So General Tinling held his peace, and the western sky slowly changed from crocus to green, and from green to deep violet, and the evening star lighted its steady golden fire, the gra.s.shoppers set up a louder chirp, a bat executed complicated figures overhead, and the boys unconsciously began to speak in whispers.
"It"s getting too dark to see much with this telescope," said Jack, "I wish we had a night-gla.s.s. The Indians ought to be here by this time--they said "sunset," didn"t they? If I _was_ a Red Indian I would be punctual! When do you suppose they"ll come, Clarence--soon?"
"How on earth do I know?" snapped the General from within the tent.
"Well, you needn"t get in a bait over it. How did they come on the first time--did they crawl along like snakes till they were quite near, and then give a yell and rush at the stockade?"
"I forget what they did--don"t bother me!"
"I suppose they"ll all have tomahawks," said Guy. "Clarence, does scalping hurt?"
There was a slight convulsion inside the tent, but no answer.
"I wonder if the Bogallala torture prisoners," Jack observed; "I don"t think I could stand _that_."
The General came to the tent-door at this: "Can"t you fellows shut up?"
he said fiercely. "They"ll hear you!"
"They"re not here yet--we shall know when they come, by the signalling--let"s all keep quite quiet for a minute or two."
There was a breathless interval of silence. At last Jack said: "I hear something--a sort of low grunting noise, like pigs."
"Perhaps it is the pigs at the farm," suggested Guy.
"Indians can imitate all kinds of birds, I know," reasoned Jack, not directly to the point, perhaps, but he was getting excited.
Tinling felt a dull rage against the other two. How dared they pretend not to be afraid? It was all swagger--he knew that very well. Various unpleasant recollections began to rise in his mind. He remembered how that Indian spy had stalked the settler"s cabin at Earl"s Court. He could see him now, stealing over the sand, then listening with his ear to the ground, and turning to beckon on the ambushed warriors. He even remembered the way the yellow and red striped blinds of the log hut flapped in the wind, and how the horse that was hobbled outside raised his head from his hay, and p.r.i.c.ked his ears uneasily, as the foe came gliding nearer and nearer. Then their way of fighting--he had thought it rather comic _then_--they hopped and pranced about like so many lively frogs, but the butchery would not be rendered any more agreeable by being accompanied by laughable gestures! And there was an almost naked light-yellow savage, whom he recalled dancing the war dance--he tried not to think of all this, but it came vividly before him.
"S-s-h--_Cave_!" cried Guy, suddenly, as he looked through the loophole; "I can see just the top of one"s head and feathers among the currant bushes. I"ll touch him up in a second."
He raised his tiny spring pistol, and was just aiming, when Tinling, almost beside himself, darted on him, and struck it out of his hand.
"What are you doing now?" he said, through his teeth. "What is the good of _irritating_ them?"
"Why, they _are_ irritated," said Guy, "or they wouldn"t come."
"If they are," retorted Clarence, raising his voice, "whose doing was it? You can"t say I had anything to do with putting up those defiances!
Haven"t I always said I respected Red men? They"ve got feelings like us.
When you go and insult them, of course they get annoyed--who wouldn"t, I should like to know? I honour a chief like Yellow Vulture myself, and I don"t care if he hears me say so. I say I honour him!"
His voice rose almost to a scream as he concluded.
"I say, Tinling, I do believe you"re in a funk!" said Guy, after a moment of wondering silence.
"If you are, say so, and we shall know what to do," added Jack, feeling in his pocket. "Are you?"
"Feel his hands," suggested Guy.
"Look here," said Clarence, dashing aside the obstacles before the door, "I"m not going to stay here to be treated in this way. If it hadn"t been for your foolery in sticking up the notices we should have been friends with the Indians now. I don"t want to quarrel with any Bogallala. And you have the cheek to ask me if I"m in a funk, and to want to feel my hands. Well, it just serves you right--I"m going."
"Well, go then; who wants you?" said Guy.
But softer-hearted Jack said, "Clarence, you mustn"t. You"ll be safe in here; but out there----"
But the General had already vanished. He was crouching outside in the shadow of the stockade. He could not bear being penned up any longer; he must at least have a run for his life.
Had the enemy heard him declare his innocence? If so, it did not seem to have softened them. They were still crouching--silent, hidden, relentless--behind the currant bushes, their scouts signalling to one another, for no _real_ gra.s.shopper ever made so much noise as that. He must make a bolt for it, and take his chance of their arrows missing him. Over the open s.p.a.ce of grey-green gra.s.s he scuttled, and actually succeeded in reaching the friendly shadow of the holly hedge unharmed; but that was probably because they felt so certain of cutting him off at their pleasure.
On tiptoe and trembling went the General along the narrow paths, green with damp, and latticed by the shadows which branches cast in the sickly moonlight, until--just when he was almost clear of the gloom--his knees bent under him; for there, at the end of the walk, against the starry sky, stood a towering figure, with bristling feather head-dress, and tomahawk poised.
"Oh, please, sir, don"t!" he faltered, and shut his eyes, expecting the Indian to bound upon him. But when he opened his eyes again, the savage was gone! He must have slipped behind a ragged old yew which had once been clipped and trimmed to look like a chess-king.
Clarence Tinling tottered on through the shrubbery, which was full of terrors. Warriors, stealthy and cruel, lurked behind every rustling laurel; far away on the lawn he saw their spears through the tall pampas gra.s.s; he heard them chirping, clucking, and grunting in every direction as they lay in wait for him, until at last he gained the broad gravel path, at the end of which--oh, how far away they seemed!--were the three lighted windows of the drawing-room. He could see the interior quite plainly, and the group round the piano where the shaded lamp made a spot of brilliant colour. What were they all doing? Were they huddled together, waiting, watching in an agony of suspense? Nothing of the kind: it will be scarcely credited, perhaps, but this heartless domestic circle were positively pa.s.sing the time with music, as if nothing were happening!
If only he could reach that bright drawing-room before the rush came! He felt that there were lithe forms stealing along behind the flower-beds.
He dared not run, but dragged his heavy feet along the gravel; and then, all at once, from the rhododendron bushes rose a wild, unearthly yell.
He could bear it no longer; he would make one last effort, even if they tomahawked him on the very verandah.
Somehow--he never knew how--he found himself in the midst of that quiet musical party, wild with terror, scarcely able to speak.
"The Red Indians!" he gasped. "Don"t let them get me! Save me--hide me somewhere!" and he remembered afterwards that he made a mad endeavour to get inside the piano.
He was instantly surrounded by the astonished family. "My dear Clarence," said Mrs. Jolliffe, "you"re perfectly safe--you"ve been frightening yourself with your own game. There are no Indians here."
Another howl from the shrubbery seemed to contradict her. "There, didn"t you hear that?" he cried. "Oh, you won"t believe me till it"s too late! There are hundreds of them round the stockade. They may have scalped Jack and Guy by this time!"
"And why ain"t you being scalped too?" inquired Uncle Lambert.
"I"m sure you needn"t talk!" he retorted; "you weren"t any more anxious to fight than I am."
"But isn"t that different? I thought you had fought them before, and conquered?"
"Then you thought wrong! Those--those weren"t real Indians--I made them up, then!"
"Now we"ve got it!" said Uncle Lambert. "Well, Master Clarence, you"ve made your little confession, and now it"s my turn--_I_ made Yellow Vulture up!"
"Are you sure--really sure--on your honour?" he asked eagerly.
"Honest Injun!" said Lambert. "You see, I began to think the military business was getting rather overdone; the army, like Wordsworth"s world, was "too much with us," and it occurred to me to see whether the General"s courage would stand an outside test--so I composed that little challenge. Yes, you see before you the only Wah Na Sa Pash Boo--no others are genuine!"
Tinling felt that those girls were laughing at him; they had probably been in the secret for some time; but he could not care much just then--the relief was so delicious!
"It was too bad of you, Lambert," said Mrs. Jolliffe. "He was really horribly frightened, and there are those other two down in the stockade all alone--you might have thought of that--they will be half out of their minds by this time!"
"My dear Cecilia," was the reply,"don"t be uneasy, I _did_ think of it.
The moment they begin to feel at all uncomfortable they have directions to open a certain packet which explains the whole thing. If the gallant General had not been in quite such a hurry, he would have spared himself this unpleasant experience."
"Let"s all go down, and see how they"re getting on," said Hazel.