CHAPTER XII.--THE VOYAGE IS RESUMED.
When Sam Willett and Ulna returned to the camp they found Ike, Wah Shinand the dog lying on the rocks near the dying fire.
Although they had been sleeping for nearly five hours, it was withdifficulty that Ike could be aroused, and when he did sit up and rub hiseyes, he declared with laughable solemnity that he had only been asleepa few minutes.
"If you look at the sun I think you will see you are mistaken," saidSam, pointing to the west.
"Dat sun," said Ike, with the fine contempt of one who had lost allfaith in the luminary that rules the day; "I don't got no use foh it.'Tain't like the sun we uster know way back at Detroit. Wy, sometimes hegets up and hurries across the sky like a race-horse, an' sometimes hedon't get up foh weeks an' weeks. He's foolin' us, dat's all I got tosay." And Ike rose and yawned till he showed every tooth in hiscapacious mouth.
"I gottee heap muchee sleep, me no sleep mole foh twenty-one day," saidWah Shin, who seemed determined not to agree with Ike in this matter.
"If ebber I should get out of this yar scrape, an' I should hab lots ofmoney an' plenty ob time," said Ike with comical earnestness, "I'll gooff to some place whar it ain't dark most all de time, an' I'll sleep inde sun foh weeks an' weeks an' weeks at a stretch, an' don't you forgitit."
As it was now about three o'clock in the afternoon Sam, after consultingwith Ulna, and recalling their experience of the night before, decidednot to launch their raft till the following morning.
Wishing more than ever that he was a bird, Ike went off with Wah Shin togather fuel, and Sam and Ulna, both much exhausted, lay down to get alittle much needed sleep.
When they closed their eyes the western sun was flooding the canyon witha river of golden glory, when they woke up "night had let her sablecurtain down and pinned it with a star."
A great fire was blazing near by, and Ike and Wah Shin were preparingsupper, while Maj sat licking his chops and eagerly watching theoperations.
Sam had already divided the provisions, so that with care, "an' noteatin' nigh's much as they felt like," to use Ike's words, they couldmanage to live without much suffering for another week.
After supper Ike startled the company by saying:
"See heah, Mistah Sam, I'ze got an offer to make."
"What is it, Ike?"
Before proceeding Ike turned and pointed to the parcels containing theirlittle stock of food.
"Ain't I de owner ob one-quarter ob dat grub?"
"You shall have your share, Ike; but why do you ask?" said Sam, who halfguessed what was coming.
"I've eat my share for to-night."
"Yes, Ike."
"An' I still feel as holler as a drum," and Ike rolled his eyes andtightened his belt.
"You have had as much as the rest," said Sam.
"Oh, I ain't a complainin'; no one won't say, Mistah Sam, dat you don'ttote fair, but heah's de pint I wants to git at----"
"Go on, Ike."
"You let me have all my share now."
"What would you do with it?"
"Do wif it!" echoed Ike. "Wy, I'd sit right down an' gib it all a insidepassage. I'd a heap sight rudder hab one good, squar meal dan a hundredscrimpsy ones. Dar ain't no pleasure in stoppin' jest when yeh wants tokeep right on eatin'."
"Nevertheless we must all do it, Ike. We are not eating for pleasure,but to keep alive till we get out of this place."
"Wa'al, if we ebber does git out, an' I can sit down before grub an' eatall I wants, dat grub will suffer--if I has any strent left," and Ikesat down and watched Maj with a hungry look that boded no good to thatfaithful creature.
Sam had often been surprised at Ulna's gentle manners and the excellentEnglish he spoke; he seemed so little like the wild Indians he had readabout that he was anxious to know something of his life, but fromfeelings of delicacy he had never asked him about his past up to thistime. By way of passing the time before setting the guard, he asked Ulnawhere he had learned English so well.
"In the Mission School at Taos," said Ulna. "My father, who was abrother of our chief, Uray, was killed in the Sierra Madre Mountains, bythe Hill, or Arizona, Apaches, when I was a little child."
"And your mother?" suggested Sam.
"She could read and write, and she could speak Spanish and English aswell as the language of her own people; all this she had learned in theschool at Taos, to which place the good missionaries took her when shewas a child; that was long before the white man crowded into this land."
"Is your mother living?"
"Yes, and my sister; she is a year older than I, and she is very good.Two years ago my mother, who still lived at Taos, married a white man--aMexican. I did not like him and I ran away and joined the tribe. But Idid not like the ways of our people, though I felt that their free lifeon the hills and along the great rivers was the only one to live. Yes, Ihave much of the white man's knowledge, and I am glad of it. Still, myheart has ever hungered for the free life of the Ute. No matter whatbefalls me, I do not complain; the Great Spirit rules and directs all,"and as Ulna ceased speaking, he uncovered his head and raised hishandsome, expressive face to the stars.
"I thank you for telling me this," said Sam, taking the young Indian'shand and pressing it warmly, while he added: "It does not make me loveyou any the less or more, Ulna, but somehow I think that the more goodpeople know of each other the warmer friends they become."
"Dem's my sentiments," said Ike, who looked as if he had been sleeping,though he must have been wide awake. "Foh instants, when I didn't knowMistah Sam, I didn't like him at all; but now dat I does know himbetter'n any one in de world, w'y as a consekence I likes him a heapsight more'n I does any one in de world."
Sam had been inclined to feel angry with Ike when he spoke in the way hedid about dividing the food, but this little expression of genuinesentiment on the black boy's part quite touched his heart, and he showedhis feeling by saying:
"Ah, Ike, you may have a hungry stomach, but it cannot be truthfullysaid that you haven't got a kindly heart."
"Bimeby, mebbe, I tell you sometings all 'bout me, Wah Shin," said theChinaman, who felt that he must add something to the expressions ofgood-fellowship.
After a little further talk, in which they discussed the situation andvainly tried to guess where they were, Sam gave the order in which theguards should be called and handed his watch to Ike, whose turn camefirst, and lay down on the blankets, which were quite dry andcomfortable by this time.
To prove that Ike was not in the least selfish, though his display ofhealthy-boy appetite might lead us to a different belief, it is but justto him to say that when his two hours guard were up, he did not callSam, whose turn it was next, and who appeared to be sleeping verysoundly, but he stood the whole four hours on watch and then awoke WahShin, and, after whispering to him what he had done added:
"Mistah Sam's got the keer of all on his shoulders, an' he needs all desleep he kin git. W'y, I ken sleep any time; he can't, so I sez, let'slet him sleep his fill w'ile he's at it."
They were up again before daylight, and the allowance of food forbreakfast made ready, a portion being set apart for Maj, for though thedog was not at all a useful member of the little band, indeed, hisconsumption of rations for one made him undesirable, yet Sam could notfind it in his heart to put the faithful creature out of the way.
There was no need to discuss the course they should next take; there wasonly one avenue that held out the promise of escape, and that was theswift stream rushing by their resting place to an unknown landing.
By this time all hands had become quite expert in loading and unloadingthe raft, so that it did not take them long to get under way thismorning, each one in his accustomed place and Maj crouching down on theblankets in the center.
The rope was untied, and, with the pole in his hand, Sam stood upbehind, and again they were sweeping down on the red waters of thiswonderful river.
As they drifted between the precipitous banks that seemed to gro
w higherand higher with the passing of each bend, Sam recalled all he had everheard or read about the mighty Colorado of the West and its wonderfulcanyon. He remembered that it was four hundred miles of continuous canyonwall from the point where the Green and Grand Rivers united to theMormon settlement at Virgin River, where the canyon walls give place to awide valley.
He shuddered but kept his thoughts to himself, for he wisely reasonedthat no good could result from frightening his companions by a truepicture of the dangers that lay before them.
For himself he believed that there must be some opening by which theycould leave the canyon before traversing its length, and this hope wasnot darkened with the thought that such an avenue of escape, if used,might not better their condition.
They drifted on till the middle of the afternoon, passing many sidecanyons which it was impossible to enter, when they suddenly found theirraft swept by a whirling current, that boiled about them like the wavesof a storm-tossed sea.
They looked up, to find that the towering gray walls had broken intomighty pillars that rose for thousands of feet into the sky.
It was the junction of the Green and Grand Rivers, and the piled up,roaring and irresistible flood was caused by the coming together of thetwo currents.
The scene that presented itself at this point was indescribably sublime,and even the dangers of the situation were forgotten for the moment inthe awful grandeur of their surroundings.
Although Sam still stood bravely up, his pole was useless to control themovements of the raft, which was borne with the speed of a swallow'sflight into the whirlpool, about which the waters circled and danced, asif celebrating their meeting in these wild depths.
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