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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33030-8.txt b/33030-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0088fa0 --- /dev/null +++ b/33030-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7600 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Chiquita, an American Novel, by Merrill Tileston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chiquita, an American Novel + The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter + +Author: Merrill Tileston + +Release Date: June 30, 2010 [EBook #33030] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIQUITA, AN AMERICAN NOVEL *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C Orton, Carol Ann Brown, Linda McKeown +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +CHIQUITA + + +[Illustration: CHIQUITA] + + + + + +CHIQUITA + +AN AMERICAN NOVEL + +The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter + +BY + +MERRILL TILESTON + +PUBLISHED BY +THE MERRILL COMPANY +CHICAGO, U. S. A. +MCMII. + + + + + + +Copyright 1902 by +H. M. Tileston +Chicago, U. S. A. +All rights reserved + + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + + Page + + CHAPTER I. A Bozrah Bornin', 7 + + CHAPTER II. On the Firing Line of Civilization, 33 + + CHAPTER III. Cats, Traps and Indians, 50 + + CHAPTER IV. Old Joe Riggs, 71 + + CHAPTER V. The Camp in the Willows, 82 + + CHAPTER VI. The Ranch on the Troublesome, 110 + + CHAPTER VII. Chiquita Wooed by Antelope, 124 + + CHAPTER VIII. A Glimpse of Home, 134 + + CHAPTER IX. Ute Big Warrior--No Plow, 143 + + CHAPTER X. The Blazing Eye Mine, 171 + + CHAPTER XI. College Vacations, 180 + + CHAPTER XII. Jack Wedded, 192 + + CHAPTER XIII. Estes Park, 212 + + CHAPTER XIV. Chiquita Graduates, 256 + + CHAPTER XV. A Hospital and A Boarding House, 263 + + CHAPTER XVI. Galling Yokes of Civilization, 274 + + CHAPTER XVII. Whence Come My People? 293 + + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + + FRONTISPIECE, "Chiquita" + + YAMANATZ, 52 + + THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS, 103 + + ANTELOPE--THE WARRIOR, 1877, 132 + + ANTELOPE--THE CIVILIAN, 1902, 168 + + THE "KEYHOLE"--LONG'S PEAK, 212 + + "SHE LAY TO REST" ON HER BOULDER BED, 232 + + THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER, 303 + + + + + +CHIQUITA. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A BOZRAH BORNIN'. + + +A tallow candle shed its sickly and flickering light in the front room +of an ancient farm house, as Jack Sheppard announced his arrival on +earth at four o'clock on a Friday morning. He arrived in a snowstorm, +and it was a very select gathering of some of old Bozrah's prominent +citizens who greeted his entry into the world. There was old Doctor +Pettingill, with square-rimmed, blue-glass spectacles; Grandma Paisley, +who didn't care for avoirdupois, just so it was a boy; Aunt Diantha, +with portentous air and red mittens, while in the kitchen, dozing by the +big fireplace, was Uncle Zebedee, who had driven over from Pudden Hollow +the evening before to learn the news and "set up" all night in order to +be of assistance in case of necessity. + +The whole Deerfield valley was interested, and it made no difference if +the snow did play tag up and down the necks and on the faces of all +Bozrah as they brought paregoric, feather pillows, goody-goodies and all +the useful uselessnesses that each and every one had kept for years and +years awaiting a possible occasion. There was an old brass warming-pan +that Deacon Baxter used to warm the bed for Governor Winthrop, and a hot +water jug which Great-grandma Lathrop averred warmed the feet of every +one of her seventeen "darters and grand-darters." There was also a quilt +made of silk patches, each patch taken from a dress that some colonial +dame had worn when she danced the stately minuet at a great function in +Boston or Albany. + +All these good people had a successful way of bringing up children in +the paths of self-reliance, respect, thrift, endurance and honesty which +made stalwart, orthodox patriots. + +The Sheppards were an old English family who settled in New England late +in the seventeenth century--three brothers, one of which, according to +ye olden tyme records, planted the elm trees in front of the +meetyngehouse on Dorchester hill; these trees, at the age of sixty or +seventy years, being cut down by the British during the Revolutionary +War. The descendants of the three brothers were thrifty men, large of +physique and of great executive ability, the women the loveliest of the +colonies--families of sterling integrity, wealth and esteem. + +"Thad" Sheppard, Jack's father, was in some respects an exception, he +being a man of the world, of the wild, dangerous class, handsome and +talented, but lacking the balance wheel which magnetic temperaments +usually require. He was admired by both men and women to the point of +the danger line, for his schemes wrecked many a fortune and family, +ultimately losing him the confidence of all. "Thad" loved one of the +beautiful daughters of the Deerfield valley, and, despite the +protestations of friends and relatives, she married him, claiming she +could do what none thus far had been able to accomplish--reform him. +"Thad's" habits had not been curbed. Life was too gay for thoughts of +the sombre hereafter, and the sedate, sober counsel of the old men was +scorned, but their predictions were to be most cruelly fulfilled. Yet +there was that confiding love, that desire to accomplish miracles, which +swayed the fair young girl of the Deerfield hills to sacrifice herself +in the hope of reform. Oh, what a waste of time for any woman! What +debauchery of intellect, what a prostitution of a fair and beautiful +life; utter folly, deliberate social suicide, with its months and years +of anguish and debasement for the mere gratification of an impulse! To +be sure, there are some moments, comprising even days or months, when +happiness reigns, but do these few hours, which grow farther apart, +shorter and shorter, as time wears away, compensate for the millions of +silent, expectant moments during which the uncomplaining wife watches +for that unerring expression which never deceives her? Is there any +excuse a mother can give her daughter, budding into womanhood, for +bringing her into the world to face disgrace, possibly crime? Does a +son, born of such parents, have that respect and confidence toward +father and mother that he should? + +Sue Paisley lived on that beautiful farm where Jack was born. She was on +a visit while "Thad" attended important business in the great cotton +markets of the South. She loved the brook that gurgled and splashed +along its course. Nodding bluebells coquetted with the tiny wave crests, +while the grass along the bank waved little blades in defiance at the +roar of its voice. Each summer Sue sang its praises to the tinkle of the +whetstone as the farm hand sharpened his scythe, tink, tink, tinkety +tink. When she married, she left the long rows of maple trees, the great +red barn, the stuffy parlor, the spare room with its high feather bed +and Dutch clock; the big round dining table with tilting top, blue and +white chinaware, and the long well sweep, to become hostess in the more +pretentious surroundings of a small city on the Connecticut, living long +enough to realize how futile were her efforts to stay the temptations +which beset "Thad" on every hand. Misfortune overtook all his financial +investments, and, as one enterprise followed another in the maelstrom of +speculation, Sue's life ebbed away, leaving Jack and his sisters to be +cared for by a spinster aunt, who undertook the responsibility at the +earnest solicitation of "Thad." + +The awakening from sin was that of genuine remorse and sorrow. With the +characteristic determination of those rugged ancestors, "Thad" broke off +all his former boon companionships, started on entirely new lines of +life and succeeded in living down the awful past. In a few years he +remarried, giving Jack a mother who learned to love her stepson as her +own. Jack was not the ever industrious boy in school, but he was quick +to learn both kinds of knowledge, useful and mischievous. That is the +reason why the old red school-house, at the top of the hill, held +pleasant recollections for him in after life. Of course, "J-A-C-K" was +carved into the top of every desk at which he sat and, as the first row +of desks was the "baby" or A, B, C row, the next one a little larger, +and so on, the four rows of "boxes" represented four classes, and Jack +managed to stay in each class long enough to carve his name where future +generations would find it. + +"He's the most trying pupil in the school," was what the teacher told +everybody in the little village. + +When the snow was deep, Jack took his dinner in a little basket, just +the same as the other scholars, and at the noon recess he was always in +the games in which the girls liked to have a few of the nice boys to +help out. Two chairs, facing each other, with a little gap between them, +then a ring of boys and girls holding hands to circle around between the +chairs, while a boy and a girl stood on the chairs, hands clasped across +the gap, all joining in singing the little couplet: + + "The needle's eye that does supply + The thread that runs so true, + I've caught many a smiling lass, + And now I have caught you." + +It was the boy's turn to choose the girl he wanted for a partner, and +she had to submit to the penalty of a kiss before she could mount the +chair. The desks were arranged in horseshoe form, and of course the +favorite seats were in the back row, farthest away from the teacher, but +Jack generally managed to be on a line with the first nail hole in the +horseshoe by the time the first third of the term was reached. This, so +the teacher could better keep her eye on him. + +It was near the end of the summer term that a little event occurred +which made a lasting impression on Jack. His seat-mate was an ungainly +little urchin who had the faculty of being cunning without being smart. +His name was "Ted" Smith, but he was better known as "Ted Weaver," for +he had a habit of rocking to and fro from one hand to another while he +studied. Jack happened to be busy with lessons when some one shot a +paper wad at one of the scholars, which missed the scholar but hit the +teacher on the cheek. + +Miss Freeman was spare and angular, with a pointed rose-colored nose, +hard, cold-gray eyes, and long neck circled with a severe white linen +collar, which lay flat over the prominent collar bones. The black waist +of her dress was severely plain, with, seemingly, a gross of buttons +made of wooden molds covered with the dress fabric. The skirt covered an +area of floor space that was in keeping with the period before the Civil +War, when hoop skirts ruled the fashion, and, as the "tilter" tilted, it +could be seen the school ma'am enumerated among her personal belongings +a pair of white hose and cloth gaiters. A head of luxurious hair was +parted exactly in the middle and divided into three portions, two side +and back strands, the side strands twisted to the temples, then the +smooth flat surface gracefully looped over the tops of the ears until +the curve of the hair reached the eyebrows; the ends of the strands were +then formed into a foundation, around which the back hair was wound, +after a sufficient quantity had been properly separated for curls--long +ones for the side, or short ones to dangle idly behind. + +When the paper wad struck Miss Freeman a rap immediately brought the +school to order. With a searching gaze she tried to locate the evil +doer, and her well-trained eye rested on Jack, who innocently looked up +to see the cause of the unusual summons "to order." Jack knew who shot +the wad, for he had noticed the culprit shoot others earlier in the day, +a performance which had escaped the teacher's notice and cheek. + +"Jack, did you throw that paper wad?" she asked, her voice as cold and +hard as that of the second mate of a three-masted brig. + +"No, ma'am." + +"Do you know who did throw it?" + +Jack would not tell a lie about the wad, so he answered slowly, "Yes, +ma'am." + +"Who did it?" + +There was no reply. + +"Who threw the wad?" + +She had flushed to her hair at the commencement of the inquisition, but +now the color slowly receded and the lines in her severe face became +like those in stone. + +"Unless you tell me who threw the wad I shall punish you." + +Jack remained silent. His little bosom filled with wrath because the +culprit would not speak up; but his honor was so strong that he would +not be "telltale." The teacher reached for her switch and told Jack to +step forward. Like a little man he marched up to her desk and stood, not +defiant, but humble and submissive, awaiting his punishment. Miss +Freeman stepped down from the platform with switch in hand, and again +demanded the name of the guilty one. + +"I'll never tell," said Jack in a whisper. + +There was a swish in the air and a sharp cracking noise as the rod smote +Jack around the fleshy part of his legs. + +"Will you tell now?" asked the teacher again. + +Jack made no answer, but shook his head and stifled a sob. He knew if he +relaxed his firmly shut teeth he would cry, so he gritted them and +prepared to receive the following blows without flinching. Thoroughly +maddened, the school ma'am finally threw off all endeavor of restraint +and showered blow after blow upon poor Jack's arms, legs and bare feet, +for it was summer and Jack followed the custom of other boys. But, it is +needless to say, that was the last day he went barefooted. The switch +was broken, but not the spirit in the boy. He had given way to tears, +which gushed forth because of bodily pain. He sought to protect his feet +and grabbed the infuriated school ma'am's skirt, and as the blows +descended he swung under the protecting expanse of hoops. This piece of +strategy perplexed the teacher, and as she had broken all her switches +she had to suspend hostilities until a new supply was gathered. Leaving +Jack and the school room, she hastened to the willows, which grew in +abundance just back of the building, and brought in a stick as big as a +cane, just in time to see Jack disappearing through the window and his +sturdy little legs, all striped with red marks, making tracks for home. + +Episodes of this character followed Jack all through his school life. He +had a stern father, who always punished his children if they were +punished at school, no matter what the excuse, and on this occasion +there was no exception, only in place of another "birching" the filial +duty was limited to sending the boy to bed without anything to eat, so +he could reflect upon the awful crime of disobedience to his teacher. + +Nature has ever been prodigal in the distribution of her favors and +disfavors, limiting her generosity in the picturesque to certain +localities, and giving in abundance to the arid regions, as well as to +the fertile valleys. But in her selfish allotments no upheavals in the +vast chaos of creation furnished man an abiding place so compatible with +his Puritanical doctrines as the forbidding rock-walled coast of New +England and the everlasting hills extending back to the Hudson River, +with their beautiful slopes, sinuous streams and forest-scented dales. +And it was among these hills that Jack found, even in his younger days, +that pleasure and freedom which afterward was intensified by his +associations with the forest-born red man. + +Old Bozrah, where he first saw the light of day, was the Mecca to which +his longing gaze was ever turned, even as he studied, worked or played, +and no greater treat was in store for him than the one looked forward to +when his father hitched up "Old Jerry" to drive that long twenty miles, +through villages and past cross-road stores, to the old farm house. "Old +Jerry" was known even better than "Thad" Sheppard. Every factory hand on +Mill River from where it emptied into the Connecticut to the great +reservoirs in the Goshen hills, and every farmer, merchant and preacher +knew "Thad" and "Old Jerry." + +"Thad" was well aware of the danger that lurked in the old reservoirs +and knew the day would come when the torrent would burst forth and sweep +all the industries away, and Jack wondered why everybody looked so grave +and serious when the spring freshets made the brooks roily so he could +not fish. In after years when that animated devastating fortress of +trees, rocks and factory debris crushed its way down the valley, +receiving its propulsive force from the waters which broke forth from +bondage, Jack remembered those grave and serious faces. + +But it was among the hills of the Deerfield valley that Jack loved best +to wander and to fish for trout, or to help Uncle Zebedee and Uncle John +in planting or haying or "salting" the cattle, or gathering apples on +hills so steep that the fruit rolled a rod sometimes after falling from +the trees. + +In the old barn at milking time, when the cows were yoked to their feed +racks, Jack helped give them hay--nice new clover--and then waited and +watched Aunt Sally strain the warm fluid into the bright pans, fearing +the while she would forget the little cup, which he kept moving from one +place to another, and which she seemed never to see until almost the +last drop in the pail was reached. Churning day was always welcome to +Jack. The old yellow churn, which stood near the big water trough in the +wash room, had to be brought into the kitchen, and then he would turn +the paddle wheel round and round, listening to the patter of the blades +as they splashed into the cream, until finally he knew by the sound that +the butter had "come." + +Jack did not like Saturday night very well, for at sundown on the last +day of the week those good orthodox folks commenced their Sunday. +Saturday afternoon was given to baking cake and other dainties and +getting the house in order for the Lord's Day. The men folks were shaved +clean and all the chores were done and supper ended before sundown. Then +the old black leather Bible was taken from the shelf and all gathered +around for family prayers. These devotions were held every night about +bedtime, but Saturday evening was the beginning of the Sabbath, and +services were held earlier and longer than on other days of the week. +The room, with its chintz-covered lounge, rag carpet, Dutch clock, and +chairs upholstered in haircloth, seemed more sacred on Saturday. The +Bible was read, a lesson given from the shorter catechism, and several +of Watts' hymns repeated by all together, or by volunteers, as the +spirit moved; a song or two, then all would kneel devoutly, while Uncle +John, in deep stentorian voice, prayed long and earnestly for the divine +grace, which sustains the righteous through the snares and temptations +of the wicked world; after which all retired. + +On Sunday no work was done that could be avoided, and at an early hour +in solemn procession all filed out to the vehicles which conveyed them +to the village two and one-half miles away. The horses knew it was +Sunday and devoutly raised one leg at a time in covering the distance. +The minister knew it was Sunday and exhorted his hearers, with threats +of dire hell and damnation, to mend their ways. Sunday school +immediately after the morning service, then lunch at the wagons or on +the steps of the church or in the church, and again the minister +unrolled his sermons and renewed his valiant fight in redemption of +sinners. The choir stood up, the leader struck the key with his tuning +fork, and when the "pitch" was duly recognized the last hymn was sung, +followed by the doxology and benediction. All hearts seemed to begin +life anew when the final "Amen" was pronounced, and although the long +hill had to be ascended, it took less time than it had to descend in the +morning. It was dinner time when the farm was again reached and all were +hungry. After the meal the family gathered in the parlor, with its +fragrant odor of musty walls, varnished maps and stuffy ancientness +which pervaded everything. Here the conversation dwelt upon the goodness +of the Lord, misfortunes of the sick in the neighborhood, news of which +had been learned at church, or other topics not too worldly. As sundown +approached the men folks commenced to get ready for the week's work and +changed their clothes, while the women got out aprons and put away their +"Sunday duds." By sunset the wash barrel was brought forth and the +laundry work for Monday commenced. + +In the wagon-shed Uncle John had his scythe ready to grind, and as Jack +turned the stone he said to himself, "Uncle John bears down harder on +Sunday night than he does any other night in the week." + +These visits to the old farm were at frequent intervals, so Jack had +ample opportunity to see real country life under all the different +aspects of maple-sugar making, planting, haying, cutting wood for the +year, and building stone walls. Berrying was about the greatest +enjoyment, next to catching brook trout, and such an abundance of +blackberries in the pastures and woods where portions of the timber had +been cut out! But the visits came to an end, inasmuch as Jack's father +"moved west" to one of the great flour-milling cities, which flourished +at the close of the Civil War. + +In the west Jack received his final education, at sixteen taking leave +of Latin, algebra and rhetoric, with one term in the high school. During +the grammar school incubation Jack learned the difference between a +village teacher and a city ward instructor; also that the western city +ward boy had to fight occasionally, while the good New England lad was +in mortal disgrace if he ever presumed to raise his hands against a +fellow schoolmate. Jack had been warned time and again by his father not +to fight, as it was wicked, and severe punishment awaited all +demonstrations of anything in the nature of a "scrap." + +It was but natural that a boy who would not fight should become the +target for every pugnacious lad in the school, and Jack went home +regularly with a bloody nose or scratched face, as a result of some +misunderstanding. Not only would he get larruped by the bigger boys, but +little fellows half his size walloped him good and plenty. Then the +teacher had to make an example of him with the ruler, and finally his +father finished up the job in the barn or across his knee with the hair +brush. The hair brush was the handiest thing Jack ever encountered in +his "spare (not) the rod" career. One day he went home with a frightful +cut in his lip where some "bully" of the school had kicked him. His +father lost all patience and Jack pleaded for a hearing. + +"Why do you tell me it is wicked to fight and punish me for getting +licked? I can lick any boy in the school, but have never raised my hand +yet, because you told me not to, and they pick on me all the time." + +It was a revelation to the parent and he wondered at his own obtuseness. +One instruction, one little lesson to be a man, he gave Jack: "Do not +fight for the sake of showing off, or to be a 'bully,' but defend +yourself always." + +Jack was all excitement, and forgot his swollen lip. His father +continued: "And when you find you have to defend yourself, strike +straight from the shoulder and hit between the eyes, downward, like +that," and the stern old man took a crack at the side of the barn and +ripped a board off, besides nearly breaking his knuckle. Jack went to +school that afternoon, and at recess, when a big, red-headed bully, +nicknamed "Cross-eyed Whittaker," commenced to tease and banter him, +Jack edged away as usual, but with eyes ablaze and fist clinched. He saw +that the "bully" was bent on showing off, and knew the time had come to +make the first stand for Jack. Whittaker was about the same height, but +much heavier in build than Jack. Finally, as the big one got nearer and +nearer and became more and more offensive, Jack stood his ground, +looking the "bully" over from head to foot, and suddenly said: + +"You miserable coward, you have picked on me long enough. Now let me +alone or take the licking that you deserve." + +The other boys, of course, jumped up and gathered in a ring. "Fight! +Fight!" was yelled by a hundred throats, as all rushed to where the now +angry combatants faced each other. Jack stood poised on one foot ready +for any emergency. All at once he spied the crony of the "bully" +sneaking through the crowd of boys to get behind his chum. When the +latter saw his "pal" his courage increased wonderfully, but ere he had +time to put into execution the thoughts uppermost in his mind, Jack made +a feint, a step back and then a lunge ahead with a right-hand smash just +as he had seen his father hit the board, and the "bully" lay at his feet +writhing and kicking in defeat. + +Whittaker took the licking very much to heart, and he carried a scar on +his lip, caused by Jack's blow, to his grave. Jack heard occasionally +that the "bully" had sworn to "get even," but as time passed and their +pursuits carried them into opposing channels, Whittaker soon became a +school-day reminiscence and later was not even remembered by name. + +Jack's school days came to an end and he went into his father's mill to +work, learning the various methods of flour manufacture and manner of +marketing the product. The business did not seem to take his fancy. +"Something wrong in the industry," he would often say to the boss +miller. "Here you work this mill day and night, turn out three hundred +barrels of flour every twenty-four hours, yet lose money on the product +half the time. Six months of the year is a loss, but none of the mill +owners can give the reason why." + +"You're right, kid; but that ain't nothin' to me to figger out. I've +been dressin' mill stones an' cuttin' them burrs ever since I was your +age, an' it's allus been the same. Sometimes it's the wheat, sometimes +the weather, but in the end it's as you say. P'raps it's the farmer, who +asks too big a price." + +"No, it's not any one of those causes," said Jack, meditatively. "It's +that big engine down there eating up coal and the carrying charge to get +the flour to market. That's what ails the business. Look, now; see that +farmer with a load of wheat on the scales. There's father out there +taking a handful out of one sack and a cupful out of another. (Look out, +dad, you may strike a nest of screenings shot into the middle of one of +those sacks with a stove pipe.) He's bought the load and now it's going +into the hopper, where it will in all probability be mixed with inferior +grades. Then people complain the flour is no good, and you grind up a +lot of corn meal and feed it back into the flour, or regrind with some +middlings, until one can't tell whether it is flour or hog feed, and +where are the profits? Now, let me tell you. I was listening the other +day to that little alderman over in the second ward. He was talking +politics and business, and when he was not roasting 'Bob' Ingersoll or +General Grant he was making fun of Illinois River millers. He said--and +you know what a big voice the little fellow has--he said this: 'There's +a town up by St. Anthony's Falls that will turn out more flour in a day +than we turn out in a week, and you know we are some pumpkins with our +flour barrels, ain't we?'" + +"Say, kid, you're sure of what you just said?" asked the miller, +interestedly. + +"Sure as I live," replied Jack; "why?" + +"Well, I'm goin' up to see that bit of water near St. Paul." + +"The nearest town is Minneapolis, a little suburb of St. Paul," answered +Jack, remembering his geography lessons. + +Between oiling machinery, sacking bran, sewing flour sacks, heading +barrels, sweeping, and occasionally "learning his trade," as he called +it, over in the cooper shop, Jack got to be pretty well posted on the +manufacture of flour, but he did not like the business and finally gave +it up, deciding to take up the mercantile sphere and quit the field +wherein the foundations of the most gigantic fortunes were just ready +for the superstructure--flour, oil, harvest machinery and provisions, to +say nothing of the contributory railway and telegraph business. He went +to Boston, secured a position in a large wholesale establishment, lived +in one of the beautiful suburban cities which surround the "Hub" on +three sides, and there learned the lessons of prudence, sharp buying and +economical, labor-saving methods, which were in contrast with the +wastefulness and unsystematic methods prevalent in the great west. Not +long after Jack was well established his father packed up the family +belongings and moved where he could be with his son. + +In a little country village fifty miles from Boston, on the Newburyport +branch of the B. & M. R. R., lived Hazel Hemmingway. When Jack Sheppard +was a pupil of Miss Freeman's in the old red school house back in the +hills of western Massachusetts, he divided his apple with Hazel, dragged +her white sled up hill in winter, and in summer made for her peachstone +baskets, which he whittled out with his "Barlow" knife. There was no +girl in all the world to Jack that compared with the brown-eyed, +brown-faced Hazel, and no boy in the school got so many cookies, +bon-bons and dainty notes slipped into arithmetic or grammar as did +Jack. + +The parting when Jack's father moved to the west was full of tender +good-byes and promises to "write real often" on the part of +both--promises which each faithfully kept. As the years passed Mr. +Hemmingway became interested in a shoe factory in the eastern part of +the state and moved his family to the thriving little manufacturing +town. The correspondence continued between the twain, and when Jack +returned to Boston a girl to womanhood grown knew that a supplementary +reason caused the young man to select Boston, and that she was the +supplement. Of course no one else ever dreamed the truth. + +It was not long after Jack was established in the "Hub" that he made the +first visit to Hazel in her new home, spending the Sabbath in the quaint +old place which was within the pale of influence spread by the historic +witchcraft of the ancients. The renewal of that childhood acquaintance +needed no flint and steel to ignite the tiny spark of smouldering fire +into a flame of enduring love. Jack sat dignified and martyr-like while +the minister preached upon the evils which beset the young and dangers +to the worldly-minded. "The vain glories of dress and fashion are an +abomination of the Lord," said the man of God. Jack moved uncomfortably +in his new suit of clothes, while Hazel from her choir seat telegraphed +her convictions that the dominie was right, just to plague Jack. And +when the admonition came, "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man," +Jack said to himself, "A whip for a horse, a bridle for an ass and a rod +for a fool's back." + +At last the "fourthly" came to an end and so did the church service for +the morning. Jack and Hazel wended their way to her home, where dinner +awaited them, after which followed a walk under the far spreading elms +that arched the roadway, and as they walked they talked of childhood +pastimes, joking each other of forgotten jealousies, or dwelling upon +indelibly impressed, attaching episodes, the remembrance of which were +souvenirs, non-negotiable and indestructible. They had left the little +village behind and reached a large pine grove where the Sunday-school +picnic was annually held. Seating themselves upon a rustic bench, Jack +told of his life in the far distant west, as the states bordering upon +the Mississippi River were then called, finishing with his return to the +east and plans for the future. Hazel was an attentive listener, +interrupting occasionally to inquire what Gertie Whitcomb looked like, +or if Eva Duncan was freckled, or Nellie Courtney a good skater, as Jack +included them in his biography of events. + +"Not that it makes any difference, Jack, but I--er--er--just wanted to +know," said Hazel, with the least bit of suspicion in her manner. + +As he told of fastening Nellie's skates for her and of the lovely ice, +the big crowds on the lake, and what a pretty girl Nellie was, Hazel +kept time with her dainty foot kicking her broad-brimmed leghorn, which +dangled by the string from her hand, finishing by poising the hat on her +toe while she disinterestedly remarked, "Those western girls have such +large feet; I suppose they have no trouble standing up on the ice," a +remark which pleased the young man immensely, although he essayed no +response. + +When Jack reached his plans for the future Hazel became even more +inclined to worry the historian by a rapid fire of insinuations. + +"I suppose you will have to go on the road and take long trips out west +to--sell goods? Shall you have the choice of territory when you get to +be a salesman?" "Do those western stores carry as fine a line of goods +as our folks do in the east?" "The styles out there are about two years +behind ours; don't the girls look old fashioned?" To all of which Jack +had one answer, "Yes." + +"You can stop saying 'yes' all the time." + +"I will, Hazel dear, on one condition--that you say 'yes.'" + +"Yes," demurely answered Hazel. + +Just then from a near-by hillside came the tattoo welcome of a cock +partridge "drumming" for his mate, the measured, gradually increasing +roar making the woods resound as Mr. Grouse beat the hollow log upon +which he strutted up and down until his coquettish spouse approached +within sight of her liege lord. She came, pecking negligently at snails +and bugs, missing them oftener than hitting them, but she didn't care. +She scratched at imaginary seeds, inattentively awaiting his pleasure. +As soon as the cock perceived his bride he spread his tail like a fan, +clucked a welcome and flew to her side. + +"There, my dear," said Jack; "that is the way you must obey me when I am +lord and master. Be very meek and let me do the splurging." + +"And don't I get a chance to say a teeny, weensy word? Have I just got +to listen, and watch the man of the house dry the dishes, get the +breakfast (if we can't have a domestic) and"--Hazel rolled her eyes +mockingly meek and with her hands "Now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep" fashion, +continued, "match samples for me at the store?" Jack capitulated; his +grandeur collapsed "all at once and nothing first, just as bubbles do +when they burst." Two merry peals of laughter echoed through the +pine-scented woods. + +"Sh! Jack, it is Sunday. I forgot all about it, and we must go home. +Papa will wonder where I am," and a little red spot burned on each cheek +as she surmized what "papa" would say when he found out that the young +man from Boston "proposed to splurge." + +But Jack's splurging was all make-believe. In the shadowy recesses of +the great elms, as they retraced their steps toward the Hemmingway +mansion, a manly arm stole about the waist of the lithesome girl, whose +demure "yes" had to be sealed in order to make it real. Mr. Hemmingway +was in the library as they entered the house. Jack nudged Hazel at the +portentously contracted brows of papa and the stern look of inquiry +which followed. Hazel quickly stepped into the hall, leaving Jack alone. + +"Papa, Jack--Mr. Sheppard--wants to speak to you a moment," then she +flew past the meekest man that ever tried to splurge. + +"Mr. Hemmingway"-- Jack got that far and it seemed as though every +whisker in that stern face became a bristling bayonet. "I think you must +be able to guess my mission." + +"What? No--no. Jack, you--why, you are but a boy, and Hazel"-- A softer, +kindlier expression crept slowly into the face of the man whose only +daughter he suddenly realized had become a woman. "Jack, I moved here to +keep my child--to get her away from the--from the--it is no use, though. +I guess you will be good to her. Let me see, you are the boy who got +such an awful whipping once because you would not be a tell-tale, and a +boy that has that kind of grit, I guess, is the right stuff to be my +son-in-law. Hazel"-- + +The stern old man went out upon the lawn as Hazel re-entered the +library. A noise as of some one vigorously using a handkerchief broke +the stillness, but even then the old man chuckled as he saw two figures +silhouetted upon the curtain. "Celebrating my consent, I guess," he +soliloquized. + +"Hazel, you had better pull down the green shade." Then to himself, +"These children have no conception of the propriety of things." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ON THE "FIRING LINE" OF CIVILIZATION. + + +The summer vacation period found Jack among the old hills of Bozrah, his +first visit to the scenes of his childhood since making Boston his home. +Six years' business and social life in and about the "Hub" launched Jack +upon the world a polished gentleman, refined, cultured, energetic, well +qualified to step into a position demanding more than ordinary ability. + +The first panic in his experience had unsettled values, trade was at a +standstill, confidence was lacking, men hoarded their wealth and the +wheels of many mills ceased to turn, while mill hands idly walked the +streets or sought labor in distant parts of the globe. The great +electoral dispute of "eight to seven" still rankled in the minds of +many, while those who cared not for that controversy found themselves +unable to entertain the problems of manufacture until the changes +anticipated in the tariff should be made by congress. Realizing that the +east gave little promise or opportunity for a young man, Jack concluded, +soon after his vacation ended, to resign his position and cast his lot +with the pioneer on the frontier, or, at least that he would visit +Denver and see what the chances were there. + +The breaking off of fast friendships was keenly felt; business and +social acquaintances admired his "grit," as they called it, but were +skeptical as to the ultimate results. Hazel had become a frequent +visitor at the Sheppard mansion and made it her "home-in-law," as she +called it, whenever fancy took her cityward. She happened to be there +when Jack declared himself. + +"I've resigned my job and am going to Colorado within a month." + +"Jack Sheppard! What? Going to Colorado? Going to leave Boston? Indians! +You'll come home without any scalp!" + +Such was the chorus which greeted his simple announcement. Hazel cried, +his mother cried, his sisters moped around, and his father patted him on +the back. "Go and see the world, broaden out, the experience will be +worth the cost, even if you don't stay," he said, with lots of emphasis +on the experience. + +Five days from Boston to Denver. Everything was the old, old story of +farms, villages and small cities until the train left Kansas City, then +the arid plains opened wider and wider, the towns grew farther and +farther apart, less and less in size until what was marked a station on +the trip ticket given him by the conductor proved on arrival to be a +platform, a water tank and a cowboy straddle of a "buckskin," white-eyed +broncho. These scenes in truth were new and Jack's experience had +commenced. Occasionally the water tank was supplemented by a saloon. +Great herds of cattle grazed along the unfenced right of way of the +railroad, and the treeless expanse of never ending brown, sun-burned, +alkali-spotted plains wearied the eye, the mind and soul in their +wretched monotony. The slow-going "fire wagon," drawing its burden of +weary humanity, puffed laboriously along the hot iron pathway toward the +setting sun at a speed so slow that many a "cow puncher" tested the +mettle of his hardy, sure-footed pony to the discomfiture of the iron +horse and its attendant. + +Antelope raced with the train and buffalo stood defiantly in the +wallows, their lop-ended bodies appearing strangely out of proportion +for sustaining the equilibrium necessary for feeding, fighting or +flying. Prairie dogs barked their squeaky warnings, and wise looking +little top-heavy owls flapped their wings lazily in an attempt to rise, +only to fall awkwardly into the next dog village near by, as the train +rumbled through the sand-duned desert. But all things have an end. So +did the first journey to Denver. Within a week Jack met a mountain guide +who told of the deer, the bear, the trout in Middle Park. Within another +week he had purchased an Indian pony, saddle, and provisions to last two +for seven months, agreeing to follow the guide and trapper in his +winter's occupation of securing pelts for market. + +It took a month to reach the final spot selected for a cabin on Rock +Creek, during which time Jack met many of the brave and weather-beaten, +buckskin clad frontiersmen living on the firing line of civilization at +the very threshold of savagedom. Men who drove the rude stakes marking +pioneer advancement into the soil wrested from its occupants by purchase +from a broken down dynasty, claiming discovery, a nation whose bigoted +avariciousness blinded its foresight to the end of bartering away its +last foothold on the great American continent. + +The incidents from Denver to Rock Creek Jack enumerated in an improvised +journal, greasy from continued usage in his endeavor to let nothing +escape the record. + +"First night: Slept on the floor of a grocery store, twenty miles from +Denver, a buffalo robe between me and the boards. + +"Second night: Slept in the hay in a barn at Georgetown. + +"Third day: A. M. Homesick. The trapper not ready to go into Middle +Park; must wait four days. All my money left in Denver. Supposed we +would have no use for money, as all our worldly provisions and needs +would be on the wagon or pack animals, but the provisions are coming by +rail and we eat at a restaurant in the mining town where the railway +terminates. As my money is gone and no provisions here, I am at a loss +to satisfy hunger. + +"Third day: P. M. Heard some dogs barking away up on the side of the +mountain; asked the butcher if he would buy a wild goat if I killed one. +It was goats that made the dogs bark, goats that once were civilized but +had strayed away and became wild. Shouldered my rifle and climbed that +awful stretch of snow-covered slide rock at the imminent peril of +starting an avalanche and destroying the whole town. Killed a goat, a +black one. Shot him in the shoulder just where "Swiftfoot, the scout," +would have planted a bullet, but the goat would not or did not die, so I +shot him again through the neck. Then I plunged my steel into him and +saw the life-blood gush all over me and the snow, then I dragged the +goat by his horns down the mountain side. There were places so steep +that the goat went faster than I did, so it was a case of goat dragging +me. Finally landed at the same time the goat did, at the bottom of the +long gulch; tied the goat's legs together and hung him across my back on +my rifle barrel. Walked unconcernedly past the butcher shop to the +restaurant, where I deposited the goat on a box in the back yard. The +perilous adventure netted me my meals for four days, three dollars in +United States money and one Mexican dollar. I was not homesick again." + +Another interesting item in his graphic description of the country so +new to him: + +"We left Georgetown in early morning to cross the range. From timber +line on the eastern slope of the great Atlantico-Pacifico water shed, +winding around Gray's Peak, serpentinely descending to the Frazier River +through Middle Park to our cabin site on Rock Creek one hundred and +fifty miles, is one unbroken cheerless blanket of snow, covering +irregular sage brush grown mesas sloping to the river banks, along whose +sides grow stretches of heavy, coarse grass suitable for wintering +hardy, range-grown stock. Cultivation of any of the land is still an +unsolved problem. The residents of this great unregistered section live +in log cabins. Neighbors are 'near' who occupy claims within ten miles +of each other. The one county, Grand, represents more territory than +Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island put together. No section +lines mark the maps, no organized arrangement of district or circuit +courts interferes with the 'administration' of 'justice' when disputes +have to be adjudicated. Generally the one quickest with a gun has the +law on his side. The people are willing to share beds and grub with each +other and strangers; a feeling akin to insult being awakened if payment +be tendered for hospitality even of several days' duration, excepting, +of course, regularly established quarters where stage coaches change +horses and provision is made for the accommodation of summer tourists. +Every man is a blacksmith, carpenter, tinker, tailor, cook, chamberman, +physician, nurse, even undertaker and grave digger when occasion +demands. The food is the most primitive known in a civilized +land--bread, venison or elk meat, occasionally antelope, bear, mountain +sheep, always bacon and black coffee, and dried prunes, peaches or +apples furnish fruit if the ranchman's ambition fires him sufficiently +to stew sauce. Occasionally a ranchman has milch cows, which add butter +and cream to the simple fare. Vegetables are a scarce commodity, except +for a case or two of canned corn, tomatoes, succotash and baked beans, +the latter being a dish utterly impossible of being prepared in high +altitudes without the aid of baking soda to soften the bean; even then +unless great care is taken the alkali spoils the flavor of this +toothsome Boston creation. Buckskin and heavy woolen underclothes form +the general run of garments, an outer protecting duck coat and overalls +being worn to a large extent. White goods as wearing apparel, table or +bed furnishings are seldom found, much less used. Time is reckoned by +'sun ups,' 'snows' and the mail carrier. In event of the latter being a +day late or ahead, the fact is recorded, or every one would eventually +lose complete track of dates, Sunday likely as not being observed in +name in the middle of the week." + +Jack kept his record straight for a month and then lost the combination +entirely for eighteen days. There were no churches, no schools, and but +one voting precinct in the whole of Grand County. Ward primaries had not +been established and politics centered in a justice of the peace, +sheriff, and county judge, none of whom accumulated wealth from office +emoluments. + +On Thanksgiving Day Jack's last officially correct entry in his log book +noted the thermometer as "frozen up," subsequent days for a long period +recording "a little colder," "much colder," "terribly cold." + +The fifth day from Hot Sulphur Springs found the trapper and his pupil +on the west slope of the Gore or Park range, encountering a terrific +snowstorm, in the midst of which they stumbled into a band of elk which +made Jack forget all his troubles of keeping the trail, the difficulty +of keeping the big wagon box on runners from upsetting and himself from +freezing. As the big animals loomed up in the clouds of snow flakes +driven pitilessly into his face he suddenly recalled the oft-told +stories of "buck fever," and for fear this dread disease would shatter +his nerves he waited the arrival of the experienced trapper. The band +was moving slowly down the ravine, not seeming to notice their +enemy--man. + +"Shoot 'em, why don't you shoot? Careful now, and get that big bull with +his flank turned toward you. There, give him another, quick! Again! +before he gets out of sight--you've got him!" And Jack saw his first +wapiti plunge to his knees, recover, bound sideways and then again lunge +with his nose plowing deep into the snow, his hind legs straining at the +earth for a support, only to sink in a last effort, and the "monarch of +the forest" was Jack's prize. It was but a few moments' work to knot a +lariat to a hind leg and by the aid of his Indian pony drag the carcass +to a tree, hang the body out of reach of wolves and coyotes, then seek a +suitable location for a camp, which in that storm was no easy matter. +For hours it had been unload, dig the sled out of a deep bank of snow, +load up again and flounder a few rods, only to repeat the process. The +diversion of killing an elk gave a rest of half an hour, then another +attempt was made to cross a small park before night should envelop them +in her black mantle. About half way, however, the horses floundered into +a drift which accumulated over the spongy surface of a willow-banked +ravine, the sled pitched its nose down deep, the trapper swore, and Jack +wanted to. + +"Guess we better 'cache' our stuff and get over thar in the timber and +let the 'dod gasted' blizzard play itself out," said the man of many +winters' experience. "You have done mighty well for a tenderfoot. An +old-timer couldn't have done better in tramping snow and breaking trail +than you have. This is about as bad a storm as you will ever get into. +When it snows so you can't see the horses' heads in front of you it gets +about the limit." + +"Can we find the provisions if we leave them here?" questioned Jack. + +"Yes, you get that long dead sapling over there and we will stick it up +beside the pile, throw that wagon sheet over the top, and then we'll +drive some tent pins to fasten the corners to. There now--Hi! there, +you!" The horses gave a pull and the almost empty sled followed. In a +few minutes the edge of the timber was reached and Jack commenced to +scrape away the snow preparatory for a camp fire. The old trapper +decided it best to put coverings on the horses and turn them loose. It +was too stormy to picket them, too cruel to tie them up short, and +unless blankets were fastened on them they would make a bee line back to +Hot Sulphur. + +When Jack had broken dry twigs from the ends of overhanging branches and +found a "blazed" spot on a pine tree which promised a good pitch-soaked +kindler, and gathered a lot of dead timber, he made ready to light his +fire. The wind drove the snow in avalanches. No one could ever light a +match in that gale, and when he reached the time for lighting, he found +but one match. He had lost his tin matchbox and the stock box was in the +"cache," which was by that time under two feet of snow. Carefully making +a little "lean to" out of a rubber blanket, he first "warmed" the match +against his flannel shirt up in the armpit, to absorb any dampness in +the sulphur, then with trepidation and fear he carefully drew the yellow +end across the inside of his duck coat, a crack, a choking cloud of +sulphur, a sputter of burning brimstone blue and feeble, then a stronger +yellow flame and the camp fire was assured. Throwing off the "lean to" +the wind drove the flames against the big pile of firewood and soon the +cheerful warmth melted a space in the snow big enough to call a camp. It +was no easy matter to cook supper, and there was little comfort standing +around afterwards, so both made ready for bed. The "lean to" was again +the resort for a shelter for the night, as a tent could not be made +secure in that storm in frozen ground. + +Carefully fastening one end of the canvas to the wagon, and pegging the +other to the ground near the fire, a bed was improvised with the rubber +blanket next to the snow, then the blankets, eleven in all, the "lean +to" tucked in all around--and Jack went to sleep with the wind driving +its icy breath through the thick pine forest or shrieking as it caught +the naked, ghostlike branches of a leafless aspen. The morning found +them almost buried under the snow, but none the worse otherwise. + +It was noon before the horses were found and brought back by the +trapper, and that evening the camp was pitched only a mile from the +other side of the "cache." The storm went down with the sun and the cold +intensified until the biting blasts hurled across the open gate to +Egeria Park were to the unprotected face like knife slashes. + +For two days melted snow had served for cooking, drink for horses, and +washing purposes. A good square meal had been impossible to prepare, and +a hungry night was in prospect for both man and beast. The trapper +declared he would not turn the horses loose that night, so picking out a +sheltered place among the pine trees he tied up all but "Ned," Jack's +Indian pony, halter lengths, covered them with blankets and harnessed to +keep the blankets on. The tent was pitched in a long deep cut, dug into +an immense snow bank, to all appearances a part of the big drift after +it had been arranged for the night. The intensity of the cold was +estimated at fifty degrees below zero and six pair of double blankets +weighing eight pounds per pair were used as covering (Jack was actually +tired when he awoke, from the weight of the bedding). Single thicknesses +of blankets had to be drawn over the face to keep it from freezing. But +with all these hardships the young man from the "States" thrived and +grew hardy. No such thing as a cold or bodily ailment of any sort +attacked either one. + +The next night found them camped in a protected ravine near a stream +from which water was obtained and some pretensions to comfort prevailed. +For the first time elk meat formed a part of the evening meal, and a +feeling of good cheer followed a hearty repast. The next morning as Jack +climbed the side of the long south slope, covered with stunted sage +brush, to get the horses that had found plenty of feed, he came face to +face with a tawny-skinned animal that came up out of one ravine as Jack +emerged from another, about a hundred yards apart. No firearms, not even +a hunting knife, were at hand. To flee would be but an invitation to +tempt the mountain lion to possible attack, so Jack sauntered along, +carelessly as he could under the circumstances, in the direction of the +ponies. The lion kept on his own course, crossing Jack's path and +eventually disappearing in a deep arroya, or gulch, all the while +turning his head from side to side watching but not attempting to molest +either Jack or the horses. + +The next camping spot selected was on the bank of Rock Creek, where a +bend of the stream deflected by high rocks left a well timbered, +protected area, surrounded on three sides by precipitous slopes of the +adjacent "benches" covered with sage brush, these "benches" or mesas +extending to the high ridges towering above, one facing the north, the +other the south, the former bleak and covered with deep snow, the +latter, warm and sun-kissed, furnishing feed for horses. The building of +a cabin occupied a few days, which, when equipped with a fireplace, a +bunk having about eighteen inches of spruce boughs as a mattress, and +other frontier conveniences, made a trapper's home. + +Deer were abundant. In an evening or in the early morning hundreds of +the great muleheaded species could be seen winding their way to and from +the feeding grounds, or wandering aimlessly about. Traps were set out, +bait doctored with "dead medicine" or poison tacked to trees and stumps +where foxes, wolves and lions were likely to find it, and the regular +life of "catching fur" was commenced. + +A band of Ute Indians that had left the White River Agency established +their village two miles below the cabin at a point where Rock Creek +joined another stream--Toponas, or "Pony"--and then flowed on to its +confluence with the Grand River. These Indians became visitors to the +cabin and among them Jack found one, Yamanatz, a friendly and peaceable +savage. + +The village was destitute of food and ammunition, in fact, no means were +at their command for obtaining game, therefore they heralded the +trappers' arrival with gladness, for they expected to be able to obtain +powder and bullets with which to obtain venison. + +The second visit Yamanatz made to the Rock Creek camp, he was +accompanied by his beautiful daughter Chiquita, a girl of seventeen, +richly attired in beaded skirt, leggings and moccasins. She rode astride +of a magnificent chestnut brown, full-blooded Ute pony, a large Navajo +blanket drawn tightly about her, Indian fashion. She carried a bow and +from her back hung a quiver of arrows. Her well molded face was set in +its frame of straight, black hair, braided in two long strands into +which were interwoven pieces of lion skin, beaver fur and other bits of +"medicine" charms to drive away evil spirits. A string of elk teeth +adorned her neck and bands of heavy silver ornaments bedecked her arms. + +Indians are similar to other folks in many respects. A proper +introduction generally puts them on a gracious footing. It did not take +long for Jack and Chiquita to strike up a fast friendship, and the old +adage of "feed the brute" held good with both Indian buck and maiden. + +The cabin was but partly "chinked" when the old trapper announced his +intention of going to Hot Sulphur Springs. + +"I left the old woman without enough wood and must go back to cut some +for her. Then there are some other matters to attend to which will take +a week or ten days, after which I will come back and bring what mail is +at the Springs for you," he explained. + +Little did Jack realize, in fact, he did not suspect, there might be +other reasons for this sudden determination on the part of the trapper. +It did not occur to him the seeming folly of a man leaving his wife +unprovided with wood. The trip of a hundred miles or more in the dead of +winter over unbroken trails was not so much of an obstacle for a man +experienced in mountain life; but he did not then know that the Utes' +camp was made up of some of the worst characters from the White River +Agency, nor that the band was there against the wishes of Indian Agent +Meeker, who had requested their return more than once. + +Jack took the matter as one of the peculiar incidents in a trapper's +life, for he had learned that a trapper has no conception of time, no +thought for the days ahead, no particular object in view beyond +existence, and no ambition beyond that of the prospector who indulges +his fancies of "striking it rich" some day. + +Jack knew there were plenty of provisions to last until summer, that the +trapper would leave two horses and the sled, besides quite a valuable +lot of traps, et cetera, which would insure his return sooner or later, +so there were no misgivings when the mountaineer mounted his horse and +rode away. + +He busied himself day after day and accumulated furs and knowledge of +frontier life. + +These were the surroundings in which Jack found himself three months +after leaving Boston. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CATS, TRAPS, AND INDIANS. + + +The steady life of a trapper had become regular diet to Jack, as day +after day he visited old traps, set out new ones and explored territory +farther away from the cabin. The Indians were daily visitors whether he +was in camp or not, but they never molested anything, no matter how +curious or hungry. They were seemingly good humored, even though there +appeared an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. The first episode to put +him on his guard was when one of the Utes, Bennett, hid behind a tree +near the camp fire outside the cabin. Yamanatz was there in his +customary place, squatted upon the ground. A strange dog ran in and out +of the place and Jack inquired of the old Ute how the dog happened to be +there. Yamanatz, unconcerned, replied, "Me dunno." This puzzled Jack, +but he went about his cooking, carefully watching the trees and rocks. +He felt for the first time a species of alarm. Again he inquired, "Ute +dog, mebbe so?" + +"Me dunno." + +Jack knew no white man would go along that trail at that time of year +without stopping to say "How!" In fact, there was no white man within +forty miles, except old Joe Riggs, and old Joe would be there with the +dog if the dog was Joe's. The suspense had a sudden termination as the +muzzle of a rifle "mirrored" in the sunlight, just the tip of the muzzle +being thus accidentally disclosed. Quick as a flash Jack pulled his six +shooter, cocked it and held it level at the tree where the bright steel +was in full view. Yamanatz made neither sign nor comment, but Jack felt +that the cunning old chief was fully aware of all that was going on. +Very soon the edge of a woolen turban cap appeared opposite the rifle +muzzle, then an ear, then a little of the chin and finally the eye of +Bennett looked straight into Jack's six shooter. With a bound the joker +jumped from behind the tree and, with a laugh which could have been +heard a mile, and in which Yamanatz joined, came forward, palms outward, +signifying peace, exclaiming, "White man no 'fraid; heap big joke, heap +big joke." + +But Jack began to feel that these jokes might end in something serious, +especially if he showed the white feather in the least. + +The next day he returned from the traps just as the last streaks of +sunlight were tipping the tops of the cañon where Rock Creek dashed by +the cabin. Yamanatz sat by the cold camp fire in the same place and same +position in which Jack had left him after breakfast, six hours before. +Of course, Jack was surprised at this and wondered what it meant. As +Jack swung into the open space Yamanatz immediately arose with hands +outstretched, the palms well up towards the comer, accompanying the +action with this eager outburst: + +"Yamanatz heap glad to see white man Jack; Colorow come. White man gone. +Colorow heap mad, want to see white man. Me tell 'em white man gone, +Colorow follow white man; byme by Antelope come look for Colorow; +Antelope go back Indian village by Pony Creek. Antelope tell Utes +Colorow mean mischief; Colorow's boy come byme by look for Colorow; when +Yamanatz tell Colorow's boy 'Colorow follow white man,' Colorow's boy +heap 'fraid, say: 'Mebbe so Colorow meet 'em white man Jack.' Then +Colorow's boy go Indian village. Sun low--Chiquita come, no find white +man, go back Indian village, mebbe so white man see Colorow?" + +Jack, of course, was nervous. Alone in a wild country that was alive +with wild game, ravenous wolves, mountain lions, bears and hostile +Indians, he realized what a novice, a tenderfoot, a fool he was, or +would be, to put his ignorance of frontier life against the cunning of +the old chiefs, but he answered quickly, + +[Illustration: YAMANATZ.] + +"Me no see Colorow." Then taking courage by the kindly look in +Yamanatz's eyes, Jack said slowly, taking Yamanatz's hands in his own. + +"Mebbe so Colorow want to kill white man Jack?" + +Yamanatz shrugged his shoulders but made no answer and Jack continued. + +"If Colorow meet white man, Colorow got no bullets--got knife--suppose +white man kill Colorow, will Utes kill white man?" + +Yamanatz evaded the question but made the reply: "Colorow heap bad +Indian, mebbe so make heap trouble. Utes 'fraid Colorow--big chief +'fraid Colorow. White man mebbe so kill Colorow, no tell what 'em +happen. Old Utes not much care. Antelope, Bennett, Douglas, Washington. +Mebbe so heap mad, kill all white men if white man Jack kill Colorow." + +In this honest avowal Jack found little comfort, but Yamanatz's next +words gave him a hope that all might be well. + +"Utes got no lead, no powder, no deer meat. Mebbe so Colorow take many +ponies, go Sulphur Springs, get 'em bullets, bacon, flour, then be good +Injun till all gone." + +In this logic of plenty to eat lay the safety of the white trappers for +that winter, so Jack prayed fervently for the early departure of the +Indians for Sulphur Springs to the end of his own personal safety. He +knew now that certain sign language the Utes had so often indulged in +represented Agent Meeker in his attempts to teach the Indians how to +plow; that bits of tragic, practical joking were tests of his own +bravery, and that the uneasy red devils but waited opportunity and +excuse for an uprising, after they should obtain the necessary munitions +of war, of which they had none. + +Chiquita grew more and more interested in the ways of the pale face with +each visit, and Jack found her waiting for his return oftener, even +following him portions of the route in his attentions to the traps. Her +desire for knowledge seemed to him incomprehensible and old Yamanatz was +equally at a loss to understand why his daughter should prefer to hear +about her white sisters' habits and what they did, rather than matters +of more moment. When she finally told Yamanatz her desire to do +wonderful things, such as building a big "medicine tepee" with lots of +Indian maidens in "medicine clothes" to care for the sick, the aged and +infirm, the old chief's face gladdened and his actions spoke louder than +words, so that Jack knew it was safe to humor them both in their dream. + +Within a few days Yamanatz sprung a joke on Jack that left Bennett's fun +hanging high and dry on the trees. Chiquita had arrayed herself in more +gorgeous raiment than had been recorded of a society debutante in Indian +stories--beaded cape, waist, shirt, leggings, and moccasins; medals of +gold, silver and pewter; ornaments of brass, tin and iron; necklaces of +elk teeth and grizzly claws; hair decorations of lion skin, beaver and +otter fur, and in her hand a rawhide shield just dazzling with highly +polished brass knobs. Her bright eyes fairly danced with joy as she +posed before Jack in her "Sunday best." Yamanatz watched her with that +same benevolent kindness which characterized him above other Utes. After +the usual salutations, the old chief took a leather bag from the saddle +and opened it, turning its contents upon Jack's best dish towel, which +happened to be near. To say that Jack's heart jumped is drawing it very +mild. The contents of the bag were gold nuggets from the size of a +mustard seed to a navy bean and there was at least a quart. + +Yamanatz saw the sparkle in Jack's eyes and laconically remarked, +"Sabe?" + +"Heap big gold mine somewhere?" asked Jack, + +To which question Yamanatz made two replies--"Me dunno; mebbe so." + +Jack waited for him to continue, wondering what reason the two Utes had +for appearing as they did, one in royal raiment, the other with a good +sized ransom, for Jack estimated that there was twenty pounds of pure +gold worth twenty dollars an ounce, or in all nearly five thousand +dollars. + +"Does the white man sabe?" again inquired Yamanatz. + +"Me no sabe, no sabe," Jack shook his head. + +Chiquita now spoke up. "Does the white man sabe, what you call 'em when +white sister learn A, B, C?" + +"School?" + +Chiquita shook her head. + +"College?" asked Jack. + +This time she nodded her head and pointed to the gold. "How much cost +Chiquita in college?" + +It dawned on him that Chiquita wanted to go to college and that Yamanatz +would furnish the necessary money to defray the expenses. Visions of a +red savage in full forest costume ascending the steps of a great +university or college was too much for Jack and he had to laugh, much to +the disgust of his friends, but he quickly restored good faith. + +Yamanatz put his finger to his tongue, indicating that he did not lie. +"Yamanatz's tongue not split, no lie. Yamanatz show white man Jack heap +big pile gold, some for Jack, some for Chiquita. White man take +Chiquita, do as Chiquita say." + +Jack was puzzled; he thought they were bargaining in a matrimonial deal, +and he saw a little brown-eyed girl back East peering through the camp +fire at him. + +Chiquita, however, came to his rescue. "Yamanatz has said it. White man +take Chiquita college. Chiquita learn, heap study, make Chiquita like +white sister. Yamanatz show Jack heap big mine, lots gold, some for +Jack; some for Chiquita." + +As he at last comprehended this great undertaking--the stupendous task +of educating a blanket Indian girl in a modern college of refined +Caucasians--Jack was dismayed, even more so than the matrimonial +possibility had suggested, for he could get out of that, but here was a +poser. Perhaps the colleges would draw the line on Indians as some +institutions did on negroes. As he made no answer Chiquita continued. + +"How many moons take Chiquita college?" + +Jack answered slowly, "Take Chiquita four snows little A, B, C's, two +snows big A, B, C's, four snows college." + +Both Yamanatz and Chiquita understood, and Chiquita replied, "Ten snows +Chiquita like white sister, know heap?" + +Jack nodded "Yes," but in his heart he did not believe she would in a +hundred years be any more than a half-educated savage, under the most +rigid masters. + +Yamanatz then spoke up. "How much gold Jack want make Chiquita like +white sister?" + +Jack made a rough estimate and ventured at a thousand dollars a year, +"Twelve thousand dollars." + +Yamanatz could not understand so much money in American coin, so he +talked with Chiquita, then pointed at the pile of gold nuggets. + +Jack held up three fingers, meaning three times as much to make sure. +Yamanatz looked scornfully at the three fingers, then pointed at the big +grain bag in which Jack had his sugar, saying, "Yamanatz show Jack where +get a big bag full. Some for Jack and some for Chiquita, if Jack promise +Yamanatz take Chiquita"--but Chiquita had to supply the word "college." + +Jack pondered a long time while the would-be college girl and her father +watched his ever varying expression as he thought, "How can it be done?" +He finally agreed to make the attempt and replied: "Jack will take +Chiquita to the A, B, C school, then a little bigger school, then +college. He will see Chiquita become a great queen if Yamanatz so +speaks." + +"It shall be so. Yamanatz will show Jack a big cave of gold where the +sun goes down. Blazing-Eye-By-The-Big-Water, heaps of gold, and Yamanatz +will give it half to Jack, half to Chiquita and Chiquita shall be a big +queen." Then they both smoked the pipe of tobacco pledging each in their +mission. + +Afterwards the more detailed plan was arranged. Yamanatz indicated that +in the early spring they would start for the cave of gold, which he +explained was in a great sun-burned valley where no life existed except +snakes and scorpions; furthermore, that the trip to the cave was one of +deadly peril and hardships. + +"The Great Manitou gave to the Utes this cave of gold. Many big chief go +to the land of the setting sun and bring back plenty gold. Yamanatz the +last chief who can show Jack, and when Yamanatz go to the Happy Hunting +Ground the big cave is all for Jack and Chiquita." + +Solemnly he outlined all the details for the undertaking. As they +finished, Yamanatz gathered up the gold nuggets and handed the bag to +Jack, saying, "This is for white man--Yamanatz has more." + +Jack hid the gold in his war bag, after the chief and his gorgeously +arrayed daughter had gone, then he pondered long over the unexpected +mission upon which he found himself launched and his dreams were full of +colleges, gold mines and savages being educated. + +It was nearing Christmas time and the snow was deep on the mountain +side. The warm sun penetrated the cañons but a few hours each day. +Chiquita had become a daily visitor to the camp fire, near which she +would sit and listen to Jack as he told of the wonders of the civilized +world. Chiquita knew many English words of common usage and Jack knew as +many Mexican, or rather a mixture of Spanish, Mexican and Indian, which, +with the sign language, did service in these conversations. "Tell +Chiquita how many sleeps Rock Creek to Denver City." + +"Six sleeps," was the reply of Jack, meaning it was a six days' ride on +horseback. + +"Sabe usted the great white chief at Washington City?" was the next +query, meaning the President of the United States. + +"Me sabe." + +"Tell Chiquita how many sleeps on the cars Washington City from Denver +City." + +"Five sleeps on the cars Denver City to Washington City." + +Jack happened to have in his kit a railroad map of the United States and +with this spread before them on a blanket, he would point out Rock Creek +and then explain the distances from one place to another, telling of the +great buildings, the industries, the immense amount of fuel used in the +big shops and the number of men employed in making guns, wagons, +saddles, harness, boots, blankets and the like, articles that appeared +in the camp and which were in everyday use at the White River Agency. +This was a very arduous but pleasing task, in that it required all of +Jack's ingenuity to portray the information intelligently, and +frequently Chiquita would be the instructor because of her better +ability, as a child of the forest, to convey thought by means of signs +and comparative objects. He taught her the alphabet, also words of one +and two syllables, and she showed how wonderful is the Indian mind in +its retention of the slightest impression when the will power to receive +it is acquiescent. + +"Tell Chiquita, does the white man's squaw carry the wood for the fire +so the warrior can cook his venison?" + +"No," said Jack, laughing, "the warrior of the white man is the soldier +at the fort." + +Chiquita interrupted quickly, a deep scowl causing her inky black +eyebrows to meet over her flashing eyes, and with her head thrown back, +displaying the full, rounded throat, her beautiful arm bared save for +the wide beaded bracelets and amulets, she pointed to the sky, almost +hissing through her marvelously white teeth, "Chiquita comprehends, the +warrior of the white man is the hired pale face, sent by the Great White +Chief at Washington City to slay my people; even now mebbe so the hired +man rides to take Chiquita back to the White River; but her people are +brave. Her people were as the stars above, as the drops that make the +big river, but they are gone to the Great Spirit, where their ponies +await their coming in the Happy Hunting Ground that the pale face knows +not of, and to where the spirit of Chiquita will some day fly. Let the +white man Jack beware. It is well for him that Yamanatz is his friend, +and Chiquita will see that no harm comes to the friend of Yamanatz. +Mebbe so Colorow is no friend of the white man Jack, but Colorow has no +bullets. The gun of Colorow is empty, but the knife in the belt of +Colorow is pointed. It is sharp and the arm of Colorow is as the young +tree, and his step is as the step of the fawn when the dew is on the +grass. Let the white man Jack beware. Colorow will come to tell the +white man to go to the land which was taken from Colorow's people; that +this is the Utes' land and that the Utes will no more let the white man +hunt the deer and trap the wolf, which run by the tepee of the red man. +So let the white man Jack be cunning and let not Colorow find the white +man asleep under the big tree." + +She was all excitement. The cords stood out upon her graceful throat, +while her rounded cheeks crimsoned as the frosted leaf in the autumn +time. Jack was spellbound as the words of that eloquent warning fell +upon his ears, but at the last subdued, almost beseeching plea, he +started as if the knife was already at his throat, for it was but +yesterday, in the warm sunshine far beyond the snowy range, at noon +time, he had taken a short nap under a big pine tree, where a bed of +pine needles made an inviting spot, little dreaming that a living being, +much less an Indian, was within five miles of him. Chiquita guessed his +thoughts, and in that musical tone found only among the old blanket +Indian tribes, told Jack how she followed him and Colorow from the camp +on Rock Creek, fearing all the while that that cunning war chief would +slay the young man from the east and upset all plans of Chiquita +becoming a medicine tepee queen. + +Chiquita knew that Colorow, of all the discontented Utes on Rock Creek, +desired especially to be rid of Jack's presence. That the old warrior +had a grudge against the trapper was evident, and the trapper's +departure, leaving Jack alone to attend to the traps, was to her mind +clear proof that Colorow had been instrumental in causing the departure. + +She had heard the leaders of the renegade band denounce all trappers who +sought the region contiguous to the White River reservation, and in +particular the trapper who had built the cabin on Rock Creek. She knew +that this trapper had the winter before wantonly killed seventy-six elk, +which he had stumbled upon in a little willow grown park where the deep +snow had stalled them, and that he did not kill any more because his +ammunition had given out. She knew that the Utes, as well as the white +settlers, had in unmeasured terms condemned this wanton slaying of so +much game, but she did not think this episode was the cause of Colorow's +animosity. There was but one reason that sufficed in her opinion. She +believed Colorow had told the trapper to abandon the camp under penalty +of death if he remained, and she reasoned that the trapper went alone +because he had been ashamed to tell Jack the truth. Consequently Jack +would be the next to go, and as she already knew that Colorow had openly +declared his intention of driving the young paleface away, she +determined to watch that cunning Ute every day and give him no +opportunity for any hostile movement against Jack. + +The gray dawn of the day referred to in her impassioned warning found +Chiquita swiftly and silently making her way toward the Rock Creek +cabin, where she took up a position commanding a view of the camp and +the trails leading to it. + +The first rays of the sun were just tipping the snow on the high +mountain peaks when Jack came from the cabin and proceeded to get his +breakfast over the camp fire. As Chiquita watched him she was tempted +many times to make her presence known, for the savory viands made her +"heap hungry," but at last Jack started up the gulch on his rounds to +the traps. Chiquita knew that Colorow would put in an early appearance, +expecting to find Jack at the cabin, so she waited patiently. It was not +long before she heard the plaintive call of a camp bird mewing for +something to eat, and she mimicked it, saying to herself, "camp bird and +Colorow all same." She carefully screened herself in the willows and saw +Colorow suddenly dart from one big tree to another, then creep to a big +rock, wait a moment and glide along until he was close to the cabin. He +waited some time, evidently reading by the signs of the smoldering fire +that the object of his visit had made an early start. Seeing this, he +boldly walked out and picked up the coffee pot. As it was empty he threw +it spitefully down into the ashes and looked for a piece of bread. Being +disappointed in this also he made a big fuss of brandishing his knife, +executing a few steps as though he had discovered an enemy and in +pantomime had slain and scalped him. During this time he kept up a +continual jargon of curses and imprecations. + +Finally he drew back the blanket which constituted the "door" of the +cabin and peered in. Satisfied with his observations, he carefully +scanned the trail leading up the gulch, and seeing the fresh made +tracks, set out rapidly after Jack. + +Chiquita followed, darting along from one side of the trail to the other +or diverging obliquely across portions of the territory which she knew +Jack had to traverse in order to examine the traps, knowing Colorow +would ultimately appear. + +The sun had reached the meridian when she noted the Indian standing +under a big tree watching intently something not far distant from him. +Pretty soon she saw a thin spiral of white smoke gradually becoming more +dense as if from burning damp wood, and occasionally she could hear the +crackle of the flames. She knew Jack was busy getting a little lunch. +She scented the bacon as he toasted it before the fire and again she +felt that ravenous gnawing which now was doubly aggravating. + +The cooking evidently made Colorow furious, for he vanished into some +brush and made noises as of a wolf growling with hunger just as he +prepares to tear at a bone. Then the Indian disappeared down the ever +handy gulch to watch Jack in his effort to find the wolf. + +Jack proceeded to investigate, and, with gun ready, he entered the +brush, but there were so many signs of wolf tracks, fresh ones, too, +that he was at a loss to understand where they could so suddenly have +disappeared. + +As he slowly returned to his lunch camp--a spot free from snow in a +little pine grove where the sun shone bright and warm--he passed very +near where Chiquita was hiding, and then discovered a moccasin track, +which he examined critically. He knew the track had been made since +sunrise, but could not tell whether before or after he started to make +his little camp fire. He carefully set his big boot alongside the +footprint, making a deep impression in the earth. He also deposited the +end of one of his rifle bullets in the moccasin track, feeling sure that +the owner of the moccasin was sure to discover the significance thereof. +Colorow saw the action from his hiding place, but well knew that a +hunting knife was of little avail against a fearless man protected by a +rifle, six-shooter and belt full of ammunition. + +Jack looked at the sun, then at Rock Creek a long way off, and sat down +to smoke a pipeful of tobacco. The pleasing, soothing narcotic made him +drowsy and he fell asleep. + +Colorow made a circle around the camp and in doing so discovered the +trail which Jack had made on previous trips from the little grove. This +led toward a big gulch which was divided at the lower portion by a steep +ridge. Colorow took the one showing the most usage and ambushed himself +in a thicket close to Pony Creek, at a point convenient to a spot where +Jack would be obliged to pass within leap of the hidden foe. Here he +waited. + +Chiquita watched Colorow disappear down the gulch and divined his +purpose, then returned to see Jack as he awakened and witness his +surprise at having so forgotten his prudence. + +Picking up his rifle and skins Jack started swiftly down the gulch, +intending to follow the one selected by Colorow, as he had some venison +protected by two big traps and was certain to get at least a bobcat +there. + +But at the last moment he changed his mind or neglected to watch the +trail and entered the left-hand gulch. + +It was getting late when he discovered his error, but decided not to +retrace his steps, and the ridge was too precipitous to climb at that +point. + +Chiquita followed Jack to Pony Creek and on down to where it joined Rock +Creek. Then Jack went to his cabin and Chiquita to the Indian village, +where she later saw Colorow come in, baffled in his mission, at least +for the time being. + +Jack now thoroughly realized the dangerous position in which he was +placed and made up his mind to protect himself very carefully against +any mishap. He knew that Colorow would not dare to attack him openly, +and that safety depended on constantly guarding against all chance of +surprise. + +"Jack is heap glad to hear Chiquita tell of how she watches for the +white man's safety. Does Chiquita sabe?" said Jack in a half apologetic +manner, speaking abstractedly and not knowing what was best to say under +the circumstances. His mind was taken up with the uncertainties of "good +Indians." He wanted to trust Yamanatz and Chiquita, but did not know how +far either one would dare to go in their evident desire to protect him. +His recent talk with Yamanatz, of less than a week before, was pictured +vividly in Chiquita's story of her long day's tramp and vigil over him, +and he knew that if Colorow made any attempt at his life in the presence +of either Chiquita or Yamanatz, they might resist, but even their +resistance would possibly be unavailing. + +Making an early start on the day following to go the reversed route of +the trip during which he had taken the nap Chiquita had so graphically +described, Jack found himself in the gulch where the venison lay and a +couple of bobcats in the traps near the carcasses. Killing and skinning +these took some time, and with the heavy pelts added to a haunch of deer +meat, Jack found it no easy task to climb to the top of the snowy ridge, +down which he must go in order to reach camp. The frozen, well-worn +trail he must reach before darkness set in, but despite his most +desperate exertion it was some time after daylight had departed that he +reached the long stretch of white covered slope. Not a trail could he +find--not a welcome footprint to guide him over the deep ravines filled +with snow, or away from precipitous rocks where a misstep would land him +far below. There was but one course to take--straight down the mountain +side. Throwing away caution, he started on a swift swinging trot, each +foot breaking the crust of snow beneath him. Arriving at the edge of a +ravine, which appeared only smooth snow, he went into it up to his +waist; then, thoroughly alarmed, he struggled deeper into the ravine +until the snow was up to his armpits. His revolver was lost and wolves +were already giving tongue to dismal howls as the air carried to their +nostrils the scent of the venison to which Jack clung. + +His unequal combat with the yielding snow gradually exhausted his +strength and, growing each moment weaker, tired nature finally +succumbed, and he fell unconscious. But the cold air quickly revived +him. Nearer and nearer came those dreadful deep-mouthed tongue signals, +augmented by additional ones from new directions and made still more +heartbreaking by the yippy-yappy of a bunch of coyotes which also joined +the big timber wolves. The six-shooter was found first, then Jack used a +little reason. Taking off his coat and placing the furs and coat as a +support on the snow, he rolled over and over until his foot struck solid +earth. Then gathering his furs and leg of venison, he more carefully +descended, his enemies keeping at a safe distance, for in America wild +animals of any sort rarely attack man when not molested, even in the +dead of winter. + +Slipping and sliding, he at last reached camp, only to find both feet +badly frozen at the heels and toes. As he cut his boots off and plunged +his extremities into the cold water a whole lot of adventure went out of +his heart with the frost. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OLD JOE RIGGS. + + +It was Sunday, the eighth day after Jack had taken that memorable trip +so near unto death. In the warm sunshine at Rock Creek camp the major +part of the day had been passed by the young hunter in writing up his +journal, carefully jotting down all the incidents of latest development, +even to the extra spread given in his honor to himself and three +imaginary guests. He, being present, had a good meal, but the "invited" +guests had to feast by proxy. The menu started with a hambone soup, and +a nice broiled mountain trout, captured in a big hole where Pony and +Rock Creek join forces. Winter trout being so great a luxury, Jack +forgot his table etiquette and asked for a second portion, and being +refused, he made a fierce onslaught upon the piece de resistance, no +more and no less than a blue grouse roasted before the fire, as they +roasted turkeys in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Jack used one of the +metal joints of the cleaning rod belonging to his rifle as a spit, and +as he turned the bird slowly and basted it with venison fat he wondered, +if his guests could really drop in for a moment, what they would say +about his culinary efforts. The bird was stuffed with real sage +dressing; not quite so good as mother used to make, as the mountain sage +is a trifle stronger. When finished the grouse was garnished with +juniper berries and spruce buds, these being the winter food of the +grouse. There was a distinct flavor of the juniper in the meat. Then +came an entree of young elk brains and another of Big Horn kidney stew. +Jack was shy on vegetables of any kind, except Rock Creek baked beans, +cooked all night in a Dutch oven sunk in the hot ashes of the camp fire; +two kinds of bread, baking powder and sour dough, the first being hot +biscuit, the latter nice big slices of cold white bread, never free from +the name it bears. Stewed prunes and baked apple dumpling constituted +the pastry, while black coffee in a tin cup and sparkling Rock Creek +water served for liquids. + +Jack had finished the "dishes," the last rattle of tin plates, pans, cup +and skillets had re-echoed from the depths of the "china" closet, and he +had settled himself for a chat with his pipe, when Chiquita bounded into +camp all excitement and panting for breath. + +"Colorow gone Sulphur Springs. Take 'em many ponies" (counting forty +with her fingers). "All Utes except old men and Yamanatz go too. Mebbe +so come back with bullets, powder, bacon, flour," and she stopped to +breathe. + +Jack contemplated, and while he did so Chiquita cast wistful eyes at the +remains of the midday banquet. The longing expression was not a new one +to Jack. He knew from experience that Chiquita was a good eater, in fact +all Indians had that failing, so he motioned the belle of the village to +a seat on the end of a log near by and proceeded to dish her up a square +meal. He knew that Yamanatz would be coming along soon, so he reserved +some odds and ends for him. When Chiquita had advanced far enough so she +could have time between mouthfuls--not bites--to answer, Jack gave +utterance to his thoughts. + +"Colorow's ponies make pretty big track in snow--make heap big trail. +Mebbe so good for two sleeps on high mountain where wind blow." + +Chiquita understood and stopped her struggles, with a rib of venison in +one hand and a grouse wing in the other, long enough to articulate: + +"Chiquita comprehends. White man follow Utes; white man leave Chiquita +and Yamanatz to go Sulphur Springs, mebbe so Denver City." + +Her smiles were gone, but not her appetite, as she renewed her attacks +on the remnant counter. Jack replied: + +"Mebbe so Jack be gone four moons. Come back when honeysuckle on +mountainside and cactus on plain in bloom. Will Chiquita and Yamanatz go +then with Jack to Blazing-Eye-by-Big-Water?" + +Jack decided to get out of the Ute country while the scalp was yet on +his head and not dangling at the belt of any warrior, or braided into +the make-up of any tepee pole. Just then the clatter of two ponies down +the trail caused him to look around. In a moment or two the willows +parted and Yamanatz, accompanied by a white man, whom Jack recognized as +old Joe Riggs, entered the camp. To Jack's greeting of "How?" the +newcomers both made response. Joe inquired as to the condition of Jack's +feet, and upon being assured that those necessary adjuncts to a man's +safety on Rock Creek were in fairly good order, the cattleman suggested +the opportunity presented for Jack to make an attempt to connect with +civilization. + +Old Joe Riggs was known from the Cache le Poudre to the Rio Grande; to +cowman, miner, prospector and goods store folks. Old Joe was a part and +parcel of the main range. Forty-niners had bunked with him and +fifty-niners had divided buffalo steaks with him, while sixty-niners +from Missouri allowed old Joe could rock a cradle or shovel tailings +from the sluice boxes, and seventy-niners found him as ready to take his +turn at the drill or windlass as the best of them. In appearance old Joe +was a weird, uncanny being that made the creeps run up and down one's +crupper bone. Seated upon a chair in a room full of average-sized +people, Joe appeared a dwarf. His anatomy seemed to rest on the ends of +his shoulder blades, while his knees formed the hypothenuse of an +inverted right-angle triangle. When standing he overtopped every man in +a regiment of six-footers. His arms swung listlessly to his knees from +the shoulder socket, as if lacking in elbow joints, terminating in hands +fashioned more after the talons of an eagle than those of a human being. +His nose was also like the beak of that fierce bird, while his chin +retreated from his underlip in a direct line to the "Adam's apple." High +cheek bones and protruding forehead caused the deep sunken orbital +spaces to appear sightless, except for the nervous batting of his +eyelids. His shoulders were broad, but being thin chested, he was short +on lung capacity, which caused a most extraordinary mixture of guttural +whispers and shrill wheezes every time he tried to talk. His strength +was prodigious, and on more than one occasion he had won his drink by +taking hold of the chines of a full barrel of liquor, raising it from +the ground to his lips and drinking his fill from the bunghole. The most +startling of all, though, was his wardrobe, and it was an open secret +that Joe had his surname thrust upon him by reason of the various rigs +in which he was clad. As the winter season approached and Joe got cold, +he would appropriate any and all old garments he could find lying around +loose; old pants, overalls, shirts, vests and socks which others had +cast away as useless. These he would patch and sew together where +necessity demanded, lengthening or widening, and pull one garment on +over another. In this semi-annual outfitting he would appear one day +with overalls reaching just below the knees, the pair under them +revealing their "frazzled" ornamentations for a foot or more. The next +day, as like as not, he would find an old pair of red drawers, and these +would go on right over the last pair of overalls. When the spring came +and warm weather got the best of his clothes, Joe proceeded to divest +himself of a lot of useless and uncomfortable rags, for by that time +they could not be called garments. + +Joe at the present time was conducting a vest-pocket ranch on the sunny +slopes of the cedar-treed hills rising from the Grand River tributaries +and in what were termed "warm holes," being little areas of sage-brush +covered mesas found upon the banks of the streams. These miniature parks +were quite fertile in bunch and even buffalo grass, and varied from five +acres to a whole section in extent. His herd of cattle consisted of two +heifers, six old cows and ten three-year-old steers. This constituted +the nucleus of an expectant million-dollar stock farm. It represented +more than the average fortune accumulated by constant and attentive +prospecting for forty years. + +Joe's hint at the opportunity of connecting with God's country struck +Jack as a coincidence upon which there might turn a contingency, so he +reasoned with himself: "Why does Joe think I might want to get away from +the Indians? Does he think I will desert my camp outfit and provisions? +Besides, what is the old trapper to do when he returns?" + +These questions were immediately answered by the cattleman just the same +as though Jack had asked the information point blank, a proceeding which +added to the weirdness of Joe's presence, and the most uncanny feature +of it was the total inability of the hearer to locate whence came the +sound that emanated from that sepulchral living cadaver. No lips moved +in unison with a voice, nor even did the gleaming teeth, just visible +through the parted mouth, open or close as if responsive to any oral +exertions. The sound came from everywhere. Joe was a heaven-born +ventriloquist. + +"Yer needn't be slow about gittin' away from Rock Creek ef yer want ter +go. 'Taint nothin' ter me. That ther' trapper ain't comin' back 'til +ther beaver gets to usin' thar cutters on the trees a-buildin' dams, an' +then he won't cum back ef thar's goin' to be trubble. He tol' me that +ther day afore he struck out, savvey?" + +Jack did not need to have the cabin fall on him nor an upheaval of the +earth to realize that the trapper had "cut loose" from the Rock Creek +possibilities. There was an ominous silence for a couple of minutes. One +thing was certain in the minds of the two white men, alone, as they +were, far from aid of any sort in the event of an uprising, and the +thought uppermost in both their minds was as patent to each other as if +branded in letters of fire--the trapper had deserted the tenderfoot. + +As soon as this thought had coursed through Jack's brain other thoughts +surged one upon another in quick succession. Was it a frontier +conspiracy in which both white and red men were equally interested? Was +it a put-up job between the trapper and Joe and the Indians--merely a +coincidence in the commission of the trade? Perhaps the trapper had sold +the camp outfit and Joe had come to take possession. This last thought +made his heart sick, for he knew only too well that he could make no +resistance except that which would end in a tragedy. Again the +supernatural mind-reading Joe proclaimed himself in a few disjointed +sentences, but to Jack they were most welcome in their honesty of +purpose and implication of the trapper as a coward. + +"I reckon yer might be calkerlatin' on what yer would do with this yere +plunder," said Joe, as he pointed at the camp outfit, the provisions and +the furs hanging on the side of the cabin. Continuing in that monotonous +sing-song of gutturals and whispers, he allowed the plunder belonged to +Jack, for the trapper had acknowledged as much. + +"That trapper got 'skeered' of Colorow and lit out. Mebbe yer don't know +it, but the Utes don't like him any too much, and when Colorow said +'Vamoose' yer pardner left yer to yer own cogitashuns. He tol' me that +nothin' in the camp belonged to him; thet 'twas all your'n except the +traps and harness. 'Taint likely he'll come back 'til next March, so ef +yer don't want ter stay 'til then yer'll have to git a move on yerself. +Thet trail won't stay open an hour on the high divide, but yer can +rastle a couple Ute cayuses through ten feet of snow like a hot bullet +goin' through a piece of ham fat, and onct on the other side of the +divide it will be an easy trail to Kremling's, at the mouth of the Big +Muddy. Yer don't need ter take much along. Yer will be out but one +night, and mebbe yer will git ter the old hunter's cabin about forty +mile from here 'fore that. Ef yer don't ther is a good campin' ground on +the crik in a big pocket five miles this side." + +It did not take long to make a trade. Jack reserved his six-shooters, +blankets and three or four fine cat and fox skins. Joe gave him a good +Indian pony, a silver watch, and the balance in money for the +provisions, rifle, ammunition and other paraphernalia, except the +remaining furs, traps and cooking utensils, which were the legitimate +belongings of the trapper. + +But the awful perils of a trip over an unknown trail in midwinter rose +up as a barrier between Jack and civilization. The night had come on and +Yamanatz, with Chiquita, as silent witnesses to the exchange of +chattels, sat beside the camp fire. Grotesque shadows wavered and +wandered back and forth in and out of the gloom as Jack replenished the +disappearing embers with new fuel preparatory to a pow-wow in which the +final arrangements were to be completed concerning his escape from Rock +Creek, his return later when the winter passed, when Yamanatz should +conduct him to the great gold deposit. It was a matter of a hundred +miles to the nearest ranch in Middle Park, before reaching which was a +"divide," the top of which soared far above the surrounding hills, and +then came the Gore, or Park range, split by the Grand River into an +impassable cañon, along whose steep side ran the old Ute trail, up, up, +until it crossed the snow-covered summit beyond timber line, and thence +descended by serpentine and circuitous windings to the southern entrance +of the Park. From there to the ranch on the Troublesome was open level +country, across which was comparatively easy traveling. The other pass +over the Gore range, which was used by the trapper and Jack when they +made their incoming trip to Rock Creek, was already closed by snow as +far as travel by horses was concerned, and for that matter the Ute trail +was closed, except for being opened by the band of Indians and thirty or +forty ponies bucking their way through to Sulphur Springs. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS. + + +The most difficult portions of the journey would be encountered the +first day over the numerous ridges of barren waste intervening between +Rock Creek and the high divide. Old Joe shook his head in uncertain +manner when Jack asserted his confidence in being able to follow after +Colorow. Yamanatz nodded in assent at the dangers confronted by the +dilemma of Jack's unfamiliarity with the trail, and then in that +portentous monosyllabic manner of Indians in brief words conveying whole +paragraphs of information but adding to the dismal forebodings, said: + +"White man all right. Plenty sign when trail in big woods. Heap sign on +big trees. Come big open, no trees, no sign; one look, two look, three +look, all same. All snow, no trail, no tree. Get lost; sundown, no fire, +no camp. White man cold. Pretty soon sleep; fall off pony; sleep long +time." + +Then Jack knew that "three looks" would carry him from the top of one +high hill to the top of another, as far as the eye could reach to the +horizon, into a country absolutely treeless, and where even an Indian +would be lost if he had never been shown the trail. To attempt the trip +alone would be sheer madness and only result in that subtle overpowering +sleep into eternity--death by freezing. + +Yamanatz stopped speaking for a moment to give his hearers ample time to +fully understand him, then continued: "White man sabe? Colorow gone one +sleep, mebbe so not make 'em Gore range. White man catch 'em pony +tomorrow. Two sleeps before can take 'em trail to follow Colorow, sabe? +Colorow mebbe so come back meet 'em white man. Colorow then heap mad, no +get 'em flour, bacon. Colorow, Antelope, Bennett all heap hungry. White +man no got 'em big gun; little gun not much good, mebbe so?" and +Yamanatz lapsed into silence. + +There was no need to ask anything more. The cunning old warrior knew +only too well the fate that awaited Jack if Colorow and his ugly +renegade Indians should fail to get through to Sulphur Springs and had +to return empty handed to Rock Creek. Old Joe knew, too, that his own +safety would be problematical, even with his years of familiarity with +the whole Ute tribe. The gloom that settled over them was full of +foreboding. Each one was striving to hatch out a plan that would dispel +the dangers now besetting Jack's safety. + +It was useless to think of old Joe attempting the trip with Jack, and +Yamanatz made no sign of being willing to assume the role of guide. At +last as Jack was about to abandon all hope, Chiquita arose and, crossing +over to where Jack was, bid him to be of good cheer. + +Pointing to the stars, she said: "What Yamanatz has said is in the sky. +The Great Spirit who watches over the Indian maiden has told Chiquita to +lead the white man that he may go to meet his white brothers. Chiquita +knows the trail. Chiquita is not afraid. It is but one moon since +Chiquita's pony did paw the deep snow and carry Chiquita on the big +divide to meet the Ute braves coming from the Grand River. One sleep, +and the white man Jack must get his ponies, and two sleeps before the +sun shall show on top of the high mountain. Chiquita will be ready at +the tepee of Yamanatz to lead the white man over big divide, where make +'em one camp for Chiquita and one camp for white man Jack. One sleep and +Chiquita say adios to white man, then come back Indian village on same +day. White man go to his white brothers on Troublesome, then go long way +Denver City." + +Here was a dilemma that confronted Jack, even more embarrassing than +anything yet thrown in his path--the would-be leader of the select four +hundred at White River acting as guide over a wild country, to say +nothing of a one-night camp among the willows at the edge of some little +creek. It must have amused him to a great degree, for, serious as it +was, a smile lurked around the corners of his mouth, causing Chiquita to +become a little disdainful, as an Indian is very sensitive to ridicule, +but Jack quickly relinquished the comical side of the question and his +features again became as grave as those of old Yamanatz. Old Joe was the +first to speak: + +"The Injun gal is made of the right stuff and will pilot yer to ther +right place, an' she can take care of herself goin' an' comin'. I've +seen her throw that knife in her belt twenty feet as straight as yer can +shoot a bullet outen that six-shooter of your'n." + +Then the old Ute spoke: + +"Chiquita all same Yamanatz show 'em trail to white man. White man +sabe?" + +Jack could do nothing but take Chiquita's hands in his own and bow his +humblest thanks. It occurred to him he had an old sealskin cap in his +war bag and that it might please the dusky maiden. He soon produced it +and, with another friendly greeting, presented it to her. It was lined +with bright red silk, and she proceeded to put it on with the silk on +the outside, to which Jack made no remonstrance. Although it made him +bite his tongue, he did not "crack a smile." + +Yamanatz and Chiquita immediately started on the trail for the Indian +village. It was ten o'clock. After a chat with Joe they both turned into +the bunk, Jack to dream of home, sheets and pillowcases, barber shops, +chinaware and a real live dining-room table. It took all next day and +far into the night to get his Ute ponies in readiness for Tuesday's long +journey, but at last the packs were made up. Three days' supply for two, +of bread, bacon, tea and coffee, were made into a convenient bundle, to +be rolled into the blankets, which would in turn be strapped behind +Jack's saddle. All the other paraphernalia--Indian moccasins, buckskin +shirts, beaded tobacco bags and a real Ute war bonnet, with lots of +pipes, elk teeth, bears' claws, arrow heads and Jack's clothing--were +packed in rubber blankets, canvas covers and grain bags, ready for the +pack-saddle on the other pony. + +It was just daybreak when Jack bid the old Rock Creek camp farewell, +leaving it to be put in shape by old Joe, who had helped the young man +from the far east in his preparations. Old Joe did not waste words in +his good-bye speech, but there was at least a perceptible tremor in his +voice and a decided reluctance in withdrawing his hand after the adios +shake. The Indian village was reached at exactly sunrise, and as a +chorus of yelping dogs greeted the arrival of the ponies, a few squaws +poked their heads out of the tepees, nodding a salute of recognition to +Jack. Chiquita was ready to mount her pony as soon as Jack gave her the +word. He had tightened the diamond hitch on the pack pony and his own +saddle girth preparatory for a long lope over the sage-brush flat that +extended from the Indian village across the small mesa at the foot of +the first hills, which form the steps of the high divide. Chiquita, +dressed in her buckskin shirt, skirt, leggings and moccasins heavily +trimmed with beads, quickly sprang into her saddle and pulled the +blanket up around her shoulders Indian fashion. Her hair hung in heavy +braids at either side of her cheeks, while the sealskin cap with showy +red silk lining crowned her head. Into the peak of the cap she had +thrust an immense eagle feather. The chorus of yelping dogs again took +part in the ceremony attending their departure. As they ascended the +first bench several blacktail deer ran directly across their +path--beautiful animals that cleared the sage brush in graceful, easy +bounds, looking first to the right and then to the left, as much as to +say, "Come on, I'm ready." + +It was noon when the last long snow-covered ridge lay behind them. For +two hours it had been a battle with snowdrift after snowdrift. The trail +cut by the Colorow Indian ponies had been filled by the wind with +drifting snow until not a sign was left. Parapets of snow ten feet high +were encountered, which had to be cut and the trail again located by +Chiquita. First one pony would take the lead and, reared on his hind +feet, paw the snow down beneath him, while the next in line trampled it +a second time, until a cut was formed at a low point in that endless +chain of banks stretching for miles in either direction. Towering forty +feet in the air were mountains of the same dazzling white, which had to +be circled, sometimes leaving the trail to the right or left for a mile. +At times these detours were made only to be retraced because of the +impassable blockades rising in sheer precipices, and once the trail +opened by these detours was found to be refilled within an hour, so +fierce was that icy blast, blowing its wanton breath in seeming malice +against the weary beasts and their equally weary riders. + +Jack had tramped snow for the ponies on many occasions when they refused +to move. Chiquita had lent her encouragement time and again as Jack +seemed ready to abandon the trip, but at last behind them towered the +top of the big divide, on whose crest ran a snow bank higher than any +before encountered. Giving a few moments' rest to the panting ponies, +Jack took the lead, for now the trail was easily discernible and +followed without a break, down, down, over and through a few more banks +of that mealy substance, affording neither footing nor shelter for man +or beast, until the warm forests of pine once more protected them from +the frightful cold. + +At the first convenient spot Jack cleared away the snow from a huge rock +and soon had a cheerful fire roaring, which furnished warmth to their +numbed bodies; then from his tin cup in which snow was melted he brewed +a refreshing draught of tea, which, with a bite of frozen bread thawed +out on the hot rock, appeased their hunger for the time being. By the +aid of a pocket thermometer Jack ascertained the temperature to be 36 +degrees below zero. The sky was clear, but even at the edge of the +timber a thousand feet below that terrible snow-turreted ridge the wind +screamed in its fury and pierced the heavy garments and blankets within +which Chiquita and Jack were encased. The ponies humped their backs at +the lee side of the fire and seemed grateful for a few mouthsful of +smoke in lieu of a wisp of dry buffalo grass. Conversation was almost +impossible, as words were not audible three feet distant. Both were too +numb to talk, and it was difficult even to eat. The half hour at an end, +Jack struck into the trail, leading his pony. Chiquita had not +dismounted since leaving the Indian village, and was getting pretty +stiff with cold. At the end of another half hour she managed to make +Jack hear her, and after considerable trouble he found a log by the side +of the trail, where she could stand and swing first one leg and then the +other to restore circulation. After ten minutes' vigorous exercise she +remounted, and the little procession again started through the down +timber. + +They had reached a portion of heavy forest that had been ravaged by +timber fires. Miles and miles of immense trees lay in chaotic confusion. +Tall spires of limbless bark-burned pines stretched eighty, one hundred +and even a hundred and fifty feet skyward, the weather-beaten trunks +white with the storm-scouring of years. Through this desolate stretch of +ghostyard (a veritable birthplace for spooks and goblins, the terror of +that docile animal known as the Rocky Mountain canary, but usually +called a jackass) the party moved in silent Indian trot, each step +taking them nearer and nearer the warmer region of cedar, piñon and sage +brush, through groves of quaking asps, whose leaves in the summer time +never cease their eternal and restless quiver and upon whose smooth +trunks were Indian signs galore. On the larger and older trees could be +found those subtle knifecuts, conveying intelligence through +representations of chickens, horses, snakes, hatchets, knives, guns, +arrows and other characters which in the past had warned of the +approaching enemy or told of the chase, of the success or the defeat not +only of Utes, but of Sioux, Apaches, Arapahoes and Kiowas. Many an hour +had Jack spent in studying these trees which are scattered over the +Rocky Mountain region, bearing whole histories, trees generally found +within an altitude of 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. + +It was not long after passing through this belt that they came to the +south hillsides, whose slopes were free from snow and where the runways +for deer, elk and mountain sheep became more and more numerous. Stocky +little cedar trees stretched forth their long arms over the trail, +sending forth fragrance of lead-pencils and giving a slap on the face if +the rider neglected to duck in season to avoid the branch. Entering a +sage-brush covered mesa, immense jack-rabbits bounded hither and +thither, sage hens flew up with a whir of their wings and the shrill +scream of an eagle greeted their ears as if to warn them against +entering his domain. As the trail led them nearer and nearer to the +banks of a good sized creek the ponies became restive, and finally the +pack animal resorted to that well-known method of suggesting that it was +time to make camp by "bucking"--not a stop in the bucking process until +blankets, bags and bundles were scattered for a mile over the sage-brush +flat. It was an hour's work for both Jack and Chiquita to get the +plunder together and again pack it on the refractory cayuse, and it was +all the more aggravating, as it was only a couple of miles from the spot +selected for camp. + +Arriving at a bend in the creek--rather it was a fair sized river--they +proceeded to make the best of everything at their command. There was a +space along the edge of the river about two hundred feet wide, covered +here and there with wild rye, at the roots of which was dried buffalo +grass. This strip of land ran back to a cañon wall, a precipice some +forty feet high, sheer and without foothold for even a wildcat. Thick +willows grew along the base of this wall, and it was but a few minutes +after the ponies were relieved of their saddles ere Jack had selected +two favorable spots which would afford reasonably good beds, one for +Chiquita and one for himself. Cutting away the willows up to the wall in +a narrow space just big enough for one to lie down, and forming a +mattress of others occupied but a little time. Meanwhile, Chiquita had +brought driftwood and dry sticks until an immense pile of fuel was in +readiness for the long night. The ponies were picketed, one on each side +of the camp and the third one close to the edge of the stream, forming a +guard past which no wild animal would attempt to go. It was now dark and +the ponies were foraging for buffalo grass, while Jack toasted some +bacon on a stick, made coffee in an old baked-bean can, which he had +thoughtfully tied to the pack-saddle, and toasted the frozen bread on a +hot rock. During the early dusk the mew of a plaintive camp bird gave +notice that that mountain sentinel was at hand, and the handsome +gray-coated camp follower would spread his black-tipped wings and fly +down to the edge of the fire, looking for crumbs and refuse of the +"kitchen." Chiquita gave him a few morsels, but there was little to +spare from the stock at hand. + +After they had satisfied their hunger Jack and Chiquita settled +themselves for a long talk. It was the first opportunity that had been +presented since old Joe and Yamanatz interrupted them the Sunday before +after the six-course banquet Jack had given his eastern friends by +proxy. + +The ponies tugged at their picket ropes, wandering around in search of +overlooked patches of grass. Occasionally a wolf howl mournfully +awakened the stillness of the gathering darkness, to be answered by +others of the same species, each animal in the common quest of something +to eat, and all probably attracted by the camp fire and its attendant +odors. + +A first-quarter moon shed its cold, silvery light on the drama at the +base of the precipitous rock. The air was crisp and still. The splashing +stream dashing its burden along the confines of its narrow channel to +the Pacific Ocean was the orchestra, keeping in touch with the scene, +staged by no artificial hand and curtained by the star-spangled canopy +of night. The camp fire sent showers of sparks far aloft and its warmth +unloosened the tense-drawn muscles, every one of which had been called +upon to its utmost capacity in the battles that the weary travelers had +encountered with the snowdrifts. Jack lay stretched upon the sand by the +fire, while Chiquita stood beside him. They had recounted the perils of +the day and had outlined their respective trips for the morrow--she to +face again the dangers of the divide and go back to the uneducated, +primitive life of the forest man, degraded by the deceits and intrigues +of the avaricious, land-grabbing representatives of schools, colleges +and institutions, proclaiming the law to be justice, he to face the +vicissitudes of an unknown trail, the possibility of meeting a murderous +band of these forest men while on his way back to that realm of advanced +civilization, educated to the highest degree of refinement of "doing" +others legally. + +Both had remained silent for a long time after the exchanges of the +day's experiences. Jack wanted to express his gratitude to Chiquita for +her bravery and self-imposed task in conducting him over the trail, for +he now fully realized the certain death that awaited him had he +undertaken the trip alone. But he was not master of words that the +Indian maiden would understand in their fullest import, nor did he hope +to be able to convey by signs that which was uppermost in his mind. + +It may be Chiquita read his thoughts, but was equally at loss to find +adequate words to impart any assistance. Finally, after many misgivings +as to what she might consider an ample word reward, he started in at +random: + +"Chiquita sabe that she has been good to Jack?" + +"Me no sabe, Señor." + +Jack was nonplussed. In her he found the same ability to dissemble that +predominated in the well-known character of the first lady in the Garden +of Eden. He tried to recall some Spanish words that she might +understand, but none of the few which he essayed to use met with any +better reception. + +"Chiquita heap brave," said Jack, to which she made no reply. + +"Chiquita save Jack; make 'em glad Jack's heart. What Jack do to make +Chiquita's heart glad?" + +He at last had struck the right chord, as her face beamed with a glad +response, but it brought questions causing a train of thought which made +him smile even at the risk of incurring her displeasure. To express +gratitude to an Indian requires much more diplomacy and skill than is +required under like circumstances in civilized communities. + +"Would the fair-faced sister of the white man save Jack all same +Chiquita? Would the pale-face maiden bring firewood and sleep in willow +bed to save white man's life?" + +Her eyes blazed in the consciousness of knowing that in the present age +on the American Continent no white woman had ever been put to a like +test. Whether she felt this intuitively or whether she had learned it +from the squaws who had visited the big cities as they recounted the +adoration extended by the male to the weaker sex as a part and parcel of +civilization, it matters not. + +Jack knew that he was at as great a disadvantage in her presence as if +at the mercy of the divinest coquette in all of God's country. He +essayed to answer, but something restrained him. It was not fear; it was +not because he had his own misgivings on the subject, nor was it because +he had no ready reply. Nevertheless, he waited and in his mind he tried +to picture one of the belles of society bucking snow to save some +football graduate from death, or one sleeping in the open air, without a +chaperon, and a man in the same cañon. What _would_ Mrs. Grundy +say? Of course he thought of the story by an eminent author where there +was a scuttled ship laden with gold, a clergyman and a rich man's +daughter cast upon an unknown island, and Jack acknowledged he had never +heard of Mrs. Grundy making unkind remarks about that tale. But that was +the result of accident, and mortuary tables classify accidental risks in +a category by themselves. + +Chiquita had suggested the society belle who would voluntarily give up +half her estate for a real live, accidental romance that did not incur +too much danger. Would she leave her maid and steam radiator and in the +midst of a western blizzard sally forth to carry coal up three flights +of stairs to a poor, benighted student, and then sleep on the doormat, +for any reward there might be in store for her, either from a +consciousness of having performed a creditable act or because she loved +him? + +Of course, Jack knew there was no occasion ever presented where a loving +young thing, just out of the sixth grade, had been called upon to carry +anything any more formidable than a bunch of roses to a sick friend, and +the modern equipages splashed only a little dirty water over roads well +kept from snowdrifts by indulgent taxpayers. Still, the question had +been asked, and he manfully determined to stand up for the fair ones +across the range. + +"Si, Señorita Chiquita, the Indian maiden has said it. The pale-faced +sisters of Jack would save their white brothers--even their red brothers +and their black brothers. The fair sisters of the white man brave death +in many ways for their white brothers. See, Chiquita, the medicine tepee +of the white man is great as the high rock. It has many beds, more than +the number of all Yamanatz's ponies. The young man who makes the gun, +the maiden who makes the pretty cap mebbe so breaks the leg. Mebbe so +the big steam cars come together all in big smash--kill many, heap hurt +all. Then taken 'em to white man's medicine tepee. Medicine man tie up +head, arms, legs, and white maiden in medicine clothes, all clean dress, +white cap, red cross on the arm, give sick man medicine, wash sick man's +hands, feet; give little something to eat, sit beside 'em, feel of hot +head; stay all day, stay all night; watch 'em little blood knocks on the +wrist, count all same on little watch. Mebbe so one get well, go way, +good-bye. Mebbe so some die, go way too. Some more come bad hurt. Mebbe +so like mountain fever; mebbe so heap sick inside. Big medicine man +takes little knife, cut 'em all open, so. Cut out big chunk, mebbe so +little chunk, all same; sew 'em up again, so, sabe? White maiden stand +by, help big medicine man. 'Nother medicine man stand by give 'em heap +strong stuff on cloth, sabe? Sick man all same breathe 'em in, byme by +go sleep; no feel 'em knife. Big medicine man heap cut. Sick man no feel +all same. Byme by wake up. Heap sick now long time; mebbe get all well; +mebbe so one moon, mebbe so two moons; mebbe so die. All same pale face +maiden heap brave; save many white man like Jack." + +Chiquita never took her eyes from Jack's countenance. That she fully +understood every phase of the hospital life as portrayed by him was +evident from the dilated nostril, the wide-open eyes and the tumultuous +heaving of the bosom through the heavy folds of her buckskin. She waited +a full two minutes after Jack had finished, and then in a voice just +above a whisper asked: "Will the white man Jack take Chiquita to see the +medicine tepee of the white people that she may see the fair white +sister in her medicine clothes?" + +Jack little realized that he had touched the one chord in Chiquita's +character that she yearned to follow. The imaginings of her young life +had met with no sympathetic response. She revolted at the cruelty often +displayed by the warriors in the Indian village, and the atrocities +committed on captives while she was but a child were hideous +recollections. + +Jack quickly replied: "When Jack comes back to go with Yamanatz to +Blazing-Eye-by-Big-Water then Chiquita will see big medicine tepee in +Denver City and the fair sister in her medicine clothes." + +"Will Jack come back Rock Creek when beaver cut 'em big tree?" asked the +Indian girl. + +Jack figured that April would be early enough, and even that would +require him to use snowshoes a great part of the distance. The Berthoud +pass would not be open until June, and he doubted if the snow would be +passable for ponies on the high divide they had just crossed, but the +Gore range could be crossed farther north and obviate the high ridge and +its deep snow. + +"Jack will come back the first new moon after beaver begin cut. Will +Chiquita be in tepee near Pony Creek or White River?" He both answered +one question and asked another. + +"Me no sabe where Chiquita then," she replied, in a rather sorrowful +tone, continuing: "Mebbe so all go to agency, mebbe so stay on Pony +Creek. White man no find Chiquita on Pony Creek, go all same agency find +'em Yamanatz. Where Yamanatz there Chiquita wait for white man Jack." + +That being settled, Jack took the blankets and distributed them on the +willow beds. He then replenished the fire with some half-green logs +pulled from a pile of drift wood, examined the picket ropes of the +ponies and lit his pipe for another smoke. Chiquita wrapped herself in +her blanket, tucked herself into a big wildcat-skin bag, which made a +part of her bed on the willow branches, and was soon asleep. + +Through the rings of smoke which curled from his pipe Jack sensed the +future, as a spiritualist would say, and, realizing that this would in +all probability be his last night of outdoor life for some time to come, +he was loath to close his eyes in sleep, shutting out the grand +retrospect of independence which a few months' experience on the +frontier had taught him--a life absolutely free from conventionalities, +police interference and taxes. + +"No wonder," he soliloquized, "that the red man prefers the avenues of +the forest, the virgin plains of grass, the rugged cañons running with +sparkling water, the smoke of his tepee fire and a starry dome for his +homestead, to the cobblestones, the plowed ground, the artificial goose +ponds, the greasy-surfaced rivers, the steam-heated, foul-smelling +hothoused monuments of man's industry and civilization." + +The ponies snorted as though an intruder was lurking on the outskirts of +the camp. Jack kicked one of the smoldering logs and a shower of sparks +were borne upward into the dark night air. A few moments later and the +prowler's deep, dismal howl wafted along the river course, supplemented +by the short, snappy yelps of half a dozen coyotes. The interruption was +ended and the man of the house again lapsed into speculation. + +"Who would believe that Jack Sheppard would be here alone with that +Indian girl in the middle of January, over a thousand miles from his +home, where are velvet carpets and feather beds for old folks, eiderdown +quilts for his sisters and probably a good hair mattress and blankets +for the butler?" + +Knocking the ashes from his pipe and placing that article of luxury +safely in an Indian-beaded buckskin tobacco pouch, he drew one foot up +and clasped his hands over the greasy overalled knee, resting his back +against one of the log "divans" which go to make up every camp, even be +they temporary ones. He had divested himself of his outer coat and +relied upon the heavy buckskin shirt and the camp fire for protection +from the cold. Long strings, demanded by frontier fashion, dangled idly +from the sleeves and yoke of the garment. As he silently contemplated +his wardrobe he gave an additional sigh and wondered, almost aloud: + +"I suppose these will have to give way to a 'biled' shirt, tailor-made +clothes and white collar, to say nothing of getting a haircut +regularly." + +This last "think" made Jack unclasp his hands rather hastily, but having +assured himself that his hair was still intact, he gave vent to more +soliloquy. + +"If I were to walk into that Sunday-school class of mine, of +ten-year-olds, in this rig, I wonder if the shorter catechism would +stand any show?" + +With a smile he proceeded to throw on a couple more logs, refresh +himself with a drink of water and, having divested himself of his boots, +using a saddle and coat for a pillow, he pulled the blankets around +himself and was soon fast asleep. + +[Illustration: THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS.] + +He was awakened by snorts of all three ponies. The fire had burned out +with the exception of a bed of coals glowing in the deep black night. +The "watchdogs" of the camp had crowded up to the lengths of their +picket ropes, getting as near each other as they could. Jack slowly +raised himself to a sitting position and listened attentively. Peering +out through the willows he could see, by the restive tugging of the +ponies at their fastenings with the pricking of their ears toward the +high precipice, that the cause for alarm did not come from inside the +cañon. Cautiously putting on a pair of moccasins, which he always had +near him at night, he picked up his .44 and was on the point of stepping +into the open by the fire, when from above came a screech, a long +cat-like growl of defiance, yet defeat, that made the cañon echo and +re-echo with maniacal vocal debauchery. Jack's heart, it is needless to +say, quit doing business peremptorily for at least thirty seconds. His +eyes followed the ear-vanes on the ponies' heads, and just at the edge +of that breastwork of rock could be seen two golden discs as big as car +wheels, Jack thought. A greenish glare as of a halo surrounded the +yellow spots, and occasionally the bright spots suddenly disappeared +only to shine forth again appallingly bright. It was a mountain lion +taking snap shots while it speculated on its appetite. Jack stepped out +and gave the end of a burned log a kick into the hot coals. Millions of +sparks flew up. The big lemon-colored orbs slunk back out of sight and +ten minutes later the faint repetition of the first number proclaimed +the concert ended. + +The "big dipper" pointed to 3 o'clock. Throwing on some more fuel the +fire blazed high. Chiquita thrust her head out of the environments of +the fur bag and sat up in the willow retreat. "Me want 'em drink; mouth +heap dry," was the laconic remark she made to Jack as he acknowledged +her wakefulness. Giving her a cup of water, he referred to the visitor +just departed, to which she scornfully replied: + +"Heap big coward, big cat with long tail. Little cat with short tail all +same like this bag, no coward. Big cat all same you call 'em lion, no +catch 'em ponies, Indian or white man, all time afraid. Big cat catch +'em rabbit, lame deer. Mebbe so heap hungry tackle 'em big elk; drop +from big tree on elk back. Big cat, little cat, wolf, bear, no come near +camp fire. Look at camp fire long way off. Chiquita no fraid when all +'lone." + +With this piece of information, with which Jack was already acquainted, +they both resumed their interest in the land of Nod. + +The bright winter sun had not mounted far enough in the heavens to shed +any warm rays into the camp when Jack pulled on his boots and poked the +fire preparatory to an early breakfast. The ponies did not look as if +dyspepsia troubled them, nor did Jack feel overburdened with belly +worship. The little larder was a hollow mockery to the knockings of a +ravenous appetite. Jack concluded that a well-fed discretion was better +than hungry haste, so he meandered down the river in search of a rabbit, +while Chiquita attended to her morning ablutions. About the time that +the average city girl would have consumed with curling tongs, cashmere +bouquet and in getting her hat on straight, Jack returned with a nice +fat "jack" of the _lepus cuniculus_ family, all ready for the +coals. It did not take long to cook the choice cuts from the delectable +portions of "Bunny." The seasoning was rather crude, consisting of +powder taken from a misfire cartridge, which Jack happened to have in +his belt. But "saltpeter in gunpowder is better than no salt at all" is +an old axiom among hunters. This addition to the "hollow mockery" larder +sent their spirits up to the top of the goodfellowship thermometer. + +"A burned hare is worth two in the bush," said Jack, as he irreverently +twisted a trite quotation and rabbit leg. But Chiquita kept right on in +her argument with a section of the vertebra just roasted on a forked +stick. + +After the first pangs of hunger had been somewhat appeased the Indian +girl said to Jack, "What you call 'em little things use all same knife +when eat off tin plate?" + +Jack recalled the fact of some cheap silver-plated forks that made up +the camp kit. + +"Forks," he replied, adding, as Chiquita seemed to want further +information, "The fair sisters of Jack no eat 'em venison with fingers, +all same Chiquita. Think 'em Chiquita wild girl. When Jack come back +bring 'em forks and spoons for Chiquita." + +To this she seemed satisfied, but remarked: "Mebbe so fingers pale face +girl good play 'em tom-tom, make 'em beadwork, wash 'em tin plates. No +good catch 'em pony, cut 'em firewood, make 'em buckskin." + +With this she scornfully turned her lip up in a manner that made Jack +laugh outright, a proceeding that always made Chiquita's eyes snap with +dangerous fire. He quieted her by pointing at the sun as an indication +that it was time to say adios. The ponies were brought up and quickly +saddled, Jack's belongings packed in the most approved fashion to stand +another hard climb over the Gore range, and Chiquita's restive "Bonito" +carefully cinched for the return trip to the Indian village. The last +point of the "diamond hitch" had been made and the rope drawn taut; the +last knot had been tied over the roll of blankets behind Jack's saddle, +and the last of the morning's banquet had been divided between the +wayfarers, whose journeys would in a few moments lead in opposite +directions. As Chiquita arranged herself on the back of "Bonito" she +looked wistfully at the sky and surrounding peaks. "Me make 'em Yamanatz +tepee sun here," pointing halfway down the horizon to the west. + +Jack signified his expectations by remarking, rather dubiously, "Me +mebbe so get to Troublesome heap dark." + +Following the direction of Chiquita's finger as she pointed to the high +divide where the previous day they had battled long in the deep snow, +Jack felt some misgivings as to the Indian girl being able to ride the +big drift down. But the confidence she enjoyed in her own ability to +stand hardship and the additional reliance she placed in the +thoroughbred Ute pony was summed up in her one decisive comment, uttered +almost imperiously, at least scornfully: + +"Bonito take Chiquita through deep snow like big fish go through foaming +water. Wind all gone up there now." + +Jack threw himself into his saddle and reined up beside the future +medicine queen of the White River Utes. She drew from her bosom a beaded +buckskin bag, from which she took a pair of beaver's jaws, the short +teeth bound with otter and a long strip of mountain-lion fur bound +firmly around a braid of her own hair. She handed them to Jack, saying +in a low, almost beseeching tone: "Will the white man Jack bring em back +Chiquita's medicine teeth when the beaver cuts the trees?" + +It was a great sacrifice to part with the "medicine," to which all +Indians pin their faith. Otter and mountain-lion fur especially is woven +into the long straight braids of both buck and squaw to drive away evil +spirits, and Chiquita evidently had been to a good deal of trouble to +obtain the prescription from the head medicine man for her own use. The +beaver teeth were symbolic of the time when Chiquita expected Jack to +keep faith with her. His reply was made while the palms of both hands +were stretched toward her, the fingers pointing up. + +"Jack will come," then pressing his knees against the sides of his pony, +he leaned over and, after a quick hand grasp, bid adios to the smiling +daughter of Yamanatz. + +An hour later he had reached the end of his first "look." Scanning the +side of the high divide he could see "Bonito" lunging forward into the +deep drifts skirting the top of the divide. Presently the pony stopped +and turned broadside toward him. Looking intently he saw Chiquita wave a +farewell response by means of a small silk flag handkerchief which he +had given her upon the first visit to Rock Creek. Signaling a return +salute by means of his sombrero, he waited until "Bonito" disappeared +into that fortress of snow, knowing that once over the crest ten minutes +would be sufficient time to make the crossing in safety. As she did not +reappear, Jack struck boldly into the trail, which now led him by easy +stages up toward timber line, the dark rushing waters of the Grand River +hissing and seething far below him. At the entrance to the cañon, where +the warmer current of air met the colder wave from the snow-covered +mountainside, huge bristling bayonets of frosted rye grass waved their +menacing blades at intruders. Lattice-worked ramparts of ice and snow +were veiled with filmy curtains bespangled with millions of +scintillating diamonds, the congealed breathings from that steaming +throat, through which ceaselessly poured the mountain torrent in its +strenuous effort to join the ocean. + +Jack looked wistfully at the scene and sighed that a spectacle of such +rare beauty could not be shared by his eastern friends. + +The tortuous trail often led to the edge of a precipice, where the +slightest misstep of his pony would have hurled both beast and rider +into a frightful abyss. At other times the narrow pathway meandered +serpentine fashion between pine trees so thickly interspersed that the +pack would wedge first on one side and then the other, to the imminent +destruction of Jack's belongings. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE RANCH ON THE TROUBLESOME. + + +It was pitch dark when Jack rode into the corral at the ranch on the +Troublesome. After unpacking and storing his trappings he went over to +the ranch house. Several Ute ponies were in the corral. Their presence +puzzled him, and as he entered the log house what was his surprise to +find himself in the presence of Colorow, Bennett and Antelope. Old +Tracy, the owner of the ranch, greeted the newcomer with a merry +"How--how--well, beat my brains out with a straw ef I tho't of a-seeing +you afore spring." + +Bill, the fiery red-whiskered, red-haired, red-faced, stuttering +Irishman, ejaculated, after a good deal of effort, "D--d--d--durn my +p--p--p--pictures! G--g--g--glad t--t--t--to see yer." The obese, +low-browed renegade Colorow looked inquiringly. So did the other Indians +as Jack replied to both ranchmen: + +"I left Rock Creek yesterday morning and crossed the Gore range today. +The snow was pretty deep in spots." + +Colorow's eyes glittered as it dawned on him that the white man Jack of +Rock Creek and this man were one and the same. Jack did not know any of +the trio except Bennett, neither of the others having openly visited the +camp below. As Bennett rose up from the floor with a greeting he turned +and waved his hand: + +"This Antelope, this Colorow." + +Jack involuntarily stepped back a pace, halfway starting his hand as if +to grasp his six-shooter. Colorow saw the motion as well as the swift, +penetrating flash that shot from Jack's gray eyes into the very soul of +the old red devil. But the warrior never made a hostile movement. The +least perceptible smile crept into his face as he interpreted the +telegraphic glance. He realized that Jack guessed for a certainty what +Bennett and Antelope might guess, for Colorow had never told any of the +Utes that he actually followed Jack, nor that he waited in vain at the +mouth of the long gulch for that worthy young man to walk to his death. +It was with mock cordiality that the two men acknowledged each other's +presence, but not so with Antelope, who rose and grasped Jack's +outstretched hand. Antelope and Bennett _did_ guess right. The +ranchmen had seen the little exchange of "symptoms" and were at loss to +understand the purport thereof. Nevertheless, they had in an instant, +yet seemingly in a careless manner, lessened the distance between the +right hand and the butt end of their respective six-shooters, for the +frontiersman is keen to scent danger. Colorow remained in his chair and +thus addressed Jack: + +"Sabe white man Rock Creek trail?" + +Jack nodded in reply. + +"Sabe camp where Utes sleep?" + +Jack nodded again, holding up two fingers, signifying he had seen both +camping places, as the Utes had not made as rapid progress as he. + +"Colorow lose twelve ponies," counting them by holding up both hands, +then two additional fingers. "Mebbe so white man see 'em ponies?" + +Jack shook his head. The ponies had become hungry, broken away and +probably were hunting buffalo grass in the lower hills when he was +crossing the higher slopes of the Gore range. A few questions as to the +camp on Rock Creek, what disposition he had made of the camp property +and furs, and then the Indians drew their blankets about themselves and +silently filed away to the corral, where they mounted their ponies and +set out for their own camp in the willows, some half mile distant. After +they had departed Tracy said with a quizzical look: + +"That old devil is up to mischief," meaning Colorow. He turned to Jack, +continuing, "Tho't mebbe so yer were goin' to plunk him fer a minnit +thar." + +Bill chimed in: "I seen the f--f--f--fire in yer eyes and says to +myself, it's all over with Cu--cu--col--col--Colorow at last, +b--b--b--but why in h--h--h--hellen d--d--d--didn't yer shoot?" + +"Well," said Jack, just the least regretting he had not, "I didn't know +how much of a 'stink' it would raise. The Utes are getting pretty bad, +and the whole parcel of them might take a notion to come up here and +clean out the Park before the soldiers could stop them." + +"What d' yer mean?" anxiously asked both his listeners, with a +perceptible blanching of their bronzed faces. + +"Old Yamanatz tells me things aren't going just right at the agency. +Colorow and Douglas' band of renegade Utes were camped outside the +reservation, two miles from the cabin where the trapper and I put up. +Didn't the trapper tell you anything?" suddenly asked Jack. + +The ranchmen looked curiously at one another, and Tracy evasively +remarked, "Well, he didn't say much; just said he got lonesome and had +left the old woman without any wood an' allowed he'd cut some for her, +then he'd go back byme-by." + +"Yes, byme-by," scornfully broke in Jack, adding, with some feeling, +"Between me and the corral that trapper is afraid of the Utes and left +me in the lurch." + +Tracy and Bill exchanged glances, as much as to say, "The tenderfoot has +got his eye-teeth cut all right." Bill spoke up as if a sudden impulse +had made him forget the dangers that lurked in the Ute question. + +"How about that redskin g--g--gal? Tho't mebbe so y--y--yer hed jined in +holy wedlock into the Ute family," at which both the ranchmen slapped +their hands together and laughed uproariously. Jack joined in with them, +for he appreciated the gossip of ranch life, and no sewing bee ever +furnished better "stamping ground" for wagging tongues than the frontier +masculine brand. + +Bill set about getting something to eat, and Jack had a double-barreled +appetite stowed away under his belt. The table, with its marble +oilcloth, real stone china plates, cups, saucers, glass vinegar cruets +and a molasses jug, was soon loaded with a big platter of venison, a +plate of hot biscuits, a pot of coffee, a pitcher of rich cream and a +crock of yellow butter. It was nearly three months since Jack had put +his legs under any kind of a table or seen anything the color of butter +or cream, and it was a treat that could not have been equaled in +Delmonico's to draw up to that feast with those truly honest brothers of +wild civilization, partake of their hospitality and listen to their +straightforward talk, rich in its omission of studied rhetoric or +ponderous grammatical phrases; no fear of using the wrong spoon or +creating a social riot by helping one's self to a little venison gravy, +even sopping the bread in the platter. Etiquette, frills and napkins had +to give way to blunt speech, solid, wholesome food and a red bandanna. +Back of it all, too, was his famous digestion and ravenous appetite, +essential elements that have no co-existence with spike-tailed coats, +trained gowns, "eye-openers" and "night caps." Jack had been busy, but +he slowed down long enough to let out his belt one hole. Bill had +entertained in the conversation direction. + +"Say, yer know when yer shot the antelope and Irish Mike got sore at it +because he missed the whole bunch? Well, old man Snyder come in with his +team last October after a load of fish, and we got up the old raft and +dropped the net into the bend of the river right there and dragged out +over a thousand fine suckers at one haul. We threw back all under two +pounds and a half." + +Jack broke in with the remark, "Those red-finned suckers are most as +good as trout." + +"Yer bet yer life they are," chimed in Tracy. + +"Well," continued Bill, "the old man and his boy was a watchin' us from +the other bank, so we hed to be sort o' careful as we picked them fish +over, but there was five as pretty red-throated trout clum up my coat +sleeve as ever yer laid eyes on; two of 'em tipped the scales at five +pounds apiece. We had trout to eat fer a week. Gosh all humlock, but it +was cold work gettin' them suckers ready. We worked 'til most midnight. +They cleaned up about six hundred dollars on the load. Sold 'em in +Georgetown, Central City, Idaho Springs--yes, sir, clean down to Golden. +The first of 'em brought forty cents a pound in the big camps, but the +last end of 'em went fer a nickel apiece. Down at McQueery's they got +another load for some other chaps a month after; pulled in over +seventeen hundred fish at one clip, but them fellers didn't know how to +peddle them out and lost money by shippin' 'em to Denver." + +"How's the stock, Tracy?" inquired Jack. + +"Doin' tiptop; we've got about one hundred and twenty head of horses +winterin' now. Mike brought in a lot of forty soon after you went down +trappin'. I keep a good watch on them haystacks this year to see that +the snowflakes don't strike fire again. They burned up a couple years +ago when I hed thirty ton of as fine hay as they ever get in this yere +Park. I had all the stock that was bein' wintered, and some of the other +fellows up the river had hay but no stock. The range had closed, so they +had no chans't to get any stock. Well, my hay ketched fire and, of +course, I wouldn't see them horses starve, so I had to buy them fellers' +hay. A good ba'r trap would have ketched something besides ba'r that +winter if I had set a few out. While I'm tendin' to the corral Bill will +tell you about that hole in the door frame," pointing to a badly mangled +orifice about as big as an orange. + +"Shotgun?" queried Jack. + +"Yes," said Bill; "shotgun--kingdom cum," and he had to straighten out +his vocal impediments and tell it slowly, although it was a hard task +for him, and his red whiskers and hair would rise up in their wrath, +seemingly, as he stuttered along: + +"Yer see, Dick Bradner came along one day over from Rattlesnake, and +said he wanted a good jack-rabbit shoot. The snow was just right and he +was gone all afternoon. He got half a wagonload, I guess. Along about +dark he steps in on the way to the corral and sets his gun up aside the +fireplace with the other guns. I was just beginning to get grub and had +a pan of flour mixin' up some sour-dough bread, the lamp standin' in +front of the pan and me at the other end of the table from the door +frame. I was puttin' in some good licks on that bread, for sour dough +needs a lot of punchin', and guess I had my head leanin' out pretty well +toward the door. I heard some one step in from the outside, but didn't +look up to see who it was, when there came a flash, and kingdom cum, I +thought my head had caved in. The splinters flew into the bread and the +powder smoke choked me clean up. All I could see was that crazy fool +Irish Mike, his face as white as it will be when he's gone over the +range, standin' there with Dick's gun pintin' to the roof. That idjit +never sees a new gun standin' round but he must pull it up and aim it at +somethin'. You know how he shoots. Dick must have left the gun at full +cock, as he allus does. It was lucky it went off before he got the +barrel on a level with the lamp, or we'd all been in kingdom cum." + +"You got some of the powder in your face," remarked Jack, noticing the +blue pits sprinkled here and there in Bill's forehead. + +"Yes," said Bill, energetically, with several powder-burned adjectives; +"he leaves his mark everywhere he goes. Pity the foolkiller don't git +him." + +Tracy had joined the party again just in time to hear Bill's bouquet of +choice epithets. + +"Tain't so much coz he means to do anything harmin', but the big brute +is so allfired strong and clumsy that when he sets out to do anything he +busts everything he teches. Why, he went to pitchin' hay off the far +stack and must have thought the fork handle would hold up the whole five +ton, fer he snapped it like a ginger cake just outen the oven. Then he +was helpin' put up logs on the barn. We had the top logs most up on the +skids when she fotched up again' the cross log that the skid was leanin' +again'. He reaches the ax up and sets the blade under the log and pulls +on the handle, and away went my dollar-and-a-half handle. He broke it +square off. Took me nigh onto a week to dress another out. But he's a +good worker. All he needs is a sledge and a big enough drill so he won't +miss the head on't and he can pound that 'til jedgment day if the feller +turnin' the drill keeps a good lookout for his hand from bein' hit when +the Irishman misses the drill." + +"I see he left his rifle," remarked Jack. + +"Yes; said he didn't want it at the mines, an' he allows he'll come back +afore the range opens to pick out a hundred and sixty acres somewhere in +the Park. Likely as not he'll see you in Georgetown, but yer got some +snow climbin' to do. Thar ain't many goin' out now, and I heerd Bill +Redmon say he'd have to use 'skis' pretty soon and drag the mail on a +sled. When yer goin' out?" + +Jack thought a minute or two and then replied: + +"I guess I can make it day after tomorrow. That will be the 17th of +January, and I guess 'Red' will bring the pony back and you can feed +both of them for me. By the way, I guess I'll have to snowshoe it in +about beaver-trappin' time. I've got a little business myself down near +the agency." + +Tracy and Bill eyed each other quizzically and tried to guess the +mission, but Jack gave them no satisfaction. + +"I'll be back here by the middle of April, if not before. Beaver begin +to chew the trees down in early March, don't they?" + +"Yes," said Tracy; "but it gets lonesome as all git out before Aprile. +If yer comin' in that soon, why in Christmas don't yer stay now? We've +got grub enough and we can go back in the timber, mebbe so, and ketch a +grizzly or cinnamon about six weeks from now." + +"No; can't do it. Got to go back to the States and attend to some +business, sure. You can have all the grizzlies that are loose. By the +way, you got that silver tip since I left." + +Jack was admiring a fine skin that was nailed up on the inside of the +cabin, taking up the greater portion of a wall ten feet long and eight +feet high. + +"We got that out on the Blue about four weeks ago. I shot him eleven +times afore he quit bein' sassy," said Tracy, with little or no concern, +as if killing a grizzly was on a par with breaking a broncho. "I'll get +twenty-five dollars for that pelt in the summer if I take it to Denver." + +With the dishes cleared away and everything in readiness for the night, +Jack, Tracy and Bill sat around the fireplace smoking their pipes. The +pine knots sputtered and glistened with deep, red-inflamed eyes as Jack +told of the Rock Creek pow-wows. + +"You see, old man Meeker has been trying to teach the Utes how to plow, +how to subtract and divide and to carry wood, while the squaws crochet, +hemstitch and make sofa pillows." + +"Yes, I see them redskin devils tote firewood," broke in Tracy. "If +there's anything an Indian despises it's work. They won't even walk when +the snow is belly deep. I've seen six of 'em on one little cayuse +wallerin' through big drifts at timber line. Why, durn their pictures, a +Ute won't cook if he can beg a bite anywhere, let alone plow, and he'll +freeze to death afore gettin' wood for a fire if thar's a squaw within a +mile to git it fur him. The trapper told us you would git yer fill of +Injuns." + +Bill crossed his legs and then uncrossed them again, knocked the ashes +out of his pipe, and his neck began to swell. He wanted to say something +right bad. Pulling a string off his buckskin pants leg, he commenced +tying it into knots, nervously fingering the ends. + +"Them gol durned skule teachers is all right back in the old red +skule-house in--in Missouri," he said, "but kingdom cum, when they try +to make them blanket Injuns plow it's time fur white folks in Middle +Park to put up a stockade and lay in lots of 45-90's for Sharp's old +reliable, and a dozen or two Colts' frontier sixes. Them's my +sentiments, and don't yer ferget it." + +"Bill hit the nail on the head," echoed Tracy. + +Jack was studying the red, gleaming eyes of the pine knots, and the +moccasin prints in the snow on the high divide seemed to gather again in +the ashes. He started suddenly, as if an inspiration struck him. + +"Boys, it will come to it. That bunch down in the willows have been off +the reservation a long time. Meeker can't get them back without a +regiment of soldiers, and he hasn't got along that far yet. Susan is the +'woman in the case,' and she's putting the young bucks into a trance +about encroaching white folks, while the old fighters, like Colorow and +Douglas, sneak up behind and pat her on the back. Ignacio, Yamanatz--not +even old Ouray--can stop them if they once get a supply of powder and +lead. Wait until the next annuities are paid in and Uncle Sam will have +to send a burying squad over there. They will not do anything for some +time; they haven't any meat, no bullets to kill deer with, not even +salt." Jack stopped for a breath and Tracy took up the conversation. + +"I seen yer was good and strong agin' Colorow when yer found out he was +here, but I didn't know it was that bad. 'Peers to me yer must have had +a grudge agin' him wuss'n yer hev let on." + +"Yes," echoed Bill, "s--s--sumthin' must a s--s--set yer afire down +below." + +"Well, Bill and Tracy, that old scalp-lifter followed me like a shadow +for two days, ready at any moment, if chance presented, to plant the +steel in a spot where it would take, as they say when you are +vaccinated." + +The frontiersmen both jumped to their feet with one impulse to get hold +of their "Sharps," as if to use them at once. Thus does habit breed in +that rugged life. Then they sat down and listened to the rest of the +story wherein Jack told of Yamanatz's warnings, of young Colorow's early +mission to see if white man Jack was in his camp. But he left the most +interesting story until the last, then mentioned no names, "And who do +you suppose followed Colorow to see that no harm came to me?" + +Bill and Tracy guessed every Ute in the White River Reservation. Finally +Jack said: + +"The only one that Susan fears." + +"Chiquita!" exclaimed Bill and Tracy, in one voice. + +"The same," said Jack. + +"Holy smoke! Kingdum cum!" + +"Yes, the fairest Indian girl that ever drew breath." + +"Or ever strung a bow," chimed Bill. + +"Or beaded a moccasin," said Tracy. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CHIQUITA WOOED BY ANTELOPE. + + +Dozens of tepee fires flickered against the dark night pall as Chiquita +made her way toward the Ute village. The tongues of dozens of Indian +dogs snarled their yippi-yappy language at each other, at imaginary +evils and at the resounding clatter of hoofs as her pony loped along +through the sage-covered mesa which skirted the river bank. Old bucks, +warriors with necklaces of cruel-looking claws and beaded breast plates +decorated with strands of human hair woven into pendants, stood in the +shadow of the tepee fires. Shrill cries of hungry papooses rent the air; +guttural jargon of young bucks in animated conversation rasped ominously +against the sensitive ear with words which only an Indian can pronounce, +made up as they are from Mexican, Spanish and Indian dialect. + +Old squaws tottered into camp, loaded with bundles of fagots gathered +from the fallen timber, and as these old witches with thrice-wrinkled +faces peered into the gloom and discerned Chiquita astride "Bonito" they +spitefully threw an armful of new wood into the fire, raising a cloud of +tiny sparks, and mutterings, half welcome and half imprecation, greeted +her; all cringed before that dauntless maiden, yet all would have been +glad to see her the victim of some tragedy. Her word was law, and that +law a restraining influence which had thus far protected the settlers, +the hunters, the trappers and the white men and women who composed the +agent's family on the reservation, so far from the habitation of white +men and so far from the protecting arm of the United States military. + +Old Hutch-a-ma-Chuck was bedecked with a grotesque war bonnet of eagles' +feathers, from the tips of which hung Arapahoe scalp locks; a necklace +of grizzly claws surrounded his wrinkled neck, and in his arms he +carried a worn-out army carbine, which had not been loaded in ten years. +Uncas, wrapped in a military coat made from a United States blanket, +stood with a big frontier six-shooter hanging listlessly from his arm, +but his eyes snapped viciously as he smiled a welcome to Chiquita, the +smile retreating into an ambuscade of wrinkles which seemed to say, +"Wait until I get a good chance." Broken Nose, with head encircled half +a dozen times with the skins of rattlesnakes, needed no placard to warn +the stranger against encroaching on this Indian's domain. Bowlegs, the +dandy of the camp, was regal in a red-lined vest which he wore lining +outside, and an old plug hat picked up at the Agency or at some frontier +town, ornamented with shipping tags and express labels, was jauntily +tipped on one side of his head, while a gaudy plaid shirt flapped +literally in the breezes, for an Indian knows not of decrees of fashion +regarding shirtology and could not be induced to confine the biggest +part of that splendid garment from view. + +Nearly every Indian had some cast-off garment which had served its +mission for a white man. Hunters, freighters, army men, etc., +contributed old socks, trousers, coats, gloves, hats, caps, and even +women helped bedeck these children of the forest in the glory clothes, +but the "medicine" each and every one possessed was of the same general +character--otter, beaver and mountain lion skins woven into the hair, +constituting a charm to scare away evil spirits. + +Yamanatz was by the camp fire of his tepee as Chiquita threw herself +from the back of "Bonito." There were no impulsive greetings, merely a +question or two, and Chiquita disappeared in the gloom of the night to +her lodge, to dream of other scenes and to allow her imagination to +carry her to the abode of the white man's medicine houses, where nurses +comforted the maimed and sick. + +In a couple of weeks the absent Utes returned, bringing provisions to +last for some time, but these did not abate the surly looks or conduct +of the older ones, who chafed at the escape of Jack, nor assuage the +enmity which the younger bucks bore him when they learned that Chiquita +piloted him safely over the divide. They dared not openly deride her as +they gathered in council to plan the breaking up of reforms which the +government anticipated at the hands of the agent at White River. + +They rebelled against cultivating the ground. They ridiculed the +proposition of a Ute warrior at the plow, and muttered imprecations on +the heads of the Indian Department. + +About a month after Jack had left his camp at Rock Creek, Susan arrived +at the village accompanied by her father, big chief Red Plume and a +dozen young bucks, all eager to drive the whites over the range and out +of Middle Park. But of these, half of them were desirous of annihilating +the pale faces, simply to gain Susan's favor. The other half were +striving to win Chiquita, and Susan was jealous of Chiquita to a marked +degree, while Chiquita cared naught for Susan nor any of Susan's +admirers. Susan, of course, had learned of the perilous trip of +Chiquita, and every Indian youth had a deep admiration for Chiquita that +Susan never received. + +Red Plume had left the Agency to personally visit Colorow's village, and +endeavor to obtain that surly old monster's consent to move the village +back to White River, as agent Meeker had requested. Upon one pretext and +another Colorow delayed the matter day after day. In the meantime Susan +was taunting Chiquita and Chiquita's admirers, while spurring her own +suitors to acts of violence. This was not done openly, as Indian maidens +do not take part in matters of love or war, in person, unless the +circumstances are very pronounced. Susan felt that it was equal to the +crime of elopement for Chiquita to escort the white man over the divide, +and could she have had her way Chiquita would have been burned at the +stake the morning following her return to the village, for this is the +penalty inflicted when the maiden eloping is the daughter of a chief. +Susan was particularly partial to Antelope and never tired of singing +his praises, but Antelope had no eyes or ears for any one except +Chiquita. Many a haunch of venison had this handsome young savage laid +at the lodge door of Chiquita's mother, and handsome lion skins, eagle +plumes and strings of elk teeth had he presented to Yamanatz in his +effort to win Chiquita. + +As the moon rode high in the heavens, throwing long shafts of silvery +light through the pine boughs, and casting deep shadows across the +rushing waters of Toponas creek, Chiquita was wont to wend her way along +the needle carpeted bank, her red lips firmly compressed, while her eyes +appealed to the heavens above for the return of spring and Jack. As she +wandered here Antelope watched her from the sheltering shadow of some +great rock, and chanted love songs in hopes of obtaining the least +little recognition from her, for the Indian must win his bride by feats +of strength, conquest or purchase, and not by personal servitude, as +does his white brother, and his wooing must be indirect unless the +maiden vouchsafes him the pleasure of a meeting in some glen or dell, +where a few words may be spoken; but she reserves the right of making +first advances or indicating by some sign that her suitor may address +her, and if especially desired by her she will leave a token in the +shape of a flower, spruce branch, or rabbit's foot where the lover may +see it and heed the invitation. + +Chiquita knew that the young warriors would eventually precipitate a +clash, which might occur when Jack was coming or going from the +reservation. She grew sick at heart when she reviewed the actions of +Colorow, and how certain it was that Jack's life had been in peril, and +always would be whenever he visited the Ute camps. She determined to +stop the agitation which Susan was fomenting, or at least get assurance +in some way that no overt act would be committed until after she and +Yamanatz should be far away towards the "Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water." + +The new grass was beginning to show itself along the creek. Mountain +crocuses bloomed in the edge of the fast melting snow, as the white +blanket gradually receded towards the tops of the high peaks under the +heat of the early spring sun. Chiquita watched the beaver dams as the +inhabitants industriously fashioned new homes for the next winter, +cutting down the big trees and laying in a supply of willows for food +and comfort. She looked toward the sun as he peered down into the deep +cañons and besought the sun god to hurry Jack upon his way. + +It was near midday, and Chiquita sat in a little grove of piñons, +watching the splashing waters and gleaming flash of a trout darting +hither and thither for a morsel as it swept along in the vicious, +turbulent stream. She had hung a branch of spruce buds, entwined with a +vine of Kilikinnick, upon a convenient tree, and she knew that it would +bring Antelope to her. She knew the symbol by him would be interpreted, +"hope in peace," but she intended that his hope must result in peace. As +she listened she heard a voice close beside her. She had felt for some +time the forest intuition that some one was approaching, but so silently +had those footsteps glided along that no sound gave any warning. + +"The daughter of Yamanatz is fair as the morning dove, and it pleases +Antelope to do her bidding, for is not Antelope a suitor for the hand of +Chiquita, and has not Antelope done many things that make him worthy of +the great chiefs daughter?" + +"The son of Big Buffalo stands erect. He speaks with the tongue of one +who is a master, one day to be chief. Antelope is brave and his prowess +great enough to entitle him to the daughter of any chief." + +"The daughter of Yamanatz is as good as she is fair in that she speaks +of Antelope in this wise, and it is a pleasure that the eyes of Antelope +go thirsty and his heart hungry for the return of the love which +Chiquita can give. It would be for Chiquita that Antelope would build +the signal fires, that the Utes may put on their war paint and sharpen +their hatchets to take the land where were the great buffalo before the +paleface drove them into the deep sea where the sun goes down, and when +the paleface has been driven away, then Antelope will claim Chiquita +that she may sing him songs of love by his camp fire. And when Antelope +is big chief then Chiquita will be the mother of many tribes, and our +people will again hunt the buffalo which shall be as the needles in the +pine forest, and no more shall the white man drive the noble Ute away +from the paradise the Great Spirit has made for them. Hear me, daughter +whose breath is as the perfume of the trailing arbutus and whose voice +is like the voice of the lark. It is Antelope who speaks." + +"The son of Big Buffalo is as brave as the wild horse who leads his herd +to drink of the waters of the deep cavern, but know this, that in the +sky Chiquita reads of deeds done by her white sisters who teach the +little paleface to say 'Our Father,' and she hears the song of spirits +from another land, as they sing 'peace on earth, good will to man.' The +great Antelope is not a hen to cackle and run away at the sight of +danger. He is brave but sees not that Chiquita thinks not of deeds of +battle, nor the mighty buffalo, which the great Antelope says will +return. It grieves Chiquita that the hand of the white man on the +throttle of the great iron horse is driving our people back, back into +the deep sea where have plunged the buffalo, and in their trail are the +cities where the white children are taught that the red faced Ute is a +dog, a coyote that snarls and bites and like the owl that goes hoo! +oo-oo-oo-hoo! The paleface has widened the trail from the great ocean by +the rising sun to the mountain, to the big water where the sun again +quenches his thirst. The paleface has spread out as the wings of an +eagle until the lands are gone. The smoke rises from the tall stacks and +long ago have we been forgotten by the old Ute warriors who have passed +into the great Happy Hunting Ground, there to live on pots of savory +flesh while we slave in the sage brush or eat army rations and wear army +blankets, which are brought to us on the cars. This is civilization and +it is so that Chiquita is to learn what her white sister does in +civilization, and Antelope is asked to be patient and wait for Chiquita +while she may see the fair sister unto the end. Then if Chiquita cares +not for the civilized life, she will sit by the camp fire and sing to +Antelope and Antelope may caress Chiquita and she will be his wife." + +[Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE WARRIOR, 1877.] + +"Chiquita has spoken, Antelope will wait, but the heart of Antelope is +sad, for it will be many snows ere Chiquita will make glad the lodge of +Antelope and he will then be an old man," replied the Indian buck. + +"It may not be so Long. Antelope must not make war upon the white man. +Antelope must stay the hands of the warlike Utes who seek the lives of +Chiquita's friend and his brothers. The warriors of the Utes must not +molest these people and it is Antelope who must obey Chiquita in this. +Hear not what Susan says and all will be well." + +"Antelope hears the words of Chiquita. Antelope will see that no harm +comes to the friends of Chiquita, nor to the white man's brethren. +Antelope cares not for Susan. Antelope hears not her words, which are +cunning, but hears only Chiquita, the flower of the Utes." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A GLIMPSE OF HOME. + + +Jack hastened his departure from the ranch on the Troublesome, stopping +at Hot Sulphur Springs one night, crossing the Berthoud pass, early in +the day, again fighting snow drifts as big as houses, as he skirted +around and over the great continental divide but a little distance from +the summit of cheerless Gray's Peak buried in her white mantle. Leaving +his pony at Georgetown for the mail carrier to lead back, he continued +his journey by rail to Denver and from there eastward to his home. Jack +dearly loved his New England home and, as the old scenes again appeared +before him, he saw new beauties to enchant and impress him. His mother, +sister and sweetheart were all on the veranda of the grand mansion, and, +as he jumped from the carriage, he found himself attacked by a center +rush such as no college boy ever before struck. At least five touch +downs were scored before they broke away. + +"Did you bring any Indian things?" all demanded in a chorus. + +"I say Jack," said Hazel, "where is the pony you promised me?" + +"I want those eagle plumes for my hat," said one of his sisters. Even +his mother could not resist the avalanche of wants and, during an +opportune lull, archly asked if there was any danger of her having to +give up the "spare room" to an Indian daughter-in-law, which of course +produced a laugh at the expense of Hazel. + +With the first greetings over, Jack at last got his mother and father +alone, and plunged into the subject uppermost in his mind. + +"My son," his mother commented, "be cautious regarding your actions with +this heathen daughter of the wilderness. You can not tell what kind of +an ambush she may lead you into. Fancy Hazel trotting about educating +one of the young warriors!" + +This was logic with a vengeance. Even Jack could not gainsay it. It was +the same old proposition of woman's prerogative to outdo a man. Jack +pondered over the trip from the Ute village across the divide and the +night camp in the willows. He looked a little sheepish and waited in +discreet silence. + +"Is it necessary, Jack," asked his father, "that you should go to this +unheard-of mine with the old Indian? Why not let him go and return with +the treasure alone as he has done before?" + +"He is too old to attempt the journey and it is his desire that Chiquita +be one of the party, as he will give the mine to her and myself +equally," answered Jack, not at all assured that the reply would make +matters any better. + +"Have you such an unbounded faith in a crafty Indian as to believe that +he knows of any such fabulous treasure that even a nation might send an +army to snatch away from its rightful owners, and that he will lead you +to this mine simply to reward you for standing as press agent for his +equally crafty daughter?" + +Jack saw that his father was beginning to tread upon dangerous ground, +that it would take but little to cause an unpleasant scene unless he +could overcome the prejudice now gaining ground with his parents. He +keenly felt the implied lack of confidence which both displayed, and for +a moment he was inclined to become a trifle skeptical himself, but he +quickly reasoned, "If I show any weakening they will hammer all the +harder." + +"Father," he slowly began, "and mother, you are both ripe in the +experience of this world, with the civilized method of taking from the +untutored forest man his hunting ground, his home, by the simple process +of a representation from each state of a government; a proposition is +voted upon to drive this native farther and farther toward the setting +sun, farther and farther back, until now he lives in a barren country, +his larder empty and his proud mien broken. The remnant of former +greatness drooped to a low ebb of cunning, outmatched only by the +cunning of the frontier statesman, backed by the grasping political +land-grabber and office-holding despot bidding for votes--these jackals +whose blighting breath corrupt juries, legislatures and even the church +into a belief that it is justice to waylay the child of nature in the +onward march of civilization, to wrest from him the land which God gave +as an heritage. Yes, father, I have unbounded faith in Yamanatz that he +can and will show me the greatest mass of gold in one mine ever +uncovered by the hand of man. I will forestall you as to finance. See, +in this pouch is some twenty pounds of gold dust, which the great chief +gave me for 'pin money,' and in the strong box of the express company is +one hundred pounds of the same kind of dust. This is earnest money. This +deposit, made of his own accord, warrants my belief in his ability to +produce the property. Coupled with this was the watchfulness over me by +both Yamanatz and Chiquita, and but for their care and warning I should +not be here now." + +As Jack unrolled the buckskin pouch of nuggets and grains of dull, rich +gold, the look on his father's face changed from one of intense scorn to +deference, from sarcasm to a fawning smile. The avarice in his nature +manifested itself in so apparent a manner that Jack was tempted to make +one little fling, but restrained himself. + +"My son, what you have uttered about the Indian being deprived of his +land is the old story. Every once in a while it comes out in a little +different cover, but are we to blame for the actions of our ancestors? +They came here to live, to escape the tyranny of rulers whom they +renounced, and in the seeking of a new world were obliged to treat with +these pagans. Is it not far better to have this country populated with a +race of God-fearing, civilized, labor-giving people, a people who by +their master minds and master hands today provide the world with food, +with clothing, with machinery that other nations may become enlightened +and as progressive as we are?" + +"Yes," interrupted Jack, "and with our own machinery send back goods and +experienced laborers to compete with the skilled labor we have educated +up to the necessary standard. You would add also, that this class of +citizens, with its Saturday night carousals and Monday's line of police +court criminals, is superior to the noble red man, who knew not fire +water nor knavery until these civilized, God-fearing people taught it to +them." + +"Well, Jack, are you going to head a tribe of Utes to drive us back +across the big sea?" + +"No, father, I guess I shall have all the work of philanthropy I need in +piloting this young heathen through the 'hell gate' of learning into the +whirling vortex of society and accomplishments," laughingly answered +Jack. + +"When will you start on this quest?" timidly asked his mother. + +"Not later than the first of March, for I must be at Rock Creek soon +after that time, and part of the trip is via the snow shoe route." + +Just then Hazel and Jack's sisters knocked imperatively for admission. + +"Oh--ee, Jack, is that real gold dust in that nasty looking bag?" said +Miss Hazel, as she sniffed at the pouch suspiciously. + +"Yes, Miss Tenderfoot, that is the real stuff." + +"What is that you call me, tenderfeet? Why, my feet are not tender." + +"Oh, that is the mountain name for what sailors call 'landlubbers,' +and--say, when I get a couple of wagon loads of that you will tack my +name onto your own with a little hyphen, won't you, dear?" + +"I say, Jack," broke in one of his sisters, "did you run across any good +looking white men, with lots of money, that want some one nice, 'to cook +for two?'" And the dear little apron-bedecked bit of sunshine pirouetted +on her toes in gleeful anticipation of Jack's reply. + +"Sure I did. Bill commissioned me to get him a cook, dishwasher, +milkmaid and wood chopper,"-- + +"Hold on, Mr. Jack, I draw the line on milking. Ugh! I tried it once +down at Uncle John's and I squirted my eyes full of milk. You need not +laugh so. Uncle John just laughed fit to kill himself. That wasn't half +so bad as Hazel, though. She tried to put blankets over the little pigs +so they would keep warm, and when the old pig chased her"-- + +"You stop, stop, stop! Fire! Water!" screamed Hazel and no one ever +found out what happened during the chase. + +Then sister Katherine wanted something. + +"Jack, you know what you promised to get me once, and you said when you +had enough money you would buy me a nice canary and brass cage, and now +that you have got it--such lots of it--won't you keep your word?" + +"They raise larger and louder voiced birds in the west than they do in +the Hartz mountains. The 'Rocky mountain canary' is the greatest warbler +on earth. I have my mind on one that is a daisy and when I come back you +shall surely have it." + +"Oh, Jack, you are so good," murmured she. + +Jack's eyes twinkled as he thought of the joke he would have on +Katherine, but he never said a word. Turning to Hazel he said: "Well, +Lady Jack, what do you think of my chaperoning a dusky maiden for +several years in her search for a continuous performance of good deeds, +hospitals, nurses and the study of political and social economy? Do you +think her thirst will find a quencher?" + +"Oh, Jack, go by all means, only don't attempt to get her into any clubs +or societies and expect me to help you out. I recommended Daisy Deane +for initiation in our B. A. F. club,--you know 'Bachelors Are +Forbidden,' and she got one black ball. Daisy is a stenographer, you +know, and her employer is Mr. Doolittle and Mrs. Doolittle is our High +Priestess." + +"Yes," said Jack curtly, "and she does not belie her name, I guess." + +"That isn't all, Jack. Mrs. Doolittle has got her ax sharpened for me, I +understand, at next election. I was going to run for corresponding +secretary, but I guess I will give it up!" + +The short visit made to his home was devoted mainly to making +arrangements with tutors and deciding on the best lines to follow in +fitting Chiquita for the work she had chosen. + +Hazel and his sisters made quite a bit of sport of the undertaking, but +Jack took it all good naturedly, holding his own against the combined +forces in repartee. + +After these details were disposed of he joined Hazel at her home for a +few days, then started for the frontier. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +UTE, BIG WARRIOR--NO PLOW. + + +The diuturnal petticoat of snow which clothed the mountain was getting +shorter and shorter as the diurnal sun crept farther and farther north +on his summer ascension. The beavers were busy, tooth and tail, building +new dams and repairing old ones. The Ute ponies were getting fat on new +buffalo and bunch grass, and the tender-eyed does were seeking higher +altitudes when Jack again reached the old trail leading to the Indian +village on Rock Creek. + +Chiquita spied the lone horseman long before he was aware of his +proximity to the old camping ground. + +"Chiquita heap glad to see Jack." She made her welcome, palms to the +front, raised high in the air. + +"How! How!" replied Jack and he looked askance at Chiquita in wonderment +that she should be so far from the village. "Jack no sabe," he +continued, and looked from one point of the compass to another for a +familiar landmark. + +"Chiquita know, see Jack, old trail behind big peak, new trail this way, +when Jack go where sun rise, ground covered with heap big snow--no see +this trail." + +"Me sabe. Where Yamanatz, Colorow, Antelope?" + +Chiquita smiled at the first, became grave at the second and a flash +shot from her eyes at the word Antelope, then her face saddened as she +looked into Jack's very soul. "Yamanatz well, Colorow gone to Agency, +Antelope ready for big pony race--Susan want Antelope, Antelope no like +Susan, like--mebbe so Jack knows," she said with an arch look. "Antelope +get up big race when white man come from Hot Sulphur Springs with heap +fast pony to race Ute ponies--mebbe so Ute win ponies--white man walk +back, Antelope heap smart. Plan big race, big dance and big games among +the braves. Susan she put Antelope up to it, beat all Indians and white +men, win Susan for his wife, carry her off to his tepee where she sing +songs in twilight. But Antelope tell Chiquita he no race--just make +believe. Antelope wait for Chiquita, but"--and she stopped abruptly with +the frightened look of a startled deer as she gazed again into Jack's +face. + +"When race?" he asked. + +"Three moons." + +"About August," said Jack to himself. Then aloud, as a bright thought +came to him, "Does Chiquita sabe name of white man's ponies?" + +"Me sabe one," she replied. + +"Jack sabe one heap fast pony in Middle Park. 'Brown Dick,'--run like +the forked lightning out of the clouds." + +Chiquita looked surprised and interrogatively answered, "Mebbe so 'Brown +Dick' beat 'em Ute ponies, white man ride back?" + +At which Jack laughed heartily. Chiquita continued: "That is the pony +Antelope think no run much, heap fast, but Ute beat him. Antelope bet +money, beads, buckskin, two ponies and other Utes bet heap lot." + +"Has Yamanatz bet anything yet?" asked Jack. + +"Yamanatz don't know--wait Jack come--Jack tell Yamanatz what to do." + +Jack knew the horse well and all the people interested in the races and +decided to stay and see the sport. Even had Yamanatz desired to go to +the big mine, they would go later. On reference to his calendar he found +a total eclipse of the sun would take place in August and he desired to +see the Indians under this phenomenon as well as in their sports, and +witness the struggles for the hand of Susan. + +Upon arrival at the Indian village Yamanatz greeted Jack in the +customary fashion. It was not long before they arranged to wait for the +August festivities, then start for the desert mine from the Agency, to +which point the Rock Creek village moved a short time after Jack's +arrival. + +During the three months Jack spent his time prospecting, hunting, and +studying Indian character. Chiquita made rapid strides in her studies +under his tutorship and by the time set for the races she could converse +very well in English and read ordinary words. Jack watched the ponies +and the athletic braves as preparation was made for the great event. + +For days the frontiersmen along the reservation border had been wending +their way to the Agency. Gamblers and confidence men from the nearest +mining camps ran over to gather in a few dollars which would be "easy +money." The Government's long delayed annuities and rations were to be +distributed the week before the contest, so every Indian had money to +bet or to buy plunder with. Groups of Indians, squatting on their +haunches or kneeling beside a big blanket spread upon the ground as a +table, gambled or traded their wares in common with the visitors. + +On a big Navajo blanket sat Chiquita, making beaded moccasins, while +near by on another blanket rested Susan, engaged in beading a buckskin +shirt. Off at the side with bridle reins dragging, four ponies fed on +the stubby grass as their owners, two Indians and two cowmen, played +Spanish monte. The cowmen wore heavily fringed buckskin shirts and +broad-brimmed hats, each hat having a leather band and leather string +which passed back of the ears and under the back of the head to keep the +hat from blowing off. Their feet were clad in high-topped boots, from +which clanked the cruel Mexican spurs with tinkling bells. Each--and, in +fact, every man on the reservation, had six-shooters--some four, and +nearly all carried some make of rifle, not that they feared any evil, +but it was second nature to be prepared for game of any kind. Another +mark of civilization was the red bandanna handkerchief tied loosely +around nearly every man's throat. + +Oaths of the most curdling nature bellowed their way incessantly into +the ears of the onlooker. A brightly painted Indian with eagle feathered +bonnet and a string of grizzly claws around his neck, won a mule +skinner's money. The latter turned loose a wild yell and a string of +hair-raising adjectives, accompanied by the pistol-like crack of his +fifteen-foot whip, and stalked off to his mules, swearing "agin the +Gov'n'ment, the redskin and hisself"--chiefly in the end "agin hisself." +Jack hailed him. + +"Pard, I've seen you before." + +"Mebbe so, stranger; I've lived in these hills many snows," answered the +freighter. + +"Didn't you lose some blankets about a year ago in the Wet Mountain +valley, near Buena Vista?" asked Jack without mincing matters. + +"That's what I did, but I got 'em back and--well"--and he stopped as +Jack commenced to smile. "What pleases you, stranger?" + +"I was picturing in my mind what that fellow's wife, if he had one, and +she could have seen him, would have said after you fellows got through +heaving him into that dirty pond instead of hanging him." + +The man of mules and wagons broke into a long guffaw that echoed back +from the woods, and circled his long whip about his head, allowing the +big broad cracker to settle lightly the length of the lash from him as +daintily as an expert caster lets his flies settle into a riffle where +the big trout hide, then with a fierce backward motion and overhand +shoot to the front the long sinuous black snake straightened out with a +vicious snap that made Jack wince, for it told the rest of the tale of +what happened to the blanket thief before "court" adjourned. Then the +freighter finished his remark. + +"Well, that onery cuss that stole my blanket has got my mark on his +hide, made like that." + +"Yes, I think he must have about fifteen of them the way the whips +cracked as he ran the gauntlet between about thirty of you. Did he +live?" + +"Oh, yes. That is he was alive when we left him on the prairie, headed +for the Missouri River." + +"I was on my way to Leadville. Buena Vista was the end of the railroad +and in looking after some freight at the depot I saw the preliminaries +of opening 'court' and execution of 'judgment' against the prisoner," +explained Jack. To which the grizzled teamster replied: + +"It looks cruel to one not familiar with frontier life. It seems a +crime, the justice which overtakes horse thieves and camp prowlers, +while those who commit greater crimes go free. But there are no two +things so essential to life on the border as blankets and horses. We +have to sleep and travel. Hotels don't pop up for the asking, with warm +beds on a winter's night, nor do horses grow out of a pine bough when a +man is miles away from any habitation. If men be too onery and sassy and +get to be too handy in their gun play with each other we make no fuss if +both 'go over the range with their boots on'--a-killing of them fellers +does not necessitate an honest man's freezing to death. We never hang a +man, nor shoot him, if he steals our grub or watch, or even gets our +gun, but blankets and horses are sacred property. But what be you doin' +in here?" + +"Came over to see the Ute races and study Indians," replied Jack. + +"So did I, but to make it more binding I brought in a train of +government plunder for the Agency, some plows and mowin' machines and +school house desks. Say, but I'd like to see some of these redskins +trying to cut a furrer down that sage brush flat or sittin' at one of +them desks doin' sums in 'rithmetic. More'n likely they'll be makin' +pictures of Parson Meeker crossing the divide on a sulky plow under +escort of Uncle Sam's cavalry," at which the freighter turned his +gigantic laugh loose again. + +Just then two men in "store clothes" picked their way around the various +groups of horses and Indians, stopping a short distance from Jack and +the freighter, whose sobriquet was "Cal." As the new comers faced square +about Cal eyed them a moment and then said to Jack: + +"You see that red-faced, black mustached feller standin' there? Well, +that's Sam Tupper, the graveyard starter of the Animas and Wet Mountain +valleys. I seen him make the first corpse in Silver Cliff. Wonder what +he's doin' up here. Sure as gun's made of iron he's up here for +mischief. It was October and the first blizzard of the season caught us +all with short wood and no pitch hot. Every prospector around the cliff +made for 'Nigger Barber's' place--afterward it got a regular name, the +'slaughter house,' kase 'Nigger,'--he was half Indian, half Mexican and +balance coyote--had two great big stoves to keep us warm. Four fellers +rode into the Cliff about 10 o'clock, cold and hungry, and expected to +find a tavern started, but they were a little early, for the camp was +right young, so they got permission to use some feller's tent near +by--one of the four was Charley Rogers"-- + +"Owner of 'Brown Dick,'" interrupted Jack, in surprise. + +"Yes; and Frank Mitchell, Les McAvoy and Paddy Dinslow. Les was a bad +man, no mistake. His daddy was a judge in one of the northern counties +and when Les was a kid the old man would take the youngster to some of +the faro banks, hold him on his knee and seem to think it cute if the +little gambler picked up a 'sleeper' and sold it to the barkeep for +lumps of sugar or a bottle of pop. Well, Les got pretty tough. Worked +some, but liked his 'licker' and was allus waitin' to pick a fuss. He +was nervy and could fight with fists, stove pokers, 'toad stabbers' or +six-shooters, it was all the same to him. Sam and 'Nigger' both knew him +of old in Trinidad and Silverton. The first night after the boys got +into the Cliff they dropped into 'Nigger's' and got into a game of faro. +Les piled his stack of reds above the limit and Sam there, who was +lookout, told Les to take 'em down. Les lost on the turn, but before the +dealer could rake in the chips Les snatched the extra ones off the top +of the pile. If he won, the dealer only paid the limit, and then Les +would talk bad. All of 'em were scared of Les and no one wanted to make +a beginning, so they humored him, but the next night they laid for him. +I met Frank and Charley durin' the day and they said Les had been run +out of Silverton, and he remarked as he came into the Cliff, 'Boys, +mebbe it's my time to die with my boots on in this very camp, but I'm +game.' + +"It was almost 8 o'clock and 'Nigger's' was jammed. There was a big +crowd at the table near the end of the bar. I sat at a table parallel to +it, the big red hot stove making the apex of a triangle about the same +distance as the tables were apart. The deal which old Colonel Crumpy was +making came to an end. I was winner and thumbing my chips, when bang +went a gun at the other table. Say, but did you ever see two hundred and +fifty crazy, desperate men push and crowd out of gun play range? Well, +there was lots of tenderfeet in that gang. They jumped onto the +'mustang' table and then to the hazard table and into the crowd, +pell-mell, out of windows. One feller was so scar't he never stopped to +open it, but went kersmash through glass and all. Durin' this I backed +away keerful like to the wall between two windows. I knew if any of 'em +started to run it would be in the middle of the room and I didn't feel +like risking my back to that crowd. My gun hung handy in case of a free +get-away, or die a doin' it. As I felt the cold green boards rub my +spine I seen the rest of the show. It don't take a man a lifetime to +move when guns are speakin'. + +"It seems a kid, with sickly taller-like face and pinched cheeks, a +young feller from the States lookin' for a gold mine, who got broke and +nothing to do but clean spit-kits in 'Nigger's' and tend bar, had been +exercised a little with the cards, dealing faro, and they put him on +watch with a big Colt's old-fashioned navy on his lap, all cocked and +ready for business, with instructions that if Les did any more funny +work to plug him. Les had bet his stack as high as he could pile 'em and +lost, grabbed the extra chips, and to the dealer's 'You--put them chips +back,' Les slid up the back of his chair. He was keepin' cases and had +his back to me, reachin' fer his gun. He had on a pair of blue overalls, +and the hammer of that six-shooter got caught in the corner of his +pocket. I seen him tuggin' to get it out, and the dealer, whose name was +Bert Lillis, had lifted the big cannon, the muzzle half way across the +table, and with both hands pulled the trigger, got scared, dropped the +gun and was trying to skin under the table. He turned his head sideways +to keep from scratching his nose, and just then Les got into action. He +leaned on his left hand over the middle of the faro layout, put the +muzzle of his gun against the eye of the dealer as he was sliding down +and fired. As Les was doin' this Sam Tupper was busy, but Les had his +eye on the lookout, who dared not move his hand for fear Les would git +him first. As quick as Les made his play at the dealer, Sam reached for +a drawer about six inches from his hand and grabbed a pearl-handled, +silver-plated gun. As Les turned with uplifted arm, cocking his weapon, +Sam stepped to the edge of the drygoods box on which the lookout's chair +was placed, his weapon pointing straight at Les's heart. Before Les +could fire there was a flash--a report. The smoke from the pearl-handled +gun wreathed around Les's head as he turned convulsively, frantically +trying to get the muzzle of his pistol on a line with Sam, who stood +with the least perceptible smile waiting for the eye of his opponent to +catch his own, but as Les's body slowly swayed and pivoted the gambler +knew that in a moment more all would be over. The fingers which tightly +gripped the murderous firearm now slackened, gripped again, then the +pistol dropped to the floor; a body straightened up its full height, the +head thrown back in defiance and with eyes rolling upward, Les McAvoy +fell prone to the floor backwards. As he fell that man standing there +stepped off the box with the pearl-handled gun cocked for a second shot, +and hissed between those white teeth of his, 'You got it that time.' The +jury heard no evidence of any shots but Lillis' and the one Les +fired--no bullet was found from a Colt's navy, round ball. A conical +ball rested just beneath the skin in the small of the back. The jury +said, 'Justifiable homicide at the hands of Bert Lillis,' and I heard +that Lillis died the next day." + +"And that is the man who did the deed?" asked Jack, as he gazed at a +real bad man; "one of those who make the history of every country black +with their infamous deeds, which they plan and then inveigle innocent +people to execute." + +"Yes," said Cal, "and these redskins are not much to blame for goin' on +the warpath the way they are bamboozled about. The trouble is, them +cusses in Washington, who never see an Injun and who don't know what a +real live one is, pass laws and send commissioners and army officers and +agents out here to investigate. Some are preachers, some cunning lawyers +and some statesmen--they call 'em so. The investigation drags along +while the poor devils go hungry. Rations are held back, blankets rot for +want of transportation, and somebody back in the woodpile is getting +rich all the time. Then the Injun takes it out of a party of prospectors +or some poor rancher, or like as not holds up a train of mules and the +mule-skinners 'bite the dust' after defending their own property. But I +suppose in the end it is all for the benefit of what they call +civilization. Let's go and see them ponies over there." + +"Look," said Jack; "must have been a bunch of folks come in last night," +pointing to a regular settlement of new tents and camping outfits. + +"Well, durn my pictures," ejaculated Cal. "Throw a rope on that +blaze-faced, lop-eared son of Israel with a pack on his back and let's +see his brand. Guess you find them everywhere except in Jerusalem. +Hello, Isaac; where's Abraham?" + +"Who'd you mean, my brodder or my fadder? My name is Cohen, and I gome +to make a locashun for a cloding store. Dis will be a fine blace for a +town, und Cohen will be der bioneer merchant, ain't it?" + +"Git out, you hook-nosed Jew; this is Injun reservation, and yer 'Uncle +Sam' don't allow no storekeepers here, except his own pets!" + +"What iss dot? I got no Ungel Sam; I got un Ungel Moses und Ungel +Solomon, but no Ungel Sam. Ain'd dis a new town? Don' the shentlemans +wand a negdie or hangerchief? I haf a"--but Jack and Cal had turned a +deaf ear to the would-be "bioneer." + +As Jack stepped around the trunk of a big pine the noose of a lariat +circled around and settled over his head and arms; a short jerk and he +was brought up standing. Cal looked on wonderingly, for at the other end +of the rope sat a buckskin-clad cow-puncher mounted on a thoroughbred +cow-pony. + +"Now will you be good?" The bronzed face of "Happy Jack" broke into +wreaths of smiles and happy laughter. + +"Hello, Jack!" + +"Hello yourself." + +"Shake, old man--put her thar, Jack. Glad ter see yer. Never thought to +see yer over here among the Utes." + +"When did you leave Roaring Forks?" + +"About a week ago; been looking for some horses that are missing." + +"Jack, shake hands with Cal Wagner. No, not the minstrel man, but his +equal just the same." + +"Cal, this is 'Happy Jack' of the Bar E Ranch over in the Grand River +country." + +Both men, thus introduced, shook hands, and after a few exchanges of the +day "Happy Jack" coiled up his lariat and, lifting his bridle reins, +said, "I must look around this camp a while afore the races. May find +some signs, but I'll see yer both again--adios." + +The spurs jingled and his pony loped off toward the valley. Cal looked +at the disappearing cow-puncher and turned to Jack, who said: + +"He's as good one as ever straddled a broncho. He sure is a character +and his name is well earned. One of the happiest men I ever met. I'll +tell you about him as we take a smoke and watch the Indians. Down on +Roaring Forks of the Grand River a young fellow from the east by the +name of Eads took up a ranch. He was staked by some rich relative, and +after buying a bunch of steers and some American-bred horses, drove them +over the Tennessee pass to the Bar E ranch, five miles above the big Hot +Springs[A] where the Forks empties into the Grand. He hired 'Happy Jack' +as boss of the outfit, and with two or three other cow-punchers he +started in and built a log house, and when I was there seemed to be +doing well. I was on a hunting trip from Middle Park and heard about the +Bar E ranch and the Springs, so our party made the place our camping +ground for a week. The grass was fine and all the stock rolling fat. His +horses were in two bands--one 'used' on one side of the Forks and the +other band grazed on the opposite side. They rounded up the horses once +a week at least, and the range riders never let the stock get away very +far. + +"One evening just after grub one of the boys came down to the cabin from +the corral and said, 'Old Martha has pulled her picket pin and +vamoosed.' 'Martha' was stake mare. Jack said, 'I guess not,' and bolted +up the bank to the open bench which run for half a mile back to the +cedars and piñons, where the branding pens and corrals were. He walked +out to where he had picketed the mare and pulled up the pin with about +ten feet of rope left where it had been cut. It was just before sundown, +and a bunch of horses which had been run into the corral when the stake +horse was changed had not gotten far away. Jack yelled 'Thief!' and for +the boys to hustle and see if some of the bunch could be gotten back +into the corral--a feat, you know, next to impossible when no one is +mounted. As luck would have it, four went in when the rest broke, but we +managed to get the bars up before they turned. It was but a few seconds' +work to rope a 'saddle-wise' one and cinch him up. Jack had taken off +his belt and it lay on the ground with his six-shooters back at the +cabin. He pointed at mine and said, 'Give me that gun.' Throwing himself +into the saddle, he was off like a streak of lightning. The mare's +hoofprints were plainly visible in the trail leading toward the Grand +River. About 9:30 o'clock we heard a yell and went up to the corral. +Jack had the mare. Not a word was uttered, except 'She was in the middle +of the ford just above where the Forks go into the Grand.' Both horses +were covered with ridges of dry sweat and looked jaded, as though every +inch of ten miles had been run in a death-race struggle. On the off side +of 'Martha' a dirty red streak mingled with the sweat. As we went slowly +back to the cabin, after picketing both horses, Jack handed me my belt +and gun--a Colt's .41 double action. Two empty cartridge shells told the +story of a tragedy. A week later one of our party found the body of a +man on the bank of the Grand five miles below the Forks with two bullet +holes in his back. + +"Jack had one habit that city boys think belong to themselves"-- + +"Midnight lunches?" asked Cal. + +"Yes; but Jack generally had his hungry spell about 2 a. m. Every night +that our party was at the Bar E ranch Jack would wake us up and every +one had to 'break bread' with him--only it was flapjacks instead of +bread. Jack would do all the work, and he was an artist with the frying +pan. He would turn those big cakes by tossing them out of the pan in the +air, you know, and catch them after the flop. After our lunch a smoke, +and while we smoked a few deals of Spanish monte and a story or two, +then back to bunks. Yes, 'Happy Jack' is a character." + +As Jack finished his story of "Happy Jack" a shout announced the +beginning of the trials of strength, endurance and courage, which would +probably proclaim the victor for the hand of Susan. Standing erect with +arms folded over his breast, Red Plume watched with seeming indifference +the trials. Susan, seated upon her blanket, appeared even more so; in +fact when it became apparent that Antelope was not to be one of the +contestants she shook her head and disconsolately continued her +beadwork. + +The braves vied with each other in feats of running, wrestling, jumping, +swinging from one tree to another, riding in all manner of positions on +bareback, bridleless ponies; throwing knives at each other's heads, arms +and necks in endeavors to pinion the victim to a tree without doing him +any bodily harm; torturing themselves with cruel whips; gashing and +lacerating the flesh; being suspended from a pole or bar by means of +thongs thrust under the muscles of the shoulders, and other +blood-curdling deeds original with the savage. + +Old chiefs watched the young bucks, and as the games proceeded these old +ones shook their heads or nodded in assent as success or failure +rewarded the contestants. + +All were in gala dress. War bonnets of elaborate manufacture bedecked +some, while single feathers adorned others. Small hoops fastened to long +sticks were held aloft displaying portions of a human scalp, the hair +floating naturally from one side while the other side of the scalp was +painted a bright red. Every Indian lovingly carried his pipe, the red +slender bowl made from pipestone mined from quarries hundreds of miles +away and guarded carefully from reckless souvenir and market hunters. + +As a successful contestant received his reward and led his bride away, +the onlookers rent the air with piercing yells; rattle-boxes split the +ear with their characteristic din, and tom-toms bellowed their dull +intonations with a certain amount of regularity which produced that same +agonizing monotony of sound found in a healthy foghorn. + +In a group not far from the racing strip was Yamanatz, and thither Jack +and Cal bent their way. Charley Rogers and his companions were making +bets with anyone who would risk ammunition, money, clothes, ponies, +blankets, guns, pistols or knives; and even war bonnets were staked. +Yamanatz was about the only Ute who did not bet against "Brown Dick." +Few of the white gamblers, who had come to fleece the Indians with their +special style of confidence games, cared to risk their coin against +Indian ponies or wampum. They wanted cash, and as the Indians had plenty +to do to meet all the demands of Jack and his friends and Charley Rogers +and his following, the gamblers saw little prospect of a coup. + +The level, well-beaten, straight-away course stretched along between +rows of tents, tepees and lodges out into the plain beyond. Indian races +are not upon oval tracks and are not confined entirely to one dash over +the course, but include a certain distance and back over the same +ground, the finish being at the starting point. Other races are run +where the contestant must lean from the pony's back and pick up a quirt +or hat as the animal dashes past. + +But the time for the great race on which the bets are made has arrived, +and the restless, anxious animals have to be guided to the starting +place by their riders and arranged in line with heads opposite the +direction in which the race is to be run. Bare-skinned warriors on +bridleless, saddleless ponies, a small, finely-braided lariat attached +to the horse's jaw, sit like graven images upon their favorite steeds. +"Brown Dick," whose rider is his owner, steps along jauntily, champing +in eager fashion the silver-ringed bit supported by a silver ornamented +Mexican braided-leather bridle, the loose reins held almost listlessly +by the man in blue shirt and buckskin trousers seated on an English +racing saddle. A little moisture around the roots of the delicately +pointed ears shows that "Brown Dick" has been exercised. The muscles of +the forelegs play beneath the skin as step by step he approaches the +line; the veins in his arched neck stand out like small ropes, and the +dilated nostrils reveal the pink membranes as each deep breath is +inhaled. Charley has maneuvered for position, timing his arrival to such +a nicety that the last slow step of his well-trained racer falls exactly +as the pistol belches forth the signal to start. Simultaneously he +utters a shrill "Go" and presses his knees violently into his horse's +sides, leaning far out in the saddle and throwing his weight against the +reins on the faithful horse's neck, who rears aloft, pivots in beautiful +fashion and leaps in one bound clear of the line of frantic ponies, and +amid the warwhoops of Indians, the yells of the frenzied and the fear of +defeat piercing his ears he dashes on to victory. The struggle is not +long, and the spoils won from the vanquished nearly bankrupt the entire +tribe until the next annuities replace their losses. + +There are no imprecations nor villainous mutterings. An Indian is a good +loser and bears defeat in a philosophical, stoical manner. Immediately +after the exciting races come the feasts given to the successful +competitors, and the following day finds the erstwhile holiday-arrayed +village desolate and uninteresting. + +Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita began preparations for the trip to +"Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water," and soon followed the crowd of visitors +making their way to the nearest railroad. + +The last one to bid Chiquita "adios" was Antelope. He had little to say, +but averred he would continually seek the aid of all the Ute gods, big +and little, to bring the heart of Chiquita to Antelope's tepee. + +"Antelope will wait many, many snows and take no other maiden," were his +parting words. + +The restraining influence which Chiquita and Yamanatz exerted vanished +very soon with their departure from the reservation. Susan at once +commenced to be vindictive, as jealousy and revenge gnawed at her heart. +Chagrined and disappointed at the turn of affairs in the competition by +the young bucks for their brides, she coquetted with Johnson, well +knowing that in him she would find an acquiescent if not an aggressive +leader. Furthermore, he was the brother-in-law of Ouray and considered +one of the greatest of Douglas' band of great warriors and fighters. She +soon became, in fact, Johnson's squaw, and no one in all the Ute tribe +was more regal in dress nor feared more as an enemy than Susan. Her +silver girdles, beaded buckskins, elk-tooth necklaces and other feminine +accessories were the envy of squaws, whose chiefs were also envious of +Johnson--aye, even of any one of Douglas's band of braves. + +While the races and general carnival were in progress at the Agency a +portion of this renegade band had wandered far out in the plains one +hundred miles east of Denver, near Cheyenne Wells, where they quarreled +with and murdered Joe McLane, of Chicago, and fled back to the +reservation through Middle Park--Colorow, Washington, Shavano and Piah. +Washington was wounded and had his arm in a sling when they met the +outgoing party, of which Charley Rogers, Jack, Yamanatz and Chiquita +were members, then camped on the Frazier River. Colorow offered no +explanation of whence they came nor their object, but all four were in a +hurry and hastened along through the Park. + +Arriving on the Blue, where old man Elliott peaceably conducted a ranch +and with whom the Indians had been on good terms for years, they +murdered him in cold blood and left immediately for the Agency. + +Upon their arrival it did not take long to start the undercurrent of +open revolt. Susan enlisted the sympathies of Jane, a vicious squaw, +whose husband had a great many ponies. Jane had selected a fine piece of +pasture land and under the rights of an Indian "squatted" upon the land +in question. It was the best land near the Agency, and Meeker decided to +use it for cultivation and to "school" the Utes in the use of the plow. +Jane objected, and quarrel after quarrel took place, Douglas even going +so far as to assault Agent Meeker in his (Meeker's) own home. + +A compromise was seemingly effected by which Jane was to get another +piece of land for her pasture and Meeker again set the plow to going, +only to have the man in charge of the work shot at by two bucks who were +concealed in the sage brush. Meeker had repeatedly asked aid of both +state and Federal government. He begged for troops, as the lives of the +white people were in peril. As the aged philanthropist listened to the +council held in a smoke-smothered lodge, where warrior after warrior +gave utterance to his opinion in a language absolutely unintelligible to +any but a Ute, and when at last Douglas made his measured, forcible, +irresistible appeal to his brother savages to resist the onward march of +the white people, he (Meeker) must have known his doom was at hand. +Signal fires were constantly seen as night came on, and the murmur of +discontent increased with the uncertainty. + +Finally word came that troops were on the way. Captain Payne with +colored, and Major Thornburg with white troops had been despatched to +the Agency. The morning of September 30, 1879, saw the White River +plateau under sunny skies--the air was warm and inviting. Twenty or +thirty bucks of Douglas's band sauntered forth as though in quest of +venison, others of the various bands had been out among the hills on +similar errands, and it was not unusual for the majority of the whole +Ute nation to be scattered throughout the reservation even beyond the +lines for short periods. + +Susan, Jane, Antelope and a few others wandered about the Agency +buildings laughing, chattering and in the best of spirits. All seemed +happy, Susan especially, and Antelope had not been so gay for a long +time. + +Still there was an ominous phase to their very good humor. It had that +practical joke fatality which foreboded evil in every smile and made the +heart sick for those who watched the sage-covered mesa and feathery +clouds which floated from range to range. But a few miles away toward +the Red Cañon on Milk Creek the troops were hastening. As the advance +line swung up to the narrow gorge a few Indians in warpaint suddenly +came into view. The cavalry made an attempt to flank the defile and thus +saved the entire command from being literally shot to pieces by Indians +surrounding the open death trap into which they would have marched. + +Hostilities were begun at once by the Indians. Major Thornburg in his +attempt to cut through to the main body was killed, with thirteen +others. The rest of the troops reached a place of safety, and with the +dead bodies of their comrades, the carcasses of dead horses and mules +and the wagons, formed a temporary shelter until breastworks could be +thrown up. The command was not relieved until the 5th of October. + +Runners carried the news of the ambuscade to the Agency, reaching there +at noon of the same day. During the excitement which followed and the +shots directed first at the men who were putting a roof on a building, +the venerable agent was killed and a barrel stave driven down his +throat, log chains placed around his neck, and subsequently the savages +in their fury held up the dead man's legs, imitating a man plowing. + +[Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE CIVILIAN, 1902.] + +The women were taken by Douglas, Johnson and other Utes to the old Rock +Creek village and there held as prisoners until the middle of October. +Susan was left at the Agency and did not know that her brave warrior had +taken unto himself a new squaw under penalty of blowing her brains out, +nor that Douglas threatened another with death unless she, too, became +his Ute squaw, while the other Indians jeered, scoffed and insulted the +wives of the men who lay dead at the Agency. Yet these bucks dared do +nothing but taunt the poor, helpless women, as Douglas and Johnson were +big chiefs, and the women owed their personal safety to the declaration +that they were respectively Douglas's and Johnson's squaws. + +Upon the body of Major Thornburg was found a picture of Colorow, this +signifying that the death-dealing bullet that killed the officer had +been fired by that crafty old savage. + +After a tedious examination of both Johnson and Douglas by +commissioners, Douglas was confined in the prison at Fort Leavenworth +for one year. Colorow never was taken into custody. + +When Susan learned that her wily spouse (Johnson) had been unfaithful to +her, she started at once for Rock Creek with the intention of murdering +the white woman; but she was too late, as the prisoners had been led +away and delivered to their friends in a place of safety. + +The Utes were afterward moved to the Uintah Reservation[B] in Utah, but +many of them visit the old Agency grounds, and at this writing (1902) +Antelope again favored the White River people with his presence and his +photograph in civilized attire. + +[Footnote A: "Hot Springs"--now Glenwood Springs.--EDITOR.] + +[Footnote B: For authentic documents on the Meeker massacre see Chicago +Tribune, Oct. 2-15, 1879; Denver papers of same date; Bancroft's History +of Colorado; U.S. House Documents, 1879-1880 (Indian Commission).] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE BLAZING-EYE MINE. + + +In Eastern California there lies a strip of country less than a hundred +miles in length and thirty miles in width--the Gehenna of America--a +basin so defiled that the abomination of the Israelites, the Valley of +Hinnom, was a paradise; Tophet, where the sacrifices of children to +Moloch were made by this Biblical tribe of Hebrews, was at least +habitable. Death Valley lies two hundred and fifty feet lower than the +tide water of the Pacific Ocean. Upon this strip of land grows no +verdure, and within its confines exists no life save the scorpion, the +centipede, the tarantula, the hideous gila monster and rattlesnakes, all +more deadly poisonous than sisters and brothers of the same family found +elsewhere, each species a continual menace to the others in the never +ending battle for life--vindictive conquerors at last being vanquished +by more malignant foes. + +The desert is one mass of burning, blighting alkali sand. The heat is +beyond human endurance, and what few pools of water may be found by +digging deep into the earth are so pregnant with disease-breeding, +loathsome germs, that death is but hastened to the poor victim of thirst +who attempts to assuage his sufferings by drinking the polluted reward +of frenzied labor. + +At one time the government established an observation station within the +borders of this waste to give scientifically to the world an accurate +account of the perils which await the prospector venturesome enough to +visit this living ossuary--the realm of the dead and habitat of the +uncanny. Records show that the government representative found the heat +so burdensome that clothing was dispensed with, and in nature's +primitive garb the lonely vigils were passed until the station was +abandoned. + +Years before, a prospector braved the perils of the desert and returned +more dead than alive, but with golden sand and golden nuggets and tales +of a mine whose splendor out-dazzled the wildest dreams. This prospector +called the mine after himself, "Pegleg." He obtaining his sobriquet from +the fact that one of his legs was a wooden peg. He organized a party and +they entered the valley, never to return. Other parties were formed and +attempted a rescue, only to leave their bones to bleach as monuments of +man's distorted and perverse cupidity. + +The government sent a detachment of soldiers, well versed in the +knowledge of all the impending dangers, but none returned save a +corporal, and he a raving maniac, upon a thirst-crazed mule. Thus the +famous "Pegleg" mine became a legend fraught with mystery and weird, +blood-curdling memories. + +It was to this mine, "The Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water," that Yamanatz +was to conduct Jack. The Utes in years gone by made the trip from the +mountains to the desert land and returned laden with golden ornaments, +their trappings covered with gold nuggets beaten into fantastic shapes. +It took many moons in their comings and goings, and many fierce battles +were waged with other tribes in the latter's endeavors to wrest the +secret from the wily warriors, who knew of a safe but dangerous +underground river bed, which wound its tortuous way beneath the +sand-covered desert, cutting the wonderful deposit in half. But even +this passage to that mountain of wealth was beset by terrors as +frightful as those above the ground. Reptiles had ingress and egress +from fissures leading to the surface, and one was in constant danger at +every step, not from the trail alone, but from the roof and sides of +that slimy cañon, the gloom of which added to the dark hideousness, as +the feeble, flickering torches awakened the lethargic inhabitants of +that abandoned inferno. + +The trip from the White River Agency had been made by rail as far as +possible. Every provision had been made that could be devised for +protection against the evils surrounding the dangerous mission. The +nearest station which Jack could in any way "guess" would land them near +a point from whence Yamanatz could find his way was Mojave. The curious +of the little town watched the preparations of the trio as they made +ready to prospect toward the Telescope range. The party consisted of +Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita, and an old "forty-niner" who was asked to +join them under the promise of good wages and the usual "interest" in +any claims which might be "staked." As they slowly made their way along +the edge of the great Mojave desert, Yamanatz was continually on the +lookout for some familiar sign that would indicate they were in the +locality leading to the mysterious river bed. Finally the fourth day +found them encamped at the edge of a low "bench," or hill, mountains +arising from one side and an undulating, dreary waste of billowy sands +stretching to the horizon on the other. + +"It is good," said Yamanatz, continuing, "On the morrow Chiquita will go +with the prospector to the stream where yonder mountain meets the sky. +Chiquita will watch and wait until Jack and Yamanatz shall return. The +prospector will find an old vein of mineral in which is gold. He must +work upon that while Yamanatz and Jack go toward the setting sun, where +the buzzards roost waiting for those who venture into Death Valley." + +This satisfied the prospector, who answered, "It is not much thet bird +gets to put inside his 'bone box' sence the fools quit a-goin' ter ther +'Pegleg' mine. Ye hev bin told about thet, I guess, and ye don't look +thet crazy as would attempt even a one hour's ride into thet furnass. +I'll go with the Injun gal, and good luck ter ye." + +"We will be gone five sleeps," said Yamanatz. + +The second day found Jack and the Ute chief inside the well-concealed +stone covered opening which led to the river bed. Armed with horsehair +whips and gnarled piñon torches which blazed and smoked, they made their +way, leading horses and pack mules along the subterranean passage. +Occasionally the swashing of water smote their ears, and at intervals +open fissures extending to the stream far below them were encountered, +whereby cooling drink was obtained by means of a lariat and camp bucket. +It was not difficult to replenish the leathern pouches provided for +water. + +The middle of the fourth day they reached the crumbling, disintegrated +mass of quartz, honeycombed with gold. It was necessary to crush the +decayed ore and extract the huge nuggets by washing in a pan. +Occasionally the breaking of some of the rock revealed solid masses of +pure gold, while in pockets of rusty, discolored quartz great handfuls +of gold sand were disclosed. All that day and night Jack worked with a +frenzied fervor, loading saddlebag after saddlebag with the precious +metal. Yamanatz assisted until all their receptacles were filled, then a +couple of hours of rest--sleep was out of the question. The heat and +excitement rendered it useless to attempt it. + +Packing the valuable pouches together with the few camp requirements +which had been used on the trip, the return was commenced. The entrance +was reached in less time than it required going; but now it became +necessary to mark a trail by which Jack could find the way back to the +cavern alone. Monuments of stone were erected in triangles, which gave +the needed bearings for future use. More time had been consumed than had +been allowed, and starvation rations for man and beast became necessary. + +When the last monument to complete the chain had been erected it was +midnight, and it was decided to attempt the crossing of the desert strip +at an angle. Hour after hour they traveled, yet at daybreak no blue +haze, no lofty peak appeared in that simmering, sweltering, burning +waste. The trail behind them was as water struck with a whip. The sand +in front gave no alluring sign. The ponies labored--the mules were +restive. Silently as a moonbeam falling across the earth the cavalcade +moved. Another midnight, and Jack resorted to his knowledge of astronomy +to guide them from that fearful death which another day would probably +bring. The constellation of Cassiopea seemed to beckon him in her +direction. Again the red copper-colored sun appeared above the horizon; +a faint blue line in front gave hope of relief. The ponies were allowed +free rein to choose their own way. + +As the sun rose higher and higher the heat drove the pack animals into a +frenzy. The oscillating motion of those in the saddle was almost +unendurable. Gloomily they looked at each other--the one seeing that +shrunken, skin-drawn, parched, pinched human horror in front, wondering +if he in turn looked the same. Still they lived and hoped. Again hour +succeeded hour until the midnight of another day arrived. Suddenly the +mules gave a joyful whinny and started up a sandy gulch at a brisker +pace than they had been traveling. The last of the water had been +divided that noon and no food had been tasted for three days. In another +hour they came to a rock where a little pool struggled only to lose +itself in the sand. But by scooping away the earth while the animals +were pawing, even biting, the very ground, Jack was at last able to save +a little of the precious fluid and appease their immediate thirst. + +A short rest and the march was again resumed. By noon, gaunt and +hidedrawn, two Indian ponies stumbled along the burning sands. Two +horsemen with vacant, stony stare, pitifully reeled in their saddles as +their horses wabbled slowly, painfully into the camp of the "Lone +Fisherman." Pack mules with drooping, lifeless ears, tongues lolling +from their mouths and hoofs cracking from contact with the poisonous +alkaloids of the desert, staggered under their burdens as they toiled +after the silent spectres in the lead. The dust-begrimed, skin-dried, +withered, parched and blighted beings athwart those animated skeletons +were Jack and Yamanatz. The load under which the beasts of burden +tottered was gold. Death Valley had been invaded, and once more +substantial treasure from the "Pegleg" mine gave positive evidence of +the fabulous riches, surpassing the most wonderful opulence of ancient +kings, which was accorded those who survived the horrors of the +health-wrecking, life-destroying journey. A joyous welcome awaited the +returned travelers. Chiquita had determined to get a rescuing party that +day, but a kind Providence directed otherwise. In attempting the short +cut from the last triangle of monuments Jack and Yamanatz had traveled +in a circle. + +Jack recovered his normal condition more readily than did Yamanatz. +Before leaving the "Lone Fisherman," which the old prospector found of +value sufficient to pay for working, Yamanatz and Jack again made the +trip to and from the nearest located triangle and Jack had no trouble in +future visits. He soon succeeded in obtaining from the Government a +valid title to the ground. + +The nucleus of that fortune was spent in fitting Chiquita for her +college education. + +She entered at once upon her studies, under the care of private tutors, +and in two years' time the rapid advancement made placed her far along +toward the goal of learning. Academic courses followed in quick +succession, her wonderful intellectual powers seemingly never to weary +or flag in their grinding evolution from savagery to civilized +enlightenment during her self-imposed task of ten years in the bright +fields of knowledge. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +COLLEGE VACATIONS. + + +During one of the spring terms, when the birds taunted Chiquita with +their freedom, Jack and Hazel proposed, during the recess of two weeks, +that they all take a trip to the Indian Territory and visit the +Cherokees, Kiowas and Comanches, among whose tribes were many relatives +of Chiquita. Over a rough and dusty roadbed rolled a long train of +coaches bearing tourists, farmseekers and business men through banks of +smoke and clouds of cinders to the great farming lands of the west. At +Coffeyville Jack disembarked his party and in a comfortable "buckboard" +continued the journey. A couple of miles of dusty road between +sweltering hedges of osage orange led them to the boundary of the Indian +Territory. Along this in a never varying line for a hundred miles on the +north side stretched farm after farm, divided from the highway and each +other by thousands of miles of wire fencing. Bare cornfields and +treeless wastes spread forth uninviting landscape, marked at intervals +with the houses of the ambitious ranchmen, who, by preoccupation or +purchase, obtained title to the soil. Alkali dust smarted the nostrils, +and the glare of the noonday sun scorched the faces of travelers. +Plowmen, making ready for the season's planting, rested their teams as +the pleasure seekers stopped to inquire the road to California Creek. + +To the south of the highway rolled a grass-covered prairie that seemed a +great poly-chromed rug of velvet. The hand of man had not chiseled the +virgin soil with plowshare, nor riveted its surface with post and rail. +A well defined road led zigzag over its undulating bosom until the +hideous regularity of section lines disappeared behind a friendly +stretch of upland. Cottonwood, elm and oak became frequent as they +entered the valley of the Verdigris and great stretches of forest-dotted +park enchanted the eye and gave rest to tiresome monotony of treeless +plain. Occasionally an unpretentious, unpainted shanty gave evidence of +man, and inquiry proved it to be the abiding place of one of the +precivilized occupants of unfettered expanse of the American continent, +the other a "squaw man," who had made matrimonial alliance with the +partially civilized companion. + +"Jack," said Chiquita, after the inspection of one of these abodes of an +Indian, who had adopted some of the ways and customs of his white +brethren, "Cherokee once big Indian, now half man, half coyote; little +plow, little hunt, little eat--little good," and she curled her lip in +disdain as she contemplated the work of onwardness. Continuing the +conversation in the more polished language of a college student, "Did +not the Great Spirit, the one God of the Indians, put his people here in +this paradise--this continent of flower-carpeted, forest-grown hills and +vales, a people noble in thought, noble in dignified demeanor, with a +belief in a religion simple and effective? Among Indians are no infidels +or agnostics. All Indians believe in the Happy Hunting Ground and the +Great Spirit. Do you know, Jack, of any country where the native race, +indigenous to the land, compare with the noble red man as he was when +the first white settlers occupied America?" + +"Possibly the Arabs or early Egyptians might compare more favorably than +any other nation that I know of," Jack replied. + +"Yes, but Egypt and Arabia are of today, whereas the Indians are wards +of a great government, and your government has condemned the Indian to a +worse Siberia than that to which Nihilist was ever transported. Look; +there is a specimen of what a civilized government does to a native-born +American," pointing to a "half-breed" trying to plow with one steer +harnessed up like a horse. + +"Hello!" Jack sang out to the man thus referred to. + +As the buckboard stopped a few rods from the shack, called a "hoos," the +individual addressed pulled at his galluses and hat, then walked over to +the fence, which enclosed fifty acres of newly plowed ground, said, +"How?" and stood gaping at the travelers. + +"Good morning," cheerily said Jack. "We are on our way to Pryor Creek +and then want to go into the Kiowa Reservation. Can you tell us anything +about the road?" + +"Waal, I reckon yes. It's good goin' 'til yer git to the Verdigris. Thet +nigh ho'se (meaning horse, pronounced with long o and aspirate s) uster +belong to the 'Lazy L' outfit." + +The answer was given in a drawling, sing-song tone, with full rests +between every third word, when the speaker stopped to pick up a stick to +whittle, to halloo at his steer or to show how straight he could +expectorate a small freshet of tobacco juice between his teeth at some +real or imaginary mark. His skin was a dirty soot color, and his raven +black eyes and straight hair emphasized his ghastly pallor. He was tall +and thin--built on the Arkansas plan of constructing ladders. His hips +and shoulder blades seemed to meet, giving his long, lank legs the +appearance of a man's head on jointed stilts. Jack made no reply to the +remark about the horse with the "Lazy L" brand, but inquired the +distance to the Verdigris. + +"It's quite a patch. I reckon yer mought hev some 'navy' about yer +close; jess the same if yer moughten--thanks." + +Jack had learned that a plug of tobacco had "open sesame" qualities +among certain species of human beings, and in his war bag were several +pounds cut into goodly sized pocket pieces. One of them he handed to the +"half-breed," who tore off a corner with his teeth, absentmindedly +putting the rest in his pocket. The "tip" had the desired effect, for +"Ladder Legs" recounted in the drawl of the Cherokee half-breeds, with +its characteristic aspirating, all the crooks, turns, fords and +distances to the Kiowa Reservation. In response to Jack's inquiry +regarding the limited cultivation of the land so near the Kansas border, +"Ladder Legs" vouchsafed this information: + +"A 'squaw man' has little ambition, and a half-breed none. The +environments of Indian life make a 'States' man dejected and he soon +outgrows the infant ambition which prompted him to marry a squaw that he +might 'take up' land in the territory. A white man cannot live on the +Indians' ground except he marries a squaw or the daughter of a man who +has had tribal rights conferred upon him; then he becomes an Indian and +can have a fifty-acre pasture fenced, all the land he will cultivate, +and the 'range' for his stock to feed upon. You see that bend in the +river? Waal, a white man from the States married the widow of a +well-to-do Cherokee half-breed. He is educated and has grown-up +daughters almost as white as you be, and a nice house well furnished, +and he rents out a part of his land on shares to some 'niggers,' or +half-breeds, and they cultivate all the land he can put under fence. +Some day when this land is allotted he will own an immense tract." + +"How about the range you spoke of?" asked Jack. + +"The cattlemen up in the States supply a bunch of cattle to some +ranchman having a good range or lots of open country, well watered, +around his house. Probably the man has a lot of corn and wants to feed +the cattle over winter and take profit in so much increase of beef, +pound for pound, that these cattle gain. Nearly all of the ranchmen have +hogs to run with the cattle, so there is another source from which a +return is anticipated. Pays, did you ask? Sure; all get rich who will +work. But over there on California Creek was a young fellow who had a +snap of it if ever a man did. This young fellow married the daughter of +an Indian missionary, a preacher from up in Kansas, who rewrote the real +Bible in the Cherokee dialect, for which the tribe made him a +full-blooded Indian, as far as any rights in the nation were concerned. +After they were married they came down here with their fine duds and +bought a ranch over on the creek of a full-blood Cherokee. He lived +there about four years. He had friends up in one of the Missouri towns +in the livestock commission business and they had all kinds of cattle. +They started the young fellow with four thousand fine steers in the +spring, and told him to raise some corn for the next winter and feed the +first lot on the range, then they would send in another bunch for winter +care. Them there cattle drifted all the way to Texas, and do you suppose +the lazy dude would try to round 'em up? No, sirree. He was just too +nice. His hands were so soft he couldn't get a calf to the brandin' post +in a corral, let alone rope a steer and brand him in the open country. +The folks came down on him and he lost the ranch. His wife died and he +went to Honduras, or the Philippines, or somewhere. But this yere land +is all goin' to be allotted some day and then it is good-by to the +freedom which we get here now. Yes, civilization kicks up a heap of +dust. Good-by; stop and see me if you come back this way. Adios." + +Chiquita seemed amazed to hear that an educated man from the civilized +States would let such a golden opportunity pass him by. Mile after mile +of the fairest cattle range was passed on their way into the Kiowa +Reservation. + +The time had arrived when Chiquita must return to college. During her +visit to the old relatives who had married into the Territory tribes she +learned that a distant cousin of hers was to be shot for the murder of a +fellow Indian. The tribal council had tried him and sentenced him to +death six months before, but on the plea which he made for leave of +absence to go to his old home among the mountain Utes in Colorado to see +his mother and father before he died, they had respited him. The time +for his return expired at noon the very day that Chiquita was to start +back. + +She learned the story about four hours before noon--the time for the +execution--and at once made her way to the council hall, where in solemn +silence waited the court and executioners. Chiquita pleaded that they +spare her cousin. The plea was made to deaf ears. He had dealt the death +blow to a Kiowa, and by their laws he had been tried and found guilty, +and by their law he must suffer death. + +"Where is he, that I may see him?" asked Chiquita. + +"He has not returned." + +"He will come. A Ute does not fear the death that awaits him, even for a +crime," proudly asserted Chiquita. "The Great Manitou will send him +back. Has he not danced to Wakantanka with a buffalo skull hung to a +thong that passed through the flesh of his back? Will one who has danced +to the Sun be afraid to return to the Kiowa dogs? Polar Bear knows that +the Utes would drive him back from the Happy Hunting Ground and be +killed by them if he did not keep his promise to return. Polar Bear +knows there is no escape." + +"Chiquita is wise in what she says. The Kiowas know that Polar Bear has +been a big brave and danced the awful Sun dance, but the hour is near at +hand, and no word that he comes. What have we to insure his return, +except the Indian's faith in the hereafter and that the Great Manitou +will punish him in the Happy Hunting Ground if he disobeys the Kiowa +Council and splits his heart with a lie when he promised to return?" + +At this moment a shout was heard and a mounted runner quickly appeared, +his horse covered with flecks of foam and nostrils deeply blowing. + +"Polar Bear comes. He runs like the deer of the plains, when we lived in +sight of the great mountains, the home of the Utes." + +The council suspended all manifestations. The executioner examined his +rifle. Polar Bear entered and bowed his head, then looked aloft and +pointed to the sky. + +"I am ready," was all he said. + +The hour lacked ten minutes of the expired time. The executioner +motioned and Polar Bear followed. Under a large oak he took his stand, +stripped to the waist, a scarlet heart painted over his own. The +executioner took his place, a few steps away, sighted his rifle at the +painted heart, a puff of smoke, a sharp report, a gush of blood, and +Polar Bear had atoned for his crime. Chiquita turned to Jack and asked: + +"Is there another nation in the world where their criminals return of +their own accord to suffer the death penalty?" + +Most of the summer vacations of her college life Chiquita spent among +the forests, crags and parks on the Ute reservation or in her mountain +home near Middle Park. Hundreds of student friends visited her at the +latter place and were entertained for weeks in a royal manner, to their +great pleasure, a result which does not always follow the lavish +expenditure of money. Tents, tepees, lodges, log cabins and quaint +cottages were set apart for the use of the guests. A beautiful rustic +chapel improvised for religious services and a hall for indoor +entertainment were erected near the small hotel at the source of Rock +Creek, where a famous iron and soda spring bubbles forth its sparkling +waters of more than ordinary quality. The adjacent hills furnished +abundance of deer, and even bear, and the famous catches of trout +perpetuated the glory of a summer on Rock Creek as a lifelong realistic +dream. The most elaborate of Indian trappings adorned the various +abodes. Canoes silently sped along the surface of an artificial lake +made by repairing an old beaver dam, and in the corral Ute ponies, +Mexican burros or American-bred saddle horses, besides traps, brakes and +coaches presented a never-tiring array from which to select in order to +make pilgrimages into more distant territory. + +A little garden furnished fresh vegetables, while the "ranch hack" made +trips to the nearest railway station for other provisions once a week. +Chiquita arranged for the pre-emption of this ranch on one of Jack's +early visits, but by reason of mineral springs being reserved by the +Government from operation of the land law, the property was abandoned in +later years. + +In making her trips back and forth from the ranch on Rock Creek to the +college, Chiquita watched the marvelous growth of that great stretch of +country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains with sinking +heart. + +To Jack she confided her worst fears. "The Great Manitou of the Utes has +been conquered by the Great Spirit of the white man," she was wont to +remark as her knowledge of the Christian religion advanced. + +In truth, Chiquita had ground for her fears. Leadville, with its never +ceasing output of silver which rolled in a continuous stream toward the +great manufacturing centers of the East, was welcomed by the idle, labor +seeking armies as the Mecca of the world. The prominent transportation +companies sent emissaries to all the great farming regions of Europe, +colonizing emigrants to enter the immense uncultivated sections +traversed by their respective charters in the attempt to make their +railways profitable. Train load after train load of hardy, well-to-do +Russians, Norwegians, Swedes and Germans rolled into the fertile +valleys, peopling the arid wastes and starting the building of villages, +towns and cities along the railway like unto tales of mythology. The +impetus of this gigantic, overwhelming land-grabbing aroused the +speculative world and money came forth from its hiding place to seek +investment. Mills began to work overtime. Products of all kinds were in +demand, for the comers to the new land had to be fed, clothed and +entertained. Prosperity ruled. + +"Jack," said Chiquita, as the annual trip was made across the great +country to the mine near the close of her college career, "see the +effects of education and civilization in these immense cities where ten +years ago were unplowed lands, open prairie and treeless wastes. The +untutored savage must go; yes, there is but one result can ensue, and +while it makes me feel sad for my people yet I doubt not it is best for +humanity." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +JACK WEDDED. + + +'Twas the last of June, the wedding bells pealed joyously, the church +organ bellowed noisily, the formality of congratulations followed along +with the flutter of praises for the bride and groom, which they received +because it was eminently proper and expected; a hurried breakfast, still +more hasty good-byes, the whistle of an approaching train amid the +excitement of baggage checked, lost or forgotten, a rush of depot +farewells, a waving of handkerchiefs, a few misty eyes, then Hazel had a +chance to breathe a long sigh of relief and Jack to unburden some +pent-up adjectives as he picked rice out of his wife's hair and removed +the tell-tale labels, ribbons and signs which decorated umbrellas, suit +cases and wraps. + +"Jack," whispered Hazel, as she nestled close to him in the railroad +coach in which was no one but an old man, the train attendant being on +the platform. "I was 'skeert' until you squeezed my hand, and I trembled +all over. I thought I should faint, but I'm your wife, ain't I, Jack?" + +"Yes, you are an old married lady now," answered Jack, dogmatically. + +"An old married lady," repeated Hazel slowly, lapsing into a brown study +for a moment. "Jack, is it such an awful long time since I was a little +girl and you pulled my sled on the hill for me?" + +"No, dear, it is but yesterday and it will be yesterday always, even if +we live for a hundred years. Don't you know, 'It's only once in life +one's boots have copper toes,' and my 'copper-toed' age was the happiest +part of my life." + +"Until today, Jack," interrupted Hazel, very decidedly. + +"Yes?" inquiringly replied Jack. + +The time for Jack to make his regular visit to the mine had also been +selected for his wedding trip and Chiquita was to join the newly married +pair at Denver, then all three were to "do" Colorado, finishing by +spending a few weeks in Estes Park and the Buena Vista ranch, as +Chiquita called her wonderful summer abode, later going on to +California. Jack had purchased a fine equipment of split bamboo fly rods +and all the necessary accompaniments, while Hazel, equally ardent in her +admiration of the sport so fascinating to the disciples of Izaak Walton, +fashioned, with her own hands, elegant rod cases, fly books and natty +garments for the outing. Conspicuous among the latter was a short +walking skirt and Eton jacket of brown duck, trimmed with bands of white +and studded with brass buttons, in which she arrayed herself and +practiced fly casting for imaginary trout on the lawn. A stop of an hour +in Boston gave them barely time to transfer across the city of crooked +streets to the Albany station and to settle themselves for the long ride +to Chicago. Jack provided in advance for plenty of room, engaging a +sleeper section. + +By the time the train had shot past the beautiful suburban cities of +Auburn and the Newtons and rolled into Framingham Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard +were quite at home. They commenced to congratulate themselves on looking +like old married folks and that no one would suspect them of being bride +and groom. + +"Jack, you know something?" said Hazel in her speculative way that +always meant a favor to come. + +"Well, sweetheart, what is it?" Jack presumed it was a glass of water or +apples or that her pillow was not right. + +"Well, you know." + +Jack knew then that something more than ordinary was coming; that "you +know" indicated not an uncertainty, but was the usual signal for a "hold +up"--nothing short of opera tickets--and the young man wondered what +unsatisfied desire was about to be "you knowed." + +"Well, you know that little descriptive story you wrote of Estes Park, +read it to me." + +So Mr. Jack resurrected the tale from its pocket in his suit case and in +his rich, modulated voice, read the story for the x--th time, he +thought: + +"Peerless Estes! That miniature world wilderness of wonder and delight! +Set apart for the tired brain and careworn wreck from the sepulchers of +business activity! A sweet paradise nestled amidst the encircling +snow-capped peaks whose somber heads rise far above the habitat of +microbe and parasite. Those silent peaks silhouetted against an ethereal +dome of deepest blue or blackest star-bespangled canopy of night! The +mountain air of Estes; the elixir compounded by nature for +reinvigorating battling civilization! + +"This enchanted arena, which pen fails adequately to drape in poetical +luxury, was dedicated for combats between rest and toil, health and +sickness, vitality and decay. The angler revels in luxury with the +numbers of easily accessible pools, riffles, meadows, cañons, the most +distant an hour's drive and the majority but ten minutes' walk. +Occasionally deer may be seen and the 'Big Horn' come down their aerial +stairway from the clouds to lick from the alkali waters in Horseshoe. +Wait until you see the chattering magpie, with its bronze equipment and +saucy manners. The foe of this long-tailed, noisy inhabitant is a blue +jay (the one James Whitcomb Riley calls the 'bird with soldier +clothes.') Hours may be spent witnessing the strategy, diplomacy, anger, +spite and vindictiveness waged by these bird robbers and desperadoes, +for both are notorious house breakers, murderers and thieves in bird +land, as well as clever in appropriating kitchen supplies which they +surreptitiously seize when opportunity is presented. + +"In Estes a Sabbath quiet broods at all times, broken only by the swish +of the angler's rod, the merry peal of frightened laughter as some +maiden lands her first trout, or the crunching of horses' hoofs in the +hard gravel roads as a pleasure party clatters by. Children romp and +play without fear of mosquitoes or snakes, troublesome poisonous insects +being banished as thoroughly as if destroyed by some mysterious +necromancer. + +"Where in all the world can the lover go"-- + +"Stop, Jack, look into the depth of my eyes and skip those charming +nooks, bowers and rock girt dens where so many rehearse the preliminary +episode which leads to the altar. I know that by heart; skip the 'lover' +pages and read about the coach ride from Lyons, for we will get to Lyons +Friday, won't we?" + +So after a glass of water, an orange and readjusting of pillows, Jack +picked up his book again. + +"The ride from Lyons is so fraught with surprises that one becomes +distracted. Situated as it is in a veritable fiery furnace of red, +rough, ragged precipices, monuments of the eruptive age when volcanoes +vomited billowy lava over the face of the earth, Lyons is the antithesis +of what the traveler expected at the end of a tortuously curved railroad +track, over which the 'mixed' train of freight and disgruntled humanity +has been jerked, jostled and jumped along for about three hours, +covering forty miles. + +"But a delicious dinner awaits; generally fried chicken, southern style. +This does not mean a sun dried remnant of a wing, or the active +extremity of a leg with a burnt bone protruding through gristly skin, +but a nice, big piece of a yellow-legged Plymouth Rock, the real +article, hatched by a mother hen acquainted with the business and not +one of those Illinois river incubators that furnish spring chickens at +all seasons of the year to be kept well frozen in cold storage until +called for. This chicken is fried in ranch butter to a golden russet +brown, if you happen to know what color cooking calls for, and a whole +lot of it comes in on one great big platter, so you get a chance to pick +a good joint, but any part of such a chicken is good." + +"Jack, you are putting in a whole lot that is not in that book just to +make me hungry. My mouth has been puckered up for half an hour to get a +bite of that 'yaller leg.' We are near Springfield; let's eat." + +Suiting the action to the word they joined the motley throng in the rush +for the dining-room, as the train came to a stop for forty minutes. + +Fresh Connecticut River shad and roe, new green peas, new potatoes in +cream, lettuce, radishes. + +"There, that will kill your chicken fever for a time," said Jack, as he +ordered for both. + +"You may order me a piece of lemon pie, Jack. I see some on the +sideboard and the meringue is about two inches thick." + +"We want to go over and see the train for the north pull out; might see +some Bozrah people, Hazel," said Jack, after the dinner, "it leaves five +minutes before we do." + +"Oh, sure enough, and there are a lot of students just going home. I +suppose Chiquita is in Denver by this time." + +"Hazel, there is old Deacon Petherbridge and Elam Tucker. I'll bet +they've been down to New Haven on a horse trade. You know Elam had the +big livery stable that burned down when you were eight and I was just +eleven. You remember the Tucker boy was foolish and set fire to the hay, +'Wanted to see it burn,' he told the town marshal. But we must get +aboard." + +The last beams of rose-tinted sunlight percolated through the gathering +darkness as the train sped on its way, winding in and out among the +hills of western Massachusetts. Hazel watched the fading panorama as it +dissolved in the gloom of the night. She was thinking of her happy +school days among those very hills through which she was now gliding, a +one-day bride, wife of her childhood lover. As the scenes vanished she +shyly snuggled a little closer and whispered, "Jack, we will always be +happy, won't we?" + +"Why, yes; but what made you ask it?" + +"Oh, just 'cause," continuing, "I kinder wish we had gone around by +Hoosac tunnel, we could have seen 'Old Bozrah' hills and"-- + +"I guess my new wife is a little homesick," consolingly interrupted +Jack. "Suppose we visit Old Bozrah when we come back and have a famous +time going nutting and picking autumn leaves"-- + +"And getting ivy poisoned so my face will be all spots next winter. I +guess not." + +The obsequious, ebony-hued gem'man, in white coat with black buttons, +interrupted the first family differences. + +"If yoh doan mind, I'd laik to fix up yoh section; got so much to do +won't git through 'fore midnight." + +"All right, where can we go? This one across here is unoccupied," +replied Jack, wishing to accommodate. + +"Dat section, sah, will not be taken until we neah Albany, sah," came +from the man of tips and corporation dignity. + +They had been seated but a few moments when the occupant of the section +next forward of their own was obliged to find temporary quarters as the +ever-obliging servant of monopoly touched his cap for permission. A lady +of prepossessing countenance, faultlessly gowned and of gracious manner, +knocked, as it were, at Jack's door, addressing him, "May I occupy this +vacant seat while the porter arranges my domicile? Pardon the intrusion, +but all other avenues seem already taxed." + +"Certainly, it is no intrusion; in fact, we shall be glad to have you, +as you have had a long siege of solitaire," replied Jack. + +"I do get so lonesome on my trips that I sometimes wish some one else +had the position," answered the lady with that assurance which +accompanies experience. + +"Gathering from that, I judge you travel for business instead of +pleasure," said Jack. + +"Yes, I make two trips a year on business. I am buyer for Stoddersmith +of Boston, and am on my way to Colorado and California. I shall visit +Estes Park, Manitou and other points, then go to India and China." + +Jack was no more surprised than if she had told him she was +quartermaster in the navy, or a field marshal in the German army. He +looked incredulous. The lady handed him her card, which read, "Miss +Asquith, Stoddersmith's, Boston," remarking that if it would be +agreeable she would tell them how it happened a woman occupied so +important a position, and naively added, "The only firm in the world who +employs one of our sex in this department, even as a saleslady." + +"Oh, do tell us," said Hazel, and to Jack, "Just think of a woman going +alone to India to buy goods!" + +"This trip is really a part of my twenty-fifth anniversary with the +firm,"-- + +Hazel interrupted. "Pardon me, but do you mean to say you have been +twenty-five years with one firm?" + +"Yes, and I am but forty-five. I went to work, a girl of fifteen, in one +of the then larger western cities and after five years concluded I would +prefer an eastern house. New York did not offer the inducement which I +found in Boston. I was placed in the fur stock in winter and lighter +wraps in summer. For some reason, after I had been with them ten years, +they transferred me temporarily into the present department, later +returning me for one winter to the furs. At the end of that season I was +given the option of management of the entire wrap stock or a permanent +place in the other line. I preferred the latter. I did not feel +confidence enough in myself to be a buyer. You see, if certain styles of +goods fail to 'go,' fail to become popular or to bring a good profit, +there is a vacancy and a new buyer takes up the department. My sales in +the new stock increased steadily. It became positively embarrassing to +me at times when customers refused to have their wants attended to by +the men in the stock, men who had been there many years longer than I +had. But the fact was, it finally became necessary for me to make +appointments just the same as dentists do in order to give the attention +necessary to the trade. Three years ago I made my first attempt in +buying from manufacturers in France. That trip was one continual round +of 'stage fright,' and even after the goods were in the house I worried +myself sick for fear the end of the season would be a 'blank,' as the +boys say about lottery tickets, but the books showed a very profitable +period in the face of grave reverses to the general trade. And now, to +show their confidence in me as well as making me the magnificent present +of a trip to India, I am on my way to buy goods. Isn't it lovely of +them?" + +"Well, you deserve it, even more if anything. Just imagine working for +one firm a quarter of a century," spoke up Hazel very energetically. + +"Many firms," said Jack, weighing his words, "send 'style hunters' +abroad for the effect the mail from a foreign port has on their +customers. Half the time these 'hunters' stay long enough to mail their +announcements, like as not printed in the United States, look at a few +hats or garments, perhaps buy a 'pattern' or two, and then return home. +Other firms do send buyers into various ports abroad. Some have resident +buyers, but I never knew before of any firm sending a buyer from the +ranks of the fair sex to the Orient. Let me compliment you, Miss +Asquith, on your high achievement. It certainly demonstrates the +advancement of woman's sphere. But may I ask you a pertinent question +regarding the social part of your life?" + +"Certainly, I can guess what you want to know, and let me say, at first, +I used to feel dreadfully when I found that the working girl is to a +great degree ostracised by what is called society. But I learned that +society is treacherous. If one has lots of money to spend there are +certain attractions that it takes money to enjoy or provide. The +different degrees of wealth provide their respective scale of eligible +members to make up their circle of society, and the lesser lights are +eclipsed or paled into insignificance by the grander candle power. It is +the same in business, professions, art and politics, so I found that my +sphere was probably cast in just as pleasant places among my class of +those who work for a living, as though I had been evolved by marriage or +fortune into a society star of any magnitude, where the jealousies and +'snubs' are even harder to be endured because of the still greater +lustre found or imagined among more brilliant or exclusive sets into +which I could not enter. Do I make it clear?" + +"Very; indeed, you echo my own theory. But I could not have expressed it +as clearly as you have," replied Jack. + +"After all," continued Miss Asquith, "I doubt if the very rich obtain as +much unalloyed pleasure from life as do the middle classes who do not +aspire to greatness and are educated from infancy to make themselves +happy in the strata to which they are indigenous, as one may put it. +They are free to come and go any and everywhere, while the wealthy +commence life in charge of a nurse girl, are educated by private tutors, +attended by chaperones in their courtship and graduate simply to be put +in charge of the butler, footman, coachman and maid. But I guess I have +worn you out with my sermon on riches, and will say good night." + +Hazel and Jack joined in their good night and discussed the subject some +time, deciding to ask Miss Asquith to meet Chiquita and the four go as +one party to Estes Park. As Hazel said, "It will give Chiquita a grand +chance to study another phase of the life of her white sister, and, +Jack, I guess the red man's squaw is not alone in the field of drudgery, +after all." + +Owing to through tickets having been procured, it became necessary for +Jack to go one route while Miss Asquith took another from Chicago to +Denver, arrangements being made to that end the day following. Jack had +to get his tickets viséd at the Chicago office and for some technical +reason the matter was of such a nature that it required the O. K. of the +General Passenger Agent. As he awaited an audience, the official being +for the moment engaged with another person, evidently a stranger to city +methods and customs, Jack struggled with a long forgotten, dimly +familiar something about the man that recalled brain impressions, which +they say are never destroyed when once imprinted. He had been directed +to see Mr. Lillis at such a room, in such a building, but that name +carried no suggestion. It did not seem to fit the groping fancy of his +mind. Still the name seemed to associate itself with the party then +engaging the General Passenger Agent. As the stranger turned to go he +stopped in front of Jack, looked at him a moment, then put out his hand, +"Shake, old man; guess you don't re-cog-nize Cal Wagner in his store +clothes. I jess cum out to God's country once more afore I pass in my +chips to see how things look in civilization. How be ye?" + +Of course Jack then remembered his quondam friend during the races on +the Ute reservation, and the name Lillis puzzled him more than ever. He +greeted Cal in a hearty manner, introducing Hazel. + +"Wait a minute while I get my tickets fixed, then I'll have a chat with +you," said Jack. + +As he presented his tickets, stating the object of his errand, he +noticed the official had a glass eye and scar near his ear. When the +tickets were returned a name written across them identified so +unmistakably a part of Jack's "vision" that he immediately recalled the +story which Cal Wagner told him years before of the first grave in +Silver Cliff. The name was "Bert Lillis." Allowing his curiosity to +prevail, he asked abruptly, "Mr. Lillis, were you ever in Silver Cliff?" + +The official started, a shiver ran through his frame, the color left his +face until it was like a piece of Parian marble, while he replied just +audibly, helplessly, "Yes," adding quickly, "Come in, I guess you must +know. I--did you ever see me before?" + +Jack shook his head, but turning to Cal said, "Cal, this is Bert Lillis, +formerly of Silver Cliff." + +Cal looked from one to the other and replied, "Guess you are mistaken. +Lillis is dead many years." + +"No, he is still alive," said the official. "Come in." + +Upon being seated, no one seemed desirous of broaching the painful +subject uppermost in their minds, while Hazel was completely mystified +as to the conduct of the three men. Finally, with a great effort to +restrain his feelings, his head bowed upon his breast, the railroad man +said in broken sentences: "I--for fifteen years a blackened pall has +shadowed my path, a floating, abandoned derelict moored to my heart has +dragged me against the buffeting waves of the sea of life or held me +helpless in the trough as storm crests broke over me in my misery. A man +marked with the brand which God placed upon Cain for the murder of his +brother, yet I was exonerated by the jury. I shot Les McAvoy in the +discharge of my duty. I was a mere boy, without money, scantily clad, in +search of wealth with which to support my mother, and had to accept the +only opportunity presented in that lawless mining camp. I had no tools +or trade and was not strong enough to do the work required of miners, +and the camp had not advanced far enough to give employment to the +ordinary run of commercial wage earners. It was instilled into me in +early life to do my duty in whatever capacity I served, under all +circumstances, and I considered it my duty to protect that gambling +table even at the risk of my own life. The years of mental anguish which +I have lived since that fatal moment, and the years which my poor old +mother has had her head bowed in sorrow"-- + +"Wait a moment, Mr. Lillis," interrupted Cal. "You did not kill Les +McAvoy." + +"What is that--you say I did not? Oh! I wish--it is good of you to try +to erase the stigma, but the evidence, the facts, the coroner's verdict, +'at the hands of Bert Lillis.' Oh, no, no"--sadly commented Lillis. + +"Mr. Lillis, I will prove to you what I say is truth, and if the grave +of Les McAvoy has remained untouched all these years, the evidence is in +the coffin," replied Cal. + +"Tell it! tell it! prove, first, that you were there; describe the +scene"-- + +"You were dealing, you raised a Colt's old-fashioned, powder-and-ball +navy six-shooter from yer lap"-- + +"Yes, I had cleaned up that old gun and loaded it with fresh powder, +ball and new caps that day. They told me to"--interrupted Mr. Lillis. + +"Sam Tupper sat in a chair on top of a dry-goods box; he was lookout. A +man with mustache, dead black, like India ink. Les did not like your +remarks and started to rise up in his chair, his hand goin' to his +pistol pocket. You lifted that big Colt's with both hands and as soon as +the muzzle of it was pintin' up and away from your own body you pulled +the trigger. Les had his own weapon out; you saw it, was frightened, +dropped your own gun and tried to slip under the table. As you went down +Les placed the muzzle of his gun agin yer eye and cut loose. While this +was goin' on Tupper never moved until he saw a chanst to open a drawer, +grab a pearl-handled, silver-plated shootin' iron. He stood up, advanced +one step, and fired downwardly at Les McAvoy's breast. Les writhed, +turned completely around, his hand convulsively endeavoring to get an +aim at Tupper, who stood with a malicious grin waiting for McAvoy again +to face him, ready to fire again if need be, but he saw it was useless. +As McAvoy finally pivoted, the pistol dropped to the floor, and with a +crash he fell flat on his back, dead. You were under the table. Tupper +stepped from the box, his six-shooter a smokin' and said, 'You got it +that time,' then put the gun in his pocket." + +"Where were you?" exclaimed Mr. Lillis. + +"Right agin the wall, and McAvoy's head struck at my feet. One man saw +this besides myself. He wore three gold nuggets on his shirt front, and +me and him figgered it out that night and again the next morning, but +mum was the word. We knew the gamblers would kill us both if we told +what we seen. I left the place and returned just as the last testimony +was being given. There was no evidence given of Tupper having fired a +shot. As the body lay upon its side on the floor there was one wound in +the breast near the left center. Just under the skin in the small of the +back was a dark, cone-shaped substance. It was the lead bullet from that +pearl-handled six-shooter. The round bullet from your Colt's navy went +through the roof." + +"Gentlemen," said Lillis, "I am now able to relieve my mind from this +hideous vision, and it will bring happiness to my mother. I can see now +why the gamblers removed me to Rosita and furnished me with +transportation and money to leave Colorado when I recovered sufficiently +to travel. The ball from McAvoy's pistol caught the lower portion of my +eye, and the turning of my head just before he fired caused the bullet +to pass out near my ear, instead of going into my brain." + +"We must go now, as it is near train time," said Jack. + +"Me, too," said Cal. + +"Are you going west?" asked Jack. + +"Same train you take, I guess," replied Cal. + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Lillis, "I regret you leave so soon. I would like +to entertain you if you care to stay over. If not now, at some future +time; and, Mr. Wagner, you have done me a great favor. My poor old +mother can live the rest of her life peacefully. Good-bye! good-bye!" + +As the train pulled out of the station on the way to Denver the +principal topic of conversation was the remarkable coincidence of the +rencounter of Jack and Cal, emphasized by the more remarkable meeting of +Cal and Bert Lillis. + +"Well, that beats me," said Cal. + +"I've got another surprise in Denver for you," said Jack. + +"Will it beat this one?" + +"Wait until you see our old friend, Chiquita." + +"Chiquita, the injun gal?" asked Cal, inquiringly. + +"Yes, Yamanatz's daughter." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ESTES PARK. + + +The renewal of the acquaintance between Jack and Cal was an opportune +one. As each unfolded his past and expectations for the future there +seemed to be a bond of mutual sympathy formed unlike the ordinary +friendships. + +"Jack," said Cal, confidentially, "I have laid up a good pile of 'dust' +and got as likely a ranch outfit as any of 'em. I ain't so much on talk +as some fellers with slippery tongues, neither is any one going to get +the worst of it as they do what deals with some of them slippery +talkers. When Cal says a thing's so, it's so, just as sure as gun's made +of iron. Now, I'm gittin' on in years, an' git lonesome as a settin' hen +without airy egg. I ain't a pinin' away, but I would like to gin some +desarvin' woman a good home. I'd kinder like to live in Denver and have +a house up among them nabobs. I don't expect that big red stone quarry +is goin' to give out right away and I just as lieve as not use some of +it to build a decent mansion. Then I've got a few thousand +steers;--they's one bunch of eighteen hundred fat ones, every one of +them beef to the heels, true Herefords, got the Hereford mark, that will +run twelve to fourteen hundred pounds apiece, and prime beeves are good +as cash anywhere. I think that bunch of steers ought to provide a pretty +good place to live in as long as the stone don't cost nothin'." + +[Illustration: THE "KEYHOLE," LONG'S PEAK, 13,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL.] + +Cal stopped and looked curiously at Jack, who was looking curiously at +him. + +"You are not so awful poor. Been about fifteen years making it?" asked +Jack musingly. + +"Well, longer than that. I took up that stone ranch twenty years ago. +Never thought much of it until Denver got into the buildin' boom and +some feller was cartin' away my red rock without asking--the cattle, +well in freightin' and ranchin' I run onto many a 'maverick' durin' the +spring round-ups, then some young tenderfoot would get a rich uncle to +stake him; but when one of them March blizzards struck his weavin', +staggerin', half-famished bunch he would get sick and be glad to turn +over his travelin' boneyard for a couple of hundred or less, an' I kept +addin' to 'em until I got into raisin' nothin' but thoroughbreds," +answered Cal. + +"Let me tell you something, Cal. I'll put you onto the right track and +if you can't manage to do the right thing at the right time, you'll have +to live in that red house by yourself, see?" + +"I savvey." + +Hazel commenced to smile. She had joined in the general conversation +until Cal got sentimental, but when Jack joined forces with the honest +man of the plains who acknowledged to picking up "mavericks," although +she did not know what they were, still she felt that it was some "get +something for nothing" scheme and she was afraid Jack might acquire bad +habits; then she was inclined to resent any effort on the part of Mr. +Jack to become a promoter of some matrimonial enterprise, so she smiled +and sententiously remarked: "I guess you need not bind yourself to +deliver any foreign goods for domestic purposes, free of charge, Mr. +Jack." + +"Now listen, my dear," said Jack. "Wait until you learn what's trumps +before you tip your hand. I'm going to invite Cal to go with us to Estes +Park. He can be so useful to me, you know, if I want to go out for a +deer hunt; then he can pilot Miss Asquith over the big rocks when I have +my arms full attending to you," said Jack, with a merry twinkle. + +"Oh, ho! so it is Miss Asquith you seek to waylay, is it? Well, that is +different. Say, I guess I'll have to throw up my hand. I have no trumps! +success to you." + +Cal laughed, Jack made merry over the prospect, and Hazel could not help +being amused at the deliberate plot to kidnap a woman's heart who had +for twenty-five years earned her own living. + +"Cal, there is a Miss Asquith going to meet us in Denver and join us on +a trip to Estes Park. Just you come along and help me take care of the +ladies. You have nothing on hand and you will enjoy the trip anyway. Now +that is all I want. If you get tangled up in any foolishness"-- + +"Now mind, if I do go, and get half a chance I'll stake a claim sure as +gun's made of iron," jokingly remarked Cal. "I will have to go to the +ranch first: I'll stop off at Hugo and be in Estes in a few days. I'll +find you all right," so Jack and Hazel continued alone on their journey. + +"Say, Jack," said Hazel, after Cal left them, "what a joke it would be +if Mr. Wagner should marry Miss Asquith." + +"Why shouldn't he? Of course she is much better educated; he has the +gruff ways of the rich frontiersman, but he is rich and not so much +older than she is. He will give her an elegant home, where he will be +like the historic 'bull in a china shop.'" + +"Just what was in my mind," interrupted Hazel. "Do you remember she said +two or three times, joking, of course, 'I don't see why I never could +find a farmer who would take pity on me.'" Both laughed heartily at such +a prospect. The long, dusty ride over sand hills, through dreary, brown +sunburned cattle ranges from Cheyenne Wells to Hugo and Hugo to the end +of their journey, finally came to an end. The welcome snow-capped peaks +freshened the superheated atmosphere and Denver with all its wealth, +health and climate was reached. It did not take long for Jack and Hazel +to find Chiquita, and within an hour or two Miss Asquith arrived. They +were in a mood to enjoy all the sights of the big city of the plains; +but what chiefly impressed the new visitors was the clearness of the +air, the bracing, inspiring vigor which it imparted, and the absence of +that aftermath, which always followed exercise in the lower altitudes on +the lakes or sea coast. + +The slow dragging, mixed train deposited its burden in Lyons just as the +book said it would, and the red volcanic rocks baked them, and the +"yaller legged" chicken, in all its delicious russet brown jacket, was +served to the hungry quartet, who renewed their grumbling on the park +hack as the driver cracked his whip and the wheels crunched their way +through the deep hot sand. Slowly the great vehicle groaned along for +perhaps a mile, when a sudden turn in the road brought them to a bridge +which spanned a clear sparkling stream, and the ascent of the first +lofty foothills was begun. Eyes brightened, ejaculations of surprise and +delight followed each other in rapid succession as "Johnnie" cracked his +whip and dexterously guided the now thoroughly contented coachful of +pleasure seekers along a narrow ledge, winding around some precipice or +taking a run down some steep declivity that caused the timid to shriek +and the blood to tingle in the more reckless. Up, nearer and nearer the +sky, ever leaving the top of the next hill below them, until the summit +was reached. + +Coats that had been discarded because of the heat were resumed, light +wraps were called for by the ladies, and the descent towards the Park +commenced. Great stretches of pine forest fringed the barren rocks on +some of the long ridges, while on others a chaotic interwoven mass of +tangled "dead wood" silently proclaimed the terrible devastation of the +devouring mountain fire. + +As the first view of the Park greeted the travelers, a merry shout rent +the air, the coach pulled up at the side of the toll road and everybody +alighted to "stretch," get out still heavier wraps, and make ready for +the remaining four hours' ride. Hazel had exhausted her supply of +English suitable for the occasion, while Jack and Chiquita enjoyed the +attempts of Miss Asquith to do the subject justice in "shop" words. + +Even the heavier wraps were none too warm as the coach reached the foot +of the last incline and rolled easily over the hard, gritty, well kept +turnpike. The meadow stretched before them, the Big Thompson easily +distinguished in its center and the unbroken line of mountains walling +up to the sky, shut them out from the noisy world which lay just beyond +Long's Peak, whose snow-white night cap was then a mass of burnished +copper from the last rays of the setting sun. + +"Oh, Jack, how supremely grand," was all Hazel ventured. + +"It is just lovely," murmured Miss Asquith. + +The great triangle sent forth its warning that dinner was waiting, and +reluctantly they entered the house where the warmth of a little wood +fire took the chill off the crisp air. + +"Think of it, 90 degrees in Chicago yesterday, today a fire to warm the +house!" exclaimed Hazel. + +"It is just lovely," said Miss Asquith. + +"Dinner," shouted a white-aproned darky. + +A great platter of deliciously browned brook trout stood appetizingly in +the center of a round table, and the four chairs were immediately +occupied by four hungry people, who waived all ceremony, as well as the +every day stereotyped roast beef, making trout the Alpha and Omega of +their first Estes Park repast. + +The sight-seeing was begun at daybreak, Jack routing out his party in +order to see the sunrise and the dissolving mists which hung low on the +mountain sides as they disappeared beneath the warming influence of old +Sol. An early breakfast was followed by unpacking of trunks, arranging +of fishing tackle, cameras, hammocks and paraphernalia which they +disposed of in and about the four-room cottage near the main hostelry. +Great elk and deer antlers decorated buildings all about them and the +emblem of occupancy was the fly rod standing in some convenient corner. +Saddle horses, phaetons and four-seated spring wagons were standing +about, chartered for the day's outings, while already on the banks of +the streams were anglers casting their favorite flies over pool, riffle +and swirl, in expectant anticipation of luring the wary, ever alert +inhabitant which lurked beneath some rock or bank. A flash of something +like light, followed by the straightening of a line, the symmetrical +curve of a split bamboo, the sharp click of a swiftly revolving reel in +crescendo as the line cleft the water, then the lull, the renewed dash +for liberty as a spotted, open mouthed one-pounder madly threw himself +from the water, shaking his head and falling with a splash back into the +stream,--the critical moment,--but the barb holds and a limp, pink +tinted trout, with extended gills, floats easily into the landing net--a +prize is captured which proves the record breaker of the day, all within +sight of the "tavern." + +Day after day excursion followed exploration; fishing in Willow Park or +Horseshoe, the cañon and the "pool," over on the St. Vrain and the +meadow; in the latter place as the season advanced one becomes familiar +with the finny tenant who has outwitted all the temptations of +professional angling, and many an hour can be spent devising new +deceptions with which to entice the sagacious big ones, those who have +felt the keen thrust of a barbed hook and learned not to grab every +dainty morsel floating near its den. Few captures of the landlords of +the meadow stream are recorded. + +Among the tourists were numbers of English members of the nobility, and +in fact a great portion of the Park was the property of a well-known +lord, whose representative entertained his lordship's friends. The grand +herd of Hereford cattle grazing in the park belonged to the English +lord, as well as many of the blooded horses found at the corral. + +Just a week after Jack had tested his ability attending to the caprices +of a bride and his two protegés, they were all resting in easy chairs or +in the hammocks, awaiting the arrival of the stage from Lyons, when a +pair of handsome brown horses, flecked with foam, swung into view, +drawing a buckboard in which sat a lonesome traveler leading a beautiful +roan saddle pony. It was Cal, and as he greeted Jack, who had advanced +to meet the outstretched hand, he said, "I thought perhaps I'd run +across a 'maverick' up here." + +Jack understood and replied, "Glad you come prepared to put your brand +on any that you catch in the round up." + +As they were instructing the corral men what to do with the horses Miss +Asquith said to Hazel, "Oh, Mrs. Sheppard, isn't that a stunning +turnout? I guess it must be my rich farmer." To which Hazel nodded +assent, remarking through her smiles, "There's no telling." + +Chiquita joined in the merriment with a suggestion, "Suppose, Miss +Asquith, you let me get some Indian lovers' ferns and you dry them, then +crush them with your own hands while you chant some lines which one of +the great Sachems, in time long ago, obtained from a good spirit; and +the good spirit promised the great Sachem that any of his maidens could +cause an obstinate lover to woo her, or make a recreant spouse return to +the side of his love if the maiden or wife would mix some of the ferns +with some killikinnick, so the object of solicitude would smoke himself +into her presence." + +"Oh! That is just lovely. I think I would rather have one smell kind of +smoky any how. I just abominate these scrupulously clean men who +saturate the atmosphere with Jockey Club; it is too much like 'shop.' +Ugh!" + +"Sh!" said Hazel, "they are coming. Welcome, Mr. Wagner, and here is a +poor unfortunate, Mr. Wagner, who is on her way to China; she says she +is going to bring back a Chinaman or die in the attempt--Miss Asquith." + +"You need not go to China for 'em. I've got one down at the ranch that +I'd just as lieve swap as not." + +"Is he the genuine article with a dragon on his blouse?" retorted Miss +Asquith. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wagner." + +"Thanks; and, Chiquita, who would have thought it? You here, and, well, +this beats me," turning to Jack, who was enjoying the scene. + +"My surprise I promised you," said he. + +"Surprise, well I should say so, sure as gun's made of iron, but tell +me--" + +"I'll tell you myself," broke in Chiquita. "Yamanatz's daughter has been +to college for the last six or eight years. Chiquita has adopted the +life of her white sisters." She said it rather regretfully, Cal thought, +but he replied: + +"The flower of the Utes is a daisy, sure as gun's made of iron." + +"Now, Mr. Wagner, that is not fair; you might have said something nice +about me," playfully remarked Miss Asquith. + +"I suppose I never will be forgiven for such a lack of good manners," +said Cal, continuing in that open-hearted off-hand way, "but let me tell +you how I will even up. Tomorrow morning you shall ride that roan for me +and the rest of us will trail along behind and take your dust, for that +horse is a thoroughbred." + +Just then the dinner gong sounded. The party planned an outing at +Horseshoe Falls, Chiquita and Miss Asquith, with Cal as escort, all +mounted, while Jack and Hazel drove in the buckboard, carrying supplies +and fishing tackle. Ten miles over a hard, sandy road, a couple of +hours' fishing, lunch in camp fashion, then an hour's rest and return to +the hotel. Miss Asquith was a trifle timid at first, but she was not a +novice and soon proved well able to master her mount, although he was +spirited and inclined to test his powers against all comers. But she +could not catch trout. Cal, of course, found it necessary to spend most +of his time extricating her line from the limbs of trees or driftwood in +the stream and changing the flies. + +He showed her when and how to let the sombre hued gray hackle or gaudy +"royal coachman" settle daintily along the riffle, or drop a "black +gnat" from a bunch of grass on the opposite bank as though it was a sure +enough bug. But the lady in search of a Chinaman could not hook the lord +of the water. She was either too slow or too quick, and the exasperating +ineffectual attempts to capture one _little one_ of the many that +rose to the bait, took it with a rush only to drop it instantly, or the +ones even darting out of the water as she lifted her flies too quickly, +wore her patience to a frazzle. In fact, after losing one grand fellow +that she had managed to hold for just an instant before he broke her +leader, she was fairly upset and could not keep back the tears of +disappointment. + +"Now, little one, you must not give up that way," Cal expostulated. +"These pesky fellows are just like lightning. Let me see if I can't get +that one. Now watch my fly as it goes into the dark shadow by that tree +and I will skitter the second fly sort of dancing-like diagonally across +the lower corner of the swirl that makes over that sunken rock--Gee, +whiz! I've got him, and see, there is another just grabbed the second +fly. Now the trick is to let them fight it out among themselves while I +hold this end of the argument. Two are not so hard to 'whip' as one if +you keep your line just easy tight as they are pulling against each +other all the time. But we will have to go down by that little beach +where I can wade out with a landing net; the tail fly being down stream, +the farthest will drop into the net first, then I let the other float in +on top of him, see?" + +"I don't care, I think it is real mean I can't catch one," replied Miss +Asquith, "but oh, ain't they pretty?" + +"Guess they are half pounders, perhaps the biggest will go three +quarters," said Cal, as he adjusted the "shrinker," a little spring +scale which he took from his pocket. "Nine ounces and fourteen ounces, +larger than I thought they were," said Cal, as he placed them in his +creel. "I guess we'd better be moving towards the camp, and as we go I +will tell you one secret of catching trout. As your flies settle into +the water, pull against them easy all the time as though they were +fastened to something, a good deal like 'feeling a horse's mouth' when +driving. This seeming tension, while infinitesimal, is enough that when +a trout grabs the fly he can not drop it; and when you feel the 'tug,' +instead of jerking your line out of the water turn your hand over and +upward a little. This will set the hook deep, then land your catch--if +you can." + +"Oh, yes, it is easy enough to say it," replied Miss Asquith. + +The camp was soon reached and a gay party discussed the two "big ones" +at dinner upon their arriving at the hotel. + +"There are very few trout caught in the Park that exceed a pound, and +more six ouncers or less than in excess of six," said Cal. "The large +three to eight pound red throated mountain trout are more plentiful in +the waters that empty into the Pacific Ocean or Rio Grande River than in +the streams that go to the North Platte and on into the Missouri River." + +Trips of this nature and exploration tours followed each other day after +day, until all the country had been visited. + +One trip which Jack deferred was to Long's Peak, and as day succeeded +day he was conscious that his little party cast longing glances toward +that snowcapped, uncompromising sentinel of the plains. So few ventured +to undertake the fatigue incident to the wearisome and perilous journey +that little was heard of the experiences, and those who did accomplish +it seemed loath to recount much of their experience. When the signs in +the zodiac at last became propitious, and all were physically and +morally equal to the attempt, preparations were made to go to the Half +Way house, Lamb's ranch, and the next morning, at four o'clock, make an +early start to climb the peak. No fishing tackle was carefully stowed +away, no odds wagered on results, and no great amount of unrestrained +merriment attended the "make ready" as wraps, lunches, heavy ironshod +walking sticks and sundry necessaries were packed into the vehicles. +Three good saddle ponies of the Indian variety were provided for the +ladies, while Jack and Cal made arrangements to get their saddle animals +at Lamb's. The road to the Half Way house was of the usual rough +thoroughfare, corduroyed in places, steep and fringed with pine trees, +whose uncanny whisperings added to an already semi-funereal gloom which +hung oppressively over the party. This was partially due to the +impressive monosyllabic advice given in low voices by guides, hostlers +and residents of the park. + +After a restless night, just as the gray dawn of morning was breaking +through the eastern sky, the lengthening and shortening of stirrups, +changing of packs, wrapping up bundles of extra clothing and other +miscellany occupied the time while breakfast was being prepared. With a +good-bye to those who remained at the ranch, a cavalcade of a dozen, +including guides, started away in the crisp, frosty air, each one eager +to be in the lead, and on the return each one was contented to be the +drone. The sun was perhaps two hours high when timber line was reached. +Frequent stops for breathing had to be made and saddle girths adjusted +as higher altitudes and steeper grades were encountered. The +inexperienced noted the panting horses, but did not fully grasp the +terrific effort required to climb those precipitous inclines at eleven +thousand feet above sea level. Not a cloud, not a particle of haze +blurred the clear atmosphere. The pines soughed dreamily and waved their +needle tipped arms in a lazy, indolent manner, wafting fragrance and +vigor to the world. The trail wound its serpentine way around hill after +hill toward the monster peak, standing cold and aloof, riveted, as it +were, to the deep blue firmament against which it seemed to rest. As the +sky was approached nearer and nearer, the vegetation grew sparse and +stunted. Coarse rye grass in clumps few and far between gave evidence of +nature's provision, even at that altitude, for wandering deer or elk +that might be left behind when the great winter migration of the +restless bands sought the lower regions. Great boulders appeared more +frequently and the trail led the party over slide rock a great portion +of the way. The squeaks of conies and shrill whistles of groundhogs +could be distinguished above the clatter of horses' hoofs, for timber +line is their home. + +At last the trees were left behind, the great boulder bed stretched +before them, an ocean of waste rock, formidable, repellant, uninviting. +The "Key Hole" was plainly visible, two miles distant, while the summit +of the peak towered far above, almost over them. Horses were lariated, +saddles taken off, and lunches stowed into pockets, the stout iron +pointed sticks were brought into service and the signal given, "Onward." +The way at first was over soft grassy spots interspersed between the +waves of rocks, here and there a scrawny runt of a pine tree, looking +more like roots growing needles than a tree, beneath the shelter of +which the famous ptarmigan, or mountain quail, kept lonely vigil. + +The last vestige of verdure passed, the immensity of that vast area of +huge, desolate, dreary waste of rock appalls the mind. Step by step, up, +up, over those ever increasing boulders, it did not seem like mounting +higher and higher, but as though one was in a gigantic, fearful stone +tread mill and the earth gradually sinking away, down, down, into space +below. After the boulder bed, the snow, hard, crusty, firm enough to +bear a horse. The "Key Hole"--and as the party passed through to the +eastern slope, they found spread out beneath their feet the dry, dusty +plain, with its brown coat of grass and alkali, stretching away into +nothing. A venture to the edge of an immense great rock upon which one +could lie down and gaze into the depth below was like looking into +eternity, the contemplation of which baffles the mind for words to +describe the awesome, fearful grandeur of God's handiwork as viewed from +Long's Peak. No other peak so barren, no other peak so lonesome, no +other peak so supernaturally devoid of at least one redeeming feature as +Long's. From its barren crest one seems able to touch the sky, and one +bound into space would land him beyond the world. To the right could be +seen Denver, there the Platte River, Longmont in a maze of alfalfa beds +and wheat fields, but these were as a drop of water to the ocean, a +grain of sand to the plains. A hasty lunch, dry indeed, but for the +accommodating snow bank which leaked enough to furnish ice water that +coursed in a stream about the size of the lead in a pencil down a +boulder, which dwarfed Cheops' pyramid. The labor involved in the return +trip caused dejection and woe. Lameness was the rule and only after much +coaxing, and threatening, could every one understand the peril which +awaited them, once the night settled down before the boulder beds were +crossed. + +Just below the "Key Hole" the guide conducted the party to a wooden slab +standing unpainted, weatherbeaten, bearing this inscription: + + Here + Carrie J. Welton + Lay to Rest + Died Alone + Sept. 28--1884. + +It was in a spot at the base of the "Key Hole" where the rocks stood on +end and seemed to disappear into the boulders, that made up that vast +boulder bed. From a prayer book, which Jack carried, he read the +following tale of the awful tragedy: + + PERISHED ALONE. + + From the Half Way House at break of day + A maiden gaily strode away, + To climb the heights of Long's Peak bold, + With guide to show the trail, I'm told; + For there's no path and the way is steep, + And death lurks 'round that grim old peak. + + 'Twas at the dawn of an autumn morn, + The pine trees soughed as if to warn + As two climbed o'er the boulder bed. + "Come back! The storm! 'Twill come," he said. + "On to the summit," she made reply. + "Why need we falter, you and I?" + + Then upward climbed to view the sight + Of raging storm on Long's Peak height, + And saw ambition's fixéd star + On guard, within the gates ajar, + Lest mortal man should enter in + Before absolved from venial sin. + + The solitude of those drear crests + No welcome gives to lingering guests + When storm king vies with mid-day sun + In battle, 'til the conquered one + Retreats for days, perhaps for weeks, + And gloom reigns o'er the lonely peaks. + + The wild wind shrieked as in snow and hail + They undertook the downward trail. + She brav'd the cold and murmured not, + As they groped their way from spot to spot; + Her wondrous strength succumbed at last + While yet the "Keyhole" must be passed. + + The stalwart guide in his arms then bore + Her fragile form, and ponder'd o'er + The waste of rocks beneath the "Key;" + For his strength was failing rapidly, + And night clouds dimm'd the tortuous way + Which few e'er tread e'en at mid-day. + + "You may go for help," she moaned at last, + As through the "Key" they slowly pass'd. + "The rocks will shelter me," she said, + And sank to rest on the boulder bed. + He covered her with the coat he wore, + Then hastened to the "Half Way" door. + + Another dawn of an autumn morn + In the eastern sky had been born, + As stalwart guides, with throbbing heads, + Toiled wearily o'er the boulder beds; + 'Midst cruel crags and waist-deep snow + They battled on against the foe. + + Up, up, they climb'd that dreadful night + And brav'd the storm on Long's Peak height; + Yet wild winds shrieked as heads were bow'd + To gaze with awe at the snowy shroud + In which she slept on her boulder bed. + "She lay to rest,--she's gone," they said. + +"Oh, dear, isn't it sad?" said Hazel and Miss Asquith in a breath. + +"She died alone?" queried Cal. + +"Yes, sir," spoke up a guide, "both of us would have perished, but she +was true grit to the last. I thought she might hold out, but the storm +grew worse as it grew darker." + +"Do you have such awful storms as early as September?" asked Hazel. + +[Illustration: "SHE LAY TO REST," ON HER BOULDER BED.] + +"Sometimes the first winter blizzards are pretty rough up here; +generally get a starter any time after the middle of September," +answered another guide. + +"We had better be moving," said Jack. + +"One moment, please. Would you mind giving me a copy of those verses +when we get to the ranch? I would like to show them to visitors," said +the guide. + +"Certainly, certainly; why, just take the prayer book. We will all put +our names in here right now and you can keep it to remember us by," +replied Jack. + +The dragging of swollen feet, weary bodies and aching limbs back over +that two miles of desolation was full of torture for all. The expected +relief when the horses were reached proved but an additional +multiplicity of aches, especially in the joints of the knees, where it +seemed as though iron pins were crunching the very cavities of those +valuable adjuncts to man's usefulness. + +Hazel cried, Chiquita even complained, and poor Miss Asquith,--well, Cal +had his hands full. He showed his frontier gallantry by picking her up +and carrying her down one steep grade as though she were but an infant, +and the episode did more to reinvigorate the dejected spirits of the +entire party than anything that could have happened. + +Nevertheless the Half Way house welcomed a hungry, cross, disgruntled +aggregation of mountain climbers. + +Said Jack as the guide bid him good-bye, "Don't you ever get tired of +seeing these peak scalers come near the place? They are all alike on the +home stretch, if they are able to stand up at all." + +"I must say I do. I wouldn't care if no one ever again wanted to make +that fool climb. Why, that senseless trip has often put folks to the bad +for months. They can ride up Pike's Peak, but they don't know what +climbing is until they tackle that old fellow. Well, adios; I'll say +this much, you've been the jolliest party this season." + +It was nine o'clock when the hotel was reached, and it was noon of the +next day before a lot of crippled tourists managed to limp into the +dining room, leaving a trail of arnica and pain killers everywhere they +went. + +"Oh, isn't this just lovely," said Miss Asquith, as Cal rolled her in an +invalid chair to her place at the table. + +It was a couple of days before the effects of the Long's Peak trip +abated to a degree that recreation once more became a pleasure. During +the days of sight seeing and exploration of Estes Park, Chiquita had +opportunity to study the character of the saleslady depicted by Miss +Asquith, but she had little chance to talk with the lady on whom the +years sat as easily as upon one in her teens, and whose vivacious +temperament was contagious. The enforced respite gave plenty of time for +recounting interesting episodes in Miss Asquith's life, which she did +with charming grace. + +To many, Miss Asquith seemed affected. The spontaneous spark of a +jovial, witty disposition burned just as brightly in her at forty-five +as it did a generation before, but the critic would not have it so. "It +is put on, it is not natural, it is out of place; she had better be +saying her beads preparatory to being buried," were some of the unkind +remarks heard. + +Hazel said to Jack, "She shocks one at first with her display of +artlessness as a stock in trade, until you learn by experience that it +is natural." + +"I presume, my dear, there are people at eighty who condemn the +'kittenish' actions of some at ninety, the same as those of thirty +criticise Miss Asquith. Is it envy?" + +"I'll tell you, Chiquita," said the lady in question the day after the +peak episode, "I find great enjoyment in being jolly, full of fun, +possibly at times breaking all written rules of decorum and dignity; for +why should we poor mortals go around with a long face, rigid arms and +mouths full of pious ejaculations just because the Puritans brought that +style from across the water? I have been doped on fashion for a quarter +of a century, and fashions change, but in that time I have learned that +to laugh is to be with the world. To weep is to be alone. Better be a +little frivolous with good appetite than strain at dignity and wail with +dyspepsia. This etiquette and form is only skin deep any way." + +"You are such a considerate little body I should have thought some +enterprising man would have captured you years ago," ventured Chiquita. + +"There was one, but he was stricken with fever and after that I never +have had a desire to become married. Think I would like to run a ranch, +though, now I am getting old and need some one to take care of me," she +playfully added, causing a genuine ripple of merriment. + +"Miss Asquith, you are all right," said Hazel. "Don't let these carping +critics cause you to forego any fun there is in life, even to playing +tag with a cattle king," which, of course, produced another burst of +laughter. + +"I shall have to insist upon your accompanying us to 'Buena Vista,' Miss +Asquith. I think you can spare the time and positively we can not get +along without you," said Chiquita. + +"I shall have to give up that pleasure. I must go on my journey." The +reply was rather sad, but she quickly recovered her usual vivacity. "I +want another trial at those fish. I suppose I will have to leave +Saturday, and this is Wednesday--" + +"Well, well, who are these girls conspiring against now?" said Cal, as +he drove up with Jack. + +"We have just talked Miss Asquith to death and tried to get her to go +with us to 'Buena Vista.' You will go, won't you, Cal?" said Chiquita. + +"Oh, you bet, I'd never lose such an opportunity. Guess you will change +your mind, Miss Asquith. In fact we will have to take you prisoner." + +"I want to catch a fish before I leave Estes. Now, be good and go down +in the meadow and tie one somewhere to the bank so I can find it," +banteringly replied Miss Asquith. + +"We will go Friday and I pledge the fish, a big one," said Cal. + +Seated upon the beautiful roan pony, Miss Asquith, followed by Cal, went +to the meadow Friday afternoon, while the others lolled in hammocks +around the hotel. The sky was just the least bit clouded and a warm +south wind blew lazily across the park. A few fingerlings had been +lifted from the riffles when Miss Asquith headed her pony into deep +water up stream at a big bend where the river was sixty feet wide. Cal +was busy whipping the eddies farther down. As her pony was well trained +to the angling pastime, he knew almost as well as his rider what was +wanted. Stepping slowly along until the water reached his belly the pony +stopped, Miss Asquith's flies flashed behind, then she gracefully +dropped the leader far over the stream to the other shore. + +"Oh, dear," she exclaimed, "they have gone too far and caught in the +grass. How--how will I ever--" + +Just then the tail fly dangled down to the surface of the water, held +back by the droppers, which were caught in the grass ever so lightly. +The top of something darted from under the bank and seized the fly. Miss +Asquith thought it was a muskrat, it was so big. Down went the line +deeper and deeper. She instinctively turned her hand and wrist in order +to free the hooks from the grass, and thus set the fly good and deep +into whatever was cavorting around, making her reel sing as she never +had heard it before. + +"Oh, Cal, quick! quick! come and get me," she called, little thinking +what she was saying, at the same time pressing her knee against the side +of the pony, who recognized the signal and turned toward the shore. Miss +Asquith allowed her rod to hold steady until she could dismount. By that +time Cal was at her side. + +"You've got a beauty, sure as gun's made of iron," said he. + +As she reeled in a little of the line the tension ceased and an immense +trout broke from the water. "Oh! Oh! what shall I do?" + +Cal spoke sternly, "Watch your line and don't be foolish." + +With that she settled down to her work and in a few moments had the +pleasure of floating the fish into the landing net, Cal wading out to +intercept it. As it went into the net she stood on the bank just above +him, a little beach giving him opportunity to make the capture. As he +stood there holding on to the staff of his landing net with one hand and +the line with the other, he said, "This trout is yours on one +condition--the fish, the horse and the man all go together. Say yes, and +the fish comes ashore, say no, and I turn him loose." + +"Yes, yes, y-e-s. Hurry up with the fish," she exclaimed, adding +excitedly, as Cal came to the bank, "I'll just kiss you right here for +the sake of the fish," and, suiting the action to the word, she planted +a good smack on his upturned mouth. + +"Now we will see what he weighs. But first here is your reward," +slipping a big solitaire off his finger and holding up his hand, "tie it +on if necessary." + +"Why, what is that for?" stammered she. + +"Didn't you say 'yes, yes, yes?'" + +"Yes." + +"Well, that meant fish, horse and man, and I'm the man." + +"Mr. Wagner--Cal--let me go. My! the people are all watching us." + +"Never mind, show them your hand. Just two pounds and a quarter," said +Cal, as he adjusted the scales, "the biggest one this season so far." + +"Yes, a fish, a horse and a man--quite a catch for one day," laughingly +said Miss Asquith. + +"The details of that catch are duly recorded in the hotel register and +never will be duplicated," said Cal at dinner, as the party made merry +and toasted the future ranch owner, who blushed rosy as a girl of +sixteen, while Cal was as brim full of joy as a lad with a new pair of +red top boots and sled to match. The following telegram fairly burned +the wires: + +"Stoddersmith, Boston. Caught a trout, a horse and a man with a six +ounce rod. Trip to India postponed. Resign position today. + + Miss Asquith." + +To which they replied: + +"Miss Asquith, Estes Park via Lyons, Colo. Congratulations. Fish, horse +and man uncertain property. Resignation accepted to take effect day of +ceremony. + + Stoddersmith." + +It was decided to go overland to Chiquita's Buena Vista ranch on +horseback and with pack animals, the road horses and buckboard being +started a few days ahead by way of Georgetown and the Berthoud Pass, to +await the party at Hot Sulphur Springs, the trail from Estes via +Specimen Mountain being impassable for anything on wheels. + +"I am very anxious," said Jack, "that Hazel should see the grandest bit +of scenery in Colorado. While the average mind is satisfied with Estes, +still there is one little area beyond Estes that surpasses anything +else, and there is but one way to get to it--walk." + +Two good camp hustlers were engaged to do the work of packing, putting +up tents and other duties in common. By going ahead a camp was located +and pitched by the time the sightseers overtook the advance guard. A +saddle horse to each member of the party, three small pack mules and a +Mexican burro--the Rocky Mountain canary which Jack promised his sister +year after year--the luggage so packed being ample for three times the +number in the party. + +The sun had crossed the noonday meridian when the final adios was given. +Striking to the right of the Horseshoe Park road the trail led into a +labyrinth of forest burned "down timber," miles of denuded +trees--sentries in nature's graveyard--and as the wind wheezed dismally +through the few branches left by the consuming fire, their creaking and +rattling was not unlike the clatter of a thousand skeletons assembled in +some vast amphitheatre to dance away a few years of eternity's exile. + +The first camp was made in the center of this weirdly fantastic home of +goblins and bogy men. The tents had been pitched and camp fires started +when Jack and his four companions came straggling along. The side packs, +containing commissary supplies, stood gaping, awaiting the cook. Frying +pans, coffee pot and "Dutch oven" appealed, as it were, for recognition, +so in one chorus the honor was thrust upon Jack to "get the first meal." +But he was a past-master in the art, notwithstanding he had not +officiated before in the presence of so "finnicky" an assemblage. + +"Now, you ladies who have a cupboard full of clean dishes to use when +you commence to prepare a meal, and a table to prepare it on and a cook +book to guide you, and a sink for the trash, and shelves full of handy +ingredients, and when the meal is ready every dish has been used and +every utensil stands neglected with traces of its having fulfilled a +mission belonging to it, and who sigh because there are so many pots, +stewpans and table dishes to wash and dry after the meal is over,--just +watch the frontier method." + +Jack had superintended the packing of the "mess box," so he knew where +all the supplies were. Seizing a stick, provided for the purpose, his +first act was just like that of a woman. He poked the fire, but in his +case it was to "draw out" a bed of coals on which he set the oven +skillet, a cast iron utensil about five inches deep, with long legs +under it and a bail and cast iron cover half an inch thick. The latter +he placed on the fire logs. Next he washed his hands, then put a +tablespoonful of coffee for each cup into a big pot and added cold +water. This was put on one corner of his bed of coals. Taking a six +quart pan he put in flour, some salt, a pinch of sugar, some milk--which +by good luck they had managed to capture at the last ranch--then some +baking powder, and stirred it all up with a big iron spoon until it was +stiff. The mixing was done on a convenient rock. Here Jack looked +suspiciously at the quizzical eyes which followed his every movement. He +washed his hands again, then with turned-up shirt sleeves moulded the +dough, adding flour until it was biscuit thick. Turning another pan +upside down he flattened a portion of the dough to the desired +thickness, then cut his biscuits square. The remainder of the dough in +the original pan was treated likewise where it was. Cutting off a piece +of bacon rind he "greased" his oven skillet thoroughly, placed the +biscuits therein, then put the hot cover upon the skillet and a +shovelful of hot coals on the cover. The coffee was just beginning to +boil, so he set the pot back on some hot ashes, washed his pans, spoons +and hands, and in a twinkle was slicing up some bacon and calf's liver, +which he placed in a frying pan near the bread oven. + +Bright tin cups, plates, knives, forks and spoons were handed around and +the "folks" instructed to "get your places near the grub pile." A bucket +of cold brook water stood handy by. Jack opened a can of peas, which +were soon sizzling in a double bottomed stewpan. A round wooden box was +marked "Oleo"--but no one, except Jack, knew it to be otherwise than +"best Elgin butter." + +Into another frying pan Jack put some of the butter, and when it was +good and hot added half a dozen brook trout that also had escaped the +notice of the now hungry onlookers. The scent of savory viands nearly +precipitated a riot. + +"Supper!" called Jack. + +"Why, you don't know whether those biscuits are burned to death or raw," +said Hazel. "Look at him settle that coffee with cold water. Where's an +egg?" + +Jack lifted the cover off the oven and a cloud of steam rose up and +wafted away, then he set the skillet in the center of the party, the +fish beside the bread and the bacon near at hand; peas came along and +Hazel picked up a lightly browned, rich, creamy biscuit, breaking it in +two and adding a dab of butter, took a bite, smacked her lips and said +"More." The verdict was unanimous. + +The routine of camp life is not a dull one; new and varied episodes +follow each other in rapid order while on the trail. The informal +mannerisms of camp life become contagious and an irresistible impulse +takes possession of the most conservative to break away from +conventionalities. Bantering persiflage bubbles in everyone, and good +natured raillery adds zest to all phases of the experience, whether it +rains or shines. + +No sooner had Jack straightened up his kitchen than he inspected the +disposition of the horses, seeing that each one had as good a spot to +crop grass as was obtainable. Then the beds. "Put some more of those +second growth pine boughs under that bunch of blankets and it will be +more like a good curled hair mattress, to which I presume Miss Asquith +is accustomed; dig a trench all around each tent; it may rain before +morning and this side hill will be a running river if it does; spread +that wagon sheet over the saddles and 'commissary' before you turn in; +we will want to start about eight o'clock; you may sleep until six." +Thus he gave his instructions to the hustlers. + +After a little chat, as they sat on the ground, Turk-fashion, or lolled +against a tree, first one yawned and of course the others followed suit, +so Jack suggested "early to bed." + +Breakfast over, saddles were cinched, camp equipment all snugly packed +away and the laborious climb was commenced which was to take them to the +slide rock trail five miles long, following the crest of the great +continental divide which separates the waters of the Atlantic and +Pacific. + +The men walked behind their respective ponies, lessening their labor by +hanging to the ponies' tails, while the fair sex suffered almost as much +hardship listening to the panting, patient animals, as they stopped +every hundred feet to get a breath and "blow." + +"Oh, say, but this is a corker!" said Cal, as he steadied himself and +leaned against a tree for a little rest. + +"I often wish my tongue would hang out like a dog's when I get to +climbing these high peaks. Seems as though mine fills my throat up so I +can't breathe," said Jack, his remark causing much merriment. + +The summit was not far distant at ten o'clock, and as they surmounted +the last slope the clouds rolled in above them like a great drop +curtain, black and dense. Onward the great canopy spread toward the +sunlit peaks beyond, leaving a trail of drizzle, sleet and snow. Then +the entire party was swallowed up in an immense gray fog bank, while +darker electrically charged masses of moisture bowled along, chasing +each other through phosphorously illuminated paths, much to the +consternation of the ladies. + +"Oh, it's lightning right here! Won't it strike us?" exclaimed Miss +Asquith. + +"It might give you a little shock that would tingle some, but not enough +to hurt you," vouchsafed Jack. + +The light clouds soon followed, then the sun shone bright, and in a few +minutes the gum coats provided for just such an emergency had been +relegated to the strings on the saddles. To the left, on the slope of +another hogback, rose tier after tier of little lakes, seven terraces in +all, each fringed with a belt of green pine trees; behind each belt rose +a precipitous ledge of rock. + +"Just look at that, isn't it grand?" said Hazel. + +Jack had provided plates and the panoramic camera snapped its welcome to +the view. Five exposures were made to insure a good one, then the party +filed along the ragged, dimly outlined trail which Indians had used for +a century or more. In the distance could be seen the headwaters of the +Cache le Poudre and to the immediate right a huge snow bank formed a +horseshoe half a mile in its arc. Leaving their ponies, at a suggestion +from Jack the party walked over to the edge of the slide rock and gazed +down into a small lake, of perhaps a thousand acres, nestled in a rocky +embrace, twenty-five hundred feet below them, into the nearer edge of +which stones were sent splashing by those who attempted a throw. Groups +of pine trees dotted the farther shore of the lake and upon its bosom +floated half a dozen immense icebergs, which remain summer after summer, +during the months of July and August, never entirely disappearing. + +Again and again Jack attempted the difficult feat of obtaining a focus +to register that grandest of picturesque spots on the plates especially +prepared, but none proved successful when developed. + +Slowly, regretfully, the march was again taken up and camp was made on +the low pass where pools of water flow from two outlets, one north into +North Park, the other south into Middle Park and the Grand River. This +camp was beneath the famous Specimen mountain and its fantastic +spire-like rock formations, on the apex of which the "Big Horn" dozed in +perfect security, the spires succeeding each other and making the great +aerial stairway accessible only to the sure-footed mountain sheep. + +No one enjoyed the life of the camp half as much as did Chiquita. She +was in her element. The respite from the continual grind of college had +been such a welcome one that she preferred to listen to the others +rather than join in the general conversation. The topics discussed found +no sympathetic chord in her mind, and, notwithstanding the years she had +submitted to the refining influences of education, she was a savage at +heart. She realized it. Her restive spirit broke the bonds of captivity +as soon as the first campfire was lighted. Like a golden winged +chrysalis she burst her civilization fetters and became again the +forest-born Indian maiden, Chiquita. No longer did she feel the +restraint which society demanded. The buoyant freedom of the camp +injected new life into her veins, new aspirations into her mind. But she +was not aware that the very ascendency of civilization immeshed her in +its grasp. Her manners, always charming, had become more so under the +polish of education and association with those who trained the soul as +well as the hand, the eye, the body. + +"The smoke of the tepee fire has driven away the oppressive chaotic +whirl of classes, recitations and examinations which have had possession +of me ever since I left the college," she said, apologetically. + +"That was one reason I had for making this trip overland," said Jack. "I +knew you longed to break away from crockery and tablecloths, and in your +tent you will find something that will please and make you still more at +home." + +When Jack superintended the packing of the paraphernalia for the trip +over the trail, he managed to include in Chiquita's outfit a complete +set of buckskin garments, and these she found awaiting her. It was not +long before she appeared in her native costume. + +"Now you look natural," said Cal. + +"The daughter of the woods is happy again," she replied, half sadly, +but, recovering quickly, proposed a specimen-hunting expedition up the +mountain which derives its name from the great pockets of specimen rocks +found upon its slopes. + +The party picked its way carefully over slippery, slimy, ooze-covered +shale to the specimen beds. Geodes, rounded nodules of rock, filled with +waxy uncrystallized deposits of infiltrated silicious waters were broken +open, presenting in some instances masses of infinitesimal stalactites, +in others the beautiful ribbon agate so much prized by the mineralogist, +with its alternate rows of different colors. Much more difficult to find +was chrysoprase in green, and the flesh red carnelian, all of these +known as chalcedony and of which in Rev. 21:19 and 20, St. John +describes the third foundation of the wall of the holy city as "a +chalcedony," the tenth foundation "a chrysoprasus." Hours were spent in +digging these precious souvenirs from their resting place. + +Far above, an occasional mountain sheep appeared for a moment, +reconnoitering to see if it was safe for him to descend with his family +to the night camp of the Big Horn, for the oozy, slimy deposit was salty +and this "lick" was the most famous in all the great length and breadth +of the Rocky Mountains. It consequently became the resort of thousands +of those wary, intelligent animals, but there were times when the +insatiable desire for alkali grew so strong that no danger appalled +them, and they rushed recklessly only to meet death at the hands of the +hunter who took advantage of this weakness. Skulls, broken horns and +bones could be discerned upon the apex of many of the spires or +truncated cones which rose at intervals from the eruptive lava, that in +ages gone by had broken forth from the earth's crust, the surface of one +of these beds being, in many cases, not over three feet in width, while +the precipitous sides of the cone varied from one foot to a thousand +feet. To these dizzy spots, which formed the Big Horn's aerial stairway, +did this wonderful animal bound, whether pursued or in search of a +resting place, alighting with sure foot, and immediately curling down +for a nap or another bound in event danger was scented. That leap from +danger was in itself marvelous--with all four feet curled beneath that +ponderous body, the iron muscles warmed by the heavy hair coat, it was +not the laborious effort of a steer elevating its hindquarters, +unfolding one foreleg and then the other with a groan; it was a +propulsion of a seemingly inert mass into space, a touch of toes to the +earth and another bound into the air and probably out of sight, for that +stairway is a mass of intricate, steep sided fissures, deep rifts +opening one into another, each presenting a ledge sufficiently large to +enable one of these sure-footed travelers to find "bouncing room" and so +down, down, down for a thousand or more feet this denizen of the clouds +would make his escape. This method of retreat being so sudden and the +disappearance so sure, tales have been ofttimes told of the wonderful +leaps into mid air, dropping to the bottom of one of those cañons and of +his sheepship alighting on his horns, none the worse for jumping half a +mile or more. + +All one afternoon Chiquita told wonderful stories of the wild game life, +the parties of hunters who came even from Europe to wait for days until +the sheep came to the "lick," and how these hunters crept up to the +"beds" in the darkest and stormiest nights, waiting within rifle shot +until the dawn should break, when the slaughter would commence. She told +of the bands of elk, two and three thousand herding together, migrating +from their summer feeding grounds among the high willow grown, spongy +bogs, to the cedar grown mountains along Eagle River, crossing Middle +Park in October and November after the first great snow storms began to +drive them out. + +"The mountains around here used to be the greatest paradise for game +that Indian ever found. Is it any wonder my people resent the intrusion +of the paleface?" said she, after giving an enthusiastic account of one +of the Ute hunting expeditions which took place when she was but a few +years old. + +The fascination and charm which held the listener spellbound could not +be analyzed. Chiquita in her college dress and college speech was not +the Chiquita of the forest. Day after day as the party wended its course +along the Grand River and over the range to those famous springs at the +Buena Vista ranch, she pointed out hunting grounds, battle fields where +Cheyennes fought the Utes, or Sioux came down from the north to wage a +war of conquest. + +The buckboard was at Hot Sulphur Springs when they arrived. Miss Asquith +and Cal, it is needless to remark, found this conveyance more to their +liking, at least a part of the time, than the saddle method. + +From the ranch excursions were made to Egeria Park, where the towering +Toponas rock lifted its ragged summit over five hundred feet in the air, +and on whose side a city of swallows, martins and mud-nesting birds +numbering into tens of thousands, dwelt until the winter breath drove +them to the warm southland. A trip to the famous Steamboat Springs, with +its porcelain frescoed caves, belching forth the peculiar chug, chug, +chug of a Mississippi boat, as though some giant ventriloquist were +navigating one of those floating palaces in the bowels of the earth. +Great trout were captured, after arduous labor, from the sluggish waters +of the Bear River, but little peace was afforded the whole trip from the +pestiferous swarms of red-legged grasshoppers exiled from the plains, to +be buffeted back and forth from the surrounding ranges of snow-capped +mountains, until the white man's destroying agency should catalogue them +with the auk, the buffalo and the red man; as Chiquita chronicled it, +"another example of the onward march of civilization." + +The removal of the Utes from White River to the Uintah reservation had +been so distasteful to Chiquita that she seldom visited the remnants of +her people domiciled in a strange land. Many of these, however, made +pilgrimages to her ranch, and the various tourists who shared in her +hospitality had opportunity to see the blanket Indian in all his modern +splendor of cast-off army garments and civilian society apparel. + +Yamanatz made his home a greater part of the year at his daughter's +place, but the aged chief had lost his vigor and only waited the call to +the Great Hunting Ground beyond. He took little interest in the comings +and goings of strangers, but enjoyed the company of Jack, who made it +his mission to entertain the old warrior in every manner possible as far +as he could. + +The time for Chiquita to return to college was approaching. She had +given up the trip to California on account of the sequel which the +little romance of Miss Asquith and Cal had brought about. Chiquita had +obtained their promise that the wedding should take place at the Buena +Vista ranch. + +The preparations were made and the services of a clergyman, who was +making a tour of the mountains, was secured. Cal was elated at the +unexpected turn of affairs and Miss Asquith was easily reconciled. Jack +gave away the bride and the "wedding bells" which comprised a part of +the ceremony "pealed forth" from a lot of Indian tom-toms, sleigh bells +and tin pans in the hands of some visiting Utes. + +The newly made man and wife started, after the wedding repast was +served, for Denver. Jack, Hazel and Chiquita followed a few days later, +Chiquita to return to college, Jack to continue his journey to the mine. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +CHIQUITA GRADUATES. + + +In a room overlooking the broad Connecticut valley, a student, wearing +cap and gown, stood by the window watching the clouds as they floated in +filmy drapery above the long rows of corn, tobacco and rhubarb which +paralleled each other on either side of the historic stream that divides +western Massachusetts. Chiquita, as she surveyed the scenery, then the +room and then herself, heaved a sigh of satisfaction. The same old +routine of registering, getting the trunks unpacked, studies and classes +arranged, had come to an end. Greetings by classmates, introductions to +new professors, salutations to members of the faculty and respects to +the dean had taken their regular order, and now the daughter of Yamanatz +gazed wistfully into the deep waters which reflected the clouds above. +The room was gorgeous in Indian blankets, draperies, spears, arrows, +pottery, beaded scarfs and long war bonnets, gold and silver-mounted +leather trappings of bridles, lariats, saddle skirts and pistol holsters +adorned the walls, while the floor and furniture were smothered in lion, +beaver, wolf, bobcat and fox skins. Busts of Powhatan and Massasoit +looked down from pedestals upon the young Indian girl as she reflected +the advancing stages of education and refinement which make the +civilized world. Well she remembered the lonesome, world forgotten time +when she first registered in the great reception room, seven years +before, after two years' private tutorship in her effort to master the +English language and learn her A, B, C's. + +Oh! the days and nights of study, study, study! Nothing but knowledge, +for breakfast, dinner, supper and dreams. And as she looked forward to +the easy senior year and honors which awaited her upon graduation day, +she smiled a little and then waxed serious. + +"Me, Chiquita, the daughter of a red devil, mistress of English, French, +German, Russian, Spanish, Greek and Latin. Winner of prizes in +literature, elocution and music, as well as first lady at all class +parties! For two years no function by any great society or college +demonstration has been complete without Chiquita, and this is to be my +last year. Then adios to my alma mater forever--yes, _forever_. It +is little satisfaction to fill one's mind with knowledge. It is poverty. +The mind is dull that is oppressed with wisdom. Chiquita is not as happy +here as she expected. But, ah, happiness will surely come when I visit +the sick, the maimed, and comfort the dying. In that life where the +'medicine man' of the paleface cuts out big chunk in sick man and +pale-faced sister in 'medicine clothes' nurse 'em 'til all well. Ah, +Jack, you told me the 'medicine' story in such simple language that I +understood it far easier than I now interpret the oppressive wisdom +dispensed at clinics or lecture room, by those who fetter themselves to +profound and awe-inspiring dissertations, until human intelligence seems +a fallacy. With this vast amount of knowledge how little we know! But +that reminds me: what will be the theme for my valedictory? There is no +one who can, no one who will expect this honor but Chiquita. And I will +discuss 'Ambition,' something after this fashion: + +"'A soul lay fettered at the portals of heaven. The long, winding +stairway reached down into space, through worlds of worlds, and +countless millions ascended toward the great white throne, each +unconcerned as to the fate of the other. On a bier, with body swathed in +burial robes, lay the inanimate clay from which the soul fled after its +imprisonment of the allotted threescore and ten years. Around the bier +were gathered the few of the endless millions left behind, who +remembered the departed a brief season and then became absorbed in the +great race of life against death. Science is constantly establishing new +guideposts in the chaos of obscurity and winning converts to the domain +of enlightened intelligence.' + +"There, that is what comes of educating a Ute chief's daughter, and +about six pages of that will be proof positive that the savage is +infinitely happier with the worship of the sun, the wind, the water as +animate objects, than we in the realm of knowledge with our defunct +moons and birdless heavens." + +Chiquita spent a great portion of her senior year in day dreaming and +imaginings, often putting her thoughts into manuscript form. Not that +she expected to use them, but because she read the stories she thus +improvised over and over to herself, occasionally sending one to Jack +for his inspection and criticism. If Jack said it was good she kept it, +but if he made objections to any portion, she destroyed the whole. In +one of these she wrote of her people and herself and the utter folly of +any attempt on the part of the Indians to regain their lost hunting +ground and lands. She wrote thus: + +"Alas! for my people! The Great Spirit of the white man is probably the +same as the Great Manitou of the red man, the Buddha of the Hindoo and +the Mahomet of the Arab. All worship a divine being, all nations and +tribes of the earth acknowledge a power, mysterious, ever present but +unseen, who rules the world, the elements and the actions of his +followers. The white races are intellectual, far outranking the black +man of Africa, the yellow man of eastern Asia and the red man of +America. In the end I see but one result, the occupation by them of the +entire world and ultimate blotting out of all religion except the +Christian belief in the Messiah, who in the form of man was crucified to +do away with the offerings, sacrifices and consecrated rites established +by the Hebrews and observed by them without dissension until the +commencement of the Christian era. But there are Jews today still +looking for the King promised by the old prophets of the Bible, and +while prophecy upon prophecy has been fulfilled in a most marvelous +manner, these people with no country, no flag, no standing as a nation +are promised the earth and fulness thereof and a new Jerusalem. + +"Do not the followers of Buddha look forward from the death of Gaudama, +who became incarnate 500 years B. C., to the thousands of years which +must pass before another Buddha appears to restore the world from +ignorance and decay? Do not the noble red-skinned tribes of the great +American continent pray to their Manitou for the restoration of the land +where the buffalo roam and the paleface cannot molest them? + +"But, alas, my people! The heathen world must succumb before the strides +of education, science and civilization. It is useless to hope for the +return of those days, and while the children of the forest cannot in one +generation adapt themselves to the ways and habits of industry, +education and social life of their white brethren, the time is not far +distant when the blanket Indian will be as the buffalo, and the noble +red man become a farmer, mechanic or politician. + +"The 'home, sweet home' of the people is the place where they spent +their early youth, and no matter where their other years are passed, no +matter what their successes, no matter what their failures, the sweetest +spot on earth is the home of their younger days, to which millions +return and from which millions die far away, but with 'fatherland' a +vision still bright before them." + +The last term was at end. Visitors flocked to the old historic town to +witness the commencement exercises and hear Chiquita, the Ute's +daughter, deliver the valedictory. Her father, the aged Yamanatz, was +there with several chiefs in full council robes, and this of itself was +sufficient to draw thousands of the curious. Prominent officials, who +had watched the progress of yoking the savage red maiden of the forest +to her civilized white sister of fashion, occupied front seats on the +platform of the edifice wherein the commencement scenes were enacted. +Interest in the preliminary features seemed to flag, and only desultory +attention greeted the various ones as diplomas were handed out. + +Little were the gowned professors and learned LL. D.'s prepared for the +tumultuous wave of approbation which greeted Chiquita as she appeared on +the platform from a side entrance, clad in her native costume of +richly-beaded buckskin, her copper colored face set in a frame of +intensely black hair, which reached to her knees in voluminous braids +from whose ends dangled the "medicine" of the Utes. Words are feeble to +express the transition from darkness to educated light, but there she +stood in primeval beauty, uttering her valedictory in language so +fascinating that not one syllable was lost. + +Bouquets were showered upon her, "bravos" rent the air, and, as she +stepped before the dean to receive her sheepskin, with its guarantee +that Chiquita was educated, a smile of profound satisfaction played for +an instant over her marvelously thoughtful face. Then spying Yamanatz +near the platform, she bounded into his arms to receive his blessing, +her filial affection superior to her decorous surroundings. Never before +in the history of the college had such an outburst of enthusiasm greeted +a graduate. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A HOSPITAL AND A BOARDING HOUSE. + + +Long rows of windows in a massive building gave light to thousands +within, who in turn looked out upon the thousands plodding their way to +and from toil. It was in one of the hospital zones of the second city in +the United States and the building was one of the largest hospitals in +the city. Within the memory of the present generation the word +"hospital" was fraught with weird and uncanny dark rooms, bloody floors, +shrieking victims of accident or disease undergoing the torture of the +knife, muffled rumbles of iron-wheeled trucks rolling in new patients or +wheeling the lifeless form of the dead to the morgue. Over the door, +unseen by mortal man, an ominous inscription, "He who enters here leaves +all hope behind." + +By the onward, irresistible advance of that flickering flame which +penetrates the darkest corner of bigotry and ignorance, science has +groped its way beyond the portals of death and snatched many from the +very coffin after being prepared for the grave. This is civilization. +Even today thousands look askance at the uncompromising brick and stone +walls, shuddering as the ambulance gong warns them of its approach, +bearing the victim, perchance, of some terrible disaster. To the +unsophisticated who visit for the first time one of these institutions a +surprise is in store. The awful gloom is penetrated by sunlight. In +place of bespattered walls and crimson stained operating table are snow +white tiling and glass slabs mounted on iron frames. The sickening +offensive odor of the old "slaughter pens" has been relegated to the +dark ages, and nothing worse than a whiff of carbolic acid or a possible +suspicion of iodoform greets the most sensitive nostrils. + +Within such an institution Chiquita found herself face to face with the +"medicine" man of the paleface, and her white sister in "medicine" +clothes. Arrayed at last in the oriental blue and white striped uniform, +white apron with strings crossed at the back and jaunty little white +cap, Chiquita began the task of familiarizing herself with the calling +which so recently has placed woman in a sphere entirely her own, and +made her the subject of hero worship on battlefield and in peaceful +home. Faithfully she performed the laborious work of smoothing the +rumpled clothing of a fever-racked patient, or adjusting the +uncomfortable bandages of another, crushed and maimed. In the operating +room she administered anesthetics or assisted with sponge and basin, and +at clinics she listened intently to all the specialists, while in other +channels she learned the necessary business methods needed for +successfully carrying on the expensive undertaking which she proposed to +inaugurate for the good of her own people. + +The last half of the second year of hospital life had commenced. It was +summer, and Jack, with Hazel, was returning from his annual trip to the +Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water mine. + +Chiquita had enjoyed an afternoon with them, driving about the city, and +observed that Jack was not as bright and cheerful as usual. + +"No," said he, "I don't feel at all well. I think I over-exerted myself +at the mine." + +Hazel and Chiquita insisted upon his consulting a physician, but Jack +contended that it was "nothing; I will be all right in the morning." + +His malady, however, grew more pronounced, the third day finding him +with a high fever and in great bodily pain. A surgeon was called, who +discovered that an immediate operation was imperative. + +Jack protested, but finally yielded to the pleadings of his wife, and +arrangements were made to take the then almost helpless patient to the +hospital. + +The carriage was driven to where Chiquita in great anxiety awaited their +coming. The surgeon had preceded them, informing the matron that it was +a case of blood poisoning, and arranged for the admission of his +patient. + +At 9 o'clock that evening the affected part was lanced, giving temporary +relief, but this disclosed a dangerous complication which would require +a tedious operation and a prolonged stay in the hospital. + +The next morning, as Chiquita prepared Jack for the operating table, +they joked about the medicine tepee and dwelt long upon the singular +coincidence that should bring them together under such circumstances. +Chiquita administered the anesthetics. While Jack was losing +consciousness, struggling vainly to gasp a breath of fresh air, she +recalled the vivid description of hospital life which he had so long ago +on Rock Creek depicted to her. As the surgeon skillfully wielded his +various instruments, and with the electric wire burned the sensitive +flesh along the track of the affected part, Chiquita for the first time +felt a sinking, gaping, craving of her heart. + +She realized in that one moment what it meant. She felt that if Jack +should die her heart would cease its tumultuous beating, that if he +lived she should forever have to keep her secret and stifle the emotions +which her love for him revealed. + +A sudden thought surged within her. "No one would know; should she"-- "He +is not for me--I am a Ute's daughter, a degraded Indian. Can I live and +see him the husband of another and not betray my secret? Oh, Jack! +perhaps it had been better that Chiquita had never become a medicine +tepee queen! Were it not better that the sister of the forest should +never have been educated? + + 'A little learning is a dangerous thing; + Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring; + There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, + And drinking largely sobers us again.' + +"I can not turn back. I will stifle my love for the one who lies there +helpless. I will consecrate my life to the customs of his people, that I +may leave a legacy to my people--the inheritance which civilization +brings." + +Mechanically she performed the rest of her duties; nurses had taken the +unconscious form away in its swaths of bandages, while she remained to +administer to other patients and begin the long siege of love's +starvation, until her heart should capitulate and turn to stone. + +The day following the operation, Chiquita's first duties were to take +Jack's temperature and respiration, and note other conditions. She +performed the latter with perfect composure, but when she essayed the +counting of those "little blood knocks upon the wrist," her own heart +beat so furiously that she was fearful of making an error, and was +obliged to ask another nurse to take that record. Afterward, however, +she was able to control her feelings, and take Jack's temperature with +composure. + +Upon the fifth day, when the internes were dressing Jack's wound, it was +discovered that another operation would have to be performed. The +surgeon had overlooked a portion of the affected tract, and the wound +would again have to be reopened and rescarified with a burning white hot +electric wire. This discovery was made Saturday, and Jack was at once +informed. + +Hazel tried to encourage him, but despondency seemed to take possession +of him, and all day Sunday, as the church bells clanged their discordant +soul-racking peals, he tossed restlessly upon his bed. The terrific +winds from the southwest blew their breath to the north in sweltering +blasts, and poor humanity had to endure it. Tuesday, Chiquita once more +was called upon to watch Jack as he succumbed to the influence of the +anesthetic. Once more she counted his heart throbs as the surgeon +scraped, burned and annihilated germs, bugs and septic tissue, and once +more her heart wildly stampeded in its ecstatic throbbing of love for +him whose life she literally held in her own hands, as his hallowed form +reposed unconscious on the glass slab. + +Oh, what joy to her! what an entrancing, ravishing hour! As she +afterwards lived those minutes over and over again, allowing her stony +heart to grow tender as the impulse swayed her, she was carried back in +vivid memory to the camp on Rock Creek where she first learned of the +medicine tepee queen. + +The second operation was successful, and although Jack's convalescence +was prolonged for months, he was fully cured of an ailment which in days +of less scientific skill had invariably resulted fatally. + +With the culmination of her hospital education, Chiquita turned her +attention to the study of the economics of city life, and investigation +of the details relating to her future enterprise. + +She found herself domiciled in a rather pretentious establishment in a +fashionable and aristocratic neighborhood. + +"Yes, Señorita Chiquita, I shall be pleased to have you make your home +with my family, as they call themselves, and we are a happy houseful." +So spake the little black-eyed proprietor of the "Addington." She was +Mrs. Pickett. Pickett was a speculator. The whole atmosphere in and +about Pickett reflected the market; if he was on the right side of corn +or wheat or provisions one could feel it, hear it, see it in Pickett's +handshake, voice and clothes. If, however, he was "bull" on a "bear" +movement, the Pickett barometer dropped accordingly. + +"Pshaw! that wheat is worth a dollar any day. Buy five thousand at 72." +But "puts" went to 68 cents at the close of the "privileges" and Pickett +was glum. + +Pickett was not a big plunger, only one of the ten million poor, hungry +hangers on who watch the "ticker," listen to the reports made up for the +masses by the master hand of manipulators, out of storm centers, visible +supply, and world's consumption, and then gorge the bait. + +Pickett was a winner one day on a pork deal and among other commodities +in the "pit" which seemed a "good thing" was corn at 31 cents. He bought +a small line and then forgot it in the strenuous circumstances which +followed. At the close of the day's pork business he pocketed a big roll +of bills and went out with the boys for a good time, only to fall down +stairs and break his ankle. After three weeks' suffering he hobbled into +the broker's office. Greetings were exchanged with the regulars, then he +sought the cashier to draw the balance of his pork money. This account +being settled the cashier said to him, "Pickett, what are you going to +do with that corn?" + +"What corn?" + +"Why that corn you bought at 31 cents the day you broke your ankle." + +"I did not buy any corn, did I?" + +"Yes, you did, and there is to your credit $7,000." + +"Seven thousand dollars!" shouted Pickett, and before any answer could +be made he ordered the deal closed, then went out and bought a fast +"hoss," a pair of checked trousers, a silk hat, and hunted up the girl +who immediately became Mrs. Pickett as soon as the necessary formalities +could be arranged. But the seven thousand dollars did not last long and +the support of a wife was more than Pickett bargained for. Matters grew +very serious and Mrs. Pickett found she had either to go to work in some +clerkship capacity, or start a boarding house or peanut and candy store +near some school house. She chose the boarding house, which soon merged +into a swell private hotel, and it was in the "Addington" that Chiquita +saw a phase of life so common to the man of the world and the bachelor +girl charging full tilt into the twentieth century. + +"Mrs. Pickett, please tell me a little of yourself, that I may +understand why the white sister has no husband to care for her as other +white sisters have." + +It was about three months after Chiquita had taken up her residence at +the "Addington." The two were on one of the porches which overlook the +lake on the north shore in a most beautiful location near Sheridan +drive. + +"It is a long story, but I can make it very brief in words, although the +years have been filled with events which handicap a woman of my age in +looks and spirit, and that handicap will make the story seem longer to +me than to a listener." + +"Don't skip any of the incidents, will you? I mean those portions where +the Christian spirit upheld you in your grief and sadness." + +"I was young. Mr. Pickett's fast horse must share the blame for a +portion of the admiration I became possessed of for Mr. Pickett. Then he +was such a swell dresser, a good singer and at that time a Board of +Trade man, at least I thought so, and when he showed me that pile of +money and said 'Junie, let's get married,' I said, 'Pickett, give my +father a home and I will marry you tomorrow.' + +"We were married, but the money did not last long and poor Pickett lost +all ambition save that of watching the 'ticker,' reading the market +reports, and living in the fascinating atmosphere of 'bucket shops,' +gambling in grain, stocks and provisions, as do an army of poor, deluded +would-be speculators. + +"There was but one course for me--a boarding-house, and here I have +lived. My father died, and soon after, my husband was stricken with a +lingering illness, which lasted six years ere death relieved him of his +sufferings. It has been a bitter cup, but after all, as my good father +often said, 'It is all for the best. He waters the corn and weeds alike, +and burns up the roses as well as the thistles; trust in God, Junie,' +and so I try to make the most of what I have." + +"Mrs. Pickett, it is so hard for me, an Indian born girl, a daughter +taught to pray to the wind, the sun, the rain as animate gods, capable +of doing good or harm, to have that faith you possess--that beautiful +faith in the hereafter, in a God whose heaven and home you know not of, +yet where, you acknowledge, there are no flowers, no birds, no deer, no +giving in marriage, no thirst, and no hunger. What, then, can my +uneducated people be expected to relinquish--that great and Happy +Hunting Ground, which is to be returned to us as it was before the white +man drove us to the setting sun, drove the buffalo into the great sea +and destroyed our homes, our villages, and killed our warriors? It is +hard for Chiquita with all her learning and life among her palefaced +sisters to say, 'Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' But I try to +believe that your life is the better one for the world, for the human +race, and that in the end there will be no more savages, no more +heathens, no more unbelievers." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +GALLING YOKES OF CIVILIZATION. + + +In one of the large wholesale houses, a junior partner, much interested +in municipal affairs and whose endorsement was sought by many a +candidate seeking election--for the junior partner wielded a vast +interest in both the secular and Christian life--was presented to +Chiquita and she spent many an hour, at convenient times, discussing the +affairs of mutual interest, he seeking to establish the superiority of +the ways of education and civilization, she accepting the teachings and +attempting to persuade herself that he was right and that savagery was +nothing more nor less than animal life in the woods. + +"Mr. Dunbar," she said one day, "the red man of the forest is sometimes +a gambler, and when the spirit moves him he seeks one of his kind and +they spread a blanket under a tree or near the wigwam and there follow +their inclination, open and above board, without fear of police +interference. I am told that the young white man sometimes has a similar +temptation in the big city, but that you have laws which forbid +gambling. Nevertheless, because of political influence, there are booths +and rooms where gambling in its civilized conditions can be found. Will +you take Chiquita to a gambling den that she may see the class of men +found at the tables?" + +The brows of the merchant contracted, he hesitated and stammered as he +attempted to reply. + +"Why--er--my dear Señorita, you know I am a pillar of the church, an +active member in one of the largest wholesale houses in the west, and my +example to my young men, if I were to appear in a gambling room, would +be horrifying. I--er--" + +"Oh, never mind if it would prove such a heinous offense; but why, Mr. +Dunbar, is it allowed, if respectable people can not go there without +contaminating themselves? Is it possible that the people of a great city +like this make laws and elect men to enforce those laws, and yet take no +notice of law breakers except to protect them?" + +"Señorita, it is useless to make any defense. Our officeholders are +corrupt. The blush of shame rises to the face of respectable citizens +when they have to acknowledge that they elect men to office simply +because the candidate stands for party principles, only to make use of +the office for private gain or personal spite. Of course, there are +exceptions, but men do not go into political battles without expecting a +reward, and that reward must be a greater inducement than the one +offered in private life. But I will escort you to a gambling den and we +will see for ourselves." + +"You certainly are brave to attempt it, and I shall thank you so much." + +At ten o'clock a carriage drove up to a corner. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita +alighted--"an English tourist and his valet." It was but a few steps to +the middle of the block where a pair of green covered swinging doors, on +polished brass hinges, continually but noiselessly opened and closed. +The bright glare of arc lights made the street as midday. The throngs of +pedestrians glanced at the green doors, and either passed by without +comment, or one would say to the other, "Great game up in Doll's." "Why +don't the police shut it off?" "Got a pull with the high chief now." + +Mr. Dunbar and his protegé found themselves in a long entry at the head +of the stairs which led to a door at its farther end, where at a little +window sat a fat gentleman with gray mustache. + +"Walk in, right this way. No danger. Suppose you are looking for a +little game. Go through the doors at the right." + +The great baize covered screens opened as if by magic, revealing a large +square room, carpeted with velvet and smothered with deep piled rugs. +Magnificent landscapes by Bierstadt, Colby and Elkins hung from the +walls, depicting the Rocky Mountains and the plains. Immense +chandeliers, festooned with prisms which scintillated the colors of the +rainbow, hung from the ceilings. Mahogany and rosewood sideboards +glistened with cut glass decanters, tumblers and fine chinaware, while +the sable attendant served dainty refreshments and thirst-assuaging +liquids to those who asked for them. Leather upholstered tête-a-têtes +graced corners and bay windows, while in an anteroom long racks were +filled with files of newspapers and magazines. A wainscot of highly +polished black walnut surrounded the room, and rich India draperies +deadened the walls. At a table near the entrance were three young men +playing poker, while the keeper of the game, in accents harsh, urged +newcomers to "take a hand, only a quarter to draw cards." At a side +table five cattlemen, just from the stock yards, were killing time in a +game of draw, while on the opposite side a roulette wheel spun round and +round until the little ball settled into its space and the announcement +"the red wins" was greeted by clicking of chips as the croupier paid out +or raked in. + +But the great throng was at the far end of the room, where, around a +table some seven feet long and four feet wide, were men three to five +deep, craning, pushing, reaching, to place a bet or receive their chips +on a winning card. The air was close and hot, just the slightest +murmuring, the low indistinct utterings of questions asked and answered: +"How many times has the queen been loser?" "The tray is a case," "Copper +the jack for a blue chip," "Play ace to lose and king to win," "Last +turn in the box, gentlemen, four for one on the call." A scruffing of +feet, a sigh of relief, the tension eased up for a few moments while the +dealer shuffles his cards. Some change seats, others quit the game, new +ones buy chips, and again the "soda" card appears and another deal is +on. The suppressed excitement is again apparent in feature and action; +the flushed face of the winner and the cold sweat on the brow of the +loser make no impression on the calm, self-satisfied face of dealer or +lookout, each of whom wears a light slouch hat, the brim shading the +eyes. Both are dressed neatly and in good taste, except for the enormous +diamonds they show in shirt bosoms and on the little finger. There is no +tragedy here. The sequel of the life in a city gambling den is the wife +at home without food, or suffering from dyspepsia because of its +plenteousness, or perhaps in the counting-room of some Board of Trade +office, directors' room of a bank, or a police station, to which the +embezzler is taken after the confession. The mining camp and frontier +gambling dens differ in respect to lawlessness, but the atmosphere after +all is about the same. + +"I am ready to go, Mr. Dunbar," said Chiquita. + +"While we are at it, suppose we take in one of the theater restaurants +and then at midnight see the worst sink hole of iniquity on the American +continent," replied Mr. Dunbar, a look of "do or die'" changing his +usually kind face to that of uncompromising severity. + +"I trust, Mr. Dunbar, I have not offended by asking a sacrifice of your +self-respect, and--" + +"No, no, do not mention it," interrupted he, quickly. "I am glad of this +opportunity. To be sure it has taken a great deal of resolution on my +part, not only to satisfy my consciousness of the propriety in the first +place, but to feel that it is consistent with a Christian life to allow +one's self on any pretext to come in contact with evil just to gratify +curiosity. I am not in sympathy with the so-called slumming parties, +either for the good such investigations may bring about, or for the +benefit that such visitations might result in to the inmates. There are +other methods by which the same end may be accomplished and not appear +so drastic. I have sometimes wondered if there are really any grounds +for the flings made at Chicago, and if there be any truth in the oft +heard remark, 'Chicago's down town resorts have no counterpart in any +other city in the world.' Of course I expect we will see a mild form of +dissipation and possibly one or two who may have taken a drop too much, +but as those stories go from one to another they are exaggerated until +one has to make allowance for these word pictures. But here we are." + +"Have a private room, sir?" asked an attendant, for they had stepped +into a hallway leading to private dining rooms up stairs. "We have nice +rooms for private parties. If you expect ladies you can wait for them +there." + +Just then a lady, unaccompanied, came through the swinging doors and +darted to the elevator. In a low tone she told the attendant to show her +to No. 7, where she would wait. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita rather +undecidedly followed into the elevator and were whisked up to the second +floor, where they sauntered along toward an open door. Merry peals of +laughter wafted over transoms and a sudden opening of one door showed a +party of five seated round a table, while a sixth member, one of the +fair sex, was standing on the table. Then the door shut out the scene. +Mr. Dunbar gasped a little, but concluded to go back to the ground floor +and have a lunch in the main restaurant. They were shown seats well back +from the front of the place, in a position commanding a good view of the +tables, all of which seemed crowded. + +"While we are waiting for our lunch we can study the people," said +Chiquita. "I guess the rooms up stairs are used by theatrical people and +they give little dramas of their own." + +"Yes, I should judge it to be dramatic," answered Mr. Dunbar grimly. "Do +you notice at every table in the room some one is drinking, either a +malt beverage or wine, and at a majority of the tables some one is +smoking?" asked he of Chiquita. + +"Yes, I presume they came here to forget the dark spots of a day's life +and to drown sorrow in drink and music. You have not spoken of the +classic strains coming from that harp and two fiddles." + +Mr. Dunbar smiled audibly at the reference to music. + +"Well, I don't consider this such an awful place for a wicked man, a man +of the world; every one is well behaved and there is no loud noise, but +these scenes lead to others still worse and the temptations offered here +require a goodly sized purse and larger salaries to support this +extravagance than the average man commands. But it is midnight and we +must make our way to the resort in the next block." + +Descending a steep stairway they found themselves at the end of a long +room. The air was reeking with the fumes of smoke, stale beer and +sickening perfumery. Shouts and loud guffaws mingled with shrill peals +of screamy laughter. Glasses tinkled amid the disconsolate strains of a +discordant piano, but above all other sounds were the harsh orders of +waiters. "Draw six," "one green seal," "two martinis," "four straight +whiskies," "high ball and two gin fizzes." Down the long line of tables +they passed men and women who leered at each other, drinking to each +other's health, both sexes smoking cigarettes, some singing, some +arguing, some swearing such oaths that the visitors fain would have fled +the place. At the foot of the staircase, commanding the whole place and +surrounded by painted creatures in the latest wraps, sat the proprietor, +a man of fifty, dark and swarthy, with black curly hair and mustache. +His face was filled with lines, the accumulations of years of +debauchery. Upon his hands were diamond rings, seemingly too numerous to +count, a watch fob with more gems than a fashionably dressed ball +attendant would wear, hung below his vest, and his shirt front was +literally ablaze with "sparklers." The poor dupes about him in this +whirling vortex of hell were receiving their infamous commissions for +inducing men who visited the resort to purchase drinks. + +"And from whence come these sisters and daughters?" asked Chiquita. + +"Go to the great sales counters of some of the cheaper grade of stores +and follow the life of some poor unfortunate; seek the divorce court and +find a victim of misplaced affection; go to the political fountain and +gaze at the high chief whose influence restrains the guardian of the +public peace from interfering with these dens of vice where voters +congregate to do honor to the chief. Seven thousand saloons in the city, +with a following of twenty to each saloon to vote for their master who +wields the baton of wide-open hell holes to the end of obtaining blood +money from those who are protected! Señorita, this is the black spot on +our fair Christian land. It is so to a greater or lesser degree in all +cities, in all lands, where civilization endures. This bartering of and +in human souls within the business districts of Chicago must come to an +end. Now we will step into the police headquarters, only a block away, +while I ask the desk sergeant a couple of questions." + +As they started up the steps leading to the central detail headquarters +a cab drove up to the curb, and a young man, whom Mr. Dunbar immediately +recognized, stepped to the walk, followed by a detective in plain +clothes. They lifted a good-sized sack of something from the cab and +carried it past the late visitors. A clinking of silver was easily +recognized and Mr. Dunbar became interested. He presumed the young man +had just been arrested and naturally inquired the cause. + +"Tommy, are you in trouble that you come in with an officer at this +hour?" inquired Mr. Dunbar of the supposed prisoner. + +Tommy stopped and walked up to the speaker. It was some seconds before +he recognized Mr. Dunbar in the disguise of a tourist. When he did so he +hesitated to confide the truth of the circumstances, but finally +acknowledged, under promise that the informant should never be known, +that the sack contained over five thousand dollars, which had been +collected from the proprietors of just such dens of vice as Mr. Dunbar +had just visited. + +"And my business is to count it, divide it into halves and quarters and +deliver the respective bundles to those who are high on the throne of +police authority." + +"How often are you called upon to make this collection, division and +delivery?" asked Mr. Dunbar. + +"Oh, once every six weeks or so." + +With that Mr. Dunbar stepped up to the desk and with a bow naively +asked, "Can you tell me where there is a first-class gambling hall? I am +a stranger to the calling, but would like to visit one of these dens +said to be run in Chicago." + +"An' who be ye thot ye want a gamblin' house at this time o' night? Get +out o' here, there be's not a gamblin' din in all Chicago fer the last +three years thot I've been on the cintral detail, is there, Jawn?" + +And Mr. Dunbar took his departure with Chiquita. In her diary Chiquita +entered this: "Visited the most horrible dens of vice imaginable, the +refinement of educated debauchery, literally sitting in the lap of +political lechery, hurling defiance at virtue, decency and +respectability." + +During her hospital career Chiquita had many experiences outside of the +varied occurrences in the life of a nurse, which added to rather than +detracted from the perplexities of civilizing her people. These other +scenes enacted in the great empire of industry swept all minor +attractions away, leaving a dreadful negative photographed indelibly +upon her sensitive mind, whose films reproduced with startling detail +not only the foreground of drastic events, but the background +reproduction of unswerving determination on the part of political +demagoguery which brought ruination to millions of people and even +threatened the financial fabric of the entire world; a photograph more +in accord with the despotic days of fiddling Nero than those of advanced +civilization under the constitution of the new republic. + +While waiting for a car that would take her to the hospital, Chiquita +noticed numbers of men in rather shabby attire approach better clad +individuals and after a little conversation each would go his way. In +some instances the better dressed speaker put his hand in his pocket and +handed the other a coin. Then the latter waited a time before accosting +another and then another. Oftener would the better dressed individual +shake his head, even savagely repulsing the appeal of his less fortunate +brother. One of these solicitors-at-alms, for such they were, approached +Chiquita, and as she presented no frowning or repellant mien, he +politely doffed his cap and explained in a few words his mission. + +"Pardon me, lady, I am unfortunate, I am out of work and have no place +to sleep tonight. I have three cents; for five cents I can get a bed. +Will you give me a penny? I will get another somewhere." + +Closely scanning the man's face she saw not the hardened lines of +dissipation, not the pallor of the convict nor the attenuated features +of a cripple, but a young man in good health, decently clad, though in +rather threadbare clothing. Chiquita had seen hundreds of men brought +into the hospital of all grades and callings and had become an adept as +a student of human nature. The man before her did not shift his eyes nor +stand irresolute, but the mournful voice and drooping mouth told only +too plainly that discouraging, despondent tale thrust so suddenly upon a +prosperous nation in 1893. + +"Why are you without work?" asked Chiquita. + +"Canceled orders and help laid off indefinitely," replied the young man. + +"Why were the orders canceled?" + +"I don't know exactly, but Wall street and free silver had something to +do with it." + +"Had you no money saved up to fall back upon at such a time?" + +"Yes, ma'am; but the savings bank went to the wall and my three hundred, +which I had been five years getting together, went with it." + +"Can't you get a job as porter rather than beg?" + +"There's a thousand men waitin' for all the 'porter' jobs. Lady, you +don't know it, but half the population of this country is out of work." + +"Where can you get a bed for a nickel?" asked Chiquita, dubiously. + +"On the west side at one of the 'Friendship' houses." + +"You mean a whole bed and room by yourself?" + +"Oh, no, lady, just a shelf to lie on, perhaps an old quilt to cover up +with. This costs a nickel; in some places we get a 'claim' on the floor +for two cents." + +"You say a 'claim' on the floor; you don't pay for sleeping on the +floor?" said Chiquita, drawing back in amazement. + +"Yes, we have to pay for everything but air in Chicago. We pick out our +claim, first come, first served, and put down a newspaper for bed, cover +up with another, all for two cents; but I don't like the floor. The +other fellows step on you when they come in late." + +"Are these places clean?" timidly inquired Chiquita. + +"Not very, ma'am; not like the hospital." + +"Well, my poor fellow, here is a quarter; I hope it will do you some +good." + +"Thank you, lady." + +Instead of going to the hospital Chiquita made a pilgrimage to one of +those well-known better class lodging houses, not far from the Board of +Trade. Here she saw every chair of a hundred or more occupied by men +similarly dressed and evidently looking for work. Of the numbers +accosted all told the same tale of misfortune and all emphasized the +deplorable condition of the great manufacturing industries throughout +the United States. There was no work to be had at any price. Large firms +reduced their forces to the lowest capacity possible. Many curtailed the +working hours of all rather than discharge half the number, while one +colossal corporation ran their works at a loss, despite the wide +spreading distrust prevalent during the panic, which crippled every +occupation, profession and calling. Banks closed their doors, regardless +of the suffering inflicted, business houses, shorn of their credit, +dropped all attempts to sustain relations with the world, and armies of +men thrown out of employment had to provide for themselves and their +families as best they could. + +Money could not be borrowed. Even the gold-bearing bonds of the United +States fell under the ban of suspicion; and nothing but gold, gold, +gold, had any intrinsic value. The new word which wrought such dire +disaster was _Coin_, and the bank notes presented day after day by +Wall street sapped the gold of the treasury until repudiation seemed +inevitable. The one man upon whose shoulders the burden of disaster +fell, took the oath of office as President of the United States, on +March 4th, 1893, the responsibility of a bond issue being thrown upon +him by the outgoing administration. The new official refused to declare +his policy. Wall street wanted knowledge positive as to the issuance of +bonds with which to buy gold to maintain the reserve. Day followed day +before the tension was relieved by a bond issue, which was succeeded by +other bond issues. The harm had been done. Financial institutions +bridged the torrent at one place only to succumb and plunge into the +yawning abyss at another. Stagnation followed disaster. Had the new +administration declined to give gold for the "coin" notes and tendered +silver, could any greater ruin have overtaken American commerce? + +Following in the wake of the ghastly spectre of commercial ruin, that +cruel, remorseless and vindictive vulture, discontent, swooped down upon +a far reaching industry, shrieked its defiant and soul curdling edict +"_Strike_," and to the consternation of the world, labor +organizations refused to temporize. The steam pulses ceased to beat, +machinery came to a standstill, the great factory doors closed against +wage earners and the stupendous battle between iron handed men of toil +and iron gloved employer was on. + +Aided by sympathetic city and state officials the wage earners grew +insolent and arbitrary. Pitying the unfortunate, misguided mechanic, +artisan and laborer, the iron gloved employer awaited until the +devouring flame of jealousy and strife consumed itself. It was under a +broiling July sun that Chiquita and Jack visited the scene to see for +themselves the effects of newsboys' hoarse cries, "_Extra! Extra!_ +All about the bloody strike! The Stock Yards in danger!" + +Regiments of soldiers were bivouacked about the postoffice, on the lake +front, and at the yards. Dismantled, untrucked, costly palace cars +blocked railroad tracks from Van Buren street to the city limits. In the +vicinity of Thirty-ninth street turbulent masses of muttering, riotous, +eye-inflamed sympathizers congregated to watch the incoming United +States troops from Fort Sheridan. + +Women, carrying babies, mingled with the angry, unruly, drink-maddened +throng, urging, aye, even commanding more devastation, more wrecking of +property. As the snail moving train of army equipment was pulled along +the siding, coupling pins were drawn by the lawless, and as one car was +recoupled another was detached. Soldiers, in United States uniform, +endured insults of every nature. + +A woman, acting as bodyguard to a crowd of jeering, taunting idlers, +stepped up to a guard and spat in his face, then slapped him and in +vulgar language derided him for wearing the uniform of liberty. The +soldier was powerless to resent the affront, and this emboldened the +vindictive throng to acts of greater violence. Turning to Chiquita, Jack +said, with shamefaced candor, "Never did I expect to see my country's +flag humiliated in such a manner." + +The officer of the day approached. It was the seeming signal for an +outbreak; a hundred throats responded to the one voiced cry, "The +torch!" "Burn the train!" "Burn the Yards!" The woman pushed the man in +front of her along the railroad track to within a few feet of the +officers. The crowd behind drew closer, their jeers dropped to sullen, +discontented murmurings. The officer held up his hand. + +"Halt! Disperse!" + +He waved his hand for the mob to go back, but they made no movement. The +woman cried out, "You have no business to stop us;" the man in front +made a rough remark and roared to his followers, "Come on, we'll show +'em." The officer backed away, calling to a guard to take a position on +a near-by fence. "Load with ball, make ready, aim," pointing his sword +at the oncoming law-breaking, infuriated ruffian who had stopped a +sword's length away. The striker heard the words of the officer. + +"When I count three I shall give the command, '_Fire!_' if you and +your mob have not obeyed my order to disperse. One--two"-- + +The man looked at the soldier, at the carbine and the cold gray eye that +followed along the barrel as the muzzle sought the breast of the leader, +he measured the distance, he heard the word "two," then with despairing +yell turned and fled. + +The success of the mob at another place met with cheers and shouts of +approval as an engineer was borne from the cab of his engine to a saloon +across the way, a new recruit to the army of disorganized, rebellious +workmen, fed by the ever ready impromptu orator seeking opportunity to +air his views--a near friend and close imitator of the agitator +commissioned "walking delegate." + +"Jack," said Chiquita, "are these scenes, these property-destroying +conflicts between employer and employe necessary for the advancement of +civilization and fulfillment of that commandment that 'Ye love one +another?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WHENCE COME MY PEOPLE? + + +The holiday recesses were spent by Chiquita in the great eastern cities, +where she attended theater, opera, and many social functions of greater +or lesser magnitude. + +After Jack's wedding she came to rely upon his wife--who found the +Indian Señorita always included in the invitations sent the Sheppard +house--to smooth the difficult paths of etiquette and to instruct her in +the many formalities necessarily omitted in her college life, that were +imperative upon being presented in the whirl of fashionable circles. She +was welcomed by various clubs, literary folk, and at state +receptions--this grandly intellectual daughter of a savage chief. + +The first great effort she made in behalf of her people was an attempt +to forestall the opening of the great expanse of land in the Indian +Territory to settlement by the white people. A venerable senator from +Massachusetts espoused her cause sufficiently to awaken a hope in her +inexperienced breast that the object could be accomplished. Another, +from a western state, gladly joined in the undertaking, while a +brilliant ex-secretary of state devoted his energies in her behalf. + +At a memorable cabinet meeting the question was discussed, and in the +presence of that august body, and of the President himself, Chiquita +delivered her appeal, recounting step by step the claims under which the +prerogative of the Indian to the land in question should be forever +recognized: + +"Mr. President, and gentlemen who constitute his advisers, you ask +whence come my people? + +"For ages, as countless as the sands of the Big River, the fresh waters +of the great inland seas skirting the first lofty range of the Rocky +Mountains washed in torrents and torrents the salt deposited by the +great upheavals of the western continent, through the yawning cañons +which were created by these torrents' own irresistible force, to the +bases of the great barrier where the sun disappears. The fresh waters' +encroaching left their alluvial deposits further and further toward the +setting sun in the same manner as the white settlers dispossessed the +noble red warrior and primeval possessor of the Western hemisphere. The +fresh waters divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller compasses. +In these grand forest-grown, grass-covered areas herds of wild horses, +buffalo, deer, elk and mountain sheep found subsistence. The fertile +valleys and meadows were thronged with villages of beaver, otter and +mink, whose dams were overgrown with the silvery-leafed aspen upon which +these busy families existed. The forests were fragrant with fir, cedar +and pine, among whose branches the birds of the wood built their nests. + +"But before these were other possessors of this great mass of tangled +volcanic eruptions, at a time so remote that the mind becomes a mist, a +fog bank in its endeavor to locate the date, and then only as an age, it +being impossible to determine the century. The fossils of these +prehistoric creatures have been found in deposits over three thousand +feet in thickness, species until recently unknown to science. Here man +inhabited dwellings of unhewn stone cemented with mortar containing +volcanic ashes, at a period so long ago that the waters were supposed to +wash the face of the cliffs upon whose precipitous side these ancient +people lived, in evidence of which are the fossilized human bones. + +"In this legacy is found the answer, 'Whence come my people?' And what +nation has ever disputed the title of land conveyed by the Indians? As +early as 1851, when Colorado was organized as a territory, a treaty was +made at Fort Laramie with several tribes of Indians, by which the latter +gave up all the lands east of the Rocky Mountains. West of the +continental divide were the great warlike tribes of Utes extending to +the Sierra Nevadas, 15,000 free-born American savages to whose necks the +galling yoke of civilization was to be adjusted. + +"The Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanches and Kiowas, plains Indians, were +mild and tractable in comparison with the Utes. These latter were +fearless, indomitable warriors, who owned the forest, the river beds and +mountain crags by inheritance from Almighty God, and whose +disestablishment is written in letters of blood where the forest man was +the aggressor by retaliation. But the outrages of the new people, the +educated, civilized white man, must be forever unrecorded. Repudiation, +shameless duplicity, political and martial perfidy, local and national, +followed each other year after year until 1865, when the final treaties +effected the abandonment of Colorado by the plains Indians, who were +removed to the Indian Territory, where the government agreed to pay each +Indian $40 annually for forty years. + +"My people, the White River Utes, had taken no part in the plains Indian +controversies with the white people, and, while the Utes' territory +bordered that of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, the only courtesies were +the exchanging of scalps and horses whenever they met. The time arrived +when agents were appointed by the government to reside with each Indian +tribe. These agents were generally respected and settled many jealousies +which sprang up between the various bands of the tribe. + +"Nevava, the great Ute chief of the White River tribes, had passed into +the Happy Hunting Grounds and his sons each claimed the inheritance of +ruler. There were many in the tribes who would gladly have accepted the +distinction, but Ouray was appointed chief over all, the lesser chiefs +being forced to content themselves with such following as their +individual qualities could command. This caused great jealousy and in +1875 many conspired against Ouray. The neglect of the government to pay +the annuities was charged against the big head chief, who was said to be +in collusion with certain white men in depriving the Utes of their +goods, and the question was ofttimes asked, 'How comes Ouray to be so +rich?' + +"In 1879, the venerable N. C. Meeker was appointed to take charge, as +agent, of my people at White River. He undertook the task of educating +the Ute warriors to plow. Opposition met him at the start, for the soil +is no more Ute soil when once broken by the white man's plow. + +"Aid from the war department was expected to force the warriors to till +the soil. + +"Runners carried the news to the agency that a band of Utes who had set +out to hunt had ambushed the cavalry. The final outcome of this outbreak +cost us our home in Colorado, for soon after the relief of the cavalry +the White River agency was abandoned and my people removed to the Uintah +Reservation in Utah. It is too late now to undo the wrong which resulted +in the removal of the Utes from Colorado, but, gentlemen, the land given +over and set apart by your own government in the Indian Territory for +those tribes now occupying the domain should be held sacred. I appeal to +you to keep this land intact and forbid its being thrown into the hands +of speculating spoilers. The Indian is not able to cope with the cunning +of the white brother, and he is unable to endure the conditions by which +his white brother naturally adapts himself to the cultivation of the +soil, the marketing of produce and protection of estate." + +The appeal was in vain. The political influence of cattle barons proved +too great, and the concourse of settlers swallowed the territory in +question. The result was very disheartening to Chiquita, but she bore up +and turned her attention to other duties, preparing for the final +establishment of her home for the aged and infirm Indians. This home she +decided to model after a plan of her own, unlike anything in any city, +possibly in the world. Persistent effort among the political leaders of +both great parties resulted in Congress setting apart, in western +Colorado, a large tract equal to one hundred miles square, to include a +portion of the land on the north side of the Grand River, where it cut +the Park or Gore range, taking in the old Ute trail, the camp in the +willows, the junction of Rock and Toponas Creeks and the high divide +along the edge of Egeria Park, where Jack froze his feet. + +The tract of land became by law the National Hunting Ground of the +Blanket Indian, provision being made for the maintaining of the park, +policing, stocking with game and fish, as the same might be killed or +disappear. No white man was to be allowed to hunt or fish under any +circumstances within the domain, no squaw with white man husband and no +descendants of any but full-blooded Indians were to be allowed to take +up residence within its established lines. No cultivation of the soil +for domestic purposes, no harvesting of any crop whatsoever, no +institutions of learning, no mercantile establishments, no Indian agency +to obtain footing, no railroad, no stage line for tourists, no telegraph +or telephone poles and no vehicles of any kind were to be tolerated. +Tourists afoot or on horseback accompanied by an Indian guide, a +resident of the park, could travel and camp, the guide allowed to kill +game or catch fish for his party as food supply, but no game or fish to +be taken from the park. The one exception to all this was the immense +hospital and necessary minor buildings, an ambulance, vehicles and +paraphernalia for conveying disabled persons, supplies for the hospital, +and nurses to and from the nearest railway. All food products, supplies +and clothing were to be obtained outside of the park lines and all +annuities due the Indians were to be paid them at agencies established +without the park. + +When the bill making these provisions came before the upper house for a +final vote, a tall, white-haired senator responded to his name and +arose. Pointing with outstretched hand to the gallery, where a group of +aged, wrinkled chiefs congregated about a fair Indian girl, he said, in +part: + +"Tardy as this action of the great American people may seem, I think I +echo the sentiments of both friends and foes of this persecuted race +when I raise my voice in their behalf. The foes of the Indian are but +the natural result of broken faith, and while it may be good logic to +say one white man is worth more than all the Indians ever created, it +does not condone the trespass committed when the white man became the +usurper and confiscator of the very thing given voluntarily by his +fathers and forefathers. Follow the patient man of the forest as the +dogs of civilization barked at his heels, worrying him the same as the +doe becomes affrighted when she hears the deep bay of the hound upon her +track. Look at the primitive means of defense with which the noble red +man attempted to defend his domain against the onward march of +civilization. The pages of the record of this chamber, of the war +department, of the department of the interior are dripping with the +blood of this race, defrauded of their homes, their hunting grounds, +aye, gentlemen, even their burying grounds. 'Move on! Move on!' has been +the command since 1620, until this handful of a great and brave nation +are today but remnants of cowardly and degraded tribes, made so by the +damnable treachery of American white people and their civilized methods +of aggression. I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to be +able to face that faithful, devoted Indian girl, Chiquita, and cast my +vote 'aye' in this weak and tardy attempt at remuneration." + +Two tiny red spots burned in Chiquita's cheeks as the senator finished. +She smiled at the applause which greeted the venerable member and +prepared to listen to the rest of the voting. When the last name was +called, before the teller could announce the result, a cheer from the +galleries burst forth, every eye was directed toward Chiquita, and in +response to the wave of applause she arose and bowed her appreciation of +the action of that august body. + +But the excitement proved too great a strain upon her temperament, and +she was carried to the hotel in a fainting condition. As she recovered +consciousness, she said to Hazel, "Chiquita will be one of the first to +leave the National Hunting Ground for the great Happy Hunting Ground +above." She realized that her vitality was weakened, that overwork and +exposure had made her vulnerable to insidious disease, whose progress +would be rapid now that the weakened spots had succumbed to its ravages. +But she would not give up the cherished hopes of seeing her one aim in +life accomplished, the forest-grown reservation where her people could +forever hunt and fish without further molestation or dividing up of the +land, and in its center wigwams, lodges, tepees and her great hospital +for the sick, helpless and aged when they would be unable to take care +of themselves. + +Immediate preparations were made to carry out her cherished wish, which +had been so many years her aim. With Jack to aid her the purchases of +material were made. Contracts were entered into for the erection of the +buildings and equipment therefor. Nurses and attendants were engaged for +the hospitals, and for a year she watched the accumulating results which +her education and fortune were bringing about. + +But the task of civilization was one which nature condemned in such a +short period. The overwork and confinement was more than she could +endure and she sought rest from the weary toil inflicted upon herself in +behalf of her people. + +[Illustration: THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER.] + +In a grove of tall fir trees, close to the placid waters of the Grand +River, Yamanatz erected his tepee, where in the soft, balmy air, +fragrant with balsam and cedar, Chiquita could rest and watch the clouds +as they made great shadow pictures on the mountain and stream. Like a +sentinel, a lone peak stood beyond the cleft in the great divide, whose +precipitous sides rose in towering splendor all clad in verdure green. +The river reflected on its mirror of millions of tiny drops of sparkling +water, the blue sky, the trees tinted red by the setting sun, the tepee +on the bank of the stream and the mountain tipped with its cap of +eternal snow. The camp fire sent a spiral of thin blue smoke toward the +azure dome, and by the lurid coals two Utes smoked in silence. Within +the sign-bedecked tepee, upon a couch of lion skins, lay Chiquita, clad +in hunting garb, her rifle and fishing rod beside her. Yamanatz, +Antelope, Jack, and the mother of Chiquita stood by, while the fairest +of the White River maidens told them of the great happiness which +awaited her in the Happy Hunting Ground of the Utes which lay just +beyond the sky. + +"If my father and my mother were only there," said Chiquita, as she +pointed beyond the cleft above the river. "And, Jack," she continued, +"you must beg leave of absence from the heaven of the white man and +visit Chiquita in her happy home. You will find birds that sing and the +bounding deer and flowers that bloom. The warriors of many, many snows +are gathered there and you will see the Utes in all their grandeur, as +they were before the white man took their land." + +"But what of your friends, Chiquita, those who taught you of the +religion of our people, of the only Christ who died to save mankind?" +asked Jack, as he recalled the years and years of Chiquita's life in +school, in college, in the hospital, the church and in the society of +the ablest women of the nineteenth century. + +"Ah, Jack!" Chiquita waited a moment, then with her bright eyes +reflecting the love of the forest queen for her native haunts, customs +and the freedom of the woods, she continued, "The God who gave you the +Christ gave you also wisdom, and with that wisdom cruel weapons to drive +the weaker to destruction. The paleface has driven the red man to his +death. My people share not the needs nor desires which civilization +brings to the white brethren, nor the society demands which make our +paleface sister a slave to her calling. Jack, I have lived among my +white sisters, I have been one of them, been sought for, banqueted, +heralded and had tributes of honor thrust upon me. No school, no church, +no institution of science, no club, no society, no matter how select, +has been other than glad to have Chiquita honor them with her presence. +With wealth untold and accomplishments unattained before by any woman in +the world, Chiquita returns to her forest home for peace and +contentment. 'In my Father's house are many mansions.' Yes, Jack, and +the tepees of the great Indian nation stretch beyond the sky to welcome +Chiquita. See, Jack, father, mother, the braves in all their glorious +array are waiting for Chiquita! 'Our Father,' the Great Spirit of both +the red and white man, welcomes. It is in the peace of the Happy Hunting +Ground that we find rest. Adios, Jack. The great Yamanatz will soon +follow and it will not be long ere all my people are as the buffalo, and +the white man alone in the land that once was a paradise, but the +mockery of civilization turned it into a stench hole of iniquity and +market place of educated vampires, against which the child of the forest +of the same God had no"-- The voice failed to respond to the effort. +Chiquita was dead. And with her was buried that undying, unquenchable, +unsung love which consumed her heart. + +A camp bird, in subdued autumn plumage of black and pearl gray, mewed +plaintively as the old warrior came forth from the tepee. The wrinkled +visaged chief beat his breast and muttered in Ute dialect the prayers of +a bereaved father for a dead daughter. The old "medicine" chief ceased +to bang the tom-tom and the jargon of the squaws was silenced. Jack +looked on with keen disappointment. For years he had watched and +sympathized with Chiquita in her ambition; and now at the last turn in +the great course of life, after tasting nearly every phase of civilized +honor, she had returned to the religion of her fathers and died with +utter contempt in her heart for the foibles and allurements of +civilization, civilized society and civilized government. + + + + + +Transcribers notes: + +Obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected. + +Pg 31 and 266, Space after Emdashes, used as thought breaks, retained: +...Hemmingway"-- Jack... +...Hazel"-- A softer,... +...should she"-- He is not... + +Pg 40, 41, & 49 - Corrected spelling of 'accumulated' from +'accummulated.' + +Pg 165 Corrected spelling of 'Furthermore' from 'Futhermore.' + +Pg 183 "Lazy L" symbol used in original instead of text. It is a serif +upper case "L" rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. + +Pg 212 Corrected 'form' to 'formed', para 1, line 4. + +Pg 220 Added accent to 'protogés' (a bride and his two protogés) + +Pg 240 Removed extra quote mark before Miss Asquith telegram signature. + +Pg 265 Corrected spelling of 'Faithfully' from 'Faithfuly' she +performed... + +Pg 267 Corrected spelling of 'performed' from 'perfomed' (Mechanically +she perfomed...) + +Pg 301 Corrected spelling of 'burying' ('...even their burrying +grounds...') + +Pg 305 Space retained after Emdash, used in lieu of a period at the +end of sentence: ...same God had no"-- The voice failed... + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chiquita, an American Novel, by Merrill Tileston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIQUITA, AN AMERICAN NOVEL *** + +***** This file should be named 33030-8.txt or 33030-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/3/33030/ + +Produced by Mark C Orton, Carol Ann Brown, Linda McKeown +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chiquita, an American Novel + The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter + +Author: Merrill Tileston + +Release Date: June 30, 2010 [EBook #33030] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIQUITA, AN AMERICAN NOVEL *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C Orton, Carol Ann Brown, Linda McKeown +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>CHIQUITA</h1> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="18"></a> + <img src="images/01.jpg" width="299" height="500" + alt="Illustration: Chiquita" + title="Chiquita" /> + <p class="caption">Chiquita</p> +</div> + +<h1 class="p4">CHIQUITA</h1> + +<hr class="c10" /> + +<h3 class="p4"><span class="smcap">An American Novel</span></h3> +<hr class="c10" /> +<h3>The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter</h3> +<hr class="c10" /> +<h5 class="p2">BY</h5> + +<h2>MERRILL TILESTON</h2> +<hr class="c10" /> +<h4 class="p4">PUBLISHED BY<br /> +THE MERRILL COMPANY<br /> +CHICAGO, U. S. A.<br /> +MCMII.</h4> + +<p class="p4"></p> +<hr class="c10"/> +<h5>Copyright 1902 by<br /> +H. M. Tileston<br /> +Chicago, U. S. A.<br /> +All rights reserved</h5> +<hr class="c10" /> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3 class="p4">CONTENTS.</h3> + +<div> +<table class="bold" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="Table of Contents"> + +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td>Page.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#1">Chapter I.</a></span></td> +<td>A Bozrah Bornin',</td><td align='right'>7</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#2">Chapter II.</a></span></td> +<td>On the Firing Line of Civilization,</td><td align='right'>33</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#3">Chapter III.</a></span></td> +<td>Cats, Traps and Indians,</td><td align='right'>50</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#4">Chapter IV.</a></span></td> +<td>Old Joe Riggs,</td><td align='right'>71</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#5">Chapter V.</a></span></td> +<td>The Camp in the Willows,</td><td align='right'>82</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#6">Chapter VI.</a></span></td> +<td>The Ranch on the Troublesome,</td><td align='right'>110</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#7">Chapter VII.</a></span></td> +<td>Chiquita Wooed by Antelope,</td><td align='right'>124</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#8">Chapter VIII.</a></span></td> +<td>A Glimpse of Home,</td><td align='right'>134</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#9">Chapter IX.</a></span></td> +<td>Ute Big Warrior—No Plow,</td><td align='right'>143</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#10">Chapter X.</a></span></td> +<td>The Blazing Eye Mine,</td><td align='right'>171</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#11">Chapter XI.</a></span></td> +<td>College Vacations,</td><td align='right'>180</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#12">Chapter XII.</a></span></td> +<td>Jack Wedded,</td><td align='right'>192</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#13">Chapter XIII.</a></span></td> +<td>Estes Park,</td><td align='right'>212</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#14">Chapter XIV.</a></span></td> +<td>Chiquita Graduates,</td><td align='right'>256</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#15">Chapter XV.</a></span></td> +<td>A Hospital and A Boarding House,</td><td align='right'>263</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#16">Chapter XVI.</a></span></td> +<td>Galling Yokes of Civilization,</td><td align='right'>274</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#17">Chapter XVII.</a></span></td> +<td>Whence Come My People?</td><td align='right'>293</td></tr> + +</table> +</div> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3 class="p4">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3> +<hr class="c10"/> +<div> +<table class="bold" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="Illustrations"> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#18">Frontispiece</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>"Chiquita"</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#19">Yamanatz</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>52</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#20">The Camp in the Willows</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>103</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#21">Antelope—The Warrior, 1877</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>132</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#22">Antelope—The Civilian, 1902</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>168</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#23">The "Keyhole"—Long's Peak</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>212</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#24">"She Lay To Rest," on Her Boulder Bed</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>232</td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#25">The Tepee on the Grand River</a></span>,</td> + <td align='right'>303</td></tr> + +</table> +</div> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h2>CHIQUITA.</h2> + +<hr class="c10" /> + +<h3><a name="1">CHAPTER I.</a></h3> + +<h4>A BOZRAH BORNIN'.</h4> + +<p class="p2">A tallow candle shed its sickly and flickering light in the front room +of an ancient farm house, as Jack Sheppard announced his arrival on +earth at four o'clock on a Friday morning. He arrived in a snowstorm, +and it was a very select gathering of some of old Bozrah's prominent +citizens who greeted his entry into the world. There was old Doctor +Pettingill, with square-rimmed, blue-glass spectacles; Grandma Paisley, +who didn't care for avoirdupois, just so it was a boy; Aunt Diantha, +with portentous air and red mittens, while in the kitchen, dozing by the +big fireplace, was Uncle Zebedee, who had driven over from Pudden Hollow +the evening before to learn the news and "set up" all night in order to +be of assistance in case of necessity.</p> + +<p>The whole Deerfield valley was interested, and it made no difference if +the snow did play tag up and down the necks and on the faces of all +Bozrah as they brought paregoric, feather pillows, goody-goodies and all +the useful uselessnesses that each and every one had kept for years and +years awaiting a possible occasion. There was an old brass warming-pan +that Deacon Baxter used to warm the bed for Governor Winthrop, and a hot +water jug which Great-grandma Lathrop averred warmed the feet of every +one of her seventeen "darters and grand-darters." There was also a quilt +made of silk patches, each patch taken from a dress that some colonial +dame had worn when she danced the stately minuet at a great function in +Boston or Albany.</p> + +<p>All these good people had a successful way of bringing up children in +the paths of self-reliance, respect, thrift, endurance and honesty which +made stalwart, orthodox patriots.</p> + +<p>The Sheppards were an old English family who settled in New England late +in the seventeenth century—three brothers, one of which, according to +ye olden tyme records, planted the elm trees in front of the +meetyngehouse on Dorchester hill; these trees, at the age of sixty or +seventy years, being cut down by the British during the Revolutionary +War. The descendants of the three brothers were thrifty men, large of +physique and of great executive ability, the women the loveliest of the +colonies—families of sterling integrity, wealth and esteem.</p> + +<p>"Thad" Sheppard, Jack's father, was in some respects an exception, he +being a man of the world, of the wild, dangerous class, handsome and +talented, but lacking the balance wheel which magnetic temperaments +usually require. He was admired by both men and women to the point of +the danger line, for his schemes wrecked many a fortune and family, +ultimately losing him the confidence of all. "Thad" loved one of the +beautiful daughters of the Deerfield valley, and, despite the +protestations of friends and relatives, she married him, claiming she +could do what none thus far had been able to accomplish—reform him. +"Thad's" habits had not been curbed. Life was too gay for thoughts of +the sombre hereafter, and the sedate, sober counsel of the old men was +scorned, but their predictions were to be most cruelly fulfilled. Yet +there was that confiding love, that desire to accomplish miracles, which +swayed the fair young girl of the Deerfield hills to sacrifice herself +in the hope of reform. Oh, what a waste of time for any woman! What +debauchery of intellect, what a prostitution of a fair and beautiful +life; utter folly, deliberate social suicide, with its months and years +of anguish and debasement for the mere gratification of an impulse! To +be sure, there are some moments, comprising even days or months, when +happiness reigns, but do these few hours, which grow farther apart, +shorter and shorter, as time wears away, compensate for the millions of +silent, expectant moments during which the uncomplaining wife watches +for that unerring expression which never deceives her? Is there any +excuse a mother can give her daughter, budding into womanhood, for +bringing her into the world to face disgrace, possibly crime? Does a +son, born of such parents, have that respect and confidence toward +father and mother that he should?</p> + +<p>Sue Paisley lived on that beautiful farm where Jack was born. She was on +a visit while "Thad" attended important business in the great cotton +markets of the South. She loved the brook that gurgled and splashed +along its course. Nodding bluebells coquetted with the tiny wave crests, +while the grass along the bank waved little blades in defiance at the +roar of its voice. Each summer Sue sang its praises to the tinkle of the +whetstone as the farm hand sharpened his scythe, tink, tink, tinkety +tink. When she married, she left the long rows of maple trees, the great +red barn, the stuffy parlor, the spare room with its high feather bed +and Dutch clock; the big round dining table with tilting top, blue and +white chinaware, and the long well sweep, to become hostess in the more +pretentious surroundings of a small city on the Connecticut, living long +enough to realize how futile were her efforts to stay the temptations +which beset "Thad" on every hand. Misfortune overtook all his financial +investments, and, as one enterprise followed another in the maelstrom of +speculation, Sue's life ebbed away, leaving Jack and his sisters to be +cared for by a spinster aunt, who undertook the responsibility at the +earnest solicitation of "Thad."</p> + +<p>The awakening from sin was that of genuine remorse and sorrow. With the +characteristic determination of those rugged ancestors, "Thad" broke off +all his former boon companionships, started on entirely new lines of +life and succeeded in living down the awful past. In a few years he +remarried, giving Jack a mother who learned to love her stepson as her +own. Jack was not the ever industrious boy in school, but he was quick +to learn both kinds of knowledge, useful and mischievous. That is the +reason why the old red school-house, at the top of the hill, held +pleasant recollections for him in after life. Of course, "J-A-C-K" was +carved into the top of every desk at which he sat and, as the first row +of desks was the "baby" or A, B, C row, the next one a little larger, +and so on, the four rows of "boxes" represented four classes, and Jack +managed to stay in each class long enough to carve his name where future +generations would find it.</p> + +<p>"He's the most trying pupil in the school," was what the teacher told +everybody in the little village.</p> + +<p>When the snow was deep, Jack took his dinner in a little basket, just +the same as the other scholars, and at the noon recess he was always in +the games in which the girls liked to have a few of the nice boys to +help out. Two chairs, facing each other, with a little gap between them, +then a ring of boys and girls holding hands to circle around between the +chairs, while a boy and a girl stood on the chairs, hands clasped across +the gap, all joining in singing the little couplet:</p> + +<div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">"The needle's eye that does supply</span><br /> + <span class="i2">The thread that runs so true,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">I've caught many a smiling lass,</span><br /> + <span class="i2">And now I have caught you."</span><br /> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It was the boy's turn to choose the girl he wanted for a partner, and +she had to submit to the penalty of a kiss before she could mount the +chair. The desks were arranged in horseshoe form, and of course the +favorite seats were in the back row, farthest away from the teacher, but +Jack generally managed to be on a line with the first nail hole in the +horseshoe by the time the first third of the term was reached. This, so +the teacher could better keep her eye on him.</p> + +<p>It was near the end of the summer term that a little event occurred +which made a lasting impression on Jack. His seat-mate was an ungainly +little urchin who had the faculty of being cunning without being smart. +His name was "Ted" Smith, but he was better known as "Ted Weaver," for +he had a habit of rocking to and fro from one hand to another while he +studied. Jack happened to be busy with lessons when some one shot a +paper wad at one of the scholars, which missed the scholar but hit the +teacher on the cheek.</p> + +<p>Miss Freeman was spare and angular, with a pointed rose-colored nose, +hard, cold-gray eyes, and long neck circled with a severe white linen +collar, which lay flat over the prominent collar bones. The black waist +of her dress was severely plain, with, seemingly, a gross of buttons +made of wooden molds covered with the dress fabric. The skirt covered an +area of floor space that was in keeping with the period before the Civil +War, when hoop skirts ruled the fashion, and, as the "tilter" tilted, it +could be seen the school ma'am enumerated among her personal belongings +a pair of white hose and cloth gaiters. A head of luxurious hair was +parted exactly in the middle and divided into three portions, two side +and back strands, the side strands twisted to the temples, then the +smooth flat surface gracefully looped over the tops of the ears until +the curve of the hair reached the eyebrows; the ends of the strands were +then formed into a foundation, around which the back hair was wound, +after a sufficient quantity had been properly separated for curls—long +ones for the side, or short ones to dangle idly behind.</p> + +<p>When the paper wad struck Miss Freeman a rap immediately brought the +school to order. With a searching gaze she tried to locate the evil +doer, and her well-trained eye rested on Jack, who innocently looked up +to see the cause of the unusual summons "to order." Jack knew who shot +the wad, for he had noticed the culprit shoot others earlier in the day, +a performance which had escaped the teacher's notice and cheek.</p> + +<p>"Jack, did you throw that paper wad?" she asked, her voice as cold and +hard as that of the second mate of a three-masted brig.</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Do you know who did throw it?"</p> + +<p>Jack would not tell a lie about the wad, so he answered slowly, "Yes, +ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Who did it?"</p> + +<p>There was no reply.</p> + +<p>"Who threw the wad?"</p> + +<p>She had flushed to her hair at the commencement of the inquisition, but +now the color slowly receded and the lines in her severe face became +like those in stone.</p> + +<p>"Unless you tell me who threw the wad I shall punish you."</p> + +<p>Jack remained silent. His little bosom filled with wrath because the +culprit would not speak up; but his honor was so strong that he would +not be "telltale." The teacher reached for her switch and told Jack to +step forward. Like a little man he marched up to her desk and stood, not +defiant, but humble and submissive, awaiting his punishment. Miss +Freeman stepped down from the platform with switch in hand, and again +demanded the name of the guilty one.</p> + +<p>"I'll never tell," said Jack in a whisper.</p> + +<p>There was a swish in the air and a sharp cracking noise as the rod smote +Jack around the fleshy part of his legs.</p> + +<p>"Will you tell now?" asked the teacher again.</p> + +<p>Jack made no answer, but shook his head and stifled a sob. He knew if he +relaxed his firmly shut teeth he would cry, so he gritted them and +prepared to receive the following blows without flinching. Thoroughly +maddened, the school ma'am finally threw off all endeavor of restraint +and showered blow after blow upon poor Jack's arms, legs and bare feet, +for it was summer and Jack followed the custom of other boys. But, it is +needless to say, that was the last day he went barefooted. The switch +was broken, but not the spirit in the boy. He had given way to tears, +which gushed forth because of bodily pain. He sought to protect his feet +and grabbed the infuriated school ma'am's skirt, and as the blows +descended he swung under the protecting expanse of hoops. This piece of +strategy perplexed the teacher, and as she had broken all her switches +she had to suspend hostilities until a new supply was gathered. Leaving +Jack and the school room, she hastened to the willows, which grew in +abundance just back of the building, and brought in a stick as big as a +cane, just in time to see Jack disappearing through the window and his +sturdy little legs, all striped with red marks, making tracks for home.</p> + +<p>Episodes of this character followed Jack all through his school life. He +had a stern father, who always punished his children if they were +punished at school, no matter what the excuse, and on this occasion +there was no exception, only in place of another "birching" the filial +duty was limited to sending the boy to bed without anything to eat, so +he could reflect upon the awful crime of disobedience to his teacher.</p> + +<p>Nature has ever been prodigal in the distribution of her favors and +disfavors, limiting her generosity in the picturesque to certain +localities, and giving in abundance to the arid regions, as well as to +the fertile valleys. But in her selfish allotments no upheavals in the +vast chaos of creation furnished man an abiding place so compatible with +his Puritanical doctrines as the forbidding rock-walled coast of New +England and the everlasting hills extending back to the Hudson River, +with their beautiful slopes, sinuous streams and forest-scented dales. +And it was among these hills that Jack found, even in his younger days, +that pleasure and freedom which afterward was intensified by his +associations with the forest-born red man.</p> + +<p>Old Bozrah, where he first saw the light of day, was the Mecca to which +his longing gaze was ever turned, even as he studied, worked or played, +and no greater treat was in store for him than the one looked forward to +when his father hitched up "Old Jerry" to drive that long twenty miles, +through villages and past cross-road stores, to the old farm house. "Old +Jerry" was known even better than "Thad" Sheppard. Every factory hand on +Mill River from where it emptied into the Connecticut to the great +reservoirs in the Goshen hills, and every farmer, merchant and preacher +knew "Thad" and "Old Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Thad" was well aware of the danger that lurked in the old reservoirs +and knew the day would come when the torrent would burst forth and sweep +all the industries away, and Jack wondered why everybody looked so grave +and serious when the spring freshets made the brooks roily so he could +not fish. In after years when that animated devastating fortress of +trees, rocks and factory debris crushed its way down the valley, +receiving its propulsive force from the waters which broke forth from +bondage, Jack remembered those grave and serious faces.</p> + +<p>But it was among the hills of the Deerfield valley that Jack loved best +to wander and to fish for trout, or to help Uncle Zebedee and Uncle John +in planting or haying or "salting" the cattle, or gathering apples on +hills so steep that the fruit rolled a rod sometimes after falling from +the trees.</p> + +<p>In the old barn at milking time, when the cows were yoked to their feed +racks, Jack helped give them hay—nice new clover—and then waited and +watched Aunt Sally strain the warm fluid into the bright pans, fearing +the while she would forget the little cup, which he kept moving from one +place to another, and which she seemed never to see until almost the +last drop in the pail was reached. Churning day was always welcome to +Jack. The old yellow churn, which stood near the big water trough in the +wash room, had to be brought into the kitchen, and then he would turn +the paddle wheel round and round, listening to the patter of the blades +as they splashed into the cream, until finally he knew by the sound that +the butter had "come."</p> + +<p>Jack did not like Saturday night very well, for at sundown on the last +day of the week those good orthodox folks commenced their Sunday. +Saturday afternoon was given to baking cake and other dainties and +getting the house in order for the Lord's Day. The men folks were shaved +clean and all the chores were done and supper ended before sundown. Then +the old black leather Bible was taken from the shelf and all gathered +around for family prayers. These devotions were held every night about +bedtime, but Saturday evening was the beginning of the Sabbath, and +services were held earlier and longer than on other days of the week. +The room, with its chintz-covered lounge, rag carpet, Dutch clock, and +chairs upholstered in haircloth, seemed more sacred on Saturday. The +Bible was read, a lesson given from the shorter catechism, and several +of Watts' hymns repeated by all together, or by volunteers, as the +spirit moved; a song or two, then all would kneel devoutly, while Uncle +John, in deep stentorian voice, prayed long and earnestly for the divine +grace, which sustains the righteous through the snares and temptations +of the wicked world; after which all retired.</p> + +<p>On Sunday no work was done that could be avoided, and at an early hour +in solemn procession all filed out to the vehicles which conveyed them +to the village two and one-half miles away. The horses knew it was +Sunday and devoutly raised one leg at a time in covering the distance. +The minister knew it was Sunday and exhorted his hearers, with threats +of dire hell and damnation, to mend their ways. Sunday school +immediately after the morning service, then lunch at the wagons or on +the steps of the church or in the church, and again the minister +unrolled his sermons and renewed his valiant fight in redemption of +sinners. The choir stood up, the leader struck the key with his tuning +fork, and when the "pitch" was duly recognized the last hymn was sung, +followed by the doxology and benediction. All hearts seemed to begin +life anew when the final "Amen" was pronounced, and although the long +hill had to be ascended, it took less time than it had to descend in the +morning. It was dinner time when the farm was again reached and all were +hungry. After the meal the family gathered in the parlor, with its +fragrant odor of musty walls, varnished maps and stuffy ancientness +which pervaded everything. Here the conversation dwelt upon the goodness +of the Lord, misfortunes of the sick in the neighborhood, news of which +had been learned at church, or other topics not too worldly. As sundown +approached the men folks commenced to get ready for the week's work and +changed their clothes, while the women got out aprons and put away their +"Sunday duds." By sunset the wash barrel was brought forth and the +laundry work for Monday commenced.</p> + +<p>In the wagon-shed Uncle John had his scythe ready to grind, and as Jack +turned the stone he said to himself, "Uncle John bears down harder on +Sunday night than he does any other night in the week."</p> + +<p>These visits to the old farm were at frequent intervals, so Jack had +ample opportunity to see real country life under all the different +aspects of maple-sugar making, planting, haying, cutting wood for the +year, and building stone walls. Berrying was about the greatest +enjoyment, next to catching brook trout, and such an abundance of +blackberries in the pastures and woods where portions of the timber had +been cut out! But the visits came to an end, inasmuch as Jack's father +"moved west" to one of the great flour-milling cities, which flourished +at the close of the Civil War.</p> + +<p>In the west Jack received his final education, at sixteen taking leave +of Latin, algebra and rhetoric, with one term in the high school. During +the grammar school incubation Jack learned the difference between a +village teacher and a city ward instructor; also that the western city +ward boy had to fight occasionally, while the good New England lad was +in mortal disgrace if he ever presumed to raise his hands against a +fellow schoolmate. Jack had been warned time and again by his father not +to fight, as it was wicked, and severe punishment awaited all +demonstrations of anything in the nature of a "scrap."</p> + +<p>It was but natural that a boy who would not fight should become the +target for every pugnacious lad in the school, and Jack went home +regularly with a bloody nose or scratched face, as a result of some +misunderstanding. Not only would he get larruped by the bigger boys, but +little fellows half his size walloped him good and plenty. Then the +teacher had to make an example of him with the ruler, and finally his +father finished up the job in the barn or across his knee with the hair +brush. The hair brush was the handiest thing Jack ever encountered in +his "spare (not) the rod" career. One day he went home with a frightful +cut in his lip where some "bully" of the school had kicked him. His +father lost all patience and Jack pleaded for a hearing.</p> + +<p>"Why do you tell me it is wicked to fight and punish me for getting +licked? I can lick any boy in the school, but have never raised my hand +yet, because you told me not to, and they pick on me all the time."</p> + +<p>It was a revelation to the parent and he wondered at his own obtuseness. +One instruction, one little lesson to be a man, he gave Jack: "Do not +fight for the sake of showing off, or to be a 'bully,' but defend +yourself always."</p> + +<p>Jack was all excitement, and forgot his swollen lip. His father +continued: "And when you find you have to defend yourself, strike +straight from the shoulder and hit between the eyes, downward, like +that," and the stern old man took a crack at the side of the barn and +ripped a board off, besides nearly breaking his knuckle. Jack went to +school that afternoon, and at recess, when a big, red-headed bully, +nicknamed "Cross-eyed Whittaker," commenced to tease and banter him, +Jack edged away as usual, but with eyes ablaze and fist clinched. He saw +that the "bully" was bent on showing off, and knew the time had come to +make the first stand for Jack. Whittaker was about the same height, but +much heavier in build than Jack. Finally, as the big one got nearer and +nearer and became more and more offensive, Jack stood his ground, +looking the "bully" over from head to foot, and suddenly said:</p> + +<p>"You miserable coward, you have picked on me long enough. Now let me +alone or take the licking that you deserve."</p> + +<p>The other boys, of course, jumped up and gathered in a ring. "Fight! +Fight!" was yelled by a hundred throats, as all rushed to where the now +angry combatants faced each other. Jack stood poised on one foot ready +for any emergency. All at once he spied the crony of the "bully" +sneaking through the crowd of boys to get behind his chum. When the +latter saw his "pal" his courage increased wonderfully, but ere he had +time to put into execution the thoughts uppermost in his mind, Jack made +a feint, a step back and then a lunge ahead with a right-hand smash just +as he had seen his father hit the board, and the "bully" lay at his feet +writhing and kicking in defeat.</p> + +<p>Whittaker took the licking very much to heart, and he carried a scar on +his lip, caused by Jack's blow, to his grave. Jack heard occasionally +that the "bully" had sworn to "get even," but as time passed and their +pursuits carried them into opposing channels, Whittaker soon became a +school-day reminiscence and later was not even remembered by name.</p> + +<p>Jack's school days came to an end and he went into his father's mill to +work, learning the various methods of flour manufacture and manner of +marketing the product. The business did not seem to take his fancy. +"Something wrong in the industry," he would often say to the boss +miller. "Here you work this mill day and night, turn out three hundred +barrels of flour every twenty-four hours, yet lose money on the product +half the time. Six months of the year is a loss, but none of the mill +owners can give the reason why."</p> + +<p>"You're right, kid; but that ain't nothin' to me to figger out. I've +been dressin' mill stones an' cuttin' them burrs ever since I was your +age, an' it's allus been the same. Sometimes it's the wheat, sometimes +the weather, but in the end it's as you say. P'raps it's the farmer, who +asks too big a price."</p> + +<p>"No, it's not any one of those causes," said Jack, meditatively. "It's +that big engine down there eating up coal and the carrying charge to get +the flour to market. That's what ails the business. Look, now; see that +farmer with a load of wheat on the scales. There's father out there +taking a handful out of one sack and a cupful out of another. (Look out, +dad, you may strike a nest of screenings shot into the middle of one of +those sacks with a stove pipe.) He's bought the load and now it's going +into the hopper, where it will in all probability be mixed with inferior +grades. Then people complain the flour is no good, and you grind up a +lot of corn meal and feed it back into the flour, or regrind with some +middlings, until one can't tell whether it is flour or hog feed, and +where are the profits? Now, let me tell you. I was listening the other +day to that little alderman over in the second ward. He was talking +politics and business, and when he was not roasting 'Bob' Ingersoll or +General Grant he was making fun of Illinois River millers. He said—and +you know what a big voice the little fellow has—he said this: 'There's +a town up by St. Anthony's Falls that will turn out more flour in a day +than we turn out in a week, and you know we are some pumpkins with our +flour barrels, ain't we?'"</p> + +<p>"Say, kid, you're sure of what you just said?" asked the miller, +interestedly.</p> + +<p>"Sure as I live," replied Jack; "why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm goin' up to see that bit of water near St. Paul."</p> + +<p>"The nearest town is Minneapolis, a little suburb of St. Paul," answered +Jack, remembering his geography lessons.</p> + +<p>Between oiling machinery, sacking bran, sewing flour sacks, heading +barrels, sweeping, and occasionally "learning his trade," as he called +it, over in the cooper shop, Jack got to be pretty well posted on the +manufacture of flour, but he did not like the business and finally gave +it up, deciding to take up the mercantile sphere and quit the field +wherein the foundations of the most gigantic fortunes were just ready +for the superstructure—flour, oil, harvest machinery and provisions, to +say nothing of the contributory railway and telegraph business. He went +to Boston, secured a position in a large wholesale establishment, lived +in one of the beautiful suburban cities which surround the "Hub" on +three sides, and there learned the lessons of prudence, sharp buying and +economical, labor-saving methods, which were in contrast with the +wastefulness and unsystematic methods prevalent in the great west. Not +long after Jack was well established his father packed up the family +belongings and moved where he could be with his son.</p> + +<p>In a little country village fifty miles from Boston, on the Newburyport +branch of the B. & M. R. R., lived Hazel Hemmingway. When Jack Sheppard +was a pupil of Miss Freeman's in the old red school house back in the +hills of western Massachusetts, he divided his apple with Hazel, dragged +her white sled up hill in winter, and in summer made for her peachstone +baskets, which he whittled out with his "Barlow" knife. There was no +girl in all the world to Jack that compared with the brown-eyed, +brown-faced Hazel, and no boy in the school got so many cookies, +bon-bons and dainty notes slipped into arithmetic or grammar as did +Jack.</p> + +<p>The parting when Jack's father moved to the west was full of tender +good-byes and promises to "write real often" on the part of +both—promises which each faithfully kept. As the years passed Mr. +Hemmingway became interested in a shoe factory in the eastern part of +the state and moved his family to the thriving little manufacturing +town. The correspondence continued between the twain, and when Jack +returned to Boston a girl to womanhood grown knew that a supplementary +reason caused the young man to select Boston, and that she was the +supplement. Of course no one else ever dreamed the truth.</p> + +<p>It was not long after Jack was established in the "Hub" that he made the +first visit to Hazel in her new home, spending the Sabbath in the quaint +old place which was within the pale of influence spread by the historic +witchcraft of the ancients. The renewal of that childhood acquaintance +needed no flint and steel to ignite the tiny spark of smouldering fire +into a flame of enduring love. Jack sat dignified and martyr-like while +the minister preached upon the evils which beset the young and dangers +to the worldly-minded. "The vain glories of dress and fashion are an +abomination of the Lord," said the man of God. Jack moved uncomfortably +in his new suit of clothes, while Hazel from her choir seat telegraphed +her convictions that the dominie was right, just to plague Jack. And +when the admonition came, "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man," +Jack said to himself, "A whip for a horse, a bridle for an ass and a rod +for a fool's back."</p> + +<p>At last the "fourthly" came to an end and so did the church service for +the morning. Jack and Hazel wended their way to her home, where dinner +awaited them, after which followed a walk under the far spreading elms +that arched the roadway, and as they walked they talked of childhood +pastimes, joking each other of forgotten jealousies, or dwelling upon +indelibly impressed, attaching episodes, the remembrance of which were +souvenirs, non-negotiable and indestructible. They had left the little +village behind and reached a large pine grove where the Sunday-school +picnic was annually held. Seating themselves upon a rustic bench, Jack +told of his life in the far distant west, as the states bordering upon +the Mississippi River were then called, finishing with his return to the +east and plans for the future. Hazel was an attentive listener, +interrupting occasionally to inquire what Gertie Whitcomb looked like, +or if Eva Duncan was freckled, or Nellie Courtney a good skater, as Jack +included them in his biography of events.</p> + +<p>"Not that it makes any difference, Jack, but I—er—er—just wanted to +know," said Hazel, with the least bit of suspicion in her manner.</p> + +<p>As he told of fastening Nellie's skates for her and of the lovely ice, +the big crowds on the lake, and what a pretty girl Nellie was, Hazel +kept time with her dainty foot kicking her broad-brimmed leghorn, which +dangled by the string from her hand, finishing by poising the hat on her +toe while she disinterestedly remarked, "Those western girls have such +large feet; I suppose they have no trouble standing up on the ice," a +remark which pleased the young man immensely, although he essayed no +response.</p> + +<p>When Jack reached his plans for the future Hazel became even more +inclined to worry the historian by a rapid fire of insinuations.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you will have to go on the road and take long trips out west +to—sell goods? Shall you have the choice of territory when you get to +be a salesman?" "Do those western stores carry as fine a line of goods +as our folks do in the east?" "The styles out there are about two years +behind ours; don't the girls look old fashioned?" To all of which Jack +had one answer, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"You can stop saying 'yes' all the time."</p> + +<p>"I will, Hazel dear, on one condition—that you say 'yes.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes," demurely answered Hazel.</p> + +<p>Just then from a near-by hillside came the tattoo welcome of a cock +partridge "drumming" for his mate, the measured, gradually increasing +roar making the woods resound as Mr. Grouse beat the hollow log upon +which he strutted up and down until his coquettish spouse approached +within sight of her liege lord. She came, pecking negligently at snails +and bugs, missing them oftener than hitting them, but she didn't care. +She scratched at imaginary seeds, inattentively awaiting his pleasure. +As soon as the cock perceived his bride he spread his tail like a fan, +clucked a welcome and flew to her side.</p> + +<p>"There, my dear," said Jack; "that is the way you must obey me when I am +lord and master. Be very meek and let me do the splurging."</p> + +<p>"And don't I get a chance to say a teeny, weensy word? Have I just got +to listen, and watch the man of the house dry the dishes, get the +breakfast (if we can't have a domestic) and"—Hazel rolled her eyes +mockingly meek and with her hands "Now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep" fashion, +continued, "match samples for me at the store?" Jack capitulated; his +grandeur collapsed "all at once and nothing first, just as bubbles do +when they burst." Two merry peals of laughter echoed through the +pine-scented woods.</p> + +<p>"Sh! Jack, it is Sunday. I forgot all about it, and we must go home. +Papa will wonder where I am," and a little red spot burned on each cheek +as she surmized what "papa" would say when he found out that the young +man from Boston "proposed to splurge."</p> + +<p>But Jack's splurging was all make-believe. In the shadowy recesses of +the great elms, as they retraced their steps toward the Hemmingway +mansion, a manly arm stole about the waist of the lithesome girl, whose +demure "yes" had to be sealed in order to make it real. Mr. Hemmingway +was in the library as they entered the house. Jack nudged Hazel at the +portentously contracted brows of papa and the stern look of inquiry +which followed. Hazel quickly stepped into the hall, leaving Jack alone.</p> + +<p>"Papa, Jack—Mr. Sheppard—wants to speak to you a moment," then she +flew past the meekest man that ever tried to splurge.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hemmingway"—<ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Retained space after Emdash; used as thought break."> </ins>Jack got that far and it seemed as though every +whisker in that stern face became a bristling bayonet. "I think you must +be able to guess my mission."</p> + +<p>"What? No—no. Jack, you—why, you are but a boy, and Hazel"—<ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Retained space after Emdash; used as thought break."> </ins>A softer, +kindlier expression crept slowly into the face of the man whose only +daughter he suddenly realized had become a woman. "Jack, I moved here to +keep my child—to get her away from the—from the—it is no use, though. +I guess you will be good to her. Let me see, you are the boy who got +such an awful whipping once because you would not be a tell-tale, and a +boy that has that kind of grit, I guess, is the right stuff to be my +son-in-law. Hazel"—</p> + +<p>The stern old man went out upon the lawn as Hazel re-entered the +library. A noise as of some one vigorously using a handkerchief broke +the stillness, but even then the old man chuckled as he saw two figures +silhouetted upon the curtain. "Celebrating my consent, I guess," he +soliloquized.</p> + +<p>"Hazel, you had better pull down the green shade." Then to himself, +"These children have no conception of the propriety of things."</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="2">CHAPTER II.</a></h3> +<h4>ON THE "FIRING LINE" OF CIVILIZATION.</h4> + +<p class="p2">The summer vacation period found Jack among the old hills of Bozrah, his +first visit to the scenes of his childhood since making Boston his home. +Six years' business and social life in and about the "Hub" launched Jack +upon the world a polished gentleman, refined, cultured, energetic, well +qualified to step into a position demanding more than ordinary ability.</p> + +<p>The first panic in his experience had unsettled values, trade was at a +standstill, confidence was lacking, men hoarded their wealth and the +wheels of many mills ceased to turn, while mill hands idly walked the +streets or sought labor in distant parts of the globe. The great +electoral dispute of "eight to seven" still rankled in the minds of +many, while those who cared not for that controversy found themselves +unable to entertain the problems of manufacture until the changes +anticipated in the tariff should be made by congress. Realizing that the +east gave little promise or opportunity for a young man, Jack concluded, +soon after his vacation ended, to resign his position and cast his lot +with the pioneer on the frontier, or, at least that he would visit +Denver and see what the chances were there.</p> + +<p>The breaking off of fast friendships was keenly felt; business and +social acquaintances admired his "grit," as they called it, but were +skeptical as to the ultimate results. Hazel had become a frequent +visitor at the Sheppard mansion and made it her "home-in-law," as she +called it, whenever fancy took her cityward. She happened to be there +when Jack declared himself.</p> + +<p>"I've resigned my job and am going to Colorado within a month."</p> + +<p>"Jack Sheppard! What? Going to Colorado? Going to leave Boston? Indians! +You'll come home without any scalp!"</p> + +<p>Such was the chorus which greeted his simple announcement. Hazel cried, +his mother cried, his sisters moped around, and his father patted him on +the back. "Go and see the world, broaden out, the experience will be +worth the cost, even if you don't stay," he said, with lots of emphasis +on the experience.</p> + +<p>Five days from Boston to Denver. Everything was the old, old story of +farms, villages and small cities until the train left Kansas City, then +the arid plains opened wider and wider, the towns grew farther and +farther apart, less and less in size until what was marked a station on +the trip ticket given him by the conductor proved on arrival to be a +platform, a water tank and a cowboy straddle of a "buckskin," white-eyed +broncho. These scenes in truth were new and Jack's experience had +commenced. Occasionally the water tank was supplemented by a saloon. +Great herds of cattle grazed along the unfenced right of way of the +railroad, and the treeless expanse of never ending brown, sun-burned, +alkali-spotted plains wearied the eye, the mind and soul in their +wretched monotony. The slow-going "fire wagon," drawing its burden of +weary humanity, puffed laboriously along the hot iron pathway toward the +setting sun at a speed so slow that many a "cow puncher" tested the +mettle of his hardy, sure-footed pony to the discomfiture of the iron +horse and its attendant.</p> + +<p>Antelope raced with the train and buffalo stood defiantly in the +wallows, their lop-ended bodies appearing strangely out of proportion +for sustaining the equilibrium necessary for feeding, fighting or +flying. Prairie dogs barked their squeaky warnings, and wise looking +little top-heavy owls flapped their wings lazily in an attempt to rise, +only to fall awkwardly into the next dog village near by, as the train +rumbled through the sand-duned desert. But all things have an end. So +did the first journey to Denver. Within a week Jack met a mountain guide +who told of the deer, the bear, the trout in Middle Park. Within another +week he had purchased an Indian pony, saddle, and provisions to last two +for seven months, agreeing to follow the guide and trapper in his +winter's occupation of securing pelts for market.</p> + +<p>It took a month to reach the final spot selected for a cabin on Rock +Creek, during which time Jack met many of the brave and weather-beaten, +buckskin clad frontiersmen living on the firing line of civilization at +the very threshold of savagedom. Men who drove the rude stakes marking +pioneer advancement into the soil wrested from its occupants by purchase +from a broken down dynasty, claiming discovery, a nation whose bigoted +avariciousness blinded its foresight to the end of bartering away its +last foothold on the great American continent.</p> + +<p>The incidents from Denver to Rock Creek Jack enumerated in an improvised +journal, greasy from continued usage in his endeavor to let nothing +escape the record.</p> + +<p>"First night: Slept on the floor of a grocery store, twenty miles from +Denver, a buffalo robe between me and the boards.</p> + +<p>"Second night: Slept in the hay in a barn at Georgetown.</p> + +<p>"Third day: A. M. Homesick. The trapper not ready to go into Middle +Park; must wait four days. All my money left in Denver. Supposed we +would have no use for money, as all our worldly provisions and needs +would be on the wagon or pack animals, but the provisions are coming by +rail and we eat at a restaurant in the mining town where the railway +terminates. As my money is gone and no provisions here, I am at a loss +to satisfy hunger.</p> + +<p>"Third day: P. M. Heard some dogs barking away up on the side of the +mountain; asked the butcher if he would buy a wild goat if I killed one. +It was goats that made the dogs bark, goats that once were civilized but +had strayed away and became wild. Shouldered my rifle and climbed that +awful stretch of snow-covered slide rock at the imminent peril of +starting an avalanche and destroying the whole town. Killed a goat, a +black one. Shot him in the shoulder just where "Swiftfoot, the scout," +would have planted a bullet, but the goat would not or did not die, so I +shot him again through the neck. Then I plunged my steel into him and +saw the life-blood gush all over me and the snow, then I dragged the +goat by his horns down the mountain side. There were places so steep +that the goat went faster than I did, so it was a case of goat dragging +me. Finally landed at the same time the goat did, at the bottom of the +long gulch; tied the goat's legs together and hung him across my back on +my rifle barrel. Walked unconcernedly past the butcher shop to the +restaurant, where I deposited the goat on a box in the back yard. The +perilous adventure netted me my meals for four days, three dollars in +United States money and one Mexican dollar. I was not homesick again."</p> + +<p>Another interesting item in his graphic description of the country so +new to him:</p> + +<p>"We left Georgetown in early morning to cross the range. From timber +line on the eastern slope of the great Atlantico-Pacifico water shed, +winding around Gray's Peak, serpentinely descending to the Frazier River +through Middle Park to our cabin site on Rock Creek one hundred and +fifty miles, is one unbroken cheerless blanket of snow, covering +irregular sage brush grown mesas sloping to the river banks, along whose +sides grow stretches of heavy, coarse grass suitable for wintering +hardy, range-grown stock. Cultivation of any of the land is still an +unsolved problem. The residents of this great unregistered section live +in log cabins. Neighbors are 'near' who occupy claims within ten miles +of each other. The one county, Grand, represents more territory than +Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island put together. No section +lines mark the maps, no organized arrangement of district or circuit +courts interferes with the 'administration' of 'justice' when disputes +have to be adjudicated. Generally the one quickest with a gun has the +law on his side. The people are willing to share beds and grub with each +other and strangers; a feeling akin to insult being awakened if payment +be tendered for hospitality even of several days' duration, excepting, +of course, regularly established quarters where stage coaches change +horses and provision is made for the accommodation of summer tourists. +Every man is a blacksmith, carpenter, tinker, tailor, cook, chamberman, +physician, nurse, even undertaker and grave digger when occasion +demands. The food is the most primitive known in a civilized +land—bread, venison or elk meat, occasionally antelope, bear, mountain +sheep, always bacon and black coffee, and dried prunes, peaches or +apples furnish fruit if the ranchman's ambition fires him sufficiently +to stew sauce. Occasionally a ranchman has milch cows, which add butter +and cream to the simple fare. Vegetables are a scarce commodity, except +for a case or two of canned corn, tomatoes, succotash and baked beans, +the latter being a dish utterly impossible of being prepared in high +altitudes without the aid of baking soda to soften the bean; even then +unless great care is taken the alkali spoils the flavor of this +toothsome Boston creation. Buckskin and heavy woolen underclothes form +the general run of garments, an outer protecting duck coat and overalls +being worn to a large extent. White goods as wearing apparel, table or +bed furnishings are seldom found, much less used. Time is reckoned by +'sun ups,' 'snows' and the mail carrier. In event of the latter being a +day late or ahead, the fact is recorded, or every one would eventually +lose complete track of dates, Sunday likely as not being observed in +name in the middle of the week."</p> + +<p>Jack kept his record straight for a month and then lost the combination +entirely for eighteen days. There were no churches, no schools, and but +one voting precinct in the whole of Grand County. Ward primaries had not +been established and politics centered in a justice of the peace, +sheriff, and county judge, none of whom <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original spelled 'accummulated'">accumulated</ins> wealth from office +emoluments.</p> + +<p>On Thanksgiving Day Jack's last officially correct entry in his log book +noted the thermometer as "frozen up," subsequent days for a long period +recording "a little colder," "much colder," "terribly cold."</p> + +<p>The fifth day from Hot Sulphur Springs found the trapper and his pupil +on the west slope of the Gore or Park range, encountering a terrific +snowstorm, in the midst of which they stumbled into a band of elk which +made Jack forget all his troubles of keeping the trail, the difficulty +of keeping the big wagon box on runners from upsetting and himself from +freezing. As the big animals loomed up in the clouds of snow flakes +driven pitilessly into his face he suddenly recalled the oft-told +stories of "buck fever," and for fear this dread disease would shatter +his nerves he waited the arrival of the experienced trapper. The band +was moving slowly down the ravine, not seeming to notice their +enemy—man.</p> + +<p>"Shoot 'em, why don't you shoot? Careful now, and get that big bull with +his flank turned toward you. There, give him another, quick! Again! +before he gets out of sight—you've got him!" And Jack saw his first +wapiti plunge to his knees, recover, bound sideways and then again lunge +with his nose plowing deep into the snow, his hind legs straining at the +earth for a support, only to sink in a last effort, and the "monarch of +the forest" was Jack's prize. It was but a few moments' work to knot a +lariat to a hind leg and by the aid of his Indian pony drag the carcass +to a tree, hang the body out of reach of wolves and coyotes, then seek a +suitable location for a camp, which in that storm was no easy matter. +For hours it had been unload, dig the sled out of a deep bank of snow, +load up again and flounder a few rods, only to repeat the process. The +diversion of killing an elk gave a rest of half an hour, then another +attempt was made to cross a small park before night should envelop them +in her black mantle. About half way, however, the horses floundered into +a drift which <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original spelled 'accummulated'">accumulated</ins> over the spongy surface of a willow-banked +ravine, the sled pitched its nose down deep, the trapper swore, and Jack +wanted to.</p> + +<p>"Guess we better 'cache' our stuff and get over thar in the timber and +let the 'dod gasted' blizzard play itself out," said the man of many +winters' experience. "You have done mighty well for a tenderfoot. An +old-timer couldn't have done better in tramping snow and breaking trail +than you have. This is about as bad a storm as you will ever get into. +When it snows so you can't see the horses' heads in front of you it gets +about the limit."</p> + +<p>"Can we find the provisions if we leave them here?" questioned Jack.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you get that long dead sapling over there and we will stick it up +beside the pile, throw that wagon sheet over the top, and then we'll +drive some tent pins to fasten the corners to. There now—Hi! there, +you!" The horses gave a pull and the almost empty sled followed. In a +few minutes the edge of the timber was reached and Jack commenced to +scrape away the snow preparatory for a camp fire. The old trapper +decided it best to put coverings on the horses and turn them loose. It +was too stormy to picket them, too cruel to tie them up short, and +unless blankets were fastened on them they would make a bee line back to +Hot Sulphur.</p> + +<p>When Jack had broken dry twigs from the ends of overhanging branches and +found a "blazed" spot on a pine tree which promised a good pitch-soaked +kindler, and gathered a lot of dead timber, he made ready to light his +fire. The wind drove the snow in avalanches. No one could ever light a +match in that gale, and when he reached the time for lighting, he found +but one match. He had lost his tin matchbox and the stock box was in the +"cache," which was by that time under two feet of snow. Carefully making +a little "lean to" out of a rubber blanket, he first "warmed" the match +against his flannel shirt up in the armpit, to absorb any dampness in +the sulphur, then with trepidation and fear he carefully drew the yellow +end across the inside of his duck coat, a crack, a choking cloud of +sulphur, a sputter of burning brimstone blue and feeble, then a stronger +yellow flame and the camp fire was assured. Throwing off the "lean to" +the wind drove the flames against the big pile of firewood and soon the +cheerful warmth melted a space in the snow big enough to call a camp. It +was no easy matter to cook supper, and there was little comfort standing +around afterwards, so both made ready for bed. The "lean to" was again +the resort for a shelter for the night, as a tent could not be made +secure in that storm in frozen ground.</p> + +<p>Carefully fastening one end of the canvas to the wagon, and pegging the +other to the ground near the fire, a bed was improvised with the rubber +blanket next to the snow, then the blankets, eleven in all, the "lean +to" tucked in all around—and Jack went to sleep with the wind driving +its icy breath through the thick pine forest or shrieking as it caught +the naked, ghostlike branches of a leafless aspen. The morning found +them almost buried under the snow, but none the worse otherwise.</p> + +<p>It was noon before the horses were found and brought back by the +trapper, and that evening the camp was pitched only a mile from the +other side of the "cache." The storm went down with the sun and the cold +intensified until the biting blasts hurled across the open gate to +Egeria Park were to the unprotected face like knife slashes.</p> + +<p>For two days melted snow had served for cooking, drink for horses, and +washing purposes. A good square meal had been impossible to prepare, and +a hungry night was in prospect for both man and beast. The trapper +declared he would not turn the horses loose that night, so picking out a +sheltered place among the pine trees he tied up all but "Ned," Jack's +Indian pony, halter lengths, covered them with blankets and harnessed to +keep the blankets on. The tent was pitched in a long deep cut, dug into +an immense snow bank, to all appearances a part of the big drift after +it had been arranged for the night. The intensity of the cold was +estimated at fifty degrees below zero and six pair of double blankets +weighing eight pounds per pair were used as covering (Jack was actually +tired when he awoke, from the weight of the bedding). Single thicknesses +of blankets had to be drawn over the face to keep it from freezing. But +with all these hardships the young man from the "States" thrived and +grew hardy. No such thing as a cold or bodily ailment of any sort +attacked either one.</p> + +<p>The next night found them camped in a protected ravine near a stream +from which water was obtained and some pretensions to comfort prevailed. +For the first time elk meat formed a part of the evening meal, and a +feeling of good cheer followed a hearty repast. The next morning as Jack +climbed the side of the long south slope, covered with stunted sage +brush, to get the horses that had found plenty of feed, he came face to +face with a tawny-skinned animal that came up out of one ravine as Jack +emerged from another, about a hundred yards apart. No firearms, not even +a hunting knife, were at hand. To flee would be but an invitation to +tempt the mountain lion to possible attack, so Jack sauntered along, +carelessly as he could under the circumstances, in the direction of the +ponies. The lion kept on his own course, crossing Jack's path and +eventually disappearing in a deep arroya, or gulch, all the while +turning his head from side to side watching but not attempting to molest +either Jack or the horses.</p> + +<p>The next camping spot selected was on the bank of Rock Creek, where a +bend of the stream deflected by high rocks left a well timbered, +protected area, surrounded on three sides by precipitous slopes of the +adjacent "benches" covered with sage brush, these "benches" or mesas +extending to the high ridges towering above, one facing the north, the +other the south, the former bleak and covered with deep snow, the +latter, warm and sun-kissed, furnishing feed for horses. The building of +a cabin occupied a few days, which, when equipped with a fireplace, a +bunk having about eighteen inches of spruce boughs as a mattress, and +other frontier conveniences, made a trapper's home.</p> + +<p>Deer were abundant. In an evening or in the early morning hundreds of +the great muleheaded species could be seen winding their way to and from +the feeding grounds, or wandering aimlessly about. Traps were set out, +bait doctored with "dead medicine" or poison tacked to trees and stumps +where foxes, wolves and lions were likely to find it, and the regular +life of "catching fur" was commenced.</p> + +<p>A band of Ute Indians that had left the White River Agency established +their village two miles below the cabin at a point where Rock Creek +joined another stream—Toponas, or "Pony"—and then flowed on to its +confluence with the Grand River. These Indians became visitors to the +cabin and among them Jack found one, Yamanatz, a friendly and peaceable +savage.</p> + +<p>The village was destitute of food and ammunition, in fact, no means were +at their command for obtaining game, therefore they heralded the +trappers' arrival with gladness, for they expected to be able to obtain +powder and bullets with which to obtain venison.</p> + +<p>The second visit Yamanatz made to the Rock Creek camp, he was +accompanied by his beautiful daughter Chiquita, a girl of seventeen, +richly attired in beaded skirt, leggings and moccasins. She rode astride +of a magnificent chestnut brown, full-blooded Ute pony, a large Navajo +blanket drawn tightly about her, Indian fashion. She carried a bow and +from her back hung a quiver of arrows. Her well molded face was set in +its frame of straight, black hair, braided in two long strands into +which were interwoven pieces of lion skin, beaver fur and other bits of +"medicine" charms to drive away evil spirits. A string of elk teeth +adorned her neck and bands of heavy silver ornaments bedecked her arms.</p> + +<p>Indians are similar to other folks in many respects. A proper +introduction generally puts them on a gracious footing. It did not take +long for Jack and Chiquita to strike up a fast friendship, and the old +adage of "feed the brute" held good with both Indian buck and maiden.</p> + +<p>The cabin was but partly "chinked" when the old trapper announced his +intention of going to Hot Sulphur Springs.</p> + +<p>"I left the old woman without enough wood and must go back to cut some +for her. Then there are some other matters to attend to which will take +a week or ten days, after which I will come back and bring what mail is +at the Springs for you," he explained.</p> + +<p>Little did Jack realize, in fact, he did not suspect, there might be +other reasons for this sudden determination on the part of the trapper. +It did not occur to him the seeming folly of a man leaving his wife +unprovided with wood. The trip of a hundred miles or more in the dead of +winter over unbroken trails was not so much of an obstacle for a man +experienced in mountain life; but he did not then know that the Utes' +camp was made up of some of the worst characters from the White River +Agency, nor that the band was there against the wishes of Indian Agent +Meeker, who had requested their return more than once.</p> + +<p>Jack took the matter as one of the peculiar incidents in a trapper's +life, for he had learned that a trapper has no conception of time, no +thought for the days ahead, no particular object in view beyond +existence, and no ambition beyond that of the prospector who indulges +his fancies of "striking it rich" some day.</p> + +<p>Jack knew there were plenty of provisions to last until summer, that the +trapper would leave two horses and the sled, besides quite a valuable +lot of traps, et cetera, which would insure his return sooner or later, +so there were no misgivings when the mountaineer mounted his horse and +rode away.</p> + +<p>He busied himself day after day and <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original spelled 'accummulated'">accumulated</ins> furs and knowledge of +frontier life.</p> +<p> +These were the surroundings in which Jack found himself three months +after leaving Boston.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="3">CHAPTER III.</a></h3> +<h4>CATS, TRAPS, AND INDIANS.</h4> + +<p class="p2">The steady life of a trapper had become regular diet to Jack, as day +after day he visited old traps, set out new ones and explored territory +farther away from the cabin. The Indians were daily visitors whether he +was in camp or not, but they never molested anything, no matter how +curious or hungry. They were seemingly good humored, even though there +appeared an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. The first episode to put +him on his guard was when one of the Utes, Bennett, hid behind a tree +near the camp fire outside the cabin. Yamanatz was there in his +customary place, squatted upon the ground. A strange dog ran in and out +of the place and Jack inquired of the old Ute how the dog happened to be +there. Yamanatz, unconcerned, replied, "Me dunno." This puzzled Jack, +but he went about his cooking, carefully watching the trees and rocks. +He felt for the first time a species of alarm. Again he inquired, "Ute +dog, mebbe so?"</p> + +<p>"Me dunno."</p> + +<p>Jack knew no white man would go along that trail at that time of year +without stopping to say "How!" In fact, there was no white man within +forty miles, except old Joe Riggs, and old Joe would be there with the +dog if the dog was Joe's. The suspense had a sudden termination as the +muzzle of a rifle "mirrored" in the sunlight, just the tip of the muzzle +being thus accidentally disclosed. Quick as a flash Jack pulled his six +shooter, cocked it and held it level at the tree where the bright steel +was in full view. Yamanatz made neither sign nor comment, but Jack felt +that the cunning old chief was fully aware of all that was going on. +Very soon the edge of a woolen turban cap appeared opposite the rifle +muzzle, then an ear, then a little of the chin and finally the eye of +Bennett looked straight into Jack's six shooter. With a bound the joker +jumped from behind the tree and, with a laugh which could have been +heard a mile, and in which Yamanatz joined, came forward, palms outward, +signifying peace, exclaiming, "White man no 'fraid; heap big joke, heap +big joke."</p> + +<p>But Jack began to feel that these jokes might end in something serious, +especially if he showed the white feather in the least.</p> + +<p>The next day he returned from the traps just as the last streaks of +sunlight were tipping the tops of the cañon where Rock Creek dashed by +the cabin. Yamanatz sat by the cold camp fire in the same place and same +position in which Jack had left him after breakfast, six hours before. +Of course, Jack was surprised at this and wondered what it meant. As +Jack swung into the open space Yamanatz immediately arose with hands +outstretched, the palms well up towards the comer, accompanying the +action with this eager outburst:</p> + +<p>"Yamanatz heap glad to see white man Jack; Colorow come. White man gone. +Colorow heap mad, want to see white man. Me tell 'em white man gone, +Colorow follow white man; byme by Antelope come look for Colorow; +Antelope go back Indian village by Pony Creek. Antelope tell Utes +Colorow mean mischief; Colorow's boy come byme by look for Colorow; when +Yamanatz tell Colorow's boy 'Colorow follow white man,' Colorow's boy +heap 'fraid, say: 'Mebbe so Colorow meet 'em white man Jack.' Then +Colorow's boy go Indian village. Sun low—Chiquita come, no find white +man, go back Indian village, mebbe so white man see Colorow?"</p> + +<p>Jack, of course, was nervous. Alone in a wild country that was alive +with wild game, ravenous wolves, mountain lions, bears and hostile +Indians, he realized what a novice, a tenderfoot, a fool he was, or +would be, to put his ignorance of frontier life against the cunning of +the old chiefs, but he answered quickly,</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="19"></a> + <img src="images/052a.jpg" width="294" height="500" + alt="Illustration: YAMANATZ" + title="YAMANATZ" /> + <p class="caption">YAMANATZ</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">"Me no see Colorow." Then taking courage by the kindly look in +Yamanatz's eyes, Jack said slowly, taking Yamanatz's hands in his own.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe so Colorow want to kill white man Jack?"</p> + +<p>Yamanatz shrugged his shoulders but made no answer and Jack continued.</p> + +<p>"If Colorow meet white man, Colorow got no bullets—got knife—suppose +white man kill Colorow, will Utes kill white man?"</p> + +<p>Yamanatz evaded the question but made the reply: "Colorow heap bad +Indian, mebbe so make heap trouble. Utes 'fraid Colorow—big chief +'fraid Colorow. White man mebbe so kill Colorow, no tell what 'em +happen. Old Utes not much care. Antelope, Bennett, Douglas, Washington. +Mebbe so heap mad, kill all white men if white man Jack kill Colorow."</p> + +<p>In this honest avowal Jack found little comfort, but Yamanatz's next +words gave him a hope that all might be well.</p> + +<p>"Utes got no lead, no powder, no deer meat. Mebbe so Colorow take many +ponies, go Sulphur Springs, get 'em bullets, bacon, flour, then be good +Injun till all gone."</p> + +<p>In this logic of plenty to eat lay the safety of the white trappers for +that winter, so Jack prayed fervently for the early departure of the +Indians for Sulphur Springs to the end of his own personal safety. He +knew now that certain sign language the Utes had so often indulged in +represented Agent Meeker in his attempts to teach the Indians how to +plow; that bits of tragic, practical joking were tests of his own +bravery, and that the uneasy red devils but waited opportunity and +excuse for an uprising, after they should obtain the necessary munitions +of war, of which they had none.</p> + +<p>Chiquita grew more and more interested in the ways of the pale face with +each visit, and Jack found her waiting for his return oftener, even +following him portions of the route in his attentions to the traps. Her +desire for knowledge seemed to him incomprehensible and old Yamanatz was +equally at a loss to understand why his daughter should prefer to hear +about her white sisters' habits and what they did, rather than matters +of more moment. When she finally told Yamanatz her desire to do +wonderful things, such as building a big "medicine tepee" with lots of +Indian maidens in "medicine clothes" to care for the sick, the aged and +infirm, the old chief's face gladdened and his actions spoke louder than +words, so that Jack knew it was safe to humor them both in their dream.</p> + +<p>Within a few days Yamanatz sprung a joke on Jack that left Bennett's fun +hanging high and dry on the trees. Chiquita had arrayed herself in more +gorgeous raiment than had been recorded of a society debutante in Indian +stories—beaded cape, waist, shirt, leggings, and moccasins; medals of +gold, silver and pewter; ornaments of brass, tin and iron; necklaces of +elk teeth and grizzly claws; hair decorations of lion skin, beaver and +otter fur, and in her hand a rawhide shield just dazzling with highly +polished brass knobs. Her bright eyes fairly danced with joy as she +posed before Jack in her "Sunday best." Yamanatz watched her with that +same benevolent kindness which characterized him above other Utes. After +the usual salutations, the old chief took a leather bag from the saddle +and opened it, turning its contents upon Jack's best dish towel, which +happened to be near. To say that Jack's heart jumped is drawing it very +mild. The contents of the bag were gold nuggets from the size of a +mustard seed to a navy bean and there was at least a quart.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz saw the sparkle in Jack's eyes and laconically remarked, +"Sabe?"</p> + +<p>"Heap big gold mine somewhere?" asked Jack,</p> + +<p>To which question Yamanatz made two replies—"Me dunno; mebbe so."</p> + +<p>Jack waited for him to continue, wondering what reason the two Utes had +for appearing as they did, one in royal raiment, the other with a good +sized ransom, for Jack estimated that there was twenty pounds of pure +gold worth twenty dollars an ounce, or in all nearly five thousand +dollars.</p> + +<p>"Does the white man sabe?" again inquired Yamanatz.</p> + +<p>"Me no sabe, no sabe," Jack shook his head.</p> + +<p>Chiquita now spoke up. "Does the white man sabe, what you call 'em when +white sister learn A, B, C?"</p> + +<p>"School?"</p> + +<p>Chiquita shook her head.</p> + +<p>"College?" asked Jack.</p> + +<p>This time she nodded her head and pointed to the gold. "How much cost +Chiquita in college?"</p> + +<p>It dawned on him that Chiquita wanted to go to college and that Yamanatz +would furnish the necessary money to defray the expenses. Visions of a +red savage in full forest costume ascending the steps of a great +university or college was too much for Jack and he had to laugh, much to +the disgust of his friends, but he quickly restored good faith.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz put his finger to his tongue, indicating that he did not lie. +"Yamanatz's tongue not split, no lie. Yamanatz show white man Jack heap +big pile gold, some for Jack, some for Chiquita. White man take +Chiquita, do as Chiquita say."</p> + +<p>Jack was puzzled; he thought they were bargaining in a matrimonial deal, +and he saw a little brown-eyed girl back East peering through the camp +fire at him.</p> + +<p>Chiquita, however, came to his rescue. "Yamanatz has said it. White man +take Chiquita college. Chiquita learn, heap study, make Chiquita like +white sister. Yamanatz show Jack heap big mine, lots gold, some for +Jack; some for Chiquita."</p> + +<p>As he at last comprehended this great undertaking—the stupendous task +of educating a blanket Indian girl in a modern college of refined +Caucasians—Jack was dismayed, even more so than the matrimonial +possibility had suggested, for he could get out of that, but here was a +poser. Perhaps the colleges would draw the line on Indians as some +institutions did on negroes. As he made no answer Chiquita continued.</p> + +<p>"How many moons take Chiquita college?"</p> + +<p>Jack answered slowly, "Take Chiquita four snows little A, B, C's, two +snows big A, B, C's, four snows college."</p> + +<p>Both Yamanatz and Chiquita understood, and Chiquita replied, "Ten snows +Chiquita like white sister, know heap?"</p> + +<p>Jack nodded "Yes," but in his heart he did not believe she would in a +hundred years be any more than a half-educated savage, under the most +rigid masters.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz then spoke up. "How much gold Jack want make Chiquita like +white sister?"</p> + +<p>Jack made a rough estimate and ventured at a thousand dollars a year, +"Twelve thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>Yamanatz could not understand so much money in American coin, so he +talked with Chiquita, then pointed at the pile of gold nuggets.</p> + +<p>Jack held up three fingers, meaning three times as much to make sure. +Yamanatz looked scornfully at the three fingers, then pointed at the big +grain bag in which Jack had his sugar, saying, "Yamanatz show Jack where +get a big bag full. Some for Jack and some for Chiquita, if Jack promise +Yamanatz take Chiquita"—but Chiquita had to supply the word "college."</p> + +<p>Jack pondered a long time while the would-be college girl and her father +watched his ever varying expression as he thought, "How can it be done?" +He finally agreed to make the attempt and replied: "Jack will take +Chiquita to the A, B, C school, then a little bigger school, then +college. He will see Chiquita become a great queen if Yamanatz so +speaks."</p> + +<p>"It shall be so. Yamanatz will show Jack a big cave of gold where the +sun goes down. Blazing-Eye-By-The-Big-Water, heaps of gold, and Yamanatz +will give it half to Jack, half to Chiquita and Chiquita shall be a big +queen." Then they both smoked the pipe of tobacco pledging each in their +mission.</p> + +<p>Afterwards the more detailed plan was arranged. Yamanatz indicated that +in the early spring they would start for the cave of gold, which he +explained was in a great sun-burned valley where no life existed except +snakes and scorpions; furthermore, that the trip to the cave was one of +deadly peril and hardships.</p> + +<p>"The Great Manitou gave to the Utes this cave of gold. Many big chief go +to the land of the setting sun and bring back plenty gold. Yamanatz the +last chief who can show Jack, and when Yamanatz go to the Happy Hunting +Ground the big cave is all for Jack and Chiquita."</p> + +<p>Solemnly he outlined all the details for the undertaking. As they +finished, Yamanatz gathered up the gold nuggets and handed the bag to +Jack, saying, "This is for white man—Yamanatz has more."</p> + +<p>Jack hid the gold in his war bag, after the chief and his gorgeously +arrayed daughter had gone, then he pondered long over the unexpected +mission upon which he found himself launched and his dreams were full of +colleges, gold mines and savages being educated.</p> + +<p>It was nearing Christmas time and the snow was deep on the mountain +side. The warm sun penetrated the cañons but a few hours each day. +Chiquita had become a daily visitor to the camp fire, near which she +would sit and listen to Jack as he told of the wonders of the civilized +world. Chiquita knew many English words of common usage and Jack knew as +many Mexican, or rather a mixture of Spanish, Mexican and Indian, which, +with the sign language, did service in these conversations. "Tell +Chiquita how many sleeps Rock Creek to Denver City."</p> + +<p>"Six sleeps," was the reply of Jack, meaning it was a six days' ride on +horseback.</p> + +<p>"Sabe usted the great white chief at Washington City?" was the next +query, meaning the President of the United States.</p> + +<p>"Me sabe."</p> + +<p>"Tell Chiquita how many sleeps on the cars Washington City from Denver +City."</p> + +<p>"Five sleeps on the cars Denver City to Washington City."</p> + +<p>Jack happened to have in his kit a railroad map of the United States and +with this spread before them on a blanket, he would point out Rock Creek +and then explain the distances from one place to another, telling of the +great buildings, the industries, the immense amount of fuel used in the +big shops and the number of men employed in making guns, wagons, +saddles, harness, boots, blankets and the like, articles that appeared +in the camp and which were in everyday use at the White River Agency. +This was a very arduous but pleasing task, in that it required all of +Jack's ingenuity to portray the information intelligently, and +frequently Chiquita would be the instructor because of her better +ability, as a child of the forest, to convey thought by means of signs +and comparative objects. He taught her the alphabet, also words of one +and two syllables, and she showed how wonderful is the Indian mind in +its retention of the slightest impression when the will power to receive +it is acquiescent.</p> + +<p>"Tell Chiquita, does the white man's squaw carry the wood for the fire +so the warrior can cook his venison?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Jack, laughing, "the warrior of the white man is the soldier +at the fort."</p> + +<p>Chiquita interrupted quickly, a deep scowl causing her inky black +eyebrows to meet over her flashing eyes, and with her head thrown back, +displaying the full, rounded throat, her beautiful arm bared save for +the wide beaded bracelets and amulets, she pointed to the sky, almost +hissing through her marvelously white teeth, "Chiquita comprehends, the +warrior of the white man is the hired pale face, sent by the Great White +Chief at Washington City to slay my people; even now mebbe so the hired +man rides to take Chiquita back to the White River; but her people are +brave. Her people were as the stars above, as the drops that make the +big river, but they are gone to the Great Spirit, where their ponies +await their coming in the Happy Hunting Ground that the pale face knows +not of, and to where the spirit of Chiquita will some day fly. Let the +white man Jack beware. It is well for him that Yamanatz is his friend, +and Chiquita will see that no harm comes to the friend of Yamanatz. +Mebbe so Colorow is no friend of the white man Jack, but Colorow has no +bullets. The gun of Colorow is empty, but the knife in the belt of +Colorow is pointed. It is sharp and the arm of Colorow is as the young +tree, and his step is as the step of the fawn when the dew is on the +grass. Let the white man Jack beware. Colorow will come to tell the +white man to go to the land which was taken from Colorow's people; that +this is the Utes' land and that the Utes will no more let the white man +hunt the deer and trap the wolf, which run by the tepee of the red man. +So let the white man Jack be cunning and let not Colorow find the white +man asleep under the big tree."</p> + +<p>She was all excitement. The cords stood out upon her graceful throat, +while her rounded cheeks crimsoned as the frosted leaf in the autumn +time. Jack was spellbound as the words of that eloquent warning fell +upon his ears, but at the last subdued, almost beseeching plea, he +started as if the knife was already at his throat, for it was but +yesterday, in the warm sunshine far beyond the snowy range, at noon +time, he had taken a short nap under a big pine tree, where a bed of +pine needles made an inviting spot, little dreaming that a living being, +much less an Indian, was within five miles of him. Chiquita guessed his +thoughts, and in that musical tone found only among the old blanket +Indian tribes, told Jack how she followed him and Colorow from the camp +on Rock Creek, fearing all the while that that cunning war chief would +slay the young man from the east and upset all plans of Chiquita +becoming a medicine tepee queen.</p> + +<p>Chiquita knew that Colorow, of all the discontented Utes on Rock Creek, +desired especially to be rid of Jack's presence. That the old warrior +had a grudge against the trapper was evident, and the trapper's +departure, leaving Jack alone to attend to the traps, was to her mind +clear proof that Colorow had been instrumental in causing the departure.</p> + +<p>She had heard the leaders of the renegade band denounce all trappers who +sought the region contiguous to the White River reservation, and in +particular the trapper who had built the cabin on Rock Creek. She knew +that this trapper had the winter before wantonly killed seventy-six elk, +which he had stumbled upon in a little willow grown park where the deep +snow had stalled them, and that he did not kill any more because his +ammunition had given out. She knew that the Utes, as well as the white +settlers, had in unmeasured terms condemned this wanton slaying of so +much game, but she did not think this episode was the cause of Colorow's +animosity. There was but one reason that sufficed in her opinion. She +believed Colorow had told the trapper to abandon the camp under penalty +of death if he remained, and she reasoned that the trapper went alone +because he had been ashamed to tell Jack the truth. Consequently Jack +would be the next to go, and as she already knew that Colorow had openly +declared his intention of driving the young paleface away, she +determined to watch that cunning Ute every day and give him no +opportunity for any hostile movement against Jack.</p> + +<p>The gray dawn of the day referred to in her impassioned warning found +Chiquita swiftly and silently making her way toward the Rock Creek +cabin, where she took up a position commanding a view of the camp and +the trails leading to it.</p> + +<p>The first rays of the sun were just tipping the snow on the high +mountain peaks when Jack came from the cabin and proceeded to get his +breakfast over the camp fire. As Chiquita watched him she was tempted +many times to make her presence known, for the savory viands made her +"heap hungry," but at last Jack started up the gulch on his rounds to +the traps. Chiquita knew that Colorow would put in an early appearance, +expecting to find Jack at the cabin, so she waited patiently. It was not +long before she heard the plaintive call of a camp bird mewing for +something to eat, and she mimicked it, saying to herself, "camp bird and +Colorow all same." She carefully screened herself in the willows and saw +Colorow suddenly dart from one big tree to another, then creep to a big +rock, wait a moment and glide along until he was close to the cabin. He +waited some time, evidently reading by the signs of the smoldering fire +that the object of his visit had made an early start. Seeing this, he +boldly walked out and picked up the coffee pot. As it was empty he threw +it spitefully down into the ashes and looked for a piece of bread. Being +disappointed in this also he made a big fuss of brandishing his knife, +executing a few steps as though he had discovered an enemy and in +pantomime had slain and scalped him. During this time he kept up a +continual jargon of curses and imprecations.</p> + +<p>Finally he drew back the blanket which constituted the "door" of the +cabin and peered in. Satisfied with his observations, he carefully +scanned the trail leading up the gulch, and seeing the fresh made +tracks, set out rapidly after Jack.</p> + +<p>Chiquita followed, darting along from one side of the trail to the other +or diverging obliquely across portions of the territory which she knew +Jack had to traverse in order to examine the traps, knowing Colorow +would ultimately appear.</p> + +<p>The sun had reached the meridian when she noted the Indian standing +under a big tree watching intently something not far distant from him. +Pretty soon she saw a thin spiral of white smoke gradually becoming more +dense as if from burning damp wood, and occasionally she could hear the +crackle of the flames. She knew Jack was busy getting a little lunch. +She scented the bacon as he toasted it before the fire and again she +felt that ravenous gnawing which now was doubly aggravating.</p> + +<p>The cooking evidently made Colorow furious, for he vanished into some +brush and made noises as of a wolf growling with hunger just as he +prepares to tear at a bone. Then the Indian disappeared down the ever +handy gulch to watch Jack in his effort to find the wolf.</p> + +<p>Jack proceeded to investigate, and, with gun ready, he entered the +brush, but there were so many signs of wolf tracks, fresh ones, too, +that he was at a loss to understand where they could so suddenly have +disappeared.</p> + +<p>As he slowly returned to his lunch camp—a spot free from snow in a +little pine grove where the sun shone bright and warm—he passed very +near where Chiquita was hiding, and then discovered a moccasin track, +which he examined critically. He knew the track had been made since +sunrise, but could not tell whether before or after he started to make +his little camp fire. He carefully set his big boot alongside the +footprint, making a deep impression in the earth. He also deposited the +end of one of his rifle bullets in the moccasin track, feeling sure that +the owner of the moccasin was sure to discover the significance thereof. +Colorow saw the action from his hiding place, but well knew that a +hunting knife was of little avail against a fearless man protected by a +rifle, six-shooter and belt full of ammunition.</p> + +<p>Jack looked at the sun, then at Rock Creek a long way off, and sat down +to smoke a pipeful of tobacco. The pleasing, soothing narcotic made him +drowsy and he fell asleep.</p> + +<p>Colorow made a circle around the camp and in doing so discovered the +trail which Jack had made on previous trips from the little grove. This +led toward a big gulch which was divided at the lower portion by a steep +ridge. Colorow took the one showing the most usage and ambushed himself +in a thicket close to Pony Creek, at a point convenient to a spot where +Jack would be obliged to pass within leap of the hidden foe. Here he +waited.</p> + +<p>Chiquita watched Colorow disappear down the gulch and divined his +purpose, then returned to see Jack as he awakened and witness his +surprise at having so forgotten his prudence.</p> + +<p>Picking up his rifle and skins Jack started swiftly down the gulch, +intending to follow the one selected by Colorow, as he had some venison +protected by two big traps and was certain to get at least a bobcat +there.</p> + +<p>But at the last moment he changed his mind or neglected to watch the +trail and entered the left-hand gulch.</p> + +<p>It was getting late when he discovered his error, but decided not to +retrace his steps, and the ridge was too precipitous to climb at that +point.</p> + +<p>Chiquita followed Jack to Pony Creek and on down to where it joined Rock +Creek. Then Jack went to his cabin and Chiquita to the Indian village, +where she later saw Colorow come in, baffled in his mission, at least +for the time being.</p> + +<p>Jack now thoroughly realized the dangerous position in which he was +placed and made up his mind to protect himself very carefully against +any mishap. He knew that Colorow would not dare to attack him openly, +and that safety depended on constantly guarding against all chance of +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Jack is heap glad to hear Chiquita tell of how she watches for the +white man's safety. Does Chiquita sabe?" said Jack in a half apologetic +manner, speaking abstractedly and not knowing what was best to say under +the circumstances. His mind was taken up with the uncertainties of "good +Indians." He wanted to trust Yamanatz and Chiquita, but did not know how +far either one would dare to go in their evident desire to protect him. +His recent talk with Yamanatz, of less than a week before, was pictured +vividly in Chiquita's story of her long day's tramp and vigil over him, +and he knew that if Colorow made any attempt at his life in the presence +of either Chiquita or Yamanatz, they might resist, but even their +resistance would possibly be unavailing.</p> + +<p>Making an early start on the day following to go the reversed route of +the trip during which he had taken the nap Chiquita had so graphically +described, Jack found himself in the gulch where the venison lay and a +couple of bobcats in the traps near the carcasses. Killing and skinning +these took some time, and with the heavy pelts added to a haunch of deer +meat, Jack found it no easy task to climb to the top of the snowy ridge, +down which he must go in order to reach camp. The frozen, well-worn +trail he must reach before darkness set in, but despite his most +desperate exertion it was some time after daylight had departed that he +reached the long stretch of white covered slope. Not a trail could he +find—not a welcome footprint to guide him over the deep ravines filled +with snow, or away from precipitous rocks where a misstep would land him +far below. There was but one course to take—straight down the mountain +side. Throwing away caution, he started on a swift swinging trot, each +foot breaking the crust of snow beneath him. Arriving at the edge of a +ravine, which appeared only smooth snow, he went into it up to his +waist; then, thoroughly alarmed, he struggled deeper into the ravine +until the snow was up to his armpits. His revolver was lost and wolves +were already giving tongue to dismal howls as the air carried to their +nostrils the scent of the venison to which Jack clung.</p> + +<p>His unequal combat with the yielding snow gradually exhausted his +strength and, growing each moment weaker, tired nature finally +succumbed, and he fell unconscious. But the cold air quickly revived +him. Nearer and nearer came those dreadful deep-mouthed tongue signals, +augmented by additional ones from new directions and made still more +heartbreaking by the yippy-yappy of a bunch of coyotes which also joined +the big timber wolves. The six-shooter was found first, then Jack used a +little reason. Taking off his coat and placing the furs and coat as a +support on the snow, he rolled over and over until his foot struck solid +earth. Then gathering his furs and leg of venison, he more carefully +descended, his enemies keeping at a safe distance, for in America wild +animals of any sort rarely attack man when not molested, even in the +dead of winter.</p> + +<p>Slipping and sliding, he at last reached camp, only to find both feet +badly frozen at the heels and toes. As he cut his boots off and plunged +his extremities into the cold water a whole lot of adventure went out of +his heart with the frost.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3> + +<h4>OLD JOE RIGGS.</h4> + +<p class="p2">It was Sunday, the eighth day after Jack had taken that memorable trip +so near unto death. In the warm sunshine at Rock Creek camp the major +part of the day had been passed by the young hunter in writing up his +journal, carefully jotting down all the incidents of latest development, +even to the extra spread given in his honor to himself and three +imaginary guests. He, being present, had a good meal, but the "invited" +guests had to feast by proxy. The menu started with a hambone soup, and +a nice broiled mountain trout, captured in a big hole where Pony and +Rock Creek join forces. Winter trout being so great a luxury, Jack +forgot his table etiquette and asked for a second portion, and being +refused, he made a fierce onslaught upon the piece de resistance, no +more and no less than a blue grouse roasted before the fire, as they +roasted turkeys in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Jack used one of the +metal joints of the cleaning rod belonging to his rifle as a spit, and +as he turned the bird slowly and basted it with venison fat he wondered, +if his guests could really drop in for a moment, what they would say +about his culinary efforts. The bird was stuffed with real sage +dressing; not quite so good as mother used to make, as the mountain sage +is a trifle stronger. When finished the grouse was garnished with +juniper berries and spruce buds, these being the winter food of the +grouse. There was a distinct flavor of the juniper in the meat. Then +came an entree of young elk brains and another of Big Horn kidney stew. +Jack was shy on vegetables of any kind, except Rock Creek baked beans, +cooked all night in a Dutch oven sunk in the hot ashes of the camp fire; +two kinds of bread, baking powder and sour dough, the first being hot +biscuit, the latter nice big slices of cold white bread, never free from +the name it bears. Stewed prunes and baked apple dumpling constituted +the pastry, while black coffee in a tin cup and sparkling Rock Creek +water served for liquids.</p> + +<p>Jack had finished the "dishes," the last rattle of tin plates, pans, cup +and skillets had re-echoed from the depths of the "china" closet, and he +had settled himself for a chat with his pipe, when Chiquita bounded into +camp all excitement and panting for breath.</p> + +<p>"Colorow gone Sulphur Springs. Take 'em many ponies" (counting forty +with her fingers). "All Utes except old men and Yamanatz go too. Mebbe +so come back with bullets, powder, bacon, flour," and she stopped to +breathe.</p> + +<p>Jack contemplated, and while he did so Chiquita cast wistful eyes at the +remains of the midday banquet. The longing expression was not a new one +to Jack. He knew from experience that Chiquita was a good eater, in fact +all Indians had that failing, so he motioned the belle of the village to +a seat on the end of a log near by and proceeded to dish her up a square +meal. He knew that Yamanatz would be coming along soon, so he reserved +some odds and ends for him. When Chiquita had advanced far enough so she +could have time between mouthfuls—not bites—to answer, Jack gave +utterance to his thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Colorow's ponies make pretty big track in snow—make heap big trail. +Mebbe so good for two sleeps on high mountain where wind blow."</p> + +<p>Chiquita understood and stopped her struggles, with a rib of venison in +one hand and a grouse wing in the other, long enough to articulate:</p> + +<p>"Chiquita comprehends. White man follow Utes; white man leave Chiquita +and Yamanatz to go Sulphur Springs, mebbe so Denver City."</p> + +<p>Her smiles were gone, but not her appetite, as she renewed her attacks +on the remnant counter. Jack replied:</p> + +<p>"Mebbe so Jack be gone four moons. Come back when honeysuckle on +mountainside and cactus on plain in bloom. Will Chiquita and Yamanatz go +then with Jack to Blazing-Eye-by-Big-Water?"</p> + +<p>Jack decided to get out of the Ute country while the scalp was yet on +his head and not dangling at the belt of any warrior, or braided into +the make-up of any tepee pole. Just then the clatter of two ponies down +the trail caused him to look around. In a moment or two the willows +parted and Yamanatz, accompanied by a white man, whom Jack recognized as +old Joe Riggs, entered the camp. To Jack's greeting of "How?" the +newcomers both made response. Joe inquired as to the condition of Jack's +feet, and upon being assured that those necessary adjuncts to a man's +safety on Rock Creek were in fairly good order, the cattleman suggested +the opportunity presented for Jack to make an attempt to connect with +civilization.</p> + +<p>Old Joe Riggs was known from the Cache le Poudre to the Rio Grande; to +cowman, miner, prospector and goods store folks. Old Joe was a part and +parcel of the main range. Forty-niners had bunked with him and +fifty-niners had divided buffalo steaks with him, while sixty-niners +from Missouri allowed old Joe could rock a cradle or shovel tailings +from the sluice boxes, and seventy-niners found him as ready to take his +turn at the drill or windlass as the best of them. In appearance old Joe +was a weird, uncanny being that made the creeps run up and down one's +crupper bone. Seated upon a chair in a room full of average-sized +people, Joe appeared a dwarf. His anatomy seemed to rest on the ends of +his shoulder blades, while his knees formed the hypothenuse of an +inverted right-angle triangle. When standing he overtopped every man in +a regiment of six-footers. His arms swung listlessly to his knees from +the shoulder socket, as if lacking in elbow joints, terminating in hands +fashioned more after the talons of an eagle than those of a human being. +His nose was also like the beak of that fierce bird, while his chin +retreated from his underlip in a direct line to the "Adam's apple." High +cheek bones and protruding forehead caused the deep sunken orbital +spaces to appear sightless, except for the nervous batting of his +eyelids. His shoulders were broad, but being thin chested, he was short +on lung capacity, which caused a most extraordinary mixture of guttural +whispers and shrill wheezes every time he tried to talk. His strength +was prodigious, and on more than one occasion he had won his drink by +taking hold of the chines of a full barrel of liquor, raising it from +the ground to his lips and drinking his fill from the bunghole. The most +startling of all, though, was his wardrobe, and it was an open secret +that Joe had his surname thrust upon him by reason of the various rigs +in which he was clad. As the winter season approached and Joe got cold, +he would appropriate any and all old garments he could find lying around +loose; old pants, overalls, shirts, vests and socks which others had +cast away as useless. These he would patch and sew together where +necessity demanded, lengthening or widening, and pull one garment on +over another. In this semi-annual outfitting he would appear one day +with overalls reaching just below the knees, the pair under them +revealing their "frazzled" ornamentations for a foot or more. The next +day, as like as not, he would find an old pair of red drawers, and these +would go on right over the last pair of overalls. When the spring came +and warm weather got the best of his clothes, Joe proceeded to divest +himself of a lot of useless and uncomfortable rags, for by that time +they could not be called garments.</p> + +<p>Joe at the present time was conducting a vest-pocket ranch on the sunny +slopes of the cedar-treed hills rising from the Grand River tributaries +and in what were termed "warm holes," being little areas of sage-brush +covered mesas found upon the banks of the streams. These miniature parks +were quite fertile in bunch and even buffalo grass, and varied from five +acres to a whole section in extent. His herd of cattle consisted of two +heifers, six old cows and ten three-year-old steers. This constituted +the nucleus of an expectant million-dollar stock farm. It represented +more than the average fortune accumulated by constant and attentive +prospecting for forty years.</p> + +<p>Joe's hint at the opportunity of connecting with God's country struck +Jack as a coincidence upon which there might turn a contingency, so he +reasoned with himself: "Why does Joe think I might want to get away from +the Indians? Does he think I will desert my camp outfit and provisions? +Besides, what is the old trapper to do when he returns?"</p> + +<p>These questions were immediately answered by the cattleman just the same +as though Jack had asked the information point blank, a proceeding which +added to the weirdness of Joe's presence, and the most uncanny feature +of it was the total inability of the hearer to locate whence came the +sound that emanated from that sepulchral living cadaver. No lips moved +in unison with a voice, nor even did the gleaming teeth, just visible +through the parted mouth, open or close as if responsive to any oral +exertions. The sound came from everywhere. Joe was a heaven-born +ventriloquist.</p> + +<p>"Yer needn't be slow about gittin' away from Rock Creek ef yer want ter +go. 'Taint nothin' ter me. That ther' trapper ain't comin' back 'til +ther beaver gets to usin' thar cutters on the trees a-buildin' dams, an' +then he won't cum back ef thar's goin' to be trubble. He tol' me that +ther day afore he struck out, savvey?"</p> + +<p>Jack did not need to have the cabin fall on him nor an upheaval of the +earth to realize that the trapper had "cut loose" from the Rock Creek +possibilities. There was an ominous silence for a couple of minutes. One +thing was certain in the minds of the two white men, alone, as they +were, far from aid of any sort in the event of an uprising, and the +thought uppermost in both their minds was as patent to each other as if +branded in letters of fire—the trapper had deserted the tenderfoot.</p> + +<p>As soon as this thought had coursed through Jack's brain other thoughts +surged one upon another in quick succession. Was it a frontier +conspiracy in which both white and red men were equally interested? Was +it a put-up job between the trapper and Joe and the Indians—merely a +coincidence in the commission of the trade? Perhaps the trapper had sold +the camp outfit and Joe had come to take possession. This last thought +made his heart sick, for he knew only too well that he could make no +resistance except that which would end in a tragedy. Again the +supernatural mind-reading Joe proclaimed himself in a few disjointed +sentences, but to Jack they were most welcome in their honesty of +purpose and implication of the trapper as a coward.</p> + +<p>"I reckon yer might be calkerlatin' on what yer would do with this yere +plunder," said Joe, as he pointed at the camp outfit, the provisions and +the furs hanging on the side of the cabin. Continuing in that monotonous +sing-song of gutturals and whispers, he allowed the plunder belonged to +Jack, for the trapper had acknowledged as much.</p> + +<p>"That trapper got 'skeered' of Colorow and lit out. Mebbe yer don't know +it, but the Utes don't like him any too much, and when Colorow said +'Vamoose' yer pardner left yer to yer own cogitashuns. He tol' me that +nothin' in the camp belonged to him; thet 'twas all your'n except the +traps and harness. 'Taint likely he'll come back 'til next March, so ef +yer don't want ter stay 'til then yer'll have to git a move on yerself. +Thet trail won't stay open an hour on the high divide, but yer can +rastle a couple Ute cayuses through ten feet of snow like a hot bullet +goin' through a piece of ham fat, and onct on the other side of the +divide it will be an easy trail to Kremling's, at the mouth of the Big +Muddy. Yer don't need ter take much along. Yer will be out but one +night, and mebbe yer will git ter the old hunter's cabin about forty +mile from here 'fore that. Ef yer don't ther is a good campin' ground on +the crik in a big pocket five miles this side."</p> + +<p>It did not take long to make a trade. Jack reserved his six-shooters, +blankets and three or four fine cat and fox skins. Joe gave him a good +Indian pony, a silver watch, and the balance in money for the +provisions, rifle, ammunition and other paraphernalia, except the +remaining furs, traps and cooking utensils, which were the legitimate +belongings of the trapper.</p> + +<p>But the awful perils of a trip over an unknown trail in midwinter rose +up as a barrier between Jack and civilization. The night had come on and +Yamanatz, with Chiquita, as silent witnesses to the exchange of +chattels, sat beside the camp fire. Grotesque shadows wavered and +wandered back and forth in and out of the gloom as Jack replenished the +disappearing embers with new fuel preparatory to a pow-wow in which the +final arrangements were to be completed concerning his escape from Rock +Creek, his return later when the winter passed, when Yamanatz should +conduct him to the great gold deposit. It was a matter of a hundred +miles to the nearest ranch in Middle Park, before reaching which was a +"divide," the top of which soared far above the surrounding hills, and +then came the Gore, or Park range, split by the Grand River into an +impassable cañon, along whose steep side ran the old Ute trail, up, up, +until it crossed the snow-covered summit beyond timber line, and thence +descended by serpentine and circuitous windings to the southern entrance +of the Park. From there to the ranch on the Troublesome was open level +country, across which was comparatively easy traveling. The other pass +over the Gore range, which was used by the trapper and Jack when they +made their incoming trip to Rock Creek, was already closed by snow as +far as travel by horses was concerned, and for that matter the Ute trail +was closed, except for being opened by the band of Indians and thirty or +forty ponies bucking their way through to Sulphur Springs.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="5">CHAPTER V.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS.</h4> + +<p class="p2">The most difficult portions of the journey would be encountered the +first day over the numerous ridges of barren waste intervening between +Rock Creek and the high divide. Old Joe shook his head in uncertain +manner when Jack asserted his confidence in being able to follow after +Colorow. Yamanatz nodded in assent at the dangers confronted by the +dilemma of Jack's unfamiliarity with the trail, and then in that +portentous monosyllabic manner of Indians in brief words conveying whole +paragraphs of information but adding to the dismal forebodings, said:</p> + +<p>"White man all right. Plenty sign when trail in big woods. Heap sign on +big trees. Come big open, no trees, no sign; one look, two look, three +look, all same. All snow, no trail, no tree. Get lost; sundown, no fire, +no camp. White man cold. Pretty soon sleep; fall off pony; sleep long +time."</p> + +<p>Then Jack knew that "three looks" would carry him from the top of one +high hill to the top of another, as far as the eye could reach to the +horizon, into a country absolutely treeless, and where even an Indian +would be lost if he had never been shown the trail. To attempt the trip +alone would be sheer madness and only result in that subtle overpowering +sleep into eternity—death by freezing.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz stopped speaking for a moment to give his hearers ample time to +fully understand him, then continued: "White man sabe? Colorow gone one +sleep, mebbe so not make 'em Gore range. White man catch 'em pony +tomorrow. Two sleeps before can take 'em trail to follow Colorow, sabe? +Colorow mebbe so come back meet 'em white man. Colorow then heap mad, no +get 'em flour, bacon. Colorow, Antelope, Bennett all heap hungry. White +man no got 'em big gun; little gun not much good, mebbe so?" and +Yamanatz lapsed into silence.</p> + +<p>There was no need to ask anything more. The cunning old warrior knew +only too well the fate that awaited Jack if Colorow and his ugly +renegade Indians should fail to get through to Sulphur Springs and had +to return empty handed to Rock Creek. Old Joe knew, too, that his own +safety would be problematical, even with his years of familiarity with +the whole Ute tribe. The gloom that settled over them was full of +foreboding. Each one was striving to hatch out a plan that would dispel +the dangers now besetting Jack's safety.</p> + +<p>It was useless to think of old Joe attempting the trip with Jack, and +Yamanatz made no sign of being willing to assume the role of guide. At +last as Jack was about to abandon all hope, Chiquita arose and, crossing +over to where Jack was, bid him to be of good cheer.</p> + +<p>Pointing to the stars, she said: "What Yamanatz has said is in the sky. +The Great Spirit who watches over the Indian maiden has told Chiquita to +lead the white man that he may go to meet his white brothers. Chiquita +knows the trail. Chiquita is not afraid. It is but one moon since +Chiquita's pony did paw the deep snow and carry Chiquita on the big +divide to meet the Ute braves coming from the Grand River. One sleep, +and the white man Jack must get his ponies, and two sleeps before the +sun shall show on top of the high mountain. Chiquita will be ready at +the tepee of Yamanatz to lead the white man over big divide, where make +'em one camp for Chiquita and one camp for white man Jack. One sleep and +Chiquita say adios to white man, then come back Indian village on same +day. White man go to his white brothers on Troublesome, then go long way +Denver City."</p> + +<p>Here was a dilemma that confronted Jack, even more embarrassing than +anything yet thrown in his path—the would-be leader of the select four +hundred at White River acting as guide over a wild country, to say +nothing of a one-night camp among the willows at the edge of some little +creek. It must have amused him to a great degree, for, serious as it +was, a smile lurked around the corners of his mouth, causing Chiquita to +become a little disdainful, as an Indian is very sensitive to ridicule, +but Jack quickly relinquished the comical side of the question and his +features again became as grave as those of old Yamanatz. Old Joe was the +first to speak:</p> + +<p>"The Injun gal is made of the right stuff and will pilot yer to ther +right place, an' she can take care of herself goin' an' comin'. I've +seen her throw that knife in her belt twenty feet as straight as yer can +shoot a bullet outen that six-shooter of your'n."</p> + +<p>Then the old Ute spoke:</p> + +<p>"Chiquita all same Yamanatz show 'em trail to white man. White man +sabe?"</p> + +<p>Jack could do nothing but take Chiquita's hands in his own and bow his +humblest thanks. It occurred to him he had an old sealskin cap in his +war bag and that it might please the dusky maiden. He soon produced it +and, with another friendly greeting, presented it to her. It was lined +with bright red silk, and she proceeded to put it on with the silk on +the outside, to which Jack made no remonstrance. Although it made him +bite his tongue, he did not "crack a smile."</p> + +<p>Yamanatz and Chiquita immediately started on the trail for the Indian +village. It was ten o'clock. After a chat with Joe they both turned into +the bunk, Jack to dream of home, sheets and pillowcases, barber shops, +chinaware and a real live dining-room table. It took all next day and +far into the night to get his Ute ponies in readiness for Tuesday's long +journey, but at last the packs were made up. Three days' supply for two, +of bread, bacon, tea and coffee, were made into a convenient bundle, to +be rolled into the blankets, which would in turn be strapped behind +Jack's saddle. All the other paraphernalia—Indian moccasins, buckskin +shirts, beaded tobacco bags and a real Ute war bonnet, with lots of +pipes, elk teeth, bears' claws, arrow heads and Jack's clothing—were +packed in rubber blankets, canvas covers and grain bags, ready for the +pack-saddle on the other pony.</p> + +<p>It was just daybreak when Jack bid the old Rock Creek camp farewell, +leaving it to be put in shape by old Joe, who had helped the young man +from the far east in his preparations. Old Joe did not waste words in +his good-bye speech, but there was at least a perceptible tremor in his +voice and a decided reluctance in withdrawing his hand after the adios +shake. The Indian village was reached at exactly sunrise, and as a +chorus of yelping dogs greeted the arrival of the ponies, a few squaws +poked their heads out of the tepees, nodding a salute of recognition to +Jack. Chiquita was ready to mount her pony as soon as Jack gave her the +word. He had tightened the diamond hitch on the pack pony and his own +saddle girth preparatory for a long lope over the sage-brush flat that +extended from the Indian village across the small mesa at the foot of +the first hills, which form the steps of the high divide. Chiquita, +dressed in her buckskin shirt, skirt, leggings and moccasins heavily +trimmed with beads, quickly sprang into her saddle and pulled the +blanket up around her shoulders Indian fashion. Her hair hung in heavy +braids at either side of her cheeks, while the sealskin cap with showy +red silk lining crowned her head. Into the peak of the cap she had +thrust an immense eagle feather. The chorus of yelping dogs again took +part in the ceremony attending their departure. As they ascended the +first bench several blacktail deer ran directly across their +path—beautiful animals that cleared the sage brush in graceful, easy +bounds, looking first to the right and then to the left, as much as to +say, "Come on, I'm ready."</p> + +<p>It was noon when the last long snow-covered ridge lay behind them. For +two hours it had been a battle with snowdrift after snowdrift. The trail +cut by the Colorow Indian ponies had been filled by the wind with +drifting snow until not a sign was left. Parapets of snow ten feet high +were encountered, which had to be cut and the trail again located by +Chiquita. First one pony would take the lead and, reared on his hind +feet, paw the snow down beneath him, while the next in line trampled it +a second time, until a cut was formed at a low point in that endless +chain of banks stretching for miles in either direction. Towering forty +feet in the air were mountains of the same dazzling white, which had to +be circled, sometimes leaving the trail to the right or left for a mile. +At times these detours were made only to be retraced because of the +impassable blockades rising in sheer precipices, and once the trail +opened by these detours was found to be refilled within an hour, so +fierce was that icy blast, blowing its wanton breath in seeming malice +against the weary beasts and their equally weary riders.</p> + +<p>Jack had tramped snow for the ponies on many occasions when they refused +to move. Chiquita had lent her encouragement time and again as Jack +seemed ready to abandon the trip, but at last behind them towered the +top of the big divide, on whose crest ran a snow bank higher than any +before encountered. Giving a few moments' rest to the panting ponies, +Jack took the lead, for now the trail was easily discernible and +followed without a break, down, down, over and through a few more banks +of that mealy substance, affording neither footing nor shelter for man +or beast, until the warm forests of pine once more protected them from +the frightful cold.</p> + +<p>At the first convenient spot Jack cleared away the snow from a huge rock +and soon had a cheerful fire roaring, which furnished warmth to their +numbed bodies; then from his tin cup in which snow was melted he brewed +a refreshing draught of tea, which, with a bite of frozen bread thawed +out on the hot rock, appeased their hunger for the time being. By the +aid of a pocket thermometer Jack ascertained the temperature to be 36 +degrees below zero. The sky was clear, but even at the edge of the +timber a thousand feet below that terrible snow-turreted ridge the wind +screamed in its fury and pierced the heavy garments and blankets within +which Chiquita and Jack were encased. The ponies humped their backs at +the lee side of the fire and seemed grateful for a few mouthsful of +smoke in lieu of a wisp of dry buffalo grass. Conversation was almost +impossible, as words were not audible three feet distant. Both were too +numb to talk, and it was difficult even to eat. The half hour at an end, +Jack struck into the trail, leading his pony. Chiquita had not +dismounted since leaving the Indian village, and was getting pretty +stiff with cold. At the end of another half hour she managed to make +Jack hear her, and after considerable trouble he found a log by the side +of the trail, where she could stand and swing first one leg and then the +other to restore circulation. After ten minutes' vigorous exercise she +remounted, and the little procession again started through the down +timber.</p> + +<p>They had reached a portion of heavy forest that had been ravaged by +timber fires. Miles and miles of immense trees lay in chaotic confusion. +Tall spires of limbless bark-burned pines stretched eighty, one hundred +and even a hundred and fifty feet skyward, the weather-beaten trunks +white with the storm-scouring of years. Through this desolate stretch of +ghostyard (a veritable birthplace for spooks and goblins, the terror of +that docile animal known as the Rocky Mountain canary, but usually +called a jackass) the party moved in silent Indian trot, each step +taking them nearer and nearer the warmer region of cedar, piñon and sage +brush, through groves of quaking asps, whose leaves in the summer time +never cease their eternal and restless quiver and upon whose smooth +trunks were Indian signs galore. On the larger and older trees could be +found those subtle knifecuts, conveying intelligence through +representations of chickens, horses, snakes, hatchets, knives, guns, +arrows and other characters which in the past had warned of the +approaching enemy or told of the chase, of the success or the defeat not +only of Utes, but of Sioux, Apaches, Arapahoes and Kiowas. Many an hour +had Jack spent in studying these trees which are scattered over the +Rocky Mountain region, bearing whole histories, trees generally found +within an altitude of 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level.</p> + +<p>It was not long after passing through this belt that they came to the +south hillsides, whose slopes were free from snow and where the runways +for deer, elk and mountain sheep became more and more numerous. Stocky +little cedar trees stretched forth their long arms over the trail, +sending forth fragrance of lead-pencils and giving a slap on the face if +the rider neglected to duck in season to avoid the branch. Entering a +sage-brush covered mesa, immense jack-rabbits bounded hither and +thither, sage hens flew up with a whir of their wings and the shrill +scream of an eagle greeted their ears as if to warn them against +entering his domain. As the trail led them nearer and nearer to the +banks of a good sized creek the ponies became restive, and finally the +pack animal resorted to that well-known method of suggesting that it was +time to make camp by "bucking"—not a stop in the bucking process until +blankets, bags and bundles were scattered for a mile over the sage-brush +flat. It was an hour's work for both Jack and Chiquita to get the +plunder together and again pack it on the refractory cayuse, and it was +all the more aggravating, as it was only a couple of miles from the spot +selected for camp.</p> + +<p>Arriving at a bend in the creek—rather it was a fair sized river—they +proceeded to make the best of everything at their command. There was a +space along the edge of the river about two hundred feet wide, covered +here and there with wild rye, at the roots of which was dried buffalo +grass. This strip of land ran back to a cañon wall, a precipice some +forty feet high, sheer and without foothold for even a wildcat. Thick +willows grew along the base of this wall, and it was but a few minutes +after the ponies were relieved of their saddles ere Jack had selected +two favorable spots which would afford reasonably good beds, one for +Chiquita and one for himself. Cutting away the willows up to the wall in +a narrow space just big enough for one to lie down, and forming a +mattress of others occupied but a little time. Meanwhile, Chiquita had +brought driftwood and dry sticks until an immense pile of fuel was in +readiness for the long night. The ponies were picketed, one on each side +of the camp and the third one close to the edge of the stream, forming a +guard past which no wild animal would attempt to go. It was now dark and +the ponies were foraging for buffalo grass, while Jack toasted some +bacon on a stick, made coffee in an old baked-bean can, which he had +thoughtfully tied to the pack-saddle, and toasted the frozen bread on a +hot rock. During the early dusk the mew of a plaintive camp bird gave +notice that that mountain sentinel was at hand, and the handsome +gray-coated camp follower would spread his black-tipped wings and fly +down to the edge of the fire, looking for crumbs and refuse of the +"kitchen." Chiquita gave him a few morsels, but there was little to +spare from the stock at hand.</p> + +<p>After they had satisfied their hunger Jack and Chiquita settled +themselves for a long talk. It was the first opportunity that had been +presented since old Joe and Yamanatz interrupted them the Sunday before +after the six-course banquet Jack had given his eastern friends by +proxy.</p> + +<p>The ponies tugged at their picket ropes, wandering around in search of +overlooked patches of grass. Occasionally a wolf howl mournfully +awakened the stillness of the gathering darkness, to be answered by +others of the same species, each animal in the common quest of something +to eat, and all probably attracted by the camp fire and its attendant +odors.</p> + +<p>A first-quarter moon shed its cold, silvery light on the drama at the +base of the precipitous rock. The air was crisp and still. The splashing +stream dashing its burden along the confines of its narrow channel to +the Pacific Ocean was the orchestra, keeping in touch with the scene, +staged by no artificial hand and curtained by the star-spangled canopy +of night. The camp fire sent showers of sparks far aloft and its warmth +unloosened the tense-drawn muscles, every one of which had been called +upon to its utmost capacity in the battles that the weary travelers had +encountered with the snowdrifts. Jack lay stretched upon the sand by the +fire, while Chiquita stood beside him. They had recounted the perils of +the day and had outlined their respective trips for the morrow—she to +face again the dangers of the divide and go back to the uneducated, +primitive life of the forest man, degraded by the deceits and intrigues +of the avaricious, land-grabbing representatives of schools, colleges +and institutions, proclaiming the law to be justice, he to face the +vicissitudes of an unknown trail, the possibility of meeting a murderous +band of these forest men while on his way back to that realm of advanced +civilization, educated to the highest degree of refinement of "doing" +others legally.</p> + +<p>Both had remained silent for a long time after the exchanges of the +day's experiences. Jack wanted to express his gratitude to Chiquita for +her bravery and self-imposed task in conducting him over the trail, for +he now fully realized the certain death that awaited him had he +undertaken the trip alone. But he was not master of words that the +Indian maiden would understand in their fullest import, nor did he hope +to be able to convey by signs that which was uppermost in his mind.</p> + +<p>It may be Chiquita read his thoughts, but was equally at loss to find +adequate words to impart any assistance. Finally, after many misgivings +as to what she might consider an ample word reward, he started in at +random:</p> + +<p>"Chiquita sabe that she has been good to Jack?"</p> + +<p>"Me no sabe, Señor."</p> + +<p>Jack was nonplussed. In her he found the same ability to dissemble that +predominated in the well-known character of the first lady in the Garden +of Eden. He tried to recall some Spanish words that she might +understand, but none of the few which he essayed to use met with any +better reception.</p> + +<p>"Chiquita heap brave," said Jack, to which she made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Chiquita save Jack; make 'em glad Jack's heart. What Jack do to make +Chiquita's heart glad?"</p> + +<p>He at last had struck the right chord, as her face beamed with a glad +response, but it brought questions causing a train of thought which made +him smile even at the risk of incurring her displeasure. To express +gratitude to an Indian requires much more diplomacy and skill than is +required under like circumstances in civilized communities.</p> + +<p>"Would the fair-faced sister of the white man save Jack all same +Chiquita? Would the pale-face maiden bring firewood and sleep in willow +bed to save white man's life?"</p> + +<p>Her eyes blazed in the consciousness of knowing that in the present age +on the American Continent no white woman had ever been put to a like +test. Whether she felt this intuitively or whether she had learned it +from the squaws who had visited the big cities as they recounted the +adoration extended by the male to the weaker sex as a part and parcel of +civilization, it matters not.</p> + +<p>Jack knew that he was at as great a disadvantage in her presence as if +at the mercy of the divinest coquette in all of God's country. He +essayed to answer, but something restrained him. It was not fear; it was +not because he had his own misgivings on the subject, nor was it because +he had no ready reply. Nevertheless, he waited and in his mind he tried +to picture one of the belles of society bucking snow to save some +football graduate from death, or one sleeping in the open air, without a +chaperon, and a man in the same cañon. What <i>would</i> Mrs. Grundy +say? Of course he thought of the story by an eminent author where there +was a scuttled ship laden with gold, a clergyman and a rich man's +daughter cast upon an unknown island, and Jack acknowledged he had never +heard of Mrs. Grundy making unkind remarks about that tale. But that was +the result of accident, and mortuary tables classify accidental risks in +a category by themselves.</p> + +<p>Chiquita had suggested the society belle who would voluntarily give up +half her estate for a real live, accidental romance that did not incur +too much danger. Would she leave her maid and steam radiator and in the +midst of a western blizzard sally forth to carry coal up three flights +of stairs to a poor, benighted student, and then sleep on the doormat, +for any reward there might be in store for her, either from a +consciousness of having performed a creditable act or because she loved +him?</p> + +<p>Of course, Jack knew there was no occasion ever presented where a loving +young thing, just out of the sixth grade, had been called upon to carry +anything any more formidable than a bunch of roses to a sick friend, and +the modern equipages splashed only a little dirty water over roads well +kept from snowdrifts by indulgent taxpayers. Still, the question had +been asked, and he manfully determined to stand up for the fair ones +across the range.</p> + +<p>"Si, Señorita Chiquita, the Indian maiden has said it. The pale-faced +sisters of Jack would save their white brothers—even their red brothers +and their black brothers. The fair sisters of the white man brave death +in many ways for their white brothers. See, Chiquita, the medicine tepee +of the white man is great as the high rock. It has many beds, more than +the number of all Yamanatz's ponies. The young man who makes the gun, +the maiden who makes the pretty cap mebbe so breaks the leg. Mebbe so +the big steam cars come together all in big smash—kill many, heap hurt +all. Then taken 'em to white man's medicine tepee. Medicine man tie up +head, arms, legs, and white maiden in medicine clothes, all clean dress, +white cap, red cross on the arm, give sick man medicine, wash sick man's +hands, feet; give little something to eat, sit beside 'em, feel of hot +head; stay all day, stay all night; watch 'em little blood knocks on the +wrist, count all same on little watch. Mebbe so one get well, go way, +good-bye. Mebbe so some die, go way too. Some more come bad hurt. Mebbe +so like mountain fever; mebbe so heap sick inside. Big medicine man +takes little knife, cut 'em all open, so. Cut out big chunk, mebbe so +little chunk, all same; sew 'em up again, so, sabe? White maiden stand +by, help big medicine man. 'Nother medicine man stand by give 'em heap +strong stuff on cloth, sabe? Sick man all same breathe 'em in, byme by +go sleep; no feel 'em knife. Big medicine man heap cut. Sick man no feel +all same. Byme by wake up. Heap sick now long time; mebbe get all well; +mebbe so one moon, mebbe so two moons; mebbe so die. All same pale face +maiden heap brave; save many white man like Jack."</p> + +<p>Chiquita never took her eyes from Jack's countenance. That she fully +understood every phase of the hospital life as portrayed by him was +evident from the dilated nostril, the wide-open eyes and the tumultuous +heaving of the bosom through the heavy folds of her buckskin. She waited +a full two minutes after Jack had finished, and then in a voice just +above a whisper asked: "Will the white man Jack take Chiquita to see the +medicine tepee of the white people that she may see the fair white +sister in her medicine clothes?"</p> + +<p>Jack little realized that he had touched the one chord in Chiquita's +character that she yearned to follow. The imaginings of her young life +had met with no sympathetic response. She revolted at the cruelty often +displayed by the warriors in the Indian village, and the atrocities +committed on captives while she was but a child were hideous +recollections.</p> + +<p>Jack quickly replied: "When Jack comes back to go with Yamanatz to +Blazing-Eye-by-Big-Water then Chiquita will see big medicine tepee in +Denver City and the fair sister in her medicine clothes."</p> + +<p>"Will Jack come back Rock Creek when beaver cut 'em big tree?" asked the +Indian girl.</p> + +<p>Jack figured that April would be early enough, and even that would +require him to use snowshoes a great part of the distance. The Berthoud +pass would not be open until June, and he doubted if the snow would be +passable for ponies on the high divide they had just crossed, but the +Gore range could be crossed farther north and obviate the high ridge and +its deep snow.</p> + +<p>"Jack will come back the first new moon after beaver begin cut. Will +Chiquita be in tepee near Pony Creek or White River?" He both answered +one question and asked another.</p> + +<p>"Me no sabe where Chiquita then," she replied, in a rather sorrowful +tone, continuing: "Mebbe so all go to agency, mebbe so stay on Pony +Creek. White man no find Chiquita on Pony Creek, go all same agency find +'em Yamanatz. Where Yamanatz there Chiquita wait for white man Jack."</p> + +<p>That being settled, Jack took the blankets and distributed them on the +willow beds. He then replenished the fire with some half-green logs +pulled from a pile of drift wood, examined the picket ropes of the +ponies and lit his pipe for another smoke. Chiquita wrapped herself in +her blanket, tucked herself into a big wildcat-skin bag, which made a +part of her bed on the willow branches, and was soon asleep.</p> + +<p>Through the rings of smoke which curled from his pipe Jack sensed the +future, as a spiritualist would say, and, realizing that this would in +all probability be his last night of outdoor life for some time to come, +he was loath to close his eyes in sleep, shutting out the grand +retrospect of independence which a few months' experience on the +frontier had taught him—a life absolutely free from conventionalities, +police interference and taxes.</p> + +<p>"No wonder," he soliloquized, "that the red man prefers the avenues of +the forest, the virgin plains of grass, the rugged cañons running with +sparkling water, the smoke of his tepee fire and a starry dome for his +homestead, to the cobblestones, the plowed ground, the artificial goose +ponds, the greasy-surfaced rivers, the steam-heated, foul-smelling +hothoused monuments of man's industry and civilization."</p> + +<p>The ponies snorted as though an intruder was lurking on the outskirts of +the camp. Jack kicked one of the smoldering logs and a shower of sparks +were borne upward into the dark night air. A few moments later and the +prowler's deep, dismal howl wafted along the river course, supplemented +by the short, snappy yelps of half a dozen coyotes. The interruption was +ended and the man of the house again lapsed into speculation.</p> + +<p>"Who would believe that Jack Sheppard would be here alone with that +Indian girl in the middle of January, over a thousand miles from his +home, where are velvet carpets and feather beds for old folks, eiderdown +quilts for his sisters and probably a good hair mattress and blankets +for the butler?"</p> + +<p>Knocking the ashes from his pipe and placing that article of luxury +safely in an Indian-beaded buckskin tobacco pouch, he drew one foot up +and clasped his hands over the greasy overalled knee, resting his back +against one of the log "divans" which go to make up every camp, even be +they temporary ones. He had divested himself of his outer coat and +relied upon the heavy buckskin shirt and the camp fire for protection +from the cold. Long strings, demanded by frontier fashion, dangled idly +from the sleeves and yoke of the garment. As he silently contemplated +his wardrobe he gave an additional sigh and wondered, almost aloud:</p> + +<p>"I suppose these will have to give way to a 'biled' shirt, tailor-made +clothes and white collar, to say nothing of getting a haircut +regularly."</p> + +<p>This last "think" made Jack unclasp his hands rather hastily, but having +assured himself that his hair was still intact, he gave vent to more +soliloquy.</p> + +<p>"If I were to walk into that Sunday-school class of mine, of +ten-year-olds, in this rig, I wonder if the shorter catechism would +stand any show?"</p> + +<p>With a smile he proceeded to throw on a couple more logs, refresh +himself with a drink of water and, having divested himself of his boots, +using a saddle and coat for a pillow, he pulled the blankets around +himself and was soon fast asleep.</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="20"></a> + <img src="images/102a.jpg" width="375" height="500" + alt="Illustration: THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS" + title="THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS" /> + <p class="caption">THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">He was awakened by snorts of all three ponies. The fire +had burned out with the exception of a bed of coals glowing in the deep +black night. The "watchdogs" of the camp had crowded up to the lengths +of their picket ropes, getting as near each other as they could. Jack +slowly raised himself to a sitting position and listened attentively. +Peering out through the willows he could see, by the restive tugging of +the ponies at their fastenings with the pricking of their ears toward +the high precipice, that the cause for alarm did not come from inside +the cañon. Cautiously putting on a pair of moccasins, which he always +had near him at night, he picked up his .44 and was on the point of +stepping into the open by the fire, when from above came a screech, a +long cat-like growl of defiance, yet defeat, that made the cañon echo +and re-echo with maniacal vocal debauchery. Jack's heart, it is needless +to say, quit doing business peremptorily for at least thirty seconds. +His eyes followed the ear-vanes on the ponies' heads, and just at the +edge of that breastwork of rock could be seen two golden discs as big as +car wheels, Jack thought. A greenish glare as of a halo surrounded the +yellow spots, and occasionally the bright spots suddenly disappeared +only to shine forth again appallingly bright. It was a mountain lion +taking snap shots while it speculated on its appetite. Jack stepped out +and gave the end of a burned log a kick into the hot coals. Millions of +sparks flew up. The big lemon-colored orbs slunk back out of sight and +ten minutes later the faint repetition of the first number proclaimed +the concert ended.</p> + +<p>The "big dipper" pointed to 3 o'clock. Throwing on some more fuel the +fire blazed high. Chiquita thrust her head out of the environments of +the fur bag and sat up in the willow retreat. "Me want 'em drink; mouth +heap dry," was the laconic remark she made to Jack as he acknowledged +her wakefulness. Giving her a cup of water, he referred to the visitor +just departed, to which she scornfully replied:</p> + +<p>"Heap big coward, big cat with long tail. Little cat with short tail all +same like this bag, no coward. Big cat all same you call 'em lion, no +catch 'em ponies, Indian or white man, all time afraid. Big cat catch +'em rabbit, lame deer. Mebbe so heap hungry tackle 'em big elk; drop +from big tree on elk back. Big cat, little cat, wolf, bear, no come near +camp fire. Look at camp fire long way off. Chiquita no fraid when all +'lone."</p> + +<p>With this piece of information, with which Jack was already acquainted, +they both resumed their interest in the land of Nod.</p> + +<p>The bright winter sun had not mounted far enough in the heavens to shed +any warm rays into the camp when Jack pulled on his boots and poked the +fire preparatory to an early breakfast. The ponies did not look as if +dyspepsia troubled them, nor did Jack feel overburdened with belly +worship. The little larder was a hollow mockery to the knockings of a +ravenous appetite. Jack concluded that a well-fed discretion was better +than hungry haste, so he meandered down the river in search of a rabbit, +while Chiquita attended to her morning ablutions. About the time that +the average city girl would have consumed with curling tongs, cashmere +bouquet and in getting her hat on straight, Jack returned with a nice +fat "jack" of the <i>lepus cuniculus</i> family, all ready for the +coals. It did not take long to cook the choice cuts from the delectable +portions of "Bunny." The seasoning was rather crude, consisting of +powder taken from a misfire cartridge, which Jack happened to have in +his belt. But "saltpeter in gunpowder is better than no salt at all" is +an old axiom among hunters. This addition to the "hollow mockery" larder +sent their spirits up to the top of the goodfellowship thermometer.</p> + +<p>"A burned hare is worth two in the bush," said Jack, as he irreverently +twisted a trite quotation and rabbit leg. But Chiquita kept right on in +her argument with a section of the vertebra just roasted on a forked +stick.</p> + +<p>After the first pangs of hunger had been somewhat appeased the Indian +girl said to Jack, "What you call 'em little things use all same knife +when eat off tin plate?"</p> + +<p>Jack recalled the fact of some cheap silver-plated forks that made up +the camp kit.</p> + +<p>"Forks," he replied, adding, as Chiquita seemed to want further +information, "The fair sisters of Jack no eat 'em venison with fingers, +all same Chiquita. Think 'em Chiquita wild girl. When Jack come back +bring 'em forks and spoons for Chiquita."</p> + +<p>To this she seemed satisfied, but remarked: "Mebbe so fingers pale face +girl good play 'em tom-tom, make 'em beadwork, wash 'em tin plates. No +good catch 'em pony, cut 'em firewood, make 'em buckskin."</p> + +<p>With this she scornfully turned her lip up in a manner that made Jack +laugh outright, a proceeding that always made Chiquita's eyes snap with +dangerous fire. He quieted her by pointing at the sun as an indication +that it was time to say adios. The ponies were brought up and quickly +saddled, Jack's belongings packed in the most approved fashion to stand +another hard climb over the Gore range, and Chiquita's restive "Bonito" +carefully cinched for the return trip to the Indian village. The last +point of the "diamond hitch" had been made and the rope drawn taut; the +last knot had been tied over the roll of blankets behind Jack's saddle, +and the last of the morning's banquet had been divided between the +wayfarers, whose journeys would in a few moments lead in opposite +directions. As Chiquita arranged herself on the back of "Bonito" she +looked wistfully at the sky and surrounding peaks. "Me make 'em Yamanatz +tepee sun here," pointing halfway down the horizon to the west.</p> + +<p>Jack signified his expectations by remarking, rather dubiously, "Me +mebbe so get to Troublesome heap dark."</p> + +<p>Following the direction of Chiquita's finger as she pointed to the high +divide where the previous day they had battled long in the deep snow, +Jack felt some misgivings as to the Indian girl being able to ride the +big drift down. But the confidence she enjoyed in her own ability to +stand hardship and the additional reliance she placed in the +thoroughbred Ute pony was summed up in her one decisive comment, uttered +almost imperiously, at least scornfully:</p> + +<p>"Bonito take Chiquita through deep snow like big fish go through foaming +water. Wind all gone up there now."</p> + +<p>Jack threw himself into his saddle and reined up beside the future +medicine queen of the White River Utes. She drew from her bosom a beaded +buckskin bag, from which she took a pair of beaver's jaws, the short +teeth bound with otter and a long strip of mountain-lion fur bound +firmly around a braid of her own hair. She handed them to Jack, saying +in a low, almost beseeching tone: "Will the white man Jack bring em back +Chiquita's medicine teeth when the beaver cuts the trees?"</p> + +<p>It was a great sacrifice to part with the "medicine," to which all +Indians pin their faith. Otter and mountain-lion fur especially is woven +into the long straight braids of both buck and squaw to drive away evil +spirits, and Chiquita evidently had been to a good deal of trouble to +obtain the prescription from the head medicine man for her own use. The +beaver teeth were symbolic of the time when Chiquita expected Jack to +keep faith with her. His reply was made while the palms of both hands +were stretched toward her, the fingers pointing up.</p> + +<p>"Jack will come," then pressing his knees against the sides of his pony, +he leaned over and, after a quick hand grasp, bid adios to the smiling +daughter of Yamanatz.</p> + +<p>An hour later he had reached the end of his first "look." Scanning the +side of the high divide he could see "Bonito" lunging forward into the +deep drifts skirting the top of the divide. Presently the pony stopped +and turned broadside toward him. Looking intently he saw Chiquita wave a +farewell response by means of a small silk flag handkerchief which he +had given her upon the first visit to Rock Creek. Signaling a return +salute by means of his sombrero, he waited until "Bonito" disappeared +into that fortress of snow, knowing that once over the crest ten minutes +would be sufficient time to make the crossing in safety. As she did not +reappear, Jack struck boldly into the trail, which now led him by easy +stages up toward timber line, the dark rushing waters of the Grand River +hissing and seething far below him. At the entrance to the cañon, where +the warmer current of air met the colder wave from the snow-covered +mountainside, huge bristling bayonets of frosted rye grass waved their +menacing blades at intruders. Lattice-worked ramparts of ice and snow +were veiled with filmy curtains bespangled with millions of +scintillating diamonds, the congealed breathings from that steaming +throat, through which ceaselessly poured the mountain torrent in its +strenuous effort to join the ocean.</p> + +<p>Jack looked wistfully at the scene and sighed that a spectacle of such +rare beauty could not be shared by his eastern friends.</p> + +<p>The tortuous trail often led to the edge of a precipice, where the +slightest misstep of his pony would have hurled both beast and rider +into a frightful abyss. At other times the narrow pathway meandered +serpentine fashion between pine trees so thickly interspersed that the +pack would wedge first on one side and then the other, to the imminent +destruction of Jack's belongings.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE RANCH ON THE TROUBLESOME.</h4> + +<p class="p2">It was pitch dark when Jack rode into the corral at the ranch on the +Troublesome. After unpacking and storing his trappings he went over to +the ranch house. Several Ute ponies were in the corral. Their presence +puzzled him, and as he entered the log house what was his surprise to +find himself in the presence of Colorow, Bennett and Antelope. Old +Tracy, the owner of the ranch, greeted the newcomer with a merry +"How—how—well, beat my brains out with a straw ef I tho't of a-seeing +you afore spring."</p> + +<p>Bill, the fiery red-whiskered, red-haired, red-faced, stuttering +Irishman, ejaculated, after a good deal of effort, "D—d—d—durn my +p—p—p—pictures! G—g—g—glad t—t—t—to see yer." The obese, +low-browed renegade Colorow looked inquiringly. So did the other Indians +as Jack replied to both ranchmen:</p> + +<p>"I left Rock Creek yesterday morning and crossed the Gore range today. +The snow was pretty deep in spots."</p> + +<p>Colorow's eyes glittered as it dawned on him that the white man Jack of +Rock Creek and this man were one and the same. Jack did not know any of +the trio except Bennett, neither of the others having openly visited the +camp below. As Bennett rose up from the floor with a greeting he turned +and waved his hand:</p> + +<p>"This Antelope, this Colorow."</p> + +<p>Jack involuntarily stepped back a pace, halfway starting his hand as if +to grasp his six-shooter. Colorow saw the motion as well as the swift, +penetrating flash that shot from Jack's gray eyes into the very soul of +the old red devil. But the warrior never made a hostile movement. The +least perceptible smile crept into his face as he interpreted the +telegraphic glance. He realized that Jack guessed for a certainty what +Bennett and Antelope might guess, for Colorow had never told any of the +Utes that he actually followed Jack, nor that he waited in vain at the +mouth of the long gulch for that worthy young man to walk to his death. +It was with mock cordiality that the two men acknowledged each other's +presence, but not so with Antelope, who rose and grasped Jack's +outstretched hand. Antelope and Bennett <i>did</i> guess right. The +ranchmen had seen the little exchange of "symptoms" and were at loss to +understand the purport thereof. Nevertheless, they had in an instant, +yet seemingly in a careless manner, lessened the distance between the +right hand and the butt end of their respective six-shooters, for the +frontiersman is keen to scent danger. Colorow remained in his chair and +thus addressed Jack:</p> + +<p>"Sabe white man Rock Creek trail?"</p> + +<p>Jack nodded in reply.</p> + +<p>"Sabe camp where Utes sleep?"</p> + +<p>Jack nodded again, holding up two fingers, signifying he had seen both +camping places, as the Utes had not made as rapid progress as he.</p> + +<p>"Colorow lose twelve ponies," counting them by holding up both hands, +then two additional fingers. "Mebbe so white man see 'em ponies?"</p> + +<p>Jack shook his head. The ponies had become hungry, broken away and +probably were hunting buffalo grass in the lower hills when he was +crossing the higher slopes of the Gore range. A few questions as to the +camp on Rock Creek, what disposition he had made of the camp property +and furs, and then the Indians drew their blankets about themselves and +silently filed away to the corral, where they mounted their ponies and +set out for their own camp in the willows, some half mile distant. After +they had departed Tracy said with a quizzical look:</p> + +<p>"That old devil is up to mischief," meaning Colorow. He turned to Jack, +continuing, "Tho't mebbe so yer were goin' to plunk him fer a minnit +thar."</p> + +<p>Bill chimed in: "I seen the f—f—f—fire in yer eyes and says to +myself, it's all over with Cu—cu—col—col—Colorow at last, +b—b—b—but why in h—h—h—hellen d—d—d—didn't yer shoot?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Jack, just the least regretting he had not, "I didn't know +how much of a 'stink' it would raise. The Utes are getting pretty bad, +and the whole parcel of them might take a notion to come up here and +clean out the Park before the soldiers could stop them."</p> + +<p>"What d' yer mean?" anxiously asked both his listeners, with a +perceptible blanching of their bronzed faces.</p> + +<p>"Old Yamanatz tells me things aren't going just right at the agency. +Colorow and Douglas' band of renegade Utes were camped outside the +reservation, two miles from the cabin where the trapper and I put up. +Didn't the trapper tell you anything?" suddenly asked Jack.</p> + +<p>The ranchmen looked curiously at one another, and Tracy evasively +remarked, "Well, he didn't say much; just said he got lonesome and had +left the old woman without any wood an' allowed he'd cut some for her, +then he'd go back byme-by."</p> + +<p>"Yes, byme-by," scornfully broke in Jack, adding, with some feeling, +"Between me and the corral that trapper is afraid of the Utes and left +me in the lurch."</p> + +<p>Tracy and Bill exchanged glances, as much as to say, "The tenderfoot has +got his eye-teeth cut all right." Bill spoke up as if a sudden impulse +had made him forget the dangers that lurked in the Ute question.</p> + +<p>"How about that redskin g—g—gal? Tho't mebbe so y—y—yer hed jined in +holy wedlock into the Ute family," at which both the ranchmen slapped +their hands together and laughed uproariously. Jack joined in with them, +for he appreciated the gossip of ranch life, and no sewing bee ever +furnished better "stamping ground" for wagging tongues than the frontier +masculine brand.</p> + +<p>Bill set about getting something to eat, and Jack had a double-barreled +appetite stowed away under his belt. The table, with its marble +oilcloth, real stone china plates, cups, saucers, glass vinegar cruets +and a molasses jug, was soon loaded with a big platter of venison, a +plate of hot biscuits, a pot of coffee, a pitcher of rich cream and a +crock of yellow butter. It was nearly three months since Jack had put +his legs under any kind of a table or seen anything the color of butter +or cream, and it was a treat that could not have been equaled in +Delmonico's to draw up to that feast with those truly honest brothers of +wild civilization, partake of their hospitality and listen to their +straightforward talk, rich in its omission of studied rhetoric or +ponderous grammatical phrases; no fear of using the wrong spoon or +creating a social riot by helping one's self to a little venison gravy, +even sopping the bread in the platter. Etiquette, frills and napkins had +to give way to blunt speech, solid, wholesome food and a red bandanna. +Back of it all, too, was his famous digestion and ravenous appetite, +essential elements that have no co-existence with spike-tailed coats, +trained gowns, "eye-openers" and "night caps." Jack had been busy, but +he slowed down long enough to let out his belt one hole. Bill had +entertained in the conversation direction.</p> + +<p>"Say, yer know when yer shot the antelope and Irish Mike got sore at it +because he missed the whole bunch? Well, old man Snyder come in with his +team last October after a load of fish, and we got up the old raft and +dropped the net into the bend of the river right there and dragged out +over a thousand fine suckers at one haul. We threw back all under two +pounds and a half."</p> + +<p>Jack broke in with the remark, "Those red-finned suckers are most as +good as trout."</p> + +<p>"Yer bet yer life they are," chimed in Tracy.</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Bill, "the old man and his boy was a watchin' us from +the other bank, so we hed to be sort o' careful as we picked them fish +over, but there was five as pretty red-throated trout clum up my coat +sleeve as ever yer laid eyes on; two of 'em tipped the scales at five +pounds apiece. We had trout to eat fer a week. Gosh all humlock, but it +was cold work gettin' them suckers ready. We worked 'til most midnight. +They cleaned up about six hundred dollars on the load. Sold 'em in +Georgetown, Central City, Idaho Springs—yes, sir, clean down to Golden. +The first of 'em brought forty cents a pound in the big camps, but the +last end of 'em went fer a nickel apiece. Down at McQueery's they got +another load for some other chaps a month after; pulled in over +seventeen hundred fish at one clip, but them fellers didn't know how to +peddle them out and lost money by shippin' 'em to Denver."</p> + +<p>"How's the stock, Tracy?" inquired Jack.</p> + +<p>"Doin' tiptop; we've got about one hundred and twenty head of horses +winterin' now. Mike brought in a lot of forty soon after you went down +trappin'. I keep a good watch on them haystacks this year to see that +the snowflakes don't strike fire again. They burned up a couple years +ago when I hed thirty ton of as fine hay as they ever get in this yere +Park. I had all the stock that was bein' wintered, and some of the other +fellows up the river had hay but no stock. The range had closed, so they +had no chans't to get any stock. Well, my hay ketched fire and, of +course, I wouldn't see them horses starve, so I had to buy them fellers' +hay. A good ba'r trap would have ketched something besides ba'r that +winter if I had set a few out. While I'm tendin' to the corral Bill will +tell you about that hole in the door frame," pointing to a badly mangled +orifice about as big as an orange.</p> + +<p>"Shotgun?" queried Jack.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bill; "shotgun—kingdom cum," and he had to straighten out +his vocal impediments and tell it slowly, although it was a hard task +for him, and his red whiskers and hair would rise up in their wrath, +seemingly, as he stuttered along:</p> + +<p>"Yer see, Dick Bradner came along one day over from Rattlesnake, and +said he wanted a good jack-rabbit shoot. The snow was just right and he +was gone all afternoon. He got half a wagonload, I guess. Along about +dark he steps in on the way to the corral and sets his gun up aside the +fireplace with the other guns. I was just beginning to get grub and had +a pan of flour mixin' up some sour-dough bread, the lamp standin' in +front of the pan and me at the other end of the table from the door +frame. I was puttin' in some good licks on that bread, for sour dough +needs a lot of punchin', and guess I had my head leanin' out pretty well +toward the door. I heard some one step in from the outside, but didn't +look up to see who it was, when there came a flash, and kingdom cum, I +thought my head had caved in. The splinters flew into the bread and the +powder smoke choked me clean up. All I could see was that crazy fool +Irish Mike, his face as white as it will be when he's gone over the +range, standin' there with Dick's gun pintin' to the roof. That idjit +never sees a new gun standin' round but he must pull it up and aim it at +somethin'. You know how he shoots. Dick must have left the gun at full +cock, as he allus does. It was lucky it went off before he got the +barrel on a level with the lamp, or we'd all been in kingdom cum."</p> + +<p>"You got some of the powder in your face," remarked Jack, noticing the +blue pits sprinkled here and there in Bill's forehead.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bill, energetically, with several powder-burned adjectives; +"he leaves his mark everywhere he goes. Pity the foolkiller don't git +him."</p> + +<p>Tracy had joined the party again just in time to hear Bill's bouquet of +choice epithets.</p> + +<p>"Tain't so much coz he means to do anything harmin', but the big brute +is so allfired strong and clumsy that when he sets out to do anything he +busts everything he teches. Why, he went to pitchin' hay off the far +stack and must have thought the fork handle would hold up the whole five +ton, fer he snapped it like a ginger cake just outen the oven. Then he +was helpin' put up logs on the barn. We had the top logs most up on the +skids when she fotched up again' the cross log that the skid was leanin' +again'. He reaches the ax up and sets the blade under the log and pulls +on the handle, and away went my dollar-and-a-half handle. He broke it +square off. Took me nigh onto a week to dress another out. But he's a +good worker. All he needs is a sledge and a big enough drill so he won't +miss the head on't and he can pound that 'til jedgment day if the feller +turnin' the drill keeps a good lookout for his hand from bein' hit when +the Irishman misses the drill."</p> + +<p>"I see he left his rifle," remarked Jack.</p> + +<p>"Yes; said he didn't want it at the mines, an' he allows he'll come back +afore the range opens to pick out a hundred and sixty acres somewhere in +the Park. Likely as not he'll see you in Georgetown, but yer got some +snow climbin' to do. Thar ain't many goin' out now, and I heerd Bill +Redmon say he'd have to use 'skis' pretty soon and drag the mail on a +sled. When yer goin' out?"</p> + +<p>Jack thought a minute or two and then replied:</p> + +<p>"I guess I can make it day after tomorrow. That will be the 17th of +January, and I guess 'Red' will bring the pony back and you can feed +both of them for me. By the way, I guess I'll have to snowshoe it in +about beaver-trappin' time. I've got a little business myself down near +the agency."</p> + +<p>Tracy and Bill eyed each other quizzically and tried to guess the +mission, but Jack gave them no satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"I'll be back here by the middle of April, if not before. Beaver begin +to chew the trees down in early March, don't they?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tracy; "but it gets lonesome as all git out before Aprile. +If yer comin' in that soon, why in Christmas don't yer stay now? We've +got grub enough and we can go back in the timber, mebbe so, and ketch a +grizzly or cinnamon about six weeks from now."</p> + +<p>"No; can't do it. Got to go back to the States and attend to some +business, sure. You can have all the grizzlies that are loose. By the +way, you got that silver tip since I left."</p> + +<p>Jack was admiring a fine skin that was nailed up on the inside of the +cabin, taking up the greater portion of a wall ten feet long and eight +feet high.</p> + +<p>"We got that out on the Blue about four weeks ago. I shot him eleven +times afore he quit bein' sassy," said Tracy, with little or no concern, +as if killing a grizzly was on a par with breaking a broncho. "I'll get +twenty-five dollars for that pelt in the summer if I take it to Denver."</p> + +<p>With the dishes cleared away and everything in readiness for the night, +Jack, Tracy and Bill sat around the fireplace smoking their pipes. The +pine knots sputtered and glistened with deep, red-inflamed eyes as Jack +told of the Rock Creek pow-wows.</p> + +<p>"You see, old man Meeker has been trying to teach the Utes how to plow, +how to subtract and divide and to carry wood, while the squaws crochet, +hemstitch and make sofa pillows."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see them redskin devils tote firewood," broke in Tracy. "If +there's anything an Indian despises it's work. They won't even walk when +the snow is belly deep. I've seen six of 'em on one little cayuse +wallerin' through big drifts at timber line. Why, durn their pictures, a +Ute won't cook if he can beg a bite anywhere, let alone plow, and he'll +freeze to death afore gettin' wood for a fire if thar's a squaw within a +mile to git it fur him. The trapper told us you would git yer fill of +Injuns."</p> + +<p>Bill crossed his legs and then uncrossed them again, knocked the ashes +out of his pipe, and his neck began to swell. He wanted to say something +right bad. Pulling a string off his buckskin pants leg, he commenced +tying it into knots, nervously fingering the ends.</p> + +<p>"Them gol durned skule teachers is all right back in the old red +skule-house in—in Missouri," he said, "but kingdom cum, when they try +to make them blanket Injuns plow it's time fur white folks in Middle +Park to put up a stockade and lay in lots of 45-90's for Sharp's old +reliable, and a dozen or two Colts' frontier sixes. Them's my +sentiments, and don't yer ferget it."</p> + +<p>"Bill hit the nail on the head," echoed Tracy.</p> + +<p>Jack was studying the red, gleaming eyes of the pine knots, and the +moccasin prints in the snow on the high divide seemed to gather again in +the ashes. He started suddenly, as if an inspiration struck him.</p> + +<p>"Boys, it will come to it. That bunch down in the willows have been off +the reservation a long time. Meeker can't get them back without a +regiment of soldiers, and he hasn't got along that far yet. Susan is the +'woman in the case,' and she's putting the young bucks into a trance +about encroaching white folks, while the old fighters, like Colorow and +Douglas, sneak up behind and pat her on the back. Ignacio, Yamanatz—not +even old Ouray—can stop them if they once get a supply of powder and +lead. Wait until the next annuities are paid in and Uncle Sam will have +to send a burying squad over there. They will not do anything for some +time; they haven't any meat, no bullets to kill deer with, not even +salt." Jack stopped for a breath and Tracy took up the conversation.</p> + +<p>"I seen yer was good and strong agin' Colorow when yer found out he was +here, but I didn't know it was that bad. 'Peers to me yer must have had +a grudge agin' him wuss'n yer hev let on."</p> + +<p>"Yes," echoed Bill, "s—s—sumthin' must a s—s—set yer afire down +below."</p> + +<p>"Well, Bill and Tracy, that old scalp-lifter followed me like a shadow +for two days, ready at any moment, if chance presented, to plant the +steel in a spot where it would take, as they say when you are +vaccinated."</p> + +<p>The frontiersmen both jumped to their feet with one impulse to get hold +of their "Sharps," as if to use them at once. Thus does habit breed in +that rugged life. Then they sat down and listened to the rest of the +story wherein Jack told of Yamanatz's warnings, of young Colorow's early +mission to see if white man Jack was in his camp. But he left the most +interesting story until the last, then mentioned no names, "And who do +you suppose followed Colorow to see that no harm came to me?"</p> + +<p>Bill and Tracy guessed every Ute in the White River Reservation. Finally +Jack said:</p> + +<p>"The only one that Susan fears."</p> + +<p>"Chiquita!" exclaimed Bill and Tracy, in one voice.</p> + +<p>"The same," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Holy smoke! Kingdum cum!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, the fairest Indian girl that ever drew breath."</p> + +<p>"Or ever strung a bow," chimed Bill.</p> + +<p>"Or beaded a moccasin," said Tracy.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h3> + +<h4>CHIQUITA WOOED BY ANTELOPE.</h4> + +<p class="p2">Dozens of tepee fires flickered against the dark night pall as Chiquita +made her way toward the Ute village. The tongues of dozens of Indian +dogs snarled their yippi-yappy language at each other, at imaginary +evils and at the resounding clatter of hoofs as her pony loped along +through the sage-covered mesa which skirted the river bank. Old bucks, +warriors with necklaces of cruel-looking claws and beaded breast plates +decorated with strands of human hair woven into pendants, stood in the +shadow of the tepee fires. Shrill cries of hungry papooses rent the air; +guttural jargon of young bucks in animated conversation rasped ominously +against the sensitive ear with words which only an Indian can pronounce, +made up as they are from Mexican, Spanish and Indian dialect.</p> + +<p>Old squaws tottered into camp, loaded with bundles of fagots gathered +from the fallen timber, and as these old witches with thrice-wrinkled +faces peered into the gloom and discerned Chiquita astride "Bonito" they +spitefully threw an armful of new wood into the fire, raising a cloud of +tiny sparks, and mutterings, half welcome and half imprecation, greeted +her; all cringed before that dauntless maiden, yet all would have been +glad to see her the victim of some tragedy. Her word was law, and that +law a restraining influence which had thus far protected the settlers, +the hunters, the trappers and the white men and women who composed the +agent's family on the reservation, so far from the habitation of white +men and so far from the protecting arm of the United States military.</p> + +<p>Old Hutch-a-ma-Chuck was bedecked with a grotesque war bonnet of eagles' +feathers, from the tips of which hung Arapahoe scalp locks; a necklace +of grizzly claws surrounded his wrinkled neck, and in his arms he +carried a worn-out army carbine, which had not been loaded in ten years. +Uncas, wrapped in a military coat made from a United States blanket, +stood with a big frontier six-shooter hanging listlessly from his arm, +but his eyes snapped viciously as he smiled a welcome to Chiquita, the +smile retreating into an ambuscade of wrinkles which seemed to say, +"Wait until I get a good chance." Broken Nose, with head encircled half +a dozen times with the skins of rattlesnakes, needed no placard to warn +the stranger against encroaching on this Indian's domain. Bowlegs, the +dandy of the camp, was regal in a red-lined vest which he wore lining +outside, and an old plug hat picked up at the Agency or at some frontier +town, ornamented with shipping tags and express labels, was jauntily +tipped on one side of his head, while a gaudy plaid shirt flapped +literally in the breezes, for an Indian knows not of decrees of fashion +regarding shirtology and could not be induced to confine the biggest +part of that splendid garment from view.</p> + +<p>Nearly every Indian had some cast-off garment which had served its +mission for a white man. Hunters, freighters, army men, etc., +contributed old socks, trousers, coats, gloves, hats, caps, and even +women helped bedeck these children of the forest in the glory clothes, +but the "medicine" each and every one possessed was of the same general +character—otter, beaver and mountain lion skins woven into the hair, +constituting a charm to scare away evil spirits.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz was by the camp fire of his tepee as Chiquita threw herself +from the back of "Bonito." There were no impulsive greetings, merely a +question or two, and Chiquita disappeared in the gloom of the night to +her lodge, to dream of other scenes and to allow her imagination to +carry her to the abode of the white man's medicine houses, where nurses +comforted the maimed and sick.</p> + +<p>In a couple of weeks the absent Utes returned, bringing provisions to +last for some time, but these did not abate the surly looks or conduct +of the older ones, who chafed at the escape of Jack, nor assuage the +enmity which the younger bucks bore him when they learned that Chiquita +piloted him safely over the divide. They dared not openly deride her as +they gathered in council to plan the breaking up of reforms which the +government anticipated at the hands of the agent at White River.</p> + +<p>They rebelled against cultivating the ground. They ridiculed the +proposition of a Ute warrior at the plow, and muttered imprecations on +the heads of the Indian Department.</p> + +<p>About a month after Jack had left his camp at Rock Creek, Susan arrived +at the village accompanied by her father, big chief Red Plume and a +dozen young bucks, all eager to drive the whites over the range and out +of Middle Park. But of these, half of them were desirous of annihilating +the pale faces, simply to gain Susan's favor. The other half were +striving to win Chiquita, and Susan was jealous of Chiquita to a marked +degree, while Chiquita cared naught for Susan nor any of Susan's +admirers. Susan, of course, had learned of the perilous trip of +Chiquita, and every Indian youth had a deep admiration for Chiquita that +Susan never received.</p> + +<p>Red Plume had left the Agency to personally visit Colorow's village, and +endeavor to obtain that surly old monster's consent to move the village +back to White River, as agent Meeker had requested. Upon one pretext and +another Colorow delayed the matter day after day. In the meantime Susan +was taunting Chiquita and Chiquita's admirers, while spurring her own +suitors to acts of violence. This was not done openly, as Indian maidens +do not take part in matters of love or war, in person, unless the +circumstances are very pronounced. Susan felt that it was equal to the +crime of elopement for Chiquita to escort the white man over the divide, +and could she have had her way Chiquita would have been burned at the +stake the morning following her return to the village, for this is the +penalty inflicted when the maiden eloping is the daughter of a chief. +Susan was particularly partial to Antelope and never tired of singing +his praises, but Antelope had no eyes or ears for any one except +Chiquita. Many a haunch of venison had this handsome young savage laid +at the lodge door of Chiquita's mother, and handsome lion skins, eagle +plumes and strings of elk teeth had he presented to Yamanatz in his +effort to win Chiquita.</p> + +<p>As the moon rode high in the heavens, throwing long shafts of silvery +light through the pine boughs, and casting deep shadows across the +rushing waters of Toponas creek, Chiquita was wont to wend her way along +the needle carpeted bank, her red lips firmly compressed, while her eyes +appealed to the heavens above for the return of spring and Jack. As she +wandered here Antelope watched her from the sheltering shadow of some +great rock, and chanted love songs in hopes of obtaining the least +little recognition from her, for the Indian must win his bride by feats +of strength, conquest or purchase, and not by personal servitude, as +does his white brother, and his wooing must be indirect unless the +maiden vouchsafes him the pleasure of a meeting in some glen or dell, +where a few words may be spoken; but she reserves the right of making +first advances or indicating by some sign that her suitor may address +her, and if especially desired by her she will leave a token in the +shape of a flower, spruce branch, or rabbit's foot where the lover may +see it and heed the invitation.</p> + +<p>Chiquita knew that the young warriors would eventually precipitate a +clash, which might occur when Jack was coming or going from the +reservation. She grew sick at heart when she reviewed the actions of +Colorow, and how certain it was that Jack's life had been in peril, and +always would be whenever he visited the Ute camps. She determined to +stop the agitation which Susan was fomenting, or at least get assurance +in some way that no overt act would be committed until after she and +Yamanatz should be far away towards the "Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big<ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Added hyphen missing in original.">-</ins>Water."</p> + +<p>The new grass was beginning to show itself along the creek. Mountain +crocuses bloomed in the edge of the fast melting snow, as the white +blanket gradually receded towards the tops of the high peaks under the +heat of the early spring sun. Chiquita watched the beaver dams as the +inhabitants industriously fashioned new homes for the next winter, +cutting down the big trees and laying in a supply of willows for food +and comfort. She looked toward the sun as he peered down into the deep +cañons and besought the sun god to hurry Jack upon his way.</p> + +<p>It was near midday, and Chiquita sat in a little grove of piñons, +watching the splashing waters and gleaming flash of a trout darting +hither and thither for a morsel as it swept along in the vicious, +turbulent stream. She had hung a branch of spruce buds, entwined with a +vine of Kilikinnick, upon a convenient tree, and she knew that it would +bring Antelope to her. She knew the symbol by him would be interpreted, +"hope in peace," but she intended that his hope must result in peace. As +she listened she heard a voice close beside her. She had felt for some +time the forest intuition that some one was approaching, but so silently +had those footsteps glided along that no sound gave any warning.</p> + +<p>"The daughter of Yamanatz is fair as the morning dove, and it pleases +Antelope to do her bidding, for is not Antelope a suitor for the hand of +Chiquita, and has not Antelope done many things that make him worthy of +the great chiefs daughter?"</p> + +<p>"The son of Big Buffalo stands erect. He speaks with the tongue of one +who is a master, one day to be chief. Antelope is brave and his prowess +great enough to entitle him to the daughter of any chief."</p> + +<p>"The daughter of Yamanatz is as good as she is fair in that she speaks +of Antelope in this wise, and it is a pleasure that the eyes of Antelope +go thirsty and his heart hungry for the return of the love which +Chiquita can give. It would be for Chiquita that Antelope would build +the signal fires, that the Utes may put on their war paint and sharpen +their hatchets to take the land where were the great buffalo before the +paleface drove them into the deep sea where the sun goes down, and when +the paleface has been driven away, then Antelope will claim Chiquita +that she may sing him songs of love by his camp fire. And when Antelope +is big chief then Chiquita will be the mother of many tribes, and our +people will again hunt the buffalo which shall be as the needles in the +pine forest, and no more shall the white man drive the noble Ute away +from the paradise the Great Spirit has made for them. Hear me, daughter +whose breath is as the perfume of the trailing arbutus and whose voice +is like the voice of the lark. It is Antelope who speaks."</p> + +<p>"The son of Big Buffalo is as brave as the wild horse who leads his herd +to drink of the waters of the deep cavern, but know this, that in the +sky Chiquita reads of deeds done by her white sisters who teach the +little paleface to say 'Our Father,' and she hears the song of spirits +from another land, as they sing 'peace on earth, good will to man.' The +great Antelope is not a hen to cackle and run away at the sight of +danger. He is brave but sees not that Chiquita thinks not of deeds of +battle, nor the mighty buffalo, which the great Antelope says will +return. It grieves Chiquita that the hand of the white man on the +throttle of the great iron horse is driving our people back, back into +the deep sea where have plunged the buffalo, and in their trail are the +cities where the white children are taught that the red faced Ute is a +dog, a coyote that snarls and bites and like the owl that goes hoo! +oo-oo-oo-hoo! The paleface has widened the trail from the great ocean by +the rising sun to the mountain, to the big water where the sun again +quenches his thirst. The paleface has spread out as the wings of an +eagle until the lands are gone. The smoke rises from the tall stacks and +long ago have we been forgotten by the old Ute warriors who have passed +into the great Happy Hunting Ground, there to live on pots of savory +flesh while we slave in the sage brush or eat army rations and wear army +blankets, which are brought to us on the cars. This is civilization and +it is so that Chiquita is to learn what her white sister does in +civilization, and Antelope is asked to be patient and wait for Chiquita +while she may see the fair sister unto the end. Then if Chiquita cares +not for the civilized life, she will sit by the camp fire and sing to +Antelope and Antelope may caress Chiquita and she will be his wife."</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="21"></a> + <img src="images/132a.jpg" width="302" height="500" + alt="Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE WARRIOR, 1877." + title="ANTELOPE, THE WARRIOR, 1877." /> + <p class="caption">ANTELOPE, THE WARRIOR, 1877.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">"Chiquita has spoken, Antelope will wait, but the heart of Antelope is +sad, for it will be many snows ere Chiquita will make glad the lodge of +Antelope and he will then be an old man," replied the Indian buck.</p> + +<p>"It may not be so Long. Antelope must not make war upon the white man. +Antelope must stay the hands of the warlike Utes who seek the lives of +Chiquita's friend and his brothers. The warriors of the Utes must not +molest these people and it is Antelope who must obey Chiquita in this. +Hear not what Susan says and all will be well."</p> + +<p>"Antelope hears the words of Chiquita. Antelope will see that no harm +comes to the friends of Chiquita, nor to the white man's brethren. +Antelope cares not for Susan. Antelope hears not her words, which are +cunning, but hears only Chiquita, the flower of the Utes."</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h3> + +<h4>A GLIMPSE OF HOME.</h4> + +<p class="p2">Jack hastened his departure from the ranch on the Troublesome, stopping +at Hot Sulphur Springs one night, crossing the Berthoud pass, early in +the day, again fighting snow drifts as big as houses, as he skirted +around and over the great continental divide but a little distance from +the summit of cheerless Gray's Peak buried in her white mantle. Leaving +his pony at Georgetown for the mail carrier to lead back, he continued +his journey by rail to Denver and from there eastward to his home. Jack +dearly loved his New England home and, as the old scenes again appeared +before him, he saw new beauties to enchant and impress him. His mother, +sister and sweetheart were all on the veranda of the grand mansion, and, +as he jumped from the carriage, he found himself attacked by a center +rush such as no college boy ever before struck. At least five touch +downs were scored before they broke away.</p> + +<p>"Did you bring any Indian things?" all demanded in a chorus.</p> + +<p>"I say Jack," said Hazel, "where is the pony you promised me?"</p> + +<p>"I want those eagle plumes for my hat," said one of his sisters. Even +his mother could not resist the avalanche of wants and, during an +opportune lull, archly asked if there was any danger of her having to +give up the "spare room" to an Indian daughter-in-law, which of course +produced a laugh at the expense of Hazel.</p> + +<p>With the first greetings over, Jack at last got his mother and father +alone, and plunged into the subject uppermost in his mind.</p> + +<p>"My son," his mother commented, "be cautious regarding your actions with +this heathen daughter of the wilderness. You can not tell what kind of +an ambush she may lead you into. Fancy Hazel trotting about educating +one of the young warriors!"</p> + +<p>This was logic with a vengeance. Even Jack could not gainsay it. It was +the same old proposition of woman's prerogative to outdo a man. Jack +pondered over the trip from the Ute village across the divide and the +night camp in the willows. He looked a little sheepish and waited in +discreet silence.</p> + +<p>"Is it necessary, Jack," asked his father, "that you should go to this +unheard-of mine with the old Indian? Why not let him go and return with +the treasure alone as he has done before?"</p> + +<p>"He is too old to attempt the journey and it is his desire that Chiquita +be one of the party, as he will give the mine to her and myself +equally," answered Jack, not at all assured that the reply would make +matters any better.</p> + +<p>"Have you such an unbounded faith in a crafty Indian as to believe that +he knows of any such fabulous treasure that even a nation might send an +army to snatch away from its rightful owners, and that he will lead you +to this mine simply to reward you for standing as press agent for his +equally crafty daughter?"</p> + +<p>Jack saw that his father was beginning to tread upon dangerous ground, +that it would take but little to cause an unpleasant scene unless he +could overcome the prejudice now gaining ground with his parents. He +keenly felt the implied lack of confidence which both displayed, and for +a moment he was inclined to become a trifle skeptical himself, but he +quickly reasoned, "If I show any weakening they will hammer all the +harder."</p> + +<p>"Father," he slowly began, "and mother, you are both ripe in the +experience of this world, with the civilized method of taking from the +untutored forest man his hunting ground, his home, by the simple process +of a representation from each state of a government; a proposition is +voted upon to drive this native farther and farther toward the setting +sun, farther and farther back, until now he lives in a barren country, +his larder empty and his proud mien broken. The remnant of former +greatness drooped to a low ebb of cunning, outmatched only by the +cunning of the frontier statesman, backed by the grasping political +land-grabber and office-holding despot bidding for votes—these jackals +whose blighting breath corrupt juries, legislatures and even the church +into a belief that it is justice to waylay the child of nature in the +onward march of civilization, to wrest from him the land which God gave +as an heritage. Yes, father, I have unbounded faith in Yamanatz that he +can and will show me the greatest mass of gold in one mine ever +uncovered by the hand of man. I will forestall you as to finance. See, +in this pouch is some twenty pounds of gold dust, which the great chief +gave me for 'pin money,' and in the strong box of the express company is +one hundred pounds of the same kind of dust. This is earnest money. This +deposit, made of his own accord, warrants my belief in his ability to +produce the property. Coupled with this was the watchfulness over me by +both Yamanatz and Chiquita, and but for their care and warning I should +not be here now."</p> + +<p>As Jack unrolled the buckskin pouch of nuggets and grains of dull, rich +gold, the look on his father's face changed from one of intense scorn to +deference, from sarcasm to a fawning smile. The avarice in his nature +manifested itself in so apparent a manner that Jack was tempted to make +one little fling, but restrained himself.</p> + +<p>"My son, what you have uttered about the Indian being deprived of his +land is the old story. Every once in a while it comes out in a little +different cover, but are we to blame for the actions of our ancestors? +They came here to live, to escape the tyranny of rulers whom they +renounced, and in the seeking of a new world were obliged to treat with +these pagans. Is it not far better to have this country populated with a +race of God-fearing, civilized, labor-giving people, a people who by +their master minds and master hands today provide the world with food, +with clothing, with machinery that other nations may become enlightened +and as progressive as we are?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," interrupted Jack, "and with our own machinery send back goods and +experienced laborers to compete with the skilled labor we have educated +up to the necessary standard. You would add also, that this class of +citizens, with its Saturday night carousals and Monday's line of police +court criminals, is superior to the noble red man, who knew not fire +water nor knavery until these civilized, God-fearing people taught it to +them."</p> + +<p>"Well, Jack, are you going to head a tribe of Utes to drive us back +across the big sea?"</p> + +<p>"No, father, I guess I shall have all the work of philanthropy I need in +piloting this young heathen through the 'hell gate' of learning into the +whirling vortex of society and accomplishments," laughingly answered +Jack.</p> + +<p>"When will you start on this quest?" timidly asked his mother.</p> + +<p>"Not later than the first of March, for I must be at Rock Creek soon +after that time, and part of the trip is via the snow shoe route."</p> + +<p>Just then Hazel and Jack's sisters knocked imperatively for admission.</p> + +<p>"Oh—ee, Jack, is that real gold dust in that nasty looking bag?" said +Miss Hazel, as she sniffed at the pouch suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Miss Tenderfoot, that is the real stuff."</p> + +<p>"What is that you call me, tenderfeet? Why, my feet are not tender."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is the mountain name for what sailors call 'landlubbers,' +and—say, when I get a couple of wagon loads of that you will tack my +name onto your own with a little hyphen, won't you, dear?"</p> + +<p>"I say, Jack," broke in one of his sisters, "did you run across any good +looking white men, with lots of money, that want some one nice, 'to cook +for two?'" And the dear little apron-bedecked bit of sunshine pirouetted +on her toes in gleeful anticipation of Jack's reply.</p> + +<p>"Sure I did. Bill commissioned me to get him a cook, dishwasher, +milkmaid and wood chopper,"—</p> + +<p>"Hold on, Mr. Jack, I draw the line on milking. Ugh! I tried it once +down at Uncle John's and I squirted my eyes full of milk. You need not +laugh so. Uncle John just laughed fit to kill himself. That wasn't half +so bad as Hazel, though. She tried to put blankets over the little pigs +so they would keep warm, and when the old pig chased her"—</p> + +<p>"You stop, stop, stop! Fire! Water!" screamed Hazel and no one ever +found out what happened during the chase.</p> + +<p>Then sister Katherine wanted something.</p> + +<p>"Jack, you know what you promised to get me once, and you said when you +had enough money you would buy me a nice canary and brass cage, and now +that you have got it—such lots of it—won't you keep your word?"</p> + +<p>"They raise larger and louder voiced birds in the west than they do in +the Hartz mountains. The 'Rocky mountain canary' is the greatest warbler +on earth. I have my mind on one that is a daisy and when I come back you +shall surely have it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack, you are so good," murmured she.</p> + +<p>Jack's eyes twinkled as he thought of the joke he would have on +Katherine, but he never said a word. Turning to Hazel he said: "Well, +Lady Jack, what do you think of my chaperoning a dusky maiden for +several years in her search for a continuous performance of good deeds, +hospitals, nurses and the study of political and social economy? Do you +think her thirst will find a quencher?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack, go by all means, only don't attempt to get her into any clubs +or societies and expect me to help you out. I recommended Daisy Deane +for initiation in our B. A. F. club,—you know 'Bachelors Are +Forbidden,' and she got one black ball. Daisy is a stenographer, you +know, and her employer is Mr. Doolittle and Mrs. Doolittle is our High +Priestess."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jack curtly, "and she does not belie her name, I guess."</p> + +<p>"That isn't all, Jack. Mrs. Doolittle has got her ax sharpened for me, I +understand, at next election. I was going to run for corresponding +secretary, but I guess I will give it up!"</p> + +<p>The short visit made to his home was devoted mainly to making +arrangements with tutors and deciding on the best lines to follow in +fitting Chiquita for the work she had chosen.</p> + +<p>Hazel and his sisters made quite a bit of sport of the undertaking, but +Jack took it all good naturedly, holding his own against the combined +forces in repartee.</p> + +<p>After these details were disposed of he joined Hazel at her home for a +few days, then started for the frontier.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h3> + +<h4>UTE, BIG WARRIOR—NO PLOW.</h4> + +<p class="p2">The diuturnal petticoat of snow which clothed the mountain was getting +shorter and shorter as the diurnal sun crept farther and farther north +on his summer ascension. The beavers were busy, tooth and tail, building +new dams and repairing old ones. The Ute ponies were getting fat on new +buffalo and bunch grass, and the tender-eyed does were seeking higher +altitudes when Jack again reached the old trail leading to the Indian +village on Rock Creek.</p> + +<p>Chiquita spied the lone horseman long before he was aware of his +proximity to the old camping ground.</p> + +<p>"Chiquita heap glad to see Jack." She made her welcome, palms to the +front, raised high in the air.</p> + +<p>"How! How!" replied Jack and he looked askance at Chiquita in wonderment +that she should be so far from the village. "Jack no sabe," he +continued, and looked from one point of the compass to another for a +familiar landmark.</p> + +<p>"Chiquita know, see Jack, old trail behind big peak, new trail this way, +when Jack go where sun rise, ground covered with heap big snow—no see +this trail."</p> + +<p>"Me sabe. Where Yamanatz, Colorow, Antelope?"</p> + +<p>Chiquita smiled at the first, became grave at the second and a flash +shot from her eyes at the word Antelope, then her face saddened as she +looked into Jack's very soul. "Yamanatz well, Colorow gone to Agency, +Antelope ready for big pony race—Susan want Antelope, Antelope no like +Susan, like—mebbe so Jack knows," she said with an arch look. "Antelope +get up big race when white man come from Hot Sulphur Springs with heap +fast pony to race Ute ponies—mebbe so Ute win ponies—white man walk +back, Antelope heap smart. Plan big race, big dance and big games among +the braves. Susan she put Antelope up to it, beat all Indians and white +men, win Susan for his wife, carry her off to his tepee where she sing +songs in twilight. But Antelope tell Chiquita he no race—just make +believe. Antelope wait for Chiquita, but"—and she stopped abruptly with +the frightened look of a startled deer as she gazed again into Jack's +face.</p> + +<p>"When race?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Three moons."</p> + +<p>"About August," said Jack to himself. Then aloud, as a bright thought +came to him, "Does Chiquita sabe name of white man's ponies?"</p> + +<p>"Me sabe one," she replied.</p> + +<p>"Jack sabe one heap fast pony in Middle Park. 'Brown Dick,'—run like +the forked lightning out of the clouds."</p> + +<p>Chiquita looked surprised and interrogatively answered, "Mebbe so 'Brown +Dick' beat 'em Ute ponies, white man ride back?"</p> + +<p>At which Jack laughed heartily. Chiquita continued: "That is the pony +Antelope think no run much, heap fast, but Ute beat him. Antelope bet +money, beads, buckskin, two ponies and other Utes bet heap lot."</p> + +<p>"Has Yamanatz bet anything yet?" asked Jack.</p> + +<p>"Yamanatz don't know—wait Jack come—Jack tell Yamanatz what to do."</p> + +<p>Jack knew the horse well and all the people interested in the races and +decided to stay and see the sport. Even had Yamanatz desired to go to +the big mine, they would go later. On reference to his calendar he found +a total eclipse of the sun would take place in August and he desired to +see the Indians under this phenomenon as well as in their sports, and +witness the struggles for the hand of Susan.</p> + +<p>Upon arrival at the Indian village Yamanatz greeted Jack in the +customary fashion. It was not long before they arranged to wait for the +August festivities, then start for the desert mine from the Agency, to +which point the Rock Creek village moved a short time after Jack's +arrival.</p> + +<p>During the three months Jack spent his time prospecting, hunting, and +studying Indian character. Chiquita made rapid strides in her studies +under his tutorship and by the time set for the races she could converse +very well in English and read ordinary words. Jack watched the ponies +and the athletic braves as preparation was made for the great event.</p> + +<p>For days the frontiersmen along the reservation border had been wending +their way to the Agency. Gamblers and confidence men from the nearest +mining camps ran over to gather in a few dollars which would be "easy +money." The Government's long delayed annuities and rations were to be +distributed the week before the contest, so every Indian had money to +bet or to buy plunder with. Groups of Indians, squatting on their +haunches or kneeling beside a big blanket spread upon the ground as a +table, gambled or traded their wares in common with the visitors.</p> + +<p>On a big Navajo blanket sat Chiquita, making beaded moccasins, while +near by on another blanket rested Susan, engaged in beading a buckskin +shirt. Off at the side with bridle reins dragging, four ponies fed on +the stubby grass as their owners, two Indians and two cowmen, played +Spanish monte. The cowmen wore heavily fringed buckskin shirts and +broad-brimmed hats, each hat having a leather band and leather string +which passed back of the ears and under the back of the head to keep the +hat from blowing off. Their feet were clad in high-topped boots, from +which clanked the cruel Mexican spurs with tinkling bells. Each—and, in +fact, every man on the reservation, had six-shooters—some four, and +nearly all carried some make of rifle, not that they feared any evil, +but it was second nature to be prepared for game of any kind. Another +mark of civilization was the red bandanna handkerchief tied loosely +around nearly every man's throat.</p> + +<p>Oaths of the most curdling nature bellowed their way incessantly into +the ears of the onlooker. A brightly painted Indian with eagle feathered +bonnet and a string of grizzly claws around his neck, won a mule +skinner's money. The latter turned loose a wild yell and a string of +hair-raising adjectives, accompanied by the pistol-like crack of his +fifteen-foot whip, and stalked off to his mules, swearing "agin the +Gov'n'ment, the redskin and hisself"—chiefly in the end "agin hisself." +Jack hailed him.</p> + +<p>"Pard, I've seen you before."</p> + +<p>"Mebbe so, stranger; I've lived in these hills many snows," answered the +freighter.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you lose some blankets about a year ago in the Wet Mountain +valley, near Buena Vista?" asked Jack without mincing matters.</p> + +<p>"That's what I did, but I got 'em back and—well"—and he stopped as +Jack commenced to smile. "What pleases you, stranger?"</p> + +<p>"I was picturing in my mind what that fellow's wife, if he had one, and +she could have seen him, would have said after you fellows got through +heaving him into that dirty pond instead of hanging him."</p> + +<p>The man of mules and wagons broke into a long guffaw that echoed back +from the woods, and circled his long whip about his head, allowing the +big broad cracker to settle lightly the length of the lash from him as +daintily as an expert caster lets his flies settle into a riffle where +the big trout hide, then with a fierce backward motion and overhand +shoot to the front the long sinuous black snake straightened out with a +vicious snap that made Jack wince, for it told the rest of the tale of +what happened to the blanket thief before "court" adjourned. Then the +freighter finished his remark.</p> + +<p>"Well, that onery cuss that stole my blanket has got my mark on his +hide, made like that."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think he must have about fifteen of them the way the whips +cracked as he ran the gauntlet between about thirty of you. Did he +live?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. That is he was alive when we left him on the prairie, headed +for the Missouri River."</p> + +<p>"I was on my way to Leadville. Buena Vista was the end of the railroad +and in looking after some freight at the depot I saw the preliminaries +of opening 'court' and execution of 'judgment' against the prisoner," +explained Jack. To which the grizzled teamster replied:</p> + +<p>"It looks cruel to one not familiar with frontier life. It seems a +crime, the justice which overtakes horse thieves and camp prowlers, +while those who commit greater crimes go free. But there are no two +things so essential to life on the border as blankets and horses. We +have to sleep and travel. Hotels don't pop up for the asking, with warm +beds on a winter's night, nor do horses grow out of a pine bough when a +man is miles away from any habitation. If men be too onery and sassy and +get to be too handy in their gun play with each other we make no fuss if +both 'go over the range with their boots on'—a-killing of them fellers +does not necessitate an honest man's freezing to death. We never hang a +man, nor shoot him, if he steals our grub or watch, or even gets our +gun, but blankets and horses are sacred property. But what be you doin' +in here?"</p> + +<p>"Came over to see the Ute races and study Indians," replied Jack.</p> + +<p>"So did I, but to make it more binding I brought in a train of +government plunder for the Agency, some plows and mowin' machines and +school house desks. Say, but I'd like to see some of these redskins +trying to cut a furrer down that sage brush flat or sittin' at one of +them desks doin' sums in 'rithmetic. More'n likely they'll be makin' +pictures of Parson Meeker crossing the divide on a sulky plow under +escort of Uncle Sam's cavalry," at which the freighter turned his +gigantic laugh loose again.</p> + +<p>Just then two men in "store clothes" picked their way around the various +groups of horses and Indians, stopping a short distance from Jack and +the freighter, whose sobriquet was "Cal." As the new comers faced square +about Cal eyed them a moment and then said to Jack:</p> + +<p>"You see that red-faced, black mustached feller standin' there? Well, +that's Sam Tupper, the graveyard starter of the Animas and Wet Mountain +valleys. I seen him make the first corpse in Silver Cliff. Wonder what +he's doin' up here. Sure as gun's made of iron he's up here for +mischief. It was October and the first blizzard of the season caught us +all with short wood and no pitch hot. Every prospector around the cliff +made for 'Nigger Barber's' place—afterward it got a regular name, the +'slaughter house,' kase 'Nigger,'—he was half Indian, half Mexican and +balance coyote—had two great big stoves to keep us warm. Four fellers +rode into the Cliff about 10 o'clock, cold and hungry, and expected to +find a tavern started, but they were a little early, for the camp was +right young, so they got permission to use some feller's tent near +by—one of the four was Charley Rogers"—</p> + +<p>"Owner of 'Brown Dick,'" interrupted Jack, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and Frank Mitchell, Les McAvoy and Paddy Dinslow. Les was a bad +man, no mistake. His daddy was a judge in one of the northern counties +and when Les was a kid the old man would take the youngster to some of +the faro banks, hold him on his knee and seem to think it cute if the +little gambler picked up a 'sleeper' and sold it to the barkeep for +lumps of sugar or a bottle of pop. Well, Les got pretty tough. Worked +some, but liked his 'licker' and was allus waitin' to pick a fuss. He +was nervy and could fight with fists, stove pokers, 'toad stabbers' or +six-shooters, it was all the same to him. Sam and 'Nigger' both knew him +of old in Trinidad and Silverton. The first night after the boys got +into the Cliff they dropped into 'Nigger's' and got into a game of faro. +Les piled his stack of reds above the limit and Sam there, who was +lookout, told Les to take 'em down. Les lost on the turn, but before the +dealer could rake in the chips Les snatched the extra ones off the top +of the pile. If he won, the dealer only paid the limit, and then Les +would talk bad. All of 'em were scared of Les and no one wanted to make +a beginning, so they humored him, but the next night they laid for him. +I met Frank and Charley durin' the day and they said Les had been run +out of Silverton, and he remarked as he came into the Cliff, 'Boys, +mebbe it's my time to die with my boots on in this very camp, but I'm +game.'</p> + +<p>"It was almost 8 o'clock and 'Nigger's' was jammed. There was a big +crowd at the table near the end of the bar. I sat at a table parallel to +it, the big red hot stove making the apex of a triangle about the same +distance as the tables were apart. The deal which old Colonel Crumpy was +making came to an end. I was winner and thumbing my chips, when bang +went a gun at the other table. Say, but did you ever see two hundred and +fifty crazy, desperate men push and crowd out of gun play range? Well, +there was lots of tenderfeet in that gang. They jumped onto the +'mustang' table and then to the hazard table and into the crowd, +pell-mell, out of windows. One feller was so scar't he never stopped to +open it, but went kersmash through glass and all. Durin' this I backed +away keerful like to the wall between two windows. I knew if any of 'em +started to run it would be in the middle of the room and I didn't feel +like risking my back to that crowd. My gun hung handy in case of a free +get-away, or die a doin' it. As I felt the cold green boards rub my +spine I seen the rest of the show. It don't take a man a lifetime to +move when guns are speakin'.</p> + +<p>"It seems a kid, with sickly taller-like face and pinched cheeks, a +young feller from the States lookin' for a gold mine, who got broke and +nothing to do but clean spit-kits in 'Nigger's' and tend bar, had been +exercised a little with the cards, dealing faro, and they put him on +watch with a big Colt's old-fashioned navy on his lap, all cocked and +ready for business, with instructions that if Les did any more funny +work to plug him. Les had bet his stack as high as he could pile 'em and +lost, grabbed the extra chips, and to the dealer's 'You—put them chips +back,' Les slid up the back of his chair. He was keepin' cases and had +his back to me, reachin' fer his gun. He had on a pair of blue overalls, +and the hammer of that six-shooter got caught in the corner of his +pocket. I seen him tuggin' to get it out, and the dealer, whose name was +Bert Lillis, had lifted the big cannon, the muzzle half way across the +table, and with both hands pulled the trigger, got scared, dropped the +gun and was trying to skin under the table. He turned his head sideways +to keep from scratching his nose, and just then Les got into action. He +leaned on his left hand over the middle of the faro layout, put the +muzzle of his gun against the eye of the dealer as he was sliding down +and fired. As Les was doin' this Sam Tupper was busy, but Les had his +eye on the lookout, who dared not move his hand for fear Les would git +him first. As quick as Les made his play at the dealer, Sam reached for +a drawer about six inches from his hand and grabbed a pearl-handled, +silver-plated gun. As Les turned with uplifted arm, cocking his weapon, +Sam stepped to the edge of the drygoods box on which the lookout's chair +was placed, his weapon pointing straight at Les's heart. Before Les +could fire there was a flash—a report. The smoke from the pearl-handled +gun wreathed around Les's head as he turned convulsively, frantically +trying to get the muzzle of his pistol on a line with Sam, who stood +with the least perceptible smile waiting for the eye of his opponent to +catch his own, but as Les's body slowly swayed and pivoted the gambler +knew that in a moment more all would be over. The fingers which tightly +gripped the murderous firearm now slackened, gripped again, then the +pistol dropped to the floor; a body straightened up its full height, the +head thrown back in defiance and with eyes rolling upward, Les McAvoy +fell prone to the floor backwards. As he fell that man standing there +stepped off the box with the pearl-handled gun cocked for a second shot, +and hissed between those white teeth of his, 'You got it that time.' The +jury heard no evidence of any shots but Lillis' and the one Les +fired—no bullet was found from a Colt's navy, round ball. A conical +ball rested just beneath the skin in the small of the back. The jury +said, 'Justifiable homicide at the hands of Bert Lillis,' and I heard +that Lillis died the next day."</p> + +<p>"And that is the man who did the deed?" asked Jack, as he gazed at a +real bad man; "one of those who make the history of every country black +with their infamous deeds, which they plan and then inveigle innocent +people to execute."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Cal, "and these redskins are not much to blame for goin' on +the warpath the way they are bamboozled about. The trouble is, them +cusses in Washington, who never see an Injun and who don't know what a +real live one is, pass laws and send commissioners and army officers and +agents out here to investigate. Some are preachers, some cunning lawyers +and some statesmen—they call 'em so. The investigation drags along +while the poor devils go hungry. Rations are held back, blankets rot for +want of transportation, and somebody back in the woodpile is getting +rich all the time. Then the Injun takes it out of a party of prospectors +or some poor rancher, or like as not holds up a train of mules and the +mule-skinners 'bite the dust' after defending their own property. But I +suppose in the end it is all for the benefit of what they call +civilization. Let's go and see them ponies over there."</p> + +<p>"Look," said Jack; "must have been a bunch of folks come in last night," +pointing to a regular settlement of new tents and camping outfits.</p> + +<p>"Well, durn my pictures," ejaculated Cal. "Throw a rope on that +blaze-faced, lop-eared son of Israel with a pack on his back and let's +see his brand. Guess you find them everywhere except in Jerusalem. +Hello, Isaac; where's Abraham?"</p> + +<p>"Who'd you mean, my brodder or my fadder? My name is Cohen, and I gome +to make a locashun for a cloding store. Dis will be a fine blace for a +town, und Cohen will be der bioneer merchant, ain't it?"</p> + +<p>"Git out, you hook-nosed Jew; this is Injun reservation, and yer 'Uncle +Sam' don't allow no storekeepers here, except his own pets!"</p> + +<p>"What iss dot? I got no Ungel Sam; I got un Ungel Moses und Ungel +Solomon, but no Ungel Sam. Ain'd dis a new town? Don' the shentlemans +wand a negdie or hangerchief? I haf a"—but Jack and Cal had turned a +deaf ear to the would-be "bioneer."</p> + +<p>As Jack stepped around the trunk of a big pine the noose of a lariat +circled around and settled over his head and arms; a short jerk and he +was brought up standing. Cal looked on wonderingly, for at the other end +of the rope sat a buckskin-clad cow-puncher mounted on a thoroughbred +cow-pony.</p> + +<p>"Now will you be good?" The bronzed face of "Happy Jack" broke into +wreaths of smiles and happy laughter.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Jack!"</p> + +<p>"Hello yourself."</p> + +<p>"Shake, old man—put her thar, Jack. Glad ter see yer. Never thought to +see yer over here among the Utes."</p> + +<p>"When did you leave Roaring Forks?"</p> + +<p>"About a week ago; been looking for some horses that are missing."</p> + +<p>"Jack, shake hands with Cal Wagner. No, not the minstrel man, but his +equal just the same."</p> + +<p>"Cal, this is 'Happy Jack' of the Bar E Ranch over in the Grand River +country."</p> + +<p>Both men, thus introduced, shook hands, and after a few exchanges of the +day "Happy Jack" coiled up his lariat and, lifting his bridle reins, +said, "I must look around this camp a while afore the races. May find +some signs, but I'll see yer both again—adios."</p> + +<p>The spurs jingled and his pony loped off toward the valley. Cal looked +at the disappearing cow-puncher and turned to Jack, who said:</p> + +<p>"He's as good one as ever straddled a broncho. He sure is a character +and his name is well earned. One of the happiest men I ever met. I'll +tell you about him as we take a smoke and watch the Indians. Down on +Roaring Forks of the Grand River a young fellow from the east by the +name of Eads took up a ranch. He was staked by some rich relative, and +after buying a bunch of steers and some American-bred horses, drove them +over the Tennessee pass to the Bar E ranch, five miles above the big Hot +Springs<a name="FNanchor_A" id="FNanchor_A"></a><a href="#Footnote_A" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> where the Forks empties into the Grand. He hired 'Happy Jack' +as boss of the outfit, and with two or three other cow-punchers he +started in and built a log house, and when I was there seemed to be +doing well. I was on a hunting trip from Middle Park and heard about the +Bar E ranch and the Springs, so our party made the place our camping +ground for a week. The grass was fine and all the stock rolling fat. His +horses were in two bands—one 'used' on one side of the Forks and the +other band grazed on the opposite side. They rounded up the horses once +a week at least, and the range riders never let the stock get away very +far.</p> + +<p>"One evening just after grub one of the boys came down to the cabin from +the corral and said, 'Old Martha has pulled her picket pin and +vamoosed.' 'Martha' was stake mare. Jack said, 'I guess not,' and bolted +up the bank to the open bench which run for half a mile back to the +cedars and piñons, where the branding pens and corrals were. He walked +out to where he had picketed the mare and pulled up the pin with about +ten feet of rope left where it had been cut. It was just before sundown, +and a bunch of horses which had been run into the corral when the stake +horse was changed had not gotten far away. Jack yelled 'Thief!' and for +the boys to hustle and see if some of the bunch could be gotten back +into the corral—a feat, you know, next to impossible when no one is +mounted. As luck would have it, four went in when the rest broke, but we +managed to get the bars up before they turned. It was but a few seconds' +work to rope a 'saddle-wise' one and cinch him up. Jack had taken off +his belt and it lay on the ground with his six-shooters back at the +cabin. He pointed at mine and said, 'Give me that gun.' Throwing himself +into the saddle, he was off like a streak of lightning. The mare's +hoofprints were plainly visible in the trail leading toward the Grand +River. About 9:30 o'clock we heard a yell and went up to the corral. +Jack had the mare. Not a word was uttered, except 'She was in the middle +of the ford just above where the Forks go into the Grand.' Both horses +were covered with ridges of dry sweat and looked jaded, as though every +inch of ten miles had been run in a death-race struggle. On the off side +of 'Martha' a dirty red streak mingled with the sweat. As we went slowly +back to the cabin, after picketing both horses, Jack handed me my belt +and gun—a Colt's .41 double action. Two empty cartridge shells told the +story of a tragedy. A week later one of our party found the body of a +man on the bank of the Grand five miles below the Forks with two bullet +holes in his back.</p> + +<p>"Jack had one habit that city boys think belong to themselves"—</p> + +<p>"Midnight lunches?" asked Cal.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but Jack generally had his hungry spell about 2 a. m. Every night +that our party was at the Bar E ranch Jack would wake us up and every +one had to 'break bread' with him—only it was flapjacks instead of +bread. Jack would do all the work, and he was an artist with the frying +pan. He would turn those big cakes by tossing them out of the pan in the +air, you know, and catch them after the flop. After our lunch a smoke, +and while we smoked a few deals of Spanish monte and a story or two, +then back to bunks. Yes, 'Happy Jack' is a character."</p> + +<p>As Jack finished his story of "Happy Jack" a shout announced the +beginning of the trials of strength, endurance and courage, which would +probably proclaim the victor for the hand of Susan. Standing erect with +arms folded over his breast, Red Plume watched with seeming indifference +the trials. Susan, seated upon her blanket, appeared even more so; in +fact when it became apparent that Antelope was not to be one of the +contestants she shook her head and disconsolately continued her +beadwork.</p> + +<p>The braves vied with each other in feats of running, wrestling, jumping, +swinging from one tree to another, riding in all manner of positions on +bareback, bridleless ponies; throwing knives at each other's heads, arms +and necks in endeavors to pinion the victim to a tree without doing him +any bodily harm; torturing themselves with cruel whips; gashing and +lacerating the flesh; being suspended from a pole or bar by means of +thongs thrust under the muscles of the shoulders, and other +blood-curdling deeds original with the savage.</p> + +<p>Old chiefs watched the young bucks, and as the games proceeded these old +ones shook their heads or nodded in assent as success or failure +rewarded the contestants.</p> + +<p>All were in gala dress. War bonnets of elaborate manufacture bedecked +some, while single feathers adorned others. Small hoops fastened to long +sticks were held aloft displaying portions of a human scalp, the hair +floating naturally from one side while the other side of the scalp was +painted a bright red. Every Indian lovingly carried his pipe, the red +slender bowl made from pipestone mined from quarries hundreds of miles +away and guarded carefully from reckless souvenir and market hunters.</p> + +<p>As a successful contestant received his reward and led his bride away, +the onlookers rent the air with piercing yells; rattle-boxes split the +ear with their characteristic din, and tom-toms bellowed their dull +intonations with a certain amount of regularity which produced that same +agonizing monotony of sound found in a healthy foghorn.</p> + +<p>In a group not far from the racing strip was Yamanatz, and thither Jack +and Cal bent their way. Charley Rogers and his companions were making +bets with anyone who would risk ammunition, money, clothes, ponies, +blankets, guns, pistols or knives; and even war bonnets were staked. +Yamanatz was about the only Ute who did not bet against "Brown Dick." +Few of the white gamblers, who had come to fleece the Indians with their +special style of confidence games, cared to risk their coin against +Indian ponies or wampum. They wanted cash, and as the Indians had plenty +to do to meet all the demands of Jack and his friends and Charley Rogers +and his following, the gamblers saw little prospect of a coup.</p> + +<p>The level, well-beaten, straight-away course stretched along between +rows of tents, tepees and lodges out into the plain beyond. Indian races +are not upon oval tracks and are not confined entirely to one dash over +the course, but include a certain distance and back over the same +ground, the finish being at the starting point. Other races are run +where the contestant must lean from the pony's back and pick up a quirt +or hat as the animal dashes past.</p> + +<p>But the time for the great race on which the bets are made has arrived, +and the restless, anxious animals have to be guided to the starting +place by their riders and arranged in line with heads opposite the +direction in which the race is to be run. Bare-skinned warriors on +bridleless, saddleless ponies, a small, finely-braided lariat attached +to the horse's jaw, sit like graven images upon their favorite steeds. +"Brown Dick," whose rider is his owner, steps along jauntily, champing +in eager fashion the silver-ringed bit supported by a silver ornamented +Mexican braided-leather bridle, the loose reins held almost listlessly +by the man in blue shirt and buckskin trousers seated on an English +racing saddle. A little moisture around the roots of the delicately +pointed ears shows that "Brown Dick" has been exercised. The muscles of +the forelegs play beneath the skin as step by step he approaches the +line; the veins in his arched neck stand out like small ropes, and the +dilated nostrils reveal the pink membranes as each deep breath is +inhaled. Charley has maneuvered for position, timing his arrival to such +a nicety that the last slow step of his well-trained racer falls exactly +as the pistol belches forth the signal to start. Simultaneously he +utters a shrill "Go" and presses his knees violently into his horse's +sides, leaning far out in the saddle and throwing his weight against the +reins on the faithful horse's neck, who rears aloft, pivots in beautiful +fashion and leaps in one bound clear of the line of frantic ponies, and +amid the warwhoops of Indians, the yells of the frenzied and the fear of +defeat piercing his ears he dashes on to victory. The struggle is not +long, and the spoils won from the vanquished nearly bankrupt the entire +tribe until the next annuities replace their losses.</p> + +<p>There are no imprecations nor villainous mutterings. An Indian is a good +loser and bears defeat in a philosophical, stoical manner. Immediately +after the exciting races come the feasts given to the successful +competitors, and the following day finds the erstwhile holiday-arrayed +village desolate and uninteresting.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita began preparations for the trip to +"Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water," and soon followed the crowd of visitors +making their way to the nearest railroad.</p> + +<p>The last one to bid Chiquita "adios" was Antelope. He had little to say, +but averred he would continually seek the aid of all the Ute gods, big +and little, to bring the heart of Chiquita to Antelope's tepee.</p> + +<p>"Antelope will wait many, many snows and take no other maiden," were his +parting words.</p> + +<p>The restraining influence which Chiquita and Yamanatz exerted vanished +very soon with their departure from the reservation. Susan at once +commenced to be vindictive, as jealousy and revenge gnawed at her heart. +Chagrined and disappointed at the turn of affairs in the competition by +the young bucks for their brides, she coquetted with Johnson, well +knowing that in him she would find an acquiescent if not an aggressive +leader. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: Original spelled 'Futhermore'">Furthermore</ins>, he was the brother-in-law of Ouray and considered +one of the greatest of Douglas' band of great warriors and fighters. She +soon became, in fact, Johnson's squaw, and no one in all the Ute tribe +was more regal in dress nor feared more as an enemy than Susan. Her +silver girdles, beaded buckskins, elk-tooth necklaces and other feminine +accessories were the envy of squaws, whose chiefs were also envious of +Johnson—aye, even of any one of Douglas's band of braves.</p> + +<p>While the races and general carnival were in progress at the Agency a +portion of this renegade band had wandered far out in the plains one +hundred miles east of Denver, near Cheyenne Wells, where they quarreled +with and murdered Joe McLane, of Chicago, and fled back to the +reservation through Middle Park—Colorow, Washington, Shavano and Piah. +Washington was wounded and had his arm in a sling when they met the +outgoing party, of which Charley Rogers, Jack, Yamanatz and Chiquita +were members, then camped on the Frazier River. Colorow offered no +explanation of whence they came nor their object, but all four were in a +hurry and hastened along through the Park.</p> + +<p>Arriving on the Blue, where old man Elliott peaceably conducted a ranch +and with whom the Indians had been on good terms for years, they +murdered him in cold blood and left immediately for the Agency.</p> + +<p>Upon their arrival it did not take long to start the undercurrent of +open revolt. Susan enlisted the sympathies of Jane, a vicious squaw, +whose husband had a great many ponies. Jane had selected a fine piece of +pasture land and under the rights of an Indian "squatted" upon the land +in question. It was the best land near the Agency, and Meeker decided to +use it for cultivation and to "school" the Utes in the use of the plow. +Jane objected, and quarrel after quarrel took place, Douglas even going +so far as to assault Agent Meeker in his (Meeker's) own home.</p> + +<p>A compromise was seemingly effected by which Jane was to get another +piece of land for her pasture and Meeker again set the plow to going, +only to have the man in charge of the work shot at by two bucks who were +concealed in the sage brush. Meeker had repeatedly asked aid of both +state and Federal government. He begged for troops, as the lives of the +white people were in peril. As the aged philanthropist listened to the +council held in a smoke-smothered lodge, where warrior after warrior +gave utterance to his opinion in a language absolutely unintelligible to +any but a Ute, and when at last Douglas made his measured, forcible, +irresistible appeal to his brother savages to resist the onward march of +the white people, he (Meeker) must have known his doom was at hand. +Signal fires were constantly seen as night came on, and the murmur of +discontent increased with the uncertainty.</p> + +<p>Finally word came that troops were on the way. Captain Payne with +colored, and Major Thornburg with white troops had been despatched to +the Agency. The morning of September 30, 1879, saw the White River +plateau under sunny skies—the air was warm and inviting. Twenty or +thirty bucks of Douglas's band sauntered forth as though in quest of +venison, others of the various bands had been out among the hills on +similar errands, and it was not unusual for the majority of the whole +Ute nation to be scattered throughout the reservation even beyond the +lines for short periods.</p> + +<p>Susan, Jane, Antelope and a few others wandered about the Agency +buildings laughing, chattering and in the best of spirits. All seemed +happy, Susan especially, and Antelope had not been so gay for a long +time.</p> + +<p>Still there was an ominous phase to their very good humor. It had that +practical joke fatality which foreboded evil in every smile and made the +heart sick for those who watched the sage-covered mesa and feathery +clouds which floated from range to range. But a few miles away toward +the Red Cañon on Milk Creek the troops were hastening. As the advance +line swung up to the narrow gorge a few Indians in warpaint suddenly +came into view. The cavalry made an attempt to flank the defile and thus +saved the entire command from being literally shot to pieces by Indians +surrounding the open death trap into which they would have marched.</p> + +<p>Hostilities were begun at once by the Indians. Major Thornburg in his +attempt to cut through to the main body was killed, with thirteen +others. The rest of the troops reached a place of safety, and with the +dead bodies of their comrades, the carcasses of dead horses and mules +and the wagons, formed a temporary shelter until breastworks could be +thrown up. The command was not relieved until the 5th of October.</p> + +<p>Runners carried the news of the ambuscade to the Agency, reaching there +at noon of the same day. During the excitement which followed and the +shots directed first at the men who were putting a roof on a building, +the venerable agent was killed and a barrel stave driven down his +throat, log chains placed around his neck, and subsequently the savages +in their fury held up the dead man's legs, imitating a man plowing.</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="22"></a> + <img src="images/168a.jpg" width="313" height="500" + alt="Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE CIVILIAN, 1902." + title="ANTELOPE, THE CIVILIAN, 1902." /> + <p class="caption">ANTELOPE, THE CIVILIAN, 1902.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">The women were taken by Douglas, Johnson and other Utes to +the old Rock Creek village and there held as prisoners until the middle +of October. Susan was left at the Agency and did not know that her brave +warrior had taken unto himself a new squaw under penalty of blowing her +brains out, nor that Douglas threatened another with death unless she, +too, became his Ute squaw, while the other Indians jeered, scoffed and +insulted the wives of the men who lay dead at the Agency. Yet these +bucks dared do nothing but taunt the poor, helpless women, as Douglas +and Johnson were big chiefs, and the women owed their personal safety to +the declaration that they were respectively Douglas's and Johnson's +squaws.</p> + +<p>Upon the body of Major Thornburg was found a picture of Colorow, this +signifying that the death-dealing bullet that killed the officer had +been fired by that crafty old savage.</p> + +<p>After a tedious examination of both Johnson and Douglas by +commissioners, Douglas was confined in the prison at Fort Leavenworth +for one year. Colorow never was taken into custody.</p> + +<p>When Susan learned that her wily spouse (Johnson) had been unfaithful to +her, she started at once for Rock Creek with the intention of murdering +the white woman; but she was too late, as the prisoners had been led +away and delivered to their friends in a place of safety.</p> + +<p>The Utes were afterward moved to the Uintah Reservation<a name="FNanchor_B" id="FNanchor_B"></a><a href="#Footnote_B" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> in Utah, but +many of them visit the old Agency grounds, and at this writing (1902) +Antelope again favored the White River people with his presence and his +photograph in civilized attire.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A" id="Footnote_A"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A"> +<span class="label">[A]</span></a>"Hot Springs"—now Glenwood Springs.—<span class="smcap">Editor</span>. +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B" id="Footnote_B"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B"> +<span class="label">[B]</span></a>For authentic documents on the Meeker massacre see Chicago +Tribune, Oct. 2-15, 1879; Denver papers of same date; Bancroft's History +of Colorado; U.S. House Documents, 1879-1880 (Indian Commission).</p></div> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="10">CHAPTER X.</a></h3> + +<h4>THE BLAZING-EYE MINE.</h4> + +<p class="p2">In Eastern California there lies a strip of country less than a hundred +miles in length and thirty miles in width—the Gehenna of America—a +basin so defiled that the abomination of the Israelites, the Valley of +Hinnom, was a paradise; Tophet, where the sacrifices of children to +Moloch were made by this Biblical tribe of Hebrews, was at least +habitable. Death Valley lies two hundred and fifty feet lower than the +tide water of the Pacific Ocean. Upon this strip of land grows no +verdure, and within its confines exists no life save the scorpion, the +centipede, the tarantula, the hideous gila monster and rattlesnakes, all +more deadly poisonous than sisters and brothers of the same family found +elsewhere, each species a continual menace to the others in the never +ending battle for life—vindictive conquerors at last being vanquished +by more malignant foes.</p> + +<p>The desert is one mass of burning, blighting alkali sand. The heat is +beyond human endurance, and what few pools of water may be found by +digging deep into the earth are so pregnant with disease-breeding, +loathsome germs, that death is but hastened to the poor victim of thirst +who attempts to assuage his sufferings by drinking the polluted reward +of frenzied labor.</p> + +<p>At one time the government established an observation station within the +borders of this waste to give scientifically to the world an accurate +account of the perils which await the prospector venturesome enough to +visit this living ossuary—the realm of the dead and habitat of the +uncanny. Records show that the government representative found the heat +so burdensome that clothing was dispensed with, and in nature's +primitive garb the lonely vigils were passed until the station was +abandoned.</p> + +<p>Years before, a prospector braved the perils of the desert and returned +more dead than alive, but with golden sand and golden nuggets and tales +of a mine whose splendor out-dazzled the wildest dreams. This prospector +called the mine after himself, "Pegleg." He obtaining his sobriquet from +the fact that one of his legs was a wooden peg. He organized a party and +they entered the valley, never to return. Other parties were formed and +attempted a rescue, only to leave their bones to bleach as monuments of +man's distorted and perverse cupidity.</p> + +<p>The government sent a detachment of soldiers, well versed in the +knowledge of all the impending dangers, but none returned save a +corporal, and he a raving maniac, upon a thirst-crazed mule. Thus the +famous "Pegleg" mine became a legend fraught with mystery and weird, +blood-curdling memories.</p> + +<p>It was to this mine, "The Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water," that Yamanatz +was to conduct Jack. The Utes in years gone by made the trip from the +mountains to the desert land and returned laden with golden ornaments, +their trappings covered with gold nuggets beaten into fantastic shapes. +It took many moons in their comings and goings, and many fierce battles +were waged with other tribes in the latter's endeavors to wrest the +secret from the wily warriors, who knew of a safe but dangerous +underground river bed, which wound its tortuous way beneath the +sand-covered desert, cutting the wonderful deposit in half. But even +this passage to that mountain of wealth was beset by terrors as +frightful as those above the ground. Reptiles had ingress and egress +from fissures leading to the surface, and one was in constant danger at +every step, not from the trail alone, but from the roof and sides of +that slimy cañon, the gloom of which added to the dark hideousness, as +the feeble, flickering torches awakened the lethargic inhabitants of +that abandoned inferno.</p> + +<p>The trip from the White River Agency had been made by rail as far as +possible. Every provision had been made that could be devised for +protection against the evils surrounding the dangerous mission. The +nearest station which Jack could in any way "guess" would land them near +a point from whence Yamanatz could find his way was Mojave. The curious +of the little town watched the preparations of the trio as they made +ready to prospect toward the Telescope range. The party consisted of +Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita, and an old "forty-niner" who was asked to +join them under the promise of good wages and the usual "interest" in +any claims which might be "staked." As they slowly made their way along +the edge of the great Mojave desert, Yamanatz was continually on the +lookout for some familiar sign that would indicate they were in the +locality leading to the mysterious river bed. Finally the fourth day +found them encamped at the edge of a low "bench," or hill, mountains +arising from one side and an undulating, dreary waste of billowy sands +stretching to the horizon on the other.</p> + +<p>"It is good," said Yamanatz, continuing, "On the morrow Chiquita will go +with the prospector to the stream where yonder mountain meets the sky. +Chiquita will watch and wait until Jack and Yamanatz shall return. The +prospector will find an old vein of mineral in which is gold. He must +work upon that while Yamanatz and Jack go toward the setting sun, where +the buzzards roost waiting for those who venture into Death Valley."</p> + +<p>This satisfied the prospector, who answered, "It is not much thet bird +gets to put inside his 'bone box' sence the fools quit a-goin' ter ther +'Pegleg' mine. Ye hev bin told about thet, I guess, and ye don't look +thet crazy as would attempt even a one hour's ride into thet furnass. +I'll go with the Injun gal, and good luck ter ye."</p> + +<p>"We will be gone five sleeps," said Yamanatz.</p> + +<p>The second day found Jack and the Ute chief inside the well-concealed +stone covered opening which led to the river bed. Armed with horsehair +whips and gnarled piñon torches which blazed and smoked, they made their +way, leading horses and pack mules along the subterranean passage. +Occasionally the swashing of water smote their ears, and at intervals +open fissures extending to the stream far below them were encountered, +whereby cooling drink was obtained by means of a lariat and camp bucket. +It was not difficult to replenish the leathern pouches provided for +water.</p> + +<p>The middle of the fourth day they reached the crumbling, disintegrated +mass of quartz, honeycombed with gold. It was necessary to crush the +decayed ore and extract the huge nuggets by washing in a pan. +Occasionally the breaking of some of the rock revealed solid masses of +pure gold, while in pockets of rusty, discolored quartz great handfuls +of gold sand were disclosed. All that day and night Jack worked with a +frenzied fervor, loading saddlebag after saddlebag with the precious +metal. Yamanatz assisted until all their receptacles were filled, then a +couple of hours of rest—sleep was out of the question. The heat and +excitement rendered it useless to attempt it.</p> + +<p>Packing the valuable pouches together with the few camp requirements +which had been used on the trip, the return was commenced. The entrance +was reached in less time than it required going; but now it became +necessary to mark a trail by which Jack could find the way back to the +cavern alone. Monuments of stone were erected in triangles, which gave +the needed bearings for future use. More time had been consumed than had +been allowed, and starvation rations for man and beast became necessary.</p> + +<p>When the last monument to complete the chain had been erected it was +midnight, and it was decided to attempt the crossing of the desert strip +at an angle. Hour after hour they traveled, yet at daybreak no blue +haze, no lofty peak appeared in that simmering, sweltering, burning +waste. The trail behind them was as water struck with a whip. The sand +in front gave no alluring sign. The ponies labored—the mules were +restive. Silently as a moonbeam falling across the earth the cavalcade +moved. Another midnight, and Jack resorted to his knowledge of astronomy +to guide them from that fearful death which another day would probably +bring. The constellation of Cassiopea seemed to beckon him in her +direction. Again the red copper-colored sun appeared above the horizon; +a faint blue line in front gave hope of relief. The ponies were allowed +free rein to choose their own way.</p> + +<p>As the sun rose higher and higher the heat drove the pack animals into a +frenzy. The oscillating motion of those in the saddle was almost +unendurable. Gloomily they looked at each other—the one seeing that +shrunken, skin-drawn, parched, pinched human horror in front, wondering +if he in turn looked the same. Still they lived and hoped. Again hour +succeeded hour until the midnight of another day arrived. Suddenly the +mules gave a joyful whinny and started up a sandy gulch at a brisker +pace than they had been traveling. The last of the water had been +divided that noon and no food had been tasted for three days. In another +hour they came to a rock where a little pool struggled only to lose +itself in the sand. But by scooping away the earth while the animals +were pawing, even biting, the very ground, Jack was at last able to save +a little of the precious fluid and appease their immediate thirst.</p> + +<p>A short rest and the march was again resumed. By noon, gaunt and +hidedrawn, two Indian ponies stumbled along the burning sands. Two +horsemen with vacant, stony stare, pitifully reeled in their saddles as +their horses wabbled slowly, painfully into the camp of the "Lone +Fisherman." Pack mules with drooping, lifeless ears, tongues lolling +from their mouths and hoofs cracking from contact with the poisonous +alkaloids of the desert, staggered under their burdens as they toiled +after the silent spectres in the lead. The dust-begrimed, skin-dried, +withered, parched and blighted beings athwart those animated skeletons +were Jack and Yamanatz. The load under which the beasts of burden +tottered was gold. Death Valley had been invaded, and once more +substantial treasure from the "Pegleg" mine gave positive evidence of +the fabulous riches, surpassing the most wonderful opulence of ancient +kings, which was accorded those who survived the horrors of the +health-wrecking, life-destroying journey. A joyous welcome awaited the +returned travelers. Chiquita had determined to get a rescuing party that +day, but a kind Providence directed otherwise. In attempting the short +cut from the last triangle of monuments Jack and Yamanatz had traveled +in a circle.</p> + +<p>Jack recovered his normal condition more readily than did Yamanatz. +Before leaving the "Lone Fisherman," which the old prospector found of +value sufficient to pay for working, Yamanatz and Jack again made the +trip to and from the nearest located triangle and Jack had no trouble in +future visits. He soon succeeded in obtaining from the Government a +valid title to the ground.</p> + +<p>The nucleus of that fortune was spent in fitting Chiquita for her +college education.</p> + +<p>She entered at once upon her studies, under the care of private tutors, +and in two years' time the rapid advancement made placed her far along +toward the goal of learning. Academic courses followed in quick +succession, her wonderful intellectual powers seemingly never to weary +or flag in their grinding evolution from savagery to civilized +enlightenment during her self-imposed task of ten years in the bright +fields of knowledge.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h3> + +<h4>COLLEGE VACATIONS.</h4> + +<p class="p2">During one of the spring terms, when the birds taunted Chiquita with +their freedom, Jack and Hazel proposed, during the recess of two weeks, +that they all take a trip to the Indian Territory and visit the +Cherokees, Kiowas and Comanches, among whose tribes were many relatives +of Chiquita. Over a rough and dusty roadbed rolled a long train of +coaches bearing tourists, farmseekers and business men through banks of +smoke and clouds of cinders to the great farming lands of the west. At +Coffeyville Jack disembarked his party and in a comfortable "buckboard" +continued the journey. A couple of miles of dusty road between +sweltering hedges of osage orange led them to the boundary of the Indian +Territory. Along this in a never varying line for a hundred miles on the +north side stretched farm after farm, divided from the highway and each +other by thousands of miles of wire fencing. Bare cornfields and +treeless wastes spread forth uninviting landscape, marked at intervals +with the houses of the ambitious ranchmen, who, by preoccupation or +purchase, obtained title to the soil. Alkali dust smarted the nostrils, +and the glare of the noonday sun scorched the faces of travelers. +Plowmen, making ready for the season's planting, rested their teams as +the pleasure seekers stopped to inquire the road to California Creek.</p> + +<p>To the south of the highway rolled a grass-covered prairie that seemed a +great poly-chromed rug of velvet. The hand of man had not chiseled the +virgin soil with plowshare, nor riveted its surface with post and rail. +A well defined road led zigzag over its undulating bosom until the +hideous regularity of section lines disappeared behind a friendly +stretch of upland. Cottonwood, elm and oak became frequent as they +entered the valley of the Verdigris and great stretches of forest-dotted +park enchanted the eye and gave rest to tiresome monotony of treeless +plain. Occasionally an unpretentious, unpainted shanty gave evidence of +man, and inquiry proved it to be the abiding place of one of the +precivilized occupants of unfettered expanse of the American continent, +the other a "squaw man," who had made matrimonial alliance with the +partially civilized companion.</p> + +<p>"Jack," said Chiquita, after the inspection of one of these abodes of an +Indian, who had adopted some of the ways and customs of his white +brethren, "Cherokee once big Indian, now half man, half coyote; little +plow, little hunt, little eat—little good," and she curled her lip in +disdain as she contemplated the work of onwardness. Continuing the +conversation in the more polished language of a college student, "Did +not the Great Spirit, the one God of the Indians, put his people here in +this paradise—this continent of flower-carpeted, forest-grown hills and +vales, a people noble in thought, noble in dignified demeanor, with a +belief in a religion simple and effective? Among Indians are no infidels +or agnostics. All Indians believe in the Happy Hunting Ground and the +Great Spirit. Do you know, Jack, of any country where the native race, +indigenous to the land, compare with the noble red man as he was when +the first white settlers occupied America?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly the Arabs or early Egyptians might compare more favorably than +any other nation that I know of," Jack replied.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but Egypt and Arabia are of today, whereas the Indians are wards +of a great government, and your government has condemned the Indian to a +worse Siberia than that to which Nihilist was ever transported. Look; +there is a specimen of what a civilized government does to a native-born +American," pointing to a "half-breed" trying to plow with one steer +harnessed up like a horse.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" Jack sang out to the man thus referred to.</p> + +<p>As the buckboard stopped a few rods from the shack, called a "hoos," the +individual addressed pulled at his galluses and hat, then walked over to +the fence, which enclosed fifty acres of newly plowed ground, said, +"How?" and stood gaping at the travelers.</p> + +<p>"Good morning," cheerily said Jack. "We are on our way to Pryor Creek +and then want to go into the Kiowa Reservation. Can you tell us anything +about the road?"</p> + +<p>"Waal, I reckon yes. It's good goin' 'til yer git to the Verdigris. Thet +nigh ho'se (meaning horse, pronounced with long o and aspirate s) uster +belong to the "<img src="images/183a.jpg" width="12" height="13" + alt="Illustration: Lazy L icon" + title="Lazy L icon" />" outfit."</p> + +<p>The answer was given in a drawling, sing-song tone, with full rests +between every third word, when the speaker stopped to pick up a stick to +whittle, to halloo at his steer or to show how straight he could +expectorate a small freshet of tobacco juice between his teeth at some +real or imaginary mark. His skin was a dirty soot color, and his raven +black eyes and straight hair emphasized his ghastly pallor. He was tall +and thin—built on the Arkansas plan of constructing ladders. His hips +and shoulder blades seemed to meet, giving his long, lank legs the +appearance of a man's head on jointed stilts. Jack made no reply to the +remark about the horse with the "Lazy L" brand, but inquired the +distance to the Verdigris.</p> + +<p>"It's quite a patch. I reckon yer mought hev some 'navy' about yer +close; jess the same if yer moughten—thanks."</p> + +<p>Jack had learned that a plug of tobacco had "open sesame" qualities +among certain species of human beings, and in his war bag were several +pounds cut into goodly sized pocket pieces. One of them he handed to the +"half-breed," who tore off a corner with his teeth, absentmindedly +putting the rest in his pocket. The "tip" had the desired effect, for +"Ladder Legs" recounted in the drawl of the Cherokee half-breeds, with +its characteristic aspirating, all the crooks, turns, fords and +distances to the Kiowa Reservation. In response to Jack's inquiry +regarding the limited cultivation of the land so near the Kansas border, +"Ladder Legs" vouchsafed this information:</p> + +<p>"A 'squaw man' has little ambition, and a half-breed none. The +environments of Indian life make a 'States' man dejected and he soon +outgrows the infant ambition which prompted him to marry a squaw that he +might 'take up' land in the territory. A white man cannot live on the +Indians' ground except he marries a squaw or the daughter of a man who +has had tribal rights conferred upon him; then he becomes an Indian and +can have a fifty-acre pasture fenced, all the land he will cultivate, +and the 'range' for his stock to feed upon. You see that bend in the +river? Waal, a white man from the States married the widow of a +well-to-do Cherokee half-breed. He is educated and has grown-up +daughters almost as white as you be, and a nice house well furnished, +and he rents out a part of his land on shares to some 'niggers,' or +half-breeds, and they cultivate all the land he can put under fence. +Some day when this land is allotted he will own an immense tract."</p> + +<p>"How about the range you spoke of?" asked Jack.</p> + +<p>"The cattlemen up in the States supply a bunch of cattle to some +ranchman having a good range or lots of open country, well watered, +around his house. Probably the man has a lot of corn and wants to feed +the cattle over winter and take profit in so much increase of beef, +pound for pound, that these cattle gain. Nearly all of the ranchmen have +hogs to run with the cattle, so there is another source from which a +return is anticipated. Pays, did you ask? Sure; all get rich who will +work. But over there on California Creek was a young fellow who had a +snap of it if ever a man did. This young fellow married the daughter of +an Indian missionary, a preacher from up in Kansas, who rewrote the real +Bible in the Cherokee dialect, for which the tribe made him a +full-blooded Indian, as far as any rights in the nation were concerned. +After they were married they came down here with their fine duds and +bought a ranch over on the creek of a full-blood Cherokee. He lived +there about four years. He had friends up in one of the Missouri towns +in the livestock commission business and they had all kinds of cattle. +They started the young fellow with four thousand fine steers in the +spring, and told him to raise some corn for the next winter and feed the +first lot on the range, then they would send in another bunch for winter +care. Them there cattle drifted all the way to Texas, and do you suppose +the lazy dude would try to round 'em up? No, sirree. He was just too +nice. His hands were so soft he couldn't get a calf to the brandin' post +in a corral, let alone rope a steer and brand him in the open country. +The folks came down on him and he lost the ranch. His wife died and he +went to Honduras, or the Philippines, or somewhere. But this yere land +is all goin' to be allotted some day and then it is good-by to the +freedom which we get here now. Yes, civilization kicks up a heap of +dust. Good-by; stop and see me if you come back this way. Adios."</p> + +<p>Chiquita seemed amazed to hear that an educated man from the civilized +States would let such a golden opportunity pass him by. Mile after mile +of the fairest cattle range was passed on their way into the Kiowa +Reservation.</p> + +<p>The time had arrived when Chiquita must return to college. During her +visit to the old relatives who had married into the Territory tribes she +learned that a distant cousin of hers was to be shot for the murder of a +fellow Indian. The tribal council had tried him and sentenced him to +death six months before, but on the plea which he made for leave of +absence to go to his old home among the mountain Utes in Colorado to see +his mother and father before he died, they had respited him. The time +for his return expired at noon the very day that Chiquita was to start +back.</p> + +<p>She learned the story about four hours before noon—the time for the +execution—and at once made her way to the council hall, where in solemn +silence waited the court and executioners. Chiquita pleaded that they +spare her cousin. The plea was made to deaf ears. He had dealt the death +blow to a Kiowa, and by their laws he had been tried and found guilty, +and by their law he must suffer death.</p> + +<p>"Where is he, that I may see him?" asked Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"He has not returned."</p> + +<p>"He will come. A Ute does not fear the death that awaits him, even for a +crime," proudly asserted Chiquita. "The Great Manitou will send him +back. Has he not danced to Wakantanka with a buffalo skull hung to a +thong that passed through the flesh of his back? Will one who has danced +to the Sun be afraid to return to the Kiowa dogs? Polar Bear knows that +the Utes would drive him back from the Happy Hunting Ground and be +killed by them if he did not keep his promise to return. Polar Bear +knows there is no escape."</p> + +<p>"Chiquita is wise in what she says. The Kiowas know that Polar Bear has +been a big brave and danced the awful Sun dance, but the hour is near at +hand, and no word that he comes. What have we to insure his return, +except the Indian's faith in the hereafter and that the Great Manitou +will punish him in the Happy Hunting Ground if he disobeys the Kiowa +Council and splits his heart with a lie when he promised to return?"</p> + +<p>At this moment a shout was heard and a mounted runner quickly appeared, +his horse covered with flecks of foam and nostrils deeply blowing.</p> + +<p>"Polar Bear comes. He runs like the deer of the plains, when we lived in +sight of the great mountains, the home of the Utes."</p> + +<p>The council suspended all manifestations. The executioner examined his +rifle. Polar Bear entered and bowed his head, then looked aloft and +pointed to the sky.</p> + +<p>"I am ready," was all he said.</p> + +<p>The hour lacked ten minutes of the expired time. The executioner +motioned and Polar Bear followed. Under a large oak he took his stand, +stripped to the waist, a scarlet heart painted over his own. The +executioner took his place, a few steps away, sighted his rifle at the +painted heart, a puff of smoke, a sharp report, a gush of blood, and +Polar Bear had atoned for his crime. Chiquita turned to Jack and asked:</p> + +<p>"Is there another nation in the world where their criminals return of +their own accord to suffer the death penalty?"</p> + +<p>Most of the summer vacations of her college life Chiquita spent among +the forests, crags and parks on the Ute reservation or in her mountain +home near Middle Park. Hundreds of student friends visited her at the +latter place and were entertained for weeks in a royal manner, to their +great pleasure, a result which does not always follow the lavish +expenditure of money. Tents, tepees, lodges, log cabins and quaint +cottages were set apart for the use of the guests. A beautiful rustic +chapel improvised for religious services and a hall for indoor +entertainment were erected near the small hotel at the source of Rock +Creek, where a famous iron and soda spring bubbles forth its sparkling +waters of more than ordinary quality. The adjacent hills furnished +abundance of deer, and even bear, and the famous catches of trout +perpetuated the glory of a summer on Rock Creek as a lifelong realistic +dream. The most elaborate of Indian trappings adorned the various +abodes. Canoes silently sped along the surface of an artificial lake +made by repairing an old beaver dam, and in the corral Ute ponies, +Mexican burros or American-bred saddle horses, besides traps, brakes and +coaches presented a never-tiring array from which to select in order to +make pilgrimages into more distant territory.</p> + +<p>A little garden furnished fresh vegetables, while the "ranch hack" made +trips to the nearest railway station for other provisions once a week. +Chiquita arranged for the pre-emption of this ranch on one of Jack's +early visits, but by reason of mineral springs being reserved by the +Government from operation of the land law, the property was abandoned in +later years.</p> + +<p>In making her trips back and forth from the ranch on Rock Creek to the +college, Chiquita watched the marvelous growth of that great stretch of +country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains with sinking +heart.</p> + +<p>To Jack she confided her worst fears. "The Great Manitou of the Utes has +been conquered by the Great Spirit of the white man," she was wont to +remark as her knowledge of the Christian religion advanced.</p> + +<p>In truth, Chiquita had ground for her fears. Leadville, with its never +ceasing output of silver which rolled in a continuous stream toward the +great manufacturing centers of the East, was welcomed by the idle, labor +seeking armies as the Mecca of the world. The prominent transportation +companies sent emissaries to all the great farming regions of Europe, +colonizing emigrants to enter the immense uncultivated sections +traversed by their respective charters in the attempt to make their +railways profitable. Train load after train load of hardy, well-to-do +Russians, Norwegians, Swedes and Germans rolled into the fertile +valleys, peopling the arid wastes and starting the building of villages, +towns and cities along the railway like unto tales of mythology. The +impetus of this gigantic, overwhelming land-grabbing aroused the +speculative world and money came forth from its hiding place to seek +investment. Mills began to work overtime. Products of all kinds were in +demand, for the comers to the new land had to be fed, clothed and +entertained. Prosperity ruled.</p> + +<p>"Jack," said Chiquita, as the annual trip was made across the great +country to the mine near the close of her college career, "see the +effects of education and civilization in these immense cities where ten +years ago were unplowed lands, open prairie and treeless wastes. The +untutored savage must go; yes, there is but one result can ensue, and +while it makes me feel sad for my people yet I doubt not it is best for +humanity."</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h3> + +<h4>JACK WEDDED.</h4> + +<p class="p2">'Twas the last of June, the wedding bells pealed joyously, the church +organ bellowed noisily, the formality of congratulations followed along +with the flutter of praises for the bride and groom, which they received +because it was eminently proper and expected; a hurried breakfast, still +more hasty good-byes, the whistle of an approaching train amid the +excitement of baggage checked, lost or forgotten, a rush of depot +farewells, a waving of handkerchiefs, a few misty eyes, then Hazel had a +chance to breathe a long sigh of relief and Jack to unburden some +pent-up adjectives as he picked rice out of his wife's hair and removed +the tell-tale labels, ribbons and signs which decorated umbrellas, suit +cases and wraps.</p> + +<p>"Jack," whispered Hazel, as she nestled close to him in the railroad +coach in which was no one but an old man, the train attendant being on +the platform. "I was 'skeert' until you squeezed my hand, and I trembled +all over. I thought I should faint, but I'm your wife, ain't I, Jack?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you are an old married lady now," answered Jack, dogmatically.</p> + +<p>"An old married lady," repeated Hazel slowly, lapsing into a brown study +for a moment. "Jack, is it such an awful long time since I was a little +girl and you pulled my sled on the hill for me?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear, it is but yesterday and it will be yesterday always, even if +we live for a hundred years. Don't you know, 'It's only once in life +one's boots have copper toes,' and my 'copper-toed' age was the happiest +part of my life."</p> + +<p>"Until today, Jack," interrupted Hazel, very decidedly.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" inquiringly replied Jack.</p> + +<p>The time for Jack to make his regular visit to the mine had also been +selected for his wedding trip and Chiquita was to join the newly married +pair at Denver, then all three were to "do" Colorado, finishing by +spending a few weeks in Estes Park and the Buena Vista ranch, as +Chiquita called her wonderful summer abode, later going on to +California. Jack had purchased a fine equipment of split bamboo fly rods +and all the necessary accompaniments, while Hazel, equally ardent in her +admiration of the sport so fascinating to the disciples of Izaak Walton, +fashioned, with her own hands, elegant rod cases, fly books and natty +garments for the outing. Conspicuous among the latter was a short +walking skirt and Eton jacket of brown duck, trimmed with bands of white +and studded with brass buttons, in which she arrayed herself and +practiced fly casting for imaginary trout on the lawn. A stop of an hour +in Boston gave them barely time to transfer across the city of crooked +streets to the Albany station and to settle themselves for the long ride +to Chicago. Jack provided in advance for plenty of room, engaging a +sleeper section.</p> + +<p>By the time the train had shot past the beautiful suburban cities of +Auburn and the Newtons and rolled into Framingham Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard +were quite at home. They commenced to congratulate themselves on looking +like old married folks and that no one would suspect them of being bride +and groom.</p> + +<p>"Jack, you know something?" said Hazel in her speculative way that +always meant a favor to come.</p> + +<p>"Well, sweetheart, what is it?" Jack presumed it was a glass of water or +apples or that her pillow was not right.</p> + +<p>"Well, you know."</p> + +<p>Jack knew then that something more than ordinary was coming; that "you +know" indicated not an uncertainty, but was the usual signal for a "hold +up"—nothing short of opera tickets—and the young man wondered what +unsatisfied desire was about to be "you knowed."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know that little descriptive story you wrote of Estes Park, +read it to me."</p> + +<p>So Mr. Jack resurrected the tale from its pocket in his suit case and in +his rich, modulated voice, read the story for the x—th time, he +thought:</p> + +<p>"Peerless Estes! That miniature world wilderness of wonder and delight! +Set apart for the tired brain and careworn wreck from the sepulchers of +business activity! A sweet paradise nestled amidst the encircling +snow-capped peaks whose somber heads rise far above the habitat of +microbe and parasite. Those silent peaks silhouetted against an ethereal +dome of deepest blue or blackest star-bespangled canopy of night! The +mountain air of Estes; the elixir compounded by nature for +reinvigorating battling civilization!</p> + +<p>"This enchanted arena, which pen fails adequately to drape in poetical +luxury, was dedicated for combats between rest and toil, health and +sickness, vitality and decay. The angler revels in luxury with the +numbers of easily accessible pools, riffles, meadows, cañons, the most +distant an hour's drive and the majority but ten minutes' walk. +Occasionally deer may be seen and the 'Big Horn' come down their aerial +stairway from the clouds to lick from the alkali waters in Horseshoe. +Wait until you see the chattering magpie, with its bronze equipment and +saucy manners. The foe of this long-tailed, noisy inhabitant is a blue +jay (the one James Whitcomb Riley calls the 'bird with soldier +clothes.') Hours may be spent witnessing the strategy, diplomacy, anger, +spite and vindictiveness waged by these bird robbers and desperadoes, +for both are notorious house breakers, murderers and thieves in bird +land, as well as clever in appropriating kitchen supplies which they +surreptitiously seize when opportunity is presented.</p> + +<p>"In Estes a Sabbath quiet broods at all times, broken only by the swish +of the angler's rod, the merry peal of frightened laughter as some +maiden lands her first trout, or the crunching of horses' hoofs in the +hard gravel roads as a pleasure party clatters by. Children romp and +play without fear of mosquitoes or snakes, troublesome poisonous insects +being banished as thoroughly as if destroyed by some mysterious +necromancer.</p> + +<p>"Where in all the world can the lover go"—</p> + +<p>"Stop, Jack, look into the depth of my eyes and skip those charming +nooks, bowers and rock girt dens where so many rehearse the preliminary +episode which leads to the altar. I know that by heart; skip the 'lover' +pages and read about the coach ride from Lyons, for we will get to Lyons +Friday, won't we?"</p> + +<p>So after a glass of water, an orange and readjusting of pillows, Jack +picked up his book again.</p> + +<p>"The ride from Lyons is so fraught with surprises that one becomes +distracted. Situated as it is in a veritable fiery furnace of red, +rough, ragged precipices, monuments of the eruptive age when volcanoes +vomited billowy lava over the face of the earth, Lyons is the antithesis +of what the traveler expected at the end of a tortuously curved railroad +track, over which the 'mixed' train of freight and disgruntled humanity +has been jerked, jostled and jumped along for about three hours, +covering forty miles.</p> + +<p>"But a delicious dinner awaits; generally fried chicken, southern style. +This does not mean a sun dried remnant of a wing, or the active +extremity of a leg with a burnt bone protruding through gristly skin, +but a nice, big piece of a yellow-legged Plymouth Rock, the real +article, hatched by a mother hen acquainted with the business and not +one of those Illinois river incubators that furnish spring chickens at +all seasons of the year to be kept well frozen in cold storage until +called for. This chicken is fried in ranch butter to a golden russet +brown, if you happen to know what color cooking calls for, and a whole +lot of it comes in on one great big platter, so you get a chance to pick +a good joint, but any part of such a chicken is good."</p> + +<p>"Jack, you are putting in a whole lot that is not in that book just to +make me hungry. My mouth has been puckered up for half an hour to get a +bite of that 'yaller leg.' We are near Springfield; let's eat."</p> + +<p>Suiting the action to the word they joined the motley throng in the rush +for the dining-room, as the train came to a stop for forty minutes.</p> + +<p>Fresh Connecticut River shad and roe, new green peas, new potatoes in +cream, lettuce, radishes.</p> + +<p>"There, that will kill your chicken fever for a time," said Jack, as he +ordered for both.</p> + +<p>"You may order me a piece of lemon pie, Jack. I see some on the +sideboard and the meringue is about two inches thick."</p> + +<p>"We want to go over and see the train for the north pull out; might see +some Bozrah people, Hazel," said Jack, after the dinner, "it leaves five +minutes before we do."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure enough, and there are a lot of students just going home. I +suppose Chiquita is in Denver by this time."</p> + +<p>"Hazel, there is old Deacon Petherbridge and Elam Tucker. I'll bet +they've been down to New Haven on a horse trade. You know Elam had the +big livery stable that burned down when you were eight and I was just +eleven. You remember the Tucker boy was foolish and set fire to the hay, +'Wanted to see it burn,' he told the town marshal. But we must get +aboard."</p> + +<p>The last beams of rose-tinted sunlight percolated through the gathering +darkness as the train sped on its way, winding in and out among the +hills of western Massachusetts. Hazel watched the fading panorama as it +dissolved in the gloom of the night. She was thinking of her happy +school days among those very hills through which she was now gliding, a +one-day bride, wife of her childhood lover. As the scenes vanished she +shyly snuggled a little closer and whispered, "Jack, we will always be +happy, won't we?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes; but what made you ask it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, just 'cause," continuing, "I kinder wish we had gone around by +Hoosac tunnel, we could have seen 'Old Bozrah' hills and"—</p> + +<p>"I guess my new wife is a little homesick," consolingly interrupted +Jack. "Suppose we visit Old Bozrah when we come back and have a famous +time going nutting and picking autumn leaves"—</p> + +<p>"And getting ivy poisoned so my face will be all spots next winter. I +guess not."</p> + +<p>The obsequious, ebony-hued gem'man, in white coat with black buttons, +interrupted the first family differences.</p> + +<p>"If yoh doan mind, I'd laik to fix up yoh section; got so much to do +won't git through 'fore midnight."</p> + +<p>"All right, where can we go? This one across here is unoccupied," +replied Jack, wishing to accommodate.</p> + +<p>"Dat section, sah, will not be taken until we neah Albany, sah," came +from the man of tips and corporation dignity.</p> + +<p>They had been seated but a few moments when the occupant of the section +next forward of their own was obliged to find temporary quarters as the +ever-obliging servant of monopoly touched his cap for permission. A lady +of prepossessing countenance, faultlessly gowned and of gracious manner, +knocked, as it were, at Jack's door, addressing him, "May I occupy this +vacant seat while the porter arranges my domicile? Pardon the intrusion, +but all other avenues seem already taxed."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, it is no intrusion; in fact, we shall be glad to have you, +as you have had a long siege of solitaire," replied Jack.</p> + +<p>"I do get so lonesome on my trips that I sometimes wish some one else +had the position," answered the lady with that assurance which +accompanies experience.</p> + +<p>"Gathering from that, I judge you travel for business instead of +pleasure," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I make two trips a year on business. I am buyer for Stoddersmith +of Boston, and am on my way to Colorado and California. I shall visit +Estes Park, Manitou and other points, then go to India and China."</p> + +<p>Jack was no more surprised than if she had told him she was +quartermaster in the navy, or a field marshal in the German army. He +looked incredulous. The lady handed him her card, which read, "Miss +Asquith, Stoddersmith's, Boston," remarking that if it would be +agreeable she would tell them how it happened a woman occupied so +important a position, and naively added, "The only firm in the world who +employs one of our sex in this department, even as a saleslady."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do tell us," said Hazel, and to Jack, "Just think of a woman going +alone to India to buy goods!"</p> + +<p>"This trip is really a part of my twenty-fifth anniversary with the +firm,"—</p> + +<p>Hazel interrupted. "Pardon me, but do you mean to say you have been +twenty-five years with one firm?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I am but forty-five. I went to work, a girl of fifteen, in one +of the then larger western cities and after five years concluded I would +prefer an eastern house. New York did not offer the inducement which I +found in Boston. I was placed in the fur stock in winter and lighter +wraps in summer. For some reason, after I had been with them ten years, +they transferred me temporarily into the present department, later +returning me for one winter to the furs. At the end of that season I was +given the option of management of the entire wrap stock or a permanent +place in the other line. I preferred the latter. I did not feel +confidence enough in myself to be a buyer. You see, if certain styles of +goods fail to 'go,' fail to become popular or to bring a good profit, +there is a vacancy and a new buyer takes up the department. My sales in +the new stock increased steadily. It became positively embarrassing to +me at times when customers refused to have their wants attended to by +the men in the stock, men who had been there many years longer than I +had. But the fact was, it finally became necessary for me to make +appointments just the same as dentists do in order to give the attention +necessary to the trade. Three years ago I made my first attempt in +buying from manufacturers in France. That trip was one continual round +of 'stage fright,' and even after the goods were in the house I worried +myself sick for fear the end of the season would be a 'blank,' as the +boys say about lottery tickets, but the books showed a very profitable +period in the face of grave reverses to the general trade. And now, to +show their confidence in me as well as making me the magnificent present +of a trip to India, I am on my way to buy goods. Isn't it lovely of +them?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you deserve it, even more if anything. Just imagine working for +one firm a quarter of a century," spoke up Hazel very energetically.</p> + +<p>"Many firms," said Jack, weighing his words, "send 'style hunters' +abroad for the effect the mail from a foreign port has on their +customers. Half the time these 'hunters' stay long enough to mail their +announcements, like as not printed in the United States, look at a few +hats or garments, perhaps buy a 'pattern' or two, and then return home. +Other firms do send buyers into various ports abroad. Some have resident +buyers, but I never knew before of any firm sending a buyer from the +ranks of the fair sex to the Orient. Let me compliment you, Miss +Asquith, on your high achievement. It certainly demonstrates the +advancement of woman's sphere. But may I ask you a pertinent question +regarding the social part of your life?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I can guess what you want to know, and let me say, at first, +I used to feel dreadfully when I found that the working girl is to a +great degree ostracised by what is called society. But I learned that +society is treacherous. If one has lots of money to spend there are +certain attractions that it takes money to enjoy or provide. The +different degrees of wealth provide their respective scale of eligible +members to make up their circle of society, and the lesser lights are +eclipsed or paled into insignificance by the grander candle power. It is +the same in business, professions, art and politics, so I found that my +sphere was probably cast in just as pleasant places among my class of +those who work for a living, as though I had been evolved by marriage or +fortune into a society star of any magnitude, where the jealousies and +'snubs' are even harder to be endured because of the still greater +lustre found or imagined among more brilliant or exclusive sets into +which I could not enter. Do I make it clear?"</p> + +<p>"Very; indeed, you echo my own theory. But I could not have expressed it +as clearly as you have," replied Jack.</p> + +<p>"After all," continued Miss Asquith, "I doubt if the very rich obtain as +much unalloyed pleasure from life as do the middle classes who do not +aspire to greatness and are educated from infancy to make themselves +happy in the strata to which they are indigenous, as one may put it. +They are free to come and go any and everywhere, while the wealthy +commence life in charge of a nurse girl, are educated by private tutors, +attended by chaperones in their courtship and graduate simply to be put +in charge of the butler, footman, coachman and maid. But I guess I have +worn you out with my sermon on riches, and will say good night."</p> + +<p>Hazel and Jack joined in their good night and discussed the subject some +time, deciding to ask Miss Asquith to meet Chiquita and the four go as +one party to Estes Park. As Hazel said, "It will give Chiquita a grand +chance to study another phase of the life of her white sister, and, +Jack, I guess the red man's squaw is not alone in the field of drudgery, +after all."</p> + +<p>Owing to through tickets having been procured, it became necessary for +Jack to go one route while Miss Asquith took another from Chicago to +Denver, arrangements being made to that end the day following. Jack had +to get his tickets viséd at the Chicago office and for some technical +reason the matter was of such a nature that it required the O. K. of the +General Passenger Agent. As he awaited an audience, the official being +for the moment engaged with another person, evidently a stranger to city +methods and customs, Jack struggled with a long forgotten, dimly +familiar something about the man that recalled brain impressions, which +they say are never destroyed when once imprinted. He had been directed +to see Mr. Lillis at such a room, in such a building, but that name +carried no suggestion. It did not seem to fit the groping fancy of his +mind. Still the name seemed to associate itself with the party then +engaging the General Passenger Agent. As the stranger turned to go he +stopped in front of Jack, looked at him a moment, then put out his hand, +"Shake, old man; guess you don't re-cog-nize Cal Wagner in his store +clothes. I jess cum out to God's country once more afore I pass in my +chips to see how things look in civilization. How be ye?"</p> + +<p>Of course Jack then remembered his quondam friend during the races on +the Ute reservation, and the name Lillis puzzled him more than ever. He +greeted Cal in a hearty manner, introducing Hazel.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute while I get my tickets fixed, then I'll have a chat with +you," said Jack.</p> + +<p>As he presented his tickets, stating the object of his errand, he +noticed the official had a glass eye and scar near his ear. When the +tickets were returned a name written across them identified so +unmistakably a part of Jack's "vision" that he immediately recalled the +story which Cal Wagner told him years before of the first grave in +Silver Cliff. The name was "Bert Lillis." Allowing his curiosity to +prevail, he asked abruptly, "Mr. Lillis, were you ever in Silver Cliff?"</p> + +<p>The official started, a shiver ran through his frame, the color left his +face until it was like a piece of Parian marble, while he replied just +audibly, helplessly, "Yes," adding quickly, "Come in, I guess you must +know. I—did you ever see me before?"</p> + +<p>Jack shook his head, but turning to Cal said, "Cal, this is Bert Lillis, +formerly of Silver Cliff."</p> + +<p>Cal looked from one to the other and replied, "Guess you are mistaken. +Lillis is dead many years."</p> + +<p>"No, he is still alive," said the official. "Come in."</p> + +<p>Upon being seated, no one seemed desirous of broaching the painful +subject uppermost in their minds, while Hazel was completely mystified +as to the conduct of the three men. Finally, with a great effort to +restrain his feelings, his head bowed upon his breast, the railroad man +said in broken sentences: "I—for fifteen years a blackened pall has +shadowed my path, a floating, abandoned derelict moored to my heart has +dragged me against the buffeting waves of the sea of life or held me +helpless in the trough as storm crests broke over me in my misery. A man +marked with the brand which God placed upon Cain for the murder of his +brother, yet I was exonerated by the jury. I shot Les McAvoy in the +discharge of my duty. I was a mere boy, without money, scantily clad, in +search of wealth with which to support my mother, and had to accept the +only opportunity presented in that lawless mining camp. I had no tools +or trade and was not strong enough to do the work required of miners, +and the camp had not advanced far enough to give employment to the +ordinary run of commercial wage earners. It was instilled into me in +early life to do my duty in whatever capacity I served, under all +circumstances, and I considered it my duty to protect that gambling +table even at the risk of my own life. The years of mental anguish which +I have lived since that fatal moment, and the years which my poor old +mother has had her head bowed in sorrow"—</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment, Mr. Lillis," interrupted Cal. "You did not kill Les +McAvoy."</p> + +<p>"What is that—you say I did not? Oh! I wish—it is good of you to try +to erase the stigma, but the evidence, the facts, the coroner's verdict, +'at the hands of Bert Lillis.' Oh, no, no"—sadly commented Lillis.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Lillis, I will prove to you what I say is truth, and if the grave +of Les McAvoy has remained untouched all these years, the evidence is in +the coffin," replied Cal.</p> + +<p>"Tell it! tell it! prove, first, that you were there; describe the +scene"—</p> + +<p>"You were dealing, you raised a Colt's old-fashioned, powder-and-ball +navy six-shooter from yer lap"—</p> + +<p>"Yes, I had cleaned up that old gun and loaded it with fresh powder, +ball and new caps that day. They told me to"—interrupted Mr. Lillis.</p> + +<p>"Sam Tupper sat in a chair on top of a dry-goods box; he was lookout. A +man with mustache, dead black, like India ink. Les did not like your +remarks and started to rise up in his chair, his hand goin' to his +pistol pocket. You lifted that big Colt's with both hands and as soon as +the muzzle of it was pintin' up and away from your own body you pulled +the trigger. Les had his own weapon out; you saw it, was frightened, +dropped your own gun and tried to slip under the table. As you went down +Les placed the muzzle of his gun agin yer eye and cut loose. While this +was goin' on Tupper never moved until he saw a chanst to open a drawer, +grab a pearl-handled, silver-plated shootin' iron. He stood up, advanced +one step, and fired downwardly at Les McAvoy's breast. Les writhed, +turned completely around, his hand convulsively endeavoring to get an +aim at Tupper, who stood with a malicious grin waiting for McAvoy again +to face him, ready to fire again if need be, but he saw it was useless. +As McAvoy finally pivoted, the pistol dropped to the floor, and with a +crash he fell flat on his back, dead. You were under the table. Tupper +stepped from the box, his six-shooter a smokin' and said, 'You got it +that time,' then put the gun in his pocket."</p> + +<p>"Where were you?" exclaimed Mr. Lillis.</p> + +<p>"Right agin the wall, and McAvoy's head struck at my feet. One man saw +this besides myself. He wore three gold nuggets on his shirt front, and +me and him figgered it out that night and again the next morning, but +mum was the word. We knew the gamblers would kill us both if we told +what we seen. I left the place and returned just as the last testimony +was being given. There was no evidence given of Tupper having fired a +shot. As the body lay upon its side on the floor there was one wound in +the breast near the left center. Just under the skin in the small of the +back was a dark, cone-shaped substance. It was the lead bullet from that +pearl-handled six-shooter. The round bullet from your Colt's navy went +through the roof."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Lillis, "I am now able to relieve my mind from this +hideous vision, and it will bring happiness to my mother. I can see now +why the gamblers removed me to Rosita and furnished me with +transportation and money to leave Colorado when I recovered sufficiently +to travel. The ball from McAvoy's pistol caught the lower portion of my +eye, and the turning of my head just before he fired caused the bullet +to pass out near my ear, instead of going into my brain."</p> + +<p>"We must go now, as it is near train time," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Me, too," said Cal.</p> + +<p>"Are you going west?" asked Jack.</p> + +<p>"Same train you take, I guess," replied Cal.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Mr. Lillis, "I regret you leave so soon. I would like +to entertain you if you care to stay over. If not now, at some future +time; and, Mr. Wagner, you have done me a great favor. My poor old +mother can live the rest of her life peacefully. Good-bye! good-bye!"</p> + +<p>As the train pulled out of the station on the way to Denver the +principal topic of conversation was the remarkable coincidence of the +rencounter of Jack and Cal, emphasized by the more remarkable meeting of +Cal and Bert Lillis.</p> + +<p>"Well, that beats me," said Cal.</p> + +<p>"I've got another surprise in Denver for you," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Will it beat this one?"</p> + +<p>"Wait until you see our old friend, Chiquita."</p> + +<p>"Chiquita, the injun gal?" asked Cal, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Yamanatz's daughter."</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h3> + +<h4>ESTES PARK.</h4> + +<p class="p2">The renewal of the acquaintance between Jack and Cal was an opportune +one. As each unfolded his past and expectations for the future there +seemed to be a bond of mutual sympathy <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original reads 'form'.">formed</ins> unlike the ordinary +friendships.</p> + +<p>"Jack," said Cal, confidentially, "I have laid up a good pile of 'dust' +and got as likely a ranch outfit as any of 'em. I ain't so much on talk +as some fellers with slippery tongues, neither is any one going to get +the worst of it as they do what deals with some of them slippery +talkers. When Cal says a thing's so, it's so, just as sure as gun's made +of iron. Now, I'm gittin' on in years, an' git lonesome as a settin' hen +without airy egg. I ain't a pinin' away, but I would like to gin some +desarvin' woman a good home. I'd kinder like to live in Denver and have +a house up among them nabobs. I don't expect that big red stone quarry +is goin' to give out right away and I just as lieve as not use some of +it to build a decent mansion.</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="23"></a> + <img src="images/212a.jpg" width="500" height="300" + alt="Illustration: THE KEYHOLE, LONG'S PEAK, 13,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL." + title="THE KEYHOLE, LONG'S PEAK, 13,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL." /> + <p class="caption">THE "KEYHOLE," LONG'S PEAK, 13,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">Then I've got a few thousand steers;—they's one bunch of eighteen +hundred fat ones, every one of them beef to the heels, true Herefords, +got the Hereford mark, that will run twelve to fourteen hundred pounds +apiece, and prime beeves are good as cash anywhere. I think that bunch +of steers ought to provide a pretty good place to live in as long as the +stone don't cost nothin'."</p> + +<p>Cal stopped and looked curiously at Jack, who was looking curiously at +him.</p> + +<p>"You are not so awful poor. Been about fifteen years making it?" asked +Jack musingly.</p> + +<p>"Well, longer than that. I took up that stone ranch twenty years ago. +Never thought much of it until Denver got into the buildin' boom and +some feller was cartin' away my red rock without asking—the cattle, +well in freightin' and ranchin' I run onto many a 'maverick' durin' the +spring round-ups, then some young tenderfoot would get a rich uncle to +stake him; but when one of them March blizzards struck his weavin', +staggerin', half-famished bunch he would get sick and be glad to turn +over his travelin' boneyard for a couple of hundred or less, an' I kept +addin' to 'em until I got into raisin' nothin' but thoroughbreds," +answered Cal.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you something, Cal. I'll put you onto the right track and +if you can't manage to do the right thing at the right time, you'll have +to live in that red house by yourself, see?"</p> + +<p>"I savvey."</p> + +<p>Hazel commenced to smile. She had joined in the general conversation +until Cal got sentimental, but when Jack joined forces with the honest +man of the plains who acknowledged to picking up "mavericks," although +she did not know what they were, still she felt that it was some "get +something for nothing" scheme and she was afraid Jack might acquire bad +habits; then she was inclined to resent any effort on the part of Mr. +Jack to become a promoter of some matrimonial enterprise, so she smiled +and sententiously remarked: "I guess you need not bind yourself to +deliver any foreign goods for domestic purposes, free of charge, Mr. +Jack."</p> + +<p>"Now listen, my dear," said Jack. "Wait until you learn what's trumps +before you tip your hand. I'm going to invite Cal to go with us to Estes +Park. He can be so useful to me, you know, if I want to go out for a +deer hunt; then he can pilot Miss Asquith over the big rocks when I have +my arms full attending to you," said Jack, with a merry twinkle.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ho! so it is Miss Asquith you seek to waylay, is it? Well, that is +different. Say, I guess I'll have to throw up my hand. I have no trumps! +success to you."</p> + +<p>Cal laughed, Jack made merry over the prospect, and Hazel could not help +being amused at the deliberate plot to kidnap a woman's heart who had +for twenty-five years earned her own living.</p> + +<p>"Cal, there is a Miss Asquith going to meet us in Denver and join us on +a trip to Estes Park. Just you come along and help me take care of the +ladies. You have nothing on hand and you will enjoy the trip anyway. Now +that is all I want. If you get tangled up in any foolishness"—</p> + +<p>"Now mind, if I do go, and get half a chance I'll stake a claim sure as +gun's made of iron," jokingly remarked Cal. "I will have to go to the +ranch first: I'll stop off at Hugo and be in Estes in a few days. I'll +find you all right," so Jack and Hazel continued alone on their journey.</p> + +<p>"Say, Jack," said Hazel, after Cal left them, "what a joke it would be +if Mr. Wagner should marry Miss Asquith."</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't he? Of course she is much better educated; he has the +gruff ways of the rich frontiersman, but he is rich and not so much +older than she is. He will give her an elegant home, where he will be +like the historic 'bull in a china shop.'"</p> + +<p>"Just what was in my mind," interrupted Hazel. "Do you remember she said +two or three times, joking, of course, 'I don't see why I never could +find a farmer who would take pity on me.'" Both laughed heartily at such +a prospect. The long, dusty ride over sand hills, through dreary, brown +sunburned cattle ranges from Cheyenne Wells to Hugo and Hugo to the end +of their journey, finally came to an end. The welcome snow-capped peaks +freshened the superheated atmosphere and Denver with all its wealth, +health and climate was reached. It did not take long for Jack and Hazel +to find Chiquita, and within an hour or two Miss Asquith arrived. They +were in a mood to enjoy all the sights of the big city of the plains; +but what chiefly impressed the new visitors was the clearness of the +air, the bracing, inspiring vigor which it imparted, and the absence of +that aftermath, which always followed exercise in the lower altitudes on +the lakes or sea coast.</p> + +<p>The slow dragging, mixed train deposited its burden in Lyons just as the +book said it would, and the red volcanic rocks baked them, and the +"yaller legged" chicken, in all its delicious russet brown jacket, was +served to the hungry quartet, who renewed their grumbling on the park +hack as the driver cracked his whip and the wheels crunched their way +through the deep hot sand. Slowly the great vehicle groaned along for +perhaps a mile, when a sudden turn in the road brought them to a bridge +which spanned a clear sparkling stream, and the ascent of the first +lofty foothills was begun. Eyes brightened, ejaculations of surprise and +delight followed each other in rapid succession as "Johnnie" cracked his +whip and dexterously guided the now thoroughly contented coachful of +pleasure seekers along a narrow ledge, winding around some precipice or +taking a run down some steep declivity that caused the timid to shriek +and the blood to tingle in the more reckless. Up, nearer and nearer the +sky, ever leaving the top of the next hill below them, until the summit +was reached.</p> + +<p>Coats that had been discarded because of the heat were resumed, light +wraps were called for by the ladies, and the descent towards the Park +commenced. Great stretches of pine forest fringed the barren rocks on +some of the long ridges, while on others a chaotic interwoven mass of +tangled "dead wood" silently proclaimed the terrible devastation of the +devouring mountain fire.</p> + +<p>As the first view of the Park greeted the travelers, a merry shout rent +the air, the coach pulled up at the side of the toll road and everybody +alighted to "stretch," get out still heavier wraps, and make ready for +the remaining four hours' ride. Hazel had exhausted her supply of +English suitable for the occasion, while Jack and Chiquita enjoyed the +attempts of Miss Asquith to do the subject justice in "shop" words.</p> + +<p>Even the heavier wraps were none too warm as the coach reached the foot +of the last incline and rolled easily over the hard, gritty, well kept +turnpike. The meadow stretched before them, the Big Thompson easily +distinguished in its center and the unbroken line of mountains walling +up to the sky, shut them out from the noisy world which lay just beyond +Long's Peak, whose snow-white night cap was then a mass of burnished +copper from the last rays of the setting sun.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jack, how supremely grand," was all Hazel ventured.</p> + +<p>"It is just lovely," murmured Miss Asquith.</p> + +<p>The great triangle sent forth its warning that dinner was waiting, and +reluctantly they entered the house where the warmth of a little wood +fire took the chill off the crisp air.</p> + +<p>"Think of it, 90 degrees in Chicago yesterday, today a fire to warm the +house!" exclaimed Hazel.</p> + +<p>"It is just lovely," said Miss Asquith.</p> + +<p>"Dinner," shouted a white-aproned darky.</p> + +<p>A great platter of deliciously browned brook trout stood appetizingly in +the center of a round table, and the four chairs were immediately +occupied by four hungry people, who waived all ceremony, as well as the +every day stereotyped roast beef, making trout the Alpha and Omega of +their first Estes Park repast.</p> + +<p>The sight-seeing was begun at daybreak, Jack routing out his party in +order to see the sunrise and the dissolving mists which hung low on the +mountain sides as they disappeared beneath the warming influence of old +Sol. An early breakfast was followed by unpacking of trunks, arranging +of fishing tackle, cameras, hammocks and paraphernalia which they +disposed of in and about the four-room cottage near the main hostelry. +Great elk and deer antlers decorated buildings all about them and the +emblem of occupancy was the fly rod standing in some convenient corner. +Saddle horses, phaetons and four-seated spring wagons were standing +about, chartered for the day's outings, while already on the banks of +the streams were anglers casting their favorite flies over pool, riffle +and swirl, in expectant anticipation of luring the wary, ever alert +inhabitant which lurked beneath some rock or bank. A flash of something +like light, followed by the straightening of a line, the symmetrical +curve of a split bamboo, the sharp click of a swiftly revolving reel in +crescendo as the line cleft the water, then the lull, the renewed dash +for liberty as a spotted, open mouthed one-pounder madly threw himself +from the water, shaking his head and falling with a splash back into the +stream,—the critical moment,—but the barb holds and a limp, pink +tinted trout, with extended gills, floats easily into the landing net—a +prize is captured which proves the record breaker of the day, all within +sight of the "tavern."</p> + +<p>Day after day excursion followed exploration; fishing in Willow Park or +Horseshoe, the cañon and the "pool," over on the St. Vrain and the +meadow; in the latter place as the season advanced one becomes familiar +with the finny tenant who has outwitted all the temptations of +professional angling, and many an hour can be spent devising new +deceptions with which to entice the sagacious big ones, those who have +felt the keen thrust of a barbed hook and learned not to grab every +dainty morsel floating near its den. Few captures of the landlords of +the meadow stream are recorded.</p> + +<p>Among the tourists were numbers of English members of the nobility, and +in fact a great portion of the Park was the property of a well-known +lord, whose representative entertained his lordship's friends. The grand +herd of Hereford cattle grazing in the park belonged to the English +lord, as well as many of the blooded horses found at the corral.</p> + +<p>Just a week after Jack had tested his ability attending to the caprices +of a bride and his two <ins title="Transcriber's Note: Original has no accent.">protegés</ins>, they were all resting in easy chairs or +in the hammocks, awaiting the arrival of the stage from Lyons, when a +pair of handsome brown horses, flecked with foam, swung into view, +drawing a buckboard in which sat a lonesome traveler leading a beautiful +roan saddle pony. It was Cal, and as he greeted Jack, who had advanced +to meet the outstretched hand, he said, "I thought perhaps I'd run +across a 'maverick' up here."</p> + +<p>Jack understood and replied, "Glad you come prepared to put your brand +on any that you catch in the round up."</p> + +<p>As they were instructing the corral men what to do with the horses Miss +Asquith said to Hazel, "Oh, Mrs. Sheppard, isn't that a stunning +turnout? I guess it must be my rich farmer." To which Hazel nodded +assent, remarking through her smiles, "There's no telling."</p> + +<p>Chiquita joined in the merriment with a suggestion, "Suppose, Miss +Asquith, you let me get some Indian lovers' ferns and you dry them, then +crush them with your own hands while you chant some lines which one of +the great Sachems, in time long ago, obtained from a good spirit; and +the good spirit promised the great Sachem that any of his maidens could +cause an obstinate lover to woo her, or make a recreant spouse return to +the side of his love if the maiden or wife would mix some of the ferns +with some killikinnick, so the object of solicitude would smoke himself +into her presence."</p> + +<p>"Oh! That is just lovely. I think I would rather have one smell kind of +smoky any how. I just abominate these scrupulously clean men who +saturate the atmosphere with Jockey Club; it is too much like 'shop.' +Ugh!"</p> + +<p>"Sh!" said Hazel, "they are coming. Welcome, Mr. Wagner, and here is a +poor unfortunate, Mr. Wagner, who is on her way to China; she says she +is going to bring back a Chinaman or die in the attempt—Miss Asquith."</p> + +<p>"You need not go to China for 'em. I've got one down at the ranch that +I'd just as lieve swap as not."</p> + +<p>"Is he the genuine article with a dragon on his blouse?" retorted Miss +Asquith. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wagner."</p> + +<p>"Thanks; and, Chiquita, who would have thought it? You here, and, well, +this beats me," turning to Jack, who was enjoying the scene.</p> + +<p>"My surprise I promised you," said he.</p> + +<p>"Surprise, well I should say so, sure as gun's made of iron, but tell +me—"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you myself," broke in Chiquita. "Yamanatz's daughter has been +to college for the last six or eight years. Chiquita has adopted the +life of her white sisters." She said it rather regretfully, Cal thought, +but he replied:</p> + +<p>"The flower of the Utes is a daisy, sure as gun's made of iron."</p> + +<p>"Now, Mr. Wagner, that is not fair; you might have said something nice +about me," playfully remarked Miss Asquith.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I never will be forgiven for such a lack of good manners," +said Cal, continuing in that open-hearted off-hand way, "but let me tell +you how I will even up. Tomorrow morning you shall ride that roan for me +and the rest of us will trail along behind and take your dust, for that +horse is a thoroughbred."</p> + +<p>Just then the dinner gong sounded. The party planned an outing at +Horseshoe Falls, Chiquita and Miss Asquith, with Cal as escort, all +mounted, while Jack and Hazel drove in the buckboard, carrying supplies +and fishing tackle. Ten miles over a hard, sandy road, a couple of +hours' fishing, lunch in camp fashion, then an hour's rest and return to +the hotel. Miss Asquith was a trifle timid at first, but she was not a +novice and soon proved well able to master her mount, although he was +spirited and inclined to test his powers against all comers. But she +could not catch trout. Cal, of course, found it necessary to spend most +of his time extricating her line from the limbs of trees or driftwood in +the stream and changing the flies.</p> + +<p>He showed her when and how to let the sombre hued gray hackle or gaudy +"royal coachman" settle daintily along the riffle, or drop a "black +gnat" from a bunch of grass on the opposite bank as though it was a sure +enough bug. But the lady in search of a Chinaman could not hook the lord +of the water. She was either too slow or too quick, and the exasperating +ineffectual attempts to capture one <i>little one</i> of the many that +rose to the bait, took it with a rush only to drop it instantly, or the +ones even darting out of the water as she lifted her flies too quickly, +wore her patience to a frazzle. In fact, after losing one grand fellow +that she had managed to hold for just an instant before he broke her +leader, she was fairly upset and could not keep back the tears of +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"Now, little one, you must not give up that way," Cal expostulated. +"These pesky fellows are just like lightning. Let me see if I can't get +that one. Now watch my fly as it goes into the dark shadow by that tree +and I will skitter the second fly sort of dancing-like diagonally across +the lower corner of the swirl that makes over that sunken rock—Gee, +whiz! I've got him, and see, there is another just grabbed the second +fly. Now the trick is to let them fight it out among themselves while I +hold this end of the argument. Two are not so hard to 'whip' as one if +you keep your line just easy tight as they are pulling against each +other all the time. But we will have to go down by that little beach +where I can wade out with a landing net; the tail fly being down stream, +the farthest will drop into the net first, then I let the other float in +on top of him, see?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care, I think it is real mean I can't catch one," replied Miss +Asquith, "but oh, ain't they pretty?"</p> + +<p>"Guess they are half pounders, perhaps the biggest will go three +quarters," said Cal, as he adjusted the "shrinker," a little spring +scale which he took from his pocket. "Nine ounces and fourteen ounces, +larger than I thought they were," said Cal, as he placed them in his +creel. "I guess we'd better be moving towards the camp, and as we go I +will tell you one secret of catching trout. As your flies settle into +the water, pull against them easy all the time as though they were +fastened to something, a good deal like 'feeling a horse's mouth' when +driving. This seeming tension, while infinitesimal, is enough that when +a trout grabs the fly he can not drop it; and when you feel the 'tug,' +instead of jerking your line out of the water turn your hand over and +upward a little. This will set the hook deep, then land your catch—if +you can."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, it is easy enough to say it," replied Miss Asquith.</p> + +<p>The camp was soon reached and a gay party discussed the two "big ones" +at dinner upon their arriving at the hotel.</p> + +<p>"There are very few trout caught in the Park that exceed a pound, and +more six ouncers or less than in excess of six," said Cal. "The large +three to eight pound red throated mountain trout are more plentiful in +the waters that empty into the Pacific Ocean or Rio Grande River than in +the streams that go to the North Platte and on into the Missouri River."</p> + +<p>Trips of this nature and exploration tours followed each other day after +day, until all the country had been visited.</p> + +<p>One trip which Jack deferred was to Long's Peak, and as day succeeded +day he was conscious that his little party cast longing glances toward +that snowcapped, uncompromising sentinel of the plains. So few ventured +to undertake the fatigue incident to the wearisome and perilous journey +that little was heard of the experiences, and those who did accomplish +it seemed loath to recount much of their experience. When the signs in +the zodiac at last became propitious, and all were physically and +morally equal to the attempt, preparations were made to go to the Half +Way house, Lamb's ranch, and the next morning, at four o'clock, make an +early start to climb the peak. No fishing tackle was carefully stowed +away, no odds wagered on results, and no great amount of unrestrained +merriment attended the "make ready" as wraps, lunches, heavy ironshod +walking sticks and sundry necessaries were packed into the vehicles. +Three good saddle ponies of the Indian variety were provided for the +ladies, while Jack and Cal made arrangements to get their saddle animals +at Lamb's. The road to the Half Way house was of the usual rough +thoroughfare, corduroyed in places, steep and fringed with pine trees, +whose uncanny whisperings added to an already semi-funereal gloom which +hung oppressively over the party. This was partially due to the +impressive monosyllabic advice given in low voices by guides, hostlers +and residents of the park.</p> + +<p>After a restless night, just as the gray dawn of morning was breaking +through the eastern sky, the lengthening and shortening of stirrups, +changing of packs, wrapping up bundles of extra clothing and other +miscellany occupied the time while breakfast was being prepared. With a +good-bye to those who remained at the ranch, a cavalcade of a dozen, +including guides, started away in the crisp, frosty air, each one eager +to be in the lead, and on the return each one was contented to be the +drone. The sun was perhaps two hours high when timber line was reached. +Frequent stops for breathing had to be made and saddle girths adjusted +as higher altitudes and steeper grades were encountered. The +inexperienced noted the panting horses, but did not fully grasp the +terrific effort required to climb those precipitous inclines at eleven +thousand feet above sea level. Not a cloud, not a particle of haze +blurred the clear atmosphere. The pines soughed dreamily and waved their +needle tipped arms in a lazy, indolent manner, wafting fragrance and +vigor to the world. The trail wound its serpentine way around hill after +hill toward the monster peak, standing cold and aloof, riveted, as it +were, to the deep blue firmament against which it seemed to rest. As the +sky was approached nearer and nearer, the vegetation grew sparse and +stunted. Coarse rye grass in clumps few and far between gave evidence of +nature's provision, even at that altitude, for wandering deer or elk +that might be left behind when the great winter migration of the +restless bands sought the lower regions. Great boulders appeared more +frequently and the trail led the party over slide rock a great portion +of the way. The squeaks of conies and shrill whistles of groundhogs +could be distinguished above the clatter of horses' hoofs, for timber +line is their home.</p> + +<p>At last the trees were left behind, the great boulder bed stretched +before them, an ocean of waste rock, formidable, repellant, uninviting. +The "Key Hole" was plainly visible, two miles distant, while the summit +of the peak towered far above, almost over them. Horses were lariated, +saddles taken off, and lunches stowed into pockets, the stout iron +pointed sticks were brought into service and the signal given, "Onward." +The way at first was over soft grassy spots interspersed between the +waves of rocks, here and there a scrawny runt of a pine tree, looking +more like roots growing needles than a tree, beneath the shelter of +which the famous ptarmigan, or mountain quail, kept lonely vigil.</p> + +<p>The last vestige of verdure passed, the immensity of that vast area of +huge, desolate, dreary waste of rock appalls the mind. Step by step, up, +up, over those ever increasing boulders, it did not seem like mounting +higher and higher, but as though one was in a gigantic, fearful stone +tread mill and the earth gradually sinking away, down, down, into space +below. After the boulder bed, the snow, hard, crusty, firm enough to +bear a horse. The "Key Hole"—and as the party passed through to the +eastern slope, they found spread out beneath their feet the dry, dusty +plain, with its brown coat of grass and alkali, stretching away into +nothing. A venture to the edge of an immense great rock upon which one +could lie down and gaze into the depth below was like looking into +eternity, the contemplation of which baffles the mind for words to +describe the awesome, fearful grandeur of God's handiwork as viewed from +Long's Peak. No other peak so barren, no other peak so lonesome, no +other peak so supernaturally devoid of at least one redeeming feature as +Long's. From its barren crest one seems able to touch the sky, and one +bound into space would land him beyond the world. To the right could be +seen Denver, there the Platte River, Longmont in a maze of alfalfa beds +and wheat fields, but these were as a drop of water to the ocean, a +grain of sand to the plains. A hasty lunch, dry indeed, but for the +accommodating snow bank which leaked enough to furnish ice water that +coursed in a stream about the size of the lead in a pencil down a +boulder, which dwarfed Cheops' pyramid. The labor involved in the return +trip caused dejection and woe. Lameness was the rule and only after much +coaxing, and threatening, could every one understand the peril which +awaited them, once the night settled down before the boulder beds were +crossed.</p> + +<p>Just below the "Key Hole" the guide conducted the party to a wooden slab +standing unpainted, weatherbeaten, bearing this inscription:</p> + +<p class="center"> + Here<br /> + Carrie J. Welton<br /> + Lay to Rest<br /> + Died Alone<br /> + Sept. 28—1884.<br /> +</p> + +<p>It was in a spot at the base of the "Key Hole" where the rocks stood on +end and seemed to disappear into the boulders, that made up that vast +boulder bed. From a prayer book, which Jack carried, he read the +following tale of the awful tragedy:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<h4><span class="smcap">PERISHED ALONE.</span></h4> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">From the Half Way House at break of day</span><br /> + <span class="i0">A maiden gaily strode away,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">To climb the heights of Long's Peak bold,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">With guide to show the trail, I'm told;</span><br /> + <span class="i0">For there's no path and the way is steep,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And death lurks 'round that grim old peak.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">'Twas at the dawn of an autumn morn,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">The pine trees soughed as if to warn</span><br /> + <span class="i0">As two climbed o'er the boulder bed.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">"Come back! The storm! 'Twill come," he said.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">"On to the summit," she made reply.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">"Why need we falter, you and I?"</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">Then upward climbed to view the sight</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Of raging storm on Long's Peak height,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And saw ambition's fixéd star</span><br /> + <span class="i0">On guard, within the gates ajar,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Lest mortal man should enter in</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Before absolved from venial sin.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">The solitude of those drear crests</span><br /> + <span class="i0">No welcome gives to lingering guests</span><br /> + <span class="i0">When storm king vies with mid-day sun</span><br /> + <span class="i0">In battle, 'til the conquered one</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Retreats for days, perhaps for weeks,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And gloom reigns o'er the lonely peaks.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">The wild wind shrieked as in snow and hail</span><br /> + <span class="i0">They undertook the downward trail.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">She brav'd the cold and murmured not,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">As they groped their way from spot to spot;</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Her wondrous strength succumbed at last</span><br /> + <span class="i0">While yet the "Keyhole" must be passed.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">The stalwart guide in his arms then bore</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Her fragile form, and ponder'd o'er</span><br /> + <span class="i0">The waste of rocks beneath the "Key;"</span><br /> + <span class="i0">For his strength was failing rapidly,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And night clouds dimm'd the tortuous way</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Which few e'er tread e'en at mid-day.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">"You may go for help," she moaned at last,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">As through the "Key" they slowly pass'd.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">"The rocks will shelter me," she said,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And sank to rest on the boulder bed.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">He covered her with the coat he wore,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Then hastened to the "Half Way" door.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">Another dawn of an autumn morn</span><br /> + <span class="i0">In the eastern sky had been born,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">As stalwart guides, with throbbing heads,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Toiled wearily o'er the boulder beds;</span><br /> + <span class="i0">'Midst cruel crags and waist-deep snow</span><br /> + <span class="i0">They battled on against the foe.</span><br /> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">Up, up, they climb'd that dreadful night</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And brav'd the storm on Long's Peak height;</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Yet wild winds shrieked as heads were bow'd</span><br /> + <span class="i0">To gaze with awe at the snowy shroud</span><br /> + <span class="i0">In which she slept on her boulder bed.</span><br /> + <span class="i0">"She lay to rest,—she's gone," they said.</span><br /> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"Oh, dear, isn't it sad?" said Hazel and Miss Asquith in a breath.</p> + +<p>"She died alone?" queried Cal.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," spoke up a guide, "both of us would have perished, but she +was true grit to the last. I thought she might hold out, but the storm +grew worse as it grew darker."</p> + +<p>"Do you have such awful storms as early as September?" asked Hazel.</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="24"></a> + <img src="images/232a.jpg" width="298" height="500" + alt="Illustration: SHE LAY TO REST, ON HER BOULDER BED." + title="SHE LAY TO REST, ON HER BOULDER BED." /> + <p class="caption">"SHE LAY TO REST," ON HER BOULDER BED.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">"Sometimes the first winter blizzards are pretty rough up here; +generally get a starter any time after the middle of September," +answered another guide.</p> + +<p>"We had better be moving," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"One moment, please. Would you mind giving me a copy of those verses +when we get to the ranch? I would like to show them to visitors," said +the guide.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, certainly; why, just take the prayer book. We will all put +our names in here right now and you can keep it to remember us by," +replied Jack.</p> + +<p>The dragging of swollen feet, weary bodies and aching limbs back over +that two miles of desolation was full of torture for all. The expected +relief when the horses were reached proved but an additional +multiplicity of aches, especially in the joints of the knees, where it +seemed as though iron pins were crunching the very cavities of those +valuable adjuncts to man's usefulness.</p> + +<p>Hazel cried, Chiquita even complained, and poor Miss Asquith,—well, Cal +had his hands full. He showed his frontier gallantry by picking her up +and carrying her down one steep grade as though she were but an infant, +and the episode did more to reinvigorate the dejected spirits of the +entire party than anything that could have happened.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless the Half Way house welcomed a hungry, cross, disgruntled +aggregation of mountain climbers.</p> + +<p>Said Jack as the guide bid him good-bye, "Don't you ever get tired of +seeing these peak scalers come near the place? They are all alike on the +home stretch, if they are able to stand up at all."</p> + +<p>"I must say I do. I wouldn't care if no one ever again wanted to make +that fool climb. Why, that senseless trip has often put folks to the bad +for months. They can ride up Pike's Peak, but they don't know what +climbing is until they tackle that old fellow. Well, adios; I'll say +this much, you've been the jolliest party this season."</p> + +<p>It was nine o'clock when the hotel was reached, and it was noon of the +next day before a lot of crippled tourists managed to limp into the +dining room, leaving a trail of arnica and pain killers everywhere they +went.</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't this just lovely," said Miss Asquith, as Cal rolled her in an +invalid chair to her place at the table.</p> + +<p>It was a couple of days before the effects of the Long's Peak trip +abated to a degree that recreation once more became a pleasure. During +the days of sight seeing and exploration of Estes Park, Chiquita had +opportunity to study the character of the saleslady depicted by Miss +Asquith, but she had little chance to talk with the lady on whom the +years sat as easily as upon one in her teens, and whose vivacious +temperament was contagious. The enforced respite gave plenty of time for +recounting interesting episodes in Miss Asquith's life, which she did +with charming grace.</p> + +<p>To many, Miss Asquith seemed affected. The spontaneous spark of a +jovial, witty disposition burned just as brightly in her at forty-five +as it did a generation before, but the critic would not have it so. "It +is put on, it is not natural, it is out of place; she had better be +saying her beads preparatory to being buried," were some of the unkind +remarks heard.</p> + +<p>Hazel said to Jack, "She shocks one at first with her display of +artlessness as a stock in trade, until you learn by experience that it +is natural."</p> + +<p>"I presume, my dear, there are people at eighty who condemn the +'kittenish' actions of some at ninety, the same as those of thirty +criticise Miss Asquith. Is it envy?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you, Chiquita," said the lady in question the day after the +peak episode, "I find great enjoyment in being jolly, full of fun, +possibly at times breaking all written rules of decorum and dignity; for +why should we poor mortals go around with a long face, rigid arms and +mouths full of pious ejaculations just because the Puritans brought that +style from across the water? I have been doped on fashion for a quarter +of a century, and fashions change, but in that time I have learned that +to laugh is to be with the world. To weep is to be alone. Better be a +little frivolous with good appetite than strain at dignity and wail with +dyspepsia. This etiquette and form is only skin deep any way."</p> + +<p>"You are such a considerate little body I should have thought some +enterprising man would have captured you years ago," ventured Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"There was one, but he was stricken with fever and after that I never +have had a desire to become married. Think I would like to run a ranch, +though, now I am getting old and need some one to take care of me," she +playfully added, causing a genuine ripple of merriment.</p> + +<p>"Miss Asquith, you are all right," said Hazel. "Don't let these carping +critics cause you to forego any fun there is in life, even to playing +tag with a cattle king," which, of course, produced another burst of +laughter.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to insist upon your accompanying us to 'Buena Vista,' Miss +Asquith. I think you can spare the time and positively we can not get +along without you," said Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to give up that pleasure. I must go on my journey." The +reply was rather sad, but she quickly recovered her usual vivacity. "I +want another trial at those fish. I suppose I will have to leave +Saturday, and this is Wednesday—"</p> + +<p>"Well, well, who are these girls conspiring against now?" said Cal, as +he drove up with Jack.</p> + +<p>"We have just talked Miss Asquith to death and tried to get her to go +with us to 'Buena Vista.' You will go, won't you, Cal?" said Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you bet, I'd never lose such an opportunity. Guess you will change +your mind, Miss Asquith. In fact we will have to take you prisoner."</p> + +<p>"I want to catch a fish before I leave Estes. Now, be good and go down +in the meadow and tie one somewhere to the bank so I can find it," +banteringly replied Miss Asquith.</p> + +<p>"We will go Friday and I pledge the fish, a big one," said Cal.</p> + +<p>Seated upon the beautiful roan pony, Miss Asquith, followed by Cal, went +to the meadow Friday afternoon, while the others lolled in hammocks +around the hotel. The sky was just the least bit clouded and a warm +south wind blew lazily across the park. A few fingerlings had been +lifted from the riffles when Miss Asquith headed her pony into deep +water up stream at a big bend where the river was sixty feet wide. Cal +was busy whipping the eddies farther down. As her pony was well trained +to the angling pastime, he knew almost as well as his rider what was +wanted. Stepping slowly along until the water reached his belly the pony +stopped, Miss Asquith's flies flashed behind, then she gracefully +dropped the leader far over the stream to the other shore.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," she exclaimed, "they have gone too far and caught in the +grass. How—how will I ever—"</p> + +<p>Just then the tail fly dangled down to the surface of the water, held +back by the droppers, which were caught in the grass ever so lightly. +The top of something darted from under the bank and seized the fly. Miss +Asquith thought it was a muskrat, it was so big. Down went the line +deeper and deeper. She instinctively turned her hand and wrist in order +to free the hooks from the grass, and thus set the fly good and deep +into whatever was cavorting around, making her reel sing as she never +had heard it before.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cal, quick! quick! come and get me," she called, little thinking +what she was saying, at the same time pressing her knee against the side +of the pony, who recognized the signal and turned toward the shore. Miss +Asquith allowed her rod to hold steady until she could dismount. By that +time Cal was at her side.</p> + +<p>"You've got a beauty, sure as gun's made of iron," said he.</p> + +<p>As she reeled in a little of the line the tension ceased and an immense +trout broke from the water. "Oh! Oh! what shall I do?"</p> + +<p>Cal spoke sternly, "Watch your line and don't be foolish."</p> + +<p>With that she settled down to her work and in a few moments had the +pleasure of floating the fish into the landing net, Cal wading out to +intercept it. As it went into the net she stood on the bank just above +him, a little beach giving him opportunity to make the capture. As he +stood there holding on to the staff of his landing net with one hand and +the line with the other, he said, "This trout is yours on one +condition—the fish, the horse and the man all go together. Say yes, and +the fish comes ashore, say no, and I turn him loose."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, y-e-s. Hurry up with the fish," she exclaimed, adding +excitedly, as Cal came to the bank, "I'll just kiss you right here for +the sake of the fish," and, suiting the action to the word, she planted +a good smack on his upturned mouth.</p> + +<p>"Now we will see what he weighs. But first here is your reward," +slipping a big solitaire off his finger and holding up his hand, "tie it +on if necessary."</p> + +<p>"Why, what is that for?" stammered she.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you say 'yes, yes, yes?'"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, that meant fish, horse and man, and I'm the man."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Wagner—Cal—let me go. My! the people are all watching us."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, show them your hand. Just two pounds and a quarter," said +Cal, as he adjusted the scales, "the biggest one this season so far."</p> + +<p>"Yes, a fish, a horse and a man—quite a catch for one day," laughingly +said Miss Asquith.</p> + +<p>"The details of that catch are duly recorded in the hotel register and +never will be duplicated," said Cal at dinner, as the party made merry +and toasted the future ranch owner, who blushed rosy as a girl of +sixteen, while Cal was as brim full of joy as a lad with a new pair of +red top boots and sled to match. The following telegram fairly burned +the wires:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +"Stoddersmith, Boston. Caught a trout, a horse and a man with a six +ounce rod. Trip to India postponed. Resign position today. + +<p class="quotsig"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Leading quote mark deleted.">Miss</ins> Asquith."</p> +</div> + +<p>To which they replied:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +"Miss Asquith, Estes Park via Lyons, Colo. Congratulations. Fish, horse +and man uncertain property. Resignation accepted to take effect day of +ceremony. + +<p class="quotsig">Stoddersmith."</p> +</div> + +<p>It was decided to go overland to Chiquita's Buena Vista ranch on +horseback and with pack animals, the road horses and buckboard being +started a few days ahead by way of Georgetown and the Berthoud Pass, to +await the party at Hot Sulphur Springs, the trail from Estes via +Specimen Mountain being impassable for anything on wheels.</p> + +<p>"I am very anxious," said Jack, "that Hazel should see the grandest bit +of scenery in Colorado. While the average mind is satisfied with Estes, +still there is one little area beyond Estes that surpasses anything +else, and there is but one way to get to it—walk."</p> + +<p>Two good camp hustlers were engaged to do the work of packing, putting +up tents and other duties in common. By going ahead a camp was located +and pitched by the time the sightseers overtook the advance guard. A +saddle horse to each member of the party, three small pack mules and a +Mexican burro—the Rocky Mountain canary which Jack promised his sister +year after year—the luggage so packed being ample for three times the +number in the party.</p> + +<p>The sun had crossed the noonday meridian when the final adios was given. +Striking to the right of the Horseshoe Park road the trail led into a +labyrinth of forest burned "down timber," miles of denuded +trees—sentries in nature's graveyard—and as the wind wheezed dismally +through the few branches left by the consuming fire, their creaking and +rattling was not unlike the clatter of a thousand skeletons assembled in +some vast amphitheatre to dance away a few years of eternity's exile.</p> + +<p>The first camp was made in the center of this weirdly fantastic home of +goblins and bogy men. The tents had been pitched and camp fires started +when Jack and his four companions came straggling along. The side packs, +containing commissary supplies, stood gaping, awaiting the cook. Frying +pans, coffee pot and "Dutch oven" appealed, as it were, for recognition, +so in one chorus the honor was thrust upon Jack to "get the first meal." +But he was a past-master in the art, notwithstanding he had not +officiated before in the presence of so "finnicky" an assemblage.</p> + +<p>"Now, you ladies who have a cupboard full of clean dishes to use when +you commence to prepare a meal, and a table to prepare it on and a cook +book to guide you, and a sink for the trash, and shelves full of handy +ingredients, and when the meal is ready every dish has been used and +every utensil stands neglected with traces of its having fulfilled a +mission belonging to it, and who sigh because there are so many pots, +stewpans and table dishes to wash and dry after the meal is over,—just +watch the frontier method."</p> + +<p>Jack had superintended the packing of the "mess box," so he knew where +all the supplies were. Seizing a stick, provided for the purpose, his +first act was just like that of a woman. He poked the fire, but in his +case it was to "draw out" a bed of coals on which he set the oven +skillet, a cast iron utensil about five inches deep, with long legs +under it and a bail and cast iron cover half an inch thick. The latter +he placed on the fire logs. Next he washed his hands, then put a +tablespoonful of coffee for each cup into a big pot and added cold +water. This was put on one corner of his bed of coals. Taking a six +quart pan he put in flour, some salt, a pinch of sugar, some milk—which +by good luck they had managed to capture at the last ranch—then some +baking powder, and stirred it all up with a big iron spoon until it was +stiff. The mixing was done on a convenient rock. Here Jack looked +suspiciously at the quizzical eyes which followed his every movement. He +washed his hands again, then with turned-up shirt sleeves moulded the +dough, adding flour until it was biscuit thick. Turning another pan +upside down he flattened a portion of the dough to the desired +thickness, then cut his biscuits square. The remainder of the dough in +the original pan was treated likewise where it was. Cutting off a piece +of bacon rind he "greased" his oven skillet thoroughly, placed the +biscuits therein, then put the hot cover upon the skillet and a +shovelful of hot coals on the cover. The coffee was just beginning to +boil, so he set the pot back on some hot ashes, washed his pans, spoons +and hands, and in a twinkle was slicing up some bacon and calf's liver, +which he placed in a frying pan near the bread oven.</p> + +<p>Bright tin cups, plates, knives, forks and spoons were handed around and +the "folks" instructed to "get your places near the grub pile." A bucket +of cold brook water stood handy by. Jack opened a can of peas, which +were soon sizzling in a double bottomed stewpan. A round wooden box was +marked "Oleo"—but no one, except Jack, knew it to be otherwise than +"best Elgin butter."</p> + +<p>Into another frying pan Jack put some of the butter, and when it was +good and hot added half a dozen brook trout that also had escaped the +notice of the now hungry onlookers. The scent of savory viands nearly +precipitated a riot.</p> + +<p>"Supper!" called Jack.</p> + +<p>"Why, you don't know whether those biscuits are burned to death or raw," +said Hazel. "Look at him settle that coffee with cold water. Where's an +egg?"</p> + +<p>Jack lifted the cover off the oven and a cloud of steam rose up and +wafted away, then he set the skillet in the center of the party, the +fish beside the bread and the bacon near at hand; peas came along and +Hazel picked up a lightly browned, rich, creamy biscuit, breaking it in +two and adding a dab of butter, took a bite, smacked her lips and said +"More." The verdict was unanimous.</p> + +<p>The routine of camp life is not a dull one; new and varied episodes +follow each other in rapid order while on the trail. The informal +mannerisms of camp life become contagious and an irresistible impulse +takes possession of the most conservative to break away from +conventionalities. Bantering persiflage bubbles in everyone, and good +natured raillery adds zest to all phases of the experience, whether it +rains or shines.</p> + +<p>No sooner had Jack straightened up his kitchen than he inspected the +disposition of the horses, seeing that each one had as good a spot to +crop grass as was obtainable. Then the beds. "Put some more of those +second growth pine boughs under that bunch of blankets and it will be +more like a good curled hair mattress, to which I presume Miss Asquith +is accustomed; dig a trench all around each tent; it may rain before +morning and this side hill will be a running river if it does; spread +that wagon sheet over the saddles and 'commissary' before you turn in; +we will want to start about eight o'clock; you may sleep until six." +Thus he gave his instructions to the hustlers.</p> + +<p>After a little chat, as they sat on the ground, Turk-fashion, or lolled +against a tree, first one yawned and of course the others followed suit, +so Jack suggested "early to bed."</p> + +<p>Breakfast over, saddles were cinched, camp equipment all snugly packed +away and the laborious climb was commenced which was to take them to the +slide rock trail five miles long, following the crest of the great +continental divide which separates the waters of the Atlantic and +Pacific.</p> + +<p>The men walked behind their respective ponies, lessening their labor by +hanging to the ponies' tails, while the fair sex suffered almost as much +hardship listening to the panting, patient animals, as they stopped +every hundred feet to get a breath and "blow."</p> + +<p>"Oh, say, but this is a corker!" said Cal, as he steadied himself and +leaned against a tree for a little rest.</p> + +<p>"I often wish my tongue would hang out like a dog's when I get to +climbing these high peaks. Seems as though mine fills my throat up so I +can't breathe," said Jack, his remark causing much merriment.</p> + +<p>The summit was not far distant at ten o'clock, and as they surmounted +the last slope the clouds rolled in above them like a great drop +curtain, black and dense. Onward the great canopy spread toward the +sunlit peaks beyond, leaving a trail of drizzle, sleet and snow. Then +the entire party was swallowed up in an immense gray fog bank, while +darker electrically charged masses of moisture bowled along, chasing +each other through phosphorously illuminated paths, much to the +consternation of the ladies.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's lightning right here! Won't it strike us?" exclaimed Miss +Asquith.</p> + +<p>"It might give you a little shock that would tingle some, but not enough +to hurt you," vouchsafed Jack.</p> + +<p>The light clouds soon followed, then the sun shone bright, and in a few +minutes the gum coats provided for just such an emergency had been +relegated to the strings on the saddles. To the left, on the slope of +another hogback, rose tier after tier of little lakes, seven terraces in +all, each fringed with a belt of green pine trees; behind each belt rose +a precipitous ledge of rock.</p> + +<p>"Just look at that, isn't it grand?" said Hazel.</p> + +<p>Jack had provided plates and the panoramic camera snapped its welcome to +the view. Five exposures were made to insure a good one, then the party +filed along the ragged, dimly outlined trail which Indians had used for +a century or more. In the distance could be seen the headwaters of the +Cache le Poudre and to the immediate right a huge snow bank formed a +horseshoe half a mile in its arc. Leaving their ponies, at a suggestion +from Jack the party walked over to the edge of the slide rock and gazed +down into a small lake, of perhaps a thousand acres, nestled in a rocky +embrace, twenty-five hundred feet below them, into the nearer edge of +which stones were sent splashing by those who attempted a throw. Groups +of pine trees dotted the farther shore of the lake and upon its bosom +floated half a dozen immense icebergs, which remain summer after summer, +during the months of July and August, never entirely disappearing.</p> + +<p>Again and again Jack attempted the difficult feat of obtaining a focus +to register that grandest of picturesque spots on the plates especially +prepared, but none proved successful when developed.</p> + +<p>Slowly, regretfully, the march was again taken up and camp was made on +the low pass where pools of water flow from two outlets, one north into +North Park, the other south into Middle Park and the Grand River. This +camp was beneath the famous Specimen mountain and its fantastic +spire-like rock formations, on the apex of which the "Big Horn" dozed in +perfect security, the spires succeeding each other and making the great +aerial stairway accessible only to the sure-footed mountain sheep.</p> + +<p>No one enjoyed the life of the camp half as much as did Chiquita. She +was in her element. The respite from the continual grind of college had +been such a welcome one that she preferred to listen to the others +rather than join in the general conversation. The topics discussed found +no sympathetic chord in her mind, and, notwithstanding the years she had +submitted to the refining influences of education, she was a savage at +heart. She realized it. Her restive spirit broke the bonds of captivity +as soon as the first campfire was lighted. Like a golden winged +chrysalis she burst her civilization fetters and became again the +forest-born Indian maiden, Chiquita. No longer did she feel the +restraint which society demanded. The buoyant freedom of the camp +injected new life into her veins, new aspirations into her mind. But she +was not aware that the very ascendency of civilization immeshed her in +its grasp. Her manners, always charming, had become more so under the +polish of education and association with those who trained the soul as +well as the hand, the eye, the body.</p> + +<p>"The smoke of the tepee fire has driven away the oppressive chaotic +whirl of classes, recitations and examinations which have had possession +of me ever since I left the college," she said, apologetically.</p> + +<p>"That was one reason I had for making this trip overland," said Jack. "I +knew you longed to break away from crockery and tablecloths, and in your +tent you will find something that will please and make you still more at +home."</p> + +<p>When Jack superintended the packing of the paraphernalia for the trip +over the trail, he managed to include in Chiquita's outfit a complete +set of buckskin garments, and these she found awaiting her. It was not +long before she appeared in her native costume.</p> + +<p>"Now you look natural," said Cal.</p> + +<p>"The daughter of the woods is happy again," she replied, half sadly, +but, recovering quickly, proposed a specimen-hunting expedition up the +mountain which derives its name from the great pockets of specimen rocks +found upon its slopes.</p> + +<p>The party picked its way carefully over slippery, slimy, ooze-covered +shale to the specimen beds. Geodes, rounded nodules of rock, filled with +waxy uncrystallized deposits of infiltrated silicious waters were broken +open, presenting in some instances masses of infinitesimal stalactites, +in others the beautiful ribbon agate so much prized by the mineralogist, +with its alternate rows of different colors. Much more difficult to find +was chrysoprase in green, and the flesh red carnelian, all of these +known as chalcedony and of which in Rev. 21:19 and 20, St. John +describes the third foundation of the wall of the holy city as "a +chalcedony," the tenth foundation "a chrysoprasus." Hours were spent in +digging these precious souvenirs from their resting place.</p> + +<p>Far above, an occasional mountain sheep appeared for a moment, +reconnoitering to see if it was safe for him to descend with his family +to the night camp of the Big Horn, for the oozy, slimy deposit was salty +and this "lick" was the most famous in all the great length and breadth +of the Rocky Mountains. It consequently became the resort of thousands +of those wary, intelligent animals, but there were times when the +insatiable desire for alkali grew so strong that no danger appalled +them, and they rushed recklessly only to meet death at the hands of the +hunter who took advantage of this weakness. Skulls, broken horns and +bones could be discerned upon the apex of many of the spires or +truncated cones which rose at intervals from the eruptive lava, that in +ages gone by had broken forth from the earth's crust, the surface of one +of these beds being, in many cases, not over three feet in width, while +the precipitous sides of the cone varied from one foot to a thousand +feet. To these dizzy spots, which formed the Big Horn's aerial stairway, +did this wonderful animal bound, whether pursued or in search of a +resting place, alighting with sure foot, and immediately curling down +for a nap or another bound in event danger was scented. That leap from +danger was in itself marvelous—with all four feet curled beneath that +ponderous body, the iron muscles warmed by the heavy hair coat, it was +not the laborious effort of a steer elevating its hindquarters, +unfolding one foreleg and then the other with a groan; it was a +propulsion of a seemingly inert mass into space, a touch of toes to the +earth and another bound into the air and probably out of sight, for that +stairway is a mass of intricate, steep sided fissures, deep rifts +opening one into another, each presenting a ledge sufficiently large to +enable one of these sure-footed travelers to find "bouncing room" and so +down, down, down for a thousand or more feet this denizen of the clouds +would make his escape. This method of retreat being so sudden and the +disappearance so sure, tales have been ofttimes told of the wonderful +leaps into mid air, dropping to the bottom of one of those cañons and of +his sheepship alighting on his horns, none the worse for jumping half a +mile or more.</p> + +<p>All one afternoon Chiquita told wonderful stories of the wild game life, +the parties of hunters who came even from Europe to wait for days until +the sheep came to the "lick," and how these hunters crept up to the +"beds" in the darkest and stormiest nights, waiting within rifle shot +until the dawn should break, when the slaughter would commence. She told +of the bands of elk, two and three thousand herding together, migrating +from their summer feeding grounds among the high willow grown, spongy +bogs, to the cedar grown mountains along Eagle River, crossing Middle +Park in October and November after the first great snow storms began to +drive them out.</p> + +<p>"The mountains around here used to be the greatest paradise for game +that Indian ever found. Is it any wonder my people resent the intrusion +of the paleface?" said she, after giving an enthusiastic account of one +of the Ute hunting expeditions which took place when she was but a few +years old.</p> + +<p>The fascination and charm which held the listener spellbound could not +be analyzed. Chiquita in her college dress and college speech was not +the Chiquita of the forest. Day after day as the party wended its course +along the Grand River and over the range to those famous springs at the +Buena Vista ranch, she pointed out hunting grounds, battle fields where +Cheyennes fought the Utes, or Sioux came down from the north to wage a +war of conquest.</p> + +<p>The buckboard was at Hot Sulphur Springs when they arrived. Miss Asquith +and Cal, it is needless to remark, found this conveyance more to their +liking, at least a part of the time, than the saddle method.</p> + +<p>From the ranch excursions were made to Egeria Park, where the towering +Toponas rock lifted its ragged summit over five hundred feet in the air, +and on whose side a city of swallows, martins and mud-nesting birds +numbering into tens of thousands, dwelt until the winter breath drove +them to the warm southland. A trip to the famous Steamboat Springs, with +its porcelain frescoed caves, belching forth the peculiar chug, chug, +chug of a Mississippi boat, as though some giant ventriloquist were +navigating one of those floating palaces in the bowels of the earth. +Great trout were captured, after arduous labor, from the sluggish waters +of the Bear River, but little peace was afforded the whole trip from the +pestiferous swarms of red-legged grasshoppers exiled from the plains, to +be buffeted back and forth from the surrounding ranges of snow-capped +mountains, until the white man's destroying agency should catalogue them +with the auk, the buffalo and the red man; as Chiquita chronicled it, +"another example of the onward march of civilization."</p> + +<p>The removal of the Utes from White River to the Uintah reservation had +been so distasteful to Chiquita that she seldom visited the remnants of +her people domiciled in a strange land. Many of these, however, made +pilgrimages to her ranch, and the various tourists who shared in her +hospitality had opportunity to see the blanket Indian in all his modern +splendor of cast-off army garments and civilian society apparel.</p> + +<p>Yamanatz made his home a greater part of the year at his daughter's +place, but the aged chief had lost his vigor and only waited the call to +the Great Hunting Ground beyond. He took little interest in the comings +and goings of strangers, but enjoyed the company of Jack, who made it +his mission to entertain the old warrior in every manner possible as far +as he could.</p> + +<p>The time for Chiquita to return to college was approaching. She had +given up the trip to California on account of the sequel which the +little romance of Miss Asquith and Cal had brought about. Chiquita had +obtained their promise that the wedding should take place at the Buena +Vista ranch.</p> + +<p>The preparations were made and the services of a clergyman, who was +making a tour of the mountains, was secured. Cal was elated at the +unexpected turn of affairs and Miss Asquith was easily reconciled. Jack +gave away the bride and the "wedding bells" which comprised a part of +the ceremony "pealed forth" from a lot of Indian tom-toms, sleigh bells +and tin pans in the hands of some visiting Utes.</p> + +<p>The newly made man and wife started, after the wedding repast was +served, for Denver. Jack, Hazel and Chiquita followed a few days later, +Chiquita to return to college, Jack to continue his journey to the mine.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="14">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h3> + +<h4>CHIQUITA GRADUATES.</h4> + +<p class="p2">In a room overlooking the broad Connecticut valley, a student, wearing +cap and gown, stood by the window watching the clouds as they floated in +filmy drapery above the long rows of corn, tobacco and rhubarb which +paralleled each other on either side of the historic stream that divides +western Massachusetts. Chiquita, as she surveyed the scenery, then the +room and then herself, heaved a sigh of satisfaction. The same old +routine of registering, getting the trunks unpacked, studies and classes +arranged, had come to an end. Greetings by classmates, introductions to +new professors, salutations to members of the faculty and respects to +the dean had taken their regular order, and now the daughter of Yamanatz +gazed wistfully into the deep waters which reflected the clouds above. +The room was gorgeous in Indian blankets, draperies, spears, arrows, +pottery, beaded scarfs and long war bonnets, gold and silver-mounted +leather trappings of bridles, lariats, saddle skirts and pistol holsters +adorned the walls, while the floor and furniture were smothered in lion, +beaver, wolf, bobcat and fox skins. Busts of Powhatan and Massasoit +looked down from pedestals upon the young Indian girl as she reflected +the advancing stages of education and refinement which make the +civilized world. Well she remembered the lonesome, world forgotten time +when she first registered in the great reception room, seven years +before, after two years' private tutorship in her effort to master the +English language and learn her A, B, C's.</p> + +<p>Oh! the days and nights of study, study, study! Nothing but knowledge, +for breakfast, dinner, supper and dreams. And as she looked forward to +the easy senior year and honors which awaited her upon graduation day, +she smiled a little and then waxed serious.</p> + +<p>"Me, Chiquita, the daughter of a red devil, mistress of English, French, +German, Russian, Spanish, Greek and Latin. Winner of prizes in +literature, elocution and music, as well as first lady at all class +parties! For two years no function by any great society or college +demonstration has been complete without Chiquita, and this is to be my +last year. Then adios to my alma mater forever—yes, <i>forever</i>. It +is little satisfaction to fill one's mind with knowledge. It is poverty. +The mind is dull that is oppressed with wisdom. Chiquita is not as happy +here as she expected. But, ah, happiness will surely come when I visit +the sick, the maimed, and comfort the dying. In that life where the +'medicine man' of the paleface cuts out big chunk in sick man and +pale-faced sister in 'medicine clothes' nurse 'em 'til all well. Ah, +Jack, you told me the 'medicine' story in such simple language that I +understood it far easier than I now interpret the oppressive wisdom +dispensed at clinics or lecture room, by those who fetter themselves to +profound and awe-inspiring dissertations, until human intelligence seems +a fallacy. With this vast amount of knowledge how little we know! But +that reminds me: what will be the theme for my valedictory? There is no +one who can, no one who will expect this honor but Chiquita. And I will +discuss 'Ambition,' something after this fashion:</p> + +<p>"'A soul lay fettered at the portals of heaven. The long, winding +stairway reached down into space, through worlds of worlds, and +countless millions ascended toward the great white throne, each +unconcerned as to the fate of the other. On a bier, with body swathed in +burial robes, lay the inanimate clay from which the soul fled after its +imprisonment of the allotted threescore and ten years. Around the bier +were gathered the few of the endless millions left behind, who +remembered the departed a brief season and then became absorbed in the +great race of life against death. Science is constantly establishing new +guideposts in the chaos of obscurity and winning converts to the domain +of enlightened intelligence.'</p> + +<p>"There, that is what comes of educating a Ute chief's daughter, and +about six pages of that will be proof positive that the savage is +infinitely happier with the worship of the sun, the wind, the water as +animate objects, than we in the realm of knowledge with our defunct +moons and birdless heavens."</p> + +<p>Chiquita spent a great portion of her senior year in day dreaming and +imaginings, often putting her thoughts into manuscript form. Not that +she expected to use them, but because she read the stories she thus +improvised over and over to herself, occasionally sending one to Jack +for his inspection and criticism. If Jack said it was good she kept it, +but if he made objections to any portion, she destroyed the whole. In +one of these she wrote of her people and herself and the utter folly of +any attempt on the part of the Indians to regain their lost hunting +ground and lands. She wrote thus:</p> + +<p>"Alas! for my people! The Great Spirit of the white man is probably the +same as the Great Manitou of the red man, the Buddha of the Hindoo and +the Mahomet of the Arab. All worship a divine being, all nations and +tribes of the earth acknowledge a power, mysterious, ever present but +unseen, who rules the world, the elements and the actions of his +followers. The white races are intellectual, far outranking the black +man of Africa, the yellow man of eastern Asia and the red man of +America. In the end I see but one result, the occupation by them of the +entire world and ultimate blotting out of all religion except the +Christian belief in the Messiah, who in the form of man was crucified to +do away with the offerings, sacrifices and consecrated rites established +by the Hebrews and observed by them without dissension until the +commencement of the Christian era. But there are Jews today still +looking for the King promised by the old prophets of the Bible, and +while prophecy upon prophecy has been fulfilled in a most marvelous +manner, these people with no country, no flag, no standing as a nation +are promised the earth and fulness thereof and a new Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>"Do not the followers of Buddha look forward from the death of Gaudama, +who became incarnate 500 years B. C., to the thousands of years which +must pass before another Buddha appears to restore the world from +ignorance and decay? Do not the noble red-skinned tribes of the great +American continent pray to their Manitou for the restoration of the land +where the buffalo roam and the paleface cannot molest them?</p> + +<p>"But, alas, my people! The heathen world must succumb before the strides +of education, science and civilization. It is useless to hope for the +return of those days, and while the children of the forest cannot in one +generation adapt themselves to the ways and habits of industry, +education and social life of their white brethren, the time is not far +distant when the blanket Indian will be as the buffalo, and the noble +red man become a farmer, mechanic or politician.</p> + +<p>"The 'home, sweet home' of the people is the place where they spent +their early youth, and no matter where their other years are passed, no +matter what their successes, no matter what their failures, the sweetest +spot on earth is the home of their younger days, to which millions +return and from which millions die far away, but with 'fatherland' a +vision still bright before them."</p> + +<p>The last term was at end. Visitors flocked to the old historic town to +witness the commencement exercises and hear Chiquita, the Ute's +daughter, deliver the valedictory. Her father, the aged Yamanatz, was +there with several chiefs in full council robes, and this of itself was +sufficient to draw thousands of the curious. Prominent officials, who +had watched the progress of yoking the savage red maiden of the forest +to her civilized white sister of fashion, occupied front seats on the +platform of the edifice wherein the commencement scenes were enacted. +Interest in the preliminary features seemed to flag, and only desultory +attention greeted the various ones as diplomas were handed out.</p> + +<p>Little were the gowned professors and learned LL. D.'s prepared for the +tumultuous wave of approbation which greeted Chiquita as she appeared on +the platform from a side entrance, clad in her native costume of +richly-beaded buckskin, her copper colored face set in a frame of +intensely black hair, which reached to her knees in voluminous braids +from whose ends dangled the "medicine" of the Utes. Words are feeble to +express the transition from darkness to educated light, but there she +stood in primeval beauty, uttering her valedictory in language so +fascinating that not one syllable was lost.</p> + +<p>Bouquets were showered upon her, "bravos" rent the air, and, as she +stepped before the dean to receive her sheepskin, with its guarantee +that Chiquita was educated, a smile of profound satisfaction played for +an instant over her marvelously thoughtful face. Then spying Yamanatz +near the platform, she bounded into his arms to receive his blessing, +her filial affection superior to her decorous surroundings. Never before +in the history of the college had such an outburst of enthusiasm greeted +a graduate.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="15">CHAPTER XV.</a></h3> + +<h4>A HOSPITAL AND A BOARDING HOUSE.</h4> + +<p class="p2">Long rows of windows in a massive building gave light to thousands +within, who in turn looked out upon the thousands plodding their way to +and from toil. It was in one of the hospital zones of the second city in +the United States and the building was one of the largest hospitals in +the city. Within the memory of the present generation the word +"hospital" was fraught with weird and uncanny dark rooms, bloody floors, +shrieking victims of accident or disease undergoing the torture of the +knife, muffled rumbles of iron-wheeled trucks rolling in new patients or +wheeling the lifeless form of the dead to the morgue. Over the door, +unseen by mortal man, an ominous inscription, "He who enters here leaves +all hope behind."</p> + +<p>By the onward, irresistible advance of that flickering flame which +penetrates the darkest corner of bigotry and ignorance, science has +groped its way beyond the portals of death and snatched many from the +very coffin after being prepared for the grave. This is civilization. +Even today thousands look askance at the uncompromising brick and stone +walls, shuddering as the ambulance gong warns them of its approach, +bearing the victim, perchance, of some terrible disaster. To the +unsophisticated who visit for the first time one of these institutions a +surprise is in store. The awful gloom is penetrated by sunlight. In +place of bespattered walls and crimson stained operating table are snow +white tiling and glass slabs mounted on iron frames. The sickening +offensive odor of the old "slaughter pens" has been relegated to the +dark ages, and nothing worse than a whiff of carbolic acid or a possible +suspicion of iodoform greets the most sensitive nostrils.</p> + +<p>Within such an institution Chiquita found herself face to face with the +"medicine" man of the paleface, and her white sister in "medicine" +clothes. Arrayed at last in the oriental blue and white striped uniform, +white apron with strings crossed at the back and jaunty little white +cap, Chiquita began the task of familiarizing herself with the calling +which so recently has placed woman in a sphere entirely her own, and +made her the subject of hero worship on battlefield and in peaceful +home. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original spelled 'Faithfuly'.">Faithfully</ins> she performed the laborious work of smoothing the +rumpled clothing of a fever-racked patient, or adjusting the +uncomfortable bandages of another, crushed and maimed. In the operating +room she administered anesthetics or assisted with sponge and basin, and +at clinics she listened intently to all the specialists, while in other +channels she learned the necessary business methods needed for +successfully carrying on the expensive undertaking which she proposed to +inaugurate for the good of her own people.</p> + +<p>The last half of the second year of hospital life had commenced. It was +summer, and Jack, with Hazel, was returning from his annual trip to the +Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water mine.</p> + +<p>Chiquita had enjoyed an afternoon with them, driving about the city, and +observed that Jack was not as bright and cheerful as usual.</p> + +<p>"No," said he, "I don't feel at all well. I think I over-exerted myself +at the mine."</p> + +<p>Hazel and Chiquita insisted upon his consulting a physician, but Jack +contended that it was "nothing; I will be all right in the morning."</p> + +<p>His malady, however, grew more pronounced, the third day finding him +with a high fever and in great bodily pain. A surgeon was called, who +discovered that an immediate operation was imperative.</p> + +<p>Jack protested, but finally yielded to the pleadings of his wife, and +arrangements were made to take the then almost helpless patient to the +hospital.</p> + +<p>The carriage was driven to where Chiquita in great anxiety awaited their +coming. The surgeon had preceded them, informing the matron that it was +a case of blood poisoning, and arranged for the admission of his +patient.</p> + +<p>At 9 o'clock that evening the affected part was lanced, giving temporary +relief, but this disclosed a dangerous complication which would require +a tedious operation and a prolonged stay in the hospital.</p> + +<p>The next morning, as Chiquita prepared Jack for the operating table, +they joked about the medicine tepee and dwelt long upon the singular +coincidence that should bring them together under such circumstances. +Chiquita administered the anesthetics. While Jack was losing +consciousness, struggling vainly to gasp a breath of fresh air, she +recalled the vivid description of hospital life which he had so long ago +on Rock Creek depicted to her. As the surgeon skillfully wielded his +various instruments, and with the electric wire burned the sensitive +flesh along the track of the affected part, Chiquita for the first time +felt a sinking, gaping, craving of her heart.</p> + +<p>She realized in that one moment what it meant. She felt that if Jack +should die her heart would cease its tumultuous beating, that if he +lived she should forever have to keep her secret and stifle the emotions +which her love for him revealed.</p> + +<p>A sudden thought surged within her. "No one would know; should she"—<ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Retained space after Emdash; used as thought break."> </ins>"He +is not for me—I am a Ute's daughter, a degraded Indian. Can I live and +see him the husband of another and not betray my secret? Oh, Jack! +perhaps it had been better that Chiquita had never become a medicine +tepee queen! Were it not better that the sister of the forest should +never have been educated?</p> + +<div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <span class="i0">'A little learning is a dangerous thing;</span><br /> + <span class="i0">Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring;</span><br /> + <span class="i0">There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,</span><br /> + <span class="i0">And drinking largely sobers us again.'</span><br /> + </div> +</div> + +<p>"I can not turn back. I will stifle my love for the one who lies there +helpless. I will consecrate my life to the customs of his people, that I +may leave a legacy to my people—the inheritance which civilization +brings."</p> + +<p>Mechanically she <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original spelled 'perfomed'.">performed</ins> the rest of her duties; nurses had taken the +unconscious form away in its swaths of bandages, while she remained to +administer to other patients and begin the long siege of love's +starvation, until her heart should capitulate and turn to stone.</p> + +<p>The day following the operation, Chiquita's first duties were to take +Jack's temperature and respiration, and note other conditions. She +performed the latter with perfect composure, but when she essayed the +counting of those "little blood knocks upon the wrist," her own heart +beat so furiously that she was fearful of making an error, and was +obliged to ask another nurse to take that record. Afterward, however, +she was able to control her feelings, and take Jack's temperature with +composure.</p> + +<p>Upon the fifth day, when the internes were dressing Jack's wound, it was +discovered that another operation would have to be performed. The +surgeon had overlooked a portion of the affected tract, and the wound +would again have to be reopened and rescarified with a burning white hot +electric wire. This discovery was made Saturday, and Jack was at once +informed.</p> + +<p>Hazel tried to encourage him, but despondency seemed to take possession +of him, and all day Sunday, as the church bells clanged their discordant +soul-racking peals, he tossed restlessly upon his bed. The terrific +winds from the southwest blew their breath to the north in sweltering +blasts, and poor humanity had to endure it. Tuesday, Chiquita once more +was called upon to watch Jack as he succumbed to the influence of the +anesthetic. Once more she counted his heart throbs as the surgeon +scraped, burned and annihilated germs, bugs and septic tissue, and once +more her heart wildly stampeded in its ecstatic throbbing of love for +him whose life she literally held in her own hands, as his hallowed form +reposed unconscious on the glass slab.</p> + +<p>Oh, what joy to her! what an entrancing, ravishing hour! As she +afterwards lived those minutes over and over again, allowing her stony +heart to grow tender as the impulse swayed her, she was carried back in +vivid memory to the camp on Rock Creek where she first learned of the +medicine tepee queen.</p> + +<p>The second operation was successful, and although Jack's convalescence +was prolonged for months, he was fully cured of an ailment which in days +of less scientific skill had invariably resulted fatally.</p> + +<p>With the culmination of her hospital education, Chiquita turned her +attention to the study of the economics of city life, and investigation +of the details relating to her future enterprise.</p> + +<p>She found herself domiciled in a rather pretentious establishment in a +fashionable and aristocratic neighborhood.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Señorita Chiquita, I shall be pleased to have you make your home +with my family, as they call themselves, and we are a happy houseful." +So spake the little black-eyed proprietor of the "Addington." She was +Mrs. Pickett. Pickett was a speculator. The whole atmosphere in and +about Pickett reflected the market; if he was on the right side of corn +or wheat or provisions one could feel it, hear it, see it in Pickett's +handshake, voice and clothes. If, however, he was "bull" on a "bear" +movement, the Pickett barometer dropped accordingly.</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! that wheat is worth a dollar any day. Buy five thousand at 72." +But "puts" went to 68 cents at the close of the "privileges" and Pickett +was glum.</p> + +<p>Pickett was not a big plunger, only one of the ten million poor, hungry +hangers on who watch the "ticker," listen to the reports made up for the +masses by the master hand of manipulators, out of storm centers, visible +supply, and world's consumption, and then gorge the bait.</p> + +<p>Pickett was a winner one day on a pork deal and among other commodities +in the "pit" which seemed a "good thing" was corn at 31 cents. He bought +a small line and then forgot it in the strenuous circumstances which +followed. At the close of the day's pork business he pocketed a big roll +of bills and went out with the boys for a good time, only to fall down +stairs and break his ankle. After three weeks' suffering he hobbled into +the broker's office. Greetings were exchanged with the regulars, then he +sought the cashier to draw the balance of his pork money. This account +being settled the cashier said to him, "Pickett, what are you going to +do with that corn?"</p> + +<p>"What corn?"</p> + +<p>"Why that corn you bought at 31 cents the day you broke your ankle."</p> + +<p>"I did not buy any corn, did I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you did, and there is to your credit $7,000."</p> + +<p>"Seven thousand dollars!" shouted Pickett, and before any answer could +be made he ordered the deal closed, then went out and bought a fast +"hoss," a pair of checked trousers, a silk hat, and hunted up the girl +who immediately became Mrs. Pickett as soon as the necessary formalities +could be arranged. But the seven thousand dollars did not last long and +the support of a wife was more than Pickett bargained for. Matters grew +very serious and Mrs. Pickett found she had either to go to work in some +clerkship capacity, or start a boarding house or peanut and candy store +near some school house. She chose the boarding house, which soon merged +into a swell private hotel, and it was in the "Addington" that Chiquita +saw a phase of life so common to the man of the world and the bachelor +girl charging full tilt into the twentieth century.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Pickett, please tell me a little of yourself, that I may +understand why the white sister has no husband to care for her as other +white sisters have."</p> + +<p>It was about three months after Chiquita had taken up her residence at +the "Addington." The two were on one of the porches which overlook the +lake on the north shore in a most beautiful location near Sheridan +drive.</p> + +<p>"It is a long story, but I can make it very brief in words, although the +years have been filled with events which handicap a woman of my age in +looks and spirit, and that handicap will make the story seem longer to +me than to a listener."</p> + +<p>"Don't skip any of the incidents, will you? I mean those portions where +the Christian spirit upheld you in your grief and sadness."</p> + +<p>"I was young. Mr. Pickett's fast horse must share the blame for a +portion of the admiration I became possessed of for Mr. Pickett. Then he +was such a swell dresser, a good singer and at that time a Board of +Trade man, at least I thought so, and when he showed me that pile of +money and said 'Junie, let's get married,' I said, 'Pickett, give my +father a home and I will marry you tomorrow.'</p> + +<p>"We were married, but the money did not last long and poor Pickett lost +all ambition save that of watching the 'ticker,' reading the market +reports, and living in the fascinating atmosphere of 'bucket shops,' +gambling in grain, stocks and provisions, as do an army of poor, deluded +would-be speculators.</p> + +<p>"There was but one course for me—a boarding-house, and here I have +lived. My father died, and soon after, my husband was stricken with a +lingering illness, which lasted six years ere death relieved him of his +sufferings. It has been a bitter cup, but after all, as my good father +often said, 'It is all for the best. He waters the corn and weeds alike, +and burns up the roses as well as the thistles; trust in God, Junie,' +and so I try to make the most of what I have."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Pickett, it is so hard for me, an Indian born girl, a daughter +taught to pray to the wind, the sun, the rain as animate gods, capable +of doing good or harm, to have that faith you possess—that beautiful +faith in the hereafter, in a God whose heaven and home you know not of, +yet where, you acknowledge, there are no flowers, no birds, no deer, no +giving in marriage, no thirst, and no hunger. What, then, can my +uneducated people be expected to relinquish—that great and Happy +Hunting Ground, which is to be returned to us as it was before the white +man drove us to the setting sun, drove the buffalo into the great sea +and destroyed our homes, our villages, and killed our warriors? It is +hard for Chiquita with all her learning and life among her palefaced +sisters to say, 'Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' But I try to +believe that your life is the better one for the world, for the human +race, and that in the end there will be no more savages, no more +heathens, no more unbelievers."</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="16">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h3> + +<h4>GALLING YOKES OF CIVILIZATION.</h4> + +<p class="p2">In one of the large wholesale houses, a junior partner, much interested +in municipal affairs and whose endorsement was sought by many a +candidate seeking election—for the junior partner wielded a vast +interest in both the secular and Christian life—was presented to +Chiquita and she spent many an hour, at convenient times, discussing the +affairs of mutual interest, he seeking to establish the superiority of +the ways of education and civilization, she accepting the teachings and +attempting to persuade herself that he was right and that savagery was +nothing more nor less than animal life in the woods.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dunbar," she said one day, "the red man of the forest is sometimes +a gambler, and when the spirit moves him he seeks one of his kind and +they spread a blanket under a tree or near the wigwam and there follow +their inclination, open and above board, without fear of police +interference. I am told that the young white man sometimes has a similar +temptation in the big city, but that you have laws which forbid +gambling. Nevertheless, because of political influence, there are booths +and rooms where gambling in its civilized conditions can be found. Will +you take Chiquita to a gambling den that she may see the class of men +found at the tables?"</p> + +<p>The brows of the merchant contracted, he hesitated and stammered as he +attempted to reply.</p> + +<p>"Why—er—my dear Señorita, you know I am a pillar of the church, an +active member in one of the largest wholesale houses in the west, and my +example to my young men, if I were to appear in a gambling room, would +be horrifying. I—er—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind if it would prove such a heinous offense; but why, Mr. +Dunbar, is it allowed, if respectable people can not go there without +contaminating themselves? Is it possible that the people of a great city +like this make laws and elect men to enforce those laws, and yet take no +notice of law breakers except to protect them?"</p> + +<p>"Señorita, it is useless to make any defense. Our officeholders are +corrupt. The blush of shame rises to the face of respectable citizens +when they have to acknowledge that they elect men to office simply +because the candidate stands for party principles, only to make use of +the office for private gain or personal spite. Of course, there are +exceptions, but men do not go into political battles without expecting a +reward, and that reward must be a greater inducement than the one +offered in private life. But I will escort you to a gambling den and we +will see for ourselves."</p> + +<p>"You certainly are brave to attempt it, and I shall thank you so much."</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock a carriage drove up to a corner. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita +alighted—"an English tourist and his valet." It was but a few steps to +the middle of the block where a pair of green covered swinging doors, on +polished brass hinges, continually but noiselessly opened and closed. +The bright glare of arc lights made the street as midday. The throngs of +pedestrians glanced at the green doors, and either passed by without +comment, or one would say to the other, "Great game up in Doll's." "Why +don't the police shut it off?" "Got a pull with the high chief now."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dunbar and his protegé found themselves in a long entry at the head +of the stairs which led to a door at its farther end, where at a little +window sat a fat gentleman with gray mustache.</p> + +<p>"Walk in, right this way. No danger. Suppose you are looking for a +little game. Go through the doors at the right."</p> + +<p>The great baize covered screens opened as if by magic, revealing a large +square room, carpeted with velvet and smothered with deep piled rugs. +Magnificent landscapes by Bierstadt, Colby and Elkins hung from the +walls, depicting the Rocky Mountains and the plains. Immense +chandeliers, festooned with prisms which scintillated the colors of the +rainbow, hung from the ceilings. Mahogany and rosewood sideboards +glistened with cut glass decanters, tumblers and fine chinaware, while +the sable attendant served dainty refreshments and thirst-assuaging +liquids to those who asked for them. Leather upholstered tête-a-têtes +graced corners and bay windows, while in an anteroom long racks were +filled with files of newspapers and magazines. A wainscot of highly +polished black walnut surrounded the room, and rich India draperies +deadened the walls. At a table near the entrance were three young men +playing poker, while the keeper of the game, in accents harsh, urged +newcomers to "take a hand, only a quarter to draw cards." At a side +table five cattlemen, just from the stock yards, were killing time in a +game of draw, while on the opposite side a roulette wheel spun round and +round until the little ball settled into its space and the announcement +"the red wins" was greeted by clicking of chips as the croupier paid out +or raked in.</p> + +<p>But the great throng was at the far end of the room, where, around a +table some seven feet long and four feet wide, were men three to five +deep, craning, pushing, reaching, to place a bet or receive their chips +on a winning card. The air was close and hot, just the slightest +murmuring, the low indistinct utterings of questions asked and answered: +"How many times has the queen been loser?" "The tray is a case," "Copper +the jack for a blue chip," "Play ace to lose and king to win," "Last +turn in the box, gentlemen, four for one on the call." A scruffing of +feet, a sigh of relief, the tension eased up for a few moments while the +dealer shuffles his cards. Some change seats, others quit the game, new +ones buy chips, and again the "soda" card appears and another deal is +on. The suppressed excitement is again apparent in feature and action; +the flushed face of the winner and the cold sweat on the brow of the +loser make no impression on the calm, self-satisfied face of dealer or +lookout, each of whom wears a light slouch hat, the brim shading the +eyes. Both are dressed neatly and in good taste, except for the enormous +diamonds they show in shirt bosoms and on the little finger. There is no +tragedy here. The sequel of the life in a city gambling den is the wife +at home without food, or suffering from dyspepsia because of its +plenteousness, or perhaps in the counting-room of some Board of Trade +office, directors' room of a bank, or a police station, to which the +embezzler is taken after the confession. The mining camp and frontier +gambling dens differ in respect to lawlessness, but the atmosphere after +all is about the same.</p> + +<p>"I am ready to go, Mr. Dunbar," said Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"While we are at it, suppose we take in one of the theater restaurants +and then at midnight see the worst sink hole of iniquity on the American +continent," replied Mr. Dunbar, a look of "do or die'" changing his +usually kind face to that of uncompromising severity.</p> + +<p>"I trust, Mr. Dunbar, I have not offended by asking a sacrifice of your +self-respect, and—"</p> + +<p>"No, no, do not mention it," interrupted he, quickly. "I am glad of this +opportunity. To be sure it has taken a great deal of resolution on my +part, not only to satisfy my consciousness of the propriety in the first +place, but to feel that it is consistent with a Christian life to allow +one's self on any pretext to come in contact with evil just to gratify +curiosity. I am not in sympathy with the so-called slumming parties, +either for the good such investigations may bring about, or for the +benefit that such visitations might result in to the inmates. There are +other methods by which the same end may be accomplished and not appear +so drastic. I have sometimes wondered if there are really any grounds +for the flings made at Chicago, and if there be any truth in the oft +heard remark, 'Chicago's down town resorts have no counterpart in any +other city in the world.' Of course I expect we will see a mild form of +dissipation and possibly one or two who may have taken a drop too much, +but as those stories go from one to another they are exaggerated until +one has to make allowance for these word pictures. But here we are."</p> + +<p>"Have a private room, sir?" asked an attendant, for they had stepped +into a hallway leading to private dining rooms up stairs. "We have nice +rooms for private parties. If you expect ladies you can wait for them +there."</p> + +<p>Just then a lady, unaccompanied, came through the swinging doors and +darted to the elevator. In a low tone she told the attendant to show her +to No. 7, where she would wait. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita rather +undecidedly followed into the elevator and were whisked up to the second +floor, where they sauntered along toward an open door. Merry peals of +laughter wafted over transoms and a sudden opening of one door showed a +party of five seated round a table, while a sixth member, one of the +fair sex, was standing on the table. Then the door shut out the scene. +Mr. Dunbar gasped a little, but concluded to go back to the ground floor +and have a lunch in the main restaurant. They were shown seats well back +from the front of the place, in a position commanding a good view of the +tables, all of which seemed crowded.</p> + +<p>"While we are waiting for our lunch we can study the people," said +Chiquita. "I guess the rooms up stairs are used by theatrical people and +they give little dramas of their own."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I should judge it to be dramatic," answered Mr. Dunbar grimly. "Do +you notice at every table in the room some one is drinking, either a +malt beverage or wine, and at a majority of the tables some one is +smoking?" asked he of Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I presume they came here to forget the dark spots of a day's life +and to drown sorrow in drink and music. You have not spoken of the +classic strains coming from that harp and two fiddles."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dunbar smiled audibly at the reference to music.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't consider this such an awful place for a wicked man, a man +of the world; every one is well behaved and there is no loud noise, but +these scenes lead to others still worse and the temptations offered here +require a goodly sized purse and larger salaries to support this +extravagance than the average man commands. But it is midnight and we +must make our way to the resort in the next block."</p> + +<p>Descending a steep stairway they found themselves at the end of a long +room. The air was reeking with the fumes of smoke, stale beer and +sickening perfumery. Shouts and loud guffaws mingled with shrill peals +of screamy laughter. Glasses tinkled amid the disconsolate strains of a +discordant piano, but above all other sounds were the harsh orders of +waiters. "Draw six," "one green seal," "two martinis," "four straight +whiskies," "high ball and two gin fizzes." Down the long line of tables +they passed men and women who leered at each other, drinking to each +other's health, both sexes smoking cigarettes, some singing, some +arguing, some swearing such oaths that the visitors fain would have fled +the place. At the foot of the staircase, commanding the whole place and +surrounded by painted creatures in the latest wraps, sat the proprietor, +a man of fifty, dark and swarthy, with black curly hair and mustache. +His face was filled with lines, the accumulations of years of +debauchery. Upon his hands were diamond rings, seemingly too numerous to +count, a watch fob with more gems than a fashionably dressed ball +attendant would wear, hung below his vest, and his shirt front was +literally ablaze with "sparklers." The poor dupes about him in this +whirling vortex of hell were receiving their infamous commissions for +inducing men who visited the resort to purchase drinks.</p> + +<p>"And from whence come these sisters and daughters?" asked Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"Go to the great sales counters of some of the cheaper grade of stores +and follow the life of some poor unfortunate; seek the divorce court and +find a victim of misplaced affection; go to the political fountain and +gaze at the high chief whose influence restrains the guardian of the +public peace from interfering with these dens of vice where voters +congregate to do honor to the chief. Seven thousand saloons in the city, +with a following of twenty to each saloon to vote for their master who +wields the baton of wide-open hell holes to the end of obtaining blood +money from those who are protected! Señorita, this is the black spot on +our fair Christian land. It is so to a greater or lesser degree in all +cities, in all lands, where civilization endures. This bartering of and +in human souls within the business districts of Chicago must come to an +end. Now we will step into the police headquarters, only a block away, +while I ask the desk sergeant a couple of questions."</p> + +<p>As they started up the steps leading to the central detail headquarters +a cab drove up to the curb, and a young man, whom Mr. Dunbar immediately +recognized, stepped to the walk, followed by a detective in plain +clothes. They lifted a good-sized sack of something from the cab and +carried it past the late visitors. A clinking of silver was easily +recognized and Mr. Dunbar became interested. He presumed the young man +had just been arrested and naturally inquired the cause.</p> + +<p>"Tommy, are you in trouble that you come in with an officer at this +hour?" inquired Mr. Dunbar of the supposed prisoner.</p> + +<p>Tommy stopped and walked up to the speaker. It was some seconds before +he recognized Mr. Dunbar in the disguise of a tourist. When he did so he +hesitated to confide the truth of the circumstances, but finally +acknowledged, under promise that the informant should never be known, +that the sack contained over five thousand dollars, which had been +collected from the proprietors of just such dens of vice as Mr. Dunbar +had just visited.</p> + +<p>"And my business is to count it, divide it into halves and quarters and +deliver the respective bundles to those who are high on the throne of +police authority."</p> + +<p>"How often are you called upon to make this collection, division and +delivery?" asked Mr. Dunbar.</p> + +<p>"Oh, once every six weeks or so."</p> + +<p>With that Mr. Dunbar stepped up to the desk and with a bow naively +asked, "Can you tell me where there is a first-class gambling hall? I am +a stranger to the calling, but would like to visit one of these dens +said to be run in Chicago."</p> + +<p>"An' who be ye thot ye want a gamblin' house at this time o' night? Get +out o' here, there be's not a gamblin' din in all Chicago fer the last +three years thot I've been on the cintral detail, is there, Jawn?"</p> + +<p>And Mr. Dunbar took his departure with Chiquita. In her diary Chiquita +entered this: "Visited the most horrible dens of vice imaginable, the +refinement of educated debauchery, literally sitting in the lap of +political lechery, hurling defiance at virtue, decency and +respectability."</p> + +<p>During her hospital career Chiquita had many experiences outside of the +varied occurrences in the life of a nurse, which added to rather than +detracted from the perplexities of civilizing her people. These other +scenes enacted in the great empire of industry swept all minor +attractions away, leaving a dreadful negative photographed indelibly +upon her sensitive mind, whose films reproduced with startling detail +not only the foreground of drastic events, but the background +reproduction of unswerving determination on the part of political +demagoguery which brought ruination to millions of people and even +threatened the financial fabric of the entire world; a photograph more +in accord with the despotic days of fiddling Nero than those of advanced +civilization under the constitution of the new republic.</p> + +<p>While waiting for a car that would take her to the hospital, Chiquita +noticed numbers of men in rather shabby attire approach better clad +individuals and after a little conversation each would go his way. In +some instances the better dressed speaker put his hand in his pocket and +handed the other a coin. Then the latter waited a time before accosting +another and then another. Oftener would the better dressed individual +shake his head, even savagely repulsing the appeal of his less fortunate +brother. One of these solicitors-at-alms, for such they were, approached +Chiquita, and as she presented no frowning or repellant mien, he +politely doffed his cap and explained in a few words his mission.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, lady, I am unfortunate, I am out of work and have no place +to sleep tonight. I have three cents; for five cents I can get a bed. +Will you give me a penny? I will get another somewhere."</p> + +<p>Closely scanning the man's face she saw not the hardened lines of +dissipation, not the pallor of the convict nor the attenuated features +of a cripple, but a young man in good health, decently clad, though in +rather threadbare clothing. Chiquita had seen hundreds of men brought +into the hospital of all grades and callings and had become an adept as +a student of human nature. The man before her did not shift his eyes nor +stand irresolute, but the mournful voice and drooping mouth told only +too plainly that discouraging, despondent tale thrust so suddenly upon a +prosperous nation in 1893.</p> + +<p>"Why are you without work?" asked Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"Canceled orders and help laid off indefinitely," replied the young man.</p> + +<p>"Why were the orders canceled?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly, but Wall street and free silver had something to +do with it."</p> + +<p>"Had you no money saved up to fall back upon at such a time?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am; but the savings bank went to the wall and my three hundred, +which I had been five years getting together, went with it."</p> + +<p>"Can't you get a job as porter rather than beg?"</p> + +<p>"There's a thousand men waitin' for all the 'porter' jobs. Lady, you +don't know it, but half the population of this country is out of work."</p> + +<p>"Where can you get a bed for a nickel?" asked Chiquita, dubiously.</p> + +<p>"On the west side at one of the 'Friendship' houses."</p> + +<p>"You mean a whole bed and room by yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, lady, just a shelf to lie on, perhaps an old quilt to cover up +with. This costs a nickel; in some places we get a 'claim' on the floor +for two cents."</p> + +<p>"You say a 'claim' on the floor; you don't pay for sleeping on the +floor?" said Chiquita, drawing back in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we have to pay for everything but air in Chicago. We pick out our +claim, first come, first served, and put down a newspaper for bed, cover +up with another, all for two cents; but I don't like the floor. The +other fellows step on you when they come in late."</p> + +<p>"Are these places clean?" timidly inquired Chiquita.</p> + +<p>"Not very, ma'am; not like the hospital."</p> + +<p>"Well, my poor fellow, here is a quarter; I hope it will do you some +good."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, lady."</p> + +<p>Instead of going to the hospital Chiquita made a pilgrimage to one of +those well-known better class lodging houses, not far from the Board of +Trade. Here she saw every chair of a hundred or more occupied by men +similarly dressed and evidently looking for work. Of the numbers +accosted all told the same tale of misfortune and all emphasized the +deplorable condition of the great manufacturing industries throughout +the United States. There was no work to be had at any price. Large firms +reduced their forces to the lowest capacity possible. Many curtailed the +working hours of all rather than discharge half the number, while one +colossal corporation ran their works at a loss, despite the wide +spreading distrust prevalent during the panic, which crippled every +occupation, profession and calling. Banks closed their doors, regardless +of the suffering inflicted, business houses, shorn of their credit, +dropped all attempts to sustain relations with the world, and armies of +men thrown out of employment had to provide for themselves and their +families as best they could.</p> + +<p>Money could not be borrowed. Even the gold-bearing bonds of the United +States fell under the ban of suspicion; and nothing but gold, gold, +gold, had any intrinsic value. The new word which wrought such dire +disaster was <i>Coin</i>, and the bank notes presented day after day by +Wall street sapped the gold of the treasury until repudiation seemed +inevitable. The one man upon whose shoulders the burden of disaster +fell, took the oath of office as President of the United States, on +March 4th, 1893, the responsibility of a bond issue being thrown upon +him by the outgoing administration. The new official refused to declare +his policy. Wall street wanted knowledge positive as to the issuance of +bonds with which to buy gold to maintain the reserve. Day followed day +before the tension was relieved by a bond issue, which was succeeded by +other bond issues. The harm had been done. Financial institutions +bridged the torrent at one place only to succumb and plunge into the +yawning abyss at another. Stagnation followed disaster. Had the new +administration declined to give gold for the "coin" notes and tendered +silver, could any greater ruin have overtaken American commerce?</p> + +<p>Following in the wake of the ghastly spectre of commercial ruin, that +cruel, remorseless and vindictive vulture, discontent, swooped down upon +a far reaching industry, shrieked its defiant and soul curdling edict +"<i>Strike</i>," and to the consternation of the world, labor +organizations refused to temporize. The steam pulses ceased to beat, +machinery came to a standstill, the great factory doors closed against +wage earners and the stupendous battle between iron handed men of toil +and iron gloved employer was on.</p> + +<p>Aided by sympathetic city and state officials the wage earners grew +insolent and arbitrary. Pitying the unfortunate, misguided mechanic, +artisan and laborer, the iron gloved employer awaited until the +devouring flame of jealousy and strife consumed itself. It was under a +broiling July sun that Chiquita and Jack visited the scene to see for +themselves the effects of newsboys' hoarse cries, "<i>Extra! Extra!</i> +All about the bloody strike! The Stock Yards in danger!"</p> + +<p>Regiments of soldiers were bivouacked about the postoffice, on the lake +front, and at the yards. Dismantled, untrucked, costly palace cars +blocked railroad tracks from Van Buren street to the city limits. In the +vicinity of Thirty-ninth street turbulent masses of muttering, riotous, +eye-inflamed sympathizers congregated to watch the incoming United +States troops from Fort Sheridan.</p> + +<p>Women, carrying babies, mingled with the angry, unruly, drink-maddened +throng, urging, aye, even commanding more devastation, more wrecking of +property. As the snail moving train of army equipment was pulled along +the siding, coupling pins were drawn by the lawless, and as one car was +recoupled another was detached. Soldiers, in United States uniform, +endured insults of every nature.</p> + +<p>A woman, acting as bodyguard to a crowd of jeering, taunting idlers, +stepped up to a guard and spat in his face, then slapped him and in +vulgar language derided him for wearing the uniform of liberty. The +soldier was powerless to resent the affront, and this emboldened the +vindictive throng to acts of greater violence. Turning to Chiquita, Jack +said, with shamefaced candor, "Never did I expect to see my country's +flag humiliated in such a manner."</p> + +<p>The officer of the day approached. It was the seeming signal for an +outbreak; a hundred throats responded to the one voiced cry, "The +torch!" "Burn the train!" "Burn the Yards!" The woman pushed the man in +front of her along the railroad track to within a few feet of the +officers. The crowd behind drew closer, their jeers dropped to sullen, +discontented murmurings. The officer held up his hand.</p> + +<p>"Halt! Disperse!"</p> + +<p>He waved his hand for the mob to go back, but they made no movement. The +woman cried out, "You have no business to stop us;" the man in front +made a rough remark and roared to his followers, "Come on, we'll show +'em." The officer backed away, calling to a guard to take a position on +a near-by fence. "Load with ball, make ready, aim," pointing his sword +at the oncoming law-breaking, infuriated ruffian who had stopped a +sword's length away. The striker heard the words of the officer.</p> + +<p>"When I count three I shall give the command, '<i>Fire!</i>' if you and +your mob have not obeyed my order to disperse. One—two"—</p> + +<p>The man looked at the soldier, at the carbine and the cold gray eye that +followed along the barrel as the muzzle sought the breast of the leader, +he measured the distance, he heard the word "two," then with despairing +yell turned and fled.</p> + +<p>The success of the mob at another place met with cheers and shouts of +approval as an engineer was borne from the cab of his engine to a saloon +across the way, a new recruit to the army of disorganized, rebellious +workmen, fed by the ever ready impromptu orator seeking opportunity to +air his views—a near friend and close imitator of the agitator +commissioned "walking delegate."</p> + +<p>"Jack," said Chiquita, "are these scenes, these property-destroying +conflicts between employer and employe necessary for the advancement of +civilization and fulfillment of that commandment that 'Ye love one +another?'"</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<h3><a name="17">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h3> + +<h4>WHENCE COME MY PEOPLE?</h4> + +<p class="p2">The holiday recesses were spent by Chiquita in the great eastern cities, +where she attended theater, opera, and many social functions of greater +or lesser magnitude.</p> + +<p>After Jack's wedding she came to rely upon his wife—who found the +Indian Señorita always included in the invitations sent the Sheppard +house—to smooth the difficult paths of etiquette and to instruct her in +the many formalities necessarily omitted in her college life, that were +imperative upon being presented in the whirl of fashionable circles. She +was welcomed by various clubs, literary folk, and at state +receptions—this grandly intellectual daughter of a savage chief.</p> + +<p>The first great effort she made in behalf of her people was an attempt +to forestall the opening of the great expanse of land in the Indian +Territory to settlement by the white people. A venerable senator from +Massachusetts espoused her cause sufficiently to awaken a hope in her +inexperienced breast that the object could be accomplished. Another, +from a western state, gladly joined in the undertaking, while a +brilliant ex-secretary of state devoted his energies in her behalf.</p> + +<p>At a memorable cabinet meeting the question was discussed, and in the +presence of that august body, and of the President himself, Chiquita +delivered her appeal, recounting step by step the claims under which the +prerogative of the Indian to the land in question should be forever +recognized:</p> + +<p>"Mr. President, and gentlemen who constitute his advisers, you ask +whence come my people?</p> + +<p>"For ages, as countless as the sands of the Big River, the fresh waters +of the great inland seas skirting the first lofty range of the Rocky +Mountains washed in torrents and torrents the salt deposited by the +great upheavals of the western continent, through the yawning cañons +which were created by these torrents' own irresistible force, to the +bases of the great barrier where the sun disappears. The fresh waters' +encroaching left their alluvial deposits further and further toward the +setting sun in the same manner as the white settlers dispossessed the +noble red warrior and primeval possessor of the Western hemisphere. The +fresh waters divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller compasses. +In these grand forest-grown, grass-covered areas herds of wild horses, +buffalo, deer, elk and mountain sheep found subsistence. The fertile +valleys and meadows were thronged with villages of beaver, otter and +mink, whose dams were overgrown with the silvery-leafed aspen upon which +these busy families existed. The forests were fragrant with fir, cedar +and pine, among whose branches the birds of the wood built their nests.</p> + +<p>"But before these were other possessors of this great mass of tangled +volcanic eruptions, at a time so remote that the mind becomes a mist, a +fog bank in its endeavor to locate the date, and then only as an age, it +being impossible to determine the century. The fossils of these +prehistoric creatures have been found in deposits over three thousand +feet in thickness, species until recently unknown to science. Here man +inhabited dwellings of unhewn stone cemented with mortar containing +volcanic ashes, at a period so long ago that the waters were supposed to +wash the face of the cliffs upon whose precipitous side these ancient +people lived, in evidence of which are the fossilized human bones.</p> + +<p>"In this legacy is found the answer, 'Whence come my people?' And what +nation has ever disputed the title of land conveyed by the Indians? As +early as 1851, when Colorado was organized as a territory, a treaty was +made at Fort Laramie with several tribes of Indians, by which the latter +gave up all the lands east of the Rocky Mountains. West of the +continental divide were the great warlike tribes of Utes extending to +the Sierra Nevadas, 15,000 free-born American savages to whose necks the +galling yoke of civilization was to be adjusted.</p> + +<p>"The Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanches and Kiowas, plains Indians, were +mild and tractable in comparison with the Utes. These latter were +fearless, indomitable warriors, who owned the forest, the river beds and +mountain crags by inheritance from Almighty God, and whose +disestablishment is written in letters of blood where the forest man was +the aggressor by retaliation. But the outrages of the new people, the +educated, civilized white man, must be forever unrecorded. Repudiation, +shameless duplicity, political and martial perfidy, local and national, +followed each other year after year until 1865, when the final treaties +effected the abandonment of Colorado by the plains Indians, who were +removed to the Indian Territory, where the government agreed to pay each +Indian $40 annually for forty years.</p> + +<p>"My people, the White River Utes, had taken no part in the plains Indian +controversies with the white people, and, while the Utes' territory +bordered that of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, the only courtesies were +the exchanging of scalps and horses whenever they met. The time arrived +when agents were appointed by the government to reside with each Indian +tribe. These agents were generally respected and settled many jealousies +which sprang up between the various bands of the tribe.</p> + +<p>"Nevava, the great Ute chief of the White River tribes, had passed into +the Happy Hunting Grounds and his sons each claimed the inheritance of +ruler. There were many in the tribes who would gladly have accepted the +distinction, but Ouray was appointed chief over all, the lesser chiefs +being forced to content themselves with such following as their +individual qualities could command. This caused great jealousy and in +1875 many conspired against Ouray. The neglect of the government to pay +the annuities was charged against the big head chief, who was said to be +in collusion with certain white men in depriving the Utes of their +goods, and the question was ofttimes asked, 'How comes Ouray to be so +rich?'</p> + +<p>"In 1879, the venerable N. C. Meeker was appointed to take charge, as +agent, of my people at White River. He undertook the task of educating +the Ute warriors to plow. Opposition met him at the start, for the soil +is no more Ute soil when once broken by the white man's plow.</p> + +<p>"Aid from the war department was expected to force the warriors to till +the soil.</p> + +<p>"Runners carried the news to the agency that a band of Utes who had set +out to hunt had ambushed the cavalry. The final outcome of this outbreak +cost us our home in Colorado, for soon after the relief of the cavalry +the White River agency was abandoned and my people removed to the Uintah +Reservation in Utah. It is too late now to undo the wrong which resulted +in the removal of the Utes from Colorado, but, gentlemen, the land given +over and set apart by your own government in the Indian Territory for +those tribes now occupying the domain should be held sacred. I appeal to +you to keep this land intact and forbid its being thrown into the hands +of speculating spoilers. The Indian is not able to cope with the cunning +of the white brother, and he is unable to endure the conditions by which +his white brother naturally adapts himself to the cultivation of the +soil, the marketing of produce and protection of estate."</p> + +<p>The appeal was in vain. The political influence of cattle barons proved +too great, and the concourse of settlers swallowed the territory in +question. The result was very disheartening to Chiquita, but she bore up +and turned her attention to other duties, preparing for the final +establishment of her home for the aged and infirm Indians. This home she +decided to model after a plan of her own, unlike anything in any city, +possibly in the world. Persistent effort among the political leaders of +both great parties resulted in Congress setting apart, in western +Colorado, a large tract equal to one hundred miles square, to include a +portion of the land on the north side of the Grand River, where it cut +the Park or Gore range, taking in the old Ute trail, the camp in the +willows, the junction of Rock and Toponas Creeks and the high divide +along the edge of Egeria Park, where Jack froze his feet.</p> + +<p>The tract of land became by law the National Hunting Ground of the +Blanket Indian, provision being made for the maintaining of the park, +policing, stocking with game and fish, as the same might be killed or +disappear. No white man was to be allowed to hunt or fish under any +circumstances within the domain, no squaw with white man husband and no +descendants of any but full-blooded Indians were to be allowed to take +up residence within its established lines. No cultivation of the soil +for domestic purposes, no harvesting of any crop whatsoever, no +institutions of learning, no mercantile establishments, no Indian agency +to obtain footing, no railroad, no stage line for tourists, no telegraph +or telephone poles and no vehicles of any kind were to be tolerated. +Tourists afoot or on horseback accompanied by an Indian guide, a +resident of the park, could travel and camp, the guide allowed to kill +game or catch fish for his party as food supply, but no game or fish to +be taken from the park. The one exception to all this was the immense +hospital and necessary minor buildings, an ambulance, vehicles and +paraphernalia for conveying disabled persons, supplies for the hospital, +and nurses to and from the nearest railway. All food products, supplies +and clothing were to be obtained outside of the park lines and all +annuities due the Indians were to be paid them at agencies established +without the park.</p> + +<p>When the bill making these provisions came before the upper house for a +final vote, a tall, white-haired senator responded to his name and +arose. Pointing with outstretched hand to the gallery, where a group of +aged, wrinkled chiefs congregated about a fair Indian girl, he said, in +part:</p> + +<p>"Tardy as this action of the great American people may seem, I think I +echo the sentiments of both friends and foes of this persecuted race +when I raise my voice in their behalf. The foes of the Indian are but +the natural result of broken faith, and while it may be good logic to +say one white man is worth more than all the Indians ever created, it +does not condone the trespass committed when the white man became the +usurper and confiscator of the very thing given voluntarily by his +fathers and forefathers. Follow the patient man of the forest as the +dogs of civilization barked at his heels, worrying him the same as the +doe becomes affrighted when she hears the deep bay of the hound upon her +track. Look at the primitive means of defense with which the noble red +man attempted to defend his domain against the onward march of +civilization. The pages of the record of this chamber, of the war +department, of the department of the interior are dripping with the +blood of this race, defrauded of their homes, their hunting grounds, +aye, gentlemen, even their <ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Original spelled 'burrying'.">burying</ins> grounds. 'Move on! Move on!' has been +the command since 1620, until this handful of a great and brave nation +are today but remnants of cowardly and degraded tribes, made so by the +damnable treachery of American white people and their civilized methods +of aggression. I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to be +able to face that faithful, devoted Indian girl, Chiquita, and cast my +vote 'aye' in this weak and tardy attempt at remuneration."</p> + +<p>Two tiny red spots burned in Chiquita's cheeks as the senator finished. +She smiled at the applause which greeted the venerable member and +prepared to listen to the rest of the voting. When the last name was +called, before the teller could announce the result, a cheer from the +galleries burst forth, every eye was directed toward Chiquita, and in +response to the wave of applause she arose and bowed her appreciation of +the action of that august body.</p> + +<p>But the excitement proved too great a strain upon her temperament, and +she was carried to the hotel in a fainting condition. As she recovered +consciousness, she said to Hazel, "Chiquita will be one of the first to +leave the National Hunting Ground for the great Happy Hunting Ground +above." She realized that her vitality was weakened, that overwork and +exposure had made her vulnerable to insidious disease, whose progress +would be rapid now that the weakened spots had succumbed to its ravages. +But she would not give up the cherished hopes of seeing her one aim in +life accomplished, the forest-grown reservation where her people could +forever hunt and fish without further molestation or dividing up of the +land, and in its center wigwams, lodges, tepees and her great hospital +for the sick, helpless and aged when they would be unable to take care +of themselves.</p> + +<p>Immediate preparations were made to carry out her cherished wish, which +had been so many years her aim. With Jack to aid her the purchases of +material were made. Contracts were entered into for the erection of the +buildings and equipment therefor. Nurses and attendants were engaged for +the hospitals, and for a year she watched the accumulating results which +her education and fortune were bringing about.</p> + +<p>But the task of civilization was one which nature condemned in such a +short period. The overwork and confinement was more than she could +endure and she sought rest from the weary toil inflicted upon herself in +behalf of her people.</p> + +<p class="p2"></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <a name="25"></a> + <img src="images/302a.jpg" width="500" height="250" + alt="Illustration: THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER." + title="THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER." /> + <p class="caption">THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">In a grove of tall fir trees, close to the placid waters of the Grand +River, Yamanatz erected his tepee, where in the soft, balmy air, +fragrant with balsam and cedar, Chiquita could rest and watch the clouds +as they made great shadow pictures on the mountain and stream. Like a +sentinel, a lone peak stood beyond the cleft in the great divide, whose +precipitous sides rose in towering splendor all clad in verdure green. +The river reflected on its mirror of millions of tiny drops of sparkling +water, the blue sky, the trees tinted red by the setting sun, the tepee +on the bank of the stream and the mountain tipped with its cap of +eternal snow. The camp fire sent a spiral of thin blue smoke toward the +azure dome, and by the lurid coals two Utes smoked in silence. Within +the sign-bedecked tepee, upon a couch of lion skins, lay Chiquita, clad +in hunting garb, her rifle and fishing rod beside her. Yamanatz, +Antelope, Jack, and the mother of Chiquita stood by, while the fairest +of the White River maidens told them of the great happiness which +awaited her in the Happy Hunting Ground of the Utes which lay just +beyond the sky.</p> + +<p>"If my father and my mother were only there," said Chiquita, as she +pointed beyond the cleft above the river. "And, Jack," she continued, +"you must beg leave of absence from the heaven of the white man and +visit Chiquita in her happy home. You will find birds that sing and the +bounding deer and flowers that bloom. The warriors of many, many snows +are gathered there and you will see the Utes in all their grandeur, as +they were before the white man took their land."</p> + +<p>"But what of your friends, Chiquita, those who taught you of the +religion of our people, of the only Christ who died to save mankind?" +asked Jack, as he recalled the years and years of Chiquita's life in +school, in college, in the hospital, the church and in the society of +the ablest women of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Jack!" Chiquita waited a moment, then with her bright eyes +reflecting the love of the forest queen for her native haunts, customs +and the freedom of the woods, she continued, "The God who gave you the +Christ gave you also wisdom, and with that wisdom cruel weapons to drive +the weaker to destruction. The paleface has driven the red man to his +death. My people share not the needs nor desires which civilization +brings to the white brethren, nor the society demands which make our +paleface sister a slave to her calling. Jack, I have lived among my +white sisters, I have been one of them, been sought for, banqueted, +heralded and had tributes of honor thrust upon me. No school, no church, +no institution of science, no club, no society, no matter how select, +has been other than glad to have Chiquita honor them with her presence. +With wealth untold and accomplishments unattained before by any woman in +the world, Chiquita returns to her forest home for peace and +contentment. 'In my Father's house are many mansions.' Yes, Jack, and +the tepees of the great Indian nation stretch beyond the sky to welcome +Chiquita. See, Jack, father, mother, the braves in all their glorious +array are waiting for Chiquita! 'Our Father,' the Great Spirit of both +the red and white man, welcomes. It is in the peace of the Happy Hunting +Ground that we find rest. Adios, Jack. The great Yamanatz will soon +follow and it will not be long ere all my people are as the buffalo, and +the white man alone in the land that once was a paradise, but the +mockery of civilization turned it into a stench hole of iniquity and +market place of educated vampires, against which the child of the forest +of the same God had no"—<ins title="Transcriber's Note: +Retained space after Emdash; used in lieu of a period."> </ins>The voice failed to respond to the effort. +Chiquita was dead. And with her was buried that undying, unquenchable, +unsung love which consumed her heart.</p> + +<p>A camp bird, in subdued autumn plumage of black and pearl gray, mewed +plaintively as the old warrior came forth from the tepee. The wrinkled +visaged chief beat his breast and muttered in Ute dialect the prayers of +a bereaved father for a dead daughter. The old "medicine" chief ceased +to bang the tom-tom and the jargon of the squaws was silenced. Jack +looked on with keen disappointment. For years he had watched and +sympathized with Chiquita in her ambition; and now at the last turn in +the great course of life, after tasting nearly every phase of civilized +honor, she had returned to the religion of her fathers and died with +utter contempt in her heart for the foibles and allurements of +civilization, civilized society and civilized government.</p> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<hr class="c10" /> + +<p class="p4"></p> + +<div class='tnote'> + <h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + <p>Obvious punctuation errors corrected.</p> + <p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word + and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: Original reads 'apprear'"> + appear</ins>.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chiquita, an American Novel, by Merrill Tileston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIQUITA, AN AMERICAN NOVEL *** + +***** This file should be named 33030-h.htm or 33030-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/3/33030/ + +Produced by Mark C Orton, Carol Ann Brown, Linda McKeown +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chiquita, an American Novel + The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter + +Author: Merrill Tileston + +Release Date: June 30, 2010 [EBook #33030] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIQUITA, AN AMERICAN NOVEL *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C Orton, Carol Ann Brown, Linda McKeown +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +CHIQUITA + + +[Illustration: CHIQUITA] + + + + + +CHIQUITA + +AN AMERICAN NOVEL + +The Romance of a Ute Chief's Daughter + +BY + +MERRILL TILESTON + +PUBLISHED BY +THE MERRILL COMPANY +CHICAGO, U. S. A. +MCMII. + + + + + + +Copyright 1902 by +H. M. Tileston +Chicago, U. S. A. +All rights reserved + + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + + Page + + CHAPTER I. A Bozrah Bornin', 7 + + CHAPTER II. On the Firing Line of Civilization, 33 + + CHAPTER III. Cats, Traps and Indians, 50 + + CHAPTER IV. Old Joe Riggs, 71 + + CHAPTER V. The Camp in the Willows, 82 + + CHAPTER VI. The Ranch on the Troublesome, 110 + + CHAPTER VII. Chiquita Wooed by Antelope, 124 + + CHAPTER VIII. A Glimpse of Home, 134 + + CHAPTER IX. Ute Big Warrior--No Plow, 143 + + CHAPTER X. The Blazing Eye Mine, 171 + + CHAPTER XI. College Vacations, 180 + + CHAPTER XII. Jack Wedded, 192 + + CHAPTER XIII. Estes Park, 212 + + CHAPTER XIV. Chiquita Graduates, 256 + + CHAPTER XV. A Hospital and A Boarding House, 263 + + CHAPTER XVI. Galling Yokes of Civilization, 274 + + CHAPTER XVII. Whence Come My People? 293 + + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + + FRONTISPIECE, "Chiquita" + + YAMANATZ, 52 + + THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS, 103 + + ANTELOPE--THE WARRIOR, 1877, 132 + + ANTELOPE--THE CIVILIAN, 1902, 168 + + THE "KEYHOLE"--LONG'S PEAK, 212 + + "SHE LAY TO REST" ON HER BOULDER BED, 232 + + THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER, 303 + + + + + +CHIQUITA. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A BOZRAH BORNIN'. + + +A tallow candle shed its sickly and flickering light in the front room +of an ancient farm house, as Jack Sheppard announced his arrival on +earth at four o'clock on a Friday morning. He arrived in a snowstorm, +and it was a very select gathering of some of old Bozrah's prominent +citizens who greeted his entry into the world. There was old Doctor +Pettingill, with square-rimmed, blue-glass spectacles; Grandma Paisley, +who didn't care for avoirdupois, just so it was a boy; Aunt Diantha, +with portentous air and red mittens, while in the kitchen, dozing by the +big fireplace, was Uncle Zebedee, who had driven over from Pudden Hollow +the evening before to learn the news and "set up" all night in order to +be of assistance in case of necessity. + +The whole Deerfield valley was interested, and it made no difference if +the snow did play tag up and down the necks and on the faces of all +Bozrah as they brought paregoric, feather pillows, goody-goodies and all +the useful uselessnesses that each and every one had kept for years and +years awaiting a possible occasion. There was an old brass warming-pan +that Deacon Baxter used to warm the bed for Governor Winthrop, and a hot +water jug which Great-grandma Lathrop averred warmed the feet of every +one of her seventeen "darters and grand-darters." There was also a quilt +made of silk patches, each patch taken from a dress that some colonial +dame had worn when she danced the stately minuet at a great function in +Boston or Albany. + +All these good people had a successful way of bringing up children in +the paths of self-reliance, respect, thrift, endurance and honesty which +made stalwart, orthodox patriots. + +The Sheppards were an old English family who settled in New England late +in the seventeenth century--three brothers, one of which, according to +ye olden tyme records, planted the elm trees in front of the +meetyngehouse on Dorchester hill; these trees, at the age of sixty or +seventy years, being cut down by the British during the Revolutionary +War. The descendants of the three brothers were thrifty men, large of +physique and of great executive ability, the women the loveliest of the +colonies--families of sterling integrity, wealth and esteem. + +"Thad" Sheppard, Jack's father, was in some respects an exception, he +being a man of the world, of the wild, dangerous class, handsome and +talented, but lacking the balance wheel which magnetic temperaments +usually require. He was admired by both men and women to the point of +the danger line, for his schemes wrecked many a fortune and family, +ultimately losing him the confidence of all. "Thad" loved one of the +beautiful daughters of the Deerfield valley, and, despite the +protestations of friends and relatives, she married him, claiming she +could do what none thus far had been able to accomplish--reform him. +"Thad's" habits had not been curbed. Life was too gay for thoughts of +the sombre hereafter, and the sedate, sober counsel of the old men was +scorned, but their predictions were to be most cruelly fulfilled. Yet +there was that confiding love, that desire to accomplish miracles, which +swayed the fair young girl of the Deerfield hills to sacrifice herself +in the hope of reform. Oh, what a waste of time for any woman! What +debauchery of intellect, what a prostitution of a fair and beautiful +life; utter folly, deliberate social suicide, with its months and years +of anguish and debasement for the mere gratification of an impulse! To +be sure, there are some moments, comprising even days or months, when +happiness reigns, but do these few hours, which grow farther apart, +shorter and shorter, as time wears away, compensate for the millions of +silent, expectant moments during which the uncomplaining wife watches +for that unerring expression which never deceives her? Is there any +excuse a mother can give her daughter, budding into womanhood, for +bringing her into the world to face disgrace, possibly crime? Does a +son, born of such parents, have that respect and confidence toward +father and mother that he should? + +Sue Paisley lived on that beautiful farm where Jack was born. She was on +a visit while "Thad" attended important business in the great cotton +markets of the South. She loved the brook that gurgled and splashed +along its course. Nodding bluebells coquetted with the tiny wave crests, +while the grass along the bank waved little blades in defiance at the +roar of its voice. Each summer Sue sang its praises to the tinkle of the +whetstone as the farm hand sharpened his scythe, tink, tink, tinkety +tink. When she married, she left the long rows of maple trees, the great +red barn, the stuffy parlor, the spare room with its high feather bed +and Dutch clock; the big round dining table with tilting top, blue and +white chinaware, and the long well sweep, to become hostess in the more +pretentious surroundings of a small city on the Connecticut, living long +enough to realize how futile were her efforts to stay the temptations +which beset "Thad" on every hand. Misfortune overtook all his financial +investments, and, as one enterprise followed another in the maelstrom of +speculation, Sue's life ebbed away, leaving Jack and his sisters to be +cared for by a spinster aunt, who undertook the responsibility at the +earnest solicitation of "Thad." + +The awakening from sin was that of genuine remorse and sorrow. With the +characteristic determination of those rugged ancestors, "Thad" broke off +all his former boon companionships, started on entirely new lines of +life and succeeded in living down the awful past. In a few years he +remarried, giving Jack a mother who learned to love her stepson as her +own. Jack was not the ever industrious boy in school, but he was quick +to learn both kinds of knowledge, useful and mischievous. That is the +reason why the old red school-house, at the top of the hill, held +pleasant recollections for him in after life. Of course, "J-A-C-K" was +carved into the top of every desk at which he sat and, as the first row +of desks was the "baby" or A, B, C row, the next one a little larger, +and so on, the four rows of "boxes" represented four classes, and Jack +managed to stay in each class long enough to carve his name where future +generations would find it. + +"He's the most trying pupil in the school," was what the teacher told +everybody in the little village. + +When the snow was deep, Jack took his dinner in a little basket, just +the same as the other scholars, and at the noon recess he was always in +the games in which the girls liked to have a few of the nice boys to +help out. Two chairs, facing each other, with a little gap between them, +then a ring of boys and girls holding hands to circle around between the +chairs, while a boy and a girl stood on the chairs, hands clasped across +the gap, all joining in singing the little couplet: + + "The needle's eye that does supply + The thread that runs so true, + I've caught many a smiling lass, + And now I have caught you." + +It was the boy's turn to choose the girl he wanted for a partner, and +she had to submit to the penalty of a kiss before she could mount the +chair. The desks were arranged in horseshoe form, and of course the +favorite seats were in the back row, farthest away from the teacher, but +Jack generally managed to be on a line with the first nail hole in the +horseshoe by the time the first third of the term was reached. This, so +the teacher could better keep her eye on him. + +It was near the end of the summer term that a little event occurred +which made a lasting impression on Jack. His seat-mate was an ungainly +little urchin who had the faculty of being cunning without being smart. +His name was "Ted" Smith, but he was better known as "Ted Weaver," for +he had a habit of rocking to and fro from one hand to another while he +studied. Jack happened to be busy with lessons when some one shot a +paper wad at one of the scholars, which missed the scholar but hit the +teacher on the cheek. + +Miss Freeman was spare and angular, with a pointed rose-colored nose, +hard, cold-gray eyes, and long neck circled with a severe white linen +collar, which lay flat over the prominent collar bones. The black waist +of her dress was severely plain, with, seemingly, a gross of buttons +made of wooden molds covered with the dress fabric. The skirt covered an +area of floor space that was in keeping with the period before the Civil +War, when hoop skirts ruled the fashion, and, as the "tilter" tilted, it +could be seen the school ma'am enumerated among her personal belongings +a pair of white hose and cloth gaiters. A head of luxurious hair was +parted exactly in the middle and divided into three portions, two side +and back strands, the side strands twisted to the temples, then the +smooth flat surface gracefully looped over the tops of the ears until +the curve of the hair reached the eyebrows; the ends of the strands were +then formed into a foundation, around which the back hair was wound, +after a sufficient quantity had been properly separated for curls--long +ones for the side, or short ones to dangle idly behind. + +When the paper wad struck Miss Freeman a rap immediately brought the +school to order. With a searching gaze she tried to locate the evil +doer, and her well-trained eye rested on Jack, who innocently looked up +to see the cause of the unusual summons "to order." Jack knew who shot +the wad, for he had noticed the culprit shoot others earlier in the day, +a performance which had escaped the teacher's notice and cheek. + +"Jack, did you throw that paper wad?" she asked, her voice as cold and +hard as that of the second mate of a three-masted brig. + +"No, ma'am." + +"Do you know who did throw it?" + +Jack would not tell a lie about the wad, so he answered slowly, "Yes, +ma'am." + +"Who did it?" + +There was no reply. + +"Who threw the wad?" + +She had flushed to her hair at the commencement of the inquisition, but +now the color slowly receded and the lines in her severe face became +like those in stone. + +"Unless you tell me who threw the wad I shall punish you." + +Jack remained silent. His little bosom filled with wrath because the +culprit would not speak up; but his honor was so strong that he would +not be "telltale." The teacher reached for her switch and told Jack to +step forward. Like a little man he marched up to her desk and stood, not +defiant, but humble and submissive, awaiting his punishment. Miss +Freeman stepped down from the platform with switch in hand, and again +demanded the name of the guilty one. + +"I'll never tell," said Jack in a whisper. + +There was a swish in the air and a sharp cracking noise as the rod smote +Jack around the fleshy part of his legs. + +"Will you tell now?" asked the teacher again. + +Jack made no answer, but shook his head and stifled a sob. He knew if he +relaxed his firmly shut teeth he would cry, so he gritted them and +prepared to receive the following blows without flinching. Thoroughly +maddened, the school ma'am finally threw off all endeavor of restraint +and showered blow after blow upon poor Jack's arms, legs and bare feet, +for it was summer and Jack followed the custom of other boys. But, it is +needless to say, that was the last day he went barefooted. The switch +was broken, but not the spirit in the boy. He had given way to tears, +which gushed forth because of bodily pain. He sought to protect his feet +and grabbed the infuriated school ma'am's skirt, and as the blows +descended he swung under the protecting expanse of hoops. This piece of +strategy perplexed the teacher, and as she had broken all her switches +she had to suspend hostilities until a new supply was gathered. Leaving +Jack and the school room, she hastened to the willows, which grew in +abundance just back of the building, and brought in a stick as big as a +cane, just in time to see Jack disappearing through the window and his +sturdy little legs, all striped with red marks, making tracks for home. + +Episodes of this character followed Jack all through his school life. He +had a stern father, who always punished his children if they were +punished at school, no matter what the excuse, and on this occasion +there was no exception, only in place of another "birching" the filial +duty was limited to sending the boy to bed without anything to eat, so +he could reflect upon the awful crime of disobedience to his teacher. + +Nature has ever been prodigal in the distribution of her favors and +disfavors, limiting her generosity in the picturesque to certain +localities, and giving in abundance to the arid regions, as well as to +the fertile valleys. But in her selfish allotments no upheavals in the +vast chaos of creation furnished man an abiding place so compatible with +his Puritanical doctrines as the forbidding rock-walled coast of New +England and the everlasting hills extending back to the Hudson River, +with their beautiful slopes, sinuous streams and forest-scented dales. +And it was among these hills that Jack found, even in his younger days, +that pleasure and freedom which afterward was intensified by his +associations with the forest-born red man. + +Old Bozrah, where he first saw the light of day, was the Mecca to which +his longing gaze was ever turned, even as he studied, worked or played, +and no greater treat was in store for him than the one looked forward to +when his father hitched up "Old Jerry" to drive that long twenty miles, +through villages and past cross-road stores, to the old farm house. "Old +Jerry" was known even better than "Thad" Sheppard. Every factory hand on +Mill River from where it emptied into the Connecticut to the great +reservoirs in the Goshen hills, and every farmer, merchant and preacher +knew "Thad" and "Old Jerry." + +"Thad" was well aware of the danger that lurked in the old reservoirs +and knew the day would come when the torrent would burst forth and sweep +all the industries away, and Jack wondered why everybody looked so grave +and serious when the spring freshets made the brooks roily so he could +not fish. In after years when that animated devastating fortress of +trees, rocks and factory debris crushed its way down the valley, +receiving its propulsive force from the waters which broke forth from +bondage, Jack remembered those grave and serious faces. + +But it was among the hills of the Deerfield valley that Jack loved best +to wander and to fish for trout, or to help Uncle Zebedee and Uncle John +in planting or haying or "salting" the cattle, or gathering apples on +hills so steep that the fruit rolled a rod sometimes after falling from +the trees. + +In the old barn at milking time, when the cows were yoked to their feed +racks, Jack helped give them hay--nice new clover--and then waited and +watched Aunt Sally strain the warm fluid into the bright pans, fearing +the while she would forget the little cup, which he kept moving from one +place to another, and which she seemed never to see until almost the +last drop in the pail was reached. Churning day was always welcome to +Jack. The old yellow churn, which stood near the big water trough in the +wash room, had to be brought into the kitchen, and then he would turn +the paddle wheel round and round, listening to the patter of the blades +as they splashed into the cream, until finally he knew by the sound that +the butter had "come." + +Jack did not like Saturday night very well, for at sundown on the last +day of the week those good orthodox folks commenced their Sunday. +Saturday afternoon was given to baking cake and other dainties and +getting the house in order for the Lord's Day. The men folks were shaved +clean and all the chores were done and supper ended before sundown. Then +the old black leather Bible was taken from the shelf and all gathered +around for family prayers. These devotions were held every night about +bedtime, but Saturday evening was the beginning of the Sabbath, and +services were held earlier and longer than on other days of the week. +The room, with its chintz-covered lounge, rag carpet, Dutch clock, and +chairs upholstered in haircloth, seemed more sacred on Saturday. The +Bible was read, a lesson given from the shorter catechism, and several +of Watts' hymns repeated by all together, or by volunteers, as the +spirit moved; a song or two, then all would kneel devoutly, while Uncle +John, in deep stentorian voice, prayed long and earnestly for the divine +grace, which sustains the righteous through the snares and temptations +of the wicked world; after which all retired. + +On Sunday no work was done that could be avoided, and at an early hour +in solemn procession all filed out to the vehicles which conveyed them +to the village two and one-half miles away. The horses knew it was +Sunday and devoutly raised one leg at a time in covering the distance. +The minister knew it was Sunday and exhorted his hearers, with threats +of dire hell and damnation, to mend their ways. Sunday school +immediately after the morning service, then lunch at the wagons or on +the steps of the church or in the church, and again the minister +unrolled his sermons and renewed his valiant fight in redemption of +sinners. The choir stood up, the leader struck the key with his tuning +fork, and when the "pitch" was duly recognized the last hymn was sung, +followed by the doxology and benediction. All hearts seemed to begin +life anew when the final "Amen" was pronounced, and although the long +hill had to be ascended, it took less time than it had to descend in the +morning. It was dinner time when the farm was again reached and all were +hungry. After the meal the family gathered in the parlor, with its +fragrant odor of musty walls, varnished maps and stuffy ancientness +which pervaded everything. Here the conversation dwelt upon the goodness +of the Lord, misfortunes of the sick in the neighborhood, news of which +had been learned at church, or other topics not too worldly. As sundown +approached the men folks commenced to get ready for the week's work and +changed their clothes, while the women got out aprons and put away their +"Sunday duds." By sunset the wash barrel was brought forth and the +laundry work for Monday commenced. + +In the wagon-shed Uncle John had his scythe ready to grind, and as Jack +turned the stone he said to himself, "Uncle John bears down harder on +Sunday night than he does any other night in the week." + +These visits to the old farm were at frequent intervals, so Jack had +ample opportunity to see real country life under all the different +aspects of maple-sugar making, planting, haying, cutting wood for the +year, and building stone walls. Berrying was about the greatest +enjoyment, next to catching brook trout, and such an abundance of +blackberries in the pastures and woods where portions of the timber had +been cut out! But the visits came to an end, inasmuch as Jack's father +"moved west" to one of the great flour-milling cities, which flourished +at the close of the Civil War. + +In the west Jack received his final education, at sixteen taking leave +of Latin, algebra and rhetoric, with one term in the high school. During +the grammar school incubation Jack learned the difference between a +village teacher and a city ward instructor; also that the western city +ward boy had to fight occasionally, while the good New England lad was +in mortal disgrace if he ever presumed to raise his hands against a +fellow schoolmate. Jack had been warned time and again by his father not +to fight, as it was wicked, and severe punishment awaited all +demonstrations of anything in the nature of a "scrap." + +It was but natural that a boy who would not fight should become the +target for every pugnacious lad in the school, and Jack went home +regularly with a bloody nose or scratched face, as a result of some +misunderstanding. Not only would he get larruped by the bigger boys, but +little fellows half his size walloped him good and plenty. Then the +teacher had to make an example of him with the ruler, and finally his +father finished up the job in the barn or across his knee with the hair +brush. The hair brush was the handiest thing Jack ever encountered in +his "spare (not) the rod" career. One day he went home with a frightful +cut in his lip where some "bully" of the school had kicked him. His +father lost all patience and Jack pleaded for a hearing. + +"Why do you tell me it is wicked to fight and punish me for getting +licked? I can lick any boy in the school, but have never raised my hand +yet, because you told me not to, and they pick on me all the time." + +It was a revelation to the parent and he wondered at his own obtuseness. +One instruction, one little lesson to be a man, he gave Jack: "Do not +fight for the sake of showing off, or to be a 'bully,' but defend +yourself always." + +Jack was all excitement, and forgot his swollen lip. His father +continued: "And when you find you have to defend yourself, strike +straight from the shoulder and hit between the eyes, downward, like +that," and the stern old man took a crack at the side of the barn and +ripped a board off, besides nearly breaking his knuckle. Jack went to +school that afternoon, and at recess, when a big, red-headed bully, +nicknamed "Cross-eyed Whittaker," commenced to tease and banter him, +Jack edged away as usual, but with eyes ablaze and fist clinched. He saw +that the "bully" was bent on showing off, and knew the time had come to +make the first stand for Jack. Whittaker was about the same height, but +much heavier in build than Jack. Finally, as the big one got nearer and +nearer and became more and more offensive, Jack stood his ground, +looking the "bully" over from head to foot, and suddenly said: + +"You miserable coward, you have picked on me long enough. Now let me +alone or take the licking that you deserve." + +The other boys, of course, jumped up and gathered in a ring. "Fight! +Fight!" was yelled by a hundred throats, as all rushed to where the now +angry combatants faced each other. Jack stood poised on one foot ready +for any emergency. All at once he spied the crony of the "bully" +sneaking through the crowd of boys to get behind his chum. When the +latter saw his "pal" his courage increased wonderfully, but ere he had +time to put into execution the thoughts uppermost in his mind, Jack made +a feint, a step back and then a lunge ahead with a right-hand smash just +as he had seen his father hit the board, and the "bully" lay at his feet +writhing and kicking in defeat. + +Whittaker took the licking very much to heart, and he carried a scar on +his lip, caused by Jack's blow, to his grave. Jack heard occasionally +that the "bully" had sworn to "get even," but as time passed and their +pursuits carried them into opposing channels, Whittaker soon became a +school-day reminiscence and later was not even remembered by name. + +Jack's school days came to an end and he went into his father's mill to +work, learning the various methods of flour manufacture and manner of +marketing the product. The business did not seem to take his fancy. +"Something wrong in the industry," he would often say to the boss +miller. "Here you work this mill day and night, turn out three hundred +barrels of flour every twenty-four hours, yet lose money on the product +half the time. Six months of the year is a loss, but none of the mill +owners can give the reason why." + +"You're right, kid; but that ain't nothin' to me to figger out. I've +been dressin' mill stones an' cuttin' them burrs ever since I was your +age, an' it's allus been the same. Sometimes it's the wheat, sometimes +the weather, but in the end it's as you say. P'raps it's the farmer, who +asks too big a price." + +"No, it's not any one of those causes," said Jack, meditatively. "It's +that big engine down there eating up coal and the carrying charge to get +the flour to market. That's what ails the business. Look, now; see that +farmer with a load of wheat on the scales. There's father out there +taking a handful out of one sack and a cupful out of another. (Look out, +dad, you may strike a nest of screenings shot into the middle of one of +those sacks with a stove pipe.) He's bought the load and now it's going +into the hopper, where it will in all probability be mixed with inferior +grades. Then people complain the flour is no good, and you grind up a +lot of corn meal and feed it back into the flour, or regrind with some +middlings, until one can't tell whether it is flour or hog feed, and +where are the profits? Now, let me tell you. I was listening the other +day to that little alderman over in the second ward. He was talking +politics and business, and when he was not roasting 'Bob' Ingersoll or +General Grant he was making fun of Illinois River millers. He said--and +you know what a big voice the little fellow has--he said this: 'There's +a town up by St. Anthony's Falls that will turn out more flour in a day +than we turn out in a week, and you know we are some pumpkins with our +flour barrels, ain't we?'" + +"Say, kid, you're sure of what you just said?" asked the miller, +interestedly. + +"Sure as I live," replied Jack; "why?" + +"Well, I'm goin' up to see that bit of water near St. Paul." + +"The nearest town is Minneapolis, a little suburb of St. Paul," answered +Jack, remembering his geography lessons. + +Between oiling machinery, sacking bran, sewing flour sacks, heading +barrels, sweeping, and occasionally "learning his trade," as he called +it, over in the cooper shop, Jack got to be pretty well posted on the +manufacture of flour, but he did not like the business and finally gave +it up, deciding to take up the mercantile sphere and quit the field +wherein the foundations of the most gigantic fortunes were just ready +for the superstructure--flour, oil, harvest machinery and provisions, to +say nothing of the contributory railway and telegraph business. He went +to Boston, secured a position in a large wholesale establishment, lived +in one of the beautiful suburban cities which surround the "Hub" on +three sides, and there learned the lessons of prudence, sharp buying and +economical, labor-saving methods, which were in contrast with the +wastefulness and unsystematic methods prevalent in the great west. Not +long after Jack was well established his father packed up the family +belongings and moved where he could be with his son. + +In a little country village fifty miles from Boston, on the Newburyport +branch of the B. & M. R. R., lived Hazel Hemmingway. When Jack Sheppard +was a pupil of Miss Freeman's in the old red school house back in the +hills of western Massachusetts, he divided his apple with Hazel, dragged +her white sled up hill in winter, and in summer made for her peachstone +baskets, which he whittled out with his "Barlow" knife. There was no +girl in all the world to Jack that compared with the brown-eyed, +brown-faced Hazel, and no boy in the school got so many cookies, +bon-bons and dainty notes slipped into arithmetic or grammar as did +Jack. + +The parting when Jack's father moved to the west was full of tender +good-byes and promises to "write real often" on the part of +both--promises which each faithfully kept. As the years passed Mr. +Hemmingway became interested in a shoe factory in the eastern part of +the state and moved his family to the thriving little manufacturing +town. The correspondence continued between the twain, and when Jack +returned to Boston a girl to womanhood grown knew that a supplementary +reason caused the young man to select Boston, and that she was the +supplement. Of course no one else ever dreamed the truth. + +It was not long after Jack was established in the "Hub" that he made the +first visit to Hazel in her new home, spending the Sabbath in the quaint +old place which was within the pale of influence spread by the historic +witchcraft of the ancients. The renewal of that childhood acquaintance +needed no flint and steel to ignite the tiny spark of smouldering fire +into a flame of enduring love. Jack sat dignified and martyr-like while +the minister preached upon the evils which beset the young and dangers +to the worldly-minded. "The vain glories of dress and fashion are an +abomination of the Lord," said the man of God. Jack moved uncomfortably +in his new suit of clothes, while Hazel from her choir seat telegraphed +her convictions that the dominie was right, just to plague Jack. And +when the admonition came, "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man," +Jack said to himself, "A whip for a horse, a bridle for an ass and a rod +for a fool's back." + +At last the "fourthly" came to an end and so did the church service for +the morning. Jack and Hazel wended their way to her home, where dinner +awaited them, after which followed a walk under the far spreading elms +that arched the roadway, and as they walked they talked of childhood +pastimes, joking each other of forgotten jealousies, or dwelling upon +indelibly impressed, attaching episodes, the remembrance of which were +souvenirs, non-negotiable and indestructible. They had left the little +village behind and reached a large pine grove where the Sunday-school +picnic was annually held. Seating themselves upon a rustic bench, Jack +told of his life in the far distant west, as the states bordering upon +the Mississippi River were then called, finishing with his return to the +east and plans for the future. Hazel was an attentive listener, +interrupting occasionally to inquire what Gertie Whitcomb looked like, +or if Eva Duncan was freckled, or Nellie Courtney a good skater, as Jack +included them in his biography of events. + +"Not that it makes any difference, Jack, but I--er--er--just wanted to +know," said Hazel, with the least bit of suspicion in her manner. + +As he told of fastening Nellie's skates for her and of the lovely ice, +the big crowds on the lake, and what a pretty girl Nellie was, Hazel +kept time with her dainty foot kicking her broad-brimmed leghorn, which +dangled by the string from her hand, finishing by poising the hat on her +toe while she disinterestedly remarked, "Those western girls have such +large feet; I suppose they have no trouble standing up on the ice," a +remark which pleased the young man immensely, although he essayed no +response. + +When Jack reached his plans for the future Hazel became even more +inclined to worry the historian by a rapid fire of insinuations. + +"I suppose you will have to go on the road and take long trips out west +to--sell goods? Shall you have the choice of territory when you get to +be a salesman?" "Do those western stores carry as fine a line of goods +as our folks do in the east?" "The styles out there are about two years +behind ours; don't the girls look old fashioned?" To all of which Jack +had one answer, "Yes." + +"You can stop saying 'yes' all the time." + +"I will, Hazel dear, on one condition--that you say 'yes.'" + +"Yes," demurely answered Hazel. + +Just then from a near-by hillside came the tattoo welcome of a cock +partridge "drumming" for his mate, the measured, gradually increasing +roar making the woods resound as Mr. Grouse beat the hollow log upon +which he strutted up and down until his coquettish spouse approached +within sight of her liege lord. She came, pecking negligently at snails +and bugs, missing them oftener than hitting them, but she didn't care. +She scratched at imaginary seeds, inattentively awaiting his pleasure. +As soon as the cock perceived his bride he spread his tail like a fan, +clucked a welcome and flew to her side. + +"There, my dear," said Jack; "that is the way you must obey me when I am +lord and master. Be very meek and let me do the splurging." + +"And don't I get a chance to say a teeny, weensy word? Have I just got +to listen, and watch the man of the house dry the dishes, get the +breakfast (if we can't have a domestic) and"--Hazel rolled her eyes +mockingly meek and with her hands "Now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep" fashion, +continued, "match samples for me at the store?" Jack capitulated; his +grandeur collapsed "all at once and nothing first, just as bubbles do +when they burst." Two merry peals of laughter echoed through the +pine-scented woods. + +"Sh! Jack, it is Sunday. I forgot all about it, and we must go home. +Papa will wonder where I am," and a little red spot burned on each cheek +as she surmized what "papa" would say when he found out that the young +man from Boston "proposed to splurge." + +But Jack's splurging was all make-believe. In the shadowy recesses of +the great elms, as they retraced their steps toward the Hemmingway +mansion, a manly arm stole about the waist of the lithesome girl, whose +demure "yes" had to be sealed in order to make it real. Mr. Hemmingway +was in the library as they entered the house. Jack nudged Hazel at the +portentously contracted brows of papa and the stern look of inquiry +which followed. Hazel quickly stepped into the hall, leaving Jack alone. + +"Papa, Jack--Mr. Sheppard--wants to speak to you a moment," then she +flew past the meekest man that ever tried to splurge. + +"Mr. Hemmingway"-- Jack got that far and it seemed as though every +whisker in that stern face became a bristling bayonet. "I think you must +be able to guess my mission." + +"What? No--no. Jack, you--why, you are but a boy, and Hazel"-- A softer, +kindlier expression crept slowly into the face of the man whose only +daughter he suddenly realized had become a woman. "Jack, I moved here to +keep my child--to get her away from the--from the--it is no use, though. +I guess you will be good to her. Let me see, you are the boy who got +such an awful whipping once because you would not be a tell-tale, and a +boy that has that kind of grit, I guess, is the right stuff to be my +son-in-law. Hazel"-- + +The stern old man went out upon the lawn as Hazel re-entered the +library. A noise as of some one vigorously using a handkerchief broke +the stillness, but even then the old man chuckled as he saw two figures +silhouetted upon the curtain. "Celebrating my consent, I guess," he +soliloquized. + +"Hazel, you had better pull down the green shade." Then to himself, +"These children have no conception of the propriety of things." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ON THE "FIRING LINE" OF CIVILIZATION. + + +The summer vacation period found Jack among the old hills of Bozrah, his +first visit to the scenes of his childhood since making Boston his home. +Six years' business and social life in and about the "Hub" launched Jack +upon the world a polished gentleman, refined, cultured, energetic, well +qualified to step into a position demanding more than ordinary ability. + +The first panic in his experience had unsettled values, trade was at a +standstill, confidence was lacking, men hoarded their wealth and the +wheels of many mills ceased to turn, while mill hands idly walked the +streets or sought labor in distant parts of the globe. The great +electoral dispute of "eight to seven" still rankled in the minds of +many, while those who cared not for that controversy found themselves +unable to entertain the problems of manufacture until the changes +anticipated in the tariff should be made by congress. Realizing that the +east gave little promise or opportunity for a young man, Jack concluded, +soon after his vacation ended, to resign his position and cast his lot +with the pioneer on the frontier, or, at least that he would visit +Denver and see what the chances were there. + +The breaking off of fast friendships was keenly felt; business and +social acquaintances admired his "grit," as they called it, but were +skeptical as to the ultimate results. Hazel had become a frequent +visitor at the Sheppard mansion and made it her "home-in-law," as she +called it, whenever fancy took her cityward. She happened to be there +when Jack declared himself. + +"I've resigned my job and am going to Colorado within a month." + +"Jack Sheppard! What? Going to Colorado? Going to leave Boston? Indians! +You'll come home without any scalp!" + +Such was the chorus which greeted his simple announcement. Hazel cried, +his mother cried, his sisters moped around, and his father patted him on +the back. "Go and see the world, broaden out, the experience will be +worth the cost, even if you don't stay," he said, with lots of emphasis +on the experience. + +Five days from Boston to Denver. Everything was the old, old story of +farms, villages and small cities until the train left Kansas City, then +the arid plains opened wider and wider, the towns grew farther and +farther apart, less and less in size until what was marked a station on +the trip ticket given him by the conductor proved on arrival to be a +platform, a water tank and a cowboy straddle of a "buckskin," white-eyed +broncho. These scenes in truth were new and Jack's experience had +commenced. Occasionally the water tank was supplemented by a saloon. +Great herds of cattle grazed along the unfenced right of way of the +railroad, and the treeless expanse of never ending brown, sun-burned, +alkali-spotted plains wearied the eye, the mind and soul in their +wretched monotony. The slow-going "fire wagon," drawing its burden of +weary humanity, puffed laboriously along the hot iron pathway toward the +setting sun at a speed so slow that many a "cow puncher" tested the +mettle of his hardy, sure-footed pony to the discomfiture of the iron +horse and its attendant. + +Antelope raced with the train and buffalo stood defiantly in the +wallows, their lop-ended bodies appearing strangely out of proportion +for sustaining the equilibrium necessary for feeding, fighting or +flying. Prairie dogs barked their squeaky warnings, and wise looking +little top-heavy owls flapped their wings lazily in an attempt to rise, +only to fall awkwardly into the next dog village near by, as the train +rumbled through the sand-duned desert. But all things have an end. So +did the first journey to Denver. Within a week Jack met a mountain guide +who told of the deer, the bear, the trout in Middle Park. Within another +week he had purchased an Indian pony, saddle, and provisions to last two +for seven months, agreeing to follow the guide and trapper in his +winter's occupation of securing pelts for market. + +It took a month to reach the final spot selected for a cabin on Rock +Creek, during which time Jack met many of the brave and weather-beaten, +buckskin clad frontiersmen living on the firing line of civilization at +the very threshold of savagedom. Men who drove the rude stakes marking +pioneer advancement into the soil wrested from its occupants by purchase +from a broken down dynasty, claiming discovery, a nation whose bigoted +avariciousness blinded its foresight to the end of bartering away its +last foothold on the great American continent. + +The incidents from Denver to Rock Creek Jack enumerated in an improvised +journal, greasy from continued usage in his endeavor to let nothing +escape the record. + +"First night: Slept on the floor of a grocery store, twenty miles from +Denver, a buffalo robe between me and the boards. + +"Second night: Slept in the hay in a barn at Georgetown. + +"Third day: A. M. Homesick. The trapper not ready to go into Middle +Park; must wait four days. All my money left in Denver. Supposed we +would have no use for money, as all our worldly provisions and needs +would be on the wagon or pack animals, but the provisions are coming by +rail and we eat at a restaurant in the mining town where the railway +terminates. As my money is gone and no provisions here, I am at a loss +to satisfy hunger. + +"Third day: P. M. Heard some dogs barking away up on the side of the +mountain; asked the butcher if he would buy a wild goat if I killed one. +It was goats that made the dogs bark, goats that once were civilized but +had strayed away and became wild. Shouldered my rifle and climbed that +awful stretch of snow-covered slide rock at the imminent peril of +starting an avalanche and destroying the whole town. Killed a goat, a +black one. Shot him in the shoulder just where "Swiftfoot, the scout," +would have planted a bullet, but the goat would not or did not die, so I +shot him again through the neck. Then I plunged my steel into him and +saw the life-blood gush all over me and the snow, then I dragged the +goat by his horns down the mountain side. There were places so steep +that the goat went faster than I did, so it was a case of goat dragging +me. Finally landed at the same time the goat did, at the bottom of the +long gulch; tied the goat's legs together and hung him across my back on +my rifle barrel. Walked unconcernedly past the butcher shop to the +restaurant, where I deposited the goat on a box in the back yard. The +perilous adventure netted me my meals for four days, three dollars in +United States money and one Mexican dollar. I was not homesick again." + +Another interesting item in his graphic description of the country so +new to him: + +"We left Georgetown in early morning to cross the range. From timber +line on the eastern slope of the great Atlantico-Pacifico water shed, +winding around Gray's Peak, serpentinely descending to the Frazier River +through Middle Park to our cabin site on Rock Creek one hundred and +fifty miles, is one unbroken cheerless blanket of snow, covering +irregular sage brush grown mesas sloping to the river banks, along whose +sides grow stretches of heavy, coarse grass suitable for wintering +hardy, range-grown stock. Cultivation of any of the land is still an +unsolved problem. The residents of this great unregistered section live +in log cabins. Neighbors are 'near' who occupy claims within ten miles +of each other. The one county, Grand, represents more territory than +Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island put together. No section +lines mark the maps, no organized arrangement of district or circuit +courts interferes with the 'administration' of 'justice' when disputes +have to be adjudicated. Generally the one quickest with a gun has the +law on his side. The people are willing to share beds and grub with each +other and strangers; a feeling akin to insult being awakened if payment +be tendered for hospitality even of several days' duration, excepting, +of course, regularly established quarters where stage coaches change +horses and provision is made for the accommodation of summer tourists. +Every man is a blacksmith, carpenter, tinker, tailor, cook, chamberman, +physician, nurse, even undertaker and grave digger when occasion +demands. The food is the most primitive known in a civilized +land--bread, venison or elk meat, occasionally antelope, bear, mountain +sheep, always bacon and black coffee, and dried prunes, peaches or +apples furnish fruit if the ranchman's ambition fires him sufficiently +to stew sauce. Occasionally a ranchman has milch cows, which add butter +and cream to the simple fare. Vegetables are a scarce commodity, except +for a case or two of canned corn, tomatoes, succotash and baked beans, +the latter being a dish utterly impossible of being prepared in high +altitudes without the aid of baking soda to soften the bean; even then +unless great care is taken the alkali spoils the flavor of this +toothsome Boston creation. Buckskin and heavy woolen underclothes form +the general run of garments, an outer protecting duck coat and overalls +being worn to a large extent. White goods as wearing apparel, table or +bed furnishings are seldom found, much less used. Time is reckoned by +'sun ups,' 'snows' and the mail carrier. In event of the latter being a +day late or ahead, the fact is recorded, or every one would eventually +lose complete track of dates, Sunday likely as not being observed in +name in the middle of the week." + +Jack kept his record straight for a month and then lost the combination +entirely for eighteen days. There were no churches, no schools, and but +one voting precinct in the whole of Grand County. Ward primaries had not +been established and politics centered in a justice of the peace, +sheriff, and county judge, none of whom accumulated wealth from office +emoluments. + +On Thanksgiving Day Jack's last officially correct entry in his log book +noted the thermometer as "frozen up," subsequent days for a long period +recording "a little colder," "much colder," "terribly cold." + +The fifth day from Hot Sulphur Springs found the trapper and his pupil +on the west slope of the Gore or Park range, encountering a terrific +snowstorm, in the midst of which they stumbled into a band of elk which +made Jack forget all his troubles of keeping the trail, the difficulty +of keeping the big wagon box on runners from upsetting and himself from +freezing. As the big animals loomed up in the clouds of snow flakes +driven pitilessly into his face he suddenly recalled the oft-told +stories of "buck fever," and for fear this dread disease would shatter +his nerves he waited the arrival of the experienced trapper. The band +was moving slowly down the ravine, not seeming to notice their +enemy--man. + +"Shoot 'em, why don't you shoot? Careful now, and get that big bull with +his flank turned toward you. There, give him another, quick! Again! +before he gets out of sight--you've got him!" And Jack saw his first +wapiti plunge to his knees, recover, bound sideways and then again lunge +with his nose plowing deep into the snow, his hind legs straining at the +earth for a support, only to sink in a last effort, and the "monarch of +the forest" was Jack's prize. It was but a few moments' work to knot a +lariat to a hind leg and by the aid of his Indian pony drag the carcass +to a tree, hang the body out of reach of wolves and coyotes, then seek a +suitable location for a camp, which in that storm was no easy matter. +For hours it had been unload, dig the sled out of a deep bank of snow, +load up again and flounder a few rods, only to repeat the process. The +diversion of killing an elk gave a rest of half an hour, then another +attempt was made to cross a small park before night should envelop them +in her black mantle. About half way, however, the horses floundered into +a drift which accumulated over the spongy surface of a willow-banked +ravine, the sled pitched its nose down deep, the trapper swore, and Jack +wanted to. + +"Guess we better 'cache' our stuff and get over thar in the timber and +let the 'dod gasted' blizzard play itself out," said the man of many +winters' experience. "You have done mighty well for a tenderfoot. An +old-timer couldn't have done better in tramping snow and breaking trail +than you have. This is about as bad a storm as you will ever get into. +When it snows so you can't see the horses' heads in front of you it gets +about the limit." + +"Can we find the provisions if we leave them here?" questioned Jack. + +"Yes, you get that long dead sapling over there and we will stick it up +beside the pile, throw that wagon sheet over the top, and then we'll +drive some tent pins to fasten the corners to. There now--Hi! there, +you!" The horses gave a pull and the almost empty sled followed. In a +few minutes the edge of the timber was reached and Jack commenced to +scrape away the snow preparatory for a camp fire. The old trapper +decided it best to put coverings on the horses and turn them loose. It +was too stormy to picket them, too cruel to tie them up short, and +unless blankets were fastened on them they would make a bee line back to +Hot Sulphur. + +When Jack had broken dry twigs from the ends of overhanging branches and +found a "blazed" spot on a pine tree which promised a good pitch-soaked +kindler, and gathered a lot of dead timber, he made ready to light his +fire. The wind drove the snow in avalanches. No one could ever light a +match in that gale, and when he reached the time for lighting, he found +but one match. He had lost his tin matchbox and the stock box was in the +"cache," which was by that time under two feet of snow. Carefully making +a little "lean to" out of a rubber blanket, he first "warmed" the match +against his flannel shirt up in the armpit, to absorb any dampness in +the sulphur, then with trepidation and fear he carefully drew the yellow +end across the inside of his duck coat, a crack, a choking cloud of +sulphur, a sputter of burning brimstone blue and feeble, then a stronger +yellow flame and the camp fire was assured. Throwing off the "lean to" +the wind drove the flames against the big pile of firewood and soon the +cheerful warmth melted a space in the snow big enough to call a camp. It +was no easy matter to cook supper, and there was little comfort standing +around afterwards, so both made ready for bed. The "lean to" was again +the resort for a shelter for the night, as a tent could not be made +secure in that storm in frozen ground. + +Carefully fastening one end of the canvas to the wagon, and pegging the +other to the ground near the fire, a bed was improvised with the rubber +blanket next to the snow, then the blankets, eleven in all, the "lean +to" tucked in all around--and Jack went to sleep with the wind driving +its icy breath through the thick pine forest or shrieking as it caught +the naked, ghostlike branches of a leafless aspen. The morning found +them almost buried under the snow, but none the worse otherwise. + +It was noon before the horses were found and brought back by the +trapper, and that evening the camp was pitched only a mile from the +other side of the "cache." The storm went down with the sun and the cold +intensified until the biting blasts hurled across the open gate to +Egeria Park were to the unprotected face like knife slashes. + +For two days melted snow had served for cooking, drink for horses, and +washing purposes. A good square meal had been impossible to prepare, and +a hungry night was in prospect for both man and beast. The trapper +declared he would not turn the horses loose that night, so picking out a +sheltered place among the pine trees he tied up all but "Ned," Jack's +Indian pony, halter lengths, covered them with blankets and harnessed to +keep the blankets on. The tent was pitched in a long deep cut, dug into +an immense snow bank, to all appearances a part of the big drift after +it had been arranged for the night. The intensity of the cold was +estimated at fifty degrees below zero and six pair of double blankets +weighing eight pounds per pair were used as covering (Jack was actually +tired when he awoke, from the weight of the bedding). Single thicknesses +of blankets had to be drawn over the face to keep it from freezing. But +with all these hardships the young man from the "States" thrived and +grew hardy. No such thing as a cold or bodily ailment of any sort +attacked either one. + +The next night found them camped in a protected ravine near a stream +from which water was obtained and some pretensions to comfort prevailed. +For the first time elk meat formed a part of the evening meal, and a +feeling of good cheer followed a hearty repast. The next morning as Jack +climbed the side of the long south slope, covered with stunted sage +brush, to get the horses that had found plenty of feed, he came face to +face with a tawny-skinned animal that came up out of one ravine as Jack +emerged from another, about a hundred yards apart. No firearms, not even +a hunting knife, were at hand. To flee would be but an invitation to +tempt the mountain lion to possible attack, so Jack sauntered along, +carelessly as he could under the circumstances, in the direction of the +ponies. The lion kept on his own course, crossing Jack's path and +eventually disappearing in a deep arroya, or gulch, all the while +turning his head from side to side watching but not attempting to molest +either Jack or the horses. + +The next camping spot selected was on the bank of Rock Creek, where a +bend of the stream deflected by high rocks left a well timbered, +protected area, surrounded on three sides by precipitous slopes of the +adjacent "benches" covered with sage brush, these "benches" or mesas +extending to the high ridges towering above, one facing the north, the +other the south, the former bleak and covered with deep snow, the +latter, warm and sun-kissed, furnishing feed for horses. The building of +a cabin occupied a few days, which, when equipped with a fireplace, a +bunk having about eighteen inches of spruce boughs as a mattress, and +other frontier conveniences, made a trapper's home. + +Deer were abundant. In an evening or in the early morning hundreds of +the great muleheaded species could be seen winding their way to and from +the feeding grounds, or wandering aimlessly about. Traps were set out, +bait doctored with "dead medicine" or poison tacked to trees and stumps +where foxes, wolves and lions were likely to find it, and the regular +life of "catching fur" was commenced. + +A band of Ute Indians that had left the White River Agency established +their village two miles below the cabin at a point where Rock Creek +joined another stream--Toponas, or "Pony"--and then flowed on to its +confluence with the Grand River. These Indians became visitors to the +cabin and among them Jack found one, Yamanatz, a friendly and peaceable +savage. + +The village was destitute of food and ammunition, in fact, no means were +at their command for obtaining game, therefore they heralded the +trappers' arrival with gladness, for they expected to be able to obtain +powder and bullets with which to obtain venison. + +The second visit Yamanatz made to the Rock Creek camp, he was +accompanied by his beautiful daughter Chiquita, a girl of seventeen, +richly attired in beaded skirt, leggings and moccasins. She rode astride +of a magnificent chestnut brown, full-blooded Ute pony, a large Navajo +blanket drawn tightly about her, Indian fashion. She carried a bow and +from her back hung a quiver of arrows. Her well molded face was set in +its frame of straight, black hair, braided in two long strands into +which were interwoven pieces of lion skin, beaver fur and other bits of +"medicine" charms to drive away evil spirits. A string of elk teeth +adorned her neck and bands of heavy silver ornaments bedecked her arms. + +Indians are similar to other folks in many respects. A proper +introduction generally puts them on a gracious footing. It did not take +long for Jack and Chiquita to strike up a fast friendship, and the old +adage of "feed the brute" held good with both Indian buck and maiden. + +The cabin was but partly "chinked" when the old trapper announced his +intention of going to Hot Sulphur Springs. + +"I left the old woman without enough wood and must go back to cut some +for her. Then there are some other matters to attend to which will take +a week or ten days, after which I will come back and bring what mail is +at the Springs for you," he explained. + +Little did Jack realize, in fact, he did not suspect, there might be +other reasons for this sudden determination on the part of the trapper. +It did not occur to him the seeming folly of a man leaving his wife +unprovided with wood. The trip of a hundred miles or more in the dead of +winter over unbroken trails was not so much of an obstacle for a man +experienced in mountain life; but he did not then know that the Utes' +camp was made up of some of the worst characters from the White River +Agency, nor that the band was there against the wishes of Indian Agent +Meeker, who had requested their return more than once. + +Jack took the matter as one of the peculiar incidents in a trapper's +life, for he had learned that a trapper has no conception of time, no +thought for the days ahead, no particular object in view beyond +existence, and no ambition beyond that of the prospector who indulges +his fancies of "striking it rich" some day. + +Jack knew there were plenty of provisions to last until summer, that the +trapper would leave two horses and the sled, besides quite a valuable +lot of traps, et cetera, which would insure his return sooner or later, +so there were no misgivings when the mountaineer mounted his horse and +rode away. + +He busied himself day after day and accumulated furs and knowledge of +frontier life. + +These were the surroundings in which Jack found himself three months +after leaving Boston. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CATS, TRAPS, AND INDIANS. + + +The steady life of a trapper had become regular diet to Jack, as day +after day he visited old traps, set out new ones and explored territory +farther away from the cabin. The Indians were daily visitors whether he +was in camp or not, but they never molested anything, no matter how +curious or hungry. They were seemingly good humored, even though there +appeared an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. The first episode to put +him on his guard was when one of the Utes, Bennett, hid behind a tree +near the camp fire outside the cabin. Yamanatz was there in his +customary place, squatted upon the ground. A strange dog ran in and out +of the place and Jack inquired of the old Ute how the dog happened to be +there. Yamanatz, unconcerned, replied, "Me dunno." This puzzled Jack, +but he went about his cooking, carefully watching the trees and rocks. +He felt for the first time a species of alarm. Again he inquired, "Ute +dog, mebbe so?" + +"Me dunno." + +Jack knew no white man would go along that trail at that time of year +without stopping to say "How!" In fact, there was no white man within +forty miles, except old Joe Riggs, and old Joe would be there with the +dog if the dog was Joe's. The suspense had a sudden termination as the +muzzle of a rifle "mirrored" in the sunlight, just the tip of the muzzle +being thus accidentally disclosed. Quick as a flash Jack pulled his six +shooter, cocked it and held it level at the tree where the bright steel +was in full view. Yamanatz made neither sign nor comment, but Jack felt +that the cunning old chief was fully aware of all that was going on. +Very soon the edge of a woolen turban cap appeared opposite the rifle +muzzle, then an ear, then a little of the chin and finally the eye of +Bennett looked straight into Jack's six shooter. With a bound the joker +jumped from behind the tree and, with a laugh which could have been +heard a mile, and in which Yamanatz joined, came forward, palms outward, +signifying peace, exclaiming, "White man no 'fraid; heap big joke, heap +big joke." + +But Jack began to feel that these jokes might end in something serious, +especially if he showed the white feather in the least. + +The next day he returned from the traps just as the last streaks of +sunlight were tipping the tops of the canon where Rock Creek dashed by +the cabin. Yamanatz sat by the cold camp fire in the same place and same +position in which Jack had left him after breakfast, six hours before. +Of course, Jack was surprised at this and wondered what it meant. As +Jack swung into the open space Yamanatz immediately arose with hands +outstretched, the palms well up towards the comer, accompanying the +action with this eager outburst: + +"Yamanatz heap glad to see white man Jack; Colorow come. White man gone. +Colorow heap mad, want to see white man. Me tell 'em white man gone, +Colorow follow white man; byme by Antelope come look for Colorow; +Antelope go back Indian village by Pony Creek. Antelope tell Utes +Colorow mean mischief; Colorow's boy come byme by look for Colorow; when +Yamanatz tell Colorow's boy 'Colorow follow white man,' Colorow's boy +heap 'fraid, say: 'Mebbe so Colorow meet 'em white man Jack.' Then +Colorow's boy go Indian village. Sun low--Chiquita come, no find white +man, go back Indian village, mebbe so white man see Colorow?" + +Jack, of course, was nervous. Alone in a wild country that was alive +with wild game, ravenous wolves, mountain lions, bears and hostile +Indians, he realized what a novice, a tenderfoot, a fool he was, or +would be, to put his ignorance of frontier life against the cunning of +the old chiefs, but he answered quickly, + +[Illustration: YAMANATZ.] + +"Me no see Colorow." Then taking courage by the kindly look in +Yamanatz's eyes, Jack said slowly, taking Yamanatz's hands in his own. + +"Mebbe so Colorow want to kill white man Jack?" + +Yamanatz shrugged his shoulders but made no answer and Jack continued. + +"If Colorow meet white man, Colorow got no bullets--got knife--suppose +white man kill Colorow, will Utes kill white man?" + +Yamanatz evaded the question but made the reply: "Colorow heap bad +Indian, mebbe so make heap trouble. Utes 'fraid Colorow--big chief +'fraid Colorow. White man mebbe so kill Colorow, no tell what 'em +happen. Old Utes not much care. Antelope, Bennett, Douglas, Washington. +Mebbe so heap mad, kill all white men if white man Jack kill Colorow." + +In this honest avowal Jack found little comfort, but Yamanatz's next +words gave him a hope that all might be well. + +"Utes got no lead, no powder, no deer meat. Mebbe so Colorow take many +ponies, go Sulphur Springs, get 'em bullets, bacon, flour, then be good +Injun till all gone." + +In this logic of plenty to eat lay the safety of the white trappers for +that winter, so Jack prayed fervently for the early departure of the +Indians for Sulphur Springs to the end of his own personal safety. He +knew now that certain sign language the Utes had so often indulged in +represented Agent Meeker in his attempts to teach the Indians how to +plow; that bits of tragic, practical joking were tests of his own +bravery, and that the uneasy red devils but waited opportunity and +excuse for an uprising, after they should obtain the necessary munitions +of war, of which they had none. + +Chiquita grew more and more interested in the ways of the pale face with +each visit, and Jack found her waiting for his return oftener, even +following him portions of the route in his attentions to the traps. Her +desire for knowledge seemed to him incomprehensible and old Yamanatz was +equally at a loss to understand why his daughter should prefer to hear +about her white sisters' habits and what they did, rather than matters +of more moment. When she finally told Yamanatz her desire to do +wonderful things, such as building a big "medicine tepee" with lots of +Indian maidens in "medicine clothes" to care for the sick, the aged and +infirm, the old chief's face gladdened and his actions spoke louder than +words, so that Jack knew it was safe to humor them both in their dream. + +Within a few days Yamanatz sprung a joke on Jack that left Bennett's fun +hanging high and dry on the trees. Chiquita had arrayed herself in more +gorgeous raiment than had been recorded of a society debutante in Indian +stories--beaded cape, waist, shirt, leggings, and moccasins; medals of +gold, silver and pewter; ornaments of brass, tin and iron; necklaces of +elk teeth and grizzly claws; hair decorations of lion skin, beaver and +otter fur, and in her hand a rawhide shield just dazzling with highly +polished brass knobs. Her bright eyes fairly danced with joy as she +posed before Jack in her "Sunday best." Yamanatz watched her with that +same benevolent kindness which characterized him above other Utes. After +the usual salutations, the old chief took a leather bag from the saddle +and opened it, turning its contents upon Jack's best dish towel, which +happened to be near. To say that Jack's heart jumped is drawing it very +mild. The contents of the bag were gold nuggets from the size of a +mustard seed to a navy bean and there was at least a quart. + +Yamanatz saw the sparkle in Jack's eyes and laconically remarked, +"Sabe?" + +"Heap big gold mine somewhere?" asked Jack, + +To which question Yamanatz made two replies--"Me dunno; mebbe so." + +Jack waited for him to continue, wondering what reason the two Utes had +for appearing as they did, one in royal raiment, the other with a good +sized ransom, for Jack estimated that there was twenty pounds of pure +gold worth twenty dollars an ounce, or in all nearly five thousand +dollars. + +"Does the white man sabe?" again inquired Yamanatz. + +"Me no sabe, no sabe," Jack shook his head. + +Chiquita now spoke up. "Does the white man sabe, what you call 'em when +white sister learn A, B, C?" + +"School?" + +Chiquita shook her head. + +"College?" asked Jack. + +This time she nodded her head and pointed to the gold. "How much cost +Chiquita in college?" + +It dawned on him that Chiquita wanted to go to college and that Yamanatz +would furnish the necessary money to defray the expenses. Visions of a +red savage in full forest costume ascending the steps of a great +university or college was too much for Jack and he had to laugh, much to +the disgust of his friends, but he quickly restored good faith. + +Yamanatz put his finger to his tongue, indicating that he did not lie. +"Yamanatz's tongue not split, no lie. Yamanatz show white man Jack heap +big pile gold, some for Jack, some for Chiquita. White man take +Chiquita, do as Chiquita say." + +Jack was puzzled; he thought they were bargaining in a matrimonial deal, +and he saw a little brown-eyed girl back East peering through the camp +fire at him. + +Chiquita, however, came to his rescue. "Yamanatz has said it. White man +take Chiquita college. Chiquita learn, heap study, make Chiquita like +white sister. Yamanatz show Jack heap big mine, lots gold, some for +Jack; some for Chiquita." + +As he at last comprehended this great undertaking--the stupendous task +of educating a blanket Indian girl in a modern college of refined +Caucasians--Jack was dismayed, even more so than the matrimonial +possibility had suggested, for he could get out of that, but here was a +poser. Perhaps the colleges would draw the line on Indians as some +institutions did on negroes. As he made no answer Chiquita continued. + +"How many moons take Chiquita college?" + +Jack answered slowly, "Take Chiquita four snows little A, B, C's, two +snows big A, B, C's, four snows college." + +Both Yamanatz and Chiquita understood, and Chiquita replied, "Ten snows +Chiquita like white sister, know heap?" + +Jack nodded "Yes," but in his heart he did not believe she would in a +hundred years be any more than a half-educated savage, under the most +rigid masters. + +Yamanatz then spoke up. "How much gold Jack want make Chiquita like +white sister?" + +Jack made a rough estimate and ventured at a thousand dollars a year, +"Twelve thousand dollars." + +Yamanatz could not understand so much money in American coin, so he +talked with Chiquita, then pointed at the pile of gold nuggets. + +Jack held up three fingers, meaning three times as much to make sure. +Yamanatz looked scornfully at the three fingers, then pointed at the big +grain bag in which Jack had his sugar, saying, "Yamanatz show Jack where +get a big bag full. Some for Jack and some for Chiquita, if Jack promise +Yamanatz take Chiquita"--but Chiquita had to supply the word "college." + +Jack pondered a long time while the would-be college girl and her father +watched his ever varying expression as he thought, "How can it be done?" +He finally agreed to make the attempt and replied: "Jack will take +Chiquita to the A, B, C school, then a little bigger school, then +college. He will see Chiquita become a great queen if Yamanatz so +speaks." + +"It shall be so. Yamanatz will show Jack a big cave of gold where the +sun goes down. Blazing-Eye-By-The-Big-Water, heaps of gold, and Yamanatz +will give it half to Jack, half to Chiquita and Chiquita shall be a big +queen." Then they both smoked the pipe of tobacco pledging each in their +mission. + +Afterwards the more detailed plan was arranged. Yamanatz indicated that +in the early spring they would start for the cave of gold, which he +explained was in a great sun-burned valley where no life existed except +snakes and scorpions; furthermore, that the trip to the cave was one of +deadly peril and hardships. + +"The Great Manitou gave to the Utes this cave of gold. Many big chief go +to the land of the setting sun and bring back plenty gold. Yamanatz the +last chief who can show Jack, and when Yamanatz go to the Happy Hunting +Ground the big cave is all for Jack and Chiquita." + +Solemnly he outlined all the details for the undertaking. As they +finished, Yamanatz gathered up the gold nuggets and handed the bag to +Jack, saying, "This is for white man--Yamanatz has more." + +Jack hid the gold in his war bag, after the chief and his gorgeously +arrayed daughter had gone, then he pondered long over the unexpected +mission upon which he found himself launched and his dreams were full of +colleges, gold mines and savages being educated. + +It was nearing Christmas time and the snow was deep on the mountain +side. The warm sun penetrated the canons but a few hours each day. +Chiquita had become a daily visitor to the camp fire, near which she +would sit and listen to Jack as he told of the wonders of the civilized +world. Chiquita knew many English words of common usage and Jack knew as +many Mexican, or rather a mixture of Spanish, Mexican and Indian, which, +with the sign language, did service in these conversations. "Tell +Chiquita how many sleeps Rock Creek to Denver City." + +"Six sleeps," was the reply of Jack, meaning it was a six days' ride on +horseback. + +"Sabe usted the great white chief at Washington City?" was the next +query, meaning the President of the United States. + +"Me sabe." + +"Tell Chiquita how many sleeps on the cars Washington City from Denver +City." + +"Five sleeps on the cars Denver City to Washington City." + +Jack happened to have in his kit a railroad map of the United States and +with this spread before them on a blanket, he would point out Rock Creek +and then explain the distances from one place to another, telling of the +great buildings, the industries, the immense amount of fuel used in the +big shops and the number of men employed in making guns, wagons, +saddles, harness, boots, blankets and the like, articles that appeared +in the camp and which were in everyday use at the White River Agency. +This was a very arduous but pleasing task, in that it required all of +Jack's ingenuity to portray the information intelligently, and +frequently Chiquita would be the instructor because of her better +ability, as a child of the forest, to convey thought by means of signs +and comparative objects. He taught her the alphabet, also words of one +and two syllables, and she showed how wonderful is the Indian mind in +its retention of the slightest impression when the will power to receive +it is acquiescent. + +"Tell Chiquita, does the white man's squaw carry the wood for the fire +so the warrior can cook his venison?" + +"No," said Jack, laughing, "the warrior of the white man is the soldier +at the fort." + +Chiquita interrupted quickly, a deep scowl causing her inky black +eyebrows to meet over her flashing eyes, and with her head thrown back, +displaying the full, rounded throat, her beautiful arm bared save for +the wide beaded bracelets and amulets, she pointed to the sky, almost +hissing through her marvelously white teeth, "Chiquita comprehends, the +warrior of the white man is the hired pale face, sent by the Great White +Chief at Washington City to slay my people; even now mebbe so the hired +man rides to take Chiquita back to the White River; but her people are +brave. Her people were as the stars above, as the drops that make the +big river, but they are gone to the Great Spirit, where their ponies +await their coming in the Happy Hunting Ground that the pale face knows +not of, and to where the spirit of Chiquita will some day fly. Let the +white man Jack beware. It is well for him that Yamanatz is his friend, +and Chiquita will see that no harm comes to the friend of Yamanatz. +Mebbe so Colorow is no friend of the white man Jack, but Colorow has no +bullets. The gun of Colorow is empty, but the knife in the belt of +Colorow is pointed. It is sharp and the arm of Colorow is as the young +tree, and his step is as the step of the fawn when the dew is on the +grass. Let the white man Jack beware. Colorow will come to tell the +white man to go to the land which was taken from Colorow's people; that +this is the Utes' land and that the Utes will no more let the white man +hunt the deer and trap the wolf, which run by the tepee of the red man. +So let the white man Jack be cunning and let not Colorow find the white +man asleep under the big tree." + +She was all excitement. The cords stood out upon her graceful throat, +while her rounded cheeks crimsoned as the frosted leaf in the autumn +time. Jack was spellbound as the words of that eloquent warning fell +upon his ears, but at the last subdued, almost beseeching plea, he +started as if the knife was already at his throat, for it was but +yesterday, in the warm sunshine far beyond the snowy range, at noon +time, he had taken a short nap under a big pine tree, where a bed of +pine needles made an inviting spot, little dreaming that a living being, +much less an Indian, was within five miles of him. Chiquita guessed his +thoughts, and in that musical tone found only among the old blanket +Indian tribes, told Jack how she followed him and Colorow from the camp +on Rock Creek, fearing all the while that that cunning war chief would +slay the young man from the east and upset all plans of Chiquita +becoming a medicine tepee queen. + +Chiquita knew that Colorow, of all the discontented Utes on Rock Creek, +desired especially to be rid of Jack's presence. That the old warrior +had a grudge against the trapper was evident, and the trapper's +departure, leaving Jack alone to attend to the traps, was to her mind +clear proof that Colorow had been instrumental in causing the departure. + +She had heard the leaders of the renegade band denounce all trappers who +sought the region contiguous to the White River reservation, and in +particular the trapper who had built the cabin on Rock Creek. She knew +that this trapper had the winter before wantonly killed seventy-six elk, +which he had stumbled upon in a little willow grown park where the deep +snow had stalled them, and that he did not kill any more because his +ammunition had given out. She knew that the Utes, as well as the white +settlers, had in unmeasured terms condemned this wanton slaying of so +much game, but she did not think this episode was the cause of Colorow's +animosity. There was but one reason that sufficed in her opinion. She +believed Colorow had told the trapper to abandon the camp under penalty +of death if he remained, and she reasoned that the trapper went alone +because he had been ashamed to tell Jack the truth. Consequently Jack +would be the next to go, and as she already knew that Colorow had openly +declared his intention of driving the young paleface away, she +determined to watch that cunning Ute every day and give him no +opportunity for any hostile movement against Jack. + +The gray dawn of the day referred to in her impassioned warning found +Chiquita swiftly and silently making her way toward the Rock Creek +cabin, where she took up a position commanding a view of the camp and +the trails leading to it. + +The first rays of the sun were just tipping the snow on the high +mountain peaks when Jack came from the cabin and proceeded to get his +breakfast over the camp fire. As Chiquita watched him she was tempted +many times to make her presence known, for the savory viands made her +"heap hungry," but at last Jack started up the gulch on his rounds to +the traps. Chiquita knew that Colorow would put in an early appearance, +expecting to find Jack at the cabin, so she waited patiently. It was not +long before she heard the plaintive call of a camp bird mewing for +something to eat, and she mimicked it, saying to herself, "camp bird and +Colorow all same." She carefully screened herself in the willows and saw +Colorow suddenly dart from one big tree to another, then creep to a big +rock, wait a moment and glide along until he was close to the cabin. He +waited some time, evidently reading by the signs of the smoldering fire +that the object of his visit had made an early start. Seeing this, he +boldly walked out and picked up the coffee pot. As it was empty he threw +it spitefully down into the ashes and looked for a piece of bread. Being +disappointed in this also he made a big fuss of brandishing his knife, +executing a few steps as though he had discovered an enemy and in +pantomime had slain and scalped him. During this time he kept up a +continual jargon of curses and imprecations. + +Finally he drew back the blanket which constituted the "door" of the +cabin and peered in. Satisfied with his observations, he carefully +scanned the trail leading up the gulch, and seeing the fresh made +tracks, set out rapidly after Jack. + +Chiquita followed, darting along from one side of the trail to the other +or diverging obliquely across portions of the territory which she knew +Jack had to traverse in order to examine the traps, knowing Colorow +would ultimately appear. + +The sun had reached the meridian when she noted the Indian standing +under a big tree watching intently something not far distant from him. +Pretty soon she saw a thin spiral of white smoke gradually becoming more +dense as if from burning damp wood, and occasionally she could hear the +crackle of the flames. She knew Jack was busy getting a little lunch. +She scented the bacon as he toasted it before the fire and again she +felt that ravenous gnawing which now was doubly aggravating. + +The cooking evidently made Colorow furious, for he vanished into some +brush and made noises as of a wolf growling with hunger just as he +prepares to tear at a bone. Then the Indian disappeared down the ever +handy gulch to watch Jack in his effort to find the wolf. + +Jack proceeded to investigate, and, with gun ready, he entered the +brush, but there were so many signs of wolf tracks, fresh ones, too, +that he was at a loss to understand where they could so suddenly have +disappeared. + +As he slowly returned to his lunch camp--a spot free from snow in a +little pine grove where the sun shone bright and warm--he passed very +near where Chiquita was hiding, and then discovered a moccasin track, +which he examined critically. He knew the track had been made since +sunrise, but could not tell whether before or after he started to make +his little camp fire. He carefully set his big boot alongside the +footprint, making a deep impression in the earth. He also deposited the +end of one of his rifle bullets in the moccasin track, feeling sure that +the owner of the moccasin was sure to discover the significance thereof. +Colorow saw the action from his hiding place, but well knew that a +hunting knife was of little avail against a fearless man protected by a +rifle, six-shooter and belt full of ammunition. + +Jack looked at the sun, then at Rock Creek a long way off, and sat down +to smoke a pipeful of tobacco. The pleasing, soothing narcotic made him +drowsy and he fell asleep. + +Colorow made a circle around the camp and in doing so discovered the +trail which Jack had made on previous trips from the little grove. This +led toward a big gulch which was divided at the lower portion by a steep +ridge. Colorow took the one showing the most usage and ambushed himself +in a thicket close to Pony Creek, at a point convenient to a spot where +Jack would be obliged to pass within leap of the hidden foe. Here he +waited. + +Chiquita watched Colorow disappear down the gulch and divined his +purpose, then returned to see Jack as he awakened and witness his +surprise at having so forgotten his prudence. + +Picking up his rifle and skins Jack started swiftly down the gulch, +intending to follow the one selected by Colorow, as he had some venison +protected by two big traps and was certain to get at least a bobcat +there. + +But at the last moment he changed his mind or neglected to watch the +trail and entered the left-hand gulch. + +It was getting late when he discovered his error, but decided not to +retrace his steps, and the ridge was too precipitous to climb at that +point. + +Chiquita followed Jack to Pony Creek and on down to where it joined Rock +Creek. Then Jack went to his cabin and Chiquita to the Indian village, +where she later saw Colorow come in, baffled in his mission, at least +for the time being. + +Jack now thoroughly realized the dangerous position in which he was +placed and made up his mind to protect himself very carefully against +any mishap. He knew that Colorow would not dare to attack him openly, +and that safety depended on constantly guarding against all chance of +surprise. + +"Jack is heap glad to hear Chiquita tell of how she watches for the +white man's safety. Does Chiquita sabe?" said Jack in a half apologetic +manner, speaking abstractedly and not knowing what was best to say under +the circumstances. His mind was taken up with the uncertainties of "good +Indians." He wanted to trust Yamanatz and Chiquita, but did not know how +far either one would dare to go in their evident desire to protect him. +His recent talk with Yamanatz, of less than a week before, was pictured +vividly in Chiquita's story of her long day's tramp and vigil over him, +and he knew that if Colorow made any attempt at his life in the presence +of either Chiquita or Yamanatz, they might resist, but even their +resistance would possibly be unavailing. + +Making an early start on the day following to go the reversed route of +the trip during which he had taken the nap Chiquita had so graphically +described, Jack found himself in the gulch where the venison lay and a +couple of bobcats in the traps near the carcasses. Killing and skinning +these took some time, and with the heavy pelts added to a haunch of deer +meat, Jack found it no easy task to climb to the top of the snowy ridge, +down which he must go in order to reach camp. The frozen, well-worn +trail he must reach before darkness set in, but despite his most +desperate exertion it was some time after daylight had departed that he +reached the long stretch of white covered slope. Not a trail could he +find--not a welcome footprint to guide him over the deep ravines filled +with snow, or away from precipitous rocks where a misstep would land him +far below. There was but one course to take--straight down the mountain +side. Throwing away caution, he started on a swift swinging trot, each +foot breaking the crust of snow beneath him. Arriving at the edge of a +ravine, which appeared only smooth snow, he went into it up to his +waist; then, thoroughly alarmed, he struggled deeper into the ravine +until the snow was up to his armpits. His revolver was lost and wolves +were already giving tongue to dismal howls as the air carried to their +nostrils the scent of the venison to which Jack clung. + +His unequal combat with the yielding snow gradually exhausted his +strength and, growing each moment weaker, tired nature finally +succumbed, and he fell unconscious. But the cold air quickly revived +him. Nearer and nearer came those dreadful deep-mouthed tongue signals, +augmented by additional ones from new directions and made still more +heartbreaking by the yippy-yappy of a bunch of coyotes which also joined +the big timber wolves. The six-shooter was found first, then Jack used a +little reason. Taking off his coat and placing the furs and coat as a +support on the snow, he rolled over and over until his foot struck solid +earth. Then gathering his furs and leg of venison, he more carefully +descended, his enemies keeping at a safe distance, for in America wild +animals of any sort rarely attack man when not molested, even in the +dead of winter. + +Slipping and sliding, he at last reached camp, only to find both feet +badly frozen at the heels and toes. As he cut his boots off and plunged +his extremities into the cold water a whole lot of adventure went out of +his heart with the frost. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OLD JOE RIGGS. + + +It was Sunday, the eighth day after Jack had taken that memorable trip +so near unto death. In the warm sunshine at Rock Creek camp the major +part of the day had been passed by the young hunter in writing up his +journal, carefully jotting down all the incidents of latest development, +even to the extra spread given in his honor to himself and three +imaginary guests. He, being present, had a good meal, but the "invited" +guests had to feast by proxy. The menu started with a hambone soup, and +a nice broiled mountain trout, captured in a big hole where Pony and +Rock Creek join forces. Winter trout being so great a luxury, Jack +forgot his table etiquette and asked for a second portion, and being +refused, he made a fierce onslaught upon the piece de resistance, no +more and no less than a blue grouse roasted before the fire, as they +roasted turkeys in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Jack used one of the +metal joints of the cleaning rod belonging to his rifle as a spit, and +as he turned the bird slowly and basted it with venison fat he wondered, +if his guests could really drop in for a moment, what they would say +about his culinary efforts. The bird was stuffed with real sage +dressing; not quite so good as mother used to make, as the mountain sage +is a trifle stronger. When finished the grouse was garnished with +juniper berries and spruce buds, these being the winter food of the +grouse. There was a distinct flavor of the juniper in the meat. Then +came an entree of young elk brains and another of Big Horn kidney stew. +Jack was shy on vegetables of any kind, except Rock Creek baked beans, +cooked all night in a Dutch oven sunk in the hot ashes of the camp fire; +two kinds of bread, baking powder and sour dough, the first being hot +biscuit, the latter nice big slices of cold white bread, never free from +the name it bears. Stewed prunes and baked apple dumpling constituted +the pastry, while black coffee in a tin cup and sparkling Rock Creek +water served for liquids. + +Jack had finished the "dishes," the last rattle of tin plates, pans, cup +and skillets had re-echoed from the depths of the "china" closet, and he +had settled himself for a chat with his pipe, when Chiquita bounded into +camp all excitement and panting for breath. + +"Colorow gone Sulphur Springs. Take 'em many ponies" (counting forty +with her fingers). "All Utes except old men and Yamanatz go too. Mebbe +so come back with bullets, powder, bacon, flour," and she stopped to +breathe. + +Jack contemplated, and while he did so Chiquita cast wistful eyes at the +remains of the midday banquet. The longing expression was not a new one +to Jack. He knew from experience that Chiquita was a good eater, in fact +all Indians had that failing, so he motioned the belle of the village to +a seat on the end of a log near by and proceeded to dish her up a square +meal. He knew that Yamanatz would be coming along soon, so he reserved +some odds and ends for him. When Chiquita had advanced far enough so she +could have time between mouthfuls--not bites--to answer, Jack gave +utterance to his thoughts. + +"Colorow's ponies make pretty big track in snow--make heap big trail. +Mebbe so good for two sleeps on high mountain where wind blow." + +Chiquita understood and stopped her struggles, with a rib of venison in +one hand and a grouse wing in the other, long enough to articulate: + +"Chiquita comprehends. White man follow Utes; white man leave Chiquita +and Yamanatz to go Sulphur Springs, mebbe so Denver City." + +Her smiles were gone, but not her appetite, as she renewed her attacks +on the remnant counter. Jack replied: + +"Mebbe so Jack be gone four moons. Come back when honeysuckle on +mountainside and cactus on plain in bloom. Will Chiquita and Yamanatz go +then with Jack to Blazing-Eye-by-Big-Water?" + +Jack decided to get out of the Ute country while the scalp was yet on +his head and not dangling at the belt of any warrior, or braided into +the make-up of any tepee pole. Just then the clatter of two ponies down +the trail caused him to look around. In a moment or two the willows +parted and Yamanatz, accompanied by a white man, whom Jack recognized as +old Joe Riggs, entered the camp. To Jack's greeting of "How?" the +newcomers both made response. Joe inquired as to the condition of Jack's +feet, and upon being assured that those necessary adjuncts to a man's +safety on Rock Creek were in fairly good order, the cattleman suggested +the opportunity presented for Jack to make an attempt to connect with +civilization. + +Old Joe Riggs was known from the Cache le Poudre to the Rio Grande; to +cowman, miner, prospector and goods store folks. Old Joe was a part and +parcel of the main range. Forty-niners had bunked with him and +fifty-niners had divided buffalo steaks with him, while sixty-niners +from Missouri allowed old Joe could rock a cradle or shovel tailings +from the sluice boxes, and seventy-niners found him as ready to take his +turn at the drill or windlass as the best of them. In appearance old Joe +was a weird, uncanny being that made the creeps run up and down one's +crupper bone. Seated upon a chair in a room full of average-sized +people, Joe appeared a dwarf. His anatomy seemed to rest on the ends of +his shoulder blades, while his knees formed the hypothenuse of an +inverted right-angle triangle. When standing he overtopped every man in +a regiment of six-footers. His arms swung listlessly to his knees from +the shoulder socket, as if lacking in elbow joints, terminating in hands +fashioned more after the talons of an eagle than those of a human being. +His nose was also like the beak of that fierce bird, while his chin +retreated from his underlip in a direct line to the "Adam's apple." High +cheek bones and protruding forehead caused the deep sunken orbital +spaces to appear sightless, except for the nervous batting of his +eyelids. His shoulders were broad, but being thin chested, he was short +on lung capacity, which caused a most extraordinary mixture of guttural +whispers and shrill wheezes every time he tried to talk. His strength +was prodigious, and on more than one occasion he had won his drink by +taking hold of the chines of a full barrel of liquor, raising it from +the ground to his lips and drinking his fill from the bunghole. The most +startling of all, though, was his wardrobe, and it was an open secret +that Joe had his surname thrust upon him by reason of the various rigs +in which he was clad. As the winter season approached and Joe got cold, +he would appropriate any and all old garments he could find lying around +loose; old pants, overalls, shirts, vests and socks which others had +cast away as useless. These he would patch and sew together where +necessity demanded, lengthening or widening, and pull one garment on +over another. In this semi-annual outfitting he would appear one day +with overalls reaching just below the knees, the pair under them +revealing their "frazzled" ornamentations for a foot or more. The next +day, as like as not, he would find an old pair of red drawers, and these +would go on right over the last pair of overalls. When the spring came +and warm weather got the best of his clothes, Joe proceeded to divest +himself of a lot of useless and uncomfortable rags, for by that time +they could not be called garments. + +Joe at the present time was conducting a vest-pocket ranch on the sunny +slopes of the cedar-treed hills rising from the Grand River tributaries +and in what were termed "warm holes," being little areas of sage-brush +covered mesas found upon the banks of the streams. These miniature parks +were quite fertile in bunch and even buffalo grass, and varied from five +acres to a whole section in extent. His herd of cattle consisted of two +heifers, six old cows and ten three-year-old steers. This constituted +the nucleus of an expectant million-dollar stock farm. It represented +more than the average fortune accumulated by constant and attentive +prospecting for forty years. + +Joe's hint at the opportunity of connecting with God's country struck +Jack as a coincidence upon which there might turn a contingency, so he +reasoned with himself: "Why does Joe think I might want to get away from +the Indians? Does he think I will desert my camp outfit and provisions? +Besides, what is the old trapper to do when he returns?" + +These questions were immediately answered by the cattleman just the same +as though Jack had asked the information point blank, a proceeding which +added to the weirdness of Joe's presence, and the most uncanny feature +of it was the total inability of the hearer to locate whence came the +sound that emanated from that sepulchral living cadaver. No lips moved +in unison with a voice, nor even did the gleaming teeth, just visible +through the parted mouth, open or close as if responsive to any oral +exertions. The sound came from everywhere. Joe was a heaven-born +ventriloquist. + +"Yer needn't be slow about gittin' away from Rock Creek ef yer want ter +go. 'Taint nothin' ter me. That ther' trapper ain't comin' back 'til +ther beaver gets to usin' thar cutters on the trees a-buildin' dams, an' +then he won't cum back ef thar's goin' to be trubble. He tol' me that +ther day afore he struck out, savvey?" + +Jack did not need to have the cabin fall on him nor an upheaval of the +earth to realize that the trapper had "cut loose" from the Rock Creek +possibilities. There was an ominous silence for a couple of minutes. One +thing was certain in the minds of the two white men, alone, as they +were, far from aid of any sort in the event of an uprising, and the +thought uppermost in both their minds was as patent to each other as if +branded in letters of fire--the trapper had deserted the tenderfoot. + +As soon as this thought had coursed through Jack's brain other thoughts +surged one upon another in quick succession. Was it a frontier +conspiracy in which both white and red men were equally interested? Was +it a put-up job between the trapper and Joe and the Indians--merely a +coincidence in the commission of the trade? Perhaps the trapper had sold +the camp outfit and Joe had come to take possession. This last thought +made his heart sick, for he knew only too well that he could make no +resistance except that which would end in a tragedy. Again the +supernatural mind-reading Joe proclaimed himself in a few disjointed +sentences, but to Jack they were most welcome in their honesty of +purpose and implication of the trapper as a coward. + +"I reckon yer might be calkerlatin' on what yer would do with this yere +plunder," said Joe, as he pointed at the camp outfit, the provisions and +the furs hanging on the side of the cabin. Continuing in that monotonous +sing-song of gutturals and whispers, he allowed the plunder belonged to +Jack, for the trapper had acknowledged as much. + +"That trapper got 'skeered' of Colorow and lit out. Mebbe yer don't know +it, but the Utes don't like him any too much, and when Colorow said +'Vamoose' yer pardner left yer to yer own cogitashuns. He tol' me that +nothin' in the camp belonged to him; thet 'twas all your'n except the +traps and harness. 'Taint likely he'll come back 'til next March, so ef +yer don't want ter stay 'til then yer'll have to git a move on yerself. +Thet trail won't stay open an hour on the high divide, but yer can +rastle a couple Ute cayuses through ten feet of snow like a hot bullet +goin' through a piece of ham fat, and onct on the other side of the +divide it will be an easy trail to Kremling's, at the mouth of the Big +Muddy. Yer don't need ter take much along. Yer will be out but one +night, and mebbe yer will git ter the old hunter's cabin about forty +mile from here 'fore that. Ef yer don't ther is a good campin' ground on +the crik in a big pocket five miles this side." + +It did not take long to make a trade. Jack reserved his six-shooters, +blankets and three or four fine cat and fox skins. Joe gave him a good +Indian pony, a silver watch, and the balance in money for the +provisions, rifle, ammunition and other paraphernalia, except the +remaining furs, traps and cooking utensils, which were the legitimate +belongings of the trapper. + +But the awful perils of a trip over an unknown trail in midwinter rose +up as a barrier between Jack and civilization. The night had come on and +Yamanatz, with Chiquita, as silent witnesses to the exchange of +chattels, sat beside the camp fire. Grotesque shadows wavered and +wandered back and forth in and out of the gloom as Jack replenished the +disappearing embers with new fuel preparatory to a pow-wow in which the +final arrangements were to be completed concerning his escape from Rock +Creek, his return later when the winter passed, when Yamanatz should +conduct him to the great gold deposit. It was a matter of a hundred +miles to the nearest ranch in Middle Park, before reaching which was a +"divide," the top of which soared far above the surrounding hills, and +then came the Gore, or Park range, split by the Grand River into an +impassable canon, along whose steep side ran the old Ute trail, up, up, +until it crossed the snow-covered summit beyond timber line, and thence +descended by serpentine and circuitous windings to the southern entrance +of the Park. From there to the ranch on the Troublesome was open level +country, across which was comparatively easy traveling. The other pass +over the Gore range, which was used by the trapper and Jack when they +made their incoming trip to Rock Creek, was already closed by snow as +far as travel by horses was concerned, and for that matter the Ute trail +was closed, except for being opened by the band of Indians and thirty or +forty ponies bucking their way through to Sulphur Springs. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS. + + +The most difficult portions of the journey would be encountered the +first day over the numerous ridges of barren waste intervening between +Rock Creek and the high divide. Old Joe shook his head in uncertain +manner when Jack asserted his confidence in being able to follow after +Colorow. Yamanatz nodded in assent at the dangers confronted by the +dilemma of Jack's unfamiliarity with the trail, and then in that +portentous monosyllabic manner of Indians in brief words conveying whole +paragraphs of information but adding to the dismal forebodings, said: + +"White man all right. Plenty sign when trail in big woods. Heap sign on +big trees. Come big open, no trees, no sign; one look, two look, three +look, all same. All snow, no trail, no tree. Get lost; sundown, no fire, +no camp. White man cold. Pretty soon sleep; fall off pony; sleep long +time." + +Then Jack knew that "three looks" would carry him from the top of one +high hill to the top of another, as far as the eye could reach to the +horizon, into a country absolutely treeless, and where even an Indian +would be lost if he had never been shown the trail. To attempt the trip +alone would be sheer madness and only result in that subtle overpowering +sleep into eternity--death by freezing. + +Yamanatz stopped speaking for a moment to give his hearers ample time to +fully understand him, then continued: "White man sabe? Colorow gone one +sleep, mebbe so not make 'em Gore range. White man catch 'em pony +tomorrow. Two sleeps before can take 'em trail to follow Colorow, sabe? +Colorow mebbe so come back meet 'em white man. Colorow then heap mad, no +get 'em flour, bacon. Colorow, Antelope, Bennett all heap hungry. White +man no got 'em big gun; little gun not much good, mebbe so?" and +Yamanatz lapsed into silence. + +There was no need to ask anything more. The cunning old warrior knew +only too well the fate that awaited Jack if Colorow and his ugly +renegade Indians should fail to get through to Sulphur Springs and had +to return empty handed to Rock Creek. Old Joe knew, too, that his own +safety would be problematical, even with his years of familiarity with +the whole Ute tribe. The gloom that settled over them was full of +foreboding. Each one was striving to hatch out a plan that would dispel +the dangers now besetting Jack's safety. + +It was useless to think of old Joe attempting the trip with Jack, and +Yamanatz made no sign of being willing to assume the role of guide. At +last as Jack was about to abandon all hope, Chiquita arose and, crossing +over to where Jack was, bid him to be of good cheer. + +Pointing to the stars, she said: "What Yamanatz has said is in the sky. +The Great Spirit who watches over the Indian maiden has told Chiquita to +lead the white man that he may go to meet his white brothers. Chiquita +knows the trail. Chiquita is not afraid. It is but one moon since +Chiquita's pony did paw the deep snow and carry Chiquita on the big +divide to meet the Ute braves coming from the Grand River. One sleep, +and the white man Jack must get his ponies, and two sleeps before the +sun shall show on top of the high mountain. Chiquita will be ready at +the tepee of Yamanatz to lead the white man over big divide, where make +'em one camp for Chiquita and one camp for white man Jack. One sleep and +Chiquita say adios to white man, then come back Indian village on same +day. White man go to his white brothers on Troublesome, then go long way +Denver City." + +Here was a dilemma that confronted Jack, even more embarrassing than +anything yet thrown in his path--the would-be leader of the select four +hundred at White River acting as guide over a wild country, to say +nothing of a one-night camp among the willows at the edge of some little +creek. It must have amused him to a great degree, for, serious as it +was, a smile lurked around the corners of his mouth, causing Chiquita to +become a little disdainful, as an Indian is very sensitive to ridicule, +but Jack quickly relinquished the comical side of the question and his +features again became as grave as those of old Yamanatz. Old Joe was the +first to speak: + +"The Injun gal is made of the right stuff and will pilot yer to ther +right place, an' she can take care of herself goin' an' comin'. I've +seen her throw that knife in her belt twenty feet as straight as yer can +shoot a bullet outen that six-shooter of your'n." + +Then the old Ute spoke: + +"Chiquita all same Yamanatz show 'em trail to white man. White man +sabe?" + +Jack could do nothing but take Chiquita's hands in his own and bow his +humblest thanks. It occurred to him he had an old sealskin cap in his +war bag and that it might please the dusky maiden. He soon produced it +and, with another friendly greeting, presented it to her. It was lined +with bright red silk, and she proceeded to put it on with the silk on +the outside, to which Jack made no remonstrance. Although it made him +bite his tongue, he did not "crack a smile." + +Yamanatz and Chiquita immediately started on the trail for the Indian +village. It was ten o'clock. After a chat with Joe they both turned into +the bunk, Jack to dream of home, sheets and pillowcases, barber shops, +chinaware and a real live dining-room table. It took all next day and +far into the night to get his Ute ponies in readiness for Tuesday's long +journey, but at last the packs were made up. Three days' supply for two, +of bread, bacon, tea and coffee, were made into a convenient bundle, to +be rolled into the blankets, which would in turn be strapped behind +Jack's saddle. All the other paraphernalia--Indian moccasins, buckskin +shirts, beaded tobacco bags and a real Ute war bonnet, with lots of +pipes, elk teeth, bears' claws, arrow heads and Jack's clothing--were +packed in rubber blankets, canvas covers and grain bags, ready for the +pack-saddle on the other pony. + +It was just daybreak when Jack bid the old Rock Creek camp farewell, +leaving it to be put in shape by old Joe, who had helped the young man +from the far east in his preparations. Old Joe did not waste words in +his good-bye speech, but there was at least a perceptible tremor in his +voice and a decided reluctance in withdrawing his hand after the adios +shake. The Indian village was reached at exactly sunrise, and as a +chorus of yelping dogs greeted the arrival of the ponies, a few squaws +poked their heads out of the tepees, nodding a salute of recognition to +Jack. Chiquita was ready to mount her pony as soon as Jack gave her the +word. He had tightened the diamond hitch on the pack pony and his own +saddle girth preparatory for a long lope over the sage-brush flat that +extended from the Indian village across the small mesa at the foot of +the first hills, which form the steps of the high divide. Chiquita, +dressed in her buckskin shirt, skirt, leggings and moccasins heavily +trimmed with beads, quickly sprang into her saddle and pulled the +blanket up around her shoulders Indian fashion. Her hair hung in heavy +braids at either side of her cheeks, while the sealskin cap with showy +red silk lining crowned her head. Into the peak of the cap she had +thrust an immense eagle feather. The chorus of yelping dogs again took +part in the ceremony attending their departure. As they ascended the +first bench several blacktail deer ran directly across their +path--beautiful animals that cleared the sage brush in graceful, easy +bounds, looking first to the right and then to the left, as much as to +say, "Come on, I'm ready." + +It was noon when the last long snow-covered ridge lay behind them. For +two hours it had been a battle with snowdrift after snowdrift. The trail +cut by the Colorow Indian ponies had been filled by the wind with +drifting snow until not a sign was left. Parapets of snow ten feet high +were encountered, which had to be cut and the trail again located by +Chiquita. First one pony would take the lead and, reared on his hind +feet, paw the snow down beneath him, while the next in line trampled it +a second time, until a cut was formed at a low point in that endless +chain of banks stretching for miles in either direction. Towering forty +feet in the air were mountains of the same dazzling white, which had to +be circled, sometimes leaving the trail to the right or left for a mile. +At times these detours were made only to be retraced because of the +impassable blockades rising in sheer precipices, and once the trail +opened by these detours was found to be refilled within an hour, so +fierce was that icy blast, blowing its wanton breath in seeming malice +against the weary beasts and their equally weary riders. + +Jack had tramped snow for the ponies on many occasions when they refused +to move. Chiquita had lent her encouragement time and again as Jack +seemed ready to abandon the trip, but at last behind them towered the +top of the big divide, on whose crest ran a snow bank higher than any +before encountered. Giving a few moments' rest to the panting ponies, +Jack took the lead, for now the trail was easily discernible and +followed without a break, down, down, over and through a few more banks +of that mealy substance, affording neither footing nor shelter for man +or beast, until the warm forests of pine once more protected them from +the frightful cold. + +At the first convenient spot Jack cleared away the snow from a huge rock +and soon had a cheerful fire roaring, which furnished warmth to their +numbed bodies; then from his tin cup in which snow was melted he brewed +a refreshing draught of tea, which, with a bite of frozen bread thawed +out on the hot rock, appeased their hunger for the time being. By the +aid of a pocket thermometer Jack ascertained the temperature to be 36 +degrees below zero. The sky was clear, but even at the edge of the +timber a thousand feet below that terrible snow-turreted ridge the wind +screamed in its fury and pierced the heavy garments and blankets within +which Chiquita and Jack were encased. The ponies humped their backs at +the lee side of the fire and seemed grateful for a few mouthsful of +smoke in lieu of a wisp of dry buffalo grass. Conversation was almost +impossible, as words were not audible three feet distant. Both were too +numb to talk, and it was difficult even to eat. The half hour at an end, +Jack struck into the trail, leading his pony. Chiquita had not +dismounted since leaving the Indian village, and was getting pretty +stiff with cold. At the end of another half hour she managed to make +Jack hear her, and after considerable trouble he found a log by the side +of the trail, where she could stand and swing first one leg and then the +other to restore circulation. After ten minutes' vigorous exercise she +remounted, and the little procession again started through the down +timber. + +They had reached a portion of heavy forest that had been ravaged by +timber fires. Miles and miles of immense trees lay in chaotic confusion. +Tall spires of limbless bark-burned pines stretched eighty, one hundred +and even a hundred and fifty feet skyward, the weather-beaten trunks +white with the storm-scouring of years. Through this desolate stretch of +ghostyard (a veritable birthplace for spooks and goblins, the terror of +that docile animal known as the Rocky Mountain canary, but usually +called a jackass) the party moved in silent Indian trot, each step +taking them nearer and nearer the warmer region of cedar, pinon and sage +brush, through groves of quaking asps, whose leaves in the summer time +never cease their eternal and restless quiver and upon whose smooth +trunks were Indian signs galore. On the larger and older trees could be +found those subtle knifecuts, conveying intelligence through +representations of chickens, horses, snakes, hatchets, knives, guns, +arrows and other characters which in the past had warned of the +approaching enemy or told of the chase, of the success or the defeat not +only of Utes, but of Sioux, Apaches, Arapahoes and Kiowas. Many an hour +had Jack spent in studying these trees which are scattered over the +Rocky Mountain region, bearing whole histories, trees generally found +within an altitude of 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. + +It was not long after passing through this belt that they came to the +south hillsides, whose slopes were free from snow and where the runways +for deer, elk and mountain sheep became more and more numerous. Stocky +little cedar trees stretched forth their long arms over the trail, +sending forth fragrance of lead-pencils and giving a slap on the face if +the rider neglected to duck in season to avoid the branch. Entering a +sage-brush covered mesa, immense jack-rabbits bounded hither and +thither, sage hens flew up with a whir of their wings and the shrill +scream of an eagle greeted their ears as if to warn them against +entering his domain. As the trail led them nearer and nearer to the +banks of a good sized creek the ponies became restive, and finally the +pack animal resorted to that well-known method of suggesting that it was +time to make camp by "bucking"--not a stop in the bucking process until +blankets, bags and bundles were scattered for a mile over the sage-brush +flat. It was an hour's work for both Jack and Chiquita to get the +plunder together and again pack it on the refractory cayuse, and it was +all the more aggravating, as it was only a couple of miles from the spot +selected for camp. + +Arriving at a bend in the creek--rather it was a fair sized river--they +proceeded to make the best of everything at their command. There was a +space along the edge of the river about two hundred feet wide, covered +here and there with wild rye, at the roots of which was dried buffalo +grass. This strip of land ran back to a canon wall, a precipice some +forty feet high, sheer and without foothold for even a wildcat. Thick +willows grew along the base of this wall, and it was but a few minutes +after the ponies were relieved of their saddles ere Jack had selected +two favorable spots which would afford reasonably good beds, one for +Chiquita and one for himself. Cutting away the willows up to the wall in +a narrow space just big enough for one to lie down, and forming a +mattress of others occupied but a little time. Meanwhile, Chiquita had +brought driftwood and dry sticks until an immense pile of fuel was in +readiness for the long night. The ponies were picketed, one on each side +of the camp and the third one close to the edge of the stream, forming a +guard past which no wild animal would attempt to go. It was now dark and +the ponies were foraging for buffalo grass, while Jack toasted some +bacon on a stick, made coffee in an old baked-bean can, which he had +thoughtfully tied to the pack-saddle, and toasted the frozen bread on a +hot rock. During the early dusk the mew of a plaintive camp bird gave +notice that that mountain sentinel was at hand, and the handsome +gray-coated camp follower would spread his black-tipped wings and fly +down to the edge of the fire, looking for crumbs and refuse of the +"kitchen." Chiquita gave him a few morsels, but there was little to +spare from the stock at hand. + +After they had satisfied their hunger Jack and Chiquita settled +themselves for a long talk. It was the first opportunity that had been +presented since old Joe and Yamanatz interrupted them the Sunday before +after the six-course banquet Jack had given his eastern friends by +proxy. + +The ponies tugged at their picket ropes, wandering around in search of +overlooked patches of grass. Occasionally a wolf howl mournfully +awakened the stillness of the gathering darkness, to be answered by +others of the same species, each animal in the common quest of something +to eat, and all probably attracted by the camp fire and its attendant +odors. + +A first-quarter moon shed its cold, silvery light on the drama at the +base of the precipitous rock. The air was crisp and still. The splashing +stream dashing its burden along the confines of its narrow channel to +the Pacific Ocean was the orchestra, keeping in touch with the scene, +staged by no artificial hand and curtained by the star-spangled canopy +of night. The camp fire sent showers of sparks far aloft and its warmth +unloosened the tense-drawn muscles, every one of which had been called +upon to its utmost capacity in the battles that the weary travelers had +encountered with the snowdrifts. Jack lay stretched upon the sand by the +fire, while Chiquita stood beside him. They had recounted the perils of +the day and had outlined their respective trips for the morrow--she to +face again the dangers of the divide and go back to the uneducated, +primitive life of the forest man, degraded by the deceits and intrigues +of the avaricious, land-grabbing representatives of schools, colleges +and institutions, proclaiming the law to be justice, he to face the +vicissitudes of an unknown trail, the possibility of meeting a murderous +band of these forest men while on his way back to that realm of advanced +civilization, educated to the highest degree of refinement of "doing" +others legally. + +Both had remained silent for a long time after the exchanges of the +day's experiences. Jack wanted to express his gratitude to Chiquita for +her bravery and self-imposed task in conducting him over the trail, for +he now fully realized the certain death that awaited him had he +undertaken the trip alone. But he was not master of words that the +Indian maiden would understand in their fullest import, nor did he hope +to be able to convey by signs that which was uppermost in his mind. + +It may be Chiquita read his thoughts, but was equally at loss to find +adequate words to impart any assistance. Finally, after many misgivings +as to what she might consider an ample word reward, he started in at +random: + +"Chiquita sabe that she has been good to Jack?" + +"Me no sabe, Senor." + +Jack was nonplussed. In her he found the same ability to dissemble that +predominated in the well-known character of the first lady in the Garden +of Eden. He tried to recall some Spanish words that she might +understand, but none of the few which he essayed to use met with any +better reception. + +"Chiquita heap brave," said Jack, to which she made no reply. + +"Chiquita save Jack; make 'em glad Jack's heart. What Jack do to make +Chiquita's heart glad?" + +He at last had struck the right chord, as her face beamed with a glad +response, but it brought questions causing a train of thought which made +him smile even at the risk of incurring her displeasure. To express +gratitude to an Indian requires much more diplomacy and skill than is +required under like circumstances in civilized communities. + +"Would the fair-faced sister of the white man save Jack all same +Chiquita? Would the pale-face maiden bring firewood and sleep in willow +bed to save white man's life?" + +Her eyes blazed in the consciousness of knowing that in the present age +on the American Continent no white woman had ever been put to a like +test. Whether she felt this intuitively or whether she had learned it +from the squaws who had visited the big cities as they recounted the +adoration extended by the male to the weaker sex as a part and parcel of +civilization, it matters not. + +Jack knew that he was at as great a disadvantage in her presence as if +at the mercy of the divinest coquette in all of God's country. He +essayed to answer, but something restrained him. It was not fear; it was +not because he had his own misgivings on the subject, nor was it because +he had no ready reply. Nevertheless, he waited and in his mind he tried +to picture one of the belles of society bucking snow to save some +football graduate from death, or one sleeping in the open air, without a +chaperon, and a man in the same canon. What _would_ Mrs. Grundy +say? Of course he thought of the story by an eminent author where there +was a scuttled ship laden with gold, a clergyman and a rich man's +daughter cast upon an unknown island, and Jack acknowledged he had never +heard of Mrs. Grundy making unkind remarks about that tale. But that was +the result of accident, and mortuary tables classify accidental risks in +a category by themselves. + +Chiquita had suggested the society belle who would voluntarily give up +half her estate for a real live, accidental romance that did not incur +too much danger. Would she leave her maid and steam radiator and in the +midst of a western blizzard sally forth to carry coal up three flights +of stairs to a poor, benighted student, and then sleep on the doormat, +for any reward there might be in store for her, either from a +consciousness of having performed a creditable act or because she loved +him? + +Of course, Jack knew there was no occasion ever presented where a loving +young thing, just out of the sixth grade, had been called upon to carry +anything any more formidable than a bunch of roses to a sick friend, and +the modern equipages splashed only a little dirty water over roads well +kept from snowdrifts by indulgent taxpayers. Still, the question had +been asked, and he manfully determined to stand up for the fair ones +across the range. + +"Si, Senorita Chiquita, the Indian maiden has said it. The pale-faced +sisters of Jack would save their white brothers--even their red brothers +and their black brothers. The fair sisters of the white man brave death +in many ways for their white brothers. See, Chiquita, the medicine tepee +of the white man is great as the high rock. It has many beds, more than +the number of all Yamanatz's ponies. The young man who makes the gun, +the maiden who makes the pretty cap mebbe so breaks the leg. Mebbe so +the big steam cars come together all in big smash--kill many, heap hurt +all. Then taken 'em to white man's medicine tepee. Medicine man tie up +head, arms, legs, and white maiden in medicine clothes, all clean dress, +white cap, red cross on the arm, give sick man medicine, wash sick man's +hands, feet; give little something to eat, sit beside 'em, feel of hot +head; stay all day, stay all night; watch 'em little blood knocks on the +wrist, count all same on little watch. Mebbe so one get well, go way, +good-bye. Mebbe so some die, go way too. Some more come bad hurt. Mebbe +so like mountain fever; mebbe so heap sick inside. Big medicine man +takes little knife, cut 'em all open, so. Cut out big chunk, mebbe so +little chunk, all same; sew 'em up again, so, sabe? White maiden stand +by, help big medicine man. 'Nother medicine man stand by give 'em heap +strong stuff on cloth, sabe? Sick man all same breathe 'em in, byme by +go sleep; no feel 'em knife. Big medicine man heap cut. Sick man no feel +all same. Byme by wake up. Heap sick now long time; mebbe get all well; +mebbe so one moon, mebbe so two moons; mebbe so die. All same pale face +maiden heap brave; save many white man like Jack." + +Chiquita never took her eyes from Jack's countenance. That she fully +understood every phase of the hospital life as portrayed by him was +evident from the dilated nostril, the wide-open eyes and the tumultuous +heaving of the bosom through the heavy folds of her buckskin. She waited +a full two minutes after Jack had finished, and then in a voice just +above a whisper asked: "Will the white man Jack take Chiquita to see the +medicine tepee of the white people that she may see the fair white +sister in her medicine clothes?" + +Jack little realized that he had touched the one chord in Chiquita's +character that she yearned to follow. The imaginings of her young life +had met with no sympathetic response. She revolted at the cruelty often +displayed by the warriors in the Indian village, and the atrocities +committed on captives while she was but a child were hideous +recollections. + +Jack quickly replied: "When Jack comes back to go with Yamanatz to +Blazing-Eye-by-Big-Water then Chiquita will see big medicine tepee in +Denver City and the fair sister in her medicine clothes." + +"Will Jack come back Rock Creek when beaver cut 'em big tree?" asked the +Indian girl. + +Jack figured that April would be early enough, and even that would +require him to use snowshoes a great part of the distance. The Berthoud +pass would not be open until June, and he doubted if the snow would be +passable for ponies on the high divide they had just crossed, but the +Gore range could be crossed farther north and obviate the high ridge and +its deep snow. + +"Jack will come back the first new moon after beaver begin cut. Will +Chiquita be in tepee near Pony Creek or White River?" He both answered +one question and asked another. + +"Me no sabe where Chiquita then," she replied, in a rather sorrowful +tone, continuing: "Mebbe so all go to agency, mebbe so stay on Pony +Creek. White man no find Chiquita on Pony Creek, go all same agency find +'em Yamanatz. Where Yamanatz there Chiquita wait for white man Jack." + +That being settled, Jack took the blankets and distributed them on the +willow beds. He then replenished the fire with some half-green logs +pulled from a pile of drift wood, examined the picket ropes of the +ponies and lit his pipe for another smoke. Chiquita wrapped herself in +her blanket, tucked herself into a big wildcat-skin bag, which made a +part of her bed on the willow branches, and was soon asleep. + +Through the rings of smoke which curled from his pipe Jack sensed the +future, as a spiritualist would say, and, realizing that this would in +all probability be his last night of outdoor life for some time to come, +he was loath to close his eyes in sleep, shutting out the grand +retrospect of independence which a few months' experience on the +frontier had taught him--a life absolutely free from conventionalities, +police interference and taxes. + +"No wonder," he soliloquized, "that the red man prefers the avenues of +the forest, the virgin plains of grass, the rugged canons running with +sparkling water, the smoke of his tepee fire and a starry dome for his +homestead, to the cobblestones, the plowed ground, the artificial goose +ponds, the greasy-surfaced rivers, the steam-heated, foul-smelling +hothoused monuments of man's industry and civilization." + +The ponies snorted as though an intruder was lurking on the outskirts of +the camp. Jack kicked one of the smoldering logs and a shower of sparks +were borne upward into the dark night air. A few moments later and the +prowler's deep, dismal howl wafted along the river course, supplemented +by the short, snappy yelps of half a dozen coyotes. The interruption was +ended and the man of the house again lapsed into speculation. + +"Who would believe that Jack Sheppard would be here alone with that +Indian girl in the middle of January, over a thousand miles from his +home, where are velvet carpets and feather beds for old folks, eiderdown +quilts for his sisters and probably a good hair mattress and blankets +for the butler?" + +Knocking the ashes from his pipe and placing that article of luxury +safely in an Indian-beaded buckskin tobacco pouch, he drew one foot up +and clasped his hands over the greasy overalled knee, resting his back +against one of the log "divans" which go to make up every camp, even be +they temporary ones. He had divested himself of his outer coat and +relied upon the heavy buckskin shirt and the camp fire for protection +from the cold. Long strings, demanded by frontier fashion, dangled idly +from the sleeves and yoke of the garment. As he silently contemplated +his wardrobe he gave an additional sigh and wondered, almost aloud: + +"I suppose these will have to give way to a 'biled' shirt, tailor-made +clothes and white collar, to say nothing of getting a haircut +regularly." + +This last "think" made Jack unclasp his hands rather hastily, but having +assured himself that his hair was still intact, he gave vent to more +soliloquy. + +"If I were to walk into that Sunday-school class of mine, of +ten-year-olds, in this rig, I wonder if the shorter catechism would +stand any show?" + +With a smile he proceeded to throw on a couple more logs, refresh +himself with a drink of water and, having divested himself of his boots, +using a saddle and coat for a pillow, he pulled the blankets around +himself and was soon fast asleep. + +[Illustration: THE CAMP IN THE WILLOWS.] + +He was awakened by snorts of all three ponies. The fire had burned out +with the exception of a bed of coals glowing in the deep black night. +The "watchdogs" of the camp had crowded up to the lengths of their +picket ropes, getting as near each other as they could. Jack slowly +raised himself to a sitting position and listened attentively. Peering +out through the willows he could see, by the restive tugging of the +ponies at their fastenings with the pricking of their ears toward the +high precipice, that the cause for alarm did not come from inside the +canon. Cautiously putting on a pair of moccasins, which he always had +near him at night, he picked up his .44 and was on the point of stepping +into the open by the fire, when from above came a screech, a long +cat-like growl of defiance, yet defeat, that made the canon echo and +re-echo with maniacal vocal debauchery. Jack's heart, it is needless to +say, quit doing business peremptorily for at least thirty seconds. His +eyes followed the ear-vanes on the ponies' heads, and just at the edge +of that breastwork of rock could be seen two golden discs as big as car +wheels, Jack thought. A greenish glare as of a halo surrounded the +yellow spots, and occasionally the bright spots suddenly disappeared +only to shine forth again appallingly bright. It was a mountain lion +taking snap shots while it speculated on its appetite. Jack stepped out +and gave the end of a burned log a kick into the hot coals. Millions of +sparks flew up. The big lemon-colored orbs slunk back out of sight and +ten minutes later the faint repetition of the first number proclaimed +the concert ended. + +The "big dipper" pointed to 3 o'clock. Throwing on some more fuel the +fire blazed high. Chiquita thrust her head out of the environments of +the fur bag and sat up in the willow retreat. "Me want 'em drink; mouth +heap dry," was the laconic remark she made to Jack as he acknowledged +her wakefulness. Giving her a cup of water, he referred to the visitor +just departed, to which she scornfully replied: + +"Heap big coward, big cat with long tail. Little cat with short tail all +same like this bag, no coward. Big cat all same you call 'em lion, no +catch 'em ponies, Indian or white man, all time afraid. Big cat catch +'em rabbit, lame deer. Mebbe so heap hungry tackle 'em big elk; drop +from big tree on elk back. Big cat, little cat, wolf, bear, no come near +camp fire. Look at camp fire long way off. Chiquita no fraid when all +'lone." + +With this piece of information, with which Jack was already acquainted, +they both resumed their interest in the land of Nod. + +The bright winter sun had not mounted far enough in the heavens to shed +any warm rays into the camp when Jack pulled on his boots and poked the +fire preparatory to an early breakfast. The ponies did not look as if +dyspepsia troubled them, nor did Jack feel overburdened with belly +worship. The little larder was a hollow mockery to the knockings of a +ravenous appetite. Jack concluded that a well-fed discretion was better +than hungry haste, so he meandered down the river in search of a rabbit, +while Chiquita attended to her morning ablutions. About the time that +the average city girl would have consumed with curling tongs, cashmere +bouquet and in getting her hat on straight, Jack returned with a nice +fat "jack" of the _lepus cuniculus_ family, all ready for the +coals. It did not take long to cook the choice cuts from the delectable +portions of "Bunny." The seasoning was rather crude, consisting of +powder taken from a misfire cartridge, which Jack happened to have in +his belt. But "saltpeter in gunpowder is better than no salt at all" is +an old axiom among hunters. This addition to the "hollow mockery" larder +sent their spirits up to the top of the goodfellowship thermometer. + +"A burned hare is worth two in the bush," said Jack, as he irreverently +twisted a trite quotation and rabbit leg. But Chiquita kept right on in +her argument with a section of the vertebra just roasted on a forked +stick. + +After the first pangs of hunger had been somewhat appeased the Indian +girl said to Jack, "What you call 'em little things use all same knife +when eat off tin plate?" + +Jack recalled the fact of some cheap silver-plated forks that made up +the camp kit. + +"Forks," he replied, adding, as Chiquita seemed to want further +information, "The fair sisters of Jack no eat 'em venison with fingers, +all same Chiquita. Think 'em Chiquita wild girl. When Jack come back +bring 'em forks and spoons for Chiquita." + +To this she seemed satisfied, but remarked: "Mebbe so fingers pale face +girl good play 'em tom-tom, make 'em beadwork, wash 'em tin plates. No +good catch 'em pony, cut 'em firewood, make 'em buckskin." + +With this she scornfully turned her lip up in a manner that made Jack +laugh outright, a proceeding that always made Chiquita's eyes snap with +dangerous fire. He quieted her by pointing at the sun as an indication +that it was time to say adios. The ponies were brought up and quickly +saddled, Jack's belongings packed in the most approved fashion to stand +another hard climb over the Gore range, and Chiquita's restive "Bonito" +carefully cinched for the return trip to the Indian village. The last +point of the "diamond hitch" had been made and the rope drawn taut; the +last knot had been tied over the roll of blankets behind Jack's saddle, +and the last of the morning's banquet had been divided between the +wayfarers, whose journeys would in a few moments lead in opposite +directions. As Chiquita arranged herself on the back of "Bonito" she +looked wistfully at the sky and surrounding peaks. "Me make 'em Yamanatz +tepee sun here," pointing halfway down the horizon to the west. + +Jack signified his expectations by remarking, rather dubiously, "Me +mebbe so get to Troublesome heap dark." + +Following the direction of Chiquita's finger as she pointed to the high +divide where the previous day they had battled long in the deep snow, +Jack felt some misgivings as to the Indian girl being able to ride the +big drift down. But the confidence she enjoyed in her own ability to +stand hardship and the additional reliance she placed in the +thoroughbred Ute pony was summed up in her one decisive comment, uttered +almost imperiously, at least scornfully: + +"Bonito take Chiquita through deep snow like big fish go through foaming +water. Wind all gone up there now." + +Jack threw himself into his saddle and reined up beside the future +medicine queen of the White River Utes. She drew from her bosom a beaded +buckskin bag, from which she took a pair of beaver's jaws, the short +teeth bound with otter and a long strip of mountain-lion fur bound +firmly around a braid of her own hair. She handed them to Jack, saying +in a low, almost beseeching tone: "Will the white man Jack bring em back +Chiquita's medicine teeth when the beaver cuts the trees?" + +It was a great sacrifice to part with the "medicine," to which all +Indians pin their faith. Otter and mountain-lion fur especially is woven +into the long straight braids of both buck and squaw to drive away evil +spirits, and Chiquita evidently had been to a good deal of trouble to +obtain the prescription from the head medicine man for her own use. The +beaver teeth were symbolic of the time when Chiquita expected Jack to +keep faith with her. His reply was made while the palms of both hands +were stretched toward her, the fingers pointing up. + +"Jack will come," then pressing his knees against the sides of his pony, +he leaned over and, after a quick hand grasp, bid adios to the smiling +daughter of Yamanatz. + +An hour later he had reached the end of his first "look." Scanning the +side of the high divide he could see "Bonito" lunging forward into the +deep drifts skirting the top of the divide. Presently the pony stopped +and turned broadside toward him. Looking intently he saw Chiquita wave a +farewell response by means of a small silk flag handkerchief which he +had given her upon the first visit to Rock Creek. Signaling a return +salute by means of his sombrero, he waited until "Bonito" disappeared +into that fortress of snow, knowing that once over the crest ten minutes +would be sufficient time to make the crossing in safety. As she did not +reappear, Jack struck boldly into the trail, which now led him by easy +stages up toward timber line, the dark rushing waters of the Grand River +hissing and seething far below him. At the entrance to the canon, where +the warmer current of air met the colder wave from the snow-covered +mountainside, huge bristling bayonets of frosted rye grass waved their +menacing blades at intruders. Lattice-worked ramparts of ice and snow +were veiled with filmy curtains bespangled with millions of +scintillating diamonds, the congealed breathings from that steaming +throat, through which ceaselessly poured the mountain torrent in its +strenuous effort to join the ocean. + +Jack looked wistfully at the scene and sighed that a spectacle of such +rare beauty could not be shared by his eastern friends. + +The tortuous trail often led to the edge of a precipice, where the +slightest misstep of his pony would have hurled both beast and rider +into a frightful abyss. At other times the narrow pathway meandered +serpentine fashion between pine trees so thickly interspersed that the +pack would wedge first on one side and then the other, to the imminent +destruction of Jack's belongings. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE RANCH ON THE TROUBLESOME. + + +It was pitch dark when Jack rode into the corral at the ranch on the +Troublesome. After unpacking and storing his trappings he went over to +the ranch house. Several Ute ponies were in the corral. Their presence +puzzled him, and as he entered the log house what was his surprise to +find himself in the presence of Colorow, Bennett and Antelope. Old +Tracy, the owner of the ranch, greeted the newcomer with a merry +"How--how--well, beat my brains out with a straw ef I tho't of a-seeing +you afore spring." + +Bill, the fiery red-whiskered, red-haired, red-faced, stuttering +Irishman, ejaculated, after a good deal of effort, "D--d--d--durn my +p--p--p--pictures! G--g--g--glad t--t--t--to see yer." The obese, +low-browed renegade Colorow looked inquiringly. So did the other Indians +as Jack replied to both ranchmen: + +"I left Rock Creek yesterday morning and crossed the Gore range today. +The snow was pretty deep in spots." + +Colorow's eyes glittered as it dawned on him that the white man Jack of +Rock Creek and this man were one and the same. Jack did not know any of +the trio except Bennett, neither of the others having openly visited the +camp below. As Bennett rose up from the floor with a greeting he turned +and waved his hand: + +"This Antelope, this Colorow." + +Jack involuntarily stepped back a pace, halfway starting his hand as if +to grasp his six-shooter. Colorow saw the motion as well as the swift, +penetrating flash that shot from Jack's gray eyes into the very soul of +the old red devil. But the warrior never made a hostile movement. The +least perceptible smile crept into his face as he interpreted the +telegraphic glance. He realized that Jack guessed for a certainty what +Bennett and Antelope might guess, for Colorow had never told any of the +Utes that he actually followed Jack, nor that he waited in vain at the +mouth of the long gulch for that worthy young man to walk to his death. +It was with mock cordiality that the two men acknowledged each other's +presence, but not so with Antelope, who rose and grasped Jack's +outstretched hand. Antelope and Bennett _did_ guess right. The +ranchmen had seen the little exchange of "symptoms" and were at loss to +understand the purport thereof. Nevertheless, they had in an instant, +yet seemingly in a careless manner, lessened the distance between the +right hand and the butt end of their respective six-shooters, for the +frontiersman is keen to scent danger. Colorow remained in his chair and +thus addressed Jack: + +"Sabe white man Rock Creek trail?" + +Jack nodded in reply. + +"Sabe camp where Utes sleep?" + +Jack nodded again, holding up two fingers, signifying he had seen both +camping places, as the Utes had not made as rapid progress as he. + +"Colorow lose twelve ponies," counting them by holding up both hands, +then two additional fingers. "Mebbe so white man see 'em ponies?" + +Jack shook his head. The ponies had become hungry, broken away and +probably were hunting buffalo grass in the lower hills when he was +crossing the higher slopes of the Gore range. A few questions as to the +camp on Rock Creek, what disposition he had made of the camp property +and furs, and then the Indians drew their blankets about themselves and +silently filed away to the corral, where they mounted their ponies and +set out for their own camp in the willows, some half mile distant. After +they had departed Tracy said with a quizzical look: + +"That old devil is up to mischief," meaning Colorow. He turned to Jack, +continuing, "Tho't mebbe so yer were goin' to plunk him fer a minnit +thar." + +Bill chimed in: "I seen the f--f--f--fire in yer eyes and says to +myself, it's all over with Cu--cu--col--col--Colorow at last, +b--b--b--but why in h--h--h--hellen d--d--d--didn't yer shoot?" + +"Well," said Jack, just the least regretting he had not, "I didn't know +how much of a 'stink' it would raise. The Utes are getting pretty bad, +and the whole parcel of them might take a notion to come up here and +clean out the Park before the soldiers could stop them." + +"What d' yer mean?" anxiously asked both his listeners, with a +perceptible blanching of their bronzed faces. + +"Old Yamanatz tells me things aren't going just right at the agency. +Colorow and Douglas' band of renegade Utes were camped outside the +reservation, two miles from the cabin where the trapper and I put up. +Didn't the trapper tell you anything?" suddenly asked Jack. + +The ranchmen looked curiously at one another, and Tracy evasively +remarked, "Well, he didn't say much; just said he got lonesome and had +left the old woman without any wood an' allowed he'd cut some for her, +then he'd go back byme-by." + +"Yes, byme-by," scornfully broke in Jack, adding, with some feeling, +"Between me and the corral that trapper is afraid of the Utes and left +me in the lurch." + +Tracy and Bill exchanged glances, as much as to say, "The tenderfoot has +got his eye-teeth cut all right." Bill spoke up as if a sudden impulse +had made him forget the dangers that lurked in the Ute question. + +"How about that redskin g--g--gal? Tho't mebbe so y--y--yer hed jined in +holy wedlock into the Ute family," at which both the ranchmen slapped +their hands together and laughed uproariously. Jack joined in with them, +for he appreciated the gossip of ranch life, and no sewing bee ever +furnished better "stamping ground" for wagging tongues than the frontier +masculine brand. + +Bill set about getting something to eat, and Jack had a double-barreled +appetite stowed away under his belt. The table, with its marble +oilcloth, real stone china plates, cups, saucers, glass vinegar cruets +and a molasses jug, was soon loaded with a big platter of venison, a +plate of hot biscuits, a pot of coffee, a pitcher of rich cream and a +crock of yellow butter. It was nearly three months since Jack had put +his legs under any kind of a table or seen anything the color of butter +or cream, and it was a treat that could not have been equaled in +Delmonico's to draw up to that feast with those truly honest brothers of +wild civilization, partake of their hospitality and listen to their +straightforward talk, rich in its omission of studied rhetoric or +ponderous grammatical phrases; no fear of using the wrong spoon or +creating a social riot by helping one's self to a little venison gravy, +even sopping the bread in the platter. Etiquette, frills and napkins had +to give way to blunt speech, solid, wholesome food and a red bandanna. +Back of it all, too, was his famous digestion and ravenous appetite, +essential elements that have no co-existence with spike-tailed coats, +trained gowns, "eye-openers" and "night caps." Jack had been busy, but +he slowed down long enough to let out his belt one hole. Bill had +entertained in the conversation direction. + +"Say, yer know when yer shot the antelope and Irish Mike got sore at it +because he missed the whole bunch? Well, old man Snyder come in with his +team last October after a load of fish, and we got up the old raft and +dropped the net into the bend of the river right there and dragged out +over a thousand fine suckers at one haul. We threw back all under two +pounds and a half." + +Jack broke in with the remark, "Those red-finned suckers are most as +good as trout." + +"Yer bet yer life they are," chimed in Tracy. + +"Well," continued Bill, "the old man and his boy was a watchin' us from +the other bank, so we hed to be sort o' careful as we picked them fish +over, but there was five as pretty red-throated trout clum up my coat +sleeve as ever yer laid eyes on; two of 'em tipped the scales at five +pounds apiece. We had trout to eat fer a week. Gosh all humlock, but it +was cold work gettin' them suckers ready. We worked 'til most midnight. +They cleaned up about six hundred dollars on the load. Sold 'em in +Georgetown, Central City, Idaho Springs--yes, sir, clean down to Golden. +The first of 'em brought forty cents a pound in the big camps, but the +last end of 'em went fer a nickel apiece. Down at McQueery's they got +another load for some other chaps a month after; pulled in over +seventeen hundred fish at one clip, but them fellers didn't know how to +peddle them out and lost money by shippin' 'em to Denver." + +"How's the stock, Tracy?" inquired Jack. + +"Doin' tiptop; we've got about one hundred and twenty head of horses +winterin' now. Mike brought in a lot of forty soon after you went down +trappin'. I keep a good watch on them haystacks this year to see that +the snowflakes don't strike fire again. They burned up a couple years +ago when I hed thirty ton of as fine hay as they ever get in this yere +Park. I had all the stock that was bein' wintered, and some of the other +fellows up the river had hay but no stock. The range had closed, so they +had no chans't to get any stock. Well, my hay ketched fire and, of +course, I wouldn't see them horses starve, so I had to buy them fellers' +hay. A good ba'r trap would have ketched something besides ba'r that +winter if I had set a few out. While I'm tendin' to the corral Bill will +tell you about that hole in the door frame," pointing to a badly mangled +orifice about as big as an orange. + +"Shotgun?" queried Jack. + +"Yes," said Bill; "shotgun--kingdom cum," and he had to straighten out +his vocal impediments and tell it slowly, although it was a hard task +for him, and his red whiskers and hair would rise up in their wrath, +seemingly, as he stuttered along: + +"Yer see, Dick Bradner came along one day over from Rattlesnake, and +said he wanted a good jack-rabbit shoot. The snow was just right and he +was gone all afternoon. He got half a wagonload, I guess. Along about +dark he steps in on the way to the corral and sets his gun up aside the +fireplace with the other guns. I was just beginning to get grub and had +a pan of flour mixin' up some sour-dough bread, the lamp standin' in +front of the pan and me at the other end of the table from the door +frame. I was puttin' in some good licks on that bread, for sour dough +needs a lot of punchin', and guess I had my head leanin' out pretty well +toward the door. I heard some one step in from the outside, but didn't +look up to see who it was, when there came a flash, and kingdom cum, I +thought my head had caved in. The splinters flew into the bread and the +powder smoke choked me clean up. All I could see was that crazy fool +Irish Mike, his face as white as it will be when he's gone over the +range, standin' there with Dick's gun pintin' to the roof. That idjit +never sees a new gun standin' round but he must pull it up and aim it at +somethin'. You know how he shoots. Dick must have left the gun at full +cock, as he allus does. It was lucky it went off before he got the +barrel on a level with the lamp, or we'd all been in kingdom cum." + +"You got some of the powder in your face," remarked Jack, noticing the +blue pits sprinkled here and there in Bill's forehead. + +"Yes," said Bill, energetically, with several powder-burned adjectives; +"he leaves his mark everywhere he goes. Pity the foolkiller don't git +him." + +Tracy had joined the party again just in time to hear Bill's bouquet of +choice epithets. + +"Tain't so much coz he means to do anything harmin', but the big brute +is so allfired strong and clumsy that when he sets out to do anything he +busts everything he teches. Why, he went to pitchin' hay off the far +stack and must have thought the fork handle would hold up the whole five +ton, fer he snapped it like a ginger cake just outen the oven. Then he +was helpin' put up logs on the barn. We had the top logs most up on the +skids when she fotched up again' the cross log that the skid was leanin' +again'. He reaches the ax up and sets the blade under the log and pulls +on the handle, and away went my dollar-and-a-half handle. He broke it +square off. Took me nigh onto a week to dress another out. But he's a +good worker. All he needs is a sledge and a big enough drill so he won't +miss the head on't and he can pound that 'til jedgment day if the feller +turnin' the drill keeps a good lookout for his hand from bein' hit when +the Irishman misses the drill." + +"I see he left his rifle," remarked Jack. + +"Yes; said he didn't want it at the mines, an' he allows he'll come back +afore the range opens to pick out a hundred and sixty acres somewhere in +the Park. Likely as not he'll see you in Georgetown, but yer got some +snow climbin' to do. Thar ain't many goin' out now, and I heerd Bill +Redmon say he'd have to use 'skis' pretty soon and drag the mail on a +sled. When yer goin' out?" + +Jack thought a minute or two and then replied: + +"I guess I can make it day after tomorrow. That will be the 17th of +January, and I guess 'Red' will bring the pony back and you can feed +both of them for me. By the way, I guess I'll have to snowshoe it in +about beaver-trappin' time. I've got a little business myself down near +the agency." + +Tracy and Bill eyed each other quizzically and tried to guess the +mission, but Jack gave them no satisfaction. + +"I'll be back here by the middle of April, if not before. Beaver begin +to chew the trees down in early March, don't they?" + +"Yes," said Tracy; "but it gets lonesome as all git out before Aprile. +If yer comin' in that soon, why in Christmas don't yer stay now? We've +got grub enough and we can go back in the timber, mebbe so, and ketch a +grizzly or cinnamon about six weeks from now." + +"No; can't do it. Got to go back to the States and attend to some +business, sure. You can have all the grizzlies that are loose. By the +way, you got that silver tip since I left." + +Jack was admiring a fine skin that was nailed up on the inside of the +cabin, taking up the greater portion of a wall ten feet long and eight +feet high. + +"We got that out on the Blue about four weeks ago. I shot him eleven +times afore he quit bein' sassy," said Tracy, with little or no concern, +as if killing a grizzly was on a par with breaking a broncho. "I'll get +twenty-five dollars for that pelt in the summer if I take it to Denver." + +With the dishes cleared away and everything in readiness for the night, +Jack, Tracy and Bill sat around the fireplace smoking their pipes. The +pine knots sputtered and glistened with deep, red-inflamed eyes as Jack +told of the Rock Creek pow-wows. + +"You see, old man Meeker has been trying to teach the Utes how to plow, +how to subtract and divide and to carry wood, while the squaws crochet, +hemstitch and make sofa pillows." + +"Yes, I see them redskin devils tote firewood," broke in Tracy. "If +there's anything an Indian despises it's work. They won't even walk when +the snow is belly deep. I've seen six of 'em on one little cayuse +wallerin' through big drifts at timber line. Why, durn their pictures, a +Ute won't cook if he can beg a bite anywhere, let alone plow, and he'll +freeze to death afore gettin' wood for a fire if thar's a squaw within a +mile to git it fur him. The trapper told us you would git yer fill of +Injuns." + +Bill crossed his legs and then uncrossed them again, knocked the ashes +out of his pipe, and his neck began to swell. He wanted to say something +right bad. Pulling a string off his buckskin pants leg, he commenced +tying it into knots, nervously fingering the ends. + +"Them gol durned skule teachers is all right back in the old red +skule-house in--in Missouri," he said, "but kingdom cum, when they try +to make them blanket Injuns plow it's time fur white folks in Middle +Park to put up a stockade and lay in lots of 45-90's for Sharp's old +reliable, and a dozen or two Colts' frontier sixes. Them's my +sentiments, and don't yer ferget it." + +"Bill hit the nail on the head," echoed Tracy. + +Jack was studying the red, gleaming eyes of the pine knots, and the +moccasin prints in the snow on the high divide seemed to gather again in +the ashes. He started suddenly, as if an inspiration struck him. + +"Boys, it will come to it. That bunch down in the willows have been off +the reservation a long time. Meeker can't get them back without a +regiment of soldiers, and he hasn't got along that far yet. Susan is the +'woman in the case,' and she's putting the young bucks into a trance +about encroaching white folks, while the old fighters, like Colorow and +Douglas, sneak up behind and pat her on the back. Ignacio, Yamanatz--not +even old Ouray--can stop them if they once get a supply of powder and +lead. Wait until the next annuities are paid in and Uncle Sam will have +to send a burying squad over there. They will not do anything for some +time; they haven't any meat, no bullets to kill deer with, not even +salt." Jack stopped for a breath and Tracy took up the conversation. + +"I seen yer was good and strong agin' Colorow when yer found out he was +here, but I didn't know it was that bad. 'Peers to me yer must have had +a grudge agin' him wuss'n yer hev let on." + +"Yes," echoed Bill, "s--s--sumthin' must a s--s--set yer afire down +below." + +"Well, Bill and Tracy, that old scalp-lifter followed me like a shadow +for two days, ready at any moment, if chance presented, to plant the +steel in a spot where it would take, as they say when you are +vaccinated." + +The frontiersmen both jumped to their feet with one impulse to get hold +of their "Sharps," as if to use them at once. Thus does habit breed in +that rugged life. Then they sat down and listened to the rest of the +story wherein Jack told of Yamanatz's warnings, of young Colorow's early +mission to see if white man Jack was in his camp. But he left the most +interesting story until the last, then mentioned no names, "And who do +you suppose followed Colorow to see that no harm came to me?" + +Bill and Tracy guessed every Ute in the White River Reservation. Finally +Jack said: + +"The only one that Susan fears." + +"Chiquita!" exclaimed Bill and Tracy, in one voice. + +"The same," said Jack. + +"Holy smoke! Kingdum cum!" + +"Yes, the fairest Indian girl that ever drew breath." + +"Or ever strung a bow," chimed Bill. + +"Or beaded a moccasin," said Tracy. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CHIQUITA WOOED BY ANTELOPE. + + +Dozens of tepee fires flickered against the dark night pall as Chiquita +made her way toward the Ute village. The tongues of dozens of Indian +dogs snarled their yippi-yappy language at each other, at imaginary +evils and at the resounding clatter of hoofs as her pony loped along +through the sage-covered mesa which skirted the river bank. Old bucks, +warriors with necklaces of cruel-looking claws and beaded breast plates +decorated with strands of human hair woven into pendants, stood in the +shadow of the tepee fires. Shrill cries of hungry papooses rent the air; +guttural jargon of young bucks in animated conversation rasped ominously +against the sensitive ear with words which only an Indian can pronounce, +made up as they are from Mexican, Spanish and Indian dialect. + +Old squaws tottered into camp, loaded with bundles of fagots gathered +from the fallen timber, and as these old witches with thrice-wrinkled +faces peered into the gloom and discerned Chiquita astride "Bonito" they +spitefully threw an armful of new wood into the fire, raising a cloud of +tiny sparks, and mutterings, half welcome and half imprecation, greeted +her; all cringed before that dauntless maiden, yet all would have been +glad to see her the victim of some tragedy. Her word was law, and that +law a restraining influence which had thus far protected the settlers, +the hunters, the trappers and the white men and women who composed the +agent's family on the reservation, so far from the habitation of white +men and so far from the protecting arm of the United States military. + +Old Hutch-a-ma-Chuck was bedecked with a grotesque war bonnet of eagles' +feathers, from the tips of which hung Arapahoe scalp locks; a necklace +of grizzly claws surrounded his wrinkled neck, and in his arms he +carried a worn-out army carbine, which had not been loaded in ten years. +Uncas, wrapped in a military coat made from a United States blanket, +stood with a big frontier six-shooter hanging listlessly from his arm, +but his eyes snapped viciously as he smiled a welcome to Chiquita, the +smile retreating into an ambuscade of wrinkles which seemed to say, +"Wait until I get a good chance." Broken Nose, with head encircled half +a dozen times with the skins of rattlesnakes, needed no placard to warn +the stranger against encroaching on this Indian's domain. Bowlegs, the +dandy of the camp, was regal in a red-lined vest which he wore lining +outside, and an old plug hat picked up at the Agency or at some frontier +town, ornamented with shipping tags and express labels, was jauntily +tipped on one side of his head, while a gaudy plaid shirt flapped +literally in the breezes, for an Indian knows not of decrees of fashion +regarding shirtology and could not be induced to confine the biggest +part of that splendid garment from view. + +Nearly every Indian had some cast-off garment which had served its +mission for a white man. Hunters, freighters, army men, etc., +contributed old socks, trousers, coats, gloves, hats, caps, and even +women helped bedeck these children of the forest in the glory clothes, +but the "medicine" each and every one possessed was of the same general +character--otter, beaver and mountain lion skins woven into the hair, +constituting a charm to scare away evil spirits. + +Yamanatz was by the camp fire of his tepee as Chiquita threw herself +from the back of "Bonito." There were no impulsive greetings, merely a +question or two, and Chiquita disappeared in the gloom of the night to +her lodge, to dream of other scenes and to allow her imagination to +carry her to the abode of the white man's medicine houses, where nurses +comforted the maimed and sick. + +In a couple of weeks the absent Utes returned, bringing provisions to +last for some time, but these did not abate the surly looks or conduct +of the older ones, who chafed at the escape of Jack, nor assuage the +enmity which the younger bucks bore him when they learned that Chiquita +piloted him safely over the divide. They dared not openly deride her as +they gathered in council to plan the breaking up of reforms which the +government anticipated at the hands of the agent at White River. + +They rebelled against cultivating the ground. They ridiculed the +proposition of a Ute warrior at the plow, and muttered imprecations on +the heads of the Indian Department. + +About a month after Jack had left his camp at Rock Creek, Susan arrived +at the village accompanied by her father, big chief Red Plume and a +dozen young bucks, all eager to drive the whites over the range and out +of Middle Park. But of these, half of them were desirous of annihilating +the pale faces, simply to gain Susan's favor. The other half were +striving to win Chiquita, and Susan was jealous of Chiquita to a marked +degree, while Chiquita cared naught for Susan nor any of Susan's +admirers. Susan, of course, had learned of the perilous trip of +Chiquita, and every Indian youth had a deep admiration for Chiquita that +Susan never received. + +Red Plume had left the Agency to personally visit Colorow's village, and +endeavor to obtain that surly old monster's consent to move the village +back to White River, as agent Meeker had requested. Upon one pretext and +another Colorow delayed the matter day after day. In the meantime Susan +was taunting Chiquita and Chiquita's admirers, while spurring her own +suitors to acts of violence. This was not done openly, as Indian maidens +do not take part in matters of love or war, in person, unless the +circumstances are very pronounced. Susan felt that it was equal to the +crime of elopement for Chiquita to escort the white man over the divide, +and could she have had her way Chiquita would have been burned at the +stake the morning following her return to the village, for this is the +penalty inflicted when the maiden eloping is the daughter of a chief. +Susan was particularly partial to Antelope and never tired of singing +his praises, but Antelope had no eyes or ears for any one except +Chiquita. Many a haunch of venison had this handsome young savage laid +at the lodge door of Chiquita's mother, and handsome lion skins, eagle +plumes and strings of elk teeth had he presented to Yamanatz in his +effort to win Chiquita. + +As the moon rode high in the heavens, throwing long shafts of silvery +light through the pine boughs, and casting deep shadows across the +rushing waters of Toponas creek, Chiquita was wont to wend her way along +the needle carpeted bank, her red lips firmly compressed, while her eyes +appealed to the heavens above for the return of spring and Jack. As she +wandered here Antelope watched her from the sheltering shadow of some +great rock, and chanted love songs in hopes of obtaining the least +little recognition from her, for the Indian must win his bride by feats +of strength, conquest or purchase, and not by personal servitude, as +does his white brother, and his wooing must be indirect unless the +maiden vouchsafes him the pleasure of a meeting in some glen or dell, +where a few words may be spoken; but she reserves the right of making +first advances or indicating by some sign that her suitor may address +her, and if especially desired by her she will leave a token in the +shape of a flower, spruce branch, or rabbit's foot where the lover may +see it and heed the invitation. + +Chiquita knew that the young warriors would eventually precipitate a +clash, which might occur when Jack was coming or going from the +reservation. She grew sick at heart when she reviewed the actions of +Colorow, and how certain it was that Jack's life had been in peril, and +always would be whenever he visited the Ute camps. She determined to +stop the agitation which Susan was fomenting, or at least get assurance +in some way that no overt act would be committed until after she and +Yamanatz should be far away towards the "Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water." + +The new grass was beginning to show itself along the creek. Mountain +crocuses bloomed in the edge of the fast melting snow, as the white +blanket gradually receded towards the tops of the high peaks under the +heat of the early spring sun. Chiquita watched the beaver dams as the +inhabitants industriously fashioned new homes for the next winter, +cutting down the big trees and laying in a supply of willows for food +and comfort. She looked toward the sun as he peered down into the deep +canons and besought the sun god to hurry Jack upon his way. + +It was near midday, and Chiquita sat in a little grove of pinons, +watching the splashing waters and gleaming flash of a trout darting +hither and thither for a morsel as it swept along in the vicious, +turbulent stream. She had hung a branch of spruce buds, entwined with a +vine of Kilikinnick, upon a convenient tree, and she knew that it would +bring Antelope to her. She knew the symbol by him would be interpreted, +"hope in peace," but she intended that his hope must result in peace. As +she listened she heard a voice close beside her. She had felt for some +time the forest intuition that some one was approaching, but so silently +had those footsteps glided along that no sound gave any warning. + +"The daughter of Yamanatz is fair as the morning dove, and it pleases +Antelope to do her bidding, for is not Antelope a suitor for the hand of +Chiquita, and has not Antelope done many things that make him worthy of +the great chiefs daughter?" + +"The son of Big Buffalo stands erect. He speaks with the tongue of one +who is a master, one day to be chief. Antelope is brave and his prowess +great enough to entitle him to the daughter of any chief." + +"The daughter of Yamanatz is as good as she is fair in that she speaks +of Antelope in this wise, and it is a pleasure that the eyes of Antelope +go thirsty and his heart hungry for the return of the love which +Chiquita can give. It would be for Chiquita that Antelope would build +the signal fires, that the Utes may put on their war paint and sharpen +their hatchets to take the land where were the great buffalo before the +paleface drove them into the deep sea where the sun goes down, and when +the paleface has been driven away, then Antelope will claim Chiquita +that she may sing him songs of love by his camp fire. And when Antelope +is big chief then Chiquita will be the mother of many tribes, and our +people will again hunt the buffalo which shall be as the needles in the +pine forest, and no more shall the white man drive the noble Ute away +from the paradise the Great Spirit has made for them. Hear me, daughter +whose breath is as the perfume of the trailing arbutus and whose voice +is like the voice of the lark. It is Antelope who speaks." + +"The son of Big Buffalo is as brave as the wild horse who leads his herd +to drink of the waters of the deep cavern, but know this, that in the +sky Chiquita reads of deeds done by her white sisters who teach the +little paleface to say 'Our Father,' and she hears the song of spirits +from another land, as they sing 'peace on earth, good will to man.' The +great Antelope is not a hen to cackle and run away at the sight of +danger. He is brave but sees not that Chiquita thinks not of deeds of +battle, nor the mighty buffalo, which the great Antelope says will +return. It grieves Chiquita that the hand of the white man on the +throttle of the great iron horse is driving our people back, back into +the deep sea where have plunged the buffalo, and in their trail are the +cities where the white children are taught that the red faced Ute is a +dog, a coyote that snarls and bites and like the owl that goes hoo! +oo-oo-oo-hoo! The paleface has widened the trail from the great ocean by +the rising sun to the mountain, to the big water where the sun again +quenches his thirst. The paleface has spread out as the wings of an +eagle until the lands are gone. The smoke rises from the tall stacks and +long ago have we been forgotten by the old Ute warriors who have passed +into the great Happy Hunting Ground, there to live on pots of savory +flesh while we slave in the sage brush or eat army rations and wear army +blankets, which are brought to us on the cars. This is civilization and +it is so that Chiquita is to learn what her white sister does in +civilization, and Antelope is asked to be patient and wait for Chiquita +while she may see the fair sister unto the end. Then if Chiquita cares +not for the civilized life, she will sit by the camp fire and sing to +Antelope and Antelope may caress Chiquita and she will be his wife." + +[Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE WARRIOR, 1877.] + +"Chiquita has spoken, Antelope will wait, but the heart of Antelope is +sad, for it will be many snows ere Chiquita will make glad the lodge of +Antelope and he will then be an old man," replied the Indian buck. + +"It may not be so Long. Antelope must not make war upon the white man. +Antelope must stay the hands of the warlike Utes who seek the lives of +Chiquita's friend and his brothers. The warriors of the Utes must not +molest these people and it is Antelope who must obey Chiquita in this. +Hear not what Susan says and all will be well." + +"Antelope hears the words of Chiquita. Antelope will see that no harm +comes to the friends of Chiquita, nor to the white man's brethren. +Antelope cares not for Susan. Antelope hears not her words, which are +cunning, but hears only Chiquita, the flower of the Utes." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A GLIMPSE OF HOME. + + +Jack hastened his departure from the ranch on the Troublesome, stopping +at Hot Sulphur Springs one night, crossing the Berthoud pass, early in +the day, again fighting snow drifts as big as houses, as he skirted +around and over the great continental divide but a little distance from +the summit of cheerless Gray's Peak buried in her white mantle. Leaving +his pony at Georgetown for the mail carrier to lead back, he continued +his journey by rail to Denver and from there eastward to his home. Jack +dearly loved his New England home and, as the old scenes again appeared +before him, he saw new beauties to enchant and impress him. His mother, +sister and sweetheart were all on the veranda of the grand mansion, and, +as he jumped from the carriage, he found himself attacked by a center +rush such as no college boy ever before struck. At least five touch +downs were scored before they broke away. + +"Did you bring any Indian things?" all demanded in a chorus. + +"I say Jack," said Hazel, "where is the pony you promised me?" + +"I want those eagle plumes for my hat," said one of his sisters. Even +his mother could not resist the avalanche of wants and, during an +opportune lull, archly asked if there was any danger of her having to +give up the "spare room" to an Indian daughter-in-law, which of course +produced a laugh at the expense of Hazel. + +With the first greetings over, Jack at last got his mother and father +alone, and plunged into the subject uppermost in his mind. + +"My son," his mother commented, "be cautious regarding your actions with +this heathen daughter of the wilderness. You can not tell what kind of +an ambush she may lead you into. Fancy Hazel trotting about educating +one of the young warriors!" + +This was logic with a vengeance. Even Jack could not gainsay it. It was +the same old proposition of woman's prerogative to outdo a man. Jack +pondered over the trip from the Ute village across the divide and the +night camp in the willows. He looked a little sheepish and waited in +discreet silence. + +"Is it necessary, Jack," asked his father, "that you should go to this +unheard-of mine with the old Indian? Why not let him go and return with +the treasure alone as he has done before?" + +"He is too old to attempt the journey and it is his desire that Chiquita +be one of the party, as he will give the mine to her and myself +equally," answered Jack, not at all assured that the reply would make +matters any better. + +"Have you such an unbounded faith in a crafty Indian as to believe that +he knows of any such fabulous treasure that even a nation might send an +army to snatch away from its rightful owners, and that he will lead you +to this mine simply to reward you for standing as press agent for his +equally crafty daughter?" + +Jack saw that his father was beginning to tread upon dangerous ground, +that it would take but little to cause an unpleasant scene unless he +could overcome the prejudice now gaining ground with his parents. He +keenly felt the implied lack of confidence which both displayed, and for +a moment he was inclined to become a trifle skeptical himself, but he +quickly reasoned, "If I show any weakening they will hammer all the +harder." + +"Father," he slowly began, "and mother, you are both ripe in the +experience of this world, with the civilized method of taking from the +untutored forest man his hunting ground, his home, by the simple process +of a representation from each state of a government; a proposition is +voted upon to drive this native farther and farther toward the setting +sun, farther and farther back, until now he lives in a barren country, +his larder empty and his proud mien broken. The remnant of former +greatness drooped to a low ebb of cunning, outmatched only by the +cunning of the frontier statesman, backed by the grasping political +land-grabber and office-holding despot bidding for votes--these jackals +whose blighting breath corrupt juries, legislatures and even the church +into a belief that it is justice to waylay the child of nature in the +onward march of civilization, to wrest from him the land which God gave +as an heritage. Yes, father, I have unbounded faith in Yamanatz that he +can and will show me the greatest mass of gold in one mine ever +uncovered by the hand of man. I will forestall you as to finance. See, +in this pouch is some twenty pounds of gold dust, which the great chief +gave me for 'pin money,' and in the strong box of the express company is +one hundred pounds of the same kind of dust. This is earnest money. This +deposit, made of his own accord, warrants my belief in his ability to +produce the property. Coupled with this was the watchfulness over me by +both Yamanatz and Chiquita, and but for their care and warning I should +not be here now." + +As Jack unrolled the buckskin pouch of nuggets and grains of dull, rich +gold, the look on his father's face changed from one of intense scorn to +deference, from sarcasm to a fawning smile. The avarice in his nature +manifested itself in so apparent a manner that Jack was tempted to make +one little fling, but restrained himself. + +"My son, what you have uttered about the Indian being deprived of his +land is the old story. Every once in a while it comes out in a little +different cover, but are we to blame for the actions of our ancestors? +They came here to live, to escape the tyranny of rulers whom they +renounced, and in the seeking of a new world were obliged to treat with +these pagans. Is it not far better to have this country populated with a +race of God-fearing, civilized, labor-giving people, a people who by +their master minds and master hands today provide the world with food, +with clothing, with machinery that other nations may become enlightened +and as progressive as we are?" + +"Yes," interrupted Jack, "and with our own machinery send back goods and +experienced laborers to compete with the skilled labor we have educated +up to the necessary standard. You would add also, that this class of +citizens, with its Saturday night carousals and Monday's line of police +court criminals, is superior to the noble red man, who knew not fire +water nor knavery until these civilized, God-fearing people taught it to +them." + +"Well, Jack, are you going to head a tribe of Utes to drive us back +across the big sea?" + +"No, father, I guess I shall have all the work of philanthropy I need in +piloting this young heathen through the 'hell gate' of learning into the +whirling vortex of society and accomplishments," laughingly answered +Jack. + +"When will you start on this quest?" timidly asked his mother. + +"Not later than the first of March, for I must be at Rock Creek soon +after that time, and part of the trip is via the snow shoe route." + +Just then Hazel and Jack's sisters knocked imperatively for admission. + +"Oh--ee, Jack, is that real gold dust in that nasty looking bag?" said +Miss Hazel, as she sniffed at the pouch suspiciously. + +"Yes, Miss Tenderfoot, that is the real stuff." + +"What is that you call me, tenderfeet? Why, my feet are not tender." + +"Oh, that is the mountain name for what sailors call 'landlubbers,' +and--say, when I get a couple of wagon loads of that you will tack my +name onto your own with a little hyphen, won't you, dear?" + +"I say, Jack," broke in one of his sisters, "did you run across any good +looking white men, with lots of money, that want some one nice, 'to cook +for two?'" And the dear little apron-bedecked bit of sunshine pirouetted +on her toes in gleeful anticipation of Jack's reply. + +"Sure I did. Bill commissioned me to get him a cook, dishwasher, +milkmaid and wood chopper,"-- + +"Hold on, Mr. Jack, I draw the line on milking. Ugh! I tried it once +down at Uncle John's and I squirted my eyes full of milk. You need not +laugh so. Uncle John just laughed fit to kill himself. That wasn't half +so bad as Hazel, though. She tried to put blankets over the little pigs +so they would keep warm, and when the old pig chased her"-- + +"You stop, stop, stop! Fire! Water!" screamed Hazel and no one ever +found out what happened during the chase. + +Then sister Katherine wanted something. + +"Jack, you know what you promised to get me once, and you said when you +had enough money you would buy me a nice canary and brass cage, and now +that you have got it--such lots of it--won't you keep your word?" + +"They raise larger and louder voiced birds in the west than they do in +the Hartz mountains. The 'Rocky mountain canary' is the greatest warbler +on earth. I have my mind on one that is a daisy and when I come back you +shall surely have it." + +"Oh, Jack, you are so good," murmured she. + +Jack's eyes twinkled as he thought of the joke he would have on +Katherine, but he never said a word. Turning to Hazel he said: "Well, +Lady Jack, what do you think of my chaperoning a dusky maiden for +several years in her search for a continuous performance of good deeds, +hospitals, nurses and the study of political and social economy? Do you +think her thirst will find a quencher?" + +"Oh, Jack, go by all means, only don't attempt to get her into any clubs +or societies and expect me to help you out. I recommended Daisy Deane +for initiation in our B. A. F. club,--you know 'Bachelors Are +Forbidden,' and she got one black ball. Daisy is a stenographer, you +know, and her employer is Mr. Doolittle and Mrs. Doolittle is our High +Priestess." + +"Yes," said Jack curtly, "and she does not belie her name, I guess." + +"That isn't all, Jack. Mrs. Doolittle has got her ax sharpened for me, I +understand, at next election. I was going to run for corresponding +secretary, but I guess I will give it up!" + +The short visit made to his home was devoted mainly to making +arrangements with tutors and deciding on the best lines to follow in +fitting Chiquita for the work she had chosen. + +Hazel and his sisters made quite a bit of sport of the undertaking, but +Jack took it all good naturedly, holding his own against the combined +forces in repartee. + +After these details were disposed of he joined Hazel at her home for a +few days, then started for the frontier. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +UTE, BIG WARRIOR--NO PLOW. + + +The diuturnal petticoat of snow which clothed the mountain was getting +shorter and shorter as the diurnal sun crept farther and farther north +on his summer ascension. The beavers were busy, tooth and tail, building +new dams and repairing old ones. The Ute ponies were getting fat on new +buffalo and bunch grass, and the tender-eyed does were seeking higher +altitudes when Jack again reached the old trail leading to the Indian +village on Rock Creek. + +Chiquita spied the lone horseman long before he was aware of his +proximity to the old camping ground. + +"Chiquita heap glad to see Jack." She made her welcome, palms to the +front, raised high in the air. + +"How! How!" replied Jack and he looked askance at Chiquita in wonderment +that she should be so far from the village. "Jack no sabe," he +continued, and looked from one point of the compass to another for a +familiar landmark. + +"Chiquita know, see Jack, old trail behind big peak, new trail this way, +when Jack go where sun rise, ground covered with heap big snow--no see +this trail." + +"Me sabe. Where Yamanatz, Colorow, Antelope?" + +Chiquita smiled at the first, became grave at the second and a flash +shot from her eyes at the word Antelope, then her face saddened as she +looked into Jack's very soul. "Yamanatz well, Colorow gone to Agency, +Antelope ready for big pony race--Susan want Antelope, Antelope no like +Susan, like--mebbe so Jack knows," she said with an arch look. "Antelope +get up big race when white man come from Hot Sulphur Springs with heap +fast pony to race Ute ponies--mebbe so Ute win ponies--white man walk +back, Antelope heap smart. Plan big race, big dance and big games among +the braves. Susan she put Antelope up to it, beat all Indians and white +men, win Susan for his wife, carry her off to his tepee where she sing +songs in twilight. But Antelope tell Chiquita he no race--just make +believe. Antelope wait for Chiquita, but"--and she stopped abruptly with +the frightened look of a startled deer as she gazed again into Jack's +face. + +"When race?" he asked. + +"Three moons." + +"About August," said Jack to himself. Then aloud, as a bright thought +came to him, "Does Chiquita sabe name of white man's ponies?" + +"Me sabe one," she replied. + +"Jack sabe one heap fast pony in Middle Park. 'Brown Dick,'--run like +the forked lightning out of the clouds." + +Chiquita looked surprised and interrogatively answered, "Mebbe so 'Brown +Dick' beat 'em Ute ponies, white man ride back?" + +At which Jack laughed heartily. Chiquita continued: "That is the pony +Antelope think no run much, heap fast, but Ute beat him. Antelope bet +money, beads, buckskin, two ponies and other Utes bet heap lot." + +"Has Yamanatz bet anything yet?" asked Jack. + +"Yamanatz don't know--wait Jack come--Jack tell Yamanatz what to do." + +Jack knew the horse well and all the people interested in the races and +decided to stay and see the sport. Even had Yamanatz desired to go to +the big mine, they would go later. On reference to his calendar he found +a total eclipse of the sun would take place in August and he desired to +see the Indians under this phenomenon as well as in their sports, and +witness the struggles for the hand of Susan. + +Upon arrival at the Indian village Yamanatz greeted Jack in the +customary fashion. It was not long before they arranged to wait for the +August festivities, then start for the desert mine from the Agency, to +which point the Rock Creek village moved a short time after Jack's +arrival. + +During the three months Jack spent his time prospecting, hunting, and +studying Indian character. Chiquita made rapid strides in her studies +under his tutorship and by the time set for the races she could converse +very well in English and read ordinary words. Jack watched the ponies +and the athletic braves as preparation was made for the great event. + +For days the frontiersmen along the reservation border had been wending +their way to the Agency. Gamblers and confidence men from the nearest +mining camps ran over to gather in a few dollars which would be "easy +money." The Government's long delayed annuities and rations were to be +distributed the week before the contest, so every Indian had money to +bet or to buy plunder with. Groups of Indians, squatting on their +haunches or kneeling beside a big blanket spread upon the ground as a +table, gambled or traded their wares in common with the visitors. + +On a big Navajo blanket sat Chiquita, making beaded moccasins, while +near by on another blanket rested Susan, engaged in beading a buckskin +shirt. Off at the side with bridle reins dragging, four ponies fed on +the stubby grass as their owners, two Indians and two cowmen, played +Spanish monte. The cowmen wore heavily fringed buckskin shirts and +broad-brimmed hats, each hat having a leather band and leather string +which passed back of the ears and under the back of the head to keep the +hat from blowing off. Their feet were clad in high-topped boots, from +which clanked the cruel Mexican spurs with tinkling bells. Each--and, in +fact, every man on the reservation, had six-shooters--some four, and +nearly all carried some make of rifle, not that they feared any evil, +but it was second nature to be prepared for game of any kind. Another +mark of civilization was the red bandanna handkerchief tied loosely +around nearly every man's throat. + +Oaths of the most curdling nature bellowed their way incessantly into +the ears of the onlooker. A brightly painted Indian with eagle feathered +bonnet and a string of grizzly claws around his neck, won a mule +skinner's money. The latter turned loose a wild yell and a string of +hair-raising adjectives, accompanied by the pistol-like crack of his +fifteen-foot whip, and stalked off to his mules, swearing "agin the +Gov'n'ment, the redskin and hisself"--chiefly in the end "agin hisself." +Jack hailed him. + +"Pard, I've seen you before." + +"Mebbe so, stranger; I've lived in these hills many snows," answered the +freighter. + +"Didn't you lose some blankets about a year ago in the Wet Mountain +valley, near Buena Vista?" asked Jack without mincing matters. + +"That's what I did, but I got 'em back and--well"--and he stopped as +Jack commenced to smile. "What pleases you, stranger?" + +"I was picturing in my mind what that fellow's wife, if he had one, and +she could have seen him, would have said after you fellows got through +heaving him into that dirty pond instead of hanging him." + +The man of mules and wagons broke into a long guffaw that echoed back +from the woods, and circled his long whip about his head, allowing the +big broad cracker to settle lightly the length of the lash from him as +daintily as an expert caster lets his flies settle into a riffle where +the big trout hide, then with a fierce backward motion and overhand +shoot to the front the long sinuous black snake straightened out with a +vicious snap that made Jack wince, for it told the rest of the tale of +what happened to the blanket thief before "court" adjourned. Then the +freighter finished his remark. + +"Well, that onery cuss that stole my blanket has got my mark on his +hide, made like that." + +"Yes, I think he must have about fifteen of them the way the whips +cracked as he ran the gauntlet between about thirty of you. Did he +live?" + +"Oh, yes. That is he was alive when we left him on the prairie, headed +for the Missouri River." + +"I was on my way to Leadville. Buena Vista was the end of the railroad +and in looking after some freight at the depot I saw the preliminaries +of opening 'court' and execution of 'judgment' against the prisoner," +explained Jack. To which the grizzled teamster replied: + +"It looks cruel to one not familiar with frontier life. It seems a +crime, the justice which overtakes horse thieves and camp prowlers, +while those who commit greater crimes go free. But there are no two +things so essential to life on the border as blankets and horses. We +have to sleep and travel. Hotels don't pop up for the asking, with warm +beds on a winter's night, nor do horses grow out of a pine bough when a +man is miles away from any habitation. If men be too onery and sassy and +get to be too handy in their gun play with each other we make no fuss if +both 'go over the range with their boots on'--a-killing of them fellers +does not necessitate an honest man's freezing to death. We never hang a +man, nor shoot him, if he steals our grub or watch, or even gets our +gun, but blankets and horses are sacred property. But what be you doin' +in here?" + +"Came over to see the Ute races and study Indians," replied Jack. + +"So did I, but to make it more binding I brought in a train of +government plunder for the Agency, some plows and mowin' machines and +school house desks. Say, but I'd like to see some of these redskins +trying to cut a furrer down that sage brush flat or sittin' at one of +them desks doin' sums in 'rithmetic. More'n likely they'll be makin' +pictures of Parson Meeker crossing the divide on a sulky plow under +escort of Uncle Sam's cavalry," at which the freighter turned his +gigantic laugh loose again. + +Just then two men in "store clothes" picked their way around the various +groups of horses and Indians, stopping a short distance from Jack and +the freighter, whose sobriquet was "Cal." As the new comers faced square +about Cal eyed them a moment and then said to Jack: + +"You see that red-faced, black mustached feller standin' there? Well, +that's Sam Tupper, the graveyard starter of the Animas and Wet Mountain +valleys. I seen him make the first corpse in Silver Cliff. Wonder what +he's doin' up here. Sure as gun's made of iron he's up here for +mischief. It was October and the first blizzard of the season caught us +all with short wood and no pitch hot. Every prospector around the cliff +made for 'Nigger Barber's' place--afterward it got a regular name, the +'slaughter house,' kase 'Nigger,'--he was half Indian, half Mexican and +balance coyote--had two great big stoves to keep us warm. Four fellers +rode into the Cliff about 10 o'clock, cold and hungry, and expected to +find a tavern started, but they were a little early, for the camp was +right young, so they got permission to use some feller's tent near +by--one of the four was Charley Rogers"-- + +"Owner of 'Brown Dick,'" interrupted Jack, in surprise. + +"Yes; and Frank Mitchell, Les McAvoy and Paddy Dinslow. Les was a bad +man, no mistake. His daddy was a judge in one of the northern counties +and when Les was a kid the old man would take the youngster to some of +the faro banks, hold him on his knee and seem to think it cute if the +little gambler picked up a 'sleeper' and sold it to the barkeep for +lumps of sugar or a bottle of pop. Well, Les got pretty tough. Worked +some, but liked his 'licker' and was allus waitin' to pick a fuss. He +was nervy and could fight with fists, stove pokers, 'toad stabbers' or +six-shooters, it was all the same to him. Sam and 'Nigger' both knew him +of old in Trinidad and Silverton. The first night after the boys got +into the Cliff they dropped into 'Nigger's' and got into a game of faro. +Les piled his stack of reds above the limit and Sam there, who was +lookout, told Les to take 'em down. Les lost on the turn, but before the +dealer could rake in the chips Les snatched the extra ones off the top +of the pile. If he won, the dealer only paid the limit, and then Les +would talk bad. All of 'em were scared of Les and no one wanted to make +a beginning, so they humored him, but the next night they laid for him. +I met Frank and Charley durin' the day and they said Les had been run +out of Silverton, and he remarked as he came into the Cliff, 'Boys, +mebbe it's my time to die with my boots on in this very camp, but I'm +game.' + +"It was almost 8 o'clock and 'Nigger's' was jammed. There was a big +crowd at the table near the end of the bar. I sat at a table parallel to +it, the big red hot stove making the apex of a triangle about the same +distance as the tables were apart. The deal which old Colonel Crumpy was +making came to an end. I was winner and thumbing my chips, when bang +went a gun at the other table. Say, but did you ever see two hundred and +fifty crazy, desperate men push and crowd out of gun play range? Well, +there was lots of tenderfeet in that gang. They jumped onto the +'mustang' table and then to the hazard table and into the crowd, +pell-mell, out of windows. One feller was so scar't he never stopped to +open it, but went kersmash through glass and all. Durin' this I backed +away keerful like to the wall between two windows. I knew if any of 'em +started to run it would be in the middle of the room and I didn't feel +like risking my back to that crowd. My gun hung handy in case of a free +get-away, or die a doin' it. As I felt the cold green boards rub my +spine I seen the rest of the show. It don't take a man a lifetime to +move when guns are speakin'. + +"It seems a kid, with sickly taller-like face and pinched cheeks, a +young feller from the States lookin' for a gold mine, who got broke and +nothing to do but clean spit-kits in 'Nigger's' and tend bar, had been +exercised a little with the cards, dealing faro, and they put him on +watch with a big Colt's old-fashioned navy on his lap, all cocked and +ready for business, with instructions that if Les did any more funny +work to plug him. Les had bet his stack as high as he could pile 'em and +lost, grabbed the extra chips, and to the dealer's 'You--put them chips +back,' Les slid up the back of his chair. He was keepin' cases and had +his back to me, reachin' fer his gun. He had on a pair of blue overalls, +and the hammer of that six-shooter got caught in the corner of his +pocket. I seen him tuggin' to get it out, and the dealer, whose name was +Bert Lillis, had lifted the big cannon, the muzzle half way across the +table, and with both hands pulled the trigger, got scared, dropped the +gun and was trying to skin under the table. He turned his head sideways +to keep from scratching his nose, and just then Les got into action. He +leaned on his left hand over the middle of the faro layout, put the +muzzle of his gun against the eye of the dealer as he was sliding down +and fired. As Les was doin' this Sam Tupper was busy, but Les had his +eye on the lookout, who dared not move his hand for fear Les would git +him first. As quick as Les made his play at the dealer, Sam reached for +a drawer about six inches from his hand and grabbed a pearl-handled, +silver-plated gun. As Les turned with uplifted arm, cocking his weapon, +Sam stepped to the edge of the drygoods box on which the lookout's chair +was placed, his weapon pointing straight at Les's heart. Before Les +could fire there was a flash--a report. The smoke from the pearl-handled +gun wreathed around Les's head as he turned convulsively, frantically +trying to get the muzzle of his pistol on a line with Sam, who stood +with the least perceptible smile waiting for the eye of his opponent to +catch his own, but as Les's body slowly swayed and pivoted the gambler +knew that in a moment more all would be over. The fingers which tightly +gripped the murderous firearm now slackened, gripped again, then the +pistol dropped to the floor; a body straightened up its full height, the +head thrown back in defiance and with eyes rolling upward, Les McAvoy +fell prone to the floor backwards. As he fell that man standing there +stepped off the box with the pearl-handled gun cocked for a second shot, +and hissed between those white teeth of his, 'You got it that time.' The +jury heard no evidence of any shots but Lillis' and the one Les +fired--no bullet was found from a Colt's navy, round ball. A conical +ball rested just beneath the skin in the small of the back. The jury +said, 'Justifiable homicide at the hands of Bert Lillis,' and I heard +that Lillis died the next day." + +"And that is the man who did the deed?" asked Jack, as he gazed at a +real bad man; "one of those who make the history of every country black +with their infamous deeds, which they plan and then inveigle innocent +people to execute." + +"Yes," said Cal, "and these redskins are not much to blame for goin' on +the warpath the way they are bamboozled about. The trouble is, them +cusses in Washington, who never see an Injun and who don't know what a +real live one is, pass laws and send commissioners and army officers and +agents out here to investigate. Some are preachers, some cunning lawyers +and some statesmen--they call 'em so. The investigation drags along +while the poor devils go hungry. Rations are held back, blankets rot for +want of transportation, and somebody back in the woodpile is getting +rich all the time. Then the Injun takes it out of a party of prospectors +or some poor rancher, or like as not holds up a train of mules and the +mule-skinners 'bite the dust' after defending their own property. But I +suppose in the end it is all for the benefit of what they call +civilization. Let's go and see them ponies over there." + +"Look," said Jack; "must have been a bunch of folks come in last night," +pointing to a regular settlement of new tents and camping outfits. + +"Well, durn my pictures," ejaculated Cal. "Throw a rope on that +blaze-faced, lop-eared son of Israel with a pack on his back and let's +see his brand. Guess you find them everywhere except in Jerusalem. +Hello, Isaac; where's Abraham?" + +"Who'd you mean, my brodder or my fadder? My name is Cohen, and I gome +to make a locashun for a cloding store. Dis will be a fine blace for a +town, und Cohen will be der bioneer merchant, ain't it?" + +"Git out, you hook-nosed Jew; this is Injun reservation, and yer 'Uncle +Sam' don't allow no storekeepers here, except his own pets!" + +"What iss dot? I got no Ungel Sam; I got un Ungel Moses und Ungel +Solomon, but no Ungel Sam. Ain'd dis a new town? Don' the shentlemans +wand a negdie or hangerchief? I haf a"--but Jack and Cal had turned a +deaf ear to the would-be "bioneer." + +As Jack stepped around the trunk of a big pine the noose of a lariat +circled around and settled over his head and arms; a short jerk and he +was brought up standing. Cal looked on wonderingly, for at the other end +of the rope sat a buckskin-clad cow-puncher mounted on a thoroughbred +cow-pony. + +"Now will you be good?" The bronzed face of "Happy Jack" broke into +wreaths of smiles and happy laughter. + +"Hello, Jack!" + +"Hello yourself." + +"Shake, old man--put her thar, Jack. Glad ter see yer. Never thought to +see yer over here among the Utes." + +"When did you leave Roaring Forks?" + +"About a week ago; been looking for some horses that are missing." + +"Jack, shake hands with Cal Wagner. No, not the minstrel man, but his +equal just the same." + +"Cal, this is 'Happy Jack' of the Bar E Ranch over in the Grand River +country." + +Both men, thus introduced, shook hands, and after a few exchanges of the +day "Happy Jack" coiled up his lariat and, lifting his bridle reins, +said, "I must look around this camp a while afore the races. May find +some signs, but I'll see yer both again--adios." + +The spurs jingled and his pony loped off toward the valley. Cal looked +at the disappearing cow-puncher and turned to Jack, who said: + +"He's as good one as ever straddled a broncho. He sure is a character +and his name is well earned. One of the happiest men I ever met. I'll +tell you about him as we take a smoke and watch the Indians. Down on +Roaring Forks of the Grand River a young fellow from the east by the +name of Eads took up a ranch. He was staked by some rich relative, and +after buying a bunch of steers and some American-bred horses, drove them +over the Tennessee pass to the Bar E ranch, five miles above the big Hot +Springs[A] where the Forks empties into the Grand. He hired 'Happy Jack' +as boss of the outfit, and with two or three other cow-punchers he +started in and built a log house, and when I was there seemed to be +doing well. I was on a hunting trip from Middle Park and heard about the +Bar E ranch and the Springs, so our party made the place our camping +ground for a week. The grass was fine and all the stock rolling fat. His +horses were in two bands--one 'used' on one side of the Forks and the +other band grazed on the opposite side. They rounded up the horses once +a week at least, and the range riders never let the stock get away very +far. + +"One evening just after grub one of the boys came down to the cabin from +the corral and said, 'Old Martha has pulled her picket pin and +vamoosed.' 'Martha' was stake mare. Jack said, 'I guess not,' and bolted +up the bank to the open bench which run for half a mile back to the +cedars and pinons, where the branding pens and corrals were. He walked +out to where he had picketed the mare and pulled up the pin with about +ten feet of rope left where it had been cut. It was just before sundown, +and a bunch of horses which had been run into the corral when the stake +horse was changed had not gotten far away. Jack yelled 'Thief!' and for +the boys to hustle and see if some of the bunch could be gotten back +into the corral--a feat, you know, next to impossible when no one is +mounted. As luck would have it, four went in when the rest broke, but we +managed to get the bars up before they turned. It was but a few seconds' +work to rope a 'saddle-wise' one and cinch him up. Jack had taken off +his belt and it lay on the ground with his six-shooters back at the +cabin. He pointed at mine and said, 'Give me that gun.' Throwing himself +into the saddle, he was off like a streak of lightning. The mare's +hoofprints were plainly visible in the trail leading toward the Grand +River. About 9:30 o'clock we heard a yell and went up to the corral. +Jack had the mare. Not a word was uttered, except 'She was in the middle +of the ford just above where the Forks go into the Grand.' Both horses +were covered with ridges of dry sweat and looked jaded, as though every +inch of ten miles had been run in a death-race struggle. On the off side +of 'Martha' a dirty red streak mingled with the sweat. As we went slowly +back to the cabin, after picketing both horses, Jack handed me my belt +and gun--a Colt's .41 double action. Two empty cartridge shells told the +story of a tragedy. A week later one of our party found the body of a +man on the bank of the Grand five miles below the Forks with two bullet +holes in his back. + +"Jack had one habit that city boys think belong to themselves"-- + +"Midnight lunches?" asked Cal. + +"Yes; but Jack generally had his hungry spell about 2 a. m. Every night +that our party was at the Bar E ranch Jack would wake us up and every +one had to 'break bread' with him--only it was flapjacks instead of +bread. Jack would do all the work, and he was an artist with the frying +pan. He would turn those big cakes by tossing them out of the pan in the +air, you know, and catch them after the flop. After our lunch a smoke, +and while we smoked a few deals of Spanish monte and a story or two, +then back to bunks. Yes, 'Happy Jack' is a character." + +As Jack finished his story of "Happy Jack" a shout announced the +beginning of the trials of strength, endurance and courage, which would +probably proclaim the victor for the hand of Susan. Standing erect with +arms folded over his breast, Red Plume watched with seeming indifference +the trials. Susan, seated upon her blanket, appeared even more so; in +fact when it became apparent that Antelope was not to be one of the +contestants she shook her head and disconsolately continued her +beadwork. + +The braves vied with each other in feats of running, wrestling, jumping, +swinging from one tree to another, riding in all manner of positions on +bareback, bridleless ponies; throwing knives at each other's heads, arms +and necks in endeavors to pinion the victim to a tree without doing him +any bodily harm; torturing themselves with cruel whips; gashing and +lacerating the flesh; being suspended from a pole or bar by means of +thongs thrust under the muscles of the shoulders, and other +blood-curdling deeds original with the savage. + +Old chiefs watched the young bucks, and as the games proceeded these old +ones shook their heads or nodded in assent as success or failure +rewarded the contestants. + +All were in gala dress. War bonnets of elaborate manufacture bedecked +some, while single feathers adorned others. Small hoops fastened to long +sticks were held aloft displaying portions of a human scalp, the hair +floating naturally from one side while the other side of the scalp was +painted a bright red. Every Indian lovingly carried his pipe, the red +slender bowl made from pipestone mined from quarries hundreds of miles +away and guarded carefully from reckless souvenir and market hunters. + +As a successful contestant received his reward and led his bride away, +the onlookers rent the air with piercing yells; rattle-boxes split the +ear with their characteristic din, and tom-toms bellowed their dull +intonations with a certain amount of regularity which produced that same +agonizing monotony of sound found in a healthy foghorn. + +In a group not far from the racing strip was Yamanatz, and thither Jack +and Cal bent their way. Charley Rogers and his companions were making +bets with anyone who would risk ammunition, money, clothes, ponies, +blankets, guns, pistols or knives; and even war bonnets were staked. +Yamanatz was about the only Ute who did not bet against "Brown Dick." +Few of the white gamblers, who had come to fleece the Indians with their +special style of confidence games, cared to risk their coin against +Indian ponies or wampum. They wanted cash, and as the Indians had plenty +to do to meet all the demands of Jack and his friends and Charley Rogers +and his following, the gamblers saw little prospect of a coup. + +The level, well-beaten, straight-away course stretched along between +rows of tents, tepees and lodges out into the plain beyond. Indian races +are not upon oval tracks and are not confined entirely to one dash over +the course, but include a certain distance and back over the same +ground, the finish being at the starting point. Other races are run +where the contestant must lean from the pony's back and pick up a quirt +or hat as the animal dashes past. + +But the time for the great race on which the bets are made has arrived, +and the restless, anxious animals have to be guided to the starting +place by their riders and arranged in line with heads opposite the +direction in which the race is to be run. Bare-skinned warriors on +bridleless, saddleless ponies, a small, finely-braided lariat attached +to the horse's jaw, sit like graven images upon their favorite steeds. +"Brown Dick," whose rider is his owner, steps along jauntily, champing +in eager fashion the silver-ringed bit supported by a silver ornamented +Mexican braided-leather bridle, the loose reins held almost listlessly +by the man in blue shirt and buckskin trousers seated on an English +racing saddle. A little moisture around the roots of the delicately +pointed ears shows that "Brown Dick" has been exercised. The muscles of +the forelegs play beneath the skin as step by step he approaches the +line; the veins in his arched neck stand out like small ropes, and the +dilated nostrils reveal the pink membranes as each deep breath is +inhaled. Charley has maneuvered for position, timing his arrival to such +a nicety that the last slow step of his well-trained racer falls exactly +as the pistol belches forth the signal to start. Simultaneously he +utters a shrill "Go" and presses his knees violently into his horse's +sides, leaning far out in the saddle and throwing his weight against the +reins on the faithful horse's neck, who rears aloft, pivots in beautiful +fashion and leaps in one bound clear of the line of frantic ponies, and +amid the warwhoops of Indians, the yells of the frenzied and the fear of +defeat piercing his ears he dashes on to victory. The struggle is not +long, and the spoils won from the vanquished nearly bankrupt the entire +tribe until the next annuities replace their losses. + +There are no imprecations nor villainous mutterings. An Indian is a good +loser and bears defeat in a philosophical, stoical manner. Immediately +after the exciting races come the feasts given to the successful +competitors, and the following day finds the erstwhile holiday-arrayed +village desolate and uninteresting. + +Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita began preparations for the trip to +"Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water," and soon followed the crowd of visitors +making their way to the nearest railroad. + +The last one to bid Chiquita "adios" was Antelope. He had little to say, +but averred he would continually seek the aid of all the Ute gods, big +and little, to bring the heart of Chiquita to Antelope's tepee. + +"Antelope will wait many, many snows and take no other maiden," were his +parting words. + +The restraining influence which Chiquita and Yamanatz exerted vanished +very soon with their departure from the reservation. Susan at once +commenced to be vindictive, as jealousy and revenge gnawed at her heart. +Chagrined and disappointed at the turn of affairs in the competition by +the young bucks for their brides, she coquetted with Johnson, well +knowing that in him she would find an acquiescent if not an aggressive +leader. Furthermore, he was the brother-in-law of Ouray and considered +one of the greatest of Douglas' band of great warriors and fighters. She +soon became, in fact, Johnson's squaw, and no one in all the Ute tribe +was more regal in dress nor feared more as an enemy than Susan. Her +silver girdles, beaded buckskins, elk-tooth necklaces and other feminine +accessories were the envy of squaws, whose chiefs were also envious of +Johnson--aye, even of any one of Douglas's band of braves. + +While the races and general carnival were in progress at the Agency a +portion of this renegade band had wandered far out in the plains one +hundred miles east of Denver, near Cheyenne Wells, where they quarreled +with and murdered Joe McLane, of Chicago, and fled back to the +reservation through Middle Park--Colorow, Washington, Shavano and Piah. +Washington was wounded and had his arm in a sling when they met the +outgoing party, of which Charley Rogers, Jack, Yamanatz and Chiquita +were members, then camped on the Frazier River. Colorow offered no +explanation of whence they came nor their object, but all four were in a +hurry and hastened along through the Park. + +Arriving on the Blue, where old man Elliott peaceably conducted a ranch +and with whom the Indians had been on good terms for years, they +murdered him in cold blood and left immediately for the Agency. + +Upon their arrival it did not take long to start the undercurrent of +open revolt. Susan enlisted the sympathies of Jane, a vicious squaw, +whose husband had a great many ponies. Jane had selected a fine piece of +pasture land and under the rights of an Indian "squatted" upon the land +in question. It was the best land near the Agency, and Meeker decided to +use it for cultivation and to "school" the Utes in the use of the plow. +Jane objected, and quarrel after quarrel took place, Douglas even going +so far as to assault Agent Meeker in his (Meeker's) own home. + +A compromise was seemingly effected by which Jane was to get another +piece of land for her pasture and Meeker again set the plow to going, +only to have the man in charge of the work shot at by two bucks who were +concealed in the sage brush. Meeker had repeatedly asked aid of both +state and Federal government. He begged for troops, as the lives of the +white people were in peril. As the aged philanthropist listened to the +council held in a smoke-smothered lodge, where warrior after warrior +gave utterance to his opinion in a language absolutely unintelligible to +any but a Ute, and when at last Douglas made his measured, forcible, +irresistible appeal to his brother savages to resist the onward march of +the white people, he (Meeker) must have known his doom was at hand. +Signal fires were constantly seen as night came on, and the murmur of +discontent increased with the uncertainty. + +Finally word came that troops were on the way. Captain Payne with +colored, and Major Thornburg with white troops had been despatched to +the Agency. The morning of September 30, 1879, saw the White River +plateau under sunny skies--the air was warm and inviting. Twenty or +thirty bucks of Douglas's band sauntered forth as though in quest of +venison, others of the various bands had been out among the hills on +similar errands, and it was not unusual for the majority of the whole +Ute nation to be scattered throughout the reservation even beyond the +lines for short periods. + +Susan, Jane, Antelope and a few others wandered about the Agency +buildings laughing, chattering and in the best of spirits. All seemed +happy, Susan especially, and Antelope had not been so gay for a long +time. + +Still there was an ominous phase to their very good humor. It had that +practical joke fatality which foreboded evil in every smile and made the +heart sick for those who watched the sage-covered mesa and feathery +clouds which floated from range to range. But a few miles away toward +the Red Canon on Milk Creek the troops were hastening. As the advance +line swung up to the narrow gorge a few Indians in warpaint suddenly +came into view. The cavalry made an attempt to flank the defile and thus +saved the entire command from being literally shot to pieces by Indians +surrounding the open death trap into which they would have marched. + +Hostilities were begun at once by the Indians. Major Thornburg in his +attempt to cut through to the main body was killed, with thirteen +others. The rest of the troops reached a place of safety, and with the +dead bodies of their comrades, the carcasses of dead horses and mules +and the wagons, formed a temporary shelter until breastworks could be +thrown up. The command was not relieved until the 5th of October. + +Runners carried the news of the ambuscade to the Agency, reaching there +at noon of the same day. During the excitement which followed and the +shots directed first at the men who were putting a roof on a building, +the venerable agent was killed and a barrel stave driven down his +throat, log chains placed around his neck, and subsequently the savages +in their fury held up the dead man's legs, imitating a man plowing. + +[Illustration: ANTELOPE, THE CIVILIAN, 1902.] + +The women were taken by Douglas, Johnson and other Utes to the old Rock +Creek village and there held as prisoners until the middle of October. +Susan was left at the Agency and did not know that her brave warrior had +taken unto himself a new squaw under penalty of blowing her brains out, +nor that Douglas threatened another with death unless she, too, became +his Ute squaw, while the other Indians jeered, scoffed and insulted the +wives of the men who lay dead at the Agency. Yet these bucks dared do +nothing but taunt the poor, helpless women, as Douglas and Johnson were +big chiefs, and the women owed their personal safety to the declaration +that they were respectively Douglas's and Johnson's squaws. + +Upon the body of Major Thornburg was found a picture of Colorow, this +signifying that the death-dealing bullet that killed the officer had +been fired by that crafty old savage. + +After a tedious examination of both Johnson and Douglas by +commissioners, Douglas was confined in the prison at Fort Leavenworth +for one year. Colorow never was taken into custody. + +When Susan learned that her wily spouse (Johnson) had been unfaithful to +her, she started at once for Rock Creek with the intention of murdering +the white woman; but she was too late, as the prisoners had been led +away and delivered to their friends in a place of safety. + +The Utes were afterward moved to the Uintah Reservation[B] in Utah, but +many of them visit the old Agency grounds, and at this writing (1902) +Antelope again favored the White River people with his presence and his +photograph in civilized attire. + +[Footnote A: "Hot Springs"--now Glenwood Springs.--EDITOR.] + +[Footnote B: For authentic documents on the Meeker massacre see Chicago +Tribune, Oct. 2-15, 1879; Denver papers of same date; Bancroft's History +of Colorado; U.S. House Documents, 1879-1880 (Indian Commission).] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE BLAZING-EYE MINE. + + +In Eastern California there lies a strip of country less than a hundred +miles in length and thirty miles in width--the Gehenna of America--a +basin so defiled that the abomination of the Israelites, the Valley of +Hinnom, was a paradise; Tophet, where the sacrifices of children to +Moloch were made by this Biblical tribe of Hebrews, was at least +habitable. Death Valley lies two hundred and fifty feet lower than the +tide water of the Pacific Ocean. Upon this strip of land grows no +verdure, and within its confines exists no life save the scorpion, the +centipede, the tarantula, the hideous gila monster and rattlesnakes, all +more deadly poisonous than sisters and brothers of the same family found +elsewhere, each species a continual menace to the others in the never +ending battle for life--vindictive conquerors at last being vanquished +by more malignant foes. + +The desert is one mass of burning, blighting alkali sand. The heat is +beyond human endurance, and what few pools of water may be found by +digging deep into the earth are so pregnant with disease-breeding, +loathsome germs, that death is but hastened to the poor victim of thirst +who attempts to assuage his sufferings by drinking the polluted reward +of frenzied labor. + +At one time the government established an observation station within the +borders of this waste to give scientifically to the world an accurate +account of the perils which await the prospector venturesome enough to +visit this living ossuary--the realm of the dead and habitat of the +uncanny. Records show that the government representative found the heat +so burdensome that clothing was dispensed with, and in nature's +primitive garb the lonely vigils were passed until the station was +abandoned. + +Years before, a prospector braved the perils of the desert and returned +more dead than alive, but with golden sand and golden nuggets and tales +of a mine whose splendor out-dazzled the wildest dreams. This prospector +called the mine after himself, "Pegleg." He obtaining his sobriquet from +the fact that one of his legs was a wooden peg. He organized a party and +they entered the valley, never to return. Other parties were formed and +attempted a rescue, only to leave their bones to bleach as monuments of +man's distorted and perverse cupidity. + +The government sent a detachment of soldiers, well versed in the +knowledge of all the impending dangers, but none returned save a +corporal, and he a raving maniac, upon a thirst-crazed mule. Thus the +famous "Pegleg" mine became a legend fraught with mystery and weird, +blood-curdling memories. + +It was to this mine, "The Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water," that Yamanatz +was to conduct Jack. The Utes in years gone by made the trip from the +mountains to the desert land and returned laden with golden ornaments, +their trappings covered with gold nuggets beaten into fantastic shapes. +It took many moons in their comings and goings, and many fierce battles +were waged with other tribes in the latter's endeavors to wrest the +secret from the wily warriors, who knew of a safe but dangerous +underground river bed, which wound its tortuous way beneath the +sand-covered desert, cutting the wonderful deposit in half. But even +this passage to that mountain of wealth was beset by terrors as +frightful as those above the ground. Reptiles had ingress and egress +from fissures leading to the surface, and one was in constant danger at +every step, not from the trail alone, but from the roof and sides of +that slimy canon, the gloom of which added to the dark hideousness, as +the feeble, flickering torches awakened the lethargic inhabitants of +that abandoned inferno. + +The trip from the White River Agency had been made by rail as far as +possible. Every provision had been made that could be devised for +protection against the evils surrounding the dangerous mission. The +nearest station which Jack could in any way "guess" would land them near +a point from whence Yamanatz could find his way was Mojave. The curious +of the little town watched the preparations of the trio as they made +ready to prospect toward the Telescope range. The party consisted of +Yamanatz, Jack and Chiquita, and an old "forty-niner" who was asked to +join them under the promise of good wages and the usual "interest" in +any claims which might be "staked." As they slowly made their way along +the edge of the great Mojave desert, Yamanatz was continually on the +lookout for some familiar sign that would indicate they were in the +locality leading to the mysterious river bed. Finally the fourth day +found them encamped at the edge of a low "bench," or hill, mountains +arising from one side and an undulating, dreary waste of billowy sands +stretching to the horizon on the other. + +"It is good," said Yamanatz, continuing, "On the morrow Chiquita will go +with the prospector to the stream where yonder mountain meets the sky. +Chiquita will watch and wait until Jack and Yamanatz shall return. The +prospector will find an old vein of mineral in which is gold. He must +work upon that while Yamanatz and Jack go toward the setting sun, where +the buzzards roost waiting for those who venture into Death Valley." + +This satisfied the prospector, who answered, "It is not much thet bird +gets to put inside his 'bone box' sence the fools quit a-goin' ter ther +'Pegleg' mine. Ye hev bin told about thet, I guess, and ye don't look +thet crazy as would attempt even a one hour's ride into thet furnass. +I'll go with the Injun gal, and good luck ter ye." + +"We will be gone five sleeps," said Yamanatz. + +The second day found Jack and the Ute chief inside the well-concealed +stone covered opening which led to the river bed. Armed with horsehair +whips and gnarled pinon torches which blazed and smoked, they made their +way, leading horses and pack mules along the subterranean passage. +Occasionally the swashing of water smote their ears, and at intervals +open fissures extending to the stream far below them were encountered, +whereby cooling drink was obtained by means of a lariat and camp bucket. +It was not difficult to replenish the leathern pouches provided for +water. + +The middle of the fourth day they reached the crumbling, disintegrated +mass of quartz, honeycombed with gold. It was necessary to crush the +decayed ore and extract the huge nuggets by washing in a pan. +Occasionally the breaking of some of the rock revealed solid masses of +pure gold, while in pockets of rusty, discolored quartz great handfuls +of gold sand were disclosed. All that day and night Jack worked with a +frenzied fervor, loading saddlebag after saddlebag with the precious +metal. Yamanatz assisted until all their receptacles were filled, then a +couple of hours of rest--sleep was out of the question. The heat and +excitement rendered it useless to attempt it. + +Packing the valuable pouches together with the few camp requirements +which had been used on the trip, the return was commenced. The entrance +was reached in less time than it required going; but now it became +necessary to mark a trail by which Jack could find the way back to the +cavern alone. Monuments of stone were erected in triangles, which gave +the needed bearings for future use. More time had been consumed than had +been allowed, and starvation rations for man and beast became necessary. + +When the last monument to complete the chain had been erected it was +midnight, and it was decided to attempt the crossing of the desert strip +at an angle. Hour after hour they traveled, yet at daybreak no blue +haze, no lofty peak appeared in that simmering, sweltering, burning +waste. The trail behind them was as water struck with a whip. The sand +in front gave no alluring sign. The ponies labored--the mules were +restive. Silently as a moonbeam falling across the earth the cavalcade +moved. Another midnight, and Jack resorted to his knowledge of astronomy +to guide them from that fearful death which another day would probably +bring. The constellation of Cassiopea seemed to beckon him in her +direction. Again the red copper-colored sun appeared above the horizon; +a faint blue line in front gave hope of relief. The ponies were allowed +free rein to choose their own way. + +As the sun rose higher and higher the heat drove the pack animals into a +frenzy. The oscillating motion of those in the saddle was almost +unendurable. Gloomily they looked at each other--the one seeing that +shrunken, skin-drawn, parched, pinched human horror in front, wondering +if he in turn looked the same. Still they lived and hoped. Again hour +succeeded hour until the midnight of another day arrived. Suddenly the +mules gave a joyful whinny and started up a sandy gulch at a brisker +pace than they had been traveling. The last of the water had been +divided that noon and no food had been tasted for three days. In another +hour they came to a rock where a little pool struggled only to lose +itself in the sand. But by scooping away the earth while the animals +were pawing, even biting, the very ground, Jack was at last able to save +a little of the precious fluid and appease their immediate thirst. + +A short rest and the march was again resumed. By noon, gaunt and +hidedrawn, two Indian ponies stumbled along the burning sands. Two +horsemen with vacant, stony stare, pitifully reeled in their saddles as +their horses wabbled slowly, painfully into the camp of the "Lone +Fisherman." Pack mules with drooping, lifeless ears, tongues lolling +from their mouths and hoofs cracking from contact with the poisonous +alkaloids of the desert, staggered under their burdens as they toiled +after the silent spectres in the lead. The dust-begrimed, skin-dried, +withered, parched and blighted beings athwart those animated skeletons +were Jack and Yamanatz. The load under which the beasts of burden +tottered was gold. Death Valley had been invaded, and once more +substantial treasure from the "Pegleg" mine gave positive evidence of +the fabulous riches, surpassing the most wonderful opulence of ancient +kings, which was accorded those who survived the horrors of the +health-wrecking, life-destroying journey. A joyous welcome awaited the +returned travelers. Chiquita had determined to get a rescuing party that +day, but a kind Providence directed otherwise. In attempting the short +cut from the last triangle of monuments Jack and Yamanatz had traveled +in a circle. + +Jack recovered his normal condition more readily than did Yamanatz. +Before leaving the "Lone Fisherman," which the old prospector found of +value sufficient to pay for working, Yamanatz and Jack again made the +trip to and from the nearest located triangle and Jack had no trouble in +future visits. He soon succeeded in obtaining from the Government a +valid title to the ground. + +The nucleus of that fortune was spent in fitting Chiquita for her +college education. + +She entered at once upon her studies, under the care of private tutors, +and in two years' time the rapid advancement made placed her far along +toward the goal of learning. Academic courses followed in quick +succession, her wonderful intellectual powers seemingly never to weary +or flag in their grinding evolution from savagery to civilized +enlightenment during her self-imposed task of ten years in the bright +fields of knowledge. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +COLLEGE VACATIONS. + + +During one of the spring terms, when the birds taunted Chiquita with +their freedom, Jack and Hazel proposed, during the recess of two weeks, +that they all take a trip to the Indian Territory and visit the +Cherokees, Kiowas and Comanches, among whose tribes were many relatives +of Chiquita. Over a rough and dusty roadbed rolled a long train of +coaches bearing tourists, farmseekers and business men through banks of +smoke and clouds of cinders to the great farming lands of the west. At +Coffeyville Jack disembarked his party and in a comfortable "buckboard" +continued the journey. A couple of miles of dusty road between +sweltering hedges of osage orange led them to the boundary of the Indian +Territory. Along this in a never varying line for a hundred miles on the +north side stretched farm after farm, divided from the highway and each +other by thousands of miles of wire fencing. Bare cornfields and +treeless wastes spread forth uninviting landscape, marked at intervals +with the houses of the ambitious ranchmen, who, by preoccupation or +purchase, obtained title to the soil. Alkali dust smarted the nostrils, +and the glare of the noonday sun scorched the faces of travelers. +Plowmen, making ready for the season's planting, rested their teams as +the pleasure seekers stopped to inquire the road to California Creek. + +To the south of the highway rolled a grass-covered prairie that seemed a +great poly-chromed rug of velvet. The hand of man had not chiseled the +virgin soil with plowshare, nor riveted its surface with post and rail. +A well defined road led zigzag over its undulating bosom until the +hideous regularity of section lines disappeared behind a friendly +stretch of upland. Cottonwood, elm and oak became frequent as they +entered the valley of the Verdigris and great stretches of forest-dotted +park enchanted the eye and gave rest to tiresome monotony of treeless +plain. Occasionally an unpretentious, unpainted shanty gave evidence of +man, and inquiry proved it to be the abiding place of one of the +precivilized occupants of unfettered expanse of the American continent, +the other a "squaw man," who had made matrimonial alliance with the +partially civilized companion. + +"Jack," said Chiquita, after the inspection of one of these abodes of an +Indian, who had adopted some of the ways and customs of his white +brethren, "Cherokee once big Indian, now half man, half coyote; little +plow, little hunt, little eat--little good," and she curled her lip in +disdain as she contemplated the work of onwardness. Continuing the +conversation in the more polished language of a college student, "Did +not the Great Spirit, the one God of the Indians, put his people here in +this paradise--this continent of flower-carpeted, forest-grown hills and +vales, a people noble in thought, noble in dignified demeanor, with a +belief in a religion simple and effective? Among Indians are no infidels +or agnostics. All Indians believe in the Happy Hunting Ground and the +Great Spirit. Do you know, Jack, of any country where the native race, +indigenous to the land, compare with the noble red man as he was when +the first white settlers occupied America?" + +"Possibly the Arabs or early Egyptians might compare more favorably than +any other nation that I know of," Jack replied. + +"Yes, but Egypt and Arabia are of today, whereas the Indians are wards +of a great government, and your government has condemned the Indian to a +worse Siberia than that to which Nihilist was ever transported. Look; +there is a specimen of what a civilized government does to a native-born +American," pointing to a "half-breed" trying to plow with one steer +harnessed up like a horse. + +"Hello!" Jack sang out to the man thus referred to. + +As the buckboard stopped a few rods from the shack, called a "hoos," the +individual addressed pulled at his galluses and hat, then walked over to +the fence, which enclosed fifty acres of newly plowed ground, said, +"How?" and stood gaping at the travelers. + +"Good morning," cheerily said Jack. "We are on our way to Pryor Creek +and then want to go into the Kiowa Reservation. Can you tell us anything +about the road?" + +"Waal, I reckon yes. It's good goin' 'til yer git to the Verdigris. Thet +nigh ho'se (meaning horse, pronounced with long o and aspirate s) uster +belong to the 'Lazy L' outfit." + +The answer was given in a drawling, sing-song tone, with full rests +between every third word, when the speaker stopped to pick up a stick to +whittle, to halloo at his steer or to show how straight he could +expectorate a small freshet of tobacco juice between his teeth at some +real or imaginary mark. His skin was a dirty soot color, and his raven +black eyes and straight hair emphasized his ghastly pallor. He was tall +and thin--built on the Arkansas plan of constructing ladders. His hips +and shoulder blades seemed to meet, giving his long, lank legs the +appearance of a man's head on jointed stilts. Jack made no reply to the +remark about the horse with the "Lazy L" brand, but inquired the +distance to the Verdigris. + +"It's quite a patch. I reckon yer mought hev some 'navy' about yer +close; jess the same if yer moughten--thanks." + +Jack had learned that a plug of tobacco had "open sesame" qualities +among certain species of human beings, and in his war bag were several +pounds cut into goodly sized pocket pieces. One of them he handed to the +"half-breed," who tore off a corner with his teeth, absentmindedly +putting the rest in his pocket. The "tip" had the desired effect, for +"Ladder Legs" recounted in the drawl of the Cherokee half-breeds, with +its characteristic aspirating, all the crooks, turns, fords and +distances to the Kiowa Reservation. In response to Jack's inquiry +regarding the limited cultivation of the land so near the Kansas border, +"Ladder Legs" vouchsafed this information: + +"A 'squaw man' has little ambition, and a half-breed none. The +environments of Indian life make a 'States' man dejected and he soon +outgrows the infant ambition which prompted him to marry a squaw that he +might 'take up' land in the territory. A white man cannot live on the +Indians' ground except he marries a squaw or the daughter of a man who +has had tribal rights conferred upon him; then he becomes an Indian and +can have a fifty-acre pasture fenced, all the land he will cultivate, +and the 'range' for his stock to feed upon. You see that bend in the +river? Waal, a white man from the States married the widow of a +well-to-do Cherokee half-breed. He is educated and has grown-up +daughters almost as white as you be, and a nice house well furnished, +and he rents out a part of his land on shares to some 'niggers,' or +half-breeds, and they cultivate all the land he can put under fence. +Some day when this land is allotted he will own an immense tract." + +"How about the range you spoke of?" asked Jack. + +"The cattlemen up in the States supply a bunch of cattle to some +ranchman having a good range or lots of open country, well watered, +around his house. Probably the man has a lot of corn and wants to feed +the cattle over winter and take profit in so much increase of beef, +pound for pound, that these cattle gain. Nearly all of the ranchmen have +hogs to run with the cattle, so there is another source from which a +return is anticipated. Pays, did you ask? Sure; all get rich who will +work. But over there on California Creek was a young fellow who had a +snap of it if ever a man did. This young fellow married the daughter of +an Indian missionary, a preacher from up in Kansas, who rewrote the real +Bible in the Cherokee dialect, for which the tribe made him a +full-blooded Indian, as far as any rights in the nation were concerned. +After they were married they came down here with their fine duds and +bought a ranch over on the creek of a full-blood Cherokee. He lived +there about four years. He had friends up in one of the Missouri towns +in the livestock commission business and they had all kinds of cattle. +They started the young fellow with four thousand fine steers in the +spring, and told him to raise some corn for the next winter and feed the +first lot on the range, then they would send in another bunch for winter +care. Them there cattle drifted all the way to Texas, and do you suppose +the lazy dude would try to round 'em up? No, sirree. He was just too +nice. His hands were so soft he couldn't get a calf to the brandin' post +in a corral, let alone rope a steer and brand him in the open country. +The folks came down on him and he lost the ranch. His wife died and he +went to Honduras, or the Philippines, or somewhere. But this yere land +is all goin' to be allotted some day and then it is good-by to the +freedom which we get here now. Yes, civilization kicks up a heap of +dust. Good-by; stop and see me if you come back this way. Adios." + +Chiquita seemed amazed to hear that an educated man from the civilized +States would let such a golden opportunity pass him by. Mile after mile +of the fairest cattle range was passed on their way into the Kiowa +Reservation. + +The time had arrived when Chiquita must return to college. During her +visit to the old relatives who had married into the Territory tribes she +learned that a distant cousin of hers was to be shot for the murder of a +fellow Indian. The tribal council had tried him and sentenced him to +death six months before, but on the plea which he made for leave of +absence to go to his old home among the mountain Utes in Colorado to see +his mother and father before he died, they had respited him. The time +for his return expired at noon the very day that Chiquita was to start +back. + +She learned the story about four hours before noon--the time for the +execution--and at once made her way to the council hall, where in solemn +silence waited the court and executioners. Chiquita pleaded that they +spare her cousin. The plea was made to deaf ears. He had dealt the death +blow to a Kiowa, and by their laws he had been tried and found guilty, +and by their law he must suffer death. + +"Where is he, that I may see him?" asked Chiquita. + +"He has not returned." + +"He will come. A Ute does not fear the death that awaits him, even for a +crime," proudly asserted Chiquita. "The Great Manitou will send him +back. Has he not danced to Wakantanka with a buffalo skull hung to a +thong that passed through the flesh of his back? Will one who has danced +to the Sun be afraid to return to the Kiowa dogs? Polar Bear knows that +the Utes would drive him back from the Happy Hunting Ground and be +killed by them if he did not keep his promise to return. Polar Bear +knows there is no escape." + +"Chiquita is wise in what she says. The Kiowas know that Polar Bear has +been a big brave and danced the awful Sun dance, but the hour is near at +hand, and no word that he comes. What have we to insure his return, +except the Indian's faith in the hereafter and that the Great Manitou +will punish him in the Happy Hunting Ground if he disobeys the Kiowa +Council and splits his heart with a lie when he promised to return?" + +At this moment a shout was heard and a mounted runner quickly appeared, +his horse covered with flecks of foam and nostrils deeply blowing. + +"Polar Bear comes. He runs like the deer of the plains, when we lived in +sight of the great mountains, the home of the Utes." + +The council suspended all manifestations. The executioner examined his +rifle. Polar Bear entered and bowed his head, then looked aloft and +pointed to the sky. + +"I am ready," was all he said. + +The hour lacked ten minutes of the expired time. The executioner +motioned and Polar Bear followed. Under a large oak he took his stand, +stripped to the waist, a scarlet heart painted over his own. The +executioner took his place, a few steps away, sighted his rifle at the +painted heart, a puff of smoke, a sharp report, a gush of blood, and +Polar Bear had atoned for his crime. Chiquita turned to Jack and asked: + +"Is there another nation in the world where their criminals return of +their own accord to suffer the death penalty?" + +Most of the summer vacations of her college life Chiquita spent among +the forests, crags and parks on the Ute reservation or in her mountain +home near Middle Park. Hundreds of student friends visited her at the +latter place and were entertained for weeks in a royal manner, to their +great pleasure, a result which does not always follow the lavish +expenditure of money. Tents, tepees, lodges, log cabins and quaint +cottages were set apart for the use of the guests. A beautiful rustic +chapel improvised for religious services and a hall for indoor +entertainment were erected near the small hotel at the source of Rock +Creek, where a famous iron and soda spring bubbles forth its sparkling +waters of more than ordinary quality. The adjacent hills furnished +abundance of deer, and even bear, and the famous catches of trout +perpetuated the glory of a summer on Rock Creek as a lifelong realistic +dream. The most elaborate of Indian trappings adorned the various +abodes. Canoes silently sped along the surface of an artificial lake +made by repairing an old beaver dam, and in the corral Ute ponies, +Mexican burros or American-bred saddle horses, besides traps, brakes and +coaches presented a never-tiring array from which to select in order to +make pilgrimages into more distant territory. + +A little garden furnished fresh vegetables, while the "ranch hack" made +trips to the nearest railway station for other provisions once a week. +Chiquita arranged for the pre-emption of this ranch on one of Jack's +early visits, but by reason of mineral springs being reserved by the +Government from operation of the land law, the property was abandoned in +later years. + +In making her trips back and forth from the ranch on Rock Creek to the +college, Chiquita watched the marvelous growth of that great stretch of +country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains with sinking +heart. + +To Jack she confided her worst fears. "The Great Manitou of the Utes has +been conquered by the Great Spirit of the white man," she was wont to +remark as her knowledge of the Christian religion advanced. + +In truth, Chiquita had ground for her fears. Leadville, with its never +ceasing output of silver which rolled in a continuous stream toward the +great manufacturing centers of the East, was welcomed by the idle, labor +seeking armies as the Mecca of the world. The prominent transportation +companies sent emissaries to all the great farming regions of Europe, +colonizing emigrants to enter the immense uncultivated sections +traversed by their respective charters in the attempt to make their +railways profitable. Train load after train load of hardy, well-to-do +Russians, Norwegians, Swedes and Germans rolled into the fertile +valleys, peopling the arid wastes and starting the building of villages, +towns and cities along the railway like unto tales of mythology. The +impetus of this gigantic, overwhelming land-grabbing aroused the +speculative world and money came forth from its hiding place to seek +investment. Mills began to work overtime. Products of all kinds were in +demand, for the comers to the new land had to be fed, clothed and +entertained. Prosperity ruled. + +"Jack," said Chiquita, as the annual trip was made across the great +country to the mine near the close of her college career, "see the +effects of education and civilization in these immense cities where ten +years ago were unplowed lands, open prairie and treeless wastes. The +untutored savage must go; yes, there is but one result can ensue, and +while it makes me feel sad for my people yet I doubt not it is best for +humanity." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +JACK WEDDED. + + +'Twas the last of June, the wedding bells pealed joyously, the church +organ bellowed noisily, the formality of congratulations followed along +with the flutter of praises for the bride and groom, which they received +because it was eminently proper and expected; a hurried breakfast, still +more hasty good-byes, the whistle of an approaching train amid the +excitement of baggage checked, lost or forgotten, a rush of depot +farewells, a waving of handkerchiefs, a few misty eyes, then Hazel had a +chance to breathe a long sigh of relief and Jack to unburden some +pent-up adjectives as he picked rice out of his wife's hair and removed +the tell-tale labels, ribbons and signs which decorated umbrellas, suit +cases and wraps. + +"Jack," whispered Hazel, as she nestled close to him in the railroad +coach in which was no one but an old man, the train attendant being on +the platform. "I was 'skeert' until you squeezed my hand, and I trembled +all over. I thought I should faint, but I'm your wife, ain't I, Jack?" + +"Yes, you are an old married lady now," answered Jack, dogmatically. + +"An old married lady," repeated Hazel slowly, lapsing into a brown study +for a moment. "Jack, is it such an awful long time since I was a little +girl and you pulled my sled on the hill for me?" + +"No, dear, it is but yesterday and it will be yesterday always, even if +we live for a hundred years. Don't you know, 'It's only once in life +one's boots have copper toes,' and my 'copper-toed' age was the happiest +part of my life." + +"Until today, Jack," interrupted Hazel, very decidedly. + +"Yes?" inquiringly replied Jack. + +The time for Jack to make his regular visit to the mine had also been +selected for his wedding trip and Chiquita was to join the newly married +pair at Denver, then all three were to "do" Colorado, finishing by +spending a few weeks in Estes Park and the Buena Vista ranch, as +Chiquita called her wonderful summer abode, later going on to +California. Jack had purchased a fine equipment of split bamboo fly rods +and all the necessary accompaniments, while Hazel, equally ardent in her +admiration of the sport so fascinating to the disciples of Izaak Walton, +fashioned, with her own hands, elegant rod cases, fly books and natty +garments for the outing. Conspicuous among the latter was a short +walking skirt and Eton jacket of brown duck, trimmed with bands of white +and studded with brass buttons, in which she arrayed herself and +practiced fly casting for imaginary trout on the lawn. A stop of an hour +in Boston gave them barely time to transfer across the city of crooked +streets to the Albany station and to settle themselves for the long ride +to Chicago. Jack provided in advance for plenty of room, engaging a +sleeper section. + +By the time the train had shot past the beautiful suburban cities of +Auburn and the Newtons and rolled into Framingham Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard +were quite at home. They commenced to congratulate themselves on looking +like old married folks and that no one would suspect them of being bride +and groom. + +"Jack, you know something?" said Hazel in her speculative way that +always meant a favor to come. + +"Well, sweetheart, what is it?" Jack presumed it was a glass of water or +apples or that her pillow was not right. + +"Well, you know." + +Jack knew then that something more than ordinary was coming; that "you +know" indicated not an uncertainty, but was the usual signal for a "hold +up"--nothing short of opera tickets--and the young man wondered what +unsatisfied desire was about to be "you knowed." + +"Well, you know that little descriptive story you wrote of Estes Park, +read it to me." + +So Mr. Jack resurrected the tale from its pocket in his suit case and in +his rich, modulated voice, read the story for the x--th time, he +thought: + +"Peerless Estes! That miniature world wilderness of wonder and delight! +Set apart for the tired brain and careworn wreck from the sepulchers of +business activity! A sweet paradise nestled amidst the encircling +snow-capped peaks whose somber heads rise far above the habitat of +microbe and parasite. Those silent peaks silhouetted against an ethereal +dome of deepest blue or blackest star-bespangled canopy of night! The +mountain air of Estes; the elixir compounded by nature for +reinvigorating battling civilization! + +"This enchanted arena, which pen fails adequately to drape in poetical +luxury, was dedicated for combats between rest and toil, health and +sickness, vitality and decay. The angler revels in luxury with the +numbers of easily accessible pools, riffles, meadows, canons, the most +distant an hour's drive and the majority but ten minutes' walk. +Occasionally deer may be seen and the 'Big Horn' come down their aerial +stairway from the clouds to lick from the alkali waters in Horseshoe. +Wait until you see the chattering magpie, with its bronze equipment and +saucy manners. The foe of this long-tailed, noisy inhabitant is a blue +jay (the one James Whitcomb Riley calls the 'bird with soldier +clothes.') Hours may be spent witnessing the strategy, diplomacy, anger, +spite and vindictiveness waged by these bird robbers and desperadoes, +for both are notorious house breakers, murderers and thieves in bird +land, as well as clever in appropriating kitchen supplies which they +surreptitiously seize when opportunity is presented. + +"In Estes a Sabbath quiet broods at all times, broken only by the swish +of the angler's rod, the merry peal of frightened laughter as some +maiden lands her first trout, or the crunching of horses' hoofs in the +hard gravel roads as a pleasure party clatters by. Children romp and +play without fear of mosquitoes or snakes, troublesome poisonous insects +being banished as thoroughly as if destroyed by some mysterious +necromancer. + +"Where in all the world can the lover go"-- + +"Stop, Jack, look into the depth of my eyes and skip those charming +nooks, bowers and rock girt dens where so many rehearse the preliminary +episode which leads to the altar. I know that by heart; skip the 'lover' +pages and read about the coach ride from Lyons, for we will get to Lyons +Friday, won't we?" + +So after a glass of water, an orange and readjusting of pillows, Jack +picked up his book again. + +"The ride from Lyons is so fraught with surprises that one becomes +distracted. Situated as it is in a veritable fiery furnace of red, +rough, ragged precipices, monuments of the eruptive age when volcanoes +vomited billowy lava over the face of the earth, Lyons is the antithesis +of what the traveler expected at the end of a tortuously curved railroad +track, over which the 'mixed' train of freight and disgruntled humanity +has been jerked, jostled and jumped along for about three hours, +covering forty miles. + +"But a delicious dinner awaits; generally fried chicken, southern style. +This does not mean a sun dried remnant of a wing, or the active +extremity of a leg with a burnt bone protruding through gristly skin, +but a nice, big piece of a yellow-legged Plymouth Rock, the real +article, hatched by a mother hen acquainted with the business and not +one of those Illinois river incubators that furnish spring chickens at +all seasons of the year to be kept well frozen in cold storage until +called for. This chicken is fried in ranch butter to a golden russet +brown, if you happen to know what color cooking calls for, and a whole +lot of it comes in on one great big platter, so you get a chance to pick +a good joint, but any part of such a chicken is good." + +"Jack, you are putting in a whole lot that is not in that book just to +make me hungry. My mouth has been puckered up for half an hour to get a +bite of that 'yaller leg.' We are near Springfield; let's eat." + +Suiting the action to the word they joined the motley throng in the rush +for the dining-room, as the train came to a stop for forty minutes. + +Fresh Connecticut River shad and roe, new green peas, new potatoes in +cream, lettuce, radishes. + +"There, that will kill your chicken fever for a time," said Jack, as he +ordered for both. + +"You may order me a piece of lemon pie, Jack. I see some on the +sideboard and the meringue is about two inches thick." + +"We want to go over and see the train for the north pull out; might see +some Bozrah people, Hazel," said Jack, after the dinner, "it leaves five +minutes before we do." + +"Oh, sure enough, and there are a lot of students just going home. I +suppose Chiquita is in Denver by this time." + +"Hazel, there is old Deacon Petherbridge and Elam Tucker. I'll bet +they've been down to New Haven on a horse trade. You know Elam had the +big livery stable that burned down when you were eight and I was just +eleven. You remember the Tucker boy was foolish and set fire to the hay, +'Wanted to see it burn,' he told the town marshal. But we must get +aboard." + +The last beams of rose-tinted sunlight percolated through the gathering +darkness as the train sped on its way, winding in and out among the +hills of western Massachusetts. Hazel watched the fading panorama as it +dissolved in the gloom of the night. She was thinking of her happy +school days among those very hills through which she was now gliding, a +one-day bride, wife of her childhood lover. As the scenes vanished she +shyly snuggled a little closer and whispered, "Jack, we will always be +happy, won't we?" + +"Why, yes; but what made you ask it?" + +"Oh, just 'cause," continuing, "I kinder wish we had gone around by +Hoosac tunnel, we could have seen 'Old Bozrah' hills and"-- + +"I guess my new wife is a little homesick," consolingly interrupted +Jack. "Suppose we visit Old Bozrah when we come back and have a famous +time going nutting and picking autumn leaves"-- + +"And getting ivy poisoned so my face will be all spots next winter. I +guess not." + +The obsequious, ebony-hued gem'man, in white coat with black buttons, +interrupted the first family differences. + +"If yoh doan mind, I'd laik to fix up yoh section; got so much to do +won't git through 'fore midnight." + +"All right, where can we go? This one across here is unoccupied," +replied Jack, wishing to accommodate. + +"Dat section, sah, will not be taken until we neah Albany, sah," came +from the man of tips and corporation dignity. + +They had been seated but a few moments when the occupant of the section +next forward of their own was obliged to find temporary quarters as the +ever-obliging servant of monopoly touched his cap for permission. A lady +of prepossessing countenance, faultlessly gowned and of gracious manner, +knocked, as it were, at Jack's door, addressing him, "May I occupy this +vacant seat while the porter arranges my domicile? Pardon the intrusion, +but all other avenues seem already taxed." + +"Certainly, it is no intrusion; in fact, we shall be glad to have you, +as you have had a long siege of solitaire," replied Jack. + +"I do get so lonesome on my trips that I sometimes wish some one else +had the position," answered the lady with that assurance which +accompanies experience. + +"Gathering from that, I judge you travel for business instead of +pleasure," said Jack. + +"Yes, I make two trips a year on business. I am buyer for Stoddersmith +of Boston, and am on my way to Colorado and California. I shall visit +Estes Park, Manitou and other points, then go to India and China." + +Jack was no more surprised than if she had told him she was +quartermaster in the navy, or a field marshal in the German army. He +looked incredulous. The lady handed him her card, which read, "Miss +Asquith, Stoddersmith's, Boston," remarking that if it would be +agreeable she would tell them how it happened a woman occupied so +important a position, and naively added, "The only firm in the world who +employs one of our sex in this department, even as a saleslady." + +"Oh, do tell us," said Hazel, and to Jack, "Just think of a woman going +alone to India to buy goods!" + +"This trip is really a part of my twenty-fifth anniversary with the +firm,"-- + +Hazel interrupted. "Pardon me, but do you mean to say you have been +twenty-five years with one firm?" + +"Yes, and I am but forty-five. I went to work, a girl of fifteen, in one +of the then larger western cities and after five years concluded I would +prefer an eastern house. New York did not offer the inducement which I +found in Boston. I was placed in the fur stock in winter and lighter +wraps in summer. For some reason, after I had been with them ten years, +they transferred me temporarily into the present department, later +returning me for one winter to the furs. At the end of that season I was +given the option of management of the entire wrap stock or a permanent +place in the other line. I preferred the latter. I did not feel +confidence enough in myself to be a buyer. You see, if certain styles of +goods fail to 'go,' fail to become popular or to bring a good profit, +there is a vacancy and a new buyer takes up the department. My sales in +the new stock increased steadily. It became positively embarrassing to +me at times when customers refused to have their wants attended to by +the men in the stock, men who had been there many years longer than I +had. But the fact was, it finally became necessary for me to make +appointments just the same as dentists do in order to give the attention +necessary to the trade. Three years ago I made my first attempt in +buying from manufacturers in France. That trip was one continual round +of 'stage fright,' and even after the goods were in the house I worried +myself sick for fear the end of the season would be a 'blank,' as the +boys say about lottery tickets, but the books showed a very profitable +period in the face of grave reverses to the general trade. And now, to +show their confidence in me as well as making me the magnificent present +of a trip to India, I am on my way to buy goods. Isn't it lovely of +them?" + +"Well, you deserve it, even more if anything. Just imagine working for +one firm a quarter of a century," spoke up Hazel very energetically. + +"Many firms," said Jack, weighing his words, "send 'style hunters' +abroad for the effect the mail from a foreign port has on their +customers. Half the time these 'hunters' stay long enough to mail their +announcements, like as not printed in the United States, look at a few +hats or garments, perhaps buy a 'pattern' or two, and then return home. +Other firms do send buyers into various ports abroad. Some have resident +buyers, but I never knew before of any firm sending a buyer from the +ranks of the fair sex to the Orient. Let me compliment you, Miss +Asquith, on your high achievement. It certainly demonstrates the +advancement of woman's sphere. But may I ask you a pertinent question +regarding the social part of your life?" + +"Certainly, I can guess what you want to know, and let me say, at first, +I used to feel dreadfully when I found that the working girl is to a +great degree ostracised by what is called society. But I learned that +society is treacherous. If one has lots of money to spend there are +certain attractions that it takes money to enjoy or provide. The +different degrees of wealth provide their respective scale of eligible +members to make up their circle of society, and the lesser lights are +eclipsed or paled into insignificance by the grander candle power. It is +the same in business, professions, art and politics, so I found that my +sphere was probably cast in just as pleasant places among my class of +those who work for a living, as though I had been evolved by marriage or +fortune into a society star of any magnitude, where the jealousies and +'snubs' are even harder to be endured because of the still greater +lustre found or imagined among more brilliant or exclusive sets into +which I could not enter. Do I make it clear?" + +"Very; indeed, you echo my own theory. But I could not have expressed it +as clearly as you have," replied Jack. + +"After all," continued Miss Asquith, "I doubt if the very rich obtain as +much unalloyed pleasure from life as do the middle classes who do not +aspire to greatness and are educated from infancy to make themselves +happy in the strata to which they are indigenous, as one may put it. +They are free to come and go any and everywhere, while the wealthy +commence life in charge of a nurse girl, are educated by private tutors, +attended by chaperones in their courtship and graduate simply to be put +in charge of the butler, footman, coachman and maid. But I guess I have +worn you out with my sermon on riches, and will say good night." + +Hazel and Jack joined in their good night and discussed the subject some +time, deciding to ask Miss Asquith to meet Chiquita and the four go as +one party to Estes Park. As Hazel said, "It will give Chiquita a grand +chance to study another phase of the life of her white sister, and, +Jack, I guess the red man's squaw is not alone in the field of drudgery, +after all." + +Owing to through tickets having been procured, it became necessary for +Jack to go one route while Miss Asquith took another from Chicago to +Denver, arrangements being made to that end the day following. Jack had +to get his tickets vised at the Chicago office and for some technical +reason the matter was of such a nature that it required the O. K. of the +General Passenger Agent. As he awaited an audience, the official being +for the moment engaged with another person, evidently a stranger to city +methods and customs, Jack struggled with a long forgotten, dimly +familiar something about the man that recalled brain impressions, which +they say are never destroyed when once imprinted. He had been directed +to see Mr. Lillis at such a room, in such a building, but that name +carried no suggestion. It did not seem to fit the groping fancy of his +mind. Still the name seemed to associate itself with the party then +engaging the General Passenger Agent. As the stranger turned to go he +stopped in front of Jack, looked at him a moment, then put out his hand, +"Shake, old man; guess you don't re-cog-nize Cal Wagner in his store +clothes. I jess cum out to God's country once more afore I pass in my +chips to see how things look in civilization. How be ye?" + +Of course Jack then remembered his quondam friend during the races on +the Ute reservation, and the name Lillis puzzled him more than ever. He +greeted Cal in a hearty manner, introducing Hazel. + +"Wait a minute while I get my tickets fixed, then I'll have a chat with +you," said Jack. + +As he presented his tickets, stating the object of his errand, he +noticed the official had a glass eye and scar near his ear. When the +tickets were returned a name written across them identified so +unmistakably a part of Jack's "vision" that he immediately recalled the +story which Cal Wagner told him years before of the first grave in +Silver Cliff. The name was "Bert Lillis." Allowing his curiosity to +prevail, he asked abruptly, "Mr. Lillis, were you ever in Silver Cliff?" + +The official started, a shiver ran through his frame, the color left his +face until it was like a piece of Parian marble, while he replied just +audibly, helplessly, "Yes," adding quickly, "Come in, I guess you must +know. I--did you ever see me before?" + +Jack shook his head, but turning to Cal said, "Cal, this is Bert Lillis, +formerly of Silver Cliff." + +Cal looked from one to the other and replied, "Guess you are mistaken. +Lillis is dead many years." + +"No, he is still alive," said the official. "Come in." + +Upon being seated, no one seemed desirous of broaching the painful +subject uppermost in their minds, while Hazel was completely mystified +as to the conduct of the three men. Finally, with a great effort to +restrain his feelings, his head bowed upon his breast, the railroad man +said in broken sentences: "I--for fifteen years a blackened pall has +shadowed my path, a floating, abandoned derelict moored to my heart has +dragged me against the buffeting waves of the sea of life or held me +helpless in the trough as storm crests broke over me in my misery. A man +marked with the brand which God placed upon Cain for the murder of his +brother, yet I was exonerated by the jury. I shot Les McAvoy in the +discharge of my duty. I was a mere boy, without money, scantily clad, in +search of wealth with which to support my mother, and had to accept the +only opportunity presented in that lawless mining camp. I had no tools +or trade and was not strong enough to do the work required of miners, +and the camp had not advanced far enough to give employment to the +ordinary run of commercial wage earners. It was instilled into me in +early life to do my duty in whatever capacity I served, under all +circumstances, and I considered it my duty to protect that gambling +table even at the risk of my own life. The years of mental anguish which +I have lived since that fatal moment, and the years which my poor old +mother has had her head bowed in sorrow"-- + +"Wait a moment, Mr. Lillis," interrupted Cal. "You did not kill Les +McAvoy." + +"What is that--you say I did not? Oh! I wish--it is good of you to try +to erase the stigma, but the evidence, the facts, the coroner's verdict, +'at the hands of Bert Lillis.' Oh, no, no"--sadly commented Lillis. + +"Mr. Lillis, I will prove to you what I say is truth, and if the grave +of Les McAvoy has remained untouched all these years, the evidence is in +the coffin," replied Cal. + +"Tell it! tell it! prove, first, that you were there; describe the +scene"-- + +"You were dealing, you raised a Colt's old-fashioned, powder-and-ball +navy six-shooter from yer lap"-- + +"Yes, I had cleaned up that old gun and loaded it with fresh powder, +ball and new caps that day. They told me to"--interrupted Mr. Lillis. + +"Sam Tupper sat in a chair on top of a dry-goods box; he was lookout. A +man with mustache, dead black, like India ink. Les did not like your +remarks and started to rise up in his chair, his hand goin' to his +pistol pocket. You lifted that big Colt's with both hands and as soon as +the muzzle of it was pintin' up and away from your own body you pulled +the trigger. Les had his own weapon out; you saw it, was frightened, +dropped your own gun and tried to slip under the table. As you went down +Les placed the muzzle of his gun agin yer eye and cut loose. While this +was goin' on Tupper never moved until he saw a chanst to open a drawer, +grab a pearl-handled, silver-plated shootin' iron. He stood up, advanced +one step, and fired downwardly at Les McAvoy's breast. Les writhed, +turned completely around, his hand convulsively endeavoring to get an +aim at Tupper, who stood with a malicious grin waiting for McAvoy again +to face him, ready to fire again if need be, but he saw it was useless. +As McAvoy finally pivoted, the pistol dropped to the floor, and with a +crash he fell flat on his back, dead. You were under the table. Tupper +stepped from the box, his six-shooter a smokin' and said, 'You got it +that time,' then put the gun in his pocket." + +"Where were you?" exclaimed Mr. Lillis. + +"Right agin the wall, and McAvoy's head struck at my feet. One man saw +this besides myself. He wore three gold nuggets on his shirt front, and +me and him figgered it out that night and again the next morning, but +mum was the word. We knew the gamblers would kill us both if we told +what we seen. I left the place and returned just as the last testimony +was being given. There was no evidence given of Tupper having fired a +shot. As the body lay upon its side on the floor there was one wound in +the breast near the left center. Just under the skin in the small of the +back was a dark, cone-shaped substance. It was the lead bullet from that +pearl-handled six-shooter. The round bullet from your Colt's navy went +through the roof." + +"Gentlemen," said Lillis, "I am now able to relieve my mind from this +hideous vision, and it will bring happiness to my mother. I can see now +why the gamblers removed me to Rosita and furnished me with +transportation and money to leave Colorado when I recovered sufficiently +to travel. The ball from McAvoy's pistol caught the lower portion of my +eye, and the turning of my head just before he fired caused the bullet +to pass out near my ear, instead of going into my brain." + +"We must go now, as it is near train time," said Jack. + +"Me, too," said Cal. + +"Are you going west?" asked Jack. + +"Same train you take, I guess," replied Cal. + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Lillis, "I regret you leave so soon. I would like +to entertain you if you care to stay over. If not now, at some future +time; and, Mr. Wagner, you have done me a great favor. My poor old +mother can live the rest of her life peacefully. Good-bye! good-bye!" + +As the train pulled out of the station on the way to Denver the +principal topic of conversation was the remarkable coincidence of the +rencounter of Jack and Cal, emphasized by the more remarkable meeting of +Cal and Bert Lillis. + +"Well, that beats me," said Cal. + +"I've got another surprise in Denver for you," said Jack. + +"Will it beat this one?" + +"Wait until you see our old friend, Chiquita." + +"Chiquita, the injun gal?" asked Cal, inquiringly. + +"Yes, Yamanatz's daughter." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ESTES PARK. + + +The renewal of the acquaintance between Jack and Cal was an opportune +one. As each unfolded his past and expectations for the future there +seemed to be a bond of mutual sympathy formed unlike the ordinary +friendships. + +"Jack," said Cal, confidentially, "I have laid up a good pile of 'dust' +and got as likely a ranch outfit as any of 'em. I ain't so much on talk +as some fellers with slippery tongues, neither is any one going to get +the worst of it as they do what deals with some of them slippery +talkers. When Cal says a thing's so, it's so, just as sure as gun's made +of iron. Now, I'm gittin' on in years, an' git lonesome as a settin' hen +without airy egg. I ain't a pinin' away, but I would like to gin some +desarvin' woman a good home. I'd kinder like to live in Denver and have +a house up among them nabobs. I don't expect that big red stone quarry +is goin' to give out right away and I just as lieve as not use some of +it to build a decent mansion. Then I've got a few thousand +steers;--they's one bunch of eighteen hundred fat ones, every one of +them beef to the heels, true Herefords, got the Hereford mark, that will +run twelve to fourteen hundred pounds apiece, and prime beeves are good +as cash anywhere. I think that bunch of steers ought to provide a pretty +good place to live in as long as the stone don't cost nothin'." + +[Illustration: THE "KEYHOLE," LONG'S PEAK, 13,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL.] + +Cal stopped and looked curiously at Jack, who was looking curiously at +him. + +"You are not so awful poor. Been about fifteen years making it?" asked +Jack musingly. + +"Well, longer than that. I took up that stone ranch twenty years ago. +Never thought much of it until Denver got into the buildin' boom and +some feller was cartin' away my red rock without asking--the cattle, +well in freightin' and ranchin' I run onto many a 'maverick' durin' the +spring round-ups, then some young tenderfoot would get a rich uncle to +stake him; but when one of them March blizzards struck his weavin', +staggerin', half-famished bunch he would get sick and be glad to turn +over his travelin' boneyard for a couple of hundred or less, an' I kept +addin' to 'em until I got into raisin' nothin' but thoroughbreds," +answered Cal. + +"Let me tell you something, Cal. I'll put you onto the right track and +if you can't manage to do the right thing at the right time, you'll have +to live in that red house by yourself, see?" + +"I savvey." + +Hazel commenced to smile. She had joined in the general conversation +until Cal got sentimental, but when Jack joined forces with the honest +man of the plains who acknowledged to picking up "mavericks," although +she did not know what they were, still she felt that it was some "get +something for nothing" scheme and she was afraid Jack might acquire bad +habits; then she was inclined to resent any effort on the part of Mr. +Jack to become a promoter of some matrimonial enterprise, so she smiled +and sententiously remarked: "I guess you need not bind yourself to +deliver any foreign goods for domestic purposes, free of charge, Mr. +Jack." + +"Now listen, my dear," said Jack. "Wait until you learn what's trumps +before you tip your hand. I'm going to invite Cal to go with us to Estes +Park. He can be so useful to me, you know, if I want to go out for a +deer hunt; then he can pilot Miss Asquith over the big rocks when I have +my arms full attending to you," said Jack, with a merry twinkle. + +"Oh, ho! so it is Miss Asquith you seek to waylay, is it? Well, that is +different. Say, I guess I'll have to throw up my hand. I have no trumps! +success to you." + +Cal laughed, Jack made merry over the prospect, and Hazel could not help +being amused at the deliberate plot to kidnap a woman's heart who had +for twenty-five years earned her own living. + +"Cal, there is a Miss Asquith going to meet us in Denver and join us on +a trip to Estes Park. Just you come along and help me take care of the +ladies. You have nothing on hand and you will enjoy the trip anyway. Now +that is all I want. If you get tangled up in any foolishness"-- + +"Now mind, if I do go, and get half a chance I'll stake a claim sure as +gun's made of iron," jokingly remarked Cal. "I will have to go to the +ranch first: I'll stop off at Hugo and be in Estes in a few days. I'll +find you all right," so Jack and Hazel continued alone on their journey. + +"Say, Jack," said Hazel, after Cal left them, "what a joke it would be +if Mr. Wagner should marry Miss Asquith." + +"Why shouldn't he? Of course she is much better educated; he has the +gruff ways of the rich frontiersman, but he is rich and not so much +older than she is. He will give her an elegant home, where he will be +like the historic 'bull in a china shop.'" + +"Just what was in my mind," interrupted Hazel. "Do you remember she said +two or three times, joking, of course, 'I don't see why I never could +find a farmer who would take pity on me.'" Both laughed heartily at such +a prospect. The long, dusty ride over sand hills, through dreary, brown +sunburned cattle ranges from Cheyenne Wells to Hugo and Hugo to the end +of their journey, finally came to an end. The welcome snow-capped peaks +freshened the superheated atmosphere and Denver with all its wealth, +health and climate was reached. It did not take long for Jack and Hazel +to find Chiquita, and within an hour or two Miss Asquith arrived. They +were in a mood to enjoy all the sights of the big city of the plains; +but what chiefly impressed the new visitors was the clearness of the +air, the bracing, inspiring vigor which it imparted, and the absence of +that aftermath, which always followed exercise in the lower altitudes on +the lakes or sea coast. + +The slow dragging, mixed train deposited its burden in Lyons just as the +book said it would, and the red volcanic rocks baked them, and the +"yaller legged" chicken, in all its delicious russet brown jacket, was +served to the hungry quartet, who renewed their grumbling on the park +hack as the driver cracked his whip and the wheels crunched their way +through the deep hot sand. Slowly the great vehicle groaned along for +perhaps a mile, when a sudden turn in the road brought them to a bridge +which spanned a clear sparkling stream, and the ascent of the first +lofty foothills was begun. Eyes brightened, ejaculations of surprise and +delight followed each other in rapid succession as "Johnnie" cracked his +whip and dexterously guided the now thoroughly contented coachful of +pleasure seekers along a narrow ledge, winding around some precipice or +taking a run down some steep declivity that caused the timid to shriek +and the blood to tingle in the more reckless. Up, nearer and nearer the +sky, ever leaving the top of the next hill below them, until the summit +was reached. + +Coats that had been discarded because of the heat were resumed, light +wraps were called for by the ladies, and the descent towards the Park +commenced. Great stretches of pine forest fringed the barren rocks on +some of the long ridges, while on others a chaotic interwoven mass of +tangled "dead wood" silently proclaimed the terrible devastation of the +devouring mountain fire. + +As the first view of the Park greeted the travelers, a merry shout rent +the air, the coach pulled up at the side of the toll road and everybody +alighted to "stretch," get out still heavier wraps, and make ready for +the remaining four hours' ride. Hazel had exhausted her supply of +English suitable for the occasion, while Jack and Chiquita enjoyed the +attempts of Miss Asquith to do the subject justice in "shop" words. + +Even the heavier wraps were none too warm as the coach reached the foot +of the last incline and rolled easily over the hard, gritty, well kept +turnpike. The meadow stretched before them, the Big Thompson easily +distinguished in its center and the unbroken line of mountains walling +up to the sky, shut them out from the noisy world which lay just beyond +Long's Peak, whose snow-white night cap was then a mass of burnished +copper from the last rays of the setting sun. + +"Oh, Jack, how supremely grand," was all Hazel ventured. + +"It is just lovely," murmured Miss Asquith. + +The great triangle sent forth its warning that dinner was waiting, and +reluctantly they entered the house where the warmth of a little wood +fire took the chill off the crisp air. + +"Think of it, 90 degrees in Chicago yesterday, today a fire to warm the +house!" exclaimed Hazel. + +"It is just lovely," said Miss Asquith. + +"Dinner," shouted a white-aproned darky. + +A great platter of deliciously browned brook trout stood appetizingly in +the center of a round table, and the four chairs were immediately +occupied by four hungry people, who waived all ceremony, as well as the +every day stereotyped roast beef, making trout the Alpha and Omega of +their first Estes Park repast. + +The sight-seeing was begun at daybreak, Jack routing out his party in +order to see the sunrise and the dissolving mists which hung low on the +mountain sides as they disappeared beneath the warming influence of old +Sol. An early breakfast was followed by unpacking of trunks, arranging +of fishing tackle, cameras, hammocks and paraphernalia which they +disposed of in and about the four-room cottage near the main hostelry. +Great elk and deer antlers decorated buildings all about them and the +emblem of occupancy was the fly rod standing in some convenient corner. +Saddle horses, phaetons and four-seated spring wagons were standing +about, chartered for the day's outings, while already on the banks of +the streams were anglers casting their favorite flies over pool, riffle +and swirl, in expectant anticipation of luring the wary, ever alert +inhabitant which lurked beneath some rock or bank. A flash of something +like light, followed by the straightening of a line, the symmetrical +curve of a split bamboo, the sharp click of a swiftly revolving reel in +crescendo as the line cleft the water, then the lull, the renewed dash +for liberty as a spotted, open mouthed one-pounder madly threw himself +from the water, shaking his head and falling with a splash back into the +stream,--the critical moment,--but the barb holds and a limp, pink +tinted trout, with extended gills, floats easily into the landing net--a +prize is captured which proves the record breaker of the day, all within +sight of the "tavern." + +Day after day excursion followed exploration; fishing in Willow Park or +Horseshoe, the canon and the "pool," over on the St. Vrain and the +meadow; in the latter place as the season advanced one becomes familiar +with the finny tenant who has outwitted all the temptations of +professional angling, and many an hour can be spent devising new +deceptions with which to entice the sagacious big ones, those who have +felt the keen thrust of a barbed hook and learned not to grab every +dainty morsel floating near its den. Few captures of the landlords of +the meadow stream are recorded. + +Among the tourists were numbers of English members of the nobility, and +in fact a great portion of the Park was the property of a well-known +lord, whose representative entertained his lordship's friends. The grand +herd of Hereford cattle grazing in the park belonged to the English +lord, as well as many of the blooded horses found at the corral. + +Just a week after Jack had tested his ability attending to the caprices +of a bride and his two proteges, they were all resting in easy chairs or +in the hammocks, awaiting the arrival of the stage from Lyons, when a +pair of handsome brown horses, flecked with foam, swung into view, +drawing a buckboard in which sat a lonesome traveler leading a beautiful +roan saddle pony. It was Cal, and as he greeted Jack, who had advanced +to meet the outstretched hand, he said, "I thought perhaps I'd run +across a 'maverick' up here." + +Jack understood and replied, "Glad you come prepared to put your brand +on any that you catch in the round up." + +As they were instructing the corral men what to do with the horses Miss +Asquith said to Hazel, "Oh, Mrs. Sheppard, isn't that a stunning +turnout? I guess it must be my rich farmer." To which Hazel nodded +assent, remarking through her smiles, "There's no telling." + +Chiquita joined in the merriment with a suggestion, "Suppose, Miss +Asquith, you let me get some Indian lovers' ferns and you dry them, then +crush them with your own hands while you chant some lines which one of +the great Sachems, in time long ago, obtained from a good spirit; and +the good spirit promised the great Sachem that any of his maidens could +cause an obstinate lover to woo her, or make a recreant spouse return to +the side of his love if the maiden or wife would mix some of the ferns +with some killikinnick, so the object of solicitude would smoke himself +into her presence." + +"Oh! That is just lovely. I think I would rather have one smell kind of +smoky any how. I just abominate these scrupulously clean men who +saturate the atmosphere with Jockey Club; it is too much like 'shop.' +Ugh!" + +"Sh!" said Hazel, "they are coming. Welcome, Mr. Wagner, and here is a +poor unfortunate, Mr. Wagner, who is on her way to China; she says she +is going to bring back a Chinaman or die in the attempt--Miss Asquith." + +"You need not go to China for 'em. I've got one down at the ranch that +I'd just as lieve swap as not." + +"Is he the genuine article with a dragon on his blouse?" retorted Miss +Asquith. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Wagner." + +"Thanks; and, Chiquita, who would have thought it? You here, and, well, +this beats me," turning to Jack, who was enjoying the scene. + +"My surprise I promised you," said he. + +"Surprise, well I should say so, sure as gun's made of iron, but tell +me--" + +"I'll tell you myself," broke in Chiquita. "Yamanatz's daughter has been +to college for the last six or eight years. Chiquita has adopted the +life of her white sisters." She said it rather regretfully, Cal thought, +but he replied: + +"The flower of the Utes is a daisy, sure as gun's made of iron." + +"Now, Mr. Wagner, that is not fair; you might have said something nice +about me," playfully remarked Miss Asquith. + +"I suppose I never will be forgiven for such a lack of good manners," +said Cal, continuing in that open-hearted off-hand way, "but let me tell +you how I will even up. Tomorrow morning you shall ride that roan for me +and the rest of us will trail along behind and take your dust, for that +horse is a thoroughbred." + +Just then the dinner gong sounded. The party planned an outing at +Horseshoe Falls, Chiquita and Miss Asquith, with Cal as escort, all +mounted, while Jack and Hazel drove in the buckboard, carrying supplies +and fishing tackle. Ten miles over a hard, sandy road, a couple of +hours' fishing, lunch in camp fashion, then an hour's rest and return to +the hotel. Miss Asquith was a trifle timid at first, but she was not a +novice and soon proved well able to master her mount, although he was +spirited and inclined to test his powers against all comers. But she +could not catch trout. Cal, of course, found it necessary to spend most +of his time extricating her line from the limbs of trees or driftwood in +the stream and changing the flies. + +He showed her when and how to let the sombre hued gray hackle or gaudy +"royal coachman" settle daintily along the riffle, or drop a "black +gnat" from a bunch of grass on the opposite bank as though it was a sure +enough bug. But the lady in search of a Chinaman could not hook the lord +of the water. She was either too slow or too quick, and the exasperating +ineffectual attempts to capture one _little one_ of the many that +rose to the bait, took it with a rush only to drop it instantly, or the +ones even darting out of the water as she lifted her flies too quickly, +wore her patience to a frazzle. In fact, after losing one grand fellow +that she had managed to hold for just an instant before he broke her +leader, she was fairly upset and could not keep back the tears of +disappointment. + +"Now, little one, you must not give up that way," Cal expostulated. +"These pesky fellows are just like lightning. Let me see if I can't get +that one. Now watch my fly as it goes into the dark shadow by that tree +and I will skitter the second fly sort of dancing-like diagonally across +the lower corner of the swirl that makes over that sunken rock--Gee, +whiz! I've got him, and see, there is another just grabbed the second +fly. Now the trick is to let them fight it out among themselves while I +hold this end of the argument. Two are not so hard to 'whip' as one if +you keep your line just easy tight as they are pulling against each +other all the time. But we will have to go down by that little beach +where I can wade out with a landing net; the tail fly being down stream, +the farthest will drop into the net first, then I let the other float in +on top of him, see?" + +"I don't care, I think it is real mean I can't catch one," replied Miss +Asquith, "but oh, ain't they pretty?" + +"Guess they are half pounders, perhaps the biggest will go three +quarters," said Cal, as he adjusted the "shrinker," a little spring +scale which he took from his pocket. "Nine ounces and fourteen ounces, +larger than I thought they were," said Cal, as he placed them in his +creel. "I guess we'd better be moving towards the camp, and as we go I +will tell you one secret of catching trout. As your flies settle into +the water, pull against them easy all the time as though they were +fastened to something, a good deal like 'feeling a horse's mouth' when +driving. This seeming tension, while infinitesimal, is enough that when +a trout grabs the fly he can not drop it; and when you feel the 'tug,' +instead of jerking your line out of the water turn your hand over and +upward a little. This will set the hook deep, then land your catch--if +you can." + +"Oh, yes, it is easy enough to say it," replied Miss Asquith. + +The camp was soon reached and a gay party discussed the two "big ones" +at dinner upon their arriving at the hotel. + +"There are very few trout caught in the Park that exceed a pound, and +more six ouncers or less than in excess of six," said Cal. "The large +three to eight pound red throated mountain trout are more plentiful in +the waters that empty into the Pacific Ocean or Rio Grande River than in +the streams that go to the North Platte and on into the Missouri River." + +Trips of this nature and exploration tours followed each other day after +day, until all the country had been visited. + +One trip which Jack deferred was to Long's Peak, and as day succeeded +day he was conscious that his little party cast longing glances toward +that snowcapped, uncompromising sentinel of the plains. So few ventured +to undertake the fatigue incident to the wearisome and perilous journey +that little was heard of the experiences, and those who did accomplish +it seemed loath to recount much of their experience. When the signs in +the zodiac at last became propitious, and all were physically and +morally equal to the attempt, preparations were made to go to the Half +Way house, Lamb's ranch, and the next morning, at four o'clock, make an +early start to climb the peak. No fishing tackle was carefully stowed +away, no odds wagered on results, and no great amount of unrestrained +merriment attended the "make ready" as wraps, lunches, heavy ironshod +walking sticks and sundry necessaries were packed into the vehicles. +Three good saddle ponies of the Indian variety were provided for the +ladies, while Jack and Cal made arrangements to get their saddle animals +at Lamb's. The road to the Half Way house was of the usual rough +thoroughfare, corduroyed in places, steep and fringed with pine trees, +whose uncanny whisperings added to an already semi-funereal gloom which +hung oppressively over the party. This was partially due to the +impressive monosyllabic advice given in low voices by guides, hostlers +and residents of the park. + +After a restless night, just as the gray dawn of morning was breaking +through the eastern sky, the lengthening and shortening of stirrups, +changing of packs, wrapping up bundles of extra clothing and other +miscellany occupied the time while breakfast was being prepared. With a +good-bye to those who remained at the ranch, a cavalcade of a dozen, +including guides, started away in the crisp, frosty air, each one eager +to be in the lead, and on the return each one was contented to be the +drone. The sun was perhaps two hours high when timber line was reached. +Frequent stops for breathing had to be made and saddle girths adjusted +as higher altitudes and steeper grades were encountered. The +inexperienced noted the panting horses, but did not fully grasp the +terrific effort required to climb those precipitous inclines at eleven +thousand feet above sea level. Not a cloud, not a particle of haze +blurred the clear atmosphere. The pines soughed dreamily and waved their +needle tipped arms in a lazy, indolent manner, wafting fragrance and +vigor to the world. The trail wound its serpentine way around hill after +hill toward the monster peak, standing cold and aloof, riveted, as it +were, to the deep blue firmament against which it seemed to rest. As the +sky was approached nearer and nearer, the vegetation grew sparse and +stunted. Coarse rye grass in clumps few and far between gave evidence of +nature's provision, even at that altitude, for wandering deer or elk +that might be left behind when the great winter migration of the +restless bands sought the lower regions. Great boulders appeared more +frequently and the trail led the party over slide rock a great portion +of the way. The squeaks of conies and shrill whistles of groundhogs +could be distinguished above the clatter of horses' hoofs, for timber +line is their home. + +At last the trees were left behind, the great boulder bed stretched +before them, an ocean of waste rock, formidable, repellant, uninviting. +The "Key Hole" was plainly visible, two miles distant, while the summit +of the peak towered far above, almost over them. Horses were lariated, +saddles taken off, and lunches stowed into pockets, the stout iron +pointed sticks were brought into service and the signal given, "Onward." +The way at first was over soft grassy spots interspersed between the +waves of rocks, here and there a scrawny runt of a pine tree, looking +more like roots growing needles than a tree, beneath the shelter of +which the famous ptarmigan, or mountain quail, kept lonely vigil. + +The last vestige of verdure passed, the immensity of that vast area of +huge, desolate, dreary waste of rock appalls the mind. Step by step, up, +up, over those ever increasing boulders, it did not seem like mounting +higher and higher, but as though one was in a gigantic, fearful stone +tread mill and the earth gradually sinking away, down, down, into space +below. After the boulder bed, the snow, hard, crusty, firm enough to +bear a horse. The "Key Hole"--and as the party passed through to the +eastern slope, they found spread out beneath their feet the dry, dusty +plain, with its brown coat of grass and alkali, stretching away into +nothing. A venture to the edge of an immense great rock upon which one +could lie down and gaze into the depth below was like looking into +eternity, the contemplation of which baffles the mind for words to +describe the awesome, fearful grandeur of God's handiwork as viewed from +Long's Peak. No other peak so barren, no other peak so lonesome, no +other peak so supernaturally devoid of at least one redeeming feature as +Long's. From its barren crest one seems able to touch the sky, and one +bound into space would land him beyond the world. To the right could be +seen Denver, there the Platte River, Longmont in a maze of alfalfa beds +and wheat fields, but these were as a drop of water to the ocean, a +grain of sand to the plains. A hasty lunch, dry indeed, but for the +accommodating snow bank which leaked enough to furnish ice water that +coursed in a stream about the size of the lead in a pencil down a +boulder, which dwarfed Cheops' pyramid. The labor involved in the return +trip caused dejection and woe. Lameness was the rule and only after much +coaxing, and threatening, could every one understand the peril which +awaited them, once the night settled down before the boulder beds were +crossed. + +Just below the "Key Hole" the guide conducted the party to a wooden slab +standing unpainted, weatherbeaten, bearing this inscription: + + Here + Carrie J. Welton + Lay to Rest + Died Alone + Sept. 28--1884. + +It was in a spot at the base of the "Key Hole" where the rocks stood on +end and seemed to disappear into the boulders, that made up that vast +boulder bed. From a prayer book, which Jack carried, he read the +following tale of the awful tragedy: + + PERISHED ALONE. + + From the Half Way House at break of day + A maiden gaily strode away, + To climb the heights of Long's Peak bold, + With guide to show the trail, I'm told; + For there's no path and the way is steep, + And death lurks 'round that grim old peak. + + 'Twas at the dawn of an autumn morn, + The pine trees soughed as if to warn + As two climbed o'er the boulder bed. + "Come back! The storm! 'Twill come," he said. + "On to the summit," she made reply. + "Why need we falter, you and I?" + + Then upward climbed to view the sight + Of raging storm on Long's Peak height, + And saw ambition's fixed star + On guard, within the gates ajar, + Lest mortal man should enter in + Before absolved from venial sin. + + The solitude of those drear crests + No welcome gives to lingering guests + When storm king vies with mid-day sun + In battle, 'til the conquered one + Retreats for days, perhaps for weeks, + And gloom reigns o'er the lonely peaks. + + The wild wind shrieked as in snow and hail + They undertook the downward trail. + She brav'd the cold and murmured not, + As they groped their way from spot to spot; + Her wondrous strength succumbed at last + While yet the "Keyhole" must be passed. + + The stalwart guide in his arms then bore + Her fragile form, and ponder'd o'er + The waste of rocks beneath the "Key;" + For his strength was failing rapidly, + And night clouds dimm'd the tortuous way + Which few e'er tread e'en at mid-day. + + "You may go for help," she moaned at last, + As through the "Key" they slowly pass'd. + "The rocks will shelter me," she said, + And sank to rest on the boulder bed. + He covered her with the coat he wore, + Then hastened to the "Half Way" door. + + Another dawn of an autumn morn + In the eastern sky had been born, + As stalwart guides, with throbbing heads, + Toiled wearily o'er the boulder beds; + 'Midst cruel crags and waist-deep snow + They battled on against the foe. + + Up, up, they climb'd that dreadful night + And brav'd the storm on Long's Peak height; + Yet wild winds shrieked as heads were bow'd + To gaze with awe at the snowy shroud + In which she slept on her boulder bed. + "She lay to rest,--she's gone," they said. + +"Oh, dear, isn't it sad?" said Hazel and Miss Asquith in a breath. + +"She died alone?" queried Cal. + +"Yes, sir," spoke up a guide, "both of us would have perished, but she +was true grit to the last. I thought she might hold out, but the storm +grew worse as it grew darker." + +"Do you have such awful storms as early as September?" asked Hazel. + +[Illustration: "SHE LAY TO REST," ON HER BOULDER BED.] + +"Sometimes the first winter blizzards are pretty rough up here; +generally get a starter any time after the middle of September," +answered another guide. + +"We had better be moving," said Jack. + +"One moment, please. Would you mind giving me a copy of those verses +when we get to the ranch? I would like to show them to visitors," said +the guide. + +"Certainly, certainly; why, just take the prayer book. We will all put +our names in here right now and you can keep it to remember us by," +replied Jack. + +The dragging of swollen feet, weary bodies and aching limbs back over +that two miles of desolation was full of torture for all. The expected +relief when the horses were reached proved but an additional +multiplicity of aches, especially in the joints of the knees, where it +seemed as though iron pins were crunching the very cavities of those +valuable adjuncts to man's usefulness. + +Hazel cried, Chiquita even complained, and poor Miss Asquith,--well, Cal +had his hands full. He showed his frontier gallantry by picking her up +and carrying her down one steep grade as though she were but an infant, +and the episode did more to reinvigorate the dejected spirits of the +entire party than anything that could have happened. + +Nevertheless the Half Way house welcomed a hungry, cross, disgruntled +aggregation of mountain climbers. + +Said Jack as the guide bid him good-bye, "Don't you ever get tired of +seeing these peak scalers come near the place? They are all alike on the +home stretch, if they are able to stand up at all." + +"I must say I do. I wouldn't care if no one ever again wanted to make +that fool climb. Why, that senseless trip has often put folks to the bad +for months. They can ride up Pike's Peak, but they don't know what +climbing is until they tackle that old fellow. Well, adios; I'll say +this much, you've been the jolliest party this season." + +It was nine o'clock when the hotel was reached, and it was noon of the +next day before a lot of crippled tourists managed to limp into the +dining room, leaving a trail of arnica and pain killers everywhere they +went. + +"Oh, isn't this just lovely," said Miss Asquith, as Cal rolled her in an +invalid chair to her place at the table. + +It was a couple of days before the effects of the Long's Peak trip +abated to a degree that recreation once more became a pleasure. During +the days of sight seeing and exploration of Estes Park, Chiquita had +opportunity to study the character of the saleslady depicted by Miss +Asquith, but she had little chance to talk with the lady on whom the +years sat as easily as upon one in her teens, and whose vivacious +temperament was contagious. The enforced respite gave plenty of time for +recounting interesting episodes in Miss Asquith's life, which she did +with charming grace. + +To many, Miss Asquith seemed affected. The spontaneous spark of a +jovial, witty disposition burned just as brightly in her at forty-five +as it did a generation before, but the critic would not have it so. "It +is put on, it is not natural, it is out of place; she had better be +saying her beads preparatory to being buried," were some of the unkind +remarks heard. + +Hazel said to Jack, "She shocks one at first with her display of +artlessness as a stock in trade, until you learn by experience that it +is natural." + +"I presume, my dear, there are people at eighty who condemn the +'kittenish' actions of some at ninety, the same as those of thirty +criticise Miss Asquith. Is it envy?" + +"I'll tell you, Chiquita," said the lady in question the day after the +peak episode, "I find great enjoyment in being jolly, full of fun, +possibly at times breaking all written rules of decorum and dignity; for +why should we poor mortals go around with a long face, rigid arms and +mouths full of pious ejaculations just because the Puritans brought that +style from across the water? I have been doped on fashion for a quarter +of a century, and fashions change, but in that time I have learned that +to laugh is to be with the world. To weep is to be alone. Better be a +little frivolous with good appetite than strain at dignity and wail with +dyspepsia. This etiquette and form is only skin deep any way." + +"You are such a considerate little body I should have thought some +enterprising man would have captured you years ago," ventured Chiquita. + +"There was one, but he was stricken with fever and after that I never +have had a desire to become married. Think I would like to run a ranch, +though, now I am getting old and need some one to take care of me," she +playfully added, causing a genuine ripple of merriment. + +"Miss Asquith, you are all right," said Hazel. "Don't let these carping +critics cause you to forego any fun there is in life, even to playing +tag with a cattle king," which, of course, produced another burst of +laughter. + +"I shall have to insist upon your accompanying us to 'Buena Vista,' Miss +Asquith. I think you can spare the time and positively we can not get +along without you," said Chiquita. + +"I shall have to give up that pleasure. I must go on my journey." The +reply was rather sad, but she quickly recovered her usual vivacity. "I +want another trial at those fish. I suppose I will have to leave +Saturday, and this is Wednesday--" + +"Well, well, who are these girls conspiring against now?" said Cal, as +he drove up with Jack. + +"We have just talked Miss Asquith to death and tried to get her to go +with us to 'Buena Vista.' You will go, won't you, Cal?" said Chiquita. + +"Oh, you bet, I'd never lose such an opportunity. Guess you will change +your mind, Miss Asquith. In fact we will have to take you prisoner." + +"I want to catch a fish before I leave Estes. Now, be good and go down +in the meadow and tie one somewhere to the bank so I can find it," +banteringly replied Miss Asquith. + +"We will go Friday and I pledge the fish, a big one," said Cal. + +Seated upon the beautiful roan pony, Miss Asquith, followed by Cal, went +to the meadow Friday afternoon, while the others lolled in hammocks +around the hotel. The sky was just the least bit clouded and a warm +south wind blew lazily across the park. A few fingerlings had been +lifted from the riffles when Miss Asquith headed her pony into deep +water up stream at a big bend where the river was sixty feet wide. Cal +was busy whipping the eddies farther down. As her pony was well trained +to the angling pastime, he knew almost as well as his rider what was +wanted. Stepping slowly along until the water reached his belly the pony +stopped, Miss Asquith's flies flashed behind, then she gracefully +dropped the leader far over the stream to the other shore. + +"Oh, dear," she exclaimed, "they have gone too far and caught in the +grass. How--how will I ever--" + +Just then the tail fly dangled down to the surface of the water, held +back by the droppers, which were caught in the grass ever so lightly. +The top of something darted from under the bank and seized the fly. Miss +Asquith thought it was a muskrat, it was so big. Down went the line +deeper and deeper. She instinctively turned her hand and wrist in order +to free the hooks from the grass, and thus set the fly good and deep +into whatever was cavorting around, making her reel sing as she never +had heard it before. + +"Oh, Cal, quick! quick! come and get me," she called, little thinking +what she was saying, at the same time pressing her knee against the side +of the pony, who recognized the signal and turned toward the shore. Miss +Asquith allowed her rod to hold steady until she could dismount. By that +time Cal was at her side. + +"You've got a beauty, sure as gun's made of iron," said he. + +As she reeled in a little of the line the tension ceased and an immense +trout broke from the water. "Oh! Oh! what shall I do?" + +Cal spoke sternly, "Watch your line and don't be foolish." + +With that she settled down to her work and in a few moments had the +pleasure of floating the fish into the landing net, Cal wading out to +intercept it. As it went into the net she stood on the bank just above +him, a little beach giving him opportunity to make the capture. As he +stood there holding on to the staff of his landing net with one hand and +the line with the other, he said, "This trout is yours on one +condition--the fish, the horse and the man all go together. Say yes, and +the fish comes ashore, say no, and I turn him loose." + +"Yes, yes, y-e-s. Hurry up with the fish," she exclaimed, adding +excitedly, as Cal came to the bank, "I'll just kiss you right here for +the sake of the fish," and, suiting the action to the word, she planted +a good smack on his upturned mouth. + +"Now we will see what he weighs. But first here is your reward," +slipping a big solitaire off his finger and holding up his hand, "tie it +on if necessary." + +"Why, what is that for?" stammered she. + +"Didn't you say 'yes, yes, yes?'" + +"Yes." + +"Well, that meant fish, horse and man, and I'm the man." + +"Mr. Wagner--Cal--let me go. My! the people are all watching us." + +"Never mind, show them your hand. Just two pounds and a quarter," said +Cal, as he adjusted the scales, "the biggest one this season so far." + +"Yes, a fish, a horse and a man--quite a catch for one day," laughingly +said Miss Asquith. + +"The details of that catch are duly recorded in the hotel register and +never will be duplicated," said Cal at dinner, as the party made merry +and toasted the future ranch owner, who blushed rosy as a girl of +sixteen, while Cal was as brim full of joy as a lad with a new pair of +red top boots and sled to match. The following telegram fairly burned +the wires: + +"Stoddersmith, Boston. Caught a trout, a horse and a man with a six +ounce rod. Trip to India postponed. Resign position today. + + Miss Asquith." + +To which they replied: + +"Miss Asquith, Estes Park via Lyons, Colo. Congratulations. Fish, horse +and man uncertain property. Resignation accepted to take effect day of +ceremony. + + Stoddersmith." + +It was decided to go overland to Chiquita's Buena Vista ranch on +horseback and with pack animals, the road horses and buckboard being +started a few days ahead by way of Georgetown and the Berthoud Pass, to +await the party at Hot Sulphur Springs, the trail from Estes via +Specimen Mountain being impassable for anything on wheels. + +"I am very anxious," said Jack, "that Hazel should see the grandest bit +of scenery in Colorado. While the average mind is satisfied with Estes, +still there is one little area beyond Estes that surpasses anything +else, and there is but one way to get to it--walk." + +Two good camp hustlers were engaged to do the work of packing, putting +up tents and other duties in common. By going ahead a camp was located +and pitched by the time the sightseers overtook the advance guard. A +saddle horse to each member of the party, three small pack mules and a +Mexican burro--the Rocky Mountain canary which Jack promised his sister +year after year--the luggage so packed being ample for three times the +number in the party. + +The sun had crossed the noonday meridian when the final adios was given. +Striking to the right of the Horseshoe Park road the trail led into a +labyrinth of forest burned "down timber," miles of denuded +trees--sentries in nature's graveyard--and as the wind wheezed dismally +through the few branches left by the consuming fire, their creaking and +rattling was not unlike the clatter of a thousand skeletons assembled in +some vast amphitheatre to dance away a few years of eternity's exile. + +The first camp was made in the center of this weirdly fantastic home of +goblins and bogy men. The tents had been pitched and camp fires started +when Jack and his four companions came straggling along. The side packs, +containing commissary supplies, stood gaping, awaiting the cook. Frying +pans, coffee pot and "Dutch oven" appealed, as it were, for recognition, +so in one chorus the honor was thrust upon Jack to "get the first meal." +But he was a past-master in the art, notwithstanding he had not +officiated before in the presence of so "finnicky" an assemblage. + +"Now, you ladies who have a cupboard full of clean dishes to use when +you commence to prepare a meal, and a table to prepare it on and a cook +book to guide you, and a sink for the trash, and shelves full of handy +ingredients, and when the meal is ready every dish has been used and +every utensil stands neglected with traces of its having fulfilled a +mission belonging to it, and who sigh because there are so many pots, +stewpans and table dishes to wash and dry after the meal is over,--just +watch the frontier method." + +Jack had superintended the packing of the "mess box," so he knew where +all the supplies were. Seizing a stick, provided for the purpose, his +first act was just like that of a woman. He poked the fire, but in his +case it was to "draw out" a bed of coals on which he set the oven +skillet, a cast iron utensil about five inches deep, with long legs +under it and a bail and cast iron cover half an inch thick. The latter +he placed on the fire logs. Next he washed his hands, then put a +tablespoonful of coffee for each cup into a big pot and added cold +water. This was put on one corner of his bed of coals. Taking a six +quart pan he put in flour, some salt, a pinch of sugar, some milk--which +by good luck they had managed to capture at the last ranch--then some +baking powder, and stirred it all up with a big iron spoon until it was +stiff. The mixing was done on a convenient rock. Here Jack looked +suspiciously at the quizzical eyes which followed his every movement. He +washed his hands again, then with turned-up shirt sleeves moulded the +dough, adding flour until it was biscuit thick. Turning another pan +upside down he flattened a portion of the dough to the desired +thickness, then cut his biscuits square. The remainder of the dough in +the original pan was treated likewise where it was. Cutting off a piece +of bacon rind he "greased" his oven skillet thoroughly, placed the +biscuits therein, then put the hot cover upon the skillet and a +shovelful of hot coals on the cover. The coffee was just beginning to +boil, so he set the pot back on some hot ashes, washed his pans, spoons +and hands, and in a twinkle was slicing up some bacon and calf's liver, +which he placed in a frying pan near the bread oven. + +Bright tin cups, plates, knives, forks and spoons were handed around and +the "folks" instructed to "get your places near the grub pile." A bucket +of cold brook water stood handy by. Jack opened a can of peas, which +were soon sizzling in a double bottomed stewpan. A round wooden box was +marked "Oleo"--but no one, except Jack, knew it to be otherwise than +"best Elgin butter." + +Into another frying pan Jack put some of the butter, and when it was +good and hot added half a dozen brook trout that also had escaped the +notice of the now hungry onlookers. The scent of savory viands nearly +precipitated a riot. + +"Supper!" called Jack. + +"Why, you don't know whether those biscuits are burned to death or raw," +said Hazel. "Look at him settle that coffee with cold water. Where's an +egg?" + +Jack lifted the cover off the oven and a cloud of steam rose up and +wafted away, then he set the skillet in the center of the party, the +fish beside the bread and the bacon near at hand; peas came along and +Hazel picked up a lightly browned, rich, creamy biscuit, breaking it in +two and adding a dab of butter, took a bite, smacked her lips and said +"More." The verdict was unanimous. + +The routine of camp life is not a dull one; new and varied episodes +follow each other in rapid order while on the trail. The informal +mannerisms of camp life become contagious and an irresistible impulse +takes possession of the most conservative to break away from +conventionalities. Bantering persiflage bubbles in everyone, and good +natured raillery adds zest to all phases of the experience, whether it +rains or shines. + +No sooner had Jack straightened up his kitchen than he inspected the +disposition of the horses, seeing that each one had as good a spot to +crop grass as was obtainable. Then the beds. "Put some more of those +second growth pine boughs under that bunch of blankets and it will be +more like a good curled hair mattress, to which I presume Miss Asquith +is accustomed; dig a trench all around each tent; it may rain before +morning and this side hill will be a running river if it does; spread +that wagon sheet over the saddles and 'commissary' before you turn in; +we will want to start about eight o'clock; you may sleep until six." +Thus he gave his instructions to the hustlers. + +After a little chat, as they sat on the ground, Turk-fashion, or lolled +against a tree, first one yawned and of course the others followed suit, +so Jack suggested "early to bed." + +Breakfast over, saddles were cinched, camp equipment all snugly packed +away and the laborious climb was commenced which was to take them to the +slide rock trail five miles long, following the crest of the great +continental divide which separates the waters of the Atlantic and +Pacific. + +The men walked behind their respective ponies, lessening their labor by +hanging to the ponies' tails, while the fair sex suffered almost as much +hardship listening to the panting, patient animals, as they stopped +every hundred feet to get a breath and "blow." + +"Oh, say, but this is a corker!" said Cal, as he steadied himself and +leaned against a tree for a little rest. + +"I often wish my tongue would hang out like a dog's when I get to +climbing these high peaks. Seems as though mine fills my throat up so I +can't breathe," said Jack, his remark causing much merriment. + +The summit was not far distant at ten o'clock, and as they surmounted +the last slope the clouds rolled in above them like a great drop +curtain, black and dense. Onward the great canopy spread toward the +sunlit peaks beyond, leaving a trail of drizzle, sleet and snow. Then +the entire party was swallowed up in an immense gray fog bank, while +darker electrically charged masses of moisture bowled along, chasing +each other through phosphorously illuminated paths, much to the +consternation of the ladies. + +"Oh, it's lightning right here! Won't it strike us?" exclaimed Miss +Asquith. + +"It might give you a little shock that would tingle some, but not enough +to hurt you," vouchsafed Jack. + +The light clouds soon followed, then the sun shone bright, and in a few +minutes the gum coats provided for just such an emergency had been +relegated to the strings on the saddles. To the left, on the slope of +another hogback, rose tier after tier of little lakes, seven terraces in +all, each fringed with a belt of green pine trees; behind each belt rose +a precipitous ledge of rock. + +"Just look at that, isn't it grand?" said Hazel. + +Jack had provided plates and the panoramic camera snapped its welcome to +the view. Five exposures were made to insure a good one, then the party +filed along the ragged, dimly outlined trail which Indians had used for +a century or more. In the distance could be seen the headwaters of the +Cache le Poudre and to the immediate right a huge snow bank formed a +horseshoe half a mile in its arc. Leaving their ponies, at a suggestion +from Jack the party walked over to the edge of the slide rock and gazed +down into a small lake, of perhaps a thousand acres, nestled in a rocky +embrace, twenty-five hundred feet below them, into the nearer edge of +which stones were sent splashing by those who attempted a throw. Groups +of pine trees dotted the farther shore of the lake and upon its bosom +floated half a dozen immense icebergs, which remain summer after summer, +during the months of July and August, never entirely disappearing. + +Again and again Jack attempted the difficult feat of obtaining a focus +to register that grandest of picturesque spots on the plates especially +prepared, but none proved successful when developed. + +Slowly, regretfully, the march was again taken up and camp was made on +the low pass where pools of water flow from two outlets, one north into +North Park, the other south into Middle Park and the Grand River. This +camp was beneath the famous Specimen mountain and its fantastic +spire-like rock formations, on the apex of which the "Big Horn" dozed in +perfect security, the spires succeeding each other and making the great +aerial stairway accessible only to the sure-footed mountain sheep. + +No one enjoyed the life of the camp half as much as did Chiquita. She +was in her element. The respite from the continual grind of college had +been such a welcome one that she preferred to listen to the others +rather than join in the general conversation. The topics discussed found +no sympathetic chord in her mind, and, notwithstanding the years she had +submitted to the refining influences of education, she was a savage at +heart. She realized it. Her restive spirit broke the bonds of captivity +as soon as the first campfire was lighted. Like a golden winged +chrysalis she burst her civilization fetters and became again the +forest-born Indian maiden, Chiquita. No longer did she feel the +restraint which society demanded. The buoyant freedom of the camp +injected new life into her veins, new aspirations into her mind. But she +was not aware that the very ascendency of civilization immeshed her in +its grasp. Her manners, always charming, had become more so under the +polish of education and association with those who trained the soul as +well as the hand, the eye, the body. + +"The smoke of the tepee fire has driven away the oppressive chaotic +whirl of classes, recitations and examinations which have had possession +of me ever since I left the college," she said, apologetically. + +"That was one reason I had for making this trip overland," said Jack. "I +knew you longed to break away from crockery and tablecloths, and in your +tent you will find something that will please and make you still more at +home." + +When Jack superintended the packing of the paraphernalia for the trip +over the trail, he managed to include in Chiquita's outfit a complete +set of buckskin garments, and these she found awaiting her. It was not +long before she appeared in her native costume. + +"Now you look natural," said Cal. + +"The daughter of the woods is happy again," she replied, half sadly, +but, recovering quickly, proposed a specimen-hunting expedition up the +mountain which derives its name from the great pockets of specimen rocks +found upon its slopes. + +The party picked its way carefully over slippery, slimy, ooze-covered +shale to the specimen beds. Geodes, rounded nodules of rock, filled with +waxy uncrystallized deposits of infiltrated silicious waters were broken +open, presenting in some instances masses of infinitesimal stalactites, +in others the beautiful ribbon agate so much prized by the mineralogist, +with its alternate rows of different colors. Much more difficult to find +was chrysoprase in green, and the flesh red carnelian, all of these +known as chalcedony and of which in Rev. 21:19 and 20, St. John +describes the third foundation of the wall of the holy city as "a +chalcedony," the tenth foundation "a chrysoprasus." Hours were spent in +digging these precious souvenirs from their resting place. + +Far above, an occasional mountain sheep appeared for a moment, +reconnoitering to see if it was safe for him to descend with his family +to the night camp of the Big Horn, for the oozy, slimy deposit was salty +and this "lick" was the most famous in all the great length and breadth +of the Rocky Mountains. It consequently became the resort of thousands +of those wary, intelligent animals, but there were times when the +insatiable desire for alkali grew so strong that no danger appalled +them, and they rushed recklessly only to meet death at the hands of the +hunter who took advantage of this weakness. Skulls, broken horns and +bones could be discerned upon the apex of many of the spires or +truncated cones which rose at intervals from the eruptive lava, that in +ages gone by had broken forth from the earth's crust, the surface of one +of these beds being, in many cases, not over three feet in width, while +the precipitous sides of the cone varied from one foot to a thousand +feet. To these dizzy spots, which formed the Big Horn's aerial stairway, +did this wonderful animal bound, whether pursued or in search of a +resting place, alighting with sure foot, and immediately curling down +for a nap or another bound in event danger was scented. That leap from +danger was in itself marvelous--with all four feet curled beneath that +ponderous body, the iron muscles warmed by the heavy hair coat, it was +not the laborious effort of a steer elevating its hindquarters, +unfolding one foreleg and then the other with a groan; it was a +propulsion of a seemingly inert mass into space, a touch of toes to the +earth and another bound into the air and probably out of sight, for that +stairway is a mass of intricate, steep sided fissures, deep rifts +opening one into another, each presenting a ledge sufficiently large to +enable one of these sure-footed travelers to find "bouncing room" and so +down, down, down for a thousand or more feet this denizen of the clouds +would make his escape. This method of retreat being so sudden and the +disappearance so sure, tales have been ofttimes told of the wonderful +leaps into mid air, dropping to the bottom of one of those canons and of +his sheepship alighting on his horns, none the worse for jumping half a +mile or more. + +All one afternoon Chiquita told wonderful stories of the wild game life, +the parties of hunters who came even from Europe to wait for days until +the sheep came to the "lick," and how these hunters crept up to the +"beds" in the darkest and stormiest nights, waiting within rifle shot +until the dawn should break, when the slaughter would commence. She told +of the bands of elk, two and three thousand herding together, migrating +from their summer feeding grounds among the high willow grown, spongy +bogs, to the cedar grown mountains along Eagle River, crossing Middle +Park in October and November after the first great snow storms began to +drive them out. + +"The mountains around here used to be the greatest paradise for game +that Indian ever found. Is it any wonder my people resent the intrusion +of the paleface?" said she, after giving an enthusiastic account of one +of the Ute hunting expeditions which took place when she was but a few +years old. + +The fascination and charm which held the listener spellbound could not +be analyzed. Chiquita in her college dress and college speech was not +the Chiquita of the forest. Day after day as the party wended its course +along the Grand River and over the range to those famous springs at the +Buena Vista ranch, she pointed out hunting grounds, battle fields where +Cheyennes fought the Utes, or Sioux came down from the north to wage a +war of conquest. + +The buckboard was at Hot Sulphur Springs when they arrived. Miss Asquith +and Cal, it is needless to remark, found this conveyance more to their +liking, at least a part of the time, than the saddle method. + +From the ranch excursions were made to Egeria Park, where the towering +Toponas rock lifted its ragged summit over five hundred feet in the air, +and on whose side a city of swallows, martins and mud-nesting birds +numbering into tens of thousands, dwelt until the winter breath drove +them to the warm southland. A trip to the famous Steamboat Springs, with +its porcelain frescoed caves, belching forth the peculiar chug, chug, +chug of a Mississippi boat, as though some giant ventriloquist were +navigating one of those floating palaces in the bowels of the earth. +Great trout were captured, after arduous labor, from the sluggish waters +of the Bear River, but little peace was afforded the whole trip from the +pestiferous swarms of red-legged grasshoppers exiled from the plains, to +be buffeted back and forth from the surrounding ranges of snow-capped +mountains, until the white man's destroying agency should catalogue them +with the auk, the buffalo and the red man; as Chiquita chronicled it, +"another example of the onward march of civilization." + +The removal of the Utes from White River to the Uintah reservation had +been so distasteful to Chiquita that she seldom visited the remnants of +her people domiciled in a strange land. Many of these, however, made +pilgrimages to her ranch, and the various tourists who shared in her +hospitality had opportunity to see the blanket Indian in all his modern +splendor of cast-off army garments and civilian society apparel. + +Yamanatz made his home a greater part of the year at his daughter's +place, but the aged chief had lost his vigor and only waited the call to +the Great Hunting Ground beyond. He took little interest in the comings +and goings of strangers, but enjoyed the company of Jack, who made it +his mission to entertain the old warrior in every manner possible as far +as he could. + +The time for Chiquita to return to college was approaching. She had +given up the trip to California on account of the sequel which the +little romance of Miss Asquith and Cal had brought about. Chiquita had +obtained their promise that the wedding should take place at the Buena +Vista ranch. + +The preparations were made and the services of a clergyman, who was +making a tour of the mountains, was secured. Cal was elated at the +unexpected turn of affairs and Miss Asquith was easily reconciled. Jack +gave away the bride and the "wedding bells" which comprised a part of +the ceremony "pealed forth" from a lot of Indian tom-toms, sleigh bells +and tin pans in the hands of some visiting Utes. + +The newly made man and wife started, after the wedding repast was +served, for Denver. Jack, Hazel and Chiquita followed a few days later, +Chiquita to return to college, Jack to continue his journey to the mine. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +CHIQUITA GRADUATES. + + +In a room overlooking the broad Connecticut valley, a student, wearing +cap and gown, stood by the window watching the clouds as they floated in +filmy drapery above the long rows of corn, tobacco and rhubarb which +paralleled each other on either side of the historic stream that divides +western Massachusetts. Chiquita, as she surveyed the scenery, then the +room and then herself, heaved a sigh of satisfaction. The same old +routine of registering, getting the trunks unpacked, studies and classes +arranged, had come to an end. Greetings by classmates, introductions to +new professors, salutations to members of the faculty and respects to +the dean had taken their regular order, and now the daughter of Yamanatz +gazed wistfully into the deep waters which reflected the clouds above. +The room was gorgeous in Indian blankets, draperies, spears, arrows, +pottery, beaded scarfs and long war bonnets, gold and silver-mounted +leather trappings of bridles, lariats, saddle skirts and pistol holsters +adorned the walls, while the floor and furniture were smothered in lion, +beaver, wolf, bobcat and fox skins. Busts of Powhatan and Massasoit +looked down from pedestals upon the young Indian girl as she reflected +the advancing stages of education and refinement which make the +civilized world. Well she remembered the lonesome, world forgotten time +when she first registered in the great reception room, seven years +before, after two years' private tutorship in her effort to master the +English language and learn her A, B, C's. + +Oh! the days and nights of study, study, study! Nothing but knowledge, +for breakfast, dinner, supper and dreams. And as she looked forward to +the easy senior year and honors which awaited her upon graduation day, +she smiled a little and then waxed serious. + +"Me, Chiquita, the daughter of a red devil, mistress of English, French, +German, Russian, Spanish, Greek and Latin. Winner of prizes in +literature, elocution and music, as well as first lady at all class +parties! For two years no function by any great society or college +demonstration has been complete without Chiquita, and this is to be my +last year. Then adios to my alma mater forever--yes, _forever_. It +is little satisfaction to fill one's mind with knowledge. It is poverty. +The mind is dull that is oppressed with wisdom. Chiquita is not as happy +here as she expected. But, ah, happiness will surely come when I visit +the sick, the maimed, and comfort the dying. In that life where the +'medicine man' of the paleface cuts out big chunk in sick man and +pale-faced sister in 'medicine clothes' nurse 'em 'til all well. Ah, +Jack, you told me the 'medicine' story in such simple language that I +understood it far easier than I now interpret the oppressive wisdom +dispensed at clinics or lecture room, by those who fetter themselves to +profound and awe-inspiring dissertations, until human intelligence seems +a fallacy. With this vast amount of knowledge how little we know! But +that reminds me: what will be the theme for my valedictory? There is no +one who can, no one who will expect this honor but Chiquita. And I will +discuss 'Ambition,' something after this fashion: + +"'A soul lay fettered at the portals of heaven. The long, winding +stairway reached down into space, through worlds of worlds, and +countless millions ascended toward the great white throne, each +unconcerned as to the fate of the other. On a bier, with body swathed in +burial robes, lay the inanimate clay from which the soul fled after its +imprisonment of the allotted threescore and ten years. Around the bier +were gathered the few of the endless millions left behind, who +remembered the departed a brief season and then became absorbed in the +great race of life against death. Science is constantly establishing new +guideposts in the chaos of obscurity and winning converts to the domain +of enlightened intelligence.' + +"There, that is what comes of educating a Ute chief's daughter, and +about six pages of that will be proof positive that the savage is +infinitely happier with the worship of the sun, the wind, the water as +animate objects, than we in the realm of knowledge with our defunct +moons and birdless heavens." + +Chiquita spent a great portion of her senior year in day dreaming and +imaginings, often putting her thoughts into manuscript form. Not that +she expected to use them, but because she read the stories she thus +improvised over and over to herself, occasionally sending one to Jack +for his inspection and criticism. If Jack said it was good she kept it, +but if he made objections to any portion, she destroyed the whole. In +one of these she wrote of her people and herself and the utter folly of +any attempt on the part of the Indians to regain their lost hunting +ground and lands. She wrote thus: + +"Alas! for my people! The Great Spirit of the white man is probably the +same as the Great Manitou of the red man, the Buddha of the Hindoo and +the Mahomet of the Arab. All worship a divine being, all nations and +tribes of the earth acknowledge a power, mysterious, ever present but +unseen, who rules the world, the elements and the actions of his +followers. The white races are intellectual, far outranking the black +man of Africa, the yellow man of eastern Asia and the red man of +America. In the end I see but one result, the occupation by them of the +entire world and ultimate blotting out of all religion except the +Christian belief in the Messiah, who in the form of man was crucified to +do away with the offerings, sacrifices and consecrated rites established +by the Hebrews and observed by them without dissension until the +commencement of the Christian era. But there are Jews today still +looking for the King promised by the old prophets of the Bible, and +while prophecy upon prophecy has been fulfilled in a most marvelous +manner, these people with no country, no flag, no standing as a nation +are promised the earth and fulness thereof and a new Jerusalem. + +"Do not the followers of Buddha look forward from the death of Gaudama, +who became incarnate 500 years B. C., to the thousands of years which +must pass before another Buddha appears to restore the world from +ignorance and decay? Do not the noble red-skinned tribes of the great +American continent pray to their Manitou for the restoration of the land +where the buffalo roam and the paleface cannot molest them? + +"But, alas, my people! The heathen world must succumb before the strides +of education, science and civilization. It is useless to hope for the +return of those days, and while the children of the forest cannot in one +generation adapt themselves to the ways and habits of industry, +education and social life of their white brethren, the time is not far +distant when the blanket Indian will be as the buffalo, and the noble +red man become a farmer, mechanic or politician. + +"The 'home, sweet home' of the people is the place where they spent +their early youth, and no matter where their other years are passed, no +matter what their successes, no matter what their failures, the sweetest +spot on earth is the home of their younger days, to which millions +return and from which millions die far away, but with 'fatherland' a +vision still bright before them." + +The last term was at end. Visitors flocked to the old historic town to +witness the commencement exercises and hear Chiquita, the Ute's +daughter, deliver the valedictory. Her father, the aged Yamanatz, was +there with several chiefs in full council robes, and this of itself was +sufficient to draw thousands of the curious. Prominent officials, who +had watched the progress of yoking the savage red maiden of the forest +to her civilized white sister of fashion, occupied front seats on the +platform of the edifice wherein the commencement scenes were enacted. +Interest in the preliminary features seemed to flag, and only desultory +attention greeted the various ones as diplomas were handed out. + +Little were the gowned professors and learned LL. D.'s prepared for the +tumultuous wave of approbation which greeted Chiquita as she appeared on +the platform from a side entrance, clad in her native costume of +richly-beaded buckskin, her copper colored face set in a frame of +intensely black hair, which reached to her knees in voluminous braids +from whose ends dangled the "medicine" of the Utes. Words are feeble to +express the transition from darkness to educated light, but there she +stood in primeval beauty, uttering her valedictory in language so +fascinating that not one syllable was lost. + +Bouquets were showered upon her, "bravos" rent the air, and, as she +stepped before the dean to receive her sheepskin, with its guarantee +that Chiquita was educated, a smile of profound satisfaction played for +an instant over her marvelously thoughtful face. Then spying Yamanatz +near the platform, she bounded into his arms to receive his blessing, +her filial affection superior to her decorous surroundings. Never before +in the history of the college had such an outburst of enthusiasm greeted +a graduate. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A HOSPITAL AND A BOARDING HOUSE. + + +Long rows of windows in a massive building gave light to thousands +within, who in turn looked out upon the thousands plodding their way to +and from toil. It was in one of the hospital zones of the second city in +the United States and the building was one of the largest hospitals in +the city. Within the memory of the present generation the word +"hospital" was fraught with weird and uncanny dark rooms, bloody floors, +shrieking victims of accident or disease undergoing the torture of the +knife, muffled rumbles of iron-wheeled trucks rolling in new patients or +wheeling the lifeless form of the dead to the morgue. Over the door, +unseen by mortal man, an ominous inscription, "He who enters here leaves +all hope behind." + +By the onward, irresistible advance of that flickering flame which +penetrates the darkest corner of bigotry and ignorance, science has +groped its way beyond the portals of death and snatched many from the +very coffin after being prepared for the grave. This is civilization. +Even today thousands look askance at the uncompromising brick and stone +walls, shuddering as the ambulance gong warns them of its approach, +bearing the victim, perchance, of some terrible disaster. To the +unsophisticated who visit for the first time one of these institutions a +surprise is in store. The awful gloom is penetrated by sunlight. In +place of bespattered walls and crimson stained operating table are snow +white tiling and glass slabs mounted on iron frames. The sickening +offensive odor of the old "slaughter pens" has been relegated to the +dark ages, and nothing worse than a whiff of carbolic acid or a possible +suspicion of iodoform greets the most sensitive nostrils. + +Within such an institution Chiquita found herself face to face with the +"medicine" man of the paleface, and her white sister in "medicine" +clothes. Arrayed at last in the oriental blue and white striped uniform, +white apron with strings crossed at the back and jaunty little white +cap, Chiquita began the task of familiarizing herself with the calling +which so recently has placed woman in a sphere entirely her own, and +made her the subject of hero worship on battlefield and in peaceful +home. Faithfully she performed the laborious work of smoothing the +rumpled clothing of a fever-racked patient, or adjusting the +uncomfortable bandages of another, crushed and maimed. In the operating +room she administered anesthetics or assisted with sponge and basin, and +at clinics she listened intently to all the specialists, while in other +channels she learned the necessary business methods needed for +successfully carrying on the expensive undertaking which she proposed to +inaugurate for the good of her own people. + +The last half of the second year of hospital life had commenced. It was +summer, and Jack, with Hazel, was returning from his annual trip to the +Blazing-Eye-by-the-Big-Water mine. + +Chiquita had enjoyed an afternoon with them, driving about the city, and +observed that Jack was not as bright and cheerful as usual. + +"No," said he, "I don't feel at all well. I think I over-exerted myself +at the mine." + +Hazel and Chiquita insisted upon his consulting a physician, but Jack +contended that it was "nothing; I will be all right in the morning." + +His malady, however, grew more pronounced, the third day finding him +with a high fever and in great bodily pain. A surgeon was called, who +discovered that an immediate operation was imperative. + +Jack protested, but finally yielded to the pleadings of his wife, and +arrangements were made to take the then almost helpless patient to the +hospital. + +The carriage was driven to where Chiquita in great anxiety awaited their +coming. The surgeon had preceded them, informing the matron that it was +a case of blood poisoning, and arranged for the admission of his +patient. + +At 9 o'clock that evening the affected part was lanced, giving temporary +relief, but this disclosed a dangerous complication which would require +a tedious operation and a prolonged stay in the hospital. + +The next morning, as Chiquita prepared Jack for the operating table, +they joked about the medicine tepee and dwelt long upon the singular +coincidence that should bring them together under such circumstances. +Chiquita administered the anesthetics. While Jack was losing +consciousness, struggling vainly to gasp a breath of fresh air, she +recalled the vivid description of hospital life which he had so long ago +on Rock Creek depicted to her. As the surgeon skillfully wielded his +various instruments, and with the electric wire burned the sensitive +flesh along the track of the affected part, Chiquita for the first time +felt a sinking, gaping, craving of her heart. + +She realized in that one moment what it meant. She felt that if Jack +should die her heart would cease its tumultuous beating, that if he +lived she should forever have to keep her secret and stifle the emotions +which her love for him revealed. + +A sudden thought surged within her. "No one would know; should she"-- "He +is not for me--I am a Ute's daughter, a degraded Indian. Can I live and +see him the husband of another and not betray my secret? Oh, Jack! +perhaps it had been better that Chiquita had never become a medicine +tepee queen! Were it not better that the sister of the forest should +never have been educated? + + 'A little learning is a dangerous thing; + Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring; + There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, + And drinking largely sobers us again.' + +"I can not turn back. I will stifle my love for the one who lies there +helpless. I will consecrate my life to the customs of his people, that I +may leave a legacy to my people--the inheritance which civilization +brings." + +Mechanically she performed the rest of her duties; nurses had taken the +unconscious form away in its swaths of bandages, while she remained to +administer to other patients and begin the long siege of love's +starvation, until her heart should capitulate and turn to stone. + +The day following the operation, Chiquita's first duties were to take +Jack's temperature and respiration, and note other conditions. She +performed the latter with perfect composure, but when she essayed the +counting of those "little blood knocks upon the wrist," her own heart +beat so furiously that she was fearful of making an error, and was +obliged to ask another nurse to take that record. Afterward, however, +she was able to control her feelings, and take Jack's temperature with +composure. + +Upon the fifth day, when the internes were dressing Jack's wound, it was +discovered that another operation would have to be performed. The +surgeon had overlooked a portion of the affected tract, and the wound +would again have to be reopened and rescarified with a burning white hot +electric wire. This discovery was made Saturday, and Jack was at once +informed. + +Hazel tried to encourage him, but despondency seemed to take possession +of him, and all day Sunday, as the church bells clanged their discordant +soul-racking peals, he tossed restlessly upon his bed. The terrific +winds from the southwest blew their breath to the north in sweltering +blasts, and poor humanity had to endure it. Tuesday, Chiquita once more +was called upon to watch Jack as he succumbed to the influence of the +anesthetic. Once more she counted his heart throbs as the surgeon +scraped, burned and annihilated germs, bugs and septic tissue, and once +more her heart wildly stampeded in its ecstatic throbbing of love for +him whose life she literally held in her own hands, as his hallowed form +reposed unconscious on the glass slab. + +Oh, what joy to her! what an entrancing, ravishing hour! As she +afterwards lived those minutes over and over again, allowing her stony +heart to grow tender as the impulse swayed her, she was carried back in +vivid memory to the camp on Rock Creek where she first learned of the +medicine tepee queen. + +The second operation was successful, and although Jack's convalescence +was prolonged for months, he was fully cured of an ailment which in days +of less scientific skill had invariably resulted fatally. + +With the culmination of her hospital education, Chiquita turned her +attention to the study of the economics of city life, and investigation +of the details relating to her future enterprise. + +She found herself domiciled in a rather pretentious establishment in a +fashionable and aristocratic neighborhood. + +"Yes, Senorita Chiquita, I shall be pleased to have you make your home +with my family, as they call themselves, and we are a happy houseful." +So spake the little black-eyed proprietor of the "Addington." She was +Mrs. Pickett. Pickett was a speculator. The whole atmosphere in and +about Pickett reflected the market; if he was on the right side of corn +or wheat or provisions one could feel it, hear it, see it in Pickett's +handshake, voice and clothes. If, however, he was "bull" on a "bear" +movement, the Pickett barometer dropped accordingly. + +"Pshaw! that wheat is worth a dollar any day. Buy five thousand at 72." +But "puts" went to 68 cents at the close of the "privileges" and Pickett +was glum. + +Pickett was not a big plunger, only one of the ten million poor, hungry +hangers on who watch the "ticker," listen to the reports made up for the +masses by the master hand of manipulators, out of storm centers, visible +supply, and world's consumption, and then gorge the bait. + +Pickett was a winner one day on a pork deal and among other commodities +in the "pit" which seemed a "good thing" was corn at 31 cents. He bought +a small line and then forgot it in the strenuous circumstances which +followed. At the close of the day's pork business he pocketed a big roll +of bills and went out with the boys for a good time, only to fall down +stairs and break his ankle. After three weeks' suffering he hobbled into +the broker's office. Greetings were exchanged with the regulars, then he +sought the cashier to draw the balance of his pork money. This account +being settled the cashier said to him, "Pickett, what are you going to +do with that corn?" + +"What corn?" + +"Why that corn you bought at 31 cents the day you broke your ankle." + +"I did not buy any corn, did I?" + +"Yes, you did, and there is to your credit $7,000." + +"Seven thousand dollars!" shouted Pickett, and before any answer could +be made he ordered the deal closed, then went out and bought a fast +"hoss," a pair of checked trousers, a silk hat, and hunted up the girl +who immediately became Mrs. Pickett as soon as the necessary formalities +could be arranged. But the seven thousand dollars did not last long and +the support of a wife was more than Pickett bargained for. Matters grew +very serious and Mrs. Pickett found she had either to go to work in some +clerkship capacity, or start a boarding house or peanut and candy store +near some school house. She chose the boarding house, which soon merged +into a swell private hotel, and it was in the "Addington" that Chiquita +saw a phase of life so common to the man of the world and the bachelor +girl charging full tilt into the twentieth century. + +"Mrs. Pickett, please tell me a little of yourself, that I may +understand why the white sister has no husband to care for her as other +white sisters have." + +It was about three months after Chiquita had taken up her residence at +the "Addington." The two were on one of the porches which overlook the +lake on the north shore in a most beautiful location near Sheridan +drive. + +"It is a long story, but I can make it very brief in words, although the +years have been filled with events which handicap a woman of my age in +looks and spirit, and that handicap will make the story seem longer to +me than to a listener." + +"Don't skip any of the incidents, will you? I mean those portions where +the Christian spirit upheld you in your grief and sadness." + +"I was young. Mr. Pickett's fast horse must share the blame for a +portion of the admiration I became possessed of for Mr. Pickett. Then he +was such a swell dresser, a good singer and at that time a Board of +Trade man, at least I thought so, and when he showed me that pile of +money and said 'Junie, let's get married,' I said, 'Pickett, give my +father a home and I will marry you tomorrow.' + +"We were married, but the money did not last long and poor Pickett lost +all ambition save that of watching the 'ticker,' reading the market +reports, and living in the fascinating atmosphere of 'bucket shops,' +gambling in grain, stocks and provisions, as do an army of poor, deluded +would-be speculators. + +"There was but one course for me--a boarding-house, and here I have +lived. My father died, and soon after, my husband was stricken with a +lingering illness, which lasted six years ere death relieved him of his +sufferings. It has been a bitter cup, but after all, as my good father +often said, 'It is all for the best. He waters the corn and weeds alike, +and burns up the roses as well as the thistles; trust in God, Junie,' +and so I try to make the most of what I have." + +"Mrs. Pickett, it is so hard for me, an Indian born girl, a daughter +taught to pray to the wind, the sun, the rain as animate gods, capable +of doing good or harm, to have that faith you possess--that beautiful +faith in the hereafter, in a God whose heaven and home you know not of, +yet where, you acknowledge, there are no flowers, no birds, no deer, no +giving in marriage, no thirst, and no hunger. What, then, can my +uneducated people be expected to relinquish--that great and Happy +Hunting Ground, which is to be returned to us as it was before the white +man drove us to the setting sun, drove the buffalo into the great sea +and destroyed our homes, our villages, and killed our warriors? It is +hard for Chiquita with all her learning and life among her palefaced +sisters to say, 'Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' But I try to +believe that your life is the better one for the world, for the human +race, and that in the end there will be no more savages, no more +heathens, no more unbelievers." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +GALLING YOKES OF CIVILIZATION. + + +In one of the large wholesale houses, a junior partner, much interested +in municipal affairs and whose endorsement was sought by many a +candidate seeking election--for the junior partner wielded a vast +interest in both the secular and Christian life--was presented to +Chiquita and she spent many an hour, at convenient times, discussing the +affairs of mutual interest, he seeking to establish the superiority of +the ways of education and civilization, she accepting the teachings and +attempting to persuade herself that he was right and that savagery was +nothing more nor less than animal life in the woods. + +"Mr. Dunbar," she said one day, "the red man of the forest is sometimes +a gambler, and when the spirit moves him he seeks one of his kind and +they spread a blanket under a tree or near the wigwam and there follow +their inclination, open and above board, without fear of police +interference. I am told that the young white man sometimes has a similar +temptation in the big city, but that you have laws which forbid +gambling. Nevertheless, because of political influence, there are booths +and rooms where gambling in its civilized conditions can be found. Will +you take Chiquita to a gambling den that she may see the class of men +found at the tables?" + +The brows of the merchant contracted, he hesitated and stammered as he +attempted to reply. + +"Why--er--my dear Senorita, you know I am a pillar of the church, an +active member in one of the largest wholesale houses in the west, and my +example to my young men, if I were to appear in a gambling room, would +be horrifying. I--er--" + +"Oh, never mind if it would prove such a heinous offense; but why, Mr. +Dunbar, is it allowed, if respectable people can not go there without +contaminating themselves? Is it possible that the people of a great city +like this make laws and elect men to enforce those laws, and yet take no +notice of law breakers except to protect them?" + +"Senorita, it is useless to make any defense. Our officeholders are +corrupt. The blush of shame rises to the face of respectable citizens +when they have to acknowledge that they elect men to office simply +because the candidate stands for party principles, only to make use of +the office for private gain or personal spite. Of course, there are +exceptions, but men do not go into political battles without expecting a +reward, and that reward must be a greater inducement than the one +offered in private life. But I will escort you to a gambling den and we +will see for ourselves." + +"You certainly are brave to attempt it, and I shall thank you so much." + +At ten o'clock a carriage drove up to a corner. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita +alighted--"an English tourist and his valet." It was but a few steps to +the middle of the block where a pair of green covered swinging doors, on +polished brass hinges, continually but noiselessly opened and closed. +The bright glare of arc lights made the street as midday. The throngs of +pedestrians glanced at the green doors, and either passed by without +comment, or one would say to the other, "Great game up in Doll's." "Why +don't the police shut it off?" "Got a pull with the high chief now." + +Mr. Dunbar and his protege found themselves in a long entry at the head +of the stairs which led to a door at its farther end, where at a little +window sat a fat gentleman with gray mustache. + +"Walk in, right this way. No danger. Suppose you are looking for a +little game. Go through the doors at the right." + +The great baize covered screens opened as if by magic, revealing a large +square room, carpeted with velvet and smothered with deep piled rugs. +Magnificent landscapes by Bierstadt, Colby and Elkins hung from the +walls, depicting the Rocky Mountains and the plains. Immense +chandeliers, festooned with prisms which scintillated the colors of the +rainbow, hung from the ceilings. Mahogany and rosewood sideboards +glistened with cut glass decanters, tumblers and fine chinaware, while +the sable attendant served dainty refreshments and thirst-assuaging +liquids to those who asked for them. Leather upholstered tete-a-tetes +graced corners and bay windows, while in an anteroom long racks were +filled with files of newspapers and magazines. A wainscot of highly +polished black walnut surrounded the room, and rich India draperies +deadened the walls. At a table near the entrance were three young men +playing poker, while the keeper of the game, in accents harsh, urged +newcomers to "take a hand, only a quarter to draw cards." At a side +table five cattlemen, just from the stock yards, were killing time in a +game of draw, while on the opposite side a roulette wheel spun round and +round until the little ball settled into its space and the announcement +"the red wins" was greeted by clicking of chips as the croupier paid out +or raked in. + +But the great throng was at the far end of the room, where, around a +table some seven feet long and four feet wide, were men three to five +deep, craning, pushing, reaching, to place a bet or receive their chips +on a winning card. The air was close and hot, just the slightest +murmuring, the low indistinct utterings of questions asked and answered: +"How many times has the queen been loser?" "The tray is a case," "Copper +the jack for a blue chip," "Play ace to lose and king to win," "Last +turn in the box, gentlemen, four for one on the call." A scruffing of +feet, a sigh of relief, the tension eased up for a few moments while the +dealer shuffles his cards. Some change seats, others quit the game, new +ones buy chips, and again the "soda" card appears and another deal is +on. The suppressed excitement is again apparent in feature and action; +the flushed face of the winner and the cold sweat on the brow of the +loser make no impression on the calm, self-satisfied face of dealer or +lookout, each of whom wears a light slouch hat, the brim shading the +eyes. Both are dressed neatly and in good taste, except for the enormous +diamonds they show in shirt bosoms and on the little finger. There is no +tragedy here. The sequel of the life in a city gambling den is the wife +at home without food, or suffering from dyspepsia because of its +plenteousness, or perhaps in the counting-room of some Board of Trade +office, directors' room of a bank, or a police station, to which the +embezzler is taken after the confession. The mining camp and frontier +gambling dens differ in respect to lawlessness, but the atmosphere after +all is about the same. + +"I am ready to go, Mr. Dunbar," said Chiquita. + +"While we are at it, suppose we take in one of the theater restaurants +and then at midnight see the worst sink hole of iniquity on the American +continent," replied Mr. Dunbar, a look of "do or die'" changing his +usually kind face to that of uncompromising severity. + +"I trust, Mr. Dunbar, I have not offended by asking a sacrifice of your +self-respect, and--" + +"No, no, do not mention it," interrupted he, quickly. "I am glad of this +opportunity. To be sure it has taken a great deal of resolution on my +part, not only to satisfy my consciousness of the propriety in the first +place, but to feel that it is consistent with a Christian life to allow +one's self on any pretext to come in contact with evil just to gratify +curiosity. I am not in sympathy with the so-called slumming parties, +either for the good such investigations may bring about, or for the +benefit that such visitations might result in to the inmates. There are +other methods by which the same end may be accomplished and not appear +so drastic. I have sometimes wondered if there are really any grounds +for the flings made at Chicago, and if there be any truth in the oft +heard remark, 'Chicago's down town resorts have no counterpart in any +other city in the world.' Of course I expect we will see a mild form of +dissipation and possibly one or two who may have taken a drop too much, +but as those stories go from one to another they are exaggerated until +one has to make allowance for these word pictures. But here we are." + +"Have a private room, sir?" asked an attendant, for they had stepped +into a hallway leading to private dining rooms up stairs. "We have nice +rooms for private parties. If you expect ladies you can wait for them +there." + +Just then a lady, unaccompanied, came through the swinging doors and +darted to the elevator. In a low tone she told the attendant to show her +to No. 7, where she would wait. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita rather +undecidedly followed into the elevator and were whisked up to the second +floor, where they sauntered along toward an open door. Merry peals of +laughter wafted over transoms and a sudden opening of one door showed a +party of five seated round a table, while a sixth member, one of the +fair sex, was standing on the table. Then the door shut out the scene. +Mr. Dunbar gasped a little, but concluded to go back to the ground floor +and have a lunch in the main restaurant. They were shown seats well back +from the front of the place, in a position commanding a good view of the +tables, all of which seemed crowded. + +"While we are waiting for our lunch we can study the people," said +Chiquita. "I guess the rooms up stairs are used by theatrical people and +they give little dramas of their own." + +"Yes, I should judge it to be dramatic," answered Mr. Dunbar grimly. "Do +you notice at every table in the room some one is drinking, either a +malt beverage or wine, and at a majority of the tables some one is +smoking?" asked he of Chiquita. + +"Yes, I presume they came here to forget the dark spots of a day's life +and to drown sorrow in drink and music. You have not spoken of the +classic strains coming from that harp and two fiddles." + +Mr. Dunbar smiled audibly at the reference to music. + +"Well, I don't consider this such an awful place for a wicked man, a man +of the world; every one is well behaved and there is no loud noise, but +these scenes lead to others still worse and the temptations offered here +require a goodly sized purse and larger salaries to support this +extravagance than the average man commands. But it is midnight and we +must make our way to the resort in the next block." + +Descending a steep stairway they found themselves at the end of a long +room. The air was reeking with the fumes of smoke, stale beer and +sickening perfumery. Shouts and loud guffaws mingled with shrill peals +of screamy laughter. Glasses tinkled amid the disconsolate strains of a +discordant piano, but above all other sounds were the harsh orders of +waiters. "Draw six," "one green seal," "two martinis," "four straight +whiskies," "high ball and two gin fizzes." Down the long line of tables +they passed men and women who leered at each other, drinking to each +other's health, both sexes smoking cigarettes, some singing, some +arguing, some swearing such oaths that the visitors fain would have fled +the place. At the foot of the staircase, commanding the whole place and +surrounded by painted creatures in the latest wraps, sat the proprietor, +a man of fifty, dark and swarthy, with black curly hair and mustache. +His face was filled with lines, the accumulations of years of +debauchery. Upon his hands were diamond rings, seemingly too numerous to +count, a watch fob with more gems than a fashionably dressed ball +attendant would wear, hung below his vest, and his shirt front was +literally ablaze with "sparklers." The poor dupes about him in this +whirling vortex of hell were receiving their infamous commissions for +inducing men who visited the resort to purchase drinks. + +"And from whence come these sisters and daughters?" asked Chiquita. + +"Go to the great sales counters of some of the cheaper grade of stores +and follow the life of some poor unfortunate; seek the divorce court and +find a victim of misplaced affection; go to the political fountain and +gaze at the high chief whose influence restrains the guardian of the +public peace from interfering with these dens of vice where voters +congregate to do honor to the chief. Seven thousand saloons in the city, +with a following of twenty to each saloon to vote for their master who +wields the baton of wide-open hell holes to the end of obtaining blood +money from those who are protected! Senorita, this is the black spot on +our fair Christian land. It is so to a greater or lesser degree in all +cities, in all lands, where civilization endures. This bartering of and +in human souls within the business districts of Chicago must come to an +end. Now we will step into the police headquarters, only a block away, +while I ask the desk sergeant a couple of questions." + +As they started up the steps leading to the central detail headquarters +a cab drove up to the curb, and a young man, whom Mr. Dunbar immediately +recognized, stepped to the walk, followed by a detective in plain +clothes. They lifted a good-sized sack of something from the cab and +carried it past the late visitors. A clinking of silver was easily +recognized and Mr. Dunbar became interested. He presumed the young man +had just been arrested and naturally inquired the cause. + +"Tommy, are you in trouble that you come in with an officer at this +hour?" inquired Mr. Dunbar of the supposed prisoner. + +Tommy stopped and walked up to the speaker. It was some seconds before +he recognized Mr. Dunbar in the disguise of a tourist. When he did so he +hesitated to confide the truth of the circumstances, but finally +acknowledged, under promise that the informant should never be known, +that the sack contained over five thousand dollars, which had been +collected from the proprietors of just such dens of vice as Mr. Dunbar +had just visited. + +"And my business is to count it, divide it into halves and quarters and +deliver the respective bundles to those who are high on the throne of +police authority." + +"How often are you called upon to make this collection, division and +delivery?" asked Mr. Dunbar. + +"Oh, once every six weeks or so." + +With that Mr. Dunbar stepped up to the desk and with a bow naively +asked, "Can you tell me where there is a first-class gambling hall? I am +a stranger to the calling, but would like to visit one of these dens +said to be run in Chicago." + +"An' who be ye thot ye want a gamblin' house at this time o' night? Get +out o' here, there be's not a gamblin' din in all Chicago fer the last +three years thot I've been on the cintral detail, is there, Jawn?" + +And Mr. Dunbar took his departure with Chiquita. In her diary Chiquita +entered this: "Visited the most horrible dens of vice imaginable, the +refinement of educated debauchery, literally sitting in the lap of +political lechery, hurling defiance at virtue, decency and +respectability." + +During her hospital career Chiquita had many experiences outside of the +varied occurrences in the life of a nurse, which added to rather than +detracted from the perplexities of civilizing her people. These other +scenes enacted in the great empire of industry swept all minor +attractions away, leaving a dreadful negative photographed indelibly +upon her sensitive mind, whose films reproduced with startling detail +not only the foreground of drastic events, but the background +reproduction of unswerving determination on the part of political +demagoguery which brought ruination to millions of people and even +threatened the financial fabric of the entire world; a photograph more +in accord with the despotic days of fiddling Nero than those of advanced +civilization under the constitution of the new republic. + +While waiting for a car that would take her to the hospital, Chiquita +noticed numbers of men in rather shabby attire approach better clad +individuals and after a little conversation each would go his way. In +some instances the better dressed speaker put his hand in his pocket and +handed the other a coin. Then the latter waited a time before accosting +another and then another. Oftener would the better dressed individual +shake his head, even savagely repulsing the appeal of his less fortunate +brother. One of these solicitors-at-alms, for such they were, approached +Chiquita, and as she presented no frowning or repellant mien, he +politely doffed his cap and explained in a few words his mission. + +"Pardon me, lady, I am unfortunate, I am out of work and have no place +to sleep tonight. I have three cents; for five cents I can get a bed. +Will you give me a penny? I will get another somewhere." + +Closely scanning the man's face she saw not the hardened lines of +dissipation, not the pallor of the convict nor the attenuated features +of a cripple, but a young man in good health, decently clad, though in +rather threadbare clothing. Chiquita had seen hundreds of men brought +into the hospital of all grades and callings and had become an adept as +a student of human nature. The man before her did not shift his eyes nor +stand irresolute, but the mournful voice and drooping mouth told only +too plainly that discouraging, despondent tale thrust so suddenly upon a +prosperous nation in 1893. + +"Why are you without work?" asked Chiquita. + +"Canceled orders and help laid off indefinitely," replied the young man. + +"Why were the orders canceled?" + +"I don't know exactly, but Wall street and free silver had something to +do with it." + +"Had you no money saved up to fall back upon at such a time?" + +"Yes, ma'am; but the savings bank went to the wall and my three hundred, +which I had been five years getting together, went with it." + +"Can't you get a job as porter rather than beg?" + +"There's a thousand men waitin' for all the 'porter' jobs. Lady, you +don't know it, but half the population of this country is out of work." + +"Where can you get a bed for a nickel?" asked Chiquita, dubiously. + +"On the west side at one of the 'Friendship' houses." + +"You mean a whole bed and room by yourself?" + +"Oh, no, lady, just a shelf to lie on, perhaps an old quilt to cover up +with. This costs a nickel; in some places we get a 'claim' on the floor +for two cents." + +"You say a 'claim' on the floor; you don't pay for sleeping on the +floor?" said Chiquita, drawing back in amazement. + +"Yes, we have to pay for everything but air in Chicago. We pick out our +claim, first come, first served, and put down a newspaper for bed, cover +up with another, all for two cents; but I don't like the floor. The +other fellows step on you when they come in late." + +"Are these places clean?" timidly inquired Chiquita. + +"Not very, ma'am; not like the hospital." + +"Well, my poor fellow, here is a quarter; I hope it will do you some +good." + +"Thank you, lady." + +Instead of going to the hospital Chiquita made a pilgrimage to one of +those well-known better class lodging houses, not far from the Board of +Trade. Here she saw every chair of a hundred or more occupied by men +similarly dressed and evidently looking for work. Of the numbers +accosted all told the same tale of misfortune and all emphasized the +deplorable condition of the great manufacturing industries throughout +the United States. There was no work to be had at any price. Large firms +reduced their forces to the lowest capacity possible. Many curtailed the +working hours of all rather than discharge half the number, while one +colossal corporation ran their works at a loss, despite the wide +spreading distrust prevalent during the panic, which crippled every +occupation, profession and calling. Banks closed their doors, regardless +of the suffering inflicted, business houses, shorn of their credit, +dropped all attempts to sustain relations with the world, and armies of +men thrown out of employment had to provide for themselves and their +families as best they could. + +Money could not be borrowed. Even the gold-bearing bonds of the United +States fell under the ban of suspicion; and nothing but gold, gold, +gold, had any intrinsic value. The new word which wrought such dire +disaster was _Coin_, and the bank notes presented day after day by +Wall street sapped the gold of the treasury until repudiation seemed +inevitable. The one man upon whose shoulders the burden of disaster +fell, took the oath of office as President of the United States, on +March 4th, 1893, the responsibility of a bond issue being thrown upon +him by the outgoing administration. The new official refused to declare +his policy. Wall street wanted knowledge positive as to the issuance of +bonds with which to buy gold to maintain the reserve. Day followed day +before the tension was relieved by a bond issue, which was succeeded by +other bond issues. The harm had been done. Financial institutions +bridged the torrent at one place only to succumb and plunge into the +yawning abyss at another. Stagnation followed disaster. Had the new +administration declined to give gold for the "coin" notes and tendered +silver, could any greater ruin have overtaken American commerce? + +Following in the wake of the ghastly spectre of commercial ruin, that +cruel, remorseless and vindictive vulture, discontent, swooped down upon +a far reaching industry, shrieked its defiant and soul curdling edict +"_Strike_," and to the consternation of the world, labor +organizations refused to temporize. The steam pulses ceased to beat, +machinery came to a standstill, the great factory doors closed against +wage earners and the stupendous battle between iron handed men of toil +and iron gloved employer was on. + +Aided by sympathetic city and state officials the wage earners grew +insolent and arbitrary. Pitying the unfortunate, misguided mechanic, +artisan and laborer, the iron gloved employer awaited until the +devouring flame of jealousy and strife consumed itself. It was under a +broiling July sun that Chiquita and Jack visited the scene to see for +themselves the effects of newsboys' hoarse cries, "_Extra! Extra!_ +All about the bloody strike! The Stock Yards in danger!" + +Regiments of soldiers were bivouacked about the postoffice, on the lake +front, and at the yards. Dismantled, untrucked, costly palace cars +blocked railroad tracks from Van Buren street to the city limits. In the +vicinity of Thirty-ninth street turbulent masses of muttering, riotous, +eye-inflamed sympathizers congregated to watch the incoming United +States troops from Fort Sheridan. + +Women, carrying babies, mingled with the angry, unruly, drink-maddened +throng, urging, aye, even commanding more devastation, more wrecking of +property. As the snail moving train of army equipment was pulled along +the siding, coupling pins were drawn by the lawless, and as one car was +recoupled another was detached. Soldiers, in United States uniform, +endured insults of every nature. + +A woman, acting as bodyguard to a crowd of jeering, taunting idlers, +stepped up to a guard and spat in his face, then slapped him and in +vulgar language derided him for wearing the uniform of liberty. The +soldier was powerless to resent the affront, and this emboldened the +vindictive throng to acts of greater violence. Turning to Chiquita, Jack +said, with shamefaced candor, "Never did I expect to see my country's +flag humiliated in such a manner." + +The officer of the day approached. It was the seeming signal for an +outbreak; a hundred throats responded to the one voiced cry, "The +torch!" "Burn the train!" "Burn the Yards!" The woman pushed the man in +front of her along the railroad track to within a few feet of the +officers. The crowd behind drew closer, their jeers dropped to sullen, +discontented murmurings. The officer held up his hand. + +"Halt! Disperse!" + +He waved his hand for the mob to go back, but they made no movement. The +woman cried out, "You have no business to stop us;" the man in front +made a rough remark and roared to his followers, "Come on, we'll show +'em." The officer backed away, calling to a guard to take a position on +a near-by fence. "Load with ball, make ready, aim," pointing his sword +at the oncoming law-breaking, infuriated ruffian who had stopped a +sword's length away. The striker heard the words of the officer. + +"When I count three I shall give the command, '_Fire!_' if you and +your mob have not obeyed my order to disperse. One--two"-- + +The man looked at the soldier, at the carbine and the cold gray eye that +followed along the barrel as the muzzle sought the breast of the leader, +he measured the distance, he heard the word "two," then with despairing +yell turned and fled. + +The success of the mob at another place met with cheers and shouts of +approval as an engineer was borne from the cab of his engine to a saloon +across the way, a new recruit to the army of disorganized, rebellious +workmen, fed by the ever ready impromptu orator seeking opportunity to +air his views--a near friend and close imitator of the agitator +commissioned "walking delegate." + +"Jack," said Chiquita, "are these scenes, these property-destroying +conflicts between employer and employe necessary for the advancement of +civilization and fulfillment of that commandment that 'Ye love one +another?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WHENCE COME MY PEOPLE? + + +The holiday recesses were spent by Chiquita in the great eastern cities, +where she attended theater, opera, and many social functions of greater +or lesser magnitude. + +After Jack's wedding she came to rely upon his wife--who found the +Indian Senorita always included in the invitations sent the Sheppard +house--to smooth the difficult paths of etiquette and to instruct her in +the many formalities necessarily omitted in her college life, that were +imperative upon being presented in the whirl of fashionable circles. She +was welcomed by various clubs, literary folk, and at state +receptions--this grandly intellectual daughter of a savage chief. + +The first great effort she made in behalf of her people was an attempt +to forestall the opening of the great expanse of land in the Indian +Territory to settlement by the white people. A venerable senator from +Massachusetts espoused her cause sufficiently to awaken a hope in her +inexperienced breast that the object could be accomplished. Another, +from a western state, gladly joined in the undertaking, while a +brilliant ex-secretary of state devoted his energies in her behalf. + +At a memorable cabinet meeting the question was discussed, and in the +presence of that august body, and of the President himself, Chiquita +delivered her appeal, recounting step by step the claims under which the +prerogative of the Indian to the land in question should be forever +recognized: + +"Mr. President, and gentlemen who constitute his advisers, you ask +whence come my people? + +"For ages, as countless as the sands of the Big River, the fresh waters +of the great inland seas skirting the first lofty range of the Rocky +Mountains washed in torrents and torrents the salt deposited by the +great upheavals of the western continent, through the yawning canons +which were created by these torrents' own irresistible force, to the +bases of the great barrier where the sun disappears. The fresh waters' +encroaching left their alluvial deposits further and further toward the +setting sun in the same manner as the white settlers dispossessed the +noble red warrior and primeval possessor of the Western hemisphere. The +fresh waters divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller compasses. +In these grand forest-grown, grass-covered areas herds of wild horses, +buffalo, deer, elk and mountain sheep found subsistence. The fertile +valleys and meadows were thronged with villages of beaver, otter and +mink, whose dams were overgrown with the silvery-leafed aspen upon which +these busy families existed. The forests were fragrant with fir, cedar +and pine, among whose branches the birds of the wood built their nests. + +"But before these were other possessors of this great mass of tangled +volcanic eruptions, at a time so remote that the mind becomes a mist, a +fog bank in its endeavor to locate the date, and then only as an age, it +being impossible to determine the century. The fossils of these +prehistoric creatures have been found in deposits over three thousand +feet in thickness, species until recently unknown to science. Here man +inhabited dwellings of unhewn stone cemented with mortar containing +volcanic ashes, at a period so long ago that the waters were supposed to +wash the face of the cliffs upon whose precipitous side these ancient +people lived, in evidence of which are the fossilized human bones. + +"In this legacy is found the answer, 'Whence come my people?' And what +nation has ever disputed the title of land conveyed by the Indians? As +early as 1851, when Colorado was organized as a territory, a treaty was +made at Fort Laramie with several tribes of Indians, by which the latter +gave up all the lands east of the Rocky Mountains. West of the +continental divide were the great warlike tribes of Utes extending to +the Sierra Nevadas, 15,000 free-born American savages to whose necks the +galling yoke of civilization was to be adjusted. + +"The Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanches and Kiowas, plains Indians, were +mild and tractable in comparison with the Utes. These latter were +fearless, indomitable warriors, who owned the forest, the river beds and +mountain crags by inheritance from Almighty God, and whose +disestablishment is written in letters of blood where the forest man was +the aggressor by retaliation. But the outrages of the new people, the +educated, civilized white man, must be forever unrecorded. Repudiation, +shameless duplicity, political and martial perfidy, local and national, +followed each other year after year until 1865, when the final treaties +effected the abandonment of Colorado by the plains Indians, who were +removed to the Indian Territory, where the government agreed to pay each +Indian $40 annually for forty years. + +"My people, the White River Utes, had taken no part in the plains Indian +controversies with the white people, and, while the Utes' territory +bordered that of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, the only courtesies were +the exchanging of scalps and horses whenever they met. The time arrived +when agents were appointed by the government to reside with each Indian +tribe. These agents were generally respected and settled many jealousies +which sprang up between the various bands of the tribe. + +"Nevava, the great Ute chief of the White River tribes, had passed into +the Happy Hunting Grounds and his sons each claimed the inheritance of +ruler. There were many in the tribes who would gladly have accepted the +distinction, but Ouray was appointed chief over all, the lesser chiefs +being forced to content themselves with such following as their +individual qualities could command. This caused great jealousy and in +1875 many conspired against Ouray. The neglect of the government to pay +the annuities was charged against the big head chief, who was said to be +in collusion with certain white men in depriving the Utes of their +goods, and the question was ofttimes asked, 'How comes Ouray to be so +rich?' + +"In 1879, the venerable N. C. Meeker was appointed to take charge, as +agent, of my people at White River. He undertook the task of educating +the Ute warriors to plow. Opposition met him at the start, for the soil +is no more Ute soil when once broken by the white man's plow. + +"Aid from the war department was expected to force the warriors to till +the soil. + +"Runners carried the news to the agency that a band of Utes who had set +out to hunt had ambushed the cavalry. The final outcome of this outbreak +cost us our home in Colorado, for soon after the relief of the cavalry +the White River agency was abandoned and my people removed to the Uintah +Reservation in Utah. It is too late now to undo the wrong which resulted +in the removal of the Utes from Colorado, but, gentlemen, the land given +over and set apart by your own government in the Indian Territory for +those tribes now occupying the domain should be held sacred. I appeal to +you to keep this land intact and forbid its being thrown into the hands +of speculating spoilers. The Indian is not able to cope with the cunning +of the white brother, and he is unable to endure the conditions by which +his white brother naturally adapts himself to the cultivation of the +soil, the marketing of produce and protection of estate." + +The appeal was in vain. The political influence of cattle barons proved +too great, and the concourse of settlers swallowed the territory in +question. The result was very disheartening to Chiquita, but she bore up +and turned her attention to other duties, preparing for the final +establishment of her home for the aged and infirm Indians. This home she +decided to model after a plan of her own, unlike anything in any city, +possibly in the world. Persistent effort among the political leaders of +both great parties resulted in Congress setting apart, in western +Colorado, a large tract equal to one hundred miles square, to include a +portion of the land on the north side of the Grand River, where it cut +the Park or Gore range, taking in the old Ute trail, the camp in the +willows, the junction of Rock and Toponas Creeks and the high divide +along the edge of Egeria Park, where Jack froze his feet. + +The tract of land became by law the National Hunting Ground of the +Blanket Indian, provision being made for the maintaining of the park, +policing, stocking with game and fish, as the same might be killed or +disappear. No white man was to be allowed to hunt or fish under any +circumstances within the domain, no squaw with white man husband and no +descendants of any but full-blooded Indians were to be allowed to take +up residence within its established lines. No cultivation of the soil +for domestic purposes, no harvesting of any crop whatsoever, no +institutions of learning, no mercantile establishments, no Indian agency +to obtain footing, no railroad, no stage line for tourists, no telegraph +or telephone poles and no vehicles of any kind were to be tolerated. +Tourists afoot or on horseback accompanied by an Indian guide, a +resident of the park, could travel and camp, the guide allowed to kill +game or catch fish for his party as food supply, but no game or fish to +be taken from the park. The one exception to all this was the immense +hospital and necessary minor buildings, an ambulance, vehicles and +paraphernalia for conveying disabled persons, supplies for the hospital, +and nurses to and from the nearest railway. All food products, supplies +and clothing were to be obtained outside of the park lines and all +annuities due the Indians were to be paid them at agencies established +without the park. + +When the bill making these provisions came before the upper house for a +final vote, a tall, white-haired senator responded to his name and +arose. Pointing with outstretched hand to the gallery, where a group of +aged, wrinkled chiefs congregated about a fair Indian girl, he said, in +part: + +"Tardy as this action of the great American people may seem, I think I +echo the sentiments of both friends and foes of this persecuted race +when I raise my voice in their behalf. The foes of the Indian are but +the natural result of broken faith, and while it may be good logic to +say one white man is worth more than all the Indians ever created, it +does not condone the trespass committed when the white man became the +usurper and confiscator of the very thing given voluntarily by his +fathers and forefathers. Follow the patient man of the forest as the +dogs of civilization barked at his heels, worrying him the same as the +doe becomes affrighted when she hears the deep bay of the hound upon her +track. Look at the primitive means of defense with which the noble red +man attempted to defend his domain against the onward march of +civilization. The pages of the record of this chamber, of the war +department, of the department of the interior are dripping with the +blood of this race, defrauded of their homes, their hunting grounds, +aye, gentlemen, even their burying grounds. 'Move on! Move on!' has been +the command since 1620, until this handful of a great and brave nation +are today but remnants of cowardly and degraded tribes, made so by the +damnable treachery of American white people and their civilized methods +of aggression. I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life to be +able to face that faithful, devoted Indian girl, Chiquita, and cast my +vote 'aye' in this weak and tardy attempt at remuneration." + +Two tiny red spots burned in Chiquita's cheeks as the senator finished. +She smiled at the applause which greeted the venerable member and +prepared to listen to the rest of the voting. When the last name was +called, before the teller could announce the result, a cheer from the +galleries burst forth, every eye was directed toward Chiquita, and in +response to the wave of applause she arose and bowed her appreciation of +the action of that august body. + +But the excitement proved too great a strain upon her temperament, and +she was carried to the hotel in a fainting condition. As she recovered +consciousness, she said to Hazel, "Chiquita will be one of the first to +leave the National Hunting Ground for the great Happy Hunting Ground +above." She realized that her vitality was weakened, that overwork and +exposure had made her vulnerable to insidious disease, whose progress +would be rapid now that the weakened spots had succumbed to its ravages. +But she would not give up the cherished hopes of seeing her one aim in +life accomplished, the forest-grown reservation where her people could +forever hunt and fish without further molestation or dividing up of the +land, and in its center wigwams, lodges, tepees and her great hospital +for the sick, helpless and aged when they would be unable to take care +of themselves. + +Immediate preparations were made to carry out her cherished wish, which +had been so many years her aim. With Jack to aid her the purchases of +material were made. Contracts were entered into for the erection of the +buildings and equipment therefor. Nurses and attendants were engaged for +the hospitals, and for a year she watched the accumulating results which +her education and fortune were bringing about. + +But the task of civilization was one which nature condemned in such a +short period. The overwork and confinement was more than she could +endure and she sought rest from the weary toil inflicted upon herself in +behalf of her people. + +[Illustration: THE TEPEE ON THE GRAND RIVER.] + +In a grove of tall fir trees, close to the placid waters of the Grand +River, Yamanatz erected his tepee, where in the soft, balmy air, +fragrant with balsam and cedar, Chiquita could rest and watch the clouds +as they made great shadow pictures on the mountain and stream. Like a +sentinel, a lone peak stood beyond the cleft in the great divide, whose +precipitous sides rose in towering splendor all clad in verdure green. +The river reflected on its mirror of millions of tiny drops of sparkling +water, the blue sky, the trees tinted red by the setting sun, the tepee +on the bank of the stream and the mountain tipped with its cap of +eternal snow. The camp fire sent a spiral of thin blue smoke toward the +azure dome, and by the lurid coals two Utes smoked in silence. Within +the sign-bedecked tepee, upon a couch of lion skins, lay Chiquita, clad +in hunting garb, her rifle and fishing rod beside her. Yamanatz, +Antelope, Jack, and the mother of Chiquita stood by, while the fairest +of the White River maidens told them of the great happiness which +awaited her in the Happy Hunting Ground of the Utes which lay just +beyond the sky. + +"If my father and my mother were only there," said Chiquita, as she +pointed beyond the cleft above the river. "And, Jack," she continued, +"you must beg leave of absence from the heaven of the white man and +visit Chiquita in her happy home. You will find birds that sing and the +bounding deer and flowers that bloom. The warriors of many, many snows +are gathered there and you will see the Utes in all their grandeur, as +they were before the white man took their land." + +"But what of your friends, Chiquita, those who taught you of the +religion of our people, of the only Christ who died to save mankind?" +asked Jack, as he recalled the years and years of Chiquita's life in +school, in college, in the hospital, the church and in the society of +the ablest women of the nineteenth century. + +"Ah, Jack!" Chiquita waited a moment, then with her bright eyes +reflecting the love of the forest queen for her native haunts, customs +and the freedom of the woods, she continued, "The God who gave you the +Christ gave you also wisdom, and with that wisdom cruel weapons to drive +the weaker to destruction. The paleface has driven the red man to his +death. My people share not the needs nor desires which civilization +brings to the white brethren, nor the society demands which make our +paleface sister a slave to her calling. Jack, I have lived among my +white sisters, I have been one of them, been sought for, banqueted, +heralded and had tributes of honor thrust upon me. No school, no church, +no institution of science, no club, no society, no matter how select, +has been other than glad to have Chiquita honor them with her presence. +With wealth untold and accomplishments unattained before by any woman in +the world, Chiquita returns to her forest home for peace and +contentment. 'In my Father's house are many mansions.' Yes, Jack, and +the tepees of the great Indian nation stretch beyond the sky to welcome +Chiquita. See, Jack, father, mother, the braves in all their glorious +array are waiting for Chiquita! 'Our Father,' the Great Spirit of both +the red and white man, welcomes. It is in the peace of the Happy Hunting +Ground that we find rest. Adios, Jack. The great Yamanatz will soon +follow and it will not be long ere all my people are as the buffalo, and +the white man alone in the land that once was a paradise, but the +mockery of civilization turned it into a stench hole of iniquity and +market place of educated vampires, against which the child of the forest +of the same God had no"-- The voice failed to respond to the effort. +Chiquita was dead. And with her was buried that undying, unquenchable, +unsung love which consumed her heart. + +A camp bird, in subdued autumn plumage of black and pearl gray, mewed +plaintively as the old warrior came forth from the tepee. The wrinkled +visaged chief beat his breast and muttered in Ute dialect the prayers of +a bereaved father for a dead daughter. The old "medicine" chief ceased +to bang the tom-tom and the jargon of the squaws was silenced. Jack +looked on with keen disappointment. For years he had watched and +sympathized with Chiquita in her ambition; and now at the last turn in +the great course of life, after tasting nearly every phase of civilized +honor, she had returned to the religion of her fathers and died with +utter contempt in her heart for the foibles and allurements of +civilization, civilized society and civilized government. + + + + + +Transcribers notes: + +Obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected. + +Pg 31 and 266, Space after Emdashes, used as thought breaks, retained: +...Hemmingway"-- Jack... +...Hazel"-- A softer,... +...should she"-- He is not... + +Pg 40, 41, & 49 - Corrected spelling of 'accumulated' from +'accummulated.' + +Pg 165 Corrected spelling of 'Furthermore' from 'Futhermore.' + +Pg 183 "Lazy L" symbol used in original instead of text. It is a serif +upper case "L" rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. + +Pg 212 Corrected 'form' to 'formed', para 1, line 4. + +Pg 220 Added accent to 'protoges' (a bride and his two protoges) + +Pg 240 Removed extra quote mark before Miss Asquith telegram signature. + +Pg 265 Corrected spelling of 'Faithfully' from 'Faithfuly' she +performed... + +Pg 267 Corrected spelling of 'performed' from 'perfomed' (Mechanically +she perfomed...) + +Pg 301 Corrected spelling of 'burying' ('...even their burrying +grounds...') + +Pg 305 Space retained after Emdash, used in lieu of a period at the +end of sentence: ...same God had no"-- The voice failed... + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chiquita, an American Novel, by Merrill Tileston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIQUITA, AN AMERICAN NOVEL *** + +***** This file should be named 33030.txt or 33030.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/3/33030/ + +Produced by Mark C Orton, Carol Ann Brown, Linda McKeown +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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