Читать книгу The Untamed American Spirit: Historical Novels & Western Adventures - Emerson Hough - Страница 63

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They had gone down the valley only about half a mile, now and then splashing through the shallow fords of the meandering little stream which spread all over the flat, gravelly floor of the valley, when they heard a shout and saw Moise advancing rapidly toward them. That worthy came up smiling, as usual, and beginning to talk before he came within good ear-range.

“Hollo!” he cried. “Some more bear? Plenty bear now, this tam?”

Uncle Dick halted and dropped his pack to the ground. “Welcome! Moise,” said he. “I don’t know that I ever was gladder to see you in my life — this load is heavy.”

“I’ll take heem,” said Moise. “My faith, she’s big bear, heem, too, eh? Two beeg bear” — and he lifted also the other pack which Leo had dropped down. “I hear you shoot when I come on the camp here, and I say to myself, ‘Moise, those boy he kill more bear, sure.’ Bime-by I come up, help you get load down the hill. George, he’s make cup tea on the camp; Rob, he’s down below on the big camp, on the boat.

“Didn’t I told you, Leo,” continued Moise, exultantly, “those boy, she’s the most best grizzly-hunter ever come on the Tête Jaune Cache, heem?” And Leo this time grinned his assent and approval.

They now made their way back to the bivouac camp where they had passed the night, and where they were much refreshed by a lunch and a cup of tea all around, after which they made ready to get back down to the valley of the Canoe as rapidly as possible. All the men had particularly heavy loads to carry, and even the boys took on light packs of blankets or camp equipment.

They made the journey around the point of the mountain and down into the Creek Valley which ran into the Canoe without much incident, except that on the side-hill snowdrifts George, carrying one of the bear-hides, slipped by reason of a broken foothold in the thawing snow, and had a considerable roll downhill with his load before he brought up against a little tree. To the others this seemed a dangerous experience; but Leo, like any other Indian, found it only laughable, and he derided George for some time in their own language. George seemed very much chagrined, for no Indian likes to make a mistake or be humiliated in the presence of others.

As may be supposed, Rob greeted them, on their arrival at the main camp, with the greatest delight in the world.

“Well, what luck!” exclaimed he. “Two more hides — that’s one apiece! Did each of you get one, fellows?”

The three boys now shook hands all around, and for a long time they chatted gaily together, telling one another the many exciting incidents of their hunt. They all agreed that certainly they were the luckiest young hunters that ever had gone after grizzlies.

“I don’t know how you all feel about it now,” said Rob, finally, “but for my part I would be content to run straight on down and not stop for any more hunting. I’ve been watching my water-mark here, and this river has risen almost a foot in the last twenty-four hours. That means that the snows are beginning to go on the upper snow-fields. We’ve had a big hunt, so let’s take out the rest of it in a big run on the old Columbia — they say that’s worse than grizzlies.”

The others assented to this readily enough, for, wet, tired, and successful as they were, they welcomed the thought of a night’s rest and a journey in the boats, which, taking one thing with another, they knew would be easier than climbing after grizzlies in the mountains.

They all slept soundly that night in their mosquito-proof tent, and in the morning were much refreshed. All bore a hand in breaking the camp and loading the boats, and early in the day they were once more off in their swift journey down the mountain river. The river itself seemed to have changed almost overnight. From being mild and inoffensive it now brawled over its reefs and surged madly through its cañons. Many times they were obliged to go ashore and line down some of the bad water, and all the time, when running, the paddlers were silent and eager, looking ahead for danger, and obliged constantly to use care with the paddles to dodge this rock or to avoid that stretch of roaring water. There was no accident, however, to mar their progress, and they kept on until in the afternoon they reached a place where the valley seemed to flatten and spread, a wide and beautiful mountain prospect opening out before them. After a time, at the head of a long stretch of water, as both boats were running along side by side, they saw suddenly unfold before them the spectacle of a wide, green flood, beyond which rose a wedgelike range of lofty mountains, the inner peaks of which were topped with snow.

“La Grande Rivière!” exclaimed Moise; and Leo turned his head to shout: “Ketch ’um Columby!”

“Yes, there’s the Columbia, boys,” said Uncle Dick. And the three young hunters in the boat waved their hats with a shout at seeing at last this great river of which they had heard so much, and which had had so large a place in their youthful dreams.

Steadily the boat swept on down the stained and tawny current of their smaller river, until they felt beneath them the lift of the green flood of the great Columbia, here broken into waves by the force of an up-stream wind. Uncle Dick called out an order to the lead-boat. Soon they all were ashore on a little beach near the mouth of the Canoe River, each feeling that now at last a great stage of their journey had been completed, and that another yet as great still lay before them.