“Yes, Mose,” he said, “even hanging would have been too good for ’em.”
“How did they get hold of you again?” asked Marion.
“I drifted for two days and nights before I could get ashore,” said Jimmy, taking up his story where he had left off. “They weren’t able to find the paddle that the dead Indian had had, or else they had hidden it themselves, so I had nothing to control the canoe with, and I couldn’t get to shore.”
“Why didn’t you drop overboard and swim for it?” asked Lewis.
“In that ice water, with that current and no knowing how long it would take me? You couldn’t swim in the river, even to-day, for fifteen minutes, without doubling up with a cramp and going down! What’s the use of asking me a fool question like that?”
“Yes,” added Moses, “what do you want to go interrupting him for?”
“You’re interrupting just as much yourself,” retorted Lewis.
Jimmy smiled at them, and then went on addressing Marion. “You get mighty hungry when you’ve been floating down the river two or three days. Finally, I paddled with my hands into a creek into which the water had backed up considerably. It was along about sundown, I reckon. There were some men working on board an ark—not as big as this, and not very much more than just decked over. They were hammering so hard, trying to get all they could done before night, most likely, that they didn’t hear me shout to them, but went right on working while I got my canoe beached and started to ’em. I had to pick my way through the blackberry bushes and grapevines that grew thick along the creek, and I was so sick from hunger that I expect I sort of crept towards ’em, wondering if I’d have strength to get to them before they stopped work and went home, and if I’d have strength left to shout when they stopped hammering. I was so glad to see honest men that that made me sort of sick, too. I’d ’a’ been pearter if it had been Indians or outlaws. But, just the thought that I was in sight of friends made me tremble so I couldn’t scarcely stand up. I never remembered my head-dress. When I was in the canoe I kept it on because I thought if I passed any Indians they wouldn’t notice me so much, and when I got into the creek and saw the white men I forgot everything except to try to get to them as quick as I knew how.”
“Did they fire at you?” exclaimed Moses.
“Fire? They fired the minute they clapped eyes on my head-dress over the bushes. They didn’t wait to see the color of the rest of me. The minute they fired I understood, but it was too late. Some Indians who were passing by ran in on them before they’d time to load again, and scalped the whole outfit, and took me captive. They were pleased to death with my decorations—I don’t know why; and they made a sort of mascot of me, except that I had to carry the loads, when we traveled, and they showed me by signs that I’d have to do squaw’s work when we got to camp. They fed me like themselves, but I was too faint to eat their sort of cooking; and you would be, too, if you had seen the way they cooked. Then I showed them I wanted to cook for myself, and they let me do it to get back my strength. I reckon it must have been a week. I didn’t keep track of time, and we didn’t go near any settlements. One night we camped in the mouth of a cave near the river. It was raining, and it had been raining all day. I expect I was feverish and my head was flighty, for I got an idea into it that I’d find the other mouth of the cave, which very likely overlooked the river, and sit in it and wait for you to come by in the ark. It was a little past the first quarter, and I thought it had been the last quarter of the moon when I left my cabin with Logan. You see I was mixed, but I thought I had it all clearly reasoned out. So I wandered off into the cave.”