abin came in sight, the
canvas interior of the wagon was hot in the long-risen sun. The lay of
the land had brought them close above the stream, but no one seemed to
be at the cabin on the other side, nor was there any sign of a ferry.
Groves of trees lay in the narrow folds of the valley, and the water
swept black between untenanted shores. Nothing living could be seen
along the scant levels of the bottom-land. Yet there stood the cabin as
they had been told, the only one between the rapids and the Okanagon;
and bright in the sun the Colville Reservation confronted them. They
came upon tracks going down over the hill, marks of wagons and horses,
plain in the soil, and charred sticks, with empty cans, lying where
camps had been. Heartened by this proof that they were on the right
road, John Clallam turned his horses over the brink. The slant steepened
suddenly in a hundred yards, tilting the wagon so no brake or shoe would
hold it if it moved farther.

"All out!" said Clallam. "Either folks travel light in this country
or they unpack." He went down a little way. "That's the trail too," he
said. "Wheel marks down there, and the little bushes are snapped off."

Nancy slipped out. "I'm unpacked," said she. "Oh, what a splendid hill
to go down! We'll go like anything."

"Yes, that surely is the trail," Clallam pursued. "I can see away down
where somebody's left a wheel among them big stones. But where does he
keep his ferry-boat? And where does he keep himself?"

"Now, John, if it's here we're to go down, don't you get to studying
over something else. It'll be time enough after we're at the bottom.
Nancy, here's your chair." Mrs. Clallam began lifting the lighter things
from the wagon.

"Mart," said the father, "we'll have to chain lock the wheels after
we're empty. I guess we'll start with the worst. You and me'll take the
stove apart and get her down somehow. We're in luck to have open country
and no timber to work through. Drop that bedding mother! Yourself is all
you're going to carry. We'll pack that truck on the horses."

"Then pack it now and let me start first. I'll make two trips while
you're at the stove."

"There's the man!" said Nancy.

A man--a white man--was riding up the other side of the river. Near the
cabin he leaned to see something on the ground. Ten yards more and he
was off the horse and picked up something and threw it away. He loitered
along, picking up and throwing till he was at the door.