Sometimes We Were Driving Among Trees, And Then Emerging
Upon Open Spots, Over Which, Indian-Like, All Galloped At Full Speed.
As Pauline bounded over the rocks I felt her saddle-girth slipping,
and alighted to draw it tighter; when the whole array swept past me
in a moment, the women with their gaudy ornaments tinkling as they
rode, the men whooping, and laughing, and lashing forward their
horses.
Two black-tailed deer bounded away among the rocks; Raymond
shot at them from horseback; the sharp report of his rifle was
answered by another equally sharp from the opposing cliffs, and then
the echoes, leaping in rapid succession from side to side, died away
rattling far amid the mountains.
After having ridden in this manner for six or eight miles, the
appearance of the scene began to change, and all the declivities
around us were covered with forests of tall, slender pine trees. The
Indians began to fall off to the right and left, and dispersed with
their hatchets and knives among these woods, to cut the poles which
they had come to seek. Soon I was left almost alone; but in the deep
stillness of those lonely mountains, the stroke of hatchets and the
sound of voices might be heard from far and near.
Reynal, who imitated the Indians in their habits as well as the worst
features of their character, had killed buffalo enough to make a
lodge for himself and his squaw, and now he was eager to get the
poles necessary to complete it.
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