“You better lie down and get some sleep,” Dave advised his boss. “Then you can spell me later. They won’t touch the dam till their logs is through, likely, but they may try to do us up.”
Joe rolled up in his blanket and presently slept. The fires of the camp died down. Save for the deep roar of rushing water the night was still.
About twelve o’clock three stones, thrown simultaneously, whizzed out of the darkness. Two missed Cottrell’s head by a few inches; the third, thrown short, struck Joe’s shoulder a glancing blow as he lay in his blanket.
As he woke with a startled cry Cottrell’s rifle spat a rod of flame into the dark. The man fired three shots and paused. A stick cracked in the bushes. Instantly he fired twice more at the sound, and listened. The camp was astir. Men poured out cursing in three languages. Through the babel Cottrell tried to make out the sound of footsteps. Failing, he fired once more, on general principles.
“Stop it, Cottrell!” cried Joe. “We don’t want to kill any one.”
“If one o’ them rocks had hit my head it would have killed me,” snarled Cottrell. “I’ll put the fear o’ God in their rotten hearts!” He shoved in fresh cartridges savagely.
“I think you’ve put it there now,” Joe commented as the row subsided. “But don’t shoot at their camp, or they’ll start shooting back. They must have a gun in their outfit.”
Boom! The roar of a shotgun shattered the silence, and the shot pellets pattered against the logs and stones. Boom! the second barrel spoke.
“Damn scatter-gun!” said Cottrell with contempt, and fired one shot. The crowd stampeded for cover as the bullet whined a foot above their heads. “It’s all right—I held high,” he explained. “It’d be just my darn luck to get one o’ them little shots in the eye. Now they won’t do no more shootin’.”
This prediction proved correct. The night passed without further incident. With daylight McCane’s cook appeared and made up his fire. Later the crew crawled out of their dingy tents. A few washed at the river; but most made no attempt at a toilet. They sat on the ground and wolfed down their food. With the last mouthful they reached for tobacco.