The Portland daily press., 1892-12-15

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back to the cabin, where his presence
might be needed at any moment.
AS the skiff bore her farther away
from the blockhouse feeling OF lonell-
ness and dread crept over her.
It was strangely quiet out on the river.
Only the occasional cry of some night
bird along the shore, or the dismal yelps
of coyotes far off on the prairies, brofe
the awful stiffness which had succeeded
the confusion of the attack on Jordan's
hill.
Every stroke of the light oars carried
her farther and farther away from her
friends.
Finally she realized more forcibly the
full danger of her position.
Every lone tree and clump of bushes
that doomed up dimly on the banks on
either side of her in her imagination
must reveal lurking redskin.
She kept on, however, and strove dill
gently to drown all thought Of peril to
herself in thinking Of the great danger
of the settlers at Jordan's should the
siege De renewed with as much force as
the sCheyennes had displayed in the
early part of that night.
ssWhy should fear?" Lois asked her
self. '.He is risking his life for others.
Why should not Iss''
The thought encouraged her, and she
urged the skif forward with all possible
speed.
Tt was more than three miles by the
river to the Gilbert shanty, but Lois
made the trip without encountering any
adventure worth recording.
When she stepped from the skiff,
which she left at the foot of the bluffs,
all her old courage seemed to return.
She did not, however, lay all precau-
ton aside. She reconnoitered the path
before her very carfully as she went to-
ward the cave where the goods had been
concealed.
She had prepared to see her sod home
in ruins. Imagine her surprise when
it's rough dark outlines arose before her,
standing undisturbed in its rocky niche.
The Indians had not yet been there,
or else they had considered the rude
habitation of too vast insignificance to
destroy.
Reaching the little cavern up among
the bluffs she displaced the rocks at the
entrance with great cautiousness. TAX
ing out the can of powder she hastily
transferred it to the skiff.
With grateful heart Lois was push
ing the little boat away from the shore.
Suddenly the clouds overhead parted for
moment, letting the moon pour a
shower of silvery rays across the bosom
of the Arkansas. The next moment a
savage whoop from the opposite bank
rang wildly cut on the night air.
With sudden terror Lois realized
that she had been detected by a lurking
redskin.
Almost Immediately an arrow whizzed
through the air dangerously close to the
girls head.
Filled with alarm though she was, she
did not lose command of herself.
Grasping the oars firmly in her well
trained hands, she pushed dauntlessly
forward down the river.
IF she had but one enemy to contend
with she felt pretty confident of her own
ability to protect herself. Her fathers re-
volver, carefully loaded, lay by her side
I'D she knew how to discharge it.
She dared not, however, hope for so
..sy an escape. It was not at all likely
that, the Indian who had spied her was
alone.
CHANGING over her shoulder as she
piled the oars she caught sight of three
.stalwart .Cheyennes running rapidly
along a sand bar which extended for
some distance into the stream.
Another glance suficed to show her
that they were trying to nailoosen large
canoe which was partly imbedded in the
heavy sand.
ThS Canoe was one which her father
had made and had been carried by the
last rise of the river to the bar on the
opposite side. Having no immediate
use for the canoe he had not taken the
time to reclaim it from where the waves
had stranded it.
Little the Gilbert family, who had
enjoyed many trips down the river in
its rude cavity, dreamed that it would
ever serve their enemies as a craft in
which one of its members would be
pursued.
Lois observed with feeling Of thank
fitness that the Indians were founder
ing about in the sand, as if in a hopeless
condition of getting the canoe launched.
ssThey're in the quicksand at the edge
of the bar!' she cried to herself, shoot
ing another glance toward her foes.
ssAll the better for me! I'll have
good start before they get out of that
sand" .sss
With courageous heart Lois sent the
skiff, with it's doubly precious cargo,
bounding like a frightened bird over the
water. e.a.5
Two arrows sped after her, but she
was already too far from the vexed war
riors, struggling on the verge of the
quicksand, to prove an easy target.
A curtain of dense clouds again swept
across the moons face, rendering OBJ
jects along the river dim and uncertain,
and greatly increasing the vexation of
the Indians.
Not for one moment did Lois Gilbert
s1acLay tha o,,ea1 at which she WAS Ilrp-