CHAPTER IX.
A FEARFUL ADVENTURE.
It is not to be supposed that Pat Mulroony was entirely free from fear, when he resolved upon the venture of which we have spoken. The strenuous assertions of Waring, the equally positive belief of Hezekiah, and their united protestations convinced him that they were at least sincere and honest in their efforts to preserve him from harm. Nevertheless, like a genuine Irishman, he sturdily combated them, determined to demonstrate his sincerity by actual experiment.
It is a fact that a man may commence with the assertion of an absolute falsehood, and conscious, at the beginning, that he is defending such, argues himself in time into the belief that it is genuine truth.
Pat Mulroony had walked two-thirds of the distance to the hulk, and was within a few feet of the water, when he paused. He had discovered a fearful and startling thing!
That which arrested the brave-hearted Irishman, was the sight of a human eye. At a small augur-like orifice at the mouth of the boat he suddenly distinguished the glowing eye-ball of a Shawanoe Indian! It was glaring like a demon's, and a cannon-ball would not have stopped him sooner.
Waring and Hezekiah, noticing his hesitation, called out in a whisper for him to return. This very call was the means of sending him forward again. He was resolved that they should never laugh at this adventure, and with rather a quickened step, he strode forward, and catching the gunwale by one hand, he carried himself with one bound over upon the deck.
He had left his rifle behind, and was armed only with his knife. His two friends breathlessly watched him and listened. They saw his head and broad shoulders gradually lower as he walked undauntedly toward the stern of the boat, until the bow hid them from sight, and then all was still.
The silence lasted for perhaps a full minute, and then was broken by a yell as startling and terrific as an explosion of thunder in the clear summer sky. Instantly a half dozen tufted heads was seen dodging hither and thither over the deck, all centering around one burly, bare-headed figure that was struggling like a lion amid a score of enemies which had dogged him nigh to death.
While Waring and Hezekiah gazed transfixed with horror, a powerful-limbed Indian shot up like a rocket in mid-air, and came down in the river. Ere he had struck, another went spinning after him, falling flat on his face in the water, with a concussion that cracked like a pistol. While they were swimming with all speed back to the boat, a heavy fall was heard, a faint shuffling noise, and then all was still.
As the foremost Indian was in the act of pulling himself over the gunwale of the flat-boat he let go with a horrid whoop, and fell back dead, killed by the bullet from Waring's rifle. The other attempted to swim behind the stern, but Hezekiah shot him through the brain ere it could be accomplished.
There could be but one cause for the sudden cessation of the tumult upon the flat-boat. Pat had either been overcome or slain. The silence that succeeded the fearful yell and the struggle was equally painful and impressive to his two friends. They waited long and impatiently for it to be broken.
"It's all up with him!" whispered Waring, as he primed his rifle. "I pity him, but our hands are clear of his blood."
"Too bad, too bad," muttered Hezekiah, who had just loaded his rifle, "he was a good fellow, my dear Patrick was indeed. I am sorry that he has come to this bad end!"
"We must look out for ourselves now. The best thing we can do is to get off this infernal island, which has been the scene of such misfortune to us. I am afraid that if we remain much longer, you will take it into your head to perform some such a feat, and I shall be left alone."
"No, indeed, I won't, there's no danger of that," added Hezekiah, so eagerly and earnestly that it brought a smile to the face of Waring.
"It is yet early in the forenoon, and I suppose we shall be compelled to remain here until night."
"Of course we shall! It won't do to start out in the river in open daylight. We'd be killed before we had gone a dozen inches."
"Hello! did you hear that?" exclaimed Waring.
Several whoops were heard upon the Kentucky shore, apparently in answer to these which had been uttered some minutes before by the captors of Pat Mulroony. Peering through the trees, Waring added:
"There is a party of the thieves, coming off from the mainland in a canoe. Get ready for hot work."
"Drat the things—can't we hide?" anxiously asked Hezekiah, looking around him for any place that might offer.
"No; we must stand our ground; they have just started."
The canoe which was approaching was a large Indian one, in which were seated three or four Shawanoes, all busily plying their paddles. They headed straight for the upper end of the island, while the whites stood each behind a tree, with cocked rifles, waiting until they were compelled to fire.
Just as the canoe seemed about to touch, it sheered off, and ran alongside of the flat-boat, where it lay against and parallel to it. The heads of four savages immediately appeared above, as though they were staggering under the weight of some heavy load. The next second, Pat Mulroony, bound hand and foot, was handed over, and deposited in the bottom of the canoe. His friends could hear him muttering dire threats of vengeance, and daring his captors to loose him for a moment, all of which it is needless to say attracted no notice whatever.
The captive disposed of, the Shawanoes followed, sinking the canoe to its very gunwales. They paddled away toward the shore, and in a few moments disappeared from view.
"Now, at least," said Waring, "the island and boat are free of the imps, and we can have a breathing spell. Let us go upon the old hulk."
"What in the world do you want to do that for?"
"It is the safest place."
"If you've no objection, I should like to inquire how it can be the safest place?"
"In the first place there is no one upon it, and in the second place, as its sides are bullet-proof, we can use it as a fort, and keep off any number of foes until dark, when we can get off ourselves."
"Let's go upon it, then, before they come back."
It was with some misgiving, slight enough, but still sufficient to occasion uneasiness, that Waring once more approached the flat-boat. When he reached the deck, he experienced an irresistible desire to explore every portion of it, not that he suspected the presence of any Indian, but that he could not feel positively assured until he had done so. The result was that it was found to be entirely empty of any persons except themselves. The cabin was half full of water, and it was here that the Shawanoes must have concealed themselves while their victim was approaching.