“Hurrah!” he cried. “A house is just ahead! Why on earth was I so foolish as to stop here?” and so saying, he hurried along the path.
When he arrived at the place where he saw the smoke, he found no house, but in a little open space in the woods there was a fire on the ground, and hanging from a branch of a tree above the fire was a covered tin vessel, very much blackened by smoke, in which something seemed to be simmering.
Chap stopped and looked at the fire. As he did so two men arose from the foot of a tree and came toward him. As soon as Chap looked at these men he knew they were Indians.
Chap had seen Indians before in the city near which he lived, but these were on exhibition, and were dressed in all the paraphernalia of blankets, leggings, feathers, and dangling ornaments, which are generally supposed to make up the ordinary costume of the American Indian; but he had never seen the red man in his native wilds, and the dress of these Indians surprised him almost as much as their appearance on the spot. They had copper-colored faces, high cheek-bones, jet-black hair, and wore moccasins, and these were the only points of resemblance between them and the traditional Indian.
They each wore a blue-flannel shirt, a pair of thick cotton trousers, and a dilapidated felt hat. One of them carried a powder-horn and a buckskin bullet-pouch, and against the tree, beneath which they had been sitting, there leaned a rifle.
As the Indians approached, one of them held out his hand. Chap had not made up his mind whether to be relieved or frightened when he saw the Indians, but he took the tawny hand that was offered him, and gave it a shake. There seemed to be nothing else to do.
CHAPTER X.
PHIL’S UNCLE AND CHAP’S SISTER.
We must now return for a time to Hyson Hall and its neighborhood, where the families of our three young friends were naturally much disturbed at their long-continued absence. On the morning of the day which Chap Webster had fixed for his return from the Breakwater, Mr. Godfrey Berkeley, Phil’s uncle, rode over to the Webster place, and found Chap’s mother already wondering what train the boys would come up in.
“Now, Mrs. Webster,” said Mr. Godfrey, “don’t you expect them by any train to-day. When boys start off on an expedition like that, they cannot fix a date for their return. It is impossible for them to know exactly how long it will take to get to the Breakwater; how many delays will occur while there and on their return. I do not expect them until to-morrow, or perhaps the day after.”