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Kirk nodded. He let his reins go slack, then jumped from the wagon. Before he could get around to help Jolena, she had already left the wagon, stretching and yawning. He gave her a lingering, silent stare, marveling at her endurance, then went to the back of the wagon and began unloading their equipment for the night.
Jolena yawned one more time. Then she stopped and listened, hearing a strange roaring and hissing through the trees. It sounded like water dropping by stages into a deep chasm.
Her sense of adventure and curiosity sent her walking through the forest until she came to a clearing that led upward. Lifting the hem of her skirt, she climbed higher and higher, then stopped when she came to a high point on a cliff from where she could see not only the waterfall a short distance away, but the river down below her as it flattened out and made a wide sweep around a bald granite hill before fingering out across the valley.
The water down below was smooth and glassy, and the broken river stretched into the distance like dull streams of silver.
The sunset was lighting the eastern hills, sending long sunbeams through the mist into the valley below.
Captured by the loveliness of the waterfall, Jolena gazed at it, sighing. Although the sun was fast lowering in the sky, the waterfall was still lit and it shimmered with myriad colors. The waterfall's spume rose far into the sky like a cloud of smoke from a forest fire, then descended to the earth as mist, keeping the vegetation at the top of the chasm dripping wet.
The sunset shining on the waterfall made rainbows, multiple and immense and so brilliant they seemed palpable. They moved with the light, fading and emerging and forming again at different angles and in different sizes, so that sometimes one could actually see where they began and ended.
Standing on the cliff, soaking up the beautiful tranquil setting, Jolena grew tense with excitement when a butterfly flew just past her nose.
''Lord, it's a nymphalid," she gasped. The nymphalid was steeped in Indian lore, and perhaps almost as rare as the euphaedra.
She continued to watch the butterfly as it seemed to change colors before her very eyes, a defense mechanism to protect the creature from predators such as herself.
The butterfly seemed to be teasing her as it brushed past her nose, then flew down as if it was going to land on her hand. Her heart racing, she looked desperately around her, suddenly realizing that her net and jars were back at the camp.
The butterfly landed on her arm, and Jolena held her breath as she watched it furl and unfurl its antennae, as though tasting her to see if she were a copper flower.
Jolena started moving one of her hands guardedly toward the butterfly. Just as she was about to place her fingers on either side of the butterfly's wings, the butterfly took flight again. Yet still it remained close at hand, teasingly brushing against Jolena's face or hair.
"I have to have it," Jolena whispered to herself.
Moving away from the edge of the cliff, her eyes never leaving the butterfly, Jolena's heart pounded as for a moment it seemed to be following her. As Jolena moved backward, so did the butterfly flutter forward.
Then the butterfly suddenly soared widely around in a half circle and moved back to hover over the very edge of the cliff. "Just you stay right there," Jolena whispered. "Don't move. Please, please don't move. Be there when I get back with my net." In her excitement and haste to get back to the ca
mp, Jolena almost tumbled down the steep embankment. After steadying herself, she moved with sure footing on down the hill, then broke into a mad rush through the forest. When she reached the campsite, where a fire had already been started, she went to her wagon and reached inside, quickly finding her net.
"The jar, Kirk!" she cried. "Get the jar and follow me!"
"Jolena, stop," Kirk shouted, not making any move to do as she said. "I'm not going anywhere. Nor should you. It will be dark soon."
Jolena turned on a heel and gave Kirk a frustrated stare. "Kirk, I've found a nymphalid," she cried. "Now come with me. I may be too late. It's probably already gone!"
Sighing, his shoulders slouched, Kirk grabbed the jar with its soaked cotton from the back of the wagon and began running after Jolena.
Two Ridges had been watching Jolena for some time. When he caught sight of the butterfly she was chasing into the forest, he frowned. He knew the lore of that butterfly. It was a butterfly shunned by the Blackfoot and all other tribes of Indians!
It meant bad luck to anyone who looked upon it!
He broke into a mad run. He had to stop Jolena. She should not be near the butterfly, much less catch it to carry with her for the rest of this expedition.
If she did, everyone would be in jeopardy! Winded, yet too filled with excitement to stop, Jolena rushed back up the steep hill, then sucked in a wild breath of relief when she got to the cliff and saw that the butterfly was still circling around at the very edge, as though it had waited for her.
Clutching the handle of her butterfly net, Jolena inched closer to the edge of the cliff. "I can't believe it," she said, giving Kirk a quick glance over her shoulder as he lagged far behind her. "Kirk, it's still here. Can you believe it? It's as though it waited for me."
"Don't get too close to the edge of the damn cliff," Kirk warned, wiping perspiration from his brow. "Watch it, now, Jolena. Don't go any closer!"
Jolena did not hear anything but the thunderous roar of the waterfall and the cry inside her to catch this butterfly for her father. She inched her way along the land now, but when she got to the edge of the cliff, where below her rapids were swirling, she stopped.
But the butterfly seemed to be teasing her again when it flew only a few inches away from where she could reach it.
Fearlessly, she leaned out, swinging her net in a desperate attempt to catch the butterfly, then screamed as she lost her footing and tumbled over the side of the cliff.
