Luke scolded, urged and threatened in vain. Becoming highly enraged at last, he jumped among them, and kicking right and left with his heavy boots, cleared the mouth of the passage as quickly as a volley from our double-barrels would have done.
Having disposed of the dogs, Luke stormed about at a great rate, shaking his fists in the air and stamping the ground with fury.
“We had oughter been on our way to the river long ago,” said he. “The hull settlement will be gallopin’ through these woods in less’n an hour, an’ if we’re here then, we’re booked for the lock-up, sure. But I ain’t a-goin’ to stir one step till I get that money. Call the dogs ag’in, Barney, an’ I’ll go in with ’em. I reckon they’ll foller me. What’s that ar’?”
As Luke Redman asked this question, the savage scowl vanished and his face grew white with terror. For a moment he and his companions stood as if they had been rooted to the ground, casting frightened glances through the cane on all sides of them, and then with a common impulse they scattered right and left, and were out of sight in a twinkling.
We were not long in finding out what had caused their alarm, for just then the clear, ringing blast of a hunting-horn echoed through the woods, followed by a chorus of the same kind of music, which, coming from all directions, told us that the island was surrounded. Hounds yelped, men shouted, the tramping of horses’ hoofs came faintly to our ears, and then five dogs, my own faithful Zip among the number, dashed past the mouth of the passage-way, closely followed by Sandy, Duke and Herbert.
“Hurrah!” we all shouted at once. “We’re safe now. The settlers have come at last.”
Mark and the young Indian sprang down the passage, and I was about to follow them when Tom laid his hand on my arm.
“Joe,” said he, “I will give this valise and gun into your care, and will thank you to see that they are restored to their owners. I know you will do this much for me, for it is the last favor I shall ask of you.”
I took the articles in question as Tom handed them to me, and when I raised my eyes to look at him, he was gone. He had jumped past me, dashed out of the passage, and disappeared into the bushes before I could say a word to him.
I was not long in following him. Holding the guns over my shoulder with one hand, and grasping the valise with the other, I ran out into the cane just in time to place myself in the way of some swiftly moving body, which struck me with such force that I was whirled through the air as if I had been thrown from the cow-catcher of a locomotive. The guns flew out of my hand, but involuntarily I tightened my grasp on the valise.