The girl pulled the hood of a cloak she wore, over her head and over her face, and, looking backward so that the front folds of this hood were turned down the river, kept the boat in that direction going before the tide.
It was not until now that the upper half of the man came back into the boat. His arms were wet and dirty, and he washed them over the side.
They ran along the bank until they were opposite to the
boats, then throwing by their weapons and buffalo robes, plunged into the river, waded and swam off to the
boats and surrounded them in crowds, seeking to shake hands with every individual on board; for the Indians have long since found this to be the white man's token of amity, and they carried it to an extreme.
I looked for the
boat, and, while Wolf Larsen cleared the boat- tackles, saw it lift to leeward on a big sea an not a score of feet away.
And they seemed hurt at what they evidently regarded as a mean and ungrateful act on the part of the
boat.
The wall of ice was five feet above the ground on which the
boat rested.
Instead, each
boat lay quietly by its net, while the fishermen favored us with not the slightest attention.
At length I told them there would be nothing done, in my opinion, till night; and then, if they did not return to the
boat, perhaps we might find a way to get between them and the shore, and so might use some stratagem with them in the
boat to get them on shore.
It comes of flowing on so quiet, and of that there rippling at the
boat's head making a sort of a Sunday tune.
We should observe that this year, the Rocky Mountain Company were pushing their way up the rivers, and establishing rival posts near those of the American Company; and that, at the very time of which we are speaking, Captain Sublette was ascending the Yellowstone with a keel
boat, laden with supplies; so that there was every prospect of this eager rivalship being carried to extremes.
I saw each of them swell up the misty line of the horizon, far, far away beyond the derelict brig, and the next moment, with a slight friendly toss of our
boat, it had passed under us and was gone.
The sand lay in billows, and was in places very uneven, so that the
boat rocked dangerously from side to side; but it never quite tipped over, and the speed was so great that the shaggy man himself became frightened and began to wonder how he could make the ship go slower.