CHAPTER XVII.
The Struggle in the Cave.
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ME an ole Bill warn’t hired to run away, an’ we wouldn’t need to have done it if them ar cowards had stood up to the mark like men; but when I seed them Injuns comin’, I knowed that the game war up—it warn’t no use to fight longer. I jest ketched a glimpse of ole Bill makin’ for his hoss, an’ I did the same, ’cause I knowed that he would stay as long as there war any chance o’ beatin’ back the Injuns.
“To jump on my hoss, an’ cut the lasso with which he war picketed, warn’t the work of a minit, an’ then, clubbin’ my rifle, I laid about me right an’ left, an’ my hoss, knowin’ as well as I did what war the matter, carried me safely out o’ the camp.
“As I rode out on to the prairy, the Injuns started up on all sides o’ me, but my hoss soon carried me out o’ their reach. As soon as I thought I war safe, I hauled up to load my rifle, an’ wait for ole Bill. I felt a leetle oneasy about him, ’cause, if the Comanches should onct get a good sight at him, they would be sartin to know who he war, an’ wouldn’t spare no pains to ketch him; an’ if they succeeded, he couldn’t expect nothin’ but the stake.
“Wal, arter I had loaded up my rifle, an’ scraped some bullets, I started back toward the camp, to see if I could find any thing o’ Bill; an’ jest at that minit I heered a yell that made my blood run cold. By the glare o’ the camp-fires, which the Comanches had started agin, I seed the cause of the yell, for there war ole Bill on foot, an’ makin’ tracks for the gully, with a dozen yellin’ varlets clost at his heels. In course I couldn’t help the old man any; an’, besides, I knowed that they would take him alive at any risk, an’ that, if I kept out o’ the scrape, I might have a chance to save him. Wal, jest at the edge o’ the gully he war ketched, an’ arter a hard tussle—for the ole man warn’t one of them kind that gives up without a fight—he war bound hand an’ foot, an’ carried back to the camp.