Springing up, and trying to calm my breathing, I called:
"Post one, "leven o"clock, and all"s-er-well!"
The last word had no more than been p.r.o.nounced when I was moving swiftly, silently on post number two. True to his intention, Smilax had prepared the way.
"Post two, "leven o"clock, and all"s-er-well!" I called in an altered voice.
The sentry at post three, doubtless having a vein of humor or finding any variation of his tedious duty agreeable, dwelt in his turn long and almost lovingly over the "er-well," making it sound "e-e-er-well."
"How you like that?" he called, in a guarded tone, and receiving no answer, laughed: "Then go ter h.e.l.l with yer perlite manners."
A few minutes elapsed before I was conscious of a movement in the water, slight, barely distinguishable. But my eyes had grown more and more accustomed to the darkness and I thought that I made out something coming toward the sh.o.r.e. Creeping a little forward and listening, I felt that it was Smilax carrying Sylvia, and became certain of this when someone was deposited there who began cautiously to climb the bank.
Smilax, evidently, had turned back for Echochee. But along this section of the mainland the bank was steep, and the climber came with difficulty--once slipping and making what I thought to be an awful racket. Even the humorous sentry on post three heard it and, providentially unsuspicious, called:
"Yer ain"t bit yerse"f, have yer?"
I made no answer to this, trusting him to be satisfied with his own wit.
Yet now, following a most natural impulse, forgetting in our extreme peril that Sylvia was unaware of my presence, I leaned above the top and reached down to her; when, to my utter consternation, she gave a piercing scream of terror. Quick as a flash the sentry at post three yelled and fired his gun, and the sleeping camp became a bedlam of cursing men.
"For G.o.d"s sake," I whispered--but Smilax had turned back to us and was beside her.
"Him friend," he said, hurriedly. "Only friend we got! Go with him quick! Me get Echochee!"
While saying this he was pushing her up to me, at the same time holding out a bag, or kind of traveling case, that she had dropped. I seized it with one hand, and her arm with the other.
"Quick; go to camp," Smilax was saying. "Me get Echochee and give "em chase up coast. Be back soon; you wait there."
He had taken to the water again and was making for the Indian woman, who I thought had started out to meet him. So I knew he would rescue her, as surely as he was six and a half feet of muscle and endurance. The camp had become thoroughly aroused by now, and lights were everywhere. Hoping to rea.s.sure Sylvia, I whispered as Smilax would have spoken:
"Me friend; come quick!"
Above the confusion we could hear the voice of Efaw Kotee bellowing:
"Get the punts, you fools! Which way is she?"
"On the mainland," someone yelled.
"Then catch her," he bellowed again, with a string of blasphemous oaths.
This decided her, and she whispered wildly:
"Hurry! Take me where Tachachobee said!"
We dashed through the forest, I leading, she close behind. Nor had we any time to spare, for before we had gone a hundred yards two quick shots rang out. It was "li"l crack-crack" speaking, I felt sure of it.
Shots answered rapidly in threes and fours. The automatic spoke again, this time farther to the north, drawing more shots from the angry pursuers; but I knew that among trees so thick and in darkness so impenetrable Smilax and Echochee ran little chance of being hit. At the prairie, made vaguely lighter by a hazy, half grown moon, we crouched in the gra.s.s and waited.
You have never, I suppose, been afraid to breathe, flattened against a wall, or huddled in a shadowy place, listening to the growls and grunts and sniffs of the man-beast hunting you? No, of course not.
Men were now tearing through the forest like a herd of stampeded horses, shooting, yelling, cursing, while at brief intervals the automatic told them which way to go. Farther and farther the chase went, all the time following the coast and leading away from us till, after twenty minutes, the yells were hardly discernible and the shots sounded like faint little pops of a nursery gun. But they were as rapid as ever, telling us that the pursuit had in no way diminished. Smilax, undoubtedly master of the situation, would lead them on and on; either close by Big Cove so those aboard the _Whim_--had she made harbor--could take a hand, or finally lose them somewhere in the treacherous Everglades. Then he would came back for us. I felt no great uncertainty for Smilax and Echochee.
I now straightened up--taking care that she should not see my face--and listened to satisfy myself that no one had stayed behind to be roaming in the forest near us, then whispered:
"Come!"
In silence, she following, we crossed the two mile s.p.a.ce, and I drew a deep breath of thankfulness when we at last stepped beneath the black trees of my "island."
I knew that she had taken me for a Seminole--at least, the probability seemed to be strong in that direction. The darkness again was too intense for her to see my features, and, since I had been fairly successful in speaking the choppy English of the Indian, I determined to continue the deception until morning. For she had become somewhat accustomed to the "trusted friend" by now, whereas re-introductions at this hour would be exceedingly awkward, if not quite disastrous to her peace of mind. So, without a halt, I walked on through the trees until we came to her tent. At the door of this I put down her bag, then stepped back and for a second at arm"s length flashed my electric torch on it, again being careful to keep my face in shadow.
"You safe here," I said. "Tachachobee make this camp for you. Me and him camp little way off. To-night me watch to see when him and Echochee come. No one find you; you sleep well. Tachachobee good man; me and him friends. You no be "fraid."
"Thank you," she said wearily. Ah, how tired her voice did seem!
"There water; good to drink. You hungry?" I asked.
"No, thank you,--what is your name?"
This was a poser, for I had not thought up a name. But, of course, Jack came first into my mind, so I answered:
"Jackachobee."
"No, thank you, Jackachobee," she said, "I"m not hungry."
"You want gun?" I asked again.
"I have one," she answered.
"Good. Then you sleep; no one find you here. In morning take time; when ready for breakfast walk back this way a hundred steps and whistle like plover. Then me come and show you way. Sleep good."
Thus, feeling very well satisfied with my Indian impersonation--which, nevertheless, had its faults--I left her; turning and going to the fort, there choosing a place where I could keep guard all night against possible danger.
Long and earnestly did I listen for some sound of the chase, but the night had grown absolutely still except for a soft breeze rustling the palm fronds above my head and the prairie gra.s.s in front of me. Yet I felt secure in the belief that Smilax had not been taken. Without question, he and Echochee were still in flight, heading toward some safe refuge; coaxing, by shot or cry, the furious pack that tore hopefully after them. I knew that my vigil here was unnecessary--that with all senses focused on the chase no straggler would by any chance be coming this far out into the prairie--but I had told Sylvia it would be kept.
As I sat there, joyous over the conquest we had made, but more supremely happy because she was safe and near me, thinking tumultuous things which were a credit to mankind, hoping hopes that man has never realized, I raised my face to the sky and thanked G.o.d.
Creature of incongruities! I thanked G.o.d for putting her safely into my keeping, when my fingers had not yet been washed after their bath in a fellow creature"s blood! The cave man had gone abroad at dusk to find a mate, and human p.a.w.ns who stood in his way had been of no more consequence than ants!
Thus it has always been for the women we love. Thus it should be.
CHAPTER XVIII
DOLORIA
With the first glimpse of dawn I arose and faced the East; my arms out, my palms up, and across them my rifle as a kind of offering to the day.