The darkness became like ink, showing that the river was here completely walled in; and it seemed to him that the water grew rougher, while certainly its roar was much louder, due to its closed-in condition. The roar was thunderous now.
But on the canoe went, through the darkness and the howling noise, whether to destruction, or to be guided through to safety, Bruce Clayton could not tell.
CHAPTER XXV.
AGAIN A PRISONER.
Lena Forest had been recaptured by the handsome young chief, Lightfoot. By hard riding, he and a comrade had circled round the eastern end of the line of fire, only to find their horses exhausted by the terrible run and themselves driven back by the flames.
They abandoned their horses, and when the fire died down along the edge of the rocky hills, they set out across the burned area on foot.
They had become separated from the other Blackfeet, also, in the wild chase. Lightfoot had lost sight of the young Indian girl, Wind Flower.
His present companion was a young brave who stood ready to yield him obedience as a chieftain of the Blackfoot nation. With this young warrior, whose name was Red Antelope, Lightfoot came finally to the gully.
They could not leap it because of its width, and this fact induced the young chief to think that perhaps the horse of the white man had not been able to get across.
To break their trail, Lightfoot descended, with his companion, into the gully; and then they went on down, until they reached the point where Clayton’s horse had fallen.
They saw the girl bending over the prostrate youth, and the horse lying dead. She did not see them, so wrapped was she in her grief and in her frantic efforts to restore life to the seemingly inanimate form of her hero.