Knowing the folly of trying to enter into any sort of talk at such a time, Bob only pinched the arm of his more reckless brother. And Sandy understood what that signified; he was to say not another word.
Other sounds reached them. Bob caught the well-known click of flint and steel, and knew that a fire was about to be started. Presently sparks flashed and then the tinder caught, so that a little flame darted up.
As this was carefully fed by a practised hand it grew in volume, until the darkness that had rested under the thick branches of the great oak began to be dissipated.
By degrees Bob could make out the figures of several Indians. He stared as if unable to believe his eyes, for every one of them seemed to have vied with the others in assuming a grotesque dress. Several wore horns, and all of them had their faces hidden behind masks, usually the heads of some animal.
The first represented a wolf, one of those gaunt timber pirates that could easily pull a stag to earth; another had on a buffalo head; while a third seemed to represent a panther. Their garments were elaborately fashioned, and their persons decked with all manner of tinkling bits of metal, and colored porcupine quills. Not a movement did they make after once throwing off their reserve but that Bob was reminded of a necromancer he had once seen a very long time ago, in a playhouse in Richmond, to which his father took him at Christmas time.
He knew what these strange personages were as soon as his eyes beheld their remarkable attire and actions. Up to now Bob had never really set eyes on a real medicine man, though Sandy claimed to have done so at the time he was a prisoner in the Shawanee village.
But why half a dozen of them; and what sort of business had brought them here to this tree, that must be a land mark in the neighborhood? Did Blue Jacket know? He claimed to have been in this vicinity before; then perhaps he was acquainted with the very tree, in the branches of which they perched at that minute.
Still watching, Bob saw that the queer men below were carrying on in a strange way as they fed the flames, and kept building up the fire. They went through all manner of gestures, flinging their arms wildly aloft, dancing as they circled the flames, throwing some sort of powder into the fire that for the moment cast a blood red and terrible glow upon everything around; and anon even taking hold of hands to engage in a wild orgy around the blaze.
