THE TRAPPER A PRISONER.
If Frank was disappointed in one respect, he was greatly encouraged in
another. He had discovered something that went a long way toward
strengthening his hopes of escape, and that was that the Indians were
not watching him very closely. The guard at the door had not noticed him
when he looked out, and this induced the belief that the chief had
placed him there simply to keep Frank from roaming about the village,
and not because he feared that his prisoner might attempt to escape.
That idea had probably never occurred to him. But the chief did not know
much about boys, especially such boys as Frank Nelson. He had yet to
learn that the young hunter possessed a goodly share of courage and
determination, as well as speed and activity.
Frank lay there on the pile of buffalo robes until dark, and then the
door opened, and an old Indian woman came in with a small camp-kettle,
which she placed upon the ground in the middle of the lodge, and went
out again. The contents of the kettle were smoking hot, and the odor
that filled the lodge reminded Frank that he had not lost his appetite,
and that he was as hungry as a wolf, in spite of all the excitements of
the afternoon. An examination of the kettle showed that it contained
buffalo meat. Taking his knife from his pocket, Frank seated himself on
the ground and began his supper. It was not quite as good as some he had
eaten at his quiet little home on the banks of Glen's Creek, but the
buffalo meat was nourishing, and when the last vestige of it had
disappeared, Frank arose to his feet, put his knife into his pocket, and
declared that he felt better.
"I could run, now, if these Indians would only give me half a chance,"
said he, to himself. "I may yet show them what I can do, unless they
station a sentry at the back of this lodge. Now if I only had a drink of
water!"
As Frank said this he went to the door again, and there was the guard,
standing in the same position in which he had seen him before, leaning
on his spear, and gazing off into vacancy. Frank did not believe that he
had moved a muscle during the last two hours.
"I say, old fellow!" he exclaimed, "is there any water about here?"
Then, fearing that the savage might not understand him, he made a motion
with his hand as though he were drinking from a cup.
The guard did not reply, but beckoned to the prisoner to follow him, and
led the way through the village toward the ravine from which the chief
and his party had entered the valley. Frank, ever on the alert, exulted
at this. He knew that the guard was conducting him to a spring, and he
sincerely hoped that it would prove to be outside the village. In that
event, one Indian, even though he was armed with a spear, could not
prevent him from making at least an attempt at escape. If he could get
but two feet the start of the sentry, he believed that he could elude
him in the darkness. Unfortunately for the success of these plans,
however, the spring was not outside the village. It was but a short
distance from the place where he had been confined, and all around it
were lodges, beside which stalwart warriors lay upon their blankets,
smoking their pipes. The least attempt at escape would have brought them
around him like a cloud of mosquitoes. He must wait until some more
favorable opportunity.
Frank kneeled down beside the spring, and took a long and refreshing
drink, and then quietly followed the guard back to his prison. He looked
into the wigwams as he passed along, and now that he had in some measure
recovered his usual spirits, he began to be interested in what was going
on around him; but he did not see any thing to induce him to give up
home and friends, and turn Indian. The idea was a novel one to him, and
he could have smiled at it, had it not been for the preparations for
battle that were every-where visible in the camp--the horses saddled and
waiting, the weapons hung upon the poles of the lodge, where they could
be seized at a moment's warning, and the braves in war-paint, ready to
move at the word. Frank noticed these things, and thought of his
friends at the fort. If the expected reinforcements arrived in time, the
savages might make the attack that very night.
When Frank found himself once more inside his prison, he stretched
himself on the buffalo robes, and waited impatiently for the Indians to
go to sleep. How wearily the hours dragged by, and how Frank alternated
between hope and fear, can be imagined better than we can describe it.
Sometimes he looked upon his escape as an assured thing. When the
Indians were all asleep, it would be a matter of but little difficulty
for him to creep out of the lodge, and make his way through the village
to the ravine. It was easy enough for him to sit there on the buffalo
robes and think about it, but when he imagined himself _doing_ it, and
pictured to himself the dangers in his way, his hopes fell again; and
then, had it not been for the remembrance of what the outlaw had told
him, he would have been tempted to abandon all thoughts of escape. If it
would have required all the skill and cunning that Dick and Bob
possessed to outwit the savages in a case like this, what could an
inexperienced boy of sixteen do?
Frank thought the Indians did not intend to go to sleep at all that
night. He heard them moving about until a late hour, and it was midnight
before the silence that reigned in the camp told him that if he ever
intended to carry out the plans he had determined upon, the time had
come to do it. His heart beat fast and furiously as he pulled off his
shoes, and moved noiselessly across the lodge toward the corner in which
the chief had deposited his blanket and spear. He was very deliberate in
his movements, and there was need of all his caution; for the guard
stood almost within reach of him, and the slightest noise inside the
lodge would have brought him in there immediately. Frank threw the
chief's blanket over his shoulders, put on the head-dress, picked up the
spear, and crept cautiously across the lodge. He threw himself upon his
hands and knees, and after listening a moment to assure himself that the
guard had not been alarmed, he lifted up the skins which formed the wall
of the lodge, and looked out. The camp was as silent as though it had
been deserted. On every hand he could see the smoldering embers of the
fires by which the savages had cooked their suppers, but not a living
being was in sight. Drawing in a long breath he crawled slowly out of
the lodge, and after lingering a moment to arrange the blanket about his
shoulders, he grasped the spear firmly in his hand, and stole away into
the darkness, looking back now and then to make sure that he was keeping
the lodge between him and the guard. An intervening row of wigwams
finally shut his prison from his sight, and Frank began to congratulate
himself on having accomplished the most difficult part of his
undertaking.
"When the chiefs reinforcements arrive, and he makes the attack on the
fort, and finds the trappers and soldiers ready to receive him, he will
wish he had taken a little more pains to watch me," thought Frank, as,
with a step that would not have awakened a cricket, he made his way
through the village toward the ravine. "If Dick and Bob had been his
prisoners he would, no doubt, have kept them bound hand and foot; but
I'm a boy, and he thought he had nothing to fear from me. I'll teach
him something."
The tall figure of an Indian glided suddenly across the path in front of
him, and interrupted his soliloquy. Frank's first impulse was to throw
down the spear and blanket, and take to his heels; but remembering in
time that he was personating an Indian, and that every thing depended
upon his getting out of the village before the guard at the chief's
wigwam discovered his flight, he straightened up and boldly approached
the Indian, who merely turned his head and looked at Frank, and then
disappeared among the lodges. That was another danger passed; and
commending the forethought that had induced him to use the chief's
clothing as a disguise, he kept on with increased speed toward the
mountains, which, to his impatient eye, seemed as far off as when he
left his prison. But he was gradually nearing them all the while, and
when the last lodge had been left behind, and was concealed from his
view by the thick shrubbery and trees that lined the banks of the
ravine, his fear and trembling vanished, and it was all he could do to
refrain from giving vent to his jubilant feelings. He sat down on the
ground to put on his shoes, which he had been thoughtful enough to bring
with him, then took the blanket under his arm, and never stopping to
think that there might be Indians in front of him as well as behind, he
broke into a run and flew down the ravine like the wind.
"I haven't done much to brag of, seeing that I was not very closely
watched," thought he, "but still I think I have played those savages a
pretty sharp trick. Now, if I only had Dick's speed and experience!"
If Frank had possessed the trapper's experience, he would have been much
more cautious in his movements, and might, perhaps, have succeeded in
reaching the valley in safety. He would have curbed his eagerness which
proved fatal to his hopes. There was a party of Indians coming up the
ravine with a prisoner; and their quick ears caught the sound of Frank's
footsteps long before he came in sight. The prisoner knew who it was
approaching at that reckless gate, and so did the Indians, who, at a
sign from their leader, quickly concealed themselves beside the path;
and when Frank was on the point of passing their ambush, a figure which
seemed to rise out of the ground clasped him in its strong arms, and he
was a prisoner again almost before he knew it.
The first Indian who confronted him, as he was lifted to his feet, was
the chief, who astonished his prisoner by the reception he gave him. He
seemed somewhat surprised to see him there, but he did not appear to be
angry. He looked at the blanket and spear, then at Frank, and giving him
a hearty slap on the back said, approvingly:
"Good boy! Make fine Injun, some day!"
Frank, although his face was very pale, and he was trembling in every
limb, was not as badly frightened now as when he first found himself in
the power of the savages. For himself he was not at all concerned, for
he did not stand in any fear of bodily harm; but there were his friends
in the valley, whom he was so anxious to warn of their danger! It was of
them he thought, and not of himself.
"I say, youngster," said a cheery, familiar voice, close at his elbow,
"you've got a few things to larn yet, haint you? When a feller is in an
Injun country he can't go tearin' through the woods as you did a minute
ago. I can't shake hands with you, 'cause I am tied hard and fast."
"Dick Lewis!" cried Frank, in alarm. He was too astonished to speak
again immediately. The redoubtable trapper was always turning up most
unexpectedly, and generally, too, at just the moment when his services
were most needed; but on this occasion he was not in a condition to
assist his young friend. For the first time in his life Frank was not
glad to see Dick. He would rather have had him a hundred miles from
there, for he knew that the treatment the trapper would receive at the
hands of his savage foes would be very different from his own.
"Well, what are you doing here?" asked Frank, at length.
"I might ask you the same question, I reckon," replied Dick. "What
business had you to go roamin' off alone in the mountains, arter I had
told you to keep your eyes open fur these Injuns? I knowed what was up
the minute Archie come home without you; an' me an' Bob set out to find
you. Bob's old legs tuk him safe out of danger, but I was ketched. I am
here 'cause I can't help myself."
"But, Dick, does Captain Porter know that these Indians have suddenly
turned hostile?"
"Turned!" exclaimed Dick. "They've been hostile ever since they was
born. Of course he knows it. Come up closer, youngster, so that I can
whisper to you, an' I'll tell you something."
While this conversation was going on, the prisoners were being conducted
up the ravine toward the camp. The chief led the way, two Indians, who
stepped exactly in his tracks, followed close at his heels, Frank and
Dick, who walked side by side, came next, and two more Indians brought
up the rear. The savages made no attempt to restrain their prisoners
from talking, and Frank was glad it was so.
"The Cap'n didn't like the way these Injuns acted this mornin', no
more'n I did," continued the trapper, in a low tone. "He spoke to the
major, an' told him that if he knowed when he was well off he would look
out fur things a leetle; an' the ole feller tuk the hint an' set his
soldiers to work on the fort. Thar's too many ole trappers down in that
valley, an' they can't be tuk by surprise."
"You don't know how overjoyed I am to hear that," whispered Frank, who
now breathed more freely than at any time since he had fallen into the
hands of the savages. "Then Archie will be safe, won't he?"
"Sartin he will, unless he goes about pokin' his nose into danger like
he allers does. He's jest spilin' to have his har raised, Archie is, an'
it was all me an' ole Bob could do to keep him from comin' with us when
we set out to look fur you. The chief's goin' to make an Injun of you, I
can see that easy enough."
"That's what Black Bill says."
"Black Bill!" echoed the trapper. "Is he about here? Wal, if I don't
settle with him ole Bob will, so it's all the same. I kinder thought, by
the squint in the chief's eye, that it would have been better fur you if
you had kept away from that camp," he continued. "Injuns don't giner'ly
take sich a monstrous shine to white boys fur nothing. It won't be long
afore you'll have a chance to see how the red skins treat their
prisoners. Mebbe the chief will get up a show fur you to-night."
"A show!" repeated Frank.
"Yes. How would you like to see me tied to the stake, or runnin' the
gauntlet?"
No one, to have heard the trapper speak these words, would have imagined
that he had any fears that such would be his fate; but Frank knew that
he expected nothing else.
"The chief is awful mad at me," continued Dick. "Thar were 'leven men in
his party, when me an' ole Bob first diskivered 'em, an' now you don't
see but four, do you? Thar's four more behind us, bringin' up the three
that me an' Bob rubbed out. I'll have to stand punishment fur that; but
I don't reckon that burnin' me or slashin' me with tomahawks will bring
to life all the braves I have sent to the happy huntin' grounds."
A long, mournful yell from the chief interrupted the conversation. Frank
looked up and saw the village in plain sight. The chief had given that
yell to warn the camp of his arrival. Dick called it the "death-whoop,"
and said that one object of it was to inform the warriors that some of
those, who had gone out on the scout with the chief, had fallen by the
hands of their enemies. Presently an answer came echoing through the
woods, then another, and another; and when they emerged from the ravine,
Frank found the village, which had been so quiet when he left it but a
few minutes before, alive with men, women, and children, who seemed wild
with excitement and rage. When their eyes rested on the trapper, they
gave utterance to savage yells of exultation, and almost before Frank
was aware of it, he was standing alone, gazing after a crowd of
struggling, frantic Indians, who were bearing his fellow prisoner toward
the chief's wigwam. Tomahawks and knives were flourished in the air
close to Dick's face, arrows and rifles were pointed at his breast,
spears were thrust at him, and now and then hickory switches in the
hands of those behind him, fell with stinging force on his head and
shoulders. Before he was carried out of sight, his face was bleeding
from more than one wound; but Frank looked in vain for any expression of
fear. The trapper was apparently as calm and self-possessed as he would
have been had he at that moment been smoking his pipe on the porch of
Mr. Brent's rancho. He never winced when the weapons of his savage foes
passed within an inch of his person--indeed, one would have thought,
from his manner, that he did not see them all. Never before had Frank
witnessed such an exhibition of courage and fortitude.
When the trapper had disappeared from his view, Frank, who had stood
rooted to the ground, horrified by the scene he was witnessing, awoke to
a sense of his own situation, and began to look about him. Although
there were Indians on all sides of him, no one seemed to take the least
notice of him. His hands were tied behind his back, but he could move
about as he pleased, for his feet were free. Scarcely knowing what he
was doing, he followed in the direction the crowd had gone; and when he
arrived at the chief's lodge he found that some unusual event was about
to take place. The yells were hushed, and most of the Indians were
gathered in a body on one side of the council ground, in the center of
which two or three warriors were busy kindling a fire. Upon looking
around for the trapper, he discovered him at the opposite side of the
ground, standing with his back to a post, to which he was securely
bound. Near him stood a couple of armed Indians; and when Frank
approached his friend, they motioned him angrily to retire.
"Oh, don't I wish that my hands were unbound, and that I could have the
free use of my knife for just one minute?" groaned Frank, as he
reluctantly retraced his steps toward the chief's wigwam. "Dick wouldn't
be in that fix long. He has saved me more than once, and I would risk
any thing, if I could do as much for him now. Where is Bob, that he
don't bring the trappers up here and attack these Indians?"
Frank stood off by himself and watched the preparations going on around
him, and wondered what would be the next torture the savages would
devise for their prisoner. He could not have been more terrified if he
had occupied Dick's place, and had been every moment expecting to hear
the death sentence passed upon him. He did not like the deliberation
and gravity with which the Indians conducted their proceedings, nor the
scowls of mingled hatred and triumph which they threw across the
council-ground toward the helpless trapper. He thought things looked
exceedingly dark for his friend.
The huge fire that had been kindled by the warriors was well under way
at last, and a dozen chiefs walked out from among their companions, and
seated themselves in a circle around it. The first business in order was
smoking the pipe of peace. The pipe was brought in by an aged warrior,
who lighted it with a brand from the fire, and was about to present it
to the principal chief, when the proceedings were interrupted by the
arrival of a party of four men, who walked up to the fire without
ceremony, and seated themselves near it. Frank recognized them at a
glance; and that same glance showed him that they had not come alone.
They had brought a prisoner with them, and he was standing near the
trapper, with his hands bound behind his back.