If you can imagine this, you will know pretty nearly how a cane-brake looks; but you can not understand what an excellent hiding-place it is. One might walk by within two feet without discovering you; and more than that, he could not follow the trail you made in going in, for, as fast as you pass the cane, it closes up behind you.
The one in which we had taken refuge, did not cover more than a dozen acres; and yet, had it not been for the hounds, Luke Redman and his whole gang might have searched for us during the rest of the week, and they would never have found us.
“Now, Joe,” whispered Tom, as he began to load the gun I had fired at the hounds, “I have another foolhardy plan to propose. We’ll watch our chance to get back to the house, and climb up the grape-vine to our prison again. What do you think of it?”
“I think I won’t do it,” I replied, completely astounded at the proposition. “We might as well have stayed there in the first place.”
“Oh, no!” replied my companion. “We are much better off now than we were before, because we’ve got the money, and a couple of guns with which to defend ourselves if we are crowded to the wall.”
“Well, I am safe out of there now, and I’ll never go back if I can help it. That’s the most stupid plan I ever heard of.”
“I can convince you in less than a minute that it will be the very best thing we can do,” said Tom, confidently. “We are not going to stay here in the cane, to be hunted down like a couple of wolves that have been robbing a sheep-pen; and if we attempt to leave the island, we shall give the dogs a fair chance at us. The woods on the other side of the bayou are open, and there’s no cane to hide in. Listen! Those fellows have just found out that their guns are gone.”
If that was the case, they must have been very angry over the discovery, for such an uproar I never heard before. Luke Redman was shouting out some orders, to which no one seemed to pay the least attention; the Indians were talking loudly with one another; the uninjured hounds kept up a furious barking, and the wounded ones joined in the chorus with continuous yelps and growls.
Although we could not see our enemies, our ears told us just what was going on.
“Silence!” roared Luke Redman, at length. “If you don’t hush up that noise—the hull on you—I’ll knock some o’ you down. Barney, kick half a dozen of them dogs. Jump into your saddles, an’ ride fur the bayou as fast as your horses can carry you. If they have crossed to the mainland, it’s all right; we’ll ketch ’em easy. If they haven’t, they are still in this cane-brake, an’ it won’t take us long to hunt ’em out. If Tommy thinks he is goin’ to slip off with that ar’ carpet-sack, he’ll be the wust-fooled boy you ever seed.”