"Well, Pepe, they are but seventeen now!" continued Bois-Rose, in a tone of triumph.
"Oh! we may succeed, if they do not get reinforcements."
"That is a chance and a terrible one; but our lives are in G.o.d"s hands,"
replied Bois-Rose. "Tell me, friend!" said he to Gayferos, "you probably belong to the camp of Don Estevan?"
"Do you know him then?" said the wounded man, in a feeble voice.
"Yes; and by what chance are you so far from the camp?"
The wounded man recounted how, by Don Estevan"s orders, he had set off to seek for their lost guide, and that his evil star had brought him in contact with the Indians as they were hunting the wild horses.
"What is the name of your guide?"
"Cuchillo."
Fabian and Bois-Rose glanced at each other.
"Yes," said the latter, "there is some probability that your suspicions about that white demon were correct, and that he is conducting the expedition to the Golden Valley; but, my child, if we escape these Indians, we are close to it; and once we are installed there, were they a hundred, we should succeed in defending ourselves."
This was whispered in Fabian"s ear.
"One word more," said Bois-Rose to the wounded man, "and then we shall leave you to repose. How many men has Don Estevan with him?"
"Sixty."
Bois-Rose now again bathed the head of the wounded Gayferos with cold water: and the unhappy man, refreshed for the moment, and weakened by loss of blood, fell into a lethargic sleep.
"Now," continued Bois-Rose, "let us endeavour to build up a rampart which shall be a little more ball and arrow-proof than this fringe of moving leaves and reeds. Did you count how many rifles the Indians had?"
"Seven, I believe," said Pepe.
"Then ten of them are less to be feared. They cannot attack us either on the right or the left--but perhaps they have made a detour to cross the river, and are about to place us between two fires."
The side of the islet opposite the sh.o.r.e on which the Indians had shown themselves was sufficiently defended by enormous roots, bristling like chevaux-de-frise; but the side where the attack was probably about to recommence was defended only by a thick row of reeds and osier-shoots.
Thanks to his great strength, Bois-Rose, aided by Pepe, succeeded in dragging from the end of the islet which faced the course of the stream, some large dry branches and fallen trunks of trees. A few minutes sufficed for the two skilful hunters to protect the feeble side with a rough but solid entrenchment, which would form a very good defence to the little garrison of the island.
"Do you see, Fabian," said Bois-Rose, "you"ll be as safe behind these trunks of trees as in a stone fortress. You"ll be exposed only to the b.a.l.l.s that may be fired from the tops of the trees, but I shall take care that none of these redskins climb so high."
And quite happy at having raised a barrier between Fabian and death, he a.s.signed him his post in the place most sheltered from the enemy.
"Did you remark," said he to Pepe, "how at every effort that we made to break a branch or disengage a block of wood, the island trembled to its foundation?"
"Yes," said Pepe, "one might think that it was about to be torn from its base and follow the course of the stream."
The Canadian then cautioned his two companions to be careful of their ammunition, gave Fabian some instructions as to taking aim, pressed him to his heart, squeezed the hand of his old comrade, and then the three stationed themselves at their several posts. The surface of the river, the tops of the aspens growing on the banks, the banks themselves and the reeds, were all objects of examination for the hunters, as the night was fast coming on.
"This is the hour when the demons of darkness lay their snares," said Bois-Rose, "when these human jaguars seek for their prey. It was of them that the Scriptures spoke."
No one replied to this speech, which was uttered rather as a soliloquy.
Meanwhile, the darkness was creeping on little by little, and the bushes which grew on the bank began to a.s.sume the fantastic forms given to objects by the uncertain twilight.
The green of the trees began to look black; but habit had given to Bois-Rose and to Pepe eyes as piercing as those of the Indians themselves, and nothing, with the vigilance they were exerting, could have deceived them.
"Pepe," whispered Bois-Rose, pointing to a tuft of osiers, "does it not seem to you that that bush has changed its form and grown larger?"
"Yes; it has changed its form!"
"See, Fabian! you have the piercing sight that I had at your age; does it not appear to you that at the left-hand side of that tuft of osiers the leaves no longer look natural?"
The young man pushed the reeds on one side, and gazed for a while attentively.
"I could swear it," said he, "but--" He stopped, and looked in another direction.
"Well! do you see anything?"
"I see, between that willow and the aspen, about ten feet from the tuft of osiers, a bush which certainly was not there just now."
"Ah! see what it is to live far from towns;--the least points of the landscape fix themselves in the memory, and become precious indications.
You are born to live the life of a hunter, Fabian!"
Pepe levelled his rifle at the bush indicated by Fabian.
"Pepe understands it at once," said Bois-Rose; "he knows, like me, that the Indians have employed their time in cutting down branches to form a temporary shelter; but I think two of us at least may teach them a few stratagems that they do not yet know. Leave that bush to Fabian, it will be an easy mark for him; fire at the branches whose leaves are beginning to wither--there is an Indian behind them. Fire in the centre, Fabian!"
The two rifles were heard simultaneously, and the false bush fell, displaying a red body behind the leaves, while the branches which had been added were convulsively agitated. All three then threw themselves on the ground, and a discharge of b.a.l.l.s immediately flew over their heads, covering them with leaves and broken branches, while the war-cry of the Indians sounded in their ears.
"If I do not deceive myself, they are now but fifteen," said Bois-Rose, as he quitted his horizontal posture, and knelt on the ground.
"Be still!" added he. "I see the leaves of an aspen trembling more than the wind alone could cause them to do. It is doubtless one of those fellows who has climbed up into the tree."
As he spoke, a bullet struck one of the trunks of which the islet was composed, and proved that he had guessed rightly.
"Wagh!" said the Canadian, "I must resort to a trick that will force him to show himself."
So saying, he took off his cap and coat, and placed them between the branches, where they could be seen. "Now," said he, "if I were fighting a white soldier, I would place myself by the side of my coat, for he would fire at the coat; with an Indian I shall stand behind it, for he will not be deceived in the same manner, and will aim to one side of it.
Lie down, Fabian and Pepe, and in a minute you shall hear a bullet whistle either to the right or the left of the mark I have set up."
As Bois-Rose said this, he knelt down behind his coat, ready to fire at the aspen.
He was not wrong in his conjectures; in a moment, the b.a.l.l.s of the Indians cut the leaves on each side of the coat, but without touching either of the three companions, who had placed themselves in a line.
"Ah," cried the Canadian, "there are whites who can fight the Indians with their own weapons; we shall presently have an enemy the less."
And saying this he fired into the aspen, out of which the body of an Indian was seen to fall, rolling from branch to branch like a fruit knocked from its stem.
At this feat of the Canadian, the savage howlings resounded with so much fury, that it required nerves of iron not to shudder at them. Gayferos himself, whom the firing had not roused, shook off his lethargy and murmured, in a trembling voice, "Virgen de los Dolores! Would not one say it was a band of tigers howling in the darkness?--Holy Virgin! have pity on me!"