12 Another Sign
Halftrigger’s men were as hardened a set as ever I saw, but O’Leary’s death had a depressing effect upon them. The complaints and and the oaths and the unseemly jokes and the horseplay ceased for a while. They plodded along in sullen silence. But even their leader showed his bitter disappointment at finding nothing that answered Pedro’s description of the country surrounding the hidden mine.
“What ef that feller wuz lyin’ after all!” he said. “S’pose that gold o’ his wuz jest a ghost story. Ef ’twas, then the bullet I sent into his cowardly carcass wuz the best job I ever did in my life, an’ I’ve finished up some jobs purty clean in my time.”
“You have seen some strange adventures in distant seas, I suppose?” I asked, for I always had much curiosity concerning this man.
“Wa’al, rayther,” he said, his face glowing with evil pride. “I wuz never no slouch at takin’ advantage o’ opportunities, and the South Seas are wide and free.”
“I should think the narration of some of them would be extremely interesting,” I suggested.
“Not much, sonny,” returned Halftrigger. “I don’t think there’s much danger o’ you tellin’ tales out o’ school, but I’ve got suthin else to do on this cruise besides spinnin’ yarns.”
Shortly after this we came to a spot which Halftrigger selected as the camp for the night. It was in a small grove in a wide valley. The valley was clear of undergrowth, and no enemy could approach without attracting the observation of a sentinel who was not unusually dull.
The river at this point was too deep for fording, and as the grove grew upon its edge, we camped beside the water. Halftrigger made dispositions similar to those of the preceding night. He stationed two sentinels, and the others scattered themselves about on the grass as they chose. My hands were bound again, and another cord passed around my waist was tied to a stout sapling.
“Thar’s enough o’ rope thar,” said Halftrigger, “to let you roll over in the river, but you won’t float off as O’Leary did. But you’ll drown jest as purtily.”
After these pleasant remarks Halftrigger stretched his mighty length upon the ground and went to sleep. The others were quick in following him to the land of Nod, for the day’s arduous journey had tired them.
As before, I was slow to feel drowsiness. My alarming situation was not conducive to sleep, and now that night had come I expected another sign from Pike. My knowledge of his persistent character and skill in the wilderness, and what I had seen the night before, had given life in my brain to this idea. In the day I had laughed at myself and tried to get rid of the notion, but it would stick. I had told myself that the four lights of the night before were a mere phantasy, the figment of an imagination distorted by my surroundings and anxiety. But as the darkness came on again my reasoning powers were unable to cope with my anticipations. Imagination ruled me, and in spite of myself I looked forward with confidence to what calm thought would have told me I had no right to expect.
It was thus, with nerves strung to the highest tension and every sense keenly alert, that I prepared myself to watch and wait. The rope which held me to the sapling was long enough to enable me to turn about and encircle the entire horizon in a search for signal lights. But we were now in a wide plain, and nowhere was I able to see a point of vantage from which Pike might act. Hour after hour passed, though with leaden feet, and there was nothing but the semi-darkness of a moonlight night and the heavy stillness of the plain, broken only by the splash and gurgle of the river.
Midnight came, the guard was changed and still there was nothing. My disappointment caused me to fall into a most unreasoning and bitter mood. I was vexed and angry with my friends. But I was soon able to control this feeling, and condemn myself for being so foolish.
Then giving up the hope of seeing a signal, I lay and listened to the voice of the flowing river, which sounded so soothing and so peaceful in the night. I rolled to the edge of the bank and gazed at the water.
Bathed in the moonbeams, the river looked like a great sheet of molten silver. Far beyond, under the dim and starshot sky, I could see the shadowy outline of mountains.
There was something uncanny in the loneliness, the mystery and the grandeur of the wilderness. For how many ages had that silver river flowed on unseen by man!
I turned my eyes again from the mountains and the sky to the river. Then I noticed a dark splotch on the sheet of silver. The splotch was moving, floating on the surface of the stream. It came swiftly along with the current, and struck against the bank almost under my resting place. It rebounded lightly and, floating off down the stream, passed out of sight. But I saw what it was. Five sticks bound together with a withe made that splotch on the molten silver river.
It was nothing for pieces of wood to be floating along the surface of a mountain stream, but the withe indicated the hand of a man. Before I could think much about it there was another dark splotch, and again five sticks bound together as the others had been, floated by.
Four stars last night! Five sticks to-night! Had we another friend? Had Pike found a new ally? If so, who was he?
I never for a moment doubted the warning. I felt as sure that the sticks came from the hand of Pike, and were meant as a message for me, as I was sure that I was a prisoner in the hands of our enemies.
A third time, a fourth time, and a fifth time a bundle of five sticks floated by. Then they ceased. I lay awake long afterwards puzzling over the identity of our new ally. Some wandering trapper or hunter, perhaps some one Pike had known long before, I concluded at last. Then I went to sleep.