CHAPTER XIV
THE MANEUVRES OF DEERFOOT
Deerfoot the Shawanoe committed a serious mistake as he himself wasthe first to discover, when he upset the Miami warrior into theMississippi and made off with his canoe. He had started out to helphis friends, but his course was an injury to them, for it increasedtheir danger without giving them the least assistance.
What he ought to have done, when he observed the drowsy fisherman,was to bring the boys to the spot, so that, directly after the redman was dispossessed, the three could have entered the boat andhastened across the river. Had he done so, all that which followedwould have be averted.
In referring to the course of the young Shawano the most incrediblestatement is that the blunder was altogether due to his waggishness,because in his eagerness to play a joke upon an enemy, he forgot hisusual caution; but such was the truth.
The warrior, however, was not the one to stay on the western shorewhen his friends were in danger. Though he had told them to expecthim back at a certain hour, early in the afternoon, his intentionwas to return much earlier. It would have been folly for him tomake for any point near that from which he departed when he set outfrom the Kentucky shore. Such a proceeding would be seen by hisenemies, and would invite them to riddle him with bullets as heapproached.
The moment he touched the Louisiana side, he ran under theoverhanging limbs far enough to be out of sight of any who might beon the watch, and then pushed vigorously up stream. He continueduntil he had gone fully a half mile and had rounded quite a bend inthe river. Then he paddled straight across to the other bank, downwhich he made his way with the same haste.
He speedily arrived in the vicinity of the lads and prepared, in hischaracteristic fashion, to take a hand in their rescue. Hoping thatthe chance for flight would speedily come, he carefully drew thecanoe under cover, where he was confident it would not be seen byany enemies prowling in the vicinity. Then he stealthily plungedinto the wood to give what help he could to his friends.
It took him only a little while to find they were at bay within thelog enclosure and in much greater danger than he first supposed.The discovery caused a change in his plans. He returned to thecanoe and took out the rifle which he had captured; his bow and,arrows were not left within the boat, for he valued them too highlyto incur such risk; they were hidden where he knew no one couldpossibly steal them away from him. Then the little phial which hecarried in the receptacle with his Bible was uncorked and thecrimson paint applied with his forefinger to his face. Theornamentation was as fantastical as the imagination of the nativeAmerican could make it.
Viewed for the first time by those who did not know him, he wouldhave been classed as one of the fiercest warriors that ever went onthe war trail. Had he been a pagan instead of a Christian, the ideawould have been a correct one.
But Deerfoot was handicapped from the first by the fact that he wasknown to more than one of the party. It may be said that at thatday there was scarcely a Shawanoe east of the Mississippi who hadnot heard of the execrated friend of the white men. They knew thathis favorite weapons, beside his knife and tomahawk, were his bowand arrows; that his skill with them approached the marvelous; theyknew that his fleetness surpassed that of any living person that hepossessed a form and features of rare beauty; that his courage wassurpassed by none, for, when but a stripling, he had handed a knifeto the furious Tecumseh, and dared him to fight unto the death, andthat his cunning and subtlety were beyond the reach of the ordinarywarrior.
Deerfoot himself was aware of his general notoriety, and, though hemight not have been seen by the Shawanoes, yet they would identifyhim at the first glance, provided he appeared before them in his ownproper person.
It will be understood, therefore, why he disguised his appearancewith such care. With the shrewdness of one of our moderndetectives, he made a change also, as may be said, in "himself"that is, he walked differently, and used his arms and legs in stylealtogether foreign to his custom.
It must be remembered that there were several strong points in hisfavor; his was the tribe whose warriors hated him with unspeakablehatred, and he therefore was a master of every detail. When he wasassisted by the gloom of night, he was in scarcely any danger,though it was far different under the glare of the sun.
Another advantage should be named, inasmuch as the reader is apt tooverlook it; the separate war parties from the Shawanoe and Miamitribes were not only few in numbers, but they had not met untilafter arriving in the neighborhood where the youthful pioneers weretraveling with little fear of molestation. Thus, in a certainsense, the warriors, while allies, were comparative strangers.After disguising himself he believed his identity would not bediscovered by the Miamis, unless, possibly, by the lone fisherman.There was also a fair prospect that he could avert suspicion for atime on the part of the Shawanoes, unless particular attention wasdirected to him.
The foregoing seems necessary in order to justify what was done bythe wonderful Deerfoot. He managed to appear on the outer fringe ofthe ring of assailants, without drawing special notice, and he usedall his skill in learning what the assailants intended to do.
The warrior who had been shot while in the act of climbing over thelogs after the boys, met his fate before Deerfoot arrived on thescene. The Indians were in a revengeful mood, and were unanimous intheir determination to visit the worst punishment on the youths whowere making such a brave fight for their lives.
"But for Deerfoot they would not be in this sad plight," was thethought of the young Shawanoe; "therefore the Great Spirit expectsDeerfoot not to think of his own life until they are saved from thedeath which threatens them."
Fortunately for this purpose the warriors were scattered to aconsiderable extent, and seemed to give their whole thoughts tothose within the enclosure. Deerfoot knew, when he observed theheavy log borne forward, and the butt placed on the wall, that itwas meant to be used to carry out some plan not clearly settled inthe minds of the assailants themselves. When he saw a move to climbthe trees which stood near the rude fort, he feared his friendswould be caught unawares, and he took to a tree with the hope ofbeing able to give them warning in time.
On this point it will be seen the young warrior underrated thewoodcraft of his friends. With a thrill of pleasure he glanced atthe rifle of Jack Carleton pointed at him, before he had sought toopen communication. It was only a natural precaution which led himto select a tree where he was able to use the sign language, withoutbeing seen by any of his enemies below. He made sure that enoughfoliage intervened to screen him from the inquiring gaze of hisenemies during the proceeding.
Having made certain that his identity was known to his friends, itwill be remembered that the sought to warn them of the very perilwhich threatened from the tree on the other side. Failing to makehimself clear, he raised his own gun with the intention of shootingthe savage from the perch, but providentially Otto Relstaub avertedthe necessity.
It is difficult to believe that had Deerfoot fired the shot he couldhave effected his own escape. The point from which the gun wasdischarged must have made itself manifest to more than one warriorbelow, and would have involved him in a labyrinth of peril, wherehis subtlety must have failed him.
But it need not be repeated that he would not have faltered on thataccount, had the need existed. He believed it his duty to hesitateat no risk, because he himself was wholly to blame for the direstraits in which the boys found themselves.
With a grim enjoyment that can hardly be understood, Deerfoot stoodin the background and watched the antics of the warrior who hadwrapped the bear-skin about his shoulders and body. He could notavoid a feeling of admiration for the cleverness with which thefront was arranged, so as to resemble that of the beast, but he feltnot the slightest fear that the trick would succeed. It was such anantiquated stratagem that he wondered it was attempted, especiallyafter the defenders had given so convincing evidence of theirwatchfulness.
His amazement, therefore, may be appre
ciated when he saw thecreature slowly make his way to the edge of the fort, look down onthe boys, and then back a few steps and drop to ground.
He could not believe they had failed penetrate a disguise whichcould scarcely hope to deceive, except under very favoringcircumstance but concluded they must have refrained good reason oftheir own.
While these troublesome thoughts were in the mind of Deerfoot, hekept his eye on the Miami, whose scant clothing had not dried afterhis voluntary plunge into the Mississippi, from the bow of hiscanoe. His victim acted as though he entertained some doubts as tothe identity of the individual that did not mingle with the mainbody of the warriors.
Deerfoot knew that if he did suspect the truth, his curiosity waslikely to cause trouble. The time had come when it was the part ofwisdom to withdraw.
At last the Miami walked toward the enclosure, where two of his owntribe were talking same number of the Shawanoes. He said somethingwhich stirred up matters at once. All five began talkingvigorously, and then they turned take a look at the youthfulwarrior.
He was gone, having vanished as silently as he appeared on thescene, and it was well that he did so, for the deception could havebeen carried no further.
Within the succeeding ten minutes the report of a rifle came fromthe direction of the river. Then a second was heard from anotherpoint in the wood, and again a third report awoke the echoes amongthe trees.
The red men did not know what it meant. All the surviving membersof the two parties were together, and they could not understand whothe new comers were. They were probably those of their own race,though the discomforting possibility remained that they might bewhite men on their way to the help of the beleaguered boys.
The truth was, Deerfoot was convinced that if Jack and Otto were notextricated from their peril long before night, no hope could remainfor them. It was so clearly in the power of the red men to captureor destroy them whenever they chose to put forth the effort, that heknew they would not wait until night.
There were trees on every hand which would shelter thesharp-shooters. If they ensconced themselves among the limbs ofthese, the lads would be shut off from the chance of protectingthemselves, for on whichsoever side of the space they stood, theywould be within the range of one or two of the gunners.
The plan which he next proceeded to put into execution was in themind of Deerfoot from the first moment he learned of the situationof the endangered ones. It was impossible to succeed without aperfect understanding with his friends, for they necessarily had animportant part to play in the programme.
"Deerfoot will send them a message," he said to himself, with athrob of pride over the facility at his command; "that will telleverything."
Making his way to a safe point in the forest, he sat down on theground, tore off a piece from the paper which he carried with hisBible, and with red chalk, sharpened to a point, he proceeded towrite the words intended only for the eyes of his friends within theenclosure. The paper was twisted around the arrow, just back of thebead, and he then was ready to adopt the means which he had employedmore than once in somewhat similar situations.