CHAPTER III
Riding the Flood
When the flood of foaming, seething water swept over Dick, Tom and Benand engulfed them, they thought at first that their time had come; butDick shouted; "Grab hold of a log and stick to it if possible." Eachmanaged so to do and by holding to the logs tightly, they were bornalong with the rushing flood. They swallowed a good deal of water butescaped being drowned. As the boys disappeared beneath the onrush of thetorrent, the Indians standing on the edge of the precipice, gazed downwith a look of awe on their bronzed faces.
Onward down the gulch the boys were carried, however, with great speed,and when they had gone what seemed like two or three miles from thepoint where they had been overtaken by the flood, they came to a pointwhere the gulch split, becoming two gulches, one going off at rightangles while the other turned slightly to the left. As the one leadingto the right was wider, had lower banks and the water was not swirlingat such a terrible rate, the three youths were able to guide the logsinto the gulch on that side, and were soon being borne onward at a moremoderate pace.
Onward they were swept, until finally they suddenly shot out from themouth of the gulch and found themselves in a good-sized river.
They let go now their holds on the logs, swam to the shore and clamberedout upon the bank, which was low and sloping, and dropping down on thesand, they lay there, panting and resting.
"Well, didn't that beat any experience that we have ever had since wejoined the patriot army?" cried Tom, presently, when he had becomerested and was breathing normally again.
"It wasn't a very pleasing experience," said Dick.
"I should say not," remarked Ben.
"That torrent certainly carried us away from the vicinity of theredskins very quickly," said Tom.
"Yes, it did that much good, anyhow," agreed Dick.
"I wonder where we are," said Ben, presently.
"In the land of the living," replied Tom, with a laugh. "And that ismore than I expected would be the case, an hour ago, when that torrentstruck us."
The youths now doffed their outer garments, wrung them out and spreadthem out to dry. By the time they were ready to wear, they themselveswere rested, and putting the clothing on again, they set out through theforest, heading in a direction that would take them to about the samepoint they were aiming for before they ran into the Indians.
Till evening they tramped along, and they were beginning to think theywould have to sleep out in the woods, when they caught sight of a lightahead of them. The next moment they emerged into open country, and madetheir way toward the light.
Presently they came to what looked like a fort, as seen in thestarlight, and they made out that there was a high stockade-wall aroundthe building.
"Well, I'm glad we've found some place to stay for the night, anyhow,"suggested Tom.
"Who comes there?" cried a voice, from above their heads.
"Friends," replied Dick. He did not know that the inmates of the fortwere friends, but he thought it likely they were patriots, and hopedthat such was the case.
"How many are there of you?" was the next question.
"Three."
"Who are you? You are not British, and of course not Indians?"
"No, we are strangers, who were caught in the torrent from thecloud-burst and have had a terrible time. Will you kindly let us in?"
There was the sound of low conversation, and then the voice spoke upagain:
"Yes, we'll let you in."
Then a few moments later they heard the squeaking of the gate as it wasopened and they hastened around there and entered the stockade.
The man that had admitted them, Mr. Holden, fastened the gate and thensaid: "Come with me."
He led the way into the fort, where the youths found themselves thecenter of interest. The men, women and children of the families of thesettlers looked at the youths wonderingly and inquiringly.
"You are strangers, sure enough," said Mr. Holden.
"Yes," said Dick. "Are you folks patriots?"
Holden nodded. "We are," he said.
"Good. I'm glad of that. We are patriots also, and members of the armyof General Greene, who is about one hundred miles north of here."
"Ah, we are glad to hear that," said Holden. "I wish that General Greenewould come down here and give the Indians a thrashing."
"That is what he is figuring on doing if there is need," said Dick.
"He sent us to do some scouting and reconnoitering," put in Tom. "He hadheard that there were lots of Indians down here, and that they weremurdering patriots and burning their homes, and if we learned that thiswas the case, he would come down here and put a stop to their work."
"Well, you can return to him and tell him that his presence in this partof the country is sorely needed. The Indians are pillaging and burninghomes, and they have committed a number of murders. They attacked us,here in Peaceful Valley, this afternoon, and drove us to the shelter ofthis fort and then burned our houses."
"That was bad," said Dick.
"Yes, but they were overtaken by the flood, while they were sitting onthe ground, about halfway between here and the mouth of the gulch, andthree of them were struck by logs and knocked senseless, and weredrowned."
"That was good," said Tom, his eyes shining.
"We were in the flood, too, as we told you before you let us in," saidDick. "We were chased by Indians, and were trying to escape. We swungdown on the end of a tall tree, and dropped into the gulch, thensuddenly a torrent came rushing down upon us and bore us a considerabledistance before emptying into a river several miles from here. We swamashore, dried our clothes and then came here."
"You were fortunate, in that you were not hit by any of the logs," saidMr. Perkins.
"Yes, so we were," said Dick. "We grabbed hold of logs, and kept frombeing swept underneath the water and drowned."
There was some further talk, and then the youths were given something toeat, after which all settled down to take matters as easy as possible.The settlers rather expected an attack, but were prepared to offerbattle, and did not doubt but what they could drive the redskins away,unless they came in much stronger force than when they made the attackin the afternoon.
Dick asked the settlers many questions, and gained a good knowledge ofthe situation in that part of the country. He learned that Ninety-Sixwas garrisoned by about five hundred British and Tory soldiers, and thatthey were inciting the Indians to attack the patriot settlers, and whenhe had gathered all the information possible, Dick said that he wouldtake his leave about midnight and start northward to carry the report toGeneral Greene.
"Hadn't you better let me take the news to General Greene, Dick?" saidBen. "You might be able to do good work here, scouting and spying on theIndians, redcoats and Tories."
"No, I guess I will take the news to the general," said Dick. "It isgoing to be exceedingly dangerous getting back through the lines of theIndians, and I have had more experience in woodcraft than you have, andthink I can slip through with greater ease and safety than you could."
"I'll go, Dick," said Tom. "I can slip through the Indians' lines, allright."
"No, you and Ben stay here," said Dick. "I'll take the news to GeneralGreene, and we'll be back here pretty quick, with the army, and then theredskins, redcoats and Tories will have to look out."
"Good!" said Mr. Holden. "The quicker the soldiers get here, the betterit will be for the patriots in this part of the country."
Shortly after midnight Dick said good-by to Tom, Ben and the settlers,and passing out of the stockade he stole away in the darkness.
The Dare Boys with General Greene Page 3