Girl in a Buckskin

their screams brought back to her. When she opened them the Indians had surrounded the cave and one of the party was creeping in with a raised tomahawk. Finding it empty two of them knelt on the beach to light a fire and when flames had begun to lick the tinder they brought out piles of candle wood and lit torches that turned the beach into daylight.
    They would be looking for their hiding place now, and with a shudder Becky ran over the precautions they had taken, searching for the tiniest error that might cost them their lives. As she watched, several Indians rode off into the woods along the cove while two of them walked out a few yards on the ice and looked around. As the Indians glanced toward the stump Becky and O’Hara sank underwater and clung desperately to the roots of the tree, but either the Indian did not see the stump in the growing darkness or they did not believe any white man could hide near it without leaving signs, for when Becky and O’Hara came up for air both Indians had returned to the shore.
    But now a fresh danger arose as Becky realized how quickly they might freeze to death if the Indians did not leave soon. And they gave no sign of leaving. Indeed it looked as if they might spend the night around the fire, for having found themselves cheated of scalps they sat down to eat the stew that had simmered all day in the kettle. She saw O’Hara’s precious knife handed around, and her copper kettle examined by each of the Indians. She closed her eyes, knowing she would never see the kettle again, or the huckaback tablecloth full of her treasures, or the stores of food and skins she had laid by.
    “B-brazen devils,” O’Hara muttered through clenched teeth.
    The cold had spread to Becky’s legs but instead of pain it brought a kindly numbness to her body and a feeling of lethargy. She began to toy with the idea of falling asleep, thinking that struggle was useless and sleep a delightful way in which to pass an empty hour. Her eyes were shut when O’Hara angrily pinched her shoulder.
    “S-s-stop that,” he hissed.
    So Becky obediently opened her eyes and watched the Indians devouring her stew, shoving it into their mouths and nodding their heads with an appetite that she could share with them. In the east the moon had begun to rise, spreading a thin silver wash of light across the ice around them while under the trees the torches shone hot and yellow. Now the Indians appeared to be arguing around the fire, they pointed to the flames and then to the north and it was apparent they wished to stay.
    But one of them stamped his foot and shook his head, a great many angry, guttural words streaming from his lips. Suddenly he appeared leading the horses that had been tethered in back of the cave and mounting one he leaned over and again harangued his friends, pointing to the moon, to the north and to the fire. Reluctantly one of his friends hoisted the deer they had been trailing onto the back of his horse, and slowly the others followed, stowing away the kettle, Becky’s knapsack, her bow and arrows and rab-bitskins. They mounted, and as suddenly as they had come they disappeared into the darkness of the hill.
    “They’ve gone,” whispered O’Hara, and leaning over he braced his legs against the stump and heaved himself out of the water. Becky marveled at his strength; she would have stayed there all night for want of any desire to move.
    “They may still be near,” she whispered as he pulled her up beside him.
    “Aye, lass, and a few minutes more and you would go to sleep and never wake up again.”
    “I’ll be all right.” She shivered as he massaged her legs. “Look to your own—” Over his shoulder she saw the fire still leaping on the beach, the wonderful, blessedly hot fire they dared not approach, and every bone of her body yearned for its warmth as the blood rushed painfully back to her frozen limbs.
    O’Hara was pointing to the west shore. “Over there,” he said. “We’ll roll up in the hollow under the bank.” She nodded, and together they crawled over the ice on their stomachs until they reached the bank. When O’Hara was safely in the shadow of the overhang she crept back and carefully covered their tracks. Then she too went into the earthen hollow and collapsed beside him.
     
    When dawn came Becky woke from an uneasy nap and looked out at the cold bright sun. They faced a new day and a day without comforts, for they would not dare live in the cave again.