第10章

"JUMPING OFF"

The reader need not be told that John Bull never leaves home without encumbering himself with the greatest possible load of luggage.Our companions were no exception to the rule.They had a wagon drawn by six mules and crammed with provisions for six months, besides ammunition enough for a regiment; spare rifles and fowling-pieces, ropes and harness; personal baggage, and a miscellaneous assortment of articles, which produced infinite embarrassment on the journey.

They had also decorated their persons with telescopes and portable compasses, and carried English double-barreled rifles of sixteen to the pound caliber, slung to their saddles in dragoon fashion.

By sunrise on the 23d of May we had breakfasted; the tents were leveled, the animals saddled and harnessed, and all was prepared.

"Avance donc! get up!" cried Delorier from his seat in front of the cart.Wright, our friend's muleteer, after some swearing and lashing, got his insubordinate train in motion, and then the whole party filed from the ground.Thus we bade a long adieu to bed and board, and the principles of Blackstone's Commentaries.The day was a most auspicious one; and yet Shaw and I felt certain misgivings, which in the sequel proved but too well founded.We had just learned that though R.had taken it upon him to adopt this course without consulting us, not a single man in the party was acquainted with it;and the absurdity of our friend's high-handed measure very soon became manifest.His plan was to strike the trail of several companies of dragoons, who last summer had made an expedition under Colonel Kearny to Fort Laramie, and by this means to reach the grand trail of the Oregon emigrants up the Platte.

We rode for an hour or two when a familiar cluster of buildings appeared on a little hill."Hallo!" shouted the Kickapoo trader from over his fence."Where are you going?" A few rather emphatic exclamations might have been heard among us, when we found that we had gone miles out of our way, and were not advanced an inch toward the Rocky Mountains.So we turned in the direction the trader indicated, and with the sun for a guide, began to trace a "bee line"across the prairies.We struggled through copses and lines of wood;we waded brooks and pools of water; we traversed prairies as green as an emerald, expanding before us for mile after mile; wider and more wild than the wastes Mazeppa rode over:

"Man nor brute, Nor dint of hoof, nor print of foot, Lay in the wild luxuriant soil;No sign of travel; none of toil;

The very air was mute."

Riding in advance, we passed over one of these great plains; we looked back and saw the line of scattered horsemen stretching for a mile or more; and far in the rear against the horizon, the white wagons creeping slowly along."Here we are at last!" shouted the captain.And in truth we had struck upon the traces of a large body of horse.We turned joyfully and followed this new course, with tempers somewhat improved; and toward sunset encamped on a high swell of the prairie, at the foot of which a lazy stream soaked along through clumps of rank grass.It was getting dark.We turned the horses loose to feed."Drive down the tent-pickets hard," said Henry Chatillon, "it is going to blow." We did so, and secured the tent as well as we could; for the sky had changed totally, and a fresh damp smell in the wind warned us that a stormy night was likely to succeed the hot clear day.The prairie also wore a new aspect, and its vast swells had grown black and somber under the shadow of the clouds.

The thunder soon began to growl at a distance.Picketing and hobbling the horses among the rich grass at the foot of the slope, where we encamped, we gained a shelter just as the rain began to fall; and sat at the opening of the tent, watching the proceedings of the captain.In defiance of the rain he was stalking among the horses, wrapped in an old Scotch plaid.An extreme solicitude tormented him, lest some of his favorites should escape, or some accident should befall them; and he cast an anxious eye toward three wolves who were sneaking along over the dreary surface of the plain, as if he dreaded some hostile demonstration on their part.

On the next morning we had gone but a mile or two, when we came to an extensive belt of woods, through the midst of which ran a stream, wide, deep, and of an appearance particularly muddy and treacherous.

Delorier was in advance with his cart; he jerked his pipe from his mouth, lashed his mules, and poured forth a volley of Canadian ejaculations.In plunged the cart, but midway it stuck fast.

Delorier leaped out knee-deep in water, and by dint of sacres and a vigorous application of the whip, he urged the mules out of the slough.Then approached the long team and heavy wagon of our friends; but it paused on the brink.

"Now my advice is--" began the captain, who had been anxiously contemplating the muddy gulf.

"Drive on!" cried R.

But Wright, the muleteer, apparently had not as yet decided the point in his own mind; and he sat still in his seat on one of the shaft-mules, whistling in a low contemplative strain to himself.

"My advice is," resumed the captain, "that we unload; for I'll bet any man five pounds that if we try to go through, we shall stick fast.""By the powers, we shall stick fast!" echoed Jack, the captain's brother, shaking his large head with an air of firm conviction.

"Drive on! drive on!" cried R.petulantly.