THE SUSPICIOUS MOVEMENTS OF CERTAIN COYOTES.
When Glen was left lying on the ground, with his rifle beside him,
peering into the black shadows of the undergrowth, he certainly did not
anticipate seeing any thing more dangerous to his own safety, or that of
the sleeping camp, than coyotes, and he had already learned what
cowardly beasts they were. How absurd it was of Binney Gibbs to fire at
one. He might have known what it was. No wonder the fellows were
provoked. He would like to know as much as Binney did about some things;
but he should hate to be as silly as he in others. How many coyotes
there were to-night anyhow. He had already heard their short, sharp
barks, and long dismal howls from the bluffs behind him, and from those
on the opposite side of the stream. Now another of the weird sounds came
floating down on the damp night air from the direction of the old Indian
camping-ground. Perhaps that fellow was howling because he couldn't find
any meat on those bleached buffalo bones. Well, no wonder. Glen thought
he would be inclined to howl, too, over such a disappointment as that.
It was not absolutely dark; for, though the moon was in its last
quarter, it gave considerable light when the clouds would let it; but
they were scurrying across the sky at such a rate that they kept it
hidden most of the time. As Glen was facing the east, it lighted the
spot where he lay whenever it was allowed to light any thing, and made
the darkness of the underbrush, at which he gazed, blacker than ever. It
was forlorn and lonely enough without the moonlight; but Glen thought
that perhaps it was better to be in darkness than to be lighted up while
enemies might possibly be gazing at him from the safe cover of those
impenetrable shadows. How easily a rifle-shot from those bushes could
pick him off during one of those uncomfortable little spells of
moonlight.
All at once Glen saw another light, apparently on the edge of the
opposite bluffs. It showed yellow and steady for a second, and then
disappeared. Was it an Indian signal, or a newly risen star suddenly
obscured by clouds? This was a question calculated to keep even a sleepy
boy wide awake. Perhaps if he watched closely he would see it again. He
had heard a great deal about Indian signals lately, and knew that, by
flashes of fire at night, smokes, waving blankets, and mirror flashes by
day, they could transmit intelligence across the plains almost as
readily as white men could do the same thing by telegraph. How he wished
he understood their signals, and how he would like to see them using
them.
Glen was very curious concerning Indians--real wild ones--and hoped he
should at least catch a glimpse of some before the trip was ended. It
would be too absurd to return to Brimfield, after crossing the Plains,
and to be obliged to confess that he had not met any.
Hallo! How near those coyote howls were coming. Wasn't that one of the
brutes now, skulking in the shadow of those willows? Certainly something
was moving down there. Now there were two of them. With what an ugly
snarl they greeted each other. Still, that snarl was a comfort; for it
proved them to be really coyotes. At least so thought Glen. Just then
the boy sneezed. He couldn't have helped it to save him, and at the same
moment the moon shone out. The coyotes had disappeared. Perhaps they
thought he would fire at them, as Binney Gibbs had. But they needn't be
afraid. He wasn't going to alarm the camp on account of coyotes.
Another cloud swallowed the moon, and again Glen thought he could
distinguish a black object moving through the shadows. Although he
strained his eyes, and watched intently, almost holding his breath in
his excitement, he could see only one object, and it certainly was
moving towards him. Where was the other? If he only dared fire at that
one! The boy clutched his rifle nervously. The coyote came sneaking on,
very slowly, frequently stopping and remaining motionless for several
seconds; but Glen never took his eyes from it. If he only had, just long
enough to give one look at the human figure creeping noiselessly towards
him from behind; but no thought of danger from that direction entered
his head.
As the Indian, gliding up behind the young sentry, reached a point from
which he could distinguish the outlines of the recumbent figure before
him, he cautiously raised himself on one knee, and fitted a steel-headed
arrow to the bow that had been slung on his back. In another instant it
would have sped on its fatal mission, and Glen's career would have ended
as suddenly as the snuffing of a candle-flame. He was saved by a gleam
of moonlight, that caused the Indian to sink, like a shadow, into the
grass. The coyote also remained motionless. Then the moon was again
obscured, and the Indian again rose to a crouching posture. He had
evidently changed his plans; for he no longer held the bow in his hand.
That gleam of moonlight had showed him that the sentry was only a boy,
instead of the man he had supposed, and he determined to try for a
captive instead of a scalp.
The next instant he sprang forward with the noiseless bound of a
panther, and the breath was driven from Glen's body as the Indian
lighted on his back, with one hand over the boy's mouth. The coyote rose
on its hind-legs, and leaped forward at the same moment. In a twinkling
its skin was flung over Glen's head, and so tightly fastened about his
neck that he was at once smothered and strangled. He tried to cry out,
but could not. He did not even know what had happened, or who these were
that, swiftly and with resistless force, were half dragging, half
carrying him between them.
For a moment he entertained the wild hope that it was a practical joke
of some of the boys from camp. That hope was speedily dispelled; for, as
his captors gained the shelter of the trees on the bank of the stream,
they halted long enough to secure his arms firmly behind him, and to
loosen the coyote-skin so that he could breathe a trifle more freely.
Then he was again hurried forward.
After travelling what seemed to the poor boy like an interminable
distance, and when he was so faint and dizzy with the heat and
suffocation of that horrible wolf-skin that he felt he could not go a
step farther, it was suddenly snatched from his head, and the strong
grasp of his arms was let go. The boy staggered against the trunk of a
tree, and would have fallen but for its support. For a few moments he
saw nothing, and was conscious of nothing save the delicious coolness of
the air and the delight of breathing it freely once more.
The halt was a short one; for already a faint light, different from that
of the moon, was stealing over the eastern bluffs, and the Indians must
have their prisoner far away from there by sunrise. There were three of
them now, as well as some ponies and a mule. Glen could also see a great
many white objects scattered about the ground. They were bleached
buffalo bones. As he recognized them, he knew he was at the old Indian
camping-ground he had visited the evening before, and from which one of
those coyote howls had seemed to come. So it had; but it had been
uttered by the young Cheyenne left there in charge of the animals, in
answer to the howls of the two other human coyotes, who, prowling about
the engineers' camp, had finally made Glen a prisoner.
They were Cheyenne scouts, belonging to the Dog Soldier band, at that
time the most famous fighters of that warlike tribe. They had been sent
out from their village, on the American Fork, two days before, to find
out what they could concerning General Lyle's exploring expedition,
rumors of which had already reached the ears of their chiefs. So
successfully had they accomplished their mission that they had not only
discovered all they wanted to know about these new invaders of their
territory, but had actually taken one of their number prisoner. Besides
this they had stolen three fine saddle ponies, and a powerful white
mule, from the corral of a stage station some twenty miles up the trail.
Now, therefore, as they swung their captive on the back of the mule, and
secured him by passing a thong of raw-hide about his ankles and beneath
the animal's belly, their hearts were filled with rejoicing over their
success.