CHAPTER XIII. TO FORT BENTON AND BEYOND.
Jack was at first pretty stiff and sore when he arose next day, but as he moved about the camp, engaged in the work of helping to get breakfast and preparing to pack up, his stiffness wore off. He told Hugh that he felt able to ride, and Hugh replied that it would be better for him to be travelling than to lie in camp.
Accordingly, soon after sunrise the little train moved off up the river, crossed without incident at the ford that Hugh had found two days before, and started across the valley. Following up a little tributary that flowed in from the north, they journeyed onward, seeing all through the morning numbers of antelope which astonished even Hugh. They were chiefly bucks, in considerable bands, and entirely fearless, as if they had not been disturbed for a long time. Sometimes a band would start from below them on the hillside, gallop out into the creek bottom, and then turning parallel with the pack train would slowly gallop along not more than forty or fifty yards distant, occasionally stopping and staring, and then starting on again. Hugh declared that at this season of the year he had never seen antelope in such large bunches and said that he did not understand it.
Their camp that night was on a little spring at the head of the small creek that they had been following up, and high hills, almost mountains, rose to the north of them. It seemed to be a country abounding in game, for at night when Jack rode out to round up the horses—since it was thought best now for a little while to picket most of them—he started from the underbrush about the camp no less than seven deer, and none of them seemed especially frightened but trotted off and stood looking at him as he gathered up his animals. After darkness had fallen and they were sitting about the fire, Hugh smoking a last pipe before going to bed, Jack said:—
"What does it mean, Hugh, our seeing so much game here? We haven't seen antelope or deer either as plenty since we have been out as to-day."
"Well," said Hugh, "I don't know as I can tell you, but it appears to me that the Indians haven't been in this country for quite a while, and it's a sure thing no white men have. The only people that travel around here are skin hunters, and when they're in the country we don't find the game tame like it is here. There's lots of buffalo been here too, as you can see, but I ain't seen any right fresh signs for two or three days. Likely we'll run on some though any time. We don't want to kill nothing, though, while we've got any of this meat left."
"No," said Jack, "there'd be no sense in shooting these animals down just to let 'em lie there. It's lots more fun to watch 'em when they're right tame this way than it is to kill 'em."
"That's so," said Hugh; "but most people don't think that way. I wish more of 'em did. Most men when they see anything that's alive they want to kill it, and they want to keep killing as long as there's anything around that moves."
The next day the two passed over a low divide between high hills, and soon came upon water running to the north. Hugh told Jack that this was a branch of the Judith River, that runs into the Missouri from the south. "I don't know," he said, "whether you'd call this the main creek or not; it's lots longer than the other fork that rises in the Judith Mountains, but it don't carry near so much water. The big creek is what we call Big Spring Creek; it flows a heap of water, and mighty nice water too, and the stream is full of trout." As they were passing down the stream Jack suddenly saw Hugh draw in his horse and look long and intently down the valley; then he went on again, and as Jack passed over the ridge he saw half a mile ahead what looked like the poles of two lodges, as Hugh had described them, but they were not lodges for they were not covered. When they had reached these poles they saw that they were two large tripods about twenty feet in height, and from the legs of these tripods were hanging hundreds of moccasins. Some were plain and some beautifully ornamented with beads or with porcupine quills; but the curious thing about them was that they were all made for little feet; in other words they were children's moccasins. Hugh and Jack both dismounted and walked around the tripods, looking at them carefully. Most of the moccasins were about three inches long, and none seemed more than five inches.
"What are these put here for, Hugh?" said Jack.
"Blest if I know," said Hugh. "It's some offering; likely a present to the sun; but why they're all children's moccasins beats me. I expect they're put up here by the Crows, likely; but it might be the Gros Ventres. You see, we're in a kind of a No-man's-land, here. All the Indians pass through on their way to the fort to trade, and yet none of 'em has any rights here."
For several days after this they travelled over the prairie but were constantly in sight of mountains which rose like great islands from the rolling plain. Now they saw buffalo again, and once on crossing a wooded stream valley they started a little band of cow elk with their calves, which trotted swiftly away toward the mountains without being shot at. One night Hugh said to Jack:—
"I expect, son, to-morrow we'll camp with some people that'll surprise you; you'll think they're curious when you look at 'em."
"Why who are those, Hugh? I didn't know you expected to get into any Indian camp now."
"Well no," said Hugh, "I ain't said much about it, but if I ain't mightily out in my calculations we'll strike a big camp to-morrow. More than that, you'll think the people that you meet pretty civilized. They don't live in lodges, and they wear shoes, and some of 'em have got just as good guns as you or me."
"Why, who can they be, Hugh; the Red River half-breeds that I have heard you talk about? I'd like to see their camp."
"No" said Hugh; "to-morrow I expect we'll strike Fort Benton. Have you ever heard of that place?"
"Why yes," said Jack, "of course I have, but I didn't know we were going to pass through it. Oh, that's what you meant by their not living in lodges, is it? How much of a place is Fort Benton?"
"Well," said Hugh, "I don't rightly know how many people live there, but I expect it must be nigh onto a thousand. You take it when the furs and the robes are coming in in the fall and Benton's a mighty lively place. It's the furthest point up the river, you know, where the steam-boats can come, and all the robes are brought in there and taken down by the steam-boats now. In old times they used to go down in flat boats, batteaux we used to call 'em. The river must be full now, and likely we'll see two or three steam-boats tied up there, from down below, loading with furs. You see, they bring up grub and trade goods, and then load up with robes and go on down again."
"I don't want to stop there long; just over night, maybe; but likely we'll find some Piegans in there, and if we do, they can tell us where the camp is. I'd like to have you see the old 'dobe Fort that's there, the first trading post built on the river up here."
"My!" said Jack, "I'd like to see that. Then besides that, Hugh, there must be lots of old mountain men at Benton, ain't there? I should think they'd have interesting stories to tell of the old times."
"Well," said Hugh, "I expect there is quite a few in there, but I've noticed that a good many of these old timers don't seem to have much to tell that's very interesting; the main things that they remember are about some time when they came with a big load of furs and sold them at a big price, and then had a terrible fine drunk with the money. I don't guess most of the stories they'd tell would interest you very much. Still, might be such a thing as we'd run across somebody that could give you a talk that was interesting and true, but I don't look for it."
The next afternoon, shortly before sundown, Hugh and Jack rode into the streets of Ft. Benton, and halting before a great log store and warehouse, Hugh dismounted and went in. In a few moments he came out again and riding a short distance down the wide street, turned in to a large building which bore over the door a sign "Stable". Here they unpacked, piled their possessions in a corner, turned out their animals into a corral, and gave them feed and hay, and then Jack and Hugh started out to explore the town.
"I reckon we'll sleep in the stable to-night, and make an early start in the morning. The folks in the store where I stopped told me that there's quite a lot of Piegans in town, and if we can see them we'll find out which way to go to-morrow. Now let's go down to the river and see the old fort."
It did not seem to Jack as if very much of the fort was left, though the tumbled-down walls and one of the old bastions, washed and guttered by the rains of many years, still stood upright in part. To any one interested in the old West or the fur trade, the ground on which Jack stood was historic, and he made up his mind that as soon as he got back east he would find out from the books all that he could about Fort Benton. Hugh could not tell him very much; he thought it was built about 1848 or '49, or maybe earlier, and he knew that it was the place where the Indians used to trade in the old days.
Sauntering along the high bank of the river, toward the edge of the settlement, Hugh's eye at length detected three or four buffalo-skin lodges standing among the sage-brush near the water. They walked over to them and soon saw that they were in an Indian camp, and after a moment's hesitation, Hugh addressed a naked man who was lying in the shade, speaking to him in his own tongue. A sentence or two seemed to galvanize the man, who sprang to his feet and shook Hugh's hand heartily, talking volubly in his own tongue. After a brief conversation Hugh turned to Jack and said:—
"They say the main camp is over on the St. Mary's River, quite a long way from here, and I expect we'll have to go over there to join them. Old Four Bears, here, says he is going back in three or four days, and wants us to wait for him, but I reckon we'll start on to-morrow morning, and get there as quick as we can. An Indian's three or four days is likely to spin out pretty long."
That night, for the first time in weeks, Jack and Hugh ate their supper sitting in chairs at a table in the Fort Benton hotel. They slept that night in the stable, and the next morning replenished their stock of flour, coffee and other provisions, and immediately started northwest in search of the Piegan camp. For several days they travelled northward over the rolling prairie, without adventure. Buffalo were often in sight, antelope were abundant, and sometimes on crossing important streams like the Teton, Birch Creek and Badger Creek, they started deer from the willows along the stream. Several times they came upon small camps of Indians, and Hugh usually stopped to inquire of these small parties where the main camp was. All the people whom he spoke with agreed that it was on the St. Mary's River, and all said that they were about to start north to join it.
Soon after they had left Fort Benton, the great mountains to the westward had begun to be seen, and as they travelled northward they seemed to draw nearer and nearer, until now always on their left this great wall rose up, high, jagged and snow-covered far down towards its base.
One day they made a long march, and toward night camped on the shores of a little prairie lake, on the surface of which many water birds were swimming. After they had made camp, Jack went down to the lake to get a bucket of water. As he stooped to fill his bucket he noticed off to the left a deep bay in which a number of large birds were swimming. The entrance to this bay was narrow, and the birds were near its head, so that it seemed to him that by going to its mouth he could cut them off and keep them from getting out into the main lake. He left his pail standing on the shore, and running to the mouth of the bay found the water there very shoal. The birds which were at the upper end of the bay seemed frightened but made no attempt to fly, though flapping clumsily along on the water away from him. He could now see that they were geese, and as he thought, young ones. He waded into the water which, at the middle of the mouth, was not more than up to his knees, and began to walk toward the geese, and presently these walked up out of the water onto the prairie and hid themselves in the long grass. Going slowly toward them, Jack followed them out of the water and presently saw one crouched on the ground, its head thrust in among the grass. He caught it and, lifting it up, found that it was a goose, nearly, or quite full grown, but as yet unable to fly, for the quill feathers of its wings were soft and bent easily. These he thought would be pretty good eating, and looking about a little he found two more in the grass, and killing the three, went back to his water bucket, filled that and took it up to camp.
"Well," said Hugh, "I was beginning to wonder what had got you. Where did you get them birds?"
"Why," said Jack, "I got 'em in the grass down there by the lake, and I thought they'd be pretty good eating, so I brought 'em along."
"That's good," said Hugh; "they'll do right well for breakfast. I expect you're getting a little tired of that dried meat, and I don't know but I'm ready for a little fresh meat myself. Better put 'em down there by the saddles, and as soon as we've eaten supper we'll go out to leeward of the camp and pick 'em." While they were doing this, Hugh said to Jack:—
"It ain't but a short day's march now to where the camp ought to be, if it ain't moved; and if it's moved it'll be easy to follow the trail. We're bound to catch up to 'em now in the course of two or three days, anyhow."
"That'll be good, Hugh," said Jack; "I want to get into the camp; that's what we've been thinking about now for a good many days, and I'm glad it's so near to us."