A MESSAGE
Jack's chagrin was deepened the more he reflected upon the singular
occurrence. Had he been outwitted by some skillfully-executed trick
of the Indians, he would have accepted it as a mishap liable to
overthrow the most experienced ranger of the woods; but he felt he
ought to have known on the instant that no real bear would have
attempted anything of the kind.
There was not a phase of the artifice which was not a reproach to
him. Had the beast used the enclosure as a den or a retreat--a
thing of itself incredible--the evidence of that fact would have
been noticed the moment the boys climbed within. Then the
likelihood of his clambering up the inclined tree in the presence of
a war party of Shawanoes and Miamis, who had laid it for that very
purpose, was too grotesquely absurd to be thought of with patience.
"Maybe it is as well," he said, with an effort to extract some
consolation from the blunder; "for perhaps it will lead them to
repeat the trick."
"Mine gracious! why didn't he drop down onto mine bead?" said Otto,
stepping hastily away from his position; "he would have mashed me
out as flat as---as--as a big tree itself."
"I don't see why they didn't form a procession of bears and walk
right over among us? We would have stood still and allowed them to
hug us to death."
Admitting the only explanation that presented itself, Jack and Otto
were not yet able fully to account for the proceeding. The labor of
dragging the fallen trunk and lifting the butt to the wall, seemed
too great to suppose it was to be used only to allow one of the
Indians to climb to the top and peer over upon the boys beneath.
The same thing could be accomplished by ascending one of the trees
and avoiding the peril to which some of them had been exposed.
But, beside all that, what in reality was gained by taking a peep at
the youths? The assailants knew they were there, and it could not
matter a jot in what particular manner they were employing
themselves. They could do nothing that could give those on the
outside the slightest concern. It was the defenders whose interests
required the anticipation of the movements of the warriors.
"I can't understand it," said Jack, standing close to his friend and
talking in a low voice.
"So ain't I--harks!"
They listened a full minute, but the silence could not have been
more profound. A gentle wind stirred the leaves overhead, and the
tops of the trees nearest them could be seen slightly swaying
against the clear sky beyond. The murmur of the great forest was
like the voice of silence itself while the almost inaudible murmur
of the Mississippi, sweeping so near, made itself manifest the first
time since they had turned at bay.
The deep quiet was more impressive than the whoops and screeches of
the warriors would have been. Under such circumstances, it boded
mischief, and the utter uncertainty of its nature almost unsettled
the remarkable courage both up to that moment had displayed.
"I hears nodings," added Otto; "I'mebbe don't go to sleep and wait
for the night to come."
"Night is a good many hours off," replied Jack, with an uneasy
glance at the sky, which showed him the sun had not yet reached
meridian; "they can beat any people in the world waiting, when they
have a mind to do so, but there's been no necessity of halting at
all. If they had followed up over the logs it would have been all
ended by this time."
"Yaw; they would have tumbled all over us, like a pig lot of trees
falling down, but now I dinks they waits."
"Why will they do that?"
"If dey climbs over like as dey didn't does, don somepody git hurt,
but if dey holds on till night den we'll have to climb over and
falls on 'em."
This was Otto's manner of expressing what was inevitable, in case
the besiegers should conclude to wait for the hour, which could not
be very distant, when the defenders must lose all power of
resistance.
The two did not forget to keep a continuous guard over the
"watch-towers" of the enemy. Despite the repulse that had followed
their attempts, it was by no means uncertain that they would not
repeat them. The success of the bear trick was likely to tempt them
to another essay in the same direction.
Otto Relstaub was leaning against the solid logs, his position such
that the sun, which was now near meridian, shone directly upon him.
His friend was almost immediately opposite--the two looking in each
other's face, and exchanging words in low tones.
All at once the German became sensible of something cool just behind
his neck.
"Vot ain't dot?" he said, putting up his hand as though to brush
away some insect. Striking nothing, he turned to look.
"O-oh-oh!" he said, with a wondering expression, and an expansion of
his big, honest eyes.
"There's an opening behind you," remarked his friend, moving hastily
across to where he stood.
"Yaw; I sees him. Where's he been hiding himself when I voon't
looking for him not a little while ago."
It certainly was curious that both boys should have made such a
minute examination of the interior without finding the crevice
between a couple of the logs, large enough to admit the passage of
several bullets, and through which it would have been an easy matter
for their enemies to shoot him who stood immediately in front.
The opening was some six inches wide, and no more than an eighth of
an inch in height, resembling the crevice through which the captain
looks out upon the enemy from the turret of a monitor. The fact
that the red men had made no use of it was proof they did not
suspect its existence, though that did not lessen the wonder of Otto
that he had failed to find it himself, when making search.
"I see!" suddenly exclaimed Jack, who was attentively examining the
place. "No wonder you missed it, for it was closed up. You must
have rubbed one of your long ears against the stick which fits it so
closely."
The piece with which it had been closed lay on the ground, at the
feet of the boys, and made clear why they had failed to find that
for which they had hunted so carefully.
Jack cut the stick apart with his knife and reinserted one half with
a view of rendering it less liable to attract the notice of the
besiegers. Then, quite sure that it was still unknown to them, he
leaned forward with his eye to the opening.
"While I'm peeping here keep a lookout elsewhere, Otto."
His friend nodded, to signify he would be obeyed, and then Jack took
a survey of his surroundings.
It so happened that he stood nearly under the tree which leaned
against the wall, and thus gained a good view. He certainly saw
enough to interest the most indifferent spectator. Five painted
Indian warriors were seen standing around what seemed to be a
dancing bear, who was gesticulating with his fore paws. Suddenly he
cast off the shaggy hide and revealed the redskin who bad made the
audacious ascent on the log in his disguise and peeped over on the
boys below.
He seemed to be talking with his friends, while the whole half dozen
were gesticulating with great energy, though, in spite of their
excitement, their words were spoken so low that our friends could
hear little more than the jumbling murmur of their voices.
No doubt more Indians were close at hand, but Jack saw none. He
stealthily removed the other part of the stick, and thereby widened
his view considerably, but he still failed to discover anything
more. His vision took in the tree up which Deerfoot had climbed,
but nothing was to be observed of him, or of any others gathered
around the base.
Convinced that they were on the other side of the fort, Jack gave
his whole attention to those before him.
It looked very much as if the author of the trick described was
regaling his friends with an account of the highly successful manner
in which he had played his points on the unsuspecting parties within
the enclosure.
Jack was convinced that the rifle-shot which he and his friend
heard, before rushing into the refuge, was the one that slew the
bear. The Indians had hastily skinned the animal, probably
completing the task near the time they became aware of the presence
or rather the flight of the two boys. They had united in the
pursuit, taking the bear-skin with them, and its use in the manner
described was suggested by the prostrate tree lying so close to the
logs, though even that theory failed fully to satisfy the questions
of the youth.
Another interesting discovery was that he had seen two of the
Shawanoes before. He had no difficulty in recognizing them as those
who had shown such eagerness to follow the trail of the hunter that
had shot the panther some distance back on the path.
The warrior who had masqueraded in the character of a big, black
bear belonged to the Miami tribe, the representatives of the two
joining hands in the crusade against the young pioneers. Neither
the wounded red man nor the one who was past wounding was to be seen
anywhere.
The vigorous and somewhat suppressed conversation among the group
continued a few minutes and then abruptly stopped. The entire party
seemed to have become "talked out" the same instant.
"Now they will hatch up some more mischief," was the thought of the
watcher. "I don't think it likely they will send that bear up the
tree again. If they do he will come down a little quicker than he
goes up."
The sensations of the young Kentuckian were very peculiar, when he
became aware that the Shawanoe who had displayed so much skill in
hunting for his footprints in the twilight was looking directly
toward him. He seemed in fact to be gazing into the eyes of the
youth, as though he was striving to stare him out of countenance.
Jack would have been glad at that moment had the opening been
hermetically sealed; but, hopeful that he was not seen, he held his
place, not stirring in the slightest, and striving to the utmost to
keep from winking his eyes.
The singular tableau lasted much less time than the boy imagined.
All at once the hum of conversation was renewed, every one of the
half dozen seeming to be seized with the impulse at the same moment.
He who had been gazing so steadily at Jack looked in the face of one
of his comrades. Instantly the boy moved to one side and replaced
the rest of the stick, so that the crevice was closed once more.
"There," he exclaimed, with a sigh, "I never was placed in a more
trying situation than that."
"Vot voon't dot?"
Jack quickly told his experience, and his companion shuddered and
shrugged his shoulders in sympathy.
"Have you seen any of them among the trees?"
"No. They vill not go to roost, I dinks, till the sun comes down."
"It won't do to calculate on that. If they wait they will try some
new tricks."
"Vot can't them try?"
"The trouble is we cannot guess. You know the Indians are so
cunning that they will think out something--"
Zip!
Both boys started and looked around. Something had entered the
enclosure like a bullet fired from a gun.
"Look!" whispered Jack, pointing to the other side, where an Indian
arrow was seen sticking in the logs, at a point half way between the
ground and the top.
"I dinks they used guns and not arrows," said the astonished, Otto,
standing motionless and staring at the missile, whose barb was still
trembling from the force with which it had been driven into the
solid wood.
"They do use guns only," said Jack. "That arrow was fired by
Deerfoot!"
"Dere is one piece of paper tied around mit it."
"It is a message from Deerfoot!" said Jack, stepping forward and,
with considerable effort, drawing forth the arrow.