CHAPTER XI.
IN THE QUICKSANDS.
"There," said Hugh, one afternoon as they rode over a low ridge, anddown toward a stream flowing through a wide valley, "that's theMussellshell!"
"Well," said Jack, "it don't look to me like much of a river."
"Well, no," said Hugh, "it ain't; there's a heap of valley and mightylittle river. There ain't but one other river, that I know of, that'slong like this one, that carries as little water."
"What one is that, Hugh?" said Jack.
"That's Milk River," was the reply. "We cross that, or at least, theheads of it after we get into the Piegan country. That stream don't risein the mountains, but comes up out of a lot of springs and swamps on theprairie; so all the water it gets is what little melting snow drainsinto it in spring; and besides that, it flows through a gumbo country,and lots of the water soaks into the soil, so that by the middle ofsummer down near its mouth it is often plumb dry, or what water there isin it just stands in water holes; it don't run at all. Then, in spring,when the snow is melting and the rains are on, it often gets over itsbanks and floods the whole country."
"There don't seem to be much wood here, Hugh; where are you going tocamp?"
"Well," said Hugh, "we'll have to camp by some patch of sage-brush, anduse that and buffalo chips to cook with. There's plenty of wood upnearer to the mountains, but none down here."
Camp was made early in the afternoon, but after they had taken off thepacks, and Jack had unsaddled, he noticed that Hugh's horse still hadhis saddle on, and was feeding about the camp, dragging his rope andbridle.
"Why don't you unsaddle, Hugh?" he asked.
"Well," said Hugh, "I'm going to ride along the river apiece, and try topick a good place to cross; this here creek is mighty bad inspots--quicksands in the river and soap-holes along the bank, that youcan't see until you get right to 'em. It may take me half an hour tolook out a crossing to-night, and that may save us a horse, and anyhow,a whole lot of trouble in the morning."
After they had eaten and washed up the dishes, Hugh mounted and rode offup the stream. The horses were feeding close to the camp, and Jack tookhis rifle, and walking up to a little rise of ground, sat there,overlooking the camp and the wide valley. He had not been there verylong when something moving down the stream caught his eye, and as hewatched it, and it came nearer, he could see that it was a bird flying,and when still closer, he saw that the bird was big, and that thereseemed to be something long streaming out behind it. Just below the campit came down nearly to the water's surface, and suddenly threw out along neck, checked its flight, and let its long slender legs drop,alighting on a sand-bar. Jack saw then that it was a great heron orcrane, but larger than any that he had ever seen. He thought he wouldshoot it, and get Hugh to tell him just what it was; so after the birdhad stopped looking about, and had lowered its head and was walkingalong the bar, Jack quickly crept out of sight, and running down betweentwo ridges which hid him, got near enough to the bank to take a shot atthe bird. It was not easy to estimate how far off it was; it looked likeless than a hundred yards, but over the flat bottom and the water therewas nothing to measure the distance by except the bird's size. However,he took a careful shot at it with level sights, and was delighted to seeit spread its wings and fall forward on the sand. He walked to the edgeof the stream, wondering how he could get the bird. The distance acrossto the sand-bar was not great, but the water was muddy and whirling, andit was impossible to see bottom, or to guess whether if he stepped in hewould go over his shoes or his head. He looked about for a stick withwhich he might feel for the bottom, but of course there were no sticksthere. He put the butt of his gun into the water, but could not feel thebottom. Then he sat down, took off his shoes and stockings, and rolledup his trousers, and let himself down over the bank, feeling in thewater for bottom, but he could not touch it. The water felt thick, andhe could feel the little particles of soil striking against his legs.Getting up on the bank again he took his shoes in one hand and his riflein the other, and walked up the stream a little way, and there he againtried for bottom, but found none. He looked at the bird, so near to him,and did not feel like giving it up. It was hardly thirty feet away. Hefelt sure that he could throw a rope across to it.
This gave him an idea. Putting on his shoes, and thrusting his socksinto his pocket, he walked up to the camp and took a sling-rope off apack saddle, and then, with the axe and a picket-pin in his hand walkeddown to the stream. He now had in his mind two ways of getting the bird;one was to tie the picket-pin to the end of the rope, and try to throwit over the bird, and drag it into the water, and so, across. If hecould not do that, he made up his mind that he would drive thepicket-pin into the bank, tie the rope to it, strip off all his clothes,and, holding the rope, try to wade across the channel.
It was not hard to throw the picket-pin and rope over to where the birdlay, but it proved very hard to throw it so that the line could lieacross the bird. Once he did so, and began to pull in very gradually,but before the bird had been moved at all toward the water's edge thepin slipped up over it and came away.
Meantime, Hugh had ridden quite a long way up the stream, looking for acrossing, but finding none. Two or three places seemed inviting, but hishorse was afraid of them, and on investigating, Hugh found that badquicksands lay close to the bank. At length, however, he reached a pointwhere a deep buffalo trail came down to the water's edge, and wherebuffalo had crossed later. There were some stones in the bottom here,and Hugh, riding in, and crossing the stream so as to come out where thebuffalo trail appeared on the other side, found that he had a goodcrossing. Then he turned about and rode back to camp.
After Jack had thrown the picket-pin until he was thoroughlydiscouraged, he decided to try to cross, himself. He drove thepicket-pin firmly in the bank, and tied the sling-rope to it, undressed,took the coil of rope in his hand, and then let himself down from thebank into the water, very slowly. Before the water was up to hisshoulders his feet struck the bottom of coarse gravel, and he turned hisface toward the other bank, and holding the rope tightly, with the coilin his left hand, he began to go slowly out into the stream. The waterflowed with great violence, and two or three times nearly took him offhis feet. Soon, however, it shoaled a little, and he turned up thestream to reach the point of the sand-bar behind which there was aneddy. In a moment the water was only up to his knees, and he was justabout to spring forward to the bar when suddenly the bottom seemed togive out beneath his feet, and the water was up to his waist, while,piled around his legs, up to his knees, was a mass of heavy sand. Hetried to lift his feet out of it, but the sand clung like great weightsabout his legs and he could not move them. In a moment it flashed acrosshis mind that these must be the quicksands about which he had heard sooften, but of which he had known nothing. Stories told by Hugh andothers, of men and animals caught in this terrible, unyielding sandflashed across his mind as he struggled to free his feet. One pullseemed to loosen his right foot, and he lifted it a little way, but thisleft him with his knee bent, and made that leg useless. The sand seemedto be piling up higher around his legs, and now it was half way up tohis thighs. He was frightened.
All this had taken a very few moments and luckily he still held thesling-rope. He drew this tight, and throwing himself forward, so thathis body was almost horizontal, he pulled on the rope with all hismight, and at the same time tried to kick with his legs. In vain; hecould move neither of them, but his thighs, which before had been erect,bent forward, and now he could not get them back again; to keep his bodyerect he was obliged to lean backward. Every minute he could feel thatthe sand was higher on his legs, and he could also feel that the waterwas creeping up his body. It seemed but a few moments since his kneeswere out of the water, and now the water rippled against his chest. Whatwas going to happen? It could not be that he should drown here; and yetHugh had told him of men who had been drowned in just this way. He musttry again to get out. He must do something; he could not stand this.
Sudd
enly, he remembered something that Hugh was always saying; somethingthat he had said to him only two or three days before; the sense of itwas, that a man should always keep his wits about him; and as these oftrepeated words came into his mind he seemed suddenly to cool off, and tolose the excitement that he had been feeling. His mind worked fast, andhe said to himself, "Now, what would Hugh do if he were stuck here?" Hetried to think; then suddenly he bent down, and with his face close tothe water began to scrap away the sands from the sides of his thighs. Hehad been doing that only for a moment when he noticed something; thesand scraped away on the down-stream side of his body seemed to comeback at once; that scraped from the up-stream side did not come back,but left a hole. In a moment he comprehended what this meant; that onthe up-stream side of his legs the water was helping carry away thedisturbed sand, while on the down-stream side it was packing in thatsand all the time. In a moment he was working with both hands on theup-stream leg, and it took a very short time to clear this almost downto the knee, but below that he could not get. Suddenly, he threw himselfdown stream as hard as he could, wrenched his body to one side, and witha mighty pull dragged his left leg from its fetter, falling down in thewater so that its muddy flood covered him. He righted himself at once,and kept kicking with his left leg, for fear that it should again becomefast, and soon he had trodden a hard place, where for a little while hecould rest his foot, but the whirling sands soon covered it, and he wasobliged to keep it moving. Now the water had carried away the sand fromthe upper part of his right thigh, but he could not free it, nor evenmove it. Again despair seized him, and he did not know what to do. Helooked at the clear blue sky, at the brown prairie, and back at thehorses, quietly feeding near the camp, just as if no one anywhere aboutwas suffering and fearing, perhaps dying. Oh, if Pawnee were only here,and he could take hold of his tail.
Once more he tried to free his foot, struggling, jerking, pulling andwrenching the leg, until it was strained and sore, but the unyieldingsand held it as in a vise, and at length he stood still, almostexhausted. All the time he felt that the water was creeping up a littlehigher on his body. Now for a little while Jack entirely lost his selfcontrol. "What does it mean?" he asked himself in despair. "What isgoing to happen? Can it be that I am not going to get out? Have I got todrown here in sight of camp? Shan't I ever get back home, and see fatherand mother again, or uncle Will or Hugh? Was mother thinking about thiswhen she cried and kissed me at the train, and asked me to be careful? Ihaven't been careful, but it seems kind o' hard that she should have tosuffer because I am a fool. How badly father'll feel, too, and UncleWill and Hugh. They'll all think that they were to blame. Oh! I must getout, I can't die here;" and the poor boy again struggled until he wasexhausted. The water was now nearly up to his arm-pits, and he wasalmost worn out.
All at once, as he looked at the camp, he saw Hugh ride in among thehorses, stop and look about, as if trying to see where his companionwas. Jack's heart gave a great bound, and he called loudly, but Hugh didnot hear him, and began to swing himself out of the saddle. In despair,Jack yelled again, sending out a shrill, high-pitched scream whichreached the rider and made him throw his leg back over the saddle andturn in the direction of the river. Again Jack screamed, and Hughgalloped rapidly toward the bank, and in a moment saw the boy's whiteskin shining above the muddy water.
"Help, Hugh! help! I'm stuck," called Jack.
"All right, son," came Hugh's deep voice, "hold on a minute, we'll haveyou out." He galloped up to the very edge of the bank, sprang from thesaddle, and quickly freed his rope from the horse's neck, at the sametime throwing down the bridle rein. Then stepping a little to one side;he coiled the rope, made a careful cast, and the loop fell over Jack'shead. Jack caught it, drew up the loop under his arm-pits, and Hughquickly took in the slack; then he walked to his horse, drew the ropetight, and took a double turn of it about the saddle horn.
"Now, son," said Hugh, "we've got to pull you out, and if you're badlystuck, it's liable to stretch you considerable."
"No matter, Hugh; only get me out as quick as you can," said Jack. "I'vegot one leg free, there's only one to be pulled loose."
"Well," said Hugh, "we'll go as easy as we can, but it's liable to hurtyou considerable. What's this rope running into the water from thispin?"
"That's around my body, too," said Jack.
"Is it tied?" said Hugh.
"No," said Jack, "it's just wrapped around."
"Well, make it fast around your body, and then let me have what slackyou can. I'll pull on that rope, and have the horse pull on the other,and maybe that'll make it easier for you."
Jack tied the end of the rope about his body, and Hugh took in theslack; then he loosened the lariat, turned his horse so that his headwas away from the stream, again fastened the lariat to the saddle horn,and put the sling-rope over his own shoulder; then he called to Jack,"See if you can dig away the sand at all from around the leg that'sfast." Jack bent down until his face was under water, and worked hard,scraping away the sand, and again succeeded in getting it down to hisknee; then he raised his head again, and called to Hugh, "I've done thebest I can, the sand is down to my knee, but it's filling up again."
"Well," said Hugh, "we'll start. You must yell if you feel anythingbreaking." He bent forward, throwing his weight very slowly against thesling rope, and starting the horse very slowly at the same time. Theropes tightened, Jack was pulled forward until his face was under water,he felt as if he were being cut in two below his arms, as if his legswere being pulled out of their sockets, when suddenly, with a jerk, heflew forward, was buried under the muddy water, and then whirled overand over in it, and a moment later was dragged out on the bank by Hugh,who bent over him with an anxious face. Without a word Hugh lifted himin his arms and put him on the horse, which he led toward the camp.Before they had reached there, Jack had recovered his breath, and said,"Oh, Hugh, I don't think I ever was so glad to see anybody in my life asI was to see you ride in among the horses."
"Well," said Hugh, "I'm glad I got there just when I did. You must havehad a pretty bad time while you were stuck there."
"Yes," said Jack, "I don't think I will ever be so near drowning, andyet live."
"You're some cut by them ropes, I see," said Hugh. And Jack, lookingdown, saw about his body two red, bleeding marks, where the ropes hadrubbed his skin off. "Are your legs all right?" continued the old man.
"I think so," said Jack. "One of 'em feels longer than the other, but Ican move them both."
"Well," said Hugh, "I ought to have told you not to try to cross thiscreek; everybody knows it's bad for quicksands, but I ought to haveremembered that you didn't know nothing about this country, anyhow."
Hugh lifted Jack out of the saddle and laid him down on one of themantas, and then unrolled his bed and put him on that.
"Now," said Hugh, "I'm going to look you over and see if you're muchhurted." A quick, rough examination showed Hugh that, except for marksaround Jack's body where the ropes had pulled, and a long, deep scratchon his leg and foot, he was quite sound. Hugh took some sheep tallow,and melting it in the frying-pan, applied it warm to these scars; andthen, telling Jack to lie still, went down to the stream again andbrought back his rifle and clothes. Then he sat by him and talked tohim, telling stories of the Musselshell country, and the Indian fightsthat had taken place there, until darkness fell, and the boy droppedasleep.