Produced by Chris Curnow, Michael, Mary Meehan and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
SPOTTED DEER
BY ELMER RUSSELL GREGOR
AUTHOR OF "THE WHITE WOLF," "THE WAR TRAIL," "RUNNING FOX," ETC.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK, 1924, LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
[Illustration: "PERHAPS SOME SHAWNEES ARE HIDING OVER THERE."]
CONTENTS
I. THE CRY OF THE LOON
II. A NIGHT OF ANXIETY
III. CAPTURED
IV. A WILY CAPTIVE
V. THE SHAWNEE CAMP
VI. A TRYING ORDEAL
VII. THE MYSTERY WOMAN
VIII. THE ALARM
IX. AWAY ON THE SEARCH
X. THE ABANDONED CANOE
XI. A COUNCIL OF WAR
XII. ON THE TRAIL
XIII. A STRANGE ALLY
XIV. WAITING AND WATCHING
XV. AN EASY VICTORY
XVI. A DARING RUSE
XVII. SPOTTED DEER OBTAINS HIS FREEDOM
XVIII. SHAWNEE TREACHERY
XIX. SURROUNDED
XX. A TIMELY RESCUE
SPOTTED DEER
CHAPTER I
THE CRY OF THE LOON
Spotted Deer was returning to the Delaware village from a hunting
expedition. He was in high spirits for he had been most successful. His
canoe contained the carcass of a fat young buck, a brace of geese and
several grouse. Spotted Deer sang softly to himself. It was a simple
song of thanks to Getanittowit, the Great One.
Listen, Getanittowit, I am singing about you.
Getanittowit has filled my canoe with meat.
Getanittowit has made me a great hunter.
O Getanittowit, I feel good about it.
It was a glorious day in early autumn. The soft balmy air was perfumed
with the invigorating fragrance of the pines. The water sparkled in the
sunshine. A smoky blue haze hung between the hills. The forest blazed
with color. Spotted Deer looked about him with delight. A red-tail hawk
circled slowly above his head. A woodpecker drummed its challenge upon a
dead pine. Spotted Deer smiled at the sound as he recalled an occasion
when his friend Running Fox had used it as a signal to fool his foes.
Lost in reverie, Spotted Deer ceased paddling to watch the great black
and white woodpecker hammering noisily on a bleached limb of the pine.
Having found no evidence of foes in the Delaware hunting grounds, the
young warrior felt secure.
"Hi, Papaches, you are making a big noise up there," he laughed, as he
shook his bow at the bird.
The next moment he grew silent and alert. The call of Quiquingus, the
loon, sounded somewhere behind him. Spotted Deer looked anxiously up the
river. There was something about the call which made him suspicious. He
searched the water with great care, but saw nothing of the loon. He
became uneasy. Several disturbing questions rose in his mind. Was the
call false? Was it a signal from his foes? Had he been discovered?
The latter possibility was alarming as he was more than a day's journey
from the Delaware camp. Spotted Deer was undecided as to just what he
should do. Many moments passed while he watched anxiously for the loon.
The woodpecker had flown. The forest was silent. Spotted Deer hoped that
the cry would be repeated. When he failed to hear it, his suspicions
grew stronger. He wondered if some sharp-eyed scout were watching from
the edge of the forest. The thought made him cautious. He paddled into
the center of the river, where he was a long bow-shot from either shore.
Then for a long time he waited and watched. However, as he neither saw
nor heard anything further of the loon, he finally determined to
continue on his way.
Spotted Deer had gone only a short distance when the call was repeated.
Stopping his canoe, he again searched the water. The mysterious cry
seemed to have come from somewhere along the west shore of the
river--the side on which he had seen the woodpecker. Spotted Deer
examined the shadows with infinite care, but his efforts were futile.
The loon was nowhere in sight. His failure to discover it, and the
significant fact that the call had been repeated when he started down
the river, increased his uneasiness. He was almost convinced that the
cry was counterfeit. Still he wished to be sure. He waited some time,
watching for the conspicuous white breast of Quiquingus, the Laugher.
"It is not Quiquingus," he declared, at last.
Having decided that the call was an imitation, Spotted Deer wondered why
the one who had made it had risked disclosing his hiding place. In a
moment the truth flashed through his mind. He believed the call had been
a signal to announce his approach to some one farther down the river.
The thought caused him grave concern. He feared that he had blundered
into a perilous predicament.
"I must watch out," Spotted Deer murmured, uneasily.
He permitted the canoe to drift slowly with the water while he meditated
upon a plan of action. Feeling quite certain that he had encountered a
company of his foes, his chief concern was to learn if they had canoes.
In that event, he believed he would be in considerable peril. If,
however, his enemies were hunting through the woods on foot, he believed
there was little to fear while he kept to the middle of the river.
"I will go ahead," he said.
The sun had disappeared. Twilight had fallen upon the woods. Long black
shadows swept over the water. The day was far spent. Spotted Deer
watched closely along the edge of the timber. He knew that it would be
easy to blunder past a canoe concealed in the shadows near the shore.
Several times he was deceived by half-submerged trunks of fallen trees
which in the baffling twilight resembled canoes. Then, as he paddled
slowly around an abrupt turn in the river, he suddenly discovered two
canoes crossing directly ahead of him. Each canoe contained two
paddlers. They were a considerable distance away, but as Spotted Deer
was exposed in the center of the river he had little doubt that he had
been seen. The actions of the distant canoemen confirmed his fears. They
had ceased paddling and were looking steadily toward him. In the
meantime the Delaware had turned his canoe into a stretch of quiet water
to avoid drifting toward the strangers. They showed no inclination to
approach, and soon disappeared into the shadows along the west side of
the river.
Spotted Deer suspected a trap. He feared that other canoemen were
concealed along the opposite side of the river. Under those
circumstances it seemed folly to venture ahead before darkness came to
shield him. Then he suddenly realized that it might be equally dangerous
to loiter. He believed that other foes were somewhere behind him, and he
feared that they had canoes. In that event they might sweep around the
river at any moment and he would find himself trapped between his
enemies. The thought was alarming. It roused him to action. He turned
about and paddled slowly up the river. Keeping well within the shadows
from the forest, he soon passed around the turn which hid him from his
foes. At that moment the melancholy wail of Gokhos, the owl, sounded
behind him. He knew at once that it was a signal from the canoemen.
"I am in danger," Spotted Deer said, softly.
He feared that the warriors whom he had discovered would follow him, and
that other foes might come down the river in response to the signal.
Aware of his peril, Spotted Deer ceased paddling and stared anxiously
into the shadows. The sunset glow had faded from the sky. The forest was
dark. Night was closing down. However, a narrow trail of daylight still
lingered in the middle of the river. Spotted Deer looked upon it with
misgiving. It was a barrier which he feared to cross.
Then he again heard the cry of Gokhos, the owl. It still came from down
the river, and seemed no nearer than it was before. Spotted Deer was
perplexed. Had the canoemen failed to follow him? It seemed most
unlikely. He became suspicious. Perhaps his foes were attempting some
clever stratagem to quiet his fears. He wondered if the call had been
sounded to mislead him into believing himself free from pursuit while
his enemies approached cautiously through the shadows. He watched
closely. He wondered why the signals brought no response. What had
become of the concealed scout who had imitated the cry of the loon?
Spotted Deer began to think. Had he been deceived? Had Quiquingus
himself uttered that cry? Spotted Deer scoffed at the idea. He felt sure
that he would have discovered the bird if it had been anywhere within
sight.
"No, no, it was not Quiquingus," he declared, emphatically.
A moment afterward he heard the call of Gokhos repeated farther up the
river. His suspicions were confirmed. He realized that he was between
his foes.
"Quiquingus has changed to Gokhos," he said, soberly. "I must be
cautious."