In the Rocky Mountains | Page 9

a
second leap, it fell into a pool; now rushing forth again foaming and
roaring down a steep incline, until it reached the more level portion of
the canon.
"That is indeed a fine cataract, and you have well named your location
from it," observed the lieutenant. "I wish I had had my sketch-book
with me; I might have made a drawing of it, to carry away in
remembrance of my visit here."
"I will send you one with great pleasure," I answered.
"Do you draw?" he asked, with a look of surprise, probably thinking
that such an art was not likely to be possessed by a young
backwoodsman.
"I learned when I was a boy, and I have a taste that way, although I
have but little time to exercise it," I answered.
He replied that he should be very much obliged. "Does your sister
draw?--I conclude that young lady is your sister?" he said in a tone of
inquiry.
"Oh yes! Clarice draws better than I do," I said. "But she has even less
time than I have, for she is busy from morning till night; there is no
time to spare for amusement of any sort. Uncle Jeff would not approve
of our `idling our time,' as he would call it, in that sort of way."
The lieutenant seemed inclined to linger at the waterfall, so that I had to

hurry him away, as I wanted to be back to attend to my duties. I was
anxious, also, to hear what account Bartle Won would bring in.
But the day passed away, and Bartle did not appear. Uncle Jeff's
confidence that he could have come to no harm was not, however,
shaken.
"It may be that he has discovered the enemy, and is watching their
movements; or perhaps he has been tempted to go on and on until he
has found out that there is no enemy to be met with, or that they have
taken the alarm and beat a retreat," he observed.
Still the lieutenant was unwilling to leave us, although Uncle Jeff did
not press him to stay.
"It will never do for me to hurry off with my men, and leave a party of
whites in a solitary farm to be slaughtered by those Redskin savages,"
he said.
At all events, he stayed on until the day was so far spent that it would
not have been worth while to have started.
Clarice found a little leisure to sit down at the table with her
needle-work, very much to the satisfaction of the lieutenant, who did
his best to make himself agreeable.
I was away down the valley driving the cattle into their pen, when I
caught sight of Bartle coming along at his usual swinging pace towards
the farm.
"Well, what news?" I asked, as I came up to him.
"Our friend Winnemak was not romancing," he answered. "There were
fully as many warriors on the war-path as he stated; but, for some
reason or other, they turned about and are going south. I came upon
their trail after they had broken up their last camp, and I had no
difficulty in getting close enough to them to make out their numbers,
and the tribes they belong to. The appearance of their camp, however,

told me clearly that they are a very large body. We have to thank the
chief for his warning; at the same time, we need not trouble ourselves
any more on the subject."
"Have they done any harm on their march?" I asked.
"As to that, I am afraid that some settlers to the south have suffered; for
I saw, at night, the glare of several fires, with which the rascals must
have had something to do. I only hope that the poor white men had
time to escape with their lives. If I had not been in a hurry to get back, I
would have followed the varmints, and picked off any stragglers I
might have come across."
"As you, my friends, are safe for the present, I must be off to-morrow
morning with my men," said the lieutenant when I got back; "but I will
report the position you are in at Fort Harwood, and should you have
reason to expect an attack you can dispatch a messenger, and relief will,
I am sure, be immediately sent you."
I do not know that Uncle Jeff cared much about this promise, so
confident did he feel in his power to protect his own property,--
believing that his men, though few, would prove staunch. But he
thanked the lieutenant, and hoped he should have the pleasure of seeing
him again before long.
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During the night the sergeant was taken ill; and as he was no better in
the morning,