Read Online Manly Wade Wellman - Novel 1966 by Battle at Bear Paw Gap (v1.1) - Free Book Online

one,” said Esau meaningfully. “You
remember also that of all those settled here, the least to be suspected was
Barney Cole. Who were so amazed as you and I when he proved to be a mountebank
knave, playing tricks and frightening great and small? And all the while he
pretended to be a silly, timid old man. Now, I say that perhaps a like subtlety
is being attempted upon us.”
                 “How’s
that, Esau?” asked Mark, uncomprehendingly.
                 “Tsukala
spoke of a white man’s tracks among all those of the Indian raiders,” Esau reminded
him. “It gives me to wonder, which of the white men here might have made those
tracks and perhaps directed those Indians?”
                 Mark
laughed, despite his own sober concern for the plight of the settlers. “Nay,
Esau, Tsukala did not recognize those tracks. He knows the print of every foot
in Bear Paw Gap. He can read prints as you and I read letters in a book.”
                 Esau
shook his head violently. “Tsukala did not tarry to make a close study of those
tracks. He himself said that he did not know how many men had made tracks; he
did not wait to see. I’ll engage that could we but see the feet that left
traces there—the white men’s feet, with toes out—we’d know those feet well, and
recognize the body and the face above them.”
                 Mark
inspected the latest of the rags he had used to clean the barrel of his rifle.
It showed white and he turned his attention to oiling the lock.
                 “Who
then do you think it was?” he inquired.
                 “Who
but Simon Durwell’s German servant, Bram Schneider?” flung back Esau
triumphantly.
                 Mark
stared. “Never Schneider, Esau. Why, he trembles at the very mention of
Indians.”
                 “Barney
Cole pretended to fear Indians and their evil spirits, before we unmasked him,”
argued Esau. “See now, Bram Schneider is a foreigner among us.”
                “We’re all foreigners in America , or we were a few generations back,” Mark
pointed out.
                 “I
mean, Schneider was a Hessian soldier, and came here to fight our fathers and
destroy American liberties,” said Esau.
                “He was drafted to that service
unwillingly/’ Mark rejoined. “At the first chance he saw, he left the British
cause to live among Americans.”
                 “Aye,
for he must have known his side was losing the war.” Esau tapped Mark’s arm
with his finger. “Think, Mark. Today, when you came back to the mill from your
scouting of those outlaw savages, was Schneider there?”
                 “Why, to be sure. As I came to the river and looked across,
I saw him come from behind the mill shed.”
                 “And
you cannot say where he had been before that,” said Esau triumphantly. “He may
have been with the Indians, and he may have hurried back ahead of you.” Esau
rose to his feet. “You are more stubborn than your wont when you defend him. I
came to seek your help in learning if he means us harm. If you will not join
me, I must scout him alone. I go now to do that.”
                 “Nay,
Esau, we won’t quarrel,” Mark placated him. “And you’re right, we should overlook no possible hint of danger. I’ll help you study Schneider,
if only to make sure that he’s no more than a timid, harmless fellow in a
strange and perilous land.”
                 A movement inside the open door. “Mark?” came Celia’s soft voice. “Is that Esau with you?”
                 “Aye,
Celia, come out and talk with us,” invited Esau. “I’m all nerves as it gets
darker,” she confessed.
                “Mark, I heard but the half of all
that scouting and shooting of yours today.”
                 “Do
not ask me to tell you the