THE MISSING WAMPUM BELT
CREEPING along, with their guns held in readiness for instant use,
the three gradually approached the sleepers. Pat frequently paused to
observe closely. Bob knew what he was keeping in mind; for the trapper
had only lately been telling a story of how once he had been followed
by a pair of hardened border renegades, who hoped to catch him asleep
and wind up his career. Pat had managed, before they came up, to divest
himself of certain of his garments, which he stuffed with dead leaves
and arranged so that it looked as though he might be sleeping near his
flickering fire. And, when the intended murderers crept near, he was
conveniently placed for opening fire upon them.
In that case the border had been well rid of a pair of rascals, and
many a settler's home rendered the more secure because of Pat's ruse.
But the shrewd Irish trapper did not mean to be caught by any similar
trick; and that was why he was making positive, as he advanced, that
the two figures were real flesh and blood, and no make-believe forms.
And, when he saw each of them move an arm or leg, as a fly or mosquito
bothered them, this fact was soon so apparent that Pat lost all fear.
It had already been fully arranged what the programme should be, under
such conditions. Pat was to throw himself upon one recumbent figure,
while the two boys covered the other with their guns, and threatened
him with immediate death unless he held up his hands.
When all was ready, and Pat just about to carry out his part of the
arrangement, Henri, who, it happened, had been selected for the victim
of the boys, suddenly sat up, and started to stretch, as he yawned
sleepily.
Imagine his amazement at seeing three crouching figures within a few
feet of him, while two muskets were levelled at his head. Stricken dumb
with surprise he could only stare and gasp.
Meanwhile Pat was not idle. With a leap that a panther might
have envied he was upon the second figure. Jacques Larue had not
the faintest chance. Taken utterly unawares, and at a complete
disadvantage, he was as putty in the hands of the stalwart Irish
trapper, even though himself a man of sinew.
"Don't so much as move a hand except to raise them above your head,
Henri Lacroix, or you are a dead man!" exclaimed Bob, sternly.
True, these two were only boys, but the Frenchman knew to his sorrow
that they were to be feared just as much as men. And it was almost
ludicrous to see how quickly he elevated his hands, and made motions
with his head to indicate that he gave in.
After that it was no hard task to bind the trappers, though first of
all their weapons were taken. They looked alarmed, as indeed they had
good cause for being, since they had long been a thorn in the flesh of
these English settlers, and might expect to be treated harshly. And
doubtless they both remembered with regret how they had just lately
done a rascally deed, for which these three might well demand their
lives as a recompense.
Had they not known that Pat O'Mara must have trailed them from the
place where they set the dugout adrift, containing Mr. Armstrong's
daughter, Jacques Larue and Henri Lacroix might have stoutly denied all
knowledge of the crime. As it was they kept their lips sealed, and
remained mute.
When, however, Bob and Sandy, astonished and chagrined at not finding
the wampum belt upon either of the Frenchmen, although they recovered
most of the little keepsakes lost by their mother, demanded to know
where it had been hidden, Jacques took it upon himself to explain, with
many extravagant shrugs of his broad shoulders; for even in those days
his countrymen, even as now, do considerable of their talking with
gestures.
"I haf not seen ze belt since last night!" he declared. "Ven I allow
myself to go to sleep she is here about my vaist as before; yet,
_sacré_! it amaze me to find ven I am open my eyes dis same morning
zat ze belt no longer adorn my person. So it seem zat while I sleep
some unknown von, he crawl into ze camp, and take avay ze belt, and me
not any ze wiser. I feel nossings, know nossings, only ze belt she be
disappear."
"Did you not suspect that your friend, Henri here, might have taken a
notion to take the belt and hide it?" asked Bob, as soon as he could
recover from the shock which this declaration gave him.
"Zat is exact vat pass through my mind!" exclaimed Jacques, eagerly.
"He, himself, tell you ze same, because him I accuse. But hold on, he
say, let us then examine ze ground, and know ze truth. So zat is vat
ve do, accordingly. Great is our amazement to learn zat an Indian, he
crawl into our camp as ve sleep. I know ze tracks only too vell to
believe zat it can be a white man. And I gif you my vord, Monsieur
O'Mara, zat ees ze truth, ze whole truth, and nossings but ze truth."
Bob and Sandy were grievously disappointed. Whether, as Larue declared,
some unknown Indian had really crept upon them while they slept, and
were wholly off their guard, taking only the sacred wampum belt, as
though that were the single object of his mission; or whether, on the
other hand, Larue had secreted the belt for reasons of his own, the
result was all the same so far as they were concerned, since the belt
was gone.
After talking it over, they decided that the two prisoners should be
taken to the new settlement. They hardly felt in a condition to declare
what measure of punishment should be meted out to such scoundrels; and
would much rather a council of the elder men decided this question.
Jacques and Henri seemed very much cast down. They belonged to a class
of bordermen who believed in the old adage, "an eye for an eye; a tooth
for a tooth;" and under the circumstances had reason to expect nothing
in the way of mercy from Mr. Armstrong, whom they had attempted to
injure many times.
So the return march was taken up, it being the desire of the boys to
reach their destination that day, even though the journey continued
into the hours of darkness.
Pat knew that, by taking a bee-line route across country, they could
cut off a considerable distance. When a bee is loaded with honey it
always rises up, as if to take an observation, and then makes a direct
line for its hive, even though a full mile away from it at the time.
Many claim that it is a peculiar "homing instinct" that guides the
little insect at such times; but this, on the other hand, seems far
from being the case; since, if the hive be moved in the night time, the
bees, starting out in the morning, will not return to the old position,
but fly straight to the new.
To lose Pat O'Mara in any woods would be next to impossible, because he
was perfectly at home there, and, although they were now passing over
ground which he saw for the first time that afternoon, the accuracy of
his deduction was made manifest just about dusk, when Sandy declared
that he certainly heard the well-known sound of an axe being used upon
firewood, somewhere ahead.
Half an hour later, they walked in on the sentry who stood guard, and
whose quick hearing, detecting their advance, caused a peremptory
challenge.
Great was the rejoicing among the settlers when they saw how successful
had been the chase after the rascally trappers belonging to that league
of French Canadians who were employed all along the great river in
catching the rich pelt-bearing animals inhabiting that region, or else
trading with the Indians for their furs.
When Mrs. Armstrong found almost all of her little belongings returned
to her, she was of course delighted; though this circumstance was of
small value in her fond eyes as compared with the safe home-coming of
her brave boys.
When the story of the missing belt was told, few believed what the
Frenchman had advanced as the truth.
The general opinion seemed to be that, for some unknown reason, the
pair had secreted the wampum belt somewhere, meaning to get it again at
a later time. And some of the settlers were loud in their demand that
the men be forced to confess what had been done with the belt, which,
if only possessed again, was certain to be a great source of security
to the new settlement. They believed it would be a talisman calculated
to act as a bar upon the passions of the Indians, as long as the name
of Pontiac was held in reverence by the confederated tribes of the
middle West.
So the two men were tightly bound and thrust into a cabin that was
nearly completed, being told that their fate would be decided at a
council later on. They acted in a sullen manner, declaring they had
told only the truth; and that, even though the English put them to
the stake, they could say nothing different. At the same time Larue
took occasion to say that, should their fate ever become known to the
commandant of the nearest trading post, an expedition would assuredly
be fitted out against the new settlement that would wipe it from the
face of the earth.
Mr. Armstrong was uneasy. He knew that the men deserved death,
according to the law of the border; and yet, for many reasons, he was
personally averse to meting out such judgment upon them.
He was far from being a bloodthirsty man to begin with. Then Kate had
really not been injured when in their hands, and he had that to be
thankful for; though their method of annoying the English settlers by
setting the girl adrift on the river was a cowardly proceeding that
surely merited severe punishment.
Last of all, Mr. Armstrong was really desirous of making a truce with
the French traders in charge of the posts along the Mississippi. He
could see far enough ahead to realize that, when the Colonies split
with the Mother Country, the natural allies of the rebels would be
the French. And, as far as possible, he did not wish to do anything
calculated to defer this adjustment of past differences between the two
nations.
And so it was decided to keep the two men shut up for a few days, in
order that they would suffer the tortures of uncertainty concerning
their fate. Then, if they did not confess concerning the disposal of
the precious wampum belt, the English settlers could hold back their
weapons, and cast them adrift, to make their way back to the nearest
post as best they could; perhaps with a message to the commandant
pertaining to the news from the seacoast, and the threatening rupture
that was surely coming between England and her rebellious child in
America.
Accordingly, three days later, the two men were released, with a stern
warning to keep away from this settlement, if they valued their lives.