"What must I do all that time?"
"Why, lay still—don't budge an inch, 'cept you want to lose your ha'r."
"Oh! I don't want to lose it. S'pose the Injins come poking round here, what's to be done then?"
"Keep docile, and like as not they won't see you; but if they does, why, jump up, give 'em a lunge with your knife, and put to the woods. You can run fast 'nough to give 'em the slip. In course, you'll have to make some tall dodgin' to do it, but I guess you are able."
"I'll try it, Dick, though I'd much rather you'd stay."
"I can't—so don't bother me agin."
With this, Dingle moved away as silently as a snake, and disappeared instantly. He made his way toward the opposite side of the village. It was not his intention to proceed thus far at first, but circumstances compelled him. It seemed impossible to gain the view he wished. At every point, some obstruction presented itself. The Indians, too, were so continually passing through the wood, that discovery sometimes appeared inevitable. They made their appearance so suddenly, that they were not seen until almost upon him, and then it was only by the most labored caution that they could be avoided. Several times, indeed, had it come to that point, that he clutched his knife, and stooped to spring; but kind fortune still screened him.
Dingle had been absent about a couple of hours, and had reached a spot from which he believed he could obtain all the information he wished, when he was startled by the report of a rifle, and a series of yells from the quarter in which he had left Jenkins! He heard the rush of feet through the bushes and the signals of alarm all about him.
"That cussed fool has got himself into a fix, I'll swear!" muttered the ranger retreating several yards, so as to be concealed by the wood, and hurrying around toward the spot in which he had left him. He reached it in a few minutes, but all signs of commotion had ceased. An extraordinary stillness reigned over the village. He signaled for Jenkins, but no answer was returned. He found, at last, the precise spot in which he had left him. But he was gone, most certainly.
"Yas, the fool's in a fix, sure. Sarved him right. He'll larn sunkthin' afore he gets back to the settlement again."