along the eastern bank a small indian canoe, containing a single individual, was stealing its way—"hugging" the shore so as to take advantage of the narrow band of shadow that followed the winding of the stream. there were no trees on either side of the river, but this portion was walled in by bluffs, rising from three or four to fully twenty feet in height. the current was sluggish and not a breath of air wrinkled the surface on this mild summer night.
it was in the wildest part of the indian country, and tom hardynge, the hunter, runner and bearer of all dispatches between the frontier posts in the extreme southwest, knew very well that for three days past it had been his proverbial good fortune, or rather a special providence, that had kept his scalp from ornamenting the lodge of some marauding comanche or apache. tom was one of the bravest and most skillful of borderers in those days, and had been up in the indian country to learn the truth of numerous rumors which had come to the stations, reports of a general uprising among the redskins, with whom the peace commissioners had succeeded in negotiating treaties after months of diplomacy. after spending more than a week in dodging back and forth, in the disguise of an indian he had learned enough to feel that there was good foundation for these rumors, and that the exposed stations and settlements were in imminent peril. as soon as he was assured of this fact he started on his return to fort havens, which still lay a good three days' travel to the southwest. it was tom's purpose to continue his descent until the following night, when, if nothing unexpected should intervene, he hoped to reach the point where he had left his mustang, and thence it would be plain sailing for the rest of the way. he knew the country thoroughly, and was confident that it was safer to perform a part of the journey by water than by land, which explains how it was that he was still in the paint and garb of an indian, and still stealing his way down toward the gulf of california.
"them apaches are a cute set," he muttered, as he glided along through the bank of shadow; "i believe they've larned i've been up among them lookin' around. i can't tell 'zactly how they larned it. i've played injun so often that i know i can do it purty well; but they know there's somethin' in the air, and them signs i spied yesterday showed plain 'nough that they was lookin' for me. they'd give a dozen of their best warriors, with a chief throwed in to make good weight, to keep me from reachin' fort havens with the news that the apaches are makin' ready to raise old ned along the border. fact is, i do carry big news, that's sartin. hello!"
this exclamation was caused by the appearance of a bright point of light on the edge of the bluff, several hundred yards down the river, and upon the opposite side. at first glance it resembled some star of the first magnitude, which a sudden depression of the bluff had made visible. the scout ceased paddling, and, suffering the canoe to drift slowly with the tide, fixed his keen gray eyes upon the fiery point.
"that ain't any more of a star than i am," he added, a second later. "there she goes again!"
the torch, for such it was, remained stationary for scarcely a minute, when it began revolving swiftly from right to left, the gyration being of such a nature as to prove that it was swung by the hand of some person. three revolutions, and then it suddenly reversed and made three in the opposite direction, then two back, then two forward, then one back and forth, and then it vanished in the gloom of the night. tom scarcely breathed while viewing this pantomime, and when it ended he still held the paddle motionless while he chuckled to himself, for he knew what it all meant. he had seen indian telegraphy before, and had learned to comprehend a great deal of those mysterious signs and signals by which news is carried across mountain and prairie with incredible speed. he had ridden his fleet mustang to death to head off some of these telegrams, and yet in every case the indians, by some trickery unexplained to him, had outsped him.
"yes, i can read that," tom growled, still drifting with the current. "that ere redskin is signalin' to some other scamp, and it's all about me. it says that i'm on the river somewhere, and a lookout must be kept for me."
such was the fact. the indian who swayed the torch meant thereby to appraise some confederate that the scout who had dared to penetrate such a distance into their country, and to unearth their most important secrets, was seeking to make his way down the rio gila and out of their country again. this much said the torch in language that could not be mistaken. although it added no more, yet the sequence was inevitable, and tom needed no one to apprise him that the river both above and below him was closely watched, and that he was in the greatest peril of his life. being entirely shrouded in shadow, he could not see the moon, which rode high in the sky, scarcely touched by a floating cloud.
"i wish the moon would go out of sight altogether," he said to himself, as he viewed the clear sky. "i'd like to see it as black as a wolf's mouth, and then i'd teach these scamps somethin'; but there's too much confounded moonlight layin' loose for a chap to show any scientific tricks."
the fact that a redskin had indulged in signaling suggested that there must be some one to whom he had signaled, and the hunter devoted himself to learning where the second apache was located.
"as near as i kin calc'late, the chap must be on this side of the stream, and purty close to where i'm rockin' in the cradle of the deep this very minute."
he now moved his paddle slightly—just enough to hold the boat motionless while he looked and listened. the stillness was profound; not even the soft sighing of the wind reaching his ears. he had peered around in the gloom only a few minutes when he discerned the reply to the signal already described, and so close that he was startled. scarcely fifty feet below him, and on the edge of the bluff, several yards in height, a light flashed into view. a second glance showed him that it was a flaming torch held in the hand of an indian, who began whirling it around his head with a swiftness that made it seem like a revolving wheel of fire. the rapid motion of the torch, as the reader may infer, caused an equally rapid increase of the flame upon it, so that it revealed the indian himself; and the hunter, as he looked toward it, saw the figure of the warrior standing like some pyrotechnist in the center of his own display.
a better target could not have been asked, and tom, quick as thought, raised his rifle and sighted it; but with his finger upon the trigger, he refrained, lowered the piece and shook his head, muttering as he did so:
"he deserves it, and i'd like to give it to him, but it won't do. they'd know what the rifle-crack meant, and i'd have a hornet's nest about my head quick as lightnin'."
tom was not certain of the meaning of the exhibition he had just seen, but believed that it was intended as a mere reply to the other—the same as if the apache had shouted "all right!" in response to the notification. the indian must have circled the torch in this manner for more than a score of times, when he threw it from his hand into the river, where it fell with a hiss, and was instantly extinguished.
the scout was in a quandary. if he continued down stream he must pass directly beneath the spot where his foe was standing, and the shadow was by no means dense enough to make it possible for him to escape observation. he was confident, however, that if he could change places with the warrior, he could discern the canoe without any closer approach. he was at a disadvantage, for the bluff was perfectly perpendicular and so high that he could not reach the ground above without retreating up the river for at least a quarter of a mile, where the bluff was depressed enough to permit him to draw himself upward upon it. had the bank been low and wooded, it would have been the easiest matter in the world to have shoved the canoe into the shelter, or to have circumvented the indian by lifting it bodily from the water and going around him, and striking the river again below. but tom hesitated only a few minutes. he was anxious to get forward, for delay was dangerous and he felt annoyed at the manner in which he was dogged.
"here goes," he exclaimed, starting the canoe forward again. "if that apache is anxious for a scrimmage, he can have one."
