The Missouri Outlaws. Aimard Gustave
know how much I love you."
"I know you say so; but this is the favour I ask: don't start until you see me again."
"Hem! But – "
"I must get home on important business at once. My house is but twenty miles distant; I shall soon be back."
"But when?" cautiously asked the emigrant.
"Tomorrow, or the next day at the latest."
"That is a long delay," continued Joshua.
"I do not deny it. But as your paradise, your El Dorado, your beautiful country will not probably run away, you are bound to reach it sooner or later. Besides," urged Samuel, "it is important, very important, we should meet again."
"As you will, my brother," sighed Joshua; "I give you my word to wait until the day after tomorrow at seven o'clock in the morning – no later."
"That will suit me admirably," cried the farmer; "so good-bye for the present."
And with a bow to all, and a smile to Diana, he hurried out of the room.
The crowd still patiently surrounded the inn and received him with a loud shout. He, however, took no notice, but rode off.
"We could not very well refuse, Susan," said the farmer to his wife.
"He is your brother," she replied.
"Our only relative," murmured Diana.
"True. Diana is right. Children, unharness the animals: we will stop here tonight."
And, to the great surprise of the gaping crowd, who hung about after the fashion of idlers, the horses of the emigrants were unyoked and taken to a shed, the waggons placed under cover, without the curious knowing the reason why.
On the morning of the second day Joshua Dickson, shortly after sunrise, was overlooking the horses being fed by his sons and servants, when a great noise was heard in the street, as of many waggons, and then there was a sharp knocking at the door of the inn.
Joshua hastily left the stables and took his way to the great room of the hotel.
He came face to face with Samuel Dickson, who had just been admitted by the sleepy innkeeper.
"Hilloa!" cried Joshua, "Is that you, my brother?"
"Who else do you suppose it is?" cried Samuel.
"Well, but I did not expect you so early."
"Well," said Samuel, drily, "I was afraid you might give me the slip, so I came early."
"An excellent idea, brother," said Mrs. Dickson, who now entered.
"And knowing how anxious my brother is to reach the promised land, I would not keep him waiting."
"Quite right," coolly replied Joshua; "and now about this important business?"
"Look out of window," drily answered Samuel.
Joshua obeyed, and saw five heavily-laden waggons, drawn each by horses, with about twelve hired men.
"Well," coolly observed Joshua, "what may be the meaning of all this?"
"It means," answered the farmer, "that as you have found yourself such a fool, it becomes my duty, as your elder brother, to come and look after you. I have sold up everything, and invested part, as you see."
"Oh, my brother!" cried Joshua, with tears in his eyes.
"Am I not your only relative? Wherever you go, I shall go – only there will now be two fools, but I am the bigger of the two. I talk like a wise man and act like a foolish child."
Uncle Samuel was adored by all the family, everyone was delighted, while Diana was radiant.
"Oh, my good uncle," she said, warmly embracing him, "it is for me you do this."
"Do you think," he whispered, "I ever meant to desert my niece?"
Two hours later the double caravan started on its way.
CHAPTER III.
A QUEER CUSTOMER
It was the beginning of the month of October, and some sharp frosts had rid the land of mosquitoes and gnats, which during the hot season abound in myriads near watercourses and beneath the leafy arches of the virgin forest, being one of its worst scourges.
A few minutes after the rising of the sun a traveller, mounted on a magnificent horse, wearing the costume of a prairie hunter, and whose general appearance indicated a white man, emerged at a walking pace from a high thicket, and entered upon a vast prairie, at that day almost unknown to the trappers themselves, those hardy explorers of the desert – and which was not far from the Rocky Mountains, in the centre of the Indian country, and nearly two thousand miles from any settlement.
This traveller was Oliver. He had, we see, already travelled a long distance.
Two months only had elapsed, during which, going always straight before him, he had traversed all the provinces of the young American republic, never stopping except to rest himself and horse; then he had passed the frontier and entered the desert.
Then he was happy. For the first time in his life he was free and unfettered, having cut himself off forever, as he thought, from the heavy trammels of civilisation.
Oliver had at once begun his apprenticeship as a hunter, and a rude apprenticeship it is, causing many of the boldest and bravest to retreat. But Oliver was no ordinary man; he was young, of rare vigour and address, and, above all, possessed that iron will which nothing stops, and which is the secret of great deeds; that leonine courage which laughs at danger, and that indomitable pride which made him, he thought, the equal of any living being. He therefore considered nothing impossible, that is to say, he felt he could not only do what anyone else had ever done, but even more, if he were called upon by extraordinary circumstances to try.
During two months he had met with numerous adventures. He had fought many a battle, and braved dangers before which the bravest might have retreated – perils of all kinds, from man, beast, and Nature herself.
A victor in every case, his audacity had increased, his energy had redoubled. His apprentice days were over, and he now felt himself a true runner of the woods, that is to say, a man whom no appalling sight, whom no dreadful catastrophe, would terrify – in fact, one who was only to be moved by the majestic aspect of nature.
He had paused as he left the thicket to examine the scene.
Before him was a valley through which flowed two rivers, which after some time joined and fell into the Missouri, whose vast lake surface appeared like a white vapoury line on the distant horizon. Upon a promontory projecting into the first river was a superb bosquet of palms and magnolias; the latter, shaped like a perfect cone, stood in lustrous verdure against the dazzling whiteness of the flowers, which, despite the season, were still blooming. These flowers were so large that Oliver could see them a mile off.
The great majority of these magnolias were over a hundred feet high; many were very much more.
To the right was a wood of poplars, overrun with vines of enormous size, which wholly concealed the trunks. They then ran to the top of the tree, then redescending along the branches, passed from one tree to another, mixing up with piquot, a kind of creeper which hung in garlands and festoons from every bough.
The young man could not take his eyes off the magnificent spectacle. Suddenly he started, as he made out a thin column of smoke rising from the centre of the magnolia thicket.
Now the presence of smoke denotes fire, and fire indicates human beings. In nine cases out of ten, in the desert, such human beings are enemies.
It is a harsh word, but it is certain that the most cruel enemy of man in the desert, his most terrible adversary, is his fellow man.
The sight of this smoke roused no excited feelings in the bosom of our adventurer; he simply saw that his weapons were in order, and rode straight for the magnolia valley. As it happened, a narrow path led exactly in that direction.
No matter whether he was to meet friends or foes, he was not sorry to