CHAPTER XXV
AFLOAT ON THE FLOOD
"NOW to land!" cried Sandy, as they turned the head of the canoe towardshore.
"Less noise, brother," whispered Bob; for the impetuous one was foreverforgetting that a frontiersman must learn that silence is the price ofsafety when in the woods where the red man dwells.
"But why do you keep looking up at the sky so much?" went on Sandy."Just because it has clouded up, is no sign it will rain. Have we notheard that all signs fail in dry weather? And, even if that old humbugof a medicine man pretends he has had it direct from Manitou, I see noreason for being alarmed. Let it rain if it chooses. We can hunt in wetclothes as well as in dry."
"Surely," replied Bob, pretending to throw aside his doubts, for he sawno reason why Sandy should share them; if trouble came they would knowhow to meet it.
So they landed in the snug little cove.
"Shall we stake the canoe out here in the rushes?" asked Sandy.
"Not this time," replied Bob. "Take hold, and we will carry it up tothat clump of bushes yonder. It can lie there safe until we come again."
"Oh!" laughed Sandy, "I see you still believe the river will risesuddenly, and threaten to carry off our only means of getting home!"
"Who knows?" replied the other, quite unmoved by the accusation; "and,if it did come, we would be very glad that we had taken time by theforelock. Besides, it is not much further."
Having secreted the boat and both paddles, they concluded to go somelittle way back, to camp for the night.
"We must do what Pat says all borderers do when in the enemy'scountry--make a very small fire to cook with, and hide that so that noteven the keenest eye could discover it," observed Bob, as they walkedon through the forest, both on the watch for game of any sort.
"Well, it will be highly amusing, at least," admitted Sandy; "though,unless we are lucky enough to run across game very soon, we shall haveto make our supper off that dried venison; and that I do not like."
"Hist!"
Bob suddenly caught the sleeve of his brother's hunting shirt.Following the direction in which the other seemed to be looking, Sandycaught a glimpse of some moving object to leeward.
"A buffalo! Two, _three_ of them! Oh! Bob, what a chance!" he gasped.
The other drew him down instantly, so that the bushes screened them.
"Now let us crawl up as close as we dare. When we get within goodgunshot we will both fire at the same time," he whispered in the ear ofhis companion.
Bob, as usual, seemed perfectly calm, while of course the younger boywas fairly quivering with eagerness. Still, this would not preventSandy from giving a good account of himself when the time came toshoot, for he always fired off-hand at any rate, rather than by longsight, as some marksmen do.
It was fortunate that the wind, what little seemed to be stirringthrough the forest just then, was coming from the feeding buffalo,and toward the hunters. This prevented the suspicious animals fromscenting their human enemies.
The boys made fair progress, taking advantage of clumps of bushes,trunks of trees, and fallen timber.
"Slower," whispered Bob in his brother's ear. "They are getting uneasy.Notice how often that old bull throws up his head and sniffs the air?He trots away, only to come back again to his family. Now, againforward. This log will give us a good boost, I think."
"We don't want the old bull," Sandy managed to say in the other's ear.
"Hardly. He'd be too tough eating. You take the half-grown calf, andleave the cow to me," said the older hunter; and then made a gesturethat prohibited further communications.
Presently Bob realized that they had crept as close as seemed necessary.
He caught the eye of Sandy, and nodded his head. Knowing what theprogramme was to be, for they had gone through it many times together,the other gradually managed to raise himself to a position where he hadone knee on the ground. This was an ideal position for shooting, asit gave him a chance to rest his elbow on the other knee, to steadyhimself at the final instant.
To Bob it was given to pick the time of firing. He had to watchclosely, in order to make sure that both animals selected were freefrom trees, so that they might not uselessly waste precious ammunition.
"Shoot!" he said, quickly.
Bang! roared his own heavily-charged musket. The cow went flounderingdown, and never again arose, for Bob's aim had been true.
Sandy was not quite so fortunate. Just at the second when Bob gave theword to fire, the half-grown young buffalo chanced to step behind alarge tree trunk, so that it was out of the question to dispose of himwhile standing still.
With the report the alarmed animals started to run wildly away. ButSandy had of course been expecting this, and was quick to shoot.
He gave a shout as he saw the prize fall. Bob, on his part, was alittle worried lest the bull charge them; but that old worthy wasalready in full flight, doubtless in the belief that the others of hisfamily would rejoin him, when their little fright, concerning thoselightning flashes and thunder crashes coming from the bushes, had diedaway.
Here was great luck truly. All the game they could possibly carry home,and within carrying distance of the spot where the canoe had beensecreted.
They made camp at once. There was no tent to erect, so when Bob hadremoved the two hides, a laborious task even with Sandy's help, andstarted to cut the carcasses up, Sandy erected a lean-to of branches,bark and leaves, that would serve fairly well in case it did rain. Thencame a little fire, built as Bob directed, in a cavity, where its lightwould never be seen beyond ten paces.
After that supper was begun. And some of the meat from the youngbuffalo bull proved most tender eating.
"Hark!" said Bob, as they were browning their fourth helping at the endof long wooden splinters thrust into the ground near the little mass ofred embers.
Sandy made an involuntary dive for his gun, as he ejaculated:
"What did you hear? Was it the whoop of an Indian? Have they discoveredus after all?"
"It has begun to rain, that is all," answered Bob, smiling; for he hadheard the first drops beginning to patter among the dead leaves.
"Is that all? Why, it is hardly worth mentioning. And you did give me astart, to be sure. I'm glad we finished our supper before those cloudstook to leaking."
It seemed a trifling thing just then; but in the end it was freightedwith momentous happenings connected with the fortunes of those twoyoung pioneers of the Ohio.
Presently the rain was coming down hard, so that the two lads were onlytoo glad to crawl under the shelter that had been built.
In less than an hour Sandy was bemoaning the fact that he had not,while he was about it, made the wattled roofing twice as thick, as itwould have shed the rain to better advantage.
That was certainly a night they would not soon forget; and of course itwas Sandy who complained the most, for Bob could take his punishment ingrim silence, Indian fashion.
"When morning comes, we must try to get home!" declared the youngerpioneer, as he crouched there and shivered.
"We are so wet now that nothing could make us feel any worse," declaredBob. "I am going to try to weave a heavier roof, for the night ishardly half over."
"A good idea," echoed Sandy.
They set to work; and by the time an hour had gone by, were able tokeep the furious rain from beating in on their guns.
Sleep was entirely out of the question, and they could only sit thereexchanging a few words to cheer one another up, and praying for themorning to come.
It seemed never to dawn, and Sandy really began to declare that it wasthree nights wrapped in one, when his brother called his attention to afaint gray light in the east.
The rain was still falling in sheets, so that the prospect looked poorindeed. Again was the voice of Sandy heard, lamenting the fact that inall likelihood they must go without any breakfast, which, in the eyesof a growing and always hungry boy, was next door to a crime.
"Perhaps not," said
Bob; "just wait until the day has really come, whenwe can see around. Surely there must be dead trees somewhere close by;and you know how dry the heart keeps. We have tinder, and we will havea fire yet."
That promise sustained Sandy, for he could never remember when Bobgave his word without keeping it. Nor was it broken in the presentinstance. The rain never gave the slightest sign of stopping, althoughit must have deluged the headquarters of the great Ohio, and caused theriver to rise many feet an hour. But Bob sallied forth, scorning thewet, to return presently, staggering under a load of fuel of a resinousnature, and calculated to burn, despite the storm.
And it did; for soon, when the expert had applied his flint and steelto the dry tinder, in the midst of which a little powder had beendropped, the fire started, and in half an hour its genial heat did muchto chase away the blues.
It had been built close enough to their shelter so that the boys couldsit and cook pieces of tender buffalo meat on the end of their reeds.And for perhaps upward of two hours they amused themselves in thisfashion.
"Now I feel able to carry my share of the game down to the boat, if yousay the word," announced Sandy. "And, as I live, I believe the raindoes not come quite as heavily as before. Let us be on the move!"
Bob was not quite so sure that there would be any break in the storm;but on the whole he could not hold back. Surely the river wouldcontinue to rise for days after such a cloudburst; and unless theycrossed soon they must stay on the opposite shore a week, perhaps two.
When they reached the bushes where the canoe had been hidden, the craftwas found just as they had left it.
"We had better tie the packages of meat and our guns inside the canoe,"said long-headed Bob; "for then, if we happen to be upset, they willnot be lost."
"A good idea," replied his brother. "But I hope we are not so unluckyas to be turned over out there," and he cast an apprehensive look uponthe rushing surface of the flooded Ohio.
Neither of the lads had had any experience in such an emergency; norcould they be expected to realize the terrible power that currentpossessed. It ran smoothly, and without any churning, but, once withinits grip, it would require muscles of steel to guide a boat like theskin canoe belonging to Blue Jacket.
It was already nearly noon. The sky was leaden, and the rain constantlyfalling. Surely the old medicine man of the Shawanees was for oncehaving his prophecy bountifully fulfilled.
It was with considerable misgivings that Bob, yielding to theimportunities of his impulsive brother, decided to enter the frailcanoe and start to cross that churning flood toward the other shore.Sandy had artfully mentioned the fact that the little mother would beanxious about their safety.
"And," he had continued, "we can be heading toward the other bank allthe time, even if the current does carry us downstream at a furiousrate."
They had not gone a quarter of the way across before Bob knew they hadmade a big mistake. For the little boat was a mere play-thing in thegrasp of the furious current. They could make progress neither one waynor the other. All the while they were being swept along with the speedof a mill-race, held fast in that overpowering grip of the flood!