But the eye of the Teton chief was not less quick and certain than that of his enemy.
He threw himself from his horse the moment preceding the report, and sunk into the water.
The beast snorted with terror and anguish, throwing half his form out of the river in a desperate plunge.
Then he was seen drifting away in the torrent, and dyeing the turbid waters with his blood.
The Teton chief soon re-appeared on the surface, and understanding the nature of his loss, he swam with vigorous strokes to the nearest of the young men, who relinquished his steed, as a matter of course, to so renowned a warrior.
The incident, however, created a confusion in the whole of the Dahcotah band, who appeared to await the intention of their leader, before they renewed their efforts to reach the shore.
In the mean time the vessel of skin had reached the land, and the fugitives were once more united on the margin of the river.
The savages were now swimming about in indecision, as a flock of pigeons is often seen to hover in confusion after receiving a heavy discharge into its leading column, apparently hesitating on the risk of storming a bank so formidably defended.
The well-known precaution of Indian warfare prevailed, and Mahtoree, admonished by his recent adventure, led his warriors back to the shore from which they had come, in order to relieve their beasts, which were already becoming unruly.
“Now mount you, with the tender ones, and ride for yonder hillock,” said the trapper; “beyond it, you will find another stream, into which you must enter, and turning to the sun, follow its bed for a mile, until you reach a high and sandy plain; there will I meet you.
Go; mount; this Pawnee youth and I, and my stout friend the physician, who is a desperate warrior, are men enough to keep the bank, seeing that show and not use is all that is needed.”
Middleton and Paul saw no use in wasting their breath in remonstrances against this proposal.
Glad to know that their rear was to be covered, even in this imperfect manner, they hastily got their horses in motion, and soon disappeared on the required route.
Some twenty or thirty minutes succeeded this movement before the Tetons on the opposite shore seemed inclined to enter on any new enterprise.
Mahtoree was distinctly visible, in the midst of his warriors, issuing his mandates and betraying his desire for vengeance, by occasionally shaking an arm in the direction of the fugitives; but no step was taken, which appeared to threaten any further act of immediate hostility.
At length a yell arose among the savages, which announced the occurrence of some fresh event.
Then Ishmael and his sluggish sons were seen in the distance, and soon the whole of the united force moved down to the very limits of the stream.
The squatter proceeded to examine the position of his enemies, with his usual coolness, and, as if to try the power of his rifle, he sent a bullet among them, with a force sufficient to do execution, even at the distance at which he stood.
“Now let us depart!” exclaimed Obed, endeavouring to catch a furtive glimpse of the lead, which he fancied was whizzing at his very ear; “we have maintained the bank in a gallant manner, for a sufficient length of time; quite as much military skill is to be displayed in a retreat, as in an advance.”
The old man cast a look behind him, and seeing that the equestrians had reached the cover of the hill, he made no objections to the proposal.
The remaining horse was given to the Doctor, with instructions to pursue the course just taken by Middleton and Paul.
When the naturalist was mounted and in full retreat, the trapper and the young Pawnee stole from the spot in such a manner as to leave their enemies some time in doubt as to their movements.
Instead, however, of proceeding across the plain towards the hill, a route on which they must have been in open view, they took a shorter path, covered by the formation of the ground, and intersected the little water-course at the point where Middleton had been directed to leave it, and just in season to join his party.
The Doctor had used so much diligence in the retreat, as to have already overtaken his friends, and of course all the fugitives were again assembled.
The trapper now looked about him for some convenient spot, where the whole party might halt, as he expressed it, for some five or six hours.
“Halt!” exclaimed the Doctor, when the alarming proposal reached his ears; “venerable hunter, it would seem, that on the contrary, many days should be passed in industrious flight.”
Middleton and Paul were both of this opinion, and each in his particular manner expressed as much.
The old man heard them with patience, but shook his head like one who was unconvinced, and then answered all their arguments, in one general and positive reply.
“Why should we fly?” he asked. “Can the legs of mortal men outstrip the speed of horses?
Do you think the Tetons will lie down and sleep; or will they cross the water and nose for our trail?
Thanks be to the Lord, we have washed it well in this stream, and if we leave the place with discretion and wisdom, we may yet throw them off its track.
But a prairie is not a wood.
There a man may journey long, caring for nothing but the prints his moccasin leaves, whereas in these open plains a runner, placed on yonder hill, for instance, could see far on every side of him, like a hovering hawk looking down on his prey.
No, no; night must come, and darkness be upon us, afore we leave this spot.
But listen to the words of the Pawnee; he is a lad of spirit, and I warrant me many is the hard race that he has run with the Sioux bands.
Does my brother think our trail is long enough?” he demanded in the Indian tongue.
“Is a Teton a fish, that he can see it in the river?”
“But my young men think we should stretch it, until it reaches across the prairie.”
“Mahtoree has eyes; he will see it.”
“What does my brother counsel?”
The young warrior studied the heavens a moment, and appeared to hesitate.
He mused some time with himself, and then he replied, like one whose opinion was fixed—
“The Dahcotahs are not asleep,” he said; “we must lie in the grass.”
“Ah! the lad is of my mind,” said the old man, briefly explaining the opinion of his companion to his white friends.
Middleton was obliged to acquiesce, and, as it was confessedly dangerous to remain upon their feet, each one set about assisting in the means to be adopted for their security.
Inez and Ellen were quickly bestowed beneath the warm and not uncomfortable shelter of the buffaloe skins, which formed a thick covering, and tall grass was drawn over the place, in such a manner as to evade any examination from a common eye.
Paul and the Pawnee fettered the beasts and cast them to the earth, where, after supplying them with food, they were also left concealed in the fog of the prairie.
No time was lost when these several arrangements were completed, before each of the others sought a place of rest and concealment, and then the plain appeared again deserted to its solitude.
The old man had advised his companions of the absolute necessity of their continuing for hours in this concealment.
All their hopes of escape depended on the success of the artifice.