CHAPTER XIV

PRISONERS OF THE DACOTAHS

DICK knew the folly of resistance when he saw that, besides the two warriors who held him down, there were half a dozen others nearby. Roger, always impulsive and headstrong, was struggling desperately, though without the slightest chance of breaking away from his captors. Understanding what was taking place close by, Dick called out:

"Give up, Roger; it is foolish to fight against such odds. You will only be hurt for your pains, and nothing gained. Leave it all to me!"

Not only did Roger hear these words, but his own good sense told him the wisdom of yielding to overwhelming numbers. But it was always a difficult thing for Roger to believe in the old saying to the effect that "he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day."

After being disarmed the two boys were allowed to get upon their feet. They discovered that their dusky captors undoubtedly belonged to the same tribe as their treacherous guide, and, therefore, must be Dacotahs. That guide was clutching Roger's gun as though he expected to retain it as the price of his labors in thus entering the camp of the strange "palefaces," and luring the two boys into the trap so cunningly contrived.

Dick was far from downcast. It took considerable to make him feel as though everything were dark around him. And, in order to cheer Roger up, as well as to arouse his interest in planning an escape, the first remark Dick made was in the line of an attempt to guess how it had all been planned.

"Look, they are marking a smoke now," he told his companion, as several of their captors struck flint and steel together, and with the spark thus generated started a fire in a little pile of greenish-looking wood.

"That must be meant for a signal to some one who is away from here," Roger commented, on observing what was going on. "Dick, what does all this mean? You are always good at hitting on the truth while I grope in the dark. Why do you think these Indians want to make us prisoners?"

"It was a trap, you understand, Roger?"

"Oh! yes, that's as plain as can be," replied the other, readily enough; "for they were all hiding up in these trees while we kept on fishing so merrily, without dreaming that we were being watched every minute of the time."

"And, Roger, the guide led us into the mess; now we can understand why he was so eager to fetch us up here."

"Then you believe, do you, Dick, he planned this thing; that perhaps he even entered our camp with such a game in his mind?"

"It begins to look that way, I am sorry to say," Dick replied.

"But can he be in the pay of that revengeful Frenchman, François Lascelles?" demanded Roger, rather appalled by the thought.

"We will soon know, because, unless I am mistaken, that smoke they are sending up yonder is meant to call him here. And it would not surprise me very much, Roger, if that brave who has been eating at our campfire for two days, crept out last night and told how he had been engaged to take us to this stream to-day. That would account for the Indians being concealed here."

The boys were without weapons, and could do nothing toward the making of their escape; so they waited with what patience they could command to see what was about to happen.

Shortly afterwards some one was seen approaching, at sight of whom Roger gave utterance to an exclamation of disgust.

"Why, after all, it's that skunk, Andrew Waller!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, he must have found some way to get in with these Indians, and they have been working for his interests," Dick suggested. "Perhaps he has lied to them, and made them believe we are two very important persons. He may take the trouble to explain the thing to us, thinking it will add to his glory."

"I can see the look of satisfaction on his face from here," said Roger, in a surly tone, as though it cut him to the quick to have the traitor triumph over them in that way.

Waller soon arrived on the scene, and his first act was to look insolently into the faces of the two boys.

"So, you fell to the bait, did you, boys? When I told you we would meet again you didn't believe it would be so soon. And let me say that you are going to be in a pretty pickle after this. These Indians will make sure that you do not slip through their hands."

"What have you been telling them about us?" demanded Roger, impetuously. "Some big lie I am sure, for it would be just like you."

The man frowned as though angry, and Dick feared he was about to strike the bold boy a blow in the face, which would have precipitated a fight in which Roger would have gone down to defeat. However, Waller managed to keep his temper in control, and sneering again, went on to say:

"Oh! to make sure that you would be held a close prisoner, I merely told them that you boys were the sons of the Big White Father away off in the Land of the Rising Sun; and that if they held you safe they could demand a great ransom in wampum, sticks-that-shoot-fire, and everything that the heart of an Indian could wish. In other words I have cooked your goose for you. You may be sure you will never be allowed to go free."

He turned his back on them and commenced talking with one of the Dacotahs, who, from the feathers in his black hair, seemed to be some sort of sub-chief. Much of the conversation was carried on by gestures, in which Waller seemed to be unusually expert.

Dick watched closely in the hope that he might be able to catch the drift of what was passing between the two. That he and Roger were the objects under consideration he had not the slightest doubt, for several times one or the other pointed toward the spot where they stood.

"Can you make it out at all, Dick?" Roger asked.

"I am sorry to say it's more than I've been able to understand, Roger; but I think he's telling the chief again how valuable we are as prizes. And to think we have no way of proving to him that we are only ordinary boys, without rich fathers to pay a big ransom. It is just the sort of game we might have expected Andrew Waller to play."

The man who had been sent out of the camp of the explorers now approached them again. He was rubbing his hands as though in great glee.

"Now, I shall not only have my pick of two good guns, but plenty of ammunition for them, in spite of Captain Lewis. I am going to say good-by to you here, for I have to meet M'sieu Lascelles at an appointed rendezvous. Oh! he will be very much pleased when he learns how the Dacotahs prize the boys he hates so bitterly, and mean to carry them off to their villages, far to the north, there to keep them until the big ransom arrives. It tickles me to know how soon my debt to you has been so nicely cancelled."

Roger gritted his teeth, but he managed to keep from saying anything.

"Just as you told us when you were leaving camp, we may meet again, Andrew Waller," Dick said, with an unmistakable meaning in his voice.

"Oh! that is possible," the other jauntily added, purposely misunderstanding what the boy meant; "for it may be M'sieu Lascelles, he would wish to see for himself that you are comfortable, so for that reason we might journey into the Dacotah country ourselves."

With that thrust he waved his hand to them, and, turning, walked away as he had come. None of the Indians paid the least heed to his movements; but Roger almost choked in his indignation.

"Just to think, Dick," he muttered in a quivering voice, "the beast is carrying my dear old gun which he took from our red guide, on his shoulder. How much I will miss it, because, ever since I've been able to look along the sights of a rifle, that gun has been my companion day and night."

"We shall hope that in some way or other you will see it again," Dick told him. "Even if not, there are others just as sure shooters at the camp. The one he used to own, and which they refused to let him carry off, is even a better-made weapon than yours."

"Yes, but that gun has associations away above its value in money," said Roger, heaving a sigh; "and at the best the chances of my ever handling it again are three against one."

"Well, we must try to think of other things now," Dick told him.

"You mean about escaping from our captors, don't you, Dick? What if we can convince them that Waller is a man with a double tongue, and that what he told them about our being the sons of the Great White Father at Washington is only a package of lies?"

"Of course we can try, but I'm afraid it will be useless, because the Indians want to believe that wonderful story. See how all of them are examining my gun now. I suppose every one of them is picturing himself as owning just such a marvelous weapon that 'spits out fire,' and kills the game just as thunder and lightning do in the storm."

"What do you think they expect to do with us now?" asked Roger.

"They will not want to stay here much longer," affirmed Dick, "because they are afraid of the 'palefaces with their thunder sticks.' Consequently, they will start off toward their village, which we understand lies several days' journey away from here toward the northwest."

"But, when we fail to come back to-day, Captain Lewis is bound to send some of his best trackers up here to learn what happened to us. And, Dick, surely they will try to follow our captors, and effect our rescue."

"Listen, Roger. We must not leave it all to them. These cunning red men know how to cover a trail so that the keenest eye cannot find a trace. Depend on it, they will leave no stone unturned to hide the tracks we make. And then, besides, do we not know that the summer is already beginning to wane?"

"Yes, yes, all that is only too true, Dick. Captain Lewis understands there is no time to spare, with those terrible mountains yet to be scaled, and also black deserts to cross, and all before snow flies. I am much afraid he will decide that the success of the whole undertaking would be put in peril should he detach any of his men to engage in a wild goose hunt for us."

"We two have before this been in positions of peril," said Dick, firmly, with a flash in his eyes that aroused new hope in the breast of his chum; "and always, in times that are past, have we succeeded in saving ourselves. So let us keep up our spirits and watch constantly for a chance to give these Indians the slip."

"If we should find the opportunity," said Roger, immediately, "I hope we manage to get hold of your gun, and our hatchets and knives. To lose my good shooting-iron is bad enough, but that knife, you know, has served me since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Promise me you will do your level best to save our side-arms if we find a way to escape, Dick!"

To this entreaty Dick assented. Indeed, he knew well enough that it was their only policy to go away armed rather than in a helpless condition.

Shortly afterwards they were given to understand, through grunts and gestures, that the march was about to be taken up. With several Indians stalking along in single file ahead, and others bringing up the rear the two boys had to turn their backs upon the "Big Muddy" and start upon the long journey into the Northwest, at the end of which lay the Dacotah village.