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Now, it chanced that Charlie's tree-cave turned to good account, as it saved his curly scalp; for the afternoon of the Indian outbreak, with one eye on the Crusoe history, and the other watching to see if any cannibals landed on the shore, taking an occasional sip from an old coffee-pot filled with spring water, which he called goat's milk, the whole frightful scene of the massacre passed before him.
There could be no doubt that Bruin had entered this tree-cave; for all around the aperture the bark was scraped and worn; and the wet mud, lately deposited there, was visible from below. The question was, how he was to be got out? Perhaps by making a noise he might issue forth? This plan was at once tried, but without success.
In this hole the squirrel usually lays up its store of winter food, consisting of nuts, beech-mast, etcetera; and here it takes refuge when hunted, finding the tree-cave a safe asylum.
Its lair, or place of retreat, is in a tree some hollow, with its entrance high up. Such trees are common in the great primeval forests of America. In this tree-cave it has its nest, where the female brings forth three, four, five, or six "cubs" at a birth. This takes place in early spring usually the first week in April. The raccoon is a creature of the woods.
I turned to bid adieu to Aurore, who had rushed out of the tree-cave, and stood near me weeping. As I faced round, several men sprang upon the buttress; and, seizing me from behind, held me in their united grasp. Then drawing my arms across my back, tied them fast with a rope.
We had not used it as a cover on account of its being still raw and, previous to the appearance of the baboons, it had been rolled up, and laid in the entrance of the tree-cave as the fittest place that offered. In rushing inside, it had been kicked before us; and thus it was that we happened to be in possession of it.
It is hardly to be wondered at, when one considers the strange sight that was revealed to our eyes. It would have tried the nerves of the boldest mortal that ever lived, to have looked into that dark tree-cave, without a previous knowledge of what was contained therein; and no wonder that Ben Brace uttered a wild exclamation, and stood shivering in speechless terror.
The scorpion-lizard, with his red head and olive-brown body, is a hideous-looking reptile at best; but when thus peering from his gloomy tree-cave, moving his pointed snout from side to side, his dark eyes glancing all the while with a fierce, malignant expression, it is difficult to conceive a more vicious-looking creature.
If so, we would be able to reach his tree-cave in safety. There was no trace of the dogs, save a blotch or two of blood upon the rough bark of the log, and that was not visible from the shore. Unless there were other dogs to guide them to the spot, the men might not in the darkness so easily discover these marks. We might yet baffle them!
Unless very hotly pursued by a dog, or other swift enemy, it will not be treed until it has reached the tree that contains its nest, and, of course, it drops securely into its hole, bidding defiance to whatever enemy unless, indeed, that enemy chance to be the pine-martin, which is capable of following it even to the bottom of its dark tree-cave.
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