by J. B. Jones
CHAPTER VII.
Boone--The interment--Startling intelligence--Indians about--Askunk--Thrilling fears--Boone's device.
Ere long Joe was on his way back to the cave-spring, with severalspades on his shoulder, accompanied by Boone, (who had just crossedthe river on a visit to Glenn,) and Roughgrove, with his two oarsmen.
"Is Glenn at the spring with Sneak?" asked Boone, in a very thoughtfuland grave manner.
"Yes, sir, I left him there, and I now hear him with the houndschasing a fox," replied Joe, in true native style.
"If he is with the hounds, he is certainly not at the spring,"remarked Roughgrove.
"I meant that he was there, or _thereabouts_" replied Joe.
"Who found the dead man?" inquired Boone.
"I did--that is, when the dogs scented him--and it almost frightenedme when I dug out his foot," said Joe.
"No doubt!" observed Boone.
The party now moved along in silence, still permitting Joe to lead theway, until they suddenly emerged from the thicket in the immediatevicinity of the spring, when an unexpected scene attracted theirnotice. Sneak was composedly seated on the body of the dead man, andvery deliberately searching his pockets!
"Well! that beats all the mean actions I ever beheld before!" saidJoe, pausing and staring indignantly at Sneak.
"You're a fool!" replied Sneak.
"What for? because I wouldn't rob the dead?" retorted Joe.
"Do you call this robbing the dead? Hain't this traitor stoled thislump of gold from the Injins?" said Sneak, displaying a rough piece ofthe precious metal about the size of a crow's egg.
"Is it gold?" asked Joe, with some anxiety.
"Sartainly it is," answered Sneak, handing it to him to be examined;"and what good could come of burying it agin? I'll leave it to Mr.Boone to say if I ain't right in taking it myself."
"Oh, any thing worth this much ought to be taken," said Joe,depositing the lump of gold in his pocket.
"See here, my chap," said Sneak, rising up and casting a furiousglance at him, "if you don't mean to hand that out again, one or thet'other of us must be put in the ground with the traitoriousPosin--and if it is to be you, it'll be a purty thing for it to besaid that you brought a spade to bury yourself with."
"Didn't I find the body?" said Joe.
"But burn me if you found the gold," said Sneak.
"Shall I decide the matter?" interposed Roughgrove.
"I'm willing," said Sneak.
"And so am I," replied Joe.
"Then give it to me, and I'll cut it in two, and give a half to eachof you," said Roughgrove.
The decision was final; and seizing the spades, Joe, Sneak, and theoarsmen began to prepare a resting-place for the dead body. Boonecontinued silent, with his eyes steadfastly gazing at the earth whichthe workmen began to throw up.
"Posin's done ferrying now," said Dan Rudder, one of the defunct's oldcompanions in the service of Roughgrove.
"No he ain't," said Sneak, throwing up a spadeful of flint stones.
"I'll keep some of these for my musket," said Joe.
"Why ain't he?" demanded Dan.
"Because he's got to cross the river--the river--what do they callit?--the river Poles," said Sneak.
"Styx, you dunce," said Joe.
"Well, 'twas only a slip of the tongue--what's the difference betweenpoles and sticks?"
"_You_ never read any thing about it; you only heard somebody say so,"said Joe, pausing to listen to the hounds that ever and anon yelped inthe vicinity.
"If I didn't, I don't believe the man that wrote that book evercrossed, or even had a squint at the river himself," replied Sneak.
"Whereabouts is the river?" asked Dan.
"In the lower regions," said Joe, striking his spade against a hardsubstance.
"What's that you're scraping the dirt off of?" asked Sneak.
"Oh, my goodness!" cried Joe, leaping out of the grave.
"Let it remain!" said Boone, in a commanding tone, looking in anddiscovering a skull; "I once buried a friend here--he was shot down atmy side by the Indians."
"Fill up the hole agin! Posin shan't lay on top of any of yourfriends!" exclaimed Sneak, likewise leaping out of the grave.
"It matters not--but do as you please," said Boone, turning away andmarking the distressed yelping of the hounds, which indicated, fromsome unusual cause, that they did not enjoy the chase as much as wastheir wont.
"Split me if he shan't be buried somewhere else, if I have to dig thehole myself," said Sneak, filling up the grave.
"I'll stick by you, Sneak," said Dan.
"Dan and me 'll finish the job; all the rest of you may go off," saidSneak, releasing the rest of the party from any further participationin the depositing of the remains of Posin in the earth.
"Glenn does not yet understand Ringwood and Jowler," said Boone, stilllistening to the chase.
"I never heard the dogs bark that way before until to-day," said Joe;"only that night when we killed the buffalo."
"Something besides the buffalo caused them to do it then," repliedBoone.
"Yes, indeed--they must have known the fire was coming--but the firecan't come now."
"Sneak," said Boone, "when you are done here, come to Mr. Glenn'shouse."
"I will, as soon as I go to my muskrat trap out at the lake and get myrifle."
"Be in a hurry," said Boone; and turning towards the chase, he uttereda "Ya-ho!" and instantly the hounds were hushed.
"Dod!" exclaimed Sneak, staring a moment at Boone, while his largeeyes seemed to increase in size, and then rolling up his sleeves, hedelved away with extraordinary dispatch.
In a very short space of time, Ringwood and Jowler rushed from thethicket, and leaping up against the breast of their old master,evinced a positive happiness in once more beholding him. They weresoon followed by Glenn, who dashed briskly through the thicket to seewho it was that caused his hounds to abandon him so unceremoniously.No sooner did he discover his aged friend than he ran forward andgrasped his hand.
"I thought not of you, and yet I could think of no one else who mightthus entice my noble hounds away. Return with me, and we will have thefox in a few minutes--he is now nearly exhausted," said Glenn.
"Molest him not," said Boone. "Did you not observe how reluctantly thehounds chased him?"
"I did; what was the cause of it?" asked Glenn.
"The breeze is tainted with the scent of Indians!" whispered Boone.
"Again thou art my preserver!" said Glenn, in a low tone.
"I came to give you intelligence that the Osages would probably beupon you in a few days," said Boone; "but I did not think they werereally in the neighbourhood until I heard your unerring hounds. Col.Cooper, of my settlement, made an excursion southward some ten daysago to explore a region he had never visited; but observing a largewar-party at a distance, coming hitherward, he retreatedprecipitately, and reached home this morning. Excessive fatigue andillness prevented him from accompanying me over the river; and what isworse, nearly every man in our settlement is at present more than ahundred miles up the river, trapping beaver. If we are attackedto-night, or even within a day or two, we have nothing to depend uponbut our own force to defend ourselves."
"Should it be so, I doubt not we will be able to withstand them assuccessfully as we did before," said Glenn.
"Let us go with Roughgrove to his house, and take his daughter and hiseffects to your little fortress," said Boone, joining the oldferryman, whom a single word sufficed to apprize of the state ofaffairs.
"I must prepare for the worst, now," said Roughgrove; "they will neverforget or forgive the part I acted on the night of their defeat."
Boone, Glenn, and Roughgrove proceeded down the valley, while Joeseemed disposed to loiter, undetermined what to engage in, having castan occasional curious glance at Boone and his master when engaged intheir low conversation, and rightly conjecturing that "something wrongwas in the wind," as he expressed it.
; "Why don't you go home?" asked Sneak, rolling the dead body into thegrave, and dashing the mingled earth and snow remorselessly upon it.
"I'll go when I'm ready," replied Joe; "but I should like to know whatall that whispering and nodding was about."
"I can tell you," said Dan; but his speech was suddenly arrested by asign from Sneak.
"I wish you would tell me," continued Joe, manifesting no littleuneasiness.
"Have you got a plenty to eat at your house?" asked Sneak.
"To be sure we have," said Joe; "now tell me what's in the wind."
"If I was to tell you, I bet you'd be frightened half to death,"remarked Sneak, driving down a headstone, having filled up the grave.
"No! no--I--indeed but I wouldn't, though!" said Joe, trembling atevery joint, the true cause, for the first time, occurring to him."Ain't it Indians, Mr. Sneak?"
"Don't call me _Mister_ agin, if you please. There are more moccasinsthan the one you found in these parts, that's all."
"I'll go home and tell Mr. Glenn!" said Joe, whirling round quickly.
"Dod rot your cowardly hide of you!" said Sneak, staring at himcontemptuously; "now don't you _know_ he knowed it before you did?"
"Yes--but I was going home to tell him that some bullets must berun--that's what I meant."
"Don't you think he knows that as well as you do?" continued Sneak.
"But I--I _must_ go!" exclaimed Joe, starting in a half run, with thehounds (which had been forgotten by their master) following at hisheels.
"Let me have the hounds, to go after my gun--the red skins mightwaylay me, if I go alone, in spite of all my cunning woodcraft," saidSneak.
"Go back!" cried Joe, to the hounds. They instantly obeyed, and thenext moment Joe was scampering homeward with all the speed of whichhis legs were capable.
When he reached the house, his fears were by no means allayed onbeholding the most valuable articles of Roughgrove's dwelling alreadyremoved thither, and the ferryman himself, his daughter, Boone andGlenn, assembled in consultation within the inclosure. Joe closed thegate hurriedly after him, and bolted it on the inside.
"Why did you shut the gate? Open it again," said Glenn.
"Ain't we besieged again? ain't the Indians all around us, ready torush in and take our scalps?" said Joe, obeying the commandreluctantly.
"They will not trouble us before night," said Roughgrove.
"No, we need not fear them before night," remarked Boone, whosecontinued thoughtful aspect impressed Glenn with the belief that heapprehended more than the usual horrors of Indian warfare during theimpending attack.
"They will burn father's house, but that is nothing compared to what Ifear will be his own fate!" murmured Mary, dejectedly.
"We can soon build him another," said Glenn, moved by the evidentdistress of the pale girl; "and I am very sure that my little stonecastle will suffice to preserve not only your father and yourself, butall who take shelter in it, from personal injury. So, cheer up, Mary."
"Oh, I will not complain; it pained me most when I first heard theywere coming once more; I will soon be calm again, and just as composedwhen they are shooting at us, as I was the other time. But _you_ willbe in a great deal more danger than you were that night. Yet Boone iswith us again--he _must_ save us," said Mary.
"Why do you think there will be more danger, Mary?" asked Glenn.
"Yes, why do you think so?" interposed Joe, much interested in thereply.
"Because the snow is so deep and so firm, they will leap over thepalisade, if there be a great many of them," replied Mary. Glenn felta chill shoot through his breast, for this fact had not beforeoccurred to him.
"Oh, goodness!--let us all go to work and shovel it away on theoutside," cried Joe, running about in quest of the spades. "Oh, St.Peter!" he continued, "the spades are out at the cave-spring!"
"Run and bring them," said Glenn.
"Never--not for the world! They'd take my scalp to a certainty beforeI could get back again," replied Joe, trembling all over.
"There is no danger yet," said Roughgrove, the deep snow havingoccurred to him at the first announcement of the threatened attack,and produced many painful fears in his breast, which caused a sadnessto rest upon his time-worn features; "but," he continued, "it wouldnot be in our power to remove the snow in two whole days, and a fewhours only are left us to prepare for the worst."
"Let them come within the inclosure," said Glenn, "and even then theycannot harm us. The walls of my house are made of stone, and so is theceiling; they can only burn the roof--I do not think they can harm ourpersons. We have food enough to last for months, and there is nolikelihood of the siege lasting a single week."
"I'll make sure of the deer," muttered Joe; and before any one couldinterpose, he struck off the head of the doe with an axe, as it stilllay bound upon the sled. And he was brandishing the reeking steel overthe neck of the fawn, that stood by, looking on innocently, when a cryfrom Mary arrested the blow.
"If you injure a hair of Mary's gift," said Glenn, in anger, "youshall suffer as severe a fate yourself."
"Pardon me," said Joe to Mary; "I was excited--I didn't hardly knowwhat I was doing. I thought as we were going to be pent up by theIndians, for goodness only knows how long, that we'd better provideenough food to keep from starving. I love the fawn as well as you do,and Mr. Glenn loves it because you gave it to him; but its natural toprefer our own lives to the lives of dumb animals."
"I forgive you," said Mary, playing with the silken ears of the pet.
"Say no more about it," said Glenn; "but as you are so anxious to bewell provided with comforts, if we are besieged, there is one thing Ihad forgotten, that is absolutely necessary for our existence, whichyou can procure."
"What is it? Be quick, for we havn't a moment to lose," said Joe.
"Water," replied Glenn.
"That's a fact--but--its way off at the spring, by the ferry," saidJoe, disliking the idea of exposing himself without the inclosure.
"True, yet it must be had. If you can get it nearer to us, you are atliberty to do so," said Glenn.
"Here comes Sneak," said Mary; "he will assist you."
Sneak readily agreed to the proposition, and he and Joe set out, eachwith a large bucket, while the rest of the party, with the exceptionof Boone (who desired to be left alone,) retired within the house.
When Sneak and Joe were filling their buckets at the spring the secondtime, the hounds (which attended them at Joe's special request)commenced barking.
"What's that?" cried Joe, dashing his bucket, water and all, inSneak's lap, and running ten or fifteen feet up the hill.
"Dod rot your cowardly heart!" exclaimed Sneak, rising up and shakingthe cold water from his clothes; "if I don't pay you for this, I wishI may be shot!"
"I thought it was the Indians," said Joe, still staring at the smallthicket of briers, where the hounds were yet growling and boundingabout in a singular manner.
"I'll see what it is and then pay you for this ducking," said Sneak,walking briskly to the edge of the thicket, while the water trickleddown over his moccasins.
"What is it?" cried Joe, leaping farther up the ascent with greattrepidation, as he saw the hounds run out of the bushes as if pursued,and even Sneak retreating a few paces. But what seemed veryunaccountable was a _smile_ on Sneak's elongated features.
"What in the world can it be?" repeated Joe.
"Ha! ha! ha! if that ain't a purty thing to skeer a full-grown maninto fits!" said Sneak, retreating yet farther from the thicket.
"What makes _you_ back out, then?" inquired Joe. The hounds now ran tothe men, and the next moment a small animal, not larger than a rabbit,of a dark colour, with long white stripes from the nose to the tail,made its appearance, and moved slowly toward the spring. Sneak ran upthe hill beyond the position occupied by Joe, maintaining all the timea most provoking smile.
"Who's scared into fits now, I should like to know?" retorted Joe.
"I wish I had my gun," sai
d Sneak.
"Hang me, if I'm afraid of that little thing," said Joe. Still thehounds ran round, yelping, but never venturing within thirty feet ofthe animal.
"I'll be whipped if I understand all this!" said Joe, in utterastonishment, looking at Sneak, and then at the hounds.
"Why don't you _run_?" cried Sneak, as the animal continued toadvance.
"I believe you're making fun of me," said Joe; "that little thingcan't hurt anybody. Its a pretty little pet, and I've a notion tocatch it."
"What are you talking about? You know you're afraid of it," saidSneak, tauntingly.
"I'll show you," said Joe, springing upon the animal. The polecat (forsuch it was) gave its assailant a taste of its quality in a twinkling.Joe grasped his nose with both hands and wheeled away with allpossible expedition, while the animal pursued its course towards theriver.
"My goodness, I've got it all over my coat!" exclaimed Joe, rolling onthe snow in agony.
"Didn't I say I'd pay you for spilling the cold water on me?" criedSneak, in a convulsion of laughter.
"Why didn't you tell me, _you rascal_?" cried Joe, flushed in theface, and forgetting the Indians in his increasing anger.
"Oh, I'll laugh myself sore--ha! ha! ha!" continued Sneak, sittingdown on the snow, and laughing obstreperously.
"You long, lopsided scoundrel, you. My Irish blood is up now," saidJoe, rushing towards Sneak with a resolution to fight.
"I'll be whipt if you tech me with them hands," said Sneak, runningaway.
"Oh, what shall I do?" cried Joe, sinking down, his rage suddenlysubdued by his sickening condition.
"If you'll say all's square betwixt us, I'll tell you what to do. Ifyou don't do something right quick, they won't let you sleep in thehouse for a month."
"Well. Now tell me quick!"
"Pull off your coat before it soaks through."
"I didn't think of that," said Joe, obeying with alacrity, andshivering in the cold air.
"Now twist a stick into it, so you can carry it up to the house,without touching it with your hands, that is, if none of it got on'em," continued Sneak.
"There ain't a bit anywhere else but on the shoulder of my coat," saidJoe, acting according to Sneak's instructions. Filling their buckets,they at length started towards the house, Joe holding a bucket in onehand, and a long pole, on which dangled his coat, in the other. Whenthey entered, the company involuntarily started; and Glenn, losing allcontrol over his temper, hurled a book at his man's head, andcommanded him not to venture in his presence again until he could bysome means dispense with his horrid odor.
"Foller me," said Sneak, leading the way to the stable, and takingwith him one of the spades he had brought in from the burial; "now,"he continued, when they were with the horses, "dig a hole at this endof the stall, and bury your coat. If you hadn't took it in the house,like a dunce, they'd never 'ave known any thing about it."
"Oh, my goodness! I'm sick!" said Joe, urging the spade in the earthwith his foot, and betraying unequivocal signs of indisposition.However, the garment was soon covered up, and the annoyance abated.
But no sooner was Joe well out of this difficulty, than the dread ofthe tomahawk and scalping knife returned in greater force than ever.
Boone remained taciturn, his clear, eagle-eye scanning the palisade,and the direction from which the savages would be most likely to come.
Joe approached the renowned pioneer for the purpose of asking hisopinion respecting the chances of escaping with life from the expectedstruggle, but was deterred by his serious and commanding glance. Butsoon a singular change came over his stern features, and as sudden asstrange. His countenance assumed an air of triumph, and a half-formedsmile played upon his lip. His meditations had doubtless resulted inthe resolution to adopt some decisive course, which, in his opinion,would insure the safety of the little garrison. His brow had beenwatched by the inmates of the house, and, hailing the change with joy,they came forth to ascertain more certainly their fate.
"How much powder have you, my young friend?" asked Boone.
"Five kegs," answered Glenn, promptly.
"Then we are safe!" said Boone, in a pleasant and affable manner,which imparted confidence to the whole party.
"I thought--I almost _knew_ that we were safe, with _you_ among us,"said Mary, playing with Boone's hand.
"But you must not venture out of the house as much as you did before,my lass, when arrows begin to fly," replied Boone, kissing themaiden's forehead.
"But I'll mould your bullets, and get supper for you," said Mary.
"That's a good child," said Roughgrove; "go in, now, and set aboutyour task."
Mary bowed to her father, and glided away. The men then clusteredround Boone, to hear the plan that was to avail them in their presentdifficulty.
"In times of peril," said Boone, "my knowledge of the Indian characterhas always served me. I first reflect what I would do were I myself asavage; and, in taking measures to provide against the things which Iimagine would be done by myself, I have never yet been disappointed.The Indians will not rashly rush upon us, and expose themselves to ourbullets, as they storm the palisade. Had they the resolution to dothis, not one of us would escape alive, for they would tear down thehouse. It is a very large war-party, and they could begin at the topand before morning remove every stone. But they shall not touch one ofthem--"
"I'm so glad!" ejaculated Joe.
"Hush your jaw!" said Sneak.
"They will be divided into two parties," continued Boone; "one partywill attack us from the west with their arrows, keeping at arespectful distance from our guns, while the other will force apassage to the palisade from the east without being seen, for theywill come under the snow! We must instantly plant a keg of powder, onthe outside of the inclosure, and blow them up when they come. Joe,bring out a keg of powder, and also the fishing rods I saw in thehouse. The latter must be joined together, and a communication openedthrough them. They must be filled with powder and one end placed inthe keg, while the other reaches the inclosure, passing through anauger hole. You all understand now what is to be done--let us go towork--we have no time to spare."
It was not long before every thing was executed according to thedirections of Boone, and at nightfall each man was stationed at aloophole, with gun in hand, awaiting the coming of the savages.
