Unlike Ike and Wah Shin, Sam Willett was not the least superstitious,
yet, as he saw the spectral figure rising from the shore he could not
imagine it a human being.
"Did you think me dead?" asked the dripping figure.
By this time Sam had leaped to his feet and advanced toward their
extraordinary visitor.
He was not long in doubt.
There was no mistaking the lithe figure and the now pinched but still
expressive face.
"Joy! joy! It is Ulna again!" cried Sam, and with a bound he was on the
shore and the young Ute was in his arms.
As soon as Ike and Wah Shin were convinced that this was Ulna in the
flesh and not his ghost, they ran down and performed such a war dance
about him, as they held his hands, as he never witnessed around the camp
fires of his own tribe.
When Ike could give expression to his delight, he pulled Ulna in the
direction of the fire, calling out the while:
"Tum along; tum along! you looks if yeh hadn't had nawthin' to eat foh
years. We kin fix yeh. We kin stuff yeh with rabbits till yeh can't
stan'; an' w'en dem's gone we knows de place whar we kin go an' git lots
moah."
Ulna certainly did look famished, but true to himself, neither by word
nor sign did he give expression to the sufferings he had passed through
nor the agony of hunger he was now enduring.
The half of a cooked rabbit was left from the recent banquet, and Ulna
had this placed in his hand and made to sit on a stone before the fire.
"Eat 'em allee up; me gettee nodle one, no time," said Wah Shin, who was
never so happy as when he was cooking.
"Yes," urged Ike, "wade right in. Dar ain't no stint dis time. We've
found de head-quahtahs ob all de rabbits, an' we ain't a gwine foh to be
hungry no moah."
After all these expressions of hospitality and good will, Sam had a
chance to say, as he took a seat beside Ulna.
"I thought I had seen you for the last time, but thank God you and all
of us are saved to meet again."
"When I called 'farewell' to you," said Ulna, "I felt the end had come,
but like the people of my tribe I did not give up----"
"Nevah give up de ship," interjected Ike.
"I made up my mind to resist the flood till my strength was gone,"
continued Ulna.
"One ain't got much strent, onless he's got plenty to eat an' lots ob
time to sleep," said Ike, who, though much interested in Ulna, felt that
he must give expression to his own feelings or choke.
The young Indian explained that he was so weighted down by his rifle and
cartridges that, after the first rapids had been passed, he had only
strength left to keep afloat without being able to make the shore.
"When I was swept into the second rapids," he said, "all hope vanished.
I must have been rendered unconscious by some blow, but be that as it
may, I have no memory of reaching the bank. When I came to last night I
was half lying in the water. I drew myself out and walked about, trying
to find something to eat. I could not sleep for thinking of you, for I
did not see, after what I had suffered, how you were to get through the
rapids on the raft."
"I cannot describe to you how my heart beat with joy a few hours ago,
when I saw the raft shooting out of the foam with all its passengers
except the dog on board. I saw you making for the shore, and I shouted
to attract your attention to the opposite side."
"If we'd a heerd yeh, yeh wouldn't ha' had to hollered twice," said Ike.
"I did not feel very strong till I saw you, and then, as there was
nothing else left me, I made up my mind to try swimming across."
"An' you made it; you made it like a--like a mice, an' yeh fotched yeh
rifle widge yeh," said Ike, in tones of great approval.
"Ike he heap talkee," said Wah Shin, as he sat another half of a broiled
rabbit before Ulna. "Me cookee light slate along."
"And now," said Ulna, who had the rare faculty of eating while he spoke,
"tell me how you made out after we parted in that strange way."
Sam narrated the adventures, already recorded, and after some
discussion, to Ike's great delight, it was decided to remain here for at
least another day, and to lay in a supply of rabbits before they faced
the unknown and dreaded canyon again.
After Ulna had appeased his hunger, Sam made him lie down before the
fire and take a sleep, while he and Ike went off on another hunting
expedition.
They brought home several loads of rabbits during the day, and Wah Shin,
who believed the game would keep better if it were cooked, busied
himself broiling rabbits till the last one was in an edible condition.
Toward evening Ulna got up from the blanket, in which he had been
wrapped, and when he put on his clothes he looked like an entirely
different being from the spectre that appeared at the river side some
hours before.
Now that the immediate danger from hunger was over, Sam would have been
comparatively happy had it not been for thoughts of his father.
It is well that it is not given to us to lift the veil of the future, or
to tell what is happening beyond the range of our own vision. Yet, it
must be confessed, that it would have eased the minds of the loving
father and the devoted son, if each could have known of the situation of
the other at this time.
It was not in Ike's nature to feel trouble for any length of time. He
had all the light-heartedness of his race, and an enviable capacity for
enjoying the present.
He played with the dog; he laughed and sang, till at length, overcome
with the excess of enjoyment--and it may be the great quantities of
broiled rabbit he had eaten, he threw himself on the ground before the
fire and was asleep in no time.
Again Sam detailed the guards, taking the first watch himself, and when
another morning dawned they found themselves more rested and refreshed
than they had been at any time since leaving Gold Cave Camp.
The night before Ulna busied himself cutting the jack-rabbits' skins
into strips, which he knotted and twisted into ropes, and these ropes
were found of the greatest use in binding the pieces of the raft
together before they resumed their journey down the long, dark, watery
arcade.
They were afloat again soon after daylight, and the thought that they
were safe and sound and all together again brought unspeakable joy to
every heart--and we might include Maj in the list, for from his seat in
the middle of the raft he eyed his friends with an expression of great
comfort and satisfaction.
Long before the sun rose high enough to look into the canyon they had
drifted many miles away from their camp of the morning.
The current, which Sam estimated at about three miles an hour, was
unbroken; flowing on in silent majesty, between the cold, gray cliffs
that rose at points for more than a mile sheer up, till their eyes grew
giddy in measuring their elevation.
Here and there, to the right and left, they passed side canyons, black
and forbidding, like cells set in the walls of a mighty prison.
In the afternoon these side canyons became more frequent, and as they
approached one Sam saw that a stream of clear water was pouring out from
between its walls.
As this opening was on the east, or left bank, and in the direction of
Hurley's Gulch, he determined to try and get the raft into it, and see
if they could find an avenue to the upper world through its bed.
He told Ulna of his purpose, and in an instant the young Ute had a pole
in his hand.
They could touch bottom at this point and as the current from the side
canyon was not very strong, they succeeded in getting the raft in.
The bed of the stream was so narrow in places that Ike on one side and
Wah Shin on the other were enabled to help along by pulling at the
rocks.
It was growing dark again, and Sam, elated at their success so far,
began to fear that they might not be able to reach a place where they
could make fast for the night, when all at once the canyon walls, as if
they had been touched by the wand of a magician, expanded into a
beautiful bowl-shaped valley.
This valley, in the dim light, looked to be fully a quarter of a mile in
diameter, and to the great surprise of all it had grassy banks; and as
their feet touched the sward the delicious odor of wild thyme and Indian
pinks filled the air.
They found enough dry wood to make a fire to warm up their meat.
"It looks to me," said Sam, as he sat quietly before the fire, for some
time after supper, "as if the worst is over, and that we can get to
Hurley's Gulch without much trouble from here."