264 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
camping alone, wishing to husband his steps, and yet 
to keep with us, inquired where I was going ; to which I 
answered, that I was going far enough back to communi¬ 
cate with the Indian, and that then I thought we had bet¬ 
ter go along the shore together, and keep him in sight. 
When we reached the shore, the Indian appeared from 
out the woods on the opposite side, but on account of the 
roar of the water it was difficult to communicate with 
him. He kept along the shore westward to his canoe, 
while we stopped at the angle where the stream turned 
southward around the precipice. I again said to my 
companion, that we would keep along the shore and 
keep the Indian in sight. We started to do so, being 
close together, the Indian behind us having launched 
his canoe again, but just then I saw the latter, who had 
crossed to our side, forty or fifty rods behind, beckoning 
to me, and I called to my companion, who had just dis¬ 
appeared behind large rocks at the point of the precipice, 
three or four rods before me, on his way down the stream, 
that I was going to help the Indian a moment. I did so, 
— helped get the canoe over a fall, lying with my breast 
over a rock, and holding one end while he received it 
below, — and within ten or fifteen minutes at most I was 
back again at the point where the river turned south¬ 
ward, in order to catch up with my companion, while 
Polis glided down the river alone, parallel with me. But 
to my surprise, when I rounded the precipice, though the 
shore was bare of trees, without rocks, for a quarter of a 
mile at least, my companion was not to be seen. It was 
as if he had sunk into the earth. This was the more un¬ 
accountable to me, because I knew that his feet were 
since our swamp walk very sore, and that he wished to 
keep with the party; and besides this was very bad walk- 
