The Westerners

by Stewart Edward White

  XXXVII

  ASHES

  A light night wind had arisen from the lower prairie, and occasionallypuffed a stray wisp of smoke or heat across the westernmost curve ofthe circle. Hot sparks shot up in the air swiftly, paused, and floateddying down the wind. Above, occasionally, the clear stars peeped inthrough the canopy of blackness which the firelight so jealouslyguarded. There was a perceptible chill in the air. As the long speechcontinued and drew to a close, the half-breed, seated on the prairieside of the fire, shivered convulsively from time to time, for he wasnow almost exhausted by excitement and lack of sleep and food. Atfirst he had submitted to the trial, if so it might be called,unwillingly enough, to tell the truth, but without a suspicion that itcould result in anything more serious than a fine for desertion. Itmight almost be looked upon as a ransom, and this he was willing topay. His principal emotion had been that of frantic chafing because,for the present, Jim Buckley and Billy Knapp were free to make troublefor him. He had no doubt they would do so, although he did not knowexactly how they would go at it.

  As Lone Wolf so dramatically outlined the grounds of his accusation,however, Lafond really began to see the face of fear. He gathered thatthe very night he had chosen to quit the tribe, some one had killed thetribe's medicine man and defiled the totem in a way not to be mentionedhere. This is with Indians the Unforgiveable Sin. Suspicion hadnaturally coupled the sacrilege with his own coincidentaldisappearance. Probably even at the time no one had doubted his guiltor had suspected any other cause for his desertion. The real criminalhad been able easily to cover his trail; and now, so many years wouldhave hardened even a slight suspicion, let alone a positive certainty,into conviction absolute. Lafond saw that his chances were desperate,and yet so suddenly was the knowledge forced upon him that he couldhardly realize it. But a few hours before, he had held in the hollowof his hand more power than any other one man in the territory. Now hewas in danger of his life.

  He knew well enough that his only chance lay in keeping cool. He mustnot interrupt the orator with denials. He must try to make hiseloquence tell.

  Lone Wolf ceased abruptly, drew his blanket about his shoulders and satdown. Two squaws noiselessly entered the circle, bearing wood for thefire. After they had withdrawn, Lafond rose to his feet.

  He was at once uncomfortably conscious of the circle of snake eyes. Itwas for him the predominant note in the scene.

  He began haltingly, partly because he did not know what to say, partlybecause long disuse had impaired his fluency in the Indian tongue. Butin a moment, as he began to realize that he was now in the act ofmaking the only plea for his life which his captors would permit him,his speech quickened until it was as rapid as that of Lone Wolf himself.

  It was a masterly effort, for Lafond had not lost the old eloquencewhich had earned him the name of "Man-who-speaks-Medicine." Hereviewed, as had Lone Wolf, his services to the tribe. He did itmodestly, stating plainly the facts and leaving the savages to drawtheir own conclusions. He showed further that in so bending hisefforts to the tribe's betterment, he had been actuated by no selfishmotives, in proof of which proposition he enumerated one by one thevarious opportunities he had let pass of decamping enriched beyond anyone warrior's dreams of wealth; to which proposition he further pointedout as a corollary that he had in reality departed with but his ownweapons and the clothes on his back. This made an impression. Havingthus established his disinterestedness as regards his services to thetribe, he went on further to show that these argued, furthermore, anintense personal interest in its welfare. He loved his people. Hechallenged them to cite one of his deeds which would bear the contraryconstruction.

  And then, with a boldness that almost amounted to genius, he drewbefore them vividly that night on the battlefield when he had so longcontemplated the fallen white chief, and he detailed to them thereasons he had then for believing the Indians' warlike power was fromthat moment doomed to wane.

  "I saw these things," he said, "as one to whom Gitche Manitou hadspoken, and I knew they were true. But my brothers were victorious;they saw the blue coats scattered as the dust is scattered by the wind.My words would have been as the water that slips away or the cloud thatvanishes in the heavens. If I had told my brothers these things, theywould not have believed. You, Spotted Dog; you, Firebrand; even you,Lone Wolf, would not have believed. Look well within your hearts andacknowledge that I speak words of truth. Then you would have cast meout as one with forked tongue."

  Such being the case, Lafond argued that, inasmuch as he could donothing for his people by sharing their disgrace, he had left them."But only for a season," he explained. "You are warriors: I am a manof craft. When your bows are broken and your arrows lost, then must Itake my weapons and strive as I can. I went forth to fight for mybrothers. Behold me; I have fought and I have won. I am rich. Mybrothers are to share my riches. Now I can return to the lodges of mybrothers as one coming from a far war trail, bringing the ponies andscalps of the enemies my hand has struck."

  Then suddenly the speaker took up the question of the crime itself. Hedilated on it with horror. He acknowledged no excuse for it. But, heasked them, why should he have committed it? He showed them that hecould have had no motive for such a wanton insult. And, most ingeniousof all, he pointed out that if, as Lone Wolf had supposed, the tribe'smisfortunes had arisen because of Gitche Manitou's wrath over thisterrible crime, then that wrath and those misfortunes would indubitablyhave been visited on him, the accused, with the rest; for he was amember of the tribe, and according to the accusation the guiltiest ofthem all. Such was not the case. On the contrary he had prospered.

  In conclusion he believed he could direct suspicion to the rightchannel. From his wonderful past knowledge of inter-tribal andindividual jealousies, he rapidly constructed a plausible theory.

  His defence, as he could observe, made a profound impression. Thesavages sat silent and thoughtful while the minutes slipped by, and thewavering light from the central fire alternately illuminated and threwinto shadow the strong bronze of their faces. The argument wassophistical enough, but for two reasons it carried conviction. In thefirst place, the half-breed was pleading for his very life; in thesecond place, he was in reality absolutely innocent as to the mainfacts. Therefore he had faith and earnestness--two great qualities.His only misfortune was, that the exigencies of the situation demandedthat in the web of truth one falsehood should be woven.

  Beyond the circle of light the dim forms of the women and childrenshowed faintly against the dimmer background of the sea-like prairie.They had followed with great attention the deliberations before them,but in silence and with decorum, as is proper in such cases. Nowsuddenly one of them slipped forward through the circle before hercompanions or the warriors between whom she passed could detain her.Before the fire she turned and faced Lone Wolf. It was the old hag whohad first recognized Lafond.

  The warriors looked on her in cold surprise. Such a thing as a womanintruding on a council was unheard of, unthinkable, punishable byalmost any penalty.

  "My daughter has been deceived," said Lone Wolf gravely. "This is nota gathering of the women. She must go."

  She did not seem to hear him, but broke out panting as soon as shecould get her breath.

  "My brothers listen to forked words!" she cried, "and the spirit oflies has blinded them, so that they cannot see the truth. They aredeceived by much lying because it is mingled with the truth, liketobacco and willow bark. He says he has been on the long war trail andnow returns to his brothers with the ponies of his enemies. The trailhas indeed been long, for it is many moons since he took the ponies.How long has he been rich?" she cried. "Many moons! Are the trailsclosed that he could not find his brothers before, while they werestarving? Does he find them now because he calls to them from afar onthe war trail? It is lies!

  "And my brothers forget," she went on contemptuously, "the Yellow Hairof the Hills and the little child. What was it this one d
emanded of mybrothers? To defile Pah-sap-pa by the slaying of his enemies. It wasfor that he made us rich, for that he used his craft to bring us power.It was _his_ power. And when he, led my brothers up into Pah-sap-pa,the voice of Gitche Manitou spoke to them and they went away leavingthis one's enemies unharmed, and so he was angry with my brothers andswore to do them an injury. So he killed Buffalo Voice and defiled thetotem in order that Gitche Manitou might turn his hand against us! Hespeaks forked words. Why has he not brought his gifts long before, ifwhat I say is not true? There has been need."

  She turned as suddenly as she had come and left the circle, again emptyexcept for the leaping fire. In her spoke the spirit ofrelentlessness, a deserted woman. She touched with unerring instincton the one weak spot in Lafond's defence, and thereby discredited therest. Her reminder of the soreness of their need, when this renegadebrother had held out no hand to help them, hardened their hearts andbrushed from their minds like cobwebs the structure of confidence whichLafond had so laboriously spun. Without one dissenting voice theycondemned him to death. Then the sitting arose.

  The hags of the camp advanced and stripped the half-breed naked, inspite of his frantic struggles. They were as strong as men, and theywere glad he struggled because that indicated cowardice. Lafond wasbadly unnerved; his blood was partly Latin and his consciousness ofinnocence was keen. When he went into a thing with his eyes open, hewas ready to take all the consequences with stoicism, should luck turnagainst him; but a feeling of guiltlessness was unusual enough torender him desperate when unjustly condemned. So he made a pitifulspectacle of himself.

  The old hags jeered him. They told him he had a chicken's heart, andpromised themselves the pleasure of tasting it after it was torn fromhis living body. They spat in his face and pinched his arms to see himwince. When he was stripped quite naked, they staked him out to picketpins with rawhide bands, one to each of his four limbs.

  While this was going on, the warriors, having thrown aside theirblankets, appeared in the full lithe glory of their naked bodies. Tothe accompaniment of a strange minor chant, they circled slowly aroundthe fire and their victim, hopping rhythmically first on one foot thenon the other, stepping high, stooping low. As they passed theprostrate man, they struck their knives deep into the ground near hishead, for the purpose of seeing him shrink. After a little, theybecame sufficiently excited, and so the tortures began.

  Toward morning the squaws wrapped in a blanket the mutilated burntcarcass, and laid it on a litter which had been preparing while thetorture was in progress. The litter was raised in the air to theheight of ten feet, bound securely to upright poles.Man-who-speaks-Medicine had been a member of the tribe. Whatever hissins, he must have a tribal burial.

  Then in the grayness of the dawn the little cavalcade filed away, likemuffled phantoms, toward the east. In the sky the last stars wereflickering out. On the hill top the last embers of the fire died. Abird high in the heavens piped up clearly for a moment, and was still.The breeze of morning rippled over the faintly distinguished, grasses,and stirred the drying leaves of the litter that stood like a scaffoldagainst the sombre shadows of the Hills.

  THE END.