The Wild Man of the West: A Tale of the Rocky Mountains

Chapter Twenty One

March, though willing in Spirit, finds his Body weak—He makes Mary a Present—The Trappers set out to search for their lost Comrade—An unexpected Meeting—Big Waller waxes Pugnacious—News of March—Dick becomes more mysterious than ever—A reckless Proposal and a happy Meeting

Next morning, before daybreak, March Marston attempted to set out for the Mountain Fort with Dick; but he was so thoroughly knocked up before the end of the first mile that he had to call a halt, and admit that he could not think of going further. This was just what Dick wanted; so he laughed, told him to go back and take care of Mary, and he would advance alone.

March returned, very much humbled, excessively pained in all his joints, and feeling as if he had reason to be ashamed of himself.

“Oh! you com back?” cried Mary as he entered the cavern with a crestfallen air. “Me so glad! Me know very well you no was poss’ble for travel.”

Mary was perfectly artless. She made no attempt whatever to conceal her satisfaction at the youth’s return, so he felt amazingly comforted, and even began to recover his self-esteem.

“Yes, Mary, I’ve come back, ’cause I can’t go forward. It’s o’ no use tryin’; I’d just have knocked up on the way, which would have been awkward for Dick, you know, as well as for me. Besides, I couldn’t fight just now to save my life.”

“Well, you is right. You stop here an’ git strong an’ well. Me tell you stories ’bout Dick, or other mans if you likes. We’ll have no fightin’ to do. If there is, me take care of you. Me can doos a littil in that way.”

March opened his eyes very wide at this, and stared at the pretty little vision in leather, but there was no smile or sly wrinkle on her countenance. She was looking quite gravely and sedately into the iron pot, which she happened to be stirring at that moment.

“Mary,” he said, sitting down beside her, “Dick tells me you can read.”

“Yis, me can read littil. But me only got one book.” She sighed slightly as she said this.

“Would you like to have another book?”

“Oh yis, very very much. Have you got one?”

“Ay, one; the only one I have in the world, Mary; an’ you’re the only person in the world I’d give it to. But I’ll give it to you, ’cause you’ve no chance of gettin’ one like it here. It’s a Bible—the one my mother gave me when I left home.”

March pulled the little volume out of the breast of his coat as he spoke, and handed it to the girl, who received it eagerly, and looked at it with mingled feelings of awe and curiosity for some time before she ventured to open it.

“The Bibil. Dick have oftin speak to me ’bout it, an’ try to ’member some of it. But he no can ’member much. He tell me it speak about the great good Spirit. Injins call him Manitow.”

“So it does, Mary. I’ll leave it with you when I go away. You say Dick couldn’t remember much of it; neither can I, Mary. More shame to me, for many an’ many a time has my poor mother tried to make me learn it off by heart.”

“You mother?” repeated Mary earnestly. “Is you mother livin’?”

“That is she. At least, I left her well an’ hearty in Pine Point settlement not many weeks agone.”

“Me wish me had mother,” said Mary with a sigh.

March gazed at the sad face of his fair companion with a perplexed yet sympathetic look. This was a new idea to him. Never having been without a mother, it had never entered into his head to think of such a thing as wishing for one.

“What you mother called?” said the girl, looking up quickly.

“Her name is Mary.”

“Yis! that very strange. Call same as me.”

“Not very strange, after all. There are a good number of Marys in the world,” replied March with a laugh. “See, here is her name on the flyleaf of the Bible, written with her own hand, too: ‘To my dear March, from his loving mother, Mary Marston, Pine Point settlement.’ Isn’t it a good round hand o’ write?”

“Very pritty,” replied Mary. But she had now begun to spell out the words of the book which had at last fallen into her hands, and March could not again draw her into general talk; so he was fain to sit down and help her to read the Bible.

Leaving them thus occupied, we will now return to the trappers, three of whom, it will be remembered—Bounce, Redhand, and Gibault—had reached the Mountain Fort and given the alarm. Soon afterwards the Indians arrived there; but finding everything in readiness to give them a warm reception, they retired at once, preferring to wait their opportunity rather than have a fair stand-up fight with the white men. About an hour after they had retired, Big Waller, Hawkswing, and the artist, came tearing towards the fort, and were at once admitted.

They had nothing new to tell. They had met together by accident, as the others had done, on nearing the fort, and would have been in sooner, had not Big Waller been obliged to take charge of poor Bertram, who, owing to the suddenness and violence of all these recent events in savage life, had got into a muddled condition of mind that rendered him peculiarly helpless. But they knew nothing of March Marston—they had expected to find him there before them.

As March was well mounted, and known to be well qualified to take care of himself, his non-arrival threw his friends into a state of the utmost anxiety and suspense. They waited a couple of hours, in order to give him a chance of coming in, hoping that he might have merely been detained by some trifling accident, such as having lost his way for a time. But when, at the end of that period, there was still no sign of him, they gave up all hope of his arriving, and at once set out to sweep the whole country round in search of him, vowing in their hearts that they would never return to Pine Point settlement without him if he were alive.

McLeod tried to persuade them to remain at the fort for a few days, but, feeling sympathy with them, he soon ceased to press the matter. As for the wretched chief of the fort, Macgregor—the excitement of the recent transactions being over—he had returned to his bosom friend, and bitterest enemy, the bottle, and was at that time lying in a state of drivelling idiocy in his private chamber.

A few days after quitting the fort, Bounce and Gibault, who chanced to be riding considerably in advance of their companions, halted on the top of a ridge and began to scan the country before them. In the midst of their observations, Bounce broke the silence with a grunt.

“Fat now?” inquired his companion.

“What now?” replied Bounce contemptuously. “Use yer eyes now; d’ye see nothin’?”

“Non, no ting.”

“That comes o’ the want of obsarvation, now,” said Bounce in a grave, reproachful tone. “Ye shouldn’t ought to be so light-headed, lad. If ye wos left to yer lone in them sort o’ places, ye’d soon lose yer scalp. It’s obsarvation as does it all, an’ in yer partikler case it’s the want o’ that same as doesn’t do it, d’ye see?”

“Non, vraiment, me shockable blind dis day; mais, p’r’aps, git more cliver de morrow,” replied the good-humoured Canadian with a grin. “Fat you see?”

“I see fut-prints,” replied Bounce, dismounting; “an’ as fut-prints implies feet, an’ feet indicates critters, human or otherwise, it becomes men wot be lookin’ for a lost comrade to examine ’em with more nor or’nary care.”

“Hah!” shouted Gibault with unwonted energy. “Look! voilà! behold! Bounce, you hab great want of ‘obsarvation.’ See!”

Now it chanced that, while Bounce was on his knees, carefully turning over every leaf and blade of grass, his comrade, who remained on horseback, and kept gazing at the horizon, without any particular object in view, did suddenly behold an object coming towards them at full gallop. Hence the sudden outburst, and the succeeding exclamation from Bounce—“It’s a hoss!”

“A hoss!” repeated Gibault. “Him be one buffalo I see hims bump.”

“The bumps that ye see is neither more nor less than a man leanin’ forard—it is.”

At this moment the rest of the party rode up, and Redhand confirmed Bounce’s opinion.

“There’s only one, I guess, an’ he’s in a powerful hurry,” observed Big Waller. “But we may as well be ready to fix his flint if he means to cut up rough.”

He brought forward his gun as he spoke, and examined the priming.

“I b’lieve he’s an evil spirit, I do,” said Bounce; “wot a pace!”

“More like to de Wild Man of de Vest,” observed Gibault.

“Think you so?” whispered Bertram in an anxious tone, with an involuntary motion of his hand to the pouch in which lay that marvellous sketch-book of his.

“Think it’s him?” said Redhand to Hawkswing.

The Indian gave a slight grunt of assent.

But the strange horseman soon put all doubt on the point at rest by bearing down upon them like a whirlwind, his long hair and tags and scalp-locks streaming in the wind as usual. Dick had a distinct purpose in thus acting. He wished to terrify men, or, at least, to impress them with a wholesome dread of him, in order that he might simply be let alone!

He did not check his slashing pace until within four or five bounds of the party. Reining up so violently that he tore up the turf for a couple of yards under his horse’s heels, he looked at the trappers with a grave, almost fierce expression, for a second or two.

“You come from the Mountain Fort?” he said.

“Yes,” replied Redhand.

“All right there?”

“All right. The redskins threatened an attack, but we were too quick for ’em.”

A gleam of satisfaction passed across Dick’s face as he added, “You’ve lost a comrade, han’t ye?”

“We jist have,” cried Big Waller in surprise. “If you’ve seed him, I guess ye’d as well take us to his whereabouts.”

“See you yonder pine?” said Dick, pointing back in the direction whence he had come. “One day’s journey beyond that, as the crow flies, will bring you to a valley, level and well watered, with plenty o’ beaver in it. You’ll find him there.”

Without waiting a reply Dick turned to ride away.

“I say, stranger,” cried Waller (Dick paused), “air you, or air you not, the Wild Man o’ the West?”

“Wild fools of the West call me so,” replied Dick with a ferocious frown, that went far to corroborate the propriety of the cognomen in the opinion of the trappers.

“Wall, I tell ’ee wot it is, stranger, Wild Man or not, I guess you’ll ha’ to take us to our comrade yourself, for I’m inclined to opine that you know more about him than’s good for ye; so if ye try to ride off, I’ll see whether a ball—sixteen to the pound—’ll not stop ye, for all yer bigness.”

A grim smile curled Dick’s moustache as he replied, “If ye think that a trapper’s word ain’t to be trusted, or that committin’ murder ’ll do yer comrade a service, here’s your chance—fire away!”

Dick wheeled about and cantered coolly away into the thickest part of the forest, leaving the trappers gazing at each other in amazement. Bertram was the first to speak.

“Oh, why did you not delay him a few seconds longer? See, I have him here—all but the legs of his splendid charger.”

The others burst into a laugh.

“If ye’ve got the body all c’rect, it’s easy to calculate the legs by the rules o’ proportion, d’ye see?” observed Bounce.

“Come, lads, that’s good news about March, anyhow,” cried Redhand; “an’ I’m of opinion that the Wild Man o’ the West an’t just so wild as people think. I, for one, will trust him. There’s somethin’ about the corner of a man’s eye that tells pretty plain whether he’s false or true. Depend on’t we shall find March where he told us, so the sooner we set off the better.”

Without waiting for a reply, Redhand urged his horse into a gallop, and, followed by his comrades, made for the valley indicated by the Wild Man.

Meanwhile, the Wild Man himself was already far ahead of them, keeping out of sight among the woods, and galloping nearly in the same direction—for his cave lay not more than four miles from the valley in question. Being much better mounted than they, he soon left the trappers far behind him, and when night closed in he continued his journey, instead of halting to eat and take a few hours’ rest as they did. The consequence was that he reached his cave several hours before the trappers arrived at the valley, where they expected to find their missing comrade.

Of course March was filled with surprise at this second unexpected return of Dick; but the latter relieved his mind by explaining, in an offhand way, that he had met a man who had told him the Mountain Fort was all safe, and that his comrades also were safe, and wandering about in that part of the country in search of him. After a good deal of desultory conversation, Dick turned to his guest with a sad, serious air, and, fixing his large blue eyes on him, said—

“March, lad, you an’ me must part soon.”

“Part!” exclaimed the youth in surprise, glancing at Mary, who sat opposite to him, embroidering a pair of moccasins.

“Ay, we must part. You’ll be well enough in a day or two to travel about with yer comrades. Now, lad, I want ye to understand me. I’ve lived here, off and on, for the last fourteen or fifteen years—it may be more, it may be less; I don’t well remember—an’ I’ve niver suffered men to interfere wi’ me. I don’t want them, an’ they don’t want me.”

He paused. There was a slight dash of bitterness in the tone in which the last words were uttered; but it was gone when he resumed, in his usual low and musical voice—

“Now, although I chose to bring you to my cave, because I found ye a’most in a dyin’ state, an’ have let ye into one or two o’ my secrets—because I couldn’t help it, seein’ that I couldn’t stop up yer eyes—an’ yer ears—yet I don’t choose to let yer comrades know anything about me. They’ve no right to, an’ you have no right to tell ’em; so, when ye meet ’em again ye mustn’t talk about me or my cave, d’ye see?”

“Certainly,” said March, who was both surprised and annoyed by his speech, “certainly you have a perfect right to command me to hold my tongue; and, seein’ that you’ve bin so kind to me, Dick, I’m in duty bound to obey; but how can you ask me to put myself in such an awkward fix? You don’t suppose I can make my comrades believe I’ve bin livin’ on air or grass for some days past, an’ they’ll see, easy enough, that I’ve not bin in a condition to help myself. Besides, whatever your notions may be about truth, mine are of such a sort that they won’t let me tell a parcel o’ lies to please anybody.”

“Far be it from me, boy, to ask ye to tell lies. You can tell yer comrades that you’ve bin took care of by a trapper as lives in a cave among the mountains; but you don’t need to tell ’em where the cave is; an’ if they worry ye to guide ’em to it, ye can refuse. Moreover, jist speak o’ me in an offhand, careless sort o’ way, d’ye see? an’ be particular not to tell what I’m like, ’cause it might make ’em take a fancy to hunt me up.”

There appeared to be a dash of vanity in the latter part of this remark, which surprised March not a little; for it seemed to him quite inconsistent with the stout hunter’s wonted modesty of demeanour and speech.

“Well, I’m bound to think only o’ your wishes in this matter,” replied March in a disappointed tone, “an’ I’ll do my best to prevent my comrades interfering with ye, tho’, to say truth, I don’t think you need be so cautious, for they ain’t over-curious—none of ’em. But—” here March paused and glanced at Mary, who, he observed, had dropped her head very much during the conversation, and from whose eye at that moment a bright tear fell, like a diamond, on the work with which she was engaged.

“But—am I—the fact is, Dick, I feel a little sore that you should say ye had a likin’ for me, an’ then tell me I must be off, an’ never look near ye again.”

“That’s wot I never did say, boy,” returned Dick, smiling. “Ye may come alone to see me as often as ye like while ye remain in these parts. An’ if it please ye, yer at liberty to come an’ live wi’ me. There’s room in the mountains for both of us. The cave can hold three if need be.”

March Marston’s heart beat quick. He was on the eve of forming a great resolve! His bosom heaved, and his eye sparkled, as he was about to close hastily with this proposal, when, again, the memory of his mother crossed him, and a deep sigh burst from his lips as he shook his head, and said sorrowfully, “It can’t be done, Dick. I can’t forsake my mother.”

“No more ye should, lad, no more ye should,” said Dick, nodding approvingly; “but there’s nothin’ to prevent your spendin’ the winter and spring here, an’ returnin’ to yer mother next summer.”

“Done!” cried March, springing up as well as his bruised muscles would permit him, and seizing his friend enthusiastically by the hand. “I’ll stop with you and send home word by my comrades that I’ll be back in summer. That’s capital!”

Mary seemed to be quite of the same opinion, for she looked quickly up with a beaming smile.

“Well, so it is a good plan,” said Dick somewhat gravely; “but don’t act in haste, else ye may ha’ to repent at leisure. Go an’ speak to yer comrades; see what they advise ye to do, an’ come again an’ let me know. And, now we’re on that pint, I may tell ye that yer friends will be at the head of a valley not four miles from here this very night, an’ they expect ye there.”

“How d’ye know that?” cried March, breathless with amazement.

“Well, ye see, the Wild Man o’ the West knows that you’re in them parts; he has seed you, an’ knows where ye are, an’ he met yer comrades, the trappers, no later than yesterday, an’ told ’em they’d find ye in the valley I spoke of just now; so we must be up an’ away to meet ’em.”

Dick rose as he spoke and began to make preparation to depart.

“But how came you to know this?” inquired the astonished youth.

“Why, the Wild Man an’ me’s oncommon intimate, d’ye see? In fact, I may say we’re jist inseparable companions, an’ so I come to know it that way. But make haste. We’ve no time to lose.”

“Good-bye, Mary,” cried March with a cheerful smile, as he hurried out of the cave after his eccentric companion. “I’ll be back before long, depend on’t.”

Mary nodded, and the two men were soon mounted and out of sight.

“I say, Dick,” observed March as they rode along, “you must get me to see the Wild Man of the West; if you’re so intimate with him, you can easily bring him into the cave; now won’t you, Dick?”

“Well, as I can’t help doin’ it, I s’pose I may say yes at once.”

“Can’t help it, Dick! What mean you? I wish ye’d talk sense.”

“Hist!” exclaimed the hunter, pulling up suddenly under the shelter of a cliff. “Yonder come yer friends, sooner than I expected. I’ll leave ye here. They’ve not seed us yit, an’ that wood ’ll hide me till I git away. Now, March,” he added solemnly, “remember yer promise.”

In another moment the wild hunter was gone, and March rode forward to meet his comrades, who, having now caught sight of him, came up the valley at full speed, shouting and waving their caps joyfully as they approached. In a shorter space of time than it takes to tell, March was surrounded, dragged off his horse, passed from one to another, to be handled roughly, in order to make sure that it was really himself, and, finally, was swallowed up by Bounce in a masculine embrace that might almost have passed for the hug of a grisly bear.

Chapter Twenty Two

March Marston is perplexed, so are his Friends—An unlooked-for Meeting—Terrible News—the Attack—The Wild Man of the West once again renders signal Service to the Trappers—Wild Doings in general, and March Marston’s Chagrin in particular

“March Marston,” said Bounce—and Bounce was sitting beside the camp fire, smoking his pipe after supper when he said it—“you may think ye’re a ’cute feller, you may, oncommon ’cute; but if you’ll listen to wot an oldish hunter says, an’ take his advice, you’ll come to think, in a feelosophical way, d’ye see? that ye’re not quite so ’cute as ye suppose.”

Bounce delivered this oracularly, and followed it up with a succession of puffs, each of which was so solidly yellow as to suggest to the mind of Bertram, who chanced to be taking his portrait at that moment, that the next puff would burst out in pure flame. Gibault and Big Waller nodded their heads in testimony of their approval of the general scope of the remark; the latter even went the length of “guessing that it was a fact,” and Redhand smiled. Hawkswing looked, if possible, graver than usual.

“As,” resumed Bounce after a considerable pause, during which March looked and felt very uncomfortable, “the nat’ral eyes of the old men becomes more dimmer, d’ye see? their mental eyes, so to speak, becomes sharper, so as that they can see through no end o’ figurative millstones. That bein’ the case when there’s no millstone to be seen through at all, but only a oncommon thin trans—trans—”

“Ollification,” suggested Waller modestly.

“Not at all,” retorted Bounce with much severity in his tone. “I wos goin’ to have said—transparientsy; but I’ll not say that now, seein’ it’s too feelosophical for the likes o’ you; but, as I wos sayin’, that bein’ the case, d’ye see? it’s quite plain that—”

Here Bounce, having got into depths unusually profound even for his speculative and philosophical turn of mind, sought refuge in a series of voluminous puffs, and wound up, finally, with an emphatic assertion that “there wos somethin’ wrong, an’ it wos o’ no manner o’ use to try to throw dust in his eyes, seein’ that his winkin’ powers wos sich as to enable him to keep it out, no matter how thick or fast it should come.”

“Ah, that’s yer sort! I calc’late you’re floored there, March,” said Waller gravely. “The fact is, boy, that it won’t do; you’ve got somethin’ in the background, that Mr Bertram talks sich a heap about. You ought to be fair an’ above-board with comrades, ye ought.”

“Oui,” added Gibault. “Of course, you have lived somewhere, an’ somehow, all dis time. It am not posseeble for live nowhere on noting.”

“Well, I tell you I have lived with a hunter, who treated me very well, and told me I’d find you here; having learned that, as I understand, from the Wild Man o’ the West himself.”

“Very true,” said Bounce; “but where does the hunter live?”

“In the mountains,” replied March.

“So does the Blackfeet, an’ the Peigans, an’ the Crows, an’ the foxes, an’ wolves, an’ grisly bars,” retorted Bounce dryly.

“I’ll tell ye what it is,” cried the exasperated March, “the curiosity of you fellers beats the squaws out an’ out. Now, I’ll be open with ye, an’ then ye must hold your tongues. This man that I’ve been stayin’ with is a very fine fellow, an’ a very wonderful fellow, an’ his name’s Dick—”

“Dick what?” inquired Bounce.

“Dick nothing,” said March.

“Ay! that’s a odd name.”

“No, I mean he’s only called Dick, an’ he wouldn’t tell me his other name, if he has one. Well, he said to me I was not to tell where he lived, as he don’t like company, an’ so he made me promise, an’ I did promise, d’ye see? so I mean to stick to my promise, and that’s all about it. I would like to tell ye about him, comrades, but you wouldn’t have me break my word, would you?”

“Cer’nly not, by no means,” said Bounce. “Does he live all by his lone?”

“No—eh—ah! Well, I fancy it’s not breakin’ my word to tell ye that—no, he’s got a little gal, an adopted daughter, livin’ with him.”

“Is she good-lookin’?” inquired Bounce quickly, with a sharp glance at the youth.

March looked a little confused, and, in a hesitating manner, admitted that she was.

“Ah! I thought so,” observed Bounce gravely, shaking his head and looking unutterably profound, while Gibault gave a low whistle and winked to Big Waller, who returned the mystic signal with the addition of a knowing nod, all of which movements were observed by poor March, who became very red in the face and felt very angry and remarkably uncomfortable, and quite unable to decide whether it were better to laugh or storm. He was saved from all further perplexity on this point, however, by the sudden appearance of a horseman on the distant plain, who seemed to be approaching the valley in which they were encamped. At first he looked like a black speck or a crow on the horizon, and, in the uncertain light of the rapidly closing day, it would have been difficult for any unaccustomed eye to make out what the object was.

In a short time he drew near enough to be distinguished clearly, and the rapid patter of the horse’s hoofs on the turf told that the rider was flying over the ground at an unusual speed. Passing round a clump of low trees that stretched out from the mouth of the valley into the plain, he came dashing towards the camp—a wild-looking, dishevelled creature, seemingly in a state of reckless insanity.

“The Wild Man again, surely,” said Bounce, who, with his companions, had risen to await the coming up of the stranger.

“D’you think so?” cried March Marston eagerly.

“Ye—eh? why, I do b’lieve it’s Mr Macgregor,” cried the astonished Bounce as the reckless rider dashed up to the camp fire, and, springing from his horse with a yell that savoured more of a savage than a civilised spirit, cried—

“Look out, lads; up with a pile o’ rocks an’ trees! They’ll be on us in a jiffy! There’s five hundred o’ the red reptiles if there’s one. The Mountain Fort’s burned to cinders—every man and woman dead and scalped—look alive!”

These words were uttered hastily in broken exclamations, as Macgregor seized the logs that had been cut for firewood, and began violently to toss them together in a pile; while the trappers, although much amazed and horrified at the news, seized their hatchets and began to make instant preparation to resist an attack, without wasting time in useless questions. They observed that the commander of the Mountain Fort was pale as death, that his eyes were bloodshot, his clothes torn, and his hands and face begrimed with powder and stained with blood.

March Marston worked like a hero at the rude breastwork for some time, although the effort caused him so much pain that he could not help showing it on his countenance.

“March,” said Bounce, seizing him suddenly by the shoulder, “you’re not fit to work, an’ much less fit to fight. I’ll tell ye wot to do, lad. Jump on my horse, an’ away to yer friend the trapper, an’ bring him here to help us. One stout arm ’ll do us more good this night than ten battered bodies sich as yours, poor feller.”

March felt the truth of this, so without delay turned to obey. Just as he was about to leave he heard a deep groan, and turning round, saw Macgregor fall to the ground.

“You’re ill,” he cried, running to him and kneeling down.

“No—not ill, just a scratch from an arrow,” gasped the trader with an oath. “I believe the head’s stickin’ in my back.”

“Away, March,” cried Redhand, “we’ll look to this. Waller, out wi’ the fire, man; ye used to be more spry when—ah! too late, there they are, they’ve seen us.”

“Into the fort, boys!” cried Bounce, alluding to the breastwork, “we don’t need to care; with plenty o’ powder and lead, we can keep five thousand redskins off.”

March heard no more. Dashing up the glen at full speed, he disappeared from the spot, just as the distant yell of the savage host came floating upon the wings of the night air, apprising the trappers that their fire had been observed, and that they would have to fight manfully if they hoped to carry their scalps home with them.

In a few minutes the Indians drew near, and scattering themselves round the little entrenchment, began to discharge clouds of arrows at it, but, fortunately, without doing any damage. An inaccessible cliff protected their rear, and behind a projection of this the trappers’ horses were secured. The breastwork lay immediately in front.

Again and again the savages let fly their shafts, but without drawing any reply from the trappers, who kept close under cover and reserved their fire. This tempted their enemies to approach, and, when within short range, they seemed about to make a rush, supposing, no doubt, that the party concealed behind the breastwork must be Indians, since they did not use firearms. Just then Redhand gave a preconcerted signal; three sheets of flame spouted from their guns, and three of the foremost Indians fell dead from their horses.

With a terrible yell the others turned to fly, but before they had retreated a yard three more shots were fired with deadly effect. They now took shelter behind trees and rocks, and attempted to dislodge the trappers by discharging arrows into the air at such an angle that they should drop into their fortress. One or two endeavoured to ascend the steep cliff, but the instant an arm or a shoulder appeared, a ball from Redhand’s deadly rifle struck it, so the attempt was abandoned.

While this was going on, March Marston galloped to Dick’s cave, and startled poor Mary not a little by the abruptness of his entrance. But, to his mortification, Dick was not at home. It so chanced that that wild individual had taken it into his head to remain concealed in the woods near the spot where he had parted from his late guest, and had not only witnessed the meeting of March with his friends, but had seen the arrival of Macgregor, the subsequent departure of March in the direction of the cave, and the attack made by the Indians. When, therefore, the youth was speeding towards his cavern, the Wild Man (who was not sorry to see him go off on such an errand), was busily planning the best mode of attacking the enemy so as to render effectual aid to the trappers.

Observing that the Indians had clustered together at the foot of a rugged cliff, apparently for the purpose of holding a council of war, Dick made his way quickly to the summit of the cliff, and, leaving his charger on an eminence that sloped down towards the entrance of the valley, quickly and noiselessly carried several huge stones to the edge of the precipice, intending to throw them down on the heads of his foes. Just as he was about to do so, he observed an overhanging mass of rock, many tons in weight, which the frosts of winter had detached from the precipice. Placing his feet against this, and leaning his back against the solid rock, he exerted himself with all his might, like a second Samson. No human power could have moved such a rock, had it not been almost overbalanced; but, being so, Dick’s effort moved it. Again he strained, until the great veins seemed about to burst through the skin of his neck and forehead. Gradually the rock toppled and fell, and the Wild Man fell along with it.