Mass' George

"Did you find any alligator marks?"

"No, Ma.s.s' George, nowhere."

"Then some one must have come and stolen it while we were eating."

"How people come 'teal a gun wif Pomp and Ma.s.s' George eatin' um breakfast here?"

"I don't know. Come and look for footsteps."

"Did; and de 'gator not been."

"No, but perhaps a man has."

"Man? No man lib here."

"Let's look," I whispered--"look for men's footsteps."

The boy glanced at me wonderingly for a moment or two, then nodded his head and began to search.

Where we stood by the bush, saving that the ground had been trampled by my feet, the task would have been easy enough, for everything showed in the soft dry sand; but the bush was at the edge where the sand began running from the foot of the bluff to the river, and everywhere on the other side was dense growth; patches of shrubs, gra.s.s, dry reed and rush, where hundreds of feet might have pa.s.sed, and, save to the carefully-trained eye of an Indian, nothing would have been seen.

Certainly nothing was visible to me, but the fact that it was quite possible for a man to have crawled from the forest, keeping the patches of shrubby growth between him and us, till he reached the bushes, through which he could have cautiously stolen, and pa.s.sing a hand over softly, lifted the gun and its pouches from where I had stood them, and then stolen away as he had come.

One thing was evident, we had an enemy not far away; and, unarmed as we were, saving that we had our knives, the sooner we took flight the better.

All this was plain to me, but as I gazed in Pomp's face I found it was not so clear to him; there was a strange look in his eyes, his skin did not seem so black as usual, and he was certainly trembling.

"Why, Pomp," I said, "don't look like that." For though I felt a little nervous, I saw no cause for the boy's abject dread, having yet to learn that anything not comprehensible to the savage mind is set down at once as being the work of some evil spirit.

He caught my arm and looked round, the whites of his eyes showing strangely, and his thick lips seemed drawn in as if to make a thin line.

"Come 'way," he whispered. "Run, Ma.s.s' George, run, 'fore um come and cotch us."

"Who? What?" I said, half angrily, though amused.

"Hus.h.!.+ Done holler, Ma.s.s' George, fear um hear. Come take us bofe, like um took de gun."

"I have it," I said suddenly. "Your father has come up the river after us, and he has taken the gun

"Oh, Ma.s.s' George! Oh, Ma.s.s' George, done, done holler. Not fader.

Oh, no. It somefing dreffle. Let run."

"Why isn't it your father playing a trick?"

"Him couldn't play um trick if him try. No, Ma.s.s' George, him nebber play trick. It somefing dreffle. Come 'way."

"Well, we were going back," I said, feeling rather ashamed of my eagerness to get away, and still half uneasy about the gun, as I looked up at the tree where we had slept to see if I had left it there.

No; that was impossible, because I had had it to shoot the ducks. But still I might have put it somewhere else, and forgotten what I had done.

I turned away unwillingly, and yet glad, if that can be understood, and with Pomp leading first, we began our retreat as nearly as possible over the ground by which we had come.

For some little distance we went on in silence, totally forgetting the object of our journey; but as we got more distant from the scene of our last adventure, Pomp left off running into bushes and against trees in spite of my warnings, for he had been progressing with his head screwed round first on one side then on the other to look behind him, doing so much to drive away such terror as I felt by his comical aspect, that I ended by roaring with laughter.

"Oh, Ma.s.s' George," he said, reproachfully, "you great big foolish boy, or you no laugh like dat all. You done know what am after us."

"No," I said; "but I know we lost one of our guns, and father will be very cross. There, don't walk quite so fast."

"But Pomp want to run," he said, pitifully.

"And we can't run, because of the bushes and trees. I don't think there was anything to be afraid of, after all."

"Oh! Run, Ma.s.s' George, run!" yelled Pomp; and instead of running I stood paralysed for an instant at the scene before me.

We were pretty close to the river-bank, and forcing our way through a cane brake which looked just as if it must be the home of alligators, when a man suddenly stood in the boy's path.

Quick as thought the brave little fellow sprang at him, seeing in him an enemy, and called to me to run, which of course I did not do, but, as soon as I recovered from my surprise, ran on to his help. As I did so the path seemed darkened behind me, I heard a quick rustling, my arms were seized, and the next moment I was thrown down and a knee was on my chest.

"Oh, Ma.s.s' George, why didn't you run?"

Poor Pomp's voice rang out from close beside me in despairing tones, and I wrenched my head round, just catching a glimpse of him through the canes. Then I looked up in the stern faces of my captors, thinking that I had seen them before, though no doubt it was only a similarity of aspect that struck me, as I realised that we had fallen into the hands of the Indians once more.

They did not give us much time to think, but after taking away our knives twisted up some lithe canes and secured our wrists and arms behind us, two holding each of us upright, while another fastened our hands.

Then they drew back from us, and stood round looking at us as if we were two curiosities.

"Well, this is a nice game, Pomp," I said at last.

"Yes, dis nice game, Ma.s.s' George. Why you no run away?"

"How could I?"

"How you could? You ought run, jump in libber and go 'cross. Wish I run and tell de capen an' Ma.s.s' Morgan."

"Ah!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.

"You tie too tight, Ma.s.s' George?"

"Yes, but I was thinking of something else. Pomp, those Indians are going to attack our place and the settlement, and no one will know they are coming."

"Pomp hope so," he said, sulkily, and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g himself about with the pain caused by his tight bonds.

"What?"

"Den de capen an' Ma.s.s' Morgan shoot um, an' Serb um right."

"But they will take them by surprise."