CHAPTER XIII.
JOE'S PLAN.
Sam's illness continued day after day, and the boys were greatlytroubled. Little Judie remained by her "big brother's" side almostconstantly, while Tom and Joe provided food, cooked it, and attended tothe wants of the little community to the very best of their ability.They were in the habit too, of retiring now and then, to a secluded spotin the drift-pile, to consult and discuss plans of procedure. One dayTom went to the rendezvous and found Joe there leaning against a log,with his feet on another, and his eyes closed.
"Are you asleep, Joe?" he asked.
"No, Mas' Tom, I'se not asleep," said Joe, "I'se just thinkin'."
"Well, what were you thinking, Joe?"
"I'se been layin' plans, Mas' Tom, an' I's laid one good un anyhow."
"What is it, Joe?"
"Well, you see Mas' Sam ought to have a doctor, an' he's gwine to die ifhe don't, dat's sartain. But dey ain't no doctor here."
Joe said this as if it were a new truth just discovered, that there wasno doctor there.
"Well, go on, Joe," said Tom, "and tell me your plan, maybe it's a goodone."
"Course it's a good un. I dun tell you dat fust."
"Well, what is it?"
"Mas' Tom, don't you know Mas' Sam always begins 'way back whar' he'sbeen thinkin' an' tells all dat fust so you kin see all de why's andwharfores?"
"Yes; but what has that to do with your plan, Joe?"
"Nothin', only dat's de way I'se gwine to 'splain my plan, I'se dunbegun way back whar I'se dun been thinkin', an' I'se gwine to tell all'bout dat fust. Den you'll understan' de whys and wharfores. You mus'n'thurry me, Mas' Tom, dat's all."
"All right, tell it your own way, Joe," said Tom, laughing.
"No, I'se gwine to tell it Mas' Sam's way. Well, you see dey ain't nodoctor here an' we can't git one to come here neither. So we must takeMas' Sam to whar' dey is doctors, do you see?"
"That's all very well," said Tom, "but how are we to do that?"
"Now you'se hurryin' me again, Mas' Tom. Dat's just what I'se a-comin'to. Mas' Sam said de other mornin' dat if we was up de river about eightmiles furder, de fort would be only six miles away, an' de country wouldbe easy 'nuff to cross. He dun say we couldn't git up de river, but we_kin_. You see Mas' Sam was sick, an' dat's de reason he say dat. Now Idun bin thinkin' of a way to git up de river. Dey's lots of cane here,an' you an' me kin twis' canes one over de other like de splits in acha'r bottom, an' dat way, when we gits a dozen big squars of it made,as big both ways as the canes is long, we kin lay 'em on top o' one an'other, an' fasten 'em togedder wid bamboos, an' it'll be a fust-rateraft. Den you an' me kin pole it up stream, keepin' close to de shore,wid Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie on it. When we git up dar, I kin goover to de fort, leavin' you wid Mas' Sam till de folks comes after youall."
This was Joe's plan of operations, and upon thinking it over Tom wasdisposed to think it the best plan possible under the circumstances.Accordingly he and Joe went to work at once. They could not make theraft inside the drift-pile, for want of room, but they found a place inthe bushes near the mouth of the creek, where they could workunobserved. They cut down a large number of the flexible green canes,and wove them together into a square net work. Repeating this operationseveral times they finally had enough of the squares to make, theythought, a secure raft, when laid one on top of the other. It would notdo to join them in the bushes however, as that would make their weightso great that the boys could not lift them to the water. Theydetermined, therefore, to get their pushing poles first, and then tocarry the squares one by one to the river, and, arranging them there, toembark soon after nightfall. The work of construction had occupied manydays, and it was now the 12th of November. The boys hoped to completetheir undertaking the next day and embark the next night. After theirreturn to the drift-pile, however, it occurred to Tom to inquire whetheror not Joe knew the way from the river to the fort, after they shouldreach the end of their voyage.
"I 'clar', Mas' Tom, I never thought o' dat at all!" said Joe inconsternation. "I dunno a foot of de way, an' I dunno whar' de fort iseither."
Tom being equally ignorant, their long consultation held on the spot,ended in an enforced abandonment of the enterprise which had occupiedtheir heads and hands for so long a time.
"Now dar' it is, Mas' Tom," said Joe. "Dat's always the way. Mas' Samnever makes no blunder, 'cause he thinks it all out careful fust. PoorJoe's head gets things all mixed up. I ain't no count anyhow, an' I jestwish I was dead or somethin'."
Poor Joe! The disappointment was a sore one to him. He had been thinkingall along of the glory he should reap as the saviour of the littleparty, and now his whole plan was found to be worthless. He slept littlethat night, and once Tom heard him quietly sobbing in his corner.Creeping over to him Tom said:
"Don't cry, Joe. You did your best anyhow, and it isn't your fault thatyou don't know the way to the fort," and passing his arm around the poorblack boy's neck he gently drew his head to his shoulder, where itrested while the two slept.
The next morning Judie was the first to wake, and she quietly waked Tomand Joe.
"Boys, boys," she cried in a whisper, "the Indians are all around us,there is a fight going on. Get up quick, but don't make any noise."
The little girl was right. Rifles were cracking and Indians yelling allaround their little habitation. It at once occurred to Tom that here washope as well as danger. If the Indians should be driven back by thewhites, he could communicate with the latter and the little garrison ofthe root fortress would be rescued. At present, however, it was thesavages and not the whites who surrounded the trees and the drift pile.Tom determined lose no chance, however, and cautioning the others tokeep still, he went to the look-out to watch for an opportunity tocommunicate with the white men whom these Indians were evidentlyfighting.