ernately stop short and dive violently forward,
and his position upon her back will be somewhat diversified and
extraordinary. At one time he will clasp her affectionately, to avoid
the blow of a bough overhead; at another, he will throw himself back
and fling his knee forward against the side of her neck, to keep it
from being crushed between the rough bark of a tree and the equally
unyielding ribs of the animal herself. Reynal was cursing incessantly
during the whole way down. Neither of us had the remotest idea where we
were going; and though I have seen rough riding, I shall always retain
an evil recollection of that five minutes' scramble.

At last we left our troubles behind us, emerging into the channel of
a brook that circled along the foot of the descent; and here, turning
joyfully to the left, we rode in luxury and ease over the white pebbles
and the rippling water, shaded from the glaring sun by an overarching
green transparency. These halcyon moments were of short duration. The
friendly brook, turning sharply to one side, went brawling and foaming
down the rocky hill into an abyss, which, as far as we could discern,
had no bottom; so once more we betook ourselves to the detested woods.
When next we came forth from their dancing shadow and sunlight, we found
ourselves standing in the broad glare of day, on a high jutting point of
the mountain. Before us stretched a long, wide, desert valley, winding
away far amid the mountains. No civilized eye but mine had ever looked
upon that virgin waste. Reynal was gazing intently; he began to speak at
last:

"Many a time, when I was with the Indians, I have been hunting for
gold all through the Black Hills. There's plenty of it here; you may
be certain of that. I have dreamed about it fifty times, and I never
dreamed yet but what it came true. Look over yonder at those black rocks
piled up against that other big rock. Don't it look as if there might
be something there? It won't do for a white man to be rummaging too much
about these mountains; the Indians say they are full of bad spirits; and
I believe myself that it's no good luck to be hunting about here after
gold. Well, for all that, I would like to have one of these fellows up
here, from down below, to go about with his witch-hazel rod, and I'll
guarantee that it would not be long before he would light on a gold
mine. Never mind; we'll let the gold alone for to-day. Look at those
trees down below us in the hollow;