Page:California Digital Library (IA openingwestwithl00sabirich).pdf/70

 "Here," he bade. Peter scurried to him. "Get down in for'd," and Pat pointed to the open door of the forecastle or wooden house that had been built in the bows, under a higher deck. "Stow yourself away an' kape quiet. Ye'll find a place."

Peter darted in. It was a room lined with beds in tiers from floor to ceiling: the white warriors' sleeping-room. Clothing was hanging against the far end; down the centre was a narrow table. Like a cat again, Peter sprang upon the table, scrambled into the highest of the bunks on this side, and came to the far-end wall. The wall did not meet the roof; it was a bulkhead partition dividing off the room from the remainder of the bows. Peter thrust his arm in over the top, and could feel, there beyond, a solid bale on a level with the bunk. He wriggled in over, landed cautiously, explored with hands and feet, in the darkness—and stretched out in a space that had been left between the ballast of extra supplies and the deck above. Good!

That warm August night the "'Nited States" men of Captains Lewis and Clark slept on the sand, in the open air, by the river; and in the tent of the captains slept Chief Little Thief. But Patrick Gass, when relieved from guard duty, slept in the forecastle, near Peter—that being, as he yawned, "more convanient."