Part 18 (2/2)

He saw nothing there which could enlighten him, but his heart nearly stood still, when he not only heard a movement behind him near the point where the path to the cavern reached the high ground above, but despite the gloom detected several dark figures moving stealthily about.

That these were Indians there could be no doubt, and the conclusion was inevitable that they had seen him come out and had allowed him to pa.s.s by them without molestation.

Being now between him and the shelter, his return was cut off, and no matter what important discoveries he might make, he had no means of telling them to his friends.

”I might have knowed dere would be some goings on like dis,” he said, with a throb of alarm. ”De best thing I kin do is to strike out for Stroudsburg alone, widout waitin' for de folks.”

Though he might have been justified in this course, yet his conscience would not permit it, and he started again, with the purpose of pa.s.sing around to the other side of the ravine, and making a closer reconnoissance of the spot where he was certain of finding enemies.

This required a long detour, and a full half-hour pa.s.sed before he got across the short ravine and began climbing up the other side, near where the Indians were known to be only a short time before.

As might have been antic.i.p.ated, he went wrong, and got into the worst trouble of his life.

He had seen nothing more of the Senecas, but several faint whistles he recognized as signals pa.s.sing between them, and he should have understood, from what had already taken place, that his movements were watched by the wary foe.

He was climbing a narrow pa.s.sage, and was, perhaps, a dozen feet above the bottom of the ravine, when, to his dismay, a sinewy warrior sprang up in front of him, as though leaping out of the ground itself, and with tomahawk raised and a guttural exclamation, made for him.

The a.s.sault was so sudden that Gimp had no time to use his rifle, but he was not taken altogether at fault. Dropping the weapon, he recoiled a step or two and escaped the implement as it came down with a vicious whiz.

Before the warrior could recover or retreat, the African threw both arms about him, and, lifting him as though he were an infant, flung him headlong into the ravine below.

”Dere! guess dat'll jar you a little--”

But, to his amazement, a second brawny Indian appeared directly where the other had first shown himself, and he was immediately followed by others, who, it was plain, were pus.h.i.+ng up through a narrow pa.s.sage for the purpose of capturing the African.

The latter had succeeded so well a minute before, that he again resorted to the same tactics, and, catching hold of the first warrior he could reach, he hurried him after the first. Then the next was treated in the same manner, and, for the time, Gravity Gimp became a sort of sable geyser or miniature volcano, throwing into the air sprawling Seneca Indians with a vehemence that was as picturesque as it was amazing.

The exercise of hurling full-grown men aloft, regardless of how high they go, and in what posture they strike, is an exhausting diversion, no matter how powerful the gymnast who engages in it.

Thus it came about that the herculean African speedily found that he had his hands more than full, and his terrific efforts so told upon him that he grew more sluggish in his movements, until at last he was fairly smothered with the crush of warriors, and, despite his fierce resistance, was made prisoner.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Meanwhile the fugitives in the cavern were placed in a situation almost as grave as that of Gravity Gimp himself.

The departure of the latter created a stir that lasted some minutes after Mr. Brainerd drew back and whispered to his friends the fact that the servant had reached the ground above, and was unmolested.

”He must pa.s.s over the spot where the man stood who fired the shot,”

said Maggie Brainerd, ”and he ought to find out who he is.”

”Provided the stranger remains there, which isn't likely.”

The reader knows that this hope was disappointed, for the negro saw nothing of the man nor did he once think of him, while making the reconnoissance that resulted in his own capture.

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