Gabe Gurley
About two hours after Dick Dare left the fort, the Indians made the
attack. They tried to take the settlers by surprise, by slipping up to
the fort, but were discovered and fired upon, and then they uttered wild
yells and made a desperate attack.
The settlers made a strong and determined defense, firing as fast as
they could reload their rifles, and the calls of the redskins were
varied by yells and shrieks of pain, proving that some of the bullets
found lodgment in the bodies of the redskins.
Then, suddenly a cry went up from the settlers, for they saw that the
stockade-wall was on fire. The Indians had not been able to break the
wall down, or to scale it, so they had set fire to it.
There was a well inside the enclosure, however, and the settlers began
carrying water and pouring it down on the fire, from the platform on the
inside of the fence, and two or three of the settlers were wounded by
arrows while engaged in this work, but they finally succeeded in putting
the fire out.
The Indians, disappointed, repeated their war-whoops and yells
betokening anger. Then they withdrew, having given up the attack, at
least for the present. But that they had given up the matter permanently
was not likely.
The settlers were glad of the cessation of hostilities, however, and it
afforded them an opportunity for reloading their rifles, and, for needed
rest, a watch was set so as to be ready for another attack, if it was
made.
Morning came at last, however, without a renewal of the onslaught, and
the settlers took a look around. They saw that the fort was surrounded
by at least a hundred redskins, and they realized that the Indians
intended to stay till they captured the fort.
“They will put in the day planning, and to-night they’ll attack us
again,” said Mr. Holden, after looking at the Indians a while.
“Yes, that’ll be their game,” said Mr. Perkins.
“But they can’t capture the fort, can they?” asked Tom Dare, who was
standing on the platform, beside the two men, taking a look at the
Indians.
“I don’t think they could capture the fort,” said Perkins, “but likely
they’ll lay siege to it and try to make us surrender, arter our grub
gives out.”
“But you have enough to last quite a while, haven’t you?”
“Two or three days, I guess.”
“Well, Dick will be back with General Greene and his army in four or
five days, I think.”
“Maybe we can hold out till then,” said Mr. Perkins.
“I think we can,” said Holden.
“We can fight them off, I feel certain,” said another of the settlers.
“So all we will have to do will be to go easy on the rations till
General Greene gets here.”
“Yes, that is what we’ll do,” said Perkins.
Tom and Ben were greatly interested. This was the first time they had
ever had anything to do with fighting Indians, and they were glad that
they had come down into this region of the Cherokees, for there was a
peculiar glamour to this kind of warfare that did not attach to fighting
against the redcoats.
“Dick will miss most of the fighting by going on the trip,” said Tom.
“Yes, but there will be plenty of Indian fighting after he gets back,”
said Ben.
“Yes, likely. And it will be a great relief to the people of this part
of the country when the patriot soldiers get down here and get after the
redskins.”
“Yes, so it will.”
About the middle of the afternoon there was seen to be considerable stir
among the Indians to the northward, near the edge of the forest, and Mr.
Holden, who, with Perkins and two or three others of the settlers, and
Tom and Ben, were standing on the platform, watching, said:
“Look. There’s that renegade-Tory, Gabe Gurley.”
Sure enough, a white man was seen standing among the redskins, and it
could be seen that he was an exceedingly large man, a giant in size, in
fact. He was talking to the Indians, and gesticulating, and they were
listening with evident interest.
“What a big fellow he is!” exclaimed Tom.
“And a big scoundrel,” said Perkins.
“Yes, he’s worse’n the redskins,” said another of the settlers.
“I don’t like to see him there among the redskins,” said Mr. Holden, a
sober look on his face. “He may put them up to some scheme to enable
them to capture the fort before General Greene and his army can get
here.”
“We’ll have to be on our guard, sure enough,” said Perkins.
“I hope Dick didn’t meet him,” exclaimed Tom,
“It isn’t likely that he did,” said Ben.
Presently the renegade, Gabe Gurley, ceased talking to the Indians and
came striding toward the fort, holding up his hand, with the palm toward
the settlers.
“He wants to talk to us,” said Perkins.
“Yes,” said Holden. “I s’pose we might as well hear what he has to say.”
“Yes.”
Gurley advanced till within about fifty feet of the stockade-wall, and
then stopped. “How are ye, Holden? How are ye, Perkins?” he called out.
“What do you want, Gabe Gurley?” asked Holden, rather gruffly.
“I’ve come to ask ye to surrender,” was the reply.
“Then you are wasting your time, Gurley.”
“Ye mean thet ye won’t surrender?”
“Yes.”
“Ye’d better. We can stay here till yer grub gives out, an’ then ye’ll
have to surrender, an’ ye might as well do et now.”
“We have provisions to last us till--”
Holden hesitated, but Gurley finished: “Till Gin’ral Greene an’ his army
gits here, ye was goin’ to say, hey?” with a grin. “Well, they won’t git
here as soon as ye think, I can tell ye that.”
“Why won’t they?” asked Holden.
“Because I captured ther young feller what ye sent frum here last night,
to bring Greene, an’ I’ve got ’im a pris’ner, an’ so he won’t carry the
news, as ye expected, an’ Greene an’ his army won’t be here--not for a
good while, anyhow.”
An exclamation escaped the lips of Tom Dare. “You big ruffian!” he
cried. “You say you captured my brother?”
The giant looked at Tom and grinned. “I don’ know whether I captured
your brother or not, but I do know that I captured a young feller what
was on his way to bring Gin’ral Greene here.”
“That was my brother,” cried Tom, angrily. “Where is he, now?”
“Oh, he’s where I can put my han’s on ’im whenever I want to,” was the
reply.
Tom jerked a pistol out of his belt and leveled it, and would have fired
at the ruffian, had not Mr. Perkins caught him by the arm. “Don’ shoot,
my boy,” he said. “Gurley’s a villain, and needs shootin’, but he’s
there under a truce, and we must not shoot him.”
“Oh, all right,” said Tom. “That’s so. I won’t shoot him now, but he
made me forget myself when he said he had my brother a prisoner.”
“An’ that’s another reason for not shooting him, Tom. If you only
wounded him, he’d most likely take revenge on your brother.”
“That’s so. I never thought of that. But I’ll get even with him for
capturing Dick.”
Gurley had watched this little episode with a slight show of alarm, at
first, but when he saw that the youth was not going to fire, he grinned,
and said: “Lucky ye didn’t shoot, youngster.” Then to Holden he went on:
“What about it? Are ye goin’ to surrender?”
“No,” was the decided reply.
“Ye’ll have to sooner or later, ye know.”
“No, you won’t,” said Tom, in a low, eager voice. “I’ll go out and away
to-night, and will try to find and rescue Dick. But if I can’t find him,
I’ll go and bring General Greene and his army.”
Holden nodded to Tom, and then replied to Gurley: “We will not
surrender, so you might as well go back to your friends, the redskins,
and tell them so.”
“Oh, all right,” growled Gurley. “But, ye’ll be sorry ye didn’t
surrender, Holden.”
“I don’t think so.”
With an angry exclamation, the renegade turned and strode back and
rejoined the Indians, to whom he talked energetically, gesticulating
vigorously the while.
Then the Indians shook their bows and tomahawks at the settlers and gave
vent to a series of wild, thrilling war-whoops.