s not Oceola's Indians, but a white man--a
renegade--who, to his shame, was in alliance with the Indians and was
always ready to betray the trappers into their hands. This miscreant was
a farmer on the mainland, who was the tenant of Woody Island, and had a
determined objection to any boys, or other savages, except, as I have
said, the Seminole tribe living on the island, and who used to threaten
pains and penalties against anyone whom he caught on his land. One never
knew when he might be about, and it was absolutely necessary to reach
the island without his notice. There was a day in the past when Speug
used to watch till the farmer had gone into his midday dinner, and then
creep along the bank of the river and ferry himself across with the
other trappers in the farmer's boat, which he then worked round to the
other side of the island and kept there for the return voyage in the
evening, so that the farmer was helpless to reach the island, and could
only address the unseen trespassers in opprobrious language from the
bank, which was sent back to him in faithful echo. This forenoon the
farmer happened to be hoeing turnips with his people in a field opposite
the island, and Speug was delighted beyond measure, for now the four had
to drop down and crawl along through the thick grass by the river's
edge, availing themselves of every bush and little knoll till they lay,
with all their arms, the tent, and the food, concealed so near the
farmer that they could hear him speak and hear the click of the hoes as
the people worked in their drills. If you raised your head cautiously
and looked through between the branches of a shrub, you could see him,
and Bauldie actually covered him with his rifle. The unconscious farmer
knew not that his life hung upon a thread, or, rather, upon Bauldie's
trigger. Bauldie looked inquiringly to his chief, for he would dearly
have loved to fire a cap, but Speug shook his head so fiercely that the
trapper dropped down in his lair, and Speug afterwards explained that
the renegade had certainly deserved death, but that it was dangerous to
fire with so many of his gang present, and the Seminoles on the other
side of the river. By and by the farmer and his people had worked
themselves to the other end of the field, and the trappers, having
ascertained that there were no Indians watching them, prepared to cross.
Speug, who had reached the boat, spoke out suddenly and unadvisedly, for
the farmer had chaine