CHAPTER XXII.--"JOY! JOY! IT IS ULNA AGAIN!"
Unlike Ike and Wah Shin, Sam Willett was not the least superstitious,yet, as he saw the spectral figure rising from the shore he could notimagine it a human being.
"Did you think me dead?" asked the dripping figure.
By this time Sam had leaped to his feet and advanced toward theirextraordinary visitor.
He was not long in doubt.
There was no mistaking the lithe figure and the now pinched but stillexpressive face.
"Joy! joy! It is Ulna again!" cried Sam, and with a bound he was on theshore and the young Ute was in his arms.
As soon as Ike and Wah Shin were convinced that this was Ulna in theflesh and not his ghost, they ran down and performed such a war danceabout him, as they held his hands, as he never witnessed around the campfires of his own tribe.
When Ike could give expression to his delight, he pulled Ulna in thedirection of the fire, calling out the while:
"Tum along; tum along! you looks if yeh hadn't had nawthin' to eat fohyears. We kin fix yeh. We kin stuff yeh with rabbits till yeh can'tstan'; an' w'en dem's gone we knows de place whar we kin go an' git lotsmoah."
Ulna certainly did look famished, but true to himself, neither by wordnor sign did he give expression to the sufferings he had passed throughnor the agony of hunger he was now enduring.
The half of a cooked rabbit was left from the recent banquet, and Ulnahad this placed in his hand and made to sit on a stone before the fire.
"Eat 'em allee up; me gettee nodle one, no time," said Wah Shin, who wasnever so happy as when he was cooking.
"Yes," urged Ike, "wade right in. Dar ain't no stint dis time. We'vefound de head-quahtahs ob all de rabbits, an' we ain't a gwine foh to behungry no moah."
After all these expressions of hospitality and good will, Sam had achance to say, as he took a seat beside Ulna.
"I thought I had seen you for the last time, but thank God you and allof us are saved to meet again."
"When I called 'farewell' to you," said Ulna, "I felt the end had come,but like the people of my tribe I did not give up----"
"Nevah give up de ship," interjected Ike.
"I made up my mind to resist the flood till my strength was gone,"continued Ulna.
"One ain't got much strent, onless he's got plenty to eat an' lots obtime to sleep," said Ike, who, though much interested in Ulna, felt thathe must give expression to his own feelings or choke.
The young Indian explained that he was so weighted down by his rifle andcartridges that, after the first rapids had been passed, he had onlystrength left to keep afloat without being able to make the shore.
"When I was swept into the second rapids," he said, "all hope vanished.I must have been rendered unconscious by some blow, but be that as itmay, I have no memory of reaching the bank. When I came to last night Iwas half lying in the water. I drew myself out and walked about, tryingto find something to eat. I could not sleep for thinking of you, for Idid not see, after what I had suffered, how you were to get through therapids on the raft."
"I cannot describe to you how my heart beat with joy a few hours ago,when I saw the raft shooting out of the foam with all its passengersexcept the dog on board. I saw you making for the shore, and I shoutedto attract your attention to the opposite side."
"If we'd a heerd yeh, yeh wouldn't ha' had to hollered twice," said Ike.
"I did not feel very strong till I saw you, and then, as there wasnothing else left me, I made up my mind to try swimming across."
"An' you made it; you made it like a--like a mice, an' yeh fotched yehrifle widge yeh," said Ike, in tones of great approval.
"Ike he heap talkee," said Wah Shin, as he sat another half of a broiledrabbit before Ulna. "Me cookee light slate along."
"And now," said Ulna, who had the rare faculty of eating while he spoke,"tell me how you made out after we parted in that strange way."
Sam narrated the adventures, already recorded, and after somediscussion, to Ike's great delight, it was decided to remain here for atleast another day, and to lay in a supply of rabbits before they facedthe unknown and dreaded canyon again.
After Ulna had appeased his hunger, Sam made him lie down before thefire and take a sleep, while he and Ike went off on another huntingexpedition.
They brought home several loads of rabbits during the day, and Wah Shin,who believed the game would keep better if it were cooked, busiedhimself broiling rabbits till the last one was in an edible condition.
Toward evening Ulna got up from the blanket, in which he had beenwrapped, and when he put on his clothes he looked like an entirelydifferent being from the spectre that appeared at the river side somehours before.
Now that the immediate danger from hunger was over, Sam would have beencomparatively happy had it not been for thoughts of his father.
It is well that it is not given to us to lift the veil of the future, orto tell what is happening beyond the range of our own vision. Yet, itmust be confessed, that it would have eased the minds of the lovingfather and the devoted son, if each could have known of the situation ofthe other at this time.
It was not in Ike's nature to feel trouble for any length of time. Hehad all the light-heartedness of his race, and an enviable capacity forenjoying the present.
He played with the dog; he laughed and sang, till at length, overcomewith the excess of enjoyment--and it may be the great quantities ofbroiled rabbit he had eaten, he threw himself on the ground before thefire and was asleep in no time.
Again Sam detailed the guards, taking the first watch himself, and whenanother morning dawned they found themselves more rested and refreshedthan they had been at any time since leaving Gold Cave Camp.
The night before Ulna busied himself cutting the jack-rabbits' skinsinto strips, which he knotted and twisted into ropes, and these ropeswere found of the greatest use in binding the pieces of the rafttogether before they resumed their journey down the long, dark, wateryarcade.
They were afloat again soon after daylight, and the thought that theywere safe and sound and all together again brought unspeakable joy toevery heart--and we might include Maj in the list, for from his seat inthe middle of the raft he eyed his friends with an expression of greatcomfort and satisfaction.
Long before the sun rose high enough to look into the canyon they haddrifted many miles away from their camp of the morning.
The current, which Sam estimated at about three miles an hour, wasunbroken; flowing on in silent majesty, between the cold, gray cliffsthat rose at points for more than a mile sheer up, till their eyes grewgiddy in measuring their elevation.
Here and there, to the right and left, they passed side canyons, blackand forbidding, like cells set in the walls of a mighty prison.
In the afternoon these side canyons became more frequent, and as theyapproached one Sam saw that a stream of clear water was pouring out frombetween its walls.
As this opening was on the east, or left bank, and in the direction ofHurley's Gulch, he determined to try and get the raft into it, and seeif they could find an avenue to the upper world through its bed.
He told Ulna of his purpose, and in an instant the young Ute had a polein his hand.
They could touch bottom at this point and as the current from the sidecanyon was not very strong, they succeeded in getting the raft in.
The bed of the stream was so narrow in places that Ike on one side andWah Shin on the other were enabled to help along by pulling at therocks.
It was growing dark again, and Sam, elated at their success so far,began to fear that they might not be able to reach a place where theycould make fast for the night, when all at once the canyon walls, as ifthey had been touched by the wand of a magician, expanded into abeautiful bowl-shaped valley.
This valley, in the dim light, looked to be fully a quarter of a mile indiameter, and to the great surprise of all it had grassy banks; and astheir feet touched the sward the delicious odor of wild thyme and Indian
pinks filled the air.
They found enough dry wood to make a fire to warm up their meat.
"It looks to me," said Sam, as he sat quietly before the fire, for sometime after supper, "as if the worst is over, and that we can get toHurley's Gulch without much trouble from here."