by Zane Grey
“Safe?” he hissed. “Safe you say? You’ll see that it’s the same now as on the other night, when those border-tigers jumped us and we ran like cowards. I’d have fought it out here, but for you.”
“Thet man Wetzel is ravin’ mad, I tell you,” growled Legget. “I reckon I’ve stood my ground enough to know I ain’t no coward. But this fellar’s crazy. He hed the Injuns slashin’ each other like a pack of wolves round a buck.”
“He’s no more mad than you or I,” declared Brandt. “I know all about him. His moaning in the woods, and wild yells are only tricks. He knows the Indians’ nature, and he makes their very superstition and religion aid him in his fighting. I told you what he’d do. Didn’t I beg you to kill Zane when we had a chance? Wetzel would never have taken our trail alone. Now they’ve beat me out of the girl, and as sure as death will round us up here.”
“You don’t believe they’ll rush us here?” asked Legget.
“They’re too keen to take foolish chances, but something will be done we don’t expect. Zane was a prisoner here; he had a good look at this place, and you can gamble he’ll remember.”
“Zane must hev gone back to Fort Henry with the girl.”
“Mark what I say, he’ll come back!”
“Wal, we kin hold this place against all the men Eb Zane may put out.”
“He won’t send a man,” snapped Brandt passionately. “Remember this, Legget, we’re not to fight against soldiers, settlers, or hunters; but bordermen—understand—bordermen! Such as have been developed right here on this bloody frontier, and nowhere else on earth. They haven’t fear in them. Both are fleet as deer in the woods. They can’t be seen or trailed. They can snuff a candle with a rifle ball in the dark. I’ve seen Zane do it three times at a hundred yards. And Wetzel! He wouldn’t waste powder on practicing. They can’t be ambushed, or shaken off a track; they take the scent like buzzards, and have eyes like eagles.”
“We kin slip out of here under cover of night,” suggested Legget.
“Well, what then? That’s all they want. They’d be on us again by sunset. No! we’ve got to stand our ground and fight. We’ll stay as long as we can; but they’ll rout us out somehow, be sure of that. And if one of us pokes his nose out to the daylight, it will be shot off.”
“You’re sore, an’ you’ve lost your nerve,” said Legget harshly. “Sore at me ’cause I got sweet on the girl. Ho! ho!”
Brandt shot a glance at Legget which boded no good. His strong hands clenched in an action betraying the reckless rage in his heart. Then he carefully removed his hunting coat, and examined his wound. He retied the bandage, muttering gloomily, “I’m so weak as to be light-headed. If this cut opens again, it’s all day for me.”
After that the inmates of the hut were quiet. The huge outlaw bowed his shaggy head for a while, and then threw himself on a pile of hemlock boughs. Brandt was not long in seeking rest. Soon both were fast asleep. Two of the savages passed out with cat-like step, leaving the door open. The fire had burned low, leaving a bed of dead coals. Outside in the dark a waterfall splashed softly.
The darkest hour came, and passed, and paled slowly to gray. Birds began to twitter. Through the door of the cabin the light of day streamed in. The two Indian sentinels were building a fire on the stone hearth. One by one the other savages got up, stretched, and yawned, and began the business of the day by cooking their breakfast. It was, apparently, every one for himself.
Legget arose, shook himself like a shaggy dog, and was starting for the door when one of the sentinels stopped him. Brandt, who was now awake, saw the action, and smiled.
In a few moments Indians and outlaws were eating for breakfast roasted strips of venison, with cornmeal baked brown, which served as bread. It was a somber, silent group.
Presently the shrill neigh of a horse startled them. Following it, the whip-like crack of a rifle stung and split the morning air. Hard on this came an Indian’s long, wailing death-cry.
“Hah!” exclaimed Brandt.
Legget remained immovable. One of the savages peered out through a little porthole at the rear of the hut. The others continued their meal.
“Whistler’ll come in presently to tell us who’s doin’ the shootin’,” said Legget. “He’s a keen Injun.”
“He’s not very keen now,” replied Brandt, with bitter certainty. “He’s what the settlers call a good Indian which is to say, dead!”
Legget scowled at his lieutenant.
“I’ll go and see,” he replied and seized his rifle.
He opened the door, when another rifle-shot rang out. A bullet whistled in the air, grazing the outlaw’s shoulder, and imbedded itself in the heavy door-frame.
Legget leaped back with a curse.
“Close shave!” said Brandt coolly. “That bullet came, probably, straight down from the top of the cliff. Jack Zane’s there. Wetzel is lower down watching the outlet. We’re trapped.”
“Trapped,” shouted Legget with an angry leer. “We kin live here longer’n the bordermen kin. We’ve meat on hand, an’ a good spring in the back of the hut. How’er we trapped?”
“We won’t live twenty-four hours,” declared Brandt.
“Why?”
“Because we’ll be routed out. They’ll find some way to do it, and we’ll never have another chance to fight in the open, as we had the other night when they came after the girl. From now on there’ll be no sleep, no time to eat, the nameless fear of an unseen foe who can’t be shaken off, marching by night, hiding and starving by day, until—! I’d rather be back in Fort Henry at Colonel Zane’s mercy.”
Legget turned a ghastly face toward Brandt. “Look a here. You’re takin’ a lot of glee in sayin’ these things. I believe you’ve lost your nerve, or the lettin’ out of a little blood hes made you wobbly. We’ve Injuns here, an’ ought to be match fer two men.”
Brandt gazed at him with a derisive smile.
“We kin go out an’ fight these fellers,” continued Legget. “We might try their own game, hidin’ an’ crawlin’ through the woods.”
“We two would have to go it alone. If you still had your trusty, trained band of experienced Indians, I’d say that would be just the thing. But Ashbow and the Chippewa are dead; so are the others. This bunch of redskins here may do to steal a few horses; but they don’t amount to much against Zane and Wetzel. Besides, they’ll cut and run presently, for they’re scared and suspicious. Look at the chief; ask him.”
The savage Brandt indicated was a big Indian just coming into manhood. His swarthy face still retained some of the frankness and simplicity of youth.
“Chief,” said Legget in the Indian tongue. “The great paleface hunter, Deathwind, lies hid in the woods.”
“Last night the Shawnee heard the wind of death mourn through the trees,” replied the chief gloomily.
“See! What did I say?” cried Brandt. “The superstitious fool! He would begin his death-chant almost without a fight. We can’t count on the redskins. What’s to be done?”
The outlaw threw himself upon the bed of boughs, and Legget sat down with his rifle across his knees. The Indians maintained the same stoical composure. The moments dragged by into hours.
“Ugh!” suddenly exclaimed the Indian at the end of the hut.
Legget ran to him, and acting upon a motion of the Indian’s hand, looked out through the little porthole.
The sun was high. He saw four of the horses grazing by the brook; then gazed scrutinizingly from the steep waterfall, along the green-stained cliff at the dark narrow cleft in the rocks. Here was the only outlet from the inclosure. He failed to discover anything unusual.
The Indian grunted again, and pointed upward.
“Smoke! There’s smoke risin’ above the trees,” cried Legget. “Brandt, come here. What’s thet mean?”
Brandt hurried, looked out. His face paled, his lower jaw protruded, quivered, and then was shut hard. He walked away, put his foot on a bench and began to lace his leggings.
“Wal?” demanded Legget.
“The game’s up! Get ready to run and be shot at,” cried Brandt with a hiss of passion.
Almost as he spoke the roof of the hut shook under a heavy blow.
“What’s thet?” No one replied. Legget glanced from Brandt’s cold, determined face to the uneasy savages. They were restless, and handling their weapons. The chief strode across the floor with stealthy steps.
“Thud!”
A repetition of the first blow caused the Indians to jump, and drew a fierce imprecation from their outlaw leader.
Brandt eyed him narrowly. “It’s coming to you, Legget. They are shooting arrows of fire into the roof from the cliff. Zane is doin’ that. He can make a bow and draw one, too. We’re to be burned out. Now, damn you! take your medicine! I wanted you to kill him when you had the chance. If you had done so we’d never have come to this. Burned out, do you get that? Burned out!”
“Fire!” exclaimed Legget. He sat down as if the strength had left his legs.
The Indians circled around the room like caged tigers.
“Ugh!” The chief suddenly reached up and touched the birch-bark roof of the hut.
His action brought the attention of all to a faint crackling of burning wood.
“It’s caught all right,” cried Brandt in a voice which cut the air like a blow from a knife.
“I’ll not be smoked like a ham, fer all these tricky bordermen,” roared Legget. Drawing his knife he hacked at the heavy buckskin hinges of the rude door. When it dropped free he measured it against the open space. Sheathing the blade, he grasped his rifle in his right hand and swung the door on his left arm. Heavy though it was he carried it easily. The roughly hewn planks afforded a capital shield for all except the lower portion of his legs and feet. He went out of the hut with the screen of wood between himself and the cliff, calling for the Indians to follow. They gathered behind him, breathing hard, clutching their weapons, and seemingly almost crazed by excitement.
Brandt, with no thought of joining this foolhardy attempt to escape from the inclosure, ran to the little porthole that he might see the outcome. Legget and his five redskins were running toward the narrow outlet in the gorge. The awkward and futile efforts of the Indians to remain behind the shield were almost pitiful. They crowded each other for favorable positions, but, struggle as they might, one or two were always exposed to the cliff. Suddenly one, pushed to the rear, stopped simultaneously with the crack of a rifle, threw up his arms, and fell. Another report, differing from the first, rang out. A savage staggered from behind the speeding group with his hand at his side. Then he dropped into the brook.
Evidently Legget grasped this as a golden opportunity, for he threw aside the heavy shield and sprang forward, closely followed by his red-skinned allies. Immediately they came near the cliff, where the trail ran into the gorge, a violent shaking of the dry ferns overhead made manifest the activity of some heavy body. Next instant a huge yellow figure, not unlike a leaping catamount, plunged down with a roar so terrible as to sound inhuman. Legget, Indians, and newcomer rolled along the declivity toward the brook in an indistinguishable mass.
Two of the savages shook themselves free, and bounded to their feet nimbly as cats, but Legget and the other redskin became engaged in a terrific combat. It was a wrestling whirl, so fierce and rapid as to render blows ineffectual. The leaves scattered as if in a whirlwind. Legget’s fury must have been awful, to judge from his hoarse screams; the Indians’ fear maddening, as could be told by their shrieks. The two savages ran wildly about the combatants, one trying to level a rifle, the other to get in a blow with a tomahawk. But the movements of the trio, locked in deadly embrace, were too swift.
Above all the noise of the contest rose that strange, thrilling roar.
“Wetzel!” muttered Brandt, with a chill, creeping shudder as he gazed upon the strife with fascinated eyes.
“Bang!” Again from the cliff came that heavy bellow.
The savage with the rifle shrunk back as if stung, and without a cry fell limply in a heap. His companion, uttering a frightened cry, fled from the glen.
The struggle seemed too deadly, too terrible, to last long. The Indian and the outlaw were at a disadvantage. They could not strike freely. The whirling conflict grew more fearful. During one second the huge, brown, bearish figure of Legget appeared on top; then the dark-bodied, half-naked savage, spotted like a hyena, and finally the lithe, powerful, tiger-shape of the borderman.
Finally Legget wrenched himself free at the same instant that the bloody-stained Indian rolled, writhing in convulsions, away from Wetzel. The outlaw dashed with desperate speed up the trail, and disappeared in the gorge. The borderman sped toward the cliff, leaped on a projecting ledge, grasped an overhanging branch, and pulled himself up. He was out of sight almost as quickly as Legget.
“After his rifle,” Brandt muttered, and then realized that he had watched the encounter without any idea of aiding his comrade. He consoled himself with the knowledge that such an attempt would have been useless. From the moment the borderman sprang upon Legget, until he scaled the cliff, his movements had been incredibly swift. It would have been hardly possible to cover him with a rifle, and the outlaw grimly understood that he needed to be careful of that charge in his weapon.
“By Heavens, Wetzel’s a wonder!” cried Brandt in unwilling admiration. “Now he’ll go after Legget and the redskin, while Zane stays here to get me. Well, he’ll succeed, most likely, but I’ll never quit. What’s this?”
He felt something slippery and warm on his hand. It was blood running from the inside of his sleeve. A slight pain made itself felt in his side. Upon examination he found, to his dismay, that his wound had reopened. With a desperate curse he pulled a linsey jacket off a peg, tore it into strips, and bound up the injury as tightly as possible.
Then he grasped his rifle, and watched the cliff and the gorge with flaring eyes. Suddenly he found it difficult to breathe; his throat was parched, his eyes smarted. Then the odor of wood smoke brought him to a realization that the cabin was burning. It was only now he understood that the room was full of blue clouds. He sank into the corner, a wolf at bay.
Not many moments passed before the outlaw understood that he could not withstand the increasing heat and stifling vapor of the room. Pieces of burning birch dropped from the roof. The crackling above grew into a steady roar.
“I’ve got to run for it,” he gasped. Death awaited him outside the door, but that was more acceptable than death by fire. Yet to face the final moment when he desired with all his soul to live, required almost superhuman courage. Sweating, panting, he glared around. “God! Is there no other way?” he cried in agony. At this moment he saw an ax on the floor.
Seizing it he attacked the wall of the cabin. Beyond this partition was a hut which had been used for a stable. Half a dozen strokes of the ax opened a hole large enough for him to pass through. With his rifle, and a piece of venison which hung near, he literally fell through the hole, where he lay choking, almost fainting. After a time he crawled across the floor to a door. Outside was a dense laurel thicket, into which he crawled.
The crackling and roaring of the fire grew louder. He could see the column of yellow and black smoke. Once fairly under way, the flames rapidly consumed the pitch-pine logs. In an hour Legget’s cabins were a heap of ashes.
The afternoon waned. Brandt lay watchful, slowly recovering his strength. He felt secure under this cover, and only prayed for night to come. As the shadows began to creep down the sides of the cliffs, he indulged in hope. If he could slip out in the dark he had a good chance to elude the borderman. In the passionate desire to escape, he had forgotten his fatalistic words to Legget. He reasoned that he could not be trailed until daylight; that a long night’s march would put him far in the lead, and there was just a possibility of Zane’s having gone away with Wetzel.
When darkness had set in he slipped out of the covert and began his journey for life. W
ithin a few yards he reached the brook. He had only to follow its course in order to find the outlet to the glen. Moreover, its rush and gurgle over the stones would drown any slight noise he might make.
Slowly, patiently he crawled, stopping every moment to listen. What a long time he was in coming to the mossy stones over which the brook dashed through the gorge! But he reached them at last. Here if anywhere Zane would wait for him.
With teeth clenched desperately, and an inward tightening of his chest, for at any moment he expected to see the red flame of a rifle, he slipped cautiously over the mossy stones. Finally his hands touched the dewy grass, and a breath of cool wind fanned his hot cheek. He had succeeded in reaching the open. Crawling some rods farther on, he lay still a while and listened. The solemn wilderness calm was unbroken. Rising, he peered about. Behind loomed the black hill with its narrow cleft just discernible. Facing the north star, he went silently out into the darkness.
CHAPTER XXIII
At daylight Jonathan Zane rolled from his snug bed of leaves under the side of a log, and with the flint, steel, and punk he always carried, began building a fire. His actions were far from being hurried. They were deliberate, and seemed strange on the part of a man whose stern face suggested some dark business to be done. When his little fire had been made, he warmed some slices of venison which had already been cooked, and thus satisfied his hunger. Carefully extinguishing the fire and looking to the priming of his rifle, he was ready for the trail.
He stood near the edge of the cliff from which he could command a view of the glen. The black, smoldering ruins of the burned cabins defaced a picturesque scene.
“Brandt must have lit out last night, for I could have seen even a rabbit hidin’ in that laurel patch. He’s gone, an’ it’s what I wanted,” thought the borderman.
He made his way slowly around the edge of the inclosure and clambered down on the splintered cliff at the end of the gorge. A wide, well-trodden trail extended into the forest below. Jonathan gave scarcely a glance to the beaten path before him; but bent keen eyes to the north, and carefully scrutinized the mossy stones along the brook. Upon a little sandbar running out from the bank he found the light imprint of a hand.