CHAPTER XI.
FRANK IN SEARCH OF HIS SUPPER.
"He's out!" shouted Frank, scrambling down out of his tree.
"I thought I could manage him," said Adam. "Don't you think my plan wasthe best? But I say, Frank," he added, as he joined our hero at the topof the hill, "we must fire the rifle once, at least, for we want somesupper."
"If we could use a bow and arrow as well as the Black Fox, we would notneed the rifle. Now, one of us had better stay here, and build a fire inthe cave, and gather a supply of wood for the night, while the othergoes out and knocks over a big-horn. The mountains about here are fullof them."
"Well, seeing that you are the best shot, perhaps you had better go tomarket. By the time you get back, I will have every thing ready. Youare not afraid to go?"
No, Frank was not afraid, but still he did not like the idea ofwandering off alone among those mountains. He would have felt much moreat his ease if the big-horn had already been killed, and was ready forthe spit. Besides the danger of getting lost, there were the outlaws,who might hear the report of his rifle, and pounce down upon him beforehe could secure his game and make good his retreat to the cave. He andhis companion might have gone without their suppers for that nightwithout serious inconvenience, but they were still eighty miles fromFort Benton, and, while they were traveling across the prairie, theymight not find any thing to shoot, for the Indians had doubtlessfrightened away all the game. If Frank succeeded in killing a big-horn,it was their intention to cook it all, and carry with them a supply ofthe meat sufficient to last them until they reached the fort.
Adam began looking about for dry wood with which to start the fire inthe cave, and Frank shouldered his rifle and started down the cliff. Hefollowed the same course which he, and Archie, and the trapper hadpursued on a former occasion, when they went out to hunt big-horns, andpresently found himself in the ravine in which his cousin had met withhis first adventure with a grizzly. Dick had once told him that if thetrees in that ravine could speak, they could relate many a thrillingstory about him and Bill Lawson; and Frank thought that, if they couldfind tongues now, they might have something to say concerning himselfthat would prove interesting.
The deer-path which Frank was following ran through the ravine for abouthalf a mile, and then led down the side of a precipitous cliff, andterminated on a rocky ledge, perhaps twenty-five feet square, in thecenter of which was a spring of water. When Frank reached the edge ofthis cliff, he looked over it very cautiously, and was gratified to see,about a hundred feet below him, a noble elk, with wide-spreadingantlers, drinking from the spring.
"Our supper is all right," soliloquized the young hunter, after he hadtaken a good survey of the ledge, and calculated the animal's chancesfor escape in case he failed to disable him at the first shot. "Thatledge juts out into a gorge which is much too wide for any deer to jump.If he tries it, I am sure of him, for he will fall on the rocks and bekilled. He can't scale the cliff, unless he comes up the path; and, ifhe tries that, I'll be here to stop him."
Frank did not usually spend as many minutes in getting ready for a shotas he did on this particular evening. On ordinary occasions, his riflewas at his shoulder the instant the game appeared in sight; and onequick glance along the barrel made him sure of his aim. But this was notan ordinary occasion. He was working for his supper now, there wereenemies all around him, and it was rapidly growing dark. He must killthe elk at the first shot, secure a portion of it (the animal was solarge and heavy he knew he could not carry it all), and make his wayback to the Old Bear's Hole without the loss of a single minute. Heraised his rifle and took a long and deliberate aim at the buck, andjust then the animal bounded across the spring and came leisurely upthe path. For a single second his breast presented a fair mark; butthat second was long enough for Frank. The rifle cracked sharply, andthe elk, turning in his tracks, made one tremendous bound, and, leapingclear across the ledge, disappeared among the trees which lined thesides of the gorge. Frank's supper was not all right, after all.
"Now just look at that!" he exclaimed, in a tone of greatdisappointment. "When one is in a hurry, something always happens totrouble him. The deer is dead enough, but what good will he do me aslong as he lies at the bottom of the gully?"
As Frank said this, he jumped to his feet, and, running down the path,looked over the ledge. The bushes were so thick that he could not seethe bottom of the gorge; but there were drops of blood on the leaves,and Frank knew that the fall had proved fatal to the buck, even if theshot had not. What plan could he contrive to descend into the ravine wasthe question that troubled him now; and it was one that was asked andanswered almost in the same breath. He chanced to look toward the topof the cliff, and was frightened nearly out of his senses when hediscovered two Indians advancing toward him with stealthy footsteps. Hewas now in the same situation in which the elk had been but a momentbefore, with this slight difference: He was conscious of the presence ofhis enemies, while the first intimation of danger the buck had was,receiving the ball in his breast. There was no place of concealment onthe ledge, and he had his choice between two courses of action: One wasto ascend the path in the face of the Indians, and the other to jumpover into the ravine. He was not long in coming to a decision. He took asingle glance at the Indians, and, seeing that one of them was in theact of raising his gun to take aim at him, he tightened his grasp on hisrifle, which he held in his left hand, and seizing with his right thebushes that grew on the edge of the precipice, he fearlessly threwhimself into the gorge, while the bullet that was intended for him spedharmlessly through the empty air. The Indian was just a moment too late.
Both savages uttered loud yells of astonishment as they witnessed thisact of desperation, and, bounding swiftly down the path, they leanedover the rocks to see what had become of the reckless young hunter. Thebushes, by the aid of which he had swung himself over the precipice,sprang back to their place, but Frank was nowhere to be seen. TheIndians thought, no doubt, that he had paid for his temerity with hislife, and that he was lying mangled and bleeding at the bottom of thegorge; but could they have looked under the overhanging rock on whichthey were kneeling, they would have seen him standing erect and unharmedabout ten feet below them, with his rifle clubbed, ready to strike thefirst of his foes who came in sight. His attempt at escape was not soreckless as the Indians imagined it to be. While standing on the ledge,he noticed that the branches of a tree, which grew at the bottom of theravine, extended almost to the top of the precipice, and he thought hecould jump into them with perfect safety. Still he hesitated to try it,until he discovered the Indians, and then he found that he had noalternative. To assist him in his descent, and to render the attemptless hazardous, he made use of the bushes, which, contrary to hiscalculations, swung with him far below the top of the tree, and out ofreach of it. This proved, however, to be a point in his favor; for, tohis great surprise and delight, he landed on a broad, flat rock, whichwas effectually concealed from the view of the Indians by theoverhanging cliff. It seemed as if this way of escape had been preparedexpressly for him. If he had built the cliff himself he could not havedevised a better hiding-place. His enemies, even if they discovered him,could not climb up to him from the bottom of the cliff, for it was sosteep that a mountain-goat could scarcely have found footing thereon;and if they descended to him from above, he would shoot the first onewho came in sight.
"I am all right yet," thought the young hunter, drawing a long breath ofrelief, and feeling for his powder-horn. "There is only one way in whichthe Indians can get the better of me, and that is by starving me out.Adam must go without his supper to-night, for I have business on myhands that will----"
Frank paused in his soliloquy, and his face once more grew pale withterror. He could find no ammunition for his rifle. When Adam removed thepowder-horn and bullet-pouch from the person of the outlaw, he hadthrown them over his own shoulders, and there they were now. Frank hadleft his companion without thinking to ask for them. He was in somethingof a predic
ament, standing, as he was, almost within reach of twohostile Indians, and without even a charge of powder or a bullet for hisrifle. A movement at the top of the cliff drew his thoughts from himselfto his enemies. They leaned over the precipice and conversed earnestlyfor a few minutes, and then one of them sprang into the air and landedin the branches of the tree. Fortunately his back was turned towardFrank, and this gave the latter an opportunity to conceal himself, whichhe quickly did. The savage, little dreaming that the object of hissearch was so near to him, descended the tree and disappeared among thebushes which lined the sides of the gorge.
While Frank was waiting to see what the other Indian was going to do, hewas sure that he heard the sound of a desperate struggle at the bottomof the ravine. It continued but a moment, and then all was still again.He might have been mistaken in this, but still he was certain thatsomething had happened down there, and so was the Indian, who, afterwaiting nearly ten minutes for the report of his companion, uttered somewords in the Indian tongue. An answer came from below, and the savagesprang into the tree and quickly descended to the bottom of the gorge.Frank thought he had gone down to assist in cutting up the buck; but ifthat was his intention, he did not carry it out. His companion had beentomahawked the moment he reached the foot of the tree, and a like fatewas in store for him. Two trappers, one of them in the disguise of anIndian, were concealed among the bushes in the ravine, awaiting hisappearance. The wary savage, always on the lookout for danger,discovered his foes, but just a moment too late. The report of a riflerang through the mountains, and the Indian, falling headlong to theground, was instantly pounced up by the trappers, and dispatched as ifhe had been a rabid wolf. Frank's ears told him what had been going on,and his heart beat high with hope. Friends were near, and he was certainthat he knew who they were. Without stopping to consider that theremight be more Indians in the vicinity, who would be attracted by thesound of his voice, he called out: "Dick Lewis!"
There was silence for a moment, and then came the reply: "Show yourself,you keerless feller!"
Frank, too overjoyed to speak again, was on his feet in an instant, andpreparing to descend into the ravine. There was but one way toaccomplish this, and that was to spring into the tree. It was a longjump from where he stood, and, if he failed to catch one of the limbs,or if it proved too weak to sustain his weight, he would fall forty orfifty feet. But Frank did not stop to think of this. Grasping his rifletightly in one hand, he sprang into the air, and, by the aid of afriendly branch, swung down to the body of the tree in safety. In amoment more he was standing between Dick and Bob, who were wringing hishands with an energy that brought the tears to his eyes.
But little time was wasted in explanations. Frank told the trappers thathe had left Adam at the Old Bear's Hole, and that he had come out insearch of his supper; and Dick told him that he and Bob were travelingthrough the ravine, on their way to the cave, when they heard the reportof the rifle and saw the buck fall over the precipice. They also heardthe voices of the Indians on the cliff, and, supposing that they ownedthe game, and that they would be likely to descend into the ravine tosecure it, they concealed themselves in the bushes to await theirappearance. The first savage who came down the tree was easilyoverpowered; and when his companion called out: "Do you see any thing ofthe white man?" (that was the first intimation the trappers had thatthere was a white hunter about) Dick replied: "Yes; he's here, but Ican't get at him." "That brought the Injun down, you see," said thelatter, in conclusion, "an' when he come in sight, we sent him wherehe'll never get a chance to attack any more peaceable tradin'-posts,I'll bet a hoss. Fetch along the mustang, Bob, an' we'll start for theOle Bar's Hole."
The horse was brought up, and Frank fairly danced with delight when hefound that it was Roderick. The animal recognized his master, andanswered his caresses by rubbing his head against his shoulder. Franksprang upon his back, and the trappers, after they had raised the elkfrom the ground and placed it before him, led the way toward the cave.It was quite dark when they arrived within sight of it, but Dick knew inan instant that there was something wrong; and so did Bob, who placedhis hand on his companion's shoulder and pointed toward the top of thecliff.
"My eyes aint as good as they used to be," said he, "but if that aint anInjun up thar, I never seed one."
"An' if that aint one of Black Bill's mates standin' at the foot of thecliff, may I be shot!" added Dick.
"Then they've tracked us, after all the trouble we took to throw themoff our trail!" whispered Frank, in great excitement. "Who knows butthat they have captured Adam?"
"If they have, we'll soon turn him loose," replied Dick. "Now,youngster, you stay here, an' me an' Bob will creep up an' take a lookat things. If thar aint nobody in the cave except Black Bill an' hisfriends, we'll clean 'em out in a hurry. We've got a long account tosettle with one of them fellers, an' this is jest the time to do it."
The trappers stole off in the darkness, and Frank sat on his horse andawaited the issue of events with feelings that can not be described. Hesaw Dick and Bob creep noiselessly upon the outlaw who stood at the footof the cliff, and seize, gag, and bind him; and so silently was thewhole operation performed, in spite of the man's furious struggles, thathe did not hear even a leaf rustle. One enemy had been disposed of; butthere were still three others, besides the Indian, to be overcome.
"If I had a load for my rifle I wouldn't sit here long," said Frank, tohimself. "I know there will be a desperate fight in that cave if BlackBill is there, and perhaps just one bullet may be needed to decide thebattle in our favor. What in the world was that?"
A thin sheet of flame, followed by a dense volume of smoke, suddenlyarose from the mouth of the upper passage-way. The moment's silencethat succeeded was broken by cries of pain and loud yells of anger, andthrough the smoke, which settled like a cloud over the cliff, the Indianappeared, running at the top of his speed, as if badly frightened atsomething, and directing his course toward a thicket of bushes at theopposite side of the ravine. The thought that it was the Black Fox hadscarcely passed through Frank's mind when he discovered that there weretwo horses tied to the bushes, and that the Indian was running towardthem, evidently with the intention of mounting one of them and makinggood his escape. Frank leaned forward to obtain a better view of theanimals, and, in a moment more, the elk had been pitched to the ground,and Roderick was flying down the ravine with the speed of the wind.
"Stop, you Black Fox!" shouted Frank, swinging his rifle around his headand giving vent to a yell that awoke the echoes far and near. "I've gotsomething to say about this business."
One of the horses was Pete, and the other was King James. WhileRoderick had been faithfully serving the trappers--he had carried DickLewis through that desperate hand-to-hand fight at the fort, and, likehim, escaped without a single injury--his swift rival had been equallyfaithful to one of the outlaws. Black Bill had captured him from one ofthe soldiers during the fight, and, recognizing Dick's massive formamong the struggling horsemen, he had made every exertion to come toclose quarters with him. Roderick moved so swiftly, however, that theblack could not overtake him; and perhaps that was a fortunate thing forthe outlaw, if he had only known it. While Dick was cutting his waythrough the ranks of the Indians, he was keeping a bright lookout forBlack Bill, and if he could have found him, and brought him within reachof the cavalry saber which he was wielding with such telling effect, hewould have put a sudden stop to his career of depredation. Pete hadcarried Black Bill many a long mile since his master last saw him; butnow he seemed in a fair way to fall into the hands of his rightfulowner.
"Stop, I tell you!" shouted Frank, again. "You are at the end of yourrope now, my hearty."
The young Indian heard the order, but paid no attention to it. He randirectly to the horses, and, springing upon King James's back, cut thelasso, with which he was tied, with his knife, and went tearing down theravine, with Frank in hot pursuit. The time had come now to decide thequestion which had been so long in dispute. This was to be a
fair race,and Frank wished his cousin had been there to witness it, for he wassure of a victory.
A few of Roderick's long bounds carried him through the willows and outon the prairie, where Frank discovered the Indian, almost a hundredyards distant, lying flat along his horse's neck, one hand twisted inhis mane, and the other swinging the lasso, which he now and thenbrought down on the black's side with a sounding whack. Roderick seemedto know what was expected of him, for he increased his speed the momenthe emerged from the willows, and then the race began in earnest. Thegray gained from the start, and rapidly, too; and, before half a milehad been accomplished, Frank was so close to the object of his pursuitthat he leaned forward to catch him by the scalp-lock.
"I guess you'll stop now, Indian!" he exclaimed. "Well, it makes nodifference to me which way you take it, on foot or on horseback, for Ican beat you."
The Indian, for once, was a little too quick for Frank. Slipping like aneel out of his grasp, he threw himself from his horse without attemptingto check his headlong speed, and, landing safely on his feet, startedback toward the willows. Frank was on the ground almost at the sameinstant; and then began another race, which, like the one that had comeoff the day before at the Indian camp, was decided in favor of thefleet-footed young hunter. The Black Fox, however, was desperate to thelast; and, after the race, a fight ensued. One quick, determined blowwith the rifle knocked the knife from the savage's hand; but that wasnot the end of the matter--it was only the beginning of it. The youngwarrior's strength and agility seemed to have increased wonderfullysince their last meeting, and the struggle, which continued at least tenminutes, was decided only by Frank's superior powers of endurance. Hecame off with flying colors; and when he helped his prisoner to hisfeet, his arms were fastened behind his back with his own belt.