Altsheler, Joseph - [Great West 01]
Page 18
Having enough to go around they tied one blanket around the body of every animal, and Will was the most proficient in the task.
"It's 'cause they help him an* they don't help us," said the Little Giant. "Seein' that you've got such a touch with animals we're goin' to use you the next time we meet a grizzly bear. 'Stead o' wastin' bullets on him an' runnin' the chance o' some o' us gittin' hurt, we'll jest send you forrard to talk to him an 'say, 'Ephraim! Old Eph, kindly move out o' the path. You're obstructin' some good men an' scarin' some good hosses an' mules.' Then he'll go right away."
Despite their jesting they pitched the camp for that critical night with the greatest care, making sure that they had the most sheltered place in th canyon, and ranging the horses and mules almost by the side of
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them. More clothing was brought from the packs and every man was wrapped up like a mummy, the fur coats they had made for themselves proving the best protection. Although the manifold wrappings kept .Will's blood warm in his veins, the night itself and their situation created upon his mind the effect of intense cold.
The wind rose all the time, as if it were determined to blow away the side of the mountain, and it howled and shrieked over their heads in all the keys of terror. None of them could sleep for a long time.
"It's real skeery," said the Little Giant. "Mebbe nobody hez ever been up here so high before, an' this old giant of a mountain don't like our settin' here on his neck. I've seen a lot o' the big peaks in the Rockies, w'arin' thar white hats o' snow, an' they allers 'pear to me to be alive, lookin' down so solemn an' sometimes so threatenin*. Hark to that, will you ! I know it wuz jest the screamin' o' the wind, but it sounded to me like the howlin' o' a thousand demons. Are you shore, young William, that thar ain't imps an' critters o' that kind on the tops o' high mountings, waitin' fur innocent fellers like us ?"
Will slept at last, but the mind that can remain troubled and uneasy through sleep awoke him several times in the course of the night, and always he heard the fierce, threatening blasts shrieking and howling over the mountain. His eyes yet heavy with sleep, it seemed to him in spite of himself that there must be something in the Little Giant's suggestion that imps and demons on the great peaks resented their
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presence. He knew that it could not be true, but he felt as if it were, and once he rose all swathed in many garments and stroked the noses of the horses and mules, which were moving uneasily and showing other signs of alarm.
Dawn came, clear, with the wind not so high, but icily cold. They fed the last of the little store of hay to the animals, ate cold food themselves, and then crept out of the canyon, leading their horses and mules with the most extreme care, a care that nevertheless would have been in vain had not all the beasts been trained to mountain climbing. It was a most perilous day, but the next night found them so far down on the western slope of the White Dome that they had reached the timber line again.
The trees were dwarfed and scraggly, but they were trees just the same, affording shelter from wind and cold, and fuel for a fire, which the travelers built, pro- viding themselves once more with warm food and coffee as sizzling hot as they could stand it. The ani- mals found a little solace for their hunger by chewing on the tender est parts of the bushes.
After the meal they built the fire higher, deciding that they would watch by turns and keep it going through the night. As the wind was not so threat- ening and the glow of the coals was cheerful they slept well, in their turns, and all felt fresh and vigor- ous when they renewed the journey the next morning. They descended rapidly now among the lower ranges of the mountains and came into heavy forests and grassy openings where the animals ate their fill. Game
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also was abundant, and they treated themselves to fresh deer meat, the product this time of Brady's rifle. They were all enveloped by a great sense of luxury and rest, and still having the feeling that time was their most abundant commodity, they lingered among the hills and in the timber, where there were clear, cold lakelets and brooks and creeks that later lost themselves on the plains.
It gave Will a great mental stimulus after so many dangers and such tremendous hardships, the survival of which without a wound seemed incredible. He looked back at the vast peak of the White Dome, sol- emn and majestic, piercing the sky, and it seemed to him at times that it had been a living thing and that it had watched over them in their gigantic flight.
Despite the increased danger there from Indian raids they lingered longer than they had intended among the pleasant hills. The animals, which had been much worn in the passage of the great moun- tains, and two that became lame in the descent recov- ered entirely. The Little Giant and the hunter scouted in wide circles, and, seeing no sign of Indian bands, most of their apprehension on that score dis- appeared, leaving to them a certain sense of luxury as they delayed among the trees, and in the pleasant hills. Will caught some fine trout in one of the larger brooks, and Brady cooked them with extraordinary- culinary skill. The lad had never tasted anything finer.
"Come here, young William," said the Little Giant, "an' stand up by the side o' me. No, you haven't
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grown a foot in height, since I met you, so many days since, but you've grown jest the same. Your chest is bigger, too, an* you eat twice ez much ez you did. I hope that what's inside your head hez done growed too."
"Thomas Bent," said Brady, "y u should not talk in such a manner about what's inside his head to the one who is the real leader of this expedition, as the mine is his. He might be insulted, cast you off, and let you go eat corn husks with the prodigal son."
"No, he won't," replied the Little Giant, confidently. "Will, hevin' done tuk me in ez pardner, would never want to put me out ag'in, nor thar ain't no corn husks nor no prodigal son. Besides, he likes fur me to compliment him on his growth. You're older than I am, Steve Brady, but I want to tell you that the man or woman wuz never born who didn't like a little well- placed flattery now an' then, though what I've been sayin' to young William ain't flattery."
"In that matter I'm agreeing with you, Thomas Bent. You're dipping from a well of truth, when you're saying all men are accessible to flattery and all women too, though perhaps more so."
"Mebbe women are more so an' mebbe men are more so. I reckon it depends on whether a man or woman is tellin' it."
"Which is as near as we'll ever come to a decision," said Brady, "but of one thing I'm sure."
"What's that, Steve?"
"We've dallied long enough with the flesh pots of Egypt. If William will take his glasses he can see
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the land of Canaan outspread far below us. It is there that we must go."
"An' that thar land o' Canaan/' said the Little Giant, "is rid over by Sioux warriors, ready to shoot us with rifles or stick us through with lances. I'd hate to die hangin' on a Sioux lance. Sech a death makes me shiver. Ef I've got to die a violent death, give me a good, honest bullet ev'ry time. You hevn't seen the Sioux at work with lances, hev you, young .William?"
"No, Tom."
"Well, I hev. They fight with 'em, o' course, an' they hev a whole code o' signals with 'em, too. In battle everybody must obey the head chief, who gives the orders to the sub-chiefs, who then direct their men accordin'. Often thar ain't a chance to tell by words an' then they use the lances fur signallin*. In a Sioux army, an', fur the matter o' that, in any In- dian army, the hoss Indians is divided into two col- umns, the right an' the left. When the battle comes on, the head war chief rides to the top o' a ridge or hill, gen'ally 'bout half a mile 'way from the scrap. The columns on the right an' the left are led by the under chiefs.
"Then the big chief begins to tell 'em things with his lance. He ain't goin' to fight with that lance, an' fur other purposes he hez fastened on it
near the blade a big piece o' dressed skin a yard squar' an* painted black. Now he stretches the lance straight out in front o' him an* waves it, which means fur botK columns to attack all at once an' right away, lickety-
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split. Ef he stretches the lance out to his right and waves it forward it means fur the right column alone to jump inter the middle o' things, the same move- ment on the left apply in' to the left column, an' thar's a lot more which I could tell you 'bout lance signallin* which I hope you won't hev to see."
"We will not disguise from ourselves," said Brady, in his usual grave tone, "that we must confront peril when we descend into the plains, yet descend we must, because these mountains and hills won't go on with us. It will be a long time before we strike another high range. On the plains we've got to think of Indians, and then we've got to look out for water, too."
"Our march often makes me think of Xenophon, whom I studied in the high school," said Will.
"What's Xenophon?" asked the Little Giant sus- piciously. "I ain't heard o' no sich country."
"Xenophon is not a country. Xenophon was a man, and a good deal of a man. He led a lot of Greeks, along with a lot of Persians, to help a Persian over- throw his brother and seize the throne of the Persian empire. In the battle the Greeks were victorious wher- ever they were righting, but the Persian whom they were supporting was killed, and having no more busi- ness there they concluded to go away."
"Lost their paymaster, eh?"
"Well, I suppose you could put it that way. Any- way they resolved to go back to their homes in Greece, across mountains, rivers and deserts. Xeno- phon, who led them, wrote the account of it."
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"Then I'll bet that Xenophon looms up pretty big in the tellin' o' it."
"No, he was a modest man, Tom. But what x re- member best about the story, they were always march- ing so many parasangs, so many days' journey to a well of water. It gets to be a sort of fascination with you. You are always wondering how many parasangs they'll march before they come to water. And some- times you've a kind of horrible fear that there won't be any water to come to, and it keeps you keyed up."
"Same ez ef you wuz in that sort o' condition your- self."
"Something like it."
"Well, mebbe we will be, an' jest you remember, young William, since them Greeks allers come to water, else Xenophon who led them never would hev lived fur the tellin' o' it, that we'll allers come to water, too, even of we do hev to wait a week or two fur it. Cur'us how long you kin live after your tongue hez baked, your throat hez turned to an oven, an* your lips hev curled up with the heat."
"I imagine, Tom," said Boyd, "we're not going to suffer like that."
"I jest wanted to let young William know the worst fust an' he kin fortify himself accordin'."
"I'm prepared to suffer what the rest of you suf- fer," said the lad.
"The right spirit," said Brady, heartily. "We'll be Davids and Jonathans, cleaving the one unto the other, and now, as we're about to emerge from the last bit of forest I suggest that we fill all our water bottles from
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this brook among the trees. Thomas has talked so feelingly about thirst that I want to provide against it. We will not strike here the deserts that are to be found in the far south, but we may well have long pe- riods without water free from alkali."
They had many leather water bottles, their packs having been prepared with all the skill of experience and sound judgment, and they filled all of them at the brook, which was pure and cold, flowing down from the mountains. At one of the deeper pools which had a fine bottom of gravel they bathed thoroughly, and afterward let the horses and mules wade into the water and take plunges they seemed to enjoy greatly.
"An' now," said the Little Giant, taking off his hat and looking back, "good-bye trees, good-bye hills, good- bye, high mountains, good-bye all clear, cold streams like this, an* good-bye, you grand White Dome. Say them words after me, young William, 'cause when we git out on the great plains we're likely to miss these friends o* ourn."
He spoke with evident feeling, and Will, taking off his hat, said the words after him, though with more regard to grammar.
"And now, after leading them most of the way," said Boyd, "we'll ride on the backs of our horses."
The four mounted, and, while they regretted the woods and the running water they were about to leave behind them, they were glad to ride once more, and they felt the freedom and exhilaration that would come with the swift, easy motion of their horses. The pack animals, knowing the hands that fed and protected
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them, would follow with certainty close behind them, and Will, in particular, could lead them as if he had been training them for years.
The vast sweep of the plains into which they now emerged showed great natural beauty, that is, to those who loved freedom and space, and the winds came untarnished a thousand miles. Before them stretched the country, not flat, but in swell on swell, tinted a delicate green, and with wild flowers growing in the tufts of grass.
"I've roamed over 'em for years," said Brady, "and after a while they take a mighty grip on you. It may be all the stronger for me, because I'm somewhat soli- tary by nature."
"You're shorely not troubled by neighbors out here," said the Little Giant. "I've passed three or four months at a time in the mountings without a soul to speak to but myself. The great West suits a man, who don't want to talk, clean down to the groun'."
Will, the reins lying upon the pommel of his sad- dle, was surveying the horizon with the powerful glasses which he was so proud to possess, and far in the southeast he noticed a dim blur which did not seem to be a natural part of the plain. It grew as he watched it, assuming the shape of a cloud that moved westward along one side of a triangle, while the four were rid- ing along the other side. If they did not veer from their course they would meet, in time, and the cloud, seemingly of dust, was, therefore, a matter of living interest.
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"A cloud of dust that grows and grows and grows."
"Where?"
"In the southeast."
"I can't see it and I have pretty keen eyes."
"The naked eye won't reach so far, but the dust cloud is there just the same. It's moving in a course almost parallel with us and it grows every second I look at it. It may be the dust kicked up by a band of Sioux horsemen. Take a look, Jim, and tell us what you make of it."
Boyd looked through the glasses, at first with ap- prehension that soon changed to satisfaction.
"The cloud of dust is growing fast, just as you told us, Will," he said, "and, while it did look for a moment or two like Indian horsemen, it isn't. It's a buffalo herd, and the tail of it runs off into the south- east, clean down under the horizon. Buffaloes move in two kinds of herds, the giant herds, and the little ones. This is a giant, and no mistake. In a few minutes you'll be able to see 'em, plain, with your own eyes."
"I kin see thar dust cloud now," exclaimed the Lit- tle Giant. "Looks ez ef they wuz cuttin' 'cross our right o' way."
They rode forward at ease and gradually a mighty cloud of dust, many miles in length and of great width, emerged from the plain, moving steadily toward the northwest. Will, with his glasses, now saw the my- riads of black forms that trampled up the dusty ty- phoons, and was even able to discern the fierce wolves hanging on the flanks in the hope of pulling down a calf or a decrepit old bull.
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"They must number millions," he said.
"Like ez not they do," said the Little Giant. "You kin tell tales 'bout the big herds o' bufflers on the plains that nobody will b'lieve, but they're true jest the same. Once at the Platte I saw a herd crossin' fur five days, an* it stretched up an' down the river ez fur ez th
e eye could see."
"How do they all live ? Where do they find enough grass to eat?" asked Will.
"I dunno, but bunch grass is pow'ful fillin' an' fat- tenin', an' when a country runs fifteen or eighteen hun- dred miles each way, thar's a lot o' grass in it. The Sioux, the Cheyennes, the Pawnees an' all the plains Indians live on the buffler."
"And in my opinion," said Brady, "the buffalo must have been increasing until the white man came with firearms. Their increase was greater than the toll taken by Indians with bows and arrows and by the wolves. No wonder the Indians fight so hard to retain the plains and the buffalo. With an unlimited meat sup- ply on the hoof, and with limited needs, they undoubt- edly lived a happy, nomadic life. If your health is good and your wants are few it's not hard to be happy. fThe Biblical people were nomadic for a long time, and some of the world's greatest men and women moved with herds and lived in tents. My mind often reverts to those old days and the simplicity of life."
"I've allers thought thar wuz somethin' o' the old Bible 'bout you, Steve," said the Little Giant. "You ain't no prophet. Nobody is nowadays, but you talk like them fightin' an' prayin' old fellers, an' you wan-
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der 'roun' the West jest ez they wandered 'bout the land o' Canaan, but shore that you will git to your journey's end at last. An* I know, too, Steve, that when you come to a fight you're jest ez fierce an* ter- rible ez old Joshua hisself ever wuz, an' ef I ain't mis- took it wuz him that wuz called the sword o' the Lord. Ain't I right, young William ?"
"I'm not sure," replied the lad, "but if you'll read the Book of Joshua you'll .find his sword was a great and terrible weapon indeed."