Wild Western Scenes Part 8

"You don't think they're coming back, do you?" inquired Joe, gliding swiftly to Sneak's side.

"They'll be on us in no time. Is your gun loaded?

"I declare I have forgotten whether I loaded it again or not!" said Joe.

"You're, a purty feller, to watch with an empty gun, now ain't you?

Never mind blowing in her--run down a cartridge as quick as you kin; it makes no odds how much you have in; a big noise will do as much good as any thing else," said Sneak, hurriedly, evidently expecting to see the savage enemy every moment, while Joe did his bidding, a.s.serting all the time that he believed his musket was already loaded, and expressing a decided dislike to being kicked over every day from overcharging.

As Boone predicted, but a very short time elapsed before a series of startling and frightful yells were heard below, which were answered by similar horrid sounds above. Joe first ran towards Boone and Glenn, and then sprang back to his place at the side of Sneak, fully convinced there were no means of retreat, and, being effectually cornered, at length evinced an ardent desire to fire. When the yells died away in the distance, a flight of arrows from the north south poured upon the besieged party. Many of them pierced the outer side of the palisade, while others, flying over, penetrated the opposite timbers, and quivered above the heads of the men; and some rattled against the top of the house, (the snow having melted from the roof,) and fell harmless to the earth.

There having been no shot yet fired in the direction whence the arrows came, (for such was the order of Boone,) the savages, emboldened by the absence of any demonstrations of resistance, and thinking their foes were shut up in the house, or killed by their numberless shafts, charged upon the premises simultaneously from both sides, shooting their arrows and yelling as they came. When they had approached within a hundred paces of the inclosure, Boone and Sneak fired with deadly aim at the foremost of the party, and the next moment Glenn followed the example, while Boone reloaded his gun.

"Now fire!" exclaimed Sneak, shaking Joe by the shoulder, having seen the savages pause when one of their party uttered the death-howl and fell.

"Here goes!" said Joe, pulling the trigger and falling over on his back in the snow from the rebound, for the musket had been truly twice charged.

"Split me if you didn't accidentally throw a handful of bullets among their legs that crack!" said Sneak, observing the now discomfited and retreating Indians, as they endeavoured to bear off their wounded, and then firing on them again himself as they vanished down the valley.

The like result was witnessed above, and again in a very short time there was not a savage to be seen.

"What's the matter? Why don't you get up?" asked Sneak turning to Joe, who still remained prostrate on the ground.

"My mouth's bleeding--I don't know but I'm wounded. Didn't an arrow come through the hole when I was shooting?" asked Joe, rising partially up and spitting out a quant.i.ty of blood on the snow.

"It was nothing but the gun kicking you like it did in the bear hunt.

If it was an arrow you must have swallered it, for I don't see the shaft. But maybe you did--you're sech a gormandizer," said Sneak.

"Hang it all, I don't believe I'm much hurt!" exclaimed Joe, jumping up suddenly. "Get from before the hole!" he continued, ramming down a cartridge hastily, and thrusting out the muzzle of his gun.

"Why don't you blaze away?" asked Sneak, laughing, observing that he hesitated.

"Why, they're, all gone!" cried Joe, joyfully, "and it was my old cannon that swept them off, too."

Once more silence pervaded the scene. Boone, after the repeated solicitations of Mary, partook of another bountiful repast, and the others in turn likewise refreshed themselves, and then resumed the watch.

Nor was it long before the Osages were once more heard to howl like fiends, and the sound had hardly ceased to vibrate through the air before a singular and unexpected a.s.sault terrified the besieged party for a moment. This was a shower of _blazing arrows_ coming from below, (where all the savages now seemed to be collected,) which ignited the palisade in many places where the snow had fallen off. But the fire was easily extinguished, and all, with the exception of Boone, were disposed to attach but little importance to any further device of the enemy. Boone, on the contrary, was unusually grave, and requested his companions to be on the alert, or they would yet be the victims of the savages.

"I like these kind of arrows the best," said Joe, "for I can see how to dodge them."

"But the wooden slabs can't dodge--dod! they're afire on the outside now!" cried Sneak, truly discovering a flame reaching above the inclosure from without.

"Watch well from the loopholes!" cried Boone, throwing open the gate and rushing out, and running round to where the fire was crackling.

"Come, Sneak!--I want your a.s.sistance--quick!" he exclaimed, finding the flames making rapid progress.

"Keep your eye skinned now!" said Sneak, as he left Joe alone to watch for the Indians, and ran out to aid in subduing the fire.

The savages could evidently see what was transacting, although unseen themselves, for most of their arrows now seemed to be directed at those without.

"Look sharp!" said Boone to Joe, through the loophole.

"Let me a.s.sist!" cried Glenn, imprudently leaving his post in his eagerness to share the danger, and coming out with a spade.

"Go in, my friend--we are sufficient here," said Boone, addressing Glenn.

"Come in! come in! come in!" cried Joe.

"I see no Indians," remarked Boone.

"The house is on fire! Fire! fire! fire!" screamed Joe, falling into his old habit when in the city.

Glenn ran back in this emergency, but when he arrived within the inclosure, he found that this service had been antic.i.p.ated by Mary, who had quietly thrust her hands into the snow, and with b.a.l.l.s thus made, easily extinguished the fire on the roof.

When Boone and Sneak had effected their purpose, they repaired to their former positions, a.s.sured that the utmost caution must be observed to prevent a surprise from some unexpected quarter, while their attention was naturally directed to one particular point. But they had hardly resumed their stations before their ears were saluted by the joyful report of rifles in the valley. Relief was at hand.

Roughgrove had recrossed the river, with a party of recruits, and fallen upon the rear of the savages, at a moment when success seemed to smile on their sanguinary purpose. Their shouts of exultation at the prospect of firing the premises were now changed to howls of despair, and they fled in all directions. But Roughgrove, aware of the impolicy of pursuit, led his men directly to the gallant little garrison; and the victorious huzzas of his band were answered in like manner by the besieged, who came forth and gave them a cordial welcome. Never, perhaps, when they met, did hand grasp hand more heartily. But Mary, who had hitherto cast aside all the weaker fears of the woman, no sooner beheld her aged father in safety than she rushed into arms and fainted on his breast.

CHAPTER V.

A strange excursion--A fairy scene--Joe is puzzled and frightened--A wonderful discovery--Navigation of the upper regions--A crash--No bones broken.

Several weeks had elapsed since the incidents recorded in the last chapter. The repulse of the Osages was succeeded by the arrival of a war-party of p.a.w.nees, and a deadly feud existing between these tribes, the latter readily joined the whites, and speedily chased the enemy far beyond the settlements. Boone had returned to his family on the other side of the river; and Sneak, having made peace with Joe, had likewise withdrawn to his own domicil, to pursue his avocations of hunting and trapping in solitude.

Glenn sat before a blazing fire in his little castle, his left hand clasping a closed book he had been reading, while his dextral elbow was resting on the rude arm of a chair which he had constructed and cushioned with furs, and his palm supported his chin. He thus sat silently, looking steadfastly through one of the little square windows at the snow-encrusted branches of the trees beyond the inclosure, and apparently indulging a pleasing train of reflections.

Joe, on the contrary, was engaged in boisterous and mirthful exercise on the deep and frozen snow without. He was playing with the kitten, the fawn, and the hounds, and occasionally ran into the stable to caress the horses.

At length, with no other object than a dreamy impulse to wander among the wild scenes in the vicinity, Glenn started up, and donning a warm overcoat and seizing his rifle, set out along the cliff up the river, (a direction which he had never yet traversed,) accompanied by Joe, who seemed to look upon his master's pale composed face, and determined though gentle motions, with curiosity, if not mystery.

"Why do you stare at me so often?" inquired Glenn, pausing, after they had walked some distance in silence.

"Because I don't know what you're after," replied Joe.

"You'll see what I'm after," said Glenn, setting forward, and continuing his course along the cliff.

A snow of several feet in depth rested on the earth, and the sun that shone forth at noon had melted the surface so frequently, that the freezing nights which had as often succeeded had formed an icy incrustation quite strong enough to bear the weight of a man. Though it was a dreary waste, yet Glenn gleaned a satisfaction in casting his eyes around where his glance beheld no one striving to oppress his fellow being that he might acquire riches and power, to be again s.n.a.t.c.hed from his grasp by others, but a peaceful scene, fresh from the hand of G.o.d, and unmarred by the workmanship of meaner creatures.

The broad river far below was covered with a ma.s.sy plate of ice, and the snow that rested upon it gave it the appearance of an immense plain, rather than an incrusted surface of the most perturbed and erratic stream in the world. The geese and other fowl that wandered over the frozen surface in quest of their native element, from the great distance down, seemed to be no larger than sparrows.

Ere long, Glenn and his man reached the valley above, and commenced a descent through the timber in a diagonal direction, that would conduct them, after numerous windings, to the edge of the frozen stream, along which a narrow pathway ran northward about a mile. Glenn paused at an abrupt angle in his descent, after having proceeded a few paces through the undergrowth, and stood long in wonderment and admiration, gazing at the scene that suddenly burst in view. His towering position overlooked the whole valley. The ten thousand trees beneath, and their ten million branches and twigs all completely clothed in crystal--while not the slightest breeze was stirring--presented a view of fairyland, such as flits across the vision in dreams, that the memory fain would cling to, but which is lost in the real and conflicting transactions of returning day. The noonday sun was momentarily veiled by a listless cloud, which seemed to be stationary in the heavens, as if designed to enhance the effect of the beauty below, that outvied in brightness even the usual light above. Not a squirrel was seen to leap from bough to bough, nor a bird to flit across the opening between the lofty trees; but all was stillness, silence, and beauty. As Glenn stood entranced, Joe seemed to be more struck with the operation of the enchantment on his companion's features and att.i.tude, than with any effect from the same source experienced on himself.

"Ain't you going down to the bottom of the valley?" asked Joe.

"It is a scene such as is beheld by infants in their slumbers, when they dream of paradise!" said Glenn, paying no attention to Joe, his eyes immovably riveted on the innumerable sprigs of alabaster which pointed out in every direction in profuse cl.u.s.ters, while his pale lips seemed to move mechanically, and his brow expressed a mournful serenity, as if entertaining a regret that he should ever be separated from the pearly labyrinths before him, amid which he would delight to wander forever.

"I think you must be dreaming yourself," said Joe, staring at him.

"How composed is every object!" continued Glenn; "such must be the abode of angels and departed spirits, who are not permitted longer to behold the strifes of earth and its contaminations, but rove continually with noiseless tread, or on self-poised wing, through devious and delightful paths, surrounded by sedges of silver embroidery, and shielded above by mazy fretwork spangled with diamonds, or gliding without effort through the pure and buoyant air, from bower to bower of crystal"