Altsheler, Joseph - [Great West 01] Read online

  The hunter laughed.

  "I see you're falling in love with the valley/' he said, "but maybe you're right. It will depend on circum- stances. To-morrow we'll get out those big field glasses of yours, go to the highest hill, and examine all the country."

  "Suppose it should rain, Jim. Then we wouldn't think so much of our fine valley."

  "Right you are, Will. But lucky for us, it doesn't rain much up here at this time of the year, and we can call ourselves safe on that score. Full night is at hand, and there isn't a cloud in the heavens. We'll both sleep, and build up our nerves and strength."

  "Don't we need to keep a watch ?"

  "Not now, I think, at least not either of our two selves. That horse of mine, that I ride, Selim, is a sentinel of the first class. He's been with me so much and I've trained him so long that he's sure to give an alarm if anything alarming comes, though he'll pay no attention to small game, or even to a deer."

  Selim was at the end of a long lariat about fifty feet away, and having eaten for a long time and having rested fully he had taken position as if he realized thoroughly his duties as watcher of the little camp. He was a powerful bay with brilliant, alert eyes that

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  young Clarke saw shining through the dusk, and he walked slowly back and forth within the range allowed by his tether.

  "Didn't I tell you ?" said Boyd, with delight. "Look at him now, taking up his duties as a man. That horse can do everything but talk, and for that reason, while he does many wise things, he never says a foolish one. Doesn't he fill you chock full of confidence, Will?"

  "He certainly does, Jim. I know he'll be a much better sentinel than I could make of myself. I'll go to sleep, sure that we'll be well protected."

  Although the hunter found sleep soon, Will, who did not need it so badly, lay awake long and he was interested in watching Selim, who was justifying his master's praise. The horse, for all the world like a vigilant sentinel, walked back and forth, and whenever his head was turned toward the little camp the lad saw the great eyes shining.

  "Good Selim!" he said to himself. "Good and watchful Selim!"

  In all the immensity and loneliness of the wilder- ness he felt himself drawn to the animals, at least to those that were not beasts of prey. It was true not only of Selim but of the other horses that they could do everything but talk, and they were the best friends of Boyd and himself.

  His trust in the sentinel now absolute, he followed Boyd into peaceful oblivion, and he did not come out of it until dawn.

  CHAPTER II

  THE NARROW ESCAPE

  WHEN he awoke a sun of great brilliancy was shining, and over him arched the high skies of the great west. The air was thin and cool, easy to breathe and uplifting, and in the bracing morn- ing he did not feel the loneliness and immensity of the wilderness. Boyd had already built a little fire among the bushes, and was warming some strips of dried beef over the flames.

  "Here's your breakfast, Will," he said. "Beef, a few crackers, and water. Coffee would taste mighty good, but we can't afford to be taking it every morn- ing, or we'd soon use up all we have. This is one of the mornings we skip it."

  "I can stand it if you can," said Will cheerfully, "and it seems to me we ought to be saving our other stores, too. You'll have to kill a deer or a buffalo soon, Jim."

  "Not until we leave the valley. Now fall on, and when we finish the beef we'll take another look at that map of yours."

  They ate quickly and when they were done Will produced from an inside pocket of his waistcoat, where

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  he always carried it, the map which was his most pre- cious possession. It was on parchment, with all the lines very distinct, and the two bent over it and studied it, as they had done so often before.

  It showed the Mississippi, flowing almost due south from Minnesota, and the Missouri, which was in real- ity the upper Mississippi, thrusting its mighty arm far out into the unknown wilderness of the Northwest. It showed its formation by the meeting of the Jefferson, the Madison and the Gallatin, but these three rivers themselves were indicated by vague and faint traces. Extensive dark spaces meant high mountains.

  "My father served in the northwest before the great Civil War," said Will, telling it for the fiftieth time, "and he was a man of inquiring mind. If he was in a country he always wished to know all about it that was to be known, particularly if it happened to be a wild region. He had the mind of a geographer and explorer, and the vast plains and huge mountains up here fascinated him. If there was a chance to make a great journey to treat with the Indians or to fight them he always took it."

  "And he'd been in California in '49," said Boyd, saying, like Will, what he had said fifty times before. "It was there I first met him, and a fine, upstanding young officer he was."

  The lad sighed, and for a moment or two his sorrow was so deep that it gave him an actual thrill of physical pain.

  "That's so, Jim. I've often heard him speak of the first time he saw you," he resumed. "He was tempted

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  to resign and hunt gold in California with the crowd, and he did have some experience in the mines and workings there, but he concluded, at last, to remain in the army, and was finally sent into the Northwest with his command to deal with the Indians."

  "And it was on the longest of his journeys into the mountains that he found it!"

  "Yes. He noticed in a wild place among the ridges that the earth and rock formations were like those of California where the richest gold finds were made. He was alone at the time, though the rest of his com- mand was only a few miles away, but he picked among the rocks and saw enough to prove that it was a mother lode, a great gold seam that would make many men millionaires. It was his intention to resign from the army, get permission from the Sioux to come in, organ- ize a company, and work what he meant to be the Clarke mine. But you know what happened, Jim."

  "Aye, Will, I do. By the time he got back to civili- zation the Civil War broke lik e a storm, and he went east to fight for his country."

  "He could do no less, and he never thought of doing anything else. Bearing in mind the risks of war, he drew this map which he carried on his person and which when he was dying he sent by you to me."

  "Aye, Will, he died in my arms at the Wilderness before the Bloody Angle. It was a glorious death. He was one of the bravest men I ever saw. He gave me the map, told me to be sure to reach you when the war was over, and then help you to find the great

  mine."

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  Water came again into Will's eyes. Though the wounds of youth heal fast, the hurt made by the death of his heroic father had not yet healed. The hunter respected his emotion and was silent while he waited.

  "If we find the great mother lode and take out the treasure, part of it is to be yours, of course," said the boy.

  "You can pay me for my work and let it go at that. Your father found the lode and the map telling the way to it, drawn by him, is yours now."

  "But we are partners. I could never get through these mountains and past the Indian tribes without you. We're partners and there'll be plenty for all, if we ever get it. Say right now, Jim, that you share and share alike with me, or I won't be easy in my mind."

  "Well, then, if you will have it that way. I sup- pose from all your brave father, the Captain, said, there's so much of it we needn't trouble ourselves about the shares if we ever get there. It would be better if we had another trusty friend or two."

  "Maybe we'll pick 'em up before we're through with this job, which is going to last a long time. I think we're still on the right trail, Jim. This line leads straight west by north from the Mississippi river far into western Montana, where it strikes a narrow but deep mountain stream, which it crosses. Then it goes over a ridge, leads by a lake which must be several miles long, goes over another ridge, crosses another st
ream, and then winding many ways, as if penetrating a maze, comes to a creek, with high mountains rising on either side of it. But the mine is there, Jim, and

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  we've got to follow all these lines, if we ever reach it."

  "We'll follow 'em, Will, don't you worry about that. Gold draws men anywhere. Through blizzards, over mountains, across deserts, right into the face of the warlike Indian tribes, and the danger of death can't break the spell. Haven't I seen 'em going to California, men, women and children pressing on in the face of every peril that any army ever faced, and it's not likely, Will, that you and me will turn back, when women and children wouldn't."

  "No, Jim, we couldn't do that. We're in this hunt to stay, and I for one have the best of reasons for risking everything to carry it to a successful end."

  "And I'm with you because the Northwest is my natural stamping ground, because I wouldn't mind being rich either, and because I like you, Will. You're a good and brave boy, and if you can have the advan- tage of my teaching and training for about fifty years you'll make a first rate man."

  "Thanks for the endorsement," laughed Will, "and so we stick together 'till everything is over."

  "That's it."

  The boy continued to look at the map.

  "We've got a long journey over plains," he said, "but it seems to me that when we pass 'em we'll enter moun- tains without ending. All the west side of the map is covered with the black outlines that mean ridges and peaks."

  "It's right, too. I've been in that region. There are mountains, mountains everywhere, and then more mountains, not the puny mountains they have east of

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  the Missip, a mile, or at best, a mile and a half high, but crests shooting up so far that they hit right against the stars, and dozens and dozens of 'em, with snow- fields and glaciers, and ice cold lakes here and there in the valleys. It's a grand country, a wonderful coun- try, Will, and there's no end to it. The old fur hunters knew about it, but they've always kept it as secret as they could, because they didn't want other people to learn about the beaver in there."

  "But we're going to visit it," exclaimed young Clarke with enthusiasm, "and we're going to find some- thing the fur hunters have never found. I feel, Jim, that we're going to stand where my father stood and get out the gold."

  "I've feelings of that kind, too, but we've got to prop up feeling with a power of work and patience and danger, and it's likely too, Will, that it will be a long time before we reach the end of the line on that map."

  Young Clarke folded up the parchment again and put it back in the inside pocket of his waistcoat, the hunter watching him and remarking:

  "Be sure it's in your pocket tight and fast, Will. We couldn't afford to lose it. Maybe it would be a good idea to make a copy of it."

  "I could draw every line on it from memory."

  "That being the case we don't exactly need a du- plicate, and, as you're a young fellow, Will, and ought to work, you can take the horses down to the brook and let 'em drink."

  The lad was willing enough to do the task and the

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  horses drank eagerly and long of the pure stream that had its source in melting snows. All four had been selected for size, power and endurance, and they were in splendid condition, the rich and abundant grass of the valley restoring promptly the waste of travel.

  Boyd's great horse, Selim, rubbed his nose in the most friendly manner against Will's arm, and the lad returned his advances by stroking it.

  "I've heard the truth about you," he said. "You can do everything but talk, and you'll be a most valu- able ally of ours on this expedition."

  The horse whinnied gently as if he understood and Will, leading the four back to the rich grass, tethered them at the ends of their long lariats.

  "Now, suppose you get out your big glasses," said the hunter, "and we'll go to the top of the hill for a look. The day is well advanced, the sky is brilliant and in the thin, clear atmosphere of the great plateau we'll be able to see a tremendous distance."

  Will was proud of his glasses, an unusually fine and powerful pair, and from the loftiest crest they ob- tained a splendid view over the rolling plain. The hunter at his request took the first look. Will watched him as he slowly moved the glasses from side to side, until they finally rested on a point at the right edge of the plain.

  "Your gaze is fixed at last," the boy said. "What do you see ?"

  "I wasn't sure at first, but I've made 'em out now."

  "Something living then?"

  "Buffaloes. They're miles and miles away, but

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  they've been lying down and rolling and scratching themselves until they make the wallows you see all over the plains. It's not a big band, two or three hundred, perhaps. Well, they don't mean anything to us, except a possible supply of provisions later on. No wonder the Indians hate to see the buffaloes driven back, because the big beasts are breakfast, dinner and supper on the hoof to them."

  "And maybe to us, too, Jim. I've an idea that we'll live a lot on the buffalo."

  "More'n likely. Well, we could do worse."

  "What are you looking at now, Jim? I see that you've shifted your objective."

  "Yes, I've caught some moving black dots to the left of the herd. They're obscured a little by a swell, but they look to me like horsemen, Sioux probably."

  "If so then they must be hunters, taking advantage of the swell to attack the buffalo herd."

  "Good, sound reasoning. You're learning to think as a scout and hunter. Yes, they're Sioux, and they're aiming for the herd. Now they've thrown out flank- ers, and they're galloping their ponies to the attack. There'll be plenty of good buffalo meat in some Sioux village before long."

  "That means little to us, because after the hunt the warriors will pass on. What do you see elsewhere on the plain, Jim ?"

  "I can make out a trace of water. It's one of the little, shallow, sandy rivers, a long distance from here, but the presence of water is probably the reason why game is grazing in the neighborhood."

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  "You don't see any more Indians ?" "No, Will. To the west the horizon comes plumb in that direction are a long way off, which agrees with your map. But in the north the glasses have brought the ridges and peaks a sight nearer. They're all cov- ered with forest, except the crests of some of the high- er peaks, which are white with snow. I'm thinking, too, that in the woods at the bottom of one of the slopes I can see a trace of smoke rising. Here you, Will, you've uncommon keen eyes of your own. Take the glasses and look! There, where the mountains seem to part and make a pass! Is that smoke or is it just mist?"

  Young Clarke looked a long time. He had already learned from Boyd not to advance an opinion until he had something with which to buttress it, and he kept his glasses glued upon the great cleft in the mountains, where the trees grew so thick and high. At last he saw a column of grayish vapor rising against the green leaves, and, following it with the glasses to its base, he thought he was able to trace the outlines of tepees. Another and longer look and, being quite sure, he said:

  "There's an Indian village in the pass, Jim."

  "That's what I thought, but I wanted you to say so, too. Now my last doubt is taken away. They're mountain Sioux, of course. I had an idea that we could go through that way and then curve to the west, b ut since the village is there, maybe it will be better to strike out straight across the plains."

  "Perhaps those buffalo hunters will come in here

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  to jerk their meat. They know of the valley, of course. Have you thought of that, Jim?"

  "Yes, I have, and it troubles me. It seems to me that dangers we didn't expect are gathering, and that we're about to be surrounded. Maybe we'd better put the packs on the horses, and be ready to start
to-night. What do you think?"

  "You know what's best, Jim."

  "Not always. We're full partners, now, and in all councils of war, though there are but two of us, both must speak."

  "Then I'm for getting ready to leave to-night, as soon as it's dark. I suppose it's just chance, but ene- mies are converging on us. It's a fine valley, one that I could stay in a long time, but we'd better leave it."

  "As the two who make up the council are agreed that settles it. When the full dark comes we'll go."

  Boyd, who resumed the glasses, turned them back on the buffalo hunters, saw them chase the game to- ward the valley, and then bring down a half-dozen.

  "They're nearer now to us than they are to the mountains," he said, "and they're sure to bring the meat in here, where they can hang it on the trees, or find plenty of firewood. If we had any doubts before, Will, we've got an order now to go and not be slow stbout our going."

  They watched the Indians a long time, and saw them cleaning and cutting up the slain buffaloes. Then they retreated to the depths of the valley, put the packs on the horses, and made ready for flight at the first coming of dusk. Luckily the night gave promise

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  of being dark, and, when the sun had set and its last afterglow was gone they mounted, and, each followed by his packhorse, rode for the western edge of the rim. There they halted and took a last glance at a retreat in which their stay had been so brief but so welcome.

  "A fine little valley," said Boyd. "It must have been hunted out years ago, but if it's left alone a few years longer the beaver will return and build along that brook. Those pools will just suit 'em. If we don't find the gold we may turn to looking for beaver skins. There are worse trades."