Hiding the light canoe under some bushes, so cunningly that when I looked for it a moment later I could discover no trace of it, he made off through the trees, I following, a musketoon upon my shoulder. We trod on in silence, Manteo looking ever for the trail. Evening was beginning to fall, as though some black mantle dropped by the hands of the gods upon the quiet earth. There came to my ears the cawing of a crow, and it seemed to me that the bird was very near us.
Manteo in an instant had fallen, without a sound, flat upon his face. "Down," he whispered. "Quick!"
I followed his example as quickly as I could, and just in time. For, from the trees in front of me, there stole silently a painted figure; tall, fierce, savage, he strode from the dusk, and after him another, and another, until I had counted fifty warriors, walking in single file, their glaring eyes seemingly fixed upon me, as with bated breath I watched them. They were naked, save for the breech cloth about their loins, their bodies hideously daubed with the juice of wild berries and clay; from their coarse black hair there dangled the feathers of an eagle or hawk. I had seen nothing like this before in all my wanderings. Noiselessly, like a shadow, they faded one by one into the gloom opposite.
Long it seemed to me we lay there quietly; finally Manteo arose to his feet. "A party of Cherokees on the war path," he whispered, and we resumed our journey. Searching the ground about us for many minutes the Indian moved, now peering under some stone or leaf, now turning some tuft of grass aside to look beneath it. At last with a low grunt he led off again, striding along at his rapid gait.
"How knewest thou that thou wouldst find their trail here?" I asked.
The Indian grunted. "Had the Eagle looked closer, he would have seen the mark upon the bank where a canoe had landed," he said.
"But how knewest thou that it contained the party whom we seek?"
"Their canoe had been broken and the prow had been mended; I saw that it had landed here, for the mark of it was upon the bank."
I trod in silence behind him, and wondered at this almost superhuman knowledge of the forest that could observe such things as these, which to me were as a closed book. My musketoon in my right hand, I had hurried on after him, but now I halted in an instant, for again I heard the cawing of the crow in the woods, seemingly in front of us. The Indian too had stopped suddenly, and we stood motionless. As we stood there from every bush and tree there seemed to rise a hideous, painted figure. With a yell, so horrible and ferocious that my blood almost congealed in my veins at the sound, they were upon us with brandished tomahawks and clubs.
Like a flash I struck flint and steel, and ignited the fuse of my gun; at least one of these demons would be silenced forever. Leveling my gun at the foremost one as he leaped at me, I pulled down, but even as I did so, Manteo with one quick blow of his arm struck the gun upwards, so that it harmlessly exploded in the air.