CHAPTER XIV--THE MYSTERIOUS CAMP IN THE GULLY
"Honestly, my neck's out of joint, looking around trees all day," Johndeclared. But he was so light-hearted, so glad to be home again, that hefairly giggled as he spoke.
"Faith! I'm glad you're here, unhealthy as it is for you," Kingdomanswered. "What with Lone-Elk always just over my shoulder, and now withthe snow on the ground, I don't know how I'd ever have managed to get toyou in the woods!" And so the boys fell to telling each other all thateach had been doing and all that had happened since their last meeting.
Kingdom showed the greatest interest in the discovery of the bodies ofthe two men whom John had found dead under the brush heap at the saltsprings. He inquired for every shred of information possible for John togive him, and tried his best to determine whether the murder had beencommitted by Indians or white men. If it was done by white persons, hedeclared, the slayer or slayers had at any rate tried to make it appearthat Indians were the guilty ones. The carrying off the scalps of thedead and removing all valuables from the bodies indicated this.
"Still, I don't see what it signifies, or how it makes any greatdifference to us, one way or another," said John, as Ree intimated thathe would have looked into the matter more thoroughly had it been he whomade the discovery.
"Why, of course you do, John! Just think a minute! I've told you aboutseeing that camp in the little hollow and the salt spread out to dry.Now, then, where did that salt come from if not from the big 'lick'? Youmark my word that when we find out whose camping place that is, or was,we will know pretty well who did that killing. What we ought to do is tocarry the whole story to Wayne's men or to Fort Pitt; but it wouldn't doany good to go there merely telling that we had found a couple of mendead. Persons are found dead along the border, somewhere, every day inthe year. But if we could go to Wayne, or anyone else, and show themthat the murderers were white robbers, and not simply sneaking redskins,there would be more of a chance to call somebody to account."
"That's so," John answered rather thoughtfully, yet in a way whichshowed Ree that he did not quite understand.
"Why, certainly!" Kingdom exclaimed somewhat warmly. "If the camp I sawwas the camp of the murderers, who is it likely that they are? British!That's what! British from Detroit, over in this part of the woods for nogood purpose--spying around Fort Pitt or stirring the Indians up tohostilities! And that camp I saw was a white man's camp! Indians don'tcare much about salt to begin with, and in the second place what whitemen would be traveling in this direction and carrying salt with them butsome one headed for Detroit or some other settlement off that way?"
But having reached a conclusion that Indians, and no one else, wereresponsible for the two dead bodies beneath the brush pile, John couldnot easily get the notion out of his mind, and his interest in Kingdom'sspeculations was therefore much less than ordinarily it would have been.
On the other hand Ree pieced together every scrap of evidence he couldfind--the stained glove that John had picked up, the indications henoticed that others had journeyed toward the "lick" from the west, andthe certainty his own find presented that some one had lately obtainedsalt, presumably from the springs, in quite considerable quantities.
Extremely tired and too drowsy, now that he was in the midst of warmthand comfort again, to think much of the danger of his position, Johnfell into a doze on his bunk while Kingdom still pondered upon the saltsprings mystery. In the darkness Ree did not at once notice that Jeromewas asleep. Later he made the discovery and it was quite like him thathe covered his friend over with a bearskin, and set himself to watchtill daybreak.
It was fairly light when John awoke. Ree had already been out and thetracks he found showed that Lone-Elk had abandoned his watch. He hadgone some time after it stopped snowing in the night, but there was noknowing when he might return.
Although the fact did not occur to either of the two boys at the time,the coming of the snow was, under the circumstances, a blessing indisguise. For the Seneca, after watching vigilantly until nearlymorning, and feeling confident that no one except Kingdom had enteredthe cabin, was equally sure that no one would do so now that the snowwould at once reveal the trail. With this thought in mind he had quithis post and, so far as his own trail showed, had returned again to thetown beside the lake.
The perfect quiet within the clearing, and the sense of comfort andgreater security which Ree found in having companionship once more,permitted him to be persuaded to lie down for the sleep and rest he sogreatly needed, while the younger of the lads did guard duty at theloopholes in the cabin wall. At the first sign of anyone approaching, itwas agreed he should call Ree, then quickly conceal himself in the loft.Sooner than the boys expected, the worth of their plan was put to thetest.
A party of seven Indians, Wyandots from the region of Sandusky,traveling up the river in canoes, landed that morning at the point wherethe river met the portage trail, near the cabin of the young Palefaces.As did most of the Indians for many miles around, they knew of thepresence of the two venturesome white lads in the wilderness, and didnot hesitate to stop for a warm bite to eat and to see what the Palefacebrothers offered in the way of trade.
Little did the Wyandots guess as they drew near the cabin, however, theflurry their presence caused inside. A mere whisper from John awakenedRee. In a twinkling the latter sent Jerome climbing into the loft "likea scared rabbit into its hole," as he afterward expressed it, andpulling the little ladder up after him.
Kingdom greeted the visitors in his pleasantest manner. They spreadtheir hands before the bright blaze in the big fireplace, and ateheartily of the meat he set before them. Nevertheless, when thestrangers showed a disposition to look about rather more closely thanseemed natural, even standing on tip-toe to peer into the loft, the ladgrew decidedly uneasy.
As for John, he watched through a crack all that went on below with agreat deal of interest, indeed. He was scarcely more than a foot abovethe heads of the taller Indians. The least sound from his directionwould reach them and excite their suspicion.
Would the Wyandots _never_ go?
Before they had been five minutes in the cabin Ree was wondering whythey lingered so. Every second was magnified sixtyfold as he watched andwaited, doing his best to appear perfectly at ease.
"Much skins up here," one swarthy young fellow with a single black andred feather in his hair remarked, and with his foot on a stool climbedpartially into the loft.
"Oh, not many--you come down now, brother! You'll bring poles and alldown on our heads," Ree answered, and quickly drawing the Wyandot down,placed the stool in a place where it would not be so readily availablefor such use again.
"Have the Wyandots any salt to trade for knives or cloth or anythingelse we have for them?" asked Kingdom, hoping to obtain informationwhich might be valuable.
"No salt; Injuns got no salt. Paleface get big heap salt at big 'lick,'"answered the leader of the band. "Paleface over yonder--him have salt.Him trade, maybe."
"Where? Where over yonder do you mean?" Kingdom inquired, pretending tobe little interested.
"Over yonder--down river. Him have camp piece back from river, yonder."
"Just one man, is it!" Ree asked.
"Ugh! two--leben--four--cuss! Injun don't know!" the Wyandot returned,and seeing that the redskin suspected that he was being "pumped," Reechanged the subject as naturally as he could.
Every moment that the Wyandots tarried the boy feared their next wordswould be to ask where John was. All the Indians knew there were two ofthe white boys, and that they were usually together. Had these travelerslearned of the charge of witchcraft against Little Paleface? Kingdomdared not turn their thoughts in that direction by any words pertainingto the subject, and he was glad enough to say goodbye to them, at last,even though on this point he had gleaned no information.
There was no need for Kingdom to tell what had been said and done by thevisitors when, after they were well out of sight, John came clamberingdown from the loft.
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nbsp; "I'm getting awful tired of being a witch, Ree," the latter began,peeping out of a loophole. "What in the world's the use of our stayinghere and living this way? I'm not complaining, old boy, you know I'mnot; but this sort of thing is likely to last all winter. You can't findout how Big Buffalo was killed, and until you know, every mother's sonof those Delawares swallow all that Lone-Elk tells them. So how's itgoing to end? Am I to jump and run like a whipped pup, all winter, everytime we hear a noise?"
"Just you wait, my son," Kingdom answered, quite gaily. "We know thatthe Seneca's hold on Captain Pipe is his secret lead mine. Suppose wefind that mine! Mr. Pipe will be glad to find out where it is. There!Now you see what I mean. You're just feeling a little cross because youhad to stay out of sight. But here's another thing, John. We agree thatwe don't intend to let any one Indian chase us away from here; but wehave some business on hand besides that. We've got to find out, if wecan, who killed those men at the salt springs. With all the reason wehave for believing that the murderers are camped out just about underour very noses, we're bound to look after them, especially if they'rewhite men, and--well, you heard what the Wyandots said just two minutesago. Don't you think, either, John," the older lad concluded verysoberly, "that I don't see the danger we are in. I see it big and strongall around us; but we've gone too far to turn back unless we have to. Ifwe can come out ahead of Lone-Elk just once, there will be no danger ofhis ever troubling us again. Pipe and all the Delawares will be oursolid friends for all time. We don't want to sacrifice all we have donehere and the good start we've made, do we, John?"
Ree's last sentence was an appeal. Jerome might have argued againstevery other point, but not against that. "We'll stay here till waterruns up hill, Ree, before we'll budge an inch except we want to," hedeclared with quiet emphasis. "So what are we going to do next?" headded.
"Wait till the snow's gone," Ree answered cheerily. "It's thawing fastnow and by afternoon we can hunt up that camp where I saw the saltspread out. Until then we will have to watch out that Lone-Elk doesn'tcome prowling around again."
"Good thing it's all we have to do. It's enough to keep one man busy,"John returned, and undoubtedly he was right; but nevertheless theirlabor was for nothing this time. The Seneca was not discovered, nor wasthere a single visitor to the neighborhood of the clearing.
Kingdom's prediction that the snow would soon be gone was quicklyverified; for the wind having changed to the southwest, a rain came upby noon which completed the work of the sun very quickly.
Call to mind the most gloomy, misty, wet and altogether disagreeablefall day you can remember, and you will have a fair idea of the sort ofafternoon on which John Jerome and Return Kingdom tramped cautiouslythrough the woods in search of the camp of the suspected salt springmurderers. The gloom in the thicker portions of the forest was littleshort of actual darkness and the mist or fog became so dense, as timewent on, that objects were indistinguishable at a distance of more thana few yards.
The secret nature of their expedition and Kingdom's oft expressed beliefthat the camp they sought was occupied by British traders, or evensoldiers from about Detroit, caused both the boys to feel a great dealof importance attaching to their undertaking. Just what they expected todiscover, however, or what they intended saying regarding the purpose oftheir visit, in case they found the birds in their nest, neither of thetwo could very well have told.
Time and its developments answer many questions and so were thequestions confronting Ree and John disposed of a little later. Kingdomhad little difficulty in leading the way to the camp he had so strangelydiscovered. His familiarity with the woods for miles around would havemade any spot in the vicinity of the cabin easily located.
Favored by the mist and semi-darkness, the two boys readily approachedvery near to the edge of the little bluff from which they could lookdown upon the camp without danger of their presence being discovered.Then on hands and knees they went forward more cautiously.
The birds, were gone. The nest was there, just as Ree had seen it,except that the salt had been taken away; but the camp was unoccupiedand the ruins of the campfire were cold and water-soaked.
With much curiosity the two young detectives inspected the deserted campand its surroundings. Nothing could they find to indicate who its makershad been or whither they had gone. In vain did they examine the groundwithin a radius of several yards from the heap of dead ashes. Theydiscovered not so much, as a footprint.
Compelled at last to give up their search in disappointment, the boyswere about to climb out of the protected nook the bluff formed on threesides of the camp, when John observed a small pile of wood such as wouldbe gathered for a campfire in the forest. It was partially covered withleaves and being a rod or two from the site of the camp had not soonerbeen noticed.
"It may mean that they're coming back and it may not," the lad remarked.As he spoke he saw Kingdom pick up something a few feet away and quietlyput it in his pocket.
"At any rate they're gone," Ree answered. "We may as well go, too."
The boys climbed the ascent to the higher ground without furthercomment. When they had gone some distance John asked:
"What was it that you found, Ree? I thought I saw you pick somethingup."
"What do you think, John? It was a glove, the mate to that other one.What do you think of that?" was the low but earnest answer.
And while the boys hurried quietly through the woods, there emerged froma small cave, screened from view by sumac and other bushes, in thelittle ravine, a roughly dressed man who climbed the bluff and gazedafter them.
The Trail of the Seneca Page 14
