A FLAG OF TRUCE.
From the woods beyond the barricade the convicts were pouring in a
rapid fire upon its defenders. Luckily the little band of hunters were
so placed that the shower of bullets pinged harmlessly against the
thick logs. Whenever a convict showed an arm or leg one of the
defenders' rifles cracked and a howl of pain from the forest sometimes
followed the report.
Charley crept to where Walter was crouching, his face flushed and eyes
shining as he peered eagerly through a crack between the logs watching
for a chance to shoot. "Gee, this is great sport," he exclaimed as he
caught sight of his chum. "They are afraid to cross that open space
and are hiding amongst the trees just wasting powder and lead on these
logs."
Charley looked up thoughtfully at the sun, which was now less than two
hours high. "You saw the killing of those innocent Indians," he said
gravely. "It was terrible."
"It was grand the way they stayed to the last man and died that their
chief might escape," declared Walter with boyish enthusiasm.
"Grand but terrible," his chum agreed. "But we must look out for
ourselves, now. They are not going to let us get back to town, now,
with our tale of their crime and whereabouts. We can keep them off
from this barricade until night, but what then? They have boats now,
and can attack by land and water at the same time. We are too few in
numbers to defend both ends of the point."
"What can we do, then?" demanded the other.
Charley smiled grimly. "I am not going to trust my own judgment alone
this time, after the terrible mistake I've made. We must scare those
fellows off for a bit and then hold a council to decide on the wisest
course. Thank goodness we have cartridges to burn. Fill your magazine
full, and when you see me raise my hand pour all sixteen shots into the
wood. I'll have the captain do the same at the same time. Chris and I
will fire while you two are reloading. If we keep that up for a few
minutes, I think we will drive them off long enough to talk over the
situation."
Walter nodded comprehension and began stuffing shells into the magazine
of his Winchester.
From him, Charley passed on to the captain and Chris, to whom he gave
the same explanations and instructions. As he took his own place
behind the barricade, the young Indian crawled quietly up beside him.
"Why did you not stay with your father?" said Charley, impatiently.
The little Indian drew himself up proudly and recklessly to his full
height, inviting a storm of bullets, all of which happily missed their
mark. Before the volley could be repeated, Charley pulled him down on
the turf beside him out of danger.
"The chief has awakened from his sleep," said the young Seminole with
dignity. "Of the things you had told me and I had seen, I told him all
and he believed. Then he bade me come forth, saying, 'Where the
bullets sing is the place for the son of a chief.'"
"Then keep close to me and shoot when I do," Charley ordered. He
raised his right hand in the air and the captain's and Chris' rifles
sent thirty-two bullets zipping and singing in amongst the trees.
Before the convicts recovered from their surprise, forty-eight more
leaden messengers whined through the air above them. The effect was
magical, the convicts ceased their fire, and puzzled and alarmed by the
sudden leaden hail, sought shelter behind the largest trees they could
find.
For ten minutes the hunters poured volley after volley of lead into the
forest. Suddenly a white rag tied to a stick was thrust out from
behind a tree.
Instantly Charley gave the signal to stop firing. As it ceased, a man
stepped out into the open, bearing the flag of truce in his hand.
Charley laid down his smoking rifle and leaped lightly over the
barricade.
"Don't go to meet him, Charley," Walter implored, "anyone of those
murderers are likely to take a pot shot at you. Do come back."
"Better listen to the lad, Charley," said the captain, earnestly. "You
can't count on that gang respecting a truce flag. Don't go, my boy."
But Charley only smiled determinedly. "I want to hear what he has to
say, and I don't want him to see the weak points in our barricade," he
said, "besides, the other day, I was noticing that fellow coming.
Criminal he may be, but he is far too good for the company he's in.
I've got a feeling that he would not stand to be a decoy. Here goes,
anyway. Don't worry."
Midway of the open space the two met. The convict was a young man,
with a dark, handsome face and bold, reckless eyes. He greeted the
young hunter as coolly as though they were meeting for a pleasant
social chat.
"I came because the rest were afraid," he explained, cheerfully, eyeing
the other from head to foot with cool assurance. "They are so crooked
and treacherous themselves that they think that your companions will do
as they would do,--not hesitate to fire on the bearer of a white flag."
"They have a good chance at me now," said Charley with a smile.
The stranger grinned as he skilfully rolled a cigarette with one hand.
"I gave them to understand before I left that they would have to reckon
with me if they tried any such trick," he remarked, cheerfully. "I
guess that will keep the brutes quiet for a while. But let's get down
to business. I have," he said ironically, "the distinguished honor to
be their messenger, but first let me say that, although with that gang
of beasts, I am not of them. I've killed my man, but it was in fair
fight, and not by a knife in the back. I have no kick coming over what
the law dealt out to me. Furthermore, if I had known the animals, I
would have to travel with, I would not have let my longing for freedom
draw me away from the turpentine camp. Lord knows, I wish I was back
there now." His voice, which had grown earnest, dropped again into a
sarcastic note. "But I am wandering, as I said before, my noble,
gallant friends have made me their messenger and agent. It will help
you to understand their demands if I state that the afternoon's work
has been far from satisfactory. So many of the canoes were overturned
that the plumes secured will not amount to more than seven hundred
dollars where my friends expected to reap as many thousand as the fruit
of their labor."
"Come to the point," said Charley, impatiently, his eyes shifting
anxiously to the declining sun.
The other's tone grew still more bitterly sarcastic. "We have been
bitterly disappointed," he declared. "My brave, valiant companions
have suffered sorely in body and spirit. You saw them engage a mighty
fleet of a race whose color was an offense in their eyes. It was also
rumored that the fleet contained many thousands of dollars in bird
plumes which it was clearly wrong to leave in the possession of those
who would not know how to spend the money intelligently.
"It is true my dear companions kept in the shelter of the largest
trees, but the incautious ones,--there was an arm barked here and a leg
scratched there, and pain stalked abroad in our midst. Then, when the
battle was over, judge of the bitterness of mind of my noble comrades
when they searched the canoes not overturned and found less than seven
hundred dollars' worth of plumes, barely enough for one good right's
drunk and carouse in town."
Charley was interested in spite of himself in this gay, humorous young
outlaw, who was so evidently superior to his brutal companions, and he
would have liked to let him come to the point in his own amusing way,
but the sun was getting low, and he feared to waste more time. "Cut
out your nonsense and come to the point," he said curtly. "What do you
want with us?"
The other dropped his mocking tone. "We want that chief and his boy,
whom you are harboring in your camp. According to our Indian
companion, they own, or know of the hiding-place of, a fortune in
plumes. If the plumes are not to be easily reached, we can still hold
the chief and boy for a big ransom. His people will raise it quick
enough, for he is a big man among them." He hesitated and then went
on. "The gang said for me to tell you, if the chief and boy were given
up, your party would not be troubled further."
Charley smiled incredulously. "And what do you say?" he demanded.
"That whether you give them up or not, you are all as good as dead,"
exclaimed the other in a burst of frankness. "Good Lord, boy, do you
dream that they figure on letting any eyewitness escape to a town and
set the officers of law on their trail? You can hold them off here
until night, but when darkness comes you'll be wiped out like the
blowing out of a candle."
Charley laid his hand on the other's arm. "You are too good for that
gang, better come over to our side," he said, earnestly.
The young outlaw hesitated for the fraction of a second, then shook off
the hand roughly. "No matter how bad they are, they are my comrades,
and I am no traitor," he said curtly. "Your answer, please."
"Tell them we will not give up the chief or boy," said the young envoy
earnestly. "Tell them that they have not got us yet by a long shot.
Tell them that the one object we are going to work for from now on, is
to get them back into the hands of the law."
The young outlaw gave him a look of admiration. "You've got the nerve,
all right," he said. "Well, so long, till we meet again," and whirling
around he sauntered slowly off in the direction of the forest, merrily
whistling as he went.
Charley for a moment looked after him regretfully, then turning, he
quickly rejoined his companions behind the barricade.