Altsheler, Joseph - [Great West 01]

by The Great Sioux Trail (lit)

  "What do you think we'd better do, Boyd," asked Brady. "If we keep going we'll find the herd crossing our path, and it will be no use fur us to try to break through it."

  "We can move on until we come close up," replied the hunter, "and then wait for the herd to go by. Maybe we might strike a clump of trees in which we could camp. Pick out the country with your glasses, Will, and see if you can find any trees on our side of the moving buffalo line."

  Will, after much searching, was able to identify the tops of some trees standing in a dip where, shel- tered from the winds that blew unceasingly, they had been able to obtain good size.

  "We'll ride fur 'em," said Boyd. "There may be a pool of water in the dip, too."

  "But won't the buffaloes stop and drink it up ?" asked Will.

  "No, they're bearing straight ahead, looking neither to the right nor to the left, going I've no idea where."

  "Two million hearts that beat as one," said Will. 221

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  They reached the dip in due time, finding it a shal- low depression- of a half acre, well grown with sub- stantial cottonwoods and containing, as they had sur- mised, a pool of good water, perhaps twenty feet each way, and two feet deep. Here the animals drank freely, enabling them to save the store they carried for more stringent times, and then all rested among the trees, while myriads of buffaloes thundered by.

  Hour after hour they marched past, not a single one stopping for the water and deep grass they must have smelled so near. At times, they were half hid- den by the vast cloud of dust in which they moved, and which was of their own making, and at other times the wind of the plains blew it away, revealing the low- ered heads and huge black forms, pressing on with some sort of instinct to their unknown destination.

  Will watched them a long time and the tremendous sight at last laid a spell upon him. Apparently they had no leaders. What power moved them out of a vast and unknown region into another region, alike vast and unknown ? Leaderless though they were, they advanced like the columns of an army and with a sin- gle purpose. He climbed into a fork of one of the cottonwoods and used his glasses once more.

  First he looked into the northwest, where they were going, and he could not now see the head of the shaggy army or of the dust column that hung above it, as both had passed long since under the horizon. And looking into the southeast he could not see, either, the end of the coming army or of its dust cloud. It emerged continually from under the rim of the hori-

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  zon, and there was such an effect of steadiness and per- manency that it seemed to the lad as if that vast col- umn, black and wide, would be coming on forever.

  Then he caught a glimpse of something .glinting through .the dust and from the other side of the herd a full two miles away. Only good eyes and the most powerful glasses of the time could have detected it at such a moment, but he saw it twice, and then thrice and once more. Then, waiting for the dust to lift a little, he discerned a brilliant ray of sunlight striking on the head af a lance. Looking further and search- ingly he was able to note the figures of Indians on their ponies » armed with lances, and cutting out from the herd as many of its choicest members as they wanted, which were always the young and fat cows.

  He descended the tree hastily and related what he had seen to the others, who, however, were not stirred greatly by the narration.

  "The buffaloes are a river, two miles wide, flowing between us and the savage hunters," said Boyd, "and not having trees to climb and glasses to look through they won't see us."

  "Besides, they're taking meat for their village, wherever it may be," said Brady, "and they're not dreaming that white men whose heads can furnish nice scalps are near."

  Will shivered a little, and clapped one hand to his hair, which was uncommonly thick and fine.

  "Your scalp is thar, right an' tight, young William," said the Little Giant, "but ef the Sioux got up close to you, you'd hev to hold it on with both han's 'stead

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  o' one. Hev any o' you fellers noticed that all of us hev pow'ful thick, strong hair that would make splen- did scalps fit to hang in the tepees o' the head chiefs theirselves? It's remarkyble how fine they are, spe- shully on the heads o' old men like Jim an' Steve."

  "Thomas Bent, you irreverent and chunky imp/' said Brady, "I, the oldest of this party, am but thirty- eight. I have not yet reached the full prime of my physical powers, and if I should be put to it I could administer to you the thrashing you need."

  "And I'm only thirty-six," said Boyd, "and I've licked Tom often and often, though sometimes, when he's feeling right peart, I'd have to use both hands to do it. But I don't have any feeling against him when I do the job. It's just to improve his language and manners. These boys of thirty-two or three are so pesky full of life and f riskiness that you have to treat 'em as you would young lions. Before we met you in the mountains, Steve, I generally gave him his thrashing in the morning before breakfast."

  He reached a large palm for the Little Giant, who leaped lightly away and laughed.

  "Lend me your glasses, young William," he said. "I'd like to climb one o' the cottonwoods myself an' take a look at the Indian hunters. O' course you're a bright boy, young William, an' Jim an' Steve are so old they're boun' to hev some intelligence forced upon 'em, but ez fur me brightness an* intelligence come nat- eral, an* though mighty modest 'bout k, I reckon I'm a kind o' Napoleon o' the West. They say our figgers are tremenjeously alike, though, o' course, I'm thicker

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  an* much stronger than he wuz, an* perhaps a lot .brighter in some ways."

  "Go on, you supreme egotist," said Brady in his usual solemn tones, "climb the tree, where I cannot hear your voice, and stay there a long time."

  The Little Giant was more serious than he pre- tended to be. He was fully aware that they had lost at least seventy-five per cent of their security when they descended from the high mountains. On the plains it was difficult to fortify against attack, and he did not like the appearance of the Indians, even as hunters on the far side of the buffalo herd. Hence, when he had made himself comfortable in one of the highest forks of a cotton wood, his examination through the glasses was long and critical. He saw, just as Will had seen, the herd coming forever from under the southeastern rim of the horizon and disappearing for- ever under the northwestern rim. Then he caught glimpses of the hunters still pursuing and cutting out the fat young cows, but instead of being parallel with the little party in the dip they had now passed far beyond it. Then he descended the tree and spoke what he thought.

  "Jim Boyd, hunter, Steve Brady, trapper, an* young William," he said, "I'm of the opinion that we'd better stay here at least one day an* night. The river o' buf- faloes will be flowin* by at least that long, but ef we wuz to go on an* they wuz to pass us, we might meet the warriors with no river in between, an* we ain't looking fur that."

  "Good advice," said Brady. "When the conquerors 225

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  went down into the land of Canaan they used every chance that nature or circumstance offered them, and why shouldn't we, even though three thousand years or so have elapsed? We will build no fire, but repose calmly in our little clump of trees."

  "Good judgment," said Boyd.

  "Pleases me," said Will.

  All day long and all .that night the herd, as wide and dense as ever, was passing. They might have slain enough to feed a great army, but they did not fire a shot. The sight, whether by daylight or moonlight, did not lose its romance and majesty for the lad. It was a black sea, flowing and living, one of the greatest spectacles of the mighty western wilderness, and it was given to him to look upon it.

  He grew so used to it by and by that he had no thought af its turning from its course or of its throw- ing out stragglers like little, diverging currents. It would go on in a vast flood, straight into the unknown, whereve
r it intended to go.

  The horses and mules themselves, though at first uneasy, soon grew used to the passage of the living river, and, since no harm came from it, evidently concluded that none would come. Will walked among them more than once and stroked their manes and then their noses, which they rubbed confidingly against him.

  The moon shining that night was very bright, and, the heavens being starred in such brilliant splendor, they saw almost as well as by day. Will, to whom the romantic and majestic appealed with supreme force,

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  began to find a certain enjoyment, or rather a mental uplift? in his extraordinary position. Before him was the great, black and living river, flowing steadily from the unknown into the unknown, to north and to south the rolling plains stretched away to infinity, and be- hind him, piercing the skies, rose the misty White Dome, a vast peak; now friendly, that seemed to watch over these faithful comrades of his and himself.

  None of them slept until late, and they divided the remainder of the night into watches of two hours apiece, Will's running from two until four in the morn- ing. It was Brady whom he succeeded and it required some effort of the will fof him to leap at once from his warm blankets and take the place of sentinel in the night, which was now cold, as usual on the plains. But, while averse to bloodshed, he had drilled himself into soldiership in action, always prompt, accurate and thorough, and in less than a minute he was walking up and down, rifle on shoulder, eyes open to everything that was to be seen and ears ready for everything that* was to be heard. Stephen Brady, the philosopher, looked at him with approval.

  "A prompt and obedient lad is sure to be a good and useful man," he said. "You're as big as a man now, but you haven't, the years and the experience. I like you, William, and you are entitled to your share of the Land of Canaan, which, in these later days, may be interpreted variously as the treasures of the spirit and the soul. And now, good-night."

  He wrapped himself in his blankets and, sound of body and conscience, he slept at once. Will, walking

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  back and forth, alert, eager, found that nothing had changed while he was in slumber. The buffalo herd flowed on, its speed and its flood the same, while the White Dome towered far into the sky, almost above them, serene, majestic and protecting. It seemed to Will that all the omens were good, that, great though the dangers and hardships might be, they would tri- umph surely in the end. And the feeling of victory and confidence was still strong upon him when his watch of two hours was finished and he, too, in his turn, slept again.

  CHAPTER X

  THE WAR CLUB'S FALL

  WHEN Will awoke in the cold dawn he found the herd still passing, though it showed signs of diminution in both breadth and density. After breakfast he climbed the cottonwood again, and took another long and searching look through the glasses.

  "I can't yet see the end of the advancing herd under the rim of the horizon," he announced when he de- scended, "but, as you can tell from the ground, it's thinning out."

  "Which means thar'll no longer be a river cutting us off from the hoss Indians on the south," said the Little Giant, "an' which means, too, that it's time fur us to light out from here an' foller the trail."

  Curving considerably toward the north for fear of the Indian hunters, who were likely to be where the buffaloes were, they rode at a good pace over the plain, the pack horses and mules following readily without leading. Their curve finally took them so far toward the north that the* swells of the plain hid the buffalo herd only Will's glasses disclosing traces of the dust cloud and the thunder of its passage no longer reached their ears.

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  Near sundown they came to a low ridge covered with bushes, and deciding that it was an excellent place for a camp they rode into the thick of it until sure also from the presence of tree growth that they would find water not far away. Will was the first to dis- mount and as he went over the crest and down the slope in search of a stream or pool, he uttered a cry of horror.

  He had come upon a sight, alas ! too familiar at that time upon the plains. Scattered about a little grassy opening were seven or eight human skeletons, picked so clean by the wolves that they were white and glis- tening. But the lad knew that wolves had not caused their deaths. Bullet, arrow and lance had done the work. He shuddered again and again, but he was too much of the mountain ranger and plainsman now to turn aside because of horror.

  He concluded that the skeletons represented per- haps two families, surprised and slaughtered by the Sioux. Several of them were small, evidently those of children, and he arrived at the number two because he saw in the bushes near by two of the great wagons of the emigrant camp, overturned and sacked. Just beyond was a small, clear stream which obviously had caused the victims to stop there.

  Will walked back slowly and gravely to his com- rades.

  "Did you find water, young William?" asked the Little Giant jovially.

  "I did," replied the lad briefly.

  "Then why does that gloom set upon your brow?" 230

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  "Because I found something else, too."

  "What else do we need? Water fur ourselves an* the animals is all we want."

  "But I found something else, I tell you, Tom Bent, and it was not a sight pleasant to see."

  The Little Giant noticed the shudder in the lad's tones, and he asked more seriously:

  "Signs of hostile bands comin', young William?"

  "No, not that, but signs where they have passed, skeletons of those whom they have slain, just beyond the bushes there, picked clean, white and glistening. Come with me and see !"

  The others, who heard, went also, and the men looked reflectively at the scene.

  "I've seen its like often," said Boyd. "The emigrants push on, straight into the Indian country. Neither hardships, nor troops, nor the Indians themselves can stop 'em. Wherever a party is cut off, two come to take its place. I guess this group was surprised, and killed without a chance to fight back."

  "How do you know that?" asked Will.

  " 'Cause the wagons are turned over. That shows that the horses were still hitched to 'em, when the firm' from ambush began, and in their frightened struggles tipped 'em on one side. Suppose we go through 'em."

  "What for, Jim?"

  "This must have been done at least a couplerbf months ago. The weather-beaten canvas covers and the general condition of the wagons show that. War not being then an open matter the Indians might have

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  hurried away without making a thorough overhaul- ing. Then, too, it might have been done by wandering Piegans or Blackfeet or Northern Cheyennes, who, knowing they were on Sioux territory, were anxious to get away with their spoil as quickly as they could."

  "Good sound reasoning Jim," said the Little Giant, "an* we'll shorely take a good look througn them wag- ons."

  The wagons, as usual with those crossing the plains, contained many little boxes and lockers and secret places, needful on such long journeys, and they searched minutely through every square inch of the interior space. The Indians had not been so bad at the sack themselves, but they found several things of value, some medicines in a small locker, two saws, sev- eral gimlets and other tools, and under a false bottom in one of the wagons, which the sharp eye of the Lit- tle Giant detected, a great mat filled with coffee, con- taining at least one hundred pounds.

  They could have discovered nothing that would have pleased them more, since coffee was always precious to the frontiersman, and together they uttered a shout of triumph. Then they divided it among their own sacks and continued the search looking for more false bottoms. They were rewarded in only a single in- stance ^and in that they found an excellent pocket com- pass, which they assigned to Bent.

  Their gleanings finished, they made camp and passed a peaueful night, resuming the journey early t
he next morning. They would have buried the bones of the slain, as they had spades and picks for mining work,

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  but they felt they should not linger, as they were now in country infested by the Sioux and it was not well to remain long in one place. Hence, they rode away under an early sun, and soon the memory of the slaugh- ter by the little stream faded from their minds. Events were too great and pressing for them to dwell long upon anything detached from their own lives.

  On the second day afterward they curved back to- ward the south and struck the great buffalo trail. But the herd, which did have an end after all, had now passed, and they saw only stragglers. As the trail led into the northwest and their own trail must be more nearly west, they crossed it and did not stop until half the night had gone, as they knew the Indians were most to be dreaded near the herd or in its path.

  When they camped now Will could no longer see the White Dome, which had followed them so long, watching over them like a great and majestic friend. He missed that lofty white signal in the sky, feeling as if a good omen had gone, and that the signs would not now be so favorable. But the depression was only momentary. He had cultivated too strong and cour- ageous a will ever to allow himself to be depressed long.

  At noon they were far from the hills and out on the open plains, which spread swell on swell before them, seemingly to infinity, with only a lone tree here and there, and at rare intervals a sluggish stream an inch or two deep and dangerous with quicksands. The water of these little creeks was not good, touched at times with alkali, but they made the horses and mules

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