Jack the Young Explorer

loose animals were standing in front of the trading store. Beds, provisions, pack saddles, and a tent were soon loaded into the wagon, and before very long the party p

rked prairie. Before this, however, they crossed Two Medicine Lodge River, just below Old Red Eagle's camp, and climbed the high hill on the other side and saw before them the wide, undulatin

g pretty nearly straight for that pointed mountain that you

ountain that we see sticking up th

ft, and in three or four hours you'll come to a big wide valley with a good-sized river running

et on as far as Milk River to-night; in fact, we'l

go on. I don't believe you w

re going to and some timber at the upper end, and we'll camp there. Maybe you'll se

prised and pleased to find how easy riding seemed, for it was nearly a year since he had been on a horse. It was pleasant under the bright warm sun, with the fragrance of t

ed the horses down the hills, and at length came out on a wide grassy bottom. Still to the left there was a grove of tall cottonwood trees, among which shone two or three white lodges, and he rode up toward them, slackening his pace as he did so. The ho

signs and broken Piegan the two held a short conversation, and then, as Cross Guns saw the wagon approaching, he signed to Jack to go and tell his friends to come up and camp here, and Jack, riding off, delivered the message to Hugh and Joe, and then brought the loose horses close to the lodge. Meanwhile C

f and turned them out with Cross Guns' herd, the wife of their host came in and cooked supper for th

ow his face perfectly well, but I don't remember

Calf and a brother of Wolf Tail. Old White Calf is the chief now, and

ectly well, and I know what a good man he is, b

e," said Hugh, "do

r before, too, and she's a mighty pleas

m in old times, about how wild he was. They say he used to go off on the warpath with the Blackfeet and fight the white traders, run off their horses, and of course kill the men when he could. Of course I don't know whether these stories are true or not, but one of them is that one time he met a party of traders and trappers and the Blackfeet attacked them and were driven off. The fur traders were on one side of the river and the Blackfeet on the other, and after the fight was over Jim Bull, they say, came to the edge of the stream and called across to the fur traders, sayin

ut feeding, and presently a party of Blackfeet that were hidden near by rounded them up and took them all off, and Bull went with them. He got to be so mean after a while that they say that one of the head men of one of these trapping outfits offered five hundred

quite a lot of trout in the creek there, and if you want to

care much for his flies, and at last he substituted for them a plain hook, which he baited with a grasshopper. With gr

-morrow morning, but give them to me and I'll go out and dress them now. You know these Indians won't eat fish nor anything that lives in the

ream to wash. When he returned Hugh was frying the fish, having thought that he had better get that done rather than to take the chance of Cross Guns' wife

f the banks, and was interested to see the speed with which they swam and dived to get out of reach. The trees and the prairie were alive with birds, and in a tall cottonwood he saw a great hawk's nest, near which

rairie at frequent intervals were the white bones of buffalo killed long ag

the mountains seemed to be coming closer and closer to him. At length, after descending the long hill, he found himself in the bottom of a rather large stream, and remembering Joe's directions, turned to the

e was so great that he could not tell what they were, but thought they acted like horses. After the wagon had come up and he had learned which way they were going, he mounted to go on, and just

ke of that, Hug

couple of men there that wanted to get away and not be seen. What d

be those men have been stealing horse

ve the horses been taken from? We don't know and I reckon

hose horses come down the bluffs, away above where they came out of the bottom just now. The men must

, if we knew who these horses had been taken from it would be different; but it isn't like it was with us

rt of thing," while Jack said, "That was sure a ticklish time. I'll ne

fellows came out of the brush, and see whether the

p to the edge of the brush and said, "Why, I believe these people have

tle shelter of willow stems, built something like a sweat-house, in which the men had evidently slept. A little inspection of the tiny camping ground showed that the men had had no bread or coffee, for there were no coffee grounds lying about, nor was there any place on the ground where a coffee pot had stood, and no crusts or crumbs of bread. It seemed that they had been cooking thei

to me as if they had been hiding here with a bunch of horses, maybe animals that they have s

with willows, which came directly from the mountains. Here Jack, as he drove the horses ahead of the wagon, started several sharp-tailed grouse, and at one crossing of a little stream saw a few elk tracks, but no four-footed game. Only

rail, made, Hugh said, by the carts of the Red River halfbreeds in their journeyings north and south along th

was not far ahead of the wagon, telling him to look out for a place to camp and to stop at the first one he found. A little later

uld cross, but at length they got over and made camp. Before the horses were turned out, however, a cold rainstorm began, and by the time the tent was up and the fire started all hands were wet and uncomfortable, but the warmth of th

a moment later the sound was repeated, and then Jack saw that it was made by wet snow sliding down the steep roof above them. When day came he looked out of the tent door and saw that the ground was white with snow, but that it was not cold, and the rapidly falling flakes melted a

high hills and down into deep valleys and across narrow streams, they came upon a long slope dotted here and there with young pines,

pale green quaking aspens rose sharply from the water, and here and there a little open park where the green grass of summer showed against the silver poplars or the black pines. The mist clouds were moving and changing constantly, and the travelers could not see the mountain tops, but once, a long way u

the upper lake, and I had no idea how beautiful it was. All I've seen before is the lower

pretty sight, but on a clear da

the mystery of this fog. It might hide all sorts

he view, and then came the question of getting

afraid this wagon will get away from us, and nobody knows where it will go

here; bad road, too; lots of gulches to cross,

ily there's no load in the wagon, and maybe if we rough-lock the wheels and go mighty slowly we can make it; but

hat there was in the wagon, they made

see that if we lock the wheels we're just turning each pair into a pair of runners, and

rd, grass-covered gravel, and on this were two or three inches of snow. Sometimes the drag held and sometimes it slid. Hugh and Jack tried hard to keep the tail of the wagon from swinging around and starting down hill backward. Gradually they worked their way down the hill, and presently, just as they were getting near a level piece of ground which promised easier going, the wagon began to s

d plenty of wood. A little trout brook coming down from the hills tinkled pleasantly at one end of the meadow and was shaded by half a do

as clear, and one could see a long way. Jack looked out over the lake

ithout any success, but casting out into the lake at the point where the brook flowed into it, he got sev

e that he had seen a trout rod, and when he saw how slender and how limber it wa

t to catch some fish, as

them with that

'em with this, and I hope

u can't catch any big fish on that. It will break right off. You better let

bit and see. If any fish will rise I can catch

st double, and more than once Joe said, "Look out, you're breaking your rod;" but when the fish yielded, the pliant bamboo sprang back and was straight again. At length, tired out, the fish turned on its side and Jack brought it close to the beach and told Joe to go and grasp it by the gills and lift it from the water.