第63章

THE PURSUIT ON THE RIVER

The story of the frontier is filled with heroines, from the far days of Hannah Dustin down to the present, and Mary Newton, whom the unknown figure in the dark had just aroused, is one of them.

It had seemed to her that God himself had deserted her, but at the last moment he had sent some one.She did not doubt, she could not doubt, because the bonds had been severed, and there she lay with a deadly weapon in either hand.The friendly stranger who had come so silently was gone as he had come, but she was not helpless now.Like many another frontier woman, she was naturally lithe and powerful, and, stirred by a great hope, all her strength had returned for the present.

Nobody who lives in the wilderness can wholly escape superstition, and Mary Newton began to believe that some supernatural creature had intervened in her behalf.She raised herself just a little on one elbow and surveyed the surrounding thicket.She saw only the dead embers of the fire, and the dark forms of the Indians lying upon the bare ground.Had it not been for the knife and pistol in her hand, she could have believed that the voice was only a dream.

There was a slight rustling in the thicket, and a Seneca rose quickly to his knees, grasping his rifle in both hands.The woman's fingers clutched the knife and pistol more tightly, and her whole gaunt figure trembled.The Seneca listened only a moment.Then he gave a sharp cry, and all the other warriors sprang up.But three of them rose only to fall again, as the rifles cracked in the bushes, while two others staggered from wounds.

The triumphant shout of the frontiersmen came from the thicket, and then they rushed upon the camp.Quick as a flash two of the Senecas started toward the woman and children with their tomahawks, but Mary Newton was ready.Her heart had leaped at the shots when the Senecas fell, and she kept her courage.Now she sprang to her full height, and, with the children screaming at her feet, fired one barrel of the pistol directly into the face of the first warrior, and served the second in the same way with the other barrel when he was less than four feet away.

Then, tomahawk in hand, she rushed forward.In judging Mary Newton, one must consider time and place.

But happily there was no need for her to use her tomahawk.As the five rushed in, four of them emptied their double-barreled pistols, while Henry swung his clubbed rifle with terrible effect.It was too much for the Senecas.The apparition of the armed woman, whom they had left bound, and the deadly fire from the five figures that sprang upon them, was like a blow from the hand of Aieroski.The unhurt and wounded fled deep into the forest, leaving their dead behind.Mary Newton, her great deed done, collapsed from emotion and weakness.The screams of the children sank in a few moments to frightened whimpers.But the oldest, when they saw the white faces, knew that rescue had come.

Paul brought water from the brook in his cap, and Mary Newton was revived; Jim was reassuring the children, and the other three were in the thickets, watching lest the surviving Senecas return for attack.

"I don't know who you are, but I think the good God himself must have sent you to our rescue," said Mary Newton reverently.

"We don't know," said Paul, "but we are doing the best we can.

Do you think you can walk now?"

"Away from the savages? Yes!" she said passionately.She looked down at the dead figures of the Senecas, and she did not feel a single trace of pity for them.Again it is necessary to consider time and place.

"Some of my strength came back while I was lying here," she said, "and much more of it when you drove away the Indians.""Very well," said Henry, who had returned to the dead camp fire with his comrades, "we must start on the back trail at once.The surviving Senecas, joined by other Iroquois, will certainly pursue, and we need all the start that we can get."Long Jim picked up one of the two younger children and flung him over his shoulder; Tom Ross did as much for the other, but the older two scorned help.They were full of admiration for the great woodsmen, mighty heroes who had suddenly appeared out of the air, as it were, and who had swept like a tornado over the Seneca band.It did not seem possible now that they, could be retaken.

But Mary Newton, with her strength and courage, had also recovered her forethought.

"Maybe it will not be better to go on the back trail," she said.

"One of the Senecas told me to-day that six or seven miles farther on was a river flowing into the Susquehanna, and that they would cross this river on a boat now concealed among bushes on the bank.The crossing was at a sudden drop between high banks.Might not we go on, find the boat, and come back in it down the river and into the Susquehanna?""That sounds mighty close to wisdom to me," said Shif'less Sol.

"Besides, it's likely to have the advantage o' throwin' the Iroquois off our track.They'll think, o' course, that we've gone straight back, an' we'll pass 'em ez we're going forward.""It's certainly the best plan," said Henry, "and it's worth our while to try for that hidden boat of the Iroquois.Do you know the general direction?""Almost due north."

"Then we'll make a curve to the right, in order to avoid any Iroquois who may be returning to this camp, and push for it."Henry led the way over hilly, rough ground, and the others followed in a silent file, Long Jim and Tom still carrying the two smallest children, who soon fell asleep on their shoulders.

Henry did not believe that the returning Iroquois could follow their trail on such a dark night, and the others agreed with him.

After a while they saw the gleam of water.Henry knew that it must be very near, or it would have been wholly invisible on such a dark night.

"I think, Mrs.Newton," he said, "that this is the river of which you spoke, and the cliffs seem to drop down just as you said they would."The woman smiled.