The Trapper's Daughter Part 59

"Well, chief, what is it?" the latter asked.

"Listen!"

The hunters did so. They soon heard, at a considerable distance, confused cries, which momentarily became more distinct, and soon merged into a fearful clamour.

"What is happening now?" Valentine asked, thoughtfully.

The shouts increased fearfully, strange lights illumined the forest, whose guests, disturbed in their sleep, flew heavily here and there, uttering plaintive cries.

"Attention!" the hunter said, "Let us try and discover what all this means."

But their uncertainty did not last long. Valentine all at once left the branch behind which he was concealed, and uttered a long, shrill cry, which was replied to with fearful yells.

"What is it?" Don Miguel asked.

"Unicorn!" Valentine answered.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

COUSIN BRUIN.

Nathan's flight was discovered by a singular accident. The Comanches are no more accustomed than other Indians to have grand rounds and night patrols during the night, which are inventions of civilised nations quite unknown on the prairie. In all probability, the Indians would not have perceived their prisoner's disappearance till daybreak.

Nathan fully built on this. He was too well acquainted with Indian habits not to know what he had to depend on in this respect. But he had not taken hatred into calculation, that vigilant sentry which nothing can send to sleep.

About an hour after Nathan's successful ascent, White Gazelle, aroused by the cold, and more probably by the desire of a.s.suring herself that the prisoner could not escape, rose, and crossed the camp alone, striding over the sleeping warriors, and feeling her way as well as she could in the dark; for most of the fires had gone out, and those which still burned spread only an uncertain light. Impelled by that feeling, of hatred which so rarely deceives those who feel its sharpened sting, she at length found her way through this inextricable labyrinth, and reached the tree to which the prisoner had been fastened. The tree was deserted. The cords which had bound Nathan lay cut a few paces off, while Gazelle was stupefied for a moment at this sight, which she was so far from expecting.

"Oh!" she muttered savagely, "it is a family of demons! But how has he escaped? Where can he have fled?"

"Those villains are quietly asleep," she said, seeing the warriors reposing, "while the man they were ordered to watch is laughing at them far away."

She spurned them with her foot.

"Accursed dogs!" she yelled, "wake up! The prisoner has escaped!"

The men did not stir.

"Oh, oh!" she said, "What means this?"

She stooped down and carefully examined them: all was revealed to her at once.

"Dead!" she said; "he has a.s.sa.s.sinated them. What diabolical power must this race of reprobates possess!"

After a moment of terror, she sprang up furiously and rushed through the camp, shouting in a shrill voice:

"Up, up! Warriors, the prisoner has fled!"

All were on their feet in a moment. Unicorn was one of the first to seize his weapons, and hurried towards her, asking the meaning of those unusual sounds. In a few words White Gazelle informed him, and Unicorn, more furious than herself, aroused his warriors, and sent them in all directions in pursuit of Nathan.

But we know that, temporarily at least, the squatter's son had nothing to fear from this vain search. The miraculous flight of a man from the middle of a camp of warriors, unperceived by the sentries, had something so extraordinary about it, that the Comanches, superst.i.tious as all Indians, were disposed to believe in the intervention of the Genius of Evil. The whole camp was in confusion: every one ran in a different direction, brandis.h.i.+ng torches. The circle widened more and more. The warriors, carried away by their ardour, left the clearing and entered the forest.

All at once a shrill cry broke through the air, and everybody stopped as if by enchantment.

"Oh," White Gazelle asked, "what is that?"

"Koutonepi, my brother," Unicorn replied briefly, as he repeated the signal.

"Let us run to meet him," the girl said.

They hurried forward, closely followed by a dozen warriors, and soon stood under the tree where Valentine and his companions were standing.

The hunter saw them coming, and hence called to them.

"Where are you?" Unicorn asked.

"Up this larch tree," Valentine shouted; "stop and look."

The Indians looked up.

"Wah!" Unicorn said with astonishment, "What is my brother doing there?"

"I will tell you, but first help me to come down; we are not comfortably situated for conversing, especially for what I have to tell you, chief."

"Good; I await my brother."

Valentine fastened his la.s.so to a branch and prepared to slide down, but Curumilla laid a hand on his shoulder.

"What do you want, chief?"

"Is my brother going down?"

"You see," Valentine said, pointing to the la.s.so.

Curumilla shook his head with an air of dissatisfaction.

"Red Cedar!" he said.

"Ah, _Canarios!_" the hunter exclaimed, as he struck his forehead, "I did not think about him. Why, I must be going mad. By Jove, chief! You are a precious man, nothing escapes your notice--wait."

Valentine stooped, and forming his hands into a speaking-trumpet, shouted--

"Chief, come up."

"Good."