again. Yet,
Wayland," and his voice grew stronger, "the red devils must indeed mean
to pass us free,--for there is Fort Dearborn, and, unless my sight
deceive me, the flag is up."

I lifted my eyes eagerly, and gazed northward where his finger pointed.

CHAPTER X

A LANE OF PERIL

We passed a group of young cottonwoods, the only trees I had noted
along the shore; and a few hundred feet ahead of us, the ridge of sand,
which had obscured our westward view so long, gradually fell away,
permitting the eye to sweep across the wide expanse of level plain
until halted by a distant row of stunted trees that seemed to line a
stream of some importance. As Captain Wells spoke, my glance, which
had been fixed upon these natural objects, was instantly attracted by a
strange scene of human activity that unfolded to the north and west.

The land before us lay flat and low, with the golden sun of the early
afternoon resting hot upon it, revealing each detail in an animated
panorama wherein barbarism and civilization each bore a conspicuous
part. The Fort was fully a mile and a half distant, and I could
distinguish little of its outward appearance, save that it seemed low
and solidly built, like a stockade of logs set upon end in the ground.
It appeared gloomy, grim, inhospitable, with its gates tightly closed,
and no sign of life anywhere along its dull walls; yet my heart was
thrilled at catching the bright colors of the garrison flag as the
western breeze rippled its folds against the blue background of the sky.

But it was outside those log barriers that our eyes encountered scenes
of the greatest interest,--a mingling of tawdry decoration and wild
savagery, where fierce denizens of forest and plain made their barbaric
show.

No finer stage for such a spectacle could well be conceived. Upon one
side stretched the great waste of waters; on the other, level plains,
composed of yellow sand quickly merging into the green and brown of the
prairie, while, scattered over its surface, from the near lake-shore to
the distant river, were figures constantly moving, decked in gay
feathers and daubed with war-paint. Westward from the Fort, toward the
point where a branch of the main river appeared to emerge from the
southward, stood a large village of tepees, the sun shining yellow and
white on their deerskin coverings and making an odd glow in the smoke
that curled above the lodge-poles. From where we rode it looked to be