Frank on the Prairie

by Harry Castlemon

  CHAPTER XIV.

  The Trader's Expedition.

  "Dick," exclaimed Frank, as soon as he could speak, "this is thesecond time you have found me when lost; but I wish you had come alittle sooner, for--"

  "You keerless feller!" interrupted the trapper, who knew in a momentthat there was something wrong, "you teetotally keerless feller!whar's your hoss? Tell me, to onct, what's come on him."

  "He was stolen from me," answered Frank. "I camped last night abouttwo miles from here, with a party of trappers, and they robbed me."

  "Did!" exclaimed Dick. "Bar and buffaler! who war they? They warn't notrappers, I can tell ye, if they done that ar' mean trick. Tell me allabout it to onct."

  Frank then proceeded to relate all that had transpired at the camp;told how closely the men had questioned him concerning the intendedmovements of old Bob; repeated all the threats which the outlaw hadmade, and concluded his narrative with saying:

  "He told me that when I saw old Bob again, I could say to him, thatthe next time he wanted to catch Black Bill, he--"

  "Black Bill!" almost yelled the trapper. "Black Bill! That ar' tellsthe hul story. The scoundrel had better steer cl'ar of me an' old Bob,'cause I'm Bob's chum now, an' any harm that's done to him is done tome too. I can tell you, you keerless feller, you oughter be mightyglad that you aint rubbed out altogether."

  "I begin to think so too," replied Frank; "but, Dick, I want myhorse."

  "Wal, then, you'll have to wait till he comes to you, or till them ar'fellers git ready to fetch him back. 'Taint no 'arthly use to foller'em, 'cause they'll be sartin to put a good stretch of country atweenthem an' ole Bob afore they stop. Your hoss ar' teetotally gone,youngster--that's as true as gospel. I tell you ag'in, 'taint everyone that Black Bill let's off so easy. Climb up behind me, an' let'stravel back to the ole bar's hole."

  Frank handed his rifle to his companion, mounted Sleepy Sam, and thetrappers drove toward the camp, slowly and thoughtfully. For nearly anhour they rode along without speaking to each other. Dick,occasionally shaking his head and muttering "Bar an' buffaler--you_keerless_ feller." But at length he straitened up in the saddle, andholding his heavy rifle at arm's length, exclaimed:

  "Youngster, I don't own much of this world's plunder, an' what's more,I never expect to. But what little I have got is of use to me, an'without it I should soon starve. But I'd give it all up sooner norsleep in a camp with Black Bill an' his band of rascals. I'd fight 'emnow if I should meet 'em, an' be glad of the chance; but thar's a heapof difference atween goin' under, in a fair skrimmage, an' bein'rubbed out while you ar' asleep. Durin' the forty year I've beenknocked about, I've faced a'most every kind of danger from wild Injunsan' varmints, an' I never onct flinched--till I rid on them steamrailroads--but, youngster, I wouldn't do what you done last night furnothin'. Howsomever, the danger's all over now, an' you have come outwith a hul skin; so tell me what you done while you war lost."

  The manner in which the trapper spoke of the danger through which hehad passed, frightened Frank exceedingly. He knew that Dick was asbrave as a man could possibly be, and the thought that he hadunconsciously exposed himself to peril that the reckless trapper wouldshrink from encountering, occasioned feelings of terror, which couldnot be quieted even by the knowledge that he had passed the ordealwith safety; and when, in compliance with the guide's request, heproceeded to relate his adventures, it was with a trembling voice,that could not fail to attract the trapper's attention.

  "I don't wonder you're skeered," said he, as Frank finished his story."It would skeer a'most any body. But it's over, now, an' it aint noways likely you'll ever meet 'em ag'in. Me an' ole Bob will see 'emsome day, an' when we settle with 'em, we will be sartin to take outpay fur that hoss. When we git to camp Bob'll tell you how he happensto owe Black Bill a settlement. When we seed you goin' off in that ar'way," continued the trapper, turning around in his saddle so as toface Frank, "we didn't feel no ways skeery 'bout your comin' back allright, if you got away from the buffalers. Your uncle said, 'In coursethe boy has got sense enough to see that the mountains now ar' on hisright hand, an' to know that when he wants to come back, he must keepthem on his left hand;' an' jest afore he went to sleep, I heered himsay to ole Bob, 'I wonder how Frank is gettin' on without hisblanket.' Your little cousin said, 'I hope he'll fetch back my rifle,an' my possible-sack, an' the things what's in it, all right, 'cause Ishould hate to lose them Injun's top-knots.' I guess he won't laughnone, when he finds out that all them stone arrer-heads, an'spear-heads, an' other fixin's ar' gone. Ole Bob, he knowed, too, thatyou would turn up all right if you could keep on your hoss till hestopped. But, bar and buffaler! we didn't think you war goin' to campwith that varlet, Black Bill. If we had, thar wouldn't have been muchsleepin' done in our camp last night."

  Having thus assured Frank that his friends had entertained no fears ofhis ability to find his way back to the wagon, the trapper againalluded to the subject of the robbery, obliging his young companion torelate the particulars over and over again, each time expressing hisastonishment and indignation in no very measured terms. In this waythey passed the fifteen miles that lay between them and the camp, andfinally arrived within sight of the "ole bar's hole."

  Mr. Winters, Archie, and Bob were seated on the ground near the wagon,but when they discovered the trapper riding toward them with Frankmounted behind him, they rose to their feet in surprise, and Archieinquired, as he grasped his cousin's hand--

  "Did your horse run himself to death?"

  Before Frank could answer, Dick sprang from the saddle, exclaiming:

  "Bob! Black Bill's on the prairy."

  "Black Bill on the prairy!" repeated the old man, slowly, regardinghis friend as if he was hardly prepared to believe what he had heard.

  "Yes, he ar' on this yere very prairy," replied Dick; "an', Bob," hecontinued, stretching his brawny arms to their fullest extent in frontof him, and clenching his huge fists, "an', Bob, that ar' keerlessfeller actooally camped with him an' his rascally chums, last night.Yes, sir, staid in their camp an' slept thar, an' this mornin' theysaid as how he war a spy of your'n, sent to ketch 'em; so they stolehis hoss."

  Old Bob was so astonished at this intelligence, that he almost leapedfrom the ground; while Dick, without allowing the excited listeners anopportunity to ask a question, seated himself beside Mr. Winters andproceeded to give a full account of all that had transpired at BlackBill's camp; during which, Archie, surprised and indignant at thetreatment his cousin had received, learned that he also had been aheavy loser by the operation. All his beloved relics were gone. Butthey still had miles of Indian country to traverse, and these could bereplaced; while Frank, in being robbed of his horse had sustained aloss that could not be made good. Archie was generous; and, declaringthat he had ridden on horseback until he was actually tired of it,told his cousin to consider Sleepy Sam as his own property, an offerwhich the latter emphatically refused to accept.

  "Never mind, youngster," said old Bob, who had listened to all thathad passed between the cousins, "never mind. You shan't lose nothin'by bein' robbed by that varlet. Me an' Dick will put you on hossbackag'in afore you're two days older. But this yere shows you that yououghtn't to make friends with every feller you meet on the prairy, nomore'n you would in a big city. Now if you war lost in thesettlements, and didn't know whar to go to find your hum, you wouldthink twice afore you would camp with a teetotal stranger, an' afeller oughter do the same thing on the prairy. I larnt that long ago,an' through that same feller, Black Bill. Years ago, when Dick's oldman war alive, it warn't so. If a feller got a leetle out of hisreckonin', an' walked into a stranger's camp, he could roll himself upin his blanket an' sleep as safe an' sound as he could any whar, an'neither man warn't afraid that the other would rub him out aforedaylight. But it aint so now. Them fellers in the settlements got todoin' meanness, an' run here to git cl'ar of the laws. But they foundthar war law here too; an' when they done any of their badness, an' wegot our hands on 'em, we made
short work with 'em. But they keptcomin' in fast, and when three or four of 'em got together, they wouldtake to the mountains, an' thar warn't no use tryin' to ketch 'em.When we seed how things war agoin', a lot of us ole trappers, that hadknowed each other fur years, made up a comp'ny. We had to do it todefend ourselves ag'in them varlets, fur it soon got so it warn'thealthy fur a lone man on the prairy, if he had any plunder wuthbaggin'. We stuck together till that Saskatchewan scrape, an' now mean' Dick ar' the only ones left. I don't say that we're the onlyhonest trappers agoin', 'cause that aint so. Thar ar' plenty of goodones left; but we ar' the last of our comp'ny, an', somehow, we don'tkeer 'bout trappin' with strangers.

  "Wal, one spring we went to the fort to trade off the spelter we hadketched durin' the winter, an' the trader we sold 'em to, war makin'up a comp'ny to go to the head waters of the Missouri. He war goin'with his expedition, an' he wanted us to go too. He offered us goodpay; he would find us we'pons, hosses, traps, and provender furnothin', an' buy our furs to boot. He done this 'cause thar war a goodmany traders workin' ag'in him, an' he wanted to be sartin of gittin'all the furs we trapped. We had a leetle talk among ourselves aboutit, an', finally, told him that it war a bargain, an' that we wouldgo. So he writ down our names, an' we tuk up our quarters in the forttill the day come to start. The trader's name war Forbes, an' as hewar our boss, we used to call him Cap'n Forbes. He warn't jest thekind of a man a feller would take to be a trader--he smelt too much ofthe settlements--an' even at the fort, among rough trappers an'soldiers, he would spruce up an' strut like a turkey. 'Sides, he had anigger to wait on him an' take keer of his hoss. As I war sayin', wenoticed all these things, but we didn't keer fur 'em, fur, in course,it warn't none of our consarn; all we wanted war fur him to pay us furthe spelter we ketched, an' we knowed he could do that, fur thefellers all said he had a big pile of gold an' silver that he carriedin his saddle-bags.

  "Wal, we packed our blankets an' we'pons down to the quarters thecap'n pointed out, an' when we got thar, we found he had half a dozenchaps down 'sides ourselves. We knowed one or two of 'em, (an' wedidn't know nothin' good of 'em neither,) but the others war strangersto us. Among the strangers war Black Bill--Bosh Peters he said hisname war. He war a'most as black as the cap'n's darkey, an' thar war abad look in his eye that none of us didn't like. An' him an' his crowdwarn't at all pleased to see us neither; fur, although they met uskind enough, asked us to help ourselves to their grub, an' inquired'bout our luck in trappin', durin' the last season, thar war somethin''bout them that told us plainer nor words that they would have beenmuch better satisfied if we had stayed away.

  "It war a'most night when we went to the quarters, an' arter we hadeat our supper, we smoked our pipes, spread our blankets, an' went tosleep. How long I slept I don't know; but I waked up sometime durin'the night, an' thought I heered somebody talkin' in a low voice. Ilistened, an', sure enough, thar war two fellers jest outside of thequarters plannin' somethin'. I heered one of 'em ask:

  "'When shall we do it?'

  "'Time enough to think of that when we git to the mountains,' said theother.

  "'But ar' you sartin' he's goin' to take it with him?'

  "'In course! I heered him say so!'

  "'Wal, then, it's all right. But we must be mighty keerful, 'cause ourboys don't like the looks of them last fellers that jined the comp'ny.So keep a still tongue in your head.' They done some more plannin' andtalkin', but I couldn't hear what it war. Then they moved away indifferent directions, an' purty quick somebody come into the quarters,easy like, an' laid down on his blanket, but it war so dark I couldn'tsee who it war. Wal, I thought the matter all over, an' soon made upmy mind that the varlets had been plannin' an' talkin' ag'in thetrader and his money-bags; but when I told the boys of it the nextmornin', they all laughed at me, an' said the cap'n warn't fool enoughto tote so much money to the mountains with him when he could leave itat the fort, whar it would be safe. They told me I had better notspeak of it ag'in, fur if it got to the trader's ears, he might thinkI war a greeny. Wal, I war quite a youngster, that's a fact; but itwarn't long afore it come out that I had more sense nor any of 'em."