in these remote valleys of the Rocky Mountains, and precipitated the departure of our four friends, Dick, Joe Henri, and Crusoe. This was the sudden arrival of a whole tribe of Indians.
Chapter XXIII.—The Stampede.
ONE day Dick Varley was out on a solitary hunting expedition near the rocky gorge where his horse had received temporary burial a week or two before. Crusoe was with him, of course. Dick had tied Charlie to a tree, and was sunning himself on the edge of a cliff, from the top of which he had a fine view of the valley and the rugged precipices that hemmed it in.
Just in front of the spot on which he sat, the precipices on the opposite side of the gorge rose to a considerable height above him, so that their ragged outlines were drawn sharply across the clear sky. Dick was gazing in dreamy silence at the jutting rocks, and speculating on the number of bears that dwelt there, when a slight degree of restlessness on the part of Crusoe attracted him.
“What is’t, pup?” said he, laying his hand on the dog’s broad back.
Crusoe looked the answer, “I don’t know, Dick, but it’s something, else I would not have disturbed you.”
Dick lifted his rifle from the ground, and laid it in the hollow of his left arm.
“There must be something in the wind,” remarked Dick. As wind is known to be composed of two distinct gases, Crusoe felt perfectly safe in replying “Yes” with his tail. Immediately after he added, “Hallo! did you hear that?” with his ears.
Dick did hear it, and sprang hastily to his feet, as a sound like, yet unlike, distant thunder came faintly down upon the breeze. In a few seconds the sound increased to a roar in which were mingled the wild cries of men. Neither Dick nor Crusoe moved, for the sound came from behind the heights in front of them, and they felt that the only way to solve the question, “What can the sounds be?” was to wait till the sounds should solve it.
Suddenly the muffled sounds gave place to the distinct bellowing of cattle, the clatter of innumerable hoofs, and the yells of savage men, while at the same moment the 11
