"'Tan 'till."
I obeyed, and felt the tension and loosening as he rapidly cut through
the hide rope and the cane bonds which held me; but I was so stiff, and
my wrists were so numbed, that the feeling had gone from my hands.
"Mass' George ready?"
"No; yes," I said, as I gazed wildly at the group about the fire, and
felt that our movements must be seen. But the Indians made no sign, and
Pomp went on--
"Injum ebberywhere now. Can't run away."
"But we must," I whispered.
"Catchum gain, dreckerly. Dis here tree. Mass' George go up fuss."
"Up the tree!" I faltered.
Then grasping the cleverness of the boy's idea, I stretched out my arms,
seized a branch overhead, and in spite of my numbness, swung myself up
and stood on it, holding by the branch of the great pine close behind
the two small trees to which we had been bound.
Pomp was beside me directly. "Up!" he whispered; and as silently as I
could, I crept on toward the dense crown, the many horizontal branches
giving good foot-hold, and the fire gleaming among the needle-like
foliage as I went higher, with Pomp always ready to touch me and try to
guide.
It was a huge tree, quite a cone of dense foliage, after we were some
distance up, and we had just reached the part where great, flat,
heavily-laden boughs spread between us and the ground, when Pomp drew
himself quickly to my side, and laid his hand on my mouth.
It was not necessary, for at the same moment as he I had noted the
danger, just catching sight of two black shadows on the ground, which I
knew were those of a couple of the Indians approaching our trees from
the fire.
Then we could see no more, but remained there clinging to the boughs as
if part of the tree itself, wondering what was to come.
It seemed quite a space of time before from just below I heard a
discordant yell which thrilled through me, and actually for the moment
made me loose my hold. But I was clinging fast again directly, as the
yell was answered by a couple of score of throats; there was the rapid
beat of feet, the crunching of dead sticks and crushing of bushes, and I
clung there with closed eyes, listening to a confused gabble of excited
voices, and waiting for what I seemed to know would come next.
For in my excitement I could in fancy picture the Indians examining the
cut thongs lying where they had dropped by the trees, and then one great
stalwart fellow took a step out from the rest and pointed up to where we
two clung forty feet from the ground, and I saw a score of arrows fitted
to the bow-strings, and their owners prepare to shoot and bring us down.
I cannot attempt to describe the sensation that thrilled through me in
what was almost momentary, nor the wild thoughts flashing in my brain.
I only know that I wondered whether the arrow which pierced me would
hurt much, and thought what a pity it was that the tree we were in did
not hang over the stream, so that we might have fallen in the water.
But no flight of arrows rattled among the boughs, and all we heard was
the gabble of excited voices. Then came yell after yell from a little
distance farther away from the settlement, and from the excited
questioning which seemed to follow, I knew that a number of the Indians
had returned to the camp to talk hurriedly to those beneath the tree.
Then there were a couple of yells given in a peculiar tone, and a faint
series of sounds reached us, suggesting to me that the whole party had
spread out, and were quickly and cautiously creeping along through the
forest from the edge of the stream for some distance in, and then all
was still.