At daybreak I woke up to a series of awful screams from Bill. They weren't yells, howls, shouts, whoops, or yelps, like you'd expect from a man's vocal cords. Instead they were simply shameless, terrifying, humiliating screams, like when women see a ghost or a caterpillar. It's an awful thing to hear a strong, desperate, fat man shrieking uncontrollably in a cave at daybreak.
I jumped up to see what was wrong and saw Red Chief sitting on Bill's chest. One of the boy's hands held a hank of Bill's hair while the other hand waved the sharp knife we'd used for slicing bacon. Red Chief was about to give Bill a very bad haircut.
I pried the knife out of the kid's fingers.
"Stop it! Leave Bill alone! Lie down and stay down!" I yelled.
But from that moment, Bill's spirit was broken. He lay down on his side of the bed, and never closed an eye again in sleep as long as that boy was with us. I dozed off for a while, but I remembered later that Red Chief had said I was to be burned at the stake at the rising of the sun. I wasn't nervous or afraid, but I sat up, lit my pipe, and leaned against a rock.
"Why are you getting up so soon, Sam?" asked Bill.
"Me?" I said. "Oh, I got a little pain in my shoulder. I thought sitting up would make it feel better."
"You're a liar!" said Bill. "You're supposed to be burned at sunrise, and you're afraid he'll do it. And he would too, if he could find a match. This is awful, Sam. Do you think anyone will pay good money to get a rotten kid like that back?"
"Sure," I said. "A wild kid like that is just the kind that parents spoil. Now you and the chief get up and cook breakfast. I'll go up on top of this mountain and see if anything is happening."
I hiked over to the peak of the little mountain and looked toward the horizon. When I spied the town of Summit, I expected to see packs of villagers armed with axes and pitchforks running around the countryside searching for the dastardly kidnappers. But what I saw was a peaceful landscape and one man plowing a field with a grayish-brown mule. Nobody was searching the creek for a drowned child. No messengers ran here and there bringing news of no news to the worried parents. Everything I could see from the top of that mountain looked calm and drowsy, if not already asleep.
"Perhaps they haven't yet discovered that the wolves have stolen away their tender little lamb," I said to myself. Then I swallowed and thought of Red Chief. "Heaven help the wolves!" I yelled to the serene valley and went down the mountain to breakfast.
When I got back to the hideout, I found Bill with his back up against the wall of the cave. He was breathing hard. The boy was holding a coconut-sized rock in both hands and was shaking it at him.
"I'll smash you with this!" Red Chief shouted.
Bill saw me and started talking fast. "He dropped a red-hot boiled potato down my back. Then he mashed it with his foot! It hurt so much, I slapped him. Have you got your gun, Sam?"
I grabbed the rock away from the boy. "Come on, now, you two," I said. "Play nice."
"I'll fix you," the kid told Bill. "No man ever struck Red Chief and got away with it. You'll be sorry!"
After breakfast, the kid took a piece of leather with strings wrapped around it out of his pocket. He went outside the cave and started to unwind it.
"What's he up to now?" asked Bill in a scared voice. "You don't think he'll run away, do you, Sam?" When he asked me this, Bill sounded hopeful as he pressed his hands together in a kind of prayer.
"Nope," I said. "He's not much of a homebody. We've got to think up some plan about the ransom. There's no excitement around Summit about the boy's disappearance, but maybe they haven't realized that he's gone yet. His folks may think he's spending the night with an aunt or one of his neighbors. Anyhow he'll be missed today. Tonight we've got to get a message to his father demanding the two thousand dollars for his return."
Just then we heard a different kind of war whoop, like David might have shouted when he knocked out Goliath in ancient times.
"OOOUUU-WOWWW!"
"He's got a sling!" I yelled. "Look out!"
Red Chief started whirling the weapon around his head, and I ducked in time, but Bill didn't. Then I heard a heavy thud, and Bill screamed like he'd been shot through the head with an arrow. A smooth black rock the size of an egg had caught Bill just behind his left ear. He wobbled, lost his balance, and then fell across the pan of hot water on the fire that had been used for washing the dishes. I dragged him out and poured cool water on his head for half an hour.
Finally Bill sat up and felt behind his ear. He asked, "Sam, did you ever learn the Ten Commandments when you were a kid?"
"Yeah, sure," I said.
"Do you remember the sixth one?" he asked.
I took a wild guess. "Do not kill?"
"I thought of an exception," Bill said.
"You'll feel better soon," I said.
Bill grabbed my hand. "You won't go away and leave me here alone, will you, Sam?"
I went out and caught that boy and shook him until his freckles rattled.