Part 46 (1/2)
”Hang it, hang it!” the American muttered at every corpse he turned over, ”These poor savages were killed by a master-hand. At any rate they did not suffer long, for with such fearful wounds they must have surrendered their souls to the Creator almost instantaneously.”
He thus reached the spot where lay the body of Blue-fox, with a wide gaping wound in his chest.
”Ah, ah! Here is the worthy Chief,” he went on. ”What a gas.h.!.+ Let us see if he is dead too.”
He bent over the motionless body, and put the blade of his knife to the Indian's lips.
”He does not stir,” he continued, with an air of discouragement; ”I am afraid I shall have some difficulty in bringing him round.”
In a few minutes, however, he looked at the blade of his knife and saw that it was slightly tarnished.
”Come, he is not dead yet; so long as the soul holds to the body, there is hope, so I will have a try.”
After this aside, John Davis fetched some water in his hat, mixed a small quant.i.ty of spirits with it, and began carefully laving the wound; this duty performed, he sounded it and found it of no great depth, and the abundant loss of blood had in all probability brought on the state of unconsciousness. Rea.s.sured by this perfectly correct reflection, he pounded some _oregano_ leaves between two stones, made a species of cataplasm of them, laid it on the wound, and secured it with a strip of bark; then unclenching the wounded man's teeth with the blade of his knife, he thrust in the mouth of his flask, and made him drink a quant.i.ty of spirits.
Success almost immediately crowned the American's tentatives, for the Chief gave vent to a deep sigh, and opened his eyes almost instantaneously.
”Bravo!” John exclaimed, delighted at the unhoped for result he had achieved. ”Courage, Chief, you are saved. By Jove! You may boast of having come back a precious long distance.”
For some minutes the Indian remained stunned, looking around him absently, without any consciousness of the situation in which he was, or of the objects that surrounded him.
John attentively watched him, ready to give him help again, were it necessary; but it was not so. By degrees the Redskin appeared to grow livelier; his eyes lost their vacant expression, he sat up and pa.s.sed his hand over his dank brow.
”Is the fight over?” he asked.
”Yes,” John answered, ”in our complete defeat; that was a splendid idea we had of capturing such a demon.”
”Has he escaped, then?”
”Most perfectly so, and without a single wound, after killing at least a dozen of your warriors, and cleaving my poor Jim's skull down to the shoulders.”
”Oh!” the Indian muttered hoa.r.s.ely, ”He is not a man, but the spirit of evil.”
”Let him be what he likes,” John exclaimed, energetically; ”I intend to fight it out some day, for I hope to come across this demon again.”
”May the Wacondah preserve my brother from such a meeting, for this demon would kill him.”
”Perhaps so; as it is, if he did not do so to-day, it was no fault of his, but let him take care; we may some day stand face to face with equal weapons, and then--”
”What does he care for weapons? Did you not see that they have no power over him, and that his body is invulnerable?”
”Hum! That is possible; but for the present let us leave the subject and attend to matters that affect us much more closely. How do you find yourself?”
”Better, much better; the remedy you have applied to my wound does me great good; I am beginning to feel quite comfortable.”
”All the better; now try to rest for two or three hours, while I watch over your sleep; after that, we will consult as to the best way of getting out of this sc.r.a.pe.”
The Redskin smiled on hearing this remark.
”Blue-fox is no cowardly old woman whom a tooth-ache or ear-ache renders incapable of moving.”