UNITED.
A week had passed since Dick Dare and Fritz made their escape from the
Indians. They had paddled steadily down the river, and by making their
night stops short and their day trips long, they had almost reached the
point where they were to leave the canoes and take to the trail again.
"Guess we'll camp here to-night," said Dick, when it had grown so dark
that further traveling was risky. "It looks like a good spot and we'll
get an early start and try to reach the end of our river journey by
to-morrow night."
Fritz breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yah," he said. "It looks already like a goot blace to sleep."
"Well, we are on the last stage of the trip now," said Dick, "and if we
can keep up this pace we will get to Vincennes ahead of time."
"Vhere iss Tom und Tim Murphies, I vonder?" commented Fritz. "Ve shall
be at Vinzennes pefore dhose two, I think it, yes, no?"
"I'm surprised that Tom and Tim haven't joined us before this," Dick
said. "Perhaps they haven't fared very well in the British troop. They
seemed to have their liberty, though, so I don't see why they shouldn't
be right along behind us."
"Brobably it's dot Murphies feller is making troubles," Fritz suggested.
"You have a great idea of Tim, haven't you?" laughed Dick.
"He iss a all right feller, Tim iss, but he isn't a Deutcher," Fritz
replied.
"I'll bet he feels bad about that," suggested Dick.
"Dot's chust the trouble, I don'd peliefe he does," Fritz answered
seriously, much to Dick's amusement.
The boys paddled in to the shore, pulled the canoe out of the water,
and after eating their supper proceeded to make themselves as
comfortable as possible for the night.
"We better not light any fires," said Dick. "We had one this morning
and I guess we can get along without it now."
"Look!" said Fritz, who was standing near the canoe at the water's
edge. "Dot looks like somedings iss burning."
Dick joined him and gazed upstream in the direction that Fritz
indicated toward the opposite shore.
"Seems to be a camp fire," said Dick. "Who can be camping there, I
wonder?"
"Perhaps some Indians yet?" suggested Fritz.
"It must be," agreed Dick. "We better pull this canoe further in, for
if they go down the river before us in the morning they might spot it.
Maybe it's those fellows we got this canoe from."
"We had better be careful, then," said Fritz. "If dhose felers efer
caughted us, ve vould a bad time have."
"Guess we'll have to keep watch to-night," Dick answered. "You turn in
now, Fritz, and I'll wake you up in about four hours. Then you can give
me a chance to snatch a nap. We can't afford to take chances, you know."
"Don'd forget to call me," replied Fritz, with a grin.
With this quite needless admonition the Dutch boy rolled up in his
blanket and Dick soon had evidence from his heavy breathing that he
was fast asleep.
Dick felt very drowsy, and after walking down to the shore and back
again several times to keep awake, he decided that the more practical
thing to do was to slide the canoe into the water and investigate the
camp on the point higher up the river. Fritz, he knew, would sleep for
a week, if he were not disturbed, so Dick decided to improve him time
by finding out, if possible, who his neighbors were.
He paddled quietly, hugging the shore to within a hundred yards of the
point where the fire had been seen, and then headed for the spot. There
was no sign of life about the fire, as far as Dick could tell, and he
judged the strangers must be sleeping. The canoe was now very close to
the river bank and because of the darkness, Dick did not discover the
little shoal of pebbles before him until the canoe grated on them with
quite a little noise.
Dick sat perfectly motionless for several minutes. He was hoping that
the sound had not carried to the ears of the other party. For an
interval all was still, and then suddenly Dick heard a sound right
beside him in the bushes at the water's edge.
He turned and was about to paddle quickly away when a figure stepped
out of the woods with a gun pointed directly at the Dare Boy.
"One move, and we'll shoot!" said a voice from in front of him, and
Dick saw a second figure in front of the canoe.
"Foine," said the first figure, "we've got him now, be jabbers."
"Tim, Tom!" cried Dick. "Don't you know who you have captured?"
"Be the powers, it's Dick Dare!" ejaculated Tim, while Tom dropped his
gun and waved his hat in the air.
"Not so loud, Tim," said Dick. "There may be others within a hundred
miles, you know, and if there are any they'll hear you. This is
certainly great, though. I never thought it was your fire. I was just
going to investigate."
Dick had pulled the bow of the canoe ashore and exchanged warm
hand-clasps and many claps on the back with his brother and Tim.
"Come on down and we'll join Fritz," said Dick. "We are safer away from
that fire of yours, anyhow."
"Same old Dick," said Tom. "Always take command as soon as there's
anyone to boss."
"You and Tim have been bossing each other long enough by now," replied
Dick, laughing. "You need some one to look after you for a change."
"Well, we've gotten as far along as you have," rejoined Tom.
"Excipt for a quater av a mile or so," commented Tim.
"That's right," replied Dick. "The honors are even, I guess."
The boys startled Fritz out of his sleep by their return to camp, and
the scene that had occurred when Dick met the others was reenacted.
Even Tim and Fritz were glad to see each other and buried their rivalry
in the joy of being reunited.
"When did you leave the British troop?" asked Dick, finally.
"I better give an account of our trip right from the start, to get
things straight," said Tom.
"It'll be an all night job if ye'll be tellin' all the advintures av
us," protested Tim.
"Well, I'll just tell how we left the service of King George then,"
said Tom, laughing. He told then briefly of their experiences while
with the English troops and how, just as they were supposed to prove
their loyalty by hanging the Indian, all three of them had plunged over
the edge of the cliff.
"It was a desperate chance, but by good luck we all landed on a ledge a
little way down," said Tom.
"It's a wonder you were not all killed," said Dick.
"I thought sure our last hour had come," admitted Tim.
"Anyway," Tom went on, "our fall was pretty much broken by the bushes
and various growths we tumbled through. When we got to our feet we
hugged in close to the wall of rock that rose above and by our side and
with the bushes overhead and a slight hollow in the ledge to hide us,
the troopers never saw us at all."
"They think sure thot we are falling yet," put in Tim.
"I guess they believed that we had gone down clear to the bottom.
Anyway, if we had, I don't think any of us would have ever lived to
tell the tale. The Redcoats didn't stay looking for us long, and by
noon-time we crawled out, then by slipping, sliding, holding fast
and helping each other, we got down the rest of the mountain side and
struck the lower trail that we had hoped to find."
"What happened then?" asked Dick, while Fritz sat with his mouth wide
open to catch every detail.
"Well, next day we got down to a place where the trails meet again and
there were a bunch of Indians holding a pow-pow, celebrating a victory
over the same British troop from whom we had escaped the day before. Of
course our Indian companion recognized them at once and insisted on our
going with him."
"Sure, but they were a friendly lot, and we were mighty hungry by that
time," said Tim.
"They were friendly to us," said Tom, "because we had saved the life of
one of their tribe and because they knew you too."
"Yes, that was the tribe we were traveling with," said Tim. "When we
told them what we wanted to do, they helped us fix up the canoe we
have. Some one had punched a hole in it."
"Yah, I bunched dot hole already, I dink," admitted Fritz.
"Ye have no more sinse than ye had before," Tim said, with disgust.
"We had to destroy those canoes to keep from being pursued," Dick
volunteered. "Fritz did it because I told him to."
"Sure, he would not have the sinse to do such a thing himself,"
asserted Tim, determined to deny any credit to the Dutchman.
"You talks, Mr. Tim," said Fritz, "but you says nothings from your
mouth out."
"Let's turn in now," laughed Dick, "and we'll let you fellows fight it
out tomorrow."
"Yes, I'm tired," said Tom, "and, Dick, we can swap stories tomorrow
for I have lots to tell and there is a great deal we would like to hear
about your trip."