CHAPTER XXXI.
SINGING BIRD'S SECRET.
The boys laughed at the story, for Woofer, as they began to call himimmediately, told it in a most comical manner. They all took to himimmensely, and regarded him as quite an acquisition to the camp.
Dinner was announced by McCall, the cook, and Woofer certainly didjustice to it, being, as Bud remarked in an aside to Hallie, "holler allthe way down to his toes." He confessed that he had had nothing to eatbut a little mud, which he had absorbed when he got a drink at a waterhole, since the noon of the day before.
Ted had been thinking about the man. It would do no harm to have anotherpuncher in the outfit, and would relieve the night guard, which at timeswas a little overworked.
"Say, Woofer, you won't take a reward for bringing in our strays, howwould you like a job with this outfit?" he said.
"I don't want you to think I'm workin' ther grub line," said thecow-puncher quickly.
When a cow-puncher is said to be working the grub line, he is known as athriftless cowman who cannot hold a job long anywhere, and who travelsfrom ranch to ranch, staying only long enough at each to get fed up,then passing on with a few dollars in his pocket, to repeat theoperation elsewhere.
"Certainly not," answered Ted. "If I believed that I wouldn't offer youthe job."
"All right," said Woofer. "This outfit looks good to me, an' I'll jine,an' go ter work instanter."
"You're on the pay roll, then."
Woofer proved quickly that he knew the business thoroughly, and when,the next morning, the herd got under way, he took the left point, withBud on the right, and headed the herd into the north.
For several days life on the trail was monotonous. Whenever Ted could bespared from the herd he and Stella and Hallie Croffut, and sometimes Benor Kit, took long rides off the trail with their rifles, after apronghorn or black-tail deer, and frequently they had venison forsupper.
The life was most fascinating to Hallie, who enjoyed every minute of it,and had seemingly forgotten the unpleasant features of her start withthe party.
Singing Bird rode in the wagon, with Mrs. Graham, waiting on that ladyin the capacity of maid. Stella had undertaken to teach her the duty ofmaid, and the girl soon did for Mrs. Graham what had taken a great dealof Stella's time.
The Indian girl was devoted to Stella, and whenever she was near,followed the pretty white girl with eyes in which shone devotion andaffection.
She had made herself so useful, and was so self-effacing that every onewondered how they had ever been able to get along without her.
Stella had conceived a real affection for her, she was so gentle andsweet of manner.
They had long talks together in the evenings, sitting away from thefire, the Indian girl telling her white friend all about the life led bythe Indians, their wrongs at the hands of the white men, their religiousbeliefs, their songs, and their folklore.
And, more important than all, she taught Stella the language of theBlackfeet and the Sioux. Stella was a good scholar, and it wassurprising how rapidly she picked up the Indian tongues. Later she wasto feel gratitude to the Indian girl for this knowledge.
For several days Stella had noticed that Singing Bird was uneasy andapparently unhappy, and it worried her.
She spoke to Ted about it, and he was of the opinion that the Indiangirl was getting homesick, that her wild nature was asserting itself,and that she was experiencing a longing to be among her own peopleagain, and free from the conventions of civilized life.
Stella did not think so, and determined to speak to Singing Bird aboutit at the first good opportunity.
One day the chance came as they were walking together in a wood nearwhich they had camped.
"What is the matter with you, sister?" asked Stella kindly. "Is it thatyou are not satisfied with our ways, and that you want to leave us?"
Singing Bird looked at her with troubled eyes, in which the tears soonbegan to well up.
"My sister knows that I love her," she said, "and that I would not leaveher unless she wishes me to."
She looked at Stella inquiringly.
"No, I want you to stay. But if you are troubled, you must tell me asone sister would tell another."
"I will tell you," said the Indian girl simply, "and I would have toldyou long ago, only that I did not want to trouble you, nor make troublefor any one else in the camp."
"What do you mean by making trouble for any one else in the camp?"
"I mean that the new man who drives the cows is a bad man. Beware ofhim."
"You mean the man called Woofer?"
"Yes, it is he whom I mean. He is the traitor, and he doesn't like themaster, Ted Strong."
"How do you know that?"
"From what he has said to me. He is the bad man."
"But tell me all about it. I didn't know that he had talked to you,even. Why did you not tell me this before?"
"The white man threatened to kill me if I told."
"Now you must tell me all."
"We will sit down here, for there is much to tell."
Singing Bird took a seat upon a fallen tree, and Stella sat down besideher.
"Proceed," said Stella, "and leave nothing out."
"When he first came to the camp, I wished he would not stay," beganSinging Bird, "but every one seemed to think he was the good man, andwho am I to say anything against the wishes of my friends who saved mylife and made me a home?"
"Did you know him then?"
"Yes. I have seen him at the white soldiers' fort. He is the friend ofRunning Bear. He is a bad man, who steals other men's cattle."
"But he brought ours back to us."
"That was a trick to get into your camp. He is as cunning as a badIndian. One day he came to me when no one was about, and told me that hehad seen my husband, Running Bear, and that I must go back to him. I wasfrightened, but told him I would not do so. Then he begged me to tellhim the secret I have. I told him I could not do it."
"You have never told me that secret."
"But I will. Always I have intended to do so."
"When you are ready. But go on."
"Then he told me that if I would tell him the secret he would marry mehimself." The Indian girl flushed. "You know, sister, that it is a greatthing for an Indian girl to marry a white man."
"But you are already the wife of Running Bear," said Stella, who waspuzzled.
"That is the Indian marriage, and soon broken. But when I told him Ididn't want to marry him, he got very angry. I told him I was going tostay with you, and he said that if I did I would be killed with all therest of you; that it was coming, and that Mr. Strong had many enemieswho were stronger than all of you."
"Did he hint when this was going to take place?"
"Yes, when we get to the Far North."
"Did he say anything else?"
"He told me that if I didn't go with him to-night he would kill me whenI slept."
"We shall see about that," said Stella spiritedly. "But why is all thisfuss being made about you and your secret? It must be something veryimportant."
"Yes, to the white man, but not to the Indian."
"Then why did Running Bear shoot you because you would not tell him?"
"He wanted to sell the secret to a white man for whisky."
"Who is the white man? Do you know?"
"Yes. But I do not like to tell."
"You have told me so much, you must tell me the rest."
"The white man is a soldier at the fort."
"A common soldier?"
"No, a chief, who carries a sword."
"Oh, an officer. What is his name?"
"He is called Barrows."
"Oh! And he offered Running Bear whisky for your secret? That is bad."
"Yes. Chief Barrows wants the secret, and he has sent the man who drivescows here to make me tell it."
"Singing Bird, you must tell me the secret."
"I will."
Stella settled herself to hear the In
dian girl's story.
"It began when I was a little child," said Singing Bird. "One time whenmy father's tribe was hunting, we came to a place where a lot of whitemen were digging in the sands of the big, muddy river."
"Was that the Missouri?"
"The white men call it so. We camped beside them, and one day I saw themwashing out of the sand little grains of yellow metal, which theythought much of, although the Indians would rather have iron, the blackmetal."
"They were hunting for gold."
"Yes. In their talk with my father they said that somewhere up the riverwas the mother of the gold, where all this came from. They asked myfather if he knew where it was.
"Now, my father had found where there was plenty of the yellow metal.But he, too, was shrewd, and, seeing that the white men prized it sohighly, he thought he would go back and get the gold, and sell it to thewhite men for iron and shot and powder and blankets.
"The white men guessed that he knew where the mother of gold was, andasked him. But he refused to tell them, and went away.
"The white men followed us for days. One evening I was with my mother,and heard my father tell her where the yellow metal was on the oppositeside of the river, pointing to a great sycamore tree that grew on theriver bank. 'Beneath that tree lies much of the yellow metal,' he saidto her, and I saw the tree, and knew what he said was true.
"That night the white men came to our camp and had a long talk with myfather, trying to make him tell where the mother gold was, and, when hewould not, suddenly they fell upon the camp, and, after killing some ofthe young men, drove my father and the others away. At the first shot mymother ran away into the woods with me."
"That was horrible," interjected Stella.
"As my mother ran, she was shot in the back, but she kept on runninguntil she was out of sight before she fell.
"Then the white men went away, and I lay there with my mother until shebreathed no more and was cold.
"I cried for a long time because it was dark and cold, and I could hearthe wild animals in the woods all about me.
"This frightened me, and I began to call 'Ai-i-e!' which is the Indianway of lamentation, and I cried louder all the time to keep the wildanimals from me."
"And did no one hear you?"
"Yes. In the night I heard a noise in the wood, and it was the noise ofa man walking, an Indian man, for it was soft, made by moccasins. Then Icried louder, and soon my father came and picked both me and my motherup in his arms and carried us away into the woods, where he buried mymother, and went away into the North again.
"But as I grew up, I thought often about the mother gold and the placewhere it was hidden by the Great Spirit, for so I had heard my fathersay. Once when I spoke of it to my father he told me never to speak ofit to him again, for it was cursed, having taken away from him his son,who was killed by the white men, and my mother.
"So never did I talk of it. But when Running Bear heard of it from someof the old men who had been with my father, and heard that I was theonly one of all the tribe who knew where it was, he began to court me,and then bought me of my father for twenty ponies.
"We had not been married long when he asked me to take him to the placeof gold, but my father told me not to do so, and I did not. Then hebegan to beat me, and tried to kill me, but the secret is still mine.
"In time others heard that I possessed the great secret of the hidingplace of the mother gold, for when Running Bear was drunk he would boastthat his squaw was the richest woman in the world, because of hersecret, and many men have tried to get it from me. Then the army chief,who carries the sword, got hungry for the gold, and gave Running Bearplenty of whisky to make me tell where it was, and now he has sentWoofer to make me tell, or to kill me."
"Will you tell Ted Strong where the mother gold is hidden?" askedStella.
"I will, if you wish me to. But it is accursed."
"Nonsense. That is only a superstition. Now that you have told me, allwill be well. Be careful, and do not let Woofer see you alone, and if helays his hand on you, scream for me. We will now go back to the camp."
As the two girls walked away with their arms around one another'swaists, a tall, gaunt man rose from behind a dead tree not far away, andover his face spread a shrewd smile.
It was Woofer.
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