CHAPTER XII.
"JUST TURNED AROUND, AND WENT AWAY!"
It was certainly a time for quick thinking, and speedy action, if theboys expected to avoid a tragedy. Naturally enough, Kracker and hisone remaining companion, hearing the cries of the fallen Waffles,would think that they were being actually set upon by their enemies,and that no matter what followed, they must fight.
It was to offset this that Thad first of all turned his attention. Acollision must be averted at all hazards. It would be a terrible thingif the scouts became embroiled in a fight with such men, and eitherreceived wounds, or were compelled to give them.
And so Thad, acting instantly on impulse, darted forward the very secondhe saw what was happening. Fortunately for all parties, the big manhaving been so dazed by his late baiting did not seem able to grasp thesituation quickly enough to draw a weapon before Thad was upon him.
The only thing the boy did was to snatch the big six-shooter from thehand of Kracker, now trembling with various emotions, in which fearmay have had as much space as anger.
"Surround the other, and don't let him raise a hand, boys!" shoutedthe scoutmaster to those who had followed close at his heels when hethus rushed forward.
With the words he turned to where Waffles was still sprawling on theground; but there was now more reason than ever why the fellow couldnot get up, because some one was sitting astride his body, andthreatening him with a knife. Of course it was the Fox; and he seemedto have a storm of passion in his dark face.
But while Thad had been prompt to knock the revolver from the hand ofKracker, he was just as quick to leap alongside the young Crow boy,and grasp his wrist.
"Give me that knife, Fox!" he said sternly.
The Indian looked up in his face; for a moment it seemed as though hemight be about to mutiny, and positively refuse the order; then hiswhim changed, and opening his fingers he allowed the shining blade tofall to the ground.
"Ugh! hunt him long time; now find, make give up what snake in thegrass steal away from teepee in reservation!" he grunted,disconsolately.
"Oh! well, if he's got anything that belongs to you, or your people,why you've my full permission to search him, and get it back," Thadwent on to say, quickly; "only we want no violence here, if we canhelp it. We scouts generally manage to reach our ends without that,you know, Fox. Go ahead and see. We'll keep his friends quietmeanwhile, eh, boys?"
"That's what we will, Thad," said Giraffe, who was standing close by,with his gun poking almost into the ribs of the big man with thepurple face. "We c'n do it to beat the band, I tell you. And herecomes Allan in, to have a hand in the game. Didn't he keep a bead onthe colonel here all the while; and if you hadn't jumped in, andsnatched that gun away from him, I warrant Allan was just on the pointof making him a one-armed man for a while."
But Thad was not paying much attention to what the talkative Giraffesaid, his attention being taken up with other matters. The Fox hadheard him give permission to search the pockets of the short rascal hewas holding down, after having caught him in the loop of Bumpus' rope,taken slily from the limb of the tree where the fat scout carefullykept it while in camp. The light that flashed athwart the mahoganycolored face of the young Crow told how pleased he was with thischance that was offered.
He immediately started to rummage through the various pockets ofWaffles. Quite naturally the lesser bully objected to such libertiesbeing taken with his person; and it must have galled him more than alittle to realize that it was an _Indian_, and a boy at that, who wassubjecting him to such indignities; for like most men along theborder, Waffles undoubtedly held Indians in contempt.
But when he raised his voice in stormy protest Thad told him to hushup; besides, the Fox leaned over and glared in his eyes with such asuggestive look that Waffles, being a coward at heart, graduallysubsided, his protests taking the safer form of groans, and grunts,and wriggles, all of which were alike unavailing.
Presently the Crow uttered a cry of joy.
"Found what you were looking for?" asked Thad.
"Ugh! it is well!" and as he said this the Fox held something up.
Thad may have thought that the Indian boy was making a mountain out ofa mole-hill, for if it had been left to him, he did not know that hewould have willingly paid more than a dollar, at the most, for theobject the Fox now gripped with such evident delight. But then, at thesame time Thad realized that associations often have a great deal todo with the value of things. That peculiar strip of deerskin,decorated with colored beads that formed all sorts of designs, musthave come down from some of the Fox's ancestors. Perhaps it was aspecies of wampum similar to that in use as currency during theearlier days, when men like Daniel Boone were trying to settle alongthe Ohio River. And then again, it might be that the fore-fathers ofthe Fox always wore this strip of beaded leather when they wereinvested with the office of chief to the tribe.
At any rate, Waffles had apparently known of its value, and had stolenit, possibly hoping at some time to receive a rich reward for its safereturn; for surely he could not have fancied it because he had anylove for beauty, or meant to start a collection of Indian relics.
"Are you satisfied, Fox, now that you've recovered your property--ifthat is all he took from your home?" Thad asked.
"Huh! much like mark thief on him cheek, so know where belong!"grunted the Crow boy, longingly.
"Don't you let him!" almost shrieked the wretched Waffles, doubtlessfearing that he was going to be tortured, as a penalty for hisshortcomings. "Them Injuns jest like to mark a man all up, when theygits the chanct. Tell him to git off'n me! I ain't a goin' to standfur it! If he so much as puts the p'int of his knife on me I'll vowto----"
"Keep still, you cowardly thief!" said Thad, sternly; and even Wafflesseemed influenced by the hidden power in the scoutmaster's tone, forhe broke off in the middle of a sentence, and finished it by mumblingto himself.
Speaking to the Indian boy Thad went on:
"Run your hand over him again, and hand me any weapon you find. He'sin a state where he might lose his head, and get us all into a fight,if we let him go armed."
Willingly the Crow boy did as he was told. The search revealed a bigrevolver that was apparently the mate of the one Thad had knocked fromthe hand of Kracker.
"Now get that other fellow's rifle, Allan," continued the patrolleader, who had mapped out his plan of campaign quickly.
He did not trust these men further than he could see them. They werequite unscrupulous; and after having been held up to scorn by thisparcel of boys, there was every reason in the world to believe thatthey would plan a hasty revenge. And the fewer deadly weapons they hadin their possession the better the chances would be for peace in thatmountain valley.
The rifle in particular Thad wanted to hold back. With it, damagemight be done at a much greater distance than with the smaller arms.And knowing that the boys had long distance modern rifles, possiblyKracker and his followers might keep out of range.
Besides, there was that business of Aleck's concerning the hiddenmine; they had promised to stand back of him until he had secured fullpossession; and that was apt to keep them in the neighborhood for sometime, always subjected to annoyance from these anxious ones, wholonged to secure the prize that had tantalized their species for solong.
So the rifle, and what ammunition Dickey Bird happened to be carryingin a belt slung over his shoulder, fell into the hands of the boys.They also retained possession of one of the heavy revolvers; not thatany one fancied the clumsy weapon in the least; but as Thad said, "tocut the wings of the party as much as possible."
"Let Waffles get up, now, Fox," said Thad, when all these matters hadbeen adjusted, much to the admiration of the other scouts, who thoughttheir leader must be just "IT" when it came to doing things.
The shorter rascal was not slow to gain his feet. He was still boilingover with a sense of insult added to injury, and ready to vent hiswrath in offensive words; but Thad cut all this short.
"List
en to me, Waffles," he said, sternly again; "We don't care tohear your opinion of anything. Take a lesson from the colonel here,who knows when silence is golden. You don't hear him swearing around,and threatening to break a blood-vessel in his mad feeling. He'staking it all as cool as a cucumber. He knows when it's a time tolaugh, and when it's a time to cry. Now, the sooner you gentlemengive us your room, the better we'll be pleased; and be sure to make itplenty of room, too; because we're all going to be ready to takesnapshots at any of you we see, after half an hour has gone by."
Kracker moved his lips, but strange to say not a sound proceeded fromthem. The man was so completely overpowered by his emotions that forthe time being he had actually lost all power of speech. For this Thadwas pleased, because he believed that had the big prospector been ableto say one half that was bubbling through his mind, they must havebeen treated to an awful exhibition of hard words.
So the three men turned their backs on their tormentors, and walkedaway; but it was certainly true that their retreat did not smack inthe least of the jaunty and threatening manner of their late advance.They had, as Giraffe crowed jubilantly, "the wind taken from theirsails, and just turned around, and went away."
"Wonder if we'll see anything more of 'em again?" remarked Bumpus, whohad really carried himself quite handsomely through it all; thoughmost of the time his eyes had seemed to be fairly bulging from hishead, and he could be heard saying words over and over to himself toindicate surprise.
"I hope not," remarked Thad; "but it wouldn't surprise me if theybobbed up again later on. You see, it's perhaps the biggest stakeKracker ever played for; and for years now this hidden mine has keptdancing before him, beckoning him on. He won't give it up easily, I'mafraid. There, look at him turn, and shake his fat fist at us! Thatshows how he feels about it. He'd just like to have us tied up rightnow, so he could lay on the whip, good and hard. But boys, after this,it's for us to keep a good lookout all the time. Such fellows asKracker and the others wouldn't hesitate at anything, if only they sawa chance to win out."
And at his words Giraffe and his mates nodded their heads; but there wasno loud demonstration; for somehow they seemed to realize the gravity ofthe game they were now playing, with the long lost mine as the stake.