CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
A DESPERATE SITUATION.
Awaking next morning much refreshed, but with a keen appetite for moregrouse, Dan Davidson sat up and reflected. He felt that, althoughrefreshed, the great weakness resulting from excessive loss of bloodstill rendered him almost helpless, and he knew that making new bloodwas a process that required good feeding and considerable time. What,then, was to be done?
He had scarcely asked himself the question when a rustle in the bushesnear him caused him to look quickly round and seize his gun. But thenoise was not repeated, and nothing could be seen to justify alarm.Still Dan felt that the sound justified caution; he therefore kept hisgun handy, and loosened in its sheath the scalping-knife which he alwayscarried in his belt--for eating purposes, not for scalping.
Thus he sat for nearly an hour with an uncomfortable sensation thatdanger of some sort lurked near him, until he almost fell asleep. Then,rousing himself he proceeded to breakfast on the bones and scraps of theprevious night's supper.
While thus engaged he tried to make up his mind what course he ought topursue--whether to remain where he was until his friends should havetime to find him--for he felt sure that Okematan would escape and reachthe Settlement, in which case a search for him would certainly be set onfoot--or whether he should make a desperate effort to stagger on, andultimately, if need be, creep towards home. The pain of his wound wasnow so great as to render the latter course almost impossible. Hetherefore resolved to wait and give his friends time to institute asearch, trusting to another shot at willow-grouse for a supply of food.
He had scarcely made up his mind to this plan when the rustling in thebushes was repeated again. Seizing his gun, which he had laid down, Danfaced round just in time to see the hindquarters and tail of a largegrey wolf disappearing in the bushes.
To say that he felt considerable alarm when he saw this is not to stamphim with undue timidity, for he would have rejoiced to have had the wolfin his clutches, then and there, and to engage in single combat with it,weak though he was. What troubled him was his knowledge of the factthat the mean spirited and sly brute was noted for its apparent sagacityin finding out when an intended victim was growing too feeble to showfight--either from wounds or old age--and its pertinacity and patiencein biding the time when an attack could be made with safety.
Had this horrible creature discerned, by some occult knowledge, that thesands in his glass were running low? Was it to be his fate to face hisglaring murderer until he had not vital power left to grapple with it,or to guard his throat from its hideous fangs? These were questionswhich forced themselves upon him, and which might well have caused thestoutest heart to shrink from the threatened and terrible doom.
In the strength of his emotion he had almost fired at a venture at thespot where the brute had disappeared; but luckily the remembrance thatit was his last charge of ammunition came to him in time, and he had theresolution to restrain himself even when his finger was on the trigger.
Dan now perceived that he must not venture to remain on the spot wherehe had passed the night, because, being surrounded on three sides byshrubbery, it afforded his grisly foe an opportunity to approach fromany quarter, and spring on him the moment he should find him off hisguard.
There was a natural bank of earth out on the plain about three or fourhundred yards off, with neither trees nor bushes near it. The bank wasnot more than four feet high, and the top slightly overhung its base, sothat it afforded some slight protection from the sun. To this spot Danresolved to betake himself, and immediately began the journey--for ajourney it surely was, seeing that the hunter had to do it on hands andknees, lifting his gun and pushing it before him, each yard or so, as hewent along. The inflammation of his wound rendered the process all theslower and more painful, and a burning thirst, which he had no means ofslaking, added to his misery.
By the time he had passed over the short distance, he was so muchexhausted that he fell at the foot of the bank almost in a swoon.
Evidently the wolf imagined that its time had now come, for it sneakedout of the wood when the hunter fell, and began cautiously to advance.But Dan saw this, and, making a desperate effort, arose to a sittingposture, leaned his back against the bank, and placed his gun across hisknees.
Seeing this, the wolf sat down on its haunches, and coolly began to bideits time.
"Ha! you brute!" muttered Dan, "I could easily stop your mischief if mystrength wasn't all gone. As it is, I dare not give you my last shottill you are so close that you can look down the barrel o' my gun."
From this point a watch of endurance began on both sides--the brute, ofcourse, unaware of the deadly weapon which its intended victim held, andthe man fully aware of the fact that if he should venture to lie downand sleep, his doom would be sealed.
It is impossible for any one who has not had trial of similarexperiences to imagine the rush of thought and feeling that passedthrough the brain and breast of Dan Davidson during the long drearyhours of that terrible day. Sometimes he fell into a half-dreamycondition, in which his mind leaped over forests and ocean to bonnieScotland, where his days of childhood were spent in glorious revelry onher sunny banks and braes. At other times the memory of school-dayscame strong upon him, when play and lessons, and palmies were all thecares he had; or thoughts of Sabbaths spent with his mother--now in thechurch, now in the fields, or at the cottage door learning Bible storiesand hearing words of wisdom and the story of the crucified One from herlips. Then the scene would change, and he was crossing the stormyocean, or fighting with Red-skins, or thundering after the buffalo onthe wide prairies. But through all the varied fabric of his thoughtsthere ran two distinct threads, one golden, the other black. The firstwe need hardly say was Elspie McKay; the second was that awful wolfwhich sat there glaring at him with a hang-dog expression, with the redtongue hanging out of its mouth, and from which he never for a momentallowed his eyes to wander.
As evening began to draw on, the situation became terrible, for Dan feltthat the little strength he had left was fast sinking. The efforts bywhich he had succeeded in rousing himself in the earlier parts of theday were failing of their effect. Then a strange and sudden changeoccurred, for, while he knew that the end of the trial was rapidlyapproaching, he began to experience a feeling of indifference--theresult, no doubt, of excessive weariness--and almost a wish that all wasover. Nevertheless, whenever that wolf moved, or changed its positionever so little, the instinct of self-preservation returned in fullforce, and Dan, pulling himself together, prepared to defend himselfdesperately to the last gasp.
While the two were thus glaring at each other, Dan was startled andthoroughly aroused from his irresistible lethargy by a loud report.
Next moment he saw the wolf extended dead upon the plain.
The Buffalo Runners: A Tale of the Red River Plains Page 24
