"FRANCE WINS, MONSIEUR!"
For the moment, every muscle of my body seemed paralyzed. I distinctly
heard the creature moving in my direction, and I backed away violently,
actuated only by the thought of instant escape into the open air. But
Burns blocked the solitary passage.
"Back out of here, for God's sake!" I managed to exclaim through
parched lips. "That devil-thing is coming this way!"
He struggled desperately in the darkness, tugging madly at some
obstacle, an oath smothered on his lips. I waited and listened, every
nerve on edge.
"Dern it all, but I can't!" he groaned at last. "My blame ol' gun hes
got wedged, and won't give an inch."
Then a half-smothered laugh rippled out of the gloom just in front of
me.
"Heaven protect me, but it's Wayland!" came a voice, and the laughter
broke into a roar of merriment.
"Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! This will be the death of me!"
The voice, choked and muffled as it was, sounded strangely hollow in
that dark cave; yet it had a familiar tone. So surprising was the
situation, that I could only stare into the black void, speechless. It
was Burns who realized the need of action.
"Whoever the dern fool is," he growled, his voice hoarse with anger,
"choke the wind out of him, or his blame howling will bring every Injun
on the river yere!"
"De Croix!" I exclaimed quickly, aroused to recollection by the
seriousness of the situation, "stop that infernal racket, or the two of
us will throttle you!"
He puffed and gurgled, striving his best to smother the sense of
ludicrousness that mastered him. To me there was small cause for
merriment; the supreme terror of those moments merged into hot anger
at the deception, and I crept forward eager to plant my hand upon the
rascal's throat.
"What French mockery is this?" I exclaimed, my hand hard upon his arm.
"Think you, Captain de Croix, that you can play such tricks in this
wilderness, and not be made to pay for them?"
I felt him tremble under my fierce grasp; yet it was not from fear,
for my words only served to loosen his laughter once more. Burns now
broke in, shoving the barrel of his long rifle forward over my shoulder
till he struck the Frenchman a blow that effectually silenced him.
"You chattering ape!" he said, growling like an angry bear, "another
yawp like that, and I'll blow a hole clean through you! Now, you French
ninny, tell us what this means, an' be quick about it if ye want ter
save yer hide!"
De Croix did not answer, but he ceased to laugh, and panted as if the
breath had been knocked out of him. Another impatient movement by Burns
led me to speak up hastily in his defence.
"Wait," I said, laying my grasp upon his gun, "he has no breath left
with which to make reply. 'Tis the French gallant who raced with me,
the same whom you met at Hawkins's Ford; and no doubt he felt good
reason to play the ghost here in this dark pit."
"Ay," panted De Croix painfully, "I truly thought the savages were
upon me, and sought to frighten them by the only means I could devise.
Sacre! but you hit me a sore blow in the ribs! If I have frightened
you, 'twas no worse than the terror that took me at your entrance here."
For a time none spoke, and no sound, save De Croix's labored breathing,
broke the silence. Burns had turned slightly, and I knew was listening
intently for any sound without. Apparently satisfied that the noise
made by us had not been overheard, he asked in his old deliberate drawl:
"How in thunder, Mister Parly-voo, did ye git up thet thar combination,
anyhow?"
I heard the Frenchman chuckle, and pinched him as a warning to be
careful. He answered, in his reckless, easy way:
"'Twas all simple enough behind the scenes, Messieurs. I but took some
old sacking discovered here, and used it as a robe, standing my hair
well on end; and a flash of powder made the scene most realistic. The
thing indeed worked well. I would I had a picture of Master Wayland's
face to show Toinette!"
This chance mention of her name recalled me to myself. The undecided
wager was yet to be won, and the night was now nearly spent. There came
to me a sudden determination to risk a rush through the darkness to the
Fort gates, rather than chance any further defeat at the hands of this
rash gallant. Yet prudence bade me question somewhat further before I
ventured upon so mad a deed.
"No doubt 'twas most happy from your point of view, Monsieur. From
ours, it was less so; and instead of laughing, you might better be
thanking your lucky stars that you did not pay more dearly for such
folly. But what brought you here? Why have you failed to reach the
stockade?"
_"Sacre!"_ he muttered carelessly, "but I had a fierce enough run for
it as it was. Why did I not reach the stockade? Because, my friend, I
am no real ghost to be invisible in the night, nor am I a bird to fly.
'Twas in the shadow of that big building yonder that I ran into a nest
of those copper-colored fiends, and 'twas nip and tuck which of us won,
had I not, by pure good luck, chanced to stumble into this hole, and so
escape them. Perchance they also thought me a ghost, who knows? But, be
that as it may, they were beating the river bank for me in the flesh,
when you came creeping here."
We lay flat on the floor, the three of us, our eyes fastened upon the
faint light that began to stream in through the entrance. I could hear
Burns muttering to himself, as is often the way with men who lead lives
of solitude; and every now and then De Croix would shake silently at
the recollection of what had just occurred. I minded neither of them,
but chiefly planned how best I might outwit De Croix and win the prize
offered by Mademoiselle. The promise of dawning day was in the outer
air, too dim as yet to render our faces visible. Suddenly the slight
draft of air veered, and swept a tiny breath of smoke into my nostrils.
It came so quickly that I scarcely realized its significance until
Burns scrambled to his knees with a growl.
"God! the devils have run us to cover!" he cried, sullenly. "They have
started a fire to smoke us out!"
It hardly needed a moment to prove this true; the thin smoke grew more
and more dense, filling the narrow entrance until we lay gasping for
breath. De Croix, ever the most impulsive, was the first to act.
_"Parbleu!"_ he gasped, pulling himself forward with his hands. "Better
Indians than this foul air! If I die, it shall at least be in the open."
To remain longer cooped in that foul hole was indeed madness; and
as soon as I could I followed him, rolling out of the entrance to
the water's edge, fairly sick with the pressure upon my lungs, and
caring so little what the end might be, provided I might first attain
one breath of pure air, that before I gained strength to resist I
was prisoner to as ill-looking a crew of savages as ever my eyes
encountered. The villains triced us firmly with thongs of skin, and
sat us up against the bank like so many puppets, dancing about before
us, snapping their dirty fingers in our faces, and treating us to all
manner of taunts and insults. 'Twas done so quickly as to seem a dream,
had I not smarted so sorely from the blows dealt me, and my limbs
chafed where the tight cords were drawn.
I recall glancing aside at Burns; but his seamed and puckered face
remained emotionless, as the red devils rolled him over till he stared
straight up at the sky, now gray with coming dawn. The sight of De
Croix almost set me laughing, which won for me a kick from the brute
who had me in special charge. The Frenchman was surely no court dandy
now; his fancy clothing clung to him in rags, while the powder-flash
within the cellar had blackened his face and made sad havoc with his
gay mustache. He endeavored to smile at me as our eyes met, but the
effort produced only what seemed like a demoniac grin.
"'Tis a hard life, Monsieur," I could not forbear remarking, "and will
hardly remind you of Versailles."
His form stiffened in its bonds, as if the words spurred his memory of
other days.
"A French soldier smiles at fate, wherever it overtakes him," he
answered, a touch of pride in his voice. "Besides, the game is not
played out,--I may yet prove the first one in. But see! if I mistake
not, here comes the chief of all these devils."
The new-comer strode down the high bank alone, and was greeted noisily
by our captors. It was the same Indian that had halted Captain Wells
the day previous; and he looked us over with a contemptuous sneer that
curled his lips and transformed the whole expression of his hideously
painted face. I noted that he paid but small heed to either De Croix
or myself, contenting his vengeance with sharp kicks at our prostrate
bodies; but as he came to Burns, he paused, bending down till he could
peer into the old borderer's upturned face.
"Bah! I know you," he said, brokenly. "You Ol' Burns. Stake down in
village for you."
The old man neither moved his head nor gave the slightest sign that he
had heard.
"Squaw eat heart," went on the Indian, prodding him with his stick;
"feed bones to dog. All white men go that way now,--Ol' Burns first."
"Topenebe," was the quiet reply, as the victim rolled over until he
half-sat against the bank, "I had the pleasure o' kickin' ye once down
on the Kankakee, an' should be mighty glad ter do it agin. I reckon as
how ye don't feel over friendly ter me, but ye're simply wastin' yer
breath tauntin' me. Any time yer derned old fire is hot, I'm ready to
dance."
These calm words angered the warrior, and he spat at him; then he
turned and grunted an order in his own language. With blows of their
sticks the Indians got us on our feet; but when they sought to drive
us up the steep bank to the prairie, Ol' Burns balked and absolutely
refused to move.
"Not one dern step, Topenebe," he swore grimly, "with these yere
things on my legs. I'm no pony ter be hobbled, an' blame if I'll jump
'long fer any red skin. Ye kin carry me, if ye ain't too lazy; but, by
thunder! thar'll be no walkin' till ye cut them bonds."
Blows, curses, and threats failed alike to budge the old man. He simply
sat down and smiled grimly at them; and we followed his example,
dimly perceiving there must be a purpose in it. Sheer obstinacy wins
many a battle, and when we went up the bank our lower limbs were
free, although to my mind we were as hopelessly bound as ever. Not so
with Burns. I chanced to press close to him, as we came out upon the
prairie, and he muttered a quick word into my ear.
"See how they herd us in the shade of the Agency! They are not yet
ready to let the sojers know whut they're re'lly up to. Not an Injun
will go beyond thet line long enough to be seen. Be ready to run fer it
as soon as I say 'Go,' an' tell the Frenchman."
I succeeded in making De Croix understand, by means of the mongrel
French at my command, which seemed not to be intelligible to the
savages; and we moved forward at as slow a gait as our vigilant guards
permitted, with every muscle tense for the coming strain. We were
bunched together, with no pretence of order on the part of our captors;
indeed, they seemed to be of various minds over what was to be done
with us, though Topenebe exercised sufficient control over his mongrel
followers to compel at least partial obedience to his orders. We
tramped along to the west of the factory, the walls of which shut off
all view of the Fort, a half-dozen of the savages about us, while the
chief stalked on a few feet in advance.
We had almost reached the southwestern corner of the big Agency
building, and Topenebe had already taken a step to the right, carefully
keeping the log-walls as a protection between our movements and the
eyes of the garrison, when Burns, shaking off the Indians nearest him,
bounded suddenly forward and struck Topenebe with his head, hurling the
fellow by his side over backward as he passed.
"Run for the gate!" he yelled.
Like an arrow from the bow, I shot around the Agency corner, and raced
for the stockade, De Croix, running like a deer, barely a foot behind
me. I never dreamed, in that moment of intense action, that Burns was
not also coming,--that he had deliberately sacrificed himself in order
to hold back the savages and give us the better chance for life. Behind
arose the sound of struggle, but there was no indication of pursuit,
and as I rounded the end of the stockade the lower gate swung open
just before me and I glanced back, half pausing as I realized the old
borderer had not followed us; then some one tripped me, and I fell
headlong. With a sudden rush, De Croix swept by.
"France wins, Monsieur!" he cried back in mocking triumph, as I
staggered to my knees.