The Crew of the Water Wagtail Part 24

"Hallo! s.h.i.+pmates! how goes it? Glad to have found ye, lads."

"Och!" exclaimed Squill, starting up, as did all his companions; but no other sound was uttered for a few seconds. Then a deep "thank G.o.d"

escaped from Grummidge, and Little Stubbs tried to cheer, but with small success; while one or two, sitting down again, laid their thin faces in their hands and wept.

Reader, it were vain to attempt a description of the scene that followed, for the prisoners were not only overwhelmed with joy at a meeting so unexpected, but were raised suddenly from the depths of despair to the heights of confident hope, for they did not doubt that the appearance of their mates as friends of the Indians was equivalent to their deliverance. Even when told that their deliverance was by no means a certainty, their joy was only moderated, and their hope but slightly reduced.

"But tell me," said Paul, as they all sat down together in the cave, while the Indians stood by and looked silently on, "what is the truth about this Indian who was murdered, and the dog and the woman?"

"The Indian was never murdered," said Grummidge stoutly. "He had evidently fallen over the precipice. We found him dead and we buried him. His dog came to us at last and made friends with us, though it ran away the day the settlement was attacked. As to the woman, we never saw or heard of any woman at all till this hour!"

When Bearpaw was told how the matter actually stood, he frowned and said sternly--

"The palefaces lie. If they never saw Rising Sun, why did she not come back to us and tell what had happened? She was not a little child. She was strong and active, like the young deer. She could spear fish and snare rabbits as well as our young men. Why did she not return? Where is she? Either she is dead and the palefaces have killed her, or they have her still among them. Not only shall the palefaces answer for her with their lives, but the Bethucks will go on the war-path to the coast and sweep the paleface settlement into the sea!"

It was of no avail that Hendrick pleaded the cause of the prisoners earnestly, and set forth eloquently all that could be said in their favour, especially urging that some of them had been kind to the two Indians who first visited the white men. Rising Sun had been a favourite with the chief; she was dead--and so the palefaces must die!

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

TELLS OF TERRIBLE SUSPENSE--VIOLENT INTENTIONS AND RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION.

"Now I tell you what it is, Master Hendrick," said Captain Trench, the day after their arrival at the Indian camp. "I see this is goin' to be an ugly business, an' I give you fair warning that I'm goin' to git surly. I won't stand by quietly and see Grummidge and my men slaughtered before my eyes without movin' a finger. I'll keep quiet as long as there's any chance of all your palaverin' resulting in anything, but if the worst comes to the worst I'll show fight, even if I should have to stand alone with all the red devils in Newfoundland arrayed against me."

"I honour your feelings, Captain Trench, but doubt your judgment. How do you propose to proceed?"

"Will you join me? Answer me that question first."

"I will join you in any scheme that is reasonable," returned Hendrick, after a pause, "but not in a useless attempt to fight against a whole colony of Indians."

"Then I'll keep my plans of procedure in my own noddle," said the captain, turning away with an indignant fling, and taking the path that led to the cave or prison-house of his s.h.i.+pmates, for as yet they were allowed free intercourse with their friends.

"Grummidge," said he, in a stern voice, as he squatted down on the floor beside the unfortunate seaman, "things look bad, there's no doubt about that, an' it would be unkind deception to say otherwise, for that villain Bearpaw seems to git harder and harder the more they try to soften him. Now what I want to know is, are you an' the others prepared to join me, if I manage to cut your cords an' give you weapons, an'--"

"Shus.h.!.+ clap a stopper on your mouth, cappen," said Grummidge in an undertone, "the redskins are listening."

"An' what then? They know no more about English than I know about Timbuctoosh," returned the captain irascibly. "Let 'em listen! What I was a-goin' to say is, are you an' the other lads ready to follow me into the woods an' bolt if we can, or fight to the death if we can't?"

"Sure an' _I'm_ ready to fight," interposed Squill, "or to follow ye to the end o' the world, an' further; but if I do I'll have to leave my legs behind me, for they're fit for nothin'. True it is, I feel a little stronger since your friend Hendrick got the bastes to increase our allowance o' grub, but I'm not up to much yet. Howsiver, I'm strong enough p'r'aps to die fightin'. Anyhow, I'll try."

"So will I," said Little Stubbs. "I feel twice the man I was since you found us."

"Putt me down on the list too, cap'n," said Fred Taylor, who was perhaps the least reduced in strength of any of the prisoners. "I'm game for anything short o' murder."

Similar sentiments having been expressed by his other friends, the captain's spirit was somewhat calmed.

Leaving them he went into the woods to ponder and work out his plans.

There he met Paul and Hendrick.

"We are going to visit the prisoners," said the former.

"You'll find 'em in a more hopeful frame of mind," observed the captain.

"I wish they had better ground for their hopes," returned his friend, "but Bearpaw is inexorable. We are to have a final meeting with him to-morrow. I go now to have a talk with our poor friends. It may be that something in their favour shall be suggested."

Nothing, however, was suggested during the interview that followed, which gave the remotest hope that anything they could say or do would influence the savage chief in favour of his prisoners. Indeed, even if he had been mercifully disposed, the anger of his people against the seamen--especially the relatives of Little Beaver and those who had been wounded during the attack on Wagtail settlement--would have constrained him to follow out what he believed to be the course of justice.

When the final meeting between the visitors and the chief took place, the latter was surrounded by his princ.i.p.al warriors.

"Hendrick," he said, in reply to a proposal that execution should be at least delayed, "the name of the white hunter who has mated with the Bethuck girl is respected everywhere, and his wishes alone would move Bearpaw to pardon his paleface foes, but blood has been shed, and the price of blood must be paid. Hendrick knows our laws--they cannot be changed. The relations of Little Beaver cry aloud for it. Tell your paleface friends that Bearpaw has spoken."

When this was interpreted to Paul Burns a sudden thought flashed into his mind, and standing forth with flushed countenance and raised arm, he said--

"Hendrick, tell the chief of the Bethucks that when the Great Spirit formed man He made him without sin and gave him a just and holy law to obey; but man broke the law, and the Great Spirit had said that the price of the broken law is death. So there seemed no hope for man, because he could not undo the past, and the Great Spirit would not change His law. But he found a way of deliverance. The Great Spirit himself came down to earth, and, as the man Jesus Christ, paid the price of the broken law with His own blood, so that guilty, but forgiven, man might go free. Now, if the Great Spirit could pardon the guilty and set them free, would it be wrong in Bearpaw to follow His example?"

This was such a new idea to the Indian that he did not at first reply.

He stood, with folded arms and knitted brow, pondering the question. At last he spoke slowly--

"Bearpaw knows not the thing about which his paleface brother speaks.

It may be true. It seems very strange. He will inquire into the matter hereafter. But the laws that guide the Great Spirit are not the laws that guide men. What may be fit in Him, may not be fit in them."

"My dark-skinned brother is wrong," said Hendrick. "The law that guides the Great Spirit, and that _should_ guide all His creatures, is one and the same. It is the law of love."

"Was it love that induced the palefaces to kill Little Beaver and steal Rising Sun?" demanded the chief fiercely.

"It was not," replied Hendrick; "it was sin; and Bearpaw has now an opportunity to act like the Great Spirit by forgiving those who, he thinks, have sinned against him."

"Never!" returned the chief vehemently. "The palefaces shall die; but they shall live one day longer while this matter is considered in council, for it is only children who act in haste. Go! Bearpaw has spoken."

To have secured even the delay of a single day was almost more than the prisoners' friends had hoped for, and they resolved to make the most of it.

"Now, Hendrick," said Paul, when they were in the tent that had been set aside for their use, "we must be prepared, you and I, to give the chief a full account of our religion; for, depend on it, his mind has been awakened, and he won't rest satisfied with merely discussing the subject with his men of war."

"True, Paul; what do you propose to do?"

"The first thing I shall do is to pray for guidance. After that I will talk with you."

"For my part," said Captain Trench, as Paul rose and left the tent, "I see no chance of moving that savage by religion or anything else, so I'll go an' make arrangements for the carryin' out o' _my_ plans. Come along to the woods with me, Olly, I shall want your help."

"Father," said the boy, in a serious tone, as they entered the forest, "surely you don't mean to carry out in earnest the plan you spoke of to Grummidge and the others yesterday?"

"Why not, my son?"

"Because we are sure to be all killed if you do. As well might we try to stop the rising tide as to subdue a whole tribe of savages."

"And would you, Olly," said the seaman, stopping and looking sternly at the boy, "would you advise me to be so mean as to look on at the slaughter of my s.h.i.+pmates without making one effort to save them?"

"I would never advise you to do anything mean, father; an' if I did so advise you, you wouldn't do it; but the effort you think of makin' would not save the men. It would only end in all of us bein' killed."