He had not gone far when his intuition appeared to be justified. At a point where the foliage overhead made the wood almost dark, he came upon evidence that a struggle had taken place ; the carpet of pine-needles had been violently disturbed, and on the bole of a tree was a blotch of blood. Had Sandy caught his man? Sudden did not think so--the indications suggested that it was the other way about. A careful examination of the nearby tree-trunks showed that the ground behind several was slightly flattened. Moreover, the trail of the two horses continued on through the wood.
"That hombre had it all planned out," the cowboy muttered. "They were waitin' here for a pursuin' party. Well, Sandy ain't dead, seemin'ly, or they'd 'a' scalped an' left him."
Somewhat cheered by this reflection, he rode on, noting that the bloodstains recurred at intervals. Presently he emerged from the timber and at once pulled up ; an increase in the hoof-prints showed that other riders had joined the pair he was following.
"The ambushin' braves picked up their hosses 'bout here," he surmised. "Must be near a dozen of 'em. Nig, we gotta watch out."
He went on cautiously, keeping well away from any spot which offered a likely hiding-place. But he had to take some risks, for the day was advancing and it would be hopeless to follow the trail in the dark. A little later he came to a narrow ravine littered with boulders, debris wrested by the weather from the rock walls. Pacing slowly along, eyes alert for any sound or movement, he saw something which brought an oath to his lips: lying face downwards at the side of the gully was a bound and gagged man. Sudden slid from his saddle and turned him over ; it was Sandy. As he stooped to remove the gag a rope swished, he was flung violently backwards, and a savage war-cry pealed out. Realizing that he too had been tricked he grabbed at a gun but a crashing blow from behind robbed him of reason.
Chapter XVI
WHEN Sudden regained his senses his first impression was that someone was kicking him on the head, but he soon realized that the throbbing jars he felt were the result of the blow he had received. Lying on his back, his hands tied, he was unable to find out the extent of the injury. In the semi-darkness he could see that he was inside a kind of inverted funnel and knew it for an Indian tepee. Outside, the weird wail of a woman rose above the barking of dogs and guttural voices of men.
"So they got me," he said aloud. "If my head didn't hurt so much I'd say it was solid bone. Wonder where Sandy is?"
"'Lo, Jim," a low voice answered. "yu come to life again?"
"No, I'm dead from the neck up," was the disgusted reply. "Of all the fools ..."
"It was neat, allasame," Sandy consoled. "They knowed yu'd hop off to tend to me--any fella would. All they had to do was squat behind the rocks an' rope yu. First time I ever figured as the bait in a trap."
"Where's Miss Carol?"
"Right here, wore out an' sleepin'. What d'yu reckon they'll do to us, Jim?"
Sudden was still sore in both body and mind. "Cuff our ears an' tell us to be good boys in future, don't yu reckon?" was his sarcastic reply, and then, "Shucks, we'll find a way out." After a pause, "There was blood on the trail ; yu hurt?"
"No, I winged one when they jumped me," Sandy explained.
"Jeff an' the boys'll search us out," Sudden said.
"Don't bet on it. Soon after they collected yu the main bunch branched off, taking yore hoss an' mine. One brave reckoned on ridin' the black but that pet o' yores just planted both hind hoofs on his chest an' if he ain't stopped breathin' altogether, I'll lay he's findin' it a painful process. After that, they elected to lead him."
"Nigger don't like Injuns."
"I'm believin' yu. Well, the rest of us struck a stream, waded down it for near half a mile, an' then went along a stony gulch where a herd o' buffalo wouldn't leave a trace."
Sudden was silent ; this put a different complexion on matters. The rescue party would follow the prints of the shod horses and probably blunder into a trap just as he and Sandy had done. The commotion outside increased in volume and other wailing voices joined the first.
"Black Bear's band has got back an' some more squaws have learned they are widders," Sudden surmised.
There was a slight movement in the gloom on the far side of the tepee ; the noise had awakened the third prisoner.
"Sandy," the girl whispered. "Did I hear Mister Green's voice?"
"Shore, I'm here, Miss Carol," Sudden replied.
"Thank heaven," she said. "I feared you were--killed." He Trailed grimly into the darkness ; she did not realize that death might yet be a boon to crave for. Still speaking in a low voice, she went on, "Mister Green, the Indian who brought me here is the other--the one who got away."
It gave Sudden no pleasure to find that his conjecture had proved correct. Affecting a jocularity he did not feel, he said: "Persevering beggar ; we'll have to discourage him some."
"I'm--scared," she confessed.
"Don't yu be," he urged, and then lied nobly, "the boys'll be along any time now an' snake us outa this mess."
His confident tone was comforting and she uttered a sigh of relief ; somehow she felt that with these two men beside her, tied though they were, the situation was not quite hopeless.
The flap of the tent was flung aside and a savage, carrying a lighted pine-knot, stalked in. Of medium height, his headdress of eagle-plumes and erect bearing made him appear taller. He was young, less than thirty, Sudden estimated, and moved with the agile sinuosity of a snake. On his bare breast the mask of a fox was crudely pictured in red, and the streaks of paint on his face intensified its sinister expression of cruelty. He shot one triumphant glance at the girl, strode across to Sudden and stooped, thrusting the torch almost into the cowboy's face. For an instant he gazed and then a flash of ferocious joy illumined the dark eyes.
"Damnation, he remembers me," the captive reflected. "Trust an Injun for that."
Spitting out a few rapid sentences in his own tongue, the Indian, after testing the bonds of all three, glided away.
"What did he say?" Sandy thoughtlessly inquired.
Sudden, though he could not have given a literal translation gathered sufficient to know that he had been promised a slow and very agonizing end. Not wishing to further alarm the girl, his reply was evasive:
"He's goin' to have a pow-wow with me in the mornin'." Sandy's tone was incredulous. "A pow" he began, and stopped. "Shore, he'll want to talk things over," he went on. "Mebbe he'll dicker with us for beeves."
Long into the night the shrieks of the women mourning their dead endured. Sudden could vision them, kneeling on the bare earth, their bodies streaming with blood from the gashes they inflicted upon themselves. The spectacle would rouse resentment against the hated paleface prisoners to the highest pitch, and unless a miracle happened . . . In a gust of revolt, he strained at his bonds, but the man who had tied them knew his business. He tried to sleep, well aware that he would need all his nerve for the coming ordeal.
Daylight brought them visitors, an armed brave and a squaw bearing platters of food, pieces of cooked flesh and cakes of meal, with which they had to deal as best they could with bound hands. One unacquainted with Indians might have argued from this that they were not yet to die, but Sudden knew it was but a refinement of cruelty ; a man weak from want of food would succumb to torture sooner.
When they had eaten, the redskin removed the bonds from Sudden's ankles and pointed to the entrance of the tent. The cowboy saw the alarm in the girl's eyes and forced a grin on his set lips.
"Goin' to have a word with Foxy," he said. "Back soon."
"What does it really mean?" Carol's white lips whispered, as the pair went out.
Sandy was cursing softly but vividly. "It means--hell," he groaned.
They heard a fierce yell of execration as the captive appeared, and in an agony of fear, dragged themselves to the opening of the tepee. The sight they saw did not reassure them.
The camp was of fair size, consisting of more than a score of lodges, set in a rude circle a
nd hedged in by trees and brush. Round the open space in the centre the whole tribe was gathered, men, women, and children, shrieking and yelling in savage exultation. The hubbub increased as , the white man was conducted to a large tree on the edge of the clearing. Two more warriors now joined the first. Releasing his hands, they gripped a wrist apiece, forced his arms back and again secured them behind the tree-trunk. The position was intensely painful and rendered the sufferer as helpless as a tied steer.
No sooner was this done than the onlookers surged forward, broke into an eerie chant, and began to circle the tree in a wild dance. The oblique rays of the mounting sun, flickering through the foliage, shadowed the fantastic capers on the ground. Though they shook their weapons in his face, no one of the dancers attempted to touch the prisoner. Interminably, as it seemed to the object of it, the monotonous dirge went on. All the tribe were not taking part ; on the far side of the clearing stood a group of Indians whose plumed heads showed that they were chiefs ; among them was Black Bear.
Wooden-faced, the bound man stared stolidly at the dancing devils who mocked as they passed him. His head still throbbed from the rough treatment of yesterday and his arm-muscles ached under the unnatural strain to which they were being subjected, but he knew he must show no sign of weakness ; that was what these fiends were hoping for. To avoid thinking of what was to come he sent his mind back into the past, recalling the dark hours in Fourways, where he had also awaited death ; it was a grim thought that the outlaw's rescue might yet prove something to be regretted. It would be Sandy's turn next, and then the girl ; the eyes of Red Fox had plainly told her fate.
A raucous command rang out and the droning ring broke and swept back, forming in a half-circle on the far side of the clearing. From among the chiefs Red Fox strode, his feathers fluttering in the faint breeze, to pause a few paces from the prisoner. His dark face was alight with savage triumph.
"For the slaying of Running Deer, my brother, you shall die many times. On your knees you shall beg for death and it shall not come."
Sudden's expression was contemptuous. "Red Fox has a big mouth," he said. "He might frighten a papoose."
He knew that the shaft had gone home, though only a tremor of rage betrayed the fact ; the redskin was crafty.
"Red Fox has sharp teeth but will not bite too soon," he countered. "yet if the white dog desires a speedy death, he shall have his chance."
He stepped back, drew a short, heavy-hafted knife from his belt, and glanced pridefully round at his audience. Then his right arm swung up, down, and like a streak of silver the blade flashed through the sunlight and embedded itself in the tree-trunk. Sudden felt a trickle of warm blood and realized that the keen edge. missing his head by a hair's-breadth. had nicked his ear. The thrower, bent slightly forward, watched the result of his effort with evil enjoyment.
11 CI
"Move, and earn the death you will presently pray for," he called out.
A medley of mocking yells came from the spectators and a score of voices repeated the taunt; both they and the cunning devil who had uttered it knew that the invitation would not be accepted. However desperate his situation, a sane, healthy man will hold on to life as long as possible, and though Sudden could see no chance of escape, he cherished a hope that he might somehow get free and go down fighting. So he schooled his aching muscles and became as motionless as the tree against which he stood.
With steady, unwinking eyes, he saw the fling of the brown arm again, the gleam of the twinkling steel, and felt the wind of the blade on his cheek. The second knife missed him by less than an inch. Amid the shouts of admiration for the prowess of their chief, were jeers for the man who had declined to die. Sudden was concerned with someone else ; from behind had come a hoarse whisper :
"yore han's is free. When that varmint comes to git his stickers, grab one an' let him have it. Then jump for the tepee, git yore guns, and gimme a chance to start the gal an' yore friend off. There'll be a hoss waitin' for yu."
Like a dazed man, the cowboy listened. The voice was one he had heard before but in the stress of the moment he could not place it. He could feel that his wrists had been loosed and lowered his arms slightly to relieve the numbing ache. He looked at Red Fox ; the chief was strutting to and fro, enjoying his triumph, and seemed to be in no hurry to fetch his weapons. Sudden wanted him nearer.
"Red Fox is clumsy," he announced loudly. "An Apache or Kiowa boy could throw the knife better."
Like a stung man the savage whirled, his dusky features aflame with fury.
"White spawn!" he cried, "I will cut off your ears with the knives ; I will pin your fingers one by one to the tree."
Haughtily he stepped forward and that was the moment the victim had been waiting for. Snatching one of the knives, he balanced it on his palm for an instant, and then hurled it at the advancing savage. With a strangled cry Red Fox crumpled up, the steel buried to the haft in his throat.
For one staggering moment there was silence and then the petrified onlookers saw the man they had believed to be securely tied leap across the open space and vanish into one of the tepees. The sight restored their power to move and with a ferocious threatening howl, they rushed in pursuit.
Sudden found the tepee empty. Buckling on his belt, he drew both guns and sprang to the entrance. A surging wave of maddened redskins was sweeping down upon him, and a cloud of arrows greeted his appearance, piercing the buffalo-hide walls of the tepee, and whistling past his ears. His Colts spouted flame and before that continuous hail of hurtling lead the charge withered and broke, the Indians scattering in all directions. But he knew the respite was but momentary ; they would surround him, and then.... Reloading his weapons, he became aware that someone had entered, and swung about. He saw a brown, paint-lined face, feathered scalp-lock, and his thumb was on the point of releasing the hammer when the intruder spoke :
"Hold on thar, friend ; I ain't no war-whoop."
It was the voice of the man who had freed him, and now he remembered it as that of the "still-hunter" who had come into their camp on the Colorado. Tyson gave him no time for questions.
"The gal is away on yore black an' yore friend with her, though he balked some at leavin' yu," he said. "There's a hoss waitin' an' yu ain't got but a minit--them devils is closin' in, which is why they've stopped yappin'." He pointed to the back of the tepee, where a long slit in the hide covering provided an exit, adding, "It'll be nip an' tuck as it is."
"What about yu?" the cowboy asked.
"I'm stayin'," was the jaunty reply. "I c'n pass as one of 'ern an' "--he chuckled with sinister glee--"I'll make me some converts."
Sudden did not attempt to dissuade him ; Tyson evidently knew what he was about. He held cut a hand.
"This puts me deep in yore debt," he said.
"Nary a bit--I ain't forgot that grub an' smoking'," was the reply. "Head due west an' hump yoreseif."
Sudden slid through the opening and found the horse. Being Indian property there was no saddle, but the hackamore bridle was all the cowboy needed and in a trice he was on the beast's back and spurring for the open. A shout of rage and a few spasmodic arrows greeted his appearance and a redskin rose out of the long grass and sprang at him, only to go downwith a shriek under the plunging feet. A score of leaping strides and the fugitive knew that he was safe for the time. He would be pursued, but the Indians had first to secure their ponies and this would give him a fair start. Nevertheless, he pressed on at full speed, casting an occasional glance at the trail, where the prints of shod horses seemed to indicate that he was following his friends.
Unfortunately, the nature of the country did not favour him, for though undulating, it was open, offering little opportunity of keeping out of sight. Sadden had covered but a few miles when, from the crest of a long slope, he saw the pair he was in search of, and uttered a man-sized curse when he realized that they were waiting for him. With a violent gesture he signed them to go on and let his own mount feel the spurs. His gree
ting, when he ranged alongside, was hardly one of gratitude.
"Have yu lost yore wits?" he asked Sandy. "yu oughta be a coupla miles farther away right now."
"We were anxious about you," the girl explained. "I insisted on waiting."
Sudden looked around disgustedly. "There ain't a hole we could hide in," he said.
As they surmounted another incline a faint whoop was borne to them on the breeze, and back on the trail was a billowing cloud of dust in which tiny dark forms could be dimly distinguished. Sudden's lips clamped together as he studied the animal he bestrode. Sandy was riding his own horse, which was a good one.
"Friend Tyson don't savvy ponies, or mebbe this is all he could lay his paws on," he commented. He reached over and removed his rifle from the saddle of the black, and said to Sandy, "yu an' Miss Carol go ahead ; my hoss is fast for a mile or two, but ain't got no bottom."
"Like hell we will," the boy retorted hotly. "What yu goin' to do?"
"Stay an' argue with these copper-coloured gents. That'll give yu time to get the girl away--mebbe."
Ere Sandy could voice his objection to this proposal a fierce yell apprised them of another factor to be considered, and effectually closed the argument. Less than half a mile distant, and coming towards them, was another band of redskins who, at the sight of the whites, quirted their ponies into a run. The fugitives were between two fires. Sudden swung his horse to the right.
"Follow me," he cried. "We gotta find a better place than this to stand 'em off."
"Mebbe they'll scrap with each other an' give us a chance to sneak off," Sandy said hopefully, as they raced at top speed across the plain.
"The second lot are Comanches too," Sudden told him, and shot a hasty glance over his shoulder. "Hell, they're gainin'. Head for that bluff ; it looks a likely spot."
He pointed to a small plateau, the approaching slope of which was, at one spot, broken away, leaving a vertical wall. At the foot of this were several boulders. With the girl and the horses sheltered behind the largest of these, the two men gripped their weapons and waited.
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