The whites, by which he meant Elias and his followers, had not heeded his advice, and worse had come of it.
The hunter was nothing, if not oracular.
"Wal," said he, "Governor Rody thought himself smart when he set to work buildin" that thar frame-house of his"n on the red-man"s ground, but I reckon he"ll pay for it yet in b.l.o.o.d.y scalps and broken bones. Confound the old cormorant; his house will cause all of them poor white settlers no end of trouble. It don"t bear thinkin" on, that it don"t. As for his black-hearted whelp of a son, darn me if I wouldn"t like to put an ounce o" lead into his carca.s.s, if it war only to larn him some human feelin"."
"But won"t you go back to the settlement now, and see if your presence can do any good?"
To this question, propounded by one of the fugitive settlers, Cris answered--
"Good! What good can I do now? No, lad, the fat"s in the fire this time, and, may be, I may better help some poor critter away from the place than anigh it. I"ll tell ye what it is, and it aint no use denyin" it. Them there red devils means mischief, and the old cuss Rody knows it by this time. The chief, Oluski, what you tell me air dead, war worth a whole settlement of Rody"s--barrin" one--that is, barrin"
one."
"And who may that be?"
"Who but his darter. The most beautifullest gal that this c.o.o.n ever set eyes on. Bless her, I hope no hurt won"t come to her, and there shan"t either, if Cris Carrol can prevent it."
In this manner did the honest hunter comment on the alarming news brought by the fugitives from Tampa Bay.
Not that he approached the spot closely. No; he had formed an idea of the manner in which he might be most useful; and, to do so, he must carefully avoid any appearance of interference between the contending parties.
He, therefore, pursued his occupation of hunting; but contrived materially to narrow the circle of his excursions.
Often as the image of Alice Rody presented itself to his mind, he would heave a painful sigh.
"How such a gal came to be a child of that old trait"rous heathen is more nor I can reckon up. It"s one of them thar things as philosophers call startlers!"
In one of these moralising, wandering moods the old hunter was seated on a tree stump on the afternoon of a day that had been more than usually fatiguing to him.
He knocked the ashes from his pipe, took a plug of tobacco from his pouch, and began to cut up a supply for another smoke.
"Ah!" muttered he, shaking his head, "I remember the time when there was happiness in the savannahs, and when them red-skins were ready to help the white man rather than fight agin them. Them times is gone from hyar for ever!"
He struck a light with his flint, and applied it to his pipe.
Just as he had puffed two or three small clouds of smoke, and was preparing to enjoy himself to the fullest extent, a flash suddenly appeared, the pipe was knocked from his mouth, and the whizz of a bullet sounded in his ears!
To grasp his rifle and shelter himself behind a tree, on the side opposite to that from which the shot proceeded, was but the work of an instant.
"Red-skins, by the eternal! I know it by the tw.a.n.g of that rough-cast bullet."
Whether red-skins or white men, he did not find it easy to be certain, although he was up to every move in such an emergency.
He knew that to look in the direction of the shot was to expose himself to almost certain death.
He listened with breathless anxiety for the slightest sound, which might give evidence of the movements of the enemy.
All remained perfectly still.
Adopting a very old _ruse_, he stuck his skin cap upon the barrel of his rifle, and held it out a few inches beyond the trunk of the tree, by the side of which he had ensconced himself.
A flash, a report, and it was pierced by a bullet!
He was now fully satisfied that there was but one enemy with whom he had to cope.
Had there been more, the first bullet, which struck the pipe from his mouth, would have been followed by another as quickly, but perhaps more surely aimed.
With a rapid glance he surveyed the ground behind him.
It was covered with undergrowth and fallen timber.
His resolution was at once taken.
He fell flat upon the earth, and noiselessly gliding away reached a tree, distant some paces, and in an oblique direction from the one he had left.
From that spot he made his way to another, at a greater angle, and about equally distant from the second.
The movements were affected with such agile stealthiness, as to be entirely unperceived by his unseen enemy.
By the change of position he now commanded a side view of his unknown antagonist, who, unsuspicious of it, was keeping a close watch upon Carrol"s supposed shelter.
To raise his rifle to his shoulder was a natural action of the old hunter.
Instead of pulling the trigger, however, some idea seemed to cross his mind, and pausing, he scanned his adversary.
He saw it was Maracota who had fired at him!
Carrol knew Maracota as a faithful and devoted follower of the late chief, and he felt loth to take his life, although he might easily have done so.
The better thought prevailed.
He felt convinced that the bullet fired by the Indian had been aimed in reality at one for whom Maracota had mistaken him.
Advancing cautiously towards the unconscious warrior, the old backwoodsman crept from tree to tree until he was close upon him.
Not antic.i.p.ating an attack from the rear, and still fancying he commanded the hiding-place of the white man, Maracota, in spite of his Indian cunning, was completely in the white man"s power.
A loud shout, a quick bound, and Carrol had him in his grasp.
With one hand upon his throat, the hunter had pinned him to the earth.
"Not a word, you darned catamount, or I"ll run my knife into your ribs!
So you thought to circ.u.mwent me, did yer, with your Injun treachery?
What would you say now if I war to raise your har, "stead of letting you take mine?"
Maracota could make no reply to the question, as the pressure on his throat stopped his breath as well as speech.
The backwoodsman saw by the expression upon the Indian"s face, that his own surmise had been correct.
He was not the victim Maracota would have doomed to death.