CHAPTER IX
THE RAPIDS
"Give me the pack," said Raven Wing, after some little distance. Hawk Eye placed it on the younger boy's shoulder and took the gun which he had been carrying. Examining it to satisfy himself that it was loaded, he dropped the barrel into the curve of his left arm. From the brow of the gentle sloping hill they could see the river bordered by trees through a narrow valley.
Great rocks of granite and limestone cropped out everywhere upon the treeless prairie and were turned a pinkish hue in the glow of the setting sun. As the sun sank lower in the west the boulders took on many fanciful shapes.
"Not so long ago buffaloes roamed this prairie," remarked Hawk Eye. "Now they graze further toward the land of the setting sun."
"We will have plenty of fresh meat for our evening meal," said Raven Wing.
"Yes, we have more than enough with the prairie hens you shot and the bear meat," chuckled Hawk Eye.
"You also killed a rabbit," added Raven Wing.
On arriving at the beach where their canoes lay, Hawk Eye unrolled the bear hide and spread it very carefully from one bow to another.
"At sunrise," he said, "I will scrape it clean with my knife. I think it will dry in the sun as we paddle and make a good pelt."