The Quest of the Four: A Story of the Comanches and Buena Vista. Altsheler Joseph Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ was the surface of the wide but shallow creek, showing through the dusk. The banks were five or sixfeet high, and there was a broad bed of sand extendingon either side of the water.

      Phil glanced up the stream, and saw that it flowedvery close to the medicine lodge. An idea sprang up atonce in his alert brain. Here was his line of approach.He dropped softly down the bank, taking his chance ofquicksand, but finding instead that it was fairly firm tothe feet. Then, hugging the bank, he advanced withnoiseless tread toward the medicine lodge. Chance andhis own quick mind served him well. His feet did notsink more than a few inches in the sand, and the bankcontinued at its uniform height of about six feet. Hecontinued slowly, pausing on occasion to listen, becausehe could see nothing in the village. But occasional straybeams from the fires, passing over his head, fell upon thecreek, lingering there for a moment or two in a red glow.Above him on the bank, but some distance back, the firesseemed to grow, and the monotonous beat of the singinggrew louder. Phil knew that he was now very near themedicine lodge, and he paused a little longer than usual, leaning hard against the sandy bank with a sort ofinvoluntary impulse, as if he would press his body into it toescape observation.

      He looked up and saw two or three boughs projectingover the bank. Then the medicine lodge was somedistance away, perhaps fifteen or twenty yards, and, therefore, the adventure would increase in peril! Anotherglance at the boughs reassured him. Perhaps there wasa little grove between the creek and the medicine lodge, and it would afford him hiding! The largest of theboughs, amply able to support his weight, was not morethan three or four feet above the bank, and, climbingcautiously the sandy slope, he grasped it and drewhimself up. Then he slid along it until he came to the crotchof the tree, where he crouched, holding his rifle in onehand.

      He was right in his surmise about the grove, althoughit was narrower than he had supposed, not more thanseven or eight yards across at the utmost. But the treeswere oak, heavy-limbed and heavy-trunked, and theygrew close together. Nevertheless, the light from someof the fires showed through them, and at one side loomedthe dark mass of the medicine lodge. As nearly as hecould see, it was built directly against some of the trees.He crawled from his tree to the one next to it, and thento a third. There he stopped, and a violent fit ofshuddering seized him. The trees were occupied already.

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