Chapter 4: The Intelligent Canoe

Lennox, Willet and Tayoga fell asleep, one by one, and the Onondaga was the last to close his eyes. Then the three, wrapped in their blankets, lay in complete darkness on the stone shelf, with the canoe beside them. They were no more than the point of a pin in the vast wilderness that stretched unknown thousands of miles from the Hudson to the Pacific, apparently as lost to the world as the sleepers in a cave ages earlier, when the whole earth was dark with forest and desert.

Although the storm could not reach them it beat heavily for long hours while they slept. The sweep of the rain maintained a continuous driving sound. Boughs cracked and broke beneath it. The waters of the river, swollen by the floods of tributary creeks and brooks, rose fast, bearing upon their angry surface the wreckage of trees, but they did not reach the stone shelf upon which the travelers lay.

Tayoga awoke before the morning, while it was yet so dark that his trained eyes could see but dimly the figures of his comrades. He sat up and listened, knowing that he must depend for warning upon his hearing, which had been trained to extreme acuteness by the needs of forest life. All three of them were great wilderness trailers and scouts, but Tayoga was the first of the three. Back of him lay untold generations that had been compelled to depend upon the physical senses and the intuition that comes from their uttermost development and co-ordination. Now, Tayoga, the product of all those who had gone before, was also their finest flower.

He had listened at first, resting on his elbow, but after a minute or two he sat up. He heard the rushing of the rain, the crack of splintering boughs, the flowing of the rising river, and the gurgling of its waters as they lapped against the stone shelf. They would not enter it he knew, as he had observed that the highest marks of the floods lay below them.

The sounds made by the rain and the river were steady and unchanged. But the intuition that came from the harmonious working of senses, developed to a marvelous degree, sounded a warning note. A danger threatened. He did not know what the danger was nor whence it would come, but the soul of the Onondaga was alive and every nerve and muscle in his body was attuned for any task that might lie before him. He looked at his sleeping comrades. They did not stir, and their long, regular breathing told him that no sinister threat was coming to them.

But Tayoga never doubted. The silent and invisible warning, like a modern wireless current, reached him again. Now, he knelt at the very edge of the shelf, and drew his long hunting knife. He tried to pierce the darkness with his eyes, and always he looked up the stream in the direction in which they had come. He strained his ears too to the utmost, concentrating the full powers of his hearing upon the river, but the only sounds that reached him were the flowing of the current, the bubbling of the water at the edges, and its lapping against a tree or bush torn up by the storm and floating on the surface of the stream.

The Onondaga stepped from the shelf, finding a place for his feet in crevices below, the water rising almost to his knees, and leaned farther forward to listen. One hand held firmly to a projection of stone above and the other clasped the knife.

Tayoga maintained the intense concentration of his faculties, as if he had drawn them together in an actual physical way, until they bore upon one point, and he poured so much strength and vitality into them that he made the darkness thin away before his eyes and he heard noises of the water that had not come to him before.

A broken bough, a bush and a sapling washed past. Then came a tree, and deflecting somewhat from the current it floated toward the shelf. Leaning far over and extending the hand that held the knife, Tayoga struck. When the blade came back it was red and the young Onondaga uttered a tremendous war whoop that rang and echoed in the confines of the stony hollow.

Lennox and Willet sprang to their feet, all sleep driven away at once, and instinctively grasped their rifles.

“What is it, Tayoga?” exclaimed the startled Willet.

“The attack of the savage warriors,” replied the Onondaga. “One came floating on a tree. He thought to slay us as we slept and take away our scalps, but the river that brought him living has borne him away dead.”

“And so they know we’re here,” said the hunter, “and your watchfulness has saved us. Well, Tayoga, it’s one more deed for which we have to thank you, but I think you’d better get back on the shelf. They can fire from the other side, farther up, and although it would be at random, a bullet or two might strike here.”

The Onondaga swung himself back and all three flattened themselves against the rock. After Tayoga’s triumphant shout there was no sound save those of the river and the rain. But Robert expected it. He knew the horde would be quiet for a while, hoping for a surprise the second time after the first one had failed.

“It was bold,” he said, “for a single warrior to come floating down the stream in search of us.”

“But it would have succeeded if Tayoga hadn’t been awake,” said the hunter. “One warrior could have knifed us all at his leisure.”

“Where do you think they are now?”

“They must be crouched in the shelter of rocks. If they had nothing over them the storm would take the fighting spirit for the time out of savages, even wild for scalps. I’m mighty glad we have the canoe. It holds the food we need for a siege, and if the chance for escape comes it will bear us away. I think, Tayoga, I can see a figure stirring among the boulders on the other side farther up.”

“I see two,” said the Onondaga, “and doubtless there are others whom we cannot see. Keep close, my friends, I think they are going to fire.”

A dozen rifles were discharged from a point about a hundred yards away, the exploding powder making red dots in the darkness, the bullets rattling on the stone cliff or sending up little spurts of water from the river. The volley was followed by a shrill, fierce war whoop, and then nothing was heard but the flowing of the river and the rushing of the rain.

“You are not touched?” said Tayoga, and Robert and Willet quickly answered in the negative.

“They don’t know just which way to aim their guns,” said Willet, “and so long as we keep quiet now they won’t learn. That shout of yours, Tayoga, was not enough to tell them.”

“But they must remember about where the hollow is, although they can’t pull trigger directly upon it, owing to the darkness and storm,” said Robert.

“That about sums it up, my boy,” said the hunter. “If they do a lot of random firing the chances are about a hundred to one they won’t hit us, and the Indians don’t have enough ammunition to waste that way.”

“I don’t suppose we can launch the canoe and slip away in it?”

“No, it would be swamped by the rain and the flood. It’s likely, too, that they’re on watch for us farther down the stream.”

“Then this is our home and fortress for an indefinite time, and, that being the case, I’m going to make myself as easy as I can.”

He drew the blanket under his body again and lay on his elbow, but he held his rifle before him, ready for battle at an instant’s notice. His feeling of comfort returned and with it the sense of safety. The bullets of the savages had gone so wild and the darkness was so deep that their shelter appeared to him truly as a fortress which no numbers of besiegers could storm.

“Do you think they’ll try floating down the stream on trees or logs again, Tayoga?” he asked.

“No, the danger is too great,” replied the Onondaga. “They know now that we’re watching.”

An hour passed without any further sign from the foe. The rain decreased somewhat in violence, but, as the wind rose, its rush and sweep made as much sound as ever. Then the waiting was broken by scattering shots, accompanied by detached war whoops, as if different bands were near. From their shelter they watched the red dots that marked the discharges from the rifles, but only one bullet came near them, and after chipping a piece of stone over their heads it dropped harmlessly to the floor.

“That was the one chance out of a hundred,” said Willet, “and now we’re safe from the next ninety-nine bullets.”

“I trust the rule will work,” said Robert.

“I wish you’d hold my left hand in a firm grip,” said Willet.

“I will, but why?” returned the youth.

“If I get a chance I’m going to drag up some of that dead and floating wood and lay it along the edge of the shelf. In the dark the savages can’t pick us off, but we’ll need a barrier in the morning.”

“You’re right, Dave, of course. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself.”

“One of us thought of it, and that’s enough. Hold my hand hard, Robert. Don’t let your grip slip.”

By patient waiting and help from the others Willet was able to draw up two logs of fair size, and some smaller pieces which they placed carefully on the edge of the stone shelf. Lying flat behind them, they would be almost hidden, and now they could await the coming of daylight with more serenity.

A long time passed. The three ate strips of the deer meat, and Robert even slept for a short while. He awoke to find a further decrease in the rain, although the river was still rising, and Tayoga and Willet were of the opinion that it would stop soon, a belief that was justified in an hour. Robert soon afterward saw the clouds move away, and disclose a strip of dark blue sky, into which the stars began to come one by one.

“The night will grow light soon,” said Tayoga, “then it will darken again for a little time before the coming of the day.”

“And we’ve built our breastwork none too soon,” said Willet. “There’ll be so many stars by and by that those fellows can pick out our place and send their bullets to it. What do you think, Tayoga? Is it just a band taking the chance to get some scalps, or are they sent out by the Governor General of Canada to do wicked work in the forest and then be disowned if need be?”

“I cannot tell,” replied the Onondaga. “Much goes on in the land of Onontio at Stadacona (Quebec). He talks long in whispers with the northern chiefs, and often he does not let his left ear know what the right ear hears. Onontio moves in the night, while Corlear sleeps.”

“That may be so, Tayoga, but whether it’s so or not I like our straightforward English and American way best. We may blunder along for a while and lose at first, but to be open and honest is to be strong.”

“I did not say the ways of Corlear would prevail. It is not the talk of Corlear that will keep the Hodenosaunee faithful to the English side, but it is the knowledge of the fifty sachems that when Onontio is speaking in a voice of honey he is to be trusted the least.”

Willet laughed.

“I understand, Tayoga,” he said. “You’re for us not because you have so much faith in Corlear, but because you have less in Onontio. Well, it’s a good enough reason, I suppose. But all Frenchmen are not tricksters. Most of ‘em are brave, and when they’re friends they’re good and true. About all I’ve got to say against ‘em is that they’re willing to shut their eyes to the terrible things their allies do in their name. But I’ve had a lot to do with ‘em on the border, and you can get to like ‘em. Now, that St. Luc we met was a fine upstanding man.”

“But if an enemy, an enemy to be dreaded,” said Tayoga with his usual gravity.

“I wouldn’t mind that if it came to war. In such cases the best men make the best enemies, I suppose. He had a sharp eye. I could see how he measured us, and reckoned us up, but he looked most at Robert here.”

“His sharp eye recognized that I was the most important of the three,” said Robert lightly.

“Every fellow is mighty important to himself,” said Willet, “and he can’t get away from it. Tayoga, do you think you see figures moving on the other bank there, up the stream?”

“Two certainly, others perhaps, Great Bear,” replied the Onondaga. “I might reach one with my rifle.”

“Don’t try it, Tayoga. We’re on the defense, and we’ll let ‘em make all the beginnings. The sooner they shoot away their ammunition the better it will be for us. I think they’ll open fire pretty soon now, because the night is growing uncommon bright. The stars are so big and shining, and there are so many of them they all look as if they had come to a party. Flatten yourselves down, boys! I can see a figure kneeling by a bowlder and that means one shot, if not more.”

They lay close and Robert was very thankful now for the logs they had dragged up from the water, as they afforded almost complete shelter. The crouching warrior farther up the stream fired, and his bullet struck the hollow above their heads.

“A better aim than they often show,” said Willet.

More shots were fired, and one buried itself in the log in front of Robert. He heard the thud made by the bullet as it entered, and once more he was thankful for their rude breastwork. But it was the only one that struck so close and presently the savages ceased their fire, although the besieged three were still able to see them in the brilliant moonlight among the bowlders.

“They’re getting a bit too insolent,” said the hunter. “Maybe they think it’s a shorter distance from them to us than it is from us to them, and that our bullets would drop before they got to ‘em. I think, Tayoga, I’ll prove that it’s not so.”

“Choose the man at the edge of the water,” said Tayoga. “He has fired three shots at us, and we should give him at least one in return.”

“I’ll pay the debt, Tayoga.”

Robert saw the warrior, his head and shoulders and painted chest appearing above the stone. The distance was great for accuracy, but the light was brilliant, and the rifle of the hunter rose to his shoulder. The muzzle bore directly upon the naked chest, and when Willet pulled the trigger a stream of fire spurted from the weapon.

The savage uttered a cry, shot forward and fell into the stream. His lifeless body tossed like dead wood on the swift current, reappeared and floated by the little fortress of the three. Robert shuddered as he saw the savage face again, and then he saw it no more.

The savages uttered a shout of grief and rage over the loss of the warrior, but the besieged were silent. Willet, as he reloaded his rifle, gave it an affectionate little pat or two.

“It’s a good weapon,” he said, “and with a fair light I was sure I wouldn’t miss. We’ve given ‘em fair warning that they’ve got a nest of panthers here to deal with, and that when they attack they’re taking risks. Can you see any of ‘em now, Tayoga?”

“All have taken to cover. There is not one among them who is willing to face again the rifle of the Great Bear.”

Willet smiled with satisfaction at the compliment. He was proud of his sharp-shooting, and justly so, but he said modestly:

“I had a fair target, and it will do for a warning. I think we can look for another long rest now.”

The dark period that precedes the dawn came, and then the morning flashed over the woods. Robert, from the hollow, looking across the far shore, saw lofty, wooded hills and back of them blue mountains. Beads of rain stood on the leaves, and the wilderness seemed to emerge, fresh and dripping, from a glorious bath. Pleasant odors of the wild came to him, and now he felt the sting of imprisonment there among the rocks. He wished they could go at once on their errand. It was a most unfortunate chance to have been found there by the Indians and to be held indefinitely in siege. The flooded river would have borne them swiftly in their canoe toward the St. Lawrence.

“Mourning, Robert?” said Willet who noticed his face.

“For the moment, yes,” admitted young Lennox, “but it has passed. I wanted to be going on this lively river and through the green wood, but since I have to wait I can do it.”

“I feel the same way about it, and we’re lucky to have such a fort as the one we are in. I think the savages will hang on here for a long while. Indians always have plenty of time. That’s why they’re more patient than white men. Like as not we won’t get a peep out of them all the morning.”

“Lennox feels the beauty of the day,” said Tayoga, “and that’s why he wants to leave the hollow and go into the woods. But if Lennox will only think he’ll know that other days as fine will come.”