The Hunters of the Ozark Part 30

Fred Linden was sitting on the ground shaking with laughter. He had not seen any thing for a long time that pleased him so much. He had observed Terry in more than one fight with the boys at home and he knew he was an ugly customer, as full of grit as a bull dog, but the Shawanoe struck him fully a dozen times, while the Irish lad with all his skill desperately put forth never once touched him. The discomfiture of the brave Irish lad was complete.

No witness of the bout, however, could have failed to admire the skill and pluck of Terry. He acquitted himself well and kept up the struggle, even after he was convinced that he could do nothing with his alert antagonist. Then, when Deerfoot began to trifle with him, he turned around as I have shown and struck the empty air.

"Why did you do that?" asked Fred, as the three stood by the fire discussing the incident.

Terry pa.s.sed his open hand over his cheeks, which were red and smarting from the sharp taps of Deerfoot, and closing one eye and scratching his head, made answer:

"I had been sthrikin' at Deerfut until I obsarved that ivery time I sthruck _at_ him I didn't hit him; so thinks I to mesilf, I will see whither I can hit him by tryin' not to hit him; so I sthruck where I knowed he wasn't, thinkin' he was there."

"Well, I must declare Deerfoot the winner."

"I can't deny that he is; I throw up the sponge and extind to him the best wishes for himself and family."

Smiling in a way that left no doubt of his relish of the incident, Deerfoot warmly shook the hand of his friend, whose brave fight had increased his admiration of him.

"My brother is brave," said he admiringly; "perhaps he can lay Deerfoot on his back; Deerfoot will rejoice if he can do so."

"Be the powers! but that suits me," exclaimed the delighted Terry; "I forgot we were to have a wrestling match; Fred, ye will be koind enough to sarve as riferee again; we'll take side holts and it'll be the bist two out of thraa."

Terry was warranted in feeling more confidence in this test of skill. He had failed--as he knew he would always fail--in a sparring contest, for the reason that Deerfoot was so quick that he could not touch him; but one of the necessities of a wrestling match is that the contestants shall first seize each other. Terry believed that he had as much physical strength as Deerfoot, and if he once got a fair hold, he would not let go until he downed him.

Terry being right and Deerfoot left handed, each was able to secure his most effective grip. So, standing side by side, in the old fas.h.i.+oned style, with a dusky left arm around the white neck and a white arm around the dusky neck, they began the struggle.

In this match, as before, Deerfoot allowed his antagonist to dally with him awhile before he took the aggressive. Pa.s.sing him over his hip Terry gave Deerfoot such a violent fling that a pang of fear shot through him, lest he had broken the Shawanoe's neck; but though he shot headlong out of the grasp of the Irish lad, the Shawanoe landed lightly on his feet and instantly leaped back and closed with Terry again.

"I'll fetch ye this time," he muttered between his compressed lips; "ye shan't git out of me hands till ye's down flat on yer back and mesilf layin' a-straddle of ye. There's a difference between boxin' and sparrin' and I shall taich ye the same, as me grandmither--"

Both went down that instant, but the Shawanoe was on top. His antagonist could not have fallen flatter had he been dropped from the roof of a house.

"Mark the first fall for Deerfut," called out Terry, hastily clambering to his feet, the Shawanoe extending his hand to help.

This result weakened the confidence of the Irish lad in himself, that is, so far as concerned his opponent. He reflected that many of the Indians are skillful wrestlers, and while Deerfoot had had no training in boxing, he had in the other art. Such a cool headed athlete would be sure to learn fast. Terry recognized the peculiar flirt by which he had been turned off his feet as the very trick he had played successfully on his playmates at home, but which he never dreamed was known to Deerfoot.

The Irish lad tried every possible lock, twist and turn upon his rival, but he could not get him off his feet. It seemed to Terry that he whirled in the air when almost on the ground, and that if he had been dropped head downwards from the height of a rod, he would alight on his feet.

Fred saw Deerfoot, who was carefully watching his antagonist, smile, and he knew what was coming. So deftly that, for the life of him, the spectator could not see how it was done, Terry went over again as "flat as a flounder." Not only that, but to the astonishment of the victim as well as of the witness, the Shawanoe remained erect, so that he literally flung his antagonist to the ground and looked smilingly down upon him.

"Ye can baat the baaters," exclaimed Terry, rising to his feet, and shaking hands with his victor. "I niver met any one who could down me in that sthyle. I don't know how ye did the same, but I haven't any doubts that ye done it, as me great uncle remarked whin the cannon ball took off his head."

With the same shadowy smile Deerfoot looked inquiringly at Fred Linden.

"Deerfoot thinks maybe his brother would be glad to lay him on the ground?"

"I'll be hanged if I don't try it," laughed Fred, springing to his feet, and instantly but cautiously closing arms with the graceful warrior.

"My brother can not throw Deerfoot," said the latter; "but the heart of Deerfoot would be glad if he would tell him how he would like to fall--on his shoulders, or side, or back."

"I wouldn't like to fall at all; but if you think you can get me on my shoulders, just try it; that's all."

"It shall be as my brother wishes."

The words seemed yet in the mouth of Deerfoot when Fred felt himself sailing through s.p.a.ce, and the next instant he landed on his shoulders with a shock that Terry declared made the ground shake.

As before, Deerfoot himself did not fall, but looked smilingly down on his prostrate friend as he began climbing to his feet again.

"Now, if my brother wishes to fall on his back, it shall be so."

"I've little doubt that you will not do just as you say you will; I only ask that you wait till I say I am ready; you did the last before I had time to prepare."

"Ye bitter not ax him to wait," said Terry, who rolled over on the ground in the exuberance of his mirth, at the sight of his big friend going down before the lithe, willowy Shawanoe; "for since he's bound to do what he says, the sooner ye are out of yer suspinse, the sooner ye'll be out of it."

"Be kind enough to attend to your own affairs," said Fred stiffly; "Deerfoot and I are running this show."

"It looks as if Deerfut had charge of the whole of it," was the comment of Terry, who broke into laughter again; "and whin he is done ye'll agraa with me."

Once more the arms pa.s.sed over each other's neck. Fred resolved that whatever came, he would not be taken by surprise this time. He was stronger than Terry and he had thrown him more than once. He could not understand, therefore, why he should not at least give the Shawanoe a struggle. He braced his feet, with every muscle strained, and every faculty on the alert.

"I am ready," said he; "do your best."

"On which side shall Deerfoot throw his brother?"

"On my right side, and as hard as you can."

Now, you will see the difficulty of the task, for Fred had his right arm tightly locked over the neck of Deerfoot, so that that side was guarded by the body of the warrior himself. It would seem, that if Fred should fall on either side it could only be on the left. Manifestly if it should be the right, the Shawanoe could not go down with him. He must bring him to the ground and escape from beneath him before he fell.

He did it. For a second or two the contestants stood motionless. Then, like a flash, Deerfoot slipped from the grasp of his friend, dropped down in a stooping posture almost to the earth, holding the right hand of Fred firmly with his left (this was to prevent him using that hand to save himself), and then by a quick dart to the left, he carried both feet of his opponent off the ground, and Fred fell squarely on his right side, his conqueror straightening up as he went down.

"I would be obleeged," said Terry, throwing back his head with laughter, "if yees will be koind enough to till me who is runnin' the show about this time."

Fred was chagrined at the ease with which Deerfoot had overthrown him, and it was not lessened by the honest compliment which the young warrior gave to his skill. Both Fred and Terry had been pretty well jarred, for they were downed with such amazing suddenness that it could not be otherwise; but neither referred to it and they could only praise the wonderful ability of their friend.

"I tell you," said Fred, seating himself on the ground beside the other two, after the flurry was over, "all this proves that skill is worth more than strength. I am quite sure that I am as strong as you, Deerfoot, but I don't believe that Terry and I together could lay you on your back. When I had my arm around your neck, I suspected you would try to slip out, and I squeezed you pretty hard. You slid out so quickly that at the moment you were down at my heels, I thought I had you fast."

"I'm thinkin' that the nixt thing we should try is a race; Fred can outrun me and I'll agraa that he will outrun Deerfut, that is, if ye'll allow me to make the conditions."

"What would they be?" asked Deerfoot, Looking gravely down upon his friends.

"The race should be for a hundred yards, and Deerfut must give Fred ninety-five yards start, though to make it sure enough, maybe it ought to be ninety-six or siven."

"Then you would require about ninety-nine, according to the same calculation," said Fred.

"Ye's are right," replied Terry, to whom it seemed that no athletic feat was impossible for the Shawanoe; "nayther yersilf nor mesilf have a right to be mintioned in the same day with him."

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.