TWO EXPEDITIONS.
“Come from the river?” said the Indian who had shaken hands with Chap.
“Been fishin’? Where’s the rest of ’em?”
The very fair English which this Indian spoke was a new surprise to
Chap, and for an instant he wondered how the man knew there were any
more of them; but as any one might reasonably suppose that a young
fellow like himself would not come into this part of the country alone,
the question seemed sensible enough. The other Indian now came up, and,
without saying anything, seemed very anxious to hear what should be
said.
Chap then briefly related his story. For some reason which he could not
explain he had for these Indians a feeling very different from that
with which, from the very first, he had regarded the untidy young men.
To be sure, he had answered their questions, for there seemed to be
no good reason for refusing; but he had felt all along that they were
unpleasant companions, and had hoped they would soon go away. But these
Indians seemed to have honest faces, and to take a friendly interest in
what he told them.
When he related how the boat had been stolen from him, the Indians
looked at each other, and each of them gave a grunt.
“Big thieves! big thieves!” said one. “Come down on river and steal
boat. Very bad thieves, them!”
The other one nodded.
“Bad thieves! bad thieves!” he said.
Chap now asked the Indians where they supposed the two fellows would
take the boat.
“Go up river back here,” said the Indian who did the most talking.
“Think you won’t find ’em and go home. Then they shoot ’gators and have
fun.”
“But why should they take our boat?” asked Chap. “They have one of
their own.”
“P’raps she leak. Yours good boat,” said the other. “But some men bad,
nobody knows why.”
To this piece of philosophy the other nodded assent, and then, for a
few minutes, the two talked together in their own language.
These men were Seminole Indians, belonging to the remnant of the
powerful tribe which once waged war against the United States and
Florida. But the Seminoles who may now occasionally be met in the lower
part of the State are generally quiet and peaceable, and glad enough to
sell some venison or other game to the sportsmen or tourists they may
meet in the forests or on the rivers in the unsettled portions of the
State.
When the two Indians had finished their conversation, the talker made
a proposition to Chap. He told him that he and his companion, with two
others, who were now probably a mile or two away, had come into this
part of the country on a hunting expedition; but that, if he would pay
them for their trouble, they would go after these fellows and capture
the boat.
“River bends ’round here,” said the talker, waving his hand behind him,
“and they got to sail that way. ’Fraid to keep on big river. You get
boat, go after ’em. We go straight through woods, and ketch ’em when
they go camp at night. Then bring boat back to you.”
Chap stood and considered the matter, and a brilliant plan soon entered
his head. If he went back to confer with his companions, a great deal
of time would be lost, and there might be diversities of opinion as
to what should be done. He felt that the proper thing to do was to
follow the Indian’s advice, and go a short way through the woods and
intercept the fellows when they camped.
They were certain to come on shore to cook their evening meal, and
these Indians seemed to know the very spot where they would be likely
to land.
“Now,” thought Chap, “I’ve a great mind to put myself at the head of
these Indians and recapture The Rolling Stone. Instead of going and
telling the other fellows that I’ve lost the boat, I’ll bring it back
to them. They’re bound to wait for me, and they can find quarters in
that house that Adam went to.”
Chap thereupon told the Indians that if they and their companions would
assist him in recapturing the boat, he would see that they were paid
for their time and trouble. He also made them understand that he would
lead the expedition, provided that they would show him the way.
To all this the Indians assented, exhibiting a willingness to leave the
amount of their remuneration entirely to Chap’s generosity, and while
one of them started off to find his absent companions, the other set
about preparing for Chap a portion of the food that was cooking on the
fire, for our friend declared himself nearly famished.
“Isn’t this a high old change in things?” said Chap to himself, as he
sat watching the Indian stirring the unknown mess in the blackened
vessel he had taken from the fire. “Just a little while ago I was
hanging about home, expecting to hear that school would begin next day,
and here I am, in the wilds of Florida, and about to lead a band of red
men through the trackless forest.”
* * * * *
Phil and Phœnix wandered for a good distance along the woodland path.
Except the birds which they saw flying about above the forest when they
occasionally came to an open place in the green roof over them, they
found nothing to shoot at.
They had fired a few shots at these, without effect, much to Phil’s
disappointment, for he wished to take home some trophies of this trip,
even if they were nothing but wings and tails of strange birds, when
they met Adam returning with two small cans of milk.
The good sailor was in a great hurry to get back to his little bears,
and he told the boys that they must come with him, for they would start
off now as soon as they could, for he had noticed, when he was up at
the house, that the wind had got round a little to the east, and that
they, therefore, would be able to make pretty good headway.
But when the three arrived at the river-side, and found no boat and
no Chap and no bears, their astonishment was so great that they could
scarcely find words to express it.
“Has that boy gone off with the boat?” at last exclaimed Adam.
“I can scarcely believe it,” said Phil, “and yet there’s no knowing
what Chap would do if an idea suddenly came into his head.”
“But Chap can’t sail a boat,” said Phœnix, “and he would never think of
going out in a wind like this. Perhaps the boat got loose accidentally.”
“I don’t think that happened,” said Adam, who was scanning the river
with his experienced eye, “for if she’s got off, she’d ’a’ blown down
the river, and I can’t see a sign of her. Of course there’s no way of
her gettin’ up-stream ag’in such a wind as this.”
As he spoke, Adam turned and looked up-stream, and then he caught
sight of the dirty little boat which had been run ashore by the two
untidy young men, and with a sudden “Hello!” he ran toward it, followed
closely by the boys.
When he reached the boat, the sailor looked at it and in it and around
it, but he said not a word.
“Whose boat can this be?” cried Phil. “It couldn’t have been here when
we came.”
“Why, no!” exclaimed Phœnix. “We should certainly have seen it either
last night or this morning.”
“No,” said Adam. “This boat hasn’t been here very long, and whoever
came in it has gone off in our boat. It’s my belief they didn’t intend
to come back to this little tub, for they’ve taken everything out of
her. They’ve either coaxed your pardner to go with them, or they’ve
carried him off.”
Adam, who knew what desperate characters are occasionally found in
this part of the State, where officers of the law seldom make their
appearance, and where the few settlers and travellers are obliged
to depend in a great measure upon themselves for the preservation
of their lives and property, thought for a moment that if Chap had
offered opposition to the persons who had taken the boat, there was a
probability that he now lay at the bottom of the river. But he said
nothing of this to the boys, and he tried to dismiss from his own mind
the idea that anything so dreadful had happened.
The people who lived and travelled on the Indian River were generally
of a peaceful disposition, although lawless characters were sometimes
to be met with, and he tried to believe that this was nothing but some
wild freak, perhaps encouraged by the conduct of Chap.
“I tell you what it is!” cried Adam. “Our boat’s gone up that small
river we passed a mile or two below here. I don’t believe she’s had
time to get out of sight on the main stream. I haven’t been away more’n
an hour altogether, and there wasn’t any boat in sight when I left.
What we’ve got to do is to take this boat and go after her.”
“All right,” said the boys; and with a will the dirty little craft was
pushed off, and the three scrambled in.
[Illustration]