The Lost Trail

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

  CHAPTER XVIII

  ON THE LOUISIANA SHORE

  At last the little party were across the Mississippi. The Indiancanoe, so injured that it was useless until repaired, was pushedback into the turbid current and went spinning down the river,sometimes bumping against the bank and then dancing further fromshore, until striking broadside against a nodding "sawyer," itoverturned, and thereafter resembled an ordinary log, on its waytoward the Gulf.

  It was the first time that Jack Carleton had placed foot onLouisiana soil, and he stood for a moment gazing backward atKentucky, amid whose confines he was born and beyond which he neverstrayed, except when on an occasional hunting excursion into Ohio.

  "I wonder whether I shall ever tread those forests again," he saidto himself; "I can't say that I'm anxious to do so, for there havealways been too many Indians for comfort. They killed my father andbroke the heart of my mother. No, Kentucky, good bye," he added,turning his face toward the west, with a feeling that in thatdirection lay his future home.

  Meanwhile Deerfoot and Otto took but a few minutes to prepare fortheir journey. The Indian having lost his blanket, held only therifle and ammunition by way of superfluous luggage, and it could notbe said that his companions were unduly burdened, since the runawaycolt had relieved them in that respect.

  Deerfoot slung his long bow back of his shoulders, as he wasaccustomed to do when he wished the unrestrained use of both arms,and carried the rifle as the others did theirs.

  The belief obtained with all three that in leaving Kentucky theybade good-bye to most of the personal peril to which they had beensubjected. The reader knows that that section was ravaged by thefierce Shawanoes, Miamis, Hurons and other tribes who wereimplacable in their hostility to the white men, and who did so muchto give it the name of the Dark and Bloody Ground by which it was solong known. There were thousands of red men ranging through theimmense province known as Louisiana, and the crack of the hostilerifle, the war-cry of the dusky chieftain, and the shock, of mortalcombat marked the meeting of the races, whether on the clearing, inthe forest, or in the lonely defile in the mountain.

  In that section to which I have referred more than once, as nowbearing the name of Missouri, the fighting between the whites andIndians was much less than on the eastern bank of the Mississippi.It will be understood, therefore, why, when the little company offriends stood on the western shore, they felt much less concern thanwhile on the other side.

  Less than two days' tramp to the westward lay the young settlementwhere dwelt the mother of Jack Carleton, the parents of OttoRelstaub and a dozen other families who had emigrated thither fromKentucky. Far beyond and to the southward among the wildestfastnesses of the Ozark mountains the young Shawanoe had takenrefuge, where he felt secure against those of his race who hated himwith irrestrainable ferocity.

  As it would require no great digression on the part of Deerfoot, andas it was not to be supposed that time was very valuable to him,Jack and Otto supposed he would go with them the entire distance tothe log cabin of Jacob Relstaub. To their surprise, however, hequietly said he could keep them company only a short time longer.

  "I had no doubt you would be with us to the end," said thedisappointed Jack.

  "It would make the heart of Deerfoot glad if he could go with hisbrothers whom he loves; but he cannot."

  "Vot ain't de reason?" asked Otto, unrestrained by the sense ofpropriety which held the tongue of Jack silent.

  "Deerfoot is called yonder," was the reply, pointing south of thepath which lay before the others.

  They were silent a minute or so, in the hope that, he would explainhis meaning, but he did not, and even Otto saw that he had no rightto question him further.

  Aware that his friends were waiting for him to add something,Deerfoot continued:

  "The path of my brothers is straight, and they will not get down ontheir knees to look for the trail. There are no Shawanoes among thetrees to fire when they are not looking, and Deerfoot can may nowords that will do good."

  "It is not that which causes us to hope for your company," repliedJack, who was standing several feet away from the youthful warriorand looking in his serious countenance; "but it is because we likeyou, not only for what we have heard from others, but for what wehave seen with our own eyes, and for what you have done for us, thatwe are loath to part with you."

  "Deerfoot will go part of the way," the Indian hastened to say,perceiving the feeling of his friends, "but it cannot be long."

  "Far be it from me to question what you do; no right belongs to me,but I could not let you go without telling bow much we appreciatewhat you have done for us, and how much we admire your noblecharacter."

  It was one of the peculiarities of Deerfoot that he never acceptedthe most pointed compliment. When forced to reply to a direct one,he turned it aside with an indifference which showed he placed novalue upon it. As Jack Carleton remarked later on, praise ran fromDeerfoot like water from a duck's back.

  But another matter forced itself upon the attention of the boys, whowere on their way to the settlement. It has been stated alreadythat the father of Otto Relstaub was penurious, miserly, and cruel.The colt on which the boy had ridden to Coatesville, Kentucky, andpart of the way back again, was the better of the two horses ownedby him. Its loss was certain to throw him into a great rage, anddoubtless would bring down the severest punishment on the back andshoulders of the son.

  Jack Carleton understood this prospect as well as did Otto himself,and he was of the belief that a resolute effort should be put forthto recover the horse. When the matter was stated to Deerfoot, hisown knowledge of the ill-tempered German caused him to urge theattempt. In fact he would have done so, had the case been otherwise,for the value of the animal was considerable. Furthermore, Deerfootwas of the opinion that the colt could be regained without seriousdifficulty, and he told them they had little to fear from hostileIndians.

  Had the Shawanoe seen the canoe, loaded to the gunwales with red menin their war paint, which at that very moment was stealing closeunder the Louisiana shore, he would have modified his remarks to avery considerable extent.

  The peculiarly original manner in which the boys crossed theMississippi had resulted in carrying them some distance below thetrail that trended to the westward. As the runaway horse hadundergone the same experience, and as Otto had descried him when heemerged from the river, it was easy to locate quite closely thepoint where he entered Louisiana.

  "It ish below vere we don't stands not dis moment," he said, whenthey were ready to move off.

  "My gracious, Otto," exclaimed Jack, "can't you handle English alittle better than that? I thought your father was the crookedestof speech of any person I ever heard, but he can't be any worse thanyou."

  "Yaw-don't it?" grinned Otto.

  "Try to improve yourself! You ain't much of a fool on othermatters, and you may as well learn to talk like a civilized being.I have seen Deerfoot shocked more than once at the horrible style inwhich you mangle the king's English. I want you to promise to makean effort to do better; will you?"

  "Yaw; I dinks not efery dimes dot I does much better as nefer vos;vot doesn't you dinks not apout it, eh-don't it? Yaw!"

  Deerfoot had taken a couple of steps along the bank with the purposeof hunting the hoof-prints of the missing horse, but he paused andhalf turned about, looking with an amused expression at his friendswho were holding their characteristic conversation.

  There was something noteworthy in the fact that while Otto had heardthe English tongue spoken quite correctly, from the hour he was ableto toddle out doors, he could not compare in his lingual skill toDeerfoot, who had never attempted a word of the language untilwounded and taken prisoner by the whites. What caused all thisdifference?

  The same thing which distinguishes one man from another, and crownsfailure with success, or reverses it, as the case may be--brains.

  The three youths moved down the bank in an irregular Indian file,for no one saw the need
of extra precaution. Deerfoot was about arod in advance, walking with a brisk step, for his searching eyestook in everything in the field of vision, and the trail for whichhe was searching was sure to be marked with a distinctness thatcould permit no mistake.

  It was the same apparently endless forest which met their eyes whenthey looked across from Kentucky, and which seemed to encroach onthe borders of the river itself, as though envious of its space.There was little undergrowth, and they advanced without difficulty.

  "I dinks be ish close to vere de colt goomes owet", said Otto, hiswords uttered with such deliberation that it was manifest he wasdoing his best to heed the appeal of the young Kentuckian.

  "That is a decided improvement," Jack hastened to say, with anapproving smile. "You don't pronounce very well, but you built upthat sentence better than usual."

  "Dot's vot I dinks no times, yaw--I means dot ish vot I dinks mineBelf."

  "Good!" said Jack, reaching out and patting his shoulder; "if youwill devote a few minutes to hard thought before speaking a singleword, you will improve until one of these days you will be able tospeak as well as Deerfoot."

  "Yaw, dot ish nodings--yaw, holds on I dinks hard!" exclaimed Otto,resolutely checking himself until he could gain time to frame theexpression he had in mind. But before he succeeded, a slightexclamation from Deerfoot made own his discovery of the trail forwhich they were hunting.

  The others hastened to his side, and looking at the ground, saw thehoof-prints of the horse that had run away with Otto Relstaub. Asthe animal was well shod, there could be no mistaking the trail,differing from that of the Indian ponies, which, as a matter ofcourse, were without such protection for their feet.

  "Yaw, dot ish him," remarked the German, his effort being to surpriseDeerfoot as well as to please Jack Carleton by the correctness of hisdiction.

  A brief examination of the foot-prints showed that the colt hadtaken matters leisurely after emerging from the Mississippi.Instead of breaking into a gallop and plunging straight into thewoods, he had halted long enough to eat what little grass grewwithin reach, after which he wandered off for more.

  The trail was followed several hundred yards, until a rising groundwas reached. It was observed that for the distance named, the coltwas following a course slightly north of west-the very one which, ifpersevered in long enough, would take him to the log cabin of hisowner.

  Deerfoot said it was likely that the animal had set out of his ownaccord to go home, and, provided he was not secured by somewandering Indians, it was more than likely he would arrive at thatpoint in advance of the boys themselves.

  Jack Carleton held the same views, and Otto, after taking a fullminute to shape up his ideas, said with great impressiveness:

  "Dot ish vot I dinks as--yaw, I dinks dot."

  "Hold on," interrupted Jack, raising his hand with a laugh; "youhave it straight now; don't spoil it by trying to improve it."

  Otto nodded his head and held his peace. He was wise when he didso.

  Deerfoot was on the point of adding an encouraging remark, when hiskeen vision detected something a short distance in advance whichclaimed his attention. Without a word, he motioned for them to holdtheir peace, and then ran rapidly several paces toward that whichhad caught his eye.