Part 12 (2/2)
An instant more, and the lash would have fallen across the Indian's face; but he re his own precepts of forgiveness in the presence of those whorappled with his anger and held it back; but Snoqual, that it see eyes rasped his tomahawk Cecil released the rein and turned aithout a word Snoqualmie seeo his weapon and passed on
Order was restored and the ade to Cecil He had seen the whole of the little draer down, but your eyes struck hi”
Cecilthat he had retted what had happened; and yet, when he recalled the insult, his blood burned and he half regretted that the blow had not been given So, absorbed in painful thought, he rode on, till a e! The bridge!”
He looked up hastily, his whole fra to the cry There it was before hie, a rugged ridge of stone, pierced with a wide arched tunnel through which the waters flowed, extending across the river It was covered with stunted pine and underbrush growing in every nook and crevice; and on it were Indian horsee of the Wauna, the Bridge of the Gods, the bridge he had seen in his vision eight years before
For aseee melt, like the vision, into mist before his eyes
Like one in a dream, he rode with the others to the place where the path turned abruptly and led over the bridge to the northern bank of the Colu Willae had been built by the Gods when the world was young, that it was the _tomanowos_ of the Willaest of all the tribes, and that if it fell they would fall with it As they crossed it, he noted how the great arch rung to his horse's hoofs; he noted the bushes growing lon to the tunnel's edge; he noted how majestic was the current as it swept into the vast dark opening belo stately the trees on either bank Then the trail turned down the river-bank again toward the Willae froaze
Solee of his vision; he had in truth been divinely called to his work He felt that the sight of the bridge was both the visible seal of God upon his n that its accomplishment was close at hand He bowed his head involuntarily, as in the presence of the Most High He felt that he rode to his destiny, that for hireat council
They had not advanced far into the wood ere the whole train ca forward, Cecil found a band of horseood ponies; neither women nor pack-horses ith the aspect was more like that ofto a ”peace-talk”
The Cayuses halted a short distance away Snoqualmie rode forward and met the Klickitat chief in the space between the two bands A feords passed, fierce and questioning on the part of the Klickitat, guarded and reserved on the part of the Cayuse Then the Klickitat see at which the Cayuse shook his head indignantly The other instantly wheeled his horse, rode back to his band, and apparently reported what Snoqual shout, and after flinging derisive words and gestures at the Cayuses, turned around and dashed at full gallop down the trail, leaving the Cayuses covered with a cloud of dust
And then Cecil knew that the spectacle rew softer and more e The pines gave way to forests of fir, the underwood beca the trail It had rained the night before, and the boughs and bushes hung heavy with pendant drops Now and then an Indian rider, brushi+ng against soht down upon hih!” of the victi a s the sea, they entered the great, wooded, rainy valley of the lower Columbia It was like a different world from the desert sands and prairies of the upper Colu a land of perpetual spring They passed through groves of spreading oaks; they skirted lowlands purple with bloorass waved rank and high, and sunny banks where the strawberries were ripening in scarlet ht of a far snow peak lifted above the endless reach of forest, and through openings in the trees caught gli wide and beautiful between densely wooded shores whose bending foliage was literally washed by the waters
At length, as the sun was setting, they eed from the wood upon a wide and level beach Before therander than at any previous view, steadily widening as it neared the sea Opposite thereat river, flowed into it
”Willa to this new river
”Wappatto Island,” he added, indicating a nificent prospect of wood and meadow that lay just below thethe Columbia Cecil could not see the channel that separated it from the mainland on the other side, and to him it seemed, not an island, but a part of the opposite shore
Around theroups of Indians, representatives of various petty tribes who had not yet passed to the island of council
Horses were tethered to the driftwood strewed along the beach; packs and saddles were heaped on the banks awaiting the canoes that were to carry them over Across the river, Cecil could see upon the island scattered bands of ponies feeding and es showed a the trees The river was dotted with canoes Never before had he beheld so large an enca the Six Nations or the Sioux It seeet Sound and the Columbia were there
As they halted on the bank, a little canoe caer froed on the beach
”Send your packs over in canoes, swie Evidently, in view of the cole, Multnomah wanted the loyal Cayuses close at hand
In a little while the horses were stripped of their packs, which were heaped in the canoes that had followed the an A hair rope was put around the neck of a horse, and the end given to a man in a canoe The canoe was then paddled out into the stream, and the horse partly pulled, partly pushed into the river The others afterfollowed their leader; and in a little while a long line of half sub across the river, while the loaded canoes brought up the rear The rapid current swept them doard, and they landed on the opposite bank at a point far below that from which they started
On the bank of the Colunarled cottonwood still -place; and traces remain of the historic trail which led up from the river-bank into the interior of the island,--a trail traversed perhaps for centuries,--the great Indian road from the upper Columbia to the Willamette valley