While I stood at the stern thinking of it, I heard a noise which I thought came from the inside of the paddle-box. I listened for some time but did not hear it again, and I concluded that a young alligator, or some other water animal, had crawled into the opening.
I started to return to the stairs which led from the main deck forward to the s.p.a.ce in front of the saloon. I was pa.s.sing between two piles of lightwood on my way, when I heard the report of a pistol. A bullet whistled uncomfortably near my head. I don"t claim to be bullet-proof, and I was startled by the sound, and by the whizzing of the ball so near my head. I made up my mind on the instant that the shot was intended for me, and that my life was in actual danger. Buck and Hop were attending to the mules on sh.o.r.e, and I saw no one on the lower deck.
Moses Brickland and Ben Bowman were in their rooms, and I called them.
I told them what had happened. They had heard the shot; but some one was shooting about all the time in the vicinity of the boat, and they paid no attention to such sounds. We searched every part of the lower deck, even opening the trap into the paddle-box, made to allow a workman to get in when repairs were necessary. We could find no person.
"I believe this steamer is haunted, and I wouldn"t sail in her another month if you would give her to me," said Ben, who was not a highly-educated person, though he knew a steam-engine as well as though he had been through college. "I have heard all sorts of noises by night and by day."
"What sort of noises, Ben?" I asked with interest, not that I was impressed with the idea that the Wetumpka was haunted.
"Well, footsteps where no person could be found," replied the engineer.
"Now, you say you have been fired at, and no one on board could have done it."
"I don"t believe ghosts use fire-arms, Ben," I added, as I saw Cornwood come on the forward deck.
He had been hunting with the sportsmen, to a.s.sist them with his knowledge of the game of the country. The moment he saw us he hastened aft, and asked me what the matter was. As we had not exhibited to him the evidences that anything was the matter, I was rather surprised at the question.
"Nothing is the matter, except that a shot was fired at me a little while ago," I replied, as though it were a matter of not much consequence.
"I think you are mistaken," he replied very promptly.
"How could I be mistaken when the ball whistled by my head?" I demanded.
"It might not have been within ten feet of your head, though it sounded as though it were within a few inches. I shot a wild turkey as I came up, and I fired in the direction of the steamer. It occurred to me that the ball might have gone through her, and I confess that I was very careless," replied Cornwood.
"I think you were, extremely careless," I added coldly.
"But I am sure the ball could not have gone within ten feet of you, or I should have seen you," protested the guide.
"Where is the turkey you shot?" asked Ben, who appeared to have some doubts in regard to the truth of the story.
"I threw him down on the forecastle as I came on board," answered Cornwood.
We walked to that part of the steamer, and there lay the wild turkey, as handsome a bird as I had ever seen. This evidence satisfied me, for as the Floridian had never failed to do anything he promised, or disappointed the party in regard to fish and game, he was in high favor with all on board, at least with those in the cabin.
"Colonel Shepard and Mr. Garningham have shot no end of deer and wild turkey, and they have stacked the game about two miles from the landing," continued the guide. "They have more than we could bring, and I volunteered to come up for a mule team."
"Buck and Hop are taking care of the pair we used this afternoon; you can take the others," I replied.
Cornwood went on sh.o.r.e, and in a short time I saw him drive down the sh.o.r.e into the woods.
"Do you believe that story about the wild turkey?" asked Ben, when Cornwood had gone ash.o.r.e.
"I see no reason to disbelieve it," I replied, looking with interest at the engineer.
"Do you? Well, I don"t; and I didn"t believe it when he told it,"
replied Ben, as he pointed with his jack-knife at a place in the wild turkey which he had partly dissected. "Do you see that?"
"I do not see anything but blood and meat," I answered.
"You don"t! Well, there is the ball that whistled within ten feet of your head when you were walking on the main deck."
Ben Bowman applied his knife-blade to the turkey, and pried out the bullet, which had lodged against the breastbone.
I took it in my hand. If his story was true, this was not the ball that pa.s.sed near my head. We made another search for the man who had fired at me, but we looked in vain.
CHAPTER x.x.x.
SHOOTING IN THE FOREST AND BEING SHOT.
Before supper-time, the mule team came in with a load of game. Washburn had gone out with the sportsmen this time, for during my absence he would not leave the steamer for a moment. I counted seventeen deer, the smallest kind I had ever seen, and twenty-one wild turkeys. The next day the sport was resumed, and I joined the party. At the suggestion of Colonel Shepard, we took a couple of landing-nets, though what for I could not imagine. But we had not gone half a mile before I discovered the use of them.
The woods were full of young quails, which in the South are called partridges, the latter taking the name of pheasants. These quails ran in flocks of a dozen or less, and with the landing-nets we could cover the whole brood. We gathered them up, and put them into a large basket, with a cover, which we had brought with us for the purpose.
We went several miles farther south than the party of the day before had gone; and the shooting was so abundant as to be "rather too much of a good thing." Before noon we had all we wanted, and it seemed to be wicked to shoot any more. The sportsmen from Enterprise had not been up as far as this, and the game had hardly ever been disturbed in its haunts.
I was tired of the sport before the others, and I started back for the mule team about eleven. I was within two miles of the landing, as I judged, for we had to estimate all our distances, when I heard the crack of a revolver or a rifle. At the same instant I felt a burning sensation in the back of the neck. I placed my hand upon the place, and found that a ball had just grazed it. My hand was covered with blood when I removed it.
I expected another shot would follow immediately, and I raised my gun, which was loaded with ball, and looked about me. I deemed it prudent to dodge behind a magnolia, of which there was an occasional one in the forest. I could judge from the situation of the wound on my neck from what direction the ball had come. My getting behind the tree had deranged the calculations of the intended a.s.sa.s.sin. He stood at a distance of not more than sixty feet from me, pointing a rifle towards me.
It was Griffin Leeds.
Though I could have shot him, I preferred to be killed rather than to kill. But before I could do anything, or even consider what to do, another actor appeared on the stage. I saw Griffin Leeds look behind him once, as though he feared an interruption, and doubtless he heard the step of the third person. Until the stranger was close upon the octoroon, I had not seen him. In the soft sand that formed the soil of the forest, one could hardly hear the sounds of approaching footsteps.
The stranger stepped from behind a large pine-tree, and before I had recovered from my surprise at his appearance, he fell upon Griffin Leeds, handling him with an ease that astonished me. He flung him on the ground like an unclean bird, and then pointed his own rifle at his head.
It was entirely safe for me under these circ.u.mstances to leave my hiding-place, and I walked towards the scene of the last encounter. I kept my gun in position for use, though I was not at all inclined to fire upon a human being. I wondered who had thus interfered to save me from the bullet of Griffin Leeds. Then I wondered how Griffin Leeds happened to be in the woods, miles above the head of ordinary navigation. I thought of my wound, and placed my hand upon it. It was beginning to feel very sore, and the blood was still flowing very freely from it. I bound my handkerchief around my neck, but I found it difficult to cover the place.
I had been shot at the day before. Was it not probable that the same person had fired both shots? Then I thought of the noise I had heard while I was measuring the depth of the river. There was some hiding-place in the after part of the Wetumpka which we had not yet discovered. In that place Griffin Leeds had been concealed, perhaps from the time we left Welaka, on our trip up the Ocklawaha. This seemed to me to be a satisfactory solution of this part of the mystery. I was so well satisfied that I did not care to hear any evidence on the subject. I could not have understood it any better if all the details had been given to me under oath.
But it was plain enough to me that Griffin Leeds could not have existed in his hiding-place for nearly two weeks, or even one, without the connivance of some person on board. Of course that person was Cornwood.
Who was the stranger that interfered to save me? I concluded he was some hunter, who had taken a hand in the affair simply from the love of fair play. I walked towards him, and soon came near enough to note his appearance. He wore a long beard, and was dressed in a common travelling suit.
"Get up, you villain!" said the stranger, as I approached.
Griffin Leeds did not wait for a second command, but sprang to his feet. He looked at me, and he saw that I had a gun in my hand. I aimed at him.
"Take your hand from your pocket!" I called to him.
He did so; but the stranger sprang upon him again. Putting his hand into the side-pocket of his sack-coat, he drew from it a small revolver. Not satisfied with this, he continued the search, and took from another pocket a knife like that the wretch had attempted to use on board of the Sylvania. He was then satisfied that the fellow was entirely disarmed.
"I am exceedingly obliged to you for the service you have rendered me,"
I began. "This is not the first trouble I have had with this----"