"Hawkeye," said the Woodp.e.c.k.e.r, "you"re the bravest one of the crowd.
Don"t you want to go out and try a shot at the Banshee? I"ll lend you my Witch-hazel arrow. We"ll give you a _grand coup_ feather if you hit him. Go ahead, now--you know bravery is what _you_ like."
"Yer nothin" but a pa.s.sel o" blame dumb fools," was the answer, "an" I wouldn"t be bothered talking to ye. Caleb, tell us something about the Indians."
"What the Injuns love is bravery," said the Medicine Man with a twinkle in his eye, and everybody but Guy laughed, not very loudly, for each was restrained by the thought that _he_ would rather not be called upon to show his bravery to-night.
"I"m going to bed," said Hawkeye with unnecessary energy.
"Don"t forget to roost under the waterspout you started when you got funny," remarked the Woodp.e.c.k.e.r.
Yan soon followed Guy"s example, and Sam, who had already learned to smoke, sat up with Caleb. Not a word pa.s.sed between them until after Guy"s snore and Yan"s regular puffs told of sound sleep, when Sam, taking advantage of a long-awaited chance, opened out rather abruptly:
"Say, Caleb, I ain"t going to side with no man against Da, but I know him just about as well as he knows me. Da"s all right; he"s plumb and square, and way down deep he"s got an awful kind heart; it"s pretty deep, I grant you, but it"s there, O.K. The things he does on the quiet to help folks is done on the quiet and ain"t noticed. The things he does to beat folks--an" he does do plenty--is talked all over creation. But I know he has a wrong notion of you, just as you have of him, and it"s got to be set right."
Sam"s good sense was always evident, and now, when he laid aside his buffoonery, his voice and manner were very impressive--more like those of a grown man than of a fifteen-year-old boy.
Caleb simply grunted and went on smoking, so Sam continued, "I want to hear your story, then Ma an" me"ll soon fix Da."
The mention of "Ma" was a happy stroke. Caleb had known her from youth as a kind-hearted girl. She was all gentleness and obedience to her husband except in matters of what she considered right and wrong, and here she was immovable. She had always believed in Caleb, even after the row, and had not hesitated to make known her belief.
"There ain"t much to tell," replied Caleb bitterly. "He done me on that Horse-trade, an" crowded me on my note so I had to pay it off with oats at sixty cents, then he turned round and sold them within half an hour for seventy-five cents. We had words right there, an" I believe I did say I"d fix him for it. I left Downey"s Dump early that day. He had about $300 in his pocket--$300 of my money--the last I had in the world. He was too late to bank it, so was taking it home, when he was fired at in going through the "green bush". My tobacco pouch and some letters addressed to me was found there in the morning.
Course he blamed me, but I didn"t have any shootin"-iron then; my revolver, the white one, was stole from me a week before--along with them same letters, I expect. I consider they was put there to lay the blame on me, an" it was a little overdone, most folks would think.
Well, then your Da set d.i.c.k Pogue on me, an" I lost my farm--that"s all."
Sam smoked gravely for awhile, then continued:
"That"s true about the note an" the oats an" the Horse-trade--just what Da would do; that"s all in the game: but you"re all wrong about d.i.c.k Pogue--that"s too dirty for Da."
"_You_ may think so, but _I don"t_."
Sam made no answer, but after a minute laid his hand on Turk, who responded with a low growl. This made Caleb continue: "Down on me, down on my Dog. Pogue says he kills Sheep "an" every one is ready to believe it. I never knowed a Hound turn Sheep-killer, an" I never knowed a Sheep-killer kill at home, an" I never knowed a Sheep-killer content with one each night, an" I never knowed a Sheep-killer leave no tracks, an" Sheep was killed again and again when Turk was locked up in the shanty with me."
"Well, whose Dog is it does it?"
"I don"t know as it"s any Dog, for part of the Sheep was eat each time, they say, though I never seen one o" them that was killed or I could tell. It"s more likely a Fox or a Lynx than a Dog."
There was a long silence, then outside again the hair-lifting screech to which the Dog paid no heed, although the Trapper and the boy were evidently startled and scared.
They made up a blazing fire and turned in silently for the night.
The rain came down steadily, and the wind swept by in gusts. It was the Banshee"s hour, and two or three times, as they were dropping off, that fearful, quavering human wail, "like a woman in distress," came from the woods to set their hearts a-jumping, not Caleb and Sam only, but all four.
In the diary which Yan kept of those times each day was named after its event; there was Deer day, Skunk-and-Cat day, Blue Crane day, and this was noted down as the night of the Banshee"s wailing.
Caleb was up and had breakfast ready before the others were fully awake. They had carefully kept and cleaned the c.o.o.n meat, and Caleb made of it a "prairie pie," in which bacon, potatoes, bread, one small onion and various sc.r.a.ps of food were made important. This, warmed up for breakfast and washed down with coffee, made a royal meal, and feasting they forgot the fears of the night.
The rain was over, but the wind kept on. Great blockish clouds were tumbling across the upper sky Yan went out to look for tracks. He found none but those of raindrops.
The day was spent chiefly about camp, making arrows and painting the teepee.
Again Caleb was satisfied to sleep in the camp. The Banshee called once that night, and again Turk seemed not to hear, but half an hour later there was a different and much lower sound outside, a light, nasal "_wow_." The boys scarcely heard it, but Turk sprang up with bristling hair, growling, and forcing his way out under the door, he ran, loudly barking, into the woods.
"He"s after something now, all right," said his master; "and now he"s treed it," as the Dog began his high-pitched yelps.
"Good old Dog; he"s treed the Banshee," and Yan rushed out into the darkness. The others followed, and they found Turk barking and scratching at a big leaning Beech, but could get no hint of what the creature up it might be like.
"How does he usually bark for a Banshee?" asked the Woodp.e.c.k.e.r, but got no satisfaction, and wondering why Turk should bother himself so mightily over a little squeal and never hear that awful scream, they retired to camp.
Next morning in the mud not far from the teepee Yan found the track of a common Cat, and shrewdly guessed that this was the prowler that had been heard and treed by the Dog; probably it was his old friend of the Skunk fight. The wind was still high, and as Yan pored over the tracks he heard for the first time in broad daylight the appalling screech.
It certainly was _loud_, though less dreadful than at night, and peering up Yan saw _two large limbs that crossed and rubbed each other, when the right puff of wind came_. This was the Banshee that did the wailing that had scared them all--_all but the Dog_. His keener senses, unspoiled by superst.i.tion, had rightly judged the awful sound as the harmless sc.r.a.ping of two limbs in the high wind, but the lower, softer noise made by the prowling Cat he had just as truly placed and keenly followed up.
Guy was the only one not convinced. He clung to his theory of Bears.
Late in the night the two Chiefs were awakened by Guy. "Say, Sam--Sam.
Yan--Yan--Yan--Yan, get up; that big Bear is "round again. I told you there was a Bear, an" you wouldn"t believe me."
There was a loud champing sound outside, and occasionally growls or grumbling.
"There"s surely something there, Sam. I wish Turk and Caleb were here now."
The boys opened the door a little and peered out. There, looming up in the dim starlight, was a huge black animal, picking up sc.r.a.ps of meat and digging up the tins that were buried in the garbage hole. All doubts were dispelled. Guy had another triumph, and he would have expressed his feelings to the full but for fear of the monster outside.
"What had we better do?"
"Better not shoot him with arrows. That"ll only rile him. Guy, you blow up the coals and get a blaze."
All was intense excitement now, "Oh, why haven"t we got a gun!"
"Say, Sam, while Sap--I mean Hawkeye--makes a blaze, let"s you and me shoot with blunt arrows, if the Bear comes toward the teepee." So they arranged themselves, Guy puttering in terror at the fire and begging them not to shoot.
"What"s the good o" riling him? It--it--it"s croo-oo-el."
Sam and Yan stood with bows ready and arrows nocked.
Guy was making a failure of the fire, and the Bear began nosing nearer, champing his teeth and grunting. Now the boys could see the great ears as the monster threw up its head.
"Let"s shoot before he gets any nearer." At this Guy promptly abandoned further attempts to make a fire and scrambled up on a cross stick that was high in the teepee for hanging the pot. He broke out into tears when he saw Sam and Yan actually drawing their bows.
"He"ll come in and eat us, he will."
But the Bear was coming anyway, and having the two tomahawks ready, the boys let fly. At once the Bear wheeled and ran off, uttering the loud, unmistakable squeal of an old Pig--Burns"s own Pig--for young Burns had again forgotten to put up the bars that crossed his trail from the homestead to the camp.
Guy came down quickly to join in the laugh. "I tole you fellers not to shoot. I just believed it was our old Hog, an" I couldn"t help crying when I thought how mad Paw"d be when he found out."
"I s"pose you got up on that cross pole to see if Paw was coming, didn"t you?"
"No; he got up there to show how brave he was."