CHAPTER XVI.
WHERE IS JOE?
It was now getting late, and Sam knew that it was not well for him totalk longer. He felt so much better, however, that he knew he wouldcontinue to talk in spite of himself unless the whole party should go tosleep at once. Joe had not been in the drift cavern for more than twohours, and Sam, observing his prolonged absence, said:
"Tom, I'm afraid some of us have hurt poor Joe's feelings. Go and lookat your water-mark, and while you are out, find the poor fellow and findout what's the matter with him. He's a good boy, and has done his partfaithfully ever since we started. I can't bear to think of him moping."
Tom went out and examined his stake, which showed that the water was notmore than an inch or two over the bank, and was not rising very rapidlynow; but he could see nothing of Joe anywhere. He went to the look-out,but the boy was not there, and a diligent search through the drift-pile,showed that he was nowhere in the neighborhood of the fortress. Tom wasnow fairly alarmed, and returning, was about to report the facts to Sam,when little Judie, in a whisper, informed him that the big brother wasasleep. As his fever had risen somewhat, Judie rightly thought it betternot to disturb him, as he certainly could not aid in any way in findingJoe.
"I must just think," Tom said to himself, "as Sam does, and then I cando all there is to be done. Now I know Joe isn't anywhere in thehammock, because I knew every place he could squeeze himself into, andI've looked in every one of them. It's no use then to waste time lookingthere any more. He must have left here, either accidentally or onpurpose. He couldn't have slipped off the drift and drowned, because hecan swim pretty well and would have swam out in a minute. There is noother way in which he can have left here by accident, unless an Indianhas killed him on the drift-pile somewhere, and if that were so I wouldhave found his body. He must have run away on purpose."
But just as Tom reached this point in his thinking he remembered theearnestness with which poor Joe had begged him to bear witness in anyand every event that he was not "a runaway nigger." And this remindedTom of all the queer ways he had noticed in Joe of late. The boy musthave had a premonition, he thought, that something was going to happento him. Only two theories remained. One was that Joe had gone crazyunder his long exile from civilized life and had madly put an end tohimself by jumping into the river; and the other that, persisting in hisbelief in the instability of the drift-pile, he had gone to the upperbank for safety and had fallen asleep there. In that event he must befound, lest an Indian should discover him in the morning and put him todeath. Tom went ashore after explaining his purpose to Judie, so thatshe might not be alarmed at his absence, and literally spent the entirenight in hunting for the black boy. Joe was nowhere to be found, andwhen daylight came, Tom saw that a further search was of no usewhatever, and he therefore returned sadly to the drift cavern. The waterwas now going down again, and the bank was free from it, but the sand inthe root fortress was still too wet to sit or lie upon, and so Tom madeno immediate preparation for their return.
Sam's fever was very slight that morning, and his first question wasabout Joe. Tom told him of his night's search, and Sam's deduction fromall the facts was that the poor boy had committed suicide, had beenkilled by an Indian and thrown into the river, or had fallen inaccidentally and drowned.
"He would never have left us in any case," said Sam, "and even had hebeen less faithful, he would have been afraid to run away, not knowingwhere to run or how to take care of himself in the woods."
They were too much grieved for Joe's loss, to relish their breakfast,and that meal was dispatched very quickly. Tom watched the falling ofthe water all day, and at night reported that the river was well insideits banks again.
Big Brother: A Story of Indian War Page 16