Busy in their labors over their maps, and in the recording of their compass bearings, for half an hour they forgot their messenger, until a shout called their attention. He was waving his hands, wildly beckoning. Yonder, alone in the plains, bewildered, hopeless, wandering, was the lost man, who did not even know that the river was close at hand! Shannon's escape from a miserable fate was but one more instance of the almost miraculous good fortune which seemed to attend the expedition.
"And she was lucky man, too!" said Drouillard, a half-hour later, nodding toward the opposite shore. "Suppose he is on that side, she'll not go in today!"
"Two weeks on his foot!"
They looked where he pointed. Red men, mounted, were visible, a dozen of them, motionless, on the rim of the farther bank, watching the explorers as they began to make ready for their journey. Lewis turned his great field glass in that direction.
"Sioux!" said he. "They are painted, too. I fancy," he added, as he turned toward his associates, "that this must be Black Buffalo's band of Tetons you've told us about, Drouillard."
"Oui, oui, the Teton!" exclaimed Drouillard. "I'll not spoke his language, me; but she'll be bad Sioux. Prenez garde, Capitaine, prenez garde pour ces sauvages, les Sioux!"
And indeed this warning proved well founded. More Indians gathered in toward the shore that afternoon, riding along, parallel with the course of the boats, whooping, shouting to the boatmen. At nightfall there were a hundred of them assembled--painted warriors, decked in all their savage finery, bold men, showing no fear of the newcomers.
The white men went about their camp duties in a mingling of figures, white and red. Lewis lined up his men, beat his drums, fired the great swivel piece to impress the savages.
"Bring out the flag, Will," said he. "Put up our council awning. I'll have a parley with their head man. Can you make him out, Drouillard?"
"He'll said he was Black Buffalo," replied the Frenchman. "I don't understand him very good."
"Take him these things, Drouillard," said Lewis. "Give him a lace coat and hat, a red feather, some tobacco, and this medal. Tell him that when we get ready we'll make a talk with him."
But Black Buffalo and his men were not in the mood to wait for their parley. They crowded down to the bank angrily, excitedly, even after they had received the presents sent them. Lewis, busy about the barge, which had not yet found a good landing-place, turned at the sound of his friend's voice, to see Clark struggling in the grasp of two or three of the Sioux, among them the Teton chief. A savage had his hand flung about the mast of the pirogue, others laid hold upon the painter. Clark, flushed and angry at the touch of another man's hand, had whipped out his sword, and the Indians were drawing their bows from their cases.