Bill Biddon, Trapper; or, Life in the NorthwestEllis, Edward Sylvester
General
Bill Biddon, Trapper; or, Life in the Northwest
Ellis, Edward Sylvester
Hunting -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction; Trappers -- Fiction; Western stories
At any rate, the affair was singular and unaccountable. The Indian was
probably gazing upon me this moment, and I looked furtively about,
half-expecting to see his glowing eye-balls in the thick shrubbery
around.
It was now growing late, and I cast about for some place in which to
spend the night. The wind still blew, and a fire was indispensable. I
gathered several armfuls of twigs and branches, and pitched my camp
upon the banks of a small rippling stream, a tributary of the river
referred to. Here, after the expense of an almost incredible amount of
patience, I succeeded in starting a fire, and with the feeling of a
conqueror inhaled its glowing, cheerful warmth. The pangs of hunger
now began to make themselves felt, as I had tasted no food the entire
day. The grizzly bear lay but a short distance away, and, after a few
minutes’ debate, I concluded that he should answer the demands of
nature.
As I drew my knife, and started toward him, a shadow glided from
before me, and I saw a human form stealthily make off. I stopped
suddenly and hesitated, but finally went on, cut a piece from the
animal, and returned. Just before I reached the crackling fire, I
again saw a shadow flit before me and disappear. It was too distinct
and plain to be a freak of imagination, and it was evident that
something or somebody was following or watching. Whoever he might be,
I determined that, upon the first opportunity, he should have the
contents of my gun for his temerity.
The consciousness that some one was near at hand, watching, perhaps,
every motion, lessened my appetite somewhat. However, after skewering
a good-sized piece and roasting it, I made a hearty supper; and, as I
produced my inseparable pipe, I think, had it not been for the
instinctive presence of that invisible form, my enjoyment would have
been complete.
The pleasant warmth of the fire, the soothing effect of the pipe,
gradually threw a dreamy, half-unconsciousness over me, into which I
sunk with willing delight. As my listless eyes rested upon the glowing
embers, there came a strain of wonderful music, like the faint tones
of some distant wind-harp. I stirred not, but listened, fearing to
move lest the spell should be broken. Again came the wave of heavenly
harmony, swelling to the most inspiring grandeur, and then dying away
into faint, fluctuating tremors, fainter and fainter, till the
strained ear could just feel their waves. It sounded in the air above
me, and at that moment I knew that there was nothing real in my
experience, and I listened breathlessly for it again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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