charlie's adventures with savages and bears--trappinglife.
it is one thing to chase a horse; it is another thingto catch it. little consideration and less sagacityare required to convince us of the truth of that fact.
the reader may perhaps venture to think this rathera trifling fact. we are not so sure of that. in thisworld of fancies, to have any fact incontestably provedand established is a comfort, and whatever is a sourceof comfort to mankind is worthy of notice. surely ourreader won't deny that! perhaps he will, so we canonly console ourself with the remark that there arepeople in this world who would deny anything--whowould deny that there was a nose on their face if yousaid there was!
well, to return to the point, which was the chase ofa horse in the abstract; from which we will rapidlydiverge to the chase of dick varley's horse in particular.
this noble charger, having been ridden by savages untilall his old fire and blood and mettle were worked upto a red heat, no sooner discovered that he was pursuedthan he gave a snort of defiance, which he accompaniedwith a frantic shake of his mane and a flingof contempt in addition to a magnificent wave ofhis tail. then he thundered up the valley at a pacewhich would speedily have left joe blunt and henriout of sight behind if--ay! that's the word, if! whata word that if is! what a world of if's we live in!
there never was anything that wouldn't have beensomething else if something hadn't intervened to preventit! yes, we repeat charlie would have left histwo friends miles and miles behind in what is called"no time," if he had not run straight into a gorgewhich was surrounded by inaccessible precipices, andout of which there was no exit except by the entrance,which was immediately barred by henri, while joeadvanced to catch the run-away.
for two hours at least did joe blunt essay to catchcharlie, and during that space of time he utterly failedthe horse seemed to have made up his mind for whatis vulgarly termed "a lark.""it won't do, henri," said joe, advancing towardshis companion, and wiping his forehead with the cuffof his leathern coat; "i can't catch him. the wind'sa'most blowed out o' me body.""dat am vexatiable," replied henri, in a tone ofcommiseration. "s'pose i wos make try?""in that case i s'pose ye would fail. but go ahead,an' do what ye can. i'll hold yer horse."so henri began by a rush and a flourish of legs andarms that nearly frightened the horse out of his wits.
for half-an-hour he went through all the complicationsof running and twisting of which he was capable, withoutsuccess, when joe blunt suddenly uttered a stentorianyell that rooted him to the spot on which hestood.
to account for this, we must explain that in theheights of the rocky mountains vast accumulations ofsnow take place among the crevices and gorges duringwinter. such of these masses as form on steep slopesare loosened by occasional thaws, and are precipitatedin the form of avalanches into the valleys below, carryingtrees and stones along with them in their thunderingdescent. in the gloomy gorge where dick'shorse had taken refuge the precipices were so steep thatmany avalanches had occurred, as was evident from themounds of heaped snow that lay at the foot of most ofthem. neither stones nor trees were carried down here,however, for the cliffs were nearly perpendicular, andthe snow slipping over their edges had fallen on thegrass below. such an avalanche was now about to takeplace, and it was this that caused joe to utter his cryof alarm and warning.
henri and the horse were directly under the cliff overwhich it was about to be hurled, the latter close to thewall of rock, the other at some distance away from it.
joe cried again, "back, henri! back vite!" whenthe mass flowed over and fell with a roar like prolongedthunder. henri sprang back in time to save his life,though he was knocked down and almost stunned; butpoor charlie was completely buried under the avalanche,which now presented the appearance of a hill of snow.
the instant henri recovered sufficiently, joe and hemounted their horses and galloped back to the camp asfast as possible.
meanwhile, another spectator stepped forward uponthe scene they had left, and surveyed the snow hillwith a critical eye. this was no less than a grizzlybear, which had, unobserved, been a spectator, and whichimmediately proceeded to dig into the mound, with thepurpose, no doubt, of disentombing the carcass of thehorse for purposes of his own.
while he was thus actively engaged the two huntersreached the camp, where they found that pierre and hisparty had just arrived. the men sent out in search ofthem had scarcely advanced a mile when they foundthem trudging back to the camp in a very disconsolatemanner. but all their sorrows were put to flight onhearing of the curious way in which the horses hadbeen returned to them with interest.
scarcely had dick varley, however, congratulatedhimself on the recovery of his gallant steed, when hewas thrown into despair by the sudden arrival of joewith the tidings of the catastrophe we have just related.
of course there was a general rush to the rescue.
only a few men were ordered to remain to guard thecamp, while the remainder mounted their horses andgalloped towards the gorge where charlie had been entombed.
on arriving, they found that bruin hadworked with such laudable zeal that nothing but thetip of his tail was seen sticking out of the hole whichhe had dug. the hunters could not refrain fromlaughing as they sprang to the ground, and standing ina semicircle in front of the hole, prepared to fire. butcrusoe resolved to have the honour of leading theassault. he seized fast hold of bruin's flank, andcaused his teeth to meet therein. caleb backed outat once and turned round, but before he could recoverfrom his surprise a dozen bullets pierced his heart andbrain.
"now, lads," cried cameron, setting to work with alarge wooden shovel, "work like niggers. if there'sany life left in the horse, it'll soon be smothered outunless we set him free."the men needed no urging, however. they workedas if their lives depended on their exertions. dickvarley, in particular, laboured like a young hercules,and henri hurled masses of snow about in a most surprisingmanner. crusoe, too, entered heartily into thespirit of the work, and, scraping with his forepaws,sent such a continuous shower of snow behind him thathe was speedily lost to view in a hole of his own excavating.
in the course of half-an-hour a cavern wasdug in the mound almost close up to the cliff, and themen were beginning to look about for the crushed bodyof dick's steed, when an exclamation from henri attractedtheir attention.
"ha! mes ami, here am be one hole."the truth of this could not be doubted, for theeccentric trapper had thrust his shovel through thewall of snow into what appeared to be a cavern beyond,and immediately followed up his remark by thrustingin his head and shoulders. he drew them out in a fewseconds, with a look of intense amazement.
"voilà! joe blunt. look in dere, and you shall seefat you vill behold.""why, it's the horse, i do b'lieve!" cried joe. "goahead, lads!"so saying, he resumed his shovelling vigorously, andin a few minutes the hole was opened up sufficiently toenable a man to enter. dick sprang in, and there stoodcharlie close beside the cliff, looking as sedate and,unconcerned as if all that had been going on had noreference to him whatever.
the cause of his safety was simple enough. theprecipice beside which he stood when the avalancheoccurred overhung its base at that point considerably,so that when the snow descended a clear space ofseveral feet wide was left all along its base. herecharlie had remained in perfect comfort until hisfriends dug him out.
congratulating themselves not a little on having savedthe charger and bagged a grizzly bear, the trappers remounted,and returned to the camp.
for some time after this nothing worthy of particularnote occurred. the trapping operations went onprosperously and without interruption from the indians,who seemed to have left the locality altogether. duringthis period, dick, and crusoe, and charlie had manyexcursions together, and the silver rifle full many a timesent death to the heart of bear, and elk, and buffalo;while, indirectly, it sent joy to the heart of man,woman, and child in camp, in the shape of juicy steaksand marrow-bones. joe and henri devoted themselvesalmost exclusively to trapping beaver, in which pursuitthey were so successful that they speedily becamewealthy men, according to backwood notions of wealth.
with the beaver that they caught they purchased fromcameron's store powder and shot enough for a longhunting expedition, and a couple of spare horses tocarry their packs. they also purchased a large assortmentof such goods and trinkets as would prove acceptableto indians, and supplied themselves with newblankets, and a few pairs of strong moccasins, of whichthey stood much in need.
thus they went on from day to day, until symptomsof the approach of winter warned them that it was timeto return to the mustang valley. about this time anevent occurred which totally changed the aspect ofaffairs in these remote valleys of the rocky mountains,and precipitated the departure of our four friends, dick,joe, henri, and crusoe. this was the sudden arrival ofa whole tribe of indians. as their advent was somewhatremarkable, we shall devote to it the commencementof a new chapter.
