The Young Trailers
J >> Joseph A. Altsheler >> The Young TrailersHe saw presently a dark figure passing from one tree to another and the
passage was long enough for him to take a good aim at a hideously
painted breast. He pulled the trigger and then involuntarily he shut his
eyes--he was a hunter, but he had never hunted men before. When he
looked again he saw a blur upon the ground, and despite himself and the
fight for life, he shuddered. Paul beside him was now in a state of wild
excitement. The smaller boy's nerves were not so steady and he was
loading and firing almost at random. Finally he lifted himself almost
unconsciously to his full height, but he was dragged down the next
instant, as if he had been seized from below by a bear.
"Paul!" fiercely exclaimed the schoolmaster, all the instincts of a
pedagogue rising within him, "if you jump up that way again exposing
yourself to their bullets, I'll turn you over my knee right here, big as
you are, and give you a licking that you'll remember all your life!"
The master was savagely in earnest and Paul did not jump up again. Henry
fired once more, and a third time and the tumult rose to its height.
Then it ceased so suddenly and so absolutely that the silence was
appalling. The wind blew the smoke away, a few dark objects lay close to
the ground among the trees before them, but not a sound came from the
forest, and no flitting form was there.
CHAPTER IX
THE ESCAPE
Henry and Paul, with their eyes at the crevices, stared and stared, but
they saw only those dark, horrible forms lying close to the earth, and
heard again the peaceful wind blowing among the peaceful trees. The
savage army had melted away as if it had never been, and the dark
objects might have been taken for stones or pieces of wood.
"We beat 'em off, an' nobody on our side has more'n a scratch,"
exclaimed Shif'less Sol jubilantly.
"That's so," said Ross, casting a critical eye down the line, "it's
because we had a good position an' made ready. There's nothin' like
takin' a thing in time. How're you, boys?"
"All right, but I've been pretty badly scared I can tell you," replied
Paul frankly. "But we are not hurt, are we, Henry?"
"Thank God," murmured the schoolmaster under his breath, and then he
said aloud to Ross: "I suppose they'll leave us alone now."
Ross shook his head.
"I wish I could say it," he replied, "but I can't. We've laid out four
of 'em, good and cold, an' the Shawnees, like all the other redskins,
haven't much stomach for a straightaway attack on people behind
breastworks; I don't think they'll try that again, but they'll be up to
new mischief soon. We must watch out now for tricks. Them's sly devils."
Ross was a wise leader and he gave food to his men, but he cautioned
them to lie close at all times. Two or three bullets were fired from the
forest but they whistled over their heads and did no damage. They seemed
safe for the present, but Ross was troubled about the future, and
particularly the coming of night, when they could not protect themselves
so well, and the invaders, under cover of darkness, might slip forward
at many points. Henry himself was man enough and experienced enough to
understand the danger, and for the moment, he wondered with a kind of
impersonal curiosity how Ross was going to meet it. Ross himself was
staring at the heavens, and Henry, following his intent eyes, noticed a
change in color and also that the atmosphere began to have a different
feeling to his lungs. So much had he been engrossed by the battle, and
so great had been his excitement, that such things as sky and air had no
part then in his life, but now in the long dead silence, they obtruded
themselves upon him.
The last wisp of smoke drifted away among the trees, and the sunlight,
although it was mid-afternoon, was fading. Presently the skies were a
vast dome of dull, lowering gray, and the breeze had a chill edge. Then
the wind died and not a leaf or blade of grass in the forest stirred.
Somber clouds came over the brink of the horizon in the southwest, and
crept threateningly up the great curve of the sky. The air steadily
darkened, and suddenly the dim horizon in the far southwest was cut by a
vivid flash of lightning. Low thunder grumbled over the distant hills.
"It's a storm, an' it's to be a whopper," said Shif'less Sol.
"Ay," returned Ross, who had been back among the horses, "an' it may
save us. All you fellows be sure to keep your powder dry."
There would be little danger of that fatal catastrophe, the wetting of
the powder, as it was carried in polished horns, stopped securely, nor
would there be any danger either of the salt being melted, as it was
inclosed in bags made of deerskin, which would shed water.
"One of the men," continued Ross, "has found a big gully running down
the back end of the hill, an' I think if we're keerful we can lead the
horses to the valley that way. But just now, we'll wait."
Henry and Paul were watching, as if fascinated. They had seen before the
great storms that sometimes sweep the Mississippi Valley, but the one
preparing now seemed to be charged with a deadly power, far surpassing
anything in their experience. It came on, too, with terrible swiftness.
The thunder, at first a mere rumble, rose rapidly to crash after crash
that stunned their ears. The livid flash of lightning that split the
southwest like a flaming sword appeared and reappeared with such
intensity that it seemed never to have gone. The wind rose and the
forest groaned. From afar came a sullen roar, and then the great
hurricane rushed down upon them.
"Lie flat!" shouted Ross.
All except four or five who held the struggling and frightened horses
threw themselves upon the ground, and, although Henry and Paul hugged
the earth, their ears were filled with the roar and scream of the wind,
and the crackle of boughs and whole tree trunks snapped through, like
the rattle of rifle fire. The forest in front of them was quickly filled
with fallen trees, and fragments whistled over their heads, but
fortunately they were untouched.
The great volley of wind was gone in a few moments, as if it were a
single huge cannon shot. It whistled off to the eastward, but left in
its path a trail of torn and fallen trees. Then in its path came the
sweep of the great rain; the air grew darker, the thunder ceased to
crash, the lightning died away, and the water poured down in sheets over
the black and mangled forest.
"Now boys, we'll start," said Ross. "Them Shawnees had to hunt cover,
an' they can't see us nohow. Up with them bags of salt!"
In an incredibly short time the salt was loaded on the pack horses and
then they were picking their way down the steep and dangerous gully in
the side of the hill. Henry, Paul and the master locked hands in the
dark and the driving rain, and saved each other from falls. Ross and Sol
seemed to have the eyes of cats in the dark and showed the way.
"My God!" murmured Mr. Pennypacker, "I could not have dreamed ten years
ago that I should ever take part in such a scene as this!"
Low as he spoke, Henry heard him and he detected, too, a certain note of
pride in the master's tone, as if he were satisfied with the manner in
which he had borne himself. Henry felt the same satisfaction, although
he could not deny that he had felt many terrors.
After much difficulty and some danger they reached the bottom of the
hill unhurt, and then they sped across a fairly level country, not much
troubled by undergrowth or fallen timber, keeping close together so that
no one might be lost in the darkness and the rain, Ross, as usual,
leading the line, and Shif'less Sol bringing up the rear. Now and then
the two men called the names of the others to see that all were present,
but beyond this precaution no word was spoken, save in whispers.
Henry and Paul felt a deep and devout thankfulness for the chance that
had saved them from a long siege and possible death; indeed it seemed to
them that the hand of God had turned the enemy aside, and in their
thankfulness they forgot that, soaked to the bone, cold and tired, they
were still tramping through the lone wilderness, far from Wareville.
The darkness and the pouring rain endured for about an hour, then both
began to lighten, streaks of pale sky appeared in the east, and the
trees like cones emerged from the mist and gloom. All of the
salt-workers felt their spirits rise. They knew that they had escaped
from the conflict wonderfully well; two slight wounds, not more than the
breaking of skin, and that was all. Fresh strength came to them, and as
they continued their journey the bars of pale light broadened and
deepened, and then fused into a solid blue dawn, as the last cloud
disappeared and the last shower of rain whisked away to the northward. A
wet road lay before them, the drops of water yet sparkling here and
there, like myriads of beads. Ross drew a deep breath of relief and
ordered a halt.
"The Shawnees could follow us again," he said, "but they know now that
they bit off somethin' a heap too tough for them to chaw, an' I don't
think they'll risk breaking a few more teeth on it, specially after
havin' been whipped aroun' by the storm as they must 'a been."
"And to think we got away and brought our salt with us, too!" said Mr.
Pennypacker.
Dark came soon, and Ross and Sol felt so confident they were safe from
another attack that they allowed a fire to be lighted, although they
were careful to choose the center of a little prairie, where the rifle
shots of an ambushed foe in the forest could not reach them.
It was no easy matter to light a fire, but Ross and Sol at last
accomplished it with flint, steel and dry splinters cut from the under
side of fallen logs. Then when the blaze had taken good hold they heaped
more brushwood upon it and never were heat and warmth more grateful to
tired travelers.
Henry and Paul did not realize until then how weary and how very wet
they were. They basked in the glow, and, with delight watched the great
beds of coals form. They took off part of their clothing, hanging it
before the fire, and when it was dry and warm put it on again. Then they
served the rest the same way, and by and by they wore nothing but warm
garments.
"I guess two such terrible fighters as you," said Ross to Henry and
Paul, "wouldn't mind a bite to eat. I've allers heard tell as how the
Romans after they had fought a good fight with them Carthaginians or
Macedonians or somebody else would sit down an' take some good grub into
their insides, an' then be ready for the next spat."
"Will we eat? will we eat? Oh, try us, try us," chanted Henry and Paul
in chorus, their mouths stretching simultaneously into wide grins, and
Ross grinned back in sympathy.
The revulsion had come for the two boys. After so much danger and
suffering, the sense of safety and the warmth penetrating their bones
made them feel like little children, and they seized each other in a
friendly scuffle, which terminated only when they were about to roll
into the fire. Then they ate venison as if they had been famished.
Afterwards, when they were asleep on their blankets before the fire,
Ross said to Mr. Pennypacker:
"They did well, for youngsters."
"They certainly did, Mr. Ross," said the master. "I confess to you that
there were times to-day when learning seemed to offer no consolation."
Ross smiled a little, and then his face quickly became grave.
"It's what we've got to go through out here," he said. "Every settlement
will have to stand the storm."
A vigilant watch was kept all the long night but there was no sign of a
second Shawnee attack. Ross had reckoned truly when he thought the
Shawnees would not care to risk further pursuit, and the next day they
resumed their journey, under a drying sun.
They were not troubled any more by Indian attacks, but the rest of the
way was not without other dangers. The rivers were swollen by the spring
rains, and they had great trouble in carrying the salt across on the
swimming horses. Once Paul was swept down by a swift and powerful
current, but Henry managed to seize and hold him until others came to
the rescue. Men and boys alike laughed over their trials, because they
felt now all the joy of victory, and their rapid march south amid the
glories of spring, unfolding before them, appealed to the instincts of
everyone in the band, the same instincts that had brought them from the
East into the wilderness.
They were passing through the region that came to be known in later days
as the Garden of Kentucky. Then it was covered with magnificent forest
and now they threaded their way through the dense canebrake. Squirrels
chattered in every tree top, deer swarmed in the woods, and the buffalo
was to be found in almost every glen.
"I do not wonder," said the thoughtful schoolmaster, "that the Indian
should be loath to give up such choice hunting grounds, but, fight as
cunningly and bravely as he will, his fate will come."
But Henry, with only the thoughts of youth, could not conceive of the
time when the vast wilderness should be cut down and the game should go.
He was concerned only with the present and the words of Mr. Pennypacker
made upon him but a faint and fleeting impression.
At last on a sunny morning, whole, well fed, with their treasure
preserved, and all fresh and courageous, they approached Wareville. The
hearts of Henry and Paul thrilled at the signs of white habitation. They
saw where the ax had bitten through a tree, and they came upon broad
trails that could be made only by white men, going to their work, or
hunting their cattle.
But it was Paul who showed the most eagerness. He was whole-hearted in
his joy. Wareville then was the only spot on earth for him. But Henry
turned his back on the wilderness with a certain reluctance. A primitive
strain in him had been awakened. He was not frightened now. The danger
of the battle had aroused in him a certain wild emotion which repeated
itself and refused to die, though days had passed. It seemed to him at
times that it would be a great thing to live in the forest, and to have
knowledge and wilderness power surpassing those even of Shif'less Sol or
Ross. He had tasted again the life of the primitive man and he liked it.
Mr. Pennypacker was visibly joyful. The wilderness appealed to him in a
way, but he considered himself essentially a man of peace, and Wareville
was becoming a comfortable abode.
"I have had my great adventure," he said, "I have helped to fight the
wild men, and in the days to come I can speak boastfully of it, even as
the great Greeks in Homer spoke boastfully of their achievements, but
once is enough. I am a man of peace and years, and I would fain wage the
battles of learning rather than those of arms."
"But you did fight like a good 'un when you had to do it, schoolmaster,"
said Ross.
Mr. Pennypacker shook his head and replied gravely:
"Tom, you do right to say 'when I had to do it,' but I mean that I shall
not have to do it any more."
Ross smiled. He knew that the schoolmaster was one of the bravest of
men.
Now they came close to Wareville. From a hill they saw a thin, blue
column of smoke rising and then hanging like a streamer across the clear
blue sky.
"That comes from the chimneys of Wareville," said Ross, "an' I guess
she's all right. That smoke looks kinder quiet, as if nothin' out of the
way had happened."
They pressed forward with renewed speed, and presently a shout came from
the forest. Two men ran to meet them, and rejoiced at the sight of the
men unharmed, and every horse heavily loaded with salt. Then it was a
triumphal procession into Wareville, with the crowd about them
thickening as they neared the gates. Henry's mother threw her arms about
his neck, and his father grasped him by the hand. Paul was in the center
of his own family, completely submerged, and all the space within the
palisade resounded with joyous laugh and welcome, which became all the
more heartfelt, when the schoolmaster told of the great danger through
which they had passed.
That evening, when they sat around the low fire in his father's
home--the spring nights were yet cool--Henry had to repeat the story of
the salt-making and the great adventure with the Shawnees. He grew
excited as he told of the battle and the storm, his face flushed, his
eyes shot sparks, and, as Mrs. Ware looked at him, she realized, half in
pride, half in terror, that she was the mother of a hunter and warrior.
CHAPTER X
THE CAVE DUST
The great supply of salt brought by Ross and his men was welcome to
Wareville, as the people had begun to suffer for it, but they would have
enough now to last them a full year, and a year was a long time to look
ahead. Great satisfaction was expressed on that score, but the news that
a Shawnee war party was in Kentucky and had chased them far southward
caused Mr. Ware and other heads of the village to look very grave and to
hold various councils.
As a result of these talks the palisade was strengthened with another
row of strong stakes, and they took careful stock of their supplies of
ammunition. Lead they had in plenty, but powder was growing scarce. A
fresh supply had been expected with a new band of settlers from Virginia
but the band had failed to come, and the faces of the leaders grew yet
graver, when they looked at the dwindling supply, and wondered how it
could be replenished for the dire need that might arise. It was now that
Mr. Pennypacker came forward with a suggestion and he showed how book
learning could be made of great value, even in the wilderness.
"You will recall," he said to Mr. Ware and Mr. Upton, and other heads of
the settlement, "that some of our hunters have reported the existence of
great caves to the southwestward and that they have brought back from
them wonderful stalactites and stalagmites and also dust from the cave
floors. I find that this dust is strongly impregnated with niter; from
niter we obtain saltpeter and from saltpeter we make gunpowder. We need
not send to Virginia for our powder, we can make it here in Kentucky for
ourselves."
"Do you truly think so, Mr. Pennypacker?" asked Mr. Ware, doubtfully.
"Think so! I know so," replied the schoolmaster in sanguine tones. "Why,
what am I a teacher for if I don't know a little of such things? And
even if you have doubts, think how well the experiment is worth trying.
Situated as we are, in this wild land, powder is the most precious thing
on earth to us."
"That is true! that is true!" said Mr. Ware with hasty emphasis.
"Without it we shall lie helpless before the Indian attack, should it
come. If, as you say, this cave dust contains the saltpeter, the rest
will be easy."
"It contains saltpeter and the rest _will_ be easy!"
"Then, you must go for it. Ross and Sol and a strong party must go with
you, because we cannot run the risk of losing any of you through the
Indians."
"I am sure," said Mr. Pennypacker, "that we shall incur no danger from
Indians. The region of the great caves lies farther south than Wareville
and the Southern Indians, who are less bold than the Northern tribes,
are not likely to come again into Kentucky. The hunters say that Indians
have not been in that particular region for years."
"Yes, I think you are right," said Mr. Ware, "but be careful anyhow."
Henry, when he heard of the new expedition, was wild to go, but his
parents, remembering the great danger of the journey to the salt licks,
were reluctant with their permission. Then Ross interceded effectively.
"The boy is just fitted for this sort of work," he said. "He isn't in
love with farming, he's got other blood in him, but down there he will
be just about the best man that Wareville has to send, an' there won't
be any Indians."
There was no reply to such an argument, because in the border
settlements the round peg must go in the round hole; the conditions of
survival demanded no surplusage and no waste.
When Paul heard that Henry was to go he gave his parents no rest, and
when Mr. Pennypacker, whose favorite he was, seconded his request, on
the ground that he would need a scholar with him the permission had to
be granted.
Rejoicing, the two boys set forth with the others, the dangers of the
Shawnee battle and their terrors already gone from their minds. They
would meet no Indians this time, and the whole powder-making expedition
would be just one great picnic. The summer was now at hand, and the
forests were an unbroken mass of brilliant green. In the little spaces
of earth where the sunlight broke through, wild flowers, red, blue, pink
and purple peeped up and nodded gayly, when the light winds blew. Game
abounded, but they killed only enough for their needs, Ross saying it
was against the will of God to shoot a splendid elk or buffalo and leave
him to rot, merely for the pleasure of the killing.
After a while they forded a large river, passed out of the forests, and
came into a great open region, to which they gave the name of Barrens,
not because it was sterile, but because it was bare of trees. Henry, at
first, thought it was the land of prairies, but Ross, after examining it
minutely, said that if left to nature it would be forested. It was his
theory that the Indians in former years had burned off the young tree
growth repeatedly in order to make great grazing grounds for the big
game. Whether his supposition was true or not, and Henry thought it
likely to be true, the Barrens were covered with buffalo, elk and deer.
In fact they saw buffalo in comparatively large numbers for the first
time, and once they looked upon a herd of more than a hundred, grazing
in the rich and open meadows. Panthers attracted by the quantity of game
upon which they could prey screamed horribly at night, but the flaming
camp fires of the travelers were sufficient to scare them away.
All these things, the former salt-makers, and powder-makers that hoped
to be, saw only in passing. They knew the value of time and they
hastened on to the region of great caves, guided this time by one of
their hunters, Jim Hart, although Ross as usual was in supreme command.
But Hart had spent some months hunting in the great cave region and his
report was full of wonders.
"I think there are caves all over, or rather, under this country that
the Indians call Kaintuckee," he said, "but down in this part of it
they're the biggest."
"You are right about Kentucky being a cave region," said the
schoolmaster, "I think most of it is underlaid with rock, anywhere from
five thousand to ten thousand feet thick, and in the course of ages,
through geological decay or some kindred cause, it has become
crisscrossed with holes like a great honeycomb."
"I'm pretty sure about the caves," said Ross, "but what I want to know
is about this peter dirt."
"We'll find it and plenty of it," replied the master confidently. "That
sample was full of niter, and when we leach it in our tubs we shall have
the genuine saltpeter, explosive dust, if you choose to call it, that is
the solution of gunpowder."
"Which we can't do without," said Henry.
They passed out of the Barrens, and entered a region of high, rough
hills, and narrow little valleys. Hills and valleys alike were densely
clothed with forest.
Hart pointed to several, large holes in the sides of the hills, always
at or near the base and said they were the mouths of caves.
"But the big one, in which I got the peter dirt is farther on," he said.
They came to the place he had in mind, just as the twilight was falling,
a hole, a full man's height at the bottom of a narrow valley, but
leading directly into the side of the circling hill that inclosed the
bowl-like depression. Henry and Paul looked curiously at the black mouth
and they felt some tremors at the knowledge that they were to go in
there, and to remain inside the earth for a long time, shut from the
light of day. It was the dark and not the fear of anything visible, that
frightened them.
But they made no attempt to enter that evening, although night would be
the same as day in the cave. Instead they provided for a camp, as the
horses and a sufficient guard would have to remain outside. The valley
itself was an admirable place, since it contained pasturage for the
horses, while at the far end was a little stream of water, flowing out
of the hill and trickling away through a cleft into another and slightly
lower valley.
After tethering the horses, they built a fire near the cave mouth and
sat down to cook, eat, rest and talk.
"Ain't there danger from bad air in there?" asked Ross. "I've heard tell
that sometimes in the ground air will blow all up, when fire is touched
to it, just like a bar'l o' gunpowder."
"The air felt just as fresh an' nice as daylight when I went in," said
Hart, "an' if it comes to that it will be better than it is out here
because it's allus even an' cool."
"It is so," said the master meditatively. "All the caves discovered so
far in Kentucky have fresh pure air. I do not undertake to account for
it."
That night they cut long torches of resinous wood, and early the next
morning all except two, who were left to guard the horses, entered the
cave, led by Hart, who was a fearless man with an inquiring mind.
Everyone carried a torch, burning with little smoke, and after they had
passed the cave mouth, which was slightly damp, they came to a perfectly
dry passage, all the time breathing a delightfully cool and fresh air,
full of vigor and stimulus.