When they had gone a few hundred yards, Johnny again slackened the
speed, for there was great risk in going at this tremendous rate,
where all was entire blank darkness, and there was no telling into
what danger they might run. At the speed at which they were going they
would have bounded into a river before they could have checked
themselves.
'Yer furgot one thing,' said Baldy, when they had considerably
moderated their gait, and were using great caution.
'What is that?'
'Yer oughter had a lamp in front, so we could travel at night, jist as
well as day.'
'You are right; I don't see how I came to forget that. We could have
frightened the Indians more completely, and there would have been some
consolation in traveling at such a time.'
'Is it too late yet?'
'Couldn't do it without going back to St. Louis.'
'Thunderation! I didn't mean that. Go ahead.'
'Such a lamp or head-light as the locomotives use would cost several
hundred dollars, although I could have made one nearly as good for
much less. Such a thing in the center of a man's forehead, and the
whistle at the end of his nose, would give him quite an impressive
appearance.'
'Yer must do it, too, some day My God!'
The boy instantly checked their progress, as the trapper uttered his
exclamation; but quickly as it was done, it was none too soon, for
another long step and the steam man would have gone down an
embankment, twenty feet high, into a roaring river at the base.
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