The heritage of the Sioux
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" Hunt yourselves some shelter, boys! " he cried in the sharp tone of warning. " We'll make sure who's ahead before we go any farther."
They ducked behind rocks or trees and piled off their horses in a hurry. And a scattered fusillade from the rim-rock ahead of them proved how urgent was their need.
For the first fifteen minutes or so they thought that they were fighting Eamon and his party, and their keenest emotions were built largely of resentment, which showed in the booming voice of Big Medicine when he said grimly:
" Well, I'd jest about as soon pack Eamon in dead, as lead 'im in alive 'n' kickin', by cripes! Which is him, d'yuh reckon ?" 263
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From behind a rock shield Luck was studying the ledge. " They're Injuns — or there are Injuns in the bunch, at least," he told them after a moment. " See that sharp point sticking up straight ahead? I saw an Injun peeking around the edge — to the south. You watch for him, Andy, and let him have it where he lives next time he sticks his head out." He swung the glasses slowly, taking every inch of the rim in his field of vision. As he moved them he named the man he wanted to watch each place where he had reason to suspect that someone was hiding.
The disheartening part of it was that he needed about a dozen more men than he had; for the rock wall which was the rim of the Frying-pan seemed alive with shooters who waited only for a fair target. Then the Native Son, crouched down between a rock and a clump of brush, turned his head to see what his horse was looking at, back whence they had come.
" Look behind you, Luck," he advised with more calmness than one would expect of a man in his straits. " They're back in the pines, too."
" Fight 'em off — and take care that your backs 264
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don't show to those babies on the rim-rocks," he ordered instantly, thrusting his glasses into their case and snatching his rifle from its boot on the saddle. " They won't tackle coming across that bare hollow, even if they can get down into it without breaking their necks. Happy, lead your horse in here between these rocks where mine is. Bud, see if you can get the pack-horses over there outa sight among those bushes and rocks. We'll hold 'em off while you fix the horses — can't let ourselves be set afoot out here! "
" I-should-say — not!" Andy Green punctuated the sentence with a shot or two. " Say, I wish they'd quit sneaking around in those trees that way, so a fellow could see where to shoot! "
A half hour dragged by. From the rim-rock came occasional shots, to which the besieged could not afford to reply, they were so fully occupied with holding back those who skulked among the trees. The horses, fancying perhaps that this was a motion-picture scene, dozed behind their rock-and-brush shelters and switched apathetically at buzzing flies and whining bullets alike. Their masters crouched behind their bowlders and 265
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watched catlike for some open demonstration, and fired when they had the slightest reason to believe that they would hit something besides scenery.
" Miguel must have upset their plans a little," Luck deduced after a lull. " They set the stage for us down in that hollow, I guess. You can see what we'd have been up against if we had ridden ten rods farther, out away from these rocks and bushes."
" Aw, they wouldn't dast kill a bunch uh white men! " Happy Jack protested, perhaps for his own comfort.
" You think they wouldn't ?" Luck's voice was surcharged with sarcasm. " What do you think they're trying to do, then ? "
" Aw, the gov'ment wouldn't stand fer no such actions! "
" Well, by cripes, I hain't aimin' to give the gov'ment no job uh setting on my remains, investi-gatin' why I was killed off! " Big Medicine asserted, and took a shot at a distant grimy Stetson to prove he meant what he said.
" Say, they'd have had a snap if we'd gone on, and let these fellows back here in the trees close 266
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up behind us! " Andy Green exclaimed suddenly, with a vividness of gesture that made Happy Jack try to swallow his Adam's apple. " By gracious, it would have been a regular rabbit-drive business. They could set in the shade and pick us off just as they darned pleased."
" Aw, is that there the cheerfullest thing you can think of to say ? " Happy Jack was sweating with something more than desert heat.
" Why, no. The cheerfullest thing I can think of right now is that Mig, here, don't ride with his eyes shut." He cast a hasty glance of gratitude toward the Native Son, who flushed under the smooth brown of his cheeks while he fired at a moving bush a hundred yards back in the grove.
For another half hour nothing was gained or lost. The Indians fired desultorily, spatting bits of lead here and there among the rocks but hitting nobody. The Happy Family took a shot at every symptom of movement in the grove, and toward the rim-rock they sent a bullet now and then, just to assure the watchers up there that they were not forgotten, and as a hint that caution spelled safety.
For themselves, the boys were amply protected 267
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there on the side of the Frying-pan where the handle stretched out into the open land toward the mountain. Perhaps here was once a torrent flowing from the basin-like hollow walled round with rock; at any rate, great bowlders were scattered all along the rim as though spewed from the basin by some mighty force of the bygone ages. The soil, as so often happens in the West, was fertile to the very edge of the Frying-pan and young pinons and bushes had taken root there and managed to keep themselves alive with the snow-moisture of winter, in spite of the scanty rainfall the rest of the year. The boys were amply protected, yes; but there was not a drop of water save what they had in their canteens, and there was no feed for their horses unless they chose to nibble tender twigs off the bushes near them and call that food. There was, of course, the grain in the packs, but there was neither time nor opportunity to get it out. If it came to a siege, Luck and his boys were in a bad way, and they knew it. They were penned as well as protected there in that rocky, brushy neck. The most that they could do was to discourage any rush from those back in the grove; as to getting through 268
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that grove themselves, and out in the open, there was not one chance in a hundred that they could do it.
From the outside in to where they were entrenched was just a trifle easier. The Indians in the grove were all absorbed in watching the edge of the Frying-pan and had their backs to the open, never thinking that white men would be coming that way; for had not the other party been decoyed around the farther end of the big butte, and did not several miles and a barbed-wire fence lie between ?
So when Applehead and his three, coming in from the north, approached the grove, they did it under cover of a draw that hid them from sight. From the shots that were fired, Applehead guessed the truth; that Luck's bunch had sensed danger before they had actually ridden into the Frying-pan itself, and that the Navajos were trying to drive them out of the rocks, and were not making much of a success of it.
" Now," Applehead instructed the three when they were as close as they could get to the grove without being seen, " I calc'late about the best thing 269
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we kin do, boys, is t' spur up our bosses and ride in amongst 'em sbooting and a-hollerin'. Mebby we kin jest natcherlay stampede 'em — but we've sure got t' git tbrougb V git under cover migbty dang suddent, er they'll come to tbeirselves an' wipe us clean off'n the map — if tbey's enough of 'em. These here that's comin' along after us, they'll help t' swell the party, oncet they git here. I calc'late they figger 't we're runnin' head-on into a mess uh trouble, 'n' they don't want t' colleck any stray bullets—'n' that's why they've dropped back in the last half mile er so. Haze them pack bosses up this way, Pink, so'st they won't git caught up 'fore they git t' what the rest air. Best use yore six-guns fer this, boys — that'll leave ye one hand t' guide yore bosses with, and they're handier all around in close work. Air
ye ready ? Then come •m — f oiler me 'n' come a-whoopin'! "
A-whooping they came, up out of the draw and in among the trees as though they had a regiment behind them. Certain crouching figures jumped, sent startled glances behind them and ran like partridges for cover farther on. Only one or two paused to send a shot at these charging fiends who 270
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seemed bent on riding them down and who yelled like devils turned loose from the pit. And before they had found safe covert on the farther fringes of the grove and were ready to meet the onslaught, the clamor had ceased and the white men had joined those others among the rocks.
So now there were nine men cornered here on the edge of the Frying-pan, with no water for their horses and not much hope of getting out of there.
" Darn you, Applehead, why didn't you keep out of this mess ? " Luck demanded with his mouth drawn down viciously at the corners and his eyes warm with affection and gratitude. " What possessed your fool heart to ride into this trap ? "
" We-ell, dang it, we had t' ride som'ers, didn't we ? " Applehead, safe behind a bowlder, pulled off his greasy, gray Stetson and polished his bald head disconcertedly. " Had a bunch uh Navvies hangin' t' our heels like tumbleweed —'n' we been doin' some riding now, I'm a tellin' ye! T Lite, here, hadn't kep' droppin' one now an' then fur the rest t' devour, I calc'late we'd bin et up, a mile er two back! "
Lite looked up from shoving more cartridges 271
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into his rifle-magazine. " If we hadn't had a real, aimon-pure go-getter to boss the job," he drawled, " I reckon all the shooting I did wouldn't have cut any ice. Ain't that right, boys ? "
Pink, resting his rifle in a niche of the boulder and moving it here and there trying to fix his sights on a certain green sweater back in the woods that he had glimpsed a minute before, nodded assent. " You're durn tootin' it's right! " he testified.
Weary looked shining-eyed at Applehead's purple face. " Sure, that's right! " he emphasized. " And I don't care how much of a trap you call this, it isn't a patching to the one Applehead busted us out of. He's what I call a Keal One, boys."
" Aw, shet yore dang head 'n' git yore rifles workin'! " Applehead blurted. " This yere ain't no time fer kiddin', 'n' I'm tellin' yuh straight. What's them fellers acrost the Fryin'-pan think they're tryin' t' do ? Luck le's you'n me make a few remarks over that way, 'n' leave the boys t' do some gun-talk with these here babies behind us. Dang it, if I knowed of a better place 'n' what this is fer holdin' 'em off, I'd say make a run fer it. J3ut I don't 'n' that's fact. Yuh musta sprung the 272
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trap 'fore yuh got inside, 'cause they shore aimed t' occupy this nest uh rocks theirselves, with you fellers down there in the Fryin'-pan where they could git at yuh.
" Thar's one of 'em up on the rim-rock — see 'im ? — standin' thar, by granny, like he was darin' somebody t' cut loose! Here, Lite, you spill some lead up thar. We'll learn 'im t' act up smart —"
" Hey, hold on! " Luck grabbed Lite's arm as he was raising his rifle for a close shot at the fellow. " Don't shoot! Don't you see ? That's the peace-sign he's making! "
" Well, now, dang it, he better be makin' peace signs! " growled Applehead querulously, and sat down heavily on a shelf of the rock. " 'Cause Lite, here, shore woulda tuk an ear off'n him in another minute, now I'm tellin' ye! "
CHAFTEK XIX
PEACE TALK
ACEOSS the Frying-pan an Indian stood boldly out upon a jutting point of rock and raised a hand in the sweeping upward motion of the peace-sign. The questing bullets that came seeking for bone and flesh among the rocks and bushes came no more when the signal was passed from those who saw to those farther back who could not see the figure silhouetted against the brilliant blue of the sky. A moment he stood, made the sign again, and waited.
" That's peace-sign, sure as you're born! " Luck cried breathlessly, and went scrambling through the bushes to where he might stand in the open, on the very rim of the basin. Applehead yelled to him to come back and not make a dang fool of himself, but Luck gave no heed to the warning. He stood out in the blazing sunshine and gave the peace-sign in reply.
On the-rim rock the Indian stood motionless 274
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while he might have taken three or four breaths. Then with his hand he gave the sign for " powwow " and waited again.
Luck, his pulse thrilling at the once familiar gesture which his tribal " father," old chief Big Turkey, used to give when he came stalking up for his daily confab with his adopted son, gave back the sign with a hand that trembled noticeably. Whereupon the Indian on the farther rim turned and began dignifiedly to climb through a rift in the ledge down into the Frying-pan.
" He wants a pow-wow," Luck called back to the bunch. " You fellows stay where you're at — I'm going out there in the middle and talk to him."
" Now, Luck, don't let 'em make a dang monkey outa ye," Applehead protested anxiously. " Injuns is tricky —"
"That's all right. You can keep a couple of rifles sighted on that old chief — that's what he is, I take it, from his actions and his talking ' sign '— and then if they pot me, you can pot him. But they won't. I know Injuns better than you do, Applehead. He just wants to talk things over — and I'm certainly willing that he should! " 275
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" Well, Lite, you keep your sights lined up on that Injun, then. 'N' if they's a crooked move made towards Luck, you cut loose —'n' say 1 You shoot to kill, this time! " He shook his finger in Lite's face admonishingly. " 'S all right t' nip 'em here 'n' take a hunk out there jest t' kinda take their minds off'n us —'s all right enough so fur, 'n' I ain't kickin' none 'cause yuh ain't killed off yuh hit. But if this here's a trick t' git Luck, you kill that Injun. 'N"' if you don't do it I'll go out there m'self 'n' choke the dang skunk t' death! "
" I'll kill him — don't worry about that," Lite promised — and the look in his eyes told them that the Indian was doomed at the first sign of treachery.
" You fellers wanta keep an eye peeled fer them in the grove," Applehead warned. " We ain't goin' t' give 'em no chanst t' sneak up 'n' skulp us whilst we're watchin' Luck 'n' his dang-fool pow-wowin' out there in the middle."
"Aw, gwan! They wouldn't dost skelp white folks! " There was a wail in the voice of Happy Jack.
'* They dast if they git the chanst," Applehead 276
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retorted fretfully. " 'E"' if you don't wanta loose that there red mop uh yourn ye better keep yer eyes open, now I'm tellin' yuh! " He refilled his rifle magazine and took up his station beside Lite A very where he could watch the Frying-pan through the bushes without exposing himself to a treacherous shot from the rim-rock.
At the foot of the sandstone ledge the Indian stood with his bright red blanket wrapped around him watching Luck. On his own side Luck stood just clear of the rock huddle and watched the Indian. Presently he of the red blanket lifted his hand in the gesture of peace, and started deliberately out across the bare little basin. From his own side, Luck, returning again the gesture, went out to meet him. In the center they met, and eyed each other frankly. Still eyeing Luck, the old Indian put out his hand Indian fashion, and Luck gave it one downward shake and let go.
" How ? " he grunted; and in the Indian custom of preparing for a leisurely pow-wow as he had been taught by the Sioux, he squatted upon his boot heels and reached for his cigarette papers and tobacco.
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" How ? " replied the Navajo, a flicker of interest in his eyes at these little Indian touches in Luck's manner, and sat himself down cross-legged on the hot sand.
Luck rolled a cigarette and passed the "makings " to the other, who received it gravely and proceeded to help himself. Luck scratched a match on a stone that lay beside him, lighted the Indian's cigarette and then his own, took four puffs and blew the smoke upward, watching it spread and drift away, and made t
he gesture that meant " Our pow-wow will be good," as he had seen the Sioux medicine men do before a council. Afterwards he began placidly to smoke and meditate.
From his manner you would never have guessed that his life and the lives of the Happy Family hung upon the outcome of this meeting. You would not have surmised that his stomach was gnawing at his nerves, sending out insistently the call for food; or that his thirst tormented him; or that the combination of hunger, heat, thirst and mental strain had bred a jumping headache that was knotting the veins in his temples. All these nagging miseries beset him — but he knew the 278
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ways of the Indians and he meant to impress this old man first of all with his plains-Indian training; so he schooled himself to patience.
The Indian eyed him furtively from under heavy eyebrows while he smoked. And the sun beat savagely down upon the sand of that basin, and Luck's vision blurred with the pain that throbbed behind his eyes. But the facial discipline of the actor was his to command, and he permitted his face to give no sign of what he felt or thought.
The Indian leaned slowly, lifted a brown hand, made a studied gesture or two and waited, his eyes fixed unwinkingly upon Luck. It was as if he were saying to himself: " We'll see if this white man can speak in the sign-talk of the Indians."
Luck lifted his two hands, drew them slowly apart to say that he had come a long way. Then, using only his hands — sometimes his fingers only — he began to talk; to tell the old Navajo that he and eight other white men were sheriffs and that they were chasing four white men (since he had no sign that meant Mexican) who had stolen money; that they had come from Albuquerque — and there he began to draw in the sand between them a crude 279
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