Adventure Magazine Cover — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

100 Indians had captured me, that you came.” Again her head dropped, and it was a long time before I learned of the heroics I played in that particular dream. Flat Mouth led the way into the growth, going ahead to make sure no grizzlies were waiting to pounce upon our horses. After securely hobbling the animals so they could not escape, he disappeared in the _ direction of the river which flowed unseen near-by. I spread out the skin and three of the robes and induced the girl to lie down. Then I placed the remaining robes over her to keep out the morning chill and promised to call her for breakfast. _Searching the edge of the growth, I col- lected an armful of dry sticks which I knew would not smoke, and by the time I had done this Flat Mouth appeared with several wild geese. He attended to the cooking, making a fire so small as to seem ridiculous to a white man. As he broiled the fowl he told me the trees were ripped and seamed by bears’ claws and that both banks of the river must be teeming with the animals. I had nothing but contempt for the black and brown varieties, knowing them to be harmless, but the grizzly was a different proposition. Flat Mouth insisted, how- ever, that these seldom attacked unless cornered or wounded. _ The girl woke up, and, after she had eaten, the chief and I stuffed ourselves. Then he insisted that we try to get some sleep. The sun was half-way through its day’s work when I opened my eyes. The girl was seated with her back to a tree, her hair a marvel of neatness. She had thrown a robe over me, and this little act, so meaningless to those never initiated into the wilds, affected me strangely. It was the first time in many years that any one had taken thought for my comfort; cer- tainly the first wherein a woman had given me any attention since I was a child in the States and under my mother’s care. My first sensation was that of being ‘‘moth- ered.” TI liked it. All men do, let them disclaim to the contrary as they will. I half closed my eyes and for several minutes pretended to be asleep, that I might watch her. Her blue eyes were serene; her fine features were softened by repose. Here, in a position of great danger, she impressed me as revealing her true self, her genuine womanliness. At the X. Y. post, where no physical harm could intrude, Adventure she had been cold, hard and unapproach- able. At last she caught me spying and colored furiously, instinctively feeling of her hair. ‘‘Where is the chief?”’ I innocently asked. She pointed, and I arose and beheld him sleeping, lying on his face. When I stepped toward him he came to his senses and sprang to his feet like a wildcat. Our voices had not disturbed him but my step had. Subconsciously, perhaps, he had cata- logued our voices, but a stealthy step was not so easily classified. He always insisted a person woke up more easily and more com- pletely—woke up all over as he expressed it—if he slept on his face. The girl insisted that he finish out his nap, but he replied he was “‘filled’’ with sleep and would need no more till another day. The girl said that during our slumbers there had been no signs of life on the plain except the buffalo and their lurking escort of gray wolves. She had heard sounds back in the woods, and once a red deer had poked his head through the bushes to look us over. : IT went with Flat Mouth to the river, where he fashioned several drinking-dishes out of bark, and while there we saw seven grizzlies descend the opposite shore to drink. They were huge brutes and more to be feared than the Sioux, should they take a notion to attack. The Pillager ob- served them unconcernedly, however, as- suring me that they would not bother us if we did not trouble them. The river, he reminded, was seldom visited by Assiniboin, Cree or Chippewa because the Sioux claimed it. From fear of attacks from the northern Indians, the Sioux, in turn, seldom came there except in war strength. So all animal life had been left to develop undisturbed by man. The bears had not been hunted and did not know man as a destroyer. This was all very comforting as long as I could believe it, but the thought of the girl back in the little glade alone, with these monsters wandering about in batches of seven, made me anxious to return. We took water to her and on the way started up red deer which were nowhere near as shy as those on the Red River. Leaving her again, we visited the horses and found them contentedly grazing inside the fringe of bushes and willows. Leaving the chief with them, I rejoined the girl. Gomichbooks.co an)