The Trail of the Seneca by Burt L. Standish
CHAPTER XVIII--FISHING BIRD IN TROUBLE
The days were always long to Kingdom when John was gone. From theirchildhood they had been much together. Even in the time of his bound-boyexperience, with a harsh master to serve, Ree had found time for playoccasionally only because John helped him with his work. He had neverknown any other intimate companion; had never cared for any. Now, farfrom all other friends, he valued John Jerome's friendship all the moreand counted the days until the cheerful, helpful lad would be returning.
Yet Kingdom had much to do even while he watched and waited. Lone-Elkfrequently hovered near. He had grown more sullen and ugly than at firstand Ree had little doubt of the fate the cabin would suffer if theIndian were but given a chance to act without danger that he would bediscovered. To watch for the Seneca's coming, then, and to keep an eyeon him while he flitted about the edge of the clearing, disappearing,reappearing, coming and going like the ominous shadow he was, became asmuch a daily task as the care of the two horses.
Twice in a week's time Ree found opportunities to visit the vicinity ofthe mysterious camp in the gully. He saw no one, but he never remainedlong, for the freshness of the ashes and the altered position of the login front of them each time were assurance that the tenants were not faraway.
It was the lead mine which kept the camp occupied, Kingdom now wascertain. The hidden treasure could not be far away. He had no doubt ofhis ability to find it if but given the chance to make unmolestedsearch.
It was while on little hunting trips into the woods to the north thatthe boy had visited the strange camping place. Though he made it a rulenever to go a great distance from the cabin, game was plentiful and herarely, if ever, returned empty-handed. The season for hunting andtrapping was now at its beginning. Each taste of its pleasures made theyoung pioneer long for the end of the trouble with Lone-Elk and a returnof the days of security and care-free happiness which both he and Johnhad so much enjoyed in the past. The thought that they would notreturn--not, at least, until after many days and many dangers that helittle anticipated,--did not so much as come to his confident,self-reliant brain.
Not since the "talk" with the Delawares had Kingdom been near CaptainPipe's village. He seldom left the clearing to go even a little distancein that direction, though often he wished he might do so; often wishedhe could talk the whole trouble over with Captain Pipe alone; oftenwished Fishing Bird would come, even if he brought no news. The friendlyDelaware, he felt certain, feared for his own safety every time hevisited the clearing. He must have given up his watching of the Seneca,too. Perhaps he had been warned to do so. Time would tell.
Thinking of these things, thinking of John, thinking of the work beforehim, Kingdom was busily occupied one afternoon, tying choice ears ofcorn together by the husks to hang them from the roof poles, when rapidfootsteps near the open door caused him to spring hastily up.
"Hello, here! Howdy, little brothers!" he exclaimed heartily, for beforehim stood Little Wolf and Long-Hair, two Indian boys, both of whom hadshown for the young white settlers a warm friendship.
With the true Indian showing of unmoved indifference, the Delaware ladsreturned the greeting and Kingdom at once led them into the cabin andset before them the choicest bits of meat and bread the larder afforded.
As the youthful braves ate, Ree inquired kindly concerning Captain Pipe,Neohaw and others of the Delawares, and presently asked about FishingBird--desired to know if the spirits prospered him and where he had beenso long that his Paleface friends had seen nothing of him.
Ree did not recall the fact at the moment, but he remembered a fewseconds later that Long-Hair was a brother of Fishing Bird,--arelationship which soon explained the object of the visit of the Indianlads.
"Fishing Bird--him Long-Hair and Little Wolf come to tell White Foxabout," the former said. "Fishing Bird was hunting. Long-Knives caughthim and Long-Knives going to kill Fishing Bird dead."
"Long-Hair! What are you saying? What do you mean!" cried Kingdom withsuch solemn but keen earnestness that the Delaware boy was quitestartled. "Who will harm Fishing Bird?"
"Yep; just as Long-Hair says," put in Little Wolf. "Palefaces madeFishing Bird prisoner, where Paleface army is at the River Ohio, andgoing to kill him."
"Tell me, brothers, how do you know this? Were you sent to tell theWhite Fox?" asked Ree, calling himself by the name the Indians had longago given him. "This is terrible news you bring me! It cannot be!"
Both the little redskins slowly nodded their heads in solemnconfirmation of all they had said.
"From Fort Pitt a runner came, telling Hopocon how Fishing Bird aprisoner is--made a prisoner by Captain Wayne's warriors," saidLong-Hair with the air of being a full-fledged warrior himself. "GentleMaiden said Long-Hair must come fast and tell White Fox."
"Little Wolf come too," said the other youngster, bound to be included.
"You both did just right. Gentle Maiden did right also; for White Foxwill not for a great deal let harm come to Fishing Bird, if he can helpit," Kingdom briskly replied. "White Fox is going right away to'Captain' Wayne's men. Little Brothers will go back and tell GentleMaiden this. Tell Gentle Maiden, and any others who ask, that FishingBird shall be set free if White Fox and Little Paleface can possibly doit."
Even as he spoke, Ree's mind was made up. In fifteen minutes he hadsaddled Phoebe, turned Neb out to graze and was closing the cabinpreparatory to a rapid ride to Wayne's encampment. The Indian boyswatched him gallop across the clearing, his rifle hanging before himfrom the saddle, his powder horn and bullet pouch, both freshlyrefilled, slung from his shoulder, his blanket and a hastily collectedsupply of provisions taking the usual place of saddle bags.
"White Fox is a mighty warrior," said Little Wolf admiringly.
"White Fox is too good to be a Paleface. Fishing Bird says the samething," Long-Hair made answer.
But Lone-Elk and a white man who was with him, crouching in the bushesby the river, watched the young horseman speed into the woods withaltogether different feelings.
Fishing Bird had been a prisoner in the strong, log guard-house morethan four days at the time Kingdom dashed away to his rescue. Thefriendly Delaware, together with three others, had made the journey tothe Ohio, drawn thither by curiosity, and perhaps, too, with someexpectation of gaining intelligence of the increasing strength of thewhite commander's forces.
Friendly Indians were coming and going in the vicinity of Wayne's"Legion" constantly, and the Delawares undoubtedly counted upon beingclassed among the neutral savages. But "Mad Anthony" was not asleep.While he waited to receive new recruits from the east, and drill his mento a point of proper efficiency, before making a start into hostileIndian country, he was constantly informing himself of the doings of theredskins in the interior--in the northwest country, where, he knew, theinevitable battle would eventually be.
Wayne's staff of loyal scouts and trained woodsmen were likewise alert.Every day they gathered from one source or another some news of thepreparations all the northwest tribes were making for a fight, which,they told one another, would sicken the Palefaces more than the defeatof St. Clair had done, and check the advance of the settlers upon theirforest lands forever.
Unfortunately for Fishing Bird, it so happened that, just at the time heand his friends were spying about in the vicinity of the white army,Gen. Wayne ordered that some Indian from the interior be brought in andquestioned. Six men went out to find and capture such a redskin.
They came upon the little party of Delawares, encamped several milesfrom the river, just at daybreak. All were sleeping, but they heard thewhite men stealing upon them, and dashed into the woods without firing ashot. Three made their escape. One was caught and the unhappy FishingBird was he.
Matters were made worse for the captive, too, by the redskins who hadeluded capture returning and firing upon the white scouts. Theyintended, no doubt, to assist Fishing Bird to get away. But they causedhim only so much the more trouble; for his captors made him bear thebrunt of the
"Chuck him in the guard-house! Starve him! Let him know that he's got totalk or die! Hang all the rascals, anyhow!" a captain had exclaimed, andthe unoffending Delaware was hustled off in no very tender manner.
Gen. Wayne soon learned of what had taken place and caused Fishing Birdto be brought to his own cabin. He talked kindly to the Indian, but thelatter was still smarting physically from the injuries, and smartingstill more mentally from the bitter injustice of the punishment he hadreceived, and remained obstinate.
"He evidently knows something. If he had nothing to tell he would betalkative enough," "Mad Anthony" thought, and ordered Fishing Bird takenback to the guard-house. "Let him understand that he will not be harmedif he'll tell the truth," he said, "but if he won't talk--"
In a short time the peaceable redskins in the vicinity learned what hadbeen done with the Delaware and so before a great while the informationreached the three warriors who had been his companions. Immediately theycarried word to Captain Pipe. The latter was too proud to call uponReturn Kingdom to exert himself in Fishing Bird's behalf, after themanner in which he had allowed the white boy to be treated, but GentleMaiden did not hesitate. She sent Long-Hair and Little Wolf to the cabinat once.
None of the Indians really knew, however, the many reasons Kingdom hadfor showing his friendship for Fishing Bird in the latter's hour ofneed. They may have known that the two were more than usually friendly,but they did not guess how the young white settlers had often beenassisted by the Delaware; nor did anyone besides Ree and John andFishing Bird himself know of the terrible struggle in the woods thatnight two years ago, when Kingdom was so near to killing the youngsavage.
The circumstances of the capture and detention of Fishing Bird were not,of course, known to Kingdom until he reached Wayne's camp. Indeed, hepuzzled his mind a great deal with the subject, as he traveled rapidlyalong the old trail to the east. Sometimes at a gallop, sometimes at awalk, he kept to the course, but wherever the path would permit of it,he let Phoebe take her fastest gait and urged the docile and only toowilling mare on and on.
Ree camped at evening beneath some heavy, overhanging bushes at the footof a steep hill. The night passed without incident and was followed by along, hard day in the saddle. Every minute seemed most precious to theanxious boy and every delay of any kind vexed and worried him. He fearedconstantly that he would reach his destination too late. The verythought that he would arrive only to learn that the good, loyal FishingBird had been put to death filled him with anguish and alarm.
Hardly could Kingdom endure to spend another night in camp. He wished tobe pushing forward. The delay of many hours was more than irksome. Buthe could make little progress in the darkness, he knew, and Phoebe wouldbe the better the next day for the rest. Luckily the weather remainedpleasant. Fortune favored him in this respect, at least. The secondnight of his journey, therefore, Ree spent in a sheltered spot beside alittle stream, where a fine growth of grass afforded his horse abundantfeed.
Twice in the hour of darkness the lad heard far off an Indian'swar-whoop. The sound alarmed him a great deal; not for his own safety somuch as for the reason it gave him for believing the trouble along theborder was far worse than he had supposed. And such, in fact, was thecase, as the youthful pioneer was soon to learn.
For the time, however, the threatening, distant cries served only tomake the solitary traveler somewhat uneasy in his lonely camp. But withthe coming of morning, he thought little more of the matter, and it wasnot until he reached Wayne's outposts and found that John Jerome had notarrived there that the night's disturbing sounds caused him any furtheranxiety.