"Mon Dieu, what is it?" Julie hastened away to her mistress, her
bright eyes widened and gleaming with alarm.
"What has happened my mistress?"
"Oh! is that all it is? Why Julie, I am just as silly as you are. I
stooped to pick up what I thought a little bramble, but when I laid
my hand upon it, it moved; and then went under the ground. It was a
gopher. I am now rebuked for chiding the fears of my little maid."
"But anybody would scream at touching a live thing like that on the
ground. It was foolish, though, to be frightened at a bird."
Generous, sweet little Julie!
They now busied themselves with their supper, brewing some tea in a
shallow pan; and when they had spread their store of provisions they
sat down by the side of the fire, and ate their meal of home-made
bread and cold meat. It would have gladdened the heart of the most
withered monk to see those two healthy, plump little maidens in the
flickering fire light, their garments loosened, their eyes glowing,
their cheeks and lips in hue like the cherry, eating slice after
slice of bread and meat, and draining cup after cup of the fragrant
tea.
"Now Julie," Annette said rising, after the precious maiden had
eaten enough to make some miserable philosopher ill for a week of
dyspepsia, "I shall creep out and make a reconnaissance." And
buckling on her belt, with its large bright-bladed knife, and her
ready revolver, she went away softly and cunning as a cat. The very
field-mouse could have known nothing of her coming till her sweet
foot was upon its head: and when she came in sight of the hostile
camp fire with the dull scarlet glow that the mass of dying embers
threw out, she stooped so low that a spectator near by would have
imagined that the dark thing moving across the level was a prairie
dog.
At last she was at the very edge of the bluff, and was peering
between the branches at the party, about the flight of an arrow
within. Captain Stephens was there, full in the light, his arms and
legs fast bound, and tied to a sturdy white oak tree. Near a poplar,
a few paces distant, lay his comrade, likewise bound and fastened to
a tree. Most of the Indians were asleep; the remainder lolled about,
showing no evidence of keeping vigil. Jean she could not perceive;
and she believed, and was no doubt right, that he was sleeping.
"It is well," the maiden ejaculated in a little whisper; and she
returned swiftly and noiselessly as a shadow to her own camp fire.
"Most of them sleep; and presently there will not be an open eye
among the braves. Ah, Julie, if you but saw how they have him
bound--both of the captives, I mean." And her eyes flashed, while her
hand made a little blind, convulsive motion toward her pistol. "We
have no time now to waste; help me to pack." In the space of a few
minutes everything was ready for a start, and the horses led away to
another bluff which loomed up about five hundred yards distant. Julie
could not divine the reason for this precaution, but Annette
whispered, "Child, the light of our fire might, at the first moment of flight
lead to recapture, should any of my plans fail; and it would take us
a half an hour to extinguish the embers by fetching water in our
little pans."