Kootenai County Republican. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1899-1903, 1899-08-11


order to explore a certain part Of the
surrounding country. He found 1t nec-
essary to split up the herd on account
of the pasturage; to take about q
thousand head Of cattle up the valley
some 30 or 40 miles. and. fencing off the
entrance to some good grassy pocket in
the ranges. leave them there. Keeping
the cattle in hand had begun to be very
troublesome on account Of the advanced
1eason of the year. Gordon therefore
said that Savile. DAILY. Jack and I
should go with him and drive the cattle
before us up the valley. Moreover. Miss
Mackenzie had been asking him for the
last few days to make trip Of the
kind. and he thought he might as we'll
take her and his sister also. They had
lots of pack horses, and could pack a
tent for them and all they might want.
Besides. they would be safer with us
than if left at the station. On this point
had my doubts
Everything had been arranged and
we were to start on the morrow DAILY,
Mooney and couple Of blacks went
out and. mastering the cattle. drove
them some 10 miles up the river SO that
we could conveniently pick them up
next day. Gordon. Jack and got the
pack saddles out and made up the ra-
tions with such things as we would re-
quire for a six days trip. In the after
noon Norah Mackenzie came over to the
store She was evidently in high spirits
|She wanted some cartridges for her
small sporting rifle and some for a
|small Smith & Wesson revolver
After / had served her she tripped
loft, and realized how near had been
Ito telling her what she had become to
me. But the time was not yet. "All
things come round to him who will but
wait. said to myself.
Next morning after breakfast we
made start. leaving Mooney and two
other hands at the station Our party
consisted Of the two women. Gordon,
Savile, DAILY, Jack. myself and couple
Of black boys. With us we had eight
pack horses. Gordon and DAILY, with
the blacks. rode on ahead to drive up
the cattle. l found myself with Jack
leading the way, Norah Mackenzie and
Elsie Gordon following close upon us.
For several miles the creek was
setraight as an arrow-a succession of
long, deep water holes, on which the
Fpurple and white water lilies bloomed
and on which hundreds of wild fowl
rested, while on the banks the pelican.
the snow white ibis and other gaudy
and long legged birds enlivened the
scene
1t was significant that all along the
banks of the creek there We're piles Of
empty mussel shells, which showed that
it was veritable mine of wealth to the
foraging black fellow. At times we
came to places where the blacks had
camped. It was rather startling to count
the number of their fires. In some
camps alone there must have been ut
least 500 or 600 Where were those
blacks nowH
Toward evening we came to beau
tifully grassed, lightly timbered mead
ow. Here Gordon said it would be as
we'll to leave the cattle until We ex-
We chose little ironstone ridge, where
we could guard against surprise from
the blacks, and camped for the night
Next morning by daybreak we were
all up and stirring Savile boiled the
billy. the black boys rounded up the
horses. while Jack and went down to
the creek and had swim It was Cor
don's intention to push through the
gap which We saw to the south and
explore the country which lay beyond
and to the west. He thought it was not
unlikely that the squatter. on his way