Page:The Prairie Flower; Or, Adventures In the Far West.djvu/128

 until I

fancied I could detect the pattering of a horse's feet upon the hard earth. Nearer and nearer it came, and I found my im pression confirmed. It was a horse at full speed but what could it mean? Sud denly Teddy sprang up, and tightly grasped his rifle. We now both darted outside the circle of wagons: By the dim I light we beheld a horse and rider rapidly dashing up the valley. The next moment the beast was reined in to a dead halt, some twenty yards distant.

"Who goes there?" I cried.

"A friend," was the answer, in a clear, silvery voice. " Be on your guard, or you will be surprised by Indians!"

Heavens! I should know those tones! Could it be possible!

"Prairie Flower!" I called.

"Ha! who are you?" was the answer; and the next moment the coal black pony, and his beautiful, mysterious rider, stood by my side.

"Prairie Flower! and do we indeed meet again !"

"Who are you?" said she, bending down to scrutinize my features. " Ha! is it indeed possible!" she continued, with no little agitation, as she recognised rr.c. "How you have altered! I I but I have no time to talk! I must not be seen here. It would cost me my life. I may see you again. Be on your guard! How strange! I never thought to see you again. I must go!"

These sentences were uttered rapidly, almost incoherently, while the voice of the speaker trembled, and there seemed a wildness in her manner. On concluding, she tightened her rein as if to depart but still lingered as if to add something more.

"Heaven bless you, Prairie Flower! you are always seeking the good of others."

She sighed, turned her head away, and strove to say, carelessly :

"Your friend I I is well is he?"

"Alas! I cannot answer."

"Ha! what! how!" she cried, quickly, turning full upon me, and grasping my arm, which chanced to be resting on the neck of her pony. " Explain!" and I felt her grasp tighten.

I hurriedly related our last parting.

For. some moments she did not reply, while her whole frame trembled violently.

At length she withdrew her hand, tight ened the rein again, and gasped the singla word,

"Farewell!"

Ere I had time for another syllable, her horse was speeding away like the wind; and ere I had recovered from my surprise, both were lost in the darkness.

So sudden had all this happened, that I felt completely bewildered. Was I dreaming? A word from Teddy aroused me. Despatching him to the trappers, to ask their assistance, I flew back to the larger encampment and gave the alarm. Instantly the whole camp was in commo tion : and amid the screams of women and children, the men grasped their arms, and sprung from their coverts excited and pale, but ready to meet danger without flinching, in defence of those whose lives they prized above their own.

I hurried round the camp to quiet the fears of the weaker members, by telling them there was little or no danger that the Indians, if they came at all, finding us ready to receive them, would not risk an attack. In this, much to my surprise, I was shortly aided by Lilian and Eva, both of whom displayed a heroic coolness, and presence of mind, and fearlessness of dan ger, fur which, among all the virtues I had allowed them, I had given them no credit whatever. Had I been required, before this event, to select the most timid of the party, I should have pointed them out first. Modest, unassuming, retiring in their manners, weak in physical powers, unused to hardships and dangers, with a superior refinement in thought and feeling I had supposed them the first to shrink at anv alarm. Judge of my astonishment, then, when I saw them gliding over the earth, as over a soft carpet, and, with scarcely an appearance of fear, by their acts and language, shaming the more frightened to silence. The arrival of the trappers, too well armed and their seeming indifference to danger, reassured all in a measure, and served to restore order and quiet.

Hastily organizing, we marched outside the wagons, and took up our position so as to watch and guard any point of compass, not knowing at which the foe might make his appearance and