At last he mastered himself, and, with rifle held ready, walked boldly towards the figure, believing that it was some specimen of the fleshy growth of the region to which the darkness had added a weirdness all its own.
No. It was a man undoubtedly, and as, nerving himself more and more, Bart walked close up, the figure turned, and said slowly:--
"I can"t quite make that out, Master Bart."
"You, Joses!" exclaimed Bart, whose heart seemed to give a bound of delight.
"Yes, sir; I thought I"d get up and watch for a bit; and just as I looked round before coming to you, that rock took my fancy."
"Yes, it does look quaint and strange," said Bart; "I had been watching it."
"Yes, but why do it look quaint and strange?" said Joses in a low, quiet whisper, speaking as if a dozen savages were at his elbow.
"Because we can see it against the sky," replied Bart, who felt half amused at the importance placed by his companion upon such a trifle.
"And why can you see it against the sky?" said Joses again. "Strikes me there"s a fire over yonder."
Bart was about to exclaim, "What nonsense!" but he recalled the times when out hunting up stray cattle Joses had displayed a perception that had seemed almost marvellous, and so he held his tongue.
"I"ll take a turn out yonder, my lad," he said quietly; "I won"t be very long."
"Shall I wake up the Doctor?"
"No, not yet. Let him get a good rest," replied Joses. "Perhaps it"s nothing to mind; but coming out here we must be always ready to find danger, and danger must be ready to find us on the look-out."
"I"ll go with you," said Bart eagerly.
"No, that won"t do," said the rough fellow st.u.r.dily. "You"ve got to keep watch like they tell me the sailors do out at sea. Who"s to take care of the camp if you go away?"
"I"ll stay then," said Bart, with a sigh of dissatisfaction, and the next minute he was alone. For Joses had thrown down his blanket, and laid his rifle upon it carefully, while over the lock he had placed his broad Spanish hat to keep off the moisture of the night air. Then he had gone silently off at a trot over the short and scrubby growth near at hand.
One moment he was near; the next he had grown as it were misty in the darkness, and disappeared, leaving Bart, fretting at the inaction, and thinking that the task of doing duty in watching as sentry was the hardest he had been called upon to perform.
Meanwhile the rough cattle driver and plainsman had continued his trot till the broken nature of the ground compelled him to proceed cautiously, threading his way in and out amongst the ma.s.ses of rock, and forcing him to make a considerable _detour_ before he pa.s.sed the ridge of stones.
His first act was to drop down on hands and knees; his next to lie flat, and drag himself slowly forward a couple of hundred yards, and then stop.
It was quite time that he had, for on either hand, as well as in front, lay groups of Indians, while just beyond he could distinguish the horses calmly cropping the gra.s.s and other herbage near. So still was it, and so closely had he approached, that every mouthful seized by the horses sounded quite plainly upon his ear, while more than once came the mutterings of some heavy sleeper, with an occasional hasty movement on the part of some one who was restless.
Joses had found out all he wanted, and the next thing was to get back and give the alarm. But as is often the case in such matters, it was easier to come than to return. It had to be done though, for the position of those in the little camp was one full of peril, and turning softly, he had begun his retrograde movement, when a figure he had not seen suddenly uttered an impatient "ugh!" and started to his feet.
Joses" hand went to his belt and grasped his knife, but that was all.
It was not the time for taking to headlong flight, an act which would have brought the whole band whooping and yelling at his heels.
Fortunately for the spy in the Indian camp, the night was darker now, a thin veil of cloud having swept over the stars, otherwise the fate of Dr Lascelles" expedition would have been sealed. As it was, the Indian kicked the form beside him heavily with his moccasined foot, and then walked slowly away in the direction of the horses.
Some men would have continued their retreat at once, perhaps hurriedly, but Joses was too old a campaigner for such an act. As he lay there, with his face buried deeply in the short herbage, he thought to himself that most probably the waking up of the Indian who had just gone, the kick, and the striding away, would have aroused some of the others, and in this belief he lay perfectly still for quite ten minutes.
Then feeling satisfied that he might continue his retreat, he was drawing himself together for a fresh start, when a man on his right leaped to his feet; another did the same, and after talking together for a few moments they too went off in the direction of the horses.
This decided Joses upon a fresh wait, which he kept up, till feeling that, safe or unsafe, he must make the venture, he once more started, crawling slowly along without making a sound, till he felt it safe to rise to his hands and knees, when he got over the ground far more swiftly, ending by springing to his feet, and listening intently for a few moments, when there was the faint neigh of a horse from the Indian camp.
"If one of ours hears that," muttered Joses, "he"ll answer, and the Indians will be down upon us before we know where we are."
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE NIGHT ALARM.
Bart Woodlaw had not been keeping his renewed watch long before he heard a step behind him, and, turning sharply, found himself face to face with Dr Lascelles.
"Well, my boy," he said, "is all right?"
"I think so, sir. Did you hear anything?"
"No, my boy, I woke up and just came to see how matters were going. Any alarm?"
"Yes, sir, and no, sir," replied Bart.
"What do you mean?" exclaimed the Doctor sharply.
"Only that Joses woke up, sir, and I found him watching that ma.s.s of rock which you can see out yonder. That one sir--or--no!--I can"t see it now."
"Why?" said the Doctor, in a quick low decisive tone; "is it darker now?"
"Very little, sir; but perhaps Joses was right: he said he thought there must be a fire out there to make it stand out so clearly, and--"
"Well? speak, my boy! Be quick!"
"Perhaps he was right, sir, for I cannot see the rock there at all."
"Where is Joses? Why did he not go and see?" exclaimed the Doctor sharply.
"He has been gone nearly an hour, sir, and I was expecting him back when you came."
"That"s right! But which way? Joses must feel that there is danger, or he would not have left the camp like this."
Bart pointed in the direction taken by their follower, and the Doctor took a few hasty strides forward, as if to follow, but he came back directly.
"No. It would be folly," he said; "I should not find him out in this wild. Depend upon it, Bart, that was an Indian fire and camp out beyond the ridge yonder, and he suspected it. These old plainsmen read every sign of earth and sky, and we must learn to do the same, boy, for it may mean the saving of our lives."
"I"ll try," said Bart earnestly. "I can follow trail a little now."
"Yes, and your eyes are wonderfully keen," replied the Doctor. "You have all the acute sense of one of these hunters, but you want the power of applying what you see, and learning its meaning."
Bart was about to reply, but the Doctor began walking up and down impatiently, for being more used than his ward in the ways of the plains, he could not help feeling sure that there was danger, and this idea grew upon him to such an extent that at last he roused the men from their sleep, bidding them silently get the horses ready for an immediate start, should it be necessary; and while this was going on, he went into the tent.