Rocky Mountain Sam — page 117: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

108 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. By sunset, comparative quiet had been restored in the little camp. Most of the wounded remaining alive were not greatly hurt, the majority of them having died soon after being struck—such was the desperate nature of the battle of Miry Fork. The dead hunters were in their graves; a hearty meal, a bath in the neighboring stream, and several hours ot rest and repose, had revived the strength and spirits of the sur- vivors; and even the horses were recuperating their energies upon a little strip of rich meadow, covered by their owner's position on the hill. : The Indians had sent a deputation requesting permission to carry off their dead and wounded; and a close observa- tion of their movements on the part of two or three curious scouts had revealed the astounding fact that their losses had not been less than sixty killed and eighty wounded; and they were probably even more. The weather changed as night came on. Heavy black clouds began to pile up in the sky, vivid streaks of lightning split them in twain, and there came the rumbling sound of approaching thunder. ‘We shall have a storm,” said the young lieutenant, anxiously, and hardly knowing whether such an event would be to their advantage or detriment. ‘‘I would like to know what Big Horn thinks of it; but I’m ashamed to disturb his rest after what he has gone through.” He glanced wistfully at the bravo, who had cast his huge frame underneath astinted cedar, and was breathing heavily in the profound sleep that comes from very great exhaus- tion. ‘He won't keer fur bein’ woke up ef thar’s business on hand,” said one of the men, going up tothe recumbent hero and roughly shaking him by the shoulder. Notwithstanding the profound nature of the slumber into which he was plunged, Big Horn, from long habit, awoke almost at a touch. His eyelids unsealed themselves with a snap, revealing the eyes, bright, clear, and alert, beneath, and the next instant he was on his feet. : “‘Nothin’ like a long sleep for a tired man, captain,” said he, stretching his vast frame, and dissipating the last shadow of oblivion with a tremendous yawn. ‘‘Long!” exclaimed Dutton; “‘why, my good fellow, you have hardly slepttwo hours,” (@) S) (ele) comichboo