Setting Out After Him, We Rode For Some Time In Complete Darkness,
And When The Sun At Length Rose, Glowing Like A Fiery Ball Of Copper,
We Were Ten Miles Distant From The Fort.
At length, from the broken
summit of a tall sandy bluff we could see Fort Laramie, miles before
us, standing by the side of the stream like a little gray speck in
the midst of the bounding desolation.
I stopped my horse, and sat
for a moment looking down upon it. It seemed to me the very center
of comfort and civilization. We were not long in approaching it, for
we rode at speed the greater part of the way. Laramie Creek still
intervened between us and the friendly walls. Entering the water at
the point where we had struck upon the bank, we raised our feet to
the saddle behind us, and thus, kneeling as it were on horseback,
passed dry-shod through the swift current. As we rode up the bank, a
number of men appeared in the gateway. Three of them came forward to
meet us. In a moment I distinguished Shaw; Henry Chatillon followed
with his face of manly simplicity and frankness, and Delorier came
last, with a broad grin of welcome. The meeting was not on either
side one of mere ceremony. For my own part, the change was a most
agreeable one from the society of savages and men little better than
savages, to that of my gallant and high-minded companion and our
noble-hearted guide.
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