“We cannot carry out our movement, as a number of savages are now coming up, and I have sent Ralph to warn the others. We must now make our way around the camp to the north, and then strike east. Move as quietly as possible, and follow me.”
Before they had gone three hundred feet, John held up a warning hand. “There is another lot of them coming from the northwest. What does all this mean?”
Their only salvation now was to move directly to the west, and this took them just the opposite direction from the wagon.
When the Professor left the boys he moved cautiously to the northwest, and before he had gone far saw the savages approaching from that quarter. As the band which John had advised them about, was coming in from the southwest, he was, for a time, mystified, but soon reached the conclusion that it must be a force not noticed by John, so he circled to the north, in wonder why John or George should have used the gun which they had just heard.
When George and John moved to the west, the band which they originally sighted, arrived in sight of the camp, and they at once changed the course to the south, and thus enabled them to make their way back to the wagon in that direction; but before the trail was reached, John said: “We must approach the trail cautiously, as there may be stragglers, or some who are following behind.”
At that instant, two warriors crossed the path directly ahead of them, the brush being so close at this point that they could not see fifty feet ahead. The savages saw them instantly, and John held up his hand, as though to speak, but they did not wait to parley, and as one of them raised his spear to throw it, the other fitted an arrow to his bow, but before the spear left the native’s hand, George drew his gun and fired.
The other savage did not wait to shoot, as he saw his companion fall, but bounded forward, in the direction of the camp. The shot, of course, aroused the entire camp, and it also accelerated the movement of the tribe approaching from the northwest.
“Follow me quickly,” whispered John. “Let us go south, and then make our way east.”
In a short space of time the savages were at the scene of the shooting, and, as they had no means of knowing in which direction their enemies had gone, began the process of trailing. This was, necessarily, slow work, and it gave John and George time to make their way by a wide detour around to the wagon, to find that only Harry was there, but gratified to think that the precaution had been taken to erect the fort.
“Remain here, George, while I go forward to the Professor.” As he said this he darted forward, and soon reached the position of Ralph and Tom, and the latter at once informed him of the direction the Professor had taken.