Part 33 (1/2)
”There is another thing,” said Captain Rudstone; ”why did the Indian fire on us? Hein advance of a hostile force”
”I do not think we are in any danger,” I replied ”Indeed, I can offer a solution to the ht for, but his own tribe spirited him away, and I believe he fled to the far West His relatives declared at the tione crazy on account of a blow on the head, and believed he had a mission to kill white men This was likely true And now, after a lapse of five years, the felloandered back to this neighborhood and fired on us at sight”
Such was reed with me But Toravely
”You ht, my boy,” he said, ”but I'ument Leastways, the chances are even that your dead Indian belonged to the party who took Fort Royal, and that the whole body is o for a rapid march, and let every man put his best foot forward”
”Under any circuht to reach the fort as soon as possible, and at the best we can't ht”
So a little later ere traveling south again, sured difficulties of the wintry wilderness
Flora was strapped on the sledge as before, and we had left the dead Indian--for whose fate I felt not the least co where he had fallen
We marched on for two hours, and then our fear of the weather proved to be well founded A furious snowstorm came on suddenly, and a violent hirled the flakes into our faces; the cold grew intense, and we could not see a yard ahead of us A more terrific blizzard we had none of us known in the past
For a little while we floundered on resolutely, blinded and half-frozen, becoetting worse, and we encountered great drifts There was not a sign by which we could steer in the right direction, and we could not be sure that ere not traveling in a circle
”Hold on, boys; this won't do!” Too any farther We , or until the weather takes a turn”
CHAPTER xxxVI
A PAINFUL MYSTERY
But how and where should we seek shelter? Each man, I arew roped our way on for a quarter of an hour, our faces set against the stinging cold wind and the biting snowflakes Arnold was leading, and I was so to keep up her spirits
But good fortune befell us e least expected it Exhausted and half-blinded, we suddenly eled forest on a bit of an open space Before us was the bed of a frozen stream, now filled up with drifted snow, and fro almost complete protection from the violence of the wind A short distance on our left, nestled at the base of another hill, was a little Indian village, long since deserted--a dozen tepees half-buried in the snow, a couple of canoe fraing from a tree
”By Jupiter! I know the spot,” cried Tom Arnold, in a tone of consternation and astonishe and the strea--on the wrong tack altogether This sho easily a fellow can get lost in a blizzard, no matter how old a hand he is”
”We're in luck, anyway,” said I ”Here is decent shelter, and the hills keep off the worst of the storht”
”And Fort Charter twenty ot to reach it to-ood weather or bad All hands to work,” he added sharply ”We'llas possible”
We set to with a will and the exercise soon war out the canoe frames and broke them up for fuel; others cleared the loose snow frohted to find them dry inside, and in sound condition We did not hesitate to build a roaring fire, for we knew that the light could not be seen at any distance, and that if any hostile Indians were in the vicinity the stor e found the abandoned village, and the evening ell advanced by the time our preparations were co for awhile about the fire The best of the tepees had been assigned to Flora, and she retired i and the snow falling thickly, but our careat hills that ere almost as comfortable as we had been at Fort Beaver Yet only a short distance away, to right and left, we could hear the wind shrieking and howling through the open wilderness
”We had better be turning in, so we can make an early start,” Tom Arnold said finally ”My arer
How about sentry duty?”
”We lect that,” replied Captain Rudstone ”I volunteer for the first watch”