IMMINENT DANGER OF THE SCHOONER GLADWYN
As the canoe containing Donald and the paymaster swept silently along
through the darkness, its occupants heard the cries of the young Indian
whom they had left in the water merge into a sound of other voices,
showing that he had been discovered by his friends, and then all was
quiet save for an occasional yell from the camp, where the fire-water
was exerting its baneful influence. At length these, too, died into
silence, the last glimmer of firelight was lost in the distance, and
the fugitives felt that they might safely exult over their escape,
though they still observed the precaution of speaking in the lowest of
tones.
"Take a rest, Bullen," said Donald, breaking the enforced silence.
"You must be pretty well exhausted with this work coming on top of what
you've done all day, and it is no longer necessary for us to travel at
full speed."
"I am about used up, that's a fact," admitted the little man, laying in
his paddle and stretching himself wearily in the bottom of the canoe.
"I don't wonder. But I say I how like a trump you bowled that fellow
over, on the beach. I was just wondering how we could down him without
giving him a chance to alarm the camp, when all at once you had the job
done. How did you happen to think of it?"
"I hadn't been thinking of anything else from the first," replied the
paymaster, "and I knew your thoughts were running in the same
direction, for I noticed the glances exchanged between you and
Christie. Poor fellow! I wonder what will become of him."
"Yes. The dear old chap is in the worst of it now," sighed Donald.
"We can only hope he'll be held for ransom or exchange. How I wish he
were with us, not only for his own sake, but for the aid he could
afford in the task we have undertaken."
"What task?"
"The rescue of my sister and Madam Rothsay, of course."
"You don't mean that you propose, unarmed and unaided, to attempt
anything so hopeless as that?"
"Certainly I do. And that is what we are going to the island for. You
wouldn't leave them in captivity, would you?"
"No, I wouldn't do that; but I would wait in hiding somewhere for the
arrival of the reinforcements that must surely be coming up the lake by
this time."
"And so give the Indians ample opportunity for removing their captives
to some remote and inaccessible place, which I only hope they have not
done already. No, indeed, that would never do. We must act promptly,
and before those chaps on the island have a suspicion of our coming."
"But there are at least a dozen of them, and all are well armed."
"If there were twice as many I should still make the attempt to rescue
my sister from their hands. Just imagine the distress she must be
suffering all this time, uncertain as to her ultimate fate, dreading
the worst, and hoping against hope, that some one will come to her
assistance. Poor child! the suspense must be terrible."
"Yes," sighed Bullen. "And poor Madam Rothsay, too, plunged from the
height of civilization into the depths of savagery without even a maid
or a mirror. I can fully sympathize with her. But what do you propose
to do? Have you thought out any plan?"
"I have thought of a great many; but only one of them appears at all
feasible. It is that we advance boldly into the camp and demand that
the ladies be at once taken to Detroit, or Fort Niagara if the Indians
prefer, where we will promise that a goodly ransom shall be paid for
them."
"As we have no means for enforcing such a demand, they will only laugh
at us and add us to their list of captives."
"But we have the means of at least frightening them into compliance
with our wishes. Are not you a great medicine man in their estimation,
and capable of commanding the fire-demon? Am I not of the Totem of the
Bear and wearer of the mystic emblem of the Metai? To be sure, I am
very ignorant of these things, but we have had ample proof of their
importance, and in the present case I propose to make the most of them."
"But, Hester, I can't appear before the ladies in this hideous costume.
Do you realize that I am barefooted and literally bareheaded, while my
only garment is a wretched old blanket, dirty and ragged, held in place
by a rope of bark? I declare I don't think I have ever been so sorry
for any one as I am for myself, when I reflect what an object for mirth
I must appear. You should remember, too, that I have already gone
through with a similar experience, which I have no desire to repeat."
"And came out of it with flying colors and waving plumes. Why, my dear
fellow, those chaps on the island will delight in decorating, and
befeathering, and fixing you up again in great shape, as they did
before. You need not present yourself to the ladies until all your
former gorgeousness is restored. Then imagine your triumph. You have
no idea how becoming the costume of a forest warrior is to you. Don't
you remember how highly Madam Rothsay complimented your impersonation
of that character? But seriously, Bullen, I doubt if there is any
other plan so good as the one I have suggested; and unless you can
think of a better, it is the one we must adopt. Now, as we must be at
least within sight of the island, and have no desire to pass it, or
land on it in the dark, I propose that we get a little sleep while
waiting for daylight to show us its position. My! won't I be glad of a
breakfast, though? Plenty to eat was at least one alleviating feature
of our recent captivity, and it is to be hoped that our new hosts will
be equally generous with their provisions."
A few hours later Donald awoke with an uneasy motion of the canoe, to
find it dancing on the little seas raised by a brisk breeze from the
westward. The eastern sky was aglow; and, rising darkly against the
ruddy light, not a mile away lay an island.
"Is that the one?" he asked of his companion, after awakening him, and
pointing to the forest-crowned land.
"How should I know?" answered Bullen, sleepily. "They all look alike
from this distance."
"All right," replied Donald, cheerily. "I'll put you so close to it
that you can't help knowing." So saying, he seized his paddle and
headed their craft toward the shore. He was weary and faint from
hunger; but filled with an exhilaration born of near-by danger, and the
possible meeting within a few minutes with the dearly loved sister whom
he had sought so long, and for whose sake he had suffered so much.
They skirted the shore for a short distance before finding a little
cove, bordered with overhanging spruce and cedars, at the head of which
they made a landing on a beach of smooth pebbles.
"I believe this is the place," whispered the paymaster, visibly
agitated by excitement.
The silence about them was unbroken, and if there were people near at
hand, friends or foes, they gave no sign of their presence.
"Hello! Hello the camp!" called Donald, loud and clear. He had no
idea of running the risk of being made a target for rifle bullets, by
attempting to surprise an Indian camp in broad daylight.
There was no response, no sound of any kind; and after waiting a full
minute he sprang into a little path that wound upward among the
evergreens, leaving Bullen to follow more slowly.
When the latter overtook his companion, a few moments later, he found
him standing in an open space that he instantly recognized as the place
where he had bidden farewell to Edith Hester some two weeks before.
Now it was silent and deserted. The empty frames of a few lodges stood
like gaunt skeletons of human habitations, and Donald was gazing
wofully at the sodden ashes of a campfire.
"They are gone," he said, bitterly, "as I might have known they would
be; and from the look of things they must have left very soon after you
did. Now, if you can tell me which way to turn, or what to do next,
you will prove yourself a better reader of riddles than I am."
"Find something to eat first, and plan afterwards," answered the little
man, promptly. He could not help feeling relieved at escaping the
ordeal of laughter he so much dreaded; and, though honestly
sympathizing with Donald's keen disappointment, could think of nothing
better to suggest at that moment than breakfast.
"I suppose you are right," agreed Donald, wearily, "and if you will
start a fire I will see what I can provide in the way of food."
No hunter in those days travelled without a fire-bag containing flints,
steel, and tinder; and, through all vicissitudes, Donald had retained
the one that he had appropriated, together with his Indian costume, in
the Wyandot camp. With this, then, Bullen started a fire, and finding
a broken iron pot in the débris of the camp, cleaned it and set some
water to boil.
In the meantime Donald, armed with the fish-spear that he had taken
from the young Indian the night before, succeeded, within an hour, in
killing a large fish, and a raccoon that he discovered digging for
mussels on the beach.
When he returned with his trophies, Bullen greeted him with a joyous
shout. "See what I have found!" he cried, at the same time holding up
a small object that proved to be a cake of scented soap. It was one of
a number that he had presented to the ladies when there before, and now
it seemed to him even more precious than the welcome food procured by
his companion.
After a hearty meal, that seemed to them one of the best they had ever
tasted, in spite of the crudeness of its preparation, the little man
treated himself to a bath in the lake, which he declared to be almost
as good as a tub, after all. Before he emerged from it, he had
succeeded, with the aid of his new-found treasure, in removing the last
traces of savage paint from his body.
Then they discussed their situation and decided to make an effort to
reach Detroit travelling only by night, and concealing themselves
during the hours of daylight. They slept for the greater part of that
day; and when, shortly before sunset, Donald visited the highest point
of the island to scan the horizon in search of possible enemies, he had
the bitter disappointment of seeing a distant sail, that must have
passed close by the island, heading for the mouth of the Detroit river.
It was the schooner that Gladwyn had sent to hasten Cuyler's movements,
returning from the Niagara with the remnant of that expedition, and
other reinforcements for the beleaguered post.
"If we had only kept watch!" he remarked to his companion, when telling
him of what he had seen.
"Yes, if we only had!"
If they had, and had succeeded in gaining the vessel, it would probably
never have reached Detroit; they, and every soul on board, would
probably have been killed, and the whole course of events in that
section of country would have been changed. Even as it was, the
schooner was in most imminent danger; for her coming had been
anticipated by Pontiac as well as by the garrison at Detroit, and every
preparation known to that warlike chief had been made for her capture.
As she entered the river her every movement was watched by hundreds of
gleaming eyes from the wooded banks, and when, with the dying out of
the breeze, she was forced to drop anchor, it was with difficulty that
the impatient warriors were persuaded from making an attack then and
there.