California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman | Page 6

the bank beneath the bluff and under the shelter of a few trees that grew upon the point of land. As the stream was not thirty feet in width, a tree was felled that made a bridge across it, and standing upon this, Joe very skillfully threw his lasso and caught the noose upon the branch of the tree growing upon the bluff forty feet above. Up this he went with the agility of a sailor, and soon hauled up a rope ladder hastily constructed, and which he made fast to a tree-stump. "That's called Gable Bluff, and there's no way to get on top excepting you go up as I did, by fastening your lasso on some tree growing near the edge. "It's only a few acres in size, and the banks are steep all round, so it would be a good place to hide the children and women," said Joe. Then he gave advice about not having the guards set the following night, but to keep the stock feeding all the next day near by upon the prairie but to fasten them securely in their corral of wagons at sunset. "And the dummies you spoke of, Joe?" asked Captain Reynolds. "Oh, yes; you must keep your camp-fires burning brightly, and dress up plenty of clothes to look like men lying under blankets, for they will be what the reds will go for.
"Now I must go, but I guess I'll be round near when the Injuns come," and without another word Joe was turning away to mount his patiently waiting white horse that had stood unhitched near, when Captain Reynolds's little girl of five years old came up to him and said: "You doin' away?" "Yes," and Joe looked down upon the pretty little golden-haired cherub, with a smile that lighted up his pale face and made it really handsome. "Kiss Maddie dood-by," she lisped. He bent over, raised in his arms, and kissed her, sat her down once more. Then springing upon his horse, with the ease of a circus rider, he rode out of camp at a sweeping gallop, unhearing, or unheeding the request of Captain Reynolds for him to remain with them as their guest.

CHAPTER V.
JOE MAKES A GRAND CAPTURE.
FROM Captain Reynolds down to the smallest child in the train, all were pleased with their camp, when daylight came to show them its natural strength of position. The appearances of having scaled the bluff were all removed before dawn, so that any Injun's watchful eye that might be upon them, could not detect that any extraordinary efforts for caution and defense had been made by the emigrants, and during the day the hunters went off as far as they dared in pursuit of game. Yet there was a feeling of anxiety resting upon all, for none knew what the night would bring forth. One young hunter had detected afar off, over a roll of the prairie, a head peering at him, apparently, and he had noticed that it was a redskin and he reported it to Captain Reynolds, upon his return to camp; but this was all that was seen in the slightest degree suspicious. As for Joe, he was nowhere visible during the day, but the captain had perfect confidence in the strange youth, and felt that he was somewhere about, and on the watch. At last the shadows of night began to fall, the cattle were driven in to the corral of wagons, and nearly all the force set to work with a will, preparing for the work before them. The wagons were ditched, so that they could not be easily moved, and dirt and boxes were piled against them as much as possible to shield the animals from the shots, and to prevent their breaking out of the inclosure in their fright, when the fight began. Dummies representing human-beings were scattered here and there about the fires, having the appearance of man asleep, and the rope ladder being placed so that the trees kept the firelight from revealing it; the women and children were taken up to the bluff and placed in a secure retreat a few yards back in the timber. By degrees the men, acting for the benefit of any watching red- skin eye that might be upon them, would throw themselves down upon the blanket beds about the fires and then crawl away in the darkness to gain the rope ladder leading to the bluff. Reynolds and a few others lay longer, threw more wood upon the fire and retired to the few tents, to crawl out from the rear of them and seek safety upon the bluff. Then not an eye, other than those of the smaller children, was closed in sleep. The boys of twelve even had been