The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains Read online

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  DANGEROUS NEIGHBOURS.

  Upon reaching the waggon it was to find Joses smiling and sniffing as hestood on the leeward side of the fire, so as to get the full benefit ofthe odour of the well-done sage grouse which looked juicy brown, anddelicious enough to tempt the most ascetic of individuals, while Maudelaughed merrily to see the eager glances Bart kept directing at the ironrod upon which the birds had been spitted and hung before the fire.

  "Don't you wish we had a nice new loaf or two, Bart?" she said, lookingvery serious, and as if disappointed that this was not the case.

  "Oh, don't talk about it," cried Bart.

  "I won't," said Maude, trying to appear serious. "It makes you looklike a wolf, Bart."

  "And that's just how I feel," he cried--"horribly like one."

  Half an hour later he owned that he felt more like a reasonable being,for not only had he had a fair portion of the delicate sage grouse, butfound to his delight that there was an ample supply of cakes freshlymade and baked in the ashes while he had been with the Doctor exploring.

  Bart took one turn round their little camp before lying down to sleep,and by the wonderfully dark, star-encrusted sky, the great flat-toppedmountain looked curiously black, and as if it leaned over towards wherethey were encamped, and might at any moment topple down and crush them.

  So strange was this appearance, and so thoroughly real, that it was along time before Bart could satisfy himself that it was only the shadowthat impressed him in so peculiar a way. Once he had been about to callthe attention of the Doctor to the fact, but fortunately, as he thought,he refrained.

  "He lay down directly," said Bart to himself as he walked on, and thenhe stopped short, startled, for just before him in the solemn stillnessof the great plain, and just outside the shadow cast by the mountain, hesaw what appeared to be an enormously tall, dark figure coming towardshim in perfect silence, and seeming as if it glided over the sandyearth.

  Bart's heart seemed to stand still. His mouth felt dry. His breathcame thick and short. He could not run, for his feet appeared to befixed to the ground, and all he felt able to do was to wait while thefigure came nearer and nearer, through the transparent darkness, till itwas close upon him, and said in a low voice that made the youth startfrom his lethargy, unchaining as it did his faculties, and giving himthe power to move:

  "Hallo, Bart! I thought you were asleep."

  "I thought you were, sir," said Bart.

  "Well, I'm going to lie down now, my boy, but I've been walking in asilver dream. Better get back."

  He said no more, but walked straight to the little camp, while,pondering upon the intent manner in which his guardian seemed to givehimself up to this dream of discovering silver, Bart began to make acircuit of the camp, finding to his satisfaction that the Beaver hadposted four men as sentinels, Joses telling his young leader afterwardswhen he lay down that the chief had refused to allow either of the whitemen to go on duty that night.

  "You think he is to be trusted, don't you, Joses?" asked Bart sleepily.

  "Trusted? Oh yes, he's to be trusted, my lad. Injuns are as bad as canbe, but some of 'em's got good pyntes, and this one, though he mighthave scalped the lot of us once upon a time, became our friend as soonas the Doctor cured his arm. And it was a cure too, for now it's asstrong and well as ever. I tell you what, Master Bart."

  No answer.

  "I tell you what, Master Bart."

  No answer.

  "I say, young one, are you asleep?"

  No reply.

  "Well, he has dropped off sudden," growled Joses. "I suppose I musttell him what another time."

  Having made up his mind to this, the sturdy fellow gave himself a bit ofa twist in his blanket, laid his head upon his arm, and in a few secondswas as fast asleep as Bart.

  The latter slept soundly all but once in the night, when it seemed tohim that he had heard a strange, wild cry, and, starting up on hiselbow, he listened attentively for some moments, but the cry was notrepeated, and feeling that it must have been in his dreams that he hadheard the sound, he lay down again and slept till dawn, when he sprangup, left every one asleep, and stole off, rifle in hand, to see if hecould get a shot at a deer anywhere about the mountain, and also to havea look down into the tremendous canyon about whose depths and whoserushing stream he seemed to have been dreaming all the night.

  He recollected well enough the way they had gone on the previousevening, and as he stepped swiftly forward, there, at the bottom of thenarrow rift between the mass of fallen rock and the mountain, was thepale lemon-tinted horizon, with a few streaks above it flecking theearly morning sky and telling of the coming day.

  "The canyon will look glorious when the sun is up," said Bart tohimself; "but I don't see any game about, and--oh!--"

  _Click_--_click_--_click_--_click_ went the locks of his double rifle ashe came suddenly upon a sight which seemed to freeze his blood, forcinghim to stand still and gaze wildly upon what was before him.

  Then the thought of self-preservation stepped in, and as if from thelessons taught of the Indians, he sprang to shelter, sheltering himselfbehind a block of stone, his rifle ready, and covering every spot inturn that seemed likely to contain the cruel enemy that had done thisdeed.

  For there before him--but flat upon his back, his arms outstretched, hislong lance beneath him--lay one of the friendly Indians, while hiscompanion lay half raised upon his side, as if he had dragged himself ashort distance so as to recline with his head upon a piece of rock. Hisspear was across his legs, and it was very evident that he had been likethis for some time after receiving his death wound.

  For both were dead, the morning light plainly showing that in theirhideous glassy eyes, without the terrible witness of the pool of bloodthat had trickled from their gaping wounds.

  Bart shuddered and felt as if a hand of ice were grasping his heart.Then a fierce feeling of rage came over him, and his eyes flashed as helooked round for the treacherous enemies who had done this deed.

  He looked in vain, and at last he stole cautiously out of hislurking-place; then forgot his caution, and ran to where the Indianslay, forgetting, in his eagerness to help them, the horrors of thescene.

  But he could do nothing, for as he laid his hand upon the breast of eachin turn, it was to find that their hearts had ceased to beat, and theywere already cold.

  Racing back to the camp, he spread his news, and the Beaver and hislittle following ran off to see for themselves the truth of his story,after which they mounted, and started to find the trail of thetreacherous murderers of their companions, while during their absencethe Doctor examined the two slaughtered Indians, and gave it as hisopinion that they had both been treacherously stabbed from behind.

  It was past mid-day before the Beaver returned to announce that therehad only been two Indians lurking about their camp.

  "And did you overtake them?" said Bart.

  The chief smiled in a curious, grim way, and pointed to a couple ofscalps that hung at the belts of two of his warriors.

  "They were on foot. We were mounted," he said quietly. "They deservedto die. We had not injured them, or stolen their wives or horses. Theydeserved to die."

  This was unanswerable, and no one spoke, the Indians going off to burytheir dead companions, which they did simply by finding a suitablecrevice in the depths of the ravine near which they had been slain,laying them in side by side, with their medicine-bags hung from theirnecks, their weapons ready to their hands, and their buffalo robes aboutthem, all ready for their use in the happy hunting-grounds.

  This done they were covered first with bushes, and then with stones, andthe Indians returned to camp.