"Let"s get ahead of the dust," she suggested.
They drew aside to the firm turf of the prairie and put their horses to a slow lope. Once well ahead of the canvas-covered schooners they slowed down to a walk again.
"Alfred says we"ll see them to-morrow," said the girl.
"See what?"
"Why, the Hills! They"ll show like a dark streak, down past that b.u.t.te there--what"s its name?"
"Porcupine Tail."
"Oh, yes. And after that it"s only three days. Are you glad?"
"Are you?"
"Yes, I believe I am. This life is fun at first, but there"s a certain monotony in making your toilet where you have to duck your head because you haven"t room to raise your hands, and this barrelled water palls after a time. I think I"ll be glad to see a house again. People like camping about so long----"
"It hasn"t gone back on me yet."
"Well, you"re a man and can do things."
"Can"t you do things?"
"You know I can"t. What do you suppose they"d say if I were to ride out just that way for two miles? They"d have a fit."
"Who"d have a fit? n.o.body but Alfred, and I didn"t know you"d gotten afraid of him yet! I say, just _let"s_! We"ll have a race, and then come right back." The young man looked boyishly eager.
"It would be nice," she mused. They gazed into each other"s eyes like a pair of children, and laughed.
"Why shouldn"t we?" urged the young man. "I"m dead sick of staying in the moving circle of these confounded wagons. What"s the sense of it all, anyway?"
"Why, Indians, I suppose," said the girl, doubtfully.
"Indians!" he replied, with contempt. "Indians! We haven"t seen a sign of one since we left Pierre. I don"t believe there"s one in the whole blasted country. Besides, you know what Alfred said at our last camp?"
"What did Alfred say?"
"Alfred said he hadn"t seen even a teepee-trail, and that they must be all up hunting buffalo. Besides that, you don"t imagine for a moment that your father would take you all this way to Deadwood just for a lark, if there was the slightest danger, do you?"
"I don"t know; I made him."
She looked out over the long sweeping descent to which they were coming, and the long sweeping ascent that lay beyond. The breeze and the sun played with the prairie gra.s.ses, the breeze riffling them over, and the sun silvering their under surfaces thus exposed. It was strangely peaceful, and one almost expected to hear the hum of bees as in a New England orchard. In it all was no sign of life.
"We"d get lost," she said, finally.
"Oh, no, we wouldn"t!" he a.s.serted with all the eagerness of the amateur plainsman. "I"ve got that all figured out. You see, our train is going on a line with that b.u.t.te behind us and the sun. So if we go ahead, and keep our shadows just pointing to the b.u.t.te, we"ll be right in their line of march."
He looked to her for admiration of his cleverness. She seemed convinced.
She agreed, and sent him back to her wagon for some article of invented necessity. While he was gone she slipped softly over the little hill to the right, cantered rapidly over two more, and slowed down with a sigh of satisfaction. One alone could watch the directing shadow as well as two. She was free and alone. It was the one thing she had desired for the last six days of the long plains journey, and she enjoyed it now to the full. No one had seen her go. The drivers droned stupidly along, as was their wont; the occupants of the wagons slept, as was their wont; and the diminutive Alfred was hiding his blushes behind clouds of dust in the rear, as was not his wont at all. He had been severely shocked, and he might have brooded over it all the afternoon, if a discovery had not startled him to activity.
On a bare spot of the prairie he discerned the print of a hoof. It was not that of one of the train"s animals. Alfred knew this, because just to one side of it, caught under a gra.s.s-blade so cunningly that only the little scout"s eyes could have discerned it at all, was a single blue bead. Alfred rode out on the prairie to right and left, and found the hoof-prints of about thirty ponies. He pushed his hat back and wrinkled his brow, for the one thing he was looking for he could not find--the two narrow furrows made by the ends of teepee-poles dragging along on either side of the ponies. The absence of these indicated that the band was composed entirely of bucks, and bucks were likely to mean mischief.
He pushed ahead of the whole party, his eyes fixed earnestly on the ground. At the top of the hill he encountered the young Easterner. The latter looked puzzled, in a half-humourous way.
"I left Miss Caldwell here a half-minute ago," he observed to Alfred, "and I guess she"s given me the slip. Scold her good for me when she comes in--will you?" He grinned, with good-natured malice at the idea of Alfred"s scolding anyone.
Then Alfred surprised him.
The little man straightened suddenly in his saddle and uttered a fervent curse. After a brief circle about the prairie, he returned to the young man.
"You go back to th" wagons, and wake up Billy Knapp, and tell him this--that I"ve gone scoutin" some, and I want him to _watch out_.
Understand? _Watch out!_"
"What?" began the Easterner, bewildered.
"I"m a-goin" to find her," said the little man, decidedly.
"You don"t think there"s any danger, do you?" asked the Easterner, in anxious tones. "Can"t I help you?"
"You do as I tell you," replied the little man, shortly, and rode away.
He followed Miss Caldwell"s trail quite rapidly, for the trail was fresh. As long as he looked intently for hoof-marks, nothing was to be seen, the prairie was apparently virgin; but by glancing the eye forty or fifty yards ahead, a faint line was discernible through the gra.s.ses.
Alfred came upon Miss Caldwell seated quietly on her horse in the very centre of a prairie-dog town, and so, of course, in the midst of an area of comparatively desert character. She was amusing herself by watching the marmots as they barked, or watched, or peeped at her, according to their distance from her. The sight of Alfred was not welcome, for he frightened the marmots.
When he saw Miss Caldwell, Alfred grew bashful again. He sidled his horse up to her and blushed.
"I"ll show you th" way back, miss," he said, diffidently.
"Thank you," replied Miss Caldwell, with a slight coldness, "I can find my own way back."
"Yes, of course," hastened Alfred, in an agony. "But don"t you think we ought to start back now? I"d like to go with you, miss, if you"d let me.
You see the afternoon"s quite late."
Miss Caldwell cast a quizzical eye at the sun.
"Why, it"s hours yet till dark!" she said, amusedly.
Then Alfred surprised Miss Caldwell.
His diffident manner suddenly left him. He jumped like lightning from his horse, threw the reins over the animal"s head so he would stand, and ran around to face Miss Caldwell.
"Here, jump down!" he commanded.
The soft Southern _burr_ of his ordinary conversation had given place to a clear incisiveness. Miss Caldwell looked at him amazed.
Seeing that she did not at once obey, Alfred actually began to fumble hastily with the straps that held her riding-skirt in place. This was so unusual in the bashful Alfred that Miss Caldwell roused and slipped lightly to the ground.
"Now what?" she asked.