CHAPTER V
UPRISING OF THE INDIANS
Supporting Mrs. Risley between them, the two youths did not stop untilthey had passed into the timber for a distance of five or six rods. Theyhad crossed the stream once more and now reached a slight knoll fromwhich they could see the cabin, which still blazed away, although theroof and one side had fallen in.
They could see the cabin, which still blazed.]
The faint light from the conflagration, sifting through the bare treebranches, was the only light they had, and by this they set the suffererdown and proceeded to make her as comfortable as possible. As fortunewould have it, Dave wore two jackets, both somewhat thin. One of thesehe gave to Henry, who in turn gave his thick jacket to Mrs. Risley.
"You--you are quite sure you can spare it?" she asked.
"Yes, yes," answered Henry. "I am sorry I can't give you something toput over your dress, but I haven't anything. Before you put on thejacket let me bind up that arrow wound."
There was now no time to stand upon ceremony and she allowed him todress the wound with all the skill he could muster, Dave in the meantimekeeping watch, that the Indians might not surprise them. FortunatelyHenry, having suffered similarly himself, knew what to do, and after hehad finished Mrs. Risley announced that the sore place felt greatlyrelieved.
"But I don't see how I can travel far," she said, trying to stand up."My limbs are all in a tremble under me."
"We will help you along," said Henry, sympathetically, and Dave echoedthe words.
With the wounded woman between them, it was no easy matter to pick theirway through the black forest and more than once one or another stumbledover a tree root or into a hole. Looking back, they saw that the firewas now dying down. The whooping of the redmen also lessened and finallyceased altogether.
"I know you wish to get home," panted Mrs. Risley, presently."But--but--I cannot go--go another step!" And with these words shepitched forward and would have gone in a heap had not their strongyouthful arms supported her.
"She has fainted," said Henry, "and it is not to be wondered at. Come,here is something of a shelter in between the rocks and those trees. Wemay as well let her rest there, for we cannot carry her all the wayhome."
"But the delay--" began Dave.
"Surely you don't wish to leave her to her fate, Dave?"
"No! no! You know me better than that, Henry, but I was thinking ofthose left at home. They may be in trouble, too, and if so they willneed us."
"I've been thinking of a plan. I'm stronger than you and perhaps I canget her along alone, after she recovers. Can you find the house fromhere?"
"I think I can. The creek is just beyond that next patch of timber,isn't it?"
"Yes, in that direction." Henry pointed with his hand. "If you findeverything all right you might bring father back to help--if he isn'tafraid the Indians will arrive in the meantime."
So it was arranged, and without loss of another moment Dave started onhis solitary way through the somber woods, now as silent as the grave,for the wind had gone down and the last of the night birds had giventheir final calls.
Under ordinary circumstances Dave would have been sleepy, for the day'stramping had been sufficient to tire anybody, but now all thoughts ofrest were banished and he was as alert as ever as he stole forward, gunbefore him, and his eyes shifting from one dark object to another, onthe lookout for a possible enemy.
Dave was in the midst of the next patch of timber,--some beautifulwalnuts and chestnuts,--when he saw something glimmer through thedarkness far to his left. He was immediately interested, wondering whatthe light could be. He came to a halt and gazed attentively in thedirection.
"It must be an Indian camp-fire," he mused. "What a lot of the redskinsthere must be in this vicinity!"
He was about to move on, giving the fire a wide berth, when somethingprompted him to turn toward it, to make sure that it was not theencampment of friends. It might possibly be Barringford or some othertrapper in the woods, and if so to pass him by would be far from wise,since such a person might be able to afford just the assistance needed.
Careful of every footstep taken, Dave gradually drew close to thecamp-fire. There was a small, dry clearing, fringed by a series of lowrocks, and behind these rocks the young hunter crouched. The sight thatmet his gaze held him spell-bound.
The camp-fire in the center of the clearing was divided into two parts,one to the east and the other to the west. That in the east was besetwith sharp stakes while its companion was being used for cookingpurposes.
Around both camp-fires were fully thirty Indians; all more thanordinarily hideous in their daubs of red, blue, and yellow war paint,and their crowns of colored feathers and strings of animals' teeth andhuman scalps. The redmen had been marching around the camp-fires but nowthey halted and all sank cross-legged upon the soil.
Suddenly, after a second of silence, one Indian, tall and straight,leaped to his feet and holding his arms out at full length before himbegan to rock his body from side to side. Then he ran for one of thefires, and pulling a sharp stick from its place in the ground smote theburning end on his breast.
"This is the fear Spotted Wolf has for the English," he cried, in hisnative tongue. "Even as he has pulled this stake from the ground so willhe pull the English from their cabins and burn them at the stake. TheEnglish shall flee at the sound of his war whoop, and the children ofthe English shall die of fright when he draws near. The French are ourfriends but the English will be our enemies so long as one of them isallowed to live. I will go forward to kill! Spotted Wolf has spoken."
He sat down, and immediately another warrior leaped up and with anotherburning stick went through the same performance. "I am called BlackEagle," he cried, "because I have eyes that never sleep and a strengthhanded down to me from Elk Heart, my father, and Janassarion, mygrandfather, he who slew the mighty Little Thunder of the Delawares. Ourmedicine men have spoken and the English must be driven out like wolvesin the winter season. If we allow them this land, and the French theland to the north and the west, where shall the Indian find his huntingground when he would hunt, and where raise his wigwam when he would restwith his squaw and his children? I, too, will kill and burn until ourland knows them no longer! I have the strength of ten white men and Iwill use it. Black Eagle has spoken."
He had not yet finished when two others sprang up, followed by others,until nearly all were again on their feet, talking of their allegedwrongs and boasting of their strength, and promising each other to doall in their power to wipe out all English settlers west of the BlueRidge mountains. The bragging was often ludicrous, yet it was easy tosee that the Indians were working themselves up into a state of mindwhere they would hesitate at nothing in order to accomplish theirpurpose.
Dave could understand only a few words of what was said, yet, fromhaving such scenes described to him by his father and Sam Barringford,he knew that this was a "big war talk," as White Buffalo called them.Once he fancied he heard his Uncle Joe's name mentioned and his heartalmost stopped beating. Surely they must be planning an attack on hishome, and that for very soon!
"I must get back and give the warning!" he told himself. "Henry willhave to do the best he can with Mrs. Risley. If they get to the cabinand kill Uncle Joe, what will become of Rodney, Aunt Lucy and littleNell? Oh, I must get back!"
Turning, he crawled from the spot with care, and once back into thetimber, commenced to run, with his gun slung over his shoulder and hishands held out before him, to keep from running afoul of anyobstruction. More than once he bumped into a tree or fell sprawling oversome exposed roots, knocking the wind out of him. But he always pickedhimself up and went on again with undiminished speed. Indeed, the nearerhe got to home the greater was his fear that something might havehappened in his absence and finally he fairly flew, when he reachedfamiliar ground.
"Hi! who goes there?"
It was a call from close at hand and it made Dave jump as though stungby a snake. He whirled around,
to behold a man behind a tree, a leveledgun in his hands.
"Don't shoot!" he called out, for he fancied he knew the voice. "Is thatyou, Mr. Risley?"
"Yes. Dave Morris, is it not?"
"Yes." Dave ran to meet the Englishman. "Tell me quickly is everythingall right over to our house?"
"It was all right when I left, an hour or so ago, lad. But your unclehad been talking to Hans Lomann and said the German had heard ofsomething of an Indian uprising."
At this Dave gave a sigh of relief. But immediately his heart sank, atthe thought of the news he had to impart to his friend.
"The Indians are rising, all over this section of the country. Theyattacked your cabin."
"My cabin!" The Englishman could scarcely utter the words. "Davy, is itthe truth? And what of my wife--tell me quickly!"
"Your wife is safe, although she got an arrow through the shoulder. Theredskins attacked the cabin and set fire to it. She leaped out of a rearwindow and hid in the milk-house. Henry and I came up just in time toget her into the woods. We ran as far as we could and then she fainted.Henry said he would stay with her and told me to come on and give thealarm. We were afraid the Indians had attacked our place, although wedidn't hear any shooting or see any fire."
"Then the cabin is destroyed? But never mind that. You are sure thewound wasn't fatal?"
"Quite sure, for Henry dressed it as well as he could. But she was veryweak from having been in the water under the milk-house floor so long."
"And where are they now?"
"About a mile or more from here--in that direction. But you want to becareful. There are Indians all around here--one band is over yonderholding a war talk--and I'm sure they'll show you no mercy if they catchyou."
The Englishman nodded his head half a dozen times. "I know it, lad, Iknow it. They are a bloodthirsty set. Sometimes I am sorry I came tothis country to settle among them. But times were bad with us in oldEngland, and we had to do something. But you'll take me to my wife,won't you, that's a brave lad."
"I--I don't know," faltered Dave. He was still anxious to go home."Perhaps you can find them alone."
"I'm not equal to it, lad--the forest is almost as much of a mystery tome as the day I landed here. Do come, and then we can all go back toyour home with all possible speed."
The young hunter could see that Uriah Risley was sorely distressed, andunwilling to add to the man's misery, he consented to go back, althoughhe knew the way was full of ever-increasing perils. Soon they were onthe way, and tired as he was Dave set a pace that caused the settler topuff and blow to keep up with him.
Marching on Niagara; Or, The Soldier Boys of the Old Frontier Page 8