by Kirk Munroe
CHAPTER VIII
ON THE TRAIL
Cat-sha, the Seminole chief, rejoiced greatly at having gained to hisband so promising a young warrior as Chitta, who had so incurred theenmity of both the white men and his own people as to be obliged to flyfrom them for his life.
After eating together a meal of dried venison that the elder producedfrom his wallet, the two Seminoles sat, concealed behind a thickcluster of cactus, watching the river for any signs of pursuit, andforming plans for future action. Cat-sha told Chitta that he had lefthis band in their most inaccessible stronghold among the bayous anddeep morasses of the great Okeefenokee Swamp. He also said that, wereit not for the presence of so large a number of friendly Indians in theimmediate vicinity of Fort Caroline, he should bring his warriors toattack it; for he had decided that the chances were in favor of hissuccess in so doing.
"Ha!" exclaimed Chitta, interrupting his chief at this point, "I may,in that case, be of service to thee, though I am as yet untried inbattle." Then he told Cat-sha a secret that was known to but few ofhis people, and which he himself had only discovered by accident. Itwas the same that Has-se had declined to confide to Rene when thelatter questioned him as to the manner of his escape from the fort, andit was indeed a secret of the utmost value to enemies of the white men.
Cat-sha listened attentively, and when Chitta had finished heexclaimed, "Well done, my young brave! Thy serpent's wisdom is alreadyproving of value to us. What thou hast just told me makes clear ourplan of attack upon this nest of pale-faces, and removes one of thechief difficulties in our way. Having this information, I regard thefort and all that it contains as already in our power. We have only tobide our time. Well may the white man tremble; for ere many days thetiger, guided by the serpent, will spring at his throat."
As they talked, their attention was directed to a dark moving massfloating down the river, close under its bank. Cat-sha soon pronouncedit to be a fleet of canoes filled with people, and they watched themwith eager curiosity.
It was, indeed, the tribe from which Chitta had fled, moving, under theleadership of their chief, Micco, towards the land of the Alachuas,where food in abundance awaited them. At the outset of their journeythey kept as close as possible under the river-bank, to avoidobservation from the white men in Fort Caroline, who, they feared,might oppose their departure if they learned of it. It was not untilthey reached the bold bluff from the summit of which the two Seminoleswatched their progress that they felt they were safe from the eyes ofthe fort, and might strike boldly out into the river. Here, aided bythe full strength of the ebbing tide, they proceeded rapidly on theirway towards its mouth.
Seeing that the canoes which were thus passing beneath them contained,besides the warriors of the tribe, its women and children, and all ofits movable property, Cat-sha concluded that it was a general movementof Micco's people towards some distant place; and from the directionthey were taking, he guessed that their destination was the fertileland of the Alachuas.
"This is thy doing," he said to Chitta, who was regarding in bittersilence this departure of his people, towards whom he still felt drawnby old association in spite of what he had so recently done and become."This is thy doing, my young Seminole. Thou hast destroyed their storeof food, and thus compelled them to go in search of more. Now let usfollow them, and when we have seen them at a safe distance, we willbring my brave warriors to the attack of the white men shut up inyonder gopher hole."
When the departing tribe was nearly out of sight down the river, thetwo Seminoles, drawing Chitta's stolen canoe from its hiding-place,started in pursuit. They so arranged their own movements that they ranno chance of discovery from those in advance of them, though they werenever far behind. They carefully examined each camping-place of themoving tribe, to assure themselves that no person was left behind whomight discover them, and they always placed their own little camp sothat it should be entirely concealed from those whom they followed.
Cat-sha was much pleased to find that in thus following Micco's tribehe was also journeying in the direction of his own band, who awaitedhim in the depths of the great swamp. He even meditated an attack uponhis Indian foes as they travelled, with their women, children, andbaggage, before leading his warriors back to Fort Caroline.
It was these two, then, whose traces had so puzzled Has-se as he andRene de Veaux in turn followed them, and it was their canoe of whichthe two boys caught a fleeting glimpse in the great swamp.
"Look!" exclaimed Has-se, whose keen eye was the first to detect thevanishing canoe. "These are either my own people, whom we have thusovertaken, or those whom we know to be in close pursuit of them. Hereis work for us, Ta-lah-lo-ko, or rather for me, for it is my duty todiscover the meaning of this pursuit, and warn my people if danger isnear them, while I am also bound to keep thee as far as possible fromall harm."
"Nonsense, Has-se! It is well for thee to keep me out of danger solong as thou keepest from it thyself; but since I have thrown myfortunes with thine, thy friends are my friends, thy enemies are myenemies, and thy safety or danger is mine to share with thee. So sayno more of my safety, save as it concerns thine as well, but lead on asthou thinkest best, and I will follow thee as truly as though I wereenlisted beneath thy banner. Not that I suppose you Indians have suchthings as banners, or understand their significance; but thou mightwell have them, and be none the worse for the having."
Although Has-se made no reply to this brave speech, he accepted it asan evidence of true friendship, and gave Rene a grateful smile, whichthe latter understood to mean "Very well, Ta-lah-lo-ko, I accept thyoffer of service as heartily as thou dost tender it."
Under ordinary circumstances, Has-se's Indian instinct would not havepermitted him to cross the open water of the bayou in broad daylightwhen he suspected that an enemy might be lying in wait for him on itsfarther side. On this occasion, however, it seemed so impossible thatthe occupants of the canoe, of which he had caught but the merestglimpse, should have looked back and detected them at the same instant,that he decided to push on, and if possible discover more of it. So heand Rene crossed the open water as quickly and with as little noise aspossible, and as they approached its opposite side, Has-se gazed keenlyinto the dark lanes between the moss-hung cypresses. He neither sawnor heard anything to cause him alarm, and congratulating themselvesthat they had not been discovered, the boys pushed on over waters ofanother extremely narrow stream.
This, to Rene's surprise, flowed, though with an almost imperceptiblecurrent, in the direction they were taking, or exactly opposite to thatof the river they had ascended from the salt-marshes of the east. AsHas-se had requested him to keep absolute silence, and on no account tospeak, he restrained his curiosity for the present, but determined toseek an explanation of this phenomenon when an opportunity should offer.
He afterwards discovered that the river they had ascended, and thatthey were now descending, both rose in the great swamp, and that theirheadwaters were connected by navigable streams, but that while oneflowed east into the Atlantic, the other flowed west into the Gulf ofMexico.
In thus deeming themselves undiscovered by those in advance of them,the boys made an almost fatal mistake. The wily Cat-sha, accustomed tolook for danger behind every tree, and almost expecting to hear thewar-cry of his enemies in every breath of wind, knew better than toleave open waters without looking behind as he did so. On thisoccasion the quick glance thrown backward at the instant his canoeentered the shadows of the cypresses detected the gleam of a paddle,and he knew at once that he and Chitta were being followed, even asthey were following Micco and his people.
He said nothing until they were safely within the shadows, when he toldChitta of his discovery. The latter advised going into hiding at once,and awaiting the approach of their unknown pursuers; but the moreexperienced Cat-sha said no, for if they had also been discovered, thatwas exactly what they would be expected to do, and their pursuers wouldexercise more than a usual amount of caution in
approaching that point.Once safely past it they would advance more boldly, thinking that theirown presence had been undetected. He therefore continued on down thelittle stream for nearly a mile, until they reached a point where thechannel was so seriously obstructed by overhanging vines and strandeddriftwood that only a passage barely wide enough for a single canoe wasleft open.
Here they drew their canoe from the water and carefully concealed it.Then they took positions one on each side of the stream; and, hiddenbehind screens of tangled vines, with arrows held ready to be fitted totheir bowstrings, they patiently awaited the coming of their unknownpursuers.
Towards this well-planned trap, that seemed to insure theirdestruction, Rene and Has-se advanced, cautiously, to be sure, butwithout a warning of what awaited them. At length they had approachedwithin a quarter of a mile of the ambush, and one would have said thatnothing could prevent their falling into it.
At this point Has-se whispered, "Keep wide open thy ears as well as thyeyes, Ta-lah-lo-ko"; and Rene answered also in a whisper,
"They are already so wide open that not the faintest hum of a gnatescapes them. What's that?"
The sudden snapping of a twig by some bird or small animal caused themto start, and listen for a moment with uplifted paddles. The canoethus left to itself, unguided, drifted aside, and hung for an instantupon the upraised end of a sunken log. Rene reached his hand down intothe water to push it clear of the obstruction, but suddenly withdrew itwith a suppressed cry of pain and fright. At the same moment a largewater-snake, of the kind known as a moccasin, glided away, anddisappeared beneath the slimy bank.