A STARTLING INTERRUPTION.
When Deerfoot, the Shawanoe, first saw the recovered hat of Otto
Relstaub, and tried hard to guess how it came to be left where Jack
Carleton found it, he recalled the words of Lone Bear to the effect that
it was placed over the face of the boy who was deserted three days'
journey away in the woods. The conclusion was natural that the hat had
been carried the intervening distance by the boy himself, who must have
recovered from the severe illness that brought him low.
At the very moment the young warrior was beginning to suspect the truth
about the youth's illness, the faint report of a rifle came to his ears.
Necessarily there could be nothing in the sound of the gun which could
identify it, but Deerfoot was sure it was fired by Otto, who was either
defending himself against some danger or was after his dinner.
Whatever the immediate cause, the Shawanoe felt that haste was necessary
to reach the fugitive, who was likely to be sought by the Pawnees, who
also must have heard the report of his rifle. He therefore started on
the pursuit, as it may be called, with the Sauk and Jack Carleton at his
heels.
That marvelous delicacy of hearing, which was one of the characteristics
of Deerfoot, enabled him not only to assure himself of the precise
direction of the sound, but to fix the point whence it came. Gaining
sight of the ridge, he was convinced that the lad who fired it was in
that vicinity. He therefore pointed out the portion which was to be
examined by the Sauk, while he reserved a similar area to be gone over
by himself--the difference being that he was confident of finding Otto,
provided he had not moved far from the spot where he stood when he
discharged his gun.
On the way thither, the Shawanoe glanced right and left in search of the
trail, but as an intervening storm had obliterated it, and Deerfoot went
in a direct line, he of course failed to find it.
Otto Relstaub's woodcraft enabled him to travel intelligently through
the wilderness. The second storm overtook him just before reaching the
rocky ridge, and he was fortunate to find shelter in a slight cave from
the driving rain. Despite the peril from which he had just escaped, he
determined to stay where he was until, so to speak, he could recruit.
The wild turkeys, of which I have spoken, were abundant in the
neighborhood, and he had no difficulty in killing one when he wanted it.
He did so, on first reaching the vicinity, and the last one was brought
down at the moment Deerfoot was studying the vexing problem as to what
had become of their young German friend.
The Shawanoe was approaching the truth when, as I have said, the report
solved the mystery, and, while hurrying through the woods with Jack and
the Sauk, he was almost positive that they would find the lad for whom
they had sought so long in vain. He did not believe, of course, that
Otto had entirely feigned the sickness which was the means of saving his
life, for the story of Lone Bear forbade that. He did suspect, however,
that the captive had been taken ill and probably made it appear worse
than was the case, and that, when left alone, he rapidly recovered and
took advantage of the surprising chance thus given him in perfect
innocence by the Pawnees. What struck Deerfoot as singular was that the
Indians should have been so deceived, and that none of them returned
afterward--excepting Red Wolf and Lone Bear--to learn whether he had
perished. Most likely they went over their trail once more on their
homeward journey. That of necessity must have been so long after the
abandonment of the lad, that (leaving out of account the doing of Otto's
friends) the Pawnees would not make the effort to hunt again for the
fugitive whose long start put him beyond danger of recapture.
When Otto Relstaub had finished his story, Jack's eyes sparkled and he
again grasped the hand of his friend.
"It is the most wonderful experience of which I have ever heard. I
thought my escape from the Sauks was remarkable, and so it was, but it
can't compare with yours. I never knew of the Indians being fooled in
that manner; but show me where you have spent the last day or two."
"It ishn't as fine as your cabin dot is home in Martinsville, but it ish
de best dot I can find."
"You're mighty lucky to find anything," was the remark of Jack Carleton,
following his young friend toward the rocky ridge which had attracted
the notice of the Shawanoe some time before.
"I wonder whether Deerfoot will find it?" said he, musing over the
strange experience of his friend; "I suppose you have left plenty of
footprints which he is likely to see and which will guide him to the
right spot."
"I vos going to leave dis place to-nights or to-morrow mornings," said
Otto, quite proud of the part he was acting as guide of his old friend,
"but dinks dot I stays till I feels like being better."
Before Otto Relstaub could finish his remark, the crack of two rifles
cut short his words. At the same moment the whistling bullets and the
war whoops left no doubt of the explanation. Several Pawnees had been
prowling along their trail, when the sight of the boys moving away led
them to believe they had taken the alarm and were trying to escape.
Firing hastily, they broke into a run, with less than a hundred yards
separating pursuer and pursued.
"Fly, Otto!" called his companion; "if you can run, now is the time;
they're on our heels!"
As the German lad knew the right course, he was obliged to take the
lead, while Jack Carleton was behind him. The latter was much the
fleeter of foot, and it made him desperate to observe what seemed the
sluggish movements of his guide.
"Hurry!" he added, pushing him forward; "they will be on us in a minute
and then it's all up!"
"Yaw; I ish doing petter as nefer I couldn't does," replied Otto, who in
his excitement dropped back into his crooked words and sentences.
"You ain't half trying, I've seen you do twice as well."
"Yaw; but I dinks--"
The catastrophe came. Like the immortal John Smith, Otto was so busy
with his eyes that he had no opportunity to watch where his feet led
him. He sprawled forward on his hands and knees, and Jack Carleton
narrowly missed going headlong over him. The situation was too critical
to laugh, and Otto, thoroughly scared, was up again in an instant,
plunging forward with unabated ardor.
The Pawnees lost no time, and the peril was of the most imminent nature.
But having regained his feet, Otto dashed forward with the utmost speed
he could command, so that the frightened Jack could not find fault with
his tardiness.
The leader was following no beaten path or clearly marked trail, but was
heading toward a point half way up the ridge, where a mass of rocks rose
higher than any others near them, and among which the boy had found a
refuge from the storm that drove him thither--a storm which it may be
necessary to say, was so local in its character, that Deerfoot and his
friends, who were not far off, saw nothing of the elemental disturbance.
The Pawnees, who were seeking to surround the boys at the moment they
started, came from different points, all converging so as to shut in the
fugitives, as they would have done had a little more time been given
them. As it was, when Jack and Otto faced the rocks, their enemies in
their rear, one or two were uncomfortably close.
Indeed, there was one fierce warrior nigh enough to interpose across the
path of the fugitives. Otto had taken a dozen steps or so after climbing
to his feet, when the savage, brandishing his tomahawk in one hand while
he grasped his gun in the other, shouted continually some exclamation
which was clearly a command to halt, but which, it need not be said, was
disobeyed.
Quick to see that he was wasting his breath, the red man, with a couple
of bounds, placed himself so directly in front of Otto that the latter
could not pass him without turning to one side.
"There's no use of fooling with that fellow," was the conclusion of Jack
Carleton, raising the hammer of his gun, without slackening his speed;
but before he could bring the weapon to his shoulder, Otto stopped
short, throwing up his gun at the same moment, and let drive at the
warrior, who could not have had any suspicion that he was in danger
until the red tongue shot from the muzzle almost in his face, and then
scarce time was given him to know what was coming when his interest in
earthly things ceased.
With an ear-splitting screech, he flung up both arms, the gun and
tomahawk flying several feet in the air from the spasmodic movement, and
he went forward on his face, head and shoulders being thrown so far back
that his chest struck the ground first, chin and forehead following like
the rockers of a chair.
"Well done!" called out Jack. "Push ahead and we shall be safe."
Suddenly Otto slackened and turned about with a blanched face.
"Mein gracious! I dinks I hef got de wrong road!"
Jack was in despair; then he was angered.
"Go on; go _somewhere_; don't stop here!" he said.
And he almost shoved him off his feet in his desperate impatience.
"Vosn't dot fooney?" said Otto, breaking into another desperate run; "it
is the road arter all."
Not only at that moment, but for some time previous, it must have been
in the power of the Pawnees to bring down both boys by shots from their
guns. The intervening space was so brief, that all could not have
missed, and when Otto made his last dash for safety, Jack Carleton was
in such a direct line behind him, that a single well-aimed bullet would
have laid both low; but the Indians, confident there was no escape for
the boys, determined to make both prisoners.
Deerfoot, the Shawanoe, always referred to the action of the red men at
that time as almost unexplainable. They must have known that the youths
had friends close by, and that one of them was the young warrior whom
they believed to be in league with the Evil One. The footprints which
had guided them through the forest told that fact. There were only four
Pawnees (one of whom was the warrior whom Deerfoot and Hay-uta held a
prisoner the night before, and then allowed to go), and as the number of
fugitives, if such they may be called, was the same, the advantage
certainly could not be claimed by the hostiles. What common sense
directed was for them to shoot the boys, and then withdraw, at least
until re-enforcements arrived. Their failure to do so was a piece of
shortsightedness which neither the Shawanoe nor Sauk understood.
The respite gained by the quick shot of Otto Relstaub was provident; it
threw every one of their pursuers behind them, and the redoubled efforts
of the lads carried them swiftly over the remaining space.
"Here we ish!" exclaimed the panting Otto, almost falling again.
"Where?" demanded the terrified friend; "I don't see anything like the
cave you told me about."
"It ish de pest dot we have," replied the German lad, noticing the
disappointment of his companion.