The Huge Hunter | Page 9

the water, 'and it's ourselves that II take the good care of yees jist'
'Stop yer confounded floundering,' admonished Hopkins; 'it won't do no good, and there ain't no necessity for it.'
One of them took the arm upon one side, and the other the same upon the opposite side, and struck out for the shore. The poor trapper realized his dire extremity, and remained motionless while they towed him along.
'Aisy jist-aiey now!' admonished Mickey: 'ye're in a bad fix; but by the blessin' of Heaven we'll do the fair thing wid yees. We understand the science of swimmin', and'
At that moment some drowning wretch caught the foot of the Irishman, and he was instantly drawn under water, out of sight.
Neither Hopkins nor Baldy lost presence of mind in this fearful moment, but continued their progress toward shore, as though nothing of the kind had happened.
As for the Irishman, his situation for the time was exceedingly critical. The man who had clutched his foot did so with the grasp of a drowning man; in their struggle both went to the bottom of the river together. Here, by a furious effort, Mickey shook him free, and coming to the surface, struck out again for the suffering hunter.
'It is sorry I am that I was compelled to leave yees behind,' he muttered, glancing over his shoulder in search of the poor fellow from whom be had just freed himself; 'but yees are past helpin', and so it's maeself that must attend to the poor gentleman ahead.'
Striking powerfully out, he soon came beside his friends again and took the drooping arm of Baldy Bicknell.
'Be yees sufferin' to a great extent?' inquired the kind-hearted Irishman, looking at the white face of the silent hunter.
'Got a purty good whack over the back,' he replied, between his compressed lips, as he forced back all expression of pain.
''Ye'll be aisier when we fotch ye to the land, as me uncle obsarved whin he hauled the big fish ashore that was thrashing his line to pieces jist.'
'Twon't take you long to git over it,' added Hopkins, anxious to give his grain of consolation; 'you look, now, like quite a healthy young man.'
The current was quite rapid, and it was no light labor to tow the helpless hunter ashore; but the two friends succeeded, and at length drew him out upon the land and stretched him upon the sward.
The exertion of keeping their charge afloat, and breasting the current at the same time, carried them a considerable distance downstream, and they landed perhaps an eighth of a mile below where the main body of shivering wretches were congregated.
'Do yees feel aisy?' inquired Mickey, when the hunter had been laid upon the grass, beneath some overhanging bushes.
'Yes, I'll soon git over it but woofh! that thar war a whack of the biggest kind I got. It has made me powerful weak.'
'What might it have been naow!' inquired Hopkins.
'Can't sayfust thing I know'd, I didn't know nothin'remember suthin' took me back the head, and the next thing I kerwholloped in the water.'
The three men had lost everything except what was on their bodies when the catastrophe occurred. Their horses were gone, and they hadn't a gun between them; nothing but two revolvers, and about a half dozen charges for each.
Of the twenty odd who were upon the steamer at the time of the explosion, nearly one-half were killed; they sinking to the bottom almost as suddenly as the wrecked steamer, of which not a single trace now remained.
The survivors made their way to land, reaching it a short distance below their starting-point, and here they assembled, to commiserate with each other upon their hapless lot and determine how they were to reach home.
Our three friends had remained upon shore about half an hour, the two waiting for the third to recover, when the latter raised himself apon his elbow in the attitude of listening. At the same time he waved his hand for the others to hold their peace.
A moment later he said:
'I hear Injins.''
'Begorrah! where bees the same?' demanded Mickey, starting to his feet, while Ethan gazed alarmedly about.
'Jist take a squint up the river, and tell me ef they ain't pitchin' into the poor critters thar.'
Through the sheltering trees and undergrowth, which partly protected them, the two men gazed up-stream. To their horror, they saw fully fifty Indians massacring the survivors of the wreckwhooping, screeching and yelling like demons, while their poor victims were vainly endeavoring to escape them.
'Begorrah, now, but that looks bad!' exclaimed the Irishman. 'Be the same towken, what is it that we can do?'
'Jerusalem! They'll be sure to pay us a visit. I'll be gumtued if they won't,' added the Yankee, in some trepidation, as be cowered down again by the side of the hunter, and said