thus to act entirely on the defensive, he carefully drew out hisrifle and resting it on the body of his game waited his chance to avengehimself upon the unrelenting savages. He could tell from the faint bluesmoke that curled upward where they were concealed, but could not catchsight of them.
Had they shown themselves, the Irishman knew it was about impossible forhim to harm them at such a distance, while their dexterity in the use ofthe gun made it too dangerous for him to expose himself to their fire.He watched them until he had floated quite a way below, when he began tohope that they had given up their designs upon him, and he might makehis way back to his friends upon the island in safety.
But when on the point of rising to a sitting position he saw them whiskthrough the bushes he knew they were following him along theshore--following him, too, with that skill and stealth which preventedhis getting a shot at them, and placing it totally out of his power toprevent himself from being "commanded by their fire."
As may well be imagined, Howard and Elwood were deeply interestedspectators of these events. Now that they had revealed their presenceupon the island, and there was no further use in attempting to concealthe fact, they were eager to render their companion all the assistancepossible.
But the nature of the occurrences made them helpless. Tim had driftedsuch a distance down stream, and had consequently drawn his enemies sofar after him, that they had not the slightest chance of reaching themwith their rifles, if they chose to expose themselves. They could onlywatch, therefore, and pray for their safety.
Floating slowly onward, onward, they observed that Tim's canoe graduallyswerved to the left until it disappeared around a curve in the river. Itcrossed the center and was nearer the western than the eastern shore.This seemed to show that, despite his unfavorable situation, he was ableto impart a motion to the boat, which, slight as it was, wouldeventually bring him to the opposite side of the stream.
Nothing more was seen of the Indians, although the report of severalguns, heard within a half-hour of the disappearance of the canoe,prevented their feeling too sanguine over the position of Tim O'Rooney.
"We can now see the blunder he committed," said Howard. "He did wrong ingoing to the eastern bank when he could have secured his game as wellupon the other side."
"I think he will be able to get away, unless they have a canoe withwhich to follow him."
"Even then he can take to the woods and hide himself until dark, andthen make his way back to us."
"I hope so, but fear he will be prevented or overtaken before he canreach shelter."
"But think, Howard, he has a gun and plenty of ammunition, and there arebut three of them. I should say they would hesitate some time beforeadvancing upon him."
"But he is a poor shot, like ourselves."
"He could not miss them if they came very close to him."
"Yes; there seems to be a good chance, if they don't find more Indiansto unite with them in the hunt."
This was a contingency that had not occurred to Elwood, and he wasalmost overwhelmed at its import until he came to reason upon it, whenthe likelihood of such being the case dwindled away until it almostvanished.
"We have seen no large bodies of savages, and I don't believe they careenough about catching or slaying a single man to go to all thattrouble."
"Not so much trouble, perhaps, as you are apt to think. War is thebusiness of the American Indians, you know, as it is of all barbarouspeople."
"But look at Ned Trimble and his friends. There are but three of them,and I have no doubt that their security is in their strength--otherwisethey would not be so indifferent as to what is going on around them. Youremember they did not see us until we first spoke to them."
"So it appeared; but I have an idea that they knew of our presencebefore Tim discovered them."
"They did not show it, at any rate."
"They looked surprised when we came up, but if we had been enemiesinstead of friends I believe we would have been the surprised parties.They have lived too long in the wilds of California to permit a party ofstrangers to steal upon them unaware."
"But what is to become of us if Tim doesn't come back?"
"We shall have to put ourselves under the care of Shasta--that is, if hegets well."
"Why do you call him _Shasta_? Where did you hear that name?"
"The only word I have heard him speak sounded like that, and I do notknow of any better name. Can you think of one?"
"No; that is good enough; let him be called Shasta, then. There may be agreater Providence in our coming upon this island than we imagine."
"There is a Providence in everything that occurs, though it may be thatwe are not always able to see it. Do you remember the copy we had sooften at school, 'Misfortunes are often blessings in disguise?'"
"Yes; but like the truths that were driven into our heads so often atschool, we fail to appreciate them until some occasion like thisimpresses them upon our minds. But I declare, Howard, we are turningphilosophers."
"What better can we do, when there is nothing else to employ ourselvesabout? We need all our philosophy at such a time."
"But we must not forget our patient, Shasta."
"True. He had gone almost out of my mind until you referred to him amoment ago. Let us look at him."
The two had been stationed near the lower end of the island, and theynow walked back to where they had left the suffering stranger. What wastheir surprise to see him standing on his feet, his blanket wrappedaround him, and his attitude and position such as to raise a strongsuspicion that he understood all that had taken place within the lasthour or two.