The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-08-18
CHAPTER XIV.
HOW UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE
GREAT BEAR.

L III ~
GREAT BEAR.
Twas Richard Jennifer who first
broke the noontide silence of the noun
tain top, voicing the query which was
thrusting sharp at all of us.
Now how in the name Of all the
fiends did they make Shift to burrow
from yonder bag-bottom into this"'
he would say.
"Ez l allow, that's jest VIA the good
Lord fetched us here tor-to find out"
was Yeates' rejoinder. do you II
the chief, Cap'n John, circumambylate
this here pit1all yon way, whilst Cap'n
Dick and l go t'other way round. By
time we've made the circuit and fined
company again, l reckon Well know for
sartin whether r no they climm' the
mOuntaing to get ~
So when we had breathed us a little
the circuiting was begun, Ephraim
Yeates and Jennifer going toward the
lower end of the sink. and the Catawba
and l In the opposite direction.
Since we must Xamin closely every
rift and crevice in the boundary cliff.
it was a most tedious undertaking; and
| do remember how my great trooper
boots, sun-drying on my feet, made
every step a wincing agony. They say
an army goes upon it's belly, but an old
campaigner will tell you that you can
march a soldier till he be too thin to
! cast a shadow if only he hath ease Of
his footgear.
Taking it all in all, it proved a slow
business, this looping of the sunken
valley: n when we had worked
around TO the eastern cliff and to a
meeting point with the old hunter and
Richard Jennifer, the sun was level in
our faces and the day was waning.
Coming together again, we made
haste to ompa notes. There was lit
tie enough to add to the common FUND
of information. and the mystery of the
lost trail remained Il mystery. True,
we, the Indian and | had found a ra-
vine at the extreme upper end Of the
valley through which. we thought, a
sure footed horse might be led at a
pinch. up or down; but this ravine had
not been used by the powder train, and
apart from it there was no practicable
horse path leading down from the
plateau.
LAS for the hunter and Richard, they
had made a discovery which nigh,
stand for what it was worth. At Its
lower extremity the sunken valley was
separated from the great gorge with.
out only by a ridge which was no more
than a huge dam; and this diking ridge
was evidently tunneled by the stream
since the latter had no visible outlet.
Inasmuch as the most favorable poin
of espial upon the camp below was tn
cliff whence we had first looked dowr
into the sink, we harked back thither
passing around the lower end of the
valley and yet along the barrier ridge
Plan we had none as yet, for the pre-.
liminary to n attempt at a rescue
must be some better knowledge of tn,
way into and out of Falconnet's cum
ningly chosen stronghold. True, w,
might win in and out again by tn,
ravine which the chief and l had ex
plored at the upper end. and Dick wa,
for trying this when the night SHOULD
give us the curtain of darkness for
shield. But the old hunter would holt
this forlorns hope in reserve as a las
resort.
Sort it out for yourself. Cap'n Dick,
he argued. "Whatsomedever we max,
out to do-four on US ag'inst tina Their,
whole enduring army O. their'n-ha
got to be done on the keen jump, witt
la toler'ble plain hoss-road for tn,