Part 9 (1/2)
”Didn't you hear the villyun say that two o' the warriors wuz to go back with the boat?”
”Well, what of it?”
”Then two warriors is goin' to be me an' you, Henry.”
”Of course. I ought to have thought of it, too.”
”Thar must be sent'nels on the bank, but waitin' 'bout ten minutes we'll git into the canoe an' paddle off. The sent'nels will know that two warriors are to go back in it, an' they'll think we're them. This darkness which has come up, heavy an' black, on purpose to help us, will keep 'em from seein' that we ain't warriors. When we git into the middle o' the river, whar thar eyes can't even make out the canoe, we'll go down stream like a flash o' lightnin', pick up the boys and then be off ag'in like another flash o' lightnin'.”
”A good plan, Sol, and we'll try it. As you say, luck is always on the side of the bold, and I don't see why we can't succeed.”
But to wait the necessary fifteen minutes was one of the hardest tasks they ever undertook. It would not do to take the canoe at once, as suspicion would certainly be aroused. They must conform to Blackstaffe's own plan. It seemed to them that they must actually hold themselves with their own hands to keep from creeping forward to the canoe, yet they did it, though the minutes doubled and redoubled in length, and then tripled; but, after a time that both judged sufficient, they slid forward, and Henry's knife cut the willow withe. Then they lifted themselves gently into the canoe, took up two of the paddles and were away.
Henry's back was to the southern bank, and despite all his experience and courage s.h.i.+vers ran through his body at the thought that a bullet from the forest might strike him any moment. Yet he did not wish to seem in a hurry, and restrained his eagerness to paddle with all his might.
”Softly, Sol, softly,” he said. ”We must not be in too much haste.”
”Don't I know it, Henry? Don't I know that we must 'pear to be the two warriors whose business it is to take back the canoe? Ain't I jest strainin' an' achin' to make the biggest sweep with my paddle I ever swep', an' ain't my mind pullin' ag'inst my hands all the time, tryin'
to keep 'em at the proper gait? Are you sh.o.r.e you ain't felt no bullet in your back yet, Henry?”
”No, Sol. What makes you ask such a question?”
”'Cause I reckon I wuz so much afeared o' one that I imagined the place whar it's track would be in me, ef it had been really fired. My fancy is pow'ful lively at sech a time.”
”There has been no alarm, at least not yet, and we're near the middle of the river. The canoe must be invisible, although I can see the fires on either sh.o.r.e. Now, Sol, we'll turn down stream and paddle with all our might, showing what canoemen we really are!”
It was with actual physical as well as mental joy that they turned the prow of the canoe toward the southeast, that is, with the current, and began to do their best with the paddles. They no longer had that horrible fear of a bullet in the back, and muscles seemed to leap together with the spirit into greater strength and elasticity.
”Come on you, Henry,” said s.h.i.+f'less Sol exultantly. ”Keep up your side!
Prove that you're jest ez good a man with the paddle ez me! We ain't makin' more'n a mile a minute, an' fur sech ez we are that's nothin' but standin' still!”
The two bent their powerful backs a little and their great arms swept the paddles through the water at an amazing rate. The soul of s.h.i.+f'less Sol surged up to the heights. He became dithyrambic and he spoke in a tone not loud, but full of concentrated fire and feeling.
”Fine, you Henry, you!” he said. ”But we kin do better! The canoe is goin' fast, but one or two canoes in the hist'ry o' the world hez gone ez fast! We must go faster by ten or fifteen miles an hour an' set the record that will stan'! It's so dark in here I can't see either bank, but I wish sometimes I could, warriors or no warriors! Then I could see 'em whizzin' by, jest streaks, with all the trees and bushes meltin'
into one another like a green ribbon! Now, that's the way to do it, Henry! Our speed is jumpin'! I ain't sh.o.r.e whether the canoe is touchin'
the water or not! I think mebbe it's jest our paddles that dip in, an'
that the canoe is flyin' through the air! An' not a soun' from 'em yet!
They haven't discovered that the wrong warriors hev took thar boat, but they will soon! Now we'll turn her in toward the southern bank, Henry, 'cause in the battin' o' an eye or two we'll be whar the rest o' the boys are a-lyin' hid in the bushes! Now, slow an' slower! I kin see the trees an' bushes separatin' tha.r.s.elves, an' thar's the bank, an' now I see the face o' Long Jim, 'bout seven feet above the groun'! He's an onery, ugly cuss, never givin' me all the respeck that's due me, but somehow I like him, an' he never looked better nor more welcome than he does now, G.o.d bless the long-armed, long-legged, fightin', gen'rous, kind-hearted cuss! An' thar's Paul, too, lookin' fur all the world like a scholar, crammed full o' book l'arnin', 'stead o' the ring-tailed forest runner, half hoss, half alligator, that he is, though he's got the book l'arnin' an' is one o' the greatest scholars the world ever seed! An' that's Tom Ross, with his mouth openin' ez ef he wuz 'bout to speak a word, though he'll conclude, likely, that he oughtn't, an' all three o' 'em are pow'ful glad to see us comin' in our triumphal Roman gallus that we hev captured from the enemy.”
”Galley, Sol, galley! Not gallus!”
”It's all the same, galley or gallus. We hev got it, an' we are in it, an' it's a fine big canoe with six paddles, one for ev'ry one o' us an'
one to spare! Now here we are ag'in the bank, an' thar they are ready to jump in!”
There was no time for hesitation, as a long and tremendous war whoop from a point up the stream seemed to surcharge the whole night with rage and ferocity. It was evident that the warriors had discovered that the wrong men had taken the canoe, as they were bound to do soon, and the chase would be on at once, conducted with all the power and tenacity of those who devoted their lives to such deeds.