By the time he had joined his companion on the summit, the day had almost dawned; for the morning twilight is of short duration on the head waters of the Southern Platte.
Looking eastward over the plain, they could now see something more than the gleaming of camp-fires; the white tilts of waggons set in corralled shape, and around dark forms, of both men and horses, swarming and moving like bees hiving upon a branch. They could hear, too, the sounds of strife still continuing, or it might be the exulting shouts succeeding a triumph.
“A camp o’ whites,” said the old trapper, half speaking to himself, and half to his comrade. “That’s clar from their havin’ waggons. And they’ve been attackted by Injuns; that’s equally sartin from the shouts. Thar’s no mistakin’ them yells. They kedn’t come from any other than an Injun’s throat. I wonder who the whites kin be?”
His young comrade, equally wondering, but still busy with his binocular, made no rejoinder.
“A party o’ emigratin’ travellers, I reck’n?” pursued the old trapper. “Can’t ’a be any o’ Bent’s or Saint Vrain’s people. They wudn’t a got surprised that eezy, nor ’ud they a’ gone under so quick. Sartint sure hev they gone under. Listen to them yells! Thet’s the conquerin’ screech o’ Injuns, sure as my name’s ’Lije Orton!”
His companion did not need any assurance, beyond what he himself heard and saw. There could be no doubt about its being a travelling party, either of emigrants or prairie-traders, that had succumbed to an onslaught of savages.
Neither were they long doubtful as to the character of the travellers. The sun, now peeping up over the far prairie edge, illumined the scene of strife, showing half-a-dozen waggons, with some of their canvas covers dragged off; and around them the dark forms of a savage cohort.
“It’s a karryvan o’ emigrants, as I tuk it for,” said the trapper. “Rayther a small ’un at thet! What durned fools they must a’ been to ventur’ acrosst the purairias wi’ sech a trifle o’ strength as they ’pear to have! They’re all ‘rubbed out’ now, I reck’n; or them as lives is captered, an’ in the hands o’ the Injuns.
“If them Injuns be, as I suspect they ur—Yellow Chief an’ his band—the Lord pitty them poor critters! They’d better got rubbed out in the scrimmage, and thar ’ud a been an eend o’t.”
“Yellow Chief!” repeated the trapper’s companion. “Ah! if it be he, the cruel ruffian, and he have captives, you are right, ’Lije, in pitying them. I heard some terrible tales of him last time I was over at Bent’s Fort. Whoever the Indians be, they are certain to have taken some captives. An emigrant train, there should be women and children along with it? Surely the savages will not kill them! Can we do nothing towards rescuing them? Think, ’Lije!”