Part 2 (2/2)
The lieutenant happened to ask me why we called the location ”Roaring Water.”
”I see only a quiet, decent stream flowing by into the valley below,” he observed.
”Wait until we have a breeze coming down the canon, and then you will understand why we gave the name of 'Roaring Water' to this place,” I answered. ”As I can be spared this morning, and there is not much chance of the enemy coming, if you like to accompany me I will take you to the cataract which gives its name to this 'quiet, decent stream,' as you call it; then you will believe that we have not misnamed the locality.”
We set off together. The lieutenant looked as if he would have liked to ask Clarice to accompany us; but she was busy about her household duties, and gave no response to his unspoken invitation.
Boy-like, I took a great fancy to the young officer. He was quiet and gentlemanly, and free from all conceit.
I took him to Cold-Water Spring, at which Clarice had met the Indian; and after swallowing a draught from it, we made our way onward over the rough rocks and fallen logs until we came in sight of what we called our cataract. It appeared directly before us, rus.h.i.+ng, as it were, out of the side of the hill (though in reality there was a considerable stream above us, which was concealed by the summits of the intervening rocks); then downward it came in two leaps, striking a ledge about half-way, where ma.s.ses of spray were sent off; and then taking a second leap, it fell into a pool; now rus.h.i.+ng forth again foaming and roaring down a steep incline, until it reached the more level portion of the canon.
”That is indeed a fine cataract, and you have well named your location from it,” observed the lieutenant. ”I wish I had had my sketch-book with me; I might have made a drawing of it, to carry away in remembrance of my visit here.”
”I will send you one with great pleasure,” I answered.
”Do you draw?” he asked, with a look of surprise, probably thinking that such an art was not likely to be possessed by a young backwoodsman.
”I learned when I was a boy, and I have a taste that way, although I have but little time to exercise it,” I answered.
He replied that he should be very much obliged. ”Does your sister draw?--I conclude that young lady is your sister?” he said in a tone of inquiry.
”Oh yes! Clarice draws better than I do,” I said. ”But she has even less time than I have, for she is busy from morning till night; there is no time to spare for amus.e.m.e.nt of any sort. Uncle Jeff would not approve of our 'idling our time,' as he would call it, in that sort of way.”
The lieutenant seemed inclined to linger at the waterfall, so that I had to hurry him away, as I wanted to be back to attend to my duties. I was anxious, also, to hear what account Bartle Won would bring in.
But the day pa.s.sed away, and Bartle did not appear. Uncle Jeff's confidence that he could have come to no harm was not, however, shaken.
”It may be that he has discovered the enemy, and is watching their movements; or perhaps he has been tempted to go on and on until he has found out that there is no enemy to be met with, or that they have taken the alarm and beat a retreat,” he observed.
Still the lieutenant was unwilling to leave us, although Uncle Jeff did not press him to stay.
”It will never do for me to hurry off with my men, and leave a party of whites in a solitary farm to be slaughtered by those Redskin savages,”
he said.
At all events, he stayed on until the day was so far spent that it would not have been worth while to have started.
Clarice found a little leisure to sit down at the table with her needle-work, very much to the satisfaction of the lieutenant, who did his best to make himself agreeable.
I was away down the valley driving the cattle into their pen, when I caught sight of Bartle coming along at his usual swinging pace towards the farm.
”Well, what news?” I asked, as I came up to him.
”Our friend Winnemak was not romancing,” he answered. ”There were fully as many warriors on the war-path as he stated; but, for some reason or other, they turned about and are going south. I came upon their trail after they had broken up their last camp, and I had no difficulty in getting close enough to them to make out their numbers, and the tribes they belong to. The appearance of their camp, however, told me clearly that they are a very large body. We have to thank the chief for his warning; at the same time, we need not trouble ourselves any more on the subject.”
”Have they done any harm on their march?” I asked.
”As to that, I am afraid that some settlers to the south have suffered; for I saw, at night, the glare of several fires, with which the rascals must have had something to do. I only hope that the poor white men had time to escape with their lives. If I had not been in a hurry to get back, I would have followed the varmints, and picked off any stragglers I might have come across.”
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