Part 18 (1/2)

As the faithful fellow was running such risk, Mr. Brainerd crept forward, and with some danger to himself thrust his head and shoulders out, so as to watch the actions of his servant.

Gimp a.s.sumed a crouching posture, and began moving up the narrow, sloping path like the shadow that creeps over the face of the dial.

”I wonder whether it is possible to see him,” the elder one asked himself, with a pang of fear, as he looked across the brief intervening s.p.a.ce; ”it hardly seems credible that they would leave the door wide open in that manner.”

But speculation was useless: Gimp was outside the cavern, and if really detected by the watchful red men, he was beyond help.

Mr. Brainerd could hear the rustling of the African's body as he slowly glided along, often loosening the dirt and gravel with his hands and knees, and sending it rolling down toward the mouth of the cavern, but there came no sign from the rocks beyond, where it was believed the main body of their enemies was gathered.

Like a huge turtle the bulky negro climbed the steep path, until his outlines were lost in the gloom as he neared the top, and his master drew back into the cavern and wondered what it could mean.

If a man could walk from the cavern in that fas.h.i.+on, why might not the entire party, one after the other, file out in the same manner?

This was a natural question, but the settler was too wise to believe the attempt was feasible.

There would be nothing extraordinary in the fugitives' going to the top of the path without molestation, but it would be absurd to suppose they could walk off into the woods undisturbed, when such a vigilant foe was in watch for them.

The American Indian does not prosecute his warfare in that fas.h.i.+on.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The experience of Gravity Gimp, after reaching the outside of the cavern, was remarkable in more than one respect.

When he found himself creeping up the narrow path, to the high ground above, and realized that he would make a capital target for one or a dozen of the Seneca sharpshooters, his teeth fairly rattled, and he would have retreated, but for his affection for the members of the Brainerd family.

”'Spect dere's two hundred ob 'em a-settin' in a row on a log up dere and waitin' for me, and when I come along dey'll each one hit me ober de head wid de b.u.t.t end ob dere tomahawks, and by de time dey gots frough I'll hab de headache so bad dat I'll be as dizzy as Haberkick down dere.”

Gravity paused for a minute, and then resumed creeping forward. Within the succeeding ten minutes he had reached the high level ground above, without sight or sound of an Indian.

No wonder he was mystified, for it occurred to him, naturally enough, that if he could pa.s.s out unchallenged in that fas.h.i.+on all the others might do the same, and what seemed to be a very perilous situation might thus resolve itself into nothing of the kind.

He came near turning back and inviting his friends to follow him, but fortunately he changed his mind and decided to go farther, before believing that the cloud had lifted.

”Dere don't seem to be anybody loafing 'bout here,” he muttered, ”and I'll promenade a little further.”

He now began cautiously moving over the same ground he and his friends had hurried along when so hotly chased by the Indians.

Only a short distance was pa.s.sed in the deep shadows of the trees, when he paused, still mystified.

The question presented itself as to how he was to accomplish anything that could benefit those whom he had left behind, for if they should seek to leave the cavern during the night, there was no other way, so far as he could judge, excepting that which he himself had taken.

”It must be dat the Injuns are down on de oder side de ravine, and I think dere's where I'll take an observation.”

No task could be more delicate than this, and Gravity, with all his shrewdness, was unfitted to undertake it. There were scouts, who under the circ.u.mstances, would have gathered all the knowledge desired, and would have placed themselves among their enemies without detection, but the African was a different kind of personage.

He picked his way along the wood above the cavern, and had gone less than two rods beyond, when he stopped to gaze about him. The gloom was so dense that he could see very little, excepting when he looked across the ravine, where the moonlight fell and where the ma.s.s of rocks, so dreaded by the fugitives, was in plain sight.