AT LAST!
Up to that time the fugitives, although steadily drifting down stream,
seemed to keep directly in the way of the parties whom they were seeking
to avoid; for, no matter where they headed, or at what point they aimed,
they were sure to find some of the Iroquois waiting to receive them. It
looked, indeed, as if the redmen were shrewd enough to make allowance
for this fact, judging from the way the attempt turned out in each
instance. It was the purpose of Lena-Wingo, in heading up stream, to
break through this chain that seemed thrown around them, and there
appeared no other way of doing it.
Neither to the right nor left turned he, but swinging his paddle
powerfully and noiselessly, he drove the deeply-laden canoe against the
current with a force that sent the water foaming from the prow, the soft
wash and rustle of the current being the only noise that marked this
bird-like flight. Going at such a rate, he did not need much time to
pass over considerable space, and he was still forging ahead in the same
swift fashion when he caught the sound of another paddle. This, then,
was proof that the pursuers did not care to wait till the fugitives
should land, but had sent some of their warriors out to search for them.
Lena-Wingo recognized the sound as coming from the shore which he meant
to reach, but at some distance below them, which fact was proof of his
wisdom in taking the course he did. He kept up his flight without the
least cessation, and had every reason to hope that the Iroquois were
outwitted, when he was more angered than alarmed by hearing the sweep of
still another paddle--this time coming from a point above where he was,
but on the same side of the river as the former. The Iroquois were
making the hunt hotter than he anticipated. The Mohawk stopped paddling
and looked around in the gloom that shut down on every hand, for there
was cause to expect the appearance of other boats, and it was necessary
to watch where his own craft was going.
"We have got along very well so far," said Jo, who, not having noticed
the evidence of their pursuit, supposed their friend had merely paused
to take his bearings.
"Pretty well," assented the Mohawk, speaking in the lowest key and
scanning the stream in every direction.
"Do you think they know where we are?" continued the young scout.
"Know we on river--they find us."
Upon hearing these alarming words, Rosa Minturn straightened up and
peered anxiously about, impelled thereto by the manner, more than the
utterance, of the leader.
"I think I hear the sound of another paddle," she said in a whisper,
turning inquiringly to the Indian.
"Yes, two boats on water; looking for us; maybe find us."
"In which direction is this last one that Rosa noticed, and which I also
hear?" asked Ned Clinton, in the same guarded tone.
Lena-Wingo answered by pointing toward the shore a little above a spot
opposite where they were lying in the stream.
"Right there--he go 'bout--look for us."
"Yes, and I see him, too!" added Rosa, the next instant.
"There he come!" added the Mohawk, making the discovery at the same
moment. "Stoop down, quick! must not see you! Put head low down, so
can't see you--make no noise."
His command was obeyed at once. The other canoe having approached near
enough to be seen itself, was sure to discover the boat. The heads of
Ned Clinton and of the brother and sister were instantly lowered, so
that they could not be seen from the outside, and they waited with
throbbing hearts for the issue. The occupants of the strange boat
descried the Mohawk almost as soon as he saw them, and as he expected
they headed straight toward him. The action of Lena-Wingo depended for
success on its very boldness, and he went at it with as much coolness
and self-possession as if failure was impossible.
Lena-Wingo, being a Mohawk, was also an Iroquois, as much as if he were
a member of the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, or Seneca branch of the
powerful confederation known as the Six Nations. His intention was to
assume the character of a genuine enemy of the white race, and to answer
whatever questions were put to him in a way to mislead their foes.
Still, this trick had been played so often by him, that it required all
the skill of which he was master. It was necessary also that he should
not permit the strange canoe to come too near, else the deception would
be detected.
As the boat drew nigh, he kept up a slight movement of his paddle, which
caused the craft to glide in a slanting direction from the other.
"Where are the pale faces?" asked one of the four Iroquois who sat in
the new boat, while the couple were separated by two or three rods.
"How should Magawan know?" asked the Mohawk in return, in a surly voice,
as if angry that the question was put to him. "The warriors on the land
are squaws, and they do not know how to look for the traitor and the
pale faces. They have let them go again."
These words were spoken in the Indian tongue, the accent as clear as
that of those who addressed him. There was truth and sense in what
Lena-Wingo said, for it was this very suspicion that the Indians were
not doing as well as they should that led to the canoe being launched
from the other side.
"But they called to us that Lena-Wingo was on the river in a canoe,"
said one of the new-comers, sidling up toward the Mohawk, who was as
cautiously sidling away from him.
"They spoke the truth if they said the pale faces have gone off again. I
am looking for them."
"Why does Magawan look for them this way?"
"To find them," was the quick response. "Are you searching for them?"
"We have been sent out by Taunwaso, the great chief of the Oneidas, to
find Lena-Wingo, the traitor, and the whites."
"Why don't you find them, then? If they are not here they are somewhere
else. Go there and find them."
And, as if he were tired of the conversation, the Mohawk dipped his
paddle lower than before, and deliberately paddled away from his
questioners. The surliness of the repulse made it quite effective, and
the four Iroquois sat for several minutes as if undecided what they
ought to do after such an interview.
Lena-Wingo knew that he was in great peril, for he believed from the
first that the others were not satisfied with the appearance of things.
He shaped his action on the supposition that they would speedily detect
the trick and start in pursuit. He kept up the river until he had gone
far enough to screen his movements, when he made a sharp bend in the
course he was following, and headed for the bank on his right. There was
another canoe that was also hunting for them, as will be remembered,
and, in case these two should meet, the whole truth would become known
at once. Lena-Wingo was not mistaken in his suspicion that he heard the
two boats at the same time, showing that they were not only very near,
but drawing nearer every minute.
While the Mohawk was paddling in this fashion, striving to make his
landing-place as far up stream as he could, he knew the two canoes had
joined and that the hottest kind of a hunt was on foot. But there was
not a great deal of water between him and the shore, and he quickly made
it still less.
"Raise head now--make no noise!" he said, as the water foamed again from
the bow of the canoe.
As the fugitives obeyed, they saw they were close to the bank, and the
limbs of the overhanging trees were within their reach. Lena-Wingo kept
along the shore for some distance further, when one turn of the paddle
sent the canoe in so sharply against the bank that it stuck fast, and
all were forced forward by the sudden stoppage. The Susquehanna was
crossed at last.