Big Brother: A Story of Indian War

by George Cary Eggleston

  CHAPTER XVII.

  A FAMINE.

  The river having gone down until no water remained on the sandy bank,Tom reported the fact and added,

  "Now let's move back again to the root-fortress. It's a safer place thanthis, by a good deal, if it isn't quite so big or quite so comfortable."

  "No, we mustn't go back yet," said Judie, who had visited the fortressbefore Tom had, "because the sand in there is as wet as can be, and Ican't let my big sick brother lie on it."

  "There, Tom," said Sam, "my doctor forbids my return yet awhile, and asick man always must obey the doctor you know. Besides, Judie is right.It won't do for any of us to lie on wet sand; we must wait till itdries; but that won't be very long if the river continues to go down."

  Accordingly they spent one more night in the drift cavern. Early thenext morning Judie went to the fortress, and returning said, playingdoctor.

  "Now, then, Mr. Hardwicke, the floor of your lower house is quite dry,and I think it will be safe to move back again. Will you have yourbreakfast first, or will you wait until you get back home again beforeeating anything?"

  "Oh, let's wait, by all means, and eat breakfast in the dear oldroot-fortress," said Tom, and as Sam made no objection, it was soarranged.

  By nine o'clock the moss carpet was laid in the root-fortress and thelittle party was back in its old quarters again. The vacant corner whichhad been Joe's, reminded them sadly of his disappearance. Poor fellow!they had learned to love him almost as a brother, and they could notthink of him now without tears. When three people sit down with a silentgrief, their conversation is very apt to be lively, or, if they cannotquite accomplish that, they are sure to talk only of indifferentmatters, and so it was in the present case. Judie was the first to breakthe silence which had fallen upon all.

  "Tom," she said playfully, "I'm afraid you're not a good provider. Herewe are, hungry as wolves, and you haven't brought us a mite of anythingto eat. You've moved everything but the provisions, and you've forgottenthem entirely."

  Master Tom admitted the grievousness of his fault and returned at onceto the drift cavern after the forgotten provision pack. The bread, asthey all knew, was long ago exhausted, but plenty of meat remained, andthis Tom presently brought. When he opened the pack a disagreeable odorspread itself at once over the little room.

  "Phew! what's that?" said Tom, and putting his nose to the meat, helooked up in blank consternation, saying:

  "The meat is spoiled, Sam! What on earth shall we do?"

  The case was an alarming one certainly. They were hungry, and Sam, whosereturning health had brought with it a ravenous appetite, wasparticularly so. He needed wholesome, nourishing food now more thananything else, as he knew.

  "Well," he said, after thinking the matter over, "it can't be helped.There's nothing for it but to fall back on sweet potatoes till I getstrong enough to go hunting. You must go to the potato field Tom, andbring some."

  There had been but one field of corn in the neighborhood at first, andthe various parties of Indians who had camped in its vicinity had longago carried away the last ear of corn from that, as the boys knew verywell. The river was altogether too high now for mussels to be got, andso the sweet potatoes in a field half a mile away, were their onlyresource.

  Tom set out at once in quest of them, carefully looking out for lurkingsavages. He was gone more than an hour, and just as Sam was growingreally uneasy on his account, he returned, _empty handed_!

  "There isn't a potato in the field," he said as he sat down in utterdejection. "The Indians have dug every one of them."

  This announcement was indeed an alarming one to the whole party. Theywere without an ounce of food of any sort within their utmost reach, andit was plain that they must starve, unless they could hit upon some newdevice, by which to get a supply.

  "I must go hunting, sick or well," said Sam rising; but he had no soonergot upon his feet, than he felt the utter impossibility of doinganything of the kind.

  "It's of no use," he said sadly. "I can't make my legs carry me, Tom,and so we must depend upon you. Go into the woods there by the creek,and sit down or stand still till you see something in the way of game,and then take good aim before you shoot, for we mustn't waste any of ourpowder."

  With this he shook the horn to ascertain how much remained in it, andwas horrified to find it empty! Tom remembered that the last time he hadloaded the gun he had used the last grain of powder in the horn.

  "Well, then," said Sam, "we have only one charge of powder between usand starvation, and it won't do to waste that, Tom. You can shoot prettywell when you have time enough to take good aim, and I suppose, if youmake up your mind beforehand that you won't shoot till you know you cankill what you shoot at, it is safe enough. At any rate we must risk it.Remember, however, that you mustn't run the risk of wasting this loadin your anxiety to kill the first thing you see to shoot at. There isplenty of game in the woods, so if you can't get a sure shot at onething, wait for another. Get a sure shot anyhow, if it takes you allday. It must be something big enough to last us awhile, too. You mustn'tshoot at anything less than a turkey or a 'possum, and you mustn't shootat all till you get _very_ close, because if you miss, we will starve.Better take all day to-day and all day to-morrow than to miss when youfire."

  And after many instructions and cautionings, Tom sallied forth in searchof game. Going into the woods for a considerable distance, he sat downon a log in the thick undergrowth and waited patiently for theappearance of some animal which could be eaten. Hour after hour passed,and Tom fell asleep. How long he slept he did not know, but wakingsuddenly he saw a flock of wild turkeys within a few yards of him.Raising his gun and taking a very deliberate aim he pulled the trigger.No explosion followed, but the clicking of the hammer was enough to putthe game to flight.

  Poor Tom was disheartened, but it would not do to give up, and so hecarefully picked the edge of his flint with his knife and walked furtherinto the woods.

  He had not walked very far, with cautious steps, when he heard arustling in the bushes just ahead of him. At first he thought it must bean Indian, and drawing back he waited for further developments. A gruntsoon enlightened him as to the character of the game, and creepingthrough the bushes he found himself close to a fat young hog, one of themany running wild in those woods and thickets. That was something worthhaving. Levelling his gun again, he again pulled the trigger, butwithout effect, and opening the pan he discovered that during the rain,while in the drift cavern, the "priming," as the powder in the pan iscalled, had been reduced to a paste by water. To fire the gun was out ofthe question, and so clubbing it, Tom ran at the hog and dealt him ablow on the head, hoping in that way to secure the game which he couldnot shoot. The blow fell upon the nose of the animal, however, and whileit brought a squeal of pain from him, it produced no beneficial result.The hog ran rapidly away, and Tom was left with nothing better than abroken gun to carry back to the fortress.

  Arriving there about three o'clock in the afternoon he told the dolefulstory of his failure, and sitting down burst into tears.

  "Come, come!" said Sam. "This will never do, old fellow. It's bad enoughas it is without crying about it. We'll come all right if you'll onlykeep your courage up, and give me a chance to think. I'm getting betterevery day now, and if we can only hold out a few days longer, I'll be onmy feet again, and then we'll go straight to Fort Glass. Just as soon asI can walk at all, we'll start, meantime we must get something to eat,and to do that I must think. Let me see. The gun is of no use now, butthere are other ways of getting game besides shooting it. We must setsome traps. This spoiled meat will do for bait. Get me a good piece ofpoplar wood, Tom, or cypress, or some other sort, that I can whittleeasily, and I'll make some figure-four triggers. Then I'll tell you howto make dead-falls, and you must set as many of them as you can to makesure of getting something to eat by to-morrow morning."

  Tom brought the wood and Sam soon whittled out several sets of triggers.

  "Now do yo
u know how to set a trap with these triggers, Tom?" he asked.

  "Yes, I've set many a partridge trap with figure fours."

  "Very well then. Now you must set dead-falls in the same way. That is,instead of a trap you must set a log. You see I've made the triggers bigand strong, and you must put them under one end of as heavy a log as youcan lift. Then you must lay other logs on top to make it as heavy aspossible, and bait it with a piece of the spoilt meat. If anythingundertakes to eat the meat to-night, the dead-fall will break its neckor back, sure. Here are six sets of triggers and you must set sixdead-falls. We can go hungry till to-morrow, can't we, little woman?"chucking Judie under the chin.

  "We can try, anyhow," answered the little woman as cheerfully as shecould, though she was by no means confident that she could do anythingof the sort. She was already faint and almost sick, and whether shecould live till morning or not was an undetermined question in hermind. To tell the truth, Sam himself felt but little confidence in hisdevice. The spoiled meat, he knew, would attract only the largeranimals, and such dead-falls as Tom could set were by no means certainto kill these in their fall. It was the very best thing he could do,however, and he must trust to it in the absence of any better reliance.He concealed his anxiety therefore, and after receiving Tom's report ofhis operations in dead-fall setting, he drew Judie to his side and toldher a fairy story, as night fell. All went to sleep at last, and whenmorning came Sam aroused Tom very early and sent him to examine thetraps. The boy was gone for an hour or more, when he returned withdowncast countenance. Two of the traps had been thrown, but there was nogame under them, while the four others remained undisturbed.

  Here was a bad out-look certainly, and they had not tasted food now formore than thirty hours!