CHAPTER XXVI.THE MASSACRE.
Why the madman had not sought to shoot him Buffalo Bill did not ask at the moment. The fact that he was at such a disadvantage was enough to fill his mind with forebodings. The rock was poised in the giant’s hands just over his head, and, as the scout was more than knee-deep in the water, it seemed impossiblefor him to successfully dodge the missile if it were flung.
The madman stood in the shadow, and Cody could not see his face. All he saw was that the man looked like a great, wet bear. He had swum or waded across to the island with all his clothes on. He evidently knew Bendigo Lake and its surroundings better than either of the scouts, and had found a shallow path across from the mainland.
For several seconds the scout and the giant faced each other. Buffalo Bill’s muscles grew tense. He would try leaping upon the fellow, at any rate, although the possibility of his dodging the rock looked exceeding small.
And then there suddenly flashed into his mind such a simple dodge for getting the best of his foe that the scout hesitated to use it. It seemed so exceedingly simple and childish. But the moments were flying, and the Mad Hunter was on the point of flinging the rock down upon him with terrific force.
Cody stood so that his hands just touched the water. He hollowed his palms, swung both arms back, and suddenly scooped up the water and flung it in a blinding sheet of spray into the maniac’s face.
Again and again he splashed the water over the fellow. The Mad Hunter uttered a howl of rage, and, as Cody threw himself to one side, still splashing the water, the rock was thrown. But the scout had destroyed the maniac’s aim and escaped the missile altogether.
Cody could not land, however. The best he could do was to plunge back into the deeper water and there dive and remain swimming under the surface until hehad placed the island between himself and the fire. Here the trees threw black shadows, although the whole northern sky was red as blood, and the flames danced wildly upon the tree tops on the mainland.
The Mad Hunter had disappeared, yet the scout did not know whether he had gone back to watch Texas Jack and the raft or was lurking in the shadow, waiting to spy upon him again. Meanwhile he was becoming thoroughly chilled, and feared to remain out beyond his depth, for a cramp might take him, and he could never struggle ashore then.
Carefully he waded shoreward once more, watching the shadows beneath the trees, fearing to see the bulk of the maniac burst out of the brush and attack him again. There were several frightened creatures on the island, but they cowered and were dumb. All the scout could hear was the lapping of the water and the crackling of the conflagration on the mainland.
The fire was eating through the forest very rapidly. It had reached the shore and was passing swiftly around the entire lake. Cody and Texas Jack could not return to the mainland now under any circumstances. It was the island or drowning for them!
And Cody feared that his brave comrade had already succumbed to the cold water, or mayhap to a bullet from the maniac’s rifle. The fire as it ate around the lake began to illuminate this side of the island, too, and he feared that he would soon be a shining mark for the Mad Hunter.
He kept his body under water and crept in toward the shore, his head only showing. He knew that he was taking his life in his hands, but the water was chilling him to the bone.
Suddenly there was a great shouting on the other shore of the island, and following it came the pop of a pistol several times. Cody leaped ashore, and, despite the rough way and the thorns and brush which tore his body, he dashed across the narrow bit of land. He knew Texas Jack had landed and might need his help.
As he ran, however, he suddenly came full tilt against a great, hairy object that was blundering through the brush. Over went the scout, and with an angry “Woof!” the bear darted aside, and a moment later he heard a splash in the lake, and knew that the creature had found the presence of mankind on the island more fear-inspiring than the fire on the mainland.
When Cody picked himself up he beheld the half-clothed figure of Texas Jack standing over him.
“By the piper that played before Pharaoh!” ejaculated Texas. “What’s the matter with you, Buffler? Come an’ git your clo’es—or do you fancy parading around yere in your birthday suit?”
“What—what was that?” demanded the scout.
“A bear. I fell over him myself and drove him off.”
“I thought for a minute it was the madman.”
“Oh, he’s gone,” said Texas Jack. “He ran out of ammunition, I reckon, and he took to the water, clo’es and all. There’s a shallow place yonder. We can wade ashore that way, too, when the fire burns out.”
“He pretty near had me,” said Cody, and related his adventure as he shakingly got into his clothing.
Texas Jack built a fire for them to dry and get warm by, and meanwhile explained that, finding he could not keep the scouts off the island, the MadHunter had departed for the mainland, approaching that part where the fire had come nearest to burning itself out.
“It’s dangerous to go over there yet,” said Buffalo Bill.
“You can bet it is. But he reckoned he’d rather go than meet us closer to. The old scoundrel! I’ve heard of his tricks and deviltry, but I never happened to run up against him before.”
“I hope I never will again,” said Cody devoutly.
But he was doomed to meet the Mad Hunter again, and to learn that about him that caused the Border King much sorrow of spirit.
The scouts remained on the island during the night, and late the next day started out to find their mounts. There was a swamp several miles away, and, knowing well the keen instinct of their horses, the scouts went to it, and in less than twenty-four hours found both Chief and the other, much mud-bespattered, but in good condition. And their arms, though somewhat rusted, were safe.
The forest fire had burned over a large tract of country, had driven away the game, and had cleared the territory of Indians. So the scouts separated to follow the trails of different bands of reds and spot their new villages. Their duty was to find and report upon every new encampment of the redskins, that the department might keep tabs on the movements of the savages.
Cody kept his eyes open for traces of the bandits, but during the following week learned nothing of the movements of Boyd Bennett and his gang.
He was thinking of going to a certain rendezvouswhere he expected to join Texas Jack, when he came suddenly upon a spectacle in a little valley that brought him up standing. So appalling—and unexpected—was the scene that it seemed for the moment as though his heart stopped beating!
Over a score of figures in blue lay in the little cup-shaped coulée, where they had fallen battling for life!
There they lay, partly stripped of their uniforms in some cases, robbed of their weapons, and lying amid their foes, hideous, painted savages, whom their red companions, in their haste to fly from the fearful scene, had not borne off to burial. Yet they had found time to tear the scalp-lock from the head of each white man.
They lay in no order. The battle had been of the fiercest, and hand to hand. Here a trooper; there another—a redskin, an officer, a chief, a caparisoned steed, an Indian pony—all dead they lay and huddled together by the riverside in the tiny valley.
Upon this scene Buffalo Bill came suddenly, just as the sun was about to drop below the western hills. The sight shocked and sickened him. Man of iron heart and steel nerves that he was, the sight made him reel in his saddle. He reined in his good horse, until it rose upon its haunches, and covered his eyes with one gauntleted hand as though to shut out the awful sight.
An instant only did the scout show this weakness; then he scrutinized the red field which had flashed like some horrid vision on his sight.
White-faced as the dead, with eyes which scrutinized each form and feature of the white men, the scout counted the slain. Gradually his own orbs flashedwith the fires of rage, and his lips became livid and quivering.
Suddenly, with a stifled cry, he leaped from his horse’s back and strode to one figure that lay stark at one side. It was in contact with a heap of slain on a knoll at the foot of a rock.
Here the end had evidently come. This spot was plainly the last act of the fearful drama. Here the curtain of doom had fallen upon the remnant of the gallant band, to rise no more for them in this life!
A groan issued from the scout’s lips, and he bowed his head in grief. There, with face upturned, lying in an attitude that showed he had died fighting to the last, lay Lieutenant Dick Danforth!
The boy’s left hand grasped the barrel of an empty revolver; he had used it as a club at close quarters. The right held his sword-hilt, the blade buried in the body of a painted chief, whose death was probably the last act of the dying leader of the slaughtered troops.
About him lay the foe, piled in heaps. Dick Danforth had sold his life at a dear price, indeed. And the fiends had run without scalping him!
“Danforth dead!” murmured the scout. “It cannot be possible.”
Yet it was true; he saw it plainly before he touched the already stiffening body. Merely by some freak of circumstances the young man had not been scalped.
“Devils’ work this!” muttered the scout. He glanced again over the field. There were many points that had at first escaped his attention. For instance, there were shod horses lying dead that had never been ridden by either cavalrymen or Indian!
“Aye, Indians did the deed, but there is a palefacehand behind it, and I mean to ferret out the fiend who inspired it,” said Buffalo Bill.
He dropped upon his knees again and felt of Danforth’s body. There, in a voice quivering with sorrow and passion, he exclaimed:
“Aye! here beside the body of the man whom I loved—who saved me from death—I swear revenge on the instigator of this crime!”
In his deep feeling he spoke these words aloud. A sound smote upon his ear. He sprang to his feet with a cry and turned as a harsh voice pealed out behind him:
“AndIswear, Buffalo Bill, that you shall never keep the oath your lips have just uttered!”