AN INDIAN RAID.
That day and the next passed quietly. The first night the man who was
on watch up to midnight remarked to Mr. Welch, when he relieved him,
that it seemed to him that there were noises in the air.
"What sort of noises, Jackson--calls of night-birds or animals? If
so, the Indians are probably around us."
"No," the man said; "all is still round here, but I seem to feel the
noise rather than hear it. I should say that it was firing, very many
miles off."
"The night is perfectly still, and the sound of a gun would be heard
a long way."
"I cannot say that I have heard a gun; it is rather a tremble in the
air than a sound."
When the man they had relieved had gone down and all was still again,
Mr. Welch and Harold stood listening intently.
"Jackson was right," the farmer said; "there is something in the air.
I can feel it rather than hear it. It is a sort of murmur no louder
than a whisper. Do you hear it, Harold?"
"I seem to hear something," Harold said. "It might be the sound of
the sea a very long way off, just as one can hear it many miles from
the coast, on a still night at home. What do you think it is?"
"If it is not fancy," Mr. Welch replied, "and I do not think that we
should all be deceived, it is an attack upon Gloucester."
"But Gloucester is thirty-five miles away," Harold answered.
"It is," Mr. Welch replied; "but on so still a night as this sounds
can be heard from an immense distance. If it is not this, I cannot
say what it is."
Upon the following night, just as Mr. Welch's watch was at an end, a
low whistle was heard near the gate.
"Who is there?" Mr. Welch at once challenged.
"Jack Pearson, and the sooner you open the gate the better. There's
no saying where these red devils may be lying round."
Harold and the farmer instantly ran down and opened the gate.
"I should advise you to stop down here," the hunter said as they
replaced the bars. "If you did not hear me you certainly would not
hear the redskins, and they'd all be over the palisade before you had
time to fire a shot. I'm glad to see you safe, for I was badly
skeared lest I should find nothing but a heap of ashes here."
The next two men now turned out, and Mr. Welch led his visitor into
the house and struck a light.
"Halloo, Pearson! you must have been in a skirmish," he said, seeing
that the hunter's head was bound up with a bloodstained bandage.
"It was all that," Pearson said, "and wuss. I went down to Gloucester
and told 'em what I had heard, but the darned fools tuk it as quiet
as if all King George's troops with fixed bayonets had been camped
round 'em. The council got together and palavered for an hour, and
concluded that there was no chance whatever of the Iroquois venturing
to attack such a powerful place as Gloucester. I told 'em that the
redskins would go over their stockade at a squirrel's jump, and that
as War Eagle alone had at least 150 braves, while there warn't more
than 50 able-bodied men in Gloucester and all the farms around it,
things would go bad with 'em if they didn't mind. But bless yer, they
knew more than I did about it. Most of 'em had moved from the East
and had never seen an Injun in his war-paint. Gloucester had never
been attacked since it was founded nigh ten years ago, and they
didn't see no reason why it should be attacked now. There was a few
old frontiersmen like myself among 'em who did their best to stir 'em
up, but it was no manner of good. When the council was over we put
our heads together, and just went through the township a-talking to
the women, and we hadn't much difficulty in getting up such a skear
among 'em that before nightfall every one of 'em in the farms around
made their husbands move into the stockade of the village.
"When the night passed off quietly most of the men were just as
savage with us as if it had been a false alarm altogether. I p'inted
out that it was not because War Eagle had left 'em alone that night
that he was bound to do so the next night or any night after. But in
spite of the women they would have started out to their farms the
fust thing in the morning, if a man hadn't come in with the news that
Carter's farm had been burned and the whole of the people killed and
scalped. As Carter's farm lay only about fifteen miles off this gave
'em a skear, and they were as ready now to believe in the Injuns as I
had tried to make 'em the night before. Then they asked us old hands
to take the lead and promised to do what we told 'em, but when it
came to it their promises were not worth the breath they had spent
upon 'em. There were eight or ten houses outside the stockade, and in
course we wanted these pulled down; but they wouldn't hear of it.
Howsomever, we got 'em to work to strengthen the stockades, to make
loop-holes in the houses near 'em, to put up barricades from house to
house, and to prepare generally for a fight. We divided into three
watches.
"Well, just as I expected, about eleven o'clock at night the Injuns
attacked. Our watch might just as well have been asleep for any good
they did, for it was not till the redskins had crept up to the
stockade all round and opened fire between the timbers on 'em that
they knew that they were near. I'll do 'em justice to say that they
fought stiff enough then, and for four hours they held the line of
houses; every redskin who climbed the stockade fell dead inside it.
Four fires had been lighted directly they attacked to enable us to
keep 'em from scaling the stockade, but they showed us to the enemy,
of course.
"The redskins took possession of the houses which we had wanted to
pull down, and precious hot they made it for us. Then they shot such
showers of burning arrows into the village that half of the houses
were soon alight. We tried to get our men to sally out and to hold
the line of stockade, when we might have beaten 'em off if all the
village had been burned down; but it were no manner of good; each man
wanted to stick to his wife and family till the last. As the flames
went up every man who showed himself was shot down, and when at last
more than half our number had gone under the redskins brought up
fagots, piled 'em against the stockade outside, and then the hull
tribe came bounding over. Our rifles were emptied, for we couldn't
get the men to hold their fire, but some of us chaps as knew what was
coming gave the redskins a volley as they poured in.
"I don't know much as happened after that. Jack Robins and Bill
Shuter, who were old pals of mine, and me made up our minds what to
do, and we made a rush for a small gate that there was in the
stockade, just opposite where the Injuns came in. We got through safe
enough, but they had left men all round. Jack Robins he was shot
dead. Bill and I kept straight on. We had a grapple with some of the
redskins; two or three on 'em went down, and Bill and I got through
and had a race for it till we got fairly into the forest. Bill had a
ball in the shoulder, and I had a clip across the head with a
tomahawk. We had a council, and Bill went off to warn some of the
other settlements and I concluded to take to the water and paddle
back to you, not knowing whether I should find that the redskins had
been before me. I thought anyway that I might stop your going down to
Gloucester, and that if there was a fight you would be none the worse
for an extra rifle."
Mr. Welch told the hunter of the visit of the two Indian spies two
nights before.
"Waal," the hunter said, "I reckon for the present you are not likely
to be disturbed. The Injuns have taken a pile of booty and something
like two hundred scalps, counting the women and children, and they
moved off at daybreak this morning in the direction of Tottenham,
which I reckon they'll attack tonight. Howsomever, Bill has gone on
there to warn 'em, and after the sack of Gloucester the people of
Tottenham won't be caught napping, and there are two or three old
frontiersmen who have settled down there, and War Eagle will get a
hot reception if he tries it. As far as his band is concerned, you're
safe for some days. The only fear is that some others of the tribe,
hurrying up at hearing of his success, may take this place as they go
past. And now I guess I'll take a few hours' sleep. I haven't closed
an eye for the last two nights."
A week passed quietly. Pearson, after remaining two days, again went
down the lake to gather news, and returned a day later with the
intelligence that almost all the settlements had been deserted by
their inhabitants. The Indians were out in great strength and had
attacked the settlers at many points along the frontier, committing
frightful devastations.
Still another week passed, and Mr. Welch began to hope that his
little clearing had been overlooked and forgotten by the Indians. The
hands now went about their work as usual, but always carried arms
with them, while one was constantly stationed on the watch-tower.
Harold resumed his fishing; never, however, going out of sight of the
house. Sometimes he took with him little Nelly Welch; it being
considered that she was as safe in the canoe as she was in the house,
especially as the boat was always in sight, and the way up from the
landing to the house was under cover of the rifles of the defenders;
so that, even in case of an attack, they would probably be able to
make their way back.
One afternoon they had been out together for two or three hours;
everything looked as quiet and peaceable as usual; the hands were in
the fields near the house, a few of the cows grazing close to the
gate. Harold had been successful in his fishing and had obtained as
many fish as he could carry. He stepped out from the canoe, helped
Nelly to land, slung his rifle across his back, and picked up the
fish, which were strung on a withe passed through their gills.
He had made but a few steps when a yell arose, so loud and terrible
that for a moment his heart seemed to stop beating. Then from the
cornfields leaped up a hundred dark figures; then came the sharp
crack of rifles, and two of the hands dashed down at full speed
toward the house. One had fallen. The fourth man was in the
watch-tower. The surprise had been complete. The Indians had made
their way like snakes through the long corn, whose waving had been
unperceived by the sentinel, who was dozing at his post, half-asleep
in the heat of the sun. Harold saw in a moment that it was too late
for him to regain the house; the redskins were already nearer to it
than he was.
"Now, Nelly! into the boat again--quick!" he said. "We must keep out
of the way till it's all over."
Nelly was about twelve years old, and her life in the woods had given
her a courage and quickness beyond her years. Without wasting a
moment on cries or lamentations, she sprang back into the canoe.
Harold took his place beside her, and the light craft darted rapidly
out into the lake. Not until he was some three or four hundred yards
from the shore did Harold pause to look round. Then, when he felt he
was out of gunshot distance, he ceased paddling. The fight was raging
now around the house; from loop-holes and turret the white puffs of
smoke darted angrily out. The fire had not been ineffectual, for
several dark forms could be seen lying round the stockade, and the
bulk of the Indians, foiled in their attempt to carry the place at a
rush, had taken shelter in the corn and kept up a scattering fire
round the house, broken only on the side facing the lake, where there
was no growing crop to afford them shelter.
"They are all right now," Harold said cheerfully.
"Do not be anxious, Nelly; they will beat them off, Pearson is a host
in himself. I expect he must have been lying down when the attack was
made. I know he was scouting round the house all night. If he had
been on the watch, those fellows would never have succeeded in
creeping up so close unobserved."
"I wish we were inside," Nelly said, speaking for the first time. "If
I were only with them, I should not mind."
"I am sure I wish we were," Harold agreed. "It is too hard being
useless out here when such a splendid fight is going on. Ah! they
have their eyes on us!" he exclaimed as a puff of smoke burst out
from some bushes near the shore and a ball came skipping along on the
surface of the water, sinking, however, before it reached it.
"Those Indian muskets are no good," Harold said contemptuously, "and
the trade powder the Indians get is very poor stuff; but I think that
they are well within range of my rifle."
The weapon which Harold carried was an English rifle of very perfect
make and finish, which his father had given him on parting.
"Now," he said, "do you paddle the canoe a few strokes nearer the
shore, Nelly. We shall still be beyond the range of that fellow. He
will fire again and I shall see exactly where he is lying."
Nelly, who was efficient in the management of a canoe, took the
paddle, and dipping it in the water the boat moved slowly toward the
shore. Harold sat with his rifle across his knees, looking intently
over the bows of the boat toward the bush from which the shot had
come.
"That's near enough, Nelly," he said.
The girl stopped paddling, and the hidden foe, seeing that they did
not mean to come nearer the shore, again fired. Harold's rifle was in
an instant against his shoulder; he sat immovable for a moment and
then fired.
Instantly a dark figure sprang from the bush, staggered
a few steps up the slope, and then fell headlong.
"That was a pretty good shot," Harold said. "Your father told me,
when I saw a stag's horns above a bush, to fire about two feet behind
them and eighteen inches lower. I fired a foot below the flash, and I
expect I hit him through the body. I had the sight at three hundred
yards and fired a little above it. Now, Nelly, paddle out again.
See!" he said, "there is a shawl waving from the top of the tower.
Put your hat on the paddle and wave it."
"What are you thinking of doing, Harold?" the girl asked presently.
"That is just what I have been asking myself for the last ten
minutes," Harold replied. "It is quite clear that as long as the
siege is kept up we cannot get back again, and there is no saying how
long it may last. The first thing is, what chance is there of their
pursuing us? Are there any other canoes on the lake within a short
distance?"
"They have one at Braithwaite's," the girl said, "four miles off; but
look, there is Pearson's canoe lying by the shore."
"So there is!" Harold exclaimed. "I never thought of that. I expect
the Indians have not noticed it. The bank is rather high where it is
lying. They are sure to find it, sooner or later. I think, Nelly, the
best plan would be to paddle back again so as to be within the range
of my rifle while still beyond the reach of theirs. I think I can
keep them from using the boat until it is dark."
"But after it is dark, Harold?"
"Well, then, we must paddle out into the lake so as to be well out of
sight. When it gets quite dark we can paddle in again and sleep
safely anywhere a mile or two from the house."
An hour passed without change. Then Nelly said: "There is a movement
in the bushes near the canoe." Presently an arm was extended and
proceeded to haul the canoe toward the shore by its head-rope. As it
touched the bank an Indian rose from the bushes and was about to step
in, while a number of puffs of smoke burst out along the shore and
the bullets skipped over the water toward the canoe, one of them
striking it with sufficient force to penetrate the thin bark a few
inches above the water's edge. Harold had not moved, but as the
savage stepped into the canoe he fired, and the Indian fell heavily
into the water, upsetting the canoe as he did so.
A yell of rage broke from his comrades.
"I don't think they will try that game again as long as it is
daylight," Harold said. "Paddle a little further out again, Nelly. If
that bullet had hit you it would have given you a nasty blow, though
I don't think it would have penetrated; still we may as well avoid
accidents."
After another hour passed the fire round the house ceased.
"Do you think the Indians have gone away?" Nelly asked.
"I am afraid there is no chance of that," Harold said. "I expect they
are going to wait till night and then try again. They are not fond of
losing men, and Pearson and your father are not likely to miss
anything that comes within their range as long as daylight lasts."
"But after dark, Harold?"
"Oh, they will try all sorts of tricks; but Pearson is up to them
all. Don't you worry about them, dear."
The hours passed slowly away until at last the sun sank and the
darkness came on rapidly. So long as he could see the canoe, which
just floated above the water's edge, Harold maintained his position;
then taking one paddle, while Nelly handled the other, he sent the
boat flying away from the shore out into the lake. For a quarter of
an hour they paddled straight out. By this time the outline of the
shore could be but dimly perceived. Harold doubted whether it would
be possible to see the boat from shore, but in order to throw the
Indians off the scent, should this be the case, he turned the boat's
head to the south and paddled swiftly until it was perfectly dark.
"I expect they saw us turn south," he said to Nelly. "The redskins
have wonderful eyes; so, if they pursue at all, they will do it in
that direction. No human being, unless he borrowed the eyes of an
owl, could see us now, so we will turn and paddle the other way."
For two hours they rowed in this direction.
"We can go in to shore now," Harold said at last. "We must be seven
or eight miles beyond the house."
The distance to the shore was longer than they expected, for they had
only the light of the stars to guide them and neither had any
experience in night traveling. They had made much further out into
the lake than they had intended. At length the dark line of trees
rose in front of them, and in a few minutes the canoe lay alongside
the bank and its late occupants were stretched on a soft layer of
moss and fallen leaves.
"What are we going to do to-morrow about eating?" Nelly asked.
"There are four or five good-sized fish in the bottom of the canoe,"
Harold replied. "Fortunately we caught more than I could carry, and I
intended to make a second trip from the house for these. I am afraid
we shall not be able to cook them, for the Indians can see smoke any
distance. If the worst comes to the worst we must eat them raw, but
we are sure to find some berries in the wood to-morrow. Now, dear,
you had better go to sleep as fast as you can; but first let us kneel
down and pray God to protect us and your father and mother."
The boy and girl knelt in the darkness and said their simple
prayers. Then they lay down, and Harold was pleased to hear in a few
minutes the steady breathing which told him that his cousin was
asleep. It was a long time before he followed her example. During the
day he had kept up a brave front and had endeavored to make the best
of their position, but now that he was alone he felt the full weight
of the responsibility of guiding his companion through the extreme
danger which threatened them both. He felt sure that the Indians
would prolong the siege for some time, as they would be sure that no
re-enforcements could possibly arrive in aid of the garrison.
Moreover, he by no means felt so sure as he had pretended to his
companion of the power of the defenders of the house to maintain a
successful resistance to so large a number of their savage foes. In
the daylight he felt certain they could beat them off, but darkness
neutralizes the effect both of superior arms and better marksmanship.
It was nearly midnight before he lay down with the determination to
sleep, but scarcely had he done so when he was aroused by an outburst
of distant firing. Although six or seven miles from the scene of the
encounter, the sound of each discharge came distinct to the ear along
the smooth surface of the lake, and he could even hear, mingled with
the musketry fire, the faint yells of the Indians. For hours, as it
seemed to him, he sat listening to the distant contest, and then he,
unconsciously to himself, dozed off to sleep, and awoke with a start,
to find Nelly sitting up beside him and the sun streaming down
through the boughs. He started to his feet.
"Bless me!" he exclaimed, "I did not know that I had been asleep. It
seems but an instant ago that I was listening"--and here he checked
himself--"that is, that I was wide awake, and here we are in broad
daylight."
Harold's first care was to examine the position of the canoe, and he
found that fortunately it had touched the shore at a spot where the
boughs of the trees overhead drooped into the water beyond it, so
that it could not be seen by anyone passing along the lake. This was
the more fortunate as he saw, some three miles away, a canoe with
three figures on board. For a long distance on either side the boughs
of the trees drooped into the water, with only an opening here and
there such as that through which the boat had passed the night
before.
"We must be moving, Nelly. Here are the marks where we scrambled up
the bank last night. If the Indians take it into their heads to
search the shore both ways, as likely enough they may do, they will
be sure to see them. In the first place let us gather a stock of
berries, and then we will get into the boat again and paddle along
under this arcade of boughs till we get to some place where we can
land without leaving marks of our feet. If the Indians find the place
where we landed here, they will suppose that we went off again before
daylight."
For some time they rambled in the woods and succeeded in gathering a
store of berries and wild fruit. Upon these Nelly made her breakfast,
but Harold's appetite was sufficiently ravenous to enable him to fall
to upon the fish, which, he declared, were not so bad, after all.
Then they took their places in the canoe again and paddled on for
nearly a mile.
"See, Harold!" Nelly exclaimed as she got a glimpse through the
boughs into the lake, "there is another canoe. They must have got the
Braithwaite boat. We passed their place coming here, you know. I
wonder what has happened there."
"What do you think is best to do, Nelly?" Harold asked. "Your opinion
is just as good as mine about it. Shall we leave our canoe behind,
land, and take to the woods, or shall we stop quietly in the canoe in
shelter here, or shall we take to the lake and trust to our speed to
get away? in which case, you know, if they should come up I could
pick them off with my gun before they got within reach.
"I don't think that would do," the girl said, shaking her head. "You
shoot very well, but it is not an easy thing to hit a moving object
if you are not accustomed to it, and they paddle so fast that if you
miss them once they would be close alongside--at any rate we should
be within reach of their guns--before you could load again. They
would be sure to catch us, for although we might paddle nearly as
fast for a time, they would certainly tire us out. Then, as to
waiting here in the canoe, if they came along on foot looking for us
we should be in their power. It is dreadful to think of taking to the
woods with Indians all about, but I really think that would be our
safest plan."
"I think so too, Nelly, if we can manage to do it without leaving a
track. We must not go much further, for the trees are getting thinner
ahead and we should be seen by the canoes."
Fifty yards further Harold stopped paddling.
"Here is just the place, Nelly."
At this point a little stream of three or four feet wide emerged into
the lake; Harold directed the boat's head toward it. The water in the
stream was but a few inches deep.
"Now, Nelly," he said, "we must step out into the water and walk up
it as far as we can go--it will puzzle even the sharpest redskin to
find our track then."
They stepped into the water, Harold taking the head-rope of the canoe
and towing the light boat--which, when empty, did not draw more than
two inches of water--behind him. He directed Nelly to be most careful
as she walked not to touch any of the bushes, which at times nearly
met across the stream.
"A broken twig or withered leaf would be quite enough to tell the
Indians that we came along this way," he said. "Where the bushes are
thick you must manage to crawl under them. Never mind about getting
wet--you will soon dry again."
Slowly and cautiously they made their way up the stream for nearly a
mile. It had for some distance been narrowing rapidly, being only fed
by little rills from the surrounding swamp land. Harold had so far
looked in vain for some spot where they could land without leaving
marks of their feet. Presently they came to a place where a great
tree had fallen across the stream.
"This will do, Nelly," Harold said. "Now, above all things you must
be careful not to break off any of the moss or bark. You had better
take your shoes off; then I will lift you on to the trunk and you can
walk along it without leaving a mark."
It was hard work for Nelly to take off her drenched boots, but she
managed at last. Harold lifted her on to the trunk and said:
"Walk along as far as you can and get down as lightly as possible on
to a firm piece of ground. It rises rapidly here and is, I expect, a
dry soil where the upper end of the tree lies."
"How are you going to get out, Harold?"
"I can swing myself up by that projecting root."
Before proceeding to do so Harold raised one end of the canoe and
placed it on the trunk of the tree; then, having previously taken off
his shoes, he swung himself on to the trunk; hauling up the light
bark canoe and taking especial pains that it did not grate upon the
trunk, he placed it on his head and followed Nelly along the tree. He
found, as he had expected, that the ground upon which the upper end
lay was firm and dry. He stepped down with great care, and was
pleased to see, as he walked forward, that no trace of a footmark was
left.
"Be careful, Nelly," he exclaimed when he joined her, "not to tread
on a stick or disturb a fallen leaf with your feet, and above all to
avoid breaking the smallest twig as you pass. Choose the most open
ground, as that is the hardest."
In about a hundred yards they came upon a large clump of bushes.
"Now, Nelly, raise those lower boughs as gently and as carefully as
you can. I will push the canoe under. I don't think the sharpest
Indian will be able to take up our track now."
Very carefully the canoe was stowed away, and when the boughs were
allowed to fall in their natural position it was completely hidden
from sight to every passer-by. Harold took up the fish, Nelly had
filled her apron with the berries, and carrying their shoes--for they
agreed that it would be safer not to put them on--they started on
their journey through the deep forest.