The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains by George Manville Fenn
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
TWO HORRORS.
Morning at last, and from their hiding-place the fugitives could seethat the Indians were in great numbers, and whilst some were with theirhorses, others were gathered together in a crowd about the post-liketree-trunk half-way between the gate of the mountains, as Bart calledit, and the camp.
The greatest caution was needed to keep themselves from the keen sightof the Indians, who had apparently seen nothing of the horses' trail;and as far as Bart could tell, Joses was so far safe. Still it was likethis:--If the Indians should begin to examine the face of the rock, theymust find both entries, and then it was a question of brave defence,though it seemed impossible but that numbers must gain the mastery inthe end.
"Poor Joses!" thought Bart, and the tears rose to his eyes. "I'd giveanything to be by his side, to fight with him and defend the horses."
Then he began to wonder how many charges of powder he would have, andhow long he could hold out.
"A good many will fall before they do master him," thought Bart, "ifhe's not captured already. I wonder whether they have hurt Juan andSam."
Just then the crowd about the post fell back, and the Doctor put hisglass to his eye, and then uttered a cry of horror.
He glanced round directly to see if Maude had heard him, but she, poorgirl, had fallen fast asleep in the niche where they had placed her, tobe out of reach of bullets should firing begin.
"What is it, sir?" cried Bart. "Ah, I see. How horrible! Thewretches! May I begin to shoot?"
"You could do no good, and so would only bring the foe down upon mychild," said the Doctor sternly.
"But it is Juan, is it not?" cried Bart, excitedly.
"Yes," said the Doctor, using the glass, "and Sam. They have strippedthe poor fellows almost entirely, and painted Death's heads andcross-bones upon their hearts."
"Oh yes," cried Bart, in agony, "I can see;" and he looked with horrorupon the scene, for there, evidently already half dead, their breastsscored with knives, and their ankles bound, Juan and Sam were suspendedby means of a lariat, bound tightly to their wrists, and securelytwisted round the upper part of the old blasted tree. The poor fellows'hats and a portion of their clothes lay close by them, and as they hungthere, inert and helpless, Bart, and his companion saw the cruel,vindictive Indians draw off to a short distance, and joining up into aclose body, they began to fire at their prisoners, treating them asmarks on which to try their skill with the rifle.
The sensation of horror this scene caused was indescribable, and Bartturned to the Doctor with a look of agony in his eyes.
"Quick!" he said; "let us run out and save them. Oh, what monsters!They cannot be men."
The Indian who acted as interpreter spoke rapidly to the chief, whoreplied, and then the Indian turned to the Doctor and Bart.
"The Beaver-with-Sharp-Teeth says if we want to go out to fight, theyare so many we should all be killed. We must not go."
"He is right, Bart," said the Doctor, hoarsely. "I am willing enough tofight, but the presence of Maude seems to unman me. I dare not attemptanything that would risk her life."
"But it is so horrible," cried Bart, peering out of his hiding-placeexcitedly, but only to feel the Beaver's hand upon his shoulder, forcinghim down into his old niche.
"Indian dog see," whispered the Beaver, who was rapidly picking upEnglish words and joining them together.
The sharp report of rifle after rifle was heard now, and after everyshot there was a guttural yell of satisfaction.
"They will kill them, sir," panted Bart, who seemed as if he couldhardly bear to listen to what was going on.
"They must have been dead, poor fellows, when they were hung up there,Bart. I would that we dared attack the monsters."
"Can you see any sign of Joses, sir?" asked Bart.
"No, my boy; no sign of him, poor fellow! Heaven grant that he be notseen."
All this time the Indians were rapidly loading and firing at the twounfortunate men, and, to Bart's horror, he could hear bullet afterbullet strike them, the others hitting the rocky face of the mountainwith a sharp pat, and in the interval of silence that followed those inhiding could hear some of the bullets afterwards fall.
Every time the savages thought they had hit their white prisoners theyuttered a yell of triumph, and Dr Lascelles knew that this terriblescene was only the prologue to one of a far more hideous nature, when,with a fiendish cruelty peculiar to their nature, they would fall upontheir victims with their knives, to flay off their scalps and beards,leaving the terribly mutilated bodies to the birds and beasts of theplains.
"I could hit several of them, I'm sure," panted Bart, eagerly. "Pray,sir, let's fire upon them, and kill some of the wretches. I never feltlike this before, but now it seems as if I must do something to punishthose horrible fiends."
"We could all fire and bring down some of them, Bart," whispered theDoctor; "but there are fully a hundred there, my boy, and we must be thelosers in the end. They would never leave till they had killed us everyone."
Bart hung his head, and stood there resting upon his rifle, wishing thathis ears could be deaf to the hideous yelling and firing that kept goingon, as the Indians went on with their puerile sport of wreaking theirempty vengeance upon the bodies of the two men whom they had slain.
Twenty times over the Doctor raised his rifle, and as often let it fall,as he knew what the consequences of his firing would be, while, whenencouraged by this act on the part of his elder, Bart did likewise, itwas for the Beaver to press the barrel down with his brown hand, shakinghis head and smiling gravely the while.
"The Beaver-with-Sharp-Teeth," said the interpreter, "says that theyoung chief must wait till the Indian dogs are not so many; then heshall kill all he will, and take all their scalps."
"Ugh!" shuddered Bart, "as if I wanted to take scalps! I could feelpleased though if they killed and took the scalps of all these wretches.No, I don't want that," he muttered, "but it is very horrible, and itnearly drives me mad to see the cruel monsters shooting at our two poormen. How they can--"
"Good heavens!" ejaculated the Doctor; "what's that?"
They were all gazing intently at the great post where the firing wasgoing on, and beyond it at the group of Indians calmly loading andfiring, with a soft film of smoke floating away above their heads, whenall at once, just in their midst, there was a vivid flash of light, andthe air seemed to be full of blocks of stone, which were driven up witha dense cloud of smoke. Then there was a deafening report, which echoedback from the side of the mountain; a trembling of the ground, as ifthere had been an earthquake; the great pieces of stone fell here andthere; and then, as the smoke spread, a few Indians could be seenrushing hard towards where their companions were gathered with theirhorses, while about the spot where the earth had seemed to vomit forthflame, rocks and stones were piled-up in hideous confusion, mingled withquite a score of the bodies of Indians.
There was no hesitation on the part of the survivors. The Great Spirithad spoken to them in his displeasure, and those who had not beensmitten seized their horses, those which had no riders now kept withthem, and the whole band went off over the plain at full speed; while nosooner were they well away upon the plain, than the Beaver and his partylaid their rifles aside, and dashed out, knife and hatchet in hand,killing two or three injured men before the Doctor could interfere, ashe and Bart ran out, followed by Harry.
It was a hideous sight, and perhaps it was a merciful act the killing ofthe wretches by the Beaver and his men, for they were horribly injuredby the explosion, while others had arms and legs blown off. Some werecrushed by the falling stones, others had been killed outright at first;and as soon as he had seen but a portion of the horrors, the Doctor sentBart back to bid Maude be in no wise alarmed, for the enemy were gone,but she must not leave the place where she was hiding for a while.
Bart found her looking white and trembling with dread, but a few wordssatisfied her, and the lad ran
Bart was about to burst forth into a long string of congratulations, butsomehow they all failed upon his lips. He tried to speak, but he chokedand found it impossible. All he could do for a few moments was to catchthe great rough hands of Joses in his, and stand shaking them with allhis might.
Joses did not reply; he only looked a little less grim than usual as hereturned Bart's grip with interest.
"Why, you thought the Injun had got me, did you, Master Bart? Youthought the Injun had got me. Well, they hadn't this time, you see, butI 'spected they'd find me out every moment. I meant to fight it outthough till all my powder was gone, and then I meant to back the horsesat the Injun, and make them kick as long as I could, for of course youwouldn't have been able to come."
"I am glad you are safe, Joses," cried Bart, at last. "It is almostlike a miracle that they didn't find you, and that the explosion tookplace. It must have been our keg of powder, Joses, that you hid underthe stones."
"Think so, Master Bart?" said Joses, as if deeply astonished.
"Yes," cried Bart, "it must have been that."
"Yes," said the Doctor. "The wretches must have dropped a burning wad,or something of that kind."
"But it was very horrible," cried Bart.
"Yes, horrible," assented the Doctor.
"But it saved all us as was left, Master," said Joses, gruffly. "They'dhave found us out else, and served us the same as they did poor old Samand old Juan. What beasts Injun is."
"Yes, it saved our lives, Joses, and it was as it were a miracle. Butthere, don't let's talk about it. We must take steps to bury those poorcreatures, and that before my child comes out. Do you think the enemywill come back?" he continued, turning to the interpreter.
"The Beaver-with-Sharp-Teeth says no: not for days," was the reply; and,willingly enough, the Indians helped their white friends to enlarge thehole ploughed out by the explosion of the powder keg, which was easilydone by picking out a few pieces of rock, when there was ample room forthe dead, who, after some hour or two's toil, were buried beneath thestones.
The remains of the two poor fellows, Juan and Sam, were buried morecarefully, with a few simple rites, and then, saddened and weary, theDoctor turned to seek Maude.
Bart was about to follow him, when Joses took him by the sleeve.
"I wouldn't say anything to the master, but I must tell you."
"Tell me what?"
"About the explosion, Master Bart."
"Well, I saw it," said Bart.
"Yes, but you didn't see how it happened."
"I thought we had decided that."
"Well, you thought so, but you wasn't right, and I didn't care to bragabout it; but I did it, Master Bart."
"You fired that powder, and blew all those poor wretches to eternity!"cried Bart, in horror.
"Now don't you get a looking like that, Master Bart. Why, of course Idid it. Where's the harm? They killed my two poor fellows, and they'dhave killed all of us, and set us up to shoot at if they'd had thechance."
"Well, Joses, I suppose you are right," said Bart, "but it seems veryhorrible."
"Deal more horrible if they'd killed Miss Maude."
"Oh, hush! Joses," cried Bart excitedly, "Tell me, though, how did youmanage it."
"Well, you see, Master Bart, it was like this. I stood looking on attheir devilry till I felt as if I couldn't bear it no longer, and thenall at once I recollected the powder, and I thought that if I could puta bullet through the keg it would blow it up, and them too."
"And did you, Joses?"
"Well, I did, Master Bart, but it took me a long while for it. I knewexactly where it was, but I couldn't see it for the crowd of fellowsround, and I daren't shoot unless I was sure, or else I should havebrought them on to me like a shot."
"Of course, of course, Joses," cried Bart, who was deeply interested.
"Well, Master Bart, I had to wait till I thought I should never get achance, and then they opened right out, and I could see the exact spotwhere to send my bullet, when I trembled so that I daren't pull trigger,and when I could they all crowded up again."
"But they gave you another chance, Joses?" cried Bart excitedly.
"To be sure they did, my lad, at last, and that time it was only after adeal of dodging about that there was any chance, and, laying my rifle onthe rock, I drew trigger, saw the stones, flash as the bullet struck,just, too, when they were all cheering, the beasts, at what they'd doneto those two poor fellows."
"And then there was the awful flash and roar, Joses?"
"Yes, Master Bart, and the Injuns never knew what was the matter, andthat's all."
"All, Joses?"
"Yes, Master Bart, and wasn't it enough? But you'd better not tell themaster; he might say he didn't object to an Injun or two killed inself-defence, but that this was wholesale."
Bart promised to keep the matter a secret, and he went about for therest of the day pondering upon the skill of Joses with the rifle, andwhat confidence he must have had in his power to hit the keg hiddenunder the stones to run such a risk, for, as he said, a miss would havebrought down the Indians upon him, and so Bart said once more.
"Yes, Master Bart; but then, you see, I didn't miss, and we've got ridof some of the enemy and scared the rest away."