“Dunno; it’s too dark to tell.”
“If it’s dangerous here, we had better go on.”
“Yer ain’t much used to this part the world. You may keep powerful easy till mornin’.”
As they could not feel certain whether in danger or not, it was the part of prudence to believe that some peril threatened them. Accordingly they ate their evening meal in silence, and curled up in the bottom of their wagon, first taking the precaution to fill their tank with water, and placing a portion of wood and kindlings in the bowels of the steam man, so that in case of danger, they would be able to leave at a short notice.
Johnny Brainerd was soon sound asleep, and the trapper followed, but it was with that light, restless slumber which is disturbed by the slightest noise.
So it came about that, but a few hours had passed, when he was aroused by some slight disturbance in the grove. Raising his head he endeavored to peer into the darkness, but he could detect nothing.
But he was certain that something was there, and he gently aroused the boy beside him.
“What is it?” queried the latter in a whisper, but fully wide-awake.
“I think thar ar Ingins among the trees.”
“Good heavens! what shall we do?”
“Keep still and don’t git skeart! sh!” At this juncture he heard a slight noise, and cautiously raising his head, he caught the outlines of an Indian, in a crouching position, stealing along in front of the wagon, as though examining the curious contrivance. He undoubtedly was greatly puzzled, but he remained only a few minutes, when he withdrew as silently as he had come.
“Stay yer, while I take a look around!” whispered Baldy, as he slid softly out the wagon, while the boy did the same, waiting; until sure that the trapper would not see him.
Baldy spent a half-hour in making his reconnoissance. The result of it was that he found there were fully twenty Indians, thoroughly wide-awake, who were moving stealthily through the grove.
When he came back, it was with the conviction that their only safety lay in getting away without delay.
“We’ve got to learn,” said he, “how long it will take yer to git up steam, youngster?”
“There is a full head on now. I fired up the minute you left the-wagon.”
“Good!” exclaimed Baldy, who in his excitement did not observe that the steam man was seething, and apparently ready to explode with the tremendous power pent up in its vitals.
CHAPTER IX
The Steam Man as a Hunter
AT this juncture the trapper whispered that the Indians were again stealing around them. Johnny’s first proceeding was to pull the whistle wide open, awaking the stillness of the night by a hideous, prolonged screech.
Then, letting on the steam, the man made a bound forward, and the next moment was careering over the prairie like a demon of darkness, its horrid whistle giving forth almost one continual yell, such as no American Indian has ever been able to imitate.
When they had gone a few hundred yards, Johnny again slackened the speed, for there was great risk in going at this tremendous rate, where all was entire blank darkness, and there was no telling into what danger they might run. At the speed at which they were going they would have bounded into a river before they could have checked themselves.
“Yer furgot one thing,” said Baldy, when they had considerably moderated their gait, and were using great caution.
“What is that?”
“Yer oughter had a lamp in front, so we could travel at night, jist as well as day.”
“You are right; I don’t see how I came to forget that. We could have frightened the Indians more completely, and there would have been some consolation in traveling at such a time.”
“Is it too late yet?”
“Couldn’t do it without going back to St. Louis.”
“Thunderation! I didn’t mean that. Go ahead.”
“Such a lamp or head-light as the locomotives use would cost several hundred dollars, although I could have made one nearly as good for much less. Such a thing in the center of a man’s forehead, and the whistle at the end of his nose, would give him quite an impressive appearance.”
“Yer must do it, too, some day My God!”
The boy instantly checked their progress, as the trapper uttered his exclamation; but quickly as it was done, it was none too soon, for another long step and the steam man would have gone down an embankment, twenty feet high, into a roaring river at the base. As it was, both made rather a hurried leap to the ground, and ran to the front to see whether there was not danger of his going down.
But fortunately he stood firm.
“I declare that was a narrow escape!” exclaimed the boy as he gazed down the cavernous darkness, looking doubly frightful in the gloom of the night.
“Skulp me if that wouldn’t have been almost as bad as staying among the red-skins,” replied the trapper. “How are we goin’ to get him out of this?”
“We’ve got to shove him back ourselves.”
“Can’t we reverse him?”
“No; he isn’t gotten up on that principle.”
By great labor they managed to make him retrograde a few steps, so that he could be made to shy enough to leave the dangerous vicinity, and once more started upon the broad firm prairie.
“Do you suppose these Indians are following us?” inquired the boy.
“No fear of it.”
“Then we may as well stay here.”
The fires were drawn again, everything made right, and the two disposed themselves again for spending the night in slumber.
No disturbance occurred, and both slept Roundly until broad daylight. The trapper’s first proceeding upon awakening was to scan the prairie in every direction in quest of danger.
He was not a little amused to see a dozen or so mounted Indians about a third of a mile to the west. They had reined up on the plain, and were evidently scanning the strange object, with a great deal of wonder, mixed with some fear.
“Do you think they will attack us?” inquired the boy, who could not suppress his trepidation at the sight of the warlike savages, on their gayly-caparisoned horses, drawn up in such startling array.
“Ef thar war any danger of that, we could stop ’em by ’tacking ’em. Jest fire up and start toward ’em, and see how quick they will scatter.”
The advice was acted upon on the instant, although it was with no little misgiving on the part of the engineer.
All the time that the “firingup” process was under way the savages sat as motionless as statues upon their horses. Had they understood the real nature of the “animal,” it cannot be supposed that they would rave hesitated for a moment to charge down upon it and demolish it entirely.
But it was a terra incognita, clothed with a terror such as no array of: enemies could wear, and they preferred to keep at a goodly distance from it.
“Now, suppose they do not run?” remarked Johnny, rather doubtingly, as he hesitated whether to start ahead or not.
“What if they don’t? Can’t we run another way? But yer needn’t fear. Jist try it on.”
Steam was let on as rapidly as possible, and the momentum gathering quickly, it was soon speeding over the prairie at a tremendous rate, straight toward the savages.
The latter remained motionless a few moments, before they realized that it was coining after them, and then, wheeling about, they ran as though all the legions of darkness were after them.
“Shall I keep it up?” shouted Johnny in the ear of the hunter.
“Yas; give ’em such a skear that they won’t be able to git over it ag’in in all thar lives.”
There is some fun in chasing a foe, when you know that he is really afraid of you, and will keep running without any thought of turning at bay, and the dwarf put the steam man to the very highest notch of speed that was safe, even at the slight risk of throwing both the occupants out.
The prairie was harder and nearer level than any over which they had passed sin
ce starting, so that nothing was in the way of preventing the richest kind of sport.
“Are we gaining?” inquired Johnny, his eyes glowing with excitement.
“Gaining? Thar never was a red-skin that had such a chase in all the world. Ef they don’t git out the way mighty soon, we’ll run over ’em all.”
They were, in truth, rapidly overhauling the red-skins, who were about as much terrified as it was possible for a mortal to be, and still live.
To increase their fears, the boy kept up a constant shrieking of his whistle. If there had been any other contrivance or means at his command, it is possible the red-skins would have tumbled off their horses and died; for they were bearing almost all the fright, terror and horror that can possibly be concentrated into a single person.
Finding there was no escape by means of the speed of their horses, the Indians sensibly did what the trapper had prophesied they would do at first.
They “scattered,” all diverging over the prairie. As it was impossible for the steam man to overtake all of these, of course, this expedient secured the safety of the majority.
Neither Baldy nor the boy were disposed to give up the sport in this manner; so, they singled out a single “noble red-man,” who was pursuing nearly the same direction as they were, and they headed straight for him.
The poor wretch, when he saw that he was the object of the monster’s pursuit, seemed to become frantic with terror. Rising on his horse’s back, he leaned forward until it looked as though there was danger of going over his head altogether. Then, whooping and shrieking to his terrified horse, that was already straining every nerve, he pounded his heels in its sides, vainly urging it to still greater speed.
In the mean time, the steam man was gaining steadily upon him, while to add variety to the scene, Johnny kept up the unearthly shrieking of the nose-whistle of the giant. It was difficult to tell which sounded the most hideously in this strange chase.
The remaining Indians had improved their advantage to the utmost. Fearful that their dreadful enemy might change its mind and single them out, they kept up their tearing light, all regardless of the great extremity to which their companion was reduced, until finally they disappeared in the distance.
A short distance only separated pursuer and pursued, when the latter, realizing that there was no escape in flight, headed toward the river, which was a short distance on the right.
This saved him. When with a bowl, horse and rider thundered over the bank and disappeared, the steam man could not follow him. He was compelled to give up the chase and draw off. A few days later, and without further noteworthy incident, the steam man reached Wolf Ravine, being received in the manner narrated at the beginning of this story.
CHAPTER X
Wolf Ravine
During the absence of Baldy Bicknell in search of the steam man, neither Mickey nor Ethan had been disturbed by Indians.
They had worked unceasingly in digging the gold mine to which they had gained access through the instrumentality of the trapper. When they had gathered together quite a quantity of the gravel and dirt, with the yellow sand glittering through it, it was carried a short distance to the margin of the river, where it underwent the “washing” process.
While thus engaged, one of them was constantly running up the bank, to make sure that their old enemies did not steal upon them unawares. Once or twice they caught sight of several moving in the distance, but they did not come near enough to molest them, doing nothing more than to keep them on the qui vive.
There was one Indian, however, who bestrode a black horse, who haunted them like a phantom. When they glanced over the river, at almost any time, they could see this individual cautiously circling about on his horse, and apparently waiting for a chance to get a shot at his enemies.
“Begorrah, but he loves us, that he does, as the lamb observed when speaking of the wolf,” said Mickey, just after he had sent a bullet whistling about their ears.
“Jehosiphat! he loves us too much!” added the Yankee, who had no relish for these stolen shots. “If we ain’t keerful, there’ll be nuthin’ of us left when Baldy comes back, that is, if he comes back at all.”
This red-skin on his black horse was so dangerous that he required constant watching, and the men could perform only half their usual work. It was while Mickey was on the lookout for him that he caught sight of the steam man coming toward him, as we have related in another place.
So long as that personage was kept puffing and tearing round the vicinity, they knew there was no fear of disturbance from the treacherous red-skins, who were so constantly on the alert to avenge themselves for the loss they had suffered in the attack; but it would hardly pay to keep an iron man as sentinel, as the wear and tear in all probability would be too much for him.
After consulting together upon the return of Baldy, and after they had ridden behind the steam man to their heart’s content, they decided upon their future course. As the boy, Johnny, had no intention of devoting himself to manual labor, even had he been able, it was agreed that he should take upon himself the part of sentinel, while the others were at work.
In this way it was believed that they could finish within a couple of weeks, bidding good-by to the Indians, and quickly reach the States and give up their dangerous pursuits altogether, whereas, if compelled to do duty themselves as sentinels, their stay would be doubly prolonged.
This arrangement suited the boy very well, who was thereby given opportunity to exercise his steam man by occasional airings over the prairies. To the east and south the plains stretched away till the horizon shut down upon them, as the sky does on the sea. To the west, some twenty odd miles distant, a range of mountains was visible, the peaks being tinged with a faint blue in the distance, while some of the more elevated looked like white conical clouds resting against the clear sky beyond.
From the first, young Brainerd expressed a desire to visit these mountains. There was something in their rugged grandeur which invited a close inspection, and he proposed to the trapper that they should make a hunting excursion in that direction.
“No need of goin’ so fur for game,” he replied, “takes too much time, and thar’s sure to be red-skins.”
“But if we go with the steam man we shall frighten them all away,” was the reply.
“Yas,” laughed Baldy, “and we’ll skear the game away too.”
“But we can overtake that as we did the poor Indian the other day.”
“Not if he takes to the mountains. Leastways yer isn’t him that would like to undertake to ride up the mountain behind that old gintle-man.”
“Nor I either, but we can leave the wagon when we get to the base of the mountain.”
“And give the reds time to come down and run off with yer whole team.”
“Do you think there is danger of that?”
“Dunno as thar be, but ef they catched sight of yourself, they’d raise yer ha’r quicker’n lightning.”
Seeing that the little fellow was considerably discouraged, Baldy hastened to add:
“Ef you’re keerful, younker, and I b’lieve yer generally be, take a ride thar yerself, behind yer jumping-jack, but remember my advice and stick to yer wagon.”
Having thus obtained permission of the hunter, Johnny Brainerd, as may well be supposed, did not wait long before availing himself of his privilege.
The weather, which had been threatening toward the latter part of the day, entirely cleared away, and the next morning dawned remarkably clear and beautiful. So the boy announced his intention of making the expected visit, after which, he promised to devote himself entirely to performing the duty of sentinel.
“Abeout what time may we look for you, neow!” asked Ethan, as he was on the point of starting.
“Sometime this afternoon.”
“Come in before dark, as me mither used to observe to meself, when I wint out shparkin’,” added Mickey.
The boy promised to heed their warnings, and began firing up again.
The tank was completely filled with water, and the wagon filled nearly full of wood, so that the two were capable of running the contrivance for the entire day, provided there was no cessation, and that he was on the “go” continually.
Before starting, it was thoroughly oiled through and through, and put in the best possible condition, and then waving them all a pleasant farewell, he steamed gayly toward the mountains.
The ground was admirable, and the steam man traveled better than ever. Like a locomotive, he seemed to have acquired a certain smoothness and steadiness of motion, from the exercise he had already had, and the sharp eye of the boy detected it at once. He saw that he had been very fortunate indeed in constructing his wonderful invention, as it was impossible for any human skill to give it any better movement than it now possessed.
The first three or four miles were passed at a rattling gait, and the boy was sitting on the front of his wagon, dreamily watching the play of the huge engine, when it suddenly paused, and with such abruptness that he was thrown forward from his seat, with violence, falling directly between the legs of the monster, which seemed to stand perfectly motionless, like the intelligent elephant that is fearful of stirring a limb, lest he might crush his master lying beneath him.
The boy knew at once that some accident had happened, and unmindful of the severe scratch he had received, he instantly clambered to his feet, and began examining the machinery, first taking the precaution to give vent to the surplus steam, which was rapidly gathering.
It was some time before he could discover the cause of difficulty, but he finally ascertained that a small bolt had slipped loose, and had caught in such a manner as to check the motion of the engine on the instant.
Fortunately no permanent injury was done, and while he was making matters right, he recollected that in chatting with the trapper as he was on the point of starting, he had begun to screw on the bolt, when his attention had been momentarily diverted, when it escaped his mind altogether, so that he alone was to blame for the accident, which had so narrowly escaped proving a serious one.
Making sure that everything was right, he remounted the wagon, and cautiously resumed his journey, going very slowly at first, so as to watch the play of the engine.
The Edward S. Ellis Megapack Page 73
