"Oh, you beast! Let me go!" she screamed faintly. She was about to say more, but Yellow Elk clapped a dirty hand over her mouth and silenced her.
"No speak more," he muttered in his broken English. "White girl speak too much."
"But--but where are you taking me? This is not the boomers" camp."
"We come to camp soon--girl in too much hurry," rejoined the wily redskin.
"I was told the camp was but a short distance out of town."
"Camp he move. p.a.w.nee Brown not safe near big town," went on Yellow Elk.
"You"re a good one for fairy tales," was the boomer"s silent comment. He had withdrawn to the shelter of the thick brush and sat his steed like a statue, while his pistol was ready for use, with his forefinger upon the trigger.
"But--but--what happened to me?" went on Nellie, struggling to sit up, while Yellow Elk held her back.
"White girl lose breath and shut eyes," was the answer, meaning that Nellie had fainted. "No more fight--Yellow Elk no hurt her."
"I will go no further with you--I do not believe your story!" cried Nellie. "Let me down."
At these words the face of the Indian chief grew dark, and he muttered several words in his own language which Nellie did not understand, but which p.a.w.nee Brown made out to be that the White Bird was too sweet to be lost so easily, he must take her to his cave in the mountains.
"Will you?" murmured p.a.w.nee Brown. "Well, maybe, but not if I know it."
The mentioning of a cave in the mountains made p.a.w.nee Brown curious. Did Yellow Elk have such a hiding place? Where was it located, and was the Indian chief its only user?
"Perhaps some more of these reds have broken loose," he thought. "I would like to investigate. Who knows but what the cavalrymen are after them and not the boomers, as Dan Gilbert imagined."
A brief consideration of the subject and his mind was made up. So long as the Indian did not offer positive harm to Nellie Winthrop he would not expose himself, but follow on behind, in hope of locating the cave and learning more of Yellow Elk"s intended movements.
"Let me go, I say!" cried Nellie, but the Indian chief merely shook his head.
"White girl be no fool. Indian friend; no hurt one hair of her head.
Soon we be in camp and she will see what a friend Yellow Elk has been."
At this Nellie shook her head. That painted and dirty face was far too repulsive to be trusted. But there was no help for it; the Indian held her as in a vise, and she was forced to submit.
Moving along the trail, Indian and horse pa.s.sed within a dozen feet of where p.a.w.nee Brown sat, still as silent as a block of marble. It was a trying moment. What if the horse he rode should make a noise, or if his own Bonnie Bird should instinctively discover him and give the alarm?
"Poor Bonnie Bird, to have to carry a dirty redskin," thought the boomer. The ears of the beautiful mare went up as she drew close, and she appeared to hesitate. But Yellow Elk urged her along by several punches in the ribs, and in a moment more the danger of discovery just then was past.
On went the tall Indian along the ravine, peering cautiously ahead, with one hand around Nellie"s waist and the other holding the reins and his pistol. He knew he was on a dangerous mission, and he stood ready, if unmasked, to sell his worthless life dearly.
p.a.w.nee Brown followed at a distance of a hundred feet, taking care to pick his way so that his horse"s hoofs should strike only the dirt and soft moss, and that the brush growing among the tall trees should screen him as much as possible.
Presently he saw the Indian halt and stare long and hard at a tall pine growing in front of a large flat rock.
"Wonder if he has missed his way?" mused the scout, but a moment later Yellow Elk proceeded onward, faster than ever.
Coming up to the pine, p.a.w.nee Brown saw instantly what had attracted the redskin"s attention. There was a blaze on the tree six inches square, and on the blaze was written in charcoal:
10 f. E. D. G.
"Hullo, a message from Dan," he cried, half aloud. He had read the strange marking without difficulty. It ran as follows:
"Ten feet east. DAN GILBERT."
Pacing off the ten feet in the direction indicated, p.a.w.nee Brown located a flat rock. Raising this, he uncovered a small, circular hole, in the centre of which lay a leaf torn from a note book, on which was written:
"I write this to notify p.a.w.nee Brown or any of my other friends that I have gone up the ravine on the trail of half a dozen cavalry scouts who are up here, not only to watch for boomers, but also to try and locate several Indians who have left the reservation without permission. I will be back soon.
DAN GILBERT."
The boomer read the note with interest. Then he hastily scribbled off the answer:
"Have read the note that was left. Am following Yellow Elk, who stole my mare and has Jack Rasco"s niece a captive. Yellow Elk is bound for some cave in the mountains. p.a.w.nEE BROWN."
The answer finished, the boomer placed it in the hole, let back the flat rock and wrote on the blaze of the tree, under Dan Gilbert"s initials:
P. B.
CHAPTER XII.
YELLOW ELK.
The writing of the answer to Gilbert"s communication had taken several minutes, and now Yellow Elk was entirely out of sight. But p.a.w.nee Brown was certain of the trail the Indian had taken, and by a little faster riding soon brought the rascal again into view.
Yellow Elk was now descending into a valley bound on the north by a rolling hill and on the south by a cliff varying from twenty to forty feet in height. Even at a distance p.a.w.nee Brown could see that the Indian was having considerable trouble with Nellie Winthrop, who felt now a.s.sured that her first suspicions were correct and that Yellow Elk had taken her far from the boomers" camp.
"I will not go with you!" cried the girl, and did her best to break from the warrior"s grasp. But Yellow Elk"s hold was a good one, and she only succeeded in tearing her dress.
"We be dare in few minutes now," replied the redskin. "Den all be right--you wait and see."
"I won"t go with you--let me down!" screamed Nellie, but he silenced her by a fierce gesture which made the boomer"s blood boil. It was only by the exercise of all his will power that the great scout kept himself from shooting down Yellow Elk on the spot.
The end of the long cliff was almost reached when the Indian chief reined up the mare and sprang to the ground, still holding Nellie tight.
As he held the girl by the wrist with one hand he led Bonnie Bird forward with the other. In a few seconds, girl, mare and Indian had disappeared from view in the midst of a thick fringe of bushes.
They had scarcely vanished when p.a.w.nee Brown was on the ground and had tethered his horse in a little grove of pines a hundred feet away. This done, he stole forward to what he felt must be the mouth of the cave Yellow Elk had mentioned.
The great scout knew he was on delicate and dangerous ground. There was no telling how many Indians beside Yellow Elk there might be in the vicinity, who had left the reservation without permission; it was likely all who were there would be in war paint ready to kill him on sight.
"The reds who train with Yellow Elk are not to be trusted," he muttered.
"Yellow Elk wouldn"t like anything better than to scalp me just for a taste of his old blood-thirsty days. Making a "good Indian" out of such a fellow is all nonsense--it simply can"t be done."
p.a.w.nee Brown had dropped down in the long gra.s.s and was now wiggling along like a snake through the bushes and between the rocks. Soon the entrance to the cave was gained, hidden by more bushes. He hesitated, looked to see that his pistol was all right, shoved the bushes aside and slipped within.