A MIDSUMMER MISADVENTURE 



181 



I laid awake with that awful feeling 

 of impending danger, growing more 

 and more intense every moment. Final- 

 ly the suspense overcame me. My 

 voice was gone and in a strangled 

 whisper I awoke my husband. "Some- 

 thing is moving outside, maybe an- 

 other bear." He was very sleepy but 

 to relieve my fears he crawled out, 

 took up the gun and stepped to the 

 door. I saw his figure straighten up 

 on the instant and his voice rang out 

 in the night : "Go away and don't come 

 back or you may get hurt." The gun 

 was cocked and ready for use, for 

 there in the moonlight, not twenty 

 yards away, stood two Indians. Sto- 

 lidly, without a word, they turned and 

 left us, as we too well knew, only tem- 

 porarily. 



There was no more sleep for us that 

 night. We were dressed in short or- 

 der and waiting. For what? Why 

 had they come? Not to scalp us, that 

 was sure, for the days of the toma- 

 hawk and Indian warfare are over. 

 Then the truth flashed through our 

 minds. They had learned in some way 

 that our guide had left us ; likewise 

 they knew that we had guns and am- 

 munition ; they had come to steal. That 

 was their object. It would be easy to 

 overpower one man and frighten one 

 poor woman. No one would ever 

 know who had done it, and by morn- 

 ing their canoes would have taken 

 them far away. 



A thousand other thoughts flashed 

 through my mind. I watched the 

 walls of our tent and thanked my Cre- 

 ator that it was moonlight and all ob- 

 jects were as shadow pictures on the 

 canvas. For in my mind I had visions 

 of those two Indians crawling, one on 

 either side of the' tent, and as one 

 would surprise my husband, who 

 would turn to the attack, the other 

 would seize him from behind. 



Silently we sat in the doorway and 

 watched. My husband with his shot- 

 gun loaded, and I directly behind him 

 with the rifle ready for him on the in- 

 stant, the box of ammunition beside 



me for reloading, and the three other 

 guns all ready for active duty. 



An hour or so passed. The dread- 

 ful quiet continued. And then di- 

 rectly before us, peering from the 

 thicket, I saw that hideous face and 

 those two eyes. I bit my tongue, to 

 keep from hysterically screaming and 

 touched my husband's arm and point- 

 ed. He raised the gun and fired, above 

 that evil face. The head disappeared. 

 He took the rifle and fired three times 

 into the air. I reloaded. And again 

 we waited. 



Again, silence. I began to hate the 

 moonlight and its tedious monotony. 

 In the distance a loon cried out and a 

 lonely hoot owl" wailed in reply near 

 by. Every moment seemed an hour. 



Finally I stood upon a chair and 

 peered out into the fern around us. 

 Thank God I did. For there in the 

 deep brush — oh ! blessed moonlight ! — 

 crawled two human fiends. Between 

 the teeth of the foremost one I saw the 

 glitter of a knife. On they came; 

 silently, stealthily, sneaking in the 

 grass. I was frozen, paralyzed with 

 fright. But with a mighty effort I 

 pointed. My husband jumped to the 

 chair beside me. He, too, saw. Like 

 a bugle his voice rang out: "I don't 

 want to kill you, but I'm going to hurt 

 you." He had the shotgun. Report 

 after report rang out from the Win- 

 chester. I saw the leader drop his 

 knife and quickly turn and drop on 

 his stomach. It seemed as if I was in 

 the midst of battle. There we stood 

 alone, my husband firing into space. 

 Our enemy had disappeared. Then 

 of a sudden we heard the soft paddle 

 of an oar as a boat left the shore. 

 Softer grew the sound, and we looked 

 at each other for the first time. Had 

 they left? The question went unan- 

 swered. We were afraid to stop 

 watching. 



I lit a match and looked at my 

 watch. Three o'clock only. Would 

 the night never end ? 



Then through the silent air came a 

 sound that to my dying day I'll never 



