“You carry her to the boat, while I go ahead to make sure nobody may see us do the work,” and, speaking in this strain, the burly trapper led off, with Henri coming along in the rear, bearing the form of Kate as easily as though she were a sack of feathers intended for a pillow.
It was found that a little bend of the shore intervened above, so that the spot where the settlers must have landed could not be seen. They caught a glimpse of the extreme outer edge of the tied-up flatboat, which fact told the trappers they had guessed truly as to the means taken by the Ohio settlers in descending to the region of the Mississippi.
Henri deposited the helpless form of the girl in the bottom of the dugout. Then, with a heartlessness that seemed to be a part of their half-savage natures, the two French trappers shoved the boat away from the shore.
It was immediately caught by the current that flowed more swiftly at this point than above, and began to drift down-stream. The Frenchmen dared not wait, lest, in exposing themselves they be discovered by hostile eyes; but, with more or less laughter that, reaching the ears of the alarmed girl, must have added to her tortures, they turned and plunged again into the woods.
And the little boat, passing on into swifter waters, was soon swirling and dancing gaily on the bosom of the broad Mississippi, bearing Kate Armstrong further and further away from all those she held dear.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE DRIFTING DUGOUT
“I think we had better stop and take a little breathing spell, Sandy.”
“Nothing would please me better, Bob. This meat pack is very heavy, and it seems to me as if the air had grown much warmer. Summer has come, down here, surely. Oh! how good it feels to throw that burden down, and be able to stretch my arms, which ache as if they had a cramp.”