Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

"Yes," said Hugh, "I'm kind o' surprised they didn't do it. We'll be lucky if we get off without them seeing us. From now on, until we cross the Yellowstone we've got to go pretty careful; that'll be in two or three days though, I hope."

"Why," said Jack, "are we as close to it as that?"

"Yes," said Hugh, "if we could go straight ahead, and travel fast without stopping, we could get there in two days."

They travelled almost all the night, and toward morning Jack grew very sleepy. By this time the pack horses were so well trained that they needed no driving whatever, but kept along close behind the horse that Hugh led; so Jack dozed in his saddle through the latter half of the night. Toward morning it grew quite cool, and he put on his coat. The country had now become rough with high hills, and they were following the valley of a river, on either side of which steep buffs stood outlined against the sky. Suddenly Hugh stopped his horse, all the pack horses came to a stand, and Jack was aroused from his doze by the sudden halting of his horse. He could see the animals just ahead of him, but could not see Hugh. Presently, however, he heard a horse's tread, and in a moment Hugh stopped beside him and said, "We've got to get out of this; there's a camp down the creek; I just heard a dog bark. We'll turn up this side ravine, and travel until it gets light, and then cache in the brush, or in the timber, if there is any."

An hour later, with the horses they were hidden in a great patch of plum brush and pine trees, near the head of the ravine. Not far away was a high conical hill which overlooked the valley that they had left, and Hugh, climbing to the summit of this, walking all the time among the pines, looked up and down the valley. Almost beneath him, so near that it seemed as if he might fire a rifle ball into it, stood the lodges of a camp, all unknowing of the watcher.

Hugh stayed there for a long time, to see what the Indians were doing, and, also, to learn, if possible, what they were likely to do; that is to say, whether they would probably stay where they were, or were getting ready to move.

They had been there a long time. All through the camp the grass was worn from the ground; well-beaten trails led about through the sage brush and a course for playing the stick game had been cleared of brush and stones. All about the camp were drying-scaffolds, hung with strips of meat, some of it dry and brown, some bright red, and some almost white. Hugh wished that he had Jack with him, so that he might point out to him all the features of the camp. He was too uneasy, however, to think much about that. He watched the direction taken by the men as they left the camp, and saw that most of them went off up and down the creek, though some crossed it and rode up a broad valley that came down through the bluffs on the other side. On the tops of some of the lower hills he saw, standing or sitting, the figures of men wrapped in their robes or summer sheets, but all had their faces turned toward the valley, or up or down the stream; none looked back toward the hills. Hugh grumbled a little to himself, as he lay there, and said, "Yes, that's all right, but suppose some old squaw, with her dog and travois, should come up our ravine after a load of wood. Then where'd we be? The dog would sure smell us, and we'd have to catch the old woman, and maybe kill her, or else she'd have the whole camp buzzing about that brush patch, like a nest o' bees."

About the middle of the day he turned to go back, and before he had got half way to the horses, he saw just what he had feared. An old woman, followed by a dog dragging a small travois, was slowly making her way up the ravine.

Hugh travelled along among the pines, watching her to see what she would do, and it was with great satisfaction that he saw her stop more than a mile below the horses, and commence to attack a fallen pine stick, with the great stone maul that she carried. She worked for more than an hour, and at length, having collected a large pile of wood, she bound a part of it on the dog travois, made up another huge bundle which she lifted on her own back, and then started down the ravine to return to the camp.

When Hugh reached the horses Jack was not there, but presently he crept into camp through the brush, looking anxious and worried. His face lighted up when he saw Hugh, and he said, "What was that hammering and chopping I heard down below, Hugh? I listened to it, sitting here, until I couldn't stand it any longer, and then I crept out to the edge of the brush to see what it was."