CHAPTER VI.
A DOUBLE TRAIL.
On the prairie, alone by moonlight, there is a lonesome solemnity that startles, appalls. Look in one direction. For miles and miles there stretches away a tract of rolling land where the grass grows, the buffaloes graze, the coyotes howl, but no human form can be seen, no tree waving—a loneliness of nature that you think must somehow of necessity be interminable. Turn and look in another. Down from the tableland there stretches a long, grassy slope, where the foliage is more than ordinarily luxuriant, and at the foot of the declivity is the long line of timber which marks the course of some stream. There the broad elm flourishes, the lofty cottonwood shoots upward, and the white sycamore trees stand gleaming ghostlike under the mellow moonlight. Perhaps, further away to the left, where the rich bottom is broken by rising ridges of rocky bluffs, you see the gloomy spread of the cedar tree reaching upward its dismal-looking arms. Wherever the rolling prairie-fires have been unable to sweep, there you see the shade of timber and bush; everywhere else is the blue and red stem, the blue and bunch-grass or the short, crisp buffalo-grass; and far off in the distance, with a quiet grandeur of its own, you see the trace-line of the mountain range.
Some such grand and lonely scene would the reader have noted had he been standing in some favorable position on the high prairie near Back Load Trace, a few moments before the occurrence of the incidents just detailed.
It can well be imagined that Blaze was not the only one startled into action by the occurrences of the night. The shot, by one of Dick Martin's men on guard, aroused the Free Trappers, and also caused Charles Endicott and his companions the keenest alarm. Had their destined prey been seized by other human wolves? If so—who were those wolves?
As for Blaze he lost but little time. Almost Herculean in strength, he gathered on one arm the two rifles, while with the other he bore Harry toward the camp. On the way he met the negro, who relieved him of the rifles, and, upon reaching the side of the now smoldering camp-fire, produced a bottle of spirits and a canteen of water.
It was but a short time until consciousness returned to the fainting man. He opened his eyes, raised himself, sat upright, looked Blaze full in the face.
"You saw it all, did you? Now tell me, who was that woman?"
"That bit o' caliker, mister, tho' I dunno as I ever seen it afore, war most likely a woman that Dick Martin claims a sort o' relationship to, an' she's bin livin' round hyar fur some considerable time. Frum yer ackshuns I'd think yer must hev hed a priur morgidge on it, an', ef so, ye'd better be up an' stirrin', fur by the mitey the durned Blackfoot is goin' to foreclose."
"Ready, quick, quick," was Winkle's terse answer, looking from one man to the other. Then he turned, and burying his face in his hands lay stretched for a moment prone. When he sprung to his feet there was a new light in his eye, and redoubled strength in his arm. He vaulted into his saddle, gathered up his reins, and turning to Blaze, in a firm-set whisper, muttered:
"Lead on—to life or death—but I must see her again."
So, fully armed and fairly equipped, the three men rode out from under the shadows and cast themselves, with clenched teeth and iron will, upon the trail. All this took but a few moments to accomplish, since the three men had within them, each separately, the highest development of trained sagacity.
As they came out upon the prairie, Blaze took a sweeping glance around him, as though he would fain impress upon his mind every minutiæ of the lay of the country.
"Dog-gone the'r hides, thar's just two routes for 'em, an' on'y two, to take, an' ef I know'd which one it war it's cussed leetle trailin' I'd do to-night. In this yere leetle game it takes too much eye-pullin' to run nose-down. It ain't accordin' to reason to s'pose we won't hev to look out fur all the cussed red-skin tricks ever invented. They've got one on me a'ready due, so ef I don't squar' with 'em afore beaver-pelts is prime, I hope I may never tote a trapsack, er p'izen a buffler-wolf ag'in."
This was said more in the manner of a soliloquy than of a direct address; in fact, it is doubtful if either of the others could have heard his low-toned words. Winkle meant work; and so, for the present, thought little of speaking or of listening. Blaze meant work, too; but, talk to him was second nature, and when there were no ears open to hear he would rather press his own into service than, no pressing emergency demanding it, keep silent. Having a full twenty minutes start, they reached the spot where Martin and men had first been at fault long in advance of those worthies, and, as they had not a third trail to confuse them, and perhaps being more trail-wise, Bill did not have to spend many minutes in finding the tracks left by the two parties of Indians.
"One on each route, by mitey! Now, which to foller?"
He gave both the benefit of a close scouting. On the one leading to the right he found the imprint of a horse's hoof which he recognized as having been with the abductors. He noticed, too, that one was double laden. After a bit he came upon some shreds of a woman's dress. He showed these marks to Winkle, being careful, for the benefit of Martin, whom he shrewdly suspected would follow hard after, to leave them untouched. Harry's heart bounded more buoyantly at sight of these indications, and Blaze took one more look around him before all three dashed on with redoubled energy. But, as the trail at length lay before them plain and undisguised, Blaze's enthusiasm suddenly fell away down below zero. From time to time he glanced at it and at length reined in his horse.
"Dog-gone my knock-kneed tail-feather!" he exclaimed, "I ain't fit to lead blind rabbits to water!"
Winkle looked at him in astonishment.
"What is the matter now? Why do you halt?"
But Blaze paid but little attention to his query.
"What a gaul-blasted fool this hyar old hoss are. Tuk right in the fust pop by a bit o' baby-play. Can't yer see? That gal couldn't a-tore them bits off o' her dress. It stan's to reason not, sure. Why, cuss 'em, thar's two Injuns ridin' double here, dead shot. I thort it was too soft a thing. That led hoss in t'other party is the one ez has the gal on. Jist seen it in time. I'd gamble high thar's ez purty a leetle hornets' nest a-hangin' under the fust bit o' timber we'd come to, ez you'll find frum hyar to the Big Red."
How this suggestion was received may well be imagined.
"What are we to do then?" queried Harry. "Must we go all the way back and start fresh on the other trail?"
"Wal, not quite that bad; but, somewheres blamed nigh. Change my hind-sights, ef they ain't a-strikin' fur Crooked Cañon, full drive—we're goin', from the taste I've had of the hosses, to be jist a leetle too late to see 'em git under kiver."
"You think we can find them yet, though?"
"Think! I know it. Thar ain't no trouble about that; thar's only two trails, an' like a blarsted green purp I've bin a-barkin' up the wrong one."
"Then the sooner we look for the right one, the better."
"That's so, only it's provokin' to hev bin losin' all this time. Come on now, an ef ever an arrer went straight—an' the copper-skins kin sling 'em nasty, I kin take yer to the spot whar they're headin' fur to-night. I've bin ham-strung an' sot down on, which ain't very lively fur the boys!"
Without more hesitation or further parley, Blaze turned to the left and led off at a rate which he judged best suited to continued effort. Not for a long time did he utter a word. But when the silence had begun to be monotonous, he broke it by bringing his hand down with violence upon his thigh, exclaiming:
"Cussed ef sand-paper ain't slick as grease along side o' this streak o' roughness. Won't some one draw a bead on me afore I get my ha'r cut fur nuthin'?"
"Why, what is the trouble now? I hope we are not at fault again?" anxiously remarked Winkle.
"No, we ain't; but it's three to one an' fifty cents a dozen but what Dick Martin an' his boys are. I war so bloody, blarsted particular to leave every thing es I found it, and when they come up, like es not they'll just skyugle straight along on our trail, an' so they're losin' time, an' maybe get tuk in, when we mout just as well as not all be layin' on that trail together. It's too late to fix her now; so here goes."
Winkle's momentary uneasiness having been allayed, the three rode rapidly but moodily on.