Signs of trouble――Reconnoitring――Precautions――We retire into the
island――Daylight――The enemy shows himself――A search――He prepares to
attack the island――A midnight storm――The raft――“Aim low and fire
fast”――In the whirl of waters――On the lip of the fall――The end of
crime.
When we got back to the camp near the lake the scout had news that at
once excited the suspicions of Red Cloud. He had gone, he said, back
upon our trail towards where we had entered the valley, to look for one
of our horses which had strayed in that direction. He had found the
missing animal, but during the search he had observed a single white
wolf standing on the edge of a thicket some distance away. Endeavouring
to approach the place in order to get a shot at this beast, he had
found the animal gone, and no trace of trail or footmark could he see,
but he had noticed the impression of a moccasined foot in the soft
clay of the thicket. When he first had noticed this solitary wolf, it
appeared to him to be standing three parts within the thicket, only the
head and portion of the neck being visible.
Such was the story which roused the suspicions of the Sioux.
The north side of the valley was bounded by a wooded ridge, which
commanded a view of the trail by which we had approached our present
camp. To this ridge Red Cloud directed his steps, having first taken
the precaution to have the horses driven in from the farther end of the
meadow to the close vicinity of the camp, and our baggage made ready
for any sudden shift of quarters that might be necessary. The Iroquois
remained in camp; the scout was to join us on the look-out ridge.
As Red Cloud was fully convinced that our movements were even now under
the observation of hostile eyes, he directed that we were to separate
as though in pursuit of game, and by circuitous routes gain the points
of observation selected. He believed that the object seen by the scout
had been a Sircie disguised under the head and skin of a white wolf;
these masks were often adopted by the plain Indians, when reconnoitring
previous to an attack. They enabled the Indian scout to approach a
camp, to lurk along a ravine, or to show himself upon the sky-line of a
hill-top, when no other means of concealment could be used.
If the Sioux’s surmise was correct, the hostile party to which this
wolf-scout belonged was not far away, and it was likely that ere the
evening closed in some indication of its presence would be noticeable.
From the top of the look-out hill a view was obtained of the trail
leading to our camp, the only path by which men coming from the east
could enter the valley of the lake and meadow; but no sign of man,
hostile or peaceful, was visible; and the summer winds as they stole
gently through the whispering pines, alone made audible sound in the
solitude. Nevertheless the suspicions of the Sioux were not to be
allayed by the quiet aspect of the trail by which our camp could be
approached.
None knew better than he that if the Sircies had really followed us
into these hills, they would have come in all the craft and concealment
of their race, keeping within the cover of the woods by day, and moving
when night hid their presence. He knew too that any party venturing
into these solitudes would be strong in numbers, and that nothing but
the most powerful incentive could induce men whose natural sphere of
life lay in the open prairie country, to venture among those rough
rocks and tangled woods.
The day was yet young; there was plenty of time to examine the trail
further towards the east; the scout would push his way quietly through
the woods, and return by nightfall to our camp. Red Cloud gave him a
few directions as to his movements, and we returned back to the meadow,
to prepare for action in the event of attack. We at once proceeded to
ferry our goods across to the island; the horses were swum one by one
in the wake of the canoe, and landed in the little bay between the
rocks.
At this season of the year there was ample forage for them among
the rocks and trees, and in several places, where the soil was low
and swampy, the goose-grass, so greedily sought for by horses, grew
plentifully.
It was evening by the time we had finished this work, and the shadow
of the great mountain that rose between us and the west was already
darkening our little meadow. The lake surface was broken in a hundred
places, by the rising of many trout at the midges and flies brought
forth by the approach of night. We still kept our fire lighted at the
place of our first camp, but we were ready to fall back at a moment’s
notice upon the island; in fact, we only awaited the return of the
scout before returning to that secure resting-place for the night.
We had not long to wait. The light was still good when his signal-cry
sounded from the entrance to the valley, and he was with us a few
minutes later. His news was soon told. The Sircies were in force below
the ridge which ended the valley of the Red Deer river――they were in
fact not six miles distant. He had counted a score of braves, and there
were others whom he could not see. There was a white man with them――at
least he had seen an English saddle on the back of a strong horse
picketted under the trees.
All this was conclusive; our preparations had not been made a moment
too soon; the night now closing around us would scarcely pass without
an attack.
The small dug-out canoe just held three persons. At the first trip the
Iroquois and I landed on the island, then Red Cloud returned to fetch
over the scout, who had remained at our camp. The Sioux was absent
longer than I had expected; the daylight had now all gone, and it was
too dark to discern his movements, but soon we saw the fire burning
brightly, and in its red reflection upon the water I made out the
canoe, dropping quietly down for the island.
Red Cloud and the scout now landed, and then we all sat quiet in the
shade of the trees, waiting for what the night would bring forth. The
hours passed by――nothing appeared; the fire still burned at our old
camp. Save the rushing of the water by the island shores, and the dull
thunder of the cataract below its plunge, all was silent.
Three of us lay down to sleep. The Iroquois remained alone to watch.
How long I had slept I could not say, but I was deep in dreams when
a touch was laid upon my shoulder, and I awoke instantly to that
consciousness to which wild life in the wilderness soon accustoms its
followers.
“Look out,” whispered Red Cloud. “They are come at last.”
I looked out over the water, but I could see nothing. It was yet night,
but the first faint ray of light was in the east behind us as we looked
from the island, and its indistinct hue made vague and shadowy the
whole range of vision. The fire was no longer visible.
As I strove to pierce the gloom, there suddenly flashed forth in the
darkness a long volley of musketry, and the echoes from a hundred
mountain cliffs rolled in tumultuous thunder around our island; nor had
they ceased ere their reverberations were blended in the fierce war-cry
of the Sircies, which pealed forth close to our old camp. We lay within
our shelter while this wild storm of shot and shout died away. We could
then hear a scurrying of feet, and voices raised in tones of rage and
disappointment; then all was again quiet.
The daylight was now gaining rapidly upon the darkness; soon we could
distinguish figures moving to and fro where our camp had been, and
then we could make out with greater precision the dress and faces of
individual Indians, some on the borders of the lake, others in the
clump of trees, and others along the banks of the river, within one
hundred paces of where we lay.
And now as the dawn momentarily filled the valley with increasing
light, there appeared upon the scene a figure which centred upon it
all our attention. I looked at Red Cloud, to mark how he bore himself
within sight of his arch-enemy, for the mounted man who now rode up
to our camping-place was none other than the villain trader; but
neither in feature nor in gesture did the Sioux show symptoms of those
long-cherished feelings which must have filled his heart. There,
within easy rifle-shot of where we lay, stood this man, whose slowly
accumulated crimes and long-pursued hatred, had brought him even to
this remote resting-place of one whose life he had betrayed――to this
home of him whose murder he had so often tried to compass; yet the
rifle of Red Cloud remained lowered, and his eye betokened neither rage
nor astonishment as he thus beheld his enemy.
As yet there seemed to have occurred to the war-party no suspicion
that we had retired to the island. Our disappearance from camp was
evidently an event which they had not calculated upon; and even now,
when the camp was found deserted, while traces of its recent occupation
were numerous, they did not imagine that we had done more than conceal
ourselves in the surrounding woods.
That our ultimate destruction was assured, naturally appeared certain
to them, for excepting the trail by which they had entered the valley,
no outlet was apparent to them; and as they now held that sole means of
egress, a thorough search seemed certain to promise our capture.
They therefore set to work at once when daylight enabled them to see
the ground, to hunt us up amid the rocks and woods that lay between
the meadow and the loftier hills, whose rugged and precipitous sides
forbade all chance of escape.
At the upper end of the valley, where the river first entered the
level space, the perpendicular walls of a cañon prevented horses
going further into the mountains in that direction. It is true that by
scrambling over the boulders and many rocks which lay piled on each
side at the base of these walls, a man on foot might force his way at
low water; but at this time the snows of the upper mountains, the vast
glaciers which here formed the parent spring of the Saskatchewan river,
were pouring forth their volumes under the influence of the midsummer
sun, and the snow-fed river was foaming full through the rocky aperture
into the prairie valley.
If they could have found our horses, then the question of the
possibility of our escaping on foot up some cleft or landslip in the
mountain wall would still have remained an open one; but wherever we
had got to, there also must be our horses, and the horses must still
be within the confines of the valley. They now set to work diligently
to seek us out; while some remained near our old camping-place,
the greater number spread themselves along both sides of the lake.
Meantime the sun had risen. All through the forenoon the search went
on and when mid-day came there was not a spot in the valley which
had not been visited, excepting the island on which we stood. It was
now that, returning from their fruitless quest, they turned their
attention with more persevering examination to the ground around our
old camp. The spot where the little raft had been constructed showed
more signs of wood-cutting than the supply of the summer camp would
have necessitated; the bank of the river also betrayed our trail at the
water’s edge. Then we saw them consult together, while their looks and
gestures, as they pointed towards the island, clearly told us that the
next attempt would be made in our direction.
Coming down upon both sides of the river, they tried to find a place
where they could cross the water, and we could see them endeavouring
to peer through the close-set branches that fringed the rocks, for
indications of our presence. The central portion of our rocky refuge
was, however, more depressed in level than the edges, so that our
horses would have been quite concealed from view even had the bordering
screen of brushwood been less dense.
When they found the current flowing on both sides of the island was
everywhere too rapid to permit a man to cross, we saw them gather
again about our old camping-place, and again we could discern by their
actions that the idea of making a descent upon the point of the island
above the rapid――the point where we ourselves had landed――had not
escaped their notice.
But to think of the descent was one thing, to carry it out was another.
No man could hope to swim to that point, and carry his life to the
island, if the men whom they sought were there; on the other hand,
a landing in force from a raft would promise far greater chance of
security even in daylight, and if made at night there was no reason
why they could not gain the island without loss.
That they reasoned thus was evident to us, for they now set to work to
cut down several trees, and the remainder of the day was spent by them
in drawing out the felled tree-trunks, and putting them together in a
raft. That this raft was to be a large one we could tell by the number
of trees carried out to the place at which it was being built. So the
day passed away, the long evening closed in twilight, and darkness at
last lay upon the scene.
The night came very dark. The shadow cast by the lofty mountains was
rendered still more obscure by a thick canopy of clouds which drifted
across the sky as the night closed in. At first this veil of clouds
came unaccompanied by wind; but soon we heard a noise of pine-trees
swaying in the upper valleys, and later came the crash of storm, as the
thunder tempest drew nearer to our glen.
Intense as were the feelings of excitement with which I looked forward
to the night that had now begun, I nevertheless could not help almost
forgetting the peril of our position, and the proximity of our enemies,
in the stupendous spectacle of the warfare of the elements to which we
were now spectators.
At first the rapidly succeeding flashes of lightning were at the
farther side of the mountains that encircled our valley; but as the
storm rolled on, broad sheets of flame filled the vault above us, and
streams of jagged fire poured down on crag and pinnacled pine; while
the crash of thunder, multiplied tenfold by echo, seemed to shake the
massive mountains to their base. At last the full fury of the storm
burst upon us: the rain splashed down in blinding torrents, the trees
swayed wildly in the rush of the tempest, and the roar of the cataract
grew louder as the swollen waters, hissing under the rainfall, poured
down past our island.
It must have been some time after midnight, when the fury of the storm
having spent itself, there came a lull in the wind and rain. Everything
was still dark――it was the gloom before the dawn: it was also the hour
at which we might expect our enemies to attempt a landing upon the
island.
We had lain exposed to all the rain and storm during the night. We
did not want for food, for we had the meat of an elk, killed by the
Iroquois when we first entered the valley; but as a fire lighted on the
island would have been seen by the Sircies, we had of course to lie
exposed to the violence of the tempest, without chance of drying our
dripping clothes or of warming our chilled bodies.
At first I had thought little of these hardships; the expected attack
had kept me fully awake and on the alert. But now, as the small hours
of the night drew on, a sense of drowsiness began to overcome me,
and insensibly I found myself falling into fitful snatches of sleep
upon the wet rock against which I was lying. In these brief moments
of slumber, the outward surroundings of our position, the rush of
the river, the drip of leaves, the occasional flash of still vivid
lightnings, and the rumble of the receding thunder, all found semblance
in a vague sense of the danger that menaced us, and I would start to
sudden wakefulness, to find the reality and the dream so much alike
that it was difficult to distinguish one from the other.
I was in this state, the result of overstrung toil and anxiety, when
I felt a hand laid upon my shoulder. I started to full wakefulness.
Red Cloud whispered in my ear, “Make ready; they are coming down upon
us.” I seized my gun, and looked out over the edge of the rock behind
which I had been lying. There was nothing to be seen; all seemed inky
darkness; the rushing river was alone audible.
All at once there came a flash of lightning; it burst from a cloud that
had rolled down the valley behind us. It lighted up the rocks, the
trees, and the whole valley above us. For an instant the surface of the
river shone out in dazzling brilliancy, and upon it, full in the centre
of the stream, flowing with the current right in the direction of the
spot where we were lying, was the raft, crowded with dark figures.
This flash of light was only instantaneous, but it sufficed to reveal
to me the full reality of our position.
Immediately behind where we lay the ground rose, and the top of the
high bank held a few lofty pine-trees, whose dark cones thrown out
against the eastern sky, now streaked with the first pale hue of coming
day, gave the Sircies a point to steer for amid the darkness.
At the moment of the flash the raft appeared to be distant from the
island about 100 or 150 yards. We were all lying behind the same rock,
which was immediately over the landing-place, and only a few feet
raised above it.
A faint glimmer of light fell now upon the water; we could distinguish
the surface some fifty yards away, where it was still glassy and
unbroken; beyond that all was still in gloom.
“When you see the raft,” said Red Cloud, “I will give the word, and
then fire at it as quickly as you can.”
During the storm we had kept the locks of our guns carefully covered
with leather hoods; these had been now removed, and all was ready. With
eyes levelled upon the streak of light water we waited for the Sioux’s
word.
Out of the darkness into the lighter water came the raft, faint and
shadowy.
“Aim low, and fire fast,” said the Sioux.
[Illustration: “Aim low, and fire fast.”]
My double gun was stretched along the top of the rock. I dropped the
muzzle well below the line of the approaching floating object; then
I pulled first one trigger, and then the other. To my right and left
shots rang out in quick succession. Again I loaded; and again I fired.
We could see nothing now, for the smoke hung in the damp night air.
Then Red Cloud called out to stop firing. Eagerly we looked through
the murky atmosphere where the raft had been.
It was no longer in the direct line of our landing-place; it had
drifted to the left-hand side, and was now in rapid water but still
close to the rock, going down stream with momentarily increasing speed.
We could see many confused figures, trying with might and main to get
the unwieldy craft, to the side of our rock. It was only for a short
second, and then the raft was borne along into still rougher and faster
waters, to be caught in the remorseless grasp of the furious torrent
above the falls, now swollen by the thunder deluge of the night.
We could see no more, the trees hid it from sight; but we had no need
for further eye-witness or ear-witness of the fate of raft and crew.
Once in the grasp of that torrent, there could be no escape. High above
the roar of the cataract one loud cry did indeed reach us a very few
seconds later, and then there was silence, only broken by the swirl of
eddy, the rush of water against the rock, and the dull thunder of the
fall.
As the dawn broadened into day I went down to the lower end of the
island. From the grave of the Sioux chief the ground sloped steeply up,
until it dropped abruptly to the rapid, forming a bold front of rock
immediately over the edge of the fall. The top of this rock stood out
bare of trees; beneath it was the rapid, the edge of the fall, and the
seething whirlpools below the cataract.
Red Cloud had preceded me to this place; when I reached the grave I saw
him on the bare summit beyond, looking fixedly down upon the fall. His
arms were folded across his breast. I was beside him a moment later.
My eyes, following his fixed glance, rested upon a strange spectacle.
Almost in the centre of the fall a rock stood, right on the edge of
the descending flood. I had seen it on the previous day, when it had
been more exposed to view; now the rising water had covered three parts
of its surface, and only the top showed above the flood. On this rock
there was a figure.
The light was still too indistinct to allow us to discern features, we
could only see that some wretched creature was clinging to the rock,
on which he had been cast at the moment the fated raft had taken its
plunge into the dark abyss.
But although I was unable at this moment to identify this unfortunate
castaway, there flashed across my mind, at the first instant of my
seeing him, the thought that it was the trader McDermott who was before
me in this terrible position, now hopelessly hanging between life and
death.
For a glance at the raging mass of water was sufficient to tell me that
escape was impossible, and that no hope of extrication remained to the
doomed man.
The sight filled me with a strange dread. I feared to think that it
was our enemy, our bitter enemy, who had thus been reserved, as it
seemed, for a death more awful than any that had already overtaken
the poor dupes of his evil counsel and the recipients of his bribes.
Then I thought of my poor murdered Donogh, and my heart grew hard; and
then again came the whispering of a better nature, and the terrible
spectacle before me chased away the promptings of revenge. That the
figure was really that of McDermott there could no longer be any
doubt. Turning his head wildly towards either shore in the vain hope
of obtaining assistance, he had now observed us as we stood on the
projecting rock, and his voice, raised in cries for assistance, reached
us, even through the din of the cataract and above the whirl of waters.
“Help, help!” he cried, in tones that rang with the terror and the
horror that had seized upon him. But the merciless torrent rolled down
in a volume ever increasing, still rising higher, and momentarily
breaking the frail link that bound him to life. The sight was all too
much for me. I forgot everything of the past in the horrible fact
before me of a human being in this awful extremity, and turning to the
Sioux I exclaimed,――
“Can we save him? Can we reach him by any means?”
But I had little counted on the real depth of the animosity with which
Red Cloud regarded his enemy.
“Save him? Reach him?” he cried. “Do you imagine that if I could reach
him I would let yon torrent rob me of his death?”
As he spoke, his eyes glared, his frame shook with passion, and in the
grasp which he laid upon my arm his fingers closed in iron strength.
Wild with rage, he let go my arm only to seize his gun, as he cried in
tones of savage exultation,――
“Ho, villain trader, who is it to whom you cry for help? It is the son
of him whom you sold to a cruel death. It is he whose life you have
sought through years of blood. It is Red Cloud, the Sioux. Behold, you
are at the grave of the man you sold and murdered. His spirit is in the
air that surrounds you, in the trees that mock at your agony, in those
waters that are dragging you to death. But they shall not take you from
me. You shall die, villain, by my hand.”
He raised his rifle. His hand was now steady, his eye seemed calm;
another instant, and the trader’s death would have been certain; but I
could stand it no longer.
“Forbear,” I cried, striking up the levelled barrel. “He is in the
hands of Him who has said, Vengeance is Mine. See, through all these
long years you strove to compass his punishment, and you failed; but
now here, within sight of the grave of his victim, a mightier Power has
brought him to his doom.”
[Illustration: “Forbear,” I cried, striking up the levelled barrel.]
Red Cloud dropped his rifle――a deep shadow passed over his face.
“You are right,” he said slowly. “We are but the children of the Great
Spirit. We see the beginning of the trail; He alone can foresee the
end.”
While he thus spoke the rising waters had completed their task; the
trader had been swept into the terrible abyss, and only a splash of
spray shooting outwards from the lip of the fall marked the presence of
the sunken rock.