"I am afraid I can"t go through it at all," replied Archie.
"Yes, you can. I don"t believe there is a single warrior in the camp now, except the two who are guarding the chief"s wigwam. They are all out looking for d.i.c.k. We have little to fear from the women and children, for they couldn"t stop us if they tried. Is there any clothing in here?"
"I believe there is a hunting-shirt and cap in that corner."
"Well, get into them as quickly as possible, and I will go out and see if the coast is clear."
Frank, knowing that a medicine-man was expected to do things different from any body else, did not go out at the door, but crawled under the skins at the back of the lodge. It was well for him that he did so; for scarcely had he left Archie, when the door was raised and Black Bill came in, and was astonished to see his prisoner, whom he had left securely bound, standing in the middle of the lodge arraying himself in a hunting-shirt which he (the outlaw) had thrown off a little while before.
"Hallo!" he exclaimed, "what"s all this yere? Ah ha! You were trying to escape, were you? Who turned you loose?"
Archie, seeing that his cousin"s plans for liberating him had been nipped in the bud, put on a bold face, and made the best of the situation. He took all the blame upon himself. He knew that if he told the outlaw that he had had a.s.sistance, he would, of course, investigate the matter; and if he found Frank in the vicinity of the lodge, it might arouse his suspicions to such a degree that he would examine his disguise; and that would be very disagreeable for Frank.
"I have a way of turning myself loose whenever I feel like it," replied Archie. "Why didn"t you stay away about five minutes longer? You can"t keep me a prisoner."
"Can"t!" exclaimed the outlaw. "Wal, I"ll see about that. I knowed you were a slippery customer--all the Brents are--an" I kinder thought it would be a good plan fur me to come back here an" keep an eye on you, an" leave the others to hunt up d.i.c.k Lewis. It seems I got here jest in time. Now, crawl out of that huntin" shirt, an" I"ll tie you up so tight that you won"t get loose agin in a hurry."
Frank, who was lying flat on the ground at the back of the lodge, listened with a heavy heart to this conversation. His plans had failed, and it was useless to think of attempting to liberate his cousin again, for the outlaw had said that it was his intention to remain in the lodge and watch him. There was but one thing he could do now, and that was to look out for himself. His first hard work must be to find d.i.c.k Lewis; he would know just what ought to be done. Having come to this determination, Frank crawled slowly and cautiously away from the lodge, and finally, rising to his feet, hurried through the village; and having satisfied himself that there was no one observing his movements, he plunged into the willows that fringed the base of the mountains. It was not his intention to travel directly toward the fort, but to attempt to reach it by some roundabout way, and thus avoid meeting the Indians who were in pursuit of the trapper. He had something of an undertaking before him now, for he was in a strange country, and had not the least idea in which direction he ought to go to find his friends. When he reached the mountains he was as effectually lost as he had been on the day that he and Archie killed their first antelope; but trusting every thing to luck, he made his way through the thick woods as rapidly as the darkness would permit, and after stumbling about among logs and rocks until he was almost exhausted, he removed his mask, which, on account of the long bill attached to it had considerably impeded his progress through the bushes, and sat down to wait until daylight.
His thoughts and feelings were what any other boy"s would have been under the same circ.u.mstances. His courage had been tested more than once during the few months he had pa.s.sed in the Far West, and he had never yet shown himself to be a coward; on the contrary, his attempt to rescue Archie had proved that in an emergency he could be as daring and reckless as d.i.c.k Lewis himself. He could keep up his courage, and show a bold front while in the presence of his enemies, but to be alone in the mountains, with no weapon but his pocket-knife with which to defend himself, and nothing to occupy his mind, or draw his thoughts from the dangers yet to be encountered--this it was that tried his nerves; and his face was whiter, and he was more nearly overcome with fear now, than at any time during the day. His situation was scarcely more encouraging than when he was a prisoner. How could he hope to find the valley when he did not know where to look for it; and what if he did succeed in reaching it, and should find the fort in ashes, and the soldiers and trappers all ma.s.sacred? What would become of him? He might starve to death, or be devoured by the grizzlies there in the mountains, and no one would ever know what had become of him.
"But I am not starved yet," said Frank, when he had reached this point in his meditations, "and thus far I haven"t seen any wild animals to be afraid of. As long as I can lift a finger, I shall live in hopes of getting safely out of this sc.r.a.pe. Now, I am going to sleep. There is no knowing what is in store for me, and I may have need of all my strength before I see the sun set again."
Frank stretched himself upon the ground, with the medicine-man"s mask under his head for a pillow, and soon forgot the Indians, grizzlies, and all the other perils with which he was surrounded, in a sound sleep.
When he awoke it was broad daylight. He had had one visitor during the night, and that was a large gray wolf, which sat on his haunches at a little distance regarding Frank intently, and which took to his heels and quickly disappeared when the boy raised himself on his elbow.
"I don"t think I should have slept so soundly if I had known that I had such a neighbor as that," thought Frank. "But after all, I wish I was sure that I had nothing worse than wolves to fear, although they did frighten me considerably when we had that race on the ice with them last winter. Now, if I only had a cup of d.i.c.k"s coffee, and a venison-steak, I should be ready for work; but I don"t see much chance to get any thing to eat up here."
Frank picked up his mask, looked at the sun, and struck off through the woods in the direction he supposed the fort to be. He had not made many steps before he found himself on the brink of a narrow gorge, which extended up and down the mountain. Its sides were thickly covered with bushes and rocks, and it was so deep that the roar of the mountain-torrent which ran through it came but faintly to his ears. Was it not fortunate for him that he had camped before reaching the gully?
He might have fallen into it in the darkness, and that would have been infinitely worse than remaining a prisoner among the Indians. He wondered if he could jump it, but concluded that he would not make the attempt, when he discovered, a short distance from him, a small tree lying across the gorge. Upon examining it closely, however, he found that it would prove rather a perilous undertaking to cross it, for the bark was slippery, the tree was more than half decayed, and its top rested but lightly on the opposite bank. He was not allowed many minutes in which to make up his mind what he would do, for while he stood looking, first at the tree, and then up and down the gorge, in the hope of finding some better way of crossing, he was startled by a whistling sound in the air, an arrow whizzed by much too close to his head for comfort, and glancing from a tree on the opposite bank, fell down into the gorge.
Frank was so frightened that for a moment he was deprived of all power of action; and before he could look around to see where the missile came from, another arrow whistled by, a little closer to him than the other, and then came a third, which found a lodgment in the mask which he carried in his hand. Then Frank began to realize that it was dangerous to stand there in that exposed position; and in the excitement of the moment, scarcely knowing what he was about, he gathered all his energies for the effort, bounded into the air, alighted in safety on the other side of the gorge, and in a moment more was concealed behind a tree which grew on the edge of the precipice. This feat called forth an exclamation of amazement from his concealed enemy; and when Frank looked back at the gorge, he was astonished himself. He never could have made a standing jump like that in his sober moments.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LEAP FOR LIFE.]
Scarcely had Frank disappeared behind his tree, when a young Indian stepped from the bushes, and stood out in full view of him. It was his rival of the morning--the one with whom he had run the foot-race. He carried a bow, and a quiver full of arrows, in his hand, and stood gazing earnestly at the gorge, as if mentally calculating its width; and the more he looked at it, the more astonished he became.
"Ugh!" he grunted, at last. "Good boy! Make good jump, make _very_ good jump!" Then looking toward the place where Frank was concealed, he called out: "Hay, you!"
The young Indian did not speak these words as plainly as we have written them. He uttered them with his teeth closed, and with a grunting, guttural sound, that can not be imitated on paper.
"What do you want?" asked the fugitive, surprised to hear himself thus addressed.
"You come over, and I no shoot," replied the young Indian.
"Go over there!" exclaimed Frank, "I guess not. If you want to see me more than I want to see you, you must come over here. What do you want, any how?"
"We go back to chief. I no shoot."
"Well, if it"s all the same to you, I"ll wait awhile before I go back to the chief. You want the honor of taking me prisoner, but you sha"n"t have it."
"You no come?" asked the savage.
"No, I no come. I"ll stay here."
"You no come, I shoot."
"Go ahead; but keep yourself pretty close over there, or I may shoot too."
"Oh, no," laughed the Indian. "You got no gun, no pistol, no knife--no nothing."
If the young warrior had only known it, he was mistaken in this. Frank had something, which, although by no means as serviceable as a rifle or revolver would have been, was still effective enough in his hands to keep his enemy from crossing the gorge. While this conversation was going on, he had taken a good view of his situation, and finding that he had no way of retreat, he had prepared himself to stand a siege. The tree behind which he had taken refuge was a very small one, not more than half large enough to conceal him from the view of the Indian, and stood, as we have said, on the very brink of the gorge. It afforded him but a poor protection, but he knew that he must remain there, for there was not another tree or rock, or even a thicket of bushes large enough to conceal him, within twenty yards, and the mountain at his back was much too steep to be scaled. If he left his tree to find a better place of concealment, he would present a fair mark for the arrows of the Indian, who handled his bow with so much skill that Frank did not care to expose himself.
Frank, seeing that he was fairly cornered, began making preparations for compelling his enemy to remain on his own side of the gully; for he noticed that the young warrior carried a knife and tomahawk in his belt, and he was afraid that, if he allowed him to come to close quarters, he might not be able to vanquish him as easily as he had done before. At the foot of the tree was a rock which had begun crumbling away; and while he was talking to the Indian, Frank had busied himself in collecting the pieces that were of a size and weight convenient to throw. He had played ball so often that he had become a swift and accurate thrower, and he told himself that if the Indian did not mind what he was about, the interview would end in a way he had not dreamed of.
"He thinks he has got me fast now," thought Frank; "but I shouldn"t wonder if he found himself mistaken. If he gives me a fair chance, I"ll knock him down with one of these rocks, and go over there and take his weapons away from him. Then I"ll make him guide me to the fort by the shortest route."
"Hay, you white boy! You no come I shoot!" exclaimed the Indian again; and, as he spoke, he fitted an arrow to his bow, and pointed it at Frank.
"Shoot away!" replied the latter.
The Indian let fly the arrow, and Frank threw a stone at the same instant. Both made good shots. The arrow struck the tree behind which our hero was concealed, and the stone whistled through the feathers on the young warrior"s head-dress. He escaped by an inch.
"Ugh!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, in great astonishment.
"Ugh!" echoed Frank. "Didn"t I tell you that you had better keep close?
Look out! Here comes another!"
Away flew a second stone, and the Indian dived into the bushes just in time to avoid it, for it went straight toward the mark. He began to have some respect for the white boy, who, although he was without a weapon of any kind, was still brave enough to stand his ground.
The contest thus commenced was kept up for a quarter of an hour. The arrows whistled by the tree whenever Frank showed so much as an inch of his head, and were always answered by a volley of stones, which flew like bullets through the bushes where the Indian was concealed, compelling him more than once to change his position. Then there was quiet for awhile, and the combatants stood watching one another, Frank keeping a sharp lookout for any tricks on the part of his antagonist, and wondering what would be his next move. He was not long in finding out, for presently the young warrior set up a whoop which echoed and re-echoed among the mountains, until it seemed to Frank that the woods were full of yelling savages.
"If he is trying to frighten me, I hope he will have a good time of it,"
thought Frank. "Perhaps he has settled himself down there with the intention of starving me out. If he has, he will find it up-hill business, for I can go without food and water as long as he can. If I only had my rifle, wouldn"t I show him something?"
The Indian waited a few minutes, and repeated the yell; and this time, to Frank"s utter amazement and consternation, there was an answer. It came faintly to his ears, but still it was so plain and distinct that he knew he could not be mistaken. Had his rival been calling for a.s.sistance? The question was scarcely formed in his mind, when the savage raised his head above the bushes, and coolly announced:
"Hay, you white boy! More Indian coming!"
At that moment Frank"s body, being but partially protected by his tree, offered a fair mark, and the young savage was prompt to take advantage of it. Another arrow flew across the gully, and this time it was not thrown away. Frank reeled a moment, threw his arms wildly about his head, and fell heavily to the ground.
CHAPTER VIII.
FRANK"S FRIEND, THE GRIZZLY.