FAY.
"Th' spalpane manes ter kape it av he gits his hand on it," whispered
Barney. "It's murther he has in his oies."
Frank knew well enough that Barney was right, and he had no intention of
relinquishing his hold on his rifle for a moment. He fell back a step,
lifting the weapon in a suggestive manner, and Half Hand halted,
scowling blackly and smiling craftily by turns.
"Hold up!" came sharply from the lips of the boy. "Keep your distance,
or you will get damaged."
"Ha! White boy threaten Half Hand! Be careful! Half Hand good when him
not threatened; heap bad when him threatened. White boys two; Injuns big
lot more. White boys make Injuns mad, then where um be?"
"I have no desire to make you mad, but this is my rifle, and I mean to
keep it."
"Half Hand want to look."
"You may look at a distance, but you can't lay a hand on it."
"White boy heap 'fraid. Give gun back pretty quick bimeby."
"I fancy it would be bimeby. No, you cannot take it, and that settles
it."
"Mebbe Half Hand trade with boy."
"I do not wish to trade."
"Mebbe Half Hand give um heap good trade."
"Possibly, but that makes no difference."
"White boy fool!" snarled the half-blood. "If um don't lemme take gun,
Half Hand take it anyhow, and then white boy no git a thing for it."
This was quite enough to startle Frank, and he sharply declared:
"If you attempt to take this rifle, you will get a pill out of it in
advance! That is straight business, Mr. Half Hand."
"Hurro!" cried Barney, his fighting blood beginning to rise. "Av it's
foight ye want, ye red nagurs, jist wade roight inter us! We'll give ye
all th' foight ye want, begobs!"
The Blackfeet jabbered among themselves a minute, and it was plain that
they were not all of one mind. Some seemed to be for attacking the boys,
while others opposed it. Half Hand hotly urged them on.
"Fall back," said Frank, speaking softly to the Irish lad. "Be ready for
a rush. If they come, give it to them. I will take Half Hand myself. You
take the fellow with the red feather. If they kill us, we'll have the
satisfaction of getting two or three of them in advance."
The boy's voice was cool and steady, and his nerves seemed of iron. He
glanced over his shoulder in search of some place of shelter, but could
discover none near by, much to his disappointment.
Barney was also cool enough, although the hot blood was rushing swiftly
through his veins. He was holding himself in check, in imitation of his
friend and comrade.
In truth, the two lads were in a tight corner. It was plain that the
Indian poachers were made up of rebellious Blackfeet, who could not be
kept on the reservation, and their faces showed they were the very worst
sort. Having been caught almost in the act of killing game within the
park, and believing the two lads had no friends near by, the dusky
villains might not hesitate at outright murder spurred on by their greed
for plunder, lust for blood, and a desire to keep the boys from
notifying the soldiers of the presence of Indians on forbidden ground.
Frank fully understood their peril, and he felt that they would be lucky
indeed if they escaped with their lives.
He blamed himself for running into the trap in such a blind manner, and
still he felt that he was not to blame. He had seen moving figures at a
distance, and, as the Indians were keeping under cover, in order to
creep upon the buffalo, he had no more than caught a glimpse of them.
They were dressed in clothes they had obtained by trade or plunder from
white men, and so, at a distance and under such circumstances, it was
not remarkable that Frank had not noted they were savages.
In a few moments Half Hand seemed to bring the most of the Indians to
his way of thinking, and he again turned on the boys.
"Good white boys," he croaked, craftily. "Don't be 'fraid of Injuns.
Injuns won't hurt um."
"We are not afraid of you," returned Frank; "but you want to keep your
distance, or you will get hurt by us."
"Thot's roight, begorra!" cried Barney, fingering his Winchester. "It's
stoofed to th' muzzle, this ould shootin' iron is, wid grapeshot an'
canister, an' av Oi leggo wid it, there won't be a red nagur av yez left
on his pins."
"Injuns want to talk with white boys," said the half-blood, edging
nearer, inch by inch. "Injuns want to hold powwow."
"We are not at all anxious to hold a powwow with you. Stand where you
are!"
Up came Frank's rifle a bit.
It was plain that the red ruffians meant to make an assault, and the
moment was at hand. They were handling their weapons in a way that told
how eager some of them were to shed the blood of the boys.
Barney, in his characteristic, devil-may-care manner, began to hum, "My
Funeral's To-morrow." He seemed utterly unable to take matters
seriously, however great the danger.
A moment before the rush and encounter must have taken place, all were
startled to hear a merry, childish laugh, and a voice saying:
"I knowed I'd find tomebody tomewhere. I wants to tome down. Tate me
down, please."
On the top of the bluff, forty feet above the heads of the Indians,
stood a little girl, dressed in white. She had golden hair and blue
eyes, and, on her lofty perch, she looked like a laughing fairy.
"Mother av Mowses!" gurgled Barney.
"A child!" exclaimed Frank, astonished. "Here!"
The Indians muttered and hesitated. Half Hand still urged them on, but
it was plain that they believed there was a party of white persons near
at hand, and they feared to attack the boys. The urging of the
half-blood was in vain, and he was forced to give it up.
Then he turned fiercely on the boys, snarling:
"Good thing for you your friends come! They no come, we kill you and
take your guns! Mebbe we see you 'gain some time bimeby."
Then the Indians turned and quickly scudded away, soon disappearing from
view amid some pines.
Frank drew a breath of relief.
"That was a close shave," he muttered.
"Begorra! It was thot," nodded Barney. "Av it hadn't been fer th'
litthle girrul, we'd lost our scoolps Oi belave."
"The little girl!" exclaimed Frank. "She appeared like a good fairy,
and----"
"Dat's my name. Mamma talls me Fairy Fay."
She was still standing on the bluff, and she had heard Frank's words.
Now she held out her arms to him, crying:
"Tome tate me down. I wants to tome down."
"Get back from the edge, dear," Frank quickly called. "You may fall. We
will come up to you as soon as possible."
"Tome wight away."
"Yes, we will come right away."
"I's tired playing all alone--an' I's hundry," said the sweet little
voice. "I's awsul hundry. You dot somet'ing dood to eat?"
"You shall have something to eat very soon, if you will keep back from
the edge, so you'll not fall down," assured Frank.
He then directed Barney to remain there and watch her, cautioning her to
keep back, while he found a way to reach the top of the bluff.
Frank hastened away, looking for some mode of getting there. In a short
time, he found a place to ascend, and lost no time in doing so.
When he came panting to the top of the bluff, the little girl was
waiting, having seated herself contentedly on a stone, where she could
call down to Barney.
Seeing Frank, she held out her arms, crying:
"I's awsul glad you tome! I'll be your Fairy now."
"You have been my good fairy to-day, little one," he earnestly said, as
he lifted her in his arms and kissed her cheek. "Without doubt you saved
my life."
"Mamma says I's pritty dood Fairy all the time."
"I haven't a doubt of it."
"But I's awsul hundry now. I touldn't find mamma, and I walked and
walked, and I falled down and tored my dress, and I dot tired and awsul
hundry, and I cwyed some, and nen I 'membered mamma told me it wasn't
nice to cwy, and I walked again, and I heard somebody talkin', and I
looked down and it was you."
She ended with a happy laugh, clasping her arms about his neck.
"Where is your mamma?"
"Oh, I don't know now," she answered, a little cloud coming to her face.
"I touldn't find her. You tate me to her."
"You do not live near here?"
"We live in New Yort."
"New York?"
"Yeth, thir. Dat's a dreat bid place wif lots and lots of houses."
"Then you must be traveling with your mamma?"
"I's trafeling wizout her now. We has had jes' the longest wides on the
cars. And we stopped in lots of places, but we didn't find papa."
"Then your papa is not with you?"
"Papa goed away long time ago, and that made mamma cwy. I seed her
weadin' a letter and cwyin' awsul hard, and papa didn't tome bat some
more. You know where to find my papa?"
"No, little one, I do not; but I will help you find your mother. What
did you say your name is?"
"Fay. Tometimes mamma talls me Fairy."
"What is all your name--the rest of it besides Fay?"
"Why, jes' Fairy. I's awsul hundry. Dot a tookie?"
Finding himself unable to learn her full name from her lips, Frank
started for the foot of the bluff, bearing her in his arms.