The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-13

and knew that another night had set In
The Indian and l had not exchanged a
word during all this time; indeed. Black
Eagle scarcely had moved from his first
position since we first laid ourselves down
| made one unbroken sleep through the
night, ana woke TO find myself for the
first time in our Information. thoroughly
hungry | pulled the fold of my blanket
from before my face and saw that the
snow was no longer pressed closely about
us. but that we lay in a little cault-shaped
space. This had been caused by the melt
ing OF the snow next us through the heat
of our bodies; but the water thus iber-
ated, instead of dropping upon us, had
been drawn by capillary attraction into
the surrounding snow, so that our blan-
kets were perfectly dry l was warm
too warm-for my body was moist ana
steaming with perspiration There was a
clear foot of space all. around us. and
enough light came through the snow 10
enable the Indian and to distinguish each
other.
J" Do YOU think the storm is over?' l
asked, my voice sounding STRANGELY as
spoke. For answer the Indian took the
cleaning rod of his rifle and began to work
1t up through the snow above his head
il was slow job, and he had TO widen a
space to admit the whole length of his arm
his purpose. AT last he withdrew il. and
through the hole that he had made a ray
of sunlight rifted down to where we We're
Black Eagle put his eye to the hole and
looked up through il.
m! All right. No more snow he
grunted. Guess we go now
With his hunting knife he began to cut
a passage upward, following the opening
that he had made with the cleaning rod
IL .1ra. rtK
enough to admit his body and permit him
to use his arm freely. The snow, as it fell
into the opening where we were. | dis
trihuted where it would be least in the
way. First Black Eagle worked lying on
his back, then he sat up, with his head in
the opening, then rose to his knees, and at
last he got upon his feet, and | could tell
by the sound of his voice and movements
and by the light streaming down into the
hole that he was working with head and
shoulders in the open air. The snow, pack
ed by the wind and then frozen, was as
solid almost as chalk. He lifted himself
clear of the hole and cut away the snow
chunks, throwing them to right and left
until he had enlarged the opening so that
| could easily pass out the saddle blank
cts, antelope quarters, and our other ef-
fects and then follow myself l emerged
into dazzling sunlight and a world OF snow.
Plain, valley and distant hills and noun
tains all wore white and every gully was
filed level to its brink with snow so solid
that in moving about upon 1t our feet left
scarcely an impression. Underneath the
snow, over half of Dakota, we knew were
buried cattle, horses and sheep, which
would not be discovered until IL melted
in the spring. / looked for my ranch,
which ordinarily would be plainly in view
from the ridge, but | could now see only
the chimney and part of the roof among
the drifts. Fortunately, / had a pair OF
green goggles in my pocket with which to
protect myself from snow blindness. His
blanket pulled over his head ans 4ertd
the same purpose as goggles for the In
dian The air was cold, though sunny. and
the snow was hard enough everywhere
to walk on without slumping The hands
of my watch. which l had wound twice
while under the snow, were at noon when
we started for the ranch. We got there at
O'Clock in the afternoon, and 1 was hum
cry and faint enough, as the Indian and
l sat down to the first food we had to
eat in over two days. 1t had been thought
at the ranch that l probably had persisted
in the blizZard--that / certainly had If the
storm had caught Inc between Marstou
and the ranch-and the men looked at me
as If | were ghost returned Black Eagle
was hungry like myself, but beyond that,
he showed no signs of having gone th1,jug
anything unusual. As for me, 1t was years
before / cared even 10 think of my expe-
rieuce and of what would have happened
if had not fallen in with the Old Indian
just as I did"