The Wild Man of the West by Robert Michael Ballantyne (epub e ink reader TXT) 📕

and heard it! We will not, therefore, even attempt a description.

The Indians rushed _en masse_ to the doorway. Death in the jaws of the Wild Man of the West was infinitely preferable to being parboiled and suffocated; but the Wild Man had judiciously made way for them. They gained the outer cave, and sprang down the pathway. Dick plied the handle of the shrieking-machine with the secondary object in view of relieving his own feelings! The din was indescribable! If those Indians are not lunatics at this moment they must be dead, for there could be no alternative in the circumstances. Certain it is they vanished like smoke, and they have never been heard of since--from that day to this!

Really, dear reader, if it were not that we are recounting the doings of a Wild Man--a notoriously eccentric creature--we would feel it necessary to impress upon you that such scenes as we have been describing are not characteristic of life in the Rocky Mountains; nay, more, we question whether such scenes as these have ever been witnessed or enacted in those regions at any time, with the exception, of course, of the present occasion. But it must be carefully borne in mind that we are recounting the deeds of a "Wild Man," and, although the aspect of outward things-- the general tone and current of manners and customs and natural phenomena--may remain exactly the same as heretofore, and be faithfully described without exaggeration (as we maintain they are), yet the acts, devices, and vagaries of such a creature as a Wild Man may, indeed must necessarily, be altogether eccentric and unparalleled. We therefore pause here to express a hope that, whatever credit you may be able to give to the reported deeds of this hero, you will not withhold your belief in the fidelity of the other portions of this narrative.

No sooner, then, were those unwelcome visitors ejected than Dick returned to the scene of devastation and shouted, "Hullo! Mary!"

"Safe, all safe," she replied, as, with the assistance of March Marston, she pushed the plank across the chasm, and returned to the centre cave.

"Is the lad March safe too?" inquired Dick as he busied himself in striking a light with flint and steel.

"All right," answered the youth for himself, "but horribly battered, an' fit to yell with pain, not to mention surprise. Do look sharp and get the fire up. Sich doins' as this I never did see nor hear of since I left the frontier. I do declare it's worthy o' the Wild Man o' the West himself. What d'ye find to laugh at, Dick? I'm sure if ye had my miserable bones in yer body at this moment, ye'd laugh wi' your mouth screwed the wrong way. Look alive, man!"

"Patience, lad, patience. That's one o' the vartues, I believe; leastwise, so I'm told. Ah, it's caught at last. (Hand me that dry stuff on the south shelf, Mary; ye can find it i' the dark, I doubt not.) Yes, it's a vartue, but I can't boast o' having much o't myself. I dun know much about it from 'xperience, d'ye see? There, now, we'll git things put to rights," he added, applying the kindled spark to some dry chips and producing a flame, with which he ignited a pine-knot, and stuck it blazing in a cleft in the rock. "Just see what them reptiles ha' done to me. If it wasn't that I'm a good-tempered feller, I b'lieve I'd git angry. See, March, boy, there's a shelf in the corner that's escaped the flood. Lie ye down there, while Mary and me puts the place in order."

"I'd rather help you," said March dismally. "I don't b'lieve it can make me worse, an' perhaps it'll make me better. I wonder what in the world pain was made for."

"Ye'll only be in our way, lad. Lie down," said Dick, seizing a large broom and beginning to sweep away the water and ashes and pieces of charcoal with which the floor was plentifully covered, while Mary picked up the scattered skins and furniture of the cave, and placed them on the ledge of rock, about four feet from the ground, which Dick termed a shelf.

This ledge ran all round the apartment, so March selected a corner, and, throwing a dry skin upon it, stretched himself thereon, and soon found his sufferings relieved to such an extent that he began to question his host as to his sudden and unlooked-for return.

"How came ye to drop in upon us in the very nick o' time like that?" he said, gazing languidly at Mary, who bustled about with the activity of a kitten--or, to use an expression more in keeping with the surrounding circumstances, a wild kitten.

Dick, without checking his broom, told how he had discovered the tracks of the Indians, and returned at once, as has been related.

"Then," said March, looking anxiously at his host, "you'll not be able to help my poor comrades and the people at the Mountain Fort."

"It an't poss'ble to be in two places at once nohow ye can fix it," returned Dick, "else I'd ha' been there as well as here in the course of a few hours more."

"But should we not start off at once--now?" cried March eagerly, throwing his legs off the ledge and coming to a sitting position.

"You an't able," replied Dick quietly, "and I won't move till I have put things to rights here, an' had a feed an' a night's rest. If it would do any good, I'd start this minute. But the fight's over by this time-- leastwise, it'll be over long afore we could git there! and if it's not to be a fight at all, why nobody's none the worse, d'ye see?"

"But maybe they may hold the place for a long time," argued March, "an' the sudden appearance of you and me might turn the scale in their favour."

"So it might--so it might. I've thought o' that, and we'll start to-morrow if yer able. But it would be o' no use to-night. My good horse can't run for ever right on end without meat and rest."

"Then we'll start to-morrow," cried March eagerly.

"Ay, if ye can mount and ride."

"That I have no fear of; but--but--" at that moment March's eye encountered Mary's--"but what about Mary?"

"Oh, she'll stop here till we come back. No fear o' redskins troublin' her agin for some time," replied Dick, throwing down the broom and patting the girl's head. "Come, lass, let's have some supper. Show March what a capital cook ye are. I'll kindle a rousin' fire an' spread some pine-branches round it to sit on, for the floor won't be quite dry for some time. What red reptiles, to be sure! and they was actually devourin' my poor old bay horse. What cannibals!"

In the course of an hour the cavern had resumed its former appearance of comfort. The ruddy glare of the fire fell warmly on the rocky walls and on the curling smoke, which found egress through the hole near the roof that let in light during the day. Branches were spread on the floor, so as to form a thick pile near the fire, and on the top of this sat the Wild Man of the West with the most amiable of smiles on his large, handsome countenance, and most benignant of expressions beaming in his clear blue eyes, as he gazed first at Mary, who sat on his right hand, then at March, who sat on his left, and then at the iron pot which sat or stood between his knees, and into which he was about to plunge a large wooden ladle.

"There's worse things than buffalo-beef-bergoo, March, an't there? Ha, ha! my lad, tuck that under yer belt; it'll put the sore bones right faster than physic. Mary, my little pet lamb, here's a marrow-bone; come, yer growin', an' ye can't grow right if ye don't eat plenty o' meat and marrow-bones; there," he said, placing the bone in question on her pewter plate. "Ah! Mary, lass, ye've been mixin' the victuals. Why, what have we here?"

"Moose nose," replied the girl with a look of pleasure.

"I do b'lieve--so it is! Why, where got ye it? I han't killed a moose for three weeks an' more."

"Me kill him meself," said Mary.

"You!"

"Ay, me! with me own gun, too!"

"Capital!" cried Dick, tossing back his heavy locks, and gazing at the child with proud delight. "Yer a most fit an' proper darter for the Wild--a--_ho_!" sneezed Dick, with sudden violence, while Mary glanced quickly up and opened her eyes very wide. "Whisst--to--a--hah! whew! wot a tickler! I raally think the mountain air's a-goin' to make me subjick to catchin' colds."

March took no notice of the remark. His attention was at that moment divided between Mary's eyes and a marrow-bone.

There is no accounting for the besotted stupidity at this time of March Marston, who was naturally quick-witted, unless upon the principle that prejudice renders a man utterly blind. A hundred glaring and obvious facts, incidents, words, and looks, ought to have enlightened him as to who his new friend Dick really was. But his mind was so thoroughly imbued, so saturated, with the preconceived notion of the Wild Man of the West being a huge, ferocious, ugly monster, all over red, or perhaps blue, hair, from the eyes to the toes, with canine teeth, and, very probably, a tail, that unintentional hints and suggestive facts were totally thrown away upon him. The fact is, that if Dick had at that moment looked him full in the face and said, "_I'm_ the Wild Man of the West," March would have said he didn't believe it!

"How came ye by the iron pot?" inquired March suddenly, as the sight of that vessel changed the current of his thoughts.

Dick's countenance became grave, and Mary's eyes dropped.

"I'll tell ye some other time," said the former quietly; "not now--not now. Come, lad, if ye mean to mount and ride wi' me to-morrow, you'll ha' to eat heartier than that."

"I'm doing my best. Did you say it was _you_ that shot the moose deer, Mary?"

"Yes, it was me. Me go out to kill bird for make dinner, two days back, an' see the moose in one place where hims no can escape but by one way-- narrow way, tree feets, not more, wide. Hims look to me--me's look to him. Then me climb up side of rocks so hims no touch me, but _must_ pass below me quite near. Then me yell--horbuble yell!" ("Ha!" thought March, "music, sweetest music, that yell!") "an' hims run round in great fright!" ("Oh, the blockhead," thought March)--"but see hims no can git away, so hims rush past me! Me shoot in back of hims head, an' him drop."

"Huzza!" shouted Dick, in such a bass roar that March involuntarily started. "Well done, lass; ye'll make a splendid wife to a bold mountaineer."

March could not believe his eyes, while he looked at the modest little creature who thus coolly related the way in which she slaughtered the moose; but he was bound to believe his ears, for