The Huge Hunter; Or, The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward Sylvester Ellis (new ebook reader .txt) 📗

the time was exceedingly critical. The man who had clutched his foot did so with the grasp of a drowning man; in their struggle both went to the bottom of the river together. Here, by a furious effort, Mickey shook him free, and coming to the surface, struck out again for the suffering hunter.

'It is sorry I am that I was compelled to leave yees behind,' he muttered, glancing over his shoulder in search of the poor fellow from whom he had just freed himself; 'but yees are past helpin', and so it's maeself that must attend to the poor gentleman ahead.'

Striking powerfully out, he soon came beside his friends again and took the drooping arm of Baldy Bicknell.

'Be yees sufferin' to a great extent?' inquired the kind-hearted Irishman, looking at the white face of the silent hunter.

'Got a purty good whack over the back,' he replied, between his compressed lips, as he forced back all expression of pain.

''Ye'll be aisier when we fotch ye to the land, as me uncle obsarved whin he hauled the big fish ashore that was thrashing his line to pieces jist.'

'Twon't take you long to git over it,' added Hopkins, anxious to give his grain of consolation; 'you look, now, like quite a healthy young man.'

The current was quite rapid, and it was no light labor to tow the helpless hunter ashore; but the two friends succeeded, and at length drew him out upon the land and stretched him upon the sward.

The exertion of keeping their charge afloat, and breasting the current at the same time, carried them a considerable distance downstream, and they landed perhaps an eighth of a mile below where the main body of shivering wretches were congregated.

'Do yees feel aisy?' inquired Mickey, when the hunter had been laid upon the grass, beneath some overhanging bushes.

'Yes, I'll soon git over it but woofh! that thar war a whack of the biggest kind I got. It has made me powerful weak.'

'What might it have been naow!' inquired Hopkins.

'Can't say, fust thing I know'd, I didn't know nothin', remember suthin' took me back the head, and the next thing I kerwholloped in the water.'

The three men had lost everything except what was on their bodies when the catastrophe occurred. Their horses were gone, and they hadn't a gun between them; nothing but two revolvers, and about a half dozen charges for each.

Of the twenty odd who were upon the steamer at the time of the explosion, nearly one-half were killed; they sinking to the bottom almost as suddenly as the wrecked steamer, of which not a single trace now remained.

The survivors made their way to land, reaching it a short distance below their starting-point, and here they assembled, to commiserate with each other upon their hapless lot and determine how they were to reach home.

Our three friends had remained upon shore about half an hour, the two waiting for the third to recover, when the latter raised himself upon his elbow in the attitude of listening. At the same time he waved his hand for the others to hold their peace.

A moment later he said:

'I hear Injins.''

'Begorrah! where bees the same?' demanded Mickey, starting to his feet, while Ethan gazed alarmedly about.

'Jist take a squint up the river, and tell me ef they ain't pitchin' into the poor critters thar.'

Through the sheltering trees and undergrowth, which partly protected them, the two men gazed up-stream. To their horror, they saw fully fifty Indians massacring the survivors of the wreck, whooping, screeching and yelling like demons, while their poor victims were vainly endeavoring to escape them.

'Begorrah, now, but that looks bad!' exclaimed the Irishman. 'Be the same towken, what is it that we can do?'

'Jerusalem! They'll be sure to pay us a visit. I'll be gumtued if they won't,' added the Yankee, in some trepidation, as he cowered down again by the side of the hunter, and said to him in a lower Voice:

'The worst of it is, we haven't got a gun atwixt us. Of course we shall stick by you if we have to lose our heads fur it. But don't you think they'll pay us a visit?'

'Like 'noughtin',' was the indifferent reply of the hunter, as he laid his head back again, as if tired of listening to the tumult.

'Can't we do anything to get you out of danger!'

'Can't see that you kin; you two fellers have done me a good turn in gittin' me ashore, so jist leave me yere, and it don't make no difference about me one way or t'other, Ef I hear 'em comin' I'll jist roll into the water and go under in that style.'

'May the Howly Vargin niver smile upon us if we dissart you in this extremity,' was the reply of the fervent-hearted Irishman.

'And by the jumpin' jingo! if we was consarnedly mean enough to do it, there ain't no need of it.'

As the Yankee spoke, he ran down to the river, and walking out a short distance, caught a log drifting by and drew it in.

'Naow, Mr. Baldy, or Mr. Bicknell, as you call yourself, we'll all three git hold of that and float down the river till we git beyond fear of the savages.'

The plan was a good one, and the hunter so expressed himself. With some help he managed to crawl to the river bank, where one arm was placed over the log, in such a manner that he could easily float, without any danger of sinking.

'Keep as close to shore as you kin,' he said, as they were about shoving off.

'We can go faster in the middle,' said Hopkins.

'But the reds'll see us, and it'll be all up then.'

This was the warning of prudence, and it was heeded.

CHAPTER VI. THE MINERS.

IT WAS late in the afternoon when the explosion occurred, and it was just beginning to grow dark when the three friends began drifting down the Yellowstone.

This fact was greatly in their favor, although there remained an hour or two of great danger, in case the Indians made any search for them. In case of discovery, there was hardly an earthly chance for escape.

The log or raft, as it might be termed, had floated very quietly down-stream for about half an hour, when the wonderfully acute ears of the trapper detected danger.

'Thar be some of the skunks that are creep-in 'long shore,' said he; 'you'd better run in under this yar tree and hold fast awhile.'

The warning was heeded. Just below them, the luxuriant branches of an oak, dipped in the current, formed an impenetrable screen. As the log, guided thither, floated beneath this, Mickey and Ethan both caught hold of the branches and held themselves motionless.

'Now wait till it's dark, and then thar'll be no fear of the varmints,' added the trapper.

''Sh! I haars sumfin'!' whispered the Irishman

'What is it?' asked Ethan.

'How does I know till yees kaaps still?'

'It's the reds goin' long the banks,' said the trapper.

The words were yet in his mouth, when the voice of one Indian was heard calling to another. Neither Mickey nor Ethan had the remotest idea of the meaning of the words uttered, but the trapper told them that they were inquiring of each other whether anything had been discovered of more fugitives. The answer being in the negative, our friends considered their present position safe.

When it was fairly dark, and nothing more was seen or heard of the Indians, the raft was permitted to float free, and they drifted with the current. They kept the river until daylight, when, having been in the water so long, they concluded it best to land and rest themselves. By the aid of their revolvers they succeeded in' kindling a fire, the warmth of which proved exceedingly grateful to all.

They would have had a very rough time had they not encountered a party of hunters who accompanied them to St. Louis, where the trapper had friends, and where, also, he had a good sum of money in the bank.

Here Baldy remained all winter, before he entirely recovered from the hurt which he received during the explosion and sinking of the steamer. When the Irishman and Yankee were about to depart, he asked them where they were going.

'I'm goin' home in Connecticut and goin' to work on the farm, and that's where I'm goin' to stay. I was a fool ever to leave it for this confounded place. I could live decent put there, and that's more than I can do in this blamed country.'

'And I shall go back to work on the Erie railroad, at thirty-siven cents a day and boord myself,' replied the Irishman.

'If yer were sartin of findin' all the gold yor want, would yer go back to Califony?''

'Arrah. Now, what are yees talkin' about?' asked McSquizzle, somewhat impatiently. 'What is the good of talkin'?'

'I didn't ax yer to fool with yer,' replied the trapper, 'thar's a place that I know away out West, that I call Wolf Ravine, whar thar's enough gold to make both of yer richer than yer ever war afore, and then leave some for yer children.'

'Jerusalem! but you're a lucky dog!' exclaimed Ethan Hopkins, not daring to hope that he would reveal the place. 'Why don't you dig it up naow, yourself?'

'I only found it a month ago, and I made a purty good haul of it, as it was. When that old boss of mine went down with the steamer, he carried a powerful heft of gold with him, and if anybody finds his carcass, it'll be the most vallyable one they ever come across.'

'Jingo! if I'd know'd that, I'd taken a hunt for him myself.'

'Howsumever, that's neither yar nor thar. You both done me a good turn when I got into trouble on the river, and I mud' up my mind to do what I could toward payin' it back the first chance I got. I didn't say nothin' of it when we was on our way, 'cause I was afeard it would make you too crazy to go back ag'in: but if you'll come back this way next spring I'll make the trip with you.'

'Why not go naow?' eagerly inquired Hopkins.

'It's too late in the season. I don't want to be thar when thar's too much snow onto the ground, and then I must stay yar till I git well over that whack I got on the boat.'

It is hardly necessary to say that the offer of the kind-hearted trapper was accepted with the utmost enthusiasm. Mickey and Ethan were more anxious to go out upon the prairies than they had been a year and a half before, when they started so full of fife and hope for that vast wilderness, and had come back with such discouragement and disgust.

It was arranged that as soon as the succeeding spring had fairly set in, they would set out on their return for St. Louis, where the trapper would meet and accompany them to the wonderful gold region of which he had spoken.

Before continuing their journey homeward, Baldy presented each with a complete outfit, paid their passage to their homes, and gave them a snug sum over. Like the Indian, he never could forget a kindness shown him, nor do too great a favor to those who had so signally benefited him.

So the separation took place again; and, on the following spring Mickey and Ethan appeared in St. Louis, where they had no difficulty in finding their old friend, the trapper.

He had recovered entirely from his prostrating blow, and was expecting them, anxious and glad to join in the promised search for gold. As the fair weather had really begun, there was no time lost in unnecessary delay. The purse of Baldy Bicknell was deep, and he had not the common habit of intoxication, which takes so much substance from a man. He purchased a horse and accouterments for each of his friends; and, before they started westward, saw that nothing at all was lacking in their outfit.

Three weeks later the men drew rein in a tort of valley, very deep but not very wide. It was on the edge of an immense prairie, while a river of considerable size flowed by the rear, and by a curious circuit found its way into the lower portion of the ravine, dashing and roaring forward in a furious canyon.

The edge and interior of the ravine was lined with immense bowlders and rocks, while large and stunted trees seemed to grow everywhere.

'Yar's what I call Wolf Ravine,' said Baldy when they had spent some time in looking; about them.

'And be the same towken, where is the goold?' inquired Mickey.

'Yes, that there is what I call the important question,' added Ethan.

'That it is, of the greatest account, as me grandmither observed, whin she