XXV
HOW UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE GREAT BEAR
'Twas Richard Jennifer who first broke the noontide silence of themountain top, voicing the query which was thrusting sharp at all of us.
"Now how in the name of all the fiends did they make shift to burrowfrom yonder bag-bottom into this?" he would say.
"Ez I allow, that's jest what the good Lord fotched us here for--to findout," was Yeates's rejoinder. "Do you and the chief, Cap'n John,circumambylate this here pitfall yon way, whilst Cap'n Dick and I got'other way 'round. By time we've made the circuit and j'ined companyagain, I reckon we'll know for sartain whether 'r no they climm' themounting to get in."
So when we had breathed us a little the circuiting was begun, EphraimYeates and Jennifer going toward the lower end of the sink, and theCatawba and I in the opposite direction.
Since we must examine closely every rift and crevice in the boundarycliff, it was a most tedious undertaking; and I do remember how my greattrooper boots, sun-drying on my feet, made every step a wincing agony.They say an army goes upon its belly, but an old campaigner will tellyou that you can march a soldier till he be too thin to cast a shadow ifonly he hath ease of his footgear.
Taking it all in all, it proved a slow business, this looping of thesunken valley; and when we had worked around to the eastern cliff and toa meeting point with the old hunter and Richard Jennifer, the sun waslevel in our faces and the day was waning.
Coming together again, we made haste to compare notes. There was littleenough to add to the common fund of information, and the mystery of thelost trail remained a mystery. True, we, the Indian and I, had found aravine at the extreme upper end of the valley through which, we thought,a sure-footed horse might be led at a pinch, up or down; but this ravinehad not been used by the powder train, and apart from it there was nopracticable horse path leading down from the plateau.
As for the hunter and Richard, they had made a discovery which mightstand for what it was worth. At its lower extremity the sunken valleywas separated from the great gorge without only by a ridge which was nomore than a huge dam; and this diking ridge was evidently tunneled bythe stream, since the latter had no visible outlet.
Inasmuch as the most favorable point of espial upon the camp below wasthe cliff whence we had first looked down into the sink, we harked backthither, passing around the lower end of the valley and along thebarrier ridge. Plan we had none as yet, for the preliminary to anyattempt at a rescue must be some better knowledge of the way into andout of Falconnet's cunningly chosen stronghold. True, we might win inand out again by the ravine which the chief and I had explored at theupper end, and Dick was for trying this when the night should give usthe curtain of darkness for a shield. But the old hunter would hold thisforlorn hope in reserve as a last resort.
"Sort it out for yourself, Cap'n Dick," he argued. "Whatsomedever wemake out to do--four on us ag'inst that there whole enduring army o'their'n--has got to be done on the keen jump, with a toler'ble plainhoss-road for the skimper-scamper race when it _is_ done. For, lookingit up and down and side to side, we've got to have hosses--some o' theirhosses, at that. I jing! if we could jest make out somehow 'r other tolay our claws on the beasteses aforehand--"
We had reached the cliff and were once more peering down at the enemy'scamp. Though for the cliff-shadowed valley it was long past sunset andall the depths were blue and purple in the changing half-lights of thehour, the shadow veil was but a gauze of color, softening the detailswithout obscuring them. So we could mark well the metes and bounds ofthe camp and prick in all the items.
The camp field was the largest of the savannas or natural clearings. Onthe margin of the stream the Indian lodges were pitched in a semicircleto face the water. Farther back, Falconnet's troop was hutted inrough-and-ready shelters made of pine boughs--these disposed to standbetween the camp of the Cherokees and the tepee-lodge of the captivewomen which stood among the trees in that edge of the forest hemming theslope which buttressed our cliff of observation.
At first we sought in vain for the storing-place of the powder. It wasthe sharp eyes of the Catawba that finally descried it. A rude housingof pine boughs, like the huts of the troopers, had been built at thebase of a great boulder on the opposite bank of the stream; and here wasthe lading of the powder train.
From what could be seen 'twas clear that the camp was no mere bivouacfor the day; indeed, the Englishmen were still working upon theirpine-bough shelters, building themselves in as if for a stay indefinite.
"'Tis a rest camp," quoth Dick; "though why they should break the marchhere is more than I can guess."
"No," said Ephraim Yeates. "'Tain't jest rightly a rest camp, ez I takeit. Ez I was a-saying last night, this here is Tuckasege country, and weain't no furder than a day's running from the Cowee Towns. Now theTuckaseges and the over-mounting Cherokees ain't always on the best o'tarms, and I was a wondering if the hoss-captain hadn't sot down here towait whilst he could send a peace-offer' o' powder and lead on to theCowee chiefs to sort o' smooth the way."
"No send him yet; going to send," was Uncanoola's amendment. "Look-see,Chelakee braves make haste for load horses down yonder now!"
Again the sharp eyes of the Catawba had come in play. At the foot of thegreat boulder some half dozen of the Cherokees were busy with the powdercargo, lashing pack-loads of it upon two horses. One of the group, whoappeared to be directing the labor of the others, stood apart, holdingthe bridle reins of three other horses caparisoned as for a journey.When the loading was accomplished to the satisfaction of thehorse-holding chieftain, he and two others mounted, took the burdenedanimals in tow, and the small cavalcade filed off down the stream towardthe apparent _cul de sac_ at the lower end of the valley.
Ephraim Yeates was up in a twinkling, dragging us back from the cliffedge.
"Up with ye!" he cried. "Now's our chance to kill two pa'tridges withone stone! If we can make out to get down into t'other valley in time tosee how them varmints come out, we'll know the way in. More'n that, wecan ambush 'em and so make sartain sure o' five o' the six hosses we'rea-going to need, come night. But we've got to leg for it like Ahimaazthe son of Zadok!"
Thus the old borderer; and being only too eager to come to handgripswith the enemy, we were up and running faster than ever Joab'smessenger ran, long before the old man finished with his Scripturalsimile.
Not to take the risk of delay on any unexplored short cut, we madestraight for the ravine of our ascent, found it as by unerring instinct,and were presently racing down to the Indian trace in the little uplandvalley above the gorge.
For all the helter-skelter haste I found time to remember that the gorgeas we had last seen it had been well besprinkled with armed Cherokeeslying in wait for us. If they were still there we should be like to havea hot welcome; and some reminder of this I gasped out to Yeates in midflight.
"Ne'm mind that; if we run up ag'inst 'em anywhere, 'twon't bethere-away. They've took the hint and quit; scattered out to hunt uslong ago," was his answer, jerked out between bounds. And after that Iloosed the Ferara in its sheath and saved my breath as I might for thekilling business of the moment.
'Twas a sharp disappointment that, for all the haste of our mad scrambledown the mountain, we were too late to surprise the secret of theenemy's stronghold. The Catawba was leading when we dashed down into thevalley, and one glance sent him flying back to stop us short with a dumbshow purporting that the quarry was already out of the defile and comingup the Indian path.
Richard swore grievously, but the old backwoodsman took the checkmateplacidly and began to set the pieces for the second game in which thehorses were the stake, hiding his useless rifle in a hollow tree,--hispowder had been soaked and spoiled in the early morning plunge forlife,--and drawing his hunting-knife to feel its edge and point.
"Ez I allow, that fotches us to the hoss-lifting," he said, in his slowdrawl. Then he laid his commands upon us. "Ord'ly, and in sojer-fashion,now; no whooping and yelling. If the h
oss-captain's got scouts outa-s'arching for us, one good screech from these here varmints we'rea-going to put out'n their mis'ry 'u'd fix our flints for kingdom come.I ain't none afeard o' your nerve,"--this to Richard and me--"leastwise,not when it comes to fair and square sojer-fighting. But this hereonfall has got to be like the smiting o' the 'Malekites--root _and_branch; and if ye're tempted to be anywise marciful, jest ricollect thatfor the sake o' them wimmen-folks _we've got to have these hosses_!"
You are not to suppose that he was holding us inactive while he thusexhorted us. On the contrary, he was posting us skilfully beside thetrace like the shrewd old Indian fighter that he was, with a rare andpractised eye to the maximum of cover with the minimum of thicket tangleto impede the rush or to shorten the sword-swing.
But when all was done we were at this disadvantage; that since the enemywas close at hand we dared not cross the path to give our trap a jaw oneither side. To offset this, the Catawba dropped out of line anddisappeared; and when the Cherokees were no more than a hundred yardsaway, Uncanoola came in sight a like distance in the opposite direction,running easily down the path to meet the up-coming riders.
Richard let slip an admiration-oath under his breath. "There's a finebit of strategy for you!" he whispered. "That wily Jack-at-a-pinch ofours will befool them into believing that he is a runner from the CoweeTowns. 'Tis our cue to lie close; he will halt them just here, and therewill be roving eyes in the heads of the two who have not to talk."
We had not long to wait. Our cunning ally timed his halting of theemissaries to a nicety, and when the three Cherokees drew rein they werewithin easy blade's reach. The powwow, lengthened by Uncanoola till wewere near bursting with impatience, was spun out wordily, and presentlywe saw the pointing of it. The Catawba was affecting to doubt theprotests of the emissaries and would have them dismount and prove theirgood faith by smoking the peace-pipe with him.
I give you fair warning, my dears, that you may turn the page here andskip what follows if you are fain to be tender-hearted on the score ofthese savage enemies of ours. It was in the very summer solstice of theyear of violence; a time when he who took the sword was like to perishwith the sword; and we thought of little save that Margery and herhandmaiden were in deadliest peril, and that these Indians had fivehorses which we must have.
And as for my own part in the fray, when I recognized in thefive-feathered chieftain of the three that copper-hued imp of Satan whohad been the merciless master of ceremonies at the torturing of my poorblack Tomas, the decent meed of mercy which even a seasoned soldier maycherish died within me, and I made sure the steel would find its mark.
So, when Uncanoola drew forth his tobacco pipe and made the three doomedones sit with him in the path to smoke the peace-whiff all around, wepicked out each his man and smote to slay. The scythe-like sweep ofJennifer's mighty claymore left the five-feathered chieftain the shorterby a head in the same pulse-beat that the Ferara scanted a second of thebreath to yell with; though now I recall it, the gurgling death-cry ofthe poor wretch with the steel in his throat was more terrible to hearthan any war-whoop. As for the old borderer, he was more deliberate.Being fair behind and within arm's reach of his man, he seized him bythe scalp-lock, bent the head backward across his knee--but, faugh!these are the merest butcher details, and I would spare you--and myself,as well.
While yet this most merciless deed was a-doing, the Catawba bounded tohis feet and made sure of the horses which were rearing and snortingwith affright. That done, he must needs gloat, Indian-wise, over hisfallen adversary, turning the headless body with his foot and gibing atit.
"Wah! Call hisself the Great Bear, hey? Heap lie; heap no bear; heapnothing, now. Papoose bear no let hisself be trap' that way. No smokepeace-pipe--"
But now Ephraim Yeates, standing ear a-cock and motionless, like somegrim old statue done in leather, cut him short with a sudden, "Hist,will ye!" and a twinkling instant later we had other work to do.
"Onto the hosses with this here Injun-meat, ez quick ez the lovingLord'll let ye!" was the sharp command. "There's a whole clanjamfrey o'the varmints a-coming down the trace, and I reckon ez how we'd betterscratch gravel immejitly, _if_ not sooner!"
The Master of Appleby Page 27