The Crowd Fell Back
On Each Side And Stood Looking On.
When we were half across the camp
an idea occurred to us.
The Pawnees were probably in the
neighborhood of the Caches; we might tell the Arapahoes of this and
instigate them to send down a war party and cut them off, while we
ourselves could remain behind for a while and hunt the buffalo. At
first thought this plan of setting our enemies to destroy one another
seemed to us a masterpiece of policy; but we immediately recollected
that should we meet the Arapahoe warriors on the river below they
might prove quite as dangerous as the Pawnees themselves. So
rejecting our plan as soon as it presented itself, we passed out of
the village on the farther side. We urged our horses rapidly through
the tall grass which rose to their necks. Several Indians were
walking through it at a distance, their heads just visible above its
waving surface. It bore a kind of seed as sweet and nutritious as
oats; and our hungry horses, in spite of whip and rein, could not
resist the temptation of snatching at this unwonted luxury as we
passed along. When about a mile from the village I turned and looked
back over the undulating ocean of grass. The sun was just set; the
western sky was all in a glow, and sharply defined against it, on the
extreme verge of the plain, stood the numerous lodges of the Arapahoe
camp.
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