Part 14 (1/2)

No 'fraid! Me good Injun, me. Ha, ha! Me good Injun brudder.”

The exultant mockery underlying this friendly address was too transparent. Her eyes dilating with horror, the girl stepped back, the consciousness that she was alone in the power of these fiends turning her limbs to stone. They, for their part, secure of their beautiful prize, were enjoying her terror.

”No run 'way,” said the first speaker, who had diminished the distance between them. ”No run 'way. Injun, good brudder.” And he seized her left wrist in the grasp of a vice--while another, with a fierce chuckling laugh, made a movement to seize her right one.

But the brutal contact broke the spell of horror which was weaving around her. A wild cry of indignation escaped her lips, and her eyes blazed. Wrenching her right wrist free, she dashed the heavy b.u.t.t end of her fis.h.i.+ng-rod with all her force--and it was not small--full into the first a.s.sailant's face, knocking out some of his front teeth, and causing him to loosen his hold.

With the fierce growl of a wounded cougar, the savage sprang at her again, the blood streaming from his mouth, and as the unhappy girl recoiled to renew her efforts to keep her persecutors at bay, such a marvellous change came over the scene that not one of the actors in it was quite aware what had happened.

An enormous dark ma.s.s seemed to fall from the very heavens, simultaneously with a thundrous roar. The girl, now tottering on the verge of faintness, saw, as in a flash, her first a.s.sailant lying with his skull crushed to pulp, another lay gasping in the agonies of death, while the third was just vanis.h.i.+ng in the timber! At him pointing the still smoking muzzle of a revolver, mounted on a huge black horse, was the most splendidly handsome man she had ever seen.

”Quick! Drop all that gear and mount in front of me. Give me your hand.”

There was no disobeying the curt commanding tone. Resisting a deadly impulse to faint right away, she extended her hand. In a second she was swung up before the stranger on his powerful horse.

It was all done like lightning. The first appearance of the savages-- the a.s.sault--the rescue--occupied barely a couple of minutes. Pale to the lips, shaky, and unnerved, she could hardly now realise it all. But often in the time to come would she look back to that strange ride, the weight of the appalling danger she had just escaped still hanging over her, the courage and prompt.i.tude of her rescuer, the struggle she was waging with her own natural terror, dreading she knew not what.

The black steed was going at a gallop now, but his rider had him well in hand. The girl noticed that they were making something of a _detour_ which took them far out on the open plain, whereas her ride down to the river had led her along the very edge of the timber. She noticed, too, the anxious, alert look on the stranger's face. Though he did not turn his head, she felt a.s.sured that not a detail in the surroundings escaped him.

”There are your people,” he said briefly, as they suddenly came in sight of the camp. The waggons had just unhitched, and the mules and oxen were being driven down to the water; not the river we have seen, but a small creek running into it. Already columns of smoke were rising on the evening air.

”I can never thank you enough,” said the girl, suddenly and with a shudder. ”But for your prompt.i.tude where should I be now?”

”Say but for your own courage and self-possession. The average idiot in petticoats would have shrieked and fainted and gone into hysterics.

Meanwhile, the reds would have captured her and shot me,” he rejoined, somewhat roughly. ”Be advised by me now. Don't startle the rest of the women, or they'll hamper us seriously. Now we'll dismount.”

He lifted her to the ground, and, without another word, turned to confront a man who had hurried up. But the girl's clear voice interrupted him before he could speak.

”This gentleman has rescued me from frightful danger, Major Winthrop.

There are Indians about.”

”By Jove!” said he addressed, with a start of astonishment, looking from the one to the other. He was a man below middle age, of medium height, active and well-built, and there was no mistaking him for anything other than what he was--an English gentleman.

”Boss of this outfit, I take it?” said the new arrival shortly.

”Yes. Allow me to offer you my most grateful thanks for--”

”Well, there's a big lot of Sioux preparing to 'jump' you at any moment.

Corral your waggons without delay, and have your cattle brought in at once. Not a second to lose.”

A frightful yell drowned his words. There was a thunder of hoofs upon the turf as a band of some fifty mounted Indians, das.h.i.+ng from their cover, bore down upon the herd of draught stock which was being driven back from the water in charge of three or four men. On came the savages, whooping and whistling, brandis.h.i.+ng blankets and buffalo robes with the object of stampeding the now frantic cattle.

But among those in charge of the latter there chanced to be a couple of experienced plainsmen. In a trice there rang out three shots, and two of the a.s.sailants' ponies went riderless. Crack--crack! Another pony went down. This was more than the redskins could stand. Like a bird of prey alarmed in its swoop, the entire band swerved at a tangent and skimmed away over the plain as fast as their ponies could carry them.

The herd was saved.

”There goes the first act in the drama,” said the stranger coolly. ”Now stand clear for the second.”

The suddenness of it all--the yelling, the shots, the swoop of the painted and feathered warriors--had created a terrible panic in the camp, and had the main body of the savages charged at that moment nothing could have saved its inmates. As the stranger had at first conjectured, two of the waggons were full of women and children, the families of some of the emigrants. These at once rushed to the conclusion that their last hour had come, and shrieks and wailings tended to render confusion worse confounded. But Major Winthrop, with military prompt.i.tude, had got the men well in hand, and a very few minutes sufficed to corral the waggons, bring in the cattle, and put the whole camp into a creditable state of defence. It was now nearly dark.