CHAPTER XXXV.
THE COMBAT.
Red Cedar's camp was plunged in silence; all were asleep, save three orfour gambusinos who watched over the safety of their comrades, and twopersons who, carelessly reclining before a tent erected in the centre ofthe camp, were conversing in a low voice. They were Red Cedar and FrayAmbrosio.
The squatter seemed suffering from considerable anxiety; with his eyefixed on space, he seemed to be sounding the darkness and guessing thesecrets which the night that surrounded him bore in its bosom.
"Gossip," the monk said, "do you believe that we have succeeded inhiding our trail from the white hunters?"
"Those villains are dogs at whom I laugh; my wife would suffice to drivethem away with a whip," Red Cedar replied, disdainfully; "I know all thewindings of the prairie, and have acted for the best."
"Then, we are at length freed from our enemies," the monk said, with asigh of relief.
"Yes, gossip," the squatter remarked with a grin; "now you can sleepcalmly."
"Ah," said the monk, "all the better."
At this moment, a bullet whistled over the Spaniard's head, andflattened against one of the tent poles.
"Malediction!" the squatter yelled, as he sprang up; "those mad wolvesagain. To arms, lads; here are the redskins."
Within a few seconds, all the gambusinos were alert and ambuscadedbehind the bales that formed the wall of the camp. At the same moment,fearful yells, followed by a terrible discharge, burst forth from theprairie.
The squatter's band comprised about twenty resolute men, with thepirates he had enlisted. The gambusinos did not let themselves beterrified; they replied by a point-blank discharge at a numerous bandof horsemen galloping at full speed on the camp. The Indians rode inevery direction, uttering ferocious yells, and brandishing burningtorches which they constantly hurled into the camp.
The Indians, as a general rule, only attack their enemies by surprise;when they have no other object in view but pillage, as soon as they arediscovered and meet with a vigorous resistance, they cease a combatwhich has become objectless to them. But on this occasion the redskinsseemed to have given up their ordinary tactics, so obstinately did theyassail the gambusino intrenchments; frequently repulsed, they returnedwith renewed ardour, fighting in the open and trying to crush theirenemies by their numbers.
Red Cedar, terrified by the duration of a combat in which his bravestcomrades had perished, resolved to attempt a final effort, and conquerthe Indians by daring and temerity. By a signal he collected his threesons around him, with Andres Garote and Fray Ambrosio; but the Indiansdid not leave them the time to carry out the plan they had formed; theyreturned to the charge with incredible fury, and a cloud of incendiaryarrows and lighted torches fell on the camp from all sides at once.
The fire added its horrors to those of the combat, and ere long the campwas a burning fiery furnace. The redskins, cleverly profiting by thedisorder the fire caused among the gambusinos, escaladed the bales,invaded the camp, rushed on the whites, and a hand-to-hand fightcommenced. In spite of their courage and skill in the use of arms, thegambusinos were overwhelmed by the masses of their enemies; a fewminutes longer, and all would be over with Red Cedar's band.
The squatter resolved to make a supreme effort to save the few men stillleft him; taking Fray Ambrosio aside, who, since the beginning theaction, had constantly fought by his side, he explained his intentionsto him; and when he felt that the monk would certainly carry out hisplans, he rushed with incredible fury into the thickest of the fight,and felling or stabbing the redskins who stood in his way, succeeded inentering the tent.
Dona Clara, with her head stretched forward, seemed to be anxiouslylistening to the noises outside. Two paces from her, the squatter's wifewas dying; a bullet had passed through her skull. On seeing Red Cedar,the maiden folded her arms on her bosom, and wailed.
"_Voto a Dios!_" the brigand exclaimed. "She is still here. Follow me,senora, we must be off."
"No," the Spaniard answered, resolutely. "I will not go."
"Come, child, obey; do not oblige me to employ violence; time isprecious."
"I will not go, I tell you," the maiden repeated.
"For the last time, will you follow me--yes or no?"
Dona Clara shrugged her shoulders. The squatter saw that any discussionwas useless, and he must settle the question by force; so, leaping overthe corpse of his wife, he tried to seize the girl. But the latter, whohad watched all his movements, bounded like a startled fawn, drew adagger from her breast, and with flashing eye, quivering nostrils, andtrembling lips, she prepared to go through a desperate struggle.
There must be an end of this, so the squatter raised his sabre, and withthe flat dealt such a terrible blow on the girl's delicate arm, that shelet the dagger fall, and uttered a shriek of pain. But the unhappy girlstooped at once to pick up her weapon with her left hand; Red Cedar tookadvantage of this movement, bounded upon her, and made her a girdle ofhis powerful arms. The maiden, who had hitherto resisted in silence,shrieked with all the energy of despair--
"Help, Shaw, help!"
"Ah!" Red Cedar howled; "he, then, was the traitor! Let him come, if hedare."
And, raising the girl in his arms, he ran toward the entrance of thehut, but he fell back suddenly, with a ghastly oath: a man barred hispassage, and that man was Valentine.
"Ah, ah!" the hunter said, with a sarcastic smile; "There you are again,Red Cedar. _Caray_, my master, you seem in a hurry."
"Let me pass," the squatter yelled, as he cocked a pistol.
"Pass?" Valentine repeated, with a laugh, while carefully watching thebandit's movements. "You are in a great haste to leave our company.Come, no threats, or I kill you like a dog."
"I shall kill you, villain," Red Cedar exclaimed, pulling with aconvulsive movement the trigger of the pistol.
But, although the squatter had been so quick, Valentine was not less so;he stooped smartly to escape the bullet, which did not strike him, andraised his rifle, but did not dare fire, for Red Cedar had fallen backto the end of the tent, and employed the maiden as a buckler. At thesound of the shot Valentine's comrades hurried up to the tent, which wassimultaneously invaded by the Indians.
The few gambusinos who survived their companions, about seven or eight,whom Fray Ambrosio had collected by the squatter's orders, guessing whatwas occurring, and desiring to aid their chief, crept stealthily up, andseizing the tent ropes, cut them all at once.
The mass of canvas, no longer supported, fell in, burying and draggingdown with it all who were beneath it. There was a moment of terribleconfusion among the Indians and hunters, which Red Cedar cleverlyemployed to step out of the tent and mount a horse Fray Ambrosio held inreadiness for him. But, at the moment he was going to dash off, Shawbarred his passage.
"Stop, father," he shouted, as he boldly seized the bridle, "give methat girl."
"Back, villain, back," the squatter howled, grinding his teeth; "back!"
"You shall not pass," Shaw continued. "Give me Dona Clara!"
Red Cedar felt that he was lost: Valentine, Don Miguel, and theircomrades, at length freed from the tent, were hurrying up at full speed.
"Wretch!" he exclaimed.
And, making his horse bound, he cut his son down with his sabre. Thewitnesses uttered a cry of horror, while the gambusinos, starting atfull speed, passed like a whirlwind through the dense mass of foes.
"Oh!" Don Miguel shrieked, "I will save my daughter."
And leaping on a horse, he rushed in pursuit of the bandits; the huntersand Indians, leaving the burning camp to a few plunderers, also startedafter them. But suddenly an incomprehensible thing occurred: a terrible,superhuman noise was heard; the horses, going at full speed, stopped,neighing with terror; and the pirates, hunters, and redskins,instinctively raising their eyes to Heaven, could not restrain a cry ofhorror.
"Oh!" Red Cedar shouted, with an accent of rage impossible to render; "Iwill escape in spite of Heaven and Hell!"
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And he buried his spurs in his horse's flanks; the animal gave vent to asnort of agony, but remained motionless.
"My daughter, my daughter!" Don Miguel shouted, striving in vain toreach the Pirate.
"Come and take her, dog," the bandit yelled; "I will only give her toyou dead."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE EARTHQUAKE.
A frightful change had suddenly taken place in Nature. The heavenlyvault had assumed the appearance of a vast globe of yellow copper: thepallid moon emitted no beams; and the atmosphere was so transparent,that the most distant objects were visible. A stifling heat weighed onthe earth, and there was not a breath in the air to stir the leaves. TheGila had ceased to flow.
The hoarse roar which had been heard before was repeated with tenfoldforce: the river, lifted bodily, as if by a powerful and invisible hand,rose to an enormous height, and suddenly descended on the plain, overwhich it poured with incredible rapidity: the mountains oscillated ontheir base, hurling on to the prairie enormous blocks of rock, whichfell with a frightful crash: the earth, opening on all sides, filled upvalleys, levelled hills, poured from its bosom torrents of sulphurouswater, which threw up stones and burning mud, and then began to heavewith a slow and continuous movement.
"_Terremoto!_ (earthquake)," the hunters and gambusinos exclaimed, asthey crossed themselves and recited all the prayers that recurred totheir mind.
It was, in truth, an earthquake--the most fearful scourge of theseregions. The ground seemed to boil, if we may employ theexpression--rising and falling incessantly, like the waves of the seaduring a tempest. The bed of the rivers and streams changed at eachinstant, and gulfs of unfathomable depth opened beneath the feet of theterrified men.
The wild beasts, driven from their lairs and repulsed by the river,whose waters constantly rose, came, mad with terror, to join the men.Countless herds of buffaloes traversed the plain, uttering hoarselowings, dashing against each other, turning back suddenly to avoid theabysses that opened at their feet, and threatening in their furiouscourse to trample under everything that offered an obstacle.
The jaguars, panthers, cougars, grizzly bears, and coyotes, pell-mellwith the deer, antelopes, elks, and asshatas, uttered howls andplaintive yells, not thinking of attacking each other, so thoroughly hadfear paralysed their bloodthirsty instincts.
The birds whirled round, with wild croakings in the air impregnated withsulphur and bitumen, or fell heavily to the ground, stunned by fear,with their wings outstretched, and feathers standing on end.
A second scourge joined the former, and added, were it possible, to thehorror of this scene. The fire lit in the gambusino camp by the Indiansgradually gained the tall prairie grass; suddenly it was revealed in itsmajestic and terrible splendour, kindling all in its sparks with awhizzing sound.
A person must have seen a fire on the prairies of the Far West to forman idea of the splendid horror of such a sight. Virgin forests are burntto the ground, their aged trees writhing, and uttering complaints andcries like human beings. The incandescent mountains resemble ill-omenedlight-houses, whose immense flames rise as spirals to the sky, whichthey colour for a wide distance with their blood-red hue.
The earth continued at intervals to suffer violent shocks; to thenorthwest the waters of the Gila were bounding madly forward; in thesouth-west, the fire was hurrying on with sharp and rapid leaps.The unhappy redskins, the hunters, and the pirates their enemies, sawwith indescribable terror the space around them growing momentarilysmaller, and every chance of safety cut off in turn.
In this supreme moment, when every feeling of hatred should have beenextinguished in their hearts, Red Cedar and the hunters, only thinkingof their vengeance, continued their rapid hunt, racing like demonsacross the prairie, which would soon doubtless serve as their sepulchre.
In the meanwhile, the two scourges marched towards one another, and thewhites and redskins could already calculate with certainty how manyminutes were left them, in their last refuge, ere they were buriedbeneath the waters, or devoured by the flames. At this terrible momentthe Apaches all turned to Valentine as the only man who could save them;and at this supreme appeal, the hunter gave up for a few seconds hispursuit of Red Cedar.
"What do my brothers ask?" he said.
"That the great Hunter of the palefaces should save them," Black Catsaid without hesitation.
Valentine smiled mournfully, as he took a look at all these men whoawaited their safety from him.
"God alone can save you," he said, "for He is omnipotent; His hand hasweighed heavily on us. What can I, a poor creature, do?"
"The pale hunter must save us," the Apache chief repeated.
The hunter gave a sigh.
"I will try," he said.
The Indians eagerly collected around him. The simple men considered thatthis hunter, whom they were accustomed to admire, and whom they had seendo so many surprising deeds, had a superhuman power at his command: theyplaced a superstitious faith in him.
"My brothers will listen;" Valentine went on: "only one chance of safetyis left them--a very weak one, but it is at present the only one theycan attempt. Let each take his arms, and without loss of time kill thebuffaloes madly running about the prairie; their skins will serve ascanoes to fly the fire that threatens to devour everything."
The Indians gave vent to a shout of joy and hope, and without furtherhesitation attacked the buffaloes, which, half mad with terror, letthemselves be killed without offering the slightest resistance.
So soon as Valentine saw that his allies were following his advice, andwere busily engaged in making their canoes, he thought once more of thepirates, who, for their part, had not remained idle. Directed by RedCedar, they had collected some uprooted trees, attached them togetherwith their lassos, and after this, forming a raft which would bear themall, they thrust it into the water, and entrusted themselves to thecurrent.
Don Pablo, seeing his enemy on the point of escaping him a second time,did not hesitate to cover him with his rifle. But Andres Garote had aspite on the Mexican, and taking advantage of the opportunity he quicklyraised his rifle, and fired. The bullet, disturbed by the oscillation ofthe raft, did not hit the young man, but hit his rifle in his hands, atthe moment he was pulling the trigger.
The pirates uttered a shout of triumph which was suddenly changed into acry of anger. Senor Andres Garote fell into their arms with a bulletthrough his chest, presented to him by Curumilla.
Just at this moment the sun rose gloriously on the horizon, lighting upthe magnificent picture of travailing nature, and restoring a littlecourage to the men.
The redskins, after making, with their peculiar quickness and skill,some twenty canoes, were already beginning to launch them. The hunterstried to lasso the raft, and draw it to them, while the pirates on theother hand, employed the utmost efforts to keep it in the current.Curumilla had succeeded in throwing his lasso so as to entangle it inthe trees, but Red Cedar cut it twice with his knife.
"We must finish with that bandit," Valentine said, "kill him at allrisks."
"One moment, I implore you," Don Miguel entreated, "let me first speakto him, perhaps I may move his heart."
"Humph!" the hunter muttered, as he rested his rifle on the ground, "itwould be easier to move a tiger."
Don Miguel walked a few paces forward. "Red Cedar," he exclaimed, "havepity on me--give me back my daughter."
The pirate grinned, but gave no answer.
"Red Cedar," Don Miguel went on, "have pity on me, I implore you, I willpay any ransom you ask; but in the name of what there is most sacred onearth, restore me my daughter; remember that you owe your life to me."
"I owe you nothing," the squatter said brutally; "the life you saved youtried to take from me again; we are quits."
"My daughter! Give me my daughter."
"Where is mine? Where is Ellen? restore her to me; perhaps, after that,I will consent to give you your daughter."
"She is not with us, Red Cedar, I swear it to y
ou; she went away to joinyou."
"A lie!" the Pirate yelled, "A lie!"
At this moment, Dona Clara, whose movements nobody was watching, boldlyleaped into the water. But, at the sound of the dive, Red Cedar turnedand plunged in after her. The hunters began firing again on the Pirate,who, as if he had a charmed life, shook his head with a sarcastic laughat every bullet that struck the water near him.
"Help!" the maiden cried in a panting voice; "Valentine, my father, helpme!"
"I come," Don Miguel answered: "courage, my child, courage!"
And, only listening to paternal love, Don Miguel bounded forward, but,at a sign from Valentine, Curumilla and Eagle-wing stopped him, in spiteof all his efforts to tear himself from their grasp. The hunter took hisknife in his teeth and leaped into the river.
"Come, father!" Dona Clara repeated--"Where are you? Where are you?"
"Here I am!" Don Miguel shrieked.
"Courage! Courage!" Valentine shouted.
The hunter made a tremendous effort to reach the maiden, and the twoenemies found themselves face to face in the agitated waters of theGila. Forgetting all feeling of self preservation they rushed on eachother knife in hand.
At this moment a formidable sound, resembling the discharge of a park ofartillery, burst from the entrails of the earth, a terrible shockagitated the ground, and the river was forced back into its bed withirresistible force. Red Cedar and Valentine, seized by the colossal waveproduced by this tremendous clash, turned round and round for somemoments, but were then hastily separated, and an impassible gulf openedbetween them. At the same instant a cry of horrible pain echoed throughthe air.
"There!" Red Cedar yelled, "I told you I would only give you yourdaughter dead--come and take her!"
And with a demoniac laugh, he buried his knife in Dona Clara's bosom.The poor girl fell on her knees, clasped her hands, and expired, cryingfor the last time--
"Father! Father!"
"Oh!" Don Miguel shrieked--"Woe! Woe!" and he fell unconscious on theground.
At the sight of this cowardly act, Valentine, rendered powerless,writhed his hands in despair. Curumilla raised his rifle, and ere RedCedar could start his horse at a gallop, fired; but the bullet, badlyaimed, did not strike the bandit, who uttered a yell of triumph, andstarted at full speed.
"Oh!" Valentine shouted, "I swear by Heaven I will have that monster'slife!"
The shock we just alluded to was the last effort of the earthquake,though there were a few more scarcely felt oscillations, as if the earthwere seeking to regain its balance, which it had momentarily lost.
The Apaches, carried away in their canoes, had already gained aconsiderable distance; the fire was expiring for want of nourishment onthe ground, which had been inundated by the waters of the river.
In spite of the help lavished on him by his friends, Don Miguel did notreturn to life for a long time. The general approached the hunter, whowas leaning, gloomy and pensive, on his rifle, with his eyes fixed onspace.
"What are we doing here?" he said to him; "Why do we not resume ourpursuit of that villain?"
"Because," Valentine replied, in a mournful voice, "We must pay the lastduties to his victim."
The general bowed, and an hour later the hunters placed Dona Clara'sbody in the ground. Don Miguel, supported by the general and his son,wept over the grave which contained his child.
When the Indian Chief had filled up the hole, and rolled onto it rocks,lest it might be profaned by wild beasts, Valentine seized his friend'shand, and pressed it forcibly.
"Don Miguel," he said to him, "women weep, men avenge themselves."
"Oh, yes!" the hacendero cried, with savage energy; "Vengeance!Vengeance!"
But, alas! This cry, uttered over a scarce-closed tomb, died out withoutan echo. Red Cedar and his companions had disappeared in theinextricable windings of the desert. Many days must yet elapse beforethe so greatly desired hour of vengeance arrived, for God, whose designsare inscrutable, had not yet said Enough!
[The further adventures of the hunters and the fate of Red Cedar haveyet to be described, in the last volume of this series, entitled "THETRAPPER'S DAUGHTER," which will speedily appear.]
THE END.
The Pirates of the Prairies: Adventures in the American Desert Page 35
