The Pioneer Boys of the Yellowstone; or, Lost in the Land of Wonders

by St. George Rathborne

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE VALLEY OF ENCHANTMENT

  ROGER knew what was expected of him under such conditions. A regardfor his own safety induced him to roll aside. If the wounded animalendeavored to fasten upon his body in its death throes, he preferred tobe in some other and safer locality.

  There was confusion for a minute or so. Roger, after escaping from theclaws of the unseen beast, scrambled first to his knees and then to hisfeet. He could not think of going back to search for his gun, becausesomething was struggling on the very spot, and he could imagine whatthat writhing object must be.

  So he drew his hunting knife and waited. Then the sounds began to growfainter, which the boy knew was a promising sign. Finally all becamestill again.

  "Dick!" he whispered.

  "Yes, I'm here, Roger," he heard his cousin say.

  "Is he dead, do you think?" asked the other.

  "I have just poked about with the barrel of my gun, and touched him,"Dick replied. "There's no movement to the body, so I feel sure Ifinished him. Come this way; I felt your gun with my foot just now."

  They had no means of seeing the motionless form of Dick's quarry,unless they chose to go to great trouble with flint and steel andtinder. There was really no need of this, because all of them werefamiliar with the denizens of the forest; so that, using their hands,they readily ascertained the nature of the invader of the camp.

  "Why, it's only a wildcat, after all, Dick!" exclaimed Roger, a note ofdisappointment in his tones, as he came upon the abbreviated tail. "Iwas so sure it was the painter we heard crying earlier in the night."

  "I thought the same way, Roger," confessed the other, "until I came tofeel the fur, when something told me it was different. But we never yetkilled such a wildcat as this, in all our tramping."

  "It does seem to be a monster," admitted the other.

  "It is not only the size I meant, Roger, but feel of the ears."

  "Why, how very strange, Dick; for all the world like a tassel at theend! What kind of a beast have we run across? We never saw wildcatslike this along the Missouri, you know."

  "I have heard old voyageurs tell about a species they meet with furthernorth in the cold country of the Chippewas and the Crees. They call ita lynx in Canada. It is a very fierce beast, all accounts agree."

  "But, Dick, think of his coming right into our camp, and trying tocarry me off! I never would have believed it if any one had told thestory. He tugged at my leg again and again. It was that woke me up, Iexpect. If that's the kind of wildcats they have in this country, I amnot surprised at the Indians keeping away from this region."

  "There must be some reason for the beast acting as it did. I think wewill find that in rolling about you must have managed to get over thespot where Benjamin laid our stock of pemmican, and that was what thebeast was after."

  "Oh! do you think so?" remarked Roger, heaving a sigh of relief. "Well,I shall be glad to believe he was not trying to carry me off. But allthe same, Dick, you never before heard of a wildcat being so bold."

  "I never did, and that is a fact," admitted Dick.

  They settled down once more, though this time Roger changed hisposition so as to make sure he would not invite a repetition of theattack. Mayhew, too, had taken warning from the adventure; he proceededto fasten their stock of dried venison to the limb of a tree in such away that it would be safe from the depredations of any hungry animal.

  That one alarm was not repeated. Throughout the balance of the nightprowling wild beasts might roam the forest and seek their prey, butthey gave the camp of the little party a wide berth. Perhaps theyscented trouble in the blood of their kind that had already beenspilled.

  With the coming of dawn the boys were up and doing. Roger examined thestiffened form of the lynx with much curiosity. He seemed to be of theopinion that, since the ice had now been broken, they were apt to runacross many other strange creatures, the like of which they had neverbefore set eyes on.

  Indeed, before they had been an hour on the way that morning, theybegan to notice that a remarkable change was taking place in thecharacter of their surroundings. The sun's rays, falling on the face ofa hill, filled them with awe, for it seemed to reveal almost every hueof the rainbow. Here a waterfall burst upon their vision, the streamdropping fully a hundred feet, and looking like a bridal wreath asthe light breeze carried the fine spray to leeward, through severalrainbows.

  "The Enchanted Land, of a truth, Dick!" was Roger's comment, as theycame to a full stop, to gaze upon these remarkable sights.

  "Already it begins to look to me as though there might be some truth inthe weird stories the Indians have been telling about this country uphere," the other boy confessed.

  As for Mayhew, the guide, he could not find words to describe themingled feelings of admiration and wonder that filled his soul. None ofthem dreamed of turning back, although they were beginning to encountersights such as the eyes of white men had possibly never before beheld.

  "Jasper was not dismayed by all this," said Dick, "for we can see thathe and his party kept on, following the course of this river of thecataracts and the rapids. So we, too, must march on."

  "I feel thirsty," remarked Roger, shortly after this, "and as here runsa nice looking little stream I think I will take a drink."

  Dick was about to follow suit when he saw Roger suddenly start up fromhis kneeling position, with a look of the most intense astonishment onhis face.

  "Why, Dick, it burns me!" he cried. "The water is hot!"

  Dick immediately tested it with his hand.

  "Just as you say, Roger, it seems as though it might be over a fire. Doyou know, I noticed something like a trace of steam, but I thought itonly such vapor as we often see rising from ice-cold water."

  "But who ever before met with boiling water in the open?" asked Roger."Why, there must be fires under the earth here, such as leap out ofvolcanoes in other countries."

  He even rested his hand on the rock close by, but found it cold.Vegetation grew all around the hot stream and pool, showing that itnever overflowed its banks at any time.

  "There's one good thing about it," remarked Dick, turning to thefrontiersman; "after this, if these hot springs are common here, youwill never need to build a fire in order to make a pannikin of tea."

  "I can believe almost anything after this," muttered Roger, as hedabbled his hand in the pool, and quickly snatched it out again, forthe water seemed to almost scald his flesh. "Of course nothing can livein such a stream. I wonder what next we will run across. Cats withtassels on their ears, rocks and mud looking like they had been paintedevery color going, waterfalls that drop from the clouds, and whererainbows play hide and seek in the sunlight, and now a boiling spring,and a hot pool. What if one of us had fallen in here, and could not getout?"

  "We'll soon begin to believe in those stories the red men tell of theEvil Spirits that live in this enchanted valley," laughed Dick, whoseemed determined not to allow himself to be dismayed by anythingwonderful they might encounter in their wanderings.

  "I'm getting that way even now, Dick. I tell you, it wouldn't surpriseme very much if we ran upon one of those monsters they say used to livein America centuries and centuries ago, much larger than an elephant. Ionly hope my rifle speaks true, if ever I have to face anything likethat!"

  Leaving the hot spring behind them, they pushed on along the trail madeby Jasper Williams's party. Doubtless those three men were also filledwith wonder at what they saw. Roger more than once expressed doubt asto whether they would have the courage to continue their explorationsmuch further, surrounded as they found themselves by such marvelousfreaks of nature.

  "It wouldn't surprise me if we met them hurrying back out of here," hetold his companions. "Jasper himself is a bold spirit, but I have apoor opinion of the two other men with him. I believe they are inclinedto be superstitious, like the Indians, and these things are enough tomake the flesh creep."

  Here and there, as openings occurred, they could catch
glimpses ofdistant peaks that looked like cathedral spires in the gilding raysof the sun. Dick was drinking in these pictures with eagerness, forthe boy had something of the artist in his nature. He could appreciatesuch glorious works wrought by the deft hand of nature more fully thanRoger, who saw rather the practical side of the picture.

  Once, during that morning tramp, Roger did receive a fright. It didnot come from any threatened attack on the part of a ferocious wildbeast, nor yet through his narrow escape from falling into some pitwhere strange, gurgling, mysterious sounds oozed forth. On the contraryit was just because it started to snow furiously, so that the wholelandscape was blotted out.

  "That settles it, Dick," he exclaimed, in sheer disgust, "we're donefor now. The only thing left us is to head as best we may for the placewe believe the Valley of Wonders lies, and which we must be close to,right now."

  "You are in too big a hurry, Roger," his cousin told him. "Just becausea few flakes chance to come down is no proof that we are in for astorm. Look up and you will see the blue sky over yonder. It is only apassing squall, and soon over with, so cheer up."

  His prophecy proved true, because in another minute the snow ceasedto fall, and out came the welcome sun again, to once more paint thehillsides with his wondrous brush, and stripe them with rainbow tints.

  "You must own up that most of our troubles come and go like that,"commented Dick. "At first they seem to be dark and heavy, but all atonce the sun breaks out, and we forget the gloomy past. It ought to bea lesson to you."

  "I know it, Dick, but my nature is different from yours. I am eitherbubbling over with joy or else weighed down with foreboding. But wecan see some distance ahead at this point, and I must confess thatthere is no sign of a human being, so Jasper and his comrades cannot bereturning along the trail."

  "The wind is shifting for one thing," observed Dick, "which may bringabout a change in the weather before very long."

  "Listen, what do you suppose that sound can be? If the weather were notso cold, and the season summer instead of early winter, I would surelysay it was distant thunder!"

  All three stood still to listen intently. Presently the far-awayrumbling sound was again borne to their ears; and, just as Roger haddeclared, it was like distant thunder coming from beyond the range offorest-clad hills.

  It was not strange that the two boys and the frontiersman turned uneasylooks upon each other, surrounded as they were by such strange freaksof nature.