"Lizzie" was the lieutenant"s bride, at Fort Riley. He had left her for the first time since they were married.
Drawn by its rapidly trotting mules the wagon trundled about three miles farther--and the captain had a glimpse of something new, moving over the low brush ahead and toward the river. It seemed to be a flock of wild turkeys bobbing along, now above the brush, now settling into it. N-no? What, then? Men on horses.
He clutched the lieutenant"s arm.
"Look there, Hallowell. What is it?"
The lieutenant looked only once.
"Injuns, by Jiminy! We"re in for it."
He whirled his team around and with voice and shake of lines quickened them to a gallop on the back trail for Zarah, six miles.
The captain objected.
"Wait! Hold on, Hallowell. They may be part of the escort."
Lieutenant Hallowell was wiser. This was his second year in Indian country.
"No, no! I know Injuns when I see "em. Gid-dap! Yip!"
"Well, by thunder, I"ll see for myself."
So the captain clambered from the seat to the side step, and hanging hard to the front wagon-bow, took a good look.
"Indians, aren"t they?" asked the lieutenant, braced to the lines.
"Yes; and coming like blazes!"
That they were. The objects that had resembled turkeys were their feathered heads rising from a ravine. They were fully out now; had dropped their buffalo-robes, and all exposed in the open were tearing for the road.
"How many, Cap?"
"About thirty."
"Oh, dear!" sighed young Lieutenant Hallowell, "I"ll never see Lizzie again."
"Never mind Lizzie. Let"s get ourselves out of here, first."
"All right, Cap," replied Lieutenant Hallowell, briskly. "You do the shooting and I"ll do the driving."
He s.n.a.t.c.hed the whip, slipped from his seat to the very front end of the box; and letting the lines lie lax began to lash and yell. The mules bolted free, twitching the wagon over the ruts.
Captain Booth sprawled inside; grabbed the lieutenant"s one navy revolver, and with his own two tumbled over the seat and dived to the pucker-hole at the rear end, to fight the Indians off.
There were thirty-four of them, racing on up the road at top speed.
"How far now, Cap?" called the lieutenant, while he yelled and lashed.
"Still coming fast, and getting closer."
"Yip! Yip! Gwan with you!" Pretty soon--
"How far now, Cap?" The lieutenant could see nothing, behind, and the Indians had not uttered a sound.
"Still coming. "Most within shooting distance."
"Yip! Hi! Yip! Yip!" And--"Whack! Whack!"
The captain, sitting upon a cracker-box and peering out through the hole, was tossed from side to side. He could see the Indians very plainly. They were paint-daubed Kiowas, and well mounted--armed with bows and lances and a couple of guns. Their striped faces grinned gleefully as their quirts rose and fell and their heels hammered their ponies" sides. The captain almost believed that he was dreaming a bad dream. But here they were, and how he and the lieutenant were going to escape he did not yet know.
"What they doing now, Cap?"
"Getting ready--" and he didn"t need to report. The two guns of the Indians spoke, the whole band screeched horridly, the bullets pa.s.sed diagonally through the wagon-cover between the pa.s.sengers, Lieutenant Hallowell yelled louder and threshed faster, Captain Booth yelled, the mules lengthened a little, the wagon bounced higher, the Indians had reached it, they divided right and left and swooped past on either side while their arrows whisked and thudded, Captain Booth frantically fired his pistol and heard the lieutenant call: "I"m hit, Cap!"
He turned quickly. Horrors! Lieutenant Hallowell had an arrow stuck in his head above his right ear! But he was whipping and yelling, regardless. The captain tumbled forward, to help him; grasped hold of the shaft.
"Hurt much?"
"No. Pull ahead. Hi! Yip! Gwan with you!"
Out came the arrow. Its point had lodged only under the skin.
The Indians had charged beyond the mules, in delivering their arrows.
They wheeled, and back they came. The captain fired, but he was being jounced so, that he could not aim. He started rearward, to receive them at that end--
"I"m hit again, Cap!" called Lieutenant Hallowell, a second time.
So he was. This time an arrow had stuck over his left ear and was hanging down his shoulder. Whew! The captain had to pause and pull it out.
"Hurt, Hallowell?"
"No, not much. Hi! Yip! Gwan with you!" And--"Whack! Whack!"
The lieutenant had said: "You do the shooting and I"ll do the driving;"
and he had not changed his mind about it. But driving was no joke.
The captain hustled to rear. The Indians were about to make a third charge. They appeared to be having great sport, chasing this mule-wagon. There was one withered old warrior close behind now, following in the middle of the road, on a black pony, and shooting arrows at the pucker-hole. The captain ducked from the hole just in time. The arrow whizzed through, struck the walnut back of the seat and split it. The arrow point came out on the other side! That was a powerful bow.
The arrow shaft hummed so, as it quivered, that the captain killed it as he would a wasp; he jumped for a shot at the old warrior--missed him--another arrow, from the left, grazed his pistol-arm crazy-bone and his pistol fell into the road. He grabbed to catch it, the mules lurched and out he pitched, half through the pucker-hole, so that he hung doubled on his stomach, over the end-gate, clutching at nothing.
A fraction more, and he"d have been in the road, too. The Indians whooped gladly, ready to pick him up. He barely managed to reach for the wagon-bow, and haul himself back. Wh-whew!
There was no time for cogitating. He plucked a second revolver from his holsters--
"Right off to the right, Cap! Quick!" called the lieutenant, sharply.
It was an appeal. To the front end scrambled Captain Booth. An Indian was just loosing an arrow at Hallowell; the captain let loose at the Indian; both missed--the arrow stuck in the side of the wagon, and the Indian himself veered away in a hurry, frightened if not hurt.