animals compared with the magnificent creature
that Dick bestrode, but they were hardy, nevertheless,
and well fitted for their peculiar work.
"My! wot a blazer!" exclaimed a trapper as Dick
rode up.
"Where you git him?" inquired a half-breed.
"I caught him," answered Dick.
"Baw!" cried the first speaker.
Dick took no notice of this last remark.
"No, did ye though?" he asked again.
"I did," answered Dick quietly. "I creased him in
the prairie; you can see the mark on his neck if you
look."
The men began to feel that the young hunter was
perhaps a little beyond them at their own trade, and regarded
him with increased respect.
"Look sharp now, lads," said Cameron, impatiently,
to several dilatory members of the band. "Night will
be on us ere long."
"Who sold ye the bear-claw collar?" inquired another
man of Dick.
"I didn't buy it. I killed the bear and made it."
"Did ye, though, all be yer lone?"
"Ay; that wasn't much, was it?"
"You've begun well, yonker," said a tall, middle-aged
hunter, whose general appearance was not unlike that of
Joe Blunt. "Jest keep clear o' the Injuns an' the grog
bottle, an' ye've a glor'ous life before ye."
At this point the conversation was interrupted by the
order being given to move on, which was obeyed in
silence, and the cavalcade, descending the valley, entered
one of the gorges in the mountains.
For the first half-mile Cameron rode a little ahead of
his men, then he turned to speak to one of them, and
for the first time observed Crusoe trotting close beside
his master's horse.
"Ah! Master Dick," he exclaimed with a troubled
expression, "that won't do. It would never do to take a dog on an
expedition like this."
"Why not?" asked Dick; "the pup's quiet and peaceable."
"I doubt it not; but he will betray our presence to
the Indians, which might be inconvenient."
"I have travelled more than a thousand miles through
prairie and forest, among game an' among Injuns, an'
the pup never betrayed me yet," said Dick, with suppressed
vehemence. "He has saved my life more than
once though."
"You seem to have perfect confidence in your dog,
but as this is a serious matter you must not expect me
to share in it without proof of his trustworthiness."
"The pup may be useful to us; how would you have
it proved?" inquired Dick.
"Any way you like."
"You forgot your belt at starting, I think I heerd
ye say."
"Yes, I did," replied the trader, smiling.
Dick immediately took hold of Cameron's coat, and
bade Crusoe smell it, which the dog did very carefully.
Then he showed him his own belt and said, "Go back
to the camp and fetch it, pup."
Crusoe was off in a moment, and in less than twenty
minutes returned with Cameron's belt in his mouth.
"Well, I'll trust him," said Cameron, patting Crusoe's
head. "Forward, lads!" and away they went at a brisk
trot along the bottom of a beautiful valley on each side
of which the mountains towered in dark masses. Soon
the moon rose and afforded light sufficient to enable
them to travel all night in the track of the Indian
hunter who said he had seen the Peigans, and who was
constituted guide to the party. Hour after hour the
horsemen pressed on without check, now galloping over
a level plain, now bounding by the banks of a rivulet,
or bending their heads to escape the boughs of overhanging
trees, and anon toiling slowly up among the
rocks of some narrow defile. At last the moon set, and
the order was given to halt in a little plain where there
were wood and water.
The horses were picketed, a fire kindled, a mouthful
of dried meat hastily eaten, the watch was set, and then
each man scraped away the snow, spread some branches
on the ground, and wrapping himself in his blanket,
went to sleep with his feet presented towards the fire.
Two hours were allowed for rest; then they were
awakened, and in a few minutes were off again by the
gray light of dawn. In this way they travelled two
nights and a day. At the end of that time they came
suddenly on a small party of nine Indians, who were
seated on the ground with their snow-shoes and blankets
by their sides. They had evidently been taken by surprise,
but they made no attempt to escape, knowing
that it was useless. Each sat still with his bow and
arrows between his legs on the ground ready for instant
use.
As soon as Cameron spoke, however, in their own
language they felt relieved, and began to talk.
"Where do you come from, and what are you doing
here?" asked the trader.
"We have come to trade with the white men," one
of them replied, "and to hunt. We have come from
the Missouri. Our country is far away."
"Do Peigans hunt with
war-arrows?
" asked Cameron,
pointing to their weapons.
This question seemed to perplex them, for they saw
that their interrogator knew the difference between a
war and a hunting arrow--the former being barbed in
order to render its extraction from the wound difficult,
while the head of the latter is round, and can be drawn
out of game that has been killed, and used again.
"And do Peigans," continued Cameron, "come from a
far country to trade with the white men
with nothing?
"
Again the Indians were silent, for they had not an
article to trade about them.
Cameron now felt convinced that this party of
Peigans, into whose hands Joe Blunt and Henri had
fallen, were nothing else than a war party, and that
the men now before him were a scouting party sent out
from them, probably to spy out his own camp, on the
trail of which they had fallen, so he said to them:--
"The Peigans are not wise men; they tell lies to the
traders. I will tell you that you are a war party, and
that you are only a few warriors sent out to spy the
traders' camp. You have also two
Pale-face
prisoners
in your camp. You cannot deceive me. It is useless
to try. Now, conduct me to your camp. My object
is not war; it is peace. I will speak with your chiefs
about trading with the white men, and we will smoke
the pipe of peace. Are my words good?"
Despite their proverbial control of muscle, these Indians
could not conceal their astonishment at hearing
so much of their affairs thus laid bare; so they said
that the Pale-face chief was wise, that he must be a
great medicine man, and that what he said was all true
except about the white men. They had never seen any
Pale-faces, and knew nothing whatever about those he
spoke of.
This was a terrible piece of news to poor Dick, and
at first his heart fairly sank within him, but by degrees
he came to be more hopeful. He concluded that if
these men told lies in regard to one thing, they would
do it in regard to another, and perhaps they might
have some strong reason for denying any knowledge of
Joe and Henri.
The Indians now packed up the buffalo robes on
which they had slept, and the mouthful of provisions
they had taken with them.
"I don't believe a word of what they say about your
friends," said Cameron to Dick in a low tone while the
Indians were thus engaged. "Depend upon it they
hope to hide them till they can send to the settlements
and get a ransom, or till they get an opportunity of
torturing them to death before their women and children
when they get back to their own village. But
we'll balk them, my friend, do not fear."
The Indians were soon ready to start, for they were
cumbered with marvellously little camp equipage. In
less than half-an-hour after their discovery they were
running like deer ahead of the cavalcade in the direction
of the Peigan camp.
Adventures with the Peigans
--
Crusoe does good service as adiscoverer
--
The savages outwitted
--
The rescue
.
A run of twenty miles brought the travellers to a
rugged defile in the mountains, from which they
had a view of a beautiful valley of considerable extent.
During the last two days a steady thaw had been rapidly
melting away the snow, so that it appeared only here
and there in the landscape in dazzling patches. At the
distance of about half-a-mile from where they halted to
breathe the horses before commencing the descent into
this vale, several thin wreaths of smoke were seen
rising above the trees.
"Is that your camp?" inquired Cameron, riding up
to the Indian runners, who stood in a group in front,
looking as fresh after their twenty miles' run as though
they had only had a short walk.
To this they answered in the affirmative, adding that
there were about two hundred Peigans there.
It might have been thought that thirty men would
have hesitated to venture to attack so large a number
as two hundred; but it had always been found in the
experience of Indian life that a few resolute white men
well armed were more than a match for ten times their
number of Indians. And this arose not so much from
the superior strength or agility of the Whites over their
red foes, as from that bull-dog courage and utter recklessness
of their lives in combat--qualities which the
crafty savage can neither imitate nor understand. The
information was received with perfect indifference by
most of the trappers, and with contemptuous laughter
by some; for a large number of Cameron's men were
wild, evil-disposed fellows, who would have as gladly
taken the life of an Indian as that of a buffalo.
Just as the word was given to resume the march,
Dick Varley rode up to Cameron and said in a somewhat
anxious tone,--
"D'ye obsarve, sir, that one o' the Redskins has gone
off ahead o' his comrades?"
"I see that, Master Dick; and it was a mistake of
mine not to have stopped him, but he was gone too far
before I observed it, and I thought it better to appear
unconcerned. We must push on, though, and give him
as short time as possible to talk with his comrades in
the camp."
The trappers pressed forward accordingly at a gallop,
and were soon in front of the clump of trees amongst
which the Peigans were encamped. Their approach
had evidently spread great alarm among them, for there
was a good deal of bustle and running to and fro; but
by the time the trappers had dismounted and advanced
in a body on foot, the savages had resumed their usual
quiet dignity of appearance, and were seated calmly
round their fires with their bows and arrows beside
them. There were no tents, no women or children, and
the general aspect of the men showed Cameron conclusively
that his surmise about their being a war party
was correct.
A council was immediately called. The trappers ranged
themselves on one side of the council fire and the Indians
on the other. Meanwhile, our friend Crusoe had been
displaying considerable irritability against the Indians,
and he would certainly have attacked the whole two
hundred single-handed if he had not been ordered by
his master to lie still; but never in his life before had
Crusoe obeyed with such a bad grace. He bristled and
whined in a low tremulous tone, and looked imploringly
at Dick as if for permission to fly at them.
"The Pale-face traders are glad to meet with the
Peigans," began Cameron, who determined to make no
allusion to his knowledge that they were a war party,
"for they wish to be friends with all the children of the
woods and prairies. They wish to trade with them--to