Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-08-18
CHAPTER XIV.
HOW UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE
GREAT BEAR.

HOW UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE
GREAT BEAR.
Twas Richard Jennifer who first
broke the noontide silence of the mou
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 what the good
Lord fetched us here for-to find out"
was Yeates' rejoinder. do o and
the chief, Cap'n John, circumambylate
this here pitfall yon way, whilst Cap'n
Dick and / go t'other way round. By
tirne we've made the circuit and fined
company again, l reckon Wen know for
sartin whether r no they climm' the
mountaing to get in"
So when we had breathed us a little
the circuiting was begun, Ephraim
Ye2tes and Jennifer going toward the
lower end of the sink, n the Catawba
and l in the opposite direction.
Since we must examine 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
Z viii ISll " Allo Nou a
march a soldier till he be too thin to
cast a shadow if only he hath ease Of
his footgear.
Taking 1T all in ali, it proved a slow
business, this looping of the sunken
valley; and 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.
r~-ot.- -wNKE@ 1910 -
haste to compare notes. There was lit
tie enough to add to the common fund
OF information, and the mystery of the
lost trail remained a 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 q
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.
AS for the hunter and Richard, they
had made a discovery which might
stand for what 1t was worth. At it's
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
vas evidently tunneled by the stream,
since the latter had no visible outlet
Inasmuch as the most favorable point
of espial pon the camp below was the
cliff whence we had first looked down
into the sink, we harked back thither,
passing o the lower end of the
valley and yet along the barrier ridge.
Plan we had none as yet, for the pre-
liminary TO any attSmpt at a rescue
must be some better knowledge Of the
way into and out of F~alconnet's cum
ningly chosen stronghold. True, we
might win in n out again by the
ravine which the chief and / had ex-
plored at the upper end. and Dick was
for trying this when the night should
give us the curtain of darkness for a
shield. But the old hunter would hold
this forlorn hope in reserve as a last
resort.
Sort il out for yourself. Cap'n Dick"
he argued. "Whatsomedever we make
out TO do-four on us ag'inst that there
whole enduring army o. their'n-has
got to be one on the keen jump, with
q toler'ble plain hoss-road for ths