A STARTLING SIGHT.
Twenty-four hours later the party left the prairie, and came to a
region more uneven and wooded.
“It seems pleasant,” said Tom, “to get away from the prairie.”
“It may be pleasanter,” said the doctor, “but it is not so safe.”
“Why not?” asked Tom.
“Your friend Brush will tell you as I do, that we are more liable to
encounter Indians. They naturally seek the woods and hills.”
“Yet the two travelers whom we buried were on the prairie.”
“That is true; of course, the savages roam over the prairies at times,
but even there they may be seen long beforehand. Here one may come upon
them suddenly.”
“What the doctor says is gospel truth,” said Peter Brush, gravely.
“I feel more anxious in my mind than I did yesterday. But it isn’t
best to worry overmuch. I’ve been over the plains--at least as far as
Utah--half a dozen times, and I’ve never been in the clutches of the
redskins yet.”
“I hope I shall be as lucky, Mr. Brush,” said Tom.
“I hope so, too. To my mind they are a set of poisonous reptiles that
ought to be exterminated. I don’t know what they were made for, anyway.”
“Your views are extreme, friend Brush,” said Lycurgus Spooner. “I have
no great liking for the redmen myself, but it is certain that the fault
is not wholly on their side. They have been badly treated by our race.”
“No more than they deserved,” said Mr. Brush, stubbornly, for he was
strongly prejudiced. “I’d like to argy the point.”
“No occasion for that. We will each hold to our own opinions, and I
hope we may have no cause to think more ill of them.”
Tom and his friend Brush found Mr. Spooner an entertaining companion.
He was an educated man, had read a great deal, and seen a good deal of
the world, having pursued his professional studies in part at Paris and
Vienna. It must be confessed that he looked like a tramp, but one who
judged him by his outward appearance would make a great mistake.
It was toward the close of the afternoon. They had just forded a narrow
stream, and safely landed on the other side, were about to resume their
journey, when, in a little inlet half-hidden by the trees, they saw an
object which startled them.
It was an Indian canoe.
“Do you see that, Tom?” said Brush, quickly.
“Yes; it is a canoe, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and it means that the Indians are not far away. Am I right, Dr.
Spooner?”
“Probably you are, friend Brush.”
“What shall we do?” asked Tom.
“I suppose it will be best to push on. We shall never accomplish our
journey unless we do, but we must keep our eyes open, and be prepared
to come upon the Indians at any moment. What do you say, doctor?”
“You are right.”
No doubt Tom had reason to feel anxious. When he started away from home
he knew that he must encounter difficulties and endure privations, but
he had not thought of danger. He was only a boy of sixteen, and at that
age one seldom weighs carefully the consequences of any given step.
How then did he feel? Serious, to be sure, but the thought of danger
gave him a feeling of excitement and exhilaration that was partly
pleasurable. He felt older, more like a man, now that he found himself
in a situation which men would consider serious.
The little party moved on with great caution, scarcely speaking above a
whisper.
Though they were in the woods, there was a good trail, and they had
no difficulty in making their way onward on horseback. There was very
little underbrush. Straight and high-branched, the trees rose in lofty
majesty. They were stripped of their foliage, for it was a winter
month, but they looked like dark sentinels, posted by nature, to warn
off intruders from her vast and lonely domain.
Suddenly Peter Brush, who was gifted with keen sight, clutched Tom by
the arm.
“What’s the matter?” asked our hero.
“Hush! Look there!”
Tom followed the direction of the extended finger, and his heart beat
quicker as he caught sight of a company of savages sitting in a circle
beneath the overspreading branch of an immense tree a dozen rods away.
A fire had been kindled in the center of the group, and the savages
were evidently enjoying it. Their day’s tramp was over, and in their
silent way they were enjoying their evening rest.