“I expected Pete would make a row about what I’d done and I would be catched in the biggest kind of a row, but there ain’t much law in St. Louis just now, on account of the change from Spanish rule to French and then to American. Besides, Pete hasn’t got many friends, and I reckon he knew he wouldn’t get much sympathy. He rigged up his place after awhile and laid in a new stock of p’ison, but it’ll take a long time for him to make up the losses that follered his inviting Jack Halloway to have a drink. Shawanoe,” added the trapper, abruptly turning to the Indian, “I want to ask you a question.”
“Deerfoot will be glad to answer if he can.”
“When I went down to French Pete’s place and smashed things and cleaned it out, as I’ve been stating, did I do right?”
Instead of directly answering, the Shawanoe asked:
“Has the conscience of my brother ever whispered to him that he did wrong in breaking the whiskey bottles?”
“No, I rather think it’s the other way. When I started home I felt my conscience clapping me on the shoulder and saying, ‘You hit it right that time, old fellow,’ and ever since, when I think of it, I hear the same soft words.”
There was a twinkle in the eyes of Deerfoot as he gently replied:
“My brother should always do what his conscience tells him to do.”
“Good! That settles it! But I’ve got something more interesting than all that to tell you. If French Pete didn’t do anything to me for what I’d done to him, he laid a deep plan to get his revenge. You see he’s afraid to tackle me in the open, for I may say there ain’t a man living that Jack Halloway is afeard of—barring one.”
“Who is he?” asked Victor Shelton, slyly nudging his brother.
“Deerfoot the Shawanoe.”
The face of the Indian flushed and he protested:
“Deerfoot would be only a pappoose in the hands of my brother.”
“P’raps, but you’d never be in his hands. I’ve studied your build and quickness, and the chap that can whip a Blackfoot war chief without using a weapon is the best fellow in the world to let alone—I beg pardon, Deerfoot. I’ll drop it.
“When it was getting time for me to think about going to the beaver runs agin Dick Burley come to me and proposed that we should be pardners. Dick is a good fellow and I always liked him, for he hasn’t a streak of yaller in his make-up. The only objection to him was that he liked firewater too well. He spent enough money at French Pete’s to support that rogue. Dick’s wife and two children were in rags, and the poor woman had to work herself almost to death to keep from starving. I had talked with Dick many times, not neglecting to give him a good cussing now and then, but it didn’t amount to nothing. In the hope of being able to do him good I agreed to go with him to the Northwest.
“Wal, you wouldn’t ’spicion what a trick French Pete and Dick was trying to play on me. It was the idea of Pete, but Dick promised to do his part. Pete agreed to let Dick have a whole keg of his best—or rather worst—whiskey without charging him a cent. He was to take it with us, with the sole purpose of getting me into the habit of drinking again. Their ca’clation was that when we got away up in the Northwest, where it was sometimes cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey, and Dick took his swigs reg’lar like, I’d be sure to knock under and jine him. I couldn’t stand it to see him enj’ying such bliss and telling what a lot of good it done him.
“I never spicioned anything of the kind, but when I set eyes on that keg stored among the things on our pack horses I fixed my plan of campaign. Being as it was meant to last four or five months-it wouldn’t do for Dick to draw on it too heavy at the start. Then, too, as I said, he expected me to come in on the chorus, and he was saving up for that glad day.
“Every time Dick took a drink, which I must say waren’t often, of course he invited me to jine, but when I said no, that was enough and he let me alone. Oh, he was shrewd, and was playing his cards like a boss of the game.
“Wal, we had only one brush with the Injins, and we got to the place we had fixed on without any harm, and with most of the whiskey still in the keg. It was where I had been doing my trapping for several years before I went further South, which was the reason I happened to meet you in that part of the world last summer.
“We set our traps as usual, turned our horses out to grass and stowed our blankets and things in a big holler tree, in which I had cut a door, with a buffalo skin that hung down in front. The first thing Dick carried in was the whiskey keg. ‘I think more of that,’ he remarked, as he sot it down tender like, as if it was a sick baby, ‘than everything else in the outfit.’ I made no reply, but I was busy thinking, and when he wa’nt looking I done some chuckling and laughing that would have made him open his eyes had he knowed of it.
“One night when Dick was sleeping particular sound I sneaked out of the holler tree with the keg. I had to be powerful careful, for we folks larn to sleep light, but I managed it without waking him. Having made up my mind long before what I would do, I didn’t make any mistake. Raising the cask, with the stuff jingling and sploshing about inside, I brought it down on the p’int of a rock with a force that made it split open like a watermelon. In a few minutes every drop had soaked into the ground and it was a thousand miles to French Pete in St. Louis.
“I had to tell Dick the truth the next morning. The minute he opened his eyes he went for his morning dram. I remarked that we didn’t need whiskey in them parts, and being as I had become a temperance man it was agin my principles to have any of the p’ison around.
“Wal, Dick was that mad he turned white. When he realized that there was no way of his getting a drink for months he collapsed. Then he roused up and said as how the insult, being a mortal one, we’d have to settle it outside. I was looking for something of that kind and replied that I was agreeable.
“Dick’s idea was that we should use our knives and to keep to it till one was killed or he hollered ‘Enough!’ which neither of us would do to save his life. I said the best plan would be to use our fists. A duel with knives was liable to be over sudden, while a fist-fight would last much longer, and therefore give both more enjoyment. It wouldn’t be any trouble for him as got the upper hand to pound the other to death, and being as the whole thing would be in doubt till it was over, the advantage in the way of real happiness was obvious.
“After some argument Dick seed the p’int, and agreed, and we went at it. Wal, I needn’t dwell on the partic’lars. Dick put up a stiff fight, and might have give me a good deal of trouble if it hadn’t been that he was weakened by whiskey, while I had long got rid of the effects of the last drop. He had to knock under, and when he found the only way to save himself was to yell ‘Enough!’ he done it, though, as I said, he would have held out if he had been using knives.
“I rested from pummeling him, but told him he couldn’t get up till he had told the Lord what a mean scamp he was and had asked His forgiveness and promised to try to live a Christian. Dick wasn’t expecting anything like that, and he b’iled over with rage. But it did no good, and I banged him agin, good and hard, and told him I never would stop till he knocked under.
“I had to soothe him a good while before he give in. He said he would do as I wished and then I let him up. He wanted to wait till night, but I wouldn’t allow it, and he went down on his knees and sailed in. I made him pray out loud, so as to be sure he put things in right shape. Now, Deerfoot, tell me whether I managed that job right.”
The Shawanoe was puzzled, for the trapper had submitted a new phase of the most interesting question to him. But Deerfoot was shrewd.
“Let my brother finish his story.”
“Oh, the job came out all right. Dick was sulky and ugly for a few days, though I made him stick to his prayers every morning and night. But bye and bye, when the whiskey got out of him, he begun to improve. One day he laughed, but was so scared by it that he didn’t speak till night. Soon after that he told me he felt a good deal better, which the same I replied wa
s because he was getting over the long drunk he had been on for a dozen years.
“Wal, Dick continued to improve. His spirits rose, his appetite was stronger, he could stand more work, and I noticed that in praying he yelled louder than ever. All these was good signs and showed that I had managed the bus’ness right, so I won’t ask your opinion on my style, Deerfoot.
“Then Dick told me of the job that French Pete and him had put up on me. I could afford to laugh, but Dick was that mad that he was eager to get back to St. Louis, so that he could go down to Pete’s place and smash things as I done. But I talked him out of that, and he promised me he wouldn’t undertake the bus’ness till I could jine him. You know there’s a sweetness about such work that I ’spose made me selfish. I warn’t willing he should have all the enj’yment to himself.
“I’ve showed my faith in Dick by sending him home with the peltries. You see it isn’t like a chap trying to make a man of himself when the temptation is at his elbow. Dick had to go without for months, and that give him enough time to become master of himself. All that I’m afeard of is that he’ll get impatient when he catches sight of French Pete’s place and forget his promise to me.”
CHAPTER XXVII
“Good-Bye”
The remainder of the homeward journey was without special incident. It was several days before Victor Shelton fully recovered from the pounding caused by his fall into the torrent. The loss of his rifle was keenly felt, but he did not fret, for it would have been ungrateful after his marvelous escape.
Jack Halloway’s spirits were irrepressible, and his good nature was like so much sunshine. The only fault to be found with him was his inclination to burst into song, without waiting for urging on the part of his friends. He was gifted with a tremendous voice, but unfortunately he had no more idea of a tune than a grizzly bear. But no one could criticize the fellow, who was the life of the little party.
The course of our friends was southeast, leading through the present States of Wyoming, Colorado and into Kansas, where they struck the trail of the year before. This was followed across Missouri, and, without mishap, all four reached in due time that old French town on the Mississippi.
Deerfoot and the boys stayed there for one night and a part of a day. It was a visit which they always remembered. The only fly in the ointment was the discovery by Jack Halloway that Dick Burley, after all, had broken his promise. He had not been in St. Louis twenty-four hours when he sauntered down to French Pete’s place. That worthy met him with a grin, supposing he had come to make his report, whose nature was not doubted. Then Dick, after denouncing the fellow as he deserved, proceeded to business in as emphatic a fashion as Jack had done the preceding year. He was equally thorough, perhaps more so, for he not only left the place a wreck, and the proprietor senseless, but “laid out” two brawlers who happened to be present and were imprudent enough to try to help the landlord.
“I’ve one hope,” said Jack, in telling of the incident. “Pete will start up agin and then it’ll be my turn to make a friendly call on him.”
In that humble home, on the upper margin of the straggling town of St. Louis, Jack Halloway introduced George and Victor Shelton and Deerfoot to his mother. She was a sprightly little lady, who could not have weighed a hundred pounds, and whose soft, wavy, white hair and pink cheeks and regular features spoke of the unusual beauty that was hers when she was the belle of the town. She had a serene beauty and winsomeness that warmed the hearts of the callers from the moment they first saw her.
As soon as the introductions and greetings were over, Jack caught his mother in his arms and tossed her as high as the ceiling would permit, catching her as she descended and kissing her as if she were a little child. Then, waving the others to seats, he dropped into the single rocking chair and held her on his knee during the conversation that followed. Her soul was wrapped up in this massive boy with the strength of a giant, and her happiness over his restoration to her after her years of prayer had a pathos and sweetness that nothing else in all the world could give.
When the chatter had gone on for a few minutes Jack drew his mother’s face down beside his own and whispered:
“Did you ever see as handsome a chap as that young Indian sitting over there in the corner? Look how modest he is, as if he didn’t wish to be noticed. Didn’t you remember, when I told you his name is Deerfoot, that he’s the chap that made me throw away my flask of whiskey and was the cause of my becoming a man?”
“No,” replied the astonished parent, “I didn’t recall it. I must have a talk with him before he leaves us.”
It was arranged after supper that George and Victor should go to the home of Dick Burley to sleep. Room could have been made for them in the cabin of Jack Halloway by letting the three rest on the floor, and he and his mother would have been pleased; but the brothers showed good taste by accepting the invitation of Burley, at whose house, for the first time in many months, they slept in a bed. There was happy content in that home also, for what loving, devoted wife is not thankful when her husband is restored to her and is in his right mind?
That humble home where Jack Halloway smoked his pipe, with his mother knitting beside him and Deerfoot a little way off in his chair, was the picture of serene, grateful pleasure on the cool summer night, long ago, when the three sat in converse.
The youth was so drawn to the pure, sweet-faced, motherly lady that he could not refuse her request to tell her about himself. He talked more freely than was his wont, and said many things he would not have said in the presence of others. She penetrated the nobility of the youth, who could read and write well, whose mind was stored with considerable knowledge, whose woodcraft approached as near perfection as mortal man can attain, and whose strength, skill and prowess (as she gathered from incidents brought out in the course of the evening) were the superior of any person’s whom she had ever seen. In addition, as she said to her son the next day, anyone would be tempted to talk to Deerfoot, because it was such a pleasure to look upon the handsome countenance and to make him smile and show his beautiful teeth.
So it was that Deerfoot was compelled to tell the whole story of his encounter with Taggarak, with its remarkable sequel; of his fight with the grizzly bear, and his conquest of Whirlwind, the peerless stallion. He never would have done this but for the persistent questioning of Mrs. Halloway. The boys had told Jack enough on the long ride from the mountains to St. Louis for him to give his mother the necessary pointers, and he helped her in driving the Shawanoe into a corner, where he could not otherwise extricate himself.
The wonderful thing in the estimation of the good woman was that the hero of these and many other exploits was a Christian. She had never seen one of his race who professed to be a follower of the Meek and Lowly One, though she had heard of such from the missionaries; but she agreed with her son that no more perfect exemplar of Christianity was to be found anywhere.
On the morrow, when the time came to part, Mrs. Halloway took the hand of Deerfoot in her dainty palm, and in a trembling voice thanked him for what he had done for her through what he did for her son. She promised to pray for him every day of her remaining life, and while he stood trying to keep back the tears she added:
“Please bend your head a little.”
He bent down and she touched her lips to his forehead, and, still holding the hand, said so that all, Jack, the Shelton boys and Dick Burley, could hear, as they gathered round to say the parting words:
“Well done, good and faithful servant!”
The benison thus bestowed remained with Deerfoot all the way home and to the end of his life. In the cool depths of the forest, amid the fragrance of brown leaves, the bark of trees and of bursting bud and blossom, and by the flow of the crystal brook, he heard the gentle whisper. It came to him when the snow sifted against his frame and the bite of the Arctic blast was as merciless as the fangs of the she-wolf. Above the crash of the hurricane that uprooted and splintered the century-old monarchs of the woods the wor
ds rang out like the notes of an angel’s trumpet, and in the watches of the night, under the star-gleam or in the fleecy moonlight, while stillness brooded over a sleeping world, the music swung back and forth like a censer through the corridors of the soul, with a sweetness that told him the strings of the harp throbbed under the touch of the fingers of God himself.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Retrospect2
“I am the son and only child of Taggarak, a leading war chief for many years of the Blackfoot Indians. I had an elder brother, but he died before reaching manhood. I remember the visit made by Deerfoot the Shawanoe to our tribe, in the autumn and winter of 1804 and 1805. He came from Ohio, in company with two brothers named Shelton, that were white, and with Mul-tal-la, who belonged to our own people, and had made the journey eastward into the Shawanoe country. Mul-tal-la had a companion when he left us, but he was accidentally killed after arriving in the East.
“I was not quite five years old when I first saw Deerfoot and his two friends, yet I can never forget him, for he was the most remarkable youth, white or red, that I ever met.”
(Here follows a description of Deerfoot’s appearance, his traits, his skill with rifle and bow, his athletic prowess and his unequaled woodcraft. This need not be repeated, since you are familiar with it. The statement which follows, however, is one of the most remarkable ever penned.)
The Edward S. Ellis Megapack Page 262