Retreating from the edge of the cliff with the same caution as they had
approached it, the two mountain men rejoined their companions in ambush.
'Lije, after making known his design, led them toward the pass of which
he had spoken--a sloping ravine, the same up which Snively had made his
vain attempt at escaping.
Screened by the scrub-cedars, the trapper party succeeded in descending
it, without being perceived either by the Indians below, or the captives
over whom these were keeping but careless watch.
Their sudden appearance upon the plain was a surprise to both: to the
latter a joyful sight; to the former a terrible apparition--for they saw
in it the quick harbinger of death.
Not a shot was fired by the assailants. On the moment of their feet
touching the plain, they flung aside their guns; and, drawing daggers
and knives, went at the Indian sentinels, in a hurried but silent
slaughter.
There was grappling, struggling, and shouts; but the attacking party
outnumbered those attacked; and in less than ten minutes' time the
shouting ceased--since there was not a living Indian upon the ground to
continue it. Instead was the green meadow sward strewn with dead
bodies, every one of them showing a bronze-coloured skin, horribly
enamelled with gashes or gouts of crimson blood!
The captives were in raptures of joy. They saw that their rescue was
complete. The whites, both men and women, sprang to their feet, and
struggled with their fastenings--wishing to have their arms free in
order to embrace their preservers; while the negroes, none of whom were
bound, came pouring forth out of the _cul-de-sac_, where they had been
hitherto penned up, uttering frenzied shouts.
"Keep yur groun' an' stop yur durned shoutin'!" cried 'Lije, with a
gesture waving them back. "Don't one 'o ye stir out o' yur places.
Back, back, I say! Stay as ye wur, till we gie ye the word. An' you
alser," he continued, running to the other side and checking the forward
movement of the whites, "hunker down jest as ye did afore. We haint
finished this show bizness yit. Thar's another scene o' it to kum."
Both negroes and whites were a little surprised, at being thus
restrained from the full ebullition of their joy. But the earnest tone
of the old trapper, sustained as it was by the gestures of his
companions, had its effect upon them; and all at once cowered back into
their original position. What was the intention they could not guess;
but, released from the agony of fear, they were willing to wait for it
with patience.
They soon beheld a spectacle, so strange as almost to restore them to
terrified thought. They saw the dead bodies of the Indians raised from
their recumbent position; set up beside their long spears, that had been
previously planted in the ground; and lashed to these in such a manner
as to sustain them in an erect attitude. There were distributed here
and there over the sward, most of them close to the captives, as if
still keeping guard over them! Those not so disposed of were dragged
off, and hidden away behind the large boulders of rock that lay along
the base of the cliff.
"Now!" thundered the old trapper, addressing his speech to the captives,
white as well as black, "ef one o' ye stir from the spot ye're in, or
venturs to show sign o' anythin' thet's tuk place, till ye git the word
from me, ye'll hev a rifle bullet sent plum through ye. The gurl hez
got to be rescooed 'ithout harm done to her; an' I reck'n she's wuth
more than the hul o' ye thegither. Thar's but one way o' savin' her,
an' thet's by yur keepin' yur heads shet up, an' yur karkidges 'ithout
stirrin' as much as a finger. So don't make neery movement, ef ye vally
yur preecious lives. Ye unnerstan' me?"
The captives were too much controlled to make rejoinder; but they saw,
by the earnestness of the old trapper, that his commands were to be
obeyed; and silently resolved to obey them.
After delivering the speech, 'Lije turned toward his trapper
companions--all of whom knew what was meant; and who, without waiting
word or sign, rushed toward their rifles--still lying on the ground.
In a few seconds they had regained them; and, in less than five minutes
after, not a trapper was to be seen about the place. They had
disappeared as suddenly as sprites in a pantomime; and the little valley
seemed suddenly restored to the state in which it had been left, when
the pursuers of Clara Blackadder swept out of it. Any one glancing into
it at that moment could have had no other thought, than that it
contained the captives of an emigrant train, with their Indian captors
keeping guard over them.