Part 17 (2/2)

”If you did you'd get wopped,” remarked Goff, with a touch of sarcasm, for the lieutenant of the band was not so respectful to his commander as a well-disciplined man should be.

”What makes you think so?” demanded the chief.

”The fact that the diggers are a sight too many for us,” returned Goff.

”Why, we'd find 'em three to one, if not four.”

”Well, that, coupled with the uncertainty of his having gone to Simpson's Gully,” said the chief, ”decides me to make tracks down south to the big woods on the slopes of the Sawback Hills. There are plenty of parties travelling thereabouts with lots of gold, boys, and difficulties enough in the way of hunting us out o' the stronghold.

I'll leave you there for a short time and make a private excursion to Simpson's Gully, to see if my enemy an' the beautiful Betty are there.”

”An' get yourself shot or stuck for your pains,” said Goff. ”Do you suppose that such a hulking, long-legged fellow as you are, can creep into a camp like an or'nary man without drawin' attention?”

”Perhaps not,” returned Stalker; ”but are there not such things as disguises? Have you not seen me with my shootin'-coat and botanical box an' blue spectacles, an' my naturally sandy hair.”

”No, no, captain!” cried Goff, with a laugh, ”not sandy; say yellow, or golden.”

”Well, golden, then, if you will. You've seen it dyed black, haven't you?”

”Oh yes! I've seen you in these humblin' circ.u.mstances before now,”

returned the lieutenant, ”and I must say your own mother wouldn't know you. But what's the use o' runnin' the risk, captain?”

”Because I owe Bevan a grudge!” said the chief, sternly, ”and mean to be revenged on him. Besides, I want the sweet Betty for a wife, and intend to have her, whether she will or no. She'll make a capital bandit's wife--after a little while, when she gets used to the life. So now you know some of my plans, and you shall see whether the hulking botanist won't carry all before him.”

”O-ho!” muttered the snake-in-the-gra.s.s, very softly; and there was something so compound and significant in the tone of that second ”O-ho!”

soft though it was, that it not only baffles description, but--really, you know, it would be an insult to your understanding, good reader, to say more in the way of explanation! There was also a heaving of the snake's shoulders, which, although unaccompanied by sound, was eminently suggestive.

Feeling that he had by that time heard quite enough, Tolly Trevor effected a masterly retreat, and returned to the place where he had left the horses. On the way he recalled with satisfaction the fact that Paul Bevan had once pointed out to him the exact direction of Simpson's Gully at a time when he meant to send him on an errand thither. ”You've on'y to go over there, lad,” Paul had said, pointing towards the forest in rear of his hut, ”and hold on for two days straight as the crow flies till you come to it. You can't well miss it.”

Tolly knew that there was also an easier though longer route by the plains, but as he was not sure of it he made up his mind to take to the forest.

The boy was sufficiently trained in woodcraft to feel pretty confident of finding his way, for he knew the north side of trees by their bark, and could find out the north star when the sky was clear, besides possessing a sort of natural apt.i.tude for holding on in a straight line.

He mounted the obstinate horse, therefore, took the rein of the obedient pony on his right arm, and, casting a last look of profound regret on Bevan's desolated homestead, rode swiftly away. So eager was he that he took no thought for the morrow. He knew that the wallet slung at his saddle-bow contained a small supply of food--as much, probably, as would last three days with care. That was enough to render Tolly Trevor the most independent and careless youth in Oregon.

While these events were occurring in the neighbourhood of Bevan's Gully, three red men, in all the glory of vermilion, charcoal, and feathers, were stalking through the forest in the vicinity of the spot where poor Tom Brixton had laid him down to die. These children of the wilderness stalked in single file--from habit we presume, for there was ample s.p.a.ce for them to have walked abreast if so inclined. They seemed to be unsociable beings, for they also stalked in solemn silence.

Suddenly the first savage came to an abrupt pause, and said, ”Ho!” the second savage said, ”He!” and the third said, ”Hi!” After which, for full a minute, they stared at the ground in silent wonder and said nothing. They had seen a footprint! It did not by any means resemble that deep, well developed, and very solitary footprint at which Robinson Crusoe is wont to stare in nursery picture-books. No; it was a print which was totally invisible to ordinary eyes, and revealed itself to these children of the woods in the form of a turned leaf and a cracked twig. Such as it was, it revealed a track which the three children followed up until they found Tom Brixton--or his body--lying on the ground near to the little spring.

Again these children said, ”Ho!” ”He!” and ”Hi!” respectively, in varying tones according to their varied character. Then they commenced a jabber, which we are quite unable to translate, and turned Tom over on his back. The motion awoke him, for he sat up and stared.

Even that effort proved too much for him in his weak state, for he fell back and fainted.

The Indians proved to be men of prompt.i.tude. They lifted the white man up; one got Tom's shoulders on his back, another put his legs over his shoulders, and thus they stalked away with him. When the first child of the wood grew tired, the unburdened one stepped in to his relief; when the second child grew tired, the first one went to his aid; when all the children grew tired, they laid their burden on the ground and sat down beside it. Thus, by easy stages, was Tom Brixton conveyed away from the spot where he had given himself up as hopelessly lost.

Now, it could not have been more than six hours after Tom had thus been borne away that poor Tolly Trevor came upon the same scene. We say ”poor” advisedly, for he had not only suffered the loss of much fragmentary clothing in his pa.s.sage through that tangled wood, but also most of the food with which he had started, and a good deal of skin from his s.h.i.+ns, elbows, knuckles, and knees, as well as the greater part of his patience. Truly, he was in a pitiable plight, for the forest had turned out to be almost impa.s.sable for horses, and in his journey he had not only fallen off, and been swept out of the saddle by overhanging branches frequently, but had to swim swamps, cross torrents, climb precipitous banks, and had stuck in quagmires innumerable.

As for the horses--their previous owner could not have recognised them.

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