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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last of the Chiefs, by Joseph  Altsheler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Last of the Chiefs
+       A Story of the Great Sioux War
+
+Author: Joseph  Altsheler
+
+Release Date: August 31, 2007 [EBook #22464]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST OF THE CHIEFS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lynn Ratcliffe
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST OF THE CHIEFS
+A Story of the Great Sioux War
+
+by Joseph A. Altsheler
+
+
+Contents
+
+I--The Train
+II--King Bison
+III--The Pass
+IV--Treasure-Trove
+V--The Lost Valley
+VI--Castle Howard
+VII--An Animal Progression
+VIII--The Trap Makers
+IX--The Timber Wolves
+X--Dick Goes Scouting
+XI--The Terrible Pursuit
+XII--The Fight with Nature
+XIII--Albert's Victory
+XIV--Prisoners
+XV--The Indian Village
+XVI--The Gathering of the Sioux
+XVII--Great Sun Dance
+XVIII--The Circle of Death
+XIX--A Happy Meeting
+XX--Bright Sun's Good-by
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+The Train
+
+The boy in the third wagon was suffering from exhaustion.  The
+days and days of walking over the rolling prairie, under a brassy
+sun, the hard food of the train, and the short hours of rest, had
+put too severe a trial upon his delicate frame. Now, as he lay
+against the sacks and boxes that had been drawn up to form a sort
+of couch for him, his breath came in short gasps, and his face
+was very pale. His brother, older, and stronger by far, who
+walked at the wheel, regarded him with a look in which affection
+and intense anxiety were mingled. It was not a time and place in
+which one could afford to be ill.
+
+Richard and Albert Howard were bound together by the strongest of
+brotherly ties. Richard had inherited his father's bigness and
+powerful constitution, Albert his mother's slenderness and
+fragility. But it was the mother who lived the longer, although
+even she did not attain middle age, and her last words to her
+older son were: "Richard, take care of Albert." He had promised,
+and now was thinking how he could keep the promise.
+
+It was a terrible problem that confronted Richard Howard.  He
+felt no fear on his own account. A boy in years, he was a man in
+the ability to care for himself, wherever he might be. In a
+boyhood spent on an Illinois farm, where the prairies slope up to
+the forest, he had learned the ways of wood and field, and was
+full of courage, strength, and resource.
+
+But Albert was different. He had not thrived in the moist air of
+the great valley. Tall enough he was, but the width of chest and
+thickness of bone were lacking.  Noticing this, the idea of going
+to California had come to the older brother. The great gold days
+had passed years since, but it was still a land of enchantment to
+the youth of the older states, and the long journey in the high,
+dry air of the plains would be good for Albert.  There was
+nothing to keep them back. They had no property save a little
+money--enough for their equipment, and a few dollars over to
+live on in California until they could get work.
+
+To decide was to start, and here they were in the middle of the
+vast country that rolled away west of the Missouri, known but
+little, and full of dangers. The journey had been much harder
+than the older boy had expected. The days stretched out, the
+weeks trailed away, and still the plains rolled before them.
+
+The summer had been of the hottest, and the heated earth gave
+back the glare until the air quivered in torrid waves. Richard
+had drawn back the cover of the wagon that his brother might
+breathe the air, but he replaced it now to protect him from the
+overpowering beams.  Once more he anxiously studied the country,
+but it gave him little hope.  The green of the grass was gone,
+and most of the grass with it.  The brown undulations swept away
+from horizon to horizon, treeless, waterless, and bare.  In all
+that vast desolation there was nothing save the tired and dusty
+train at the very center of it.
+
+"Anything in sight, Dick?" asked Albert, who had followed his
+brother's questioning look.
+
+Dick shook his head.
+
+"Nothing, Al," he replied.
+
+"I wish we'd come to a grove," said the sick boy.
+
+He longed, as do all those who are born in the hills, for the
+sight of trees and clear, running water.
+
+"I was thinking, Dick," he resumed in short, gasping tones, "that
+it would be well for us, just as the evening was coming on, to go
+over a swell and ride right into a forest of big oaks and maples,
+with the finest little creek that you ever saw running through
+the middle of it.  It would be pleasant and shady there.  Leaves
+would be lying about, the water would be cold, and maybe we'd see
+elk coming down to drink."
+
+"Perhaps we'll have such luck, Al," said Dick, although his tone
+showed no such hope.  But he added, assuming a cheerful manner:
+"This can't go on forever; we'll be reaching the mountains soon,
+and then you'll get well."
+
+"How's that brother of yours?  No better, I see, and he's got to
+ride all the time now, making more load for the animals."
+
+It was Sam Conway, the leader of the train, who spoke, a rough
+man of middle age, for whom both Dick and Albert had acquired a
+deep dislike.  Dick flushed through his tan at the hard words.
+
+"If he's sick he had the right to ride," he replied sharply.
+"We've paid our share for this trip and maybe a little more.
+You know that."
+
+Conway gave him an ugly look, but Dick stood up straight and
+strong, and met him eye for eye.  He was aware of their rights
+and he meant to defend them.  Conway, confronted by a dauntless
+spirit, turned away, muttering in a surly fashion:
+
+"We didn't bargain to take corpses across the plains."
+
+Fortunately, the boy in the wagon did not hear him, and, though
+his eyes flashed ominously, Dick said nothing.  It was not a time
+for quarreling, but it was often hard to restrain one's temper.
+He had realized, soon after the start, when it was too late to
+withdraw, that the train was not a good one.  It was made up
+mostly of men.  There were no children, and the few women, like
+the men, were coarse and rough.  Turbulent scenes had occurred,
+but Dick and Albert kept aloof, steadily minding their own
+business.
+
+"What did Conway say?" asked Albert, after the man had gone.
+
+"Nothing of any importance.  He was merely growling as usual.  He
+likes to make himself disagreeable.  I never saw another man who
+got as much enjoyment out of that sort of thing."
+
+Albert said nothing more, but closed his eyes.  The canvas cover
+protected him from the glare of the sun, but seemed to hold the
+heat within it.  Drops of perspiration stood on his face, and
+Dick longed for the mountains, for his brother's sake.
+
+All the train fell into a sullen silence, and no sound was heard
+but the unsteady rumble of the wheels, the creak of an ungreased
+axle, and the occasional crack of a whip.  Clouds of dust arose
+and were whipped by the stray winds into the faces of the
+travelers, the fine particles burning like hot ashes.  The train
+moved slowly and heavily, as if it dragged a wounded length over
+the hard ground.
+
+Dick Howard kept his position by the side of the wagon in which
+his brother lay.  He did not intend that Albert should hear
+bitter words leveled at his weakness, and he knew that his own
+presence was a deterrent.  The strong figures and dauntless port
+of the older youth inspired respect.  Moreover, he carried over
+his shoulder a repeating rifle of the latest pattern, and his
+belt was full of cartridges.  He and Albert had been particular
+about their arms.  It was a necessity.  The plains and the
+mountains were subject to all the dangers of Indian warfare, and
+they had taken a natural youthful pride in buying the finest of
+weapons.
+
+The hot dust burned Dick Howard's face and crept into his eyes
+and throat.  His tongue lay dry in his mouth.  He might have
+ridden in one of the wagons, too, had he chosen.  As he truly
+said, he and Albert had paid their full share, and in the labor
+of the trail, he was more efficient than anybody else in the
+train.  But his pride had been touched by Conway's words.  He
+would not ride, nor would he show any signs of weakness.  He
+strode on by the side of the wagon, head erect, his step firm and
+springy.
+
+The sun crept slowly down the brassy arch of the heavens, and the
+glare grew less blinding.  The heat abated, but Albert Howard,
+who had fallen asleep, slept on.  His brother drew a blanket over
+him, knowing that he could not afford to catch cold, and breathed
+the cooler air himself, with thankfulness.  Conway came back
+again, and was scarcely less gruff than before, although he said
+nothing about Albert.
+
+"Bright Sun says than in another day or two we'll be seeing the
+mountains," he vouchsafed; "and I'll be glad of it, because then
+we'll be coming to water and game."
+
+"I'd like to be seeing them now," responded Dick; "but do you
+believe everything that Bright Sun says?"
+
+"Of course I do.  Hasn't he brought us along all right?  What are
+you driving at?"
+
+His voice rose to a challenging tone, in full accordance with the
+nature of the man, whenever anyone disagreed with him, but Dick
+Howard took not the least fear.
+
+"I don't altogether like Bright Sun," he replied.  "Just why, I
+can't say, but the fact remains that I don't like him.  It
+doesn't seem natural for an Indian to be so fond of white people,
+and to prefer another race to his own."
+
+Conway laughed harshly.
+
+"That shows how much you know," he said.  "Bright Sun is smart,
+smarter than a steel trap.  He knows that the day of the red is
+passing, and he's going to train with the white.  What's the use
+of being on the losing side?  It's what I say, and it's what
+Bright Sun thinks."
+
+The man's manner was gross and materialistic, so repellent that
+Dick would have turned away, but at that moment Bright Sun
+himself approached.  Dick regarded him, as always, with the
+keenest interest and curiosity mixed with some suspicion.  Yet
+almost anyone would have been reassured by the appearance of
+Bright Sun.  He was a splendid specimen of the Indian, although
+in white garb, even to the soft felt hat shading his face.  But
+he could never have been taken for a white man.  His hair was
+thick, black, and coarse, his skin of the red man's typical
+coppery tint, and his cheek bones high and sharp.  His lean but
+sinewy and powerful figure rose two inches above six feet.  There
+was an air about him, too, that told of strength other than that
+of the body.  Guide he was, but leader he looked.
+
+"Say, Bright Sun," exclaimed Conway coarsely, "Dick Howard here
+thinks you're too friendly with the whites.  It don't seem
+natural to him that one of your color should consort so freely
+with us."
+
+Dick's face flushed through the brown, and he shot an angry
+glance at Conway, but Bright Sun did not seem to be offended.
+
+"Why not?" he asked in perfect English.  "I was educated in a
+mission school.  I have been with white people most of my life, I
+have read your books, I know your civilization, and I like it."
+
+"There now!" exclaimed Conway triumphantly.  "Ain't that an
+answer for you?  I tell you what, Bright Sun, I'm for you, I
+believe in you, and if anybody can take us through all right to
+California, you're the man."
+
+"It is my task and I will accomplish it," said Bright Sun in the
+precise English he had learned at the mission school.
+
+His eyes met Dick's for a moment, and the boy saw there a flash
+that might mean many things--defiance, primeval force, and the
+quality that plans and does.  But the flash was gone in an
+instant, like a dying spark, and Bright Sun turned away.  Conway
+also left, but Dick's gaze followed the Indian.
+
+He did not know Bright Sun's tribe.  He had heard that he was a
+Sioux, also that he was a Crow, and a third report credited him
+with being a Cheyenne.  As he never painted his face, dressed
+like a white man, and did not talk of himself and his people, the
+curious were free to surmise as they chose.  But Dick was sure of
+one thing: Bright Sun was a man of power.  It was not a matter of
+surmise, he felt it instinctively.
+
+The tall figure of the Indian was lost among the wagons, and Dick
+turned his attention to the trail.  The cooling waves continued
+to roll up, as the west reddened into a brilliant sunset.  Great
+bars of crimson, then of gold, and the shades in between, piled
+above one another on the horizon.  The plains lost their brown,
+and gleamed in wonderful shimmering tints.  The great desolate
+world became beautiful.
+
+The train stopped with a rumble, a creak, and a lurch, and the
+men began to unharness the animals.  Albert awoke with a start
+and sat up in the wagon.
+
+"Night and the camp, Al," said Dick cheerfully; "feel better,
+don't you?
+
+"Yes, I do," replied Albert, as a faint color came into his face.
+
+"Thought the rest and the coolness would brace you up," continued
+Dick in the same cheerful tone.
+
+Albert, a tall, emaciated boy with a face of great refinement and
+delicacy, climbed out of the wagon and looked about.  Dick busied
+himself with the work of making camp, letting Albert give what
+help he could.
+
+But Dick always undertook to do enough for two--his brother and
+himself--and he really did enough for three.  No other was so
+swift and skillful at taking the gear off horse or mule, nor was
+there a stronger or readier arm at the wheel when it was
+necessary to complete the circle of wagons that they nightly
+made.  When this was done, he went out on the prairie in search
+of buffalo chips for the fire, which he was fortunate enough to
+find without any trouble.
+
+Before returning with his burden, Dick stood a few moments
+looking back at the camp.  The dusk had fully come, but the fires
+were not yet lighted, and he saw only the shadowy forms of the
+wagons and flitting figures about them.  But much talked reached
+his ears, most of it coarse and rough, with a liberal sprinkling
+of oaths.  Dick sighed.  His regret was keener than ever that
+Albert and he were in such company.  Then he looked the other
+way out upon the fathomless plains, where the night had gathered,
+and the wind was moaning among the swells.  The air was now chill
+enough to make him shiver, and he gazed with certain awe into the
+black depths.  The camp, even with all its coarseness and
+roughness, was better, and he walked swiftly back with his load
+of fuel.
+
+They built a dozen fires within the circle of the wagons, and
+again Dick was the most active and industrious of them all, doing
+his share, Albert's, and something besides.  When the fires were
+lighted they burned rapidly and merrily, sending up great tongues
+of red or yellow flame, which shed a flickering light over
+wagons, animals, and men.  A pleasant heat was suffused and Dick
+began to cook supper for Albert and himself, bringing it from the
+wagon in which his brother and he had a share.  He fried bacon
+and strips of dried beef, boiled coffee, and warmed slices of
+bread over the coals.
+
+He saw with intense pleasure that Albert ate with a better
+appetite than he had shown for days.  As for himself, he was as
+hungry as a horse--he always was on this great journey--and
+since there was plenty, he ate long, and was happy.
+
+Dick went to the wagon, and returned with a heavy cloak, which he
+threw over Albert's shoulders.
+
+"The night's getting colder," he said, "and you mustn't take any
+risks, Al.  There's one trouble about a camp fire in the open--your
+face can burn while your back freezes."
+
+Content fell over the camp.  Even rough men of savage instincts
+are willing to lie quiet when they are warm and well fed.  Jokes,
+coarse but invariably in good humor, were exchanged.  The fires
+still burned brightly, and the camp formed a core of light and
+warmth in the dark, cold wilderness.
+
+Albert, wrapped in the cloak, lay upon his side and elbow gazing
+dreamily into the flames.  Dick sat near him, frying a piece of
+bacon on the end of a stick.  Neither heard the step behind them
+because it was noiseless, but both saw the tall figure of Bright
+Sun, as he came up to their fire.
+
+"Have a piece of bacon, Bright Sun," said Dick hospitably,
+holding out the slice to him, and at the same time wondering
+whether the Indian would take it.
+
+Bright Sun shook his head.
+
+"I thank you," he replied, "but I have eaten enough.  How is Mr.
+Albert Howard now?"
+
+Dick appreciated the inquiry, whether or not it was prompted by
+sympathy.
+
+"Good," he replied.  "Al's picking up.  Haven't seen him eat as
+he did to-night for months.  If he keeps on this way, he'll
+devour a whole buffalo as soon as he's able to kill one."
+
+Bright Sun smiled, and sat down on the ground near them.  It
+seemed to the boy, a keen observer of his kind, that he wished to
+talk.  Dick was willing.
+
+"Do you know,"  asked Bright Sun, "that reports of gold in the
+region to the north, called by you the Black Hills, have come to
+us?"
+
+"I heard some one speak of it two or three days ago," replied
+Dick, "but I paid no attention to it."
+
+Bright Sun looked thoughtfully into the fire, the glow of which
+fell full upon his face, revealing every feature like carving.
+His nose was hooked slightly, and to Dick it now looked like the
+beak of an eagle.  The somber eyes, too, expressed brooding and
+mastery alike.
+
+Despite himself, Dick felt again that he was in the presence of
+power, and he was oppressed by a sense of foreboding.
+
+"It was worth attention," said Bright Sun in the slow, precise
+tones of one who speaks a language not his own, but who speaks it
+perfectly.  "The white man's gold is calling to him loudly.  It
+calls all through the day and night.  Do these men with whom you
+travel go to anything certain far over on the coast of the
+Western ocean?  No, they are leaves blown by the wind.  The wind
+now blows in the direction of the Black Hills, where the gold is
+said to be, and to-morrow the wagon train turns its head that
+way."
+
+Dick sat up straight, and Albert, wrapped in his blanket, leaned
+forward to listen.
+
+"But the engagement with us all," said Dick, "was to go to the
+Pacific.  Albert and I paid our share for that purpose.  Conway
+knows it."
+
+The Indian looked at Dick.  The boy thought he saw a flickering
+smile of amusement in his eyes, but it was faint, and gone in a
+moment.
+
+"Conway does not care for that," said the Indian.  "Your
+contracts are nothing to him.  This is the wilderness, and it
+stretches away for many hundreds of miles in every direction.
+The white man's law does not come here.  Moreover, nearly all
+wish him to turn to the North and the gold."
+
+Albert suddenly spoke, and his tone, though thin from physical
+weakness, was quick, intense, and eager.
+
+"Why couldn't we go on with them, Dick?"  he said.  "We have
+nothing definite on the Pacific coast.  We are merely taking
+chances, and if the Black Hills are full of gold, we might get
+our share!"
+
+Dick's eyes glistened.  If one had to go, one might make the best
+of it.  The spirit of romance was alive within him.  He was only
+a boy.
+
+"Of course we'll go, Al," he said lightly, "and you and I will
+have a tone of gold inside a year."
+
+Bright Sun looked at the two boys, first one and then the other,
+stalwart Dick and weak Albert.  It seemed to Dick that he saw a
+new expression in the Indian's eyes, one that indicated the
+shadow of regret.  He resented it.  Did Bright Sun think that
+Albert and he were not equal to the task?
+
+"I am strong," he said; "I can lift and dig enough for two; but
+Albert will also be strong, after we have been a little while in
+the mountains."
+
+"You might have strength enough.  I do not doubt it," said Bright
+Sun softly, "but the Black Hills are claimed by the Sioux.  They
+do not wish the white men to come there, and the Sioux are a
+great and powerful tribe, or rather a nation of several allied
+and kindred tribes, the most powerful Indian nation west of the
+Mississippi."
+
+Bright Sun's voice rose a little toward the last, and the slight
+upward tendency gave emphasis and significance to his words.  The
+brooding eyes suddenly shot forth a challenging light.
+
+"Are you a Sioux?" asked Dick involuntarily.
+
+Bright Sun bent upon him a look of gentle reproof.
+
+"Since I have taken the ways of your race I have no tribe," he
+replied.  "But, as I have said, the Sioux claim the Black Hills,
+and they have many thousands of warriors, brave, warlike, and
+resolved to keep the country."
+
+"The government will see that there is no war," said Dick.
+
+"Governments can do little in a wilderness," replied Bright Sun.
+
+Dick might have made a rejoinder, but at that moment a burly
+figure came into the light of the fire.  It was Sam Conway, and
+he glanced suspiciously at the Indian and the two boys.
+
+"Are you telling 'em, Bright Sun, when we'll reach California?"
+he asked.
+
+Bright Sun gave him an oblique glance.  The Indian seldom looks
+the white man in the face, but it was obvious that Bright Sun was
+not afraid of the leader.  Conway, as well as the others, knew
+it.
+
+"No," he replied briefly.
+
+"It's just as well that you haven't," said Conway briskly,
+"'cause we're not going to California at all--at least not this
+year. It's the wish and general consensus of this here train
+that we turn to the North, go into the Black Hills, and fill our
+wagons with gold."
+
+"So it's decided, then, is it?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes, it's decided," replied Conway, his tone now becoming
+positively brutal, "and if you and your brother don't like it,
+you know what you can do."
+
+"Keep on alone for the coast, I suppose," said Dick, looking him
+steadily in the face.
+
+"If you put it that way."
+
+"But we don't choose," said Dick, "Al and I have an interest in
+one wagon and team, and we're going to hold on to it.  Besides,
+we're quite willing to try our luck in the Black Hills, too.
+We're going with you."
+
+Conway frowned, but Dick also was not afraid of him, and knew
+that he could not turn the two boys out on the prairie.  They had
+a full right to go with the train.
+
+"That settles it," he said, turning away.  "You can do as you
+please, but what happens after we get into the Black Hills is
+another thing.  Likely, we'll scatter."
+
+The sound of his retreating footsteps quickly died away in the
+darkness, and Bright Sun, too, slid among the shadows.  He was
+gone so quickly and quietly that it gave Dick an uncanny feeling.
+
+"What do you make of it, Al?" he asked his brother.  "What does
+Bright Sun mean by what he said to us?"
+
+The glow of the flame fell across Albert's pale face, and, by the
+light of it, Dick saw that he was very thoughtful.  He seemed to
+be looking over and beyond the fire and the dark prairie, into
+time rather than space.
+
+"I think it was a warning, Dick," replied Albert at last.  "Maybe
+Bright Sun intended it for only you and me.  But I want to go up
+there in the Black Hills, Dick."
+
+"And so do I.  It'll be easier for you, Al, than the trip across
+the continent.  When you are a mile and a half or two miles above
+the sea, you'll begin to take on flesh like a bear in summer.
+Besides, the gold, Al! think of the gold!"
+
+Albert smiled.  He, too, was having happy thoughts.  The warm
+glow of the fire clothed him and he was breathing easily and
+peacefully.  By and by he sank down in his blanket and fell into
+a sound sleep.  Dick himself did not yet have any thought of
+slumber.  Wide-awake visions were pursuing one another through
+his brain.  He saw the mountains, dark and shaggy with pine
+forests, the thin, healing air over them, and the beds of gold in
+their bosom, with Albert and himself discovering and triumphant.
+
+The fire died down, and glowed a mass of red embers.  The talk
+sank.  Most of the men were asleep, either in their blankets or
+in the wagons.  The darkness thickened and deepened and came
+close up to the fires, a circling rim of blackness.  But Dick was
+still wakeful, dreaming with wide-open eyes his golden dreams.
+
+As the visions followed one after another, a shadow which was not
+a part of any of them seemed to Dick to melt into the uttermost
+darkness beyond the fires.  A trace of something familiar in the
+figure impressed him, and, rising, he followed swiftly.
+
+The figure, still nebulous and noiseless, went on in the
+darkness, and another like it seemed to rise from the plain and
+join it.  Then they were lost to the sight of the pursuer,
+seeming to melt into and become a part of the surrounding
+darkness.  Dick, perplexed and uneasy, returned to the fire.  The
+second shadow must certainly have been that of a stranger.  What
+did it mean?
+
+He resumed his seat before the red glow, clasping his arms around
+his knees, a splendid, resourceful youth whom nature and a hardy
+life had combined to make what he was.  His brother still slept
+soundly and peacefully, but the procession of golden visions did
+not pass again through Dick's brain; instead, it was a long trail
+of clouds, dark and threatening.  He sought again and again to
+conjure the clouds away and bring back the golden dreams, but he
+could not.
+
+The fire fell to nothing, the triumphant darkness swept up and
+blotted out the last core of light, the wind, edged with ice,
+blew in from the plains.  Dick shivered, drew a heavy blanket
+around his own shoulders, and moved a little, as he saw the dim
+figure of Bright Sun passing at the far edge of the wagons, but
+quickly relapsed into stillness.
+
+Sleep at last pulled down his troubled lids.  His figure sank,
+and, head on arms, he slumbered soundly.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+King Bison
+
+"Up! Up, everybody!" was the shout that reached Dick's sleeping
+ears.  He sprang to his feet and found that the gorgeous sun was
+flooding the prairie with light.  Already the high, brilliant
+skies of the Great West were arching over him.  Men were cooking
+breakfast.  Teamsters were cracking their whips and the whole
+camp was alive with a gay and cheerful spirit.  Everybody seemed
+to know now that they were going for the gold, and, like Dick,
+they had found it in fancy already.
+
+Breakfast over, the train took up its march, turning at a right
+angle from its old course and now advancing almost due north.
+But this start was made with uncommon alacrity and zeal.  There
+were no sluggards now.  They, too, had golden visions, and, as if
+to encourage them, the aspect of the country soon began to
+change, and rapidly to grow better.  The clouds of dust that they
+raised were thinner.  The bunch grass grew thicker. Off on the
+crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then.
+"Antelope," said the hunters.  Once they passed a slow creek.
+The water was muddy, but it contained no alkali, and animals and
+men drank eagerly.  Cottonwoods, the first trees they had seen in
+days, grew on either side of the stream, and they rested there
+awhile in the shade, because the sun was now out in full
+splendor, and the vast plains shimmered in the heat.
+
+Albert resumed his place in the wagon.  Dick had a horse which,
+on becoming foot-sore, had been allowed to rest for a few days,
+and was now well.  He mounted it and galloped on ahead.  The
+clouds were all gone away and the golden visions had come back.
+He felt so strong, so young, and the wonderful air of the plains
+was such a tonic that he urged his horse to a gallop, and it was
+hard for him to keep from shouting aloud in joy.   He looked
+eagerly into the north, striving already for a sight of the dark
+mountains that men called the Black Hills.  The blue gave back
+nothing but its own blue.
+
+His horse seemed to share his spirits, and swung along with swift
+and easy stride.  Dick looked back presently, and saw that the
+train which had been winding like a serpent over the plains was
+lost to sight behind the swells.  The surface of the earth had
+become more rolling as they advanced northward, and he knew that
+the train, though out of sight, was nor far away.
+
+He enjoyed for the moment the complete absence of all human
+beings save himself.  To be alone then meant anything but
+loneliness.  He galloped to the crest of a higher swell than
+usual, and then stopped short.  Far off on the plain he saw tiny
+moving figures, a dozen or so, and he was sure that they were
+antelope.  They had seen antelope before at a great distance, but
+had not bothered about them.  Now the instincts of the hunter
+rose in Dick, and he resolved to make a trial of his skill.
+
+He found in one of the depressions between the swells a stunted
+cottonwood, to which he hitched his horse, knowing it would be
+well hidden there from the observation of the herd.  He then
+advanced on foot.  He had heard that the antelope was a slave to
+its own curiosity, and through that weakness he intended to
+secure his game.
+
+When he had gone about half the distance he sank down on his
+hands and knees and began to crawl, a laborious and sometimes
+painful operation, burdened as he was with his rifle, and unused
+to such methods of locomotion.  Presently he noticed a flutter
+among the antelope, a raising of timid heads, an alarmed looking
+in his direction.  But Dick was prepared.  He lay flat upon his
+face, and dug the point of the long hunting knife that he carried
+into the ground, while the wind blew out the folds of the red
+handkerchief which he had tied to the handle.
+
+Mr. Big Buck Antelope, the chief of the herd and a wary veteran,
+saw the waving red spot on the horizon and his interest was
+aroused, despite his caution.  What a singular thing!  It must be
+investigated!  It might be some new kind of food very good for
+Mr. Big Buck's palate and stomach, and no provident antelope
+could afford to let such an opportunity pass.
+
+He was trembling all over with curiosity, and perhaps his
+excitement kept him from seeing the dark shape that blurred with
+the earth just beyond the red something, or he may have taken it
+for a shadow.  At any event, his curiosity kept him from paying
+heed to it, and he began to approach.  His steps were hesitating,
+and now and then he drew away a little, but that singular red
+object lured him on, and yard by yard he drew nearer.
+
+He suddenly saw the black shadow beyond the fluttering red object
+detach itself from the ground, and resolve into a terrible
+shape.  His heart sprang up in his bosom, and he was about to
+rush madly away, but it was too late.  A stream of fire shot
+forth from the dark object and the buck fell, a bullet through
+him.
+
+Dick prepared the animal for dressing, thinking of the tender,
+juicy steaks that Albert would enjoy, and then throwing the body
+across the horse, behind him, rode back to the train, proud of
+his success.
+
+Conway frowned and said grudging words.  He did not like, he
+said, for anybody to leave the train without his permission, and
+it was foolish, anyhow, for a boy to be galloping about as he
+pleased over the prairie; he might get lost, and there would be
+nobody to take care of the other boy, the sick one.  Dick made an
+easy diplomatic reply.  He knew that Conway merely wished to be
+unpleasant, but Dick was of a very good nature, and he was
+particularly averse just then to quarreling with anybody.  He was
+too full of the glory of living.  Instead, he offered some of the
+antelope steaks to Conway, who churlishly accepted them, and that
+night he broiled others for Albert and himself, dividing the rest
+among the men.
+
+Albert found antelope steak tender and juicy, and he ate with an
+increasing appetite.  Dick noted the increase with pleasure.
+
+"I wish I could go out and kill antelope," said Albert.
+
+Dick laughed cheerfully.
+
+"Kill antelope," he said.  "Why, Al, in six months you'll be
+taking a grizzly bear by the neck and choking him to death with
+your two hands."
+
+"Wish I could believe it," said Albert.
+
+But Dick went to sleep early that night, and slept peacefully
+without dreams or visions, and the next morning the train resumed
+its sanguine march.  They were still ascending, and the character
+of the country continued to improve.  Bunch grass steadily grew
+thicker and buffalo chips were numerous.  The heat in the middle
+of the day was still great, but the air was so dry and pure that
+it was not oppressive.  Albert dismounted from the wagon, and
+walked for several miles by the side of his brother.
+
+"Shouldn't be surprised if we saw buffalo," said Dick.  "Heard
+'em talking about it in the train.  Bright Sun says these are
+favorite grazing grounds, and there's still a lot of buffalo
+scattered about the plains."
+
+Albert showed excitement.
+
+"A buffalo herd!" he exclaimed.  "Do you think it can really
+happen, Dick?  I never thought I'd see such a thing!  I hope
+it'll come true!"
+
+It came true much sooner than Albert hoped.
+
+Scarcely a half hour after he spoke, Bright Sun, who was at the
+head of the column, stopped his pony and pointed to indistinct
+tiny shadows just under the horizon.
+
+"Buffalo!" he said tersely, and after a moment's pause he added:
+"A great herd comes!"
+
+Dick and Albert were on foot then, but they heard his words and
+followed his pointing finger with the deepest interest.  The tiny
+black shadows seemed to come out of the horizon as if they
+stepped from a wall.  They grew in size and number, and all the
+west was filled with their forms.
+
+The train resumed its march, bending off under the guidance of
+Bright Sun a little toward the west, and it was obvious that the
+herd would pass near.  Dick and Albert rejoiced, because they
+wished to see the buffaloes at close quarters, and Dick was
+hoping also for a shot.  Others, too, in the train, although
+their minds were set on gold, began to turn their attention now
+to the herd.  The sport and the fresh meat alike would be
+welcome.  It was Dick's impulse to mount his horse and gallop
+away again, gun in hand, but he made a supreme conquest over self
+and remained.  He remembered Albert's longing words about the
+antelope, his wish that he, too, tireless, might be able to
+pursue the game.  Dick remained quietly by his brother's side.
+
+The whole train stopped presently at Conway's order on the crest
+of a swell, and drew itself up in a circle.  Many of the men were
+now mounted and armed for an attack upon the herd, but at the
+suggestion of Bright Sun they waited a little, until the
+opportunity should become more convenient.
+
+"It is a big herd," said Bright Sun;  "perhaps the biggest that
+one can ever see now."
+
+It certainly seemed immense to Dick and Albert.  The great
+animals came on in an endless stream from the blue wall of the
+horizon.  The vast procession steadily broadened and lengthened
+and it moved with unceasing step toward the south.  The body of
+it was solid black, with figures which at the distance blended
+into one mass, but on the flanks hung stragglers, lawless old
+bulls or weaklings, and outside there was a fringe of hungry
+wolves, snapping and snarling, and waiting a chance to drag down
+some failing straggler.
+
+Far over the plain spread the herd, thousands and tens of
+thousands, and the earth shook with their tread.  Confused,
+bellowings and snortings arose, and the dust hung thick.
+
+Dick and Albert stared with intent eyes at the wonderful scene.
+The herd was drawing nearer and nearer. It would pass only a few
+hundred yards from the crest on which the train stood.  Already
+the hunters were shouting to one another and galloping away, but
+Dick did not stir from Albert's side.  Albert's eyes were
+expanded, and the new color in his face deepened.  His breath cam
+in the short, quick fashion of one who is excited.  He suddenly
+turned to his brother.
+
+"The men are off!  Why aren't you with them Dick?" he exclaimed.
+
+"I thought I wouldn't go," replied Dick evasively.  "There'll be
+enough without me."
+
+Albert stared.  Not hunt buffalo when one could.  It was
+unbelievable.  Then he comprehended.  But he would not have it
+that way!  It was noble of Dick, but it should not be so for a
+moment.  He cried out, a note of anxiety in this voice:
+
+"No, Dick, you shall not say here with me!  My time will come
+later on!  Jump on your horse, Dick, and join 'em!  I won't
+forgive you if you don't!"
+
+Dick saw that Albert was in earnest, and he knew that it would be
+better for them both now if he should go.
+
+"All right, Al!" he cried, "I'll pick out a good fat one."  He
+jumped on his horse and in a moment was galloping at full speed
+over the plain toward the great herd which now rushed on, black
+and thundering.
+
+Dick heard shots already from those who had preceded him, and the
+exultant shouts of the men mingled with the roar of mighty
+tramplings.  But it was not all triumph for the men, few of whom
+were experienced.  Two or three had been thrown by shying horses,
+and with difficulty escaped being trodden to death under the feet
+of the herd.  The herd itself was so immense that it did not
+notice these few wasps on a distant flank, and thundered steadily
+on southward.
+
+Dick's own horse, frightened by such a tremendous sight, shied
+and jumped, but the boy had a sure seat and brought him around
+again.  Dick himself was somewhat daunted by the aspect of the
+herd.  If he and his hose got in the way, they would go down
+forever, as surely as if engulfed by an avalanche.
+
+The horse shied again and made a mighty jump, as a huge bull,
+red-eyed and puffing, charged by.  Dick, who was holding his
+rifle in one hand, slipped far over, and with great difficulty
+regained his balance on the horse's back.  When he was secure
+again, he turned his mount and galloped along for some distance
+on the flank of the herd, seeking a suitable target for his
+bullet.  The effect was dizzying.  So many thousands were rushing
+beside him that the shifting panorama made him wink his eyes
+rapidly.  Vast clouds of dust floated about, now and then
+enveloping him, and that made him wink his eyes, too.  But he
+continued, nevertheless, to seek for his target a fat cow.
+Somehow he didn't seem to see anything just then but old bulls.
+They were thick on the flanks of the herd either as stragglers or
+protectors, and Dick was afraid to press in among them in his
+search for the cow.
+
+His opportunity came at last.  A young cow, as fat as one could
+wish, was thrown on the outside by some movement of the herd,
+caught, as it were, like a piece of driftwood in an eddy, and
+Dick instantly fired at her.  She staggered and went down, but at
+the same instant a huge, shaggy bull careened against Dick and
+his horse.  It was not so much a charge as an accident, the
+chance of Dick's getting in the bull's way, and the boy's escape
+was exceedingly narrow.
+
+His horse staggered and fell to his knees.  The violence of the
+shock wrested Dick's rifle from his hand, and he was barely quick
+enough to grasp it as it was sliding across the saddle.  But he
+did save it, and the horse, trembling and frightened, recovered
+his feet.  By that time the old bull and his comrades were gone.
+
+Dick glanced around and was relieved to see that nobody had
+noticed his plight.  They were all too much absorbed in their own
+efforts to pay any heed to him.  The body took a deep, long
+breath.  He had killed a buffalo, despite his inexperience.
+There was the cow to show for it.
+
+The herd thundered off to the southward, the clouds of dust and
+the fringe of wolves following it.  About a dozen of their number
+had fallen before the rifles, but Dick had secured the fattest
+and the tenderest.  Albert, as proud as Dick himself of his
+triumph, came down on the plain and helped as much as he could in
+skinning and cutting up the cow.  Dick wished to preserve the
+robe, and they spread it out on the wagon to dry.
+
+The train made no further attempt to advance that day, but
+devoted the afternoon to a great feast.  Bright Sun showed them
+how to cook the tenderest part of the hump in the coals, and far
+into the night the fires blazed.
+
+"We will see no more buffaloes for a while," said Bright Sun.
+"To-morrow we reach another little river coming down from the
+hills, and the ground becomes rough."
+
+Bright Sun told the truth.  They reached the river about noon of
+the next day, and, as it flowed between steep banks, the crossing
+was difficult.  It took many hours to get on the other side, and
+two or three axles were broken by the heavy jolts.  Conway raged
+and swore, calling them a clumsy lot, and some of the men refused
+to take his abuse, replying to his hard words with others equally
+as hard.  Pistols were drawn and there was promise of trouble,
+but it was finally stopped, partly by the persuasion of others,
+and partly of its own accord.  The men were still feeling the
+desire for gold too strongly to fight while on the way to it.
+Dick and Albert kept aloof from these contentions, steadily
+minding their own business, and they found, as others do, that it
+paid.
+
+They came presently into a better country, and the way led for a
+day or two through a typical part of the Great Plains, not a flat
+region, but one of low, monotonous swells.  Now and then they
+crossed a shallow little creek, and occasionally they came to
+pools, some of which were tinged with alkali.  There were
+numerous small depressions, two or three feet deep, and Dick knew
+that they were "buffalo wallows."  He and Albert examined them
+with interest.
+
+"This is buffalo country again," said Dick.  "Everything proves
+it.  The grass here is the best that we have seen in a long time,
+and I imagine that it's just the sort of place they would love."
+
+The grass was, indeed, good, as Dick had said, not merely clumps
+of it, but often wide, carpeted spaces.  It was somewhat dry, and
+turning brown, but so big and strong an animal as the buffalo
+would not mind it.  In fact, they saw several small groups of
+buffaloes grazing at a distance, usually on the crest of one of
+the low swells.  As they already had plenty of buffalo meat, the
+men of the train did not trouble them, and the great animals
+would continue to crop the grass undisturbed.
+
+About a week after the buffalo hunt they camped in a great plain
+somewhat flatter than any that they had encountered hitherto, and
+drew up the wagons in a loose circle.
+
+The day had been very hot, but, as usual on the plains, the night
+brought coolness.  The fire which Dick made of buffalo chips was
+not only useful, but it felt pleasant, too, as they sat beside
+it, ate their supper, and watched the great inclosing circle of
+darkness creep up closer and closer to the camp.  There was not
+much noise about them.  The men were tired, and as soon as they
+ate their food they fell asleep in the wagons or on the ground.
+The tethered horses and mules stirred a little for a while, but
+they, too, soon rested in peace.
+
+"You take the wagon, Al," said Dick, "but I think I'll sleep on
+the ground."
+
+Albert said good night and disappeared in the wagon.  Dick stood
+up and looked over the camp.  Only two or three fires were yet
+burning, and not a dozen men were awake.  He saw dark figures
+here and there on the ground, and knew that they were those of
+sleepers.  Three sentinels had been posted, but Dick was quite
+sure from the general character of the train that later on they
+would sleep like the others.  All his instincts of order and
+fitness rebelled against the management of this camp.
+
+Dick rolled himself in his blanket and lay down by the little
+fire that he had built.  The dry, clean earth made a good bed,
+and with his left elbow under his head he gazed into the fire,
+which, like all fires of buffalo chips, was now rapidly dying,
+leaving little behind but light ashes that the first breeze would
+scatter through space.
+
+He watched the last blaze sink and go out, he saw the last coal
+die, then, when a few sparks flew upward, there was blank
+darkness where the fire had been.  All the other fires were out,
+too, and only the dim figures of the wagons showed.  He felt, for
+a little while, as if he were alone in the wilderness, but he was
+not afraid.  All was darkness below, and the wind was moaning,
+but overhead was a blue sky filled with friendly stars.
+
+Dick could not go to sleep for a long time.  From the point where
+he lay he could now see two of the sentinels walking back and
+forth, rifle on shoulder.  He did not believe that they would
+continue to do so many hours, and he had a vague sort of desire
+to prove that he was right.  Having nothing else to do he watched
+them.
+
+The nearer sentinel grew lazier in his walk, and his beat became
+shorter.  At last he dropped his rifle to the ground, leaned his
+folded arms on its muzzle, and gazed toward the camp, where, so
+far as he could see, there was nothing but darkness and sleep.
+The other presently did the same.  Then they began short walks
+back and forth, but soon both sat down on the ground, with their
+rifles between their knees, and after that they did not stir.
+Watching as closely as he could Dick could not observe the
+slightest movement on the part of either, and he knew that they
+were asleep.  He laughed to himself, pleased, in a way, to know
+that he had been right, although it was only another evidence of
+the carelessness and indifference general throughout the train.
+
+He fell asleep himself in another half hour, but he awoke about
+midnight, and he was conscious at once that he had been awakened
+not by a troubled mind, but by something external and unusual.
+He was lying with his right ear to the ground, and it seemed to
+him that a slight trembling motion ran through the solid earth.
+He did not so much hear it as feel it, and tried to persuade
+himself that it was mere fancy, but failed. He sat up, and he no
+longer observed the trembling, but when he put his ear to the
+ground again it was stronger.
+
+It could not be fancy.  It was something real and extraordinary.
+He glanced at the sentinels, but they were sound asleep.  He felt
+a desire to rouse somebody, but if it proved to be nothing they
+would laugh at him, or more likely call him hard names.  He tried
+ear to earth once more.  The trembling was still growing in
+strength, and mixed with it was a low, groaning sound, like the
+swell of the sea on the shore.  The sound came with the wind from
+the north.
+
+Dick sprang to his feet.  There, in the north was a faint light
+which grew with amazing rapidity.  In a minutes almost it seemed
+to redden the whole northern heavens, and the groaning sound
+became a roll, like that of approaching thunder.
+
+A shadow flitted by Dick.
+
+"What is it, Bright Sun?? What is it?" exclaimed the boy.
+
+"The dry grass burns, and a mighty buffalo herd flees before it."
+
+Then Bright Sun was gone, and the full sense of their danger
+burst upon Dick in overwhelming tide.  The flames came on, as
+fast as a horse's gallop, and the buffaloes, in thousands and
+tens of thousands, were their vanguard.  The camp lay directly in
+the path of fire and buffalo.  The awakened sentinels were on
+their feet now, and half-clad men were springing from the wagons.
+
+Dick stood perfectly still for perhaps a minute, while the fire
+grew brighter and the thunder of a myriad hoofs grew louder.
+Then he remembered what he had so often read and heard, and the
+crisis stirred him to swift action.  While the whole camp was a
+scene of confusion, of shouts, of oaths, and of running men, he
+sped to its south side, to a point twenty or thirty yards from
+the nearest wagon.  There he knelt in the dry grass and drew his
+box of matches from his pocket.  It happened that Conway saw.
+
+"What are you doing, you boy?" he cried, threateningly.
+
+But Dick did not care for Conway just then.
+
+"Back fire!  Back fire!" he shouted, and struck a match.  It went
+out, but he quickly struck another, shielded it with one hand and
+touched the tiny flame to the grass.  A flame equally tiny
+answered, but in an instant it leaped into the size and strength
+of a giant.  The blaze rose higher than Dick's head, ran swiftly
+to right and left, and then roared away to the south, eating up
+everything in its path.
+
+"Well done," said a voice at Dick's elbow.  "It is the only thing
+that could save the train."
+
+It was Bright Sun who spoke, and he had come so silently that
+Dick did not see him until then.
+
+Conway understood now, but without a word of approval he turned
+away and began to give orders, mixed with much swearing.  He had
+a rough sort of efficiency, and spurred by his tongue and their
+own dreadful necessity, the men worked fast.  The horses and
+mules, except three or four which had broken loose and were lost,
+were hitched to the wagons in half the usual time.  There were no
+sluggards now.
+
+Dick helped, and Albert, too, but to both it seemed that the work
+would never be done.  The back fire was already a half mile away,
+gathering volume and speed as it went, but the other was coming
+on at an equal pace.  Deer and antelope were darting past them,
+and the horses and mules were rearing in terror.
+
+"Into the burned ground," shouted Conway, "an' keep the wagons
+close together!"
+
+No need to urge the animals.  They galloped southward over earth
+which was still hot and smoking, but they knew that something was
+behind them, far more terrible than sparks and smoke.
+
+Dick made Albert jump into their own wagon, while he ran beside
+it.  As he ran, he looked back, and saw a sight that might well
+fill the bravest soul with dread.  A great black line, crested
+with tossing horns, was bearing down on them.  The thunder of
+hoofs was like the roar of a hurricane, but behind the herd was a
+vast wall of light, which seemed to reach from the earth to the
+heavens and which gave forth sparks in myriads.  Dick knew that
+they had been just in time.
+
+They did not stop until they had gone a full quarter of a mile,
+and then the wagons were hastily drawn up in a rude circle, with
+the animals facing the center, that is, the inside, and still
+rearing and neighing in terror.  Then the men, rifle in hand, and
+sitting in the rear of the wagons, faced the buffalo herd.
+
+Dick was with the riflemen, and, like the others, he began to
+fire as soon as the vanguard of the buffaloes was near enough.
+The wagons were a solid obstacle which not even King Bison could
+easily run over, but Dick and Albert thought the herd would never
+split, although the bullets were poured into it at a central
+point like a driven wedge.
+
+But the falling buffaloes were an obstacle to those behind them,
+and despite their mad panic, the living became conscious of the
+danger in front.  The herd split at last, the cleft widened to
+right and left, and then the tide, in two great streams, flowed
+past the wagon train.
+
+Dick ceased firing and sat with Albert on the tail of the wagon.
+The wall of fire, coming to the burned ground, went out in the
+center, but the right and left ends of it, swinging around, still
+roared to the southward, passing at a distance of a quarter of a
+mile on either side.
+
+Dick and Albert watched until all the herd was gone, and when
+only smoke and sparks were left, helped to get the camp into trim
+again.  Conway knew that the boy had saved them, but he gave him
+no thanks.
+
+It took the ground a long time to cool, and they advanced all the
+next day over a burned area.  They traveled northward ten days,
+always ascending, and they were coming now to a wooded country.
+They crossed several creeks, flowing down from the higher
+mountains, and along the beds of these they found cottonwood,
+ash, box elder, elm, and birch.  On the steeper slops were
+numerous cedar brakes and also groves of yellow pine.  There was
+very little undergrowth, but the grass grew in abundance.
+Although it was now somewhat dry, the horses and mules ate it
+eagerly.  The buffaloes did not appear here, but they saw many
+signs of bear, mule deer, panther or mountain lion, and other
+game.
+
+They camped one night in a pine grove by the side of a brook that
+came rushing and foaming down from the mountains, and the next
+morning Albert, who walked some distance from the water, saw a
+silver-tip bear lapping the water of the stream. The bear raised
+his head and looked at Albert, and Albert stopped and looked at
+the bear.  The boy was unarmed, but he was not afraid.  The bear
+showed no hostility, only curiosity.  He gazed a few moments,
+stretched his nose as if he would sniff the air, then turned and
+lumbered away among the pines.  Albert returned to camp, but he
+said nothing of the bear to anybody except Dick.
+
+"He was such a jolly, friendly looking fellow, Dick,"  he said,
+"that I didn't want any of these men to go hunting him."
+
+Dick laughed.
+
+"Don't you worry about that, Al," he said.  "They are hunting gold,
+not bears."
+
+On the twelfth day they came out on a comparatively level
+plateau, where antelope were grazing and prairie chickens
+whirring.  It looked like a fertile country, and they were glad
+of easy traveling for the wagons.  Just at the edge of the pine
+woods that they were leaving was a beautiful little lake of
+clear, blue water, by which they stayed half a day, refreshing
+themselves, and catching some excellent fish, the names of
+which they did not know.
+
+"How much long, Bright Sun, will it take us to reach the gold
+country?" asked Conway of the Indian, in Dick's hearing.
+
+"About a week," replied Bright Sun.  "The way presently will be
+very rough and steep, up! up! up! and we can go only a few miles
+a day, but the mountains are already before us.  See!"
+
+He pointed northward and upward, and there before them was the
+misty blue loom that Dick knew was the high mountains.  In those
+dark ridges lay the gold that they were going to seek, and his
+heart throbbed.  Albert and he could do such wonderful things
+with it.
+
+They were so high already that the nights were crisp with cold;
+but at the edge of the forest, running down to the little lake,
+fallen wood was abundant, and they built that night a great fire
+of fallen boughs that crackled and roared merrily.  Yet they
+hovered closely, because the wind, sharp with ice, was whistling
+down from the mountains, and the night air, even in the little
+valley, was heavy with frost.  Dick's buffalo robe was dry now,
+and he threw it around Albert, as he sat before the fire.  It
+enveloped the boy like a great blanket, but far warmer, the soft,
+smooth fur caressing his cheeks, and as Albert drew it closer, he
+felt very snug indeed.
+
+"We cross this valley to-morrow," said Dick, "and then we begin a
+steeper climb."
+
+"Then it will be mountains, only mountains," said Bright Sun.
+"We go into regions which no white men except the fur hunters,
+have ever trod."
+
+Dick started.  He had not known that the Indian was near.
+Certainly he was not there a moment ago.  There was something
+uncanny in the way in which Bright Sun would appear on noiseless
+footstep, like a wraith rising from the earth.
+
+"I shall be glad of it, Bright Sun," said Albert.  "I'm tired of
+the plains, and they say that the mountains are good for many
+ills."
+
+Bright Sun's enigmatic glance rested upon Albert a moment.
+
+"Yes," he said, "the mountains will cure many ills."
+
+Dick glanced at him, and once more he received the impression of
+thought and power.  The Indian's nose curved like an eagle's
+beak, and the firelight perhaps exaggerated both the curve and
+its effect.  The whole impression of thought and force was
+heightened by the wide brow and the strong chin.
+
+Dick looked back into the fire, and when he glanced around a few
+moments again, Bright Sun was not there.  He had gone as silently
+as he had come.
+
+"That Indian gives me the shivers sometimes," he said to Albert.
+"What do you make of him?"
+
+"I don't know," replied the boy.  "Sometimes I like him and
+sometimes I don't."
+
+Albert was soon asleep, wrapped in the buffalo robe, and Dick by
+and by followed him to the same pleasant land.  The wind,
+whistling as it blew down from the mountains, grew stronger and
+colder, and its tone was hostile, as if it resented the first
+presence of white men in the little valley by the lake.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+The Pass
+
+They resumed the journey early the next day, Bright Sun telling
+Conway that they could reach the range before sunset, and that
+they would find there an easy pass leading a mile or two farther
+on to a protected and warm glen.
+
+"That's the place for our camp," said Conway, and he urged the
+train forward.
+
+The traveling was smooth and easy, and they soon left the little
+blue lake well behind, passing through a pleasant country well
+wooded with elm, ash, birch, cottonwood, and box elder, and the
+grass growing high everywhere.  They crossed more than one clear
+little stream, a pleasant contrast to the sluggish, muddy creeks
+of the prairies.
+
+The range, toward which the head of the train was pointing, now
+came nearer.  The boys saw its slopes, shaggy with dark pine, and
+they knew that beyond it lay other and higher slopes, also dark
+with pine.  The air was of a wonderful clearness, showing in the
+east and beyond the zenith a clear silver tint, while the west
+was pure red gold with the setting sun.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the range.  The great pines blurred at
+first into an unbroken mass, now stood out singly, showing their
+giant stems.  Afar a flash of foamy white appeared, where a brook
+fell in a foamy cascade.  Presently they were within a quarter of
+a mile of the range, and its shadow fell over the train.  In the
+west the sun was low.
+
+"The pass is there, straight ahead," said Bright Sun, pointing to
+the steep range.
+
+"I don't see any opening," said Conway.
+
+"It is so narrow and the pines hide it," rejoined Bright Sun,
+"but it is smooth and easy."
+
+Albert was at the rear of the train.  He had chosen to walk in
+the later hours of the afternoon.  He had become very tired, but,
+unwilling to confess it even to himself, he did not resume his
+place in the wagon.  His weariness made him lag behind.
+
+Albert was deeply sensitive to the impressions of time and
+place.  The twilight seemed to him to fall suddenly like a great
+black robe.  The pines once more blurred into a dark, unbroken
+mass.  The low sun in the west dipped behind the hills, and the
+rays of red and gold that it left were chill and cold.
+
+"Your brother wishes to see you.  He is at the foot of the creek
+that we crossed fifteen minutes ago."
+
+It was Bright Sun who spoke.
+
+"Dick wants to see me at the crossing of the creek!  Why, I
+thought he was ahead of me with the train!" exclaimed Albert.
+
+"No, he is waiting for you.  He said that it was important,"
+repeated Bright Sun.
+
+Albert turned in the darkening twilight and went back on the
+trail of the train toward the crossing of the creek.  Bright Sun
+went to the head of the train, and saw Dick walking there alone
+and looking at the hills.
+
+"Your brother is behind at the creek," said Bright Sun.  "He is
+ill and wishes you.  Hurry!  I think it is important!"
+
+"Albert at the creek, ill?" exclaimed Dick in surprise and
+alarm.  "Why, I thought he was here with the train!"
+
+But Bright Sun had gone on ahead.  Dick turned back hastily, and
+ran along the trail through the twilight that was now fast
+merging into the night.
+
+"Al, ill and left behind!" he exclaimed again and again.  "He
+must have overexerted himself!"
+
+His alarm deepened when he saw how fast the darkness was
+increasing.  The chill bars of red and gold were gone from the
+west.  When he looked back he could see the train no more, and
+heard only the faint sound of the cracking of whips.  The train
+was fast disappearing in the pass.
+
+But Dick had become a good woodsman and plainsman.  His sense
+of direction was rarely wrong, and he went straight upon the
+trail for the creek.  Night had now come but it was not very
+dark, and presently he saw the flash of water.  It was the creek,
+and a few more steps took him there.  A figure rose out of the
+shadows.
+
+"Al!" he cried.  "Have you broken down?  Why didn't you get into
+the wagon?"
+
+"Dick," replied Albert in a puzzled tone, "there's nothing the
+matter with me, except that I'm tired.  Bright Sun told me that
+you were here waiting for me, and that you had something
+important to tell me.  I couldn't find you, and now you come
+running."
+
+Dick stopped in amazement.
+
+"Bright Sun said I was waiting here for you, and had something
+important to tell you?" exclaimed Dick.  "Why, he told me that
+you were ill, and had been left unnoticed at the crossing!"
+
+The two boys stared at each other.
+
+"What does it mean?" they exclaimed together.
+
+From the dark pass before them came a sound which in the distance
+resembled the report of a firecracker, followed quickly by two or
+three other sounds, and then by many, as if the whole pack had
+been ignited at once.  But both boys knew it was not firecrackers.
+It was something far more deadly and terrible--a hail of rifle
+bullets.  They looked toward the pass and saw there pink and red
+flashes appearing and reappearing.  Shouts, and mingled with them
+a continuous long, whining cry, a dreadful overnote, came to their
+ears.
+
+"The train has been attacked!" cried Dick.  "It has marched
+straight into an ambush!"
+
+"Indians?"  exclaimed Albert, who was trembling violently from
+sheer physical and mental excitement.
+
+"It couldn't be anything else!" replied Dick.  "This is their
+country!  And they must be in great force, too!  Listen how the
+fight grows!"
+
+The volume of the firing increased rapidly, but above it always
+rose that terrible whining note.  The red and pink flashes in the
+pass danced and multiplied, and the wind brought the faint odor
+of smoke.
+
+"We must help!" exclaimed Dick.  "One can't stand here and see
+them all cut down!"
+
+He forgot in his generous heart, at that moment, that he disliked
+Conway and all his men, and that he and Albert had scarcely a
+friend in the train.  He thought only of doing what he could to
+beat back the Indian attack, and Albert felt the same impulse.
+Both had their rifles--fine, breech-loading, repeating weapons,
+and with these the two might do much.  No one ever parted with
+his arms after entering the Indian country.
+
+"Come on, Albert!" exclaimed Dick, and the two ran toward the
+pass.  But before they had gone a hundred yards they stopped as
+if by the same impulse.  That terrible whining note was now
+rising higher and higher.  It was not merely a war whoop, it had
+become also a song of triumph.  There was a certain silvery
+quality in the night air, a quality that made for illumination,
+and Dick thought he saw dusky forms flitting here and there in
+the mouth of the pass behind the train.  It was only fancy,
+because he was too far away for such perception, but in this case
+fancy and truth were the same.
+
+"Hurry, Dick!  Let's hurry!" exclaimed the impulsive and generous
+Albert.  "If we don't, we'll be too late to do anything!"
+
+They started again, running as fast as they could toward that
+space in the dark well where the flashes of red and blue came and
+went.  Dick was so intent that he did not hear the short, quick
+gasps of Albert, but he did hear a sudden fall beside him and
+stopped short.  Albert was lying on his back unconscious.  A
+faint tinge of abnormal red showed on his lips.
+
+"Oh, I forgot!  I forgot!" groaned Dick.
+
+Such sudden and violent exertion, allied with the excitement of
+the terrible moment, had overpowered the weak boy.  Dick bent
+down in grief.  At first he thought his brother was dead, but the
+breath still came.
+
+Dick did not know what to do.  In the pass, under the shadow of
+night, the pines, and the mountain wall, the battle still flared
+and crackled, but its volume was dying.  Louder rose the fierce,
+whining yell, and its note was full of ferocity and triumph,
+while the hoarser cries of the white men became fewer and lower.
+Now Dick really saw dusky figures leaping about between him and
+the train.  Something uttering a shrill, unearthly cry of pain
+crashed heavily through the bushes near him and quickly passed
+on.  It was a wounded horse, running away.
+
+Dick shuddered.  Then he lifted Albert in his arms, and he had
+the forethought, even in that moment of excitement and danger, to
+pick up Albert's rifle also.  Strong as he naturally was, he had
+then the strength of four, and, turning off at a sharp angle, he
+ran with Albert toward a dense thicket which clustered at the
+foot of the mountain wall.
+
+He went a full three hundred yards before he was conscious of
+weariness, and he was then at the edge of the thicket, which
+spread over a wide space.  He laid Albert down on some of last
+year's old leaves, and then his quick eyes caught the sight of a
+little pool among some rocks.  He dipped up the water in his felt
+hat, and after carefully wiping the red stain from his brother's
+lips, poured the cold fluid upon his face.
+
+Albert revived, sat up, and tried to speak, but Dick pressed his
+hand upon his mouth.
+
+"Nothing above a whisper, Al," he said softly.  "The fight is not
+yet wholly over, and the Sioux are all about."
+
+"I fainted," said Albert in a whisper.  "O  Dick, what a
+miserable, useless fellow I am!  But it was the excitement and
+the run!"
+
+"It was doubtless a lucky thing that you fainted," Dick whispered
+back.  "If you hadn't, both of us would probably be dead now."
+
+"It's not all over yet," said Albert.
+
+"No, but it soon will be.  Thank God, we've got our rifles.  Do
+you feel strong enough to walk now, Al?  The deeper we get into
+the thicket the better it will be for us."
+
+Albert rose slowly to his feet, rocked a little, and then stood
+straight.
+
+Only a few flashes were appearing now in the pass.  Dick knew too
+well who had been victorious.  The battle over, the Sioux would
+presently be ranging for stragglers and for plunder.  He put one
+arm under Albert, while he carried both of the rifles himself.
+They walked on through the thicket and the night gradually
+darkened.  The silvery quality was gone from the air, and the two
+boys were glad.  It would not be easy to find them now.  In the
+pass both the firing and the long, whining whoop ceased entirely.
+The flashes of red or blue appeared no more.  Silence reigned
+there and in the valley.  Dick shivered despite himself.  For the
+moment the silence was more terrible than the noise of battle had
+been.  Black, ominous shadows seemed to float down from the
+mountains, clothing all the valley.  A chill wind came up, moaning
+among the pines.  The valley, so warm and beautiful in the day,
+now inspired Dick with a sudden and violent repulsion.  It was a
+hateful place, the abode of horror and dread.  He wished to escape
+from it.
+
+They crossed the thicket and came up against the mountain wall.
+But it was not quite so steep as it had looked in the distance,
+and in the faint light Dick saw the trace of a trail leading up
+the slope among the pines.  It was not the trail of human beings,
+merely a faint path indicating that wild animals, perhaps
+cougars, had passed that way.
+
+"How are you feeling, Al?" he asked, repeating his anxious query.
+
+"Better.  My strength has come back," replied his brother.
+
+"Then we'll go up the mountain.  We must get as far away as we
+can from those fiends, the Sioux.  Thank God, Al, we're spared
+together!"
+
+Each boy felt a moment of devout thankfulness.  They had not
+fallen, and they were there together!  Each also thought of the
+singular message that Bright Sun had given to them, but neither
+spoke of it.
+
+They climbed for more than half an hour in silence, save for an
+occasional whisper.  The bushes helped Albert greatly.  He pulled
+himself along by means of them, and now and then the two boys
+stopped that he might rest.  He was still excited under the
+influence of the night, the distant battle, and their peril, and
+he breathed in short gasps, but did not faint again.  Dick thrust
+his arm at intervals under his brother's and helped him in the
+ascent.
+
+After climbing a quarter of an hour, they stopped longer than
+usual and looked down at the pass, which Dick reckoned should be
+almost beneath them.  They heard the faint sound of a shot, saw a
+tiny beam of red appear, then disappear, and after that there was
+only silence and blank darkness.
+
+"It's all over now," whispered Albert, and it was a whisper not
+of caution, but of awe.
+
+"Yes, it's all over," Dick said in the same tone.  "It's likely,
+Al, that you and I alone out of all that train are alive.  Conway
+and all the others are gone."
+
+"Except Bright Sun," said Albert.
+
+The two boys looked at each other again, but said nothing.  They
+then resumed their climbing, finding it easier this time.  They
+reached a height at which the undergrowth ceased, but the pines,
+growing almost in ordered rows, stretched onward and upward.
+
+Dick sent occasional glances toward the pass, but the darkness
+there remained unbroken.  Every time he turned his eyes that way
+he seemed to be looking into a black well of terror.
+
+Both Dick and Albert, after the first hour of ascent, had a
+feeling of complete safety.  The Sioux, occupied with their great
+ambush and victory, would not know there had been two stragglers
+behind the train, and even had they known, to search for them
+among the dense forests of distant mountain slopes would be a
+futile task.  Dick's mind turned instead to the needs of their
+situation, and he began to appreciate the full danger and
+hardship of it.
+
+Albert and he were right in feeling thankful that they were
+spared together, although they were alone in the wilderness in
+every sense of the word.  It was hundreds of miles north, east,
+south, and west to the habitations of white men.  Before them,
+fold on fold, lay unknown mountains, over which only hostile
+savages roamed.  Both he and Albert had good rifles and belts
+full of cartridges, but that was all.  It was a situation to
+daunt the most fearless heart, and the shiver that suddenly ran
+over Dick did not come from the cold of the night.
+
+They took a long rest in a little clump of high pines and saw a
+cold, clear moon come out in the pale sky.  They felt the awful
+sense of desolation and loneliness, for it seemed to them that
+the moon was looking down on an uninhabited world in which only
+they were left.  They heard presently little rustlings in the
+grass, and thought at first it was another ambush, though they
+knew upon second thought that it was wild creatures moving on the
+mountain side.
+
+"Come, Al," said Dick.  "Another half hour will put us on top of
+the ridge, and then I think it will be safe for us to stop."
+
+"I hope they'll be keeping a good room for us at the hotel up
+there," said Albert wanly.
+
+Dick tried to laugh, but it was a poor imitation and he gave it
+up.
+
+"We may find some sort of a sheltered nook," he said hopefully.
+
+Dick had become conscious that it was cold, since the fever in
+his blood was dying down.  Whenever they stopped and their bodies
+relaxed, they suffered from chill.  He was deeply worried about
+Albert, who was in no condition to endure exposure on a bleak
+mountain, and wished now for the buffalo robe they had regarded
+as such a fine trophy.
+
+They reached the crest of the ridge in a half hour, as Dick had
+expected, and looking northward in the moonlight saw the dim
+outlines of other ridges and peaks in a vast, intricate maze.  A
+narrow, wooded valley seemed to occupy the space between the
+ridge on which they stood and the next one parallel to it to the
+northward.
+
+"It ought to be a good place down there to hide and rest," said
+Albert.
+
+"I think you're right," said Dick, "and we'll go down the slope
+part of the way before we camp for the night."
+
+They found the descent easy.  It was still open forest, mostly
+pine with a sprinkling of ash and oak, and it was warmer on the
+northern side, the winds having but little sweep there.
+
+The moon became brighter, but it remained cold and pitiless,
+recking nothing of the tragedy in the pass.  It gave Dick a chill
+to look at it.  But he spent most of the time watching among the
+trees for some sheltered spot that Nature had made.  It was over
+an hour before he found it, a hollow among rocks, with dwarf
+pines clustering thickly at the sides and in front.  It was so well
+hidden that he would have missed it had he not been looking for
+just such a happy alcove, and at first he was quite sure that some
+wild animal must be using it as a den.
+
+He poked in the barrel of his rifle, but nothing flew out, and
+then, pulling back the pine boughs, he saw no signs of a previous
+occupation.
+
+"It's just waiting for us, Al, old fellow," he said gayly, "but
+nothing of this kind is so good that it can't be made better.
+Look at all those dead leaves over there under the oaks.  Been
+drying ever since last year and full of warmth."
+
+They raked the dead leaves into the nook, covering the floor of
+it thickly, and piling them up on the sides as high as they would
+stay, and then they lay down inside, letting the pine boughs in
+front fall back into place.  It was really warm and cozy in there
+for two boys who had been living out of doors for weeks, and Dick
+drew a deep, long breath of content.
+
+"Suppose a panther should come snooping along," said Albert, "and
+think this the proper place for his bed and board?"
+
+"He'd never come in, don't you fear.  He'd smell us long before
+he got here, and then strike out in the other direction."
+
+Albert was silent quite a while, and as he made no noise, Dick
+thought he was asleep.  But Albert spoke at last, though he spoke
+low and his tone was very solemn.
+
+"Dick," he said, "we've really got a lot to be thankful for.  You
+know that."
+
+"I certainly do," said Dick with emphasis.  "Now you go to sleep,
+Al."
+
+Albert was silent again, and presently his breathing became very
+steady and regular.  Dick touched him and saw that he was fast
+asleep.  Then the older boy took off his coat and carefully
+spread it on the younger, after which he raked a great lot of the
+dry leaves over himself, and soon he, too, was sound asleep.
+
+Dick awoke far in the night and stirred in his bed of leaves.
+But the movement caused him a little pain, and he wondered dimly,
+because he had not yet fully come through the gates of sleep, and
+he did not remember where he was or what had happened.  A tiny
+shaft of pale light fell on his forehead, and he looked up through
+pine branches.  It was the moon that sent the beam down upon him,
+but he could see nothing else.  He stirred again and the little
+pain returned.  Then all of it came back to him.
+
+Dick reached out his hand and touched Albert.  His brother was
+sleeping soundly, and he was still warm, the coat having
+protected him.  But Dick was cold, despite the pines, the rocks,
+and the leaves.  It was the cold that had caused the slight pain
+in his joints when he moved, but he rose softly lest he wake
+Albert, and slipped outside, standing in a clear space between
+the pines.
+
+The late moon was of uncommon brilliancy.  It seemed a molten
+mass of burnished silver, and its light fell over forest and
+valley, range and peak.  The trees on the slopes stood out like
+lacework, but far down in the valley the light seemed to shimmer
+like waves on a sea of silver mist.  It was all inexpressibly
+cold, and of a loneliness that was uncanny.  Nothing stirred, not
+a twig, not a blade of grass.  It seemed to Dick that if even a
+leaf fell on the far side of the mountain he could hear it.  It
+was a great, primeval world, voiceless and unpeopled, brooding in
+a dread and mystic silence.
+
+Dick shivered.  He had shivered often that night, but now the
+chill went to the marrow.  It was the chill the first man must
+have felt when he was driven from the garden and faced the
+globe-girdling forest.  He came back to the rock covert and
+leaned over until he could hear his brother breathing beneath
+the pine boughs.  Then he felt the surge of relief, of
+companionship--after all, he was not alone in the
+wilderness!--and returned to the clear space between the
+pines.  There he walked up and down briskly, swinging his arms,
+exercising all his limbs, until the circulation was fully
+restored and he was warm again.
+
+Dick felt the immensity of the problem that lay before him--one
+that he alone must solve if it were to be solved at all.  He and
+Albert had escaped the massacre, but how were they to live in
+that wilderness of mountains?  It was not alone the question of
+food.  How were they to save themselves from death by exposure?
+Those twinges in his knees had been warning signs.  Oddly enough,
+his mind now fastened upon one thing.  He was longing for the
+lost buffalo robe, his first great prize.  It had been so large
+and so warm, and the fur was so soft.  It would cover both Albert
+and himself, and keep them warm on the coldest night.  If they
+only had it now!  He thought more of that robe just then than he
+did of the food that they would need in the morning.  Cast forth
+upon a primeval world, this first want occupied his mind to the
+exclusion of all others.
+
+He returned to the rocky alcove presently, and lay down again.
+He was too young and too healthy to remain awake long, despite
+the full measure of their situation, and soon he slept soundly
+once more.  He was first to awake in the morning, and the beam
+that struck upon his forehead was golden instead of silver.  It was
+warm, too, and cheerful, and as Dick parted the branches and
+looked out, he saw that the sun was riding high.  It had been
+daylight a full three hours at least, but it did not matter.  Time
+was perhaps the only commodity of which he and Albert now
+had enough and to spare.
+
+He took his coat off Albert and put it on himself, lest Albert
+might suspect, and then began to sing purposely, with loudness
+and levity, an old farm rhyme that had been familiar to the boys
+of his vicinity:
+
+"Wake up, Jake, the day is breaking.
+The old cow died, her tail shaking."
+
+Albert sat up, rubbed his eyes, and stared at Dick and the
+wilderness.
+
+"Now look at him!" cried Dick.  "He thinks he's been called too
+early.  He thinks he'd like to sleep eight or ten hours longer!
+Get up, little boy!  Yes, it's Christmas morning!  Come and see
+what good old Santa has put in your stocking!"
+
+Albert yawned again and laughed.  Really, Dick was such a
+cheerful, funny fellow that he always kept one in good spirits.
+Good old Dick!
+
+"Old Santa filled our stockings, all right," continued Dick, "but
+he was so busy cramming 'em full of great forests and magnificent
+scenery that he forgot to leave any breakfast for us, and I'm
+afraid we'll have to hustle for it."
+
+They started down the mountain slope, and presently they came to
+a swift little brook, in which they bathed their faces, removing,
+at the same time, fragments of twigs and dried leaves from their
+hair.
+
+"That was fine and refreshing," said Dick, "but it doesn't fill
+my stomach.  Al, I could bite a tenpenny nail in half and digest
+both pieces, too."
+
+"I don't care for nails," said Albert, "but I think I could gnaw
+down a good-sized sapling.  Hold me, Dick, or I'll be devouring a
+pine tree."
+
+Both laughed, and put as good a face on it as they could, but
+they were frightfully hungry, nevertheless.  But they had grown
+up on farms, and they knew that the woods must contain food of
+some kind or other.  They began a search, and after a while they
+found wild plums, now ripe, which they ate freely.  They then
+felt stronger and better, but, after all, it was a light diet and
+they must obtain food of more sustenance.
+
+"There are deer, of course, in this valley," said Dick, fingering
+his rifle, "and sooner or later we'll get a shot at one of them,
+but it may be days, and--Al--I've got another plan."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"You know, Al, that I can travel pretty fast anywhere.  Now those
+Sioux, after cutting down the train and wiping out all the
+people, would naturally go away.  They'd load themselves up with
+spoil and scoot.  But a lot, scattered here and there, would be
+left behind.  Some of the teams would run away in all the shooting
+and shouting.  And, Al, you and I need those things!  We must have
+them if we are going to live, and we both want to live!"
+
+"Do you mean, Dick, that you're going back down there in that
+awful pass?"
+
+"That's just about what I had on my mind," replied Dick
+cheerfully;  "and now I've got it off, I feel better."
+
+"But you can never get back alive, Dick!" exclaimed Albert, his
+eyes widening in horror at the memory of what they had seen and
+heard the night before.
+
+"Get back alive?  Why, of course I will," responded Dick.  "And
+I'll do more than that, too.  You'll see me come galloping up the
+mountain, bearing hogsheads and barrels of provisions.  But,
+seriously, Al, it must be done.  If I don't go, we'll starve to
+death."
+
+"Then I'm going, too."
+
+"No, Al, old boy, you're not strong enough just yet, though you
+will be soon.  There are certainly no Sioux in this little
+valley, and it would be well if you were to go back up the slope
+and stay in the pine shelter.  It's likely that I'll be gone
+nearly all day, but don't be worried.  You'll have one of the
+rifles with you, and you know how to use it."
+
+Albert had a clear and penetrating mind, and he saw the truth of
+Dick's words.  They went back up the slope, where he crept within
+the pine shelter and lay down on the leaves, while Dick went
+alone on his mission.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+Treasure-Trove
+
+When Dick passed the crest of the ridge and began the descent
+toward the fatal pass, his heart beat heavily.  The terror and
+shock of the night before, those distant shots and shouts,
+returned to him, and it was many minutes before he could shake
+off a dread that was almost superstitious in its nature.  But
+youth, health, and the sunlight conquered.  The day was
+uncommonly brilliant.  The mountains rolled back, green on the
+slopes, blue at the crests, and below him, like a brown robe, lay
+the wavering plain across which they had come.
+
+Dick could see no sign of human life down there.  No rejoicing
+Sioux warrior galloped over the swells, no echo of a triumphant
+war whoop came to his ear.  Over mountain and plain alike the
+silence of the desert brooded.  But high above the pass great
+black birds wheeled on lazy pinions.
+
+Dick believed more strongly than ever that the Sioux had gone
+away.  Savage tribes do not linger over a battlefield that is
+finished; yet as he reached the bottom of the slope his heart
+began to beat heavily again, and he was loath to leave the
+protecting shadow of the pines.  He fingered his rifle, passing
+his hand gently over the barrel and the trigger.  It was a fine
+weapon, a beautiful weapon, and just at this moment it was a
+wonderful weapon.  He felt in its full force, for the first time
+in his life, what the rifle meant to the pioneer.
+
+The boy, after much hesitation and a great searching of eye and
+ear, entered the pass.  At once the sunlight dimmed.  Walls as
+straight as the side of a house rose above him three of four
+hundred feet, while the distance between was not more than thirty
+feet.  Dwarf pines grew here and there in the crannies of the
+cliffs, but mostly the black rock showed.  Dwarf pines also grew
+at the bottom of the pass close to either cliff, and Dick kept
+among them, bending far down and advancing very slowly.
+
+Fifty yards were passed, and still there was no sound save a
+slight moaning through the pass, which Dick knew was the sigh of
+the wind drawn into the narrow cleft.  It made him shudder, and
+had he not been of uncommon courage he would have turned back.
+
+He looked up.  The great black birds, wheeling on lazy pinions,
+seemed to have sunk lower.  That made him shudder, too, but it
+was another confirmation of his belief that all the Sioux had
+gone.  He went eight or ten yards farther and then stopped short.
+Before him lay two dead horses and an overturned wagon.  Both
+horses had been shot, and were still in their gear attached to
+the wagon.
+
+Dick examined the wagon carefully, and as he yet heard and saw no
+signs of a human being save himself, his courage grew.  It was a
+big wagon of the kind used for crossing the plains, with boxes
+around the inside like lockers.  Almost everything of value had
+been taken by the Sioux, but in one of the lockers Dick was lucky
+enough to find a large, heavy, gray blanket.  He rolled it up at
+once, and with a strap cut from the horse's gear tied it on his back,
+after the fashion of a soldier on the march.
+
+"The first great treasure!" he murmured exultantly.  "Now for the
+next!"
+
+He found in the same wagon, jammed under the driver's seat and
+hidden from hasty view, about the half of a side of bacon--ten
+pounds, perhaps.  Dick fairly laughed when he got his hands upon
+it, and he clasped it lovingly, as if it were a ten-pound nugget of
+pure gold.  But it was far better than gold just then.  He wrapped
+it in a piece of canvas which he cut from the cover of the wagon,
+and tied it on his back above the blanket.
+
+Finding nothing more of value in the wagon, he resumed his
+progress up the pass.  It was well for Dick that he was
+stout-hearted, and well for him, too, that he was driven by great
+need, else he would surely have gone back.
+
+He was now come into the thick of it.  Around him everywhere lay
+the fallen, and the deeds done in Indian warfare were not
+lacking.  Sam Conway lay upon his side, and brutal as the man had
+been, Dick felt grief when he saw him.  Here were others, too,
+that he knew, and he counted the bodies of the few women who had
+been with the train.  They had died probably in the battle like
+the rest.  They, like the men, had been hardened, rough, and
+coarse of speech and act, but Dick felt grief, too, when he saw
+them.  Nearly all the animals had been slain also in the fury of
+the attack, and they were scattered far up the pass.
+
+Dick resolutely turned his face away from the dead and began to
+glean among the wagons for what the Sioux might have left.  All
+these wagons were built like the first that he had searched, and
+he was confident that he would find much of value.  Nor was he
+disappointed.  He found three more blankets, and in their own
+wagon the buffalo robe that he had lamented.  Doubtless, its
+presence there was accounted for by the fact that the Sioux did
+not consider a buffalo robe a trophy of their victory over white
+men.
+
+Other treasures were several boxes of crackers, about twenty
+boxes of sardines, three flasks of brandy, suitable for illness,
+a heavy riding cloak, a Virginia ham, two boxes of matches, a
+small iron skillet, and an empty tin canteen.  He might have
+searched further, but he realized that time was passing, and that
+Albert must be on the verge of starvation.  He had forgotten his
+own hunger in the excitement of seek and find, but it came back
+now and gnawed at him fiercely.  Yet he would not touch any of
+the food.  No matter how great the temptation he would not take a
+single bite until Albert had the same chance.
+
+He now made all his treasures into one great package, except the
+buffalo robe.  That was too heavy to add to the others, and he
+tied it among the boughs of a pine, where the wolves could not
+reach it.  Then, with the big pack on his back, he began the
+return.  It was more weight than he would have liked to carry at
+an ordinary time, but now in his elation he scarcely felt it.  He
+went rapidly up the slope and by the middle of the afternoon was
+going down the other side.
+
+As he approached the pine alcove he whistled a familiar tune,
+popular at the time--"Silver Threads Among the Gold."  He knew
+that Albert, if he were there--and he surely must be there--would
+recognize his whistle and come forth.  He stopped, and his heart
+hammered for a moment, but Albert's whistle took up the second line
+of the air and Albert himself came forth jauntily.
+
+"We win, Al, old boy!" called Dick.  "Just look at this pack!"
+
+"I can't look at anything else," replied Albert in the same joyful
+tones.  "It's so big that I don't see you under it.  Dick, have
+you robbed a treasure ship?"
+
+"No, Al," replied Dick, very soberly.  "I haven't robbed a
+treasure ship, but I've been prowling with success over a lost
+battlefield--a ghoul I believe they call such a person, but it
+had to be done.  I've enough food here to last a week at least,
+and we may find more."
+
+He put down his pack and took out the bacon.  As Albert looked at
+it he began unconsciously to clinch and unclinch his teeth.  Dick
+saw his face, and, knowing that the same eager look was in his
+own, he laughed a little.
+
+"Al," he said, "you and I know now how wolves often feel, but
+we're not going to behave like wolves.  We're going to light a
+fire and cook this bacon.  We'll take the risk of the flame or
+smoke being seen by Sioux.  In so vast a country the chances are
+all in our favor."
+
+They gathered up pine cones and other fallen wood, and with the
+help of the matches soon had a fire.  Then they cut strips of
+bacon and fried them on the ends of sharpened sticks, the sputter
+making the finest music in their ears.
+
+Never before had either tasted food so delicious, and they ate
+strip after strip.  Dick noticed with pleasure how the color came
+into Albert's cheeks, and how his eyes began to sparkle.
+Sleeping under the pines seemed to have benefited instead of
+injuring him, and certainly there was a wonderful healing balm in
+the air of that pine-clad mountain slope.  Dick could feel it
+himself.  How strong he was after eating!  He shook his big shoulders.
+
+"What are you bristling up about?" asked Albert.
+
+"Merely getting ready to start again," replied Dick.  "You know the
+old saying, Al, 'you've got to hit while the iron's hot.'  More
+treasure is down there in the pass, but if we wait it won't stay
+there.  Everything that we get now is worth more to us than diamonds."
+
+"It's so," said Albert, and then he sighed sadly as he added,
+"How I wish I were strong enough to go with you and help!"
+
+"Just you wait," said Dick.  "You'll be as strong as a horse in a
+month, and then you'll have to do all the work and bring me my
+breakfast in the morning as I lie in bed.  Besides, you'd have to
+stay here and guard the treasure that we already have.  Better
+get into the pine den.  Bears and wolves may be drawn by the
+scent of the food, and they might think of attacking you."
+
+They put out the fire, and while Albert withdrew into the pine
+shelter, Dick started again over the mountain.  The sun was
+setting blood red in the west, and in the east the shadows of
+twilight were advancing.  It required a new kind of courage to
+enter the pass in the night, and Dick's shudders returned.  At
+certain times there is something in the dark that frightens the
+bravest and those most used to it.
+
+Dick hurried.  He knew the way down the mountain now, and after
+the food and rest he was completely refreshed.  But as fast as he
+went the shadows of twilight came faster, and when he reached the
+bottom of the mountain it was quite dark.  The plain before him
+was invisible, and the forest on the slope behind him was a solid
+robe of black.
+
+Dick set foot in the pass and then stopped.  It was not dread but
+awe that thrilled him in every vein.  He saw nothing before him
+but the well of darkness that was the great slash in the
+mountains.  The wind, caught between the walls, moaned as in the
+day, and he knew perfectly well what if was, but it had all the
+nature of a dirge, nevertheless.  Overhead a few dim stars
+wavered in a dusky sky.
+
+Dick forced himself to go on.  It required now moral, as well as
+physical, courage to approach that lost battlefield lying under
+its pall of night.  Never was the boy a greater hero than at that
+moment.  He advanced slowly.  A bush caught him by the coat and
+held him an instant.  He felt as if he had been seized in a man's
+grasp.  He reached the first wagon, and it seemed to him, broken
+and rifled, an emblem of desolation.  As he passed it a strange,
+low, whining cry made his backbone turn to ice.  But he recovered
+and forced an uneasy little laugh at himself.  It was only a
+wolf, the mean coyote of the prairies!
+
+He came now into the space where the mass of the wagons and the
+fallen lay.  Dark figures, low and skulking, darted away.  More
+wolves!  But one, a huge timber wolf, with a powerful body and
+long fangs, stood up boldly and stared at him with red eyes.
+Dick's own eyes were used to the darkness now, and he stared back
+at the wolf, which seemed to be giving him a challenge.  He half
+raised his rifle, but the monster did not move.  It was a
+stranger to guns, and this wilderness was its own.
+
+It was Dick's first impulse to fire at the space between the red
+eyes, but he restrained it.  He had not come there to fight with
+wolves, nor to send the report of a shot through the mountains.
+He picked up a stone and threw it at the wolf, striking him on
+the flank.  The monster turned and stalked sullenly away, showing
+but little sign of fear.  Dick pursued his task, and as he advanced
+something rose and, flapping heavily, sailed away.  The shiver came
+again, but his will stopped it.
+
+He was now in the center of the wreckage, which in the darkness
+looked as if it had all happened long ago.  Nearly every wagon
+had been turned over, and now and then dark forms lay between the
+wheels.  The wind moaned incessantly down the pass and over the
+ruin.
+
+Overcoming his repulsion, Dick went to work.  The moon was now
+coming out and he could see well enough for his task.  There was
+still much gleaning left by the quick raiders, and everything would
+be of use to Albert and himself, even to the very gear on the
+fallen animals.  He cut off a great quantity of this at once and
+put it in a heap at the foot of the cliff.  Then he invaded the
+wagons and again brought forth treasures better than gold.
+
+He found in one side box some bottles of medicine, the simple
+remedies of the border, which he packed very carefully, and in
+another he discovered half a sack of flour--fifty pounds,
+perhaps.  A third rewarded him with a canister of tea and a
+twenty-pound bag of ground coffee.  He clutched these treasures
+eagerly.  They would be invaluable to Albert.
+
+Continuing his search, he was rewarded with two pairs of heavy
+shoes, an ax, a hatchet, some packages of pins, needles, and
+thread, and a number of cooking utensils--pots, kettles, pans,
+and skillets.  Just as he was about to quit for the purpose of
+making up his pack, he noticed in one of the wagons a long,
+narrow locker made into the side and fastened with a stout
+padlock.  The wagon had been plundered, but evidently the Sioux
+had balked at the time this stout box would take for opening, and
+had passed on.  Dick, feeling sure that it must contain something
+of value, broke the padlock with the head of the ax.  When he
+looked in he uttered a cry of delight at his reward.
+
+He brought forth from the box a beautiful double-barreled
+breech-loading shotgun, and the bounty of chance did not stop
+with the gun, for in the locker were over a thousand cartridges
+to fit it.  Dick foresaw at once that it would be invaluable to
+Albert and himself in the pursuit of wild ducks, wild geese,
+and other feathered game.  He removed some of the articles from
+his pack, which was already heavy enough, and put the shotgun
+and cartridges in their place.  Then he set forth on the return
+journey.
+
+As he left the wagons and went toward the mouth of the pass, he
+heard soft, padding sounds behind him, and knew that the wolves
+were returning, almost on his heels.  He looked back once, and
+saw a pair of fiery red eyes which he felt must belong to the
+monster, the timber wolf, but Dick was no longer under the
+uncanny spell of the night and the place; he was rejoicing too
+much in his new treasures, like a miser who has just added a
+great sum to his hoard, to feel further awe of the wolves, the
+darkness, and a new battlefield.
+
+Dick's second pack was heavier than his first, but as before, he
+trod lightly.  He took a different path when he left the pass,
+and here in the moonlight, which was now much brighter, he saw
+the trace of wheels on the earth.  The trace ran off irregularly
+through the short bushes and veered violently to and fro like the
+path of a drunken man.  Dick inferred at once that it had been
+made, not by a wagon entering the pass, but by one leaving it,
+and in great haste.  No doubt the horses or mules had been
+running away in fright at the firing.
+
+Dick's curiosity was excited.  He wished to see what had become
+of that wagon.  The trail continued to lead through the short
+bushes that covered the plain just before entering the pass, and
+then turned off sharply to the right, where it led to an abrupt
+little canyon or gully about ten feet deep.  The gully also was
+lined with bushes, and at first Dick could see nothing else, but
+presently he made out a wagon lying on its side.  No horses or
+mules were there; undoubtedly, they had torn themselves loose
+from the gear in time to escape the fall.
+
+Dick laid down his pack and descended to the wagon.  He believed
+that in such a place it had escaped the plundering hands of the
+hasty Sioux, and his belief was correct.  The wagon, a large one,
+was loaded with all the articles necessary for the passage of the
+plains.  Although much tossed about by the fall, nothing was
+hurt.
+
+Here was a treasure-trove, indeed!  Dick's sudden sense of wealth
+was so overpowering that he felt a great embarrassment.  How was
+he to take care of such riches?  He longed at that moment for the
+strength of twenty men, that he might take it all at once and go
+over the mountain to Albert.
+
+It was quite a quarter of an hour before he was able to compose
+himself thoroughly.  Then he made a hasty examination of the
+wagon, so far as its position allowed.  He found in it a rifle of
+the same pattern as that used by Albert and himself, a
+sixteen-shot repeater, the most advanced weapon of the time, and
+a great quantity of cartridges to fit.  There was also two of the
+new revolvers, with sufficient cartridges, another ax, hatchets,
+saws, hammers, chisels, and a lot of mining tools.  The remaining
+space in the wagon was occupied by clothing, bedding, provisions,
+and medicines.
+
+Dick judged that the wolves could not get at the wagon as it lay,
+and leaving it he began his third ascent of the slope.  He found
+Albert sound asleep in the pine alcove with his rifle beside
+him.  He looked so peaceful that Dick was careful not to awaken
+him.  He stored the second load of treasure in the alcove, and,
+wrapping one of the heavy blankets around himself, slept heavily.
+
+He told Albert the next day of the wagon in the gully, and
+nothing could keep him from returning in the morning for
+salvage.  He worked there two or three days, carrying heavy loads
+up the mountain, and finally, when it was all in their den, he
+and Albert felt equipped for anything.  Nor had the buffalo robe
+been neglected.  It was spread over much of the treasure.
+Albert, meanwhile, had assumed the functions of cook, and he
+discharged them with considerable ability.  His strength was
+quite sufficient to permit of his collecting firewood, and he
+could fry bacon and make coffee and tea beautifully.  But they
+were very sparing of the coffee and tea, as they also were of the
+flour, although their supplies of all three of these were greatly
+increased by the wagon in the gully.  In fact, the very last
+thing that Dick had brought over the mountain was a hundred-pound
+sack of flour, and after accomplishing this feat he had rested a
+long time.
+
+Both boys felt that they had been remarkably fortunate while this
+work was going on.  One circumstance, apparently simple in
+itself, had been a piece of great luck, and that was the absence
+of rain.  It was not a particularly rainy country, but a shower
+could have made them thoroughly miserable, and, moreover, would
+have been extremely dangerous for Albert.  But nights and days
+alike remained dry and cool, and as Albert breathed the marvelous
+balsamic air he could almost feel himself transfused with its
+healing property.  Meanwhile, the color in his cheeks was
+steadily deepening.
+
+"We've certainly had good fortune," said Dick.
+
+"Aided by your courage and strength," said Albert.  "It took a
+lot of nerve to go down there in that pass and hunt for what the
+Sioux might have left behind."
+
+Dick disclaimed any superior merit, but he said nothing of the
+many tremors that he felt while performing the great task.
+
+An hour or two later, Albert, who was hunting through their
+belongings, uttered a cry of joy on finding a little package of
+fishhooks.  String they had among their stores, and it was easy
+enough to cut a slim rod for a pole.
+
+"Now I can be useful for something besides cooking," he said.
+"It doesn't require any great strength to be a fisherman, and I'm
+much mistaken if I don't soon have our table supplied with
+trout."
+
+There was a swift creek farther down the slope, and, angling with
+much patience, Albert succeeded in catching several mountain
+trout and a larger number of fish of an unknown species, but
+which, like the trout, were very good to eat.
+
+Albert's exploit caused him intense satisfaction, and Dick
+rejoiced with him, not alone because of the fish, but also
+because of his brother's triumph.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V
+The Lost Valley
+
+They spent a week on the slope, sleeping securely and warmly
+under their blankets in the pine alcove, and fortune favored them
+throughout that time.  It did not rain once, and there was not a
+sign of the Sioux.  Dick did not revisit the pass after the first
+three days, and he knew that the wolves and buzzards had been
+busy there.  But he stripped quite clean the wagon which had
+fallen in the gully, even carrying away the canvas cover, which
+was rainproof.  Albert wondered that the Sioux had not returned,
+but Dick had a very plausible theory to account for it.
+
+"The Sioux are making war upon our people," he said, "and why
+should they stay around here?  They have cut off what is
+doubtless the first party entering this region in a long time,
+and now they have gone eastward to meet our troops.  Beside, the
+Sioux are mostly plains Indians, and they won't bother much about
+these mountains.  Other Indians, through fear of the Sioux, will
+not come and live here, which accounts for this region being
+uninhabited."
+
+"Still a wandering band of Sioux might come through at any time
+and see us," said Albert.
+
+"That's so, and for other reasons, too, we must move.  It's
+mighty fine, Al, sleeping out in the open when the weather's dry
+and not too cold, but I've read that the winter in the
+northwestern mountains is something terrible, and we've got to
+prepare for it."
+
+It was Dick's idea to go deeper into the mountains.  He knew very
+well that the chance of their getting out before spring were too
+slender to be considered, and he believed that they could find
+better shelter and a more secure hiding place farther in.  So he
+resolved upon a journey of exploration, and though Albert was now
+stronger, he must go alone.  It was his brother's duty to remain
+and guard their precious stores.  Already bears and mountain lions,
+drawn by the odors of the food, had come snuffing about the
+alcove, but they always retreated from the presence of either of
+the brothers.  One huge silver tip had come rather alarmingly
+close, but when Dick shouted at him he, too, turned and lumbered
+off among the pines.
+
+"What you want to guard against, Al," said Dick, "is thieves
+rather than robbers.  Look out for the sneaks.  We'll fill the
+canteen and all our iron vessels with water so that you won't
+have to go even to the brook.  Then you stay right here by the
+fire in the daytime, and in the den at night.  You can keep a bed
+of coals before the den when you're asleep, and no wild animal
+will ever come past it."
+
+"All right, Dick," said Albert courageously; "but don't you get
+lost over there among those ranges and peaks."
+
+"I couldn't do it if I tried," replied Dick in the same cheerful
+tone.  "You don't know what a woodsman and mountaineer I've
+become, Al, old boy!"
+
+Albert smiled.  Yet each boy felt the full gravity of the
+occasion when the time for Dick's departure came, at dawn of a
+cool morning, gleams of silver frost showing here and there on
+the slopes.  Both knew the necessity of the journey, however, and
+hid their feelings.
+
+"Be back to-morrow night, Al," said Dick.
+
+"Be ready for you, Dick," said Albert.
+
+Then they waved their hands to each other, and Dick strode away
+toward the higher mountains.  He was well armed, carrying his
+repeating rifle and the large hunting knife which was useful for
+so many purposes.  He had also thrust one of the revolvers into
+his belt.
+
+Flushed with youth and strength, and equipped with such good
+weapons, he felt able to take care of himself in any company into
+which he might be thrown.
+
+He reached the bottom of the slope, and looking back, saw Albert
+standing on a fallen log.  His brother was watching him and waved
+his hand.  Dick waved his in reply, and then, crossing the creek,
+began the ascent of the farther slope.  There the pines and the
+distance rendered the brothers invisible to each other, and Dick
+pressed on with vigor.  His recent trips over the lower slopes
+for supplies had greatly increased his skill in mountain climbing,
+and he did not suffer from weariness.  Up, up, he went, and the
+pines grew shorter and scrubbier.  But the thin, crisp air was a
+sheer delight, and he felt an extraordinary pleasure in mere
+living.
+
+Dick looked back once more from the heights toward the spot
+where their camp lay and saw lying against the blue a thin gray
+thread that only the keenest eye would notice.  He knew it to be
+the smoke from Albert's fire and felt sure that all was well.
+
+While the slope which he was ascending was fairly steep, it was
+easy enough to find a good trail among the pines.  There was
+little undergrowth and the ascent was not rocky.  When Dick stood
+at last on the crest of the ridge he uttered a cry of delight and
+amazement.
+
+The slope on which he stood was merely a sort of gate to the
+higher mountains, or rather it was a curtain hiding the view.
+
+Before him, range on range and peak on peak, lay mighty
+mountains, some of them shooting up almost three miles above the
+sea, their crests and heads hid in eternal snow.  Far away to
+northward and westward stretched the tremendous maze, and it
+seemed to Dick to have no end.  A cold, dazzling sunlight poured
+in floods over the snowy summits, and he felt a great sense of
+awe.  It was all so grand, so silent, and so near to the Infinite.
+He saw the full majesty of the world and of the Power that had
+created it.  For a little while his mission and all human passions
+and emotions floated away from him; he was content merely to
+stand there, without thinking, but to feel the immensity and
+majesty of it all.
+
+Dick presently recovered himself and with a little laugh came
+back to earth.  But he was glad to have had those moments.  He
+began the descent, which was rougher and rockier than the ascent
+had been, but the prospect was encouraging.  The valley between
+the ridge on the slope of which he stood and the higher one
+beyond it seemed narrow, but he believed that he would find in it
+the shelter and hiding that he and Albert wished.
+
+As he went down the slope became steeper, but once more the
+pines, sheltered from the snows and cruel winds, grew to a great
+size.  There was also so much outcropping of rock that Dick was
+hopeful of finding another alcove deep enough to be converted
+into a house.
+
+When nearly down, he caught a gleam among the trees that he knew
+was water, and again he was encouraged.  Here was a certainty of
+one thing that was an absolute necessity.  Soon he was in the
+valley, which he found exceedingly narrow and almost choked with
+a growth of pine, ash, and aspen, a tiny brook flowing down its
+center.  He was tired and warm from the long descent and knelt
+down and drank from the brook.  Its waters were as cold as ice,
+flowing down from the crest of one of the great peaks clad,
+winter and summer, in snow.
+
+Dick followed the brook for fully a mile, seeking everywhere a
+suitable place in which he and his brother might make a home, but
+he found none.  The valley resembled in most of its aspects a
+great canyon, and all the fertile earth on either side of the brook
+was set closely with pine, ash, and aspen.  These would form a
+shelter from winds, but they would not protect from rain and the
+great colds and snows of the high Rockies.
+
+Dick noticed many footprints of animals at the margin of the
+stream, some of great size, which he had no doubt were made by
+grizzlies or silver tips.  He also believed that the beaver might
+be found farther down along this cold and secluded water, but he
+was not interested greatly just then in animals; he was seeking
+for that most necessary of all things--something that must be
+had--a home.
+
+It seemed to him at the end of his estimated mile that the brook
+was going to flow directly into the mountain which rose before
+him many hundreds of feet; but when he came to the rocky wall he
+found that the valley turned off at a sharp angle to the left,
+and the stream, of course, followed it, although it now descended
+more rapidly, breaking three times into little foamy falls five
+or six feet in height.  Then another brook came from a deep cleft
+between the mountains on the eastern side and swelled with its
+volume the main stream, which now became a creek.
+
+The new valley widened out to a width of perhaps a quarter of a
+mile, although the rocky walls on either side rose to a great
+height and were almost precipitous.  Springs flowed from these
+walls and joined the creek.  Some of them came down the face of
+the cliffs in little cascades of foam and vapor, but others
+spouted from the base of the rock.  Dick knelt down to drink from
+one of the latter, but as his face approached the water he jumped
+away.  He dipped up a little of it in his soft hat and tasted
+it.  It was brackish and almost boiling hot.
+
+Dick was rather pleased at the discovery.  A bitter and hot
+spring might be very useful.  He had imbibed--like many
+others--from the teaching of his childhood that any bitter liquid
+was good for you.  As he advanced farther the valley continued to
+spread out.  It was now perhaps a half mile in width, and well
+wooded.  The creek became less turbulent, flowing with a depth of
+several feet in a narrow channel.
+
+The whole aspect of the valley so far had been that of a
+wilderness uninhabited and unvisited.  A mule deer looked
+curiously at Dick, then walked away a few paces and stood there.
+When Dick glanced back his deership was still curious and
+gazing.  A bear crashed through a thicket, stared at the boy with
+red eyes, then rolled languidly away.  Dick was quick to
+interpret these signs.  They were unfamiliar with human presence,
+and he was cheered by the evidence.  Yet at the end of another
+hundred yards of progress he sank down suddenly among some
+bushes and remained perfectly silent, but intently watchful.
+
+He had seen a column of smoke rising above the pines and aspens.
+Smoke meant fire, fire meant human beings, and human beings, in
+that region, meant enemies.  He had no doubt that Sioux were at
+the foot of that column of smoke.  It was a tragic discovery.  He
+was looking for a home for Albert and himself somewhere in this
+valley, but there could be no home anywhere near the Sioux.  He
+and his brother must turn in another direction, and with painful
+effort lug their stores over the ridges.
+
+But Dick was resolved to see.  There were great springs of
+courage and tenacity in his nature, and he wished, moreover, to
+prove his new craft as a woodsman and mountaineer.  He remained
+awhile in the bushes, watching the spire, and presently, to his
+amazement, it thinned quickly and was gone.  It had disappeared
+swiftly, while the smoke from a fire usually dies down.  It was
+Dick's surmise that the Sioux had put out their fire by
+artificial means and then had moved on.  Such an act would
+indicate a fear of observation, and his curiosity increased
+greatly.
+
+But Dick did not forget his caution.  He crouched in the bushes
+for quite a while yet, watching the place where the smoke had
+been, but the sky remained clear and undefiled.  He heard nothing
+and saw nothing but the lonely valley.  At last he crept forward
+slowly, and with the greatest care, keeping among bushes and
+treading very softly.  He advanced in this manner three or four
+hundred yards, to the very point which must have been the base of
+the spire of smoke--he had marked it so well that he could not
+be mistaken--and from his leafy covert saw a large open space
+entirely destitute of vegetation.  He expected to see there also
+the remains of a camp fire, but none was visible, not a single
+charred stick, nor a coal.
+
+Dick was astonished.  A new and smoking camp fire must leave
+some trace.  One could not wipe it away absolutely.  He
+remained a comparatively long time, watching in the edge of the
+bushes beside the wide and open space.
+
+He still saw and heard nothing.  Never before had a camp fire
+vanished so mysteriously and completely, and with it those who
+had built it.  At last, his curiosity overcoming his caution, he
+advanced into the open space, and now saw that it fell away
+toward the center.  Advancing more boldly, he found himself near
+the edge of a deep pit.
+
+The pit was almost perfectly round and had a diameter of about
+ten feet.  So far as Dick could judge, it was about forty feet
+deep and entirely empty.  It looked like a huge well dug by the
+hand of man.
+
+While Dick was gazing at the pit, an extraordinary and terrifying
+thing happened.  The earth under his feet began to shake.  At
+first he could not believe it, but when he steadied himself and
+watched closely, the oscillating motion was undoubtedly there.
+It was accompanied, too, by a rumble, dull and low, but which
+steadily grew louder.  It seemed to Dick that the round pit was
+the center of this sound.
+
+Despite the quaking of the earth, he ventured again into the open
+space and saw that the pit had filled with water.  Moreover, this
+water was boiling, as he could see it seething and bubbling.  As
+he looked, clouds of steam shot up to a height of two or three
+hundred feet, and Dick, in alarm, ran back to the bushes.  He
+knew that this was the column of vapor he had first seen from a
+distance, but he was not prepared for what followed.
+
+There was an explosion so loud that it made Dick jump.  Then a
+great column of water shot up from the boiling pit to a height of
+perhaps fifty feet, and remained there rising and falling.  From
+the apex of this column several great jets rose, perhaps, three
+times as high.
+
+The column of hot water glittered and shimmered in the sun, and
+Dick gazed in wonder and delight.  He had read enough to
+recognize the phenomenon that he now saw.  It was a geyser, a
+column of hot water shooting up, at regular intervals and with
+great force, from the unknown deeps of the earth.
+
+As he gazed, the column gradually sank, the boiling water in the
+pit sank, too, and there was no longer any rumble or quaking of
+the earth.  Dick cautiously approached the pit again.  It was as
+empty as a dry well, but he knew that in due time the phenomenon
+would be repeated.  He was vastly interested, but he did not wait
+to see the recurrence of the marvel, continuing his way down the
+valley over heaps of crinkly black slag and stone, which were
+age-old lava, although he did not know it, and through groves of
+pine and ash, aspen, and cedar.  He saw other round pits and
+watched a second geyser in eruption.  He saw, too, numerous hot
+springs, and much steamy vapor floating about.  There were also
+mineral springs and springs of the clearest and purest cold
+water.  It seemed to Dick that every minute of his wanderings
+revealed to him some new and interesting sight, while on all
+sides of the little valley rose the mighty mountains, their
+summits in eternal snow.
+
+A great relief was mingled with the intense interest that Dick
+felt.  He had been sure at first that he saw the camp fires of
+the Sioux, but after the revulsion it seemed as if it were a
+place never visited by man, either savage or civilized.  As he
+continued down the valley, he noticed narrow clefts in the
+mountains opening into them from either side, but he felt sure
+from the nature of the country that they could not go back far.
+The clefts were four in number, and down two of them came
+considerable streams of clear, cold water emptying into the main
+creek.
+
+The valley now narrowed again and Dick heard ahead a slight
+humming sound which presently grew into a roar.  He was puzzled
+at first, but soon divined the cause.  The creek, or rather
+little river, much increased in volume by the tributary brooks,
+made a great increase of speed in its current.  Dick saw before
+him a rising column of vapor and foam, and in another minute or
+two stood beside a fine fall, where the little river took a sheer
+drop of forty feet, then rushed foaming and boiling through a
+narrow chasm, to empty about a mile farther on into a beautiful
+blue lake.
+
+Dick, standing on a high rock beside the fall, could see the lake
+easily.  Its blue was of a deep, splendid tint, and on every side
+pines and cedars thickly clothed the narrow belt of ground
+between it and the mountains.  The far end seemed to back up
+abruptly against a mighty range crowned with snow, but Dick felt
+sure that an outlet must be there through some cleft in the
+range.  The lake itself was of an almost perfect crescent shape,
+and Dick reckoned its length at seven miles, with a greatest
+breadth, that is, at the center, of about two miles.  He judged,
+too, from its color and its position in a fissure that its depth
+must be very great.
+
+The surface of the lake lay two or three hundred feet lower than
+the rock on which Dick was standing, and he could see its entire
+expanse, rippling gently under the wind and telling only of peace
+and rest.  Flocks of wild fowl flew here and there, showing white
+or black against the blue of its waters, and at the nearer shore
+Dick thought he saw an animal like a deer drinking, but the
+distance was too great to tell certainly.
+
+He left the rock and pursued his way through dwarf pines and
+cedars along the edge of the chasm in which the torrent boiled
+and foamed, intending to go down to the lake.  Halfway he
+stopped, startled by a long, shrill, whistling sound that bore
+some resemblance to the shriek of a distant locomotive.  The
+wilderness had been so silent before that the sound seemed to
+fill all the valley, the ridges taking it up and giving it back
+in one echo after another until it died away among the peaks.  In
+a minute or so the whistling shriek was repeated and then two or
+three times more.
+
+Dick was not apprehensive.  It was merely a new wonder in that
+valley of wonders, and none of these wonders seemed to have
+anything to do with man.  The sound apparently came from a point
+two or three hundred yards to his left at the base of the
+mountain, and turning, Dick went toward it, walking very slowly
+and carefully through the undergrowth.  He had gone almost the
+whole distance seeing nothing but the mountain and the forest,
+when the whistling shriek was suddenly repeated so close to him
+that he jumped.  He sank down behind a dwarf pine, and then he
+saw not thirty feet away the cause of the sound.
+
+A gigantic deer, a great grayish animal, stood in a little open
+space, and at intervals emitted that tremendous whistle.  It
+stood as high as a horse, and Dick estimated its weight at more
+than a thousand pounds.  He was looking at a magnificent specimen
+of the Rocky Mountain elk, by far the largest member of the deer
+tribe that he had ever seen.  The animal, the wind blowing from
+him toward Dick, was entirely unsuspicious of danger, and the boy
+could easily have put a bullet into his heart, but he had no
+desire to do so.  Whether the elk was whistling to his mate or
+sending a challenge to a rival bull he did not know, and after
+watching and admiring him for a little while he crept away.
+
+But Dick was not wholly swayed by sentiment.  He said to himself
+as he went away among the pines: "Don't you feel too safe, Mr.
+Elk, we'll have to take you or some of your brethren later on.
+I've heard that elk meat is good."
+
+He resumed his journey and was soon at the edge of the lake,
+which at this point had a narrow sandy margin.  Its waters were
+fresh and cold, and wold duck, fearless of Dick, swam within a
+few yards of him.  The view here was not less majestic and
+beautiful than it had been from the rock, and Dick, sensitive to
+nature, was steeped in all its wonder and charm.  He was glad to
+be there, he was glad that chance or Providence had led him to
+this lovely valley.  He felt no loneliness, no fear for the
+future, he was content merely to breathe and feel the glory of it
+permeate his being.
+
+He picked up a pebble presently and threw it into the lake.  It
+sank with the sullen plunk that told unmistakably to the boy's
+ears of great depths below.  Once or twice he saw a fish leap up,
+and it occurred to him that here was another food supply.
+
+He suddenly pulled himself together with a jerk.  He could not
+sit there all day dreaming.  He had come to find a winter home
+for Albert and himself, and he had not yet found it.  But he had
+a plan from which he had been turned aside for a while by the
+sight of the lake, and now he went back to carry it out.
+
+There were two clefts opening into the mountains from his side of
+the river, and he went into the first on the return path.  It was
+choked with pine and cedars and quickly ended against a mountain
+wall, proving to be nothing but a very short canyon.  There was
+much outcropping of rock here, but nothing that would help toward
+a shelter, and Dick went on to the second cleft.
+
+This cleft, wider than the other, was the one down which the
+considerable brook flowed, and the few yards or so of fertile
+ground on either side of the stream produced a rank growth of
+trees.  They were so thick that the boy could see only a little
+distance ahead, but he believed that this slip of a tributary
+valley ran far back in the mountains, perhaps a dozen miles.
+
+He picked his way about a mile and then came suddenly upon a
+house.  It stood in an alcove protected by rocks and trees, but
+safe from snow slide.  It was only a log hut of one room, with
+the roof broken in and the door fallen from its hinges, but Dick
+knew well enough the handiwork of the white man.  As he
+approached, some wild animal darted out of the open door and
+crashed away among the undergrowth, but Dick knew that white
+men had once lived there.  It was equally evident that they had
+long been gone.
+
+It was a cabin of stout build, its thick logs fitted nicely
+together, and the boards of the roof had been strong and well
+laid.  Many years must have passed to have caused so much
+decay.  Dick entered and was saluted by a strong, catlike odor.
+Doubtless a mountain lion had been sleeping there, and this was
+the tenant that he had heard crashing away among the undergrowth.
+On one side was a window closed by a sagging oaken shutter, which
+Dick threw open.  The open door and window established a draught,
+and as the clean sweet air blew through the cabin the odor of the
+cat began to disappear.
+
+Dick examined everything with the greatest interest and
+curiosity.  There was a floor of puncheons fairly smooth, a stone
+fireplace, a chimney of mud and sticks, dusty wooden hooks, and
+rests nailed into the wall, a rude table overturned in a corner,
+and something that looked like a trap.  It was the last that told
+the tale to Dick.  When he examined it more critically, he had no
+doubt that it was a beaver trap.
+
+Nor did he have any doubt but that this hut had been built by
+beaver trappers long ago, either by independent hunters, or by
+those belonging to one of the great fur companies.  The beaver,
+he believed, had been found on this very brook, and when they
+were all taken the trappers had gone away, leaving the cabin
+forever, as they had left many another one.  It might be at least
+forty years old.
+
+Dick laughed aloud in his pleasure at this good luck.  The cabin
+was dusty, dirty, disreputable, and odorous, but that draught
+would take away all the odors and his stout arm could soon repair
+the holes in the roof, put the door back on its hinges, and
+straighten the sagging window shutter.  Here was their home, a
+house built by white men as a home, and now about to be used as
+such again.  Dick did not feel like a tenant moving in, but like
+an owner.  It would be a long, hard task to bring their supplies
+over the range but Albert and he had all the time in the world.
+It was one of the effects of their isolation to make Dick feel
+that there was no such thing as time.
+
+He took another survey of the cabin.  It was really a splendid
+place, a palace in its contrast with the surrounding wilderness,
+and he laughed with pure delight.  When it was swept and cleaned,
+and a fire blazing on the flat stone that served for a hearth,
+while the cold winds roared without, it would be the snuggest
+home west of the Missouri.  He was so pleased that he undertook
+at once some primary steps in the process of purification.  He
+cut a number of small, straight boughs, tied them together with a
+piece of bark, the leaves at the head thus forming a kind of
+broom, and went to work.
+
+He raised a great dust, which the draught blew into his eyes,
+ears, and nose, and he retreated from the place, willing to let
+the wind take it away.  He would finish the task some other day.
+Then the clear waters of the brook tempted him.  Just above the
+cabin was a deep pool which may have been the home of the beaver
+in an older time.  Now it was undisturbed, and the waters were so
+pure that he could see the sand and rock on the bottom.
+
+Still tingling from the dust, he took off his clothes and dived
+head foremost into the pool.  He came up shivering and
+sputtering.  It was certainly the coldest water into which he
+had ever leaped!  After such a dash one might lie on a slab of
+ice to warm.  Dick forgot that every drop in the brook had come
+from melting snows far up on the peaks, but, once in, he resolved
+to fight the element.  He dived again, jumped up and down, and
+kicked and thrashed those waters as no beaver had ever done.
+Gradually he grew warm, and a wonderful exhilaration shot through
+every vein.  Then he swam around and around and across and
+across the pool, disporting like a young white water god.
+
+Dick was thoroughly enjoying himself, but when he began to feel
+cold again in seven or eight minutes he sprang out, ran up and
+down the bank, and rubbed himself with bunches of leaves until he
+was dry.  After he had dressed, he felt that he had actually
+grown in size and strength in the last half hour.
+
+He was now ravenously hungry.  His absorption in his explorations
+and discoveries had kept him from thinking of such a thing as
+food until this moment, but when Nature finally got in her claim
+she made it strong and urgent.  He had brought cold supplies with
+him, upon which he feasted, sitting in the doorway of the cabin.
+Then he noticed the lateness of the hour.  Shadows were
+falling across the snow on the western peaks and ridges.  The
+golden light of the sun was turning red, and in the valley the
+air was growing misty with the coming twilight.
+
+He resolved to pass the night in the cabin.  He secured the
+window shutter again, tied up the fallen door on rude bark
+hinges, and fastened it on the inside with a stick--hasps for
+the bar were there yet--but before retiring he took a long look
+in the direction in which Albert and their camp lay.
+
+A great range of mountains lay between, but Dick felt that he
+could almost see his brother, his camp fire, and the pine
+alcove.  He was Albert's protector, and this would be the first
+entire night in the mountains in which the weaker boy had been
+left alone, but Dick was not apprehensive about him.  He believed
+that their good fortune would still endure, and secure in that
+belief he rolled himself up in the blanket which he had brought
+in a little pack on his back, and laid himself down in the corner
+of the cabin.
+
+The place was not yet free from dust and odor, but Dick's hardy
+life was teaching him to take as trifles things that civilization
+usually regarded as onerous, and he felt quite comfortable where
+he lay.  He knew that it was growing cold in the gorge, and the
+shelter of the cabin was acceptable.  He saw a little strip of
+wan twilight through a crack in the window, but it soon faded and
+pitchy darkness filled the narrow valley.
+
+Dick fell into a sound sleep, from which he awoke only once in
+the night, and then it was a noise of something as of claws
+scratching at the door which stirred him.  The scratch was
+repeated only once or twice, and with it came the sound of heavy,
+gasping puffs, like a big animal breathing.  Then the creature
+went away, and Dick, half asleep, murmured: "I've put you out of
+your house, my fine friend, bear or panther, whichever you may
+be."  In another minute he was wholly asleep again and did not
+waken until an edge of glittering sunlight, like a sword blade,
+came through the crack in the window and struck him across the
+eyes.
+
+He bathed a second time in the pool, ate what was left of the
+food, and started on the return journey, moving at a brisk pace.
+He made many calculations on the way.  It would take a week to
+move all their goods over the range to the cabin, but, once
+there, he believed that they would be safe for a long time;
+indeed, they might spend years in the valley, if they wished, and
+never see a stranger.
+
+It was afternoon when he approached the pine alcove, but the
+familiar spire of smoke against the blue had assured him already
+that Albert was there and safe.  In fact, Albert saw him first.
+He had just returned from the creek, and, standing on a rock, a
+fish in his hand, hailed his brother, who was coming up the
+slope.
+
+"Halloo, Dick!" he shouted.  "Decided to come home, have you?
+Hope you've had a pleasant visit."
+
+"Fine trip, Al, old man," Dick replied.  "Great place over
+there.  Think we'd better move to it."
+
+"That so?  Tell us about it."
+
+Dick, ever sensitive to Albert's manner and appearance, noticed
+that the boy's voice was fuller, and he believed that the dry,
+piny air of the mountains was still at its healing work.  He
+joined Albert, who was waiting for him, and who, after giving his
+hand a hearty grasp, told him what he had found.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI
+Castle Howard
+
+Albert agreed with Dick that they should begin to more at once,
+and his imagination was greatly stirred by Dick's narrative.
+"Why, it's an enchanted valley!" he exclaimed.  "And a house is
+there waiting for us, too!  Dick, I want to see it right away!"
+
+Dick smiled.
+
+"Sorry, but you'll have to wait a little, Al, old man," he said.
+"You're not strong enough yet to carry stores over the big range,
+though you will be very soon, and we can't leave our precious
+things here unguarded.  So you'll have to stay and act as
+quartermaster while I make myself pack mule.  When we have all
+the things over there, we can fasten them up in our house, where
+bears, panthers, and wolves can't get at them."
+
+Albert made a wry face, but he knew that he must yield to
+necessity.  Dick began the task the next morning, and it was
+long, tedious, and most wearing.  More than once he felt like
+abandoning some of their goods, but he hardened his resolution
+with the reflection that all were precious, and not a single
+thing was abandoned.
+
+It was more than a week before it was all done, and it was not
+until the last trip that Albert went with him, carrying besides
+his gun a small pack.  The weather was still propitious.  Once
+there had been a light shower in the night, but Albert was
+protected from it by the tarpaulin which they had made of the
+wagon cover, and nothing occurred to check his progress.  He ate
+with an appetite that he had never known before, and he breathed
+by night as well as by day the crisp air of the mountains tingling
+with the balsam of the pines.  It occurred to Dick that to be
+marooned in these mountains was perhaps the best of all things
+that could have happened to Albert.
+
+They went slowly over the range toward the enchanted valley,
+stopping now and then because Albert, despite his improvement,
+was not yet equal to the task of strenuous climbing, but all
+things continued auspicious.  There was a touch of autumn on the
+foliage, and the shades of red and yellow were appearing on the
+leaves of all the trees except the evergreens, but everything
+told of vigorous life.  As they passed the crest of the range and
+began the descent of the slope toward the enchanted valley, a
+mule deer crashed from the covert and fled away with great
+bounds.  Flocks of birds rose with whirrings from the bushes.
+From some point far away came the long, whistling sound that made
+Albert cry out in wonder.  But Dick laughed.
+
+"It's the elk," he said.  "I saw one when I first came into the
+valley.  I think they are thick hereabout, and I suspect that
+they will furnish us with some good winter food."
+
+Albert found the valley all that Dick had represented it to be,
+and more.  He watched the regular eruptions of the geysers with
+amazement and delight; he insisted on sampling the mineral
+springs, and intended to learn in time their various properties.
+The lake, in all its shimmering aspects, appealed to his love of
+the grand and beautiful, and he promptly named it "The Howard
+Sea, after its discoverer, you know," he said to Dick.  Finally,
+the cabin itself filled him with delight, because he foresaw
+even more thoroughly than Dick how suitable it would be for a
+home in the long winter months.  He installed himself as
+housekeeper and set to work at once.
+
+The little cabin was almost choked with their supplies, which
+Dick had been afraid to leave outside for fear that the
+provisions would be eaten and the other things injured by the
+wild animals, and now they began the task of assorting and
+putting them into place.
+
+The full equipment of the wagon that Dick had found in the gully,
+particularly the tools, proved to be a godsend.  They made more
+racks on the walls--boring holes with the augers and then
+driving in pegs--on which they laid their axes and extra rifles.
+In the same manner they made high shelves, on which their food
+would be safe from prowling wild beasts, even should they succeed
+in breaking in the door.  But Dick soon made the latter
+impossible by putting the door on strong hinges of leather which
+he made from the gear that he had cut from the horses.  He also
+split a new bar from one of the young ash trees and strengthened
+the hasps on the inside.  He felt now that when the bar was in
+place not even the heaviest grizzly could force the door.
+
+The task of mending the roof was more difficult.  He knew how to
+split rude boards with his ax, but he had only a few nails with
+which to hold them in place.  He solved the problem by boring
+auger holes, into which he drove pegs made from strong twigs.
+The roof looked water-tight, and he intended to reenforce it
+later on with the skins of wild animals that he expected to
+kill--there had been no time yet for hunting.
+
+Throughout these operations, which took about a week, they slept
+in the open in a rude tent which they made of the wagon cover and
+set beside the cabin, for two reasons: because Dick believed the
+open air at all times to be good for Albert, and because he was
+averse to using the cabin as a dormitory until it was thoroughly
+cleansed and aired.
+
+Albert made himself extremely useful in the task of refurbishing
+the cabin.  He brushed out all the dust, brought water from the
+brook and scrubbed the floor, and to dry the latter built their
+first fire on the hearth with pine cones and other fallen wood.
+As he touched the match to it, he did not conceal his anxiety.
+
+"The big thing to us," he said, "is whether or not this chimney
+will draw.  That's vital, I tell you, Dick, to a housekeeper.  If
+it puffs out smoke and fills the cabin with it, we're to have a
+hard time and be miserable.  If it draws like a porous plaster
+and takes all the smoke up it, then we're to have an easy time of
+it and be happy."
+
+Both watched anxiously as Albert touched the match to some pine
+shavings which were to form the kindling wood.  The shavings
+caught, a light blaze leaped up, there came a warning crackle,
+and smoke, too, arose.  Which way would it go?  The little column
+wavered a moment and then shot straight up the chimney.  It grew
+larger, but still shot straight up the chimney.  The flames roared
+and were drawn in the same direction.
+
+Albert laughed and clapped his hands.
+
+"It's to be an easy time and a happy life!" he exclaimed.  "Those
+old beaver hunters knew what they were about when they built this
+chimney!"
+
+"You can cook in here, Al," said Dick; "but I suggest that we
+sleep in the tent until the weather grows bad."
+
+Dick had more than one thing in mind in making this suggestion
+about the tent and sleeping.  The air of the cabin could be close
+at night even with the window open, but in the tent with the flap
+thrown back--they never closed it--they breathed only a fresh
+balsamic odor, crisp with the coolness of autumn.  He had watched
+Albert all the time.  Now and then when he had exerted himself
+more than usual, the younger boy would cough, and at times he was
+very tired, but Dick, however sharply he watched, did not see
+again the crimson stain on the lips that he had noticed the night
+of the flight from the massacre.
+
+But the older brother, two years older only, in fact, but ten
+years older, at least, in feeling, did notice a great change in
+Albert, mental as well as physical.  The younger boy ceased to
+have periods of despondency.  While he could not do the things
+that Dick did, he was improving, and he never lamented his lack
+of strength.  It seemed to him a matter of course, so far as Dick
+could judge, that in due time he should be the equal of the older
+and bigger boy in muscle and skill.
+
+Albert, moreover, had no regrets for the world without.  Their
+life with the wagon train had been far from pleasant, and he had
+only Dick, and Dick had only him.  Now the life in the enchanted
+valley, which was a real valley of enchantments, was sufficient
+for him.  Each day brought forth some new wonder, some fresh and
+interesting detail.  He was a capable fisherman, and he caught
+trout in both the brook and the river, while the lake yielded to
+his line other and larger fish, the names of which neither boy
+knew, but which proved to be of delicate flavor when broiled over
+the coals.  Just above them was a boiling hot spring, and Albert
+used the water from this for cooking purposes.  "Hot and cold
+water whenever you please," he said to Dick.  "Nothing to do but
+to turn the tap."
+
+Dick smiled; he, too, was happy.  He enjoyed life in the
+enchanted valley, where everything seemed to have conspired in
+their favor.  When they had been there about a week, and their
+home was ready for any emergency, Dick took his gun and went
+forth, the hunting spirit strong within him.  They had heard the
+elk whistling on the mountain side nearly every day, and he
+believed that elk meat would prove tender and good.  Anyway he
+would see.
+
+Dick did not feel much concern about their food supply.  He
+believed that vast quantities of big game would come into this
+valley in the winter to seek protection from the mighty snows of
+the northern Rockies, but it was just as well to begin the task
+of filling the larder.
+
+He came out into the main valley and turned toward the lake.
+Autumn was now well advanced, but in the cool sunshine the lake
+seemed more beautiful than ever.  Its waters were golden to-day,
+but with a silver tint at the edges where the pine-clad banks
+overhung it.  Dick did not linger, however.  He turned away
+toward the slopes, whence the whistling call had come the
+oftenest, and was soon among the pines and cedars.  He searched
+here an hour or more, and at last he found two feeding, a male
+and a female.
+
+Dick had the instinct of the hunter, and already he had acquired
+great skill. Creeping through the undergrowth, he came within easy
+shot of the animals, and he looked at them a little before
+shooting.  The bull was magnificent, and he, if any, seemed a fit
+subject for the bullet, but Dick chose the cow, knowing that she
+would be the tenderer.  Only a single shot was needed, and then
+he had a great task to carry the hide and the body in sections to
+the cabin.  They ate elk steaks and then hung the rest in the
+trees for drying and jerking.  Dick, according to his previous
+plan, used the skin to cover the newly mended places in the roof,
+fastening it down tightly with small wooden pegs.  His forethought
+was vindicated two days later when a great storm came.  Both he
+and Albert had noticed throughout the afternoon an unusual warmth
+in the air.  It affected Albert particularly, as it made his
+respiration difficult.  Over the mountains in the west they saw
+small dark clouds which soon began to grow and unite.  Dick
+thought he knew what it portended, and he and his brother quickly
+taking down the tent, carried it and all its equipment inside the
+cabin.  Then making fast the door and leaving the window open,
+they waited.
+
+The heat endured, but all the clouds became one that overspread
+the entire heavens.  Despite the lateness of the season, the
+thunder, inexpressibly solemn and majestic, rumbled among the
+gorges, and there was a quiver of lightening.  It was as dark as
+twilight.
+
+The rain came, roaring down the clefts and driving against the
+cabin with such force that they were compelled to close the
+window.  How thankful Dick was now for Albert's sake that they
+had such a secure shelter!  Nor did he despise it for his own.
+
+The rain, driven by a west wind, poured heavily, and the air
+rapidly grew colder.  Albert piled dry firewood on the hearth and
+lighted it.  The flames leaped up, and warmth, dryness, and cheer
+filled all the little cabin.  Dick had been anxiously regarding
+the roof, but the new boards and the elk skin were water-tight.
+Not a drop came through.  Higher leaped the flames and the rosy
+shadows fell upon the floor.
+
+"It's well we took the tent down and came in here," said Albert.
+"Listen to that!"
+
+The steady, driving sweep changed to a rattle and a crackle.  The
+rain had turned to hail, and it was like the patter of rifle fire
+on the stout little cabin.
+
+"It may rain or hail or snow, or do whatever it pleases, but it
+can't get at us," said Albert exultingly.
+
+"No, it can't," said Dick.  "I wonder, Al, what Bright Sun is
+doing now?"
+
+"A peculiar Indian," said Albert thoughtfully, "but it's safe to
+say that wherever he is he's planning and acting."
+
+"At any rate," said Dick, "we're not likely to know it, whatever
+it is, for a long time, and we won't bother trying to guess about
+it."
+
+It hailed for an hour and then changed to rain again, pouring
+down in great steadiness and volume.  Dick opened the window a
+little way once, but the night was far advanced, and it was
+pitchy black outside.  They let the coals die down to a glowing
+bed, and then, wrapping themselves in their blankets, they slept
+soundly all through the night and the driving rain, their little
+cabin as precious to them as any palace was ever to a king.
+
+Albert, contrary to custom, was the first to awake the next
+morning.  A few coals from the fire were yet alive on the hearth,
+and the atmosphere of the room, breathed over and over again
+throughout the night, was close and heavy.  He threw back the
+window shutter, and the great rush of pure cold air into the
+opening made his body thrill with delight.  This was a physical
+pleasure, but the sight outside gave him a mental rapture even
+greater.  Nothing was falling now, but the rain had turned back
+to hail before it ceased, and all the earth was in glittering
+white.  The trees in the valley, clothed in ice, were like lace
+work, and above them towered the shining white mountains.
+
+Albert looked back at Dick.  His brother, wrapped in his blanket,
+still slept, with his arm under his head and his face toward the
+hearth.  He looked so strong, so enduring, as he lay there
+sleeping soundly, and Albert knew that he was both.  But a
+curious feeling was in the younger boy's mind that morning.  He
+was glad that he had awakened first.  Hitherto he had always
+opened his eyes to find Dick up and doing.  It was Dick who had
+done everything.  It was Dick who had saved him from the
+Sioux; it was Dick who had practically carried him over the first
+range; Dick had found their shelter in the pine alcove; Dick had
+labored day and night, day after day, and night after night,
+bringing the stores over the mountain from the lost train, then
+he had found their new home in the enchanted valley, which Albert
+persisted in calling it, and he had done nearly all the hard work
+of repairing and furnishing the cabin.
+
+It should not always be so.  Albert's heart was full of gratitude
+to this brother of his who was so brave and resourceful, but he
+wanted to do his share.  The feeling was based partly on pride
+and partly on a new increase of physical strength.  He took a
+deep inhalation of the cold mountain air and held it long in his
+lungs.  Then he emitted it slowly.  There was no pain, no feeling
+of soreness, and it was the first time he could remember that it
+had been so.  A new thrill of pleasure, keener and more powerful
+than any other, shook him for a moment.  It was a belief, nay, a
+certainty, or at least a conviction, that he was going to be
+whole and sound.  The mountains were doing their kindly healing.
+He could have shouted aloud with pleasure, but instead he
+restrained himself and went outside, softly shutting the door
+behind him.
+
+Autumn had gone and winter had come in a night.  The trees were
+stripped of every leaf and in their place was the sheathing of
+ice.  The brook roared past, swollen for the time to a little
+river.  The air, though very cold, was dry despite the heavy rain
+of the night before.  Albert shivered more than once, but it was
+not the shiver of weakness.  It did not bite to the very marrow
+of him.  Instead, when he exercised legs and arms vigorously,
+warmth came back.  He was not a crushed and shriveled thing.
+Now he laughed aloud in sheer delight.  He had subjected
+himself to another test, and he had passed it in triumph.
+
+He built up the fire, and when Dick awoke, the pleasant aroma of
+cooking filled the room.
+
+"Why, what's this, Al?" exclaimed the big youth, rubbing his
+eyes.
+
+"Oh, I've been up pretty near an hour," replied Albert airily.
+"Saw that you were having a fine sleep, so I thought I wouldn't
+disturb you."
+
+Dick looked inquiringly at him.  He thought he detected a new
+note in his brother's voice, a note, too, that he liked.
+
+"I see," he said; "and you've been at work sometime,  Do you feel
+fully equal to the task?"
+
+Albert turned and faced his brother squarely.
+
+"I've been thinking a lot, and feeling a lot more this morning,"
+he replied.  "I've been trying myself out, as they say, and if
+I'm not well I'm traveling fast in that direction.  Hereafter I
+share the work as well as the rewards."
+
+Albert spoke almost defiantly, but Dick liked his tone and manner
+better than ever.  He would not, on any account, have said
+anything in opposition at this moment.
+
+"All right, Al, old fellow.  That's agreed," he said.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII
+An Animal Progression
+
+The thin sheath of ice did not last long.  On the second day the
+sun came out and melted it in an hour.  Then a warm wind blew and
+in a few more hours the earth was dry.  On the third day Albert
+took his repeating rifle from the hooks on the wall and calmly
+announced that he was going hunting.
+
+"All right," said Dick; "and as I feel lazy I'll keep house until
+you come back.  Don't get chewed up by a grizzly bear."
+
+Dick sat down in the doorway of the cabin and watched his brother
+striding off down the valley, gun on shoulder, figure very erect.
+Dick smiled; but it was a smile of pride, not derision.
+
+"Good old Al!  He'll do!" he murmured.
+
+Albert followed the brook into the larger valley and then went
+down by the side of the lake.  Though a skillful shot, he was not
+yet a good hunter, but he knew that one must make a beginning and
+he wanted to learn through his own mistakes.
+
+He had an idea that game could be found most easily in the forest
+that ran down the mountain side to the lake, and he was thinking
+most particularly just then of elk.  He had become familiar with
+the loud, whistling sound, and he listened for it now but did not
+hear it.
+
+He passed the spot at which Dick had killed the big cow elk and
+continued northward among the trees that covered the slopes and
+flat land between the mountain and the lake.  This area broadened
+as he proceeded, and, although the forest was leafless now, it
+was so dense and there was such a large proportion of evergreens,
+cedars, and pines that Albert could not see very far ahead.  He
+crossed several brooks pouring down from the peaks.  All were in
+flood, and once or twice it was all that he could do with a
+flying leap to clear them, but he went on, undiscouraged, keeping
+a sharp watch for that which he was hunting.
+
+Albert did not know much about big game, but he remembered
+hearing Dick say that elk and mule deer would be likely to come
+into the valley for shelter at the approach of winter, and he was
+hopeful that he might have the luck to encounter a whole herd of
+the big elk.  Then, indeed, he would prove that he was an equal
+partner with Dick in the work as well as the reward.  He wished
+to give the proof at once.
+
+He had not been so far up the north end of the valley before, and
+he noticed that here was quite an expanse of flat country on
+either side of the lake.  But the mountains all around the valley
+were so high that it seemed to Albert that deer and other wild
+animals might find food as well as shelter throughout the
+winter.  Hence he was quite confident, despite his poor luck so
+far, that he should find big game soon, and his hunting fever
+increased.  He had never shot anything bigger than a rabbit, but
+Albert was an impressionable boy, and his imagination at once
+leaped over the gulf from a rabbit to a grizzly bear.
+
+He had the lake, an immense and beautiful blue mirror, on his
+right and the mountains on his left, but the space between was
+now nearly two miles in width, sown thickly in spots with pine
+and cedar, ash and aspen, and in other places quite open.  In the
+latter the grass was green despite the lateness of the season,
+and Albert surmised that good grazing could be found there all
+through the winter, even under the snow.  Game must be plentiful
+there, too.
+
+The way dropped down a little into a sheltered depression, and
+Albert heard a grunt and a great puffing breath.  A huge dark
+animal that had been lying among some dwarf pines shuffled to its
+feet and Albert's heart slipped right up into his throat.  Here
+was his grizzly, and he certainly was a monster!  Every nerve in
+Albert was tingling, and instinct bade him run.  Will had a hard
+time of it for a few moments, struggling with instinct, but will
+conquered, and, standing his ground, Albert fired a bullet from
+his repeater at the great dark mass.
+
+The animal emitted his puffing roar again and rushed, head down,
+but blindly.  Then Albert saw that he had roused not a grizzly
+bear but an enormous bull buffalo, a shaggy, fierce old fellow
+who would not eat him, but who might gore or trample him to
+death.  His aspect was so terrible that will again came near
+going down before instinct, but Albert did not run.  Instead, he
+leaped aside, and, as the buffalo rushed past, he fired another
+bullet from his repeater into his body just back of the fore
+legs.
+
+The animal staggered, and Albert staggered, too, from excitement
+and nervousness, but he remembered to take aim and fire again and
+again with his heavy repeater.  In his heat and haste he did not
+hear a shout behind him, but he did see the great bull stagger,
+then reel and fall on his side, after which he lay quite still.
+
+Albert stood, rifle in hand, trembling and incredulous.  Could it
+be he who had slain the mightiest buffalo that ever trod the
+earth?  The bull seemed to his distended eyes and flushed brain
+to weigh ten tons at least, and to dwarf the biggest elephant.
+He raised his hand to his forehead and then sat down beside his
+trophy, overcome with weakness.
+
+"Well, now, you have done it, young one!  I thought I'd get a
+finger in this pie, but I came up too late!  Say, young fellow,
+what's your name?  Is it Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett?"
+
+It was Dick who had followed in an apparently casual manner.  He
+had rushed to his brother's rescue when he saw the bull charging,
+but he had arrived too late--and he was glad of it; the triumph
+was wholly Albert's.
+
+Albert, recovering from his weakness, looked at Dick, looked at
+the buffalo, and then looked back at Dick.  All three looks were
+as full of triumph, glory, and pride as any boy's look could be.
+
+"He's as big as a mountain, isn't he, Dick?" he said.
+
+"Well, not quite that," replied Dick gravely.  "A good-sized hill
+would be a better comparison."
+
+The buffalo certainly was a monster, and the two boys examined
+him critically.  Dick was of the opinion that he belonged to the
+species known as the wood bison, which is not numerous among the
+mountains, but which is larger than the ordinary buffalo of the
+plains.  The divergence of type, however, is very slight.
+
+"He must have been an outlaw," said Dick; "a vicious old bull
+compelled to wander alone because of his bad manners.  Still,
+it's likely that he's not the only buffalo in our valley."
+
+"Can we eat him?" asked Albert.
+
+"That's a question.  He's sure to be tough, but I remember how we
+used to make steak tender at home by beating it before it was
+cooked.  We might serve a thousand pounds or two of this bull in
+that manner.  Besides, we want that robe."
+
+The robe was magnificent, and both boys felt that it would prove
+useful.  Dick had gained some experience from his own buffalo
+hunt on the plains, and they began work at once with their sharp
+hunting knives.  It was no light task to take the skin, and the
+beast was so heavy that they could not get it entirely free until
+they partly chopped up the body with an ax that Dick brought from
+the cabin.  Then it made a roll of great weight, but Dick spread
+it on the roof of their home to cure.  They also cut out great
+sections of the buffalo, which they put in the same place for
+drying and jerking.
+
+While they were engaged at this task, Albert saw a pair of fiery
+eyes regarding them from the undergrowth.
+
+"See, Dick," he said, "what is that?"
+
+Dick saw the eyes, the lean ugly body behind it, and he
+shuddered.  He knew.  It was the timber wolf, largest and
+fiercest of the species, brother to him whom he had seen prowling
+about the ruined wagon train.  The brute called up painful
+memories, and, seizing his rifle, he fired at a spot midway
+between the red eyes.  The wolf uttered a howl, leaped high in
+the air, and fell dead, lying without motion, stretched on his
+side.
+
+"I didn't like the way he looked at us," explained Dick.
+
+A horrible growling and snapping came from the bushes presently.
+
+"What's that?" asked Albert.
+
+"It's only Mr. Timber Wolf's brethren eating up Mr. Timber Wolf,
+now that he is no longer of any use to himself."
+
+Albert shuddered, too.
+
+It was nightfall when they took away the last of the buffalo for
+which they cared, and as they departed they heard in the twilight
+the patter of light feet.
+
+"It's the timber wolves rushing for what we've left," said Dick.
+"Those are big and fierce brutes, and you and I, Al, must never
+go out without a rifle or a revolver.  You can't tell what
+they'll try, especially in the winter."
+
+The entire roof of the cabin was covered the next day with the
+buffalo robe and the drying meat, and birds of prey began to
+hover above it.  Albert constituted himself watchman, and, armed
+with a long stick, took his place on the roof, where he spent the
+day.
+
+Dick shouldered one of the shotguns and went down to the lake.
+There he shot several fine teal, and in one of the grassy glades
+near it he roused up prairie hen.  Being a fine shot, he secured
+four of these, and returned to the cabin with his acceptable
+spoil.
+
+They had now such a great supply of stores and equipment that
+their place was crowded and they scarcely had room for sleeping
+on the floor.
+
+"What we need," said Dick, "is an annex, a place that can be used
+for a storehouse only, and this valley, which has been so kind to
+us, ought to continue being kind and furnish it."
+
+The valley did furnish the annex, and it was Albert who found
+it.  He discovered a little further up the cleft an enormous oak,
+old and decayed.  The tree was at lease seven feet through, and
+the hollow itself was fully five feet in diameter, with a height
+of perhaps fourteen feet.  It was very rough inside with sharp
+projections in every direction which had kept any large animal
+from making his den there, but Albert knew at once that the
+needed place had been found.  Full of enthusiasm he ran for Dick,
+who came instantly to see.
+
+"Fine," said Dick approvingly.  "We'll call it the 'Annex,' sure
+enough, and we'll get to work right away with our axes."
+
+They cut out all the splinters and other projections, smoothing
+off the round walls and the floor, and they also extended the
+hollow overhead somewhat.
+
+"This is to be a two-story annex," said Dick.  "We need lots of
+room."
+
+High up they ran small poles across, fixing them firmly in the
+tree on either side, and lower down they planted many wooden pegs
+and hooks on which they might hang various articles.
+
+"Everything will keep dry in here," said Albert.  "I would not
+mind sleeping in the Annex, but when the door is closed there
+won't be a particle of air."
+
+It was the "door" that gave them the greatest trouble.  The
+opening by which they entered the hollow was about four feet high
+and a foot and a half across, and both boys looked at it a long
+time before they could see a way to solve the puzzle.
+
+"That door has to be strong enough to keep everything out," said
+Dick.  "We mean to keep most of our meat supply in there, and
+that, of course, will draw wild animals, little and big; it's the
+big ones we've got to guard against."
+
+After strenuous thinking, they smoothed off all the sides of the
+opening in order that a flat surface might fit perfectly against
+them.  Then Dick cut down a small oak, and split out several
+boards--not a difficult task for him, as he had often helped to
+make boards in Illinois.  The boards were laid together the width
+of the opening and were held in place by cross pieces fastened
+with wooden pegs.  Among their stores were two augers and two
+gimlets, and they were veritable godsends; they enabled the boys
+to make use of pegs and to save the few nails that they had for
+other and greater emergencies.
+
+The door was made, and now came the task to "hang" it.  "Hang"
+was merely a metaphorical word, as they fitted it into place
+instead.  The wood all around the opening was about a foot thick,
+and they cut it out somewhat after the fashion of the lintels of
+a doorway.  Then they fitted in the door, which rested securely
+in its grooves, but they knew that the claws of a grizzly bear or
+mountain lion might scratch it out, and they intended to make it
+secure against any such mischance.
+
+With the aid of hatchet and auger they put three wooden hooks on
+either side of the doorway, exactly like those that defend the
+door of a frontier cabin, and into these they dropped three stout
+bars.  It was true that the bars were on the outside, but no wild
+animal would have the intelligence enough to pry up those three
+bars and scratch the door out of place.  Moreover, it could not
+happen by accident.  It took them three laborious days to make
+and fit this door, but when the task was done they contemplated
+it with just pride.
+
+"I call that about the finest piece of carpenter's work ever done
+in these mountains," said Albert in tones suffused with
+satisfaction.
+
+"Of course," said Dick.  "Why shouldn't it be, when the best
+carpenters in the world did the job?"
+
+The two laughed, but their pride was real and no jest.  It was
+late in the afternoon when they finished this task, and on the
+way to the cabin Albert suddenly turned white and reeled.  Dick
+caught him, but he remained faint for sometime.  He had
+overtasked himself, and when they reached the cabin Dick made
+him lie down on the great buffalo robe while he cooked supper.
+But, contrary to his former habit, Albert revived rapidly.  The
+color returned to his face and he sprang up presently, saying
+that he was hungry enough to eat a whole elk.  Dick felt a might
+sense of relief.  Albert in his zeal had merely overexerted
+himself.  It was not any relapse.  "Here's the elk steak and you
+can eat ten pounds of it if you want it," he said.
+
+They began early the next morning to move supplies to the Annex.
+High up in the hollow they hung great quantities of dried meat of
+buffalo, elk, and mule deer.  They also stored there several elk
+and mule deer skins, two wolf skins, and other supplies that they
+thought they would not need for a while.  But in the main it was
+what they called a smokehouse, as it was universally known in the
+Mississippi Valley, their former home--that is, a place for
+keeping meat cured or to be cured.
+
+This task filled the entire day, and when the door was securely
+fastened in place they returned to the cabin.  After supper Dick
+opened the window, from which they could see the Annex, as they
+had cut away a quantity of the intervening bushes.  Albert
+meanwhile put out the last coals of the fire.  Then he joined
+Dick at the window.  Both had an idea that they were going to see
+something interesting.
+
+The valley filled with darkness, but the moon came out, and,
+growing used to the darkness, they could see the Annex fairly
+well.
+
+Dick wet his finger and held it up.
+
+"The wind is blowing from the Annex toward us," he said.
+
+"That's good," said Albert, nodding.
+
+They watched for a long time, hearing only the dry rustling of
+the light wind among the bare boughs, but at last Dick softly
+pushed his shoulder against Albert's.  Albert nodded again, with
+comprehension.  A small dark animal came into the open space
+around the Annex.  The boys had difficulty in tracing his
+outlines at first, but once they had them fixed, they followed
+his movements with ease.  He advanced furtively, stopping at
+intervals evidently both to listen and look.  Some other of his
+kind, or not of his kind, might be on the same quest and it was
+his business to know.
+
+"Is it a fox?" whispered Albert.
+
+"I think not," replied Dick in the same tone.  "It must be a
+wolverine.  He scents the good things in the Annex and he wants,
+oh, how he wants, the taste of them!"
+
+The little dark animal, after delicate maneuvering, came close up
+to the tree, and they saw him push his nose against the
+cold bark.
+
+"I know just how he feels," whispered Albert with some sympathy.
+"It's all there, but he must know the quest is hopeless."
+
+The little animal went all around the tree nosing the cold bark,
+and then stopped again at the side of the door.
+
+"No use, sir," whispered Albert.  "That door won't open just
+because you're hungry."
+
+The little animal suddenly cocked up his head and darted swiftly
+away into the shadows.  But another and somewhat larger beast
+came creeping into the open, advancing with caution toward the
+Annex.
+
+"Aha!" whispered Dick.  "Little fellow displaced by a bigger
+one.  That must be a wild cat."
+
+The wild cat went through the same performance.  He nosed
+eagerly at the door, circled the tree two or three times, but
+always came back to the place where that tempting, well-nigh
+irresistible odor assailed him.  The boys heard a low growl
+and the scratching of sharp claws on the door.
+
+"Now he's swearing and fighting," whispered Albert, "but it will
+do him no good.  Save your throat and your claws, old fellow."
+
+"Look, he's gone!" whispered Dick.
+
+The wild cat suddenly tucked his tail between his legs and fled
+from the opening so swiftly that they could scarcely see him go.
+
+"And here comes his successor," whispered Albert.  "I suppose,
+Dick, we might call this an arithmetical or geometrical
+progression."
+
+An enormous timber wolf stalked into the clear space.  He bore no
+resemblance to the mean, sneaking little coyote of the prairie.
+As he stood upright his white teeth could be seen, and there was
+the slaver of hunger on his lips.  He, too, was restive,
+watchful, and suspicious, but it did not seem to either Dick or
+Albert that his movements betokened fear.  There was strength in
+his long, lean body, and ferocity in his little red eyes.
+
+"What a hideous brute!" whispered Albert, shuddering.
+
+"And as wicked as he is ugly," replied Dick.  "I hate the sight
+of these timber wolves.  I don't wonder that the wild cat made
+himself scarce so quickly."
+
+"And he's surely hungry!" said Albert.  "See how he stretches out
+his head toward our Annex, as if he would devour everything
+inside it!"
+
+Albert was right.  The big wolf was hungry, hungry through and
+through, and the odor that came from the tree was exquisite and
+permeating; it was a mingled odor of many things and everything
+was good.  He had never before known a tree to give forth such a
+delightful aroma and he thrilled in every wolfish fiber as it
+tickled his nostrils.
+
+He approached the tree with all the caution of his cautious and
+crafty race, and, as he laid his nose upon the bark, that mingled
+aroma of many things good grew so keen and powerful that he
+came as near as a big wolf can to fainting with delight.  He
+pushed at the places where the door fitted into the tree, but
+nothing yielded.  Those keen and powerful odors that penetrated
+delightfully to every marrow of him were still there, but he
+could not reach their source.  A certain disappointment, a vague
+fear of failure mingled with his anticipation, and as the
+wolverine and the wild cat had done, he moved uneasily around the
+tree, scratching at the bark, and now and then biting it with
+teeth that were very long and cruel.
+
+His troubled circuit brought him back to the door, where the
+aroma was finest and strongest.  There he tore at the lowest bar
+with tooth and claw, but it did not move.  He had the aroma and
+nothing more, and no big, strong wolf can live on odors only.
+The vague disappointment grew into a positive rage.  He felt
+instinctively that he could not reach the good things that the
+wonderful tree held within itself, but he persisted.  He bent his
+back, uttered a growl of wrath just as a man swears, and fell to
+again with tooth and claw.
+
+"If I didn't know that door was so very strong, I'd be afraid
+he'd get it," whispered Albert.
+
+"Never fear," Dick whispered back with confidence.
+
+The big wolf suddenly paused in his effort.  Tooth and claw were
+still, and he crouched hard against the tree, as if he would have
+his body to blend with its shadow.  A new odor had come to his
+nostrils.  It did not come from the tree.  Nor was it pleasant.
+Instead, it told him of something hostile and powerful.  He was
+big and strong himself, but this that came was bigger and
+stronger.  The growl that had risen in his throat stopped at his
+teeth.  A chill ran down his backbone and the hair upon it stood
+up.  The great wolf was afraid, and he knew he was afraid.
+
+"Look!" whispered Albert in rising excitement.  "The wolf, too,
+is stealing away!  He is scared by something!"
+
+"And good cause he has to be scared," said Dick.  "See what's
+coming!"
+
+A great tawny beast stood for a moment at the edge of the
+clearing.  He was crouched low against the ground, but his body
+was long and powerful, with massive shoulders and fore arms.  His
+eyes were yellow in the moonlight, and they stared straight at
+the Annex.  The big wolf took one hasty frightened look and then
+fled silently in the other direction.  He knew now that the
+treasures of the Annex were not for him.
+
+"It's a cougar," whispered Dick, "and it must be the king of them
+all.  Did you ever see such a whopper?"
+
+The cougar came farther into the clearing.  He was of great size,
+but he was a cat--a huge cat, but a cat, nevertheless--and like
+a cat he acted.  He dragged his body along the earth, and his
+eyes, now yellow, now green, in the moonlight, were swung
+suspiciously from side to side.  He felt all that the wolf had
+felt, but he was even more cunning and his approach was slower.
+It was his habit to spring when close enough, but he saw nothing
+to spring at except a tree trunk, and so he still crept forward
+on noiseless pads.
+
+"Now, what will Mr. Cougar do?" asked Albert.
+
+"Just what the others have done," replied Dick.  "He will scratch
+and bite harder because he is bigger and stronger, but we've
+fixed our Annex for just such attacks.  It will keep him out."
+
+Dick was right.  The cougar or mountain lion behaved exactly as
+the others had done.  He tore at the door, then he circled the
+tree two or three times, hunting in vain for an opening.  Every
+vein in him was swollen with rage, and the yellowish-green eyes
+flared with anger.
+
+"He'd be an ugly creature to meet just now," whispered Dick.
+"He's so mad that I believe he'd attack an elephant."
+
+"He's certainly in no good humor," replied Dick.  "But look, Al!
+See his tail drop between his legs!  Now what under the moon is
+about to happen?"
+
+Albert, surcharged with interest and excitement, stared as Dick
+was staring.  The mighty cat seemed suddenly to crumple up.  His
+frame shrank, his head was drawn in, he sank lower to the earth,
+as if he would burrow into it, but he uttered no sound whatever.
+He was to both the boys a symbol of fear.
+
+"What a change!  What does it mean?" whispered Albert.
+
+"It must mean," replied Dick, "that he, too, has a master and
+that master is coming."
+
+The cougar suddenly bunched himself up and there was a flash of
+tawny fur as he shot through the air.  A second leap and the
+trees closed over his frightened figure.  Albert believed that he
+would not stop running for an hour.
+
+Into the opening, mighty and fearless, shambled a monstrous
+beast.  He had a square head, a long, immense body, and the claws
+of his great feet were hooked, many inches in length, and as
+sharp and hard as if made of steel.  The figure of the beast
+stood for power and unbounded strength, and his movements
+indicated overwhelming confidence.  There was nothing for him to
+fear.  He had never seen any living creature that could do him
+harm.  It was a gigantic grizzly bear.
+
+Albert, despite himself, as he looked at the terrible brute, felt
+fear.  It was there, unconfined, and a single blow of its paw
+could sweep the strongest man out of existence.
+
+"I'm glad I'm in this cabin and that this cabin is strong," he
+whispered tremulously.
+
+"So am I," said Dick, and his own whisper was a little shaky.
+"It's one thing to see a grizzly in a cage, and another to see
+him out here in the dark in these wild mountains.  And that
+fellow must weigh at least a thousand pounds."
+
+King Bruin shambled boldly across the opening to the Annex.  Why
+should he be careful?  There might be other animals among the
+bushes and trees watching him, but they were weak, timid things,
+and they would run from his shadow.  In the wan moonlight, which
+distorted and exaggerated, his huge bulk seemed to the two boys
+to grow to twice its size.  When he reached the tree he reared up
+against it, growled in a manner that made the blood of the boys
+run cold, and began to tear with teeth and claws of hooked
+steel.  The bark and splinters flew, and, for a moment, Dick was
+fearful lest he should force the door to their treasure.  But it
+was only for a moment; not even a grizzly could break or tear his
+way through such a thickness of oak.
+
+"Nothing can displace him," whispered Albert.  "He's the real
+king."
+
+"He's not the king," replied Dick, "and something can displace
+him."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Albert with incredulity.
+
+"No beast is king.  It's man, and man is here.  I'm going to have
+a shot at that monster who is trying to rob us.  We can reach him
+from here with a bullet.  You take aim, too, Al."
+
+They opened the window a little wider, being careful to make no
+noise, and aimed their rifles at the bear, who was still tearing
+at the tree in his rage.
+
+"Try to hit him in the heart, Al," whispered Dick, "and I'll try
+to do the same.  I'll count three in a whisper, and at the
+'three' we'll fire together."
+
+The hands of both boys as they leveled their weapons were
+trembling, not with fear, but from sheer nervousness.  The bear,
+meanwhile, had taken no notice and was still striving to reach
+the hidden treasures.  Like the others, he had made the circuit
+of the Annex more than once, but now he was reared up again at
+the door, pulling at it with mighty tooth and claw.  It seemed to
+both as they looked down the barrels of their rifles and chose
+the vulnerable spot that, monstrous and misshapen, he was
+constantly growing in size, so powerful was the effect of the
+moonlight and their imagination.  But it was terrible fact to
+them.
+
+They could see him with great distinctness, and so silent was the
+valley otherwise that they could hear the sound of his claws
+ripping across the bark.  He was like some gigantic survival of
+another age.  Dick waited until both his brother and himself grew
+steadier.
+
+"Now don't miss, Albert," he said.
+
+He counted "One, two, three," slowly, and at the "three!" the
+report of the two rifles came as one.  They saw the great bear
+drop down from the tree, they heard an indescribable roar of pain
+and rage, and then they saw his huge bulk rushing down upon
+them.  Dick fired three times and Albert twice, but the bear
+still came, and then Dick slammed the window shut and fastened it
+just as the full weight of the bear was hurled against the cabin.
+
+Neither boy ever concealed from himself the fact that he was in a
+panic for a few moments.  Their bullets seemed to have had no
+effect upon the huge grizzly, who was growling ferociously and
+tearing at the logs of the cabin.  Glad they were that those logs
+were so stout and thick, and they stood there a little while in
+the darkness, their blood chilling at the sounds outside.
+Presently the roaring and tearing ceased and there was the sound
+of a fall.  It was so dark in the cabin that the brothers could
+not see the faces of each other, but Dick whispered:
+
+"Albert, I believe we've killed him, after all."
+
+Albert said nothing and they waited a full ten minutes.  No sound
+whatever came to their ears.  Then Dick opened the window an inch
+or two and peeped out.  The great bear lay upon his side quite
+still, and Dick uttered a cry of joy.
+
+"We've killed him, Al!  we've killed him!" he cried.
+
+"Are you sure?" asked Albert.
+
+"Quite sure.  He does not stir in the slightest."
+
+They opened the door and went out.  The great grizzly was really
+dead.  Their bullets had gone true, but his vitality was so
+enormous that he had been able to rush upon the cabin and tear at
+it in his rage until he fell dead.  Both boys looked at him with
+admiration and awe; even dead, he was terrifying in every
+respect.
+
+"I don't wonder that the cougar, big and strong as he was, slunk
+away in terror when he saw old Ephraim coming," said Dick.
+
+"We must have his skin to put with our two buffalo robes," said
+Albert.
+
+"And we must take it to-night," said Dick, "or the wolves will be
+here while we sleep."
+
+They had acquired some skill in the art of removing furs and
+pelts, but it took them hours to strip the coat from the big
+grizzly.  Then, as in the case of the buffalo, they cut away some
+portions of the meat that they thought might prove tender.  They
+put the hide upon the roof to dry, and, their work over, they
+went to sleep behind a door securely fastened.
+
+Dick was awakened once by what he thought was a sound of
+growling and fighting outside, but he was so sleepy that it made
+no impression upon him.  They did not awake fully until nearly
+noon, and when they went forth they found that nothing was left
+of the great bear but his skeleton.
+
+"The timber wolves have been busy," said Dick.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII
+The Trap Makers
+
+The hide of the bear, which they cured in good style, was a
+magnificent trophy; the fur was soft and long, and when spread
+out came near covering the floor of their cabin.  It was a fit
+match for the robe of the buffalo.  They did not know much about
+grizzlies, but they believed that no larger bear would ever be
+killed in the Rocky Mountains.
+
+A few days later Dick shot another buffalo in one of the defiles,
+but this was a young cow and her flesh was tender.  They lived on
+a portion of it from day to day and the rest they cured and put
+in the Annex.  They added the robe to their store of furs.
+
+"I'm thinking," said Dick, "that you and I, Al, might turn fur
+hunters."  This seems to be an isolated corner of the mountains.
+It may have been tapped out long ago, but when man goes away the
+game comes back.  We've got a comfortable house, and, with this
+as a basis, we might do better hunting furs here than if we were
+hunting gold in California, where the chances are always against
+you.
+
+The idea appealed to Albert, but for the present they contented
+themselves with improving their house and surroundings.  Other
+bears, cougars, and wolves came at night and prowled around the
+Annex, but it was secure against them all, and Dick and Albert
+never troubled themselves again to keep awake and watch for such
+intruders.
+
+Winter now advanced and it was very cold, but, to Dick's great
+relief, no snow came.  It was on Albert's account that he wished
+air and earth to remain dry, and it seemed as if Nature were
+doing her best to help the boy's recovery.  The cough did not
+come again, he had no more spells of great exhaustion, the
+physical uplift became mental also, and his spirits, because of
+the rebound, fairly bubbled.  He was full of ideas, continually
+making experiments, and had great plans in regard to the valley
+and Castle Howard, as he sometimes playfully called their cabin.
+
+One of the things that pleased Albert most was his diversion of
+water from a hot spring about fifty yards from the cabin and
+higher up the ravine.  He dug a trench all the way from the pool
+to the house, and the hot water came bubbling down to their very
+door.  It cooled, of course, a little on the way, but it was
+still warm enough for cooking purposes, and Albert was hugely
+delighted.
+
+"Hot water!  Cold water!  Whatever you wish, Dick," he said;
+"just turn on the tap.  If my inventive faculty keeps on growing,
+I'll soon have a shower bath, hot and cold, rigged up here."
+
+"It won't grow enough for that," said Dick; "but I want to tell
+you, Al, that the big game in the valley is increasing at a
+remarkable rate.  Although cold, it's been a very open winter so
+far, but I suppose the instinct of these animals warns them to
+seek a sheltered place in time."
+
+"Instinct or the habit of endless generations," said Albert.
+
+"Which may be the same thing," rejoined Dick.
+
+"There's a whole herd of elk beyond the far end of the lake, I've
+noticed on the cliffs what I take to be mountain sheep, and
+thirty or forty buffalos at least must be ranging about in here."
+
+"Then," said Albert, "let's have a try at the buffaloes.  Their
+robes will be worth a lot when we go back to civilization, and
+there is more room left in the Annex."
+
+They took their repeaters and soon proved Dick's words to be
+true.  In a sheltered meadow three or more miles up the valley
+they found about twenty buffaloes grazing.  Each shot down a fat
+cow, and they could have secured more had not the minds of both
+boys rebelled at the idea of slaughter.
+
+"It's true we'd like to have the robes," said Dick, "but we'd
+have to leave most of the carcasses rotting here.  Even with the
+wonderful appetites that we've developed, we couldn't eat a whole
+buffalo herd in one winter."
+
+But after they had eaten the tongue, brisket, and tenderloin of
+the two cows, while fresh, these being the tenderest and best
+parts of the buffalo, they added the rest of the meat to their
+stores in the Annex.  As they had done already in several cases,
+they jerked it, a most useful operation that observant Dick had
+learned when they were with the wagon train.
+
+It took a lot of labor and time to jerk the buffaloes, but
+neither boy had a lazy bone in him, and time seemed to stretch
+away into eternity before them.  They cut the flesh into long,
+thin strips, taking it all from the bones.  Then all these pieces
+were thoroughly mixed with salt--fortunately, they could obtain
+an unlimited supply of salt by boiling out the water from the
+numerous salt springs in the valley--chiefly by pounding and
+rubbing.  They let these strips remain inside the hides about
+three hours, then all was ready for the main process of jerking.
+
+Albert had been doing the salting and Dick meanwhile had been
+getting ready the frame for the jerking.  He drove four forked
+poles into the ground, in the form of a square and about seven
+feet apart.  The forks were between four and five feet above the
+ground.  On opposite sides of the square, from fork to fork, he
+laid two stout young poles of fresh, green wood.  Then from pole
+to pole he laid many other and smaller poles, generally about an
+inch apart.  They laid the strips of buffalo meat, taken from
+their salt bath, upon the network of small poles, and beneath
+they built a good fire of birch, ash, and oak.
+
+"Why, it makes me think of a smokehouse at home," said Albert.
+
+"Same principle," said Dick, "but if you let that fire under
+there go out, Al, I'll take one of those birch rods and give you
+the biggest whaling you ever had in your life.  You're strong
+enough now to stand a good licking."
+
+Albert laughed.  He thought his big brother Dick about the
+greatest fellow on earth.  But he paid assiduous attention to the
+fire, and Dick did so, too.  They kept it chiefly a great bed of
+coals, never allowing the flames to rise as high as the buffalo
+meat, and they watched over it twenty-four hours.  In order to
+keep this watch, they deserted the cabin for a night, sleeping by
+turns before the fire under the frame of poles, which was no
+hardship to them.
+
+The fierce timber wolves came again in the night, attracted by
+the savory odor of buffalo meat; and once they crept near and
+were so threatening that Albert, whose turn it was at the watch,
+became alarmed.  He awakened Dick, and, in order to teach these
+dangerous marauders a lesson, they shot two of them.  Then the
+shrewd animals, perceiving that the two-legged beasts by the fire
+carried something very deadly with which they slew at a distance,
+kept for a while to the forest and out of sight.
+
+After the twenty-four hours of fire drying, the buffalo meat was
+greatly reduced in weight and bulk, though it was packed as full
+as ever with sustenance.  It was now cured, that is, jerked, and
+would keep any length of time.  While the frame was ready they
+jerked an elk, two mule deer, a big silver-tip bear that Dick
+shot on the mountain side, and many fish that they caught in the
+lake and the little river.  They would scale the fish, cut them
+open down the back, and then remove the bone.  After that the
+flesh was jerked on the scaffold in the same way that the meat of
+the buffalo and deer was treated.
+
+Before these operations were finished, the big timber wolves
+began to be troublesome again.  Neither boy dared to be anywhere
+near the jerking stage without a rifle or revolver, and Dick
+finally invented a spring pole upon which they could put the
+fresh meat that was waiting its turn to be prepared--they did
+not want to carry the heavy weight to the house for safety, and
+then have to bring it back again.
+
+While Dick's spring pole was his own invention, as far as he was
+concerned, it was the same as that used by thousands of other
+trappers and hunters.  He chose a big strong sapling which Albert
+and he with a great effort bent down.  Then he cut off a number
+of the boughs high up, and in each crotch fastened a big piece of
+meat.  The sapling was then allowed to spring back into place and
+the meat was beyond the reach of wolf.
+
+But the wolves tried for it, nevertheless.  Dick awakened Albert
+the first night after this invention was tried and asked him if
+he wished to see a ghost dance.  Albert, wrapped to his eyes in
+the great buffalo robe, promptly sat up and looked.
+
+They had filled four neighboring saplings with meat, and at least
+twenty wolves were gathered under them, looking skyward, but not
+at the sky--it was the flesh of elk and buffalo that they gazed
+at so longingly, and delicious odors that they knew assailed
+their nostrils.
+
+But the wolf is an enterprising animal.  He does not merely sit
+and look at what he wants, expecting it to come to him.  Every
+wolf in the band knew that no matter how hard and long he might
+look that splendid food in the tree would not drop down into his
+waiting mouth.  So they began to jump for it, and it was this
+midnight and wilderness ballet that Albert opened his eyes to
+watch.
+
+One wolf, the biggest of the lot, leaped.  It was a fine leap,
+and might have won him a championship among his kind, but he did
+not reach the prize.  His teeth snapped together, touching only
+one another, and he fell.  Albert imagined that he could hear a
+disappointed growl.  Another wolf leaped, the chief leaped again,
+a third, a fourth, and a fifth leaped, and then all began to leap
+together.
+
+The air was full of flying wolfish forms, going up or coming
+down.  They went up, hearts full of hope, and came down, mouths
+empty of everything but disappointed foam.  Teeth savagely hit
+teeth, and growls of wrath were abundant.  Albert felt a
+ridiculous inclination to laugh.  The whole affair presented its
+ludicrous aspect to him.
+
+"Did you ever see so much jumping for so little reward?" he
+whispered to Dick.
+
+"No, not unless they're taking exercise to keep themselves thin,
+although I never heard of a fat wolf."
+
+But a wolf does not give up easily.  They continued to leap
+faster and faster, and now and then a little higher than before,
+although empty tooth still struck empty tooth.  Now and then a
+wolf more prone to complaint than the others lifted up his voice
+and howled his rage and chagrin to the moon.  It was a genuine
+moan, a long, whining cry that echoed far through the forest and
+along the slopes, and whenever Albert heard it he felt more
+strongly than ever the inclination to laugh.
+
+"I suppose that a wolf's woes are as real as our own," he
+whispered, "but they do look funny and act funny."
+
+"Strikes me the same way," replied Dick with a grin.  "But
+they're robbers, or would be if they could.  That meat's ours,
+and they're trying to get it."
+
+It was in truth a hard case for the wolves.  They were very big
+and very strong.  Doubtless, the selfsame wolf that had been
+driven away from the Annex by the mountain lion was among them,
+and all of them were atrociously hungry.  It was not merely an
+odor now, they could also see the splendid food hanging just
+above their heads.  Never before had they leaped so persistently,
+so ardently, and so high, but there was no reward, absolutely
+none.  Not a tooth felt the touch of flesh.  The wolves looked
+around at one another jealously, but the record was as clean as
+their teeth.  There had been no surreptitious captures.
+
+"Will they keep it up all night?" whispered Albert.
+
+"Can't say," replied Dick.  "We'll just watch."
+
+All the wolves presently stopped leaping and crouched on the
+earth, staring straight up at the prizes which hung, as ever,
+most tantalizingly out of reach.  The moonlight fell full upon
+them, a score or more, and Albert fancied that he could see their
+hungry, disappointed eyes.  The spectacle was at once weird and
+ludicrous.  Albert felt again that temptation to laugh, but he
+restrained it.
+
+Suddenly the wolves, as if it were a preconcerted matter, uttered
+one long, simultaneous howl, full, alike in its rising and
+falling note, of pain, anguish, and despair, then they were gone
+in such swiftness and silence that it was like the instant
+melting of ghosts into thin air.  It took a little effort of will
+to persuade Albert that they had really been there.
+
+"They've given it up," he said.  "The demon dancers have gone."
+
+"Demon dancers fits them," said Dick.  "It's a good name.
+Yes, they've gone, and I don't think they'll come back.  Wolves
+are smart, they know when they're wasting time."
+
+When they finished jerking their buffalo meat and venison, Dick
+took the fine double-barreled shotgun which they had used but
+little hitherto, and went down to the lake in search of succulent
+waterfowl.  The far shore of the lake was generally very high,
+but on the side of the cabin there were low places, little
+shallow bays, the bottoms covered with grass, which were much
+frequented by wild geese and wild ducks, many of which, owing to
+the open character of the winter, had not yet gone southward.
+The ducks, in particular, muscovy, mallard, teal, widgeon, and
+other kinds, the names of which Dick did not know, were
+numerous.  They had been molested so little that they were quite
+tame, and it was so easy to kill them in quantities that the
+element of sport was entirely lacking.
+
+Dick did not fancy shooting at a range of a dozen yards or so
+into a dense flock of wild ducks that would not go away, and he
+wished also to save as many as he could of their shot cartridges,
+for he had an idea that he and his brother would remain in the
+valley a long time.  But both he and Albert wanted good supplies
+of duck and geese, which were certainly toothsome and succulent,
+and they were taking a pride, too, in filling the Annex with the
+best things that the mountains could afford.  Hence Dick did some
+deep thinking and finally evolved a plan, being aided in his
+thoughts by earlier experience in Illinois marshes.
+
+He would trap the ducks and geese instead of shooting them, and
+he and Albert at once set about the task of making the trap.
+This idea was not original with Dick.  As so many others have
+been, he was, in part, and unconscious imitator.  He planted in
+the shallow water a series of hoops, graded in height, the
+largest being in the deepest water, while they diminished
+steadily in size as they came nearer to the land.  They made the
+hoops of split saplings, and planted them about four feet apart.
+
+Then the covered all these hoops with a netting, the total length
+of which was about twenty-five feet.  They also faced each hoop
+with a netting, leaving an aperture large enough for the ducts to
+enter.  It was long and tedious work to make the netting, as this
+was done by cutting the hide of an elk and the hide of a mule
+deer into strips and plaiting the strips on the hoops.  They then
+had a network tunnel, at the smaller end of which they
+constructed an inclosure five or six feet square by means of
+stout poles which they thrust into the mud, and the same network
+covering which they used on the tunnel.
+
+"It's like going in at the big end of a horn and coming out at
+the little one into a cell," said Albert.  "Will it work?"
+
+"Work?" replied Dick.  "Of course, it will.  You just wait and
+you'll see."
+
+Albert looked out upon the lake, where many ducks were swimming
+about placidly, and he raised his hand.
+
+"Oh, foolish birds!"  he apostrophized.  "Here is your enemy,
+man, making before your very eyes the snare that will lead you to
+destruction, and you go on taking no notice, thinking that the
+sunshine will last forever for you."
+
+"Shut up, Al," said Dick, "you'll make me feel sorry for those
+ducks.  Besides, you're not much of a poet, anyway."
+
+When the trap was finished they put around the mouth and all
+along the tunnel quantities of the grass and herbs that the ducks
+seemed to like, and then Dick announced that the enterprise was
+finished.
+
+"We have nothing further to do about it," he said, "but to take
+out our ducks."
+
+It was toward twilight when they finished the trap, and both had
+been in the cold water up to their knees.  Dick had long since
+become hardened to such things, but he looked at Albert rather
+anxiously.  The younger boy, however, did not begin to cough.  He
+merely hurried back to the fire, took off his wet leggings, and
+toasted his feet and legs.  Then he ate voraciously and slept
+like a log the night through.  But both he and Dick went down to
+the lake the next morning with much eagerness to see what the
+trap contained, if anything.
+
+It was a fresh winter morning, not cold enough to freeze the
+surface of the lake, but extremely crisp.  The air contained the
+extraordinary exhilarating quality which Dick had noticed when
+they first came into the mountains, but which he had never
+breathed anywhere else.  It seemed to him to make everything
+sparkle, even his blood, and suddenly he leaped up, cracked his
+heels together, and shouted.
+
+"Why, Dick," exclaimed Albert, "what on earth is the matter with
+you?"
+
+"Nothing is the matter with me.  Instead, all's right.  I'm so
+glad I'm alive, Al, old man, that I wanted to shout out the fact
+to all creation."
+
+"Feel that way myself," said Albert, "and since you've given such
+a good example, think I'll do as you did."
+
+He leaped up, cracked his heels together, and let out a yell that
+the mountains sent back in twenty echoes.  Then both boys laughed
+with sheer pleasure in life, the golden morning, and their happy
+valley.  So engrossed were they in the many things that they were
+doing that they did not yet find time to miss human faces.
+
+As they approached the trap, they heard a great squawking and
+cackling and found that the cell, as Albert called the square
+inclosure, contained ten ducks and two geese swimming about in a
+great state of trepidation.  They had come down the winding
+tunnel and through the apertures in the hoops, but they did not
+have sense enough to go back the same way.  Instead they merely
+swam around the square and squawked.
+
+"Now, aren't they silly?" exclaimed Albert.  "With the door to
+freedom open, they won't take it."
+
+"I wonder," said Dick philosophically, "if we human beings are
+not just the same.  Perhaps there are easy paths out of our
+troubles lying right before us and superior creatures up in the
+air somewhere are always wondering why we are such fools that we
+don't see them."
+
+"Shut up, Dick," said Albert, "your getting too deep.  I've no
+doubt that in our net are some ducks that are rated as
+uncommonly intelligent ducks as ducks go."
+
+They forgot all about philosophy a few moments later when they
+began to dispose of their capture.  They took them out, one by
+one, through a hole that they made in the cell and cut off their
+heads.  The net was soon full up again, and they caught all the
+ducks and geese they wanted with such ridiculous ease that at the
+end of a week they took it down and stored it in the cabin.
+
+They jerked the ducks and geese that they did not need for
+immediate use, and used the feathers to stuff beds and pillows
+for themselves.  The coverings of these beds were furs which they
+stitched together with the tendons of the deer.
+
+They began to be annoyed about this time by the depredations of
+mountain lions, which, attracted by the pleasant odors, came down
+from the slopes to the number of at least half a dozen, Dick
+surmised, and prowled incessantly about the cabin and Annex,
+taking the place of the timber wolves, and proving more
+troublesome and dangerous alike.  One of them managed at night
+to seize the edge of an elk skin that hung on the roof of the
+cabin, and the next morning the skin was half chewed up and
+wholly ruined.
+
+Both boys were full of rage, and they watched for the lions, but
+failed to get a shot at them.  But Dick, out of the stores of his
+memory, either some suggestion from reading, or trappers' and
+hunters' tales, devised a gun trap.  He put a large piece of
+fresh deer meat in the woods about a quarter of a mile from the
+cabin.  It was gone the next morning, and the tracks about showed
+that the lions had been present.
+
+Then Dick drove two stout forked sticks into the ground, the
+forks being about a yard above the earth.  Upon these he lashed
+one of their rifles.  Then he cut a two-foot section of a very
+small sapling, one end of which he inserted carefully between the
+ground that the trigger of the rifle.  The other end was
+supported upon a small fork somewhat higher than those supporting
+the rifle.  Then he procured another slender but long section of
+sapling that reached from the end of the short piece in the
+crotch some distance beyond the muzzle of the rifle.  The end
+beyond the muzzle had the stub of a bough on it, but the end in
+the crotch was tied there with a strip of hide.  Now, if anything
+should pull on the end of this stick, it would cause the shorter
+stick to spring the trigger of the rifle and discharge it.  Dick
+tested everything, saw that all was firmly and properly in place,
+and the next thing to do was to bait the trap.
+
+He selected a piece of most tempting deer meat and fastened it
+tightly on the hooked end of the long stick.  It was obvious that
+any animal pulling at this bait would cause the short stick tied
+at the other end of it to press against the trigger of the rifle,
+and the rifle would be fired as certainly as if the trigger had
+been pulled by the hand of man.  Moreover, the barrel of the
+rifle was parallel with the long stick, and the bullet would
+certainly be discharged into the animal pulling at the bait.
+
+After the bait had been put on Dick put the cartridge in the
+rifle.  He was careful to do this last, as he did not wish to
+take any chances with the trap while he was testing it.  But he
+and Albert ran a little wall of brush off on either side in order
+that the cougar, if cougar it were, should be induced to approach
+the muzzle directly in front.  When all the work was finished,
+the two boys inspected it critically.
+
+"I believe that our timber wolves would be too smart to come up
+to that trap," said Albert.
+
+"Perhaps," said Dick; "but the wolf has a fine intellect, and
+I've never heard that the cougar or puma was particularly noted
+for brain power.  Anyhow, I know that traps are built for him in
+this manner, and we shall see whether it will work."
+
+"Are we going to hide somewhere near by and watch during the
+night?"
+
+"There's no need to make ourselves uncomfortable.  If the gun
+gets him, it'll get him whether we are or are not here."
+
+"That's so," said Albert.  "Well, I'm willing enough to take to
+the cabin.  These nights are growing pretty cold, I can tell
+you."
+
+Taking a last look at the gun trap and assuring themselves that
+it was all right, they hurried away to Castle Howard.  The night
+was coming on much colder than any that they had yet had, and
+both were glad to get inside.  Albert stirred the coals from
+beneath the ashes, put on fresh wood, and soon they had a fine
+blaze.  The light flickered over a cabin greatly improved in
+appearance and wonderfully snug.
+
+The floor, except directly in front of the hearth, where sparks
+and coals would pop out, was covered with the well-tanned skins
+of buffalo, elk, mule deer, bear, and wolf.  The walls were also
+thickly hung with furs, while their extra weapons, tools, and
+clothing hung there on hooks.  It was warm, homelike, and showed
+all the tokens of prosperity.  Dick looked around at it with an
+approving eye.  It was not only a house, and a good house at
+that, but it was a place that one might make a base for a plan
+that he had in mind.  Yes, circumstance had certainly favored
+them.  Their own courage, skill, and energy had done the rest.
+
+Albert soon fell asleep after supper, but Dick was more wakeful,
+although he did not wish to be so.  It was the gun trap that kept
+his eyes open.  He took a pride in doing things well, and he
+wanted the trap to work right.  A fear that it might not do so
+worried him, but in turn he fell into a sound sleep from which he
+was awakened by a report.  He thought at first that something had
+struck the house, but when his confused senses were gathered into
+a focus he knew that it was a rifle shot.
+
+"Up, Al, up!" he cried, "I think a cougar has been fooling with
+our trap!"
+
+Albert jumped up.  They threw on their coats and went out into a
+dark and bitterly cold night.  If they had not been so eager to
+see what had happened, they would have fled back to the refuge of
+the warm cabin, but they hurried on toward the snug little hollow
+in which the gun trap had been placed.  At fifty yards they
+stopped and went much more slowly, as a terrific growling and
+snarling smote their ears.
+
+"It's the cougar, and we've got him," said Dick.  "He's hit bad
+or he wouldn't be making such a terrible fuss."
+
+They approached cautiously and saw on the ground, almost in front
+of the gun, a large yellowish animal writhing about and tearing
+the earth.  His snarls and rage increased as he scented the two
+boys drawing near.
+
+"I think his shoulder is broken and his backbone injured," said
+Dick.  "That's probably the reason he can't get away.  I don't
+like to see him suffer and I'll finish him now."
+
+He sent a bullet through the cougar's head and that was the end
+of him.  In order to save it from the wolves, they took his hide
+from him where he lay, and spread it the next day on the roof of
+the cabin.
+
+The gun trap was so successful that they baited it again and
+again, securing three more cougars, until the animals became too
+wary to try for the bait.  The fourth cougar did not sustain a
+severe wound and fled up the mountain side, but Dick tracked him
+by the trail of blood that he left, overtook him far up the
+slope, and slew him with single shot.  All these skins were added
+to their collection, and when the last was spread out to dry,
+Dick spoke of the plan that he had in mind.
+
+"Al," he said, "these mountains, or at least this corner of them,
+seem to be left to us.  The Sioux, I suppose, are on the warpath
+elsewhere, and they don't like mountains much, anyhow.  Our
+wonderful valley, the slopes, and all the ravines and canyons are
+full of game.  The beaver must be abundant farther in, and I
+propose that we use our opportunity and turn fur hunters.
+There's wealth around us for the taking, and we were never sure
+of it in California.  We've got enough ammunition to last us two
+years if we want to stay that long.  Besides, Al, old boy, the
+valley has been the remaking of you.  You know that."
+
+Albert laughed from sheer delight.
+
+"Dick," he said, "you won't have to get a gun and threaten me
+with death unless I stay.  I'll be glad to be a fur hunter, and,
+Dick, I tell you, I'm in love with this valley.  As you say, it's
+made me over again, and oh, it's fine to be well and strong, to
+do what you please, and not always to be thinking, 'how can I
+stand this?  Will it hurt me?'"
+
+"Then," said Dick, "it's settled.  We'll not think for a long
+time of getting back to civilization, but devote ourselves to
+gathering up furs and skins."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX
+The Timber Wolves
+
+The cold increased, although snow fell but little, which Dick
+considered good luck, chiefly on Albert's account.  He wanted the
+hardening process to continue and not to be checked by thaws and
+permeating dampness.  Meanwhile, they plunged with all the energy
+and fire of youth into the task of fur hunting.  They had already
+done much in that respect, but now it was undertaken as a
+vocation.  They became less scrupulous about sparing the
+buffaloes, and they shot more than twenty in the defiles of the
+mountains, gathering a fine lot of robes.  Several more skins of
+the bear, grizzly, and silver tip were added to their collection,
+and the elk also furnished an additional store.  Many wolverines
+were taken in dead falls and snares, and their skins were added
+to the rapidly growing heap.
+
+They baited the trap gun once more, hoping that a fifth cougar
+might prove rash enough to dare it.  No cougar came, but on the
+third night a scornful grizzly swallowed the deer meat as a
+tidbit, and got a bullet in the neck for his carelessness.  In
+his rage, he tore the trap to pieces and tossed the rifle to one
+side, but, fortunately, he did not injure the valuable weapon,
+his attention turning instantly to something else.  Later on the
+boys dispatched him as he lay wounded upon the ground.
+
+Their old clothing was now about worn out and it also became
+necessary to provide garments of another kind in order to guard
+against the great cold.  Here their furs became invaluable; they
+made moccasins, leggings, caps, and coats alike of them, often
+crude in construction, but always warm.
+
+They found the beaver father in the mountains, as Dick had
+surmised, and trapped them in great abundance.  This was by far
+their most valuable discovery, and they soon had a pack of sixty
+skins, which Dick said would be worth more than a thousand
+dollars in any good market.  They also made destructive inroads
+upon the timber wolves, the hides of which were more valuable
+than those of any other wolf.  In fact, they made such havoc that
+the shrewd timber wolf deserted the valley almost entirely.
+
+As the boys now made their fur hunting a business, they attended
+to every detail with the greatest care.  They always removed the
+skin immediately after the death of the animal, or, if taken in a
+trap, as soon after as possible.  Every particle of fat or flesh
+was removed from the inside of the skin, and they were careful at
+the same time never to cut into the skin itself, as they knew
+that the piercing of a fur with a knife would injure its value
+greatly.  Then the skin was put to dry in a cold, airy place,
+free alike from the rays of the sun or the heat of a fire.  They
+built near the cabin a high scaffold for such purposes, too high
+and strong for any wild beast to tear down or to reach the furs
+upon it.  Then they built above this on additional poles a
+strongly thatched bark roof that would protect the skins from
+rain, and there they cured them in security.
+
+"I've heard," said Dick, "that some trappers put preparations or
+compounds on the skins in order to cure them, but since we don't
+have any preparations or compounds we won't use them.  Besides,
+our furs seem to cure up well enough without them."
+
+Dick was right.  The cold, dry air of the mountains cured them
+admirably.  Two or three times they thought to help along the
+process by rubbing salt upon the inner sides.  They could always
+get plenty of salt by boiling out water from the salt springs,
+but as they seemed to do as well without it, they ceased to take
+the trouble.
+
+The boys were so absorbed now in their interesting and profitable
+tasks that they lost all count of the days.  They knew they were
+far advanced into a splendid open winter, but it is probably that
+they could not have guessed within a week of the exact day.
+However, that was a question of which they thought little.
+Albert's health and strength continued to improve, and with the
+mental stimulus added to the physical, the tide of life was
+flowing very high for both.
+
+They now undertook a new work in order to facilitate their
+trapping operations.  The beaver stream, and another that they
+found a little later, ran far back into the mountains, and the
+best trapping place was about ten miles away.  After a day's work
+around the beaver pond, they had to choose between a long journey
+in the night to the cabin or sleeping in the open, the latter not
+a pleasant thing since the nights had become so cold.  Hence,
+they began the erection of a bark shanty in a well-sheltered cove
+near the most important of the beaver localities.  This was a
+work of much labor, but, as in all other cases, they persisted
+until the result was achieved triumphantly.
+
+They drove two stout, forked poles deep into the ground, leaving
+a projection of about eight feet above the earth.  The poles
+themselves were about eight feet apart.  From fork to fork they
+placed a strong ridgepole.  Then they rested against the
+ridgepole from either side other and smaller poles at an angle of
+forty or fifty degrees.  The sloping poles were about a foot and
+a half apart.  These poles were like the scantling or inside
+framework of a wooden house and they covered it all with spruce
+and birch bark, beginning at the bottom and allowing each piece
+to overlap the one beneath it, after the fashion of a shingled
+roof.  They secured pieces partly with wooden pegs and partly
+with other and heavier wooden poles leaned against them.  One end
+of the shelter was closed up with bark wholly, secured with
+wooden pegs, and the other end was left open in order that its
+tenants might face the fire which would be built three or four
+feet in front of it.  They packed the floor with dead leaves, and
+put on the top of the leaves a layer of thick bark with the
+smooth side upward.
+
+The bark shanty was within a clump of trees, and its open side
+was not fifteen feet from the face of an abrupt cliff.  Hence
+there was never any wind to drive the smoke from the fire back
+into their faces, and, wrapped in their furs, they slept as
+snugly in the shanty as if they had been in the cabin itself.
+But they were too wise to leave anything there in their absence,
+knowing that it was not sufficient protection against the larger
+wild animals.  In fact, a big grizzly, one night when they were
+at the cabin, thrust his nose into the shanty and, lumbering
+about in an awkward and perhaps frightened manner, knocked off
+half of one of the bark sides.  It took nearly a day's work to
+repair the damage, and it put Dick in an ill humor.
+
+"I'd like to get a shot at that bear!" he exclaimed.  "He had no
+business trying to come into a house when he was not invited."
+
+"But he is an older settler than we are," said Albert, in a
+whimsical tone.
+
+Dick did get a shot at a bear a few days later, and it was a
+grizzly, at that.  The wound was not fatal, and the animal came
+on with great courage and ferocity.  A second shot from Dick did
+not stop him and the boy was in great danger.  But Albert, who
+was near, sent two heavy bullets, one after the other, into the
+beast, and he toppled over, dying.  It was characteristic of the
+hardy life they were leading and its tendency toward the
+repression of words and emotion that Dick merely uttered a brief,
+"Thanks, Al, you were just in time," and Albert nodded in reply.
+
+The skin of old Ephraim went to join that of his brother who had
+been taken sometime before, and Dick himself shot a little later
+a third, which contributed a fine skin.
+
+The boys did not know how hard they were really working, but
+their appetites would have bee a fine gauge.  Toiling incessantly
+in a crisp, cold air, as pure as any that the world affords, they
+were nearly always hungry.  Fortunately, the happy valley, their
+own skill and courage, and the supplies that Dick had brought
+from the last wagon train furnished them an unlimited larder.
+Game of great variety was their staple, but they had both flour
+and meal, from which, though they were sparing of their use, they
+made cakes now and then.  They had several ways of preparing the
+Indian meal that Dick had taken from the wagon.  They would boil
+it for about an hour, then, after it cooled, would mix it with
+the fat of game and fry it, after which the compound was eaten in
+slices.  They also made mealcakes, johnnycakes and hoecakes.
+
+Albert was fond of fish, especially of the fine trout that they
+caught in the little river, and soon he invented or discovered a
+way of cooking them that provided an uncommon delicacy for their
+table.  He would slit the trout open, clean it, and the season it
+with salt and also with pepper, which they had among their stores.
+Then he would lay the fish in the hot ashes of a fire that had
+burned down to embers, cover it up thoroughly with the hot ashes
+and embers, and let it cook thirty or forty minutes--thirty minutes
+for the little fellows and forty minutes for the big ones.  When he
+thought the fish was done to the proper turn, he would take it from
+the ashes, clean it, and then remove the skin, which would almost
+peel off of its own accord.
+
+The fish was then ready for the eating, and neither Dick nor
+Albert could ever bear to wait.  The flesh looked so tempting and
+the odor was so savory that hunger instantly became acute.
+
+"They are so good," said Albert, "because my method of cooking
+preserves all the juices and flavors of the fish.  Nothing
+escapes."
+
+"Thanks, professor," said Dick.  "You must be right, so kindly
+pass me another of those trout, and be quick about it."
+
+It is a truth that both boys became epicures.  Their valley
+furnished so much, and they had a seasoning of hard work and open
+mountain air that was beyond compare.  They even imitated Indian
+and trapper ways of cooking geese, ducks, quail, sage hens, and
+other wild fowl that the region afforded.  They could cook these
+in the ashes as they did the trout, and they also had other
+methods.  Albert would take a duck, cut it open and clean it, but
+leave the feathers on.  Then he would put it in water, until the
+feathers were soaked thoroughly, after which he would cover it up
+with ashes, and put hot coals on top of the ashes.  When the bird
+was properly cooked and drawn from the ashes, the skin could be
+pulled off easily, taking the feathers, of course, with it.  Then
+a duck, sweet, tender, and delicate, such as no restaurant could
+furnish, was ready for the hardy youngsters.  At rare intervals
+they improve on this by stuffing the duck with seasoning and
+Indian meal.  Now and then they served a fat goose the same way
+and found it equally good.
+
+They cooked the smaller birds in a simpler manner, especially
+when they were at the bark shanty, which they nicknamed the
+"Suburban Villa."  The bird was plucked of its feathers, drawn
+and washed, and then they cut it down the back in order to spread
+it out.  Nothing was left but to put the bird on the end of a
+sharp stick, hold it over the coals, and turn it around until it
+was thoroughly broiled or roasted.  They also roasted slices of
+big game in the same way.
+
+As Albert was cooking a partridge in this manner one evening at
+the Suburban Villa, Dick, who was sitting on his buffalo-robe
+blanket in the doorway, watched him and began to make comparisons.
+He recalled the boy who had left Omaha with the wagon train six or
+eight months before, a thin, spiritless fellow with a slender, weak
+neck, hollow, white cheeks, pale lips, and listless eyes.  That boy
+drew coughs incessantly from a hollow chest, and the backs of his
+hands were ridged when the flesh had gone away, leaving the bones
+standing up.  This boy whom Dick contemplated was quite a different
+being.  His face was no longer white, it was instead a mixture of
+red and brown, and both tints were vivid.  Across one cheek were some
+brier scratches which he had acquired the day before, but which he had
+never noticed.  The red-brown cheeks were filled out with the effects
+of large quantities of good food digested well.  As he bent over the
+fire, a chest of good width seemed to puff out with muscle and wind
+expansion.  Despite the extreme cold, his sleeves were rolled up
+to the elbow, and the red wrists and hands were well covered with
+tough, seasoned flesh.  The eyes that watched the roasting bird
+were intent, alert, keenly interested in that particular task,
+and in due course, in any other that might present itself.
+
+Dick drew a long breath of satisfaction.  Providence had treated
+them well.  Then he called loudly for his share of the bird,
+saying that he was starving, and in a few moments both fell to
+work.
+
+Their fur operations continued to extend.  They had really found
+a pocket, and isolated corner in the high Rockies where the
+fur-bearing animals, not only abundant, were also increasing.  It
+was, too, the dead of winter, the very best time for trapping,
+and so, as far as their own goings and comings were concerned,
+they were favored further by the lucky and unusual absence of
+snow.  They increased the number of their traps--dead falls, box
+traps, snares, and other kinds, and most of them were successful.
+
+They knew instinctively the quality of the furs that they
+obtained.  They could tell at a glance whether they were prime,
+that is, thick and full, and as they cured them and baled them,
+they classified them.
+
+Constant application bred new ideas.  In their pursuit of furs,
+they found that they were not quite so sparing of the game as
+they had been at first.  Some of their scruples melted away.
+Albert now recalled a device of trappers of which he had read.
+This was the use of a substance generally called barkstone, which
+they found to be of great help to them in the capture of that
+animal.
+
+The barkstone or castoreum, as it is commercially known, was
+obtained principally from the beaver himself.  The basis of it
+was an acrid secretion with a musky odor of great power, found in
+two glands just under the root of the beaver's tail.  Each gland
+was from one and one half to two inches in length.  The boys cut
+out these glands and squeezed the contents into an empty tin
+can.  This at first was of a yellowish-red color, but after a
+while, when it dried, it became a light brown.
+
+This substance formed the main ingredient of barkstone, and in
+their medicine chest they found a part of the remainder.  The
+secretion was transferred to a bottle and the mixed with it
+essence of peppermint and ground cinnamon.  As Albert remembered
+it, ground nutmeg also was needed, but as they had no nutmeg
+they were compelled to take their chances without it. Then they
+poured whisky on the compound until it looked like a paste.
+
+Then the bottle was stopped up with the greatest care, and in
+about a week, when they stole a sniff or two at it, they found
+that the odor had increased ten or a dozen times in power.
+
+They put eight or ten drops of the barkstone upon the bait for
+the beaver, or somewhere near the trap, and, despite some defects
+in the composition, it proved an extraordinary success.  The
+wariest beaver of all would be drawn by it, and their beaver
+bales grew faster than any other.
+
+Dick calculated one day that they had at least five thousand
+dollars worth of furs, which seemed a great sum to both boys.  It
+certainly meant, at that time and in that region, a competence,
+and it could be increased greatly.
+
+"Of course," said Dick, "we'll have to think some day of the way
+in which we must get these furs out, and for that we will need
+horses or mules, but we won't bother our heads about it yet."
+
+After the long period of clear, open weather, the delayed snow
+came.  It began to fall one evening at twilight, when both boys
+were snug in the cabin, and it came in a very gentle, soothing
+way, as if it meant no harm whatever.  Big, soft flakes fell as
+softly as the touch of down, but every time the boys looked out
+they were still coming in the same gentle but persistent way.
+The next morning the big flakes still came down and all that day
+and all the next night.  When the snow stopped it lay five feet
+deep on the level, and uncounted feet deep in the gullies and
+canyons.
+
+"We're snowed in," said Albert in some dismay, "and we can't go
+to our traps.  Why, this is likely to last a month!"
+
+"We can't walk through it," said Dick meditatively, "but we can
+walk on it.  We've got to make snowshoes.  They're what we need."
+
+"Good!" said Albert with enthusiasm.  "Let's get to work at
+once."
+
+Deep snows fall in Illinois, and both, in their earlier boyhood,
+had experimented for the sake of sport with a crude form of
+snowshoe.  Now they were to build upon this slender knowledge,
+for the sake of an immediate necessity, and it was the hardest
+task that they had yet set for themselves.  Nevertheless, it was
+achieved, like the others.
+
+They made a framework of elastic stripes of ash bent in the
+well-known shape of the snowshoe, which bears some resemblance
+to the shape of the ordinary shoe, only many times larger and
+sharply pointed at the rear end.  Its length was between five and
+six feet, and the ends were tightly wound with strips of hide.
+This frame was bent into the shoe shape after it had been soaked
+in boiling water.
+
+Then they put two very strong strips of hide across the front
+part of the framework, and in addition passed at least a half
+dozen stout bands of hide from strip to strip.
+
+Then came the hard task of attaching the shoe to the foot of the
+boy who was to wear it.  The ball of the foot was set on the
+second crosspiece and the foot was then tied there with a broad
+strip of hide which passed over the instep and was secured behind
+the ankle.  It required a good deal of practice to fasten the
+foot so it would not slip up and down; and also in such a manner
+that the weight of the shoe would be proportioned to it properly.
+
+They had to exercise infinite patience before two pairs of
+snowshoes were finished.  There was much hunting in deep snow
+for proper wood, many strips and some good hide were spoiled,
+but the shoes were made and then another equally as great
+confronted the two boys--to learn how to use them.
+
+Each boy put on his pair at the same time and went forth on the
+snow, which was now packed and hard.  Albert promptly caught
+one of his shoes on the other, toppled over, and went down
+through the crust of the snow, head first.  Dick, although in
+an extremely awkward situation himself, managed to pull his
+brother out and put him in the proper position, with his head
+pointing toward the sky instead of the earth.  Albert brushed
+the snow out of his eyes and ears, and laughed.
+
+"Good start, bad ending," he said.  "This is certainly the
+biggest pair of shoes that I ever had on, Dick.  They feel at
+least a mile long to me."
+
+"I know that mine are a mile long," said Dick, as he, too,
+brought the toe of one shoe down upon the heel of the other,
+staggered, fell over sideways, but managed to right himself in
+time.
+
+"It seems to me," said Albert, "that the proper thing to do is to
+step very high and very far, so you won't tangle up one shoe with
+the other."
+
+"That seems reasonable," said Dick, "and we'll try it."
+
+They practiced this step for an hour, making their ankles ache
+badly.  After a good rest they tried it for another hour, and
+then they began to make progress.  They found that they got along
+over the snow at a fair rate of speed, although it remained an
+awkward and tiring gait.  Nevertheless, one could travel an
+indefinite distance, when it was impossible to break one's way
+far through five or six feet of packed snow, and the shoes met a
+need.
+
+"They'll do," said Albert; "but it will never be like walking on
+the solid earth in common shoes."
+
+Albert was right.  Their chief use for these objects, so
+laboriously constructed, was for the purpose of visiting their
+traps, some of which were set at least a dozen miles away.  They
+wished also to go back to the shanty and see that it was all
+right.  They found a number of valuable furs in the traps, but
+the bark shanty had been almost crushed in by the weight of the
+snow, and they spent sometime strengthening and repairing it.
+
+In the course of these excursions their skill with the snowshoes
+increased and they were also able to improve upon the construction,
+correcting little errors in measurement and balance.  The snow
+showed no signs of melting, but they made good progress, nevertheless,
+with their trapping, and all the furs taken were of the highest
+quality.
+
+It would have been easy for them to kill enough game to feed a
+small army, as the valley now fairly swarmed with it, although
+nearly all of it was of large species, chiefly buffalo, elk, and
+bear.  There was one immense herd of elk congregated in a great
+sheltered space at the northern end of the valley, where they fed
+chiefly upon twigs and lichens.
+
+Hanging always upon the flanks of this herd was a band of timber
+wolves of great size and ferocity, which never neglected an
+opportunity to pull down a cripple or a straying yearling.
+
+"I thought we had killed off all these timber wolves," said
+Albert when he first caught sight of the band.
+
+"We did kill off most of those that were here when we came," said
+Dick, "but others, I suppose, have followed the game from the
+mountains into the valley."
+
+Albert went alone a few days later to one of their traps up the
+valley, walking at a good pace on his snowshoes.  A small colony
+of beavers had been discovered on a stream that came down
+between two high cliffs, and the trap contained a beaver of
+unusually fine fur.  Albert removed the skin, put it on his
+shoulder, and, tightening his snowshoes, started back to Castle
+Howard.
+
+The snow had melted a little recently, and in many places among
+the trees it was not deep, but Albert and Dick had made it a
+point to wear their snowshoes whenever they could, for the sake
+of the skill resulting from practice.
+
+Albert was in a very happy frame of mind.  He felt always now a
+physical elation, which, of course, became mental also.  It is
+likely, too, that the rebound from long and despairing ill health
+still made itself felt.  None so well as those who have been ill
+and are cured!  He drew great draughts of the frosty air into his
+strong, sound lungs, and the emitted it slowly and with ease.  It
+was a fine mechanism, complex, but working beautifully.
+Moreover, he had an uncommonly large and rich beaver fur over his
+shoulder.  Such a skin as that would bring twenty-five dollars in
+any decent market.
+
+Albert kept to the deep snow on account of his shoes, and was
+making pretty good time, when he heard a long howl, varied by a
+kind of snappy, growling bark.
+
+"One of those timber wolves," said Albert to himself, "and he has
+scented the blood of the beaver."
+
+He thought no more about the wolf until two or three minutes
+later when he heard another howl and then two or three more.
+Moreover, they were much nearer.
+
+"Now, I wonder what they're after?" thought Albert.
+
+But he went on, maintaining his good pace, and then he heard
+behind him a cry that was a long, ferocious whine rather than a
+howl.  Albert looked back and saw under the trees, where the snow
+was lighter, a dozen leaping forms.  He recognized at once the
+old pests, the timber wolves.
+
+"Now, I wonder what they're after?" he repeated, and then as the
+whole pack suddenly gave tongue in a fierce, murderous howl, he
+saw that it was himself.  Albert, armed though he was--neither
+boy ever went forth without gun or revolver--felt the blood grow
+cold in every vein.  These were not the common wolves of the
+prairie, nor yet the ordinary wolf of the East and Middle West,
+but the great timber wolf of the Northwest, the largest and
+fiercest of the dog tribe.  He had grown used to the presence of
+timber wolves hovering somewhere near, but now they presented
+themselves in a new aspect, bearing down straight upon him, and
+pushed by hunger.  He understood why they were about to attack
+him.  They had been able to secure but little of the large game
+in the valley, and they were drawn on by starvation.
+
+He looked again and looked fearfully.  They seemed to him
+monstrous in size for wolves, and their long, yellowish-gray
+bodies were instinct with power.  Teeth and eyes alike were
+gleaming.  Albert scarcely knew what to do first.  Should he run,
+taking to the deepest snow, where the wolves might sink to their
+bodies and thus fail to overtake him?  But in his own haste he
+might trip himself with the long, ungainly snowshoes, and then
+everything would quickly be over.  Yet it must be tried.  He
+could see no other way.
+
+Albert, almost unconsciously prayed for coolness and judgment,
+and it was well for him that his life in recent months had taught
+him hardihood and resource.  He turned at once into the open
+space, away from the trees, where the snow lay several feet deep,
+and he took long, flying leaps on his snowshoes.  Behind him came
+the pack of great, fierce brutes, snapping and snarling, howling
+and whining, a horrible chorus that made shivers chase one
+another up and down the boy's spine.  But as he reckoned, the
+deep snow made them flounder, and checked their speed.
+
+Before him the open ground and the deep snow stretched straight
+away beside the lake until it reached the opening between the
+mountains in which stood Castle Howard.  As Albert saw the good
+track lie before him, his hopes rose, but presently, when he
+looked back again, they fell with cruel speed.  The wolves,
+despite the depth of the snow, had gained upon him.  Sometimes,
+perhaps, it proved hard enough to sustain the weight of their
+bodies, and then they more than made up lost ground.
+
+Albert noted a wolf which he took at once to be the leader, not
+only because he led all the others, but because also of his
+monstrous size.  Even in that moment of danger he wondered that a
+wolf could grow so large, and that he should have such long
+teeth.  But the boy, despite his great danger, retained his
+presence of mind.  If the wolves were gaining, then he must
+inflict a check upon them.  He whirled about, steadied himself a
+moment on his snowshoes, and fired directly at the huge leader.
+The wolf had swung aside when he saw the barrel of the rifle
+raised, but the bullet struck down another just behind him.
+Instantly, some of the rest fell upon the wounded brute and began
+to devour him, while the remainder, after a little hesitation,
+continued to pursue Albert.
+
+But the boy had gained, and he felt that the repeating rifle
+would be for a while like a circle of steel to him.  He could
+hold them back for a time with bullet after bullet, although it
+would not suffice to stop the final rush when it came, if it
+came.
+
+Albert looked longingly ahead.  He saw a feather of blue smoke
+against the dazzling white and silver of the sky, and he knew
+that it came from their cabin.  If he were only there behind
+those stout log walls!  A hundred wolves, bigger than the big
+leader, might tear at them in vain!  And perhaps Dick, too, would
+come!  He felt that the two together would have little to fear.
+
+The wolves set up their fierce, whining howl again, and once more
+it showed that they had gained upon the fleeing boy.  He turned
+and fired once, twice, three times, four times, as fast as he
+could pull the trigger, directly into the mass of the pack.  He
+could not tell what he had slain and what he had wounded, but
+there was a hideous snapping and snarling, and the sight of wolf
+teeth flashing into wolf flesh.
+
+Albert ran on and that feather of blue smoke was larger and
+nearer.  But was it near enough?  He could hear the wolves behind
+him again.  All these diversions were only temporary.  No matter
+how many of their number were slain or wounded, no matter how
+many paused to devour the dead and hurt, enough were always left
+to follow him.  The pursuit, too, had brought reinforcements from
+the lurking coverts of the woods and bushes.
+
+Albert saw that none of his bullets had struck the leader.  The
+yellowish-gray monster still hung close upon him, and he was to
+Albert like a demon wolf, one that could not be slain.  He would
+try again.  He wheeled and fired.  The leader, as before, swerved
+to one side and a less fortunate wolf behind him received the
+bullet.  Albert fired two more bullets, and then he turned to
+continue his flight.  But the long run, the excitement, and his
+weakened nerves caused the fatal misstep.  The toe of one
+snowshoe caught on the heel of the other, and as a shout pierced
+the air, he went down.
+
+The huge gray leader leaped at the fallen boy, and as his body
+paused a fleeting moment in midair before it began the descent, a
+rifle cracked, a bullet struck him in the throat, cutting the
+jugular vein and coming out behind.  His body fell lifeless on
+the snow, and he who had fired the shot came on swiftly, shouting
+and firing again.
+
+It was well that Dick, sometime after Albert's departure, had
+concluded to go forth for a little hunt, and it was well also
+that in addition to his rifle he had taken the double-barreled
+shotgun thinking that he might find some winter wild fowl flying
+over the snow and ice-covered surface of the lake.  His first
+shot slew the master wolf, his second struck down another, his
+third was as fortunate, his fourth likewise, and then, still
+running forward, he bethought himself of the shotgun that was
+strapped over his shoulder.  He leveled it in an instant and
+fairly sprayed the pack of wolves with stinging shot.  Before
+that it had been each bullet for a wolf and the rest untouched,
+but now there was a perfect shower of those hot little pellets.
+It was more than they could stand, big, fierce, and hungry timber
+wolves though they were.  They turned and fled with beaten howls
+into the woods.
+
+Albert was painfully righting himself, when Dick gave him his
+hand and sped the task.  Albert had thought himself lost, and it
+was yet hard to realize that he had not disappeared down the
+throat of the master wolf.  His nerves were overtaxed, and he was
+near collapse.
+
+"Thank you, Dick, old boy," he said.  "If you hadn't come when
+you did, I shouldn't be here."
+
+"No, you wouldn't," replied Dick grimly.  "Those wolves eat
+fast.  But look, Al, what a monster this fellow is!  Did you ever
+see such a wolf?"
+
+The great leader lay on his side upon the snow, and a full seven
+feet he stretched from the tip of his nose to the root of his
+stumpy tail.  No such wolf as he had ever been put inside a cage,
+and it was rare, indeed, to find one so large, even in the
+mountains south of the very Far North.
+
+"That's a skin that will be worth something," said Dick, "and
+here are more, but before we begin the work of taking them off,
+you'll have to be braced up, Al.  You need a stimulant."
+
+He hurried back to Castle Howard and brought one of the bottles
+of whisky, a little store that they had never touched except in
+the compounding of the barkstone for the capture of beaver.  He
+gave Albert a good stiff drink of it, after which the boy felt
+better, well enough, in fact, to help Dick skin the monster wolf.
+
+"It gives me pleasure to do this," said Albert, as he wielded the
+knife.  "You thought, Mr. Wolf, that I was going to adorn your
+inside; instead, your outside will be used as an adornment
+trodden on by the foot of my kind."
+
+They secured four other fine and unimpaired skins among the
+slain, and after dressing and curing, they were sent to join the
+stores in the Annex.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X
+Dick Goes Scouting
+
+Dick did not believe that the timber wolves, after suffering so
+much in the pursuit of Albert, would venture again to attack
+either his brother or himself.  He knew that the wolf was one of
+the shrewdest of all animals, and that, unless the circumstances
+were very unusual indeed, the sight of a gun would be sufficient
+to warn them off.  Nevertheless, he decided to begin a campaign
+against them, though he had to wait a day or two until Albert's
+shaken nerves were restored.
+
+They wished to save their ammunition as much as possible, and
+they built three large dead falls, in which they caught six or
+seven great wolves, despite their cunning.  In addition they
+hunted them with rifles with great patience and care, never
+risking a shot until they felt quite sure that it would find a
+vital spot.  In this manner they slew about fifteen more, and by
+that time the wolves were thoroughly terrified.  The scent of the
+beings carrying sticks which poured forth death and destruction
+at almost any distance, was sufficient to send the boldest band
+of timber wolves scurrying into the shadows of the deepest forest
+in search of hiding and safety.
+
+The snow melted and poured in a thousand streams from the
+mountains.  The river and all the creeks and brooks roared in
+torrents, the earth soaked in water, and the two boys spent much
+of the time indoors making new clothing, repairing traps and
+nets, and fashioning all kinds of little implements that were of
+use in their daily life.  They could realize, only because they
+now had to make them, how numerous such implements were.  Yet
+they made toasting sticks of hard wood, carved out wooden
+platters, constructed a rude but serviceable dining table, added
+to their supply of traps of various kinds, and finally made two
+large baskets of split willow.  The last task was not as
+difficult as some others, as both had seen and taken a part in
+basket making in Illinois.  The cabin was now crowded to
+inconvenience.  Over their beds, from side to side, and up under
+the sloping roof, they had fastened poles, and from all of these
+hung furs and skins, buffalo, deer, wolf, wild cat, beaver,
+wolverine, and others, and also stores of jerked game.  The Annex
+was in the same crowded condition.  The boys had carried the
+hollow somewhat higher up with their axes, but the extension gave
+them far less room than they needed.
+
+"It's just this, Dick," said Albert, "we getting so rich that we
+don't know what to do with all our property.  I used to think it
+a joke that the rich were unhappy, but now I see where their
+trouble comes in."
+
+"I know that the trappers cache their furs, that is, bury them or
+hide them until they can take them away," said Dick, "but we
+don't know how to bury furs so they'll keep all right.  Still,
+we've got to find a new place of some kind.  Besides, it would be
+better to have them hidden where only you and I could find them,
+Al.  Maybe we can find such a place."
+
+Albert agreed, and they began a search along the cliffs.  Dick
+knew that extensive rocky formations must mean a cave or an
+opening of some kind, if they only looked long enough for it,
+at last they found in the side of a slope a place that he thought
+could be made to suit.  It was a rocky hollow running back about
+fifteen feet, and with a height and width of perhaps ten feet.
+It was approached by an opening about four feet in height and two
+feet in width.  Dick wondered at first that it had not been used
+as a den by some wild animal, but surmised that the steepness of
+the ascent and the extreme roughness of the rocky floor had kept
+them out.
+
+But these very qualities recommended the hollow to the boys for
+the use that they intended it.  Its position in the side of the
+cliff made it a hard place to find, and the solid rock of its
+floor, walls, and roof insured the dryness that was necessary for
+the storage of their furs.
+
+"We'll call this the Cliff House," said Albert, "and we'll take
+possession at once."
+
+They broke off the sharper of the stone projections with their ax
+heads, and then began the transfer of the furs.  It was no light
+task to carry them up the step slope to the Cliff House, but,
+forced to do all things for themselves, they had learned
+perseverance, and they carried all their stock of beaver furs and
+all the buffalo robes and bearskins, except those in actual use,
+together with a goodly portion of the wolfskins, elk hides, and
+others.
+
+Dick made a rude but heavy door which fitted well enough into the
+opening to keep out any wild animal, no matter how small, and in
+front of it, in a little patch of soft soil, they set out two
+transplanted pine bushes which seemed to take root, and which
+Dick was sure would grow in the spring.
+
+When the boys looked up from the bottom of the slope, they saw no
+trace of the Cliff House, only an expanse of rock, save a little
+patch of earth where two tiny pines were growing.
+
+"Nobody but ourselves will ever find our furs!" exclaimed Dick
+exultingly.  "The most cunning Indian would not dream that
+anything was hidden up there behind those little pines, and the
+furs will keep as well inside as if they were in the best
+storehouse ever built."
+
+The discovery and use of the rock cache was a great relief to
+both.  Their cabin had become so crowded with furs and stores,
+that the air was often thick and heavy, and they did not have
+what Dick called elbow room.  Now they used the cabin almost
+exclusively for living purposes.  Most of the stores were in the
+Annex, while the dry and solid Cliff House held the furs.
+
+"Have you thought, Dick, what you and I are?" asked Albert.
+
+"I don't catch your meaning."
+
+"We're aristocrats of the first water, Mr. Richard Howard and Mr.
+Albert Howard, the Mountain Kings.  We can't get along with less
+than four residences.  We live in Castle Howard, the main
+mansion, superior to anything of its kind in a vast region; then
+we have the Annex, a tower used chiefly as a supply room and
+treasure chest; then the Suburban Villa, a light, airy place of
+graceful architecture, very suitable as a summer residence, and
+now we have the Cliff House, in a lofty and commanding position
+noted for its wonderful view.  We are really a fortunate pair,
+Dick."
+
+"I've been thinking that for sometime," replied Dick rather
+gravely.
+
+Hitherto they had confined their operations chiefly to their own
+side of the lake, but as they ranged farther and farther in
+search of furs they began to prowl among the canyons and narrow
+valleys in the mountains on the other side.  They made, rather
+far up the northern side, some valuable catches of beaver, but in
+order to return with them, they were compelled to come around
+either the northern or southern end of the lake, and the round
+trip was tremendously long and tiring.
+
+"It's part of a man's business to economize time and strength,"
+said Dick, "and we must do it.  You and I, Al, are going to make
+a canoe."
+
+"How?"
+
+"I don't know just yet, but I'm studying it out.  The idea will
+jump out of my head in two or three days."
+
+It was four days before it jumped, but when it did, it jumped to
+some purpose.
+
+"First, we'll make a dugout," he said.  "We've got the tools--axes,
+knives, saws, and augers--and we'd better start with that."
+
+They cut down a big and perfectly straight pine and chose a
+length of about twelve feet from the largest part of the trunk.
+Both boys had seen dugouts, and they knew, in a general way, how
+to proceed.  Their native intelligence supplied the rest.
+
+They cut off one side of the log until it was flat, thus making
+the bottom for the future canoe.  They cut the opposite side away
+in the well-known curve that a boat makes, low in the middle and
+high at each end.  This part of the work was done with great
+caution, but Dick had an artistic eye, and they made a fairly
+good curve.  Next they began the tedious and laborious work of
+digging out, using axes, hatchets, and chisel.
+
+This was a genuine test of Albert's new strength, but he stood it
+nobly.  They chipped away for a long time, until the wood on the
+sides and bottom was thin but strong enough to stand any
+pressure.  Then they made the proper angle and curve of bow and
+stern, cut and made two stout broad paddles, and their dugout was
+ready--a long canoe with a fairly good width, as the original
+log had been more than two feet in diameter.  It was both light
+and strong, and, raising it on their shoulders, they carried it
+down to the lake where they put it in the water.
+
+Albert, full of enthusiasm, sprang into the canoe and made a
+mighty sweep with his paddle.  The light dugout shot away, tipped
+on one side, and as Albert made another sweep with his paddle to
+right it, it turned over, bottom side up, casting the rash young
+paddler into ten feet of pure cold water.  Albert came up with a
+mighty splash and sputter.  He was a good swimmer, and he had
+also retained hold of the paddle unconsciously, perhaps.  Dick
+regarded him contemplatively from the land.  He had no idea of
+jumping in.  One wet and cold boy was enough.  Beside, rashness
+deserved its punishment.
+
+"Get the canoe before it floats farther away," he called out,
+"and tow it to land.  It has cost us too much work to be lost out
+on the lake."
+
+Albert swam to the canoe, which was now a dozen yards away, and
+quickly towed it and the paddle to land.  There, shivering, the
+water running from him in streams, he stepped upon the solid
+earth.
+
+"Run to the cabin as fast as you can," said Dick.  "Take off those
+wet things, rub yourself down before the fire; then put on
+dry clothes and come back here and help me."
+
+Albert needed no urging, but it seemed to him that he would
+freeze before he reached the cabin, short as the distance was.
+Fortunately, there was a good fire on the hearth, and, after he
+had rubbed down and put on his dry, warm suit of deerskin, he
+never felt finer in his life.  He returned to the lake, but he
+felt sheepish on the way.  That had been a rash movement of his,
+overenthusiastic, but he had been properly punished.  His chagrin
+was increased when he saw Dick a considerable distance out on the
+lake in the canoe, driving it about in graceful curves with long
+sweeps of his paddle.
+
+"This is the way it ought to be done," called out Dick cheerily.
+"Behold me, Richard Howard, the king of canoe men!"
+
+"You've been practicing while I was gone!" exclaimed Albert.
+
+"No doubt of it, my young friend, and that is why you see me
+showing such skill, grace, and knowledge.  I give you the same
+recipe without charge: Look before you leap, especially if you're
+going to leap into a canoe.  Now we'll try it together."
+
+He brought the canoe back to land, Albert got in cautiously, and
+for the rest of the day they practiced paddling, both together
+and alone.  Albert got another ducking, and Dick, in a moment of
+overconfidence, got one, too, somewhat to Albert's pleasure and
+relief, as it has been truly said that misery loves company, but
+in two or three days they learned to use the canoe with ease.
+Then, either together or alone, they would paddle boldly the full
+length of the lake, and soon acquired dexterity enough to use it
+for freight, too; that is, they would bring back in it across the
+lake anything that they had shot or trapped on the other side.
+
+So completely had they lost count of time that Dick had an idea
+spring was coming, but winter suddenly shut down upon them
+again.  It did not arrive with wind and snow this time, but in
+the night a wave of cold came down from the north so intense that
+the sheltered valley even did not repel it.
+
+Dick and Albert did not appreciate how really cold it was until
+they went from the cabin into the clear morning air, when they were
+warned by the numbing sensation that assailed their ears and noses.
+They hurried into the house and thawed out their faces, which
+stung greatly as they were exposed to the fire.  Remembering the
+experiences of their early boyhood, they applied cold water freely,
+which allayed the stinging.  After that they were very careful to
+wrap up fingers, ears, and noses when they went forth.
+
+Now, the channel that Albert had made from the water of the hot
+spring proved of great use.  The water that came boiling from the
+earth cooled off rapidly, but it was not yet frozen when it
+reached the side of Castle Howard, and they could make use of it.
+
+The very first morning they found their new boat, of which they
+were so proud, hard and fast with ten inches of solid ice all
+around it.  Albert suggested leaving it there.
+
+"We have no need of it so long as the lake is covered with ice,"
+he said, "and when the ice melts it will be released."
+
+But Dick looked a little farther.  The ice might press in on it
+and crush it, and hence Albert and he cut it out with axes, after
+which they put it in the lee of the cabin.  Meanwhile, when they
+wished to reach the traps on the farther side of the lake, they
+crossed it on the ice, and, presuming that the cold might last
+long, they easily made a rude sledge which they used in place of
+the canoe.
+
+"If we can't go through the water, we can at least go over it,"
+said Albert.
+
+While the great cold lasted, a period of about two weeks, the
+boys went on no errands except to their traps.  The cold was so
+intense that often they could hear the logs of Castle Howard
+contracting with a sound like pistol shots.  Then they would
+build the fire high and sit comfortably before it.  Fortunately,
+the valley afforded plenty of fuel.  Both boys wished now that
+they had a few books, but books were out of the question, and
+they sought always to keep themselves busy with the tasks that
+their life in the valley entailed upon them.  Both knew that this
+was best.
+
+The cold was so great that even the wild animals suffered from
+it.  The timber wolves, despite their terrible lessons, were
+driven by it down the valley, and at night a stray one now and
+then would howl mournfully near the cabin.
+
+"He's a robber and would like to be a murderer," Albert would
+say, "but he probably smells this jerked buffalo meat that I'm
+cooking and I'm sorry for him."
+
+But the wolves were careful to keep out of rifle shot.
+
+Dick made one trip up the valley and found about fifty buffaloes
+sheltered in a deep ravine and clustering close together for
+warmth.  They were quite thin, as the grass, although it had been
+protected by the snow, was very scanty at that period of the
+year.  Dick could have obtained a number of good robes, but he
+spared them.
+
+"Maybe I won't be so soft-hearted when the spring comes and you
+are fatter," he said.
+
+The two, about this time, took stock of their ammunition, which
+was the most vital of all things to them.  For sometime they had
+used both the shot and ball cartridges only in cases of
+necessity, and they were relying more and more on traps,
+continually devising new kinds, their skill and ingenuity
+increasing with practice.
+
+Dick had brought a great store of cartridges from the last train,
+especially from the unrifled wagon in the gully, and both boys
+were surprised to see how many they had left.  They had enough to
+last a long time, according to their present mode of life.
+
+"If you are willing, that settles it," said Dick.
+
+"If I am willing for what?" asked Albert.
+
+"Willing to stay over another year.  You see, Al, we've wandered
+into a happy hunting ground.  There are more furs, by the
+hundreds, for the taking, and it seems that this is a lost
+valley.  Nobody else comes here.  Besides, you are doing
+wonderfully.  All that old trouble is gone, and we want it to
+stay gone.  If we stay here another year, and you continue to eat
+the way you do and grow the way you do, you'll be able to take a
+buffalo by the horns and wring its neck."
+
+Albert grinned pleasantly at his brother.
+
+"You don't have to beg me to stay," he said.  "I like this
+valley.  It has given me life and what is to be our fortune, our
+furs.  Why not do all we can while we can?  I'm in favor of the
+extra year, Dick."
+
+"Then no more need be said about it.  The Cliff House isn't half
+full of furs yet, but in another year we can fill it."
+
+The great cold began to break up, the ice on the lake grew
+thinner and thinner and then disappeared, much of the big game
+left the valley, the winds from the north ceased to blow, and in
+their stead came breezes from the south, tipped with warmth.
+Dick knew that spring was near.  It was no guess, he could feel
+it in every bone of him, and he rejoiced.  He had had enough of
+winter, and it gave him the keenest pleasure when he saw tiny
+blades of new grass peeping up in sheltered places here and
+there.
+
+Dick, although he was not conscious of it, had changed almost as
+much as Albert in the last eight or nine months.  He had had no
+weak chest and throat to cure, but his vigorous young frame had
+responded nobly to the stimulus of self-reliant life.  The
+physical experience, as well as the mental, of those eight or
+nine months, had been equal to five times their number spent
+under ordinary conditions, and he had grown greatly in every
+respect.  Few men were as strong, as agile, and as alert as he.
+
+He and Albert, throughout that long winter, had been sufficient
+unto each other.  They had a great sense of ownership, the valley
+and all its manifold treasurers belonged to them--a feeling that
+was true, as no one else came to claim it--and they believed
+that in their furs they were acquiring and ample provision for a
+start in life.
+
+When the first tender shades of green began to appear in the
+valley and on the slopes, Dick decided upon a journey.
+
+"Do you know, Al, how long we have been in this valley?" he
+asked.
+
+"Eight or ten months, I suppose," replied Albert.
+
+"It must be something like that, and we've been entirely away
+from our race.  If we had anybody to think about us--although we
+haven't--they'd be sure that we are dead.  We're just as
+ignorant of what is happening in the world, and I want to go on a
+skirmishing trip over the mountains.  You keep house while I'm
+gone."
+
+Albert offered mild objections, which he soon withdrew, as at
+heart he thought his brother right, and the next day, early in
+the morning, Dick started on his journey.  He carried jerked
+buffalo meat in a deerskin pouch that he had made for himself,
+his customary repeating rifle, revolver, and a serviceable
+hatchet.
+
+"Look after things closely, Al," said Dick, "and don't bother
+about setting the traps.  Furs are not good in the spring."
+
+"All right," responded Albert.  "How long do you think you'll be
+gone?"
+
+"Can't say, precisely.  Three or four days, I presume, but don't
+you worry unless it's a full week."
+
+It was characteristic of the strength and self-restraint acquired
+by the two that they parted with these words and a hand clasp
+only, yet both had deep feeling.  Dick looked back from the mouth
+of the cleft toward Castle Howard and saw a boy in front of it
+waving a cap.  He waved his own in reply and then went forward
+more swiftly down the valley.
+
+It did not take him long to reach the first slope, and, when he
+had ascended a little, he paused for rest and inspection.  Spring
+had really made considerable progress.  All the trees except the
+evergreens had put forth young leaves and, as he looked toward
+the north, the mountains unrolled like a vast green blanket that
+swept away in ascending folds until it ended, and then the peaks
+and ridges, white with snow, began.
+
+Dick climbed father, and their valley was wholly lost to sight.
+It was not so wonderful after all that nobody came to it.
+Trappers who knew of it long ago never returned, believing that
+the beaver were all gone forever, and it was too near to the
+warlike Sioux of the plains for mountain Indians to make a home
+there.
+
+Dick did not stop long for the look backward--he was too intent
+upon his mission--but resumed the ascent with light foot and
+light heart.  He remembered very well the way in which he and
+Albert had come, and he followed it on the return.  All night,
+with his buffalo robe about him, he slept in the pine alcove that
+had been the temporary home of Albert and himself.  He could see
+no change in it in all the months, except traces to show that
+some wild animal had slept there.
+
+"Maybe you'll come to-night, Mr. Bear or Mr. Mountain Lion, to
+sleep in your little bed." said Dick as he lay down in his
+buffalo robe, "but you'll find me here before you."
+
+He was wise enough to know that neither bear nor mountain lion
+would ever molest him, and he slept soundly.  He descended the
+last slopes and came in sight of the plains on the afternoon
+of the next day.  Everything seemed familiar.  The events of
+that fatal time had made too deep an impression upon him and
+Albert ever to be forgotten.  He knew the very rocks and trees
+and so went straight to the valley in which he had found the
+wagon filled with supplies.  It lay there yet, crumpled
+somewhat by time and the weight of snow that had fallen upon it
+during the winter, but a strong man with good tools might put it
+in shape for future service.
+
+"Now, if Al and I only had horses, we might get it out and take
+away our furs in it," said Dick, "but I suppose I might as well
+wish for a railroad as for horses."
+
+He descended into the gully and found the tracks of wolves and
+other wild beasts about the wagon.  In their hunger, they had
+chewed up every fragment of leather or cloth, and had clawed and
+scratched among the lockers.  Dick had searched those pretty well
+before, but now he looked for gleanings.  He found little of
+value until he discovered, jammed down in a corner, an old
+history and geography of the United States combined in one volume
+with many maps and illustrations.  It was a big octavo book, and
+Dick seized it with the same delight with which a miner snatches
+up his nugget of gold.  He opened it, took a rapid look through
+flying pages, murmured, "Just the thing," closed it again, and
+buttoned it securely inside his deerskin coat.  He had not
+expected anything; nevertheless, he had gleaned to some purpose.
+
+Dick left the wagon and went into the pass where the massacre had
+occurred.  Time had not dimmed the horror of the place for him
+and he shuddered as he approached the scene of ambush, but he
+forced himself to go on.
+
+The wagons were scattered about, but little changed, although, as
+in the case of the one in the gully, all the remaining cloth and
+leather had been chewed by wild animals.  Here and there were the
+skeletons of the fallen, and Dick knew that the wild beasts had
+not been content with leather and cloth alone.  He went through
+the wagons one by one, but found nothing of value left except a
+paper of needles, some spools of thread, and a large pair of
+scissors, all of which he put in the package with the history.
+
+It was nightfall when he finished the task, and retiring to the
+slope, he made his bed among some pines.  He heard wolves
+howling twice in the night, but he merely settled himself more
+easily in his warm buffalo robe and went to sleep again.
+Replenishing his canteen with water the next morning, he started
+out upon the plains, intending to make some explorations.
+
+Dick had thought at first that they were in the Black Hills, but
+he concluded later that they were further west.  The mountains
+about them were altogether too high for the Black Hills, and he
+wished to gain some idea of their position upon the map.  The
+thought reminded him that he had a book with maps in his
+pocket, and he took out the precious volume.
+
+He found a map of the Rocky Mountain territory, but most of the
+space upon it was vague, often blank, and he could not exactly
+locate himself and Albert, although he knew that they were very
+far west of any settled country.
+
+"I can learn from that book all about the world except
+ourselves," he said, as he put it back in his pocket.  But he was
+not sulky over it.  His was a bold and adventurous spirit and
+he was not afraid, nor was his present trip merely to satisfy
+curiosity.  He and Albert must leave the valley some day, and it
+was well to know the best way in which it could be done.
+
+He started across the plain in a general southwesterly direction,
+intending to travel for about a day perhaps, camp for the night,
+and return on the following day to his mountains.  He walked
+along with a bold, swinging step and did not look back for an
+hour, but when he turned at last he felt as if he had ventured
+upon the open ocean in a treacherous canoe.  There were
+the mountains, high, sheltered, and friendly, while off to the
+south and west the plains rolled away in swell after swell as
+long and desolate as an untraveled sea, and as hopeless.
+
+Dick saw toward noon some antelope grazing on the horizon, but he
+was not a hunter now, and he did not trouble himself to seek a
+shot.  An hour or two later he saw a considerable herd of
+buffaloes scattered about over the plain, nibbling the short
+bunch grass that had lived under the snow.  They were rather an
+inspiring sight, and Dick felt as if, in a sense, they were
+furnishing him company.  They drove away the desolation and
+loneliness of the plains, and his inclinations toward them were
+those of genuine friendliness.  They were in danger of no bullet
+from him.
+
+While he was looking at them, he saw new figures coming over the
+distant swell.  At first he thought they were antelope, but when
+they reached the crest of the swell and their figures were thrown
+into relief against the brilliant sky, he saw that they were
+horsemen.
+
+They came on with such regularity and precision, that, for a
+moment or two, Dick believed them to be a troop of cavalry, but
+he learned better when they scattered with a shout and began to
+chase the buffaloes.  Then he knew that they were a band of Sioux
+Indians hunting.
+
+The full extent of his danger dawned upon him instantly.  He was
+alone and on foot.  The hunt might bring them down upon him in
+five minutes.  He was about to run, but his figure would
+certainly be exposed upon the crest of one of the swells, as
+theirs had been, and he dropped instead into one of a number of
+little gullies that intersected the plain.
+
+It was an abrupt little gully, and Dick was well hidden from any
+eyes not within ten yards of him.  He lay at first so he could
+not see, but soon he began to hear shots and the trampling of
+mighty hoofs.  He knew now that the Sioux were in among the
+buffaloes, dealing out death, and he began to have a fear of
+being trodden upon either by horsemen or huge hoofs.  He could
+not bear to lie there and he warned only by sound, so he turned a
+little further on one side and peeped over the edge of the gully.
+
+The hunters and hunter were not as near as he thought; he
+had been deceived by sound, the earth being such a good
+conductor.  Yet they were near enough for him to see that
+he was in great danger and should remain well hidden.  He
+could observe, however, that the hunt was attended with
+great success.  Over a dozen buffaloes had fallen and the
+others were running about singly or in little groups, closely
+pursued by the exultant Sioux.  Some were on one side of him
+and some on the other.  There was no chance for him, no matter
+how careful he might be, to rise from the gully and sneak away
+over the plain.  Instead, he crouched more closely and contracted
+himself into the narrowest possible space, while the hunt wheeled
+and thundered about him.
+
+It is not to be denied that Dick felt many tremors.  He had seen
+what the Sioux could do.  He knew that they were the most
+merciless of all the northwestern Indians, and he expected only
+torture and death if he fell into their hands, and there was his
+brother alone now in the valley.  Once the hunt swung away to the
+westward and the sounds of it grew faint.  Dick hoped it would
+continue in that direction, but by and by it came back again and
+he crouched down anew in his narrow quarters.  He felt that every
+bone in him was stiffening with cramp and needlelike pains shot
+through his nerves.  Yet he dared not move.  And upon top of his
+painful position came the knowledge that the Sioux would stay
+there to cut up the slain buffaloes.  He was tempted more than
+once to jump up, run for it and take his chances.
+
+He noticed presently a gray quality in the air, and as he glanced
+off toward the west, he saw that the red sun was burning very
+low.  Dick's heart sprang up in gladness; it was the twilight,
+and the blessed darkness would bring chance of escape.  Seldom
+has anyone watched the coming of night with keener pleasure.  The
+sun dropped down behind the swells, the gray twilight passed over
+all the sky, and after it came the night, on black wings.
+
+Fires sprang up on the plain, fires of buffalo chips lighted by
+the Sioux, who were now busy skinning and cutting up the slain
+buffaloes.  Dick saw the fires all about him, but none was nearer
+than a hundred yards, and, despite them, he decided that now was
+his best time to attempt escape before the moon should come out
+and lighten up the night.
+
+He pulled himself painfully from the kind gully.  He had lain
+there hours, and he tested every joint as he crept a few feet on
+the plain.  They creaked for a while, but presently the
+circulation was restored, and, rising to a stooping position,
+with his rifle ready, he slipped off toward the westward.
+
+Dick knew that great caution was necessary, but he had confidence
+in the veiling darkness.  Off to the eastward he could see one
+fire, around which a half dozen warriors were gathered, busy with
+a slain buffalo, working and feasting.  He fancied that he could
+trace their savage features against the red firelight, but he
+himself was in the darkness.
+
+Another fire rose up, and this was straight before him.  Like the
+others, warriors were around it, and Dick turned off abruptly to
+the south.  Then he heard ponies stamping and he shifted his
+course again.  When he had gone about a dozen yards he lay flat
+upon the plain and listened.  He was hardy and bold, but, for a
+little while, he was almost in despair.  It seemed to him that he
+was ringed around by a circle of savage warriors and that he
+could not break through it.
+
+His courage returned, and, rising to his knees, he resumed his
+slow progress.  His course was now southwesterly, and soon he
+heard again the stamping of hoofs.  It was then that a daring
+idea came into Dick's head.
+
+That stamping of hoofs was obviously made by the ponies of the
+Sioux.  Either the ponies were tethered to short sticks, or they
+had only a small guard, perhaps a single man.  But as they were
+with the buffaloes, and unsuspecting of a strange presence, they
+would not detail more than one man to watch their horses.  It was
+wisdom for him to slip away one of the horses, mount it when at a
+safe distance, and then gallop toward the mountains.
+
+Dick sank down a little lower and crept very slowly toward the
+point from which the stamping of hoofs proceeded.  When he had
+gone about a dozen yards he heard another stamping of hoofs to
+his right and then a faint whinny.  This encouraged him.  It
+showed him that the ponies were tethered in groups, and the group
+toward which he was going might be without a guard.  He continued
+his progress another dozen yards, and then lay flat upon the
+plain.  He had seen two vague forms in the darkness, and he
+wished to make himself a blur with the earth.  They were warriors
+passing from one camp fire to another, and Dick saw them plainly,
+tall men with blankets folded about them like togas, long hair in
+which eagle feathers were braided after the Sioux style, and
+strong aquiline features.  They looked like chiefs, men of
+courage, dignity, and mind, and Dick contrasted them with the
+ruffians of the wagon train.  The contrast was not favorable to
+the white faces that he remembered so well.
+
+But the boy saw nothing of mercy or pity in these red
+countenances.  Bold and able they might be, but it was no part of
+theirs to spare their enemies.  He fairly crowded himself against
+the earth, but they went on, absorbed in their own talk, and he
+was not seen.  He raised up again and began to crawl.  The group
+of ponies came into view, and he saw with delight that they had
+no watchman.  A half dozen in number and well hobbled, they
+cropped the buffalo grass.  They were bare of back, but they wore
+their Indian bridles, which hung from their heads.
+
+Dick knew a good deal about horses, and he was aware that the
+approach would be critical.  The Indian ponies might take alarm
+or they might not, but the venture must be made.  He did not
+believe that he could get beyond the ring of the Sioux fires
+without being discovered, and only a dash was left.
+
+Dick marked the pony nearest to him.  It seemed a strong animal,
+somewhat larger than the others, and, pulling up a handful of
+bunch grass, he approached it, whistling very softly.  He held
+the grass in his left hand and his hunting knife in the right,
+his rifle being fastened to his back.  The pony raised his head,
+looked at him in a friendly manner, then seemed to change his
+mind and backed away.  But Dick came on, still holding out the
+grass and emitting that soft, almost inaudible whistle.  The pony
+stopped and wavered between belief and suspicion.  Dick was not
+more than a dozen feet away now, and he began to calculate when
+he might make a leap and seize the bridle.
+
+The boy and the pony were intently watching the eyes of each other.
+Dick, in that extreme moment, was gifted with preternatural
+acuteness of mind and vision, and he saw that the pony still wavered.
+He took another step forward, and the eyes of the pony inclined
+distinctly from belief to suspicion; another short and cautious step,
+and they were all suspicion.  But it was too late for the pony.  The
+agile youth sprang, and dropping the grass, seized him with his left
+hand by the bridle.  A sweep or two of the hunting knife and the
+hobbles were cut through.
+
+The pony reared and gave forth an alarmed neigh, but Dick,
+quickly replacing the knife in his belt, now held the bridle with
+both hands, and those two hands were very strong.  He pulled the
+pony back to its four feet and sprang, with one bound, upon his
+back.  Then kicking him vigorously in the side, he dashed away,
+with rifle shots spattering behind him.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI
+The Terrible Pursuit
+
+Dick knew enough to bend low down on the neck of the flying
+mustang, and he was untouched, although he heard the bullets
+whistling about him.  The neigh of the pony had betrayed him, but
+he was aided by his quickness and the friendly darkness, and he
+felt a surge of exultation that he could not control, boy that he
+was.  The Sioux, jumping upon their ponies, sent forth a savage
+war whoop that the desolate prairie returned in moaning echoes,
+and Dick could not refrain from a reply.  He uttered one shout,
+swung his rifle defiantly over his head, then bending down again,
+urged his pony to increased speed.
+
+Dick heard the hoofs of his pursuers thundering behind him, and
+more rifle shots came, but they ceased quickly.  He knew that the
+Sioux would not fire again soon, because of the distance and the
+uncertain darkness.  It was his object to increase that distance,
+trusting that the darkness would continue free from moonlight.
+He took one swift look backward and saw the Sioux, a dozen or
+more, following steadily after.  He knew that they would hang on
+as long as any chance of capturing him remained, and he resolved
+to make use of the next swell that he crossed.  He would swerve
+when he passed the crest, and while it was yet between him and
+his pursuers, perhaps he could find some friendly covert that
+would hide him.  Meanwhile he clung tightly to his rifle,
+something that one always needed in this wild and dangerous
+region.
+
+He crossed a swell, but there was no friendly increase of the
+darkness and he was afraid to swerve, knowing that the Sioux
+would thereby gain upon him, since he would make himself the
+curve of the bow, while they remained the string.
+
+In fact, the hasty glance back showed that the Sioux had gained,
+and Dick felt tremors.  He was tempted for a moment to fire upon
+his pursuers, but it would certainly cause a loss of speed, and
+he did not believe that he could hit anything under such
+circumstances.  No, he would save his bullets for a last stand,
+if they ran him to earth.
+
+The Sioux raised their war whoop again and fired three or four
+shots.  Dick felt a slight jarring movement run through his pony,
+and then the animal swerved.  He was afraid that he had trodden
+in a prairie-dog hole or perhaps a little gully, but in an
+instant or two he was running steadily again, and Dick forgot the
+incident in the excitement of the flight.
+
+He was in constant fear lest the coming out of the moon should
+lighten up the prairie and make him a good target for the Sioux
+bullets, but he noted instead, and with great joy, that it was
+growing darker.  Heavy clouds drifted across the sky, and a cold
+wind arose and began to whistle out of the northwest.  It was a
+friendly black robe that was settling down over the earth.  It
+had never before seemed to him that thick night could be so
+welcome.
+
+Dick's pony rose again on a swell higher than the others, and was
+poised there for the fraction of a second, a dark silhouette
+against the darker sky.  Several of the Sioux fired.  Dick felt
+once more that momentary jar of his horse's mechanism, but it
+disappeared quickly and his hopes rose, because he saw that the
+darkness lay thickly between this swell and the next, and he
+believed that he now could lose his pursuers.
+
+He urged his horse vigorously.  He had made no mistake when he
+chose this pony as strong and true.  The response was instant and
+emphatic.  He flew down the slope, but instead of ascending the
+next swell he turned at an angle and went down the depression
+that lay between them.  There the darkness was thickest, and the
+burst of speed by the pony was so great that the shapes of his
+pursuers became vague and then were lost.  Nevertheless, he heard
+the thudding of their hoofs and knew that they could also hear
+the beat of his.  That would guide them for a while yet.  He
+thought he might turn again and cross the next swell, thus
+throwing them entirely off his track, but he was afraid that he
+would be cast into relief again when he reached the crest, and so
+continued down the depression.
+
+He heard shouts behind him, and it seemed to him that they were
+not now the shouts of triumph, but the shouts of chagrin.
+Clearly, he was gaining because after the cries ceased, the sound
+of hoof beats came but faintly.  He urged his horse to the last
+ounce of his speed and soon the sound of the pursuing hoofs
+ceased entirely.
+
+The depression ended and he was on the flat plain.  It was still
+cloudy, with no moon, but his eyes were used enough to the dark
+to tell him that the appearance of the country had changed.  It
+now lay before him almost as smooth as the surface of a table,
+and never relaxing the swift gallop, he turned at another angle.
+
+He was confident now that the Sioux could not overtake or find
+him.  A lone object in the vast darkness, there was not a chance
+in a hundred for them to blunder upon him.  But the farther away
+the better, and he went on for an hour.  He would not have
+stopped then, but the good pony suddenly began to quiver, and
+then halted so abruptly that Dick, rifle and all, shot over his
+shoulder.  He felt a stunning blow, a beautiful set of stars
+flashed before his eyes, and he was gone, for the time, to
+another land.
+
+When Dick awoke he felt very cold and his head ached.  He was
+lying flat upon his back, and, with involuntary motion, he put
+his hand to his head.  He felt a bump there and the hand came
+back damp and stained.  He could see that the fingers were
+red--there was light enough for that ominous sight, although
+the night had no yet passed.
+
+Then the flight, the danger, and his fall all came back in a rush
+to Dick.  He leaped to his feet, and the act gave him pain, but
+not enough to show that any bone was broken.  His rifle, the
+plainsman's staff and defense, lay at his feet.  He quickly
+picked it up and found that it, too, was unbroken.  In fact, it
+was not bent in the slightest, and here his luck had stood him
+well.  But ten feet away lay a horse, the pony that had been a
+good friend to him in need.
+
+Dick walked over to the pony.  It was dead and cold.  It must
+have been dead two to three hours at least, and he had lain that
+long unconscious.  There was a bullet hole in its side and Dick
+understood now the cause of those two shivers, like the momentary
+stopping of a clock's mechanism.  The gallant horse had galloped
+on until he was stopped only by death.  Dick felt sadness and
+pity.
+
+"I hope you've gone to the horse heaven," he murmured.
+
+Then he turned to thoughts of his own position.  Alone and afoot
+upon the prairie, with hostile and mounted Sioux somewhere about,
+he was still in bad case.  He longed now for his mountains, the
+lost valley, the warm cabin, and his brother.
+
+It was quite dark and a wind, sharp with cold, was blowing.  It
+came over vast wastes, and as it swept across the swells kept up
+a bitter moaning sound.  Dick shivered and fastened his deerskin
+tunic a little tighter.  He looked up at the sky.  Not a star was
+there, and sullen black clouds rolled very near to the earth.
+The cold had a raw damp in it, and Dick feared those clouds.
+
+Had it been day he could have seen his mountains, and he would
+have made for them at once, but now his eyes did not reach a
+hundred yards, and that bitter, moaning wind told him nothing
+save that he must fight hard against many things if he would keep
+the life that was in him.  He had lost all idea of direction.
+North and south, east and west were the same to him, but one must
+go even if one went wrong.
+
+He tried all his limbs again and found that they were sound.  The
+wound on his head had ceased to bleed and the ache was easier.
+He put his rifle on his shoulder, waved, almost unconsciously, a
+farewell to the horse, as one leaves the grave of a friend, and
+walked swiftly away, in what course he knew not.
+
+He felt much better with motion.  The blood began to circulate
+more warmly, and hope sprang up.  If only that bitter, moaning
+wind would cease.  It was inexpressibly weird and dismal.  It
+seemed to Dick a song of desolation, it seemed to tell him at
+times that it was not worth while to try, that, struggle as he
+would, his doom was only waiting.
+
+Dick looked up.  The black clouds had sunk lower and they must
+open before long.  If only day were near at hand, then he might
+choose the right course.  Hark!  Did he not hear hoof beats?  He
+paused in doubt, and then lay down with his ear to the earth.
+Then he distinctly heard the sound, the regular tread of a horse,
+urged forward in a straight course, and he knew that it could be
+made only by the Sioux.  But the sound indicated only one horse,
+or not more than two or three at the most.
+
+Dick's courage sprang up.  Here was a real danger and not the
+mysterious chill that the moaning of the wind brought to him.  If
+the Sioux had found him, they had divided, and it was only a few
+of their number that he would have to face.  He hugged his
+repeating rifle.  It was a fine weapon, and just then he was in
+love with it.  There was no ferocity in Dick's nature, but the
+Sioux were seeking the life that he wished to keep.
+
+He rose from the earth and walked slowly on in his original
+course.  He had no doubt that the Sioux, guided by some demon
+instinct, would overtake him.  He looked around for a good place
+of defense, but saw none.  Just the same low swells, just the
+same bare earth, and not even a gully like that in which he had
+lain while the hunt of the buffalo wheeled about him.
+
+He heard the hoof beats distinctly now, and he became quite sure
+that they were made by only a single horseman.  His own senses
+had become preternaturally acute, and, with the conviction that
+he was followed by but one, came a rush of shame.  Why should he,
+strong and armed, seek to evade a lone pursuer?  He stopped,
+holding his rifle ready, and waited, a vague, shadowy figure,
+black on the black prairie.
+
+Dick saw the phantom horseman rise on a swell, the faint figure
+of an Indian and his pony, and there was no other.  He was glad
+now that he had waited.  The horse, trained for such work as
+this, gave the Sioux warrior a great advantage, but he would
+fight it out with him.
+
+Dick sank down on one knee in order to offer a smaller target,
+and thrust his rifle forward for an instant shot.  But the Sioux
+had stopped and was looking intently at the boy.  For fully two
+minutes neither he nor his horse moved, and Dick almost began to
+believe that he was the victim of an illusion, the creation of
+the desolate plains, the night, the floating black vapors, his
+tense nerves, and heated imagination.  He was tempted to try a
+shot to see if it were real, but the distance and the darkness
+were too great.  He strengthened his will and remained crouched
+and still, his finger ready for the trigger of his rifle.
+
+The Sioux and his horse moved at last, but they did not come
+forward; they rode slowly toward the right, curving in a circle
+about the kneeling boy, but coming no nearer.  They were still
+vague and indistinct, but they seemed blended into one, and the
+supernatural aspect of the misty form of horse and rider
+increased.  The horse trod lightly now, and Dick no longer heard
+the sound of footsteps, only the bitter moaning of the wind over
+the vast dark spaces.
+
+The rider rode silently on his circle about the boy, and Dick
+turned slowly with him, always facing the eyes that faced him.
+He could dimly make out the shape of a rifle at the saddlebow,
+but the Sioux did not raise it, he merely rode on in that
+ceaseless treadmill tramp, and Dick wondered what he meant to
+do.  Was he waiting for the others to come up?
+
+Time passed and there was no sign of a second horseman.  The
+single warrior still rode around him, and Dick still turned with
+him.  He might be coming nearer in his ceaseless curves, but Dick
+could not tell.  Although he was the hub of the circle, he began
+to have a dizzy sensation, as if the world were swimming about
+him.  He became benumbed, as if his head were that of a whirling
+dervish.
+
+Dick became quite sure now that the warrior and his horse were
+unreal, a creation of the vapors and the mists, and that he
+himself was dreaming.  He saw, too, at last that they were coming
+nearer, and he felt horror, as if something demonic were about to
+seize him and drag him down.  He crouched so long that he felt
+pain in his knees, and all things were becoming a blur before his
+eyes.  Yet there had not been a sound but that of the bitter,
+moaning wind.
+
+There was a flash, a shot, the sigh of a bullet rushing past, and
+Dick came out of his dream.  The Sioux had raised the rifle from
+his saddlebow and fired.  But he had been too soon.  The shifting
+and deceptive quality of the darkness caused him to miss.  Dick
+promptly raised his own rifle and fired in return.  He also
+missed, but a second bullet from the warrior cut a lock from his
+temple.
+
+Dick was now alert in every nerve.  He had not wanted the life of
+this savage, but the savage wanted his; it seemed also that
+everything was in favor of the savage getting it, but his own
+spirit rose to meet the emergency; he, too, became the hunter.
+
+He sank a little lower and saved his fire until the warrior
+galloped nearer.  Then he sent a bullet so close that he saw one
+of the long eagle feathers drop from the hair of the warrior.
+The sight gave him a savage exultation that he would have
+believed a few hours before impossible to him.  The next bullet
+might not merely clip a feather!
+
+The Sioux, contrary to the custom of the Indian, did not utter a
+sound, nor did Dick say a word.  The combat, save for the reports
+of the rifle shots, went on in absolute silence.  It lasted a full
+ten minutes, when the Indian urged his horse to a gallop,
+threw himself behind the body and began firing under the neck.  A
+bullet struck Dick in the left arm and wounded him slightly, but
+it did not take any of his strength and spirit.
+
+Dick sought in vain for a sight of the face of his fleeting foe.
+He could catch only a glimpse of long, trailing hair beneath the
+horse's mane, and then would come the flash of a rifle shot.
+Another bullet clipped his side, but only cut the skin.
+Nevertheless, it stung, and while it stung the body it stung
+Dick's wits also into keener action.  He knew that the Sioux
+warrior was steadily coming closer and closer in his deadly
+circle, and in time one of his bullets must strike a vital spot,
+despite the clouds and darkness.
+
+Dick steadied himself, calming every nerve and muscle.  Then he
+lay down on his stomach on the plain, resting slightly on his
+elbow, and took careful aim at the flying pony.  He felt some
+regret as he looked down the sights.  This horse might be as
+faithful and true as the one that had carried him to temporary
+safety, but he must do the deed.  He marked the brown patch of
+hair that lay over the heart and pulled the trigger.
+
+Dick's aim was true--the vapors and clouds had not disturbed
+it--and when the rifle flashed, the pony bounded into the
+and fell dead.  But the agile Sioux leaped clear and darted away.
+Dick marked his brown body, and then was his opportunity to send
+a mortal bullet, but a feeling of which he was almost ashamed
+held his hand.  His foe was running, and he was no longer
+hunted.  The feeling lasted but a moment, and when it passed, the
+Sioux was out of range.  A moment later and his misty foe had
+become a part of the solid darkness.
+
+Dick stood upright once more.  He had been the victor in a combat
+that still had for him all the elements of the ghostly.  He had
+triumphed, but just in time.  His nerves were relaxed and
+unstrung, and his hands were damp.  He carefully reloaded all the
+empty chambers of his repeating rifle, and without looking at the
+falling horse, which he felt had suffered for the wickedness of
+another, strode away again over the plain, abandoning the rifle
+of the fallen Sioux as a useless burden.
+
+It took Dick sometime after his fight with the phantom horseman
+to come back to real earth.  Then he noticed that both the clouds
+and the dampness had increased, and presently something cold and
+wet settled upon his face.  It was a flake of snow, and a troop
+came at its heels, gentle but insistent, chilling his hands and
+gradually whitening the earth, until it was a gleaming floor
+under a pall of darkness.
+
+Dick was in dismay.  Here was a foe that he could not fight with
+rifle balls.  He knew that the heavy clouds would continue to
+pour forth snow, and the day, which he thought was not far away,
+would disclose as little as the night.  The white pall would hide
+the mountains as well as the black pall had done, and he might be
+going farther and father from his valley.
+
+He felt that he had been released from one danger and then
+another, only to encounter a third.  It seemed to him, in his
+minute of despair, that Fate had resolved to defeat all his
+efforts, but, the minute over, he renewed his courage and trudged
+bravely on, he knew not whither.  It was fortunate for him that
+he wore a pair of the heavy shoes saved from the wagon, and put
+on for just such a journey as this.  The wet from the snow would
+have soon soaked though his moccasins, but, as his thick deerskin
+leggings fitted well over his shoes, he kept dry, and that was a
+comfort.
+
+The snow came down without wind and fuss, but more heavily than
+ever, persistent, unceasing, and sure of victory.  It was not
+particularly cold, and the walking kept up a warm and pleasant
+circulation in Dick's veins.  But he knew that he must not stop.
+Whether he was going on in a straight line he had no way to
+determine.  He had often heard that men, lost on the plains, soon
+begin to travel in a circle, and he watched awhile for his own
+tracks; but if they were there, they were covered up by snow too
+soon for him to see, and, after all, what did it matter?
+
+He saw after a while a pallid yellowish light showing dimly
+through the snow, and he knew that it was the sunrise.  But it
+illuminated nothing.  The white gloom began to replace the black
+one.  It was soon full day, but the snow was so thick that he
+could not see more than two or three hundred yards in any
+direction.  He longed now for shelter, some kind of hollow, or
+perhaps a lone tree.  The incessant fall of the snow upon his
+head and its incessant clogging under his feet were tiring him,
+but he only trod a plain, naked save for its blanket of snow.
+
+Dick had been careful to keep his rifle dry, putting the barrel
+of it under his long deerskin coat.  Once as he shifted it, he
+felt a lump over his chest, and for an instant or two did not
+know what caused it.  Then he remember the history and geography
+of the United States.  He laughed with grim humor.
+
+"I am lost to history," he murmured, "and geography will not tell
+me where I am."
+
+He crossed a swell--he knew them now more by feeling than by
+sight--and before beginning the slight assent of the next one he
+stopped to eat.  He had been enough of a frontiersman, before
+starting upon such a trip, to store jerked buffalo in the skin
+knapsack that he had saved for himself.  The jerked meat offered
+the largest possible amount of sustenance in the smallest
+possible space, and Dick ate eagerly.  Then he felt a great
+renewal of courage and strength.  He also drank of the snow
+water, that is, he dissolved the snow in his mouth, but he did
+not like it much.
+
+He stood there for a while resting, and resolved only to walk
+enough to keep himself warm.  Certainly, nothing was to be gained
+by exhausting himself and the snow which was now a foot deep
+showed no signs of abating.  The white gloom hung all about him
+and he could not see the sky overhead.
+
+Just as he took this resolution, Dick saw a shadow in the
+circling white.  The shadow was like that of a man, but before he
+could see farther there was a little flash of red, a sharp,
+stinging report, and a bullet clipped the skin of his cheek,
+burning like fire.  Dick was startled, and for full cause--but
+he recognized the Sioux warrior who had fought him on horseback.
+He had stared too long at that man and at a time too deadly not
+to know that head and face and the set of his figure.  He had
+followed Dick through all the hours and falling snow, bent upon
+taking his life.  A second shot, quickly following the first,
+showed that he meant to miss no chance.
+
+The second bullet, like the first, just grazed Dick, and mild of
+temper though he habitually was, he was instantly seized with the
+fiercest rage.  He could not understand such hatred, such
+ferocity, such an eagerness to take human life.  And this was the
+man whom he had spared, whom he could easily have slain when he
+was running!  The Sioux was raising his rifle for a third bullet,
+when Dick shot him through the chest.  There was no doubt about
+his aim now.  It was not disturbed by the whitish mist and the
+falling snow.
+
+The Sioux fell full length, without noise and without struggle,
+and his gun flew from his hand.  His body lay half buried in the
+snow, some of the long eagle feathers in his hair thrusting up
+like the wing of a slain bird.  Dick looked at him with
+shuddering horror.  All the anger was gone from him now, and it
+is true that in his heart he felt pity for this man, who had
+striven so hard and without cause to take his life.  He would
+have been glad to go away now, but forced himself to approach and
+look down at the Indian.
+
+The warrior lay partly on his side with one arm beneath his
+body.  The blood from the bullet hole in his chest dyed the snow,
+and Dick believed that he had been killed instantly.  But Dick
+would not touch him.  He could not bring himself to do that.  Nor
+would he take any of his arms.  Instead, he turned away, after
+the single look, and, bending his head a little to the snow,
+walked rapidly toward the yellowish glare that told where the sun
+was rising.  He did not know just why he went in that direction,
+but it seemed to him the proper thing to walk toward the morning.
+
+Two hours, perhaps, passed and the fall of snow began to
+lighten.  The flakes still came down steadily, but not in such a
+torrent.  The area of vision widened.  He saw dimly, as through a
+mist, three or four hundred yards, perhaps, but beyond was only
+the white blur, and there was nothing yet to tell him whether he
+was going toward the mountains or away from them.
+
+He rested and ate again.  Then he recovered somewhat, mentally as
+well as physically.  Part of the horror of the Indian, his deadly
+pursuit, and the deadly ending passed.  He ached with weariness
+and his nerves were quite unstrung, but the snow would cease, the
+skies would clear, and then he could tell which way lay the
+mountains and his brother.
+
+He rested here longer than usual and studied the plain as far as
+he could see it.  He concluded that its character had changed
+somewhat, that the swells were high than they had been, and he
+was hopeful that he might find shelter soon, a deep gully,
+perhaps, or a shallow prairie stream with sheltering cottonwoods
+along its course.
+
+Another hour passed, but he did not make much progress.  The
+snow was now up to his knees, and it became an effort to walk.
+The area of vision had widened, but no mountains yet showed
+through the white mist.  He was becoming tired with a tiredness
+that was scarcely to be born.  If he stood still long enough to
+rest he became cold, a deadly chill that he knew to be the
+precursor of death's benumbing sleep would creep over him, and
+then he would force himself to resume the monotonous, aching
+walk.
+
+Dick's strength waned.  His eyesight, affected by the glare of
+the snow, became short and unsteady, and he felt a dizziness of
+the brain.  Things seemed to dance about, but his will was so
+strong that he could still reason clearly, and he knew that he
+was in desperate case.  It was his will that resisted the impulse
+of his flesh to throw his rifle away as a useless burden, but he
+laughed aloud when he thought of the map of the United States in
+the inside pocket of his coat.
+
+"They'll find me, if they ever find me, with that upon me," he
+said aloud, "and they, too, will laugh."
+
+He stumbled against something and doubled his fist angrily as if
+he would strike a man who had maliciously got in his way.  It was
+the solid bark of a big cottonwood that had stopped him, and his
+anger vanished in joy.  Where one cottonwood was, others were
+likely to be, and their presence betokened a stream, a valley,
+and a shelter of some kind.
+
+He was still dazed, suffering partially from snow blindness, but
+now he saw a line of sturdy cottonwoods and beyond it another
+line.  The stream, he knew, flowed between.  He went down the
+line a few hundred yards and came, as he had hoped, into more
+broken ground.
+
+The creek ran between banks six or seven feet high, with a margin
+between stream and bank, and the cottonwoods on these banks
+were reinforced by some thick clumps of willows.  Between the
+largest clump and the line of cottonwoods, with the bank as a
+shelter for the third side, was a comparatively clear space.
+The snow was only a few inches deep there, and Dick believed
+that he could make a shelter.  He had, of course, brought his
+blanket with him in a tight roll on his back, and he was hopeful
+enough to have some thought of building a fire.
+
+He stooped down to feel in the snow at a likely spot, and the act
+saved his life.  A bullet, intended for his head, was buried in
+the snow beyond him, and a body falling down the bank lay quite
+still at his feet.  It was the long Sioux.  Wounded mortally, he
+had followed Dick, nevertheless, with mortal intent, crawling,
+perhaps most of the time, and with his last breath he had fired
+what he intended to be the fatal shot.
+
+He was quite dead now, his power for evil gone forever.  There
+could be no doubt about it.  Dick at length forced himself to
+touch the face.  It had grown cold and the pulse in the wrist was
+still.  It yet gave him a feeling of horror to touch the Sioux,
+but his own struggle for life would be bitter and he could spare
+nothing.  The dead warrior wore a good blanket, which Dick now
+took, together with his rifle and ammunition, but he left all the
+rest.  Then he dragged the warrior from the sheltered space to a
+deep snow bank, where he sank him out of sight.  He even took the
+trouble to heap more snow upon him in the form of a burial, and
+he felt a great relief when he could no longer see the savage
+brown features.
+
+He went back to his sheltered space, and, upon the single
+unprotected side threw up a high wall of snow, so high that it
+would serve as a wind-break.  Then he began to search for fallen
+brushwood.  Meanwhile, it was turning colder, and a bitter wind
+began to moan across the plain.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII
+The Fight with Nature
+
+Dick realized suddenly that he was very cold.  The terrible
+pursuit was over, ending mortally for the pursuer, but he was
+menaced by a new danger.  Sheltered though his little valley was,
+he could, nevertheless, freeze to death in it with great ease.
+In fact, he had begun already to shiver, and he noticed that
+while his feet were dry, the snow at last had soaked through his
+deerskin leggings and he was wet from knee to ankle.  The snow
+had ceased, although a white mist hovered in a great circle and
+the chill of the wind was increasing steadily.  He must have a
+fire or die.
+
+He resumed his search, plunging into the snow banks under the
+cottonwoods and other trees, and at last he brought out dead
+boughs, which he broke into short pieces and piled in a heap in
+the center of the open space.  The wood was damp on the outside,
+of course, but he expected nothing better and was not discouraged.
+Selecting a large, well-seasoned piece, he carefully cut away all
+the wet outside with his strong hunting knife.  Then he whittled
+off large quantities of dry shavings, put them under the heap of
+boughs, and took from his inside a pocket a small package of
+lucifer matches.
+
+Dick struck one of the matches across the heel of his shoe.  No
+spark leaped up.  Instead, his heart sank down, sank further,
+perhaps, than it had ever done before in his life.  The match was
+wet.  He took another from the pocket; it, too, was wet, and the
+next and the next and all.  The damp from the snow, melted by the
+heat of his body, had penetrated his buckskin coat, although in
+the excitement of pursuit and combat he had not noticed it.
+
+Dick was in despair.  He turned to the snow a face no less
+white.  Had he escaped all the dangers of the Sioux for this?  To
+freeze to death merely because he did not have a dry lucifer
+match?  The wind was still rising and it cut to his very marrow.
+Reality and imagination were allied, and Dick was almost
+overpowered.  He angrily thrust the wet little package of matches
+back into the inside pocket of his coat--his border training in
+economy had become so strong that even in the moment of despair
+he would throw away nothing--and his hand in the pocket came
+into contact with something else, small, hard, and polished.
+Dick instantly felt a violent revulsion from despair to hope.
+
+The small object was a sunglass.  That wagon train was well
+equipped.  Dick had made salvage of two sunglasses, and in a
+moment of forethought had given one to Albert, keeping the other
+for himself, each agreeing then and there to carry his always for
+the moment of need that might come.
+
+Dick drew out the sunglass and fingered it as one would a diamond
+of great size.  Then he looked up.  A brilliant sun was shining
+beyond white, misty clouds, but its rays came through them dim
+and weak.  The mists or, rather, cloudy vapor might lift or thin,
+and in that chance lay the result of his fight for life.  While
+he waited a little, he stamped up and down violently, and threw
+his arms about with energy.  It did not have much effect.  The
+wet, cold, the raw kind that goes through, was in him and, despite
+all the power of his will, he shivered almost continually.  But he
+persisted for a half hour and then became conscious of an increasing
+brightness about him.  The white mist was not gone, but it was
+thinning greatly, and the rays of the sun fell on the snow brilliant
+and strong.
+
+Dick took the dry stick again and scraped off particles of wood
+so fine that they were almost a power.  He did not stop until he
+had a little heap more than an inch high.  Meanwhile, the sun's
+rays, pouring through the whitish mist, continued to grow fuller
+and stronger.
+
+Dick carefully polished the glass and held it at the right angle
+between the touchwood, that is, the scrapings, and the sun.  The
+rays passing through the glass increased many times in power and
+struck directly upon the touchwood.  Dick crouched over the wood
+in order to protect it from the wind, and watched, his breath
+constricted, while his life waited on the chance.
+
+A minute, two minutes, three minutes, five passed and then a
+spark appeared in the touchwood, and following it came a tiny
+flame.  Dick shouted with joy and shifted his body a little to
+put shavings on the touchwood.  An ill wind struck the feeble
+blaze, which was not yet strong enough to stand fanning into
+greater life, and it went out, leaving a little black ash to mark
+where the touchwood had been.
+
+Dick's nerves were so much overwrought that he cried aloud again,
+and now it was a cry of despair, not of joy.  He looked at the
+little black ash as if his last chance were gone, but his despair
+did not last long.  He seized the dry stick again and scraped off
+another little pile of touchwood.  Once more the sunglass and
+once more the dreadful waiting, now longer than five minutes and
+nearer ten, while Dick waited in terrible fear, lest the sun
+itself should fail him, and go behind impenetrable clouds.
+
+But the second spark came and after it, as before, followed the
+little flame.  No turning aside now to allow a cruel chance to an
+ill wind.  Instead, he bent down his body more closely than ever
+to protect the vital blaze, and, reaching out one cautious arm,
+fed it first with the smallest of the splinters, and then with
+the larger in an ascending scale.
+
+Up leaped the flames, red and strong.  Dick's body could not
+wholly protect them now, but they fought for themselves.  When
+the wind shrieked and whipped against them, they waved back
+defiance, and the more the wind whipped them, the higher and
+stronger they grew.
+
+The victory was with the flames, and Dick fed them with wood,
+almost with his body and soul, and all the time as the wind bent
+them over they crackled and ate deeper and deeper into the wood.
+He could put on damp wood now.  The flames merely leaped out,
+licked up the melted snow with a hiss and a sputter, and
+developed the stick in a mass of glowing red.
+
+Dick fed his fire a full half hour, hunting continually in the
+snow under the trees for brushwood and finding much of it, enough
+to start a second fire at the far end of the sheltered place,
+with more left in reserve.  He spent another half hour heaping up
+the snow as a bulwark about his den, and then sat down between
+the two fires to dry and warm, almost to roast himself.
+
+It was the first time that Dick understood how much pleasure
+could be drawn from a fire alone.  What beautiful red and yellow
+flames!  What magnificent glowing coals!  What a glorious thing
+to be there, while the wind above was howling over the snowy and
+forlorn plain!  His clothes dried rapidly.  He no longer
+shivered.  The grateful warmth penetrated every fiber of him and
+it seemed strange now that he should have been in despair only an
+hour ago.  Life was a wonderful and brilliant thing.  There was
+no ache in his bones, and the first tingling of his hands, ears,
+and nose he had relieved with the application of wet snow.  Now
+he felt only comfort.
+
+After a while Dick ate again of his jerked buffalo meat, and with
+the food, warmth, and rest, he began to feel sleepy.  He plunged
+into the snow, hunted out more wood to add to his reserve, and
+then, with the two blankets, the Indian's and his own, wrapped
+about him, sat down where the heat of the two fires could reach
+him from either side, and with a heap of the wood as a rest for
+his back.
+
+Dick did not really intend to go to sleep, but he had been
+through great labors and dangers and had been awake long.  He
+drew up one of the blankets until it covered all of his head and
+most of his face, and began to gaze into the coals of the larger
+fire.  The wind--and it was now so cold that the surface of the
+snow was freezing--still whistled over him, but the blanket
+protected his head from its touch.  The whistle instead increased
+his comfort like the patter of rain on a roof to him who is dry
+inside.
+
+The fire had now burned down considerable and the beds of coals
+were large and beautiful.  They enveloped Dick in their warmth
+and cheer and began to pain splendid words of hope for him.  He
+could read what they said in glowing letters, but the singular
+feeling of peace and rest deepened all the while.  He wondered
+vaguely that one could be so happy.
+
+The white snow became less white, the red fire less red, and a
+great gray mist came floating down over Dick's eyes.  Up rose a
+shadowy world in which all things were vague and wavering.  Then
+the tired lids dropped down, the gray mist gave way to a soft
+blackness, and Dick sank peacefully into the valley of sleep.
+
+The boy slept heavily hour after hour, with his hooded head sunk
+upon his knees, and his rifle lying across his lap, while over
+him shrieked the coldest wind of the great northwestern plains.
+The surface of the frozen ground presented a gleaming sheet like
+ice, over which the wind acquired new strength and a sharper
+edge, but the boy in his alcove remained safe and warm.  Now and
+then a drift of fine snowy particles that would have stung like
+small shot was blown over the barrier, but they only stuck upon
+the thick folds of the blankets and the boy slept on.  The white
+mist dissolved.  The sun poured down beams brilliantly cold and
+hard, and over them was the loom of the mountains, but the boy
+knew nothing of them, nor cared.
+
+The fires ceased to flame and became great masses of glowing
+coals that would endure long.  The alcove was filled with the
+grateful warmth, and when the sun was in the zenith, Dick still
+slept, drawing long, regular breaths from a deep strong chest.
+The afternoon grew and waned, twilight came over the desolate
+snow fields, the loom of the mountains was gone, and the twilight
+gave way to an icy night.
+
+When Dick awoke it was quite dark, save for the heaps of coals
+which still glowed and threw out warmth.  He felt at first a
+little wonderment that he had slept so long, but he was not
+alarmed.  His forethought and energy had provided plenty of wood
+and he threw on fresh billets.  Once more the flames leaped up to
+brighten and to cheer, and Dick, walking to the edge of his snow
+bank, looked over.  The wind had piled up the snow there
+somewhat higher before the surface froze, and across the barrier
+he gazed upon some such scene as one might behold near the North
+Pole.  He seemed to be looking over ice fields that stretched
+away to infinity, and the wind certainly had a voice that was a
+compound of chill and desolation.
+
+It was so solemn and weird that Dick was glad to duck down again
+into his den, and resume the seat where he had slept so long.  He
+ate a little and then tried to slumber again, but he had already
+slept so much that he remained wide awake.  He opened his eyes
+and let them stay open, after several vain efforts.
+
+The moonlight now came out with uncommon brilliancy and the
+plain glittered.  But it was the coldest moon that Dick had
+ever seen.  He began to feel desolate and lonely again, and,
+since he could not sleep, he longed for something to do.
+Then the knowledge came to him.  He put on fresh wood, and
+between firelight and moonlight he could see everything
+clearly.
+
+Satisfied with his light, Dick took from his pocket the History
+of the United States that was accompanying him so strangely in
+his adventures, and began to study it.  He looked once more at
+the map of the Rocky Mountain territories, and judged that he was
+in Southern Montana.  Although his curiosity as to the exact spot
+in which he lay haunted him, there was no way to tell, and
+turning the leaves away from the map, he began to read.
+
+It was chance, perhaps, that made him open at the story that
+never grows old to American youth--Valley Forge.  It was not a
+great history, it had no brilliant and vivid style, but the
+simple facts were enough for Dick.  He read once more of the last
+hope of the great man, never greater than then, praying in the
+snow, and his own soul leaped at the sting of example.  He was
+only a boy, obscure, unknown, and the fate of but two rested with
+him, yet he, too, would persevere, and in the end his triumph
+also would be complete.  He read no further, but closed the book
+and returned it carefully to his pocket.  Then he stared into the
+fire, which he built up higher that the cheerful light might
+shine before him.
+
+Dick did not hide from himself even now the dangers of his
+position.  He was warm and sheltered for the present, he had
+enough of the jerked buffalo to last several days, but sooner or
+later he must leave his den and invade the snowy plain with its
+top crust of ice.  This snow might last two or three weeks or a
+month.  It was true that spring had come, but it was equally
+true, as so often happens in the great Northwest, that spring had
+refused to stay.
+
+Dick tried now to see the mountains.  The night was full of
+brilliant moonlight, but the horizon was too limited; it ended
+everywhere, a black wall against the snow, and still speculating
+and pondering, Dick at last fell asleep again.
+
+When the boy awoke it was another clear, cold day, with the wind
+still blowing, and there in the northwest he joyously saw the
+white line of the mountains.  He believed that he could recognize
+the shape of certain peaks and ridges, and he fixed on a spot in
+the blue sky which he was sure overhung Castle Howard.
+
+Dick saw now that he had been going away from the mountains.  He
+was certainly farther than he had been when he first met the
+Sioux, and it was probable that he had been wandering then in an
+irregular course, with its general drift toward the southwest.
+The mountains in the thin, high air looked near, but his
+experience of the West told him that they were far, forty miles
+perhaps, and the tramp that lay before him was a mighty
+undertaking.  He prepared for it at once.
+
+He cut a stout stick that would serve as a cane, looked carefully
+to the security of his precious sun glass, and bidding his little
+den, which already had begun to wear some of the aspects of a
+home, a regretful farewell, started through the deep snow.
+
+He had wrapped his head in the Indian's blanket, covering
+everything but eyes, nose, and mouth, and he did not suffer
+greatly from the bitter wind.  But it was weary work breaking the
+way through the snow, rendered all the more difficult by the icy
+crust on top.  The snow rose to his waist and he broke it at
+first with his body, but by and by he used the stick, and thus he
+plodded on, not making much more than a mile an hour.
+
+Dick longed now for the shelter of the warm den.  The cold wind,
+despite the protection of the blanket, began to seek out the
+crannies in it and sting his face.  He knew that he was wet again
+from ankle to knee, but he struggled resolutely on, alike for the
+sake of keeping warm and for the sake of shortening the
+distance.  Yet there were other difficulties than those of the
+snow.  The ground became rough.  Now and then he would go
+suddenly through the treacherous snow into an old buffalo wallow
+or a deep gully, and no agility could keep him from falling on
+his face or side.  This not only made him weary and sore, but it
+was a great trial to his temper also, and the climax came when he
+went through the snow into a prairie brook and came out with his
+shoes full of water.
+
+Dick shivered, stamped his feet violently, and went on painfully
+breaking his way through the snow.  He began to have that dull
+stupor of mind and body again.  He could see nothing on the
+surface of the white plain save himself.  The world was entirely
+desolate.  But if the Sioux were coming a second time he did not
+care.  He was amused at the thought of the Sioux coming.  There
+were hidden away somewhere in some snug valley, and were too
+sensible to venture upon the plain.
+
+Late in the afternoon the wind became so fierce, and Dick was so
+tired, that he dug a hole in the deepest snow bank he could find,
+wrapped the blankets tightly around him, and crouched there for
+warmth and shelter.  Then, when the muscles were at rest, he
+began to feel the cold all through his wet feet and legs.  He
+took off his shoes and leggings inside the shelter of his
+blankets, and chafed feet and legs with vigorous hands.  This
+restored warmth and circulation, but he was compelled after a
+while to put on his wet garments again.  He had gained a rest,
+however, and as he did not fear the damp so much while he was
+moving, he resumed the painful march.
+
+The mountains seemed as far away as ever, but Dick knew that he
+had come five or six miles.  He could look back and see his own
+path through the deep snow, winding and zigzagging toward the
+northwest.  It would wind and zigzag no matter how hard he tried
+to go in a straight line, and finally he refused to look back any
+more at the disclosure of his weakness.
+
+He sought more trees before the sun went down, as his glass could
+no longer be of use without them, but found none.  There could be
+no fire for him that night, and digging another deep hole in the
+snow he slept the darkness through, nevertheless, warmly and
+comfortably, like an Eskimo in his ice hut.  He did not suffer as
+much as he had thought he would from his wet shoes and leggings,
+and in the night, wrapped within the blankets they dried on him.
+
+Dick spent the second day in alternate tramps of an hour and
+rests of half an hour.  He was conscious that he was growing
+weaker from this prodigious exertion, but he was not willing to
+acknowledge it.  In the afternoon he came upon a grove of
+cottonwoods and some undergrowth and he tried to kindle a fire,
+but the sun was not strong enough for his glass, and, after an
+hour's wasted effort, he gave it up, discouraged greatly.  Before
+night the wind, which had been from the northwest, shifted to the
+southwest and became much warmer.  By and by it snowed again
+heavily and Dick, who could no longer see his mountains, being
+afraid that he would wander in the wrong direction, dug another
+burrow and went to sleep.
+
+He was awakened by the patter of something warm upon his face,
+and found that the day and rain had come together.  Dick once
+more was struck to the heart with dismay.  How could he stand
+this and the snow together?  The plain would now run rivers of
+water and he must trudge through a terrible mire, worse even than
+the snow.
+
+He imagined that he could see his mountains through the rain
+sheets, and he resumed his march, making no effort now to keep
+anything but his rifle and ammunition dry.  He crossed more than
+one brook, either permanent or made by the rain and melting snow,
+and sloshed though the water, ankle deep, but paid no attention
+to it.  He walked with intervals of rest all through the day and
+the night, and the warm rain never ceased.  The snow melted at a
+prodigious rate, and Dick thought several times in the night that
+he heard the sound of plunging waters.  These must be cataracts
+from the snow and rain, and he was convinced that he was near the
+mountains.
+
+The day came again, the rain ceased, the sun sprang out, the warm
+winds blew, and there were the mountains.  Perhaps the snow had
+not been so heavy on them as on the plain, but most of it was
+gone from the peaks and slopes and they stood up, sheltering and
+beautiful, with a shade of green that the snow had not been able
+to take away.
+
+The sight put fresh courage in Dick's heart, but he was very
+weak.  He staggered as he plowed through the mixed snow and
+mud, and plains and mountains alike were rocking about in a
+most uncertain fashion.
+
+In a ravine at the foot of the mountains he saw a herd of about
+twenty buffaloes which had probably taken refuge there from the
+snowstorm, but he did not molest them.  Instead, he shook his
+rifle at them and called out:
+
+"I'm too glad to escape with my own life to take any of yours."
+
+Dick's brain was in a feverish state and he was not wholly
+responsible for what he said or did, but he began the ascent with
+a fairly good supply of strength and toiled on all the day.  He
+never knew where he slept that night, but he thinks it was in a
+clump of pines, and the next morning when he continued, he felt
+that he had made a wonderful improvement.  His feet were light
+and so was his head, but he had never before seen slopes and
+peaks and pines and ash doing a daylight dance.  They whirled
+about in the most eccentric manner, yet it was all exhilarating,
+in thorough accord with his own spirits, and Dick laughed aloud
+with glee.  What a merry, funny world it was!  Feet and head both
+grew lighter.  He shouted aloud and began to sing.  Then he felt
+so strong and exuberant that he ran down one of the slopes,
+waving his cap.  An elk sprang out of a pine thicket, stared a
+moment or two with startled eyes at the boy, and then dashed away
+over the mountain.
+
+Dick continued to sing, and waved his fur cap at the fleeing
+elk.  It was the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life.
+The whirling dance of mountain and forest became bewildering in
+its speed and violence.  He was unable to keep his feet, and
+plunged forward into the arms of his brother, Albert.  Then
+everything sank away from him.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII
+Albert's Victory
+
+When Dick opened his eyes again he raised his hand once more to
+wave it at the fleeing elk and then he stopped in astonishment.
+The hand was singularly weak.  He had made a great effort, but
+it did not go up very far.  Nor did his eyes, which had opened
+slowly and heavily, see any elk.  They saw instead rows and rows
+of furs and then other rows hanging above one another.  His eyes
+traveled downward and they saw log walls almost covered with furs
+and skins, but with rifles, axes, and other weapons and
+implements on hooks between.  A heavy oaken window shutter was
+thrown back and a glorious golden sunlight poured into the room.
+
+The sunlight happened to fall upon Dick's own hand, and that was
+the next object at which he looked.  His amazement increased.
+Could such a thin white hand as that belong to him who had lately
+owned such a big red one?  He surveyed it critically, in
+particular, the bones showing so prominently in the back of it,
+and then he was interrupted by a full, cheerful voice which
+called out:
+
+"Enough of that stargazing and hand examination!  Here, drink
+this soup, and while you're doing it, I'll tell you how glad I am
+to see you back in your right mind!  I tell you you've been
+whooping out some tall yarns about an Indian following you for a
+year or two through snow a mile or so deep!  How you fought him
+for a month without stopping!  And how you then waded for
+another year through snow two or three times as deep as the
+first!"
+
+It was his brother Albert, and he lay on his own bed of furs and
+skins in their own cabin, commonly called by them Castle Howard,
+snugly situated in the lost or enchanted valley.  And here was
+Albert, healthy, strong, and dictatorial, while he, stretched
+weakly upon a bed, held our a hand through which the sun could
+almost shine.  Truly, there had been great changes!
+
+He raised his head as commanded by Albert--the thin, pallid,
+drooping Albert of last summer, the lusty, red-faced Albert of
+to-day--and drank the soup, which tasted very good indeed.  He
+felt stronger and held up the thin, white hand to see if it had
+not grown fatter and redder in the last ten seconds.  Albert
+laughed, and it seemed to Dick such a full, loud laugh, as if it
+were drawn up from a deep, iron-walled chest, inclosing lungs
+made of leather, with an uncommon expansion.  It jarred upon
+Dick.  It seemed too loud for so small a room.
+
+"I see you enjoyed that soup, Dick, old fellow," continued Albert
+in the same thundering tones.  "Well, you ought to like it.  It
+was chicken soup, and it was made by an artist--myself.  I shot
+a fat and tender prairie hen down the valley, and here she is in
+soup.  It's only a step from grass to pot and I did it all
+myself.   Have another."
+
+"Think I will," said Dick.
+
+He drank a second tin plate of the soup, and he could feel life
+and strength flowing into every vein.
+
+"How did I get here, Al?" he asked.
+
+"That's a pretty hard question to answer," replied Albert,
+smiling and still filling the room with his big voice.  "You were
+partly brought, partly led, partly pushed, you partly walked,
+partly jumped, and partly crawled, and there were even little
+stretches of the march when you were carried on somebody's
+shoulder, big and heavy as you are.  Dick, I don't know any name
+for such a mixed gait.  Words fail me."
+
+Dick smiled, too.
+
+"Well, no matter how I got here, it's certain that I'm here," he
+said, looking around contentedly.
+
+"Absolutely sure, and it's equally as sure that you've been here
+five days.  I, the nurse, I, the doctor, and I, the spectator,
+can vouch for that.  There were times when I had to hold you in
+your bed, there were times when you were so hot with fever that I
+expected to see you burst into a mass of red and yellow flames,
+and most all the while you talked with a vividness and
+imagination that I've never known before outside of the Arabian
+Nights.  Dick, where did you get the idea about a Sioux Indian
+following you all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with
+stops every half hour for you and him to fight?"
+
+"It's true," said Dick, and then he told the eager boy the story of
+his escape from the Sioux band, the terrible pursuit, the
+storm, and his dreadful wandering.
+
+"It was wonderful luck that I met you, Al, old fellow," he said
+devoutly.
+
+"Not luck exactly," said Albert.  "You were coming back to the
+valley on our old trail, and, as I had grown very anxious about
+you, I was out on the same path to see if I could see any sign of
+you.  It was natural that we should meet, but I think that, after
+all, Dick, Providence had the biggest hand in it."
+
+"No doubt," said Dick, and after a moment's pause he added, "Did
+it snow much up here?"
+
+"But lightly.  The clouds seem to have avoided these mountains.
+It was only from your delirium that I gathered the news of the
+great storm on the plains.  Now, I think you've talked enough for
+an invalid.  Drop you head back on that buffalo robe and go to
+sleep again."
+
+It seemed so amazing to Dick ever to receive orders from Albert
+that he obeyed promptly, closed his eyes, and in five minutes was
+in sound slumber.
+
+Albert hovered about the room, until he saw that Dick was asleep
+and breathing strongly and regularly.  Then he put his hand on
+Dick's brow, and when he felt the temperature his own eyes were
+lighted up by a fine smile.  That forehead, hot so long, was cool
+now, and it would be only a matter of a few days until Dick was
+his old, strong and buoyant self again.  Albert never told his
+brother how he had gone two days and nights without sleep,
+watching every moment by the delirious bedside, how, taking the
+chances, he had dosed him with quinine from their medical stores,
+and how, later, he had cooked for him the tenderest and most
+delicate food.  Nor did he speak of those awful hours--so many
+of them--when Dick's life might go at any time.
+
+Albert knew now that the great crisis was over, and rejoicing, he
+went forth from Castle Howard.  It was his intention to kill
+another prairie chicken and make more of the soup that Dick liked
+so much.  As he walked, his manner was expansive, indicating a
+deep satisfaction.  Dick had saved his life and he had saved
+Dick's.  But Dick was still an invalid and it was his duty,
+meanwhile to carry on the business of the valley.  He was sole
+workman, watchman, and defender, and his spirit rose to meet the
+responsibility.  He would certainly look after his brother as
+well as anyone could do it.
+
+Albert whistled as he went along, and swung his gun in debonair
+fashion.  It would not take him, an expert borderer and woodsman,
+long to get that prairie chicken, and after that, as he had said
+before, it was only a step from grass to pot.
+
+It was perhaps the greatest hour of Albert Howard's life.  He,
+the helped, was now the helper; he, the defended, was now the
+defender.  His chest could scarcely contain the mighty surge of
+exultation that heart and lungs together accomplished.  He was
+far from having any rejoicings over Dick's prostration; he
+rejoiced instead that he was able, since the prostration had
+come, to care for both.  He had had the forethought and courage
+to go forth and seek for Dick, and the strength to save him when
+found.
+
+Albert broke into a rollicking whistle and he still swung his
+shotgun somewhat carelessly for a hunter and marksman.  He
+passed by one of the geysers just as it was sending up its
+high column of hot water and its high column of steam.  "That's
+the way I feel, old fellow," he said.  "I could erupt with just
+as much force."
+
+He resumed his caution farther on and shot two fine, fat prairie
+hens, returning with them to Castle Howard before Dick awoke.
+When Dick did awake, the second installment of the soup was ready
+for him and he ate it hungrily.  He was naturally so strong and
+vigorous and had lived such a wholesome life that he recovered,
+now that the crisis was past, with astonishing rapidity.  But
+Albert played the benevolent tyrant for a few days yet, insisting
+that Dick should sleep a great number of hours out of every
+twenty-four, and making him eat four times a day of the tenderest
+and most succulent things.  He allowed him to walk but a little
+at first, and, though the walks were extended from day to day,
+made him keep inside when the weather was bad.
+
+Dick took it all, this alternate spoiling and overlordship, with
+amazing mildness.  He had some dim perception of the true state
+of affairs, and was willing that his brother should enjoy his
+triumph to the full.  But in a week he was entirely well again,
+thin and pale yet, but with a pulsing tide in his veins as strong
+as ever.  Then he and Albert took counsel with each other.  All
+trace of snow was gone, even far up on the highest slope, and the
+valley was a wonderful symphony in green and gold, gold on the
+lake and green on the new grass and the new leaves of the trees.
+
+"It's quite settled," said Albert, "that we're to stay another
+year in the valley."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Dick, "we had already resolved on that, and my
+excursion on the plains shows that we were wise in doing so.  But
+you know, Al, we can't do fur hunting in the spring and summer.
+Furs are not in good condition now."
+
+"No," said Albert, "but we can get ready for the fall and winter,
+and I propose that we undertake right away a birchbark canoe.
+The dugout is a little bit heavy and awkward, hard to control in
+a high wind, and we'll really need the birch bark."
+
+"Good enough," said Dick.  "We'll do it."
+
+With the habits of promptness and precision they had learned from
+old Mother Necessity, they went to work at once, planning and
+toiling on equal terms, a full half-and-half partnership.  Both
+were in great spirits.
+
+In this task they fell back partly on talk that they had heard
+from some of the men with whom they had started across the
+plains, and partly on old reading, and it took quite a lot of
+time.  They looked first for large specimens of the white birch,
+and finally found several on one of the lower slopes.  This was
+the first and, in fact, the absolutely vital requisite.  Without
+it they could do nothing, but, having located their bark supply,
+they left the trees and began at the lake edge the upper
+framework of their canoe, consisting of four strips of cedar, two
+for either side of the boat, every one of the four having a
+length of about fifteen feet.  These strips had a width of about
+an inch, with a thickness a third as great.
+
+The strips were tied together in pairs at the ends, and the two
+pairs were joined together at the same place after the general
+fashion in use for the construction of such canoes.
+
+The frame being ready, they went to their white birch trees for
+the bark.  They marked off the utmost possible length on the
+largest and finest tree, made a straight cut through the bark at
+either end, and triumphantly peeled off a splendid piece, large
+enough for the entire canoe.  Then they laid it on the ground in
+a nice smooth place and marked off a distance two feet less than
+their framework or gunwales.  They drove into the ground at each
+end of this space two tall stakes, three inches apart.  The bark
+was then laid upon the ground inside up and folded evenly
+throughout its entire length.  After that it was lifted and set
+between the stakes with the edges up.  The foot of bark
+projecting beyond each stake was covered in each case with
+another piece of bark folded firmly over it and sewed to the
+sides by means of an awl and deer tendon.
+
+This sewing done, they put a large stone under each end of the
+bark construction, causing it to sag from the middle in either
+direction into the curve suitable for a canoe.  The gunwale which
+they had constructed previously was now fitted into the bark, and
+the bark was stitched tightly to it, both at top and bottom, with
+a further use of awl and tendon, the winding stitch being used.
+
+They now had the outside of the canoe, but they had drawn many a
+long breath and perspired many a big drop before it was done.
+They felt, however, that the most serious part of the task was
+over, and after a short rest they began on the inside, which they
+lined with long strips of cedar running the full length of the
+boat.  The pieces were about an inch and a half in width and
+about a third of an inch in thickness and were fitted very
+closely together.  Over these they put the ribs of touch ash,
+which was very abundant in the valley and on the slopes.  Strips
+two inches wide and a half inch thick were bent crosswise across
+the interior of the curve, close together, and were firmly
+fastened under the gunwales with a loop stitch of the strong
+tendon through the bark.
+
+To make their canoe firm and steady, they securely lashed three
+string pieces across it and then smeared deeply all the seams
+with pitch, which they were fortunate enough to secure from one
+of the many strange springs and exudations in the valley.  They
+now had a strong, light canoe, fifteen feet long and a little
+over two feet wide at the center.  They had been compelled to
+exercise great patience and endurance in this task, particularly
+in the work with the awl and tendons.  Skillful as they had
+become with their hands, they acquired several sore fingers in
+the task, but their pride was great when it was done.  They
+launched the canoe, tried it several times near the shore in
+order to detect invisible seams, and then, when all such were
+stopped up tightly with pitch, they paddled boldly out into deep
+and far waters.
+
+The practice they had acquired already with the dugout helped
+them greatly with the birch bark, and after one or two duckings
+they handled it with great ease.  As amateurs sometimes do, they
+had achieved either by plan or accident a perfect design and
+found that they had a splendid canoe.  This was demonstrated when
+the two boys rowed a race, after Dick had recovered his full
+strength--Dick in the dugout and Albert in the birch bark.  The
+race was the full length of the lake, and the younger and smaller
+boy won an easy triumph.
+
+"Well paddled, Al!" said Dick.
+
+"It wasn't the paddling, Dick," replied Albert, "it was light
+bark against heavy wood that did it."
+
+They were very proud of their two canoes and made a little
+landing for them in a convenient cove.  Here, tied to trees with
+skin lariats, they were safe from wind and wave.
+
+An evening or two after the landing was made secure, Dick, who
+had been out alone, came home in the dark and found Albert
+reading a book by the firelight.
+
+"What's this?" he exclaimed.
+
+"I took it out of the inside pocket of your coat, when I help you
+here in the snow," replied Albert.  "I put it on a shelf and in
+the strain of your illness forgot all about it until to-day."
+
+"That's my History and Map of the United States," said Dick,
+smiling.   "I took it from the wagon which yielded up so much to
+us.  It wouldn't tell me where I was in the storm; but, do you
+know, Al, it helped me when I read in there about that greatest
+of all men praying in the snow."
+
+"I know who it is whom you mean," said Albert earnestly, "and I
+intend to read about him and all the others.  It's likely, Dick,
+before another year is past, that you and I will become about the
+finest historians of our country to be found anywhere between the
+Atlantic and Pacific.  Maybe this is the greatest treasure of all
+that the wagon has yielded up to us."
+
+Albert was right.  A single volume, where no other could be
+obtained, was a precious treasure to them, and it made many an
+evening pass pleasantly that would otherwise have been dull.
+They liked especially to linger over the hardships of the
+borderers and of their countrymen in war, because they found so
+many parallels to their own case, and the reading always brought
+them new courage and energy.
+
+They spent the next month after the completion of the canoe in
+making all kinds of traps, including some huge dead falls for
+grizzly bear and silver tip.
+
+They intended as soon as the autumn opened to begin their fur
+operations on a much larger scale than those of the year before.
+Numerous excursions into the surrounding mountains showed
+abundant signs of game and no signs of an invader, and they
+calculated that if all went well they would have stored safely by
+next spring at least twenty thousand dollars' worth of furs.
+
+The summer passed pleasantly for both, being filled with work in
+which they took a great interest, and hence a great pleasure.
+They found another rock cavity, which they fitted up like the
+first in anticipation of an auspicious trapping season.
+
+"They say, 'don't put all your eggs in one basket,'" said
+Albert, "and so we won't put all our furs in one cave.  The Sioux
+may come sometime or other, and even if they should get our three
+residences, Castle Howard, the Annex, and the Suburban Villa, and
+all that is in them, they are pretty sure to miss our caves and
+our furs."
+
+"Of course some Indians must know of this valley," said Dick,
+"and most likely it's the Sioux.  Perhaps none ever wander in
+here now, because they're at war with our people and are using
+all their forces on the plains."
+
+Albert thought it likely, and both Dick and he had moments when
+they wondered greatly what was occurring in the world without.
+But, on the whole, they were not troubled much by the affairs of
+the rest of the universe.
+
+Traps, house building, and curing food occupied them throughout
+the summer.  Once the days were very hot in the valley, which
+served as a focus for the rays of the sun, but it was invariably
+cool, often cold, at night.  They slept usually under a tent, or
+sometimes, on their longer expeditions in that direction, at the
+bark hut.  Dick made a point of this, as he resolved that Albert
+should have no relapse.  He could not see any danger of such a
+catastrophe, but he felt that another year of absolutely fresh
+and pure mountain air, breathed both night and day, would put his
+brother beyond all possible danger.
+
+The life that both led even in the summer was thoroughly
+hardening.  They bathed every morning, if in the tent by Castle
+Howard, in the torrent, the waters of which were always icy,
+flowing as they did from melting snows on the highest peaks.
+They swam often in the lake, which was also cold always, and at
+one of the hot springs they hollowed out a pool, where they could
+take a hot bath whenever they needed it.
+
+The game increased in the valley as usual toward autumn, and they
+replenished their stores of jerked meat.  They had spared their
+ammunition entirely throughout the summer and now they used it
+only on buffalo, elk, and mule deer.  They were fortunate enough
+to catch several big bears in their huge dead falls, and, with
+very little expenditure of cartridges, they felt that they could
+open their second winter as well equipped with food as they had
+been when they began the first.  They also put a new bark
+thatching on the roof of Castle Howard, and then felt ready for
+anything that might come.
+
+"Rain, hail, sleet, snow, and ice, it's all the same to us," said
+Dick.
+
+They did not resume their trapping until October came, as they
+knew that the furs would not be in good condition until then.
+They merely made a good guess that it was October.  They had
+long since lost all count of days and months, and took their
+reckoning from the change of the foliage into beautiful reds
+and yellows and the increasing coldness of the air.
+
+It proved to be a cold but not rainy autumn, a circumstance that
+favored greatly their trapping operations.  They had learned much
+in the preceding winter from observation and experience, and now
+they put it to practice.  They knew many of the runways or paths
+frequented by the animals, and now they would place their traps
+in these, concealing them as carefully as possible, and, acting
+on an idea of Albert's, they made buckskin gloves for themselves,
+with which they handled the traps, in order to leave, if
+possible, no human odor to warn the wary game.  Such devices as
+this and the more skillful making of their traps caused the
+second season to be a greater success than the first, good as the
+latter had been.  They shot an additional number of buffaloes and
+elk, but what they sought in particular was the beaver, and they
+were lucky enough to find two or three new and secluded little
+streams, on which he had built his dams.
+
+The valuable furs now accumulated rapidly, and it was wise
+forethought that had made them fit up the second cave or hollow.
+They were glad to have two places for them, in case one was
+discovered by an enemy stronger than themselves.
+
+Autumn turned into winter, with snow, slush, and ice-cold rain.
+The preceding winter had been mild, but this bade fair to break
+some records for severe and variegated weather.  Now came the
+true test for Albert.  To trudge all day long in snow, icy rain
+or deep slush, to paddle across the lake in a nipping wind, with
+the chilly spray all over him, to go for hours soaking wet on
+every inch of his skin--these were the things that would have
+surely tried the dwellers in the houses of men, even those with
+healthy bodies.
+
+Albert coughed a little after his first big soaking, but after a
+hot bath, a big supper, and a long night's sleep, it left, not to
+return.  He became so thoroughly inured now to exposure that
+nothing seemed to affect him.  Late in December--so they
+reckoned the time--when, going farther than usual into a long
+crevice of the mountains, they were overtaken by a heavy
+snowstorm.  They might have reached the Suburban Villa by night,
+or they might not, but in any event the going would have been
+full of danger, and they decided to camp in the broadest part of
+the canyon in which they now were, not far from the little brook
+that flowed down it.
+
+They had matches with them--they were always careful to keep
+them dry now--and after securing their dry shavings they lighted
+a good fire.  Then they are their food, and looked up without
+fear at the dark mountains and the thick, driving snow.  They
+were partially sheltered by the bank and some great ash trees,
+and, for further protection, they wrapped about themselves the
+blankets, without which they never went on any long journey.
+
+Having each other for company, the adventure was like a picnic to
+both.  It was no such desperate affair as that of Dick's when he
+was alone on the plain.  They further increased their shelter
+from the snow by an artful contrivance of brush and fallen
+boughs, and although enough still fell upon them to make
+miserable the house-bred, they did not care.  Both fell asleep
+after a while, with flurries of snow still striking upon their
+faces, and were awakened far in the night by the roar of an
+avalanche farther up the canyon; but they soon went to sleep
+again and arose the next day with injury.
+
+Thus the winter passed, one of storm and cold, but the trapping
+was wonderful, and each boy grew in a remarkable manner in
+strength, endurance, and skill.  When signs of spring appeared
+again, they decided that it was time for them to go.  Had it not
+been for Dick's misadventure on the plain, and their belief that
+a great war was now in progress between the Sioux and the white
+people, one might have gone out to return with horses and mules
+for furs, while the other remained behind to guard them.  But in
+view of all the dangers, they resolved to keep together.  The
+furs would be secreted and the rest of their property must take
+its chances.
+
+So they made ready.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV
+Prisoners
+
+It gave both Dick and Albert a severe wrench to leave their
+beautiful valley.  They had lived in it now nearly two years, and
+it had brought strength and abounding life to Albert, infinite
+variety, content, and gratitude to Dick, and what seemed a
+fortune--their furs--to both.  It was a beautiful valley, in
+which Nature had done for them many strange and wonderful things,
+and they loved it, the splendid lake, the grassy levels, the
+rushing streams, the noble groves, and the great mountains all
+about.
+
+"I'd like to live here, Dick," said Albert, "for some years,
+anyway.  After we take out our furs and sell 'em, we can come
+back and use it as a base for more trapping."
+
+"If the Indians will let up," said Dick.
+
+"Do you think we'll meet 'em?"
+
+"I don't know, but I believe the plains are alive with hostile
+Sioux."
+
+But Albert could not foresee any trouble.  He was too young, to
+sanguine, too full now of the joy of life to think of difficulties.
+
+They chose their weapons for the march with great care, each
+taking a repeating rifle, a revolver, a hunting knife, and a
+hatchet, the latter chiefly for camping purposes.  They also
+divided equally among themselves what was left of the ball
+cartridges, and each took his sunglass and half of the remaining
+matches.  The extra weapons, including the shotguns and shot
+cartridges, they hid with their furs.  They also put in the caves
+many more of their most valuable possessions, especially the
+tools and remnants of medical supplies.  They left everything
+else in the houses, just as they were when they were using them,
+except the bark hut, from which they took away all furnishings,
+as it was too light to resist the invasion of a large wild beast
+like a grizzly bear.  But they fastened up Castle Howard and the
+Annex so securely that no wandering beast could possibly break
+in.  They sunk their canoes in shallow water among reeds, and
+then, when each had provided himself with a large supply of
+jerked buffalo and deer meat and a skin water bag, they were
+ready to depart.
+
+"We may find our houses and what is in them all right when we
+come back, or we may not," said Dick.
+
+"But we take the chance," said Albert cheerfully.
+
+Early on a spring morning they started down the valley by the
+same way in which they had first entered it.  They walked along
+in silence for some minutes, and then, as if by the same impulse,
+the two turned and looked back.  There was their house, which had
+sheltered them so snugly and so safely for so long, almost hidden
+now in the foliage of the new spring.  There was a bit of
+moisture in the eyes of Albert, the younger and more sentimental.
+
+"Good-by," he said, waving his hand.  "I've found life here."
+
+Dick said nothing, and they turned into the main valley.  They
+walked with long and springy steps, left the valley behind them,
+and began to climb the slopes.  Presently the valley itself
+became invisible, the mountains seeming to close in and blot it
+out.
+
+"A stranger would have to blunder on it to find it," said Dick.
+
+"I hope no one will make any such blunder," said Albert.
+
+The passage over the mountains was easy, the weather continuing
+favorable, and on another sunshiny morning they reached the
+plains, which flowed out boundlessly before them.  These, too,
+were touched with green, but the boys were perplexed.  The space
+was so vast, and it was all so much alike, that it did not look
+as if they could ever arrive anywhere.
+
+"I think we'd better make for Cheyenne in Wyoming Territory,"
+said Dick.
+
+"But we don't know how far away it is, nor in what direction,"
+said Albert.
+
+"No; but if we keep on going we're bound to get somewhere.  We've
+got lots of time before us, and we'll take it easy."
+
+They had filled their skin water bags, made in the winter, at the
+last spring, and they set out at a moderate pace over the plain.
+Dick had thought once of visiting again the scene of the train's
+destruction in the pass, but Albert opposed it.
+
+"No," he said, "I don't want to see that place."
+
+This journey, they knew not whither, continued easy and pleasant
+throughout the day.  The grass was growing fast on the plains,
+and all the little steams that wound now and then between the
+swells were full of water, and, although they still carried the
+filled water bags, Dick inferred that they were not likely to
+suffer from thirst.  Late in the afternoon they saw a small herd
+of antelope and a lone buffalo grazing at a considerable
+distance, and Dick drew the second and comforting inference that
+game would prove to be abundant.  He was so pleased with these
+inferences that he stated them to Albert, who promptly drew a
+third.
+
+"Wouldn't the presence of buffalo and antelope indicate that
+there are not many Indians hereabouts?" he asked.
+
+"It looks likely," replied Dick.
+
+They continued southward until twilight came, when they built in
+a hollow a fire of buffalo chips, which were abundant all over
+the plain, and watched their friendly mountains sink away in the
+dark.
+
+"Gives me a sort of homesick feeling," said Albert.  "They've
+been good mountains to us.  Shelter and home are there, but out
+here I feel as if I were stripped to the wind."
+
+"That describes it," said Dick.
+
+They did not keep any watch, but put out their fire and slept
+snugly in their blankets.  They were awakened in the morning by
+the whine of a coyote that did not dare to come too near, and
+resumed their leisurely march, to continue in this manner for
+several days, meeting no human being either white or red.
+
+They saw the mountains sink behind the sky line and then they
+felt entirely without a rudder.  There was nothing to go by now
+except the sun, but they kept to their southern course.  They
+were not greatly troubled.  They found plenty of game, as Dick
+had surmised, and killed an antelope and a fat young buffalo cow.
+
+"We may travel a long journey, Al," said Dick with some
+satisfaction, "but it's not hard on us.  It's more like loafing
+along on an easy holiday."
+
+On the fifth day they ran into a large buffalo herd, but did not
+molest any of its members, as they did not need fresh meat.
+
+"Seems to me," said Dick, "that Sioux would be after this herd if
+they weren't busy elsewhere.  It looks like more proof that the
+Sioux are on the warpath and are to the eastward of us, fighting
+our own people."
+
+"The Sioux are a great and warlike tribe, are they not?" asked
+Albert.
+
+"The greatest and most warlike west of the Mississippi," replied
+Dick.  "I understand that they are really a group of closely
+related tribes and can put thousands of warriors in the field."
+
+"Bright Sun, I suppose, is with them?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose so.  He is an Indian, a Sioux, no matter if he
+was at white schools and for years with white people.  He must
+feel for his own, just as you and I, Al, feel for our own race."
+
+They wandered three or four more days across the plains, and were
+still without sign of white man or red.  They experienced no
+hardship.  Water was plentiful.  Game was to be had for the
+stalking and life, had they been hunting or exploring, would have
+been pleasant; but both felt a sense of disappointment--they
+never came to anything.  The expanse of plains was boundless, the
+loneliness became overpowering.  They had not the remotest idea
+whether they were traveling toward any white settlement.  Human
+life seemed to shun them.
+
+"Dick," said Albert one day, "do you remember the story of the
+Flying Dutchman, how he kept trying for years to round the Cape
+of Storms, and couldn't do it?  I wonder if some such penalty is
+put on us, and if so, what for?"
+
+The thought lodged in the minds of both.  Oppressed by long and
+fruitless wanderings, they began to have a superstition that they
+were to continue them forever.  They knew that it was unreasonable,
+but it clung, nevertheless.  There were the rolling plains, the
+high, brassy sky, and the clear line of the horizon on all sides,
+with nothing that savored of human life between.
+
+They had hoped for an emigrant train, or a wandering band of
+hunters, or possibly a troop of cavalry, but days passed and they
+met none.  Still the same high, brassy sky, still the same
+unbroken horizons.  The plains increased in beauty.  There was a
+fine, delicate shade of green on the buffalo grass, and wonderful
+little flowers peeped shy heads just above the earth, but Dick
+and Albert took little notice of either.  They had sunk into an
+uncommon depression.  The terrible superstition that they were to
+wander forever was strengthening its hold upon them, despite
+every effort of will and reason.  In the hope of better success
+they changed their course two or three times, continuing in each
+case several days in that direction before the next change was
+made.
+
+"We've traveled around so much now," said Albert despondently,
+"that we couldn't go back to our mountains if we wanted to do
+it.  We don't know any longer in what direction they lie."
+
+"That's so," said Dick, with equal despondency showing in his
+tone.
+
+His comment was brief, because they talked but little now, and
+every day were talking less.  Their spirits were affected too
+much to permit any excess of words.  But they came finally to
+rougher, much more broken country, and they saw a line of trees
+on the crest of hills just under the sunset horizon.  The sight,
+the break in the monotony, the cheerful trees made them lift up
+their drooping heads.
+
+"Well, at any rate, here's something new," said Dick.  "Let's
+consider it an omen of good luck, Al."
+
+They reached the slope, a long one, with many depressions and
+hollows, containing thick groves of large trees, the heights
+beyond being crowned with trees of much taller growth.  They
+would have gone to the summit, but they were tired with a long
+day's tramp and they had not yet fully aroused themselves from
+the lethargy that had overtaken them in their weary wanderings.
+
+"Night's coming," said Albert, "so let's take to that hollow over
+there with the scrub ash in it."
+
+"All right," said Dick.  "Suits me."
+
+It was a cozy little hollow, deeply shaded by the ash trees, but
+too rocky to be damp, and they did not take the trouble to light
+a fire.  They had been living for some time on fresh buffalo and
+antelope, and had saved their jerked meat, on which they now drew
+for supper.
+
+It was now quite dark, and each, throwing his blanket lightly
+around his shoulders, propped himself in a comfortable position.
+Then, for the first time in days, they began to talk in the easy,
+idle fashion of those who feel some degree of contentment, a
+change made merely by the difference in scene, the presence of
+hills, trees, and rocks after the monotonous world of the plains.
+
+"We'll explore that country to-morrow," said Dick, nodding his
+head toward the crest of the hills.  "Must be something over
+there, a river, a lake, and maybe trappers."
+
+"Hope it won't make me homesick again for our valley," said
+Albert sleepily.  "I've been thinking too much of it, anyway, in
+the last few days.  Dick, wasn't that the most beautiful lake of
+ours that you ever saw?  Did you ever see another house as snug
+as Castle Howard?  And how about the Annex and the Suburban
+Villa?  And all those beautiful streams that came jumping down
+between the mountains?"
+
+"If you don't shut up, Al," said Dick, "I'll thrash you with this
+good handy stick that I've found here."
+
+"All right," replied Albert, laughing; "I didn't mean to harrow
+up your feelings any more than I did my own."
+
+Albert was tired, and the measure of content that he now felt was
+soothing.  Hence, his drowsiness increased, and in ten minutes he
+went comfortably to sleep.  Dick's eyes were yet open, and he
+felt within himself such new supplies of energy and strength that
+he resolved to explore a little.  The task that had seemed so
+hard two or three hours before was quite easy now.  Albert would
+remain sleeping safely where he was, and, acting promptly, Dick
+left the hollow, rifle on shoulder.
+
+It was an easy slope, but a long one.  As he ascended, the trees
+grew more thickly and near the ascent were comparatively free
+from undergrowth.  Just over the hill shone a magnificent full
+moon, touching the crest with a line of molten silver.
+
+Dick soon reached the summit and looked down the far slope into a
+valley three or four hundred yards deep.  The moon shed its full
+glory into the valley and filled it with rays of light.
+
+The valley was at least two miles wide, and down its center
+flowed a fine young river, which Dick could see here and there in
+stretches, while the rest was hidden by forest.  In fact, the
+whole valley seemed to be well clothed with mountain forest,
+except in one wide space where Dick's gaze remained after it had
+alighted once.
+
+Here was human life, and plenty of it.  He looked down upon a
+circle of at least two hundred lodges, tent-shaped structures of
+saplings covered with bark, and he had heard quite enough about
+such things to know these were the winter homes of the Sioux.
+The moonlight was so clear and his position so good that he was
+able to see figures moving about the lodges.
+
+The sight thrilled Dick.  Here he had truly come upon human life,
+but not the kind he wished to see.  But it was vastly interesting,
+and he sought a closer look.  His daring told him to go down the
+slope toward them, and he obeyed.  The descent was not difficult,
+and there was cover in abundance--pines, ash, and oak.
+
+As he was very careful, taking time not to break a twig or set a
+stone rolling, and stopping at intervals to look and listen, he
+was a half hour in reaching the valley, where, through the trees,
+he saw the Indian village.  He felt that he was rash, but wishing
+to see, he crept closer, the cover still holding good.  He was,
+in a way, fascinated by what he saw.  It had the quality of a
+dream, and its very unreality made him think less of the danger.
+But he really did not know how expert he had become as a
+woodsman and trailer through his long training as a trapper,
+where delicacy of movement and craft were required.
+
+He believed that the Indians, in such a secure location, would
+not be stirring beyond the village at this late hour, and he had
+little fear of anything except the sharp-nosed dogs that are
+always prowling about an Indian village.  He was within three
+hundred yards of the lodges when he heard the faint sound of
+voices and footsteps.  He instantly lay down among the bushes,
+but raised himself a little on his elbow in order to see.
+
+Three Indians were walking slowly along a woodland path toward
+the village, and the presence of the path indicated the village
+had been here for many months, perhaps was permanent.  The
+Indians were talking very earnestly and they made gestures.  One
+raised his voice a little and turned toward one of his
+companions, as if he would emphasize his words.  Then Dick saw
+his face clearly, and drew a long breath of surprise.
+
+It was Bright Sun, but a Bright Sun greatly changed.  He was
+wholly in native attire--moccasins, leggings, and a beautiful
+blue blanket draped about his shoulders.  A row of eagle feathers
+adorned his long black hair, but it was the look and manner of
+the man that had so much significance.  He towered above the
+other Indians, who were men of no mean height; but it was not his
+height either, it was his face, the fire of his eyes, the proud
+eagle beak which the Sioux had not less than the Roman, and the
+swift glance of command that could not be denied.  Here was a
+great chief, a leader of men, and Dick was ready to admit it.
+
+He could easily have shot Bright Sun dead as he passed, but he
+did not dream of doing such a thing.  Yet Bright Sun, while
+seeming to play the part of a friend, had deliberately led the
+wagon train into a fatal ambush--of that Dick had no doubt.  He
+felt, moreover, that Bright Sun was destined to cause great woe
+to the white people, his own people, but he could not fire; nor
+would he have fired even if the deed had been without danger to
+himself.
+
+Dick, instead, gave Bright Sun a reluctant admiration.  He looked
+well enough as the guide in white men's clothes, but in his own
+native dress he looked like one to be served, not to serve.  The
+three paused for a full two minutes exactly opposite Dick, and he
+could have reached out and touched them with the barrel of his
+rifle; but they were thinking little of the presence of an enemy.
+Dick judged by the emphasis of their talk that it was on a matter
+of some great moment, and he saw all three of them point at times
+toward the east.
+
+"It's surely war," he thought, "and our army if somewhere off
+there in the east."
+
+Dick saw that Bright Sun remained the dominating figure
+throughout the discussion.  Its whole effect was that of Bright
+Sun talking and the others listening.  He seemed to communicate
+his fire and enthusiasm to his comrades, and soon they nodded a
+vigorous assent.  Then the three walked silently away toward the
+village.
+
+Dick rose from his covert, cast a single glance at the direction
+in which the three chiefs had disappeared, and then began to
+retrace his own steps.  It was his purpose to arouse Albert and
+flee at once to a less dangerous region.  But the fate of Dick
+and his brother rested at that moment with a mean, mangy, mongrel
+cur, such as have always been a part of Indian villages, a cur
+that had wandered farther from the village than usual that night
+upon some unknown errand.
+
+Dick had gone about thirty yards when he became conscious of a
+light, almost faint, pattering sound behind him.  He stepped
+swiftly into the heaviest shadow of trees and sought to see what
+pursued.  He thought at first it was some base-born wolf of the
+humblest tribe, but, when he looked longer, he knew that it was
+one of the meanest of mean curs, a hideous, little yellowish
+animal, sneaking in his movements, a dog that one would gladly
+kick out of his way.
+
+Dick felt considerable contempt for himself because he had been
+alarmed over such a miserable little beast, and resumed his swift
+walk.  Thirty yards farther he threw a glance over his shoulder,
+and there was the wretched cur still following.  Dick did not
+like it, considering it an insult to himself to be trailed by
+anything so ugly and insignificant.  He picked up a stone, but
+hesitated a moment, and then put it down again.  If he threw the
+stone the dog might bark or howl, and that was the last thing
+that he wanted.  Already the cur, mean and miserable as he
+looked, had won a victory over him.
+
+Dick turned into a course that he would not have taken otherwise,
+thinking to shake off his pursuer, but at the next open space he
+saw him still following, his malignant red eyes fixed upon the
+boy.  The cur would not have weighed twenty cowardly pounds, but
+he became a horrible obsession to Dick.  He picked up a stone
+again, put it down again, and for a mad instant seriously
+considered the question of shooting him.
+
+The cur seemed to become alarmed at the second threat, and broke
+suddenly into a sharp, snarling, yapping bark, much like that of
+a coyote.  It was terribly loud in the still night, and cold
+dread assailed Dick in every nerve.  He picked up the stone that
+he had dropped, and this time he threw it.
+
+"You brute!" he exclaimed, as the stone whizzed by the cur's ear.
+
+The cur returned the compliment of names with compounded many
+times over.  His snarling bark became almost continuous, and
+although he did not come any nearer, he showed sharp white teeth.
+Dick paused in doubt, but when, from a point nearer the village,
+he heard a bark in reply, then another, and then a dozen, he ran
+with all speed up the slope.  He knew without looking back that
+the cur was following, and it made him feel cold again.
+
+Certainly Dick had good cause to run.  All the world was up and
+listening now, and most of it was making a noise, too.  He heard
+a tumult of barking, growling, and snapping toward the village,
+and then above it a long, mournful cry that ended in an ominous
+note.  Dick knew that it was a Sioux war whoop, and that the
+mean, miserable little cur had done his work.  The village would
+be at his heels.  Seized with an unreasoning passion, he whirled
+about and shot the cur dead.  It was a mad act, and he instantly
+repented it.  Never had there been another rifle shot so loud.
+It crashed like the report of a cannon.  Mountain and valley gave
+it back in a multitude of echoes, and on the last dying echo
+came, not a single war whoop, but the shout of many, the fierce,
+insistent, falsetto yell that has sounded the doom of many a
+borderer.
+
+Dick shuddered.  He had been pursued once before by a single
+man, but he was not afraid of a lone warrior.  Now a score
+would be at his heels.  He might shake them off in the dark, but
+the dogs would keep the scent, and his chief object was to go fast.
+He ran up the slope at his utmost speed for a hundred yards or
+more, and then remembering in time to nurse his strength, he
+slackened his footsteps.
+
+He had thought of turning the pursuit away from the hollow in
+which Albert lay, but now that the alarm was out they would find
+him, anyway, and it was best for the two to stand or fall
+together.  Hence, he went straight for the hollow.
+
+It was bitter work running up a slope, but his two years of life
+in the open were a great help to him now.  The strong heart and
+the powerful lungs responded nobly to the call.  He ran lightly,
+holding his rifle in the hollow of his arm, ready for use if need
+be, and he watch warily lest he make an incautious footstep and
+fall.  The moonlight was still full and clear, but when he took
+an occasional hurried glance backward he could not yet see his
+pursuers.  He heard, now and then, however, the barking of a dog
+or the cry of a warrior.
+
+Dick reached the crest of the hill, and there for an instant or
+two his figure stood, under the pines, a black silhouette against
+the moonlight.  Four or five shots were fired at the living
+target.  One bullet whizzed so near that it seemed to Dick to
+scorch his face.
+
+He had gathered fresh strength, and that hot bullet gave a new
+impetus also.  He ran down the slope at a great speed now, and he
+had calculated craftily.  He could descend nearly twice as fast
+as they could ascend, and while they were reaching the crest he
+would put a wide gap between them.
+
+He kept well in the shadow now as he made with long leaps
+straight toward the hollow, and he hoped with every heart beat
+that Albert, aroused by the shots, would be awake and ready.
+"Albert!" he cried, when he was within twenty feet of their camp,
+and his hope was rewarded.  Albert was up, rifle in hand, crying:
+
+"What is it, Dick?"
+
+"The Sioux!" exclaimed Dick.  "They're not far away!  You heard
+the shots!  Come!"
+
+He turned off at an angle and ran in a parallel line along the
+slope, Albert by his side.  He wished to keep to the forests and
+thickets, knowing they would have little chance of escape on the
+plain.  As they ran he told Albert, in short, choppy sentences,
+what had happened.
+
+"I don't hear anything," said Albert, after ten minutes.  "Maybe
+they've lost us."
+
+"No such good luck!  Those curs of theirs would lead them.  No,
+Al, we've got to keep straight on as long as we can!"
+
+Albert stumbled on a rock, but, quickly recovering himself, put
+greater speed in every jump, when he heard the Indian shout
+behind him.
+
+"We've got to shoot their dogs," said Dick.  "We'll have no other
+chance to shake them off."
+
+"If we get a chance," replied Albert.
+
+But they did not see any chance just yet.  They heard the
+occasional howl of a cur, but both curs and Indians remained
+invisible.  Yet Dick felt that the pursuers were gaining.  They
+were numerous, and they could spread.  Every time he and Albert
+diverged from a straight line--and they could not help doing so
+now and then--some portion of the pursuing body came nearer.  It
+was the advantage that the many had over the few.
+
+Dick prayed for darkness, a shading of the moon, but it did not
+come, and five minutes later he saw the yellow form of a cur
+emerge into an open space.  He took a shot at it and heard a
+howl.  He did not know whether he had killed the dog or not, but
+he hoped he had succeeded.  The shot brought forth a cry to their
+right, and then another to the left.  It was obvious that the
+Sioux, besides being behind them, were also on either side of
+them.  They were gasping, too, from their long run, and knew that
+they could not continue much farther.
+
+"We can't shake them off, Al," said Dick, "and we'll have to
+fight.  This is as good a place as any other."
+
+They dropped down into a rocky hollow, a depression not more
+than a foot deep, and lay on their faces, gasping for breath.
+Despite the deadly danger Dick felt a certain relief that he
+did not have to run any more--there comes a time when a
+moment's physical rest will overweigh any amount of mortal
+peril.
+
+"If they've surrounded us, they're very quiet about it," said
+Albert, when the fresh air had flowed back into his lungs.  "I
+don't see or hear anything at all."
+
+"At least we don't hear those confounded dogs any more," said
+Dick.  "Maybe there was only one pursuing us, and that shot of
+mine got him.  The howls of the cur upset my nerves more than the
+shouts of the Sioux."
+
+"Maybe so," said Albert.
+
+Then they were both quite still.  The moonlight was silvery
+clear, and they could see pines, oaks, and cedars waving in a
+gentle wind, but they saw nothing else.  Yet Dick was well aware
+that the Sioux had not abandoned the chase; they knew well where
+the boys lay, and were all about them in the woods.
+
+"Keep close, Albert," he said.  "Indians are sly, and the Sioux
+are the slyest of them all.  They're only waiting until one of us
+pops up his head, thinking they're gone."
+
+Albert took Dick's advice, but so long a time passed without sign
+from the Sioux that he began to believe that, in some mysterious
+manner, they had evaded the savages.  The belief had grown almost
+into a certainty, when there was a flash and a report from a
+point higher up the slope.  Albert felt something hot and
+stinging in his face.  But it was only a tiny fragment of rock
+chipped off by the bullet as it passed.
+
+Both Dick and Albert lay closer, as if they would press
+themselves into the earth, and soon two or three more shots were
+fired.  All came from points higher up the slope, and none hit a
+living target, though they struck unpleasantly close.
+
+"I wish I could see something," exclaimed Albert impatiently.
+"It's not pleasant to be shot at and to get no shot in return."
+
+Dick did not answer.  He was watching a point among some scrub
+pines higher up the slope, where the boughs seemed to him to be
+waving too much for the slight wind.  Looking intently, he
+thought he saw a patch of brown through the evergreen, and he
+fired at it.  A faint cry followed the shot, and Dick felt a
+strange satisfaction; they were hunting him--well, he had given
+a blow in return.
+
+Silence settled down again after Dick's shot.  The boys lay
+perfectly still, although they could hear each other's
+breathing.  The silvery moonlight seemed to grow fuller and
+clearer all the time.  It flooded the whole slope.  Boughs and
+twigs were sheathed in it.  Apparently, the moon looked down upon
+a scene that was all peace and without the presence of a human
+being.
+
+"Do you think they'll rush us?" whispered Albert.
+
+"No," replied Dick.  "I've always heard that the Indian takes as
+little risk as he possibly can."
+
+They waited a little longer, and then came a flare of rifle shots
+from a point farther up the slope.  Brown forms appeared faintly,
+and Dick and Albert, intent and eager, began to fire in reply.
+Bullets sang by their ears and clipped the stones around them,
+but their blood rose the higher and they fired faster and faster.
+
+"We'll drive 'em back!" exclaimed Dick.
+
+They did not hear the rapid patter of soft, light footsteps
+coming from another direction, until a half dozen Sioux were upon
+them.  Then the firing in front ceased abruptly, and Dick and
+Albert whirled to meet their new foes.
+
+It was too late.  Dick saw Albert struggling in the grasp of two
+big warriors, and then saw and heard nothing more.  He
+had received a heavy blow on the head from the butt of a rifle
+and became unconscious.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV
+The Indian Village
+
+When Dick awoke from his second period of unconsciousness it
+was to awake, as he did from the first, under a roof, but not,
+as in the case of the first, under his own roof.  He saw above
+him an immense sloping thatch of bark on poles, and his eyes,
+wandering lower, saw walls of bark, also fastened to poles.
+He himself was lying on a large rush mat, and beside the door
+of the great tepee sat two Sioux warriors cleaning their rifles.
+
+Dick's gaze rested upon the warriors.  Curiously, he felt at that
+time neither hostility nor apprehension.  He rather admired
+them.  They were fine, tall men, and their bare arms and legs
+were sinewy and powerful.  Then he thought of Albert.  He was
+nowhere to be seen, but from the shadow of the wall on his right
+came a tall figure, full of dignity and majesty.  It was Bright
+Sun, who looked down at Dick with a gaze that expressed inquiry
+rather than anger.
+
+"Why have you come here?" he asked.
+
+Although Dick's head ached and he was a captive, the question
+made a faint appeal to his sense of humor.
+
+"I didn't come," he replied; "I was brought."
+
+Bright Sun smiled.
+
+"That is true," he said, speaking the precise English of the
+schools, with every word enunciated distinctly.  "You were
+brought, and by my warriors; but why were you upon these hills?"
+
+"I give you the best answer I can, Bright Sun," replied Dick
+frankly; "I don't know.  My brother and I were lost upon the
+plains, and we wandered here.  Nor have I the remotest idea now
+where I am."
+
+"You are in a village of the tribe of the Mendewahkanton Sioux,
+of the clan Queyata-oto-we," replied Bright Sun gravely, "the
+clan and tribe to which I belong.  The Mendewahkantons are one of
+the first tribes of the Seven Fireplaces, or the Great Sioux
+Nation.  But all are great--Mendewahkanton, Wahpeton, Sisseton,
+Yankton, Teton, Ogalala, and Hunkpapa--down to the last clan of
+every tribe."
+
+He began with gravity and an even intonation, but his voice rose
+with pride at the last.  Nothing of the white man's training was
+left to him but the slow, precise English.  It was the Indian,
+the pride of his Indian race, that spoke.  Dick recognized it and
+respected it.
+
+"And this?" said Dick, looking around at the great house of bark
+and poles in which he lay.
+
+"This," replied Bright Sun, pride again showing in this tone, "is
+the house of the Akitcita, our soldiers and policemen, the men
+between twenty and forty, the warriors of the first rank, who
+live here in common, and into whose house women and children
+may not enter.  I have read in the books at your schools how the
+Spartan young men lived together as soldiers in a common house,
+eating rough food and doing the severest duty, and the whole
+world has long applauded.  The Sioux, who never heard of the
+Spartans, have been doing the same far back into the shadowy
+time.  We, too, are a race of warriors."
+
+Dick looked with renewed interest at the extraordinary man before
+him, and an amazing suggestion found lodgment in his mind.
+Perhaps the Sioux chief thought himself not merely as good as the
+white man, but better, better than any other man except those of
+his own race.  It was so surprising that Dick forgot for a moment
+the question that he was eagerly awaiting a chance to ask--where
+was his brother Albert?
+
+"I've always heard that the Sioux were brave," said Dick vaguely,
+"and I know they are powerful."
+
+"We are the Seven Fireplaces.  What the Six Nations once were in
+the East, we now are in the West, save that we are far more
+numerous and powerful, and we will not be divided.  We have
+leaders who see the truth and who know what to do."
+
+The pride in his tone was tinged now with defiance, and Dick
+could but look at him in wonder.  But his mind now came back to
+the anxious question:
+
+"Where is my brother Albert, who was taken with me?  You have
+not killed him?"
+
+"He has not been hurt, although we are at war with your people,"
+replied Bright Sun.  "He is here in the village, and he, like
+you, is safe for the present.  Some of the warriors wished to
+kill both you and him, but I have learned wisdom in these matters
+from your people.  Why throw away pawns that we hold?  I keep
+your brother and you as hostages."
+
+Dick, who had raised himself up in his eagerness, sank back
+again, relieved.  He could feel that Bright Sun told the truth,
+and he had faith, too, in the man's power as well as his word.
+Yet there was another question that he wished to ask.
+
+"Bright Sun," he said, "it was you, our guide, who led the train
+into the pass that all might be killed?"
+
+Bright Sun shrugged his shoulders, but a spark leaped from his
+eyes.
+
+"What would you ask of me?" he replied.  "In your code it was
+cunning, but the few and small must fight with cunning.  The
+little man, to confront the big man, needs the advantage of
+weapons.  The Sioux make the last stand for the Indian race, and
+we strike when and where we can."
+
+The conscience of the chief was clear, so far as Dick could see,
+and there was nothing that he could say in reply.  It was Bright
+Sun himself who resumed:
+
+"But I spared you and your brother.  I did that which caused you
+to be absent when the others were slain."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because you were different.  You were not like the others.  It
+may be that I pitied you, and it may be also that I like you--a
+little--and--you were young."
+
+The man's face bore no more expression than carven oak, but Dick
+was grateful.
+
+"I thank you, Bright Sun," he said, "and I know that Albert
+thanks you, too."
+
+Bright sun nodded, and then fixed an intent gaze upon Dick.
+
+"You and your brother escaped," he said.  "That was nearly two
+years ago, and you have not gone back to your people.  Where
+have you been?"
+
+Dick saw a deep curiosity lurking behind the intent gaze, but
+whatever he might owe to Bright Sun, he had no intention of
+gratifying it.
+
+"Would you tell me where you have been in the last two years and
+all that you have done?" the chief asked.
+
+"I cannot answer; but you see that we have lived, Albert and I,"
+Dick replied.
+
+"And that you have learned the virtues of silence," said Bright
+Sun.  "I ask you no more about it to-day.  Give me your word for
+the present that you will not try to escape, and your life and
+that of your brother will be the easier.  It would be useless,
+anyhow, for you to make such an attempt.  When you feel that you
+have a chance, you can withdraw your promise."
+
+Dick laughed, and the laugh was one of genuine good humor.
+
+"That's certainly fair," he said.  "Since I can't escape, I might
+as well give my promise not to try it for the time being.  Well,
+I give it."
+
+Bright Sun nodded gravely.
+
+"Your brother will come in soon," he said.  "He has already given
+his promise, that is, a conditional one, good until he can confer
+with you."
+
+"I'll confirm it," said Dick.
+
+Bright Sun saluted and left the great lodge.  Some warriors near
+the door moved aside with the greatest deference to let him
+pass.  Dick lay on his rush mat, gazing after him, and deeply
+impressed.
+
+When Bright Sun was gone he examined the lodge again.  It was
+obvious that it was a great common hall or barracks for warriors,
+and Bright Sun's simile of the Spartans was correct.  More
+warriors came in, all splendid, athletic young men of a high and
+confident bearing.  A few were dressed in the white man's
+costume, but most of them were in blankets, leggings, and
+moccasins, and had magnificent rows of feathers in their hair.
+Every man carried a carbine, and most of them had revolvers
+also.  Such were the Akitcita or chosen band, and in this village
+of about two hundred lodges they numbered sixty men.  Dick did
+not know then that in times of peace all guests, whether white or
+red, were entertained in the lodge of the Akitcita.
+
+Impressed as he had been by Bright Sun, he was impressed also by
+these warriors.  Not one of them spoke to him or annoyed him in
+any manner.  They went about their tasks, cleaning and polishing
+their weapons, or sitting on rough wooden benches, smoking pipes
+with a certain dignity that belonged to men of strength and
+courage.  All around the lodge were rush mats, on which they
+slept, and near the door was a carved totem pole.
+
+A form darkened the doorway, and Albert came in.  He rushed to
+Dick when he saw that he was conscious again, and shook his hand
+with great fervor.  The warriors went on with their tasks or
+their smoking, and still took no notice.
+
+"This is a most wonderful place, Dick," exclaimed the
+impressionable Albert, "and Bright Sun has treated us well.  We
+can go about the village if we give a promise, for the time, that
+we'll not try to escape."
+
+"He's been here," said Dick, "and I've given it."
+
+"Then, if you feel strong enough, let's go on and take a look."
+
+"Wait until I see if this head of mine swims around," said Dick.
+
+He rose slowly to his feet, and his bandaged head was dizzy at
+first, but as he steadied himself it became normal.  Albert
+thrust out his hand to support him.  It delighted him that he
+could be again of help to his older and bigger brother, and Dick,
+divining Albert's feeling, let it lie for a minute.  Then they
+went to the door, Dick walking quite easily, as his strength came
+back fast.
+
+The warriors of the Akitcita, of whom fully a dozen were now
+present in the great lodge, still paid no attention to the two
+youths, and Dick surmised that it was the orders of Bright Sun.
+But this absolute ignoring of their existence was uncanny,
+nevertheless.  Dick studies some of the faces as he passed.  Bold
+and fearless they were, and not without a certain nobility, but
+there was little touch of gentleness or pity, it was rather the
+strength of the wild animal, the flesh-eater, that seeks its prey.
+Sioux they were, and Sioux they would remain in heart, no
+matter what happened, wild warriors of the northwest.  Dick
+perceived this fact in a lightening flash, but it was the
+lightening flash of conviction.
+
+Outside the fresh air saluted Dick, mouth and nostrils, and the
+ache in his head went quite away.  He had seen the valley by
+moonlight, when it was beautiful, but not as beautiful as their
+own valley, the one of which they would not tell to anybody.  But
+it was full of interest.  The village life, the life of the wild,
+was in progress all about him, and in the sunshine, amidst such
+picturesque surroundings, it had much that was attractive to the
+strong and brave.
+
+Dick judged correctly that the village contained about two
+hundred winter lodges of bark and poles, and could therefore
+furnish about four hundred warriors.  It was evident, too, that
+it was the scene of prosperity.  The flesh of buffalo, elk, and
+deer was drying in the sun, hanging from trees or on little
+platforms of poles.  Children played with the dogs or practiced
+with small bows and arrows.  In the shadow of a tepee six old
+women sat gambling, and the two boys stopped to watch them.
+
+The Indians are more inveterate gamblers than the whites, and the
+old women, wrinkled, hideous hags of vast age, played their games
+with an intent, almost breathless, interest.
+
+They were playing Woskate Tanpan, or the game of dice, as it is
+known to the Sioux.  Three women were on each side, and they
+played it with tanpan (the basket), kansu (the dice), and
+canyiwawa (the counting sticks).  The tanpan, made of willow
+twigs, was a tiny basket, about three inches in diameter at the
+bottom, but broader at the top, and about two inches deep.  Into
+this one woman would put the kansu or dice, a set of six plum
+stones, some carved and some not carved.  She would put her hand
+over the tanpan, shake the kansu just as the white dice player
+does, and then throw them out.  The value of the throw would be
+according to the kind and number of carvings that were turned up
+when the kansu fell.
+
+The opposing sides, three each, sat facing each other, and the
+stakes for which they played--canyiwawa (the counting
+sticks)--lay between them. These were little round sticks about
+the thickness of a lead pencil, and the size of each heap went
+up or down, as fortune shifted back or forth.  They could make
+the counting sticks represent whatever value they chose, this
+being agreed upon beforehand, and the old Sioux women had been
+known to play Woskate Tanpan two days and nights without ever
+rising from their seats.
+
+"What old harpies they are!" said Dick.  "Did you ever see
+anybody so eager over anything?"
+
+"They are no worse than the men," replied Albert.  "A lot of
+warriors are gambling, too."
+
+A group of the men were gathered on a little green farther on,
+and the brothers joined them, beginning to share at once the
+interest that the spectators showed in several warriors who were
+playing Woskate Painyankapi, or the game of the Wands and the
+Hoop.
+
+The warriors used in the sport canyleska (the hoop) and cansakala
+(the wands).  The hoops were of ash, two or three feet in
+diameter, the ash itself being about an inch in diameter.  Every
+hoop was carefully marked off into spaces, something like the
+face of a watch.
+
+Cansakala (the wands) were of chokecherry, four feet long and
+three fourths of an inch in diameter.  One end of every wand was
+squared for a distance of about a foot.  The wands were in pairs,
+the two being fastened together with buckskin thongs about nine
+inches in length, and fastened at a point about one third of the
+length of the wands from the rounded ends.
+
+A warrior would roll the hoop, and he was required to roll it
+straight and correctly.  If he did not do so, the umpire made him
+roll it over, as in the white man's game of baseball the pitcher
+cannot get a strike until he pitches the ball right.
+
+When the hoop was rolled correctly, the opposing player dropped
+his pair of wands somewhere in front of it.  It was his object so
+to calculate the speed and course of the hoop when it fell it
+would lie upon his wands.  If he succeeded, he secured his points
+according to the spaces on each wand within which the hoop lay--an
+exceedingly difficult game, requiring great skill of hand and
+judgment of eye.  That if was absorbing was shown by the great
+interest with which all the spectators followed it and by their
+eager betting.
+
+"I don't believe I could learn to do that in ten years," said
+Albert; "you've got to combine too many things and to combine
+them fast."
+
+"They must begin on it while they're young," said Dick; "but the
+Indian has a mind, and don't you forget it."
+
+"But they're not as we are," rejoined Albert.  "Nothing can ever
+make them so."
+
+Here, as in the house of the Akitcita, nobody paid any attention
+to the two boys, but Dick began to have a feeling that he was
+watched, not watched openly as man watches man, but in the
+furtive dangerous way of the great wild beasts, the man-eaters.
+The feeling grew into a conviction that, despite what they were
+doing, everybody in the camp--warrior, squaw, and child--was
+watching Albert and him.  He knew that half of this was fancy,
+but he was sure that the other half was real.
+
+"Albert," he said, "I wouldn't make any break for liberty now,
+even if I hadn't given my promise."
+
+"Nor I," said Albert.  "By the time we had gone ten feet the
+whole village would be on top of us.  Dick, while I'm here I'm
+going to make the best of it I can."
+
+In pursuance of this worthy intention Albert pressed forward and
+almost took the cansakala from the hands of a stalwart warrior.
+The man, amazed at first, yielded up the pair of wands with a
+grin.  Albert signaled imperiously to the warrior with the hoop,
+and he, too, grinning, sent canyleska whirling.
+
+Albert cast the wands, and the hoop fell many feet from them.  A
+shout of laughter arose.  The white youth was showing himself a
+poor match for the Sioux, and the women and children came
+running to see this proof of the superiority of their race.
+
+The warrior from whom he had taken them gravely picked up the
+cansakala and handed them back to Albert, the other warrior again
+sent canyleska rolling, and again Albert threw the wands with the
+same ill fortune.  A third and fourth time he tried, with but
+slight improvement, and the crowd, well pleased to see him fail,
+thickened all the time, until nearly the whole village was
+present.
+
+"It's just as hard as we thought it was, Dick, and harder," said
+Albert ruefully.  "Here, you take it and see what you can do."
+
+He handed cansakala to Dick, who also tried in vain, while the
+crowd enjoyed the sport, laughing and chatting to one another, as
+they will in their own villages.  Dick made a little more
+progress than Albert had achieved, but not enough to score any
+points worth mentioning, and he, too, retired discomfited, while
+the Sioux, especially the women, continued to laugh.
+
+"I don't like to be beaten that way," said Albert in a nettled
+tone.
+
+"Never mind, Al, old fellow," said Dick soothingly.  "Remember
+it's their game, not ours, and as it makes them feel good, it's
+all the better for us.  Since they've beaten us, they're apt to
+like us and treat us better."
+
+It was hard for Albert to take the more philosophical view, which
+was also the truthful one, but he did his best to reconcile
+himself, and he and Dick moved on to other sights.
+
+Dick noticed that the village had been located with great
+judgment.  On one side was the river, narrow but swift and deep;
+on the other, a broad open space that would not permit an enemy
+to approach through ambush, and beyond that the forest.
+
+The tepees stood in a great circle, and, although Dick did not
+know it, their camps were always pitched according to rule, each
+gens or clan having its regular place in the circle.  The tribe
+of the Mendewahkantons--a leading one of the Seven Fireplaces or
+Council Fires of the great Sioux nation--was subdivided into
+seven gentes or clans; the Kiyukas, or Breakers, so called
+because they disregarded the general marriage law and married
+outside their own clan; the Que-mini-tea, or Mountain Wood and
+Water people; the Kap'oja, or Light Travelers; the Maxa-yuta-cui,
+the People who Eat no Grease; the Queyata-oto-we, or the People
+of the Village Back from the River; the Oyata Citca, the Bad
+Nation, and the Tita-otowe, the People of the Village on the
+Prairie.
+
+Each clan was composed of related families, and all this great
+tribe, as the boys learned later, had once dwelled around Spirit
+Lake, Minnesota, their name meaning Mysterious Lake Dwellers,
+but had been pushed westward years before by the advancing wave
+of white settlement.  This was now a composite village,
+including parts of every gens of the Mendewahkantons, but there
+were other villages of the same tribe scattered over a large
+area.
+
+When Dick and Albert reached the northern end of the village they
+saw a great number of Indian ponies, six or seven hundred
+perhaps, grazing in a wide grassy space and guarded by half-grown
+Indian boys.
+
+"Dick," said Albert, "if we only had a dozen of those we could go
+back and get our furs."
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "if we had the ponies, if we knew where we are
+now, if we were free of the Sioux village, and if we could find
+the way to our valley, we might do what you say."
+
+"Yes, it does take a pile of 'ifs,'" said Albert, laughing, "and
+so I won't expect it.  I'll try to be resigned."
+
+So free were they from any immediate restriction that it almost
+seemed to them that they could walk away as they chose, up the
+valley and over the hills and across the plains.  How were the
+Sioux to know that these two would keep their promised word?
+But both became conscious again of those watchful eyes,
+ferocious, like the eyes of man-eating wild beasts, and both
+shivered a little as they turned back into the great circle of
+bark teepees.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI
+The Gathering of the Sioux
+
+Dick and Albert abode nearly two weeks in the great lodge of the
+Akitcita, that is, as guests, although they were prisoners, whose
+lives might be taken at any time, and they had splendid
+opportunities for observing what a genuine Spartan band the
+Akitcita were.  Everyone had his appointed place for arms and his
+rush or fur mat for sleeping.  There was no quarreling, no
+unseemly chatter, always a grave and dignified order and the
+sense of stern discipline.  Not all the Akitcita were ever
+present in the daytime, but some always were.  All tribal
+business was transacted here.  The women had to bring wood and
+water to it daily, and the entire village supplied it every day
+with regular rations of tobacco, almost the only luxury of the
+Akitcita.
+
+Both Dick and Albert were keenly observant, and they did not
+hesitate also to ask questions of Bright Sun whenever they had
+the chance.  They learned from him that the different tribes of
+the Sioux had general councils at irregular intervals, that there
+was no hereditary rank among the chiefs, it being usually a
+question of energy and merit, although the rank was sometimes
+obtained by gifts, and ambitious man giving away all that he had
+for the prize.  There were no women chiefs, and women were not
+admitted to the great council.
+
+The boys perceived, too, that much in the life of the Sioux was
+governed by ancient ritual; nearly everything had its religious
+meaning, and both boys having an inherent respect for religion of
+any kind, were in constant fear lest they should violate
+unwillingly some honored law.
+
+The two made friendly advances to the members of the Akitcita
+but they were received with a grave courtesy that did not invite
+a continuance.  They felt daily a deepening sense of racial
+difference.  They appreciated the humane treatment they had
+received, but they and the Sioux did not seem to come into touch
+anywhere.  And this difference was accentuated in the case of
+Bright Sun.  The very fact that he had been educated in their
+schools, that he spoke their language so well, and that he knew
+their customs seemed to widen the gulf between them into a sea.
+They felt that he had tasted of their life, and liked it not.
+
+The two, although they could not like Bright Sun, began to have a
+certain deference for him.  The old sense of power he had created
+in their minds increased greatly, and now it was not merely a
+matter of mind and manner; all the outward signs, the obvious
+respect in which he was held by everybody and the way in which
+the eyes of the warriors, as well as those of women and children,
+followed him, showed that he was a great leader.
+
+After ten days or so in the great lodge of the Akitcita, Dick and
+Albert were removed to a small bark tepee of their own, to which
+they were content to go.  They had no arms, not even a knife, but
+they were already used to their captivity, and however great
+their ultimate danger might be, it was far away for them to think
+much about it.
+
+They observed, soon after their removal, that the life of the
+village changed greatly.  The old women were not often to be
+found in the shadow of the lodges playing Woskate Tanpan, the men
+gave up wholly Woskate Painyankapi, and throughout the village,
+no matter how stoical the Sioux might be, there was a perceptible
+air of excitement and suspense.  Often at night the boys heard
+the rolling of the Sioux war drums, and the medicine men made
+medicine incessantly inside their tepees.  Dick chafed greatly.
+
+"Big things are afoot," he would say to Albert.  "We know that
+the Sioux and our people are at war, but you and I, Al, don't
+know a single thing that has occurred.  I wish we could get away
+from here.  Our people are our own people, and I'd like to tell
+them to look out."
+
+"I feel just as you do, Dick," Albert would reply; "but we might
+recall our promise to Bright Sun.  Besides, we wouldn't have the
+ghost of a chance to escape.  I feel that a hundred eyes are
+looking at me all the time."
+
+"I feel that two hundred are looking at me," said Dick, with a
+grim little laugh.  "No, Al, you're right.  We haven't a chance
+on earth to escape."
+
+Five days after their removal to the small lodge there was a
+sudden and great increase in the excitement in the village.  In
+truth, it burst into a wild elation, and all the women and
+children, running toward the northern side of the village, began
+to shout cries of welcome.  The warriors followed more sedately,
+and Dick and Albert, no one detaining them, joined in the throng.
+
+"Somebody's coming, Al, that's sure," said Dick.
+
+"Yes, and that somebody's a lot of men," said Albert.  "Look!"
+
+Three or four hundred warriors, a long line of them, were coming
+down the valley, tall, strong, silent men, with brilliant
+headdresses of feathers and bright blankets.  Everyone carried a
+carbine or rifle, and they looked what they were--a truly
+formidable band, resolved upon some great attempt.
+
+Dick and Albert inferred the character of the arrivals from the
+shouts that they heard the squaws and children utter: "Sisseton!"
+"Wahpeton!" "Ogalala!" "Yankton!" "Teton!" "Hunkpapa!"
+
+The arriving warriors, many of whom were undoubtedly chiefs,
+gravely nodded to their welcome, and came silently on as the
+admiring crowd opened to receive them.
+
+"It's my opinion," said Dick, "that the Seven Fireplaces are
+about to hold a grand council in the lodge of the Akitcita."
+
+"I don't think there's any doubt about it," replied Albert.
+
+They also heard, amidst the names of the tribes, the names of
+great warriors or medicine men, names which they were destined to
+hear many times again, both in Indian and English--Sitting Bull,
+Rain-in-the-Face, Little Big Man, and others.  Then they meant
+nothing to either Dick or Albert.
+
+All the chiefs, led by Bright Sun, went directly to the lodge of
+the Akitcita, and the other warriors were taken into the lodges
+of their friends, the Mendewahkantons.  Then the women ran to the
+lodges and returned with the best food that the village could
+furnish.  It was given to the guests, and also many pounds of
+choice tobacco.
+
+Dick and Albert had made no mistake in their surmise.  The great
+council of the Seven Fireplaces of the Sioux was in session.  All
+that day the chiefs remained in the lodge of the Akitcita, and
+when night was far advanced they were still there.
+
+Dick and Albert shared the excitement of the village, although
+knowing far less of its nature, but they knew that a grand
+council of the Seven Fireplaces would not be held without great
+cause, and they feared much for their people.  It was a warm,
+close night, with a thin moon and flashes of heat lightening on
+the hilly horizon.  Through the heavy air came the monotonous
+rolling of a war drum, and the chant of a medicine man making
+medicine in a tepee near by went on without ceasing.
+
+The boys did not try to sleep, and unable to stifle curiosity,
+they came from the little bark lodge.  One or two Sioux warriors
+glanced at them, but none spoke.  The Sioux knew that the village
+was guarded so closely by a ring of sentinels that a cat could
+not have crept through without being seen.  The boys walked on
+undisturbed until they came near the great council lodge, where
+they stopped to look at the armed warriors standing by the door.
+
+The dim light and the excited imaginations of the boys made the
+lodge grow in size and assume fantastic shapes.  So many great
+chiefs had come together for a mighty purpose, and Dick was sure
+that Bright Sun, sitting in the ring of his equals, urged on the
+project, whatever it might be, and would be the dominating figure
+through all.
+
+Although they saw nothing, they were fascinated by what they
+wished to see.  The great lodge held them with a spell that they
+did not seek to break.  Although it was past midnight, they
+stayed there, staring at the blank walls.  Warriors passed and
+gave them sharp glances, but nothing was said to them.  The air
+remained close and heavy.  Heat lightening continued to flare on
+the distant hills, but no rain fell.
+
+The chiefs finally came forth from the great council.  There was
+no light for them save the cloudy skies and one smoking torch
+that a warrior held aloft, but the active imagination of the two
+boys were again impressed.  Every chief seemed to show in his
+face and manner his pride of race and the savage strength that
+well became such a time and place.  Some bore themselves more
+haughtily and were more brilliantly adorned than Bright Sun, but
+he was still the magnet from which power and influence streamed.
+Dick and Albert did not know why they knew it, but they knew it.
+
+The chiefs did not go away to friendly lodges, but after they
+came forth remained in a group, talking.  Dick surmised that they
+had come to an agreement upon whatever question they debated;
+now they were outside for fresh air, and soon would return to the
+lodge of the Akitcita, which, according to custom, would shelter
+them as guests.
+
+Bright Sun noticed the brothers standing in the shadow of the
+lodge, and, leaving the group, he walked over to them.  His
+manner did not express hostility, but he made upon both boys that
+old impression of power and confidence, tinged now with a certain
+exultation.
+
+"You would know what we have been doing?" he said, speaking
+directly to Dick, the older.
+
+"We don't ask," replied Dick, "but I will say this, Bright Sun:
+we believe that the thing done was the thing you wished."
+
+Bright Sun permitted himself a little smile.
+
+"You have learned to flatter," he said.
+
+"It was not meant as flattery," said Dick; "but there is
+something more I have to say.  We wish to withdraw our pledge not
+to attempt to escape.  You remember it was in the agreement we
+could withdraw whenever we chose."
+
+"That is true," said Bright Sun, giving Dick a penetrating look.
+"And so you think that it is time for you to go?"
+
+"We will go, if we can," said Dick boldly.
+
+Bright Sun, who had permitted himself a smile a little while ago,
+now permitted himself a soft laugh.
+
+"You put it well," he said in his precise English, "'if we
+can.' But the understanding is clear. The agreement is at an end.
+However, you will not escape.  We need you as hostages, and
+I will tell you, too, that we leave this village and valley
+to-morrow.  We begin a great march."
+
+"I am not surprised," said Dick.
+
+Bright Sun rejoined the other chiefs, and all of them went back
+into the lodge of the Akitcita, while Dick and Albert returned to
+their own little tepee.  There, as each lay on his rush mat, they
+talked in whispers.
+
+"What meaning do you give to it, Dick?" asked Albert.
+
+"That all the Sioux tribes are going to make a mighty effort
+against our people, and they're going to make it soon.  Why else
+are they holding this great council of the Seven Fireplaces?  I
+tell you, Al, big things are afoot.  Oh, if we could only find a
+chance to get away!"
+
+Albert rolled over to the door of the lodge and peeped out.
+Several warriors were pacing up and down in front of the rows of
+tepees.  He rolled back to his rush mat.
+
+"They've got inside as well as outside guards now," he whispered.
+
+"I thought it likely," Dick whispered back.  "Al, the best thing
+that you and I can do now is to go to sleep."
+
+They finally achieved slumber, but were up early the next morning
+and saw Bright Sun's words come true.  The village was dismantled
+with extraordinary rapidity.  Most of the lighter lodges were
+taken down, but how much of the place was left, and what people
+were left with it, the boys did not know, because they departed
+with the warriors, each riding a bridleless pony.  Although
+mounted, their chance of escape was not increased.  Warriors were
+all about them, they were unarmed, and their ponies, uncontrolled
+by bridles, could not be made to leave their comrades.
+
+Dick and Albert, nevertheless, found an interest in this journey,
+wondering to what mysterious destination it would lead them.
+They heard behind them the chant of the old women driving the
+ponies that drew the baggage on poles, but the warriors around
+them were silent.  Bright Sun was not visible.  Dick surmised
+that he was at the head of the column.
+
+The clouds of the preceding night had gone away, and the day was
+cooler, although it was now summer, and both Dick and Albert
+found a certain pleasure in the journey.  In their present
+of suspense any change was welcome.
+
+They rode straight up the valley, a long and formidable
+procession, and as they went northward the depression became both
+shallower and narrower.  Finally, they crossed the river at a
+rather deep ford and rode directly ahead.  Soon the hills and the
+forest that clothed them sank out of sight, and Dick and Albert
+were once again in the midst of the rolling immensity of the
+plains.  They could judge the point of the compass by the sun,
+but they knew nothing else of the country over which they
+traveled.  They tried two or three times to open conversation
+with the warriors about them, trusting that the latter knew
+English, but they received no reply and gave up the attempt.
+
+"At any rate, I can talk to you, Al," said Dick after the last
+futile attempt.
+
+"Yes, but you can't get any information out of me," replied
+Albert with a laugh.
+
+The procession moved on, straight as an arrow, over the swells,
+turning aside for nothing.  Some buffaloes were seen on the
+horizon, but they were permitted to crop the bunch grass
+undisturbed.  No Indian hunter left the ranks.
+
+They camped that night on the open prairie, Dick and Albert
+sleeping in their blankets in the center of the savage group.  It
+might have seemed to the ordinary observer that there was
+looseness and disorder about the camp, but Dick was experienced
+enough to know that all the Mendewahkantons were posted in the
+circle according to their clans, and that the delegates were
+distributed with them in places of honor.
+
+Dick noticed, also, that no fires were built, and that the
+warriors had scrutinized the entire circle of the horizon with
+uncommon care.  It could signify but one thing to him--white
+people, and perhaps white troops, were near.  If so, he prayed
+that they were in sufficient force.  He was awakened in the night
+by voices, and raising himself on his elbow he saw a group of
+men, at least a hundred in number, riding into the camp.
+
+The latest arrivals were Sioux warriors, but of what tribe he
+could not tell.  Yet it was always the Sioux who were coming, and
+it would have been obvious to the least observant that Dick's
+foreboding about a mighty movement was right.  They were joined
+the next day by another detachment coming from the southwest, and
+rode on, full seven hundred warriors, every man armed with the
+white man's weapons, carbine or rifle and revolver.
+
+"I pity any poor emigrants whom they may meet," thought Dick;
+but, fortunately, they met none.  The swelling host continued its
+march a second day, a third, and a fourth through sunshiny
+weather, increasing in warmth, and over country that changed but
+little.  Dick and Albert saw Bright Sun only once or twice, but
+he had nothing to say to them.  The others, too, maintained their
+impenetrable silence, although they never offered any ill
+treatment.
+
+They were joined every day by bands of warriors, sometimes not
+more than two or three at a time, and again as many as twenty.
+They came from all points of the compass, but, so far as Dick and
+Albert could see, little was said on their arrival.  Everything
+was understood.  They came as if in answer to a call, took their
+places without ado in the savage army, and rode silently on.
+Dick saw a great will at work, and with it a great discipline.  A
+master mind had provided for all things.
+
+"Al," he said to his brother, "you and I are not in the plan at
+all.  We've been out of the world two years, and we're just that
+many years behind."
+
+"I know it's 1876," said Albert, with some confidence, but he
+added in confession: "I've no idea what month it is, although it
+must be somewhere near summer."
+
+"About the beginning of June, I should think," said Dick.
+
+An hour after this little talk the country became more hilly, and
+presently they saw trees and high bluffs to their right.  Both
+boys understood the signs.  They were approaching a river, and
+possibly their destination.
+
+"I've a feeling," said Dick, "that we're going to stop now.  The
+warriors look as if they were getting ready for a rest."
+
+He was quickly confirmed in his opinion by the appearance of
+mounted Indians galloping to meet them.  These warriors showed
+no signs of fatigue or a long march, and it was now obvious that
+a village was near.
+
+The new band greeted the force of Bright Sun with joy, and the
+stern silence was relaxed.  There was much chattering and
+laughing, much asking and answering of questions, and soon Indian
+women and Indian boys, with little bows and arrows, came over the
+bluffs, and joining the great mounted force, followed on its
+flanks.
+
+Dick and Albert were on ponies near the head of the column, and
+their troubles and dangers were forgotten in their eager interest
+in what they were about to see.  The feeling that a first step in
+a great plan was accomplished was in the air.  They could see it
+in the cessation of the Sioux reserve and in the joyous manner of
+the warriors, as well as the women.  Even the ponies picked up
+their heads, as if they, too, saw rest.
+
+The procession wound round the base of a hill, and then each boy
+uttered a little gasp.  Before them lay a valley, about a mile
+wide, down the center of which flowed a shallow yellow river
+fringed with trees and also with undergrowth, very dense in
+places.  But it was neither the river nor trees that had drawn
+the little gasps from the two boys, it was an Indian village, or
+rather a great town, extending as far as they could see--and
+they saw far--on either side of the stream.  There were hundreds
+and hundreds of lodges, and a vast scene of animated and varied
+life.  Warriors, squaws, children, and dogs moved about; smoke
+rose from scores and scores of fires, and on grassy meadows
+grazed ponies, thousands in number.
+
+"Why, I didn't think there was so big an Indian town in all the
+West!" exclaimed Albert.
+
+"Nor did I," said Dick gravely, "and I'm thinking, Al, that it's
+gathered here for a purpose.  It must be made up of all the Sioux
+tribes."
+
+Albert nodded.  He knew the thought in Dick's mind, and he
+believed it to be correct.
+
+Chance so had it that Bright Sun at this moment rode near them
+and heard their words.  Dick of late had surmised shrewdly that
+Bright Sun treated them well, not alone for the sake of their
+value as hostages, but for a reason personal to himself.  He had
+been associated long with white people in their schools, but he
+was at heart and in fact a great Sioux chief; he had felt the
+white man's assumption of racial superiority, and he would have
+these two with the white faces witness some great triumph that he
+intended to achieve over these same white people.  This belief
+was growing on Dick, and it received more confirmation when
+Bright Sun said:
+
+"You see that the Sioux nation has many warriors and is mighty."
+
+"I see that it is so, Bright Sun," replied Dick frankly.  "I did
+not know you were so numerous and so powerful; but bear in mind,
+Bright Sun, that no matter how many the Sioux may be, the white
+men are like the leaves of the tree--thousands, tens of
+thousands may fall, and yet only their own kin miss them."
+
+But Bright Sun shook his head.
+
+"What you say is true," he said, "because I have seen and I know;
+but they are not here.  The mountains, the plains, the wilderness
+keep them back."
+
+Dick forebore a retort, because he felt that he owed Bright Sun
+something, and the chief seemed to take it for granted that he
+was silenced by logic.
+
+"This is the Little Big Horn River," Bright Sun said, "and you
+behold now in this village, which extends five miles on either
+side of it, the Seven Fireplaces of the Sioux.  All tribes are
+gathered here."
+
+"And it is you who have gathered them," said Dick.  He was
+looking straight into Bright Sun's eyes as he spoke, and he saw
+the pupils of the Sioux expand, in fact dilate, with a sudden
+overwhelming sense of power and triumph.  Dick knew he had
+guessed aright, but the Sioux replied with restraint:
+
+"If I have had some small part in the doing of it, I feel proud."
+
+With that he left them, and Dick and Albert rode on into the
+valley of the river, in whatsoever direction their bridleless
+horses might carry them, although that direction was bound to be
+the one in which rode the group surrounding them.
+
+Some of the squaws and boys, who caught sight of Dick and Albert
+among the warriors, began to shout and jeer, but a chief sternly
+bade them to be silent, and they slunk away, to the great relief
+of the two lads, who had little relish for such attention.
+
+They were full in the valley now, and on one side of them was
+thick undergrowth that spread to the edge of the river.  A few
+hundred yards father the undergrowth ceased, sand taking its
+place.  All the warriors turned their ponies abruptly away from
+one particular stretch of sand, and Dick understood.
+
+"It's a quicksand, Al," he said; "it would suck up pony, rider,
+and all."
+
+They left the quicksand behind and entered the village, passing
+among the groups of lodges.  Here they realized more fully than
+on the hills the great extent of the Indian town.  Its
+inhabitants seemed a myriad to Dick and Albert, so long used to
+silence and the lack of numbers.
+
+"How many warriors do you suppose this place could turn out,
+Dick?" asked Albert.
+
+"Five thousand, but that's only a guess.  It doesn't look much
+like our own valley, does it, Al?"
+
+"No, it doesn't," replied Albert with emphasis; "and I can tell
+you, Dick, I wish I was back there right now.  I believe that's
+the finest valley the sun ever shone on."
+
+"But we had to leave sometime or other," said Dick, "and how
+could we tell that we were going to run into anything like this?
+But it's surely a big change for us."
+
+"The biggest in the world."
+
+The group in which they rode continued along the river about two
+miles, and then stopped at a point where both valley and village
+were widest.  A young warrior, speaking crude English, roughly
+bade them dismount, and gladly they sprang from the ponies.
+Albert fell over when he struck the ground, his legs were cramped
+so much by the long ride, but the circulation was soon restored,
+and he and Dick went without resistance to the lodge that was
+pointed out to them as their temporary home and prison.
+
+It was a small lodge of poles leaning toward a common center at
+the top, there lashed together firmly with rawhide, and the whole
+covered with skins.  It contained only two rude mats, two bowls
+of Sioux pottery, and a drinking gourd, but it was welcome to
+Dick and Albert, who wanted rest  and at the same time security
+from the fierce old squaws and the equally fierce young boys.
+They were glad enough to lie a while on the rush mats and rub
+their tired limbs.  When they were fully rested they became very
+hungry.
+
+"I wonder if they mean to starve us to death?" said Albert.
+
+A negative answer was given in about ten minutes by two old
+squaws who appeared, bearing food, some venison, and more
+particularly wa-nsa, a favorite dish with the Sioux, a compound
+made of buffalo meat and wild cherries, which, after being dried,
+are pounded separately until they are very fine; then the two are
+pounded together for quite a while, after which the whole is
+stored in bladders, somewhat after the fashion of the white man's
+sausage.
+
+"This isn't bad at all," said Albert when he bit into his
+portion.  "Now, if we only had something good to drink."
+
+Neither of the old squaws understood his words, but one of them
+answered his wish, nevertheless.  She brought cherry-bark tea in
+abundance, which both found greatly to their liking and they ate
+and drank with deep content.  A mental cheer was added also to
+their physical good feeling.
+
+"Thanks, madam," said Albert, when one of the old squaws refilled
+the little earthen bowl from which he drank the cherry-bark tea.
+"You are indeed kind.  I did not expect to meet with such
+hospitality."
+
+The Indian woman did not understand his words, but anybody could
+understand the boy's ingratiating smile.  She smiled back at him.
+
+"Be careful, Al, old man," said Dick with the utmost gravity.
+"These old Indian women adopt children sometimes, or perhaps she
+will want to marry you.  In fact, I think the latter is more
+likely, and you can't help yourself."
+
+"Don't, Dick, don't!" said Albert imploringly.  "I am willing to
+pay a high price for hospitality, but not that."
+
+The women withdrew, and after a while, when the boys felt fully
+rested, they stepped outside the lodge, to find two tall young
+Sioux warriors on guard.  Dick looked at them inquiringly, and
+one of them said in fair English:
+
+"I am Lone Wolf, and this is Tall Pine.  You can go in the
+village, but we go with you.  Bright Sun has said so, and we
+obey."
+
+"All right, Mr. Lone Wolf," said Dick cheerfully.  "Four are
+company, two are none.  We couldn't escape if we tried; but
+Bright Sun says that you and your friend Mr. Pine Tree are to be
+our comrades on our travels, well and good.  I don't know any
+other couple in this camp that I'd choose before you two."
+
+Lone Wolf and Pine Tree were young, and maybe their youth caused
+them to smile slightly at Dick's pleasantry.  Nor did they annoy
+the boys with excessive vigilance, and they answered many
+questions.  It was, indeed, they said, the greatest village in
+the West that was now gathered on the banks of the Little Big
+Horn.  Sioux from all tribes had come including those on
+reservations.  All the clans of the Mendewahkantons, for
+instance, were represented on the reservations, but all of them
+were represented here, too.
+
+It was a great war that was now going on, they said, and they had
+taken many white scalps, but they intimated that those they had
+taken were few in comparison with the number they would take.
+Dick asked them of their present purpose, but here they grew
+wary.  The white soldiers might be near or they might be far, but
+the god of the Sioux was Wakantaka, the good spirit, and the god
+of the white man was Wakansica, the bad spirit.
+
+Dick did not consider it worth while to argue with them.  Indeed,
+he was in no position to do so.  The history of the world in the
+last two years was a blank to him and Albert.  But he observed
+throughout the vast encampment the same air of expectancy and
+excitement that had been noticeable in the smaller village.  He
+also saw a group of warriors arrive, their ponies loaded with
+repeating rifles, carbines and revolvers.  He surmised that they
+had been obtained from French-Canadian traders, and he knew well
+for what they were meant.  Once again he made his silent prayer
+that if the white soldiers came they could come in great force.
+
+Dick observed in the huge village all the signs of an abundant
+and easy life, according to Sioux standards.  Throughout its
+confines kettles gave forth the odors pleasing to an Indian's
+nostrils.  Boys broiled strips of venison on twigs before the
+fires.  Squaws were jerking buffalo and deer meat in a hundred
+places, and strings of fish ready for the cooking hung before the
+lodges.  Plenty showed everywhere.
+
+Dick understood that if one were really a wild man, with all
+instincts of a wild man inherited through untold centuries of
+wild life, he could find no more pleasing sight than this great
+encampment abounding in the good things for wild men that the
+plains, hills, and water furnished.  He saw it readily from the
+point of view of the Sioux and could appreciate their confidence.
+
+Albert, who was a little ahead of Dick, peered between two
+lodges, and suddenly turned away with a ghastly face.
+
+"What's the trouble, Al?" asked Dick.
+
+"I saw a warrior passing on the other side of those lodges,"
+replied Albert, "and he had something at his belt--the yellow
+hair of a white man, and there was blood on it."
+
+"We have taken many scalps already," interrupted the young Sioux,
+Lone Wolf, some pride showing in his tone.
+
+Both Dick and Albert shuddered and were silent.  The gulf between
+these men and themselves widened again into quite a sea.  Their
+thoughts could not touch those of the Sioux at any point.
+
+"I think we'd better go back to our own lodge," said Dick.
+
+"No," said Lone Wolf.  "The great chief, Bright Sun, has
+commanded us when we return to bring you into his presence, and
+it is time for us to go to him."
+
+"What does he want with us?" asked Albert.
+
+"He knows, but I do not," replied Lone Wolf sententiously.
+
+"Lead on," said Dick lightly. "Here, we go wherever we are
+invited."
+
+They walked back a full mile, and Lone Wolf and Pine Tree led the
+way to a great lodge, evidently one used by the Akitcita,
+although Dick judged that in so great a village as this, which
+was certainly a fusion of many villages, there must be at least a
+dozen lodges of the Akitcita.
+
+Lone Wolf and Pine Tree showed Dick and Albert into the door, but
+they themselves remained outside.  The two boys paused just
+inside the door until their eyes became used to the half gloom of
+the place.  Before them stood a dozen men, all great chiefs, and
+in the center was Bright Sun, the dominating presence.
+
+Despite their natural courage and hardihood and the wild life to
+which they had grown used, Dick and Albert were somewhat awed
+by the appearance of these men, every one of whom was of stern
+presence, looking every inch a warrior.  They had discarded the
+last particle of white man's attire, keeping only the white man's
+weapons, the repeating rifle and revolver.  Every one wore, more
+or less loosely folded about him, a robe of the buffalo, and in
+all cases the inner side of this robe was painted throughout in
+the most vivid manner with scenes from the hunt or warpath,
+chiefly those that had occurred in the life of the wearer.  Many
+colors were used in these paintings, but mostly those of cardinal
+dyes, red and blue being favorites.
+
+"These," said Bright Sun, speaking more directly to Dick,
+"are mighty chiefs of the Sioux Nation.  This is Ta Sun Ke
+Ka-Kipapi-Hok'silan (Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses)."
+
+He nodded toward a tall warrior, who made a slight and grave
+inclination.
+
+"I'd cut out at least half of that name," said Dick under his
+breath.
+
+"And this," continued Bright Sun in his measured, precise
+English, "is Ite-Mogu'Ju (Rain-in-the-Face), and this Kun-Sun'ka
+(Crow Dog), and this Pizi (Gall), and this Peji (Grass)".
+
+Thus he continued introducing them, giving to every one his long
+Indian appellation until all were named.  The famous Sitting Bull
+(Tatanka Yotanka) was not present.  Dick learned afterwards that
+he was at that very moment in his own tepee making medicine.
+
+"What we wish to know," said Bright Sun--"and we have ways to
+make you tell us--is whether you saw the white troops before we
+took you?"
+
+Dick shivered a little.  He knew what Bright Sun meant by the
+phrase "we have ways to make you tell," and he knew also that
+Bright Sun would be merciless if mercy stood in the way of
+getting what he wished.  No shred of the white man's training was
+now left about the Indian chief save the white man's speech.
+
+"I have not seen a white man in two years," replied Dick, "nor
+has my brother.  We told you the truth when you took us."
+
+Bright Sun was silent for a space, regarding him with black eyes
+seeking to read every throb of his heart.  Dick was conscious,
+too, that the similar gaze of all the others was upon him.  But
+he did not flinch.  Why should he?  He had told the truth.
+
+"Then I ask you again," said Bright Sun, "where have you been all
+this time?"
+
+"I cannot tell you," replied Dick.  "It is a place that we wish
+to keep secret.  It is hidden far from here.  But it is one to
+which no one else goes.  I can say that much."
+
+Rain-in-the-Face made an impatient movement, and said some
+words in the Sioux tongue.  Dick feared it was a suggestion
+that he be put to the torture, and he was glad when Bright Sun
+shook his head.
+
+"There are such places," said Bright Sun, "because the mountains
+are high and vast and but few people travel among them.  It may
+be that he tells the truth."
+
+"It is the truth.  I swear it!" said Dick earnestly.
+
+"Then why do you refuse to tell of this place?" asked Bright Sun.
+
+"Because we wish to keep it for ourselves," replied Dick frankly.
+
+The faintest trace of a smile was visible in Bright Sun's eyes.
+
+"Wherever it may be it belongs to us," said the chief; "but I
+believe that you are telling the truth.  Nor do I hesitate to
+tell you that we have asked these questions because we wish to
+learn all that we can.  The soldiers of your people are advancing
+under the yellow-haired general, Custer, Terry, Gibbon, and
+others.  They come in great force, but the Sioux, in greater
+force and more cunning will destroy them."
+
+Dick was silent.  He knew too little to make any reply to the
+statements of Bright Sun.  Rain-in-the-Face and Crazy Horse spoke
+to Bright Sun, and they seemed to be urging something.  But the
+chief again shook his head, and they, too, became silent.  It was
+obvious to both boys that his influence was enormous.
+
+"You can go," he said to Dick and Albert, and they gladly left
+the lodge.  Outside, Lone Wolf and Pine Tree fell in on either
+side of them and escorted them to their own tepee, in front of
+which they stood guard while the boys slept that night.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII
+The Great Sun Dance
+
+Dick and Albert remained in their tepee throughout the next
+morning, but in the afternoon they were allowed to go in the
+village a second time.  Lone Wolf and Pine Tree, who had slept in
+the morning, were again their guards.  Both saw at once that some
+great event was at hand. The excitement in the village had
+increased visibly, and a multitude was pouring toward a certain
+point, a wide, grassy plain beside the Little Big Horn.  Lone
+Wolf and Pine Tree willingly took the captives with the crowd,
+and the two boys looked upon a sight which few white men have
+beheld in all its savage convulsions.
+
+The wide, grassy space before them had been carefully chosen by
+the great medicine men of the nation, Sitting Bull at their head.
+Then the squaws had put up a great circular awning, like a
+circus tent, with part of the top cut out.  This awning was over
+one hundred and fifty feet in diameter.  After this, the medicine
+men had selected a small tree, which was cut down by a young,
+unmarried squaw.  Then the tree, after it had been trimmed of all
+its branches and consecrated and prayed over by the medicine men,
+was erected in the center of the inclosed space, rising from the
+ground to a height of about twenty feet.
+
+To the top of the pole were fastened many long thongs of rawhide
+reaching nearly to the ground, and as Dick and Albert looked a
+swarm of young men in strange array, or rather lack of array,
+came forth from among the lodges and entered the inclosed space.
+Dick had some dim perception of what was about to occur, but
+Lone Wolf informed him definitely.
+
+"The sun dance," he said.  "Many youths are about to become great
+warriors."
+
+The greatest of sun dances, a sun dance of the mighty allied
+Sioux tribes, was about to begin.  Forward went the neophytes,
+every one clad only in a breechclout ornamented with beads,
+colored horsehair and eagle feathers, and with horse tails
+attached to it, falling to the ground.  But every square inch of
+the neophyte's skin was painted in vivid and fantastic colors.
+Even the nails on his fingers and toes were painted.  Moreover,
+everyone had pushed two small sticks of tough wood under the skin
+on each side of the breast, and to those two sticks was fastened
+a rawhide cord, making a loop about ten inches long.
+
+"What under the sun are those sticks and cords for?" asked
+Albert, shuddering.
+
+"Wait and we'll see," replied Dick, who guessed too well their
+purpose, although he could not help but look.
+
+The neophytes advanced, and every one tied one of the long
+rawhide thongs depending from the top of the pole to the loop of
+cord that hung from his breast.  When all were ready they formed
+a great circle, somewhat after the fashion of the dancers around
+a Maypole, and outside of those formed another and greater circle
+of those already initiated.
+
+A medicine man began to blow a small whistle made from the wing
+bone of an eagle, the sacred bird of the Sioux, and he never
+stopped blowing it for an instant.  It gave forth a shrill,
+penetrating sound, that began after a while to work upon the
+nerves in a way that was almost unendurable to Dick and Albert.
+
+At the first sound of the whistle the warriors began to dance
+around the pole, keeping time to the weird music.  It was a
+hideous and frightful dance, like some cruel rite of a far-off
+time.  The object was to tear the peg from the body, breaking by
+violence through the skin and flesh that held it, and this proved
+that the neophyte by his endurance of excessive pain was fit to
+become a great warrior.
+
+But the pegs held fast for a long time, while the terrible,
+wailing cry of the whistle went on and on.  Dick and Albert
+wanted to turn away--in fact, they had a violent impulse more
+than once to run from it--but the eyes of the Sioux were upon
+them, and they knew that they would consider them cowards if they
+could not bear to look upon that which others no older than
+themselves endured.  There was also the incessant, terrible
+wailing of the whistle, which seemed to charm them and hold them.
+
+The youths by and by began to pull loose from the thongs, and in
+some cases where it was evident that they would not be able to do
+so a medicine man would seize them by the shoulders and help
+pull.  In no case did a dancer give up, although they often fell
+in a faint when loosed.  Then they were carried away to be
+revived, but for three days and three nights not a single
+neophyte could touch food, water, or any other kind of drink.
+They were also compelled, as soon as they recovered a measurable
+degree of strength, to join the larger group and dance three days
+and nights around the neophytes, who successively took their
+places.
+
+The whole sight, with the wailing of the whistle, the shouts of
+the dancers, the beat of their feet, and the hard, excited
+breathing of the thousands about them, became weird and
+uncanny.  Dick felt as if some strange, deadly odor had mounted
+to his brain, and while he struggled between going and staying a
+new shout arose.
+
+A fresh group of neophytes sprang into the inclosed place.  Every
+one of these had the little sticks thrust through the upper point
+of the shoulder blade instead of the breast, while from the loop
+dangled a buffalo head.  They danced violently until the weight
+of the head pulled the sticks loose, and then, like their
+brethren of the pole, joined the great ring of outside dancers
+when they were able.
+
+The crowd of neophytes increased, as they gave way in turn to one
+another, and the thong about them thickened.  Hundreds and
+hundreds of dancers whirled and jumped to the shrill, incessant
+blowing of the eagle-bone whistle.  It seemed at times to the
+excited imaginations of Dick and Albert that the earth rocked to
+the mighty tread of the greatest of all sun dances.  Indian
+stoicism was gone, perspiration streamed from dark faces, eyes
+became bloodshot as their owners danced with feverish vigor,
+savage shouts burst forth, and the demon dance grew wilder and
+wilder.
+
+The tread of thousands of feet caused a fine, impalpable dust to
+rise from the earth beneath the grass and to permeate all the
+air, filling the eyes and nostrils of the dancers, heating their
+brains and causing them to see through a red mist.  Some fell
+exhausted.  If they were in the way, they were dragged to one
+side; if not, they lay where they fell, but in either case others
+took their places and the whirling multitude always increased in
+numbers.
+
+As far as Dick and Albert could see the Sioux were dancing.
+There was a sea of tossing heads and a multitude of brown bodies
+shining with perspiration.  Never for a moment did the shrill,
+monotonous, unceasing rhythm of the whistle cease to dominate the
+dance.  It always rose above the beat of the dancers, it
+penetrated everything, ruled everything--this single, shrill
+note, like the chant of a snake charmer.  It even showed its
+power over Dick and Albert.  They felt their nerves throbbing to
+it in an unwilling response, and the dust and the vivid electric
+excitement of the dancers began to heat their own brains.
+
+"Don't forget that we're white, Al!  Don't forget it!" cried
+Dick.
+
+"I'm trying not to forget it!" gasped Albert.
+
+The sun, a lurid, red sun, went down behind the hills, and a
+twilight that seemed to Dick and Albert phantasmagorial and shot
+with red crept over the earth.  But the dance did not abate in
+either vigor or excitement; rather it increased.  In the twilight
+and the darkness that followed it assumed new aspects of the
+weird and uncanny.  Despite the torches that flared up, the
+darkness was mainly in control.  Now the dancers, whirling about
+the pole and straining on the cords, were seen plainly, and now
+they were only shadows, phantoms in the dusk.
+
+Dick and Albert had moved but little for a long time; the wailing
+of the demon whistle held them; and they felt that there was a
+singular attraction, too, in this sight, which was barbarism and
+superstition pure and simple, yet not without its power.  They
+were still standing there when the moon came out, throwing a veil
+of silver gauze over the dancers, the lodges, the surface of the
+river, and the hills, but it took nothing away from the ferocious
+aspect of the dance; it was still savagery, the custom of a
+remote, fierce, old world.  Dick and Albert at last recovered
+somewhat; they threw off the power of the flute and the excited
+air that they breathed and began to assume again the position of
+mere spectators.
+
+It was then that Bright Sun came upon them, and they noticed with
+astonishment that he, the product of the white schools and of
+years of white civilization, had been dancing, too.  There was
+perspiration on his face, his breath was short and quick, and his
+eyes were red with excitement.  He marked their surprise, and
+said:
+
+"You think it strange that I, too, dance.  You think all this
+barbarism and superstition, but it is not.  It is the custom of
+my people, a custom that has the sanction of many centuries, and
+that is bred into our bone and blood.  Therefore it is of use to
+us, and it is more fit than anything else to arouse us for the
+great crisis that we are to meet."
+
+Neither Dick nor Albert made any reply.  Both saw that the great
+deep of the Sioux chief's stoicism was for the moment broken up.
+He might never be so stirred again, but there was no doubt of it
+now, and they could see his side of it, too.  It was his people
+and their customs against the white man, the stranger.  The
+blood of a thousand years was speaking in him.
+
+When he saw that they had no answer for him, Bright Sun left them
+and became engrossed once more with the dance, continually urging
+it forward, bringing on more neophytes, and increasing the
+excitement.  Dick and Albert remained a while longer, looking
+on.  Their guards, Lone Wolf and Pine Tree, still stood beside
+them.  The two young warriors, true to their orders, had made no
+effort to join the dancers, but their nostrils were twitching and
+their eyes bloodshot.  The revel called to them incessantly, but
+they could not go.
+
+Dick felt at last that he had seen enough of so wild a scene.
+One could not longer endure the surcharged air, the wailing of
+the whistle, the shouts, the chants, and the beat of thousands of
+feet.
+
+"Al," he said, "let's go back to our lodge, if our guards will
+let us, and try to sleep."
+
+"The sooner the better," said Albert.
+
+Lone Wolf and Pine Tree were willing enough, and Dick suspected
+that they would join the dance later.  After Albert had gone in,
+he stood a moment at the door of the lodge and looked again upon
+this, the wildest and most extraordinary scene that he had yet
+beheld.  It was late in the night and the center of the sun dance
+was some distance from the lodge, but the shrill wailing of the
+whistle still reached him and the heavy tread of the dancers came
+in monotonous rhythm.  "It's the greatest of all nightmares," he
+said to himself.
+
+It was a long time before either Dick or Albert could sleep, and
+when Dick awoke at some vague hour between midnight and
+morning he was troubled by a shrill, wailing note that the drum of
+his ear.  Then he remembered.  The whistle!  And after it came the
+rhythmic, monotonous beat of many feet, as steady and persistent as
+ever.  The sun dance had never ceased for a moment, and he fell
+asleep again with the sounds of it still in his ear.
+
+The dance, which was begun at the ripening of the wild sage,
+continued three days and nights without the stop of an instant.
+No food and no drink passed the lips of the neophytes, who danced
+throughout that time--if they fell they rose to dance again.
+Then at the appointed hour it all ceased, although every
+warrior's brain was at white heat and he was ready to go forth at
+once against a myriad enemies.  It was as if everyone had drunk
+of some powerful and exciting Eastern drug.
+
+The dance ended, they began to eat, and neither Dick nor Albert
+had ever before seen such eating.  The cooking fires of the
+squaws rose throughout the entire five miles of the village.
+They had buffalo, deer, bear, antelope, and smaller game in
+abundance, and the warriors ate until they fell upon the ground,
+where the lay in a long stupor. The boys thought that many of
+them would surely die, but they came from their stupor unharmed
+and were ready for instant battle.  There were many new warriors,
+too, because none had failed at the test, and all were eager to
+show their valor.
+
+"It's like baiting a wild beast," said Dick.  "There are five
+thousand ravening savages here, ready to fight anything, and
+to-night I'm going to try to escape."
+
+"If you try, I try, too," said Albert.
+
+"Of course," said Dick.
+
+The village was resting from its emotional orgy, and the guard
+upon the two boys was relaxed somewhat.  In fact, it seemed
+wholly unnecessary, as they were rimmed around by the vigilance
+of many thousand eyes.  But, spurred by the cruel need, Dick
+resolved that they should try.  Fortunately, the very next night
+was quite dark, and only a single Indian, Pine Tree, was on
+guard.
+
+"It's to-night or never," whispered Dick to Albert within the
+shelter of the lodge.  "They've never taken the trouble to bind
+us, and that gives us at least a fighting chance."
+
+"When shall we slip out?"
+
+"Not before about three in the morning.  That is the most nearly
+silent hour, and if the heathenish curs let us alone we may get
+away."
+
+Fortune seemed to favor the two.  The moon did not come out,
+and the promise of a dark night was fulfilled.  An unusual
+stillness was over the village.  It seemed that everybody slept.
+Dick and Albert waited through long, long hours.  Dick had
+nothing by which to reckon time, but he believed that he could
+calculate fairly well by guess, and once, when he thought it was
+fully midnight, he peeped out at the door of the lodge.  Pine
+Tree was there, leasing against a sapling, but his attitude
+showed laziness and a lack of vigilance.  It might be that,
+feeling little need of watching, he slept on his feet.  Dick
+devoutly hoped so.  He waited at least two hours longer, and
+again peeped out.  The attitude of Pine Tree had not changed.
+It must certainly be sleep that held him, and Dick and Albert
+prepared to go forth.  They had no arms, and could trust only
+to silence and speed.
+
+Dick was the first outside, and stood in the shadow of the lodge
+until Albert joined him.  There they paused to choose a way among
+the lodges and to make a further inspection of sleeping
+Pine Tree.
+
+The quiet of the village was not broken.  The lodges stretched
+away in dusky rows and then were lost in darkness.  This promised
+well, and their eyes came back to Pine Tree, who was still
+sleeping.  Then Dick became conscious of a beam of light, or
+rather two beams.  These beams shot straight from the open eyes
+of Pine Tree, who was not asleep at all.  The next instant Pine
+Tree opened his mouth, uttered a yell that was amazingly loud and
+piercing, and leaped straight for the two boys.
+
+As neither Dick nor Albert had arms, they could do nothing but
+run, and they fled between the lodges at great speed, Pine Tree
+hot upon their heels.  It amazed Dick to find that the whole
+population of a big town could awake so quickly.  Warriors,
+squaws, and children swarmed from the lodges and fell upon him
+and Albert in a mass.  He could only see in the darkness that
+Albert had been seized and dragged away, but he knew that two
+uncommonly strong old squaws had him by the hair, three
+half-grown boys were clinging to his legs, and a powerful
+warrior laid hold of his right shoulder.  He deemed it wisest
+in such a position to yield as quickly and gracefully as he could,
+in the hope that the two wiry old women would be detached
+speedily from his hair.  This object was achieved as soon as the
+Sioux saw that he did not resist, and the vigilant Pine Tree stood
+before him, watching with an expression that Dick feared could be
+called a grin.
+
+"The honors are yours," said Dick as politely as he could, "but
+tell me what has become of my brother."
+
+"He is being taken to the other side of the river," said the
+voice of Bright Sun over Pine Tree's shoulder, "and he and you
+will be kept apart until we decide what to do with you.  It was
+foolish in you to attempt to escape.  I had warned you."
+
+"I admit it," said Dick, "but you in my place would have done the
+same.  Once can only try."
+
+He tried to speak with philosophy, but he was sorely troubled
+over being separated from his brother.  Their comradeship in
+captivity had been a support to each other.
+
+There was no sympathy in the voice of Bright Sun.  He spoke
+coldly, sternly, like a great war chief.  Dick understood, and
+was too proud to make any appeal.  Bright Sun said a few words to
+the warriors, and walked away.
+
+Dick was taken to another and larger lodge, in which several
+warriors slept.  There, after his arms were securely bound, he
+was allowed to lie down on a rush mat, with warriors on rush mats
+on either side of him.  Dick was not certain whether the warriors
+slept, but he knew that he did not close his eyes again that
+night.
+
+Although strong and courageous, Dick Howard suffered much
+mental torture.  Bright Sun was a Sioux, wholly an Indian
+(he had seen that at the sun dance), and if Albert and he were
+no longer of any possible use as hostages, Bright Sun would not
+trouble himself to protect them.  He deeply regretted their wild
+attempt at escape, which he had felt from the first was almost
+hopeless.  Yet he believed, on second thought, that they had been
+justified in making the trial.  The great sun dance, the immense
+gathering of warriors keyed for battle, showed the imminent need
+for warning to the white commanders, who would not dream that
+the Sioux were in such mighty force.  Between this anxiety and
+that other one for Albert, thinking little of himself meanwhile,
+Dick writhed in his bonds.  But he could do nothing else.
+
+The warriors rose from their rush mats at dawn and ate flesh of
+the buffalo and deer and their favorite wa-nsa.  Dick's arms were
+unbound, and he, too, was allowed to eat; but he had little
+appetite, and when the warriors saw that he had finished they
+bound him again.
+
+"What are you going to do to me?" asked Dick in a kind of vague
+curiosity.
+
+No one gave any answer.  They did not seem to hear him.  Dick
+fancied that some of them understood English, but chose to leave
+him in ignorance.  He resolved to imitate their own stoicism and
+wait.  When they bound his arms again, and his feet also, he made
+no resistance, but lay down quietly on the rush mat and gazed
+with an air of indifference at the skin wall of the lodge.  All
+warriors went out, except one, who sat in the doorway with his
+rifle on his knee.
+
+"They flatter me," thought Dick.  "They must think me of some
+importance or that I'm dangerous, since they bind and guard me so
+well."
+
+His thongs of soft deerskin, while secure, were not galling.
+They neither chafed nor prevented the circulation, and when he
+grew tired of lying in one position he could turn into another.
+But it was terribly hard waiting.  He did not know what was
+before him.  Torture or death?  Both, most likely.  He tried to
+be resigned, but how could one be resigned when one was so young
+and so strong?  The hum of the village life came to him, the
+sound of voices, the tread of feet, the twang of a boyish
+bowstring, but the guard in the doorway never stirred.  It seemed
+to Dick that the Sioux, who wore very little clothing, was carved
+out of reddish-brown stone.  Dick wondered if he would ever move,
+and lying on his back he managed to raise his head a little on
+the doubled corner of the rush mat, and watch that he might see.
+
+Bound, helpless, and shut off from the rest of the world, this
+question suddenly became vital to him: Would that Indian ever
+move, or would he not?  He must have been sitting in that
+position at least two hours.  Always he stared straight before
+him, the muscles on his bare arms never quivered in the
+slightest, and the rifle lay immovable across knees which also
+were bare.  How could he do it?  How could he have such control
+over his nerves and body?  Dick's mind slowly filled with wonder,
+and then he began to have a suspicion that the Sioux was
+not real, merely some phantom of the fancy, or that he himself
+was dreaming.  It made him angry--angry at himself, angry at
+the Sioux, angry at everything.  He closed his eyes, held them
+tightly shut for five minutes, and then opened them again.  The
+Sioux was still there.  Dick was about to break through his
+assumed stoicism and shout at the warrior, but he checked
+himself, and with a great effort took control again of his
+wandering nerves.
+
+He knew now that the warrior was real, and that he must have
+moved some time or other, but he did not find rest of spirit.  A
+shaft of sunshine by and by entered the narrow door of the lodge
+and fell across Dick himself.  He knew that it must be a fair
+day, but he was sorry for it.  The sun ought not to shine when he
+was at such a pass.
+
+Another interminable period passed, and an old squaw entered with
+a bowl of wa-nsa, and behind her came Lone Wolf, who unbound
+Dick.
+
+"What's up now, Mr. Lone Wolf?" asked Dick with an attempt at
+levity.  "Is it a fight or a foot race?"
+
+"Eat," replied Lone Wolf sententiously, pointing of the bowl
+wa-nsa.  "You will need your strength."
+
+Dick's heart fell at these words despite all his self-command.
+"My time's come," he thought.  He tried to eat--in fact, he
+forced himself to eat--that Lone Wolf might not think that he
+quailed, and when he had eaten as much as his honor seemed to
+demand he stretched his muscles and said to Lone Wolf, with a
+good attempt at indifference:
+
+"Lead on, my wolfish friend.  I don't know what kind of a welcome
+mine is going to be, but I suppose it is just as well to find out
+now."
+
+The face of Lone Wolf did not relax.  He seemed to have a full
+appreciation of what was to come and no time for idle jests.  He
+merely pointed to the doorway, and Dick stepped into the
+sunshine.  Lying so long in the dusky lodge, he was dazzled at
+first by the brilliancy of the day, but when his sight grew
+stronger he beheld a multitude about him.  The women and
+children began to chatter, but the warriors were silent.  Dick
+saw that he was the center of interest, and was quite sure that he
+was looking upon his last sun.  "O Lord, let me die bravely!" was
+his silent prayer.
+
+He resolved to imitate as nearly as he could the bearing of an
+Indian warrior in his position, and made no resistance as Lone
+Wolf led him on, with the great thong following.  He glanced
+around once for Bright Sun, but did not see him.  The fierce
+chief whom they called Ite-Moga' Ju (Rain-in-the-Face) seemed to
+be in charge of Dick's fate, and he directed the proceedings.
+
+But stoicism could not prevail entirely, and Dick looked about
+him again.  He saw the yellow waters of the river with the
+sunlight playing upon them; the great village stretching away on
+either shore until it was hidden by the trees and undergrowth;
+the pleasant hills and all the pleasant world, so hard to leave.
+His eyes dwelt particularly upon the hill, a high one, overlooking
+the whole valley of the Little Big Horn, and the light was so clear
+that he could see every bush and shrub waving there.
+
+His eyes came back from the hill to the throng about him.  He had
+felt at times a sympathy for the Sioux because the white man was
+pressing upon them, driving them from their ancient hunting
+grounds that they loved; but they were now wholly savage and
+cruel--men, women, and children alike.  He hated them all.
+
+Dick was taken to the summit of one of the lower hills, on which
+he could be seen by everybody and from which he could see in a
+vast circle.  He was tied in a peculiar manner.  His hands
+remained bound behind him, but his feet were free.  One end of a
+stout rawhide was secured around his waist and the other around a
+sapling, leaving him a play of about a half yard.  He could not
+divine the purpose of this, but he was soon to learn.
+
+Six half-grown boys, with bows and arrows, then seldom used by
+grown Sioux, formed a line at a little distance from him, and at
+a word from Rain-in-the-Face leveled their bows and fitted arrow
+to the string.  Dick thought at first they were going to slay him
+at once, but he remembered that the Indian did not do things that
+way.  He knew it was some kind of torture and although he
+shivered he steadied his mind to face it.
+
+Rain-in-the-Face spoke again, and six bowstrings twanged.  Six
+arrows whizzed by Dick, three on one side and three on the other,
+but all so close that, despite every effort of will, he shrank
+back against the sapling.  A roar of laughter came from the
+crowd, and Dick flushed through all the tan of two years in the
+open air.  Now he understood why the rawhide allowed him so
+much play.  It was a torture of the nerves and of the mind.
+They would shoot their arrows by him, graze him perhaps if he
+stood steady, but if he sought to evade through fear, if he
+sprang either to one side or the other, they might strike in
+a vital spot.
+
+He summoned up the last ounce of his courage, put his back
+against the sapling and resolved that he would not move, even if
+an arrow carried some of his skin with it.  The bowstrings
+twanged again, and again six arrows whistled by.  Dick quivered,
+but he did not move, and some applause came from the crowd.
+Although it was the applause of enemies, of barbarians, who
+wished to see him suffer, it encouraged Dick.  He would endure
+everything and he would not look at these cruel faces; so he
+fixed his eyes on the high hill and did not look away when the
+bowstrings twanged a third time.  As before, he heard the arrows
+whistle by him, and the shiver came into his blood, but his will
+did not let it extend to his body.  He kept his eyes fixed upon
+the hill, and suddenly a speck appeared before them.  No, it was
+not a speck, and, incredible as it seemed, Dick was sure that he
+saw a horseman come around the base of the hill and stop there,
+gazing into the valley upon the great village and the people
+thronging about the bound boy.
+
+A second and third horseman appeared, and Dick could doubt no
+longer.  They were white cavalrymen in the army uniform, scouts
+or the vanguard, he knew not what.  Dick held his breath, and
+again that shiver came into his blood.  Then he heard and saw an
+extraordinary thing.  A singular deep, long-drawn cry came from
+the multitude in unison, a note of surprise and mingled threat.
+Then all whirled about at the same moment and gazed at the
+horsemen at the base of the hill.
+
+The cavalrymen quickly turned back, rode around the hill and out
+of sight.  Dozens of warriors rushed forward, hundreds ran to the
+lodges for more weapons and ammunition, the women poured in a
+stream down toward the river and away, the boys with the bows and
+arrows disappeared, and in a few minutes Dick was left alone.
+
+Unnoticed, but bound and helpless, the boy stood there on the
+little hill, while the feverish life, bursting now into a
+turbulent stream, whirled and eddied around him.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII
+The Circle of Death
+
+The quiver in Dick's blood did not cease now.  He forgot for the
+time being that he was bound, and stood there staring at the hill
+where three horsemen had been for a few vivid moments.  These men
+must be proof that a white army was near; but would this army
+know what an immense Sioux force was waiting for it in the valley
+of the Little Big Horn?
+
+He tried to take his eyes away from the hill, but he could not.
+He seemed to know every tree and shrub on it.  There at the base,
+in that slight depression, the three horsemen had stood, but none
+came to take their place.  In the Indian village an immense
+activity was going on, both on Dick's side of the river and the
+other.  A multitude of warriors plunged into the undergrowth on
+the far bank of the stream, where they lay hidden, while another
+multitude was gathering on this side in front of the lodges.  The
+gullies and ravines were lined with hordes.  The time was about
+two in the afternoon.
+
+A chief appeared on the slope not far from Dick.  It was Bright
+Sun in all the glory of battle array, and he glanced at the
+tethered youth.  Dick's glance met his, and he saw the shadow of
+a faint, superior smile on the face of the chief.  Bright Sun started
+to say something to a warrior, but checked himself.  He seemed to
+think that Dick was secured well enough, and he did not look at him
+again.  Instead, he gazed at the base of the hill where the horsemen
+had been, and while he stood there he was joined by the chiefs
+Rain-in-the-Face and Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses.
+
+Dick never knew how long a time passed while they all waited.
+The rattle of arms, the shouts, and the tread of feet in the
+village ceased.  There was an intense, ominous silence broken
+only, whether in fact or fancy Dick could not tell, by the heavy
+breathing of thousands.  The sun came out more brightly and
+poured its light over the town and the river, but it did not
+reveal the army of the Sioux swallowed up in the undergrowth on
+the far bank.  So well were they hidden that their arms gave back
+no gleam.
+
+Dick forgot where he was, forgot that he was bound, so tense were
+the moments and so eagerly did he watch the base of the hill.
+When a long time--at least, Dick thought it so--had passed, a
+murmur came from the village below.  The men were but scouts
+and had gone away, and no white army was near.  That was Dick's
+own thought, too.
+
+As the murmur sank, Dick suddenly straightened up.  The black
+speck appeared again before his eyes.  New horsemen stood where
+the three had been, and behind them was a moving mass, black in
+the sun.  The white army had come!
+
+Bright Sun suddenly turned upon Dick a glance so full of
+malignant triumph that the boy shuddered.  Then, clear and full
+over the valley rose the battle cry of the trumpets, a joyous
+inspiring sound calling men on to glory or death.  Out from the
+hill came the moving mass of white horsemen, rank after rank, and
+Dick saw one in front, a man with long yellow hair, snatch off
+his hat, wave it around his head, and come on at a gallop.
+Behind him thundered the whole army, stirrup to stirrup.
+
+Bright Sun, Rain-in-the-Face, and Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses
+darted away, and then Dick thought of the freedom that he wanted
+so much.  They were his people coming so gallantly down the
+valley, and he should be there.  He pulled at the rawhide, but it
+would not break; he tried to slip his wrists loose, but they
+would not come; and, although unnoticed now, he was compelled
+to stand there, still a prisoner, and merely see.
+
+The horsemen came on swiftly, a splendid force riding
+well--trained soldiers, compact of body and ready of hand.  The
+slope thundered with their hoofbeats as they came straight toward
+the river.  Dick drew one long, deep breath of admiration, and
+then a terrible fear assailed him.  Did these men who rode so well
+know unto what they were riding?
+
+The stillness prevailed yet a little longer in the Indian
+village.  The women and children were again running up the river,
+but they were too far away for Dick to hear them, and he was
+watching his own army.  Straight on toward the river rode the
+horsemen, with the yellow-haired general at their head, still
+waving his hat.  Strong and mellow, the song of the trumpet again
+sang over the valley, but the terrible fear at Dick's heard grew.
+
+It was obvious to the boy that the army of Custer intended to
+cross the river, here not more than two feet deep, but on their
+flank was the deadly quicksand and on the opposite shore facing
+them the hidden warriors lay in the hundreds.   Dick pulled again
+at his bonds and began to shout:  "Not there!  Not there!  Turn
+away!"  But his voice was lost in the pealing of the trumpets and
+the hoof beats of many horses.
+
+They were nearing the river and the warriors were swarming on
+their flank, still held in leash by Bright Sun, while the great
+medicine man, Sitting Bull, the sweat pouring from his face, was
+making the most powerful medicine of his life.  Nearer and nearer
+they rode, the undergrowth still waving gently and harmlessly in
+the light wind.
+
+Dick stopped shouting.  All at once he was conscious of its
+futility.  Nobody heard him.  Nobody heeded him.  He was only an
+unnoticed spectator of a great event.  He stood still now, back
+to the tree, gazing toward the river and the advancing force.
+Something wet dropped into his eye and he winked it away.  It was
+the sweat from his own brow.
+
+The mellow notes of the trumpet sang once more, echoing far over
+the valley, and the hoofs beat with rhythmic tread.  The splendid
+array of blue-clad men was still unbroken.  They still rode heel
+to heel and toe to toe, and across the river the dense
+undergrowth moved a little in the gentle wind, but disclosed
+nothing.
+
+A few yards more and they would be at the water.  Then Dick saw a
+long line of flame burst from the bushes, so vivid, so intense
+that it was like a blazing bar of lightening, and a thousand
+rifles seemed to crash as one.  Hard on the echo of the great
+volley came the fierce war cry of the ambushed Sioux, taken up in
+turn by the larger force on the flank and swelled by the
+multitude of women and children farther back.  It was to Dick
+like the howl of wolves about to leap on their prey, but many
+times stronger and fiercer.
+
+The white army shivered under the impact of the blow, when a
+thousand unexpected bullets were sent into its ranks.  All the
+front line was blown away, the men were shot from their saddles,
+and many of the horses went down with them.  Others, riderless,
+galloped about screaming with pain and fright.
+
+Although the little army shivered and reeled for a moment, it
+closed up again and went on toward the water.  Once more the
+deadly rifle fire burst from the undergrowth, not a single volley
+now, but continuous, rising and falling a little perhaps, but
+always heavy, filling the air with singing metal and littering
+the ground with the wounded and the dead.  The far side of the
+river was a sheet of fire, and in the red blaze the Sioux could
+be seen plainly springing about in the undergrowth.
+
+The cavalrymen began to fire also, sending their bullets across
+the river as fast as they could pull the trigger, but they were
+attacked on the flank, too, by the vast horde of warriors,
+directed by the bravest of the Sioux chiefs, the famous Pizi
+(Gall), one of the most skillful and daring fighters the red race
+ever produced, a man of uncommon appearance, of great height,
+and with the legendary head of a Caesar.  He now led on the
+horde with voice and gesture, and hurled it against Custer's
+force, which was reeling again under the deadly fire from the
+other shore of the Little Big Horn.
+
+The shouting of the warriors and of the thousands of women
+and children who watched the battle was soon lost to Dick
+in the steady crash of the rifle fire which filled the whole
+valley--sharp, incessant, like the drum of thunder in the ear.
+A great cloud of smoke arose and drifted over the combatants,
+white and red, but this smoke was pierced by innumerable flashes
+of fire as the red swarms pressed closer and the white replied.
+
+Some flaw in the wind lifted the smoke and sent it high over the
+heads of all.  Dick saw Custer, the general with the yellow hair,
+still on horseback and apparently unwounded, but the little army
+had stopped.  It had been riddled already by the rifle fire from
+the undergrowth and could not cross the river.  The dead and
+wounded on the ground had increased greatly in numbers, and the
+riderless horses galloped everywhere.  Some of them rushed
+blindly into the Indian ranks, where they were seized.
+
+Three or four troopers had fallen or plunged into the terrible
+quicksand on the other flank, and as Dick looked they were slowly
+swallowed up.  He shut his eyes, unable to bear the sight, and
+when he opened them he did not see the men any more.
+
+The smoke flowed in again and then was driven away once more.
+Dick saw that all of Custer's front ranks were now dismounted,
+and were replying to the fire from the other side of the river.
+Undaunted by the terrible trap into which they had ridden they
+came so near to the bank that many of them were slain there, and
+their bodies fell into the water, where they floated.
+
+Dick saw the yellow-haired leader wave his hat again, and the
+front troopers turned back from the bank.  The whole force turned
+with them.  All who yet lived or could ride now sprang from their
+horses, firing at the same time into the horde about them.  Their
+ranks were terribly thinned, but they still formed a compact
+body, despite the rearing and kicking of the horses, many of
+which were wounded also.
+
+Dick was soldier enough to know what they wished to do.  They
+were trying to reach the higher ground, the hills, where they
+could make a better defense, and he prayed mutely that they might
+do it.
+
+The Sioux saw, too, what was intended, and they gave forth a yell
+so full of ferocity and exultation that Dick shuddered from head
+to foot.  The yell was taken up by the fierce squaws and boys who
+hovered in the rear, until it echoed far up and down the banks of
+the Little Big Horn.
+
+The white force, still presenting a steady front and firing fast,
+made way.  The warriors between them and the hill which they
+seemed to be seeking were driven back, but the attack on their
+rear, and now on both flanks, grew heavier and almost unbearable.
+The outer rim of Custer's army was continually being cut off,
+and when new men took the places of the others they, too, were
+shot down.  His numbers and the space on which they stood were
+reduced steadily, yet they did not cease to go on, although the
+pace became slower.  It was like a wounded beast creeping along
+and fighting with tooth and claw, while the hunters swarmed
+about him in numbers always increasing.
+
+Custer bore diagonally to the left, going, in the main,
+downstream, but a fresh force was now thrown against him.  The
+great body of warriors who had been hidden in the undergrowth on
+the other side of the Little Big Horn crossed the stream when he
+fell back and flung themselves upon his flank and front.  He was
+compelled now to stop, although he had not gone more than four
+hundred yards, and Dick, from his hill, saw the actions of the
+troops.
+
+They stood there for perhaps five minutes firing into the Sioux,
+who were now on every side.  They formed a kind of hollow square
+with some of the men in the center holding the horses, which were
+kicking and struggling and adding to the terrible confusion.  The
+leader with the yellow hair was yet alive.  Dick saw him plainly,
+and knew by his gestures that he was still cheering on his men.
+
+A movement now took place.  Dick saw the white force divided.  A
+portion of it deployed in a circular manner to the left, and the
+remainder turned in a similar fashion to the right, although they
+did not lose touch.  The square was now turned into a rude circle
+with the horses still in the center.  They stood on a low hill,
+and so far as Dick could see they would not try to go any
+farther.  The fire of the defenders had sunk somewhat, but he saw
+the men rushing to the horses for the extra ammunition--that was
+why they hung to the horses--and then the fire rose again in
+intensity and volume.
+
+Confident in their numbers and the success that they had already
+won, the Sioux pressed forward from every side in overwhelming
+masses.  All the great chiefs led them--Gall, Crazy Horse,
+Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, Grass, and the others.  Bright
+Sun continually passed like a flame, inciting the hordes to
+renewed attacks, while the redoubtable Sitting Bull never ceased
+to make triumphant medicine.  But it was Gall, of the magnificent
+head and figure, the very model of a great savage warrior, who
+led at the battle front.  Reckless of death, but always
+unwounded, he led the Sioux up to the very muzzles of the white
+rifles, and when they were driven back he would lead them up
+again.  Dick had heard all his life that Indians would not charge
+white troops in the open field, but here they did it, not one
+time, but many.
+
+Dick believed that if he were to die that moment the picture of
+that terrible scene would be found photographed upon his
+eyeballs.  It had now but little form or feature for him.  All he
+could see was the ring of his own blue-clad people in the center
+and everywhere around them the howling thousands, men mostly
+naked to the breechclout, their bodies wet with the sweat of
+their toiling, and their eyes filled with the fury of the savage
+in victorious battle--details that he could not see, although
+they were there.  Alike over the small circle and the vast one
+inclosing it the smoke drifted in great clouds, but beneath it
+the field was lit up by the continuous red flash of the rifles.
+Dick wondered that anybody could live where so many bullets were
+flying in the air; yet there was Custer's force, cut down much
+more, but the core of it still alive and fighting, while the
+Sioux were so numerous that they did not miss their own warriors
+who had fallen, although there were many.
+
+The unbroken crash of the rifle fire had gone on so long now that
+Dick scarcely noticed it, nor did he heed the great howling of
+the squaws farther up the stream.  He was held by what his eyes
+saw, and he did not take them from the field for an instant.  He
+saw one charge, a second and third hurled back, and although he
+was not conscious of it he shouted aloud in joy.
+
+"They'll drive them off!  They'll drive them off for good!" he
+exclaimed, although in his heart he never believed it.
+
+The wind after a while took another change, and the dense clouds
+of smoke hung low over the field, hiding for the time the little
+white army that yet fought.  Although Dick could see nothing now,
+he still gazed into the heart of the smoke bank.  He did not know
+then that a second battle was in progress on the other side of
+the town.  Custer before advancing had divided his force, giving
+a little more than half of it to Reno, who, unconscious of
+Custer's deadly peril, was now being beaten off.  Dick had no
+thought for anything but Custer, not even of his own fate.  Would
+they drive the Sioux away?  He ran his tongue over his parched
+lips and tugged at the bonds that held his wrists.
+
+The wind rose again and blew the smoke to one side.  The
+battlefield came back into the light, and Dick saw that the white
+force still fought.  But many of the men were on their knees now,
+using their revolvers, and Dick feared the terrible event that
+really happened--their ammunition was giving out, and the savage
+horde, rimming them on all sides, was very near.
+
+He did not know how long the battle had lasted, but it seemed
+many hours to him.  The sun was far down in the west, gilding the
+plains and hills with tawny gold, but the fire and smoke of
+conflict filled the whole valley of the Little Big Horn.
+"Perhaps night will save those who yet live," thought Dick.  But
+the fire of the savages rose.  Fresh ammunition was brought to
+them, and after every repulse they returned to the attack,
+pressing closer at every renewal.
+
+Dick saw the leader at the edge of the circle almost facing his
+hill.  His hat was gone, and his long yellow hair flew wildly,
+but he still made gestures to his men and bade them fight on.
+Then Dick lost him in the turmoil, but he saw some of the horses
+pull loose from the detaining hands, burst through the circle,
+and plunge among the Sioux.
+
+Now came a pause in the firing, a sudden sinking, as if by
+command, and the smoke thinned.  The circle which had been
+sprouting flame on every side also grew silent for a moment,
+whether because the enemy had ceased or the cartridges were all
+gone Dick never knew.  But it was the silence of only an
+instant.  There was a tremendous shout, a burst of firing greater
+than any that had gone before, and the whole Sioux horde poured
+forward.
+
+The warriors, charging in irresistible masses from side to side,
+met in the center, and when the smoke lifted from the last great
+struggle Dick saw only Sioux.
+
+Of all the gallant little army that had charged into the valley
+not a soul was now living, save a Crow Indian scout, who, when
+all was lost, let down his hair after the fashion of a Sioux, and
+escaped in the turmoil as one of their own people.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX
+A Happy Meeting
+
+When Dick Howard saw that the raging Sioux covered the field and
+that the little army was destroyed wholly he could bear the sight
+no longer, and, reeling back against the tree, closed his eyes.
+For a little while, even with eyes shut, he still beheld the red
+ruin, and then darkness came over him.
+
+He never knew whether he really fainted or whether it was merely
+a kind of stupor brought on by so many hours of battle and fierce
+excitement, but when he opened his eyes again much time had
+passed.  The sun was far down in the west and the dusky shadows
+were advancing.  Over the low hill where Custer had made his last
+stand the Sioux swarmed, scalping until they could scalp no
+more.  Behind them came thousands of women and boys, shouting
+from excitement and the drunkenness of victory.
+
+It was all incredible, unreal to Dick, some hideous nightmare
+that would soon pass away when he awoke.  Such a thing as this
+could not be!  Yet it was real, it was credible, he was awake and
+he had seen it--he had seen it all from the moment that the
+first trooper appeared in the valley until the last fell under
+the overwhelming charge of the Sioux.  He still heard, in the
+waning afternoon, their joyous cries over their great victory,
+and he saw their dusky forms as they rushed here and there over
+the field in search of some new trophy.
+
+Dick was not conscious of any physical feeling at all--neither
+weariness, nor fear, nor thought of the future.  It seemed to him
+that the world had come to an end with the ending of the day.
+
+The shadows thickened and advanced.  The west was a sea of
+dusk.  The distant lodges of the village passed out of sight.
+The battlefield itself became dim and it was only phantom
+figures that roamed over it.  All the while Dick was unnoticed,
+forgotten in the great event, and as the night approached the
+desire for freedom returned to him.  He was again a physical being,
+feeling pain, and from habit rather than hope he pulled once more
+at the rawhide cords that held his wrists--he did not know that
+he had been tugging at them nearly all afternoon.
+
+He wrenched hard and the unbelievable happened.  The rawhide,
+strained upon so long, parted, and his hands fell to his side.
+Dick slowly raised his right wrist to the level of his eyes and
+looked at it, as if it belonged to another man.  There was a red
+and bleeding ring around it where the rawhide had cut deep,
+making a scar that took a year in the fading, but his numbed
+nerves still felt no pain.
+
+He let the right wrist sink back and raised the left one.  It had
+the same red ring around it, and he looked at it curiously,
+wonderingly.  Then he let the left also drop to his side, while
+he stood, back against the tree, looking vaguely at the dim
+figures of the Sioux who roamed about in the late twilight still
+in that hideous search for trophies.
+
+It was while he was looking at the Sioux that an abrupt thought
+came to Dick.  Those were his own wrists at which he had been
+looking.  His hands were free!  Why not escape in all this
+turmoil and excitement, with the friendly and covering night also
+at hand.  It was like the touch of electricity.  He was instantly
+alive, body and mind.  He knew who he was and what had
+happened, and he wanted to get away.  Now was the time!
+
+The rawhide around Dick's waist was strong and it had been
+secured with many knots.  He picked at it slowly and with
+greatest care, and all the time he was in fear lest the Sioux
+should remember him.  But the sun was now quite down, the last
+bars of red and gold were gone, and the east as well as the west
+was in darkness.  The field of battle was hidden and only voices
+came up from it.  Two warriors passed on the slope of the hill
+and Dick, ceasing his work, shrank against the trunk of the tree,
+but they went on, and when they were out of sight he began again
+to pick at the knots.
+
+One knot after another was unloosed, and at last the rawhide fell
+from his waist.  He was free, but he staggered as he walked a
+little way down the slope of the hill and his fingers were numb.
+Yet his mind was wholly clear.  It had recovered from the great
+paralytic shock caused by the sight of the lost battle, and he
+intended to take every precaution needed for escape.
+
+He sat down in a little clump of bushes, where he was quite lost
+to view, and rubbed his limbs long and hard until the circulation
+was active.  His wrists had stopped bleeding, and he bound about
+them little strips that he tore from his clothing.  Then he threw
+away his cap--the Sioux did not wear caps, and he meant to look
+as much like a Sioux as he could.  That was not such a difficult
+matter, as he was dressed in tanned skins, and wind and weather
+had made him almost as brown as an Indian.
+
+Midway of the slope he stopped and looked down.  The night had
+come, but the stars were not yet out.  He could see only the near
+lodges, but many torches flared now over the battle field and in
+the village.  He started again, bearing away from the hill on
+which Custer had fallen, but pursuing a course that led chiefly
+downstream.  Once he saw dusky figures, but they took no notice
+of him.  Once a hideous old squaw, carrying some terrible trophy
+in her hand, passed near, and Dick thought that all was lost.  He
+was really more afraid at this time of the sharp eyes of the old
+squaws than those of the warriors.  But she passed on, and Dick
+dropped down into a little ravine that ran from the field.  His
+feet touched a tiny stream that trickled at the bottom of the
+ravine, and he leaped away in shuddering horror.  The soles of
+his mocassins were now red.
+
+But he made progress.  He was leaving the village farther behind,
+and the hum of voices was not so loud.  One of his greatest
+wishes now was to find arms.  He did not intend to be recaptured,
+and if the Sioux came upon him he wanted at least to make a
+fight.
+
+A dark shape among some short bushes attracted his attention.  It
+looked like the form of a man, and when he went closer he saw
+that it was the body of a Sioux warrior, slain by a distant
+bullet from Custer's circle.  His carbine lay beside him and he
+wore an ammunition belt full of cartridges.  Dick, without
+hesitation, took both, and felt immensely strengthened.  The
+touch of the rifle gave him new courage.  He was a man now ready
+to meet men.
+
+He reached another low hill and stood there a little while,
+listening.  He heard an occasional whoop, and may lights flared
+here and there in the village, but no warrior was near.  He saw
+on one side of him the high hill, at the base of which the first
+cavalrymen had appeared, and around which the army had ridden a
+little later to its fate.  Dick was seized with a sudden
+unreasoning hatred of the hill itself, standing there black and
+lowering in the darkness.  He shook his fist at it, and then,
+ashamed of his own folly, hurried his flight.
+
+Everything was aiding him now.  If any chance befell, that chance
+was in his favor.  Swiftly he left behind the field of battle,
+the great Indian village, and all the sights and sounds of that
+fatal day, which would remain stamped on his brain as long as he
+lived.  He did not stop until he was beyond the hills inclosing
+the valley, and then he bent back again toward the Little Big
+Horn.  He intended to cross the river and return toward the
+village on the other side, having some dim idea that he might
+find and rescue Albert.
+
+Dick was now in total silence.  The moon and the stars were not
+yet out, but he had grown used to the darkness and he could see
+the low hills, the straggling trees, and the clumps of
+undergrowth.  He was absolutely alone again, but when he closed
+his eyes he saw once more with all the vividness of reality that
+terrible battle field, the closing in of the circle of death, the
+last great rush of the Sioux horde, and the blotting out of the
+white force.  He still heard the unbroken crash of the rifle fire
+that had continued for hours, and the yelling of the Sioux that
+rose and fell.
+
+But when he opened his eyes the silence became painful, it was so
+heavy and oppressive.  He felt lonely and afraid, more afraid
+than he had even been for himself while the battle was in
+progress.  It seemed to him that he was pursued by the ghosts of
+the fallen, and he longed for the company of his own race.
+
+Dick was not conscious of hunger or fatigue.  His nerves were
+still keyed too high to remember such things, and now he turned
+down to the Little Big Horn.  Remembering the terrible quicksand,
+he tried the bank very gingerly before he stepped into the
+water.  It was sandy, but it held him, and then he waded in
+boldly, holding his rifle and belt of cartridges above his head.
+He knew that the river was not deep, but it came to his waist
+here, and once he stepped into a hole to his armpits, but he kept
+the rifle and cartridges dry.  The waters were extremely cold,
+but Dick did not know it, and when he reached the desired shore
+he shook himself like a dog until the drops flew and then began
+the perilous task of returning to the village on the side
+farthest from Custer's battle.
+
+He went carefully along the low, wooded shores, keeping well in
+the undergrowth, which was dense, and for an hour he heard and
+saw nothing of the Sioux.  He knew why.  They were still
+rejoicing over their great victory, and although he knew little
+of Indian customs he believed that the scalp dance must be in
+progress.
+
+The moon and stars came out.  A dark-blue sky, troubled by
+occasional light clouds, bent over him.  He began at last to feel
+the effects of the long strain, mental and physical.  His clothes
+were nearly dry on him, but for the first time he felt cold and
+weak.  He went on, nevertheless; he had no idea of stopping even
+if he were forced to crawl.
+
+He reached the crest of a low hill and looked down again on the
+Indian village, but from a point far from the hill on which he
+had stood during the battle.  He saw many lights, torches and
+camp fires, and now and then dusky figures moving against the
+background of the flames, and then a great despair overtook him.
+To rescue Albert would be in itself difficult enough, but how was
+he ever to find him in that huge village, five miles long?
+
+He did not permit his despair to last long.  He would make the
+trial in some manner, how he did not yet know, but he must make
+it.  He descended the low hill and entered a clump of bushes
+about fifty yards from the banks of the Little Big Horn.  Here he
+stopped and quickly sank down.  He had heard a rustling at the
+far edge of the clump, and he was sure, too, that he had seen a
+shadowy figure.  The figure had disappeared instantly, but Dick
+was confident that a Sioux warrior was hidden in the bushes not
+ten yards away.
+
+It was his first impulse to retreat as silently as he could, but
+the impulse swiftly gave way to a fierce anger.  He remembered
+that he carried a rifle and plenty of cartridges, and he was
+seized with a sudden vague belief that he might strike a blow in
+revenge for the terrible loss of the day.  It could be but a
+little blow, he could strike down only one, but he was resolved
+to do it--he had been through what few boys are ever compelled
+to see and endure, and his mind was not in its normal state.
+
+He turned himself now into an Indian, crawling and creeping with
+deadly caution through the bushes, exercising an infinite
+patience that he might make no leaf or twig rustle, and now and
+then looking carefully over the tops of the bushes to see that
+his enemy had not fled.  As he advanced he held his rifle well
+forward, that he might take instant aim when the time came.
+
+Dick was a full ten minutes in traveling ten yards, and then he
+saw the dark figure of the warrior crouched low in the bushes.
+The Sioux had not seen him and was watching for his approach from
+some other point.  The figure was dim, but Dick slowly raised his
+rifle and took careful aim at the head.  His finger reached the
+trigger, but when it got there it refused to obey his will.  He
+was not a savage; he was white, with the civilized blood of many
+generations, and he could not shoot down an enemy whose back
+was turned to him.  But he maintained his aim, and using some
+old expression that he had heard he cried, "Throw up your hands!"
+
+The crouching figure sprang to its feet, and a remembered voice
+exclaimed in overwhelming surprise and delight:
+
+"Dick!  Dick!  Is that you, Dick?"
+
+Dick dropped the muzzle of his rifle and stared.  He could not
+take it in for the moment.  It was Albert--a ragged, dirty,
+pale, and tired Albert, but a real live Albert just the same.
+
+The brothers stared at each other by the same impulse, and then
+by the same impulse rushed forward, grasped each other's hands,
+wringing them and shouting aloud for joy.
+
+"Is it you, Al?  How on earth did you ever get here?"
+
+"Is it you, Dick?  Where on earth did you come from?"
+
+They sat down in the bushes, both still trembling with excitement
+and the relief from suspense, and Dick told of the fatal day, how
+he had been bound to the tree on the hill, and how he had seen
+all the battle, from its beginning to the end, when no white
+soldier was left alive.
+
+"Do you mean that they were all killed, Dick?" asked Albert in
+awed tones.
+
+"Every one," replied Dick.  "There was a ring of fire and steel
+around them through which no man could break.  But they were
+brave, Al, they were brave!  They beat off the thousands of that
+awful horde for hours and hours."
+
+"Who led them?"
+
+"I don't know.  I had no way of knowing, but it was a gallant man
+with long yellow hair.  I saw him with his hat off, waving it to
+encourage his men.  Now tell me, Al, how you got here."
+
+"When they seized us," replied Albert, "they carried me, kicking
+and fighting as best I could, up the river.  I made up my mind
+that I'd never see you again, Dick, as I was sure that they'd
+kill you right away.  I expected them to finish me up, too, soon,
+but they didn't.  I suppose it was because they were busy with
+bigger things.
+
+"They pushed me along for at least two miles.  Then they crossed
+the river, shoved me into a bark lodge, and fastened the door on
+me.  They didn't take the trouble to bind me, feeling sure, I
+suppose, that I couldn't get out of the lodge and the village,
+too; and I certainly wouldn't have had any chance to do it if a
+battle hadn't begun after I had been there a long time in the
+darkness of the lodge.  I thought at first that it was the Sioux
+firing at targets, but then it became too heavy and there was too
+much shouting.
+
+"The firing went on a long time, and I pulled and kicked for an
+hour at the lodge door.  Because no one came, no matter how
+much noise I made, I knew that something big was going on, and
+I worked all the harder.  When I looked out at last, I saw many
+warriors running up and down and great clouds of smoke.  I
+sneaked out, got into a smoke bank just as a Sioux shot at me,
+lay down in a little ravine, after a while jumped up and ran
+again through the smoke, and reached the bushes, where I lay
+hidden flat on my face until the night came.  While I was there I
+heard the firing die down and saw our men driven off after being
+cut up badly."
+
+"It's awful!  awful!" groaned Dick.  "I didn't know there were so
+many Sioux in the world, and maybe our generals didn't, either.
+That must have been the trouble."
+
+"When the darkness set in good," resumed Albert.  "I started to
+run.  I knew that no Sioux were bothering about me then, but I
+tell you that I made tracks, Dick.  I had no arms, and I didn't
+know where I was going; but I meant to leave those Sioux some
+good miles behind.  After a while I got back part of my courage,
+and then I came back here to look around for you, thinking you
+might have just such a chance as I did."
+
+"Brave old Al," said Dick.
+
+"You came, too."
+
+"I was armed and you were not."
+
+"It comes to the same thing, and you did have the chance."
+
+"Yes, and we're together again.  We've been saved once more, Al,
+when the others have fallen.  Now the thing for us to do is to
+get away from here as fast as we can.  Which way do you think
+those troops on your side of the village retreated?"
+
+Albert extended his finger toward a point on the dusky horizon.
+
+"Off there somewhere," he replied.
+
+"Then we'll follow them.  Come on."
+
+The two left the bushes and entered the hills.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX
+Bright Sun's Good-by
+
+Dick and Albert had not gone far before they saw lights on the
+bluffs of the Little Big Horn.  Dick had uncommonly keen eyes,
+and when he saw a figure pass between him and the firelight he
+was confident that it was not that of a Sioux.  The clothing was
+too much like a trooper's.
+
+"Stop, Al," he said, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder.
+"I believe some of our soldiers are here."
+
+The two crept as near as they dared and watched until they saw
+another figure pause momentarily against the background of the
+firelight.
+
+"It's a trooper, sure," said Dick, "and we've come to our own
+people at last.  Come, Al, we'll join them."
+
+They started forward on a run.  There was a flash of flame, a
+report, and a bullet whistled between them.
+
+"We're friends, not Sioux!"  shouted Dick.  "We're escaping from
+the savages!  Don't fire!"
+
+They ran forward again, coming boldly into the light, and no more
+shots were fired at them.  They ran up the slope to the crest of
+the bluff, leaped over a fresh earthwork, and fell among a crowd
+of soldiers in blue.  Dick quickly raised himself to his feet,
+and saw soldiers about him, many of them wounded, all of them
+weary and drawn.  Others were hard at work with pick and spade,
+and from a distant point of the earthwork came the sharp report
+of rifle shots.
+
+These were the first white men that Dick and Albert had seen in
+nearly two years, and their hearts rose in their throats.
+
+"Who are you?" asked a lieutenant, holding up a lantern and
+looking curiously at the two bare-headed, brown, and half-wild
+youths who stood before him in their rough attire of tanned
+skins.  They might readily have passed in the darkness for young
+Sioux warriors.
+
+"I am Dick Howard," replied Dick, standing up as straight as his
+weakness would let him, "and this is my brother Albert.  We were
+with an emigrant trail, all the rest of which was massacred two
+years ago by the Sioux.  Since then we have been in the
+mountains, hunting and trapping."
+
+The lieutenant looked at him suspiciously.  Dick still stood
+erect and returned his gaze, but Albert, overpowered by fatigue,
+was leaning against the earthwork.  A half dozen soldiers stood
+near, watching them curiously.  From the woods toward the river
+came the sound of more rifle shots.
+
+"Where have you come from to-night?  And how?" asked the
+lieutenant sharply.
+
+"We escaped from the Sioux village," replied Dick.  "I was in one
+part of it and my brother in another.  We met by chance or luck
+in the night, but in the afternoon I saw all the battle in which
+the army was destroyed."
+
+"Army destroyed!  What do you mean?" exclaimed the officer.
+"We were repulsed, but we are here.  We are not destroyed."
+
+The suspicion in his look deepened, but Dick met him with
+unwavering eye.
+
+"It was on the other side of the town," he replied.  "Another
+army was there.  It was surrounded by thousands of Sioux, but it
+perished to the last man.  I saw them gallop into the valley, led
+by a general with long yellow hair."
+
+"Custer!" exclaimed some one, and a deep groan came from the
+men in the dusk.
+
+"What nonsense is this!" exclaimed the officer.  "Do you dare
+tell me that Custer and his entire command have perished?"
+
+Dick felt his resentment rising.
+
+"I tell you only the truth," he said.  "There was a great battle,
+and our troops, led by a general with long yellow hair, perished
+utterly.  The last one of them is dead.  I saw it all with my own
+eyes."
+
+Again that deep groan came from the men in the dusk.
+
+"I can't believe it!" exclaimed the lieutenant.  "Custer and
+whole force dead!  Where were you?  How did you see all this?"
+
+"The Sioux had tied me to a tree in order that the Indian boys
+might amuse themselves by grazing me with arrows--my brother and
+I had been captured when we were on the plains--but they were
+interrupted by the appearance of troops in the valley.  Then the
+battle began.  It lasted a long time, and I was forgotten.  About
+twilight I managed to break loose, and I escaped by hiding in the
+undergrowth.  My brother, who was on the other side of town,
+escaped in much the same way."
+
+"Sounds improbable, very improbable!" muttered the lieutenant.
+
+Suddenly an old sergeant, who had been standing near, listening
+attentively, exclaimed:
+
+"Look at the boy's wrists, lieutenant!  They've got just the
+marks than an Indian rawhide would make!"
+
+Dick impulsively held up his wrists, from which the bandages had
+fallen without his notice.  A deep red ring encircled each, and
+it was obvious from their faces that others believed, even if the
+lieutenant did not.  But he, too, dropped at least a part of his
+disbelief.
+
+"I cannot deny your story of being captives among the Sioux," he
+said, "because you are white and the look of your eyes is honest.
+But you must be mistaken about Custer.  They cannot all have
+fallen; it was your excitement that made you think it."
+
+Dick did not insist.  He was the bearer of bad news, but he would
+not seek to make others believe it if they did not wish to do
+so.  The dreadful confirmation would come soon enough.
+
+"Take them away, Williams," said the lieutenant to the sergeant,
+"and give them food and drink.  They look as if they needed it."
+
+The sergeant was kindly, and he asked Dick and Albert many
+questions as he led them to a point farther back on the bluff
+beyond the rifle shots of the Sioux, who were now firing heavily
+in the darkness upon Reno's command, the troops driven off from
+the far side of the town, and the commands of Benteen and
+McDougall, which had formed a junction with Reno.  It was evident
+that he believed all Dick told him, and his eyes became heavy
+with sorrow.
+
+"Poor lads!" he murmured.  "And so many of them gone!"
+
+He took them to a fire, and here both of them collapsed
+completely.  But with stimulants, good food, and water they
+recovered in an hour, and then Dick was asked to tell again what
+he had seen to the chief officers.  They listened attentively,
+but Dick knew that they, too, went away incredulous.
+
+Throughout the talk Dick and Albert heard the sound of pick and
+spade as the men continued to throw up the earthworks, and there
+was an incessant patter of rifle fire as the Sioux crept forward
+in the darkness, firing from every tree, or rock, or hillock, and
+keeping up a frightful yelling, half of menace and half of
+triumph.  But their bullets whistled mostly overhead, and once,
+when they made a great rush, they were quickly driven back with
+great loss.  Troops on a bluff behind earthworks were a hard nut
+even for an overwhelming force to crack.
+
+Dick and Albert fell asleep on the ground from sheer exhaustion,
+but Dick did not sleep long.  He was awakened by a fresh burst of
+firing, and saw that it was still dark.  He did not sleep again
+that night, although Albert failed to awake, and, asking for a
+rifle, bore a part in the defense.
+
+The troops, having made a forced march with scant supplies,
+suffered greatly from thirst, but volunteers, taking buckets,
+slipped down to the river, at the imminent risk of torture and
+death, and brought them back filled for their comrades.  It was
+done more than a dozen times, and Dick himself was one of the
+heroes, which pleased Sergeant Williams greatly.
+
+"You're the right stuff, my boy," he said, clapping him on the
+shoulder, "though you ought to be asleep and resting."
+
+"I couldn't sleep long," replied Dick.  "I think my nerves have
+been upset so much that I won't feel just right again for
+months."
+
+Nevertheless he bore a valiant part in the defense, besides
+risking his life to obtain the water, and won high praise from
+many besides his stanch friend, Sergeant Williams.  It was well
+that the troops had thrown up the earthwork, as the Sioux,
+flushed with their great victory in the afternoon, hung on the
+flanks of the bluffs and kept up a continuous rifle fire.  There
+was light enough for sharpshooting, and more than one soldier who
+incautiously raised his head above the earthwork was slain.
+
+Toward morning the Sioux made another great rush.  There had
+been a lull in the firing just when the night was darker than
+usual and many little black clouds were floating up from the
+southwest.  Dick was oppressed by the silence.  He remembered
+the phases of the battle in the afternoon, and he felt that it
+portended some great effort by the Sioux.  He peeped carefully
+over the earthwork and studied the trees, bushes, and hillocks
+below.  He saw nothing there, but it seemed to him that he could
+actually feel the presence of the Sioux.
+
+"Look out for 'em," he said to Sergeant Williams.  "I think
+they're going to make a rush."
+
+"I think it, too," replied the veteran.  "I've learnt something
+of their cunnin' since I've been out here on the plains."
+
+Five minutes later the Sioux sprang from their ambush and rushed
+forward, hoping to surprise enemies who had grown careless.  But
+they were met by a withering fire that drove them headlong to
+cover again.  Nevertheless they kept up the siege throughout all
+the following day and night, firing incessantly from ambush, and
+at times giving forth whoops full of taunt and menace.  Dick was
+able to sleep a little during the day, and gradually his nerves
+became more steady.  Albert also took a part in the defense, and,
+like Dick, he won many friends.
+
+The day was a long and heavy one.  The fortified camp was filled
+with the gloomiest apprehensions.  The officers still refused to
+believe all of Dick's story, that Custer and every man of his
+command had perished at the hands of the Sioux.  They were yet
+hopeful that his eyes had deceived him, a thing which could
+happen amid so much fire, and smoke, and excitement, and that
+only a part of Custer's force had fallen.  Yet neither Custer nor
+any of his men returned; there was no sign of them anywhere, and
+below the bluffs the Sioux gave forth taunting shouts and
+flaunted terrible trophies.
+
+Dick and Albert sat together about twilight before one of the
+camp fires, and Dick's face showed that he shared the gloom of
+those around him.
+
+"What are you expecting, Dick?" asked Albert, who read his
+countenance.
+
+"Nothing in particular," replied Dick; "but I'm hoping that help
+will come soon.  I've heard from the men that General Gibbon is
+out on the plain with a strong force, and we need him bad.  We're
+short of both water and food, and we'll soon be short of
+ammunition.  Custer fell, I think, because his ammunition gave
+out, and if ours gives out the same thing will happen to us.
+It's no use trying to conceal it."
+
+"Then we'll pray for Gibbon," said Albert.
+
+The second night passed like the first, to the accompaniment of
+shouts and shots, the incessant sharpshooting of the Sioux, and
+an occasional rush that was always driven back.  But it was
+terribly exhausting.  The men were growing irritable and nervous
+under such a siege, and the anxiety in the camp increased.
+
+Dick, after a good sleep, was up early on the morning of the
+second day, and, like others, he looked out over the plain in the
+hope that he might see Gibbon coming.  He looked all around the
+circle of the horizon and saw only distant lodges in the valley
+and Sioux warriors.  But Dick had uncommonly good ears, trained
+further by two years of wild life, and he heard something, a new
+note in the common life of the morning.  He listened with the
+utmost attention, and heard it again.  He had heard the same
+sound on the terrible day when Custer galloped into the
+valley--the mellow, pealing note of a trumpet, but now very
+faint and far.
+
+"They're coming!" he said to Sergeant Williams joyfully.  "I hear
+the sound of a trumpet out on the plain!"
+
+"I don't," said the sergeant.  "It's your hopes that are
+deceivin' you.  No, by Jove, I think I do hear it!  Yes, there it
+is!  They're comin'!  They're comin'!"
+
+The whole camp burst into a joyous cheer, and although they did
+not hear the trumpet again for some time, the belief that help
+was at hand became a certainty when they saw hurried movements
+among the Sioux in the valley and the sudden upspringing of
+flames at many points.
+
+"They're goin' to retreat," said the veteran Sergeant Williams,
+"an' they're burnin' their village behind 'em."
+
+A little later the army of Gibbon, with infantry and artillery,
+showed over the plain, and was welcomed with cheers that came
+from the heart.  Uniting with the commands on the fortified
+bluff, Gibbon now had a powerful force, and he advanced
+cautiously into the valley of the Little Big Horn and directly
+upon the Indian village.  But the Sioux were gone northward,
+taking with them their arms, ammunition, and all movable
+equipment, and the lodges that they left behind were burning.
+
+Dick led the force to the field of battle, and all his terrible
+story was confirmed.  There were hundreds of brave men, Custer
+and every one of his officers among them, lay, most of them
+mutilated, but all with their backs to the earth.
+
+The army spent the day burying the dead, and then began the
+pursuit of the Sioux.  Dick and Albert went with them, fighting
+as scouts and skirmishers.  They were willing, for the present,
+to let their furs remain hidden in their lost valley until they
+could gain a more definite idea of its location, and until the
+dangerous Sioux were driven far to the northward.
+
+As the armies grew larger the Sioux forces, despite the skill and
+courage of their leaders, were continually beaten.  Their great
+victory on the Little Big Horn availed them nothing.  It became
+evident that the last of the chiefs--and to Dick and Albert this
+was Bright Sun--had made the last stand for his race, and had
+failed.
+
+"They were doomed the day the first white man landed in America,"
+said Dick to Albert, "and nothing could save them."
+
+"I suppose it's so," said Albert; "but I feel sorry for Bright
+Sun, all the same."
+
+"So do I," said Dick.
+
+The Sioux were finally crowded against the Canadian line, and
+Sitting Bull and most of the warriors fled across it for safety.
+But just before the crossing Dick and Albert bore a gallant part
+in a severe skirmish that began before daylight.  A small Sioux
+band, fighting in a forest with great courage and tenacity, was
+gradually driven back by dismounted white troopers.  Dick, a
+skirmisher on the right flank, became separated from his comrades
+during the fighting.  He was aware that the Sioux had been
+defeated, but, like the others, he followed in eager pursuit,
+wishing to drive the blow home.
+
+Dick lost sight of both troopers and Sioux, but he became aware
+of a figure in the undergrowth ahead of him, and he stalked it.
+The warrior, for such he was sure the man to be, was unable to
+continue his flight without entering an open space where he would
+be exposed to Dick's bullet, and he stayed to meet his
+antagonist.
+
+There was much delicate maneuvering of the kind that must occur
+when lives are known to be at stake, but at last the two came
+within reach of each other.  The Sioux fired first and missed,
+and then Dick held his enemy at the muzzle of his rifle.  He was
+about to fire in his turn, when he saw that it was Bright Sun.
+
+The chief, worn and depressed, recognized Dick at the same
+moment.
+
+"Fire," he said.  "I have lost and I might as well die by your
+hand as another."
+
+Dick lowered his weapon.
+
+"I can't do it, Bright Sun," he said.  "My brother and I owe you
+our lives, and I've got to give you yours.  Good-by."
+
+"But I am an Indian," said Bright Sun.  "I will never surrender
+to your people."
+
+"It is for you to say," replied Dick.
+
+Bright Sun waved his hand in a grave and sad farewell salute and
+went northward.  Dick heard from a trapper some time later of a
+small band of Sioux Indians far up near the Great Slave Lake, led
+by a chief of uncommon qualities.  He was sure, from the
+description of this chief given by the trapper, that it was
+Bright Sun.
+
+Their part in the war ended, Dick and Albert took for their pay a
+number of captured Indian ponies, and turning southward found the
+old trail of the train that had been slaughtered.  Then, with the
+ponies, they entered their beloved valley again.
+
+No one had come in their absence.  Castle Howard, the Annex, the
+Suburban Villa, the Cliff House and all their treasures were
+undisturbed.  They carried their furs to Helena, in Montana,
+where the entire lot was sold for thirty-two thousand dollars--a
+great sum for two youths.
+
+"Now what shall we do?" said Albert when the money was paid to
+them.
+
+"I vote we buy United States Government bonds," replied Dick,
+"register 'em in our names, and go back to the valley to hunt and
+trap.  Of course people will find it after a while, but we may
+get another lot of the furs before anyone comes."
+
+"Just what I'd have proposed myself," said Albert.
+
+They started the next day on their ponies, with the pack ponies
+following, and reached their destination in due time.  It was
+just about sunset when they descended the last slope and once
+more beheld their valley, stretching before them in all its
+beauty and splendor, still untrodden by any human footsteps save
+their own.
+
+"What a fine place!" exclaimed Albert.
+
+"The finest in the world!" said Dick.
+
+The End
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Last of the Chiefs, by Joseph  Altsheler
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