The Trail of The Badger: A Story of the Colorado Border Thirty Years Ago

by Anonymous

  CHAPTER VI

  THE PROFESSOR'S STORY

  What a change had come over the landscape when, at sunrise next morning,I jumped out of bed and went to the door to look out. Though the sky wasas clear and as blue as ever, though Mescalero, swept bare by the wind,looked much as usual, all the lower parts of the range, except thecrowns of the ridges, were buried under the snow. The woods were full ofit; every hollow was leveled off so that one could hardly tell where itused to be; while the narrow valley itself was ridged and furrowed bygreat drifts piled up by freaks of the wind. It was cold, too, for withthe falling of the wind and the clearing of the sky the temperature haddropped to zero. As so often happens in these parts, winter had arrivedwith a bang.

  Closing the door, I hopped back to the jolly, roaring fire of logs whichRomero had started an hour before, and there finished my dressing. WhileI was thus engaged, the professor came out of the back room, where itwas his custom to sleep--a queer choice--with a couple of thousand deadinsects for company.

  "Well, Frank," said he, cheerily. "Here's King Winter in all his glory.Rather a rough-and-tumble monarch, isn't he? When his majesty makes hisroyal progress, we, his humble subjects, do well to get out of his wayand leave the course clear for him."

  "That's true, sir," said I, laughing; and falling into the professor'shumor, I added: "I never met a king before, and if King Winter is anexample of the race I think we Americans were wise to get rid of themwhen we did."

  "Oh," replied the professor, "you must not judge a whole order by onespecimen: there are kings and kings, and some of them are very finefellows. King Winter, though, is rather too boisterous andinconsiderate; and to tell you the truth, Frank, you had rather a narrowescape from him yesterday. I did not like to make too much of it beforeDick; I did not want him to think I blamed him for what was, after all,merely an oversight; but as a matter of fact you ran a pretty big risk,as you may easily understand when you see the amount of snow that fellin about twelve hours; for the storm ceased and the sky cleared againabout three o'clock this morning."

  "It was nip and tuck for us, sure enough," said I; "but if our gettingcaught in the storm was any fault of Dick's, there is one thing certain,sir: he got us out of it in great style. I wouldn't ask for a betterguide. I was pretty badly scared myself, I don't mind owning"--theprofessor nodded, as much as to say, "I don't wonder,"--"but Dick," Icontinued, "did not seem to be flustered for a moment; he knew just whatto do and pitched right in and did it. It seems to me, sir--though ofcourse I don't set up to be a judge--that the most experiencedmountaineer couldn't have done any better."

  "Dick is a good boy," said the professor, evidently pleased at mystanding up for his young friend; "and he seems to have a faculty forkeeping his wits about him in an emergency. It has always been so, eversince he was a little boy. I suppose he has never told you, has he, howhe once saved his donkey from a mountain-lion?"

  "No, sir," I replied. "How was it?"

  "He was about nine years old at the time, and as his little legs weretoo short to enable him to keep up with me, I had given him a youngburro to ride. We were camped one night on the Trinchera, not far fromFort Garland, when we were awakened by a great squealing on the part ofthe donkey, which was tethered a few feet away, and sitting up in ourbeds, which were on the ground under the open sky, we were just in timeto see some big, cat-like animal spring upon the poor little beast andknock it over. Instead of crying and crawling under the blankets, as hemight well have been excused for doing, little Dick sprang out of hisbed--as did I also. But the youngster was twice as quick as I was, andwithout an instant's hesitation he seized a burning stick from the fire,ran right up to the mountain-lion--for that was what it was--and as thesnarling creature raised its head, the plucky little chap thrust the hotend of his stick into its mouth, when, with a yell of pain andastonishment, the beast let go its hold and fled like a yellow streakinto the woods again."

  "Bully for Dick!" I cried. "That was pretty good, wasn't it? And was thedonkey killed?"

  "No; rather badly scratched; but Dick's promptness and courage saved itfrom anything more serious."

  "Well, that was certainly pretty good for such a youngster," said I."By the way, sir," I continued, "there is one thing I should like to askyou, if you don't mind, about your life in the mountains, especiallyback in the 'sixties' and earlier, and that is, how you managed toescape being killed and scalped by the Indians."

  My host laughed, and I could see by his face that he was thinkingbackward, as he slowly stirred his coffee round and round; for we wereseated at our breakfast, Romero serving us.

  "That _was_ a serious question at first," he replied presently, "but Isolved it very early in my wanderings; and now I--and Dick, too--may goamong any of the tribes with impunity."

  "Will you tell me about it, sir?" I asked, full of curiosity to know howhe had worked such a seeming miracle.

  The professor leaned back in his chair, stretched out his feet andfolded his hands on the edge of the table.

  "I will, with pleasure," he replied; "for it is rather a curiousincident, I have always thought.

  "Before I took up the profession of 'bug-hunting,' as the pursuit ofentomology is irreverently termed by the people here, I had graduated asa physician--very fortunately for me, as it turned out, for myknowledge of medicine was the basis of my reputation among the Indians.I was down in Arizona at one time, when, on coming to a little Mexicanvillage, I found the poor people suffering from an epidemic of smallpox.Several had died, and the survivors, scared out of their wits, had giventhemselves up for lost. After my arrival, however, there were no moredeaths, I am glad to say, and by the end of about a month I hadsucceeded in putting all my patients on the highroad to recovery.

  "There was a little adobe ranch-house about a quarter of a mileup-stream from the village, the owner of which had died before myarrival, and this building I had utilized as a pest-house. I was on myway out to it one morning, with my little case of medicines in my hand,when I heard behind me a great crying out among the villagers, andlooking back I saw them all scuttling for shelter, at the same timeshouting and screaming, according to their age and sex, 'Apache!Apache!'

  "The next moment, right through the middle of the village, riding like awhirlwind, came ten horsemen, who, paying no attention to the frightenedMexicans, made straight for me. Doubtless they had been hiding in thecreek-bed among the willows since daylight, awaiting their opportunityto dash out and capture me--for, as I found later, it was I whom theywere after.

  "To run was useless, to fight impossible, as I was unarmed, so, therebeing nothing else to do, I just stood still and waited for them. In amoment I was surrounded, when one of the Indians sprang from his horseand advanced upon me. He had, as I very well remember, his nose painteda bright green--a fearsome object. This apparition came striding towardme, and I supposed I was to be killed and scalped forthwith; butinstead, my friend of the green nose, in halting Spanish, and with adeference which was as welcome as it was unexpected, explained to methat the fame of the great white medicine-man had extended far and wide;that the smallpox was ravaging their village; and that they had come tobeg me to return with them and drive out the enemy.

  "Greatly relieved to find that their mission was peaceful, I replied atonce that I would come with pleasure, provided I were treated with therespect due to my quality, but that I must first visit the pest-houseand leave directions for the care of my two remaining patients. Tothis--rather to my surprise--they readily consented, relying implicitlyupon my promise to accompany them; an instance of trustfulness fromwhich I could only infer, I regret to say, that they had had but littleintercourse with white men.

  "The Indians had brought a horse for me, and after a long two-days' rideinto the mountains, we reached the camp, consisting of about twentylodges, where I found matters in pretty bad condition. I went to workvigorously, however, and again had the good fortune to rout the enemywithout the loss of a patient; thereby, as you may suppose, gaining thelasting
good will of every member of the tribe--with one exception.

  "This exception--rather an important one--was the local medicine-man,who, having vainly endeavored to drive out the plague by the applicationof bad smells and worse noises, was not unnaturally consumed withjealousy of my superior success, and with the desire to discover whatcharms and spells I used to that end.

  "On our way up from the Mexican settlement I had several times stoppedto note the direction with a little pocket-compass I always carriedabout with me, on each of which occasions I had observed that themedicine-man, who was one of the party, had eyed the little instrumentwith a sort of fearful curiosity. Later, when my patients were allgetting well, I had several times gone out to a distance from the campand with the compass taken the bearings of the many mountain peaksvisible in all directions, making a little map of the country. Everytime I did this, the medicine-man was sure to come stalking by, watchingmy motions out of the corner of his eye. On one such occasion I calledhim to me, anxious to be on friendly terms, and showing him theinstrument, tried to explain its use. But the Indian, seeing through theglass the unaccountable motion of the needle, was afraid to touch it,and my explanation, I fear, had rather the effect of misleading him, forhis knowledge of Spanish was very small, while my knowledge of Apachewas smaller, and eventually he went off with the idea that the compass,which I had tried to make him understand was my 'guide,' 'director' andso forth, was in fact nothing more nor less than the familiar spiritthrough whose aid I had ousted the evil spirit of the smallpox.

  "With this conviction in his mind, and supposing that the possession ofthe compass would confer upon him similar powers, he screwed up hiscourage to steal it--and a very courageous act it was, too, I consider,remembering how greatly he stood in fear of it.

  "It was on the eve of my departure that I discovered my loss, and goingstraight to my friend with the green nose I informed him of the fact, atthe same time stating my conviction that the medicine-man was the thief.He was very wroth that his guest should have been so treated afterhaving rendered such good service to the community, but feeling somediffidence about seizing and searching his medicine-man, of whom he wasrather afraid, he suggested that I concoct a spell which should inducethe thief to disgorge his plunder of his own accord; a course whichwould doubtless be a simple matter to a high-class magician like myself.

  "This was rather embarrassing. I did not at all like to trust to thetricks of the charlatan, but being unable to devise any other plan bywhich to recover my compass, an instrument indispensable to me, andimpossible to replace, in that wild country, I determined to employ adevice I had once read of as having been adopted by an officer in theEast India Company's service to detect a thieving Sepoy soldier. Eventhen I should not have resorted to such a measure had I not feltconvinced that the medicine-man was the thief, and that hissuperstitious dread of my powers would cause him to fall into my trap.

  "I therefore desired Green Nose to summon all the men of the village,which being done, I addressed them through him as interpreter. I toldthem that one of their number was a thief, and that I was about to findout which one it was--a statement which I could see had an impressiveeffect.

  "Taking two straws of wild rye, I cut them to exactly equal lengths, andthen, holding them up so that all might see, I announced that the menwere to come forward, one at a time, take one of the straws, step insidemy lodge for a few seconds, and then bring back the straw to me. Tothose who were innocent nothing would happen, 'but,' said I, withmenacing fore-finger, 'when the _thief_ brings back the straw it will befound to have _grown one inch_!'

  "I waited a minute to allow this announcement to have its full effect,and then requested that, in deference to his exalted position, myhonored brother, the medicine-man, should be the first to test thepotency of my magic.

  "I could see that he was very reluctant to do any such thing, but todecline would be to draw suspicion on himself, so, stepping from theline, he received the straw and retired with it to my lodge.

  "There was a minute of breathless suspense, when back he came and handedover his straw to me. My own straw, together with the hand which heldit, I had covered with a large, spotted silk handkerchief, in such amanner that it was concealed from view, and slipping the medicine-man'sstraw into the same hand, I perceived at once that the thief hadbetrayed himself, just as I had hoped and expected he would.

  "Casting a glance along the line of silent Indians, and noting that theywere all attention, I withdrew the handkerchief and held up the twostraws. One of them was an inch longer than the other!

  "In spite of their habitual stoicism, there was a murmur and a stiralong the line; but the greatest effect was naturally upon the poormedicine-man. Thrusting his hand into his bosom, he drew out the compassfrom under his shirt, handed it to me, and then, pulling his blanketover his head, he crept away without a word and shut himself up in hislodge."

  "But how did you do it?" I interrupted. "How did his straw come outlonger than the other? Did you break off a piece from your own?"

  "No," replied the professor, smiling; "it was the medicine-man who brokeoff a piece from his. Knowing himself to be the thief, and fullybelieving that the straw would grow in his hand, he no sooner got intothe shelter of my lodge than he bit off an inch from his straw, thusmaking sure, as he supposed, that its supernatural growth would bring itback to its original length. It was just what I had expected him to do.Nobody but myself, of course, could tell which straw was which, and whenI held them up to view, one longer than the other, the whole assemblynever doubted for an instant that the shorter one was mine and that itwas the thief's straw that had grown--least of all the medicine-man,himself.

  "He, poor fellow, conscious of guilt, and being himself a dealer incharms and incantations, was more than anybody in a proper frame of mindto put faith in my magic, and when he saw, as he supposed, that hisstraw, in spite of his precautions, had grown the promised inch, hecollapsed at once; and thinking, very likely, that it was the compassitself that had betrayed him, he handed it back to me very willingly,glad to be rid of so pernicious a little imp."

  "And was that the end of the matter?" I asked.

  "Yes, that was the end of it. Being all ready to go, I went, leavingbehind me a reputation which was to be of great service to me on many asubsequent occasion; a reputation due, I am sorry to say, very much moreto the clap-trap trick played upon the poor medicine-man than upon myreally meritorious service in dealing with the smallpox epidemic. Myfame gradually extended among all the mountain tribes, and since then Ihave been free to go anywhere with the assurance not only of safety butof welcome from any of the Indians, Apache, Ute or Navajo--a conditionof affairs which, as you will readily understand has been of infiniteservice to me during my twenty years of wandering.

  "Ah!" casting a glance out of the window as he rose from the table."Here comes Dick, and somebody with him; a stranger to me--your uncle, Ipresume."