Rocky Mountain Sam — page 207: what you’re looking at

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

198 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. The balloon was about thirty feet from the ground, but she went down the rope that was let down for her, hand over hand, with the agility ofa squirrel. She looked like a very dryad of the woods as she stood for an instant at the foot of the rope, her light graceful form set off to its best advan- tage in its picturesque costume, and her young artless face upturned toward the down-looking gaze of her rude lover; and then she vanished like a sunbeam under the dense shadows of the wood. | | She was gone so long that Sam, Teddy, and the professor began to exchange significant glances; but Big Horn’s faith in the fair absentee never for an instant wavered. She returned presently with a smile on her face. She made an eager, happy sign with her little hand, and then ran up the rope almost as nimbly as she had descended it. _ Shehad discovered the lodges, and was prepared to guide the balloon to a spot directly over them, and explained the length of time she had been gone by saying that she had hung around the camp in hopes of obtaining an interview with Hayaway,\in which she at last succeeded, finding her alone ata little spring of water in the wood, at some lit- tle distance from the camp. Her first attempts to draw her — into conversation were decided failures, on account of the mad and unreasoning jealousy of Hayaway, who persisted that inher, Mewanee, Rocky Mountain Sam had found a new flame; but when at length the real state of the case was forced upon her—that Mewanee was the prize, not of Sam, but of Big Horn—she all at once became serene, and the In- dian maidens, though of different tribes, had kissed and hugged as sisters. Fayaway said that her mistress would be overjoyed and filled with new hope toagain learn of the near presence of her friends. Fayaway was certain that, could the balloon be anchored directly over the village, and a passage forced through the tree-tops, there would be but little difficulty in effecting the release of the captives, inasmuch as Firefoot and all his followers were so confident of the security of their present retreat, that they passed most of the time in sleep and rest, while the prisoners were but slightly guarded by the squaws, who were quite as sleepy and lazy as their lords. “Thar! what d’ye think of that “ere?” triumphantly roared Big Horn, when he had finished translating, bit by bit, as it was given him, this truly valuable bit of informa- GComicboo CS (e(0)