Part 14 (2/2)
Ten minutes later, the pioneer appeared within the enclosure as silently as if he had risen from the very earth. He sat down on the ground to consult with Hastings after his arrival had been made known to the rest.
He would have willingly talked to them all, had it been feasible, but the exciting incidents a brief time before proved that not a man could be spared from his station. There was no certainty as to the schemes of the Shawanoes, and nothing less than the utmost vigilance could save the fugitives.
”What do you think of things?” inquired Hastings, the moment they were alone.
”They look bad--powerful bad; fact is, I don't see how they could look much worse.”
”How did you make out?”
”Didn't make out at all,” growled the ranger, not yet recovered from his keen disappointment; ”I went back to the clearin', and yanked out that canoe from right under the nose of one of them varmints; when I had fetched it purty near here, I left it a few minutes to reckynoiter, and when I went back I'll be hanged if the same varmint hadn't yanked it back agin.”
He made no reference to the first affair, which resulted in a fatal failure to the Indian attempting it. That didn't count in the light of the success which followed it.
”Of course, you hadn't any chance of getting it back again, or you'd done it?”
”You're correct; it was growing dark, and, though I hunted powerful lively for the varmint, I didn't get the first show for drawin' a bead on him.”
”You said somethin' about another canoe of your'n that you hed among the bushes some time ago, near where we are now.”
”I found the spot, but didn't find no canoe; the varmints had been ahead of me; I shouldn't wonder, now, if the boat which I seed comin' over from the Ohio side was the identical craft that I was looking for.”
Kenton indulged in a forceful exclamation, for the occasion was one of the rare ones in which his chagrin and self disgust became intolerable.
Nevertheless, he was very much of a philosopher, and soon talked with all his self-possession, betraying a hopeful vein in his composition which did much to sustain him in the great trials to which he was subjected in later years.
”I counted on two boats,” he added, ”and did git one; now, I haven't got any. But it don't do any good to kick.”
”No,” a.s.sented his companion; ”we must make the best of it.”
”Though there doesn't seem to be any 'best' about the bus'ness. Haven't heard anything of Boone since I left you?”
”Not a word.”
”A good deal depends on what he says. He went more among the varmints than I did, though I found 'em plenty 'nough--confound 'em! But Boone is wiser than me. I don't think the varmints hate him quite as bad, and that gives him a better show for learning what they're up to.”
”The Ingins must have one or two canoes,” suggested Hastings, hinting at a scheme that had a.s.sumed form in his mind.
”I know what you mean, Web. There ain't no one that would try it quicker'n me, if I had the least chance.”
”You stole a boat from one of 'em not long ago.”
”But the varmint was asleep, and there was only that one. Here there's twenty of 'em at least--most likely more--and every varmint of' em is as wide awake as if he had been asleep seventeen years and a half. No,”
grimly added the veteran, ”there ain't nothin' that would suit the varmints better than to have Sime Kenton try to steal one of their canoes from' em. The style in which they would lift his hair would be beautiful. They'd be powerful glad to give me a chance if they believed I'd try it.”
”Wal,” remarked Hastings, with a sigh, ”it looks to me as if it's going to be the same game over again that Jim Deane and the boys had played on 'em some months ago, 'cepting there won't be half the chance there was then.”
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