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+Project Gutenberg's The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop, by Hamlin Garland
+
+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: The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop
+
+Author: Hamlin Garland
+
+Release Date: August 18, 2010 [EBook #33458]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAPTAIN OF THE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and The Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+                               By HAMLIN GARLAND
+
+
+SUNSET EDITION
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1901. BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT 1902. BY HAMLIN GARLAND
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. A CAMP IN THE SNOW
+
+II. THE STREETER GUN-RACK
+
+III. CURTIS ASSUMES CHARGE OF THE AGENT
+
+IV. THE BEAUTIFUL ELSIE BEE BEE
+
+V. CAGED EAGLES
+
+VI. CURTIS SEEKS A TRUCE
+
+VII. ELSIE RELENTS A LITTLE
+
+VIII. CURTIS WRITES A LONG LETTER
+
+IX. CALLED TO WASHINGTON
+
+X. CURTIS AT HEADQUARTERS
+
+XI. CURTIS GRAPPLES WITH BRISBANE
+
+XII. SPRING ON THE ELK
+
+XIII. ELSIE PROMISES TO RETURN
+
+XIV. ELSIE REVISITS CURTIS
+
+XV. ELSIE ENTERS HER STUDIO
+
+XVI. THE CAMP AMONG THE ROSES
+
+XVII. A FLUTE, A DRUM, AND A MESSAGE
+
+XVIII. ELSIE'S ANCIENT LOVE AFFAIR
+
+XIX. THE SHERIFF'S MOB
+
+XX. FEMININE STRATEGY
+
+XXI. IN STORMY COUNCILS
+
+XXII. A COUNCIL AT NIGHT
+
+XXIII. THE RETURN OF THE MOB
+
+XXIV. THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+XXV. AFTER THE STRUGGLE
+
+XXVI. THE WARRIOR PROCLAIMS HIMSELF
+
+XXVII. BRISBANE COMES FOR ELSIE
+
+XXVIII. A WALK IN THE STARLIGHT
+
+XXIX. ELSIE WARNS CURTIS
+
+XXX. THE CAPTURE OF THE MAN
+
+XXXI. OUTWITTING THE SHERIFF
+
+XXXII. AN EVENTFUL NIGHT
+
+XXXIII. ELSIE CONFESSES HER LOVE
+
+XXXIV. SEED-TIME
+
+XXXV. THE BATTLE WITH THE WEEDS
+
+XXXVI. THE HARVEST-HOME
+
+XXXVII. THE MINGLING OF THE OLD AND THE NEW
+
+
+
+
+THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A CAMP IN THE SNOW
+
+
+Winter in the upper heights of the Bear Tooth Range is a glittering
+desolation of snow with a flaming blue sky above. Nothing moves, nothing
+utters a sound, save the cony at the mouth of the spiral shaft, which
+sinks to his deeply buried den in the rocks. The peaks are like marble
+domes, set high in the pathway of the sun by day and thrust amid the
+stars by night. The firs seem hopeless under their ever-increasing
+burdens. The streams are silenced--only the wind is abroad in the waste,
+the tireless, pitiless wind, fanged like ingratitude, insatiate as fire.
+
+But it is beautiful, nevertheless, especially of a clear dawn, when the
+shadows are vividly purple and each rime-wreathed summit is smit with
+ethereal fire, and each eastern slope is resplendent as a high-way of
+powdered diamonds--or at sunset, when the high crests of the range stand
+like flaming mile-stones leading to the Celestial City, and the lakes
+are like pools of pure gold caught in a robe of green velvet. Yet always
+this land demands youth and strength in its explorer.
+
+King Frost's dominion was already complete over all the crests, over
+timber-line, when young Captain Curtis set out to cross the divide which
+lay between Lake Congar and Fort Sherman--a trip to test the virtue of a
+Sibley tent and the staying qualities of a mountain horse.
+
+Bennett, the hairy trapper at the head of the lake, advised against it.
+"The snow is soft--I reckon you better wait a week."
+
+But Curtis was a seasoned mountaineer and took pride in assaulting the
+stern barrier. "Besides, my leave of absence is nearly up," he said to
+the trapper.
+
+"Well, you're the doctor," the old trapper replied. "Good luck to ye,
+Cap."
+
+It was sunrise of a crisp, clear autumn morning when they started, and
+around them the ground was still bare, but by noon they were wallowing
+mid-leg deep in new-fallen snow. Curtis led the way on foot--his own
+horse having been packed to relieve the burdens of the others--while
+Sergeant Pierce, resolute and uncomplaining, brought up the rear.
+
+"We must camp beside the sulphur spring to-night," Curtis said, as they
+left timber-line and entered upon the bleak, wind-swept slopes of
+Grizzly Bear.
+
+"Very well, sir," Pierce cheerily replied, and till three o'clock they
+climbed steadily towards the far-off glacial heights, the drifts ever
+deepening, the cold ever intensifying. They had eaten no food since
+dawn, and the horses were weak with hunger and weariness as they topped
+the divide and looked down upon the vast eastern slope. The world before
+them seemed even more inhospitable and wind-swept than the land they had
+left below them to the west. The air was filled with flying frost, the
+sun was weak and pale, and the plain was only a pale-blue sea far, far
+below to the northeast. The wind blew through the pass with terrible
+force, and the cold nipped every limb like a famishing white wolf.
+
+"There is the sulphur spring, sir," said Pierce, pointing towards a
+delicate strand of steam which rose from a clump of pines in the second
+basin beneath them.
+
+"Quite right, sergeant, and we must make that in an hour. I'd like to
+take an observation here, but I reckon we'd better slide down to camp
+before the horses freeze."
+
+The dry snow, sculptured by the blast in the pass, made the threadlike
+path an exceedingly elusive line to keep, and trailing narrowed to a
+process of feeling with the feet; but Curtis set his face resolutely
+into the northeast wind and led the way down the gulch. For the first
+half-mile the little pack-train crawled slowly and hesitatingly, like a
+bewildered worm, turning and twisting, retracing its way, circling huge
+bowlders, edging awful cliffs, slipping, stumbling, but ever moving,
+ever descending; and, at last, while yet the sun's light glorified the
+icy kings behind them, the Captain drew into the shelter of the clump of
+pines from which the steam of the warm spring rose like a chimney's
+cheery greeting.
+
+"Whoa, boys!" called Curtis, and with a smile at Pierce, added, "Here we
+are, home again!"
+
+It was not a cheerful place to spend the night, for even at this level
+the undisturbed snow lay full twelve inches deep and the pines were
+bowed with the weight of it, and as the sun sank the cold deepened to
+zero point; but the sergeant drew off his gloves and began to free the
+horses from their packs quite as if these were the usual conditions of
+camping.
+
+"Better leave the blankets on," remarked the young officer. "They'll
+need 'em for warmth."
+
+The sergeant saluted and continued his work, deft and silent, while
+Curtis threw up a little tent on a cleared spot and banked it snugly
+with snow. In a very short time a fire was blazing and some coffee
+boiling. The two men seemed not to regard the cold or the falling night,
+except in so far as the wind threatened the horses.
+
+"It's hard luck on them," remarked Curtis, as they were finishing their
+coffee in the tent; "but it is unavoidable. I don't think it safe to try
+to go down that slide in the dusk. Do you?"
+
+"It's dangerous at any time, sir, and with our horses weak as they are,
+it sure would be taking chances."
+
+"We'll make Tom Skinner's by noon to-morrow, and be out of the snow,
+probably." The young soldier put down his tin cup and drew a map from
+his pocket. "Hold a light, sergeant; I want to make some notes before I
+forget them."
+
+While the sergeant held a candle for him, Curtis rapidly traced with a
+soft pencil a few rough lines upon the map. "That settles that
+water-shed question;" he pointed with his pencil. "Here is the dividing
+wall, not over there where Lieutenant Crombie drew it. Nothing is more
+deceptive than the relative heights of ranges. Well, now take a last
+look at the horses," he said, putting away his pencil, "and I'll unroll
+our blankets."
+
+As they crawled into their snug sleeping-bags Curtis said again, with a
+sigh, "I'm sorry for the ponies."
+
+"They'll be all right now, Captain; they've got something in their
+stomachs. If a cayuse has any fuel in him he's like an engine--he'll
+keep warm," and so silence fell on them, and in the valley the cold
+deepened till the rocks and the trees cried out in the rigor of their
+resistance.
+
+The sun was filling the sky with an all-pervading crimson-and-orange
+mist when the sergeant crawled out of his snug nest and started a fire.
+The air was perfectly still, but the frost gripped each limb with
+benumbing fury. The horses, with blankets awry, stood huddled close
+together in the shelter of the pines not far away. As the sergeant
+appeared they whinnied to express their dependence upon him, and when
+the sun rose they turned their broadsides to it gratefully.
+
+The two men, with swift, unhesitating action, set to work to break camp.
+In half an hour the tent was folded and packed, the horses saddled, and
+then, lustily singing, Curtis led the way down upon the floor of the
+second basin, which narrowed towards the north into a deep and wooded
+valley leading to the plains. The grasp of winter weakened as they
+descended; December became October. The snow thinned, the streams sang
+clear, and considerably before noon the little train of worn and hungry
+horses came out upon the grassy shore of a small lake to bask in genial
+sunshine. From this point the road to Skinner's was smooth and easy,
+and quite untouched of snow.
+
+As they neared the miner's shack, a tall young Payonnay, in the dress of
+a cowboy, came out to meet them, smiling broadly.
+
+"I'm looking for you, Captain."
+
+"Are you, Jack? Well, you see me. What's your message?"
+
+"The Colonel says you are to come in right off. He told me to tell you
+he had an order for you."
+
+A slouching figure, supporting a heap of greasy rags, drew near, and a
+low voice drawled, weakly: "Jack's been here since Friday. I told him
+where you was, but he thought he'd druther lay by my fire than hunt ye."
+
+Curtis studied the squat figure keenly. "You weren't looking for the job
+of crossing the range yourself, were you?"
+
+The tramplike miner grinned and sucked at his pipe. "Well, no--I can't
+say that I was, but I like to rub it into these lazy Injuns."
+
+Jack winked at Curtis with humorous appreciation. "He's a dandy to rub
+it into an Injun, don't you think?"
+
+Even Skinner laughed at this, and Curtis said: "Unsaddle the horses and
+give them a chance at the grass, sergeant. We can't go into the fort
+to-night with the packs. And, Skinner, I want to hire a horse of you,
+while you help Pierce bring my outfit into the fort to-morrow. I must
+hurry on to see what's in the wind."
+
+"All right, Captain, anything I've got is yours," responded the miner,
+heartily.
+
+The bugles were sounding "retreat" as the young officer rode up to the
+door of Colonel Quinlan's quarters and reported for duty.
+
+"Good-evening, Major," called the Colonel, with a quizzical smile and a
+sharp emphasis on the word major.
+
+"Major!" exclaimed Curtis; "what do you mean--"
+
+"Not a wholesale slaughter of your superiors. Oh no! You are Major by
+the grace of the Secretary of Indian Affairs. Colonel Hackett, of the
+War Department, writes me that you have been detailed as Indian agent at
+Fort Smith. You'll find your notification in your mail, no doubt."
+
+Curtis touched his hat in mock courtesy. "Thanks, Mr. Secretary; your
+kindness overwhelms me."
+
+"Didn't think the reform administration could get along without you, did
+you?" asked the Colonel, with some humor. He was standing at his gate.
+"Come in, and we'll talk it over. You seem a little breathless."
+
+"It does double me up, I confess. But I can't consistently back out
+after the stand I've made."
+
+"Back out! Well, not if I can prevent it. Haven't you hammered it into
+us for two years that the army was the proper instrument for dealing
+with these redskins? No, sir, you can't turn tail now. Take your
+medicine like a man."
+
+"But how did they drop onto me? Did you suggest it?"
+
+The Colonel became grave. "No, my boy, I did not. But I think I know who
+did. You remember the two literary chaps who camped with us on our trial
+march two years ago?"
+
+The young officer's eyes opened wide. "Ah! I see. They told me at the
+time that they were friends of the Secretary. That explains it."
+
+"Your success with that troop of enlisted Cheyennes had something to do
+with it, too," added the Colonel. "I told those literary sharps about
+that experience, and also about your crazy interest in the sign-language
+and Indian songs."
+
+"You did? Well, then you _are_ responsible, after all."
+
+The Colonel put his hand on his subordinate's shoulder. "Go and do the
+work, boy! It's better than sitting around here waiting promotion. If I
+weren't so near retirement I'd resign. I have lived out on these cursed
+deserts ever since 1868--but I'll fool 'em," he added, with a grim
+smile. "I'm going to hang on to the last, and retire on half-pay. Then
+I'll spend all my time looking after my health and live to be
+ninety-five, in order to get even."
+
+Curtis laughed. "Quite right, Colonel," and, then becoming serious, he
+added, "It's my duty, and I will do it." And in this quiet temper he
+accepted his detail.
+
+Captain George Curtis, as the Colonel had intimated, was already a
+marked man at Fort Sherman--and, indeed, throughout the western division
+of the army. He feared no hardship, and acknowledged no superior on the
+trail except Pierce, who was as invincible to cold and snow as a grizzly
+bear, and his chief diversions were these trips into the wild. Each
+outing helped him endure the monotony of barrack life, for when it was
+over he returned to the open fire of his study, where he pored over his
+maps, smoking his pipe and writing a little between bugle-calls. In
+this way he had been able to put together several articles on the
+forests, the water-sheds, and the wild animals of the region he had
+traversed, and in this way had made himself known to the Smithsonian
+Institution. He was considered a crank on trees and Indians by his
+fellow-officers, who all drank more whiskey and played a better hand at
+poker than he; "but, after all, Curtis is a good soldier," they often
+said, in conclusion. "His voice in command is clear and decisive, and
+his control of his men excellent." He was handsome, too, in a firm,
+brown, cleanly outlined way, and though not a popular officer, he had no
+enemies in the service.
+
+His sister Jennie, who had devotedly kept house for him during his
+garrison life, was waiting for him at the gate of his little yard, and
+cried out in greeting:
+
+"How _did_ you cross the range in this weather? I was frightened for
+you, George. I could see the storm raging up there all day yesterday."
+
+"Oh, a little wind and snow don't count," he replied, carelessly. "I
+thought you'd given up worrying about me."
+
+"I have--only I thought of poor Sergeant Pierce and the horses. There's
+a stack of mail here. Do you know what's happened to you?"
+
+"The Colonel told me."
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+"I don't know yet. At this moment I'm too tired to express an opinion."
+
+From the pile of mail on his desk he drew out the order which directed
+him to "proceed at once to Fort Smith, and as secretly as may be. You
+will surprise the agent, if possible--intercepting him at his desk, so
+that he will have no opportunity for secreting his private papers. You
+will take entire charge of the agency, and at your earliest convenience
+forward to us a report covering every detail of the conditions there."
+
+"Now that promises well," he said, as he finished reading the order. "We
+start with a fair expectancy of drama. Sis--we are Indian agents! All
+this must be given up." He looked round the room, which glowed in the
+light of an open grate fire. The floor was bright with Navajo blankets
+and warm with fur rugs, and on the walls his books waited his hand.
+
+"I don't like to leave our snug nest, Jennie," he said, with a sigh.
+
+"You needn't. Take it with you," she replied, promptly.
+
+He glanced ruefully at her. "I knew I'd get mighty little sympathy from
+you."
+
+"Why should you? I'm ready to go. I don't want you trailing about over
+these mountains till the end of time; and you know this life is fatal to
+you, or any other man who wants to do anything in the world. It's all
+very well to talk about being a soldier, but I'm not so enthusiastic as
+I used to be. I don't think sitting around waiting for some one to die
+is very noble."
+
+He rose and stood before the fire. "I wish this whole house could be
+lifted up and set down at Fort Smith; then I might consider the matter."
+
+She came over, and, as he put his arm about her, continued earnestly:
+"George, I'm serious about this. The President is trying to put the
+Indian service into capable hands, and I believe you ought to accept;
+in fact, you can't refuse. There is work for us both there. I am
+heartily tired of garrison life, George. As the boys say, there's
+nothing in it."
+
+"But there's danger threatening at Smith, sis. I can't take you into an
+Indian outbreak."
+
+"That's all newspaper talk. Mr. Dudley writes--"
+
+"Dudley--is he down there? Oh, you are a masterful sly one! Your
+touching solicitude for the Tetongs is now explained. What is Dudley
+doing at Smith besides interfering with my affairs?"
+
+"He's studying the Tetong burial customs--but he isn't there at
+present."
+
+"These Smithsonian sharps are unexpectedly keen. He'd sacrifice me and
+my whole military career to have you study skulls with him for a few
+days. Do you know, I suspect him and Osborne Lawson of this whole
+conspiracy--and you--you were in it! I've a mind to rebel and throw
+everything out o' gear."
+
+Jennie gave him a shove. "Go dress for dinner. The Colonel and his wife
+and Mr. Ross are coming in to congratulate you, and you must pretend to
+be overjoyed."
+
+As he sat at the head of his handsome table that night Curtis began to
+appreciate his comforts. He forgot the dissensions and jealousies, the
+cynical speculations and the bitter rivalries of the officers--he
+remembered only the pleasant things.
+
+His guests were personable and gracious, and Jennie presided over the
+coffee with distinction. She was a natural hostess, and her part in the
+conversation which followed was notable for its good sense, but Mr.
+Ross, the young lieutenant, considered her delicate color and shining
+hair even more remarkable than her humor. He liked her voice, also, and
+had a desire to kick the shins of the loquacious Colonel for absorbing
+so much of her attention. Mrs. Quinlan, the Colonel's wife, was, by the
+same token, a retiring, silent little woman, who smiled and nodded her
+head to all that was said, paying special attention to the Colonel's
+stories, with which all were familiar; even Mr. Ross had learned them.
+
+At last the Colonel turned to Curtis. "You'll miss this, Curtis, when
+you're exiled down there at old Fort Smith among the Tetongs. Here we
+are a little oasis of civilization in the midst of a desert of
+barbarians; down there you'll be swallowed up."
+
+"We'll take civilization with us," said Jennie. "But, of course, we
+shall miss our friends."
+
+"Well, you'll have a clear field for experiment at Smith. You can try
+all your pet theories on the Tetongs. God be with them!--their case is
+desperate." He chuckled gracelessly.
+
+"When do you go?" asked Mrs. Quinlan.
+
+"At once. As soon as I can make arrangements," replied Curtis, and then
+added: "And, by-the-way, I hope you will all refrain from mentioning my
+appointment till after I reach Fort Smith."
+
+The visitors did not stay late, for their host was plainly preoccupied,
+and as they shook hands with him in parting they openly commiserated
+him. "I'm sorry for you," again remarked the Colonel, "but it's a just
+punishment."
+
+After they were gone Curtis turned to his sister. "I must leave here
+to-morrow morning, sis."
+
+"Why, George! Can't you take time to breathe and pack up?"
+
+"No, I must drop down on that agent like a hawk on a June-bug, before he
+has a chance to bury his misdeeds. The Colonel has given out the news of
+my detail, and the quicker I move the better. I must reach there before
+the mail does."
+
+"But I want to go with you," she quickly and resentfully replied.
+
+"Well, you can, if you are willing to leave our packing in Pierce's
+hands."
+
+"I don't intend to be left behind," she replied. "I'm going along to see
+that you don't do anything reckless. I never trust a man in a place
+requiring tact."
+
+Curtis laughed. "That's your long suit, sis, but I reckon we'll need all
+the virtues that lie in each of us. We are going into battle with
+strange forces."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE STREETER GUN-RACK
+
+
+There is a good wagon-road leading to old Fort Smith from Pinon City,
+but it runs for the most part through an uninteresting country, and does
+not touch the reservation till within a few miles of the agency
+buildings. From the other side, however, a rough trail crosses a low
+divide, and for more than sixty miles lies within the Tetong boundaries,
+a rolling, cattle country rising to grassy hills on the west.
+
+For these reasons Curtis determined to go in on horseback and in
+civilian's dress, leaving his sister to follow by rail and buckboard;
+but here again Jennie promptly made protest.
+
+"I'll not go that way, George. I am going to keep with you, and you
+needn't plan for anything else--so there!"
+
+"It's a hard ride, sis--sixty miles and more. You'll be tired out."
+
+"What of that? I'll have plenty of time to rest afterwards."
+
+"Very well. It is always a pleasure to have you with me, you stubborn
+thing," he replied, affectionately.
+
+It had been hard to leave everything at the Fort, hard to look back from
+the threshold upon well-ordered books and furniture, and harder still
+to know that rude and careless hands would jostle them into heaps on the
+morrow, but Jennie was accustomed to all the hardships involved in being
+sister to a soldier, and, after she had turned the key in the lock, set
+her face to the south cheerfully. There was something of the missionary
+in her, and she had long burned with a desire to help the red people.
+
+They got off at a squalid little cow-town called "Riddell" about noon of
+the second day, and Curtis, after a swift glance around him, said: "Sis,
+our chances for dinner are poor."
+
+The hotel, a squat, battlemented wooden building, was trimmed with
+loafing cowboys on the outside and speckled with flies on the inside,
+but the landlord was unexpectedly attractive, a smiling, courteous host,
+to whom flies and cowboys were matters of course. It was plain he had
+slipped down to his present low level by insensible declinations.
+
+"The food is not so bad if it were only served decently," said Jennie,
+as they sat at the table eying the heavy china chipped and maimed in the
+savage process of washing.
+
+"I hope you won't be sorry we've left the army, sis."
+
+"I would, if we had to live with these people," she replied, decisively,
+looking about the room, which was filled with uncouth types of men,
+keen-eyed, slouchy, and loud-voiced. The presence of a pretty woman had
+subdued most of them into something like decorum, but they were not
+pleasant to look at. They were the unattached males of the town, a mob
+of barkeepers, hostlers, clerks, and railway hands, intermixed with a
+half-dozen cowboys who had ridden in to "loaf away a day or two in
+town."
+
+"The ragged edge of the cloth of gold," said Curtis, as he glanced round
+at them. "Civilization has its seamy side."
+
+"This makes the dear old Fort seem beautiful, doesn't it?" the girl
+sighed. "We'll see no more green grass and well-groomed men."
+
+An hour later, with a half-breed Indian boy for a guide, they rode away
+over the hills towards the east, glad to shake the dust of Riddell off
+their feet.
+
+The day was one of flooding sunlight, warm and golden. Winter seemed far
+away, and only the dry grass made it possible to say, "This is autumn."
+The air was without dust or moisture--crystalline, crisp, and
+deliciously invigorating.
+
+The girl turned to her brother with radiant face. "This is living! Isn't
+it good to escape that horrid little town?"
+
+"You'd suppose in an air like this all life would be clean and sweet,"
+he replied. "But it isn't. The trouble is, these people have no inner
+resource. They lop down when their accustomed props are removed. They
+come from defective stock."
+
+The half-breed guide had the quality of his Indian mother--he knew when
+to keep silence and when to speak. He led the way steadily, galloping
+along on his little gray pony, with elbows flapping like a rooster about
+to take flight.
+
+There was a wonderful charm in this treeless land, it was so lonely and
+so sinister. It appealed with great power to Curtis, while it appalled
+his sister. The solitary buttes, smooth of slope and grotesque of line;
+the splendid, grassy hollows, where the cattle fed; the burned-up mesas,
+where nothing lived but the horned toad; the alkaline flats, leprous and
+ashen; the occasional green line of cottonwood-trees, deep sunk in a dry
+water-course--all these were typical of the whole vast eastern
+water-shed of the continental divide, and familiar to the young officer,
+for in such a land he had entered upon active service.
+
+It was beautiful, but it was an ill place for a woman, as Jennie soon
+discovered. The air, so dry, so fierce, parched her skin and pinched her
+red lips. The alkali settled in a gray dust upon her pretty hair and
+entered her throat, increasing her thirst to a keen pain.
+
+"Oh, George! here is a little stream," she cried out.
+
+"Courage, sis. We will soon get above the alkali. That water is rank
+poison."
+
+"It looks good," she replied, wistfully.
+
+"We'll find some glorious water up there in that clump of willows," and
+a few minutes' hard riding brought them to a gurgling little brook of
+clear, cold water, and the girl not merely drank--she laved away all
+traces of the bitter soil of the lower levels.
+
+At about four o'clock the guide struck into a transverse valley, and
+followed a small stream to its source in a range of pine-clad hills
+which separate the white man's country from the Tetong reservation. As
+they topped this divide, riding directly over a smooth swell, Curtis
+drew rein, crying out, "Wait a moment, Louie."
+
+They stood on the edge of a vast dip in the plain, a bowl of amethyst
+and turquoise. Under the vivid October sun the tawny grass seemed to be
+transmuted into something that shimmered, was translucent, and yet was
+firm, while the opposite wall, already faintly in shadow, rose by two
+degrees to snow-flecked mountains, faintly showing in the west and
+north. On the floor of this resplendent amphitheatre a flock of cattle
+fed irregularly, luminous as red and white and deep-purple beads. The
+landscape was silent--as silent as the cloudless sky above. No bird or
+beast, save the cattle, and the horses the three travellers rode, was
+abroad in this dream-world.
+
+"Oh, isn't it beautiful!" exclaimed Jennie.
+
+Curtis sat in silence till the guide said: "We must hurry. Long ways to
+Streeter."
+
+Then he drew a sigh. "That scene is typical of the old time. Nothing
+could be more moving to me. I saw the buffaloes feed like that once.
+Whose are the cattle?" he asked of the boy.
+
+"Thompson's, I think."
+
+"But what are they doing here--that's Tetong land, isn't it?"
+
+The guide grinned. "That don't make no difference to Thompson. All same
+to him whose grass he eats."
+
+"Well, lead on," said Curtis, and the boy galloped away swiftly down the
+trail. As they descended to the east the sun seemed to slide down the
+sky and the chill dusk rose to meet them from the valley of the Elk,
+like an exhalation from some region of icy waters. Night was near, but
+Streeter's was in sight, a big log-house, surrounded by sheds and
+corrals of various sorts and sizes.
+
+"How does Mr. Streeter happen to be so snugly settled on Indian land?"
+asked Jennie.
+
+"He made his location before the reservation was set aside. I believe
+there are about twenty ranches of the same sort within the lines,"
+replied Curtis, "and I think we'll find in these settlers the chief
+cause of friction. The cattle business is not one that leads to
+scrupulous regard for the rights of others."
+
+As they clattered up to the door of the ranch-house a tall young fellow
+in cowboy dress came out to meet them. He was plainly amazed to find a
+pretty girl at his door, and for a moment fairly gaped with lax jaws.
+
+"Good-evening," said Curtis. "Are you the boss here?"
+
+He recovered himself quickly. "Howdy--howdy! Yes, I'm Cal Streeter.
+Won't you 'light off?"
+
+"Thank you. We'd like to take shelter for the night if you can spare us
+room."
+
+"Why, cert. Mother and the old man are away just now, but there's plenty
+to eat." He took a swift stride towards Jennie. "Let me help you down,
+miss."
+
+"Thank you, I'm already down," said Jennie, anticipating his service.
+
+The young man called shrilly, and a Mexican appeared at the door of the
+stable. "Hosy, come and take these horses." Turning to Jennie with a
+grin, he said: "I can't answer for the quality of the grub, fer Hosy is
+cooking just now. Mother's been gone a week, and the bread is wiped out.
+If you don't mind slapjacks I'll see what we can do for you."
+
+Jennie didn't know whether she liked this young fellow or not. After his
+first stare of astonishment he was by no means lacking in assurance.
+However, she was plains-woman enough to feel the necessity of making the
+best of any hospitality when night was falling, and quickly replied:
+"Don't take any trouble for us. If you'll show me your kitchen and
+pantry I'll be glad to do the cooking."
+
+"Will you? Well, now, that's a sure-enough trade," and he led the way
+into the house, which was a two-story building, with one-story wings on
+either side. The room into which they entered was large and bare as a
+guard-room. The floor was uneven, the log walls merely whitewashed, and
+the beams overhead were rough pine boles. Some plain wooden chairs, a
+table painted a pale blue, and covered with dusty newspapers, comprised
+the visible furniture, unless a gun-rack which filled one entire wall
+could be listed among the furnishings. Curtis brought a keen gaze to
+bear on this arsenal, and estimated that it contained nearly a score of
+rifles--a sinister array.
+
+Young Streeter opened a side door. "This is where you are to sleep. Just
+make yourself to home, and I'll rub two sticks together and start a
+fire."
+
+After Jennie left the room, the young fellow turned abruptly. "Stranger,
+what might I call you?"
+
+"My name is Curtis. I'm going over to visit the agency."
+
+"She your wife?" He pointed his thumb in Jennie's direction.
+
+"No, my sister."
+
+"Oh! Well, then, you can bunk with me in this room." He indicated a door
+on the opposite side of the hall. "When she gets ready, bring her out to
+the kitchen. It's hard lines to make her cook her own grub, but I tell
+you right now I think she'd better."
+
+As Jennie met her brother a few moments later, she exclaimed, "Isn't he
+handsome?"
+
+"M--yes. He's good-looking enough, but he's just a little
+self-important, it seems to me."
+
+"Are you going to let him know who you are?"
+
+"Certainly not. I want to draw him out. I begin to suspect that this
+house is a rendezvous for all the interests we have to fight. These guns
+are all loaded and in prime order."
+
+"What a big house you have here," said Jennie, ingratiatingly, as she
+entered the kitchen. "And what a nice kitchen."
+
+"Oh, purty fair," replied the youth, busy at the stove. "Our ranch ain't
+what we'd make it if these Injuns were out o' the way. Now, here's the
+grub--if you can dig up anything you're welcome."
+
+He showed her the pantry, where she found plenty of bacon and flour, and
+some eggs and milk.
+
+"I thought cattlemen never had milk?"
+
+"Well, they don't generally, but mother makes us milk a cow. Now, I'll
+do this cooking if you want me to, but I reckon you won't enjoy seein'
+me do it. I can't make biscuits, and we're all out o' bread, as I say,
+and Hosy's sinkers would choke a dog."
+
+"Oh, I'll cook if you'll get some water and keep a good fire going."
+
+"Sure thing," he said, heartily, taking up the water-pail to go to the
+spring. When he came back Jennie was dabbling the milk and flour. He
+stood watching her in silence for some minutes as she worked, and the
+sullen lines on his face softened and his lips grew boyish.
+
+"You sure know your business," he said, in a tone of conviction. "When I
+try to mix dough I get all strung up with it."
+
+She replied with a smile. "Is the oven hot? These biscuit must come out
+just right."
+
+He stirred up the fire. "A man ain't fitten to cook; he's too blame long
+in the elbows. We have an old squaw when mother is home, but she don't
+like me, and so she takes a vacation whenever the old lady does. That
+throws us down on Hosy, and he just about poisons us. A Mexican can't
+cook no more'n an Injun. We get spring-poor by the time the old lady
+comes back." Jennie was rolling at the dough and did not reply to him.
+He held the door open for her when she was ready to put the biscuit in
+the oven, and lit another bracket-lamp in order to see her better.
+
+"Do you know, you're the first girl I ever saw in this kitchen."
+
+"Am I?"
+
+"That's right." After a pause he added: "I'm mighty glad I didn't get
+home to eat Hosy's supper. I want a chance at some of them biscuit."
+
+"Slice this bacon, please--not too thick," she added, briskly.
+
+He took the knife. "Where do you hail from, anyway?" he asked,
+irrelevantly.
+
+"From the coast," she replied.
+
+"That so? Born there?"
+
+"Oh no. I was born in Maryland, near Washington."
+
+"There's a place I'd like to live if I had money enough. A feller can
+have a continuous picnic in Washington if he's got the dust to spare, so
+I hear."
+
+"Now you set the table while I make the omelette."
+
+"The how-many?"
+
+"The omelette, which must go directly to the table after it is made."
+
+He began to pile dishes on the table, which ran across one end of the
+room, but found time to watch her as she broke the eggs.
+
+"If a feller lives long enough and keeps his mouth shut and his eyes
+open he'll learn a powerful heap, won't he? I've seen that word in the
+newspaper a whole lot, but I'll be shot if I ever knew that it was jest
+aigs."
+
+Jennie was amused, but too hungry to spend much time listening. "You may
+call them in," she said, after a glance at the biscuit.
+
+The young man opened the door and said, lazily, "Cap, come to grub."
+
+Curtis was again examining the guns in the rack, "You're well heeled."
+
+"Haff to be, in this country," said the young fellow, carelessly. "Set
+down anywhere--that is, I mean anywhere the cook says."
+
+Jennie didn't like his growing familiarity, but she dissembled. "Sit
+here, George," she said, indicating a chair at the end. "I will sit
+where I can reach the coffee."
+
+"Let me do that," said Calvin. "Louie, I guess you're not in this game,"
+he said to the boy looking wistfully in at the door.
+
+"Oh, let him come--he's as hungry as we are. Let him sit down,"
+protested Jennie.
+
+Young Streeter acquiesced. "It's all the same to me, if _you_ don't
+object to a 'breed," he said, brutally. Louie took his seat in silence,
+but it was plain he did not enjoy the insolence of the cowboy.
+
+Curtis was after information. "You speak of needing guns--there isn't
+any danger, I hope?"
+
+"Well, not right now, but we expect to get Congress to pass a bill
+removing these brutes, and then there may be trouble. Even now we find
+it safer to go armed. Every little while some Injun kills a beef for us,
+and we want to be prepared to skin 'em if we jump 'em up in time. I
+wouldn't trust one of 'em as far as you could throw a yearling bull by
+the tail."
+
+"Are they as bad as that?" asked Jennie, with widely open eyes.
+
+"They're treacherous hounds. Old Elk goes around smiling, but he'd let a
+knife into me too quick if he saw his chance. Hark!" he called, with
+lifted hand.
+
+They all listened. The swift drumming of hoofs could be heard, mingled
+with the chuckle of a carriage. Calvin rose. "That's the old man, I
+reckon," and going to the door he raised a peculiar whoop. A voice
+replied faintly, and soon the buggy rolled up to the door and the
+new-comer entered the front room. A quick, sharp voice cried out:
+
+"Whose hat is that? Who's here?"
+
+"A feller on his way to visit the agent. He's in there eatin' supper."
+
+A rapid, resolute step approached the door, and Curtis looked up to meet
+the keen eyes of a big, ruddy-faced man of fifty, with hair and beard
+as white as wool. His eyes were steel-blue and penetrating as fire.
+
+"Good-evening, sir. Good-evening, madam. Don't rise. Keep your seats.
+I'll just drop my coat and sit down with you."
+
+He was so distinctly a man of remarkable quality that Curtis stared at
+him in deep surprise. He had expected to see a loose-jointed, slouchy
+man of middle-age, but Joseph Streeter was plainly a man of decision and
+power. His white hair did not betoken weakness or age, for he moved like
+one in the full vigor of his late manhood. To his visitors he appeared
+to be a suspicious, irascible, and generous man.
+
+"Hello!" he called, jovially, "biscuit! Cal, you didn't do these, nor
+Hosy, neither."
+
+Cal grinned. "Well, not by a whole row o' dogs. This--lady did 'em."
+
+Streeter turned his vivid blue eyes on Jennie. "I want to know! Well,
+I'm much obliged. When did you come?" he asked of Curtis.
+
+"About an hour ago."
+
+"Goin' far?"
+
+"Over to the agency."
+
+"Friend of the agent?"
+
+"No, but I have a letter of introduction to him."
+
+Streeter seemed to be satisfied. "You'll find him a very accommodating
+gentleman."
+
+"So I hear," said Curtis, and some subtle inflection in his tone caused
+Streeter to turn towards him again.
+
+"What did I understand your name was?"
+
+"Curtis."
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"San Francisco."
+
+"Oh yes. I think I heard Sennett speak of you. Those biscuit are mighty
+good. I'll take another. Couldn't persuade you to stay here, could I?"
+He turned to Jennie.
+
+Jennie laughed. "I'm afraid not--it's too lonesome."
+
+Cal seized the chance to say: "It ain't so lonesome as it looks now.
+We're a lively lot here sometimes."
+
+Streeter gave him a glance which stopped him. "Cal, you take Hosy and go
+over to the camp and tell the boys to hustle in two hundred steers. I
+want to get 'em passed on to-morrow afternoon, or next day sure."
+
+Calvin's face fell. "I don't think I need to go. Hosy can carry the
+orders just as well as me," he said, boyishly sullen.
+
+"I want _you_ to go!" was the stern answer, and it was plain that
+Streeter was commander even of his reckless son.
+
+As he rose from the table, Calvin said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "I'll
+be here to breakfast all right, and I'll see that you get over to the
+agency."
+
+Streeter the elder upon reflection considered that his guests had not
+sufficiently accounted for themselves, and, after Calvin left, again
+turned a penetrating glance on Curtis, saying, in a peculiar way, "Where
+did you say you were from?"
+
+"San Francisco," replied Curtis, promptly, and cut in ahead with a
+question of his own. "You seem to be well supplied with munitions of
+war. Do you need all those guns now?"
+
+"Need every shell. We're going to oust these devils pretty soon, and
+they know it, and they're ugly."
+
+"What do you mean by ousting 'em?"
+
+"We're pushing a bill to have 'em removed."
+
+"Where to?"
+
+"Oh, to the Red River reservation, or the Powder Valley; we're not
+particular, so that we get rid of 'em."
+
+Jennie tingled with indignation as Streeter outlined the plans of the
+settlers and told of his friction with the redmen, but Curtis remained
+calm and smiling.
+
+"You'll miss their market for your beef, won't you?"
+
+"Oh, that's a small item in comparison with the extra range we'll get,"
+and thereupon he entered upon a long statement of what the government
+ought to do.
+
+Jennie rose wearily, and the old man was all attention.
+
+"I suppose you are tired and would like to go to bed?"
+
+"We are rather limp," confessed Curtis, glad to escape the searching
+cross-examination which he knew would follow Jennie's retirement.
+
+When they were alone the two young people looked at each other in
+silence, Jennie with big, horrified eyes, Curtis with an amused
+comprehension of his sister's feeling. "Isn't he a pirate? He doesn't
+know it, but his state of mind makes him indictable for murder on the
+high seas."
+
+"George, I don't like this. We are going to have trouble if this old man
+and his like are not put off this reservation."
+
+"Well, now, we won't put him off to-night, especially as he is a gallant
+host. But this visit here has put me in touch with the cattlemen. I feel
+that I know their plans and their temper very clearly."
+
+"George, I will not sleep here in this room alone. You must make up a
+cot-bed or something. These people make me nervous, with their guns and
+Mexican servants."
+
+"Don't you worry, sis. I'll roll up in a blanket and sleep across your
+door-sill," and this he did, acknowledging the reasonableness of her
+fears.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+CURTIS ASSUMES CHARGE OF THE AGENT
+
+
+During the night Curtis was quite sure he heard a party of men ride up
+to the door, but in the morning there remained no signs of them.
+
+They were early on their feet, and Calvin, true to his promise, was
+present to help get breakfast. He had shaved some time during the night,
+and wore a new shirt with a purple silk handkerchief looped about his
+neck, and Jennie found it hard to be as cold and severe with him as she
+had resolved upon. He was only a big, handsome boy, after all.
+
+"I'm going to send that half-breed back and take you over to the fort
+myself," he said to Curtis.
+
+"No, I can't have that," Curtis sharply replied. "If you care to ride
+with us over to the fort I've no objection, but Louie will carry out his
+contract with us." The truth was, he did not care to be under any
+further obligation to the Streeters.
+
+Breakfast was a hurried and rather silent meal. As they rose, Jennie
+said, apologetically: "I fear I can't stop to do up the dishes. It is a
+long, hard ride to the fort."
+
+"That's right," replied Calvin, "it's close on thirty-five miles. Never
+you mind about the dishes. Hosy will swab 'em out."
+
+As they were mounting, the elder Streeter said, hospitably: "If you
+return this way, Mr. Curtis, make my ranch your half-way house." He
+bowed to Jennie. "My wife will be here then, miss, and you will not be
+obliged to cook your own meals."
+
+"Oh, I didn't mind; I rather enjoyed it," responded Jennie.
+
+Calvin was delayed at the start, and came thundering after with a
+shrill, cowboy yell, his horse running close to the ground with ears
+viciously laid back. The boy made a fine figure as he swept past them
+with the speed of an eagle. His was the perfection of range
+horsemanship. He talked, gesticulated, rolled cigarettes, put his coat
+on or off as he rode, without apparent thought of his horse or of the
+ground he crossed.
+
+He knew nothing but the life of a cattleman, and spoke quite frankly of
+his ignorance.
+
+"The old man tried to send me to school once. Packed me off to St. Joe.
+I stayed a week. 'See here, old man, don't do that again,' I says. 'I
+won't stand for it.' Hell! You might as well tie up a coyote as shut me
+in a school-room."
+
+He made a most picturesque guide as he rode ahead of them, always in
+view, completing a thousand typical combinations of man and horse and
+landscape--now suppling in his saddle to look down and a little backward
+at some "sign," now trotting straight towards a dark opening among the
+pines, now wheeling swiftly to mount a sudden ascent on the trail.
+Everything he did was as graceful and as self-unconscious as the
+movements of a panther. He was a living illustration of all the cowboy
+stories the girl had read. His horse, his saddle, his peculiar,
+slouching seat, the roll of clothing behind his saddle, his spurs, his
+long-heeled boots--every detail was as it should be, and Jennie was glad
+of him, and of Louis, too.
+
+"Yes, it's all here, Jennie," replied Curtis--"the wild country, the
+Indian, the gallant scout, and the tender maiden."
+
+"I'm having a beautiful ride. Since we left the wagon-road it really
+seems like the primitive wilderness."
+
+"It is. This little wedge of land is all these brave people have saved
+from the flood. They made their last stand here. The reflux from the
+coast caught them here, and here they are, waiting extinction."
+
+The girl's eyes widened. "It's tragic, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, but so is all life, except to Calvin Streeter, and even he wants
+what he can't get. He told me this morning he wanted to go to Chicago
+and take a fall out of a judge who fined him for carrying a gun. So even
+he has his unsatisfied ambition. As he told me about it he snarled like
+a young tiger."
+
+At about one o'clock, Calvin, who was riding ahead, halted on the crest
+of a timbered ridge and raised a shout.
+
+"He's topped the divide!" called Curtis to Jennie, who was riding
+behind. "We'll soon be in."
+
+"I'm glad of it. I'm tired."
+
+When they reached the spot where Calvin waited they could look down into
+the main valley of the Elk, and the agency, a singular village of
+ancient barracks, sheds, corrals, and red-roofed storehouses was almost
+beneath them. All about on the low hills the criss-crossing trails gave
+evidence that the Tetongs were still a nation of horsemen. Theirs was a
+barren land, a land of pine-clad, precipitous hills and deep valleys,
+which opened to the east--a region of scant rains and thin, discouraged
+streams.
+
+The sight of the officers' whitewashed quarters and the parade-ground
+brought a certain sadness to Curtis.
+
+"The old garrison don't look as it did when I was here in 188-," he
+said, musingly. "Army days in the West are almost gone. The Indian war
+is over. What a waste of human life it was on both sides! Yes, Louie, go
+ahead."
+
+As they alternately slid and trotted down the trail, native horsemen
+could be seen coming and going, their gay blankets sparkling in the
+clear air. Others on foot were clustered about the central building,
+where the flag hung droopingly on a tall staff. As they passed the
+corral, groups of young Tetongs smiled and nudged each other, but
+offered no greeting. Neither did the older men, though their keen eyes
+absorbed every detail of the stranger's dress and bearing. It was plain
+that they held every white man in suspicion, especially if he came
+attended by a cowboy.
+
+Calvin was elaborately free and easy with them all, eager to show his
+wide acquaintanceship. "Hello, Two Horns; hello, Hawk," he called to a
+couple of fine-looking men of middle age. They did not reply. "Hello,
+Gray Wolf, you old sardine; want to try another horse-race?"
+
+Gray Wolf, evidently something of a wag, smilingly replied: "You bet.
+Got new pony--heap fast."
+
+Calvin wheeled and spurred into the bunch of young fellows, who
+scattered with shouts of laughter, while the Captain and Jennie followed
+Louie, their guide, to the agency gate.
+
+They were met at the fence before the office by two men, one a
+middle-aged man, with a dirty-gray beard and fat, bloated cheeks, who
+said, blandly: "Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, miss; nice day."
+
+Curtis dismounted. "Are you Mr. Sennett?"
+
+"I am--what can I do for you?" He turned to his companion, a tall young
+man, with innocent gray eyes and a loose, weak mouth: "This is my son
+Clarence. Clarence, take the lady's horse."
+
+"Thank you," said the Captain, as he stepped inside the gate. "I am
+Captain Curtis, of the cavalry, detailed to take charge of this agency.
+You have just left the office--have you the keys in your pocket? If so,
+please surrender them to me. It is an unpleasant duty, but I am ordered
+to assume absolute control at once."
+
+The man's red skin faded to a yellow-gray--the color of his beard. For a
+moment he seemed about to fall, then the blood came surging back; his
+cheeks grew purple with its weight.
+
+"I'll be damned if I submit. It is an outrage!"
+
+"You can't afford to make any trouble. I am sorry to do this, but I am
+under orders of the department to take you unawares, and on no account
+to let you return to your office."
+
+Sennett began to bluster. "Show me your authority."
+
+"My authority is in this paper." He drew the order from his pocket. "If
+you think a moment you will see that instant acquiescence is best."
+
+While Sennett stormed, the two chiefs, Elk and Two Horns, drew near, and
+lifting his hand, Curtis, using the sign language swiftly, said to them:
+
+"I am your new agent. The Great Father has heard that the old agent is
+bad. I am here to straighten matters out. I am Swift Eagle--don't you
+remember? I came with Bear Robe. I was only second lieutenant then."
+
+The faces of the old chiefs lit up with pleasure. "Ay, we remember! We
+shake your hands. We are glad you have come."
+
+Curtis then asked: "Who is your interpreter--one you can trust, one who
+can read this paper."
+
+The two men looked at each other for a moment. Elk said, "Joe?"
+
+Two Horns shook his head; then, catching sight of a man who was
+regarding the scene from a door-way not very distant, he said, in
+English: "Him--Nawson. Hay, my friend," he called, "come here!"
+
+This observer at once responded to Two Horns' sign. As he came up the
+chief said: "My friend, here is a paper from Washington; read it for
+us."
+
+Curtis said: "I am Captain Curtis, of the cavalry, detailed to act as
+agent here. This is my commission."
+
+The stranger extended his hand. "I'm glad to meet you, Captain Curtis,
+very glad, indeed." As they shook hands he added: "I've read your
+articles on the sign language, et cetera, with great pleasure. My name
+is Lawson."
+
+Curtis smiled. "Are you Osborne Lawson? I'm mighty glad to meet you.
+This is my sister, Mr. Lawson."
+
+Mr. Lawson greeted Jennie with grace, and she liked him at once. His
+manner was direct and his voice pleasing. He was tall, lean, and a
+little stooping, but strong and brown. "Now, Captain, what can I do for
+you?" he asked, turning briskly.
+
+"I want you to read this paper to the chiefs here, and then I intend to
+put a guard on the door. Mr. Sennett is not to be permitted to re-enter
+his office. These are harsh measures, but I am not responsible for
+them."
+
+Lawson looked thoughtful. "I see." After reading the paper he said to
+the chiefs: "It is as this man has said. The Great Father has sent him
+here to take charge of the office. The old agent is cut off--he is not
+allowed to go back to his office for fear he may hide something. Have
+Crow put a guard on the door. The new agent will try to find out why you
+have not received your rations. This is the secret of this paper, and
+here is the signature of the Secretary. This is a true thing, and you
+must now obey Captain Curtis. I know him," he said, looking round him.
+"He is my friend; you can trust him. That is all."
+
+"Good! Good!" said the chiefs. "We understand."
+
+A short, dark Tetong in a frayed captain's uniform came up. "I am chief
+of the police," he signed. "What shall I do?"
+
+"Guard the door of the office and of the issue house. Let no one but
+those I bring enter. Will you do as I say?" he asked.
+
+"Ay!" replied the officer, whose name was Crow.
+
+"Then all is said; go guard the door."
+
+Sennett and his son had withdrawn a little from the scene and were
+talking in low voices. They had placed themselves in the worst possible
+light, and they felt it. As Curtis reached this point in his orders,
+Sennett started to cross the road.
+
+"Wait a moment, gentlemen," called Curtis. "My orders are very strict. I
+must precede you. There is a certain desk in your library, Mr. Sennett,
+which I must search."
+
+Sennett flamed out into wild oaths. "You shall not search my private
+papers."
+
+"Silence!" called Curtis. "Another oath and I'll put you in the
+guard-house."
+
+"Do you suppose I'm going to submit to this without protest? You treat
+me like a criminal."
+
+"So far as my orders go, that's what you are," said Curtis. "I give you
+the benefit of the doubt so long as you act the gentleman, but you must
+respect the presence of my sister, or I'll gag you." After a pause he
+added, in a gentler tone: "I don't pretend to judge your case. I am
+merely obeying the orders of the department."
+
+"I have powerful friends in Washington. You will regret this," snarled
+Sennett. But his son was like one smitten dumb; his breathing was
+troubled, and his big, gray eyes were childish in their wide appeal.
+
+Lawson then spoke. "Can I do anything further, Captain? Command me
+freely."
+
+"No, I think not, except to see that my horses are taken care of and my
+guide fed. I suppose there is a mess or boarding-house where my sister
+can get something to eat."
+
+"Won't you come to dinner with me?" asked Lawson. "Mrs. Wilcox, some
+artist friends, and I are messing over in one of the old quarters, and
+our mid-day dinner is waiting."
+
+Curtis smiled grimly. "Thank you, I am on duty. I must dine with Mr.
+Sennett. Jennie will accept your invitation thankfully."
+
+As Curtis walked over to the agency house with Sennett and his son,
+Jennie looked anxious. "They may do something to him."
+
+Lawson smiled. "Oh no, they won't. They are quite cowed, but I'll
+suggest a guard." He turned to Two Horns and said, in Dakota: "Father,
+the old agent is angry. The new agent is a brave man, but he is only one
+against two."
+
+"I understand," said the old man, with a smile, and a few minutes later
+a couple of policemen were sitting on the door-step of the agent's
+house. It was a sunny place to sit, and they enjoyed being there very
+much. One of them understood English, and the other was well able to
+tell an angry word when he heard it spoken.
+
+The drowsy hush of mid-day again settled down upon the little cluster of
+buildings--news, even when it passes swiftly among red people, makes no
+noise. It walks with velvet foot, it speaks in a murmur; it hastens, but
+conceals its haste.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE BEAUTIFUL ELSIE BEE BEE
+
+
+As Jennie entered the mess-house she uttered a little cry of amazement.
+Outwardly, it was a rude barrack of whitewashed cottonwood logs, but its
+interior glowed with color and light. Bright rugs were on the floor, and
+a big divan in one corner displayed a monstrous black bear-skin. A
+capacious fireplace, which dated back to the first invasion of the army,
+filled one end of the hall, which had been enlarged by the removal of a
+partition. Oil-paintings, without frames, were tacked against the walls,
+and the odor of fresh pigments lingered in the air.
+
+"This is our general meeting-place," explained Lawson.
+
+"It smells like a studio," Jennie replied, after a glance around her.
+
+A plain, quiet little woman, with a look of inquiry on her face,
+appeared at the dining-room door, and Lawson called out:
+
+"Mrs. Wilcox, this is Miss Curtis, who will stay with us for a few
+days." As they greeted each other he added: "There is a story to tell,
+but we are late, and it can wait. Where is Elsie?"
+
+"Still at work. She never _would_ come to her meals if we didn't call
+her."
+
+"I'm disposed to try it some day. Will you take charge of Miss Curtis
+while I go fetch the delinquent?"
+
+Under Mrs. Wilcox's direction Jennie prepared for luncheon in an
+adjoining room, wondering still at the unexpected refinement of the
+furnishings, and curious to see the artist.
+
+As she re-entered the sitting-room a tall girl rose languidly to meet
+her, and Lawson said: "Miss Curtis, this is Miss Brisbane, the painter
+of the pictures you see about."
+
+Miss Brisbane bowed in silence, while Jennie cried out: "Oh! did you do
+them? I think they are beautiful!"
+
+The sincerity of her voice touched the young artist, and she said: "I'm
+glad you like them--sometimes I think they're pretty 'bum.'"
+
+A slang word on the red lips of the handsome girl seemed wofully out of
+place to Jennie, who stared at her with the eager curiosity of a child.
+She was slender and dark, with an exquisite chin, and her hands, though
+slim and white, were strong and capable. Her eyes were very dark, of a
+velvety brown-black, and her hair was abundant and negligently piled
+upon her small head. Altogether she had a stately and rather foreign
+presence, which made Jennie feel very dowdy and very commonplace.
+
+Mrs. Wilcox hurried them all out into the dining-room, where a pretty
+table was spread for six people. Jennie's attention was absorbed by the
+walls, which were also lightened with sketches of small, red babies in
+gay cradles, and of glowing bits of tawny plain and purple butte.
+
+"Did you do all of these beautiful things?" she asked.
+
+Lawson interposed. "She did, Miss Curtis. Be not deceived. Miss
+Brisbane's languid manner springs from her theory of rest. When work is
+finished she 'devitalizes'--I think that is the word--and becomes a rag.
+But she's a horrible example of industry, spineless as she now appears."
+
+Miss Brisbane remained quite unmoved by Lawson's words; smiling
+dreamily, her red lips, as serene as those of a child, softly shaped
+themselves to say: "The strung bow needs relaxation."
+
+"I think you are right," said Jennie, with sudden conviction.
+
+Elsie opened her eyes wide and murmured, "Thank you."
+
+Jennie went on: "Now my trouble is just that. I'm always nerved up. I
+can't relax. Won't you teach me how?"
+
+"With pleasure. Are you going to live here?" asked Elsie, with faint
+accession of interest.
+
+"As long as my brother does."
+
+"I suppose you've come to teach these ragamuffins?"
+
+Lawson here answered for Jennie. "Miss Curtis is a sister to Captain
+Curtis, who has come to displace your uncle."
+
+Miss Brisbane looked up blankly. "I don't understand."
+
+Lawson became explicit, and as she listened the girl's hands clinched.
+
+"How abominable!" she cried, with eyes aflame.
+
+"Not at all. If Mr. Sennett is an honest employé of the government, he
+should be willing to be searched--if he isn't, then no measure is too
+harsh. He'll get a thorough raking over, if my impression of the new
+agent is correct."
+
+"My father would not put a dishonest man in this place," insisted Elsie,
+"and I don't believe Uncle Sennett has done wrong."
+
+"Well, now, we'll suspend judgment," retorted Lawson, who knew just when
+to change his tone. "Captain Curtis is an officer of known ability, and
+no one can accuse him of prejudice. His living doesn't depend upon
+pleasing either Mr. Sennett or your father. Undoubtedly the government
+has good reasons for sending him here, and I for one am willing to
+accept his judgment."
+
+Elsie rose in swift resolution. "I say it is an outrage! I am going to
+see that Uncle Sennett is not persecuted."
+
+Lawson laid his hand on her arm and his voice was sternly quiet. "I
+think you would better finish your tea. Whatever protest you feel called
+upon to make can be made later. If you like," he added, in a gentler
+voice, "I will represent you in the matter and go with you to see
+Captain Curtis during the afternoon. I don't think we should trouble him
+now."
+
+Elsie resumed her seat without either accepting or rejecting his offer,
+and the meal continued in some constraint, although Lawson summoned his
+best humor to cover Elsie's passionate outburst.
+
+A few minutes later Elsie sullenly retired to her studio, and Lawson
+said: "I am going out to see what is going on, Miss Curtis; please make
+yourself at home here."
+
+When the door closed behind him Jennie turned to Mrs. Wilcox. "Why does
+Mr. Lawson use that tone with Miss Brisbane--are they engaged?"
+
+Mrs. Wilcox laughed. "That's just what none of us knows. Sometimes I
+think they are husband and wife--he lectures her so."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Curtis joined the mess in the evening he was weary and a little
+sombre. Vastly preoccupied with his difficult task at the office, he had
+given but little attention to Jennie's announcement of having been taken
+into the bosom of an artistic family messing at the barracks, and when
+Elsie met him in a regal gown, glittering and changeful, he pulled
+himself up in surprise and admiration.
+
+Elsie, on her part, was eager to see him and ready to do battle, but as
+he faced her, abrupt, vigorous of movement, keen-eyed and
+composed--almost stern of countenance--she was a little daunted. He was
+handsomer than she had expected, and older. His head was impressive, his
+frame muscular, and his movements graceful. Plainly he was a man of
+power, one it would be politic to treat with respect.
+
+As they took up their napkins at the table Lawson opened out: "Well,
+Captain, we don't want to seem inquisitive, but we are dying to know
+what you've been doing this afternoon. We feel on the outside of it
+all."
+
+"Yes," Elsie quickly added, "we want to know whether there is to be a
+revolution, or only a riot."
+
+Curtis turned to her smilingly and replied: "You'll all be disappointed.
+I've been looking over accounts and holding humdrum audience with my
+clerks--a very busy but very quiet afternoon--nothing doing, as the
+phrase goes."
+
+"Where is Uncle Sennett?" inquired Elsie. "I tried to find him, but your
+men would not let me into the office."
+
+"You shouldn't have tried," interjected Lawson.
+
+"Is he your uncle?" asked Curtis.
+
+"He's my father's sister's husband--but that doesn't matter; I'd defend
+him if he were a stranger. I think he has been shamefully treated. The
+idea of searching his private desk!"
+
+Curtis looked at her keenly. "I am under orders," he said. "Mr. Sennett
+is nothing to me, one way or the other. The question for answer is--has
+he abused his office?"
+
+"He has not!" exclaimed Elsie. "I _know_ he has not. He is not a man to
+cheat and steal; he is not a strong man, but he is kind and generous."
+
+"Too kind and too generous," muttered Lawson.
+
+"I'm sorry to say that the records are against him," replied Curtis,
+"and his action is against him. He and his son have gone to Pinon
+City--riding very like fugitives. I had no orders to hold them; indeed,
+I was glad to let them go."
+
+Elsie bit her lips. "He has gone to get aid," she said at last, "and
+when he comes back you will take a different tone with him."
+
+Curtis laughed. "I believe he did say he'd have my hide, or something
+like that."
+
+Lawson put in a word. "He'll do it, too, if the cattle interest can
+influence the Secretary. Don't tell us any more than is proper,
+Captain, but--how do you find his accounts?"
+
+"In very bad shape. The chiefs say he has been holding back rations and
+turning in bad beef for some time."
+
+"You'd take the word of a nasty Indian against my uncle, or _any_ white
+man, I can see that," said Elsie, in withering scorn.
+
+Curtis turned upon her a most searching glance. "Miss Brisbane, I don't
+understand your attitude towards me. As a soldier on special duty,
+detailed almost against my will, I have no prejudice in this affair. It
+is my duty to see that the treaties of the government are carried out.
+You seem to think I am started on a line of persecution of your uncle--"
+he checked himself. "I beg you will not pursue the subject any further."
+He turned to Lawson with an effort to put aside unpleasant conversation.
+"Please don't ask me disagreeable questions when I am curious to know
+the meaning of this artistic invasion of my territory. Who is
+responsible for these pictures?"
+
+Lawson hastened to explain. "This plague of artists is due to me
+entirely, Captain Curtis. I am doing some studies of the Tetongs, and
+Miss Brisbane came out to make some illustrations for me. In fact, she
+suggested coming here rather than to the upper agencies, because of her
+uncle's presence. Our coming brought others."
+
+"I am very glad you came," said Curtis, heartily, "and I will do all in
+my power to further your work. Please do not allow my coming to change
+your plans in the slightest degree."
+
+Lawson continued: "Intending to stay some months, we concluded to set up
+a mess and be comfortable--and permit me to say, we hope you'll eat with
+us until your own goods arrive."
+
+"Thank you; I accept with pleasure, for I don't enjoy camping in the
+tent of my angry predecessor--this company is more to my mind."
+
+Elsie's red lips were tremulous with indignation. "You can't blame Mr.
+Sennett for being angry. You would be if treated in the same way. There
+is no justice in it. _I_ would never have surrendered those keys to
+you."
+
+Curtis patiently repeated, "My orders were peremptory."
+
+"You can't take shelter behind that plea. Your acts are atrocious, and I
+shall write to my father in Washington and have you investigated." She
+was beautiful as flame in the glow of her wrath.
+
+Curtis seemed struck with a new idea. "Are you the daughter of
+ex-Senator Brisbane?"
+
+She braced herself. "Well, suppose I am?"
+
+"Oh, nothing at all--only it explains."
+
+"What does it explain?"
+
+"Your attitude. It is quite natural for a daughter of Andrew Brisbane to
+take sides against these people." He was not in a mood to be gallant,
+and his glance quelled the angry girl.
+
+With flushed face and quivering lips she sprang to her feet. "I will not
+stay to be insulted," she said.
+
+Curtis rose as she swept from the room, but checked his instinctive
+words of apology and returned to his seat in silence.
+
+Mrs. Wilcox relieved the painful pause by saying, "Captain Curtis, you
+must not misjudge Elsie. She is a much better girl than she seems."
+
+Lawson was troubled as he said, "She has lashed herself into a great
+rage over this affair, but as a matter of fact she don't care a hang for
+Sennett."
+
+"I can't apologize for doing my duty," said Curtis, "even to Miss
+Brisbane."
+
+"Certainly not," replied Lawson, though he was deeply hurt by Elsie's
+display of unreason.
+
+As soon as he decently could, he followed her to her studio, where he
+found her lying in sullen dejection on the big divan. "Bee Bee, you are
+missing a good dinner," he began, gently.
+
+She was instantly ready to fight. "I suppose you blame me for this
+scene."
+
+"I think you are hasty, and a little unreasonable. I know Curtis by
+reputation, and he is above any petty malice."
+
+"You are taking his side against me!"
+
+"Not at all, Bee Bee, I am merely trying to show you--"
+
+"He looked at me as no man ever dared to look before, and I hate him. He
+thinks because he has a little authority he can lord it over us all
+here. I shall write to father at once, telling him just how this little
+prig of a lieutenant--"
+
+"Captain," interrupted Lawson--"for distinguished service."
+
+His smile made her furious. She flung herself back on the divan. "Go
+away. I hate you, too."
+
+Lawson, at the end of his patience, went out and closed the door behind
+him. "What is the matter with the girl?" he said to Mrs. Wilcox. "I've
+seen her in temper, but never like this. She has taken the most violent
+antagonism to Curtis."
+
+"She'd better let that young man alone," replied Mrs. Wilcox, sagely.
+"He has a very firm mouth."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+CAGED EAGLES
+
+
+The word had gone out among all the red people that the old agent was
+entirely "cut off," and that a soldier and a sign-talker had come to
+take his place, and so each little camp loaded its tepees on wagons or
+lashed them to the ponies and came flocking in to sit down before the
+Little Father and be inspired of him.
+
+The young men came first, whirling in on swift ponies, looking at a
+distance like bands of cowboys--for, though they hated the cattlemen,
+they formed themselves on Calvin Streeter as a model. Each wore a wide,
+white hat and dark trousers, and carried a gay kerchief slung round his
+neck. All still wore moccasins of buckskin, beautifully beaded and
+fringed, and their braided hair hung low on their breasts.
+
+The old men, who jogged in later in the day, still carried blankets,
+though they, too, had adopted the trousers and calico shirts of the
+white man. Several of the chieftains preserved their precious
+peace-pipes, and their fans and tobacco pouches, as of old, and a few of
+those who had been in Washington came in wrinkled suits of army-blue.
+The women dressed in calico robes cut in their own distinctive style,
+with wide sleeves, the loose flow of the garment being confined at the
+waist with a girdle. As this was a time of great formality, several of
+the young girls returned to their buckskin dresses trimmed with elk
+teeth, which they highly prized.
+
+As a race they were tall and strong, but the men, from much riding, were
+thin in the shanks and bowed out at the knee. They had lost the fine
+proportions for which they were famed in the days when they were
+trailers a-foot. "Straight as an Indian" no longer applied to them, but
+they were all skilled and picturesque horsemen. Lacking in beauty and
+strength, they possessed other compensating qualities which still made
+them most interesting to an artist. Their gestures were unstudiedly
+graceful, and their roughhewn faces were pleasant in expression. Ill
+words or dark looks were rare among them.
+
+In all external things they were quite obviously half-way from the tepee
+to the cabin. Their homes consisted of small hovels of cottonwood logs,
+set round with tall tepees and low lodges of canvas, used for
+dormitories and kitchens in summer. A rack for drying meat rations was a
+part of each family's possessions. They owned many minute ponies, and
+their camps abounded in dogs of wolfish breed which they handled not at
+all, for they were, as of old, merely the camp-guard.
+
+Such were the salient characteristics of the Tetongs, westernmost
+representatives of a once powerful race of hunters, whose home had been
+far to the east, in a land of lakes, rivers, and forests. They were not
+strangers to the young soldier; he knew their history and their habits
+of thought. He now studied them to detect change and found
+deterioration. "I am your friend," he said to them each and all. "I
+come to do you good, to lead you in the new road. It is a strange road
+to me also, for I, too, am a soldier and a hunter; but together we will
+learn to make the earth produce meat for our eating. Put your hand in
+mine."
+
+He was plunged at once into a wilderness of work, but in his moments of
+leisure the face of Elsie Brisbane came into his thought and her
+resentment troubled him more than he cared to acknowledge. He well knew
+that her birth and her training put her in hopeless opposition to all he
+was planning to do for the Tetongs, and yet he determined to demonstrate
+to her both the justice and the humanity of his position.
+
+He knew her father's career very well. He had once travelled for two
+days on the same railway train with him, and remembered him as a
+boastful but powerful man, whose antagonism no one held in light esteem.
+Andrew Brisbane had entered the State at a time when its mineral wealth
+lay undeveloped and free to the taker, and having leagued himself with
+men less masterly than himself but quite as unscrupulous, had set to
+work to grasp and hold the natural resources of the great Territory--he
+laid strong fists upon the mines and forests and grass of the wild land.
+Once grasped, nothing was ever surrendered.
+
+It mattered nothing to him and his kind that a race of men already lived
+upon this land and were prepared to die in defence of it. By adroit
+juggling, he and his corporation put the unsuspecting settler forward to
+receive the first shock of the battle, and, when trouble came, loudly
+called upon the government to send its troops "in support of the
+pioneers." In this way, without danger to himself, the shrewd old Yankee
+had acquired mineral belts, cattle-ranges, railway rights, and many
+other good things, and at last, when the Territory was made a State, he
+became one of its senators.
+
+Naturally, he hated the red people. They were pestilential because,
+first of all, they paid no railway charges, and also for the reason that
+they held the land away from those who would add to his unearned
+increment and increase the sum total of his tariff receipts. His
+original plan was broadly simple. "Sweep them from the earth," he
+snarled, when asked "What will we do with the Indians?" But his policy,
+modified by men with hearts and a sense of justice, had settled into a
+process of remorseless removal from point to point, from tillable land
+to grazing land, from grazing land to barren waste, and from barren
+waste to arid desert. He had no doubts in these matters. It was good
+business, and to say a thing was not good business was conclusive. The
+Tetong did not pay--remove him!
+
+Elsie in her home-life, therefore, had been well schooled in race
+hatred. Tender-hearted where suffering in a dog or even a wolf was
+concerned, she remained indifferent when a tribe was reported to be
+starving. Nothing modified her view till, as an art student in Paris,
+she came into contact with men who placed high value on the redman as
+"material." She found herself envied because she had casually looked
+upon a few of these "wonderful chaps," as Newt Penrose called them, and
+was often asked to give her impressions of them. When she returned to
+New York she was deeply impressed by Maurice Stewart's enormous success
+in sculpturing certain types of this despised race. A little later
+Wilfred J. Buttes, who had been struggling along as a painter of bad
+portraits, suddenly purchased a house in a choice suburb on the strength
+of two summers' work among the mountain Utes.
+
+Thereupon Elsie opened her eyes. Not that money was a lure to her, for
+it was not, but she was eager for notice--for the fame that comes
+quickly, and with loud trumpets and gay banners. In conversation with
+Lawson one day she learned that he was about to do some pen-portraits of
+noted Tetong chieftains, and at once sprang to her opportunity. She
+admired and trusted Lawson. His keen judgment, his definiteness of
+speech awed her a little, and with him she was noticeably less assertive
+than with the others of her artist acquaintances. So here now she sat,
+painting with rigor and immense satisfaction the picturesque rags and
+tinsel ornaments of the Tetongs. To her they were beggars and tramps, on
+a scale with the lazzaroni of Rome or Naples. That they were anything
+more than troublesome models had not been borne in on her mind.
+
+She had never professed special regard for her uncle the agent--in fact,
+she covertly despised him for his lack of power--but, now that the issue
+was drawn, she naturally flew to the side of those who would destroy the
+small peoples of the earth. She wrote to her father a passionate letter.
+
+"Can't you stop this?" she asked. "No doubt Uncle Henry will go direct
+to Washington and make complaint. This Captain Curtis is insufferable.
+I would leave here instantly only I am bound to do some work for Mr.
+Lawson. We must all go soon, for winter is coming on, but I would like
+to see this upstart humbled. He treats me as if I were a
+school-girl--'declines to argue the matter.' Oh! he is provoking. His
+sister is a nice little thing, but she sides with him, of course--and so
+does Lawson, in a sense; so you see I am all alone. The settlers are
+infuriated at Uncle Sennett's dismissal, and will support you and Uncle
+Henry."
+
+In the days that followed she met Curtis's attempts at modifying her
+resentment with scornful silence, and took great credit to herself that
+she did not literally fly at his head when he spoke of his work or his
+wards. Her avoidance of him became so painful that at the end of the
+third day he said to his sister: "Jennie, I think I will go to the
+school mess after this. Miss Brisbane's hostility shows no signs of
+relenting, and the situation is becoming decidedly unpleasant."
+
+"George!" said Jennie, sternly. "Don't you let that snip drive you away.
+Why, the thing is ridiculous! She is here on sufferance--your
+sufferance. You could order them all off the reservation at once."
+
+"I know I could, but I won't. You know what I mean--I can't even let
+Miss Brisbane know that she has made me uncomfortable. She's a very
+instructive example of the power of environment. She has all the
+prejudices and a good part of the will of her father, and represents her
+class just as a little wild-cat represents its species. She's a
+beautiful girl, and yet she is to me one of the most unattractive women
+I ever knew."
+
+Jennie looked puzzled. "You are a little hard on her, George. She _is_
+unsympathetic, but I think she says a lot of those shocking things just
+to hurt you."
+
+"That isn't very nice, either," he said, quietly. "Well, our goods are
+on the way, and by Thursday we'll be independent of any one. But maybe
+you are right--it would excite comment if I left the mess. I will join
+you all at meals until we are ready to light our own kitchen fire."
+
+Thereafter he saw very little of the artists. By borrowing a few
+necessaries of his head farmer he was able to camp down in the house
+which Sennett had so precipitately vacated. He was busy, very busy,
+during the day; but when his work was over and he sat beside his fire,
+pipe in hand, Elsie's haughty face troubled him. His life had not taken
+him much among women, and his love fancies had been few. His duties as
+an officer and his researches as a forester and map-builder had also
+aided to keep him a bachelor. Once or twice he had been disturbed by a
+fair face at the post, only to have it whisked away again into the
+mysterious world of happy girlhood whence it came.
+
+And now, at thirty-four, he was obliged to confess that he was as far
+from marriage as ever--farther, in fact, for an Indian reservation
+offers but slender opportunity in way of courtship for a man of his
+exacting tastes.
+
+He was not quite honest with himself, or he would have acknowledged the
+pleasure he took in watching Elsie's erect and graceful figure as she
+rode past his office window of a morning. It was pleasant to pause at
+the open door of her studio for a moment and say "Good-morning," though
+he received but a cold and formal bow in return. She was more alluring
+at her easel than in any other place, for she had several curious and
+very pretty tricks in working, and seemed like a very intent child, with
+her brown hair loosening over her temples, her eyes glowing with
+excitement, while she dabbed at the canvas with a piece of cheese-cloth
+or a crumb of bread. She dragged her stool into position with a quick,
+amusing jerk, holding her brush in her teeth meanwhile. Her blouses were
+marvels of odd grace and rich color.
+
+The soldier once or twice lingered in silence at the door after she had
+forgotten his presence, and each time the glow of her disturbing beauty
+burned deeper into his heart, and he went away with drooping head.
+
+Mrs. Wilcox took occasion one day to remonstrate with her niece. "Elsie,
+you were very rude to Captain Curtis again to-day. He was deeply hurt."
+
+"Now, aunt, don't _you_ try to convert me to a belief in that tin
+soldier. He gets on my nerves."
+
+"It would serve you right if he ordered us off the reservation. Your
+remarks to-day before that young Mr. Streeter were very wrong and very
+injudicious, and will be used in a bad cause. Captain Curtis is trying
+to keep the peace here, and you are doing a great deal of harm by your
+hints of his removal."
+
+"I don't care. I intend to have him removed. I have taken a frightful
+dislike to him. He is a prig and a hypocrite, and has no business to
+come in here in this way, setting his low-down Indians up against the
+settlers."
+
+"That's just what he is trying _not_ to do, and if you weren't so
+obstinate you'd see it and honor him for his good sense."
+
+"Aunt, don't _you_ lecture me," cried the imperious girl. "I will not
+allow it!"
+
+In truth, Mrs. Wilcox's well-meant efforts at peace-making worked out
+wrongly. Elsie became insufferably rude to Curtis, and her letters were
+filled with the bitterest references to him and his work.
+
+Lawson continued most friendly, and Curtis gladly availed himself of the
+wide knowledge of primitive psychology which the ethnologist had
+acquired. The subject of Indian education came up very naturally at a
+little dinner which Jennie gave to the teachers and missionaries soon
+after she opened house, and Lawson's remarks were very valuable to
+Curtis. Lawson was talking to the principal of the central school. "We
+should apply to the Indian problem the law of inherited aptitudes," he
+said, slowly. "We should follow lines of least resistance. Fifty
+thousand years of life proceeding in a certain way results in a certain
+arrangement of brain-cells which can't be changed in a day, or even in a
+generation. The red hunter, for example, was trained to endure hunger,
+cold, and prolonged exertion. When he struck a game-trail he never left
+it. His pertinacity was like that of a wolf. These qualities do not make
+a market-gardener; they might not be out of place as a herder. We must
+be patient while the redman makes the change from the hunter to the
+herdsman. It is like mulching a young crab-apple and expecting it to
+bear pippins."
+
+"Patience is an unknown virtue in an Indian agent," remarked the
+principal of the central school--"present company excepted."
+
+"Do you believe in the allotment?" asked Miss Colson, one of the
+missionaries for kindergarten work, an eager little woman, aflame with
+religious zeal.
+
+"Not in its present form," replied Lawson, shortly. "Any attempt to make
+the Tetong conform to the isolated, dreary, lonesome life of the Western
+farmer will fail. The redman is a social being--he is pathetically
+dependent on his tribe. He has always lived a communal life, with the
+voices of his fellows always in his ears. He loves to sit at evening and
+hear the chatter of his neighbors. His games, his hunting, his toil, all
+went on with what our early settlers called a 'bee.' He seldom worked or
+played alone. His worst punishment was to be banished from the camping
+circle. Now the Dawes theorists think they can take this man, who has no
+newspaper, no books, no letters, and set him apart from his fellows in a
+wretched hovel on the bare plain, miles from a neighbor, there to
+improve his farm and become a citizen. This mechanical theory has failed
+in every case; nominally, the Sioux, the Piegans, are living this
+abhorrent life; actually, they are always visiting. The loneliness is
+unendurable, and so they will not cultivate gardens or keep live-stock,
+which would force them to keep at home. If they were allowed to settle
+in groups of four or five they would do better."
+
+Miss Colson's deep seriousness of purpose was evident in the tremulous
+intensity of her voice. "If they had the transforming love of Christ in
+their hearts they would feel no loneliness."
+
+A silence followed this speech; both men mentally shrugged their
+shoulders, but Jennie came to the rescue.
+
+"Miss Colson, did you ever live on a ranch, miles from any other
+stove-pipe?"
+
+"No, but I am sure that with God as my helper I could live in a
+dungeon."
+
+"You should have been a nun," said Lawson. "I don't mind your living
+alone with Christ, but I think it cruel and unchristian to force your
+solitary way of life on a sociable redman. Would Christ do that? Would
+He insist on shutting the door on their mythology, their nature lore,
+their dances and ceremonies? Would He not go freely among them, glad of
+their joy, and condemning only what was hurtful? Is there any record
+that He ever condemned an innocent pleasure? How do you know but they
+are as near the Creator's design as the people of Ohio?"
+
+The teacher's pretty face was strained and white, and her wide-set eyes
+were painful to see. She set her slim hands together. "Oh, I can't
+answer you now, but I know you are wrong--wickedly wrong!"
+
+Jennie again broke the intensity of the silence by saying: "Two big men
+against one little woman isn't fair. I object to having the Indian
+problem settled over cold coffee. Mr. Lawson, stop preaching!"
+
+"Miss Colson is abundantly able to take care of herself," said Slicer,
+and the other teachers, who had handed over their cause to their ablest
+advocate, chorused approval.
+
+Curtis, who sat with deeply meditative eyes fixed on Miss Colson, now
+said: "It all depends on what we are trying to do for these people.
+Personally, I am not concerned about the future life of my wards. I want
+to make them healthy and happy, here and now."
+
+"Time's up!" cried Jennie, and led the woman out into the safe harbor of
+the sitting-room.
+
+After they had lighted their cigars, Lawson said privately to Curtis:
+"Now there's a girl with too much moral purpose--just as Elsie is
+spoiled by too little. However, I prefer a wholesome pagan to a morbid
+Christian."
+
+"It's rather curious," Curtis replied. "Miss Colson is a pretty girl--a
+very pretty girl; but I can't quite imagine a man being in love with
+her. What could you do with such inexorable moral purpose? You couldn't
+put your arm round it, could you?"
+
+"You'd have to hang her up by a string, like one of these toy angels the
+Dutch put atop their Christmas-trees. The Tetongs fairly dread to see
+her coming--they think she's deranged."
+
+"I know it--the children go to her with reluctance; she doesn't seem
+wholesome to them, as Miss Diehl does. And yet I can't discharge her."
+
+"Naturally not! You'd hear from the missionary world. Think of it! 'I
+find Miss Colson too pious, please take her away.'" Both men laughed at
+the absurdity of this, and Lawson went on: "I wished a dozen times
+during dinner that Elsie Bee Bee had been present. It would have given
+her a jolt to come in contact with such inartistic, unshakable
+convictions."
+
+"She would have been here, only her resentment towards me is still very
+strong."
+
+"She has it in for you, sure thing. I can't budge her," said Lawson,
+smiling. "She's going to have you removed the moment she reaches
+Washington."
+
+"I have moments when I think I'd like to be removed," said Curtis, as he
+turned towards Mr. Slicer and his other guests. "Suppose we go into the
+library, gentlemen."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+CURTIS SEEKS A TRUCE
+
+
+"Our artists are going to flit," remarked Jennie, one evening, as they
+were taking seats at luncheon.
+
+He looked up quickly. "Are they?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Brisbane is going back to Washington, and Mr. Lawson will
+follow, no doubt."
+
+He unfolded his napkin with unmoved countenance. "Well, they are wise;
+we are likely to have a norther any day now."
+
+The soldier had all the responsibilities and perplexities he could
+master without the addition of Elsie Brisbane's disturbing lure. The
+value of her good opinion was enormously enhanced by the news of her
+intended departure, and for a day or two Curtis went about his duties
+with absent-minded ineffectiveness; he even detected himself once or
+twice sitting with his pen in his hand creating aimless markings on his
+blotting-pad. Wilson, the clerk, on one occasion waited full five
+minutes for an answer while his chief debated with himself whether to
+call upon Miss Brisbane at the studio or at the house. He began to find
+excuses for her--"A man who is a villain in business may be a very
+attractive citizen in private life--and she may have been very fond of
+Sennett. From her point of view--anyhow, she is a lovely young girl,
+and it is absurd to place her among my enemies." The thought of her face
+set in bitter scorn against him caused his heart to contract painfully.
+"I've been too harsh. These people are repugnant to one so dainty and
+superrefined. There are excuses for her prejudice. I can't let her go
+away in anger." And in this humble mood he stopped at the door of her
+studio one morning, prepared to be very patient and very persuasive.
+
+"Good-morning, Miss Brisbane. May I come in?"
+
+"Certainly, if my work will interest you," she replied; "you'll excuse
+my going on. I want to finish this portrait of Little Peta to-day."
+
+"By all means--I do not intend to interrupt." He took a seat to the
+front and a little to the left of her, and sat in silence for a few
+moments. Her brown hair, piled loosely on her head, brought out the
+exquisite fairness of her complexion, and the big, loose sleeve of her
+blouse made her hand seem like a child's, but it was strong and steady.
+She was working with her whole mind, breathing quickly as she mixed her
+colors, holding her breath as she put her brush against the canvas. She
+used the apparently aimless yet secure movement of the born painter.
+With half-closed eyes and head a little to one side, with small hand
+lifted to measure and compare, she took on a new expression, a
+bewitching intentness, which quite transformed her.
+
+"I hear you are going away," said Curtis at last, speaking with some
+effort, uncertain of her temper.
+
+"Yes, we break up and vacate to-morrow."
+
+"Why break up? You will want to come back next spring. Leave the place
+as it is."
+
+She gave him a quick, keen glance, and put her head again on one side to
+squint.
+
+"I have no intention of returning."
+
+"Have you exhausted Indian subjects?"
+
+"Oh no!" she exclaimed, with sudden, artistic enthusiasm. "I have just
+begun to see what I want to do."
+
+"Then why not come back?" She did not reply, and he resumed, with tender
+gravity: "I hope I haven't made it so unpleasant for you that you are
+running away to escape _me_?"
+
+She turned with a sharp word on her tongue, but he was so frank and so
+handsome, and withal so humble, that she instantly relented. She was
+used to this humility in men and knew the meaning thereof, and a flush
+of gratified pride rose to her face. The proud soldier had become a
+suitor like the others.
+
+"Oh no--you have nothing to do with it," she replied, carelessly.
+
+"I am glad of that. I was afraid you might think me unsympathetic, but I
+am not. I am here this morning to offer you my cordial assistance, for I
+am eager to see this people put into art. So far as I know, they have
+never been adequately treated in painting or in sculpture."
+
+"Thank you," she said, "I don't think I shall go very far with them.
+They are very pleasant on canvas, but there are too many disagreeable
+things connected with painting them. I don't see how you endure the
+thought of living here among them." She shuddered. "I hate them!"
+
+"I don't understand that hardness in you, Miss Brisbane," he replied.
+
+"I'm sure it isn't mysterious. I hate dirt and rags, even when painted.
+Now Little Peta here is quite different. She is a dear little thing. See
+her sigh--she gets so tired, but she's patient."
+
+"You are making a beautiful picture of her. Your skill is marvellous."
+His method of approach was more adroit than he realized; she softened
+yet again.
+
+"Thank you. I seem to have hit her off very well."
+
+"Will you exhibit in Washington this winter?" he asked, with boyish
+eagerness.
+
+"I may--I haven't quite decided," she said, quite off guard at last.
+
+"If you do I wish you would let me know. I may be able to visit the
+exhibition and witness your triumph."
+
+She began to suspect his motives. "Oh, my little row of paintings
+couldn't be tortured into a triumph. I've stolen the time for them from
+Mr. Lawson, whose illustrations I have neglected." She was again cold
+and repellent.
+
+"Miss Brisbane, this whole situation has become intolerable to me." He
+rose and faced her, very sincere and deeply earnest. "I do not like to
+have you go away carrying an unpleasant impression of me. What can I do
+to change it? If I have been boorish or presuming in any way I sincerely
+beg your pardon."
+
+She motioned to Peta. "You can go now, dear, I've done all I can
+to-day."
+
+Curtis took up his hat. "I hope I have not broken up your sitting. It
+would be unpardonable in me."
+
+She squinted back at the picture with professional gravity. "Oh no; I
+only had a few touches to put in under the chin--that luminous shadow is
+so hard to get. I'm quite finished."
+
+She went behind a screen for a few moments, and when she reappeared
+without her brushes and her blouse she was the society young lady in
+tone and manner.
+
+"Would you like to look at my sketches?" she asked. "They're jolly
+rubbish, the whole lot, but they represent a deal of enthusiasm."
+
+Her tone was friendly--too friendly, considering the point at which he
+had paused, and he was a little hurt by it. Was she playing with him?
+
+His tone was firm and his manner direct as he said: "Miss Brisbane, I am
+accustomed to deal directly with friends as well as enemies, and I like
+to have people equally frank with me. I know you are angry because of my
+action in the case of your uncle. I do not ask pardon for that; I was
+acting there in line of my duty. But if I have spoken harshly or without
+due regard to your feelings at any time I ask you to forgive me."
+
+He made a powerful appeal to her at this moment, but she wilfully
+replied: "You made no effort to soften my uncle's disgrace."
+
+"I didn't know he was your uncle at that time," he said, but his face
+grew grave quickly. "It would have made no difference if I had--my
+orders were to step between him and the records of the office. So far as
+my orders enlightened me, he was a man to be watched." He turned towards
+the door. "Is there anything I can do to help you reach the station
+to-morrow? My sister and I would gladly drive you down."
+
+She was unrelenting, but very lovely as she replied: "Thank you; you are
+very kind, but all arrangements are made."
+
+"Good-afternoon, Miss Brisbane."
+
+"Good-bye, Captain Curtis."
+
+"She is hard--hard as iron," he said, as he walked away. "Her father's
+daughter in every fibre."
+
+He was ashamed to acknowledge how deeply he felt her rejection of his
+friendship, and the thought of not seeing her again gave him a sudden
+sense of weakness and loneliness.
+
+Elsie, on her part, was surprised to find a new nerve tingling in her
+brain, and this tremor cut into the complete self-satisfaction she
+expected to feel over her refusal of the peace-pipe. Several times
+during the afternoon, while superintending her packing, she found
+herself standing in an attitude of meditation--her inward eye reverting
+to the fine, manly figure he made, while his grave, sweet voice vibrated
+in her ears. She began to see herself in an unpleasant light, and when
+at the dinner-table Lawson spoke of Curtis, she listened to him with
+more real interest than ever before.
+
+"He is making wonderful changes here," Lawson was saying. "Everywhere
+you go you see Tetongs working at fence-building, bridge-making,
+cabin-raising, with their eagle feathers fluttering in the winds, their
+small hands chapped with cold. They are sawing boards and piling grain
+in the warehouse and daubing red paint on the roofs. They are in a
+frenzy of work. Every man has his rations and is happy. In some way he
+has persuaded the chiefs to bring in all the school-children, and the
+benches are full of the little shock-heads, wild as colts."
+
+"A new broom, etc.," murmured Elsie.
+
+"His predecessor never was a new broom," retorted Lawson, quickly.
+"Sennett always had a nasty slaunch to him. He never in his life cleaned
+the dirt from the corners, and I don't see exactly why you take such
+pains in defending him."
+
+"Because he is my uncle," she replied.
+
+"Uncle Boot-jack! That is pure fudge, Bee Bee. You didn't speak to him
+once a week; you privately despised him--anybody could see that. You are
+simply making a cudgel of him now to beat Curtis with--and, to speak
+plainly, I think it petty of you. More than this, you'd better hedge,
+for I'm not at all sure that Sennett has not been peculating."
+
+Elsie stopped him with an angry gesture. "I'll not have you accusing him
+behind his back."
+
+Lawson threw out his hands in a gesture of despair. "All right! But make
+a note of it: you'll regret this taking sides with a disreputable old
+bummer against an officer of Captain Curtis's reputation."
+
+"You are not my master!" she said, and her eyes were fiercely bright. "I
+do not wish to hear you use that tone to me again! I resent it!" and she
+struck the floor with her foot. "Henceforth, if we are to remain
+friends, you will refrain from lecturing me!" and she left the room with
+a feeling of having done two men a wrong by being unjust to herself, and
+this feeling deepened into shame as she lay in her bed that night. It
+was her first serious difference with Lawson and she grew unhappy over
+it. "But he shouldn't take sides against me like that," she said, in an
+attempt to justify her anger.
+
+On the second morning thereafter Lawson came into the office and said:
+"Well, Captain, we leave you this morning."
+
+Curtis looked up into his visitor's fine, sensitive face, and exclaimed,
+abruptly--almost violently: "I'm going to miss you, old man."
+
+"My heart's with you," replied Lawson. "And I shall return next spring."
+
+"Bring Miss Brisbane with you."
+
+"I'd like to do so, but she is vastly out of key--and I doubt.
+Meanwhile, if I can be of any use to you in Washington let me know."
+
+"Thank you, Lawson, I trust you perfectly," Curtis replied, with a glow
+of warm liking.
+
+As he stood at the gate looking up into Elsie's face, she seemed very
+much softened, and he wished to reach his hand and stay her where she
+sat; but the last word was spoken, and the wagon rolled away with no
+more definite assurance of her growing friendship than was to be read in
+a polite smile.
+
+Jennie was tearful as she said: "After all, they were worth while."
+
+Curtis sighed as he said: "Sis, the realities of our position begin to
+make themselves felt. Play-spells will be fewer now that our artists are
+gone."
+
+"They certainly broke our fall," replied Jennie, soberly. "Osborne
+Lawson is fine, and I don't believe Elsie Bee Bee is as ferocious as she
+pretends to be."
+
+"It's her training. She has breathed the air of rapacity from
+childhood. I can't blame her for being her father's child."
+
+Jennie looked at him as if he were presented from a new angle of vision.
+"George, there _is_ a queer streak in you--for a soldier; you're too
+soft-hearted. But don't you get too much interested in Elsie Bee Bee;
+she's dangerous--and, besides, Mr. Lawson wears an air of command."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ELSIE RELENTS A LITTLE
+
+
+The feeling against the redmen, intensified throughout the State by the
+removal of Sennett, beat against Curtis like a flood. Delegations of
+citizens, headed by Streeter and Johnson, proceeded at once to
+Washington, laden with briefs, affidavits, and petitions, and there laid
+siege to Congress as soon as the members began to assemble. The twenty
+original homesteaders were taken as the text for most impassioned
+appeals by local orators, and their melancholy situation was skilfully
+enlarged upon. They were described as hardy and industrious patriots,
+hemmed in by sullen savages, with no outlet for trade and scant
+pasturage for their flocks--in nightly fear of the torch and the
+scalping-knife.
+
+To Curtis, these settlers were by no interpretation martyrs in the cause
+of civilization--they were quite other. His birth, his military
+training, and his natural refinement tended to make him critical of
+them. They were to him, for the most part, "poor whites," too pitiless
+to be civilized, and too degenerate to have the interest of their
+primitive red neighbors. "The best of them," he said to Jennie, "are
+foolhardy pioneers who have exiled their wives and children for no good
+reason. The others are cattlemen who followed the cavalry in order to
+fatten their stock under the protection of our guidon."
+
+The citizens of Pinon City wondered why their delegates made so little
+impression on the department, but Streeter was not left long in doubt.
+
+The Secretary interrupted him in the midst of his first presentation of
+the matter.
+
+"Mr. Streeter, you are a cattleman, I believe?"
+
+Streeter looked a little set back. "I am--yes, sir, Mr. Secretary."
+
+The Secretary took up a slip of paper. "Are you the Streeter located on
+the reservation itself?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, you are an interested witness. How can you expect me to take your
+word against that of Captain Curtis? He tells me the Tetongs are
+peaceful, and quick to respond to fair treatment. The department has
+absolute confidence in Captain Curtis, and you are wasting time in the
+effort to discredit him. The tribe will _not_ be removed. Is there any
+other question you would like to raise?"
+
+Streeter took his dismissal hard. He hurried at once to Brisbane, his
+face scarlet with rage. "He turned me down," he snarled, "and he's got
+to suffer for it. There's a way to get at him, and you must find it."
+
+Brisbane was too crafty to promise any definite thing. "Now wait a
+moment, neighbor; never try to yank a badger out of his den--wait and
+catch him on the open plain. We must sound the Committee on Indian
+Affairs, and then move on the House. If we can't put through our removal
+bill we'll substitute the plan for buying out the settlers. If that
+don't work I've a little scheme for cutting down the reservation. We
+must keep cool--and don't mention my name in the matter. What we want to
+do is to pave the way for my return to the Senate next fall; then I can
+be of some real service to you. I am now entirely out of it, as you can
+see, but I'll do what I can."
+
+Streeter went away with a feeling that Brisbane was losing his vigor,
+and a few days later returned to the West, very bitter and very
+inflammatory of speech. "The bill is lost. It will be smothered in
+committee," he said to Calvin.
+
+Brisbane, after leaving Streeter that day, went home to dinner with an
+awakened curiosity to know more about this young man in whom the
+department had such confidence. Lawson was dining at his table that
+night, and it occurred to him to ask a little more fully about Curtis.
+
+"See here, Lawson, you were out there on the Fort Smith reservation,
+weren't you? Wasn't that where you and Elsie camped this summer?"
+
+Elsie replied, "Yes, papa. We were there when Uncle Sennett was
+dismissed."
+
+Brisbane started a little. "Why, of course you were; my memory is
+failing me. Well, what about this man Curtis--he's a crank on the Indian
+question, like yourself, isn't he?"
+
+Lawson smiled. "We believe in fair play, Governor. Yes, he's friendly to
+the Indians."
+
+"And a man of some ability, I take it?"
+
+"A man of unusual ability. He is an able forester, a well-read
+ethnologist, and has made many valuable surveys for the War
+Department."
+
+"His word seems to have great weight with the department."
+
+"Justly, too, for he is as able a man as ever held an agent's position.
+A few men like Curtis would solve the Indian problem."
+
+Elsie, who had been listening in meditative silence, now spoke.
+"Nevertheless, his treatment of Uncle Sennett was brutal. He arrested
+him and searched all his private papers--don't you remember?"
+
+Brisbane looked at Lawson solemnly and winked the eye farthest from his
+daughter. Lawson's lips quivered with his efforts to restrain a smile.
+Turning then to Elsie, Brisbane said: "I recall your story now--yes, he
+was pretty rigorous, but I'm holding up the department for that; the
+agent wasn't to blame. He was sent there to do that kind of a job, and
+from all accounts he did it well."
+
+Elsie lifted her eyebrows. "Does that excuse him? He kept repeating to
+me that he was under orders, but I took his saying so to be just a
+subterfuge."
+
+"Mighty little you know about war, my girl. To be a soldier means to
+obey orders from general down to corporal. Moreover, your uncle has
+given me a whole lot of trouble, and I wouldn't insist on a relationship
+which does us no credit. I've held his chin above water about as long as
+I'm going to."
+
+Elsie was getting deeper into the motives and private opinions of her
+father than ever before, and, as he spoke, her mind reverted to the
+handsome figure of the young soldier as he stood before her in the
+studio, asking for a kindlier good-bye. His head was really beautiful,
+and his eyes were deep and sincere. She looked up at her father with
+frowning brows. "I thought you liked Mr. Sennett? He told me you got
+him his place."
+
+Brisbane laughed. "My dear chicken, he was a political choice. He was
+doing work for our side, and had to be paid."
+
+"Do you mean you knew the kind of a man he was when you put him there?"
+
+Brisbane pulled himself up short. "Now see here, my daughter, you're
+getting out of your bailiwick."
+
+"But I want to understand--if you knew he was stealing--"
+
+"I didn't know it. How should I know it? I put him there to keep him
+busy. I didn't suppose he was a sot and a petty plunderer. Now let's
+have no more of this." Brisbane was getting old and a trifle irritable,
+but he was still master of himself. "I don't know why I should be taken
+to task by my own daughter."
+
+Elsie said no more, but her lips straightened and her eyes grew
+reflective. As the coffee and cigars came in, she left the two men at
+the table and went out into the music-room. It seemed very lonely in the
+big house that night, and she sat down at the piano to play, thinking to
+cure herself of an uneasy conscience. She was almost as good a pianist
+as a painter, and the common criticism of her was on this score. "Bee
+does everything _too_ well," Penrose said.
+
+She played softly, musingly, and, for some reason, sadly. "I wonder if I
+have done him an injustice?" she thought. And then that brutal leer on
+her father's face came to disturb her. "I wish he hadn't spoken to me
+like that," she said. "I don't like his political world. I wish he
+would get out of it. It isn't nice."
+
+In the end, she left off playing and went slowly up to her studio, half
+determined to write a letter of apology. Her "work-shop," which had been
+added to the house since her return from Paris, was on a level with her
+sitting-room, which served as a reception hall to the studio itself. Her
+artist friends declared it to be too beautiful to work in, and so it
+seemed, for it was full of cosey corners and soft divans--a glorious
+lounging-place. Nevertheless, its walls were covered with pictures of
+her own making. Costly rugs and a polished floor seemed not to deter her
+from effort. She remained a miracle of industry in spite of the scoffing
+of her fellows, who were stowed about the city in dusty lofts like
+pigeons.
+
+Proud and wilful as she seemed, Elsie had always prided herself on being
+just, and to be placed in the position of doing an honorable man a wrong
+was intolerable. The longer she dwelt upon her action the more uneasy
+she became. Her vision clarified. All that had been hidden by her absurd
+prejudice and reasonless dislike--the soldier's frank and manly
+firmness, Lawson's reproaches, her aunt's open reproof--all these grew
+in power and significance as she mused.
+
+Taking a seat at her desk, she began a letter, "Captain Curtis, Dear
+Sir--" But this seemed so palpably a continuance of her repellent mood
+that she tore it up, and started another in the spirit of friendliness
+and contrition which had seized upon her:
+
+     "DEAR CAPTAIN CURTIS,--I have just heard something which
+     convinces me that I have done you an injustice, and I hasten
+     to beg your pardon. I knew my uncle Sennett only as a child
+     knows a man of middle age--he was always kind and good and
+     amusing to me. I had no conception of his real self. My present
+     understanding of him has changed my feeling towards your
+     action. I still think you were harsh and unsympathetic, but I
+     now see that you were simply doing the will of the department.
+     So far I apologize. If you come to Washington I hope you will
+     let us know."
+
+As she re-read this it seemed to be a very great concession indeed; but
+as she recalled the handsome, troubled face of the soldier, she decided
+to send it, no matter what he might think of her. As she sealed the
+letter her heart grew lighter, and she smiled.
+
+When she re-entered the library her father was saying: "No, I don't
+expect to get him removed. The present administration and its whole
+policy must be overthrown. Curtis is only a fly on the rim of the wheel.
+He don't count."
+
+"Any man counts who is a moral force," Lawson replied, with calm
+sincerity. "Curtis will bother you yet."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CURTIS WRITES A LONG LETTER
+
+
+The stage-driver and mail-carrier to Fort Smith was young Crane's Voice,
+and this was his first trip in December. He congratulated himself on
+having his back to the wind on the fifty-mile ride up the valley. A
+norther was abroad over the earth, and, sweeping down from arctic
+wildernesses, seemingly gathered power as it came. It crossed two vast
+States in a single night and fell upon the Fort Smith reservation with
+terrible fury about ten o'clock in the morning.
+
+Crane's Voice did not get his mail-sack till twelve, but his ponies were
+fed and watered and ready to move when the bag came. He did not know
+that it contained a letter to warm the heart of his hero, the Captain,
+but he flung the sack into his cart and put stick to his broncos quite
+as manfully as though the Little Father waited. The road was smooth and
+hard and quite level for thirty miles, and he intended to cover this
+stretch in five hours. Darkness would come early, and the snow, which
+was hardly more than a frost at noon, might thicken into a blizzard. So
+he pushed on steadily, fiercely, silently, till a sinister dusk began to
+fall over the buttes, and then, lifting his voice in a deep, humming,
+throbbing incantation, he sang to keep off spirits of evil.
+
+Crane's Voice was something of an aristocrat. As the son of Chief Elk he
+had improved his opportunities to learn of the white man, and could
+speak a little English and understand a good deal more than he
+acknowledged, which gave him a startling insight at times into the words
+and actions of the white people. It was his report of the unvarying
+kindliness and right feeling of Captain Curtis which had done so much to
+make the whole tribe trust and obey the new agent.
+
+Crane's Voice was afraid of spirits, but he shrank from no hardship. He
+was proud of his blue uniform, and of the revolver which he was
+permitted to wear to guard the mail. No storm had ever prevented him
+from making his trip, and his uncomplaining endurance of heat, cold,
+snow, and rain would have been counted heroic in a military scout. His
+virtues were so evident even to the cowboys that they made him an
+exception by saying, "Yes, Crane is purty near white," and being
+besotted in their own vanity, they failed to see the humor of such a
+phrase in the mouth of a drunken, obscene, lawless son of a Missouri
+emigrant. As a matter of fact there were many like Crane in the tribe,
+only the settlers never came in personal contact with them.
+
+Crane found his road heavy with drifts as he left the main valley and
+began to climb, and he did not reach the agency till long after Curtis
+had gone to bed, but he found his anxious mother waiting for him,
+together with the captain of police, who took the bag of mail to the
+office. As he drove into the big corral out of the wind the boy said, in
+his quaint English: "Me no like 'um blizzard. Fleeze ears like buffalo
+horn."
+
+Curtis came to the office next morning with a heavy heart. He knew how
+hard the bitter cold pressed upon his helpless wards, and suffered
+acutely for sympathy. He spoke to all of those he met with unusual
+tenderness, and asked minutely after the children, to be sure that none
+were ill or hungry.
+
+As Wilson, his clerk, laid the big package of letters and papers on his
+table, the pale-blue, square envelope which bore Elsie's handwriting was
+ostentatiously balanced on top. Wilson, the lovelorn clerk, sighed to
+think he had no such missive in his mail that gloomy morning. Looking
+in, a half-hour later, he found Curtis writing busily in answer to that
+letter, all the rest of his mail being untouched. "I thought so," said
+he; "I'd neglect any business for a sweet little envelope like that,"
+and he sighed again.
+
+Curtis had opened the letter eagerly, but with no expectation of
+comfort. As he read he forgot the storm outside. A warm glow crept into
+his blood. Lover-like, he got from the letter a great deal more than
+Elsie had intended to say. He seized his pen to reply at once--just a
+few lines to set her mind at rest; but his thought ran on so fast, so
+full of energy, that his writing became all but illegible:
+
+     "DEAR MISS BRISBANE,--You have given me a great pleasure by
+     your letter, and I am replying at once to assure you that I did
+     not lay your words up against you, because I felt you did not
+     fully understand the situation. Your letter gives me courage to
+     say that I think you are unjust in your attitude towards these
+     primitive races--and I also hope that as fuller understanding
+     comes you will change your views.
+
+     "Here they are, fenced in on the poorest part of this bleak
+     reservation, on the cold slope of the range, exposed to the
+     heat and drought of summer and the storms of winter. This
+     morning, for example, the wind is rushing up the converging
+     walls of this valley--which opens out to the northeast, you
+     remember--and the cold is intense. I am just sending out
+     messengers to see that no children are freezing. Everything is
+     hard as iron, and the Indians, muffled in their blankets, are
+     sitting beside their fires glum as owls, waiting the coming of
+     the sunshine.
+
+     "I must tell you something which happened since you went
+     away--it may correct your views of the Tetongs. It is my policy
+     to give all hauling and wood contracts to the Indian instead of
+     the white man, and when I told the white who has been putting
+     in the wood that I was about to let the contract to the reds he
+     laughed and said, 'You can't get 'em to do that work!' But I
+     felt sure I could. I called them together and gave them fifty
+     axes and told them how much wood I wanted. A few days later I
+     thought I'd ride over to see how they were getting along. As I
+     drew near I heard the most astonishing click-clack of
+     axe-strokes, shouts, laughter, the falling of trees, and when I
+     came in sight I 'trun up both hands.' They had hundreds of
+     cords already cut--twice as much, it seemed, as I could use. I
+     begged them to stop, and finally got them to begin to haul. In
+     the end I was obliged to take sixty cords more than I needed.
+
+     "You cannot understand what a pleasure it is for me to see
+     ancient lies about these people destroyed by such experiences
+     as this. It was pathetic to me to find the Two Horns, the
+     Crawling Elk, and other proud old warriors toiling awkwardly
+     with their axes, their small hands covered with blisters; but
+     they laughed and joked about it, and encouraged each other as
+     if they were New-Englanders at a husking-bee. My days and
+     nights are full of trouble, because I can do so little for
+     them. If they were on tillable land I could make them
+     self-supporting in two years, but this land is arid as a
+     desert. It is fair to look upon, but it will not yield a living
+     to any one but a herder.
+
+     "Your attitude towards the so-called _savage_ races troubles me
+     more than I have any right to mention. The older I grow the
+     less certain I am that any race or people has a monopoly of the
+     virtues. I do not care to see the 'little peoples' of the world
+     civilized in the sense in which the word is commonly used. It
+     will be a sorrowful time to me when all the tribes of the earth
+     shall have cottonade trousers and derby hats. You, as an
+     artist, ought to shrink from the dead level of utilitarian
+     dress which the English-speaking race seems determined to
+     impose on the world. If I could, I would civilize only to the
+     extent of making life easier and happier--the religious
+     beliefs, the songs, the native dress--all these things I would
+     retain. What is life for, if not for this?
+
+     "My artist friends as a rule agree with me in these matters,
+     and that is another reason why your unsympathetic attitude
+     surprises and grieves me. I know your home-life has been such
+     as would prejudice you against the redman, but your training in
+     Paris should have changed all that. You consider the Tetongs
+     'good material'--if you come to know them as I do you will find
+     they are _folks_, just like anybody else, with the same rights
+     to the earth that we have. Of course, they _are_ crude and
+     unlovely--and sometimes they are cruel; but they have an
+     astonishing power over those who come to know them well.
+
+     "Pardon this long letter. You may call me a crank or any hard
+     name you please, but I am anxious to have you on the right side
+     in this struggle, for it is a struggle to the death. The
+     tragedy of their certain extinction overwhelms me at times. I
+     found a little scrap of canvas with a sketch of Peta on it--may
+     I keep it? My sister is quite well and deep in 'the work.' She
+     often speaks of you and we are both hoping to see you next
+     year."
+
+It was foolish for him to expect an immediate reply to this epistle, but
+he did--he counted the days which lay between its posting and a
+possible date for return mail. Perhaps, had he been in Washington,
+diverted by Congress, cheered by the Army and Navy Club, and entertained
+by his friends, he would not have surrendered so completely to the
+domination of that imperious girl-face; but in the dead of winter,
+surrounded by ragged, smoky squaws and their impatient, complaining
+husbands, with no companionship but his sister and Wilson, the love-sick
+clerk, his thought in every moment of relaxation went back to the
+moments he had spent in Elsie's company. Nature cried out, "It is not
+good for man to be alone," but the iron ring of circumstance held him a
+prisoner in a land where delicate women were as alien as orange blossoms
+or tea-roses.
+
+Outwardly composed, indefatigable, stern in discipline and judicial of
+report, he was inwardly filled with a mighty longing to see again that
+slim young girl with the big, black, changeful eyes. He made careful
+attempt to conceal his growing unrest from Jennie, but her sharp eyes,
+accustomed to every change in his face, detected a tremor when Elsie's
+name was mentioned, and her ears discovered a subtle vibration in his
+voice which instructed her, though she did not attain complete
+realization of his absorbing interest. She was sympathetic enough to
+search out Elsie's name in the social columns of the Washington papers,
+and it was pitiful to see with what joy the busy Indian agent listened
+to the brief item concerning "Miss Brisbane's reception on Monday," or
+the description of her dress at the McCartney ball.
+
+Jennie sighed as she read of these brilliant assemblages. "George, I
+wonder if we will ever spend another winter in Washington?"
+
+"Oh, I think so, sis--some time."
+
+"Some time! But we'll both be so old we won't enjoy it. Sometimes I feel
+that we are missing everything that's worth while."
+
+He did not mention Elsie's letter, and as the weeks passed without any
+reply he was very glad he had kept silence. Jennie had her secret, also,
+which was that Elsie was as good as engaged to Lawson. No one knew this
+for a certainty, but Mrs. Wilcox was quite free to say she considered it
+a settled thing.
+
+Jennie was relieved to know how indifferent her brother was to Miss
+Colson, the missionary, who seemed to be undergoing a subtle
+transformation. With Jennie she was always moaning and sighing, but in
+the presence of her lord, the agent, she relaxed and became quite
+cheerful and dangerously pretty. The other teachers--good, commonplace
+souls!--went their mechanical way, with very little communication with
+the agent's household, but Miss Colson seized every opportunity to
+escape her messmates. "They are so material," she said, sighfully; "they
+make spiritual growth impossible to me."
+
+Jennie was not deceived. "You're a cat, that's what you are--a nice,
+little, scared cat; but you're getting over your scare," she added, as
+she watched the devotee in spirited conversation with her brother.
+
+Elsie's reply to Curtis's long letter was studiedly cool but polite. "I
+feel the force of what you say, but the course of civilization lies
+across the lands of the 'small peoples.' It is sorrowful, of course, but
+they must go, like the wolves and the rattlesnakes." In this phrase he
+recognized the voice of Andrew J. Brisbane, and it gave him a twinge to
+see it written by Elsie's small hand. The letter ended by leaving
+matters very adroitly at an equipoise. It was friendlier than she had
+ever been in conversation, yet not so womanly as he had hoped it might
+be. As he studied it, however, some subtler sense than sight detected in
+its carefully compounded phrases something to feed upon, and though he
+did not write in answer to it, he had a feeling that she expected him to
+do so.
+
+Meanwhile the tone of the opposition grew confident. The settlers were
+convinced that Congress would accede to their wishes and remove the
+Tetongs, and they began to treat the redmen with a certain good-natured
+tolerance, as if to say, "Well, you'll soon be settled for, anyway."
+
+Calvin Streeter came often to the agency, and not infrequently stayed to
+dinner with Curtis, paying timid court to Jennie, who retained enough of
+her girlhood's coquetry to enjoy the handsome cowboy's open-eyed
+admiration, even though she laughed at him afterwards in response to her
+brother's jesting. Calvin vastly improved under the stress of his desire
+to be worthy of her. He caught up many of the Captain's nice mannerisms,
+and handled his fork and napkin with very good grace indeed. He usually
+came galloping across the flat, his horse outstretched at full speed,
+his hat-rim uprolled by the wind, his gay neckerchief fluttering, his
+hands holding the reins high--a magnificent picture of powerful young
+manhood. As he reached the gate it was his habit to put his horse on his
+haunches with one sudden, pitiless wrench on the Mexican bit and drop to
+the ground, and in dramatic contrast with his approach call out in
+smooth, quiet voice:
+
+"Howdy, folks, howdy! Nice day."
+
+These affectations pleased Jennie very much, though she finally
+complained of his cruelty in reining in his horse so sharply.
+
+"All right, miss, I won't do it no more," he said, instantly.
+
+He quite regularly invited them to the dances given round about, and
+Jennie was ready to go, but Curtis, being too deeply occupied, could not
+spare the time, and that debarred Jennie, though Calvin could see no
+good reason why it should. "I'll take care of you," said he, but the
+girl could not trust herself to his protection.
+
+His was not a secretive nature, and he kept Curtis very well informed as
+to the feeling of the settlers, reporting, as he did, their
+conversations as well as their speeches, with great freedom and
+remarkable accuracy.
+
+In this way the agent learned that the cattlemen had agreed to use
+caution in dealing with him. "He's a bad man to monkey with," was the
+sentiment Calvin reported to be current among the settlers on the West
+Fork. Young Crane's Voice also circulated this phrase, properly
+translated into Dakota, to his uncles Lame Paw and Two Horns, and so the
+tribe came to understand that they had a redoubtable defender in Swift
+Eagle, as they called the agent in their own tongue.
+
+From every source they heard good things of him, and they came to love
+him and to obey him as they had never loved and obeyed even their
+best-regarded chief. The squaws made excuse to come in and shake hands
+with him and hear his laughter, and the children no longer hid or turned
+away when he came near--on the contrary, they ran to him, crying "Hello,
+Hagent!" and clung to his legs as he walked. The old men often laid
+their arms across his shoulders as they jokingly threatened to pull out
+the hairs of his face, in order to make him a redman. His lightest wish
+was respected. The wildest young dare-devil would dismount and take a
+hand at pushing a wagon or lifting a piece of machinery when Curtis
+asked it of him.
+
+"If I only had the water that flows in these three little streams," he
+often said to Jennie, "I'd make these people self-supporting."
+
+"We'll have things our own way yet," replied Jennie, always the
+optimist.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CALLED TO WASHINGTON
+
+
+One day Curtis announced, with joyful face:
+
+"Sis, we are called to Washington. Get on your bonnet!"
+
+She did not light up as he had expected her to do. "I can't go, George,"
+she replied, decisively and without marked disappointment.
+
+He seemed surprised. "Why not?"
+
+"Because I have my plans all laid for giving my little 'ingines' such a
+Christmas as they never had, and you must manage to get back in time to
+be 'Sandy Claws.'"
+
+"I don't see how I can do it. I am to appear before the Committee on
+Indian Affairs relative to this removal plan, and there may be other
+business requiring me to remain over the holidays."
+
+"I don't like to have you away. I suppose you'll see Mr. Lawson and Miss
+Brisbane," she remarked, quietly, after a pause.
+
+"Oh yes," he replied, with an assumption of carelessness. "I imagine
+Lawson will appear before the committee, and I hope to call on Miss
+Brisbane--I want to see her paintings." He did not meet his sister's
+eyes as squarely as was his wont, and her keen glance detected a bit
+more color in his face than was usual to him. "You must certainly
+call," she finally said. "I want to know all about how they live."
+
+Many things combined to make this trip to Washington most pleasurable to
+the soldier. He was weary with six weeks of most intense application to
+a confused and vexatious situation, and besides he had not been East for
+several years, and his pocket was filled with urgent invitations to
+dinner from fellow-officers and co-workers in science, courtesies which
+he now had opportunity to accept; but back of all and above all was the
+hope of meeting Elsie Brisbane again. He immediately wrote her a note,
+telling her of his order to report at the department, and asking
+permission to call upon her at her convenience.
+
+It was a long ride, but he enjoyed every moment of it. He gave himself
+up to rest. He went regularly to his meals in the dining-car; he smoked
+and dreamed and looked out with impersonal, shadowy interest upon the
+flying fields and the whizzing cities. He slept long hours and rose at
+will. Such freedom he had known only on the trail; here luxury was
+combined with leisure. In Chicago a friend met him and they lunched at a
+luxurious club, and afterwards went for a drive. That night he left the
+Western metropolis behind and Washington seemed very near.
+
+As the train drew down out of the snows of the hill country into the
+sunshine and shelter of the Potomac Valley his heart leaped. This was
+home! Here were the little, whitewashed cabins, the red soil, the
+angular stone houses--verandaed and shuttered--of his native town. It
+was pleasant to meet the darkies swarming, chirping like crickets,
+around the train. They shadowed forth a warmer clime, a less insistent
+civilization than that of the West, and he was glad of them. They
+brought up in his mind a thousand memories of his boy-life in an old
+Maryland village not far from the great city, which still retained its
+supremacy in his mind. He loved Washington; to him it was the centre of
+national life.
+
+The great generals, the great political leaders were there, and the
+greatest ethnologic bureau in all the world was there, and when the
+gleaming monument came into view over the wooded hills he had only one
+regret--he was sorrowful when he thought of Jennie far away in the bleak
+valley of the Elk.
+
+It was characteristic of him that he took a cab to the Smithsonian
+Society rather than to the Army and Navy Club, and was made at home at
+once in the plain but comfortable "rooms of the Bug Sharps." He had just
+time to report by telephone to the Department of the Interior before the
+close of the official day. Several letters awaited him. One was from
+Elsie, and this he read at once, finding it unexpectedly cordial:
+
+     "My father is writing you an invitation to come to us
+     immediately. You said you would arrive in Washington on the
+     17th, either on the 11 A.M. train or the one at 3 P.M. In
+     either case we will look for you at 6.30 to dine with us before
+     you get your calendar filled with engagements. I shall wait
+     impatiently to hear how you are getting on out there. It is all
+     coming to have a strange fascination for me. It is almost like
+     a dream."
+
+This letter quickened his pulse in a way which should have brought shame
+to him, but did not. The Senator's letter was ponderously polite. "I
+hope, my dear Captain Curtis, you will be free to call at once. My
+daughter and Lawson--"
+
+At that word a chill wind blew upon the agent's hope. Lawson! "I had
+forgotten the man!" he said, almost aloud. "Ah! that explains her frank
+kindliness. She writes as one whose affections are engaged, and
+therefore feels secure from criticism or misapprehension." That
+explained also her feeling for the valley--it was the scene of her
+surrender to Lawson. The tremor went out of his nerves, his heart
+resumed its customary beating, steady and calm, and, setting his lips
+into a straight line, he resumed the Senator's letter, which ended with
+these significant words: "There are some important matters I want to
+talk over in private."
+
+A note from Lawson urged him to take his first breakfast in the city
+with him. "I want to post you on the inside meaning of certain
+legislation now pending. I expect to see you at the Brisbanes'."
+
+Curtis made his toilet slowly and with great care, remitting nothing the
+absence of which would indicate a letting down of military neatness and
+discipline. He wore the handsome undress uniform of a captain, and his
+powerful figure, still youthful in its erectness, although the lines
+were less slender than he wished, was dignified and handsome--fit to be
+taken as a type of mature soldier. He set forth, self-contained but
+eager.
+
+The Brisbane portico of rose granite was immensely imposing to a dweller
+in tents and cantonments, such as Curtis had been for ten years, but he
+allowed no sign of his nervousness to appear as he handed his overcoat
+and cap to the old colored man in the vestibule.
+
+As he started down the polished floor of the wide hall, stepping over a
+monstrous tiger-skin, he saw Elsie in the door of the drawing-room, her
+back against the folded portière. Her slender figure was exquisitely
+gowned in pale-green, and her color was iridescent in youthful sparkle.
+He thought once again--"Evening dress transforms a woman." She met him
+with a smile of welcome.
+
+"Ah, Captain, this is very good of you, to come to us so soon."
+
+"Not at all," he gallantly replied. "I would have come sooner had
+opportunity served."
+
+"Father, this is Captain Curtis," she said, turning her head towards a
+tall man who stood within.
+
+Brisbane came forward, greeting Curtis most cordially. He was grayer
+than Curtis remembered him, and a little stooping from age. His massive
+head was covered with a close-clipped bristle of white hair, and his
+beard, also neatly trimmed, was shaped to a point, from the habit he had
+of stroking it with his closed left hand in moments of deep thought. His
+skin was flushed pink with blood, and his urbane manner denoted pride
+and self-sufficiency. He was old, but he was still a powerful
+personality, and though he shook hands warmly, Curtis felt his keen and
+penetrating glance as palpably as an electric shock.
+
+Lawson's voice arose. "Well, Captain, I hardly expected to see you so
+soon."
+
+As the two men clasped hands Elsie again closely compared them. Curtis
+was the handsomer man, though Lawson was by no means ill-looking, even
+by contrast. The soldier more nearly approached the admirable male type,
+but there was charm in the characteristic attitudes and gestures of the
+student, who had the assured and humorous manner of the onlooker.
+
+A young woman of indeterminate type who was seated in conversation with
+Mrs. Wilcox received Curtis with impassive countenance, eying him
+closely through pinch-nose glasses. Mrs. Wilcox beamed with pleasure,
+and inquired minutely concerning the people at the agency, and
+especially she wished to know how little Johnny and Jessie Eagle were.
+"I quite fell in love with the tots, they were so cunning. I hope they
+got the toys I sent."
+
+Brisbane gave Curtis the most studious attention, lounging deep in his
+big chair. Occasionally he ponderously leaned forward to listen to some
+remark, with his head cocked in keen scrutiny--actions which did not
+escape the Captain's notice. "He's sizing me up," he thought. "Well, let
+him."
+
+Elsie also listened, curiously like her father in certain inclinations
+of the head--intent, absorbed; only Lawson seemed indifferent to the
+news the agent guardedly recited.
+
+Brisbane broke his silence by saying: "I infer you're on the side of the
+redskin?"
+
+"Decidedly, in this connection."
+
+"Quite aside from your duty?"
+
+"Entirely so. My duty in this case happened to be my inclination. I
+could have declined the detail, but being a believer in the army's
+arrangement of Indian affairs, I couldn't decently refuse."
+
+Brisbane settled back into his chair and looked straight at his visitor.
+
+"You think the white man the aggressor in this land question?"
+
+Curtis definitely pulled himself up. "I am not at liberty to speak
+further on that matter."
+
+Mrs. Wilcox interrupted smilingly. "Andrew, don't start an argument now.
+Dinner is served, and I know Captain Curtis is hungry."
+
+Elsie rose. "Yes, papa, leave your discussion till some other time, when
+you can bang the furniture."
+
+Curtis expected to take Miss Cooke in to dinner, but Elsie delighted him
+by saying, "You're to go in with me, Captain."
+
+"I am very glad of the privilege," he said, with deliberate intent to
+please her; his sincerity was unquestionable.
+
+Curtis would have been more profoundly impressed with the spaciousness
+of the hall and the dining-room had they been less like the interior of
+a hotel. The whole house, so far as its mural decoration went, had the
+over-stuffed quality of a Pullman car (with the exception of the
+pictures on the walls, which were exceedingly good), for Brisbane had
+successfully opposed all of Elsie's new-fangled notions with regard to
+interior decoration; he was of those who insist on being masters in
+their houses as well as in their business offices, and Elsie's manner
+was that of an obedient daughter deferring to a sire who had not ceased
+to consider her a child.
+
+Seated at Elsie's right hand, with Mrs. Wilcox between himself and the
+head of the table, Curtis was fairly out of reach of Brisbane, who was
+dangerously eager to open a discussion concerning the bill for the
+removal of the Tetongs.
+
+Elsie turned to him at once to say: "Do you know, Captain Curtis, I
+begin to long to return to the West. All my friends are enthusiastic
+over the studies I made last year, and I've decided to go back next
+spring. How early could one come out?"
+
+"Any time after the first of May--in fact, that is the most beautiful
+month in the year; the grass is deliciously green then. I'm glad to know
+you think of returning. Jennie will also rejoice. It seems too good to
+be true. Will Mr. Lawson also return?"
+
+"Oh yes. In fact, I go to complete his work--to do penance for
+neglecting him last summer." And in her tone, he fancied, lay a covert
+warning, as though she had said: "Do not mistake me; I am not coming out
+of interest in you."
+
+He needed the word, for under the spell of her near presence and the
+charm of her smile, new to him, the soldier was beginning to glow again
+and to soften, in spite of his resolution to be very calm.
+
+She went on: "I am genuinely remorseful, because Mr. Lawson has not been
+able to bring his paper out as he had planned."
+
+"I will see that you have every possible aid," he replied,
+matter-of-factly. "The work must be done soon."
+
+"How handsome he is!" the girl thought, as she studied his quiet face.
+"His profile is especially fine, and the line of his neck and
+shoulders--" an impulse seized her, and she said:
+
+"Captain, I'd like to make a sketch of you. Could you find time to sit
+for me?"
+
+"That's very flattering of you, but I'm afraid my stay in Washington is
+too short and too preoccupied."
+
+Her face darkened. "I'm sorry. I know I could make a good thing of
+you."
+
+"Thank you for the compliment, but it is out of the question at present.
+Next summer, if you come out, I will be very glad to give the time for
+it. And that reminds me, you promised to show me your pictures when I
+came, and your studio."
+
+"Did I? Well, you shall see them, although they are not as good as I
+shall do next year. One has to learn to handle new material. Your
+Western atmosphere is so different from that of Giverney, in which we
+all paint in Paris; then, the feeling of the landscape is so different;
+everything is so firm and crisp in line--but I am going to get it!
+'There is the mystery of light as well as of the dark,' Meunnot used to
+say to us, and if I can get that clear shimmer, and the vibration of the
+vivid color of the savage in the midst of it--"
+
+She broke off as if in contemplation of the problem, rapt with question
+how to solve it.
+
+"There speaks the artist in you, and it is fine. But I'd like you to see
+the humanitarian side of life, too," he replied.
+
+"There is none," she instantly replied, with a curious blending of
+defiance and amusement. "I belong to the world of Light and Might--"
+
+"And I to the world of Right--what about that?"
+
+"Light and Might make right."
+
+"Your team is wrongly harnessed--Light and Right are co-workers. Might
+fears both Light and Right."
+
+Mrs. Wilcox, who had been listening, fairly clapped her hands. "I'm glad
+to have you refute her arguments, Captain. She is absolutely heartless
+in her theories--in practice she's a nice girl."
+
+Elsie laughed. "What amuses me is that a soldier, the embodiment of
+Might, should dare to talk of Right."
+
+Curtis grew grave. "If I did not think that my profession at bottom
+guarded the rights of both white men and red, I'd resign instantly. Our
+army is only an impartial instrument for preserving justice."
+
+"That isn't the old-world notion," put in Lawson from across the table.
+
+"It is _our_ notion," stoutly replied Curtis. "Our little army to-day
+stands towards the whole nation as a police force relates itself to a
+city--a power that interferes only to prevent aggression of one interest
+on the rights of another."
+
+Brisbane's big, flat voice took up the theme.
+
+"That's a very pretty theory, but you'll find plenty to claim that the
+army is an instrument of oppression."
+
+"I'll admit it is sometimes wrongly used," Curtis replied. "We who are
+in the field can't help that, however. We are under orders. Of course,"
+he added, modestly, "I am only a young soldier. I have seen but ten
+years of service, and I have taken part in but one campaign--a war I
+considered unavoidable at that time."
+
+"You would hold, then, that an officer of the army has a right to
+convictions?" queried Brisbane, in the tone of the lawyer.
+
+"Most certainly. A man does not cease to think upon entering the army."
+
+"That's dangerous doctrine."
+
+"It's the American idea. What people would suffer by having its army
+intelligent?"
+
+Lawson coughed significantly. "Bring forth the black-swathed
+axe--treason has upreared her head."
+
+It was plain that Brisbane was lying in wait for him. Curtis whispered
+to Elsie:
+
+"Rescue me! Your father is planning to quiz me, and I must not talk
+before I report to the department."
+
+"I understand. We will go to my studio after dinner." And with Lawson's
+aid she turned the conversation into safe channels.
+
+It was a very great pleasure to the young soldier to sit once more at
+such a board and in pleasant relation to Elsie. It was more than he had
+ever hoped for, and he surprised her by his ability to take on her
+interests. He grew younger in the glow of her own youth and beauty, and
+they finished their ices in such good-fellowship that Mrs. Wilcox was
+amazed.
+
+"We will slip away now," Elsie said, in a low tone to Curtis, and they
+both rose. As they were about to leave the room Brisbane looked up in
+surprise. "Where are you going? Don't you smoke, Captain? Stay and have
+a cigar."
+
+Elsie answered for him. "Captain Curtis can come back, but I want him to
+see my studio now, for I know if you get to talking politics he will
+miss the pictures altogether."
+
+"She has a notion I'm growing garrulous," Brisbane retorted, "but I deny
+the charge. Well, let me see you later, Captain; there are some things I
+want to discuss with you."
+
+"Grace, you are to come, too," Elsie said to her girl friend, and led
+the way out into the hall.
+
+Miss Cooke stepped to Curtis's side. "You've been in Washington
+before?" she asked, with an inflection which he hated.
+
+"Oh yes, many times. In fact, I lived here till I was sixteen. I was
+born in Maryland, not far from here."
+
+"Indeed! Then you know the city thoroughly?"
+
+"Certain sides of it. Exteriorly and officially I know it; socially, I
+am a stranger to it. My people were proud and poor. A good old family in
+a fine old house, and very little besides."
+
+Elsie led the way slowly up the big staircase, secretly hoping Miss
+Cooke would find it too cool for her thin blood. She wished to be alone
+with Curtis, and this wish, obscure as it was, grew stronger as she set
+a chair for him and placed a frame on an easel.
+
+"You really need daylight to see them properly."
+
+"Am I to make remarks?"
+
+"Certainly; tell me just what you think."
+
+"Then let me preface my helpful criticisms by saying that I don't know
+an earthly thing about painting. We had drawing, of a certain kind, at
+the academy, and I used to visit the galleries in New York when occasion
+served. Now you know the top and the bottom of my art education."
+
+"It's cold in here, Elsie," broke in Miss Cooke, whom they had quite
+forgotten. "Is the steam turned on?"
+
+"Wrap my slumber-robe around you," Elsie carelessly replied. "Now here
+is my completed study of Little Peta. What do you think of that? Is it
+like her?"
+
+"Very like her, indeed. I think it excellent," he said, with unaffected
+enthusiasm. "She was a quaint little thing. She is about to be married
+to young Two Horns--a white man's wedding."
+
+Elsie's eyes glowed. "Oh, I wish I could see that! But don't let her
+wear white man's clothing. She'd be so cunning in her own way of dress.
+I wish she had not learned to chew gum."
+
+"None of us quite live up to our best intentions," he replied, laughing.
+"Peta thinks she's gaining in grace. Most of the white ladies she knows
+chew gum."
+
+The pictures were an old story to Miss Cooke, who shivered for a time in
+silence and at last withdrew. Elsie and Curtis were deep in discussion
+of the effect of white man's clothing on the Tetongs, but each was aware
+of a subtle change in the other as the third person was withdrawn. A
+delicious sense of danger, of inward impulse warring with outward
+restraint, added zest to their intercourse. He instantly recalled the
+last time he stood in her studio feeling her frank contempt of him. "I
+am on a different footing now," he thought, with a certain exultation.
+It was worth years of hardship and hunger and cold to stand side by side
+with a woman who had not merely beauty and wealth but talent, and a
+mysterious quality that was more alluring than beauty or intellect. What
+this was he could not tell, but it had already made life a new game to
+him.
+
+She, on her part, exulted with a sudden sense of having him to herself
+for experiment, and every motion of his body, every tone of his voice
+she noted and admired.
+
+He resumed: "Naturally, I can say nothing of the technique of these
+pictures. My praise of them must be on the score of their likeness to
+the people. They are all admirable portraits, exact and spirited, and
+yet--" He hesitated, with wrinkled brows.
+
+"Don't spare me!" she cried out. "Cut me up if you can!"
+
+"Well, then, they seem to me unsympathetic. For example, the best of
+them all is Peta, because you liked her, you comprehended her, partly,
+for she was a child, gentle and sweet. But you have painted old Crawling
+Elk as if he were a felonious mendicant. You've delineated his rags, his
+wrinkled skin, his knotted hands, but you've left the light out of his
+eyes. Let me tell you something about that old man. When I saw him first
+he was sitting on the high bank of the river, motionless as bronze, and
+as silent. He was mourning the loss of his little grandchild, and had
+been there two days and two nights wailing till his voice had sunk to a
+whisper. His rags were a sign of his utter despair. You didn't know that
+when you painted him, did you?"
+
+"No, I did not," she replied, softly.
+
+"Moreover, Crawling Elk is the annalist and story-teller of his tribe.
+He carries the 'winter count' and the sacred pipe, and can tell you of
+every movement of the Tetongs for more than a century and a half. His
+mind is full of poetry, and his conceptions of the earth and sky are
+beautiful. He knows little that white men know, and cares for very
+little that the white man fights for, but his mind teems with lore of
+the mysterious universe into which he has been thrust, and which he has
+studied for seventy-two years. In the eyes of God, I am persuaded there
+is no very wide difference between old Crawling Elk and Herbert
+Spencer. The circle of Spencer's knowledge is wider, but it is as far
+from including the infinite as the redman's story of creation. Could you
+understand the old man as I do, you would forget his rags. He would loom
+large in the mysterious gloom of life. Your painting is as prejudiced in
+its way as the description which a cowboy would give you of this old
+man. You have given the color, the picturesque qualities of your
+subjects, but you have forgotten that they are human souls, groping for
+happiness and light."
+
+As he went on, Elsie stared at the picture fixedly, and it changed under
+her glance till his deeply passionate words seemed written on the
+canvas. The painting ceased to be a human face and became a mechanical
+setting together of features, a clever delineation of the exterior of a
+ragged old man holding a beaded tobacco-pouch and a long red pipe.
+
+"This old 'beggar,'" Curtis continued, "never lights that pipe you have
+put in his hands without blowing a whiff to the great spirits seated at
+the cardinal points of the compass. He makes offerings for the health of
+his children--he hears voices in the noon-day haze. He sits on the
+hill-top at dawn to commune with the spirits over his head. As a beggar
+he is picturesque; as a man, he is bewildered by the changes in his
+world, and sad with the shadow of his children's future. All these
+things, and many more, you must learn before you can represent the soul
+of the redman. You can't afford to be unjust."
+
+She was deeply affected by his words. They held conceptions new to her.
+But his voice pierced her, strangely subdued her. It quivered with an
+emotion which she could not understand. Why should he care so much
+whether she painted her subjects well or ill? She was seized with
+sudden, bitter distrust.
+
+"I wish I had not shown you my studies," she said, resentfully.
+
+His face became anxious, his voice gentle. "I beg your pardon; I have
+presumed too far. I hope, Miss Brisbane, you will not take what I say
+too much to heart. Indeed, you must not mind me at all. I am, first of
+all, a sort of crank; and then, as I say, I don't know a word about
+painting; please forget my criticisms."
+
+She understood his mood now. His anxiety to regain her good-will was
+within her grasp, and she seized the opportunity to make him plead for
+himself and exonerate her.
+
+"You have torn my summer's work to flinders," she said, sullenly,
+looking down at a bit of charcoal she was grinding into the rug beneath
+her feet.
+
+He was aghast. "Don't say that, I beg of you! Good Heavens! don't let my
+preachment discourage you. You see, I have two or three hobbies, and
+when I am once mounted I'm sure to ride right over somebody's garden
+wall." He rose and approached her. "I shall never forgive myself if I
+have taken away the smallest degree of your enthusiasm. My aim--if I had
+an aim--was to help you to understand my people, so that when you come
+out next summer--"
+
+"All that is ended now," she said, sombrely. "I shall attempt no more
+Indian work!"
+
+This silenced him. He took time to consider what this sudden depression
+on her part meant. As he studied her he saw her lip quiver, and anxiety
+suddenly left him. His tone was laughter-filled as he called: "Come,
+now, Miss Brisbane, you're making game of me by taking my criticisms so
+solemnly. I can see a smile twitching your lips this moment. Look at
+me!"
+
+She looked up and broke into a laugh. He joined in with her, but a flush
+rose to his face.
+
+"You fooled me completely. I reckon you should have been an actress
+instead of a painter."
+
+She sobered a little. "Really, I _was_ depressed for a moment. Your tone
+was so terribly destructive. Shall we go down?"
+
+"Not till you say you'll forgive me and forget my harangue."
+
+She gave him her hand. "I'll forgive you, but I'm going to remember the
+harangue. I--rather liked it. It made me think. Strange to say, I like
+people who make me think."
+
+Again his heart leaped with the blood of exultant youth. "She is coming
+to understand me better!" he thought.
+
+"You must see my other pictures by daylight," she was saying. "Mr.
+Lawson likes this one particularly." They had moved out into the little
+reception-room. "I did it in Giverney--we all go down sooner or later to
+paint one of Monet's pollard willows. These are my 'stunts.'"
+
+Lawson! Yes, there was the secret of her increasing friendliness. As the
+fiancée of Lawson she could afford to lessen her reserve towards his
+friend.
+
+And so it happened that, notwithstanding her cordial welcome and her
+respectful consideration of his criticism, he went away with a feeling
+of disappointment. That her beauty was more deeply enthralling than he
+had hitherto realized made his disquiet all the greater. As he stepped
+out upon the street, she seemed as insubstantial as a dream of his
+imaginative youth, far separated from any reality with which he had any
+durable association.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+CURTIS AT HEADQUARTERS
+
+
+Curtis was frankly exclamatory at the size and splendor of Lawson's
+apartments. He had accepted the invitation to take breakfast with him
+without much thought as to the quality of the breakfast or where it
+would be eaten, until he found himself entering the hall of a superb
+apartment hotel.
+
+"Why, see here, Lawson," he exclaimed, as he looked about his friend's
+suite, "this is too much for any bachelor--it's baronial! I must revise
+my judgments. I had a notion you were a hard-working ethnologic sharp."
+
+"So I am," replied Lawson, smiling with frank enjoyment of his visitor's
+amazement. "I've been at work two hours at my desk. If you don't believe
+it, there's the desk."
+
+The room was filled with books, cases of antique pottery, paintings of
+Indians, models of Pueblo dwellings, and other things in keeping, and
+was made rich in color by a half-dozen very choice Navajo blankets in
+the fine old weaves with the vegetable dyes so dear to the collector.
+The long table was heaped with current issues of the latest magazines,
+and dozens of books, with markers set to guard some valuable passages,
+were piled within reach. It was plainly the library of a student and man
+of letters.
+
+Lawson's lean, brown face at once assumed a different aspect to Curtis.
+It became more refined, more scholarly, and distinctly less shrewd and
+quizzical, and the soldier began to understand the writer's smiling
+defiance of Western politicians and millionaire cattle-owners. Plainly a
+man of large fortune, with high social connections, what had Lawson to
+fear of the mountain West? The menace of the greedy cattlemen troubled
+him no more than the howl of the blizzard.
+
+In the same measure that Lawson's power was revealed to him the heart of
+the agent sank. He could not but acknowledge that here was the fitting
+husband and proper home for Elsie--"while I," he thought, "have only a
+barrack in a desolate Indian country to offer her," and he swung deep in
+the trough of his sea of doubt.
+
+A map on the wall, lined with red, caught his eye, and he seized upon it
+for diversion.
+
+"What is this?" he asked.
+
+"That's my trail-map," replied Lawson. "The red lines represent my
+wanderings."
+
+Curtis studied it with expert eyes. "You have ploughed the Arizona
+deserts pretty thoroughly."
+
+"Yes, I've spent three summers down in that country studying
+cliff-dwellings. It's a mighty alluring region. Last summer I broke away
+and got back into the north, but I am greatly taken with the hot
+sunshine and loneliness of the desert."
+
+Curtis turned sharply. "What I can't understand, Lawson, is this: How
+can you pull up and leave such a home?"--he indicated the room with a
+sweep of his hand--"and go out on the painted desert or down the Chaco
+and swelter in the heat like a horned toad?"
+
+Lawson smiled. "It _is_ absurd, isn't it? Man's an unaccountable beast.
+But come! Breakfast is waiting, and I hope you're hungry."
+
+The dining-room was built on a scale with the library, and the mahogany
+table, sparsely covered with dishes, looked small and lonely in the
+midst of the shining floor. This feature of the beautiful room impressed
+Curtis, and as they took seats opposite each other he remarked, "If I
+were not here you would be alone?"
+
+"Yes, quite generally I breakfast alone. I entertain less than you would
+think. I'm a busy man when at home."
+
+"Well, the waste of room is criminal, Lawson, that's all I have to
+say--criminal. You'll be called upon to answer for it some time."
+
+"I've begun to think so myself," replied the host, significantly.
+
+They talked mountain ranges and Pueblo dwellers, and the theoretical
+relation of the mound-builders to the small, brown races of the Rio
+Grande Valley, touching also on the future of the redman; and all the
+while Curtis was struggling with a benumbing sense of his hopeless
+weakness in the face of a rival like Lawson. He gave up all thought of
+seeing Elsie again, and resolutely set himself to do the work before
+him, eager to return to his duties in the Western foot-hills.
+
+Lawson accompanied him to the Interior Department and introduced him to
+the Secretary, who had the preoccupied air of a business man rather than
+the assumed leisure of the politician. He shook hands warmly, and asked
+his visitors to be seated while he finished a paper in hand. At last he
+turned and pleasantly began:
+
+"I'm glad to meet you, Captain. Yours is a distinguished name with us.
+We fully recognize the value of your volunteer service, and hope to make
+the best use of you. Our mutual friend, Lawson here, threatens to make
+you Secretary in my stead." Here he looked over his spectacles with a
+grave and accusing air, which amused Lawson greatly.
+
+"Not so bad as that, Mr. Secretary," he laughed. "I merely suggested
+that Captain Curtis would make an excellent President."
+
+"Oh, well, it all comes to the same thing." He then became quite
+serious. "Now, Captain, I would suggest that you put this whole matter
+as you see it, together with your recommendations, into the briefest,
+most telling form possible, and be ready to come before the committee
+to-morrow. Confer with the commissioner and be ready to meet the queries
+of the opposition. Brisbane is behind the cattlemen in this controversy,
+and he is a strong man. I agree entirely with you and Lawson that the
+Tetongs should remain where they are and be helped in the way you
+suggest. Be ready with computations of the cost of satisfying claims of
+the settlers, building ditches, etc. Come and see me again before you
+return. Good-morning," and he bent to his desk with instant absorption.
+
+Lawson again led the way across the square in search of the
+commissioner's office. The large, bare waiting-room was filled with a
+dozen or more redmen, all wearing new blue suits and wide black hats.
+They were smoking in contemplative silence, with only an occasional word
+spoken in undertone. It was plain they were expecting an audience with
+the great white chief.
+
+Several of them knew Lawson and cried out: "Ho! Ho!" coming up one by
+one to shake hands, but they glowed with pleasure as Curtis began to
+sign-talk with them.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked of one. "Oh! Northern Cheyenne--I thought so.
+And you--you are Apache?" he said to another. "I can tell that, too.
+What are you all waiting for? To see the commissioner? Have you had a
+good visit? Yes, I see you have nice new suits. The government is good
+to you--sometimes." They laughed at his sharp hits. "Well, don't stay
+too long here. The white man will rob you of your good clothes. Be
+careful of fire-water."
+
+One old man, whose gestures were peculiarly flowing and dignified,
+thereupon signed: "When the white man come to buy our lands we are great
+chiefs--very tall; when we ask for our money to be paid to us, then we
+are small, like children." This caused a general laugh, in which Curtis
+joined. They all wanted to know who he was, and he told them. "Ah! we
+are glad for the Tetongs. They have a good man. Tell the commissioner we
+are anxious to council and go home--we are weary of this place."
+
+Lawson, meanwhile, had entered the office and now reappeared. "Mr. Brown
+will see you at once, Captain."
+
+The acting commissioner wore the troubled look of a man sorely
+overworked and badly badgered. He breathed a sigh of ostentatious relief
+as he faced his two visitors, who came neither to complain nor to ask
+favors. He studied Curtis contemplatively, his pale face set in sad
+lines.
+
+"I'm leaning on you in this Tetong business," he began. "I have so many
+similar fights all over the West, I can't give you the attention you
+deserve. It seems as though our settlers were insane over Indian lands.
+I honestly believe, if we should lay out a reservation on the staked
+plains there'd be a mad rush for it. 'The Injun has it--let's take it
+away from him,' seems to be the universal cry. I am pestered to death
+with schemes for cutting down reservations and removing tribes. It would
+seem as if these poor, hunted devils might have a thumb-nail's breadth
+of the continent they once entirely owned; but no, so long as an acre
+exists they are liable to attack. I'm worn out with the attempt to
+defend them. I'll have nervous prostration or something worse if this
+pressure continues. Yesterday nearly finished me. What kind of pirates
+do you raise out there, anyway?"
+
+Curtis listened with amazement to this frank avowal, but Lawson only
+laughed, saying, in explanation: "This is one of the commissioner's poor
+days. He'll fight till the last ditch--"
+
+"Irrigating ditch!" supplemented the commissioner. "Yes, there's another
+nightmare. Beautiful complication! The government puts the Indian on a
+reservation so dry that water won't run down hill, and then Lawson or
+some other friend of the Indian comes in here and insists on irrigating
+ditches being put in, and then I am besieged by civil engineers for
+jobs, and wild-eyed contractors twist my door-knobs off. Captain Curtis,
+keep out of the Indian service if you have any conscience."
+
+"That's exactly why I recommended him," said Lawson--"because he _has_ a
+conscience."
+
+"It'll shorten his life ten years and do no material good. Well, now,
+about this Tetong imbroglio."
+
+Immediately he fell upon the problem with the most intense application,
+and Curtis had a feeling that his little season of plain speaking had
+refreshed him.
+
+Lawson went his way, but Curtis spent the remainder of the day in the
+commissioner's office, putting together his defence of the Tetongs,
+compiling figures, and drawing maps to show the location of grass and
+water. He did not rise from his work till the signal for closing came,
+and even then he gathered his papers together and took them home to his
+room in the club in order to put the finishing touches to them.
+
+While dressing for his dinner with Lieutenant Kirkman, a classmate and
+comrade, he began to wonder how soon he could decently make his
+dinner-call on the Brisbanes. It was shameful in him, of course, but he
+had suddenly lost interest in the Kirkmans. The day seemed lost because
+he had not been able to see Elsie. There was a powerful longing in his
+heart, an impatience which he had not experienced since his early
+manhood. It was a hunger which had lain dormant--scotched but not
+killed--for now it rose from its mysterious lair with augmented power to
+break his rest and render all other desires of no account.
+
+That night, after he returned from the Kirkmans', where he had enjoyed
+an exquisite little dinner amid a joyous chatter reviving old-time
+memories, he found himself not merely wide-awake, but restless. His
+brain seemed determined to reveal itself to him completely. Pictures of
+his early life and the faces and homes of his friends in the West came
+whirling in orderless procession like flights of swift birds--now a
+council with the Sioux; now a dinner of the staff of General Miles;
+visions of West Point, a flock of them, came also, and the faces of the
+girls he had loved with a boy's fancy; and then, as if these were but
+whisks of cloud scattering, the walls of great mountain ranges appeared
+behind, stern and majestic, sunlit for a moment, only to withdraw
+swiftly into gray night; and when he seized upon these sweeping
+fragments and attempted to arrange them, Elsie's proud face, with its
+dark, changeful eyes and beautiful, curving lips, took central place,
+and in the end obscured all the rest.
+
+The Kirkman home, the cheer, the tenderness of the husband towards his
+dainty little wife, the obvious rest and satisfaction of the man,
+betokening that the ultimate of his desires had been reached, also came
+in for consideration by the restless brain of the soldier-mountaineer.
+"I shall never be at peace till I have wife and child, that I now
+realize," he acknowledged to himself in the deep, solitary places of his
+thought.
+
+Then he rose and took up the papers which he had been preparing, and as
+he went over them again he came to profounder realization than ever
+before of the mighty tragedy whose final act he seemed about to witness.
+His heart swelled with a great tenderness towards that fragment of a
+proud and free people who sat in wonder before the coming of an infinite
+flood of alien races, helpless to stay it, appalled by the breadth and
+power of the stream which swept them away. He felt himself in some sense
+their chosen friend--their Moses, to lead them out of the desolation in
+which they sat bewildered and despairing. Thinking of them and of plans
+to help them, he grew weary at last, his brain ceased to grind, and he
+slept.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+CURTIS GRAPPLES WITH BRISBANE
+
+
+The hearing took place at ten o'clock, but Curtis had opportunity for a
+little helpful consultation with Lawson before the chairman called the
+committeemen to order. The session seemed unimportant--perfunctory. The
+members sat for the most part silent, ruminating, with eyes fixed on the
+walls or upon slips of paper which they held abstractedly in their
+hands. Occasionally some one of them would rouse up to ask a question,
+but, in general, their attitudes were those of bored and preoccupied
+business men. They came and went carelessly in response to calls of
+their clerks, and Curtis perceived that they had very little real
+interest in the life or death of the redmen. He would have been
+profoundly discouraged had not the chairman been alert and his questions
+to the point. After his formal statement had been taken and the hearing
+was over, the chairman approached Curtis informally and showed a very
+human sympathy for the Tetongs.
+
+"Yes, I think we can hold this raid in check," he said, in answer to
+Curtis, and added, slowly, "I am very glad to find a man of your quality
+taking up this branch of service." He paused, and a smile wrinkled his
+long, Scotch face. "They accuse me of being a weak sentimentalist,
+because I refuse to consider the redman in the light of a reptile. I was
+an abolitionist"--the smile faded from his eyes and his thin lips
+straightened--"in days when it meant something to defend the negro, and
+in standing for the rights of the redman I am merely continuing my
+life-work. It isn't a question of whether I know the Indian or not,
+though I know him better than most of my critics; it's a question of his
+dues under our treaties. We considered him a man when we bought his
+land, and I insist he shall be treated the same now. I should like to
+hear from you--unofficially, of course--whenever you have anything to
+say. Lawson's testimony"--he laid a caressing hand on Lawson's
+shoulder--"is worth more to me than that of a thousand land speculators.
+He's a comfort to us, for we know he is disinterested, and has nothing
+to gain or lose in any question which concerns the reds, and we find
+very much the same about you, Captain Curtis, and I am determined that
+you shall have free hand."
+
+Curtis shook hands with the old man with a sense of security. Here, at
+least, was a senator of the old school, a man to be depended upon in
+time of trouble. He began also to realize Lawson's power, for he seemed
+to be the personal friend of every honest official connected with the
+department.
+
+As the two young men stepped out into the hall they came face to face
+with Elsie and her father.
+
+"Are we too late?" cried the girl. "Is the hearing over?"
+
+"My part of it is," answered Curtis--"at least for to-day. They may
+recall me to-morrow."
+
+Brisbane was visibly annoyed. "I didn't suppose you would come on till
+eleven; that's the word I got over the 'phone. I particularly wanted to
+hear your deposition," he added, sourly.
+
+"Papa has an idea your opposition to this bill is important," Elsie
+said, lightly, as Curtis edged away from Brisbane.
+
+Brisbane followed him up. "Well, now that your hearing is over, suppose
+you get into our carriage and go home with us to lunch?'
+
+"Please do!" said Elsie, with flattering sincerity.
+
+Curtis hesitated, and was made captive. "It is a great temptation," he
+said, looking at Lawson.
+
+Elsie saw him yielding and cried out: "Oh, you must come--and you, too,
+Osborne."
+
+Lawson was plainly defeated. "I can't do it. I have a couple of New York
+men to lunch at the club, and I couldn't think of putting them off."
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry; we would have made a nice little lunch party."
+
+"There are other days coming!" he replied, as lightly as possible.
+
+As they drove away Curtis had a premonition that his impending interview
+would be disagreeable, for Brisbane sat in silence, his keen eyes full
+of some sinister resolution. He was, in fact, revolving in his mind a
+plan of attack. He realized the danger of attempting to bribe such a man
+even indirectly, but a poor and ambitious soldier might be removed by
+gentler means, through promotion; and friendly pressure might be brought
+to bear on the War Department to that effect. Having set himself to the
+task of clearing the reservation of the Tetongs, a man of Brisbane's
+power did not hesitate long over the morality of methods, and having
+decided upon promotion as his method of approaching Curtis, the old man
+distinctly softened, and made himself agreeable by extending the drive
+and affably pointing out the recent improvements in the city. "Our
+Capitol is as good as any now," he said. "Our new buildings are up to
+the standard."
+
+The young soldier refused to be drawn into any blood-heating
+discussions, being quite content to sit facing Elsie, feeling obscurely
+the soft roll of the wheels beneath him, and absorbing the light and
+color of the streets. "This is my city," he said; "I spent my boyhood,
+here. I went to West Point from here."
+
+"It _is_ beautiful," replied Elsie, and at the moment a spark of some
+mysterious flame sprang from each to the other. They were young, and the
+air was soft and sweet. Thereafter everything gave the young soldier
+pleasure. The whistling of the darkies, the gay garments of the
+shoppers, the glitter of passing carriages, the spread of trees against
+the bright sky--everything assumed a singular grace. His courage rose,
+and he felt equal to any task.
+
+As they entered the big house Elsie said: "You're to come right up to
+the studio. I want to show you a canvas I finished yesterday. I had an
+inspiration--I think you brought it to me."
+
+As she led the way up the wide and splendidly carved stair-way the
+soldier's elation sank away, for each step emphasized the girl's pride
+and power, and by contrast threw the poor Indian agent into hopeless
+shadow. He hardly heard what she said, till she led him before her easel
+and said:
+
+"There is yesterday's work. I've been trying for days to get a certain
+effect of color, and, behold! I caught it flying this morning. What
+puzzles me in your country is the enormously high value of your earth in
+reference to the sky. The sky is so solid."
+
+As he took in the significance of the canvas Curtis exclaimed:
+
+"It is very beautiful. It is miraculous. How do you do it?"
+
+"I'm glad you like it. My problem there was to represent the difference
+in value between Chief Elk, who is riding in the vivid sunlight, and his
+wife and Little Peta, who are just in the edge of that purple
+cloud-shadow. The difference between white in sunlight and white in
+shadow is something terrific in your dry air. Contrasts are enough to
+knock you down. This gray, Eastern studio light makes all my sketches
+seem false, but I know they are not."
+
+"They are very true, it seems to me."
+
+"When I close my eyes and hark back to the flooding light of the valley
+of the Elk, then I can do these things; I can't if I don't. I have to
+forget all my other pictures. This is nearer my impression than anything
+else I've done."
+
+"It has great charm," he said, after a pause, "and it also reminds me of
+my duty. I must return at once to the West."
+
+"When do you go--actually?"
+
+"Actually, I leave to-morrow at three o'clock; unless I receive word to
+the contrary, to-morrow morning."
+
+"So soon? You are making a very short stay. Can't you remain over the
+holidays? Some friends of mine are coming on from New York. I'd like
+you to meet them."
+
+"I think I must return. Jennie is preparing to give her little 'Ingines'
+a Christmas-tree, and I am told that my 'Sandy Claws' would add greatly
+to their joy, so I am making special effort to reach there on the 23d."
+
+She looked at him musingly. "You really are interested in those ugly
+creatures? I don't understand it."
+
+"To be really frank, I don't understand your lack of sympathy," he
+replied, smiling a little. "It isn't at all feminine."
+
+She took a seat on the divan before she spoke again. "Oh, women are such
+posers. You think I am quite heartless, don't you?"
+
+"No, I don't think that, but I do think you are a little unjust to these
+people, whose thought you have made very little effort to comprehend."
+
+"Why should I? They are not worth while."
+
+"Do you speak now as an artist?" he asked, gravely.
+
+"But they are so gross and so cruel!"
+
+"I don't deny but they are, sometimes, both gross and cruel, but so are
+civilized men. The scalp-dance no more represents them than a bayonet
+charge represents us. It isn't just to condemn all for the faults of a
+few. You wouldn't destroy servant-girls because some of them are ugly
+and untidy, would you?"
+
+"The cases are not precisely similar."
+
+"I'll admit that, but the point is here: as an artist you can't afford
+to dispose of a race on the testimony of their hereditary enemies. You
+wouldn't expect a sympathetic study of the Greek by the Saracen, would
+you?"
+
+"It isn't that so much, but they are so perfectly unimportant. They have
+no use in the world. What does it matter if they die, or don't?"
+
+"Perhaps not so much to them; but to me, if I can help them and fail to
+do it, it matters a great deal. We can't afford to be unjust, for our
+own sake. The bearer of the torch should not burn, he should illumine."
+
+"I don't understand that," she said, genuinely searching for his
+meaning.
+
+"There is where you disappoint me," he retorted. "Most women quiver with
+altruistic passion the moment they see helpless misery. If you saw a
+kitten fall into a well what would you do?"
+
+"I should certainly try to save it."
+
+"Your heart would bleed to see it drown?"
+
+She shivered at the thought. "Why, of course!"
+
+"And yet you can share in your father's exterminating vengeance as he
+sweeps ten thousand redmen into their graves?"
+
+"The case is different--the kitten never did any harm."
+
+"The wrong is by no means all on the redman's side. But even if it were,
+Christ said, 'Love them that hate you,' and as a Christian nation we
+should not go out in vindictive warfare against even those who
+despitefully use us. I haven't a very high seat in the synagogue. I have
+a soldier's training for warfare, but I acknowledge the splendor of
+Christ's precepts and try to live up to them. I always liked Grant's
+position as regards the soldier. But more than that--I like these red
+people. They are a good deal more than rude men. It is a great pleasure
+to feel their trust and confidence in me. It touches me deeply to have
+them come and put their palms on me reverently, as though I were
+superhuman in wisdom, and say: 'Little Father, we are blind. We cannot
+see the way. Lead us and we will go.' At such times I feel that no other
+work in the world is so important. If human souls are valuable anywhere
+on earth they are valuable here; no selfish land-lust should blind us to
+see that."
+
+As he spoke, the girl again felt something large and sweet and powerful,
+like a current of electrical air which came out of wide spaces of human
+emotion and covered her like a flood. She was humbled by the high
+purpose and inexplicable enthusiasm of the man before her.
+
+"I suppose you consider me cruel and heartless!" she cried out. "But I
+am not to blame for being what I am."
+
+"If you are not free, who is? You have it all--youth, wealth, beauty.
+Nothing enslaves you but indifference."
+
+She was thinking that Lawson had never moved her so, and wishing Curtis
+were less inexorable in his logic, when he checked himself by saying: "I
+beg your pardon again. I came to see your pictures, not to preach
+forgiveness of sins. I here pull myself up short."
+
+"I think you could make me feel personal interest in brickbats or--or
+spiders," she said, with a quaint, relaxing smile. "You were born to be
+a preacher, not a soldier."
+
+"Do you think so? I've had a notion all along that I was a fairly good
+commander and a mighty poor persuader; what I don't intend to be is a
+bore." He rose and began to walk slowly round the walls, studying the
+paintings under her direction. He was struggling with obscure impulses
+to other and more important speech, but after making the circuit of the
+room he said, as though rendering a final verdict:
+
+"You have great talent; that is evident. What do you intend to do with
+it? It should help some one."
+
+"You are old-fashioned," she replied. "In our modern day, art is content
+to add beauty to the world; it does not trouble itself to do good. It is
+_un_moral."
+
+"Perhaps I _am_ a preacher, after all, for I like the book or picture
+that has a motive, that stands for something. Your conception of art's
+uses is French, is it not?"
+
+"I suppose it is; clearly, it isn't Germanic. What would you have me
+do--paint Indians to convince the world of their sufferings?"
+
+"Wouldn't that be something like the work Millet did? Seems to me I
+remember something of that sort in some book I have read."
+
+She laughed. "Unfortunately, I am not Millet; besides, he isn't the god
+of our present idolatry. He's a dead duck. We paint skirt-dancers and
+the singers in the cafés now. Toiling peasants are 'out.'"
+
+"You are a woman, and a woman ought--"
+
+"Please don't hand me any of that stupid rot about what a woman _ought_
+to be, and isn't. What I am I am, and I don't like dirty, ragged people,
+no matter whether they are Roman beggars or Chinese. I like clean,
+well-dressed, well-mannered people and no one can make me believe they
+are less than a lot of ill-smelling Indians."
+
+"Miss Brisbane, you must not do me an injustice," he earnestly
+entreated. "It was not my intention to instruct you to-day. I am
+honestly interested in your pictures, and had no thought of renewing an
+appeal. I was tempted and fell. If you will forgive me this time, I'll
+never preach again."
+
+"I don't say I object to your preachment. I think I rather like it. I
+don't think I ever met a man who was so ready to sacrifice his own
+interest for an idea. It's rather amusing to meet a soldier who is ready
+to knock one down with a moral war-club." She ended with a mocking
+inflection of voice.
+
+His face lost its eager, boyish expression. "I'm delighted to think I
+have amused you," he said, slowly. "It makes amends."
+
+"Please don't be angry," she pleaded. "I didn't mean to be flippant."
+
+"Your words were explicit," he replied, feeling at the moment that she
+was making a mock of him, and this duplicity hurt him.
+
+She put forth her sweetest voice. "Please forgive me! I think your work
+very noble, only I can't understand how you can exile yourself to do it.
+Let us go down; it is time for lunch, and papa is waiting for you, I
+know."
+
+It was unaccountable that a mocking tone, a derisive smile from this
+chance acquaintance, should so shake the soldier and so weaken him, but
+he descended the stair-way with a humiliating consciousness of having
+betrayed his heart to a fleering, luring daughter of wealth.
+
+At the door of the library the girl paused. "Papa, are you asleep?"
+
+The abrupt rustle of a newspaper preceded Brisbane's deep utterance.
+"Not at all--just reading the _Star_. Come in, Captain. Is lunch nearly
+ready?" he asked of Elsie.
+
+"I think so. They are a little late. I'll go see."
+
+As she left the room Brisbane cordially rumbled on. "Sit down, Captain.
+I'm sorry I missed your talk to-day. I am curious to know what your
+notion is about the Tetongs. Of course, I understood you couldn't go
+into the case the other night, but, now that your testimony is all in, I
+hope you feel free to give me your reasons for opposing our plan for a
+removal of the tribe."
+
+Curtis took a seat, while Brisbane stretched himself out in a big chair
+and fixed his cold, gray-blue eyes on the soldier, who hesitated a
+moment before replying, "I don't think it wise to go into that matter,
+Senator."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Well, we differ so radically on the bill, and your interests make it
+exceedingly difficult for you to be just in the case. Nothing would be
+gained by argument."
+
+"You think you know what my interests are?" There was a veiled sarcasm
+in the great man's smile.
+
+"I think I do. As a candidate for re-election to the Senate you can't
+afford to antagonize the cattle and mining interests of your State, and,
+as I am now officially the representative of the Tetongs, I sincerely
+hope you will not insist on a discussion of the motives involved." The
+young officer spoke firmly, but with impressive dignity and candor.
+
+Brisbane's ambiguous manner took a sudden shift to cordiality, and,
+leaning forward, he said:
+
+"Curtis, I like you. I admire your frankness. Let me be equally plain.
+You're too able a man to be shelved out there on a bleak reservation.
+What was your idea of going into the Indian service, anyway?"
+
+The young officer remained on guard despite this genial glow. "I
+considered it my duty," he replied. "Besides, I was rusting out in
+garrison, and--but there is no need to go into my motives. I am agent,
+and shall stand firmly for the right of my wards so long as I am in
+position to do so."
+
+"But you're wasting your life. Suppose you were offered a chance to go
+to--well, say West Point, as an instructor on a good salary?"
+
+"I would decline the appointment."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because at this time I am needed where I am, and I have started on a
+plan of action which I have a pride in finishing."
+
+Brisbane grew distinctively less urbane. "You are bent on fighting me,
+are you?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Curtis, though he knew.
+
+"You are dead set against the removal of the Tetongs?"
+
+"Most certainly I am!"
+
+Elsie re-entered the room during this rapid interchange of phrase, but
+neither of the men heard her, so intent were they upon each other.
+
+"Young man, do you know who you are fighting?" asked Brisbane, bristling
+like a bear and showing his teeth a little. Curtis being silent, he
+went on: "You're lined up against the whole State! Not only the
+cattlemen round about the reservation, but a majority of the citizens
+are determined to be rid of those vagabonds. Anybody that knows anything
+about 'em knows they're a public nuisance. Why should they be allowed to
+camp on land which they can't use--graze their mangy ponies on lands
+rich in minerals--"
+
+"Because they are human beings."
+
+"Human beings!" sneered Brisbane. "They are nothing but a greasy lot of
+vermin--worthless from every point of view. Their rights can't stand in
+the way of civilization."
+
+"It is not a question of whether they are clean or dirty, it is a
+question of justice," Curtis replied, hotly. "They came into the world
+like the rest of us, without any choice in the matter, and so far as I
+can see have the same rights to the earth--at least, so much of it as
+they need to sustain life. The fact that they make a different use of
+the soil than you would do isn't a sufficient reason for starving and
+robbing them."
+
+"The quicker they die the better," replied Brisbane, flushing with
+sudden anger. "The only good Injun is a dead Injun."
+
+At this familiar phrase Curtis took fire. "Yes, I expected that accursed
+sentence. Let me tell you, Mr. Brisbane, I never knew a redman savage
+enough to utter such a sentiment as that. The most ferocious utterance
+of Geronimo never touched the tigerish malignity of that saying. Sitting
+Bull was willing to live and let live. If your view represents
+civilization, I want none of it. The world of the savage is less cruel,
+less selfish."
+
+Brisbane's face writhed white, and a snarling curse choked his utterance
+for a moment. "If you weren't my guest," he said, reaching a clutching
+hand towards Curtis, "I'd cut your throat."
+
+Elsie, waiting in strained expectancy, cried out: "Father! What are you
+saying? Are you crazy?"
+
+Curtis hastily rose, very white and very quiet. "I will take care not to
+put myself in your way as guest again, sir."
+
+"You can't leave too quick!" roared the old man, his face twitching with
+uncontrollable wrath. "You are a traitor to your race! You'd sacrifice
+the settlers to the interests of a greasy red vagabond!"
+
+"Father, be quiet! You are making a scene," called Elsie, and added,
+sadly: "Don't go, Captain Curtis; I shall be deeply mortified if you do.
+Father will be sorry for this."
+
+Brisbane also rose, shaking with a weakness pitiful to see. "Well, sir,
+you can go, for I know now the kind of sneak you are. Let me tell you
+this, young man: you'll feel my hand before you are a year older. You
+can't come into my house and insult me in the presence of my daughter.
+Get out!" His hands were moving uncontrollably, and Elsie discovered
+with a curious pang that she was pitying him and admiring the stern
+young soldier who stood quietly waiting for an opportunity to speak. At
+last he said:
+
+"Miss Brisbane, I beg your pardon; I should not have said what I did."
+He turned to Brisbane. "I am sorry I spoke so harshly, sir. You are an
+older man than I, and--"
+
+"Never mind my age," replied Brisbane, his heat beginning to cool into
+self-contained malice. "I desire no terms of friendship with you. It's
+war now--to the knife, and the knife to the hilt. You think you are safe
+from me, but the man that lines up against me generally regrets it to
+the day of his death."
+
+"Very well, sir, I am not one to waste words. I shall do my duty to the
+Tetongs regardless of you or your friends." He turned to Elsie. "Miss
+Brisbane, I ask you to remember that I honestly tried to avoid a
+controversy."
+
+Six months before Elsie would have remained passive while her father
+ordered Curtis from the door, but now she could not even attempt to
+justify his anger, and the tears glistened on her lashes as she said:
+"Father, why can't you accept Captain Curtis's hand? These ragamuffin
+redmen aren't worth quarrelling about. No one ever went away from us
+like this, and it breaks my heart to have it so. Don't go, Captain
+Curtis. Father, ask his pardon."
+
+The old man turned towards her. "Go to your room. I will see that this
+young squirt finds the door!"
+
+Elsie shrank from the glare of his eyes. "Father, you are brutal! You
+hurt me."
+
+"Do as I say!" he snarled.
+
+"I will _not_!" She faced him, tall and resolute. "I am not a child. I
+am the mistress of this house." She turned and walked towards the door.
+"Captain Curtis, I beg _your_ pardon; my father has forgotten himself."
+
+Brisbane took a step towards Curtis. "Get out! And you, girl, leave the
+room."
+
+The girl's face whitened. "Have you no sense of decency?" she said, and
+her voice cut deep down into his heart and he flinched. "Captain Curtis
+is my guest as well as yours." She extended her hand. "Please go! It is
+best."
+
+"It is the most miserable moment of my life," he replied, as they moved
+down the hall, leaving Brisbane at the door of the study. "I will do any
+honorable thing to regain your good-will."
+
+"You have not lost it," she replied. "I cannot blame you--as I should,"
+she added, and the look on her face mystified him.
+
+"May I see you again before I leave for the West?"
+
+"Perhaps," she softly replied. "Remember he is old--and--"
+
+"I will try not to bear anger," he replied.
+
+And as he turned away it seemed that she had leagued herself with him
+against her own father, and this feeling deepened as she ran up the
+stairs heedless of the voice whose commands had hitherto been law to
+her.
+
+The young officer walked down the sunny avenue towards the White House
+with a curious feeling of having just passed through a bitter and
+degrading dream. He was numb and cold. Around him the little negro
+newsboys were calling the one-o'clock editions of the "_Styah_," and the
+pavements were swarming with public servants hastening to lunch,
+punctual as clocks, while he, having been ordered from the house of his
+host, was mechanically returning to his club.
+
+There was something piercingly pathetic in the thought of the good cheer
+he had anticipated, and the lost pleasure of sitting opposite Elsie
+made his heart ache. At the moment his feet stumbled in the path of
+duty. Surely he was a long way from the single-minded map-builder who
+had crossed the Sulphur Spring Divide.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+SPRING ON THE ELK
+
+
+Spring came early in that latitude, and Curtis was profoundly thankful
+that his first winter had proven unusually short and mild, for it
+enabled him to provide for his people far better than he had dared to
+hope. The rations were insufficient at best, and for several days of
+each alternate week the grown people were hungry as well as cold, though
+no one actually perished from lack of food. Beyond the wood contract and
+the hauling of hides each month there was very little work to be done
+during the winter, not enough to buy the tobacco the men longed for.
+
+They believed in Swift Eagle, however, for he visited every cluster of
+huts each month, and became acquainted with nearly every family during
+the winter. No agent had ever taken the like pains to shake the old
+women by the hand, or to speak as kindly to the old men who sat beside
+the fire, feeble and bent with rheumatism. The little children all ran
+to him when he came near, as if he were a friend, and that was a good
+sign, too. Some of the old chiefs complained, of course--there was so
+little else for them to do; but they did not blame the Little Father.
+They were assured of his willingness to do whatever lay within his
+power to mitigate their poverty. Jennie, who was often at the beds of
+those who suffered, had won wide acceptance of her lotions by an amused
+tolerance of the medicine-men, whose mystic paraphernalia interested her
+exceedingly. The men of magic came at last to sing their curious songs
+and perform their feats of healing in her presence. "Together we will
+defeat the evil spirits," they said, and the health of the tribe
+continued to be very good, in spite of unsanitary housing and the evil
+influence of the medicine-men. When the missionaries came to have the
+native doctors suppressed Curtis said: "My policy is to supplant, not to
+suppress."
+
+The bill which called for the removal of the Tetongs to another
+reservation was reported killed. The compromise measure for buying out
+the settlers was "hung up" in the committee-room, and this delay on the
+part of Congress exasperated the settlers beyond reason, and at a
+convention held early in April at Pinon City, Joseph Streeter brazenly
+shouted, "If the government does not remove these Injuns before the
+first of July we'll make it hot for all concerned," and his threat was
+wildly cheered and largely quoted thereafter as the utterance of a man
+not afraid of Congress or anybody else.
+
+Seed-time came without any promise of change, and the white settlers on
+the reservation went sullenly to their planting, and the cattlemen drove
+their herds across the boundaries upon the Tetong range as they had been
+doing for many years. "We are in for another season of it," they said,
+with the air of being martyrs in the cause of civilization.
+
+Curtis immediately sent warning commands to all the outside ranchers to
+keep clear of the reservation, and also notified Streeter, Johnson, and
+others of the settlers on the Elk and the Willow that their cattle must
+not be allowed to stray beyond certain lines, which he indicated. These
+orders, according to Calvin, made the settlers "red-headed as
+wood-peckers. They think you're drawin' the lines down pretty fine."
+
+"I mean to," replied Curtis. "You original settlers are here by right
+and shall have full opportunity to graze your stock, but those on the
+outside must keep out. I will seize and impound all stock that does not
+belong on this land."
+
+Calvin reported this statement to the outside men, and its audacity
+provoked the most violent threats against the agent, but he rode about
+unaccompanied and unarmed; but not without defence, for Calvin said to
+one of the loudest of the boasters, "The man who jerks a gun on Curtis
+runs a good chance of losing a lung or two," and the remark took effect,
+for Calvin had somehow acquired a reputation for being "plumb sassy when
+attack-ted."
+
+Curtis had the army officer's contempt of personal injury, and, in
+pursuance of his campaign against the invading stockmen, did not
+hesitate to ride into their round-up camps alone, or accompanied only by
+Crow Wing, and no blusterer could sustain his reputation in the face of
+the agent's calm sense of command.
+
+"I am not speaking personally," he said once, to an angry camp of a
+dozen armed men. "I am here as an officer of the United States army,
+detailed to special duty as an Indian agent, and I am in command of
+this reservation. It is of no use to bluster. Your cattle _must_ be kept
+from the Tetong range."
+
+"The grass is going to waste there," the boss argued.
+
+"That does not concern you. It is not the fault of the Tetongs that they
+have not cattle enough to fill the range."
+
+In the end he had his way, and though the settlers and ranchers hated
+him, they also respected him. No one thought of attempting to bribe or
+scare him, and political "pull" had no value in his eyes.
+
+Jennie, meanwhile, had acquired almost mythic fame as a marvellously
+beautiful and haughty "queen." Calvin was singularly close-mouthed about
+her, but one or two of the cowboys who had chanced to meet her with the
+agent spread the most appreciative reports of her beauty and of the
+garments she wore. She was said to be a singer of opera tunes, and that
+she played the piano "to beat the Jews." One fellow who had business
+with the agent reported having met her at the door. "By mighty! she's
+purty enough to eat," he said to his chum. "Her cheeks are as pink as
+peaches, and her eyes are jest the brown I like. She's a 'glad rag,' all
+right."
+
+"Made good use o' your time, didn't ye?" remarked his friend.
+
+"You bet your life! I weren't lettin' nothin' git by me endurin' that
+minute or two."
+
+"I bet you dursn't go there again."
+
+"I take ye--I'll go to-morrow."
+
+"Without any business, this time? No excuse but jest to see her? You
+'ain't got the nerve."
+
+"You'll see. I'm the boy. There ain't no 'rag' gay enough to scare me."
+
+It became a common joke for some lank, brown chap to say carelessly, as
+he rose from supper, "Well, I guess I'll throw a saddle onto my
+bald-faced sorrel and ride over and see the agent's sister." In reality,
+not one of them ever dared to even knock at the door, and when they came
+to the yards with a consignment of cattle they were as self-conscious as
+school-boys in a parlor and uneasy as wolves in a trap, till they were
+once more riding down the trail; then they "broke loose," whooping
+shrilly and racing like mad, in order to show that they had never been
+afraid. Calvin continued to call, and his defence of the agent had led
+to several sharp altercations with his father.
+
+The red people expanded and took on cheer under the coming of the
+summer, like some larger form of insect life. They were profoundly glad
+of the warmth. The old men, climbing to some rounded hill-top at dawn,
+sat reverently to smoke and offer incense to the Great Spirit, which the
+sun was, and the little children, seeing the sages thus in deep
+meditation, passed quietly by with a touch of awe.
+
+As the soft winds began to blow, the dingy huts were deserted for the
+sweeter and wholesomer life of the tepee, which is always ventilated,
+and which has also a thousand memories of battle and the chase
+associated with its ribbed walls, its yellowed peak, and its smouldering
+fires. The sick grew well and the weak became strong as they passed once
+more from the foul air of their cabins to the inspiriting breath of the
+mountains, uncontaminated by any smoke of white man's fire. The little
+girls went forth on the hills to gather flowers for the teachers, and
+the medicine-men, taking great credit to themselves, said: "See! our
+incantations again prevailed. The sun is coming back, the grass is
+green, and the warm winds are breathing upon the hills."
+
+"Ay, but you cannot bring back the buffalo," said those who doubted, for
+there are sceptics among the redmen as elsewhere. "When you do that,
+then we will believe that you are really men of magic."
+
+But the people did not respond cheerfully to Curtis when he urged them
+to plant gardens. They said: "We will do it, Little Father, but it is of
+no use. For two years we tried it, and each year the hot sun dried our
+little plants. Our corn withered and our potatoes came to nothing. Do
+not ask us to again plough the hard earth. It is all a weariness to no
+result."
+
+To Jennie, Curtis said: "I haven't the heart to push them into doing a
+useless thing. They are right. I must wait until we have the water of
+the streams for our own use."
+
+The elder Streeter was very bitter, Calvin reported. "But he ain't no
+idyot. He won't make no move that the law don't back him up in; but some
+o' these other yaps are talkin' all kinds of gun-play. But don't you
+lose any flesh. They got to git by me before they reach you."
+
+Curtis smiled. "Calvin, you're a loyal friend, but I am not a bit
+nervous."
+
+"That's all right, Captain, but you can't tell what a mob o' these
+lahees will do. I've seen 'em make some crazy plays--I sure have; but
+I'll keep one ear lapped back for signs of war."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+ELSIE PROMISES TO RETURN
+
+
+One beautiful May day Curtis came into the house with shining face.
+
+"Sis, our artists are coming back," he called to Jennie from the hall.
+
+"Are they? Oh, isn't that glorious!" she answered, running to meet him.
+"When are they to reach here? Whom did you hear from?"
+
+"Lawson. They can't come till some time in June, however."
+
+Jennie's face fell. "In June! I thought you meant they were coming
+now--right away--this week."
+
+"Lawson furthermore writes that he expects to bring a sculptor with
+him--a Mr. Parker. You remember those photographs he showed us of some
+statues of Indians? Well, this is the man who made the figures. His wife
+is coming as chaperon for Miss Brisbane."
+
+"She still needs a chaperon, does she?"
+
+"It would seem so. Besides, Mrs. Parker goes everywhere with her
+husband."
+
+"I hope she'll be as nice as Mrs. Wilcox."
+
+"I don't think Lawson would bring any crooked timber along--there must
+be something worth while in them."
+
+"Well, I am delighted, George. I confess I'm hungry for a message from
+the outside world; and during the school vacation we can get away once
+in a while to enjoy ourselves."
+
+The certainty of the return of the artistic colony changed Curtis's
+entire summer outlook. Work had dragged heavily upon him during February
+and March, and there were moments when his enthusiasm ebbed. It was a
+trying position. He began to understand how a man might start in his
+duties with the most commendable desire, even solemn resolution, to be
+ever kindly and patient and self-respecting, and end by cursing the
+redmen and himself most impartially. Misunderstandings are so easy where
+two races are forced into daily contact, without knowledge of each
+other's speech, and with only a partial comprehension of each other's
+outlook on the world. Some of the employés possessed a small vocabulary
+of common Tetong words, but they could neither explain nor reason about
+any act. They could only command. Curtis, by means of the sign language,
+which he had carried to marvellous clearness and swiftness, was able to
+make himself understood fairly well on most topics, but nevertheless
+found himself groping at times in the obscure caverns of their thinking.
+
+"Even after a man gets their thought he must comprehend the origin of
+their motives," he said to Wilson, his clerk. "Everything they do has
+meaning and sequence. They have developed, like ourselves, through
+countless generations of life under relatively stable conditions. These
+material conditions are now giving way, are vanishing, but the mental
+traits they formed will persist. Think of this when you are impatient
+with them."
+
+Wilson took a pessimistic view. "I defy the angel Gabriel to keep his
+temper if he should get himself appointed clerk. If I was a married man
+I could make a better mark; but there it is--they can't see me." He
+ended with a deep sigh.
+
+Curtis took advantage of Lawson's letter to write again to Elsie, and
+though he considered it a very polite and entirely circumspect
+performance, his fervor of gladness burned through every line, and the
+girl as she read it fell to musing on the singularity of the situation.
+He was in her mind very often, now; the romance and the poetry of the
+work he was doing began at last to appeal to her, and the knowledge that
+she, in a sense, shared the possibilities with him, was distinctly
+pleasurable. She had perception enough to feel also the force of the
+contrast in their lives, he toiling thanklessly on a barren, sun-smit
+land, in effort to lead a subject race to self-supporting freedom, while
+she, dabbling in art for art's sake, sat in a secure place and watched
+him curiously.
+
+"How well he writes," she thought, returning to his letter. His
+sentences clutched her like strong hands, and she could not escape them.
+As she read she drew again the splendid lines of his head in profile,
+and then, a sentence later, it seemed that he was looking straight into
+her eyes, grave of countenance, involved in some moral question whose
+solution he considered essential to his happiness and to the welfare of
+his people. Surely he was a most uncommon soldier. When she had finished
+reading she was sincerely moved to reply. She had nothing definitely in
+mind to say, and yet somehow she visualized him at his desk waiting an
+answer. "The worst of it is, we seem to have no topic in common except
+his distressing Indians," she said, as she returned to her work. "Even
+art to him means painting the redmen sympathetically."
+
+But he could not be put aside. He was narrow and one-sided, but he was
+sincere and manly--and handsome. That was the very worst of it; he was
+too attractive to be forgotten. Therefore she took up her pen again,
+being careful to keep close to artistic motives. She spoke of the
+success of her spring exhibition, and said: "It has confirmed me in the
+desire to go on valiantly in the same line. That is the reason I am
+coming back to the Tetongs. I feel that I begin to know
+them--artistically, I mean; not as you know them--and I need your
+blazing sunlight to drink up the fogs that I brought from Holland and
+Belgium. The prismatic flare of color out there pleases me. It's just
+the white ray split into its primary colors, but I can get it. I'm going
+to do more of those canvases of the moving figure blended with the
+landscape; they make a stunning technical problem in vibration as well
+as in values; and then the critics shout over them, too. I sold the one
+you liked so well, and also five portraits, and feel vastly encouraged.
+Owen Field was over from New York and gave me a real hurrah. I am going
+to exhibit in New York next fall if all goes well with me among the
+Tetongs."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+ELSIE REVISITS CURTIS
+
+
+Jennie thought her brother the handsomest man in the State as they
+walked up and down the station platform waiting for the express train
+which was bringing Elsie and Lawson and a famous Parisian-American
+sculptor and his wife. Curtis was in undress uniform, and in the midst
+of the slouching crowd of weather-beaten loafers he seemed a man of
+velvet-green parade grounds and whitewashed palings, commanding lines of
+polished bayonets.
+
+He was more profoundly stirred at the thought of Elsie's coming than he
+cared to admit, but Jennie's delight was outspoken. "I didn't know how
+hungry for a change I was," she said. "They will bring the air of the
+big city world with them."
+
+The whistle of the far-off train punctuated her sentences. "Oh, George,
+doesn't it seem impossible that in a few moments the mistress of that
+great Washington home will descend the car-steps to meet us?"
+
+"Yes, I can't believe it," he replied, and his hands trembled a little
+as he nervously buttoned his coat.
+
+The train came rapidly to a stop, with singing rods, grinding brakes,
+and the whiz of escaping steam. Some ordinary mortals tumbled out, and
+then the wonderful one!
+
+"There they are!" cried Jennie. "And, oh--aren't her clothes maddening!"
+
+Lawson, descending first, helped Elsie to the platform with an accepted
+lover's firm touch. She wore a blue-cloth tailored suit which fitted
+marvellously, and her color was more exquisite than ever. Admiring
+Jennie fairly gasped as the simple elegance of Elsie's habit became
+manifest, and she had only a glance for the sculptor and his wife.
+
+Elsie, with hands extended, seized upon them both with cordial
+intensity. A little flurry of hand-shakings followed, and at last Mr.
+and Mrs. Jerome Parker were introduced. He was a tall man with a bush of
+yellow beard, while she was dark and plain; but she had a pleasant
+smile, and her eyes were nice and quiet.
+
+"Do you know, I'm overjoyed to get back!" said Elsie to Curtis. "I don't
+know why I should be, but I've been eagerly looking for the Cleft Butte
+all day. Jerome will tell you that I expressed a sort of proprietorship
+in every prairie-dog."
+
+"We are very glad to have you here again," replied Curtis. "And now that
+you _are_ here, we must get your belongings together and get away. We
+are to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring."
+
+"A real camp?"
+
+"A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would be
+tiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp."
+
+"Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you."
+
+"Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it."
+
+"Then it will be _right_," said Lawson, who was beaming with placid
+joy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot in
+Alta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June."
+
+While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a few
+minutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboard
+out upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind.
+Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tall
+sculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took off
+her hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting.
+
+"Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month."
+
+"That's one thing the Tetong has--good, fresh air, and plenty of it,"
+said Lawson.
+
+"A thin diet, sometimes," Curtis replied. He turned to Elsie. "Your
+studio is all ready for you, and I have spoken to a number of the head
+men about you. You'll not lack sitters. They are eager to be
+immortalized at your convenience."
+
+"You are most kind--I am going to work as never before."
+
+"You mustn't work too hard. I have a plan for an outing. One of my
+districts lies up in the head-waters of the Willow. I propose that we
+all go camping up there for a couple of weeks."
+
+"Do you hear that, Osborne?" she called, turning her head.
+
+"I did not--what is it?"
+
+Curtis repeated his suggestion, and Parker shouted with joy. "Just what
+I want to do," he said.
+
+Curtis went on: "We'll find the redman living there under much more
+favorable conditions than down in the hot valley. We have a saw-mill up
+in the pines, and the ladies can stay in the superintendent's house--"
+
+"Oh no!" interrupted Elsie. "We must camp. Don't think of putting us
+under a roof." A little later she said, in a low voice: "Father is in
+Chicago, and expects to be out here later. I mean, he's coming to make a
+tour of the State."
+
+"How is his health?" Curtis asked, politely.
+
+Her face clouded. "He's not at all well. He is older than he realizes. I
+can see he is failing, and he ought not to go into this senatorial
+fight." After a pause she said: "He was quite ill in March, and I nursed
+him; he seemed very grateful, and we've been very good friends since."
+
+"I'm glad of that," he replied, and bent closely to his driving.
+
+"You drive well, Captain."
+
+"An Indian agent needs to be able to do anything."
+
+"May I drive?"
+
+"You will spoil your gloves."
+
+"Please! I'll take them off. I'm a famous whip." She smiled at him with
+such understanding as they had never before reached, as she stripped her
+gloves from her hands and dropped them at her feet. "Now let me take the
+reins," she said. He surrendered them to her unhesitatingly.
+
+"I believe you can drive," he said, exultantly.
+
+Her hands were as beautiful as her face, strong and white, and
+exquisitely modelled; but he, looking upon them with keen admiration,
+caught the gleam of a diamond on the engagement finger. This should not
+have chilled him, but it did. Then he thought:
+
+"It is an engagement ring. She is now fairly bound to Lawson," and a
+light that was within him went out. It was only a tiny, wavering flame
+of hope, but it had been burning in opposition to his will all the year.
+
+As she drove, they talked about the grasses and flowers, the mountain
+range far beyond, the camping trip, and a dozen other impersonal topics
+which did not satisfy Curtis, though he had no claim to more intimate
+phrase. She, on her part, was perfectly happy, and retained her hold of
+the reins and the whip in spite of his protest.
+
+"You must not spoil your beautiful hands," he protested; "they are for
+higher things. Please return the lines to me."
+
+"Oh no! Please! Just another half-hour--till we reach that butte. I'm
+stronger than you think. I am accustomed to the whip."
+
+She had her way in this, and drove nearly the entire afternoon. When he
+took the reins at last, her fingers were cramped and swollen, but her
+face was deeply flushed with pleasure.
+
+"I've had a delicious drive," she gratefully remarked.
+
+At the foot of a tall butte Curtis turned his team and struck into a
+road leading to the left. This road at once descended upon a
+crescent-shaped, natural meadow enclosed by a small stream, like a babe
+in a sheltering arm. All about were signs of its use as a
+camping-ground. Sweat lodges, broken tepee-poles, piles of blackened
+stones, and rings of bowlders told of the many fires that had been
+built. Willows fringed the creek, while to the south and west rose a
+tall, bare hill, on which a stone tower stood like a sentinel warrior.
+
+Elsie cried out in delight of the place. "Isn't it romantic!" Already
+the sun, sinking behind the hill, threw across the meadow a mysterious
+purple gloom, out of which a couple of tents gleamed like gray bowlders.
+
+"There is your house to-night," said Curtis. "See the tents?"
+
+"How tiny they look!" Elsie exclaimed, in a hushed voice, as though
+fearing to alarm and put them to flight.
+
+"They are small, but as night falls you will be amazed to discover how
+snug and homelike they can become."
+
+Two Horns came to meet them, and Parker cried out, "Hello! see the big
+Indian!"
+
+The chief greeted Lawson with a deep and hearty "Hah! Nawson--my friend.
+How! How!" And Lawson, with equal ceremony, replied, in Dakota:
+
+"I am well, my brother; how is it with you?"
+
+"My heart is warm towards you."
+
+Elsie gave him her hand, and he took it without embarrassment or
+awkwardness. "I know you; you make pictures," he said, in his own
+tongue.
+
+"Jerusalem, but he's a stunner!" said Parker. "Hello, old man! How you
+vass, ain't it?" and he clapped the old man on the shoulder.
+
+Two Horns looked at him keenly, and the smile faded from his face. "Huh!
+Big fool," he said to Lawson.
+
+"You mustn't talk to an Indian like that, Parker, if you expect to have
+his friendship," said Lawson. "Two Horns hates over-familiarity."
+
+"Oh, he does, does he?" laughed Parker. "Kind of a Ward McAllister,
+hey?"
+
+Lawson, a little later, said, privately: "That was a bad break, Parker;
+you really must treat these head men with decent respect or they'll
+hoodoo you so you can't get any models. Two Horns is a gentleman, and
+you must at least equal him in reserve and dignity or he will report you
+a buffoon."
+
+Parker, who had done his figures from models procured in Paris from
+Buffalo Bill's show, opened his eyes wide.
+
+"Lawson, you're joking!"
+
+"You'll find every word I tell you true. I advise you to set to work now
+and remove your bad impression from Two Horns, who is one of the three
+principal chiefs. You can't come out here and clap these people on the
+back and call 'em 'old hoss.' That will do in some of the stories you
+read, but realities are different. You'll find money won't command these
+people, either."
+
+"I thought they liked to be treated as equals?"
+
+"They do, but they don't like to have a stranger too free and easy. You
+haven't been introduced yet."
+
+While Crane's Voice attended to the teams, Jennie and Two Horns worked
+at getting supper. Their comradeship was charming to see, and the
+Parkers looked on with amazement. Two Horns, deft, attentive, careful,
+anticipated every want. Nothing could be finer than the perfectly
+cheerful assistance he rendered the pretty cook. His manner was like
+that of an elder brother rather than that of a servant.
+
+"I didn't suppose Indians ever worked around a camp, and especially
+with a woman," remarked Parker.
+
+"What you don't know about Indians is still a large volume, Parker,"
+retorted Lawson. "If you stay around with this outfit for a few weeks
+you'll gather a great deal of information useful for a sculptor of
+redmen."
+
+Elsie took Lawson mildly to task for his sharp reply.
+
+Lawson admitted that it made him impatient when a man like Parker opened
+his mouth on things he knew nothing about. "You never can tell what your
+best friend will do, can you? Parker is decidedly fresh. If he keeps on
+he'll become tiresome."
+
+Elsie presumed on her enormous experience of three months on the
+reservation, and gave Parker many valuable hints of how to wheedle the
+Tetongs in personal contact.
+
+"It seems I'm being schooled," he complained.
+
+"You need it," was Lawson's disconcerting reply.
+
+As night fell, and the fire began to glow in the cool, sweet dark with
+increasing power, they all sat round the flame and planned the trip into
+the mountains.
+
+"I have some Tetongs up there who are disposed to keep very clear of the
+agency. Red Wolf is their head man. You may all go with me and see my
+council with him if you like."
+
+"Oh! that will be glorious fun!" cried Elsie.
+
+But Parker asked, a little anxiously, "You think it safe?" which amused
+Curtis, and Parker hastened to explain: "You've no idea what a bad
+reputation these Tetongs have. Anyhow, I would not feel justified in
+taking Mrs. Parker into any danger."
+
+"She is quite safe," replied Curtis. "I will answer for the action of my
+wards."
+
+"Well, if you are quite sure!"
+
+"How far away Washington seems now!" remarked Elsie, after a silence. "I
+feel as if I had gone back to the very beginning of things."
+
+"It seems the end of things for the Tetongs," replied Lawson. "We forget
+that fact sometimes when we are anxious to have them change to our ways.
+Barring out a few rudenesses, their old life was a beautiful adaptation
+of organism to environment. Isn't that so, Curtis?"
+
+"It certainly had its idyllic side."
+
+"But they must have been worried to death for fear of getting scalped,"
+said Parker.
+
+"Oh, they didn't war much till the white man came to disturb them, by
+crowding one tribe into another tribe's territory. Their 'wars' were
+small affairs--hardly more than skirmishes. That they were infrequent is
+evident from the importance given small forays in their 'winter
+counts.'"
+
+One by one the campers began to yawn, and Jennie and Mrs. Parker
+withdrew into the tent reserved for the women, but Lawson and Elsie and
+Curtis still remained about the fire. The girl's eyes were wide with
+excitement. "Isn't it delicious to be a little speck of life in this
+limitless world of darkness? Osborne, why didn't we camp last year?"
+
+"I proposed it, but Mattie would not hear to it. I have a notion that
+you also put my suggestion aside with scorn."
+
+She protested that he was mistaken. "It is the only way to get close to
+these wild people. I begin to understand them as I sit here beside this
+fire. What do you suppose Two Horns is thinking about as he sits over
+there smoking?"
+
+As they talked, Lawson began to yawn also, and at last said: "Elsie Bee
+Bee, I am sleepy, and I know Curtis is."
+
+"Not at all," protested Curtis. "I'm just coming to myself. As the
+camp-fire smoulders the night is at its best. Besides, I'm in the midst
+of a story."
+
+"Well, I didn't sleep very well last night," began Lawson,
+apologetically. "I think--if you don't mind--"
+
+"Go to bed, Sleepy Head," laughed Elsie. "We'll excuse you."
+
+"I believe I will," and off he went, leaving the two young people alone.
+
+"Go on!" cried Elsie. "Tell me all about it."
+
+Curtis glowed with new fire at this proof of her interest. "Well, there
+we were, Sergeant Pierce, Standing Elk, and myself, camped in Avalanche
+Basin, which at that time of the year is as full of storms as a cave is
+of bats." A yelping cry on the hill back of them interrupted him. "There
+goes a coyote! Now the night is perfect," he ended, with a note of
+exultant poetry.
+
+She drew a little nearer to him. "I don't enjoy that cry as well as you
+do," she said, with a touch of delicious timidity in her voice. "That's
+the woman of it, isn't it?"
+
+"I know how harmless he is." After a pause, he slowly said: "This is the
+farthest reach of the imaginable--that you should sit here beside my
+fire in this wild land. It must seem as much of a dream to you as your
+splendid home was to me."
+
+"I didn't suppose these things could shake me so. How mysterious the
+world is when night makes it lone and empty! I never realized it before.
+That hill behind us, and the wolf--and see those willows by the brook.
+They might be savages creeping upon us, or great birds resting, or any
+silent, threatening creature of the darkness. If I were alone my heart
+would stand still with awe and fear of them."
+
+"They are not mysterious to me," he made answer. "Only in the sense that
+space and dusk are inexplicable. After all, the wonder of the universe
+is in our brains, like love, rather than in the object to which we
+attribute mystery or majesty. To the Tetong, the simplest thing
+belonging to the white race is mysterious--a button, a cartridge, a
+tin-plate. 'How are they made? What are they built for?' he asks. So,
+deeply considered, all nature is inexplicable to us also. We white
+children of the Great Ruler push the mystery a little further back, that
+is all. Once I tried to understand the universe; now I am content to
+enjoy it."
+
+"Tell me, how did you first become interested in these people?"
+
+He hesitated a little before he replied. "Well, I was always interested
+in them, and when I got out among the Payonnay I tried to get at their
+notions of life; but they are a strange people--a secretive people--and
+I couldn't win their confidence for a long time. One day while on a
+hunting expedition I came suddenly upon a crew of wood-choppers who had
+an old man tied to a tree and were about to burn him alive--"
+
+"Horrible! Why?"
+
+"No reason at all, so far as I could learn. His wife sat on the ground
+not far away, wailing in deep despair. What treatment she had suffered I
+do not know. Naturally, I ordered the men to release the old man, and
+when they refused I cut his bands. The ruffians were furious with rage,
+and threatened to tie me up and burn me, too. By this time I was too
+angry to fear anything. 'If you do, you better pulverize the buttons on
+my uniform, for the United States government will demand a head for
+every one of them.' Had I been a civilian they would have killed me."
+
+"They wouldn't have dared!" Elsie shuddered.
+
+"Such men dare do anything when they are safe from discovery--and there
+is always the Indian to whom a deed of that sort can be laid."
+
+"Did they release the old man?"
+
+"Yes; and he and his wife camped along with me for several days, and
+their devotion to me was pathetic. Finally I came to understand that he
+considered himself dead, so far as his tribe was concerned. 'My life
+belongs to you,' he said. I was just beginning the sign language at that
+time and I couldn't get very far with him, but I made him understand
+that I gave his life back to him. He left me at last and returned to the
+tribe. Thereafter, every redman I met called me friend, and patiently
+sat while I struggled to learn his language. As I grew proficient they
+told me things they had concealed from all white men. I ceased to be an
+enemy. I became an adviser, a chief."
+
+"Did you ever see the old man again?"
+
+"Oh yes. He was my guide on several hunting expeditions. Poor old Siyeh,
+he died of small-pox. 'The white man's disease,' he called it, bitterly.
+He wanted to see me, but when he understood that I would be endangered
+thereby, he said: 'It is well--I will die alone; but tell him I fold my
+hands on my breast and his hand is between my palms.'" The soldier's
+voice grew hard and dry as the memory of the old man's death returned
+upon him.
+
+Elsie shuddered with a new emotion. "You make my head whirl--you and the
+night. Did that determine your course with regard to them?"
+
+"Yes. I resolved to get at their hearts--their inner thoughts--and my
+commanders put me forward from time to time as interpreter, where I
+could serve both the army and the redman. In some strange way all the
+Northwest tribes came to know of me, and I could go where few men could
+follow me. It is curious, but they never did seem strange to me. From
+the first time I met an Indian I felt that he was a man like other
+men--a father, a son, a brother, like anybody else. Naturally, when the
+plan for enlisting redmen into the cavalry came to be worked out, I was
+chosen to command a troop of Shi-an-nay. I received my promotion at that
+time. My detail as Indian agent came from the same cause, I suppose. I
+was known to be a friend of the redman, and the department is now
+experimenting with 'Curtis of the Gray-Horse Troop,'" he added, with a
+smile. "Such is the story of my life."
+
+"How long will you remain Indian agent?"
+
+"Till I can demonstrate my theory that, properly led, these people can
+be made happy."
+
+"I am afraid you will live here until you are old," she said, and there
+was a note of undefinable regret in her voice. "I begin to feel that you
+really have a problem to solve."
+
+"It lies with us, the dominant race," he said, slowly, "whether the red
+race shall die or become a strand in the woof of our national life. It
+is a question of saving our own souls, not of making them grotesque
+caricatures of American farmers. I am not of those who believe in
+teaching creeds that are dying out of our own life; to be clean, to be
+peaceful, to be happy--these are the precepts I would teach them."
+
+"I don't understand you, and I think I would better go to bed," she
+said, with a return to her ordinary manner. "Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," he replied, and in the utterance of those words was
+something that stirred her unaccountably.
+
+"He makes life too serious, and too full of responsibility," she
+thought. "I don't like to feel responsible. All the same, he is fine,"
+she added, in conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+ELSIE ENTERS HER STUDIO
+
+
+Elsie, being young and of flamelike vitality, was up and ready for a
+walk while Two Horns was building the fire, and was trying to make him
+understand her wish to paint him, when Curtis emerged from his tent.
+
+"Good-morning, Captain," she called. "I'm glad you've come. Please tell
+Two Horns I want to have him sit for me."
+
+Curtis, with a few swift gestures, conveyed her wishes to Two Horns, who
+replied in a way which made Curtis smile.
+
+Elsie asked, "What does he say?"
+
+"He says, 'Yes, how much?'"
+
+"Oh, the mercenary thing!"
+
+"Not at all," replied Curtis. "His time is worth something. You artists
+think the redmen ought to sit for nothing."
+
+Two Horns ran through a swift and very graceful series of signs, which
+Curtis translated rapidly.
+
+"He says: 'I have heard of you. You painted Elk's daughter. I hear you
+sell these pictures and catch a great pile of money. I think it is right
+you pay us something when we stand before you for long hours, while you
+make pictures to sell to rich men in Washington. Now, I drive a team; I
+earn some days two dollars driving team. If I stop driving team, and
+come and sit for you, then I lose my two dollars.'"
+
+As he finished, Two Horns smiled at Elsie with a sly twinkle in his eyes
+which disconcerted her. "You sabbe?" he ended, speaking directly to her.
+
+"I sabbe," she said, in reply.
+
+"Good!" He held out his hand and she took it, and the bargain was
+sealed. He then returned to his work about the camp.
+
+"Isn't it glorious!" the girl cried, as she looked about her. "It's
+enough to do an artist all over new." The grass and the willows sparkled
+with dew-drops. The sky, cloudless save for one long, low,
+orange-and-purple cape of glory just above the sunrise, canopied a
+limitless spread of plain to the north and east, while the high butte to
+the back was like the wall of a temple.
+
+"Oh, let's take a run up that hill," Elsie said, with sudden change of
+tone. "Come!" and, giving Curtis no time to protest, she scuttled away,
+swift as a partridge. He followed her, calling:
+
+"Wait a moment, please!"
+
+When he overtook her at the foot of the first incline she was
+breathless, but her eyes were joyous as a child's and her cheeks were
+glowing.
+
+"Let me help you," he said; "and if you slip, don't put your hand on the
+ground; that is the way men get snake-bitten."
+
+"Snakes!" She stopped short. "I forgot--are there rattlesnakes here?"
+
+"There is always danger on the sunny side of these buttes at this time
+of the year, especially where the rocks crop out."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"You didn't give me time."
+
+"Do you really think there is danger?"
+
+"Not if you walk slowly and follow me; I'll draw their poison. After
+they bite me they'll have no virus left for you."
+
+She began to smile roguishly. "You are tired--you want an excuse to
+rest."
+
+"If I thought you meant that, I'd run up to the summit and back again to
+show you that I'm younger than my years."
+
+She clapped her hands. "Do it! It will be like the knight in the
+story--the glove-and-lion story."
+
+"No. On reflection, I will not run; it would compromise my dignity. We
+will climb soberly, side by side, like Darby and Joan on the hill of
+life."
+
+With a demure countenance she took his hand, and they scrambled briskly
+up the slope. When they reached the brow of the hill she was fairly done
+up, while he, breathing easily, showed little fatigue, although she had
+felt his powerful arm sustaining her many times on the steeper slopes.
+She could not speak, and he smilingly said, "I hope I haven't hurried
+you?"
+
+"You--are--strong," she admitted, brokenly. "I'm not tired, but I can't
+get breath."
+
+At length they reached the summit and looked about. "What is the meaning
+of those little towers of stone?" she asked, after a moment's rest.
+
+"Oh, they have different meanings. Sometimes they locate the springs of
+water, sometimes they indicate the course of a trail. This one was put
+here by a young fellow to mark the spot from whence he saw a famous herd
+of buffalo--what time he made a wonderful killing."
+
+"I suppose all this land has been the hunting-ground of these people for
+ages. Do you suppose they had names for hills like this, and were fond
+of them like white people?"
+
+"Certainly. They had a geography of their own as complete in its way as
+ours, and they are wonderfully sure of direction even now. They seldom
+make a mistake in the correlative positions of streams or mountains,
+even when confused by a white man's map."
+
+"It _is_ wonderful, isn't it--that they should have lived here all those
+years without knowing or caring for the white man's world?"
+
+"They don't care for it now--but I see Two Horns signalling that
+breakfast is ready, so we had better go."
+
+"Let's run down!"
+
+"Wait!" He caught her. "It will lame you frightfully, I warn you."
+
+"Oh no, it won't."
+
+"Very well, experience is a fine school. If you must run down, we'll go
+down the shadowed side. Now I'll let you get half-way down and beat you
+in, after all. One, two, three--go!"
+
+With her skirt caught up in her hand, she started down the hill in
+reckless flight. She heard his shout and the thud of his prodigious
+leaps, and just as she reached the level he overtook her and
+relentlessly left her far behind. Discouraged and panting, she fell
+into a walk and waited for him to return, as she knew he would.
+
+"Oh, these skirts!" she said, resentfully. "What chance has a woman with
+yards of cloth binding her? I nearly tumbled headlong."
+
+He did not make her suffer for her defeat, and they returned to camp gay
+as a couple of children. Lawson smiled benevolently, like an aged uncle,
+while Elsie told him of their climb. Said he: "When you're as old as I
+am you will wait for wonders to come your way; you will not seek them."
+
+The breakfast was made merry by Jennie, who waged gentle warfare on
+Parker, whose preconceived ideas of the people resident on an Indian
+reservation had been shaken.
+
+"Why, you're very decent," he admitted at last.
+
+"They are all like us--nit," replied Jennie. "We're marked 'special.'"
+
+"Couldn't be any more like you, sis," said Curtis.
+
+"_You_ shouldn't say that."
+
+"Well, it needed saying, and no one else seemed ready to do it. If
+Calvin had been here!"
+
+"Who is Calvin?" asked Mrs. Parker.
+
+"I know!" cried Elsie. "He's one of the handsomest young cowboys you
+ever saw. If you want to do a cow-puncher, Parker, he's your model."
+
+"I certainly must see him. If I don't do a cowboy or a bucking bronco
+I'm a failure."
+
+As they were ready to start, Elsie again took her place beside Curtis,
+but Lawson insisted on sitting behind with Jennie. "It's hard luck,
+Parker, to have to sit with your wife," he said, compassionately.
+
+"Oh, well! I'm used to disappointments," Parker replied, in resigned
+calm.
+
+Elsie felt the need of justifying herself. "Are you complaining? Am I
+the assistant driver, or am I not? If I am, here is where I belong."
+
+"When I was coaching in Scotland once--" began Lawson.
+
+"Oh, never mind Scotland!" interrupted Elsie. "See that chain of peaks?
+Aren't they gorgeous! Do we camp there?"
+
+"Yes," replied Curtis. "Just where that fan-shaped belt of timber
+begins, I hope to set our tent. The agency is just between those dark
+ridges."
+
+"It is strange," Elsie said, after a pause. "Last year I was _wondering_
+at everything; now I am looking for familiar things."
+
+"That is the second stage," he answered. "The third will be sympathy."
+
+"What will the fourth be?"
+
+"Affection."
+
+"And the fifth?"
+
+"Devotion."
+
+She laughed. "You place too high a value on your Western land."
+
+"I admit there is to me great charm in these barren foot-hills and the
+great divide they lead up to," he soberly answered.
+
+As they talked, the swift little horses drummed along the hard road, and
+by the time the agency flag-pole came in view they had passed over their
+main points of difference, and were chatting gayly on topics not
+controversial. Elsie was taking her turn with the reins, her face
+flushed with the joy and excitement of it, while Jennie and Mrs.
+Parker, shrieking with pretended fear, clung to their seats with
+frenzied clasp.
+
+Curtis was as merry as a boy, and his people, seeing him come in smiling
+and alert, looked at each other in amazement, and Crow Wing said:
+
+"Our Little Father has found a squaw at last."
+
+Whereas, as her lover, Curtis had been careful to consider the effect of
+every word, he now went to Elsie's service as frankly as Lawson himself,
+and his thoughtfulness touched her deeply. Her old studio had been put
+in order, and contained all needful furniture, and her sleeping
+apartment looked very clean and very comfortable indeed.
+
+Jennie apologized. "Of course, it's like camping compared to your own
+splendid home, but George said you wouldn't mind that, being an artist.
+He has an idea an artist can sleep in a palace one night and a pigsty
+the next, and rejoice."
+
+"He isn't so very far wrong," Elsie valiantly replied. "Of course, the
+pigsty is a little bit extreme. This is good enough for any one. You are
+very kind," she added, softly. "It was good of him to take so much
+trouble."
+
+"George is the best man I ever knew," replied Jennie. "That's why I've
+never been able to leave him for any other man." She smiled shrewdly.
+"I'll admit that eligible men have been scarce, and my chances have been
+few. Well, I must run across and look after dinner. You're to eat with
+us till you get settled. _We_ insist on being hosts this time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Surely," said Curtis, as they rose from the table, "being Indian agent
+is not the grim, vexatious experience I once considered it. If the charm
+of such company should get reckoned in as one of the perquisites of the
+office, the crush of applicants would thicken into a riot. I find it
+hard to return to my work in the office."
+
+"Don't be hasty; we may turn out to be nuisances," responded Elsie.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE CAMP AMONG THE ROSES
+
+
+During the remainder of the day the agent found office work most
+difficult. His mind wandered to other and pleasanter things, and at last
+he began to make out a list of the necessaries for the camping trip.
+
+The next day, about four o'clock, Crow Wing and Crawling Elk came into
+his office bringing a young Tetong, who said he had been struck on the
+head by a sheep-herder.
+
+Curtis was instantly alert. "Sit down--all of you!" he commanded. "Now,
+Yellow Hand, tell your story."
+
+Yellow Hand, a tall and sinister-looking fellow, related his adventure
+sullenly. "I was riding the line of the reservation, as Crawling Elk had
+told me and as you commanded, when I came upon this sheep-man driving
+his flocks across the river. I hollered to him to keep away, but he kept
+on pushing the sheep into the river; then I tried to drive them back.
+This made him angry and he threw a rock at me, and struck me here." He
+touched his bandaged head. "I had no gun, so I came away."
+
+"Did you throw rocks at him?" asked Curtis.
+
+"No, I was on my horse."
+
+"You rode among his sheep?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, that was wrong. You should have reported to me and I would have
+sent a policeman. You must not make trouble with these men. Come to me
+or report to Grayman, your head man over there. The ranchers are angry
+at Washington, and we must be careful not to make them angry at us. I
+will send Crow back with you and he will remove this man."
+
+As they went out Curtis said to Wilson: "This is the second assault they
+have made on our boys. They seem determined to involve us in a shooting
+scrape, in order to influence Congress. We must be very careful. I am
+afraid I ought not to take this camping trip just now."
+
+"Don't put too much importance on these little scraps, Major. Yellow
+Hand is always getting into trouble. He's quarrelsome."
+
+"I'd disarm a few of these reckless young fellows if it would do any
+good."
+
+"It wouldn't. They'd simply borrow a gun of some one, and it won't do to
+disarm the whole tribe, for if you do these cowboys will swarm in here
+and run us all out."
+
+"Well, caution every one to be careful. I'm particularly anxious just
+now, on account of our visitors."
+
+"I don't think you need to be, Major. You take your trip with your
+friends. I'll guarantee nothing serious happens down here. And as you
+are not to leave the reservation, I don't see as the department can have
+any roar coming."
+
+Nevertheless, it was with some misgiving that Curtis made his final
+arrangements for the start. Crane's Voice and Two Horns had interested
+Elsie very much; therefore he filled their places with other men, and
+notified them to be in readiness to accompany the expedition, an order
+which pleased them mightily. Mary, the mother of Crane's Voice, was to
+go along as chief cook, under Jennie's direction, while Two Horns took
+general charge of the camp.
+
+Elsie burdened herself with canvases. "I don't suppose I'll paint a
+picture while I'm gone, but I'm going to make a bluff at it on the
+start," she said, as she came out and took her place with the driver
+amid the mock lamentations of Lawson and Parker and Jennie.
+
+"Can any of you drive--no!" replied Elsie, in German fashion. "Then I am
+here."
+
+"I like her impudence," said Lawson.
+
+As they drove up the valley, Curtis outlined his plan for using the
+water on a huge agency garden. "I would lay it out in lots and mark
+every lot with the name of a family, and require it to be planted and
+taken care of by that family. There are sites for three such gardens,
+enough to feed the entire tribe, but so long as a few white men are
+allowed to use up all the water nothing can be done but continue to feed
+the Tetongs in idleness, as we are now doing."
+
+As they rose the grass grew greener, and at last Elsie began to discover
+wild roses growing low in damp places, and at noon, when they stopped
+for lunch, they were able to eat in the shade of a murmuring aspen, with
+wild flowers all about them. The stream was swift and cold and clear,
+hardly to be classed with the turbid, sluggish, discouraged current
+which seeped past the agency.
+
+"It is a different world up here," Elsie said, again and again. "I can't
+believe we are only a half-day's drive from the agency. I never saw more
+delicious greens."
+
+Mrs. Parker, being an amateur botanist, was filled with delight of the
+thickening flowers. "It is exactly as if we had begun in August and were
+moving backward towards spring. I feel as though violets were near. It
+is positively enchanting."
+
+"You'll camp beside violets to-night," replied Curtis.
+
+Lawson pretended to sleep. Parker smoked a pipe while striding along
+behind the wagon. Elsie drove, and of course Curtis could not leave her
+to guide the team alone. Necessarily, they talked freely on many topics,
+and all restraint, all reserve, were away at last. It is difficult to
+hold a formal and carefully considered conversation in a jolting
+buckboard climbing towards a great range of shining peaks, and every
+frank speech brought them into friendlier relation. Considered in this
+light, the afternoon assumed vast importance.
+
+At last, just on the edge of a small lake entirely enclosed by sparse
+pines, they drew into camp. To the west the top of a snow mountain could
+be seen, low down, and against it a thin column of blue smoke was
+rising. The water, dark as topaz and smooth as oil, reflected the
+opposite shore, the yellow sky, and the peak with magic clearness, and
+Elsie was seized with a desire to do something.
+
+"Where is my paint-box? Here is the background for some action--I don't
+know what--something primeval."
+
+"An Indian in a canoe, _à la_ Brush; or a bear coming down to drink, _à
+la_ Bierstadt," suggested Parker.
+
+"Don't mention that old fogy," cried Elsie.
+
+Lawson interposed. "Well, now, those old chaps had something to say--and
+that's better than your modern Frenchmen do."
+
+She was soon at work, with Lawson and Parker standing by her side,
+overlooking her panel and offering advice.
+
+"There's no color in that," Parker said, finally. "It's a
+black-and-white merely. Its charm is in things you can't paint--the feel
+of the air, the smell of pine boughs."
+
+"Go away--both of you," she commanded, curtly, and they retreated to the
+camp, where Curtis was setting the tents, and Jennie, old Mary, and Two
+Horns, with swift and harmonious action, were bringing appetizing odors
+out of various cans and boxes, what time the crackle of the fire
+increased to a gentle roar. There they sat immovably, shamelessly
+waiting till the call for supper came.
+
+They were all hungry, and Jennie's cooking received such praise as comes
+from friends who speak and devour--Parker nearly devoured without
+speaking, so lank and empty was he by reason of his long walk. Elsie
+seemed to have forgotten her life of luxury, and was reverted to a
+primitive stage of culture wherein she found everything enjoyable. Her
+sketch, propped up against a basket by Curtis, was admired unreservedly.
+Altogether, the trouble and toil of civilized life were forgotten
+tyrants, so far as these few souls were concerned. They came close to
+the peace and the care-free tranquillity of the redman, whose ideals
+they had come to destroy.
+
+As soon as supper was eaten and the men had lighted their cigars, the
+whole party walked out to the edge of the little pond and lounged about
+on blankets, and watched the light go out of the sky. Talk grew more
+subdued as the beauty and the mystery of the night deepened. Elsie
+listened to every sound, and asked innumerable questions of Curtis. She
+insisted on knowing the name of every bird or beast whose call could be
+heard. The young soldier's wood-craft both pleased and astonished her.
+Mrs. Parker, with her lap full of botanical specimens, was absorbed in
+the work of classifying them. Parker was a gentleman of leisure, with
+nothing to do but watch the peaceful coming of the dusk and comment
+largely on the universe.
+
+It was natural that, as host, Curtis should enjoy a large part of
+Elsie's company, but neither of them seemed to realize that Lawson was
+being left quite unheeded in the background, but Jennie was aware of
+this neglect, and put forth skilful effort to break the force of it.
+Lawson himself seemed to be entirely unconscious of any loss or
+threatening disaster.
+
+A little later, as they sat watching the fire grow in power in the
+deepening darkness, Curtis suddenly lifted his hand.
+
+"Hark!"
+
+All listened. Two Horns spoke first. "One man come, on horse."
+
+"Some messenger for me, probably," said the Captain, composedly. "He is
+coming fast, too."
+
+As the steady drumming of the horse's hoofs increased in power, Elsie
+felt something chill creep beneath the roots of her hair. Perhaps the
+Indians had broken out in war against the whites! Perhaps--
+
+A tall young Tetong slipped from his tired horse and approached the
+Captain. In his extended hand lay an envelope, which gleamed in the
+firelight. As Curtis took this letter the messenger, squatting before
+him, began to roll a cigarette. His lean and powerful face was shadowed
+by a limp sombrero and his eyes were hidden, but his lips were grave and
+calm. A quirt dangled from his right wrist, and in the two braids of his
+hair green eagle-plumes were twisted. The star on the lapel of his
+embroidered vest showed him to be a police-officer. From the intensity
+of his attitude it was plain he was studying his agent's face in order
+to read thereon the character of the message he had brought.
+
+Curtis turned the paper slowly and without excitement. With rapid signs
+he dismissed the courier. "I have read it. You will camp with Two Horns.
+Go get some food. Mary will give you meat."
+
+Turning to his guests, he then said: "It is nothing special--merely some
+papers I forgot to sign before leaving."
+
+"By George! what a picture the fellow made, sitting there!" said Parker.
+"It was like an illustration in a novel. Why don't you paint that kind
+of thing, Bee Bee?"
+
+"Because I can't," she replied. "Don't you suppose I saw it? I'd need
+the skill of Zorn to do a thing as big and mysterious as that. Did you
+see the intensity of his pose? He expected Captain Curtis to show
+excitement or alarm. He was very curious to know what it was all
+about--don't you think so?"
+
+Curtis was amused. "Yes, I suppose he thought the paper more important
+than it was. The settlers have kept the tribe guessing all the spring by
+threats of running them off the reservation. Of course they wouldn't
+openly resort to violence, but there are several irresponsibles who
+would strike in the dark if they found opportunity."
+
+In spite of his reassuring tone, a vague fear fell over the camping
+party. Parker was frankly alarmed.
+
+"If you think there is any danger, Captain, I want to get out o' here
+quick. I'm not here to study the Tetong with his war-paint on."
+
+"If there had been any danger, Mr. Parker, I would not have left my
+office. I shall have a report similar to this every day while I am away,
+so please be composed."
+
+The policeman came back, resumed his squatting position before the fire,
+and began a series of vigorous and dramatic gestures, to which the
+Captain replied in kind, absorbed, intent, with a face as inscrutable as
+that of the redman himself. The contrast between the resolute, handsome
+young white man and the roughhewn Tetong was superb. "There's nothing in
+it for me," said Parker, "but it's great business for a painter."
+
+Elsie seized a block of paper, and with soft pencil began to sketch them
+both against the background of mysterious blackness, out of which a pine
+bole gleamed ashy white.
+
+Suddenly, silently, as though one of the tree-trunks had taken on life,
+another Tetong appeared in the circle of the firelight and stood with
+deep-sunk eyes fastened on the Captain's face. Another followed, and
+still others, till two old men and four young fellows ranged themselves
+in a semicircle before their agent, with Crane's Voice and Two Horns at
+the left and a little behind. The old men smoked a long pipe, but the
+young men rolled cigarettes, taking no part in the council, listening
+the while with eyes as bright as those of foxes.
+
+It was all sinister and menacing to the Parkers, and all wondered till
+Curtis turned to say: "They are my mill-hands--good, faithful boys,
+too."
+
+"Mill-hands!" exclaimed Parker. "They looked uncommonly like a scalping
+party."
+
+"That is what imagination can do. I thought your faces were extra
+solemn," remarked Curtis, dryly; but Lawson knew that the agent was not
+so untroubled as he pretended, for old Crow Killer had a bitter story to
+relate of the passage of a band of cowboys through his camp. They had
+stampeded his ponies and shot at him, one bullet passing so close to his
+ear that it burned the skin, and he was angry.
+
+"They wish to kill us, these cattlemen," he said, sombrely, in
+conclusion. "If they come again we will fight."
+
+Happily, his vehemence did not reach the comprehension of the women nor
+the understanding of Parker, and Lawson smoked on as calmly as if these
+tell-tale gestures were the flecking of shadows cast by the leaping
+flames. At last the red visitors rose and vanished as silently as they
+came. They seemed to pass through black curtains, so suddenly they
+disappeared.
+
+In spite of all reassurance, the women were a little reluctant to go to
+bed--at least Mrs. Parker and Elsie were.
+
+"I wish the men's tent were not so far off," Mrs. Parker said to Elsie,
+plaintively.
+
+"I'll ask them to move it, if you wish," returned Elsie, and when Jennie
+came in she said: "Aren't you a little nervous to-night?"
+
+Jennie looked surprised. "Why, no! Do you mean about sleeping in a
+tent?"
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Parker. "Suppose a wolf or a redman should come?"
+
+Jennie laughed. "You needn't worry--we have a powerful guard. I never am
+afraid with George."
+
+"But the men are so far away! I wish their tent were close beside ours.
+I'm not standing on propriety," Mrs. Parker added, as Jennie hesitated.
+"I'm getting nervous, and I want Jerome where he can hear me if I call
+to him."
+
+Perceiving that Elsie shared this feeling in no small degree, Jennie
+soberly conveyed their wish to Curtis.
+
+"Very well, we'll move over. It will take but a moment."
+
+As she heard the men driving the tent-pegs close beside her bed Mrs.
+Parker sighed peacefully.
+
+"_Now_ I can sleep. There is no comfort like a man in case of wolves,
+Indians, and burglars," and the fact that the men were laughing did not
+disturb her.
+
+With a little shock, Elsie realized that Curtis and not Lawson was in
+her mind as her defender. Of course, he was in command; that accounted
+for it.
+
+Nevertheless, as she listened to the murmur of their voices she detected
+herself waiting for Curtis's crisp, clear bass, and not for the nasal
+tenor of the man whose ring she wore. Her mind was filled, too, with the
+dramatic figure the young officer made as he sat in gesture-talk with
+his Tetong wards. In case of trouble the safest place on all the
+reservation would be by his side, for his people loved and trusted him.
+She did not go to sleep easily; the excitement, the strangeness of being
+in a tent, kept her alert long after Jennie and Mrs. Parker were
+breathing tranquilly on their cots.
+
+One hears everything from a tent. It seems to stand in the midst of the
+world. It is like being in a diving-bell under water. Life goes on
+almost uninterruptedly. The girl heard a hundred obscure, singular,
+sibilant sounds, as of serpents conferring. Mysterious footsteps
+advanced, paused, retreated. Whispered colloquies arose among the
+leaves, giving her heart disquiet. Every unfamiliar sound was a threat.
+The voices of birds and beasts no longer interested her--they scared
+her; and, try as she would to banish these fancies, her nerves thrilled
+with every rush of the wind. It was deep night before she dropped
+asleep.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A FLUTE, A DRUM, AND A MESSAGE
+
+
+Elsie dreamed she was at the theatre. The opera was "Il Trovatore," and
+at the moment when the prison song--that worn yet ever-mournful
+cry--should have pulsed forth; but in its stead another strain came
+floating from afar, a short phrase equally sad, which sank slowly, as a
+fragment of cloud descends from sky to earth to become tears of dew on
+the roses. Over and over again it was repeated, so sad, so sweet, so
+elemental, it seemed that the pain of all love's vain regret was in it,
+longing and sorrow and despair, without relief, without hope, defiant of
+death.
+
+Slowly the walls of the theatre faded. The gray light of morning crept
+into the dreamer's eyes, and she was aware of the walls of her tent and
+knew she had been dreaming. But the sorrowful song went on, with
+occasional slight deviations of time and tone, but always the same.
+Beginning on a high key, it fell by degrees, hesitating, momentarily
+swooping upward, yet ever falling, till at last it melted in with the
+solemn moan of the pines stirring above her head. Then she drowsed
+again, and seemed to be listening to the wailing song with some one
+whose hand she held. As she turned to ask whence the music came a
+little shudder seized her, for the eyes looking into hers were not those
+of Lawson. Curtis faced her, grave and sweet.
+
+With this shock she wakened, but the song had ceased. She waited in
+silence, hoping to hear it again. When fully aroused to her
+surroundings, she was convinced that she had dreamed the music as well
+as the hand-clasp, and a flush ran over her. "Why should I dream in that
+way of _him_?"
+
+She heard the soft lisp of moccasined feet outside the tent, and
+immediately after the sound of an axe. Presently the fire began to
+crackle, and the rising sun threw a flood of golden light against the
+canvas wall. Jennie lifted her arms and yawned, and at last sat up and
+listened. Catching Elsie's eye she said: "Good-morning, dear. How did
+you sleep?"
+
+"Deliciously--but did you hear some one singing just before sunrise?"
+
+"No--did you?"
+
+"I thought I did; but perhaps I dreamed it."
+
+"Where did it seem to come from?"
+
+"Oh, from away off and high up--the saddest song--a phrase constantly
+repeated."
+
+"Oh, I know. It was some young Tetong lover playing the flute. They
+often do that when the girls are going for water in the morning. Isn't
+it beautiful?"
+
+"I never heard anything so sad."
+
+"All their songs are sad. George says the primitive love-songs of all
+races are the same. But Two Horns has the fire going, and I must get up
+and superintend breakfast. You need not rise till I call."
+
+Mrs. Parker began to stir. "Jerome! What time is it?"
+
+The girls laughed as Jerome, in the other tent, replied, sweetly:
+
+"Time to arise, Honey Plum."
+
+Mrs. Parker started up and stared around, her eyes still misty with
+slumber. "I slept the whole night through," she finally remarked, as if
+in answer to a question, and her voice expressed profound astonishment.
+
+"Didn't hear the wolves, did you, pet?" called Parker.
+
+"Wolves! No. Did they howl?"
+
+"Howl is no name for it. They tied themselves into double bow-knots of
+noise."
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+Elsie replied: "I didn't hear anything but the music. Did you hear the
+singing?"
+
+Lawson spoke. "You people have the most active imaginations. All I heard
+was the wind in the pines, and an occasional moose walking by."
+
+"Moose!" cried Mrs. Parker. "Why, they're enormous creatures."
+
+Jennie began to laugh. "You people will need to hurry to be ready for
+breakfast. I'm going to put the coffee on." She slipped outside. "Oh,
+girls! Get up at once, it's glorious out here on the lake!"
+
+Curtis was busy about the camp-fire. "Good-morning, sis. Here are some
+trout for breakfast."
+
+"Trout!" shouted Lawson, from the tent.
+
+"Trout!" echoed Parker. "We'll be there," and the tent bulged and
+flapped with his hasty efforts at dressing.
+
+In gay spirits they gathered round their rude table, Parker and Jennie
+particularly jocular. Curtis was puzzled by some subtle change in
+Elsie. Her gaze was not quite so frank, and her color seemed a little
+more fitful; but she was as merry as a child, and enjoyed every
+makeshift as though it were done for the first time and for her own
+amusement.
+
+"What's the programme for to-day?" asked Parker.
+
+"After I inspect the saw-mill we will hook up and move over the divide
+to the head-waters of the Willow and camp with Red Wolf's band."
+
+Parker coughed. "Well, now--of course, Captain, we are depending on
+you."
+
+Curtis smiled. "Perhaps you'd like to go back to the agency?"
+
+"No, sirree, bob! I'm sticking right to your coat-tails till we're out
+o' the woods."
+
+Lawson interposed. "You wouldn't infer that Parker had ever had a
+Parisian education, would you?"
+
+Parker was not abashed. "I know what you mean. Those are all expressions
+my father used. They stick to me like fly-paper."
+
+"I've tried and tried to break him of his plebeian phrases, but I
+cannot," Mrs. Parker said, with sad emphasis.
+
+"I wouldn't try," replied Jennie. "I like them."
+
+"Thank you, lady, thank you," Parker fervently made answer.
+
+Curtis hurried away to look at the saw-mill. Lawson and Parker went
+fishing, and Elsie got out her paint-box and started another sketch. The
+morning was glorious, the air invigorating, and she painted joyously
+with firm, plashing strokes. Never had she been so sure of her brush.
+Life and art were very much worth while--only now and then a disturbing
+wish intruded--it was only a vague and timid longing; but it grew a
+little in power each time. Once she looked steadily and soberly at the
+ring whose jewel sparkled like a drop of dew on the third finger of her
+left hand.
+
+A half-hour later Curtis came back, walking rapidly. Seeing her at work
+he deflected from the straight trail and drew near.
+
+"I think that is wonderful," he said, as he looked at her sketch. "I
+don't see how you do so much with so few strokes."
+
+"That always puzzles the layman," she replied. "But it's really very
+simple."
+
+"When you know how. I hope you're enjoying your trip with us?"
+
+She flashed a smile that was almost coquettish upon him. "It is
+glorious. I am so happy I'm afraid it won't last."
+
+"We always feel that way about any keen pleasure," he replied, soberly.
+"Now I can't keep the thought of your going out of my mind. Every hour
+or two I find myself saying, 'It'll be lonesome business when these
+artists leave us.'"
+
+"You mustn't speak of anything sorrowful this week. Let's be as happy as
+we can."
+
+He pondered a fitting reply, but at last gave it up and said: "If you
+are satisfied with your sketch, we'll start. I see the teams are ready."
+
+"Oh yes, I'm ready to go. I just wanted to make a record of the
+values--they are changing so fast now," and she began to wipe her
+brushes and put away her panel. "I don't care where we go so we keep in
+the pines and have the mountains somewhere in sight."
+
+It must have been in remorse of her neglect of Lawson the preceding day
+that Elsie insisted on sitting beside him in the back seat, while Mrs.
+Parker took her place with the driver. The keen pang of disappointment
+which crossed his heart warned Curtis that his loyalty to his friend was
+in danger of being a burden, and the drive was robbed of all the blithe
+intercourse of the day before. Parker and Jennie fought clamorously on a
+variety of subjects in the middle distance, but Curtis was hardly more
+than courteous to Mrs. Parker--so absorbed was he in some inner
+controversy.
+
+Retracing their course to the valley the two wagons crossed the stream
+and crawled slowly up the divide between the Elk and the Willow, and at
+one o'clock came down upon a sparse village of huts and tepees situated
+on the bank of a clear little stream--just where it fell away from a
+narrow pond which was wedged among the foot-hills like an artificial
+reservoir. The year was still fresh and green here, and the air was like
+May.
+
+Dogs were barking and snarling round the teams, as a couple of old men
+left the doors of their tepees and came forward. One of them was
+gray-haired, but tall and broad-shouldered. This was Many Coups, a
+famous warrior and one of the historians of his tribe. He greeted the
+agent soberly, expressing neither fear nor love, asking: "Who are these
+with you? I have not seen them before."
+
+To this Curtis replied: "They are my friends. They make pictures of the
+hills and the lakes and of chieftains like Many Coups."
+
+Many Coups looked keenly at Elsie. "My eyes are old and poor," he slowly
+said. "But now I remember. This young woman was at the agency last
+year," and he put up his hand, which was small and graceful even
+yet--the hand of an artist. "I make pictures also," he said.
+
+When this was translated, Elsie said: "You shall make a picture of me
+and I will make one of you."
+
+At this the old man smilingly answered: "It shall be so."
+
+"Where is Red Wolf?" asked Curtis.
+
+"He is away with Tailfeathers to keep the cowboys from our land. We are
+growing afraid, Little Father."
+
+"We will talk more of that by-and-by--we must now camp. Call your people
+together and at mid-afternoon we will council," replied Curtis.
+
+Driving a little above the village, Curtis found a sheltered spot behind
+some low-growing pines and not far from the lake, and there they
+hastened to camp. The news flew from camp to camp that the Little Father
+was come, but no one crowded unseasonably to look at him. "We will
+council," Many Coups announced, and began to array himself for the
+ceremony. Horsemen galloped away to call Red Wolf and others who lived
+down the valley. Never before had an agent visited them in their homes,
+and they were disposed to make the most of it.
+
+By the time the white people had eaten their lunch all the red women
+were in their best dresses. The pappooses were shining with the
+scrubbing they had suffered and each small warrior wore a cunning
+buckskin coat elaborate with beads and quills. A semicircular wall of
+canvas was being erected to shield the old men from the mountain wind,
+and a detail of cooks had started in upon the task of preparing the
+feast which would end the council.
+
+Said Curtis: "You will find in this camp the Tetong comparatively
+unchanged. Red Wolf's band is the most primitive encampment I know." A
+few minutes later he added, "Here comes Many Coups and his son in
+official garb."
+
+The two chieftains greeted their visitors as if they had not hitherto
+been seen--with all the dignity of ambassadors to a foreign court.
+
+"Please treat them with the same formality," warned Curtis. "It will pay
+you for the glimpse of the old-time ceremony."
+
+The younger man was unpainted, save for some small blue figures on his
+forehead. On his head he wore a wide Mexican hat which vastly became
+him. His face was one of the handsomest and most typical of his race.
+
+"This young man is the son of Many Coups, and is called Blue Fox, or
+'The Southern Traveller,' because he has been down where the Mexicans
+are. His hat he got there, and he is very proud of it," explained
+Curtis.
+
+Jennie gave each of them a cup of coffee and a biscuit, of which they
+partook without haste, discussing meanwhile the coming council.
+
+"We did not know you were coming; some of our people will not get here
+in time," said Many Coups.
+
+"To-night, after the council, we wish to dance," said Blue Fox, meaning
+it as a request.
+
+"It is forbidden in Washington to dance in the old way."
+
+"We have heard of that, but we will dance for your wives. They will be
+glad to see it."
+
+"Very well, you may dance, but not too long. No war-dance--only the
+visitors' dance."
+
+"Ay, we understand," said Many Coups as he rose and drew his blanket
+about him. "In one hour we will come to council. Red Wolf will be there,
+and Hump Shoulder and his son. It may be others will return in time."
+
+The women were delighted at the promise of both a council and a dance,
+and Lawson unlimbered his camera in order to take some views of both
+functions, though he expressed some dissatisfaction.
+
+"The noble redman is thin and crooked in the legs," he said to Curtis.
+"Why is this?"
+
+"All the plains Indians, who ride the horse almost from their babyhood,
+are bow-legged. They never walk, and they are seldom symmetrically
+developed."
+
+"They are significant, but not beautiful," said Lawson.
+
+As they walked about the camp Elsie exclaimed: "This is the way all
+redmen should live," and, indeed, the scene was very beautiful. They
+were far above the agency, and the long valleys could be seen descending
+like folds in a vast robe reaching to the plain. The ridges were dark
+with pines for a space, but grew smooth and green at lower levels, and
+at last melted into haze. The camp was a summer camp, and all about, in
+pleasant places among the pines, stood the tepees, swarming with happy
+children and puppies. Under low lodges of canvas or bowers of pine
+branches the women were at work boiling meat or cooking a rude sort of
+cruller. They were very shy, and mostly hung their heads as their
+visitors passed, though they soon yielded to Jennie, who could speak a
+few words to them.
+
+"There's nothing in them for sculpture," said Parker, critically. "At
+least not for beauty. They might be treated as Raffaelle paints--for
+character."
+
+"They grow heavy early," Jennie added, "but the little girls are
+beautiful--see that little one!"
+
+The crier, a tall old man, toothless and wrinkled and gray, began to cry
+in a hollow, monotonous voice, "Come to the council place," and Curtis
+led his flock to their places in the midst of the circle.
+
+The council began with all the old-time forms, with gravity and decorum.
+Red Wolf was in the centre, with Many Coups at his left. The pipe of
+peace went round, and those whose minds were not yet prepared for speech
+drew deep inspirations of the fragrant smoke in the hope that their
+thoughts might be clarified, and when they lifted their eyes they seemed
+not to perceive their visitors or those who passed to and fro among the
+tepees. The sun, westering, fell with untempered light on their heads,
+but they faced it with the calm unconcern of eagles.
+
+To please his guests, Curtis allowed the utmost formality, and did not
+hasten, interrupt, or excise. The speeches were translated into English
+by Lawson, and at each telling point or period in Red Wolf's speech the
+women looked at each other in surprise.
+
+"Did he really say that?" asked Elsie. "Didn't you make it up?"
+
+"Rather good for a ragamuffin, don't you think?" said Lawson, as the old
+man took his seat.
+
+Many Coups spoke slowly, sadly, as though half communing with himself,
+with nothing of the bombast the visitors had expected, and he grew in
+dignity and power as his thought began to make itself felt through his
+interpreter.
+
+"He is speaking for his race," remarked Lawson to Elsie.
+
+"By Jove! the old fellow is a good lawyer!" cried Parker. "I don't see
+any answer to his indictment."
+
+Curtis sat listening as though each point the old man made were new--and
+this attitude pleased the chieftains very much.
+
+The speech, in its general tenor, was similar to many others he had
+heard from thoughtful redmen. Briefly he described the time when the
+redmen were happy in a land filled with deer and buffalo, before the
+white man was. "We lived as the Great Spirit made us. Then the white man
+came--and now we are bewildered with his commands. Our eyes are blinded,
+we know not where to go. We know not whom to believe or trust. I am old,
+I am going to my grave troubled over the fate of my children. Agents
+come and go. The good ones go too soon--the bad ones stay too long, but
+they all go. There is no one in whose care to leave my children. It is
+better to die here in the hills than to live the slave of the white man,
+ragged and spiritless, slinking about like a dog without a friend. We do
+not want to make war any more--we ask only to live as our fathers lived,
+and die here in the hills."
+
+As he spoke these final tragic words his voice grew deep and trembled,
+and Elsie felt some strong force gripping at her throat, and burning
+tears filled her eyes. In the city it was easy to say, "The way of
+civilization lies over the graves of the primitive races," but here,
+under the sun, among the trees, when one of those about to die looked
+over and beyond her to the hills as though choosing his grave--the
+utterance of the pitiless phrase was difficult in any tone--impossible
+in the boasting shout of the white promoter. She rose suddenly and
+walked away--being ashamed of her tears, a painful constriction in her
+throat.
+
+The speakers who followed spoke in much the same way--all but Blue Fox,
+who sharply insisted that the government should help them. "You have put
+us here on barren land where we can only live by raising stock. You
+should help us fence the reservation, and get us cattle to start with.
+Then by-and-by we can build good houses and have plenty to eat. This is
+right, for you have destroyed our game--and you will not let us go to
+the mountains to hunt. You must do something besides furnish us ploughs
+in a land where the rain does not come."
+
+In answer to all this, Curtis replied, using the sign language. He
+admitted that Red Wolf was right. "The Tetongs have been cheated, but
+good days are coming. I am going to help you. I am going to stay with
+you till you are safely on the white man's road. We intend to buy out
+the settlers, and take the water in the streams so that you may raise
+potatoes for your children, and you will then be glad because your
+gardens will bear many things good to eat. Do not despair, the white
+people are coming to understand the situation now. You have many
+friends who will help."
+
+As Many Coups rose and shook hands with the agent he was smiling again,
+and he said, "Your words are good."
+
+The old crier went forth again calling: "Come to the dance-hall. The
+white people desire to see you dance. Come clothed in your best
+garments."
+
+Then the drum began to utter its spasmodic signal, and the herald's
+voice sounded faint and far off as he descended the path to the second
+group of tepees.
+
+"Shall we go now?" asked Mrs. Parker.
+
+"Oh no, it will be two hours before they begin. The young men must go
+and dress. We have time to sup and smoke a pipe."
+
+"Oh! I'm so glad we're going to see a real Indian dance. I didn't
+suppose it could be seen now--not the real thing."
+
+Lawson smiled. "You'll think this is the real thing before you get
+inside the door. I've known tenderfeet to weaken at the last moment."
+
+Parker pretended to be a little nervous. "Suppose they should get hold
+of some liquor."
+
+"This band is too far away from the white man to have his vices,"
+replied Curtis with a slight smile. He had wondered at Elsie's going,
+but concluded she had grown weary of the old chief's speech.
+
+"There is great charm in this life," said Lawson, as they all gathered
+before their tent and sat overlooking the village and the lake. "I
+sometimes wonder whether we have not complicated life without adding to
+the sum of human happiness."
+
+"I'm thinking of this in winter," said Elsie. "O-o-o! It must be
+terrible! No furnace, no bath-tubs."
+
+The others laughed heartily at the sincerity of her shudder, and Curtis
+said:
+
+"Well, now, you'd be surprised to know how comfortable they keep in
+their tepees. In the old skin tepee they were quite warm even on the
+coldest days. They always camp in sheltered places out of the wind, and
+where fuel is plenty."
+
+"At the same time I prefer my own way of living to theirs--when winter
+comes."
+
+"I know something of your logic," replied Curtis. "But I think I
+understand the reluctance of these people when asked to give up the old
+things. I love their life--their daily actions--this man coiling a
+lariat--that child's outline against the tepee--the smell of their fresh
+bread--the smoke of their little fires. I can understand a Tetong when
+he says: 'All this is as sweet to me as your own life--why should I give
+it up?' Feeling as I do, I never insist on their giving up anything
+which is not an impediment. I argue with them, and show that some of
+their ways are evil or a hinderance in the struggle for life under new
+conditions, and they always meet me half-way."
+
+"Supper is ready," called Jennie, and his audience rose.
+
+While still at meat, the drum, which had been sounding at intervals,
+suddenly took on a wilder energy, followed immediately by a high,
+shrill, yelping call, which was instantly augmented by a half-dozen
+others, all as savage and startling as the sudden burst of howling from
+a pack of wolves. This clamor fell away into a deep, throbbing chant,
+only to rise again to the yelping, whimpering cries with which it began.
+
+Every woman stiffened with terror, with wide eyes questioning Curtis.
+"What is all that?"
+
+"The opening chorus," he explained, much amused. "A song of the chase."
+
+The dusk was beginning to fall, and the tepees, with their small,
+sparkling fires close beside, and the shadowy, blanketed forms
+assembling slowly, silently, gave a wonderful remoteness and wildness to
+the scene. To Curtis it was quite like the old-time village. The husky
+voice of the aged crier seemed like a call from out of the years
+primeval before the white race with its devastating energy and its
+killing problems had appeared in the east. The artist in Elsie, now
+fully awake, dominated the daughter of wealth. "Oh, this is beautiful! I
+never expected to see anything so primitive."
+
+Knowing that his guests were eager to view it all, Curtis led the way
+towards the dance-lodge. Elsie was moved to take her place beside him,
+but checked herself and turned to Lawson, leaving Mrs. Parker to walk at
+the Captain's elbow.
+
+To the ears of the city dwellers the uproar was appalling--full of
+murder and sudden death. As they approached the lodge the frenzied
+booming of the drum, the wild, yelping howls, the shrill whooping,
+brought up in their minds all the stories of dreadful deeds they had
+ever read, and Parker said to Jennie:
+
+"Do you really think the Captain will be able to control them?"
+
+Jennie laughed. "I'm used to this clamor; it's only their way of
+singing."
+
+Elsie said: "They must be flourishing bloody scalping-knives in there;
+it is direful."
+
+"Wait and see," said Lawson.
+
+The dance-house was a large octagonal hut built of pine logs, partly
+roofed with grass and soil. It was lighted by a leaping fire in the
+centre, and by four lanterns on the walls, and as Curtis and his party
+entered, the clamor (in their honor) redoubled. In a first swift glance
+Elsie apprehended only a confused, jingling, fluttering mass of color--a
+chaos of leaping, half-naked forms and a small circle of singers
+fiercely assaulting a drum which sat on the floor at the right of the
+door.
+
+Then Red Wolf, calm, stately, courtly, came before them carrying his
+wand of office and conducted them to seats at the left of the fire, and
+the girl's heart ceased to pound so fiercely. Looking back she saw
+Jennie shaking hands with one of the fiercest of the painted and
+beplumed dancers, and recognized him as Blue Fox. Turning, she fixed her
+eyes on a middle-aged man who was dancing as sedately as Washington
+might have led the minuet, his handsome face calm of line and the clip
+of his lips genial and placid. Plainly the ferocity did not extend to
+the dancers; the singers alone seemed to express hate and lust and war.
+
+The music suddenly ceased, and in an instant the girl's mind cleared.
+She perceived that the singers were laughing as they rolled their
+cigarettes, and that the savage warrior dancers were gossiping together
+as they rested, while all about her sat plump young girls in gay
+dresses, very conscious of the eyes of the young men. In her early life
+Elsie had attended a country dance, and her changed impressions of this
+mad, blood-thirsty revel was indicated in her tone as she said:
+
+"Why, it's just an old-fashioned country hoe-down."
+
+Curtis laughed. "I congratulate you on your penetration," he mockingly
+said.
+
+The old men came up to shake hands with the agent, and on being
+presented to Elsie smiled reassuringly. Their manners were very good,
+indeed. Several of them gravely made a swift sign which caused Curtis to
+color and look confused, and when his answering sign caused them all to
+look at Lawson, Elsie demanded to know what it was all about.
+
+"Do you think you'd better know?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly, I insist on knowing," she added, as he hesitated again.
+
+He looked at her, but a little unsteadily. "They asked if you were my
+bride, and I replied no, that you came with Lawson."
+
+It was her turn to look confused. "The impudent things!" was all she
+could find to say at the moment.
+
+Red Wolf called out a few imperative words, the song began with its
+imitation of the wolves at war as before, then settled into a pounding
+chant--deep, resonant, and inspiriting. The dancers sprang forth--not
+all, but a part of them--as though their names had been called, while a
+curious little bent and withered old man crept in like a gnome and built
+up the fire till it blazed brightly. As they danced the younger men
+re-enacted with abrupt, swift, violent, yet graceful gestures the drama
+of wild life. They trailed game, rescued lost warriors, and defeated
+enemies.
+
+"You see it proceeds with decorum," said Curtis to Elsie and Mrs.
+Parker, as the dancers returned to their seats. "They enjoy it just as
+white people enjoy a cotillion, and, barring the noise of the singers,
+it is quite as formal and harmless."
+
+A little boy in full dancing costume now came on with the rest, and the
+visitors exclaimed in delight of his grace and dignity. He could not
+have been more than six years of age. His companion, an old man of
+seventy, was a good deal of a wag, and danced in comic-wise to make the
+on-lookers laugh.
+
+Parker was fairly hooking his chin over Curtis's shoulder to hear every
+word uttered and to see all that went on, and Curtis was in the midst of
+an explanation of the significance of the drama of the dance, when a
+short, sturdy, bow-legged Tetong, dressed in a policeman's uniform,
+pushed his way in at the door and thrust a letter at his agent's hand.
+
+Instantly every eye was fixed on Curtis's bent head as he opened the
+letter. The dancers took their seats, whispering and muttering, the drum
+ceased, and the singers, turned into bronze figures, stared solemnly. A
+nervous chill ran though Elsie's blood and Parker turned pale and cold.
+
+"What's up--what's up?" he asked, hurriedly. "This is a creepy pause."
+
+Lawson laid a hand on his arm and shut down on it like a vice.
+
+Red Wolf brought a lantern and held it at the Captain's shoulder.
+
+Jennie, leaning over, caught the words, "There's been a row over on the
+Willow--"
+
+Curtis calmly folded the paper, nodded and smiled his thanks to Red
+Wolf, and then lifting his hand he signed to the policeman, in full view
+of all the dancers:
+
+"Go back and tell Wilson to issue just the same amount of flour this
+week that he did last, and that Red Wolf wants a new mowing-machine for
+his people. You need not return till morning." Then, turning to Red
+Wolf, he said: "Go on with the dance; my friends are much pleased."
+
+The tension instantly gave way, every one being deceived but Jennie, who
+understood the situation and tried to help on the deception, but her
+round face was plainly anxious.
+
+Elsie, as she ceased to wonder concerning the forms and regulations of
+the dance, grew absorbed in the swirling forms, the harsh clashing of
+colors, the short, shrill cries, the gleam of round and polished limbs,
+the haughty fling of tall head-dresses, and the lightness of the small
+and beautifully modelled feet drumming upon the ground; but most of all
+she was moved by the aloofness of expression on the faces of many of the
+dancers. For the most part they seemed to dream--to revisit the
+past--especially the old men. Their lips were sad, their eyes
+pensive--singularly so--and mentally the girl said: "I must paint my
+next portrait of this quality--an old man dreaming of the olden time. I
+wonder if they really were happy in those days--happier than our
+civilization can make them?" and thoughts came to her which shook her
+confidence in the city and the mart. For the first time in her life she
+doubted the sanctity of the steam-engine and the ore-crusher.
+
+As they took their seats from time to time the older men smoked their
+long pipes; only the young men rolled their cigarettes. To them the past
+was a child's recollection, not the irrevocable dream of age. They were
+the links between the old and the new.
+
+As the time came to go, Curtis rose and addressed his people in signs.
+"We are glad to be here," he said. "All my friends are pleased. My heart
+is joyous when you dance. I do not forbid it. Sometimes Washington tells
+me to do something, and I must obey. They say you must not dance the
+war-dance any more, and so I must forbid it. This dance was pleasant--it
+is not bad. My heart is made warm to be with you. I am visiting all my
+people, and I must go to-morrow. Do not quarrel with the white man. Be
+patient, and Washington will do you good."
+
+Each promise was greeted by the old men with cries of: "Ay! Ay!" and the
+drummers thumped the drums most furiously in applause. And so the agent
+said, "Good-night," and withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+ELSIE'S ANCIENT LOVE AFFAIR
+
+
+As they walked back to their camp Jennie took her brother's arm:
+
+"What is it, George?"
+
+"I must return to the agency."
+
+"That means we must all go?"
+
+"I suppose so. The settlers seemed determined to make trouble. They have
+had another row with Gray Man's band, and shots have been fired.
+Fortunately no one was hurt. We must leave here early. Say nothing to
+any of our guests till we are safely on the way home."
+
+Elsie, walking with Lawson, was very pensive. "I begin to understand why
+Captain Curtis is made Indian agent. He understands these people,
+sympathizes with them."
+
+"No one better, and if the department can retain him six years he will
+have the Tetongs comfortably housed and on the road to independence and
+self-respect."
+
+"Why shouldn't he be retained?"
+
+"Well, your father may secure re-election to the Senate next winter."
+
+"I know," she softly answered, "he dislikes Captain Curtis."
+
+"More than that--in order to be elected, he must pledge himself to have
+Curtis put out o' the way."
+
+"That sounds like murder," she said.
+
+"Oh no; it's only politics--politics and business. But let's not talk of
+that--let us absorb the beauty of the night. Did you enjoy the dance?"
+
+"Very much. I am hopeless of ever painting it though--it is so full of
+big, significant shadows. I wish I knew more about it."
+
+"You are less confident than you were last year." He looked at her
+slyly.
+
+"I see more."
+
+"And feel more?" he asked.
+
+"Yes--I'm afraid I'm getting Captain Curtis's point of view. These
+people aren't the mendicants they once seemed. The expression of some of
+those faces to-night was wonderful. They are something more than tramps
+when they discard their rags."
+
+"I wish you'd come to my point of view," he said, a little irrelevantly.
+
+"About what?"
+
+"About our momentous day. Suppose we say Wednesday of Thanksgiving
+week?"
+
+"I thought you were going to wait for me to speak," she replied.
+
+He caught his breath a little. "So I will--only you won't forget my gray
+hairs, will you?"
+
+"I don't think I will--not with your broad daily hints to remind me. But
+you promised to be patient and--just friendly."
+
+He ignored her sarcasm. "It would be rather curious if I _should_ become
+increasingly impatient, wouldn't it? I made that promise in entire good
+faith, but--I seem to be changing."
+
+"That's what troubles me," she said. "You are trying to hurry me."
+
+At this moment they came close to the Parkers and she did not continue.
+He had given her another disturbing thought to sleep on, and that was,
+"Would it hurt him much if I should now return his ring?"
+
+Mrs. Parker was disposed to discuss the dance, but Jennie said:
+
+"We must all go to sleep. George says we are to move early to-morrow."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The walls of the tent could hardly be seen when the sound of the
+crackling flames again told that faithful Two Horns was feeding the
+camp-fire. Crane's Voice could be heard bringing in the horses, and in a
+few moments Curtis called out in a low, incisive voice:
+
+"Everybody turn out; we must make an early start across the range."
+
+The morning was gray, the peaks hidden in clouds, and the wind chill as
+the women came from their beds. Two Horns had stretched some blankets to
+keep off the blast, but still Elsie shivered, and Curtis roundly
+apologized. "I'm sorry to get you up so early. It spoils all the fun of
+camping if you're obliged to rise before the sun. An hour from now and
+all will be genial. Please wait for my explanation."
+
+Breakfast was eaten in discomfort and comparative silence, though
+Parker, with intent to enliven the scene, cut a few capers as awkward as
+the antics of a sand-hill crane. Almost before the smoke of the tepee
+fires began to climb the trees the agent and his party started back over
+the divide towards the mill, no one in holiday mood. There was a certain
+pathos in this loss of good cheer.
+
+Once out of sight of the camp, Curtis turned and said: "Friends, I'm
+sorry to announce it, but I must return to the agency to-night and I
+must take you all with me. Wilson has asked me to hasten home, and of
+course he would not do so without good reason."
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Elsie.
+
+"The same old trouble. The cattlemen are throwing their stock on the
+reservation and the Tetongs are resenting it."
+
+"No danger, I hope," said Parker, pop-eyed this time with genuine
+apprehension.
+
+"Oh no--not if I am on hand to keep the races apart. Now I'm going to
+drive hard, and you must all hang on. I want to pull into the agency
+before dark."
+
+The wagon lurched and rattled down the divide as Curtis urged the horses
+steadily forward. With his foot in the brake, he descended in a single
+hour the road which had consumed three long hours to climb. Conversation
+under these conditions was difficult and at times impossible.
+
+Jennie, intrepid driver herself, clutched her brother's arm at times, as
+the vehicle lurched, but Curtis made it all a joke by shouting, "It is
+always easy to slide into Hades--the worst is soon over."
+
+Once in the valley of the Elk the road grew better, and Curtis asked
+Elsie if she wished to drive. She, being very self-conscious for some
+reason, shook her head, "No, thank you," and rode for the most part in
+silence, though Lawson made a brave effort to keep up a conversation.
+
+By eleven o'clock not even Curtis and Lawson together could make the
+ride a joke. The women were hungry and tired, and distinctly saddened by
+this sudden ending of their joyous outing.
+
+"I wish these rampant cowboys could have waited till we had our
+holiday," Jennie grumbled, as she stretched her tired arms.
+
+"Probably they were informed of the Captain's plans and seized the
+opportunity," suggested Parker.
+
+"I wonder if Cal is a traitor?" mused Jennie.
+
+Two Horns and Crane's Voice came rattling along soon after Curtis
+stopped for noon at their first camping-place, and in a few minutes
+lunch was ready. Conversation still lagged in spite of inspiriting
+coffee, and the women lay out on their rugs and blankets, resting their
+aching bones, while the men smoked and speculated on the outcome of the
+whole Indian question.
+
+The teams were put to the wagons as soon as their oats were eaten and
+the homeward drive begun, brisk and business-like, and for some
+mysterious reason Curtis recovered his usual cheerful tone.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when the agency was sighted, and the five-o'clock
+bell had just rung as they drove slowly and with no appearance of haste
+into the yard.
+
+Wilson came out to meet them. "How-de-do? You made a short trip."
+
+"How are things?" inquired Curtis.
+
+"Nothing doing--all quiet," replied the clerk, but Curtis detected
+something yet untold in the quiver of his clerk's eyelid.
+
+"Well, I'm glad we got in."
+
+Supper was eaten with little ceremony and very languid conversation, and
+the artists at once sought their rooms to rest. The Parkers were too
+tired to be nervous, and Curtis was absorbed with some private problem.
+
+As Lawson and Elsie walked across the square in the twilight he
+announced, meditatively:
+
+"I'm going to be more and more impatient--that is now certain."
+
+"Osborne, don't! Please don't take that tone; I don't like it."
+
+"Why not, dear?" he asked, tenderly.
+
+"Because--because--" She turned in a swift, overmastering impulse.
+"Because if you do, I must give you back your ring." She wrung it from
+her finger. "I think I must, anyhow."
+
+As she crowded the gem into his lax hand he said: "Why, what does this
+mean, Elsie Bee Bee?" His voice expressed pain and bewilderment.
+
+"I don't know _what_ it means yet, only I feel that it isn't right now
+to wear it. I told you when you put it on that it implied no promise on
+my part."
+
+"I know it, and it doesn't imply any now."
+
+"Yes, it does. Your whole attitude towards me implies an absolute
+engagement, and I can't rest under that. Take back your ring till I can
+receive it as other girls do--as a binding promise. You _must_ do this
+or I will hate you!" she added, with a sudden fury.
+
+"Why, certainly, dearest--only I don't see what has produced this change
+in you."
+
+"I have not changed--you have changed."
+
+He laughed at this. "The woman's last word! Well, I admit it. I have
+come to love you as a man loves the woman he wishes to make his wife.
+I'm going to care a great deal, Elsie Bee Bee, if you do not come to me
+some time."
+
+"Don't say that!" she cried, and there was an imploring accent in her
+voice. "Don't you see I must not wear your ring till I promise all you
+ask?"
+
+They walked on in silence to the door. As they stood there he said: "I
+feel as though I were about to say good-bye to you forever, and it makes
+my heart ache."
+
+She put both hands on his shoulders, then, swift as a bird, turned and
+was gone. He felt that she had thought to kiss him, but he divined it
+would have been a farewell kiss, and he was glad that she had turned
+away. There was still hope for him in that indecision.
+
+As for Elsie, life seemed suddenly less simple and less orderly. She
+pitied Osborne, she was angry and dissatisfied with herself, and in
+doubt about Curtis. "I'm not in love with him--it is impossible, absurd;
+but my summer is spoiled. I shall go home at once. It is foolish for me
+to be here when I could be at the sea-shore."
+
+After a moment she thought: "Why am I here? I guess the girls were
+right. I _am_ a crank--an irresponsible. Why should I want to paint
+these malodorous tepee dwellers? Just to be different from any one
+else."
+
+As she sat at her open window she heard again the Tetong lover's flute
+wailing from the hill-side across the stream, and the sound struck
+straight in upon her heart and filled her with a mysterious longing--a
+pain which she dared not analyze. Her mind was active to the point of
+confusion--seething with doubts and the wreckage of her opinions.
+Lawson's action had deeply disturbed her.
+
+They had never pretended to sentiment in their relationship; indeed, she
+had settled into a conviction that love was a silly passion, possible
+only to girls in their teens. This belief she had attained by passing
+through what seemed to her a fiery furnace of suffering at eighteen, and
+when that self-effacing passion had burned itself out she had renounced
+love and marriage and "devoted herself to art," healing herself with
+work. For some years thereafter she posed as a man-hater.
+
+The objective cause of all this tumult and flame and renunciation seemed
+ridiculously inadequate in the eyes of others. He was the private
+secretary of Senator Stollwaert at the time, a smug, discreet, pretty
+man, of slender attainment and no great ambition. Happily, he had
+afterwards removed to New York, or Washington would have been an
+impossible place of residence for Elsie. She had met him once since her
+return--he had had the courage to call upon her--and the familiar pose
+of his small head and the mincing stride of his slender legs had given
+her a feeling of nausea. "Is it possible that I once agonized over this
+trig little man?" she asked herself.
+
+To be just to him, Mr. Garretson did not presume in the least on his
+previous intimacy; on the contrary, he seemed timid and ill at ease in
+the presence of the woman whose beauty had by no means been foreshadowed
+in her girlhood. He was not stupid; the splendor of her surroundings
+awed him, but above all else there was a look on her face which too
+plainly expressed contempt for her ancient folly. Her shame was as
+perceptible to him as though expressed in spoken words, and his visit
+was never repeated.
+
+Of this affair Elsie had spoken quite freely to Lawson. "It only shows
+what an unmitigated idiot a girl is. She is bound to love some one. I
+knew quantities of nice boys, and why I should have selected poor Sammy
+as the centre of all my hopes and affections I don't know. I dimly
+recall thinking he had nice ears and hands, but even they do not now
+seem a reasonable basis for wild passion, do they?"
+
+Lawson had been amused. "Love at that age isn't a creature of reason."
+
+"Evidently not, if mine was a sample."
+
+"Ours now is so reasonable as to seem insecure and dangerous."
+
+Her intimacy with Lawson, therefore, had begun on the plane of
+good-fellowship while they were in Paris together, and for two years he
+seemed quite satisfied. Of late he had been less contained.
+
+After her outburst of anger at her father's ejectment of Curtis, she met
+Lawson with a certain reserve not common to her. At the moment, she more
+than half resolved that the time had come to leave her father's house
+for Lawson's flat, and yet her will wavered. She said as little as
+possible to him concerning that last disgraceful scene, as much on her
+own account as to spare Curtis, but her restlessness was apparent to
+Lawson and puzzled him. Two or three times during the summer he had
+openly, though jocularly, alluded to their marriage, but she had put
+him off with a keen word. Now that her father seemed intolerable, she
+listened to him with a new interest. He became a definite possibility--a
+refuge.
+
+Encouraged by this slight change in her attitude towards him, Lawson
+took a ring from his pocket one night and said, "I wish you'd wear this,
+Elsie Bee Bee."
+
+She drew back. "I can't do that. I'm not ready to promise anything yet."
+
+"It needn't bind you," he pleaded. "It needn't mean any more than you
+care to have it mean. But I think our understanding justifies a ring."
+
+"That's just it," she answered, quickly. "I don't like you to be so
+solemn about our 'understanding.' You promised to let me think it all
+out in my own way and in my own time."
+
+"I know I did--and I mean to do so. Only"--he smiled with a wistful look
+at her--"I would have you observe that I have developed three gray hairs
+over my ears."
+
+She took the ring slowly, and as she put the tip of her finger into it a
+slight premonitory shudder passed over her.
+
+"You are sure you understand--this is no binding promise on my part?"
+
+"It will leave you as free as before."
+
+"Then I will wear it," she said, and slipped it to its place. "It is a
+beautiful ring."
+
+He bent and kissed her fingers. "And a beautiful hand, Elsie Bee Bee."
+
+Now, lying alone in the soundless deep of the night, she went over that
+scene, and the one through which she had just passed. "He's a dear,
+good fellow, and I love him--but not like that." And the thought that it
+was all over between them, and the decision irrevocably made, was at
+once a pain and a pleasure. The promise, slight as it was, had been a
+burden. "Now I am absolutely free," she said, in swift, exultant
+rebound.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE SHERIFF'S MOB
+
+
+The next day was cloudless, with a south wind, and the little, crawling
+brook which watered the agency seemed about to seethe. The lower
+foot-hills were already sere as autumn, and the ponies came down to
+their drinking-places unnaturally thirsty; and the cattle, wallowing in
+the creek-bed, seemed at times to almost stop its flow. The timid trees
+which Curtis had planted around the school-house and office were plainly
+suffering for lack of moisture, and the little gardens which the Indians
+had once more been induced to plant were in sore distress.
+
+The torrid sun beat down into the valley from the unclouded sky so
+fiercely that the idle young men of the reservation postponed their
+horse-racing till after sunset. Curtis felt the heat and dust very
+keenly on his guests' account, and was irritated over the assaults of
+the cattlemen. "If they had but kept the peace we would still be in the
+cool, sweet hills," he said to Lawson.
+
+"This will not last," Lawson replied. "We'll get a mountain wind
+to-night. The girls are wisely keeping within doors and are not yet
+aware of the extreme heat."
+
+"I hope you are a true prophet. But at this moment it seems as if no
+cool wind could arise out of this sun-baked land."
+
+"Any news from the Willow?"
+
+"The trouble was in the West Fort. Some cowboys raided a camp of
+Tetongs. No one was injured, and so it must pass for a joke."
+
+"Some of those jokes will set something afire some of these hot days."
+
+"But you know how hard it is to apprehend the ruffians; they come and go
+in the night like wolves. They spoiled our outing, but I hope we may get
+away again next week."
+
+In the days which followed, Curtis saw little of Elsie, and when they
+met she seemed cold and preoccupied. In conversation she seemed
+listening to another voice, appeared to be pondering some abstract
+subject, and Curtis was puzzled and vaguely saddened. Jennie took a far
+less serious view of the estrangement. "It's just a mood. We've set her
+thinking; she's 'under conviction,' as the revivalists used to say.
+Don't bother her and she'll 'come through.'"
+
+Curtis was at lunch on Wednesday when Wilson came to the door and said,
+"Major, Streeter and a man named Jenks are here and want to see you."
+
+"More stolen cattle to be charged up to the Indians, I suppose."
+
+"I reckon some such complaint--they didn't say."
+
+"Well, tell them to wait--or no--ask them to come over and lunch with
+me."
+
+Wilson soon returned. "They are very glum, and say they'll wait at the
+office till you come."
+
+"As they prefer. I will have finished in a few moments."
+
+He concluded not to hasten, however, and the ranchers had plenty of time
+to become impatient. They met him darkly.
+
+"We want a word in private, Major," said Jenks, a tall, long-bearded man
+of most portentous gravity.
+
+Curtis led the way to an inner office and offered them seats, which they
+took in the same oppressive silence.
+
+The agent briskly opened the hearing. "What can I do for you,
+gentlemen?"
+
+Jenks looked at Streeter--Streeter nodded. "Go ahead, Hank."
+
+Jenks leaned over aggressively. "Your damned Injuns have murdered one o'
+my herders."
+
+Curtis hardened. "What makes you think so?" he sharply asked.
+
+"He disappeared more than a week ago, and no one has heard of him since.
+I know he has been killed, and your Injuns done it. No one--"
+
+"Wait a moment," interrupted Curtis. "Who was he?"
+
+"His name is Cole--he was herdin' my sheep."
+
+"Are you a sheep-man?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"My sheep ranch is over on Horned Toad Creek."
+
+"Where was this man when he disappeared?"
+
+Jenks grew a little uneasy. "He was camped by the Mud Spring."
+
+Curtis rose and called Wilson in. "Wilson, where is the Mud Spring?"
+
+"Just inside our south line, about four miles from the school."
+
+"I thought so," replied Curtis. "Your sheep were on the reservation. Are
+you sure this man was murdered?"
+
+"Him and the dog disappeared together, and hain't neither of 'em been
+seen since."
+
+"How long ago was this?"
+
+"Just a week to-morrow."
+
+"Have you made a search for him? Have you studied the ground closely?"
+
+Streeter interposed. "We've done all that could be done in that line. I
+_know_ he's killed. He told Cal about two weeks ago that he had been
+shot at twice and expected to get wiped out before the summer was over.
+There isn't a particle of doubt in my mind about it. The thing for you
+to do is to make a demand--"
+
+"I am not in need of instructions as to my duty," interrupted Curtis.
+"Wilson, who is over from the Willow Creek?"
+
+"Old Elk himself."
+
+"Send him in. I shall take all means to help you find this herder,"
+Curtis said to the ranchers, "but I cannot allow you to charge my people
+with his death without greater reason than at present. We must move
+calmly and without heat in this matter. Murder is a serious charge to
+make without ample proof."
+
+The Elk, smiling and serene, entered the door and stood for a moment
+searching the countenances of the white men. His face grew grave as the
+swift signs of his agent filled his mind with the story of the
+disappearance of the herder.
+
+"I am sorry; it is bad business," he said.
+
+"Now, Crawling Elk, I want you to call together five or six of your best
+trailers and go with these men to the place where the herder was last
+seen and see if you can find any trace of him;" then, turning to
+Streeter, he said: "You know Crawling Elk; he is the one chief against
+whom you have no enmity. If Cole was murdered, his body will be found.
+Until you have more proof of his death I must ask you to give my people
+the benefit of the doubt. Good-day, gentlemen."
+
+As they turned to go, two young reds were seen leaving the window. They
+had watched Curtis as he signed the story to Crawling Elk. As the white
+men emerged these young fellows were leaning lazily on the fence,
+betraying no interest and very little animation, but a few minutes later
+they were mounted and riding up the valley at full gallop, heavy with
+news of the herder's death and Streeter's threats.
+
+"Now, Elk," signed Curtis, "say nothing to any one but your young men
+and the captain of police, whom I will send with you to bring me word."
+
+After they had all ridden away, Curtis turned to Wilson and said, "I
+didn't suppose I should live to see a sheep-man and a cattleman riding
+side by side in this amicable fashion."
+
+"Oh, they'll get together against the Indian, all right. They're mighty
+glad of a chance to make any kind of common cause. That lazy herder has
+jumped the country. He told me he was sick of his job."
+
+"But the dog?"
+
+"Oh, he killed the dog to keep him from being traced. There isn't a
+thing in it, Major."
+
+"I'm inclined to think you're right, but we must make careful
+investigation; the people are very censorious of my policy."
+
+Next morning Crawling Elk brought word that no trace of the man could be
+found. "The grass is very dry," he explained, "and the trail is old. We
+discovered nothing except some horses' hoof-marks."
+
+"Keep searching till every foot of land is covered," commanded Curtis.
+"Otherwise the white man will complain."
+
+On Friday, just after the bell had called the people to resume work at
+one o'clock, Crow, the police captain, rode into the yard on a pony
+covered with ridges of dried sweat. His face was impassive, but his eyes
+glittered as he lifted his hand and signed:
+
+"The white man's body is found!"
+
+"Where?" asked Curtis from the door-way.
+
+"On the high ground near the spring. He has three bullet-holes in him.
+Three cartridge-shells were found where the horses' hoof-marks were. The
+ones who shot dismounted there and fired over a little knoll. There are
+many white men over there now; they are very angry. They are coming
+here--"
+
+"Be silent! Come in here!" Once within the office, Curtis drew from Crow
+Wing all he knew. He was just in the midst of giving his orders when
+Wilson opened the door and said, quietly, though his voice had a
+tremulous intensity:
+
+"Major, step here a moment."
+
+Curtis went to the door. He could not restrain a smile, even while a
+cold chill went to his heart. Nothing could exceed the suddenness of the
+change which had swept over the agency. As he had stood in the office
+door ten minutes before, his ears had been filled with the clink-clank
+of the blacksmiths' hammers, the shouts of drivers, and the low laughter
+of young women on their way to the store. Crane's Voice was hitching up
+his team, while Lost Legs and Turkey Tail were climbing to the roof of
+the warehouse with pots of red paint. Peter Wolf was mending a
+mowing-machine, and his brother Robert was cutting wood behind the
+agency kitchen. All about he had observed groups of white-blanketed
+Indians smoking cigarettes in the shade of the buildings, while a crowd
+of nearly twenty others stood watching a game of duck-on-the-rock before
+the agency store.
+
+Now as he looked over the yards not a redman could be seen at his work.
+On every side the people, without apparent haste, but surely, steadily,
+and swiftly, were scattering. The anvil no longer cried out, the
+teamsters were silent, all laughter had ceased, the pots of paint sat
+scorching in the sun. There was something fiercely ominous as well as
+uncanny in this sudden, silent dispersion of a busy, merry throng, and
+Curtis, skilled in Indian signs, appreciated to the full the distrust of
+the white man here expressed. He understood this panic. The settlers had
+long threatened war. Now the pretext had come, and the sound of guns was
+about to begin.
+
+"Wilson," said Curtis, calmly, "if the settlers fire a shot they will
+regret it. See Crane's Voice, if you can find him, and send him to me."
+He turned to Crow and signed: "Go tell your people I will not let the
+cowboys hurt them. Hurry! Call them all back. Tell them to go to work. I
+will call the soldiers, if necessary, to keep the white man away. There
+is no danger."
+
+Crow was a brave and loyal man, and, weary as he was, hastened to carry
+out his orders. The call for "assembly" was rung on the signal-bell, and
+a few of the red employés responded. To them Curtis spoke reassuringly,
+but his words were belied by Thomas Big Voice, the official interpreter,
+who was so scared his knees shook.
+
+Curtis sent Wilson to quiet the teachers and hurried immediately to the
+studio, where Elsie was at work painting a portrait of old Chief Black
+Bull. The old man sprang to his feet the instant he caught sight of his
+agent's face.
+
+"Friend, what is the matter?" he asked.
+
+To Elsie, Curtis said: "Do not be alarmed."
+
+"There is no danger," he signed to Black Bull. "The white man's body has
+been found near the spring. He was shot by two men with horses. The
+white men are coming to see me about it, but there is no need of alarm.
+Tell your people to go quietly to their camps. I will protect them."
+
+The old chief's face grew sterner as he flung his blanket over his arm.
+"I go to see," he said. "The white men are very angry."
+
+"Wait!" called Curtis. "Keep your people quiet right where they are. You
+must help me. I depend on you. You must not alarm them."
+
+"I will do as you command," Bull replied, as he went away, but it was
+plain he apprehended violence.
+
+"What is the matter?" inquired Elsie.
+
+"The settlers have discovered the body of the herder who was killed, and
+Crow brings word they are angry. I don't think there is any danger, but
+I wish you and Jennie were at the fort for a few days. I don't like to
+have you disturbed by these things."
+
+It was their first meeting alone since their return from the
+camping-trip, but Elsie was too much concerned with the serious
+expression of his face to feel any embarrassment.
+
+"You don't think there will be trouble?"
+
+"No, only a distracting wrangle, which may prevent your getting models.
+The Indians are nervous, and are even now getting out for the hills. But
+I hope you will not be alarmed."
+
+"I'm not a nervous person."
+
+"I know you're not--that is the reason I dared to come and tell you what
+was going on. I deeply regret--"
+
+Wilson rapped on the door. "Major, you are needed. Bow-legs reports two
+bodies of armed men riding up the valley; the dust of their horses'
+hoofs can be seen. There are at least twenty men in the two squads,"
+Wilson continued; "one came across from the West Fork, the other came
+from the south. It looks like a prearranged invasion."
+
+"Very well, Wilson, I'll be at the office in time to meet them."
+
+Curtis turned on Elsie a look which went to her heart. His voice was low
+as he said: "Let me take you over to Jennie. I presume these men are
+coming to make a demand on me for the murderers. They may or may not
+know who the guilty ones are, but their coming in force by
+prearrangement has alarmed the people."
+
+As she laid down her brushes and took up her hat she said, gleefully:
+"Father won't be able to ask me what I know about war--will he? Will
+they begin shooting at once?"
+
+"I don't think they are likely to do anything as a body, but some
+reckless cowboy may do violence to some Tetong, which will rouse the
+tribe to retaliation. The settlers have too much sense to incite an
+outbreak." At the door he said: "I wish you would go to Jennie. Tell her
+not to get excited. I will let you know what it is all about as soon as
+I find out myself. It may be all a mistake."
+
+As he was crossing the road Lawson joined him, and when they reached the
+gate before the office, several of the invaders had dismounted and were
+waiting the agent's coming. There were eleven of them; all were deeply
+excited, and two or three of the younger men were observably drunk and
+reckless. Streeter, stepping forward, introduced a short, sullen-faced
+man as "Sheriff Winters, of Pinon County."
+
+"What name?" said Curtis, as he shook hands pleasantly.
+
+"Sheriff Winters," repeated Streeter.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" queried Curtis.
+
+"We have come for the man that killed Ed Cole. We are a committee
+appointed by a convention of three hundred citizens who are holding an
+inquest over the body," said Winters. "We have come for the murderer."
+
+"Do you know who committed the murder?"
+
+"No, but we know it was an Injun."
+
+"How do you know it?" They hesitated. "Do you come as an officer of the
+law? Have you a warrant?"
+
+"No, I have not, but we are determined--"
+
+"Then I deny your right to be here. Your coming is an armed invasion of
+federal territory," said Curtis, and his voice rang like steel.
+
+"Here comes the other fellers," called some one in the crowd. Turning
+his head, Curtis saw another squad of men filing down over the hill from
+the north. He counted them and made out fifteen. Turning sharply to the
+sheriff, he asked: "Who are those men?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Are you responsible for their coming?"
+
+"No, sir, I am not!" the sheriff replied, plainly on the defence.
+
+As the second squad came galloping up, the sheriff's party greeted them
+with nods and low words. Curtis heard one man ask: "Where's Charley? I
+thought he was coming," and became perfectly certain that this meeting
+had been prearranged. The new-comers mingled with the sheriff's party
+quite indistinguishably and made no further explanation of their
+presence.
+
+The young officer burned hot with indignation. "Sheriff Winters, order
+these men to retire at once. They have no business here!"
+
+A mutter of rage ran over the mob and several hands dropped
+ostentatiously upon pistols.
+
+One loud-voiced young whelp called out an insulting word. "You go
+to ----! We'll retire when we get an Injun, not before!"
+
+"Shut up, you fool!" called the sheriff, and, turning to Jenks, began to
+mutter in consultation. Curtis advanced a step, and raising his voice
+addressed the entire mob.
+
+"As commander of this reservation, I order you to withdraw. Your
+presence here is unlawful and menacing. Retire to the boundary of the
+reservation, and I will use every effort to discover the murderer. If he
+is in the tribe I will find him and deliver him to the county
+authorities."
+
+At this one of the same young ruffians who had challenged him before
+spurred his horse close to Curtis, and with his pistol in his hand
+shouted: "Not by a d---- sight. We come to take it out o' these thieves,
+and we're goin' to do it. Go ahead, Winters--say the word and well clean
+out the whole tribe."
+
+Curtis looked the youth in the eye. "My boy, I advise you to make war
+slowly, even with your mouth."
+
+Calvin Streeter, with his teeth clinched, crowded his horse forward and
+struck the insolent hoodlum in the face with his hat. "Shut up, or I'll
+pinch your neck off! Think you're sheriff?" The belligerent retired,
+snarling wild curses.
+
+Curtis addressed himself again to Winters, assuming a tone of respect
+and confidence which he did not feel. "Mr. Winters, you are here as a
+representative of the courts of Pinon County. I call upon you, as
+sheriff, to disperse all these men, who are here without warrant of
+law!"
+
+The sheriff hesitated, for the cattlemen were now furious and eager to
+display their valor. Many of them were of the roughest types of cowboys,
+the profane and reckless renegades of older communities, and being
+burdened with ammunition, and foolhardy with drink, they were in no mood
+to turn tail and ride away. They savagely blustered, flourishing their
+revolvers recklessly.
+
+The sheriff attempted to silence them, and said, petulantly, to Curtis:
+"If I hadn't come you'd 'a' had a mob of two hundred armed men instead
+of twenty. I had hard work to keep 'em back. I swore in these ten men as
+my deputies. This second crowd I don't know anything about. They just
+happen to be here."
+
+Curtis knew this to be a lie, but proceeded to cajole the sheriff by
+recognizing him and his authority.
+
+"In that case I shall act." Addressing the leader of the second party,
+he said: "Sheriff Winters is the legal representative of the county; you
+are an unlawful mob, and I once more command you to leave the
+reservation, which is federal territory, under my command."
+
+"No, you don't! We stay right here!" shouted several.
+
+"We'll see whether the people of this State have any rights or not,"
+said Jenks, deeply excited. "We won't allow you to shield your murdering
+redskins under such a plea; we'll be judge and jury in this case."
+
+Curtis turned sharply to the sheriff: "Officer, do your duty! Dispose of
+this mob!" His tone was magnificently commanding. "I shall hold you
+responsible for further trouble," said Curtis, turning a long look on
+Winters, which stung.
+
+The sheriff angrily addressed the crowd. "Get out o' this, boys. You're
+twisting me all up and doing no good. Vamoose now! I've got all the help
+I need. I'm just as much obliged, but you'd better clear out." Then to
+his deputies, "Round 'em up, boys, and send 'em away."
+
+Calvin's face wore a smile of wicked glee as he called out:
+
+"Now you fellers git!" and spurring his horse into their midst he
+hustled them. "Hunt your holes! You're more bother than you are worth.
+Git out o' here!"
+
+While the sheriff and his deputies alternately pleaded and commanded the
+mob to withdraw, Lawson touched Curtis on the arm and pointed to the
+crests of the hills to the west. On every smooth peak a mounted sentinel
+stood, silent and motionless as a figure on a monument--watching the
+struggle going on before the agency gate.
+
+"Behind every hill young warriors are riding," said Lawson. "By sundown
+every man and boy will be armed and ready for battle. If these noble
+citizens knew what you have saved them from they would bless you."
+
+The mob of cattlemen retreated slowly, with many fierce oaths and a
+jangle of loud debate which Curtis feared each moment might break into a
+crackle of pistol shots.
+
+"That was a good stroke," said Lawson. "It sets up division, and so
+weakens them. You will be able to handle the sheriff now."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+FEMININE STRATEGY
+
+
+Having seen the horsemen ride away, Jennie and Elsie came across the
+road tense with excitement.
+
+"Tell us all about it? Have they gone?"
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"We hope they are gone," Curtis replied, as lightly as he could. "It was
+the sheriff of Pinon County and a lynching party. I have persuaded one
+mob to drive away the other. They were less dangerous than they seemed."
+
+"See those heads!" exclaimed Lawson, pointing out several employés who
+were peering cautiously over roofs and around corners. "Not one has
+retained his hat," he added. "If the danger sharpens, off will come
+their shirts and trousers, and those belligerent white men will find
+themselves contending with six hundred of the best fighters in the
+world."
+
+"We must temporize," said Curtis. "A single shot now would be disaster."
+He checked himself there, but Lawson understood as well as he the
+situation.
+
+Jennie was not yet satisfied. "Has the sheriff come for some one in
+particular?"
+
+"No, he has no warrant, hasn't even a clew to the murder. He is really
+at the lead of a lynching party himself, and has no more right to be
+here than the men he is driving away."
+
+"What ought he to do?" asked Elsie.
+
+"He should go home. It is my business as agent to make the arrest. I
+have only a half-dozen police, and I dare not attempt to force him and
+his party to leave the reservation."
+
+"The whole situation is this," explained Lawson. "They've made this
+inquest the occasion for bringing all the hot-headed fools of the
+country together, and this is a bluff which they think will intimidate
+the Indians."
+
+"They wouldn't dare to begin shooting, would they?" asked Elsie.
+
+"You can't tell what such civilized persons will do," said Lawson. "But
+Curtis has the sheriff thinking, and the worst of it is over."
+
+"Here they come again!" exclaimed Wilson, who surprised Curtis by
+remaining cool and watchful through this first mutiny.
+
+At a swift gallop the sheriff and his posse came whirling back up the
+road--a wild and warlike squad--hardly more tractable than the
+redoubtables they had rounded up and thrown down the valley.
+
+"I think you had better go in," said Curtis to Elsie. "Jennie, take her
+back to the house for a little while."
+
+"No, let us stay," cried Elsie. "I want to see this sheriff myself. If
+we hear the talk we'll be less nervous."
+
+Curtis was firm. "This is no place for you. These cowboys have no
+respect for God, man, or devil; please go in."
+
+Jennie started to obey, but Elsie obstinately held her ground.
+
+"I will not! I have the right to know what is threatening me! I always
+hated to go below in a storm."
+
+In a cloud of dust--with snorting of excited horses, the posse, with the
+sheriff at its head, again pulled up at the gate. The young men stared
+at the two daintily dressed girls with eyes of stupefaction. Here was an
+unlooked-for complication. A new element had entered the controversy.
+The sheriff slid from his horse and gave a rude salute with his big
+brown fist.
+
+"Howdy, ladies, howdy." It was plain he was deeply embarrassed by this
+turn of affairs.
+
+Elsie seized Curtis by the arm and whispered: "Introduce me to
+him--quick! Tell him who I am."
+
+Curtis instantly apprehended her plan. "Sheriff Winters, this is Miss
+Brisbane, daughter of ex-Senator Brisbane, of Washington."
+
+The sheriff awkwardly seized her small hand, "Pleased to make your
+acquaintance, miss," he said. "I know the Senator well."
+
+Curtis turned to Jennie, who came forward--"And this is my sister."
+
+"I've heard of you," the sheriff said, regaining his self-possession.
+"I'm sorry to disturb you, ladies--"
+
+Elsie looked at him and quietly said: "I hope you will not be hasty,
+sheriff; my father will not sanction violence."
+
+"You're being here makes a difference, miss--of course--I--"
+
+Jennie spoke up: "You must be hungry, Mr. Sheriff," she said, and
+smiling up at Calvin, added, "and so are your men. Why not picket your
+horses and have some lunch with us?"
+
+Curtis took advantage of the hesitation. "That's the reasonable thing,
+men. We can discuss measures at our ease."
+
+The cowboys looked at each other with significant glances. Several began
+to dust themselves and to slyly swab their faces with their gay
+kerchiefs, and one or two became noticeably redder about the ears as
+they looked down at their horses' bridles.
+
+Calvin broke the silence. "I don't let this chance slip, boys. I'm
+powerful keen, myself."
+
+"So'm I," echoed several others.
+
+The sheriff coughed. "Well--really--I'm agreeable, but I'm afeerd it'll
+be a powerful sight o' trouble, miss."
+
+"Oh no, let us attend to that," cried Jennie. "We shall expect you in
+fifteen minutes," and taking Elsie by the arm, she started across the
+road.
+
+As the cowboys followed the graceful retreating figures of the girls,
+Lawson and Curtis looked at each other with eyes of amazement; Lawson
+acknowledged a mighty impulse to laugh. "How unmilitary," he muttered.
+
+"But how effective," replied Curtis, his lips twitching.
+
+The cowboys muttered among themselves. "Say, is this a dream?"
+
+"Who said pork-and-beans?"
+
+"Does my necktie kiver my collar-button?" asked a third.
+
+"Come, boys!" called Curtis, cheerily. "While the sheriff and I have a
+little set-to, you water your ponies and dust off, and be ready for cold
+potatoes. You're a little late for a square meal, but I think we can
+ease your pangs."
+
+With a patter of jocose remarks the cowboys rode off down towards the
+creek, taking the sheriff's horse along with them.
+
+Curtis turned to Lawson. "I wish you'd bring that code over to the
+house, Lawson. I want to show that special clause to the sheriff."
+
+Turning to Winters, he said: "Come, let's go across to my library and
+talk our differences over in comfort."
+
+The sheriff dusted his trousers with the broad of his hand. "Well, now,
+I'm in no condition to sit down with ladies."
+
+"I'll give you a chance to clean up," replied Curtis, who plainly saw
+that the girls had the rough bordermen "on the ice and going," as Calvin
+would say. A man can brag and swear and bluster out of doors, or in a
+bare, tobacco-stained office; but in a library, surrounded by books, in
+the hearing of ladies, he is more human--more reasonable. Jennie's
+invitation had turned impending defeat to victory.
+
+Curtis took Winters into his own bedroom and put its toilet articles at
+his service and left him. As the sheriff came out into the Captain's
+library five minutes later, it was plain he had washed away a large part
+of his ferocity; his hair, plastered down smooth, represented the change
+in his mental condition--his quills were laid. He was, in fact, fairly
+meek.
+
+Curtis confidentially remarked, in a low voice: "You see, sheriff, we
+must manage this thing quietly. We mustn't endanger these women, and
+especially Miss Brisbane. If the old Senator gets a notion his daughter
+is in danger--"
+
+Winters blew a whiff. "Great God, he'd tear the State wide open! No, the
+boys were too hasty. As I say, I saw the irregularity, but if I hadn't
+consented to lead a posse in here that whole inquest would have come
+a-rampin' down on ye. I said to 'em, 'Boys,' I says, 'you can't do that
+kind of thing,' I says. 'These Tetongs are fighters,' I says, 'and
+you'll have a sweet time chasin' 'em over the hills--just go slow and
+learn to peddle,' I says--"
+
+Lawson, entering with the code, cut him short in his shameless
+exculpation, and Curtis said, suavely: "Mr. Winters, I think you know
+Mr. Lawson."
+
+"We've crossed each other's trail once or twice, I believe," said
+Lawson. "Here is the clause."
+
+Curtis laid the book before the sheriff, who pushed a stubby forefinger
+against the letters and read the paragraph laboriously. His thick wits
+were moved by it, and he said: "Seems a clear case, and yet the
+reservation is included in the lines of Pinon County. 'Pears like the
+county'd ought 'o have some rights."
+
+"Well, here comes the posse," said Curtis; "we'll talk it all over with
+them after lunch. Come in, boys!" he called cheerily to the straggling
+herders, who came in sheepishly, one by one, their spurs rattling, their
+big, limp hats twisted in their hands. They had pounded the alkali from
+each other's shirt, and their red faces shone with the determined
+rubbing they had received. All the wild grace of their horsemanship was
+gone, and as they sidled in and squatted down along the wall they were
+anything but ferocious in manner or speech.
+
+"Ah, now, this is all right," each man said, when Curtis offered chairs.
+"You take the chair, Jim; you take it, Joe--this suits me."
+
+Lawson was interested in their cranial development, and their alignment
+along the wall gave a fine opportunity for comparison. "They were, for
+the most part, shapeless and of small capacity," he said
+afterwards--"just country bumpkins, trained to the horse and the
+revolver, but each of them arrogated to himself the judicial mind of the
+Almighty Creator."
+
+The sheriff, leaning far back in the big Morris chair, wore a smirking
+smile which seemed to say: "Boys, I'm onto this luxury all right.
+Stuffed chair don't get me no back-ache. Nothing's too rich for _my_
+blood--if I can get it."
+
+The young fellows were transfixed with awe of Calvin, for, though the
+last to enter the house, he walked calmly past the library door on into
+the dining-room, and a moment later could be heard chatting with the
+girls, "sassy as a whiskey-jack."
+
+One big, freckled young fellow nudged his neighbor and said: "Wouldn't
+that pull your teeth? That wall-eyed sorrel has waltzed right into the
+kitchen to buzz the women. Say, his neck needs shortening."
+
+"Does he stand in, or is it just gall?"
+
+"It's nerve--nothing else. We ain't onto our job, that's all."
+
+"Oh, he knows 'em all right. I heered he stands in with the agent's
+sister."
+
+"The hell he does! Lookin' that way? Well, I don't think. It's his
+brass-bound cheek. Wait till we ketch him alone."
+
+Cal appeared at the door. "Well, fellers, come in; grub's all spread
+out."
+
+"What you got to say about it?" asked Green.
+
+"Think you're the nigger that rings the bell, don't ye?" remarked
+Galvin. "We're waitin' for the boss to say 'when.'"
+
+Not one of them stirred till Curtis rose, saying to the sheriff, "Well,
+we'll take time later to discuss that; come right out and tame the
+wolf."
+
+The fact that Curtis accepted Calvin's call impressed the crowd deeply.
+
+"You'd think he was one o' the fambly," muttered Galvin. "Wait till we
+get a rope 'round his neck."
+
+The table, looking cool and dainty in its fleckless linen, was set with
+plates of cold chicken and ham, with pots of jelly and white bread at
+each end of the cloth, beside big pitchers of cool milk. To the cowboys,
+accustomed only to their rude camps and the crude housekeeping of the
+settlers round about, this dainty cleanliness of dining-room was
+marvellously subduing. They shuffled into their seats noisily, with only
+swift, animal-like glances at the girls, who were bubbling over with the
+excitement of feeding this band of Cossacks.
+
+As they drank their milk and fed great slices of bread and jelly into
+their mouths, fighting Indians seemed less necessary than they had
+supposed. Whiskey and alkali dust, and the smell of sweating ponies,
+were all forgotten in the quiet and sweetness of this pretty home. The
+soft answer had turned wrath into shamefaced wonder and awkward
+courtesy.
+
+Curtis, sitting at the head of the board as host, plied the sheriff with
+cold chicken, discussing meanwhile the difficulties under which the
+Tetongs labored, and drew from that sorely beleaguered officer
+admissions which he afterwards regretted. "That's so, I don't know as
+I'd do any better in their places, but--"
+
+Jennie, with a keen perception of her power over her guests, went from
+one to the other, inquiring, in her sweetest voice: "Won't _you_ have
+another slice of bread? Please do!"
+
+Elsie, less secure of manner, followed her with the pitcher of milk,
+while the young men bruised each other's shins beneath the table in
+their zealous efforts to diminish the joy each one took in the alluring
+presence of his cup-bearer.
+
+Calvin sat near the end of the table, and his assured manner made the
+others furious. "Look at that stoatin' bottle," growled Green, out of
+the corner of his mouth; "he needs killin'."
+
+"Ah, we'll fix that tommy-cod!" replied Galvin.
+
+While the girls were at the upper end of the table the man on Calvin's
+right leaned over and said:
+
+"Say, Cal, 'pears like you got the run o' the house here."
+
+Calvin, big with joy and pride, replied: "Oh, I ride round and picket
+here once in a while. It pays."
+
+"Well, I should say yes--carry all your cheek right with ye, don't ye?"
+
+As the boys began to shove back, Curtis brought out a box of cigars and
+passed them along the line.
+
+"Take hearty, boys; they don't belong to the government; they're mine,
+and you'll find them good."
+
+As they were all helping themselves, the sheriff coughed loudly and
+called out: "Boys, the Major and me has fixed this thing up. I won't
+need but three of you; the rest can ride back and tell the gang on the
+West Fork it's all right. Cal, you and Tom and Green stay with me. The
+rest of you can go as soon as your dinner's settled."
+
+The ones not chosen looked a little disappointed, but they made no
+protest. As they rose to go out they all made powerful effort to do the
+right thing; they lifted their eyes to the girls for a last glance and
+grumbled:
+
+"Much obliged, ladies!"
+
+And in this humble fashion the ferocious posse of the sheriff retreated
+from the house of their enemy.
+
+Once outside, they turned on each other with broad grins. They
+straightened--took on grace and security of manner again. They were
+streaming with perspiration, and their neckerchiefs were moist with the
+drip of it, but they lit their cigars nonchalantly, flung their hats
+rakishly on their heads, and turned to take a last look at the house.
+
+Elsie appeared at the door. "Boys!" she called, and her clear voice
+transfixed every soul of them. "You mustn't do anything reckless. You
+won't, will you?"
+
+Galvin alone was able to reply. "No, miss, we won't. We won't do nothing
+to hurt you nor the Major's sister--you needn't be scart."
+
+"You can trust Captain Curtis; he will do what is right, I'm sure of
+that. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," they answered, one by one. Nothing further was said till
+they had crossed the road. Then one of the roughest-looking of the whole
+gang turned and said: "Fellers, that promise goes. We got to keep that
+mob from goin' to war while these girls are here. Ain't that right?"
+
+"That's right!"
+
+"Say, fellers, I'll tell you a job that would suit me--"
+
+"Hain't got any work into it if it does."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I'd like to be detailed to guard these 'queens' from monkeys like you."
+
+The others fell upon this reckless one with their hats and gloves till
+he broke into a run, and all disappeared down the road in a cloud of
+dust.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+IN STORMY COUNCILS
+
+
+Meanwhile the sentinels on the hills missed little of the movement in
+the valley. They quivered with rage as the horsemen dismounted and
+entered the agent's house, for that seemed a defeat for their friend;
+but when the strangers remounted and rode away all were reassured, and
+Two Horns said, "I will go down and see what it all means."
+
+One by one the principal native employés reappeared. Crane's Voice came
+out of the barn, where he had lain with his eyes to a crack in the wall,
+and Peter Big-Voice and Robert Wolf stepped cautiously into view from
+behind the slaughter-pen. Old Mary, the cook, suddenly blocked the
+kitchen door-way, and, with tremulous lips, asked: "Cowboys gone?"
+
+"Yes, all gone," replied Jennie, much amused.
+
+"Good, good," replied the old woman.
+
+"Where have you been, Mary?"
+
+Her white teeth shone out in a sudden smile. "Ice-house--heap cold."
+
+"What did you go in there for?"
+
+"Cowboy no good--mebbe so shoot."
+
+"They won't hurt you," said Jennie, gently. "Go to work again. The
+Captain will take care of you."
+
+"Little Father no got gun--cowboy heap gun."
+
+"Little Father don't need gun now; you are all right," Jennie said, and
+the old woman went to her work again, though nervously alert to every
+sound.
+
+From nowhere in particular, two sharp-eyed lads sauntered up the road to
+play under the office window, so that if any loud word should be spoken
+the tribe might know of it.
+
+Jennie and Elsie discussed the situation while sitting at the library
+window with a view of the agency front door.
+
+"I can't for the life of me take a serious view of this episode," said
+Jennie. "These cowboys wouldn't be so foolish as to fire a first shot.
+They are like big, country school-boys."
+
+"The Parkers!" cried Elsie, suddenly. "Where are the Parkers?"
+
+Jennie gasped. "True enough! I had forgotten all about them. I don't
+believe they have got back from their ride."
+
+"They will be scared blue. We must send for them."
+
+"I'll have Crane's Voice go at once," said Jennie. "I will go with him."
+
+"Don't do that--not without letting the Captain know. How far is it?"
+
+"Just over the hill--not more than five miles."
+
+But even as she was hurrying across to the corral to find an angel for
+this mission of mercy, she saw the Parkers coming down the hill-side,
+moving slowly, for both were very bad riders. It was plain they had
+heard nothing, and as she watched them approach Jennie cried:
+
+"Don't say a word. They won't see anything suspicious."
+
+There was something irresistibly funny in the calm stateliness of the
+blond Parker as he led the way past the store which was deserted of its
+patrons, past the school-house where the students were quivering with
+excitement, and close beside the office behind whose doors Curtis was
+still in legal battle with the sheriff.
+
+Jennie met her visitors at the gate, her hands clinched in the effort to
+control her laughter. "You are late. Are you hungry?" she asked.
+
+"Famished!" said Parker. "I had to ride slow on Mrs. Parker's account."
+
+"I like that!" cried Jennie. "As if any one could be a worse rider than
+you are."
+
+"How do women get off, anyway?" asked Parker, as he approached his
+wife's pony.
+
+"Fall off," suggested Jennie, and this seemed so funny that she and
+Elsie went off into simultaneous hysterical peals of laughter.
+
+"You are easily amused," remarked Parker, eying them keenly. "Laugh on;
+it is good for digestion. Excuse me from joining; I haven't anything to
+digest."
+
+Putting his angular shoulder to Mrs. Parker's waist, he eased her to the
+ground awkwardly but tenderly. Upon facing the girls again and
+discovering them still in foolish mirth, Parker looked himself all over
+carefully, then turned to his wife. "We seem to be affording these young
+ladies a great deal of hearty pleasure, Mrs. Parker."
+
+Mrs. Parker was not so dense. "What is the matter?" she asked, sharply.
+"What has happened? This laughter is not natural--you are both
+hysterical."
+
+Both girls instantly became as grave as they had been hilarious a moment
+before.
+
+"Now I _know_ something is wrong," said Mrs. Parker. "Where is the
+Captain? What made you laugh that way? Have the savages broken out?"
+
+Jennie met Parker's eyes fairly popping from his head, and went off into
+another shout. At last she paused and said, breathlessly: "Oh, you are
+funny! Come into the house. We've been entertaining a lynching
+party--all the Indians are in the hills and the sheriff's in the office
+throttling the agent."
+
+While the Parkers consumed their crusts of bread and scraps of cold
+meat, Jennie told them what had happened.
+
+Parker rose to the occasion. "We must get out o' here--every one of us!
+We should never have come in here. Your brother is to blame; he deceived
+us."
+
+"He did not!" replied Jennie. "You shall not hold him responsible!"
+
+"He knew the situation was critical," Parker hotly retorted. "He knew an
+outbreak was likely. It was criminal on his part."
+
+"Jerome Parker, you are a donkey," remarked Elsie, calmly. "Nothing has
+really happened. If you're so nervous, go home. You can't sculp an
+Indian, anyway--grasshoppers and sheep are in your line." She had
+reverted to the plain talk of the studios. "Your nervousness amused us
+for a while, but it bores us now. Please shut up and run away if you are
+afraid."
+
+"You're not very nice," said Mrs. Parker, severely.
+
+"I don't think it's very manly of your husband when he begins to blame
+Captain Curtis for an invasion of cowboys."
+
+"You admitted you were scared," pursued Parker.
+
+"Well, suppose we were, we didn't weep and complain; we set to work to
+tide over the crisis."
+
+Jennie put in a word. "If you'd feel safer in the camp of the enemy, Mr.
+Parker, we'll set you down the valley with the settlers. I intend to
+stay right here with my brother."
+
+"So do I," added Elsie; "if there is danger it is safer here than with
+the cowboys; but the mob is gone, and the Captain and Osborne will see
+that we are protected."
+
+Meanwhile the office resounded with the furious argument of the sheriff.
+"The whole western part of the State is disgusted with the way in which
+these Indians escape arrest. They commit all kinds of depredations, and
+not one is punished. This has got to stop. We intend to learn this tribe
+it can't hide thieves and murderers any longer." He ended, blustering
+like a northwest wind.
+
+"Produce your warrants and I'll secure the men," replied Curtis,
+patiently. "You shall not punish a whole tribe on a pure assumption. You
+must come to me with a proper warrant for a particular man, and when you
+receive him from me you must prove his guilt in court. As the case now
+stands, you haven't the slightest evidence that an Indian killed this
+herder, and I will not give over an innocent man to be lynched by you."
+
+As the sheriff stormed up and down the floor Lawson said, in a low
+voice: "Delay--delay."
+
+Curtis, who had been writing a note, slipped it to Lawson, who rose and
+went out of the door. Curtis continued to parley.
+
+"I appreciate your feeling in this matter, Mr. Sheriff, and I am willing
+to do what is right. I have called a council of my head men to-night,
+and I will ask them to search for the murderer. An Indian cannot keep a
+secret. If one of the Tetongs killed your herder he will tell of it. I
+again suggest that you go back to your people and assure them of my
+willingness to aid in this affair. Give me three days in which to act."
+
+"That crowd will not be satisfied unless we bring an Injun with us.
+We've got to do that or they'll come rompin' in here and raise hell with
+you. I propose to take old Crawling Elk himself and hold him till the
+tribe--"
+
+"If you attempt such a crime I will put you off the reservation,"
+replied Curtis, sharply.
+
+"Put me off! By ----, I think I see you doing that! Why, the whole State
+would rise and wipe you and your tribe out of existence." He turned
+threateningly and towered over Curtis, who was seated.
+
+"Be quiet, and keep your distance, or I'll put you in irons! Sit down!"
+
+These words were not spoken loudly, but they caused the sheriff's face
+to blanch and his knees to tremble. There was a terrifying, set glare in
+the officer's eyes as he went on:
+
+"What do you suppose would be the consequences of firing upon a captain
+of the United States army in the discharge of his duty, by a sheriff
+acting outside the law? You have only three men out there, and one of
+them is my friend, and you know the quality of Calvin Streeter. I am
+still in command of this reservation, Mr. Sheriff."
+
+Lawson re-entering at this moment, Curtis said: "Ask Streeter to come
+in, will you, Mr. Lawson?"
+
+Calvin entered smilingly. "Well, what's the up-shot?" he asked.
+
+"It is this, Calvin. The sheriff has no warrant for anybody, not even
+for a suspect. I have asked him to go back and wait till I can find some
+clew to the murderer. Do you consider that reasonable?"
+
+"It sounds fair," admitted Calvin, growing grave.
+
+"Now the question of whether the State or county authority covers a
+federal reservation or not is too big a question for us to settle. You
+see that, Calvin?"
+
+Calvin scratched his head. "It sure is too many fer me."
+
+"Now I'll compromise in this case, Mr. Sheriff. You discharge the rest
+of your deputies and send them away, while you and Calvin remain with me
+to attend a council--not to arrest anybody, but to convince yourself of
+my good-will in the matter. I will not permit you to be armed nor to
+arrest any of my Indians until we know what we are doing. When we secure
+evidence against any man I will arrest him myself and turn him over to
+you. But I insist that you send away the men in the outer office."
+
+Calvin spoke up. "I reckon the Major's right, sheriff. How ye goin' to
+arrest a man if you don't know who he is? I reckon you better do as he
+says. I ain't a-lookin' fer no fuss with the agent, and the United
+States army only fifty miles off."
+
+The sheriff growled surlily. "All right, but there ain't no monkey
+business about this. I get my man sooner or later, you bet your heart
+on that." As he went out into the general office and announced the
+agent's demand, Green blurted out defiant phrases.
+
+"I'll be damned if I would! No--stick it out! Do? Why, take old Elk and
+hold him till the tribe produces the right man--that's the way we always
+done before."
+
+The arguments of Calvin could not be heard, but at last he prevailed,
+and the sullen deputies withdrew. The sheriff scrawled a hasty note to
+the county attorney to explain his failure to bring his man, and the
+three deputies went out to saddle up. Their cursing was forceful and
+varied, but they went.
+
+Parker, seeing them come forth, met them, inquiring anxiously:
+
+"Well, what do you think of the situation?"
+
+Green looked at him surlily. "You belong here?"
+
+"No, I'm just a visitor."
+
+"Well, you better get out quick as God'll let ye."
+
+"Why, what is going to happen?"
+
+"Just this: we're goin' to have the man that killed Cole or we'll cut
+this whole tribe into strips. That's all," and they moved on, cursing
+afresh.
+
+Parker fell back aghast, and watched them in silence as they saddled
+their horses and rode off. He then hurried to the office. Wilson, after
+going in to see his chief, came back to say: "The Major will see you in
+a moment. He's sending out his police."
+
+A few moments afterwards six of the Indian policemen came filing out,
+looking tense and grave, and a couple of minutes later Curtis appeared.
+
+"What is it, Parker?"
+
+"What is going on, Captain? I am very anxious."
+
+"You need not be. We've reached a compromise. Wait a moment and I will
+go over to the house with you."
+
+When he reappeared, Lawson was with him. Nothing was said till they were
+well in the middle of the road. Then Curtis remarked, carelessly:
+
+"You attended to that matter, Lawson?"
+
+"Yes, Crane's Voice is ten miles on his way."
+
+"There go two dangerous messengers," said Curtis, lifting his eyes to
+the hill-side, up which the sullen deputies were climbing.
+
+Parker was importunate--he wished to understand the whole matter. Curtis
+became a little impatient. "I will explain presently," he replied, and
+nothing more was said till they entered the library, which was filled
+with the women of the agency. Jennie had reassured them as best she
+could, but they were eager to see the agent himself. Miss Colson, the
+kindergarten teacher, was disposed to rush into his arms.
+
+Curtis smiled round upon them. "What's all this--a council of war?"
+
+Miss Colson seized the dramatic moment. "Oh, Major, are we in danger?
+Tell us what has happened."
+
+"Nothing much has happened since dinner. I have persuaded the sheriff to
+discharge all his deputies except Calvin, and they are to remain over. I
+have sent for the head man to come in, and we are going to council
+to-night. The trouble is practically over, for the sheriff has given up
+the attempt to arrest Elk as a hostage. Now go back to your work, all of
+you. You should not have left your children," he added, rather sternly,
+to Miss Colson. "They need you now."
+
+The women went out at once, and in a few minutes Curtis was alone with
+the members of his own little circle. "Now I have another story for
+you," he said, turning to Elsie. "While I am sure the worst of the
+sheriff's work is over, I realize that there are two hundred armed men
+over on the Willow, and that it is better to be on the safe side.
+Therefore I have sent to Fort Lincoln for troops. Crane's Voice will
+reach there by sundown--the troops should arrive here by sunrise
+to-morrow. Meanwhile I will talk with Elk--"
+
+"Suppose Elk don't come?" asked Jennie.
+
+Curtis looked grave. "In that case I shall go to find him."
+
+Elsie cried out, "You wouldn't do that?"
+
+"Yes, it would be my duty--I have promised--but he will come. He trusts
+me. I have ordered him to bring all his people and camp as usual just
+above the agency store. Now, of course, no one can tell the precise
+outcome of all this, and if you, Miss Brisbane, and Mr. and Mrs. Parker,
+want to go down to the white settlement, I will send you at once. Mr.
+Lawson will go with you, or I will ask the sheriff to take you--"
+
+"The safest place on the reservation is right here!" said Lawson.
+"Suppose the ranchers return--they will take control here, and use the
+agency as a base of supplies; the fighting will take place in the hills.
+Besides, our going would excite the settlers uselessly, and put Captain
+Curtis deeper into trouble. I propose that we stay right here, and
+convince the employés and the Indians that we are not alarmed. I don't
+want to assume the responsibility of a panic, and our going this
+afternoon might precipitate one."
+
+Curtis was profoundly grateful to Lawson for this firm statement. "I
+think you are right, Mr. Lawson," he said, formally. "You see my
+position clearly. I feel sure I can control the sheriff by peaceable
+means--and yet my responsibility to you weighs upon me." He looked at
+Elsie again. "I think you can trust me. Will you stay?"
+
+"Of course we will stay," she replied, and Parker sank into his chair as
+if resigned to his fate.
+
+Curtis went on: "I am not speaking to reassure myself. Perhaps I am too
+positive, but my experience as an officer in the army has given me a
+contempt for these six-shooter heroes. The thing I really fear is a
+panic among the settlers. Naturally, I am disinclined towards the
+notoriety I would gain in the press; but the troops will certainly be
+here to-morrow, and that will settle the turmoil. The sheriff is less of
+an embarrassment, now that he has only Calvin as deputy."
+
+"Send the sheriff over here--we'll entertain him by showing him the
+photograph album," called Jennie. "We helped out this forenoon, and we
+can do it again."
+
+"I don't think such heroic methods are necessary; an extra good dinner
+will do quite as well," replied Curtis, smiling. "I'm sorry, Mr. Parker,
+that your expedition for material is coming to this grewsome end."
+
+Elsie interposed. "It is precisely what he wants; he will know from
+positive knowledge how a Tetong brave dresses for war. I have always
+claimed that no Indian ever wore that absurd war-bonnet."
+
+Lawson added: "And _you_ will gain valuable information as to the
+character of white settlers and 'Indian outbreaks.'"
+
+"I ought to telegraph papa."
+
+"I have already done so," replied Lawson--"in anticipation of the
+hullabaloo that will break forth in the papers of the State to-morrow."
+
+"I shall wire the department a full statement to-night," said Curtis.
+"But we must be careful what we say at this point."
+
+"Isn't it a foolish thing not to have a telegraph line connecting the
+fort and the agency?" cried Jennie. "The troops could have been half-way
+here by this time."
+
+"It's the same penny-wise and pound-foolish method by which the Indian
+service is run," responded Lawson.
+
+"Here comes one of my scouts," said Curtis, as a young Tetong galloped
+up to the gate, threw himself from his reeking pony, and strode into the
+hall-way without knocking, his spurs clattering, his quirt dangling from
+his wrist. As he stood before his chief, delivering his message with
+shadowy silence and swiftness, Elsie thrilled with the dramatic
+significance of the scene. The stern, almost haughty face of the young
+man was in keeping with his duties.
+
+Curtis dismissed the boy and translated his message. "He says the
+settlers below us have fled towards Pinon City, taking all their goods
+with them. White Wolf's band are all in camp except the young men, who
+are scouting for the chiefs to see what it all means. That mob of
+cowboys took delight, no doubt, in scattering consternation as they
+passed. The settlers are in stampede."
+
+"Wilson is coming across the street," said Jennie, "and has an Indian
+with him."
+
+"Another scout," said Curtis. "Now I will let you know all that goes on,
+but I must ask you all, except Mr. Lawson, to leave me the library to
+transact this business in." As Elsie passed him, she drew towards him
+with a little, shrinking movement which moved him deeply. It was as
+though she were clutched by a force greater than her will.
+
+"It's like being at army headquarters," she said to Jennie.
+
+"It is a little like a commander's tent in the field. I wish we dared to
+throw that old sheriff off the reservation. He has no right to be
+snooping round here."
+
+Parker slumped deep in a big rocker, and Mrs. Parker sat beside him and
+put her hand on his arm.
+
+"Don't worry about me, Jerome."
+
+He looked up gloomily. "I got you into this, dearest, and I must get you
+out. If the soldiers come to-morrow I will ask for an escort to the
+fort, and then we can reach the railway and get out of the cursed
+country. I'd as soon live in a den of hyenas and rattlesnakes."
+
+Elsie laughed. "Parker, you are too amusing. You are pathetic. When I
+think of you as you pranced about the camp-fire two days ago and look
+upon you now, my heart aches for you."
+
+"I don't think it generous of you to make fun of us at this time, Bee
+Bee," Mrs. Parker replied, reproachfully.
+
+"Oh, let her go on. Her Latin Quarter English doesn't disturb me,"
+Parker answered, savagely.
+
+Curtis at this moment appeared. "My message was from the farmer at
+Willow Spring. He says all his employés, with one or two exceptions,
+have disappeared; that the band of Crawling Elk was threatened by a mob
+of white men early this morning, and that they are all breaking camp in
+order to flee to the hills. All the settlers on the Willow are hurrying
+their women and children down towards Pinon City. The whole country has
+been alarmed by the menace of the coroner's inquest, which is camped
+below the agency at Johnson's ranch, waiting the sheriff's return. The
+deputies had not reached there when this letter was written," added
+Curtis. "The sheriff's message will disperse the crowds, and I am
+sending a note of reassurance to the farmers and to the settlers."
+
+"It's getting mighty serious, don't you think so?" asked Parker. "I wish
+the troops were here. Can't we hurry them up?"
+
+"No, all that can be done has been done. I am telling you all that goes
+on, and I must request you not to repeat it. I wish you would all be
+specially guarded in the presence of the sheriff. You might engage him
+in a game of 'cinch' after dinner. Anything to keep him out of my way."
+
+"We'll absorb him," said Jennie.
+
+One by one Curtis called in his most trusted employés, and, quieting
+their fears, put them to their duties. Special policemen were uniformed
+and sent to carry messages to the encampments on the hills, asking the
+head men of each band to come at once to the agency for council, and to
+order their people into camp. The tranquillizing effect of the agent's
+bearing made itself felt immediately. The threads of the whole tangle
+were soon in his hands and made straight, and when he received the
+sheriff at six o'clock he was confident and serene of bearing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two Horns came down from the hills, and at the agent's order gathered
+his band close around his own tepee to camp until the trouble was ended.
+Together they made a tour of the village, and Curtis made it plain that
+he would protect them, and that no more armed men would come among them
+to incite violence.
+
+"They have turned back, for fear of the Little Father and of
+Washington," said Two Horns to the old men, and they were glad of his
+words.
+
+Curtis was by no means at ease. As he recalled the threats of the
+cattlemen, the encroachments of their flocks, the vicious assaults made
+on Crow Killer and Yellow Hand, he divined a growing antagonism which
+could go but little further without producing war. His mind dwelt on the
+hurrying figure of Crane's Voice. Much depended on him. He saw him as he
+faced the sentry. "If he should fail to reach the Colonel! But he will
+not fail, and troops will be instantly despatched."
+
+From these considerations he turned to the growing trust and confidence
+which Elsie was displaying. That movement towards him, slight as it was,
+and the softened look in her eyes, quickened his breath as he allowed
+his inward self to muse on their meaning. She was looking to him for
+protection, and this attitude was not only new, it was disturbing; and
+the soldier found it necessary to put away his pipe and fall savagely
+upon some work to keep his mind from ranging too far afield.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+A COUNCIL AT NIGHT
+
+
+The sheriff came to dinner rather shamefacedly, but Calvin, being
+profoundly pleased, was on his very best behavior. "This being deputy
+suits me to the ground," said he to Wilson, as he rose in answer to the
+call to dinner.
+
+As they were crossing the road he said, confidentially: "Now see here,
+you mustn't talk politics round the ladies over there, sheriff."
+
+"Politics?"
+
+"You know what I mean. You keep to the weather and the crops, and let
+this murder case alone for a minute or two, or I'll bat you one for
+luck."
+
+Winters took this threat as a sign of their good understanding, and
+remarked, jocosely, "You damned young cub, I'd break you in two for a
+leather cent."
+
+"That's all right, but what I say goes," replied Calvin. And remembering
+old Joe Streeter's political pull, the sheriff did not reply.
+
+Jennie kept the talk pleasantly inconsequential during dinner by a
+cheery tale of the doings of a certain Chinaman she had once tried to
+train into a cook, and Calvin, laughing heartily, matched her experience
+with that of his mother while keeping house in Pinon City one winter.
+This left Elsie to a little conversation with Curtis.
+
+"You must let me see this council to-night," she said, and her request
+had the note of a command.
+
+"I know how you feel," he said, "and I wish I could do so; but I can't
+make an exception in your favor without offending the Parkers."
+
+"Are you not the general?" she asked, smilingly. "If you see fit to
+invite me and leave them out, they can only complain. I'm going to stay
+here with Jennie, anyhow."
+
+"In that case we can manage it."
+
+"Do you know what I think? You've instigated this whole affair to
+convert me to your point of view. Really, the whole thing is like a
+play. I'm not a bit frightened--at least, not yet. It's precisely like
+sitting in a private box and seeing the wolves tear holes in Davy
+Crockett's cabin. You are the manager of the show."
+
+"Well, why not? When the princess tours the provinces it is customary to
+present historical pageants in her honor. This drama is your due." And
+as he spoke he observed for the first time the absence of the ring from
+her significant finger. The shock threw him into a moment's swift
+surmise, and when he looked up at her she was flushed and uneasy. She
+recovered herself first, and though her hand remained on the table it
+had the tremulous action of a frightened small animal--observed yet
+daring not to seek cover.
+
+"I hope this council to-night will not fail. I am eager to see what you
+will do with them," she hastened to say.
+
+"They will come!" he replied.
+
+Calvin was relating a story of a mountain-lion he had once treed for an
+Eastern artist to photograph.
+
+"Just then the dern brute jumped right plum onto the feller and knocked
+him down, machine and all; for a minute or two it was just a mixture o'
+man and lion, then that feller come up top, and the next thing I seen he
+batted the lion with his box, and that kind o' stunted the brute, and he
+hit him again and glass began to fly; he was game all right, that feller
+was. When the lion stiffened out, he turned to where I was a-rollin' on
+the pine-needles, and says, quiet-like, 'Give me your revolver, please.'
+I give it to him, and he put it to the lion's ear and finished him. When
+he got up and looked at his machine he says, 'How much is a
+mountain-lion skin worth?' ''Bout four dollars, green,' I says. He
+looked at the inwards of his box, which was scattered all over the
+ground. Says he, 'You wouldn't call that profitable, would you--a
+seventy-dollar instrument in exchange for a four-dollar pelt?'"
+
+Everybody laughed at this story, and the dinner came to an end with the
+sheriff in excellent temper. Lawson offered cigars, and tolled him
+across the road to the office, leaving Curtis alone in his library.
+
+He resolutely set to work to present the situation of the sheriff's
+presence concisely to the department in a telegram, and was still at
+work upon this when Jennie entered the room, closed the curtains, and
+lit the lamp.
+
+Elsie came in a little later to say, sympathetically:
+
+"Are you tired, Captain Curtis?"
+
+He pushed his writing away.
+
+"Yes, a little. The worst of it is, I keep saying: _If so and so
+happens, then I must do thus and thus_, and that is the hardest work in
+the world. I can deal with actual, well-defined conditions--even riots
+and mobs--but fighting suppositions is like grappling with ghosts."
+
+"I know what you mean," she replied, quickly. "But I want to ask
+you--could father be of any help if I telegraphed him to come?"
+
+He sat up very straight as she spoke, but did not reply till he turned
+her suggestion over in his mind. "No--at least, not now. What troubles
+me is this: the local papers will be filled with scare-heads to-morrow
+morning; your father will see them, and will be alarmed about you."
+
+"I will wire him that I am all right."
+
+"You must do that. I consider you are perfectly safe, but at the same
+time your father will think you ought not to be here, and blame me for
+allowing you to come in; and, worst of all, he will wire you to come
+out."
+
+"Suppose I refuse to go, would that be the best of all?" Her face was
+distinctly arch of line.
+
+His heart responded to her lure, but his words were measured as he
+answered: "Sometimes the responsibility seems too great; perhaps you
+would better go. It will be hard to convince him that you are not in
+danger."
+
+She sobered. "There really is danger, then?"
+
+"Oh yes, so long as these settlers are in their present mood, I suppose
+there is. Nothing but the life of an 'Injun' will satisfy them. Their
+hate is racial in its bitterness."
+
+"You think I ought to go, then?"
+
+He looked at her with eyes that were wistful and searching.
+
+"Yes. It is a sad ending, but perhaps Captain Maynard will be here
+to-morrow with a troop of cavalry, and--I--think I must ask him to
+escort you to the railway."
+
+"But the danger will be over then."
+
+"To your father it will seem to be intensifying."
+
+"I will not go on that account! I feel that the safest place will be
+right here with you, for your people love you. I am not afraid when I am
+near you."
+
+Curtis suddenly realized how dangerously sweet it was to sit in his own
+library with Elsie in that mood seated opposite him. The sound of a
+tapping on the window relieved the tension of the moment.
+
+"Another of my faithful boys," he said, rising quickly. Then, turning to
+her with a tenderness almost solemn, he added: "Miss Brisbane, I hope
+you feel that if danger really threatened I would think of you first of
+all. You will stay with Jennie to-night?"
+
+"If you think best, but we want to know all that goes on. I can't bear
+to be battened down like passengers in a storm at sea; there is nothing
+so trying to nerves. I want to be on deck with the captain if the storm
+breaks."
+
+"Very well. I promise not to leave you in ignorance," and, raising the
+curtain, he signed to the man without to enter. It was Crow, the captain
+of the police, a short man with a good-humored face, now squared with
+serious dignity.
+
+"Two Dog has just come in from Willow Creek," he reported. "He says the
+cattlemen are still camped by Johnson's ranch. They all held a council
+this afternoon."
+
+"Are any of the head men here?"
+
+"Yes, they are all at my tepee. They want to see you very bad."
+
+"Tell them to come over at once; the council will take place here. I
+want you, but no more of the police. I want only the head men of each
+band."
+
+After the officer went out Curtis moved the easy-chairs to the back of
+the room and set plain ones in a semicircular row at the front. Hardly
+was he settled when Elk, Grayman, and Two Horns entered the room, and,
+after formally shaking hands, took the seats assigned them. Their faces,
+usually smiling, were grave, and Grayman's brow was knotted with lines
+of anxiety. He was a small man, with long, brown hair, braided and
+adorned with tufts of the fine feathers which grow under the eagle's
+wings. He was handsome and neatly dressed, the direct antithesis to
+Crawling Elk, who was tall and slovenly, with a homely, grandfatherly
+face deeply seamed with wrinkles, a face that would be recognized as
+typical of his race. He seemed far less concerned than some of the
+others.
+
+Two Horns, also quite at his ease, unrolled his pipe and began filling
+it, while Curtis resumed his writing.
+
+Jennie, looking in at the door, recognized the chiefs, and they all rose
+politely to greet her.
+
+"I'm coming to the council," she said to Two Horns.
+
+He smiled. "Squaws no come council--no good."
+
+"No, no, heap good," she replied. "We come. Chiefs heap talk--we catchim
+coffee."
+
+"Good, good!" he replied. "After council, feast."
+
+One by one the other chiefs slipped in and took their places, till all
+the bands were represented save that of Red Wolf, who was too far away
+to be reached. Curtis then sent for the sheriff and Calvin and Elsie and
+Lawson, and when all were seated began his talk by addressing the
+chieftains. He spoke in English, in order that the sheriff could hear
+all that was said, and Lawson interpreted it into Sioux.
+
+"You know this young man"--he pointed at Calvin. "Some of you know this
+man"--he touched the sheriff. "He is the war chief of all the country
+beyond where Grayman lives. He comes to tell us that a herder has been
+killed over by the Muddy Spring. He thinks it was done by an Indian. The
+white people are very angry, and they say that you must find the
+murderer. Do you know of any one who has threatened to do this thing?"
+
+One by one the chiefs replied: "I do not know who did this thing. I have
+heard no one speak of it as a thing good to be done. We are all sad."
+
+Two Horns added a protest. "I think it hard that a whole tribe should
+suffer because the white man thinks one redman has done a wrong thing."
+
+Grayman spoke sadly: "My people have had much trouble because the
+cattlemen want to drive their herds up the Willow, and we are like men
+who guard the door. On us the trouble falls. It is our duty--the same as
+you should say to a policeman, 'Do not let anybody come in my house.'
+Therefore we have been accused of killing the cattle and stealing
+things. But this is not true. I remembered your words, and I did nothing
+to make these people angry; but some of my young men threw stones to
+drive the sheep back, and then the herder fired at them with revolver.
+This was not our fault."
+
+"He lies!" said the sheriff, hotly, when this was interpreted. "No one
+has fired a gun but his reckless young devils. His men were riding down
+the sheep, and the herder rocked 'em away."
+
+"You admit the sheep were on the reservation, then?" asked Curtis.
+
+"Well--yes--temporarily. They were being watered."
+
+"Well, we won't go into that now," said Curtis, turning to the chiefs
+and speaking with great solemnity, using the sign-language at times. And
+as he sat thus fronting the strongly wrought, serious faces of his head
+men he was wholly admirable, and Elsie's blood thrilled with excitement,
+for she felt herself to be in the presence of primeval men.
+
+"Now, Grayman, Elk, Two Horns, Standing Elk, Lone Man, and Crow, listen
+to me. Among white men it is the law that when any one has done a wrong
+thing--when he steals or murders--he is punished. If he kills a man he
+is slain by the chief, not by the relatives of the man who is slain. As
+with you, I am here to apply the white man's rule. If a Tetong has shot
+this herder he must suffer for it--he and no one else. I will not permit
+the cattlemen to punish the tribe. If you know who did this, it is your
+duty to give him up to the law. It is the command of the Great
+Father--he asks you to go back to your people and search hard to find
+who killed this white man. When you find him bring him to me. Will you
+do this?"
+
+No one answered but Two Horns, who said, "Ay, we will do as you say,"
+and his solemnity of utterance attested his sincerity.
+
+"Listen to me," said Curtis again, fixing their eyes with his dramatic
+action. "If my only brother had done this thing, I would give him up to
+be punished. I would not hesitate, and I expect you to do the same."
+
+"It is always thus," Standing Elk broke out. "The cattlemen wish to
+punish all redmen for what one bad young warrior does. We are weary of
+it."
+
+"I know it has been so, but it shall not be so again, not while I am
+your chief," Curtis responded. "Will you go home and do as I have
+commanded? Will you search hard and bring me word what you discover?"
+
+One by one they muttered, "Ay!" and Curtis added, heartily: "That is
+good--now you may go."
+
+"I want to say a word," said the sheriff.
+
+"Not now," replied Curtis. "These people are in my charge. Whatever is
+said to them I will say," and at his gesture they rose, and Crow,
+Standing Elk, and Lone Man went soberly out into the night.
+
+Grayman approached Curtis and took his hand in both of his and pressed
+it to his breast. "Little Father, I have heard your words; they are not
+easy to follow, but they have entered my heart. No white man has ever
+spoken to me with your tongue. You do not lie; your words are soft, but
+they stand like rocks--they do not melt away. My words shall be like
+yours--they will not vanish like smoke. What I have promised, that I
+will fulfil." As he spoke his slight frame trembled with the intensity
+of his emotion, and his eyes were dim with tears, and his deep, sweet
+voice, accompanying his gestures, thrilled every soul in the room. At
+the end he dropped the agent's hand and hastened from the house like one
+afraid of himself.
+
+Curtis turned to Lawson to hide his own emotion. "Mr. Lawson, I assume
+the sheriff is as tired as the rest of us; will you show him the bed you
+were kind enough to offer?"
+
+"Sheriff Winters, if you will come with me I'll pilot you to a couch. It
+isn't downy, but it will rest a tired man. Calvin, you are to bunk
+alongside."
+
+"All right, professor." Calvin rose reluctantly, and as he stood in the
+door he said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "Now if you want me any time
+just send for me."
+
+"Hold the sheriff level--that's what you do for us."
+
+"I'll see that he don't get gay," he replied, and his hearty confidence
+did them all good.
+
+After the sheriff and his deputy went out, Elsie said: "Oh, it was
+wonderful! That old man who spoke last must be the Edwin Booth of the
+tribe. He was superbly dramatic."
+
+"He took my words very deeply to heart. That was Grayman, one of the
+most intelligent of all my head men; but he has had a great deal of
+trouble. He comprehends all too much of the tragedy of his situation."
+
+Elsie sat with her elbows on the table, gazing in silence towards the
+empty fireplace. She looked weary and sad.
+
+Curtis checked himself. "I regret very deeply the worry and discomfort
+all this brings upon you."
+
+"Oh, I'm not thinking of myself this time, I am thinking of the hopeless
+task you have set yourself. You can't solve this racial question--it's
+too big and too complicated. Men are simply a kind of ferocious beast.
+They go to work killing each other the way chickens eat grasshoppers."
+
+"Your figure is wrong. If our Christian settlers only killed Indians to
+fill their stomachs they'd stop some time; but they kill them because
+they're like the boy about his mother--tired of seeing 'em 'round."
+
+There was a time when Elsie's jests were frankly on the side of the
+strong against the weak, but she was becoming oppressed with the
+suffering involved in the march of civilization. "What a fine face
+Grayman has; I couldn't help thinking how much more refined it was than
+Winters! As for the cowboys, they were hulking school-boys; I was not a
+bit afraid of them after they were dismounted."
+
+"Unfortunately they are a kind of six-footed beast, always mounted;
+there isn't a true frontiersman among them. It angered me that they had
+the opportunity to even look at you."
+
+His intensity of gaze and the bitterness of his voice took away her
+breath for an instant, and before she could reply Jennie and Lawson came
+in.
+
+Lawson was smiling. "Parker is righteously incensed. He tried to enter
+the council an hour ago and your dusky minions stopped him. He is
+genuinely alarmed now, and only waiting for daylight to take flight."
+
+"Jerome is a goose," said Elsie.
+
+"He's a jackass at times. A man of talent, but a bore when his yellow
+streak comes out." Turning to Curtis he said, very seriously, "Is there
+anything I can do for you, Captain?"
+
+"You might wire your version of the disturbance to the Secretary along
+with mine. We can safely look for an avalanche of newspaper criticism,
+and I would like to anticipate their outbreak."
+
+"Our telegrams will be at once made public--"
+
+"Undoubtedly, and for that reason we must use great care in their
+composition. I have mine written; please look it over."
+
+Jennie, who had dropped into a chair, checked a yawn. "Oh, dear; I wish
+it were morning."
+
+Curtis looked at her and laughed. "I think you girls would better go to
+bed. Your eyes are heavy-lidded with weariness."
+
+"Aren't you going to sleep?" asked Jennie, anxiously.
+
+"I shall lie down here on the sofa--I must be where I can hear a tap on
+the window. Good-night."
+
+Both girls rose at his word, and Elsie said: "It seems cruel that you
+cannot go properly to bed--after such a wearisome day."
+
+"You forget that I am a soldier," he said, and saluted as they passed.
+He observed that Lawson merely bowed when she said "Good-night"
+politely. Surely some change had come to their relationship.
+
+Lawson turned. "I think I will turn in, Captain; I have endorsed the
+telegram."
+
+"It must go at once." He tapped on the pane, and almost instantly a
+Tetong, sleeping under the window, rose from his blanket and stood with
+his face to the window, alert and keen-eyed. "Tony, I have a long ride
+for you."
+
+"All right," replied the faithful fellow, cheerfully.
+
+"I want you to take some letters to Pinon City. Come round to the door."
+
+As he stepped into the light the messenger appeared to be a boy of
+twenty, black-eyed and yellow-skinned, with thin and sensitive lips.
+"Take the letters to the post-office," said Curtis, speaking slowly.
+"You understand--and these despatches to the telegraph-office."
+
+"Pay money?"
+
+"No pay. Can you go now?"
+
+"Yes, go now."
+
+"Very well, take the best pony in the corral. You better keep the trail
+and avoid the ranches. Good-night."
+
+The young fellow put the letters away in the inside pocket of his blue
+coat, buttoned it tightly, and slipped out into the night, and was
+swallowed up by the moonless darkness.
+
+"Aren't you afraid they will do Tony harm if they meet him?"
+
+"Not in his uniform."
+
+"I wouldn't want that ride. Well, so long, old man. Call me if I can be
+of any use."
+
+After Lawson went out Curtis sank back into his big chair and closed his
+eyes in deep thought. As he forecast the enormous and tragic results of
+the return of that armed throng of reckless cattlemen he shuddered. A
+war would almost destroy the Tetongs. It would nullify all he had been
+trying to do for them, and would array the whole State, the whole
+Indian-hating population of the nation, against them. Jennie re-entered
+softly and stood by his side. "It's worrisome business being Indian
+agent, after all, isn't it, George?" she said, with her hand in his
+hair.
+
+He forced himself to a cheerful tone of voice. "Oh, I don't know; this
+is our first worry, and it will soon be over. It looks bad just now, but
+it will be--"
+
+A knock at the outer door startled them both. "That is a white
+man--probably Barker," he said, and called, "Come in."
+
+Calvin Streeter entered, a little abashed at seeing Jennie. Meeting
+Curtis's look of inquiry, he said, with winning candor, "Major, I been
+a-studyin' on this thing a good 'eal, and I've come to the conclusion
+that you're right on all these counts, and I've concluded to ride over
+the hill and see if I can't argue the boys out of their notion to kill
+somebody."
+
+Jennie clapped her hands. "Good! That is a splendid resolution. I always
+knew you meant right."
+
+Curtis held out his hand. "Shake hands, my boy. There isn't a moment to
+be lost. If they are coming at all, they will start about sunrise. I
+hope they have reconsidered the matter and broken camp."
+
+Calvin looked a little uneasy. "Well, I'll tell ye, Major, I'm afraid
+them lahees that we sent back home will egg the rest on; they sure were
+bilun mad, but I'll go and do what I can to head 'em off. If I can't
+delay 'em, I'll come along with 'em, but you can count on me to do any
+little job that'll help you after we get here. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night. Don't take any rest."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right. Nobody ain't huntin' trouble with me."
+
+After he went out Jennie said: "I call that the grace of God working in
+the soul of man."
+
+Curtis looked at her keenly. "I call it the love of woman sanctifying
+the heart of a cowboy."
+
+She colored a little. "Do we women go on the pay-rolls as assistant
+agents?"
+
+"Not if we men can prevent it. What kind of a report would it make if I
+were forced to say, 'At this critical moment the charming Miss So-and-so
+came to my aid, and, by inviting the men in to dinner with a sweet
+smile, completely disarmed their hostility. Too much honor cannot be
+given,' etc."
+
+"I guess if history were written by women once in a while those reports
+wouldn't be so rare as they are."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+THE RETURN OF THE MOB
+
+
+Curtis was awakened about four o'clock by Wilson at his window. "Are you
+awake, Major?"
+
+"Yes; what is it?"
+
+"Two of the scouts have just come in from the hills. They are sure the
+ranchers are coming to make war. Bands of white men are crossing the
+county to join the camp. It certainly looks owly, Major."
+
+Curtis rose and went to the window. "The troops will be here by nine
+o'clock at the furthest, and the mob will not move till sunrise, and
+can't reach here, even by hard riding, before eleven."
+
+"Shall I send a courier out to meet the troops and hurry them on?" asked
+Wilson, whose voice was untouched of fear.
+
+"It might be well. Send Two Horns to me if you can find him. Keep silent
+as to these reports."
+
+"All right, Major."
+
+Curtis did not underestimate the dangers of the situation. If the troops
+did not arrive, and if the armed posse of the settlers should come and
+attempt to arrest Elk, war would follow, that was certain. Meanwhile he
+was one day's hard riding from either the fort or the telegraph line,
+with the settlers between, and no news could reach him for twenty-four
+hours.
+
+At that very moment the morning papers were being distributed bearing a
+burden of calumny. The department would open his telegram in a few
+minutes, but the Secretary's reply could not reach him before sunset at
+the earliest, "and by that time I will be master of the situation or
+there will be war. I must parley--delay them, by any means, till the
+troops arrive. Colonel Daggett will forward the men at once--I hope
+under Maynard--and Jack is no sluggard. He will be here if only the
+Colonel takes action."
+
+The sun rose as usual in a cloudless sky, but the wind was again in the
+northwest, and as he stood on the little porch looking up the valley he
+could see the smoke of the camp-fires in Grayman's camp, and beyond him
+the Crawling Elk and his people occupied a larger circle of shining
+tepees. The two villages seemed as peaceful as if the people were
+waiting for their rations, but as he lifted his eyes to the hills he
+could see the mounted sentinels patiently waiting the coming of the sun,
+and he knew that beyond and to the east every butte was similarly
+crested with spies. These people of the wide spaces had their own signal
+service and were not to be taken unawares. Each movement of the enemy
+would be flashed from hill to hill, miles in advance of the beat of
+their horses' hoofs.
+
+As he was returning to his library Elsie met him. "Good-morning,
+Captain. Did you sleep?"
+
+"Oh yes, indeed!" He spoke as lightly as he could. "But my messengers
+reporting disturbed me a little during the early morning."
+
+"With bad news?"
+
+"Oh no, quite the contrary. I think we are well out of our difficulty."
+
+"I'm sure I hope so. You look tired."
+
+"I'm ashamed of it. You must have slept well--you are radiant. I am
+sorry I cannot promise you the Elk for a sitter to-day."
+
+"I like him better as the leader of his people. Do we breakfast with the
+sheriff this morning?"
+
+"That affliction is bearing down upon us," he replied. "He is even now
+moving morosely across the road. I fear he is in bad temper."
+
+"I think I will be late to breakfast in that case," she said, with a
+little grimace, and fled.
+
+Curtis greeted his guest pleasantly. "Good-morning, sheriff."
+
+"Good-morning, Major. Have you seen anything of my deputy?"
+
+"No; has he left you?"
+
+"I didn't miss him till this morning," replied Winters, sourly. "But
+he's gone, horse and all."
+
+"Well, the loss is not serious. Come in and break an egg with me."
+
+Jennie was distinctly less cordial than before, but she made her
+unwelcome guest comfortable, and asked after his health politely. She
+was just pouring his second cup of coffee when the furious clanging of
+the office bell made them all start.
+
+Curtis looked at his watch. "Good Heavens! It can't be the eight-o'clock
+bell. What time have you?"
+
+"Seven thirty-three."
+
+Curtis sprang up. "It's a signal of fire!"
+
+At the word "fire" Jennie turned white and rose. Elsie came flying
+down-stairs, crying:
+
+"The Indians are running!"
+
+A wild shout arose, "Stop that bell!" and a moment later Wilson burst in
+at the door--"Major, the Indians are signalling from the
+buttes--everybody is taking to the hills--the mob is coming."
+
+Curtis gave Elsie one piercing look. "I hope you will trust me; you are
+in no danger, even if this alarm is true. I think it is a mistake. I
+will return soon and let you know. I beg you not to be alarmed."
+
+The alarum was true. On the buttes horsemen were riding to and fro
+excitedly crossing and recrossing the same ground--the sign which means
+an approaching enemy. On every hill-side mounted warriors were gathering
+and circling. Boys with wild halloos were bringing in the ponies. The
+women busy, swarming like bees, were dropping the tepees; even as the
+agent mounted the steps to the office and looked up the valley, the
+white canvases sank to the ground one by one as though melted by the hot
+sun. War times were come again, and the chanting cries of the old women
+came pulsing by on the soft west wind.
+
+A grim smile settled on the agent's lips as he comprehended these
+preparations. He knew the history of these people and admired them for
+their skill and their bravery. War times were come again!
+
+"Our cowboy friends have set themselves a memorable task in trying to
+wipe out this tribe. The ranchers never fight their own battles; they
+always call upon the federal government; and that is their purpose now,
+to stir up strife and leave the troops to bear the burden of the war."
+
+"I don't see our fellers," said the sheriff, who was deeply excited.
+"I'll ride to meet them."
+
+"They are a long way off yet," said Curtis. "The Tetong sentinels have
+only signalled their start. I hope the troops are on the way," he said
+to the two girls who had followed and now stood close beside him as if
+for protection. Then he called to the sheriff, who had started for his
+horse: "I depend on you to keep off this invasion, sheriff. I warn you
+and your men that this entrance here at this time is a crime against
+Washington."
+
+Winters did not reply, and Curtis knew that he would join the majority;
+being a candidate for re-election, he could not afford to run counter to
+the wishes of his constituents. Hastily mounting his horse, he galloped
+furiously away.
+
+Curtis strained his eyes down the valley, hoping for a sight of the
+guidons of the --th.
+
+"What can you do?" asked Elsie.
+
+"Nothing but await the issue," he replied. "I have sent another courier
+to hasten the troops; it is now a race between the forces of law and of
+order. If the mob arrives first, I must delay them--prevent their
+advance if possible. There is nothing else to be done."
+
+"Can we help?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. There will be two or three hundred of the invaders this
+time, if the sheriff is to be believed. I am afraid to have you meet
+them. I think it better for you all to keep within doors."
+
+"I wish my father knew--he could stop this!" wailed Elsie, in sudden
+realization of her helplessness. "He could wire the authorities in Pinon
+City. I know they would listen to him."
+
+"Here come the Parkers!" said Jennie. "Now look out for squalls."
+
+"I had forgotten them," said Curtis, with a comic look of dismay.
+
+Parker was running, half dragging his poor, breathless wife, while in
+their rear Lawson appeared, walking calmly, quite irreproachable in a
+gray morning suit, and the sight of him was a comfort to Curtis, for his
+forces were practically reduced to Wilson and four or five clerks.
+
+"Now, Captain, what are you going to do?" called Parker. "You let us
+into this--"
+
+Being in no mood for squalls, Curtis cut Parker short. "Be quiet; don't
+be uselessly foolish. Try and conduct yourself like a reasonable human
+being. Jennie, go into the house, and take the ladies with you. You'll
+have all the women of the agency to look after in a few minutes. Lawson,
+I can depend on you--will you go over to the office with me?"
+
+When they reached the office Lawson threw back his coat and displayed
+two wicked-looking revolvers. "I've been known to fight when pushed too
+far," he said, smilingly.
+
+In the space of an hour the panic had become preparation. On a low butte
+to the southwest a dark mass of armed and resolute warriors waited on
+their swift ponies ready for whatever came, while behind them on a
+higher ridge a smaller group of dismounted chieftains sat in council. Up
+the slopes below and to the right the women and old men were leading the
+ponies, laden with their tepees, children, and supplies, precisely as in
+the olden times. The wagons of the white men were of no use where they
+were now climbing. The ways of the wheel were no longer desirable. They
+sought the shelter of the trail.
+
+"I am confident that the troops will arrive first," said Curtis.
+
+"If the powers of evil have found a leader, it will be hard to control
+them even with a troop of cavalry," Lawson replied, soberly. "The
+sheriff will go with the mob when it comes to a show down."
+
+"Oh, of course. I do not count on him; but Calvin is loyal."
+
+Before the office stood two or three of the white employés of the agency
+with their wives and children about them. Two policemen alone remained
+of all the throng of red employés usually to be seen about the yards;
+the rest were out on duty or had joined their people in the hills.
+
+"What shall we do?" cried Miss Colson, a look of mortal terror on her
+face. She crowded close to Curtis and laid her hands on his arm. "Let us
+stay near you."
+
+"You are in no danger," he replied. "Those poor devils on the hill-side
+are the ones who will suffer. Where are your children?" he asked,
+sharply.
+
+"They all disappeared like rabbits at sound of the bell; only the
+kindergarten class remains."
+
+"Go and help take care of them," he commanded. "Sing to them--amuse
+them. Wolf Robe," he called to one of the policemen--he of the
+bow-legs--"go to the people on the hill and say to them to fear nothing,
+Washington protects them. Tell them they must not fight. Say to the
+mothers of the little ones that nothing shall hurt them. Go quick!"
+
+Wolf Robe handed his sombrero, his coat, and his revolver to his
+friend, Beaver Kill, and ran away towards the corral, agile as a boy.
+
+"What did he do that for?" asked Jennie.
+
+Curtis smiled. "He is Indian now; he doesn't want to be mistaken for a
+cowboy."
+
+When he reappeared on his pony, his long, dark hair streaming, a red
+handkerchief bound about his head, he looked like a warrior stripped for
+battle. "There isn't a faithfuler man in the world," said Curtis, and a
+lump rose in his throat. "He has been riding half the night for me, but
+he charges that hill as if he were playing a game."
+
+"I don't understand how you can trust them to do such things," said
+Elsie. "Perhaps he will not come back. How do you know he will do as you
+commanded?"
+
+"Because that ugly little bow-legged Tetong is a man!" replied Curtis.
+"He would die in performance of his duty." And something in his voice
+made the tears start to Elsie's eyes.
+
+The sentinels on the hills were quiet now--facing the northeast,
+motionless as weather-vanes. The camps had disappeared as if by magic;
+nothing remained but a few wagons. Wolf Robe, diminishing to the value
+of a coyote, was riding straight towards the retreating women. Even as
+Curtis watched, the chieftains on the higher hill rose, and one of them
+started downward towards the warriors on the rounded hill-top. Then a
+small squad detached itself from the main command and slid down the
+grassy slope to meet the women. As they rode slowly on, the moving
+figures of those leading the camp horses gathered round them. Curtis
+understood some command was being shouted by the descending squad.
+
+Separating themselves from the led ponies, these scouts swept on down
+the hill directly upon the solitary and minute figure of Wolf Robe,
+whose pony climbed slowly and in zigzag course.
+
+"They will kill him," said a woman.
+
+Wolf Robe halted and waited till the skirmishers rode up to him. They
+massed round him closely, listening while he delivered his message.
+
+"When he returns we will know all that his people have learned of the
+invaders," said Curtis. "They will tell him what they have seen."
+
+"It is strange," exclaimed Elsie, in a low voice, standing close beside
+him. "But I'm not afraid. It is like a story--a dream. That I should
+stand here watching Indians preparing for war and waiting for United
+States troops is incredible."
+
+"I wish it were not true," he replied. "But it is. I have no fear of my
+people, only of the rash act of a vicious white man."
+
+"Which way will the cattlemen come from?" asked Jennie.
+
+"Probably down that trail." He pointed to the northeast. "Part of them
+may come up the valley road. Wolf Robe has started on his return."
+
+The little squad of warriors returned to the group of chieftains, while
+the loyal Wolf Robe came racing down the slope, his hair streaming, his
+elbows flapping. In a few minutes he dropped rein at the gate and
+re-entered the yard. Standing before his chief, he delivered his
+message.
+
+"Their hearts are very glad at your good words, but the women are
+crying for their babies. They ask that you send them away before the bad
+white men come. Send them out towards the hills and they will come down
+and get them--this they said."
+
+"What did the scouts say?"
+
+"They said that the sentinels on the hills saw the white men break camp
+and come this way--many of them--so they say."
+
+"Where are they now?"
+
+"They are hidden in the pines of the valley. They will soon be here--so
+they say."
+
+"Take a fresh pony and ride back and tell all who have children here to
+come down and talk with me. Tell them I will turn the white men away. No
+one shall be harmed. The children are safe. There will be no war. I will
+meet them in the old camp. I keep repeating there is no danger because I
+believe it," he said to the silent group around him, after Wolf Robe
+rode away. "There is nothing to be done but wait. So go about your
+duties," he added, with a note of command.
+
+One by one the employés dropped away till only Wilson remained. His only
+sign of nervousness was a quiver of the muscles of one cheek, where he
+held his quid of tobacco. His bright blue eyes were fixed on the
+sentinels, while he leaned negligently against the fence. Lawson,
+smoking a German pipe, was watching the warriors on the hills, a rapt
+expression on his face, as if he were working out some problem in ethics
+which demanded complete concentration and absorption of thought. The two
+girls had drawn close together as if for comfort, their nerves a-quiver
+with the strain.
+
+"Are you waiting for something to go off?" suddenly asked Curtis.
+
+Each one started a little, and all laughed together.
+
+"I think I was," confessed Elsie.
+
+"You seemed to be holding your breath. I wish you'd both go in and
+rest," he pleaded. "It is no use--"
+
+"They're coming!" interrupted Lawson.
+
+"Where? Where?"
+
+"The sentinels are signalling again."
+
+All turned to the east, but nothing could be seen--no smoke, no dust, no
+sign of horsemen--yet the swift circling of the sentinels and the
+turmoil among the warriors on the butte indicated the menace of an
+approaching army. Another little band detached itself from the huddle of
+the camp and came down the hill, slowly and in single file.
+
+"The squaws are coming for their children, even before Wolf Robe reaches
+them," said Lawson.
+
+"And there's the mob!" said Curtis, and at his words a keen thrill of
+fear ran through the hearts of the women. With set, pale faces they
+looked away beneath levelled finger.
+
+"That's right," said Wilson, "and two hundred strong."
+
+The sad-colored horsemen were pouring over a high, pine-clad ridge some
+two miles to the east, and streaming down into a narrow valley behind a
+sharp intervening butte.
+
+"Now, girls, you _must_ go in!" commanded Curtis, sharply. "You can do
+no good--"
+
+"George, let us stay!" pleaded Jennie. "We saved you yesterday, and we
+may help to-day."
+
+"What is the use of shutting us in the house? I'm not afraid," added
+Elsie. "These men will do us no harm."
+
+"I beg you will not interfere," he said, looking at Jennie, but Elsie
+knew he included her as well. "It isn't a bit impressive to have an
+agent flanked with women--in a council of war."
+
+"Hang the looks! they're mighty effective sometimes," remarked Lawson.
+
+"That's right!" chimed in Wilson. "By the Lord! they look sassy," he
+added, referring back to the cowboys.
+
+They formed a sinister cavalcade as they came streaming down the rough
+road, two and two, like a monstrous swift serpent, parti-colored,
+sinuous, silent, save for the muffled clatter of their horses' hoofs.
+Curtis nerved himself for the shock, and, though weakened and
+embarrassed by the presence of Elsie and Jennie, he presented a
+soldierly breast to the mob. Had it been a question of protecting the
+women, the case would have been different, but to argue a point of law
+with them at his elbow exposed him to ridicule and to interruption.
+
+As the horsemen debouched upon the valley road, a prodigious cloud of
+dust arose and sailed away on the wind, completely hiding the rear ranks
+so that they could not be numbered. As they drew near, the sheriff could
+be seen riding at the head of the column side by side with a big man in
+a blue shirt. They approached at a shacking trot, which was more
+menacing than a gallop would have been--it was steady, inexorable,
+self-contained as a charge of cavalry.
+
+As they reached the issue-house, Curtis opened the gate and stepped out
+into the road and faced them alone, and Elsie grew cold with fear as the
+sheriff and his formidable following rode steadily up. When almost upon
+the agent the leader turned, and, pushing his limp hat away from his
+eyes, shouted:
+
+"_Halt!_" As the men pulled in their horses he added, "Keep back there!"
+
+The mob had found a leader, and was organized for violence. Curtis, with
+folded arms, seemed small and weak as the army of invasion came to a
+stand, filling the lane between the office and the agency house with
+trampling horses and cursing men.
+
+"Good-morning," growled the leader, surlily. "We're come for old Elk,
+and I want to say we get him this time. No monkey business goes with old
+Bill Yarpe. Women can't fool me."
+
+Calvin Streeter rode out of the throng and pushed his way to the front.
+
+Yarpe yelled: "H'yar! Keep in line there!"
+
+"Go to hell!" replied Calvin, as he rode past him. "I'm no nigger. I
+want to hear what goes on, and I tell ye right now you treat these
+people fair or you'll hear from me."
+
+"I'll shoot you up a few if you ain't keerful, young feller," replied
+the old ruffian.
+
+"That's right, General, he's too fresh," called some one.
+
+Calvin spurred his horse alongside Yarpe's and looked him in the eye
+with a glare which made the older man wince. "You be decent before these
+women or I'll cut the heart out o' ye. You hear me!"
+
+Curtis stepped forward. "Careful, Streeter--don't provoke trouble; we'll
+protect the women."
+
+The sheriff rode between the two men. "Cal, git away--you're my deputy,
+remember."
+
+As Cal reined his horse away, Curtis went to him and said, in a low
+voice: "I appreciate your chivalry, Calvin, but be careful; don't excite
+them."
+
+As he looked into the big, red, whiskey-bloated face of Yarpe, Curtis
+was frankly dismayed. The old ruffian was not only inflamed with liquor,
+he was intoxicated with a subtler elixir--the pride of command. As he
+looked back over his followers he visibly expanded and a savage glare
+lit up his eyes. "Keep quiet, boys; I'll settle this thing."
+
+Curtis again stepped towards the sheriff. "What do you propose to do,
+Mr. Sheriff?"
+
+Yarpe broke in boisterously. "We want old Elk. Bring him out or we go
+after him." A chorus of applause followed.
+
+"On what authority do you make this demand?" asked Curtis, facing Yarpe.
+
+"On the authority of the sheriff of Pinon City," replied Yarpe, "and we
+come along to see he does his duty."
+
+"The sheriff is present and can speak for himself. He was my guest last
+night and made an agreement with me, which, as an honorable man, he is
+disposed to keep."
+
+The sheriff avoided Curtis's eye, but Yarpe replied:
+
+"He showed the white feather. He let you fool him, but you can't fool
+this crowd. Bring on your Injun, or we go get him."
+
+"Have you a warrant?"
+
+"Oh, damn the warrant!"
+
+The sheriff cleared his throat. "Yes, I have a warrant for Crawling Elk
+and Grayman," he said, and began searching his pockets. The decisive
+moment had arrived.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+
+Curtis minutely studied the crowd, which was made up very largely of
+reckless young men--cowboys from all over the range, together with the
+loafers and gamblers of the cow-towns. The sheriff's deputies were all
+well to the front, but were quiet; they seemed to be a little abashed by
+the gaze of the women to whom they were indebted for their dinner of
+yesterday. Each member of the gang was burdened with ammunition and
+carried both rifle and revolver.
+
+The sheriff dismounted and handed a paper to Curtis, who took plenty of
+time to read it. It was manifestly bogus, manufactured for use as a
+bluff, and had not been properly sworn out; but to dispute it would be
+to anger the cattlemen. There was only one chance for delay.
+
+"Very well," he said, at last. "This warrant calls for two of the head
+men among the Tetongs. Of course, I understand your motives. You do not
+intend to charge these chiefs with the crime, you only wish to force the
+tribe to yield some one else to your vengeance. In face of such a force
+as this of yours, Mr. Sheriff, I can only yield, though I deny your
+right to lay hand on one of my charges. I do all this under pressure.
+If your men will retire a little I will call a messenger and communicate
+with the chiefs named, and ask--"
+
+Yarpe glared. "Communicate hell! Sheriff, say the word and we'll go and
+get 'em."
+
+Curtis fixed a calm gaze upon him. "You are a brave man, Mr. Yarpe, but
+you'll need all your resolution when you charge up that hill in the face
+of those desperate warriors." As he swept his arm out towards the west
+all eyes were turned on the swarming mass of mounted Tetongs. The women
+had moved higher, and were halted just on the eastern brow of the high
+ridge, behind and to the right of the fighting men. "Now what will you
+do, Mr. Sheriff?" pursued Curtis; "act with me through the head men, or
+make your demand of the whole tribe?"
+
+A dispute arose among the crowd. A few shouted, noisily, "Say the word
+and we'll sweep the greasy devils off the earth." But the larger number,
+like the sheriff's posse of the day before, found it not easy to overawe
+this quiet soldier.
+
+Calvin harangued the leader. "No, I will not button my lip," he shouted
+again, confronting Yarpe, "for you nor no other man. You let the sheriff
+and the Captain fix this thing up. What are you in this thing for,
+anyhow? You don't own a foot of land nor a head o' stock. You're nothing
+but a bum! You can't get trusted for a pound of tobacco. Nice man to
+lead a mob--"
+
+"Shut him up, Bill," shouted one fellow.
+
+"Cal's right," called another.
+
+"Don't let 'em fool ye, Bill; we come fer a redskin, and we'll have him
+or burn the town."
+
+Calvin had a revolver in each hand, and on his face was a look that
+meant war.
+
+Curtis called to Lawson. "Take the women in, quick!" He feared shooting
+among the leaders of the mob. "Don't shoot, Calvin. Keep the peace."
+
+With tears of impotent rage filling her eyes, Elsie retreated towards
+the office under Lawson's care. Curtis stepped to the side of the
+leader. "Silence your gang," he said.
+
+Yarpe raised his bellowing voice. "Keep quiet, there! I'll settle this
+thing in a minute."
+
+"Keep back!" commanded the sheriff.
+
+The crowd fell back a little, with Calvin crowding them hard, revolver
+in hand. "No more funny business with me," he said, and death blazed
+from his eyes. "Get back!"
+
+Quiet having been restored, the sheriff, Curtis, and Yarpe were revealed
+in animated argument. Curtis was talking against time--every moment was
+precious.
+
+"If you give in, your chances for re-election ain't worth a
+leatherette," Yarpe said to the sheriff.
+
+"You crazy fool! You wouldn't charge that hill?" asked the sheriff.
+
+"That's what I would, and that's what the boys come for."
+
+"But what good would it do?"
+
+"It would learn these red devils a lesson they wouldn't forget, and it
+would make you an' me the most popular men in the county. If you don't
+do it, you're dead as the hinges of hell."
+
+"If you charge that hill, some of you will stay there," put in Curtis.
+
+Yarpe turned and roared: "Boys, the sheriff has weakened. Will you
+follow me?"
+
+"We will!" shouted the reckless majority.
+
+At this precise moment, while looking over the sheriff's head towards
+the pinon-spotted hill to the west, Curtis caught the gleam of something
+white bobbing down the hill. It disappeared, but came into sight lower
+down, a white globe based in a splash of blue. It was a white helmet,
+topping the uniform of a cavalry officer. A sudden emotion seized Curtis
+by the throat--his heart warmed, swelled big in his bosom. Oh, the good
+old color! Now he could see the gauntleted gloves, the broad shoulders,
+the easy seat of blessed old Jack Maynard as he ambled peacefully across
+the flat.
+
+"Look there!" he cried, turning to the group inside the gate, his finger
+pointing like a pistol. His voice rang out joyous as a morning bugle,
+and the girls thrilled with joy.
+
+Yarpe looked. "Hell! The cavalry! We're euchred--clean."
+
+Over the hill behind the officer appeared a squadron of gray horse,
+marching in single file, winding down the trail like a long serpent,
+spotted with blue and buff, the sun sparkling fitfully from their
+polished brass and steel. When Curtis turned to the sheriff his face was
+pale with excitement for the first time, quivering, exultant. "You'll
+have the federal troops to deal with now," he said. "At last we are on
+equal terms."
+
+A deep silence fell on the mob. Every ruffian of them seemed suddenly
+frozen into immobility, and each sat with head turned and eyes
+wide-staring, watching the coming of the blue-shirted horsemen.
+
+As the officer approached he was distinguishable as a powerful,
+smooth-faced young man in a captain's uniform. As his eyes rested on
+Curtis his plump, red face broke into a broad smile. It was plain that
+he was Irish, and not averse to a bit of a shindy.
+
+Riding straight up to the agent, he formally saluted, and in a deep,
+dry, military voice, said:
+
+"Colonel Daggett presents his compliments to Captain Curtis and tenders
+Squadron B, at your service. Captain Maynard in command."
+
+With equally impersonal decorum Curtis acknowledged the courtesy.
+
+"Captain Curtis returns the compliment, and thanks Captain Maynard for
+his prompt and most opportune arrival--Jack, I'm mighty glad to see
+you."
+
+Maynard dismounted and they shook hands. "Same to you, old man. What's
+all the row?"
+
+A clear, distant, boyish voice cried, "By columns of four into line!"
+and the bugle, breaking voice, caused the hair of the agent's head to
+stand; turning, he saw the squadron taking form as it crossed the
+stream. It required his most heroic effort to keep the tears from his
+eyes as his ear heard the dull rattle of scabbards and he watched the
+splendid play of the gray horses' legs and broad chests as they came on,
+weary but full of spirit yet. There was something inexorable in their
+advance. In their order, their clean glitter, their impersonal grace,
+was expressed the power of the general government.
+
+Turning to the sheriff, he said: "Sheriff Winters, this warrant is
+bogus--forged this morning by some one of your lynching-party; the ink
+is hardly dry. I decline to serve it," and he tore it into strips and
+flung it on the ground.
+
+"Halt!" cried the oncoming commander, and with creak of saddle and
+diminishing thunder of hoofs the Gray Squadron stopped within fifty feet
+of the agency gate, and out of the dust a young lieutenant rode forward
+and saluted.
+
+"Hold your position, Mr. Payne," commanded Maynard.
+
+"I just _love_ Captain Maynard!" said Jennie, fervently.
+
+"I'll tell him," said Lawson.
+
+"Now," said Maynard, "what's it all about? Nice gang, this!"
+
+The mob that had been so loud of mouth now sat in silence as profound as
+if each man had been smitten dumb. It was easy to threaten and flourish
+pistols in the face of an Indian agent with a dozen women to protect,
+but this wall of Uncle Sam's blue was a different barrier--not to be
+lightly overleaped. The cowboys were not accustomed to facing such men
+as these when they shot up towns and raced the Tetongs across the hills.
+
+"Now what is it all about?" repeated Maynard, composing his comedy face
+into a look of military sternness.
+
+Curtis explained swiftly in a low voice, and ended by saying: "This is,
+in effect, a lynching-party on federal territory. What would you do in
+such a case?"
+
+"Order them off, instanter!"
+
+"Precisely. I have done so, but they refuse to go."
+
+"Do they?" Maynard turned and remounted his horse. Saluting, he said:
+
+"Captain Curtis, I am ready to execute any order you may choose to
+give."
+
+Curtis saluted. "You will see that these citizens, unlawfully assembled,
+leave the reservation at once. Sheriff Winters, with all due respect to
+your office, I request you to withdraw. Captain Maynard will escort you
+to the borders of the reservation. When you have a warrant properly
+executed, send or bring it to me and I will use every effort to serve
+it. Good-morning, sir."
+
+Captain Maynard drew his sword. "_'Tention, squadron!_" The tired horses
+lifted their heads as the dusty troopers forced them into line.
+
+Maynard's voice rang out: "_Left wheel, into line--march!_"
+
+"You'll hear from this!" said the sheriff. "You'll find the State won't
+stand any such foolishness."
+
+Yarpe's ferocity had entirely evaporated. "'Bout face, boys; we're not
+fightin' the United States army--I had enough o' that in '63. Clear out!
+Our bluff don't go."
+
+The cowboys, cursing under breath, whirled their ponies and followed
+Yarpe, the redoubtable. The sheriff brought up the rear, still
+contending for the rights of the county, but he retreated. Small as the
+dusty squadron looked, it was too formidable, both because of its
+commanders and because of the majestic idea it embodied.
+
+Calvin was the last to leave. "I done my best, Major," he said, loudly,
+in order that Jennie might hear.
+
+"I know it, Calvin; come and see us again in your civil capacity,"
+replied Curtis, and waved a cordial salute.
+
+As the squadron fell in behind and was hidden by the dust of the passing
+cattlemen, Curtis turned to where Elsie still stood. He was smiling, but
+his limbs were stiffened and inert by reason of the rigidity of his long
+position before the posse.
+
+"We are saved!" he said, in mock-heroic phrase.
+
+"Oh, wasn't it glorious to see the good old blue-and-buff!" cried
+Jennie, the tears of her joy still on her cheeks. "I could have hugged
+Captain Maynard."
+
+"There is chance yet," said Curtis. "He's coming back."
+
+Elsie did not speak for a moment. "What would you have done if they had
+not come?" she asked, soberly.
+
+"I could have delayed them a little longer by sending couriers to Elk
+and Grayman; but let's not think of that. Let's all go into the house;
+you look completely tired out."
+
+Elsie fairly reeled with weakness, and Curtis took her arm. "You are
+trembling," he said, tenderly.
+
+"I haven't stirred for a half-hour," she said. "I was so tense with the
+excitement. I feared you would be shot, and the tribe isn't worth the
+sacrifice," she added, with a touch of her old spirit.
+
+"I was in no physical danger," he replied. "But I should have felt
+disgraced had the mob had its way."
+
+"The people are coming back," said Lawson. "They have seen the
+soldiers."
+
+"So they are!" exclaimed Curtis. "They are shouting with joy. Can't you
+hear them? The chiefs are riding this way already; they know the army
+will protect them."
+
+The thick mass of horsemen was breaking up, some of them were riding
+towards the women with the camp stuff, others were crossing the valley,
+while a dozen head men, riding straight towards the agency, began to
+sing a song of deliverance and victory. Joyous shouts could be heard as
+the young men signalled the good news.
+
+"_The cattlemen are going--the soldiers have come!_"
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+AFTER THE STRUGGLE
+
+
+Upon reaching the library each member of the party sank into easy-chairs
+with sighs of deep relief, relaxed and nerveless. The storm was over.
+Jennie voiced the feeling as she said, "Thank the Lord and Colonel
+Daggett." Elsie was physically weary to the point of drowsiness, but her
+mind was active. Mrs. Parker was bewildered and silent. Even Parker was
+subdued by the grave face of the agent.
+
+Lawson, with a curious half-smile, broke the silence. "There are times
+when I wish I owned a Gatling gun and knew how to use it."
+
+Curtis started up. "Well, it's all over but the shouting. I must return
+to the office and set things in order once more."
+
+"You ought to rest a little," said Elsie. "You must feel the strain."
+
+"I am a little inert at the moment," he confessed, "but I'm Hamlet in
+the play, you know, and must be at my post. I'll meet you all at lunch.
+You need have no further worry."
+
+The employés responded bravely to his orders. The cheerful clink of the
+anvil broke forth with tranquillizing effect. The school-bell called the
+children together, the tepees began to rise from the sod as before, and
+the sluggish life of the agency resumed its unhurried flow, though
+beneath the surface still lurked vague forms of fear. Parker returned to
+his studio, Lawson sought his den, and there stretched out to smoke and
+muse upon the leadings of the event, while Jennie planned a mid-day
+dinner for a round dozen. "It will be a sort of love-feast to Captain
+Maynard," she said, roguishly.
+
+"Will he return so soon?" asked Elsie.
+
+"Oh yes, he'll only go a little way. Jack Maynard can smell a good
+dinner across a range of foot-hills. Didn't he look beautiful as he
+smiled? I used to think he grinned, but to-day--well, he looked like a
+heavenly cherub in the helmet of an archangel as he rode up."
+
+Elsie was genuinely amused. "What is the meaning of this fervor. Has
+there been something between you and Captain Maynard in the past?"
+
+"Not a thing! Oh, I always liked him--he's so good-natured--and so
+comical. Can you peel potatoes?"
+
+"I never did such a thing in my life, but I'll try."
+
+About one o'clock Maynard came jogging back, accompanied by a sergeant
+and a squad of men, dusty, tired, and hungry.
+
+Curtis met him at the gate. "Send your horses down to the corral,
+Captain. You're to take pot-luck with us."
+
+Maynard dismounted, slowly, painfully. "I've been wondering about those
+girls," he said, after the horses were led away. "One is your sister
+Jennie, of course; but who is the other? She's what the boys would call
+a 'queen.'"
+
+"You've heard of Andrew J. Brisbane?"
+
+"You mean the erstwhile Senator?"
+
+"Yes; this is his daughter."
+
+"Great Himmel! What is she doing here?"
+
+"She's an artist and is making some studies of Indians."
+
+"I didn't suppose a man of Brisbane's blood and brawn could have a girl
+as fine as she looks to be."
+
+"Oh, Brisbane has his good points--But come over to the house. Of course
+the mob gave no further trouble?"
+
+"Not a bit, only the trouble of keeping them in sight; they rode like
+Jehu. I left the chase to Payne--it was what Cooper used to call a
+'stern chase and a long chase.' Your quarters aren't so bad," he added,
+as they entered the library.
+
+Jennie came in wearing an apron and looking as tasty as a dumpling. "How
+do you do, Colonel Maynard?" she cried out, most cordially.
+
+He gave his head a comical flirt on one side. "I beg pardon! Why
+Colonel?"
+
+"I've promoted you for the brave deed of this morning."
+
+He recovered himself. "Oh!--oh--yes!--Hah! I had forgotten. You saw me
+put 'em to flight? I was a little late, but I gave service, don't you
+think?"
+
+"You were wonderful, but I know you're hungry; we're to have dinner
+soon--a real dinner, not a lunch."
+
+He looked a little self-conscious. "Well--I--shall be delighted. You
+see, I was awake most of the night, and in riding one gets hungry--and,
+besides, breakfast was a little hurried. In fact, I don't remember that
+I had any."
+
+"Why, you poor thing! I'll hurry it forward. Cheer up," and she whisked
+out of the room.
+
+Maynard flecked a little dust from his sleeve and inquired, carelessly:
+"Your sister isn't married?"
+
+"No, she sticks to me still. She's a blessed, good girl, and I don't
+know what I should do without her."
+
+"You mustn't be selfish," remarked Maynard, reflectively. "But see here,
+I must knock off some dust, or I will lose the good impression I made on
+the ladies."
+
+"Make yourself at home here and we'll have something to eat soon," said
+Curtis at the door.
+
+The dinner was unexpectedly merry. Every one felt like celebrating the
+army, and Maynard, as the representative of the cavalry arm, came near
+blushing at the praise which floated his way on toasts which were drunk
+from a bottle of sherry, a liquor Jennie had smuggled in for cooking
+purposes.
+
+"I admit I did it," he rose to say, "but I hold it not meet to have it
+so set down."
+
+Parker was extravagantly gay. "I'm going to do a statue of Maynard on
+his horse rushing to our rescue," he said. "It will be a tinted piece
+like the ancients used to do. That white helmet shall flash like snow.
+Sheridan will no longer be the great equestrian."
+
+"Leave off the broad smile," interrupted Lawson. "Captain Maynard's
+smile made light of our tragic situation."
+
+"I don't think so; it was the smile of combat," exclaimed Elsie. "It was
+thrilling."
+
+Maynard bowed. "Thank you, Miss Brisbane."
+
+"It was Jack Maynard's murderin' grin," said Curtis; "it was the look
+the boys used to edge away from at the Academy. I must tell you, Jack
+nearly got shunted into the ways of glory. He could whip any man in West
+Point in his day, and a New York sporting man offered to back him for a
+career. Thereupon Jack wrestled with the tempter and 'thrun 'im.' He now
+sees his mistake. He might have been 'Happy Jack, the Holy Terror,' by
+this time, earning two hundred thousand a year like the great O'Neill."
+
+Maynard sighed. "Instead of which, here I am rescuing beleaguered
+damsels, like the hero of a dime novel, on two thousand a year."
+
+Jennie spoke up sharply. "I will not have Captain Maynard made fun of
+any more. It was a noble deed, and he deserves better treatment for it."
+
+Maynard bowed. "I have one defender," he said, soberly.
+
+"Here's another," cried Elsie.
+
+"With two such faithful defenders I defy the world!" he shouted,
+valorously. Thereupon they left off joking him.
+
+As they rose from the table, Curtis turned to Elsie: "Would you like to
+go with me to make a tour of the camp?"
+
+Her eyes lighted up. "I should like it exceedingly."
+
+"Very well, about three o'clock we will go. You will have time for a
+_siesta_. You must be tired."
+
+"Oh no, I am quite rested and ready to go any time," and her bright eyes
+and warm color confirmed her words.
+
+With military promptness the horses were brought round, and,
+accompanied by Maynard and Jennie, Curtis, with Elsie by his side, led
+the way to the camp. She was a confident horsewoman and rode a fine
+brown pony, and Curtis, who had never ridden with her before, glowed
+with pleasure in her grace and skill.
+
+As they galloped off up the road a keen twinge of remorseful pity for
+Lawson touched Elsie's heart. He was grown suddenly older, it seemed to
+her, as though he had definitely given up the attempt to remain young,
+and this thought made her rather sober. He was being left out of her
+plans now almost unconsciously, while the other--
+
+"One of the real heroes in this affair," Curtis was saying, "is Crane's
+Voice. He has been in saddle nearly thirty-six hours, and is willing to
+start again to Pinon City if I ask it."
+
+"Of course you will not?"
+
+"No. I will send a white man. The settlers might do even Crane's Voice
+an injury."
+
+All was quiet in the camps, with little sign of the precipitate flight
+of the morning, either in the faces of the men or in the disposal of the
+tepees. The old men and some of the women came out to greet their Little
+Father and the soldier of the good heart, and Curtis gave out a
+tranquillizing message and asked, "Have you called the council?"
+
+"Ay, for sunrise to-morrow," answered Elk and Two Horns.
+
+"That is good," he replied. "Where are your young men?"
+
+"Some are in the hills, some are gone as messengers, others are watching
+the ponies."
+
+"Call them all in. I don't want them riding about to-night. Keep them in
+camp, close by the soldiers--then no harm will come to them."
+
+So, scattering greetings and commands, he rode through the two circles
+of tepees. The redmen were all eager to shake hands with Maynard, in
+whom they recognized a valiant friend as well as an old-time enemy.
+
+They found the camp of Grayman less tranquil, for the stragglers were
+still coming in from the hills, and scores of women were busy resetting
+their tepees. Grayman himself came forth, nervous and eager. "Ho, Little
+Father, my heart is glad that the soldiers have come."
+
+"We are all glad," replied Curtis. "Where is your son?"
+
+Grayman looked troubled. "I do not know. He is away with Cut Finger, my
+sister's son."
+
+"Cut Finger is bad company for your son."
+
+"I know it; but they are blood-brothers, as is the way of young men.
+Where one is, there the other is also."
+
+Maynard and Jennie were not as deeply interested in the camp as they had
+given out to be at starting. He was recalling to her mind some of the
+parties they had attended together at Fort Sibley. "Really, Captain
+Maynard," she was saying, as they rode up, "you would have it appear
+that we saw a great deal of each other in those days."
+
+"That's my contention entirely," he replied, "and it is my _in_tention
+to continue this Indian outbreak indefinitely in order to go into
+cantonment here."
+
+"You always were susceptible to good dinners, Captain Maynard."
+
+"Say good company, and you'll be right entirely."
+
+Curtis, having caught Maynard's last remark, called out in the biting
+tone of the upper classman at West Point.
+
+"Are you on special duty, Captain Maynard, or riding in the park?"
+
+He saluted imperturbably. "By good luck I am doing both, at your
+service."
+
+"Merely cast your eye around so that you can report the Tetongs peaceful
+and in camp, then you may ride where you please."
+
+Maynard swept his eyes over the village. "It is done! Now, Miss Curtis,
+let's try for the top of that hill?"
+
+"No, no, you have been riding all night."
+
+"Why, so I have! In the charm of your presence I'd forgotten it. I'm
+supposed to be fagged."
+
+"You don't look it," remarked Curtis, humorously, running his eyes over
+the burly figure before him. "At the same time, I think you'd better
+return. Your commissariat wagons will be rumbling in soon."
+
+Maynard again saluted. "Very well, 'Major,' it shall be so," and,
+wheeling his horse in such wise as to turn Jennie's pony, they galloped
+off together, leaving Curtis and Elsie to follow.
+
+"It's hard to realize that disaster came so near to us," he said,
+musingly, and Elsie shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at the
+hills.
+
+"There is a wonderful charm in this dry country! I have never seen such
+blinding sunshine. But life must be difficult here."
+
+"You begin to feel that? I expect to stay here at least five years,
+providing I am not removed."
+
+She shuddered perceptibly. "Five years is a long time to give out of
+one's life--with so little to show for it."
+
+He hesitated a moment, then said, with deep feeling, "It's hard, it's
+lonely, but, after all, it has its compensations. I can see results. The
+worst side of it all is--I can never ask any woman to share such a life
+with me. I feel guilty when I consider Jennie--she ought to have a home
+of her own; she has no outlook here."
+
+She looked straight ahead as she replied. "You would find life here
+intolerable without her."
+
+"I know it; but in my best moments I realize how selfish it is in me to
+keep her."
+
+"Suppose you were to resign, what would you do?"
+
+"I would try to secure a chance at some field-work for the Ethnologic
+Bureau. It doesn't pay very well, but it would be congenial, and my
+proficiency in the sign language would, I think, make me valuable. I
+have determined never to go back to garrison life without some special
+duty to occupy my mind."
+
+"Life isn't a bit simple when you are grown up, is it?"
+
+"Life is always simple, if one does one's duty."
+
+"That is a soldier's answer; it is not easy for me to enter into that
+spirit. I have my art, and no sense of duty at all."
+
+"Your position is equally strange to me; but duties will discover
+themselves--later. A life without duties is impossible."
+
+"I know what you mean, but I do not intend to allow any duty to
+circumscribe my art." This she uttered defiantly.
+
+"I don't like to hear you say that. Life is greater than art."
+
+She laughed. "How different our points of view! You are Anglo-Saxon, I
+am French. Art counts far more with us."
+
+"Was your mother French? I did not know that."
+
+"Yes--a Canadian. I have her nature rather than that of my father."
+
+"Sometimes I think you are your father's daughter. Did your mother live
+to enjoy her husband's success?"
+
+"Not to the full. Still, she had a nice home in Alta, where I was born.
+She died before he was elected Senator." They had nearly reached the
+agency now, and she shook off her sober mood. "Shall we go in with a
+dash?"
+
+"I'm agreed."
+
+She put quirt to her horse and they entered the lane at a flying gallop.
+As he assisted her to alight at the studio door he said:
+
+"I hope your father will not require you to join him in the East. It is
+a great pleasure to have you here." His voice touched something vibrant
+in her heart.
+
+"Oh, I don't think he will when he fully understands the situation. I'm
+sure I don't want to go. I shall write him so."
+
+Curtis rode away elate as a boy. Something which he did not care to
+define had come to him from her, subtle as a perfume, intangible as
+light, and yet it had entered into his blood with most transforming
+effect. He put aside its analysis, and went about his duties content
+with the feeling that life was growing richer day by day.
+
+Wilson, seeing his shining face, sighed and said to himself: "I guess
+the Major has found his girl. He's a lucky dog. I wish I could pick up
+even a piece of plain calico, I'd be satisfied." And he ran through a
+list of the unmarried women within reach, to no result, as usual.
+
+Meanwhile the supply-wagons had arrived, and Captain Maynard was
+overseeing the laying-out of the camp just below the agency. Lieutenant
+Payne and his command returned at five o'clock, and in a short time the
+little village of white tents was in order. Curtis came over to insist
+that the officers take dinner with them at "the parsonage," and, as
+Captain Maynard had already spoken of the good company and the excellent
+dinner he had enjoyed in the middle of the day, Lieutenant Payne was
+quite ready to comply, especially as his lunch had been as light as his
+breakfast.
+
+The meal was as enjoyable as the mid-day dinner, and the Parkers derived
+much comfort from the presence of the soldiers.
+
+"I guess I'm not fitted to be a pioneer artist," Parker confessed, and
+the hearty agreement he met with quite disconcerted him.
+
+Mrs. Parker was indignant at the covert ridicule of her husband, and was
+silent all through the meal; indeed, the burden of the conversation fell
+upon Jennie and Maynard, but they were entirely willing to bear it, and
+were not lacking for words.
+
+"It is good to hear the bugles again," Jennie remarked, as one of the
+calls rang out on the still air, sweet and sad and as far removed from
+war as a love song.
+
+"They're not so pleasant when they call to the same monotonous round of
+daily duties," said Mr. Payne.
+
+Curtis smiled. "Here's another disgruntled officer. What would you
+do--kill off the Indians and move into the city?"
+
+"To kill off a few measly whites might insure completer peace and
+tranquillity," replied Maynard.
+
+"You fellows couldn't be more righteously employed," put in Lawson. "You
+might begin on the political whoopers round about."
+
+"What blasphemy!" cried Jennie. "These 'noble pioneers!'"
+
+"Founding a mighty State," added Curtis.
+
+"Founding a state of anarchy!" retorted Lawson. "They never did have any
+regard for law, except a law that worked in their favor."
+
+Parker got in a word. "Lawson, do you know what you are? You're what
+Norman Bass used to call 'a blame a-riss-to-crat.'" This provoked a
+laugh at Lawson's expense.
+
+"I admit it," said Lawson, calmly. "I am interested in the cowboy and
+the miner--as wild animals--as much as any of you, but as founders of an
+empire! The hard and unlovely truth is, they are representatives of
+every worst form of American vice; they are ignorant, filthy, and cruel.
+Their value as couriers of the Christian army has never been great with
+me."
+
+Maynard was unusually reflective as he stared at Lawson.
+
+"That's mighty plain talk," he observed, in the pause that followed.
+"You couldn't run for office on speeches like that."
+
+"Lawson's living doesn't depend on prevarication," remarked Curtis. "If
+it did--"
+
+"If it did I'd lie like the best--I mean the worst of you," replied
+Lawson.
+
+"In a few years there will not be an Indian left," Parker remarked.
+
+"The world will be the poorer."
+
+"They will all be submerged," continued Parker.
+
+"Why submerge them? Is the Anglo-Saxon type so adorable in the sight of
+God that He desires all the races of the earth to be like unto it? If
+the proselytizing zeal of the missionaries and functionaries of the
+English-speaking race could work out, the world would lose all its
+color, all its piquancy. Hungary would be like Scotland, Scotland would
+be Cornwall, Cornwall would duplicate London, and London reflect New
+York. Beautiful scheme for tailors, shoe-makers, and preachers, but
+depressing to artists."
+
+"You must be one of those chaps the missionaries tell about, who would
+keep men savage just to please your sense of the picturesque."
+
+"Savage! There's a fine word. What is a savage?"
+
+"A man who needs converting to our faith," said Jennie.
+
+"A man to exercise the army on," said Maynard.
+
+"A man to rob in the name of the Lord," said Parker.
+
+"You're stealing all my oratorical thunder," complained Lawson. "When a
+speaker asks a question like that he doesn't want a detailed answer--he
+is pausing for effect. Speaking seriously--"
+
+"Oh!" said Maynard, "then you were _not_ serious."
+
+Lawson went his oratorical way. "My conviction is that savagery held
+more of true happiness than we have yet realized; and civilization, as
+you begin to see, does not, by any construction, advance the sum of
+human happiness as it should do."
+
+"What an advantage it is to have an independent income!" mused Maynard,
+looking about the table. "There's a man who not only has opinions, but
+utters them in a firm tone of voice."
+
+"I am being instructed," remarked Elsie. "I used to think no one took
+the Indian's side; now every one seems opposed to the cattlemen."
+
+"When we are civilized enough to understand this redman, he will have
+disappeared," said Curtis, very soberly.
+
+"Judging from the temper of this State at present, I reckon you're about
+right," replied Maynard. "Well, it's out o' my hands, as the fellah
+says; I'm not the Almighty; if I were I'd arrange things on a different
+basis."
+
+"We are all transition types," remarked Curtis, harking back to a remark
+of Lawson's making.
+
+"Even these settlers are immortal souls," said Parker.
+
+"Consider!" exclaimed Lawson. "How could we live without the Indian
+question? Maynard would be like Othello--occupation gone. Curtis would
+cease to be a philanthropist. Elsie Bee Bee would go sadly back to
+painting 'old hats' and dead ducks. I alone of all this company would be
+busy and well paid. I would continue to study the remains of the race."
+
+Jennie rose. "Put a period there," said she, "till we escape, and,
+remember, if we hear any loud talk we'll come out and fetch you away,"
+and she hurried out into the sitting-room, where Elsie and Mrs. Parker
+yielded up valuable suggestions about dress.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the Parkers rose to go, Lawson approached Elsie and asked in a low
+voice: "_Are_ you going home to the mess-house to-night? If you are, I
+want to go with you."
+
+"I'll be ready in a moment," she replied, but her eyes wavered. As they
+stepped out together quite in the old way, he abruptly but gently began:
+
+"It is significant of our changed relations when I say that this is the
+first time I've had an opportunity for a private word since our camping
+trip. There is no need of this constraint, Elsie. I want you to be your
+good, frank self with me. I'll not misunderstand it. I am not charging
+anything up against you. In fact, I can see that you are right in your
+decision, but it hurts me to have you avoid me as you have done lately."
+
+There was something in his voice which brought the hot tears to her eyes
+and she replied, gently: "I'm very sorry, Osborne. I hoped you wouldn't
+care--so much, and I didn't mean--"
+
+"I've tried not to show my hurt, for my own sake as well as yours, but
+the fact is I didn't realize how deeply you'd taken root in my thoughts
+till I tried to put you away. It is said that no two lovers are ever
+equal sharers in affection--one always gives more than the other--or one
+expects more than the other. I was perfectly sincere when I made that
+bargain with you, and I know you were; but you are younger than I, and
+that has changed the conditions for you. I am older than you thought,
+and I find myself naturally demanding more and more. I think I
+understand better than I did two days ago why you gave me back the ring,
+and I do not complain of it. I shall never again refer to it, but we can
+at least be friends. This cold silence--"
+
+She put out her hand. "Don't, please don't."
+
+"I can't bear your being stiff and uncomfortable in my presence, Bee
+Bee! You even called me Mister Lawson." There was a pathetic sort of
+humor in his voice which touched her. "Let us be good comrades again."
+
+She gave him her hand. "Very well, Osborne. But you are mistaken if you
+think--"
+
+"Time will tell!" he interrupted, and his voice was strenuously
+cheerful. "Anyhow, we are on a sound footing again. Good-night."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The presence of Maynard and the troop was a greater relief to Curtis
+than he realized. He laid down for a moment's rest on his couch and fell
+into a dreamless sleep at once, and Jennie, deciding not to arouse him,
+spread a light shawl over him and withdrew softly. Maynard's coming
+brought a deeper sense of security than a stranger could have given with
+twice the number of troops. "Jack Maynard is so dependable," she said,
+and a distinct note of tenderness trembled in her voice.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+THE WARRIOR PROCLAIMS HIMSELF
+
+
+The messengers from both Riddell and Pinon reported to Curtis about
+daylight, laden with papers and telegrams. The telegrams naturally
+received first reading. There was one filled with instructions from the
+Secretary of the Interior, and one from the Commissioner, bidding him
+stand firm. Several anxious ones from various cities, all of this tenor:
+"Is there any danger? my niece is one of your teachers," etc. In the
+midst of the others, Curtis came upon a fat one for Elsie, plainly from
+her father. This he put aside till after breakfast, when he permitted
+himself the pleasure of carrying it to the studio. He found her at work,
+painting a little brown tot of a girl in the arms of her smiling mother.
+
+"I have a telegram for you--from your father, no doubt."
+
+She rose quickly and opened the envelope. As she read she laughed. "Poor
+papa; he is genuinely alarmed. Read it."
+
+He took it with more interest than he cared to show, and found it most
+peremptory in tone.
+
+"Reports from Fort Smith most alarming. Come out at once. Have wired the
+agent to furnish escort and conveyance. Shall expect you to reply
+immediately, giving news that you have left agency. You should not have
+gone there. I will meet you at Pinon City if possible; if I do not, take
+train for Alta. Wire me your plans. Country is much alarmed. I must hear
+from you at once or shall be worried."
+
+Curtis looked up with an amused light in his eyes. "He's a little
+incoherent, but sufficiently mandatory. When will you start?"
+
+"I will send a telegram out at once that I am safe, and all danger over.
+He will not want me to leave now."
+
+"Very well. A messenger will start at once with all our letters and
+messages. Anything you wish to send can go at the same time."
+
+"What news have you?"
+
+"I only had time to glance at my mail, but the papers are all that
+Lawson has predicted. If you would know how important a criminal I am,
+read these"--he pointed at a bundle on a chair. "I must go back to the
+office now, but I will wait for your letters and telegrams before
+despatching a messenger. If you think it better to go than to stay, I
+will ask Captain Maynard to escort you to the station."
+
+"I will stay," she replied.
+
+She wrote a brief telegram to her father, saying: "I am quite safe and
+hard at work. All quiet; don't worry," and also composed a letter giving
+vital details of the situation and taking strong ground against the way
+in which the cattlemen had invaded the reservation. In conclusion she
+added: "I have a fine studio, plenty of models, and am in fine health; I
+cannot think of giving up my work because of this foolish panic. Don't
+let these settlers influence you against Captain Curtis; he's right this
+time."
+
+As she ran through the papers and caught the full significance of their
+precipitate attack on the agent, her teeth clinched in hot indignation.
+At the first breath, before they were sure of a single item of news,
+they leaped upon an honorable man, accusing him of concealing stolen
+cattle and of harboring murderers and thieves. "As for the Indians, it
+is time to exterminate these vermin! Let the State wipe out this tribe
+and its agency, and send this fellow Curtis back to his regiment where
+he belongs," was the burden of their song.
+
+As she read on, tingling with wrath at these vulgarly written and
+utterly un-Christian editorials, the girl caught an amazing side-glimpse
+of herself and the views she once held. She remembered reading just such
+reports once before, and joining with her father in his desire to punish
+the redmen. Was Lawson right? Had her notions of the "brave and noble
+pioneers fighting the wild beast and the savage" arisen from ignorance
+of their true nature? Had they always been as narrow, as bigoted, as
+relentless, and as greedy as these articles hinted at? Some of Lawson's
+clean-cut, relentless phrases came back to her at the moment, and she
+began to believe that he was nearer right than she had been. And her
+father? Would he sanction such libels as these? At last the essential
+grandeur of the position held in common by both Curtis and Lawson--of
+the right of the small people to their place on the planet--came to her,
+and in opposition to their grave, sweet eyes she saw again the brutal,
+leering faces of the mob, and comprehended the feelings of a chief like
+Grayman, as he confronts the oncoming hordes of a destroying race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, in the grassy hollow between two round-top hills the bands of
+Elk and Grayman were gathered in extraordinary council. No one was in
+gala-dress, no one was painted, all were serious or sad or morose. Upon
+their folded blankets the head men sat in a small circle on the smooth
+sod, exposed to the blazing sun. Behind them stood or knelt a larger
+circle, the men and boys on one side, the women on the other, while in
+the rear, mounted on their fleetest ponies, some two hundred of the
+young men were ranked, enthralled listeners to the impassioned speeches
+of the old men.
+
+Crawling Elk made the first address, repeating the story which the agent
+had told and calling upon all those who sat before him to search for the
+guilty one and report to him if they found him. His words were received
+in silence.
+
+Then Grayman rose, and, stepping into the circle, began to speak in a
+low and sorrowful voice. Something in his manner as well as in his words
+enlisted the almost breathless interest of the crowd. There was a tragic
+pathos in his voice as he called out: "You see how it is, brothers; we
+are like a nest of ants in a white man's field, which he is ploughing.
+We are only a few and weak, while all around us our enemies press in
+upon us. We have only one friend--our Little Father. We must do as he
+says. We must give up a man to the war chief of the cowboys. They will
+never believe that any one else killed the sheep-man. The cattlemen and
+sheepmen are always quarrelling, but they readily join hands to do the
+Tetongs harm."
+
+"It is death to us to fight the white man; I know it. Unless we all wish
+to be shot, we must not become angry this time; we must do as the Little
+Father says, and if we cannot find the man who did this thing, I will go
+and give myself into the hands of the white war chief." A murmur of
+protest and anger ran round the circle. "It is better for one to suffer
+than many," he said, in answer to the protest, "and I am old. My wife is
+dead. I have but one son, and he is estranged from me. I say, if we
+cannot find who did this thing, then I am willing to go and be killed of
+the white people in order to keep the peace. I have said it."
+
+Standing Elk leaped to his feet, tall, gaunt, excitable. "We will not do
+this," he said. "We will fight first." And among the young warriors
+there was applause. "The Tetongs are not dogs to be always kicked in the
+ribs. I have fought the white man. I have met 'Long Hair' and 'Bear
+Robe' in battle. I am not afraid of the cattlemen. I am old, but my
+heart is yet big. Let us do battle and die like brave men."
+
+Then Crawling Elk rose, and his broad, good-humored face shone in the
+sun like polished bronze as he turned his cheek to the wind.
+
+"The words of my brother are loud and quick," he said, slowly. "In the
+ancient time it was always so. He was always ready to fight. I was
+always opposed to fighting. We must not talk of fighting now; all that
+is put away. It belongs to the suns that have gone over our heads. We
+must now talk of cattle-herding and ploughing. We must strive always to
+be at peace with the cowboys. I, too, am old. I have not many years to
+live; but you young men have a long time to live, and you cannot be
+always quarrelling with the settlers; you must be wise and patient. Our
+Little Father, Swift Eagle, is our friend; you can trust him. You can
+put your hand in his and find it strong and warm. His heart is good and
+his words are wise. If we can find the man who did this evil deed, we
+must give him up. It is not right that all of us should suffer for the
+wickedness of one man. No, it is not right that we who are old should
+die for one whose hands are red."
+
+This speech was also received in silence, but plainly produced a
+powerful effect. Then one of the men who found the body rose and told
+what he knew of the case. "I do not think a Tetong killed the man," he
+said, in conclusion.
+
+In this wise the talk proceeded for nearly two hours, and then the
+council rose to meet again at sunset, and word of what had been said was
+carried to Curtis by Crawling Elk and Grayman.
+
+To them Curtis said: "I am pleased with you. Go over the names of all
+your reckless young men, and when you reach one you think might do such
+a deed, question him and his people closely. The shells of the rifle
+were the largest size--that may help you. Your old men would not do this
+thing--their heads are cool; but some of your young men have hot hearts
+and may have quarrelled with this herder."
+
+The old men went away very sorrowful. Grayman was especially troubled,
+because he could not help thinking all the time of Cut Finger, his
+nephew.
+
+Running Fox, or "Cut Finger," as the white people called him, he knew to
+be a morose and reckless young man, and probably possessed of some evil
+spirit, for at times he was quite crazy. Once he had forced his pony
+into the cooking-lodge of Bear Paw for no reason at all, and Bear Paw,
+in a rage, had snatched up his rifle and fired, putting a bullet through
+the bridle hand of Running Fox, who lost two fingers and gained a new
+name. At another time the mad fool had tried to force his horse to leap
+a cliff; and once he had attempted to drown himself; and yet, between
+these obsessions, he could be very winning, and there were many among
+Elk's band who pitied him. He was comely withal, and had married a
+handsome girl, the daughter of Standing Wolf. It was easy to imagine
+that Cut Finger was the guilty one, and yet to think of him was to think
+of his son's intimate friend.
+
+When he reached his tepee Grayman lit his pipe and sat down alone and
+remained in deep thought for hours. He feared to find Cut Finger guilty,
+for his own son was Cut Finger's friend, or fellow, and that means the
+closest intimacy. There are no secrets between a Tetong and his chum.
+"If Cut Finger is guilty, then my son knows of it. That I fear."
+
+When any one came to the door he motioned them away; even his daughter
+dared not enter, for she saw him in meditation. As he smoked he made
+offering to the Great Spirit, and prayed that he might be shown the
+right way, and his heart was greatly troubled.
+
+Crawling Elk, with a half-dozen of his head men, was seated in his
+tepee, calmly discussing the same question. The canvas of his lodge was
+raised, as much to insure privacy as to let the wind sweep through. It
+was not easy to accuse any man of this crime, or even to suggest the
+name of any one as capable of such a foolish deed of blood. For
+relationships were close; therefore it was that he, too, narrowed the
+investigation down to Cut Finger. It is easier to accuse the son of a
+neighbor than your own son, especially if that other is already a marked
+man among reckless youths.
+
+At five o'clock Grayman called his daughter and said, "Send my sister,
+Standing Cloud, to me."
+
+Standing Cloud came and took a seat on the outside of the tepee--on the
+side where the canvas was fastened up--and there sat with bent head, her
+fingers busy with blades of grass, while her brother questioned her. She
+was a large and comely woman of middle age. Her expression was still
+youthful, and her voice had girlish lightness. She was at once deeply
+moved by her brother's questions. She did not know where her son was; he
+had not been to see her for several days. She understood whereto the
+questioning tended, and stoutly denied that her son would do so evil a
+deed. Nevertheless, Grayman was compelled to say:
+
+"You know he has a bad head," and he made the confused, wavering sign of
+the hand which signifies crazy or foolish, and the mother rose and went
+away sobbing.
+
+Then Grayman recalled the words of the Little Father. "If my own brother
+should do wrong, I would give him up to the war chief," he therefore
+said. "If my son and my sister's son are guilty, I will give them up,"
+and he rose and sought out Crawling Elk and told him of his fears, and
+repeated his resolution as they sat together while the sun was going
+down and the crier was calling the second council.
+
+"It is right," said Elk. "Those who are guilty must be punished; but we
+do not know who fired the shot."
+
+The people were slow in coming together this second time, and darkness
+was falling as the head men again took their seats. A small fire was
+being built in the centre of the circle, and towards this at last, like
+nocturnal insects, the larger number of the people in the two camps
+slowly concentrated.
+
+The wind had gone down and the night was dark and still and warm. The
+people gathered in comparative silence, though the laugh of a girl
+occasionally broke from the clustering masses of the women, to be
+followed by a mutter of jests from the young men who stood close packed
+behind the older members of the bands. Excitement had deepened since the
+morning, for in some way the news had passed from lip to lip that
+Grayman had discovered the evil-doer.
+
+On their part the chieftains were slow to begin their painful task. They
+smoked in silence till the fire was twice replenished, then began
+talking in low tones among themselves. At last Crawling Elk arose and
+made a speech similar to that of the morning. He recounted the tale of
+the murdered white man, and the details of finding the body, and ended
+by saying: "We are commanded by the agent to find the ones who have done
+this evil deed. If any one knows anything about this, let him come
+forward and speak. It is not right that we should all suffer for the
+wrong-doing of some reckless young warriors."
+
+"Come forth and speak, any one who knows," called the head men, looking
+round the circle. "He who remains silent does wrong."
+
+Two Horns rose. "We mean you, young men--you too," he said, turning to
+the women. "If any of you have heard anything of this matter, speak!"
+
+Then the silence fell again on the circle of old men, and they bent
+their heads in meditation. Crawling Elk was just handing the pipe to
+Grayman, in order to rise, when a low mutter and a jostling caused every
+glance to centre upon one side of the circle, and then, decked in
+war-paint, gay with beads and feathers, and carrying a rifle, Cut Finger
+stepped silently and haughtily into the circle and stood motionless as a
+statue, his tall figure erect and rigid as an oak.
+
+A moaning sound swept over the assembly, and every eye was fixed on the
+young man. "Ahee! Ahee!" the women wailed, in astonishment and fear; two
+or three began a low, sad chant, and death seemed to stretch a black
+wing over the council. By his weapons, by his war-paint, by his bared
+head decked with eagle-plumes, and by the haughty lift of his face, Cut
+Finger proclaimed louder than words:
+
+"I am the man who killed the herder."
+
+Standing so, he began to sing a stern song:
+
+    "I alone killed him--the white man.
+    He was a thief and I killed him.
+    No one helped me; I alone fired the shot.
+    He will drive his sheep no more on Tetong lands.
+    This dog of a herder.
+    He lies there in the short grass.
+    It was I, Cut Finger, who did it."
+
+As his chant died away he turned: "I go to the hills to fight and die
+like a man." And before the old men could stay him he had vanished among
+the young horsemen of the outer circle, and a moment later the loud
+drumming of his pony's hoofs could be heard as he rode away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Curtis was sitting alone in the library when a tap at his window
+announced the presence of Grayman.
+
+Following a gesture, the chieftain came in, and, with a look on his face
+which expressed high resolution and keen sorrow, he said:
+
+"The man who killed the herder is found. He has proclaimed himself at
+our council, and he has ridden away into the hills."
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"Cut Finger."
+
+"Ah! So? Well, you have done your duty. I will not ask you to arrest
+him. Crow will do that. I hope"--he hesitated--"I hope your son was not
+with him?"
+
+"'I alone did it,' he says. My son is innocent."
+
+"I am very glad," replied Curtis, looking into the old man's tremulous
+face. "Go home and sleep in peace."
+
+With a clasp of the hand Grayman said good-night and vanished.
+
+There was nothing to be done till morning, and Curtis knew the habits of
+the Indians too well to be anxious about the criminal. Calling his
+faithful Crane's Voice, he said:
+
+"Crane, will you go to Pinon City?"
+
+Crane's Voice straightened. "To-night?"
+
+"Yes, to-night."
+
+"If you will let me wear a blue coat I will go."
+
+Curtis smiled. "You are a brave boy. I will give you a coat. That will
+protect you if you are caught by the white men. Saddle your pony."
+
+With a smile he turned on his heel and went out as cheerfully as though
+he were going on an errand to the issue-house.
+
+In his letter to the sheriff Curtis said: "I have found the murderer. He
+is a half-crazy boy called Cut Finger. Make out a warrant for him and I
+will deliver him to you. You will need no deputies. No one but yourself
+will be permitted to cross the line for the present."
+
+After Crane had galloped off, Curtis laid down his pen and sat for a
+long time recalling the events of the evening. He remembered that Lawson
+and Elsie went away together, and a pang of jealous pain took hold upon
+him. "I never had the privilege of taking her arm," he thought,
+unreasonably.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+BRISBANE COMES FOR ELSIE
+
+
+Among other perplexities which now assailed the agent was the question
+of how to secure Cut Finger without inciting further violence. He
+confidently expected the police to locate the fugitive during the day,
+probably in the camp of Red Wolf, on the head-waters of the Elk.
+
+"He cannot escape. There is no place for him to go."
+
+"He may have committed suicide," said Wilson, discussing the matter with
+his chief the following morning.
+
+"He may, but his death will not satisfy the ranchers unless they are
+made the instrument of vengeance. They would feel cheated and bitterer
+than ever," replied Curtis, sombrely. "He must be taken and delivered up
+to the law."
+
+On his return to the office after breakfast Curtis stopped at the door
+of Elsie's studio, his brain yet tingling with the consciousness that no
+other man's claim stood between them now.
+
+She greeted him joyously. "I am starting a big canvas this morning," she
+said. "Come in and see it."
+
+He stepped inside to see, but the canvas only had a few rude, reddish
+lines upon it, and Elsie laughed at his blank look as he faced the
+easel.
+
+"This thing here," she pointed with her brush, "is a beautiful purple
+butte; this yellow circle is the sun; these little crumbly looking boxes
+are trees; this streak is a river. This jack-in-the-box here is Crow
+Wing on his horse."
+
+Her joking helped to clear his brain, though his blood was throbbing in
+his ears.
+
+"Ah! I'm glad to know all that. Will you tag each anomalous hump?"
+
+"Certainly. You will recognize everything by number or otherwise." She
+turned a suddenly serious face upon him. "I am determined to get back to
+work. These last few days have been so exciting. Is there any news?"
+
+"Yes. The murderer proclaimed himself at a big council last night."
+
+"He did! Oh, tell me about it! When?"
+
+"I don't know exactly the hour, but the chieftains came to me about nine
+o'clock. I know him well; he is a reckless, handsome, half-crazy young
+man--" He broke off suddenly as Heavybreast, one of the policemen,
+profoundly excited, darkened the door-way. "Cut Finger is on the hill,"
+he signed, and pointed away with trembling finger to a height which rose
+like a monstrous bee-hive just behind the school-house. On the rounded
+top, looking like a small monument on a colossal pedestal, sat a mounted
+warrior.
+
+"What is he there for?" asked Curtis.
+
+"He wants to die like Raven Face. He wants to fight the cowboys, he
+says. He don't want to hurt any one else, he says; only the cowboys and
+their war chief, so he says."
+
+"Where is Crow? I want this man arrested and brought to me."
+
+"Now he will shoot any one who goes up the hill; he has said so. All the
+people are watching."
+
+Curtis mused a moment. "Can you send word to him?"
+
+"Yes; his wife is here."
+
+"Then tell him I will not let him fight. Tell him that shooting will do
+no good, and that I want him to come down and see me."
+
+The officer trotted away.
+
+"What did he say?" asked Elsie. "What is that man on the hill for?"
+
+"That is Cut Finger, the guilty man. He proclaimed himself the murderer
+last night and now he is willing to die, but wants to die on his horse."
+
+The whole agency was again tremulous with excitement. The teachers, the
+scholars, the native employés were all gathered into chattering groups
+with eyes fixed on the motionless figure of the desperate horseman, and
+in the camps above the agency an almost frenzied excitement was
+spreading. The stark bravery of the boy's attitude had kindled anew the
+flame of war, and behind Cut Finger on the hills two groups of mounted
+warriors had gathered suddenly. Several of the more excitable old women
+broke into a war-song, whose wail came faintly to the ears of the agent.
+
+"Two Horns, silence those singers," said Curtis, sternly.
+
+Elsie and Jennie and the Parkers joined the group around the agent, and
+Miss Colson, the missionary, came flying for refuge at the side of her
+hero.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Parker. "If the fellow really means to
+shoot, of course no man can go up to him. You might send some soldiers."
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" commanded Maynard, and, though he smiled as he
+said it, Parker realized his mistake. He turned to Elsie and his wife.
+"I tell you, we'd better get out of here. I feel just like a man sitting
+on a powder-mine. There's no telling what's going to happen next."
+
+Lawson turned towards him with a sarcastic grin. "I wish I'd realized
+the state of your nerves, Parker; I should have invited you to Asbury
+Beach instead of the Indian country."
+
+Maynard brought his field-glasses to bear on the desperado. "He has
+dismounted," he said. "He is squatted beside his horse, the bridle-rein
+on his arm, a rifle across his knees, and is faced this way. His
+attitude is resolute and 'sassy.'"
+
+Curtis quietly said: "Now, friends, I wish you would all go in and pay
+no further attention to this man. Miss Colson, go back to your work. So
+long as he sees us looking at him he will maintain his defiant attitude.
+He will grow weary of his bravado if ignored."
+
+"Quite right, Captain," replied Lawson, and the little knot of visitors
+broke up and dispersed to sheltered points of observation.
+
+Under the same gentle pressure the employés went back to work, and the
+self-convicted warrior was left to defy the wind and the sky. Even the
+Tetongs themselves grew tired of looking when nothing seemed likely to
+happen, and the forenoon wore away as usual, well filled with duties.
+Maynard's men got out for drill an hour later, and their bugle's voice
+pulsed upward to the silent and motionless watcher on the hill like
+mocking laughter. The clink of the anvil also rose to him on the hot,
+dry air, and just beneath him the children came forth at recess to play.
+He became tired of sitting on the ground at last, and again mounted his
+horse, but no one at the agency seemed to know or to care. The sun beat
+remorselessly upon his head, and his throat became parched with thirst.
+Slowly but surely the exaltation of the morning ebbed away and a
+tremulous weakness seized upon him, so that, when his wife came bringing
+meat and water, he who had never expected to eat or drink again seized
+upon the food and ate greedily.
+
+Then, while she sat on the ground and repeated the agent's message, he
+stood beside his horse, sullen and wordless. The bell rang for noon, and
+as the children came rushing out they pointed up at him again, and the
+teachers also stood in a group for a moment, with faces turned upward,
+but only for a moment, then went carelessly away to their meals.
+
+An hour passed, the work-bell rang, the clerks returned to their duties,
+and the agent walked slowly across the road towards the office. Cut
+Finger lifted his rifle and pointed it. "I could shoot him now," he
+muttered. "But he is a good man; I do not want to kill him." Then the
+heat and silence settled over hill and valley, and no sound but the
+buzzing of flies and the clatter of grasshoppers broke the hot, brooding
+hush of the mid-day. The wind was from the plain and brought no coolness
+on its wings.
+
+But he was not entirely forgotten. Elsie, from her studio door, kept
+close watch upon him. "There's something fine about him after all," she
+said to Curtis.
+
+"It's like the old Mosaic times--an eye for an eye. He knows he must die
+for this, but he prefers to die gloriously, as a warrior dies."
+
+A dust down the road caught Curtis's attention. "The mail will soon be
+in and then we will see how all this affects the press of the State; the
+Chicago dailies will not reach us for a couple of days yet."
+
+"Send the papers over here, please!" cried Elsie, "I'm wild to see
+them."
+
+"Why not all assemble at 'the parsonage' and I'll bring them there?"
+
+"Very well; that will do as well," she replied. "It will be such a joy
+to read our obituaries."
+
+As he entered the library with his armful of papers a half-hour later
+Curtis exclaimed: "Well, now, here is a feast! The commotion on the
+outside is prodigious. Here are the Copper City and Alta papers, and a
+dozen lesser 'lights and signals of progress' in the State. Help
+yourselves." He took out a handful of letters and telegrams. "And here
+are the prayers of anxious relatives. A telegram for you, Miss Brisbane;
+and two for you, Lawson."
+
+Elsie's message from her father was brief. "Have no word from you; am en
+route for Pinon City. Not finding you there will cross to agency at
+once. Why do you not come out?"
+
+Looking at the date she said: "Papa is coming; he is probably on his
+way to the agency at this moment."
+
+Curtis looked a little troubled. "I hope not; the roads are dusty and
+the sun is hot."
+
+"By George! this is fierce stuff," said Parker, looking up from his
+paper.
+
+"Cut Finger has left the hill," announced Jennie from the door-way; "he
+is nowhere to be seen."
+
+"Now he will submit to arrest," exclaimed Curtis. "His fine frenzy is
+gone."
+
+"I'm sorry," Elsie soberly exclaimed. "Must you give him up to that
+stupid sheriff?"
+
+"Yes, it must be done," replied Curtis. "My only claim to consideration
+lies in executing the law. I fought lawlessness with the promise that
+when the sheriff came with proper warrant I would act."
+
+As the young officer went back to his duties the head-lines of the
+papers he had but glanced at began to burn into his brain. Hitherto his
+name had been most inconspicuous; only once or twice had it achieved a
+long-primer setting; mainly it had kept to the security and dignity of
+brevier notices in the _Army and Navy Journal_. Now here it stood,
+blazoned in ill-smelling ink on wood-pulp paper, in letters half an inch
+in height:
+
+         CURTIS CULPABLE
+
+    THE AGENT SHIELDS HIS PETS
+
+while in the editorial columns of the Copper City papers similar
+accusations, though adroitly veiled, were none the less apparent. He had
+smiled at all this in the presence of his friends, but inwardly he
+shrank from it just as he would have done had some tramp in the street
+flung a handful of gutter slime across the breast of his uniform. A gust
+of rage made his teeth clinch and his face burn hot, and he entered his
+office with lowering brows.
+
+Wilson looked up with a grin. "Well, Major, the politicians are getting
+in their work on us."
+
+"This is only the beginning. We may expect an army of reporters to
+complete the work of misrepresentation."
+
+"The wonder is they haven't got here before. They must be really
+nervous. Crane says the people in town have very bad hearts. As near as
+I can make out they faced him up and threatened his life. He says the
+mob is hanging round the edge of the reservation crazy for blood. He got
+shy and took to the hills."
+
+"Did he see the sheriff?"
+
+"Yes, the sheriff is on the way."
+
+"Is Crane still asleep?"
+
+"Yes. He didn't wait for grub; he dropped like a log and is dead to the
+world."
+
+"Poor chap! I shouldn't have sent him on this last trip. Where is Tony?"
+
+"Tony's out in the hills to keep an eye on Cut Finger. Will you go after
+him to-night?"
+
+"No, not till morning. The police will locate him and stay with him
+to-night, and to-morrow morning I will go out and get him myself. I
+don't want any shooting, if it can be avoided. What is it, Heavybreast?"
+he asked of a large Tetong who entered at the moment, his eyes bright
+with information.
+
+"White man coming," signed the redman.
+
+Curtis rose and went to the door and looked down the road.
+
+Three carriages were passing the issue-house--one a rather pretentious
+family surrey, the others ordinary mountain wagons. In the hinder seat
+of the surrey, and beside the sheriff, sat a gray-haired man.
+
+"It is Senator Brisbane!" said Curtis to Wilson, and a keen pang of
+anticipated loss came to him, for he knew that Brisbane had come to take
+his daughter away. But his face was calm as he went down to the gate to
+meet his distinguished and powerful enemy.
+
+The ex-Senator was hot, weary, and angry. He had arrived in Pinon City
+on the early train, just as the county attorney and the sheriff were
+about to set forth. A few words with these officials assuaged his
+anxiety for his daughter but increased his irritation towards Curtis.
+Leaving orders for another team to follow, he had taken passage with the
+sheriff, an action he regretted at once. The seats were too low and too
+narrow for his vast bulk, and his knees grew weary. The wind came from
+the plain hot and insolent, bringing no relief to the lungs; on the
+contrary, it filled his eyes and ears with dust and parched the skin
+like a furnace blast. Altogether the conditions of his ride had been
+torturing to the great man, and he had ridden the latter part of it in
+grim silence, mentally execrating both Lawson and Curtis for luring his
+daughter so far from civilization.
+
+No one spoke till the agent, pacing calmly down to the gate, stepped
+into the road and said:
+
+"Good-evening, gentlemen, will you get out and come in?"
+
+Even then Brisbane made no reply, but the sheriff spoke up: "I suppose
+we'll have to. This is Senator Brisbane, Major. He was very anxious
+about his daughter and so came in with me. This is Mr. Grismore, our
+county attorney."
+
+Curtis bowed slightly. "Mr. Grismore I have seen. Senator Brisbane I
+have met. Send your horses down to the corral, sheriff, and come in; you
+can't return to-night."
+
+As the sheriff got out he said: "This second team is the Senator's, and
+the reporter for the Associated Press is in there with Streeter."
+
+Brisbane got out slowly and painfully, and a yellow-gray pallor came
+into his face as he stood beside the carriage steadying himself by
+resting his hand on the wheel. The young county attorney, eager to serve
+the great politician, sprang out and offered a hand, and Curtis, with
+sudden pity in his heart, made a step forward, but Brisbane put them
+both aside harshly.
+
+"No, no! I'm all right now. My legs were cramped--that's all. They'll
+limber up in a minute. The seats were too low for a man of my height. I
+should have stayed in the other carriage."
+
+After all he was Elsie's father, and Curtis relented: "Senator, if
+you'll take a seat in my office, I'll go fetch your daughter."
+
+"I prefer to go to her myself," Brisbane replied, menacingly formal.
+"Where is she?"
+
+"I will show you if you will permit," Curtis coldly replied, and set out
+to cross the road.
+
+The old man hobbled painfully at first, but soon recovered enough of his
+habitual power to follow Curtis, who did not wait, for he wished to
+have a private word with Elsie before her father came. She was lying
+down as he knocked, resting, waiting for the dinner call.
+
+"Your father is here," he said, as she opened the door.
+
+Her face expressed surprise, not pleasure.
+
+"Here! Here at the agency?"
+
+"Yes, and on his way to the studio. Moreover, he is very dirty, very
+disgusted, very crusty, and not at all well."
+
+"Poor old father! Now he'll make it uncomfortable for us all. He has
+come for me, of course. Who is with him?"
+
+"The sheriff, the county attorney, and some reporters."
+
+She smiled. "Then he is 'after you,' too."
+
+"It looks that way. But you must not go away without giving me another
+chance to talk with you. Will you promise that?" he demanded, abruptly,
+passionately. "I have something to say to you."
+
+"I dare not promise," she responded, and her words chilled him even more
+than her action as she turned away to the door. "How slowly he walks!
+Poor old papa! You shouldn't have done this, popsey," she cried, as she
+met him with a kiss on his cheek.
+
+Curtis walked away, leaving them alone, a hand of ice at his heart.
+
+Brisbane took her kiss without changing to lighter mood.
+
+"Why didn't you follow out my orders?" he demanded, harshly. "You see
+what I've had to go through just because you are so foolishly
+obstinate. That ride is enough to kill a man."
+
+Her throat swelled with anger, but she choked it down and replied very
+gently. "Come into the studio and let me clean off the dust. I'm sorry."
+
+He followed her in and sank heavily upon a chair. "I wouldn't take that
+journey again for ten thousand dollars. Why didn't you come to the
+railway as I ordered?"
+
+"Because I saw no good reason for it. I knew what I was doing. Captain
+Curtis assured me--"
+
+"Captain Curtis!" he sneered. "You'd take his word against mine, would
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I would, for he is on the ground and knows all the conditions. He
+has the outbreak well in hand. You have seen only the outside
+exaggeration of it. He has acted with honor and good judgment--"
+
+"Oh, he has, has he? Well, we'll see about that!" His mind had taken a
+new turn. "He won't have anything in his hand six months from now. No
+West Point dude like him can set himself up against the power of this
+State and live."
+
+"Now, papa, don't start in to abuse Captain Curtis; he is our host, and
+it isn't seemly."
+
+"Oh, it isn't! Well, I don't care whether it is or is not; I shall speak
+my mind. His whole attitude has been hostile to the best interests of
+the State, and he must get off his high horse."
+
+As he growled and sneered his way through a long diatribe, she brought
+water and bathed his face and hands and brushed his hair, her anger
+melting into pity as she comprehended how weak and broken he was. She
+had observed it before in times of great fatigue, but the heat and dust
+and discomfort of the drive had reduced the big body, debilitated by
+lack of exercise, to a nerveless lump, his brain to a mass of incoherent
+and savage impulses. No matter what he said thereafter, she realized his
+pitiable weakness and felt no anger.
+
+As he rested he grew calmer, and at last consented to lie down while she
+made a little tea on an alcohol lamp. After sipping the tea he fell
+asleep, and she sat by his side, her mind filled with the fundamental
+conception of a daughter's obligation to her sire. To her he was no
+longer a great politician, no longer a powerful, aggressive business
+man--he was only her poor, old, dying father, to whom she owed her every
+comfort, her education, her jewels, her art. He had never been a
+companion to her--his had been the rule absolute--and yet a hundred
+indulgences, a hundred really kind and considerate acts came thronging
+to her mind as she fanned his flushed face.
+
+"I must go with him," she said; "it is my duty."
+
+Curtis came to the door again and tapped. She put her finger to her
+lips, and so he stood silent, looking in at her. His eyes called her and
+she rose and tiptoed to the door.
+
+"I came to ask you both to dinner," he whispered.
+
+Her eyes filled with quick tears. "That's good of you," she returned, in
+a low voice. "But he would not come. He's only a poor, old, broken man,
+after all." Her voice was apologetic in tone. "I hope you will not be
+angry." They both stood looking down at him. "He has failed terribly in
+the last few weeks. His campaigning will kill him. I wish he would give
+it up. He needs rest and quiet. What can I do?"
+
+Curtis, looking upon the livid old man, inert and lumpish, yet venerable
+because of his white hairs--and because he was the sire of his
+love--experienced a sudden melting of his own resolution. His throat
+choked, but he said:
+
+"Go with him. He needs you."
+
+At the moment words were unnecessary. She understood his deeper meaning,
+and lifted her hand to him. He took it in both his. "It may be a long
+time before I shall see you again. I--I ought not--" he struggled with
+himself and ceased to speak.
+
+Her eyes wavered and she withdrew her hand. "My duty is with him now;
+perhaps I can carry him through his campaign, or dissuade him
+altogether. Don't you see that I am right?"
+
+He drew himself up as though his general-in-chief were passing. "Duty is
+a word I can understand," he said, and turned away.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+A WALK IN THE STARLIGHT
+
+
+Having no further pretext for calling upon her, Curtis thought of Elsie
+as of a strain of music which had passed. He was rather silent at
+dinner, but not noticeably so, for Maynard absorbed most of the time and
+attention of those present. At the first opportunity he returned to his
+papers, and was deep in work when Jennie came in to tell him that Elsie
+was coming over to stay the night.
+
+"She has given up her bed to her father, and so she will sleep here. Go
+over about nine and get her."
+
+If she knew how deeply this command moved him, she was considerate
+enough to make no comment. "Very well, sis," he replied, quietly. "As
+soon as I finish this letter."
+
+But he did not finish the letter--did not even complete the sentence
+with which his pen was engaged when Jennie interrupted him. After she
+went out he sat in silence and in complete immobility for nearly an
+hour. At last he rose and went out into the warm and windless night.
+
+When he entered the studio he found her seated upon one trunk and
+surveying another.
+
+"This looks like flight," he said.
+
+"Yes; papa insists on our going early to-morrow morning. Isn't it
+preposterous! I can only pack my clothing. He says the trouble is only
+beginning, and that I must not remain here another day."
+
+"I have come to fetch you to Jennie."
+
+"I will be ready presently. I am just looking round to decide on what to
+take. Be seated, please, while I look over this pile of sketches."
+
+He took a seat and looked at her sombrely. "You'll leave a great big
+empty place here when you go."
+
+"Do you mean this studio?"
+
+"I mean in my daily life."
+
+She became reflective. "I hate to go, and that's the truth of it. I am
+just beginning to feel my grip tighten on this material. I know I could
+do some good work here, but really I was frightened at papa's condition
+this afternoon. He is better now, but I can see that he is failing. If
+he insists on campaigning I must go with him--but, oh, how I hate it!
+Think of standing up and shaking hands with all these queer people for
+months! I oughtn't to feel so, of course, but I can't help it. I've no
+patience with people who are half-baked, neither bread nor dough. I
+believe I like old Mary and Two Horns better."
+
+"I fear you are voicing a mood, not a conviction. We ought not to
+condemn any one;" he paused a moment, then added: "I don't like you to
+even _say_ cruel things. It hurts me. As I look round this room I see
+nothing which has to do with duty or conviction or war or politics.
+There is peace and beauty here. You belong in this atmosphere; you are
+fitted to your environment. I admit that I was fired at first with a
+desire to convert you to my ways of thought; now, when a sense of duty
+troubles you, takes you away from the joy of your art, I question
+myself. You are too beautiful to wear yourself out in problems. I now
+say, remain an artist. There is something idyllic about your artist life
+as I now understand it. It is simple and childlike. In that respect it
+seems to have less troublesome questions of right or wrong to decide
+than science. Its one care seems to be, 'What will produce and preserve
+beauty, and so assuage the pain of the world?' No question of money or
+religion or politics--just the pursuit of an ideal in a sheltered nook."
+
+"You have gone too far the other way, I fear," she said, sadly. "Our
+lives, even at the best, are far from being the ideal you present. It
+seems very strange to me to hear you say those things--"
+
+"I have given the matter much thought," he replied. "If I have made you
+think of the woes of the world, so you have shown me glimpses of a life
+where men and women are almost free from care. We are mutually
+instructed." He rose at this point and, after hesitation, said: "When
+you go I wish you would leave this room just as it is, and when I am
+tired and irritable and lonely I'll come here and imagine myself a part
+of your world of harmonious colors, with no race questions to settle and
+no harsh duties to perform. Will you do this? These few hangings and
+lamps and easels are unimportant to you--you won't miss them; to me they
+will be priceless, and, besides, you may come back again some time. Say
+you will. It will comfort me."
+
+There was a light in his eyes and an intensity in his voice which
+startled her. She stammered a little.
+
+"Why, of course, if it will give you the slightest pleasure; there is
+nothing here of any particular value. I'll be glad to leave them."
+
+"Thank you. So long as I have this room as it is I shall be able to
+persuade myself that you have not passed utterly out of my life."
+
+She was a little alarmed now, and hastened to say: "I do not see why we
+should not meet again. I shall expect you to call when you come to
+Washington--" she checked herself. "I'm afraid my sense of duty to the
+Tetongs is not strong. Don't think too hardly of me because of it."
+
+He seemed intent on another thought. "Do you know, you've given me a dim
+notion of a new philosophy. I haven't organized it yet, but it's
+something like this: Beauty is a sense of fitness, harmony. This sense
+of beauty--call it taste--demands positively a readjustment of the
+external facts of life, so that all angles, all suffering and violence,
+shall cease. If all men were lovers of the beautiful, the gentle, then
+the world would needs be suave and genial, and life harmoniously
+colored, like your own studio, and we would campaign only against
+ugliness. To civilize would mean a totally different thing. I'm not
+quite clear on my theory yet, but perhaps you can help me out."
+
+"I think I see what you mean. But my world," she hastened to say, "is
+nothing like so blameless as you think it. Don't think artists are
+actually what they should be. They are very human, eager to succeed, to
+outstrip each other; and they are sordid, too. No, you are too kind to
+us. We are a poor lot when you take us as a whole, and the worst of it
+is the cleverest makers of the beautiful are often the least inspiring
+in their lives. I mean they're ignorant and spiteful, and often
+dishonorable." She stopped abruptly.
+
+"I'm sorry to hear you say that. It certainly shatters a beautiful
+theory I had built up out of what you and other artists have said to
+me." After a little silence he resumed: "It comes down to this, then:
+that all arts and professions are a part of life, and life is a
+compromise between desire and duty. There are certain things I want to
+do to-day, but my duties for to-morrow forbid. You are right in going
+away with your father--I'm not one to keep you from doing that--but I
+must tell you how great has been the pleasure of having you here, and I
+hope you will come again. If you go to-morrow morning I shall not see
+you again."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I start at dawn to arrest Cut Finger."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No. The captain of the police goes with me."
+
+Her face paled a little. "Oh! I wish you wouldn't! Why don't you take
+the soldiers?"
+
+"They are not necessary. I shall leave here about four o'clock and
+surprise the guilty man in his bed. He will not fight me." He rose. "Are
+you ready to go now?"
+
+"In a moment," she said, and softly crossed the floor to peep into the
+bedroom. "Poor papa, he looks almost bloodless as he sleeps."
+
+As they stepped out into the darkness Curtis realized that this was
+their last walk together, and the thought was both sweet and sad.
+
+"Will you take my arm?" he asked. "It is very dark, though there should
+be a new moon."
+
+"It has gone down; I saw it," she replied, as she slipped her hand
+through his elbow. "How peaceful it all is! It doesn't seem possible
+that to-morrow you will risk your life in the performance of duty, and
+that I will leave here, never to return. I have a curious feeling about
+this place now. It seems as though I were settled here, and that I am to
+go on living here forever."
+
+"I wish it were true. Women like you--you know what I mean; there are no
+women like you, of course--come into my life too seldom. I dread the
+empty futility of to-morrow. As an Indian agent, I must expect to live
+without companionship with such as you. I have a premonition that Jennie
+is going to leave me--as she ought."
+
+"You will be very lonely then; what will you do?"
+
+"Work harder; do more good, and so cheat myself into forgetfulness that
+time is flying."
+
+"You are bitter to-night."
+
+"Why shouldn't I be when you are going away? It wouldn't be decent of me
+to be gay."
+
+"Your methods of flattery are always effective. At one moment you
+discuss the weightiest matters with me--which argues I have brains--and
+then you grow gloomy over my going and would seem to mean that I am
+charming, which I don't think is quite true."
+
+"If I weren't a poor devil of an army officer I'd convince you of my
+sincerity by asking you not to go away at all."
+
+"That _would_ be convincing," she said, laughingly. "Please don't do
+it!"
+
+His tone became suddenly serious. "You are right, I can't ask you to
+share a life like mine. It is too uncertain. I may be ordered back to my
+regiment next winter, and then nothing remains but garrison duty. I
+think I will then resign. But I am unfitted for business, or for any
+money-getting, and so I've decided that as an honorable man I must not
+imperil the happiness of a woman. I claim to be a person of taste, and
+the girl I admired would have other chances in life. I can't afford to
+say to her, 'Give up all your comfort and security and come with me to
+the frontier.' She would be foolish to listen--no woman of the stamp I
+have in mind could do it." They were nearing "the parsonage" gate, and
+he ended in a low voice: "Don't you think I am right?"
+
+"The theory is that nothing really counts in a woman's life but love,"
+she replied, enigmatically.
+
+"Yes, but theory aside--"
+
+"Well, then, I can conceive of a girl--a very _young_ girl--leaving
+wealth and friends, and even her art, for the man she loved, but--"
+
+He waited a moment as a culprit listens to his judge. "But then--but in
+case--"
+
+"If the girl were grown up and loved luxurious living, and shared an
+enthusiasm--say for art--then--" She broke off and said, wearily, "Then
+she might palter and measure values and weigh chances, and take account
+of the future and end by not marrying at all."
+
+They had reached the gate and he spoke with perceivable effort: "I've no
+right to ask it, of course, but if you take pity on my loneliness at any
+time and write to me, your letters will be more welcome than it is
+seemly in me to say, and I'll promise not to bore you with further
+details of my 'Injines.' Will you be kind to me?"
+
+"I will be glad to write," she replied, but in her voice was something
+he did not understand. As they entered the house Elsie said: "Captain
+Maynard, Captain Curtis is going out to-morrow morning to arrest that
+crazy Indian. Do you think he ought to go alone?"
+
+"Certainly not! It would be too dangerous. He shall have an escort,"
+replied Maynard, emphatically.
+
+"No, no!" said Curtis, decisively. "I am safer to go unarmed and alone."
+
+"George!" protested Jennie, "you shall not go out there alone. Why don't
+you send the police?"
+
+Maynard here interposed. "Don't take on worry; I'll go with him myself."
+
+This last hour in Elsie's company was a mingled pain and pleasure to
+Curtis, for she was most charming. She laid aside all hauteur, all
+perversity, and gave herself unreservedly to her good friends. They were
+all at high tension, and the talk leaped from jest to protest, and back
+to laughter again, agile and inconsequent. The time and the place, the
+past and the future, counted for little to these four, for they were
+young and they were lovers.
+
+At last Jennie rose. "If you people are to rise at dawn you must go to
+sleep now. Good-night! Come, Elsie Bee Bee."
+
+Maynard followed Jennie into the hall with some jest, and Curtis seized
+the opportunity to delay Elsie. He offered his hand, and she laid hers
+therein with a motion of half-surrender.
+
+"Good-night, Captain. I appreciate your kindness more than I can say."
+
+"Don't try. I feel now that I have done nothing--nothing of what I
+should have done; but I didn't think you were to leave so soon. If I had
+known--"
+
+"You have done more than you realize. Once more, good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!" he said, in an unsteady voice; "and remember, you promised
+to write!"
+
+"I will keep my promise." She turned at the door. "Don't try to write
+around your red people. I believe I'd like to hear how you get on with
+them."
+
+"Defend me from mine enemies within the gates, and I'll work out my
+problem."
+
+"I'll do my best. Good-bye!"
+
+"No, not good-bye--just good-night!"
+
+For a moment he stood meditating a further word, then stepped into the
+hall. Elsie, midway on the stairs, had turned and was looking down at
+him with a face wherein the eyes were wistful and brows perplexed. She
+guiltily lowered her lashes and turned away, but that momentary
+pause--that subtle interplay of doubt and dream--had given the soldier a
+pleasure deeper than words.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jennie was waiting at the door of the tiny room in which Elsie was to
+sleep, her face glowing with admiration and love. "Oh, you queenly
+girl!" she cried, with a convulsive clasp of her strong arms. "I can't
+get over the wonder of your being here in our little house. You ought to
+live always in a castle."
+
+Elsie smiled, but with tears in her eyes. "You're a dear, good girl. I
+never had a truer friend."
+
+"I wish you were poor!" said Jennie, as they entered the plain little
+room; "then you could come here as a missionary or something, and we
+could have you with us all the time. I hate to think of your going away
+to-morrow."
+
+"You must come and see me in Washington."
+
+"Oh no! That wouldn't do!" said Jennie, half alarmed. "It might spoil me
+for life out here. You must visit us again."
+
+There was a note of honest, almost boyish suffering in Jennie's
+entreaties which moved the daughter of wealth very deeply, and she went
+to her bed with a feeling of loss, as though she were taking leave of
+something very sweet and elementally comforting.
+
+She thought of her first lover, and her cheeks burned with disgust of
+her folly. She thought of two or three good, manly suitors whose
+protestations of love had left her cold and humorously critical. On
+Lawson's suit she lingered, for he was still a possibility should
+she decide to put her soldier-lover away. "But I _have_ done
+so--definitely," she said to some pleading within herself. "I can't
+marry him; our lives are ordered on divergent lines. I can't come here
+to live."
+
+"Happiness is not dependent on material things," argued her newly
+awakened self. "He loves you--he is handsome and true and good."
+
+"But I don't love him."
+
+"Yes, you do. When you returned Osborne Lawson's ring you quite plainly
+said so."
+
+She burned with a new flame with this confession; but she protested,
+"Let us be sensible! Let us argue!"
+
+"You cannot argue with love."
+
+"I am not a child to be carried away by a momentary gust of emotion. See
+how impossible it is for me to share his work--his austere life."
+
+And here entered the far-reaching question of the life and death of a
+race. In a most disturbing measure this obscure young soldier
+represented a view of life--of civilization antagonistic to her faith,
+and in stern opposition to the teachings of her father. In a subtle
+fashion he had warped the word _duty_ from its martial significance to a
+place in a lofty philosophy whose tenets were only just beginning to
+unfold their inner meaning to her.
+
+Was it not true that she was less sympathetic with the poor brown
+peoples of the earth than with the animals? "How can you be contemptuous
+of God's children, whom the physical universe has colored brown or black
+or yellow--you, who are indignant when a beast is overburdened? If we
+repudiate and condemn to death those who do not please us, who will
+live?"
+
+She felt in herself some singular commotion. Conceptions, hitherto mere
+shells of thought, became infilled with passion; and pity, hitherto a
+feeble sentiment with her, expanded into an emotion which shook her,
+filled her throat with sobs, discrediting her old self with her new self
+till the thought of her mean and selfish art brought shame. How small it
+all was, how trivial, beside the consciousness of duty well done,
+measured against a life of self-sacrifice, such as that suggested by
+this man, whose eyes sought her in worship!
+
+Could there be any greater happiness than to stand by his side, helping
+to render a dying, captive race happier--healthier? Could her great
+wealth be put to better use than this of teaching two hundred thousand
+red people how to meet and adjust themselves to the white man's way of
+life? Their rags, their squalor, their ignorance were more deeply
+depressing to her lover than the poverty of the slums, for the Tetongs
+had been free and joyous hunters. Their condition was a tragic
+debasement. She began to feel the arguments of the Indian helpers. Their
+words were no longer dead things; they had become electric nodes; they
+moved her, set her blood aflame, and she clinched her hands and said: "I
+will help him do this great work!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+ELSIE WARNS CURTIS
+
+
+Brisbane was early awake, abrupt and harsh in command. "Come! we must
+get out o' here," he said. "I don't want to be under the slightest
+obligation to this young crank. I intend to break him."
+
+She flamed into wrath--a white radiance. "When you break him you break
+me," she said.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean I've changed my mind. I think he's right and you are wrong."
+
+The entrance of the sheriff prevented a full accounting at the moment,
+but it was merely deferred. Once in the carriage, Brisbane began to
+discredit her lover. "Don't tell me Curtis is disinterested; he is
+scheming for some fat job. His altruistic plea is too thin."
+
+"You are ill-fitted to understand the motives of a man like Captain
+Curtis," Elsie replied, and every word cut. "What have you--or I--ever
+done that was not selfish?"
+
+"I've given a thousand dollars to charity for every cent of his."
+
+"Yes, and that's the spirit in which you gave--never to help, only to
+exalt yourself, just as I have done. Captain Curtis is giving himself.
+He and his sister have made me see myself as I am, and I am not happy
+over it. But I wish you would not talk to me any more about them; they
+are my friends, and I will not listen to your abuse of them."
+
+It was a most fatiguing ride. Brisbane complained of the heat and the
+dust, and of a mysterious pain in his head; and Elsie, alarmed by his
+flushed face, softened. "Poor papa, I'm so sorry you had to come on this
+long ride!" Lawson was also genuinely concerned over the Senator's
+growing incoherency, and privately told the driver to push hard on the
+reins.
+
+When they rounded the sharp point of the Black Bear Mesa, and came in
+sight of the long, low, half-way house, Lawson sat up with a jerk.
+"There is the mob--camped and waiting for the sheriff."
+
+As Elsie looked at the swarming figures of the cowboys her mind
+forecasted tragic events. The desperadoes were waiting to lynch Cut
+Finger--that was plain. Curtis had said he would not surrender his
+prisoner to be lynched. He was coming; he would be met by this mob.
+
+She clutched Lawson by the arm. "We must warn him!"
+
+He merely nodded; but a look in his eyes gave her to understand that he
+would do his duty.
+
+The cattlemen, seeing the wagon whirling round the mesa, mounted and
+massed in stern array, believing that the carriage contained the sheriff
+and his prisoner. They were disappointed and a little uneasy when they
+recognized Brisbane, the great political boss; but with ready wit
+Johnson rode along in front of the gang, saying, with a wink: "Put up
+your guns, boys. This is a meeting in honor of Senator Brisbane." Then,
+as a mutter of laughter ran down the line, he took off his hat and
+lifted his voice:
+
+"Boys, three cheers for Senator Brisbane--hip, hip, hurrah!"
+
+After the cheers were given the horsemen closed round the carriage with
+cries for a speech.
+
+Brisbane, practised orator and shrewd manipulator, rose as the carriage
+stopped, and removed his hat. His eyes were dim and the blood seemed
+about to burst through his cheeks, but he was not without
+self-possession.
+
+"Gentlemen, I thank you for this demonstration, but I must ask you to
+wait till I have rested and refreshed myself. With your permission I
+will then address you."
+
+"Right--right!"
+
+"We can wait!" they heartily responded, and opened a way for the
+carriage.
+
+Elsie shuddered as she looked into the rude and cruel faces of the
+leaders of this lynching party. They no longer amused her. She saw them
+now from the stand-point of Captain Curtis and his wards, and realized
+how little of mercy they would show to their enemies. On Lawson's lips
+lay a subtly contemptuous smile, and he uttered no word--did not lift a
+hand till the carriage was at the door.
+
+Streeter helped the Senator out, and with unexpected grace presented his
+hand to Elsie. "I do not need help," she said, coldly, and brushed past
+him into the little sitting-room, which swarmed with excited, scrawny,
+tired, and tearful women.
+
+"What is goin' on out there? Have the soldiers put down the pizen
+critters?" asked one.
+
+"You're Miss Brisbane--we heerd you was all killed at the agency.
+Weren't you scared?"
+
+Almost contemptuously Elsie calmed their fears, and by a few questions
+learned that this house had been made a rallying-point for the settlers
+and that the women were just beginning to feel the depressing effects of
+being so long away from their homes without rest and proper food.
+
+"_Do_ you think we can go home now?"
+
+"Certainly. Captain Curtis will see that you are not harmed," she
+replied, and she spoke with all a wife's sense of joy and pride in her
+husband.
+
+"We've been camping here for most a week, seems like, an' we're all wore
+out," wailed one little woman who had three small children to herd and
+watch over.
+
+Brisbane, inspirited by an egg-nog and a sandwich, mounted a wash-tub on
+the low porch and began a speech--a suave, diplomatic utterance, wherein
+he counselled moderation in all things. "We can't afford at this time to
+do a rash thing," he said, and winked jovially at Johnson. "The election
+coming on is, after all, the best chance for us to get back at these
+fool Injun apologists. So go slow, boys--go slow!"
+
+As these smooth words flowed from his lips Elsie burned with shame and
+anger. Some newly acquired inward light enabled her to read in the
+half-hearted dissuasion of her father's speech a subtle, heartless
+encouragement to violence _after_ election. While the cheers were still
+ringing in her ears, at the close of the address, Elsie felt a touch on
+her shoulder and turned to face Calvin, standing close beside her, timid
+and flushed.
+
+She held out her hand with a swift rush of confidence.
+
+"Why, how do you do, Mr. Streeter?"
+
+"I'm pretty well," he said, loudly, and added, in a low voice, "I want
+to see you alone." He looked about the room. The corner least crowded
+was occupied by a woman nursing a wailing baby. "Come this way; she's
+Norwegian; she can't understand us."
+
+Elsie followed him, and when he spoke it was in a rapid, low mutter. "Is
+the Major goin' to come with Cut Finger?"
+
+"I'm afraid so."
+
+"He mustn't. You know what this gang's here for?"
+
+"What can we do? Can't we warn him?"
+
+"Well, I'm goin' to take a sneak and try it. It's all my neck is worth
+to play it on the boys; but it's got to be done, for the Major is a
+fighter, and if this mob meets him there will be blood on the moon. Now
+don't worry. I'm going to slide right out through the first gate I see
+and head him off; mebbe you'd like to write a word or two."
+
+"You are a real hero," she said, as she put a little slip of paper into
+his hand, and pressed it there with both of hers.
+
+"Don't do that," he said, hurriedly; "they'll think something's up. I'm
+doin' it for the Major; he's treated me white all the way along, and
+I'll be derned if I let this gang do him."
+
+A pain shot through her heart. Putting her hand to her bosom, she said:
+"It means everything to me, Calvin. Good-bye. I am trusting you--it's
+life or death to me. Good-bye!"
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+THE CAPTURE OF THE MAN
+
+
+The east was saffron and pale-blue as Crow and the agent drove out of
+the corral and up the road to the south. Two Horns was the driver. Crow
+alone was armed, and he wore but his official revolver. Maynard had been
+purposely left out of the expedition, for Curtis did not wish to seem to
+question in the slightest degree the obedience of his people. He
+preferred to go unarmed and without handcuffs or rope, as a friend and
+adviser, not as an officer of the law.
+
+The morning was deliciously cool, with a gentle wind sliding down from
+the high peaks, which were already glowing with the morning's pink and
+yellow. From some of the tepees in Grayman's camp smoke was already
+rising, and a few old women could be seen pottering about the cooking
+lodges, while the morning chorus of the dogs and coyotes thickened.
+There was an elemental charm in it all which helped the young soldier to
+shake off his depression.
+
+Passing rapidly through the two villages, Two Horns turned to the left
+and entered upon a road which climbed diagonally up the side of a long,
+low ridge. This involved plodding, and by the time they reached the
+summit the sun met them full-fronted. In the smaller valley, which lay
+between this ridge and the foot-hills, a rough trail led towards the
+mountains. This way Two Horns took, driving rapidly and silently, and
+soon entered the pines and pinons which form the lower fringe of the
+vast and splendid robe of green which covers the middle heights of the
+Rocky Mountains.
+
+After an hour of sharp driving, with scarcely a word or gesture, Crow
+turned and said: "Cut Finger there. Black Wolf, his tepee."
+
+The trail here took a sharp curve to the left to avoid a piece of stony
+ground, and from a little transverse ridge Curtis could look down on a
+small, temporary village, the band of Black Wolf, who had located here
+to cut hay on the marsh.
+
+"We must surprise him if we can," said Curtis to Crow. "We must not
+shoot. I will talk to him. If he cocks his gun kill him; but I don't
+think he will want to fight."
+
+The lads could be heard singing their plaintive songs as they climbed
+the hills for their ponies. Smoke was rising from each lodge, and
+children, dogs, and hens were outdoing each other in cheerful uproar as
+Two Horns drove up to where Black Wolf stood, an old man with thin, gray
+hair, shielding his eyes with the scant shadow of his bony wrist.
+
+"Ho, agent!" he cried. "Why do you come to see us so early?"
+
+"Is Cut Finger here?"
+
+"Yes; he is in there." He pointed to a tepee near.
+
+"Be silent!" commanded Curtis, as he alighted swiftly, but without
+apparent haste or excitement. Crow instantly followed him, alert and
+resolute. As they entered the tepee Cut Finger, still half asleep on
+his willow hammock, instinctively reached for his rifle, which lay
+beneath him on the ground, dangerous as a half-awakened rattlesnake.
+
+Curtis put his foot on the weapon, and said, pleasantly: "Good-morning,
+Cut Finger; you sleep late."
+
+The young man sat up and blinked stupidly, while Crow took the gun from
+beneath the agent's foot.
+
+Curtis signed to Black Wolf. "This boy has killed a herder and I have
+come for him. You knew of his deed."
+
+"I have heard of it," the old man replied, with a gesture.
+
+"It is such men who bring trouble on the tribe," pursued Curtis. "They
+must be punished. Cut Finger must go with me down to the agency. He must
+not make more trouble."
+
+The news of the agent's mission brought every soul hurrying to the tent,
+for Cut Finger had said, "I will fight the soldiers if they come."
+
+Curtis heard them coming and said: "Crow, tell all these people outside
+that Cut Finger has done a bad thing and must be punished. That unless
+such men are cast out by the Tetongs they will always be in trouble."
+
+Crow lifted up his big, resounding voice and recounted what the agent
+had said, and added: "You shall see we will take this man. I, Crow, have
+said it. It will be foolish for any one to resist."
+
+The agent, sitting before Cut Finger, addressed him in signs. "I am your
+friend, I am sorry for you. I am sorry for any man who does wrong and
+suffers punishment; but you have injured your people, you made the white
+man very angry; he came ready to shoot--you saw how I turned him away.
+I said: 'I will find the man who shot the herder. I will bring him--I do
+not want any one else to suffer.' Then you proclaimed yourself. You
+said: 'I alone did this thing.' Then you went on the hill to fight--I
+cannot allow that. No more blood will be shed. I will not lie; I have
+come to take you. You will be punished; you must go with me to the white
+man's strong-house."
+
+A whimpering cry arose, a cry which ended in a sighing moan of
+heart-piercing, uncontrollable agony, and Curtis, turning his face, saw
+the wife of Cut Finger looking at him from her blanket on the opposite
+side of the tepee. A shout of warning from Crow made him leap to his
+feet and turn.
+
+Cut Finger confronted him, his eyes glowing with desperate resolution.
+
+"_Sit down!_" commanded the Captain, using his fist in the sign, with a
+powerful gesture. The fugitive could not endure his chief's eyes; he
+sank back on his couch and sat trembling.
+
+"If you touch the Little Father I will kill you," said Crow, gruffly, as
+he stood with drawn revolver in his hand. "I, Crow, have said it!"
+
+Black Wolf was looking on with lowering brow. "He says the white man was
+driving his sheep on our land."
+
+"So he was," replied Curtis, "but it is bad for the Tetongs when a white
+man is killed. It is better to come and tell me. When a redman kills a
+white man the white men say: 'Let us kill _all_ the Tetongs--spare no
+one.' Cut Finger said he was ready to die. Well, then, let him go with
+me, and I will make his punishment as light as I can. I am his
+friend--a friend to every Tetong. I will tell the war chief at Pinon
+City how it was, and he will say Cut Finger was not alone to blame--the
+white man was also to blame. Thus the punishment will not be so heavy.
+Cut Finger is a young man; he has many years to live if he will do as I
+tell him. He will come back to his tribe by-and-by and be a good man."
+
+So, by putting forth all his skill in gesture he conveyed to Cut
+Finger's mind a new idea--the idea of sacrificing himself for the good
+of the tribe. He also convinced the members of Black Wolf's band that
+their peace and safety lay in giving him up to their agent, and so at
+last the young desperado rose and followed his chief to the wagon
+wherein Two Horns still sat, impassive and unafraid.
+
+As he put his hand on the carriage-seat a convulsive shudder swept over
+Cut Finger. He folded his arms and, lifting his eyes to the hills, burst
+forth in a death-song, a chant so sad, so passionate, and so searching,
+that the agent's heart was wrenched. Answering sobs and wails broke from
+the women, and the young wife of the singer came and crouched at his
+feet, her little babe in her arms, and this was his song:
+
+    "I am going away.
+    I go to my death.
+    The white man has said it--
+    I am to die in a prison.
+    I am young, but I must go--
+    I have a wife, but I must go
+    To die among the white men
+    In the dark.
+    So says the soldier chief."
+
+Curtis, looking into the eyes of Black Wolf, perceived that the old man
+wavered. The wailing of the women, the young man's song, had roused his
+racial hatred--what to him was the killing of a "white robber"?
+
+"Be quiet!" commanded Curtis, and the song ceased. "Get in, quick! No
+more singing."
+
+The ending of the song left the prisoner in a mood of gloomy yet passive
+exaltation. He took the place indicated and sat with bowed head, his
+hands limply crossed.
+
+"Go on!" commanded Curtis, and Two Horns brought the whip down on the
+horses. As they sprang forward a wail of agony burst from the lips of
+the bereaved young wife. At this cry Cut Finger again turned upon the
+agent with hands opened like the claws of a bear--his face contorted
+with despair. Curtis seized him in a grip whose crunching power made
+itself felt to the marrow of the Tetong's bones, and his eyes, piercing
+with terrible determination, shrivelled the resolution of the
+half-crazed man. He sank back into his seat, a hopeless lump of swaying
+flesh, his face a tragic mask, and uttered no further word till the
+sound of a galloping horse made them all turn to see who followed.
+
+"My wife!" the prisoner said. "She carries my baby."
+
+This was indeed true. The sad little wife was galloping after, riding a
+strong bay pony, the reins flapping loose, while across the pommel of
+her saddle she held her small pappoose, whose faint wailing told of his
+discomfort and terror.
+
+"Wait--me take pappoose," the prisoner said, in English, with a note of
+command.
+
+Curtis was deeply touched. He ordered Two Horns to halt, and Crow got
+out and took the babe and handed it to Cut Finger, who received it
+carefully in his long arms. No woman could have been tenderer.
+
+As they drove on, a big lump rose in the soldier's throat. It seemed a
+treacherous and sinful thing to hand this man over to a savage throng of
+white men, perhaps to be lynched on the road. "I will not do it," he
+said; "I will take him to Pinon City myself. He shall have trial as if
+he were white. I will yield him to the law, but not to vengeance."
+
+Cut Finger thereafter spoke no word, did not even look back, though
+Curtis detected him turning his head whenever the sound of the galloping
+horse grew faint or died away for a few moments. The baby ceased to
+wail, and on the rough ground, when the wagon jarred, the father held
+the little one high as in a sling.
+
+Upon entering the camp of Crawling Elk they found all the people massed,
+waiting, listening, and their presence excited the prisoner greatly, and
+he began again to sing his death-chant, which now seemed infinitely more
+touching by reason of the small creature he cradled so lovingly in his
+arms.
+
+"Be silent!" commanded Curtis. "You must not sing. Drive fast, Two
+Horns!"
+
+Answering wails and fragments of chanting broke from the women; one or
+two cried out, "Take him from the agent!" But the men shook their heads
+and sadly watched them pass. "He has done a foolish thing; he must now
+suffer for it," said Crawling Elk.
+
+As they drew up before the door of the parsonage Curtis sprang out and
+said to Cut Finger:
+
+"Give me the baby; he shall be well cared for."
+
+The father gave up the child passively, and Curtis called to Jennie:
+
+"Here is a babe that is tired and hungry--be good to it."
+
+"Where is the mother?" asked Jennie, as she tenderly received the little
+brown boy.
+
+"She is coming," he said, and the mother galloped up in a few moments
+and fairly tumbled off her horse. "See!" Curtis said to her and to the
+father, "My sister will give the baby milk, and its mother shall also be
+fed. You need not fear; both will be taken care of. We are your
+friends."
+
+Cut Finger watched Jennie as she carefully carried the baby into the
+house, and as he turned away, a look of apathetic misery, more moving
+than any cry, settled on his face.
+
+Maynard, who had been standing in the door, said, in a tone of
+astonishment, "Did that wild Injun carry his papoose all the way down?"
+
+"Yes, and was as tender of it as a woman, too."
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged! There's a whole lot for me to learn about Injuns
+yet. Want a guard?"
+
+"Yes; I think it safer. There is a good deal of sympathy for this poor
+chap."
+
+"I don't blame 'em very much," said Maynard. "Take him right down to our
+guard-house, and I'll have Payne detail a squad of men to take care of
+him."
+
+"I intend taking him to Pinon myself. I can't find it in my heart to
+give him over into the hands of these whites--they'd lynch him, sure."
+
+"I believe it," replied Maynard, with conviction.
+
+As they passed the agency gate, Winters and the county attorney stepped
+out as if they expected to receive the prisoner; but the savage grin on
+the sheriff's face died out as Curtis nodded coldly and drove past.
+
+"That fellow is a wolf. Did you have any trouble?" asked Maynard.
+
+"Not a bit. We surprised him in bed, as I planned to do."
+
+"Nice thing, your leaving me out in this way!"
+
+"Have the Brisbanes gone?"
+
+"Yes. Got away about eight o'clock. Lawson went with them, though he's
+coming back to see you clear of this war. He's a crackerjack, is Lawson;
+but the old man has you marked for slaughter."
+
+It was good to be able to turn his prisoner over to the blue-coats and
+feel that he would not be taken away except properly and in order.
+Lynching does not flourish under the eyes of a commander like Maynard.
+As Curtis led his man into the guard-house and motioned him to a seat,
+he said, in signs:
+
+"You are safe now from the cattlemen. I am your friend, remember that. I
+myself will take you to the white chief's big village. I will not let
+the war chief have you. I will turn you over to the wise man--the man
+who will judge your case. I will let your wife and your little son go
+with you. So you see I am still your Little Father. I am very sorry you
+have shot this man, but you must be punished. I cannot prevent that."
+
+As he met the sheriff he said, quietly, "I have decided to accompany you
+to Pinon City."
+
+The sheriff was not greatly surprised.
+
+"Oh, very well. But I don't see the need of it."
+
+"I do!" replied Curtis, and his tone silenced opposition.
+
+Going immediately to the house, Curtis flung himself down in his chair
+and submitted to Jennie's anxious care. She brought him some coffee and
+biscuit, and stood with her hand on his shoulder while he ate. "Well,
+they're gone--Lawson and all. I never saw a greater change in any one
+than in that girl. Do you remember how she was last fall? I never
+supposed I should come to love her. I hated her for the treatment
+of you then, but--I think she has a different feeling towards us
+now--not excepting you. I think--she was crying because she
+was--going--away--from--you."
+
+He looked up at her and smiled incredulously. "Your loyalty to me, sis,
+is more than I deserve!"
+
+Curtis seized a moment to cross the square to Elsie's studio, eager to
+see whether she had regarded his wishes or not. It was an absurd thing
+to ask of her, and yet he did not regret having done so. It would serve
+as a sort of test of her regard, her sympathy. Now as he stood at the
+door he hesitated--if it should be bare!
+
+He turned the knob and entered. The effect of the first impression was
+exalting, satisfying. All was in order, and the air was deliciously cool
+and fragrant, infilled with some rare and delicate odor. Each article
+was in its place--she had taken nothing but the finished pictures and
+some sketches which she specially needed. Scraps of canvas covered with
+splashes of color were pinned about on the walls, the easel stood in the
+centre of the room, and her palette and brushes were on the table. The
+young soldier closed the door behind him and took a seat in deep
+emotion. At that moment he realized to the full his need of her, and his
+irreparable loss. All he had suffered before was forgotten--swallowed up
+in the empty, hungry ache of his heart. The curtains and draperies were
+almost as much a part of her as her dress, and he could not have touched
+them at the moment, so intimately personal did they seem.
+
+It appeared that he had not fully understood himself, after all. This
+empty temple, where she had lived and worked, these reminders of her
+beautiful self, were not to be a solace and a comfort, after all, but a
+torture. He felt broken and unmanned, and the aching in his throat grew
+to an intolerable pain, and with a reaction to disdain of himself he
+rose and went out, closing and locking the door.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+OUTWITTING THE SHERIFF
+
+
+Maynard came over just as the wagon was being brought round, and with a
+look of concern on his big, red face, began: "Now see here, Curtis,
+you'd better take an escort. Those devils may be hanging round the edge
+of the reservation. Say the word and I'll send Payne and a squad of
+men."
+
+"I don't think it at all necessary, Maynard. I don't want to excite the
+settlers, and, besides, the troops are all needed here. I have no fear
+of the mob while daylight lasts. They will not attempt to take the man
+from me. I leave you in command. Wilson will keep the police out on the
+hills and report any movement of the mob."
+
+Maynard saluted. "Very well, Major; when may I look for you to return?"
+
+"Not before to-morrow night. I shall get in by sundown to-day, for it is
+all the way down hill; the return will be slower."
+
+"I don't like to see you go away with that cut-throat sheriff."
+
+"I am not alone," said Curtis. "I have two of the faithfulest men in the
+world--Two Horns and Crow--both armed and watchful. Don't worry about
+me, Jack; keep yourself alert to-night."
+
+The wagon was now standing before the guard-house, and the prisoner was
+being brought forth by Crow. Cut Finger, blinking around him in the
+noon-day glare, saw his wife already in the wagon, and went resignedly
+towards the agent, who beckoned to him.
+
+"You may sit beside her," Curtis signed, and the youth climbed
+submissively to his seat. "Mr. Sheriff, you are to take a place beside
+the driver."
+
+Winters, swollen with rebellion because of the secondary part he had to
+play, surlily consented to sit with Two Horns.
+
+"Crow, you camp here," called Curtis, and the trusted Tetong scrambled
+to his seat. "Drive on, Two Horns."
+
+For an hour and more no one spoke but Two Horns, gently urging the
+horses to their best pace. Curtis welcomed this silence, for it gave him
+time to take account of many things, chief of which was Brisbane's
+violent antagonism. "He overestimates my importance," he thought. "But
+that is the way such men succeed. They are as thorough-going in
+destroying the opposition as they are in building up their own side."
+
+He thought, too, of that last intimate hour with Elsie, and wished he
+had spoken plainer with her. "It would have been definite if I had
+secured an answer. It would have been a negative, of course, and yet
+such is my folly, I still hope, and so long as there is the slightest
+uncertainty I shall waste my time in dreaming." His mind then turned to
+the question of the mob. There came into his mind again the conviction
+that they were waiting to intercept the sheriff at the boundary of the
+reservation; but he was perfectly certain that they would relinquish
+their designs when they found the sheriff reinforced by three determined
+men--one of them an army officer and the agent. He had no fear on that
+score; he only felt a little uneasy at leaving the agency.
+
+A sharp exclamation from Crow brought his dreaming to an end, and,
+looking up, he saw a horseman approaching swiftly, his reins held high,
+his elbows flapping. "That's young Streeter," he said, on the impulse.
+
+"So it is," replied Winters, hot with instant excitement. "I wonder
+what's his hurry?"
+
+Calvin came up with a rush, and when opposite set his horse on his
+haunches with a wrench of his powerful wrist, calling, in lazy drawl:
+"Howdy, folks, howdy. Well, I see you've got 'im," he remarked to
+Curtis.
+
+"You've been ridin' hard," said Winters; "what's your rush? Anything
+doin'?"
+
+Calvin looked down at his panting, reeking horse, and carelessly
+replied: "Oh no. I'm just takin' it out o' this watch-eyed bronco." He
+exchanged a look with the sheriff. "I thought I'd ketch ye 'fore ye left
+the agency. I'd like a word with you, sheriff; tumble out here for a
+minute. You'll wait a second, won't you, Major?"
+
+Curtis looked up at the sun. "Yes; but be quick."
+
+Calvin slid from his horse, and while the sheriff was climbing stiffly
+down on the opposite side slipped a note into Curtis's hand.
+
+As the sheriff listened to Calvin's low-voiced report Curtis glanced at
+the paper. It was in pencil, and from Elsie. "The mob is waiting at the
+half-way house, cruel as wolves--turn back--for my sake."
+
+Curtis crumpled the paper in his hand and called out imperatively:
+"Come, Sheriff Winters, I cannot wait."
+
+Winters turned away smilingly. "That's all right, Cal. I didn't
+understand, that's all. I'm glad the boys went home. Of course the
+troops settled everything."
+
+Curtis caught Calvin's eye, and a nod, almost imperceptible, passed
+between them, and the cowboy was aware that the soldier understood the
+situation. "Where did you leave the Senator?"
+
+"At the half-way house."
+
+"How was he?"
+
+"Feeling well enough to make a speech," replied Calvin.
+
+The other team, containing Grismore and the reporters, was by this time
+but a few rods away, and, watching his opportunity, Curtis signalled:
+"Stop that wagon--hold them here." Calvin again nodded. "Drive on,"
+called Curtis. And Winters smiled with rare satisfaction.
+
+Some miles before reaching the border of the reservation, Two Horns, at
+a sign from Curtis, left the main road and began to climb a low ridge to
+the east.
+
+The sheriff turned and called sharply: "Where is he going?"
+
+"He has his orders, Mr. Sheriff."
+
+"He's taking the wrong road. It is five miles farther that way."
+
+"He is following my orders."
+
+"But I don't see the sense of it."
+
+"You are only a passenger. If you don't care to ride with us you can
+walk," replied Curtis, and the sheriff settled back into his seat with a
+curse. The second wagon had been left far behind, and would undoubtedly
+keep the main road, a mishap Curtis had calculated upon.
+
+An hour or two of extra travel would not matter, especially as the mob
+was being left safely on the left.
+
+The warning from Elsie had a singular effect upon the soldier. He grew
+almost gay at the thought of her care of him. In some occult way the
+little card meant a great deal more than its few words. If they were
+delayed at the half-way house they might not reach Pinon in time for the
+afternoon train, and so--"I may see her again."
+
+As he neared the boundary of the reservation the sheriff gained in
+resolution. Looking backward, he saw his own team following, outlined
+like a rock against the sky, just topping a ridge, and reaching over he
+laid his hand on the reins and pulled the horses to a stand.
+
+"Right here _I_ take charge!" he growled. "I'm on my own ground. Get out
+o' there!" he said to the prisoner, and as he spoke he drew his revolver
+and leaped to the ground.
+
+Cut Finger turned towards Curtis, whose face was set and stern. "Sit
+still!" he commanded, with a gesture. "Put up your gun!" he said to
+Crow, who had drawn his revolver, ready to defend his prisoner.
+
+Winters flew into bluster. "Do you defy my authority now? I'm sheriff of
+this county!" he shouted. "Your control ends right here! This is State
+territory."
+
+Curtis eyed him calmly. "I started out to give this man safe convoy to
+the prison, and I'm going to do it! Not only that--he is a ward of the
+government, even when lodged in the county jail, and it is my duty to
+see that he has fair trial; then, and not till then, will I abandon him
+to the ferocity of your mob. I know your plan, and I have defeated it.
+Do you intend to ride with us?"
+
+The sheriff's courage again failed him as he looked up into the direct,
+unwavering eagle gaze of the young officer. He began to curse. "We'll
+have your hide for this! You've gone too far! You've defied the laws of
+the county!"
+
+"Drive on," said Curtis, and Two Horns touched his ponies with the whip.
+
+"Halt, or I fire!" shouted Winters.
+
+"Drive on!" commanded Curtis, and Two Horns laid the whip hard on the
+back of his off horse.
+
+Winters fired, but the bullet went wide; he dared not aim to kill. Cut
+Finger rose as if to leap from the wagon, but Crow seized him with one
+great brown paw and thrust his shining gun against his breast. "Sit
+down, brother!" he said, grimly. "We'll care for you."
+
+The prisoner sank back into his seat trembling with excitement, while
+the wife began to cry piteously.
+
+Curtis, looking back, saw the sheriff waving his revolver maniacally,
+but his curses fainted on the way. A sudden reaction to humor set in,
+and the young agent laughed a hearty chuckle which made his faithful
+Tetong aids break into sympathetic grins.
+
+Nevertheless, the case was not entirely humorous. In a certain sense he
+had cut athwart the law in this last transaction, though in doing so he
+had prevented an act of violence which would have still further
+embittered the tribe. "I am right," he said, and put away all further
+doubt.
+
+The drive now settled into a race for the jail. "The sheriff, after
+being picked up by his own party, will undertake to overhaul us,"
+reasoned Curtis, but that did not trouble him so much as the thought of
+what lay before him.
+
+The road ran along Willow Creek, winding as the stream itself, and
+Curtis could not avoid the thought of an ambuscade. On the right were
+clumps of tall willows capable of concealing horsemen, while on the left
+the hot, treeless banks rose a hundred feet above the wagon, and the
+loopings of the track prevented a view of what was coming. If the mob
+should get impatient, or if they should suspect his trick, it would be
+easy to send a detachment across the hills and intercept him. "Push
+hard!" he signed to Two Horns.
+
+The road was smooth and dusty and descended rapidly, so that the horses
+had little to do but guide the tongue. As the wagon rocked and reeled
+past the ranch houses, the settlers had hardly time to discern what
+manner of man was driving, but they were thrown into fierce panic by the
+clatter of fleeing horses and the cloud of prophetic dust. The sheriff
+was not in sight, and no sound of him could be detected in the whiz of
+their own wheels.
+
+At last Two Horns, with his moccasined foot on the brake, broke through
+the hills out upon the valley land, with Pinon City in sight. The mob
+and the sheriff were alike left behind. Ambush was now impossible.
+
+"Easy now, Two Horns," called Curtis, with a smile and an explanatory
+gesture. "We're safe now; the angry white men are behind," and the
+reeking, dusty, begrimed horses fell into a walk.
+
+The hour for their arrival in Pinon City was fortunate. The town was
+still at supper, and in the dusk Curtis and prisoner escaped notice.
+They hurried across the main street and on towards the jail, which stood
+on a little knoll just outside the town.
+
+As they drew up before the door a young man came out and stared with
+inquiring gaze.
+
+Curtis spoke first. "Are you the turnkey?"
+
+"I'm in charge here; yes, sir."
+
+"I am Captain Curtis, the agent. This is Cut Finger, charged with the
+murder of a white man. I have brought him in. The sheriff is just
+behind." He turned to the prisoner and signed. "Get down! Here is the
+strong-house where you are to stay!"
+
+Cut Finger clambered slowly down, his face rigid, his limbs tremulous
+with emotion. To go to the dark room of the strong-house was the worst
+fate that could overtake a free man of the hills, and his heart
+fluttered like a scared bird.
+
+"It would be a good plan to let his wife go in with him," suggested
+Curtis. "It will save trouble."
+
+The poor, whimpering girl-wife followed her culprit husband up the steps
+and into the cold and gloomy hall to which they were admitted, her eyes
+on the floor, her sleeping child held tightly in her arms. When the
+gate shut behind him Curtis signed to the prisoner this advice:
+
+"Now be good. Do not make any trouble. Do what these people tell you.
+Eat your food. I will ask the sheriff to let your wife see you in the
+morning, and then she will go home again. She can come once each month
+to see you." He touched the wife on the arm, and when she comprehended
+his gesture she uttered again that whimpering moan, and as she bent her
+head in dumb agony above her babe, Curtis gently led her to the door,
+leaving Cut Finger to the rigor of the white man's law.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+AN EVENTFUL NIGHT
+
+
+At the railway station Curtis alighted. "Go to Paul Ladue's," he said to
+Two Horns. "Put the horses in his corral and feed them well. Sit down
+with Paul, and to-morrow morning at sunrise come for me at the big
+hotel. Be careful. Don't go on the street to-night. The white men have
+evil hearts."
+
+"We know," said Crow, with a clip of his forefinger. "We will sleep like
+the wolf, with one eye open."
+
+As they drove away, Curtis hurried into the station, and calling for a
+blank, dashed away at a brief telegram to the Commissioner. While
+revising it he overheard the clerk say, in answer to a question over the
+telephone: "No, Senator Brisbane did not get away on 'sixteen.' He is
+still at the Sherman House."
+
+Curtis straightened and his heart leaped. "Then I can see Elsie again!"
+he thought. Hastily pencilling two or three shorter messages, he handed
+them in and hurried up the street towards the hotel, eager to relieve
+her anxiety.
+
+By this time the violet dusk of a peaceful night covered the town. The
+moon, low down in the west, was dim, but the stars were beginning to
+loom large in the wonderful deep blue to the east. The air was
+windless. No cloud was to be seen, and yet the soldier had a touch of
+uneasiness. "I wish I had brought my faithful men with me to the Sherman
+House. However, there is no real cause to worry. Paul is more Tetong
+than borderman--and will protect them--if only they keep off the
+street."
+
+He began to meet men in close-packed groups on the sidewalk--roughly
+clad citizens who seemed absorbed in the discussion of some important
+event. A few of them recognized him as he passed, and one called, in a
+bitter tone, "There goes the cur himself!" Curtis did not turn, though
+the tone, more insulting than the words, made his heart hot with battle.
+It was plain that the sheriff and his party had already entered and
+reported their defeat. A saloon emptied a mob of loud-voiced men upon
+the sidewalk before him, and though he feared trouble he pushed steadily
+forward. The ruffians gave way before his resolute feet, but he felt
+their hate beating like flame upon his face. He dared not turn a
+hair's-breadth to the right nor to the left; nothing was better than to
+walk straight on. "They will not shoot me in the back," he reasoned, and
+beyond a volley of curses he remained unassaulted.
+
+The rotunda of the hotel was filled with a different but not less
+dangerous throng of excited politicians and leading citizens, who had
+assembled to escort Brisbane to the opera-house. The talk, though less
+profane than that of the saloon loafers, was hardly less bitter against
+the agent. Mingled with these district bosses were a half-dozen
+newspaper men, who instantly rushed upon Curtis in frank and boyish
+rivalry. "Captain, what is the news?" they breathlessly asked, with pads
+and pencils ready for his undoing.
+
+"All quiet!" was his curt reply.
+
+"But--but--how about--"
+
+"All lies!" he interrupted to say, and pushed on to the desk. "Is
+Senator Brisbane and party still here?" he asked, as he signed his name
+in the book.
+
+The clerk applied the blotter. "Yes; he is still at supper."
+
+The young soldier took time to wash the dust from his face and hands and
+smooth his hair before entering the dining-room. At the threshold he
+paused and took account of his enemies. Brisbane and three of his most
+trusted supporters, still sitting at coffee, were holding a low-voiced
+consultation at a corner table, while Lawson and Elsie sat waiting some
+distance away and near an open window. The Parkers were not in view.
+
+Elsie, at sight of her lover, rose impulsively, and her face, tired and
+pale, flushed to a beautiful pink. Her lips formed the words "Why, there
+is Captain Curtis!" but her voice was inaudible.
+
+He hastened forward with eyes only for her, and she met him with both
+hands outstretched--eager, joyous!
+
+"Oh, how good it is to see you! We were so alarmed--Calvin warned you?"
+
+"Yes. He met me just before I left the reservation."
+
+"But I expected you to bring soldiers; how did you escape? Did you find
+the cattlemen gone?"
+
+"I flanked them." His face relaxed into humor. "Discretion is a sort of
+valor sometimes. I took the Willow road."
+
+Lawson now joined them, and in his hand-clasp was a brother's regard for
+the soldier. His smile was exultant. "Good work! I knew Calvin could be
+trusted. It looked bad for Cut Finger when we reached the half-way
+house."
+
+"You must be hungry!" exclaimed Elsie. "Sit here and I will order
+something for you."
+
+"I _was hungry_ an hour ago," he said, meaningly, "but now I am not. But
+I am tired," he added. "Where are the Parkers?"
+
+Elsie laughed. "On their way to civilization. They fled on the
+up-train."
+
+"The town is aflame," said Lawson. "You and your Tetongs are an issue
+here to-night. A big meeting is called, and the Senator is to speak. He
+has just discovered you," he added, glancing towards Brisbane, who had
+risen and was glaring at Curtis, his small eyes hot as those of an angry
+bear.
+
+"Excuse me, won't you?" pleaded Elsie, rising hastily. "I must go to
+him!"
+
+Curtis also rose and looked soberly into her eyes. "May I not see you
+again?"
+
+She hesitated. "Yes. I'm not going to the meeting. Come to our parlor
+when you are finished supper."
+
+He remained standing till she joined her father and passed from the
+room, then he turned towards Lawson, who said:
+
+"Seriously, my dear Curtis, you are in danger here. I hope you will not
+go out this evening. Even Uncle Sam's blue might not prove a protection
+in the dark of a night like this. Where did you house your men?"
+
+"At Ladue's, with orders not to leave the corral."
+
+"Quite right. Where is the sheriff?"
+
+This question brought a humorous light into the young soldier's eyes.
+"When I saw him last he was on Sage-hen Flat swinging his revolver and
+cursing me," and he told the story.
+
+Lawson grew grave. "I'm sorry you had to do that; it will give your
+enemies another grip on you. It's a mere technicality, of course, but
+they'll use it. You must watch every one of your clerks from this on;
+they'll trump up a charge against you if they can, and secure a
+court-martial. This election is really the last dying struggle of the
+political banditti of the State, and they will be defeated. Take
+to-night as an example. The reckless devils, the loud of mouth are alone
+in evidence, the better class of citizens dare not protest--dare not
+appear on the streets. But don't be deceived, you have your supporters
+even here, in the midst of this saturnalia of hate. You are an issue."
+
+Curtis grimly smiled. "I accept the challenge! They can only order me
+back to my regiment."
+
+"As for Brisbane, he is on the point of collapse. He has lost his
+self-control. He has attained a fixed notion that you are his most
+dangerous enemy; the mention of your name throws him into fury. I lost
+patience with him to-day, and opened fire. 'You are doomed to defeat!' I
+said to him. 'You represent the ignoble, greedy, conscienceless hustler
+and speculator, not the peaceful, justice-loving citizen of this State.
+Your dominion is gone; the reign of order and peace is about to begin.'
+If it were not for Elsie I would publicly denounce him, for his election
+would work incalculable injury to the West. But he can't fill the
+legislature with his men as he did twelve years ago. He will fail of
+election by fifty votes."
+
+"I hope so," responded Curtis, with a sigh, as Lawson rose. "But I have
+no faith in the courage of the better element; virtue is so timid and
+evil is always so fully organized."
+
+After Lawson left him Curtis hurriedly finished his supper and went his
+way to his room for a moment's rest. Through the open windows he could
+hear the cheering which greeted Brisbane's entrance into the
+opera-house, which faced upon the little square before the hotel. The
+street was thronging with noisy boys, and at intervals a band of young
+herders clattered into the square. Their horses thickened along the
+hitching-poles, and the saloons swarmed with men already inflamed with
+drink. The air seemed heavy, oppressive, electrical, and the shrill
+cheers which rose above the dull rumble of pounding boot-heels in the
+hall possessed a savage animal vehemence. Again a sense of impending
+disaster swept over the young officer. "I am tired and nervous," he
+thought. "Surely law and order rules in a civilized community like
+this."
+
+He put away all thoughts of war as he followed the boy up the stair-way
+to the Brisbane private parlor, and became the lover, palpitant with the
+hope that he was about to see Elsie alone.
+
+She met him at the door, her face a-quiver with feeling, a note of alarm
+in her voice. "Have you heard the cheering? They are denouncing you over
+there!"
+
+"I suppose so. But let's not talk of such unimportant matters; this is
+our last evening together, and I want to forget the storm outside. Since
+I left you last night I have had a most remarkable experience, and I--"
+
+"Oh, you mean catching the murderer; tell me about it!"
+
+"No. Oh no; that is not worth telling. I mean something more intimately
+personal." Shrill yells from across the way interrupted him, and Elsie
+rose and shut the window. "I hate them; they are worse than savages,"
+she said. "Please don't mind them."
+
+He went on: "I was about to say I had a deal of time to think on my long
+ride this morning, and I reached some conclusions which I want to tell
+you about. When my prisoner was safe in the guard-house, I went over to
+see how my little temple of art looked--I mean your studio, of course. I
+closed the door and dropped into one of the big chairs, hoping to gain
+rest and serenity in the beauty and quiet of the place. But I didn't; I
+was painfully depressed."
+
+She opened her eyes very wide at this. "Why?"
+
+"Because everything I saw there emphasized the irrevocable loss I had
+suffered. I couldn't endure the thought of it, and I fled. I could not
+remain without weeping, and you know a man is ashamed of his tears; but
+when I got your note of warning I flung conscience to the winds! 'It is
+not a crime to love a woman,' I said. 'I will write to her and say to
+her "I love you, no matter what happens;"' and, now I find you here, I
+tell it to you instead of writing it."
+
+She was facing him with a look of perplexity and alarm. One hand laid
+upon her throat seemed to express suffering. When she spoke her voice
+was very low.
+
+"What do you expect me to say; you make it so hard for me! Why do you
+tell me this?"
+
+"Because I could not rest till I had spoken. For a long time I thought
+you were bound to Lawson, and since then I've tried to keep silent
+because of my poverty and--no one knows better than I the unreason of it
+all--I do not ask you to speak except to say, 'I am sorry.' When I found
+you were still within reach, the desire to let you know my feeling
+overcame every other consideration. I can't even do the customary thing
+and ask you to wait, for my future is as uncertain as my present, but if
+you could say you loved me--a little--" he paused abruptly, as though
+choked into silence by a merciless hand.
+
+Elsie remained silent, with her eyes turned towards the window, her
+hands in her lap, and at last he went on:
+
+"If your father is a true prophet, I shall be ordered back to my
+regiment. That will hurt me, but it won't ruin me exactly. It would be a
+shameful thing if the department sacrificed me to expediency; but
+politicians are wonderful people! If you were not so much an artist and
+Andrew Brisbane's daughter, I would ask you to come to me and help me do
+my work, but I can't quite do that--yet; I can only say you are more to
+me now than any other soul in the world. I do this because I can't keep
+from it," he repeated, in poor ending.
+
+"I've heard that the best way to make a woman love a man is to persecute
+the man," she replied, smiling a little, though her eyes were wet.
+"When you were apparently triumphant I hated you--now--" she hesitated
+and a sudden timidity shook her.
+
+He sprang up. "Can you carry out the figure? I dare you to finish the
+sentence. Do you care for me a little?" His face, suddenly illuminated,
+moved her powerfully.
+
+"I'm afraid I do--wait, please!" She stopped him with a gesture. "You
+mustn't think I mean more than I do. My mind is all in a whirl now; it
+isn't fair to hurry me; I must take time to consider. Your being poor
+and an Indian agent wouldn't make any difference to me if I--But I must
+be sure. I respect you--I admire you very much--and last night when I
+said good-bye I felt a sharp pain here." She put her hand to her throat.
+"But I must be sure. There are so many things against it," she ended,
+covering her eyes with her hand in piteous perplexity.
+
+His eyes were alight, his voice eager. "It would be such a glorious
+thing if you could join me in my work."
+
+The mention of his work stung her. "Oh no! It is impossible. I should
+die here! I have no sense of duty towards these poor vagabonds. I'm
+sorry for them--but to live here--no, no! You must not ask it. You must
+go your way and I will go mine. You are only torturing me needlessly."
+
+"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I did not mean to do so."
+
+She continued, wildly: "Can't you see how crazy, how impossible, it is?
+I admire you--I believe in your work--it is magnificent; but I can't
+live your life. My friends, my art, mean too much to me."
+
+There was a tremulous, passionate pleading which failed of finality: it
+perplexed her lover; it did not convince him.
+
+"You are right; of course you are right," he said again; "but that does
+not help me to bear the pain of your loss. I can't let you go out of my
+life--utterly--I can't do it--I will not--Hark! What is that?"
+
+A faint, far-off, thundering sound interrupted him. A rushing roar, as
+of many horsemen rapidly approaching. Hastening to the window, Curtis
+bent his head to listen. "It sounds like a cavalry charge. Here they
+come! Cowboys--a mob of them! Can it be Yarpe's gang? Yes; that is
+precisely what it is. Yarpe leading them into some further deviltry."
+
+Whooping and cursing, and urging their tired horses with quirt and spur,
+the desperadoes, somewhat thinned of ranks, pouring by in clattering,
+pounding rush--as orderless as a charging squad of Sioux
+warriors--turned up a side street and disappeared almost before any one
+but Curtis was aware of them.
+
+"They are bent on mischief," said the soldier as he turned upon the
+girl, all personal feeling swept away by the passing mob. "They have
+followed me in to force the jail and hang Cut Finger." He caught up his
+cap. "I must prevent it!"
+
+"No! No!" cried Elsie, seizing his arm. "You must not go out in the
+street to-night--they will kill you--please don't go--you have done your
+duty. Now let the mayor act, I beg of you!"
+
+"Dear girl, I _must_ thwart this lynching party. I would be disgraced!
+Don't you see? They have seized the moment when the citizens are all in
+the hall away from the jail to do this thing. I must alarm the town and
+prevent them."
+
+Even as he pleaded with her the tumult in the hall broke forth again,
+roared for a moment in wild crescendo, and then ceased instantly,
+strangely. A moment's silence followed, and a confused murmur arose,
+quite different from any sound which had hitherto emanated from the
+hall. A powerful voice dominated all others, and through the open
+windows the words of command could be distinctly heard. "_Keep back
+there! Keep your seats!_"
+
+"The meeting is breaking up!" exclaimed Curtis. "Some one has alarmed
+them. See, they are pouring out to prevent this crazy mob from carrying
+out its plan."
+
+The shouting ceased, but the trample of feet and the murmur of voices
+thickened to a clamor, and Elsie turned white with a new fear. "They are
+rushing across the square! Perhaps they are coming for _you_!"
+
+"I don't think so; they would not dare to attack me--they hate me,
+but--"
+
+Her over-wrought nerves gave way. A panic seized her. "Hide! Hide! They
+will kill you!" she cried out, hoarsely.
+
+"No; I am going to help them defend the jail."
+
+"For my sake!" she pleaded, "don't leave me! Listen! they are coming!"
+she whispered. The sound of many feet could be heard in the lobby below,
+the roar of a hundred voices came up the stair-way, but even the excited
+girl could now detect something hushed and solemn in the
+sound--something mournful in the measured footsteps up the stairs.
+
+"It is father!" she cried, with a flash of divination. "Something has
+happened to him!" And with this new terror in her face she hurried out
+into the hall.
+
+Curtis reached her side just as the head of the procession topped the
+stair-way.
+
+Brisbane, up-borne by Lawson and a tall young stranger, first appeared,
+followed by a dozen men, who walked two and two with bared heads and
+serious faces, as if following a hearse. The stricken man's face was
+flushed and knobby, and his eyelids drooped laxly like those of a
+drunkard. He saw nothing, and his breathing was labored.
+
+"Father, what has happened?" called Elsie. "Tell me--quick!"
+
+"A touch of vertigo," answered Lawson, soothingly. "The doctor says
+nothing serious."
+
+"Are you the doctor?" she turned to the young man.
+
+"Yes. Don't be alarmed. The Senator has over-taxed himself a little,
+that is all, and needs rest. Show me his bed, and we will make him
+comfortable."
+
+Elsie led the way to the bedroom, while Curtis stood helplessly facing
+the crowd in the hall. Lawson relieved the situation by coming out a few
+moments later to say:
+
+"Gentlemen, the doctor thanks you, and requests you to leave the Senator
+to rest as quietly as possible."
+
+After this dismissal had dispersed the on-lookers, Lawson turned to
+Curtis. "The old man's work as a speaker is done. Rather tragic
+business, don't you think? He was assailing you with the utmost
+bitterness. His big, right fist was in the air like a hammer when he
+fell; but it was his last effort."
+
+Curtis seized his hand and said: "I envy you your chance to go with her
+and serve her." His voice changed. "The mob! Did you hear Yarpe and his
+men pass?"
+
+"No; when?"
+
+"Not ten minutes ago. I fear some mischief."
+
+The doctor appeared. "Mr. Lawson, a moment."
+
+As Lawson hurried into the sick-room a far-off, faint volley of
+pistol-shots broke the hush that had settled over the square. Distant
+yells succeeded, accompanied by a sound as of some giant hammering. The
+young soldier lifted his head like a young lion listening to a
+battle-call. "They are beating in the gates!" he said. For a moment he
+hesitated, but only for a moment. "She is safe!" he thought, with a
+glance towards Elsie's door. "My man and the poor little wife are not,"
+and he rushed down the stair-way and out into the street with intent to
+find and defend his faithful men.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+ELSIE CONFESSES HER LOVE
+
+
+As he paused on the steps to the hotel, a gust of bitter rage swept over
+him. "What can I do against this implacable town? Oh, for a squad of the
+boys in blue!"
+
+The street and square were filled with men all running, as to a fire,
+from left to right--a laughing, jesting throng. Along the hitching-poles
+excited and jocular cowboys were loosing their ponies and leaping to
+their saddles. Some excitable citizen had begun to ring the fire-bell,
+and women, bareheaded and white with fear, were lining the sidewalks and
+leaning from windows. The town resembled an ant-hill into which a
+fleeing bison has planted a foot.
+
+"Oh, sir!" cried one young mother as she caught sight of Curtis, "are
+the Injuns coming?"
+
+"No," he replied, bitterly, "these marauders are not Indians; they are
+noble citizens," and set off at a run towards the corral in which Two
+Horns and Crow were camped. The tumult behind him grew fainter, and at
+last died to a murmur, and only one or two houses showed a light.
+
+Ladue's was an old ranch on the river, around which the town of Pinon
+had for twenty years been slowly growing. The cabin was of stone, low
+and strong, and two sides of it formed the corner of a low corral of
+cottonwood logs. In this enclosure teamsters (for two bits) were allowed
+to camp and feed their horses. A rickety gate some fifty feet south of
+the house stood ajar, and Curtis entered the yard, calling sharply for
+Crow Wing and Two Horns. No one replied. Searching the stalls, he found
+the blankets wherein they had lain, but the tumult had undoubtedly
+called them forth into danger.
+
+Hurrying to the house, he knocked most vigorously at the door--to no
+effect. The shack was also empty. Closing the door with a slam, the
+young officer, now thoroughly alarmed, turned back towards the hotel. A
+vast, confused clamor, growing each moment louder, added edge to his
+apprehension. The crowd was evidently returning from the jail, jubilant
+and remorseless. Upon reaching the corner of the square Curtis turned to
+the left, with the design of encircling it, hoping to find the two
+redmen looking on from a door-way on the outskirts of the throng.
+
+He had crossed but one side of the plaza, when a band of cowboys dashed
+in from the opposite corner with swinging lariats, whooping shrilly, in
+close pursuit of a flying footman. A moment later a rope looped, the
+fugitive fell and the horsemen closed round him in joyous clamor, like
+dogs around a fox.
+
+With a fear that this was one of his men, Curtis raised a great shout,
+but his voice was lost in the rush and roar of the throng pouring in
+towards the fugitive. In fierce rage he rushed straight towards the
+whirling mass of horsemen, but before he had passed half the intervening
+space a horseman circled the pavilion, and the popping of a revolver,
+swift yet with deliberate pauses, began. Wild yells broke forth, the
+pursuers scattered, other revolvers began to crack, and as the press of
+horsemen reeled back, Curtis perceived Calvin, dismounted and
+bareheaded, with his back against the wall of the little wooden
+band-stand, defiant, a revolver in each hand, holding the mob at bay,
+while over his head a light sputtered and sizzled.
+
+A lane seemed to open for Curtis as he ran swiftly in towards the
+writhing, ensnared captive on the ground. It was Two Horns, struggling
+with the ropes which bound him, and just as his Little Father bent over
+him the big Tetong freed himself, and, with a sliding rush, entered the
+shadow by Calvin's side. Instantly his revolver began to speak.
+
+Curtis, left alone in the full light of the lamp on the pavilion, raised
+his arms and shouted: "Hold! Cease firing!" The crowd recognized him and
+fell silent. The army blue subdued them, and those who had done the
+shooting began to edge away.
+
+For a moment the young soldier could not speak, so furious was he, but
+at last he found words: "Cowards! Is this your way of fighting--a
+hundred to one? Where is your mayor? Have you no law in this town?" He
+turned to Calvin, who stood still, leaning against the pavilion. "Are
+you hurt?"
+
+Calvin lifted one dripping hand. "I reckon I'm punched a few. My right
+arm feels numb, and the blood is fillin' my left boot. But I'm all here,
+sure thing." But even as he spoke he reeled. Curtis caught him; he
+smiled apologetically: "That left leg o' mine, sure feels like a
+hitchin'-post; reckon some one must o' clipped a nerve somewhere."
+
+Two Horns seized him by the other arm, just as Winters blustered into
+the circle. "What's going on here; who's doin' this shootin'?"
+
+"This is a good time to ask that," remarked Curtis. "Where were you
+twenty minutes ago?"
+
+Calvin struggled to get his right hand free. "Let me have a crack at the
+beast!" he pleaded. "I saw you," he said to Winters: "you were in the
+lynching crowd, you sneak! You hung round in the shadow like a coyote."
+
+Curtis tried to calm him. "Come, this won't do, Calvin; you are losing
+blood and must have a doctor; come to the hotel."
+
+As they half-carried him away the young rancher snarled back, like a
+wounded wolf: "I disown the whole cowardly pack of ye; I put my mark on
+some of ye, too."
+
+The crowd was now so completely with Calvin that Winters hastened to
+explain: "Cal is my deputy; he was acting inside his duty! He was trying
+to keep the peace and you had no business fightin'," and proceeded to
+arrest some fairly innocent by-standers, while the wounded desperadoes
+were being swiftly hidden away by their friends, and the remaining
+citizens of the town talked of what should have been done.
+
+Calvin continued to explain as they hurried him through the excited
+throng. "I tried to stand 'em off at the jail," he said, "but I couldn't
+get near enough; my cayuse was used up. Oh, you was there!" he called to
+a tall man with a new sombrero, "I saw you, Bill Vawney, and I'll get
+you for it; I've spotted you!"
+
+He was enraged through every fibre of his strong, young body, and only
+the iron grip of the persistent men kept him from doing battle.
+
+As they neared the hotel, Curtis, looking up, glimpsed Elsie's white
+face at the window and waved his cap at her. She clapped her hands in
+joy of his return, but did not smile. The hotel lobby was packed with a
+silent mass of men, but the landlord, with authoritative voice, called
+out: "Clear the way, gentlemen!" and a lane opened for them. "Right in
+here," he added, and led the way to the parlor bedroom. The Captain and
+Calvin were now most distinguished of citizens; nothing was too good for
+them.
+
+"Bring a physician," said Curtis.
+
+"Right here," replied a cool, clear voice, and Doctor Philipps stepped
+to Calvin's side and relieved Two Horns.
+
+The young rancher sank down on the bed limply, but smiled as he
+explained: "I'm only singed a little, doc. They had me foul. You see, I
+was in the light, but I handed one or two of them something they didn't
+like. I left a keepsake with 'em. They won't forget me soon."
+
+The physician pressed him back upon the bed and began to strip his
+clothes from him. "Be quiet for five minutes and I'll have you in shape.
+We must close up your gashes."
+
+Curtis, relieved of part of his anxiety, then asked: "How is the
+Senator?"
+
+"Pretty comfortable; no danger."
+
+"Don't leave me, Major," called Calvin, as Curtis turned away to seek
+Elsie. "Don't let this chap cut me up. I'm no centipede. I need all my
+legs."
+
+There was genuine pleading in the boy's voice, and Curtis came back and
+took a chair near him while the doctor probed the wounds and dressed
+them. The officer's heart was very tender towards the reckless,
+warm-hearted young rancher as he watched his face whiten and the lips
+stiffen in the effort to conceal his pain. "Calvin, you've been loyal
+all through," he said, "and we won't forget it."
+
+At last, when the wounds were bandaged and the worst of the pain over,
+Curtis turned to Two Horns and signed:
+
+"Where is Crow and the wife of Cut Finger?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"I will go find him; you remain here. Do not fear; you are safe now. Sit
+down by Calvin's bed. You will sleep here to-night."
+
+As he made his way through the close-packed mass of excited men in the
+lobby and before the hotel, Curtis met no hostile face. It seemed that
+all men were become his friends, and eager to disclaim any share in the
+mob's action. He put their proffered hands aside and hurried back to
+Ladue's, which he found close-barred and dark.
+
+"Who's there?" called a shaking voice as he knocked.
+
+"Captain Curtis. Where is Crow?"
+
+"In here!" was the answer, in joyful voice. As he opened the door, Ladue
+reached his hand to the agent. "My God, I'm glad it is you! I was afraid
+you'd been wiped out. Where is Two Horns?"
+
+Crow, with his revolver still gripped in his hand, stepped forward, his
+face quivering with emotion. "Little Father, it is good to see you; you
+are not hurt? Where is Two Horns?"
+
+"Safe in the big house with me. The evil white men are gone; you will
+camp here, you and the wife of Cut Finger," he signed as he saw the
+cowering form of the little wife.
+
+Ladue, a big, hulking, pock-marked half-breed, began to grin. "I was
+a-scared; I sure was. I thought we was all goin' to hang. Old Bill Yarpe
+was out for game."
+
+"The better citizens are in control now," replied Curtis. "You are safe,
+but you'd better remain in the house till morning."
+
+As Curtis made his way through the crowd some one raised a cheer for
+"Major Curtis," and the cry was taken up by a hundred voices. Indignant
+citizens shouted: "We'll stand by you, Major. We'll see justice done."
+
+Curtis, as he reached the stair-way, turned and coldly said: "Make your
+words good. For four days a mob of two hundred armed men have menaced
+the lives of my employés and my wards, and you did nothing to prevent
+them. I am glad to see you appreciate the horror and the disgrace of
+this night's doings. If you mean what you say, let no guilty man escape.
+Make this night the memorable end of lawlessness in your country."
+
+"We will!" roared a big, broad-faced, black-bearded man, and the crowd
+broke into another roar of approval.
+
+Elsie was waiting at the top of the stairs, tense and white. Her eyes
+burned down into his with a singular flame as she cried out:
+
+"Why didn't you come to me sooner? Why do you walk so slowly? Are you
+hurt? Tell me the truth!"
+
+"No, only tired," he answered, as he reached her side.
+
+She put out her hand and touched his breast. "You are; you are all
+bloody. Take off your coat; let me see!"
+
+"No, it's not mine; it is poor Calvin's; he was badly wounded; he leaned
+against me."
+
+"But I saw you standing in the pistol-fire; take it off, I say!" Her
+voice was almost frenziedly insistent.
+
+He removed his coat in a daze of astonishment, and she cried out,
+triumphantly: "See! I was right; your shirt is soaked. You are wounded!"
+
+"True enough!" he replied, looking down in surprise at a big stain on
+his shoulder. "I've been 'singed,' as Calvin calls it. It can't be
+serious, for I have not felt it."
+
+A sudden faintness seized upon Elsie as she gazed fixedly upon the
+tell-tale stain. A gray whiteness passed over her face. "Oh, God!
+suppose you had been killed!" she whispered.
+
+In that shuddering whisper was the expression of the girl's complete and
+final surrender, and Curtis did not question, did not speak; he took her
+in his arms to comfort her.
+
+"My sweetheart, you _do_ love me! I doubt no more. My poverty, your
+wealth, what do they matter?"
+
+She suddenly started away. "Oh, your wound! Where is the doctor? Go to
+him!"
+
+"The touch of your lips has healed me," he protested, but she insisted.
+
+"Go! You are bleeding!" she commanded; and so, reluctantly, lingeringly,
+with most unmilitary sloth, he turned away, made numb to any physical
+pain by the tenderness in her voice.
+
+As the young surgeon was dressing the gash, he said: "Well, Captain,
+things happen in the West."
+
+"Yes, the kind of things which ought not to happen anywhere. I suppose
+they lynched poor Cut Finger?"
+
+"No; they merely shot him and dragged him to death, as near as I can
+learn."
+
+Curtis clinched his fists. "Ah, the devils! Where is the body?"
+
+"Back in the corridor of the jail."
+
+Curtis pondered the effect of this news on the tribe. "It's a little
+difficult to eliminate violence from an inferior race when such cruelty
+is manifested in those we call their teachers."
+
+He sent for Ladue, who was deep in discussion of the evening's events
+with Crow and Two Horns, and said to him: "Do not tell the wife of Cut
+Finger of the death of her husband; wait till morning. What the sheriff
+will do with the body I do not know. To-morrow say to her, 'All is over;
+go with the agent.' It will do her no good to remain here. Good-night!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was hard to realize in the peaceful light of the following morning
+that the little square had been the scene of so much cruelty and riot.
+The townspeople came forth yawning and lax, and went about their duties
+mechanically. Crow Wing and Two Horns, who would camp nowhere but on
+the floor of Curtis's room, were awake at dawn, conversing in signs, in
+order not to disturb the Little Father.
+
+He, waking a little later, called to them in greeting and said: "Now all
+is quiet. The white men are sorry. You are safe. Go to Paul's, eat and
+get ready. We must start at once for the agency. Cut Finger did an ill
+deed, and brought trouble on us all. Now he is dead, but good may come
+out of it. Go, tell the little wife; be gentle with her; say to her I
+wish her to go home with us."
+
+Silently, soberly, the two redmen left the room, and Curtis dressed and
+went at once to find Calvin. The boy looked up as Curtis entered and
+cheerily called: "Hello, Major, I've had a lively dream. I dreamed there
+was some gun-play goin' on out in the square and you and I were in it.
+Was that right?"
+
+"I've a sore place here on my shoulder that says you are. How do you
+feel? Can you travel? If you can, I'll take you home in my buckboard."
+
+"I can travel all right, but I haven't any home to go to. The old man
+and I haven't hitched very well for a year, and this will just about
+turn me out on the range."
+
+"Well, come home with me, then; Jennie will soon have you all right
+again; she's a famous nurse, and will look out for you till your mother
+comes over, as she will. Mothers don't go back on their boys."
+
+A curious dimness came into the bold, keen eyes of the wounded youth.
+"Major, that'll suit me better than anything else I know."
+
+"Very well, if the doctor says you can travel, we'll go along together,"
+replied Curtis.
+
+He was eager to see Elsie and was pacing impatiently up and down the
+hall when Lawson met him, smiling, imperturbable. "Well, Captain, how
+are you this morning?"
+
+"Have you seen Miss Brisbane?"
+
+"No; she is still asleep, I hope. The Senator is conscious, but in a
+curious state; seems not to know or care where he is; his troubles are
+over."
+
+Even as he spoke a maid came from Elsie's room to say that her mistress
+would breakfast in her own parlor, and wished both Mr. Lawson and
+Captain Curtis to join her in half an hour.
+
+Lawson, in discussing the events of the night, was decidedly optimistic.
+"This outbreak will bring about a reaction," he said, with conviction.
+"You will find every decent man on your side to-day."
+
+"I hope so," responded Curtis. "But last night's mob made me long for my
+Gray-Horse Troop."
+
+When they entered the little parlor Elsie rose and passed straight to
+Curtis without coquetry or concealment. "How is your wound? Did you
+sleep?"
+
+He assured her that he was almost as well as ever, and not till she had
+convinced herself of the truth did she turn to Lawson. "Osborne, I can
+never thank you enough for your good, kind help."
+
+Osborne protested that he had done nothing worth considering, and they
+took seats at the table--a subdued and quiet group, for Lawson was still
+suffering from his loss, and the lovers could not conceal from
+themselves the knowledge that this was their last meeting for many long
+months. Elsie was a being transformed, so tender, so wilful, so
+strangely sweet and womanly was she in every smile and in every
+gesture.
+
+They dwelt upon impersonal topics so long as Lawson remained; but he,
+being ill at ease, hastened with his coffee, and soon made excuse to
+withdraw, leaving them alone. For a moment they faced each other, and
+then, with a wistful cadence in his voice, Curtis said, "Dear girl, it's
+hard to say good-bye now, just when I have found you, but I must return
+at once."
+
+"Oh, must you? Can't you wait till we go--this afternoon?"
+
+"No; I must be the first to carry this dreadful news to my people."
+
+"You are right, of course; but I'll miss you so, and you need me. Say
+you need me!"
+
+"Need you! Of course I do; but you cannot stay with me and I cannot go
+with you."
+
+"I know, I know!" she sighed, resignedly. "But it hurts all the same."
+
+"This tumult will die out soon," he went on, in the effort to comfort
+her, "and then I can come on to Washington for a visit. I warn you I've
+lost all my scruples; seventeen hundred million dollars are as straws in
+my path, now that I know you really care for me."
+
+"I don't feel rich now; I feel very poor. You must come to Washington
+soon."
+
+"I warn you that when I come I will ask hard things of you!" He rose and
+his face darkened. "But my duty calls!"
+
+She came to him and yielded herself to his embrace. "My queenly,
+beautiful girl! It is sweet to have you here in my arms; but I _must_
+say good-bye--good-bye."
+
+In spite of his words he held her till she, with an instinctive
+movement, pushed from his arms. "Go--go quick!" she exclaimed, in a low,
+imperative voice.
+
+Not staying to wonder at the meaning of her strange dismissal, he turned
+and left the room without looking back.
+
+Only after he had helped Calvin into the wagon, and had taken his seat
+beside him, did the young soldier lift his eyes in search of her face at
+the window. She was looking down upon him, tears were on her cheeks, but
+she blew a kiss from her finger-tips, not caring if all the world were
+there to see.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+SEED-TIME
+
+
+As Lawson predicted, the very violence of this outburst of racial hatred
+was its cure. A reaction set in. The leaders of Brisbane's party, with
+loud shouts, ordered their harriers back to their lairs, while the great
+leader himself, oblivious to daylight or to darkness, was hurried home
+to Washington. The Tetongs returned to their camps and hay-making, the
+troops drilled peacefully each afternoon in the broiling heat, while
+Curtis bent to his work again with a desperate sort of energy, as if by
+so doing he could shorten the long, hot days, which seemed well-nigh
+interminable after the passing of Elsie and her friends.
+
+In a letter announcing their safe arrival in Washington, Elsie said:
+
+     "I am going to see the President about you, as soon as he
+     returns from the mountains. Papa is gaining, but takes no
+     interest in anything. He is pitifully weak, but the doctor
+     thinks he will recover if he will only rest. His brain is worn
+     out and needs complete freedom from care. Congress has
+     adjourned finally. I am told that your enemies expect to secure
+     a court-martial on the charge of usurping the authority of the
+     sheriff. Osborne says not to worry, for nothing will be done
+     now till the President returns, and he is confident that the
+     department will sustain you--the fact that the violence you
+     feared did actually take place has robbed your enemies of their
+     power."
+
+Nevertheless, the fight against the Tetongs and himself went on with
+ever-increasing rancor during July and August, and each Congressional
+candidate was sharply interrogated as to his attitude towards the
+removal bill. The anti-administration papers boldly said: "If we win
+(and we will) we'll cut the comb of this bantam. We'll break his sabre
+over his back."
+
+To this the opposition made answer: "We're no lovers of the redman, but
+Captain Curtis is an honorable soldier, doing his duty, and it will not
+be easy for you, even if victorious, to order a court-martial."
+
+This half-hearted defence gave courage to those who took the high ground
+that the time for lynching had gone by. "The Tetongs have rights which
+every decent man is bound to respect, no matter how much he personally
+dislikes the redskin."
+
+During the last days of August a letter came from Elsie, full of
+comforting assurances, both public and private, being more intimate and
+tender in tone than any that had preceded it, and full of sprightly
+humor too. It began:
+
+     "MY DEAR SOLDIER,--I've been so busy fighting your enemies I
+     couldn't write a letter. I've met both the Secretary and the
+     commissioner--their desks are said to be full of screeds
+     against you--_and I've been to see the President_! He wasn't a
+     bit gallant, but he listened. He glowered at me (not unkindly)
+     while I told your story. I'm afraid I didn't phrase it very
+     well, but he listened. I brought out all the good points I
+     could think of. I said: 'Mr. President, Captain Curtis is the
+     most disinterested man in the Indian service. He is sacrificing
+     everything for his plans.' 'What are his plans?' he asked, so
+     abruptly that I jumped. I then spoke learnedly of irrigating
+     ditches and gardens; you would have laughed had you heard me,
+     and I said: 'If he is ordered back to his regiment, Mr.
+     President, these poor people will be robbed again.' 'Does Mr.
+     Blank, of New York, endorse Captain Curtis?' he asked. I didn't
+     see what this led to, but I answered that I did not know. 'He's
+     a friend of yours, isn't he?' he asked. 'Whom do you mean?' I
+     said, and my cheeks burned. Then he smiled. 'You needn't
+     worry,' he said, banging the table with his fist. 'I'll keep
+     Captain Curtis where he is if every politician in the State
+     petitions for his removal.' I liked his wooden cuss-word, and I
+     thanked him and jumped up and hurried home to write this
+     letter. The Secretary told Osborne that the bill for buying out
+     the settlers would certainly go through next winter, and that
+     your plans were approved by the whole department. So, you see,
+     you are master of the situation, and can plan as grandly as you
+     wish--the entire reservation is yours.
+
+     "It is still hot here, and now that my 'lobbying' is done, I am
+     going to the sea-shore, where papa is, and I know I shall wish
+     you were with me to enjoy it. I am so sorry for you and Jennie,
+     my heart aches for you. Think of it! The cool, beautiful ocean
+     will be singing me to sleep to-night. I wish I could send you
+     some fruit and some ices; I know you are longing for them.
+
+     "I wonder how it will all turn out? Will you be East this
+     winter? Perhaps I'll help you celebrate the opening of your new
+     gardens, next spring. Wouldn't you like me to come out and
+     break a bottle of wine over the first plough or water-gate or
+     something? If you do, maybe I'll come. If you write, address me
+     at the Brunswick, Crescent Beach. I wish you could come and see
+     me here--you look so handsome in your uniform."
+
+The soldier's answer was not a letter, it was a packet! He began by
+writing sorrowfully:
+
+     "DEAREST GIRL,--I fear I shall not be able to get away this
+     winter. There is so much here that requires my care. If the
+     bill passes, the people will be stirred up; if it doesn't pass,
+     the settlers will be uneasy, and I shall be most imperatively
+     necessary here. Nothing would be sweeter to me than a visit to
+     you at the beach. As a boy I knew the sea-shore intimately, and
+     to wall the sands with you would be to revive those sweet,
+     careless boy memories and unite them with the deepest emotions
+     of my life--my love for you, dear one. It almost makes me
+     willing to resign. In a sense it would be worth it. I _would_
+     resign only I know I am not losing the delight forever--I am
+     only postponing it a year.
+
+     "I have thought pretty deeply on my problem, dearest, and I've
+     come to this conclusion: When two people love each other as we
+     do, neither poverty nor riches--nothing but duty, should
+     separate them. Your wealth troubled me at first. I knew I could
+     not give you the comforts--not to say luxuries--you were
+     accustomed to, and I knew that my life as a soldier would
+     always make even a barrack a place of uncertain residence. I
+     must stand to my guns here till I have won my fight; then I may
+     ask for a transfer to some field where life would not be so
+     hard. If only there were ways to use your great wealth in
+     helping these people I would rejoice to be your agent in the
+     matter.
+
+     "I am a penniless suitor, but a good soldier. I can say that
+     without egotism. I think I could have acquired money had I
+     started out that way; of course I cannot do it now. Perhaps my
+     knowledge and training will come to supplement and give power
+     to your wealth. I must work. I am not one to be idle. If I go
+     on working--devising--in my own way, then my self-respect would
+     not be daunted, even though you were worth ten millions instead
+     of one. I am fitted to be the head of a department--like that
+     of Forestry, or Civil Engineering. After my work here is
+     finished I may ask for something of that kind, but I am
+     resolved to do my duty here first. I like your suggestion about
+     the water-gate. I hold you to that word, my lady. One year from
+     now, when my gardens are ready for the sickle, I will have the
+     criers announce a harvest-home festival, and you must come and
+     dance with me among my people, and then, perhaps, I will take a
+     little vacation, and return with you to the East, and be happy
+     with you among the joyous of the earth for a little season.
+     Beyond that I dare not plan."
+
+The administration was sustained, and Brisbane's forces were beaten
+back. The better elements of the State, long scattered, disintegrated,
+and without voice, spoke, and with majesty, rebuking the cruelty, the
+barbarism, and the blatant assertion of men like Musgrove and Streeter,
+who had made the State odious. Even Winters, the sheriff, was defeated,
+and a fairly humane and decent citizen put in his place, and this
+change, close down to the people, was most significant of all. "Now I
+have hope of the courts," said Curtis to Maynard.
+
+If the Tetongs did not at once apprehend the peace and comfort which the
+defeat of Brisbane's gang and the passage of the purchase bill assured
+to them, they deeply appreciated the significance of the immediate
+withdrawal of the settlers. They rejoiced in full-toned song as their
+implacable and sleepless enemies drove their heavily laden wagons across
+the line, leaving their farms, sheds, and houses to the government for
+the use of the needy tribe.
+
+The urgency of the case being fully pleaded, the whole readjustment was
+permitted to be made the following spring, and the powers of the agent
+and his employés were taxed to the uttermost. When the order actually
+came to hand, Curtis mounted his horse and rode from camp to camp,
+carrying the good news; calling the members of each band around him, he
+told the story of their victory.
+
+"Your days of hunger and cold will soon be over," he said. "The white
+man has gone from the reservation. The water of the streams, the
+ploughed fields, are all yours. Now we must set to work. Every one will
+have good ground; all will share alike, and every one must work. We must
+show the Great Father at Washington that we are glad of his kindness.
+Our friends will not be ashamed when they come to see us, and look upon
+our corn and wheat."
+
+Every man, woman, and child did as they had promised. They laid hands to
+the duties appointed them, and did so merrily. They moved at once to the
+places designated. A mighty shifting of dwellings took place first of
+all, and when this was finished they set to work. They built fences,
+they dug ditches, they ploughed and they planted, cheery as robins. Even
+the gaunt old women lifted their morose faces to the sun and muttered
+unaccustomed thanks. The old men no longer sat in complaining council,
+but talked of the wonderful things about to be.
+
+"Ho! have you heard?" cried one. "Grayman lives in the house the white
+man has left; Elk too. Two Horns sleeps in the house above Grayman, and
+is not afraid. Ah, it is wonderful!"
+
+The more thoughtful dwelt in imagination on the reservation completely
+fenced, and saw the hills swarming with cattle as in the olden time it
+swarmed with the wild, black buffalo. They helped at the gardens, these
+old men, and as they rested on their hoes and listened to the laughter
+of the women and children, they said one to the other: "Our camp is as
+it was in the days when game was plenty. Every one is smiling. Our worst
+days are over. The white man's road is very long, and runs into a
+strange country, but while Swift Eagle leads we follow."
+
+There was commotion in every corral, where long-haired men in leggings
+and with feathered ornaments in their hats, were awkwardly breaking
+fiery ponies to drive, for teams were in sharp demand. The young men who
+formerly raced horses, for lack of other things to do, and in order not
+to die of inertness, now became the hilarious teamsters of each valley.
+Every person, white or red, who could give instruction in ditching and
+planting, was employed each hour of the day. The various camps were as
+busy as ant-hills, and as full of cheer as a flock of magpies.
+
+Curtis was everywhere, superintending the moving of barns, the building
+of cabins, and the laying out of lands. Each night he returned to his
+bed so tired he could not lie flat enough, but happy in the knowledge
+that some needed and permanent improvement had that day been made.
+Lawson, faithful to his post, came on from Washington, and was a comfort
+in ways less material than wielding a hoe. He went about encouraging the
+people at their work, and his words had the quality of a poem.
+
+"You see how it is!" he said. "You need not despair. It is not true that
+the redmen are to vanish from the earth. They are now to be happy and
+have plenty of food. The white people, at last, have found out the way
+to help you."
+
+Maynard got a short leave of absence, and came over to see "the hustle,"
+as he called it, and to visit Jennie, who still refused to leave her
+post, though she had practically consented to his proposal. "We will
+see," she had said. "If George marries, then I will feel free to go with
+you; but not now."
+
+Maynard expressed the same astonishment as ever. "A man may fight a
+people a lifetime and never really know 'em. Now I consider it
+marvellous the way these devils work."
+
+Calvin, after his recovery, came seldom to the agency. He recognized the
+power and the fitness of Captain Maynard's successful courtship, and
+though Jennie wrote twice inviting him to call, he did not come, and did
+not even reply till she had almost forgotten her own letters. In a very
+erratic and laborious screed he conveyed his regrets. "I'm powfle bizzy
+just now. The old man is gone East, an' that thros all the work of the
+ranch onto me. Ime just as mutch obliged." Jennie did not laugh at this
+letter; she put it away with a sigh--"Poor boy!"
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+THE BATTLE WITH THE WEEDS
+
+
+Between the planting and the reaping lay the sun-smitten summer-time and
+a battle with the weeds! It was a period demanding patience and
+understanding in Curtis, for as the first flush of enthusiasm over the
+sowing died away, apathy and indifference sprang up naturally as
+thistles. These childlike souls said: "Behold we have done our part, now
+let Mother Earth and the Father Sun bring forth the harvest. We cannot
+ripen the grain; we can only wait. Besides, we are weary."
+
+To them harvest should follow seeding without further effort. They were
+like boys wearied with waiting for the trees to grow. The seed and the
+apple were too far apart. Curtis, understanding this lack of training in
+their lives, did not allow himself to express the impatience he
+sometimes felt. He told them that the new life they were to lead
+involved constant care, but care would bring a reward. "In the old days
+when you hunted, these things were not so." He also made honorable
+examples of men like Two Horns and Crane's Voice, who kept their gardens
+clean of all noxious plants.
+
+He organized mimic war-parties. "To-day," he said, "the warriors of Elk
+will go forth with me against these evil ones, the weeds. Each man will
+be armed with a bright hoe. Elk, old as he is, will lead, and I will go
+by his side. We will work busily till the sun has climbed half-way to
+his hill; then we will smoke."
+
+His knowledge of their needs, their habits, their modes of thinking,
+made all that he did successful. He allowed the women to bring cool
+drinks, flavored with herbs, and to build little bowers to shade their
+sons and husbands from the fierce sun while they rested. There was
+grumbling, there was envy, naturally, but less than he expected.
+
+On the first day of July he was confident of a big crop, and wrote to
+Elsie, saying: "The potatoes are in bloom, the wheat is waving in the
+wind like a green sea. I am waiting."
+
+To this she replied: "Papa's mind turns to the mountains these hot days,
+and so we are coming; also my heart yearns for a certain soldier in the
+West--a commander of shining hoes and a leader of destructive red
+ploughmen. I ought, for my own peace and comfort, to forget this
+singular creature; but, alas! I cannot. My perplexity grows daily. I
+long to see him, yet I am afraid!"
+
+These words made him tireless and of Job-like patience. "You need not
+wait till the harvest is ended," he wrote, in reply. "Come and watch the
+grain ripen, so that you will be garmented duly and ready for the feast.
+Moreover, we will snatch so many more days of joy out of the maw of
+devouring time."
+
+To this she answered: "Your expressed reasons are not overwhelming, but
+as the sun is scorching now, we leave soon. We will reach Pinon City in
+about ten days. Father is quite well, but restless with the heat. I am
+well, but restless, for other reasons. I don't see that the problem of
+our lives is any nearer solution, do you? What can I do? What can you
+do? Is there any common ground?"
+
+"There are no problems now that you are coming," he replied.
+
+It was with a deep surprise and joy that she found herself trembling
+before each of his letters. All the old-time ecstasy and breathless
+passion of her girlhood came back to her, but enlarged, and based
+deeper, a woman's care and introspection giving it greater significance
+and power.
+
+The next day after Elsie's definite promise Curtis rode over to the
+first camp and called the people round him and said:
+
+"Next week we will hold our feast to give thanks for the good things the
+earth has given to us, and after we have councilled together we will
+feast and have a dance. Let everything be in order. Come in your finest
+dress. Let every garment be as it was of old. Let the young girls be
+very beautiful in whitened buckskin and beads. I do not despise your
+old-time dress; I like it. Hereafter, when you work you will need to
+wear white man's clothes, for they are more comfortable; but when you
+wish to have a good time, then your old dress will be pleasant. I do not
+ask you to forget the old time. It is past, but it is sweet to you. I
+want you to be happy, for I am happy."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+THE HARVEST-HOME
+
+
+The hay-harvest was still going on when Curtis and Jennie drove down the
+valley to meet Elsie and Lawson at Pinon City. "Father is much changed,"
+Elsie had written. "You will hardly know him now. He has forgotten all
+about his campaign; he remembers you only momentarily, so that you need
+not feel any resentment. He will probably meet you as if he had never
+seen you before. Please do not show any surprise, no matter what he
+says."
+
+Curtis expected to find Brisbane a poor shambling wreck of a man, morose
+and sorrowful to look upon, and his astonishment was correspondingly
+profound as the ex-Senator descended from the train. His step was
+vigorous, and his face was placid and of good color; thus much the young
+soldier took in at a glance, then he forgot all the world in the radiant
+face of his heart's beloved.
+
+As she put up her lips to be kissed, Elsie's eyes were dim with tears,
+and she hurried to Jennie as if for relief from her emotion. When she
+turned, her father was shaking hands urbanely with Curtis.
+
+"Glad to meet you, sir," he said, in the tone of the suave man of
+position. "I didn't catch the name."
+
+A spasm of pain crossed Elsie's face. "This is Mr. Curtis, papa. Don't
+you remember Captain Curtis?"
+
+"Ah, yes, so it is," he replied. "I remember you spoke of him once
+before. I am very glad to make your acquaintance--very glad indeed,
+sir."
+
+To meet this calm politeness in a man who, in his right mind, would have
+refused to shake hands, was deeply moving to the young officer. To all
+outward appearance the great promoter was the same, and on all matters
+concerning his first campaign and first term, and especially on the
+events of his early life, he spoke with freedom, even with humor, but of
+the incidents of the later campaign he had no recollection. That he had
+been defeated and humbled seemed also to have left no lasting mark upon
+his mind.
+
+"The fact is, my memory has grown very bad," he explained. "I can
+remember faces in a dim way, but anything that is said to me I forget
+instantly."
+
+For a time the thought of Brisbane's mental decay threw a gloom over the
+party, but Elsie said: "Please don't mind him. I have reached a certain
+philosophic calm in the matter. I can do him no good by sorrowing. I
+have, therefore, determined to be as happy as I can."
+
+Curtis cheerfully called: "We must start at once. Will your father go
+with us?"
+
+"Oh no! I am afraid to have him undertake that. He will go on to Copper
+City with his secretary."
+
+"Of course, that is best," replied Curtis, vastly relieved.
+
+Brisbane parted with Elsie quite matter-of-factly, and his urbanity
+remained unbroken as he shook hands with Curtis. "Pleased to have met
+you, sir," he said, and, in spite of her resolution, the tears filled
+the daughter's eyes. The old warrior's smiling forgetfulness of feuds
+was tragic.
+
+As they rode homeward, Curtis and Elsie sat as before on the forward
+seat, and he detailed what had taken place at the agency, and she
+listened, genuinely absorbed. She laughed and she wept a little as his
+story touched on the pathetic incidents of the year.
+
+"You are like a father confessor," she said. "You hold in your hands the
+most intimate secrets of your people. I don't understand your patience
+with them. Do you feel that you have made your demonstration?"
+
+"What I have done is written in lines of gold and green on the earth.
+The sky is too bright to remember my gray days," he replied, most
+exultantly.
+
+She looked at him quizzically. "You are developing new and singular
+powers."
+
+"I have a new and singular teacher."
+
+"New?" she queried.
+
+"New to me," he answered, and in such enigmatic way they expressed their
+emotion while Lawson and Jennie chatted gayly and in clear prose behind.
+Part of the time Elsie drove, and that gave Curtis an excuse to lay his
+hand on her wrist when he wished her to drive slow. At the half-way
+house she shuddered and made a mouth of disgust. "Let's hurry past here;
+I have a bad heart when I think of those horrible men."
+
+"They are thinning out, and this ranch has 'changed hands' as they say
+on restaurant signs in Chicago. Here's our north line of fence," he
+said, as they came to a big, new gate. "I hastened to build this at
+once before anything happened to prevent. This keeps the stock of the
+white man out, and has stopped all friction."
+
+As they came in sight of the flag-pole, Elsie cried out: "Just think!
+This is the third time I have driven up this road in this way. Twice
+with you."
+
+"I know it is wonderful. I don't intend you to go away without me."
+
+She was ignoring every one of his suggestions now, but the flush of her
+cheek and a certain softness in her eyes encouraged him to go on.
+
+As they alighted at the door, Jennie remained to look after her bundles,
+and Curtis and Elsie entered the library together. He who had waited so
+eagerly for this moment turned and folded her close in his arms. "I need
+you, sweetest! I'll never let you go again. Never!"
+
+This was her moment to protest; but she was silent, with her face
+against his shoulder.
+
+Jennie bounced into the hall with a great deal of premonitory clatter
+and hurried Elsie to her room to rest.
+
+"And now you're to be my really truly sister," she said, closing the
+door behind her.
+
+"I think--George," she hesitated a little, and blushed before speaking
+his name, "expects it--rather confidently."
+
+"Then give me a good hug, you glorious thing!"
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+THE MINGLING OF THE OLD AND THE NEW
+
+
+Early on the morning of the great day--before the dawn, in truth--the
+Tetongs came riding in over the hills from every quarter of the earth,
+bringing their finest clothing, their newest blankets, and their whitest
+tepees, all lashed on long poles between which the patient ponies walked
+as in the olden time. Every man, woman, and child able to sit a horse
+was mounted. No one wore a white man's hat or shoes or vest; all were in
+leggings and moccasins, fringed and painted, and they carried their
+summer blankets as they once carried their robes of the buffalo-skin.
+Even the boys of six and seven wore suits cunningly fashioned and
+decorated like those of their elders. The young warriors, painted, and
+with fluttering feathers, rode their fleetest ponies, with shoulders
+bare and gleaming like bronze in the sun.
+
+With all due form, without hurry or jostling, the whole tribe camped in
+a wide ellipse, each clan in its place, each family having a fixed
+position in the circle. The tepees rose like magic, and their threads of
+smoke began to creep up into the clear sky like mysterious plants,
+slender and wavering.
+
+Greetings passed from camp to camp, the head men met in council, and, as
+the sun rose higher, swarms of the young men galloped to and fro,
+laying out a racing-course and making up for a procession under Wilson's
+direction.
+
+Curtis said: "I am not interdicting any of their customs merely because
+they belong to their old life, but because some of them are coarse or
+hurtful. Their dance is not harmful unless protracted to the point of
+interfering with their work. That they are all living somewhat in the
+past, to-day, is true; but they will put away this finery and go to work
+with me to-morrow. To cut them off from all amusement is cruel
+fanaticism. No people can endure without amusement."
+
+"How appropriate their gay colors seem in this hot, dun land!" remarked
+Elsie. "They would look gaudy in a studio; but out here they are
+grateful to the sense."
+
+In the centre of the wide circle of tepees a huge bower of pines was
+being erected for the dance, and pulsing through the air the voice of
+the criers could be heard, as they rode slowly round the circle
+publishing the programme of the day.
+
+"Looking over the camp towards the hills it is not difficult to imagine
+one's self back in the old days," said Maynard. "I saw Sitting Bull
+camped like this. See, here is the 'Soldier Lodge' or chief's
+headquarters," and he pointed to a large, handsome tepee set in one of
+the foci of the big ellipse.
+
+Everywhere they went Curtis and his friends met with hearty greeting.
+"Hoh--hoh! The Little Father!" the old men cried, and came to shake
+hands, and the women smiled, looking up from their work. The little
+children, though they ran away at first, came out again when they knew
+that it was the Captain who called. Jennie gave hints about the cooking,
+and praised the neat tepees and the pretty dresses, while Elsie, looking
+upon it all with reflective eyes, could not help thinking, "Such will be
+my work if I do my duty as a wife."
+
+Once she looked at the firm, bold, facial outlines of the man she had
+learned to love, and snuggled a little closer into his shelter; he would
+toil to make every hardship light, that was certain; but, oh! the dreary
+winters! There were moments when she took to herself a part of the love
+and obedience this people showed Curtis. Here was a little kingdom over
+which Curtis reigned, a despotic monarch, and she, if she did her duty,
+would reign by his side. It had, at least, the virtue of being an
+unconventional self-sacrifice. And then, again, she smiled to think that
+Elsie Bee Bee should feel a touch of pride in being the wife of an
+Indian agent!
+
+Driving his guests back to the agency, Curtis returned to the camp and
+moved about on foot among his people. Wherever he went he seemed to give
+zest to the sports, and knowing this he remained with them till noon,
+and only came in to rest his weary feet and aching eyes for half an hour
+before lunch.
+
+It was unutterably sweet to stretch out in his big, battered easy-chair,
+in the shaded coolness of the library, and feel Elsie's smooth, light
+hand in his hair.
+
+"And you are never to leave me," he said, dreamily. "I can't realize it
+yet." After a pause he added: "I am demanding too much of you,
+sweetheart."
+
+"You are demanding nothing, sir; if you did you wouldn't get it. If I
+choose to _give_ you anything, you are to be grateful and discreetly
+silent."
+
+"Can't I say, 'Thank you'?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+"I am content," he said, and closed his eyes again to express it, and
+she, being unasked, bent and kissed his forehead.
+
+Rousing up a few minutes later, he said, "I have a present in keeping
+for you."
+
+"Have you? What is it? Is it from you? Why didn't you let me see it
+before?"
+
+He rose and opened a closet door. "Because the proper time had not come.
+Before I show it to you I want you to promise to wear it."
+
+"I promise," she instantly replied.
+
+"Don't be so ready; I intend it to be a symbol of your change of heart."
+
+"Well, then, I don't promise," she said, backing away.
+
+"I don't mean your change of heart towards me; I have a ring to express
+that; this is to express your change of heart towards--"
+
+"Towards Injuns?"
+
+"No; towards all 'the small peoples of the earth.'"
+
+"Well, then, I can't wear it; I haven't changed. Down with them!" she
+shouted, in smiling bravado.
+
+He closed the door. "Very well, then, you shall not even see the
+present; you are not worthy of it."
+
+"Oh, please! please! I'll forgive all the heathens of Africa, if you
+will only let me see."
+
+"I don't believe I like that, either," he replied. "You are now too
+flippant. However, I'll hold you to the word. If you don't mean it now
+you will by-and-by."
+
+Elsie clapped her hands with girlish delight as he held up a fine
+buckskin dress, beautifully adorned with beads and quills. It was
+exquisitely tanned, as soft as silk, and a deep cream color.
+
+"Isn't it lovely! I'll wear it whether my heart is changed or not."
+
+"Here are the leggings and moccasins to match."
+
+She gathered them all up at a swoop. "I'm going to put them on at once."
+
+"Wait!" he commanded. "Small Bird, who made these garments, is out in
+the kitchen. I want to call her; she can be your maid for this time."
+
+As Small Bird sidled bashfully into the hall Elsie cried out in delight
+of her. She was dressed in the old-time Tetong dress, and was
+exceedingly comely. Her face was carefully painted and her hair shone
+with much brushing and oil. Her teeth were white and even.
+
+"Can she speak English?" asked Elsie.
+
+"Not very well; but she understands. Small Bird, the lady says, thank
+you. She thinks they are very fine. Her heart is glad. Go help her
+dress."
+
+"Come!" cried Elsie, eagerly, and fairly ran up the stairs in her haste
+to be transformed into a woman of the red people.
+
+When she returned she was a sister to Small Bird. Her dark hair was
+braided in the Tetong fashion, her face was browned, and her little feet
+were clothed in glittering, beaded moccasins.
+
+"You look exactly like some of the old engravings of Mohawk princesses,"
+cried Curtis. "Now you are ready to sit by my side and review the
+procession."
+
+"Are we to have a procession?"
+
+"Indeed we are, as significant as any mediæval tournament. I am the
+resident duke before whom the review takes place, and I shall be in my
+best dress and you are to sit by my side--my bride-elect."
+
+"Oh no!"
+
+"Oh yes. It is decided." He drew himself up haughtily. "I have said it,
+and I am chief to-day. It is good, Small Bird," he said, as the Tetong
+girl started to go. "My wife likes it very much."
+
+Elsie ran towards the girl and took her by the shoulders as if to make
+her understand the better. "Thank you; thank you!"
+
+Small Bird smiled, but surrendered to her timidity, and, turning, ran
+swiftly out of the room.
+
+Curtis hooked Elsie in his right arm. "Now all is decreed. You have put
+on the garb of my people," and his kiss stopped the protest she
+struggled to utter.
+
+Surely the day was a day strangely apart. Everything that could be done
+to make it symbolic, to make it idyllic, was done. Curtis appeared after
+lunch in a fine costume of buckskin, trimmed with green porcupine quills
+and beads, and for a hat he wore a fillet of beaver-skin with a single
+feather on the back. Across his shoulder he carried the sash of a finely
+beaded tobacco pouch, and in his hand a long fringed bag, very ancient,
+containing a peace-pipe, which had been transmitted to Crawling Elk by
+his father's father, a very precious thing, worn only by chieftains.
+
+"Oh, I shall paint you in that dress," cried Elsie.
+
+So accoutred, he led the way to the canopied platform under the
+flag-pole, where the reviewing party were to sit. In order that no
+invidious distinctions might be drawn, two or three of the old chiefs
+and their wives had been given seats thereon, and they were already in
+place. Not many strangers were present, for Curtis had purposely
+refrained from setting a day too long ahead, but Lawson's friends and
+some relatives of the employés, and several of the young officers from
+the fort made up the outside representation. Maynard was in his
+brightest uniform, and Jennie, looking very nice in a muslin gown, and a
+broad, white hat, sat by his side.
+
+From the seats in the stand, the camp, swarming with horsemen, could be
+seen. Wilson, as grand marshal, was riding to and fro, assisted by
+Lawson, who had entered into the game with the self-sacrificing devotion
+of a drum-major. His make-up was superb, and when at last he approached,
+leading the cavalcade, Elsie did not recognize him. His lean face, dark
+with paint, was indistinguishably Tetong, seen from a distance, and he
+sat his horse in perfect simulation of his red brethren. He was but
+re-enacting scenes of his early life. His hunting-shirt was dark with
+use, and his splendid war-bonnet trailed grandly down his back. He rode
+by, looking neither to the right nor the left, singing a new song.
+
+    "We are passing.
+    See us passing by.
+    We are leaving the old behind us.
+    The new we seek to find. We are passing, passing by."
+
+Crawling Elk followed, holding aloft a spear with a green plume; it was
+a turnip thrust through with a sharp-pointed, blackened stick, and
+behind him, two and two, came fifty of his young warriors carrying
+shining hoes upright, as of old they carried their lances, while at
+their shoulders, where quivers of arrows should have swung, dangled trim
+sheaves of green wheat and golden barley. The free fluttering of their
+feather-ornamented hair, the barbaric painting on their faces and hands,
+symbolized the old life, as the green arrows of the grain prefigured the
+new. Behind them rode their women, each bearing in her left hand a bunch
+of flowers. Those who could read wore on their bosoms a small, shining
+medal, and in their hair an eagle feather. No Tetong woman had ever worn
+a plume before.
+
+Standing Elk, quaint and bent, rode by, singing a war-song, magnificent
+in his dress as war chief, leading some twenty young men. His hands were
+empty of the signs of peace, and his face was rapt with dreams of the
+past, but his young men carried long-handled forks which flamed in the
+sun, and bracelets of green grass encircled their firm, brown arms.
+They, too, were painted to signify their clan and their ancestry, and
+the "medicine" they affected was on their breasts. Their wives were
+close behind, each bearing a stalk of corn in bloom; their beaded
+saddles and gay blankets were pleasant to see. Every weapon bespoke
+warfare against weeds. Every ornament represented the better nature, the
+striving, the aspiration of its wearer.
+
+Then came the school-children, adding a final note of pathos, poor
+little brown men and women trudging on foot to symbolize that they must
+go through life, plodding in the dust of the white man's chariot
+wheel--their toes imprisoned in a shapeless box of leather, their hair
+closely clipped, their clothing hot and restrictive. Each carried a book
+and a slate, and their faces were very intent and serious as they paced
+by on their way from the old to the new. They were followed by the
+school-band playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," with splendid disregard
+of the broken faith of the government whose song it was.
+
+And so they streamed by, these folk, accounted the most warlike of all
+red men, genially carrying out the wishes of their chief, illustrating,
+without knowing it, the wondrous change which had come to them; the old
+men still clinging to the past, the young men careless of the future,
+the children already transformed, and, as they glanced up, some smiling,
+some grave and dreaming, Elsie shuddered with a species of awe; it
+seemed as if a people were being disintegrated before her eyes; that the
+evolution of a race having proceeded for countless ages by almost
+imperceptible degrees was now and here rushing, as by mighty bounds,
+from war to peace, from hunting to harvesting, from primitive indolence
+to ordered thrift. They were, indeed, passing, as the plains and the
+wild spaces were passing; as the buffalo had passed; as every wild thing
+must pass before the ever-thickening flood of white ploughmen pressing
+upon the land.
+
+Twice they circled, and then, as they all massed before him, Curtis rose
+to sign to them.
+
+"I am very proud of you. All my friends are pleased. My heart is big
+with emotion and my head is full of thoughts. This is a great day for
+you and also for me. Some of you are sad, for you long for the old
+things--the big, broad plain, the elk, and the buffalo. So do I. I
+loved those things also. But you have seen how it is. The water of the
+stream never turns back to the spring, the old man never grows young,
+the tree that falls does not rise up again. So the old things come never
+again. We have always to look ahead. Perhaps, in the happy
+hunting-ground all will be different, but here now we must do our best
+to live upon the earth. It is the law that, now the game being gone, we
+must plough and sow and reap the fruit of the soil. That is the meaning
+of all we have done to-day. We have put away the rifle; we here take up
+the hoe.
+
+"I am glad; my heart is like a bird; it sings when I see you happy.
+Listen--I will tell you a great secret. You see this young woman," he
+touched Elsie. "You see she wears the Tetong dress, the same as I; that
+means much. It signifies two things: Last year her heart was hard
+towards the Tetongs; now it is soft. She is proud of what you have done.
+She wears this dress for another reason; she is going to be my wife, and
+help me show you the good way." At this moment a chorus of pleased
+outcries broke forth. "Now, go to your feast. Let everything be orderly.
+To-night we will come to see you dance."
+
+With an outburst of jocular whooping, the young men wheeled their horses
+and vanished under cover of a cloud of dust, while the old men and the
+women and the children moved sedately back to camp; the women chattering
+gayly over the day's exciting shows, and in anticipation of the dance
+which was to come.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were tears in Elsie's eyes as she looked up at Curtis. "They have
+so far to go, poor things! They can't realize how long the road to
+civilization is."
+
+"I do not care whether they reach what you call civilization or not; the
+road to happiness and peace is not long, it is short; they are even now
+entering upon it. They can be happy right here, and so can we," he
+ended, looking at her with a tender wistfulness. "Can't you understand?"
+
+"You have conquered," she said, with deep feeling. "Under the spell of
+this day, I feel your work to be the only thing in the world worth
+doing." Her words, her voice, so moved him that he bent and laid a kiss
+upon her lips. When he could speak, he said: "Now I want to ask
+something of you. I have a leave of absence for six months. Show me the
+Old World."
+
+She sprang up. "Ah! Can you go?"
+
+"When the crops are garnered and sifted, and my people clothed and
+sheltered."
+
+"I'd rather show you Paris than anything else in the world!" she cried.
+"I'd almost marry you to do that."
+
+"Very well, marry me; we will spend our honeymoon there; perhaps then
+you will be willing to spend one more year here with me, and
+then--well--Never cross the range till you get to it is a maxim of the
+trail."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop, by 
+Hamlin Garland
+
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop, by Hamlin Garland
+
+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: The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop
+
+Author: Hamlin Garland
+
+Release Date: August 18, 2010 [EBook #33458]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAPTAIN OF THE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and The Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP</h1>
+
+<h2>By HAMLIN GARLAND</h2>
+
+
+<h3>SUNSET EDITION</h3>
+
+<h3>HARPER &amp; BROTHERS<br />
+NEW YORK AND LONDON</h3>
+
+<h3>COPYRIGHT, 1901. BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY</h3>
+
+<h3>COPYRIGHT 1902. BY HAMLIN GARLAND</h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/front.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#I">I. <span class="smcap">A Camp in the Snow</span></a><br />
+<a href="#II">II. <span class="smcap">The Streeter Gun-Rack</span></a><br />
+<a href="#III">III. <span class="smcap">Curtis Assumes Charge of the Agent</span></a><br />
+<a href="#IV">IV. <span class="smcap">The Beautiful Elsie Bee Bee</span></a><br />
+<a href="#V">V. <span class="smcap">Caged Eagles</span></a><br />
+<a href="#VI">VI. <span class="smcap">Curtis Seeks a Truce</span></a><br />
+<a href="#VII">VII. <span class="smcap">Elsie Relents a Little</span></a><br />
+<a href="#VIII">VIII. <span class="smcap">Curtis Writes a Long Letter</span></a><br />
+<a href="#IX">IX. <span class="smcap">Called to Washington</span></a><br />
+<a href="#X">X. <span class="smcap">Curtis at Headquarters</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XI">XI. <span class="smcap">Curtis Grapples with Brisbane</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XII">XII. <span class="smcap">Spring on the Elk</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XIII">XIII. <span class="smcap">Elsie Promises to Return</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XIV">XIV. <span class="smcap">Elsie Revisits Curtis</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XV">XV. <span class="smcap">Elsie Enters Her Studio</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XVI">XVI. <span class="smcap">The Camp Among the Roses</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XVII">XVII. <span class="smcap">A Flute, a Drum, and a Message</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XVIII">XVIII. <span class="smcap">Elsie's Ancient Love Affair</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XIX">XIX. <span class="smcap">The Sheriff's Mob</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XX">XX. <span class="smcap">Feminine Strategy</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXI">XXI. <span class="smcap">In Stormy Councils</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXII">XXII. <span class="smcap">A Council at Night</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXIII">XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Return of the Mob</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXIV">XXIV. <span class="smcap">The Gray-Horse Troop</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXV">XXV. <span class="smcap">After the Struggle</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXVI">XXVI. <span class="smcap">The Warrior Proclaims Himself</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXVII">XXVII. <span class="smcap">Brisbane Comes for Elsie</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII. <span class="smcap">A Walk in the Starlight</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXIX">XXIX. <span class="smcap">Elsie Warns Curtis</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXX">XXX. <span class="smcap">The Capture of the Man</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXI">XXXI. <span class="smcap">Outwitting the Sheriff</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXII">XXXII. <span class="smcap">An Eventful Night</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXIII">XXXIII. <span class="smcap">Elsie Confesses Her Love</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXIV">XXXIV. <span class="smcap">Seed-Time</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXV">XXXV. <span class="smcap">The Battle with the Weeds</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXVI">XXXVI. <span class="smcap">The Harvest-Home</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXVII">XXXVII. <span class="smcap">The Mingling of the Old and the New</span></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h3>A CAMP IN THE SNOW</h3>
+
+
+<p>Winter in the upper heights of the Bear Tooth Range is a glittering
+desolation of snow with a flaming blue sky above. Nothing moves, nothing
+utters a sound, save the cony at the mouth of the spiral shaft, which
+sinks to his deeply buried den in the rocks. The peaks are like marble
+domes, set high in the pathway of the sun by day and thrust amid the
+stars by night. The firs seem hopeless under their ever-increasing
+burdens. The streams are silenced&mdash;only the wind is abroad in the waste,
+the tireless, pitiless wind, fanged like ingratitude, insatiate as fire.</p>
+
+<p>But it is beautiful, nevertheless, especially of a clear dawn, when the
+shadows are vividly purple and each rime-wreathed summit is smit with
+ethereal fire, and each eastern slope is resplendent as a high-way of
+powdered diamonds&mdash;or at sunset, when the high crests of the range stand
+like flaming mile-stones leading to the Celestial City, and the lakes
+are like pools of pure gold caught in a robe of green velvet. Yet always
+this land demands youth and strength in its explorer.</p>
+
+<p>King Frost's dominion was already complete over all the crests, over
+timber-line, when young Captain Curtis set out to cross the divide which
+lay between Lake Congar and Fort Sherman&mdash;a trip to test the virtue of a
+Sibley tent and the staying qualities of a mountain horse.</p>
+
+<p>Bennett, the hairy trapper at the head of the lake, advised against it.
+"The snow is soft&mdash;I reckon you better wait a week."</p>
+
+<p>But Curtis was a seasoned mountaineer and took pride in assaulting the
+stern barrier. "Besides, my leave of absence is nearly up," he said to
+the trapper.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're the doctor," the old trapper replied. "Good luck to ye,
+Cap."</p>
+
+<p>It was sunrise of a crisp, clear autumn morning when they started, and
+around them the ground was still bare, but by noon they were wallowing
+mid-leg deep in new-fallen snow. Curtis led the way on foot&mdash;his own
+horse having been packed to relieve the burdens of the others&mdash;while
+Sergeant Pierce, resolute and uncomplaining, brought up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>"We must camp beside the sulphur spring to-night," Curtis said, as they
+left timber-line and entered upon the bleak, wind-swept slopes of
+Grizzly Bear.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, sir," Pierce cheerily replied, and till three o'clock they
+climbed steadily towards the far-off glacial heights, the drifts ever
+deepening, the cold ever intensifying. They had eaten no food since
+dawn, and the horses were weak with hunger and weariness as they topped
+the divide and looked down upon the vast eastern slope. The world before
+them seemed even more inhospitable and wind-swept than the land they had
+left below them to the west. The air was filled with flying frost, the
+sun was weak and pale, and the plain was only a pale-blue sea far, far
+below to the northeast. The wind blew through the pass with terrible
+force, and the cold nipped every limb like a famishing white wolf.</p>
+
+<p>"There is the sulphur spring, sir," said Pierce, pointing towards a
+delicate strand of steam which rose from a clump of pines in the second
+basin beneath them.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, sergeant, and we must make that in an hour. I'd like to
+take an observation here, but I reckon we'd better slide down to camp
+before the horses freeze."</p>
+
+<p>The dry snow, sculptured by the blast in the pass, made the threadlike
+path an exceedingly elusive line to keep, and trailing narrowed to a
+process of feeling with the feet; but Curtis set his face resolutely
+into the northeast wind and led the way down the gulch. For the first
+half-mile the little pack-train crawled slowly and hesitatingly, like a
+bewildered worm, turning and twisting, retracing its way, circling huge
+bowlders, edging awful cliffs, slipping, stumbling, but ever moving,
+ever descending; and, at last, while yet the sun's light glorified the
+icy kings behind them, the Captain drew into the shelter of the clump of
+pines from which the steam of the warm spring rose like a chimney's
+cheery greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Whoa, boys!" called Curtis, and with a smile at Pierce, added, "Here we
+are, home again!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not a cheerful place to spend the night, for even at this level
+the undisturbed snow lay full twelve inches deep and the pines were
+bowed with the weight of it, and as the sun sank the cold deepened to
+zero point; but the sergeant drew off his gloves and began to free the
+horses from their packs quite as if these were the usual conditions of
+camping.</p>
+
+<p>"Better leave the blankets on," remarked the young officer. "They'll
+need 'em for warmth."</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant saluted and continued his work, deft and silent, while
+Curtis threw up a little tent on a cleared spot and banked it snugly
+with snow. In a very short time a fire was blazing and some coffee
+boiling. The two men seemed not to regard the cold or the falling night,
+except in so far as the wind threatened the horses.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hard luck on them," remarked Curtis, as they were finishing their
+coffee in the tent; "but it is unavoidable. I don't think it safe to try
+to go down that slide in the dusk. Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's dangerous at any time, sir, and with our horses weak as they are,
+it sure would be taking chances."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll make Tom Skinner's by noon to-morrow, and be out of the snow,
+probably." The young soldier put down his tin cup and drew a map from
+his pocket. "Hold a light, sergeant; I want to make some notes before I
+forget them."</p>
+
+<p>While the sergeant held a candle for him, Curtis rapidly traced with a
+soft pencil a few rough lines upon the map. "That settles that
+water-shed question;" he pointed with his pencil. "Here is the dividing
+wall, not over there where Lieutenant Crombie drew it. Nothing is more
+deceptive than the relative heights of ranges. Well, now take a last
+look at the horses," he said, putting away his pencil, "and I'll unroll
+our blankets."</p>
+
+<p>As they crawled into their snug sleeping-bags Curtis said again, with a
+sigh, "I'm sorry for the ponies."</p>
+
+<p>"They'll be all right now, Captain; they've got something in their
+stomachs. If a cayuse has any fuel in him he's like an engine&mdash;he'll
+keep warm," and so silence fell on them, and in the valley the cold
+deepened till the rocks and the trees cried out in the rigor of their
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was filling the sky with an all-pervading crimson-and-orange
+mist when the sergeant crawled out of his snug nest and started a fire.
+The air was perfectly still, but the frost gripped each limb with
+benumbing fury. The horses, with blankets awry, stood huddled close
+together in the shelter of the pines not far away. As the sergeant
+appeared they whinnied to express their dependence upon him, and when
+the sun rose they turned their broadsides to it gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>The two men, with swift, unhesitating action, set to work to break camp.
+In half an hour the tent was folded and packed, the horses saddled, and
+then, lustily singing, Curtis led the way down upon the floor of the
+second basin, which narrowed towards the north into a deep and wooded
+valley leading to the plains. The grasp of winter weakened as they
+descended; December became October. The snow thinned, the streams sang
+clear, and considerably before noon the little train of worn and hungry
+horses came out upon the grassy shore of a small lake to bask in genial
+sunshine. From this point the road to Skinner's was smooth and easy,
+and quite untouched of snow.</p>
+
+<p>As they neared the miner's shack, a tall young Payonnay, in the dress of
+a cowboy, came out to meet them, smiling broadly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm looking for you, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you, Jack? Well, you see me. What's your message?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Colonel says you are to come in right off. He told me to tell you
+he had an order for you."</p>
+
+<p>A slouching figure, supporting a heap of greasy rags, drew near, and a
+low voice drawled, weakly: "Jack's been here since Friday. I told him
+where you was, but he thought he'd druther lay by my fire than hunt ye."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis studied the squat figure keenly. "You weren't looking for the job
+of crossing the range yourself, were you?"</p>
+
+<p>The tramplike miner grinned and sucked at his pipe. "Well, no&mdash;I can't
+say that I was, but I like to rub it into these lazy Injuns."</p>
+
+<p>Jack winked at Curtis with humorous appreciation. "He's a dandy to rub
+it into an Injun, don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>Even Skinner laughed at this, and Curtis said: "Unsaddle the horses and
+give them a chance at the grass, sergeant. We can't go into the fort
+to-night with the packs. And, Skinner, I want to hire a horse of you,
+while you help Pierce bring my outfit into the fort to-morrow. I must
+hurry on to see what's in the wind."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Captain, anything I've got is yours," responded the miner,
+heartily.</p>
+
+<p>The bugles were sounding "retreat" as the young officer rode up to the
+door of Colonel Quinlan's quarters and reported for duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening, Major," called the Colonel, with a quizzical smile and a
+sharp emphasis on the word major.</p>
+
+<p>"Major!" exclaimed Curtis; "what do you mean&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a wholesale slaughter of your superiors. Oh no! You are Major by
+the grace of the Secretary of Indian Affairs. Colonel Hackett, of the
+War Department, writes me that you have been detailed as Indian agent at
+Fort Smith. You'll find your notification in your mail, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis touched his hat in mock courtesy. "Thanks, Mr. Secretary; your
+kindness overwhelms me."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't think the reform administration could get along without you, did
+you?" asked the Colonel, with some humor. He was standing at his gate.
+"Come in, and we'll talk it over. You seem a little breathless."</p>
+
+<p>"It does double me up, I confess. But I can't consistently back out
+after the stand I've made."</p>
+
+<p>"Back out! Well, not if I can prevent it. Haven't you hammered it into
+us for two years that the army was the proper instrument for dealing
+with these redskins? No, sir, you can't turn tail now. Take your
+medicine like a man."</p>
+
+<p>"But how did they drop onto me? Did you suggest it?"</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel became grave. "No, my boy, I did not. But I think I know who
+did. You remember the two literary chaps who camped with us on our trial
+march two years ago?"</p>
+
+<p>The young officer's eyes opened wide. "Ah! I see. They told me at the
+time that they were friends of the Secretary. That explains it."</p>
+
+<p>"Your success with that troop of enlisted Cheyennes had something to do
+with it, too," added the Colonel. "I told those literary sharps about
+that experience, and also about your crazy interest in the sign-language
+and Indian songs."</p>
+
+<p>"You did? Well, then you <i>are</i> responsible, after all."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel put his hand on his subordinate's shoulder. "Go and do the
+work, boy! It's better than sitting around here waiting promotion. If I
+weren't so near retirement I'd resign. I have lived out on these cursed
+deserts ever since 1868&mdash;but I'll fool 'em," he added, with a grim
+smile. "I'm going to hang on to the last, and retire on half-pay. Then
+I'll spend all my time looking after my health and live to be
+ninety-five, in order to get even."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed. "Quite right, Colonel," and, then becoming serious, he
+added, "It's my duty, and I will do it." And in this quiet temper he
+accepted his detail.</p>
+
+<p>Captain George Curtis, as the Colonel had intimated, was already a
+marked man at Fort Sherman&mdash;and, indeed, throughout the western division
+of the army. He feared no hardship, and acknowledged no superior on the
+trail except Pierce, who was as invincible to cold and snow as a grizzly
+bear, and his chief diversions were these trips into the wild. Each
+outing helped him endure the monotony of barrack life, for when it was
+over he returned to the open fire of his study, where he pored over his
+maps, smoking his pipe and writing a little between bugle-calls. In
+this way he had been able to put together several articles on the
+forests, the water-sheds, and the wild animals of the region he had
+traversed, and in this way had made himself known to the Smithsonian
+Institution. He was considered a crank on trees and Indians by his
+fellow-officers, who all drank more whiskey and played a better hand at
+poker than he; "but, after all, Curtis is a good soldier," they often
+said, in conclusion. "His voice in command is clear and decisive, and
+his control of his men excellent." He was handsome, too, in a firm,
+brown, cleanly outlined way, and though not a popular officer, he had no
+enemies in the service.</p>
+
+<p>His sister Jennie, who had devotedly kept house for him during his
+garrison life, was waiting for him at the gate of his little yard, and
+cried out in greeting:</p>
+
+<p>"How <i>did</i> you cross the range in this weather? I was frightened for
+you, George. I could see the storm raging up there all day yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a little wind and snow don't count," he replied, carelessly. "I
+thought you'd given up worrying about me."</p>
+
+<p>"I have&mdash;only I thought of poor Sergeant Pierce and the horses. There's
+a stack of mail here. Do you know what's happened to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Colonel told me."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know yet. At this moment I'm too tired to express an opinion."</p>
+
+<p>From the pile of mail on his desk he drew out the order which directed
+him to "proceed at once to Fort Smith, and as secretly as may be. You
+will surprise the agent, if possible&mdash;intercepting him at his desk, so
+that he will have no opportunity for secreting his private papers. You
+will take entire charge of the agency, and at your earliest convenience
+forward to us a report covering every detail of the conditions there."</p>
+
+<p>"Now that promises well," he said, as he finished reading the order. "We
+start with a fair expectancy of drama. Sis&mdash;we are Indian agents! All
+this must be given up." He looked round the room, which glowed in the
+light of an open grate fire. The floor was bright with Navajo blankets
+and warm with fur rugs, and on the walls his books waited his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to leave our snug nest, Jennie," he said, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't. Take it with you," she replied, promptly.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced ruefully at her. "I knew I'd get mighty little sympathy from
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you? I'm ready to go. I don't want you trailing about over
+these mountains till the end of time; and you know this life is fatal to
+you, or any other man who wants to do anything in the world. It's all
+very well to talk about being a soldier, but I'm not so enthusiastic as
+I used to be. I don't think sitting around waiting for some one to die
+is very noble."</p>
+
+<p>He rose and stood before the fire. "I wish this whole house could be
+lifted up and set down at Fort Smith; then I might consider the matter."</p>
+
+<p>She came over, and, as he put his arm about her, continued earnestly:
+"George, I'm serious about this. The President is trying to put the
+Indian service into capable hands, and I believe you ought to accept;
+in fact, you can't refuse. There is work for us both there. I am
+heartily tired of garrison life, George. As the boys say, there's
+nothing in it."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's danger threatening at Smith, sis. I can't take you into an
+Indian outbreak."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all newspaper talk. Mr. Dudley writes&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dudley&mdash;is he down there? Oh, you are a masterful sly one! Your
+touching solicitude for the Tetongs is now explained. What is Dudley
+doing at Smith besides interfering with my affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's studying the Tetong burial customs&mdash;but he isn't there at
+present."</p>
+
+<p>"These Smithsonian sharps are unexpectedly keen. He'd sacrifice me and
+my whole military career to have you study skulls with him for a few
+days. Do you know, I suspect him and Osborne Lawson of this whole
+conspiracy&mdash;and you&mdash;you were in it! I've a mind to rebel and throw
+everything out o' gear."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie gave him a shove. "Go dress for dinner. The Colonel and his wife
+and Mr. Ross are coming in to congratulate you, and you must pretend to
+be overjoyed."</p>
+
+<p>As he sat at the head of his handsome table that night Curtis began to
+appreciate his comforts. He forgot the dissensions and jealousies, the
+cynical speculations and the bitter rivalries of the officers&mdash;he
+remembered only the pleasant things.</p>
+
+<p>His guests were personable and gracious, and Jennie presided over the
+coffee with distinction. She was a natural hostess, and her part in the
+conversation which followed was notable for its good sense, but Mr.
+Ross, the young lieutenant, considered her delicate color and shining
+hair even more remarkable than her humor. He liked her voice, also, and
+had a desire to kick the shins of the loquacious Colonel for absorbing
+so much of her attention. Mrs. Quinlan, the Colonel's wife, was, by the
+same token, a retiring, silent little woman, who smiled and nodded her
+head to all that was said, paying special attention to the Colonel's
+stories, with which all were familiar; even Mr. Ross had learned them.</p>
+
+<p>At last the Colonel turned to Curtis. "You'll miss this, Curtis, when
+you're exiled down there at old Fort Smith among the Tetongs. Here we
+are a little oasis of civilization in the midst of a desert of
+barbarians; down there you'll be swallowed up."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll take civilization with us," said Jennie. "But, of course, we
+shall miss our friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you'll have a clear field for experiment at Smith. You can try
+all your pet theories on the Tetongs. God be with them!&mdash;their case is
+desperate." He chuckled gracelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"When do you go?" asked Mrs. Quinlan.</p>
+
+<p>"At once. As soon as I can make arrangements," replied Curtis, and then
+added: "And, by-the-way, I hope you will all refrain from mentioning my
+appointment till after I reach Fort Smith."</p>
+
+<p>The visitors did not stay late, for their host was plainly preoccupied,
+and as they shook hands with him in parting they openly commiserated
+him. "I'm sorry for you," again remarked the Colonel, "but it's a just
+punishment."</p>
+
+<p>After they were gone Curtis turned to his sister. "I must leave here
+to-morrow morning, sis."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, George! Can't you take time to breathe and pack up?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I must drop down on that agent like a hawk on a June-bug, before he
+has a chance to bury his misdeeds. The Colonel has given out the news of
+my detail, and the quicker I move the better. I must reach there before
+the mail does."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to go with you," she quickly and resentfully replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can, if you are willing to leave our packing in Pierce's
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't intend to be left behind," she replied. "I'm going along to see
+that you don't do anything reckless. I never trust a man in a place
+requiring tact."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed. "That's your long suit, sis, but I reckon we'll need all
+the virtues that lie in each of us. We are going into battle with
+strange forces."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STREETER GUN-RACK</h3>
+
+
+<p>There is a good wagon-road leading to old Fort Smith from Pinon City,
+but it runs for the most part through an uninteresting country, and does
+not touch the reservation till within a few miles of the agency
+buildings. From the other side, however, a rough trail crosses a low
+divide, and for more than sixty miles lies within the Tetong boundaries,
+a rolling, cattle country rising to grassy hills on the west.</p>
+
+<p>For these reasons Curtis determined to go in on horseback and in
+civilian's dress, leaving his sister to follow by rail and buckboard;
+but here again Jennie promptly made protest.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll not go that way, George. I am going to keep with you, and you
+needn't plan for anything else&mdash;so there!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a hard ride, sis&mdash;sixty miles and more. You'll be tired out."</p>
+
+<p>"What of that? I'll have plenty of time to rest afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. It is always a pleasure to have you with me, you stubborn
+thing," he replied, affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>It had been hard to leave everything at the Fort, hard to look back from
+the threshold upon well-ordered books and furniture, and harder still
+to know that rude and careless hands would jostle them into heaps on the
+morrow, but Jennie was accustomed to all the hardships involved in being
+sister to a soldier, and, after she had turned the key in the lock, set
+her face to the south cheerfully. There was something of the missionary
+in her, and she had long burned with a desire to help the red people.</p>
+
+<p>They got off at a squalid little cow-town called "Riddell" about noon of
+the second day, and Curtis, after a swift glance around him, said: "Sis,
+our chances for dinner are poor."</p>
+
+<p>The hotel, a squat, battlemented wooden building, was trimmed with
+loafing cowboys on the outside and speckled with flies on the inside,
+but the landlord was unexpectedly attractive, a smiling, courteous host,
+to whom flies and cowboys were matters of course. It was plain he had
+slipped down to his present low level by insensible declinations.</p>
+
+<p>"The food is not so bad if it were only served decently," said Jennie,
+as they sat at the table eying the heavy china chipped and maimed in the
+savage process of washing.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you won't be sorry we've left the army, sis."</p>
+
+<p>"I would, if we had to live with these people," she replied, decisively,
+looking about the room, which was filled with uncouth types of men,
+keen-eyed, slouchy, and loud-voiced. The presence of a pretty woman had
+subdued most of them into something like decorum, but they were not
+pleasant to look at. They were the unattached males of the town, a mob
+of barkeepers, hostlers, clerks, and railway hands, intermixed with a
+half-dozen cowboys who had ridden in to "loaf away a day or two in
+town."</p>
+
+<p>"The ragged edge of the cloth of gold," said Curtis, as he glanced round
+at them. "Civilization has its seamy side."</p>
+
+<p>"This makes the dear old Fort seem beautiful, doesn't it?" the girl
+sighed. "We'll see no more green grass and well-groomed men."</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, with a half-breed Indian boy for a guide, they rode away
+over the hills towards the east, glad to shake the dust of Riddell off
+their feet.</p>
+
+<p>The day was one of flooding sunlight, warm and golden. Winter seemed far
+away, and only the dry grass made it possible to say, "This is autumn."
+The air was without dust or moisture&mdash;crystalline, crisp, and
+deliciously invigorating.</p>
+
+<p>The girl turned to her brother with radiant face. "This is living! Isn't
+it good to escape that horrid little town?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'd suppose in an air like this all life would be clean and sweet,"
+he replied. "But it isn't. The trouble is, these people have no inner
+resource. They lop down when their accustomed props are removed. They
+come from defective stock."</p>
+
+<p>The half-breed guide had the quality of his Indian mother&mdash;he knew when
+to keep silence and when to speak. He led the way steadily, galloping
+along on his little gray pony, with elbows flapping like a rooster about
+to take flight.</p>
+
+<p>There was a wonderful charm in this treeless land, it was so lonely and
+so sinister. It appealed with great power to Curtis, while it appalled
+his sister. The solitary buttes, smooth of slope and grotesque of line;
+the splendid, grassy hollows, where the cattle fed; the burned-up mesas,
+where nothing lived but the horned toad; the alkaline flats, leprous and
+ashen; the occasional green line of cottonwood-trees, deep sunk in a dry
+water-course&mdash;all these were typical of the whole vast eastern
+water-shed of the continental divide, and familiar to the young officer,
+for in such a land he had entered upon active service.</p>
+
+<p>It was beautiful, but it was an ill place for a woman, as Jennie soon
+discovered. The air, so dry, so fierce, parched her skin and pinched her
+red lips. The alkali settled in a gray dust upon her pretty hair and
+entered her throat, increasing her thirst to a keen pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, George! here is a little stream," she cried out.</p>
+
+<p>"Courage, sis. We will soon get above the alkali. That water is rank
+poison."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks good," she replied, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll find some glorious water up there in that clump of willows," and
+a few minutes' hard riding brought them to a gurgling little brook of
+clear, cold water, and the girl not merely drank&mdash;she laved away all
+traces of the bitter soil of the lower levels.</p>
+
+<p>At about four o'clock the guide struck into a transverse valley, and
+followed a small stream to its source in a range of pine-clad hills
+which separate the white man's country from the Tetong reservation. As
+they topped this divide, riding directly over a smooth swell, Curtis
+drew rein, crying out, "Wait a moment, Louie."</p>
+
+<p>They stood on the edge of a vast dip in the plain, a bowl of amethyst
+and turquoise. Under the vivid October sun the tawny grass seemed to be
+transmuted into something that shimmered, was translucent, and yet was
+firm, while the opposite wall, already faintly in shadow, rose by two
+degrees to snow-flecked mountains, faintly showing in the west and
+north. On the floor of this resplendent amphitheatre a flock of cattle
+fed irregularly, luminous as red and white and deep-purple beads. The
+landscape was silent&mdash;as silent as the cloudless sky above. No bird or
+beast, save the cattle, and the horses the three travellers rode, was
+abroad in this dream-world.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, isn't it beautiful!" exclaimed Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis sat in silence till the guide said: "We must hurry. Long ways to
+Streeter."</p>
+
+<p>Then he drew a sigh. "That scene is typical of the old time. Nothing
+could be more moving to me. I saw the buffaloes feed like that once.
+Whose are the cattle?" he asked of the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Thompson's, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are they doing here&mdash;that's Tetong land, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>The guide grinned. "That don't make no difference to Thompson. All same
+to him whose grass he eats."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, lead on," said Curtis, and the boy galloped away swiftly down the
+trail. As they descended to the east the sun seemed to slide down the
+sky and the chill dusk rose to meet them from the valley of the Elk,
+like an exhalation from some region of icy waters. Night was near, but
+Streeter's was in sight, a big log-house, surrounded by sheds and
+corrals of various sorts and sizes.</p>
+
+<p>"How does Mr. Streeter happen to be so snugly settled on Indian land?"
+asked Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"He made his location before the reservation was set aside. I believe
+there are about twenty ranches of the same sort within the lines,"
+replied Curtis, "and I think we'll find in these settlers the chief
+cause of friction. The cattle business is not one that leads to
+scrupulous regard for the rights of others."</p>
+
+<p>As they clattered up to the door of the ranch-house a tall young fellow
+in cowboy dress came out to meet them. He was plainly amazed to find a
+pretty girl at his door, and for a moment fairly gaped with lax jaws.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening," said Curtis. "Are you the boss here?"</p>
+
+<p>He recovered himself quickly. "Howdy&mdash;howdy! Yes, I'm Cal Streeter.
+Won't you 'light off?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. We'd like to take shelter for the night if you can spare us
+room."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, cert. Mother and the old man are away just now, but there's plenty
+to eat." He took a swift stride towards Jennie. "Let me help you down,
+miss."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, I'm already down," said Jennie, anticipating his service.</p>
+
+<p>The young man called shrilly, and a Mexican appeared at the door of the
+stable. "Hosy, come and take these horses." Turning to Jennie with a
+grin, he said: "I can't answer for the quality of the grub, fer Hosy is
+cooking just now. Mother's been gone a week, and the bread is wiped out.
+If you don't mind slapjacks I'll see what we can do for you."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie didn't know whether she liked this young fellow or not. After his
+first stare of astonishment he was by no means lacking in assurance.
+However, she was plains-woman enough to feel the necessity of making the
+best of any hospitality when night was falling, and quickly replied:
+"Don't take any trouble for us. If you'll show me your kitchen and
+pantry I'll be glad to do the cooking."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you? Well, now, that's a sure-enough trade," and he led the way
+into the house, which was a two-story building, with one-story wings on
+either side. The room into which they entered was large and bare as a
+guard-room. The floor was uneven, the log walls merely whitewashed, and
+the beams overhead were rough pine boles. Some plain wooden chairs, a
+table painted a pale blue, and covered with dusty newspapers, comprised
+the visible furniture, unless a gun-rack which filled one entire wall
+could be listed among the furnishings. Curtis brought a keen gaze to
+bear on this arsenal, and estimated that it contained nearly a score of
+rifles&mdash;a sinister array.</p>
+
+<p>Young Streeter opened a side door. "This is where you are to sleep. Just
+make yourself to home, and I'll rub two sticks together and start a
+fire."</p>
+
+<p>After Jennie left the room, the young fellow turned abruptly. "Stranger,
+what might I call you?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Curtis. I'm going over to visit the agency."</p>
+
+<p>"She your wife?" He pointed his thumb in Jennie's direction.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Well, then, you can bunk with me in this room." He indicated a door
+on the opposite side of the hall. "When she gets ready, bring her out to
+the kitchen. It's hard lines to make her cook her own grub, but I tell
+you right now I think she'd better."</p>
+
+<p>As Jennie met her brother a few moments later, she exclaimed, "Isn't he
+handsome?"</p>
+
+<p>"M&mdash;yes. He's good-looking enough, but he's just a little
+self-important, it seems to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to let him know who you are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. I want to draw him out. I begin to suspect that this
+house is a rendezvous for all the interests we have to fight. These guns
+are all loaded and in prime order."</p>
+
+<p>"What a big house you have here," said Jennie, ingratiatingly, as she
+entered the kitchen. "And what a nice kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, purty fair," replied the youth, busy at the stove. "Our ranch ain't
+what we'd make it if these Injuns were out o' the way. Now, here's the
+grub&mdash;if you can dig up anything you're welcome."</p>
+
+<p>He showed her the pantry, where she found plenty of bacon and flour, and
+some eggs and milk.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought cattlemen never had milk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they don't generally, but mother makes us milk a cow. Now, I'll
+do this cooking if you want me to, but I reckon you won't enjoy seein'
+me do it. I can't make biscuits, and we're all out o' bread, as I say,
+and Hosy's sinkers would choke a dog."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll cook if you'll get some water and keep a good fire going."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing," he said, heartily, taking up the water-pail to go to the
+spring. When he came back Jennie was dabbling the milk and flour. He
+stood watching her in silence for some minutes as she worked, and the
+sullen lines on his face softened and his lips grew boyish.</p>
+
+<p>"You sure know your business," he said, in a tone of conviction. "When I
+try to mix dough I get all strung up with it."</p>
+
+<p>She replied with a smile. "Is the oven hot? These biscuit must come out
+just right."</p>
+
+<p>He stirred up the fire. "A man ain't fitten to cook; he's too blame long
+in the elbows. We have an old squaw when mother is home, but she don't
+like me, and so she takes a vacation whenever the old lady does. That
+throws us down on Hosy, and he just about poisons us. A Mexican can't
+cook no more'n an Injun. We get spring-poor by the time the old lady
+comes back." Jennie was rolling at the dough and did not reply to him.
+He held the door open for her when she was ready to put the biscuit in
+the oven, and lit another bracket-lamp in order to see her better.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, you're the first girl I ever saw in this kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right." After a pause he added: "I'm mighty glad I didn't get
+home to eat Hosy's supper. I want a chance at some of them biscuit."</p>
+
+<p>"Slice this bacon, please&mdash;not too thick," she added, briskly.</p>
+
+<p>He took the knife. "Where do you hail from, anyway?" he asked,
+irrelevantly.</p>
+
+<p>"From the coast," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"That so? Born there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no. I was born in Maryland, near Washington."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a place I'd like to live if I had money enough. A feller can
+have a continuous picnic in Washington if he's got the dust to spare, so
+I hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you set the table while I make the omelette."</p>
+
+<p>"The how-many?"</p>
+
+<p>"The omelette, which must go directly to the table after it is made."</p>
+
+<p>He began to pile dishes on the table, which ran across one end of the
+room, but found time to watch her as she broke the eggs.</p>
+
+<p>"If a feller lives long enough and keeps his mouth shut and his eyes
+open he'll learn a powerful heap, won't he? I've seen that word in the
+newspaper a whole lot, but I'll be shot if I ever knew that it was jest
+aigs."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was amused, but too hungry to spend much time listening. "You may
+call them in," she said, after a glance at the biscuit.</p>
+
+<p>The young man opened the door and said, lazily, "Cap, come to grub."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was again examining the guns in the rack, "You're well heeled."</p>
+
+<p>"Haff to be, in this country," said the young fellow, carelessly. "Set
+down anywhere&mdash;that is, I mean anywhere the cook says."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie didn't like his growing familiarity, but she dissembled. "Sit
+here, George," she said, indicating a chair at the end. "I will sit
+where I can reach the coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me do that," said Calvin. "Louie, I guess you're not in this game,"
+he said to the boy looking wistfully in at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let him come&mdash;he's as hungry as we are. Let him sit down,"
+protested Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Young Streeter acquiesced. "It's all the same to me, if <i>you</i> don't
+object to a 'breed," he said, brutally. Louie took his seat in silence,
+but it was plain he did not enjoy the insolence of the cowboy.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was after information. "You speak of needing guns&mdash;there isn't
+any danger, I hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not right now, but we expect to get Congress to pass a bill
+removing these brutes, and then there may be trouble. Even now we find
+it safer to go armed. Every little while some Injun kills a beef for us,
+and we want to be prepared to skin 'em if we jump 'em up in time. I
+wouldn't trust one of 'em as far as you could throw a yearling bull by
+the tail."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they as bad as that?" asked Jennie, with widely open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"They're treacherous hounds. Old Elk goes around smiling, but he'd let a
+knife into me too quick if he saw his chance. Hark!" he called, with
+lifted hand.</p>
+
+<p>They all listened. The swift drumming of hoofs could be heard, mingled
+with the chuckle of a carriage. Calvin rose. "That's the old man, I
+reckon," and going to the door he raised a peculiar whoop. A voice
+replied faintly, and soon the buggy rolled up to the door and the
+new-comer entered the front room. A quick, sharp voice cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"Whose hat is that? Who's here?"</p>
+
+<p>"A feller on his way to visit the agent. He's in there eatin' supper."</p>
+
+<p>A rapid, resolute step approached the door, and Curtis looked up to meet
+the keen eyes of a big, ruddy-faced man of fifty, with hair and beard
+as white as wool. His eyes were steel-blue and penetrating as fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening, sir. Good-evening, madam. Don't rise. Keep your seats.
+I'll just drop my coat and sit down with you."</p>
+
+<p>He was so distinctly a man of remarkable quality that Curtis stared at
+him in deep surprise. He had expected to see a loose-jointed, slouchy
+man of middle-age, but Joseph Streeter was plainly a man of decision and
+power. His white hair did not betoken weakness or age, for he moved like
+one in the full vigor of his late manhood. To his visitors he appeared
+to be a suspicious, irascible, and generous man.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" he called, jovially, "biscuit! Cal, you didn't do these, nor
+Hosy, neither."</p>
+
+<p>Cal grinned. "Well, not by a whole row o' dogs. This&mdash;lady did 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Streeter turned his vivid blue eyes on Jennie. "I want to know! Well,
+I'm much obliged. When did you come?" he asked of Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"About an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Goin' far?"</p>
+
+<p>"Over to the agency."</p>
+
+<p>"Friend of the agent?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I have a letter of introduction to him."</p>
+
+<p>Streeter seemed to be satisfied. "You'll find him a very accommodating
+gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"So I hear," said Curtis, and some subtle inflection in his tone caused
+Streeter to turn towards him again.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I understand your name was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Curtis."</p>
+
+<p>"Where from?"</p>
+
+<p>"San Francisco."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. I think I heard Sennett speak of you. Those biscuit are mighty
+good. I'll take another. Couldn't persuade you to stay here, could I?"
+He turned to Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie laughed. "I'm afraid not&mdash;it's too lonesome."</p>
+
+<p>Cal seized the chance to say: "It ain't so lonesome as it looks now.
+We're a lively lot here sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>Streeter gave him a glance which stopped him. "Cal, you take Hosy and go
+over to the camp and tell the boys to hustle in two hundred steers. I
+want to get 'em passed on to-morrow afternoon, or next day sure."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin's face fell. "I don't think I need to go. Hosy can carry the
+orders just as well as me," he said, boyishly sullen.</p>
+
+<p>"I want <i>you</i> to go!" was the stern answer, and it was plain that
+Streeter was commander even of his reckless son.</p>
+
+<p>As he rose from the table, Calvin said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "I'll
+be here to breakfast all right, and I'll see that you get over to the
+agency."</p>
+
+<p>Streeter the elder upon reflection considered that his guests had not
+sufficiently accounted for themselves, and, after Calvin left, again
+turned a penetrating glance on Curtis, saying, in a peculiar way, "Where
+did you say you were from?"</p>
+
+<p>"San Francisco," replied Curtis, promptly, and cut in ahead with a
+question of his own. "You seem to be well supplied with munitions of
+war. Do you need all those guns now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Need every shell. We're going to oust these devils pretty soon, and
+they know it, and they're ugly."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by ousting 'em?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're pushing a bill to have 'em removed."</p>
+
+<p>"Where to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, to the Red River reservation, or the Powder Valley; we're not
+particular, so that we get rid of 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie tingled with indignation as Streeter outlined the plans of the
+settlers and told of his friction with the redmen, but Curtis remained
+calm and smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll miss their market for your beef, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's a small item in comparison with the extra range we'll get,"
+and thereupon he entered upon a long statement of what the government
+ought to do.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie rose wearily, and the old man was all attention.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you are tired and would like to go to bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are rather limp," confessed Curtis, glad to escape the searching
+cross-examination which he knew would follow Jennie's retirement.</p>
+
+<p>When they were alone the two young people looked at each other in
+silence, Jennie with big, horrified eyes, Curtis with an amused
+comprehension of his sister's feeling. "Isn't he a pirate? He doesn't
+know it, but his state of mind makes him indictable for murder on the
+high seas."</p>
+
+<p>"George, I don't like this. We are going to have trouble if this old man
+and his like are not put off this reservation."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, we won't put him off to-night, especially as he is a gallant
+host. But this visit here has put me in touch with the cattlemen. I feel
+that I know their plans and their temper very clearly."</p>
+
+<p>"George, I will not sleep here in this room alone. You must make up a
+cot-bed or something. These people make me nervous, with their guns and
+Mexican servants."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you worry, sis. I'll roll up in a blanket and sleep across your
+door-sill," and this he did, acknowledging the reasonableness of her
+fears.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS ASSUMES CHARGE OF THE AGENT</h3>
+
+
+<p>During the night Curtis was quite sure he heard a party of men ride up
+to the door, but in the morning there remained no signs of them.</p>
+
+<p>They were early on their feet, and Calvin, true to his promise, was
+present to help get breakfast. He had shaved some time during the night,
+and wore a new shirt with a purple silk handkerchief looped about his
+neck, and Jennie found it hard to be as cold and severe with him as she
+had resolved upon. He was only a big, handsome boy, after all.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to send that half-breed back and take you over to the fort
+myself," he said to Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't have that," Curtis sharply replied. "If you care to ride
+with us over to the fort I've no objection, but Louie will carry out his
+contract with us." The truth was, he did not care to be under any
+further obligation to the Streeters.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast was a hurried and rather silent meal. As they rose, Jennie
+said, apologetically: "I fear I can't stop to do up the dishes. It is a
+long, hard ride to the fort."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," replied Calvin, "it's close on thirty-five miles. Never
+you mind about the dishes. Hosy will swab 'em out."</p>
+
+<p>As they were mounting, the elder Streeter said, hospitably: "If you
+return this way, Mr. Curtis, make my ranch your half-way house." He
+bowed to Jennie. "My wife will be here then, miss, and you will not be
+obliged to cook your own meals."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't mind; I rather enjoyed it," responded Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin was delayed at the start, and came thundering after with a
+shrill, cowboy yell, his horse running close to the ground with ears
+viciously laid back. The boy made a fine figure as he swept past them
+with the speed of an eagle. His was the perfection of range
+horsemanship. He talked, gesticulated, rolled cigarettes, put his coat
+on or off as he rode, without apparent thought of his horse or of the
+ground he crossed.</p>
+
+<p>He knew nothing but the life of a cattleman, and spoke quite frankly of
+his ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>"The old man tried to send me to school once. Packed me off to St. Joe.
+I stayed a week. 'See here, old man, don't do that again,' I says. 'I
+won't stand for it.' Hell! You might as well tie up a coyote as shut me
+in a school-room."</p>
+
+<p>He made a most picturesque guide as he rode ahead of them, always in
+view, completing a thousand typical combinations of man and horse and
+landscape&mdash;now suppling in his saddle to look down and a little backward
+at some "sign," now trotting straight towards a dark opening among the
+pines, now wheeling swiftly to mount a sudden ascent on the trail.
+Everything he did was as graceful and as self-unconscious as the
+movements of a panther. He was a living illustration of all the cowboy
+stories the girl had read. His horse, his saddle, his peculiar,
+slouching seat, the roll of clothing behind his saddle, his spurs, his
+long-heeled boots&mdash;every detail was as it should be, and Jennie was glad
+of him, and of Louis, too.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's all here, Jennie," replied Curtis&mdash;"the wild country, the
+Indian, the gallant scout, and the tender maiden."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm having a beautiful ride. Since we left the wagon-road it really
+seems like the primitive wilderness."</p>
+
+<p>"It is. This little wedge of land is all these brave people have saved
+from the flood. They made their last stand here. The reflux from the
+coast caught them here, and here they are, waiting extinction."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's eyes widened. "It's tragic, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but so is all life, except to Calvin Streeter, and even he wants
+what he can't get. He told me this morning he wanted to go to Chicago
+and take a fall out of a judge who fined him for carrying a gun. So even
+he has his unsatisfied ambition. As he told me about it he snarled like
+a young tiger."</p>
+
+<p>At about one o'clock, Calvin, who was riding ahead, halted on the crest
+of a timbered ridge and raised a shout.</p>
+
+<p>"He's topped the divide!" called Curtis to Jennie, who was riding
+behind. "We'll soon be in."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad of it. I'm tired."</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the spot where Calvin waited they could look down into
+the main valley of the Elk, and the agency, a singular village of
+ancient barracks, sheds, corrals, and red-roofed storehouses was almost
+beneath them. All about on the low hills the criss-crossing trails gave
+evidence that the Tetongs were still a nation of horsemen. Theirs was a
+barren land, a land of pine-clad, precipitous hills and deep valleys,
+which opened to the east&mdash;a region of scant rains and thin, discouraged
+streams.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the officers' whitewashed quarters and the parade-ground
+brought a certain sadness to Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"The old garrison don't look as it did when I was here in 188-," he
+said, musingly. "Army days in the West are almost gone. The Indian war
+is over. What a waste of human life it was on both sides! Yes, Louie, go
+ahead."</p>
+
+<p>As they alternately slid and trotted down the trail, native horsemen
+could be seen coming and going, their gay blankets sparkling in the
+clear air. Others on foot were clustered about the central building,
+where the flag hung droopingly on a tall staff. As they passed the
+corral, groups of young Tetongs smiled and nudged each other, but
+offered no greeting. Neither did the older men, though their keen eyes
+absorbed every detail of the stranger's dress and bearing. It was plain
+that they held every white man in suspicion, especially if he came
+attended by a cowboy.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin was elaborately free and easy with them all, eager to show his
+wide acquaintanceship. "Hello, Two Horns; hello, Hawk," he called to a
+couple of fine-looking men of middle age. They did not reply. "Hello,
+Gray Wolf, you old sardine; want to try another horse-race?"</p>
+
+<p>Gray Wolf, evidently something of a wag, smilingly replied: "You bet.
+Got new pony&mdash;heap fast."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin wheeled and spurred into the bunch of young fellows, who
+scattered with shouts of laughter, while the Captain and Jennie followed
+Louie, their guide, to the agency gate.</p>
+
+<p>They were met at the fence before the office by two men, one a
+middle-aged man, with a dirty-gray beard and fat, bloated cheeks, who
+said, blandly: "Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, miss; nice day."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis dismounted. "Are you Mr. Sennett?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am&mdash;what can I do for you?" He turned to his companion, a tall young
+man, with innocent gray eyes and a loose, weak mouth: "This is my son
+Clarence. Clarence, take the lady's horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said the Captain, as he stepped inside the gate. "I am
+Captain Curtis, of the cavalry, detailed to take charge of this agency.
+You have just left the office&mdash;have you the keys in your pocket? If so,
+please surrender them to me. It is an unpleasant duty, but I am ordered
+to assume absolute control at once."</p>
+
+<p>The man's red skin faded to a yellow-gray&mdash;the color of his beard. For a
+moment he seemed about to fall, then the blood came surging back; his
+cheeks grew purple with its weight.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be damned if I submit. It is an outrage!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't afford to make any trouble. I am sorry to do this, but I am
+under orders of the department to take you unawares, and on no account
+to let you return to your office."</p>
+
+<p>Sennett began to bluster. "Show me your authority."</p>
+
+<p>"My authority is in this paper." He drew the order from his pocket. "If
+you think a moment you will see that instant acquiescence is best."</p>
+
+<p>While Sennett stormed, the two chiefs, Elk and Two Horns, drew near, and
+lifting his hand, Curtis, using the sign language swiftly, said to them:</p>
+
+<p>"I am your new agent. The Great Father has heard that the old agent is
+bad. I am here to straighten matters out. I am Swift Eagle&mdash;don't you
+remember? I came with Bear Robe. I was only second lieutenant then."</p>
+
+<p>The faces of the old chiefs lit up with pleasure. "Ay, we remember! We
+shake your hands. We are glad you have come."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis then asked: "Who is your interpreter&mdash;one you can trust, one who
+can read this paper."</p>
+
+<p>The two men looked at each other for a moment. Elk said, "Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns shook his head; then, catching sight of a man who was
+regarding the scene from a door-way not very distant, he said, in
+English: "Him&mdash;Nawson. Hay, my friend," he called, "come here!"</p>
+
+<p>This observer at once responded to Two Horns' sign. As he came up the
+chief said: "My friend, here is a paper from Washington; read it for
+us."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis said: "I am Captain Curtis, of the cavalry, detailed to act as
+agent here. This is my commission."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger extended his hand. "I'm glad to meet you, Captain Curtis,
+very glad, indeed." As they shook hands he added: "I've read your
+articles on the sign language, et cetera, with great pleasure. My name
+is Lawson."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled. "Are you Osborne Lawson? I'm mighty glad to meet you.
+This is my sister, Mr. Lawson."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lawson greeted Jennie with grace, and she liked him at once. His
+manner was direct and his voice pleasing. He was tall, lean, and a
+little stooping, but strong and brown. "Now, Captain, what can I do for
+you?" he asked, turning briskly.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to read this paper to the chiefs here, and then I intend to
+put a guard on the door. Mr. Sennett is not to be permitted to re-enter
+his office. These are harsh measures, but I am not responsible for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson looked thoughtful. "I see." After reading the paper he said to
+the chiefs: "It is as this man has said. The Great Father has sent him
+here to take charge of the office. The old agent is cut off&mdash;he is not
+allowed to go back to his office for fear he may hide something. Have
+Crow put a guard on the door. The new agent will try to find out why you
+have not received your rations. This is the secret of this paper, and
+here is the signature of the Secretary. This is a true thing, and you
+must now obey Captain Curtis. I know him," he said, looking round him.
+"He is my friend; you can trust him. That is all."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! Good!" said the chiefs. "We understand."</p>
+
+<p>A short, dark Tetong in a frayed captain's uniform came up. "I am chief
+of the police," he signed. "What shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Guard the door of the office and of the issue house. Let no one but
+those I bring enter. Will you do as I say?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay!" replied the officer, whose name was Crow.</p>
+
+<p>"Then all is said; go guard the door."</p>
+
+<p>Sennett and his son had withdrawn a little from the scene and were
+talking in low voices. They had placed themselves in the worst possible
+light, and they felt it. As Curtis reached this point in his orders,
+Sennett started to cross the road.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, gentlemen," called Curtis. "My orders are very strict. I
+must precede you. There is a certain desk in your library, Mr. Sennett,
+which I must search."</p>
+
+<p>Sennett flamed out into wild oaths. "You shall not search my private
+papers."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence!" called Curtis. "Another oath and I'll put you in the
+guard-house."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose I'm going to submit to this without protest? You treat
+me like a criminal."</p>
+
+<p>"So far as my orders go, that's what you are," said Curtis. "I give you
+the benefit of the doubt so long as you act the gentleman, but you must
+respect the presence of my sister, or I'll gag you." After a pause he
+added, in a gentler tone: "I don't pretend to judge your case. I am
+merely obeying the orders of the department."</p>
+
+<p>"I have powerful friends in Washington. You will regret this," snarled
+Sennett. But his son was like one smitten dumb; his breathing was
+troubled, and his big, gray eyes were childish in their wide appeal.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson then spoke. "Can I do anything further, Captain? Command me
+freely."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not, except to see that my horses are taken care of and my
+guide fed. I suppose there is a mess or boarding-house where my sister
+can get something to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you come to dinner with me?" asked Lawson. "Mrs. Wilcox, some
+artist friends, and I are messing over in one of the old quarters, and
+our mid-day dinner is waiting."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled grimly. "Thank you, I am on duty. I must dine with Mr.
+Sennett. Jennie will accept your invitation thankfully."</p>
+
+<p>As Curtis walked over to the agency house with Sennett and his son,
+Jennie looked anxious. "They may do something to him."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson smiled. "Oh no, they won't. They are quite cowed, but I'll
+suggest a guard." He turned to Two Horns and said, in Dakota: "Father,
+the old agent is angry. The new agent is a brave man, but he is only one
+against two."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said the old man, with a smile, and a few minutes later
+a couple of policemen were sitting on the door-step of the agent's
+house. It was a sunny place to sit, and they enjoyed being there very
+much. One of them understood English, and the other was well able to
+tell an angry word when he heard it spoken.</p>
+
+<p>The drowsy hush of mid-day again settled down upon the little cluster of
+buildings&mdash;news, even when it passes swiftly among red people, makes no
+noise. It walks with velvet foot, it speaks in a murmur; it hastens, but
+conceals its haste.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BEAUTIFUL ELSIE BEE BEE</h3>
+
+
+<p>As Jennie entered the mess-house she uttered a little cry of amazement.
+Outwardly, it was a rude barrack of whitewashed cottonwood logs, but its
+interior glowed with color and light. Bright rugs were on the floor, and
+a big divan in one corner displayed a monstrous black bear-skin. A
+capacious fireplace, which dated back to the first invasion of the army,
+filled one end of the hall, which had been enlarged by the removal of a
+partition. Oil-paintings, without frames, were tacked against the walls,
+and the odor of fresh pigments lingered in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"This is our general meeting-place," explained Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"It smells like a studio," Jennie replied, after a glance around her.</p>
+
+<p>A plain, quiet little woman, with a look of inquiry on her face,
+appeared at the dining-room door, and Lawson called out:</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Wilcox, this is Miss Curtis, who will stay with us for a few
+days." As they greeted each other he added: "There is a story to tell,
+but we are late, and it can wait. Where is Elsie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Still at work. She never <i>would</i> come to her meals if we didn't call
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm disposed to try it some day. Will you take charge of Miss Curtis
+while I go fetch the delinquent?"</p>
+
+<p>Under Mrs. Wilcox's direction Jennie prepared for luncheon in an
+adjoining room, wondering still at the unexpected refinement of the
+furnishings, and curious to see the artist.</p>
+
+<p>As she re-entered the sitting-room a tall girl rose languidly to meet
+her, and Lawson said: "Miss Curtis, this is Miss Brisbane, the painter
+of the pictures you see about."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Brisbane bowed in silence, while Jennie cried out: "Oh! did you do
+them? I think they are beautiful!"</p>
+
+<p>The sincerity of her voice touched the young artist, and she said: "I'm
+glad you like them&mdash;sometimes I think they're pretty 'bum.'"</p>
+
+<p>A slang word on the red lips of the handsome girl seemed wofully out of
+place to Jennie, who stared at her with the eager curiosity of a child.
+She was slender and dark, with an exquisite chin, and her hands, though
+slim and white, were strong and capable. Her eyes were very dark, of a
+velvety brown-black, and her hair was abundant and negligently piled
+upon her small head. Altogether she had a stately and rather foreign
+presence, which made Jennie feel very dowdy and very commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilcox hurried them all out into the dining-room, where a pretty
+table was spread for six people. Jennie's attention was absorbed by the
+walls, which were also lightened with sketches of small, red babies in
+gay cradles, and of glowing bits of tawny plain and purple butte.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you do all of these beautiful things?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson interposed. "She did, Miss Curtis. Be not deceived. Miss
+Brisbane's languid manner springs from her theory of rest. When work is
+finished she 'devitalizes'&mdash;I think that is the word&mdash;and becomes a rag.
+But she's a horrible example of industry, spineless as she now appears."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Brisbane remained quite unmoved by Lawson's words; smiling
+dreamily, her red lips, as serene as those of a child, softly shaped
+themselves to say: "The strung bow needs relaxation."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are right," said Jennie, with sudden conviction.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie opened her eyes wide and murmured, "Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie went on: "Now my trouble is just that. I'm always nerved up. I
+can't relax. Won't you teach me how?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure. Are you going to live here?" asked Elsie, with faint
+accession of interest.</p>
+
+<p>"As long as my brother does."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you've come to teach these ragamuffins?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson here answered for Jennie. "Miss Curtis is a sister to Captain
+Curtis, who has come to displace your uncle."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Brisbane looked up blankly. "I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson became explicit, and as she listened the girl's hands clinched.</p>
+
+<p>"How abominable!" she cried, with eyes aflame.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. If Mr. Sennett is an honest employé of the government, he
+should be willing to be searched&mdash;if he isn't, then no measure is too
+harsh. He'll get a thorough raking over, if my impression of the new
+agent is correct."</p>
+
+<p>"My father would not put a dishonest man in this place," insisted Elsie,
+"and I don't believe Uncle Sennett has done wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, we'll suspend judgment," retorted Lawson, who knew just when
+to change his tone. "Captain Curtis is an officer of known ability, and
+no one can accuse him of prejudice. His living doesn't depend upon
+pleasing either Mr. Sennett or your father. Undoubtedly the government
+has good reasons for sending him here, and I for one am willing to
+accept his judgment."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie rose in swift resolution. "I say it is an outrage! I am going to
+see that Uncle Sennett is not persecuted."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson laid his hand on her arm and his voice was sternly quiet. "I
+think you would better finish your tea. Whatever protest you feel called
+upon to make can be made later. If you like," he added, in a gentler
+voice, "I will represent you in the matter and go with you to see
+Captain Curtis during the afternoon. I don't think we should trouble him
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie resumed her seat without either accepting or rejecting his offer,
+and the meal continued in some constraint, although Lawson summoned his
+best humor to cover Elsie's passionate outburst.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later Elsie sullenly retired to her studio, and Lawson
+said: "I am going out to see what is going on, Miss Curtis; please make
+yourself at home here."</p>
+
+<p>When the door closed behind him Jennie turned to Mrs. Wilcox. "Why does
+Mr. Lawson use that tone with Miss Brisbane&mdash;are they engaged?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilcox laughed. "That's just what none of us knows. Sometimes I
+think they are husband and wife&mdash;he lectures her so."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When Curtis joined the mess in the evening he was weary and a little
+sombre. Vastly preoccupied with his difficult task at the office, he had
+given but little attention to Jennie's announcement of having been taken
+into the bosom of an artistic family messing at the barracks, and when
+Elsie met him in a regal gown, glittering and changeful, he pulled
+himself up in surprise and admiration.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, on her part, was eager to see him and ready to do battle, but as
+he faced her, abrupt, vigorous of movement, keen-eyed and
+composed&mdash;almost stern of countenance&mdash;she was a little daunted. He was
+handsomer than she had expected, and older. His head was impressive, his
+frame muscular, and his movements graceful. Plainly he was a man of
+power, one it would be politic to treat with respect.</p>
+
+<p>As they took up their napkins at the table Lawson opened out: "Well,
+Captain, we don't want to seem inquisitive, but we are dying to know
+what you've been doing this afternoon. We feel on the outside of it
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Elsie quickly added, "we want to know whether there is to be a
+revolution, or only a riot."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned to her smilingly and replied: "You'll all be disappointed.
+I've been looking over accounts and holding humdrum audience with my
+clerks&mdash;a very busy but very quiet afternoon&mdash;nothing doing, as the
+phrase goes."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Uncle Sennett?" inquired Elsie. "I tried to find him, but your
+men would not let me into the office."</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have tried," interjected Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he your uncle?" asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"He's my father's sister's husband&mdash;but that doesn't matter; I'd defend
+him if he were a stranger. I think he has been shamefully treated. The
+idea of searching his private desk!"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked at her keenly. "I am under orders," he said. "Mr. Sennett
+is nothing to me, one way or the other. The question for answer is&mdash;has
+he abused his office?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has not!" exclaimed Elsie. "I <i>know</i> he has not. He is not a man to
+cheat and steal; he is not a strong man, but he is kind and generous."</p>
+
+<p>"Too kind and too generous," muttered Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to say that the records are against him," replied Curtis,
+"and his action is against him. He and his son have gone to Pinon
+City&mdash;riding very like fugitives. I had no orders to hold them; indeed,
+I was glad to let them go."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie bit her lips. "He has gone to get aid," she said at last, "and
+when he comes back you will take a different tone with him."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed. "I believe he did say he'd have my hide, or something
+like that."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson put in a word. "He'll do it, too, if the cattle interest can
+influence the Secretary. Don't tell us any more than is proper,
+Captain, but&mdash;how do you find his accounts?"</p>
+
+<p>"In very bad shape. The chiefs say he has been holding back rations and
+turning in bad beef for some time."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd take the word of a nasty Indian against my uncle, or <i>any</i> white
+man, I can see that," said Elsie, in withering scorn.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned upon her a most searching glance. "Miss Brisbane, I don't
+understand your attitude towards me. As a soldier on special duty,
+detailed almost against my will, I have no prejudice in this affair. It
+is my duty to see that the treaties of the government are carried out.
+You seem to think I am started on a line of persecution of your uncle&mdash;"
+he checked himself. "I beg you will not pursue the subject any further."
+He turned to Lawson with an effort to put aside unpleasant conversation.
+"Please don't ask me disagreeable questions when I am curious to know
+the meaning of this artistic invasion of my territory. Who is
+responsible for these pictures?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson hastened to explain. "This plague of artists is due to me
+entirely, Captain Curtis. I am doing some studies of the Tetongs, and
+Miss Brisbane came out to make some illustrations for me. In fact, she
+suggested coming here rather than to the upper agencies, because of her
+uncle's presence. Our coming brought others."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad you came," said Curtis, heartily, "and I will do all in
+my power to further your work. Please do not allow my coming to change
+your plans in the slightest degree."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson continued: "Intending to stay some months, we concluded to set up
+a mess and be comfortable&mdash;and permit me to say, we hope you'll eat with
+us until your own goods arrive."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; I accept with pleasure, for I don't enjoy camping in the
+tent of my angry predecessor&mdash;this company is more to my mind."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie's red lips were tremulous with indignation. "You can't blame Mr.
+Sennett for being angry. You would be if treated in the same way. There
+is no justice in it. <i>I</i> would never have surrendered those keys to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis patiently repeated, "My orders were peremptory."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't take shelter behind that plea. Your acts are atrocious, and I
+shall write to my father in Washington and have you investigated." She
+was beautiful as flame in the glow of her wrath.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis seemed struck with a new idea. "Are you the daughter of
+ex-Senator Brisbane?"</p>
+
+<p>She braced herself. "Well, suppose I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing at all&mdash;only it explains."</p>
+
+<p>"What does it explain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your attitude. It is quite natural for a daughter of Andrew Brisbane to
+take sides against these people." He was not in a mood to be gallant,
+and his glance quelled the angry girl.</p>
+
+<p>With flushed face and quivering lips she sprang to her feet. "I will not
+stay to be insulted," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rose as she swept from the room, but checked his instinctive
+words of apology and returned to his seat in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilcox relieved the painful pause by saying, "Captain Curtis, you
+must not misjudge Elsie. She is a much better girl than she seems."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson was troubled as he said, "She has lashed herself into a great
+rage over this affair, but as a matter of fact she don't care a hang for
+Sennett."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't apologize for doing my duty," said Curtis, "even to Miss
+Brisbane."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," replied Lawson, though he was deeply hurt by Elsie's
+display of unreason.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he decently could, he followed her to her studio, where he
+found her lying in sullen dejection on the big divan. "Bee Bee, you are
+missing a good dinner," he began, gently.</p>
+
+<p>She was instantly ready to fight. "I suppose you blame me for this
+scene."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are hasty, and a little unreasonable. I know Curtis by
+reputation, and he is above any petty malice."</p>
+
+<p>"You are taking his side against me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, Bee Bee, I am merely trying to show you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He looked at me as no man ever dared to look before, and I hate him. He
+thinks because he has a little authority he can lord it over us all
+here. I shall write to father at once, telling him just how this little
+prig of a lieutenant&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," interrupted Lawson&mdash;"for distinguished service."</p>
+
+<p>His smile made her furious. She flung herself back on the divan. "Go
+away. I hate you, too."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, at the end of his patience, went out and closed the door behind
+him. "What is the matter with the girl?" he said to Mrs. Wilcox. "I've
+seen her in temper, but never like this. She has taken the most violent
+antagonism to Curtis."</p>
+
+<p>"She'd better let that young man alone," replied Mrs. Wilcox, sagely.
+"He has a very firm mouth."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3>CAGED EAGLES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The word had gone out among all the red people that the old agent was
+entirely "cut off," and that a soldier and a sign-talker had come to
+take his place, and so each little camp loaded its tepees on wagons or
+lashed them to the ponies and came flocking in to sit down before the
+Little Father and be inspired of him.</p>
+
+<p>The young men came first, whirling in on swift ponies, looking at a
+distance like bands of cowboys&mdash;for, though they hated the cattlemen,
+they formed themselves on Calvin Streeter as a model. Each wore a wide,
+white hat and dark trousers, and carried a gay kerchief slung round his
+neck. All still wore moccasins of buckskin, beautifully beaded and
+fringed, and their braided hair hung low on their breasts.</p>
+
+<p>The old men, who jogged in later in the day, still carried blankets,
+though they, too, had adopted the trousers and calico shirts of the
+white man. Several of the chieftains preserved their precious
+peace-pipes, and their fans and tobacco pouches, as of old, and a few of
+those who had been in Washington came in wrinkled suits of army-blue.
+The women dressed in calico robes cut in their own distinctive style,
+with wide sleeves, the loose flow of the garment being confined at the
+waist with a girdle. As this was a time of great formality, several of
+the young girls returned to their buckskin dresses trimmed with elk
+teeth, which they highly prized.</p>
+
+<p>As a race they were tall and strong, but the men, from much riding, were
+thin in the shanks and bowed out at the knee. They had lost the fine
+proportions for which they were famed in the days when they were
+trailers a-foot. "Straight as an Indian" no longer applied to them, but
+they were all skilled and picturesque horsemen. Lacking in beauty and
+strength, they possessed other compensating qualities which still made
+them most interesting to an artist. Their gestures were unstudiedly
+graceful, and their roughhewn faces were pleasant in expression. Ill
+words or dark looks were rare among them.</p>
+
+<p>In all external things they were quite obviously half-way from the tepee
+to the cabin. Their homes consisted of small hovels of cottonwood logs,
+set round with tall tepees and low lodges of canvas, used for
+dormitories and kitchens in summer. A rack for drying meat rations was a
+part of each family's possessions. They owned many minute ponies, and
+their camps abounded in dogs of wolfish breed which they handled not at
+all, for they were, as of old, merely the camp-guard.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the salient characteristics of the Tetongs, westernmost
+representatives of a once powerful race of hunters, whose home had been
+far to the east, in a land of lakes, rivers, and forests. They were not
+strangers to the young soldier; he knew their history and their habits
+of thought. He now studied them to detect change and found
+deterioration. "I am your friend," he said to them each and all. "I
+come to do you good, to lead you in the new road. It is a strange road
+to me also, for I, too, am a soldier and a hunter; but together we will
+learn to make the earth produce meat for our eating. Put your hand in
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>He was plunged at once into a wilderness of work, but in his moments of
+leisure the face of Elsie Brisbane came into his thought and her
+resentment troubled him more than he cared to acknowledge. He well knew
+that her birth and her training put her in hopeless opposition to all he
+was planning to do for the Tetongs, and yet he determined to demonstrate
+to her both the justice and the humanity of his position.</p>
+
+<p>He knew her father's career very well. He had once travelled for two
+days on the same railway train with him, and remembered him as a
+boastful but powerful man, whose antagonism no one held in light esteem.
+Andrew Brisbane had entered the State at a time when its mineral wealth
+lay undeveloped and free to the taker, and having leagued himself with
+men less masterly than himself but quite as unscrupulous, had set to
+work to grasp and hold the natural resources of the great Territory&mdash;he
+laid strong fists upon the mines and forests and grass of the wild land.
+Once grasped, nothing was ever surrendered.</p>
+
+<p>It mattered nothing to him and his kind that a race of men already lived
+upon this land and were prepared to die in defence of it. By adroit
+juggling, he and his corporation put the unsuspecting settler forward to
+receive the first shock of the battle, and, when trouble came, loudly
+called upon the government to send its troops "in support of the
+pioneers." In this way, without danger to himself, the shrewd old Yankee
+had acquired mineral belts, cattle-ranges, railway rights, and many
+other good things, and at last, when the Territory was made a State, he
+became one of its senators.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, he hated the red people. They were pestilential because,
+first of all, they paid no railway charges, and also for the reason that
+they held the land away from those who would add to his unearned
+increment and increase the sum total of his tariff receipts. His
+original plan was broadly simple. "Sweep them from the earth," he
+snarled, when asked "What will we do with the Indians?" But his policy,
+modified by men with hearts and a sense of justice, had settled into a
+process of remorseless removal from point to point, from tillable land
+to grazing land, from grazing land to barren waste, and from barren
+waste to arid desert. He had no doubts in these matters. It was good
+business, and to say a thing was not good business was conclusive. The
+Tetong did not pay&mdash;remove him!</p>
+
+<p>Elsie in her home-life, therefore, had been well schooled in race
+hatred. Tender-hearted where suffering in a dog or even a wolf was
+concerned, she remained indifferent when a tribe was reported to be
+starving. Nothing modified her view till, as an art student in Paris,
+she came into contact with men who placed high value on the redman as
+"material." She found herself envied because she had casually looked
+upon a few of these "wonderful chaps," as Newt Penrose called them, and
+was often asked to give her impressions of them. When she returned to
+New York she was deeply impressed by Maurice Stewart's enormous success
+in sculpturing certain types of this despised race. A little later
+Wilfred J. Buttes, who had been struggling along as a painter of bad
+portraits, suddenly purchased a house in a choice suburb on the strength
+of two summers' work among the mountain Utes.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Elsie opened her eyes. Not that money was a lure to her, for
+it was not, but she was eager for notice&mdash;for the fame that comes
+quickly, and with loud trumpets and gay banners. In conversation with
+Lawson one day she learned that he was about to do some pen-portraits of
+noted Tetong chieftains, and at once sprang to her opportunity. She
+admired and trusted Lawson. His keen judgment, his definiteness of
+speech awed her a little, and with him she was noticeably less assertive
+than with the others of her artist acquaintances. So here now she sat,
+painting with rigor and immense satisfaction the picturesque rags and
+tinsel ornaments of the Tetongs. To her they were beggars and tramps, on
+a scale with the lazzaroni of Rome or Naples. That they were anything
+more than troublesome models had not been borne in on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>She had never professed special regard for her uncle the agent&mdash;in fact,
+she covertly despised him for his lack of power&mdash;but, now that the issue
+was drawn, she naturally flew to the side of those who would destroy the
+small peoples of the earth. She wrote to her father a passionate letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you stop this?" she asked. "No doubt Uncle Henry will go direct
+to Washington and make complaint. This Captain Curtis is insufferable.
+I would leave here instantly only I am bound to do some work for Mr.
+Lawson. We must all go soon, for winter is coming on, but I would like
+to see this upstart humbled. He treats me as if I were a
+school-girl&mdash;'declines to argue the matter.' Oh! he is provoking. His
+sister is a nice little thing, but she sides with him, of course&mdash;and so
+does Lawson, in a sense; so you see I am all alone. The settlers are
+infuriated at Uncle Sennett's dismissal, and will support you and Uncle
+Henry."</p>
+
+<p>In the days that followed she met Curtis's attempts at modifying her
+resentment with scornful silence, and took great credit to herself that
+she did not literally fly at his head when he spoke of his work or his
+wards. Her avoidance of him became so painful that at the end of the
+third day he said to his sister: "Jennie, I think I will go to the
+school mess after this. Miss Brisbane's hostility shows no signs of
+relenting, and the situation is becoming decidedly unpleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"George!" said Jennie, sternly. "Don't you let that snip drive you away.
+Why, the thing is ridiculous! She is here on sufferance&mdash;your
+sufferance. You could order them all off the reservation at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I know I could, but I won't. You know what I mean&mdash;I can't even let
+Miss Brisbane know that she has made me uncomfortable. She's a very
+instructive example of the power of environment. She has all the
+prejudices and a good part of the will of her father, and represents her
+class just as a little wild-cat represents its species. She's a
+beautiful girl, and yet she is to me one of the most unattractive women
+I ever knew."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie looked puzzled. "You are a little hard on her, George. She <i>is</i>
+unsympathetic, but I think she says a lot of those shocking things just
+to hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't very nice, either," he said, quietly. "Well, our goods are
+on the way, and by Thursday we'll be independent of any one. But maybe
+you are right&mdash;it would excite comment if I left the mess. I will join
+you all at meals until we are ready to light our own kitchen fire."</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter he saw very little of the artists. By borrowing a few
+necessaries of his head farmer he was able to camp down in the house
+which Sennett had so precipitately vacated. He was busy, very busy,
+during the day; but when his work was over and he sat beside his fire,
+pipe in hand, Elsie's haughty face troubled him. His life had not taken
+him much among women, and his love fancies had been few. His duties as
+an officer and his researches as a forester and map-builder had also
+aided to keep him a bachelor. Once or twice he had been disturbed by a
+fair face at the post, only to have it whisked away again into the
+mysterious world of happy girlhood whence it came.</p>
+
+<p>And now, at thirty-four, he was obliged to confess that he was as far
+from marriage as ever&mdash;farther, in fact, for an Indian reservation
+offers but slender opportunity in way of courtship for a man of his
+exacting tastes.</p>
+
+<p>He was not quite honest with himself, or he would have acknowledged the
+pleasure he took in watching Elsie's erect and graceful figure as she
+rode past his office window of a morning. It was pleasant to pause at
+the open door of her studio for a moment and say "Good-morning," though
+he received but a cold and formal bow in return. She was more alluring
+at her easel than in any other place, for she had several curious and
+very pretty tricks in working, and seemed like a very intent child, with
+her brown hair loosening over her temples, her eyes glowing with
+excitement, while she dabbed at the canvas with a piece of cheese-cloth
+or a crumb of bread. She dragged her stool into position with a quick,
+amusing jerk, holding her brush in her teeth meanwhile. Her blouses were
+marvels of odd grace and rich color.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier once or twice lingered in silence at the door after she had
+forgotten his presence, and each time the glow of her disturbing beauty
+burned deeper into his heart, and he went away with drooping head.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilcox took occasion one day to remonstrate with her niece. "Elsie,
+you were very rude to Captain Curtis again to-day. He was deeply hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, aunt, don't <i>you</i> try to convert me to a belief in that tin
+soldier. He gets on my nerves."</p>
+
+<p>"It would serve you right if he ordered us off the reservation. Your
+remarks to-day before that young Mr. Streeter were very wrong and very
+injudicious, and will be used in a bad cause. Captain Curtis is trying
+to keep the peace here, and you are doing a great deal of harm by your
+hints of his removal."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care. I intend to have him removed. I have taken a frightful
+dislike to him. He is a prig and a hypocrite, and has no business to
+come in here in this way, setting his low-down Indians up against the
+settlers."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what he is trying <i>not</i> to do, and if you weren't so
+obstinate you'd see it and honor him for his good sense."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt, don't <i>you</i> lecture me," cried the imperious girl. "I will not
+allow it!"</p>
+
+<p>In truth, Mrs. Wilcox's well-meant efforts at peace-making worked out
+wrongly. Elsie became insufferably rude to Curtis, and her letters were
+filled with the bitterest references to him and his work.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson continued most friendly, and Curtis gladly availed himself of the
+wide knowledge of primitive psychology which the ethnologist had
+acquired. The subject of Indian education came up very naturally at a
+little dinner which Jennie gave to the teachers and missionaries soon
+after she opened house, and Lawson's remarks were very valuable to
+Curtis. Lawson was talking to the principal of the central school. "We
+should apply to the Indian problem the law of inherited aptitudes," he
+said, slowly. "We should follow lines of least resistance. Fifty
+thousand years of life proceeding in a certain way results in a certain
+arrangement of brain-cells which can't be changed in a day, or even in a
+generation. The red hunter, for example, was trained to endure hunger,
+cold, and prolonged exertion. When he struck a game-trail he never left
+it. His pertinacity was like that of a wolf. These qualities do not make
+a market-gardener; they might not be out of place as a herder. We must
+be patient while the redman makes the change from the hunter to the
+herdsman. It is like mulching a young crab-apple and expecting it to
+bear pippins."</p>
+
+<p>"Patience is an unknown virtue in an Indian agent," remarked the
+principal of the central school&mdash;"present company excepted."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe in the allotment?" asked Miss Colson, one of the
+missionaries for kindergarten work, an eager little woman, aflame with
+religious zeal.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in its present form," replied Lawson, shortly. "Any attempt to make
+the Tetong conform to the isolated, dreary, lonesome life of the Western
+farmer will fail. The redman is a social being&mdash;he is pathetically
+dependent on his tribe. He has always lived a communal life, with the
+voices of his fellows always in his ears. He loves to sit at evening and
+hear the chatter of his neighbors. His games, his hunting, his toil, all
+went on with what our early settlers called a 'bee.' He seldom worked or
+played alone. His worst punishment was to be banished from the camping
+circle. Now the Dawes theorists think they can take this man, who has no
+newspaper, no books, no letters, and set him apart from his fellows in a
+wretched hovel on the bare plain, miles from a neighbor, there to
+improve his farm and become a citizen. This mechanical theory has failed
+in every case; nominally, the Sioux, the Piegans, are living this
+abhorrent life; actually, they are always visiting. The loneliness is
+unendurable, and so they will not cultivate gardens or keep live-stock,
+which would force them to keep at home. If they were allowed to settle
+in groups of four or five they would do better."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Colson's deep seriousness of purpose was evident in the tremulous
+intensity of her voice. "If they had the transforming love of Christ in
+their hearts they would feel no loneliness."</p>
+
+<p>A silence followed this speech; both men mentally shrugged their
+shoulders, but Jennie came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Colson, did you ever live on a ranch, miles from any other
+stove-pipe?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I am sure that with God as my helper I could live in a
+dungeon."</p>
+
+<p>"You should have been a nun," said Lawson. "I don't mind your living
+alone with Christ, but I think it cruel and unchristian to force your
+solitary way of life on a sociable redman. Would Christ do that? Would
+He insist on shutting the door on their mythology, their nature lore,
+their dances and ceremonies? Would He not go freely among them, glad of
+their joy, and condemning only what was hurtful? Is there any record
+that He ever condemned an innocent pleasure? How do you know but they
+are as near the Creator's design as the people of Ohio?"</p>
+
+<p>The teacher's pretty face was strained and white, and her wide-set eyes
+were painful to see. She set her slim hands together. "Oh, I can't
+answer you now, but I know you are wrong&mdash;wickedly wrong!"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie again broke the intensity of the silence by saying: "Two big men
+against one little woman isn't fair. I object to having the Indian
+problem settled over cold coffee. Mr. Lawson, stop preaching!"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Colson is abundantly able to take care of herself," said Slicer,
+and the other teachers, who had handed over their cause to their ablest
+advocate, chorused approval.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, who sat with deeply meditative eyes fixed on Miss Colson, now
+said: "It all depends on what we are trying to do for these people.
+Personally, I am not concerned about the future life of my wards. I want
+to make them healthy and happy, here and now."</p>
+
+<p>"Time's up!" cried Jennie, and led the woman out into the safe harbor of
+the sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>After they had lighted their cigars, Lawson said privately to Curtis:
+"Now there's a girl with too much moral purpose&mdash;just as Elsie is
+spoiled by too little. However, I prefer a wholesome pagan to a morbid
+Christian."</p>
+
+<p>"It's rather curious," Curtis replied. "Miss Colson is a pretty girl&mdash;a
+very pretty girl; but I can't quite imagine a man being in love with
+her. What could you do with such inexorable moral purpose? You couldn't
+put your arm round it, could you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You'd have to hang her up by a string, like one of these toy angels the
+Dutch put atop their Christmas-trees. The Tetongs fairly dread to see
+her coming&mdash;they think she's deranged."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it&mdash;the children go to her with reluctance; she doesn't seem
+wholesome to them, as Miss Diehl does. And yet I can't discharge her."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally not! You'd hear from the missionary world. Think of it! 'I
+find Miss Colson too pious, please take her away.'" Both men laughed at
+the absurdity of this, and Lawson went on: "I wished a dozen times
+during dinner that Elsie Bee Bee had been present. It would have given
+her a jolt to come in contact with such inartistic, unshakable
+convictions."</p>
+
+<p>"She would have been here, only her resentment towards me is still very
+strong."</p>
+
+<p>"She has it in for you, sure thing. I can't budge her," said Lawson,
+smiling. "She's going to have you removed the moment she reaches
+Washington."</p>
+
+<p>"I have moments when I think I'd like to be removed," said Curtis, as he
+turned towards Mr. Slicer and his other guests. "Suppose we go into the
+library, gentlemen."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS SEEKS A TRUCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Our artists are going to flit," remarked Jennie, one evening, as they
+were taking seats at luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up quickly. "Are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Brisbane is going back to Washington, and Mr. Lawson will
+follow, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>He unfolded his napkin with unmoved countenance. "Well, they are wise;
+we are likely to have a norther any day now."</p>
+
+<p>The soldier had all the responsibilities and perplexities he could
+master without the addition of Elsie Brisbane's disturbing lure. The
+value of her good opinion was enormously enhanced by the news of her
+intended departure, and for a day or two Curtis went about his duties
+with absent-minded ineffectiveness; he even detected himself once or
+twice sitting with his pen in his hand creating aimless markings on his
+blotting-pad. Wilson, the clerk, on one occasion waited full five
+minutes for an answer while his chief debated with himself whether to
+call upon Miss Brisbane at the studio or at the house. He began to find
+excuses for her&mdash;"A man who is a villain in business may be a very
+attractive citizen in private life&mdash;and she may have been very fond of
+Sennett. From her point of view&mdash;anyhow, she is a lovely young girl,
+and it is absurd to place her among my enemies." The thought of her face
+set in bitter scorn against him caused his heart to contract painfully.
+"I've been too harsh. These people are repugnant to one so dainty and
+superrefined. There are excuses for her prejudice. I can't let her go
+away in anger." And in this humble mood he stopped at the door of her
+studio one morning, prepared to be very patient and very persuasive.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, Miss Brisbane. May I come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if my work will interest you," she replied; "you'll excuse
+my going on. I want to finish this portrait of Little Peta to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means&mdash;I do not intend to interrupt." He took a seat to the
+front and a little to the left of her, and sat in silence for a few
+moments. Her brown hair, piled loosely on her head, brought out the
+exquisite fairness of her complexion, and the big, loose sleeve of her
+blouse made her hand seem like a child's, but it was strong and steady.
+She was working with her whole mind, breathing quickly as she mixed her
+colors, holding her breath as she put her brush against the canvas. She
+used the apparently aimless yet secure movement of the born painter.
+With half-closed eyes and head a little to one side, with small hand
+lifted to measure and compare, she took on a new expression, a
+bewitching intentness, which quite transformed her.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you are going away," said Curtis at last, speaking with some
+effort, uncertain of her temper.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we break up and vacate to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Why break up? You will want to come back next spring. Leave the place
+as it is."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him a quick, keen glance, and put her head again on one side to
+squint.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no intention of returning."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you exhausted Indian subjects?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" she exclaimed, with sudden, artistic enthusiasm. "I have just
+begun to see what I want to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why not come back?" She did not reply, and he resumed, with tender
+gravity: "I hope I haven't made it so unpleasant for you that you are
+running away to escape <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned with a sharp word on her tongue, but he was so frank and so
+handsome, and withal so humble, that she instantly relented. She was
+used to this humility in men and knew the meaning thereof, and a flush
+of gratified pride rose to her face. The proud soldier had become a
+suitor like the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no&mdash;you have nothing to do with it," she replied, carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad of that. I was afraid you might think me unsympathetic, but I
+am not. I am here this morning to offer you my cordial assistance, for I
+am eager to see this people put into art. So far as I know, they have
+never been adequately treated in painting or in sculpture."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she said, "I don't think I shall go very far with them.
+They are very pleasant on canvas, but there are too many disagreeable
+things connected with painting them. I don't see how you endure the
+thought of living here among them." She shuddered. "I hate them!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand that hardness in you, Miss Brisbane," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure it isn't mysterious. I hate dirt and rags, even when painted.
+Now Little Peta here is quite different. She is a dear little thing. See
+her sigh&mdash;she gets so tired, but she's patient."</p>
+
+<p>"You are making a beautiful picture of her. Your skill is marvellous."
+His method of approach was more adroit than he realized; she softened
+yet again.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. I seem to have hit her off very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you exhibit in Washington this winter?" he asked, with boyish
+eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"I may&mdash;I haven't quite decided," she said, quite off guard at last.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do I wish you would let me know. I may be able to visit the
+exhibition and witness your triumph."</p>
+
+<p>She began to suspect his motives. "Oh, my little row of paintings
+couldn't be tortured into a triumph. I've stolen the time for them from
+Mr. Lawson, whose illustrations I have neglected." She was again cold
+and repellent.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brisbane, this whole situation has become intolerable to me." He
+rose and faced her, very sincere and deeply earnest. "I do not like to
+have you go away carrying an unpleasant impression of me. What can I do
+to change it? If I have been boorish or presuming in any way I sincerely
+beg your pardon."</p>
+
+<p>She motioned to Peta. "You can go now, dear, I've done all I can
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took up his hat. "I hope I have not broken up your sitting. It
+would be unpardonable in me."</p>
+
+<p>She squinted back at the picture with professional gravity. "Oh no; I
+only had a few touches to put in under the chin&mdash;that luminous shadow is
+so hard to get. I'm quite finished."</p>
+
+<p>She went behind a screen for a few moments, and when she reappeared
+without her brushes and her blouse she was the society young lady in
+tone and manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to look at my sketches?" she asked. "They're jolly
+rubbish, the whole lot, but they represent a deal of enthusiasm."</p>
+
+<p>Her tone was friendly&mdash;too friendly, considering the point at which he
+had paused, and he was a little hurt by it. Was she playing with him?</p>
+
+<p>His tone was firm and his manner direct as he said: "Miss Brisbane, I am
+accustomed to deal directly with friends as well as enemies, and I like
+to have people equally frank with me. I know you are angry because of my
+action in the case of your uncle. I do not ask pardon for that; I was
+acting there in line of my duty. But if I have spoken harshly or without
+due regard to your feelings at any time I ask you to forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>He made a powerful appeal to her at this moment, but she wilfully
+replied: "You made no effort to soften my uncle's disgrace."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know he was your uncle at that time," he said, but his face
+grew grave quickly. "It would have made no difference if I had&mdash;my
+orders were to step between him and the records of the office. So far as
+my orders enlightened me, he was a man to be watched." He turned towards
+the door. "Is there anything I can do to help you reach the station
+to-morrow? My sister and I would gladly drive you down."</p>
+
+<p>She was unrelenting, but very lovely as she replied: "Thank you; you are
+very kind, but all arrangements are made."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-afternoon, Miss Brisbane."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Captain Curtis."</p>
+
+<p>"She is hard&mdash;hard as iron," he said, as he walked away. "Her father's
+daughter in every fibre."</p>
+
+<p>He was ashamed to acknowledge how deeply he felt her rejection of his
+friendship, and the thought of not seeing her again gave him a sudden
+sense of weakness and loneliness.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, on her part, was surprised to find a new nerve tingling in her
+brain, and this tremor cut into the complete self-satisfaction she
+expected to feel over her refusal of the peace-pipe. Several times
+during the afternoon, while superintending her packing, she found
+herself standing in an attitude of meditation&mdash;her inward eye reverting
+to the fine, manly figure he made, while his grave, sweet voice vibrated
+in her ears. She began to see herself in an unpleasant light, and when
+at the dinner-table Lawson spoke of Curtis, she listened to him with
+more real interest than ever before.</p>
+
+<p>"He is making wonderful changes here," Lawson was saying. "Everywhere
+you go you see Tetongs working at fence-building, bridge-making,
+cabin-raising, with their eagle feathers fluttering in the winds, their
+small hands chapped with cold. They are sawing boards and piling grain
+in the warehouse and daubing red paint on the roofs. They are in a
+frenzy of work. Every man has his rations and is happy. In some way he
+has persuaded the chiefs to bring in all the school-children, and the
+benches are full of the little shock-heads, wild as colts."</p>
+
+<p>"A new broom, etc.," murmured Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"His predecessor never was a new broom," retorted Lawson, quickly.
+"Sennett always had a nasty slaunch to him. He never in his life cleaned
+the dirt from the corners, and I don't see exactly why you take such
+pains in defending him."</p>
+
+<p>"Because he is my uncle," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Boot-jack! That is pure fudge, Bee Bee. You didn't speak to him
+once a week; you privately despised him&mdash;anybody could see that. You are
+simply making a cudgel of him now to beat Curtis with&mdash;and, to speak
+plainly, I think it petty of you. More than this, you'd better hedge,
+for I'm not at all sure that Sennett has not been peculating."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie stopped him with an angry gesture. "I'll not have you accusing him
+behind his back."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson threw out his hands in a gesture of despair. "All right! But make
+a note of it: you'll regret this taking sides with a disreputable old
+bummer against an officer of Captain Curtis's reputation."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not my master!" she said, and her eyes were fiercely bright. "I
+do not wish to hear you use that tone to me again! I resent it!" and she
+struck the floor with her foot. "Henceforth, if we are to remain
+friends, you will refrain from lecturing me!" and she left the room with
+a feeling of having done two men a wrong by being unjust to herself, and
+this feeling deepened into shame as she lay in her bed that night. It
+was her first serious difference with Lawson and she grew unhappy over
+it. "But he shouldn't take sides against me like that," she said, in an
+attempt to justify her anger.</p>
+
+<p>On the second morning thereafter Lawson came into the office and said:
+"Well, Captain, we leave you this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked up into his visitor's fine, sensitive face, and exclaimed,
+abruptly&mdash;almost violently: "I'm going to miss you, old man."</p>
+
+<p>"My heart's with you," replied Lawson. "And I shall return next spring."</p>
+
+<p>"Bring Miss Brisbane with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to do so, but she is vastly out of key&mdash;and I doubt.
+Meanwhile, if I can be of any use to you in Washington let me know."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Lawson, I trust you perfectly," Curtis replied, with a glow
+of warm liking.</p>
+
+<p>As he stood at the gate looking up into Elsie's face, she seemed very
+much softened, and he wished to reach his hand and stay her where she
+sat; but the last word was spoken, and the wagon rolled away with no
+more definite assurance of her growing friendship than was to be read in
+a polite smile.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was tearful as she said: "After all, they were worth while."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis sighed as he said: "Sis, the realities of our position begin to
+make themselves felt. Play-spells will be fewer now that our artists are
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>"They certainly broke our fall," replied Jennie, soberly. "Osborne
+Lawson is fine, and I don't believe Elsie Bee Bee is as ferocious as she
+pretends to be."</p>
+
+<p>"It's her training. She has breathed the air of rapacity from
+childhood. I can't blame her for being her father's child."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie looked at him as if he were presented from a new angle of vision.
+"George, there <i>is</i> a queer streak in you&mdash;for a soldier; you're too
+soft-hearted. But don't you get too much interested in Elsie Bee Bee;
+she's dangerous&mdash;and, besides, Mr. Lawson wears an air of command."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE RELENTS A LITTLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The feeling against the redmen, intensified throughout the State by the
+removal of Sennett, beat against Curtis like a flood. Delegations of
+citizens, headed by Streeter and Johnson, proceeded at once to
+Washington, laden with briefs, affidavits, and petitions, and there laid
+siege to Congress as soon as the members began to assemble. The twenty
+original homesteaders were taken as the text for most impassioned
+appeals by local orators, and their melancholy situation was skilfully
+enlarged upon. They were described as hardy and industrious patriots,
+hemmed in by sullen savages, with no outlet for trade and scant
+pasturage for their flocks&mdash;in nightly fear of the torch and the
+scalping-knife.</p>
+
+<p>To Curtis, these settlers were by no interpretation martyrs in the cause
+of civilization&mdash;they were quite other. His birth, his military
+training, and his natural refinement tended to make him critical of
+them. They were to him, for the most part, "poor whites," too pitiless
+to be civilized, and too degenerate to have the interest of their
+primitive red neighbors. "The best of them," he said to Jennie, "are
+foolhardy pioneers who have exiled their wives and children for no good
+reason. The others are cattlemen who followed the cavalry in order to
+fatten their stock under the protection of our guidon."</p>
+
+<p>The citizens of Pinon City wondered why their delegates made so little
+impression on the department, but Streeter was not left long in doubt.</p>
+
+<p>The Secretary interrupted him in the midst of his first presentation of
+the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Streeter, you are a cattleman, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>Streeter looked a little set back. "I am&mdash;yes, sir, Mr. Secretary."</p>
+
+<p>The Secretary took up a slip of paper. "Are you the Streeter located on
+the reservation itself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are an interested witness. How can you expect me to take your
+word against that of Captain Curtis? He tells me the Tetongs are
+peaceful, and quick to respond to fair treatment. The department has
+absolute confidence in Captain Curtis, and you are wasting time in the
+effort to discredit him. The tribe will <i>not</i> be removed. Is there any
+other question you would like to raise?"</p>
+
+<p>Streeter took his dismissal hard. He hurried at once to Brisbane, his
+face scarlet with rage. "He turned me down," he snarled, "and he's got
+to suffer for it. There's a way to get at him, and you must find it."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane was too crafty to promise any definite thing. "Now wait a
+moment, neighbor; never try to yank a badger out of his den&mdash;wait and
+catch him on the open plain. We must sound the Committee on Indian
+Affairs, and then move on the House. If we can't put through our removal
+bill we'll substitute the plan for buying out the settlers. If that
+don't work I've a little scheme for cutting down the reservation. We
+must keep cool&mdash;and don't mention my name in the matter. What we want to
+do is to pave the way for my return to the Senate next fall; then I can
+be of some real service to you. I am now entirely out of it, as you can
+see, but I'll do what I can."</p>
+
+<p>Streeter went away with a feeling that Brisbane was losing his vigor,
+and a few days later returned to the West, very bitter and very
+inflammatory of speech. "The bill is lost. It will be smothered in
+committee," he said to Calvin.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane, after leaving Streeter that day, went home to dinner with an
+awakened curiosity to know more about this young man in whom the
+department had such confidence. Lawson was dining at his table that
+night, and it occurred to him to ask a little more fully about Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Lawson, you were out there on the Fort Smith reservation,
+weren't you? Wasn't that where you and Elsie camped this summer?"</p>
+
+<p>Elsie replied, "Yes, papa. We were there when Uncle Sennett was
+dismissed."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane started a little. "Why, of course you were; my memory is
+failing me. Well, what about this man Curtis&mdash;he's a crank on the Indian
+question, like yourself, isn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson smiled. "We believe in fair play, Governor. Yes, he's friendly to
+the Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"And a man of some ability, I take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man of unusual ability. He is an able forester, a well-read
+ethnologist, and has made many valuable surveys for the War
+Department."</p>
+
+<p>"His word seems to have great weight with the department."</p>
+
+<p>"Justly, too, for he is as able a man as ever held an agent's position.
+A few men like Curtis would solve the Indian problem."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, who had been listening in meditative silence, now spoke.
+"Nevertheless, his treatment of Uncle Sennett was brutal. He arrested
+him and searched all his private papers&mdash;don't you remember?"</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane looked at Lawson solemnly and winked the eye farthest from his
+daughter. Lawson's lips quivered with his efforts to restrain a smile.
+Turning then to Elsie, Brisbane said: "I recall your story now&mdash;yes, he
+was pretty rigorous, but I'm holding up the department for that; the
+agent wasn't to blame. He was sent there to do that kind of a job, and
+from all accounts he did it well."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie lifted her eyebrows. "Does that excuse him? He kept repeating to
+me that he was under orders, but I took his saying so to be just a
+subterfuge."</p>
+
+<p>"Mighty little you know about war, my girl. To be a soldier means to
+obey orders from general down to corporal. Moreover, your uncle has
+given me a whole lot of trouble, and I wouldn't insist on a relationship
+which does us no credit. I've held his chin above water about as long as
+I'm going to."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie was getting deeper into the motives and private opinions of her
+father than ever before, and, as he spoke, her mind reverted to the
+handsome figure of the young soldier as he stood before her in the
+studio, asking for a kindlier good-bye. His head was really beautiful,
+and his eyes were deep and sincere. She looked up at her father with
+frowning brows. "I thought you liked Mr. Sennett? He told me you got
+him his place."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane laughed. "My dear chicken, he was a political choice. He was
+doing work for our side, and had to be paid."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean you knew the kind of a man he was when you put him there?"</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane pulled himself up short. "Now see here, my daughter, you're
+getting out of your bailiwick."</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to understand&mdash;if you knew he was stealing&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know it. How should I know it? I put him there to keep him
+busy. I didn't suppose he was a sot and a petty plunderer. Now let's
+have no more of this." Brisbane was getting old and a trifle irritable,
+but he was still master of himself. "I don't know why I should be taken
+to task by my own daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie said no more, but her lips straightened and her eyes grew
+reflective. As the coffee and cigars came in, she left the two men at
+the table and went out into the music-room. It seemed very lonely in the
+big house that night, and she sat down at the piano to play, thinking to
+cure herself of an uneasy conscience. She was almost as good a pianist
+as a painter, and the common criticism of her was on this score. "Bee
+does everything <i>too</i> well," Penrose said.</p>
+
+<p>She played softly, musingly, and, for some reason, sadly. "I wonder if I
+have done him an injustice?" she thought. And then that brutal leer on
+her father's face came to disturb her. "I wish he hadn't spoken to me
+like that," she said. "I don't like his political world. I wish he
+would get out of it. It isn't nice."</p>
+
+<p>In the end, she left off playing and went slowly up to her studio, half
+determined to write a letter of apology. Her "work-shop," which had been
+added to the house since her return from Paris, was on a level with her
+sitting-room, which served as a reception hall to the studio itself. Her
+artist friends declared it to be too beautiful to work in, and so it
+seemed, for it was full of cosey corners and soft divans&mdash;a glorious
+lounging-place. Nevertheless, its walls were covered with pictures of
+her own making. Costly rugs and a polished floor seemed not to deter her
+from effort. She remained a miracle of industry in spite of the scoffing
+of her fellows, who were stowed about the city in dusty lofts like
+pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>Proud and wilful as she seemed, Elsie had always prided herself on being
+just, and to be placed in the position of doing an honorable man a wrong
+was intolerable. The longer she dwelt upon her action the more uneasy
+she became. Her vision clarified. All that had been hidden by her absurd
+prejudice and reasonless dislike&mdash;the soldier's frank and manly
+firmness, Lawson's reproaches, her aunt's open reproof&mdash;all these grew
+in power and significance as she mused.</p>
+
+<p>Taking a seat at her desk, she began a letter, "Captain Curtis, Dear
+Sir&mdash;" But this seemed so palpably a continuance of her repellent mood
+that she tore it up, and started another in the spirit of friendliness
+and contrition which had seized upon her:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Captain Curtis</span>,&mdash;I have just heard something which
+convinces me that I have done you an injustice, and I hasten
+to beg your pardon. I knew my uncle Sennett only as a child
+knows a man of middle age&mdash;he was always kind and good and
+amusing to me. I had no conception of his real self. My present
+understanding of him has changed my feeling towards your
+action. I still think you were harsh and unsympathetic, but I
+now see that you were simply doing the will of the department.
+So far I apologize. If you come to Washington I hope you will
+let us know."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As she re-read this it seemed to be a very great concession indeed; but
+as she recalled the handsome, troubled face of the soldier, she decided
+to send it, no matter what he might think of her. As she sealed the
+letter her heart grew lighter, and she smiled.</p>
+
+<p>When she re-entered the library her father was saying: "No, I don't
+expect to get him removed. The present administration and its whole
+policy must be overthrown. Curtis is only a fly on the rim of the wheel.
+He don't count."</p>
+
+<p>"Any man counts who is a moral force," Lawson replied, with calm
+sincerity. "Curtis will bother you yet."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS WRITES A LONG LETTER</h3>
+
+
+<p>The stage-driver and mail-carrier to Fort Smith was young Crane's Voice,
+and this was his first trip in December. He congratulated himself on
+having his back to the wind on the fifty-mile ride up the valley. A
+norther was abroad over the earth, and, sweeping down from arctic
+wildernesses, seemingly gathered power as it came. It crossed two vast
+States in a single night and fell upon the Fort Smith reservation with
+terrible fury about ten o'clock in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Crane's Voice did not get his mail-sack till twelve, but his ponies were
+fed and watered and ready to move when the bag came. He did not know
+that it contained a letter to warm the heart of his hero, the Captain,
+but he flung the sack into his cart and put stick to his broncos quite
+as manfully as though the Little Father waited. The road was smooth and
+hard and quite level for thirty miles, and he intended to cover this
+stretch in five hours. Darkness would come early, and the snow, which
+was hardly more than a frost at noon, might thicken into a blizzard. So
+he pushed on steadily, fiercely, silently, till a sinister dusk began to
+fall over the buttes, and then, lifting his voice in a deep, humming,
+throbbing incantation, he sang to keep off spirits of evil.</p>
+
+<p>Crane's Voice was something of an aristocrat. As the son of Chief Elk he
+had improved his opportunities to learn of the white man, and could
+speak a little English and understand a good deal more than he
+acknowledged, which gave him a startling insight at times into the words
+and actions of the white people. It was his report of the unvarying
+kindliness and right feeling of Captain Curtis which had done so much to
+make the whole tribe trust and obey the new agent.</p>
+
+<p>Crane's Voice was afraid of spirits, but he shrank from no hardship. He
+was proud of his blue uniform, and of the revolver which he was
+permitted to wear to guard the mail. No storm had ever prevented him
+from making his trip, and his uncomplaining endurance of heat, cold,
+snow, and rain would have been counted heroic in a military scout. His
+virtues were so evident even to the cowboys that they made him an
+exception by saying, "Yes, Crane is purty near white," and being
+besotted in their own vanity, they failed to see the humor of such a
+phrase in the mouth of a drunken, obscene, lawless son of a Missouri
+emigrant. As a matter of fact there were many like Crane in the tribe,
+only the settlers never came in personal contact with them.</p>
+
+<p>Crane found his road heavy with drifts as he left the main valley and
+began to climb, and he did not reach the agency till long after Curtis
+had gone to bed, but he found his anxious mother waiting for him,
+together with the captain of police, who took the bag of mail to the
+office. As he drove into the big corral out of the wind the boy said, in
+his quaint English: "Me no like 'um blizzard. Fleeze ears like buffalo
+horn."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis came to the office next morning with a heavy heart. He knew how
+hard the bitter cold pressed upon his helpless wards, and suffered
+acutely for sympathy. He spoke to all of those he met with unusual
+tenderness, and asked minutely after the children, to be sure that none
+were ill or hungry.</p>
+
+<p>As Wilson, his clerk, laid the big package of letters and papers on his
+table, the pale-blue, square envelope which bore Elsie's handwriting was
+ostentatiously balanced on top. Wilson, the lovelorn clerk, sighed to
+think he had no such missive in his mail that gloomy morning. Looking
+in, a half-hour later, he found Curtis writing busily in answer to that
+letter, all the rest of his mail being untouched. "I thought so," said
+he; "I'd neglect any business for a sweet little envelope like that,"
+and he sighed again.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis had opened the letter eagerly, but with no expectation of
+comfort. As he read he forgot the storm outside. A warm glow crept into
+his blood. Lover-like, he got from the letter a great deal more than
+Elsie had intended to say. He seized his pen to reply at once&mdash;just a
+few lines to set her mind at rest; but his thought ran on so fast, so
+full of energy, that his writing became all but illegible:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Miss Brisbane</span>,&mdash;You have given me a great pleasure by
+your letter, and I am replying at once to assure you that I did
+not lay your words up against you, because I felt you did not
+fully understand the situation. Your letter gives me courage to
+say that I think you are unjust in your attitude towards these
+primitive races&mdash;and I also hope that as fuller understanding
+comes you will change your views.</p>
+
+<p>"Here they are, fenced in on the poorest part of this bleak
+reservation, on the cold slope of the range, exposed to the
+heat and drought of summer and the storms of winter. This
+morning, for example, the wind is rushing up the converging
+walls of this valley&mdash;which opens out to the northeast, you
+remember&mdash;and the cold is intense. I am just sending out
+messengers to see that no children are freezing. Everything is
+hard as iron, and the Indians, muffled in their blankets, are
+sitting beside their fires glum as owls, waiting the coming of
+the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>"I must tell you something which happened since you went
+away&mdash;it may correct your views of the Tetongs. It is my policy
+to give all hauling and wood contracts to the Indian instead of
+the white man, and when I told the white who has been putting
+in the wood that I was about to let the contract to the reds he
+laughed and said, 'You can't get 'em to do that work!' But I
+felt sure I could. I called them together and gave them fifty
+axes and told them how much wood I wanted. A few days later I
+thought I'd ride over to see how they were getting along. As I
+drew near I heard the most astonishing click-clack of
+axe-strokes, shouts, laughter, the falling of trees, and when I
+came in sight I 'trun up both hands.' They had hundreds of
+cords already cut&mdash;twice as much, it seemed, as I could use. I
+begged them to stop, and finally got them to begin to haul. In
+the end I was obliged to take sixty cords more than I needed.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot understand what a pleasure it is for me to see
+ancient lies about these people destroyed by such experiences
+as this. It was pathetic to me to find the Two Horns, the
+Crawling Elk, and other proud old warriors toiling awkwardly
+with their axes, their small hands covered with blisters; but
+they laughed and joked about it, and encouraged each other as
+if they were New-Englanders at a husking-bee. My days and
+nights are full of trouble, because I can do so little for
+them. If they were on tillable land I could make them
+self-supporting in two years, but this land is arid as a
+desert. It is fair to look upon, but it will not yield a living
+to any one but a herder.</p>
+
+<p>"Your attitude towards the so-called <i>savage</i> races troubles me
+more than I have any right to mention. The older I grow the
+less certain I am that any race or people has a monopoly of the
+virtues. I do not care to see the 'little peoples' of the world
+civilized in the sense in which the word is commonly used. It
+will be a sorrowful time to me when all the tribes of the earth
+shall have cottonade trousers and derby hats. You, as an
+artist, ought to shrink from the dead level of utilitarian
+dress which the English-speaking race seems determined to
+impose on the world. If I could, I would civilize only to the
+extent of making life easier and happier&mdash;the religious
+beliefs, the songs, the native dress&mdash;all these things I would
+retain. What is life for, if not for this?</p>
+
+<p>"My artist friends as a rule agree with me in these matters,
+and that is another reason why your unsympathetic attitude
+surprises and grieves me. I know your home-life has been such
+as would prejudice you against the redman, but your training in
+Paris should have changed all that. You consider the Tetongs
+'good material'&mdash;if you come to know them as I do you will find
+they are <i>folks</i>, just like anybody else, with the same rights
+to the earth that we have. Of course, they <i>are</i> crude and
+unlovely&mdash;and sometimes they are cruel; but they have an
+astonishing power over those who come to know them well.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon this long letter. You may call me a crank or any hard
+name you please, but I am anxious to have you on the right side
+in this struggle, for it is a struggle to the death. The
+tragedy of their certain extinction overwhelms me at times. I
+found a little scrap of canvas with a sketch of Peta on it&mdash;may
+I keep it? My sister is quite well and deep in 'the work.' She
+often speaks of you and we are both hoping to see you next
+year."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was foolish for him to expect an immediate reply to this epistle, but
+he did&mdash;he counted the days which lay between its posting and a
+possible date for return mail. Perhaps, had he been in Washington,
+diverted by Congress, cheered by the Army and Navy Club, and entertained
+by his friends, he would not have surrendered so completely to the
+domination of that imperious girl-face; but in the dead of winter,
+surrounded by ragged, smoky squaws and their impatient, complaining
+husbands, with no companionship but his sister and Wilson, the love-sick
+clerk, his thought in every moment of relaxation went back to the
+moments he had spent in Elsie's company. Nature cried out, "It is not
+good for man to be alone," but the iron ring of circumstance held him a
+prisoner in a land where delicate women were as alien as orange blossoms
+or tea-roses.</p>
+
+<p>Outwardly composed, indefatigable, stern in discipline and judicial of
+report, he was inwardly filled with a mighty longing to see again that
+slim young girl with the big, black, changeful eyes. He made careful
+attempt to conceal his growing unrest from Jennie, but her sharp eyes,
+accustomed to every change in his face, detected a tremor when Elsie's
+name was mentioned, and her ears discovered a subtle vibration in his
+voice which instructed her, though she did not attain complete
+realization of his absorbing interest. She was sympathetic enough to
+search out Elsie's name in the social columns of the Washington papers,
+and it was pitiful to see with what joy the busy Indian agent listened
+to the brief item concerning "Miss Brisbane's reception on Monday," or
+the description of her dress at the McCartney ball.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie sighed as she read of these brilliant assemblages. "George, I
+wonder if we will ever spend another winter in Washington?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I think so, sis&mdash;some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Some time! But we'll both be so old we won't enjoy it. Sometimes I feel
+that we are missing everything that's worth while."</p>
+
+<p>He did not mention Elsie's letter, and as the weeks passed without any
+reply he was very glad he had kept silence. Jennie had her secret, also,
+which was that Elsie was as good as engaged to Lawson. No one knew this
+for a certainty, but Mrs. Wilcox was quite free to say she considered it
+a settled thing.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was relieved to know how indifferent her brother was to Miss
+Colson, the missionary, who seemed to be undergoing a subtle
+transformation. With Jennie she was always moaning and sighing, but in
+the presence of her lord, the agent, she relaxed and became quite
+cheerful and dangerously pretty. The other teachers&mdash;good, commonplace
+souls!&mdash;went their mechanical way, with very little communication with
+the agent's household, but Miss Colson seized every opportunity to
+escape her messmates. "They are so material," she said, sighfully; "they
+make spiritual growth impossible to me."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was not deceived. "You're a cat, that's what you are&mdash;a nice,
+little, scared cat; but you're getting over your scare," she added, as
+she watched the devotee in spirited conversation with her brother.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie's reply to Curtis's long letter was studiedly cool but polite. "I
+feel the force of what you say, but the course of civilization lies
+across the lands of the 'small peoples.' It is sorrowful, of course, but
+they must go, like the wolves and the rattlesnakes." In this phrase he
+recognized the voice of Andrew J. Brisbane, and it gave him a twinge to
+see it written by Elsie's small hand. The letter ended by leaving
+matters very adroitly at an equipoise. It was friendlier than she had
+ever been in conversation, yet not so womanly as he had hoped it might
+be. As he studied it, however, some subtler sense than sight detected in
+its carefully compounded phrases something to feed upon, and though he
+did not write in answer to it, he had a feeling that she expected him to
+do so.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the tone of the opposition grew confident. The settlers were
+convinced that Congress would accede to their wishes and remove the
+Tetongs, and they began to treat the redmen with a certain good-natured
+tolerance, as if to say, "Well, you'll soon be settled for, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin Streeter came often to the agency, and not infrequently stayed to
+dinner with Curtis, paying timid court to Jennie, who retained enough of
+her girlhood's coquetry to enjoy the handsome cowboy's open-eyed
+admiration, even though she laughed at him afterwards in response to her
+brother's jesting. Calvin vastly improved under the stress of his desire
+to be worthy of her. He caught up many of the Captain's nice mannerisms,
+and handled his fork and napkin with very good grace indeed. He usually
+came galloping across the flat, his horse outstretched at full speed,
+his hat-rim uprolled by the wind, his gay neckerchief fluttering, his
+hands holding the reins high&mdash;a magnificent picture of powerful young
+manhood. As he reached the gate it was his habit to put his horse on his
+haunches with one sudden, pitiless wrench on the Mexican bit and drop to
+the ground, and in dramatic contrast with his approach call out in
+smooth, quiet voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Howdy, folks, howdy! Nice day."</p>
+
+<p>These affectations pleased Jennie very much, though she finally
+complained of his cruelty in reining in his horse so sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, miss, I won't do it no more," he said, instantly.</p>
+
+<p>He quite regularly invited them to the dances given round about, and
+Jennie was ready to go, but Curtis, being too deeply occupied, could not
+spare the time, and that debarred Jennie, though Calvin could see no
+good reason why it should. "I'll take care of you," said he, but the
+girl could not trust herself to his protection.</p>
+
+<p>His was not a secretive nature, and he kept Curtis very well informed as
+to the feeling of the settlers, reporting, as he did, their
+conversations as well as their speeches, with great freedom and
+remarkable accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>In this way the agent learned that the cattlemen had agreed to use
+caution in dealing with him. "He's a bad man to monkey with," was the
+sentiment Calvin reported to be current among the settlers on the West
+Fork. Young Crane's Voice also circulated this phrase, properly
+translated into Dakota, to his uncles Lame Paw and Two Horns, and so the
+tribe came to understand that they had a redoubtable defender in Swift
+Eagle, as they called the agent in their own tongue.</p>
+
+<p>From every source they heard good things of him, and they came to love
+him and to obey him as they had never loved and obeyed even their
+best-regarded chief. The squaws made excuse to come in and shake hands
+with him and hear his laughter, and the children no longer hid or turned
+away when he came near&mdash;on the contrary, they ran to him, crying "Hello,
+Hagent!" and clung to his legs as he walked. The old men often laid
+their arms across his shoulders as they jokingly threatened to pull out
+the hairs of his face, in order to make him a redman. His lightest wish
+was respected. The wildest young dare-devil would dismount and take a
+hand at pushing a wagon or lifting a piece of machinery when Curtis
+asked it of him.</p>
+
+<p>"If I only had the water that flows in these three little streams," he
+often said to Jennie, "I'd make these people self-supporting."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have things our own way yet," replied Jennie, always the
+optimist.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>CALLED TO WASHINGTON</h3>
+
+
+<p>One day Curtis announced, with joyful face:</p>
+
+<p>"Sis, we are called to Washington. Get on your bonnet!"</p>
+
+<p>She did not light up as he had expected her to do. "I can't go, George,"
+she replied, decisively and without marked disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed surprised. "Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have my plans all laid for giving my little 'ingines' such a
+Christmas as they never had, and you must manage to get back in time to
+be 'Sandy Claws.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how I can do it. I am to appear before the Committee on
+Indian Affairs relative to this removal plan, and there may be other
+business requiring me to remain over the holidays."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to have you away. I suppose you'll see Mr. Lawson and Miss
+Brisbane," she remarked, quietly, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," he replied, with an assumption of carelessness. "I imagine
+Lawson will appear before the committee, and I hope to call on Miss
+Brisbane&mdash;I want to see her paintings." He did not meet his sister's
+eyes as squarely as was his wont, and her keen glance detected a bit
+more color in his face than was usual to him. "You must certainly
+call," she finally said. "I want to know all about how they live."</p>
+
+<p>Many things combined to make this trip to Washington most pleasurable to
+the soldier. He was weary with six weeks of most intense application to
+a confused and vexatious situation, and besides he had not been East for
+several years, and his pocket was filled with urgent invitations to
+dinner from fellow-officers and co-workers in science, courtesies which
+he now had opportunity to accept; but back of all and above all was the
+hope of meeting Elsie Brisbane again. He immediately wrote her a note,
+telling her of his order to report at the department, and asking
+permission to call upon her at her convenience.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long ride, but he enjoyed every moment of it. He gave himself
+up to rest. He went regularly to his meals in the dining-car; he smoked
+and dreamed and looked out with impersonal, shadowy interest upon the
+flying fields and the whizzing cities. He slept long hours and rose at
+will. Such freedom he had known only on the trail; here luxury was
+combined with leisure. In Chicago a friend met him and they lunched at a
+luxurious club, and afterwards went for a drive. That night he left the
+Western metropolis behind and Washington seemed very near.</p>
+
+<p>As the train drew down out of the snows of the hill country into the
+sunshine and shelter of the Potomac Valley his heart leaped. This was
+home! Here were the little, whitewashed cabins, the red soil, the
+angular stone houses&mdash;verandaed and shuttered&mdash;of his native town. It
+was pleasant to meet the darkies swarming, chirping like crickets,
+around the train. They shadowed forth a warmer clime, a less insistent
+civilization than that of the West, and he was glad of them. They
+brought up in his mind a thousand memories of his boy-life in an old
+Maryland village not far from the great city, which still retained its
+supremacy in his mind. He loved Washington; to him it was the centre of
+national life.</p>
+
+<p>The great generals, the great political leaders were there, and the
+greatest ethnologic bureau in all the world was there, and when the
+gleaming monument came into view over the wooded hills he had only one
+regret&mdash;he was sorrowful when he thought of Jennie far away in the bleak
+valley of the Elk.</p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of him that he took a cab to the Smithsonian
+Society rather than to the Army and Navy Club, and was made at home at
+once in the plain but comfortable "rooms of the Bug Sharps." He had just
+time to report by telephone to the Department of the Interior before the
+close of the official day. Several letters awaited him. One was from
+Elsie, and this he read at once, finding it unexpectedly cordial:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"My father is writing you an invitation to come to us
+immediately. You said you would arrive in Washington on the
+17th, either on the 11 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> train or the one at 3 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> In
+either case we will look for you at 6.30 to dine with us before
+you get your calendar filled with engagements. I shall wait
+impatiently to hear how you are getting on out there. It is all
+coming to have a strange fascination for me. It is almost like
+a dream."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This letter quickened his pulse in a way which should have brought shame
+to him, but did not. The Senator's letter was ponderously polite. "I
+hope, my dear Captain Curtis, you will be free to call at once. My
+daughter and Lawson&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At that word a chill wind blew upon the agent's hope. Lawson! "I had
+forgotten the man!" he said, almost aloud. "Ah! that explains her frank
+kindliness. She writes as one whose affections are engaged, and
+therefore feels secure from criticism or misapprehension." That
+explained also her feeling for the valley&mdash;it was the scene of her
+surrender to Lawson. The tremor went out of his nerves, his heart
+resumed its customary beating, steady and calm, and, setting his lips
+into a straight line, he resumed the Senator's letter, which ended with
+these significant words: "There are some important matters I want to
+talk over in private."</p>
+
+<p>A note from Lawson urged him to take his first breakfast in the city
+with him. "I want to post you on the inside meaning of certain
+legislation now pending. I expect to see you at the Brisbanes'."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis made his toilet slowly and with great care, remitting nothing the
+absence of which would indicate a letting down of military neatness and
+discipline. He wore the handsome undress uniform of a captain, and his
+powerful figure, still youthful in its erectness, although the lines
+were less slender than he wished, was dignified and handsome&mdash;fit to be
+taken as a type of mature soldier. He set forth, self-contained but
+eager.</p>
+
+<p>The Brisbane portico of rose granite was immensely imposing to a dweller
+in tents and cantonments, such as Curtis had been for ten years, but he
+allowed no sign of his nervousness to appear as he handed his overcoat
+and cap to the old colored man in the vestibule.</p>
+
+<p>As he started down the polished floor of the wide hall, stepping over a
+monstrous tiger-skin, he saw Elsie in the door of the drawing-room, her
+back against the folded portière. Her slender figure was exquisitely
+gowned in pale-green, and her color was iridescent in youthful sparkle.
+He thought once again&mdash;"Evening dress transforms a woman." She met him
+with a smile of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Captain, this is very good of you, to come to us so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," he gallantly replied. "I would have come sooner had
+opportunity served."</p>
+
+<p>"Father, this is Captain Curtis," she said, turning her head towards a
+tall man who stood within.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane came forward, greeting Curtis most cordially. He was grayer
+than Curtis remembered him, and a little stooping from age. His massive
+head was covered with a close-clipped bristle of white hair, and his
+beard, also neatly trimmed, was shaped to a point, from the habit he had
+of stroking it with his closed left hand in moments of deep thought. His
+skin was flushed pink with blood, and his urbane manner denoted pride
+and self-sufficiency. He was old, but he was still a powerful
+personality, and though he shook hands warmly, Curtis felt his keen and
+penetrating glance as palpably as an electric shock.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson's voice arose. "Well, Captain, I hardly expected to see you so
+soon."</p>
+
+<p>As the two men clasped hands Elsie again closely compared them. Curtis
+was the handsomer man, though Lawson was by no means ill-looking, even
+by contrast. The soldier more nearly approached the admirable male type,
+but there was charm in the characteristic attitudes and gestures of the
+student, who had the assured and humorous manner of the onlooker.</p>
+
+<p>A young woman of indeterminate type who was seated in conversation with
+Mrs. Wilcox received Curtis with impassive countenance, eying him
+closely through pinch-nose glasses. Mrs. Wilcox beamed with pleasure,
+and inquired minutely concerning the people at the agency, and
+especially she wished to know how little Johnny and Jessie Eagle were.
+"I quite fell in love with the tots, they were so cunning. I hope they
+got the toys I sent."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane gave Curtis the most studious attention, lounging deep in his
+big chair. Occasionally he ponderously leaned forward to listen to some
+remark, with his head cocked in keen scrutiny&mdash;actions which did not
+escape the Captain's notice. "He's sizing me up," he thought. "Well, let
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie also listened, curiously like her father in certain inclinations
+of the head&mdash;intent, absorbed; only Lawson seemed indifferent to the
+news the agent guardedly recited.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane broke his silence by saying: "I infer you're on the side of the
+redskin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Decidedly, in this connection."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite aside from your duty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Entirely so. My duty in this case happened to be my inclination. I
+could have declined the detail, but being a believer in the army's
+arrangement of Indian affairs, I couldn't decently refuse."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane settled back into his chair and looked straight at his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"You think the white man the aggressor in this land question?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis definitely pulled himself up. "I am not at liberty to speak
+further on that matter."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilcox interrupted smilingly. "Andrew, don't start an argument now.
+Dinner is served, and I know Captain Curtis is hungry."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie rose. "Yes, papa, leave your discussion till some other time, when
+you can bang the furniture."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis expected to take Miss Cooke in to dinner, but Elsie delighted him
+by saying, "You're to go in with me, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad of the privilege," he said, with deliberate intent to
+please her; his sincerity was unquestionable.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis would have been more profoundly impressed with the spaciousness
+of the hall and the dining-room had they been less like the interior of
+a hotel. The whole house, so far as its mural decoration went, had the
+over-stuffed quality of a Pullman car (with the exception of the
+pictures on the walls, which were exceedingly good), for Brisbane had
+successfully opposed all of Elsie's new-fangled notions with regard to
+interior decoration; he was of those who insist on being masters in
+their houses as well as in their business offices, and Elsie's manner
+was that of an obedient daughter deferring to a sire who had not ceased
+to consider her a child.</p>
+
+<p>Seated at Elsie's right hand, with Mrs. Wilcox between himself and the
+head of the table, Curtis was fairly out of reach of Brisbane, who was
+dangerously eager to open a discussion concerning the bill for the
+removal of the Tetongs.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie turned to him at once to say: "Do you know, Captain Curtis, I
+begin to long to return to the West. All my friends are enthusiastic
+over the studies I made last year, and I've decided to go back next
+spring. How early could one come out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any time after the first of May&mdash;in fact, that is the most beautiful
+month in the year; the grass is deliciously green then. I'm glad to know
+you think of returning. Jennie will also rejoice. It seems too good to
+be true. Will Mr. Lawson also return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. In fact, I go to complete his work&mdash;to do penance for
+neglecting him last summer." And in her tone, he fancied, lay a covert
+warning, as though she had said: "Do not mistake me; I am not coming out
+of interest in you."</p>
+
+<p>He needed the word, for under the spell of her near presence and the
+charm of her smile, new to him, the soldier was beginning to glow again
+and to soften, in spite of his resolution to be very calm.</p>
+
+<p>She went on: "I am genuinely remorseful, because Mr. Lawson has not been
+able to bring his paper out as he had planned."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see that you have every possible aid," he replied,
+matter-of-factly. "The work must be done soon."</p>
+
+<p>"How handsome he is!" the girl thought, as she studied his quiet face.
+"His profile is especially fine, and the line of his neck and
+shoulders&mdash;" an impulse seized her, and she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Captain, I'd like to make a sketch of you. Could you find time to sit
+for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's very flattering of you, but I'm afraid my stay in Washington is
+too short and too preoccupied."</p>
+
+<p>Her face darkened. "I'm sorry. I know I could make a good thing of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for the compliment, but it is out of the question at present.
+Next summer, if you come out, I will be very glad to give the time for
+it. And that reminds me, you promised to show me your pictures when I
+came, and your studio."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I? Well, you shall see them, although they are not as good as I
+shall do next year. One has to learn to handle new material. Your
+Western atmosphere is so different from that of Giverney, in which we
+all paint in Paris; then, the feeling of the landscape is so different;
+everything is so firm and crisp in line&mdash;but I am going to get it!
+'There is the mystery of light as well as of the dark,' Meunnot used to
+say to us, and if I can get that clear shimmer, and the vibration of the
+vivid color of the savage in the midst of it&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off as if in contemplation of the problem, rapt with question
+how to solve it.</p>
+
+<p>"There speaks the artist in you, and it is fine. But I'd like you to see
+the humanitarian side of life, too," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"There is none," she instantly replied, with a curious blending of
+defiance and amusement. "I belong to the world of Light and Might&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And I to the world of Right&mdash;what about that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Light and Might make right."</p>
+
+<p>"Your team is wrongly harnessed&mdash;Light and Right are co-workers. Might
+fears both Light and Right."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Wilcox, who had been listening, fairly clapped her hands. "I'm glad
+to have you refute her arguments, Captain. She is absolutely heartless
+in her theories&mdash;in practice she's a nice girl."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie laughed. "What amuses me is that a soldier, the embodiment of
+Might, should dare to talk of Right."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis grew grave. "If I did not think that my profession at bottom
+guarded the rights of both white men and red, I'd resign instantly. Our
+army is only an impartial instrument for preserving justice."</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't the old-world notion," put in Lawson from across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"It is <i>our</i> notion," stoutly replied Curtis. "Our little army to-day
+stands towards the whole nation as a police force relates itself to a
+city&mdash;a power that interferes only to prevent aggression of one interest
+on the rights of another."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane's big, flat voice took up the theme.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a very pretty theory, but you'll find plenty to claim that the
+army is an instrument of oppression."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll admit it is sometimes wrongly used," Curtis replied. "We who are
+in the field can't help that, however. We are under orders. Of course,"
+he added, modestly, "I am only a young soldier. I have seen but ten
+years of service, and I have taken part in but one campaign&mdash;a war I
+considered unavoidable at that time."</p>
+
+<p>"You would hold, then, that an officer of the army has a right to
+convictions?" queried Brisbane, in the tone of the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly. A man does not cease to think upon entering the army."</p>
+
+<p>"That's dangerous doctrine."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the American idea. What people would suffer by having its army
+intelligent?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson coughed significantly. "Bring forth the black-swathed
+axe&mdash;treason has upreared her head."</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that Brisbane was lying in wait for him. Curtis whispered
+to Elsie:</p>
+
+<p>"Rescue me! Your father is planning to quiz me, and I must not talk
+before I report to the department."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand. We will go to my studio after dinner." And with Lawson's
+aid she turned the conversation into safe channels.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very great pleasure to the young soldier to sit once more at
+such a board and in pleasant relation to Elsie. It was more than he had
+ever hoped for, and he surprised her by his ability to take on her
+interests. He grew younger in the glow of her own youth and beauty, and
+they finished their ices in such good-fellowship that Mrs. Wilcox was
+amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"We will slip away now," Elsie said, in a low tone to Curtis, and they
+both rose. As they were about to leave the room Brisbane looked up in
+surprise. "Where are you going? Don't you smoke, Captain? Stay and have
+a cigar."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie answered for him. "Captain Curtis can come back, but I want him to
+see my studio now, for I know if you get to talking politics he will
+miss the pictures altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"She has a notion I'm growing garrulous," Brisbane retorted, "but I deny
+the charge. Well, let me see you later, Captain; there are some things I
+want to discuss with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Grace, you are to come, too," Elsie said to her girl friend, and led
+the way out into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Cooke stepped to Curtis's side. "You've been in Washington
+before?" she asked, with an inflection which he hated.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, many times. In fact, I lived here till I was sixteen. I was
+born in Maryland, not far from here."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! Then you know the city thoroughly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certain sides of it. Exteriorly and officially I know it; socially, I
+am a stranger to it. My people were proud and poor. A good old family in
+a fine old house, and very little besides."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie led the way slowly up the big staircase, secretly hoping Miss
+Cooke would find it too cool for her thin blood. She wished to be alone
+with Curtis, and this wish, obscure as it was, grew stronger as she set
+a chair for him and placed a frame on an easel.</p>
+
+<p>"You really need daylight to see them properly."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to make remarks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; tell me just what you think."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let me preface my helpful criticisms by saying that I don't know
+an earthly thing about painting. We had drawing, of a certain kind, at
+the academy, and I used to visit the galleries in New York when occasion
+served. Now you know the top and the bottom of my art education."</p>
+
+<p>"It's cold in here, Elsie," broke in Miss Cooke, whom they had quite
+forgotten. "Is the steam turned on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wrap my slumber-robe around you," Elsie carelessly replied. "Now here
+is my completed study of Little Peta. What do you think of that? Is it
+like her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very like her, indeed. I think it excellent," he said, with unaffected
+enthusiasm. "She was a quaint little thing. She is about to be married
+to young Two Horns&mdash;a white man's wedding."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie's eyes glowed. "Oh, I wish I could see that! But don't let her
+wear white man's clothing. She'd be so cunning in her own way of dress.
+I wish she had not learned to chew gum."</p>
+
+<p>"None of us quite live up to our best intentions," he replied, laughing.
+"Peta thinks she's gaining in grace. Most of the white ladies she knows
+chew gum."</p>
+
+<p>The pictures were an old story to Miss Cooke, who shivered for a time in
+silence and at last withdrew. Elsie and Curtis were deep in discussion
+of the effect of white man's clothing on the Tetongs, but each was aware
+of a subtle change in the other as the third person was withdrawn. A
+delicious sense of danger, of inward impulse warring with outward
+restraint, added zest to their intercourse. He instantly recalled the
+last time he stood in her studio feeling her frank contempt of him. "I
+am on a different footing now," he thought, with a certain exultation.
+It was worth years of hardship and hunger and cold to stand side by side
+with a woman who had not merely beauty and wealth but talent, and a
+mysterious quality that was more alluring than beauty or intellect. What
+this was he could not tell, but it had already made life a new game to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>She, on her part, exulted with a sudden sense of having him to herself
+for experiment, and every motion of his body, every tone of his voice
+she noted and admired.</p>
+
+<p>He resumed: "Naturally, I can say nothing of the technique of these
+pictures. My praise of them must be on the score of their likeness to
+the people. They are all admirable portraits, exact and spirited, and
+yet&mdash;" He hesitated, with wrinkled brows.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't spare me!" she cried out. "Cut me up if you can!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, they seem to me unsympathetic. For example, the best of
+them all is Peta, because you liked her, you comprehended her, partly,
+for she was a child, gentle and sweet. But you have painted old Crawling
+Elk as if he were a felonious mendicant. You've delineated his rags, his
+wrinkled skin, his knotted hands, but you've left the light out of his
+eyes. Let me tell you something about that old man. When I saw him first
+he was sitting on the high bank of the river, motionless as bronze, and
+as silent. He was mourning the loss of his little grandchild, and had
+been there two days and two nights wailing till his voice had sunk to a
+whisper. His rags were a sign of his utter despair. You didn't know that
+when you painted him, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I did not," she replied, softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Moreover, Crawling Elk is the annalist and story-teller of his tribe.
+He carries the 'winter count' and the sacred pipe, and can tell you of
+every movement of the Tetongs for more than a century and a half. His
+mind is full of poetry, and his conceptions of the earth and sky are
+beautiful. He knows little that white men know, and cares for very
+little that the white man fights for, but his mind teems with lore of
+the mysterious universe into which he has been thrust, and which he has
+studied for seventy-two years. In the eyes of God, I am persuaded there
+is no very wide difference between old Crawling Elk and Herbert
+Spencer. The circle of Spencer's knowledge is wider, but it is as far
+from including the infinite as the redman's story of creation. Could you
+understand the old man as I do, you would forget his rags. He would loom
+large in the mysterious gloom of life. Your painting is as prejudiced in
+its way as the description which a cowboy would give you of this old
+man. You have given the color, the picturesque qualities of your
+subjects, but you have forgotten that they are human souls, groping for
+happiness and light."</p>
+
+<p>As he went on, Elsie stared at the picture fixedly, and it changed under
+her glance till his deeply passionate words seemed written on the
+canvas. The painting ceased to be a human face and became a mechanical
+setting together of features, a clever delineation of the exterior of a
+ragged old man holding a beaded tobacco-pouch and a long red pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"This old 'beggar,'" Curtis continued, "never lights that pipe you have
+put in his hands without blowing a whiff to the great spirits seated at
+the cardinal points of the compass. He makes offerings for the health of
+his children&mdash;he hears voices in the noon-day haze. He sits on the
+hill-top at dawn to commune with the spirits over his head. As a beggar
+he is picturesque; as a man, he is bewildered by the changes in his
+world, and sad with the shadow of his children's future. All these
+things, and many more, you must learn before you can represent the soul
+of the redman. You can't afford to be unjust."</p>
+
+<p>She was deeply affected by his words. They held conceptions new to her.
+But his voice pierced her, strangely subdued her. It quivered with an
+emotion which she could not understand. Why should he care so much
+whether she painted her subjects well or ill? She was seized with
+sudden, bitter distrust.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had not shown you my studies," she said, resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>His face became anxious, his voice gentle. "I beg your pardon; I have
+presumed too far. I hope, Miss Brisbane, you will not take what I say
+too much to heart. Indeed, you must not mind me at all. I am, first of
+all, a sort of crank; and then, as I say, I don't know a word about
+painting; please forget my criticisms."</p>
+
+<p>She understood his mood now. His anxiety to regain her good-will was
+within her grasp, and she seized the opportunity to make him plead for
+himself and exonerate her.</p>
+
+<p>"You have torn my summer's work to flinders," she said, sullenly,
+looking down at a bit of charcoal she was grinding into the rug beneath
+her feet.</p>
+
+<p>He was aghast. "Don't say that, I beg of you! Good Heavens! don't let my
+preachment discourage you. You see, I have two or three hobbies, and
+when I am once mounted I'm sure to ride right over somebody's garden
+wall." He rose and approached her. "I shall never forgive myself if I
+have taken away the smallest degree of your enthusiasm. My aim&mdash;if I had
+an aim&mdash;was to help you to understand my people, so that when you come
+out next summer&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"All that is ended now," she said, sombrely. "I shall attempt no more
+Indian work!"</p>
+
+<p>This silenced him. He took time to consider what this sudden depression
+on her part meant. As he studied her he saw her lip quiver, and anxiety
+suddenly left him. His tone was laughter-filled as he called: "Come,
+now, Miss Brisbane, you're making game of me by taking my criticisms so
+solemnly. I can see a smile twitching your lips this moment. Look at
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up and broke into a laugh. He joined in with her, but a flush
+rose to his face.</p>
+
+<p>"You fooled me completely. I reckon you should have been an actress
+instead of a painter."</p>
+
+<p>She sobered a little. "Really, I <i>was</i> depressed for a moment. Your tone
+was so terribly destructive. Shall we go down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not till you say you'll forgive me and forget my harangue."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him her hand. "I'll forgive you, but I'm going to remember the
+harangue. I&mdash;rather liked it. It made me think. Strange to say, I like
+people who make me think."</p>
+
+<p>Again his heart leaped with the blood of exultant youth. "She is coming
+to understand me better!" he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"You must see my other pictures by daylight," she was saying. "Mr.
+Lawson likes this one particularly." They had moved out into the little
+reception-room. "I did it in Giverney&mdash;we all go down sooner or later to
+paint one of Monet's pollard willows. These are my 'stunts.'"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson! Yes, there was the secret of her increasing friendliness. As the
+fiancée of Lawson she could afford to lessen her reserve towards his
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>And so it happened that, notwithstanding her cordial welcome and her
+respectful consideration of his criticism, he went away with a feeling
+of disappointment. That her beauty was more deeply enthralling than he
+had hitherto realized made his disquiet all the greater. As he stepped
+out upon the street, she seemed as insubstantial as a dream of his
+imaginative youth, far separated from any reality with which he had any
+durable association.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS AT HEADQUARTERS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Curtis was frankly exclamatory at the size and splendor of Lawson's
+apartments. He had accepted the invitation to take breakfast with him
+without much thought as to the quality of the breakfast or where it
+would be eaten, until he found himself entering the hall of a superb
+apartment hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, see here, Lawson," he exclaimed, as he looked about his friend's
+suite, "this is too much for any bachelor&mdash;it's baronial! I must revise
+my judgments. I had a notion you were a hard-working ethnologic sharp."</p>
+
+<p>"So I am," replied Lawson, smiling with frank enjoyment of his visitor's
+amazement. "I've been at work two hours at my desk. If you don't believe
+it, there's the desk."</p>
+
+<p>The room was filled with books, cases of antique pottery, paintings of
+Indians, models of Pueblo dwellings, and other things in keeping, and
+was made rich in color by a half-dozen very choice Navajo blankets in
+the fine old weaves with the vegetable dyes so dear to the collector.
+The long table was heaped with current issues of the latest magazines,
+and dozens of books, with markers set to guard some valuable passages,
+were piled within reach. It was plainly the library of a student and man
+of letters.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson's lean, brown face at once assumed a different aspect to Curtis.
+It became more refined, more scholarly, and distinctly less shrewd and
+quizzical, and the soldier began to understand the writer's smiling
+defiance of Western politicians and millionaire cattle-owners. Plainly a
+man of large fortune, with high social connections, what had Lawson to
+fear of the mountain West? The menace of the greedy cattlemen troubled
+him no more than the howl of the blizzard.</p>
+
+<p>In the same measure that Lawson's power was revealed to him the heart of
+the agent sank. He could not but acknowledge that here was the fitting
+husband and proper home for Elsie&mdash;"while I," he thought, "have only a
+barrack in a desolate Indian country to offer her," and he swung deep in
+the trough of his sea of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>A map on the wall, lined with red, caught his eye, and he seized upon it
+for diversion.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"That's my trail-map," replied Lawson. "The red lines represent my
+wanderings."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis studied it with expert eyes. "You have ploughed the Arizona
+deserts pretty thoroughly."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I've spent three summers down in that country studying
+cliff-dwellings. It's a mighty alluring region. Last summer I broke away
+and got back into the north, but I am greatly taken with the hot
+sunshine and loneliness of the desert."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned sharply. "What I can't understand, Lawson, is this: How
+can you pull up and leave such a home?"&mdash;he indicated the room with a
+sweep of his hand&mdash;"and go out on the painted desert or down the Chaco
+and swelter in the heat like a horned toad?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson smiled. "It <i>is</i> absurd, isn't it? Man's an unaccountable beast.
+But come! Breakfast is waiting, and I hope you're hungry."</p>
+
+<p>The dining-room was built on a scale with the library, and the mahogany
+table, sparsely covered with dishes, looked small and lonely in the
+midst of the shining floor. This feature of the beautiful room impressed
+Curtis, and as they took seats opposite each other he remarked, "If I
+were not here you would be alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, quite generally I breakfast alone. I entertain less than you would
+think. I'm a busy man when at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the waste of room is criminal, Lawson, that's all I have to
+say&mdash;criminal. You'll be called upon to answer for it some time."</p>
+
+<p>"I've begun to think so myself," replied the host, significantly.</p>
+
+<p>They talked mountain ranges and Pueblo dwellers, and the theoretical
+relation of the mound-builders to the small, brown races of the Rio
+Grande Valley, touching also on the future of the redman; and all the
+while Curtis was struggling with a benumbing sense of his hopeless
+weakness in the face of a rival like Lawson. He gave up all thought of
+seeing Elsie again, and resolutely set himself to do the work before
+him, eager to return to his duties in the Western foot-hills.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson accompanied him to the Interior Department and introduced him to
+the Secretary, who had the preoccupied air of a business man rather than
+the assumed leisure of the politician. He shook hands warmly, and asked
+his visitors to be seated while he finished a paper in hand. At last he
+turned and pleasantly began:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to meet you, Captain. Yours is a distinguished name with us.
+We fully recognize the value of your volunteer service, and hope to make
+the best use of you. Our mutual friend, Lawson here, threatens to make
+you Secretary in my stead." Here he looked over his spectacles with a
+grave and accusing air, which amused Lawson greatly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad as that, Mr. Secretary," he laughed. "I merely suggested
+that Captain Curtis would make an excellent President."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, it all comes to the same thing." He then became quite
+serious. "Now, Captain, I would suggest that you put this whole matter
+as you see it, together with your recommendations, into the briefest,
+most telling form possible, and be ready to come before the committee
+to-morrow. Confer with the commissioner and be ready to meet the queries
+of the opposition. Brisbane is behind the cattlemen in this controversy,
+and he is a strong man. I agree entirely with you and Lawson that the
+Tetongs should remain where they are and be helped in the way you
+suggest. Be ready with computations of the cost of satisfying claims of
+the settlers, building ditches, etc. Come and see me again before you
+return. Good-morning," and he bent to his desk with instant absorption.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson again led the way across the square in search of the
+commissioner's office. The large, bare waiting-room was filled with a
+dozen or more redmen, all wearing new blue suits and wide black hats.
+They were smoking in contemplative silence, with only an occasional word
+spoken in undertone. It was plain they were expecting an audience with
+the great white chief.</p>
+
+<p>Several of them knew Lawson and cried out: "Ho! Ho!" coming up one by
+one to shake hands, but they glowed with pleasure as Curtis began to
+sign-talk with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" he asked of one. "Oh! Northern Cheyenne&mdash;I thought so.
+And you&mdash;you are Apache?" he said to another. "I can tell that, too.
+What are you all waiting for? To see the commissioner? Have you had a
+good visit? Yes, I see you have nice new suits. The government is good
+to you&mdash;sometimes." They laughed at his sharp hits. "Well, don't stay
+too long here. The white man will rob you of your good clothes. Be
+careful of fire-water."</p>
+
+<p>One old man, whose gestures were peculiarly flowing and dignified,
+thereupon signed: "When the white man come to buy our lands we are great
+chiefs&mdash;very tall; when we ask for our money to be paid to us, then we
+are small, like children." This caused a general laugh, in which Curtis
+joined. They all wanted to know who he was, and he told them. "Ah! we
+are glad for the Tetongs. They have a good man. Tell the commissioner we
+are anxious to council and go home&mdash;we are weary of this place."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, meanwhile, had entered the office and now reappeared. "Mr. Brown
+will see you at once, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>The acting commissioner wore the troubled look of a man sorely
+overworked and badly badgered. He breathed a sigh of ostentatious relief
+as he faced his two visitors, who came neither to complain nor to ask
+favors. He studied Curtis contemplatively, his pale face set in sad
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm leaning on you in this Tetong business," he began. "I have so many
+similar fights all over the West, I can't give you the attention you
+deserve. It seems as though our settlers were insane over Indian lands.
+I honestly believe, if we should lay out a reservation on the staked
+plains there'd be a mad rush for it. 'The Injun has it&mdash;let's take it
+away from him,' seems to be the universal cry. I am pestered to death
+with schemes for cutting down reservations and removing tribes. It would
+seem as if these poor, hunted devils might have a thumb-nail's breadth
+of the continent they once entirely owned; but no, so long as an acre
+exists they are liable to attack. I'm worn out with the attempt to
+defend them. I'll have nervous prostration or something worse if this
+pressure continues. Yesterday nearly finished me. What kind of pirates
+do you raise out there, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis listened with amazement to this frank avowal, but Lawson only
+laughed, saying, in explanation: "This is one of the commissioner's poor
+days. He'll fight till the last ditch&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Irrigating ditch!" supplemented the commissioner. "Yes, there's another
+nightmare. Beautiful complication! The government puts the Indian on a
+reservation so dry that water won't run down hill, and then Lawson or
+some other friend of the Indian comes in here and insists on irrigating
+ditches being put in, and then I am besieged by civil engineers for
+jobs, and wild-eyed contractors twist my door-knobs off. Captain Curtis,
+keep out of the Indian service if you have any conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"That's exactly why I recommended him," said Lawson&mdash;"because he <i>has</i> a
+conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"It'll shorten his life ten years and do no material good. Well, now,
+about this Tetong imbroglio."</p>
+
+<p>Immediately he fell upon the problem with the most intense application,
+and Curtis had a feeling that his little season of plain speaking had
+refreshed him.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson went his way, but Curtis spent the remainder of the day in the
+commissioner's office, putting together his defence of the Tetongs,
+compiling figures, and drawing maps to show the location of grass and
+water. He did not rise from his work till the signal for closing came,
+and even then he gathered his papers together and took them home to his
+room in the club in order to put the finishing touches to them.</p>
+
+<p>While dressing for his dinner with Lieutenant Kirkman, a classmate and
+comrade, he began to wonder how soon he could decently make his
+dinner-call on the Brisbanes. It was shameful in him, of course, but he
+had suddenly lost interest in the Kirkmans. The day seemed lost because
+he had not been able to see Elsie. There was a powerful longing in his
+heart, an impatience which he had not experienced since his early
+manhood. It was a hunger which had lain dormant&mdash;scotched but not
+killed&mdash;for now it rose from its mysterious lair with augmented power to
+break his rest and render all other desires of no account.</p>
+
+<p>That night, after he returned from the Kirkmans', where he had enjoyed
+an exquisite little dinner amid a joyous chatter reviving old-time
+memories, he found himself not merely wide-awake, but restless. His
+brain seemed determined to reveal itself to him completely. Pictures of
+his early life and the faces and homes of his friends in the West came
+whirling in orderless procession like flights of swift birds&mdash;now a
+council with the Sioux; now a dinner of the staff of General Miles;
+visions of West Point, a flock of them, came also, and the faces of the
+girls he had loved with a boy's fancy; and then, as if these were but
+whisks of cloud scattering, the walls of great mountain ranges appeared
+behind, stern and majestic, sunlit for a moment, only to withdraw
+swiftly into gray night; and when he seized upon these sweeping
+fragments and attempted to arrange them, Elsie's proud face, with its
+dark, changeful eyes and beautiful, curving lips, took central place,
+and in the end obscured all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>The Kirkman home, the cheer, the tenderness of the husband towards his
+dainty little wife, the obvious rest and satisfaction of the man,
+betokening that the ultimate of his desires had been reached, also came
+in for consideration by the restless brain of the soldier-mountaineer.
+"I shall never be at peace till I have wife and child, that I now
+realize," he acknowledged to himself in the deep, solitary places of his
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>Then he rose and took up the papers which he had been preparing, and as
+he went over them again he came to profounder realization than ever
+before of the mighty tragedy whose final act he seemed about to witness.
+His heart swelled with a great tenderness towards that fragment of a
+proud and free people who sat in wonder before the coming of an infinite
+flood of alien races, helpless to stay it, appalled by the breadth and
+power of the stream which swept them away. He felt himself in some sense
+their chosen friend&mdash;their Moses, to lead them out of the desolation in
+which they sat bewildered and despairing. Thinking of them and of plans
+to help them, he grew weary at last, his brain ceased to grind, and he
+slept.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+<h3>CURTIS GRAPPLES WITH BRISBANE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The hearing took place at ten o'clock, but Curtis had opportunity for a
+little helpful consultation with Lawson before the chairman called the
+committeemen to order. The session seemed unimportant&mdash;perfunctory. The
+members sat for the most part silent, ruminating, with eyes fixed on the
+walls or upon slips of paper which they held abstractedly in their
+hands. Occasionally some one of them would rouse up to ask a question,
+but, in general, their attitudes were those of bored and preoccupied
+business men. They came and went carelessly in response to calls of
+their clerks, and Curtis perceived that they had very little real
+interest in the life or death of the redmen. He would have been
+profoundly discouraged had not the chairman been alert and his questions
+to the point. After his formal statement had been taken and the hearing
+was over, the chairman approached Curtis informally and showed a very
+human sympathy for the Tetongs.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think we can hold this raid in check," he said, in answer to
+Curtis, and added, slowly, "I am very glad to find a man of your quality
+taking up this branch of service." He paused, and a smile wrinkled his
+long, Scotch face. "They accuse me of being a weak sentimentalist,
+because I refuse to consider the redman in the light of a reptile. I was
+an abolitionist"&mdash;the smile faded from his eyes and his thin lips
+straightened&mdash;"in days when it meant something to defend the negro, and
+in standing for the rights of the redman I am merely continuing my
+life-work. It isn't a question of whether I know the Indian or not,
+though I know him better than most of my critics; it's a question of his
+dues under our treaties. We considered him a man when we bought his
+land, and I insist he shall be treated the same now. I should like to
+hear from you&mdash;unofficially, of course&mdash;whenever you have anything to
+say. Lawson's testimony"&mdash;he laid a caressing hand on Lawson's
+shoulder&mdash;"is worth more to me than that of a thousand land speculators.
+He's a comfort to us, for we know he is disinterested, and has nothing
+to gain or lose in any question which concerns the reds, and we find
+very much the same about you, Captain Curtis, and I am determined that
+you shall have free hand."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis shook hands with the old man with a sense of security. Here, at
+least, was a senator of the old school, a man to be depended upon in
+time of trouble. He began also to realize Lawson's power, for he seemed
+to be the personal friend of every honest official connected with the
+department.</p>
+
+<p>As the two young men stepped out into the hall they came face to face
+with Elsie and her father.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we too late?" cried the girl. "Is the hearing over?"</p>
+
+<p>"My part of it is," answered Curtis&mdash;"at least for to-day. They may
+recall me to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane was visibly annoyed. "I didn't suppose you would come on till
+eleven; that's the word I got over the 'phone. I particularly wanted to
+hear your deposition," he added, sourly.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa has an idea your opposition to this bill is important," Elsie
+said, lightly, as Curtis edged away from Brisbane.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane followed him up. "Well, now that your hearing is over, suppose
+you get into our carriage and go home with us to lunch?'</p>
+
+<p>"Please do!" said Elsie, with flattering sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis hesitated, and was made captive. "It is a great temptation," he
+said, looking at Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie saw him yielding and cried out: "Oh, you must come&mdash;and you, too,
+Osborne."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson was plainly defeated. "I can't do it. I have a couple of New York
+men to lunch at the club, and I couldn't think of putting them off."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm so sorry; we would have made a nice little lunch party."</p>
+
+<p>"There are other days coming!" he replied, as lightly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>As they drove away Curtis had a premonition that his impending interview
+would be disagreeable, for Brisbane sat in silence, his keen eyes full
+of some sinister resolution. He was, in fact, revolving in his mind a
+plan of attack. He realized the danger of attempting to bribe such a man
+even indirectly, but a poor and ambitious soldier might be removed by
+gentler means, through promotion; and friendly pressure might be brought
+to bear on the War Department to that effect. Having set himself to the
+task of clearing the reservation of the Tetongs, a man of Brisbane's
+power did not hesitate long over the morality of methods, and having
+decided upon promotion as his method of approaching Curtis, the old man
+distinctly softened, and made himself agreeable by extending the drive
+and affably pointing out the recent improvements in the city. "Our
+Capitol is as good as any now," he said. "Our new buildings are up to
+the standard."</p>
+
+<p>The young soldier refused to be drawn into any blood-heating
+discussions, being quite content to sit facing Elsie, feeling obscurely
+the soft roll of the wheels beneath him, and absorbing the light and
+color of the streets. "This is my city," he said; "I spent my boyhood,
+here. I went to West Point from here."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> beautiful," replied Elsie, and at the moment a spark of some
+mysterious flame sprang from each to the other. They were young, and the
+air was soft and sweet. Thereafter everything gave the young soldier
+pleasure. The whistling of the darkies, the gay garments of the
+shoppers, the glitter of passing carriages, the spread of trees against
+the bright sky&mdash;everything assumed a singular grace. His courage rose,
+and he felt equal to any task.</p>
+
+<p>As they entered the big house Elsie said: "You're to come right up to
+the studio. I want to show you a canvas I finished yesterday. I had an
+inspiration&mdash;I think you brought it to me."</p>
+
+<p>As she led the way up the wide and splendidly carved stair-way the
+soldier's elation sank away, for each step emphasized the girl's pride
+and power, and by contrast threw the poor Indian agent into hopeless
+shadow. He hardly heard what she said, till she led him before her easel
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"There is yesterday's work. I've been trying for days to get a certain
+effect of color, and, behold! I caught it flying this morning. What
+puzzles me in your country is the enormously high value of your earth in
+reference to the sky. The sky is so solid."</p>
+
+<p>As he took in the significance of the canvas Curtis exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"It is very beautiful. It is miraculous. How do you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you like it. My problem there was to represent the difference
+in value between Chief Elk, who is riding in the vivid sunlight, and his
+wife and Little Peta, who are just in the edge of that purple
+cloud-shadow. The difference between white in sunlight and white in
+shadow is something terrific in your dry air. Contrasts are enough to
+knock you down. This gray, Eastern studio light makes all my sketches
+seem false, but I know they are not."</p>
+
+<p>"They are very true, it seems to me."</p>
+
+<p>"When I close my eyes and hark back to the flooding light of the valley
+of the Elk, then I can do these things; I can't if I don't. I have to
+forget all my other pictures. This is nearer my impression than anything
+else I've done."</p>
+
+<p>"It has great charm," he said, after a pause, "and it also reminds me of
+my duty. I must return at once to the West."</p>
+
+<p>"When do you go&mdash;actually?"</p>
+
+<p>"Actually, I leave to-morrow at three o'clock; unless I receive word to
+the contrary, to-morrow morning."</p>
+
+<p>"So soon? You are making a very short stay. Can't you remain over the
+holidays? Some friends of mine are coming on from New York. I'd like
+you to meet them."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I must return. Jennie is preparing to give her little 'Ingines'
+a Christmas-tree, and I am told that my 'Sandy Claws' would add greatly
+to their joy, so I am making special effort to reach there on the 23d."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him musingly. "You really are interested in those ugly
+creatures? I don't understand it."</p>
+
+<p>"To be really frank, I don't understand your lack of sympathy," he
+replied, smiling a little. "It isn't at all feminine."</p>
+
+<p>She took a seat on the divan before she spoke again. "Oh, women are such
+posers. You think I am quite heartless, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think that, but I do think you are a little unjust to these
+people, whose thought you have made very little effort to comprehend."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I? They are not worth while."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you speak now as an artist?" he asked, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"But they are so gross and so cruel!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't deny but they are, sometimes, both gross and cruel, but so are
+civilized men. The scalp-dance no more represents them than a bayonet
+charge represents us. It isn't just to condemn all for the faults of a
+few. You wouldn't destroy servant-girls because some of them are ugly
+and untidy, would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The cases are not precisely similar."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll admit that, but the point is here: as an artist you can't afford
+to dispose of a race on the testimony of their hereditary enemies. You
+wouldn't expect a sympathetic study of the Greek by the Saracen, would
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't that so much, but they are so perfectly unimportant. They have
+no use in the world. What does it matter if they die, or don't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not so much to them; but to me, if I can help them and fail to
+do it, it matters a great deal. We can't afford to be unjust, for our
+own sake. The bearer of the torch should not burn, he should illumine."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand that," she said, genuinely searching for his
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"There is where you disappoint me," he retorted. "Most women quiver with
+altruistic passion the moment they see helpless misery. If you saw a
+kitten fall into a well what would you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should certainly try to save it."</p>
+
+<p>"Your heart would bleed to see it drown?"</p>
+
+<p>She shivered at the thought. "Why, of course!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you can share in your father's exterminating vengeance as he
+sweeps ten thousand redmen into their graves?"</p>
+
+<p>"The case is different&mdash;the kitten never did any harm."</p>
+
+<p>"The wrong is by no means all on the redman's side. But even if it were,
+Christ said, 'Love them that hate you,' and as a Christian nation we
+should not go out in vindictive warfare against even those who
+despitefully use us. I haven't a very high seat in the synagogue. I have
+a soldier's training for warfare, but I acknowledge the splendor of
+Christ's precepts and try to live up to them. I always liked Grant's
+position as regards the soldier. But more than that&mdash;I like these red
+people. They are a good deal more than rude men. It is a great pleasure
+to feel their trust and confidence in me. It touches me deeply to have
+them come and put their palms on me reverently, as though I were
+superhuman in wisdom, and say: 'Little Father, we are blind. We cannot
+see the way. Lead us and we will go.' At such times I feel that no other
+work in the world is so important. If human souls are valuable anywhere
+on earth they are valuable here; no selfish land-lust should blind us to
+see that."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the girl again felt something large and sweet and powerful,
+like a current of electrical air which came out of wide spaces of human
+emotion and covered her like a flood. She was humbled by the high
+purpose and inexplicable enthusiasm of the man before her.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you consider me cruel and heartless!" she cried out. "But I
+am not to blame for being what I am."</p>
+
+<p>"If you are not free, who is? You have it all&mdash;youth, wealth, beauty.
+Nothing enslaves you but indifference."</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking that Lawson had never moved her so, and wishing Curtis
+were less inexorable in his logic, when he checked himself by saying: "I
+beg your pardon again. I came to see your pictures, not to preach
+forgiveness of sins. I here pull myself up short."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you could make me feel personal interest in brickbats or&mdash;or
+spiders," she said, with a quaint, relaxing smile. "You were born to be
+a preacher, not a soldier."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so? I've had a notion all along that I was a fairly good
+commander and a mighty poor persuader; what I don't intend to be is a
+bore." He rose and began to walk slowly round the walls, studying the
+paintings under her direction. He was struggling with obscure impulses
+to other and more important speech, but after making the circuit of the
+room he said, as though rendering a final verdict:</p>
+
+<p>"You have great talent; that is evident. What do you intend to do with
+it? It should help some one."</p>
+
+<p>"You are old-fashioned," she replied. "In our modern day, art is content
+to add beauty to the world; it does not trouble itself to do good. It is
+<i>un</i>moral."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I <i>am</i> a preacher, after all, for I like the book or picture
+that has a motive, that stands for something. Your conception of art's
+uses is French, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is; clearly, it isn't Germanic. What would you have me
+do&mdash;paint Indians to convince the world of their sufferings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't that be something like the work Millet did? Seems to me I
+remember something of that sort in some book I have read."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed. "Unfortunately, I am not Millet; besides, he isn't the god
+of our present idolatry. He's a dead duck. We paint skirt-dancers and
+the singers in the cafés now. Toiling peasants are 'out.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a woman, and a woman ought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't hand me any of that stupid rot about what a woman <i>ought</i>
+to be, and isn't. What I am I am, and I don't like dirty, ragged people,
+no matter whether they are Roman beggars or Chinese. I like clean,
+well-dressed, well-mannered people and no one can make me believe they
+are less than a lot of ill-smelling Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brisbane, you must not do me an injustice," he earnestly
+entreated. "It was not my intention to instruct you to-day. I am
+honestly interested in your pictures, and had no thought of renewing an
+appeal. I was tempted and fell. If you will forgive me this time, I'll
+never preach again."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say I object to your preachment. I think I rather like it. I
+don't think I ever met a man who was so ready to sacrifice his own
+interest for an idea. It's rather amusing to meet a soldier who is ready
+to knock one down with a moral war-club." She ended with a mocking
+inflection of voice.</p>
+
+<p>His face lost its eager, boyish expression. "I'm delighted to think I
+have amused you," he said, slowly. "It makes amends."</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't be angry," she pleaded. "I didn't mean to be flippant."</p>
+
+<p>"Your words were explicit," he replied, feeling at the moment that she
+was making a mock of him, and this duplicity hurt him.</p>
+
+<p>She put forth her sweetest voice. "Please forgive me! I think your work
+very noble, only I can't understand how you can exile yourself to do it.
+Let us go down; it is time for lunch, and papa is waiting for you, I
+know."</p>
+
+<p>It was unaccountable that a mocking tone, a derisive smile from this
+chance acquaintance, should so shake the soldier and so weaken him, but
+he descended the stair-way with a humiliating consciousness of having
+betrayed his heart to a fleering, luring daughter of wealth.</p>
+
+<p>At the door of the library the girl paused. "Papa, are you asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>The abrupt rustle of a newspaper preceded Brisbane's deep utterance.
+"Not at all&mdash;just reading the <i>Star</i>. Come in, Captain. Is lunch nearly
+ready?" he asked of Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so. They are a little late. I'll go see."</p>
+
+<p>As she left the room Brisbane cordially rumbled on. "Sit down, Captain.
+I'm sorry I missed your talk to-day. I am curious to know what your
+notion is about the Tetongs. Of course, I understood you couldn't go
+into the case the other night, but, now that your testimony is all in, I
+hope you feel free to give me your reasons for opposing our plan for a
+removal of the tribe."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took a seat, while Brisbane stretched himself out in a big chair
+and fixed his cold, gray-blue eyes on the soldier, who hesitated a
+moment before replying, "I don't think it wise to go into that matter,
+Senator."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we differ so radically on the bill, and your interests make it
+exceedingly difficult for you to be just in the case. Nothing would be
+gained by argument."</p>
+
+<p>"You think you know what my interests are?" There was a veiled sarcasm
+in the great man's smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do. As a candidate for re-election to the Senate you can't
+afford to antagonize the cattle and mining interests of your State, and,
+as I am now officially the representative of the Tetongs, I sincerely
+hope you will not insist on a discussion of the motives involved." The
+young officer spoke firmly, but with impressive dignity and candor.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane's ambiguous manner took a sudden shift to cordiality, and,
+leaning forward, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Curtis, I like you. I admire your frankness. Let me be equally plain.
+You're too able a man to be shelved out there on a bleak reservation.
+What was your idea of going into the Indian service, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>The young officer remained on guard despite this genial glow. "I
+considered it my duty," he replied. "Besides, I was rusting out in
+garrison, and&mdash;but there is no need to go into my motives. I am agent,
+and shall stand firmly for the right of my wards so long as I am in
+position to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"But you're wasting your life. Suppose you were offered a chance to go
+to&mdash;well, say West Point, as an instructor on a good salary?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would decline the appointment."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because at this time I am needed where I am, and I have started on a
+plan of action which I have a pride in finishing."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane grew distinctively less urbane. "You are bent on fighting me,
+are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Curtis, though he knew.</p>
+
+<p>"You are dead set against the removal of the Tetongs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly I am!"</p>
+
+<p>Elsie re-entered the room during this rapid interchange of phrase, but
+neither of the men heard her, so intent were they upon each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Young man, do you know who you are fighting?" asked Brisbane, bristling
+like a bear and showing his teeth a little. Curtis being silent, he
+went on: "You're lined up against the whole State! Not only the
+cattlemen round about the reservation, but a majority of the citizens
+are determined to be rid of those vagabonds. Anybody that knows anything
+about 'em knows they're a public nuisance. Why should they be allowed to
+camp on land which they can't use&mdash;graze their mangy ponies on lands
+rich in minerals&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Because they are human beings."</p>
+
+<p>"Human beings!" sneered Brisbane. "They are nothing but a greasy lot of
+vermin&mdash;worthless from every point of view. Their rights can't stand in
+the way of civilization."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a question of whether they are clean or dirty, it is a
+question of justice," Curtis replied, hotly. "They came into the world
+like the rest of us, without any choice in the matter, and so far as I
+can see have the same rights to the earth&mdash;at least, so much of it as
+they need to sustain life. The fact that they make a different use of
+the soil than you would do isn't a sufficient reason for starving and
+robbing them."</p>
+
+<p>"The quicker they die the better," replied Brisbane, flushing with
+sudden anger. "The only good Injun is a dead Injun."</p>
+
+<p>At this familiar phrase Curtis took fire. "Yes, I expected that accursed
+sentence. Let me tell you, Mr. Brisbane, I never knew a redman savage
+enough to utter such a sentiment as that. The most ferocious utterance
+of Geronimo never touched the tigerish malignity of that saying. Sitting
+Bull was willing to live and let live. If your view represents
+civilization, I want none of it. The world of the savage is less cruel,
+less selfish."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane's face writhed white, and a snarling curse choked his utterance
+for a moment. "If you weren't my guest," he said, reaching a clutching
+hand towards Curtis, "I'd cut your throat."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, waiting in strained expectancy, cried out: "Father! What are you
+saying? Are you crazy?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis hastily rose, very white and very quiet. "I will take care not to
+put myself in your way as guest again, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't leave too quick!" roared the old man, his face twitching with
+uncontrollable wrath. "You are a traitor to your race! You'd sacrifice
+the settlers to the interests of a greasy red vagabond!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father, be quiet! You are making a scene," called Elsie, and added,
+sadly: "Don't go, Captain Curtis; I shall be deeply mortified if you do.
+Father will be sorry for this."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane also rose, shaking with a weakness pitiful to see. "Well, sir,
+you can go, for I know now the kind of sneak you are. Let me tell you
+this, young man: you'll feel my hand before you are a year older. You
+can't come into my house and insult me in the presence of my daughter.
+Get out!" His hands were moving uncontrollably, and Elsie discovered
+with a curious pang that she was pitying him and admiring the stern
+young soldier who stood quietly waiting for an opportunity to speak. At
+last he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Brisbane, I beg your pardon; I should not have said what I did."
+He turned to Brisbane. "I am sorry I spoke so harshly, sir. You are an
+older man than I, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind my age," replied Brisbane, his heat beginning to cool into
+self-contained malice. "I desire no terms of friendship with you. It's
+war now&mdash;to the knife, and the knife to the hilt. You think you are safe
+from me, but the man that lines up against me generally regrets it to
+the day of his death."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, sir, I am not one to waste words. I shall do my duty to the
+Tetongs regardless of you or your friends." He turned to Elsie. "Miss
+Brisbane, I ask you to remember that I honestly tried to avoid a
+controversy."</p>
+
+<p>Six months before Elsie would have remained passive while her father
+ordered Curtis from the door, but now she could not even attempt to
+justify his anger, and the tears glistened on her lashes as she said:
+"Father, why can't you accept Captain Curtis's hand? These ragamuffin
+redmen aren't worth quarrelling about. No one ever went away from us
+like this, and it breaks my heart to have it so. Don't go, Captain
+Curtis. Father, ask his pardon."</p>
+
+<p>The old man turned towards her. "Go to your room. I will see that this
+young squirt finds the door!"</p>
+
+<p>Elsie shrank from the glare of his eyes. "Father, you are brutal! You
+hurt me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do as I say!" he snarled.</p>
+
+<p>"I will <i>not</i>!" She faced him, tall and resolute. "I am not a child. I
+am the mistress of this house." She turned and walked towards the door.
+"Captain Curtis, I beg <i>your</i> pardon; my father has forgotten himself."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane took a step towards Curtis. "Get out! And you, girl, leave the
+room."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's face whitened. "Have you no sense of decency?" she said, and
+her voice cut deep down into his heart and he flinched. "Captain Curtis
+is my guest as well as yours." She extended her hand. "Please go! It is
+best."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the most miserable moment of my life," he replied, as they moved
+down the hall, leaving Brisbane at the door of the study. "I will do any
+honorable thing to regain your good-will."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not lost it," she replied. "I cannot blame you&mdash;as I should,"
+she added, and the look on her face mystified him.</p>
+
+<p>"May I see you again before I leave for the West?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," she softly replied. "Remember he is old&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will try not to bear anger," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>And as he turned away it seemed that she had leagued herself with him
+against her own father, and this feeling deepened as she ran up the
+stairs heedless of the voice whose commands had hitherto been law to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>The young officer walked down the sunny avenue towards the White House
+with a curious feeling of having just passed through a bitter and
+degrading dream. He was numb and cold. Around him the little negro
+newsboys were calling the one-o'clock editions of the "<i>Styah</i>," and the
+pavements were swarming with public servants hastening to lunch,
+punctual as clocks, while he, having been ordered from the house of his
+host, was mechanically returning to his club.</p>
+
+<p>There was something piercingly pathetic in the thought of the good cheer
+he had anticipated, and the lost pleasure of sitting opposite Elsie
+made his heart ache. At the moment his feet stumbled in the path of
+duty. Surely he was a long way from the single-minded map-builder who
+had crossed the Sulphur Spring Divide.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+<h3>SPRING ON THE ELK</h3>
+
+
+<p>Spring came early in that latitude, and Curtis was profoundly thankful
+that his first winter had proven unusually short and mild, for it
+enabled him to provide for his people far better than he had dared to
+hope. The rations were insufficient at best, and for several days of
+each alternate week the grown people were hungry as well as cold, though
+no one actually perished from lack of food. Beyond the wood contract and
+the hauling of hides each month there was very little work to be done
+during the winter, not enough to buy the tobacco the men longed for.</p>
+
+<p>They believed in Swift Eagle, however, for he visited every cluster of
+huts each month, and became acquainted with nearly every family during
+the winter. No agent had ever taken the like pains to shake the old
+women by the hand, or to speak as kindly to the old men who sat beside
+the fire, feeble and bent with rheumatism. The little children all ran
+to him when he came near, as if he were a friend, and that was a good
+sign, too. Some of the old chiefs complained, of course&mdash;there was so
+little else for them to do; but they did not blame the Little Father.
+They were assured of his willingness to do whatever lay within his
+power to mitigate their poverty. Jennie, who was often at the beds of
+those who suffered, had won wide acceptance of her lotions by an amused
+tolerance of the medicine-men, whose mystic paraphernalia interested her
+exceedingly. The men of magic came at last to sing their curious songs
+and perform their feats of healing in her presence. "Together we will
+defeat the evil spirits," they said, and the health of the tribe
+continued to be very good, in spite of unsanitary housing and the evil
+influence of the medicine-men. When the missionaries came to have the
+native doctors suppressed Curtis said: "My policy is to supplant, not to
+suppress."</p>
+
+<p>The bill which called for the removal of the Tetongs to another
+reservation was reported killed. The compromise measure for buying out
+the settlers was "hung up" in the committee-room, and this delay on the
+part of Congress exasperated the settlers beyond reason, and at a
+convention held early in April at Pinon City, Joseph Streeter brazenly
+shouted, "If the government does not remove these Injuns before the
+first of July we'll make it hot for all concerned," and his threat was
+wildly cheered and largely quoted thereafter as the utterance of a man
+not afraid of Congress or anybody else.</p>
+
+<p>Seed-time came without any promise of change, and the white settlers on
+the reservation went sullenly to their planting, and the cattlemen drove
+their herds across the boundaries upon the Tetong range as they had been
+doing for many years. "We are in for another season of it," they said,
+with the air of being martyrs in the cause of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis immediately sent warning commands to all the outside ranchers to
+keep clear of the reservation, and also notified Streeter, Johnson, and
+others of the settlers on the Elk and the Willow that their cattle must
+not be allowed to stray beyond certain lines, which he indicated. These
+orders, according to Calvin, made the settlers "red-headed as
+wood-peckers. They think you're drawin' the lines down pretty fine."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to," replied Curtis. "You original settlers are here by right
+and shall have full opportunity to graze your stock, but those on the
+outside must keep out. I will seize and impound all stock that does not
+belong on this land."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin reported this statement to the outside men, and its audacity
+provoked the most violent threats against the agent, but he rode about
+unaccompanied and unarmed; but not without defence, for Calvin said to
+one of the loudest of the boasters, "The man who jerks a gun on Curtis
+runs a good chance of losing a lung or two," and the remark took effect,
+for Calvin had somehow acquired a reputation for being "plumb sassy when
+attack-ted."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis had the army officer's contempt of personal injury, and, in
+pursuance of his campaign against the invading stockmen, did not
+hesitate to ride into their round-up camps alone, or accompanied only by
+Crow Wing, and no blusterer could sustain his reputation in the face of
+the agent's calm sense of command.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not speaking personally," he said once, to an angry camp of a
+dozen armed men. "I am here as an officer of the United States army,
+detailed to special duty as an Indian agent, and I am in command of
+this reservation. It is of no use to bluster. Your cattle <i>must</i> be kept
+from the Tetong range."</p>
+
+<p>"The grass is going to waste there," the boss argued.</p>
+
+<p>"That does not concern you. It is not the fault of the Tetongs that they
+have not cattle enough to fill the range."</p>
+
+<p>In the end he had his way, and though the settlers and ranchers hated
+him, they also respected him. No one thought of attempting to bribe or
+scare him, and political "pull" had no value in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, meanwhile, had acquired almost mythic fame as a marvellously
+beautiful and haughty "queen." Calvin was singularly close-mouthed about
+her, but one or two of the cowboys who had chanced to meet her with the
+agent spread the most appreciative reports of her beauty and of the
+garments she wore. She was said to be a singer of opera tunes, and that
+she played the piano "to beat the Jews." One fellow who had business
+with the agent reported having met her at the door. "By mighty! she's
+purty enough to eat," he said to his chum. "Her cheeks are as pink as
+peaches, and her eyes are jest the brown I like. She's a 'glad rag,' all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Made good use o' your time, didn't ye?" remarked his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"You bet your life! I weren't lettin' nothin' git by me endurin' that
+minute or two."</p>
+
+<p>"I bet you dursn't go there again."</p>
+
+<p>"I take ye&mdash;I'll go to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Without any business, this time? No excuse but jest to see her? You
+'ain't got the nerve."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll see. I'm the boy. There ain't no 'rag' gay enough to scare me."</p>
+
+<p>It became a common joke for some lank, brown chap to say carelessly, as
+he rose from supper, "Well, I guess I'll throw a saddle onto my
+bald-faced sorrel and ride over and see the agent's sister." In reality,
+not one of them ever dared to even knock at the door, and when they came
+to the yards with a consignment of cattle they were as self-conscious as
+school-boys in a parlor and uneasy as wolves in a trap, till they were
+once more riding down the trail; then they "broke loose," whooping
+shrilly and racing like mad, in order to show that they had never been
+afraid. Calvin continued to call, and his defence of the agent had led
+to several sharp altercations with his father.</p>
+
+<p>The red people expanded and took on cheer under the coming of the
+summer, like some larger form of insect life. They were profoundly glad
+of the warmth. The old men, climbing to some rounded hill-top at dawn,
+sat reverently to smoke and offer incense to the Great Spirit, which the
+sun was, and the little children, seeing the sages thus in deep
+meditation, passed quietly by with a touch of awe.</p>
+
+<p>As the soft winds began to blow, the dingy huts were deserted for the
+sweeter and wholesomer life of the tepee, which is always ventilated,
+and which has also a thousand memories of battle and the chase
+associated with its ribbed walls, its yellowed peak, and its smouldering
+fires. The sick grew well and the weak became strong as they passed once
+more from the foul air of their cabins to the inspiriting breath of the
+mountains, uncontaminated by any smoke of white man's fire. The little
+girls went forth on the hills to gather flowers for the teachers, and
+the medicine-men, taking great credit to themselves, said: "See! our
+incantations again prevailed. The sun is coming back, the grass is
+green, and the warm winds are breathing upon the hills."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, but you cannot bring back the buffalo," said those who doubted, for
+there are sceptics among the redmen as elsewhere. "When you do that,
+then we will believe that you are really men of magic."</p>
+
+<p>But the people did not respond cheerfully to Curtis when he urged them
+to plant gardens. They said: "We will do it, Little Father, but it is of
+no use. For two years we tried it, and each year the hot sun dried our
+little plants. Our corn withered and our potatoes came to nothing. Do
+not ask us to again plough the hard earth. It is all a weariness to no
+result."</p>
+
+<p>To Jennie, Curtis said: "I haven't the heart to push them into doing a
+useless thing. They are right. I must wait until we have the water of
+the streams for our own use."</p>
+
+<p>The elder Streeter was very bitter, Calvin reported. "But he ain't no
+idyot. He won't make no move that the law don't back him up in; but some
+o' these other yaps are talkin' all kinds of gun-play. But don't you
+lose any flesh. They got to git by me before they reach you."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled. "Calvin, you're a loyal friend, but I am not a bit
+nervous."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, Captain, but you can't tell what a mob o' these
+lahees will do. I've seen 'em make some crazy plays&mdash;I sure have; but
+I'll keep one ear lapped back for signs of war."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE PROMISES TO RETURN</h3>
+
+
+<p>One beautiful May day Curtis came into the house with shining face.</p>
+
+<p>"Sis, our artists are coming back," he called to Jennie from the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Are they? Oh, isn't that glorious!" she answered, running to meet him.
+"When are they to reach here? Whom did you hear from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lawson. They can't come till some time in June, however."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie's face fell. "In June! I thought you meant they were coming
+now&mdash;right away&mdash;this week."</p>
+
+<p>"Lawson furthermore writes that he expects to bring a sculptor with
+him&mdash;a Mr. Parker. You remember those photographs he showed us of some
+statues of Indians? Well, this is the man who made the figures. His wife
+is coming as chaperon for Miss Brisbane."</p>
+
+<p>"She still needs a chaperon, does she?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would seem so. Besides, Mrs. Parker goes everywhere with her
+husband."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope she'll be as nice as Mrs. Wilcox."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think Lawson would bring any crooked timber along&mdash;there must
+be something worth while in them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am delighted, George. I confess I'm hungry for a message from
+the outside world; and during the school vacation we can get away once
+in a while to enjoy ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>The certainty of the return of the artistic colony changed Curtis's
+entire summer outlook. Work had dragged heavily upon him during February
+and March, and there were moments when his enthusiasm ebbed. It was a
+trying position. He began to understand how a man might start in his
+duties with the most commendable desire, even solemn resolution, to be
+ever kindly and patient and self-respecting, and end by cursing the
+redmen and himself most impartially. Misunderstandings are so easy where
+two races are forced into daily contact, without knowledge of each
+other's speech, and with only a partial comprehension of each other's
+outlook on the world. Some of the employés possessed a small vocabulary
+of common Tetong words, but they could neither explain nor reason about
+any act. They could only command. Curtis, by means of the sign language,
+which he had carried to marvellous clearness and swiftness, was able to
+make himself understood fairly well on most topics, but nevertheless
+found himself groping at times in the obscure caverns of their thinking.</p>
+
+<p>"Even after a man gets their thought he must comprehend the origin of
+their motives," he said to Wilson, his clerk. "Everything they do has
+meaning and sequence. They have developed, like ourselves, through
+countless generations of life under relatively stable conditions. These
+material conditions are now giving way, are vanishing, but the mental
+traits they formed will persist. Think of this when you are impatient
+with them."</p>
+
+<p>Wilson took a pessimistic view. "I defy the angel Gabriel to keep his
+temper if he should get himself appointed clerk. If I was a married man
+I could make a better mark; but there it is&mdash;they can't see me." He
+ended with a deep sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took advantage of Lawson's letter to write again to Elsie, and
+though he considered it a very polite and entirely circumspect
+performance, his fervor of gladness burned through every line, and the
+girl as she read it fell to musing on the singularity of the situation.
+He was in her mind very often, now; the romance and the poetry of the
+work he was doing began at last to appeal to her, and the knowledge that
+she, in a sense, shared the possibilities with him, was distinctly
+pleasurable. She had perception enough to feel also the force of the
+contrast in their lives, he toiling thanklessly on a barren, sun-smit
+land, in effort to lead a subject race to self-supporting freedom, while
+she, dabbling in art for art's sake, sat in a secure place and watched
+him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"How well he writes," she thought, returning to his letter. His
+sentences clutched her like strong hands, and she could not escape them.
+As she read she drew again the splendid lines of his head in profile,
+and then, a sentence later, it seemed that he was looking straight into
+her eyes, grave of countenance, involved in some moral question whose
+solution he considered essential to his happiness and to the welfare of
+his people. Surely he was a most uncommon soldier. When she had finished
+reading she was sincerely moved to reply. She had nothing definitely in
+mind to say, and yet somehow she visualized him at his desk waiting an
+answer. "The worst of it is, we seem to have no topic in common except
+his distressing Indians," she said, as she returned to her work. "Even
+art to him means painting the redmen sympathetically."</p>
+
+<p>But he could not be put aside. He was narrow and one-sided, but he was
+sincere and manly&mdash;and handsome. That was the very worst of it; he was
+too attractive to be forgotten. Therefore she took up her pen again,
+being careful to keep close to artistic motives. She spoke of the
+success of her spring exhibition, and said: "It has confirmed me in the
+desire to go on valiantly in the same line. That is the reason I am
+coming back to the Tetongs. I feel that I begin to know
+them&mdash;artistically, I mean; not as you know them&mdash;and I need your
+blazing sunlight to drink up the fogs that I brought from Holland and
+Belgium. The prismatic flare of color out there pleases me. It's just
+the white ray split into its primary colors, but I can get it. I'm going
+to do more of those canvases of the moving figure blended with the
+landscape; they make a stunning technical problem in vibration as well
+as in values; and then the critics shout over them, too. I sold the one
+you liked so well, and also five portraits, and feel vastly encouraged.
+Owen Field was over from New York and gave me a real hurrah. I am going
+to exhibit in New York next fall if all goes well with me among the
+Tetongs."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE REVISITS CURTIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Jennie thought her brother the handsomest man in the State as they
+walked up and down the station platform waiting for the express train
+which was bringing Elsie and Lawson and a famous Parisian-American
+sculptor and his wife. Curtis was in undress uniform, and in the midst
+of the slouching crowd of weather-beaten loafers he seemed a man of
+velvet-green parade grounds and whitewashed palings, commanding lines of
+polished bayonets.</p>
+
+<p>He was more profoundly stirred at the thought of Elsie's coming than he
+cared to admit, but Jennie's delight was outspoken. "I didn't know how
+hungry for a change I was," she said. "They will bring the air of the
+big city world with them."</p>
+
+<p>The whistle of the far-off train punctuated her sentences. "Oh, George,
+doesn't it seem impossible that in a few moments the mistress of that
+great Washington home will descend the car-steps to meet us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can't believe it," he replied, and his hands trembled a little
+as he nervously buttoned his coat.</p>
+
+<p>The train came rapidly to a stop, with singing rods, grinding brakes,
+and the whiz of escaping steam. Some ordinary mortals tumbled out, and
+then the wonderful one!</p>
+
+<p>"There they are!" cried Jennie. "And, oh&mdash;aren't her clothes maddening!"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, descending first, helped Elsie to the platform with an accepted
+lover's firm touch. She wore a blue-cloth tailored suit which fitted
+marvellously, and her color was more exquisite than ever. Admiring
+Jennie fairly gasped as the simple elegance of Elsie's habit became
+manifest, and she had only a glance for the sculptor and his wife.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, with hands extended, seized upon them both with cordial
+intensity. A little flurry of hand-shakings followed, and at last Mr.
+and Mrs. Jerome Parker were introduced. He was a tall man with a bush of
+yellow beard, while she was dark and plain; but she had a pleasant
+smile, and her eyes were nice and quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, I'm overjoyed to get back!" said Elsie to Curtis. "I don't
+know why I should be, but I've been eagerly looking for the Cleft Butte
+all day. Jerome will tell you that I expressed a sort of proprietorship
+in every prairie-dog."</p>
+
+<p>"We are very glad to have you here again," replied Curtis. "And now that
+you <i>are</i> here, we must get your belongings together and get away. We
+are to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring."</p>
+
+<p>"A real camp?"</p>
+
+<p>"A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would be
+tiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it will be <i>right</i>," said Lawson, who was beaming with placid
+joy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot in
+Alta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June."</p>
+
+<p>While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a few
+minutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboard
+out upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind.
+Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tall
+sculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took off
+her hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month."</p>
+
+<p>"That's one thing the Tetong has&mdash;good, fresh air, and plenty of it,"
+said Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"A thin diet, sometimes," Curtis replied. He turned to Elsie. "Your
+studio is all ready for you, and I have spoken to a number of the head
+men about you. You'll not lack sitters. They are eager to be
+immortalized at your convenience."</p>
+
+<p>"You are most kind&mdash;I am going to work as never before."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't work too hard. I have a plan for an outing. One of my
+districts lies up in the head-waters of the Willow. I propose that we
+all go camping up there for a couple of weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear that, Osborne?" she called, turning her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not&mdash;what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis repeated his suggestion, and Parker shouted with joy. "Just what
+I want to do," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis went on: "We'll find the redman living there under much more
+favorable conditions than down in the hot valley. We have a saw-mill up
+in the pines, and the ladies can stay in the superintendent's house&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" interrupted Elsie. "We must camp. Don't think of putting us
+under a roof." A little later she said, in a low voice: "Father is in
+Chicago, and expects to be out here later. I mean, he's coming to make a
+tour of the State."</p>
+
+<p>"How is his health?" Curtis asked, politely.</p>
+
+<p>Her face clouded. "He's not at all well. He is older than he realizes. I
+can see he is failing, and he ought not to go into this senatorial
+fight." After a pause she said: "He was quite ill in March, and I nursed
+him; he seemed very grateful, and we've been very good friends since."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad of that," he replied, and bent closely to his driving.</p>
+
+<p>"You drive well, Captain."</p>
+
+<p>"An Indian agent needs to be able to do anything."</p>
+
+<p>"May I drive?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will spoil your gloves."</p>
+
+<p>"Please! I'll take them off. I'm a famous whip." She smiled at him with
+such understanding as they had never before reached, as she stripped her
+gloves from her hands and dropped them at her feet. "Now let me take the
+reins," she said. He surrendered them to her unhesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you can drive," he said, exultantly.</p>
+
+<p>Her hands were as beautiful as her face, strong and white, and
+exquisitely modelled; but he, looking upon them with keen admiration,
+caught the gleam of a diamond on the engagement finger. This should not
+have chilled him, but it did. Then he thought:</p>
+
+<p>"It is an engagement ring. She is now fairly bound to Lawson," and a
+light that was within him went out. It was only a tiny, wavering flame
+of hope, but it had been burning in opposition to his will all the year.</p>
+
+<p>As she drove, they talked about the grasses and flowers, the mountain
+range far beyond, the camping trip, and a dozen other impersonal topics
+which did not satisfy Curtis, though he had no claim to more intimate
+phrase. She, on her part, was perfectly happy, and retained her hold of
+the reins and the whip in spite of his protest.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not spoil your beautiful hands," he protested; "they are for
+higher things. Please return the lines to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! Please! Just another half-hour&mdash;till we reach that butte. I'm
+stronger than you think. I am accustomed to the whip."</p>
+
+<p>She had her way in this, and drove nearly the entire afternoon. When he
+took the reins at last, her fingers were cramped and swollen, but her
+face was deeply flushed with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"I've had a delicious drive," she gratefully remarked.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of a tall butte Curtis turned his team and struck into a
+road leading to the left. This road at once descended upon a
+crescent-shaped, natural meadow enclosed by a small stream, like a babe
+in a sheltering arm. All about were signs of its use as a
+camping-ground. Sweat lodges, broken tepee-poles, piles of blackened
+stones, and rings of bowlders told of the many fires that had been
+built. Willows fringed the creek, while to the south and west rose a
+tall, bare hill, on which a stone tower stood like a sentinel warrior.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie cried out in delight of the place. "Isn't it romantic!" Already
+the sun, sinking behind the hill, threw across the meadow a mysterious
+purple gloom, out of which a couple of tents gleamed like gray bowlders.</p>
+
+<p>"There is your house to-night," said Curtis. "See the tents?"</p>
+
+<p>"How tiny they look!" Elsie exclaimed, in a hushed voice, as though
+fearing to alarm and put them to flight.</p>
+
+<p>"They are small, but as night falls you will be amazed to discover how
+snug and homelike they can become."</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns came to meet them, and Parker cried out, "Hello! see the big
+Indian!"</p>
+
+<p>The chief greeted Lawson with a deep and hearty "Hah! Nawson&mdash;my friend.
+How! How!" And Lawson, with equal ceremony, replied, in Dakota:</p>
+
+<p>"I am well, my brother; how is it with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"My heart is warm towards you."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie gave him her hand, and he took it without embarrassment or
+awkwardness. "I know you; you make pictures," he said, in his own
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerusalem, but he's a stunner!" said Parker. "Hello, old man! How you
+vass, ain't it?" and he clapped the old man on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns looked at him keenly, and the smile faded from his face. "Huh!
+Big fool," he said to Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't talk to an Indian like that, Parker, if you expect to have
+his friendship," said Lawson. "Two Horns hates over-familiarity."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he does, does he?" laughed Parker. "Kind of a Ward McAllister,
+hey?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, a little later, said, privately: "That was a bad break, Parker;
+you really must treat these head men with decent respect or they'll
+hoodoo you so you can't get any models. Two Horns is a gentleman, and
+you must at least equal him in reserve and dignity or he will report you
+a buffoon."</p>
+
+<p>Parker, who had done his figures from models procured in Paris from
+Buffalo Bill's show, opened his eyes wide.</p>
+
+<p>"Lawson, you're joking!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find every word I tell you true. I advise you to set to work now
+and remove your bad impression from Two Horns, who is one of the three
+principal chiefs. You can't come out here and clap these people on the
+back and call 'em 'old hoss.' That will do in some of the stories you
+read, but realities are different. You'll find money won't command these
+people, either."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought they liked to be treated as equals?"</p>
+
+<p>"They do, but they don't like to have a stranger too free and easy. You
+haven't been introduced yet."</p>
+
+<p>While Crane's Voice attended to the teams, Jennie and Two Horns worked
+at getting supper. Their comradeship was charming to see, and the
+Parkers looked on with amazement. Two Horns, deft, attentive, careful,
+anticipated every want. Nothing could be finer than the perfectly
+cheerful assistance he rendered the pretty cook. His manner was like
+that of an elder brother rather than that of a servant.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't suppose Indians ever worked around a camp, and especially
+with a woman," remarked Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"What you don't know about Indians is still a large volume, Parker,"
+retorted Lawson. "If you stay around with this outfit for a few weeks
+you'll gather a great deal of information useful for a sculptor of
+redmen."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie took Lawson mildly to task for his sharp reply.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson admitted that it made him impatient when a man like Parker opened
+his mouth on things he knew nothing about. "You never can tell what your
+best friend will do, can you? Parker is decidedly fresh. If he keeps on
+he'll become tiresome."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie presumed on her enormous experience of three months on the
+reservation, and gave Parker many valuable hints of how to wheedle the
+Tetongs in personal contact.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems I'm being schooled," he complained.</p>
+
+<p>"You need it," was Lawson's disconcerting reply.</p>
+
+<p>As night fell, and the fire began to glow in the cool, sweet dark with
+increasing power, they all sat round the flame and planned the trip into
+the mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"I have some Tetongs up there who are disposed to keep very clear of the
+agency. Red Wolf is their head man. You may all go with me and see my
+council with him if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that will be glorious fun!" cried Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>But Parker asked, a little anxiously, "You think it safe?" which amused
+Curtis, and Parker hastened to explain: "You've no idea what a bad
+reputation these Tetongs have. Anyhow, I would not feel justified in
+taking Mrs. Parker into any danger."</p>
+
+<p>"She is quite safe," replied Curtis. "I will answer for the action of my
+wards."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you are quite sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"How far away Washington seems now!" remarked Elsie, after a silence. "I
+feel as if I had gone back to the very beginning of things."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems the end of things for the Tetongs," replied Lawson. "We forget
+that fact sometimes when we are anxious to have them change to our ways.
+Barring out a few rudenesses, their old life was a beautiful adaptation
+of organism to environment. Isn't that so, Curtis?"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly had its idyllic side."</p>
+
+<p>"But they must have been worried to death for fear of getting scalped,"
+said Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they didn't war much till the white man came to disturb them, by
+crowding one tribe into another tribe's territory. Their 'wars' were
+small affairs&mdash;hardly more than skirmishes. That they were infrequent is
+evident from the importance given small forays in their 'winter
+counts.'"</p>
+
+<p>One by one the campers began to yawn, and Jennie and Mrs. Parker
+withdrew into the tent reserved for the women, but Lawson and Elsie and
+Curtis still remained about the fire. The girl's eyes were wide with
+excitement. "Isn't it delicious to be a little speck of life in this
+limitless world of darkness? Osborne, why didn't we camp last year?"</p>
+
+<p>"I proposed it, but Mattie would not hear to it. I have a notion that
+you also put my suggestion aside with scorn."</p>
+
+<p>She protested that he was mistaken. "It is the only way to get close to
+these wild people. I begin to understand them as I sit here beside this
+fire. What do you suppose Two Horns is thinking about as he sits over
+there smoking?"</p>
+
+<p>As they talked, Lawson began to yawn also, and at last said: "Elsie Bee
+Bee, I am sleepy, and I know Curtis is."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," protested Curtis. "I'm just coming to myself. As the
+camp-fire smoulders the night is at its best. Besides, I'm in the midst
+of a story."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't sleep very well last night," began Lawson,
+apologetically. "I think&mdash;if you don't mind&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Go to bed, Sleepy Head," laughed Elsie. "We'll excuse you."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I will," and off he went, leaving the two young people alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on!" cried Elsie. "Tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis glowed with new fire at this proof of her interest. "Well, there
+we were, Sergeant Pierce, Standing Elk, and myself, camped in Avalanche
+Basin, which at that time of the year is as full of storms as a cave is
+of bats." A yelping cry on the hill back of them interrupted him. "There
+goes a coyote! Now the night is perfect," he ended, with a note of
+exultant poetry.</p>
+
+<p>She drew a little nearer to him. "I don't enjoy that cry as well as you
+do," she said, with a touch of delicious timidity in her voice. "That's
+the woman of it, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know how harmless he is." After a pause, he slowly said: "This is the
+farthest reach of the imaginable&mdash;that you should sit here beside my
+fire in this wild land. It must seem as much of a dream to you as your
+splendid home was to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't suppose these things could shake me so. How mysterious the
+world is when night makes it lone and empty! I never realized it before.
+That hill behind us, and the wolf&mdash;and see those willows by the brook.
+They might be savages creeping upon us, or great birds resting, or any
+silent, threatening creature of the darkness. If I were alone my heart
+would stand still with awe and fear of them."</p>
+
+<p>"They are not mysterious to me," he made answer. "Only in the sense that
+space and dusk are inexplicable. After all, the wonder of the universe
+is in our brains, like love, rather than in the object to which we
+attribute mystery or majesty. To the Tetong, the simplest thing
+belonging to the white race is mysterious&mdash;a button, a cartridge, a
+tin-plate. 'How are they made? What are they built for?' he asks. So,
+deeply considered, all nature is inexplicable to us also. We white
+children of the Great Ruler push the mystery a little further back, that
+is all. Once I tried to understand the universe; now I am content to
+enjoy it."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, how did you first become interested in these people?"</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated a little before he replied. "Well, I was always interested
+in them, and when I got out among the Payonnay I tried to get at their
+notions of life; but they are a strange people&mdash;a secretive people&mdash;and
+I couldn't win their confidence for a long time. One day while on a
+hunting expedition I came suddenly upon a crew of wood-choppers who had
+an old man tied to a tree and were about to burn him alive&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible! Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"No reason at all, so far as I could learn. His wife sat on the ground
+not far away, wailing in deep despair. What treatment she had suffered I
+do not know. Naturally, I ordered the men to release the old man, and
+when they refused I cut his bands. The ruffians were furious with rage,
+and threatened to tie me up and burn me, too. By this time I was too
+angry to fear anything. 'If you do, you better pulverize the buttons on
+my uniform, for the United States government will demand a head for
+every one of them.' Had I been a civilian they would have killed me."</p>
+
+<p>"They wouldn't have dared!" Elsie shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"Such men dare do anything when they are safe from discovery&mdash;and there
+is always the Indian to whom a deed of that sort can be laid."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they release the old man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and he and his wife camped along with me for several days, and
+their devotion to me was pathetic. Finally I came to understand that he
+considered himself dead, so far as his tribe was concerned. 'My life
+belongs to you,' he said. I was just beginning the sign language at that
+time and I couldn't get very far with him, but I made him understand
+that I gave his life back to him. He left me at last and returned to the
+tribe. Thereafter, every redman I met called me friend, and patiently
+sat while I struggled to learn his language. As I grew proficient they
+told me things they had concealed from all white men. I ceased to be an
+enemy. I became an adviser, a chief."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever see the old man again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. He was my guide on several hunting expeditions. Poor old Siyeh,
+he died of small-pox. 'The white man's disease,' he called it, bitterly.
+He wanted to see me, but when he understood that I would be endangered
+thereby, he said: 'It is well&mdash;I will die alone; but tell him I fold my
+hands on my breast and his hand is between my palms.'" The soldier's
+voice grew hard and dry as the memory of the old man's death returned
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie shuddered with a new emotion. "You make my head whirl&mdash;you and the
+night. Did that determine your course with regard to them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I resolved to get at their hearts&mdash;their inner thoughts&mdash;and my
+commanders put me forward from time to time as interpreter, where I
+could serve both the army and the redman. In some strange way all the
+Northwest tribes came to know of me, and I could go where few men could
+follow me. It is curious, but they never did seem strange to me. From
+the first time I met an Indian I felt that he was a man like other
+men&mdash;a father, a son, a brother, like anybody else. Naturally, when the
+plan for enlisting redmen into the cavalry came to be worked out, I was
+chosen to command a troop of Shi-an-nay. I received my promotion at that
+time. My detail as Indian agent came from the same cause, I suppose. I
+was known to be a friend of the redman, and the department is now
+experimenting with 'Curtis of the Gray-Horse Troop,'" he added, with a
+smile. "Such is the story of my life."</p>
+
+<p>"How long will you remain Indian agent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Till I can demonstrate my theory that, properly led, these people can
+be made happy."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you will live here until you are old," she said, and there
+was a note of undefinable regret in her voice. "I begin to feel that you
+really have a problem to solve."</p>
+
+<p>"It lies with us, the dominant race," he said, slowly, "whether the red
+race shall die or become a strand in the woof of our national life. It
+is a question of saving our own souls, not of making them grotesque
+caricatures of American farmers. I am not of those who believe in
+teaching creeds that are dying out of our own life; to be clean, to be
+peaceful, to be happy&mdash;these are the precepts I would teach them."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you, and I think I would better go to bed," she
+said, with a return to her ordinary manner. "Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night," he replied, and in the utterance of those words was
+something that stirred her unaccountably.</p>
+
+<p>"He makes life too serious, and too full of responsibility," she
+thought. "I don't like to feel responsible. All the same, he is fine,"
+she added, in conclusion.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE ENTERS HER STUDIO</h3>
+
+
+<p>Elsie, being young and of flamelike vitality, was up and ready for a
+walk while Two Horns was building the fire, and was trying to make him
+understand her wish to paint him, when Curtis emerged from his tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, Captain," she called. "I'm glad you've come. Please tell
+Two Horns I want to have him sit for me."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, with a few swift gestures, conveyed her wishes to Two Horns, who
+replied in a way which made Curtis smile.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie asked, "What does he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"He says, 'Yes, how much?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the mercenary thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," replied Curtis. "His time is worth something. You artists
+think the redmen ought to sit for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns ran through a swift and very graceful series of signs, which
+Curtis translated rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>"He says: 'I have heard of you. You painted Elk's daughter. I hear you
+sell these pictures and catch a great pile of money. I think it is right
+you pay us something when we stand before you for long hours, while you
+make pictures to sell to rich men in Washington. Now, I drive a team; I
+earn some days two dollars driving team. If I stop driving team, and
+come and sit for you, then I lose my two dollars.'"</p>
+
+<p>As he finished, Two Horns smiled at Elsie with a sly twinkle in his eyes
+which disconcerted her. "You sabbe?" he ended, speaking directly to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I sabbe," she said, in reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" He held out his hand and she took it, and the bargain was
+sealed. He then returned to his work about the camp.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it glorious!" the girl cried, as she looked about her. "It's
+enough to do an artist all over new." The grass and the willows sparkled
+with dew-drops. The sky, cloudless save for one long, low,
+orange-and-purple cape of glory just above the sunrise, canopied a
+limitless spread of plain to the north and east, while the high butte to
+the back was like the wall of a temple.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let's take a run up that hill," Elsie said, with sudden change of
+tone. "Come!" and, giving Curtis no time to protest, she scuttled away,
+swift as a partridge. He followed her, calling:</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, please!"</p>
+
+<p>When he overtook her at the foot of the first incline she was
+breathless, but her eyes were joyous as a child's and her cheeks were
+glowing.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me help you," he said; "and if you slip, don't put your hand on the
+ground; that is the way men get snake-bitten."</p>
+
+<p>"Snakes!" She stopped short. "I forgot&mdash;are there rattlesnakes here?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is always danger on the sunny side of these buttes at this time
+of the year, especially where the rocks crop out."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't give me time."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think there is danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if you walk slowly and follow me; I'll draw their poison. After
+they bite me they'll have no virus left for you."</p>
+
+<p>She began to smile roguishly. "You are tired&mdash;you want an excuse to
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>"If I thought you meant that, I'd run up to the summit and back again to
+show you that I'm younger than my years."</p>
+
+<p>She clapped her hands. "Do it! It will be like the knight in the
+story&mdash;the glove-and-lion story."</p>
+
+<p>"No. On reflection, I will not run; it would compromise my dignity. We
+will climb soberly, side by side, like Darby and Joan on the hill of
+life."</p>
+
+<p>With a demure countenance she took his hand, and they scrambled briskly
+up the slope. When they reached the brow of the hill she was fairly done
+up, while he, breathing easily, showed little fatigue, although she had
+felt his powerful arm sustaining her many times on the steeper slopes.
+She could not speak, and he smilingly said, "I hope I haven't hurried
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;are&mdash;strong," she admitted, brokenly. "I'm not tired, but I can't
+get breath."</p>
+
+<p>At length they reached the summit and looked about. "What is the meaning
+of those little towers of stone?" she asked, after a moment's rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they have different meanings. Sometimes they locate the springs of
+water, sometimes they indicate the course of a trail. This one was put
+here by a young fellow to mark the spot from whence he saw a famous herd
+of buffalo&mdash;what time he made a wonderful killing."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose all this land has been the hunting-ground of these people for
+ages. Do you suppose they had names for hills like this, and were fond
+of them like white people?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. They had a geography of their own as complete in its way as
+ours, and they are wonderfully sure of direction even now. They seldom
+make a mistake in the correlative positions of streams or mountains,
+even when confused by a white man's map."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> wonderful, isn't it&mdash;that they should have lived here all those
+years without knowing or caring for the white man's world?"</p>
+
+<p>"They don't care for it now&mdash;but I see Two Horns signalling that
+breakfast is ready, so we had better go."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's run down!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" He caught her. "It will lame you frightfully, I warn you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, it won't."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, experience is a fine school. If you must run down, we'll go
+down the shadowed side. Now I'll let you get half-way down and beat you
+in, after all. One, two, three&mdash;go!"</p>
+
+<p>With her skirt caught up in her hand, she started down the hill in
+reckless flight. She heard his shout and the thud of his prodigious
+leaps, and just as she reached the level he overtook her and
+relentlessly left her far behind. Discouraged and panting, she fell
+into a walk and waited for him to return, as she knew he would.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, these skirts!" she said, resentfully. "What chance has a woman with
+yards of cloth binding her? I nearly tumbled headlong."</p>
+
+<p>He did not make her suffer for her defeat, and they returned to camp gay
+as a couple of children. Lawson smiled benevolently, like an aged uncle,
+while Elsie told him of their climb. Said he: "When you're as old as I
+am you will wait for wonders to come your way; you will not seek them."</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast was made merry by Jennie, who waged gentle warfare on
+Parker, whose preconceived ideas of the people resident on an Indian
+reservation had been shaken.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you're very decent," he admitted at last.</p>
+
+<p>"They are all like us&mdash;nit," replied Jennie. "We're marked 'special.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't be any more like you, sis," said Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> shouldn't say that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it needed saying, and no one else seemed ready to do it. If
+Calvin had been here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Calvin?" asked Mrs. Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"I know!" cried Elsie. "He's one of the handsomest young cowboys you
+ever saw. If you want to do a cow-puncher, Parker, he's your model."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly must see him. If I don't do a cowboy or a bucking bronco
+I'm a failure."</p>
+
+<p>As they were ready to start, Elsie again took her place beside Curtis,
+but Lawson insisted on sitting behind with Jennie. "It's hard luck,
+Parker, to have to sit with your wife," he said, compassionately.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well! I'm used to disappointments," Parker replied, in resigned
+calm.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie felt the need of justifying herself. "Are you complaining? Am I
+the assistant driver, or am I not? If I am, here is where I belong."</p>
+
+<p>"When I was coaching in Scotland once&mdash;" began Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind Scotland!" interrupted Elsie. "See that chain of peaks?
+Aren't they gorgeous! Do we camp there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Curtis. "Just where that fan-shaped belt of timber
+begins, I hope to set our tent. The agency is just between those dark
+ridges."</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," Elsie said, after a pause. "Last year I was <i>wondering</i>
+at everything; now I am looking for familiar things."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the second stage," he answered. "The third will be sympathy."</p>
+
+<p>"What will the fourth be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Affection."</p>
+
+<p>"And the fifth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Devotion."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed. "You place too high a value on your Western land."</p>
+
+<p>"I admit there is to me great charm in these barren foot-hills and the
+great divide they lead up to," he soberly answered.</p>
+
+<p>As they talked, the swift little horses drummed along the hard road, and
+by the time the agency flag-pole came in view they had passed over their
+main points of difference, and were chatting gayly on topics not
+controversial. Elsie was taking her turn with the reins, her face
+flushed with the joy and excitement of it, while Jennie and Mrs.
+Parker, shrieking with pretended fear, clung to their seats with
+frenzied clasp.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was as merry as a boy, and his people, seeing him come in smiling
+and alert, looked at each other in amazement, and Crow Wing said:</p>
+
+<p>"Our Little Father has found a squaw at last."</p>
+
+<p>Whereas, as her lover, Curtis had been careful to consider the effect of
+every word, he now went to Elsie's service as frankly as Lawson himself,
+and his thoughtfulness touched her deeply. Her old studio had been put
+in order, and contained all needful furniture, and her sleeping
+apartment looked very clean and very comfortable indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie apologized. "Of course, it's like camping compared to your own
+splendid home, but George said you wouldn't mind that, being an artist.
+He has an idea an artist can sleep in a palace one night and a pigsty
+the next, and rejoice."</p>
+
+<p>"He isn't so very far wrong," Elsie valiantly replied. "Of course, the
+pigsty is a little bit extreme. This is good enough for any one. You are
+very kind," she added, softly. "It was good of him to take so much
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"George is the best man I ever knew," replied Jennie. "That's why I've
+never been able to leave him for any other man." She smiled shrewdly.
+"I'll admit that eligible men have been scarce, and my chances have been
+few. Well, I must run across and look after dinner. You're to eat with
+us till you get settled. <i>We</i> insist on being hosts this time."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"Surely," said Curtis, as they rose from the table, "being Indian agent
+is not the grim, vexatious experience I once considered it. If the charm
+of such company should get reckoned in as one of the perquisites of the
+office, the crush of applicants would thicken into a riot. I find it
+hard to return to my work in the office."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be hasty; we may turn out to be nuisances," responded Elsie.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAMP AMONG THE ROSES</h3>
+
+
+<p>During the remainder of the day the agent found office work most
+difficult. His mind wandered to other and pleasanter things, and at last
+he began to make out a list of the necessaries for the camping trip.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, about four o'clock, Crow Wing and Crawling Elk came into
+his office bringing a young Tetong, who said he had been struck on the
+head by a sheep-herder.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was instantly alert. "Sit down&mdash;all of you!" he commanded. "Now,
+Yellow Hand, tell your story."</p>
+
+<p>Yellow Hand, a tall and sinister-looking fellow, related his adventure
+sullenly. "I was riding the line of the reservation, as Crawling Elk had
+told me and as you commanded, when I came upon this sheep-man driving
+his flocks across the river. I hollered to him to keep away, but he kept
+on pushing the sheep into the river; then I tried to drive them back.
+This made him angry and he threw a rock at me, and struck me here." He
+touched his bandaged head. "I had no gun, so I came away."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you throw rocks at him?" asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I was on my horse."</p>
+
+<p>"You rode among his sheep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that was wrong. You should have reported to me and I would have
+sent a policeman. You must not make trouble with these men. Come to me
+or report to Grayman, your head man over there. The ranchers are angry
+at Washington, and we must be careful not to make them angry at us. I
+will send Crow back with you and he will remove this man."</p>
+
+<p>As they went out Curtis said to Wilson: "This is the second assault they
+have made on our boys. They seem determined to involve us in a shooting
+scrape, in order to influence Congress. We must be very careful. I am
+afraid I ought not to take this camping trip just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't put too much importance on these little scraps, Major. Yellow
+Hand is always getting into trouble. He's quarrelsome."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd disarm a few of these reckless young fellows if it would do any
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't. They'd simply borrow a gun of some one, and it won't do to
+disarm the whole tribe, for if you do these cowboys will swarm in here
+and run us all out."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, caution every one to be careful. I'm particularly anxious just
+now, on account of our visitors."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you need to be, Major. You take your trip with your
+friends. I'll guarantee nothing serious happens down here. And as you
+are not to leave the reservation, I don't see as the department can have
+any roar coming."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, it was with some misgiving that Curtis made his final
+arrangements for the start. Crane's Voice and Two Horns had interested
+Elsie very much; therefore he filled their places with other men, and
+notified them to be in readiness to accompany the expedition, an order
+which pleased them mightily. Mary, the mother of Crane's Voice, was to
+go along as chief cook, under Jennie's direction, while Two Horns took
+general charge of the camp.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie burdened herself with canvases. "I don't suppose I'll paint a
+picture while I'm gone, but I'm going to make a bluff at it on the
+start," she said, as she came out and took her place with the driver
+amid the mock lamentations of Lawson and Parker and Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"Can any of you drive&mdash;no!" replied Elsie, in German fashion. "Then I am
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"I like her impudence," said Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>As they drove up the valley, Curtis outlined his plan for using the
+water on a huge agency garden. "I would lay it out in lots and mark
+every lot with the name of a family, and require it to be planted and
+taken care of by that family. There are sites for three such gardens,
+enough to feed the entire tribe, but so long as a few white men are
+allowed to use up all the water nothing can be done but continue to feed
+the Tetongs in idleness, as we are now doing."</p>
+
+<p>As they rose the grass grew greener, and at last Elsie began to discover
+wild roses growing low in damp places, and at noon, when they stopped
+for lunch, they were able to eat in the shade of a murmuring aspen, with
+wild flowers all about them. The stream was swift and cold and clear,
+hardly to be classed with the turbid, sluggish, discouraged current
+which seeped past the agency.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a different world up here," Elsie said, again and again. "I can't
+believe we are only a half-day's drive from the agency. I never saw more
+delicious greens."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Parker, being an amateur botanist, was filled with delight of the
+thickening flowers. "It is exactly as if we had begun in August and were
+moving backward towards spring. I feel as though violets were near. It
+is positively enchanting."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll camp beside violets to-night," replied Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson pretended to sleep. Parker smoked a pipe while striding along
+behind the wagon. Elsie drove, and of course Curtis could not leave her
+to guide the team alone. Necessarily, they talked freely on many topics,
+and all restraint, all reserve, were away at last. It is difficult to
+hold a formal and carefully considered conversation in a jolting
+buckboard climbing towards a great range of shining peaks, and every
+frank speech brought them into friendlier relation. Considered in this
+light, the afternoon assumed vast importance.</p>
+
+<p>At last, just on the edge of a small lake entirely enclosed by sparse
+pines, they drew into camp. To the west the top of a snow mountain could
+be seen, low down, and against it a thin column of blue smoke was
+rising. The water, dark as topaz and smooth as oil, reflected the
+opposite shore, the yellow sky, and the peak with magic clearness, and
+Elsie was seized with a desire to do something.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my paint-box? Here is the background for some action&mdash;I don't
+know what&mdash;something primeval."</p>
+
+<p>"An Indian in a canoe, <i>à la</i> Brush; or a bear coming down to drink, <i>à
+la</i> Bierstadt," suggested Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention that old fogy," cried Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson interposed. "Well, now, those old chaps had something to say&mdash;and
+that's better than your modern Frenchmen do."</p>
+
+<p>She was soon at work, with Lawson and Parker standing by her side,
+overlooking her panel and offering advice.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no color in that," Parker said, finally. "It's a
+black-and-white merely. Its charm is in things you can't paint&mdash;the feel
+of the air, the smell of pine boughs."</p>
+
+<p>"Go away&mdash;both of you," she commanded, curtly, and they retreated to the
+camp, where Curtis was setting the tents, and Jennie, old Mary, and Two
+Horns, with swift and harmonious action, were bringing appetizing odors
+out of various cans and boxes, what time the crackle of the fire
+increased to a gentle roar. There they sat immovably, shamelessly
+waiting till the call for supper came.</p>
+
+<p>They were all hungry, and Jennie's cooking received such praise as comes
+from friends who speak and devour&mdash;Parker nearly devoured without
+speaking, so lank and empty was he by reason of his long walk. Elsie
+seemed to have forgotten her life of luxury, and was reverted to a
+primitive stage of culture wherein she found everything enjoyable. Her
+sketch, propped up against a basket by Curtis, was admired unreservedly.
+Altogether, the trouble and toil of civilized life were forgotten
+tyrants, so far as these few souls were concerned. They came close to
+the peace and the care-free tranquillity of the redman, whose ideals
+they had come to destroy.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as supper was eaten and the men had lighted their cigars, the
+whole party walked out to the edge of the little pond and lounged about
+on blankets, and watched the light go out of the sky. Talk grew more
+subdued as the beauty and the mystery of the night deepened. Elsie
+listened to every sound, and asked innumerable questions of Curtis. She
+insisted on knowing the name of every bird or beast whose call could be
+heard. The young soldier's wood-craft both pleased and astonished her.
+Mrs. Parker, with her lap full of botanical specimens, was absorbed in
+the work of classifying them. Parker was a gentleman of leisure, with
+nothing to do but watch the peaceful coming of the dusk and comment
+largely on the universe.</p>
+
+<p>It was natural that, as host, Curtis should enjoy a large part of
+Elsie's company, but neither of them seemed to realize that Lawson was
+being left quite unheeded in the background, but Jennie was aware of
+this neglect, and put forth skilful effort to break the force of it.
+Lawson himself seemed to be entirely unconscious of any loss or
+threatening disaster.</p>
+
+<p>A little later, as they sat watching the fire grow in power in the
+deepening darkness, Curtis suddenly lifted his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hark!"</p>
+
+<p>All listened. Two Horns spoke first. "One man come, on horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Some messenger for me, probably," said the Captain, composedly. "He is
+coming fast, too."</p>
+
+<p>As the steady drumming of the horse's hoofs increased in power, Elsie
+felt something chill creep beneath the roots of her hair. Perhaps the
+Indians had broken out in war against the whites! Perhaps&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A tall young Tetong slipped from his tired horse and approached the
+Captain. In his extended hand lay an envelope, which gleamed in the
+firelight. As Curtis took this letter the messenger, squatting before
+him, began to roll a cigarette. His lean and powerful face was shadowed
+by a limp sombrero and his eyes were hidden, but his lips were grave and
+calm. A quirt dangled from his right wrist, and in the two braids of his
+hair green eagle-plumes were twisted. The star on the lapel of his
+embroidered vest showed him to be a police-officer. From the intensity
+of his attitude it was plain he was studying his agent's face in order
+to read thereon the character of the message he had brought.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned the paper slowly and without excitement. With rapid signs
+he dismissed the courier. "I have read it. You will camp with Two Horns.
+Go get some food. Mary will give you meat."</p>
+
+<p>Turning to his guests, he then said: "It is nothing special&mdash;merely some
+papers I forgot to sign before leaving."</p>
+
+<p>"By George! what a picture the fellow made, sitting there!" said Parker.
+"It was like an illustration in a novel. Why don't you paint that kind
+of thing, Bee Bee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I can't," she replied. "Don't you suppose I saw it? I'd need
+the skill of Zorn to do a thing as big and mysterious as that. Did you
+see the intensity of his pose? He expected Captain Curtis to show
+excitement or alarm. He was very curious to know what it was all
+about&mdash;don't you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was amused. "Yes, I suppose he thought the paper more important
+than it was. The settlers have kept the tribe guessing all the spring by
+threats of running them off the reservation. Of course they wouldn't
+openly resort to violence, but there are several irresponsibles who
+would strike in the dark if they found opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his reassuring tone, a vague fear fell over the camping
+party. Parker was frankly alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>"If you think there is any danger, Captain, I want to get out o' here
+quick. I'm not here to study the Tetong with his war-paint on."</p>
+
+<p>"If there had been any danger, Mr. Parker, I would not have left my
+office. I shall have a report similar to this every day while I am away,
+so please be composed."</p>
+
+<p>The policeman came back, resumed his squatting position before the fire,
+and began a series of vigorous and dramatic gestures, to which the
+Captain replied in kind, absorbed, intent, with a face as inscrutable as
+that of the redman himself. The contrast between the resolute, handsome
+young white man and the roughhewn Tetong was superb. "There's nothing in
+it for me," said Parker, "but it's great business for a painter."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie seized a block of paper, and with soft pencil began to sketch them
+both against the background of mysterious blackness, out of which a pine
+bole gleamed ashy white.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, silently, as though one of the tree-trunks had taken on life,
+another Tetong appeared in the circle of the firelight and stood with
+deep-sunk eyes fastened on the Captain's face. Another followed, and
+still others, till two old men and four young fellows ranged themselves
+in a semicircle before their agent, with Crane's Voice and Two Horns at
+the left and a little behind. The old men smoked a long pipe, but the
+young men rolled cigarettes, taking no part in the council, listening
+the while with eyes as bright as those of foxes.</p>
+
+<p>It was all sinister and menacing to the Parkers, and all wondered till
+Curtis turned to say: "They are my mill-hands&mdash;good, faithful boys,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"Mill-hands!" exclaimed Parker. "They looked uncommonly like a scalping
+party."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what imagination can do. I thought your faces were extra
+solemn," remarked Curtis, dryly; but Lawson knew that the agent was not
+so untroubled as he pretended, for old Crow Killer had a bitter story to
+relate of the passage of a band of cowboys through his camp. They had
+stampeded his ponies and shot at him, one bullet passing so close to his
+ear that it burned the skin, and he was angry.</p>
+
+<p>"They wish to kill us, these cattlemen," he said, sombrely, in
+conclusion. "If they come again we will fight."</p>
+
+<p>Happily, his vehemence did not reach the comprehension of the women nor
+the understanding of Parker, and Lawson smoked on as calmly as if these
+tell-tale gestures were the flecking of shadows cast by the leaping
+flames. At last the red visitors rose and vanished as silently as they
+came. They seemed to pass through black curtains, so suddenly they
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all reassurance, the women were a little reluctant to go to
+bed&mdash;at least Mrs. Parker and Elsie were.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish the men's tent were not so far off," Mrs. Parker said to Elsie,
+plaintively.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll ask them to move it, if you wish," returned Elsie, and when Jennie
+came in she said: "Aren't you a little nervous to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie looked surprised. "Why, no! Do you mean about sleeping in a
+tent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Mrs. Parker. "Suppose a wolf or a redman should come?"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie laughed. "You needn't worry&mdash;we have a powerful guard. I never am
+afraid with George."</p>
+
+<p>"But the men are so far away! I wish their tent were close beside ours.
+I'm not standing on propriety," Mrs. Parker added, as Jennie hesitated.
+"I'm getting nervous, and I want Jerome where he can hear me if I call
+to him."</p>
+
+<p>Perceiving that Elsie shared this feeling in no small degree, Jennie
+soberly conveyed their wish to Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, we'll move over. It will take but a moment."</p>
+
+<p>As she heard the men driving the tent-pegs close beside her bed Mrs.
+Parker sighed peacefully.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Now</i> I can sleep. There is no comfort like a man in case of wolves,
+Indians, and burglars," and the fact that the men were laughing did not
+disturb her.</p>
+
+<p>With a little shock, Elsie realized that Curtis and not Lawson was in
+her mind as her defender. Of course, he was in command; that accounted
+for it.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, as she listened to the murmur of their voices she detected
+herself waiting for Curtis's crisp, clear bass, and not for the nasal
+tenor of the man whose ring she wore. Her mind was filled, too, with the
+dramatic figure the young officer made as he sat in gesture-talk with
+his Tetong wards. In case of trouble the safest place on all the
+reservation would be by his side, for his people loved and trusted him.
+She did not go to sleep easily; the excitement, the strangeness of being
+in a tent, kept her alert long after Jennie and Mrs. Parker were
+breathing tranquilly on their cots.</p>
+
+<p>One hears everything from a tent. It seems to stand in the midst of the
+world. It is like being in a diving-bell under water. Life goes on
+almost uninterruptedly. The girl heard a hundred obscure, singular,
+sibilant sounds, as of serpents conferring. Mysterious footsteps
+advanced, paused, retreated. Whispered colloquies arose among the
+leaves, giving her heart disquiet. Every unfamiliar sound was a threat.
+The voices of birds and beasts no longer interested her&mdash;they scared
+her; and, try as she would to banish these fancies, her nerves thrilled
+with every rush of the wind. It was deep night before she dropped
+asleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>A FLUTE, A DRUM, AND A MESSAGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Elsie dreamed she was at the theatre. The opera was "Il Trovatore," and
+at the moment when the prison song&mdash;that worn yet ever-mournful
+cry&mdash;should have pulsed forth; but in its stead another strain came
+floating from afar, a short phrase equally sad, which sank slowly, as a
+fragment of cloud descends from sky to earth to become tears of dew on
+the roses. Over and over again it was repeated, so sad, so sweet, so
+elemental, it seemed that the pain of all love's vain regret was in it,
+longing and sorrow and despair, without relief, without hope, defiant of
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the walls of the theatre faded. The gray light of morning crept
+into the dreamer's eyes, and she was aware of the walls of her tent and
+knew she had been dreaming. But the sorrowful song went on, with
+occasional slight deviations of time and tone, but always the same.
+Beginning on a high key, it fell by degrees, hesitating, momentarily
+swooping upward, yet ever falling, till at last it melted in with the
+solemn moan of the pines stirring above her head. Then she drowsed
+again, and seemed to be listening to the wailing song with some one
+whose hand she held. As she turned to ask whence the music came a
+little shudder seized her, for the eyes looking into hers were not those
+of Lawson. Curtis faced her, grave and sweet.</p>
+
+<p>With this shock she wakened, but the song had ceased. She waited in
+silence, hoping to hear it again. When fully aroused to her
+surroundings, she was convinced that she had dreamed the music as well
+as the hand-clasp, and a flush ran over her. "Why should I dream in that
+way of <i>him</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>She heard the soft lisp of moccasined feet outside the tent, and
+immediately after the sound of an axe. Presently the fire began to
+crackle, and the rising sun threw a flood of golden light against the
+canvas wall. Jennie lifted her arms and yawned, and at last sat up and
+listened. Catching Elsie's eye she said: "Good-morning, dear. How did
+you sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Deliciously&mdash;but did you hear some one singing just before sunrise?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I did; but perhaps I dreamed it."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did it seem to come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, from away off and high up&mdash;the saddest song&mdash;a phrase constantly
+repeated."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know. It was some young Tetong lover playing the flute. They
+often do that when the girls are going for water in the morning. Isn't
+it beautiful?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard anything so sad."</p>
+
+<p>"All their songs are sad. George says the primitive love-songs of all
+races are the same. But Two Horns has the fire going, and I must get up
+and superintend breakfast. You need not rise till I call."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Parker began to stir. "Jerome! What time is it?"</p>
+
+<p>The girls laughed as Jerome, in the other tent, replied, sweetly:</p>
+
+<p>"Time to arise, Honey Plum."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Parker started up and stared around, her eyes still misty with
+slumber. "I slept the whole night through," she finally remarked, as if
+in answer to a question, and her voice expressed profound astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't hear the wolves, did you, pet?" called Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Wolves! No. Did they howl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Howl is no name for it. They tied themselves into double bow-knots of
+noise."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie replied: "I didn't hear anything but the music. Did you hear the
+singing?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson spoke. "You people have the most active imaginations. All I heard
+was the wind in the pines, and an occasional moose walking by."</p>
+
+<p>"Moose!" cried Mrs. Parker. "Why, they're enormous creatures."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie began to laugh. "You people will need to hurry to be ready for
+breakfast. I'm going to put the coffee on." She slipped outside. "Oh,
+girls! Get up at once, it's glorious out here on the lake!"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was busy about the camp-fire. "Good-morning, sis. Here are some
+trout for breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Trout!" shouted Lawson, from the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Trout!" echoed Parker. "We'll be there," and the tent bulged and
+flapped with his hasty efforts at dressing.</p>
+
+<p>In gay spirits they gathered round their rude table, Parker and Jennie
+particularly jocular. Curtis was puzzled by some subtle change in
+Elsie. Her gaze was not quite so frank, and her color seemed a little
+more fitful; but she was as merry as a child, and enjoyed every
+makeshift as though it were done for the first time and for her own
+amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the programme for to-day?" asked Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"After I inspect the saw-mill we will hook up and move over the divide
+to the head-waters of the Willow and camp with Red Wolf's band."</p>
+
+<p>Parker coughed. "Well, now&mdash;of course, Captain, we are depending on
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled. "Perhaps you'd like to go back to the agency?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sirree, bob! I'm sticking right to your coat-tails till we're out
+o' the woods."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson interposed. "You wouldn't infer that Parker had ever had a
+Parisian education, would you?"</p>
+
+<p>Parker was not abashed. "I know what you mean. Those are all expressions
+my father used. They stick to me like fly-paper."</p>
+
+<p>"I've tried and tried to break him of his plebeian phrases, but I
+cannot," Mrs. Parker said, with sad emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't try," replied Jennie. "I like them."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, lady, thank you," Parker fervently made answer.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis hurried away to look at the saw-mill. Lawson and Parker went
+fishing, and Elsie got out her paint-box and started another sketch. The
+morning was glorious, the air invigorating, and she painted joyously
+with firm, plashing strokes. Never had she been so sure of her brush.
+Life and art were very much worth while&mdash;only now and then a disturbing
+wish intruded&mdash;it was only a vague and timid longing; but it grew a
+little in power each time. Once she looked steadily and soberly at the
+ring whose jewel sparkled like a drop of dew on the third finger of her
+left hand.</p>
+
+<p>A half-hour later Curtis came back, walking rapidly. Seeing her at work
+he deflected from the straight trail and drew near.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that is wonderful," he said, as he looked at her sketch. "I
+don't see how you do so much with so few strokes."</p>
+
+<p>"That always puzzles the layman," she replied. "But it's really very
+simple."</p>
+
+<p>"When you know how. I hope you're enjoying your trip with us?"</p>
+
+<p>She flashed a smile that was almost coquettish upon him. "It is
+glorious. I am so happy I'm afraid it won't last."</p>
+
+<p>"We always feel that way about any keen pleasure," he replied, soberly.
+"Now I can't keep the thought of your going out of my mind. Every hour
+or two I find myself saying, 'It'll be lonesome business when these
+artists leave us.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't speak of anything sorrowful this week. Let's be as happy as
+we can."</p>
+
+<p>He pondered a fitting reply, but at last gave it up and said: "If you
+are satisfied with your sketch, we'll start. I see the teams are ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, I'm ready to go. I just wanted to make a record of the
+values&mdash;they are changing so fast now," and she began to wipe her
+brushes and put away her panel. "I don't care where we go so we keep in
+the pines and have the mountains somewhere in sight."</p>
+
+<p>It must have been in remorse of her neglect of Lawson the preceding day
+that Elsie insisted on sitting beside him in the back seat, while Mrs.
+Parker took her place with the driver. The keen pang of disappointment
+which crossed his heart warned Curtis that his loyalty to his friend was
+in danger of being a burden, and the drive was robbed of all the blithe
+intercourse of the day before. Parker and Jennie fought clamorously on a
+variety of subjects in the middle distance, but Curtis was hardly more
+than courteous to Mrs. Parker&mdash;so absorbed was he in some inner
+controversy.</p>
+
+<p>Retracing their course to the valley the two wagons crossed the stream
+and crawled slowly up the divide between the Elk and the Willow, and at
+one o'clock came down upon a sparse village of huts and tepees situated
+on the bank of a clear little stream&mdash;just where it fell away from a
+narrow pond which was wedged among the foot-hills like an artificial
+reservoir. The year was still fresh and green here, and the air was like
+May.</p>
+
+<p>Dogs were barking and snarling round the teams, as a couple of old men
+left the doors of their tepees and came forward. One of them was
+gray-haired, but tall and broad-shouldered. This was Many Coups, a
+famous warrior and one of the historians of his tribe. He greeted the
+agent soberly, expressing neither fear nor love, asking: "Who are these
+with you? I have not seen them before."</p>
+
+<p>To this Curtis replied: "They are my friends. They make pictures of the
+hills and the lakes and of chieftains like Many Coups."</p>
+
+<p>Many Coups looked keenly at Elsie. "My eyes are old and poor," he slowly
+said. "But now I remember. This young woman was at the agency last
+year," and he put up his hand, which was small and graceful even
+yet&mdash;the hand of an artist. "I make pictures also," he said.</p>
+
+<p>When this was translated, Elsie said: "You shall make a picture of me
+and I will make one of you."</p>
+
+<p>At this the old man smilingly answered: "It shall be so."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Red Wolf?" asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"He is away with Tailfeathers to keep the cowboys from our land. We are
+growing afraid, Little Father."</p>
+
+<p>"We will talk more of that by-and-by&mdash;we must now camp. Call your people
+together and at mid-afternoon we will council," replied Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Driving a little above the village, Curtis found a sheltered spot behind
+some low-growing pines and not far from the lake, and there they
+hastened to camp. The news flew from camp to camp that the Little Father
+was come, but no one crowded unseasonably to look at him. "We will
+council," Many Coups announced, and began to array himself for the
+ceremony. Horsemen galloped away to call Red Wolf and others who lived
+down the valley. Never before had an agent visited them in their homes,
+and they were disposed to make the most of it.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the white people had eaten their lunch all the red women
+were in their best dresses. The pappooses were shining with the
+scrubbing they had suffered and each small warrior wore a cunning
+buckskin coat elaborate with beads and quills. A semicircular wall of
+canvas was being erected to shield the old men from the mountain wind,
+and a detail of cooks had started in upon the task of preparing the
+feast which would end the council.</p>
+
+<p>Said Curtis: "You will find in this camp the Tetong comparatively
+unchanged. Red Wolf's band is the most primitive encampment I know." A
+few minutes later he added, "Here comes Many Coups and his son in
+official garb."</p>
+
+<p>The two chieftains greeted their visitors as if they had not hitherto
+been seen&mdash;with all the dignity of ambassadors to a foreign court.</p>
+
+<p>"Please treat them with the same formality," warned Curtis. "It will pay
+you for the glimpse of the old-time ceremony."</p>
+
+<p>The younger man was unpainted, save for some small blue figures on his
+forehead. On his head he wore a wide Mexican hat which vastly became
+him. His face was one of the handsomest and most typical of his race.</p>
+
+<p>"This young man is the son of Many Coups, and is called Blue Fox, or
+'The Southern Traveller,' because he has been down where the Mexicans
+are. His hat he got there, and he is very proud of it," explained
+Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie gave each of them a cup of coffee and a biscuit, of which they
+partook without haste, discussing meanwhile the coming council.</p>
+
+<p>"We did not know you were coming; some of our people will not get here
+in time," said Many Coups.</p>
+
+<p>"To-night, after the council, we wish to dance," said Blue Fox, meaning
+it as a request.</p>
+
+<p>"It is forbidden in Washington to dance in the old way."</p>
+
+<p>"We have heard of that, but we will dance for your wives. They will be
+glad to see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, you may dance, but not too long. No war-dance&mdash;only the
+visitors' dance."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, we understand," said Many Coups as he rose and drew his blanket
+about him. "In one hour we will come to council. Red Wolf will be there,
+and Hump Shoulder and his son. It may be others will return in time."</p>
+
+<p>The women were delighted at the promise of both a council and a dance,
+and Lawson unlimbered his camera in order to take some views of both
+functions, though he expressed some dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"The noble redman is thin and crooked in the legs," he said to Curtis.
+"Why is this?"</p>
+
+<p>"All the plains Indians, who ride the horse almost from their babyhood,
+are bow-legged. They never walk, and they are seldom symmetrically
+developed."</p>
+
+<p>"They are significant, but not beautiful," said Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>As they walked about the camp Elsie exclaimed: "This is the way all
+redmen should live," and, indeed, the scene was very beautiful. They
+were far above the agency, and the long valleys could be seen descending
+like folds in a vast robe reaching to the plain. The ridges were dark
+with pines for a space, but grew smooth and green at lower levels, and
+at last melted into haze. The camp was a summer camp, and all about, in
+pleasant places among the pines, stood the tepees, swarming with happy
+children and puppies. Under low lodges of canvas or bowers of pine
+branches the women were at work boiling meat or cooking a rude sort of
+cruller. They were very shy, and mostly hung their heads as their
+visitors passed, though they soon yielded to Jennie, who could speak a
+few words to them.</p>
+
+<p>"There's nothing in them for sculpture," said Parker, critically. "At
+least not for beauty. They might be treated as Raffaelle paints&mdash;for
+character."</p>
+
+<p>"They grow heavy early," Jennie added, "but the little girls are
+beautiful&mdash;see that little one!"</p>
+
+<p>The crier, a tall old man, toothless and wrinkled and gray, began to cry
+in a hollow, monotonous voice, "Come to the council place," and Curtis
+led his flock to their places in the midst of the circle.</p>
+
+<p>The council began with all the old-time forms, with gravity and decorum.
+Red Wolf was in the centre, with Many Coups at his left. The pipe of
+peace went round, and those whose minds were not yet prepared for speech
+drew deep inspirations of the fragrant smoke in the hope that their
+thoughts might be clarified, and when they lifted their eyes they seemed
+not to perceive their visitors or those who passed to and fro among the
+tepees. The sun, westering, fell with untempered light on their heads,
+but they faced it with the calm unconcern of eagles.</p>
+
+<p>To please his guests, Curtis allowed the utmost formality, and did not
+hasten, interrupt, or excise. The speeches were translated into English
+by Lawson, and at each telling point or period in Red Wolf's speech the
+women looked at each other in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Did he really say that?" asked Elsie. "Didn't you make it up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather good for a ragamuffin, don't you think?" said Lawson, as the old
+man took his seat.</p>
+
+<p>Many Coups spoke slowly, sadly, as though half communing with himself,
+with nothing of the bombast the visitors had expected, and he grew in
+dignity and power as his thought began to make itself felt through his
+interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>"He is speaking for his race," remarked Lawson to Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove! the old fellow is a good lawyer!" cried Parker. "I don't see
+any answer to his indictment."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis sat listening as though each point the old man made were new&mdash;and
+this attitude pleased the chieftains very much.</p>
+
+<p>The speech, in its general tenor, was similar to many others he had
+heard from thoughtful redmen. Briefly he described the time when the
+redmen were happy in a land filled with deer and buffalo, before the
+white man was. "We lived as the Great Spirit made us. Then the white man
+came&mdash;and now we are bewildered with his commands. Our eyes are blinded,
+we know not where to go. We know not whom to believe or trust. I am old,
+I am going to my grave troubled over the fate of my children. Agents
+come and go. The good ones go too soon&mdash;the bad ones stay too long, but
+they all go. There is no one in whose care to leave my children. It is
+better to die here in the hills than to live the slave of the white man,
+ragged and spiritless, slinking about like a dog without a friend. We do
+not want to make war any more&mdash;we ask only to live as our fathers lived,
+and die here in the hills."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke these final tragic words his voice grew deep and trembled,
+and Elsie felt some strong force gripping at her throat, and burning
+tears filled her eyes. In the city it was easy to say, "The way of
+civilization lies over the graves of the primitive races," but here,
+under the sun, among the trees, when one of those about to die looked
+over and beyond her to the hills as though choosing his grave&mdash;the
+utterance of the pitiless phrase was difficult in any tone&mdash;impossible
+in the boasting shout of the white promoter. She rose suddenly and
+walked away&mdash;being ashamed of her tears, a painful constriction in her
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>The speakers who followed spoke in much the same way&mdash;all but Blue Fox,
+who sharply insisted that the government should help them. "You have put
+us here on barren land where we can only live by raising stock. You
+should help us fence the reservation, and get us cattle to start with.
+Then by-and-by we can build good houses and have plenty to eat. This is
+right, for you have destroyed our game&mdash;and you will not let us go to
+the mountains to hunt. You must do something besides furnish us ploughs
+in a land where the rain does not come."</p>
+
+<p>In answer to all this, Curtis replied, using the sign language. He
+admitted that Red Wolf was right. "The Tetongs have been cheated, but
+good days are coming. I am going to help you. I am going to stay with
+you till you are safely on the white man's road. We intend to buy out
+the settlers, and take the water in the streams so that you may raise
+potatoes for your children, and you will then be glad because your
+gardens will bear many things good to eat. Do not despair, the white
+people are coming to understand the situation now. You have many
+friends who will help."</p>
+
+<p>As Many Coups rose and shook hands with the agent he was smiling again,
+and he said, "Your words are good."</p>
+
+<p>The old crier went forth again calling: "Come to the dance-hall. The
+white people desire to see you dance. Come clothed in your best
+garments."</p>
+
+<p>Then the drum began to utter its spasmodic signal, and the herald's
+voice sounded faint and far off as he descended the path to the second
+group of tepees.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go now?" asked Mrs. Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, it will be two hours before they begin. The young men must go
+and dress. We have time to sup and smoke a pipe."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I'm so glad we're going to see a real Indian dance. I didn't
+suppose it could be seen now&mdash;not the real thing."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson smiled. "You'll think this is the real thing before you get
+inside the door. I've known tenderfeet to weaken at the last moment."</p>
+
+<p>Parker pretended to be a little nervous. "Suppose they should get hold
+of some liquor."</p>
+
+<p>"This band is too far away from the white man to have his vices,"
+replied Curtis with a slight smile. He had wondered at Elsie's going,
+but concluded she had grown weary of the old chief's speech.</p>
+
+<p>"There is great charm in this life," said Lawson, as they all gathered
+before their tent and sat overlooking the village and the lake. "I
+sometimes wonder whether we have not complicated life without adding to
+the sum of human happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm thinking of this in winter," said Elsie. "O-o-o! It must be
+terrible! No furnace, no bath-tubs."</p>
+
+<p>The others laughed heartily at the sincerity of her shudder, and Curtis
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, you'd be surprised to know how comfortable they keep in
+their tepees. In the old skin tepee they were quite warm even on the
+coldest days. They always camp in sheltered places out of the wind, and
+where fuel is plenty."</p>
+
+<p>"At the same time I prefer my own way of living to theirs&mdash;when winter
+comes."</p>
+
+<p>"I know something of your logic," replied Curtis. "But I think I
+understand the reluctance of these people when asked to give up the old
+things. I love their life&mdash;their daily actions&mdash;this man coiling a
+lariat&mdash;that child's outline against the tepee&mdash;the smell of their fresh
+bread&mdash;the smoke of their little fires. I can understand a Tetong when
+he says: 'All this is as sweet to me as your own life&mdash;why should I give
+it up?' Feeling as I do, I never insist on their giving up anything
+which is not an impediment. I argue with them, and show that some of
+their ways are evil or a hinderance in the struggle for life under new
+conditions, and they always meet me half-way."</p>
+
+<p>"Supper is ready," called Jennie, and his audience rose.</p>
+
+<p>While still at meat, the drum, which had been sounding at intervals,
+suddenly took on a wilder energy, followed immediately by a high,
+shrill, yelping call, which was instantly augmented by a half-dozen
+others, all as savage and startling as the sudden burst of howling from
+a pack of wolves. This clamor fell away into a deep, throbbing chant,
+only to rise again to the yelping, whimpering cries with which it began.</p>
+
+<p>Every woman stiffened with terror, with wide eyes questioning Curtis.
+"What is all that?"</p>
+
+<p>"The opening chorus," he explained, much amused. "A song of the chase."</p>
+
+<p>The dusk was beginning to fall, and the tepees, with their small,
+sparkling fires close beside, and the shadowy, blanketed forms
+assembling slowly, silently, gave a wonderful remoteness and wildness to
+the scene. To Curtis it was quite like the old-time village. The husky
+voice of the aged crier seemed like a call from out of the years
+primeval before the white race with its devastating energy and its
+killing problems had appeared in the east. The artist in Elsie, now
+fully awake, dominated the daughter of wealth. "Oh, this is beautiful! I
+never expected to see anything so primitive."</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that his guests were eager to view it all, Curtis led the way
+towards the dance-lodge. Elsie was moved to take her place beside him,
+but checked herself and turned to Lawson, leaving Mrs. Parker to walk at
+the Captain's elbow.</p>
+
+<p>To the ears of the city dwellers the uproar was appalling&mdash;full of
+murder and sudden death. As they approached the lodge the frenzied
+booming of the drum, the wild, yelping howls, the shrill whooping,
+brought up in their minds all the stories of dreadful deeds they had
+ever read, and Parker said to Jennie:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think the Captain will be able to control them?"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie laughed. "I'm used to this clamor; it's only their way of
+singing."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie said: "They must be flourishing bloody scalping-knives in there;
+it is direful."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait and see," said Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>The dance-house was a large octagonal hut built of pine logs, partly
+roofed with grass and soil. It was lighted by a leaping fire in the
+centre, and by four lanterns on the walls, and as Curtis and his party
+entered, the clamor (in their honor) redoubled. In a first swift glance
+Elsie apprehended only a confused, jingling, fluttering mass of color&mdash;a
+chaos of leaping, half-naked forms and a small circle of singers
+fiercely assaulting a drum which sat on the floor at the right of the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Then Red Wolf, calm, stately, courtly, came before them carrying his
+wand of office and conducted them to seats at the left of the fire, and
+the girl's heart ceased to pound so fiercely. Looking back she saw
+Jennie shaking hands with one of the fiercest of the painted and
+beplumed dancers, and recognized him as Blue Fox. Turning, she fixed her
+eyes on a middle-aged man who was dancing as sedately as Washington
+might have led the minuet, his handsome face calm of line and the clip
+of his lips genial and placid. Plainly the ferocity did not extend to
+the dancers; the singers alone seemed to express hate and lust and war.</p>
+
+<p>The music suddenly ceased, and in an instant the girl's mind cleared.
+She perceived that the singers were laughing as they rolled their
+cigarettes, and that the savage warrior dancers were gossiping together
+as they rested, while all about her sat plump young girls in gay
+dresses, very conscious of the eyes of the young men. In her early life
+Elsie had attended a country dance, and her changed impressions of this
+mad, blood-thirsty revel was indicated in her tone as she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's just an old-fashioned country hoe-down."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed. "I congratulate you on your penetration," he mockingly
+said.</p>
+
+<p>The old men came up to shake hands with the agent, and on being
+presented to Elsie smiled reassuringly. Their manners were very good,
+indeed. Several of them gravely made a swift sign which caused Curtis to
+color and look confused, and when his answering sign caused them all to
+look at Lawson, Elsie demanded to know what it was all about.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you'd better know?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, I insist on knowing," she added, as he hesitated again.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, but a little unsteadily. "They asked if you were my
+bride, and I replied no, that you came with Lawson."</p>
+
+<p>It was her turn to look confused. "The impudent things!" was all she
+could find to say at the moment.</p>
+
+<p>Red Wolf called out a few imperative words, the song began with its
+imitation of the wolves at war as before, then settled into a pounding
+chant&mdash;deep, resonant, and inspiriting. The dancers sprang forth&mdash;not
+all, but a part of them&mdash;as though their names had been called, while a
+curious little bent and withered old man crept in like a gnome and built
+up the fire till it blazed brightly. As they danced the younger men
+re-enacted with abrupt, swift, violent, yet graceful gestures the drama
+of wild life. They trailed game, rescued lost warriors, and defeated
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"You see it proceeds with decorum," said Curtis to Elsie and Mrs.
+Parker, as the dancers returned to their seats. "They enjoy it just as
+white people enjoy a cotillion, and, barring the noise of the singers,
+it is quite as formal and harmless."</p>
+
+<p>A little boy in full dancing costume now came on with the rest, and the
+visitors exclaimed in delight of his grace and dignity. He could not
+have been more than six years of age. His companion, an old man of
+seventy, was a good deal of a wag, and danced in comic-wise to make the
+on-lookers laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Parker was fairly hooking his chin over Curtis's shoulder to hear every
+word uttered and to see all that went on, and Curtis was in the midst of
+an explanation of the significance of the drama of the dance, when a
+short, sturdy, bow-legged Tetong, dressed in a policeman's uniform,
+pushed his way in at the door and thrust a letter at his agent's hand.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly every eye was fixed on Curtis's bent head as he opened the
+letter. The dancers took their seats, whispering and muttering, the drum
+ceased, and the singers, turned into bronze figures, stared solemnly. A
+nervous chill ran though Elsie's blood and Parker turned pale and cold.</p>
+
+<p>"What's up&mdash;what's up?" he asked, hurriedly. "This is a creepy pause."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson laid a hand on his arm and shut down on it like a vice.</p>
+
+<p>Red Wolf brought a lantern and held it at the Captain's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, leaning over, caught the words, "There's been a row over on the
+Willow&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis calmly folded the paper, nodded and smiled his thanks to Red
+Wolf, and then lifting his hand he signed to the policeman, in full view
+of all the dancers:</p>
+
+<p>"Go back and tell Wilson to issue just the same amount of flour this
+week that he did last, and that Red Wolf wants a new mowing-machine for
+his people. You need not return till morning." Then, turning to Red
+Wolf, he said: "Go on with the dance; my friends are much pleased."</p>
+
+<p>The tension instantly gave way, every one being deceived but Jennie, who
+understood the situation and tried to help on the deception, but her
+round face was plainly anxious.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, as she ceased to wonder concerning the forms and regulations of
+the dance, grew absorbed in the swirling forms, the harsh clashing of
+colors, the short, shrill cries, the gleam of round and polished limbs,
+the haughty fling of tall head-dresses, and the lightness of the small
+and beautifully modelled feet drumming upon the ground; but most of all
+she was moved by the aloofness of expression on the faces of many of the
+dancers. For the most part they seemed to dream&mdash;to revisit the
+past&mdash;especially the old men. Their lips were sad, their eyes
+pensive&mdash;singularly so&mdash;and mentally the girl said: "I must paint my
+next portrait of this quality&mdash;an old man dreaming of the olden time. I
+wonder if they really were happy in those days&mdash;happier than our
+civilization can make them?" and thoughts came to her which shook her
+confidence in the city and the mart. For the first time in her life she
+doubted the sanctity of the steam-engine and the ore-crusher.</p>
+
+<p>As they took their seats from time to time the older men smoked their
+long pipes; only the young men rolled their cigarettes. To them the past
+was a child's recollection, not the irrevocable dream of age. They were
+the links between the old and the new.</p>
+
+<p>As the time came to go, Curtis rose and addressed his people in signs.
+"We are glad to be here," he said. "All my friends are pleased. My heart
+is joyous when you dance. I do not forbid it. Sometimes Washington tells
+me to do something, and I must obey. They say you must not dance the
+war-dance any more, and so I must forbid it. This dance was pleasant&mdash;it
+is not bad. My heart is made warm to be with you. I am visiting all my
+people, and I must go to-morrow. Do not quarrel with the white man. Be
+patient, and Washington will do you good."</p>
+
+<p>Each promise was greeted by the old men with cries of: "Ay! Ay!" and the
+drummers thumped the drums most furiously in applause. And so the agent
+said, "Good-night," and withdrew.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE'S ANCIENT LOVE AFFAIR</h3>
+
+
+<p>As they walked back to their camp Jennie took her brother's arm:</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, George?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must return to the agency."</p>
+
+<p>"That means we must all go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so. The settlers seemed determined to make trouble. They have
+had another row with Gray Man's band, and shots have been fired.
+Fortunately no one was hurt. We must leave here early. Say nothing to
+any of our guests till we are safely on the way home."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, walking with Lawson, was very pensive. "I begin to understand why
+Captain Curtis is made Indian agent. He understands these people,
+sympathizes with them."</p>
+
+<p>"No one better, and if the department can retain him six years he will
+have the Tetongs comfortably housed and on the road to independence and
+self-respect."</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't he be retained?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your father may secure re-election to the Senate next winter."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," she softly answered, "he dislikes Captain Curtis."</p>
+
+<p>"More than that&mdash;in order to be elected, he must pledge himself to have
+Curtis put out o' the way."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds like murder," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no; it's only politics&mdash;politics and business. But let's not talk of
+that&mdash;let us absorb the beauty of the night. Did you enjoy the dance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very much. I am hopeless of ever painting it though&mdash;it is so full of
+big, significant shadows. I wish I knew more about it."</p>
+
+<p>"You are less confident than you were last year." He looked at her
+slyly.</p>
+
+<p>"I see more."</p>
+
+<p>"And feel more?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I'm afraid I'm getting Captain Curtis's point of view. These
+people aren't the mendicants they once seemed. The expression of some of
+those faces to-night was wonderful. They are something more than tramps
+when they discard their rags."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you'd come to my point of view," he said, a little irrelevantly.</p>
+
+<p>"About what?"</p>
+
+<p>"About our momentous day. Suppose we say Wednesday of Thanksgiving
+week?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were going to wait for me to speak," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>He caught his breath a little. "So I will&mdash;only you won't forget my gray
+hairs, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I will&mdash;not with your broad daily hints to remind me. But
+you promised to be patient and&mdash;just friendly."</p>
+
+<p>He ignored her sarcasm. "It would be rather curious if I <i>should</i> become
+increasingly impatient, wouldn't it? I made that promise in entire good
+faith, but&mdash;I seem to be changing."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what troubles me," she said. "You are trying to hurry me."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment they came close to the Parkers and she did not continue.
+He had given her another disturbing thought to sleep on, and that was,
+"Would it hurt him much if I should now return his ring?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Parker was disposed to discuss the dance, but Jennie said:</p>
+
+<p>"We must all go to sleep. George says we are to move early to-morrow."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The walls of the tent could hardly be seen when the sound of the
+crackling flames again told that faithful Two Horns was feeding the
+camp-fire. Crane's Voice could be heard bringing in the horses, and in a
+few moments Curtis called out in a low, incisive voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody turn out; we must make an early start across the range."</p>
+
+<p>The morning was gray, the peaks hidden in clouds, and the wind chill as
+the women came from their beds. Two Horns had stretched some blankets to
+keep off the blast, but still Elsie shivered, and Curtis roundly
+apologized. "I'm sorry to get you up so early. It spoils all the fun of
+camping if you're obliged to rise before the sun. An hour from now and
+all will be genial. Please wait for my explanation."</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast was eaten in discomfort and comparative silence, though
+Parker, with intent to enliven the scene, cut a few capers as awkward as
+the antics of a sand-hill crane. Almost before the smoke of the tepee
+fires began to climb the trees the agent and his party started back over
+the divide towards the mill, no one in holiday mood. There was a certain
+pathos in this loss of good cheer.</p>
+
+<p>Once out of sight of the camp, Curtis turned and said: "Friends, I'm
+sorry to announce it, but I must return to the agency to-night and I
+must take you all with me. Wilson has asked me to hasten home, and of
+course he would not do so without good reason."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" asked Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"The same old trouble. The cattlemen are throwing their stock on the
+reservation and the Tetongs are resenting it."</p>
+
+<p>"No danger, I hope," said Parker, pop-eyed this time with genuine
+apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no&mdash;not if I am on hand to keep the races apart. Now I'm going to
+drive hard, and you must all hang on. I want to pull into the agency
+before dark."</p>
+
+<p>The wagon lurched and rattled down the divide as Curtis urged the horses
+steadily forward. With his foot in the brake, he descended in a single
+hour the road which had consumed three long hours to climb. Conversation
+under these conditions was difficult and at times impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, intrepid driver herself, clutched her brother's arm at times, as
+the vehicle lurched, but Curtis made it all a joke by shouting, "It is
+always easy to slide into Hades&mdash;the worst is soon over."</p>
+
+<p>Once in the valley of the Elk the road grew better, and Curtis asked
+Elsie if she wished to drive. She, being very self-conscious for some
+reason, shook her head, "No, thank you," and rode for the most part in
+silence, though Lawson made a brave effort to keep up a conversation.</p>
+
+<p>By eleven o'clock not even Curtis and Lawson together could make the
+ride a joke. The women were hungry and tired, and distinctly saddened by
+this sudden ending of their joyous outing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish these rampant cowboys could have waited till we had our
+holiday," Jennie grumbled, as she stretched her tired arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably they were informed of the Captain's plans and seized the
+opportunity," suggested Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if Cal is a traitor?" mused Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns and Crane's Voice came rattling along soon after Curtis
+stopped for noon at their first camping-place, and in a few minutes
+lunch was ready. Conversation still lagged in spite of inspiriting
+coffee, and the women lay out on their rugs and blankets, resting their
+aching bones, while the men smoked and speculated on the outcome of the
+whole Indian question.</p>
+
+<p>The teams were put to the wagons as soon as their oats were eaten and
+the homeward drive begun, brisk and business-like, and for some
+mysterious reason Curtis recovered his usual cheerful tone.</p>
+
+<p>It was mid-afternoon when the agency was sighted, and the five-o'clock
+bell had just rung as they drove slowly and with no appearance of haste
+into the yard.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson came out to meet them. "How-de-do? You made a short trip."</p>
+
+<p>"How are things?" inquired Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing doing&mdash;all quiet," replied the clerk, but Curtis detected
+something yet untold in the quiver of his clerk's eyelid.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm glad we got in."</p>
+
+<p>Supper was eaten with little ceremony and very languid conversation, and
+the artists at once sought their rooms to rest. The Parkers were too
+tired to be nervous, and Curtis was absorbed with some private problem.</p>
+
+<p>As Lawson and Elsie walked across the square in the twilight he
+announced, meditatively:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to be more and more impatient&mdash;that is now certain."</p>
+
+<p>"Osborne, don't! Please don't take that tone; I don't like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, dear?" he asked, tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;because&mdash;" She turned in a swift, overmastering impulse.
+"Because if you do, I must give you back your ring." She wrung it from
+her finger. "I think I must, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>As she crowded the gem into his lax hand he said: "Why, what does this
+mean, Elsie Bee Bee?" His voice expressed pain and bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know <i>what</i> it means yet, only I feel that it isn't right now
+to wear it. I told you when you put it on that it implied no promise on
+my part."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, and it doesn't imply any now."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it does. Your whole attitude towards me implies an absolute
+engagement, and I can't rest under that. Take back your ring till I can
+receive it as other girls do&mdash;as a binding promise. You <i>must</i> do this
+or I will hate you!" she added, with a sudden fury.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, dearest&mdash;only I don't see what has produced this change
+in you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not changed&mdash;you have changed."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed at this. "The woman's last word! Well, I admit it. I have
+come to love you as a man loves the woman he wishes to make his wife.
+I'm going to care a great deal, Elsie Bee Bee, if you do not come to me
+some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that!" she cried, and there was an imploring accent in her
+voice. "Don't you see I must not wear your ring till I promise all you
+ask?"</p>
+
+<p>They walked on in silence to the door. As they stood there he said: "I
+feel as though I were about to say good-bye to you forever, and it makes
+my heart ache."</p>
+
+<p>She put both hands on his shoulders, then, swift as a bird, turned and
+was gone. He felt that she had thought to kiss him, but he divined it
+would have been a farewell kiss, and he was glad that she had turned
+away. There was still hope for him in that indecision.</p>
+
+<p>As for Elsie, life seemed suddenly less simple and less orderly. She
+pitied Osborne, she was angry and dissatisfied with herself, and in
+doubt about Curtis. "I'm not in love with him&mdash;it is impossible, absurd;
+but my summer is spoiled. I shall go home at once. It is foolish for me
+to be here when I could be at the sea-shore."</p>
+
+<p>After a moment she thought: "Why am I here? I guess the girls were
+right. I <i>am</i> a crank&mdash;an irresponsible. Why should I want to paint
+these malodorous tepee dwellers? Just to be different from any one
+else."</p>
+
+<p>As she sat at her open window she heard again the Tetong lover's flute
+wailing from the hill-side across the stream, and the sound struck
+straight in upon her heart and filled her with a mysterious longing&mdash;a
+pain which she dared not analyze. Her mind was active to the point of
+confusion&mdash;seething with doubts and the wreckage of her opinions.
+Lawson's action had deeply disturbed her.</p>
+
+<p>They had never pretended to sentiment in their relationship; indeed, she
+had settled into a conviction that love was a silly passion, possible
+only to girls in their teens. This belief she had attained by passing
+through what seemed to her a fiery furnace of suffering at eighteen, and
+when that self-effacing passion had burned itself out she had renounced
+love and marriage and "devoted herself to art," healing herself with
+work. For some years thereafter she posed as a man-hater.</p>
+
+<p>The objective cause of all this tumult and flame and renunciation seemed
+ridiculously inadequate in the eyes of others. He was the private
+secretary of Senator Stollwaert at the time, a smug, discreet, pretty
+man, of slender attainment and no great ambition. Happily, he had
+afterwards removed to New York, or Washington would have been an
+impossible place of residence for Elsie. She had met him once since her
+return&mdash;he had had the courage to call upon her&mdash;and the familiar pose
+of his small head and the mincing stride of his slender legs had given
+her a feeling of nausea. "Is it possible that I once agonized over this
+trig little man?" she asked herself.</p>
+
+<p>To be just to him, Mr. Garretson did not presume in the least on his
+previous intimacy; on the contrary, he seemed timid and ill at ease in
+the presence of the woman whose beauty had by no means been foreshadowed
+in her girlhood. He was not stupid; the splendor of her surroundings
+awed him, but above all else there was a look on her face which too
+plainly expressed contempt for her ancient folly. Her shame was as
+perceptible to him as though expressed in spoken words, and his visit
+was never repeated.</p>
+
+<p>Of this affair Elsie had spoken quite freely to Lawson. "It only shows
+what an unmitigated idiot a girl is. She is bound to love some one. I
+knew quantities of nice boys, and why I should have selected poor Sammy
+as the centre of all my hopes and affections I don't know. I dimly
+recall thinking he had nice ears and hands, but even they do not now
+seem a reasonable basis for wild passion, do they?"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson had been amused. "Love at that age isn't a creature of reason."</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently not, if mine was a sample."</p>
+
+<p>"Ours now is so reasonable as to seem insecure and dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>Her intimacy with Lawson, therefore, had begun on the plane of
+good-fellowship while they were in Paris together, and for two years he
+seemed quite satisfied. Of late he had been less contained.</p>
+
+<p>After her outburst of anger at her father's ejectment of Curtis, she met
+Lawson with a certain reserve not common to her. At the moment, she more
+than half resolved that the time had come to leave her father's house
+for Lawson's flat, and yet her will wavered. She said as little as
+possible to him concerning that last disgraceful scene, as much on her
+own account as to spare Curtis, but her restlessness was apparent to
+Lawson and puzzled him. Two or three times during the summer he had
+openly, though jocularly, alluded to their marriage, but she had put
+him off with a keen word. Now that her father seemed intolerable, she
+listened to him with a new interest. He became a definite possibility&mdash;a
+refuge.</p>
+
+<p>Encouraged by this slight change in her attitude towards him, Lawson
+took a ring from his pocket one night and said, "I wish you'd wear this,
+Elsie Bee Bee."</p>
+
+<p>She drew back. "I can't do that. I'm not ready to promise anything yet."</p>
+
+<p>"It needn't bind you," he pleaded. "It needn't mean any more than you
+care to have it mean. But I think our understanding justifies a ring."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it," she answered, quickly. "I don't like you to be so
+solemn about our 'understanding.' You promised to let me think it all
+out in my own way and in my own time."</p>
+
+<p>"I know I did&mdash;and I mean to do so. Only"&mdash;he smiled with a wistful look
+at her&mdash;"I would have you observe that I have developed three gray hairs
+over my ears."</p>
+
+<p>She took the ring slowly, and as she put the tip of her finger into it a
+slight premonitory shudder passed over her.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure you understand&mdash;this is no binding promise on my part?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will leave you as free as before."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will wear it," she said, and slipped it to its place. "It is a
+beautiful ring."</p>
+
+<p>He bent and kissed her fingers. "And a beautiful hand, Elsie Bee Bee."</p>
+
+<p>Now, lying alone in the soundless deep of the night, she went over that
+scene, and the one through which she had just passed. "He's a dear,
+good fellow, and I love him&mdash;but not like that." And the thought that it
+was all over between them, and the decision irrevocably made, was at
+once a pain and a pleasure. The promise, slight as it was, had been a
+burden. "Now I am absolutely free," she said, in swift, exultant
+rebound.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SHERIFF'S MOB</h3>
+
+
+<p>The next day was cloudless, with a south wind, and the little, crawling
+brook which watered the agency seemed about to seethe. The lower
+foot-hills were already sere as autumn, and the ponies came down to
+their drinking-places unnaturally thirsty; and the cattle, wallowing in
+the creek-bed, seemed at times to almost stop its flow. The timid trees
+which Curtis had planted around the school-house and office were plainly
+suffering for lack of moisture, and the little gardens which the Indians
+had once more been induced to plant were in sore distress.</p>
+
+<p>The torrid sun beat down into the valley from the unclouded sky so
+fiercely that the idle young men of the reservation postponed their
+horse-racing till after sunset. Curtis felt the heat and dust very
+keenly on his guests' account, and was irritated over the assaults of
+the cattlemen. "If they had but kept the peace we would still be in the
+cool, sweet hills," he said to Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"This will not last," Lawson replied. "We'll get a mountain wind
+to-night. The girls are wisely keeping within doors and are not yet
+aware of the extreme heat."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are a true prophet. But at this moment it seems as if no
+cool wind could arise out of this sun-baked land."</p>
+
+<p>"Any news from the Willow?"</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble was in the West Fort. Some cowboys raided a camp of
+Tetongs. No one was injured, and so it must pass for a joke."</p>
+
+<p>"Some of those jokes will set something afire some of these hot days."</p>
+
+<p>"But you know how hard it is to apprehend the ruffians; they come and go
+in the night like wolves. They spoiled our outing, but I hope we may get
+away again next week."</p>
+
+<p>In the days which followed, Curtis saw little of Elsie, and when they
+met she seemed cold and preoccupied. In conversation she seemed
+listening to another voice, appeared to be pondering some abstract
+subject, and Curtis was puzzled and vaguely saddened. Jennie took a far
+less serious view of the estrangement. "It's just a mood. We've set her
+thinking; she's 'under conviction,' as the revivalists used to say.
+Don't bother her and she'll 'come through.'"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was at lunch on Wednesday when Wilson came to the door and said,
+"Major, Streeter and a man named Jenks are here and want to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"More stolen cattle to be charged up to the Indians, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon some such complaint&mdash;they didn't say."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, tell them to wait&mdash;or no&mdash;ask them to come over and lunch with
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Wilson soon returned. "They are very glum, and say they'll wait at the
+office till you come."</p>
+
+<p>"As they prefer. I will have finished in a few moments."</p>
+
+<p>He concluded not to hasten, however, and the ranchers had plenty of time
+to become impatient. They met him darkly.</p>
+
+<p>"We want a word in private, Major," said Jenks, a tall, long-bearded man
+of most portentous gravity.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis led the way to an inner office and offered them seats, which they
+took in the same oppressive silence.</p>
+
+<p>The agent briskly opened the hearing. "What can I do for you,
+gentlemen?"</p>
+
+<p>Jenks looked at Streeter&mdash;Streeter nodded. "Go ahead, Hank."</p>
+
+<p>Jenks leaned over aggressively. "Your damned Injuns have murdered one o'
+my herders."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis hardened. "What makes you think so?" he sharply asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He disappeared more than a week ago, and no one has heard of him since.
+I know he has been killed, and your Injuns done it. No one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," interrupted Curtis. "Who was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"His name is Cole&mdash;he was herdin' my sheep."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a sheep-man?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you live?"</p>
+
+<p>"My sheep ranch is over on Horned Toad Creek."</p>
+
+<p>"Where was this man when he disappeared?"</p>
+
+<p>Jenks grew a little uneasy. "He was camped by the Mud Spring."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rose and called Wilson in. "Wilson, where is the Mud Spring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just inside our south line, about four miles from the school."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," replied Curtis. "Your sheep were on the reservation. Are
+you sure this man was murdered?"</p>
+
+<p>"Him and the dog disappeared together, and hain't neither of 'em been
+seen since."</p>
+
+<p>"How long ago was this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just a week to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you made a search for him? Have you studied the ground closely?"</p>
+
+<p>Streeter interposed. "We've done all that could be done in that line. I
+<i>know</i> he's killed. He told Cal about two weeks ago that he had been
+shot at twice and expected to get wiped out before the summer was over.
+There isn't a particle of doubt in my mind about it. The thing for you
+to do is to make a demand&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not in need of instructions as to my duty," interrupted Curtis.
+"Wilson, who is over from the Willow Creek?"</p>
+
+<p>"Old Elk himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Send him in. I shall take all means to help you find this herder,"
+Curtis said to the ranchers, "but I cannot allow you to charge my people
+with his death without greater reason than at present. We must move
+calmly and without heat in this matter. Murder is a serious charge to
+make without ample proof."</p>
+
+<p>The Elk, smiling and serene, entered the door and stood for a moment
+searching the countenances of the white men. His face grew grave as the
+swift signs of his agent filled his mind with the story of the
+disappearance of the herder.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry; it is bad business," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Crawling Elk, I want you to call together five or six of your best
+trailers and go with these men to the place where the herder was last
+seen and see if you can find any trace of him;" then, turning to
+Streeter, he said: "You know Crawling Elk; he is the one chief against
+whom you have no enmity. If Cole was murdered, his body will be found.
+Until you have more proof of his death I must ask you to give my people
+the benefit of the doubt. Good-day, gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>As they turned to go, two young reds were seen leaving the window. They
+had watched Curtis as he signed the story to Crawling Elk. As the white
+men emerged these young fellows were leaning lazily on the fence,
+betraying no interest and very little animation, but a few minutes later
+they were mounted and riding up the valley at full gallop, heavy with
+news of the herder's death and Streeter's threats.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Elk," signed Curtis, "say nothing to any one but your young men
+and the captain of police, whom I will send with you to bring me word."</p>
+
+<p>After they had all ridden away, Curtis turned to Wilson and said, "I
+didn't suppose I should live to see a sheep-man and a cattleman riding
+side by side in this amicable fashion."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they'll get together against the Indian, all right. They're mighty
+glad of a chance to make any kind of common cause. That lazy herder has
+jumped the country. He told me he was sick of his job."</p>
+
+<p>"But the dog?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he killed the dog to keep him from being traced. There isn't a
+thing in it, Major."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm inclined to think you're right, but we must make careful
+investigation; the people are very censorious of my policy."</p>
+
+<p>Next morning Crawling Elk brought word that no trace of the man could be
+found. "The grass is very dry," he explained, "and the trail is old. We
+discovered nothing except some horses' hoof-marks."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep searching till every foot of land is covered," commanded Curtis.
+"Otherwise the white man will complain."</p>
+
+<p>On Friday, just after the bell had called the people to resume work at
+one o'clock, Crow, the police captain, rode into the yard on a pony
+covered with ridges of dried sweat. His face was impassive, but his eyes
+glittered as he lifted his hand and signed:</p>
+
+<p>"The white man's body is found!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" asked Curtis from the door-way.</p>
+
+<p>"On the high ground near the spring. He has three bullet-holes in him.
+Three cartridge-shells were found where the horses' hoof-marks were. The
+ones who shot dismounted there and fired over a little knoll. There are
+many white men over there now; they are very angry. They are coming
+here&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent! Come in here!" Once within the office, Curtis drew from Crow
+Wing all he knew. He was just in the midst of giving his orders when
+Wilson opened the door and said, quietly, though his voice had a
+tremulous intensity:</p>
+
+<p>"Major, step here a moment."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis went to the door. He could not restrain a smile, even while a
+cold chill went to his heart. Nothing could exceed the suddenness of the
+change which had swept over the agency. As he had stood in the office
+door ten minutes before, his ears had been filled with the clink-clank
+of the blacksmiths' hammers, the shouts of drivers, and the low laughter
+of young women on their way to the store. Crane's Voice was hitching up
+his team, while Lost Legs and Turkey Tail were climbing to the roof of
+the warehouse with pots of red paint. Peter Wolf was mending a
+mowing-machine, and his brother Robert was cutting wood behind the
+agency kitchen. All about he had observed groups of white-blanketed
+Indians smoking cigarettes in the shade of the buildings, while a crowd
+of nearly twenty others stood watching a game of duck-on-the-rock before
+the agency store.</p>
+
+<p>Now as he looked over the yards not a redman could be seen at his work.
+On every side the people, without apparent haste, but surely, steadily,
+and swiftly, were scattering. The anvil no longer cried out, the
+teamsters were silent, all laughter had ceased, the pots of paint sat
+scorching in the sun. There was something fiercely ominous as well as
+uncanny in this sudden, silent dispersion of a busy, merry throng, and
+Curtis, skilled in Indian signs, appreciated to the full the distrust of
+the white man here expressed. He understood this panic. The settlers had
+long threatened war. Now the pretext had come, and the sound of guns was
+about to begin.</p>
+
+<p>"Wilson," said Curtis, calmly, "if the settlers fire a shot they will
+regret it. See Crane's Voice, if you can find him, and send him to me."
+He turned to Crow and signed: "Go tell your people I will not let the
+cowboys hurt them. Hurry! Call them all back. Tell them to go to work. I
+will call the soldiers, if necessary, to keep the white man away. There
+is no danger."</p>
+
+<p>Crow was a brave and loyal man, and, weary as he was, hastened to carry
+out his orders. The call for "assembly" was rung on the signal-bell, and
+a few of the red employés responded. To them Curtis spoke reassuringly,
+but his words were belied by Thomas Big Voice, the official interpreter,
+who was so scared his knees shook.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis sent Wilson to quiet the teachers and hurried immediately to the
+studio, where Elsie was at work painting a portrait of old Chief Black
+Bull. The old man sprang to his feet the instant he caught sight of his
+agent's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, what is the matter?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>To Elsie, Curtis said: "Do not be alarmed."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no danger," he signed to Black Bull. "The white man's body has
+been found near the spring. He was shot by two men with horses. The
+white men are coming to see me about it, but there is no need of alarm.
+Tell your people to go quietly to their camps. I will protect them."</p>
+
+<p>The old chief's face grew sterner as he flung his blanket over his arm.
+"I go to see," he said. "The white men are very angry."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" called Curtis. "Keep your people quiet right where they are. You
+must help me. I depend on you. You must not alarm them."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do as you command," Bull replied, as he went away, but it was
+plain he apprehended violence.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" inquired Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"The settlers have discovered the body of the herder who was killed, and
+Crow brings word they are angry. I don't think there is any danger, but
+I wish you and Jennie were at the fort for a few days. I don't like to
+have you disturbed by these things."</p>
+
+<p>It was their first meeting alone since their return from the
+camping-trip, but Elsie was too much concerned with the serious
+expression of his face to feel any embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't think there will be trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, only a distracting wrangle, which may prevent your getting models.
+The Indians are nervous, and are even now getting out for the hills. But
+I hope you will not be alarmed."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a nervous person."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're not&mdash;that is the reason I dared to come and tell you what
+was going on. I deeply regret&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Wilson rapped on the door. "Major, you are needed. Bow-legs reports two
+bodies of armed men riding up the valley; the dust of their horses'
+hoofs can be seen. There are at least twenty men in the two squads,"
+Wilson continued; "one came across from the West Fork, the other came
+from the south. It looks like a prearranged invasion."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Wilson, I'll be at the office in time to meet them."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned on Elsie a look which went to her heart. His voice was low
+as he said: "Let me take you over to Jennie. I presume these men are
+coming to make a demand on me for the murderers. They may or may not
+know who the guilty ones are, but their coming in force by
+prearrangement has alarmed the people."</p>
+
+<p>As she laid down her brushes and took up her hat she said, gleefully:
+"Father won't be able to ask me what I know about war&mdash;will he? Will
+they begin shooting at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think they are likely to do anything as a body, but some
+reckless cowboy may do violence to some Tetong, which will rouse the
+tribe to retaliation. The settlers have too much sense to incite an
+outbreak." At the door he said: "I wish you would go to Jennie. Tell her
+not to get excited. I will let you know what it is all about as soon as
+I find out myself. It may be all a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>As he was crossing the road Lawson joined him, and when they reached the
+gate before the office, several of the invaders had dismounted and were
+waiting the agent's coming. There were eleven of them; all were deeply
+excited, and two or three of the younger men were observably drunk and
+reckless. Streeter, stepping forward, introduced a short, sullen-faced
+man as "Sheriff Winters, of Pinon County."</p>
+
+<p>"What name?" said Curtis, as he shook hands pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sheriff Winters," repeated Streeter.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the meaning of all this?" queried Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"We have come for the man that killed Ed Cole. We are a committee
+appointed by a convention of three hundred citizens who are holding an
+inquest over the body," said Winters. "We have come for the murderer."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who committed the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but we know it was an Injun."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know it?" They hesitated. "Do you come as an officer of the
+law? Have you a warrant?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have not, but we are determined&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I deny your right to be here. Your coming is an armed invasion of
+federal territory," said Curtis, and his voice rang like steel.</p>
+
+<p>"Here comes the other fellers," called some one in the crowd. Turning
+his head, Curtis saw another squad of men filing down over the hill from
+the north. He counted them and made out fifteen. Turning sharply to the
+sheriff, he asked: "Who are those men?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you responsible for their coming?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I am not!" the sheriff replied, plainly on the defence.</p>
+
+<p>As the second squad came galloping up, the sheriff's party greeted them
+with nods and low words. Curtis heard one man ask: "Where's Charley? I
+thought he was coming," and became perfectly certain that this meeting
+had been prearranged. The new-comers mingled with the sheriff's party
+quite indistinguishably and made no further explanation of their
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>The young officer burned hot with indignation. "Sheriff Winters, order
+these men to retire at once. They have no business here!"</p>
+
+<p>A mutter of rage ran over the mob and several hands dropped
+ostentatiously upon pistols.</p>
+
+<p>One loud-voiced young whelp called out an insulting word. "You go
+to &mdash;&mdash;! We'll retire when we get an Injun, not before!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, you fool!" called the sheriff, and, turning to Jenks, began to
+mutter in consultation. Curtis advanced a step, and raising his voice
+addressed the entire mob.</p>
+
+<p>"As commander of this reservation, I order you to withdraw. Your
+presence here is unlawful and menacing. Retire to the boundary of the
+reservation, and I will use every effort to discover the murderer. If he
+is in the tribe I will find him and deliver him to the county
+authorities."</p>
+
+<p>At this one of the same young ruffians who had challenged him before
+spurred his horse close to Curtis, and with his pistol in his hand
+shouted: "Not by a d&mdash;&mdash; sight. We come to take it out o' these thieves,
+and we're goin' to do it. Go ahead, Winters&mdash;say the word and well clean
+out the whole tribe."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked the youth in the eye. "My boy, I advise you to make war
+slowly, even with your mouth."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin Streeter, with his teeth clinched, crowded his horse forward and
+struck the insolent hoodlum in the face with his hat. "Shut up, or I'll
+pinch your neck off! Think you're sheriff?" The belligerent retired,
+snarling wild curses.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis addressed himself again to Winters, assuming a tone of respect
+and confidence which he did not feel. "Mr. Winters, you are here as a
+representative of the courts of Pinon County. I call upon you, as
+sheriff, to disperse all these men, who are here without warrant of
+law!"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff hesitated, for the cattlemen were now furious and eager to
+display their valor. Many of them were of the roughest types of cowboys,
+the profane and reckless renegades of older communities, and being
+burdened with ammunition, and foolhardy with drink, they were in no mood
+to turn tail and ride away. They savagely blustered, flourishing their
+revolvers recklessly.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff attempted to silence them, and said, petulantly, to Curtis:
+"If I hadn't come you'd 'a' had a mob of two hundred armed men instead
+of twenty. I had hard work to keep 'em back. I swore in these ten men as
+my deputies. This second crowd I don't know anything about. They just
+happen to be here."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis knew this to be a lie, but proceeded to cajole the sheriff by
+recognizing him and his authority.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I shall act." Addressing the leader of the second party,
+he said: "Sheriff Winters is the legal representative of the county; you
+are an unlawful mob, and I once more command you to leave the
+reservation, which is federal territory, under my command."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't! We stay right here!" shouted several.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see whether the people of this State have any rights or not,"
+said Jenks, deeply excited. "We won't allow you to shield your murdering
+redskins under such a plea; we'll be judge and jury in this case."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned sharply to the sheriff: "Officer, do your duty! Dispose of
+this mob!" His tone was magnificently commanding. "I shall hold you
+responsible for further trouble," said Curtis, turning a long look on
+Winters, which stung.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff angrily addressed the crowd. "Get out o' this, boys. You're
+twisting me all up and doing no good. Vamoose now! I've got all the help
+I need. I'm just as much obliged, but you'd better clear out." Then to
+his deputies, "Round 'em up, boys, and send 'em away."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin's face wore a smile of wicked glee as he called out:</p>
+
+<p>"Now you fellers git!" and spurring his horse into their midst he
+hustled them. "Hunt your holes! You're more bother than you are worth.
+Git out o' here!"</p>
+
+<p>While the sheriff and his deputies alternately pleaded and commanded the
+mob to withdraw, Lawson touched Curtis on the arm and pointed to the
+crests of the hills to the west. On every smooth peak a mounted sentinel
+stood, silent and motionless as a figure on a monument&mdash;watching the
+struggle going on before the agency gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Behind every hill young warriors are riding," said Lawson. "By sundown
+every man and boy will be armed and ready for battle. If these noble
+citizens knew what you have saved them from they would bless you."</p>
+
+<p>The mob of cattlemen retreated slowly, with many fierce oaths and a
+jangle of loud debate which Curtis feared each moment might break into a
+crackle of pistol shots.</p>
+
+<p>"That was a good stroke," said Lawson. "It sets up division, and so
+weakens them. You will be able to handle the sheriff now."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2>
+
+<h3>FEMININE STRATEGY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Having seen the horsemen ride away, Jennie and Elsie came across the
+road tense with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us all about it? Have they gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"We hope they are gone," Curtis replied, as lightly as he could. "It was
+the sheriff of Pinon County and a lynching party. I have persuaded one
+mob to drive away the other. They were less dangerous than they seemed."</p>
+
+<p>"See those heads!" exclaimed Lawson, pointing out several employés who
+were peering cautiously over roofs and around corners. "Not one has
+retained his hat," he added. "If the danger sharpens, off will come
+their shirts and trousers, and those belligerent white men will find
+themselves contending with six hundred of the best fighters in the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"We must temporize," said Curtis. "A single shot now would be disaster."
+He checked himself there, but Lawson understood as well as he the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was not yet satisfied. "Has the sheriff come for some one in
+particular?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he has no warrant, hasn't even a clew to the murder. He is really
+at the lead of a lynching party himself, and has no more right to be
+here than the men he is driving away."</p>
+
+<p>"What ought he to do?" asked Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"He should go home. It is my business as agent to make the arrest. I
+have only a half-dozen police, and I dare not attempt to force him and
+his party to leave the reservation."</p>
+
+<p>"The whole situation is this," explained Lawson. "They've made this
+inquest the occasion for bringing all the hot-headed fools of the
+country together, and this is a bluff which they think will intimidate
+the Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"They wouldn't dare to begin shooting, would they?" asked Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't tell what such civilized persons will do," said Lawson. "But
+Curtis has the sheriff thinking, and the worst of it is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Here they come again!" exclaimed Wilson, who surprised Curtis by
+remaining cool and watchful through this first mutiny.</p>
+
+<p>At a swift gallop the sheriff and his posse came whirling back up the
+road&mdash;a wild and warlike squad&mdash;hardly more tractable than the
+redoubtables they had rounded up and thrown down the valley.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you had better go in," said Curtis to Elsie. "Jennie, take her
+back to the house for a little while."</p>
+
+<p>"No, let us stay," cried Elsie. "I want to see this sheriff myself. If
+we hear the talk we'll be less nervous."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was firm. "This is no place for you. These cowboys have no
+respect for God, man, or devil; please go in."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie started to obey, but Elsie obstinately held her ground.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not! I have the right to know what is threatening me! I always
+hated to go below in a storm."</p>
+
+<p>In a cloud of dust&mdash;with snorting of excited horses, the posse, with the
+sheriff at its head, again pulled up at the gate. The young men stared
+at the two daintily dressed girls with eyes of stupefaction. Here was an
+unlooked-for complication. A new element had entered the controversy.
+The sheriff slid from his horse and gave a rude salute with his big
+brown fist.</p>
+
+<p>"Howdy, ladies, howdy." It was plain he was deeply embarrassed by this
+turn of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie seized Curtis by the arm and whispered: "Introduce me to
+him&mdash;quick! Tell him who I am."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis instantly apprehended her plan. "Sheriff Winters, this is Miss
+Brisbane, daughter of ex-Senator Brisbane, of Washington."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff awkwardly seized her small hand, "Pleased to make your
+acquaintance, miss," he said. "I know the Senator well."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned to Jennie, who came forward&mdash;"And this is my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of you," the sheriff said, regaining his self-possession.
+"I'm sorry to disturb you, ladies&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Elsie looked at him and quietly said: "I hope you will not be hasty,
+sheriff; my father will not sanction violence."</p>
+
+<p>"You're being here makes a difference, miss&mdash;of course&mdash;I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie spoke up: "You must be hungry, Mr. Sheriff," she said, and
+smiling up at Calvin, added, "and so are your men. Why not picket your
+horses and have some lunch with us?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took advantage of the hesitation. "That's the reasonable thing,
+men. We can discuss measures at our ease."</p>
+
+<p>The cowboys looked at each other with significant glances. Several began
+to dust themselves and to slyly swab their faces with their gay
+kerchiefs, and one or two became noticeably redder about the ears as
+they looked down at their horses' bridles.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin broke the silence. "I don't let this chance slip, boys. I'm
+powerful keen, myself."</p>
+
+<p>"So'm I," echoed several others.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff coughed. "Well&mdash;really&mdash;I'm agreeable, but I'm afeerd it'll
+be a powerful sight o' trouble, miss."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, let us attend to that," cried Jennie. "We shall expect you in
+fifteen minutes," and taking Elsie by the arm, she started across the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>As the cowboys followed the graceful retreating figures of the girls,
+Lawson and Curtis looked at each other with eyes of amazement; Lawson
+acknowledged a mighty impulse to laugh. "How unmilitary," he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"But how effective," replied Curtis, his lips twitching.</p>
+
+<p>The cowboys muttered among themselves. "Say, is this a dream?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who said pork-and-beans?"</p>
+
+<p>"Does my necktie kiver my collar-button?" asked a third.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, boys!" called Curtis, cheerily. "While the sheriff and I have a
+little set-to, you water your ponies and dust off, and be ready for cold
+potatoes. You're a little late for a square meal, but I think we can
+ease your pangs."</p>
+
+<p>With a patter of jocose remarks the cowboys rode off down towards the
+creek, taking the sheriff's horse along with them.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned to Lawson. "I wish you'd bring that code over to the
+house, Lawson. I want to show that special clause to the sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>Turning to Winters, he said: "Come, let's go across to my library and
+talk our differences over in comfort."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff dusted his trousers with the broad of his hand. "Well, now,
+I'm in no condition to sit down with ladies."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give you a chance to clean up," replied Curtis, who plainly saw
+that the girls had the rough bordermen "on the ice and going," as Calvin
+would say. A man can brag and swear and bluster out of doors, or in a
+bare, tobacco-stained office; but in a library, surrounded by books, in
+the hearing of ladies, he is more human&mdash;more reasonable. Jennie's
+invitation had turned impending defeat to victory.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took Winters into his own bedroom and put its toilet articles at
+his service and left him. As the sheriff came out into the Captain's
+library five minutes later, it was plain he had washed away a large part
+of his ferocity; his hair, plastered down smooth, represented the change
+in his mental condition&mdash;his quills were laid. He was, in fact, fairly
+meek.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis confidentially remarked, in a low voice: "You see, sheriff, we
+must manage this thing quietly. We mustn't endanger these women, and
+especially Miss Brisbane. If the old Senator gets a notion his daughter
+is in danger&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Winters blew a whiff. "Great God, he'd tear the State wide open! No, the
+boys were too hasty. As I say, I saw the irregularity, but if I hadn't
+consented to lead a posse in here that whole inquest would have come
+a-rampin' down on ye. I said to 'em, 'Boys,' I says, 'you can't do that
+kind of thing,' I says. 'These Tetongs are fighters,' I says, 'and
+you'll have a sweet time chasin' 'em over the hills&mdash;just go slow and
+learn to peddle,' I says&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, entering with the code, cut him short in his shameless
+exculpation, and Curtis said, suavely: "Mr. Winters, I think you know
+Mr. Lawson."</p>
+
+<p>"We've crossed each other's trail once or twice, I believe," said
+Lawson. "Here is the clause."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laid the book before the sheriff, who pushed a stubby forefinger
+against the letters and read the paragraph laboriously. His thick wits
+were moved by it, and he said: "Seems a clear case, and yet the
+reservation is included in the lines of Pinon County. 'Pears like the
+county'd ought 'o have some rights."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here comes the posse," said Curtis; "we'll talk it all over with
+them after lunch. Come in, boys!" he called cheerily to the straggling
+herders, who came in sheepishly, one by one, their spurs rattling, their
+big, limp hats twisted in their hands. They had pounded the alkali from
+each other's shirt, and their red faces shone with the determined
+rubbing they had received. All the wild grace of their horsemanship was
+gone, and as they sidled in and squatted down along the wall they were
+anything but ferocious in manner or speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now, this is all right," each man said, when Curtis offered chairs.
+"You take the chair, Jim; you take it, Joe&mdash;this suits me."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson was interested in their cranial development, and their alignment
+along the wall gave a fine opportunity for comparison. "They were, for
+the most part, shapeless and of small capacity," he said
+afterwards&mdash;"just country bumpkins, trained to the horse and the
+revolver, but each of them arrogated to himself the judicial mind of the
+Almighty Creator."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff, leaning far back in the big Morris chair, wore a smirking
+smile which seemed to say: "Boys, I'm onto this luxury all right.
+Stuffed chair don't get me no back-ache. Nothing's too rich for <i>my</i>
+blood&mdash;if I can get it."</p>
+
+<p>The young fellows were transfixed with awe of Calvin, for, though the
+last to enter the house, he walked calmly past the library door on into
+the dining-room, and a moment later could be heard chatting with the
+girls, "sassy as a whiskey-jack."</p>
+
+<p>One big, freckled young fellow nudged his neighbor and said: "Wouldn't
+that pull your teeth? That wall-eyed sorrel has waltzed right into the
+kitchen to buzz the women. Say, his neck needs shortening."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he stand in, or is it just gall?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's nerve&mdash;nothing else. We ain't onto our job, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he knows 'em all right. I heered he stands in with the agent's
+sister."</p>
+
+<p>"The hell he does! Lookin' that way? Well, I don't think. It's his
+brass-bound cheek. Wait till we ketch him alone."</p>
+
+<p>Cal appeared at the door. "Well, fellers, come in; grub's all spread
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"What you got to say about it?" asked Green.</p>
+
+<p>"Think you're the nigger that rings the bell, don't ye?" remarked
+Galvin. "We're waitin' for the boss to say 'when.'"</p>
+
+<p>Not one of them stirred till Curtis rose, saying to the sheriff, "Well,
+we'll take time later to discuss that; come right out and tame the
+wolf."</p>
+
+<p>The fact that Curtis accepted Calvin's call impressed the crowd deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd think he was one o' the fambly," muttered Galvin. "Wait till we
+get a rope 'round his neck."</p>
+
+<p>The table, looking cool and dainty in its fleckless linen, was set with
+plates of cold chicken and ham, with pots of jelly and white bread at
+each end of the cloth, beside big pitchers of cool milk. To the cowboys,
+accustomed only to their rude camps and the crude housekeeping of the
+settlers round about, this dainty cleanliness of dining-room was
+marvellously subduing. They shuffled into their seats noisily, with only
+swift, animal-like glances at the girls, who were bubbling over with the
+excitement of feeding this band of Cossacks.</p>
+
+<p>As they drank their milk and fed great slices of bread and jelly into
+their mouths, fighting Indians seemed less necessary than they had
+supposed. Whiskey and alkali dust, and the smell of sweating ponies,
+were all forgotten in the quiet and sweetness of this pretty home. The
+soft answer had turned wrath into shamefaced wonder and awkward
+courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, sitting at the head of the board as host, plied the sheriff with
+cold chicken, discussing meanwhile the difficulties under which the
+Tetongs labored, and drew from that sorely beleaguered officer
+admissions which he afterwards regretted. "That's so, I don't know as
+I'd do any better in their places, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, with a keen perception of her power over her guests, went from
+one to the other, inquiring, in her sweetest voice: "Won't <i>you</i> have
+another slice of bread? Please do!"</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, less secure of manner, followed her with the pitcher of milk,
+while the young men bruised each other's shins beneath the table in
+their zealous efforts to diminish the joy each one took in the alluring
+presence of his cup-bearer.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin sat near the end of the table, and his assured manner made the
+others furious. "Look at that stoatin' bottle," growled Green, out of
+the corner of his mouth; "he needs killin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, we'll fix that tommy-cod!" replied Galvin.</p>
+
+<p>While the girls were at the upper end of the table the man on Calvin's
+right leaned over and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Cal, 'pears like you got the run o' the house here."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin, big with joy and pride, replied: "Oh, I ride round and picket
+here once in a while. It pays."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I should say yes&mdash;carry all your cheek right with ye, don't ye?"</p>
+
+<p>As the boys began to shove back, Curtis brought out a box of cigars and
+passed them along the line.</p>
+
+<p>"Take hearty, boys; they don't belong to the government; they're mine,
+and you'll find them good."</p>
+
+<p>As they were all helping themselves, the sheriff coughed loudly and
+called out: "Boys, the Major and me has fixed this thing up. I won't
+need but three of you; the rest can ride back and tell the gang on the
+West Fork it's all right. Cal, you and Tom and Green stay with me. The
+rest of you can go as soon as your dinner's settled."</p>
+
+<p>The ones not chosen looked a little disappointed, but they made no
+protest. As they rose to go out they all made powerful effort to do the
+right thing; they lifted their eyes to the girls for a last glance and
+grumbled:</p>
+
+<p>"Much obliged, ladies!"</p>
+
+<p>And in this humble fashion the ferocious posse of the sheriff retreated
+from the house of their enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Once outside, they turned on each other with broad grins. They
+straightened&mdash;took on grace and security of manner again. They were
+streaming with perspiration, and their neckerchiefs were moist with the
+drip of it, but they lit their cigars nonchalantly, flung their hats
+rakishly on their heads, and turned to take a last look at the house.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie appeared at the door. "Boys!" she called, and her clear voice
+transfixed every soul of them. "You mustn't do anything reckless. You
+won't, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>Galvin alone was able to reply. "No, miss, we won't. We won't do nothing
+to hurt you nor the Major's sister&mdash;you needn't be scart."</p>
+
+<p>"You can trust Captain Curtis; he will do what is right, I'm sure of
+that. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," they answered, one by one. Nothing further was said till
+they had crossed the road. Then one of the roughest-looking of the whole
+gang turned and said: "Fellers, that promise goes. We got to keep that
+mob from goin' to war while these girls are here. Ain't that right?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Say, fellers, I'll tell you a job that would suit me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hain't got any work into it if it does."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to be detailed to guard these 'queens' from monkeys like you."</p>
+
+<p>The others fell upon this reckless one with their hats and gloves till
+he broke into a run, and all disappeared down the road in a cloud of
+dust.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN STORMY COUNCILS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile the sentinels on the hills missed little of the movement in
+the valley. They quivered with rage as the horsemen dismounted and
+entered the agent's house, for that seemed a defeat for their friend;
+but when the strangers remounted and rode away all were reassured, and
+Two Horns said, "I will go down and see what it all means."</p>
+
+<p>One by one the principal native employés reappeared. Crane's Voice came
+out of the barn, where he had lain with his eyes to a crack in the wall,
+and Peter Big-Voice and Robert Wolf stepped cautiously into view from
+behind the slaughter-pen. Old Mary, the cook, suddenly blocked the
+kitchen door-way, and, with tremulous lips, asked: "Cowboys gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, all gone," replied Jennie, much amused.</p>
+
+<p>"Good, good," replied the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been, Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>Her white teeth shone out in a sudden smile. "Ice-house&mdash;heap cold."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you go in there for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cowboy no good&mdash;mebbe so shoot."</p>
+
+<p>"They won't hurt you," said Jennie, gently. "Go to work again. The
+Captain will take care of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Little Father no got gun&mdash;cowboy heap gun."</p>
+
+<p>"Little Father don't need gun now; you are all right," Jennie said, and
+the old woman went to her work again, though nervously alert to every
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>From nowhere in particular, two sharp-eyed lads sauntered up the road to
+play under the office window, so that if any loud word should be spoken
+the tribe might know of it.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie and Elsie discussed the situation while sitting at the library
+window with a view of the agency front door.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't for the life of me take a serious view of this episode," said
+Jennie. "These cowboys wouldn't be so foolish as to fire a first shot.
+They are like big, country school-boys."</p>
+
+<p>"The Parkers!" cried Elsie, suddenly. "Where are the Parkers?"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie gasped. "True enough! I had forgotten all about them. I don't
+believe they have got back from their ride."</p>
+
+<p>"They will be scared blue. We must send for them."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have Crane's Voice go at once," said Jennie. "I will go with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do that&mdash;not without letting the Captain know. How far is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just over the hill&mdash;not more than five miles."</p>
+
+<p>But even as she was hurrying across to the corral to find an angel for
+this mission of mercy, she saw the Parkers coming down the hill-side,
+moving slowly, for both were very bad riders. It was plain they had
+heard nothing, and as she watched them approach Jennie cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say a word. They won't see anything suspicious."</p>
+
+<p>There was something irresistibly funny in the calm stateliness of the
+blond Parker as he led the way past the store which was deserted of its
+patrons, past the school-house where the students were quivering with
+excitement, and close beside the office behind whose doors Curtis was
+still in legal battle with the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie met her visitors at the gate, her hands clinched in the effort to
+control her laughter. "You are late. Are you hungry?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Famished!" said Parker. "I had to ride slow on Mrs. Parker's account."</p>
+
+<p>"I like that!" cried Jennie. "As if any one could be a worse rider than
+you are."</p>
+
+<p>"How do women get off, anyway?" asked Parker, as he approached his
+wife's pony.</p>
+
+<p>"Fall off," suggested Jennie, and this seemed so funny that she and
+Elsie went off into simultaneous hysterical peals of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"You are easily amused," remarked Parker, eying them keenly. "Laugh on;
+it is good for digestion. Excuse me from joining; I haven't anything to
+digest."</p>
+
+<p>Putting his angular shoulder to Mrs. Parker's waist, he eased her to the
+ground awkwardly but tenderly. Upon facing the girls again and
+discovering them still in foolish mirth, Parker looked himself all over
+carefully, then turned to his wife. "We seem to be affording these young
+ladies a great deal of hearty pleasure, Mrs. Parker."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Parker was not so dense. "What is the matter?" she asked, sharply.
+"What has happened? This laughter is not natural&mdash;you are both
+hysterical."</p>
+
+<p>Both girls instantly became as grave as they had been hilarious a moment
+before.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I <i>know</i> something is wrong," said Mrs. Parker. "Where is the
+Captain? What made you laugh that way? Have the savages broken out?"</p>
+
+<p>Jennie met Parker's eyes fairly popping from his head, and went off into
+another shout. At last she paused and said, breathlessly: "Oh, you are
+funny! Come into the house. We've been entertaining a lynching
+party&mdash;all the Indians are in the hills and the sheriff's in the office
+throttling the agent."</p>
+
+<p>While the Parkers consumed their crusts of bread and scraps of cold
+meat, Jennie told them what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>Parker rose to the occasion. "We must get out o' here&mdash;every one of us!
+We should never have come in here. Your brother is to blame; he deceived
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"He did not!" replied Jennie. "You shall not hold him responsible!"</p>
+
+<p>"He knew the situation was critical," Parker hotly retorted. "He knew an
+outbreak was likely. It was criminal on his part."</p>
+
+<p>"Jerome Parker, you are a donkey," remarked Elsie, calmly. "Nothing has
+really happened. If you're so nervous, go home. You can't sculp an
+Indian, anyway&mdash;grasshoppers and sheep are in your line." She had
+reverted to the plain talk of the studios. "Your nervousness amused us
+for a while, but it bores us now. Please shut up and run away if you are
+afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"You're not very nice," said Mrs. Parker, severely.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it's very manly of your husband when he begins to blame
+Captain Curtis for an invasion of cowboys."</p>
+
+<p>"You admitted you were scared," pursued Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, suppose we were, we didn't weep and complain; we set to work to
+tide over the crisis."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie put in a word. "If you'd feel safer in the camp of the enemy, Mr.
+Parker, we'll set you down the valley with the settlers. I intend to
+stay right here with my brother."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," added Elsie; "if there is danger it is safer here than with
+the cowboys; but the mob is gone, and the Captain and Osborne will see
+that we are protected."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the office resounded with the furious argument of the sheriff.
+"The whole western part of the State is disgusted with the way in which
+these Indians escape arrest. They commit all kinds of depredations, and
+not one is punished. This has got to stop. We intend to learn this tribe
+it can't hide thieves and murderers any longer." He ended, blustering
+like a northwest wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Produce your warrants and I'll secure the men," replied Curtis,
+patiently. "You shall not punish a whole tribe on a pure assumption. You
+must come to me with a proper warrant for a particular man, and when you
+receive him from me you must prove his guilt in court. As the case now
+stands, you haven't the slightest evidence that an Indian killed this
+herder, and I will not give over an innocent man to be lynched by you."</p>
+
+<p>As the sheriff stormed up and down the floor Lawson said, in a low
+voice: "Delay&mdash;delay."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, who had been writing a note, slipped it to Lawson, who rose and
+went out of the door. Curtis continued to parley.</p>
+
+<p>"I appreciate your feeling in this matter, Mr. Sheriff, and I am willing
+to do what is right. I have called a council of my head men to-night,
+and I will ask them to search for the murderer. An Indian cannot keep a
+secret. If one of the Tetongs killed your herder he will tell of it. I
+again suggest that you go back to your people and assure them of my
+willingness to aid in this affair. Give me three days in which to act."</p>
+
+<p>"That crowd will not be satisfied unless we bring an Injun with us.
+We've got to do that or they'll come rompin' in here and raise hell with
+you. I propose to take old Crawling Elk himself and hold him till the
+tribe&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If you attempt such a crime I will put you off the reservation,"
+replied Curtis, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Put me off! By &mdash;&mdash;, I think I see you doing that! Why, the whole State
+would rise and wipe you and your tribe out of existence." He turned
+threateningly and towered over Curtis, who was seated.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet, and keep your distance, or I'll put you in irons! Sit down!"</p>
+
+<p>These words were not spoken loudly, but they caused the sheriff's face
+to blanch and his knees to tremble. There was a terrifying, set glare in
+the officer's eyes as he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you suppose would be the consequences of firing upon a captain
+of the United States army in the discharge of his duty, by a sheriff
+acting outside the law? You have only three men out there, and one of
+them is my friend, and you know the quality of Calvin Streeter. I am
+still in command of this reservation, Mr. Sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson re-entering at this moment, Curtis said: "Ask Streeter to come
+in, will you, Mr. Lawson?"</p>
+
+<p>Calvin entered smilingly. "Well, what's the up-shot?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is this, Calvin. The sheriff has no warrant for anybody, not even
+for a suspect. I have asked him to go back and wait till I can find some
+clew to the murderer. Do you consider that reasonable?"</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds fair," admitted Calvin, growing grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Now the question of whether the State or county authority covers a
+federal reservation or not is too big a question for us to settle. You
+see that, Calvin?"</p>
+
+<p>Calvin scratched his head. "It sure is too many fer me."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I'll compromise in this case, Mr. Sheriff. You discharge the rest
+of your deputies and send them away, while you and Calvin remain with me
+to attend a council&mdash;not to arrest anybody, but to convince yourself of
+my good-will in the matter. I will not permit you to be armed nor to
+arrest any of my Indians until we know what we are doing. When we secure
+evidence against any man I will arrest him myself and turn him over to
+you. But I insist that you send away the men in the outer office."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin spoke up. "I reckon the Major's right, sheriff. How ye goin' to
+arrest a man if you don't know who he is? I reckon you better do as he
+says. I ain't a-lookin' fer no fuss with the agent, and the United
+States army only fifty miles off."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff growled surlily. "All right, but there ain't no monkey
+business about this. I get my man sooner or later, you bet your heart
+on that." As he went out into the general office and announced the
+agent's demand, Green blurted out defiant phrases.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be damned if I would! No&mdash;stick it out! Do? Why, take old Elk and
+hold him till the tribe produces the right man&mdash;that's the way we always
+done before."</p>
+
+<p>The arguments of Calvin could not be heard, but at last he prevailed,
+and the sullen deputies withdrew. The sheriff scrawled a hasty note to
+the county attorney to explain his failure to bring his man, and the
+three deputies went out to saddle up. Their cursing was forceful and
+varied, but they went.</p>
+
+<p>Parker, seeing them come forth, met them, inquiring anxiously:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think of the situation?"</p>
+
+<p>Green looked at him surlily. "You belong here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm just a visitor."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you better get out quick as God'll let ye."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is going to happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just this: we're goin' to have the man that killed Cole or we'll cut
+this whole tribe into strips. That's all," and they moved on, cursing
+afresh.</p>
+
+<p>Parker fell back aghast, and watched them in silence as they saddled
+their horses and rode off. He then hurried to the office. Wilson, after
+going in to see his chief, came back to say: "The Major will see you in
+a moment. He's sending out his police."</p>
+
+<p>A few moments afterwards six of the Indian policemen came filing out,
+looking tense and grave, and a couple of minutes later Curtis appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Parker?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is going on, Captain? I am very anxious."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not be. We've reached a compromise. Wait a moment and I will
+go over to the house with you."</p>
+
+<p>When he reappeared, Lawson was with him. Nothing was said till they were
+well in the middle of the road. Then Curtis remarked, carelessly:</p>
+
+<p>"You attended to that matter, Lawson?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Crane's Voice is ten miles on his way."</p>
+
+<p>"There go two dangerous messengers," said Curtis, lifting his eyes to
+the hill-side, up which the sullen deputies were climbing.</p>
+
+<p>Parker was importunate&mdash;he wished to understand the whole matter. Curtis
+became a little impatient. "I will explain presently," he replied, and
+nothing more was said till they entered the library, which was filled
+with the women of the agency. Jennie had reassured them as best she
+could, but they were eager to see the agent himself. Miss Colson, the
+kindergarten teacher, was disposed to rush into his arms.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled round upon them. "What's all this&mdash;a council of war?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Colson seized the dramatic moment. "Oh, Major, are we in danger?
+Tell us what has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much has happened since dinner. I have persuaded the sheriff to
+discharge all his deputies except Calvin, and they are to remain over. I
+have sent for the head man to come in, and we are going to council
+to-night. The trouble is practically over, for the sheriff has given up
+the attempt to arrest Elk as a hostage. Now go back to your work, all of
+you. You should not have left your children," he added, rather sternly,
+to Miss Colson. "They need you now."</p>
+
+<p>The women went out at once, and in a few minutes Curtis was alone with
+the members of his own little circle. "Now I have another story for
+you," he said, turning to Elsie. "While I am sure the worst of the
+sheriff's work is over, I realize that there are two hundred armed men
+over on the Willow, and that it is better to be on the safe side.
+Therefore I have sent to Fort Lincoln for troops. Crane's Voice will
+reach there by sundown&mdash;the troops should arrive here by sunrise
+to-morrow. Meanwhile I will talk with Elk&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose Elk don't come?" asked Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked grave. "In that case I shall go to find him."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie cried out, "You wouldn't do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would be my duty&mdash;I have promised&mdash;but he will come. He trusts
+me. I have ordered him to bring all his people and camp as usual just
+above the agency store. Now, of course, no one can tell the precise
+outcome of all this, and if you, Miss Brisbane, and Mr. and Mrs. Parker,
+want to go down to the white settlement, I will send you at once. Mr.
+Lawson will go with you, or I will ask the sheriff to take you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"The safest place on the reservation is right here!" said Lawson.
+"Suppose the ranchers return&mdash;they will take control here, and use the
+agency as a base of supplies; the fighting will take place in the hills.
+Besides, our going would excite the settlers uselessly, and put Captain
+Curtis deeper into trouble. I propose that we stay right here, and
+convince the employés and the Indians that we are not alarmed. I don't
+want to assume the responsibility of a panic, and our going this
+afternoon might precipitate one."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was profoundly grateful to Lawson for this firm statement. "I
+think you are right, Mr. Lawson," he said, formally. "You see my
+position clearly. I feel sure I can control the sheriff by peaceable
+means&mdash;and yet my responsibility to you weighs upon me." He looked at
+Elsie again. "I think you can trust me. Will you stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we will stay," she replied, and Parker sank into his chair as
+if resigned to his fate.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis went on: "I am not speaking to reassure myself. Perhaps I am too
+positive, but my experience as an officer in the army has given me a
+contempt for these six-shooter heroes. The thing I really fear is a
+panic among the settlers. Naturally, I am disinclined towards the
+notoriety I would gain in the press; but the troops will certainly be
+here to-morrow, and that will settle the turmoil. The sheriff is less of
+an embarrassment, now that he has only Calvin as deputy."</p>
+
+<p>"Send the sheriff over here&mdash;we'll entertain him by showing him the
+photograph album," called Jennie. "We helped out this forenoon, and we
+can do it again."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think such heroic methods are necessary; an extra good dinner
+will do quite as well," replied Curtis, smiling. "I'm sorry, Mr. Parker,
+that your expedition for material is coming to this grewsome end."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie interposed. "It is precisely what he wants; he will know from
+positive knowledge how a Tetong brave dresses for war. I have always
+claimed that no Indian ever wore that absurd war-bonnet."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson added: "And <i>you</i> will gain valuable information as to the
+character of white settlers and 'Indian outbreaks.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to telegraph papa."</p>
+
+<p>"I have already done so," replied Lawson&mdash;"in anticipation of the
+hullabaloo that will break forth in the papers of the State to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall wire the department a full statement to-night," said Curtis.
+"But we must be careful what we say at this point."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it a foolish thing not to have a telegraph line connecting the
+fort and the agency?" cried Jennie. "The troops could have been half-way
+here by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the same penny-wise and pound-foolish method by which the Indian
+service is run," responded Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"Here comes one of my scouts," said Curtis, as a young Tetong galloped
+up to the gate, threw himself from his reeking pony, and strode into the
+hall-way without knocking, his spurs clattering, his quirt dangling from
+his wrist. As he stood before his chief, delivering his message with
+shadowy silence and swiftness, Elsie thrilled with the dramatic
+significance of the scene. The stern, almost haughty face of the young
+man was in keeping with his duties.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis dismissed the boy and translated his message. "He says the
+settlers below us have fled towards Pinon City, taking all their goods
+with them. White Wolf's band are all in camp except the young men, who
+are scouting for the chiefs to see what it all means. That mob of
+cowboys took delight, no doubt, in scattering consternation as they
+passed. The settlers are in stampede."</p>
+
+<p>"Wilson is coming across the street," said Jennie, "and has an Indian
+with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Another scout," said Curtis. "Now I will let you know all that goes on,
+but I must ask you all, except Mr. Lawson, to leave me the library to
+transact this business in." As Elsie passed him, she drew towards him
+with a little, shrinking movement which moved him deeply. It was as
+though she were clutched by a force greater than her will.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like being at army headquarters," she said to Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a little like a commander's tent in the field. I wish we dared to
+throw that old sheriff off the reservation. He has no right to be
+snooping round here."</p>
+
+<p>Parker slumped deep in a big rocker, and Mrs. Parker sat beside him and
+put her hand on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry about me, Jerome."</p>
+
+<p>He looked up gloomily. "I got you into this, dearest, and I must get you
+out. If the soldiers come to-morrow I will ask for an escort to the
+fort, and then we can reach the railway and get out of the cursed
+country. I'd as soon live in a den of hyenas and rattlesnakes."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie laughed. "Parker, you are too amusing. You are pathetic. When I
+think of you as you pranced about the camp-fire two days ago and look
+upon you now, my heart aches for you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it generous of you to make fun of us at this time, Bee
+Bee," Mrs. Parker replied, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let her go on. Her Latin Quarter English doesn't disturb me,"
+Parker answered, savagely.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis at this moment appeared. "My message was from the farmer at
+Willow Spring. He says all his employés, with one or two exceptions,
+have disappeared; that the band of Crawling Elk was threatened by a mob
+of white men early this morning, and that they are all breaking camp in
+order to flee to the hills. All the settlers on the Willow are hurrying
+their women and children down towards Pinon City. The whole country has
+been alarmed by the menace of the coroner's inquest, which is camped
+below the agency at Johnson's ranch, waiting the sheriff's return. The
+deputies had not reached there when this letter was written," added
+Curtis. "The sheriff's message will disperse the crowds, and I am
+sending a note of reassurance to the farmers and to the settlers."</p>
+
+<p>"It's getting mighty serious, don't you think so?" asked Parker. "I wish
+the troops were here. Can't we hurry them up?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, all that can be done has been done. I am telling you all that goes
+on, and I must request you not to repeat it. I wish you would all be
+specially guarded in the presence of the sheriff. You might engage him
+in a game of 'cinch' after dinner. Anything to keep him out of my way."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll absorb him," said Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>One by one Curtis called in his most trusted employés, and, quieting
+their fears, put them to their duties. Special policemen were uniformed
+and sent to carry messages to the encampments on the hills, asking the
+head men of each band to come at once to the agency for council, and to
+order their people into camp. The tranquillizing effect of the agent's
+bearing made itself felt immediately. The threads of the whole tangle
+were soon in his hands and made straight, and when he received the
+sheriff at six o'clock he was confident and serene of bearing.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Two Horns came down from the hills, and at the agent's order gathered
+his band close around his own tepee to camp until the trouble was ended.
+Together they made a tour of the village, and Curtis made it plain that
+he would protect them, and that no more armed men would come among them
+to incite violence.</p>
+
+<p>"They have turned back, for fear of the Little Father and of
+Washington," said Two Horns to the old men, and they were glad of his
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was by no means at ease. As he recalled the threats of the
+cattlemen, the encroachments of their flocks, the vicious assaults made
+on Crow Killer and Yellow Hand, he divined a growing antagonism which
+could go but little further without producing war. His mind dwelt on the
+hurrying figure of Crane's Voice. Much depended on him. He saw him as he
+faced the sentry. "If he should fail to reach the Colonel! But he will
+not fail, and troops will be instantly despatched."</p>
+
+<p>From these considerations he turned to the growing trust and confidence
+which Elsie was displaying. That movement towards him, slight as it was,
+and the softened look in her eyes, quickened his breath as he allowed
+his inward self to muse on their meaning. She was looking to him for
+protection, and this attitude was not only new, it was disturbing; and
+the soldier found it necessary to put away his pipe and fall savagely
+upon some work to keep his mind from ranging too far afield.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>A COUNCIL AT NIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>The sheriff came to dinner rather shamefacedly, but Calvin, being
+profoundly pleased, was on his very best behavior. "This being deputy
+suits me to the ground," said he to Wilson, as he rose in answer to the
+call to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>As they were crossing the road he said, confidentially: "Now see here,
+you mustn't talk politics round the ladies over there, sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>"Politics?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean. You keep to the weather and the crops, and let
+this murder case alone for a minute or two, or I'll bat you one for
+luck."</p>
+
+<p>Winters took this threat as a sign of their good understanding, and
+remarked, jocosely, "You damned young cub, I'd break you in two for a
+leather cent."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, but what I say goes," replied Calvin. And remembering
+old Joe Streeter's political pull, the sheriff did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie kept the talk pleasantly inconsequential during dinner by a
+cheery tale of the doings of a certain Chinaman she had once tried to
+train into a cook, and Calvin, laughing heartily, matched her experience
+with that of his mother while keeping house in Pinon City one winter.
+This left Elsie to a little conversation with Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"You must let me see this council to-night," she said, and her request
+had the note of a command.</p>
+
+<p>"I know how you feel," he said, "and I wish I could do so; but I can't
+make an exception in your favor without offending the Parkers."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not the general?" she asked, smilingly. "If you see fit to
+invite me and leave them out, they can only complain. I'm going to stay
+here with Jennie, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case we can manage it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what I think? You've instigated this whole affair to
+convert me to your point of view. Really, the whole thing is like a
+play. I'm not a bit frightened&mdash;at least, not yet. It's precisely like
+sitting in a private box and seeing the wolves tear holes in Davy
+Crockett's cabin. You are the manager of the show."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not? When the princess tours the provinces it is customary to
+present historical pageants in her honor. This drama is your due." And
+as he spoke he observed for the first time the absence of the ring from
+her significant finger. The shock threw him into a moment's swift
+surmise, and when he looked up at her she was flushed and uneasy. She
+recovered herself first, and though her hand remained on the table it
+had the tremulous action of a frightened small animal&mdash;observed yet
+daring not to seek cover.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope this council to-night will not fail. I am eager to see what you
+will do with them," she hastened to say.</p>
+
+<p>"They will come!" he replied.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin was relating a story of a mountain-lion he had once treed for an
+Eastern artist to photograph.</p>
+
+<p>"Just then the dern brute jumped right plum onto the feller and knocked
+him down, machine and all; for a minute or two it was just a mixture o'
+man and lion, then that feller come up top, and the next thing I seen he
+batted the lion with his box, and that kind o' stunted the brute, and he
+hit him again and glass began to fly; he was game all right, that feller
+was. When the lion stiffened out, he turned to where I was a-rollin' on
+the pine-needles, and says, quiet-like, 'Give me your revolver, please.'
+I give it to him, and he put it to the lion's ear and finished him. When
+he got up and looked at his machine he says, 'How much is a
+mountain-lion skin worth?' ''Bout four dollars, green,' I says. He
+looked at the inwards of his box, which was scattered all over the
+ground. Says he, 'You wouldn't call that profitable, would you&mdash;a
+seventy-dollar instrument in exchange for a four-dollar pelt?'"</p>
+
+<p>Everybody laughed at this story, and the dinner came to an end with the
+sheriff in excellent temper. Lawson offered cigars, and tolled him
+across the road to the office, leaving Curtis alone in his library.</p>
+
+<p>He resolutely set to work to present the situation of the sheriff's
+presence concisely to the department in a telegram, and was still at
+work upon this when Jennie entered the room, closed the curtains, and
+lit the lamp.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie came in a little later to say, sympathetically:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you tired, Captain Curtis?"</p>
+
+<p>He pushed his writing away.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a little. The worst of it is, I keep saying: <i>If so and so
+happens, then I must do thus and thus</i>, and that is the hardest work in
+the world. I can deal with actual, well-defined conditions&mdash;even riots
+and mobs&mdash;but fighting suppositions is like grappling with ghosts."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean," she replied, quickly. "But I want to ask
+you&mdash;could father be of any help if I telegraphed him to come?"</p>
+
+<p>He sat up very straight as she spoke, but did not reply till he turned
+her suggestion over in his mind. "No&mdash;at least, not now. What troubles
+me is this: the local papers will be filled with scare-heads to-morrow
+morning; your father will see them, and will be alarmed about you."</p>
+
+<p>"I will wire him that I am all right."</p>
+
+<p>"You must do that. I consider you are perfectly safe, but at the same
+time your father will think you ought not to be here, and blame me for
+allowing you to come in; and, worst of all, he will wire you to come
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I refuse to go, would that be the best of all?" Her face was
+distinctly arch of line.</p>
+
+<p>His heart responded to her lure, but his words were measured as he
+answered: "Sometimes the responsibility seems too great; perhaps you
+would better go. It will be hard to convince him that you are not in
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>She sobered. "There really is danger, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, so long as these settlers are in their present mood, I suppose
+there is. Nothing but the life of an 'Injun' will satisfy them. Their
+hate is racial in its bitterness."</p>
+
+<p>"You think I ought to go, then?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with eyes that were wistful and searching.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It is a sad ending, but perhaps Captain Maynard will be here
+to-morrow with a troop of cavalry, and&mdash;I&mdash;think I must ask him to
+escort you to the railway."</p>
+
+<p>"But the danger will be over then."</p>
+
+<p>"To your father it will seem to be intensifying."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not go on that account! I feel that the safest place will be
+right here with you, for your people love you. I am not afraid when I am
+near you."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis suddenly realized how dangerously sweet it was to sit in his own
+library with Elsie in that mood seated opposite him. The sound of a
+tapping on the window relieved the tension of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Another of my faithful boys," he said, rising quickly. Then, turning to
+her with a tenderness almost solemn, he added: "Miss Brisbane, I hope
+you feel that if danger really threatened I would think of you first of
+all. You will stay with Jennie to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you think best, but we want to know all that goes on. I can't bear
+to be battened down like passengers in a storm at sea; there is nothing
+so trying to nerves. I want to be on deck with the captain if the storm
+breaks."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I promise not to leave you in ignorance," and, raising the
+curtain, he signed to the man without to enter. It was Crow, the captain
+of the police, a short man with a good-humored face, now squared with
+serious dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Two Dog has just come in from Willow Creek," he reported. "He says the
+cattlemen are still camped by Johnson's ranch. They all held a council
+this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Are any of the head men here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they are all at my tepee. They want to see you very bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell them to come over at once; the council will take place here. I
+want you, but no more of the police. I want only the head men of each
+band."</p>
+
+<p>After the officer went out Curtis moved the easy-chairs to the back of
+the room and set plain ones in a semicircular row at the front. Hardly
+was he settled when Elk, Grayman, and Two Horns entered the room, and,
+after formally shaking hands, took the seats assigned them. Their faces,
+usually smiling, were grave, and Grayman's brow was knotted with lines
+of anxiety. He was a small man, with long, brown hair, braided and
+adorned with tufts of the fine feathers which grow under the eagle's
+wings. He was handsome and neatly dressed, the direct antithesis to
+Crawling Elk, who was tall and slovenly, with a homely, grandfatherly
+face deeply seamed with wrinkles, a face that would be recognized as
+typical of his race. He seemed far less concerned than some of the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns, also quite at his ease, unrolled his pipe and began filling
+it, while Curtis resumed his writing.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, looking in at the door, recognized the chiefs, and they all rose
+politely to greet her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm coming to the council," she said to Two Horns.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. "Squaws no come council&mdash;no good."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, heap good," she replied. "We come. Chiefs heap talk&mdash;we catchim
+coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, good!" he replied. "After council, feast."</p>
+
+<p>One by one the other chiefs slipped in and took their places, till all
+the bands were represented save that of Red Wolf, who was too far away
+to be reached. Curtis then sent for the sheriff and Calvin and Elsie and
+Lawson, and when all were seated began his talk by addressing the
+chieftains. He spoke in English, in order that the sheriff could hear
+all that was said, and Lawson interpreted it into Sioux.</p>
+
+<p>"You know this young man"&mdash;he pointed at Calvin. "Some of you know this
+man"&mdash;he touched the sheriff. "He is the war chief of all the country
+beyond where Grayman lives. He comes to tell us that a herder has been
+killed over by the Muddy Spring. He thinks it was done by an Indian. The
+white people are very angry, and they say that you must find the
+murderer. Do you know of any one who has threatened to do this thing?"</p>
+
+<p>One by one the chiefs replied: "I do not know who did this thing. I have
+heard no one speak of it as a thing good to be done. We are all sad."</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns added a protest. "I think it hard that a whole tribe should
+suffer because the white man thinks one redman has done a wrong thing."</p>
+
+<p>Grayman spoke sadly: "My people have had much trouble because the
+cattlemen want to drive their herds up the Willow, and we are like men
+who guard the door. On us the trouble falls. It is our duty&mdash;the same as
+you should say to a policeman, 'Do not let anybody come in my house.'
+Therefore we have been accused of killing the cattle and stealing
+things. But this is not true. I remembered your words, and I did nothing
+to make these people angry; but some of my young men threw stones to
+drive the sheep back, and then the herder fired at them with revolver.
+This was not our fault."</p>
+
+<p>"He lies!" said the sheriff, hotly, when this was interpreted. "No one
+has fired a gun but his reckless young devils. His men were riding down
+the sheep, and the herder rocked 'em away."</p>
+
+<p>"You admit the sheep were on the reservation, then?" asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;yes&mdash;temporarily. They were being watered."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we won't go into that now," said Curtis, turning to the chiefs
+and speaking with great solemnity, using the sign-language at times. And
+as he sat thus fronting the strongly wrought, serious faces of his head
+men he was wholly admirable, and Elsie's blood thrilled with excitement,
+for she felt herself to be in the presence of primeval men.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Grayman, Elk, Two Horns, Standing Elk, Lone Man, and Crow, listen
+to me. Among white men it is the law that when any one has done a wrong
+thing&mdash;when he steals or murders&mdash;he is punished. If he kills a man he
+is slain by the chief, not by the relatives of the man who is slain. As
+with you, I am here to apply the white man's rule. If a Tetong has shot
+this herder he must suffer for it&mdash;he and no one else. I will not permit
+the cattlemen to punish the tribe. If you know who did this, it is your
+duty to give him up to the law. It is the command of the Great
+Father&mdash;he asks you to go back to your people and search hard to find
+who killed this white man. When you find him bring him to me. Will you
+do this?"</p>
+
+<p>No one answered but Two Horns, who said, "Ay, we will do as you say,"
+and his solemnity of utterance attested his sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me," said Curtis again, fixing their eyes with his dramatic
+action. "If my only brother had done this thing, I would give him up to
+be punished. I would not hesitate, and I expect you to do the same."</p>
+
+<p>"It is always thus," Standing Elk broke out. "The cattlemen wish to
+punish all redmen for what one bad young warrior does. We are weary of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it has been so, but it shall not be so again, not while I am
+your chief," Curtis responded. "Will you go home and do as I have
+commanded? Will you search hard and bring me word what you discover?"</p>
+
+<p>One by one they muttered, "Ay!" and Curtis added, heartily: "That is
+good&mdash;now you may go."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to say a word," said the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>"Not now," replied Curtis. "These people are in my charge. Whatever is
+said to them I will say," and at his gesture they rose, and Crow,
+Standing Elk, and Lone Man went soberly out into the night.</p>
+
+<p>Grayman approached Curtis and took his hand in both of his and pressed
+it to his breast. "Little Father, I have heard your words; they are not
+easy to follow, but they have entered my heart. No white man has ever
+spoken to me with your tongue. You do not lie; your words are soft, but
+they stand like rocks&mdash;they do not melt away. My words shall be like
+yours&mdash;they will not vanish like smoke. What I have promised, that I
+will fulfil." As he spoke his slight frame trembled with the intensity
+of his emotion, and his eyes were dim with tears, and his deep, sweet
+voice, accompanying his gestures, thrilled every soul in the room. At
+the end he dropped the agent's hand and hastened from the house like one
+afraid of himself.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis turned to Lawson to hide his own emotion. "Mr. Lawson, I assume
+the sheriff is as tired as the rest of us; will you show him the bed you
+were kind enough to offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sheriff Winters, if you will come with me I'll pilot you to a couch. It
+isn't downy, but it will rest a tired man. Calvin, you are to bunk
+alongside."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, professor." Calvin rose reluctantly, and as he stood in the
+door he said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "Now if you want me any time
+just send for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold the sheriff level&mdash;that's what you do for us."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see that he don't get gay," he replied, and his hearty confidence
+did them all good.</p>
+
+<p>After the sheriff and his deputy went out, Elsie said: "Oh, it was
+wonderful! That old man who spoke last must be the Edwin Booth of the
+tribe. He was superbly dramatic."</p>
+
+<p>"He took my words very deeply to heart. That was Grayman, one of the
+most intelligent of all my head men; but he has had a great deal of
+trouble. He comprehends all too much of the tragedy of his situation."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie sat with her elbows on the table, gazing in silence towards the
+empty fireplace. She looked weary and sad.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis checked himself. "I regret very deeply the worry and discomfort
+all this brings upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not thinking of myself this time, I am thinking of the hopeless
+task you have set yourself. You can't solve this racial question&mdash;it's
+too big and too complicated. Men are simply a kind of ferocious beast.
+They go to work killing each other the way chickens eat grasshoppers."</p>
+
+<p>"Your figure is wrong. If our Christian settlers only killed Indians to
+fill their stomachs they'd stop some time; but they kill them because
+they're like the boy about his mother&mdash;tired of seeing 'em 'round."</p>
+
+<p>There was a time when Elsie's jests were frankly on the side of the
+strong against the weak, but she was becoming oppressed with the
+suffering involved in the march of civilization. "What a fine face
+Grayman has; I couldn't help thinking how much more refined it was than
+Winters! As for the cowboys, they were hulking school-boys; I was not a
+bit afraid of them after they were dismounted."</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately they are a kind of six-footed beast, always mounted;
+there isn't a true frontiersman among them. It angered me that they had
+the opportunity to even look at you."</p>
+
+<p>His intensity of gaze and the bitterness of his voice took away her
+breath for an instant, and before she could reply Jennie and Lawson came
+in.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson was smiling. "Parker is righteously incensed. He tried to enter
+the council an hour ago and your dusky minions stopped him. He is
+genuinely alarmed now, and only waiting for daylight to take flight."</p>
+
+<p>"Jerome is a goose," said Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a jackass at times. A man of talent, but a bore when his yellow
+streak comes out." Turning to Curtis he said, very seriously, "Is there
+anything I can do for you, Captain?"</p>
+
+<p>"You might wire your version of the disturbance to the Secretary along
+with mine. We can safely look for an avalanche of newspaper criticism,
+and I would like to anticipate their outbreak."</p>
+
+<p>"Our telegrams will be at once made public&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly, and for that reason we must use great care in their
+composition. I have mine written; please look it over."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie, who had dropped into a chair, checked a yawn. "Oh, dear; I wish
+it were morning."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked at her and laughed. "I think you girls would better go to
+bed. Your eyes are heavy-lidded with weariness."</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you going to sleep?" asked Jennie, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall lie down here on the sofa&mdash;I must be where I can hear a tap on
+the window. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Both girls rose at his word, and Elsie said: "It seems cruel that you
+cannot go properly to bed&mdash;after such a wearisome day."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget that I am a soldier," he said, and saluted as they passed.
+He observed that Lawson merely bowed when she said "Good-night"
+politely. Surely some change had come to their relationship.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson turned. "I think I will turn in, Captain; I have endorsed the
+telegram."</p>
+
+<p>"It must go at once." He tapped on the pane, and almost instantly a
+Tetong, sleeping under the window, rose from his blanket and stood with
+his face to the window, alert and keen-eyed. "Tony, I have a long ride
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," replied the faithful fellow, cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to take some letters to Pinon City. Come round to the door."</p>
+
+<p>As he stepped into the light the messenger appeared to be a boy of
+twenty, black-eyed and yellow-skinned, with thin and sensitive lips.
+"Take the letters to the post-office," said Curtis, speaking slowly.
+"You understand&mdash;and these despatches to the telegraph-office."</p>
+
+<p>"Pay money?"</p>
+
+<p>"No pay. Can you go now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, go now."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, take the best pony in the corral. You better keep the trail
+and avoid the ranches. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>The young fellow put the letters away in the inside pocket of his blue
+coat, buttoned it tightly, and slipped out into the night, and was
+swallowed up by the moonless darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you afraid they will do Tony harm if they meet him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in his uniform."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't want that ride. Well, so long, old man. Call me if I can be
+of any use."</p>
+
+<p>After Lawson went out Curtis sank back into his big chair and closed his
+eyes in deep thought. As he forecast the enormous and tragic results of
+the return of that armed throng of reckless cattlemen he shuddered. A
+war would almost destroy the Tetongs. It would nullify all he had been
+trying to do for them, and would array the whole State, the whole
+Indian-hating population of the nation, against them. Jennie re-entered
+softly and stood by his side. "It's worrisome business being Indian
+agent, after all, isn't it, George?" she said, with her hand in his
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>He forced himself to a cheerful tone of voice. "Oh, I don't know; this
+is our first worry, and it will soon be over. It looks bad just now, but
+it will be&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A knock at the outer door startled them both. "That is a white
+man&mdash;probably Barker," he said, and called, "Come in."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin Streeter entered, a little abashed at seeing Jennie. Meeting
+Curtis's look of inquiry, he said, with winning candor, "Major, I been
+a-studyin' on this thing a good 'eal, and I've come to the conclusion
+that you're right on all these counts, and I've concluded to ride over
+the hill and see if I can't argue the boys out of their notion to kill
+somebody."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie clapped her hands. "Good! That is a splendid resolution. I always
+knew you meant right."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis held out his hand. "Shake hands, my boy. There isn't a moment to
+be lost. If they are coming at all, they will start about sunrise. I
+hope they have reconsidered the matter and broken camp."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin looked a little uneasy. "Well, I'll tell ye, Major, I'm afraid
+them lahees that we sent back home will egg the rest on; they sure were
+bilun mad, but I'll go and do what I can to head 'em off. If I can't
+delay 'em, I'll come along with 'em, but you can count on me to do any
+little job that'll help you after we get here. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night. Don't take any rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm all right. Nobody ain't huntin' trouble with me."</p>
+
+<p>After he went out Jennie said: "I call that the grace of God working in
+the soul of man."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked at her keenly. "I call it the love of woman sanctifying
+the heart of a cowboy."</p>
+
+<p>She colored a little. "Do we women go on the pay-rolls as assistant
+agents?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if we men can prevent it. What kind of a report would it make if I
+were forced to say, 'At this critical moment the charming Miss So-and-so
+came to my aid, and, by inviting the men in to dinner with a sweet
+smile, completely disarmed their hostility. Too much honor cannot be
+given,' etc."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess if history were written by women once in a while those reports
+wouldn't be so rare as they are."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RETURN OF THE MOB</h3>
+
+
+<p>Curtis was awakened about four o'clock by Wilson at his window. "Are you
+awake, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two of the scouts have just come in from the hills. They are sure the
+ranchers are coming to make war. Bands of white men are crossing the
+county to join the camp. It certainly looks owly, Major."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rose and went to the window. "The troops will be here by nine
+o'clock at the furthest, and the mob will not move till sunrise, and
+can't reach here, even by hard riding, before eleven."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I send a courier out to meet the troops and hurry them on?" asked
+Wilson, whose voice was untouched of fear.</p>
+
+<p>"It might be well. Send Two Horns to me if you can find him. Keep silent
+as to these reports."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Major."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis did not underestimate the dangers of the situation. If the troops
+did not arrive, and if the armed posse of the settlers should come and
+attempt to arrest Elk, war would follow, that was certain. Meanwhile he
+was one day's hard riding from either the fort or the telegraph line,
+with the settlers between, and no news could reach him for twenty-four
+hours.</p>
+
+<p>At that very moment the morning papers were being distributed bearing a
+burden of calumny. The department would open his telegram in a few
+minutes, but the Secretary's reply could not reach him before sunset at
+the earliest, "and by that time I will be master of the situation or
+there will be war. I must parley&mdash;delay them, by any means, till the
+troops arrive. Colonel Daggett will forward the men at once&mdash;I hope
+under Maynard&mdash;and Jack is no sluggard. He will be here if only the
+Colonel takes action."</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose as usual in a cloudless sky, but the wind was again in the
+northwest, and as he stood on the little porch looking up the valley he
+could see the smoke of the camp-fires in Grayman's camp, and beyond him
+the Crawling Elk and his people occupied a larger circle of shining
+tepees. The two villages seemed as peaceful as if the people were
+waiting for their rations, but as he lifted his eyes to the hills he
+could see the mounted sentinels patiently waiting the coming of the sun,
+and he knew that beyond and to the east every butte was similarly
+crested with spies. These people of the wide spaces had their own signal
+service and were not to be taken unawares. Each movement of the enemy
+would be flashed from hill to hill, miles in advance of the beat of
+their horses' hoofs.</p>
+
+<p>As he was returning to his library Elsie met him. "Good-morning,
+Captain. Did you sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, indeed!" He spoke as lightly as he could. "But my messengers
+reporting disturbed me a little during the early morning."</p>
+
+<p>"With bad news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, quite the contrary. I think we are well out of our difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I hope so. You look tired."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ashamed of it. You must have slept well&mdash;you are radiant. I am
+sorry I cannot promise you the Elk for a sitter to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I like him better as the leader of his people. Do we breakfast with the
+sheriff this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"That affliction is bearing down upon us," he replied. "He is even now
+moving morosely across the road. I fear he is in bad temper."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I will be late to breakfast in that case," she said, with a
+little grimace, and fled.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis greeted his guest pleasantly. "Good-morning, sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, Major. Have you seen anything of my deputy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; has he left you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't miss him till this morning," replied Winters, sourly. "But
+he's gone, horse and all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the loss is not serious. Come in and break an egg with me."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was distinctly less cordial than before, but she made her
+unwelcome guest comfortable, and asked after his health politely. She
+was just pouring his second cup of coffee when the furious clanging of
+the office bell made them all start.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked at his watch. "Good Heavens! It can't be the eight-o'clock
+bell. What time have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seven thirty-three."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis sprang up. "It's a signal of fire!"</p>
+
+<p>At the word "fire" Jennie turned white and rose. Elsie came flying
+down-stairs, crying:</p>
+
+<p>"The Indians are running!"</p>
+
+<p>A wild shout arose, "Stop that bell!" and a moment later Wilson burst in
+at the door&mdash;"Major, the Indians are signalling from the
+buttes&mdash;everybody is taking to the hills&mdash;the mob is coming."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis gave Elsie one piercing look. "I hope you will trust me; you are
+in no danger, even if this alarm is true. I think it is a mistake. I
+will return soon and let you know. I beg you not to be alarmed."</p>
+
+<p>The alarum was true. On the buttes horsemen were riding to and fro
+excitedly crossing and recrossing the same ground&mdash;the sign which means
+an approaching enemy. On every hill-side mounted warriors were gathering
+and circling. Boys with wild halloos were bringing in the ponies. The
+women busy, swarming like bees, were dropping the tepees; even as the
+agent mounted the steps to the office and looked up the valley, the
+white canvases sank to the ground one by one as though melted by the hot
+sun. War times were come again, and the chanting cries of the old women
+came pulsing by on the soft west wind.</p>
+
+<p>A grim smile settled on the agent's lips as he comprehended these
+preparations. He knew the history of these people and admired them for
+their skill and their bravery. War times were come again!</p>
+
+<p>"Our cowboy friends have set themselves a memorable task in trying to
+wipe out this tribe. The ranchers never fight their own battles; they
+always call upon the federal government; and that is their purpose now,
+to stir up strife and leave the troops to bear the burden of the war."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see our fellers," said the sheriff, who was deeply excited.
+"I'll ride to meet them."</p>
+
+<p>"They are a long way off yet," said Curtis. "The Tetong sentinels have
+only signalled their start. I hope the troops are on the way," he said
+to the two girls who had followed and now stood close beside him as if
+for protection. Then he called to the sheriff, who had started for his
+horse: "I depend on you to keep off this invasion, sheriff. I warn you
+and your men that this entrance here at this time is a crime against
+Washington."</p>
+
+<p>Winters did not reply, and Curtis knew that he would join the majority;
+being a candidate for re-election, he could not afford to run counter to
+the wishes of his constituents. Hastily mounting his horse, he galloped
+furiously away.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis strained his eyes down the valley, hoping for a sight of the
+guidons of the &mdash;th.</p>
+
+<p>"What can you do?" asked Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing but await the issue," he replied. "I have sent another courier
+to hasten the troops; it is now a race between the forces of law and of
+order. If the mob arrives first, I must delay them&mdash;prevent their
+advance if possible. There is nothing else to be done."</p>
+
+<p>"Can we help?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not. There will be two or three hundred of the invaders this
+time, if the sheriff is to be believed. I am afraid to have you meet
+them. I think it better for you all to keep within doors."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish my father knew&mdash;he could stop this!" wailed Elsie, in sudden
+realization of her helplessness. "He could wire the authorities in Pinon
+City. I know they would listen to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Here come the Parkers!" said Jennie. "Now look out for squalls."</p>
+
+<p>"I had forgotten them," said Curtis, with a comic look of dismay.</p>
+
+<p>Parker was running, half dragging his poor, breathless wife, while in
+their rear Lawson appeared, walking calmly, quite irreproachable in a
+gray morning suit, and the sight of him was a comfort to Curtis, for his
+forces were practically reduced to Wilson and four or five clerks.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Captain, what are you going to do?" called Parker. "You let us
+into this&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Being in no mood for squalls, Curtis cut Parker short. "Be quiet; don't
+be uselessly foolish. Try and conduct yourself like a reasonable human
+being. Jennie, go into the house, and take the ladies with you. You'll
+have all the women of the agency to look after in a few minutes. Lawson,
+I can depend on you&mdash;will you go over to the office with me?"</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the office Lawson threw back his coat and displayed
+two wicked-looking revolvers. "I've been known to fight when pushed too
+far," he said, smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>In the space of an hour the panic had become preparation. On a low butte
+to the southwest a dark mass of armed and resolute warriors waited on
+their swift ponies ready for whatever came, while behind them on a
+higher ridge a smaller group of dismounted chieftains sat in council. Up
+the slopes below and to the right the women and old men were leading the
+ponies, laden with their tepees, children, and supplies, precisely as in
+the olden times. The wagons of the white men were of no use where they
+were now climbing. The ways of the wheel were no longer desirable. They
+sought the shelter of the trail.</p>
+
+<p>"I am confident that the troops will arrive first," said Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"If the powers of evil have found a leader, it will be hard to control
+them even with a troop of cavalry," Lawson replied, soberly. "The
+sheriff will go with the mob when it comes to a show down."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course. I do not count on him; but Calvin is loyal."</p>
+
+<p>Before the office stood two or three of the white employés of the agency
+with their wives and children about them. Two policemen alone remained
+of all the throng of red employés usually to be seen about the yards;
+the rest were out on duty or had joined their people in the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall we do?" cried Miss Colson, a look of mortal terror on her
+face. She crowded close to Curtis and laid her hands on his arm. "Let us
+stay near you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are in no danger," he replied. "Those poor devils on the hill-side
+are the ones who will suffer. Where are your children?" he asked,
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"They all disappeared like rabbits at sound of the bell; only the
+kindergarten class remains."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and help take care of them," he commanded. "Sing to them&mdash;amuse
+them. Wolf Robe," he called to one of the policemen&mdash;he of the
+bow-legs&mdash;"go to the people on the hill and say to them to fear nothing,
+Washington protects them. Tell them they must not fight. Say to the
+mothers of the little ones that nothing shall hurt them. Go quick!"</p>
+
+<p>Wolf Robe handed his sombrero, his coat, and his revolver to his
+friend, Beaver Kill, and ran away towards the corral, agile as a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he do that for?" asked Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled. "He is Indian now; he doesn't want to be mistaken for a
+cowboy."</p>
+
+<p>When he reappeared on his pony, his long, dark hair streaming, a red
+handkerchief bound about his head, he looked like a warrior stripped for
+battle. "There isn't a faithfuler man in the world," said Curtis, and a
+lump rose in his throat. "He has been riding half the night for me, but
+he charges that hill as if he were playing a game."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand how you can trust them to do such things," said
+Elsie. "Perhaps he will not come back. How do you know he will do as you
+commanded?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because that ugly little bow-legged Tetong is a man!" replied Curtis.
+"He would die in performance of his duty." And something in his voice
+made the tears start to Elsie's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The sentinels on the hills were quiet now&mdash;facing the northeast,
+motionless as weather-vanes. The camps had disappeared as if by magic;
+nothing remained but a few wagons. Wolf Robe, diminishing to the value
+of a coyote, was riding straight towards the retreating women. Even as
+Curtis watched, the chieftains on the higher hill rose, and one of them
+started downward towards the warriors on the rounded hill-top. Then a
+small squad detached itself from the main command and slid down the
+grassy slope to meet the women. As they rode slowly on, the moving
+figures of those leading the camp horses gathered round them. Curtis
+understood some command was being shouted by the descending squad.</p>
+
+<p>Separating themselves from the led ponies, these scouts swept on down
+the hill directly upon the solitary and minute figure of Wolf Robe,
+whose pony climbed slowly and in zigzag course.</p>
+
+<p>"They will kill him," said a woman.</p>
+
+<p>Wolf Robe halted and waited till the skirmishers rode up to him. They
+massed round him closely, listening while he delivered his message.</p>
+
+<p>"When he returns we will know all that his people have learned of the
+invaders," said Curtis. "They will tell him what they have seen."</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," exclaimed Elsie, in a low voice, standing close beside
+him. "But I'm not afraid. It is like a story&mdash;a dream. That I should
+stand here watching Indians preparing for war and waiting for United
+States troops is incredible."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish it were not true," he replied. "But it is. I have no fear of my
+people, only of the rash act of a vicious white man."</p>
+
+<p>"Which way will the cattlemen come from?" asked Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably down that trail." He pointed to the northeast. "Part of them
+may come up the valley road. Wolf Robe has started on his return."</p>
+
+<p>The little squad of warriors returned to the group of chieftains, while
+the loyal Wolf Robe came racing down the slope, his hair streaming, his
+elbows flapping. In a few minutes he dropped rein at the gate and
+re-entered the yard. Standing before his chief, he delivered his
+message.</p>
+
+<p>"Their hearts are very glad at your good words, but the women are
+crying for their babies. They ask that you send them away before the bad
+white men come. Send them out towards the hills and they will come down
+and get them&mdash;this they said."</p>
+
+<p>"What did the scouts say?"</p>
+
+<p>"They said that the sentinels on the hills saw the white men break camp
+and come this way&mdash;many of them&mdash;so they say."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they now?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are hidden in the pines of the valley. They will soon be here&mdash;so
+they say."</p>
+
+<p>"Take a fresh pony and ride back and tell all who have children here to
+come down and talk with me. Tell them I will turn the white men away. No
+one shall be harmed. The children are safe. There will be no war. I will
+meet them in the old camp. I keep repeating there is no danger because I
+believe it," he said to the silent group around him, after Wolf Robe
+rode away. "There is nothing to be done but wait. So go about your
+duties," he added, with a note of command.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the employés dropped away till only Wilson remained. His only
+sign of nervousness was a quiver of the muscles of one cheek, where he
+held his quid of tobacco. His bright blue eyes were fixed on the
+sentinels, while he leaned negligently against the fence. Lawson,
+smoking a German pipe, was watching the warriors on the hills, a rapt
+expression on his face, as if he were working out some problem in ethics
+which demanded complete concentration and absorption of thought. The two
+girls had drawn close together as if for comfort, their nerves a-quiver
+with the strain.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you waiting for something to go off?" suddenly asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Each one started a little, and all laughed together.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I was," confessed Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"You seemed to be holding your breath. I wish you'd both go in and
+rest," he pleaded. "It is no use&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They're coming!" interrupted Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"Where? Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sentinels are signalling again."</p>
+
+<p>All turned to the east, but nothing could be seen&mdash;no smoke, no dust, no
+sign of horsemen&mdash;yet the swift circling of the sentinels and the
+turmoil among the warriors on the butte indicated the menace of an
+approaching army. Another little band detached itself from the huddle of
+the camp and came down the hill, slowly and in single file.</p>
+
+<p>"The squaws are coming for their children, even before Wolf Robe reaches
+them," said Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"And there's the mob!" said Curtis, and at his words a keen thrill of
+fear ran through the hearts of the women. With set, pale faces they
+looked away beneath levelled finger.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," said Wilson, "and two hundred strong."</p>
+
+<p>The sad-colored horsemen were pouring over a high, pine-clad ridge some
+two miles to the east, and streaming down into a narrow valley behind a
+sharp intervening butte.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, girls, you <i>must</i> go in!" commanded Curtis, sharply. "You can do
+no good&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"George, let us stay!" pleaded Jennie. "We saved you yesterday, and we
+may help to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the use of shutting us in the house? I'm not afraid," added
+Elsie. "These men will do us no harm."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg you will not interfere," he said, looking at Jennie, but Elsie
+knew he included her as well. "It isn't a bit impressive to have an
+agent flanked with women&mdash;in a council of war."</p>
+
+<p>"Hang the looks! they're mighty effective sometimes," remarked Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right!" chimed in Wilson. "By the Lord! they look sassy," he
+added, referring back to the cowboys.</p>
+
+<p>They formed a sinister cavalcade as they came streaming down the rough
+road, two and two, like a monstrous swift serpent, parti-colored,
+sinuous, silent, save for the muffled clatter of their horses' hoofs.
+Curtis nerved himself for the shock, and, though weakened and
+embarrassed by the presence of Elsie and Jennie, he presented a
+soldierly breast to the mob. Had it been a question of protecting the
+women, the case would have been different, but to argue a point of law
+with them at his elbow exposed him to ridicule and to interruption.</p>
+
+<p>As the horsemen debouched upon the valley road, a prodigious cloud of
+dust arose and sailed away on the wind, completely hiding the rear ranks
+so that they could not be numbered. As they drew near, the sheriff could
+be seen riding at the head of the column side by side with a big man in
+a blue shirt. They approached at a shacking trot, which was more
+menacing than a gallop would have been&mdash;it was steady, inexorable,
+self-contained as a charge of cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>As they reached the issue-house, Curtis opened the gate and stepped out
+into the road and faced them alone, and Elsie grew cold with fear as the
+sheriff and his formidable following rode steadily up. When almost upon
+the agent the leader turned, and, pushing his limp hat away from his
+eyes, shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Halt!</i>" As the men pulled in their horses he added, "Keep back there!"</p>
+
+<p>The mob had found a leader, and was organized for violence. Curtis, with
+folded arms, seemed small and weak as the army of invasion came to a
+stand, filling the lane between the office and the agency house with
+trampling horses and cursing men.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning," growled the leader, surlily. "We're come for old Elk,
+and I want to say we get him this time. No monkey business goes with old
+Bill Yarpe. Women can't fool me."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin Streeter rode out of the throng and pushed his way to the front.</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe yelled: "H'yar! Keep in line there!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go to hell!" replied Calvin, as he rode past him. "I'm no nigger. I
+want to hear what goes on, and I tell ye right now you treat these
+people fair or you'll hear from me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll shoot you up a few if you ain't keerful, young feller," replied
+the old ruffian.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, General, he's too fresh," called some one.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin spurred his horse alongside Yarpe's and looked him in the eye
+with a glare which made the older man wince. "You be decent before these
+women or I'll cut the heart out o' ye. You hear me!"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis stepped forward. "Careful, Streeter&mdash;don't provoke trouble; we'll
+protect the women."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff rode between the two men. "Cal, git away&mdash;you're my deputy,
+remember."</p>
+
+<p>As Cal reined his horse away, Curtis went to him and said, in a low
+voice: "I appreciate your chivalry, Calvin, but be careful; don't excite
+them."</p>
+
+<p>As he looked into the big, red, whiskey-bloated face of Yarpe, Curtis
+was frankly dismayed. The old ruffian was not only inflamed with liquor,
+he was intoxicated with a subtler elixir&mdash;the pride of command. As he
+looked back over his followers he visibly expanded and a savage glare
+lit up his eyes. "Keep quiet, boys; I'll settle this thing."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis again stepped towards the sheriff. "What do you propose to do,
+Mr. Sheriff?"</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe broke in boisterously. "We want old Elk. Bring him out or we go
+after him." A chorus of applause followed.</p>
+
+<p>"On what authority do you make this demand?" asked Curtis, facing Yarpe.</p>
+
+<p>"On the authority of the sheriff of Pinon City," replied Yarpe, "and we
+come along to see he does his duty."</p>
+
+<p>"The sheriff is present and can speak for himself. He was my guest last
+night and made an agreement with me, which, as an honorable man, he is
+disposed to keep."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff avoided Curtis's eye, but Yarpe replied:</p>
+
+<p>"He showed the white feather. He let you fool him, but you can't fool
+this crowd. Bring on your Injun, or we go get him."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a warrant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, damn the warrant!"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff cleared his throat. "Yes, I have a warrant for Crawling Elk
+and Grayman," he said, and began searching his pockets. The decisive
+moment had arrived.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP</h3>
+
+
+<p>Curtis minutely studied the crowd, which was made up very largely of
+reckless young men&mdash;cowboys from all over the range, together with the
+loafers and gamblers of the cow-towns. The sheriff's deputies were all
+well to the front, but were quiet; they seemed to be a little abashed by
+the gaze of the women to whom they were indebted for their dinner of
+yesterday. Each member of the gang was burdened with ammunition and
+carried both rifle and revolver.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff dismounted and handed a paper to Curtis, who took plenty of
+time to read it. It was manifestly bogus, manufactured for use as a
+bluff, and had not been properly sworn out; but to dispute it would be
+to anger the cattlemen. There was only one chance for delay.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he said, at last. "This warrant calls for two of the head
+men among the Tetongs. Of course, I understand your motives. You do not
+intend to charge these chiefs with the crime, you only wish to force the
+tribe to yield some one else to your vengeance. In face of such a force
+as this of yours, Mr. Sheriff, I can only yield, though I deny your
+right to lay hand on one of my charges. I do all this under pressure.
+If your men will retire a little I will call a messenger and communicate
+with the chiefs named, and ask&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe glared. "Communicate hell! Sheriff, say the word and we'll go and
+get 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis fixed a calm gaze upon him. "You are a brave man, Mr. Yarpe, but
+you'll need all your resolution when you charge up that hill in the face
+of those desperate warriors." As he swept his arm out towards the west
+all eyes were turned on the swarming mass of mounted Tetongs. The women
+had moved higher, and were halted just on the eastern brow of the high
+ridge, behind and to the right of the fighting men. "Now what will you
+do, Mr. Sheriff?" pursued Curtis; "act with me through the head men, or
+make your demand of the whole tribe?"</p>
+
+<p>A dispute arose among the crowd. A few shouted, noisily, "Say the word
+and we'll sweep the greasy devils off the earth." But the larger number,
+like the sheriff's posse of the day before, found it not easy to overawe
+this quiet soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin harangued the leader. "No, I will not button my lip," he shouted
+again, confronting Yarpe, "for you nor no other man. You let the sheriff
+and the Captain fix this thing up. What are you in this thing for,
+anyhow? You don't own a foot of land nor a head o' stock. You're nothing
+but a bum! You can't get trusted for a pound of tobacco. Nice man to
+lead a mob&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut him up, Bill," shouted one fellow.</p>
+
+<p>"Cal's right," called another.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let 'em fool ye, Bill; we come fer a redskin, and we'll have him
+or burn the town."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin had a revolver in each hand, and on his face was a look that
+meant war.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis called to Lawson. "Take the women in, quick!" He feared shooting
+among the leaders of the mob. "Don't shoot, Calvin. Keep the peace."</p>
+
+<p>With tears of impotent rage filling her eyes, Elsie retreated towards
+the office under Lawson's care. Curtis stepped to the side of the
+leader. "Silence your gang," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe raised his bellowing voice. "Keep quiet, there! I'll settle this
+thing in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep back!" commanded the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd fell back a little, with Calvin crowding them hard, revolver
+in hand. "No more funny business with me," he said, and death blazed
+from his eyes. "Get back!"</p>
+
+<p>Quiet having been restored, the sheriff, Curtis, and Yarpe were revealed
+in animated argument. Curtis was talking against time&mdash;every moment was
+precious.</p>
+
+<p>"If you give in, your chances for re-election ain't worth a
+leatherette," Yarpe said to the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>"You crazy fool! You wouldn't charge that hill?" asked the sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I would, and that's what the boys come for."</p>
+
+<p>"But what good would it do?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would learn these red devils a lesson they wouldn't forget, and it
+would make you an' me the most popular men in the county. If you don't
+do it, you're dead as the hinges of hell."</p>
+
+<p>"If you charge that hill, some of you will stay there," put in Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe turned and roared: "Boys, the sheriff has weakened. Will you
+follow me?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will!" shouted the reckless majority.</p>
+
+<p>At this precise moment, while looking over the sheriff's head towards
+the pinon-spotted hill to the west, Curtis caught the gleam of something
+white bobbing down the hill. It disappeared, but came into sight lower
+down, a white globe based in a splash of blue. It was a white helmet,
+topping the uniform of a cavalry officer. A sudden emotion seized Curtis
+by the throat&mdash;his heart warmed, swelled big in his bosom. Oh, the good
+old color! Now he could see the gauntleted gloves, the broad shoulders,
+the easy seat of blessed old Jack Maynard as he ambled peacefully across
+the flat.</p>
+
+<p>"Look there!" he cried, turning to the group inside the gate, his finger
+pointing like a pistol. His voice rang out joyous as a morning bugle,
+and the girls thrilled with joy.</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe looked. "Hell! The cavalry! We're euchred&mdash;clean."</p>
+
+<p>Over the hill behind the officer appeared a squadron of gray horse,
+marching in single file, winding down the trail like a long serpent,
+spotted with blue and buff, the sun sparkling fitfully from their
+polished brass and steel. When Curtis turned to the sheriff his face was
+pale with excitement for the first time, quivering, exultant. "You'll
+have the federal troops to deal with now," he said. "At last we are on
+equal terms."</p>
+
+<p>A deep silence fell on the mob. Every ruffian of them seemed suddenly
+frozen into immobility, and each sat with head turned and eyes
+wide-staring, watching the coming of the blue-shirted horsemen.</p>
+
+<p>As the officer approached he was distinguishable as a powerful,
+smooth-faced young man in a captain's uniform. As his eyes rested on
+Curtis his plump, red face broke into a broad smile. It was plain that
+he was Irish, and not averse to a bit of a shindy.</p>
+
+<p>Riding straight up to the agent, he formally saluted, and in a deep,
+dry, military voice, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Daggett presents his compliments to Captain Curtis and tenders
+Squadron B, at your service. Captain Maynard in command."</p>
+
+<p>With equally impersonal decorum Curtis acknowledged the courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Curtis returns the compliment, and thanks Captain Maynard for
+his prompt and most opportune arrival&mdash;Jack, I'm mighty glad to see
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard dismounted and they shook hands. "Same to you, old man. What's
+all the row?"</p>
+
+<p>A clear, distant, boyish voice cried, "By columns of four into line!"
+and the bugle, breaking voice, caused the hair of the agent's head to
+stand; turning, he saw the squadron taking form as it crossed the
+stream. It required his most heroic effort to keep the tears from his
+eyes as his ear heard the dull rattle of scabbards and he watched the
+splendid play of the gray horses' legs and broad chests as they came on,
+weary but full of spirit yet. There was something inexorable in their
+advance. In their order, their clean glitter, their impersonal grace,
+was expressed the power of the general government.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the sheriff, he said: "Sheriff Winters, this warrant is
+bogus&mdash;forged this morning by some one of your lynching-party; the ink
+is hardly dry. I decline to serve it," and he tore it into strips and
+flung it on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt!" cried the oncoming commander, and with creak of saddle and
+diminishing thunder of hoofs the Gray Squadron stopped within fifty feet
+of the agency gate, and out of the dust a young lieutenant rode forward
+and saluted.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your position, Mr. Payne," commanded Maynard.</p>
+
+<p>"I just <i>love</i> Captain Maynard!" said Jennie, fervently.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell him," said Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Maynard, "what's it all about? Nice gang, this!"</p>
+
+<p>The mob that had been so loud of mouth now sat in silence as profound as
+if each man had been smitten dumb. It was easy to threaten and flourish
+pistols in the face of an Indian agent with a dozen women to protect,
+but this wall of Uncle Sam's blue was a different barrier&mdash;not to be
+lightly overleaped. The cowboys were not accustomed to facing such men
+as these when they shot up towns and raced the Tetongs across the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what is it all about?" repeated Maynard, composing his comedy face
+into a look of military sternness.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis explained swiftly in a low voice, and ended by saying: "This is,
+in effect, a lynching-party on federal territory. What would you do in
+such a case?"</p>
+
+<p>"Order them off, instanter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely. I have done so, but they refuse to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they?" Maynard turned and remounted his horse. Saluting, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Curtis, I am ready to execute any order you may choose to
+give."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis saluted. "You will see that these citizens, unlawfully assembled,
+leave the reservation at once. Sheriff Winters, with all due respect to
+your office, I request you to withdraw. Captain Maynard will escort you
+to the borders of the reservation. When you have a warrant properly
+executed, send or bring it to me and I will use every effort to serve
+it. Good-morning, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Maynard drew his sword. "<i>'Tention, squadron!</i>" The tired horses
+lifted their heads as the dusty troopers forced them into line.</p>
+
+<p>Maynard's voice rang out: "<i>Left wheel, into line&mdash;march!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll hear from this!" said the sheriff. "You'll find the State won't
+stand any such foolishness."</p>
+
+<p>Yarpe's ferocity had entirely evaporated. "'Bout face, boys; we're not
+fightin' the United States army&mdash;I had enough o' that in '63. Clear out!
+Our bluff don't go."</p>
+
+<p>The cowboys, cursing under breath, whirled their ponies and followed
+Yarpe, the redoubtable. The sheriff brought up the rear, still
+contending for the rights of the county, but he retreated. Small as the
+dusty squadron looked, it was too formidable, both because of its
+commanders and because of the majestic idea it embodied.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin was the last to leave. "I done my best, Major," he said, loudly,
+in order that Jennie might hear.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, Calvin; come and see us again in your civil capacity,"
+replied Curtis, and waved a cordial salute.</p>
+
+<p>As the squadron fell in behind and was hidden by the dust of the passing
+cattlemen, Curtis turned to where Elsie still stood. He was smiling, but
+his limbs were stiffened and inert by reason of the rigidity of his long
+position before the posse.</p>
+
+<p>"We are saved!" he said, in mock-heroic phrase.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, wasn't it glorious to see the good old blue-and-buff!" cried
+Jennie, the tears of her joy still on her cheeks. "I could have hugged
+Captain Maynard."</p>
+
+<p>"There is chance yet," said Curtis. "He's coming back."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie did not speak for a moment. "What would you have done if they had
+not come?" she asked, soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"I could have delayed them a little longer by sending couriers to Elk
+and Grayman; but let's not think of that. Let's all go into the house;
+you look completely tired out."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie fairly reeled with weakness, and Curtis took her arm. "You are
+trembling," he said, tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't stirred for a half-hour," she said. "I was so tense with the
+excitement. I feared you would be shot, and the tribe isn't worth the
+sacrifice," she added, with a touch of her old spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"I was in no physical danger," he replied. "But I should have felt
+disgraced had the mob had its way."</p>
+
+<p>"The people are coming back," said Lawson. "They have seen the
+soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>"So they are!" exclaimed Curtis. "They are shouting with joy. Can't you
+hear them? The chiefs are riding this way already; they know the army
+will protect them."</p>
+
+<p>The thick mass of horsemen was breaking up, some of them were riding
+towards the women with the camp stuff, others were crossing the valley,
+while a dozen head men, riding straight towards the agency, began to
+sing a song of deliverance and victory. Joyous shouts could be heard as
+the young men signalled the good news.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>The cattlemen are going&mdash;the soldiers have come!</i>"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>AFTER THE STRUGGLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Upon reaching the library each member of the party sank into easy-chairs
+with sighs of deep relief, relaxed and nerveless. The storm was over.
+Jennie voiced the feeling as she said, "Thank the Lord and Colonel
+Daggett." Elsie was physically weary to the point of drowsiness, but her
+mind was active. Mrs. Parker was bewildered and silent. Even Parker was
+subdued by the grave face of the agent.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, with a curious half-smile, broke the silence. "There are times
+when I wish I owned a Gatling gun and knew how to use it."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis started up. "Well, it's all over but the shouting. I must return
+to the office and set things in order once more."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to rest a little," said Elsie. "You must feel the strain."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a little inert at the moment," he confessed, "but I'm Hamlet in
+the play, you know, and must be at my post. I'll meet you all at lunch.
+You need have no further worry."</p>
+
+<p>The employés responded bravely to his orders. The cheerful clink of the
+anvil broke forth with tranquillizing effect. The school-bell called the
+children together, the tepees began to rise from the sod as before, and
+the sluggish life of the agency resumed its unhurried flow, though
+beneath the surface still lurked vague forms of fear. Parker returned to
+his studio, Lawson sought his den, and there stretched out to smoke and
+muse upon the leadings of the event, while Jennie planned a mid-day
+dinner for a round dozen. "It will be a sort of love-feast to Captain
+Maynard," she said, roguishly.</p>
+
+<p>"Will he return so soon?" asked Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, he'll only go a little way. Jack Maynard can smell a good
+dinner across a range of foot-hills. Didn't he look beautiful as he
+smiled? I used to think he grinned, but to-day&mdash;well, he looked like a
+heavenly cherub in the helmet of an archangel as he rode up."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie was genuinely amused. "What is the meaning of this fervor. Has
+there been something between you and Captain Maynard in the past?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a thing! Oh, I always liked him&mdash;he's so good-natured&mdash;and so
+comical. Can you peel potatoes?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never did such a thing in my life, but I'll try."</p>
+
+<p>About one o'clock Maynard came jogging back, accompanied by a sergeant
+and a squad of men, dusty, tired, and hungry.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis met him at the gate. "Send your horses down to the corral,
+Captain. You're to take pot-luck with us."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard dismounted, slowly, painfully. "I've been wondering about those
+girls," he said, after the horses were led away. "One is your sister
+Jennie, of course; but who is the other? She's what the boys would call
+a 'queen.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You've heard of Andrew J. Brisbane?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean the erstwhile Senator?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; this is his daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Himmel! What is she doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's an artist and is making some studies of Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't suppose a man of Brisbane's blood and brawn could have a girl
+as fine as she looks to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Brisbane has his good points&mdash;But come over to the house. Of course
+the mob gave no further trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit, only the trouble of keeping them in sight; they rode like
+Jehu. I left the chase to Payne&mdash;it was what Cooper used to call a
+'stern chase and a long chase.' Your quarters aren't so bad," he added,
+as they entered the library.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie came in wearing an apron and looking as tasty as a dumpling. "How
+do you do, Colonel Maynard?" she cried out, most cordially.</p>
+
+<p>He gave his head a comical flirt on one side. "I beg pardon! Why
+Colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've promoted you for the brave deed of this morning."</p>
+
+<p>He recovered himself. "Oh!&mdash;oh&mdash;yes!&mdash;Hah! I had forgotten. You saw me
+put 'em to flight? I was a little late, but I gave service, don't you
+think?"</p>
+
+<p>"You were wonderful, but I know you're hungry; we're to have dinner
+soon&mdash;a real dinner, not a lunch."</p>
+
+<p>He looked a little self-conscious. "Well&mdash;I&mdash;shall be delighted. You
+see, I was awake most of the night, and in riding one gets hungry&mdash;and,
+besides, breakfast was a little hurried. In fact, I don't remember that
+I had any."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you poor thing! I'll hurry it forward. Cheer up," and she whisked
+out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>Maynard flecked a little dust from his sleeve and inquired, carelessly:
+"Your sister isn't married?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, she sticks to me still. She's a blessed, good girl, and I don't
+know what I should do without her."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't be selfish," remarked Maynard, reflectively. "But see here,
+I must knock off some dust, or I will lose the good impression I made on
+the ladies."</p>
+
+<p>"Make yourself at home here and we'll have something to eat soon," said
+Curtis at the door.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner was unexpectedly merry. Every one felt like celebrating the
+army, and Maynard, as the representative of the cavalry arm, came near
+blushing at the praise which floated his way on toasts which were drunk
+from a bottle of sherry, a liquor Jennie had smuggled in for cooking
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>"I admit I did it," he rose to say, "but I hold it not meet to have it
+so set down."</p>
+
+<p>Parker was extravagantly gay. "I'm going to do a statue of Maynard on
+his horse rushing to our rescue," he said. "It will be a tinted piece
+like the ancients used to do. That white helmet shall flash like snow.
+Sheridan will no longer be the great equestrian."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave off the broad smile," interrupted Lawson. "Captain Maynard's
+smile made light of our tragic situation."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so; it was the smile of combat," exclaimed Elsie. "It was
+thrilling."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard bowed. "Thank you, Miss Brisbane."</p>
+
+<p>"It was Jack Maynard's murderin' grin," said Curtis; "it was the look
+the boys used to edge away from at the Academy. I must tell you, Jack
+nearly got shunted into the ways of glory. He could whip any man in West
+Point in his day, and a New York sporting man offered to back him for a
+career. Thereupon Jack wrestled with the tempter and 'thrun 'im.' He now
+sees his mistake. He might have been 'Happy Jack, the Holy Terror,' by
+this time, earning two hundred thousand a year like the great O'Neill."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard sighed. "Instead of which, here I am rescuing beleaguered
+damsels, like the hero of a dime novel, on two thousand a year."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie spoke up sharply. "I will not have Captain Maynard made fun of
+any more. It was a noble deed, and he deserves better treatment for it."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard bowed. "I have one defender," he said, soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's another," cried Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"With two such faithful defenders I defy the world!" he shouted,
+valorously. Thereupon they left off joking him.</p>
+
+<p>As they rose from the table, Curtis turned to Elsie: "Would you like to
+go with me to make a tour of the camp?"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes lighted up. "I should like it exceedingly."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, about three o'clock we will go. You will have time for a
+<i>siesta</i>. You must be tired."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, I am quite rested and ready to go any time," and her bright eyes
+and warm color confirmed her words.</p>
+
+<p>With military promptness the horses were brought round, and,
+accompanied by Maynard and Jennie, Curtis, with Elsie by his side, led
+the way to the camp. She was a confident horsewoman and rode a fine
+brown pony, and Curtis, who had never ridden with her before, glowed
+with pleasure in her grace and skill.</p>
+
+<p>As they galloped off up the road a keen twinge of remorseful pity for
+Lawson touched Elsie's heart. He was grown suddenly older, it seemed to
+her, as though he had definitely given up the attempt to remain young,
+and this thought made her rather sober. He was being left out of her
+plans now almost unconsciously, while the other&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"One of the real heroes in this affair," Curtis was saying, "is Crane's
+Voice. He has been in saddle nearly thirty-six hours, and is willing to
+start again to Pinon City if I ask it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you will not?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I will send a white man. The settlers might do even Crane's Voice
+an injury."</p>
+
+<p>All was quiet in the camps, with little sign of the precipitate flight
+of the morning, either in the faces of the men or in the disposal of the
+tepees. The old men and some of the women came out to greet their Little
+Father and the soldier of the good heart, and Curtis gave out a
+tranquillizing message and asked, "Have you called the council?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, for sunrise to-morrow," answered Elk and Two Horns.</p>
+
+<p>"That is good," he replied. "Where are your young men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some are in the hills, some are gone as messengers, others are watching
+the ponies."</p>
+
+<p>"Call them all in. I don't want them riding about to-night. Keep them in
+camp, close by the soldiers&mdash;then no harm will come to them."</p>
+
+<p>So, scattering greetings and commands, he rode through the two circles
+of tepees. The redmen were all eager to shake hands with Maynard, in
+whom they recognized a valiant friend as well as an old-time enemy.</p>
+
+<p>They found the camp of Grayman less tranquil, for the stragglers were
+still coming in from the hills, and scores of women were busy resetting
+their tepees. Grayman himself came forth, nervous and eager. "Ho, Little
+Father, my heart is glad that the soldiers have come."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all glad," replied Curtis. "Where is your son?"</p>
+
+<p>Grayman looked troubled. "I do not know. He is away with Cut Finger, my
+sister's son."</p>
+
+<p>"Cut Finger is bad company for your son."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; but they are blood-brothers, as is the way of young men.
+Where one is, there the other is also."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard and Jennie were not as deeply interested in the camp as they had
+given out to be at starting. He was recalling to her mind some of the
+parties they had attended together at Fort Sibley. "Really, Captain
+Maynard," she was saying, as they rode up, "you would have it appear
+that we saw a great deal of each other in those days."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my contention entirely," he replied, "and it is my <i>in</i>tention
+to continue this Indian outbreak indefinitely in order to go into
+cantonment here."</p>
+
+<p>"You always were susceptible to good dinners, Captain Maynard."</p>
+
+<p>"Say good company, and you'll be right entirely."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, having caught Maynard's last remark, called out in the biting
+tone of the upper classman at West Point.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you on special duty, Captain Maynard, or riding in the park?"</p>
+
+<p>He saluted imperturbably. "By good luck I am doing both, at your
+service."</p>
+
+<p>"Merely cast your eye around so that you can report the Tetongs peaceful
+and in camp, then you may ride where you please."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard swept his eyes over the village. "It is done! Now, Miss Curtis,
+let's try for the top of that hill?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, you have been riding all night."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, so I have! In the charm of your presence I'd forgotten it. I'm
+supposed to be fagged."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't look it," remarked Curtis, humorously, running his eyes over
+the burly figure before him. "At the same time, I think you'd better
+return. Your commissariat wagons will be rumbling in soon."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard again saluted. "Very well, 'Major,' it shall be so," and,
+wheeling his horse in such wise as to turn Jennie's pony, they galloped
+off together, leaving Curtis and Elsie to follow.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hard to realize that disaster came so near to us," he said,
+musingly, and Elsie shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at the
+hills.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a wonderful charm in this dry country! I have never seen such
+blinding sunshine. But life must be difficult here."</p>
+
+<p>"You begin to feel that? I expect to stay here at least five years,
+providing I am not removed."</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered perceptibly. "Five years is a long time to give out of
+one's life&mdash;with so little to show for it."</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated a moment, then said, with deep feeling, "It's hard, it's
+lonely, but, after all, it has its compensations. I can see results. The
+worst side of it all is&mdash;I can never ask any woman to share such a life
+with me. I feel guilty when I consider Jennie&mdash;she ought to have a home
+of her own; she has no outlook here."</p>
+
+<p>She looked straight ahead as she replied. "You would find life here
+intolerable without her."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; but in my best moments I realize how selfish it is in me to
+keep her."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you were to resign, what would you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would try to secure a chance at some field-work for the Ethnologic
+Bureau. It doesn't pay very well, but it would be congenial, and my
+proficiency in the sign language would, I think, make me valuable. I
+have determined never to go back to garrison life without some special
+duty to occupy my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Life isn't a bit simple when you are grown up, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Life is always simple, if one does one's duty."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a soldier's answer; it is not easy for me to enter into that
+spirit. I have my art, and no sense of duty at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Your position is equally strange to me; but duties will discover
+themselves&mdash;later. A life without duties is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean, but I do not intend to allow any duty to
+circumscribe my art." This she uttered defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to hear you say that. Life is greater than art."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed. "How different our points of view! You are Anglo-Saxon, I
+am French. Art counts far more with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Was your mother French? I did not know that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;a Canadian. I have her nature rather than that of my father."</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes I think you are your father's daughter. Did your mother live
+to enjoy her husband's success?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to the full. Still, she had a nice home in Alta, where I was born.
+She died before he was elected Senator." They had nearly reached the
+agency now, and she shook off her sober mood. "Shall we go in with a
+dash?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm agreed."</p>
+
+<p>She put quirt to her horse and they entered the lane at a flying gallop.
+As he assisted her to alight at the studio door he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I hope your father will not require you to join him in the East. It is
+a great pleasure to have you here." His voice touched something vibrant
+in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't think he will when he fully understands the situation. I'm
+sure I don't want to go. I shall write him so."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rode away elate as a boy. Something which he did not care to
+define had come to him from her, subtle as a perfume, intangible as
+light, and yet it had entered into his blood with most transforming
+effect. He put aside its analysis, and went about his duties content
+with the feeling that life was growing richer day by day.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson, seeing his shining face, sighed and said to himself: "I guess
+the Major has found his girl. He's a lucky dog. I wish I could pick up
+even a piece of plain calico, I'd be satisfied." And he ran through a
+list of the unmarried women within reach, to no result, as usual.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the supply-wagons had arrived, and Captain Maynard was
+overseeing the laying-out of the camp just below the agency. Lieutenant
+Payne and his command returned at five o'clock, and in a short time the
+little village of white tents was in order. Curtis came over to insist
+that the officers take dinner with them at "the parsonage," and, as
+Captain Maynard had already spoken of the good company and the excellent
+dinner he had enjoyed in the middle of the day, Lieutenant Payne was
+quite ready to comply, especially as his lunch had been as light as his
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>The meal was as enjoyable as the mid-day dinner, and the Parkers derived
+much comfort from the presence of the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I'm not fitted to be a pioneer artist," Parker confessed, and
+the hearty agreement he met with quite disconcerted him.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Parker was indignant at the covert ridicule of her husband, and was
+silent all through the meal; indeed, the burden of the conversation fell
+upon Jennie and Maynard, but they were entirely willing to bear it, and
+were not lacking for words.</p>
+
+<p>"It is good to hear the bugles again," Jennie remarked, as one of the
+calls rang out on the still air, sweet and sad and as far removed from
+war as a love song.</p>
+
+<p>"They're not so pleasant when they call to the same monotonous round of
+daily duties," said Mr. Payne.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled. "Here's another disgruntled officer. What would you
+do&mdash;kill off the Indians and move into the city?"</p>
+
+<p>"To kill off a few measly whites might insure completer peace and
+tranquillity," replied Maynard.</p>
+
+<p>"You fellows couldn't be more righteously employed," put in Lawson. "You
+might begin on the political whoopers round about."</p>
+
+<p>"What blasphemy!" cried Jennie. "These 'noble pioneers!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Founding a mighty State," added Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"Founding a state of anarchy!" retorted Lawson. "They never did have any
+regard for law, except a law that worked in their favor."</p>
+
+<p>Parker got in a word. "Lawson, do you know what you are? You're what
+Norman Bass used to call 'a blame a-riss-to-crat.'" This provoked a
+laugh at Lawson's expense.</p>
+
+<p>"I admit it," said Lawson, calmly. "I am interested in the cowboy and
+the miner&mdash;as wild animals&mdash;as much as any of you, but as founders of an
+empire! The hard and unlovely truth is, they are representatives of
+every worst form of American vice; they are ignorant, filthy, and cruel.
+Their value as couriers of the Christian army has never been great with
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard was unusually reflective as he stared at Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"That's mighty plain talk," he observed, in the pause that followed.
+"You couldn't run for office on speeches like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Lawson's living doesn't depend on prevarication," remarked Curtis. "If
+it did&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If it did I'd lie like the best&mdash;I mean the worst of you," replied
+Lawson.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few years there will not be an Indian left," Parker remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"The world will be the poorer."</p>
+
+<p>"They will all be submerged," continued Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Why submerge them? Is the Anglo-Saxon type so adorable in the sight of
+God that He desires all the races of the earth to be like unto it? If
+the proselytizing zeal of the missionaries and functionaries of the
+English-speaking race could work out, the world would lose all its
+color, all its piquancy. Hungary would be like Scotland, Scotland would
+be Cornwall, Cornwall would duplicate London, and London reflect New
+York. Beautiful scheme for tailors, shoe-makers, and preachers, but
+depressing to artists."</p>
+
+<p>"You must be one of those chaps the missionaries tell about, who would
+keep men savage just to please your sense of the picturesque."</p>
+
+<p>"Savage! There's a fine word. What is a savage?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man who needs converting to our faith," said Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"A man to exercise the army on," said Maynard.</p>
+
+<p>"A man to rob in the name of the Lord," said Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"You're stealing all my oratorical thunder," complained Lawson. "When a
+speaker asks a question like that he doesn't want a detailed answer&mdash;he
+is pausing for effect. Speaking seriously&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Maynard, "then you were <i>not</i> serious."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson went his oratorical way. "My conviction is that savagery held
+more of true happiness than we have yet realized; and civilization, as
+you begin to see, does not, by any construction, advance the sum of
+human happiness as it should do."</p>
+
+<p>"What an advantage it is to have an independent income!" mused Maynard,
+looking about the table. "There's a man who not only has opinions, but
+utters them in a firm tone of voice."</p>
+
+<p>"I am being instructed," remarked Elsie. "I used to think no one took
+the Indian's side; now every one seems opposed to the cattlemen."</p>
+
+<p>"When we are civilized enough to understand this redman, he will have
+disappeared," said Curtis, very soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"Judging from the temper of this State at present, I reckon you're about
+right," replied Maynard. "Well, it's out o' my hands, as the fellah
+says; I'm not the Almighty; if I were I'd arrange things on a different
+basis."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all transition types," remarked Curtis, harking back to a remark
+of Lawson's making.</p>
+
+<p>"Even these settlers are immortal souls," said Parker.</p>
+
+<p>"Consider!" exclaimed Lawson. "How could we live without the Indian
+question? Maynard would be like Othello&mdash;occupation gone. Curtis would
+cease to be a philanthropist. Elsie Bee Bee would go sadly back to
+painting 'old hats' and dead ducks. I alone of all this company would be
+busy and well paid. I would continue to study the remains of the race."</p>
+
+<p>Jennie rose. "Put a period there," said she, "till we escape, and,
+remember, if we hear any loud talk we'll come out and fetch you away,"
+and she hurried out into the sitting-room, where Elsie and Mrs. Parker
+yielded up valuable suggestions about dress.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As the Parkers rose to go, Lawson approached Elsie and asked in a low
+voice: "<i>Are</i> you going home to the mess-house to-night? If you are, I
+want to go with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be ready in a moment," she replied, but her eyes wavered. As they
+stepped out together quite in the old way, he abruptly but gently began:</p>
+
+<p>"It is significant of our changed relations when I say that this is the
+first time I've had an opportunity for a private word since our camping
+trip. There is no need of this constraint, Elsie. I want you to be your
+good, frank self with me. I'll not misunderstand it. I am not charging
+anything up against you. In fact, I can see that you are right in your
+decision, but it hurts me to have you avoid me as you have done lately."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in his voice which brought the hot tears to her eyes
+and she replied, gently: "I'm very sorry, Osborne. I hoped you wouldn't
+care&mdash;so much, and I didn't mean&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I've tried not to show my hurt, for my own sake as well as yours, but
+the fact is I didn't realize how deeply you'd taken root in my thoughts
+till I tried to put you away. It is said that no two lovers are ever
+equal sharers in affection&mdash;one always gives more than the other&mdash;or one
+expects more than the other. I was perfectly sincere when I made that
+bargain with you, and I know you were; but you are younger than I, and
+that has changed the conditions for you. I am older than you thought,
+and I find myself naturally demanding more and more. I think I
+understand better than I did two days ago why you gave me back the ring,
+and I do not complain of it. I shall never again refer to it, but we can
+at least be friends. This cold silence&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She put out her hand. "Don't, please don't."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't bear your being stiff and uncomfortable in my presence, Bee
+Bee! You even called me Mister Lawson." There was a pathetic sort of
+humor in his voice which touched her. "Let us be good comrades again."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him her hand. "Very well, Osborne. But you are mistaken if you
+think&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Time will tell!" he interrupted, and his voice was strenuously
+cheerful. "Anyhow, we are on a sound footing again. Good-night."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The presence of Maynard and the troop was a greater relief to Curtis
+than he realized. He laid down for a moment's rest on his couch and fell
+into a dreamless sleep at once, and Jennie, deciding not to arouse him,
+spread a light shawl over him and withdrew softly. Maynard's coming
+brought a deeper sense of security than a stranger could have given with
+twice the number of troops. "Jack Maynard is so dependable," she said,
+and a distinct note of tenderness trembled in her voice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WARRIOR PROCLAIMS HIMSELF</h3>
+
+
+<p>The messengers from both Riddell and Pinon reported to Curtis about
+daylight, laden with papers and telegrams. The telegrams naturally
+received first reading. There was one filled with instructions from the
+Secretary of the Interior, and one from the Commissioner, bidding him
+stand firm. Several anxious ones from various cities, all of this tenor:
+"Is there any danger? my niece is one of your teachers," etc. In the
+midst of the others, Curtis came upon a fat one for Elsie, plainly from
+her father. This he put aside till after breakfast, when he permitted
+himself the pleasure of carrying it to the studio. He found her at work,
+painting a little brown tot of a girl in the arms of her smiling mother.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a telegram for you&mdash;from your father, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>She rose quickly and opened the envelope. As she read she laughed. "Poor
+papa; he is genuinely alarmed. Read it."</p>
+
+<p>He took it with more interest than he cared to show, and found it most
+peremptory in tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Reports from Fort Smith most alarming. Come out at once. Have wired the
+agent to furnish escort and conveyance. Shall expect you to reply
+immediately, giving news that you have left agency. You should not have
+gone there. I will meet you at Pinon City if possible; if I do not, take
+train for Alta. Wire me your plans. Country is much alarmed. I must hear
+from you at once or shall be worried."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked up with an amused light in his eyes. "He's a little
+incoherent, but sufficiently mandatory. When will you start?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will send a telegram out at once that I am safe, and all danger over.
+He will not want me to leave now."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. A messenger will start at once with all our letters and
+messages. Anything you wish to send can go at the same time."</p>
+
+<p>"What news have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only had time to glance at my mail, but the papers are all that
+Lawson has predicted. If you would know how important a criminal I am,
+read these"&mdash;he pointed at a bundle on a chair. "I must go back to the
+office now, but I will wait for your letters and telegrams before
+despatching a messenger. If you think it better to go than to stay, I
+will ask Captain Maynard to escort you to the station."</p>
+
+<p>"I will stay," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote a brief telegram to her father, saying: "I am quite safe and
+hard at work. All quiet; don't worry," and also composed a letter giving
+vital details of the situation and taking strong ground against the way
+in which the cattlemen had invaded the reservation. In conclusion she
+added: "I have a fine studio, plenty of models, and am in fine health; I
+cannot think of giving up my work because of this foolish panic. Don't
+let these settlers influence you against Captain Curtis; he's right this
+time."</p>
+
+<p>As she ran through the papers and caught the full significance of their
+precipitate attack on the agent, her teeth clinched in hot indignation.
+At the first breath, before they were sure of a single item of news,
+they leaped upon an honorable man, accusing him of concealing stolen
+cattle and of harboring murderers and thieves. "As for the Indians, it
+is time to exterminate these vermin! Let the State wipe out this tribe
+and its agency, and send this fellow Curtis back to his regiment where
+he belongs," was the burden of their song.</p>
+
+<p>As she read on, tingling with wrath at these vulgarly written and
+utterly un-Christian editorials, the girl caught an amazing side-glimpse
+of herself and the views she once held. She remembered reading just such
+reports once before, and joining with her father in his desire to punish
+the redmen. Was Lawson right? Had her notions of the "brave and noble
+pioneers fighting the wild beast and the savage" arisen from ignorance
+of their true nature? Had they always been as narrow, as bigoted, as
+relentless, and as greedy as these articles hinted at? Some of Lawson's
+clean-cut, relentless phrases came back to her at the moment, and she
+began to believe that he was nearer right than she had been. And her
+father? Would he sanction such libels as these? At last the essential
+grandeur of the position held in common by both Curtis and Lawson&mdash;of
+the right of the small people to their place on the planet&mdash;came to her,
+and in opposition to their grave, sweet eyes she saw again the brutal,
+leering faces of the mob, and comprehended the feelings of a chief like
+Grayman, as he confronts the oncoming hordes of a destroying race.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in the grassy hollow between two round-top hills the bands of
+Elk and Grayman were gathered in extraordinary council. No one was in
+gala-dress, no one was painted, all were serious or sad or morose. Upon
+their folded blankets the head men sat in a small circle on the smooth
+sod, exposed to the blazing sun. Behind them stood or knelt a larger
+circle, the men and boys on one side, the women on the other, while in
+the rear, mounted on their fleetest ponies, some two hundred of the
+young men were ranked, enthralled listeners to the impassioned speeches
+of the old men.</p>
+
+<p>Crawling Elk made the first address, repeating the story which the agent
+had told and calling upon all those who sat before him to search for the
+guilty one and report to him if they found him. His words were received
+in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Then Grayman rose, and, stepping into the circle, began to speak in a
+low and sorrowful voice. Something in his manner as well as in his words
+enlisted the almost breathless interest of the crowd. There was a tragic
+pathos in his voice as he called out: "You see how it is, brothers; we
+are like a nest of ants in a white man's field, which he is ploughing.
+We are only a few and weak, while all around us our enemies press in
+upon us. We have only one friend&mdash;our Little Father. We must do as he
+says. We must give up a man to the war chief of the cowboys. They will
+never believe that any one else killed the sheep-man. The cattlemen and
+sheepmen are always quarrelling, but they readily join hands to do the
+Tetongs harm."</p>
+
+<p>"It is death to us to fight the white man; I know it. Unless we all wish
+to be shot, we must not become angry this time; we must do as the Little
+Father says, and if we cannot find the man who did this thing, I will go
+and give myself into the hands of the white war chief." A murmur of
+protest and anger ran round the circle. "It is better for one to suffer
+than many," he said, in answer to the protest, "and I am old. My wife is
+dead. I have but one son, and he is estranged from me. I say, if we
+cannot find who did this thing, then I am willing to go and be killed of
+the white people in order to keep the peace. I have said it."</p>
+
+<p>Standing Elk leaped to his feet, tall, gaunt, excitable. "We will not do
+this," he said. "We will fight first." And among the young warriors
+there was applause. "The Tetongs are not dogs to be always kicked in the
+ribs. I have fought the white man. I have met 'Long Hair' and 'Bear
+Robe' in battle. I am not afraid of the cattlemen. I am old, but my
+heart is yet big. Let us do battle and die like brave men."</p>
+
+<p>Then Crawling Elk rose, and his broad, good-humored face shone in the
+sun like polished bronze as he turned his cheek to the wind.</p>
+
+<p>"The words of my brother are loud and quick," he said, slowly. "In the
+ancient time it was always so. He was always ready to fight. I was
+always opposed to fighting. We must not talk of fighting now; all that
+is put away. It belongs to the suns that have gone over our heads. We
+must now talk of cattle-herding and ploughing. We must strive always to
+be at peace with the cowboys. I, too, am old. I have not many years to
+live; but you young men have a long time to live, and you cannot be
+always quarrelling with the settlers; you must be wise and patient. Our
+Little Father, Swift Eagle, is our friend; you can trust him. You can
+put your hand in his and find it strong and warm. His heart is good and
+his words are wise. If we can find the man who did this evil deed, we
+must give him up. It is not right that all of us should suffer for the
+wickedness of one man. No, it is not right that we who are old should
+die for one whose hands are red."</p>
+
+<p>This speech was also received in silence, but plainly produced a
+powerful effect. Then one of the men who found the body rose and told
+what he knew of the case. "I do not think a Tetong killed the man," he
+said, in conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>In this wise the talk proceeded for nearly two hours, and then the
+council rose to meet again at sunset, and word of what had been said was
+carried to Curtis by Crawling Elk and Grayman.</p>
+
+<p>To them Curtis said: "I am pleased with you. Go over the names of all
+your reckless young men, and when you reach one you think might do such
+a deed, question him and his people closely. The shells of the rifle
+were the largest size&mdash;that may help you. Your old men would not do this
+thing&mdash;their heads are cool; but some of your young men have hot hearts
+and may have quarrelled with this herder."</p>
+
+<p>The old men went away very sorrowful. Grayman was especially troubled,
+because he could not help thinking all the time of Cut Finger, his
+nephew.</p>
+
+<p>Running Fox, or "Cut Finger," as the white people called him, he knew to
+be a morose and reckless young man, and probably possessed of some evil
+spirit, for at times he was quite crazy. Once he had forced his pony
+into the cooking-lodge of Bear Paw for no reason at all, and Bear Paw,
+in a rage, had snatched up his rifle and fired, putting a bullet through
+the bridle hand of Running Fox, who lost two fingers and gained a new
+name. At another time the mad fool had tried to force his horse to leap
+a cliff; and once he had attempted to drown himself; and yet, between
+these obsessions, he could be very winning, and there were many among
+Elk's band who pitied him. He was comely withal, and had married a
+handsome girl, the daughter of Standing Wolf. It was easy to imagine
+that Cut Finger was the guilty one, and yet to think of him was to think
+of his son's intimate friend.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached his tepee Grayman lit his pipe and sat down alone and
+remained in deep thought for hours. He feared to find Cut Finger guilty,
+for his own son was Cut Finger's friend, or fellow, and that means the
+closest intimacy. There are no secrets between a Tetong and his chum.
+"If Cut Finger is guilty, then my son knows of it. That I fear."</p>
+
+<p>When any one came to the door he motioned them away; even his daughter
+dared not enter, for she saw him in meditation. As he smoked he made
+offering to the Great Spirit, and prayed that he might be shown the
+right way, and his heart was greatly troubled.</p>
+
+<p>Crawling Elk, with a half-dozen of his head men, was seated in his
+tepee, calmly discussing the same question. The canvas of his lodge was
+raised, as much to insure privacy as to let the wind sweep through. It
+was not easy to accuse any man of this crime, or even to suggest the
+name of any one as capable of such a foolish deed of blood. For
+relationships were close; therefore it was that he, too, narrowed the
+investigation down to Cut Finger. It is easier to accuse the son of a
+neighbor than your own son, especially if that other is already a marked
+man among reckless youths.</p>
+
+<p>At five o'clock Grayman called his daughter and said, "Send my sister,
+Standing Cloud, to me."</p>
+
+<p>Standing Cloud came and took a seat on the outside of the tepee&mdash;on the
+side where the canvas was fastened up&mdash;and there sat with bent head, her
+fingers busy with blades of grass, while her brother questioned her. She
+was a large and comely woman of middle age. Her expression was still
+youthful, and her voice had girlish lightness. She was at once deeply
+moved by her brother's questions. She did not know where her son was; he
+had not been to see her for several days. She understood whereto the
+questioning tended, and stoutly denied that her son would do so evil a
+deed. Nevertheless, Grayman was compelled to say:</p>
+
+<p>"You know he has a bad head," and he made the confused, wavering sign of
+the hand which signifies crazy or foolish, and the mother rose and went
+away sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>Then Grayman recalled the words of the Little Father. "If my own brother
+should do wrong, I would give him up to the war chief," he therefore
+said. "If my son and my sister's son are guilty, I will give them up,"
+and he rose and sought out Crawling Elk and told him of his fears, and
+repeated his resolution as they sat together while the sun was going
+down and the crier was calling the second council.</p>
+
+<p>"It is right," said Elk. "Those who are guilty must be punished; but we
+do not know who fired the shot."</p>
+
+<p>The people were slow in coming together this second time, and darkness
+was falling as the head men again took their seats. A small fire was
+being built in the centre of the circle, and towards this at last, like
+nocturnal insects, the larger number of the people in the two camps
+slowly concentrated.</p>
+
+<p>The wind had gone down and the night was dark and still and warm. The
+people gathered in comparative silence, though the laugh of a girl
+occasionally broke from the clustering masses of the women, to be
+followed by a mutter of jests from the young men who stood close packed
+behind the older members of the bands. Excitement had deepened since the
+morning, for in some way the news had passed from lip to lip that
+Grayman had discovered the evil-doer.</p>
+
+<p>On their part the chieftains were slow to begin their painful task. They
+smoked in silence till the fire was twice replenished, then began
+talking in low tones among themselves. At last Crawling Elk arose and
+made a speech similar to that of the morning. He recounted the tale of
+the murdered white man, and the details of finding the body, and ended
+by saying: "We are commanded by the agent to find the ones who have done
+this evil deed. If any one knows anything about this, let him come
+forward and speak. It is not right that we should all suffer for the
+wrong-doing of some reckless young warriors."</p>
+
+<p>"Come forth and speak, any one who knows," called the head men, looking
+round the circle. "He who remains silent does wrong."</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns rose. "We mean you, young men&mdash;you too," he said, turning to
+the women. "If any of you have heard anything of this matter, speak!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the silence fell again on the circle of old men, and they bent
+their heads in meditation. Crawling Elk was just handing the pipe to
+Grayman, in order to rise, when a low mutter and a jostling caused every
+glance to centre upon one side of the circle, and then, decked in
+war-paint, gay with beads and feathers, and carrying a rifle, Cut Finger
+stepped silently and haughtily into the circle and stood motionless as a
+statue, his tall figure erect and rigid as an oak.</p>
+
+<p>A moaning sound swept over the assembly, and every eye was fixed on the
+young man. "Ahee! Ahee!" the women wailed, in astonishment and fear; two
+or three began a low, sad chant, and death seemed to stretch a black
+wing over the council. By his weapons, by his war-paint, by his bared
+head decked with eagle-plumes, and by the haughty lift of his face, Cut
+Finger proclaimed louder than words:</p>
+
+<p>"I am the man who killed the herder."</p>
+
+<p>Standing so, he began to sing a stern song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I alone killed him&mdash;the white man.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He was a thief and I killed him.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No one helped me; I alone fired the shot.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He will drive his sheep no more on Tetong lands.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This dog of a herder.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He lies there in the short grass.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It was I, Cut Finger, who did it."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>As his chant died away he turned: "I go to the hills to fight and die
+like a man." And before the old men could stay him he had vanished among
+the young horsemen of the outer circle, and a moment later the loud
+drumming of his pony's hoofs could be heard as he rode away.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Curtis was sitting alone in the library when a tap at his window
+announced the presence of Grayman.</p>
+
+<p>Following a gesture, the chieftain came in, and, with a look on his face
+which expressed high resolution and keen sorrow, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"The man who killed the herder is found. He has proclaimed himself at
+our council, and he has ridden away into the hills."</p>
+
+<p>"Who was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cut Finger."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! So? Well, you have done your duty. I will not ask you to arrest
+him. Crow will do that. I hope"&mdash;he hesitated&mdash;"I hope your son was not
+with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"'I alone did it,' he says. My son is innocent."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad," replied Curtis, looking into the old man's tremulous
+face. "Go home and sleep in peace."</p>
+
+<p>With a clasp of the hand Grayman said good-night and vanished.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to be done till morning, and Curtis knew the habits of
+the Indians too well to be anxious about the criminal. Calling his
+faithful Crane's Voice, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Crane, will you go to Pinon City?"</p>
+
+<p>Crane's Voice straightened. "To-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will let me wear a blue coat I will go."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled. "You are a brave boy. I will give you a coat. That will
+protect you if you are caught by the white men. Saddle your pony."</p>
+
+<p>With a smile he turned on his heel and went out as cheerfully as though
+he were going on an errand to the issue-house.</p>
+
+<p>In his letter to the sheriff Curtis said: "I have found the murderer. He
+is a half-crazy boy called Cut Finger. Make out a warrant for him and I
+will deliver him to you. You will need no deputies. No one but yourself
+will be permitted to cross the line for the present."</p>
+
+<p>After Crane had galloped off, Curtis laid down his pen and sat for a
+long time recalling the events of the evening. He remembered that Lawson
+and Elsie went away together, and a pang of jealous pain took hold upon
+him. "I never had the privilege of taking her arm," he thought,
+unreasonably.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>BRISBANE COMES FOR ELSIE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Among other perplexities which now assailed the agent was the question
+of how to secure Cut Finger without inciting further violence. He
+confidently expected the police to locate the fugitive during the day,
+probably in the camp of Red Wolf, on the head-waters of the Elk.</p>
+
+<p>"He cannot escape. There is no place for him to go."</p>
+
+<p>"He may have committed suicide," said Wilson, discussing the matter with
+his chief the following morning.</p>
+
+<p>"He may, but his death will not satisfy the ranchers unless they are
+made the instrument of vengeance. They would feel cheated and bitterer
+than ever," replied Curtis, sombrely. "He must be taken and delivered up
+to the law."</p>
+
+<p>On his return to the office after breakfast Curtis stopped at the door
+of Elsie's studio, his brain yet tingling with the consciousness that no
+other man's claim stood between them now.</p>
+
+<p>She greeted him joyously. "I am starting a big canvas this morning," she
+said. "Come in and see it."</p>
+
+<p>He stepped inside to see, but the canvas only had a few rude, reddish
+lines upon it, and Elsie laughed at his blank look as he faced the
+easel.</p>
+
+<p>"This thing here," she pointed with her brush, "is a beautiful purple
+butte; this yellow circle is the sun; these little crumbly looking boxes
+are trees; this streak is a river. This jack-in-the-box here is Crow
+Wing on his horse."</p>
+
+<p>Her joking helped to clear his brain, though his blood was throbbing in
+his ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I'm glad to know all that. Will you tag each anomalous hump?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. You will recognize everything by number or otherwise." She
+turned a suddenly serious face upon him. "I am determined to get back to
+work. These last few days have been so exciting. Is there any news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The murderer proclaimed himself at a big council last night."</p>
+
+<p>"He did! Oh, tell me about it! When?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know exactly the hour, but the chieftains came to me about nine
+o'clock. I know him well; he is a reckless, handsome, half-crazy young
+man&mdash;" He broke off suddenly as Heavybreast, one of the policemen,
+profoundly excited, darkened the door-way. "Cut Finger is on the hill,"
+he signed, and pointed away with trembling finger to a height which rose
+like a monstrous bee-hive just behind the school-house. On the rounded
+top, looking like a small monument on a colossal pedestal, sat a mounted
+warrior.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he there for?" asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"He wants to die like Raven Face. He wants to fight the cowboys, he
+says. He don't want to hurt any one else, he says; only the cowboys and
+their war chief, so he says."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Crow? I want this man arrested and brought to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Now he will shoot any one who goes up the hill; he has said so. All the
+people are watching."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis mused a moment. "Can you send word to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; his wife is here."</p>
+
+<p>"Then tell him I will not let him fight. Tell him that shooting will do
+no good, and that I want him to come down and see me."</p>
+
+<p>The officer trotted away.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say?" asked Elsie. "What is that man on the hill for?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is Cut Finger, the guilty man. He proclaimed himself the murderer
+last night and now he is willing to die, but wants to die on his horse."</p>
+
+<p>The whole agency was again tremulous with excitement. The teachers, the
+scholars, the native employés were all gathered into chattering groups
+with eyes fixed on the motionless figure of the desperate horseman, and
+in the camps above the agency an almost frenzied excitement was
+spreading. The stark bravery of the boy's attitude had kindled anew the
+flame of war, and behind Cut Finger on the hills two groups of mounted
+warriors had gathered suddenly. Several of the more excitable old women
+broke into a war-song, whose wail came faintly to the ears of the agent.</p>
+
+<p>"Two Horns, silence those singers," said Curtis, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie and Jennie and the Parkers joined the group around the agent, and
+Miss Colson, the missionary, came flying for refuge at the side of her
+hero.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Parker. "If the fellow really means to
+shoot, of course no man can go up to him. You might send some soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence in the ranks!" commanded Maynard, and, though he smiled as he
+said it, Parker realized his mistake. He turned to Elsie and his wife.
+"I tell you, we'd better get out of here. I feel just like a man sitting
+on a powder-mine. There's no telling what's going to happen next."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson turned towards him with a sarcastic grin. "I wish I'd realized
+the state of your nerves, Parker; I should have invited you to Asbury
+Beach instead of the Indian country."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard brought his field-glasses to bear on the desperado. "He has
+dismounted," he said. "He is squatted beside his horse, the bridle-rein
+on his arm, a rifle across his knees, and is faced this way. His
+attitude is resolute and 'sassy.'"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis quietly said: "Now, friends, I wish you would all go in and pay
+no further attention to this man. Miss Colson, go back to your work. So
+long as he sees us looking at him he will maintain his defiant attitude.
+He will grow weary of his bravado if ignored."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, Captain," replied Lawson, and the little knot of visitors
+broke up and dispersed to sheltered points of observation.</p>
+
+<p>Under the same gentle pressure the employés went back to work, and the
+self-convicted warrior was left to defy the wind and the sky. Even the
+Tetongs themselves grew tired of looking when nothing seemed likely to
+happen, and the forenoon wore away as usual, well filled with duties.
+Maynard's men got out for drill an hour later, and their bugle's voice
+pulsed upward to the silent and motionless watcher on the hill like
+mocking laughter. The clink of the anvil also rose to him on the hot,
+dry air, and just beneath him the children came forth at recess to play.
+He became tired of sitting on the ground at last, and again mounted his
+horse, but no one at the agency seemed to know or to care. The sun beat
+remorselessly upon his head, and his throat became parched with thirst.
+Slowly but surely the exaltation of the morning ebbed away and a
+tremulous weakness seized upon him, so that, when his wife came bringing
+meat and water, he who had never expected to eat or drink again seized
+upon the food and ate greedily.</p>
+
+<p>Then, while she sat on the ground and repeated the agent's message, he
+stood beside his horse, sullen and wordless. The bell rang for noon, and
+as the children came rushing out they pointed up at him again, and the
+teachers also stood in a group for a moment, with faces turned upward,
+but only for a moment, then went carelessly away to their meals.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed, the work-bell rang, the clerks returned to their duties,
+and the agent walked slowly across the road towards the office. Cut
+Finger lifted his rifle and pointed it. "I could shoot him now," he
+muttered. "But he is a good man; I do not want to kill him." Then the
+heat and silence settled over hill and valley, and no sound but the
+buzzing of flies and the clatter of grasshoppers broke the hot, brooding
+hush of the mid-day. The wind was from the plain and brought no coolness
+on its wings.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not entirely forgotten. Elsie, from her studio door, kept
+close watch upon him. "There's something fine about him after all," she
+said to Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like the old Mosaic times&mdash;an eye for an eye. He knows he must die
+for this, but he prefers to die gloriously, as a warrior dies."</p>
+
+<p>A dust down the road caught Curtis's attention. "The mail will soon be
+in and then we will see how all this affects the press of the State; the
+Chicago dailies will not reach us for a couple of days yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Send the papers over here, please!" cried Elsie, "I'm wild to see
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not all assemble at 'the parsonage' and I'll bring them there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; that will do as well," she replied. "It will be such a joy
+to read our obituaries."</p>
+
+<p>As he entered the library with his armful of papers a half-hour later
+Curtis exclaimed: "Well, now, here is a feast! The commotion on the
+outside is prodigious. Here are the Copper City and Alta papers, and a
+dozen lesser 'lights and signals of progress' in the State. Help
+yourselves." He took out a handful of letters and telegrams. "And here
+are the prayers of anxious relatives. A telegram for you, Miss Brisbane;
+and two for you, Lawson."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie's message from her father was brief. "Have no word from you; am en
+route for Pinon City. Not finding you there will cross to agency at
+once. Why do you not come out?"</p>
+
+<p>Looking at the date she said: "Papa is coming; he is probably on his
+way to the agency at this moment."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked a little troubled. "I hope not; the roads are dusty and
+the sun is hot."</p>
+
+<p>"By George! this is fierce stuff," said Parker, looking up from his
+paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Cut Finger has left the hill," announced Jennie from the door-way; "he
+is nowhere to be seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Now he will submit to arrest," exclaimed Curtis. "His fine frenzy is
+gone."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," Elsie soberly exclaimed. "Must you give him up to that
+stupid sheriff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it must be done," replied Curtis. "My only claim to consideration
+lies in executing the law. I fought lawlessness with the promise that
+when the sheriff came with proper warrant I would act."</p>
+
+<p>As the young officer went back to his duties the head-lines of the
+papers he had but glanced at began to burn into his brain. Hitherto his
+name had been most inconspicuous; only once or twice had it achieved a
+long-primer setting; mainly it had kept to the security and dignity of
+brevier notices in the <i>Army and Navy Journal</i>. Now here it stood,
+blazoned in ill-smelling ink on wood-pulp paper, in letters half an inch
+in height:</p>
+
+<h4>CURTIS CULPABLE<br />
+THE AGENT SHIELDS HIS PETS</h4>
+
+<p>while in the editorial columns of the Copper City papers similar
+accusations, though adroitly veiled, were none the less apparent. He had
+smiled at all this in the presence of his friends, but inwardly he
+shrank from it just as he would have done had some tramp in the street
+flung a handful of gutter slime across the breast of his uniform. A gust
+of rage made his teeth clinch and his face burn hot, and he entered his
+office with lowering brows.</p>
+
+<p>Wilson looked up with a grin. "Well, Major, the politicians are getting
+in their work on us."</p>
+
+<p>"This is only the beginning. We may expect an army of reporters to
+complete the work of misrepresentation."</p>
+
+<p>"The wonder is they haven't got here before. They must be really
+nervous. Crane says the people in town have very bad hearts. As near as
+I can make out they faced him up and threatened his life. He says the
+mob is hanging round the edge of the reservation crazy for blood. He got
+shy and took to the hills."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he see the sheriff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the sheriff is on the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Crane still asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He didn't wait for grub; he dropped like a log and is dead to the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor chap! I shouldn't have sent him on this last trip. Where is Tony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tony's out in the hills to keep an eye on Cut Finger. Will you go after
+him to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not till morning. The police will locate him and stay with him
+to-night, and to-morrow morning I will go out and get him myself. I
+don't want any shooting, if it can be avoided. What is it, Heavybreast?"
+he asked of a large Tetong who entered at the moment, his eyes bright
+with information.</p>
+
+<p>"White man coming," signed the redman.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis rose and went to the door and looked down the road.</p>
+
+<p>Three carriages were passing the issue-house&mdash;one a rather pretentious
+family surrey, the others ordinary mountain wagons. In the hinder seat
+of the surrey, and beside the sheriff, sat a gray-haired man.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Senator Brisbane!" said Curtis to Wilson, and a keen pang of
+anticipated loss came to him, for he knew that Brisbane had come to take
+his daughter away. But his face was calm as he went down to the gate to
+meet his distinguished and powerful enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The ex-Senator was hot, weary, and angry. He had arrived in Pinon City
+on the early train, just as the county attorney and the sheriff were
+about to set forth. A few words with these officials assuaged his
+anxiety for his daughter but increased his irritation towards Curtis.
+Leaving orders for another team to follow, he had taken passage with the
+sheriff, an action he regretted at once. The seats were too low and too
+narrow for his vast bulk, and his knees grew weary. The wind came from
+the plain hot and insolent, bringing no relief to the lungs; on the
+contrary, it filled his eyes and ears with dust and parched the skin
+like a furnace blast. Altogether the conditions of his ride had been
+torturing to the great man, and he had ridden the latter part of it in
+grim silence, mentally execrating both Lawson and Curtis for luring his
+daughter so far from civilization.</p>
+
+<p>No one spoke till the agent, pacing calmly down to the gate, stepped
+into the road and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening, gentlemen, will you get out and come in?"</p>
+
+<p>Even then Brisbane made no reply, but the sheriff spoke up: "I suppose
+we'll have to. This is Senator Brisbane, Major. He was very anxious
+about his daughter and so came in with me. This is Mr. Grismore, our
+county attorney."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis bowed slightly. "Mr. Grismore I have seen. Senator Brisbane I
+have met. Send your horses down to the corral, sheriff, and come in; you
+can't return to-night."</p>
+
+<p>As the sheriff got out he said: "This second team is the Senator's, and
+the reporter for the Associated Press is in there with Streeter."</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane got out slowly and painfully, and a yellow-gray pallor came
+into his face as he stood beside the carriage steadying himself by
+resting his hand on the wheel. The young county attorney, eager to serve
+the great politician, sprang out and offered a hand, and Curtis, with
+sudden pity in his heart, made a step forward, but Brisbane put them
+both aside harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! I'm all right now. My legs were cramped&mdash;that's all. They'll
+limber up in a minute. The seats were too low for a man of my height. I
+should have stayed in the other carriage."</p>
+
+<p>After all he was Elsie's father, and Curtis relented: "Senator, if
+you'll take a seat in my office, I'll go fetch your daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"I prefer to go to her myself," Brisbane replied, menacingly formal.
+"Where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will show you if you will permit," Curtis coldly replied, and set out
+to cross the road.</p>
+
+<p>The old man hobbled painfully at first, but soon recovered enough of his
+habitual power to follow Curtis, who did not wait, for he wished to
+have a private word with Elsie before her father came. She was lying
+down as he knocked, resting, waiting for the dinner call.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father is here," he said, as she opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>Her face expressed surprise, not pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Here! Here at the agency?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and on his way to the studio. Moreover, he is very dirty, very
+disgusted, very crusty, and not at all well."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old father! Now he'll make it uncomfortable for us all. He has
+come for me, of course. Who is with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sheriff, the county attorney, and some reporters."</p>
+
+<p>She smiled. "Then he is 'after you,' too."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks that way. But you must not go away without giving me another
+chance to talk with you. Will you promise that?" he demanded, abruptly,
+passionately. "I have something to say to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not promise," she responded, and her words chilled him even more
+than her action as she turned away to the door. "How slowly he walks!
+Poor old papa! You shouldn't have done this, popsey," she cried, as she
+met him with a kiss on his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis walked away, leaving them alone, a hand of ice at his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane took her kiss without changing to lighter mood.</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you follow out my orders?" he demanded, harshly. "You see
+what I've had to go through just because you are so foolishly
+obstinate. That ride is enough to kill a man."</p>
+
+<p>Her throat swelled with anger, but she choked it down and replied very
+gently. "Come into the studio and let me clean off the dust. I'm sorry."</p>
+
+<p>He followed her in and sank heavily upon a chair. "I wouldn't take that
+journey again for ten thousand dollars. Why didn't you come to the
+railway as I ordered?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I saw no good reason for it. I knew what I was doing. Captain
+Curtis assured me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Curtis!" he sneered. "You'd take his word against mine, would
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I would, for he is on the ground and knows all the conditions. He
+has the outbreak well in hand. You have seen only the outside
+exaggeration of it. He has acted with honor and good judgment&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he has, has he? Well, we'll see about that!" His mind had taken a
+new turn. "He won't have anything in his hand six months from now. No
+West Point dude like him can set himself up against the power of this
+State and live."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, papa, don't start in to abuse Captain Curtis; he is our host, and
+it isn't seemly."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it isn't! Well, I don't care whether it is or is not; I shall speak
+my mind. His whole attitude has been hostile to the best interests of
+the State, and he must get off his high horse."</p>
+
+<p>As he growled and sneered his way through a long diatribe, she brought
+water and bathed his face and hands and brushed his hair, her anger
+melting into pity as she comprehended how weak and broken he was. She
+had observed it before in times of great fatigue, but the heat and dust
+and discomfort of the drive had reduced the big body, debilitated by
+lack of exercise, to a nerveless lump, his brain to a mass of incoherent
+and savage impulses. No matter what he said thereafter, she realized his
+pitiable weakness and felt no anger.</p>
+
+<p>As he rested he grew calmer, and at last consented to lie down while she
+made a little tea on an alcohol lamp. After sipping the tea he fell
+asleep, and she sat by his side, her mind filled with the fundamental
+conception of a daughter's obligation to her sire. To her he was no
+longer a great politician, no longer a powerful, aggressive business
+man&mdash;he was only her poor, old, dying father, to whom she owed her every
+comfort, her education, her jewels, her art. He had never been a
+companion to her&mdash;his had been the rule absolute&mdash;and yet a hundred
+indulgences, a hundred really kind and considerate acts came thronging
+to her mind as she fanned his flushed face.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go with him," she said; "it is my duty."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis came to the door again and tapped. She put her finger to her
+lips, and so he stood silent, looking in at her. His eyes called her and
+she rose and tiptoed to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I came to ask you both to dinner," he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes filled with quick tears. "That's good of you," she returned, in
+a low voice. "But he would not come. He's only a poor, old, broken man,
+after all." Her voice was apologetic in tone. "I hope you will not be
+angry." They both stood looking down at him. "He has failed terribly in
+the last few weeks. His campaigning will kill him. I wish he would give
+it up. He needs rest and quiet. What can I do?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, looking upon the livid old man, inert and lumpish, yet venerable
+because of his white hairs&mdash;and because he was the sire of his
+love&mdash;experienced a sudden melting of his own resolution. His throat
+choked, but he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Go with him. He needs you."</p>
+
+<p>At the moment words were unnecessary. She understood his deeper meaning,
+and lifted her hand to him. He took it in both his. "It may be a long
+time before I shall see you again. I&mdash;I ought not&mdash;" he struggled with
+himself and ceased to speak.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes wavered and she withdrew her hand. "My duty is with him now;
+perhaps I can carry him through his campaign, or dissuade him
+altogether. Don't you see that I am right?"</p>
+
+<p>He drew himself up as though his general-in-chief were passing. "Duty is
+a word I can understand," he said, and turned away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A WALK IN THE STARLIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Having no further pretext for calling upon her, Curtis thought of Elsie
+as of a strain of music which had passed. He was rather silent at
+dinner, but not noticeably so, for Maynard absorbed most of the time and
+attention of those present. At the first opportunity he returned to his
+papers, and was deep in work when Jennie came in to tell him that Elsie
+was coming over to stay the night.</p>
+
+<p>"She has given up her bed to her father, and so she will sleep here. Go
+over about nine and get her."</p>
+
+<p>If she knew how deeply this command moved him, she was considerate
+enough to make no comment. "Very well, sis," he replied, quietly. "As
+soon as I finish this letter."</p>
+
+<p>But he did not finish the letter&mdash;did not even complete the sentence
+with which his pen was engaged when Jennie interrupted him. After she
+went out he sat in silence and in complete immobility for nearly an
+hour. At last he rose and went out into the warm and windless night.</p>
+
+<p>When he entered the studio he found her seated upon one trunk and
+surveying another.</p>
+
+<p>"This looks like flight," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; papa insists on our going early to-morrow morning. Isn't it
+preposterous! I can only pack my clothing. He says the trouble is only
+beginning, and that I must not remain here another day."</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to fetch you to Jennie."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be ready presently. I am just looking round to decide on what to
+take. Be seated, please, while I look over this pile of sketches."</p>
+
+<p>He took a seat and looked at her sombrely. "You'll leave a great big
+empty place here when you go."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean this studio?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean in my daily life."</p>
+
+<p>She became reflective. "I hate to go, and that's the truth of it. I am
+just beginning to feel my grip tighten on this material. I know I could
+do some good work here, but really I was frightened at papa's condition
+this afternoon. He is better now, but I can see that he is failing. If
+he insists on campaigning I must go with him&mdash;but, oh, how I hate it!
+Think of standing up and shaking hands with all these queer people for
+months! I oughtn't to feel so, of course, but I can't help it. I've no
+patience with people who are half-baked, neither bread nor dough. I
+believe I like old Mary and Two Horns better."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear you are voicing a mood, not a conviction. We ought not to
+condemn any one;" he paused a moment, then added: "I don't like you to
+even <i>say</i> cruel things. It hurts me. As I look round this room I see
+nothing which has to do with duty or conviction or war or politics.
+There is peace and beauty here. You belong in this atmosphere; you are
+fitted to your environment. I admit that I was fired at first with a
+desire to convert you to my ways of thought; now, when a sense of duty
+troubles you, takes you away from the joy of your art, I question
+myself. You are too beautiful to wear yourself out in problems. I now
+say, remain an artist. There is something idyllic about your artist life
+as I now understand it. It is simple and childlike. In that respect it
+seems to have less troublesome questions of right or wrong to decide
+than science. Its one care seems to be, 'What will produce and preserve
+beauty, and so assuage the pain of the world?' No question of money or
+religion or politics&mdash;just the pursuit of an ideal in a sheltered nook."</p>
+
+<p>"You have gone too far the other way, I fear," she said, sadly. "Our
+lives, even at the best, are far from being the ideal you present. It
+seems very strange to me to hear you say those things&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have given the matter much thought," he replied. "If I have made you
+think of the woes of the world, so you have shown me glimpses of a life
+where men and women are almost free from care. We are mutually
+instructed." He rose at this point and, after hesitation, said: "When
+you go I wish you would leave this room just as it is, and when I am
+tired and irritable and lonely I'll come here and imagine myself a part
+of your world of harmonious colors, with no race questions to settle and
+no harsh duties to perform. Will you do this? These few hangings and
+lamps and easels are unimportant to you&mdash;you won't miss them; to me they
+will be priceless, and, besides, you may come back again some time. Say
+you will. It will comfort me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a light in his eyes and an intensity in his voice which
+startled her. She stammered a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course, if it will give you the slightest pleasure; there is
+nothing here of any particular value. I'll be glad to leave them."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. So long as I have this room as it is I shall be able to
+persuade myself that you have not passed utterly out of my life."</p>
+
+<p>She was a little alarmed now, and hastened to say: "I do not see why we
+should not meet again. I shall expect you to call when you come to
+Washington&mdash;" she checked herself. "I'm afraid my sense of duty to the
+Tetongs is not strong. Don't think too hardly of me because of it."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed intent on another thought. "Do you know, you've given me a dim
+notion of a new philosophy. I haven't organized it yet, but it's
+something like this: Beauty is a sense of fitness, harmony. This sense
+of beauty&mdash;call it taste&mdash;demands positively a readjustment of the
+external facts of life, so that all angles, all suffering and violence,
+shall cease. If all men were lovers of the beautiful, the gentle, then
+the world would needs be suave and genial, and life harmoniously
+colored, like your own studio, and we would campaign only against
+ugliness. To civilize would mean a totally different thing. I'm not
+quite clear on my theory yet, but perhaps you can help me out."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I see what you mean. But my world," she hastened to say, "is
+nothing like so blameless as you think it. Don't think artists are
+actually what they should be. They are very human, eager to succeed, to
+outstrip each other; and they are sordid, too. No, you are too kind to
+us. We are a poor lot when you take us as a whole, and the worst of it
+is the cleverest makers of the beautiful are often the least inspiring
+in their lives. I mean they're ignorant and spiteful, and often
+dishonorable." She stopped abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to hear you say that. It certainly shatters a beautiful
+theory I had built up out of what you and other artists have said to
+me." After a little silence he resumed: "It comes down to this, then:
+that all arts and professions are a part of life, and life is a
+compromise between desire and duty. There are certain things I want to
+do to-day, but my duties for to-morrow forbid. You are right in going
+away with your father&mdash;I'm not one to keep you from doing that&mdash;but I
+must tell you how great has been the pleasure of having you here, and I
+hope you will come again. If you go to-morrow morning I shall not see
+you again."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I start at dawn to arrest Cut Finger."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. The captain of the police goes with me."</p>
+
+<p>Her face paled a little. "Oh! I wish you wouldn't! Why don't you take
+the soldiers?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are not necessary. I shall leave here about four o'clock and
+surprise the guilty man in his bed. He will not fight me." He rose. "Are
+you ready to go now?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a moment," she said, and softly crossed the floor to peep into the
+bedroom. "Poor papa, he looks almost bloodless as he sleeps."</p>
+
+<p>As they stepped out into the darkness Curtis realized that this was
+their last walk together, and the thought was both sweet and sad.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take my arm?" he asked. "It is very dark, though there should
+be a new moon."</p>
+
+<p>"It has gone down; I saw it," she replied, as she slipped her hand
+through his elbow. "How peaceful it all is! It doesn't seem possible
+that to-morrow you will risk your life in the performance of duty, and
+that I will leave here, never to return. I have a curious feeling about
+this place now. It seems as though I were settled here, and that I am to
+go on living here forever."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish it were true. Women like you&mdash;you know what I mean; there are no
+women like you, of course&mdash;come into my life too seldom. I dread the
+empty futility of to-morrow. As an Indian agent, I must expect to live
+without companionship with such as you. I have a premonition that Jennie
+is going to leave me&mdash;as she ought."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be very lonely then; what will you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Work harder; do more good, and so cheat myself into forgetfulness that
+time is flying."</p>
+
+<p>"You are bitter to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't I be when you are going away? It wouldn't be decent of me
+to be gay."</p>
+
+<p>"Your methods of flattery are always effective. At one moment you
+discuss the weightiest matters with me&mdash;which argues I have brains&mdash;and
+then you grow gloomy over my going and would seem to mean that I am
+charming, which I don't think is quite true."</p>
+
+<p>"If I weren't a poor devil of an army officer I'd convince you of my
+sincerity by asking you not to go away at all."</p>
+
+<p>"That <i>would</i> be convincing," she said, laughingly. "Please don't do
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>His tone became suddenly serious. "You are right, I can't ask you to
+share a life like mine. It is too uncertain. I may be ordered back to my
+regiment next winter, and then nothing remains but garrison duty. I
+think I will then resign. But I am unfitted for business, or for any
+money-getting, and so I've decided that as an honorable man I must not
+imperil the happiness of a woman. I claim to be a person of taste, and
+the girl I admired would have other chances in life. I can't afford to
+say to her, 'Give up all your comfort and security and come with me to
+the frontier.' She would be foolish to listen&mdash;no woman of the stamp I
+have in mind could do it." They were nearing "the parsonage" gate, and
+he ended in a low voice: "Don't you think I am right?"</p>
+
+<p>"The theory is that nothing really counts in a woman's life but love,"
+she replied, enigmatically.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but theory aside&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I can conceive of a girl&mdash;a very <i>young</i> girl&mdash;leaving
+wealth and friends, and even her art, for the man she loved, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He waited a moment as a culprit listens to his judge. "But then&mdash;but in
+case&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If the girl were grown up and loved luxurious living, and shared an
+enthusiasm&mdash;say for art&mdash;then&mdash;" She broke off and said, wearily, "Then
+she might palter and measure values and weigh chances, and take account
+of the future and end by not marrying at all."</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the gate and he spoke with perceivable effort: "I've no
+right to ask it, of course, but if you take pity on my loneliness at any
+time and write to me, your letters will be more welcome than it is
+seemly in me to say, and I'll promise not to bore you with further
+details of my 'Injines.' Will you be kind to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will be glad to write," she replied, but in her voice was something
+he did not understand. As they entered the house Elsie said: "Captain
+Maynard, Captain Curtis is going out to-morrow morning to arrest that
+crazy Indian. Do you think he ought to go alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not! It would be too dangerous. He shall have an escort,"
+replied Maynard, emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Curtis, decisively. "I am safer to go unarmed and alone."</p>
+
+<p>"George!" protested Jennie, "you shall not go out there alone. Why don't
+you send the police?"</p>
+
+<p>Maynard here interposed. "Don't take on worry; I'll go with him myself."</p>
+
+<p>This last hour in Elsie's company was a mingled pain and pleasure to
+Curtis, for she was most charming. She laid aside all hauteur, all
+perversity, and gave herself unreservedly to her good friends. They were
+all at high tension, and the talk leaped from jest to protest, and back
+to laughter again, agile and inconsequent. The time and the place, the
+past and the future, counted for little to these four, for they were
+young and they were lovers.</p>
+
+<p>At last Jennie rose. "If you people are to rise at dawn you must go to
+sleep now. Good-night! Come, Elsie Bee Bee."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard followed Jennie into the hall with some jest, and Curtis seized
+the opportunity to delay Elsie. He offered his hand, and she laid hers
+therein with a motion of half-surrender.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Captain. I appreciate your kindness more than I can say."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't try. I feel now that I have done nothing&mdash;nothing of what I
+should have done; but I didn't think you were to leave so soon. If I had
+known&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You have done more than you realize. Once more, good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night!" he said, in an unsteady voice; "and remember, you promised
+to write!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will keep my promise." She turned at the door. "Don't try to write
+around your red people. I believe I'd like to hear how you get on with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Defend me from mine enemies within the gates, and I'll work out my
+problem."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best. Good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not good-bye&mdash;just good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he stood meditating a further word, then stepped into the
+hall. Elsie, midway on the stairs, had turned and was looking down at
+him with a face wherein the eyes were wistful and brows perplexed. She
+guiltily lowered her lashes and turned away, but that momentary
+pause&mdash;that subtle interplay of doubt and dream&mdash;had given the soldier a
+pleasure deeper than words.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Jennie was waiting at the door of the tiny room in which Elsie was to
+sleep, her face glowing with admiration and love. "Oh, you queenly
+girl!" she cried, with a convulsive clasp of her strong arms. "I can't
+get over the wonder of your being here in our little house. You ought to
+live always in a castle."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie smiled, but with tears in her eyes. "You're a dear, good girl. I
+never had a truer friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you were poor!" said Jennie, as they entered the plain little
+room; "then you could come here as a missionary or something, and we
+could have you with us all the time. I hate to think of your going away
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"You must come and see me in Washington."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! That wouldn't do!" said Jennie, half alarmed. "It might spoil me
+for life out here. You must visit us again."</p>
+
+<p>There was a note of honest, almost boyish suffering in Jennie's
+entreaties which moved the daughter of wealth very deeply, and she went
+to her bed with a feeling of loss, as though she were taking leave of
+something very sweet and elementally comforting.</p>
+
+<p>She thought of her first lover, and her cheeks burned with disgust of
+her folly. She thought of two or three good, manly suitors whose
+protestations of love had left her cold and humorously critical. On
+Lawson's suit she lingered, for he was still a possibility should
+she decide to put her soldier-lover away. "But I <i>have</i> done
+so&mdash;definitely," she said to some pleading within herself. "I can't
+marry him; our lives are ordered on divergent lines. I can't come here
+to live."</p>
+
+<p>"Happiness is not dependent on material things," argued her newly
+awakened self. "He loves you&mdash;he is handsome and true and good."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't love him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you do. When you returned Osborne Lawson's ring you quite plainly
+said so."</p>
+
+<p>She burned with a new flame with this confession; but she protested,
+"Let us be sensible! Let us argue!"</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot argue with love."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a child to be carried away by a momentary gust of emotion. See
+how impossible it is for me to share his work&mdash;his austere life."</p>
+
+<p>And here entered the far-reaching question of the life and death of a
+race. In a most disturbing measure this obscure young soldier
+represented a view of life&mdash;of civilization antagonistic to her faith,
+and in stern opposition to the teachings of her father. In a subtle
+fashion he had warped the word <i>duty</i> from its martial significance to a
+place in a lofty philosophy whose tenets were only just beginning to
+unfold their inner meaning to her.</p>
+
+<p>Was it not true that she was less sympathetic with the poor brown
+peoples of the earth than with the animals? "How can you be contemptuous
+of God's children, whom the physical universe has colored brown or black
+or yellow&mdash;you, who are indignant when a beast is overburdened? If we
+repudiate and condemn to death those who do not please us, who will
+live?"</p>
+
+<p>She felt in herself some singular commotion. Conceptions, hitherto mere
+shells of thought, became infilled with passion; and pity, hitherto a
+feeble sentiment with her, expanded into an emotion which shook her,
+filled her throat with sobs, discrediting her old self with her new self
+till the thought of her mean and selfish art brought shame. How small it
+all was, how trivial, beside the consciousness of duty well done,
+measured against a life of self-sacrifice, such as that suggested by
+this man, whose eyes sought her in worship!</p>
+
+<p>Could there be any greater happiness than to stand by his side, helping
+to render a dying, captive race happier&mdash;healthier? Could her great
+wealth be put to better use than this of teaching two hundred thousand
+red people how to meet and adjust themselves to the white man's way of
+life? Their rags, their squalor, their ignorance were more deeply
+depressing to her lover than the poverty of the slums, for the Tetongs
+had been free and joyous hunters. Their condition was a tragic
+debasement. She began to feel the arguments of the Indian helpers. Their
+words were no longer dead things; they had become electric nodes; they
+moved her, set her blood aflame, and she clinched her hands and said: "I
+will help him do this great work!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE WARNS CURTIS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Brisbane was early awake, abrupt and harsh in command. "Come! we must
+get out o' here," he said. "I don't want to be under the slightest
+obligation to this young crank. I intend to break him."</p>
+
+<p>She flamed into wrath&mdash;a white radiance. "When you break him you break
+me," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean I've changed my mind. I think he's right and you are wrong."</p>
+
+<p>The entrance of the sheriff prevented a full accounting at the moment,
+but it was merely deferred. Once in the carriage, Brisbane began to
+discredit her lover. "Don't tell me Curtis is disinterested; he is
+scheming for some fat job. His altruistic plea is too thin."</p>
+
+<p>"You are ill-fitted to understand the motives of a man like Captain
+Curtis," Elsie replied, and every word cut. "What have you&mdash;or I&mdash;ever
+done that was not selfish?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've given a thousand dollars to charity for every cent of his."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and that's the spirit in which you gave&mdash;never to help, only to
+exalt yourself, just as I have done. Captain Curtis is giving himself.
+He and his sister have made me see myself as I am, and I am not happy
+over it. But I wish you would not talk to me any more about them; they
+are my friends, and I will not listen to your abuse of them."</p>
+
+<p>It was a most fatiguing ride. Brisbane complained of the heat and the
+dust, and of a mysterious pain in his head; and Elsie, alarmed by his
+flushed face, softened. "Poor papa, I'm so sorry you had to come on this
+long ride!" Lawson was also genuinely concerned over the Senator's
+growing incoherency, and privately told the driver to push hard on the
+reins.</p>
+
+<p>When they rounded the sharp point of the Black Bear Mesa, and came in
+sight of the long, low, half-way house, Lawson sat up with a jerk.
+"There is the mob&mdash;camped and waiting for the sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>As Elsie looked at the swarming figures of the cowboys her mind
+forecasted tragic events. The desperadoes were waiting to lynch Cut
+Finger&mdash;that was plain. Curtis had said he would not surrender his
+prisoner to be lynched. He was coming; he would be met by this mob.</p>
+
+<p>She clutched Lawson by the arm. "We must warn him!"</p>
+
+<p>He merely nodded; but a look in his eyes gave her to understand that he
+would do his duty.</p>
+
+<p>The cattlemen, seeing the wagon whirling round the mesa, mounted and
+massed in stern array, believing that the carriage contained the sheriff
+and his prisoner. They were disappointed and a little uneasy when they
+recognized Brisbane, the great political boss; but with ready wit
+Johnson rode along in front of the gang, saying, with a wink: "Put up
+your guns, boys. This is a meeting in honor of Senator Brisbane." Then,
+as a mutter of laughter ran down the line, he took off his hat and
+lifted his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Boys, three cheers for Senator Brisbane&mdash;hip, hip, hurrah!"</p>
+
+<p>After the cheers were given the horsemen closed round the carriage with
+cries for a speech.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane, practised orator and shrewd manipulator, rose as the carriage
+stopped, and removed his hat. His eyes were dim and the blood seemed
+about to burst through his cheeks, but he was not without
+self-possession.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, I thank you for this demonstration, but I must ask you to
+wait till I have rested and refreshed myself. With your permission I
+will then address you."</p>
+
+<p>"Right&mdash;right!"</p>
+
+<p>"We can wait!" they heartily responded, and opened a way for the
+carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie shuddered as she looked into the rude and cruel faces of the
+leaders of this lynching party. They no longer amused her. She saw them
+now from the stand-point of Captain Curtis and his wards, and realized
+how little of mercy they would show to their enemies. On Lawson's lips
+lay a subtly contemptuous smile, and he uttered no word&mdash;did not lift a
+hand till the carriage was at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Streeter helped the Senator out, and with unexpected grace presented his
+hand to Elsie. "I do not need help," she said, coldly, and brushed past
+him into the little sitting-room, which swarmed with excited, scrawny,
+tired, and tearful women.</p>
+
+<p>"What is goin' on out there? Have the soldiers put down the pizen
+critters?" asked one.</p>
+
+<p>"You're Miss Brisbane&mdash;we heerd you was all killed at the agency.
+Weren't you scared?"</p>
+
+<p>Almost contemptuously Elsie calmed their fears, and by a few questions
+learned that this house had been made a rallying-point for the settlers
+and that the women were just beginning to feel the depressing effects of
+being so long away from their homes without rest and proper food.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Do</i> you think we can go home now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. Captain Curtis will see that you are not harmed," she
+replied, and she spoke with all a wife's sense of joy and pride in her
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>"We've been camping here for most a week, seems like, an' we're all wore
+out," wailed one little woman who had three small children to herd and
+watch over.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane, inspirited by an egg-nog and a sandwich, mounted a wash-tub on
+the low porch and began a speech&mdash;a suave, diplomatic utterance, wherein
+he counselled moderation in all things. "We can't afford at this time to
+do a rash thing," he said, and winked jovially at Johnson. "The election
+coming on is, after all, the best chance for us to get back at these
+fool Injun apologists. So go slow, boys&mdash;go slow!"</p>
+
+<p>As these smooth words flowed from his lips Elsie burned with shame and
+anger. Some newly acquired inward light enabled her to read in the
+half-hearted dissuasion of her father's speech a subtle, heartless
+encouragement to violence <i>after</i> election. While the cheers were still
+ringing in her ears, at the close of the address, Elsie felt a touch on
+her shoulder and turned to face Calvin, standing close beside her, timid
+and flushed.</p>
+
+<p>She held out her hand with a swift rush of confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how do you do, Mr. Streeter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm pretty well," he said, loudly, and added, in a low voice, "I want
+to see you alone." He looked about the room. The corner least crowded
+was occupied by a woman nursing a wailing baby. "Come this way; she's
+Norwegian; she can't understand us."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie followed him, and when he spoke it was in a rapid, low mutter. "Is
+the Major goin' to come with Cut Finger?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid so."</p>
+
+<p>"He mustn't. You know what this gang's here for?"</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do? Can't we warn him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm goin' to take a sneak and try it. It's all my neck is worth
+to play it on the boys; but it's got to be done, for the Major is a
+fighter, and if this mob meets him there will be blood on the moon. Now
+don't worry. I'm going to slide right out through the first gate I see
+and head him off; mebbe you'd like to write a word or two."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a real hero," she said, as she put a little slip of paper into
+his hand, and pressed it there with both of hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do that," he said, hurriedly; "they'll think something's up. I'm
+doin' it for the Major; he's treated me white all the way along, and
+I'll be derned if I let this gang do him."</p>
+
+<p>A pain shot through her heart. Putting her hand to her bosom, she said:
+"It means everything to me, Calvin. Good-bye. I am trusting you&mdash;it's
+life or death to me. Good-bye!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAPTURE OF THE MAN</h3>
+
+
+<p>The east was saffron and pale-blue as Crow and the agent drove out of
+the corral and up the road to the south. Two Horns was the driver. Crow
+alone was armed, and he wore but his official revolver. Maynard had been
+purposely left out of the expedition, for Curtis did not wish to seem to
+question in the slightest degree the obedience of his people. He
+preferred to go unarmed and without handcuffs or rope, as a friend and
+adviser, not as an officer of the law.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was deliciously cool, with a gentle wind sliding down from
+the high peaks, which were already glowing with the morning's pink and
+yellow. From some of the tepees in Grayman's camp smoke was already
+rising, and a few old women could be seen pottering about the cooking
+lodges, while the morning chorus of the dogs and coyotes thickened.
+There was an elemental charm in it all which helped the young soldier to
+shake off his depression.</p>
+
+<p>Passing rapidly through the two villages, Two Horns turned to the left
+and entered upon a road which climbed diagonally up the side of a long,
+low ridge. This involved plodding, and by the time they reached the
+summit the sun met them full-fronted. In the smaller valley, which lay
+between this ridge and the foot-hills, a rough trail led towards the
+mountains. This way Two Horns took, driving rapidly and silently, and
+soon entered the pines and pinons which form the lower fringe of the
+vast and splendid robe of green which covers the middle heights of the
+Rocky Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>After an hour of sharp driving, with scarcely a word or gesture, Crow
+turned and said: "Cut Finger there. Black Wolf, his tepee."</p>
+
+<p>The trail here took a sharp curve to the left to avoid a piece of stony
+ground, and from a little transverse ridge Curtis could look down on a
+small, temporary village, the band of Black Wolf, who had located here
+to cut hay on the marsh.</p>
+
+<p>"We must surprise him if we can," said Curtis to Crow. "We must not
+shoot. I will talk to him. If he cocks his gun kill him; but I don't
+think he will want to fight."</p>
+
+<p>The lads could be heard singing their plaintive songs as they climbed
+the hills for their ponies. Smoke was rising from each lodge, and
+children, dogs, and hens were outdoing each other in cheerful uproar as
+Two Horns drove up to where Black Wolf stood, an old man with thin, gray
+hair, shielding his eyes with the scant shadow of his bony wrist.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho, agent!" he cried. "Why do you come to see us so early?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is Cut Finger here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he is in there." He pointed to a tepee near.</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent!" commanded Curtis, as he alighted swiftly, but without
+apparent haste or excitement. Crow instantly followed him, alert and
+resolute. As they entered the tepee Cut Finger, still half asleep on
+his willow hammock, instinctively reached for his rifle, which lay
+beneath him on the ground, dangerous as a half-awakened rattlesnake.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis put his foot on the weapon, and said, pleasantly: "Good-morning,
+Cut Finger; you sleep late."</p>
+
+<p>The young man sat up and blinked stupidly, while Crow took the gun from
+beneath the agent's foot.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis signed to Black Wolf. "This boy has killed a herder and I have
+come for him. You knew of his deed."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of it," the old man replied, with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"It is such men who bring trouble on the tribe," pursued Curtis. "They
+must be punished. Cut Finger must go with me down to the agency. He must
+not make more trouble."</p>
+
+<p>The news of the agent's mission brought every soul hurrying to the tent,
+for Cut Finger had said, "I will fight the soldiers if they come."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis heard them coming and said: "Crow, tell all these people outside
+that Cut Finger has done a bad thing and must be punished. That unless
+such men are cast out by the Tetongs they will always be in trouble."</p>
+
+<p>Crow lifted up his big, resounding voice and recounted what the agent
+had said, and added: "You shall see we will take this man. I, Crow, have
+said it. It will be foolish for any one to resist."</p>
+
+<p>The agent, sitting before Cut Finger, addressed him in signs. "I am your
+friend, I am sorry for you. I am sorry for any man who does wrong and
+suffers punishment; but you have injured your people, you made the white
+man very angry; he came ready to shoot&mdash;you saw how I turned him away.
+I said: 'I will find the man who shot the herder. I will bring him&mdash;I do
+not want any one else to suffer.' Then you proclaimed yourself. You
+said: 'I alone did this thing.' Then you went on the hill to fight&mdash;I
+cannot allow that. No more blood will be shed. I will not lie; I have
+come to take you. You will be punished; you must go with me to the white
+man's strong-house."</p>
+
+<p>A whimpering cry arose, a cry which ended in a sighing moan of
+heart-piercing, uncontrollable agony, and Curtis, turning his face, saw
+the wife of Cut Finger looking at him from her blanket on the opposite
+side of the tepee. A shout of warning from Crow made him leap to his
+feet and turn.</p>
+
+<p>Cut Finger confronted him, his eyes glowing with desperate resolution.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Sit down!</i>" commanded the Captain, using his fist in the sign, with a
+powerful gesture. The fugitive could not endure his chief's eyes; he
+sank back on his couch and sat trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"If you touch the Little Father I will kill you," said Crow, gruffly, as
+he stood with drawn revolver in his hand. "I, Crow, have said it!"</p>
+
+<p>Black Wolf was looking on with lowering brow. "He says the white man was
+driving his sheep on our land."</p>
+
+<p>"So he was," replied Curtis, "but it is bad for the Tetongs when a white
+man is killed. It is better to come and tell me. When a redman kills a
+white man the white men say: 'Let us kill <i>all</i> the Tetongs&mdash;spare no
+one.' Cut Finger said he was ready to die. Well, then, let him go with
+me, and I will make his punishment as light as I can. I am his
+friend&mdash;a friend to every Tetong. I will tell the war chief at Pinon
+City how it was, and he will say Cut Finger was not alone to blame&mdash;the
+white man was also to blame. Thus the punishment will not be so heavy.
+Cut Finger is a young man; he has many years to live if he will do as I
+tell him. He will come back to his tribe by-and-by and be a good man."</p>
+
+<p>So, by putting forth all his skill in gesture he conveyed to Cut
+Finger's mind a new idea&mdash;the idea of sacrificing himself for the good
+of the tribe. He also convinced the members of Black Wolf's band that
+their peace and safety lay in giving him up to their agent, and so at
+last the young desperado rose and followed his chief to the wagon
+wherein Two Horns still sat, impassive and unafraid.</p>
+
+<p>As he put his hand on the carriage-seat a convulsive shudder swept over
+Cut Finger. He folded his arms and, lifting his eyes to the hills, burst
+forth in a death-song, a chant so sad, so passionate, and so searching,
+that the agent's heart was wrenched. Answering sobs and wails broke from
+the women, and the young wife of the singer came and crouched at his
+feet, her little babe in her arms, and this was his song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I am going away.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I go to my death.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The white man has said it&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am to die in a prison.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am young, but I must go&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I have a wife, but I must go<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To die among the white men<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the dark.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So says the soldier chief."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Curtis, looking into the eyes of Black Wolf, perceived that the old man
+wavered. The wailing of the women, the young man's song, had roused his
+racial hatred&mdash;what to him was the killing of a "white robber"?</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet!" commanded Curtis, and the song ceased. "Get in, quick! No
+more singing."</p>
+
+<p>The ending of the song left the prisoner in a mood of gloomy yet passive
+exaltation. He took the place indicated and sat with bowed head, his
+hands limply crossed.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on!" commanded Curtis, and Two Horns brought the whip down on the
+horses. As they sprang forward a wail of agony burst from the lips of
+the bereaved young wife. At this cry Cut Finger again turned upon the
+agent with hands opened like the claws of a bear&mdash;his face contorted
+with despair. Curtis seized him in a grip whose crunching power made
+itself felt to the marrow of the Tetong's bones, and his eyes, piercing
+with terrible determination, shrivelled the resolution of the
+half-crazed man. He sank back into his seat, a hopeless lump of swaying
+flesh, his face a tragic mask, and uttered no further word till the
+sound of a galloping horse made them all turn to see who followed.</p>
+
+<p>"My wife!" the prisoner said. "She carries my baby."</p>
+
+<p>This was indeed true. The sad little wife was galloping after, riding a
+strong bay pony, the reins flapping loose, while across the pommel of
+her saddle she held her small pappoose, whose faint wailing told of his
+discomfort and terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait&mdash;me take pappoose," the prisoner said, in English, with a note of
+command.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was deeply touched. He ordered Two Horns to halt, and Crow got
+out and took the babe and handed it to Cut Finger, who received it
+carefully in his long arms. No woman could have been tenderer.</p>
+
+<p>As they drove on, a big lump rose in the soldier's throat. It seemed a
+treacherous and sinful thing to hand this man over to a savage throng of
+white men, perhaps to be lynched on the road. "I will not do it," he
+said; "I will take him to Pinon City myself. He shall have trial as if
+he were white. I will yield him to the law, but not to vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>Cut Finger thereafter spoke no word, did not even look back, though
+Curtis detected him turning his head whenever the sound of the galloping
+horse grew faint or died away for a few moments. The baby ceased to
+wail, and on the rough ground, when the wagon jarred, the father held
+the little one high as in a sling.</p>
+
+<p>Upon entering the camp of Crawling Elk they found all the people massed,
+waiting, listening, and their presence excited the prisoner greatly, and
+he began again to sing his death-chant, which now seemed infinitely more
+touching by reason of the small creature he cradled so lovingly in his
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent!" commanded Curtis. "You must not sing. Drive fast, Two
+Horns!"</p>
+
+<p>Answering wails and fragments of chanting broke from the women; one or
+two cried out, "Take him from the agent!" But the men shook their heads
+and sadly watched them pass. "He has done a foolish thing; he must now
+suffer for it," said Crawling Elk.</p>
+
+<p>As they drew up before the door of the parsonage Curtis sprang out and
+said to Cut Finger:</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the baby; he shall be well cared for."</p>
+
+<p>The father gave up the child passively, and Curtis called to Jennie:</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a babe that is tired and hungry&mdash;be good to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the mother?" asked Jennie, as she tenderly received the little
+brown boy.</p>
+
+<p>"She is coming," he said, and the mother galloped up in a few moments
+and fairly tumbled off her horse. "See!" Curtis said to her and to the
+father, "My sister will give the baby milk, and its mother shall also be
+fed. You need not fear; both will be taken care of. We are your
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>Cut Finger watched Jennie as she carefully carried the baby into the
+house, and as he turned away, a look of apathetic misery, more moving
+than any cry, settled on his face.</p>
+
+<p>Maynard, who had been standing in the door, said, in a tone of
+astonishment, "Did that wild Injun carry his papoose all the way down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and was as tender of it as a woman, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll be hanged! There's a whole lot for me to learn about Injuns
+yet. Want a guard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I think it safer. There is a good deal of sympathy for this poor
+chap."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't blame 'em very much," said Maynard. "Take him right down to our
+guard-house, and I'll have Payne detail a squad of men to take care of
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I intend taking him to Pinon myself. I can't find it in my heart to
+give him over into the hands of these whites&mdash;they'd lynch him, sure."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it," replied Maynard, with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>As they passed the agency gate, Winters and the county attorney stepped
+out as if they expected to receive the prisoner; but the savage grin on
+the sheriff's face died out as Curtis nodded coldly and drove past.</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow is a wolf. Did you have any trouble?" asked Maynard.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. We surprised him in bed, as I planned to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Nice thing, your leaving me out in this way!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have the Brisbanes gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Got away about eight o'clock. Lawson went with them, though he's
+coming back to see you clear of this war. He's a crackerjack, is Lawson;
+but the old man has you marked for slaughter."</p>
+
+<p>It was good to be able to turn his prisoner over to the blue-coats and
+feel that he would not be taken away except properly and in order.
+Lynching does not flourish under the eyes of a commander like Maynard.
+As Curtis led his man into the guard-house and motioned him to a seat,
+he said, in signs:</p>
+
+<p>"You are safe now from the cattlemen. I am your friend, remember that. I
+myself will take you to the white chief's big village. I will not let
+the war chief have you. I will turn you over to the wise man&mdash;the man
+who will judge your case. I will let your wife and your little son go
+with you. So you see I am still your Little Father. I am very sorry you
+have shot this man, but you must be punished. I cannot prevent that."</p>
+
+<p>As he met the sheriff he said, quietly, "I have decided to accompany you
+to Pinon City."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff was not greatly surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well. But I don't see the need of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do!" replied Curtis, and his tone silenced opposition.</p>
+
+<p>Going immediately to the house, Curtis flung himself down in his chair
+and submitted to Jennie's anxious care. She brought him some coffee and
+biscuit, and stood with her hand on his shoulder while he ate. "Well,
+they're gone&mdash;Lawson and all. I never saw a greater change in any one
+than in that girl. Do you remember how she was last fall? I never
+supposed I should come to love her. I hated her for the treatment
+of you then, but&mdash;I think she has a different feeling towards us
+now&mdash;not excepting you. I think&mdash;she was crying because she
+was&mdash;going&mdash;away&mdash;from&mdash;you."</p>
+
+<p>He looked up at her and smiled incredulously. "Your loyalty to me, sis,
+is more than I deserve!"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis seized a moment to cross the square to Elsie's studio, eager to
+see whether she had regarded his wishes or not. It was an absurd thing
+to ask of her, and yet he did not regret having done so. It would serve
+as a sort of test of her regard, her sympathy. Now as he stood at the
+door he hesitated&mdash;if it should be bare!</p>
+
+<p>He turned the knob and entered. The effect of the first impression was
+exalting, satisfying. All was in order, and the air was deliciously cool
+and fragrant, infilled with some rare and delicate odor. Each article
+was in its place&mdash;she had taken nothing but the finished pictures and
+some sketches which she specially needed. Scraps of canvas covered with
+splashes of color were pinned about on the walls, the easel stood in the
+centre of the room, and her palette and brushes were on the table. The
+young soldier closed the door behind him and took a seat in deep
+emotion. At that moment he realized to the full his need of her, and his
+irreparable loss. All he had suffered before was forgotten&mdash;swallowed up
+in the empty, hungry ache of his heart. The curtains and draperies were
+almost as much a part of her as her dress, and he could not have touched
+them at the moment, so intimately personal did they seem.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that he had not fully understood himself, after all. This
+empty temple, where she had lived and worked, these reminders of her
+beautiful self, were not to be a solace and a comfort, after all, but a
+torture. He felt broken and unmanned, and the aching in his throat grew
+to an intolerable pain, and with a reaction to disdain of himself he
+rose and went out, closing and locking the door.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI</h2>
+
+<h3>OUTWITTING THE SHERIFF</h3>
+
+
+<p>Maynard came over just as the wagon was being brought round, and with a
+look of concern on his big, red face, began: "Now see here, Curtis,
+you'd better take an escort. Those devils may be hanging round the edge
+of the reservation. Say the word and I'll send Payne and a squad of
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it at all necessary, Maynard. I don't want to excite the
+settlers, and, besides, the troops are all needed here. I have no fear
+of the mob while daylight lasts. They will not attempt to take the man
+from me. I leave you in command. Wilson will keep the police out on the
+hills and report any movement of the mob."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard saluted. "Very well, Major; when may I look for you to return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not before to-morrow night. I shall get in by sundown to-day, for it is
+all the way down hill; the return will be slower."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to see you go away with that cut-throat sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not alone," said Curtis. "I have two of the faithfulest men in the
+world&mdash;Two Horns and Crow&mdash;both armed and watchful. Don't worry about
+me, Jack; keep yourself alert to-night."</p>
+
+<p>The wagon was now standing before the guard-house, and the prisoner was
+being brought forth by Crow. Cut Finger, blinking around him in the
+noon-day glare, saw his wife already in the wagon, and went resignedly
+towards the agent, who beckoned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"You may sit beside her," Curtis signed, and the youth climbed
+submissively to his seat. "Mr. Sheriff, you are to take a place beside
+the driver."</p>
+
+<p>Winters, swollen with rebellion because of the secondary part he had to
+play, surlily consented to sit with Two Horns.</p>
+
+<p>"Crow, you camp here," called Curtis, and the trusted Tetong scrambled
+to his seat. "Drive on, Two Horns."</p>
+
+<p>For an hour and more no one spoke but Two Horns, gently urging the
+horses to their best pace. Curtis welcomed this silence, for it gave him
+time to take account of many things, chief of which was Brisbane's
+violent antagonism. "He overestimates my importance," he thought. "But
+that is the way such men succeed. They are as thorough-going in
+destroying the opposition as they are in building up their own side."</p>
+
+<p>He thought, too, of that last intimate hour with Elsie, and wished he
+had spoken plainer with her. "It would have been definite if I had
+secured an answer. It would have been a negative, of course, and yet
+such is my folly, I still hope, and so long as there is the slightest
+uncertainty I shall waste my time in dreaming." His mind then turned to
+the question of the mob. There came into his mind again the conviction
+that they were waiting to intercept the sheriff at the boundary of the
+reservation; but he was perfectly certain that they would relinquish
+their designs when they found the sheriff reinforced by three determined
+men&mdash;one of them an army officer and the agent. He had no fear on that
+score; he only felt a little uneasy at leaving the agency.</p>
+
+<p>A sharp exclamation from Crow brought his dreaming to an end, and,
+looking up, he saw a horseman approaching swiftly, his reins held high,
+his elbows flapping. "That's young Streeter," he said, on the impulse.</p>
+
+<p>"So it is," replied Winters, hot with instant excitement. "I wonder
+what's his hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>Calvin came up with a rush, and when opposite set his horse on his
+haunches with a wrench of his powerful wrist, calling, in lazy drawl:
+"Howdy, folks, howdy. Well, I see you've got 'im," he remarked to
+Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"You've been ridin' hard," said Winters; "what's your rush? Anything
+doin'?"</p>
+
+<p>Calvin looked down at his panting, reeking horse, and carelessly
+replied: "Oh no. I'm just takin' it out o' this watch-eyed bronco." He
+exchanged a look with the sheriff. "I thought I'd ketch ye 'fore ye left
+the agency. I'd like a word with you, sheriff; tumble out here for a
+minute. You'll wait a second, won't you, Major?"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked up at the sun. "Yes; but be quick."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin slid from his horse, and while the sheriff was climbing stiffly
+down on the opposite side slipped a note into Curtis's hand.</p>
+
+<p>As the sheriff listened to Calvin's low-voiced report Curtis glanced at
+the paper. It was in pencil, and from Elsie. "The mob is waiting at the
+half-way house, cruel as wolves&mdash;turn back&mdash;for my sake."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis crumpled the paper in his hand and called out imperatively:
+"Come, Sheriff Winters, I cannot wait."</p>
+
+<p>Winters turned away smilingly. "That's all right, Cal. I didn't
+understand, that's all. I'm glad the boys went home. Of course the
+troops settled everything."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis caught Calvin's eye, and a nod, almost imperceptible, passed
+between them, and the cowboy was aware that the soldier understood the
+situation. "Where did you leave the Senator?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the half-way house."</p>
+
+<p>"How was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Feeling well enough to make a speech," replied Calvin.</p>
+
+<p>The other team, containing Grismore and the reporters, was by this time
+but a few rods away, and, watching his opportunity, Curtis signalled:
+"Stop that wagon&mdash;hold them here." Calvin again nodded. "Drive on,"
+called Curtis. And Winters smiled with rare satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Some miles before reaching the border of the reservation, Two Horns, at
+a sign from Curtis, left the main road and began to climb a low ridge to
+the east.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff turned and called sharply: "Where is he going?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has his orders, Mr. Sheriff."</p>
+
+<p>"He's taking the wrong road. It is five miles farther that way."</p>
+
+<p>"He is following my orders."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't see the sense of it."</p>
+
+<p>"You are only a passenger. If you don't care to ride with us you can
+walk," replied Curtis, and the sheriff settled back into his seat with a
+curse. The second wagon had been left far behind, and would undoubtedly
+keep the main road, a mishap Curtis had calculated upon.</p>
+
+<p>An hour or two of extra travel would not matter, especially as the mob
+was being left safely on the left.</p>
+
+<p>The warning from Elsie had a singular effect upon the soldier. He grew
+almost gay at the thought of her care of him. In some occult way the
+little card meant a great deal more than its few words. If they were
+delayed at the half-way house they might not reach Pinon in time for the
+afternoon train, and so&mdash;"I may see her again."</p>
+
+<p>As he neared the boundary of the reservation the sheriff gained in
+resolution. Looking backward, he saw his own team following, outlined
+like a rock against the sky, just topping a ridge, and reaching over he
+laid his hand on the reins and pulled the horses to a stand.</p>
+
+<p>"Right here <i>I</i> take charge!" he growled. "I'm on my own ground. Get out
+o' there!" he said to the prisoner, and as he spoke he drew his revolver
+and leaped to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Cut Finger turned towards Curtis, whose face was set and stern. "Sit
+still!" he commanded, with a gesture. "Put up your gun!" he said to
+Crow, who had drawn his revolver, ready to defend his prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Winters flew into bluster. "Do you defy my authority now? I'm sheriff of
+this county!" he shouted. "Your control ends right here! This is State
+territory."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis eyed him calmly. "I started out to give this man safe convoy to
+the prison, and I'm going to do it! Not only that&mdash;he is a ward of the
+government, even when lodged in the county jail, and it is my duty to
+see that he has fair trial; then, and not till then, will I abandon him
+to the ferocity of your mob. I know your plan, and I have defeated it.
+Do you intend to ride with us?"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff's courage again failed him as he looked up into the direct,
+unwavering eagle gaze of the young officer. He began to curse. "We'll
+have your hide for this! You've gone too far! You've defied the laws of
+the county!"</p>
+
+<p>"Drive on," said Curtis, and Two Horns touched his ponies with the whip.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt, or I fire!" shouted Winters.</p>
+
+<p>"Drive on!" commanded Curtis, and Two Horns laid the whip hard on the
+back of his off horse.</p>
+
+<p>Winters fired, but the bullet went wide; he dared not aim to kill. Cut
+Finger rose as if to leap from the wagon, but Crow seized him with one
+great brown paw and thrust his shining gun against his breast. "Sit
+down, brother!" he said, grimly. "We'll care for you."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner sank back into his seat trembling with excitement, while
+the wife began to cry piteously.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, looking back, saw the sheriff waving his revolver maniacally,
+but his curses fainted on the way. A sudden reaction to humor set in,
+and the young agent laughed a hearty chuckle which made his faithful
+Tetong aids break into sympathetic grins.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the case was not entirely humorous. In a certain sense he
+had cut athwart the law in this last transaction, though in doing so he
+had prevented an act of violence which would have still further
+embittered the tribe. "I am right," he said, and put away all further
+doubt.</p>
+
+<p>The drive now settled into a race for the jail. "The sheriff, after
+being picked up by his own party, will undertake to overhaul us,"
+reasoned Curtis, but that did not trouble him so much as the thought of
+what lay before him.</p>
+
+<p>The road ran along Willow Creek, winding as the stream itself, and
+Curtis could not avoid the thought of an ambuscade. On the right were
+clumps of tall willows capable of concealing horsemen, while on the left
+the hot, treeless banks rose a hundred feet above the wagon, and the
+loopings of the track prevented a view of what was coming. If the mob
+should get impatient, or if they should suspect his trick, it would be
+easy to send a detachment across the hills and intercept him. "Push
+hard!" he signed to Two Horns.</p>
+
+<p>The road was smooth and dusty and descended rapidly, so that the horses
+had little to do but guide the tongue. As the wagon rocked and reeled
+past the ranch houses, the settlers had hardly time to discern what
+manner of man was driving, but they were thrown into fierce panic by the
+clatter of fleeing horses and the cloud of prophetic dust. The sheriff
+was not in sight, and no sound of him could be detected in the whiz of
+their own wheels.</p>
+
+<p>At last Two Horns, with his moccasined foot on the brake, broke through
+the hills out upon the valley land, with Pinon City in sight. The mob
+and the sheriff were alike left behind. Ambush was now impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy now, Two Horns," called Curtis, with a smile and an explanatory
+gesture. "We're safe now; the angry white men are behind," and the
+reeking, dusty, begrimed horses fell into a walk.</p>
+
+<p>The hour for their arrival in Pinon City was fortunate. The town was
+still at supper, and in the dusk Curtis and prisoner escaped notice.
+They hurried across the main street and on towards the jail, which stood
+on a little knoll just outside the town.</p>
+
+<p>As they drew up before the door a young man came out and stared with
+inquiring gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis spoke first. "Are you the turnkey?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm in charge here; yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I am Captain Curtis, the agent. This is Cut Finger, charged with the
+murder of a white man. I have brought him in. The sheriff is just
+behind." He turned to the prisoner and signed. "Get down! Here is the
+strong-house where you are to stay!"</p>
+
+<p>Cut Finger clambered slowly down, his face rigid, his limbs tremulous
+with emotion. To go to the dark room of the strong-house was the worst
+fate that could overtake a free man of the hills, and his heart
+fluttered like a scared bird.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a good plan to let his wife go in with him," suggested
+Curtis. "It will save trouble."</p>
+
+<p>The poor, whimpering girl-wife followed her culprit husband up the steps
+and into the cold and gloomy hall to which they were admitted, her eyes
+on the floor, her sleeping child held tightly in her arms. When the
+gate shut behind him Curtis signed to the prisoner this advice:</p>
+
+<p>"Now be good. Do not make any trouble. Do what these people tell you.
+Eat your food. I will ask the sheriff to let your wife see you in the
+morning, and then she will go home again. She can come once each month
+to see you." He touched the wife on the arm, and when she comprehended
+his gesture she uttered again that whimpering moan, and as she bent her
+head in dumb agony above her babe, Curtis gently led her to the door,
+leaving Cut Finger to the rigor of the white man's law.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII</h2>
+
+<h3>AN EVENTFUL NIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>At the railway station Curtis alighted. "Go to Paul Ladue's," he said to
+Two Horns. "Put the horses in his corral and feed them well. Sit down
+with Paul, and to-morrow morning at sunrise come for me at the big
+hotel. Be careful. Don't go on the street to-night. The white men have
+evil hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"We know," said Crow, with a clip of his forefinger. "We will sleep like
+the wolf, with one eye open."</p>
+
+<p>As they drove away, Curtis hurried into the station, and calling for a
+blank, dashed away at a brief telegram to the Commissioner. While
+revising it he overheard the clerk say, in answer to a question over the
+telephone: "No, Senator Brisbane did not get away on 'sixteen.' He is
+still at the Sherman House."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis straightened and his heart leaped. "Then I can see Elsie again!"
+he thought. Hastily pencilling two or three shorter messages, he handed
+them in and hurried up the street towards the hotel, eager to relieve
+her anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the violet dusk of a peaceful night covered the town. The
+moon, low down in the west, was dim, but the stars were beginning to
+loom large in the wonderful deep blue to the east. The air was
+windless. No cloud was to be seen, and yet the soldier had a touch of
+uneasiness. "I wish I had brought my faithful men with me to the Sherman
+House. However, there is no real cause to worry. Paul is more Tetong
+than borderman&mdash;and will protect them&mdash;if only they keep off the
+street."</p>
+
+<p>He began to meet men in close-packed groups on the sidewalk&mdash;roughly
+clad citizens who seemed absorbed in the discussion of some important
+event. A few of them recognized him as he passed, and one called, in a
+bitter tone, "There goes the cur himself!" Curtis did not turn, though
+the tone, more insulting than the words, made his heart hot with battle.
+It was plain that the sheriff and his party had already entered and
+reported their defeat. A saloon emptied a mob of loud-voiced men upon
+the sidewalk before him, and though he feared trouble he pushed steadily
+forward. The ruffians gave way before his resolute feet, but he felt
+their hate beating like flame upon his face. He dared not turn a
+hair's-breadth to the right nor to the left; nothing was better than to
+walk straight on. "They will not shoot me in the back," he reasoned, and
+beyond a volley of curses he remained unassaulted.</p>
+
+<p>The rotunda of the hotel was filled with a different but not less
+dangerous throng of excited politicians and leading citizens, who had
+assembled to escort Brisbane to the opera-house. The talk, though less
+profane than that of the saloon loafers, was hardly less bitter against
+the agent. Mingled with these district bosses were a half-dozen
+newspaper men, who instantly rushed upon Curtis in frank and boyish
+rivalry. "Captain, what is the news?" they breathlessly asked, with pads
+and pencils ready for his undoing.</p>
+
+<p>"All quiet!" was his curt reply.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but&mdash;how about&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"All lies!" he interrupted to say, and pushed on to the desk. "Is
+Senator Brisbane and party still here?" he asked, as he signed his name
+in the book.</p>
+
+<p>The clerk applied the blotter. "Yes; he is still at supper."</p>
+
+<p>The young soldier took time to wash the dust from his face and hands and
+smooth his hair before entering the dining-room. At the threshold he
+paused and took account of his enemies. Brisbane and three of his most
+trusted supporters, still sitting at coffee, were holding a low-voiced
+consultation at a corner table, while Lawson and Elsie sat waiting some
+distance away and near an open window. The Parkers were not in view.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie, at sight of her lover, rose impulsively, and her face, tired and
+pale, flushed to a beautiful pink. Her lips formed the words "Why, there
+is Captain Curtis!" but her voice was inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>He hastened forward with eyes only for her, and she met him with both
+hands outstretched&mdash;eager, joyous!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how good it is to see you! We were so alarmed&mdash;Calvin warned you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He met me just before I left the reservation."</p>
+
+<p>"But I expected you to bring soldiers; how did you escape? Did you find
+the cattlemen gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I flanked them." His face relaxed into humor. "Discretion is a sort of
+valor sometimes. I took the Willow road."</p>
+
+<p>Lawson now joined them, and in his hand-clasp was a brother's regard for
+the soldier. His smile was exultant. "Good work! I knew Calvin could be
+trusted. It looked bad for Cut Finger when we reached the half-way
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"You must be hungry!" exclaimed Elsie. "Sit here and I will order
+something for you."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>was hungry</i> an hour ago," he said, meaningly, "but now I am not. But
+I am tired," he added. "Where are the Parkers?"</p>
+
+<p>Elsie laughed. "On their way to civilization. They fled on the
+up-train."</p>
+
+<p>"The town is aflame," said Lawson. "You and your Tetongs are an issue
+here to-night. A big meeting is called, and the Senator is to speak. He
+has just discovered you," he added, glancing towards Brisbane, who had
+risen and was glaring at Curtis, his small eyes hot as those of an angry
+bear.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, won't you?" pleaded Elsie, rising hastily. "I must go to
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>Curtis also rose and looked soberly into her eyes. "May I not see you
+again?"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated. "Yes. I'm not going to the meeting. Come to our parlor
+when you are finished supper."</p>
+
+<p>He remained standing till she joined her father and passed from the
+room, then he turned towards Lawson, who said:</p>
+
+<p>"Seriously, my dear Curtis, you are in danger here. I hope you will not
+go out this evening. Even Uncle Sam's blue might not prove a protection
+in the dark of a night like this. Where did you house your men?"</p>
+
+<p>"At Ladue's, with orders not to leave the corral."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right. Where is the sheriff?"</p>
+
+<p>This question brought a humorous light into the young soldier's eyes.
+"When I saw him last he was on Sage-hen Flat swinging his revolver and
+cursing me," and he told the story.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson grew grave. "I'm sorry you had to do that; it will give your
+enemies another grip on you. It's a mere technicality, of course, but
+they'll use it. You must watch every one of your clerks from this on;
+they'll trump up a charge against you if they can, and secure a
+court-martial. This election is really the last dying struggle of the
+political banditti of the State, and they will be defeated. Take
+to-night as an example. The reckless devils, the loud of mouth are alone
+in evidence, the better class of citizens dare not protest&mdash;dare not
+appear on the streets. But don't be deceived, you have your supporters
+even here, in the midst of this saturnalia of hate. You are an issue."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis grimly smiled. "I accept the challenge! They can only order me
+back to my regiment."</p>
+
+<p>"As for Brisbane, he is on the point of collapse. He has lost his
+self-control. He has attained a fixed notion that you are his most
+dangerous enemy; the mention of your name throws him into fury. I lost
+patience with him to-day, and opened fire. 'You are doomed to defeat!' I
+said to him. 'You represent the ignoble, greedy, conscienceless hustler
+and speculator, not the peaceful, justice-loving citizen of this State.
+Your dominion is gone; the reign of order and peace is about to begin.'
+If it were not for Elsie I would publicly denounce him, for his election
+would work incalculable injury to the West. But he can't fill the
+legislature with his men as he did twelve years ago. He will fail of
+election by fifty votes."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," responded Curtis, with a sigh, as Lawson rose. "But I have
+no faith in the courage of the better element; virtue is so timid and
+evil is always so fully organized."</p>
+
+<p>After Lawson left him Curtis hurriedly finished his supper and went his
+way to his room for a moment's rest. Through the open windows he could
+hear the cheering which greeted Brisbane's entrance into the
+opera-house, which faced upon the little square before the hotel. The
+street was thronging with noisy boys, and at intervals a band of young
+herders clattered into the square. Their horses thickened along the
+hitching-poles, and the saloons swarmed with men already inflamed with
+drink. The air seemed heavy, oppressive, electrical, and the shrill
+cheers which rose above the dull rumble of pounding boot-heels in the
+hall possessed a savage animal vehemence. Again a sense of impending
+disaster swept over the young officer. "I am tired and nervous," he
+thought. "Surely law and order rules in a civilized community like
+this."</p>
+
+<p>He put away all thoughts of war as he followed the boy up the stair-way
+to the Brisbane private parlor, and became the lover, palpitant with the
+hope that he was about to see Elsie alone.</p>
+
+<p>She met him at the door, her face a-quiver with feeling, a note of alarm
+in her voice. "Have you heard the cheering? They are denouncing you over
+there!"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so. But let's not talk of such unimportant matters; this is
+our last evening together, and I want to forget the storm outside. Since
+I left you last night I have had a most remarkable experience, and I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mean catching the murderer; tell me about it!"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Oh no; that is not worth telling. I mean something more intimately
+personal." Shrill yells from across the way interrupted him, and Elsie
+rose and shut the window. "I hate them; they are worse than savages,"
+she said. "Please don't mind them."</p>
+
+<p>He went on: "I was about to say I had a deal of time to think on my long
+ride this morning, and I reached some conclusions which I want to tell
+you about. When my prisoner was safe in the guard-house, I went over to
+see how my little temple of art looked&mdash;I mean your studio, of course. I
+closed the door and dropped into one of the big chairs, hoping to gain
+rest and serenity in the beauty and quiet of the place. But I didn't; I
+was painfully depressed."</p>
+
+<p>She opened her eyes very wide at this. "Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because everything I saw there emphasized the irrevocable loss I had
+suffered. I couldn't endure the thought of it, and I fled. I could not
+remain without weeping, and you know a man is ashamed of his tears; but
+when I got your note of warning I flung conscience to the winds! 'It is
+not a crime to love a woman,' I said. 'I will write to her and say to
+her "I love you, no matter what happens;"' and, now I find you here, I
+tell it to you instead of writing it."</p>
+
+<p>She was facing him with a look of perplexity and alarm. One hand laid
+upon her throat seemed to express suffering. When she spoke her voice
+was very low.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you expect me to say; you make it so hard for me! Why do you
+tell me this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I could not rest till I had spoken. For a long time I thought
+you were bound to Lawson, and since then I've tried to keep silent
+because of my poverty and&mdash;no one knows better than I the unreason of it
+all&mdash;I do not ask you to speak except to say, 'I am sorry.' When I found
+you were still within reach, the desire to let you know my feeling
+overcame every other consideration. I can't even do the customary thing
+and ask you to wait, for my future is as uncertain as my present, but if
+you could say you loved me&mdash;a little&mdash;" he paused abruptly, as though
+choked into silence by a merciless hand.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie remained silent, with her eyes turned towards the window, her
+hands in her lap, and at last he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"If your father is a true prophet, I shall be ordered back to my
+regiment. That will hurt me, but it won't ruin me exactly. It would be a
+shameful thing if the department sacrificed me to expediency; but
+politicians are wonderful people! If you were not so much an artist and
+Andrew Brisbane's daughter, I would ask you to come to me and help me do
+my work, but I can't quite do that&mdash;yet; I can only say you are more to
+me now than any other soul in the world. I do this because I can't keep
+from it," he repeated, in poor ending.</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard that the best way to make a woman love a man is to persecute
+the man," she replied, smiling a little, though her eyes were wet.
+"When you were apparently triumphant I hated you&mdash;now&mdash;" she hesitated
+and a sudden timidity shook her.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang up. "Can you carry out the figure? I dare you to finish the
+sentence. Do you care for me a little?" His face, suddenly illuminated,
+moved her powerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I do&mdash;wait, please!" She stopped him with a gesture. "You
+mustn't think I mean more than I do. My mind is all in a whirl now; it
+isn't fair to hurry me; I must take time to consider. Your being poor
+and an Indian agent wouldn't make any difference to me if I&mdash;But I must
+be sure. I respect you&mdash;I admire you very much&mdash;and last night when I
+said good-bye I felt a sharp pain here." She put her hand to her throat.
+"But I must be sure. There are so many things against it," she ended,
+covering her eyes with her hand in piteous perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes were alight, his voice eager. "It would be such a glorious
+thing if you could join me in my work."</p>
+
+<p>The mention of his work stung her. "Oh no! It is impossible. I should
+die here! I have no sense of duty towards these poor vagabonds. I'm
+sorry for them&mdash;but to live here&mdash;no, no! You must not ask it. You must
+go your way and I will go mine. You are only torturing me needlessly."</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I did not mean to do so."</p>
+
+<p>She continued, wildly: "Can't you see how crazy, how impossible, it is?
+I admire you&mdash;I believe in your work&mdash;it is magnificent; but I can't
+live your life. My friends, my art, mean too much to me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a tremulous, passionate pleading which failed of finality: it
+perplexed her lover; it did not convince him.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right; of course you are right," he said again; "but that does
+not help me to bear the pain of your loss. I can't let you go out of my
+life&mdash;utterly&mdash;I can't do it&mdash;I will not&mdash;Hark! What is that?"</p>
+
+<p>A faint, far-off, thundering sound interrupted him. A rushing roar, as
+of many horsemen rapidly approaching. Hastening to the window, Curtis
+bent his head to listen. "It sounds like a cavalry charge. Here they
+come! Cowboys&mdash;a mob of them! Can it be Yarpe's gang? Yes; that is
+precisely what it is. Yarpe leading them into some further deviltry."</p>
+
+<p>Whooping and cursing, and urging their tired horses with quirt and spur,
+the desperadoes, somewhat thinned of ranks, pouring by in clattering,
+pounding rush&mdash;as orderless as a charging squad of Sioux
+warriors&mdash;turned up a side street and disappeared almost before any one
+but Curtis was aware of them.</p>
+
+<p>"They are bent on mischief," said the soldier as he turned upon the
+girl, all personal feeling swept away by the passing mob. "They have
+followed me in to force the jail and hang Cut Finger." He caught up his
+cap. "I must prevent it!"</p>
+
+<p>"No! No!" cried Elsie, seizing his arm. "You must not go out in the
+street to-night&mdash;they will kill you&mdash;please don't go&mdash;you have done your
+duty. Now let the mayor act, I beg of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear girl, I <i>must</i> thwart this lynching party. I would be disgraced!
+Don't you see? They have seized the moment when the citizens are all in
+the hall away from the jail to do this thing. I must alarm the town and
+prevent them."</p>
+
+<p>Even as he pleaded with her the tumult in the hall broke forth again,
+roared for a moment in wild crescendo, and then ceased instantly,
+strangely. A moment's silence followed, and a confused murmur arose,
+quite different from any sound which had hitherto emanated from the
+hall. A powerful voice dominated all others, and through the open
+windows the words of command could be distinctly heard. "<i>Keep back
+there! Keep your seats!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"The meeting is breaking up!" exclaimed Curtis. "Some one has alarmed
+them. See, they are pouring out to prevent this crazy mob from carrying
+out its plan."</p>
+
+<p>The shouting ceased, but the trample of feet and the murmur of voices
+thickened to a clamor, and Elsie turned white with a new fear. "They are
+rushing across the square! Perhaps they are coming for <i>you</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so; they would not dare to attack me&mdash;they hate me,
+but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her over-wrought nerves gave way. A panic seized her. "Hide! Hide! They
+will kill you!" she cried out, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I am going to help them defend the jail."</p>
+
+<p>"For my sake!" she pleaded, "don't leave me! Listen! they are coming!"
+she whispered. The sound of many feet could be heard in the lobby below,
+the roar of a hundred voices came up the stair-way, but even the excited
+girl could now detect something hushed and solemn in the
+sound&mdash;something mournful in the measured footsteps up the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"It is father!" she cried, with a flash of divination. "Something has
+happened to him!" And with this new terror in her face she hurried out
+into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis reached her side just as the head of the procession topped the
+stair-way.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane, up-borne by Lawson and a tall young stranger, first appeared,
+followed by a dozen men, who walked two and two with bared heads and
+serious faces, as if following a hearse. The stricken man's face was
+flushed and knobby, and his eyelids drooped laxly like those of a
+drunkard. He saw nothing, and his breathing was labored.</p>
+
+<p>"Father, what has happened?" called Elsie. "Tell me&mdash;quick!"</p>
+
+<p>"A touch of vertigo," answered Lawson, soothingly. "The doctor says
+nothing serious."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you the doctor?" she turned to the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Don't be alarmed. The Senator has over-taxed himself a little,
+that is all, and needs rest. Show me his bed, and we will make him
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie led the way to the bedroom, while Curtis stood helplessly facing
+the crowd in the hall. Lawson relieved the situation by coming out a few
+moments later to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, the doctor thanks you, and requests you to leave the Senator
+to rest as quietly as possible."</p>
+
+<p>After this dismissal had dispersed the on-lookers, Lawson turned to
+Curtis. "The old man's work as a speaker is done. Rather tragic
+business, don't you think? He was assailing you with the utmost
+bitterness. His big, right fist was in the air like a hammer when he
+fell; but it was his last effort."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis seized his hand and said: "I envy you your chance to go with her
+and serve her." His voice changed. "The mob! Did you hear Yarpe and his
+men pass?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; when?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not ten minutes ago. I fear some mischief."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor appeared. "Mr. Lawson, a moment."</p>
+
+<p>As Lawson hurried into the sick-room a far-off, faint volley of
+pistol-shots broke the hush that had settled over the square. Distant
+yells succeeded, accompanied by a sound as of some giant hammering. The
+young soldier lifted his head like a young lion listening to a
+battle-call. "They are beating in the gates!" he said. For a moment he
+hesitated, but only for a moment. "She is safe!" he thought, with a
+glance towards Elsie's door. "My man and the poor little wife are not,"
+and he rushed down the stair-way and out into the street with intent to
+find and defend his faithful men.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>ELSIE CONFESSES HER LOVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>As he paused on the steps to the hotel, a gust of bitter rage swept over
+him. "What can I do against this implacable town? Oh, for a squad of the
+boys in blue!"</p>
+
+<p>The street and square were filled with men all running, as to a fire,
+from left to right&mdash;a laughing, jesting throng. Along the hitching-poles
+excited and jocular cowboys were loosing their ponies and leaping to
+their saddles. Some excitable citizen had begun to ring the fire-bell,
+and women, bareheaded and white with fear, were lining the sidewalks and
+leaning from windows. The town resembled an ant-hill into which a
+fleeing bison has planted a foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir!" cried one young mother as she caught sight of Curtis, "are
+the Injuns coming?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied, bitterly, "these marauders are not Indians; they are
+noble citizens," and set off at a run towards the corral in which Two
+Horns and Crow were camped. The tumult behind him grew fainter, and at
+last died to a murmur, and only one or two houses showed a light.</p>
+
+<p>Ladue's was an old ranch on the river, around which the town of Pinon
+had for twenty years been slowly growing. The cabin was of stone, low
+and strong, and two sides of it formed the corner of a low corral of
+cottonwood logs. In this enclosure teamsters (for two bits) were allowed
+to camp and feed their horses. A rickety gate some fifty feet south of
+the house stood ajar, and Curtis entered the yard, calling sharply for
+Crow Wing and Two Horns. No one replied. Searching the stalls, he found
+the blankets wherein they had lain, but the tumult had undoubtedly
+called them forth into danger.</p>
+
+<p>Hurrying to the house, he knocked most vigorously at the door&mdash;to no
+effect. The shack was also empty. Closing the door with a slam, the
+young officer, now thoroughly alarmed, turned back towards the hotel. A
+vast, confused clamor, growing each moment louder, added edge to his
+apprehension. The crowd was evidently returning from the jail, jubilant
+and remorseless. Upon reaching the corner of the square Curtis turned to
+the left, with the design of encircling it, hoping to find the two
+redmen looking on from a door-way on the outskirts of the throng.</p>
+
+<p>He had crossed but one side of the plaza, when a band of cowboys dashed
+in from the opposite corner with swinging lariats, whooping shrilly, in
+close pursuit of a flying footman. A moment later a rope looped, the
+fugitive fell and the horsemen closed round him in joyous clamor, like
+dogs around a fox.</p>
+
+<p>With a fear that this was one of his men, Curtis raised a great shout,
+but his voice was lost in the rush and roar of the throng pouring in
+towards the fugitive. In fierce rage he rushed straight towards the
+whirling mass of horsemen, but before he had passed half the intervening
+space a horseman circled the pavilion, and the popping of a revolver,
+swift yet with deliberate pauses, began. Wild yells broke forth, the
+pursuers scattered, other revolvers began to crack, and as the press of
+horsemen reeled back, Curtis perceived Calvin, dismounted and
+bareheaded, with his back against the wall of the little wooden
+band-stand, defiant, a revolver in each hand, holding the mob at bay,
+while over his head a light sputtered and sizzled.</p>
+
+<p>A lane seemed to open for Curtis as he ran swiftly in towards the
+writhing, ensnared captive on the ground. It was Two Horns, struggling
+with the ropes which bound him, and just as his Little Father bent over
+him the big Tetong freed himself, and, with a sliding rush, entered the
+shadow by Calvin's side. Instantly his revolver began to speak.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, left alone in the full light of the lamp on the pavilion, raised
+his arms and shouted: "Hold! Cease firing!" The crowd recognized him and
+fell silent. The army blue subdued them, and those who had done the
+shooting began to edge away.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the young soldier could not speak, so furious was he, but
+at last he found words: "Cowards! Is this your way of fighting&mdash;a
+hundred to one? Where is your mayor? Have you no law in this town?" He
+turned to Calvin, who stood still, leaning against the pavilion. "Are
+you hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>Calvin lifted one dripping hand. "I reckon I'm punched a few. My right
+arm feels numb, and the blood is fillin' my left boot. But I'm all here,
+sure thing." But even as he spoke he reeled. Curtis caught him; he
+smiled apologetically: "That left leg o' mine, sure feels like a
+hitchin'-post; reckon some one must o' clipped a nerve somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>Two Horns seized him by the other arm, just as Winters blustered into
+the circle. "What's going on here; who's doin' this shootin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is a good time to ask that," remarked Curtis. "Where were you
+twenty minutes ago?"</p>
+
+<p>Calvin struggled to get his right hand free. "Let me have a crack at the
+beast!" he pleaded. "I saw you," he said to Winters: "you were in the
+lynching crowd, you sneak! You hung round in the shadow like a coyote."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis tried to calm him. "Come, this won't do, Calvin; you are losing
+blood and must have a doctor; come to the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>As they half-carried him away the young rancher snarled back, like a
+wounded wolf: "I disown the whole cowardly pack of ye; I put my mark on
+some of ye, too."</p>
+
+<p>The crowd was now so completely with Calvin that Winters hastened to
+explain: "Cal is my deputy; he was acting inside his duty! He was trying
+to keep the peace and you had no business fightin'," and proceeded to
+arrest some fairly innocent by-standers, while the wounded desperadoes
+were being swiftly hidden away by their friends, and the remaining
+citizens of the town talked of what should have been done.</p>
+
+<p>Calvin continued to explain as they hurried him through the excited
+throng. "I tried to stand 'em off at the jail," he said, "but I couldn't
+get near enough; my cayuse was used up. Oh, you was there!" he called to
+a tall man with a new sombrero, "I saw you, Bill Vawney, and I'll get
+you for it; I've spotted you!"</p>
+
+<p>He was enraged through every fibre of his strong, young body, and only
+the iron grip of the persistent men kept him from doing battle.</p>
+
+<p>As they neared the hotel, Curtis, looking up, glimpsed Elsie's white
+face at the window and waved his cap at her. She clapped her hands in
+joy of his return, but did not smile. The hotel lobby was packed with a
+silent mass of men, but the landlord, with authoritative voice, called
+out: "Clear the way, gentlemen!" and a lane opened for them. "Right in
+here," he added, and led the way to the parlor bedroom. The Captain and
+Calvin were now most distinguished of citizens; nothing was too good for
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring a physician," said Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"Right here," replied a cool, clear voice, and Doctor Philipps stepped
+to Calvin's side and relieved Two Horns.</p>
+
+<p>The young rancher sank down on the bed limply, but smiled as he
+explained: "I'm only singed a little, doc. They had me foul. You see, I
+was in the light, but I handed one or two of them something they didn't
+like. I left a keepsake with 'em. They won't forget me soon."</p>
+
+<p>The physician pressed him back upon the bed and began to strip his
+clothes from him. "Be quiet for five minutes and I'll have you in shape.
+We must close up your gashes."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, relieved of part of his anxiety, then asked: "How is the
+Senator?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty comfortable; no danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't leave me, Major," called Calvin, as Curtis turned away to seek
+Elsie. "Don't let this chap cut me up. I'm no centipede. I need all my
+legs."</p>
+
+<p>There was genuine pleading in the boy's voice, and Curtis came back and
+took a chair near him while the doctor probed the wounds and dressed
+them. The officer's heart was very tender towards the reckless,
+warm-hearted young rancher as he watched his face whiten and the lips
+stiffen in the effort to conceal his pain. "Calvin, you've been loyal
+all through," he said, "and we won't forget it."</p>
+
+<p>At last, when the wounds were bandaged and the worst of the pain over,
+Curtis turned to Two Horns and signed:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Crow and the wife of Cut Finger?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go find him; you remain here. Do not fear; you are safe now. Sit
+down by Calvin's bed. You will sleep here to-night."</p>
+
+<p>As he made his way through the close-packed mass of excited men in the
+lobby and before the hotel, Curtis met no hostile face. It seemed that
+all men were become his friends, and eager to disclaim any share in the
+mob's action. He put their proffered hands aside and hurried back to
+Ladue's, which he found close-barred and dark.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's there?" called a shaking voice as he knocked.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Curtis. Where is Crow?"</p>
+
+<p>"In here!" was the answer, in joyful voice. As he opened the door, Ladue
+reached his hand to the agent. "My God, I'm glad it is you! I was afraid
+you'd been wiped out. Where is Two Horns?"</p>
+
+<p>Crow, with his revolver still gripped in his hand, stepped forward, his
+face quivering with emotion. "Little Father, it is good to see you; you
+are not hurt? Where is Two Horns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Safe in the big house with me. The evil white men are gone; you will
+camp here, you and the wife of Cut Finger," he signed as he saw the
+cowering form of the little wife.</p>
+
+<p>Ladue, a big, hulking, pock-marked half-breed, began to grin. "I was
+a-scared; I sure was. I thought we was all goin' to hang. Old Bill Yarpe
+was out for game."</p>
+
+<p>"The better citizens are in control now," replied Curtis. "You are safe,
+but you'd better remain in the house till morning."</p>
+
+<p>As Curtis made his way through the crowd some one raised a cheer for
+"Major Curtis," and the cry was taken up by a hundred voices. Indignant
+citizens shouted: "We'll stand by you, Major. We'll see justice done."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis, as he reached the stair-way, turned and coldly said: "Make your
+words good. For four days a mob of two hundred armed men have menaced
+the lives of my employés and my wards, and you did nothing to prevent
+them. I am glad to see you appreciate the horror and the disgrace of
+this night's doings. If you mean what you say, let no guilty man escape.
+Make this night the memorable end of lawlessness in your country."</p>
+
+<p>"We will!" roared a big, broad-faced, black-bearded man, and the crowd
+broke into another roar of approval.</p>
+
+<p>Elsie was waiting at the top of the stairs, tense and white. Her eyes
+burned down into his with a singular flame as she cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you come to me sooner? Why do you walk so slowly? Are you
+hurt? Tell me the truth!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, only tired," he answered, as he reached her side.</p>
+
+<p>She put out her hand and touched his breast. "You are; you are all
+bloody. Take off your coat; let me see!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it's not mine; it is poor Calvin's; he was badly wounded; he leaned
+against me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I saw you standing in the pistol-fire; take it off, I say!" Her
+voice was almost frenziedly insistent.</p>
+
+<p>He removed his coat in a daze of astonishment, and she cried out,
+triumphantly: "See! I was right; your shirt is soaked. You are wounded!"</p>
+
+<p>"True enough!" he replied, looking down in surprise at a big stain on
+his shoulder. "I've been 'singed,' as Calvin calls it. It can't be
+serious, for I have not felt it."</p>
+
+<p>A sudden faintness seized upon Elsie as she gazed fixedly upon the
+tell-tale stain. A gray whiteness passed over her face. "Oh, God!
+suppose you had been killed!" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>In that shuddering whisper was the expression of the girl's complete and
+final surrender, and Curtis did not question, did not speak; he took her
+in his arms to comfort her.</p>
+
+<p>"My sweetheart, you <i>do</i> love me! I doubt no more. My poverty, your
+wealth, what do they matter?"</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly started away. "Oh, your wound! Where is the doctor? Go to
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>"The touch of your lips has healed me," he protested, but she insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"Go! You are bleeding!" she commanded; and so, reluctantly, lingeringly,
+with most unmilitary sloth, he turned away, made numb to any physical
+pain by the tenderness in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>As the young surgeon was dressing the gash, he said: "Well, Captain,
+things happen in the West."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the kind of things which ought not to happen anywhere. I suppose
+they lynched poor Cut Finger?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; they merely shot him and dragged him to death, as near as I can
+learn."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis clinched his fists. "Ah, the devils! Where is the body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Back in the corridor of the jail."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis pondered the effect of this news on the tribe. "It's a little
+difficult to eliminate violence from an inferior race when such cruelty
+is manifested in those we call their teachers."</p>
+
+<p>He sent for Ladue, who was deep in discussion of the evening's events
+with Crow and Two Horns, and said to him: "Do not tell the wife of Cut
+Finger of the death of her husband; wait till morning. What the sheriff
+will do with the body I do not know. To-morrow say to her, 'All is over;
+go with the agent.' It will do her no good to remain here. Good-night!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was hard to realize in the peaceful light of the following morning
+that the little square had been the scene of so much cruelty and riot.
+The townspeople came forth yawning and lax, and went about their duties
+mechanically. Crow Wing and Two Horns, who would camp nowhere but on
+the floor of Curtis's room, were awake at dawn, conversing in signs, in
+order not to disturb the Little Father.</p>
+
+<p>He, waking a little later, called to them in greeting and said: "Now all
+is quiet. The white men are sorry. You are safe. Go to Paul's, eat and
+get ready. We must start at once for the agency. Cut Finger did an ill
+deed, and brought trouble on us all. Now he is dead, but good may come
+out of it. Go, tell the little wife; be gentle with her; say to her I
+wish her to go home with us."</p>
+
+<p>Silently, soberly, the two redmen left the room, and Curtis dressed and
+went at once to find Calvin. The boy looked up as Curtis entered and
+cheerily called: "Hello, Major, I've had a lively dream. I dreamed there
+was some gun-play goin' on out in the square and you and I were in it.
+Was that right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've a sore place here on my shoulder that says you are. How do you
+feel? Can you travel? If you can, I'll take you home in my buckboard."</p>
+
+<p>"I can travel all right, but I haven't any home to go to. The old man
+and I haven't hitched very well for a year, and this will just about
+turn me out on the range."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come home with me, then; Jennie will soon have you all right
+again; she's a famous nurse, and will look out for you till your mother
+comes over, as she will. Mothers don't go back on their boys."</p>
+
+<p>A curious dimness came into the bold, keen eyes of the wounded youth.
+"Major, that'll suit me better than anything else I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, if the doctor says you can travel, we'll go along together,"
+replied Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>He was eager to see Elsie and was pacing impatiently up and down the
+hall when Lawson met him, smiling, imperturbable. "Well, Captain, how
+are you this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen Miss Brisbane?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; she is still asleep, I hope. The Senator is conscious, but in a
+curious state; seems not to know or care where he is; his troubles are
+over."</p>
+
+<p>Even as he spoke a maid came from Elsie's room to say that her mistress
+would breakfast in her own parlor, and wished both Mr. Lawson and
+Captain Curtis to join her in half an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Lawson, in discussing the events of the night, was decidedly optimistic.
+"This outbreak will bring about a reaction," he said, with conviction.
+"You will find every decent man on your side to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," responded Curtis. "But last night's mob made me long for my
+Gray-Horse Troop."</p>
+
+<p>When they entered the little parlor Elsie rose and passed straight to
+Curtis without coquetry or concealment. "How is your wound? Did you
+sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>He assured her that he was almost as well as ever, and not till she had
+convinced herself of the truth did she turn to Lawson. "Osborne, I can
+never thank you enough for your good, kind help."</p>
+
+<p>Osborne protested that he had done nothing worth considering, and they
+took seats at the table&mdash;a subdued and quiet group, for Lawson was still
+suffering from his loss, and the lovers could not conceal from
+themselves the knowledge that this was their last meeting for many long
+months. Elsie was a being transformed, so tender, so wilful, so
+strangely sweet and womanly was she in every smile and in every
+gesture.</p>
+
+<p>They dwelt upon impersonal topics so long as Lawson remained; but he,
+being ill at ease, hastened with his coffee, and soon made excuse to
+withdraw, leaving them alone. For a moment they faced each other, and
+then, with a wistful cadence in his voice, Curtis said, "Dear girl, it's
+hard to say good-bye now, just when I have found you, but I must return
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, must you? Can't you wait till we go&mdash;this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I must be the first to carry this dreadful news to my people."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, of course; but I'll miss you so, and you need me. Say
+you need me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Need you! Of course I do; but you cannot stay with me and I cannot go
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know!" she sighed, resignedly. "But it hurts all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"This tumult will die out soon," he went on, in the effort to comfort
+her, "and then I can come on to Washington for a visit. I warn you I've
+lost all my scruples; seventeen hundred million dollars are as straws in
+my path, now that I know you really care for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel rich now; I feel very poor. You must come to Washington
+soon."</p>
+
+<p>"I warn you that when I come I will ask hard things of you!" He rose and
+his face darkened. "But my duty calls!"</p>
+
+<p>She came to him and yielded herself to his embrace. "My queenly,
+beautiful girl! It is sweet to have you here in my arms; but I <i>must</i>
+say good-bye&mdash;good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his words he held her till she, with an instinctive
+movement, pushed from his arms. "Go&mdash;go quick!" she exclaimed, in a low,
+imperative voice.</p>
+
+<p>Not staying to wonder at the meaning of her strange dismissal, he turned
+and left the room without looking back.</p>
+
+<p>Only after he had helped Calvin into the wagon, and had taken his seat
+beside him, did the young soldier lift his eyes in search of her face at
+the window. She was looking down upon him, tears were on her cheeks, but
+she blew a kiss from her finger-tips, not caring if all the world were
+there to see.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a>XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>SEED-TIME</h3>
+
+
+<p>As Lawson predicted, the very violence of this outburst of racial hatred
+was its cure. A reaction set in. The leaders of Brisbane's party, with
+loud shouts, ordered their harriers back to their lairs, while the great
+leader himself, oblivious to daylight or to darkness, was hurried home
+to Washington. The Tetongs returned to their camps and hay-making, the
+troops drilled peacefully each afternoon in the broiling heat, while
+Curtis bent to his work again with a desperate sort of energy, as if by
+so doing he could shorten the long, hot days, which seemed well-nigh
+interminable after the passing of Elsie and her friends.</p>
+
+<p>In a letter announcing their safe arrival in Washington, Elsie said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am going to see the President about you, as soon as he
+returns from the mountains. Papa is gaining, but takes no
+interest in anything. He is pitifully weak, but the doctor
+thinks he will recover if he will only rest. His brain is worn
+out and needs complete freedom from care. Congress has
+adjourned finally. I am told that your enemies expect to secure
+a court-martial on the charge of usurping the authority of the
+sheriff. Osborne says not to worry, for nothing will be done
+now till the President returns, and he is confident that the
+department will sustain you&mdash;the fact that the violence you
+feared did actually take place has robbed your enemies of their
+power."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the fight against the Tetongs and himself went on with
+ever-increasing rancor during July and August, and each Congressional
+candidate was sharply interrogated as to his attitude towards the
+removal bill. The anti-administration papers boldly said: "If we win
+(and we will) we'll cut the comb of this bantam. We'll break his sabre
+over his back."</p>
+
+<p>To this the opposition made answer: "We're no lovers of the redman, but
+Captain Curtis is an honorable soldier, doing his duty, and it will not
+be easy for you, even if victorious, to order a court-martial."</p>
+
+<p>This half-hearted defence gave courage to those who took the high ground
+that the time for lynching had gone by. "The Tetongs have rights which
+every decent man is bound to respect, no matter how much he personally
+dislikes the redskin."</p>
+
+<p>During the last days of August a letter came from Elsie, full of
+comforting assurances, both public and private, being more intimate and
+tender in tone than any that had preceded it, and full of sprightly
+humor too. It began:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Soldier</span>,&mdash;I've been so busy fighting your enemies I
+couldn't write a letter. I've met both the Secretary and the
+commissioner&mdash;their desks are said to be full of screeds
+against you&mdash;<i>and I've been to see the President</i>! He wasn't a
+bit gallant, but he listened. He glowered at me (not unkindly)
+while I told your story. I'm afraid I didn't phrase it very
+well, but he listened. I brought out all the good points I
+could think of. I said: 'Mr. President, Captain Curtis is the
+most disinterested man in the Indian service. He is sacrificing
+everything for his plans.' 'What are his plans?' he asked, so
+abruptly that I jumped. I then spoke learnedly of irrigating
+ditches and gardens; you would have laughed had you heard me,
+and I said: 'If he is ordered back to his regiment, Mr.
+President, these poor people will be robbed again.' 'Does Mr.
+Blank, of New York, endorse Captain Curtis?' he asked. I didn't
+see what this led to, but I answered that I did not know. 'He's
+a friend of yours, isn't he?' he asked. 'Whom do you mean?' I
+said, and my cheeks burned. Then he smiled. 'You needn't
+worry,' he said, banging the table with his fist. 'I'll keep
+Captain Curtis where he is if every politician in the State
+petitions for his removal.' I liked his wooden cuss-word, and I
+thanked him and jumped up and hurried home to write this
+letter. The Secretary told Osborne that the bill for buying out
+the settlers would certainly go through next winter, and that
+your plans were approved by the whole department. So, you see,
+you are master of the situation, and can plan as grandly as you
+wish&mdash;the entire reservation is yours.</p>
+
+<p>"It is still hot here, and now that my 'lobbying' is done, I am
+going to the sea-shore, where papa is, and I know I shall wish
+you were with me to enjoy it. I am so sorry for you and Jennie,
+my heart aches for you. Think of it! The cool, beautiful ocean
+will be singing me to sleep to-night. I wish I could send you
+some fruit and some ices; I know you are longing for them.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how it will all turn out? Will you be East this
+winter? Perhaps I'll help you celebrate the opening of your new
+gardens, next spring. Wouldn't you like me to come out and
+break a bottle of wine over the first plough or water-gate or
+something? If you do, maybe I'll come. If you write, address me
+at the Brunswick, Crescent Beach. I wish you could come and see
+me here&mdash;you look so handsome in your uniform."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The soldier's answer was not a letter, it was a packet! He began by
+writing sorrowfully:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dearest Girl</span>,&mdash;I fear I shall not be able to get away this
+winter. There is so much here that requires my care. If the
+bill passes, the people will be stirred up; if it doesn't pass,
+the settlers will be uneasy, and I shall be most imperatively
+necessary here. Nothing would be sweeter to me than a visit to
+you at the beach. As a boy I knew the sea-shore intimately, and
+to wall the sands with you would be to revive those sweet,
+careless boy memories and unite them with the deepest emotions
+of my life&mdash;my love for you, dear one. It almost makes me
+willing to resign. In a sense it would be worth it. I <i>would</i>
+resign only I know I am not losing the delight forever&mdash;I am
+only postponing it a year.</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought pretty deeply on my problem, dearest, and I've
+come to this conclusion: When two people love each other as we
+do, neither poverty nor riches&mdash;nothing but duty, should
+separate them. Your wealth troubled me at first. I knew I could
+not give you the comforts&mdash;not to say luxuries&mdash;you were
+accustomed to, and I knew that my life as a soldier would
+always make even a barrack a place of uncertain residence. I
+must stand to my guns here till I have won my fight; then I may
+ask for a transfer to some field where life would not be so
+hard. If only there were ways to use your great wealth in
+helping these people I would rejoice to be your agent in the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a penniless suitor, but a good soldier. I can say that
+without egotism. I think I could have acquired money had I
+started out that way; of course I cannot do it now. Perhaps my
+knowledge and training will come to supplement and give power
+to your wealth. I must work. I am not one to be idle. If I go
+on working&mdash;devising&mdash;in my own way, then my self-respect would
+not be daunted, even though you were worth ten millions instead
+of one. I am fitted to be the head of a department&mdash;like that
+of Forestry, or Civil Engineering. After my work here is
+finished I may ask for something of that kind, but I am
+resolved to do my duty here first. I like your suggestion about
+the water-gate. I hold you to that word, my lady. One year from
+now, when my gardens are ready for the sickle, I will have the
+criers announce a harvest-home festival, and you must come and
+dance with me among my people, and then, perhaps, I will take a
+little vacation, and return with you to the East, and be happy
+with you among the joyous of the earth for a little season.
+Beyond that I dare not plan."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The administration was sustained, and Brisbane's forces were beaten
+back. The better elements of the State, long scattered, disintegrated,
+and without voice, spoke, and with majesty, rebuking the cruelty, the
+barbarism, and the blatant assertion of men like Musgrove and Streeter,
+who had made the State odious. Even Winters, the sheriff, was defeated,
+and a fairly humane and decent citizen put in his place, and this
+change, close down to the people, was most significant of all. "Now I
+have hope of the courts," said Curtis to Maynard.</p>
+
+<p>If the Tetongs did not at once apprehend the peace and comfort which the
+defeat of Brisbane's gang and the passage of the purchase bill assured
+to them, they deeply appreciated the significance of the immediate
+withdrawal of the settlers. They rejoiced in full-toned song as their
+implacable and sleepless enemies drove their heavily laden wagons across
+the line, leaving their farms, sheds, and houses to the government for
+the use of the needy tribe.</p>
+
+<p>The urgency of the case being fully pleaded, the whole readjustment was
+permitted to be made the following spring, and the powers of the agent
+and his employés were taxed to the uttermost. When the order actually
+came to hand, Curtis mounted his horse and rode from camp to camp,
+carrying the good news; calling the members of each band around him, he
+told the story of their victory.</p>
+
+<p>"Your days of hunger and cold will soon be over," he said. "The white
+man has gone from the reservation. The water of the streams, the
+ploughed fields, are all yours. Now we must set to work. Every one will
+have good ground; all will share alike, and every one must work. We must
+show the Great Father at Washington that we are glad of his kindness.
+Our friends will not be ashamed when they come to see us, and look upon
+our corn and wheat."</p>
+
+<p>Every man, woman, and child did as they had promised. They laid hands to
+the duties appointed them, and did so merrily. They moved at once to the
+places designated. A mighty shifting of dwellings took place first of
+all, and when this was finished they set to work. They built fences,
+they dug ditches, they ploughed and they planted, cheery as robins. Even
+the gaunt old women lifted their morose faces to the sun and muttered
+unaccustomed thanks. The old men no longer sat in complaining council,
+but talked of the wonderful things about to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho! have you heard?" cried one. "Grayman lives in the house the white
+man has left; Elk too. Two Horns sleeps in the house above Grayman, and
+is not afraid. Ah, it is wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>The more thoughtful dwelt in imagination on the reservation completely
+fenced, and saw the hills swarming with cattle as in the olden time it
+swarmed with the wild, black buffalo. They helped at the gardens, these
+old men, and as they rested on their hoes and listened to the laughter
+of the women and children, they said one to the other: "Our camp is as
+it was in the days when game was plenty. Every one is smiling. Our worst
+days are over. The white man's road is very long, and runs into a
+strange country, but while Swift Eagle leads we follow."</p>
+
+<p>There was commotion in every corral, where long-haired men in leggings
+and with feathered ornaments in their hats, were awkwardly breaking
+fiery ponies to drive, for teams were in sharp demand. The young men who
+formerly raced horses, for lack of other things to do, and in order not
+to die of inertness, now became the hilarious teamsters of each valley.
+Every person, white or red, who could give instruction in ditching and
+planting, was employed each hour of the day. The various camps were as
+busy as ant-hills, and as full of cheer as a flock of magpies.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis was everywhere, superintending the moving of barns, the building
+of cabins, and the laying out of lands. Each night he returned to his
+bed so tired he could not lie flat enough, but happy in the knowledge
+that some needed and permanent improvement had that day been made.
+Lawson, faithful to his post, came on from Washington, and was a comfort
+in ways less material than wielding a hoe. He went about encouraging the
+people at their work, and his words had the quality of a poem.</p>
+
+<p>"You see how it is!" he said. "You need not despair. It is not true that
+the redmen are to vanish from the earth. They are now to be happy and
+have plenty of food. The white people, at last, have found out the way
+to help you."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard got a short leave of absence, and came over to see "the hustle,"
+as he called it, and to visit Jennie, who still refused to leave her
+post, though she had practically consented to his proposal. "We will
+see," she had said. "If George marries, then I will feel free to go with
+you; but not now."</p>
+
+<p>Maynard expressed the same astonishment as ever. "A man may fight a
+people a lifetime and never really know 'em. Now I consider it
+marvellous the way these devils work."</p>
+
+<p>Calvin, after his recovery, came seldom to the agency. He recognized the
+power and the fitness of Captain Maynard's successful courtship, and
+though Jennie wrote twice inviting him to call, he did not come, and did
+not even reply till she had almost forgotten her own letters. In a very
+erratic and laborious screed he conveyed his regrets. "I'm powfle bizzy
+just now. The old man is gone East, an' that thros all the work of the
+ranch onto me. Ime just as mutch obliged." Jennie did not laugh at this
+letter; she put it away with a sigh&mdash;"Poor boy!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a>XXXV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BATTLE WITH THE WEEDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Between the planting and the reaping lay the sun-smitten summer-time and
+a battle with the weeds! It was a period demanding patience and
+understanding in Curtis, for as the first flush of enthusiasm over the
+sowing died away, apathy and indifference sprang up naturally as
+thistles. These childlike souls said: "Behold we have done our part, now
+let Mother Earth and the Father Sun bring forth the harvest. We cannot
+ripen the grain; we can only wait. Besides, we are weary."</p>
+
+<p>To them harvest should follow seeding without further effort. They were
+like boys wearied with waiting for the trees to grow. The seed and the
+apple were too far apart. Curtis, understanding this lack of training in
+their lives, did not allow himself to express the impatience he
+sometimes felt. He told them that the new life they were to lead
+involved constant care, but care would bring a reward. "In the old days
+when you hunted, these things were not so." He also made honorable
+examples of men like Two Horns and Crane's Voice, who kept their gardens
+clean of all noxious plants.</p>
+
+<p>He organized mimic war-parties. "To-day," he said, "the warriors of Elk
+will go forth with me against these evil ones, the weeds. Each man will
+be armed with a bright hoe. Elk, old as he is, will lead, and I will go
+by his side. We will work busily till the sun has climbed half-way to
+his hill; then we will smoke."</p>
+
+<p>His knowledge of their needs, their habits, their modes of thinking,
+made all that he did successful. He allowed the women to bring cool
+drinks, flavored with herbs, and to build little bowers to shade their
+sons and husbands from the fierce sun while they rested. There was
+grumbling, there was envy, naturally, but less than he expected.</p>
+
+<p>On the first day of July he was confident of a big crop, and wrote to
+Elsie, saying: "The potatoes are in bloom, the wheat is waving in the
+wind like a green sea. I am waiting."</p>
+
+<p>To this she replied: "Papa's mind turns to the mountains these hot days,
+and so we are coming; also my heart yearns for a certain soldier in the
+West&mdash;a commander of shining hoes and a leader of destructive red
+ploughmen. I ought, for my own peace and comfort, to forget this
+singular creature; but, alas! I cannot. My perplexity grows daily. I
+long to see him, yet I am afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>These words made him tireless and of Job-like patience. "You need not
+wait till the harvest is ended," he wrote, in reply. "Come and watch the
+grain ripen, so that you will be garmented duly and ready for the feast.
+Moreover, we will snatch so many more days of joy out of the maw of
+devouring time."</p>
+
+<p>To this she answered: "Your expressed reasons are not overwhelming, but
+as the sun is scorching now, we leave soon. We will reach Pinon City in
+about ten days. Father is quite well, but restless with the heat. I am
+well, but restless, for other reasons. I don't see that the problem of
+our lives is any nearer solution, do you? What can I do? What can you
+do? Is there any common ground?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no problems now that you are coming," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>It was with a deep surprise and joy that she found herself trembling
+before each of his letters. All the old-time ecstasy and breathless
+passion of her girlhood came back to her, but enlarged, and based
+deeper, a woman's care and introspection giving it greater significance
+and power.</p>
+
+<p>The next day after Elsie's definite promise Curtis rode over to the
+first camp and called the people round him and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Next week we will hold our feast to give thanks for the good things the
+earth has given to us, and after we have councilled together we will
+feast and have a dance. Let everything be in order. Come in your finest
+dress. Let every garment be as it was of old. Let the young girls be
+very beautiful in whitened buckskin and beads. I do not despise your
+old-time dress; I like it. Hereafter, when you work you will need to
+wear white man's clothes, for they are more comfortable; but when you
+wish to have a good time, then your old dress will be pleasant. I do not
+ask you to forget the old time. It is past, but it is sweet to you. I
+want you to be happy, for I am happy."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a>XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HARVEST-HOME</h3>
+
+
+<p>The hay-harvest was still going on when Curtis and Jennie drove down the
+valley to meet Elsie and Lawson at Pinon City. "Father is much changed,"
+Elsie had written. "You will hardly know him now. He has forgotten all
+about his campaign; he remembers you only momentarily, so that you need
+not feel any resentment. He will probably meet you as if he had never
+seen you before. Please do not show any surprise, no matter what he
+says."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis expected to find Brisbane a poor shambling wreck of a man, morose
+and sorrowful to look upon, and his astonishment was correspondingly
+profound as the ex-Senator descended from the train. His step was
+vigorous, and his face was placid and of good color; thus much the young
+soldier took in at a glance, then he forgot all the world in the radiant
+face of his heart's beloved.</p>
+
+<p>As she put up her lips to be kissed, Elsie's eyes were dim with tears,
+and she hurried to Jennie as if for relief from her emotion. When she
+turned, her father was shaking hands urbanely with Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to meet you, sir," he said, in the tone of the suave man of
+position. "I didn't catch the name."</p>
+
+<p>A spasm of pain crossed Elsie's face. "This is Mr. Curtis, papa. Don't
+you remember Captain Curtis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, so it is," he replied. "I remember you spoke of him once
+before. I am very glad to make your acquaintance&mdash;very glad indeed,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>To meet this calm politeness in a man who, in his right mind, would have
+refused to shake hands, was deeply moving to the young officer. To all
+outward appearance the great promoter was the same, and on all matters
+concerning his first campaign and first term, and especially on the
+events of his early life, he spoke with freedom, even with humor, but of
+the incidents of the later campaign he had no recollection. That he had
+been defeated and humbled seemed also to have left no lasting mark upon
+his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is, my memory has grown very bad," he explained. "I can
+remember faces in a dim way, but anything that is said to me I forget
+instantly."</p>
+
+<p>For a time the thought of Brisbane's mental decay threw a gloom over the
+party, but Elsie said: "Please don't mind him. I have reached a certain
+philosophic calm in the matter. I can do him no good by sorrowing. I
+have, therefore, determined to be as happy as I can."</p>
+
+<p>Curtis cheerfully called: "We must start at once. Will your father go
+with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! I am afraid to have him undertake that. He will go on to Copper
+City with his secretary."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, that is best," replied Curtis, vastly relieved.</p>
+
+<p>Brisbane parted with Elsie quite matter-of-factly, and his urbanity
+remained unbroken as he shook hands with Curtis. "Pleased to have met
+you, sir," he said, and, in spite of her resolution, the tears filled
+the daughter's eyes. The old warrior's smiling forgetfulness of feuds
+was tragic.</p>
+
+<p>As they rode homeward, Curtis and Elsie sat as before on the forward
+seat, and he detailed what had taken place at the agency, and she
+listened, genuinely absorbed. She laughed and she wept a little as his
+story touched on the pathetic incidents of the year.</p>
+
+<p>"You are like a father confessor," she said. "You hold in your hands the
+most intimate secrets of your people. I don't understand your patience
+with them. Do you feel that you have made your demonstration?"</p>
+
+<p>"What I have done is written in lines of gold and green on the earth.
+The sky is too bright to remember my gray days," he replied, most
+exultantly.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him quizzically. "You are developing new and singular
+powers."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a new and singular teacher."</p>
+
+<p>"New?" she queried.</p>
+
+<p>"New to me," he answered, and in such enigmatic way they expressed their
+emotion while Lawson and Jennie chatted gayly and in clear prose behind.
+Part of the time Elsie drove, and that gave Curtis an excuse to lay his
+hand on her wrist when he wished her to drive slow. At the half-way
+house she shuddered and made a mouth of disgust. "Let's hurry past here;
+I have a bad heart when I think of those horrible men."</p>
+
+<p>"They are thinning out, and this ranch has 'changed hands' as they say
+on restaurant signs in Chicago. Here's our north line of fence," he
+said, as they came to a big, new gate. "I hastened to build this at
+once before anything happened to prevent. This keeps the stock of the
+white man out, and has stopped all friction."</p>
+
+<p>As they came in sight of the flag-pole, Elsie cried out: "Just think!
+This is the third time I have driven up this road in this way. Twice
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it is wonderful. I don't intend you to go away without me."</p>
+
+<p>She was ignoring every one of his suggestions now, but the flush of her
+cheek and a certain softness in her eyes encouraged him to go on.</p>
+
+<p>As they alighted at the door, Jennie remained to look after her bundles,
+and Curtis and Elsie entered the library together. He who had waited so
+eagerly for this moment turned and folded her close in his arms. "I need
+you, sweetest! I'll never let you go again. Never!"</p>
+
+<p>This was her moment to protest; but she was silent, with her face
+against his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie bounced into the hall with a great deal of premonitory clatter
+and hurried Elsie to her room to rest.</p>
+
+<p>"And now you're to be my really truly sister," she said, closing the
+door behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"I think&mdash;George," she hesitated a little, and blushed before speaking
+his name, "expects it&mdash;rather confidently."</p>
+
+<p>"Then give me a good hug, you glorious thing!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a>XXXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MINGLING OF THE OLD AND THE NEW</h3>
+
+
+<p>Early on the morning of the great day&mdash;before the dawn, in truth&mdash;the
+Tetongs came riding in over the hills from every quarter of the earth,
+bringing their finest clothing, their newest blankets, and their whitest
+tepees, all lashed on long poles between which the patient ponies walked
+as in the olden time. Every man, woman, and child able to sit a horse
+was mounted. No one wore a white man's hat or shoes or vest; all were in
+leggings and moccasins, fringed and painted, and they carried their
+summer blankets as they once carried their robes of the buffalo-skin.
+Even the boys of six and seven wore suits cunningly fashioned and
+decorated like those of their elders. The young warriors, painted, and
+with fluttering feathers, rode their fleetest ponies, with shoulders
+bare and gleaming like bronze in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>With all due form, without hurry or jostling, the whole tribe camped in
+a wide ellipse, each clan in its place, each family having a fixed
+position in the circle. The tepees rose like magic, and their threads of
+smoke began to creep up into the clear sky like mysterious plants,
+slender and wavering.</p>
+
+<p>Greetings passed from camp to camp, the head men met in council, and, as
+the sun rose higher, swarms of the young men galloped to and fro,
+laying out a racing-course and making up for a procession under Wilson's
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis said: "I am not interdicting any of their customs merely because
+they belong to their old life, but because some of them are coarse or
+hurtful. Their dance is not harmful unless protracted to the point of
+interfering with their work. That they are all living somewhat in the
+past, to-day, is true; but they will put away this finery and go to work
+with me to-morrow. To cut them off from all amusement is cruel
+fanaticism. No people can endure without amusement."</p>
+
+<p>"How appropriate their gay colors seem in this hot, dun land!" remarked
+Elsie. "They would look gaudy in a studio; but out here they are
+grateful to the sense."</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the wide circle of tepees a huge bower of pines was
+being erected for the dance, and pulsing through the air the voice of
+the criers could be heard, as they rode slowly round the circle
+publishing the programme of the day.</p>
+
+<p>"Looking over the camp towards the hills it is not difficult to imagine
+one's self back in the old days," said Maynard. "I saw Sitting Bull
+camped like this. See, here is the 'Soldier Lodge' or chief's
+headquarters," and he pointed to a large, handsome tepee set in one of
+the foci of the big ellipse.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere they went Curtis and his friends met with hearty greeting.
+"Hoh&mdash;hoh! The Little Father!" the old men cried, and came to shake
+hands, and the women smiled, looking up from their work. The little
+children, though they ran away at first, came out again when they knew
+that it was the Captain who called. Jennie gave hints about the cooking,
+and praised the neat tepees and the pretty dresses, while Elsie, looking
+upon it all with reflective eyes, could not help thinking, "Such will be
+my work if I do my duty as a wife."</p>
+
+<p>Once she looked at the firm, bold, facial outlines of the man she had
+learned to love, and snuggled a little closer into his shelter; he would
+toil to make every hardship light, that was certain; but, oh! the dreary
+winters! There were moments when she took to herself a part of the love
+and obedience this people showed Curtis. Here was a little kingdom over
+which Curtis reigned, a despotic monarch, and she, if she did her duty,
+would reign by his side. It had, at least, the virtue of being an
+unconventional self-sacrifice. And then, again, she smiled to think that
+Elsie Bee Bee should feel a touch of pride in being the wife of an
+Indian agent!</p>
+
+<p>Driving his guests back to the agency, Curtis returned to the camp and
+moved about on foot among his people. Wherever he went he seemed to give
+zest to the sports, and knowing this he remained with them till noon,
+and only came in to rest his weary feet and aching eyes for half an hour
+before lunch.</p>
+
+<p>It was unutterably sweet to stretch out in his big, battered easy-chair,
+in the shaded coolness of the library, and feel Elsie's smooth, light
+hand in his hair.</p>
+
+<p>"And you are never to leave me," he said, dreamily. "I can't realize it
+yet." After a pause he added: "I am demanding too much of you,
+sweetheart."</p>
+
+<p>"You are demanding nothing, sir; if you did you wouldn't get it. If I
+choose to <i>give</i> you anything, you are to be grateful and discreetly
+silent."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I say, 'Thank you'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word."</p>
+
+<p>"I am content," he said, and closed his eyes again to express it, and
+she, being unasked, bent and kissed his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Rousing up a few minutes later, he said, "I have a present in keeping
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you? What is it? Is it from you? Why didn't you let me see it
+before?"</p>
+
+<p>He rose and opened a closet door. "Because the proper time had not come.
+Before I show it to you I want you to promise to wear it."</p>
+
+<p>"I promise," she instantly replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be so ready; I intend it to be a symbol of your change of heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I don't promise," she said, backing away.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean your change of heart towards me; I have a ring to express
+that; this is to express your change of heart towards&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Towards Injuns?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; towards all 'the small peoples of the earth.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I can't wear it; I haven't changed. Down with them!" she
+shouted, in smiling bravado.</p>
+
+<p>He closed the door. "Very well, then, you shall not even see the
+present; you are not worthy of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please! please! I'll forgive all the heathens of Africa, if you
+will only let me see."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe I like that, either," he replied. "You are now too
+flippant. However, I'll hold you to the word. If you don't mean it now
+you will by-and-by."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie clapped her hands with girlish delight as he held up a fine
+buckskin dress, beautifully adorned with beads and quills. It was
+exquisitely tanned, as soft as silk, and a deep cream color.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it lovely! I'll wear it whether my heart is changed or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Here are the leggings and moccasins to match."</p>
+
+<p>She gathered them all up at a swoop. "I'm going to put them on at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" he commanded. "Small Bird, who made these garments, is out in
+the kitchen. I want to call her; she can be your maid for this time."</p>
+
+<p>As Small Bird sidled bashfully into the hall Elsie cried out in delight
+of her. She was dressed in the old-time Tetong dress, and was
+exceedingly comely. Her face was carefully painted and her hair shone
+with much brushing and oil. Her teeth were white and even.</p>
+
+<p>"Can she speak English?" asked Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>"Not very well; but she understands. Small Bird, the lady says, thank
+you. She thinks they are very fine. Her heart is glad. Go help her
+dress."</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" cried Elsie, eagerly, and fairly ran up the stairs in her haste
+to be transformed into a woman of the red people.</p>
+
+<p>When she returned she was a sister to Small Bird. Her dark hair was
+braided in the Tetong fashion, her face was browned, and her little feet
+were clothed in glittering, beaded moccasins.</p>
+
+<p>"You look exactly like some of the old engravings of Mohawk princesses,"
+cried Curtis. "Now you are ready to sit by my side and review the
+procession."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we to have a procession?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we are, as significant as any mediæval tournament. I am the
+resident duke before whom the review takes place, and I shall be in my
+best dress and you are to sit by my side&mdash;my bride-elect."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. It is decided." He drew himself up haughtily. "I have said it,
+and I am chief to-day. It is good, Small Bird," he said, as the Tetong
+girl started to go. "My wife likes it very much."</p>
+
+<p>Elsie ran towards the girl and took her by the shoulders as if to make
+her understand the better. "Thank you; thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>Small Bird smiled, but surrendered to her timidity, and, turning, ran
+swiftly out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis hooked Elsie in his right arm. "Now all is decreed. You have put
+on the garb of my people," and his kiss stopped the protest she
+struggled to utter.</p>
+
+<p>Surely the day was a day strangely apart. Everything that could be done
+to make it symbolic, to make it idyllic, was done. Curtis appeared after
+lunch in a fine costume of buckskin, trimmed with green porcupine quills
+and beads, and for a hat he wore a fillet of beaver-skin with a single
+feather on the back. Across his shoulder he carried the sash of a finely
+beaded tobacco pouch, and in his hand a long fringed bag, very ancient,
+containing a peace-pipe, which had been transmitted to Crawling Elk by
+his father's father, a very precious thing, worn only by chieftains.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I shall paint you in that dress," cried Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>So accoutred, he led the way to the canopied platform under the
+flag-pole, where the reviewing party were to sit. In order that no
+invidious distinctions might be drawn, two or three of the old chiefs
+and their wives had been given seats thereon, and they were already in
+place. Not many strangers were present, for Curtis had purposely
+refrained from setting a day too long ahead, but Lawson's friends and
+some relatives of the employés, and several of the young officers from
+the fort made up the outside representation. Maynard was in his
+brightest uniform, and Jennie, looking very nice in a muslin gown, and a
+broad, white hat, sat by his side.</p>
+
+<p>From the seats in the stand, the camp, swarming with horsemen, could be
+seen. Wilson, as grand marshal, was riding to and fro, assisted by
+Lawson, who had entered into the game with the self-sacrificing devotion
+of a drum-major. His make-up was superb, and when at last he approached,
+leading the cavalcade, Elsie did not recognize him. His lean face, dark
+with paint, was indistinguishably Tetong, seen from a distance, and he
+sat his horse in perfect simulation of his red brethren. He was but
+re-enacting scenes of his early life. His hunting-shirt was dark with
+use, and his splendid war-bonnet trailed grandly down his back. He rode
+by, looking neither to the right nor the left, singing a new song.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We are passing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">See us passing by.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We are leaving the old behind us.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The new we seek to find. We are passing, passing by."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Crawling Elk followed, holding aloft a spear with a green plume; it was
+a turnip thrust through with a sharp-pointed, blackened stick, and
+behind him, two and two, came fifty of his young warriors carrying
+shining hoes upright, as of old they carried their lances, while at
+their shoulders, where quivers of arrows should have swung, dangled trim
+sheaves of green wheat and golden barley. The free fluttering of their
+feather-ornamented hair, the barbaric painting on their faces and hands,
+symbolized the old life, as the green arrows of the grain prefigured the
+new. Behind them rode their women, each bearing in her left hand a bunch
+of flowers. Those who could read wore on their bosoms a small, shining
+medal, and in their hair an eagle feather. No Tetong woman had ever worn
+a plume before.</p>
+
+<p>Standing Elk, quaint and bent, rode by, singing a war-song, magnificent
+in his dress as war chief, leading some twenty young men. His hands were
+empty of the signs of peace, and his face was rapt with dreams of the
+past, but his young men carried long-handled forks which flamed in the
+sun, and bracelets of green grass encircled their firm, brown arms.
+They, too, were painted to signify their clan and their ancestry, and
+the "medicine" they affected was on their breasts. Their wives were
+close behind, each bearing a stalk of corn in bloom; their beaded
+saddles and gay blankets were pleasant to see. Every weapon bespoke
+warfare against weeds. Every ornament represented the better nature, the
+striving, the aspiration of its wearer.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the school-children, adding a final note of pathos, poor
+little brown men and women trudging on foot to symbolize that they must
+go through life, plodding in the dust of the white man's chariot
+wheel&mdash;their toes imprisoned in a shapeless box of leather, their hair
+closely clipped, their clothing hot and restrictive. Each carried a book
+and a slate, and their faces were very intent and serious as they paced
+by on their way from the old to the new. They were followed by the
+school-band playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," with splendid disregard
+of the broken faith of the government whose song it was.</p>
+
+<p>And so they streamed by, these folk, accounted the most warlike of all
+red men, genially carrying out the wishes of their chief, illustrating,
+without knowing it, the wondrous change which had come to them; the old
+men still clinging to the past, the young men careless of the future,
+the children already transformed, and, as they glanced up, some smiling,
+some grave and dreaming, Elsie shuddered with a species of awe; it
+seemed as if a people were being disintegrated before her eyes; that the
+evolution of a race having proceeded for countless ages by almost
+imperceptible degrees was now and here rushing, as by mighty bounds,
+from war to peace, from hunting to harvesting, from primitive indolence
+to ordered thrift. They were, indeed, passing, as the plains and the
+wild spaces were passing; as the buffalo had passed; as every wild thing
+must pass before the ever-thickening flood of white ploughmen pressing
+upon the land.</p>
+
+<p>Twice they circled, and then, as they all massed before him, Curtis rose
+to sign to them.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very proud of you. All my friends are pleased. My heart is big
+with emotion and my head is full of thoughts. This is a great day for
+you and also for me. Some of you are sad, for you long for the old
+things&mdash;the big, broad plain, the elk, and the buffalo. So do I. I
+loved those things also. But you have seen how it is. The water of the
+stream never turns back to the spring, the old man never grows young,
+the tree that falls does not rise up again. So the old things come never
+again. We have always to look ahead. Perhaps, in the happy
+hunting-ground all will be different, but here now we must do our best
+to live upon the earth. It is the law that, now the game being gone, we
+must plough and sow and reap the fruit of the soil. That is the meaning
+of all we have done to-day. We have put away the rifle; we here take up
+the hoe.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad; my heart is like a bird; it sings when I see you happy.
+Listen&mdash;I will tell you a great secret. You see this young woman," he
+touched Elsie. "You see she wears the Tetong dress, the same as I; that
+means much. It signifies two things: Last year her heart was hard
+towards the Tetongs; now it is soft. She is proud of what you have done.
+She wears this dress for another reason; she is going to be my wife, and
+help me show you the good way." At this moment a chorus of pleased
+outcries broke forth. "Now, go to your feast. Let everything be orderly.
+To-night we will come to see you dance."</p>
+
+<p>With an outburst of jocular whooping, the young men wheeled their horses
+and vanished under cover of a cloud of dust, while the old men and the
+women and the children moved sedately back to camp; the women chattering
+gayly over the day's exciting shows, and in anticipation of the dance
+which was to come.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>There were tears in Elsie's eyes as she looked up at Curtis. "They have
+so far to go, poor things! They can't realize how long the road to
+civilization is."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not care whether they reach what you call civilization or not; the
+road to happiness and peace is not long, it is short; they are even now
+entering upon it. They can be happy right here, and so can we," he
+ended, looking at her with a tender wistfulness. "Can't you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have conquered," she said, with deep feeling. "Under the spell of
+this day, I feel your work to be the only thing in the world worth
+doing." Her words, her voice, so moved him that he bent and laid a kiss
+upon her lips. When he could speak, he said: "Now I want to ask
+something of you. I have a leave of absence for six months. Show me the
+Old World."</p>
+
+<p>She sprang up. "Ah! Can you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"When the crops are garnered and sifted, and my people clothed and
+sheltered."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather show you Paris than anything else in the world!" she cried.
+"I'd almost marry you to do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, marry me; we will spend our honeymoon there; perhaps then
+you will be willing to spend one more year here with me, and
+then&mdash;well&mdash;Never cross the range till you get to it is a maxim of the
+trail."</p>
+
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop, by 
+Hamlin Garland
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+Project Gutenberg's The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop, by Hamlin Garland
+
+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: The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop
+
+Author: Hamlin Garland
+
+Release Date: August 18, 2010 [EBook #33458]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAPTAIN OF THE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Meehan and The Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+                               By HAMLIN GARLAND
+
+
+SUNSET EDITION
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1901. BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT 1902. BY HAMLIN GARLAND
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. A CAMP IN THE SNOW
+
+II. THE STREETER GUN-RACK
+
+III. CURTIS ASSUMES CHARGE OF THE AGENT
+
+IV. THE BEAUTIFUL ELSIE BEE BEE
+
+V. CAGED EAGLES
+
+VI. CURTIS SEEKS A TRUCE
+
+VII. ELSIE RELENTS A LITTLE
+
+VIII. CURTIS WRITES A LONG LETTER
+
+IX. CALLED TO WASHINGTON
+
+X. CURTIS AT HEADQUARTERS
+
+XI. CURTIS GRAPPLES WITH BRISBANE
+
+XII. SPRING ON THE ELK
+
+XIII. ELSIE PROMISES TO RETURN
+
+XIV. ELSIE REVISITS CURTIS
+
+XV. ELSIE ENTERS HER STUDIO
+
+XVI. THE CAMP AMONG THE ROSES
+
+XVII. A FLUTE, A DRUM, AND A MESSAGE
+
+XVIII. ELSIE'S ANCIENT LOVE AFFAIR
+
+XIX. THE SHERIFF'S MOB
+
+XX. FEMININE STRATEGY
+
+XXI. IN STORMY COUNCILS
+
+XXII. A COUNCIL AT NIGHT
+
+XXIII. THE RETURN OF THE MOB
+
+XXIV. THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+XXV. AFTER THE STRUGGLE
+
+XXVI. THE WARRIOR PROCLAIMS HIMSELF
+
+XXVII. BRISBANE COMES FOR ELSIE
+
+XXVIII. A WALK IN THE STARLIGHT
+
+XXIX. ELSIE WARNS CURTIS
+
+XXX. THE CAPTURE OF THE MAN
+
+XXXI. OUTWITTING THE SHERIFF
+
+XXXII. AN EVENTFUL NIGHT
+
+XXXIII. ELSIE CONFESSES HER LOVE
+
+XXXIV. SEED-TIME
+
+XXXV. THE BATTLE WITH THE WEEDS
+
+XXXVI. THE HARVEST-HOME
+
+XXXVII. THE MINGLING OF THE OLD AND THE NEW
+
+
+
+
+THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A CAMP IN THE SNOW
+
+
+Winter in the upper heights of the Bear Tooth Range is a glittering
+desolation of snow with a flaming blue sky above. Nothing moves, nothing
+utters a sound, save the cony at the mouth of the spiral shaft, which
+sinks to his deeply buried den in the rocks. The peaks are like marble
+domes, set high in the pathway of the sun by day and thrust amid the
+stars by night. The firs seem hopeless under their ever-increasing
+burdens. The streams are silenced--only the wind is abroad in the waste,
+the tireless, pitiless wind, fanged like ingratitude, insatiate as fire.
+
+But it is beautiful, nevertheless, especially of a clear dawn, when the
+shadows are vividly purple and each rime-wreathed summit is smit with
+ethereal fire, and each eastern slope is resplendent as a high-way of
+powdered diamonds--or at sunset, when the high crests of the range stand
+like flaming mile-stones leading to the Celestial City, and the lakes
+are like pools of pure gold caught in a robe of green velvet. Yet always
+this land demands youth and strength in its explorer.
+
+King Frost's dominion was already complete over all the crests, over
+timber-line, when young Captain Curtis set out to cross the divide which
+lay between Lake Congar and Fort Sherman--a trip to test the virtue of a
+Sibley tent and the staying qualities of a mountain horse.
+
+Bennett, the hairy trapper at the head of the lake, advised against it.
+"The snow is soft--I reckon you better wait a week."
+
+But Curtis was a seasoned mountaineer and took pride in assaulting the
+stern barrier. "Besides, my leave of absence is nearly up," he said to
+the trapper.
+
+"Well, you're the doctor," the old trapper replied. "Good luck to ye,
+Cap."
+
+It was sunrise of a crisp, clear autumn morning when they started, and
+around them the ground was still bare, but by noon they were wallowing
+mid-leg deep in new-fallen snow. Curtis led the way on foot--his own
+horse having been packed to relieve the burdens of the others--while
+Sergeant Pierce, resolute and uncomplaining, brought up the rear.
+
+"We must camp beside the sulphur spring to-night," Curtis said, as they
+left timber-line and entered upon the bleak, wind-swept slopes of
+Grizzly Bear.
+
+"Very well, sir," Pierce cheerily replied, and till three o'clock they
+climbed steadily towards the far-off glacial heights, the drifts ever
+deepening, the cold ever intensifying. They had eaten no food since
+dawn, and the horses were weak with hunger and weariness as they topped
+the divide and looked down upon the vast eastern slope. The world before
+them seemed even more inhospitable and wind-swept than the land they had
+left below them to the west. The air was filled with flying frost, the
+sun was weak and pale, and the plain was only a pale-blue sea far, far
+below to the northeast. The wind blew through the pass with terrible
+force, and the cold nipped every limb like a famishing white wolf.
+
+"There is the sulphur spring, sir," said Pierce, pointing towards a
+delicate strand of steam which rose from a clump of pines in the second
+basin beneath them.
+
+"Quite right, sergeant, and we must make that in an hour. I'd like to
+take an observation here, but I reckon we'd better slide down to camp
+before the horses freeze."
+
+The dry snow, sculptured by the blast in the pass, made the threadlike
+path an exceedingly elusive line to keep, and trailing narrowed to a
+process of feeling with the feet; but Curtis set his face resolutely
+into the northeast wind and led the way down the gulch. For the first
+half-mile the little pack-train crawled slowly and hesitatingly, like a
+bewildered worm, turning and twisting, retracing its way, circling huge
+bowlders, edging awful cliffs, slipping, stumbling, but ever moving,
+ever descending; and, at last, while yet the sun's light glorified the
+icy kings behind them, the Captain drew into the shelter of the clump of
+pines from which the steam of the warm spring rose like a chimney's
+cheery greeting.
+
+"Whoa, boys!" called Curtis, and with a smile at Pierce, added, "Here we
+are, home again!"
+
+It was not a cheerful place to spend the night, for even at this level
+the undisturbed snow lay full twelve inches deep and the pines were
+bowed with the weight of it, and as the sun sank the cold deepened to
+zero point; but the sergeant drew off his gloves and began to free the
+horses from their packs quite as if these were the usual conditions of
+camping.
+
+"Better leave the blankets on," remarked the young officer. "They'll
+need 'em for warmth."
+
+The sergeant saluted and continued his work, deft and silent, while
+Curtis threw up a little tent on a cleared spot and banked it snugly
+with snow. In a very short time a fire was blazing and some coffee
+boiling. The two men seemed not to regard the cold or the falling night,
+except in so far as the wind threatened the horses.
+
+"It's hard luck on them," remarked Curtis, as they were finishing their
+coffee in the tent; "but it is unavoidable. I don't think it safe to try
+to go down that slide in the dusk. Do you?"
+
+"It's dangerous at any time, sir, and with our horses weak as they are,
+it sure would be taking chances."
+
+"We'll make Tom Skinner's by noon to-morrow, and be out of the snow,
+probably." The young soldier put down his tin cup and drew a map from
+his pocket. "Hold a light, sergeant; I want to make some notes before I
+forget them."
+
+While the sergeant held a candle for him, Curtis rapidly traced with a
+soft pencil a few rough lines upon the map. "That settles that
+water-shed question;" he pointed with his pencil. "Here is the dividing
+wall, not over there where Lieutenant Crombie drew it. Nothing is more
+deceptive than the relative heights of ranges. Well, now take a last
+look at the horses," he said, putting away his pencil, "and I'll unroll
+our blankets."
+
+As they crawled into their snug sleeping-bags Curtis said again, with a
+sigh, "I'm sorry for the ponies."
+
+"They'll be all right now, Captain; they've got something in their
+stomachs. If a cayuse has any fuel in him he's like an engine--he'll
+keep warm," and so silence fell on them, and in the valley the cold
+deepened till the rocks and the trees cried out in the rigor of their
+resistance.
+
+The sun was filling the sky with an all-pervading crimson-and-orange
+mist when the sergeant crawled out of his snug nest and started a fire.
+The air was perfectly still, but the frost gripped each limb with
+benumbing fury. The horses, with blankets awry, stood huddled close
+together in the shelter of the pines not far away. As the sergeant
+appeared they whinnied to express their dependence upon him, and when
+the sun rose they turned their broadsides to it gratefully.
+
+The two men, with swift, unhesitating action, set to work to break camp.
+In half an hour the tent was folded and packed, the horses saddled, and
+then, lustily singing, Curtis led the way down upon the floor of the
+second basin, which narrowed towards the north into a deep and wooded
+valley leading to the plains. The grasp of winter weakened as they
+descended; December became October. The snow thinned, the streams sang
+clear, and considerably before noon the little train of worn and hungry
+horses came out upon the grassy shore of a small lake to bask in genial
+sunshine. From this point the road to Skinner's was smooth and easy,
+and quite untouched of snow.
+
+As they neared the miner's shack, a tall young Payonnay, in the dress of
+a cowboy, came out to meet them, smiling broadly.
+
+"I'm looking for you, Captain."
+
+"Are you, Jack? Well, you see me. What's your message?"
+
+"The Colonel says you are to come in right off. He told me to tell you
+he had an order for you."
+
+A slouching figure, supporting a heap of greasy rags, drew near, and a
+low voice drawled, weakly: "Jack's been here since Friday. I told him
+where you was, but he thought he'd druther lay by my fire than hunt ye."
+
+Curtis studied the squat figure keenly. "You weren't looking for the job
+of crossing the range yourself, were you?"
+
+The tramplike miner grinned and sucked at his pipe. "Well, no--I can't
+say that I was, but I like to rub it into these lazy Injuns."
+
+Jack winked at Curtis with humorous appreciation. "He's a dandy to rub
+it into an Injun, don't you think?"
+
+Even Skinner laughed at this, and Curtis said: "Unsaddle the horses and
+give them a chance at the grass, sergeant. We can't go into the fort
+to-night with the packs. And, Skinner, I want to hire a horse of you,
+while you help Pierce bring my outfit into the fort to-morrow. I must
+hurry on to see what's in the wind."
+
+"All right, Captain, anything I've got is yours," responded the miner,
+heartily.
+
+The bugles were sounding "retreat" as the young officer rode up to the
+door of Colonel Quinlan's quarters and reported for duty.
+
+"Good-evening, Major," called the Colonel, with a quizzical smile and a
+sharp emphasis on the word major.
+
+"Major!" exclaimed Curtis; "what do you mean--"
+
+"Not a wholesale slaughter of your superiors. Oh no! You are Major by
+the grace of the Secretary of Indian Affairs. Colonel Hackett, of the
+War Department, writes me that you have been detailed as Indian agent at
+Fort Smith. You'll find your notification in your mail, no doubt."
+
+Curtis touched his hat in mock courtesy. "Thanks, Mr. Secretary; your
+kindness overwhelms me."
+
+"Didn't think the reform administration could get along without you, did
+you?" asked the Colonel, with some humor. He was standing at his gate.
+"Come in, and we'll talk it over. You seem a little breathless."
+
+"It does double me up, I confess. But I can't consistently back out
+after the stand I've made."
+
+"Back out! Well, not if I can prevent it. Haven't you hammered it into
+us for two years that the army was the proper instrument for dealing
+with these redskins? No, sir, you can't turn tail now. Take your
+medicine like a man."
+
+"But how did they drop onto me? Did you suggest it?"
+
+The Colonel became grave. "No, my boy, I did not. But I think I know who
+did. You remember the two literary chaps who camped with us on our trial
+march two years ago?"
+
+The young officer's eyes opened wide. "Ah! I see. They told me at the
+time that they were friends of the Secretary. That explains it."
+
+"Your success with that troop of enlisted Cheyennes had something to do
+with it, too," added the Colonel. "I told those literary sharps about
+that experience, and also about your crazy interest in the sign-language
+and Indian songs."
+
+"You did? Well, then you _are_ responsible, after all."
+
+The Colonel put his hand on his subordinate's shoulder. "Go and do the
+work, boy! It's better than sitting around here waiting promotion. If I
+weren't so near retirement I'd resign. I have lived out on these cursed
+deserts ever since 1868--but I'll fool 'em," he added, with a grim
+smile. "I'm going to hang on to the last, and retire on half-pay. Then
+I'll spend all my time looking after my health and live to be
+ninety-five, in order to get even."
+
+Curtis laughed. "Quite right, Colonel," and, then becoming serious, he
+added, "It's my duty, and I will do it." And in this quiet temper he
+accepted his detail.
+
+Captain George Curtis, as the Colonel had intimated, was already a
+marked man at Fort Sherman--and, indeed, throughout the western division
+of the army. He feared no hardship, and acknowledged no superior on the
+trail except Pierce, who was as invincible to cold and snow as a grizzly
+bear, and his chief diversions were these trips into the wild. Each
+outing helped him endure the monotony of barrack life, for when it was
+over he returned to the open fire of his study, where he pored over his
+maps, smoking his pipe and writing a little between bugle-calls. In
+this way he had been able to put together several articles on the
+forests, the water-sheds, and the wild animals of the region he had
+traversed, and in this way had made himself known to the Smithsonian
+Institution. He was considered a crank on trees and Indians by his
+fellow-officers, who all drank more whiskey and played a better hand at
+poker than he; "but, after all, Curtis is a good soldier," they often
+said, in conclusion. "His voice in command is clear and decisive, and
+his control of his men excellent." He was handsome, too, in a firm,
+brown, cleanly outlined way, and though not a popular officer, he had no
+enemies in the service.
+
+His sister Jennie, who had devotedly kept house for him during his
+garrison life, was waiting for him at the gate of his little yard, and
+cried out in greeting:
+
+"How _did_ you cross the range in this weather? I was frightened for
+you, George. I could see the storm raging up there all day yesterday."
+
+"Oh, a little wind and snow don't count," he replied, carelessly. "I
+thought you'd given up worrying about me."
+
+"I have--only I thought of poor Sergeant Pierce and the horses. There's
+a stack of mail here. Do you know what's happened to you?"
+
+"The Colonel told me."
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+"I don't know yet. At this moment I'm too tired to express an opinion."
+
+From the pile of mail on his desk he drew out the order which directed
+him to "proceed at once to Fort Smith, and as secretly as may be. You
+will surprise the agent, if possible--intercepting him at his desk, so
+that he will have no opportunity for secreting his private papers. You
+will take entire charge of the agency, and at your earliest convenience
+forward to us a report covering every detail of the conditions there."
+
+"Now that promises well," he said, as he finished reading the order. "We
+start with a fair expectancy of drama. Sis--we are Indian agents! All
+this must be given up." He looked round the room, which glowed in the
+light of an open grate fire. The floor was bright with Navajo blankets
+and warm with fur rugs, and on the walls his books waited his hand.
+
+"I don't like to leave our snug nest, Jennie," he said, with a sigh.
+
+"You needn't. Take it with you," she replied, promptly.
+
+He glanced ruefully at her. "I knew I'd get mighty little sympathy from
+you."
+
+"Why should you? I'm ready to go. I don't want you trailing about over
+these mountains till the end of time; and you know this life is fatal to
+you, or any other man who wants to do anything in the world. It's all
+very well to talk about being a soldier, but I'm not so enthusiastic as
+I used to be. I don't think sitting around waiting for some one to die
+is very noble."
+
+He rose and stood before the fire. "I wish this whole house could be
+lifted up and set down at Fort Smith; then I might consider the matter."
+
+She came over, and, as he put his arm about her, continued earnestly:
+"George, I'm serious about this. The President is trying to put the
+Indian service into capable hands, and I believe you ought to accept;
+in fact, you can't refuse. There is work for us both there. I am
+heartily tired of garrison life, George. As the boys say, there's
+nothing in it."
+
+"But there's danger threatening at Smith, sis. I can't take you into an
+Indian outbreak."
+
+"That's all newspaper talk. Mr. Dudley writes--"
+
+"Dudley--is he down there? Oh, you are a masterful sly one! Your
+touching solicitude for the Tetongs is now explained. What is Dudley
+doing at Smith besides interfering with my affairs?"
+
+"He's studying the Tetong burial customs--but he isn't there at
+present."
+
+"These Smithsonian sharps are unexpectedly keen. He'd sacrifice me and
+my whole military career to have you study skulls with him for a few
+days. Do you know, I suspect him and Osborne Lawson of this whole
+conspiracy--and you--you were in it! I've a mind to rebel and throw
+everything out o' gear."
+
+Jennie gave him a shove. "Go dress for dinner. The Colonel and his wife
+and Mr. Ross are coming in to congratulate you, and you must pretend to
+be overjoyed."
+
+As he sat at the head of his handsome table that night Curtis began to
+appreciate his comforts. He forgot the dissensions and jealousies, the
+cynical speculations and the bitter rivalries of the officers--he
+remembered only the pleasant things.
+
+His guests were personable and gracious, and Jennie presided over the
+coffee with distinction. She was a natural hostess, and her part in the
+conversation which followed was notable for its good sense, but Mr.
+Ross, the young lieutenant, considered her delicate color and shining
+hair even more remarkable than her humor. He liked her voice, also, and
+had a desire to kick the shins of the loquacious Colonel for absorbing
+so much of her attention. Mrs. Quinlan, the Colonel's wife, was, by the
+same token, a retiring, silent little woman, who smiled and nodded her
+head to all that was said, paying special attention to the Colonel's
+stories, with which all were familiar; even Mr. Ross had learned them.
+
+At last the Colonel turned to Curtis. "You'll miss this, Curtis, when
+you're exiled down there at old Fort Smith among the Tetongs. Here we
+are a little oasis of civilization in the midst of a desert of
+barbarians; down there you'll be swallowed up."
+
+"We'll take civilization with us," said Jennie. "But, of course, we
+shall miss our friends."
+
+"Well, you'll have a clear field for experiment at Smith. You can try
+all your pet theories on the Tetongs. God be with them!--their case is
+desperate." He chuckled gracelessly.
+
+"When do you go?" asked Mrs. Quinlan.
+
+"At once. As soon as I can make arrangements," replied Curtis, and then
+added: "And, by-the-way, I hope you will all refrain from mentioning my
+appointment till after I reach Fort Smith."
+
+The visitors did not stay late, for their host was plainly preoccupied,
+and as they shook hands with him in parting they openly commiserated
+him. "I'm sorry for you," again remarked the Colonel, "but it's a just
+punishment."
+
+After they were gone Curtis turned to his sister. "I must leave here
+to-morrow morning, sis."
+
+"Why, George! Can't you take time to breathe and pack up?"
+
+"No, I must drop down on that agent like a hawk on a June-bug, before he
+has a chance to bury his misdeeds. The Colonel has given out the news of
+my detail, and the quicker I move the better. I must reach there before
+the mail does."
+
+"But I want to go with you," she quickly and resentfully replied.
+
+"Well, you can, if you are willing to leave our packing in Pierce's
+hands."
+
+"I don't intend to be left behind," she replied. "I'm going along to see
+that you don't do anything reckless. I never trust a man in a place
+requiring tact."
+
+Curtis laughed. "That's your long suit, sis, but I reckon we'll need all
+the virtues that lie in each of us. We are going into battle with
+strange forces."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE STREETER GUN-RACK
+
+
+There is a good wagon-road leading to old Fort Smith from Pinon City,
+but it runs for the most part through an uninteresting country, and does
+not touch the reservation till within a few miles of the agency
+buildings. From the other side, however, a rough trail crosses a low
+divide, and for more than sixty miles lies within the Tetong boundaries,
+a rolling, cattle country rising to grassy hills on the west.
+
+For these reasons Curtis determined to go in on horseback and in
+civilian's dress, leaving his sister to follow by rail and buckboard;
+but here again Jennie promptly made protest.
+
+"I'll not go that way, George. I am going to keep with you, and you
+needn't plan for anything else--so there!"
+
+"It's a hard ride, sis--sixty miles and more. You'll be tired out."
+
+"What of that? I'll have plenty of time to rest afterwards."
+
+"Very well. It is always a pleasure to have you with me, you stubborn
+thing," he replied, affectionately.
+
+It had been hard to leave everything at the Fort, hard to look back from
+the threshold upon well-ordered books and furniture, and harder still
+to know that rude and careless hands would jostle them into heaps on the
+morrow, but Jennie was accustomed to all the hardships involved in being
+sister to a soldier, and, after she had turned the key in the lock, set
+her face to the south cheerfully. There was something of the missionary
+in her, and she had long burned with a desire to help the red people.
+
+They got off at a squalid little cow-town called "Riddell" about noon of
+the second day, and Curtis, after a swift glance around him, said: "Sis,
+our chances for dinner are poor."
+
+The hotel, a squat, battlemented wooden building, was trimmed with
+loafing cowboys on the outside and speckled with flies on the inside,
+but the landlord was unexpectedly attractive, a smiling, courteous host,
+to whom flies and cowboys were matters of course. It was plain he had
+slipped down to his present low level by insensible declinations.
+
+"The food is not so bad if it were only served decently," said Jennie,
+as they sat at the table eying the heavy china chipped and maimed in the
+savage process of washing.
+
+"I hope you won't be sorry we've left the army, sis."
+
+"I would, if we had to live with these people," she replied, decisively,
+looking about the room, which was filled with uncouth types of men,
+keen-eyed, slouchy, and loud-voiced. The presence of a pretty woman had
+subdued most of them into something like decorum, but they were not
+pleasant to look at. They were the unattached males of the town, a mob
+of barkeepers, hostlers, clerks, and railway hands, intermixed with a
+half-dozen cowboys who had ridden in to "loaf away a day or two in
+town."
+
+"The ragged edge of the cloth of gold," said Curtis, as he glanced round
+at them. "Civilization has its seamy side."
+
+"This makes the dear old Fort seem beautiful, doesn't it?" the girl
+sighed. "We'll see no more green grass and well-groomed men."
+
+An hour later, with a half-breed Indian boy for a guide, they rode away
+over the hills towards the east, glad to shake the dust of Riddell off
+their feet.
+
+The day was one of flooding sunlight, warm and golden. Winter seemed far
+away, and only the dry grass made it possible to say, "This is autumn."
+The air was without dust or moisture--crystalline, crisp, and
+deliciously invigorating.
+
+The girl turned to her brother with radiant face. "This is living! Isn't
+it good to escape that horrid little town?"
+
+"You'd suppose in an air like this all life would be clean and sweet,"
+he replied. "But it isn't. The trouble is, these people have no inner
+resource. They lop down when their accustomed props are removed. They
+come from defective stock."
+
+The half-breed guide had the quality of his Indian mother--he knew when
+to keep silence and when to speak. He led the way steadily, galloping
+along on his little gray pony, with elbows flapping like a rooster about
+to take flight.
+
+There was a wonderful charm in this treeless land, it was so lonely and
+so sinister. It appealed with great power to Curtis, while it appalled
+his sister. The solitary buttes, smooth of slope and grotesque of line;
+the splendid, grassy hollows, where the cattle fed; the burned-up mesas,
+where nothing lived but the horned toad; the alkaline flats, leprous and
+ashen; the occasional green line of cottonwood-trees, deep sunk in a dry
+water-course--all these were typical of the whole vast eastern
+water-shed of the continental divide, and familiar to the young officer,
+for in such a land he had entered upon active service.
+
+It was beautiful, but it was an ill place for a woman, as Jennie soon
+discovered. The air, so dry, so fierce, parched her skin and pinched her
+red lips. The alkali settled in a gray dust upon her pretty hair and
+entered her throat, increasing her thirst to a keen pain.
+
+"Oh, George! here is a little stream," she cried out.
+
+"Courage, sis. We will soon get above the alkali. That water is rank
+poison."
+
+"It looks good," she replied, wistfully.
+
+"We'll find some glorious water up there in that clump of willows," and
+a few minutes' hard riding brought them to a gurgling little brook of
+clear, cold water, and the girl not merely drank--she laved away all
+traces of the bitter soil of the lower levels.
+
+At about four o'clock the guide struck into a transverse valley, and
+followed a small stream to its source in a range of pine-clad hills
+which separate the white man's country from the Tetong reservation. As
+they topped this divide, riding directly over a smooth swell, Curtis
+drew rein, crying out, "Wait a moment, Louie."
+
+They stood on the edge of a vast dip in the plain, a bowl of amethyst
+and turquoise. Under the vivid October sun the tawny grass seemed to be
+transmuted into something that shimmered, was translucent, and yet was
+firm, while the opposite wall, already faintly in shadow, rose by two
+degrees to snow-flecked mountains, faintly showing in the west and
+north. On the floor of this resplendent amphitheatre a flock of cattle
+fed irregularly, luminous as red and white and deep-purple beads. The
+landscape was silent--as silent as the cloudless sky above. No bird or
+beast, save the cattle, and the horses the three travellers rode, was
+abroad in this dream-world.
+
+"Oh, isn't it beautiful!" exclaimed Jennie.
+
+Curtis sat in silence till the guide said: "We must hurry. Long ways to
+Streeter."
+
+Then he drew a sigh. "That scene is typical of the old time. Nothing
+could be more moving to me. I saw the buffaloes feed like that once.
+Whose are the cattle?" he asked of the boy.
+
+"Thompson's, I think."
+
+"But what are they doing here--that's Tetong land, isn't it?"
+
+The guide grinned. "That don't make no difference to Thompson. All same
+to him whose grass he eats."
+
+"Well, lead on," said Curtis, and the boy galloped away swiftly down the
+trail. As they descended to the east the sun seemed to slide down the
+sky and the chill dusk rose to meet them from the valley of the Elk,
+like an exhalation from some region of icy waters. Night was near, but
+Streeter's was in sight, a big log-house, surrounded by sheds and
+corrals of various sorts and sizes.
+
+"How does Mr. Streeter happen to be so snugly settled on Indian land?"
+asked Jennie.
+
+"He made his location before the reservation was set aside. I believe
+there are about twenty ranches of the same sort within the lines,"
+replied Curtis, "and I think we'll find in these settlers the chief
+cause of friction. The cattle business is not one that leads to
+scrupulous regard for the rights of others."
+
+As they clattered up to the door of the ranch-house a tall young fellow
+in cowboy dress came out to meet them. He was plainly amazed to find a
+pretty girl at his door, and for a moment fairly gaped with lax jaws.
+
+"Good-evening," said Curtis. "Are you the boss here?"
+
+He recovered himself quickly. "Howdy--howdy! Yes, I'm Cal Streeter.
+Won't you 'light off?"
+
+"Thank you. We'd like to take shelter for the night if you can spare us
+room."
+
+"Why, cert. Mother and the old man are away just now, but there's plenty
+to eat." He took a swift stride towards Jennie. "Let me help you down,
+miss."
+
+"Thank you, I'm already down," said Jennie, anticipating his service.
+
+The young man called shrilly, and a Mexican appeared at the door of the
+stable. "Hosy, come and take these horses." Turning to Jennie with a
+grin, he said: "I can't answer for the quality of the grub, fer Hosy is
+cooking just now. Mother's been gone a week, and the bread is wiped out.
+If you don't mind slapjacks I'll see what we can do for you."
+
+Jennie didn't know whether she liked this young fellow or not. After his
+first stare of astonishment he was by no means lacking in assurance.
+However, she was plains-woman enough to feel the necessity of making the
+best of any hospitality when night was falling, and quickly replied:
+"Don't take any trouble for us. If you'll show me your kitchen and
+pantry I'll be glad to do the cooking."
+
+"Will you? Well, now, that's a sure-enough trade," and he led the way
+into the house, which was a two-story building, with one-story wings on
+either side. The room into which they entered was large and bare as a
+guard-room. The floor was uneven, the log walls merely whitewashed, and
+the beams overhead were rough pine boles. Some plain wooden chairs, a
+table painted a pale blue, and covered with dusty newspapers, comprised
+the visible furniture, unless a gun-rack which filled one entire wall
+could be listed among the furnishings. Curtis brought a keen gaze to
+bear on this arsenal, and estimated that it contained nearly a score of
+rifles--a sinister array.
+
+Young Streeter opened a side door. "This is where you are to sleep. Just
+make yourself to home, and I'll rub two sticks together and start a
+fire."
+
+After Jennie left the room, the young fellow turned abruptly. "Stranger,
+what might I call you?"
+
+"My name is Curtis. I'm going over to visit the agency."
+
+"She your wife?" He pointed his thumb in Jennie's direction.
+
+"No, my sister."
+
+"Oh! Well, then, you can bunk with me in this room." He indicated a door
+on the opposite side of the hall. "When she gets ready, bring her out to
+the kitchen. It's hard lines to make her cook her own grub, but I tell
+you right now I think she'd better."
+
+As Jennie met her brother a few moments later, she exclaimed, "Isn't he
+handsome?"
+
+"M--yes. He's good-looking enough, but he's just a little
+self-important, it seems to me."
+
+"Are you going to let him know who you are?"
+
+"Certainly not. I want to draw him out. I begin to suspect that this
+house is a rendezvous for all the interests we have to fight. These guns
+are all loaded and in prime order."
+
+"What a big house you have here," said Jennie, ingratiatingly, as she
+entered the kitchen. "And what a nice kitchen."
+
+"Oh, purty fair," replied the youth, busy at the stove. "Our ranch ain't
+what we'd make it if these Injuns were out o' the way. Now, here's the
+grub--if you can dig up anything you're welcome."
+
+He showed her the pantry, where she found plenty of bacon and flour, and
+some eggs and milk.
+
+"I thought cattlemen never had milk?"
+
+"Well, they don't generally, but mother makes us milk a cow. Now, I'll
+do this cooking if you want me to, but I reckon you won't enjoy seein'
+me do it. I can't make biscuits, and we're all out o' bread, as I say,
+and Hosy's sinkers would choke a dog."
+
+"Oh, I'll cook if you'll get some water and keep a good fire going."
+
+"Sure thing," he said, heartily, taking up the water-pail to go to the
+spring. When he came back Jennie was dabbling the milk and flour. He
+stood watching her in silence for some minutes as she worked, and the
+sullen lines on his face softened and his lips grew boyish.
+
+"You sure know your business," he said, in a tone of conviction. "When I
+try to mix dough I get all strung up with it."
+
+She replied with a smile. "Is the oven hot? These biscuit must come out
+just right."
+
+He stirred up the fire. "A man ain't fitten to cook; he's too blame long
+in the elbows. We have an old squaw when mother is home, but she don't
+like me, and so she takes a vacation whenever the old lady does. That
+throws us down on Hosy, and he just about poisons us. A Mexican can't
+cook no more'n an Injun. We get spring-poor by the time the old lady
+comes back." Jennie was rolling at the dough and did not reply to him.
+He held the door open for her when she was ready to put the biscuit in
+the oven, and lit another bracket-lamp in order to see her better.
+
+"Do you know, you're the first girl I ever saw in this kitchen."
+
+"Am I?"
+
+"That's right." After a pause he added: "I'm mighty glad I didn't get
+home to eat Hosy's supper. I want a chance at some of them biscuit."
+
+"Slice this bacon, please--not too thick," she added, briskly.
+
+He took the knife. "Where do you hail from, anyway?" he asked,
+irrelevantly.
+
+"From the coast," she replied.
+
+"That so? Born there?"
+
+"Oh no. I was born in Maryland, near Washington."
+
+"There's a place I'd like to live if I had money enough. A feller can
+have a continuous picnic in Washington if he's got the dust to spare, so
+I hear."
+
+"Now you set the table while I make the omelette."
+
+"The how-many?"
+
+"The omelette, which must go directly to the table after it is made."
+
+He began to pile dishes on the table, which ran across one end of the
+room, but found time to watch her as she broke the eggs.
+
+"If a feller lives long enough and keeps his mouth shut and his eyes
+open he'll learn a powerful heap, won't he? I've seen that word in the
+newspaper a whole lot, but I'll be shot if I ever knew that it was jest
+aigs."
+
+Jennie was amused, but too hungry to spend much time listening. "You may
+call them in," she said, after a glance at the biscuit.
+
+The young man opened the door and said, lazily, "Cap, come to grub."
+
+Curtis was again examining the guns in the rack, "You're well heeled."
+
+"Haff to be, in this country," said the young fellow, carelessly. "Set
+down anywhere--that is, I mean anywhere the cook says."
+
+Jennie didn't like his growing familiarity, but she dissembled. "Sit
+here, George," she said, indicating a chair at the end. "I will sit
+where I can reach the coffee."
+
+"Let me do that," said Calvin. "Louie, I guess you're not in this game,"
+he said to the boy looking wistfully in at the door.
+
+"Oh, let him come--he's as hungry as we are. Let him sit down,"
+protested Jennie.
+
+Young Streeter acquiesced. "It's all the same to me, if _you_ don't
+object to a 'breed," he said, brutally. Louie took his seat in silence,
+but it was plain he did not enjoy the insolence of the cowboy.
+
+Curtis was after information. "You speak of needing guns--there isn't
+any danger, I hope?"
+
+"Well, not right now, but we expect to get Congress to pass a bill
+removing these brutes, and then there may be trouble. Even now we find
+it safer to go armed. Every little while some Injun kills a beef for us,
+and we want to be prepared to skin 'em if we jump 'em up in time. I
+wouldn't trust one of 'em as far as you could throw a yearling bull by
+the tail."
+
+"Are they as bad as that?" asked Jennie, with widely open eyes.
+
+"They're treacherous hounds. Old Elk goes around smiling, but he'd let a
+knife into me too quick if he saw his chance. Hark!" he called, with
+lifted hand.
+
+They all listened. The swift drumming of hoofs could be heard, mingled
+with the chuckle of a carriage. Calvin rose. "That's the old man, I
+reckon," and going to the door he raised a peculiar whoop. A voice
+replied faintly, and soon the buggy rolled up to the door and the
+new-comer entered the front room. A quick, sharp voice cried out:
+
+"Whose hat is that? Who's here?"
+
+"A feller on his way to visit the agent. He's in there eatin' supper."
+
+A rapid, resolute step approached the door, and Curtis looked up to meet
+the keen eyes of a big, ruddy-faced man of fifty, with hair and beard
+as white as wool. His eyes were steel-blue and penetrating as fire.
+
+"Good-evening, sir. Good-evening, madam. Don't rise. Keep your seats.
+I'll just drop my coat and sit down with you."
+
+He was so distinctly a man of remarkable quality that Curtis stared at
+him in deep surprise. He had expected to see a loose-jointed, slouchy
+man of middle-age, but Joseph Streeter was plainly a man of decision and
+power. His white hair did not betoken weakness or age, for he moved like
+one in the full vigor of his late manhood. To his visitors he appeared
+to be a suspicious, irascible, and generous man.
+
+"Hello!" he called, jovially, "biscuit! Cal, you didn't do these, nor
+Hosy, neither."
+
+Cal grinned. "Well, not by a whole row o' dogs. This--lady did 'em."
+
+Streeter turned his vivid blue eyes on Jennie. "I want to know! Well,
+I'm much obliged. When did you come?" he asked of Curtis.
+
+"About an hour ago."
+
+"Goin' far?"
+
+"Over to the agency."
+
+"Friend of the agent?"
+
+"No, but I have a letter of introduction to him."
+
+Streeter seemed to be satisfied. "You'll find him a very accommodating
+gentleman."
+
+"So I hear," said Curtis, and some subtle inflection in his tone caused
+Streeter to turn towards him again.
+
+"What did I understand your name was?"
+
+"Curtis."
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"San Francisco."
+
+"Oh yes. I think I heard Sennett speak of you. Those biscuit are mighty
+good. I'll take another. Couldn't persuade you to stay here, could I?"
+He turned to Jennie.
+
+Jennie laughed. "I'm afraid not--it's too lonesome."
+
+Cal seized the chance to say: "It ain't so lonesome as it looks now.
+We're a lively lot here sometimes."
+
+Streeter gave him a glance which stopped him. "Cal, you take Hosy and go
+over to the camp and tell the boys to hustle in two hundred steers. I
+want to get 'em passed on to-morrow afternoon, or next day sure."
+
+Calvin's face fell. "I don't think I need to go. Hosy can carry the
+orders just as well as me," he said, boyishly sullen.
+
+"I want _you_ to go!" was the stern answer, and it was plain that
+Streeter was commander even of his reckless son.
+
+As he rose from the table, Calvin said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "I'll
+be here to breakfast all right, and I'll see that you get over to the
+agency."
+
+Streeter the elder upon reflection considered that his guests had not
+sufficiently accounted for themselves, and, after Calvin left, again
+turned a penetrating glance on Curtis, saying, in a peculiar way, "Where
+did you say you were from?"
+
+"San Francisco," replied Curtis, promptly, and cut in ahead with a
+question of his own. "You seem to be well supplied with munitions of
+war. Do you need all those guns now?"
+
+"Need every shell. We're going to oust these devils pretty soon, and
+they know it, and they're ugly."
+
+"What do you mean by ousting 'em?"
+
+"We're pushing a bill to have 'em removed."
+
+"Where to?"
+
+"Oh, to the Red River reservation, or the Powder Valley; we're not
+particular, so that we get rid of 'em."
+
+Jennie tingled with indignation as Streeter outlined the plans of the
+settlers and told of his friction with the redmen, but Curtis remained
+calm and smiling.
+
+"You'll miss their market for your beef, won't you?"
+
+"Oh, that's a small item in comparison with the extra range we'll get,"
+and thereupon he entered upon a long statement of what the government
+ought to do.
+
+Jennie rose wearily, and the old man was all attention.
+
+"I suppose you are tired and would like to go to bed?"
+
+"We are rather limp," confessed Curtis, glad to escape the searching
+cross-examination which he knew would follow Jennie's retirement.
+
+When they were alone the two young people looked at each other in
+silence, Jennie with big, horrified eyes, Curtis with an amused
+comprehension of his sister's feeling. "Isn't he a pirate? He doesn't
+know it, but his state of mind makes him indictable for murder on the
+high seas."
+
+"George, I don't like this. We are going to have trouble if this old man
+and his like are not put off this reservation."
+
+"Well, now, we won't put him off to-night, especially as he is a gallant
+host. But this visit here has put me in touch with the cattlemen. I feel
+that I know their plans and their temper very clearly."
+
+"George, I will not sleep here in this room alone. You must make up a
+cot-bed or something. These people make me nervous, with their guns and
+Mexican servants."
+
+"Don't you worry, sis. I'll roll up in a blanket and sleep across your
+door-sill," and this he did, acknowledging the reasonableness of her
+fears.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+CURTIS ASSUMES CHARGE OF THE AGENT
+
+
+During the night Curtis was quite sure he heard a party of men ride up
+to the door, but in the morning there remained no signs of them.
+
+They were early on their feet, and Calvin, true to his promise, was
+present to help get breakfast. He had shaved some time during the night,
+and wore a new shirt with a purple silk handkerchief looped about his
+neck, and Jennie found it hard to be as cold and severe with him as she
+had resolved upon. He was only a big, handsome boy, after all.
+
+"I'm going to send that half-breed back and take you over to the fort
+myself," he said to Curtis.
+
+"No, I can't have that," Curtis sharply replied. "If you care to ride
+with us over to the fort I've no objection, but Louie will carry out his
+contract with us." The truth was, he did not care to be under any
+further obligation to the Streeters.
+
+Breakfast was a hurried and rather silent meal. As they rose, Jennie
+said, apologetically: "I fear I can't stop to do up the dishes. It is a
+long, hard ride to the fort."
+
+"That's right," replied Calvin, "it's close on thirty-five miles. Never
+you mind about the dishes. Hosy will swab 'em out."
+
+As they were mounting, the elder Streeter said, hospitably: "If you
+return this way, Mr. Curtis, make my ranch your half-way house." He
+bowed to Jennie. "My wife will be here then, miss, and you will not be
+obliged to cook your own meals."
+
+"Oh, I didn't mind; I rather enjoyed it," responded Jennie.
+
+Calvin was delayed at the start, and came thundering after with a
+shrill, cowboy yell, his horse running close to the ground with ears
+viciously laid back. The boy made a fine figure as he swept past them
+with the speed of an eagle. His was the perfection of range
+horsemanship. He talked, gesticulated, rolled cigarettes, put his coat
+on or off as he rode, without apparent thought of his horse or of the
+ground he crossed.
+
+He knew nothing but the life of a cattleman, and spoke quite frankly of
+his ignorance.
+
+"The old man tried to send me to school once. Packed me off to St. Joe.
+I stayed a week. 'See here, old man, don't do that again,' I says. 'I
+won't stand for it.' Hell! You might as well tie up a coyote as shut me
+in a school-room."
+
+He made a most picturesque guide as he rode ahead of them, always in
+view, completing a thousand typical combinations of man and horse and
+landscape--now suppling in his saddle to look down and a little backward
+at some "sign," now trotting straight towards a dark opening among the
+pines, now wheeling swiftly to mount a sudden ascent on the trail.
+Everything he did was as graceful and as self-unconscious as the
+movements of a panther. He was a living illustration of all the cowboy
+stories the girl had read. His horse, his saddle, his peculiar,
+slouching seat, the roll of clothing behind his saddle, his spurs, his
+long-heeled boots--every detail was as it should be, and Jennie was glad
+of him, and of Louis, too.
+
+"Yes, it's all here, Jennie," replied Curtis--"the wild country, the
+Indian, the gallant scout, and the tender maiden."
+
+"I'm having a beautiful ride. Since we left the wagon-road it really
+seems like the primitive wilderness."
+
+"It is. This little wedge of land is all these brave people have saved
+from the flood. They made their last stand here. The reflux from the
+coast caught them here, and here they are, waiting extinction."
+
+The girl's eyes widened. "It's tragic, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, but so is all life, except to Calvin Streeter, and even he wants
+what he can't get. He told me this morning he wanted to go to Chicago
+and take a fall out of a judge who fined him for carrying a gun. So even
+he has his unsatisfied ambition. As he told me about it he snarled like
+a young tiger."
+
+At about one o'clock, Calvin, who was riding ahead, halted on the crest
+of a timbered ridge and raised a shout.
+
+"He's topped the divide!" called Curtis to Jennie, who was riding
+behind. "We'll soon be in."
+
+"I'm glad of it. I'm tired."
+
+When they reached the spot where Calvin waited they could look down into
+the main valley of the Elk, and the agency, a singular village of
+ancient barracks, sheds, corrals, and red-roofed storehouses was almost
+beneath them. All about on the low hills the criss-crossing trails gave
+evidence that the Tetongs were still a nation of horsemen. Theirs was a
+barren land, a land of pine-clad, precipitous hills and deep valleys,
+which opened to the east--a region of scant rains and thin, discouraged
+streams.
+
+The sight of the officers' whitewashed quarters and the parade-ground
+brought a certain sadness to Curtis.
+
+"The old garrison don't look as it did when I was here in 188-," he
+said, musingly. "Army days in the West are almost gone. The Indian war
+is over. What a waste of human life it was on both sides! Yes, Louie, go
+ahead."
+
+As they alternately slid and trotted down the trail, native horsemen
+could be seen coming and going, their gay blankets sparkling in the
+clear air. Others on foot were clustered about the central building,
+where the flag hung droopingly on a tall staff. As they passed the
+corral, groups of young Tetongs smiled and nudged each other, but
+offered no greeting. Neither did the older men, though their keen eyes
+absorbed every detail of the stranger's dress and bearing. It was plain
+that they held every white man in suspicion, especially if he came
+attended by a cowboy.
+
+Calvin was elaborately free and easy with them all, eager to show his
+wide acquaintanceship. "Hello, Two Horns; hello, Hawk," he called to a
+couple of fine-looking men of middle age. They did not reply. "Hello,
+Gray Wolf, you old sardine; want to try another horse-race?"
+
+Gray Wolf, evidently something of a wag, smilingly replied: "You bet.
+Got new pony--heap fast."
+
+Calvin wheeled and spurred into the bunch of young fellows, who
+scattered with shouts of laughter, while the Captain and Jennie followed
+Louie, their guide, to the agency gate.
+
+They were met at the fence before the office by two men, one a
+middle-aged man, with a dirty-gray beard and fat, bloated cheeks, who
+said, blandly: "Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, miss; nice day."
+
+Curtis dismounted. "Are you Mr. Sennett?"
+
+"I am--what can I do for you?" He turned to his companion, a tall young
+man, with innocent gray eyes and a loose, weak mouth: "This is my son
+Clarence. Clarence, take the lady's horse."
+
+"Thank you," said the Captain, as he stepped inside the gate. "I am
+Captain Curtis, of the cavalry, detailed to take charge of this agency.
+You have just left the office--have you the keys in your pocket? If so,
+please surrender them to me. It is an unpleasant duty, but I am ordered
+to assume absolute control at once."
+
+The man's red skin faded to a yellow-gray--the color of his beard. For a
+moment he seemed about to fall, then the blood came surging back; his
+cheeks grew purple with its weight.
+
+"I'll be damned if I submit. It is an outrage!"
+
+"You can't afford to make any trouble. I am sorry to do this, but I am
+under orders of the department to take you unawares, and on no account
+to let you return to your office."
+
+Sennett began to bluster. "Show me your authority."
+
+"My authority is in this paper." He drew the order from his pocket. "If
+you think a moment you will see that instant acquiescence is best."
+
+While Sennett stormed, the two chiefs, Elk and Two Horns, drew near, and
+lifting his hand, Curtis, using the sign language swiftly, said to them:
+
+"I am your new agent. The Great Father has heard that the old agent is
+bad. I am here to straighten matters out. I am Swift Eagle--don't you
+remember? I came with Bear Robe. I was only second lieutenant then."
+
+The faces of the old chiefs lit up with pleasure. "Ay, we remember! We
+shake your hands. We are glad you have come."
+
+Curtis then asked: "Who is your interpreter--one you can trust, one who
+can read this paper."
+
+The two men looked at each other for a moment. Elk said, "Joe?"
+
+Two Horns shook his head; then, catching sight of a man who was
+regarding the scene from a door-way not very distant, he said, in
+English: "Him--Nawson. Hay, my friend," he called, "come here!"
+
+This observer at once responded to Two Horns' sign. As he came up the
+chief said: "My friend, here is a paper from Washington; read it for
+us."
+
+Curtis said: "I am Captain Curtis, of the cavalry, detailed to act as
+agent here. This is my commission."
+
+The stranger extended his hand. "I'm glad to meet you, Captain Curtis,
+very glad, indeed." As they shook hands he added: "I've read your
+articles on the sign language, et cetera, with great pleasure. My name
+is Lawson."
+
+Curtis smiled. "Are you Osborne Lawson? I'm mighty glad to meet you.
+This is my sister, Mr. Lawson."
+
+Mr. Lawson greeted Jennie with grace, and she liked him at once. His
+manner was direct and his voice pleasing. He was tall, lean, and a
+little stooping, but strong and brown. "Now, Captain, what can I do for
+you?" he asked, turning briskly.
+
+"I want you to read this paper to the chiefs here, and then I intend to
+put a guard on the door. Mr. Sennett is not to be permitted to re-enter
+his office. These are harsh measures, but I am not responsible for
+them."
+
+Lawson looked thoughtful. "I see." After reading the paper he said to
+the chiefs: "It is as this man has said. The Great Father has sent him
+here to take charge of the office. The old agent is cut off--he is not
+allowed to go back to his office for fear he may hide something. Have
+Crow put a guard on the door. The new agent will try to find out why you
+have not received your rations. This is the secret of this paper, and
+here is the signature of the Secretary. This is a true thing, and you
+must now obey Captain Curtis. I know him," he said, looking round him.
+"He is my friend; you can trust him. That is all."
+
+"Good! Good!" said the chiefs. "We understand."
+
+A short, dark Tetong in a frayed captain's uniform came up. "I am chief
+of the police," he signed. "What shall I do?"
+
+"Guard the door of the office and of the issue house. Let no one but
+those I bring enter. Will you do as I say?" he asked.
+
+"Ay!" replied the officer, whose name was Crow.
+
+"Then all is said; go guard the door."
+
+Sennett and his son had withdrawn a little from the scene and were
+talking in low voices. They had placed themselves in the worst possible
+light, and they felt it. As Curtis reached this point in his orders,
+Sennett started to cross the road.
+
+"Wait a moment, gentlemen," called Curtis. "My orders are very strict. I
+must precede you. There is a certain desk in your library, Mr. Sennett,
+which I must search."
+
+Sennett flamed out into wild oaths. "You shall not search my private
+papers."
+
+"Silence!" called Curtis. "Another oath and I'll put you in the
+guard-house."
+
+"Do you suppose I'm going to submit to this without protest? You treat
+me like a criminal."
+
+"So far as my orders go, that's what you are," said Curtis. "I give you
+the benefit of the doubt so long as you act the gentleman, but you must
+respect the presence of my sister, or I'll gag you." After a pause he
+added, in a gentler tone: "I don't pretend to judge your case. I am
+merely obeying the orders of the department."
+
+"I have powerful friends in Washington. You will regret this," snarled
+Sennett. But his son was like one smitten dumb; his breathing was
+troubled, and his big, gray eyes were childish in their wide appeal.
+
+Lawson then spoke. "Can I do anything further, Captain? Command me
+freely."
+
+"No, I think not, except to see that my horses are taken care of and my
+guide fed. I suppose there is a mess or boarding-house where my sister
+can get something to eat."
+
+"Won't you come to dinner with me?" asked Lawson. "Mrs. Wilcox, some
+artist friends, and I are messing over in one of the old quarters, and
+our mid-day dinner is waiting."
+
+Curtis smiled grimly. "Thank you, I am on duty. I must dine with Mr.
+Sennett. Jennie will accept your invitation thankfully."
+
+As Curtis walked over to the agency house with Sennett and his son,
+Jennie looked anxious. "They may do something to him."
+
+Lawson smiled. "Oh no, they won't. They are quite cowed, but I'll
+suggest a guard." He turned to Two Horns and said, in Dakota: "Father,
+the old agent is angry. The new agent is a brave man, but he is only one
+against two."
+
+"I understand," said the old man, with a smile, and a few minutes later
+a couple of policemen were sitting on the door-step of the agent's
+house. It was a sunny place to sit, and they enjoyed being there very
+much. One of them understood English, and the other was well able to
+tell an angry word when he heard it spoken.
+
+The drowsy hush of mid-day again settled down upon the little cluster of
+buildings--news, even when it passes swiftly among red people, makes no
+noise. It walks with velvet foot, it speaks in a murmur; it hastens, but
+conceals its haste.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE BEAUTIFUL ELSIE BEE BEE
+
+
+As Jennie entered the mess-house she uttered a little cry of amazement.
+Outwardly, it was a rude barrack of whitewashed cottonwood logs, but its
+interior glowed with color and light. Bright rugs were on the floor, and
+a big divan in one corner displayed a monstrous black bear-skin. A
+capacious fireplace, which dated back to the first invasion of the army,
+filled one end of the hall, which had been enlarged by the removal of a
+partition. Oil-paintings, without frames, were tacked against the walls,
+and the odor of fresh pigments lingered in the air.
+
+"This is our general meeting-place," explained Lawson.
+
+"It smells like a studio," Jennie replied, after a glance around her.
+
+A plain, quiet little woman, with a look of inquiry on her face,
+appeared at the dining-room door, and Lawson called out:
+
+"Mrs. Wilcox, this is Miss Curtis, who will stay with us for a few
+days." As they greeted each other he added: "There is a story to tell,
+but we are late, and it can wait. Where is Elsie?"
+
+"Still at work. She never _would_ come to her meals if we didn't call
+her."
+
+"I'm disposed to try it some day. Will you take charge of Miss Curtis
+while I go fetch the delinquent?"
+
+Under Mrs. Wilcox's direction Jennie prepared for luncheon in an
+adjoining room, wondering still at the unexpected refinement of the
+furnishings, and curious to see the artist.
+
+As she re-entered the sitting-room a tall girl rose languidly to meet
+her, and Lawson said: "Miss Curtis, this is Miss Brisbane, the painter
+of the pictures you see about."
+
+Miss Brisbane bowed in silence, while Jennie cried out: "Oh! did you do
+them? I think they are beautiful!"
+
+The sincerity of her voice touched the young artist, and she said: "I'm
+glad you like them--sometimes I think they're pretty 'bum.'"
+
+A slang word on the red lips of the handsome girl seemed wofully out of
+place to Jennie, who stared at her with the eager curiosity of a child.
+She was slender and dark, with an exquisite chin, and her hands, though
+slim and white, were strong and capable. Her eyes were very dark, of a
+velvety brown-black, and her hair was abundant and negligently piled
+upon her small head. Altogether she had a stately and rather foreign
+presence, which made Jennie feel very dowdy and very commonplace.
+
+Mrs. Wilcox hurried them all out into the dining-room, where a pretty
+table was spread for six people. Jennie's attention was absorbed by the
+walls, which were also lightened with sketches of small, red babies in
+gay cradles, and of glowing bits of tawny plain and purple butte.
+
+"Did you do all of these beautiful things?" she asked.
+
+Lawson interposed. "She did, Miss Curtis. Be not deceived. Miss
+Brisbane's languid manner springs from her theory of rest. When work is
+finished she 'devitalizes'--I think that is the word--and becomes a rag.
+But she's a horrible example of industry, spineless as she now appears."
+
+Miss Brisbane remained quite unmoved by Lawson's words; smiling
+dreamily, her red lips, as serene as those of a child, softly shaped
+themselves to say: "The strung bow needs relaxation."
+
+"I think you are right," said Jennie, with sudden conviction.
+
+Elsie opened her eyes wide and murmured, "Thank you."
+
+Jennie went on: "Now my trouble is just that. I'm always nerved up. I
+can't relax. Won't you teach me how?"
+
+"With pleasure. Are you going to live here?" asked Elsie, with faint
+accession of interest.
+
+"As long as my brother does."
+
+"I suppose you've come to teach these ragamuffins?"
+
+Lawson here answered for Jennie. "Miss Curtis is a sister to Captain
+Curtis, who has come to displace your uncle."
+
+Miss Brisbane looked up blankly. "I don't understand."
+
+Lawson became explicit, and as she listened the girl's hands clinched.
+
+"How abominable!" she cried, with eyes aflame.
+
+"Not at all. If Mr. Sennett is an honest employe of the government, he
+should be willing to be searched--if he isn't, then no measure is too
+harsh. He'll get a thorough raking over, if my impression of the new
+agent is correct."
+
+"My father would not put a dishonest man in this place," insisted Elsie,
+"and I don't believe Uncle Sennett has done wrong."
+
+"Well, now, we'll suspend judgment," retorted Lawson, who knew just when
+to change his tone. "Captain Curtis is an officer of known ability, and
+no one can accuse him of prejudice. His living doesn't depend upon
+pleasing either Mr. Sennett or your father. Undoubtedly the government
+has good reasons for sending him here, and I for one am willing to
+accept his judgment."
+
+Elsie rose in swift resolution. "I say it is an outrage! I am going to
+see that Uncle Sennett is not persecuted."
+
+Lawson laid his hand on her arm and his voice was sternly quiet. "I
+think you would better finish your tea. Whatever protest you feel called
+upon to make can be made later. If you like," he added, in a gentler
+voice, "I will represent you in the matter and go with you to see
+Captain Curtis during the afternoon. I don't think we should trouble him
+now."
+
+Elsie resumed her seat without either accepting or rejecting his offer,
+and the meal continued in some constraint, although Lawson summoned his
+best humor to cover Elsie's passionate outburst.
+
+A few minutes later Elsie sullenly retired to her studio, and Lawson
+said: "I am going out to see what is going on, Miss Curtis; please make
+yourself at home here."
+
+When the door closed behind him Jennie turned to Mrs. Wilcox. "Why does
+Mr. Lawson use that tone with Miss Brisbane--are they engaged?"
+
+Mrs. Wilcox laughed. "That's just what none of us knows. Sometimes I
+think they are husband and wife--he lectures her so."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Curtis joined the mess in the evening he was weary and a little
+sombre. Vastly preoccupied with his difficult task at the office, he had
+given but little attention to Jennie's announcement of having been taken
+into the bosom of an artistic family messing at the barracks, and when
+Elsie met him in a regal gown, glittering and changeful, he pulled
+himself up in surprise and admiration.
+
+Elsie, on her part, was eager to see him and ready to do battle, but as
+he faced her, abrupt, vigorous of movement, keen-eyed and
+composed--almost stern of countenance--she was a little daunted. He was
+handsomer than she had expected, and older. His head was impressive, his
+frame muscular, and his movements graceful. Plainly he was a man of
+power, one it would be politic to treat with respect.
+
+As they took up their napkins at the table Lawson opened out: "Well,
+Captain, we don't want to seem inquisitive, but we are dying to know
+what you've been doing this afternoon. We feel on the outside of it
+all."
+
+"Yes," Elsie quickly added, "we want to know whether there is to be a
+revolution, or only a riot."
+
+Curtis turned to her smilingly and replied: "You'll all be disappointed.
+I've been looking over accounts and holding humdrum audience with my
+clerks--a very busy but very quiet afternoon--nothing doing, as the
+phrase goes."
+
+"Where is Uncle Sennett?" inquired Elsie. "I tried to find him, but your
+men would not let me into the office."
+
+"You shouldn't have tried," interjected Lawson.
+
+"Is he your uncle?" asked Curtis.
+
+"He's my father's sister's husband--but that doesn't matter; I'd defend
+him if he were a stranger. I think he has been shamefully treated. The
+idea of searching his private desk!"
+
+Curtis looked at her keenly. "I am under orders," he said. "Mr. Sennett
+is nothing to me, one way or the other. The question for answer is--has
+he abused his office?"
+
+"He has not!" exclaimed Elsie. "I _know_ he has not. He is not a man to
+cheat and steal; he is not a strong man, but he is kind and generous."
+
+"Too kind and too generous," muttered Lawson.
+
+"I'm sorry to say that the records are against him," replied Curtis,
+"and his action is against him. He and his son have gone to Pinon
+City--riding very like fugitives. I had no orders to hold them; indeed,
+I was glad to let them go."
+
+Elsie bit her lips. "He has gone to get aid," she said at last, "and
+when he comes back you will take a different tone with him."
+
+Curtis laughed. "I believe he did say he'd have my hide, or something
+like that."
+
+Lawson put in a word. "He'll do it, too, if the cattle interest can
+influence the Secretary. Don't tell us any more than is proper,
+Captain, but--how do you find his accounts?"
+
+"In very bad shape. The chiefs say he has been holding back rations and
+turning in bad beef for some time."
+
+"You'd take the word of a nasty Indian against my uncle, or _any_ white
+man, I can see that," said Elsie, in withering scorn.
+
+Curtis turned upon her a most searching glance. "Miss Brisbane, I don't
+understand your attitude towards me. As a soldier on special duty,
+detailed almost against my will, I have no prejudice in this affair. It
+is my duty to see that the treaties of the government are carried out.
+You seem to think I am started on a line of persecution of your uncle--"
+he checked himself. "I beg you will not pursue the subject any further."
+He turned to Lawson with an effort to put aside unpleasant conversation.
+"Please don't ask me disagreeable questions when I am curious to know
+the meaning of this artistic invasion of my territory. Who is
+responsible for these pictures?"
+
+Lawson hastened to explain. "This plague of artists is due to me
+entirely, Captain Curtis. I am doing some studies of the Tetongs, and
+Miss Brisbane came out to make some illustrations for me. In fact, she
+suggested coming here rather than to the upper agencies, because of her
+uncle's presence. Our coming brought others."
+
+"I am very glad you came," said Curtis, heartily, "and I will do all in
+my power to further your work. Please do not allow my coming to change
+your plans in the slightest degree."
+
+Lawson continued: "Intending to stay some months, we concluded to set up
+a mess and be comfortable--and permit me to say, we hope you'll eat with
+us until your own goods arrive."
+
+"Thank you; I accept with pleasure, for I don't enjoy camping in the
+tent of my angry predecessor--this company is more to my mind."
+
+Elsie's red lips were tremulous with indignation. "You can't blame Mr.
+Sennett for being angry. You would be if treated in the same way. There
+is no justice in it. _I_ would never have surrendered those keys to
+you."
+
+Curtis patiently repeated, "My orders were peremptory."
+
+"You can't take shelter behind that plea. Your acts are atrocious, and I
+shall write to my father in Washington and have you investigated." She
+was beautiful as flame in the glow of her wrath.
+
+Curtis seemed struck with a new idea. "Are you the daughter of
+ex-Senator Brisbane?"
+
+She braced herself. "Well, suppose I am?"
+
+"Oh, nothing at all--only it explains."
+
+"What does it explain?"
+
+"Your attitude. It is quite natural for a daughter of Andrew Brisbane to
+take sides against these people." He was not in a mood to be gallant,
+and his glance quelled the angry girl.
+
+With flushed face and quivering lips she sprang to her feet. "I will not
+stay to be insulted," she said.
+
+Curtis rose as she swept from the room, but checked his instinctive
+words of apology and returned to his seat in silence.
+
+Mrs. Wilcox relieved the painful pause by saying, "Captain Curtis, you
+must not misjudge Elsie. She is a much better girl than she seems."
+
+Lawson was troubled as he said, "She has lashed herself into a great
+rage over this affair, but as a matter of fact she don't care a hang for
+Sennett."
+
+"I can't apologize for doing my duty," said Curtis, "even to Miss
+Brisbane."
+
+"Certainly not," replied Lawson, though he was deeply hurt by Elsie's
+display of unreason.
+
+As soon as he decently could, he followed her to her studio, where he
+found her lying in sullen dejection on the big divan. "Bee Bee, you are
+missing a good dinner," he began, gently.
+
+She was instantly ready to fight. "I suppose you blame me for this
+scene."
+
+"I think you are hasty, and a little unreasonable. I know Curtis by
+reputation, and he is above any petty malice."
+
+"You are taking his side against me!"
+
+"Not at all, Bee Bee, I am merely trying to show you--"
+
+"He looked at me as no man ever dared to look before, and I hate him. He
+thinks because he has a little authority he can lord it over us all
+here. I shall write to father at once, telling him just how this little
+prig of a lieutenant--"
+
+"Captain," interrupted Lawson--"for distinguished service."
+
+His smile made her furious. She flung herself back on the divan. "Go
+away. I hate you, too."
+
+Lawson, at the end of his patience, went out and closed the door behind
+him. "What is the matter with the girl?" he said to Mrs. Wilcox. "I've
+seen her in temper, but never like this. She has taken the most violent
+antagonism to Curtis."
+
+"She'd better let that young man alone," replied Mrs. Wilcox, sagely.
+"He has a very firm mouth."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+CAGED EAGLES
+
+
+The word had gone out among all the red people that the old agent was
+entirely "cut off," and that a soldier and a sign-talker had come to
+take his place, and so each little camp loaded its tepees on wagons or
+lashed them to the ponies and came flocking in to sit down before the
+Little Father and be inspired of him.
+
+The young men came first, whirling in on swift ponies, looking at a
+distance like bands of cowboys--for, though they hated the cattlemen,
+they formed themselves on Calvin Streeter as a model. Each wore a wide,
+white hat and dark trousers, and carried a gay kerchief slung round his
+neck. All still wore moccasins of buckskin, beautifully beaded and
+fringed, and their braided hair hung low on their breasts.
+
+The old men, who jogged in later in the day, still carried blankets,
+though they, too, had adopted the trousers and calico shirts of the
+white man. Several of the chieftains preserved their precious
+peace-pipes, and their fans and tobacco pouches, as of old, and a few of
+those who had been in Washington came in wrinkled suits of army-blue.
+The women dressed in calico robes cut in their own distinctive style,
+with wide sleeves, the loose flow of the garment being confined at the
+waist with a girdle. As this was a time of great formality, several of
+the young girls returned to their buckskin dresses trimmed with elk
+teeth, which they highly prized.
+
+As a race they were tall and strong, but the men, from much riding, were
+thin in the shanks and bowed out at the knee. They had lost the fine
+proportions for which they were famed in the days when they were
+trailers a-foot. "Straight as an Indian" no longer applied to them, but
+they were all skilled and picturesque horsemen. Lacking in beauty and
+strength, they possessed other compensating qualities which still made
+them most interesting to an artist. Their gestures were unstudiedly
+graceful, and their roughhewn faces were pleasant in expression. Ill
+words or dark looks were rare among them.
+
+In all external things they were quite obviously half-way from the tepee
+to the cabin. Their homes consisted of small hovels of cottonwood logs,
+set round with tall tepees and low lodges of canvas, used for
+dormitories and kitchens in summer. A rack for drying meat rations was a
+part of each family's possessions. They owned many minute ponies, and
+their camps abounded in dogs of wolfish breed which they handled not at
+all, for they were, as of old, merely the camp-guard.
+
+Such were the salient characteristics of the Tetongs, westernmost
+representatives of a once powerful race of hunters, whose home had been
+far to the east, in a land of lakes, rivers, and forests. They were not
+strangers to the young soldier; he knew their history and their habits
+of thought. He now studied them to detect change and found
+deterioration. "I am your friend," he said to them each and all. "I
+come to do you good, to lead you in the new road. It is a strange road
+to me also, for I, too, am a soldier and a hunter; but together we will
+learn to make the earth produce meat for our eating. Put your hand in
+mine."
+
+He was plunged at once into a wilderness of work, but in his moments of
+leisure the face of Elsie Brisbane came into his thought and her
+resentment troubled him more than he cared to acknowledge. He well knew
+that her birth and her training put her in hopeless opposition to all he
+was planning to do for the Tetongs, and yet he determined to demonstrate
+to her both the justice and the humanity of his position.
+
+He knew her father's career very well. He had once travelled for two
+days on the same railway train with him, and remembered him as a
+boastful but powerful man, whose antagonism no one held in light esteem.
+Andrew Brisbane had entered the State at a time when its mineral wealth
+lay undeveloped and free to the taker, and having leagued himself with
+men less masterly than himself but quite as unscrupulous, had set to
+work to grasp and hold the natural resources of the great Territory--he
+laid strong fists upon the mines and forests and grass of the wild land.
+Once grasped, nothing was ever surrendered.
+
+It mattered nothing to him and his kind that a race of men already lived
+upon this land and were prepared to die in defence of it. By adroit
+juggling, he and his corporation put the unsuspecting settler forward to
+receive the first shock of the battle, and, when trouble came, loudly
+called upon the government to send its troops "in support of the
+pioneers." In this way, without danger to himself, the shrewd old Yankee
+had acquired mineral belts, cattle-ranges, railway rights, and many
+other good things, and at last, when the Territory was made a State, he
+became one of its senators.
+
+Naturally, he hated the red people. They were pestilential because,
+first of all, they paid no railway charges, and also for the reason that
+they held the land away from those who would add to his unearned
+increment and increase the sum total of his tariff receipts. His
+original plan was broadly simple. "Sweep them from the earth," he
+snarled, when asked "What will we do with the Indians?" But his policy,
+modified by men with hearts and a sense of justice, had settled into a
+process of remorseless removal from point to point, from tillable land
+to grazing land, from grazing land to barren waste, and from barren
+waste to arid desert. He had no doubts in these matters. It was good
+business, and to say a thing was not good business was conclusive. The
+Tetong did not pay--remove him!
+
+Elsie in her home-life, therefore, had been well schooled in race
+hatred. Tender-hearted where suffering in a dog or even a wolf was
+concerned, she remained indifferent when a tribe was reported to be
+starving. Nothing modified her view till, as an art student in Paris,
+she came into contact with men who placed high value on the redman as
+"material." She found herself envied because she had casually looked
+upon a few of these "wonderful chaps," as Newt Penrose called them, and
+was often asked to give her impressions of them. When she returned to
+New York she was deeply impressed by Maurice Stewart's enormous success
+in sculpturing certain types of this despised race. A little later
+Wilfred J. Buttes, who had been struggling along as a painter of bad
+portraits, suddenly purchased a house in a choice suburb on the strength
+of two summers' work among the mountain Utes.
+
+Thereupon Elsie opened her eyes. Not that money was a lure to her, for
+it was not, but she was eager for notice--for the fame that comes
+quickly, and with loud trumpets and gay banners. In conversation with
+Lawson one day she learned that he was about to do some pen-portraits of
+noted Tetong chieftains, and at once sprang to her opportunity. She
+admired and trusted Lawson. His keen judgment, his definiteness of
+speech awed her a little, and with him she was noticeably less assertive
+than with the others of her artist acquaintances. So here now she sat,
+painting with rigor and immense satisfaction the picturesque rags and
+tinsel ornaments of the Tetongs. To her they were beggars and tramps, on
+a scale with the lazzaroni of Rome or Naples. That they were anything
+more than troublesome models had not been borne in on her mind.
+
+She had never professed special regard for her uncle the agent--in fact,
+she covertly despised him for his lack of power--but, now that the issue
+was drawn, she naturally flew to the side of those who would destroy the
+small peoples of the earth. She wrote to her father a passionate letter.
+
+"Can't you stop this?" she asked. "No doubt Uncle Henry will go direct
+to Washington and make complaint. This Captain Curtis is insufferable.
+I would leave here instantly only I am bound to do some work for Mr.
+Lawson. We must all go soon, for winter is coming on, but I would like
+to see this upstart humbled. He treats me as if I were a
+school-girl--'declines to argue the matter.' Oh! he is provoking. His
+sister is a nice little thing, but she sides with him, of course--and so
+does Lawson, in a sense; so you see I am all alone. The settlers are
+infuriated at Uncle Sennett's dismissal, and will support you and Uncle
+Henry."
+
+In the days that followed she met Curtis's attempts at modifying her
+resentment with scornful silence, and took great credit to herself that
+she did not literally fly at his head when he spoke of his work or his
+wards. Her avoidance of him became so painful that at the end of the
+third day he said to his sister: "Jennie, I think I will go to the
+school mess after this. Miss Brisbane's hostility shows no signs of
+relenting, and the situation is becoming decidedly unpleasant."
+
+"George!" said Jennie, sternly. "Don't you let that snip drive you away.
+Why, the thing is ridiculous! She is here on sufferance--your
+sufferance. You could order them all off the reservation at once."
+
+"I know I could, but I won't. You know what I mean--I can't even let
+Miss Brisbane know that she has made me uncomfortable. She's a very
+instructive example of the power of environment. She has all the
+prejudices and a good part of the will of her father, and represents her
+class just as a little wild-cat represents its species. She's a
+beautiful girl, and yet she is to me one of the most unattractive women
+I ever knew."
+
+Jennie looked puzzled. "You are a little hard on her, George. She _is_
+unsympathetic, but I think she says a lot of those shocking things just
+to hurt you."
+
+"That isn't very nice, either," he said, quietly. "Well, our goods are
+on the way, and by Thursday we'll be independent of any one. But maybe
+you are right--it would excite comment if I left the mess. I will join
+you all at meals until we are ready to light our own kitchen fire."
+
+Thereafter he saw very little of the artists. By borrowing a few
+necessaries of his head farmer he was able to camp down in the house
+which Sennett had so precipitately vacated. He was busy, very busy,
+during the day; but when his work was over and he sat beside his fire,
+pipe in hand, Elsie's haughty face troubled him. His life had not taken
+him much among women, and his love fancies had been few. His duties as
+an officer and his researches as a forester and map-builder had also
+aided to keep him a bachelor. Once or twice he had been disturbed by a
+fair face at the post, only to have it whisked away again into the
+mysterious world of happy girlhood whence it came.
+
+And now, at thirty-four, he was obliged to confess that he was as far
+from marriage as ever--farther, in fact, for an Indian reservation
+offers but slender opportunity in way of courtship for a man of his
+exacting tastes.
+
+He was not quite honest with himself, or he would have acknowledged the
+pleasure he took in watching Elsie's erect and graceful figure as she
+rode past his office window of a morning. It was pleasant to pause at
+the open door of her studio for a moment and say "Good-morning," though
+he received but a cold and formal bow in return. She was more alluring
+at her easel than in any other place, for she had several curious and
+very pretty tricks in working, and seemed like a very intent child, with
+her brown hair loosening over her temples, her eyes glowing with
+excitement, while she dabbed at the canvas with a piece of cheese-cloth
+or a crumb of bread. She dragged her stool into position with a quick,
+amusing jerk, holding her brush in her teeth meanwhile. Her blouses were
+marvels of odd grace and rich color.
+
+The soldier once or twice lingered in silence at the door after she had
+forgotten his presence, and each time the glow of her disturbing beauty
+burned deeper into his heart, and he went away with drooping head.
+
+Mrs. Wilcox took occasion one day to remonstrate with her niece. "Elsie,
+you were very rude to Captain Curtis again to-day. He was deeply hurt."
+
+"Now, aunt, don't _you_ try to convert me to a belief in that tin
+soldier. He gets on my nerves."
+
+"It would serve you right if he ordered us off the reservation. Your
+remarks to-day before that young Mr. Streeter were very wrong and very
+injudicious, and will be used in a bad cause. Captain Curtis is trying
+to keep the peace here, and you are doing a great deal of harm by your
+hints of his removal."
+
+"I don't care. I intend to have him removed. I have taken a frightful
+dislike to him. He is a prig and a hypocrite, and has no business to
+come in here in this way, setting his low-down Indians up against the
+settlers."
+
+"That's just what he is trying _not_ to do, and if you weren't so
+obstinate you'd see it and honor him for his good sense."
+
+"Aunt, don't _you_ lecture me," cried the imperious girl. "I will not
+allow it!"
+
+In truth, Mrs. Wilcox's well-meant efforts at peace-making worked out
+wrongly. Elsie became insufferably rude to Curtis, and her letters were
+filled with the bitterest references to him and his work.
+
+Lawson continued most friendly, and Curtis gladly availed himself of the
+wide knowledge of primitive psychology which the ethnologist had
+acquired. The subject of Indian education came up very naturally at a
+little dinner which Jennie gave to the teachers and missionaries soon
+after she opened house, and Lawson's remarks were very valuable to
+Curtis. Lawson was talking to the principal of the central school. "We
+should apply to the Indian problem the law of inherited aptitudes," he
+said, slowly. "We should follow lines of least resistance. Fifty
+thousand years of life proceeding in a certain way results in a certain
+arrangement of brain-cells which can't be changed in a day, or even in a
+generation. The red hunter, for example, was trained to endure hunger,
+cold, and prolonged exertion. When he struck a game-trail he never left
+it. His pertinacity was like that of a wolf. These qualities do not make
+a market-gardener; they might not be out of place as a herder. We must
+be patient while the redman makes the change from the hunter to the
+herdsman. It is like mulching a young crab-apple and expecting it to
+bear pippins."
+
+"Patience is an unknown virtue in an Indian agent," remarked the
+principal of the central school--"present company excepted."
+
+"Do you believe in the allotment?" asked Miss Colson, one of the
+missionaries for kindergarten work, an eager little woman, aflame with
+religious zeal.
+
+"Not in its present form," replied Lawson, shortly. "Any attempt to make
+the Tetong conform to the isolated, dreary, lonesome life of the Western
+farmer will fail. The redman is a social being--he is pathetically
+dependent on his tribe. He has always lived a communal life, with the
+voices of his fellows always in his ears. He loves to sit at evening and
+hear the chatter of his neighbors. His games, his hunting, his toil, all
+went on with what our early settlers called a 'bee.' He seldom worked or
+played alone. His worst punishment was to be banished from the camping
+circle. Now the Dawes theorists think they can take this man, who has no
+newspaper, no books, no letters, and set him apart from his fellows in a
+wretched hovel on the bare plain, miles from a neighbor, there to
+improve his farm and become a citizen. This mechanical theory has failed
+in every case; nominally, the Sioux, the Piegans, are living this
+abhorrent life; actually, they are always visiting. The loneliness is
+unendurable, and so they will not cultivate gardens or keep live-stock,
+which would force them to keep at home. If they were allowed to settle
+in groups of four or five they would do better."
+
+Miss Colson's deep seriousness of purpose was evident in the tremulous
+intensity of her voice. "If they had the transforming love of Christ in
+their hearts they would feel no loneliness."
+
+A silence followed this speech; both men mentally shrugged their
+shoulders, but Jennie came to the rescue.
+
+"Miss Colson, did you ever live on a ranch, miles from any other
+stove-pipe?"
+
+"No, but I am sure that with God as my helper I could live in a
+dungeon."
+
+"You should have been a nun," said Lawson. "I don't mind your living
+alone with Christ, but I think it cruel and unchristian to force your
+solitary way of life on a sociable redman. Would Christ do that? Would
+He insist on shutting the door on their mythology, their nature lore,
+their dances and ceremonies? Would He not go freely among them, glad of
+their joy, and condemning only what was hurtful? Is there any record
+that He ever condemned an innocent pleasure? How do you know but they
+are as near the Creator's design as the people of Ohio?"
+
+The teacher's pretty face was strained and white, and her wide-set eyes
+were painful to see. She set her slim hands together. "Oh, I can't
+answer you now, but I know you are wrong--wickedly wrong!"
+
+Jennie again broke the intensity of the silence by saying: "Two big men
+against one little woman isn't fair. I object to having the Indian
+problem settled over cold coffee. Mr. Lawson, stop preaching!"
+
+"Miss Colson is abundantly able to take care of herself," said Slicer,
+and the other teachers, who had handed over their cause to their ablest
+advocate, chorused approval.
+
+Curtis, who sat with deeply meditative eyes fixed on Miss Colson, now
+said: "It all depends on what we are trying to do for these people.
+Personally, I am not concerned about the future life of my wards. I want
+to make them healthy and happy, here and now."
+
+"Time's up!" cried Jennie, and led the woman out into the safe harbor of
+the sitting-room.
+
+After they had lighted their cigars, Lawson said privately to Curtis:
+"Now there's a girl with too much moral purpose--just as Elsie is
+spoiled by too little. However, I prefer a wholesome pagan to a morbid
+Christian."
+
+"It's rather curious," Curtis replied. "Miss Colson is a pretty girl--a
+very pretty girl; but I can't quite imagine a man being in love with
+her. What could you do with such inexorable moral purpose? You couldn't
+put your arm round it, could you?"
+
+"You'd have to hang her up by a string, like one of these toy angels the
+Dutch put atop their Christmas-trees. The Tetongs fairly dread to see
+her coming--they think she's deranged."
+
+"I know it--the children go to her with reluctance; she doesn't seem
+wholesome to them, as Miss Diehl does. And yet I can't discharge her."
+
+"Naturally not! You'd hear from the missionary world. Think of it! 'I
+find Miss Colson too pious, please take her away.'" Both men laughed at
+the absurdity of this, and Lawson went on: "I wished a dozen times
+during dinner that Elsie Bee Bee had been present. It would have given
+her a jolt to come in contact with such inartistic, unshakable
+convictions."
+
+"She would have been here, only her resentment towards me is still very
+strong."
+
+"She has it in for you, sure thing. I can't budge her," said Lawson,
+smiling. "She's going to have you removed the moment she reaches
+Washington."
+
+"I have moments when I think I'd like to be removed," said Curtis, as he
+turned towards Mr. Slicer and his other guests. "Suppose we go into the
+library, gentlemen."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+CURTIS SEEKS A TRUCE
+
+
+"Our artists are going to flit," remarked Jennie, one evening, as they
+were taking seats at luncheon.
+
+He looked up quickly. "Are they?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Brisbane is going back to Washington, and Mr. Lawson will
+follow, no doubt."
+
+He unfolded his napkin with unmoved countenance. "Well, they are wise;
+we are likely to have a norther any day now."
+
+The soldier had all the responsibilities and perplexities he could
+master without the addition of Elsie Brisbane's disturbing lure. The
+value of her good opinion was enormously enhanced by the news of her
+intended departure, and for a day or two Curtis went about his duties
+with absent-minded ineffectiveness; he even detected himself once or
+twice sitting with his pen in his hand creating aimless markings on his
+blotting-pad. Wilson, the clerk, on one occasion waited full five
+minutes for an answer while his chief debated with himself whether to
+call upon Miss Brisbane at the studio or at the house. He began to find
+excuses for her--"A man who is a villain in business may be a very
+attractive citizen in private life--and she may have been very fond of
+Sennett. From her point of view--anyhow, she is a lovely young girl,
+and it is absurd to place her among my enemies." The thought of her face
+set in bitter scorn against him caused his heart to contract painfully.
+"I've been too harsh. These people are repugnant to one so dainty and
+superrefined. There are excuses for her prejudice. I can't let her go
+away in anger." And in this humble mood he stopped at the door of her
+studio one morning, prepared to be very patient and very persuasive.
+
+"Good-morning, Miss Brisbane. May I come in?"
+
+"Certainly, if my work will interest you," she replied; "you'll excuse
+my going on. I want to finish this portrait of Little Peta to-day."
+
+"By all means--I do not intend to interrupt." He took a seat to the
+front and a little to the left of her, and sat in silence for a few
+moments. Her brown hair, piled loosely on her head, brought out the
+exquisite fairness of her complexion, and the big, loose sleeve of her
+blouse made her hand seem like a child's, but it was strong and steady.
+She was working with her whole mind, breathing quickly as she mixed her
+colors, holding her breath as she put her brush against the canvas. She
+used the apparently aimless yet secure movement of the born painter.
+With half-closed eyes and head a little to one side, with small hand
+lifted to measure and compare, she took on a new expression, a
+bewitching intentness, which quite transformed her.
+
+"I hear you are going away," said Curtis at last, speaking with some
+effort, uncertain of her temper.
+
+"Yes, we break up and vacate to-morrow."
+
+"Why break up? You will want to come back next spring. Leave the place
+as it is."
+
+She gave him a quick, keen glance, and put her head again on one side to
+squint.
+
+"I have no intention of returning."
+
+"Have you exhausted Indian subjects?"
+
+"Oh no!" she exclaimed, with sudden, artistic enthusiasm. "I have just
+begun to see what I want to do."
+
+"Then why not come back?" She did not reply, and he resumed, with tender
+gravity: "I hope I haven't made it so unpleasant for you that you are
+running away to escape _me_?"
+
+She turned with a sharp word on her tongue, but he was so frank and so
+handsome, and withal so humble, that she instantly relented. She was
+used to this humility in men and knew the meaning thereof, and a flush
+of gratified pride rose to her face. The proud soldier had become a
+suitor like the others.
+
+"Oh no--you have nothing to do with it," she replied, carelessly.
+
+"I am glad of that. I was afraid you might think me unsympathetic, but I
+am not. I am here this morning to offer you my cordial assistance, for I
+am eager to see this people put into art. So far as I know, they have
+never been adequately treated in painting or in sculpture."
+
+"Thank you," she said, "I don't think I shall go very far with them.
+They are very pleasant on canvas, but there are too many disagreeable
+things connected with painting them. I don't see how you endure the
+thought of living here among them." She shuddered. "I hate them!"
+
+"I don't understand that hardness in you, Miss Brisbane," he replied.
+
+"I'm sure it isn't mysterious. I hate dirt and rags, even when painted.
+Now Little Peta here is quite different. She is a dear little thing. See
+her sigh--she gets so tired, but she's patient."
+
+"You are making a beautiful picture of her. Your skill is marvellous."
+His method of approach was more adroit than he realized; she softened
+yet again.
+
+"Thank you. I seem to have hit her off very well."
+
+"Will you exhibit in Washington this winter?" he asked, with boyish
+eagerness.
+
+"I may--I haven't quite decided," she said, quite off guard at last.
+
+"If you do I wish you would let me know. I may be able to visit the
+exhibition and witness your triumph."
+
+She began to suspect his motives. "Oh, my little row of paintings
+couldn't be tortured into a triumph. I've stolen the time for them from
+Mr. Lawson, whose illustrations I have neglected." She was again cold
+and repellent.
+
+"Miss Brisbane, this whole situation has become intolerable to me." He
+rose and faced her, very sincere and deeply earnest. "I do not like to
+have you go away carrying an unpleasant impression of me. What can I do
+to change it? If I have been boorish or presuming in any way I sincerely
+beg your pardon."
+
+She motioned to Peta. "You can go now, dear, I've done all I can
+to-day."
+
+Curtis took up his hat. "I hope I have not broken up your sitting. It
+would be unpardonable in me."
+
+She squinted back at the picture with professional gravity. "Oh no; I
+only had a few touches to put in under the chin--that luminous shadow is
+so hard to get. I'm quite finished."
+
+She went behind a screen for a few moments, and when she reappeared
+without her brushes and her blouse she was the society young lady in
+tone and manner.
+
+"Would you like to look at my sketches?" she asked. "They're jolly
+rubbish, the whole lot, but they represent a deal of enthusiasm."
+
+Her tone was friendly--too friendly, considering the point at which he
+had paused, and he was a little hurt by it. Was she playing with him?
+
+His tone was firm and his manner direct as he said: "Miss Brisbane, I am
+accustomed to deal directly with friends as well as enemies, and I like
+to have people equally frank with me. I know you are angry because of my
+action in the case of your uncle. I do not ask pardon for that; I was
+acting there in line of my duty. But if I have spoken harshly or without
+due regard to your feelings at any time I ask you to forgive me."
+
+He made a powerful appeal to her at this moment, but she wilfully
+replied: "You made no effort to soften my uncle's disgrace."
+
+"I didn't know he was your uncle at that time," he said, but his face
+grew grave quickly. "It would have made no difference if I had--my
+orders were to step between him and the records of the office. So far as
+my orders enlightened me, he was a man to be watched." He turned towards
+the door. "Is there anything I can do to help you reach the station
+to-morrow? My sister and I would gladly drive you down."
+
+She was unrelenting, but very lovely as she replied: "Thank you; you are
+very kind, but all arrangements are made."
+
+"Good-afternoon, Miss Brisbane."
+
+"Good-bye, Captain Curtis."
+
+"She is hard--hard as iron," he said, as he walked away. "Her father's
+daughter in every fibre."
+
+He was ashamed to acknowledge how deeply he felt her rejection of his
+friendship, and the thought of not seeing her again gave him a sudden
+sense of weakness and loneliness.
+
+Elsie, on her part, was surprised to find a new nerve tingling in her
+brain, and this tremor cut into the complete self-satisfaction she
+expected to feel over her refusal of the peace-pipe. Several times
+during the afternoon, while superintending her packing, she found
+herself standing in an attitude of meditation--her inward eye reverting
+to the fine, manly figure he made, while his grave, sweet voice vibrated
+in her ears. She began to see herself in an unpleasant light, and when
+at the dinner-table Lawson spoke of Curtis, she listened to him with
+more real interest than ever before.
+
+"He is making wonderful changes here," Lawson was saying. "Everywhere
+you go you see Tetongs working at fence-building, bridge-making,
+cabin-raising, with their eagle feathers fluttering in the winds, their
+small hands chapped with cold. They are sawing boards and piling grain
+in the warehouse and daubing red paint on the roofs. They are in a
+frenzy of work. Every man has his rations and is happy. In some way he
+has persuaded the chiefs to bring in all the school-children, and the
+benches are full of the little shock-heads, wild as colts."
+
+"A new broom, etc.," murmured Elsie.
+
+"His predecessor never was a new broom," retorted Lawson, quickly.
+"Sennett always had a nasty slaunch to him. He never in his life cleaned
+the dirt from the corners, and I don't see exactly why you take such
+pains in defending him."
+
+"Because he is my uncle," she replied.
+
+"Uncle Boot-jack! That is pure fudge, Bee Bee. You didn't speak to him
+once a week; you privately despised him--anybody could see that. You are
+simply making a cudgel of him now to beat Curtis with--and, to speak
+plainly, I think it petty of you. More than this, you'd better hedge,
+for I'm not at all sure that Sennett has not been peculating."
+
+Elsie stopped him with an angry gesture. "I'll not have you accusing him
+behind his back."
+
+Lawson threw out his hands in a gesture of despair. "All right! But make
+a note of it: you'll regret this taking sides with a disreputable old
+bummer against an officer of Captain Curtis's reputation."
+
+"You are not my master!" she said, and her eyes were fiercely bright. "I
+do not wish to hear you use that tone to me again! I resent it!" and she
+struck the floor with her foot. "Henceforth, if we are to remain
+friends, you will refrain from lecturing me!" and she left the room with
+a feeling of having done two men a wrong by being unjust to herself, and
+this feeling deepened into shame as she lay in her bed that night. It
+was her first serious difference with Lawson and she grew unhappy over
+it. "But he shouldn't take sides against me like that," she said, in an
+attempt to justify her anger.
+
+On the second morning thereafter Lawson came into the office and said:
+"Well, Captain, we leave you this morning."
+
+Curtis looked up into his visitor's fine, sensitive face, and exclaimed,
+abruptly--almost violently: "I'm going to miss you, old man."
+
+"My heart's with you," replied Lawson. "And I shall return next spring."
+
+"Bring Miss Brisbane with you."
+
+"I'd like to do so, but she is vastly out of key--and I doubt.
+Meanwhile, if I can be of any use to you in Washington let me know."
+
+"Thank you, Lawson, I trust you perfectly," Curtis replied, with a glow
+of warm liking.
+
+As he stood at the gate looking up into Elsie's face, she seemed very
+much softened, and he wished to reach his hand and stay her where she
+sat; but the last word was spoken, and the wagon rolled away with no
+more definite assurance of her growing friendship than was to be read in
+a polite smile.
+
+Jennie was tearful as she said: "After all, they were worth while."
+
+Curtis sighed as he said: "Sis, the realities of our position begin to
+make themselves felt. Play-spells will be fewer now that our artists are
+gone."
+
+"They certainly broke our fall," replied Jennie, soberly. "Osborne
+Lawson is fine, and I don't believe Elsie Bee Bee is as ferocious as she
+pretends to be."
+
+"It's her training. She has breathed the air of rapacity from
+childhood. I can't blame her for being her father's child."
+
+Jennie looked at him as if he were presented from a new angle of vision.
+"George, there _is_ a queer streak in you--for a soldier; you're too
+soft-hearted. But don't you get too much interested in Elsie Bee Bee;
+she's dangerous--and, besides, Mr. Lawson wears an air of command."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ELSIE RELENTS A LITTLE
+
+
+The feeling against the redmen, intensified throughout the State by the
+removal of Sennett, beat against Curtis like a flood. Delegations of
+citizens, headed by Streeter and Johnson, proceeded at once to
+Washington, laden with briefs, affidavits, and petitions, and there laid
+siege to Congress as soon as the members began to assemble. The twenty
+original homesteaders were taken as the text for most impassioned
+appeals by local orators, and their melancholy situation was skilfully
+enlarged upon. They were described as hardy and industrious patriots,
+hemmed in by sullen savages, with no outlet for trade and scant
+pasturage for their flocks--in nightly fear of the torch and the
+scalping-knife.
+
+To Curtis, these settlers were by no interpretation martyrs in the cause
+of civilization--they were quite other. His birth, his military
+training, and his natural refinement tended to make him critical of
+them. They were to him, for the most part, "poor whites," too pitiless
+to be civilized, and too degenerate to have the interest of their
+primitive red neighbors. "The best of them," he said to Jennie, "are
+foolhardy pioneers who have exiled their wives and children for no good
+reason. The others are cattlemen who followed the cavalry in order to
+fatten their stock under the protection of our guidon."
+
+The citizens of Pinon City wondered why their delegates made so little
+impression on the department, but Streeter was not left long in doubt.
+
+The Secretary interrupted him in the midst of his first presentation of
+the matter.
+
+"Mr. Streeter, you are a cattleman, I believe?"
+
+Streeter looked a little set back. "I am--yes, sir, Mr. Secretary."
+
+The Secretary took up a slip of paper. "Are you the Streeter located on
+the reservation itself?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, you are an interested witness. How can you expect me to take your
+word against that of Captain Curtis? He tells me the Tetongs are
+peaceful, and quick to respond to fair treatment. The department has
+absolute confidence in Captain Curtis, and you are wasting time in the
+effort to discredit him. The tribe will _not_ be removed. Is there any
+other question you would like to raise?"
+
+Streeter took his dismissal hard. He hurried at once to Brisbane, his
+face scarlet with rage. "He turned me down," he snarled, "and he's got
+to suffer for it. There's a way to get at him, and you must find it."
+
+Brisbane was too crafty to promise any definite thing. "Now wait a
+moment, neighbor; never try to yank a badger out of his den--wait and
+catch him on the open plain. We must sound the Committee on Indian
+Affairs, and then move on the House. If we can't put through our removal
+bill we'll substitute the plan for buying out the settlers. If that
+don't work I've a little scheme for cutting down the reservation. We
+must keep cool--and don't mention my name in the matter. What we want to
+do is to pave the way for my return to the Senate next fall; then I can
+be of some real service to you. I am now entirely out of it, as you can
+see, but I'll do what I can."
+
+Streeter went away with a feeling that Brisbane was losing his vigor,
+and a few days later returned to the West, very bitter and very
+inflammatory of speech. "The bill is lost. It will be smothered in
+committee," he said to Calvin.
+
+Brisbane, after leaving Streeter that day, went home to dinner with an
+awakened curiosity to know more about this young man in whom the
+department had such confidence. Lawson was dining at his table that
+night, and it occurred to him to ask a little more fully about Curtis.
+
+"See here, Lawson, you were out there on the Fort Smith reservation,
+weren't you? Wasn't that where you and Elsie camped this summer?"
+
+Elsie replied, "Yes, papa. We were there when Uncle Sennett was
+dismissed."
+
+Brisbane started a little. "Why, of course you were; my memory is
+failing me. Well, what about this man Curtis--he's a crank on the Indian
+question, like yourself, isn't he?"
+
+Lawson smiled. "We believe in fair play, Governor. Yes, he's friendly to
+the Indians."
+
+"And a man of some ability, I take it?"
+
+"A man of unusual ability. He is an able forester, a well-read
+ethnologist, and has made many valuable surveys for the War
+Department."
+
+"His word seems to have great weight with the department."
+
+"Justly, too, for he is as able a man as ever held an agent's position.
+A few men like Curtis would solve the Indian problem."
+
+Elsie, who had been listening in meditative silence, now spoke.
+"Nevertheless, his treatment of Uncle Sennett was brutal. He arrested
+him and searched all his private papers--don't you remember?"
+
+Brisbane looked at Lawson solemnly and winked the eye farthest from his
+daughter. Lawson's lips quivered with his efforts to restrain a smile.
+Turning then to Elsie, Brisbane said: "I recall your story now--yes, he
+was pretty rigorous, but I'm holding up the department for that; the
+agent wasn't to blame. He was sent there to do that kind of a job, and
+from all accounts he did it well."
+
+Elsie lifted her eyebrows. "Does that excuse him? He kept repeating to
+me that he was under orders, but I took his saying so to be just a
+subterfuge."
+
+"Mighty little you know about war, my girl. To be a soldier means to
+obey orders from general down to corporal. Moreover, your uncle has
+given me a whole lot of trouble, and I wouldn't insist on a relationship
+which does us no credit. I've held his chin above water about as long as
+I'm going to."
+
+Elsie was getting deeper into the motives and private opinions of her
+father than ever before, and, as he spoke, her mind reverted to the
+handsome figure of the young soldier as he stood before her in the
+studio, asking for a kindlier good-bye. His head was really beautiful,
+and his eyes were deep and sincere. She looked up at her father with
+frowning brows. "I thought you liked Mr. Sennett? He told me you got
+him his place."
+
+Brisbane laughed. "My dear chicken, he was a political choice. He was
+doing work for our side, and had to be paid."
+
+"Do you mean you knew the kind of a man he was when you put him there?"
+
+Brisbane pulled himself up short. "Now see here, my daughter, you're
+getting out of your bailiwick."
+
+"But I want to understand--if you knew he was stealing--"
+
+"I didn't know it. How should I know it? I put him there to keep him
+busy. I didn't suppose he was a sot and a petty plunderer. Now let's
+have no more of this." Brisbane was getting old and a trifle irritable,
+but he was still master of himself. "I don't know why I should be taken
+to task by my own daughter."
+
+Elsie said no more, but her lips straightened and her eyes grew
+reflective. As the coffee and cigars came in, she left the two men at
+the table and went out into the music-room. It seemed very lonely in the
+big house that night, and she sat down at the piano to play, thinking to
+cure herself of an uneasy conscience. She was almost as good a pianist
+as a painter, and the common criticism of her was on this score. "Bee
+does everything _too_ well," Penrose said.
+
+She played softly, musingly, and, for some reason, sadly. "I wonder if I
+have done him an injustice?" she thought. And then that brutal leer on
+her father's face came to disturb her. "I wish he hadn't spoken to me
+like that," she said. "I don't like his political world. I wish he
+would get out of it. It isn't nice."
+
+In the end, she left off playing and went slowly up to her studio, half
+determined to write a letter of apology. Her "work-shop," which had been
+added to the house since her return from Paris, was on a level with her
+sitting-room, which served as a reception hall to the studio itself. Her
+artist friends declared it to be too beautiful to work in, and so it
+seemed, for it was full of cosey corners and soft divans--a glorious
+lounging-place. Nevertheless, its walls were covered with pictures of
+her own making. Costly rugs and a polished floor seemed not to deter her
+from effort. She remained a miracle of industry in spite of the scoffing
+of her fellows, who were stowed about the city in dusty lofts like
+pigeons.
+
+Proud and wilful as she seemed, Elsie had always prided herself on being
+just, and to be placed in the position of doing an honorable man a wrong
+was intolerable. The longer she dwelt upon her action the more uneasy
+she became. Her vision clarified. All that had been hidden by her absurd
+prejudice and reasonless dislike--the soldier's frank and manly
+firmness, Lawson's reproaches, her aunt's open reproof--all these grew
+in power and significance as she mused.
+
+Taking a seat at her desk, she began a letter, "Captain Curtis, Dear
+Sir--" But this seemed so palpably a continuance of her repellent mood
+that she tore it up, and started another in the spirit of friendliness
+and contrition which had seized upon her:
+
+     "DEAR CAPTAIN CURTIS,--I have just heard something which
+     convinces me that I have done you an injustice, and I hasten
+     to beg your pardon. I knew my uncle Sennett only as a child
+     knows a man of middle age--he was always kind and good and
+     amusing to me. I had no conception of his real self. My present
+     understanding of him has changed my feeling towards your
+     action. I still think you were harsh and unsympathetic, but I
+     now see that you were simply doing the will of the department.
+     So far I apologize. If you come to Washington I hope you will
+     let us know."
+
+As she re-read this it seemed to be a very great concession indeed; but
+as she recalled the handsome, troubled face of the soldier, she decided
+to send it, no matter what he might think of her. As she sealed the
+letter her heart grew lighter, and she smiled.
+
+When she re-entered the library her father was saying: "No, I don't
+expect to get him removed. The present administration and its whole
+policy must be overthrown. Curtis is only a fly on the rim of the wheel.
+He don't count."
+
+"Any man counts who is a moral force," Lawson replied, with calm
+sincerity. "Curtis will bother you yet."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CURTIS WRITES A LONG LETTER
+
+
+The stage-driver and mail-carrier to Fort Smith was young Crane's Voice,
+and this was his first trip in December. He congratulated himself on
+having his back to the wind on the fifty-mile ride up the valley. A
+norther was abroad over the earth, and, sweeping down from arctic
+wildernesses, seemingly gathered power as it came. It crossed two vast
+States in a single night and fell upon the Fort Smith reservation with
+terrible fury about ten o'clock in the morning.
+
+Crane's Voice did not get his mail-sack till twelve, but his ponies were
+fed and watered and ready to move when the bag came. He did not know
+that it contained a letter to warm the heart of his hero, the Captain,
+but he flung the sack into his cart and put stick to his broncos quite
+as manfully as though the Little Father waited. The road was smooth and
+hard and quite level for thirty miles, and he intended to cover this
+stretch in five hours. Darkness would come early, and the snow, which
+was hardly more than a frost at noon, might thicken into a blizzard. So
+he pushed on steadily, fiercely, silently, till a sinister dusk began to
+fall over the buttes, and then, lifting his voice in a deep, humming,
+throbbing incantation, he sang to keep off spirits of evil.
+
+Crane's Voice was something of an aristocrat. As the son of Chief Elk he
+had improved his opportunities to learn of the white man, and could
+speak a little English and understand a good deal more than he
+acknowledged, which gave him a startling insight at times into the words
+and actions of the white people. It was his report of the unvarying
+kindliness and right feeling of Captain Curtis which had done so much to
+make the whole tribe trust and obey the new agent.
+
+Crane's Voice was afraid of spirits, but he shrank from no hardship. He
+was proud of his blue uniform, and of the revolver which he was
+permitted to wear to guard the mail. No storm had ever prevented him
+from making his trip, and his uncomplaining endurance of heat, cold,
+snow, and rain would have been counted heroic in a military scout. His
+virtues were so evident even to the cowboys that they made him an
+exception by saying, "Yes, Crane is purty near white," and being
+besotted in their own vanity, they failed to see the humor of such a
+phrase in the mouth of a drunken, obscene, lawless son of a Missouri
+emigrant. As a matter of fact there were many like Crane in the tribe,
+only the settlers never came in personal contact with them.
+
+Crane found his road heavy with drifts as he left the main valley and
+began to climb, and he did not reach the agency till long after Curtis
+had gone to bed, but he found his anxious mother waiting for him,
+together with the captain of police, who took the bag of mail to the
+office. As he drove into the big corral out of the wind the boy said, in
+his quaint English: "Me no like 'um blizzard. Fleeze ears like buffalo
+horn."
+
+Curtis came to the office next morning with a heavy heart. He knew how
+hard the bitter cold pressed upon his helpless wards, and suffered
+acutely for sympathy. He spoke to all of those he met with unusual
+tenderness, and asked minutely after the children, to be sure that none
+were ill or hungry.
+
+As Wilson, his clerk, laid the big package of letters and papers on his
+table, the pale-blue, square envelope which bore Elsie's handwriting was
+ostentatiously balanced on top. Wilson, the lovelorn clerk, sighed to
+think he had no such missive in his mail that gloomy morning. Looking
+in, a half-hour later, he found Curtis writing busily in answer to that
+letter, all the rest of his mail being untouched. "I thought so," said
+he; "I'd neglect any business for a sweet little envelope like that,"
+and he sighed again.
+
+Curtis had opened the letter eagerly, but with no expectation of
+comfort. As he read he forgot the storm outside. A warm glow crept into
+his blood. Lover-like, he got from the letter a great deal more than
+Elsie had intended to say. He seized his pen to reply at once--just a
+few lines to set her mind at rest; but his thought ran on so fast, so
+full of energy, that his writing became all but illegible:
+
+     "DEAR MISS BRISBANE,--You have given me a great pleasure by
+     your letter, and I am replying at once to assure you that I did
+     not lay your words up against you, because I felt you did not
+     fully understand the situation. Your letter gives me courage to
+     say that I think you are unjust in your attitude towards these
+     primitive races--and I also hope that as fuller understanding
+     comes you will change your views.
+
+     "Here they are, fenced in on the poorest part of this bleak
+     reservation, on the cold slope of the range, exposed to the
+     heat and drought of summer and the storms of winter. This
+     morning, for example, the wind is rushing up the converging
+     walls of this valley--which opens out to the northeast, you
+     remember--and the cold is intense. I am just sending out
+     messengers to see that no children are freezing. Everything is
+     hard as iron, and the Indians, muffled in their blankets, are
+     sitting beside their fires glum as owls, waiting the coming of
+     the sunshine.
+
+     "I must tell you something which happened since you went
+     away--it may correct your views of the Tetongs. It is my policy
+     to give all hauling and wood contracts to the Indian instead of
+     the white man, and when I told the white who has been putting
+     in the wood that I was about to let the contract to the reds he
+     laughed and said, 'You can't get 'em to do that work!' But I
+     felt sure I could. I called them together and gave them fifty
+     axes and told them how much wood I wanted. A few days later I
+     thought I'd ride over to see how they were getting along. As I
+     drew near I heard the most astonishing click-clack of
+     axe-strokes, shouts, laughter, the falling of trees, and when I
+     came in sight I 'trun up both hands.' They had hundreds of
+     cords already cut--twice as much, it seemed, as I could use. I
+     begged them to stop, and finally got them to begin to haul. In
+     the end I was obliged to take sixty cords more than I needed.
+
+     "You cannot understand what a pleasure it is for me to see
+     ancient lies about these people destroyed by such experiences
+     as this. It was pathetic to me to find the Two Horns, the
+     Crawling Elk, and other proud old warriors toiling awkwardly
+     with their axes, their small hands covered with blisters; but
+     they laughed and joked about it, and encouraged each other as
+     if they were New-Englanders at a husking-bee. My days and
+     nights are full of trouble, because I can do so little for
+     them. If they were on tillable land I could make them
+     self-supporting in two years, but this land is arid as a
+     desert. It is fair to look upon, but it will not yield a living
+     to any one but a herder.
+
+     "Your attitude towards the so-called _savage_ races troubles me
+     more than I have any right to mention. The older I grow the
+     less certain I am that any race or people has a monopoly of the
+     virtues. I do not care to see the 'little peoples' of the world
+     civilized in the sense in which the word is commonly used. It
+     will be a sorrowful time to me when all the tribes of the earth
+     shall have cottonade trousers and derby hats. You, as an
+     artist, ought to shrink from the dead level of utilitarian
+     dress which the English-speaking race seems determined to
+     impose on the world. If I could, I would civilize only to the
+     extent of making life easier and happier--the religious
+     beliefs, the songs, the native dress--all these things I would
+     retain. What is life for, if not for this?
+
+     "My artist friends as a rule agree with me in these matters,
+     and that is another reason why your unsympathetic attitude
+     surprises and grieves me. I know your home-life has been such
+     as would prejudice you against the redman, but your training in
+     Paris should have changed all that. You consider the Tetongs
+     'good material'--if you come to know them as I do you will find
+     they are _folks_, just like anybody else, with the same rights
+     to the earth that we have. Of course, they _are_ crude and
+     unlovely--and sometimes they are cruel; but they have an
+     astonishing power over those who come to know them well.
+
+     "Pardon this long letter. You may call me a crank or any hard
+     name you please, but I am anxious to have you on the right side
+     in this struggle, for it is a struggle to the death. The
+     tragedy of their certain extinction overwhelms me at times. I
+     found a little scrap of canvas with a sketch of Peta on it--may
+     I keep it? My sister is quite well and deep in 'the work.' She
+     often speaks of you and we are both hoping to see you next
+     year."
+
+It was foolish for him to expect an immediate reply to this epistle, but
+he did--he counted the days which lay between its posting and a
+possible date for return mail. Perhaps, had he been in Washington,
+diverted by Congress, cheered by the Army and Navy Club, and entertained
+by his friends, he would not have surrendered so completely to the
+domination of that imperious girl-face; but in the dead of winter,
+surrounded by ragged, smoky squaws and their impatient, complaining
+husbands, with no companionship but his sister and Wilson, the love-sick
+clerk, his thought in every moment of relaxation went back to the
+moments he had spent in Elsie's company. Nature cried out, "It is not
+good for man to be alone," but the iron ring of circumstance held him a
+prisoner in a land where delicate women were as alien as orange blossoms
+or tea-roses.
+
+Outwardly composed, indefatigable, stern in discipline and judicial of
+report, he was inwardly filled with a mighty longing to see again that
+slim young girl with the big, black, changeful eyes. He made careful
+attempt to conceal his growing unrest from Jennie, but her sharp eyes,
+accustomed to every change in his face, detected a tremor when Elsie's
+name was mentioned, and her ears discovered a subtle vibration in his
+voice which instructed her, though she did not attain complete
+realization of his absorbing interest. She was sympathetic enough to
+search out Elsie's name in the social columns of the Washington papers,
+and it was pitiful to see with what joy the busy Indian agent listened
+to the brief item concerning "Miss Brisbane's reception on Monday," or
+the description of her dress at the McCartney ball.
+
+Jennie sighed as she read of these brilliant assemblages. "George, I
+wonder if we will ever spend another winter in Washington?"
+
+"Oh, I think so, sis--some time."
+
+"Some time! But we'll both be so old we won't enjoy it. Sometimes I feel
+that we are missing everything that's worth while."
+
+He did not mention Elsie's letter, and as the weeks passed without any
+reply he was very glad he had kept silence. Jennie had her secret, also,
+which was that Elsie was as good as engaged to Lawson. No one knew this
+for a certainty, but Mrs. Wilcox was quite free to say she considered it
+a settled thing.
+
+Jennie was relieved to know how indifferent her brother was to Miss
+Colson, the missionary, who seemed to be undergoing a subtle
+transformation. With Jennie she was always moaning and sighing, but in
+the presence of her lord, the agent, she relaxed and became quite
+cheerful and dangerously pretty. The other teachers--good, commonplace
+souls!--went their mechanical way, with very little communication with
+the agent's household, but Miss Colson seized every opportunity to
+escape her messmates. "They are so material," she said, sighfully; "they
+make spiritual growth impossible to me."
+
+Jennie was not deceived. "You're a cat, that's what you are--a nice,
+little, scared cat; but you're getting over your scare," she added, as
+she watched the devotee in spirited conversation with her brother.
+
+Elsie's reply to Curtis's long letter was studiedly cool but polite. "I
+feel the force of what you say, but the course of civilization lies
+across the lands of the 'small peoples.' It is sorrowful, of course, but
+they must go, like the wolves and the rattlesnakes." In this phrase he
+recognized the voice of Andrew J. Brisbane, and it gave him a twinge to
+see it written by Elsie's small hand. The letter ended by leaving
+matters very adroitly at an equipoise. It was friendlier than she had
+ever been in conversation, yet not so womanly as he had hoped it might
+be. As he studied it, however, some subtler sense than sight detected in
+its carefully compounded phrases something to feed upon, and though he
+did not write in answer to it, he had a feeling that she expected him to
+do so.
+
+Meanwhile the tone of the opposition grew confident. The settlers were
+convinced that Congress would accede to their wishes and remove the
+Tetongs, and they began to treat the redmen with a certain good-natured
+tolerance, as if to say, "Well, you'll soon be settled for, anyway."
+
+Calvin Streeter came often to the agency, and not infrequently stayed to
+dinner with Curtis, paying timid court to Jennie, who retained enough of
+her girlhood's coquetry to enjoy the handsome cowboy's open-eyed
+admiration, even though she laughed at him afterwards in response to her
+brother's jesting. Calvin vastly improved under the stress of his desire
+to be worthy of her. He caught up many of the Captain's nice mannerisms,
+and handled his fork and napkin with very good grace indeed. He usually
+came galloping across the flat, his horse outstretched at full speed,
+his hat-rim uprolled by the wind, his gay neckerchief fluttering, his
+hands holding the reins high--a magnificent picture of powerful young
+manhood. As he reached the gate it was his habit to put his horse on his
+haunches with one sudden, pitiless wrench on the Mexican bit and drop to
+the ground, and in dramatic contrast with his approach call out in
+smooth, quiet voice:
+
+"Howdy, folks, howdy! Nice day."
+
+These affectations pleased Jennie very much, though she finally
+complained of his cruelty in reining in his horse so sharply.
+
+"All right, miss, I won't do it no more," he said, instantly.
+
+He quite regularly invited them to the dances given round about, and
+Jennie was ready to go, but Curtis, being too deeply occupied, could not
+spare the time, and that debarred Jennie, though Calvin could see no
+good reason why it should. "I'll take care of you," said he, but the
+girl could not trust herself to his protection.
+
+His was not a secretive nature, and he kept Curtis very well informed as
+to the feeling of the settlers, reporting, as he did, their
+conversations as well as their speeches, with great freedom and
+remarkable accuracy.
+
+In this way the agent learned that the cattlemen had agreed to use
+caution in dealing with him. "He's a bad man to monkey with," was the
+sentiment Calvin reported to be current among the settlers on the West
+Fork. Young Crane's Voice also circulated this phrase, properly
+translated into Dakota, to his uncles Lame Paw and Two Horns, and so the
+tribe came to understand that they had a redoubtable defender in Swift
+Eagle, as they called the agent in their own tongue.
+
+From every source they heard good things of him, and they came to love
+him and to obey him as they had never loved and obeyed even their
+best-regarded chief. The squaws made excuse to come in and shake hands
+with him and hear his laughter, and the children no longer hid or turned
+away when he came near--on the contrary, they ran to him, crying "Hello,
+Hagent!" and clung to his legs as he walked. The old men often laid
+their arms across his shoulders as they jokingly threatened to pull out
+the hairs of his face, in order to make him a redman. His lightest wish
+was respected. The wildest young dare-devil would dismount and take a
+hand at pushing a wagon or lifting a piece of machinery when Curtis
+asked it of him.
+
+"If I only had the water that flows in these three little streams," he
+often said to Jennie, "I'd make these people self-supporting."
+
+"We'll have things our own way yet," replied Jennie, always the
+optimist.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CALLED TO WASHINGTON
+
+
+One day Curtis announced, with joyful face:
+
+"Sis, we are called to Washington. Get on your bonnet!"
+
+She did not light up as he had expected her to do. "I can't go, George,"
+she replied, decisively and without marked disappointment.
+
+He seemed surprised. "Why not?"
+
+"Because I have my plans all laid for giving my little 'ingines' such a
+Christmas as they never had, and you must manage to get back in time to
+be 'Sandy Claws.'"
+
+"I don't see how I can do it. I am to appear before the Committee on
+Indian Affairs relative to this removal plan, and there may be other
+business requiring me to remain over the holidays."
+
+"I don't like to have you away. I suppose you'll see Mr. Lawson and Miss
+Brisbane," she remarked, quietly, after a pause.
+
+"Oh yes," he replied, with an assumption of carelessness. "I imagine
+Lawson will appear before the committee, and I hope to call on Miss
+Brisbane--I want to see her paintings." He did not meet his sister's
+eyes as squarely as was his wont, and her keen glance detected a bit
+more color in his face than was usual to him. "You must certainly
+call," she finally said. "I want to know all about how they live."
+
+Many things combined to make this trip to Washington most pleasurable to
+the soldier. He was weary with six weeks of most intense application to
+a confused and vexatious situation, and besides he had not been East for
+several years, and his pocket was filled with urgent invitations to
+dinner from fellow-officers and co-workers in science, courtesies which
+he now had opportunity to accept; but back of all and above all was the
+hope of meeting Elsie Brisbane again. He immediately wrote her a note,
+telling her of his order to report at the department, and asking
+permission to call upon her at her convenience.
+
+It was a long ride, but he enjoyed every moment of it. He gave himself
+up to rest. He went regularly to his meals in the dining-car; he smoked
+and dreamed and looked out with impersonal, shadowy interest upon the
+flying fields and the whizzing cities. He slept long hours and rose at
+will. Such freedom he had known only on the trail; here luxury was
+combined with leisure. In Chicago a friend met him and they lunched at a
+luxurious club, and afterwards went for a drive. That night he left the
+Western metropolis behind and Washington seemed very near.
+
+As the train drew down out of the snows of the hill country into the
+sunshine and shelter of the Potomac Valley his heart leaped. This was
+home! Here were the little, whitewashed cabins, the red soil, the
+angular stone houses--verandaed and shuttered--of his native town. It
+was pleasant to meet the darkies swarming, chirping like crickets,
+around the train. They shadowed forth a warmer clime, a less insistent
+civilization than that of the West, and he was glad of them. They
+brought up in his mind a thousand memories of his boy-life in an old
+Maryland village not far from the great city, which still retained its
+supremacy in his mind. He loved Washington; to him it was the centre of
+national life.
+
+The great generals, the great political leaders were there, and the
+greatest ethnologic bureau in all the world was there, and when the
+gleaming monument came into view over the wooded hills he had only one
+regret--he was sorrowful when he thought of Jennie far away in the bleak
+valley of the Elk.
+
+It was characteristic of him that he took a cab to the Smithsonian
+Society rather than to the Army and Navy Club, and was made at home at
+once in the plain but comfortable "rooms of the Bug Sharps." He had just
+time to report by telephone to the Department of the Interior before the
+close of the official day. Several letters awaited him. One was from
+Elsie, and this he read at once, finding it unexpectedly cordial:
+
+     "My father is writing you an invitation to come to us
+     immediately. You said you would arrive in Washington on the
+     17th, either on the 11 A.M. train or the one at 3 P.M. In
+     either case we will look for you at 6.30 to dine with us before
+     you get your calendar filled with engagements. I shall wait
+     impatiently to hear how you are getting on out there. It is all
+     coming to have a strange fascination for me. It is almost like
+     a dream."
+
+This letter quickened his pulse in a way which should have brought shame
+to him, but did not. The Senator's letter was ponderously polite. "I
+hope, my dear Captain Curtis, you will be free to call at once. My
+daughter and Lawson--"
+
+At that word a chill wind blew upon the agent's hope. Lawson! "I had
+forgotten the man!" he said, almost aloud. "Ah! that explains her frank
+kindliness. She writes as one whose affections are engaged, and
+therefore feels secure from criticism or misapprehension." That
+explained also her feeling for the valley--it was the scene of her
+surrender to Lawson. The tremor went out of his nerves, his heart
+resumed its customary beating, steady and calm, and, setting his lips
+into a straight line, he resumed the Senator's letter, which ended with
+these significant words: "There are some important matters I want to
+talk over in private."
+
+A note from Lawson urged him to take his first breakfast in the city
+with him. "I want to post you on the inside meaning of certain
+legislation now pending. I expect to see you at the Brisbanes'."
+
+Curtis made his toilet slowly and with great care, remitting nothing the
+absence of which would indicate a letting down of military neatness and
+discipline. He wore the handsome undress uniform of a captain, and his
+powerful figure, still youthful in its erectness, although the lines
+were less slender than he wished, was dignified and handsome--fit to be
+taken as a type of mature soldier. He set forth, self-contained but
+eager.
+
+The Brisbane portico of rose granite was immensely imposing to a dweller
+in tents and cantonments, such as Curtis had been for ten years, but he
+allowed no sign of his nervousness to appear as he handed his overcoat
+and cap to the old colored man in the vestibule.
+
+As he started down the polished floor of the wide hall, stepping over a
+monstrous tiger-skin, he saw Elsie in the door of the drawing-room, her
+back against the folded portiere. Her slender figure was exquisitely
+gowned in pale-green, and her color was iridescent in youthful sparkle.
+He thought once again--"Evening dress transforms a woman." She met him
+with a smile of welcome.
+
+"Ah, Captain, this is very good of you, to come to us so soon."
+
+"Not at all," he gallantly replied. "I would have come sooner had
+opportunity served."
+
+"Father, this is Captain Curtis," she said, turning her head towards a
+tall man who stood within.
+
+Brisbane came forward, greeting Curtis most cordially. He was grayer
+than Curtis remembered him, and a little stooping from age. His massive
+head was covered with a close-clipped bristle of white hair, and his
+beard, also neatly trimmed, was shaped to a point, from the habit he had
+of stroking it with his closed left hand in moments of deep thought. His
+skin was flushed pink with blood, and his urbane manner denoted pride
+and self-sufficiency. He was old, but he was still a powerful
+personality, and though he shook hands warmly, Curtis felt his keen and
+penetrating glance as palpably as an electric shock.
+
+Lawson's voice arose. "Well, Captain, I hardly expected to see you so
+soon."
+
+As the two men clasped hands Elsie again closely compared them. Curtis
+was the handsomer man, though Lawson was by no means ill-looking, even
+by contrast. The soldier more nearly approached the admirable male type,
+but there was charm in the characteristic attitudes and gestures of the
+student, who had the assured and humorous manner of the onlooker.
+
+A young woman of indeterminate type who was seated in conversation with
+Mrs. Wilcox received Curtis with impassive countenance, eying him
+closely through pinch-nose glasses. Mrs. Wilcox beamed with pleasure,
+and inquired minutely concerning the people at the agency, and
+especially she wished to know how little Johnny and Jessie Eagle were.
+"I quite fell in love with the tots, they were so cunning. I hope they
+got the toys I sent."
+
+Brisbane gave Curtis the most studious attention, lounging deep in his
+big chair. Occasionally he ponderously leaned forward to listen to some
+remark, with his head cocked in keen scrutiny--actions which did not
+escape the Captain's notice. "He's sizing me up," he thought. "Well, let
+him."
+
+Elsie also listened, curiously like her father in certain inclinations
+of the head--intent, absorbed; only Lawson seemed indifferent to the
+news the agent guardedly recited.
+
+Brisbane broke his silence by saying: "I infer you're on the side of the
+redskin?"
+
+"Decidedly, in this connection."
+
+"Quite aside from your duty?"
+
+"Entirely so. My duty in this case happened to be my inclination. I
+could have declined the detail, but being a believer in the army's
+arrangement of Indian affairs, I couldn't decently refuse."
+
+Brisbane settled back into his chair and looked straight at his visitor.
+
+"You think the white man the aggressor in this land question?"
+
+Curtis definitely pulled himself up. "I am not at liberty to speak
+further on that matter."
+
+Mrs. Wilcox interrupted smilingly. "Andrew, don't start an argument now.
+Dinner is served, and I know Captain Curtis is hungry."
+
+Elsie rose. "Yes, papa, leave your discussion till some other time, when
+you can bang the furniture."
+
+Curtis expected to take Miss Cooke in to dinner, but Elsie delighted him
+by saying, "You're to go in with me, Captain."
+
+"I am very glad of the privilege," he said, with deliberate intent to
+please her; his sincerity was unquestionable.
+
+Curtis would have been more profoundly impressed with the spaciousness
+of the hall and the dining-room had they been less like the interior of
+a hotel. The whole house, so far as its mural decoration went, had the
+over-stuffed quality of a Pullman car (with the exception of the
+pictures on the walls, which were exceedingly good), for Brisbane had
+successfully opposed all of Elsie's new-fangled notions with regard to
+interior decoration; he was of those who insist on being masters in
+their houses as well as in their business offices, and Elsie's manner
+was that of an obedient daughter deferring to a sire who had not ceased
+to consider her a child.
+
+Seated at Elsie's right hand, with Mrs. Wilcox between himself and the
+head of the table, Curtis was fairly out of reach of Brisbane, who was
+dangerously eager to open a discussion concerning the bill for the
+removal of the Tetongs.
+
+Elsie turned to him at once to say: "Do you know, Captain Curtis, I
+begin to long to return to the West. All my friends are enthusiastic
+over the studies I made last year, and I've decided to go back next
+spring. How early could one come out?"
+
+"Any time after the first of May--in fact, that is the most beautiful
+month in the year; the grass is deliciously green then. I'm glad to know
+you think of returning. Jennie will also rejoice. It seems too good to
+be true. Will Mr. Lawson also return?"
+
+"Oh yes. In fact, I go to complete his work--to do penance for
+neglecting him last summer." And in her tone, he fancied, lay a covert
+warning, as though she had said: "Do not mistake me; I am not coming out
+of interest in you."
+
+He needed the word, for under the spell of her near presence and the
+charm of her smile, new to him, the soldier was beginning to glow again
+and to soften, in spite of his resolution to be very calm.
+
+She went on: "I am genuinely remorseful, because Mr. Lawson has not been
+able to bring his paper out as he had planned."
+
+"I will see that you have every possible aid," he replied,
+matter-of-factly. "The work must be done soon."
+
+"How handsome he is!" the girl thought, as she studied his quiet face.
+"His profile is especially fine, and the line of his neck and
+shoulders--" an impulse seized her, and she said:
+
+"Captain, I'd like to make a sketch of you. Could you find time to sit
+for me?"
+
+"That's very flattering of you, but I'm afraid my stay in Washington is
+too short and too preoccupied."
+
+Her face darkened. "I'm sorry. I know I could make a good thing of
+you."
+
+"Thank you for the compliment, but it is out of the question at present.
+Next summer, if you come out, I will be very glad to give the time for
+it. And that reminds me, you promised to show me your pictures when I
+came, and your studio."
+
+"Did I? Well, you shall see them, although they are not as good as I
+shall do next year. One has to learn to handle new material. Your
+Western atmosphere is so different from that of Giverney, in which we
+all paint in Paris; then, the feeling of the landscape is so different;
+everything is so firm and crisp in line--but I am going to get it!
+'There is the mystery of light as well as of the dark,' Meunnot used to
+say to us, and if I can get that clear shimmer, and the vibration of the
+vivid color of the savage in the midst of it--"
+
+She broke off as if in contemplation of the problem, rapt with question
+how to solve it.
+
+"There speaks the artist in you, and it is fine. But I'd like you to see
+the humanitarian side of life, too," he replied.
+
+"There is none," she instantly replied, with a curious blending of
+defiance and amusement. "I belong to the world of Light and Might--"
+
+"And I to the world of Right--what about that?"
+
+"Light and Might make right."
+
+"Your team is wrongly harnessed--Light and Right are co-workers. Might
+fears both Light and Right."
+
+Mrs. Wilcox, who had been listening, fairly clapped her hands. "I'm glad
+to have you refute her arguments, Captain. She is absolutely heartless
+in her theories--in practice she's a nice girl."
+
+Elsie laughed. "What amuses me is that a soldier, the embodiment of
+Might, should dare to talk of Right."
+
+Curtis grew grave. "If I did not think that my profession at bottom
+guarded the rights of both white men and red, I'd resign instantly. Our
+army is only an impartial instrument for preserving justice."
+
+"That isn't the old-world notion," put in Lawson from across the table.
+
+"It is _our_ notion," stoutly replied Curtis. "Our little army to-day
+stands towards the whole nation as a police force relates itself to a
+city--a power that interferes only to prevent aggression of one interest
+on the rights of another."
+
+Brisbane's big, flat voice took up the theme.
+
+"That's a very pretty theory, but you'll find plenty to claim that the
+army is an instrument of oppression."
+
+"I'll admit it is sometimes wrongly used," Curtis replied. "We who are
+in the field can't help that, however. We are under orders. Of course,"
+he added, modestly, "I am only a young soldier. I have seen but ten
+years of service, and I have taken part in but one campaign--a war I
+considered unavoidable at that time."
+
+"You would hold, then, that an officer of the army has a right to
+convictions?" queried Brisbane, in the tone of the lawyer.
+
+"Most certainly. A man does not cease to think upon entering the army."
+
+"That's dangerous doctrine."
+
+"It's the American idea. What people would suffer by having its army
+intelligent?"
+
+Lawson coughed significantly. "Bring forth the black-swathed
+axe--treason has upreared her head."
+
+It was plain that Brisbane was lying in wait for him. Curtis whispered
+to Elsie:
+
+"Rescue me! Your father is planning to quiz me, and I must not talk
+before I report to the department."
+
+"I understand. We will go to my studio after dinner." And with Lawson's
+aid she turned the conversation into safe channels.
+
+It was a very great pleasure to the young soldier to sit once more at
+such a board and in pleasant relation to Elsie. It was more than he had
+ever hoped for, and he surprised her by his ability to take on her
+interests. He grew younger in the glow of her own youth and beauty, and
+they finished their ices in such good-fellowship that Mrs. Wilcox was
+amazed.
+
+"We will slip away now," Elsie said, in a low tone to Curtis, and they
+both rose. As they were about to leave the room Brisbane looked up in
+surprise. "Where are you going? Don't you smoke, Captain? Stay and have
+a cigar."
+
+Elsie answered for him. "Captain Curtis can come back, but I want him to
+see my studio now, for I know if you get to talking politics he will
+miss the pictures altogether."
+
+"She has a notion I'm growing garrulous," Brisbane retorted, "but I deny
+the charge. Well, let me see you later, Captain; there are some things I
+want to discuss with you."
+
+"Grace, you are to come, too," Elsie said to her girl friend, and led
+the way out into the hall.
+
+Miss Cooke stepped to Curtis's side. "You've been in Washington
+before?" she asked, with an inflection which he hated.
+
+"Oh yes, many times. In fact, I lived here till I was sixteen. I was
+born in Maryland, not far from here."
+
+"Indeed! Then you know the city thoroughly?"
+
+"Certain sides of it. Exteriorly and officially I know it; socially, I
+am a stranger to it. My people were proud and poor. A good old family in
+a fine old house, and very little besides."
+
+Elsie led the way slowly up the big staircase, secretly hoping Miss
+Cooke would find it too cool for her thin blood. She wished to be alone
+with Curtis, and this wish, obscure as it was, grew stronger as she set
+a chair for him and placed a frame on an easel.
+
+"You really need daylight to see them properly."
+
+"Am I to make remarks?"
+
+"Certainly; tell me just what you think."
+
+"Then let me preface my helpful criticisms by saying that I don't know
+an earthly thing about painting. We had drawing, of a certain kind, at
+the academy, and I used to visit the galleries in New York when occasion
+served. Now you know the top and the bottom of my art education."
+
+"It's cold in here, Elsie," broke in Miss Cooke, whom they had quite
+forgotten. "Is the steam turned on?"
+
+"Wrap my slumber-robe around you," Elsie carelessly replied. "Now here
+is my completed study of Little Peta. What do you think of that? Is it
+like her?"
+
+"Very like her, indeed. I think it excellent," he said, with unaffected
+enthusiasm. "She was a quaint little thing. She is about to be married
+to young Two Horns--a white man's wedding."
+
+Elsie's eyes glowed. "Oh, I wish I could see that! But don't let her
+wear white man's clothing. She'd be so cunning in her own way of dress.
+I wish she had not learned to chew gum."
+
+"None of us quite live up to our best intentions," he replied, laughing.
+"Peta thinks she's gaining in grace. Most of the white ladies she knows
+chew gum."
+
+The pictures were an old story to Miss Cooke, who shivered for a time in
+silence and at last withdrew. Elsie and Curtis were deep in discussion
+of the effect of white man's clothing on the Tetongs, but each was aware
+of a subtle change in the other as the third person was withdrawn. A
+delicious sense of danger, of inward impulse warring with outward
+restraint, added zest to their intercourse. He instantly recalled the
+last time he stood in her studio feeling her frank contempt of him. "I
+am on a different footing now," he thought, with a certain exultation.
+It was worth years of hardship and hunger and cold to stand side by side
+with a woman who had not merely beauty and wealth but talent, and a
+mysterious quality that was more alluring than beauty or intellect. What
+this was he could not tell, but it had already made life a new game to
+him.
+
+She, on her part, exulted with a sudden sense of having him to herself
+for experiment, and every motion of his body, every tone of his voice
+she noted and admired.
+
+He resumed: "Naturally, I can say nothing of the technique of these
+pictures. My praise of them must be on the score of their likeness to
+the people. They are all admirable portraits, exact and spirited, and
+yet--" He hesitated, with wrinkled brows.
+
+"Don't spare me!" she cried out. "Cut me up if you can!"
+
+"Well, then, they seem to me unsympathetic. For example, the best of
+them all is Peta, because you liked her, you comprehended her, partly,
+for she was a child, gentle and sweet. But you have painted old Crawling
+Elk as if he were a felonious mendicant. You've delineated his rags, his
+wrinkled skin, his knotted hands, but you've left the light out of his
+eyes. Let me tell you something about that old man. When I saw him first
+he was sitting on the high bank of the river, motionless as bronze, and
+as silent. He was mourning the loss of his little grandchild, and had
+been there two days and two nights wailing till his voice had sunk to a
+whisper. His rags were a sign of his utter despair. You didn't know that
+when you painted him, did you?"
+
+"No, I did not," she replied, softly.
+
+"Moreover, Crawling Elk is the annalist and story-teller of his tribe.
+He carries the 'winter count' and the sacred pipe, and can tell you of
+every movement of the Tetongs for more than a century and a half. His
+mind is full of poetry, and his conceptions of the earth and sky are
+beautiful. He knows little that white men know, and cares for very
+little that the white man fights for, but his mind teems with lore of
+the mysterious universe into which he has been thrust, and which he has
+studied for seventy-two years. In the eyes of God, I am persuaded there
+is no very wide difference between old Crawling Elk and Herbert
+Spencer. The circle of Spencer's knowledge is wider, but it is as far
+from including the infinite as the redman's story of creation. Could you
+understand the old man as I do, you would forget his rags. He would loom
+large in the mysterious gloom of life. Your painting is as prejudiced in
+its way as the description which a cowboy would give you of this old
+man. You have given the color, the picturesque qualities of your
+subjects, but you have forgotten that they are human souls, groping for
+happiness and light."
+
+As he went on, Elsie stared at the picture fixedly, and it changed under
+her glance till his deeply passionate words seemed written on the
+canvas. The painting ceased to be a human face and became a mechanical
+setting together of features, a clever delineation of the exterior of a
+ragged old man holding a beaded tobacco-pouch and a long red pipe.
+
+"This old 'beggar,'" Curtis continued, "never lights that pipe you have
+put in his hands without blowing a whiff to the great spirits seated at
+the cardinal points of the compass. He makes offerings for the health of
+his children--he hears voices in the noon-day haze. He sits on the
+hill-top at dawn to commune with the spirits over his head. As a beggar
+he is picturesque; as a man, he is bewildered by the changes in his
+world, and sad with the shadow of his children's future. All these
+things, and many more, you must learn before you can represent the soul
+of the redman. You can't afford to be unjust."
+
+She was deeply affected by his words. They held conceptions new to her.
+But his voice pierced her, strangely subdued her. It quivered with an
+emotion which she could not understand. Why should he care so much
+whether she painted her subjects well or ill? She was seized with
+sudden, bitter distrust.
+
+"I wish I had not shown you my studies," she said, resentfully.
+
+His face became anxious, his voice gentle. "I beg your pardon; I have
+presumed too far. I hope, Miss Brisbane, you will not take what I say
+too much to heart. Indeed, you must not mind me at all. I am, first of
+all, a sort of crank; and then, as I say, I don't know a word about
+painting; please forget my criticisms."
+
+She understood his mood now. His anxiety to regain her good-will was
+within her grasp, and she seized the opportunity to make him plead for
+himself and exonerate her.
+
+"You have torn my summer's work to flinders," she said, sullenly,
+looking down at a bit of charcoal she was grinding into the rug beneath
+her feet.
+
+He was aghast. "Don't say that, I beg of you! Good Heavens! don't let my
+preachment discourage you. You see, I have two or three hobbies, and
+when I am once mounted I'm sure to ride right over somebody's garden
+wall." He rose and approached her. "I shall never forgive myself if I
+have taken away the smallest degree of your enthusiasm. My aim--if I had
+an aim--was to help you to understand my people, so that when you come
+out next summer--"
+
+"All that is ended now," she said, sombrely. "I shall attempt no more
+Indian work!"
+
+This silenced him. He took time to consider what this sudden depression
+on her part meant. As he studied her he saw her lip quiver, and anxiety
+suddenly left him. His tone was laughter-filled as he called: "Come,
+now, Miss Brisbane, you're making game of me by taking my criticisms so
+solemnly. I can see a smile twitching your lips this moment. Look at
+me!"
+
+She looked up and broke into a laugh. He joined in with her, but a flush
+rose to his face.
+
+"You fooled me completely. I reckon you should have been an actress
+instead of a painter."
+
+She sobered a little. "Really, I _was_ depressed for a moment. Your tone
+was so terribly destructive. Shall we go down?"
+
+"Not till you say you'll forgive me and forget my harangue."
+
+She gave him her hand. "I'll forgive you, but I'm going to remember the
+harangue. I--rather liked it. It made me think. Strange to say, I like
+people who make me think."
+
+Again his heart leaped with the blood of exultant youth. "She is coming
+to understand me better!" he thought.
+
+"You must see my other pictures by daylight," she was saying. "Mr.
+Lawson likes this one particularly." They had moved out into the little
+reception-room. "I did it in Giverney--we all go down sooner or later to
+paint one of Monet's pollard willows. These are my 'stunts.'"
+
+Lawson! Yes, there was the secret of her increasing friendliness. As the
+fiancee of Lawson she could afford to lessen her reserve towards his
+friend.
+
+And so it happened that, notwithstanding her cordial welcome and her
+respectful consideration of his criticism, he went away with a feeling
+of disappointment. That her beauty was more deeply enthralling than he
+had hitherto realized made his disquiet all the greater. As he stepped
+out upon the street, she seemed as insubstantial as a dream of his
+imaginative youth, far separated from any reality with which he had any
+durable association.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+CURTIS AT HEADQUARTERS
+
+
+Curtis was frankly exclamatory at the size and splendor of Lawson's
+apartments. He had accepted the invitation to take breakfast with him
+without much thought as to the quality of the breakfast or where it
+would be eaten, until he found himself entering the hall of a superb
+apartment hotel.
+
+"Why, see here, Lawson," he exclaimed, as he looked about his friend's
+suite, "this is too much for any bachelor--it's baronial! I must revise
+my judgments. I had a notion you were a hard-working ethnologic sharp."
+
+"So I am," replied Lawson, smiling with frank enjoyment of his visitor's
+amazement. "I've been at work two hours at my desk. If you don't believe
+it, there's the desk."
+
+The room was filled with books, cases of antique pottery, paintings of
+Indians, models of Pueblo dwellings, and other things in keeping, and
+was made rich in color by a half-dozen very choice Navajo blankets in
+the fine old weaves with the vegetable dyes so dear to the collector.
+The long table was heaped with current issues of the latest magazines,
+and dozens of books, with markers set to guard some valuable passages,
+were piled within reach. It was plainly the library of a student and man
+of letters.
+
+Lawson's lean, brown face at once assumed a different aspect to Curtis.
+It became more refined, more scholarly, and distinctly less shrewd and
+quizzical, and the soldier began to understand the writer's smiling
+defiance of Western politicians and millionaire cattle-owners. Plainly a
+man of large fortune, with high social connections, what had Lawson to
+fear of the mountain West? The menace of the greedy cattlemen troubled
+him no more than the howl of the blizzard.
+
+In the same measure that Lawson's power was revealed to him the heart of
+the agent sank. He could not but acknowledge that here was the fitting
+husband and proper home for Elsie--"while I," he thought, "have only a
+barrack in a desolate Indian country to offer her," and he swung deep in
+the trough of his sea of doubt.
+
+A map on the wall, lined with red, caught his eye, and he seized upon it
+for diversion.
+
+"What is this?" he asked.
+
+"That's my trail-map," replied Lawson. "The red lines represent my
+wanderings."
+
+Curtis studied it with expert eyes. "You have ploughed the Arizona
+deserts pretty thoroughly."
+
+"Yes, I've spent three summers down in that country studying
+cliff-dwellings. It's a mighty alluring region. Last summer I broke away
+and got back into the north, but I am greatly taken with the hot
+sunshine and loneliness of the desert."
+
+Curtis turned sharply. "What I can't understand, Lawson, is this: How
+can you pull up and leave such a home?"--he indicated the room with a
+sweep of his hand--"and go out on the painted desert or down the Chaco
+and swelter in the heat like a horned toad?"
+
+Lawson smiled. "It _is_ absurd, isn't it? Man's an unaccountable beast.
+But come! Breakfast is waiting, and I hope you're hungry."
+
+The dining-room was built on a scale with the library, and the mahogany
+table, sparsely covered with dishes, looked small and lonely in the
+midst of the shining floor. This feature of the beautiful room impressed
+Curtis, and as they took seats opposite each other he remarked, "If I
+were not here you would be alone?"
+
+"Yes, quite generally I breakfast alone. I entertain less than you would
+think. I'm a busy man when at home."
+
+"Well, the waste of room is criminal, Lawson, that's all I have to
+say--criminal. You'll be called upon to answer for it some time."
+
+"I've begun to think so myself," replied the host, significantly.
+
+They talked mountain ranges and Pueblo dwellers, and the theoretical
+relation of the mound-builders to the small, brown races of the Rio
+Grande Valley, touching also on the future of the redman; and all the
+while Curtis was struggling with a benumbing sense of his hopeless
+weakness in the face of a rival like Lawson. He gave up all thought of
+seeing Elsie again, and resolutely set himself to do the work before
+him, eager to return to his duties in the Western foot-hills.
+
+Lawson accompanied him to the Interior Department and introduced him to
+the Secretary, who had the preoccupied air of a business man rather than
+the assumed leisure of the politician. He shook hands warmly, and asked
+his visitors to be seated while he finished a paper in hand. At last he
+turned and pleasantly began:
+
+"I'm glad to meet you, Captain. Yours is a distinguished name with us.
+We fully recognize the value of your volunteer service, and hope to make
+the best use of you. Our mutual friend, Lawson here, threatens to make
+you Secretary in my stead." Here he looked over his spectacles with a
+grave and accusing air, which amused Lawson greatly.
+
+"Not so bad as that, Mr. Secretary," he laughed. "I merely suggested
+that Captain Curtis would make an excellent President."
+
+"Oh, well, it all comes to the same thing." He then became quite
+serious. "Now, Captain, I would suggest that you put this whole matter
+as you see it, together with your recommendations, into the briefest,
+most telling form possible, and be ready to come before the committee
+to-morrow. Confer with the commissioner and be ready to meet the queries
+of the opposition. Brisbane is behind the cattlemen in this controversy,
+and he is a strong man. I agree entirely with you and Lawson that the
+Tetongs should remain where they are and be helped in the way you
+suggest. Be ready with computations of the cost of satisfying claims of
+the settlers, building ditches, etc. Come and see me again before you
+return. Good-morning," and he bent to his desk with instant absorption.
+
+Lawson again led the way across the square in search of the
+commissioner's office. The large, bare waiting-room was filled with a
+dozen or more redmen, all wearing new blue suits and wide black hats.
+They were smoking in contemplative silence, with only an occasional word
+spoken in undertone. It was plain they were expecting an audience with
+the great white chief.
+
+Several of them knew Lawson and cried out: "Ho! Ho!" coming up one by
+one to shake hands, but they glowed with pleasure as Curtis began to
+sign-talk with them.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked of one. "Oh! Northern Cheyenne--I thought so.
+And you--you are Apache?" he said to another. "I can tell that, too.
+What are you all waiting for? To see the commissioner? Have you had a
+good visit? Yes, I see you have nice new suits. The government is good
+to you--sometimes." They laughed at his sharp hits. "Well, don't stay
+too long here. The white man will rob you of your good clothes. Be
+careful of fire-water."
+
+One old man, whose gestures were peculiarly flowing and dignified,
+thereupon signed: "When the white man come to buy our lands we are great
+chiefs--very tall; when we ask for our money to be paid to us, then we
+are small, like children." This caused a general laugh, in which Curtis
+joined. They all wanted to know who he was, and he told them. "Ah! we
+are glad for the Tetongs. They have a good man. Tell the commissioner we
+are anxious to council and go home--we are weary of this place."
+
+Lawson, meanwhile, had entered the office and now reappeared. "Mr. Brown
+will see you at once, Captain."
+
+The acting commissioner wore the troubled look of a man sorely
+overworked and badly badgered. He breathed a sigh of ostentatious relief
+as he faced his two visitors, who came neither to complain nor to ask
+favors. He studied Curtis contemplatively, his pale face set in sad
+lines.
+
+"I'm leaning on you in this Tetong business," he began. "I have so many
+similar fights all over the West, I can't give you the attention you
+deserve. It seems as though our settlers were insane over Indian lands.
+I honestly believe, if we should lay out a reservation on the staked
+plains there'd be a mad rush for it. 'The Injun has it--let's take it
+away from him,' seems to be the universal cry. I am pestered to death
+with schemes for cutting down reservations and removing tribes. It would
+seem as if these poor, hunted devils might have a thumb-nail's breadth
+of the continent they once entirely owned; but no, so long as an acre
+exists they are liable to attack. I'm worn out with the attempt to
+defend them. I'll have nervous prostration or something worse if this
+pressure continues. Yesterday nearly finished me. What kind of pirates
+do you raise out there, anyway?"
+
+Curtis listened with amazement to this frank avowal, but Lawson only
+laughed, saying, in explanation: "This is one of the commissioner's poor
+days. He'll fight till the last ditch--"
+
+"Irrigating ditch!" supplemented the commissioner. "Yes, there's another
+nightmare. Beautiful complication! The government puts the Indian on a
+reservation so dry that water won't run down hill, and then Lawson or
+some other friend of the Indian comes in here and insists on irrigating
+ditches being put in, and then I am besieged by civil engineers for
+jobs, and wild-eyed contractors twist my door-knobs off. Captain Curtis,
+keep out of the Indian service if you have any conscience."
+
+"That's exactly why I recommended him," said Lawson--"because he _has_ a
+conscience."
+
+"It'll shorten his life ten years and do no material good. Well, now,
+about this Tetong imbroglio."
+
+Immediately he fell upon the problem with the most intense application,
+and Curtis had a feeling that his little season of plain speaking had
+refreshed him.
+
+Lawson went his way, but Curtis spent the remainder of the day in the
+commissioner's office, putting together his defence of the Tetongs,
+compiling figures, and drawing maps to show the location of grass and
+water. He did not rise from his work till the signal for closing came,
+and even then he gathered his papers together and took them home to his
+room in the club in order to put the finishing touches to them.
+
+While dressing for his dinner with Lieutenant Kirkman, a classmate and
+comrade, he began to wonder how soon he could decently make his
+dinner-call on the Brisbanes. It was shameful in him, of course, but he
+had suddenly lost interest in the Kirkmans. The day seemed lost because
+he had not been able to see Elsie. There was a powerful longing in his
+heart, an impatience which he had not experienced since his early
+manhood. It was a hunger which had lain dormant--scotched but not
+killed--for now it rose from its mysterious lair with augmented power to
+break his rest and render all other desires of no account.
+
+That night, after he returned from the Kirkmans', where he had enjoyed
+an exquisite little dinner amid a joyous chatter reviving old-time
+memories, he found himself not merely wide-awake, but restless. His
+brain seemed determined to reveal itself to him completely. Pictures of
+his early life and the faces and homes of his friends in the West came
+whirling in orderless procession like flights of swift birds--now a
+council with the Sioux; now a dinner of the staff of General Miles;
+visions of West Point, a flock of them, came also, and the faces of the
+girls he had loved with a boy's fancy; and then, as if these were but
+whisks of cloud scattering, the walls of great mountain ranges appeared
+behind, stern and majestic, sunlit for a moment, only to withdraw
+swiftly into gray night; and when he seized upon these sweeping
+fragments and attempted to arrange them, Elsie's proud face, with its
+dark, changeful eyes and beautiful, curving lips, took central place,
+and in the end obscured all the rest.
+
+The Kirkman home, the cheer, the tenderness of the husband towards his
+dainty little wife, the obvious rest and satisfaction of the man,
+betokening that the ultimate of his desires had been reached, also came
+in for consideration by the restless brain of the soldier-mountaineer.
+"I shall never be at peace till I have wife and child, that I now
+realize," he acknowledged to himself in the deep, solitary places of his
+thought.
+
+Then he rose and took up the papers which he had been preparing, and as
+he went over them again he came to profounder realization than ever
+before of the mighty tragedy whose final act he seemed about to witness.
+His heart swelled with a great tenderness towards that fragment of a
+proud and free people who sat in wonder before the coming of an infinite
+flood of alien races, helpless to stay it, appalled by the breadth and
+power of the stream which swept them away. He felt himself in some sense
+their chosen friend--their Moses, to lead them out of the desolation in
+which they sat bewildered and despairing. Thinking of them and of plans
+to help them, he grew weary at last, his brain ceased to grind, and he
+slept.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+CURTIS GRAPPLES WITH BRISBANE
+
+
+The hearing took place at ten o'clock, but Curtis had opportunity for a
+little helpful consultation with Lawson before the chairman called the
+committeemen to order. The session seemed unimportant--perfunctory. The
+members sat for the most part silent, ruminating, with eyes fixed on the
+walls or upon slips of paper which they held abstractedly in their
+hands. Occasionally some one of them would rouse up to ask a question,
+but, in general, their attitudes were those of bored and preoccupied
+business men. They came and went carelessly in response to calls of
+their clerks, and Curtis perceived that they had very little real
+interest in the life or death of the redmen. He would have been
+profoundly discouraged had not the chairman been alert and his questions
+to the point. After his formal statement had been taken and the hearing
+was over, the chairman approached Curtis informally and showed a very
+human sympathy for the Tetongs.
+
+"Yes, I think we can hold this raid in check," he said, in answer to
+Curtis, and added, slowly, "I am very glad to find a man of your quality
+taking up this branch of service." He paused, and a smile wrinkled his
+long, Scotch face. "They accuse me of being a weak sentimentalist,
+because I refuse to consider the redman in the light of a reptile. I was
+an abolitionist"--the smile faded from his eyes and his thin lips
+straightened--"in days when it meant something to defend the negro, and
+in standing for the rights of the redman I am merely continuing my
+life-work. It isn't a question of whether I know the Indian or not,
+though I know him better than most of my critics; it's a question of his
+dues under our treaties. We considered him a man when we bought his
+land, and I insist he shall be treated the same now. I should like to
+hear from you--unofficially, of course--whenever you have anything to
+say. Lawson's testimony"--he laid a caressing hand on Lawson's
+shoulder--"is worth more to me than that of a thousand land speculators.
+He's a comfort to us, for we know he is disinterested, and has nothing
+to gain or lose in any question which concerns the reds, and we find
+very much the same about you, Captain Curtis, and I am determined that
+you shall have free hand."
+
+Curtis shook hands with the old man with a sense of security. Here, at
+least, was a senator of the old school, a man to be depended upon in
+time of trouble. He began also to realize Lawson's power, for he seemed
+to be the personal friend of every honest official connected with the
+department.
+
+As the two young men stepped out into the hall they came face to face
+with Elsie and her father.
+
+"Are we too late?" cried the girl. "Is the hearing over?"
+
+"My part of it is," answered Curtis--"at least for to-day. They may
+recall me to-morrow."
+
+Brisbane was visibly annoyed. "I didn't suppose you would come on till
+eleven; that's the word I got over the 'phone. I particularly wanted to
+hear your deposition," he added, sourly.
+
+"Papa has an idea your opposition to this bill is important," Elsie
+said, lightly, as Curtis edged away from Brisbane.
+
+Brisbane followed him up. "Well, now that your hearing is over, suppose
+you get into our carriage and go home with us to lunch?'
+
+"Please do!" said Elsie, with flattering sincerity.
+
+Curtis hesitated, and was made captive. "It is a great temptation," he
+said, looking at Lawson.
+
+Elsie saw him yielding and cried out: "Oh, you must come--and you, too,
+Osborne."
+
+Lawson was plainly defeated. "I can't do it. I have a couple of New York
+men to lunch at the club, and I couldn't think of putting them off."
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry; we would have made a nice little lunch party."
+
+"There are other days coming!" he replied, as lightly as possible.
+
+As they drove away Curtis had a premonition that his impending interview
+would be disagreeable, for Brisbane sat in silence, his keen eyes full
+of some sinister resolution. He was, in fact, revolving in his mind a
+plan of attack. He realized the danger of attempting to bribe such a man
+even indirectly, but a poor and ambitious soldier might be removed by
+gentler means, through promotion; and friendly pressure might be brought
+to bear on the War Department to that effect. Having set himself to the
+task of clearing the reservation of the Tetongs, a man of Brisbane's
+power did not hesitate long over the morality of methods, and having
+decided upon promotion as his method of approaching Curtis, the old man
+distinctly softened, and made himself agreeable by extending the drive
+and affably pointing out the recent improvements in the city. "Our
+Capitol is as good as any now," he said. "Our new buildings are up to
+the standard."
+
+The young soldier refused to be drawn into any blood-heating
+discussions, being quite content to sit facing Elsie, feeling obscurely
+the soft roll of the wheels beneath him, and absorbing the light and
+color of the streets. "This is my city," he said; "I spent my boyhood,
+here. I went to West Point from here."
+
+"It _is_ beautiful," replied Elsie, and at the moment a spark of some
+mysterious flame sprang from each to the other. They were young, and the
+air was soft and sweet. Thereafter everything gave the young soldier
+pleasure. The whistling of the darkies, the gay garments of the
+shoppers, the glitter of passing carriages, the spread of trees against
+the bright sky--everything assumed a singular grace. His courage rose,
+and he felt equal to any task.
+
+As they entered the big house Elsie said: "You're to come right up to
+the studio. I want to show you a canvas I finished yesterday. I had an
+inspiration--I think you brought it to me."
+
+As she led the way up the wide and splendidly carved stair-way the
+soldier's elation sank away, for each step emphasized the girl's pride
+and power, and by contrast threw the poor Indian agent into hopeless
+shadow. He hardly heard what she said, till she led him before her easel
+and said:
+
+"There is yesterday's work. I've been trying for days to get a certain
+effect of color, and, behold! I caught it flying this morning. What
+puzzles me in your country is the enormously high value of your earth in
+reference to the sky. The sky is so solid."
+
+As he took in the significance of the canvas Curtis exclaimed:
+
+"It is very beautiful. It is miraculous. How do you do it?"
+
+"I'm glad you like it. My problem there was to represent the difference
+in value between Chief Elk, who is riding in the vivid sunlight, and his
+wife and Little Peta, who are just in the edge of that purple
+cloud-shadow. The difference between white in sunlight and white in
+shadow is something terrific in your dry air. Contrasts are enough to
+knock you down. This gray, Eastern studio light makes all my sketches
+seem false, but I know they are not."
+
+"They are very true, it seems to me."
+
+"When I close my eyes and hark back to the flooding light of the valley
+of the Elk, then I can do these things; I can't if I don't. I have to
+forget all my other pictures. This is nearer my impression than anything
+else I've done."
+
+"It has great charm," he said, after a pause, "and it also reminds me of
+my duty. I must return at once to the West."
+
+"When do you go--actually?"
+
+"Actually, I leave to-morrow at three o'clock; unless I receive word to
+the contrary, to-morrow morning."
+
+"So soon? You are making a very short stay. Can't you remain over the
+holidays? Some friends of mine are coming on from New York. I'd like
+you to meet them."
+
+"I think I must return. Jennie is preparing to give her little 'Ingines'
+a Christmas-tree, and I am told that my 'Sandy Claws' would add greatly
+to their joy, so I am making special effort to reach there on the 23d."
+
+She looked at him musingly. "You really are interested in those ugly
+creatures? I don't understand it."
+
+"To be really frank, I don't understand your lack of sympathy," he
+replied, smiling a little. "It isn't at all feminine."
+
+She took a seat on the divan before she spoke again. "Oh, women are such
+posers. You think I am quite heartless, don't you?"
+
+"No, I don't think that, but I do think you are a little unjust to these
+people, whose thought you have made very little effort to comprehend."
+
+"Why should I? They are not worth while."
+
+"Do you speak now as an artist?" he asked, gravely.
+
+"But they are so gross and so cruel!"
+
+"I don't deny but they are, sometimes, both gross and cruel, but so are
+civilized men. The scalp-dance no more represents them than a bayonet
+charge represents us. It isn't just to condemn all for the faults of a
+few. You wouldn't destroy servant-girls because some of them are ugly
+and untidy, would you?"
+
+"The cases are not precisely similar."
+
+"I'll admit that, but the point is here: as an artist you can't afford
+to dispose of a race on the testimony of their hereditary enemies. You
+wouldn't expect a sympathetic study of the Greek by the Saracen, would
+you?"
+
+"It isn't that so much, but they are so perfectly unimportant. They have
+no use in the world. What does it matter if they die, or don't?"
+
+"Perhaps not so much to them; but to me, if I can help them and fail to
+do it, it matters a great deal. We can't afford to be unjust, for our
+own sake. The bearer of the torch should not burn, he should illumine."
+
+"I don't understand that," she said, genuinely searching for his
+meaning.
+
+"There is where you disappoint me," he retorted. "Most women quiver with
+altruistic passion the moment they see helpless misery. If you saw a
+kitten fall into a well what would you do?"
+
+"I should certainly try to save it."
+
+"Your heart would bleed to see it drown?"
+
+She shivered at the thought. "Why, of course!"
+
+"And yet you can share in your father's exterminating vengeance as he
+sweeps ten thousand redmen into their graves?"
+
+"The case is different--the kitten never did any harm."
+
+"The wrong is by no means all on the redman's side. But even if it were,
+Christ said, 'Love them that hate you,' and as a Christian nation we
+should not go out in vindictive warfare against even those who
+despitefully use us. I haven't a very high seat in the synagogue. I have
+a soldier's training for warfare, but I acknowledge the splendor of
+Christ's precepts and try to live up to them. I always liked Grant's
+position as regards the soldier. But more than that--I like these red
+people. They are a good deal more than rude men. It is a great pleasure
+to feel their trust and confidence in me. It touches me deeply to have
+them come and put their palms on me reverently, as though I were
+superhuman in wisdom, and say: 'Little Father, we are blind. We cannot
+see the way. Lead us and we will go.' At such times I feel that no other
+work in the world is so important. If human souls are valuable anywhere
+on earth they are valuable here; no selfish land-lust should blind us to
+see that."
+
+As he spoke, the girl again felt something large and sweet and powerful,
+like a current of electrical air which came out of wide spaces of human
+emotion and covered her like a flood. She was humbled by the high
+purpose and inexplicable enthusiasm of the man before her.
+
+"I suppose you consider me cruel and heartless!" she cried out. "But I
+am not to blame for being what I am."
+
+"If you are not free, who is? You have it all--youth, wealth, beauty.
+Nothing enslaves you but indifference."
+
+She was thinking that Lawson had never moved her so, and wishing Curtis
+were less inexorable in his logic, when he checked himself by saying: "I
+beg your pardon again. I came to see your pictures, not to preach
+forgiveness of sins. I here pull myself up short."
+
+"I think you could make me feel personal interest in brickbats or--or
+spiders," she said, with a quaint, relaxing smile. "You were born to be
+a preacher, not a soldier."
+
+"Do you think so? I've had a notion all along that I was a fairly good
+commander and a mighty poor persuader; what I don't intend to be is a
+bore." He rose and began to walk slowly round the walls, studying the
+paintings under her direction. He was struggling with obscure impulses
+to other and more important speech, but after making the circuit of the
+room he said, as though rendering a final verdict:
+
+"You have great talent; that is evident. What do you intend to do with
+it? It should help some one."
+
+"You are old-fashioned," she replied. "In our modern day, art is content
+to add beauty to the world; it does not trouble itself to do good. It is
+_un_moral."
+
+"Perhaps I _am_ a preacher, after all, for I like the book or picture
+that has a motive, that stands for something. Your conception of art's
+uses is French, is it not?"
+
+"I suppose it is; clearly, it isn't Germanic. What would you have me
+do--paint Indians to convince the world of their sufferings?"
+
+"Wouldn't that be something like the work Millet did? Seems to me I
+remember something of that sort in some book I have read."
+
+She laughed. "Unfortunately, I am not Millet; besides, he isn't the god
+of our present idolatry. He's a dead duck. We paint skirt-dancers and
+the singers in the cafes now. Toiling peasants are 'out.'"
+
+"You are a woman, and a woman ought--"
+
+"Please don't hand me any of that stupid rot about what a woman _ought_
+to be, and isn't. What I am I am, and I don't like dirty, ragged people,
+no matter whether they are Roman beggars or Chinese. I like clean,
+well-dressed, well-mannered people and no one can make me believe they
+are less than a lot of ill-smelling Indians."
+
+"Miss Brisbane, you must not do me an injustice," he earnestly
+entreated. "It was not my intention to instruct you to-day. I am
+honestly interested in your pictures, and had no thought of renewing an
+appeal. I was tempted and fell. If you will forgive me this time, I'll
+never preach again."
+
+"I don't say I object to your preachment. I think I rather like it. I
+don't think I ever met a man who was so ready to sacrifice his own
+interest for an idea. It's rather amusing to meet a soldier who is ready
+to knock one down with a moral war-club." She ended with a mocking
+inflection of voice.
+
+His face lost its eager, boyish expression. "I'm delighted to think I
+have amused you," he said, slowly. "It makes amends."
+
+"Please don't be angry," she pleaded. "I didn't mean to be flippant."
+
+"Your words were explicit," he replied, feeling at the moment that she
+was making a mock of him, and this duplicity hurt him.
+
+She put forth her sweetest voice. "Please forgive me! I think your work
+very noble, only I can't understand how you can exile yourself to do it.
+Let us go down; it is time for lunch, and papa is waiting for you, I
+know."
+
+It was unaccountable that a mocking tone, a derisive smile from this
+chance acquaintance, should so shake the soldier and so weaken him, but
+he descended the stair-way with a humiliating consciousness of having
+betrayed his heart to a fleering, luring daughter of wealth.
+
+At the door of the library the girl paused. "Papa, are you asleep?"
+
+The abrupt rustle of a newspaper preceded Brisbane's deep utterance.
+"Not at all--just reading the _Star_. Come in, Captain. Is lunch nearly
+ready?" he asked of Elsie.
+
+"I think so. They are a little late. I'll go see."
+
+As she left the room Brisbane cordially rumbled on. "Sit down, Captain.
+I'm sorry I missed your talk to-day. I am curious to know what your
+notion is about the Tetongs. Of course, I understood you couldn't go
+into the case the other night, but, now that your testimony is all in, I
+hope you feel free to give me your reasons for opposing our plan for a
+removal of the tribe."
+
+Curtis took a seat, while Brisbane stretched himself out in a big chair
+and fixed his cold, gray-blue eyes on the soldier, who hesitated a
+moment before replying, "I don't think it wise to go into that matter,
+Senator."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Well, we differ so radically on the bill, and your interests make it
+exceedingly difficult for you to be just in the case. Nothing would be
+gained by argument."
+
+"You think you know what my interests are?" There was a veiled sarcasm
+in the great man's smile.
+
+"I think I do. As a candidate for re-election to the Senate you can't
+afford to antagonize the cattle and mining interests of your State, and,
+as I am now officially the representative of the Tetongs, I sincerely
+hope you will not insist on a discussion of the motives involved." The
+young officer spoke firmly, but with impressive dignity and candor.
+
+Brisbane's ambiguous manner took a sudden shift to cordiality, and,
+leaning forward, he said:
+
+"Curtis, I like you. I admire your frankness. Let me be equally plain.
+You're too able a man to be shelved out there on a bleak reservation.
+What was your idea of going into the Indian service, anyway?"
+
+The young officer remained on guard despite this genial glow. "I
+considered it my duty," he replied. "Besides, I was rusting out in
+garrison, and--but there is no need to go into my motives. I am agent,
+and shall stand firmly for the right of my wards so long as I am in
+position to do so."
+
+"But you're wasting your life. Suppose you were offered a chance to go
+to--well, say West Point, as an instructor on a good salary?"
+
+"I would decline the appointment."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because at this time I am needed where I am, and I have started on a
+plan of action which I have a pride in finishing."
+
+Brisbane grew distinctively less urbane. "You are bent on fighting me,
+are you?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Curtis, though he knew.
+
+"You are dead set against the removal of the Tetongs?"
+
+"Most certainly I am!"
+
+Elsie re-entered the room during this rapid interchange of phrase, but
+neither of the men heard her, so intent were they upon each other.
+
+"Young man, do you know who you are fighting?" asked Brisbane, bristling
+like a bear and showing his teeth a little. Curtis being silent, he
+went on: "You're lined up against the whole State! Not only the
+cattlemen round about the reservation, but a majority of the citizens
+are determined to be rid of those vagabonds. Anybody that knows anything
+about 'em knows they're a public nuisance. Why should they be allowed to
+camp on land which they can't use--graze their mangy ponies on lands
+rich in minerals--"
+
+"Because they are human beings."
+
+"Human beings!" sneered Brisbane. "They are nothing but a greasy lot of
+vermin--worthless from every point of view. Their rights can't stand in
+the way of civilization."
+
+"It is not a question of whether they are clean or dirty, it is a
+question of justice," Curtis replied, hotly. "They came into the world
+like the rest of us, without any choice in the matter, and so far as I
+can see have the same rights to the earth--at least, so much of it as
+they need to sustain life. The fact that they make a different use of
+the soil than you would do isn't a sufficient reason for starving and
+robbing them."
+
+"The quicker they die the better," replied Brisbane, flushing with
+sudden anger. "The only good Injun is a dead Injun."
+
+At this familiar phrase Curtis took fire. "Yes, I expected that accursed
+sentence. Let me tell you, Mr. Brisbane, I never knew a redman savage
+enough to utter such a sentiment as that. The most ferocious utterance
+of Geronimo never touched the tigerish malignity of that saying. Sitting
+Bull was willing to live and let live. If your view represents
+civilization, I want none of it. The world of the savage is less cruel,
+less selfish."
+
+Brisbane's face writhed white, and a snarling curse choked his utterance
+for a moment. "If you weren't my guest," he said, reaching a clutching
+hand towards Curtis, "I'd cut your throat."
+
+Elsie, waiting in strained expectancy, cried out: "Father! What are you
+saying? Are you crazy?"
+
+Curtis hastily rose, very white and very quiet. "I will take care not to
+put myself in your way as guest again, sir."
+
+"You can't leave too quick!" roared the old man, his face twitching with
+uncontrollable wrath. "You are a traitor to your race! You'd sacrifice
+the settlers to the interests of a greasy red vagabond!"
+
+"Father, be quiet! You are making a scene," called Elsie, and added,
+sadly: "Don't go, Captain Curtis; I shall be deeply mortified if you do.
+Father will be sorry for this."
+
+Brisbane also rose, shaking with a weakness pitiful to see. "Well, sir,
+you can go, for I know now the kind of sneak you are. Let me tell you
+this, young man: you'll feel my hand before you are a year older. You
+can't come into my house and insult me in the presence of my daughter.
+Get out!" His hands were moving uncontrollably, and Elsie discovered
+with a curious pang that she was pitying him and admiring the stern
+young soldier who stood quietly waiting for an opportunity to speak. At
+last he said:
+
+"Miss Brisbane, I beg your pardon; I should not have said what I did."
+He turned to Brisbane. "I am sorry I spoke so harshly, sir. You are an
+older man than I, and--"
+
+"Never mind my age," replied Brisbane, his heat beginning to cool into
+self-contained malice. "I desire no terms of friendship with you. It's
+war now--to the knife, and the knife to the hilt. You think you are safe
+from me, but the man that lines up against me generally regrets it to
+the day of his death."
+
+"Very well, sir, I am not one to waste words. I shall do my duty to the
+Tetongs regardless of you or your friends." He turned to Elsie. "Miss
+Brisbane, I ask you to remember that I honestly tried to avoid a
+controversy."
+
+Six months before Elsie would have remained passive while her father
+ordered Curtis from the door, but now she could not even attempt to
+justify his anger, and the tears glistened on her lashes as she said:
+"Father, why can't you accept Captain Curtis's hand? These ragamuffin
+redmen aren't worth quarrelling about. No one ever went away from us
+like this, and it breaks my heart to have it so. Don't go, Captain
+Curtis. Father, ask his pardon."
+
+The old man turned towards her. "Go to your room. I will see that this
+young squirt finds the door!"
+
+Elsie shrank from the glare of his eyes. "Father, you are brutal! You
+hurt me."
+
+"Do as I say!" he snarled.
+
+"I will _not_!" She faced him, tall and resolute. "I am not a child. I
+am the mistress of this house." She turned and walked towards the door.
+"Captain Curtis, I beg _your_ pardon; my father has forgotten himself."
+
+Brisbane took a step towards Curtis. "Get out! And you, girl, leave the
+room."
+
+The girl's face whitened. "Have you no sense of decency?" she said, and
+her voice cut deep down into his heart and he flinched. "Captain Curtis
+is my guest as well as yours." She extended her hand. "Please go! It is
+best."
+
+"It is the most miserable moment of my life," he replied, as they moved
+down the hall, leaving Brisbane at the door of the study. "I will do any
+honorable thing to regain your good-will."
+
+"You have not lost it," she replied. "I cannot blame you--as I should,"
+she added, and the look on her face mystified him.
+
+"May I see you again before I leave for the West?"
+
+"Perhaps," she softly replied. "Remember he is old--and--"
+
+"I will try not to bear anger," he replied.
+
+And as he turned away it seemed that she had leagued herself with him
+against her own father, and this feeling deepened as she ran up the
+stairs heedless of the voice whose commands had hitherto been law to
+her.
+
+The young officer walked down the sunny avenue towards the White House
+with a curious feeling of having just passed through a bitter and
+degrading dream. He was numb and cold. Around him the little negro
+newsboys were calling the one-o'clock editions of the "_Styah_," and the
+pavements were swarming with public servants hastening to lunch,
+punctual as clocks, while he, having been ordered from the house of his
+host, was mechanically returning to his club.
+
+There was something piercingly pathetic in the thought of the good cheer
+he had anticipated, and the lost pleasure of sitting opposite Elsie
+made his heart ache. At the moment his feet stumbled in the path of
+duty. Surely he was a long way from the single-minded map-builder who
+had crossed the Sulphur Spring Divide.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+SPRING ON THE ELK
+
+
+Spring came early in that latitude, and Curtis was profoundly thankful
+that his first winter had proven unusually short and mild, for it
+enabled him to provide for his people far better than he had dared to
+hope. The rations were insufficient at best, and for several days of
+each alternate week the grown people were hungry as well as cold, though
+no one actually perished from lack of food. Beyond the wood contract and
+the hauling of hides each month there was very little work to be done
+during the winter, not enough to buy the tobacco the men longed for.
+
+They believed in Swift Eagle, however, for he visited every cluster of
+huts each month, and became acquainted with nearly every family during
+the winter. No agent had ever taken the like pains to shake the old
+women by the hand, or to speak as kindly to the old men who sat beside
+the fire, feeble and bent with rheumatism. The little children all ran
+to him when he came near, as if he were a friend, and that was a good
+sign, too. Some of the old chiefs complained, of course--there was so
+little else for them to do; but they did not blame the Little Father.
+They were assured of his willingness to do whatever lay within his
+power to mitigate their poverty. Jennie, who was often at the beds of
+those who suffered, had won wide acceptance of her lotions by an amused
+tolerance of the medicine-men, whose mystic paraphernalia interested her
+exceedingly. The men of magic came at last to sing their curious songs
+and perform their feats of healing in her presence. "Together we will
+defeat the evil spirits," they said, and the health of the tribe
+continued to be very good, in spite of unsanitary housing and the evil
+influence of the medicine-men. When the missionaries came to have the
+native doctors suppressed Curtis said: "My policy is to supplant, not to
+suppress."
+
+The bill which called for the removal of the Tetongs to another
+reservation was reported killed. The compromise measure for buying out
+the settlers was "hung up" in the committee-room, and this delay on the
+part of Congress exasperated the settlers beyond reason, and at a
+convention held early in April at Pinon City, Joseph Streeter brazenly
+shouted, "If the government does not remove these Injuns before the
+first of July we'll make it hot for all concerned," and his threat was
+wildly cheered and largely quoted thereafter as the utterance of a man
+not afraid of Congress or anybody else.
+
+Seed-time came without any promise of change, and the white settlers on
+the reservation went sullenly to their planting, and the cattlemen drove
+their herds across the boundaries upon the Tetong range as they had been
+doing for many years. "We are in for another season of it," they said,
+with the air of being martyrs in the cause of civilization.
+
+Curtis immediately sent warning commands to all the outside ranchers to
+keep clear of the reservation, and also notified Streeter, Johnson, and
+others of the settlers on the Elk and the Willow that their cattle must
+not be allowed to stray beyond certain lines, which he indicated. These
+orders, according to Calvin, made the settlers "red-headed as
+wood-peckers. They think you're drawin' the lines down pretty fine."
+
+"I mean to," replied Curtis. "You original settlers are here by right
+and shall have full opportunity to graze your stock, but those on the
+outside must keep out. I will seize and impound all stock that does not
+belong on this land."
+
+Calvin reported this statement to the outside men, and its audacity
+provoked the most violent threats against the agent, but he rode about
+unaccompanied and unarmed; but not without defence, for Calvin said to
+one of the loudest of the boasters, "The man who jerks a gun on Curtis
+runs a good chance of losing a lung or two," and the remark took effect,
+for Calvin had somehow acquired a reputation for being "plumb sassy when
+attack-ted."
+
+Curtis had the army officer's contempt of personal injury, and, in
+pursuance of his campaign against the invading stockmen, did not
+hesitate to ride into their round-up camps alone, or accompanied only by
+Crow Wing, and no blusterer could sustain his reputation in the face of
+the agent's calm sense of command.
+
+"I am not speaking personally," he said once, to an angry camp of a
+dozen armed men. "I am here as an officer of the United States army,
+detailed to special duty as an Indian agent, and I am in command of
+this reservation. It is of no use to bluster. Your cattle _must_ be kept
+from the Tetong range."
+
+"The grass is going to waste there," the boss argued.
+
+"That does not concern you. It is not the fault of the Tetongs that they
+have not cattle enough to fill the range."
+
+In the end he had his way, and though the settlers and ranchers hated
+him, they also respected him. No one thought of attempting to bribe or
+scare him, and political "pull" had no value in his eyes.
+
+Jennie, meanwhile, had acquired almost mythic fame as a marvellously
+beautiful and haughty "queen." Calvin was singularly close-mouthed about
+her, but one or two of the cowboys who had chanced to meet her with the
+agent spread the most appreciative reports of her beauty and of the
+garments she wore. She was said to be a singer of opera tunes, and that
+she played the piano "to beat the Jews." One fellow who had business
+with the agent reported having met her at the door. "By mighty! she's
+purty enough to eat," he said to his chum. "Her cheeks are as pink as
+peaches, and her eyes are jest the brown I like. She's a 'glad rag,' all
+right."
+
+"Made good use o' your time, didn't ye?" remarked his friend.
+
+"You bet your life! I weren't lettin' nothin' git by me endurin' that
+minute or two."
+
+"I bet you dursn't go there again."
+
+"I take ye--I'll go to-morrow."
+
+"Without any business, this time? No excuse but jest to see her? You
+'ain't got the nerve."
+
+"You'll see. I'm the boy. There ain't no 'rag' gay enough to scare me."
+
+It became a common joke for some lank, brown chap to say carelessly, as
+he rose from supper, "Well, I guess I'll throw a saddle onto my
+bald-faced sorrel and ride over and see the agent's sister." In reality,
+not one of them ever dared to even knock at the door, and when they came
+to the yards with a consignment of cattle they were as self-conscious as
+school-boys in a parlor and uneasy as wolves in a trap, till they were
+once more riding down the trail; then they "broke loose," whooping
+shrilly and racing like mad, in order to show that they had never been
+afraid. Calvin continued to call, and his defence of the agent had led
+to several sharp altercations with his father.
+
+The red people expanded and took on cheer under the coming of the
+summer, like some larger form of insect life. They were profoundly glad
+of the warmth. The old men, climbing to some rounded hill-top at dawn,
+sat reverently to smoke and offer incense to the Great Spirit, which the
+sun was, and the little children, seeing the sages thus in deep
+meditation, passed quietly by with a touch of awe.
+
+As the soft winds began to blow, the dingy huts were deserted for the
+sweeter and wholesomer life of the tepee, which is always ventilated,
+and which has also a thousand memories of battle and the chase
+associated with its ribbed walls, its yellowed peak, and its smouldering
+fires. The sick grew well and the weak became strong as they passed once
+more from the foul air of their cabins to the inspiriting breath of the
+mountains, uncontaminated by any smoke of white man's fire. The little
+girls went forth on the hills to gather flowers for the teachers, and
+the medicine-men, taking great credit to themselves, said: "See! our
+incantations again prevailed. The sun is coming back, the grass is
+green, and the warm winds are breathing upon the hills."
+
+"Ay, but you cannot bring back the buffalo," said those who doubted, for
+there are sceptics among the redmen as elsewhere. "When you do that,
+then we will believe that you are really men of magic."
+
+But the people did not respond cheerfully to Curtis when he urged them
+to plant gardens. They said: "We will do it, Little Father, but it is of
+no use. For two years we tried it, and each year the hot sun dried our
+little plants. Our corn withered and our potatoes came to nothing. Do
+not ask us to again plough the hard earth. It is all a weariness to no
+result."
+
+To Jennie, Curtis said: "I haven't the heart to push them into doing a
+useless thing. They are right. I must wait until we have the water of
+the streams for our own use."
+
+The elder Streeter was very bitter, Calvin reported. "But he ain't no
+idyot. He won't make no move that the law don't back him up in; but some
+o' these other yaps are talkin' all kinds of gun-play. But don't you
+lose any flesh. They got to git by me before they reach you."
+
+Curtis smiled. "Calvin, you're a loyal friend, but I am not a bit
+nervous."
+
+"That's all right, Captain, but you can't tell what a mob o' these
+lahees will do. I've seen 'em make some crazy plays--I sure have; but
+I'll keep one ear lapped back for signs of war."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+ELSIE PROMISES TO RETURN
+
+
+One beautiful May day Curtis came into the house with shining face.
+
+"Sis, our artists are coming back," he called to Jennie from the hall.
+
+"Are they? Oh, isn't that glorious!" she answered, running to meet him.
+"When are they to reach here? Whom did you hear from?"
+
+"Lawson. They can't come till some time in June, however."
+
+Jennie's face fell. "In June! I thought you meant they were coming
+now--right away--this week."
+
+"Lawson furthermore writes that he expects to bring a sculptor with
+him--a Mr. Parker. You remember those photographs he showed us of some
+statues of Indians? Well, this is the man who made the figures. His wife
+is coming as chaperon for Miss Brisbane."
+
+"She still needs a chaperon, does she?"
+
+"It would seem so. Besides, Mrs. Parker goes everywhere with her
+husband."
+
+"I hope she'll be as nice as Mrs. Wilcox."
+
+"I don't think Lawson would bring any crooked timber along--there must
+be something worth while in them."
+
+"Well, I am delighted, George. I confess I'm hungry for a message from
+the outside world; and during the school vacation we can get away once
+in a while to enjoy ourselves."
+
+The certainty of the return of the artistic colony changed Curtis's
+entire summer outlook. Work had dragged heavily upon him during February
+and March, and there were moments when his enthusiasm ebbed. It was a
+trying position. He began to understand how a man might start in his
+duties with the most commendable desire, even solemn resolution, to be
+ever kindly and patient and self-respecting, and end by cursing the
+redmen and himself most impartially. Misunderstandings are so easy where
+two races are forced into daily contact, without knowledge of each
+other's speech, and with only a partial comprehension of each other's
+outlook on the world. Some of the employes possessed a small vocabulary
+of common Tetong words, but they could neither explain nor reason about
+any act. They could only command. Curtis, by means of the sign language,
+which he had carried to marvellous clearness and swiftness, was able to
+make himself understood fairly well on most topics, but nevertheless
+found himself groping at times in the obscure caverns of their thinking.
+
+"Even after a man gets their thought he must comprehend the origin of
+their motives," he said to Wilson, his clerk. "Everything they do has
+meaning and sequence. They have developed, like ourselves, through
+countless generations of life under relatively stable conditions. These
+material conditions are now giving way, are vanishing, but the mental
+traits they formed will persist. Think of this when you are impatient
+with them."
+
+Wilson took a pessimistic view. "I defy the angel Gabriel to keep his
+temper if he should get himself appointed clerk. If I was a married man
+I could make a better mark; but there it is--they can't see me." He
+ended with a deep sigh.
+
+Curtis took advantage of Lawson's letter to write again to Elsie, and
+though he considered it a very polite and entirely circumspect
+performance, his fervor of gladness burned through every line, and the
+girl as she read it fell to musing on the singularity of the situation.
+He was in her mind very often, now; the romance and the poetry of the
+work he was doing began at last to appeal to her, and the knowledge that
+she, in a sense, shared the possibilities with him, was distinctly
+pleasurable. She had perception enough to feel also the force of the
+contrast in their lives, he toiling thanklessly on a barren, sun-smit
+land, in effort to lead a subject race to self-supporting freedom, while
+she, dabbling in art for art's sake, sat in a secure place and watched
+him curiously.
+
+"How well he writes," she thought, returning to his letter. His
+sentences clutched her like strong hands, and she could not escape them.
+As she read she drew again the splendid lines of his head in profile,
+and then, a sentence later, it seemed that he was looking straight into
+her eyes, grave of countenance, involved in some moral question whose
+solution he considered essential to his happiness and to the welfare of
+his people. Surely he was a most uncommon soldier. When she had finished
+reading she was sincerely moved to reply. She had nothing definitely in
+mind to say, and yet somehow she visualized him at his desk waiting an
+answer. "The worst of it is, we seem to have no topic in common except
+his distressing Indians," she said, as she returned to her work. "Even
+art to him means painting the redmen sympathetically."
+
+But he could not be put aside. He was narrow and one-sided, but he was
+sincere and manly--and handsome. That was the very worst of it; he was
+too attractive to be forgotten. Therefore she took up her pen again,
+being careful to keep close to artistic motives. She spoke of the
+success of her spring exhibition, and said: "It has confirmed me in the
+desire to go on valiantly in the same line. That is the reason I am
+coming back to the Tetongs. I feel that I begin to know
+them--artistically, I mean; not as you know them--and I need your
+blazing sunlight to drink up the fogs that I brought from Holland and
+Belgium. The prismatic flare of color out there pleases me. It's just
+the white ray split into its primary colors, but I can get it. I'm going
+to do more of those canvases of the moving figure blended with the
+landscape; they make a stunning technical problem in vibration as well
+as in values; and then the critics shout over them, too. I sold the one
+you liked so well, and also five portraits, and feel vastly encouraged.
+Owen Field was over from New York and gave me a real hurrah. I am going
+to exhibit in New York next fall if all goes well with me among the
+Tetongs."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+ELSIE REVISITS CURTIS
+
+
+Jennie thought her brother the handsomest man in the State as they
+walked up and down the station platform waiting for the express train
+which was bringing Elsie and Lawson and a famous Parisian-American
+sculptor and his wife. Curtis was in undress uniform, and in the midst
+of the slouching crowd of weather-beaten loafers he seemed a man of
+velvet-green parade grounds and whitewashed palings, commanding lines of
+polished bayonets.
+
+He was more profoundly stirred at the thought of Elsie's coming than he
+cared to admit, but Jennie's delight was outspoken. "I didn't know how
+hungry for a change I was," she said. "They will bring the air of the
+big city world with them."
+
+The whistle of the far-off train punctuated her sentences. "Oh, George,
+doesn't it seem impossible that in a few moments the mistress of that
+great Washington home will descend the car-steps to meet us?"
+
+"Yes, I can't believe it," he replied, and his hands trembled a little
+as he nervously buttoned his coat.
+
+The train came rapidly to a stop, with singing rods, grinding brakes,
+and the whiz of escaping steam. Some ordinary mortals tumbled out, and
+then the wonderful one!
+
+"There they are!" cried Jennie. "And, oh--aren't her clothes maddening!"
+
+Lawson, descending first, helped Elsie to the platform with an accepted
+lover's firm touch. She wore a blue-cloth tailored suit which fitted
+marvellously, and her color was more exquisite than ever. Admiring
+Jennie fairly gasped as the simple elegance of Elsie's habit became
+manifest, and she had only a glance for the sculptor and his wife.
+
+Elsie, with hands extended, seized upon them both with cordial
+intensity. A little flurry of hand-shakings followed, and at last Mr.
+and Mrs. Jerome Parker were introduced. He was a tall man with a bush of
+yellow beard, while she was dark and plain; but she had a pleasant
+smile, and her eyes were nice and quiet.
+
+"Do you know, I'm overjoyed to get back!" said Elsie to Curtis. "I don't
+know why I should be, but I've been eagerly looking for the Cleft Butte
+all day. Jerome will tell you that I expressed a sort of proprietorship
+in every prairie-dog."
+
+"We are very glad to have you here again," replied Curtis. "And now that
+you _are_ here, we must get your belongings together and get away. We
+are to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring."
+
+"A real camp?"
+
+"A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would be
+tiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp."
+
+"Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you."
+
+"Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it."
+
+"Then it will be _right_," said Lawson, who was beaming with placid
+joy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot in
+Alta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June."
+
+While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a few
+minutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboard
+out upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind.
+Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tall
+sculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took off
+her hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting.
+
+"Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month."
+
+"That's one thing the Tetong has--good, fresh air, and plenty of it,"
+said Lawson.
+
+"A thin diet, sometimes," Curtis replied. He turned to Elsie. "Your
+studio is all ready for you, and I have spoken to a number of the head
+men about you. You'll not lack sitters. They are eager to be
+immortalized at your convenience."
+
+"You are most kind--I am going to work as never before."
+
+"You mustn't work too hard. I have a plan for an outing. One of my
+districts lies up in the head-waters of the Willow. I propose that we
+all go camping up there for a couple of weeks."
+
+"Do you hear that, Osborne?" she called, turning her head.
+
+"I did not--what is it?"
+
+Curtis repeated his suggestion, and Parker shouted with joy. "Just what
+I want to do," he said.
+
+Curtis went on: "We'll find the redman living there under much more
+favorable conditions than down in the hot valley. We have a saw-mill up
+in the pines, and the ladies can stay in the superintendent's house--"
+
+"Oh no!" interrupted Elsie. "We must camp. Don't think of putting us
+under a roof." A little later she said, in a low voice: "Father is in
+Chicago, and expects to be out here later. I mean, he's coming to make a
+tour of the State."
+
+"How is his health?" Curtis asked, politely.
+
+Her face clouded. "He's not at all well. He is older than he realizes. I
+can see he is failing, and he ought not to go into this senatorial
+fight." After a pause she said: "He was quite ill in March, and I nursed
+him; he seemed very grateful, and we've been very good friends since."
+
+"I'm glad of that," he replied, and bent closely to his driving.
+
+"You drive well, Captain."
+
+"An Indian agent needs to be able to do anything."
+
+"May I drive?"
+
+"You will spoil your gloves."
+
+"Please! I'll take them off. I'm a famous whip." She smiled at him with
+such understanding as they had never before reached, as she stripped her
+gloves from her hands and dropped them at her feet. "Now let me take the
+reins," she said. He surrendered them to her unhesitatingly.
+
+"I believe you can drive," he said, exultantly.
+
+Her hands were as beautiful as her face, strong and white, and
+exquisitely modelled; but he, looking upon them with keen admiration,
+caught the gleam of a diamond on the engagement finger. This should not
+have chilled him, but it did. Then he thought:
+
+"It is an engagement ring. She is now fairly bound to Lawson," and a
+light that was within him went out. It was only a tiny, wavering flame
+of hope, but it had been burning in opposition to his will all the year.
+
+As she drove, they talked about the grasses and flowers, the mountain
+range far beyond, the camping trip, and a dozen other impersonal topics
+which did not satisfy Curtis, though he had no claim to more intimate
+phrase. She, on her part, was perfectly happy, and retained her hold of
+the reins and the whip in spite of his protest.
+
+"You must not spoil your beautiful hands," he protested; "they are for
+higher things. Please return the lines to me."
+
+"Oh no! Please! Just another half-hour--till we reach that butte. I'm
+stronger than you think. I am accustomed to the whip."
+
+She had her way in this, and drove nearly the entire afternoon. When he
+took the reins at last, her fingers were cramped and swollen, but her
+face was deeply flushed with pleasure.
+
+"I've had a delicious drive," she gratefully remarked.
+
+At the foot of a tall butte Curtis turned his team and struck into a
+road leading to the left. This road at once descended upon a
+crescent-shaped, natural meadow enclosed by a small stream, like a babe
+in a sheltering arm. All about were signs of its use as a
+camping-ground. Sweat lodges, broken tepee-poles, piles of blackened
+stones, and rings of bowlders told of the many fires that had been
+built. Willows fringed the creek, while to the south and west rose a
+tall, bare hill, on which a stone tower stood like a sentinel warrior.
+
+Elsie cried out in delight of the place. "Isn't it romantic!" Already
+the sun, sinking behind the hill, threw across the meadow a mysterious
+purple gloom, out of which a couple of tents gleamed like gray bowlders.
+
+"There is your house to-night," said Curtis. "See the tents?"
+
+"How tiny they look!" Elsie exclaimed, in a hushed voice, as though
+fearing to alarm and put them to flight.
+
+"They are small, but as night falls you will be amazed to discover how
+snug and homelike they can become."
+
+Two Horns came to meet them, and Parker cried out, "Hello! see the big
+Indian!"
+
+The chief greeted Lawson with a deep and hearty "Hah! Nawson--my friend.
+How! How!" And Lawson, with equal ceremony, replied, in Dakota:
+
+"I am well, my brother; how is it with you?"
+
+"My heart is warm towards you."
+
+Elsie gave him her hand, and he took it without embarrassment or
+awkwardness. "I know you; you make pictures," he said, in his own
+tongue.
+
+"Jerusalem, but he's a stunner!" said Parker. "Hello, old man! How you
+vass, ain't it?" and he clapped the old man on the shoulder.
+
+Two Horns looked at him keenly, and the smile faded from his face. "Huh!
+Big fool," he said to Lawson.
+
+"You mustn't talk to an Indian like that, Parker, if you expect to have
+his friendship," said Lawson. "Two Horns hates over-familiarity."
+
+"Oh, he does, does he?" laughed Parker. "Kind of a Ward McAllister,
+hey?"
+
+Lawson, a little later, said, privately: "That was a bad break, Parker;
+you really must treat these head men with decent respect or they'll
+hoodoo you so you can't get any models. Two Horns is a gentleman, and
+you must at least equal him in reserve and dignity or he will report you
+a buffoon."
+
+Parker, who had done his figures from models procured in Paris from
+Buffalo Bill's show, opened his eyes wide.
+
+"Lawson, you're joking!"
+
+"You'll find every word I tell you true. I advise you to set to work now
+and remove your bad impression from Two Horns, who is one of the three
+principal chiefs. You can't come out here and clap these people on the
+back and call 'em 'old hoss.' That will do in some of the stories you
+read, but realities are different. You'll find money won't command these
+people, either."
+
+"I thought they liked to be treated as equals?"
+
+"They do, but they don't like to have a stranger too free and easy. You
+haven't been introduced yet."
+
+While Crane's Voice attended to the teams, Jennie and Two Horns worked
+at getting supper. Their comradeship was charming to see, and the
+Parkers looked on with amazement. Two Horns, deft, attentive, careful,
+anticipated every want. Nothing could be finer than the perfectly
+cheerful assistance he rendered the pretty cook. His manner was like
+that of an elder brother rather than that of a servant.
+
+"I didn't suppose Indians ever worked around a camp, and especially
+with a woman," remarked Parker.
+
+"What you don't know about Indians is still a large volume, Parker,"
+retorted Lawson. "If you stay around with this outfit for a few weeks
+you'll gather a great deal of information useful for a sculptor of
+redmen."
+
+Elsie took Lawson mildly to task for his sharp reply.
+
+Lawson admitted that it made him impatient when a man like Parker opened
+his mouth on things he knew nothing about. "You never can tell what your
+best friend will do, can you? Parker is decidedly fresh. If he keeps on
+he'll become tiresome."
+
+Elsie presumed on her enormous experience of three months on the
+reservation, and gave Parker many valuable hints of how to wheedle the
+Tetongs in personal contact.
+
+"It seems I'm being schooled," he complained.
+
+"You need it," was Lawson's disconcerting reply.
+
+As night fell, and the fire began to glow in the cool, sweet dark with
+increasing power, they all sat round the flame and planned the trip into
+the mountains.
+
+"I have some Tetongs up there who are disposed to keep very clear of the
+agency. Red Wolf is their head man. You may all go with me and see my
+council with him if you like."
+
+"Oh! that will be glorious fun!" cried Elsie.
+
+But Parker asked, a little anxiously, "You think it safe?" which amused
+Curtis, and Parker hastened to explain: "You've no idea what a bad
+reputation these Tetongs have. Anyhow, I would not feel justified in
+taking Mrs. Parker into any danger."
+
+"She is quite safe," replied Curtis. "I will answer for the action of my
+wards."
+
+"Well, if you are quite sure!"
+
+"How far away Washington seems now!" remarked Elsie, after a silence. "I
+feel as if I had gone back to the very beginning of things."
+
+"It seems the end of things for the Tetongs," replied Lawson. "We forget
+that fact sometimes when we are anxious to have them change to our ways.
+Barring out a few rudenesses, their old life was a beautiful adaptation
+of organism to environment. Isn't that so, Curtis?"
+
+"It certainly had its idyllic side."
+
+"But they must have been worried to death for fear of getting scalped,"
+said Parker.
+
+"Oh, they didn't war much till the white man came to disturb them, by
+crowding one tribe into another tribe's territory. Their 'wars' were
+small affairs--hardly more than skirmishes. That they were infrequent is
+evident from the importance given small forays in their 'winter
+counts.'"
+
+One by one the campers began to yawn, and Jennie and Mrs. Parker
+withdrew into the tent reserved for the women, but Lawson and Elsie and
+Curtis still remained about the fire. The girl's eyes were wide with
+excitement. "Isn't it delicious to be a little speck of life in this
+limitless world of darkness? Osborne, why didn't we camp last year?"
+
+"I proposed it, but Mattie would not hear to it. I have a notion that
+you also put my suggestion aside with scorn."
+
+She protested that he was mistaken. "It is the only way to get close to
+these wild people. I begin to understand them as I sit here beside this
+fire. What do you suppose Two Horns is thinking about as he sits over
+there smoking?"
+
+As they talked, Lawson began to yawn also, and at last said: "Elsie Bee
+Bee, I am sleepy, and I know Curtis is."
+
+"Not at all," protested Curtis. "I'm just coming to myself. As the
+camp-fire smoulders the night is at its best. Besides, I'm in the midst
+of a story."
+
+"Well, I didn't sleep very well last night," began Lawson,
+apologetically. "I think--if you don't mind--"
+
+"Go to bed, Sleepy Head," laughed Elsie. "We'll excuse you."
+
+"I believe I will," and off he went, leaving the two young people alone.
+
+"Go on!" cried Elsie. "Tell me all about it."
+
+Curtis glowed with new fire at this proof of her interest. "Well, there
+we were, Sergeant Pierce, Standing Elk, and myself, camped in Avalanche
+Basin, which at that time of the year is as full of storms as a cave is
+of bats." A yelping cry on the hill back of them interrupted him. "There
+goes a coyote! Now the night is perfect," he ended, with a note of
+exultant poetry.
+
+She drew a little nearer to him. "I don't enjoy that cry as well as you
+do," she said, with a touch of delicious timidity in her voice. "That's
+the woman of it, isn't it?"
+
+"I know how harmless he is." After a pause, he slowly said: "This is the
+farthest reach of the imaginable--that you should sit here beside my
+fire in this wild land. It must seem as much of a dream to you as your
+splendid home was to me."
+
+"I didn't suppose these things could shake me so. How mysterious the
+world is when night makes it lone and empty! I never realized it before.
+That hill behind us, and the wolf--and see those willows by the brook.
+They might be savages creeping upon us, or great birds resting, or any
+silent, threatening creature of the darkness. If I were alone my heart
+would stand still with awe and fear of them."
+
+"They are not mysterious to me," he made answer. "Only in the sense that
+space and dusk are inexplicable. After all, the wonder of the universe
+is in our brains, like love, rather than in the object to which we
+attribute mystery or majesty. To the Tetong, the simplest thing
+belonging to the white race is mysterious--a button, a cartridge, a
+tin-plate. 'How are they made? What are they built for?' he asks. So,
+deeply considered, all nature is inexplicable to us also. We white
+children of the Great Ruler push the mystery a little further back, that
+is all. Once I tried to understand the universe; now I am content to
+enjoy it."
+
+"Tell me, how did you first become interested in these people?"
+
+He hesitated a little before he replied. "Well, I was always interested
+in them, and when I got out among the Payonnay I tried to get at their
+notions of life; but they are a strange people--a secretive people--and
+I couldn't win their confidence for a long time. One day while on a
+hunting expedition I came suddenly upon a crew of wood-choppers who had
+an old man tied to a tree and were about to burn him alive--"
+
+"Horrible! Why?"
+
+"No reason at all, so far as I could learn. His wife sat on the ground
+not far away, wailing in deep despair. What treatment she had suffered I
+do not know. Naturally, I ordered the men to release the old man, and
+when they refused I cut his bands. The ruffians were furious with rage,
+and threatened to tie me up and burn me, too. By this time I was too
+angry to fear anything. 'If you do, you better pulverize the buttons on
+my uniform, for the United States government will demand a head for
+every one of them.' Had I been a civilian they would have killed me."
+
+"They wouldn't have dared!" Elsie shuddered.
+
+"Such men dare do anything when they are safe from discovery--and there
+is always the Indian to whom a deed of that sort can be laid."
+
+"Did they release the old man?"
+
+"Yes; and he and his wife camped along with me for several days, and
+their devotion to me was pathetic. Finally I came to understand that he
+considered himself dead, so far as his tribe was concerned. 'My life
+belongs to you,' he said. I was just beginning the sign language at that
+time and I couldn't get very far with him, but I made him understand
+that I gave his life back to him. He left me at last and returned to the
+tribe. Thereafter, every redman I met called me friend, and patiently
+sat while I struggled to learn his language. As I grew proficient they
+told me things they had concealed from all white men. I ceased to be an
+enemy. I became an adviser, a chief."
+
+"Did you ever see the old man again?"
+
+"Oh yes. He was my guide on several hunting expeditions. Poor old Siyeh,
+he died of small-pox. 'The white man's disease,' he called it, bitterly.
+He wanted to see me, but when he understood that I would be endangered
+thereby, he said: 'It is well--I will die alone; but tell him I fold my
+hands on my breast and his hand is between my palms.'" The soldier's
+voice grew hard and dry as the memory of the old man's death returned
+upon him.
+
+Elsie shuddered with a new emotion. "You make my head whirl--you and the
+night. Did that determine your course with regard to them?"
+
+"Yes. I resolved to get at their hearts--their inner thoughts--and my
+commanders put me forward from time to time as interpreter, where I
+could serve both the army and the redman. In some strange way all the
+Northwest tribes came to know of me, and I could go where few men could
+follow me. It is curious, but they never did seem strange to me. From
+the first time I met an Indian I felt that he was a man like other
+men--a father, a son, a brother, like anybody else. Naturally, when the
+plan for enlisting redmen into the cavalry came to be worked out, I was
+chosen to command a troop of Shi-an-nay. I received my promotion at that
+time. My detail as Indian agent came from the same cause, I suppose. I
+was known to be a friend of the redman, and the department is now
+experimenting with 'Curtis of the Gray-Horse Troop,'" he added, with a
+smile. "Such is the story of my life."
+
+"How long will you remain Indian agent?"
+
+"Till I can demonstrate my theory that, properly led, these people can
+be made happy."
+
+"I am afraid you will live here until you are old," she said, and there
+was a note of undefinable regret in her voice. "I begin to feel that you
+really have a problem to solve."
+
+"It lies with us, the dominant race," he said, slowly, "whether the red
+race shall die or become a strand in the woof of our national life. It
+is a question of saving our own souls, not of making them grotesque
+caricatures of American farmers. I am not of those who believe in
+teaching creeds that are dying out of our own life; to be clean, to be
+peaceful, to be happy--these are the precepts I would teach them."
+
+"I don't understand you, and I think I would better go to bed," she
+said, with a return to her ordinary manner. "Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," he replied, and in the utterance of those words was
+something that stirred her unaccountably.
+
+"He makes life too serious, and too full of responsibility," she
+thought. "I don't like to feel responsible. All the same, he is fine,"
+she added, in conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+ELSIE ENTERS HER STUDIO
+
+
+Elsie, being young and of flamelike vitality, was up and ready for a
+walk while Two Horns was building the fire, and was trying to make him
+understand her wish to paint him, when Curtis emerged from his tent.
+
+"Good-morning, Captain," she called. "I'm glad you've come. Please tell
+Two Horns I want to have him sit for me."
+
+Curtis, with a few swift gestures, conveyed her wishes to Two Horns, who
+replied in a way which made Curtis smile.
+
+Elsie asked, "What does he say?"
+
+"He says, 'Yes, how much?'"
+
+"Oh, the mercenary thing!"
+
+"Not at all," replied Curtis. "His time is worth something. You artists
+think the redmen ought to sit for nothing."
+
+Two Horns ran through a swift and very graceful series of signs, which
+Curtis translated rapidly.
+
+"He says: 'I have heard of you. You painted Elk's daughter. I hear you
+sell these pictures and catch a great pile of money. I think it is right
+you pay us something when we stand before you for long hours, while you
+make pictures to sell to rich men in Washington. Now, I drive a team; I
+earn some days two dollars driving team. If I stop driving team, and
+come and sit for you, then I lose my two dollars.'"
+
+As he finished, Two Horns smiled at Elsie with a sly twinkle in his eyes
+which disconcerted her. "You sabbe?" he ended, speaking directly to her.
+
+"I sabbe," she said, in reply.
+
+"Good!" He held out his hand and she took it, and the bargain was
+sealed. He then returned to his work about the camp.
+
+"Isn't it glorious!" the girl cried, as she looked about her. "It's
+enough to do an artist all over new." The grass and the willows sparkled
+with dew-drops. The sky, cloudless save for one long, low,
+orange-and-purple cape of glory just above the sunrise, canopied a
+limitless spread of plain to the north and east, while the high butte to
+the back was like the wall of a temple.
+
+"Oh, let's take a run up that hill," Elsie said, with sudden change of
+tone. "Come!" and, giving Curtis no time to protest, she scuttled away,
+swift as a partridge. He followed her, calling:
+
+"Wait a moment, please!"
+
+When he overtook her at the foot of the first incline she was
+breathless, but her eyes were joyous as a child's and her cheeks were
+glowing.
+
+"Let me help you," he said; "and if you slip, don't put your hand on the
+ground; that is the way men get snake-bitten."
+
+"Snakes!" She stopped short. "I forgot--are there rattlesnakes here?"
+
+"There is always danger on the sunny side of these buttes at this time
+of the year, especially where the rocks crop out."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"You didn't give me time."
+
+"Do you really think there is danger?"
+
+"Not if you walk slowly and follow me; I'll draw their poison. After
+they bite me they'll have no virus left for you."
+
+She began to smile roguishly. "You are tired--you want an excuse to
+rest."
+
+"If I thought you meant that, I'd run up to the summit and back again to
+show you that I'm younger than my years."
+
+She clapped her hands. "Do it! It will be like the knight in the
+story--the glove-and-lion story."
+
+"No. On reflection, I will not run; it would compromise my dignity. We
+will climb soberly, side by side, like Darby and Joan on the hill of
+life."
+
+With a demure countenance she took his hand, and they scrambled briskly
+up the slope. When they reached the brow of the hill she was fairly done
+up, while he, breathing easily, showed little fatigue, although she had
+felt his powerful arm sustaining her many times on the steeper slopes.
+She could not speak, and he smilingly said, "I hope I haven't hurried
+you?"
+
+"You--are--strong," she admitted, brokenly. "I'm not tired, but I can't
+get breath."
+
+At length they reached the summit and looked about. "What is the meaning
+of those little towers of stone?" she asked, after a moment's rest.
+
+"Oh, they have different meanings. Sometimes they locate the springs of
+water, sometimes they indicate the course of a trail. This one was put
+here by a young fellow to mark the spot from whence he saw a famous herd
+of buffalo--what time he made a wonderful killing."
+
+"I suppose all this land has been the hunting-ground of these people for
+ages. Do you suppose they had names for hills like this, and were fond
+of them like white people?"
+
+"Certainly. They had a geography of their own as complete in its way as
+ours, and they are wonderfully sure of direction even now. They seldom
+make a mistake in the correlative positions of streams or mountains,
+even when confused by a white man's map."
+
+"It _is_ wonderful, isn't it--that they should have lived here all those
+years without knowing or caring for the white man's world?"
+
+"They don't care for it now--but I see Two Horns signalling that
+breakfast is ready, so we had better go."
+
+"Let's run down!"
+
+"Wait!" He caught her. "It will lame you frightfully, I warn you."
+
+"Oh no, it won't."
+
+"Very well, experience is a fine school. If you must run down, we'll go
+down the shadowed side. Now I'll let you get half-way down and beat you
+in, after all. One, two, three--go!"
+
+With her skirt caught up in her hand, she started down the hill in
+reckless flight. She heard his shout and the thud of his prodigious
+leaps, and just as she reached the level he overtook her and
+relentlessly left her far behind. Discouraged and panting, she fell
+into a walk and waited for him to return, as she knew he would.
+
+"Oh, these skirts!" she said, resentfully. "What chance has a woman with
+yards of cloth binding her? I nearly tumbled headlong."
+
+He did not make her suffer for her defeat, and they returned to camp gay
+as a couple of children. Lawson smiled benevolently, like an aged uncle,
+while Elsie told him of their climb. Said he: "When you're as old as I
+am you will wait for wonders to come your way; you will not seek them."
+
+The breakfast was made merry by Jennie, who waged gentle warfare on
+Parker, whose preconceived ideas of the people resident on an Indian
+reservation had been shaken.
+
+"Why, you're very decent," he admitted at last.
+
+"They are all like us--nit," replied Jennie. "We're marked 'special.'"
+
+"Couldn't be any more like you, sis," said Curtis.
+
+"_You_ shouldn't say that."
+
+"Well, it needed saying, and no one else seemed ready to do it. If
+Calvin had been here!"
+
+"Who is Calvin?" asked Mrs. Parker.
+
+"I know!" cried Elsie. "He's one of the handsomest young cowboys you
+ever saw. If you want to do a cow-puncher, Parker, he's your model."
+
+"I certainly must see him. If I don't do a cowboy or a bucking bronco
+I'm a failure."
+
+As they were ready to start, Elsie again took her place beside Curtis,
+but Lawson insisted on sitting behind with Jennie. "It's hard luck,
+Parker, to have to sit with your wife," he said, compassionately.
+
+"Oh, well! I'm used to disappointments," Parker replied, in resigned
+calm.
+
+Elsie felt the need of justifying herself. "Are you complaining? Am I
+the assistant driver, or am I not? If I am, here is where I belong."
+
+"When I was coaching in Scotland once--" began Lawson.
+
+"Oh, never mind Scotland!" interrupted Elsie. "See that chain of peaks?
+Aren't they gorgeous! Do we camp there?"
+
+"Yes," replied Curtis. "Just where that fan-shaped belt of timber
+begins, I hope to set our tent. The agency is just between those dark
+ridges."
+
+"It is strange," Elsie said, after a pause. "Last year I was _wondering_
+at everything; now I am looking for familiar things."
+
+"That is the second stage," he answered. "The third will be sympathy."
+
+"What will the fourth be?"
+
+"Affection."
+
+"And the fifth?"
+
+"Devotion."
+
+She laughed. "You place too high a value on your Western land."
+
+"I admit there is to me great charm in these barren foot-hills and the
+great divide they lead up to," he soberly answered.
+
+As they talked, the swift little horses drummed along the hard road, and
+by the time the agency flag-pole came in view they had passed over their
+main points of difference, and were chatting gayly on topics not
+controversial. Elsie was taking her turn with the reins, her face
+flushed with the joy and excitement of it, while Jennie and Mrs.
+Parker, shrieking with pretended fear, clung to their seats with
+frenzied clasp.
+
+Curtis was as merry as a boy, and his people, seeing him come in smiling
+and alert, looked at each other in amazement, and Crow Wing said:
+
+"Our Little Father has found a squaw at last."
+
+Whereas, as her lover, Curtis had been careful to consider the effect of
+every word, he now went to Elsie's service as frankly as Lawson himself,
+and his thoughtfulness touched her deeply. Her old studio had been put
+in order, and contained all needful furniture, and her sleeping
+apartment looked very clean and very comfortable indeed.
+
+Jennie apologized. "Of course, it's like camping compared to your own
+splendid home, but George said you wouldn't mind that, being an artist.
+He has an idea an artist can sleep in a palace one night and a pigsty
+the next, and rejoice."
+
+"He isn't so very far wrong," Elsie valiantly replied. "Of course, the
+pigsty is a little bit extreme. This is good enough for any one. You are
+very kind," she added, softly. "It was good of him to take so much
+trouble."
+
+"George is the best man I ever knew," replied Jennie. "That's why I've
+never been able to leave him for any other man." She smiled shrewdly.
+"I'll admit that eligible men have been scarce, and my chances have been
+few. Well, I must run across and look after dinner. You're to eat with
+us till you get settled. _We_ insist on being hosts this time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Surely," said Curtis, as they rose from the table, "being Indian agent
+is not the grim, vexatious experience I once considered it. If the charm
+of such company should get reckoned in as one of the perquisites of the
+office, the crush of applicants would thicken into a riot. I find it
+hard to return to my work in the office."
+
+"Don't be hasty; we may turn out to be nuisances," responded Elsie.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE CAMP AMONG THE ROSES
+
+
+During the remainder of the day the agent found office work most
+difficult. His mind wandered to other and pleasanter things, and at last
+he began to make out a list of the necessaries for the camping trip.
+
+The next day, about four o'clock, Crow Wing and Crawling Elk came into
+his office bringing a young Tetong, who said he had been struck on the
+head by a sheep-herder.
+
+Curtis was instantly alert. "Sit down--all of you!" he commanded. "Now,
+Yellow Hand, tell your story."
+
+Yellow Hand, a tall and sinister-looking fellow, related his adventure
+sullenly. "I was riding the line of the reservation, as Crawling Elk had
+told me and as you commanded, when I came upon this sheep-man driving
+his flocks across the river. I hollered to him to keep away, but he kept
+on pushing the sheep into the river; then I tried to drive them back.
+This made him angry and he threw a rock at me, and struck me here." He
+touched his bandaged head. "I had no gun, so I came away."
+
+"Did you throw rocks at him?" asked Curtis.
+
+"No, I was on my horse."
+
+"You rode among his sheep?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, that was wrong. You should have reported to me and I would have
+sent a policeman. You must not make trouble with these men. Come to me
+or report to Grayman, your head man over there. The ranchers are angry
+at Washington, and we must be careful not to make them angry at us. I
+will send Crow back with you and he will remove this man."
+
+As they went out Curtis said to Wilson: "This is the second assault they
+have made on our boys. They seem determined to involve us in a shooting
+scrape, in order to influence Congress. We must be very careful. I am
+afraid I ought not to take this camping trip just now."
+
+"Don't put too much importance on these little scraps, Major. Yellow
+Hand is always getting into trouble. He's quarrelsome."
+
+"I'd disarm a few of these reckless young fellows if it would do any
+good."
+
+"It wouldn't. They'd simply borrow a gun of some one, and it won't do to
+disarm the whole tribe, for if you do these cowboys will swarm in here
+and run us all out."
+
+"Well, caution every one to be careful. I'm particularly anxious just
+now, on account of our visitors."
+
+"I don't think you need to be, Major. You take your trip with your
+friends. I'll guarantee nothing serious happens down here. And as you
+are not to leave the reservation, I don't see as the department can have
+any roar coming."
+
+Nevertheless, it was with some misgiving that Curtis made his final
+arrangements for the start. Crane's Voice and Two Horns had interested
+Elsie very much; therefore he filled their places with other men, and
+notified them to be in readiness to accompany the expedition, an order
+which pleased them mightily. Mary, the mother of Crane's Voice, was to
+go along as chief cook, under Jennie's direction, while Two Horns took
+general charge of the camp.
+
+Elsie burdened herself with canvases. "I don't suppose I'll paint a
+picture while I'm gone, but I'm going to make a bluff at it on the
+start," she said, as she came out and took her place with the driver
+amid the mock lamentations of Lawson and Parker and Jennie.
+
+"Can any of you drive--no!" replied Elsie, in German fashion. "Then I am
+here."
+
+"I like her impudence," said Lawson.
+
+As they drove up the valley, Curtis outlined his plan for using the
+water on a huge agency garden. "I would lay it out in lots and mark
+every lot with the name of a family, and require it to be planted and
+taken care of by that family. There are sites for three such gardens,
+enough to feed the entire tribe, but so long as a few white men are
+allowed to use up all the water nothing can be done but continue to feed
+the Tetongs in idleness, as we are now doing."
+
+As they rose the grass grew greener, and at last Elsie began to discover
+wild roses growing low in damp places, and at noon, when they stopped
+for lunch, they were able to eat in the shade of a murmuring aspen, with
+wild flowers all about them. The stream was swift and cold and clear,
+hardly to be classed with the turbid, sluggish, discouraged current
+which seeped past the agency.
+
+"It is a different world up here," Elsie said, again and again. "I can't
+believe we are only a half-day's drive from the agency. I never saw more
+delicious greens."
+
+Mrs. Parker, being an amateur botanist, was filled with delight of the
+thickening flowers. "It is exactly as if we had begun in August and were
+moving backward towards spring. I feel as though violets were near. It
+is positively enchanting."
+
+"You'll camp beside violets to-night," replied Curtis.
+
+Lawson pretended to sleep. Parker smoked a pipe while striding along
+behind the wagon. Elsie drove, and of course Curtis could not leave her
+to guide the team alone. Necessarily, they talked freely on many topics,
+and all restraint, all reserve, were away at last. It is difficult to
+hold a formal and carefully considered conversation in a jolting
+buckboard climbing towards a great range of shining peaks, and every
+frank speech brought them into friendlier relation. Considered in this
+light, the afternoon assumed vast importance.
+
+At last, just on the edge of a small lake entirely enclosed by sparse
+pines, they drew into camp. To the west the top of a snow mountain could
+be seen, low down, and against it a thin column of blue smoke was
+rising. The water, dark as topaz and smooth as oil, reflected the
+opposite shore, the yellow sky, and the peak with magic clearness, and
+Elsie was seized with a desire to do something.
+
+"Where is my paint-box? Here is the background for some action--I don't
+know what--something primeval."
+
+"An Indian in a canoe, _a la_ Brush; or a bear coming down to drink, _a
+la_ Bierstadt," suggested Parker.
+
+"Don't mention that old fogy," cried Elsie.
+
+Lawson interposed. "Well, now, those old chaps had something to say--and
+that's better than your modern Frenchmen do."
+
+She was soon at work, with Lawson and Parker standing by her side,
+overlooking her panel and offering advice.
+
+"There's no color in that," Parker said, finally. "It's a
+black-and-white merely. Its charm is in things you can't paint--the feel
+of the air, the smell of pine boughs."
+
+"Go away--both of you," she commanded, curtly, and they retreated to the
+camp, where Curtis was setting the tents, and Jennie, old Mary, and Two
+Horns, with swift and harmonious action, were bringing appetizing odors
+out of various cans and boxes, what time the crackle of the fire
+increased to a gentle roar. There they sat immovably, shamelessly
+waiting till the call for supper came.
+
+They were all hungry, and Jennie's cooking received such praise as comes
+from friends who speak and devour--Parker nearly devoured without
+speaking, so lank and empty was he by reason of his long walk. Elsie
+seemed to have forgotten her life of luxury, and was reverted to a
+primitive stage of culture wherein she found everything enjoyable. Her
+sketch, propped up against a basket by Curtis, was admired unreservedly.
+Altogether, the trouble and toil of civilized life were forgotten
+tyrants, so far as these few souls were concerned. They came close to
+the peace and the care-free tranquillity of the redman, whose ideals
+they had come to destroy.
+
+As soon as supper was eaten and the men had lighted their cigars, the
+whole party walked out to the edge of the little pond and lounged about
+on blankets, and watched the light go out of the sky. Talk grew more
+subdued as the beauty and the mystery of the night deepened. Elsie
+listened to every sound, and asked innumerable questions of Curtis. She
+insisted on knowing the name of every bird or beast whose call could be
+heard. The young soldier's wood-craft both pleased and astonished her.
+Mrs. Parker, with her lap full of botanical specimens, was absorbed in
+the work of classifying them. Parker was a gentleman of leisure, with
+nothing to do but watch the peaceful coming of the dusk and comment
+largely on the universe.
+
+It was natural that, as host, Curtis should enjoy a large part of
+Elsie's company, but neither of them seemed to realize that Lawson was
+being left quite unheeded in the background, but Jennie was aware of
+this neglect, and put forth skilful effort to break the force of it.
+Lawson himself seemed to be entirely unconscious of any loss or
+threatening disaster.
+
+A little later, as they sat watching the fire grow in power in the
+deepening darkness, Curtis suddenly lifted his hand.
+
+"Hark!"
+
+All listened. Two Horns spoke first. "One man come, on horse."
+
+"Some messenger for me, probably," said the Captain, composedly. "He is
+coming fast, too."
+
+As the steady drumming of the horse's hoofs increased in power, Elsie
+felt something chill creep beneath the roots of her hair. Perhaps the
+Indians had broken out in war against the whites! Perhaps--
+
+A tall young Tetong slipped from his tired horse and approached the
+Captain. In his extended hand lay an envelope, which gleamed in the
+firelight. As Curtis took this letter the messenger, squatting before
+him, began to roll a cigarette. His lean and powerful face was shadowed
+by a limp sombrero and his eyes were hidden, but his lips were grave and
+calm. A quirt dangled from his right wrist, and in the two braids of his
+hair green eagle-plumes were twisted. The star on the lapel of his
+embroidered vest showed him to be a police-officer. From the intensity
+of his attitude it was plain he was studying his agent's face in order
+to read thereon the character of the message he had brought.
+
+Curtis turned the paper slowly and without excitement. With rapid signs
+he dismissed the courier. "I have read it. You will camp with Two Horns.
+Go get some food. Mary will give you meat."
+
+Turning to his guests, he then said: "It is nothing special--merely some
+papers I forgot to sign before leaving."
+
+"By George! what a picture the fellow made, sitting there!" said Parker.
+"It was like an illustration in a novel. Why don't you paint that kind
+of thing, Bee Bee?"
+
+"Because I can't," she replied. "Don't you suppose I saw it? I'd need
+the skill of Zorn to do a thing as big and mysterious as that. Did you
+see the intensity of his pose? He expected Captain Curtis to show
+excitement or alarm. He was very curious to know what it was all
+about--don't you think so?"
+
+Curtis was amused. "Yes, I suppose he thought the paper more important
+than it was. The settlers have kept the tribe guessing all the spring by
+threats of running them off the reservation. Of course they wouldn't
+openly resort to violence, but there are several irresponsibles who
+would strike in the dark if they found opportunity."
+
+In spite of his reassuring tone, a vague fear fell over the camping
+party. Parker was frankly alarmed.
+
+"If you think there is any danger, Captain, I want to get out o' here
+quick. I'm not here to study the Tetong with his war-paint on."
+
+"If there had been any danger, Mr. Parker, I would not have left my
+office. I shall have a report similar to this every day while I am away,
+so please be composed."
+
+The policeman came back, resumed his squatting position before the fire,
+and began a series of vigorous and dramatic gestures, to which the
+Captain replied in kind, absorbed, intent, with a face as inscrutable as
+that of the redman himself. The contrast between the resolute, handsome
+young white man and the roughhewn Tetong was superb. "There's nothing in
+it for me," said Parker, "but it's great business for a painter."
+
+Elsie seized a block of paper, and with soft pencil began to sketch them
+both against the background of mysterious blackness, out of which a pine
+bole gleamed ashy white.
+
+Suddenly, silently, as though one of the tree-trunks had taken on life,
+another Tetong appeared in the circle of the firelight and stood with
+deep-sunk eyes fastened on the Captain's face. Another followed, and
+still others, till two old men and four young fellows ranged themselves
+in a semicircle before their agent, with Crane's Voice and Two Horns at
+the left and a little behind. The old men smoked a long pipe, but the
+young men rolled cigarettes, taking no part in the council, listening
+the while with eyes as bright as those of foxes.
+
+It was all sinister and menacing to the Parkers, and all wondered till
+Curtis turned to say: "They are my mill-hands--good, faithful boys,
+too."
+
+"Mill-hands!" exclaimed Parker. "They looked uncommonly like a scalping
+party."
+
+"That is what imagination can do. I thought your faces were extra
+solemn," remarked Curtis, dryly; but Lawson knew that the agent was not
+so untroubled as he pretended, for old Crow Killer had a bitter story to
+relate of the passage of a band of cowboys through his camp. They had
+stampeded his ponies and shot at him, one bullet passing so close to his
+ear that it burned the skin, and he was angry.
+
+"They wish to kill us, these cattlemen," he said, sombrely, in
+conclusion. "If they come again we will fight."
+
+Happily, his vehemence did not reach the comprehension of the women nor
+the understanding of Parker, and Lawson smoked on as calmly as if these
+tell-tale gestures were the flecking of shadows cast by the leaping
+flames. At last the red visitors rose and vanished as silently as they
+came. They seemed to pass through black curtains, so suddenly they
+disappeared.
+
+In spite of all reassurance, the women were a little reluctant to go to
+bed--at least Mrs. Parker and Elsie were.
+
+"I wish the men's tent were not so far off," Mrs. Parker said to Elsie,
+plaintively.
+
+"I'll ask them to move it, if you wish," returned Elsie, and when Jennie
+came in she said: "Aren't you a little nervous to-night?"
+
+Jennie looked surprised. "Why, no! Do you mean about sleeping in a
+tent?"
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Parker. "Suppose a wolf or a redman should come?"
+
+Jennie laughed. "You needn't worry--we have a powerful guard. I never am
+afraid with George."
+
+"But the men are so far away! I wish their tent were close beside ours.
+I'm not standing on propriety," Mrs. Parker added, as Jennie hesitated.
+"I'm getting nervous, and I want Jerome where he can hear me if I call
+to him."
+
+Perceiving that Elsie shared this feeling in no small degree, Jennie
+soberly conveyed their wish to Curtis.
+
+"Very well, we'll move over. It will take but a moment."
+
+As she heard the men driving the tent-pegs close beside her bed Mrs.
+Parker sighed peacefully.
+
+"_Now_ I can sleep. There is no comfort like a man in case of wolves,
+Indians, and burglars," and the fact that the men were laughing did not
+disturb her.
+
+With a little shock, Elsie realized that Curtis and not Lawson was in
+her mind as her defender. Of course, he was in command; that accounted
+for it.
+
+Nevertheless, as she listened to the murmur of their voices she detected
+herself waiting for Curtis's crisp, clear bass, and not for the nasal
+tenor of the man whose ring she wore. Her mind was filled, too, with the
+dramatic figure the young officer made as he sat in gesture-talk with
+his Tetong wards. In case of trouble the safest place on all the
+reservation would be by his side, for his people loved and trusted him.
+She did not go to sleep easily; the excitement, the strangeness of being
+in a tent, kept her alert long after Jennie and Mrs. Parker were
+breathing tranquilly on their cots.
+
+One hears everything from a tent. It seems to stand in the midst of the
+world. It is like being in a diving-bell under water. Life goes on
+almost uninterruptedly. The girl heard a hundred obscure, singular,
+sibilant sounds, as of serpents conferring. Mysterious footsteps
+advanced, paused, retreated. Whispered colloquies arose among the
+leaves, giving her heart disquiet. Every unfamiliar sound was a threat.
+The voices of birds and beasts no longer interested her--they scared
+her; and, try as she would to banish these fancies, her nerves thrilled
+with every rush of the wind. It was deep night before she dropped
+asleep.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A FLUTE, A DRUM, AND A MESSAGE
+
+
+Elsie dreamed she was at the theatre. The opera was "Il Trovatore," and
+at the moment when the prison song--that worn yet ever-mournful
+cry--should have pulsed forth; but in its stead another strain came
+floating from afar, a short phrase equally sad, which sank slowly, as a
+fragment of cloud descends from sky to earth to become tears of dew on
+the roses. Over and over again it was repeated, so sad, so sweet, so
+elemental, it seemed that the pain of all love's vain regret was in it,
+longing and sorrow and despair, without relief, without hope, defiant of
+death.
+
+Slowly the walls of the theatre faded. The gray light of morning crept
+into the dreamer's eyes, and she was aware of the walls of her tent and
+knew she had been dreaming. But the sorrowful song went on, with
+occasional slight deviations of time and tone, but always the same.
+Beginning on a high key, it fell by degrees, hesitating, momentarily
+swooping upward, yet ever falling, till at last it melted in with the
+solemn moan of the pines stirring above her head. Then she drowsed
+again, and seemed to be listening to the wailing song with some one
+whose hand she held. As she turned to ask whence the music came a
+little shudder seized her, for the eyes looking into hers were not those
+of Lawson. Curtis faced her, grave and sweet.
+
+With this shock she wakened, but the song had ceased. She waited in
+silence, hoping to hear it again. When fully aroused to her
+surroundings, she was convinced that she had dreamed the music as well
+as the hand-clasp, and a flush ran over her. "Why should I dream in that
+way of _him_?"
+
+She heard the soft lisp of moccasined feet outside the tent, and
+immediately after the sound of an axe. Presently the fire began to
+crackle, and the rising sun threw a flood of golden light against the
+canvas wall. Jennie lifted her arms and yawned, and at last sat up and
+listened. Catching Elsie's eye she said: "Good-morning, dear. How did
+you sleep?"
+
+"Deliciously--but did you hear some one singing just before sunrise?"
+
+"No--did you?"
+
+"I thought I did; but perhaps I dreamed it."
+
+"Where did it seem to come from?"
+
+"Oh, from away off and high up--the saddest song--a phrase constantly
+repeated."
+
+"Oh, I know. It was some young Tetong lover playing the flute. They
+often do that when the girls are going for water in the morning. Isn't
+it beautiful?"
+
+"I never heard anything so sad."
+
+"All their songs are sad. George says the primitive love-songs of all
+races are the same. But Two Horns has the fire going, and I must get up
+and superintend breakfast. You need not rise till I call."
+
+Mrs. Parker began to stir. "Jerome! What time is it?"
+
+The girls laughed as Jerome, in the other tent, replied, sweetly:
+
+"Time to arise, Honey Plum."
+
+Mrs. Parker started up and stared around, her eyes still misty with
+slumber. "I slept the whole night through," she finally remarked, as if
+in answer to a question, and her voice expressed profound astonishment.
+
+"Didn't hear the wolves, did you, pet?" called Parker.
+
+"Wolves! No. Did they howl?"
+
+"Howl is no name for it. They tied themselves into double bow-knots of
+noise."
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+Elsie replied: "I didn't hear anything but the music. Did you hear the
+singing?"
+
+Lawson spoke. "You people have the most active imaginations. All I heard
+was the wind in the pines, and an occasional moose walking by."
+
+"Moose!" cried Mrs. Parker. "Why, they're enormous creatures."
+
+Jennie began to laugh. "You people will need to hurry to be ready for
+breakfast. I'm going to put the coffee on." She slipped outside. "Oh,
+girls! Get up at once, it's glorious out here on the lake!"
+
+Curtis was busy about the camp-fire. "Good-morning, sis. Here are some
+trout for breakfast."
+
+"Trout!" shouted Lawson, from the tent.
+
+"Trout!" echoed Parker. "We'll be there," and the tent bulged and
+flapped with his hasty efforts at dressing.
+
+In gay spirits they gathered round their rude table, Parker and Jennie
+particularly jocular. Curtis was puzzled by some subtle change in
+Elsie. Her gaze was not quite so frank, and her color seemed a little
+more fitful; but she was as merry as a child, and enjoyed every
+makeshift as though it were done for the first time and for her own
+amusement.
+
+"What's the programme for to-day?" asked Parker.
+
+"After I inspect the saw-mill we will hook up and move over the divide
+to the head-waters of the Willow and camp with Red Wolf's band."
+
+Parker coughed. "Well, now--of course, Captain, we are depending on
+you."
+
+Curtis smiled. "Perhaps you'd like to go back to the agency?"
+
+"No, sirree, bob! I'm sticking right to your coat-tails till we're out
+o' the woods."
+
+Lawson interposed. "You wouldn't infer that Parker had ever had a
+Parisian education, would you?"
+
+Parker was not abashed. "I know what you mean. Those are all expressions
+my father used. They stick to me like fly-paper."
+
+"I've tried and tried to break him of his plebeian phrases, but I
+cannot," Mrs. Parker said, with sad emphasis.
+
+"I wouldn't try," replied Jennie. "I like them."
+
+"Thank you, lady, thank you," Parker fervently made answer.
+
+Curtis hurried away to look at the saw-mill. Lawson and Parker went
+fishing, and Elsie got out her paint-box and started another sketch. The
+morning was glorious, the air invigorating, and she painted joyously
+with firm, plashing strokes. Never had she been so sure of her brush.
+Life and art were very much worth while--only now and then a disturbing
+wish intruded--it was only a vague and timid longing; but it grew a
+little in power each time. Once she looked steadily and soberly at the
+ring whose jewel sparkled like a drop of dew on the third finger of her
+left hand.
+
+A half-hour later Curtis came back, walking rapidly. Seeing her at work
+he deflected from the straight trail and drew near.
+
+"I think that is wonderful," he said, as he looked at her sketch. "I
+don't see how you do so much with so few strokes."
+
+"That always puzzles the layman," she replied. "But it's really very
+simple."
+
+"When you know how. I hope you're enjoying your trip with us?"
+
+She flashed a smile that was almost coquettish upon him. "It is
+glorious. I am so happy I'm afraid it won't last."
+
+"We always feel that way about any keen pleasure," he replied, soberly.
+"Now I can't keep the thought of your going out of my mind. Every hour
+or two I find myself saying, 'It'll be lonesome business when these
+artists leave us.'"
+
+"You mustn't speak of anything sorrowful this week. Let's be as happy as
+we can."
+
+He pondered a fitting reply, but at last gave it up and said: "If you
+are satisfied with your sketch, we'll start. I see the teams are ready."
+
+"Oh yes, I'm ready to go. I just wanted to make a record of the
+values--they are changing so fast now," and she began to wipe her
+brushes and put away her panel. "I don't care where we go so we keep in
+the pines and have the mountains somewhere in sight."
+
+It must have been in remorse of her neglect of Lawson the preceding day
+that Elsie insisted on sitting beside him in the back seat, while Mrs.
+Parker took her place with the driver. The keen pang of disappointment
+which crossed his heart warned Curtis that his loyalty to his friend was
+in danger of being a burden, and the drive was robbed of all the blithe
+intercourse of the day before. Parker and Jennie fought clamorously on a
+variety of subjects in the middle distance, but Curtis was hardly more
+than courteous to Mrs. Parker--so absorbed was he in some inner
+controversy.
+
+Retracing their course to the valley the two wagons crossed the stream
+and crawled slowly up the divide between the Elk and the Willow, and at
+one o'clock came down upon a sparse village of huts and tepees situated
+on the bank of a clear little stream--just where it fell away from a
+narrow pond which was wedged among the foot-hills like an artificial
+reservoir. The year was still fresh and green here, and the air was like
+May.
+
+Dogs were barking and snarling round the teams, as a couple of old men
+left the doors of their tepees and came forward. One of them was
+gray-haired, but tall and broad-shouldered. This was Many Coups, a
+famous warrior and one of the historians of his tribe. He greeted the
+agent soberly, expressing neither fear nor love, asking: "Who are these
+with you? I have not seen them before."
+
+To this Curtis replied: "They are my friends. They make pictures of the
+hills and the lakes and of chieftains like Many Coups."
+
+Many Coups looked keenly at Elsie. "My eyes are old and poor," he slowly
+said. "But now I remember. This young woman was at the agency last
+year," and he put up his hand, which was small and graceful even
+yet--the hand of an artist. "I make pictures also," he said.
+
+When this was translated, Elsie said: "You shall make a picture of me
+and I will make one of you."
+
+At this the old man smilingly answered: "It shall be so."
+
+"Where is Red Wolf?" asked Curtis.
+
+"He is away with Tailfeathers to keep the cowboys from our land. We are
+growing afraid, Little Father."
+
+"We will talk more of that by-and-by--we must now camp. Call your people
+together and at mid-afternoon we will council," replied Curtis.
+
+Driving a little above the village, Curtis found a sheltered spot behind
+some low-growing pines and not far from the lake, and there they
+hastened to camp. The news flew from camp to camp that the Little Father
+was come, but no one crowded unseasonably to look at him. "We will
+council," Many Coups announced, and began to array himself for the
+ceremony. Horsemen galloped away to call Red Wolf and others who lived
+down the valley. Never before had an agent visited them in their homes,
+and they were disposed to make the most of it.
+
+By the time the white people had eaten their lunch all the red women
+were in their best dresses. The pappooses were shining with the
+scrubbing they had suffered and each small warrior wore a cunning
+buckskin coat elaborate with beads and quills. A semicircular wall of
+canvas was being erected to shield the old men from the mountain wind,
+and a detail of cooks had started in upon the task of preparing the
+feast which would end the council.
+
+Said Curtis: "You will find in this camp the Tetong comparatively
+unchanged. Red Wolf's band is the most primitive encampment I know." A
+few minutes later he added, "Here comes Many Coups and his son in
+official garb."
+
+The two chieftains greeted their visitors as if they had not hitherto
+been seen--with all the dignity of ambassadors to a foreign court.
+
+"Please treat them with the same formality," warned Curtis. "It will pay
+you for the glimpse of the old-time ceremony."
+
+The younger man was unpainted, save for some small blue figures on his
+forehead. On his head he wore a wide Mexican hat which vastly became
+him. His face was one of the handsomest and most typical of his race.
+
+"This young man is the son of Many Coups, and is called Blue Fox, or
+'The Southern Traveller,' because he has been down where the Mexicans
+are. His hat he got there, and he is very proud of it," explained
+Curtis.
+
+Jennie gave each of them a cup of coffee and a biscuit, of which they
+partook without haste, discussing meanwhile the coming council.
+
+"We did not know you were coming; some of our people will not get here
+in time," said Many Coups.
+
+"To-night, after the council, we wish to dance," said Blue Fox, meaning
+it as a request.
+
+"It is forbidden in Washington to dance in the old way."
+
+"We have heard of that, but we will dance for your wives. They will be
+glad to see it."
+
+"Very well, you may dance, but not too long. No war-dance--only the
+visitors' dance."
+
+"Ay, we understand," said Many Coups as he rose and drew his blanket
+about him. "In one hour we will come to council. Red Wolf will be there,
+and Hump Shoulder and his son. It may be others will return in time."
+
+The women were delighted at the promise of both a council and a dance,
+and Lawson unlimbered his camera in order to take some views of both
+functions, though he expressed some dissatisfaction.
+
+"The noble redman is thin and crooked in the legs," he said to Curtis.
+"Why is this?"
+
+"All the plains Indians, who ride the horse almost from their babyhood,
+are bow-legged. They never walk, and they are seldom symmetrically
+developed."
+
+"They are significant, but not beautiful," said Lawson.
+
+As they walked about the camp Elsie exclaimed: "This is the way all
+redmen should live," and, indeed, the scene was very beautiful. They
+were far above the agency, and the long valleys could be seen descending
+like folds in a vast robe reaching to the plain. The ridges were dark
+with pines for a space, but grew smooth and green at lower levels, and
+at last melted into haze. The camp was a summer camp, and all about, in
+pleasant places among the pines, stood the tepees, swarming with happy
+children and puppies. Under low lodges of canvas or bowers of pine
+branches the women were at work boiling meat or cooking a rude sort of
+cruller. They were very shy, and mostly hung their heads as their
+visitors passed, though they soon yielded to Jennie, who could speak a
+few words to them.
+
+"There's nothing in them for sculpture," said Parker, critically. "At
+least not for beauty. They might be treated as Raffaelle paints--for
+character."
+
+"They grow heavy early," Jennie added, "but the little girls are
+beautiful--see that little one!"
+
+The crier, a tall old man, toothless and wrinkled and gray, began to cry
+in a hollow, monotonous voice, "Come to the council place," and Curtis
+led his flock to their places in the midst of the circle.
+
+The council began with all the old-time forms, with gravity and decorum.
+Red Wolf was in the centre, with Many Coups at his left. The pipe of
+peace went round, and those whose minds were not yet prepared for speech
+drew deep inspirations of the fragrant smoke in the hope that their
+thoughts might be clarified, and when they lifted their eyes they seemed
+not to perceive their visitors or those who passed to and fro among the
+tepees. The sun, westering, fell with untempered light on their heads,
+but they faced it with the calm unconcern of eagles.
+
+To please his guests, Curtis allowed the utmost formality, and did not
+hasten, interrupt, or excise. The speeches were translated into English
+by Lawson, and at each telling point or period in Red Wolf's speech the
+women looked at each other in surprise.
+
+"Did he really say that?" asked Elsie. "Didn't you make it up?"
+
+"Rather good for a ragamuffin, don't you think?" said Lawson, as the old
+man took his seat.
+
+Many Coups spoke slowly, sadly, as though half communing with himself,
+with nothing of the bombast the visitors had expected, and he grew in
+dignity and power as his thought began to make itself felt through his
+interpreter.
+
+"He is speaking for his race," remarked Lawson to Elsie.
+
+"By Jove! the old fellow is a good lawyer!" cried Parker. "I don't see
+any answer to his indictment."
+
+Curtis sat listening as though each point the old man made were new--and
+this attitude pleased the chieftains very much.
+
+The speech, in its general tenor, was similar to many others he had
+heard from thoughtful redmen. Briefly he described the time when the
+redmen were happy in a land filled with deer and buffalo, before the
+white man was. "We lived as the Great Spirit made us. Then the white man
+came--and now we are bewildered with his commands. Our eyes are blinded,
+we know not where to go. We know not whom to believe or trust. I am old,
+I am going to my grave troubled over the fate of my children. Agents
+come and go. The good ones go too soon--the bad ones stay too long, but
+they all go. There is no one in whose care to leave my children. It is
+better to die here in the hills than to live the slave of the white man,
+ragged and spiritless, slinking about like a dog without a friend. We do
+not want to make war any more--we ask only to live as our fathers lived,
+and die here in the hills."
+
+As he spoke these final tragic words his voice grew deep and trembled,
+and Elsie felt some strong force gripping at her throat, and burning
+tears filled her eyes. In the city it was easy to say, "The way of
+civilization lies over the graves of the primitive races," but here,
+under the sun, among the trees, when one of those about to die looked
+over and beyond her to the hills as though choosing his grave--the
+utterance of the pitiless phrase was difficult in any tone--impossible
+in the boasting shout of the white promoter. She rose suddenly and
+walked away--being ashamed of her tears, a painful constriction in her
+throat.
+
+The speakers who followed spoke in much the same way--all but Blue Fox,
+who sharply insisted that the government should help them. "You have put
+us here on barren land where we can only live by raising stock. You
+should help us fence the reservation, and get us cattle to start with.
+Then by-and-by we can build good houses and have plenty to eat. This is
+right, for you have destroyed our game--and you will not let us go to
+the mountains to hunt. You must do something besides furnish us ploughs
+in a land where the rain does not come."
+
+In answer to all this, Curtis replied, using the sign language. He
+admitted that Red Wolf was right. "The Tetongs have been cheated, but
+good days are coming. I am going to help you. I am going to stay with
+you till you are safely on the white man's road. We intend to buy out
+the settlers, and take the water in the streams so that you may raise
+potatoes for your children, and you will then be glad because your
+gardens will bear many things good to eat. Do not despair, the white
+people are coming to understand the situation now. You have many
+friends who will help."
+
+As Many Coups rose and shook hands with the agent he was smiling again,
+and he said, "Your words are good."
+
+The old crier went forth again calling: "Come to the dance-hall. The
+white people desire to see you dance. Come clothed in your best
+garments."
+
+Then the drum began to utter its spasmodic signal, and the herald's
+voice sounded faint and far off as he descended the path to the second
+group of tepees.
+
+"Shall we go now?" asked Mrs. Parker.
+
+"Oh no, it will be two hours before they begin. The young men must go
+and dress. We have time to sup and smoke a pipe."
+
+"Oh! I'm so glad we're going to see a real Indian dance. I didn't
+suppose it could be seen now--not the real thing."
+
+Lawson smiled. "You'll think this is the real thing before you get
+inside the door. I've known tenderfeet to weaken at the last moment."
+
+Parker pretended to be a little nervous. "Suppose they should get hold
+of some liquor."
+
+"This band is too far away from the white man to have his vices,"
+replied Curtis with a slight smile. He had wondered at Elsie's going,
+but concluded she had grown weary of the old chief's speech.
+
+"There is great charm in this life," said Lawson, as they all gathered
+before their tent and sat overlooking the village and the lake. "I
+sometimes wonder whether we have not complicated life without adding to
+the sum of human happiness."
+
+"I'm thinking of this in winter," said Elsie. "O-o-o! It must be
+terrible! No furnace, no bath-tubs."
+
+The others laughed heartily at the sincerity of her shudder, and Curtis
+said:
+
+"Well, now, you'd be surprised to know how comfortable they keep in
+their tepees. In the old skin tepee they were quite warm even on the
+coldest days. They always camp in sheltered places out of the wind, and
+where fuel is plenty."
+
+"At the same time I prefer my own way of living to theirs--when winter
+comes."
+
+"I know something of your logic," replied Curtis. "But I think I
+understand the reluctance of these people when asked to give up the old
+things. I love their life--their daily actions--this man coiling a
+lariat--that child's outline against the tepee--the smell of their fresh
+bread--the smoke of their little fires. I can understand a Tetong when
+he says: 'All this is as sweet to me as your own life--why should I give
+it up?' Feeling as I do, I never insist on their giving up anything
+which is not an impediment. I argue with them, and show that some of
+their ways are evil or a hinderance in the struggle for life under new
+conditions, and they always meet me half-way."
+
+"Supper is ready," called Jennie, and his audience rose.
+
+While still at meat, the drum, which had been sounding at intervals,
+suddenly took on a wilder energy, followed immediately by a high,
+shrill, yelping call, which was instantly augmented by a half-dozen
+others, all as savage and startling as the sudden burst of howling from
+a pack of wolves. This clamor fell away into a deep, throbbing chant,
+only to rise again to the yelping, whimpering cries with which it began.
+
+Every woman stiffened with terror, with wide eyes questioning Curtis.
+"What is all that?"
+
+"The opening chorus," he explained, much amused. "A song of the chase."
+
+The dusk was beginning to fall, and the tepees, with their small,
+sparkling fires close beside, and the shadowy, blanketed forms
+assembling slowly, silently, gave a wonderful remoteness and wildness to
+the scene. To Curtis it was quite like the old-time village. The husky
+voice of the aged crier seemed like a call from out of the years
+primeval before the white race with its devastating energy and its
+killing problems had appeared in the east. The artist in Elsie, now
+fully awake, dominated the daughter of wealth. "Oh, this is beautiful! I
+never expected to see anything so primitive."
+
+Knowing that his guests were eager to view it all, Curtis led the way
+towards the dance-lodge. Elsie was moved to take her place beside him,
+but checked herself and turned to Lawson, leaving Mrs. Parker to walk at
+the Captain's elbow.
+
+To the ears of the city dwellers the uproar was appalling--full of
+murder and sudden death. As they approached the lodge the frenzied
+booming of the drum, the wild, yelping howls, the shrill whooping,
+brought up in their minds all the stories of dreadful deeds they had
+ever read, and Parker said to Jennie:
+
+"Do you really think the Captain will be able to control them?"
+
+Jennie laughed. "I'm used to this clamor; it's only their way of
+singing."
+
+Elsie said: "They must be flourishing bloody scalping-knives in there;
+it is direful."
+
+"Wait and see," said Lawson.
+
+The dance-house was a large octagonal hut built of pine logs, partly
+roofed with grass and soil. It was lighted by a leaping fire in the
+centre, and by four lanterns on the walls, and as Curtis and his party
+entered, the clamor (in their honor) redoubled. In a first swift glance
+Elsie apprehended only a confused, jingling, fluttering mass of color--a
+chaos of leaping, half-naked forms and a small circle of singers
+fiercely assaulting a drum which sat on the floor at the right of the
+door.
+
+Then Red Wolf, calm, stately, courtly, came before them carrying his
+wand of office and conducted them to seats at the left of the fire, and
+the girl's heart ceased to pound so fiercely. Looking back she saw
+Jennie shaking hands with one of the fiercest of the painted and
+beplumed dancers, and recognized him as Blue Fox. Turning, she fixed her
+eyes on a middle-aged man who was dancing as sedately as Washington
+might have led the minuet, his handsome face calm of line and the clip
+of his lips genial and placid. Plainly the ferocity did not extend to
+the dancers; the singers alone seemed to express hate and lust and war.
+
+The music suddenly ceased, and in an instant the girl's mind cleared.
+She perceived that the singers were laughing as they rolled their
+cigarettes, and that the savage warrior dancers were gossiping together
+as they rested, while all about her sat plump young girls in gay
+dresses, very conscious of the eyes of the young men. In her early life
+Elsie had attended a country dance, and her changed impressions of this
+mad, blood-thirsty revel was indicated in her tone as she said:
+
+"Why, it's just an old-fashioned country hoe-down."
+
+Curtis laughed. "I congratulate you on your penetration," he mockingly
+said.
+
+The old men came up to shake hands with the agent, and on being
+presented to Elsie smiled reassuringly. Their manners were very good,
+indeed. Several of them gravely made a swift sign which caused Curtis to
+color and look confused, and when his answering sign caused them all to
+look at Lawson, Elsie demanded to know what it was all about.
+
+"Do you think you'd better know?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly, I insist on knowing," she added, as he hesitated again.
+
+He looked at her, but a little unsteadily. "They asked if you were my
+bride, and I replied no, that you came with Lawson."
+
+It was her turn to look confused. "The impudent things!" was all she
+could find to say at the moment.
+
+Red Wolf called out a few imperative words, the song began with its
+imitation of the wolves at war as before, then settled into a pounding
+chant--deep, resonant, and inspiriting. The dancers sprang forth--not
+all, but a part of them--as though their names had been called, while a
+curious little bent and withered old man crept in like a gnome and built
+up the fire till it blazed brightly. As they danced the younger men
+re-enacted with abrupt, swift, violent, yet graceful gestures the drama
+of wild life. They trailed game, rescued lost warriors, and defeated
+enemies.
+
+"You see it proceeds with decorum," said Curtis to Elsie and Mrs.
+Parker, as the dancers returned to their seats. "They enjoy it just as
+white people enjoy a cotillion, and, barring the noise of the singers,
+it is quite as formal and harmless."
+
+A little boy in full dancing costume now came on with the rest, and the
+visitors exclaimed in delight of his grace and dignity. He could not
+have been more than six years of age. His companion, an old man of
+seventy, was a good deal of a wag, and danced in comic-wise to make the
+on-lookers laugh.
+
+Parker was fairly hooking his chin over Curtis's shoulder to hear every
+word uttered and to see all that went on, and Curtis was in the midst of
+an explanation of the significance of the drama of the dance, when a
+short, sturdy, bow-legged Tetong, dressed in a policeman's uniform,
+pushed his way in at the door and thrust a letter at his agent's hand.
+
+Instantly every eye was fixed on Curtis's bent head as he opened the
+letter. The dancers took their seats, whispering and muttering, the drum
+ceased, and the singers, turned into bronze figures, stared solemnly. A
+nervous chill ran though Elsie's blood and Parker turned pale and cold.
+
+"What's up--what's up?" he asked, hurriedly. "This is a creepy pause."
+
+Lawson laid a hand on his arm and shut down on it like a vice.
+
+Red Wolf brought a lantern and held it at the Captain's shoulder.
+
+Jennie, leaning over, caught the words, "There's been a row over on the
+Willow--"
+
+Curtis calmly folded the paper, nodded and smiled his thanks to Red
+Wolf, and then lifting his hand he signed to the policeman, in full view
+of all the dancers:
+
+"Go back and tell Wilson to issue just the same amount of flour this
+week that he did last, and that Red Wolf wants a new mowing-machine for
+his people. You need not return till morning." Then, turning to Red
+Wolf, he said: "Go on with the dance; my friends are much pleased."
+
+The tension instantly gave way, every one being deceived but Jennie, who
+understood the situation and tried to help on the deception, but her
+round face was plainly anxious.
+
+Elsie, as she ceased to wonder concerning the forms and regulations of
+the dance, grew absorbed in the swirling forms, the harsh clashing of
+colors, the short, shrill cries, the gleam of round and polished limbs,
+the haughty fling of tall head-dresses, and the lightness of the small
+and beautifully modelled feet drumming upon the ground; but most of all
+she was moved by the aloofness of expression on the faces of many of the
+dancers. For the most part they seemed to dream--to revisit the
+past--especially the old men. Their lips were sad, their eyes
+pensive--singularly so--and mentally the girl said: "I must paint my
+next portrait of this quality--an old man dreaming of the olden time. I
+wonder if they really were happy in those days--happier than our
+civilization can make them?" and thoughts came to her which shook her
+confidence in the city and the mart. For the first time in her life she
+doubted the sanctity of the steam-engine and the ore-crusher.
+
+As they took their seats from time to time the older men smoked their
+long pipes; only the young men rolled their cigarettes. To them the past
+was a child's recollection, not the irrevocable dream of age. They were
+the links between the old and the new.
+
+As the time came to go, Curtis rose and addressed his people in signs.
+"We are glad to be here," he said. "All my friends are pleased. My heart
+is joyous when you dance. I do not forbid it. Sometimes Washington tells
+me to do something, and I must obey. They say you must not dance the
+war-dance any more, and so I must forbid it. This dance was pleasant--it
+is not bad. My heart is made warm to be with you. I am visiting all my
+people, and I must go to-morrow. Do not quarrel with the white man. Be
+patient, and Washington will do you good."
+
+Each promise was greeted by the old men with cries of: "Ay! Ay!" and the
+drummers thumped the drums most furiously in applause. And so the agent
+said, "Good-night," and withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+ELSIE'S ANCIENT LOVE AFFAIR
+
+
+As they walked back to their camp Jennie took her brother's arm:
+
+"What is it, George?"
+
+"I must return to the agency."
+
+"That means we must all go?"
+
+"I suppose so. The settlers seemed determined to make trouble. They have
+had another row with Gray Man's band, and shots have been fired.
+Fortunately no one was hurt. We must leave here early. Say nothing to
+any of our guests till we are safely on the way home."
+
+Elsie, walking with Lawson, was very pensive. "I begin to understand why
+Captain Curtis is made Indian agent. He understands these people,
+sympathizes with them."
+
+"No one better, and if the department can retain him six years he will
+have the Tetongs comfortably housed and on the road to independence and
+self-respect."
+
+"Why shouldn't he be retained?"
+
+"Well, your father may secure re-election to the Senate next winter."
+
+"I know," she softly answered, "he dislikes Captain Curtis."
+
+"More than that--in order to be elected, he must pledge himself to have
+Curtis put out o' the way."
+
+"That sounds like murder," she said.
+
+"Oh no; it's only politics--politics and business. But let's not talk of
+that--let us absorb the beauty of the night. Did you enjoy the dance?"
+
+"Very much. I am hopeless of ever painting it though--it is so full of
+big, significant shadows. I wish I knew more about it."
+
+"You are less confident than you were last year." He looked at her
+slyly.
+
+"I see more."
+
+"And feel more?" he asked.
+
+"Yes--I'm afraid I'm getting Captain Curtis's point of view. These
+people aren't the mendicants they once seemed. The expression of some of
+those faces to-night was wonderful. They are something more than tramps
+when they discard their rags."
+
+"I wish you'd come to my point of view," he said, a little irrelevantly.
+
+"About what?"
+
+"About our momentous day. Suppose we say Wednesday of Thanksgiving
+week?"
+
+"I thought you were going to wait for me to speak," she replied.
+
+He caught his breath a little. "So I will--only you won't forget my gray
+hairs, will you?"
+
+"I don't think I will--not with your broad daily hints to remind me. But
+you promised to be patient and--just friendly."
+
+He ignored her sarcasm. "It would be rather curious if I _should_ become
+increasingly impatient, wouldn't it? I made that promise in entire good
+faith, but--I seem to be changing."
+
+"That's what troubles me," she said. "You are trying to hurry me."
+
+At this moment they came close to the Parkers and she did not continue.
+He had given her another disturbing thought to sleep on, and that was,
+"Would it hurt him much if I should now return his ring?"
+
+Mrs. Parker was disposed to discuss the dance, but Jennie said:
+
+"We must all go to sleep. George says we are to move early to-morrow."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The walls of the tent could hardly be seen when the sound of the
+crackling flames again told that faithful Two Horns was feeding the
+camp-fire. Crane's Voice could be heard bringing in the horses, and in a
+few moments Curtis called out in a low, incisive voice:
+
+"Everybody turn out; we must make an early start across the range."
+
+The morning was gray, the peaks hidden in clouds, and the wind chill as
+the women came from their beds. Two Horns had stretched some blankets to
+keep off the blast, but still Elsie shivered, and Curtis roundly
+apologized. "I'm sorry to get you up so early. It spoils all the fun of
+camping if you're obliged to rise before the sun. An hour from now and
+all will be genial. Please wait for my explanation."
+
+Breakfast was eaten in discomfort and comparative silence, though
+Parker, with intent to enliven the scene, cut a few capers as awkward as
+the antics of a sand-hill crane. Almost before the smoke of the tepee
+fires began to climb the trees the agent and his party started back over
+the divide towards the mill, no one in holiday mood. There was a certain
+pathos in this loss of good cheer.
+
+Once out of sight of the camp, Curtis turned and said: "Friends, I'm
+sorry to announce it, but I must return to the agency to-night and I
+must take you all with me. Wilson has asked me to hasten home, and of
+course he would not do so without good reason."
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Elsie.
+
+"The same old trouble. The cattlemen are throwing their stock on the
+reservation and the Tetongs are resenting it."
+
+"No danger, I hope," said Parker, pop-eyed this time with genuine
+apprehension.
+
+"Oh no--not if I am on hand to keep the races apart. Now I'm going to
+drive hard, and you must all hang on. I want to pull into the agency
+before dark."
+
+The wagon lurched and rattled down the divide as Curtis urged the horses
+steadily forward. With his foot in the brake, he descended in a single
+hour the road which had consumed three long hours to climb. Conversation
+under these conditions was difficult and at times impossible.
+
+Jennie, intrepid driver herself, clutched her brother's arm at times, as
+the vehicle lurched, but Curtis made it all a joke by shouting, "It is
+always easy to slide into Hades--the worst is soon over."
+
+Once in the valley of the Elk the road grew better, and Curtis asked
+Elsie if she wished to drive. She, being very self-conscious for some
+reason, shook her head, "No, thank you," and rode for the most part in
+silence, though Lawson made a brave effort to keep up a conversation.
+
+By eleven o'clock not even Curtis and Lawson together could make the
+ride a joke. The women were hungry and tired, and distinctly saddened by
+this sudden ending of their joyous outing.
+
+"I wish these rampant cowboys could have waited till we had our
+holiday," Jennie grumbled, as she stretched her tired arms.
+
+"Probably they were informed of the Captain's plans and seized the
+opportunity," suggested Parker.
+
+"I wonder if Cal is a traitor?" mused Jennie.
+
+Two Horns and Crane's Voice came rattling along soon after Curtis
+stopped for noon at their first camping-place, and in a few minutes
+lunch was ready. Conversation still lagged in spite of inspiriting
+coffee, and the women lay out on their rugs and blankets, resting their
+aching bones, while the men smoked and speculated on the outcome of the
+whole Indian question.
+
+The teams were put to the wagons as soon as their oats were eaten and
+the homeward drive begun, brisk and business-like, and for some
+mysterious reason Curtis recovered his usual cheerful tone.
+
+It was mid-afternoon when the agency was sighted, and the five-o'clock
+bell had just rung as they drove slowly and with no appearance of haste
+into the yard.
+
+Wilson came out to meet them. "How-de-do? You made a short trip."
+
+"How are things?" inquired Curtis.
+
+"Nothing doing--all quiet," replied the clerk, but Curtis detected
+something yet untold in the quiver of his clerk's eyelid.
+
+"Well, I'm glad we got in."
+
+Supper was eaten with little ceremony and very languid conversation, and
+the artists at once sought their rooms to rest. The Parkers were too
+tired to be nervous, and Curtis was absorbed with some private problem.
+
+As Lawson and Elsie walked across the square in the twilight he
+announced, meditatively:
+
+"I'm going to be more and more impatient--that is now certain."
+
+"Osborne, don't! Please don't take that tone; I don't like it."
+
+"Why not, dear?" he asked, tenderly.
+
+"Because--because--" She turned in a swift, overmastering impulse.
+"Because if you do, I must give you back your ring." She wrung it from
+her finger. "I think I must, anyhow."
+
+As she crowded the gem into his lax hand he said: "Why, what does this
+mean, Elsie Bee Bee?" His voice expressed pain and bewilderment.
+
+"I don't know _what_ it means yet, only I feel that it isn't right now
+to wear it. I told you when you put it on that it implied no promise on
+my part."
+
+"I know it, and it doesn't imply any now."
+
+"Yes, it does. Your whole attitude towards me implies an absolute
+engagement, and I can't rest under that. Take back your ring till I can
+receive it as other girls do--as a binding promise. You _must_ do this
+or I will hate you!" she added, with a sudden fury.
+
+"Why, certainly, dearest--only I don't see what has produced this change
+in you."
+
+"I have not changed--you have changed."
+
+He laughed at this. "The woman's last word! Well, I admit it. I have
+come to love you as a man loves the woman he wishes to make his wife.
+I'm going to care a great deal, Elsie Bee Bee, if you do not come to me
+some time."
+
+"Don't say that!" she cried, and there was an imploring accent in her
+voice. "Don't you see I must not wear your ring till I promise all you
+ask?"
+
+They walked on in silence to the door. As they stood there he said: "I
+feel as though I were about to say good-bye to you forever, and it makes
+my heart ache."
+
+She put both hands on his shoulders, then, swift as a bird, turned and
+was gone. He felt that she had thought to kiss him, but he divined it
+would have been a farewell kiss, and he was glad that she had turned
+away. There was still hope for him in that indecision.
+
+As for Elsie, life seemed suddenly less simple and less orderly. She
+pitied Osborne, she was angry and dissatisfied with herself, and in
+doubt about Curtis. "I'm not in love with him--it is impossible, absurd;
+but my summer is spoiled. I shall go home at once. It is foolish for me
+to be here when I could be at the sea-shore."
+
+After a moment she thought: "Why am I here? I guess the girls were
+right. I _am_ a crank--an irresponsible. Why should I want to paint
+these malodorous tepee dwellers? Just to be different from any one
+else."
+
+As she sat at her open window she heard again the Tetong lover's flute
+wailing from the hill-side across the stream, and the sound struck
+straight in upon her heart and filled her with a mysterious longing--a
+pain which she dared not analyze. Her mind was active to the point of
+confusion--seething with doubts and the wreckage of her opinions.
+Lawson's action had deeply disturbed her.
+
+They had never pretended to sentiment in their relationship; indeed, she
+had settled into a conviction that love was a silly passion, possible
+only to girls in their teens. This belief she had attained by passing
+through what seemed to her a fiery furnace of suffering at eighteen, and
+when that self-effacing passion had burned itself out she had renounced
+love and marriage and "devoted herself to art," healing herself with
+work. For some years thereafter she posed as a man-hater.
+
+The objective cause of all this tumult and flame and renunciation seemed
+ridiculously inadequate in the eyes of others. He was the private
+secretary of Senator Stollwaert at the time, a smug, discreet, pretty
+man, of slender attainment and no great ambition. Happily, he had
+afterwards removed to New York, or Washington would have been an
+impossible place of residence for Elsie. She had met him once since her
+return--he had had the courage to call upon her--and the familiar pose
+of his small head and the mincing stride of his slender legs had given
+her a feeling of nausea. "Is it possible that I once agonized over this
+trig little man?" she asked herself.
+
+To be just to him, Mr. Garretson did not presume in the least on his
+previous intimacy; on the contrary, he seemed timid and ill at ease in
+the presence of the woman whose beauty had by no means been foreshadowed
+in her girlhood. He was not stupid; the splendor of her surroundings
+awed him, but above all else there was a look on her face which too
+plainly expressed contempt for her ancient folly. Her shame was as
+perceptible to him as though expressed in spoken words, and his visit
+was never repeated.
+
+Of this affair Elsie had spoken quite freely to Lawson. "It only shows
+what an unmitigated idiot a girl is. She is bound to love some one. I
+knew quantities of nice boys, and why I should have selected poor Sammy
+as the centre of all my hopes and affections I don't know. I dimly
+recall thinking he had nice ears and hands, but even they do not now
+seem a reasonable basis for wild passion, do they?"
+
+Lawson had been amused. "Love at that age isn't a creature of reason."
+
+"Evidently not, if mine was a sample."
+
+"Ours now is so reasonable as to seem insecure and dangerous."
+
+Her intimacy with Lawson, therefore, had begun on the plane of
+good-fellowship while they were in Paris together, and for two years he
+seemed quite satisfied. Of late he had been less contained.
+
+After her outburst of anger at her father's ejectment of Curtis, she met
+Lawson with a certain reserve not common to her. At the moment, she more
+than half resolved that the time had come to leave her father's house
+for Lawson's flat, and yet her will wavered. She said as little as
+possible to him concerning that last disgraceful scene, as much on her
+own account as to spare Curtis, but her restlessness was apparent to
+Lawson and puzzled him. Two or three times during the summer he had
+openly, though jocularly, alluded to their marriage, but she had put
+him off with a keen word. Now that her father seemed intolerable, she
+listened to him with a new interest. He became a definite possibility--a
+refuge.
+
+Encouraged by this slight change in her attitude towards him, Lawson
+took a ring from his pocket one night and said, "I wish you'd wear this,
+Elsie Bee Bee."
+
+She drew back. "I can't do that. I'm not ready to promise anything yet."
+
+"It needn't bind you," he pleaded. "It needn't mean any more than you
+care to have it mean. But I think our understanding justifies a ring."
+
+"That's just it," she answered, quickly. "I don't like you to be so
+solemn about our 'understanding.' You promised to let me think it all
+out in my own way and in my own time."
+
+"I know I did--and I mean to do so. Only"--he smiled with a wistful look
+at her--"I would have you observe that I have developed three gray hairs
+over my ears."
+
+She took the ring slowly, and as she put the tip of her finger into it a
+slight premonitory shudder passed over her.
+
+"You are sure you understand--this is no binding promise on my part?"
+
+"It will leave you as free as before."
+
+"Then I will wear it," she said, and slipped it to its place. "It is a
+beautiful ring."
+
+He bent and kissed her fingers. "And a beautiful hand, Elsie Bee Bee."
+
+Now, lying alone in the soundless deep of the night, she went over that
+scene, and the one through which she had just passed. "He's a dear,
+good fellow, and I love him--but not like that." And the thought that it
+was all over between them, and the decision irrevocably made, was at
+once a pain and a pleasure. The promise, slight as it was, had been a
+burden. "Now I am absolutely free," she said, in swift, exultant
+rebound.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE SHERIFF'S MOB
+
+
+The next day was cloudless, with a south wind, and the little, crawling
+brook which watered the agency seemed about to seethe. The lower
+foot-hills were already sere as autumn, and the ponies came down to
+their drinking-places unnaturally thirsty; and the cattle, wallowing in
+the creek-bed, seemed at times to almost stop its flow. The timid trees
+which Curtis had planted around the school-house and office were plainly
+suffering for lack of moisture, and the little gardens which the Indians
+had once more been induced to plant were in sore distress.
+
+The torrid sun beat down into the valley from the unclouded sky so
+fiercely that the idle young men of the reservation postponed their
+horse-racing till after sunset. Curtis felt the heat and dust very
+keenly on his guests' account, and was irritated over the assaults of
+the cattlemen. "If they had but kept the peace we would still be in the
+cool, sweet hills," he said to Lawson.
+
+"This will not last," Lawson replied. "We'll get a mountain wind
+to-night. The girls are wisely keeping within doors and are not yet
+aware of the extreme heat."
+
+"I hope you are a true prophet. But at this moment it seems as if no
+cool wind could arise out of this sun-baked land."
+
+"Any news from the Willow?"
+
+"The trouble was in the West Fort. Some cowboys raided a camp of
+Tetongs. No one was injured, and so it must pass for a joke."
+
+"Some of those jokes will set something afire some of these hot days."
+
+"But you know how hard it is to apprehend the ruffians; they come and go
+in the night like wolves. They spoiled our outing, but I hope we may get
+away again next week."
+
+In the days which followed, Curtis saw little of Elsie, and when they
+met she seemed cold and preoccupied. In conversation she seemed
+listening to another voice, appeared to be pondering some abstract
+subject, and Curtis was puzzled and vaguely saddened. Jennie took a far
+less serious view of the estrangement. "It's just a mood. We've set her
+thinking; she's 'under conviction,' as the revivalists used to say.
+Don't bother her and she'll 'come through.'"
+
+Curtis was at lunch on Wednesday when Wilson came to the door and said,
+"Major, Streeter and a man named Jenks are here and want to see you."
+
+"More stolen cattle to be charged up to the Indians, I suppose."
+
+"I reckon some such complaint--they didn't say."
+
+"Well, tell them to wait--or no--ask them to come over and lunch with
+me."
+
+Wilson soon returned. "They are very glum, and say they'll wait at the
+office till you come."
+
+"As they prefer. I will have finished in a few moments."
+
+He concluded not to hasten, however, and the ranchers had plenty of time
+to become impatient. They met him darkly.
+
+"We want a word in private, Major," said Jenks, a tall, long-bearded man
+of most portentous gravity.
+
+Curtis led the way to an inner office and offered them seats, which they
+took in the same oppressive silence.
+
+The agent briskly opened the hearing. "What can I do for you,
+gentlemen?"
+
+Jenks looked at Streeter--Streeter nodded. "Go ahead, Hank."
+
+Jenks leaned over aggressively. "Your damned Injuns have murdered one o'
+my herders."
+
+Curtis hardened. "What makes you think so?" he sharply asked.
+
+"He disappeared more than a week ago, and no one has heard of him since.
+I know he has been killed, and your Injuns done it. No one--"
+
+"Wait a moment," interrupted Curtis. "Who was he?"
+
+"His name is Cole--he was herdin' my sheep."
+
+"Are you a sheep-man?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"My sheep ranch is over on Horned Toad Creek."
+
+"Where was this man when he disappeared?"
+
+Jenks grew a little uneasy. "He was camped by the Mud Spring."
+
+Curtis rose and called Wilson in. "Wilson, where is the Mud Spring?"
+
+"Just inside our south line, about four miles from the school."
+
+"I thought so," replied Curtis. "Your sheep were on the reservation. Are
+you sure this man was murdered?"
+
+"Him and the dog disappeared together, and hain't neither of 'em been
+seen since."
+
+"How long ago was this?"
+
+"Just a week to-morrow."
+
+"Have you made a search for him? Have you studied the ground closely?"
+
+Streeter interposed. "We've done all that could be done in that line. I
+_know_ he's killed. He told Cal about two weeks ago that he had been
+shot at twice and expected to get wiped out before the summer was over.
+There isn't a particle of doubt in my mind about it. The thing for you
+to do is to make a demand--"
+
+"I am not in need of instructions as to my duty," interrupted Curtis.
+"Wilson, who is over from the Willow Creek?"
+
+"Old Elk himself."
+
+"Send him in. I shall take all means to help you find this herder,"
+Curtis said to the ranchers, "but I cannot allow you to charge my people
+with his death without greater reason than at present. We must move
+calmly and without heat in this matter. Murder is a serious charge to
+make without ample proof."
+
+The Elk, smiling and serene, entered the door and stood for a moment
+searching the countenances of the white men. His face grew grave as the
+swift signs of his agent filled his mind with the story of the
+disappearance of the herder.
+
+"I am sorry; it is bad business," he said.
+
+"Now, Crawling Elk, I want you to call together five or six of your best
+trailers and go with these men to the place where the herder was last
+seen and see if you can find any trace of him;" then, turning to
+Streeter, he said: "You know Crawling Elk; he is the one chief against
+whom you have no enmity. If Cole was murdered, his body will be found.
+Until you have more proof of his death I must ask you to give my people
+the benefit of the doubt. Good-day, gentlemen."
+
+As they turned to go, two young reds were seen leaving the window. They
+had watched Curtis as he signed the story to Crawling Elk. As the white
+men emerged these young fellows were leaning lazily on the fence,
+betraying no interest and very little animation, but a few minutes later
+they were mounted and riding up the valley at full gallop, heavy with
+news of the herder's death and Streeter's threats.
+
+"Now, Elk," signed Curtis, "say nothing to any one but your young men
+and the captain of police, whom I will send with you to bring me word."
+
+After they had all ridden away, Curtis turned to Wilson and said, "I
+didn't suppose I should live to see a sheep-man and a cattleman riding
+side by side in this amicable fashion."
+
+"Oh, they'll get together against the Indian, all right. They're mighty
+glad of a chance to make any kind of common cause. That lazy herder has
+jumped the country. He told me he was sick of his job."
+
+"But the dog?"
+
+"Oh, he killed the dog to keep him from being traced. There isn't a
+thing in it, Major."
+
+"I'm inclined to think you're right, but we must make careful
+investigation; the people are very censorious of my policy."
+
+Next morning Crawling Elk brought word that no trace of the man could be
+found. "The grass is very dry," he explained, "and the trail is old. We
+discovered nothing except some horses' hoof-marks."
+
+"Keep searching till every foot of land is covered," commanded Curtis.
+"Otherwise the white man will complain."
+
+On Friday, just after the bell had called the people to resume work at
+one o'clock, Crow, the police captain, rode into the yard on a pony
+covered with ridges of dried sweat. His face was impassive, but his eyes
+glittered as he lifted his hand and signed:
+
+"The white man's body is found!"
+
+"Where?" asked Curtis from the door-way.
+
+"On the high ground near the spring. He has three bullet-holes in him.
+Three cartridge-shells were found where the horses' hoof-marks were. The
+ones who shot dismounted there and fired over a little knoll. There are
+many white men over there now; they are very angry. They are coming
+here--"
+
+"Be silent! Come in here!" Once within the office, Curtis drew from Crow
+Wing all he knew. He was just in the midst of giving his orders when
+Wilson opened the door and said, quietly, though his voice had a
+tremulous intensity:
+
+"Major, step here a moment."
+
+Curtis went to the door. He could not restrain a smile, even while a
+cold chill went to his heart. Nothing could exceed the suddenness of the
+change which had swept over the agency. As he had stood in the office
+door ten minutes before, his ears had been filled with the clink-clank
+of the blacksmiths' hammers, the shouts of drivers, and the low laughter
+of young women on their way to the store. Crane's Voice was hitching up
+his team, while Lost Legs and Turkey Tail were climbing to the roof of
+the warehouse with pots of red paint. Peter Wolf was mending a
+mowing-machine, and his brother Robert was cutting wood behind the
+agency kitchen. All about he had observed groups of white-blanketed
+Indians smoking cigarettes in the shade of the buildings, while a crowd
+of nearly twenty others stood watching a game of duck-on-the-rock before
+the agency store.
+
+Now as he looked over the yards not a redman could be seen at his work.
+On every side the people, without apparent haste, but surely, steadily,
+and swiftly, were scattering. The anvil no longer cried out, the
+teamsters were silent, all laughter had ceased, the pots of paint sat
+scorching in the sun. There was something fiercely ominous as well as
+uncanny in this sudden, silent dispersion of a busy, merry throng, and
+Curtis, skilled in Indian signs, appreciated to the full the distrust of
+the white man here expressed. He understood this panic. The settlers had
+long threatened war. Now the pretext had come, and the sound of guns was
+about to begin.
+
+"Wilson," said Curtis, calmly, "if the settlers fire a shot they will
+regret it. See Crane's Voice, if you can find him, and send him to me."
+He turned to Crow and signed: "Go tell your people I will not let the
+cowboys hurt them. Hurry! Call them all back. Tell them to go to work. I
+will call the soldiers, if necessary, to keep the white man away. There
+is no danger."
+
+Crow was a brave and loyal man, and, weary as he was, hastened to carry
+out his orders. The call for "assembly" was rung on the signal-bell, and
+a few of the red employes responded. To them Curtis spoke reassuringly,
+but his words were belied by Thomas Big Voice, the official interpreter,
+who was so scared his knees shook.
+
+Curtis sent Wilson to quiet the teachers and hurried immediately to the
+studio, where Elsie was at work painting a portrait of old Chief Black
+Bull. The old man sprang to his feet the instant he caught sight of his
+agent's face.
+
+"Friend, what is the matter?" he asked.
+
+To Elsie, Curtis said: "Do not be alarmed."
+
+"There is no danger," he signed to Black Bull. "The white man's body has
+been found near the spring. He was shot by two men with horses. The
+white men are coming to see me about it, but there is no need of alarm.
+Tell your people to go quietly to their camps. I will protect them."
+
+The old chief's face grew sterner as he flung his blanket over his arm.
+"I go to see," he said. "The white men are very angry."
+
+"Wait!" called Curtis. "Keep your people quiet right where they are. You
+must help me. I depend on you. You must not alarm them."
+
+"I will do as you command," Bull replied, as he went away, but it was
+plain he apprehended violence.
+
+"What is the matter?" inquired Elsie.
+
+"The settlers have discovered the body of the herder who was killed, and
+Crow brings word they are angry. I don't think there is any danger, but
+I wish you and Jennie were at the fort for a few days. I don't like to
+have you disturbed by these things."
+
+It was their first meeting alone since their return from the
+camping-trip, but Elsie was too much concerned with the serious
+expression of his face to feel any embarrassment.
+
+"You don't think there will be trouble?"
+
+"No, only a distracting wrangle, which may prevent your getting models.
+The Indians are nervous, and are even now getting out for the hills. But
+I hope you will not be alarmed."
+
+"I'm not a nervous person."
+
+"I know you're not--that is the reason I dared to come and tell you what
+was going on. I deeply regret--"
+
+Wilson rapped on the door. "Major, you are needed. Bow-legs reports two
+bodies of armed men riding up the valley; the dust of their horses'
+hoofs can be seen. There are at least twenty men in the two squads,"
+Wilson continued; "one came across from the West Fork, the other came
+from the south. It looks like a prearranged invasion."
+
+"Very well, Wilson, I'll be at the office in time to meet them."
+
+Curtis turned on Elsie a look which went to her heart. His voice was low
+as he said: "Let me take you over to Jennie. I presume these men are
+coming to make a demand on me for the murderers. They may or may not
+know who the guilty ones are, but their coming in force by
+prearrangement has alarmed the people."
+
+As she laid down her brushes and took up her hat she said, gleefully:
+"Father won't be able to ask me what I know about war--will he? Will
+they begin shooting at once?"
+
+"I don't think they are likely to do anything as a body, but some
+reckless cowboy may do violence to some Tetong, which will rouse the
+tribe to retaliation. The settlers have too much sense to incite an
+outbreak." At the door he said: "I wish you would go to Jennie. Tell her
+not to get excited. I will let you know what it is all about as soon as
+I find out myself. It may be all a mistake."
+
+As he was crossing the road Lawson joined him, and when they reached the
+gate before the office, several of the invaders had dismounted and were
+waiting the agent's coming. There were eleven of them; all were deeply
+excited, and two or three of the younger men were observably drunk and
+reckless. Streeter, stepping forward, introduced a short, sullen-faced
+man as "Sheriff Winters, of Pinon County."
+
+"What name?" said Curtis, as he shook hands pleasantly.
+
+"Sheriff Winters," repeated Streeter.
+
+"What is the meaning of all this?" queried Curtis.
+
+"We have come for the man that killed Ed Cole. We are a committee
+appointed by a convention of three hundred citizens who are holding an
+inquest over the body," said Winters. "We have come for the murderer."
+
+"Do you know who committed the murder?"
+
+"No, but we know it was an Injun."
+
+"How do you know it?" They hesitated. "Do you come as an officer of the
+law? Have you a warrant?"
+
+"No, I have not, but we are determined--"
+
+"Then I deny your right to be here. Your coming is an armed invasion of
+federal territory," said Curtis, and his voice rang like steel.
+
+"Here comes the other fellers," called some one in the crowd. Turning
+his head, Curtis saw another squad of men filing down over the hill from
+the north. He counted them and made out fifteen. Turning sharply to the
+sheriff, he asked: "Who are those men?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Are you responsible for their coming?"
+
+"No, sir, I am not!" the sheriff replied, plainly on the defence.
+
+As the second squad came galloping up, the sheriff's party greeted them
+with nods and low words. Curtis heard one man ask: "Where's Charley? I
+thought he was coming," and became perfectly certain that this meeting
+had been prearranged. The new-comers mingled with the sheriff's party
+quite indistinguishably and made no further explanation of their
+presence.
+
+The young officer burned hot with indignation. "Sheriff Winters, order
+these men to retire at once. They have no business here!"
+
+A mutter of rage ran over the mob and several hands dropped
+ostentatiously upon pistols.
+
+One loud-voiced young whelp called out an insulting word. "You go
+to ----! We'll retire when we get an Injun, not before!"
+
+"Shut up, you fool!" called the sheriff, and, turning to Jenks, began to
+mutter in consultation. Curtis advanced a step, and raising his voice
+addressed the entire mob.
+
+"As commander of this reservation, I order you to withdraw. Your
+presence here is unlawful and menacing. Retire to the boundary of the
+reservation, and I will use every effort to discover the murderer. If he
+is in the tribe I will find him and deliver him to the county
+authorities."
+
+At this one of the same young ruffians who had challenged him before
+spurred his horse close to Curtis, and with his pistol in his hand
+shouted: "Not by a d---- sight. We come to take it out o' these thieves,
+and we're goin' to do it. Go ahead, Winters--say the word and well clean
+out the whole tribe."
+
+Curtis looked the youth in the eye. "My boy, I advise you to make war
+slowly, even with your mouth."
+
+Calvin Streeter, with his teeth clinched, crowded his horse forward and
+struck the insolent hoodlum in the face with his hat. "Shut up, or I'll
+pinch your neck off! Think you're sheriff?" The belligerent retired,
+snarling wild curses.
+
+Curtis addressed himself again to Winters, assuming a tone of respect
+and confidence which he did not feel. "Mr. Winters, you are here as a
+representative of the courts of Pinon County. I call upon you, as
+sheriff, to disperse all these men, who are here without warrant of
+law!"
+
+The sheriff hesitated, for the cattlemen were now furious and eager to
+display their valor. Many of them were of the roughest types of cowboys,
+the profane and reckless renegades of older communities, and being
+burdened with ammunition, and foolhardy with drink, they were in no mood
+to turn tail and ride away. They savagely blustered, flourishing their
+revolvers recklessly.
+
+The sheriff attempted to silence them, and said, petulantly, to Curtis:
+"If I hadn't come you'd 'a' had a mob of two hundred armed men instead
+of twenty. I had hard work to keep 'em back. I swore in these ten men as
+my deputies. This second crowd I don't know anything about. They just
+happen to be here."
+
+Curtis knew this to be a lie, but proceeded to cajole the sheriff by
+recognizing him and his authority.
+
+"In that case I shall act." Addressing the leader of the second party,
+he said: "Sheriff Winters is the legal representative of the county; you
+are an unlawful mob, and I once more command you to leave the
+reservation, which is federal territory, under my command."
+
+"No, you don't! We stay right here!" shouted several.
+
+"We'll see whether the people of this State have any rights or not,"
+said Jenks, deeply excited. "We won't allow you to shield your murdering
+redskins under such a plea; we'll be judge and jury in this case."
+
+Curtis turned sharply to the sheriff: "Officer, do your duty! Dispose of
+this mob!" His tone was magnificently commanding. "I shall hold you
+responsible for further trouble," said Curtis, turning a long look on
+Winters, which stung.
+
+The sheriff angrily addressed the crowd. "Get out o' this, boys. You're
+twisting me all up and doing no good. Vamoose now! I've got all the help
+I need. I'm just as much obliged, but you'd better clear out." Then to
+his deputies, "Round 'em up, boys, and send 'em away."
+
+Calvin's face wore a smile of wicked glee as he called out:
+
+"Now you fellers git!" and spurring his horse into their midst he
+hustled them. "Hunt your holes! You're more bother than you are worth.
+Git out o' here!"
+
+While the sheriff and his deputies alternately pleaded and commanded the
+mob to withdraw, Lawson touched Curtis on the arm and pointed to the
+crests of the hills to the west. On every smooth peak a mounted sentinel
+stood, silent and motionless as a figure on a monument--watching the
+struggle going on before the agency gate.
+
+"Behind every hill young warriors are riding," said Lawson. "By sundown
+every man and boy will be armed and ready for battle. If these noble
+citizens knew what you have saved them from they would bless you."
+
+The mob of cattlemen retreated slowly, with many fierce oaths and a
+jangle of loud debate which Curtis feared each moment might break into a
+crackle of pistol shots.
+
+"That was a good stroke," said Lawson. "It sets up division, and so
+weakens them. You will be able to handle the sheriff now."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+FEMININE STRATEGY
+
+
+Having seen the horsemen ride away, Jennie and Elsie came across the
+road tense with excitement.
+
+"Tell us all about it? Have they gone?"
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"We hope they are gone," Curtis replied, as lightly as he could. "It was
+the sheriff of Pinon County and a lynching party. I have persuaded one
+mob to drive away the other. They were less dangerous than they seemed."
+
+"See those heads!" exclaimed Lawson, pointing out several employes who
+were peering cautiously over roofs and around corners. "Not one has
+retained his hat," he added. "If the danger sharpens, off will come
+their shirts and trousers, and those belligerent white men will find
+themselves contending with six hundred of the best fighters in the
+world."
+
+"We must temporize," said Curtis. "A single shot now would be disaster."
+He checked himself there, but Lawson understood as well as he the
+situation.
+
+Jennie was not yet satisfied. "Has the sheriff come for some one in
+particular?"
+
+"No, he has no warrant, hasn't even a clew to the murder. He is really
+at the lead of a lynching party himself, and has no more right to be
+here than the men he is driving away."
+
+"What ought he to do?" asked Elsie.
+
+"He should go home. It is my business as agent to make the arrest. I
+have only a half-dozen police, and I dare not attempt to force him and
+his party to leave the reservation."
+
+"The whole situation is this," explained Lawson. "They've made this
+inquest the occasion for bringing all the hot-headed fools of the
+country together, and this is a bluff which they think will intimidate
+the Indians."
+
+"They wouldn't dare to begin shooting, would they?" asked Elsie.
+
+"You can't tell what such civilized persons will do," said Lawson. "But
+Curtis has the sheriff thinking, and the worst of it is over."
+
+"Here they come again!" exclaimed Wilson, who surprised Curtis by
+remaining cool and watchful through this first mutiny.
+
+At a swift gallop the sheriff and his posse came whirling back up the
+road--a wild and warlike squad--hardly more tractable than the
+redoubtables they had rounded up and thrown down the valley.
+
+"I think you had better go in," said Curtis to Elsie. "Jennie, take her
+back to the house for a little while."
+
+"No, let us stay," cried Elsie. "I want to see this sheriff myself. If
+we hear the talk we'll be less nervous."
+
+Curtis was firm. "This is no place for you. These cowboys have no
+respect for God, man, or devil; please go in."
+
+Jennie started to obey, but Elsie obstinately held her ground.
+
+"I will not! I have the right to know what is threatening me! I always
+hated to go below in a storm."
+
+In a cloud of dust--with snorting of excited horses, the posse, with the
+sheriff at its head, again pulled up at the gate. The young men stared
+at the two daintily dressed girls with eyes of stupefaction. Here was an
+unlooked-for complication. A new element had entered the controversy.
+The sheriff slid from his horse and gave a rude salute with his big
+brown fist.
+
+"Howdy, ladies, howdy." It was plain he was deeply embarrassed by this
+turn of affairs.
+
+Elsie seized Curtis by the arm and whispered: "Introduce me to
+him--quick! Tell him who I am."
+
+Curtis instantly apprehended her plan. "Sheriff Winters, this is Miss
+Brisbane, daughter of ex-Senator Brisbane, of Washington."
+
+The sheriff awkwardly seized her small hand, "Pleased to make your
+acquaintance, miss," he said. "I know the Senator well."
+
+Curtis turned to Jennie, who came forward--"And this is my sister."
+
+"I've heard of you," the sheriff said, regaining his self-possession.
+"I'm sorry to disturb you, ladies--"
+
+Elsie looked at him and quietly said: "I hope you will not be hasty,
+sheriff; my father will not sanction violence."
+
+"You're being here makes a difference, miss--of course--I--"
+
+Jennie spoke up: "You must be hungry, Mr. Sheriff," she said, and
+smiling up at Calvin, added, "and so are your men. Why not picket your
+horses and have some lunch with us?"
+
+Curtis took advantage of the hesitation. "That's the reasonable thing,
+men. We can discuss measures at our ease."
+
+The cowboys looked at each other with significant glances. Several began
+to dust themselves and to slyly swab their faces with their gay
+kerchiefs, and one or two became noticeably redder about the ears as
+they looked down at their horses' bridles.
+
+Calvin broke the silence. "I don't let this chance slip, boys. I'm
+powerful keen, myself."
+
+"So'm I," echoed several others.
+
+The sheriff coughed. "Well--really--I'm agreeable, but I'm afeerd it'll
+be a powerful sight o' trouble, miss."
+
+"Oh no, let us attend to that," cried Jennie. "We shall expect you in
+fifteen minutes," and taking Elsie by the arm, she started across the
+road.
+
+As the cowboys followed the graceful retreating figures of the girls,
+Lawson and Curtis looked at each other with eyes of amazement; Lawson
+acknowledged a mighty impulse to laugh. "How unmilitary," he muttered.
+
+"But how effective," replied Curtis, his lips twitching.
+
+The cowboys muttered among themselves. "Say, is this a dream?"
+
+"Who said pork-and-beans?"
+
+"Does my necktie kiver my collar-button?" asked a third.
+
+"Come, boys!" called Curtis, cheerily. "While the sheriff and I have a
+little set-to, you water your ponies and dust off, and be ready for cold
+potatoes. You're a little late for a square meal, but I think we can
+ease your pangs."
+
+With a patter of jocose remarks the cowboys rode off down towards the
+creek, taking the sheriff's horse along with them.
+
+Curtis turned to Lawson. "I wish you'd bring that code over to the
+house, Lawson. I want to show that special clause to the sheriff."
+
+Turning to Winters, he said: "Come, let's go across to my library and
+talk our differences over in comfort."
+
+The sheriff dusted his trousers with the broad of his hand. "Well, now,
+I'm in no condition to sit down with ladies."
+
+"I'll give you a chance to clean up," replied Curtis, who plainly saw
+that the girls had the rough bordermen "on the ice and going," as Calvin
+would say. A man can brag and swear and bluster out of doors, or in a
+bare, tobacco-stained office; but in a library, surrounded by books, in
+the hearing of ladies, he is more human--more reasonable. Jennie's
+invitation had turned impending defeat to victory.
+
+Curtis took Winters into his own bedroom and put its toilet articles at
+his service and left him. As the sheriff came out into the Captain's
+library five minutes later, it was plain he had washed away a large part
+of his ferocity; his hair, plastered down smooth, represented the change
+in his mental condition--his quills were laid. He was, in fact, fairly
+meek.
+
+Curtis confidentially remarked, in a low voice: "You see, sheriff, we
+must manage this thing quietly. We mustn't endanger these women, and
+especially Miss Brisbane. If the old Senator gets a notion his daughter
+is in danger--"
+
+Winters blew a whiff. "Great God, he'd tear the State wide open! No, the
+boys were too hasty. As I say, I saw the irregularity, but if I hadn't
+consented to lead a posse in here that whole inquest would have come
+a-rampin' down on ye. I said to 'em, 'Boys,' I says, 'you can't do that
+kind of thing,' I says. 'These Tetongs are fighters,' I says, 'and
+you'll have a sweet time chasin' 'em over the hills--just go slow and
+learn to peddle,' I says--"
+
+Lawson, entering with the code, cut him short in his shameless
+exculpation, and Curtis said, suavely: "Mr. Winters, I think you know
+Mr. Lawson."
+
+"We've crossed each other's trail once or twice, I believe," said
+Lawson. "Here is the clause."
+
+Curtis laid the book before the sheriff, who pushed a stubby forefinger
+against the letters and read the paragraph laboriously. His thick wits
+were moved by it, and he said: "Seems a clear case, and yet the
+reservation is included in the lines of Pinon County. 'Pears like the
+county'd ought 'o have some rights."
+
+"Well, here comes the posse," said Curtis; "we'll talk it all over with
+them after lunch. Come in, boys!" he called cheerily to the straggling
+herders, who came in sheepishly, one by one, their spurs rattling, their
+big, limp hats twisted in their hands. They had pounded the alkali from
+each other's shirt, and their red faces shone with the determined
+rubbing they had received. All the wild grace of their horsemanship was
+gone, and as they sidled in and squatted down along the wall they were
+anything but ferocious in manner or speech.
+
+"Ah, now, this is all right," each man said, when Curtis offered chairs.
+"You take the chair, Jim; you take it, Joe--this suits me."
+
+Lawson was interested in their cranial development, and their alignment
+along the wall gave a fine opportunity for comparison. "They were, for
+the most part, shapeless and of small capacity," he said
+afterwards--"just country bumpkins, trained to the horse and the
+revolver, but each of them arrogated to himself the judicial mind of the
+Almighty Creator."
+
+The sheriff, leaning far back in the big Morris chair, wore a smirking
+smile which seemed to say: "Boys, I'm onto this luxury all right.
+Stuffed chair don't get me no back-ache. Nothing's too rich for _my_
+blood--if I can get it."
+
+The young fellows were transfixed with awe of Calvin, for, though the
+last to enter the house, he walked calmly past the library door on into
+the dining-room, and a moment later could be heard chatting with the
+girls, "sassy as a whiskey-jack."
+
+One big, freckled young fellow nudged his neighbor and said: "Wouldn't
+that pull your teeth? That wall-eyed sorrel has waltzed right into the
+kitchen to buzz the women. Say, his neck needs shortening."
+
+"Does he stand in, or is it just gall?"
+
+"It's nerve--nothing else. We ain't onto our job, that's all."
+
+"Oh, he knows 'em all right. I heered he stands in with the agent's
+sister."
+
+"The hell he does! Lookin' that way? Well, I don't think. It's his
+brass-bound cheek. Wait till we ketch him alone."
+
+Cal appeared at the door. "Well, fellers, come in; grub's all spread
+out."
+
+"What you got to say about it?" asked Green.
+
+"Think you're the nigger that rings the bell, don't ye?" remarked
+Galvin. "We're waitin' for the boss to say 'when.'"
+
+Not one of them stirred till Curtis rose, saying to the sheriff, "Well,
+we'll take time later to discuss that; come right out and tame the
+wolf."
+
+The fact that Curtis accepted Calvin's call impressed the crowd deeply.
+
+"You'd think he was one o' the fambly," muttered Galvin. "Wait till we
+get a rope 'round his neck."
+
+The table, looking cool and dainty in its fleckless linen, was set with
+plates of cold chicken and ham, with pots of jelly and white bread at
+each end of the cloth, beside big pitchers of cool milk. To the cowboys,
+accustomed only to their rude camps and the crude housekeeping of the
+settlers round about, this dainty cleanliness of dining-room was
+marvellously subduing. They shuffled into their seats noisily, with only
+swift, animal-like glances at the girls, who were bubbling over with the
+excitement of feeding this band of Cossacks.
+
+As they drank their milk and fed great slices of bread and jelly into
+their mouths, fighting Indians seemed less necessary than they had
+supposed. Whiskey and alkali dust, and the smell of sweating ponies,
+were all forgotten in the quiet and sweetness of this pretty home. The
+soft answer had turned wrath into shamefaced wonder and awkward
+courtesy.
+
+Curtis, sitting at the head of the board as host, plied the sheriff with
+cold chicken, discussing meanwhile the difficulties under which the
+Tetongs labored, and drew from that sorely beleaguered officer
+admissions which he afterwards regretted. "That's so, I don't know as
+I'd do any better in their places, but--"
+
+Jennie, with a keen perception of her power over her guests, went from
+one to the other, inquiring, in her sweetest voice: "Won't _you_ have
+another slice of bread? Please do!"
+
+Elsie, less secure of manner, followed her with the pitcher of milk,
+while the young men bruised each other's shins beneath the table in
+their zealous efforts to diminish the joy each one took in the alluring
+presence of his cup-bearer.
+
+Calvin sat near the end of the table, and his assured manner made the
+others furious. "Look at that stoatin' bottle," growled Green, out of
+the corner of his mouth; "he needs killin'."
+
+"Ah, we'll fix that tommy-cod!" replied Galvin.
+
+While the girls were at the upper end of the table the man on Calvin's
+right leaned over and said:
+
+"Say, Cal, 'pears like you got the run o' the house here."
+
+Calvin, big with joy and pride, replied: "Oh, I ride round and picket
+here once in a while. It pays."
+
+"Well, I should say yes--carry all your cheek right with ye, don't ye?"
+
+As the boys began to shove back, Curtis brought out a box of cigars and
+passed them along the line.
+
+"Take hearty, boys; they don't belong to the government; they're mine,
+and you'll find them good."
+
+As they were all helping themselves, the sheriff coughed loudly and
+called out: "Boys, the Major and me has fixed this thing up. I won't
+need but three of you; the rest can ride back and tell the gang on the
+West Fork it's all right. Cal, you and Tom and Green stay with me. The
+rest of you can go as soon as your dinner's settled."
+
+The ones not chosen looked a little disappointed, but they made no
+protest. As they rose to go out they all made powerful effort to do the
+right thing; they lifted their eyes to the girls for a last glance and
+grumbled:
+
+"Much obliged, ladies!"
+
+And in this humble fashion the ferocious posse of the sheriff retreated
+from the house of their enemy.
+
+Once outside, they turned on each other with broad grins. They
+straightened--took on grace and security of manner again. They were
+streaming with perspiration, and their neckerchiefs were moist with the
+drip of it, but they lit their cigars nonchalantly, flung their hats
+rakishly on their heads, and turned to take a last look at the house.
+
+Elsie appeared at the door. "Boys!" she called, and her clear voice
+transfixed every soul of them. "You mustn't do anything reckless. You
+won't, will you?"
+
+Galvin alone was able to reply. "No, miss, we won't. We won't do nothing
+to hurt you nor the Major's sister--you needn't be scart."
+
+"You can trust Captain Curtis; he will do what is right, I'm sure of
+that. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," they answered, one by one. Nothing further was said till
+they had crossed the road. Then one of the roughest-looking of the whole
+gang turned and said: "Fellers, that promise goes. We got to keep that
+mob from goin' to war while these girls are here. Ain't that right?"
+
+"That's right!"
+
+"Say, fellers, I'll tell you a job that would suit me--"
+
+"Hain't got any work into it if it does."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I'd like to be detailed to guard these 'queens' from monkeys like you."
+
+The others fell upon this reckless one with their hats and gloves till
+he broke into a run, and all disappeared down the road in a cloud of
+dust.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+IN STORMY COUNCILS
+
+
+Meanwhile the sentinels on the hills missed little of the movement in
+the valley. They quivered with rage as the horsemen dismounted and
+entered the agent's house, for that seemed a defeat for their friend;
+but when the strangers remounted and rode away all were reassured, and
+Two Horns said, "I will go down and see what it all means."
+
+One by one the principal native employes reappeared. Crane's Voice came
+out of the barn, where he had lain with his eyes to a crack in the wall,
+and Peter Big-Voice and Robert Wolf stepped cautiously into view from
+behind the slaughter-pen. Old Mary, the cook, suddenly blocked the
+kitchen door-way, and, with tremulous lips, asked: "Cowboys gone?"
+
+"Yes, all gone," replied Jennie, much amused.
+
+"Good, good," replied the old woman.
+
+"Where have you been, Mary?"
+
+Her white teeth shone out in a sudden smile. "Ice-house--heap cold."
+
+"What did you go in there for?"
+
+"Cowboy no good--mebbe so shoot."
+
+"They won't hurt you," said Jennie, gently. "Go to work again. The
+Captain will take care of you."
+
+"Little Father no got gun--cowboy heap gun."
+
+"Little Father don't need gun now; you are all right," Jennie said, and
+the old woman went to her work again, though nervously alert to every
+sound.
+
+From nowhere in particular, two sharp-eyed lads sauntered up the road to
+play under the office window, so that if any loud word should be spoken
+the tribe might know of it.
+
+Jennie and Elsie discussed the situation while sitting at the library
+window with a view of the agency front door.
+
+"I can't for the life of me take a serious view of this episode," said
+Jennie. "These cowboys wouldn't be so foolish as to fire a first shot.
+They are like big, country school-boys."
+
+"The Parkers!" cried Elsie, suddenly. "Where are the Parkers?"
+
+Jennie gasped. "True enough! I had forgotten all about them. I don't
+believe they have got back from their ride."
+
+"They will be scared blue. We must send for them."
+
+"I'll have Crane's Voice go at once," said Jennie. "I will go with him."
+
+"Don't do that--not without letting the Captain know. How far is it?"
+
+"Just over the hill--not more than five miles."
+
+But even as she was hurrying across to the corral to find an angel for
+this mission of mercy, she saw the Parkers coming down the hill-side,
+moving slowly, for both were very bad riders. It was plain they had
+heard nothing, and as she watched them approach Jennie cried:
+
+"Don't say a word. They won't see anything suspicious."
+
+There was something irresistibly funny in the calm stateliness of the
+blond Parker as he led the way past the store which was deserted of its
+patrons, past the school-house where the students were quivering with
+excitement, and close beside the office behind whose doors Curtis was
+still in legal battle with the sheriff.
+
+Jennie met her visitors at the gate, her hands clinched in the effort to
+control her laughter. "You are late. Are you hungry?" she asked.
+
+"Famished!" said Parker. "I had to ride slow on Mrs. Parker's account."
+
+"I like that!" cried Jennie. "As if any one could be a worse rider than
+you are."
+
+"How do women get off, anyway?" asked Parker, as he approached his
+wife's pony.
+
+"Fall off," suggested Jennie, and this seemed so funny that she and
+Elsie went off into simultaneous hysterical peals of laughter.
+
+"You are easily amused," remarked Parker, eying them keenly. "Laugh on;
+it is good for digestion. Excuse me from joining; I haven't anything to
+digest."
+
+Putting his angular shoulder to Mrs. Parker's waist, he eased her to the
+ground awkwardly but tenderly. Upon facing the girls again and
+discovering them still in foolish mirth, Parker looked himself all over
+carefully, then turned to his wife. "We seem to be affording these young
+ladies a great deal of hearty pleasure, Mrs. Parker."
+
+Mrs. Parker was not so dense. "What is the matter?" she asked, sharply.
+"What has happened? This laughter is not natural--you are both
+hysterical."
+
+Both girls instantly became as grave as they had been hilarious a moment
+before.
+
+"Now I _know_ something is wrong," said Mrs. Parker. "Where is the
+Captain? What made you laugh that way? Have the savages broken out?"
+
+Jennie met Parker's eyes fairly popping from his head, and went off into
+another shout. At last she paused and said, breathlessly: "Oh, you are
+funny! Come into the house. We've been entertaining a lynching
+party--all the Indians are in the hills and the sheriff's in the office
+throttling the agent."
+
+While the Parkers consumed their crusts of bread and scraps of cold
+meat, Jennie told them what had happened.
+
+Parker rose to the occasion. "We must get out o' here--every one of us!
+We should never have come in here. Your brother is to blame; he deceived
+us."
+
+"He did not!" replied Jennie. "You shall not hold him responsible!"
+
+"He knew the situation was critical," Parker hotly retorted. "He knew an
+outbreak was likely. It was criminal on his part."
+
+"Jerome Parker, you are a donkey," remarked Elsie, calmly. "Nothing has
+really happened. If you're so nervous, go home. You can't sculp an
+Indian, anyway--grasshoppers and sheep are in your line." She had
+reverted to the plain talk of the studios. "Your nervousness amused us
+for a while, but it bores us now. Please shut up and run away if you are
+afraid."
+
+"You're not very nice," said Mrs. Parker, severely.
+
+"I don't think it's very manly of your husband when he begins to blame
+Captain Curtis for an invasion of cowboys."
+
+"You admitted you were scared," pursued Parker.
+
+"Well, suppose we were, we didn't weep and complain; we set to work to
+tide over the crisis."
+
+Jennie put in a word. "If you'd feel safer in the camp of the enemy, Mr.
+Parker, we'll set you down the valley with the settlers. I intend to
+stay right here with my brother."
+
+"So do I," added Elsie; "if there is danger it is safer here than with
+the cowboys; but the mob is gone, and the Captain and Osborne will see
+that we are protected."
+
+Meanwhile the office resounded with the furious argument of the sheriff.
+"The whole western part of the State is disgusted with the way in which
+these Indians escape arrest. They commit all kinds of depredations, and
+not one is punished. This has got to stop. We intend to learn this tribe
+it can't hide thieves and murderers any longer." He ended, blustering
+like a northwest wind.
+
+"Produce your warrants and I'll secure the men," replied Curtis,
+patiently. "You shall not punish a whole tribe on a pure assumption. You
+must come to me with a proper warrant for a particular man, and when you
+receive him from me you must prove his guilt in court. As the case now
+stands, you haven't the slightest evidence that an Indian killed this
+herder, and I will not give over an innocent man to be lynched by you."
+
+As the sheriff stormed up and down the floor Lawson said, in a low
+voice: "Delay--delay."
+
+Curtis, who had been writing a note, slipped it to Lawson, who rose and
+went out of the door. Curtis continued to parley.
+
+"I appreciate your feeling in this matter, Mr. Sheriff, and I am willing
+to do what is right. I have called a council of my head men to-night,
+and I will ask them to search for the murderer. An Indian cannot keep a
+secret. If one of the Tetongs killed your herder he will tell of it. I
+again suggest that you go back to your people and assure them of my
+willingness to aid in this affair. Give me three days in which to act."
+
+"That crowd will not be satisfied unless we bring an Injun with us.
+We've got to do that or they'll come rompin' in here and raise hell with
+you. I propose to take old Crawling Elk himself and hold him till the
+tribe--"
+
+"If you attempt such a crime I will put you off the reservation,"
+replied Curtis, sharply.
+
+"Put me off! By ----, I think I see you doing that! Why, the whole State
+would rise and wipe you and your tribe out of existence." He turned
+threateningly and towered over Curtis, who was seated.
+
+"Be quiet, and keep your distance, or I'll put you in irons! Sit down!"
+
+These words were not spoken loudly, but they caused the sheriff's face
+to blanch and his knees to tremble. There was a terrifying, set glare in
+the officer's eyes as he went on:
+
+"What do you suppose would be the consequences of firing upon a captain
+of the United States army in the discharge of his duty, by a sheriff
+acting outside the law? You have only three men out there, and one of
+them is my friend, and you know the quality of Calvin Streeter. I am
+still in command of this reservation, Mr. Sheriff."
+
+Lawson re-entering at this moment, Curtis said: "Ask Streeter to come
+in, will you, Mr. Lawson?"
+
+Calvin entered smilingly. "Well, what's the up-shot?" he asked.
+
+"It is this, Calvin. The sheriff has no warrant for anybody, not even
+for a suspect. I have asked him to go back and wait till I can find some
+clew to the murderer. Do you consider that reasonable?"
+
+"It sounds fair," admitted Calvin, growing grave.
+
+"Now the question of whether the State or county authority covers a
+federal reservation or not is too big a question for us to settle. You
+see that, Calvin?"
+
+Calvin scratched his head. "It sure is too many fer me."
+
+"Now I'll compromise in this case, Mr. Sheriff. You discharge the rest
+of your deputies and send them away, while you and Calvin remain with me
+to attend a council--not to arrest anybody, but to convince yourself of
+my good-will in the matter. I will not permit you to be armed nor to
+arrest any of my Indians until we know what we are doing. When we secure
+evidence against any man I will arrest him myself and turn him over to
+you. But I insist that you send away the men in the outer office."
+
+Calvin spoke up. "I reckon the Major's right, sheriff. How ye goin' to
+arrest a man if you don't know who he is? I reckon you better do as he
+says. I ain't a-lookin' fer no fuss with the agent, and the United
+States army only fifty miles off."
+
+The sheriff growled surlily. "All right, but there ain't no monkey
+business about this. I get my man sooner or later, you bet your heart
+on that." As he went out into the general office and announced the
+agent's demand, Green blurted out defiant phrases.
+
+"I'll be damned if I would! No--stick it out! Do? Why, take old Elk and
+hold him till the tribe produces the right man--that's the way we always
+done before."
+
+The arguments of Calvin could not be heard, but at last he prevailed,
+and the sullen deputies withdrew. The sheriff scrawled a hasty note to
+the county attorney to explain his failure to bring his man, and the
+three deputies went out to saddle up. Their cursing was forceful and
+varied, but they went.
+
+Parker, seeing them come forth, met them, inquiring anxiously:
+
+"Well, what do you think of the situation?"
+
+Green looked at him surlily. "You belong here?"
+
+"No, I'm just a visitor."
+
+"Well, you better get out quick as God'll let ye."
+
+"Why, what is going to happen?"
+
+"Just this: we're goin' to have the man that killed Cole or we'll cut
+this whole tribe into strips. That's all," and they moved on, cursing
+afresh.
+
+Parker fell back aghast, and watched them in silence as they saddled
+their horses and rode off. He then hurried to the office. Wilson, after
+going in to see his chief, came back to say: "The Major will see you in
+a moment. He's sending out his police."
+
+A few moments afterwards six of the Indian policemen came filing out,
+looking tense and grave, and a couple of minutes later Curtis appeared.
+
+"What is it, Parker?"
+
+"What is going on, Captain? I am very anxious."
+
+"You need not be. We've reached a compromise. Wait a moment and I will
+go over to the house with you."
+
+When he reappeared, Lawson was with him. Nothing was said till they were
+well in the middle of the road. Then Curtis remarked, carelessly:
+
+"You attended to that matter, Lawson?"
+
+"Yes, Crane's Voice is ten miles on his way."
+
+"There go two dangerous messengers," said Curtis, lifting his eyes to
+the hill-side, up which the sullen deputies were climbing.
+
+Parker was importunate--he wished to understand the whole matter. Curtis
+became a little impatient. "I will explain presently," he replied, and
+nothing more was said till they entered the library, which was filled
+with the women of the agency. Jennie had reassured them as best she
+could, but they were eager to see the agent himself. Miss Colson, the
+kindergarten teacher, was disposed to rush into his arms.
+
+Curtis smiled round upon them. "What's all this--a council of war?"
+
+Miss Colson seized the dramatic moment. "Oh, Major, are we in danger?
+Tell us what has happened."
+
+"Nothing much has happened since dinner. I have persuaded the sheriff to
+discharge all his deputies except Calvin, and they are to remain over. I
+have sent for the head man to come in, and we are going to council
+to-night. The trouble is practically over, for the sheriff has given up
+the attempt to arrest Elk as a hostage. Now go back to your work, all of
+you. You should not have left your children," he added, rather sternly,
+to Miss Colson. "They need you now."
+
+The women went out at once, and in a few minutes Curtis was alone with
+the members of his own little circle. "Now I have another story for
+you," he said, turning to Elsie. "While I am sure the worst of the
+sheriff's work is over, I realize that there are two hundred armed men
+over on the Willow, and that it is better to be on the safe side.
+Therefore I have sent to Fort Lincoln for troops. Crane's Voice will
+reach there by sundown--the troops should arrive here by sunrise
+to-morrow. Meanwhile I will talk with Elk--"
+
+"Suppose Elk don't come?" asked Jennie.
+
+Curtis looked grave. "In that case I shall go to find him."
+
+Elsie cried out, "You wouldn't do that?"
+
+"Yes, it would be my duty--I have promised--but he will come. He trusts
+me. I have ordered him to bring all his people and camp as usual just
+above the agency store. Now, of course, no one can tell the precise
+outcome of all this, and if you, Miss Brisbane, and Mr. and Mrs. Parker,
+want to go down to the white settlement, I will send you at once. Mr.
+Lawson will go with you, or I will ask the sheriff to take you--"
+
+"The safest place on the reservation is right here!" said Lawson.
+"Suppose the ranchers return--they will take control here, and use the
+agency as a base of supplies; the fighting will take place in the hills.
+Besides, our going would excite the settlers uselessly, and put Captain
+Curtis deeper into trouble. I propose that we stay right here, and
+convince the employes and the Indians that we are not alarmed. I don't
+want to assume the responsibility of a panic, and our going this
+afternoon might precipitate one."
+
+Curtis was profoundly grateful to Lawson for this firm statement. "I
+think you are right, Mr. Lawson," he said, formally. "You see my
+position clearly. I feel sure I can control the sheriff by peaceable
+means--and yet my responsibility to you weighs upon me." He looked at
+Elsie again. "I think you can trust me. Will you stay?"
+
+"Of course we will stay," she replied, and Parker sank into his chair as
+if resigned to his fate.
+
+Curtis went on: "I am not speaking to reassure myself. Perhaps I am too
+positive, but my experience as an officer in the army has given me a
+contempt for these six-shooter heroes. The thing I really fear is a
+panic among the settlers. Naturally, I am disinclined towards the
+notoriety I would gain in the press; but the troops will certainly be
+here to-morrow, and that will settle the turmoil. The sheriff is less of
+an embarrassment, now that he has only Calvin as deputy."
+
+"Send the sheriff over here--we'll entertain him by showing him the
+photograph album," called Jennie. "We helped out this forenoon, and we
+can do it again."
+
+"I don't think such heroic methods are necessary; an extra good dinner
+will do quite as well," replied Curtis, smiling. "I'm sorry, Mr. Parker,
+that your expedition for material is coming to this grewsome end."
+
+Elsie interposed. "It is precisely what he wants; he will know from
+positive knowledge how a Tetong brave dresses for war. I have always
+claimed that no Indian ever wore that absurd war-bonnet."
+
+Lawson added: "And _you_ will gain valuable information as to the
+character of white settlers and 'Indian outbreaks.'"
+
+"I ought to telegraph papa."
+
+"I have already done so," replied Lawson--"in anticipation of the
+hullabaloo that will break forth in the papers of the State to-morrow."
+
+"I shall wire the department a full statement to-night," said Curtis.
+"But we must be careful what we say at this point."
+
+"Isn't it a foolish thing not to have a telegraph line connecting the
+fort and the agency?" cried Jennie. "The troops could have been half-way
+here by this time."
+
+"It's the same penny-wise and pound-foolish method by which the Indian
+service is run," responded Lawson.
+
+"Here comes one of my scouts," said Curtis, as a young Tetong galloped
+up to the gate, threw himself from his reeking pony, and strode into the
+hall-way without knocking, his spurs clattering, his quirt dangling from
+his wrist. As he stood before his chief, delivering his message with
+shadowy silence and swiftness, Elsie thrilled with the dramatic
+significance of the scene. The stern, almost haughty face of the young
+man was in keeping with his duties.
+
+Curtis dismissed the boy and translated his message. "He says the
+settlers below us have fled towards Pinon City, taking all their goods
+with them. White Wolf's band are all in camp except the young men, who
+are scouting for the chiefs to see what it all means. That mob of
+cowboys took delight, no doubt, in scattering consternation as they
+passed. The settlers are in stampede."
+
+"Wilson is coming across the street," said Jennie, "and has an Indian
+with him."
+
+"Another scout," said Curtis. "Now I will let you know all that goes on,
+but I must ask you all, except Mr. Lawson, to leave me the library to
+transact this business in." As Elsie passed him, she drew towards him
+with a little, shrinking movement which moved him deeply. It was as
+though she were clutched by a force greater than her will.
+
+"It's like being at army headquarters," she said to Jennie.
+
+"It is a little like a commander's tent in the field. I wish we dared to
+throw that old sheriff off the reservation. He has no right to be
+snooping round here."
+
+Parker slumped deep in a big rocker, and Mrs. Parker sat beside him and
+put her hand on his arm.
+
+"Don't worry about me, Jerome."
+
+He looked up gloomily. "I got you into this, dearest, and I must get you
+out. If the soldiers come to-morrow I will ask for an escort to the
+fort, and then we can reach the railway and get out of the cursed
+country. I'd as soon live in a den of hyenas and rattlesnakes."
+
+Elsie laughed. "Parker, you are too amusing. You are pathetic. When I
+think of you as you pranced about the camp-fire two days ago and look
+upon you now, my heart aches for you."
+
+"I don't think it generous of you to make fun of us at this time, Bee
+Bee," Mrs. Parker replied, reproachfully.
+
+"Oh, let her go on. Her Latin Quarter English doesn't disturb me,"
+Parker answered, savagely.
+
+Curtis at this moment appeared. "My message was from the farmer at
+Willow Spring. He says all his employes, with one or two exceptions,
+have disappeared; that the band of Crawling Elk was threatened by a mob
+of white men early this morning, and that they are all breaking camp in
+order to flee to the hills. All the settlers on the Willow are hurrying
+their women and children down towards Pinon City. The whole country has
+been alarmed by the menace of the coroner's inquest, which is camped
+below the agency at Johnson's ranch, waiting the sheriff's return. The
+deputies had not reached there when this letter was written," added
+Curtis. "The sheriff's message will disperse the crowds, and I am
+sending a note of reassurance to the farmers and to the settlers."
+
+"It's getting mighty serious, don't you think so?" asked Parker. "I wish
+the troops were here. Can't we hurry them up?"
+
+"No, all that can be done has been done. I am telling you all that goes
+on, and I must request you not to repeat it. I wish you would all be
+specially guarded in the presence of the sheriff. You might engage him
+in a game of 'cinch' after dinner. Anything to keep him out of my way."
+
+"We'll absorb him," said Jennie.
+
+One by one Curtis called in his most trusted employes, and, quieting
+their fears, put them to their duties. Special policemen were uniformed
+and sent to carry messages to the encampments on the hills, asking the
+head men of each band to come at once to the agency for council, and to
+order their people into camp. The tranquillizing effect of the agent's
+bearing made itself felt immediately. The threads of the whole tangle
+were soon in his hands and made straight, and when he received the
+sheriff at six o'clock he was confident and serene of bearing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two Horns came down from the hills, and at the agent's order gathered
+his band close around his own tepee to camp until the trouble was ended.
+Together they made a tour of the village, and Curtis made it plain that
+he would protect them, and that no more armed men would come among them
+to incite violence.
+
+"They have turned back, for fear of the Little Father and of
+Washington," said Two Horns to the old men, and they were glad of his
+words.
+
+Curtis was by no means at ease. As he recalled the threats of the
+cattlemen, the encroachments of their flocks, the vicious assaults made
+on Crow Killer and Yellow Hand, he divined a growing antagonism which
+could go but little further without producing war. His mind dwelt on the
+hurrying figure of Crane's Voice. Much depended on him. He saw him as he
+faced the sentry. "If he should fail to reach the Colonel! But he will
+not fail, and troops will be instantly despatched."
+
+From these considerations he turned to the growing trust and confidence
+which Elsie was displaying. That movement towards him, slight as it was,
+and the softened look in her eyes, quickened his breath as he allowed
+his inward self to muse on their meaning. She was looking to him for
+protection, and this attitude was not only new, it was disturbing; and
+the soldier found it necessary to put away his pipe and fall savagely
+upon some work to keep his mind from ranging too far afield.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+A COUNCIL AT NIGHT
+
+
+The sheriff came to dinner rather shamefacedly, but Calvin, being
+profoundly pleased, was on his very best behavior. "This being deputy
+suits me to the ground," said he to Wilson, as he rose in answer to the
+call to dinner.
+
+As they were crossing the road he said, confidentially: "Now see here,
+you mustn't talk politics round the ladies over there, sheriff."
+
+"Politics?"
+
+"You know what I mean. You keep to the weather and the crops, and let
+this murder case alone for a minute or two, or I'll bat you one for
+luck."
+
+Winters took this threat as a sign of their good understanding, and
+remarked, jocosely, "You damned young cub, I'd break you in two for a
+leather cent."
+
+"That's all right, but what I say goes," replied Calvin. And remembering
+old Joe Streeter's political pull, the sheriff did not reply.
+
+Jennie kept the talk pleasantly inconsequential during dinner by a
+cheery tale of the doings of a certain Chinaman she had once tried to
+train into a cook, and Calvin, laughing heartily, matched her experience
+with that of his mother while keeping house in Pinon City one winter.
+This left Elsie to a little conversation with Curtis.
+
+"You must let me see this council to-night," she said, and her request
+had the note of a command.
+
+"I know how you feel," he said, "and I wish I could do so; but I can't
+make an exception in your favor without offending the Parkers."
+
+"Are you not the general?" she asked, smilingly. "If you see fit to
+invite me and leave them out, they can only complain. I'm going to stay
+here with Jennie, anyhow."
+
+"In that case we can manage it."
+
+"Do you know what I think? You've instigated this whole affair to
+convert me to your point of view. Really, the whole thing is like a
+play. I'm not a bit frightened--at least, not yet. It's precisely like
+sitting in a private box and seeing the wolves tear holes in Davy
+Crockett's cabin. You are the manager of the show."
+
+"Well, why not? When the princess tours the provinces it is customary to
+present historical pageants in her honor. This drama is your due." And
+as he spoke he observed for the first time the absence of the ring from
+her significant finger. The shock threw him into a moment's swift
+surmise, and when he looked up at her she was flushed and uneasy. She
+recovered herself first, and though her hand remained on the table it
+had the tremulous action of a frightened small animal--observed yet
+daring not to seek cover.
+
+"I hope this council to-night will not fail. I am eager to see what you
+will do with them," she hastened to say.
+
+"They will come!" he replied.
+
+Calvin was relating a story of a mountain-lion he had once treed for an
+Eastern artist to photograph.
+
+"Just then the dern brute jumped right plum onto the feller and knocked
+him down, machine and all; for a minute or two it was just a mixture o'
+man and lion, then that feller come up top, and the next thing I seen he
+batted the lion with his box, and that kind o' stunted the brute, and he
+hit him again and glass began to fly; he was game all right, that feller
+was. When the lion stiffened out, he turned to where I was a-rollin' on
+the pine-needles, and says, quiet-like, 'Give me your revolver, please.'
+I give it to him, and he put it to the lion's ear and finished him. When
+he got up and looked at his machine he says, 'How much is a
+mountain-lion skin worth?' ''Bout four dollars, green,' I says. He
+looked at the inwards of his box, which was scattered all over the
+ground. Says he, 'You wouldn't call that profitable, would you--a
+seventy-dollar instrument in exchange for a four-dollar pelt?'"
+
+Everybody laughed at this story, and the dinner came to an end with the
+sheriff in excellent temper. Lawson offered cigars, and tolled him
+across the road to the office, leaving Curtis alone in his library.
+
+He resolutely set to work to present the situation of the sheriff's
+presence concisely to the department in a telegram, and was still at
+work upon this when Jennie entered the room, closed the curtains, and
+lit the lamp.
+
+Elsie came in a little later to say, sympathetically:
+
+"Are you tired, Captain Curtis?"
+
+He pushed his writing away.
+
+"Yes, a little. The worst of it is, I keep saying: _If so and so
+happens, then I must do thus and thus_, and that is the hardest work in
+the world. I can deal with actual, well-defined conditions--even riots
+and mobs--but fighting suppositions is like grappling with ghosts."
+
+"I know what you mean," she replied, quickly. "But I want to ask
+you--could father be of any help if I telegraphed him to come?"
+
+He sat up very straight as she spoke, but did not reply till he turned
+her suggestion over in his mind. "No--at least, not now. What troubles
+me is this: the local papers will be filled with scare-heads to-morrow
+morning; your father will see them, and will be alarmed about you."
+
+"I will wire him that I am all right."
+
+"You must do that. I consider you are perfectly safe, but at the same
+time your father will think you ought not to be here, and blame me for
+allowing you to come in; and, worst of all, he will wire you to come
+out."
+
+"Suppose I refuse to go, would that be the best of all?" Her face was
+distinctly arch of line.
+
+His heart responded to her lure, but his words were measured as he
+answered: "Sometimes the responsibility seems too great; perhaps you
+would better go. It will be hard to convince him that you are not in
+danger."
+
+She sobered. "There really is danger, then?"
+
+"Oh yes, so long as these settlers are in their present mood, I suppose
+there is. Nothing but the life of an 'Injun' will satisfy them. Their
+hate is racial in its bitterness."
+
+"You think I ought to go, then?"
+
+He looked at her with eyes that were wistful and searching.
+
+"Yes. It is a sad ending, but perhaps Captain Maynard will be here
+to-morrow with a troop of cavalry, and--I--think I must ask him to
+escort you to the railway."
+
+"But the danger will be over then."
+
+"To your father it will seem to be intensifying."
+
+"I will not go on that account! I feel that the safest place will be
+right here with you, for your people love you. I am not afraid when I am
+near you."
+
+Curtis suddenly realized how dangerously sweet it was to sit in his own
+library with Elsie in that mood seated opposite him. The sound of a
+tapping on the window relieved the tension of the moment.
+
+"Another of my faithful boys," he said, rising quickly. Then, turning to
+her with a tenderness almost solemn, he added: "Miss Brisbane, I hope
+you feel that if danger really threatened I would think of you first of
+all. You will stay with Jennie to-night?"
+
+"If you think best, but we want to know all that goes on. I can't bear
+to be battened down like passengers in a storm at sea; there is nothing
+so trying to nerves. I want to be on deck with the captain if the storm
+breaks."
+
+"Very well. I promise not to leave you in ignorance," and, raising the
+curtain, he signed to the man without to enter. It was Crow, the captain
+of the police, a short man with a good-humored face, now squared with
+serious dignity.
+
+"Two Dog has just come in from Willow Creek," he reported. "He says the
+cattlemen are still camped by Johnson's ranch. They all held a council
+this afternoon."
+
+"Are any of the head men here?"
+
+"Yes, they are all at my tepee. They want to see you very bad."
+
+"Tell them to come over at once; the council will take place here. I
+want you, but no more of the police. I want only the head men of each
+band."
+
+After the officer went out Curtis moved the easy-chairs to the back of
+the room and set plain ones in a semicircular row at the front. Hardly
+was he settled when Elk, Grayman, and Two Horns entered the room, and,
+after formally shaking hands, took the seats assigned them. Their faces,
+usually smiling, were grave, and Grayman's brow was knotted with lines
+of anxiety. He was a small man, with long, brown hair, braided and
+adorned with tufts of the fine feathers which grow under the eagle's
+wings. He was handsome and neatly dressed, the direct antithesis to
+Crawling Elk, who was tall and slovenly, with a homely, grandfatherly
+face deeply seamed with wrinkles, a face that would be recognized as
+typical of his race. He seemed far less concerned than some of the
+others.
+
+Two Horns, also quite at his ease, unrolled his pipe and began filling
+it, while Curtis resumed his writing.
+
+Jennie, looking in at the door, recognized the chiefs, and they all rose
+politely to greet her.
+
+"I'm coming to the council," she said to Two Horns.
+
+He smiled. "Squaws no come council--no good."
+
+"No, no, heap good," she replied. "We come. Chiefs heap talk--we catchim
+coffee."
+
+"Good, good!" he replied. "After council, feast."
+
+One by one the other chiefs slipped in and took their places, till all
+the bands were represented save that of Red Wolf, who was too far away
+to be reached. Curtis then sent for the sheriff and Calvin and Elsie and
+Lawson, and when all were seated began his talk by addressing the
+chieftains. He spoke in English, in order that the sheriff could hear
+all that was said, and Lawson interpreted it into Sioux.
+
+"You know this young man"--he pointed at Calvin. "Some of you know this
+man"--he touched the sheriff. "He is the war chief of all the country
+beyond where Grayman lives. He comes to tell us that a herder has been
+killed over by the Muddy Spring. He thinks it was done by an Indian. The
+white people are very angry, and they say that you must find the
+murderer. Do you know of any one who has threatened to do this thing?"
+
+One by one the chiefs replied: "I do not know who did this thing. I have
+heard no one speak of it as a thing good to be done. We are all sad."
+
+Two Horns added a protest. "I think it hard that a whole tribe should
+suffer because the white man thinks one redman has done a wrong thing."
+
+Grayman spoke sadly: "My people have had much trouble because the
+cattlemen want to drive their herds up the Willow, and we are like men
+who guard the door. On us the trouble falls. It is our duty--the same as
+you should say to a policeman, 'Do not let anybody come in my house.'
+Therefore we have been accused of killing the cattle and stealing
+things. But this is not true. I remembered your words, and I did nothing
+to make these people angry; but some of my young men threw stones to
+drive the sheep back, and then the herder fired at them with revolver.
+This was not our fault."
+
+"He lies!" said the sheriff, hotly, when this was interpreted. "No one
+has fired a gun but his reckless young devils. His men were riding down
+the sheep, and the herder rocked 'em away."
+
+"You admit the sheep were on the reservation, then?" asked Curtis.
+
+"Well--yes--temporarily. They were being watered."
+
+"Well, we won't go into that now," said Curtis, turning to the chiefs
+and speaking with great solemnity, using the sign-language at times. And
+as he sat thus fronting the strongly wrought, serious faces of his head
+men he was wholly admirable, and Elsie's blood thrilled with excitement,
+for she felt herself to be in the presence of primeval men.
+
+"Now, Grayman, Elk, Two Horns, Standing Elk, Lone Man, and Crow, listen
+to me. Among white men it is the law that when any one has done a wrong
+thing--when he steals or murders--he is punished. If he kills a man he
+is slain by the chief, not by the relatives of the man who is slain. As
+with you, I am here to apply the white man's rule. If a Tetong has shot
+this herder he must suffer for it--he and no one else. I will not permit
+the cattlemen to punish the tribe. If you know who did this, it is your
+duty to give him up to the law. It is the command of the Great
+Father--he asks you to go back to your people and search hard to find
+who killed this white man. When you find him bring him to me. Will you
+do this?"
+
+No one answered but Two Horns, who said, "Ay, we will do as you say,"
+and his solemnity of utterance attested his sincerity.
+
+"Listen to me," said Curtis again, fixing their eyes with his dramatic
+action. "If my only brother had done this thing, I would give him up to
+be punished. I would not hesitate, and I expect you to do the same."
+
+"It is always thus," Standing Elk broke out. "The cattlemen wish to
+punish all redmen for what one bad young warrior does. We are weary of
+it."
+
+"I know it has been so, but it shall not be so again, not while I am
+your chief," Curtis responded. "Will you go home and do as I have
+commanded? Will you search hard and bring me word what you discover?"
+
+One by one they muttered, "Ay!" and Curtis added, heartily: "That is
+good--now you may go."
+
+"I want to say a word," said the sheriff.
+
+"Not now," replied Curtis. "These people are in my charge. Whatever is
+said to them I will say," and at his gesture they rose, and Crow,
+Standing Elk, and Lone Man went soberly out into the night.
+
+Grayman approached Curtis and took his hand in both of his and pressed
+it to his breast. "Little Father, I have heard your words; they are not
+easy to follow, but they have entered my heart. No white man has ever
+spoken to me with your tongue. You do not lie; your words are soft, but
+they stand like rocks--they do not melt away. My words shall be like
+yours--they will not vanish like smoke. What I have promised, that I
+will fulfil." As he spoke his slight frame trembled with the intensity
+of his emotion, and his eyes were dim with tears, and his deep, sweet
+voice, accompanying his gestures, thrilled every soul in the room. At
+the end he dropped the agent's hand and hastened from the house like one
+afraid of himself.
+
+Curtis turned to Lawson to hide his own emotion. "Mr. Lawson, I assume
+the sheriff is as tired as the rest of us; will you show him the bed you
+were kind enough to offer?"
+
+"Sheriff Winters, if you will come with me I'll pilot you to a couch. It
+isn't downy, but it will rest a tired man. Calvin, you are to bunk
+alongside."
+
+"All right, professor." Calvin rose reluctantly, and as he stood in the
+door he said, in a low voice, to Jennie, "Now if you want me any time
+just send for me."
+
+"Hold the sheriff level--that's what you do for us."
+
+"I'll see that he don't get gay," he replied, and his hearty confidence
+did them all good.
+
+After the sheriff and his deputy went out, Elsie said: "Oh, it was
+wonderful! That old man who spoke last must be the Edwin Booth of the
+tribe. He was superbly dramatic."
+
+"He took my words very deeply to heart. That was Grayman, one of the
+most intelligent of all my head men; but he has had a great deal of
+trouble. He comprehends all too much of the tragedy of his situation."
+
+Elsie sat with her elbows on the table, gazing in silence towards the
+empty fireplace. She looked weary and sad.
+
+Curtis checked himself. "I regret very deeply the worry and discomfort
+all this brings upon you."
+
+"Oh, I'm not thinking of myself this time, I am thinking of the hopeless
+task you have set yourself. You can't solve this racial question--it's
+too big and too complicated. Men are simply a kind of ferocious beast.
+They go to work killing each other the way chickens eat grasshoppers."
+
+"Your figure is wrong. If our Christian settlers only killed Indians to
+fill their stomachs they'd stop some time; but they kill them because
+they're like the boy about his mother--tired of seeing 'em 'round."
+
+There was a time when Elsie's jests were frankly on the side of the
+strong against the weak, but she was becoming oppressed with the
+suffering involved in the march of civilization. "What a fine face
+Grayman has; I couldn't help thinking how much more refined it was than
+Winters! As for the cowboys, they were hulking school-boys; I was not a
+bit afraid of them after they were dismounted."
+
+"Unfortunately they are a kind of six-footed beast, always mounted;
+there isn't a true frontiersman among them. It angered me that they had
+the opportunity to even look at you."
+
+His intensity of gaze and the bitterness of his voice took away her
+breath for an instant, and before she could reply Jennie and Lawson came
+in.
+
+Lawson was smiling. "Parker is righteously incensed. He tried to enter
+the council an hour ago and your dusky minions stopped him. He is
+genuinely alarmed now, and only waiting for daylight to take flight."
+
+"Jerome is a goose," said Elsie.
+
+"He's a jackass at times. A man of talent, but a bore when his yellow
+streak comes out." Turning to Curtis he said, very seriously, "Is there
+anything I can do for you, Captain?"
+
+"You might wire your version of the disturbance to the Secretary along
+with mine. We can safely look for an avalanche of newspaper criticism,
+and I would like to anticipate their outbreak."
+
+"Our telegrams will be at once made public--"
+
+"Undoubtedly, and for that reason we must use great care in their
+composition. I have mine written; please look it over."
+
+Jennie, who had dropped into a chair, checked a yawn. "Oh, dear; I wish
+it were morning."
+
+Curtis looked at her and laughed. "I think you girls would better go to
+bed. Your eyes are heavy-lidded with weariness."
+
+"Aren't you going to sleep?" asked Jennie, anxiously.
+
+"I shall lie down here on the sofa--I must be where I can hear a tap on
+the window. Good-night."
+
+Both girls rose at his word, and Elsie said: "It seems cruel that you
+cannot go properly to bed--after such a wearisome day."
+
+"You forget that I am a soldier," he said, and saluted as they passed.
+He observed that Lawson merely bowed when she said "Good-night"
+politely. Surely some change had come to their relationship.
+
+Lawson turned. "I think I will turn in, Captain; I have endorsed the
+telegram."
+
+"It must go at once." He tapped on the pane, and almost instantly a
+Tetong, sleeping under the window, rose from his blanket and stood with
+his face to the window, alert and keen-eyed. "Tony, I have a long ride
+for you."
+
+"All right," replied the faithful fellow, cheerfully.
+
+"I want you to take some letters to Pinon City. Come round to the door."
+
+As he stepped into the light the messenger appeared to be a boy of
+twenty, black-eyed and yellow-skinned, with thin and sensitive lips.
+"Take the letters to the post-office," said Curtis, speaking slowly.
+"You understand--and these despatches to the telegraph-office."
+
+"Pay money?"
+
+"No pay. Can you go now?"
+
+"Yes, go now."
+
+"Very well, take the best pony in the corral. You better keep the trail
+and avoid the ranches. Good-night."
+
+The young fellow put the letters away in the inside pocket of his blue
+coat, buttoned it tightly, and slipped out into the night, and was
+swallowed up by the moonless darkness.
+
+"Aren't you afraid they will do Tony harm if they meet him?"
+
+"Not in his uniform."
+
+"I wouldn't want that ride. Well, so long, old man. Call me if I can be
+of any use."
+
+After Lawson went out Curtis sank back into his big chair and closed his
+eyes in deep thought. As he forecast the enormous and tragic results of
+the return of that armed throng of reckless cattlemen he shuddered. A
+war would almost destroy the Tetongs. It would nullify all he had been
+trying to do for them, and would array the whole State, the whole
+Indian-hating population of the nation, against them. Jennie re-entered
+softly and stood by his side. "It's worrisome business being Indian
+agent, after all, isn't it, George?" she said, with her hand in his
+hair.
+
+He forced himself to a cheerful tone of voice. "Oh, I don't know; this
+is our first worry, and it will soon be over. It looks bad just now, but
+it will be--"
+
+A knock at the outer door startled them both. "That is a white
+man--probably Barker," he said, and called, "Come in."
+
+Calvin Streeter entered, a little abashed at seeing Jennie. Meeting
+Curtis's look of inquiry, he said, with winning candor, "Major, I been
+a-studyin' on this thing a good 'eal, and I've come to the conclusion
+that you're right on all these counts, and I've concluded to ride over
+the hill and see if I can't argue the boys out of their notion to kill
+somebody."
+
+Jennie clapped her hands. "Good! That is a splendid resolution. I always
+knew you meant right."
+
+Curtis held out his hand. "Shake hands, my boy. There isn't a moment to
+be lost. If they are coming at all, they will start about sunrise. I
+hope they have reconsidered the matter and broken camp."
+
+Calvin looked a little uneasy. "Well, I'll tell ye, Major, I'm afraid
+them lahees that we sent back home will egg the rest on; they sure were
+bilun mad, but I'll go and do what I can to head 'em off. If I can't
+delay 'em, I'll come along with 'em, but you can count on me to do any
+little job that'll help you after we get here. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night. Don't take any rest."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right. Nobody ain't huntin' trouble with me."
+
+After he went out Jennie said: "I call that the grace of God working in
+the soul of man."
+
+Curtis looked at her keenly. "I call it the love of woman sanctifying
+the heart of a cowboy."
+
+She colored a little. "Do we women go on the pay-rolls as assistant
+agents?"
+
+"Not if we men can prevent it. What kind of a report would it make if I
+were forced to say, 'At this critical moment the charming Miss So-and-so
+came to my aid, and, by inviting the men in to dinner with a sweet
+smile, completely disarmed their hostility. Too much honor cannot be
+given,' etc."
+
+"I guess if history were written by women once in a while those reports
+wouldn't be so rare as they are."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+THE RETURN OF THE MOB
+
+
+Curtis was awakened about four o'clock by Wilson at his window. "Are you
+awake, Major?"
+
+"Yes; what is it?"
+
+"Two of the scouts have just come in from the hills. They are sure the
+ranchers are coming to make war. Bands of white men are crossing the
+county to join the camp. It certainly looks owly, Major."
+
+Curtis rose and went to the window. "The troops will be here by nine
+o'clock at the furthest, and the mob will not move till sunrise, and
+can't reach here, even by hard riding, before eleven."
+
+"Shall I send a courier out to meet the troops and hurry them on?" asked
+Wilson, whose voice was untouched of fear.
+
+"It might be well. Send Two Horns to me if you can find him. Keep silent
+as to these reports."
+
+"All right, Major."
+
+Curtis did not underestimate the dangers of the situation. If the troops
+did not arrive, and if the armed posse of the settlers should come and
+attempt to arrest Elk, war would follow, that was certain. Meanwhile he
+was one day's hard riding from either the fort or the telegraph line,
+with the settlers between, and no news could reach him for twenty-four
+hours.
+
+At that very moment the morning papers were being distributed bearing a
+burden of calumny. The department would open his telegram in a few
+minutes, but the Secretary's reply could not reach him before sunset at
+the earliest, "and by that time I will be master of the situation or
+there will be war. I must parley--delay them, by any means, till the
+troops arrive. Colonel Daggett will forward the men at once--I hope
+under Maynard--and Jack is no sluggard. He will be here if only the
+Colonel takes action."
+
+The sun rose as usual in a cloudless sky, but the wind was again in the
+northwest, and as he stood on the little porch looking up the valley he
+could see the smoke of the camp-fires in Grayman's camp, and beyond him
+the Crawling Elk and his people occupied a larger circle of shining
+tepees. The two villages seemed as peaceful as if the people were
+waiting for their rations, but as he lifted his eyes to the hills he
+could see the mounted sentinels patiently waiting the coming of the sun,
+and he knew that beyond and to the east every butte was similarly
+crested with spies. These people of the wide spaces had their own signal
+service and were not to be taken unawares. Each movement of the enemy
+would be flashed from hill to hill, miles in advance of the beat of
+their horses' hoofs.
+
+As he was returning to his library Elsie met him. "Good-morning,
+Captain. Did you sleep?"
+
+"Oh yes, indeed!" He spoke as lightly as he could. "But my messengers
+reporting disturbed me a little during the early morning."
+
+"With bad news?"
+
+"Oh no, quite the contrary. I think we are well out of our difficulty."
+
+"I'm sure I hope so. You look tired."
+
+"I'm ashamed of it. You must have slept well--you are radiant. I am
+sorry I cannot promise you the Elk for a sitter to-day."
+
+"I like him better as the leader of his people. Do we breakfast with the
+sheriff this morning?"
+
+"That affliction is bearing down upon us," he replied. "He is even now
+moving morosely across the road. I fear he is in bad temper."
+
+"I think I will be late to breakfast in that case," she said, with a
+little grimace, and fled.
+
+Curtis greeted his guest pleasantly. "Good-morning, sheriff."
+
+"Good-morning, Major. Have you seen anything of my deputy?"
+
+"No; has he left you?"
+
+"I didn't miss him till this morning," replied Winters, sourly. "But
+he's gone, horse and all."
+
+"Well, the loss is not serious. Come in and break an egg with me."
+
+Jennie was distinctly less cordial than before, but she made her
+unwelcome guest comfortable, and asked after his health politely. She
+was just pouring his second cup of coffee when the furious clanging of
+the office bell made them all start.
+
+Curtis looked at his watch. "Good Heavens! It can't be the eight-o'clock
+bell. What time have you?"
+
+"Seven thirty-three."
+
+Curtis sprang up. "It's a signal of fire!"
+
+At the word "fire" Jennie turned white and rose. Elsie came flying
+down-stairs, crying:
+
+"The Indians are running!"
+
+A wild shout arose, "Stop that bell!" and a moment later Wilson burst in
+at the door--"Major, the Indians are signalling from the
+buttes--everybody is taking to the hills--the mob is coming."
+
+Curtis gave Elsie one piercing look. "I hope you will trust me; you are
+in no danger, even if this alarm is true. I think it is a mistake. I
+will return soon and let you know. I beg you not to be alarmed."
+
+The alarum was true. On the buttes horsemen were riding to and fro
+excitedly crossing and recrossing the same ground--the sign which means
+an approaching enemy. On every hill-side mounted warriors were gathering
+and circling. Boys with wild halloos were bringing in the ponies. The
+women busy, swarming like bees, were dropping the tepees; even as the
+agent mounted the steps to the office and looked up the valley, the
+white canvases sank to the ground one by one as though melted by the hot
+sun. War times were come again, and the chanting cries of the old women
+came pulsing by on the soft west wind.
+
+A grim smile settled on the agent's lips as he comprehended these
+preparations. He knew the history of these people and admired them for
+their skill and their bravery. War times were come again!
+
+"Our cowboy friends have set themselves a memorable task in trying to
+wipe out this tribe. The ranchers never fight their own battles; they
+always call upon the federal government; and that is their purpose now,
+to stir up strife and leave the troops to bear the burden of the war."
+
+"I don't see our fellers," said the sheriff, who was deeply excited.
+"I'll ride to meet them."
+
+"They are a long way off yet," said Curtis. "The Tetong sentinels have
+only signalled their start. I hope the troops are on the way," he said
+to the two girls who had followed and now stood close beside him as if
+for protection. Then he called to the sheriff, who had started for his
+horse: "I depend on you to keep off this invasion, sheriff. I warn you
+and your men that this entrance here at this time is a crime against
+Washington."
+
+Winters did not reply, and Curtis knew that he would join the majority;
+being a candidate for re-election, he could not afford to run counter to
+the wishes of his constituents. Hastily mounting his horse, he galloped
+furiously away.
+
+Curtis strained his eyes down the valley, hoping for a sight of the
+guidons of the --th.
+
+"What can you do?" asked Elsie.
+
+"Nothing but await the issue," he replied. "I have sent another courier
+to hasten the troops; it is now a race between the forces of law and of
+order. If the mob arrives first, I must delay them--prevent their
+advance if possible. There is nothing else to be done."
+
+"Can we help?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. There will be two or three hundred of the invaders this
+time, if the sheriff is to be believed. I am afraid to have you meet
+them. I think it better for you all to keep within doors."
+
+"I wish my father knew--he could stop this!" wailed Elsie, in sudden
+realization of her helplessness. "He could wire the authorities in Pinon
+City. I know they would listen to him."
+
+"Here come the Parkers!" said Jennie. "Now look out for squalls."
+
+"I had forgotten them," said Curtis, with a comic look of dismay.
+
+Parker was running, half dragging his poor, breathless wife, while in
+their rear Lawson appeared, walking calmly, quite irreproachable in a
+gray morning suit, and the sight of him was a comfort to Curtis, for his
+forces were practically reduced to Wilson and four or five clerks.
+
+"Now, Captain, what are you going to do?" called Parker. "You let us
+into this--"
+
+Being in no mood for squalls, Curtis cut Parker short. "Be quiet; don't
+be uselessly foolish. Try and conduct yourself like a reasonable human
+being. Jennie, go into the house, and take the ladies with you. You'll
+have all the women of the agency to look after in a few minutes. Lawson,
+I can depend on you--will you go over to the office with me?"
+
+When they reached the office Lawson threw back his coat and displayed
+two wicked-looking revolvers. "I've been known to fight when pushed too
+far," he said, smilingly.
+
+In the space of an hour the panic had become preparation. On a low butte
+to the southwest a dark mass of armed and resolute warriors waited on
+their swift ponies ready for whatever came, while behind them on a
+higher ridge a smaller group of dismounted chieftains sat in council. Up
+the slopes below and to the right the women and old men were leading the
+ponies, laden with their tepees, children, and supplies, precisely as in
+the olden times. The wagons of the white men were of no use where they
+were now climbing. The ways of the wheel were no longer desirable. They
+sought the shelter of the trail.
+
+"I am confident that the troops will arrive first," said Curtis.
+
+"If the powers of evil have found a leader, it will be hard to control
+them even with a troop of cavalry," Lawson replied, soberly. "The
+sheriff will go with the mob when it comes to a show down."
+
+"Oh, of course. I do not count on him; but Calvin is loyal."
+
+Before the office stood two or three of the white employes of the agency
+with their wives and children about them. Two policemen alone remained
+of all the throng of red employes usually to be seen about the yards;
+the rest were out on duty or had joined their people in the hills.
+
+"What shall we do?" cried Miss Colson, a look of mortal terror on her
+face. She crowded close to Curtis and laid her hands on his arm. "Let us
+stay near you."
+
+"You are in no danger," he replied. "Those poor devils on the hill-side
+are the ones who will suffer. Where are your children?" he asked,
+sharply.
+
+"They all disappeared like rabbits at sound of the bell; only the
+kindergarten class remains."
+
+"Go and help take care of them," he commanded. "Sing to them--amuse
+them. Wolf Robe," he called to one of the policemen--he of the
+bow-legs--"go to the people on the hill and say to them to fear nothing,
+Washington protects them. Tell them they must not fight. Say to the
+mothers of the little ones that nothing shall hurt them. Go quick!"
+
+Wolf Robe handed his sombrero, his coat, and his revolver to his
+friend, Beaver Kill, and ran away towards the corral, agile as a boy.
+
+"What did he do that for?" asked Jennie.
+
+Curtis smiled. "He is Indian now; he doesn't want to be mistaken for a
+cowboy."
+
+When he reappeared on his pony, his long, dark hair streaming, a red
+handkerchief bound about his head, he looked like a warrior stripped for
+battle. "There isn't a faithfuler man in the world," said Curtis, and a
+lump rose in his throat. "He has been riding half the night for me, but
+he charges that hill as if he were playing a game."
+
+"I don't understand how you can trust them to do such things," said
+Elsie. "Perhaps he will not come back. How do you know he will do as you
+commanded?"
+
+"Because that ugly little bow-legged Tetong is a man!" replied Curtis.
+"He would die in performance of his duty." And something in his voice
+made the tears start to Elsie's eyes.
+
+The sentinels on the hills were quiet now--facing the northeast,
+motionless as weather-vanes. The camps had disappeared as if by magic;
+nothing remained but a few wagons. Wolf Robe, diminishing to the value
+of a coyote, was riding straight towards the retreating women. Even as
+Curtis watched, the chieftains on the higher hill rose, and one of them
+started downward towards the warriors on the rounded hill-top. Then a
+small squad detached itself from the main command and slid down the
+grassy slope to meet the women. As they rode slowly on, the moving
+figures of those leading the camp horses gathered round them. Curtis
+understood some command was being shouted by the descending squad.
+
+Separating themselves from the led ponies, these scouts swept on down
+the hill directly upon the solitary and minute figure of Wolf Robe,
+whose pony climbed slowly and in zigzag course.
+
+"They will kill him," said a woman.
+
+Wolf Robe halted and waited till the skirmishers rode up to him. They
+massed round him closely, listening while he delivered his message.
+
+"When he returns we will know all that his people have learned of the
+invaders," said Curtis. "They will tell him what they have seen."
+
+"It is strange," exclaimed Elsie, in a low voice, standing close beside
+him. "But I'm not afraid. It is like a story--a dream. That I should
+stand here watching Indians preparing for war and waiting for United
+States troops is incredible."
+
+"I wish it were not true," he replied. "But it is. I have no fear of my
+people, only of the rash act of a vicious white man."
+
+"Which way will the cattlemen come from?" asked Jennie.
+
+"Probably down that trail." He pointed to the northeast. "Part of them
+may come up the valley road. Wolf Robe has started on his return."
+
+The little squad of warriors returned to the group of chieftains, while
+the loyal Wolf Robe came racing down the slope, his hair streaming, his
+elbows flapping. In a few minutes he dropped rein at the gate and
+re-entered the yard. Standing before his chief, he delivered his
+message.
+
+"Their hearts are very glad at your good words, but the women are
+crying for their babies. They ask that you send them away before the bad
+white men come. Send them out towards the hills and they will come down
+and get them--this they said."
+
+"What did the scouts say?"
+
+"They said that the sentinels on the hills saw the white men break camp
+and come this way--many of them--so they say."
+
+"Where are they now?"
+
+"They are hidden in the pines of the valley. They will soon be here--so
+they say."
+
+"Take a fresh pony and ride back and tell all who have children here to
+come down and talk with me. Tell them I will turn the white men away. No
+one shall be harmed. The children are safe. There will be no war. I will
+meet them in the old camp. I keep repeating there is no danger because I
+believe it," he said to the silent group around him, after Wolf Robe
+rode away. "There is nothing to be done but wait. So go about your
+duties," he added, with a note of command.
+
+One by one the employes dropped away till only Wilson remained. His only
+sign of nervousness was a quiver of the muscles of one cheek, where he
+held his quid of tobacco. His bright blue eyes were fixed on the
+sentinels, while he leaned negligently against the fence. Lawson,
+smoking a German pipe, was watching the warriors on the hills, a rapt
+expression on his face, as if he were working out some problem in ethics
+which demanded complete concentration and absorption of thought. The two
+girls had drawn close together as if for comfort, their nerves a-quiver
+with the strain.
+
+"Are you waiting for something to go off?" suddenly asked Curtis.
+
+Each one started a little, and all laughed together.
+
+"I think I was," confessed Elsie.
+
+"You seemed to be holding your breath. I wish you'd both go in and
+rest," he pleaded. "It is no use--"
+
+"They're coming!" interrupted Lawson.
+
+"Where? Where?"
+
+"The sentinels are signalling again."
+
+All turned to the east, but nothing could be seen--no smoke, no dust, no
+sign of horsemen--yet the swift circling of the sentinels and the
+turmoil among the warriors on the butte indicated the menace of an
+approaching army. Another little band detached itself from the huddle of
+the camp and came down the hill, slowly and in single file.
+
+"The squaws are coming for their children, even before Wolf Robe reaches
+them," said Lawson.
+
+"And there's the mob!" said Curtis, and at his words a keen thrill of
+fear ran through the hearts of the women. With set, pale faces they
+looked away beneath levelled finger.
+
+"That's right," said Wilson, "and two hundred strong."
+
+The sad-colored horsemen were pouring over a high, pine-clad ridge some
+two miles to the east, and streaming down into a narrow valley behind a
+sharp intervening butte.
+
+"Now, girls, you _must_ go in!" commanded Curtis, sharply. "You can do
+no good--"
+
+"George, let us stay!" pleaded Jennie. "We saved you yesterday, and we
+may help to-day."
+
+"What is the use of shutting us in the house? I'm not afraid," added
+Elsie. "These men will do us no harm."
+
+"I beg you will not interfere," he said, looking at Jennie, but Elsie
+knew he included her as well. "It isn't a bit impressive to have an
+agent flanked with women--in a council of war."
+
+"Hang the looks! they're mighty effective sometimes," remarked Lawson.
+
+"That's right!" chimed in Wilson. "By the Lord! they look sassy," he
+added, referring back to the cowboys.
+
+They formed a sinister cavalcade as they came streaming down the rough
+road, two and two, like a monstrous swift serpent, parti-colored,
+sinuous, silent, save for the muffled clatter of their horses' hoofs.
+Curtis nerved himself for the shock, and, though weakened and
+embarrassed by the presence of Elsie and Jennie, he presented a
+soldierly breast to the mob. Had it been a question of protecting the
+women, the case would have been different, but to argue a point of law
+with them at his elbow exposed him to ridicule and to interruption.
+
+As the horsemen debouched upon the valley road, a prodigious cloud of
+dust arose and sailed away on the wind, completely hiding the rear ranks
+so that they could not be numbered. As they drew near, the sheriff could
+be seen riding at the head of the column side by side with a big man in
+a blue shirt. They approached at a shacking trot, which was more
+menacing than a gallop would have been--it was steady, inexorable,
+self-contained as a charge of cavalry.
+
+As they reached the issue-house, Curtis opened the gate and stepped out
+into the road and faced them alone, and Elsie grew cold with fear as the
+sheriff and his formidable following rode steadily up. When almost upon
+the agent the leader turned, and, pushing his limp hat away from his
+eyes, shouted:
+
+"_Halt!_" As the men pulled in their horses he added, "Keep back there!"
+
+The mob had found a leader, and was organized for violence. Curtis, with
+folded arms, seemed small and weak as the army of invasion came to a
+stand, filling the lane between the office and the agency house with
+trampling horses and cursing men.
+
+"Good-morning," growled the leader, surlily. "We're come for old Elk,
+and I want to say we get him this time. No monkey business goes with old
+Bill Yarpe. Women can't fool me."
+
+Calvin Streeter rode out of the throng and pushed his way to the front.
+
+Yarpe yelled: "H'yar! Keep in line there!"
+
+"Go to hell!" replied Calvin, as he rode past him. "I'm no nigger. I
+want to hear what goes on, and I tell ye right now you treat these
+people fair or you'll hear from me."
+
+"I'll shoot you up a few if you ain't keerful, young feller," replied
+the old ruffian.
+
+"That's right, General, he's too fresh," called some one.
+
+Calvin spurred his horse alongside Yarpe's and looked him in the eye
+with a glare which made the older man wince. "You be decent before these
+women or I'll cut the heart out o' ye. You hear me!"
+
+Curtis stepped forward. "Careful, Streeter--don't provoke trouble; we'll
+protect the women."
+
+The sheriff rode between the two men. "Cal, git away--you're my deputy,
+remember."
+
+As Cal reined his horse away, Curtis went to him and said, in a low
+voice: "I appreciate your chivalry, Calvin, but be careful; don't excite
+them."
+
+As he looked into the big, red, whiskey-bloated face of Yarpe, Curtis
+was frankly dismayed. The old ruffian was not only inflamed with liquor,
+he was intoxicated with a subtler elixir--the pride of command. As he
+looked back over his followers he visibly expanded and a savage glare
+lit up his eyes. "Keep quiet, boys; I'll settle this thing."
+
+Curtis again stepped towards the sheriff. "What do you propose to do,
+Mr. Sheriff?"
+
+Yarpe broke in boisterously. "We want old Elk. Bring him out or we go
+after him." A chorus of applause followed.
+
+"On what authority do you make this demand?" asked Curtis, facing Yarpe.
+
+"On the authority of the sheriff of Pinon City," replied Yarpe, "and we
+come along to see he does his duty."
+
+"The sheriff is present and can speak for himself. He was my guest last
+night and made an agreement with me, which, as an honorable man, he is
+disposed to keep."
+
+The sheriff avoided Curtis's eye, but Yarpe replied:
+
+"He showed the white feather. He let you fool him, but you can't fool
+this crowd. Bring on your Injun, or we go get him."
+
+"Have you a warrant?"
+
+"Oh, damn the warrant!"
+
+The sheriff cleared his throat. "Yes, I have a warrant for Crawling Elk
+and Grayman," he said, and began searching his pockets. The decisive
+moment had arrived.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP
+
+
+Curtis minutely studied the crowd, which was made up very largely of
+reckless young men--cowboys from all over the range, together with the
+loafers and gamblers of the cow-towns. The sheriff's deputies were all
+well to the front, but were quiet; they seemed to be a little abashed by
+the gaze of the women to whom they were indebted for their dinner of
+yesterday. Each member of the gang was burdened with ammunition and
+carried both rifle and revolver.
+
+The sheriff dismounted and handed a paper to Curtis, who took plenty of
+time to read it. It was manifestly bogus, manufactured for use as a
+bluff, and had not been properly sworn out; but to dispute it would be
+to anger the cattlemen. There was only one chance for delay.
+
+"Very well," he said, at last. "This warrant calls for two of the head
+men among the Tetongs. Of course, I understand your motives. You do not
+intend to charge these chiefs with the crime, you only wish to force the
+tribe to yield some one else to your vengeance. In face of such a force
+as this of yours, Mr. Sheriff, I can only yield, though I deny your
+right to lay hand on one of my charges. I do all this under pressure.
+If your men will retire a little I will call a messenger and communicate
+with the chiefs named, and ask--"
+
+Yarpe glared. "Communicate hell! Sheriff, say the word and we'll go and
+get 'em."
+
+Curtis fixed a calm gaze upon him. "You are a brave man, Mr. Yarpe, but
+you'll need all your resolution when you charge up that hill in the face
+of those desperate warriors." As he swept his arm out towards the west
+all eyes were turned on the swarming mass of mounted Tetongs. The women
+had moved higher, and were halted just on the eastern brow of the high
+ridge, behind and to the right of the fighting men. "Now what will you
+do, Mr. Sheriff?" pursued Curtis; "act with me through the head men, or
+make your demand of the whole tribe?"
+
+A dispute arose among the crowd. A few shouted, noisily, "Say the word
+and we'll sweep the greasy devils off the earth." But the larger number,
+like the sheriff's posse of the day before, found it not easy to overawe
+this quiet soldier.
+
+Calvin harangued the leader. "No, I will not button my lip," he shouted
+again, confronting Yarpe, "for you nor no other man. You let the sheriff
+and the Captain fix this thing up. What are you in this thing for,
+anyhow? You don't own a foot of land nor a head o' stock. You're nothing
+but a bum! You can't get trusted for a pound of tobacco. Nice man to
+lead a mob--"
+
+"Shut him up, Bill," shouted one fellow.
+
+"Cal's right," called another.
+
+"Don't let 'em fool ye, Bill; we come fer a redskin, and we'll have him
+or burn the town."
+
+Calvin had a revolver in each hand, and on his face was a look that
+meant war.
+
+Curtis called to Lawson. "Take the women in, quick!" He feared shooting
+among the leaders of the mob. "Don't shoot, Calvin. Keep the peace."
+
+With tears of impotent rage filling her eyes, Elsie retreated towards
+the office under Lawson's care. Curtis stepped to the side of the
+leader. "Silence your gang," he said.
+
+Yarpe raised his bellowing voice. "Keep quiet, there! I'll settle this
+thing in a minute."
+
+"Keep back!" commanded the sheriff.
+
+The crowd fell back a little, with Calvin crowding them hard, revolver
+in hand. "No more funny business with me," he said, and death blazed
+from his eyes. "Get back!"
+
+Quiet having been restored, the sheriff, Curtis, and Yarpe were revealed
+in animated argument. Curtis was talking against time--every moment was
+precious.
+
+"If you give in, your chances for re-election ain't worth a
+leatherette," Yarpe said to the sheriff.
+
+"You crazy fool! You wouldn't charge that hill?" asked the sheriff.
+
+"That's what I would, and that's what the boys come for."
+
+"But what good would it do?"
+
+"It would learn these red devils a lesson they wouldn't forget, and it
+would make you an' me the most popular men in the county. If you don't
+do it, you're dead as the hinges of hell."
+
+"If you charge that hill, some of you will stay there," put in Curtis.
+
+Yarpe turned and roared: "Boys, the sheriff has weakened. Will you
+follow me?"
+
+"We will!" shouted the reckless majority.
+
+At this precise moment, while looking over the sheriff's head towards
+the pinon-spotted hill to the west, Curtis caught the gleam of something
+white bobbing down the hill. It disappeared, but came into sight lower
+down, a white globe based in a splash of blue. It was a white helmet,
+topping the uniform of a cavalry officer. A sudden emotion seized Curtis
+by the throat--his heart warmed, swelled big in his bosom. Oh, the good
+old color! Now he could see the gauntleted gloves, the broad shoulders,
+the easy seat of blessed old Jack Maynard as he ambled peacefully across
+the flat.
+
+"Look there!" he cried, turning to the group inside the gate, his finger
+pointing like a pistol. His voice rang out joyous as a morning bugle,
+and the girls thrilled with joy.
+
+Yarpe looked. "Hell! The cavalry! We're euchred--clean."
+
+Over the hill behind the officer appeared a squadron of gray horse,
+marching in single file, winding down the trail like a long serpent,
+spotted with blue and buff, the sun sparkling fitfully from their
+polished brass and steel. When Curtis turned to the sheriff his face was
+pale with excitement for the first time, quivering, exultant. "You'll
+have the federal troops to deal with now," he said. "At last we are on
+equal terms."
+
+A deep silence fell on the mob. Every ruffian of them seemed suddenly
+frozen into immobility, and each sat with head turned and eyes
+wide-staring, watching the coming of the blue-shirted horsemen.
+
+As the officer approached he was distinguishable as a powerful,
+smooth-faced young man in a captain's uniform. As his eyes rested on
+Curtis his plump, red face broke into a broad smile. It was plain that
+he was Irish, and not averse to a bit of a shindy.
+
+Riding straight up to the agent, he formally saluted, and in a deep,
+dry, military voice, said:
+
+"Colonel Daggett presents his compliments to Captain Curtis and tenders
+Squadron B, at your service. Captain Maynard in command."
+
+With equally impersonal decorum Curtis acknowledged the courtesy.
+
+"Captain Curtis returns the compliment, and thanks Captain Maynard for
+his prompt and most opportune arrival--Jack, I'm mighty glad to see
+you."
+
+Maynard dismounted and they shook hands. "Same to you, old man. What's
+all the row?"
+
+A clear, distant, boyish voice cried, "By columns of four into line!"
+and the bugle, breaking voice, caused the hair of the agent's head to
+stand; turning, he saw the squadron taking form as it crossed the
+stream. It required his most heroic effort to keep the tears from his
+eyes as his ear heard the dull rattle of scabbards and he watched the
+splendid play of the gray horses' legs and broad chests as they came on,
+weary but full of spirit yet. There was something inexorable in their
+advance. In their order, their clean glitter, their impersonal grace,
+was expressed the power of the general government.
+
+Turning to the sheriff, he said: "Sheriff Winters, this warrant is
+bogus--forged this morning by some one of your lynching-party; the ink
+is hardly dry. I decline to serve it," and he tore it into strips and
+flung it on the ground.
+
+"Halt!" cried the oncoming commander, and with creak of saddle and
+diminishing thunder of hoofs the Gray Squadron stopped within fifty feet
+of the agency gate, and out of the dust a young lieutenant rode forward
+and saluted.
+
+"Hold your position, Mr. Payne," commanded Maynard.
+
+"I just _love_ Captain Maynard!" said Jennie, fervently.
+
+"I'll tell him," said Lawson.
+
+"Now," said Maynard, "what's it all about? Nice gang, this!"
+
+The mob that had been so loud of mouth now sat in silence as profound as
+if each man had been smitten dumb. It was easy to threaten and flourish
+pistols in the face of an Indian agent with a dozen women to protect,
+but this wall of Uncle Sam's blue was a different barrier--not to be
+lightly overleaped. The cowboys were not accustomed to facing such men
+as these when they shot up towns and raced the Tetongs across the hills.
+
+"Now what is it all about?" repeated Maynard, composing his comedy face
+into a look of military sternness.
+
+Curtis explained swiftly in a low voice, and ended by saying: "This is,
+in effect, a lynching-party on federal territory. What would you do in
+such a case?"
+
+"Order them off, instanter!"
+
+"Precisely. I have done so, but they refuse to go."
+
+"Do they?" Maynard turned and remounted his horse. Saluting, he said:
+
+"Captain Curtis, I am ready to execute any order you may choose to
+give."
+
+Curtis saluted. "You will see that these citizens, unlawfully assembled,
+leave the reservation at once. Sheriff Winters, with all due respect to
+your office, I request you to withdraw. Captain Maynard will escort you
+to the borders of the reservation. When you have a warrant properly
+executed, send or bring it to me and I will use every effort to serve
+it. Good-morning, sir."
+
+Captain Maynard drew his sword. "_'Tention, squadron!_" The tired horses
+lifted their heads as the dusty troopers forced them into line.
+
+Maynard's voice rang out: "_Left wheel, into line--march!_"
+
+"You'll hear from this!" said the sheriff. "You'll find the State won't
+stand any such foolishness."
+
+Yarpe's ferocity had entirely evaporated. "'Bout face, boys; we're not
+fightin' the United States army--I had enough o' that in '63. Clear out!
+Our bluff don't go."
+
+The cowboys, cursing under breath, whirled their ponies and followed
+Yarpe, the redoubtable. The sheriff brought up the rear, still
+contending for the rights of the county, but he retreated. Small as the
+dusty squadron looked, it was too formidable, both because of its
+commanders and because of the majestic idea it embodied.
+
+Calvin was the last to leave. "I done my best, Major," he said, loudly,
+in order that Jennie might hear.
+
+"I know it, Calvin; come and see us again in your civil capacity,"
+replied Curtis, and waved a cordial salute.
+
+As the squadron fell in behind and was hidden by the dust of the passing
+cattlemen, Curtis turned to where Elsie still stood. He was smiling, but
+his limbs were stiffened and inert by reason of the rigidity of his long
+position before the posse.
+
+"We are saved!" he said, in mock-heroic phrase.
+
+"Oh, wasn't it glorious to see the good old blue-and-buff!" cried
+Jennie, the tears of her joy still on her cheeks. "I could have hugged
+Captain Maynard."
+
+"There is chance yet," said Curtis. "He's coming back."
+
+Elsie did not speak for a moment. "What would you have done if they had
+not come?" she asked, soberly.
+
+"I could have delayed them a little longer by sending couriers to Elk
+and Grayman; but let's not think of that. Let's all go into the house;
+you look completely tired out."
+
+Elsie fairly reeled with weakness, and Curtis took her arm. "You are
+trembling," he said, tenderly.
+
+"I haven't stirred for a half-hour," she said. "I was so tense with the
+excitement. I feared you would be shot, and the tribe isn't worth the
+sacrifice," she added, with a touch of her old spirit.
+
+"I was in no physical danger," he replied. "But I should have felt
+disgraced had the mob had its way."
+
+"The people are coming back," said Lawson. "They have seen the
+soldiers."
+
+"So they are!" exclaimed Curtis. "They are shouting with joy. Can't you
+hear them? The chiefs are riding this way already; they know the army
+will protect them."
+
+The thick mass of horsemen was breaking up, some of them were riding
+towards the women with the camp stuff, others were crossing the valley,
+while a dozen head men, riding straight towards the agency, began to
+sing a song of deliverance and victory. Joyous shouts could be heard as
+the young men signalled the good news.
+
+"_The cattlemen are going--the soldiers have come!_"
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+AFTER THE STRUGGLE
+
+
+Upon reaching the library each member of the party sank into easy-chairs
+with sighs of deep relief, relaxed and nerveless. The storm was over.
+Jennie voiced the feeling as she said, "Thank the Lord and Colonel
+Daggett." Elsie was physically weary to the point of drowsiness, but her
+mind was active. Mrs. Parker was bewildered and silent. Even Parker was
+subdued by the grave face of the agent.
+
+Lawson, with a curious half-smile, broke the silence. "There are times
+when I wish I owned a Gatling gun and knew how to use it."
+
+Curtis started up. "Well, it's all over but the shouting. I must return
+to the office and set things in order once more."
+
+"You ought to rest a little," said Elsie. "You must feel the strain."
+
+"I am a little inert at the moment," he confessed, "but I'm Hamlet in
+the play, you know, and must be at my post. I'll meet you all at lunch.
+You need have no further worry."
+
+The employes responded bravely to his orders. The cheerful clink of the
+anvil broke forth with tranquillizing effect. The school-bell called the
+children together, the tepees began to rise from the sod as before, and
+the sluggish life of the agency resumed its unhurried flow, though
+beneath the surface still lurked vague forms of fear. Parker returned to
+his studio, Lawson sought his den, and there stretched out to smoke and
+muse upon the leadings of the event, while Jennie planned a mid-day
+dinner for a round dozen. "It will be a sort of love-feast to Captain
+Maynard," she said, roguishly.
+
+"Will he return so soon?" asked Elsie.
+
+"Oh yes, he'll only go a little way. Jack Maynard can smell a good
+dinner across a range of foot-hills. Didn't he look beautiful as he
+smiled? I used to think he grinned, but to-day--well, he looked like a
+heavenly cherub in the helmet of an archangel as he rode up."
+
+Elsie was genuinely amused. "What is the meaning of this fervor. Has
+there been something between you and Captain Maynard in the past?"
+
+"Not a thing! Oh, I always liked him--he's so good-natured--and so
+comical. Can you peel potatoes?"
+
+"I never did such a thing in my life, but I'll try."
+
+About one o'clock Maynard came jogging back, accompanied by a sergeant
+and a squad of men, dusty, tired, and hungry.
+
+Curtis met him at the gate. "Send your horses down to the corral,
+Captain. You're to take pot-luck with us."
+
+Maynard dismounted, slowly, painfully. "I've been wondering about those
+girls," he said, after the horses were led away. "One is your sister
+Jennie, of course; but who is the other? She's what the boys would call
+a 'queen.'"
+
+"You've heard of Andrew J. Brisbane?"
+
+"You mean the erstwhile Senator?"
+
+"Yes; this is his daughter."
+
+"Great Himmel! What is she doing here?"
+
+"She's an artist and is making some studies of Indians."
+
+"I didn't suppose a man of Brisbane's blood and brawn could have a girl
+as fine as she looks to be."
+
+"Oh, Brisbane has his good points--But come over to the house. Of course
+the mob gave no further trouble?"
+
+"Not a bit, only the trouble of keeping them in sight; they rode like
+Jehu. I left the chase to Payne--it was what Cooper used to call a
+'stern chase and a long chase.' Your quarters aren't so bad," he added,
+as they entered the library.
+
+Jennie came in wearing an apron and looking as tasty as a dumpling. "How
+do you do, Colonel Maynard?" she cried out, most cordially.
+
+He gave his head a comical flirt on one side. "I beg pardon! Why
+Colonel?"
+
+"I've promoted you for the brave deed of this morning."
+
+He recovered himself. "Oh!--oh--yes!--Hah! I had forgotten. You saw me
+put 'em to flight? I was a little late, but I gave service, don't you
+think?"
+
+"You were wonderful, but I know you're hungry; we're to have dinner
+soon--a real dinner, not a lunch."
+
+He looked a little self-conscious. "Well--I--shall be delighted. You
+see, I was awake most of the night, and in riding one gets hungry--and,
+besides, breakfast was a little hurried. In fact, I don't remember that
+I had any."
+
+"Why, you poor thing! I'll hurry it forward. Cheer up," and she whisked
+out of the room.
+
+Maynard flecked a little dust from his sleeve and inquired, carelessly:
+"Your sister isn't married?"
+
+"No, she sticks to me still. She's a blessed, good girl, and I don't
+know what I should do without her."
+
+"You mustn't be selfish," remarked Maynard, reflectively. "But see here,
+I must knock off some dust, or I will lose the good impression I made on
+the ladies."
+
+"Make yourself at home here and we'll have something to eat soon," said
+Curtis at the door.
+
+The dinner was unexpectedly merry. Every one felt like celebrating the
+army, and Maynard, as the representative of the cavalry arm, came near
+blushing at the praise which floated his way on toasts which were drunk
+from a bottle of sherry, a liquor Jennie had smuggled in for cooking
+purposes.
+
+"I admit I did it," he rose to say, "but I hold it not meet to have it
+so set down."
+
+Parker was extravagantly gay. "I'm going to do a statue of Maynard on
+his horse rushing to our rescue," he said. "It will be a tinted piece
+like the ancients used to do. That white helmet shall flash like snow.
+Sheridan will no longer be the great equestrian."
+
+"Leave off the broad smile," interrupted Lawson. "Captain Maynard's
+smile made light of our tragic situation."
+
+"I don't think so; it was the smile of combat," exclaimed Elsie. "It was
+thrilling."
+
+Maynard bowed. "Thank you, Miss Brisbane."
+
+"It was Jack Maynard's murderin' grin," said Curtis; "it was the look
+the boys used to edge away from at the Academy. I must tell you, Jack
+nearly got shunted into the ways of glory. He could whip any man in West
+Point in his day, and a New York sporting man offered to back him for a
+career. Thereupon Jack wrestled with the tempter and 'thrun 'im.' He now
+sees his mistake. He might have been 'Happy Jack, the Holy Terror,' by
+this time, earning two hundred thousand a year like the great O'Neill."
+
+Maynard sighed. "Instead of which, here I am rescuing beleaguered
+damsels, like the hero of a dime novel, on two thousand a year."
+
+Jennie spoke up sharply. "I will not have Captain Maynard made fun of
+any more. It was a noble deed, and he deserves better treatment for it."
+
+Maynard bowed. "I have one defender," he said, soberly.
+
+"Here's another," cried Elsie.
+
+"With two such faithful defenders I defy the world!" he shouted,
+valorously. Thereupon they left off joking him.
+
+As they rose from the table, Curtis turned to Elsie: "Would you like to
+go with me to make a tour of the camp?"
+
+Her eyes lighted up. "I should like it exceedingly."
+
+"Very well, about three o'clock we will go. You will have time for a
+_siesta_. You must be tired."
+
+"Oh no, I am quite rested and ready to go any time," and her bright eyes
+and warm color confirmed her words.
+
+With military promptness the horses were brought round, and,
+accompanied by Maynard and Jennie, Curtis, with Elsie by his side, led
+the way to the camp. She was a confident horsewoman and rode a fine
+brown pony, and Curtis, who had never ridden with her before, glowed
+with pleasure in her grace and skill.
+
+As they galloped off up the road a keen twinge of remorseful pity for
+Lawson touched Elsie's heart. He was grown suddenly older, it seemed to
+her, as though he had definitely given up the attempt to remain young,
+and this thought made her rather sober. He was being left out of her
+plans now almost unconsciously, while the other--
+
+"One of the real heroes in this affair," Curtis was saying, "is Crane's
+Voice. He has been in saddle nearly thirty-six hours, and is willing to
+start again to Pinon City if I ask it."
+
+"Of course you will not?"
+
+"No. I will send a white man. The settlers might do even Crane's Voice
+an injury."
+
+All was quiet in the camps, with little sign of the precipitate flight
+of the morning, either in the faces of the men or in the disposal of the
+tepees. The old men and some of the women came out to greet their Little
+Father and the soldier of the good heart, and Curtis gave out a
+tranquillizing message and asked, "Have you called the council?"
+
+"Ay, for sunrise to-morrow," answered Elk and Two Horns.
+
+"That is good," he replied. "Where are your young men?"
+
+"Some are in the hills, some are gone as messengers, others are watching
+the ponies."
+
+"Call them all in. I don't want them riding about to-night. Keep them in
+camp, close by the soldiers--then no harm will come to them."
+
+So, scattering greetings and commands, he rode through the two circles
+of tepees. The redmen were all eager to shake hands with Maynard, in
+whom they recognized a valiant friend as well as an old-time enemy.
+
+They found the camp of Grayman less tranquil, for the stragglers were
+still coming in from the hills, and scores of women were busy resetting
+their tepees. Grayman himself came forth, nervous and eager. "Ho, Little
+Father, my heart is glad that the soldiers have come."
+
+"We are all glad," replied Curtis. "Where is your son?"
+
+Grayman looked troubled. "I do not know. He is away with Cut Finger, my
+sister's son."
+
+"Cut Finger is bad company for your son."
+
+"I know it; but they are blood-brothers, as is the way of young men.
+Where one is, there the other is also."
+
+Maynard and Jennie were not as deeply interested in the camp as they had
+given out to be at starting. He was recalling to her mind some of the
+parties they had attended together at Fort Sibley. "Really, Captain
+Maynard," she was saying, as they rode up, "you would have it appear
+that we saw a great deal of each other in those days."
+
+"That's my contention entirely," he replied, "and it is my _in_tention
+to continue this Indian outbreak indefinitely in order to go into
+cantonment here."
+
+"You always were susceptible to good dinners, Captain Maynard."
+
+"Say good company, and you'll be right entirely."
+
+Curtis, having caught Maynard's last remark, called out in the biting
+tone of the upper classman at West Point.
+
+"Are you on special duty, Captain Maynard, or riding in the park?"
+
+He saluted imperturbably. "By good luck I am doing both, at your
+service."
+
+"Merely cast your eye around so that you can report the Tetongs peaceful
+and in camp, then you may ride where you please."
+
+Maynard swept his eyes over the village. "It is done! Now, Miss Curtis,
+let's try for the top of that hill?"
+
+"No, no, you have been riding all night."
+
+"Why, so I have! In the charm of your presence I'd forgotten it. I'm
+supposed to be fagged."
+
+"You don't look it," remarked Curtis, humorously, running his eyes over
+the burly figure before him. "At the same time, I think you'd better
+return. Your commissariat wagons will be rumbling in soon."
+
+Maynard again saluted. "Very well, 'Major,' it shall be so," and,
+wheeling his horse in such wise as to turn Jennie's pony, they galloped
+off together, leaving Curtis and Elsie to follow.
+
+"It's hard to realize that disaster came so near to us," he said,
+musingly, and Elsie shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at the
+hills.
+
+"There is a wonderful charm in this dry country! I have never seen such
+blinding sunshine. But life must be difficult here."
+
+"You begin to feel that? I expect to stay here at least five years,
+providing I am not removed."
+
+She shuddered perceptibly. "Five years is a long time to give out of
+one's life--with so little to show for it."
+
+He hesitated a moment, then said, with deep feeling, "It's hard, it's
+lonely, but, after all, it has its compensations. I can see results. The
+worst side of it all is--I can never ask any woman to share such a life
+with me. I feel guilty when I consider Jennie--she ought to have a home
+of her own; she has no outlook here."
+
+She looked straight ahead as she replied. "You would find life here
+intolerable without her."
+
+"I know it; but in my best moments I realize how selfish it is in me to
+keep her."
+
+"Suppose you were to resign, what would you do?"
+
+"I would try to secure a chance at some field-work for the Ethnologic
+Bureau. It doesn't pay very well, but it would be congenial, and my
+proficiency in the sign language would, I think, make me valuable. I
+have determined never to go back to garrison life without some special
+duty to occupy my mind."
+
+"Life isn't a bit simple when you are grown up, is it?"
+
+"Life is always simple, if one does one's duty."
+
+"That is a soldier's answer; it is not easy for me to enter into that
+spirit. I have my art, and no sense of duty at all."
+
+"Your position is equally strange to me; but duties will discover
+themselves--later. A life without duties is impossible."
+
+"I know what you mean, but I do not intend to allow any duty to
+circumscribe my art." This she uttered defiantly.
+
+"I don't like to hear you say that. Life is greater than art."
+
+She laughed. "How different our points of view! You are Anglo-Saxon, I
+am French. Art counts far more with us."
+
+"Was your mother French? I did not know that."
+
+"Yes--a Canadian. I have her nature rather than that of my father."
+
+"Sometimes I think you are your father's daughter. Did your mother live
+to enjoy her husband's success?"
+
+"Not to the full. Still, she had a nice home in Alta, where I was born.
+She died before he was elected Senator." They had nearly reached the
+agency now, and she shook off her sober mood. "Shall we go in with a
+dash?"
+
+"I'm agreed."
+
+She put quirt to her horse and they entered the lane at a flying gallop.
+As he assisted her to alight at the studio door he said:
+
+"I hope your father will not require you to join him in the East. It is
+a great pleasure to have you here." His voice touched something vibrant
+in her heart.
+
+"Oh, I don't think he will when he fully understands the situation. I'm
+sure I don't want to go. I shall write him so."
+
+Curtis rode away elate as a boy. Something which he did not care to
+define had come to him from her, subtle as a perfume, intangible as
+light, and yet it had entered into his blood with most transforming
+effect. He put aside its analysis, and went about his duties content
+with the feeling that life was growing richer day by day.
+
+Wilson, seeing his shining face, sighed and said to himself: "I guess
+the Major has found his girl. He's a lucky dog. I wish I could pick up
+even a piece of plain calico, I'd be satisfied." And he ran through a
+list of the unmarried women within reach, to no result, as usual.
+
+Meanwhile the supply-wagons had arrived, and Captain Maynard was
+overseeing the laying-out of the camp just below the agency. Lieutenant
+Payne and his command returned at five o'clock, and in a short time the
+little village of white tents was in order. Curtis came over to insist
+that the officers take dinner with them at "the parsonage," and, as
+Captain Maynard had already spoken of the good company and the excellent
+dinner he had enjoyed in the middle of the day, Lieutenant Payne was
+quite ready to comply, especially as his lunch had been as light as his
+breakfast.
+
+The meal was as enjoyable as the mid-day dinner, and the Parkers derived
+much comfort from the presence of the soldiers.
+
+"I guess I'm not fitted to be a pioneer artist," Parker confessed, and
+the hearty agreement he met with quite disconcerted him.
+
+Mrs. Parker was indignant at the covert ridicule of her husband, and was
+silent all through the meal; indeed, the burden of the conversation fell
+upon Jennie and Maynard, but they were entirely willing to bear it, and
+were not lacking for words.
+
+"It is good to hear the bugles again," Jennie remarked, as one of the
+calls rang out on the still air, sweet and sad and as far removed from
+war as a love song.
+
+"They're not so pleasant when they call to the same monotonous round of
+daily duties," said Mr. Payne.
+
+Curtis smiled. "Here's another disgruntled officer. What would you
+do--kill off the Indians and move into the city?"
+
+"To kill off a few measly whites might insure completer peace and
+tranquillity," replied Maynard.
+
+"You fellows couldn't be more righteously employed," put in Lawson. "You
+might begin on the political whoopers round about."
+
+"What blasphemy!" cried Jennie. "These 'noble pioneers!'"
+
+"Founding a mighty State," added Curtis.
+
+"Founding a state of anarchy!" retorted Lawson. "They never did have any
+regard for law, except a law that worked in their favor."
+
+Parker got in a word. "Lawson, do you know what you are? You're what
+Norman Bass used to call 'a blame a-riss-to-crat.'" This provoked a
+laugh at Lawson's expense.
+
+"I admit it," said Lawson, calmly. "I am interested in the cowboy and
+the miner--as wild animals--as much as any of you, but as founders of an
+empire! The hard and unlovely truth is, they are representatives of
+every worst form of American vice; they are ignorant, filthy, and cruel.
+Their value as couriers of the Christian army has never been great with
+me."
+
+Maynard was unusually reflective as he stared at Lawson.
+
+"That's mighty plain talk," he observed, in the pause that followed.
+"You couldn't run for office on speeches like that."
+
+"Lawson's living doesn't depend on prevarication," remarked Curtis. "If
+it did--"
+
+"If it did I'd lie like the best--I mean the worst of you," replied
+Lawson.
+
+"In a few years there will not be an Indian left," Parker remarked.
+
+"The world will be the poorer."
+
+"They will all be submerged," continued Parker.
+
+"Why submerge them? Is the Anglo-Saxon type so adorable in the sight of
+God that He desires all the races of the earth to be like unto it? If
+the proselytizing zeal of the missionaries and functionaries of the
+English-speaking race could work out, the world would lose all its
+color, all its piquancy. Hungary would be like Scotland, Scotland would
+be Cornwall, Cornwall would duplicate London, and London reflect New
+York. Beautiful scheme for tailors, shoe-makers, and preachers, but
+depressing to artists."
+
+"You must be one of those chaps the missionaries tell about, who would
+keep men savage just to please your sense of the picturesque."
+
+"Savage! There's a fine word. What is a savage?"
+
+"A man who needs converting to our faith," said Jennie.
+
+"A man to exercise the army on," said Maynard.
+
+"A man to rob in the name of the Lord," said Parker.
+
+"You're stealing all my oratorical thunder," complained Lawson. "When a
+speaker asks a question like that he doesn't want a detailed answer--he
+is pausing for effect. Speaking seriously--"
+
+"Oh!" said Maynard, "then you were _not_ serious."
+
+Lawson went his oratorical way. "My conviction is that savagery held
+more of true happiness than we have yet realized; and civilization, as
+you begin to see, does not, by any construction, advance the sum of
+human happiness as it should do."
+
+"What an advantage it is to have an independent income!" mused Maynard,
+looking about the table. "There's a man who not only has opinions, but
+utters them in a firm tone of voice."
+
+"I am being instructed," remarked Elsie. "I used to think no one took
+the Indian's side; now every one seems opposed to the cattlemen."
+
+"When we are civilized enough to understand this redman, he will have
+disappeared," said Curtis, very soberly.
+
+"Judging from the temper of this State at present, I reckon you're about
+right," replied Maynard. "Well, it's out o' my hands, as the fellah
+says; I'm not the Almighty; if I were I'd arrange things on a different
+basis."
+
+"We are all transition types," remarked Curtis, harking back to a remark
+of Lawson's making.
+
+"Even these settlers are immortal souls," said Parker.
+
+"Consider!" exclaimed Lawson. "How could we live without the Indian
+question? Maynard would be like Othello--occupation gone. Curtis would
+cease to be a philanthropist. Elsie Bee Bee would go sadly back to
+painting 'old hats' and dead ducks. I alone of all this company would be
+busy and well paid. I would continue to study the remains of the race."
+
+Jennie rose. "Put a period there," said she, "till we escape, and,
+remember, if we hear any loud talk we'll come out and fetch you away,"
+and she hurried out into the sitting-room, where Elsie and Mrs. Parker
+yielded up valuable suggestions about dress.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the Parkers rose to go, Lawson approached Elsie and asked in a low
+voice: "_Are_ you going home to the mess-house to-night? If you are, I
+want to go with you."
+
+"I'll be ready in a moment," she replied, but her eyes wavered. As they
+stepped out together quite in the old way, he abruptly but gently began:
+
+"It is significant of our changed relations when I say that this is the
+first time I've had an opportunity for a private word since our camping
+trip. There is no need of this constraint, Elsie. I want you to be your
+good, frank self with me. I'll not misunderstand it. I am not charging
+anything up against you. In fact, I can see that you are right in your
+decision, but it hurts me to have you avoid me as you have done lately."
+
+There was something in his voice which brought the hot tears to her eyes
+and she replied, gently: "I'm very sorry, Osborne. I hoped you wouldn't
+care--so much, and I didn't mean--"
+
+"I've tried not to show my hurt, for my own sake as well as yours, but
+the fact is I didn't realize how deeply you'd taken root in my thoughts
+till I tried to put you away. It is said that no two lovers are ever
+equal sharers in affection--one always gives more than the other--or one
+expects more than the other. I was perfectly sincere when I made that
+bargain with you, and I know you were; but you are younger than I, and
+that has changed the conditions for you. I am older than you thought,
+and I find myself naturally demanding more and more. I think I
+understand better than I did two days ago why you gave me back the ring,
+and I do not complain of it. I shall never again refer to it, but we can
+at least be friends. This cold silence--"
+
+She put out her hand. "Don't, please don't."
+
+"I can't bear your being stiff and uncomfortable in my presence, Bee
+Bee! You even called me Mister Lawson." There was a pathetic sort of
+humor in his voice which touched her. "Let us be good comrades again."
+
+She gave him her hand. "Very well, Osborne. But you are mistaken if you
+think--"
+
+"Time will tell!" he interrupted, and his voice was strenuously
+cheerful. "Anyhow, we are on a sound footing again. Good-night."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The presence of Maynard and the troop was a greater relief to Curtis
+than he realized. He laid down for a moment's rest on his couch and fell
+into a dreamless sleep at once, and Jennie, deciding not to arouse him,
+spread a light shawl over him and withdrew softly. Maynard's coming
+brought a deeper sense of security than a stranger could have given with
+twice the number of troops. "Jack Maynard is so dependable," she said,
+and a distinct note of tenderness trembled in her voice.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+THE WARRIOR PROCLAIMS HIMSELF
+
+
+The messengers from both Riddell and Pinon reported to Curtis about
+daylight, laden with papers and telegrams. The telegrams naturally
+received first reading. There was one filled with instructions from the
+Secretary of the Interior, and one from the Commissioner, bidding him
+stand firm. Several anxious ones from various cities, all of this tenor:
+"Is there any danger? my niece is one of your teachers," etc. In the
+midst of the others, Curtis came upon a fat one for Elsie, plainly from
+her father. This he put aside till after breakfast, when he permitted
+himself the pleasure of carrying it to the studio. He found her at work,
+painting a little brown tot of a girl in the arms of her smiling mother.
+
+"I have a telegram for you--from your father, no doubt."
+
+She rose quickly and opened the envelope. As she read she laughed. "Poor
+papa; he is genuinely alarmed. Read it."
+
+He took it with more interest than he cared to show, and found it most
+peremptory in tone.
+
+"Reports from Fort Smith most alarming. Come out at once. Have wired the
+agent to furnish escort and conveyance. Shall expect you to reply
+immediately, giving news that you have left agency. You should not have
+gone there. I will meet you at Pinon City if possible; if I do not, take
+train for Alta. Wire me your plans. Country is much alarmed. I must hear
+from you at once or shall be worried."
+
+Curtis looked up with an amused light in his eyes. "He's a little
+incoherent, but sufficiently mandatory. When will you start?"
+
+"I will send a telegram out at once that I am safe, and all danger over.
+He will not want me to leave now."
+
+"Very well. A messenger will start at once with all our letters and
+messages. Anything you wish to send can go at the same time."
+
+"What news have you?"
+
+"I only had time to glance at my mail, but the papers are all that
+Lawson has predicted. If you would know how important a criminal I am,
+read these"--he pointed at a bundle on a chair. "I must go back to the
+office now, but I will wait for your letters and telegrams before
+despatching a messenger. If you think it better to go than to stay, I
+will ask Captain Maynard to escort you to the station."
+
+"I will stay," she replied.
+
+She wrote a brief telegram to her father, saying: "I am quite safe and
+hard at work. All quiet; don't worry," and also composed a letter giving
+vital details of the situation and taking strong ground against the way
+in which the cattlemen had invaded the reservation. In conclusion she
+added: "I have a fine studio, plenty of models, and am in fine health; I
+cannot think of giving up my work because of this foolish panic. Don't
+let these settlers influence you against Captain Curtis; he's right this
+time."
+
+As she ran through the papers and caught the full significance of their
+precipitate attack on the agent, her teeth clinched in hot indignation.
+At the first breath, before they were sure of a single item of news,
+they leaped upon an honorable man, accusing him of concealing stolen
+cattle and of harboring murderers and thieves. "As for the Indians, it
+is time to exterminate these vermin! Let the State wipe out this tribe
+and its agency, and send this fellow Curtis back to his regiment where
+he belongs," was the burden of their song.
+
+As she read on, tingling with wrath at these vulgarly written and
+utterly un-Christian editorials, the girl caught an amazing side-glimpse
+of herself and the views she once held. She remembered reading just such
+reports once before, and joining with her father in his desire to punish
+the redmen. Was Lawson right? Had her notions of the "brave and noble
+pioneers fighting the wild beast and the savage" arisen from ignorance
+of their true nature? Had they always been as narrow, as bigoted, as
+relentless, and as greedy as these articles hinted at? Some of Lawson's
+clean-cut, relentless phrases came back to her at the moment, and she
+began to believe that he was nearer right than she had been. And her
+father? Would he sanction such libels as these? At last the essential
+grandeur of the position held in common by both Curtis and Lawson--of
+the right of the small people to their place on the planet--came to her,
+and in opposition to their grave, sweet eyes she saw again the brutal,
+leering faces of the mob, and comprehended the feelings of a chief like
+Grayman, as he confronts the oncoming hordes of a destroying race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, in the grassy hollow between two round-top hills the bands of
+Elk and Grayman were gathered in extraordinary council. No one was in
+gala-dress, no one was painted, all were serious or sad or morose. Upon
+their folded blankets the head men sat in a small circle on the smooth
+sod, exposed to the blazing sun. Behind them stood or knelt a larger
+circle, the men and boys on one side, the women on the other, while in
+the rear, mounted on their fleetest ponies, some two hundred of the
+young men were ranked, enthralled listeners to the impassioned speeches
+of the old men.
+
+Crawling Elk made the first address, repeating the story which the agent
+had told and calling upon all those who sat before him to search for the
+guilty one and report to him if they found him. His words were received
+in silence.
+
+Then Grayman rose, and, stepping into the circle, began to speak in a
+low and sorrowful voice. Something in his manner as well as in his words
+enlisted the almost breathless interest of the crowd. There was a tragic
+pathos in his voice as he called out: "You see how it is, brothers; we
+are like a nest of ants in a white man's field, which he is ploughing.
+We are only a few and weak, while all around us our enemies press in
+upon us. We have only one friend--our Little Father. We must do as he
+says. We must give up a man to the war chief of the cowboys. They will
+never believe that any one else killed the sheep-man. The cattlemen and
+sheepmen are always quarrelling, but they readily join hands to do the
+Tetongs harm."
+
+"It is death to us to fight the white man; I know it. Unless we all wish
+to be shot, we must not become angry this time; we must do as the Little
+Father says, and if we cannot find the man who did this thing, I will go
+and give myself into the hands of the white war chief." A murmur of
+protest and anger ran round the circle. "It is better for one to suffer
+than many," he said, in answer to the protest, "and I am old. My wife is
+dead. I have but one son, and he is estranged from me. I say, if we
+cannot find who did this thing, then I am willing to go and be killed of
+the white people in order to keep the peace. I have said it."
+
+Standing Elk leaped to his feet, tall, gaunt, excitable. "We will not do
+this," he said. "We will fight first." And among the young warriors
+there was applause. "The Tetongs are not dogs to be always kicked in the
+ribs. I have fought the white man. I have met 'Long Hair' and 'Bear
+Robe' in battle. I am not afraid of the cattlemen. I am old, but my
+heart is yet big. Let us do battle and die like brave men."
+
+Then Crawling Elk rose, and his broad, good-humored face shone in the
+sun like polished bronze as he turned his cheek to the wind.
+
+"The words of my brother are loud and quick," he said, slowly. "In the
+ancient time it was always so. He was always ready to fight. I was
+always opposed to fighting. We must not talk of fighting now; all that
+is put away. It belongs to the suns that have gone over our heads. We
+must now talk of cattle-herding and ploughing. We must strive always to
+be at peace with the cowboys. I, too, am old. I have not many years to
+live; but you young men have a long time to live, and you cannot be
+always quarrelling with the settlers; you must be wise and patient. Our
+Little Father, Swift Eagle, is our friend; you can trust him. You can
+put your hand in his and find it strong and warm. His heart is good and
+his words are wise. If we can find the man who did this evil deed, we
+must give him up. It is not right that all of us should suffer for the
+wickedness of one man. No, it is not right that we who are old should
+die for one whose hands are red."
+
+This speech was also received in silence, but plainly produced a
+powerful effect. Then one of the men who found the body rose and told
+what he knew of the case. "I do not think a Tetong killed the man," he
+said, in conclusion.
+
+In this wise the talk proceeded for nearly two hours, and then the
+council rose to meet again at sunset, and word of what had been said was
+carried to Curtis by Crawling Elk and Grayman.
+
+To them Curtis said: "I am pleased with you. Go over the names of all
+your reckless young men, and when you reach one you think might do such
+a deed, question him and his people closely. The shells of the rifle
+were the largest size--that may help you. Your old men would not do this
+thing--their heads are cool; but some of your young men have hot hearts
+and may have quarrelled with this herder."
+
+The old men went away very sorrowful. Grayman was especially troubled,
+because he could not help thinking all the time of Cut Finger, his
+nephew.
+
+Running Fox, or "Cut Finger," as the white people called him, he knew to
+be a morose and reckless young man, and probably possessed of some evil
+spirit, for at times he was quite crazy. Once he had forced his pony
+into the cooking-lodge of Bear Paw for no reason at all, and Bear Paw,
+in a rage, had snatched up his rifle and fired, putting a bullet through
+the bridle hand of Running Fox, who lost two fingers and gained a new
+name. At another time the mad fool had tried to force his horse to leap
+a cliff; and once he had attempted to drown himself; and yet, between
+these obsessions, he could be very winning, and there were many among
+Elk's band who pitied him. He was comely withal, and had married a
+handsome girl, the daughter of Standing Wolf. It was easy to imagine
+that Cut Finger was the guilty one, and yet to think of him was to think
+of his son's intimate friend.
+
+When he reached his tepee Grayman lit his pipe and sat down alone and
+remained in deep thought for hours. He feared to find Cut Finger guilty,
+for his own son was Cut Finger's friend, or fellow, and that means the
+closest intimacy. There are no secrets between a Tetong and his chum.
+"If Cut Finger is guilty, then my son knows of it. That I fear."
+
+When any one came to the door he motioned them away; even his daughter
+dared not enter, for she saw him in meditation. As he smoked he made
+offering to the Great Spirit, and prayed that he might be shown the
+right way, and his heart was greatly troubled.
+
+Crawling Elk, with a half-dozen of his head men, was seated in his
+tepee, calmly discussing the same question. The canvas of his lodge was
+raised, as much to insure privacy as to let the wind sweep through. It
+was not easy to accuse any man of this crime, or even to suggest the
+name of any one as capable of such a foolish deed of blood. For
+relationships were close; therefore it was that he, too, narrowed the
+investigation down to Cut Finger. It is easier to accuse the son of a
+neighbor than your own son, especially if that other is already a marked
+man among reckless youths.
+
+At five o'clock Grayman called his daughter and said, "Send my sister,
+Standing Cloud, to me."
+
+Standing Cloud came and took a seat on the outside of the tepee--on the
+side where the canvas was fastened up--and there sat with bent head, her
+fingers busy with blades of grass, while her brother questioned her. She
+was a large and comely woman of middle age. Her expression was still
+youthful, and her voice had girlish lightness. She was at once deeply
+moved by her brother's questions. She did not know where her son was; he
+had not been to see her for several days. She understood whereto the
+questioning tended, and stoutly denied that her son would do so evil a
+deed. Nevertheless, Grayman was compelled to say:
+
+"You know he has a bad head," and he made the confused, wavering sign of
+the hand which signifies crazy or foolish, and the mother rose and went
+away sobbing.
+
+Then Grayman recalled the words of the Little Father. "If my own brother
+should do wrong, I would give him up to the war chief," he therefore
+said. "If my son and my sister's son are guilty, I will give them up,"
+and he rose and sought out Crawling Elk and told him of his fears, and
+repeated his resolution as they sat together while the sun was going
+down and the crier was calling the second council.
+
+"It is right," said Elk. "Those who are guilty must be punished; but we
+do not know who fired the shot."
+
+The people were slow in coming together this second time, and darkness
+was falling as the head men again took their seats. A small fire was
+being built in the centre of the circle, and towards this at last, like
+nocturnal insects, the larger number of the people in the two camps
+slowly concentrated.
+
+The wind had gone down and the night was dark and still and warm. The
+people gathered in comparative silence, though the laugh of a girl
+occasionally broke from the clustering masses of the women, to be
+followed by a mutter of jests from the young men who stood close packed
+behind the older members of the bands. Excitement had deepened since the
+morning, for in some way the news had passed from lip to lip that
+Grayman had discovered the evil-doer.
+
+On their part the chieftains were slow to begin their painful task. They
+smoked in silence till the fire was twice replenished, then began
+talking in low tones among themselves. At last Crawling Elk arose and
+made a speech similar to that of the morning. He recounted the tale of
+the murdered white man, and the details of finding the body, and ended
+by saying: "We are commanded by the agent to find the ones who have done
+this evil deed. If any one knows anything about this, let him come
+forward and speak. It is not right that we should all suffer for the
+wrong-doing of some reckless young warriors."
+
+"Come forth and speak, any one who knows," called the head men, looking
+round the circle. "He who remains silent does wrong."
+
+Two Horns rose. "We mean you, young men--you too," he said, turning to
+the women. "If any of you have heard anything of this matter, speak!"
+
+Then the silence fell again on the circle of old men, and they bent
+their heads in meditation. Crawling Elk was just handing the pipe to
+Grayman, in order to rise, when a low mutter and a jostling caused every
+glance to centre upon one side of the circle, and then, decked in
+war-paint, gay with beads and feathers, and carrying a rifle, Cut Finger
+stepped silently and haughtily into the circle and stood motionless as a
+statue, his tall figure erect and rigid as an oak.
+
+A moaning sound swept over the assembly, and every eye was fixed on the
+young man. "Ahee! Ahee!" the women wailed, in astonishment and fear; two
+or three began a low, sad chant, and death seemed to stretch a black
+wing over the council. By his weapons, by his war-paint, by his bared
+head decked with eagle-plumes, and by the haughty lift of his face, Cut
+Finger proclaimed louder than words:
+
+"I am the man who killed the herder."
+
+Standing so, he began to sing a stern song:
+
+    "I alone killed him--the white man.
+    He was a thief and I killed him.
+    No one helped me; I alone fired the shot.
+    He will drive his sheep no more on Tetong lands.
+    This dog of a herder.
+    He lies there in the short grass.
+    It was I, Cut Finger, who did it."
+
+As his chant died away he turned: "I go to the hills to fight and die
+like a man." And before the old men could stay him he had vanished among
+the young horsemen of the outer circle, and a moment later the loud
+drumming of his pony's hoofs could be heard as he rode away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Curtis was sitting alone in the library when a tap at his window
+announced the presence of Grayman.
+
+Following a gesture, the chieftain came in, and, with a look on his face
+which expressed high resolution and keen sorrow, he said:
+
+"The man who killed the herder is found. He has proclaimed himself at
+our council, and he has ridden away into the hills."
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"Cut Finger."
+
+"Ah! So? Well, you have done your duty. I will not ask you to arrest
+him. Crow will do that. I hope"--he hesitated--"I hope your son was not
+with him?"
+
+"'I alone did it,' he says. My son is innocent."
+
+"I am very glad," replied Curtis, looking into the old man's tremulous
+face. "Go home and sleep in peace."
+
+With a clasp of the hand Grayman said good-night and vanished.
+
+There was nothing to be done till morning, and Curtis knew the habits of
+the Indians too well to be anxious about the criminal. Calling his
+faithful Crane's Voice, he said:
+
+"Crane, will you go to Pinon City?"
+
+Crane's Voice straightened. "To-night?"
+
+"Yes, to-night."
+
+"If you will let me wear a blue coat I will go."
+
+Curtis smiled. "You are a brave boy. I will give you a coat. That will
+protect you if you are caught by the white men. Saddle your pony."
+
+With a smile he turned on his heel and went out as cheerfully as though
+he were going on an errand to the issue-house.
+
+In his letter to the sheriff Curtis said: "I have found the murderer. He
+is a half-crazy boy called Cut Finger. Make out a warrant for him and I
+will deliver him to you. You will need no deputies. No one but yourself
+will be permitted to cross the line for the present."
+
+After Crane had galloped off, Curtis laid down his pen and sat for a
+long time recalling the events of the evening. He remembered that Lawson
+and Elsie went away together, and a pang of jealous pain took hold upon
+him. "I never had the privilege of taking her arm," he thought,
+unreasonably.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+BRISBANE COMES FOR ELSIE
+
+
+Among other perplexities which now assailed the agent was the question
+of how to secure Cut Finger without inciting further violence. He
+confidently expected the police to locate the fugitive during the day,
+probably in the camp of Red Wolf, on the head-waters of the Elk.
+
+"He cannot escape. There is no place for him to go."
+
+"He may have committed suicide," said Wilson, discussing the matter with
+his chief the following morning.
+
+"He may, but his death will not satisfy the ranchers unless they are
+made the instrument of vengeance. They would feel cheated and bitterer
+than ever," replied Curtis, sombrely. "He must be taken and delivered up
+to the law."
+
+On his return to the office after breakfast Curtis stopped at the door
+of Elsie's studio, his brain yet tingling with the consciousness that no
+other man's claim stood between them now.
+
+She greeted him joyously. "I am starting a big canvas this morning," she
+said. "Come in and see it."
+
+He stepped inside to see, but the canvas only had a few rude, reddish
+lines upon it, and Elsie laughed at his blank look as he faced the
+easel.
+
+"This thing here," she pointed with her brush, "is a beautiful purple
+butte; this yellow circle is the sun; these little crumbly looking boxes
+are trees; this streak is a river. This jack-in-the-box here is Crow
+Wing on his horse."
+
+Her joking helped to clear his brain, though his blood was throbbing in
+his ears.
+
+"Ah! I'm glad to know all that. Will you tag each anomalous hump?"
+
+"Certainly. You will recognize everything by number or otherwise." She
+turned a suddenly serious face upon him. "I am determined to get back to
+work. These last few days have been so exciting. Is there any news?"
+
+"Yes. The murderer proclaimed himself at a big council last night."
+
+"He did! Oh, tell me about it! When?"
+
+"I don't know exactly the hour, but the chieftains came to me about nine
+o'clock. I know him well; he is a reckless, handsome, half-crazy young
+man--" He broke off suddenly as Heavybreast, one of the policemen,
+profoundly excited, darkened the door-way. "Cut Finger is on the hill,"
+he signed, and pointed away with trembling finger to a height which rose
+like a monstrous bee-hive just behind the school-house. On the rounded
+top, looking like a small monument on a colossal pedestal, sat a mounted
+warrior.
+
+"What is he there for?" asked Curtis.
+
+"He wants to die like Raven Face. He wants to fight the cowboys, he
+says. He don't want to hurt any one else, he says; only the cowboys and
+their war chief, so he says."
+
+"Where is Crow? I want this man arrested and brought to me."
+
+"Now he will shoot any one who goes up the hill; he has said so. All the
+people are watching."
+
+Curtis mused a moment. "Can you send word to him?"
+
+"Yes; his wife is here."
+
+"Then tell him I will not let him fight. Tell him that shooting will do
+no good, and that I want him to come down and see me."
+
+The officer trotted away.
+
+"What did he say?" asked Elsie. "What is that man on the hill for?"
+
+"That is Cut Finger, the guilty man. He proclaimed himself the murderer
+last night and now he is willing to die, but wants to die on his horse."
+
+The whole agency was again tremulous with excitement. The teachers, the
+scholars, the native employes were all gathered into chattering groups
+with eyes fixed on the motionless figure of the desperate horseman, and
+in the camps above the agency an almost frenzied excitement was
+spreading. The stark bravery of the boy's attitude had kindled anew the
+flame of war, and behind Cut Finger on the hills two groups of mounted
+warriors had gathered suddenly. Several of the more excitable old women
+broke into a war-song, whose wail came faintly to the ears of the agent.
+
+"Two Horns, silence those singers," said Curtis, sternly.
+
+Elsie and Jennie and the Parkers joined the group around the agent, and
+Miss Colson, the missionary, came flying for refuge at the side of her
+hero.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Parker. "If the fellow really means to
+shoot, of course no man can go up to him. You might send some soldiers."
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" commanded Maynard, and, though he smiled as he
+said it, Parker realized his mistake. He turned to Elsie and his wife.
+"I tell you, we'd better get out of here. I feel just like a man sitting
+on a powder-mine. There's no telling what's going to happen next."
+
+Lawson turned towards him with a sarcastic grin. "I wish I'd realized
+the state of your nerves, Parker; I should have invited you to Asbury
+Beach instead of the Indian country."
+
+Maynard brought his field-glasses to bear on the desperado. "He has
+dismounted," he said. "He is squatted beside his horse, the bridle-rein
+on his arm, a rifle across his knees, and is faced this way. His
+attitude is resolute and 'sassy.'"
+
+Curtis quietly said: "Now, friends, I wish you would all go in and pay
+no further attention to this man. Miss Colson, go back to your work. So
+long as he sees us looking at him he will maintain his defiant attitude.
+He will grow weary of his bravado if ignored."
+
+"Quite right, Captain," replied Lawson, and the little knot of visitors
+broke up and dispersed to sheltered points of observation.
+
+Under the same gentle pressure the employes went back to work, and the
+self-convicted warrior was left to defy the wind and the sky. Even the
+Tetongs themselves grew tired of looking when nothing seemed likely to
+happen, and the forenoon wore away as usual, well filled with duties.
+Maynard's men got out for drill an hour later, and their bugle's voice
+pulsed upward to the silent and motionless watcher on the hill like
+mocking laughter. The clink of the anvil also rose to him on the hot,
+dry air, and just beneath him the children came forth at recess to play.
+He became tired of sitting on the ground at last, and again mounted his
+horse, but no one at the agency seemed to know or to care. The sun beat
+remorselessly upon his head, and his throat became parched with thirst.
+Slowly but surely the exaltation of the morning ebbed away and a
+tremulous weakness seized upon him, so that, when his wife came bringing
+meat and water, he who had never expected to eat or drink again seized
+upon the food and ate greedily.
+
+Then, while she sat on the ground and repeated the agent's message, he
+stood beside his horse, sullen and wordless. The bell rang for noon, and
+as the children came rushing out they pointed up at him again, and the
+teachers also stood in a group for a moment, with faces turned upward,
+but only for a moment, then went carelessly away to their meals.
+
+An hour passed, the work-bell rang, the clerks returned to their duties,
+and the agent walked slowly across the road towards the office. Cut
+Finger lifted his rifle and pointed it. "I could shoot him now," he
+muttered. "But he is a good man; I do not want to kill him." Then the
+heat and silence settled over hill and valley, and no sound but the
+buzzing of flies and the clatter of grasshoppers broke the hot, brooding
+hush of the mid-day. The wind was from the plain and brought no coolness
+on its wings.
+
+But he was not entirely forgotten. Elsie, from her studio door, kept
+close watch upon him. "There's something fine about him after all," she
+said to Curtis.
+
+"It's like the old Mosaic times--an eye for an eye. He knows he must die
+for this, but he prefers to die gloriously, as a warrior dies."
+
+A dust down the road caught Curtis's attention. "The mail will soon be
+in and then we will see how all this affects the press of the State; the
+Chicago dailies will not reach us for a couple of days yet."
+
+"Send the papers over here, please!" cried Elsie, "I'm wild to see
+them."
+
+"Why not all assemble at 'the parsonage' and I'll bring them there?"
+
+"Very well; that will do as well," she replied. "It will be such a joy
+to read our obituaries."
+
+As he entered the library with his armful of papers a half-hour later
+Curtis exclaimed: "Well, now, here is a feast! The commotion on the
+outside is prodigious. Here are the Copper City and Alta papers, and a
+dozen lesser 'lights and signals of progress' in the State. Help
+yourselves." He took out a handful of letters and telegrams. "And here
+are the prayers of anxious relatives. A telegram for you, Miss Brisbane;
+and two for you, Lawson."
+
+Elsie's message from her father was brief. "Have no word from you; am en
+route for Pinon City. Not finding you there will cross to agency at
+once. Why do you not come out?"
+
+Looking at the date she said: "Papa is coming; he is probably on his
+way to the agency at this moment."
+
+Curtis looked a little troubled. "I hope not; the roads are dusty and
+the sun is hot."
+
+"By George! this is fierce stuff," said Parker, looking up from his
+paper.
+
+"Cut Finger has left the hill," announced Jennie from the door-way; "he
+is nowhere to be seen."
+
+"Now he will submit to arrest," exclaimed Curtis. "His fine frenzy is
+gone."
+
+"I'm sorry," Elsie soberly exclaimed. "Must you give him up to that
+stupid sheriff?"
+
+"Yes, it must be done," replied Curtis. "My only claim to consideration
+lies in executing the law. I fought lawlessness with the promise that
+when the sheriff came with proper warrant I would act."
+
+As the young officer went back to his duties the head-lines of the
+papers he had but glanced at began to burn into his brain. Hitherto his
+name had been most inconspicuous; only once or twice had it achieved a
+long-primer setting; mainly it had kept to the security and dignity of
+brevier notices in the _Army and Navy Journal_. Now here it stood,
+blazoned in ill-smelling ink on wood-pulp paper, in letters half an inch
+in height:
+
+         CURTIS CULPABLE
+
+    THE AGENT SHIELDS HIS PETS
+
+while in the editorial columns of the Copper City papers similar
+accusations, though adroitly veiled, were none the less apparent. He had
+smiled at all this in the presence of his friends, but inwardly he
+shrank from it just as he would have done had some tramp in the street
+flung a handful of gutter slime across the breast of his uniform. A gust
+of rage made his teeth clinch and his face burn hot, and he entered his
+office with lowering brows.
+
+Wilson looked up with a grin. "Well, Major, the politicians are getting
+in their work on us."
+
+"This is only the beginning. We may expect an army of reporters to
+complete the work of misrepresentation."
+
+"The wonder is they haven't got here before. They must be really
+nervous. Crane says the people in town have very bad hearts. As near as
+I can make out they faced him up and threatened his life. He says the
+mob is hanging round the edge of the reservation crazy for blood. He got
+shy and took to the hills."
+
+"Did he see the sheriff?"
+
+"Yes, the sheriff is on the way."
+
+"Is Crane still asleep?"
+
+"Yes. He didn't wait for grub; he dropped like a log and is dead to the
+world."
+
+"Poor chap! I shouldn't have sent him on this last trip. Where is Tony?"
+
+"Tony's out in the hills to keep an eye on Cut Finger. Will you go after
+him to-night?"
+
+"No, not till morning. The police will locate him and stay with him
+to-night, and to-morrow morning I will go out and get him myself. I
+don't want any shooting, if it can be avoided. What is it, Heavybreast?"
+he asked of a large Tetong who entered at the moment, his eyes bright
+with information.
+
+"White man coming," signed the redman.
+
+Curtis rose and went to the door and looked down the road.
+
+Three carriages were passing the issue-house--one a rather pretentious
+family surrey, the others ordinary mountain wagons. In the hinder seat
+of the surrey, and beside the sheriff, sat a gray-haired man.
+
+"It is Senator Brisbane!" said Curtis to Wilson, and a keen pang of
+anticipated loss came to him, for he knew that Brisbane had come to take
+his daughter away. But his face was calm as he went down to the gate to
+meet his distinguished and powerful enemy.
+
+The ex-Senator was hot, weary, and angry. He had arrived in Pinon City
+on the early train, just as the county attorney and the sheriff were
+about to set forth. A few words with these officials assuaged his
+anxiety for his daughter but increased his irritation towards Curtis.
+Leaving orders for another team to follow, he had taken passage with the
+sheriff, an action he regretted at once. The seats were too low and too
+narrow for his vast bulk, and his knees grew weary. The wind came from
+the plain hot and insolent, bringing no relief to the lungs; on the
+contrary, it filled his eyes and ears with dust and parched the skin
+like a furnace blast. Altogether the conditions of his ride had been
+torturing to the great man, and he had ridden the latter part of it in
+grim silence, mentally execrating both Lawson and Curtis for luring his
+daughter so far from civilization.
+
+No one spoke till the agent, pacing calmly down to the gate, stepped
+into the road and said:
+
+"Good-evening, gentlemen, will you get out and come in?"
+
+Even then Brisbane made no reply, but the sheriff spoke up: "I suppose
+we'll have to. This is Senator Brisbane, Major. He was very anxious
+about his daughter and so came in with me. This is Mr. Grismore, our
+county attorney."
+
+Curtis bowed slightly. "Mr. Grismore I have seen. Senator Brisbane I
+have met. Send your horses down to the corral, sheriff, and come in; you
+can't return to-night."
+
+As the sheriff got out he said: "This second team is the Senator's, and
+the reporter for the Associated Press is in there with Streeter."
+
+Brisbane got out slowly and painfully, and a yellow-gray pallor came
+into his face as he stood beside the carriage steadying himself by
+resting his hand on the wheel. The young county attorney, eager to serve
+the great politician, sprang out and offered a hand, and Curtis, with
+sudden pity in his heart, made a step forward, but Brisbane put them
+both aside harshly.
+
+"No, no! I'm all right now. My legs were cramped--that's all. They'll
+limber up in a minute. The seats were too low for a man of my height. I
+should have stayed in the other carriage."
+
+After all he was Elsie's father, and Curtis relented: "Senator, if
+you'll take a seat in my office, I'll go fetch your daughter."
+
+"I prefer to go to her myself," Brisbane replied, menacingly formal.
+"Where is she?"
+
+"I will show you if you will permit," Curtis coldly replied, and set out
+to cross the road.
+
+The old man hobbled painfully at first, but soon recovered enough of his
+habitual power to follow Curtis, who did not wait, for he wished to
+have a private word with Elsie before her father came. She was lying
+down as he knocked, resting, waiting for the dinner call.
+
+"Your father is here," he said, as she opened the door.
+
+Her face expressed surprise, not pleasure.
+
+"Here! Here at the agency?"
+
+"Yes, and on his way to the studio. Moreover, he is very dirty, very
+disgusted, very crusty, and not at all well."
+
+"Poor old father! Now he'll make it uncomfortable for us all. He has
+come for me, of course. Who is with him?"
+
+"The sheriff, the county attorney, and some reporters."
+
+She smiled. "Then he is 'after you,' too."
+
+"It looks that way. But you must not go away without giving me another
+chance to talk with you. Will you promise that?" he demanded, abruptly,
+passionately. "I have something to say to you."
+
+"I dare not promise," she responded, and her words chilled him even more
+than her action as she turned away to the door. "How slowly he walks!
+Poor old papa! You shouldn't have done this, popsey," she cried, as she
+met him with a kiss on his cheek.
+
+Curtis walked away, leaving them alone, a hand of ice at his heart.
+
+Brisbane took her kiss without changing to lighter mood.
+
+"Why didn't you follow out my orders?" he demanded, harshly. "You see
+what I've had to go through just because you are so foolishly
+obstinate. That ride is enough to kill a man."
+
+Her throat swelled with anger, but she choked it down and replied very
+gently. "Come into the studio and let me clean off the dust. I'm sorry."
+
+He followed her in and sank heavily upon a chair. "I wouldn't take that
+journey again for ten thousand dollars. Why didn't you come to the
+railway as I ordered?"
+
+"Because I saw no good reason for it. I knew what I was doing. Captain
+Curtis assured me--"
+
+"Captain Curtis!" he sneered. "You'd take his word against mine, would
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I would, for he is on the ground and knows all the conditions. He
+has the outbreak well in hand. You have seen only the outside
+exaggeration of it. He has acted with honor and good judgment--"
+
+"Oh, he has, has he? Well, we'll see about that!" His mind had taken a
+new turn. "He won't have anything in his hand six months from now. No
+West Point dude like him can set himself up against the power of this
+State and live."
+
+"Now, papa, don't start in to abuse Captain Curtis; he is our host, and
+it isn't seemly."
+
+"Oh, it isn't! Well, I don't care whether it is or is not; I shall speak
+my mind. His whole attitude has been hostile to the best interests of
+the State, and he must get off his high horse."
+
+As he growled and sneered his way through a long diatribe, she brought
+water and bathed his face and hands and brushed his hair, her anger
+melting into pity as she comprehended how weak and broken he was. She
+had observed it before in times of great fatigue, but the heat and dust
+and discomfort of the drive had reduced the big body, debilitated by
+lack of exercise, to a nerveless lump, his brain to a mass of incoherent
+and savage impulses. No matter what he said thereafter, she realized his
+pitiable weakness and felt no anger.
+
+As he rested he grew calmer, and at last consented to lie down while she
+made a little tea on an alcohol lamp. After sipping the tea he fell
+asleep, and she sat by his side, her mind filled with the fundamental
+conception of a daughter's obligation to her sire. To her he was no
+longer a great politician, no longer a powerful, aggressive business
+man--he was only her poor, old, dying father, to whom she owed her every
+comfort, her education, her jewels, her art. He had never been a
+companion to her--his had been the rule absolute--and yet a hundred
+indulgences, a hundred really kind and considerate acts came thronging
+to her mind as she fanned his flushed face.
+
+"I must go with him," she said; "it is my duty."
+
+Curtis came to the door again and tapped. She put her finger to her
+lips, and so he stood silent, looking in at her. His eyes called her and
+she rose and tiptoed to the door.
+
+"I came to ask you both to dinner," he whispered.
+
+Her eyes filled with quick tears. "That's good of you," she returned, in
+a low voice. "But he would not come. He's only a poor, old, broken man,
+after all." Her voice was apologetic in tone. "I hope you will not be
+angry." They both stood looking down at him. "He has failed terribly in
+the last few weeks. His campaigning will kill him. I wish he would give
+it up. He needs rest and quiet. What can I do?"
+
+Curtis, looking upon the livid old man, inert and lumpish, yet venerable
+because of his white hairs--and because he was the sire of his
+love--experienced a sudden melting of his own resolution. His throat
+choked, but he said:
+
+"Go with him. He needs you."
+
+At the moment words were unnecessary. She understood his deeper meaning,
+and lifted her hand to him. He took it in both his. "It may be a long
+time before I shall see you again. I--I ought not--" he struggled with
+himself and ceased to speak.
+
+Her eyes wavered and she withdrew her hand. "My duty is with him now;
+perhaps I can carry him through his campaign, or dissuade him
+altogether. Don't you see that I am right?"
+
+He drew himself up as though his general-in-chief were passing. "Duty is
+a word I can understand," he said, and turned away.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+A WALK IN THE STARLIGHT
+
+
+Having no further pretext for calling upon her, Curtis thought of Elsie
+as of a strain of music which had passed. He was rather silent at
+dinner, but not noticeably so, for Maynard absorbed most of the time and
+attention of those present. At the first opportunity he returned to his
+papers, and was deep in work when Jennie came in to tell him that Elsie
+was coming over to stay the night.
+
+"She has given up her bed to her father, and so she will sleep here. Go
+over about nine and get her."
+
+If she knew how deeply this command moved him, she was considerate
+enough to make no comment. "Very well, sis," he replied, quietly. "As
+soon as I finish this letter."
+
+But he did not finish the letter--did not even complete the sentence
+with which his pen was engaged when Jennie interrupted him. After she
+went out he sat in silence and in complete immobility for nearly an
+hour. At last he rose and went out into the warm and windless night.
+
+When he entered the studio he found her seated upon one trunk and
+surveying another.
+
+"This looks like flight," he said.
+
+"Yes; papa insists on our going early to-morrow morning. Isn't it
+preposterous! I can only pack my clothing. He says the trouble is only
+beginning, and that I must not remain here another day."
+
+"I have come to fetch you to Jennie."
+
+"I will be ready presently. I am just looking round to decide on what to
+take. Be seated, please, while I look over this pile of sketches."
+
+He took a seat and looked at her sombrely. "You'll leave a great big
+empty place here when you go."
+
+"Do you mean this studio?"
+
+"I mean in my daily life."
+
+She became reflective. "I hate to go, and that's the truth of it. I am
+just beginning to feel my grip tighten on this material. I know I could
+do some good work here, but really I was frightened at papa's condition
+this afternoon. He is better now, but I can see that he is failing. If
+he insists on campaigning I must go with him--but, oh, how I hate it!
+Think of standing up and shaking hands with all these queer people for
+months! I oughtn't to feel so, of course, but I can't help it. I've no
+patience with people who are half-baked, neither bread nor dough. I
+believe I like old Mary and Two Horns better."
+
+"I fear you are voicing a mood, not a conviction. We ought not to
+condemn any one;" he paused a moment, then added: "I don't like you to
+even _say_ cruel things. It hurts me. As I look round this room I see
+nothing which has to do with duty or conviction or war or politics.
+There is peace and beauty here. You belong in this atmosphere; you are
+fitted to your environment. I admit that I was fired at first with a
+desire to convert you to my ways of thought; now, when a sense of duty
+troubles you, takes you away from the joy of your art, I question
+myself. You are too beautiful to wear yourself out in problems. I now
+say, remain an artist. There is something idyllic about your artist life
+as I now understand it. It is simple and childlike. In that respect it
+seems to have less troublesome questions of right or wrong to decide
+than science. Its one care seems to be, 'What will produce and preserve
+beauty, and so assuage the pain of the world?' No question of money or
+religion or politics--just the pursuit of an ideal in a sheltered nook."
+
+"You have gone too far the other way, I fear," she said, sadly. "Our
+lives, even at the best, are far from being the ideal you present. It
+seems very strange to me to hear you say those things--"
+
+"I have given the matter much thought," he replied. "If I have made you
+think of the woes of the world, so you have shown me glimpses of a life
+where men and women are almost free from care. We are mutually
+instructed." He rose at this point and, after hesitation, said: "When
+you go I wish you would leave this room just as it is, and when I am
+tired and irritable and lonely I'll come here and imagine myself a part
+of your world of harmonious colors, with no race questions to settle and
+no harsh duties to perform. Will you do this? These few hangings and
+lamps and easels are unimportant to you--you won't miss them; to me they
+will be priceless, and, besides, you may come back again some time. Say
+you will. It will comfort me."
+
+There was a light in his eyes and an intensity in his voice which
+startled her. She stammered a little.
+
+"Why, of course, if it will give you the slightest pleasure; there is
+nothing here of any particular value. I'll be glad to leave them."
+
+"Thank you. So long as I have this room as it is I shall be able to
+persuade myself that you have not passed utterly out of my life."
+
+She was a little alarmed now, and hastened to say: "I do not see why we
+should not meet again. I shall expect you to call when you come to
+Washington--" she checked herself. "I'm afraid my sense of duty to the
+Tetongs is not strong. Don't think too hardly of me because of it."
+
+He seemed intent on another thought. "Do you know, you've given me a dim
+notion of a new philosophy. I haven't organized it yet, but it's
+something like this: Beauty is a sense of fitness, harmony. This sense
+of beauty--call it taste--demands positively a readjustment of the
+external facts of life, so that all angles, all suffering and violence,
+shall cease. If all men were lovers of the beautiful, the gentle, then
+the world would needs be suave and genial, and life harmoniously
+colored, like your own studio, and we would campaign only against
+ugliness. To civilize would mean a totally different thing. I'm not
+quite clear on my theory yet, but perhaps you can help me out."
+
+"I think I see what you mean. But my world," she hastened to say, "is
+nothing like so blameless as you think it. Don't think artists are
+actually what they should be. They are very human, eager to succeed, to
+outstrip each other; and they are sordid, too. No, you are too kind to
+us. We are a poor lot when you take us as a whole, and the worst of it
+is the cleverest makers of the beautiful are often the least inspiring
+in their lives. I mean they're ignorant and spiteful, and often
+dishonorable." She stopped abruptly.
+
+"I'm sorry to hear you say that. It certainly shatters a beautiful
+theory I had built up out of what you and other artists have said to
+me." After a little silence he resumed: "It comes down to this, then:
+that all arts and professions are a part of life, and life is a
+compromise between desire and duty. There are certain things I want to
+do to-day, but my duties for to-morrow forbid. You are right in going
+away with your father--I'm not one to keep you from doing that--but I
+must tell you how great has been the pleasure of having you here, and I
+hope you will come again. If you go to-morrow morning I shall not see
+you again."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I start at dawn to arrest Cut Finger."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"No. The captain of the police goes with me."
+
+Her face paled a little. "Oh! I wish you wouldn't! Why don't you take
+the soldiers?"
+
+"They are not necessary. I shall leave here about four o'clock and
+surprise the guilty man in his bed. He will not fight me." He rose. "Are
+you ready to go now?"
+
+"In a moment," she said, and softly crossed the floor to peep into the
+bedroom. "Poor papa, he looks almost bloodless as he sleeps."
+
+As they stepped out into the darkness Curtis realized that this was
+their last walk together, and the thought was both sweet and sad.
+
+"Will you take my arm?" he asked. "It is very dark, though there should
+be a new moon."
+
+"It has gone down; I saw it," she replied, as she slipped her hand
+through his elbow. "How peaceful it all is! It doesn't seem possible
+that to-morrow you will risk your life in the performance of duty, and
+that I will leave here, never to return. I have a curious feeling about
+this place now. It seems as though I were settled here, and that I am to
+go on living here forever."
+
+"I wish it were true. Women like you--you know what I mean; there are no
+women like you, of course--come into my life too seldom. I dread the
+empty futility of to-morrow. As an Indian agent, I must expect to live
+without companionship with such as you. I have a premonition that Jennie
+is going to leave me--as she ought."
+
+"You will be very lonely then; what will you do?"
+
+"Work harder; do more good, and so cheat myself into forgetfulness that
+time is flying."
+
+"You are bitter to-night."
+
+"Why shouldn't I be when you are going away? It wouldn't be decent of me
+to be gay."
+
+"Your methods of flattery are always effective. At one moment you
+discuss the weightiest matters with me--which argues I have brains--and
+then you grow gloomy over my going and would seem to mean that I am
+charming, which I don't think is quite true."
+
+"If I weren't a poor devil of an army officer I'd convince you of my
+sincerity by asking you not to go away at all."
+
+"That _would_ be convincing," she said, laughingly. "Please don't do
+it!"
+
+His tone became suddenly serious. "You are right, I can't ask you to
+share a life like mine. It is too uncertain. I may be ordered back to my
+regiment next winter, and then nothing remains but garrison duty. I
+think I will then resign. But I am unfitted for business, or for any
+money-getting, and so I've decided that as an honorable man I must not
+imperil the happiness of a woman. I claim to be a person of taste, and
+the girl I admired would have other chances in life. I can't afford to
+say to her, 'Give up all your comfort and security and come with me to
+the frontier.' She would be foolish to listen--no woman of the stamp I
+have in mind could do it." They were nearing "the parsonage" gate, and
+he ended in a low voice: "Don't you think I am right?"
+
+"The theory is that nothing really counts in a woman's life but love,"
+she replied, enigmatically.
+
+"Yes, but theory aside--"
+
+"Well, then, I can conceive of a girl--a very _young_ girl--leaving
+wealth and friends, and even her art, for the man she loved, but--"
+
+He waited a moment as a culprit listens to his judge. "But then--but in
+case--"
+
+"If the girl were grown up and loved luxurious living, and shared an
+enthusiasm--say for art--then--" She broke off and said, wearily, "Then
+she might palter and measure values and weigh chances, and take account
+of the future and end by not marrying at all."
+
+They had reached the gate and he spoke with perceivable effort: "I've no
+right to ask it, of course, but if you take pity on my loneliness at any
+time and write to me, your letters will be more welcome than it is
+seemly in me to say, and I'll promise not to bore you with further
+details of my 'Injines.' Will you be kind to me?"
+
+"I will be glad to write," she replied, but in her voice was something
+he did not understand. As they entered the house Elsie said: "Captain
+Maynard, Captain Curtis is going out to-morrow morning to arrest that
+crazy Indian. Do you think he ought to go alone?"
+
+"Certainly not! It would be too dangerous. He shall have an escort,"
+replied Maynard, emphatically.
+
+"No, no!" said Curtis, decisively. "I am safer to go unarmed and alone."
+
+"George!" protested Jennie, "you shall not go out there alone. Why don't
+you send the police?"
+
+Maynard here interposed. "Don't take on worry; I'll go with him myself."
+
+This last hour in Elsie's company was a mingled pain and pleasure to
+Curtis, for she was most charming. She laid aside all hauteur, all
+perversity, and gave herself unreservedly to her good friends. They were
+all at high tension, and the talk leaped from jest to protest, and back
+to laughter again, agile and inconsequent. The time and the place, the
+past and the future, counted for little to these four, for they were
+young and they were lovers.
+
+At last Jennie rose. "If you people are to rise at dawn you must go to
+sleep now. Good-night! Come, Elsie Bee Bee."
+
+Maynard followed Jennie into the hall with some jest, and Curtis seized
+the opportunity to delay Elsie. He offered his hand, and she laid hers
+therein with a motion of half-surrender.
+
+"Good-night, Captain. I appreciate your kindness more than I can say."
+
+"Don't try. I feel now that I have done nothing--nothing of what I
+should have done; but I didn't think you were to leave so soon. If I had
+known--"
+
+"You have done more than you realize. Once more, good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!" he said, in an unsteady voice; "and remember, you promised
+to write!"
+
+"I will keep my promise." She turned at the door. "Don't try to write
+around your red people. I believe I'd like to hear how you get on with
+them."
+
+"Defend me from mine enemies within the gates, and I'll work out my
+problem."
+
+"I'll do my best. Good-bye!"
+
+"No, not good-bye--just good-night!"
+
+For a moment he stood meditating a further word, then stepped into the
+hall. Elsie, midway on the stairs, had turned and was looking down at
+him with a face wherein the eyes were wistful and brows perplexed. She
+guiltily lowered her lashes and turned away, but that momentary
+pause--that subtle interplay of doubt and dream--had given the soldier a
+pleasure deeper than words.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jennie was waiting at the door of the tiny room in which Elsie was to
+sleep, her face glowing with admiration and love. "Oh, you queenly
+girl!" she cried, with a convulsive clasp of her strong arms. "I can't
+get over the wonder of your being here in our little house. You ought to
+live always in a castle."
+
+Elsie smiled, but with tears in her eyes. "You're a dear, good girl. I
+never had a truer friend."
+
+"I wish you were poor!" said Jennie, as they entered the plain little
+room; "then you could come here as a missionary or something, and we
+could have you with us all the time. I hate to think of your going away
+to-morrow."
+
+"You must come and see me in Washington."
+
+"Oh no! That wouldn't do!" said Jennie, half alarmed. "It might spoil me
+for life out here. You must visit us again."
+
+There was a note of honest, almost boyish suffering in Jennie's
+entreaties which moved the daughter of wealth very deeply, and she went
+to her bed with a feeling of loss, as though she were taking leave of
+something very sweet and elementally comforting.
+
+She thought of her first lover, and her cheeks burned with disgust of
+her folly. She thought of two or three good, manly suitors whose
+protestations of love had left her cold and humorously critical. On
+Lawson's suit she lingered, for he was still a possibility should
+she decide to put her soldier-lover away. "But I _have_ done
+so--definitely," she said to some pleading within herself. "I can't
+marry him; our lives are ordered on divergent lines. I can't come here
+to live."
+
+"Happiness is not dependent on material things," argued her newly
+awakened self. "He loves you--he is handsome and true and good."
+
+"But I don't love him."
+
+"Yes, you do. When you returned Osborne Lawson's ring you quite plainly
+said so."
+
+She burned with a new flame with this confession; but she protested,
+"Let us be sensible! Let us argue!"
+
+"You cannot argue with love."
+
+"I am not a child to be carried away by a momentary gust of emotion. See
+how impossible it is for me to share his work--his austere life."
+
+And here entered the far-reaching question of the life and death of a
+race. In a most disturbing measure this obscure young soldier
+represented a view of life--of civilization antagonistic to her faith,
+and in stern opposition to the teachings of her father. In a subtle
+fashion he had warped the word _duty_ from its martial significance to a
+place in a lofty philosophy whose tenets were only just beginning to
+unfold their inner meaning to her.
+
+Was it not true that she was less sympathetic with the poor brown
+peoples of the earth than with the animals? "How can you be contemptuous
+of God's children, whom the physical universe has colored brown or black
+or yellow--you, who are indignant when a beast is overburdened? If we
+repudiate and condemn to death those who do not please us, who will
+live?"
+
+She felt in herself some singular commotion. Conceptions, hitherto mere
+shells of thought, became infilled with passion; and pity, hitherto a
+feeble sentiment with her, expanded into an emotion which shook her,
+filled her throat with sobs, discrediting her old self with her new self
+till the thought of her mean and selfish art brought shame. How small it
+all was, how trivial, beside the consciousness of duty well done,
+measured against a life of self-sacrifice, such as that suggested by
+this man, whose eyes sought her in worship!
+
+Could there be any greater happiness than to stand by his side, helping
+to render a dying, captive race happier--healthier? Could her great
+wealth be put to better use than this of teaching two hundred thousand
+red people how to meet and adjust themselves to the white man's way of
+life? Their rags, their squalor, their ignorance were more deeply
+depressing to her lover than the poverty of the slums, for the Tetongs
+had been free and joyous hunters. Their condition was a tragic
+debasement. She began to feel the arguments of the Indian helpers. Their
+words were no longer dead things; they had become electric nodes; they
+moved her, set her blood aflame, and she clinched her hands and said: "I
+will help him do this great work!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+ELSIE WARNS CURTIS
+
+
+Brisbane was early awake, abrupt and harsh in command. "Come! we must
+get out o' here," he said. "I don't want to be under the slightest
+obligation to this young crank. I intend to break him."
+
+She flamed into wrath--a white radiance. "When you break him you break
+me," she said.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean I've changed my mind. I think he's right and you are wrong."
+
+The entrance of the sheriff prevented a full accounting at the moment,
+but it was merely deferred. Once in the carriage, Brisbane began to
+discredit her lover. "Don't tell me Curtis is disinterested; he is
+scheming for some fat job. His altruistic plea is too thin."
+
+"You are ill-fitted to understand the motives of a man like Captain
+Curtis," Elsie replied, and every word cut. "What have you--or I--ever
+done that was not selfish?"
+
+"I've given a thousand dollars to charity for every cent of his."
+
+"Yes, and that's the spirit in which you gave--never to help, only to
+exalt yourself, just as I have done. Captain Curtis is giving himself.
+He and his sister have made me see myself as I am, and I am not happy
+over it. But I wish you would not talk to me any more about them; they
+are my friends, and I will not listen to your abuse of them."
+
+It was a most fatiguing ride. Brisbane complained of the heat and the
+dust, and of a mysterious pain in his head; and Elsie, alarmed by his
+flushed face, softened. "Poor papa, I'm so sorry you had to come on this
+long ride!" Lawson was also genuinely concerned over the Senator's
+growing incoherency, and privately told the driver to push hard on the
+reins.
+
+When they rounded the sharp point of the Black Bear Mesa, and came in
+sight of the long, low, half-way house, Lawson sat up with a jerk.
+"There is the mob--camped and waiting for the sheriff."
+
+As Elsie looked at the swarming figures of the cowboys her mind
+forecasted tragic events. The desperadoes were waiting to lynch Cut
+Finger--that was plain. Curtis had said he would not surrender his
+prisoner to be lynched. He was coming; he would be met by this mob.
+
+She clutched Lawson by the arm. "We must warn him!"
+
+He merely nodded; but a look in his eyes gave her to understand that he
+would do his duty.
+
+The cattlemen, seeing the wagon whirling round the mesa, mounted and
+massed in stern array, believing that the carriage contained the sheriff
+and his prisoner. They were disappointed and a little uneasy when they
+recognized Brisbane, the great political boss; but with ready wit
+Johnson rode along in front of the gang, saying, with a wink: "Put up
+your guns, boys. This is a meeting in honor of Senator Brisbane." Then,
+as a mutter of laughter ran down the line, he took off his hat and
+lifted his voice:
+
+"Boys, three cheers for Senator Brisbane--hip, hip, hurrah!"
+
+After the cheers were given the horsemen closed round the carriage with
+cries for a speech.
+
+Brisbane, practised orator and shrewd manipulator, rose as the carriage
+stopped, and removed his hat. His eyes were dim and the blood seemed
+about to burst through his cheeks, but he was not without
+self-possession.
+
+"Gentlemen, I thank you for this demonstration, but I must ask you to
+wait till I have rested and refreshed myself. With your permission I
+will then address you."
+
+"Right--right!"
+
+"We can wait!" they heartily responded, and opened a way for the
+carriage.
+
+Elsie shuddered as she looked into the rude and cruel faces of the
+leaders of this lynching party. They no longer amused her. She saw them
+now from the stand-point of Captain Curtis and his wards, and realized
+how little of mercy they would show to their enemies. On Lawson's lips
+lay a subtly contemptuous smile, and he uttered no word--did not lift a
+hand till the carriage was at the door.
+
+Streeter helped the Senator out, and with unexpected grace presented his
+hand to Elsie. "I do not need help," she said, coldly, and brushed past
+him into the little sitting-room, which swarmed with excited, scrawny,
+tired, and tearful women.
+
+"What is goin' on out there? Have the soldiers put down the pizen
+critters?" asked one.
+
+"You're Miss Brisbane--we heerd you was all killed at the agency.
+Weren't you scared?"
+
+Almost contemptuously Elsie calmed their fears, and by a few questions
+learned that this house had been made a rallying-point for the settlers
+and that the women were just beginning to feel the depressing effects of
+being so long away from their homes without rest and proper food.
+
+"_Do_ you think we can go home now?"
+
+"Certainly. Captain Curtis will see that you are not harmed," she
+replied, and she spoke with all a wife's sense of joy and pride in her
+husband.
+
+"We've been camping here for most a week, seems like, an' we're all wore
+out," wailed one little woman who had three small children to herd and
+watch over.
+
+Brisbane, inspirited by an egg-nog and a sandwich, mounted a wash-tub on
+the low porch and began a speech--a suave, diplomatic utterance, wherein
+he counselled moderation in all things. "We can't afford at this time to
+do a rash thing," he said, and winked jovially at Johnson. "The election
+coming on is, after all, the best chance for us to get back at these
+fool Injun apologists. So go slow, boys--go slow!"
+
+As these smooth words flowed from his lips Elsie burned with shame and
+anger. Some newly acquired inward light enabled her to read in the
+half-hearted dissuasion of her father's speech a subtle, heartless
+encouragement to violence _after_ election. While the cheers were still
+ringing in her ears, at the close of the address, Elsie felt a touch on
+her shoulder and turned to face Calvin, standing close beside her, timid
+and flushed.
+
+She held out her hand with a swift rush of confidence.
+
+"Why, how do you do, Mr. Streeter?"
+
+"I'm pretty well," he said, loudly, and added, in a low voice, "I want
+to see you alone." He looked about the room. The corner least crowded
+was occupied by a woman nursing a wailing baby. "Come this way; she's
+Norwegian; she can't understand us."
+
+Elsie followed him, and when he spoke it was in a rapid, low mutter. "Is
+the Major goin' to come with Cut Finger?"
+
+"I'm afraid so."
+
+"He mustn't. You know what this gang's here for?"
+
+"What can we do? Can't we warn him?"
+
+"Well, I'm goin' to take a sneak and try it. It's all my neck is worth
+to play it on the boys; but it's got to be done, for the Major is a
+fighter, and if this mob meets him there will be blood on the moon. Now
+don't worry. I'm going to slide right out through the first gate I see
+and head him off; mebbe you'd like to write a word or two."
+
+"You are a real hero," she said, as she put a little slip of paper into
+his hand, and pressed it there with both of hers.
+
+"Don't do that," he said, hurriedly; "they'll think something's up. I'm
+doin' it for the Major; he's treated me white all the way along, and
+I'll be derned if I let this gang do him."
+
+A pain shot through her heart. Putting her hand to her bosom, she said:
+"It means everything to me, Calvin. Good-bye. I am trusting you--it's
+life or death to me. Good-bye!"
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+THE CAPTURE OF THE MAN
+
+
+The east was saffron and pale-blue as Crow and the agent drove out of
+the corral and up the road to the south. Two Horns was the driver. Crow
+alone was armed, and he wore but his official revolver. Maynard had been
+purposely left out of the expedition, for Curtis did not wish to seem to
+question in the slightest degree the obedience of his people. He
+preferred to go unarmed and without handcuffs or rope, as a friend and
+adviser, not as an officer of the law.
+
+The morning was deliciously cool, with a gentle wind sliding down from
+the high peaks, which were already glowing with the morning's pink and
+yellow. From some of the tepees in Grayman's camp smoke was already
+rising, and a few old women could be seen pottering about the cooking
+lodges, while the morning chorus of the dogs and coyotes thickened.
+There was an elemental charm in it all which helped the young soldier to
+shake off his depression.
+
+Passing rapidly through the two villages, Two Horns turned to the left
+and entered upon a road which climbed diagonally up the side of a long,
+low ridge. This involved plodding, and by the time they reached the
+summit the sun met them full-fronted. In the smaller valley, which lay
+between this ridge and the foot-hills, a rough trail led towards the
+mountains. This way Two Horns took, driving rapidly and silently, and
+soon entered the pines and pinons which form the lower fringe of the
+vast and splendid robe of green which covers the middle heights of the
+Rocky Mountains.
+
+After an hour of sharp driving, with scarcely a word or gesture, Crow
+turned and said: "Cut Finger there. Black Wolf, his tepee."
+
+The trail here took a sharp curve to the left to avoid a piece of stony
+ground, and from a little transverse ridge Curtis could look down on a
+small, temporary village, the band of Black Wolf, who had located here
+to cut hay on the marsh.
+
+"We must surprise him if we can," said Curtis to Crow. "We must not
+shoot. I will talk to him. If he cocks his gun kill him; but I don't
+think he will want to fight."
+
+The lads could be heard singing their plaintive songs as they climbed
+the hills for their ponies. Smoke was rising from each lodge, and
+children, dogs, and hens were outdoing each other in cheerful uproar as
+Two Horns drove up to where Black Wolf stood, an old man with thin, gray
+hair, shielding his eyes with the scant shadow of his bony wrist.
+
+"Ho, agent!" he cried. "Why do you come to see us so early?"
+
+"Is Cut Finger here?"
+
+"Yes; he is in there." He pointed to a tepee near.
+
+"Be silent!" commanded Curtis, as he alighted swiftly, but without
+apparent haste or excitement. Crow instantly followed him, alert and
+resolute. As they entered the tepee Cut Finger, still half asleep on
+his willow hammock, instinctively reached for his rifle, which lay
+beneath him on the ground, dangerous as a half-awakened rattlesnake.
+
+Curtis put his foot on the weapon, and said, pleasantly: "Good-morning,
+Cut Finger; you sleep late."
+
+The young man sat up and blinked stupidly, while Crow took the gun from
+beneath the agent's foot.
+
+Curtis signed to Black Wolf. "This boy has killed a herder and I have
+come for him. You knew of his deed."
+
+"I have heard of it," the old man replied, with a gesture.
+
+"It is such men who bring trouble on the tribe," pursued Curtis. "They
+must be punished. Cut Finger must go with me down to the agency. He must
+not make more trouble."
+
+The news of the agent's mission brought every soul hurrying to the tent,
+for Cut Finger had said, "I will fight the soldiers if they come."
+
+Curtis heard them coming and said: "Crow, tell all these people outside
+that Cut Finger has done a bad thing and must be punished. That unless
+such men are cast out by the Tetongs they will always be in trouble."
+
+Crow lifted up his big, resounding voice and recounted what the agent
+had said, and added: "You shall see we will take this man. I, Crow, have
+said it. It will be foolish for any one to resist."
+
+The agent, sitting before Cut Finger, addressed him in signs. "I am your
+friend, I am sorry for you. I am sorry for any man who does wrong and
+suffers punishment; but you have injured your people, you made the white
+man very angry; he came ready to shoot--you saw how I turned him away.
+I said: 'I will find the man who shot the herder. I will bring him--I do
+not want any one else to suffer.' Then you proclaimed yourself. You
+said: 'I alone did this thing.' Then you went on the hill to fight--I
+cannot allow that. No more blood will be shed. I will not lie; I have
+come to take you. You will be punished; you must go with me to the white
+man's strong-house."
+
+A whimpering cry arose, a cry which ended in a sighing moan of
+heart-piercing, uncontrollable agony, and Curtis, turning his face, saw
+the wife of Cut Finger looking at him from her blanket on the opposite
+side of the tepee. A shout of warning from Crow made him leap to his
+feet and turn.
+
+Cut Finger confronted him, his eyes glowing with desperate resolution.
+
+"_Sit down!_" commanded the Captain, using his fist in the sign, with a
+powerful gesture. The fugitive could not endure his chief's eyes; he
+sank back on his couch and sat trembling.
+
+"If you touch the Little Father I will kill you," said Crow, gruffly, as
+he stood with drawn revolver in his hand. "I, Crow, have said it!"
+
+Black Wolf was looking on with lowering brow. "He says the white man was
+driving his sheep on our land."
+
+"So he was," replied Curtis, "but it is bad for the Tetongs when a white
+man is killed. It is better to come and tell me. When a redman kills a
+white man the white men say: 'Let us kill _all_ the Tetongs--spare no
+one.' Cut Finger said he was ready to die. Well, then, let him go with
+me, and I will make his punishment as light as I can. I am his
+friend--a friend to every Tetong. I will tell the war chief at Pinon
+City how it was, and he will say Cut Finger was not alone to blame--the
+white man was also to blame. Thus the punishment will not be so heavy.
+Cut Finger is a young man; he has many years to live if he will do as I
+tell him. He will come back to his tribe by-and-by and be a good man."
+
+So, by putting forth all his skill in gesture he conveyed to Cut
+Finger's mind a new idea--the idea of sacrificing himself for the good
+of the tribe. He also convinced the members of Black Wolf's band that
+their peace and safety lay in giving him up to their agent, and so at
+last the young desperado rose and followed his chief to the wagon
+wherein Two Horns still sat, impassive and unafraid.
+
+As he put his hand on the carriage-seat a convulsive shudder swept over
+Cut Finger. He folded his arms and, lifting his eyes to the hills, burst
+forth in a death-song, a chant so sad, so passionate, and so searching,
+that the agent's heart was wrenched. Answering sobs and wails broke from
+the women, and the young wife of the singer came and crouched at his
+feet, her little babe in her arms, and this was his song:
+
+    "I am going away.
+    I go to my death.
+    The white man has said it--
+    I am to die in a prison.
+    I am young, but I must go--
+    I have a wife, but I must go
+    To die among the white men
+    In the dark.
+    So says the soldier chief."
+
+Curtis, looking into the eyes of Black Wolf, perceived that the old man
+wavered. The wailing of the women, the young man's song, had roused his
+racial hatred--what to him was the killing of a "white robber"?
+
+"Be quiet!" commanded Curtis, and the song ceased. "Get in, quick! No
+more singing."
+
+The ending of the song left the prisoner in a mood of gloomy yet passive
+exaltation. He took the place indicated and sat with bowed head, his
+hands limply crossed.
+
+"Go on!" commanded Curtis, and Two Horns brought the whip down on the
+horses. As they sprang forward a wail of agony burst from the lips of
+the bereaved young wife. At this cry Cut Finger again turned upon the
+agent with hands opened like the claws of a bear--his face contorted
+with despair. Curtis seized him in a grip whose crunching power made
+itself felt to the marrow of the Tetong's bones, and his eyes, piercing
+with terrible determination, shrivelled the resolution of the
+half-crazed man. He sank back into his seat, a hopeless lump of swaying
+flesh, his face a tragic mask, and uttered no further word till the
+sound of a galloping horse made them all turn to see who followed.
+
+"My wife!" the prisoner said. "She carries my baby."
+
+This was indeed true. The sad little wife was galloping after, riding a
+strong bay pony, the reins flapping loose, while across the pommel of
+her saddle she held her small pappoose, whose faint wailing told of his
+discomfort and terror.
+
+"Wait--me take pappoose," the prisoner said, in English, with a note of
+command.
+
+Curtis was deeply touched. He ordered Two Horns to halt, and Crow got
+out and took the babe and handed it to Cut Finger, who received it
+carefully in his long arms. No woman could have been tenderer.
+
+As they drove on, a big lump rose in the soldier's throat. It seemed a
+treacherous and sinful thing to hand this man over to a savage throng of
+white men, perhaps to be lynched on the road. "I will not do it," he
+said; "I will take him to Pinon City myself. He shall have trial as if
+he were white. I will yield him to the law, but not to vengeance."
+
+Cut Finger thereafter spoke no word, did not even look back, though
+Curtis detected him turning his head whenever the sound of the galloping
+horse grew faint or died away for a few moments. The baby ceased to
+wail, and on the rough ground, when the wagon jarred, the father held
+the little one high as in a sling.
+
+Upon entering the camp of Crawling Elk they found all the people massed,
+waiting, listening, and their presence excited the prisoner greatly, and
+he began again to sing his death-chant, which now seemed infinitely more
+touching by reason of the small creature he cradled so lovingly in his
+arms.
+
+"Be silent!" commanded Curtis. "You must not sing. Drive fast, Two
+Horns!"
+
+Answering wails and fragments of chanting broke from the women; one or
+two cried out, "Take him from the agent!" But the men shook their heads
+and sadly watched them pass. "He has done a foolish thing; he must now
+suffer for it," said Crawling Elk.
+
+As they drew up before the door of the parsonage Curtis sprang out and
+said to Cut Finger:
+
+"Give me the baby; he shall be well cared for."
+
+The father gave up the child passively, and Curtis called to Jennie:
+
+"Here is a babe that is tired and hungry--be good to it."
+
+"Where is the mother?" asked Jennie, as she tenderly received the little
+brown boy.
+
+"She is coming," he said, and the mother galloped up in a few moments
+and fairly tumbled off her horse. "See!" Curtis said to her and to the
+father, "My sister will give the baby milk, and its mother shall also be
+fed. You need not fear; both will be taken care of. We are your
+friends."
+
+Cut Finger watched Jennie as she carefully carried the baby into the
+house, and as he turned away, a look of apathetic misery, more moving
+than any cry, settled on his face.
+
+Maynard, who had been standing in the door, said, in a tone of
+astonishment, "Did that wild Injun carry his papoose all the way down?"
+
+"Yes, and was as tender of it as a woman, too."
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged! There's a whole lot for me to learn about Injuns
+yet. Want a guard?"
+
+"Yes; I think it safer. There is a good deal of sympathy for this poor
+chap."
+
+"I don't blame 'em very much," said Maynard. "Take him right down to our
+guard-house, and I'll have Payne detail a squad of men to take care of
+him."
+
+"I intend taking him to Pinon myself. I can't find it in my heart to
+give him over into the hands of these whites--they'd lynch him, sure."
+
+"I believe it," replied Maynard, with conviction.
+
+As they passed the agency gate, Winters and the county attorney stepped
+out as if they expected to receive the prisoner; but the savage grin on
+the sheriff's face died out as Curtis nodded coldly and drove past.
+
+"That fellow is a wolf. Did you have any trouble?" asked Maynard.
+
+"Not a bit. We surprised him in bed, as I planned to do."
+
+"Nice thing, your leaving me out in this way!"
+
+"Have the Brisbanes gone?"
+
+"Yes. Got away about eight o'clock. Lawson went with them, though he's
+coming back to see you clear of this war. He's a crackerjack, is Lawson;
+but the old man has you marked for slaughter."
+
+It was good to be able to turn his prisoner over to the blue-coats and
+feel that he would not be taken away except properly and in order.
+Lynching does not flourish under the eyes of a commander like Maynard.
+As Curtis led his man into the guard-house and motioned him to a seat,
+he said, in signs:
+
+"You are safe now from the cattlemen. I am your friend, remember that. I
+myself will take you to the white chief's big village. I will not let
+the war chief have you. I will turn you over to the wise man--the man
+who will judge your case. I will let your wife and your little son go
+with you. So you see I am still your Little Father. I am very sorry you
+have shot this man, but you must be punished. I cannot prevent that."
+
+As he met the sheriff he said, quietly, "I have decided to accompany you
+to Pinon City."
+
+The sheriff was not greatly surprised.
+
+"Oh, very well. But I don't see the need of it."
+
+"I do!" replied Curtis, and his tone silenced opposition.
+
+Going immediately to the house, Curtis flung himself down in his chair
+and submitted to Jennie's anxious care. She brought him some coffee and
+biscuit, and stood with her hand on his shoulder while he ate. "Well,
+they're gone--Lawson and all. I never saw a greater change in any one
+than in that girl. Do you remember how she was last fall? I never
+supposed I should come to love her. I hated her for the treatment
+of you then, but--I think she has a different feeling towards us
+now--not excepting you. I think--she was crying because she
+was--going--away--from--you."
+
+He looked up at her and smiled incredulously. "Your loyalty to me, sis,
+is more than I deserve!"
+
+Curtis seized a moment to cross the square to Elsie's studio, eager to
+see whether she had regarded his wishes or not. It was an absurd thing
+to ask of her, and yet he did not regret having done so. It would serve
+as a sort of test of her regard, her sympathy. Now as he stood at the
+door he hesitated--if it should be bare!
+
+He turned the knob and entered. The effect of the first impression was
+exalting, satisfying. All was in order, and the air was deliciously cool
+and fragrant, infilled with some rare and delicate odor. Each article
+was in its place--she had taken nothing but the finished pictures and
+some sketches which she specially needed. Scraps of canvas covered with
+splashes of color were pinned about on the walls, the easel stood in the
+centre of the room, and her palette and brushes were on the table. The
+young soldier closed the door behind him and took a seat in deep
+emotion. At that moment he realized to the full his need of her, and his
+irreparable loss. All he had suffered before was forgotten--swallowed up
+in the empty, hungry ache of his heart. The curtains and draperies were
+almost as much a part of her as her dress, and he could not have touched
+them at the moment, so intimately personal did they seem.
+
+It appeared that he had not fully understood himself, after all. This
+empty temple, where she had lived and worked, these reminders of her
+beautiful self, were not to be a solace and a comfort, after all, but a
+torture. He felt broken and unmanned, and the aching in his throat grew
+to an intolerable pain, and with a reaction to disdain of himself he
+rose and went out, closing and locking the door.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+OUTWITTING THE SHERIFF
+
+
+Maynard came over just as the wagon was being brought round, and with a
+look of concern on his big, red face, began: "Now see here, Curtis,
+you'd better take an escort. Those devils may be hanging round the edge
+of the reservation. Say the word and I'll send Payne and a squad of
+men."
+
+"I don't think it at all necessary, Maynard. I don't want to excite the
+settlers, and, besides, the troops are all needed here. I have no fear
+of the mob while daylight lasts. They will not attempt to take the man
+from me. I leave you in command. Wilson will keep the police out on the
+hills and report any movement of the mob."
+
+Maynard saluted. "Very well, Major; when may I look for you to return?"
+
+"Not before to-morrow night. I shall get in by sundown to-day, for it is
+all the way down hill; the return will be slower."
+
+"I don't like to see you go away with that cut-throat sheriff."
+
+"I am not alone," said Curtis. "I have two of the faithfulest men in the
+world--Two Horns and Crow--both armed and watchful. Don't worry about
+me, Jack; keep yourself alert to-night."
+
+The wagon was now standing before the guard-house, and the prisoner was
+being brought forth by Crow. Cut Finger, blinking around him in the
+noon-day glare, saw his wife already in the wagon, and went resignedly
+towards the agent, who beckoned to him.
+
+"You may sit beside her," Curtis signed, and the youth climbed
+submissively to his seat. "Mr. Sheriff, you are to take a place beside
+the driver."
+
+Winters, swollen with rebellion because of the secondary part he had to
+play, surlily consented to sit with Two Horns.
+
+"Crow, you camp here," called Curtis, and the trusted Tetong scrambled
+to his seat. "Drive on, Two Horns."
+
+For an hour and more no one spoke but Two Horns, gently urging the
+horses to their best pace. Curtis welcomed this silence, for it gave him
+time to take account of many things, chief of which was Brisbane's
+violent antagonism. "He overestimates my importance," he thought. "But
+that is the way such men succeed. They are as thorough-going in
+destroying the opposition as they are in building up their own side."
+
+He thought, too, of that last intimate hour with Elsie, and wished he
+had spoken plainer with her. "It would have been definite if I had
+secured an answer. It would have been a negative, of course, and yet
+such is my folly, I still hope, and so long as there is the slightest
+uncertainty I shall waste my time in dreaming." His mind then turned to
+the question of the mob. There came into his mind again the conviction
+that they were waiting to intercept the sheriff at the boundary of the
+reservation; but he was perfectly certain that they would relinquish
+their designs when they found the sheriff reinforced by three determined
+men--one of them an army officer and the agent. He had no fear on that
+score; he only felt a little uneasy at leaving the agency.
+
+A sharp exclamation from Crow brought his dreaming to an end, and,
+looking up, he saw a horseman approaching swiftly, his reins held high,
+his elbows flapping. "That's young Streeter," he said, on the impulse.
+
+"So it is," replied Winters, hot with instant excitement. "I wonder
+what's his hurry?"
+
+Calvin came up with a rush, and when opposite set his horse on his
+haunches with a wrench of his powerful wrist, calling, in lazy drawl:
+"Howdy, folks, howdy. Well, I see you've got 'im," he remarked to
+Curtis.
+
+"You've been ridin' hard," said Winters; "what's your rush? Anything
+doin'?"
+
+Calvin looked down at his panting, reeking horse, and carelessly
+replied: "Oh no. I'm just takin' it out o' this watch-eyed bronco." He
+exchanged a look with the sheriff. "I thought I'd ketch ye 'fore ye left
+the agency. I'd like a word with you, sheriff; tumble out here for a
+minute. You'll wait a second, won't you, Major?"
+
+Curtis looked up at the sun. "Yes; but be quick."
+
+Calvin slid from his horse, and while the sheriff was climbing stiffly
+down on the opposite side slipped a note into Curtis's hand.
+
+As the sheriff listened to Calvin's low-voiced report Curtis glanced at
+the paper. It was in pencil, and from Elsie. "The mob is waiting at the
+half-way house, cruel as wolves--turn back--for my sake."
+
+Curtis crumpled the paper in his hand and called out imperatively:
+"Come, Sheriff Winters, I cannot wait."
+
+Winters turned away smilingly. "That's all right, Cal. I didn't
+understand, that's all. I'm glad the boys went home. Of course the
+troops settled everything."
+
+Curtis caught Calvin's eye, and a nod, almost imperceptible, passed
+between them, and the cowboy was aware that the soldier understood the
+situation. "Where did you leave the Senator?"
+
+"At the half-way house."
+
+"How was he?"
+
+"Feeling well enough to make a speech," replied Calvin.
+
+The other team, containing Grismore and the reporters, was by this time
+but a few rods away, and, watching his opportunity, Curtis signalled:
+"Stop that wagon--hold them here." Calvin again nodded. "Drive on,"
+called Curtis. And Winters smiled with rare satisfaction.
+
+Some miles before reaching the border of the reservation, Two Horns, at
+a sign from Curtis, left the main road and began to climb a low ridge to
+the east.
+
+The sheriff turned and called sharply: "Where is he going?"
+
+"He has his orders, Mr. Sheriff."
+
+"He's taking the wrong road. It is five miles farther that way."
+
+"He is following my orders."
+
+"But I don't see the sense of it."
+
+"You are only a passenger. If you don't care to ride with us you can
+walk," replied Curtis, and the sheriff settled back into his seat with a
+curse. The second wagon had been left far behind, and would undoubtedly
+keep the main road, a mishap Curtis had calculated upon.
+
+An hour or two of extra travel would not matter, especially as the mob
+was being left safely on the left.
+
+The warning from Elsie had a singular effect upon the soldier. He grew
+almost gay at the thought of her care of him. In some occult way the
+little card meant a great deal more than its few words. If they were
+delayed at the half-way house they might not reach Pinon in time for the
+afternoon train, and so--"I may see her again."
+
+As he neared the boundary of the reservation the sheriff gained in
+resolution. Looking backward, he saw his own team following, outlined
+like a rock against the sky, just topping a ridge, and reaching over he
+laid his hand on the reins and pulled the horses to a stand.
+
+"Right here _I_ take charge!" he growled. "I'm on my own ground. Get out
+o' there!" he said to the prisoner, and as he spoke he drew his revolver
+and leaped to the ground.
+
+Cut Finger turned towards Curtis, whose face was set and stern. "Sit
+still!" he commanded, with a gesture. "Put up your gun!" he said to
+Crow, who had drawn his revolver, ready to defend his prisoner.
+
+Winters flew into bluster. "Do you defy my authority now? I'm sheriff of
+this county!" he shouted. "Your control ends right here! This is State
+territory."
+
+Curtis eyed him calmly. "I started out to give this man safe convoy to
+the prison, and I'm going to do it! Not only that--he is a ward of the
+government, even when lodged in the county jail, and it is my duty to
+see that he has fair trial; then, and not till then, will I abandon him
+to the ferocity of your mob. I know your plan, and I have defeated it.
+Do you intend to ride with us?"
+
+The sheriff's courage again failed him as he looked up into the direct,
+unwavering eagle gaze of the young officer. He began to curse. "We'll
+have your hide for this! You've gone too far! You've defied the laws of
+the county!"
+
+"Drive on," said Curtis, and Two Horns touched his ponies with the whip.
+
+"Halt, or I fire!" shouted Winters.
+
+"Drive on!" commanded Curtis, and Two Horns laid the whip hard on the
+back of his off horse.
+
+Winters fired, but the bullet went wide; he dared not aim to kill. Cut
+Finger rose as if to leap from the wagon, but Crow seized him with one
+great brown paw and thrust his shining gun against his breast. "Sit
+down, brother!" he said, grimly. "We'll care for you."
+
+The prisoner sank back into his seat trembling with excitement, while
+the wife began to cry piteously.
+
+Curtis, looking back, saw the sheriff waving his revolver maniacally,
+but his curses fainted on the way. A sudden reaction to humor set in,
+and the young agent laughed a hearty chuckle which made his faithful
+Tetong aids break into sympathetic grins.
+
+Nevertheless, the case was not entirely humorous. In a certain sense he
+had cut athwart the law in this last transaction, though in doing so he
+had prevented an act of violence which would have still further
+embittered the tribe. "I am right," he said, and put away all further
+doubt.
+
+The drive now settled into a race for the jail. "The sheriff, after
+being picked up by his own party, will undertake to overhaul us,"
+reasoned Curtis, but that did not trouble him so much as the thought of
+what lay before him.
+
+The road ran along Willow Creek, winding as the stream itself, and
+Curtis could not avoid the thought of an ambuscade. On the right were
+clumps of tall willows capable of concealing horsemen, while on the left
+the hot, treeless banks rose a hundred feet above the wagon, and the
+loopings of the track prevented a view of what was coming. If the mob
+should get impatient, or if they should suspect his trick, it would be
+easy to send a detachment across the hills and intercept him. "Push
+hard!" he signed to Two Horns.
+
+The road was smooth and dusty and descended rapidly, so that the horses
+had little to do but guide the tongue. As the wagon rocked and reeled
+past the ranch houses, the settlers had hardly time to discern what
+manner of man was driving, but they were thrown into fierce panic by the
+clatter of fleeing horses and the cloud of prophetic dust. The sheriff
+was not in sight, and no sound of him could be detected in the whiz of
+their own wheels.
+
+At last Two Horns, with his moccasined foot on the brake, broke through
+the hills out upon the valley land, with Pinon City in sight. The mob
+and the sheriff were alike left behind. Ambush was now impossible.
+
+"Easy now, Two Horns," called Curtis, with a smile and an explanatory
+gesture. "We're safe now; the angry white men are behind," and the
+reeking, dusty, begrimed horses fell into a walk.
+
+The hour for their arrival in Pinon City was fortunate. The town was
+still at supper, and in the dusk Curtis and prisoner escaped notice.
+They hurried across the main street and on towards the jail, which stood
+on a little knoll just outside the town.
+
+As they drew up before the door a young man came out and stared with
+inquiring gaze.
+
+Curtis spoke first. "Are you the turnkey?"
+
+"I'm in charge here; yes, sir."
+
+"I am Captain Curtis, the agent. This is Cut Finger, charged with the
+murder of a white man. I have brought him in. The sheriff is just
+behind." He turned to the prisoner and signed. "Get down! Here is the
+strong-house where you are to stay!"
+
+Cut Finger clambered slowly down, his face rigid, his limbs tremulous
+with emotion. To go to the dark room of the strong-house was the worst
+fate that could overtake a free man of the hills, and his heart
+fluttered like a scared bird.
+
+"It would be a good plan to let his wife go in with him," suggested
+Curtis. "It will save trouble."
+
+The poor, whimpering girl-wife followed her culprit husband up the steps
+and into the cold and gloomy hall to which they were admitted, her eyes
+on the floor, her sleeping child held tightly in her arms. When the
+gate shut behind him Curtis signed to the prisoner this advice:
+
+"Now be good. Do not make any trouble. Do what these people tell you.
+Eat your food. I will ask the sheriff to let your wife see you in the
+morning, and then she will go home again. She can come once each month
+to see you." He touched the wife on the arm, and when she comprehended
+his gesture she uttered again that whimpering moan, and as she bent her
+head in dumb agony above her babe, Curtis gently led her to the door,
+leaving Cut Finger to the rigor of the white man's law.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+AN EVENTFUL NIGHT
+
+
+At the railway station Curtis alighted. "Go to Paul Ladue's," he said to
+Two Horns. "Put the horses in his corral and feed them well. Sit down
+with Paul, and to-morrow morning at sunrise come for me at the big
+hotel. Be careful. Don't go on the street to-night. The white men have
+evil hearts."
+
+"We know," said Crow, with a clip of his forefinger. "We will sleep like
+the wolf, with one eye open."
+
+As they drove away, Curtis hurried into the station, and calling for a
+blank, dashed away at a brief telegram to the Commissioner. While
+revising it he overheard the clerk say, in answer to a question over the
+telephone: "No, Senator Brisbane did not get away on 'sixteen.' He is
+still at the Sherman House."
+
+Curtis straightened and his heart leaped. "Then I can see Elsie again!"
+he thought. Hastily pencilling two or three shorter messages, he handed
+them in and hurried up the street towards the hotel, eager to relieve
+her anxiety.
+
+By this time the violet dusk of a peaceful night covered the town. The
+moon, low down in the west, was dim, but the stars were beginning to
+loom large in the wonderful deep blue to the east. The air was
+windless. No cloud was to be seen, and yet the soldier had a touch of
+uneasiness. "I wish I had brought my faithful men with me to the Sherman
+House. However, there is no real cause to worry. Paul is more Tetong
+than borderman--and will protect them--if only they keep off the
+street."
+
+He began to meet men in close-packed groups on the sidewalk--roughly
+clad citizens who seemed absorbed in the discussion of some important
+event. A few of them recognized him as he passed, and one called, in a
+bitter tone, "There goes the cur himself!" Curtis did not turn, though
+the tone, more insulting than the words, made his heart hot with battle.
+It was plain that the sheriff and his party had already entered and
+reported their defeat. A saloon emptied a mob of loud-voiced men upon
+the sidewalk before him, and though he feared trouble he pushed steadily
+forward. The ruffians gave way before his resolute feet, but he felt
+their hate beating like flame upon his face. He dared not turn a
+hair's-breadth to the right nor to the left; nothing was better than to
+walk straight on. "They will not shoot me in the back," he reasoned, and
+beyond a volley of curses he remained unassaulted.
+
+The rotunda of the hotel was filled with a different but not less
+dangerous throng of excited politicians and leading citizens, who had
+assembled to escort Brisbane to the opera-house. The talk, though less
+profane than that of the saloon loafers, was hardly less bitter against
+the agent. Mingled with these district bosses were a half-dozen
+newspaper men, who instantly rushed upon Curtis in frank and boyish
+rivalry. "Captain, what is the news?" they breathlessly asked, with pads
+and pencils ready for his undoing.
+
+"All quiet!" was his curt reply.
+
+"But--but--how about--"
+
+"All lies!" he interrupted to say, and pushed on to the desk. "Is
+Senator Brisbane and party still here?" he asked, as he signed his name
+in the book.
+
+The clerk applied the blotter. "Yes; he is still at supper."
+
+The young soldier took time to wash the dust from his face and hands and
+smooth his hair before entering the dining-room. At the threshold he
+paused and took account of his enemies. Brisbane and three of his most
+trusted supporters, still sitting at coffee, were holding a low-voiced
+consultation at a corner table, while Lawson and Elsie sat waiting some
+distance away and near an open window. The Parkers were not in view.
+
+Elsie, at sight of her lover, rose impulsively, and her face, tired and
+pale, flushed to a beautiful pink. Her lips formed the words "Why, there
+is Captain Curtis!" but her voice was inaudible.
+
+He hastened forward with eyes only for her, and she met him with both
+hands outstretched--eager, joyous!
+
+"Oh, how good it is to see you! We were so alarmed--Calvin warned you?"
+
+"Yes. He met me just before I left the reservation."
+
+"But I expected you to bring soldiers; how did you escape? Did you find
+the cattlemen gone?"
+
+"I flanked them." His face relaxed into humor. "Discretion is a sort of
+valor sometimes. I took the Willow road."
+
+Lawson now joined them, and in his hand-clasp was a brother's regard for
+the soldier. His smile was exultant. "Good work! I knew Calvin could be
+trusted. It looked bad for Cut Finger when we reached the half-way
+house."
+
+"You must be hungry!" exclaimed Elsie. "Sit here and I will order
+something for you."
+
+"I _was hungry_ an hour ago," he said, meaningly, "but now I am not. But
+I am tired," he added. "Where are the Parkers?"
+
+Elsie laughed. "On their way to civilization. They fled on the
+up-train."
+
+"The town is aflame," said Lawson. "You and your Tetongs are an issue
+here to-night. A big meeting is called, and the Senator is to speak. He
+has just discovered you," he added, glancing towards Brisbane, who had
+risen and was glaring at Curtis, his small eyes hot as those of an angry
+bear.
+
+"Excuse me, won't you?" pleaded Elsie, rising hastily. "I must go to
+him!"
+
+Curtis also rose and looked soberly into her eyes. "May I not see you
+again?"
+
+She hesitated. "Yes. I'm not going to the meeting. Come to our parlor
+when you are finished supper."
+
+He remained standing till she joined her father and passed from the
+room, then he turned towards Lawson, who said:
+
+"Seriously, my dear Curtis, you are in danger here. I hope you will not
+go out this evening. Even Uncle Sam's blue might not prove a protection
+in the dark of a night like this. Where did you house your men?"
+
+"At Ladue's, with orders not to leave the corral."
+
+"Quite right. Where is the sheriff?"
+
+This question brought a humorous light into the young soldier's eyes.
+"When I saw him last he was on Sage-hen Flat swinging his revolver and
+cursing me," and he told the story.
+
+Lawson grew grave. "I'm sorry you had to do that; it will give your
+enemies another grip on you. It's a mere technicality, of course, but
+they'll use it. You must watch every one of your clerks from this on;
+they'll trump up a charge against you if they can, and secure a
+court-martial. This election is really the last dying struggle of the
+political banditti of the State, and they will be defeated. Take
+to-night as an example. The reckless devils, the loud of mouth are alone
+in evidence, the better class of citizens dare not protest--dare not
+appear on the streets. But don't be deceived, you have your supporters
+even here, in the midst of this saturnalia of hate. You are an issue."
+
+Curtis grimly smiled. "I accept the challenge! They can only order me
+back to my regiment."
+
+"As for Brisbane, he is on the point of collapse. He has lost his
+self-control. He has attained a fixed notion that you are his most
+dangerous enemy; the mention of your name throws him into fury. I lost
+patience with him to-day, and opened fire. 'You are doomed to defeat!' I
+said to him. 'You represent the ignoble, greedy, conscienceless hustler
+and speculator, not the peaceful, justice-loving citizen of this State.
+Your dominion is gone; the reign of order and peace is about to begin.'
+If it were not for Elsie I would publicly denounce him, for his election
+would work incalculable injury to the West. But he can't fill the
+legislature with his men as he did twelve years ago. He will fail of
+election by fifty votes."
+
+"I hope so," responded Curtis, with a sigh, as Lawson rose. "But I have
+no faith in the courage of the better element; virtue is so timid and
+evil is always so fully organized."
+
+After Lawson left him Curtis hurriedly finished his supper and went his
+way to his room for a moment's rest. Through the open windows he could
+hear the cheering which greeted Brisbane's entrance into the
+opera-house, which faced upon the little square before the hotel. The
+street was thronging with noisy boys, and at intervals a band of young
+herders clattered into the square. Their horses thickened along the
+hitching-poles, and the saloons swarmed with men already inflamed with
+drink. The air seemed heavy, oppressive, electrical, and the shrill
+cheers which rose above the dull rumble of pounding boot-heels in the
+hall possessed a savage animal vehemence. Again a sense of impending
+disaster swept over the young officer. "I am tired and nervous," he
+thought. "Surely law and order rules in a civilized community like
+this."
+
+He put away all thoughts of war as he followed the boy up the stair-way
+to the Brisbane private parlor, and became the lover, palpitant with the
+hope that he was about to see Elsie alone.
+
+She met him at the door, her face a-quiver with feeling, a note of alarm
+in her voice. "Have you heard the cheering? They are denouncing you over
+there!"
+
+"I suppose so. But let's not talk of such unimportant matters; this is
+our last evening together, and I want to forget the storm outside. Since
+I left you last night I have had a most remarkable experience, and I--"
+
+"Oh, you mean catching the murderer; tell me about it!"
+
+"No. Oh no; that is not worth telling. I mean something more intimately
+personal." Shrill yells from across the way interrupted him, and Elsie
+rose and shut the window. "I hate them; they are worse than savages,"
+she said. "Please don't mind them."
+
+He went on: "I was about to say I had a deal of time to think on my long
+ride this morning, and I reached some conclusions which I want to tell
+you about. When my prisoner was safe in the guard-house, I went over to
+see how my little temple of art looked--I mean your studio, of course. I
+closed the door and dropped into one of the big chairs, hoping to gain
+rest and serenity in the beauty and quiet of the place. But I didn't; I
+was painfully depressed."
+
+She opened her eyes very wide at this. "Why?"
+
+"Because everything I saw there emphasized the irrevocable loss I had
+suffered. I couldn't endure the thought of it, and I fled. I could not
+remain without weeping, and you know a man is ashamed of his tears; but
+when I got your note of warning I flung conscience to the winds! 'It is
+not a crime to love a woman,' I said. 'I will write to her and say to
+her "I love you, no matter what happens;"' and, now I find you here, I
+tell it to you instead of writing it."
+
+She was facing him with a look of perplexity and alarm. One hand laid
+upon her throat seemed to express suffering. When she spoke her voice
+was very low.
+
+"What do you expect me to say; you make it so hard for me! Why do you
+tell me this?"
+
+"Because I could not rest till I had spoken. For a long time I thought
+you were bound to Lawson, and since then I've tried to keep silent
+because of my poverty and--no one knows better than I the unreason of it
+all--I do not ask you to speak except to say, 'I am sorry.' When I found
+you were still within reach, the desire to let you know my feeling
+overcame every other consideration. I can't even do the customary thing
+and ask you to wait, for my future is as uncertain as my present, but if
+you could say you loved me--a little--" he paused abruptly, as though
+choked into silence by a merciless hand.
+
+Elsie remained silent, with her eyes turned towards the window, her
+hands in her lap, and at last he went on:
+
+"If your father is a true prophet, I shall be ordered back to my
+regiment. That will hurt me, but it won't ruin me exactly. It would be a
+shameful thing if the department sacrificed me to expediency; but
+politicians are wonderful people! If you were not so much an artist and
+Andrew Brisbane's daughter, I would ask you to come to me and help me do
+my work, but I can't quite do that--yet; I can only say you are more to
+me now than any other soul in the world. I do this because I can't keep
+from it," he repeated, in poor ending.
+
+"I've heard that the best way to make a woman love a man is to persecute
+the man," she replied, smiling a little, though her eyes were wet.
+"When you were apparently triumphant I hated you--now--" she hesitated
+and a sudden timidity shook her.
+
+He sprang up. "Can you carry out the figure? I dare you to finish the
+sentence. Do you care for me a little?" His face, suddenly illuminated,
+moved her powerfully.
+
+"I'm afraid I do--wait, please!" She stopped him with a gesture. "You
+mustn't think I mean more than I do. My mind is all in a whirl now; it
+isn't fair to hurry me; I must take time to consider. Your being poor
+and an Indian agent wouldn't make any difference to me if I--But I must
+be sure. I respect you--I admire you very much--and last night when I
+said good-bye I felt a sharp pain here." She put her hand to her throat.
+"But I must be sure. There are so many things against it," she ended,
+covering her eyes with her hand in piteous perplexity.
+
+His eyes were alight, his voice eager. "It would be such a glorious
+thing if you could join me in my work."
+
+The mention of his work stung her. "Oh no! It is impossible. I should
+die here! I have no sense of duty towards these poor vagabonds. I'm
+sorry for them--but to live here--no, no! You must not ask it. You must
+go your way and I will go mine. You are only torturing me needlessly."
+
+"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I did not mean to do so."
+
+She continued, wildly: "Can't you see how crazy, how impossible, it is?
+I admire you--I believe in your work--it is magnificent; but I can't
+live your life. My friends, my art, mean too much to me."
+
+There was a tremulous, passionate pleading which failed of finality: it
+perplexed her lover; it did not convince him.
+
+"You are right; of course you are right," he said again; "but that does
+not help me to bear the pain of your loss. I can't let you go out of my
+life--utterly--I can't do it--I will not--Hark! What is that?"
+
+A faint, far-off, thundering sound interrupted him. A rushing roar, as
+of many horsemen rapidly approaching. Hastening to the window, Curtis
+bent his head to listen. "It sounds like a cavalry charge. Here they
+come! Cowboys--a mob of them! Can it be Yarpe's gang? Yes; that is
+precisely what it is. Yarpe leading them into some further deviltry."
+
+Whooping and cursing, and urging their tired horses with quirt and spur,
+the desperadoes, somewhat thinned of ranks, pouring by in clattering,
+pounding rush--as orderless as a charging squad of Sioux
+warriors--turned up a side street and disappeared almost before any one
+but Curtis was aware of them.
+
+"They are bent on mischief," said the soldier as he turned upon the
+girl, all personal feeling swept away by the passing mob. "They have
+followed me in to force the jail and hang Cut Finger." He caught up his
+cap. "I must prevent it!"
+
+"No! No!" cried Elsie, seizing his arm. "You must not go out in the
+street to-night--they will kill you--please don't go--you have done your
+duty. Now let the mayor act, I beg of you!"
+
+"Dear girl, I _must_ thwart this lynching party. I would be disgraced!
+Don't you see? They have seized the moment when the citizens are all in
+the hall away from the jail to do this thing. I must alarm the town and
+prevent them."
+
+Even as he pleaded with her the tumult in the hall broke forth again,
+roared for a moment in wild crescendo, and then ceased instantly,
+strangely. A moment's silence followed, and a confused murmur arose,
+quite different from any sound which had hitherto emanated from the
+hall. A powerful voice dominated all others, and through the open
+windows the words of command could be distinctly heard. "_Keep back
+there! Keep your seats!_"
+
+"The meeting is breaking up!" exclaimed Curtis. "Some one has alarmed
+them. See, they are pouring out to prevent this crazy mob from carrying
+out its plan."
+
+The shouting ceased, but the trample of feet and the murmur of voices
+thickened to a clamor, and Elsie turned white with a new fear. "They are
+rushing across the square! Perhaps they are coming for _you_!"
+
+"I don't think so; they would not dare to attack me--they hate me,
+but--"
+
+Her over-wrought nerves gave way. A panic seized her. "Hide! Hide! They
+will kill you!" she cried out, hoarsely.
+
+"No; I am going to help them defend the jail."
+
+"For my sake!" she pleaded, "don't leave me! Listen! they are coming!"
+she whispered. The sound of many feet could be heard in the lobby below,
+the roar of a hundred voices came up the stair-way, but even the excited
+girl could now detect something hushed and solemn in the
+sound--something mournful in the measured footsteps up the stairs.
+
+"It is father!" she cried, with a flash of divination. "Something has
+happened to him!" And with this new terror in her face she hurried out
+into the hall.
+
+Curtis reached her side just as the head of the procession topped the
+stair-way.
+
+Brisbane, up-borne by Lawson and a tall young stranger, first appeared,
+followed by a dozen men, who walked two and two with bared heads and
+serious faces, as if following a hearse. The stricken man's face was
+flushed and knobby, and his eyelids drooped laxly like those of a
+drunkard. He saw nothing, and his breathing was labored.
+
+"Father, what has happened?" called Elsie. "Tell me--quick!"
+
+"A touch of vertigo," answered Lawson, soothingly. "The doctor says
+nothing serious."
+
+"Are you the doctor?" she turned to the young man.
+
+"Yes. Don't be alarmed. The Senator has over-taxed himself a little,
+that is all, and needs rest. Show me his bed, and we will make him
+comfortable."
+
+Elsie led the way to the bedroom, while Curtis stood helplessly facing
+the crowd in the hall. Lawson relieved the situation by coming out a few
+moments later to say:
+
+"Gentlemen, the doctor thanks you, and requests you to leave the Senator
+to rest as quietly as possible."
+
+After this dismissal had dispersed the on-lookers, Lawson turned to
+Curtis. "The old man's work as a speaker is done. Rather tragic
+business, don't you think? He was assailing you with the utmost
+bitterness. His big, right fist was in the air like a hammer when he
+fell; but it was his last effort."
+
+Curtis seized his hand and said: "I envy you your chance to go with her
+and serve her." His voice changed. "The mob! Did you hear Yarpe and his
+men pass?"
+
+"No; when?"
+
+"Not ten minutes ago. I fear some mischief."
+
+The doctor appeared. "Mr. Lawson, a moment."
+
+As Lawson hurried into the sick-room a far-off, faint volley of
+pistol-shots broke the hush that had settled over the square. Distant
+yells succeeded, accompanied by a sound as of some giant hammering. The
+young soldier lifted his head like a young lion listening to a
+battle-call. "They are beating in the gates!" he said. For a moment he
+hesitated, but only for a moment. "She is safe!" he thought, with a
+glance towards Elsie's door. "My man and the poor little wife are not,"
+and he rushed down the stair-way and out into the street with intent to
+find and defend his faithful men.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+ELSIE CONFESSES HER LOVE
+
+
+As he paused on the steps to the hotel, a gust of bitter rage swept over
+him. "What can I do against this implacable town? Oh, for a squad of the
+boys in blue!"
+
+The street and square were filled with men all running, as to a fire,
+from left to right--a laughing, jesting throng. Along the hitching-poles
+excited and jocular cowboys were loosing their ponies and leaping to
+their saddles. Some excitable citizen had begun to ring the fire-bell,
+and women, bareheaded and white with fear, were lining the sidewalks and
+leaning from windows. The town resembled an ant-hill into which a
+fleeing bison has planted a foot.
+
+"Oh, sir!" cried one young mother as she caught sight of Curtis, "are
+the Injuns coming?"
+
+"No," he replied, bitterly, "these marauders are not Indians; they are
+noble citizens," and set off at a run towards the corral in which Two
+Horns and Crow were camped. The tumult behind him grew fainter, and at
+last died to a murmur, and only one or two houses showed a light.
+
+Ladue's was an old ranch on the river, around which the town of Pinon
+had for twenty years been slowly growing. The cabin was of stone, low
+and strong, and two sides of it formed the corner of a low corral of
+cottonwood logs. In this enclosure teamsters (for two bits) were allowed
+to camp and feed their horses. A rickety gate some fifty feet south of
+the house stood ajar, and Curtis entered the yard, calling sharply for
+Crow Wing and Two Horns. No one replied. Searching the stalls, he found
+the blankets wherein they had lain, but the tumult had undoubtedly
+called them forth into danger.
+
+Hurrying to the house, he knocked most vigorously at the door--to no
+effect. The shack was also empty. Closing the door with a slam, the
+young officer, now thoroughly alarmed, turned back towards the hotel. A
+vast, confused clamor, growing each moment louder, added edge to his
+apprehension. The crowd was evidently returning from the jail, jubilant
+and remorseless. Upon reaching the corner of the square Curtis turned to
+the left, with the design of encircling it, hoping to find the two
+redmen looking on from a door-way on the outskirts of the throng.
+
+He had crossed but one side of the plaza, when a band of cowboys dashed
+in from the opposite corner with swinging lariats, whooping shrilly, in
+close pursuit of a flying footman. A moment later a rope looped, the
+fugitive fell and the horsemen closed round him in joyous clamor, like
+dogs around a fox.
+
+With a fear that this was one of his men, Curtis raised a great shout,
+but his voice was lost in the rush and roar of the throng pouring in
+towards the fugitive. In fierce rage he rushed straight towards the
+whirling mass of horsemen, but before he had passed half the intervening
+space a horseman circled the pavilion, and the popping of a revolver,
+swift yet with deliberate pauses, began. Wild yells broke forth, the
+pursuers scattered, other revolvers began to crack, and as the press of
+horsemen reeled back, Curtis perceived Calvin, dismounted and
+bareheaded, with his back against the wall of the little wooden
+band-stand, defiant, a revolver in each hand, holding the mob at bay,
+while over his head a light sputtered and sizzled.
+
+A lane seemed to open for Curtis as he ran swiftly in towards the
+writhing, ensnared captive on the ground. It was Two Horns, struggling
+with the ropes which bound him, and just as his Little Father bent over
+him the big Tetong freed himself, and, with a sliding rush, entered the
+shadow by Calvin's side. Instantly his revolver began to speak.
+
+Curtis, left alone in the full light of the lamp on the pavilion, raised
+his arms and shouted: "Hold! Cease firing!" The crowd recognized him and
+fell silent. The army blue subdued them, and those who had done the
+shooting began to edge away.
+
+For a moment the young soldier could not speak, so furious was he, but
+at last he found words: "Cowards! Is this your way of fighting--a
+hundred to one? Where is your mayor? Have you no law in this town?" He
+turned to Calvin, who stood still, leaning against the pavilion. "Are
+you hurt?"
+
+Calvin lifted one dripping hand. "I reckon I'm punched a few. My right
+arm feels numb, and the blood is fillin' my left boot. But I'm all here,
+sure thing." But even as he spoke he reeled. Curtis caught him; he
+smiled apologetically: "That left leg o' mine, sure feels like a
+hitchin'-post; reckon some one must o' clipped a nerve somewhere."
+
+Two Horns seized him by the other arm, just as Winters blustered into
+the circle. "What's going on here; who's doin' this shootin'?"
+
+"This is a good time to ask that," remarked Curtis. "Where were you
+twenty minutes ago?"
+
+Calvin struggled to get his right hand free. "Let me have a crack at the
+beast!" he pleaded. "I saw you," he said to Winters: "you were in the
+lynching crowd, you sneak! You hung round in the shadow like a coyote."
+
+Curtis tried to calm him. "Come, this won't do, Calvin; you are losing
+blood and must have a doctor; come to the hotel."
+
+As they half-carried him away the young rancher snarled back, like a
+wounded wolf: "I disown the whole cowardly pack of ye; I put my mark on
+some of ye, too."
+
+The crowd was now so completely with Calvin that Winters hastened to
+explain: "Cal is my deputy; he was acting inside his duty! He was trying
+to keep the peace and you had no business fightin'," and proceeded to
+arrest some fairly innocent by-standers, while the wounded desperadoes
+were being swiftly hidden away by their friends, and the remaining
+citizens of the town talked of what should have been done.
+
+Calvin continued to explain as they hurried him through the excited
+throng. "I tried to stand 'em off at the jail," he said, "but I couldn't
+get near enough; my cayuse was used up. Oh, you was there!" he called to
+a tall man with a new sombrero, "I saw you, Bill Vawney, and I'll get
+you for it; I've spotted you!"
+
+He was enraged through every fibre of his strong, young body, and only
+the iron grip of the persistent men kept him from doing battle.
+
+As they neared the hotel, Curtis, looking up, glimpsed Elsie's white
+face at the window and waved his cap at her. She clapped her hands in
+joy of his return, but did not smile. The hotel lobby was packed with a
+silent mass of men, but the landlord, with authoritative voice, called
+out: "Clear the way, gentlemen!" and a lane opened for them. "Right in
+here," he added, and led the way to the parlor bedroom. The Captain and
+Calvin were now most distinguished of citizens; nothing was too good for
+them.
+
+"Bring a physician," said Curtis.
+
+"Right here," replied a cool, clear voice, and Doctor Philipps stepped
+to Calvin's side and relieved Two Horns.
+
+The young rancher sank down on the bed limply, but smiled as he
+explained: "I'm only singed a little, doc. They had me foul. You see, I
+was in the light, but I handed one or two of them something they didn't
+like. I left a keepsake with 'em. They won't forget me soon."
+
+The physician pressed him back upon the bed and began to strip his
+clothes from him. "Be quiet for five minutes and I'll have you in shape.
+We must close up your gashes."
+
+Curtis, relieved of part of his anxiety, then asked: "How is the
+Senator?"
+
+"Pretty comfortable; no danger."
+
+"Don't leave me, Major," called Calvin, as Curtis turned away to seek
+Elsie. "Don't let this chap cut me up. I'm no centipede. I need all my
+legs."
+
+There was genuine pleading in the boy's voice, and Curtis came back and
+took a chair near him while the doctor probed the wounds and dressed
+them. The officer's heart was very tender towards the reckless,
+warm-hearted young rancher as he watched his face whiten and the lips
+stiffen in the effort to conceal his pain. "Calvin, you've been loyal
+all through," he said, "and we won't forget it."
+
+At last, when the wounds were bandaged and the worst of the pain over,
+Curtis turned to Two Horns and signed:
+
+"Where is Crow and the wife of Cut Finger?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"I will go find him; you remain here. Do not fear; you are safe now. Sit
+down by Calvin's bed. You will sleep here to-night."
+
+As he made his way through the close-packed mass of excited men in the
+lobby and before the hotel, Curtis met no hostile face. It seemed that
+all men were become his friends, and eager to disclaim any share in the
+mob's action. He put their proffered hands aside and hurried back to
+Ladue's, which he found close-barred and dark.
+
+"Who's there?" called a shaking voice as he knocked.
+
+"Captain Curtis. Where is Crow?"
+
+"In here!" was the answer, in joyful voice. As he opened the door, Ladue
+reached his hand to the agent. "My God, I'm glad it is you! I was afraid
+you'd been wiped out. Where is Two Horns?"
+
+Crow, with his revolver still gripped in his hand, stepped forward, his
+face quivering with emotion. "Little Father, it is good to see you; you
+are not hurt? Where is Two Horns?"
+
+"Safe in the big house with me. The evil white men are gone; you will
+camp here, you and the wife of Cut Finger," he signed as he saw the
+cowering form of the little wife.
+
+Ladue, a big, hulking, pock-marked half-breed, began to grin. "I was
+a-scared; I sure was. I thought we was all goin' to hang. Old Bill Yarpe
+was out for game."
+
+"The better citizens are in control now," replied Curtis. "You are safe,
+but you'd better remain in the house till morning."
+
+As Curtis made his way through the crowd some one raised a cheer for
+"Major Curtis," and the cry was taken up by a hundred voices. Indignant
+citizens shouted: "We'll stand by you, Major. We'll see justice done."
+
+Curtis, as he reached the stair-way, turned and coldly said: "Make your
+words good. For four days a mob of two hundred armed men have menaced
+the lives of my employes and my wards, and you did nothing to prevent
+them. I am glad to see you appreciate the horror and the disgrace of
+this night's doings. If you mean what you say, let no guilty man escape.
+Make this night the memorable end of lawlessness in your country."
+
+"We will!" roared a big, broad-faced, black-bearded man, and the crowd
+broke into another roar of approval.
+
+Elsie was waiting at the top of the stairs, tense and white. Her eyes
+burned down into his with a singular flame as she cried out:
+
+"Why didn't you come to me sooner? Why do you walk so slowly? Are you
+hurt? Tell me the truth!"
+
+"No, only tired," he answered, as he reached her side.
+
+She put out her hand and touched his breast. "You are; you are all
+bloody. Take off your coat; let me see!"
+
+"No, it's not mine; it is poor Calvin's; he was badly wounded; he leaned
+against me."
+
+"But I saw you standing in the pistol-fire; take it off, I say!" Her
+voice was almost frenziedly insistent.
+
+He removed his coat in a daze of astonishment, and she cried out,
+triumphantly: "See! I was right; your shirt is soaked. You are wounded!"
+
+"True enough!" he replied, looking down in surprise at a big stain on
+his shoulder. "I've been 'singed,' as Calvin calls it. It can't be
+serious, for I have not felt it."
+
+A sudden faintness seized upon Elsie as she gazed fixedly upon the
+tell-tale stain. A gray whiteness passed over her face. "Oh, God!
+suppose you had been killed!" she whispered.
+
+In that shuddering whisper was the expression of the girl's complete and
+final surrender, and Curtis did not question, did not speak; he took her
+in his arms to comfort her.
+
+"My sweetheart, you _do_ love me! I doubt no more. My poverty, your
+wealth, what do they matter?"
+
+She suddenly started away. "Oh, your wound! Where is the doctor? Go to
+him!"
+
+"The touch of your lips has healed me," he protested, but she insisted.
+
+"Go! You are bleeding!" she commanded; and so, reluctantly, lingeringly,
+with most unmilitary sloth, he turned away, made numb to any physical
+pain by the tenderness in her voice.
+
+As the young surgeon was dressing the gash, he said: "Well, Captain,
+things happen in the West."
+
+"Yes, the kind of things which ought not to happen anywhere. I suppose
+they lynched poor Cut Finger?"
+
+"No; they merely shot him and dragged him to death, as near as I can
+learn."
+
+Curtis clinched his fists. "Ah, the devils! Where is the body?"
+
+"Back in the corridor of the jail."
+
+Curtis pondered the effect of this news on the tribe. "It's a little
+difficult to eliminate violence from an inferior race when such cruelty
+is manifested in those we call their teachers."
+
+He sent for Ladue, who was deep in discussion of the evening's events
+with Crow and Two Horns, and said to him: "Do not tell the wife of Cut
+Finger of the death of her husband; wait till morning. What the sheriff
+will do with the body I do not know. To-morrow say to her, 'All is over;
+go with the agent.' It will do her no good to remain here. Good-night!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was hard to realize in the peaceful light of the following morning
+that the little square had been the scene of so much cruelty and riot.
+The townspeople came forth yawning and lax, and went about their duties
+mechanically. Crow Wing and Two Horns, who would camp nowhere but on
+the floor of Curtis's room, were awake at dawn, conversing in signs, in
+order not to disturb the Little Father.
+
+He, waking a little later, called to them in greeting and said: "Now all
+is quiet. The white men are sorry. You are safe. Go to Paul's, eat and
+get ready. We must start at once for the agency. Cut Finger did an ill
+deed, and brought trouble on us all. Now he is dead, but good may come
+out of it. Go, tell the little wife; be gentle with her; say to her I
+wish her to go home with us."
+
+Silently, soberly, the two redmen left the room, and Curtis dressed and
+went at once to find Calvin. The boy looked up as Curtis entered and
+cheerily called: "Hello, Major, I've had a lively dream. I dreamed there
+was some gun-play goin' on out in the square and you and I were in it.
+Was that right?"
+
+"I've a sore place here on my shoulder that says you are. How do you
+feel? Can you travel? If you can, I'll take you home in my buckboard."
+
+"I can travel all right, but I haven't any home to go to. The old man
+and I haven't hitched very well for a year, and this will just about
+turn me out on the range."
+
+"Well, come home with me, then; Jennie will soon have you all right
+again; she's a famous nurse, and will look out for you till your mother
+comes over, as she will. Mothers don't go back on their boys."
+
+A curious dimness came into the bold, keen eyes of the wounded youth.
+"Major, that'll suit me better than anything else I know."
+
+"Very well, if the doctor says you can travel, we'll go along together,"
+replied Curtis.
+
+He was eager to see Elsie and was pacing impatiently up and down the
+hall when Lawson met him, smiling, imperturbable. "Well, Captain, how
+are you this morning?"
+
+"Have you seen Miss Brisbane?"
+
+"No; she is still asleep, I hope. The Senator is conscious, but in a
+curious state; seems not to know or care where he is; his troubles are
+over."
+
+Even as he spoke a maid came from Elsie's room to say that her mistress
+would breakfast in her own parlor, and wished both Mr. Lawson and
+Captain Curtis to join her in half an hour.
+
+Lawson, in discussing the events of the night, was decidedly optimistic.
+"This outbreak will bring about a reaction," he said, with conviction.
+"You will find every decent man on your side to-day."
+
+"I hope so," responded Curtis. "But last night's mob made me long for my
+Gray-Horse Troop."
+
+When they entered the little parlor Elsie rose and passed straight to
+Curtis without coquetry or concealment. "How is your wound? Did you
+sleep?"
+
+He assured her that he was almost as well as ever, and not till she had
+convinced herself of the truth did she turn to Lawson. "Osborne, I can
+never thank you enough for your good, kind help."
+
+Osborne protested that he had done nothing worth considering, and they
+took seats at the table--a subdued and quiet group, for Lawson was still
+suffering from his loss, and the lovers could not conceal from
+themselves the knowledge that this was their last meeting for many long
+months. Elsie was a being transformed, so tender, so wilful, so
+strangely sweet and womanly was she in every smile and in every
+gesture.
+
+They dwelt upon impersonal topics so long as Lawson remained; but he,
+being ill at ease, hastened with his coffee, and soon made excuse to
+withdraw, leaving them alone. For a moment they faced each other, and
+then, with a wistful cadence in his voice, Curtis said, "Dear girl, it's
+hard to say good-bye now, just when I have found you, but I must return
+at once."
+
+"Oh, must you? Can't you wait till we go--this afternoon?"
+
+"No; I must be the first to carry this dreadful news to my people."
+
+"You are right, of course; but I'll miss you so, and you need me. Say
+you need me!"
+
+"Need you! Of course I do; but you cannot stay with me and I cannot go
+with you."
+
+"I know, I know!" she sighed, resignedly. "But it hurts all the same."
+
+"This tumult will die out soon," he went on, in the effort to comfort
+her, "and then I can come on to Washington for a visit. I warn you I've
+lost all my scruples; seventeen hundred million dollars are as straws in
+my path, now that I know you really care for me."
+
+"I don't feel rich now; I feel very poor. You must come to Washington
+soon."
+
+"I warn you that when I come I will ask hard things of you!" He rose and
+his face darkened. "But my duty calls!"
+
+She came to him and yielded herself to his embrace. "My queenly,
+beautiful girl! It is sweet to have you here in my arms; but I _must_
+say good-bye--good-bye."
+
+In spite of his words he held her till she, with an instinctive
+movement, pushed from his arms. "Go--go quick!" she exclaimed, in a low,
+imperative voice.
+
+Not staying to wonder at the meaning of her strange dismissal, he turned
+and left the room without looking back.
+
+Only after he had helped Calvin into the wagon, and had taken his seat
+beside him, did the young soldier lift his eyes in search of her face at
+the window. She was looking down upon him, tears were on her cheeks, but
+she blew a kiss from her finger-tips, not caring if all the world were
+there to see.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+SEED-TIME
+
+
+As Lawson predicted, the very violence of this outburst of racial hatred
+was its cure. A reaction set in. The leaders of Brisbane's party, with
+loud shouts, ordered their harriers back to their lairs, while the great
+leader himself, oblivious to daylight or to darkness, was hurried home
+to Washington. The Tetongs returned to their camps and hay-making, the
+troops drilled peacefully each afternoon in the broiling heat, while
+Curtis bent to his work again with a desperate sort of energy, as if by
+so doing he could shorten the long, hot days, which seemed well-nigh
+interminable after the passing of Elsie and her friends.
+
+In a letter announcing their safe arrival in Washington, Elsie said:
+
+     "I am going to see the President about you, as soon as he
+     returns from the mountains. Papa is gaining, but takes no
+     interest in anything. He is pitifully weak, but the doctor
+     thinks he will recover if he will only rest. His brain is worn
+     out and needs complete freedom from care. Congress has
+     adjourned finally. I am told that your enemies expect to secure
+     a court-martial on the charge of usurping the authority of the
+     sheriff. Osborne says not to worry, for nothing will be done
+     now till the President returns, and he is confident that the
+     department will sustain you--the fact that the violence you
+     feared did actually take place has robbed your enemies of their
+     power."
+
+Nevertheless, the fight against the Tetongs and himself went on with
+ever-increasing rancor during July and August, and each Congressional
+candidate was sharply interrogated as to his attitude towards the
+removal bill. The anti-administration papers boldly said: "If we win
+(and we will) we'll cut the comb of this bantam. We'll break his sabre
+over his back."
+
+To this the opposition made answer: "We're no lovers of the redman, but
+Captain Curtis is an honorable soldier, doing his duty, and it will not
+be easy for you, even if victorious, to order a court-martial."
+
+This half-hearted defence gave courage to those who took the high ground
+that the time for lynching had gone by. "The Tetongs have rights which
+every decent man is bound to respect, no matter how much he personally
+dislikes the redskin."
+
+During the last days of August a letter came from Elsie, full of
+comforting assurances, both public and private, being more intimate and
+tender in tone than any that had preceded it, and full of sprightly
+humor too. It began:
+
+     "MY DEAR SOLDIER,--I've been so busy fighting your enemies I
+     couldn't write a letter. I've met both the Secretary and the
+     commissioner--their desks are said to be full of screeds
+     against you--_and I've been to see the President_! He wasn't a
+     bit gallant, but he listened. He glowered at me (not unkindly)
+     while I told your story. I'm afraid I didn't phrase it very
+     well, but he listened. I brought out all the good points I
+     could think of. I said: 'Mr. President, Captain Curtis is the
+     most disinterested man in the Indian service. He is sacrificing
+     everything for his plans.' 'What are his plans?' he asked, so
+     abruptly that I jumped. I then spoke learnedly of irrigating
+     ditches and gardens; you would have laughed had you heard me,
+     and I said: 'If he is ordered back to his regiment, Mr.
+     President, these poor people will be robbed again.' 'Does Mr.
+     Blank, of New York, endorse Captain Curtis?' he asked. I didn't
+     see what this led to, but I answered that I did not know. 'He's
+     a friend of yours, isn't he?' he asked. 'Whom do you mean?' I
+     said, and my cheeks burned. Then he smiled. 'You needn't
+     worry,' he said, banging the table with his fist. 'I'll keep
+     Captain Curtis where he is if every politician in the State
+     petitions for his removal.' I liked his wooden cuss-word, and I
+     thanked him and jumped up and hurried home to write this
+     letter. The Secretary told Osborne that the bill for buying out
+     the settlers would certainly go through next winter, and that
+     your plans were approved by the whole department. So, you see,
+     you are master of the situation, and can plan as grandly as you
+     wish--the entire reservation is yours.
+
+     "It is still hot here, and now that my 'lobbying' is done, I am
+     going to the sea-shore, where papa is, and I know I shall wish
+     you were with me to enjoy it. I am so sorry for you and Jennie,
+     my heart aches for you. Think of it! The cool, beautiful ocean
+     will be singing me to sleep to-night. I wish I could send you
+     some fruit and some ices; I know you are longing for them.
+
+     "I wonder how it will all turn out? Will you be East this
+     winter? Perhaps I'll help you celebrate the opening of your new
+     gardens, next spring. Wouldn't you like me to come out and
+     break a bottle of wine over the first plough or water-gate or
+     something? If you do, maybe I'll come. If you write, address me
+     at the Brunswick, Crescent Beach. I wish you could come and see
+     me here--you look so handsome in your uniform."
+
+The soldier's answer was not a letter, it was a packet! He began by
+writing sorrowfully:
+
+     "DEAREST GIRL,--I fear I shall not be able to get away this
+     winter. There is so much here that requires my care. If the
+     bill passes, the people will be stirred up; if it doesn't pass,
+     the settlers will be uneasy, and I shall be most imperatively
+     necessary here. Nothing would be sweeter to me than a visit to
+     you at the beach. As a boy I knew the sea-shore intimately, and
+     to wall the sands with you would be to revive those sweet,
+     careless boy memories and unite them with the deepest emotions
+     of my life--my love for you, dear one. It almost makes me
+     willing to resign. In a sense it would be worth it. I _would_
+     resign only I know I am not losing the delight forever--I am
+     only postponing it a year.
+
+     "I have thought pretty deeply on my problem, dearest, and I've
+     come to this conclusion: When two people love each other as we
+     do, neither poverty nor riches--nothing but duty, should
+     separate them. Your wealth troubled me at first. I knew I could
+     not give you the comforts--not to say luxuries--you were
+     accustomed to, and I knew that my life as a soldier would
+     always make even a barrack a place of uncertain residence. I
+     must stand to my guns here till I have won my fight; then I may
+     ask for a transfer to some field where life would not be so
+     hard. If only there were ways to use your great wealth in
+     helping these people I would rejoice to be your agent in the
+     matter.
+
+     "I am a penniless suitor, but a good soldier. I can say that
+     without egotism. I think I could have acquired money had I
+     started out that way; of course I cannot do it now. Perhaps my
+     knowledge and training will come to supplement and give power
+     to your wealth. I must work. I am not one to be idle. If I go
+     on working--devising--in my own way, then my self-respect would
+     not be daunted, even though you were worth ten millions instead
+     of one. I am fitted to be the head of a department--like that
+     of Forestry, or Civil Engineering. After my work here is
+     finished I may ask for something of that kind, but I am
+     resolved to do my duty here first. I like your suggestion about
+     the water-gate. I hold you to that word, my lady. One year from
+     now, when my gardens are ready for the sickle, I will have the
+     criers announce a harvest-home festival, and you must come and
+     dance with me among my people, and then, perhaps, I will take a
+     little vacation, and return with you to the East, and be happy
+     with you among the joyous of the earth for a little season.
+     Beyond that I dare not plan."
+
+The administration was sustained, and Brisbane's forces were beaten
+back. The better elements of the State, long scattered, disintegrated,
+and without voice, spoke, and with majesty, rebuking the cruelty, the
+barbarism, and the blatant assertion of men like Musgrove and Streeter,
+who had made the State odious. Even Winters, the sheriff, was defeated,
+and a fairly humane and decent citizen put in his place, and this
+change, close down to the people, was most significant of all. "Now I
+have hope of the courts," said Curtis to Maynard.
+
+If the Tetongs did not at once apprehend the peace and comfort which the
+defeat of Brisbane's gang and the passage of the purchase bill assured
+to them, they deeply appreciated the significance of the immediate
+withdrawal of the settlers. They rejoiced in full-toned song as their
+implacable and sleepless enemies drove their heavily laden wagons across
+the line, leaving their farms, sheds, and houses to the government for
+the use of the needy tribe.
+
+The urgency of the case being fully pleaded, the whole readjustment was
+permitted to be made the following spring, and the powers of the agent
+and his employes were taxed to the uttermost. When the order actually
+came to hand, Curtis mounted his horse and rode from camp to camp,
+carrying the good news; calling the members of each band around him, he
+told the story of their victory.
+
+"Your days of hunger and cold will soon be over," he said. "The white
+man has gone from the reservation. The water of the streams, the
+ploughed fields, are all yours. Now we must set to work. Every one will
+have good ground; all will share alike, and every one must work. We must
+show the Great Father at Washington that we are glad of his kindness.
+Our friends will not be ashamed when they come to see us, and look upon
+our corn and wheat."
+
+Every man, woman, and child did as they had promised. They laid hands to
+the duties appointed them, and did so merrily. They moved at once to the
+places designated. A mighty shifting of dwellings took place first of
+all, and when this was finished they set to work. They built fences,
+they dug ditches, they ploughed and they planted, cheery as robins. Even
+the gaunt old women lifted their morose faces to the sun and muttered
+unaccustomed thanks. The old men no longer sat in complaining council,
+but talked of the wonderful things about to be.
+
+"Ho! have you heard?" cried one. "Grayman lives in the house the white
+man has left; Elk too. Two Horns sleeps in the house above Grayman, and
+is not afraid. Ah, it is wonderful!"
+
+The more thoughtful dwelt in imagination on the reservation completely
+fenced, and saw the hills swarming with cattle as in the olden time it
+swarmed with the wild, black buffalo. They helped at the gardens, these
+old men, and as they rested on their hoes and listened to the laughter
+of the women and children, they said one to the other: "Our camp is as
+it was in the days when game was plenty. Every one is smiling. Our worst
+days are over. The white man's road is very long, and runs into a
+strange country, but while Swift Eagle leads we follow."
+
+There was commotion in every corral, where long-haired men in leggings
+and with feathered ornaments in their hats, were awkwardly breaking
+fiery ponies to drive, for teams were in sharp demand. The young men who
+formerly raced horses, for lack of other things to do, and in order not
+to die of inertness, now became the hilarious teamsters of each valley.
+Every person, white or red, who could give instruction in ditching and
+planting, was employed each hour of the day. The various camps were as
+busy as ant-hills, and as full of cheer as a flock of magpies.
+
+Curtis was everywhere, superintending the moving of barns, the building
+of cabins, and the laying out of lands. Each night he returned to his
+bed so tired he could not lie flat enough, but happy in the knowledge
+that some needed and permanent improvement had that day been made.
+Lawson, faithful to his post, came on from Washington, and was a comfort
+in ways less material than wielding a hoe. He went about encouraging the
+people at their work, and his words had the quality of a poem.
+
+"You see how it is!" he said. "You need not despair. It is not true that
+the redmen are to vanish from the earth. They are now to be happy and
+have plenty of food. The white people, at last, have found out the way
+to help you."
+
+Maynard got a short leave of absence, and came over to see "the hustle,"
+as he called it, and to visit Jennie, who still refused to leave her
+post, though she had practically consented to his proposal. "We will
+see," she had said. "If George marries, then I will feel free to go with
+you; but not now."
+
+Maynard expressed the same astonishment as ever. "A man may fight a
+people a lifetime and never really know 'em. Now I consider it
+marvellous the way these devils work."
+
+Calvin, after his recovery, came seldom to the agency. He recognized the
+power and the fitness of Captain Maynard's successful courtship, and
+though Jennie wrote twice inviting him to call, he did not come, and did
+not even reply till she had almost forgotten her own letters. In a very
+erratic and laborious screed he conveyed his regrets. "I'm powfle bizzy
+just now. The old man is gone East, an' that thros all the work of the
+ranch onto me. Ime just as mutch obliged." Jennie did not laugh at this
+letter; she put it away with a sigh--"Poor boy!"
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+THE BATTLE WITH THE WEEDS
+
+
+Between the planting and the reaping lay the sun-smitten summer-time and
+a battle with the weeds! It was a period demanding patience and
+understanding in Curtis, for as the first flush of enthusiasm over the
+sowing died away, apathy and indifference sprang up naturally as
+thistles. These childlike souls said: "Behold we have done our part, now
+let Mother Earth and the Father Sun bring forth the harvest. We cannot
+ripen the grain; we can only wait. Besides, we are weary."
+
+To them harvest should follow seeding without further effort. They were
+like boys wearied with waiting for the trees to grow. The seed and the
+apple were too far apart. Curtis, understanding this lack of training in
+their lives, did not allow himself to express the impatience he
+sometimes felt. He told them that the new life they were to lead
+involved constant care, but care would bring a reward. "In the old days
+when you hunted, these things were not so." He also made honorable
+examples of men like Two Horns and Crane's Voice, who kept their gardens
+clean of all noxious plants.
+
+He organized mimic war-parties. "To-day," he said, "the warriors of Elk
+will go forth with me against these evil ones, the weeds. Each man will
+be armed with a bright hoe. Elk, old as he is, will lead, and I will go
+by his side. We will work busily till the sun has climbed half-way to
+his hill; then we will smoke."
+
+His knowledge of their needs, their habits, their modes of thinking,
+made all that he did successful. He allowed the women to bring cool
+drinks, flavored with herbs, and to build little bowers to shade their
+sons and husbands from the fierce sun while they rested. There was
+grumbling, there was envy, naturally, but less than he expected.
+
+On the first day of July he was confident of a big crop, and wrote to
+Elsie, saying: "The potatoes are in bloom, the wheat is waving in the
+wind like a green sea. I am waiting."
+
+To this she replied: "Papa's mind turns to the mountains these hot days,
+and so we are coming; also my heart yearns for a certain soldier in the
+West--a commander of shining hoes and a leader of destructive red
+ploughmen. I ought, for my own peace and comfort, to forget this
+singular creature; but, alas! I cannot. My perplexity grows daily. I
+long to see him, yet I am afraid!"
+
+These words made him tireless and of Job-like patience. "You need not
+wait till the harvest is ended," he wrote, in reply. "Come and watch the
+grain ripen, so that you will be garmented duly and ready for the feast.
+Moreover, we will snatch so many more days of joy out of the maw of
+devouring time."
+
+To this she answered: "Your expressed reasons are not overwhelming, but
+as the sun is scorching now, we leave soon. We will reach Pinon City in
+about ten days. Father is quite well, but restless with the heat. I am
+well, but restless, for other reasons. I don't see that the problem of
+our lives is any nearer solution, do you? What can I do? What can you
+do? Is there any common ground?"
+
+"There are no problems now that you are coming," he replied.
+
+It was with a deep surprise and joy that she found herself trembling
+before each of his letters. All the old-time ecstasy and breathless
+passion of her girlhood came back to her, but enlarged, and based
+deeper, a woman's care and introspection giving it greater significance
+and power.
+
+The next day after Elsie's definite promise Curtis rode over to the
+first camp and called the people round him and said:
+
+"Next week we will hold our feast to give thanks for the good things the
+earth has given to us, and after we have councilled together we will
+feast and have a dance. Let everything be in order. Come in your finest
+dress. Let every garment be as it was of old. Let the young girls be
+very beautiful in whitened buckskin and beads. I do not despise your
+old-time dress; I like it. Hereafter, when you work you will need to
+wear white man's clothes, for they are more comfortable; but when you
+wish to have a good time, then your old dress will be pleasant. I do not
+ask you to forget the old time. It is past, but it is sweet to you. I
+want you to be happy, for I am happy."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+THE HARVEST-HOME
+
+
+The hay-harvest was still going on when Curtis and Jennie drove down the
+valley to meet Elsie and Lawson at Pinon City. "Father is much changed,"
+Elsie had written. "You will hardly know him now. He has forgotten all
+about his campaign; he remembers you only momentarily, so that you need
+not feel any resentment. He will probably meet you as if he had never
+seen you before. Please do not show any surprise, no matter what he
+says."
+
+Curtis expected to find Brisbane a poor shambling wreck of a man, morose
+and sorrowful to look upon, and his astonishment was correspondingly
+profound as the ex-Senator descended from the train. His step was
+vigorous, and his face was placid and of good color; thus much the young
+soldier took in at a glance, then he forgot all the world in the radiant
+face of his heart's beloved.
+
+As she put up her lips to be kissed, Elsie's eyes were dim with tears,
+and she hurried to Jennie as if for relief from her emotion. When she
+turned, her father was shaking hands urbanely with Curtis.
+
+"Glad to meet you, sir," he said, in the tone of the suave man of
+position. "I didn't catch the name."
+
+A spasm of pain crossed Elsie's face. "This is Mr. Curtis, papa. Don't
+you remember Captain Curtis?"
+
+"Ah, yes, so it is," he replied. "I remember you spoke of him once
+before. I am very glad to make your acquaintance--very glad indeed,
+sir."
+
+To meet this calm politeness in a man who, in his right mind, would have
+refused to shake hands, was deeply moving to the young officer. To all
+outward appearance the great promoter was the same, and on all matters
+concerning his first campaign and first term, and especially on the
+events of his early life, he spoke with freedom, even with humor, but of
+the incidents of the later campaign he had no recollection. That he had
+been defeated and humbled seemed also to have left no lasting mark upon
+his mind.
+
+"The fact is, my memory has grown very bad," he explained. "I can
+remember faces in a dim way, but anything that is said to me I forget
+instantly."
+
+For a time the thought of Brisbane's mental decay threw a gloom over the
+party, but Elsie said: "Please don't mind him. I have reached a certain
+philosophic calm in the matter. I can do him no good by sorrowing. I
+have, therefore, determined to be as happy as I can."
+
+Curtis cheerfully called: "We must start at once. Will your father go
+with us?"
+
+"Oh no! I am afraid to have him undertake that. He will go on to Copper
+City with his secretary."
+
+"Of course, that is best," replied Curtis, vastly relieved.
+
+Brisbane parted with Elsie quite matter-of-factly, and his urbanity
+remained unbroken as he shook hands with Curtis. "Pleased to have met
+you, sir," he said, and, in spite of her resolution, the tears filled
+the daughter's eyes. The old warrior's smiling forgetfulness of feuds
+was tragic.
+
+As they rode homeward, Curtis and Elsie sat as before on the forward
+seat, and he detailed what had taken place at the agency, and she
+listened, genuinely absorbed. She laughed and she wept a little as his
+story touched on the pathetic incidents of the year.
+
+"You are like a father confessor," she said. "You hold in your hands the
+most intimate secrets of your people. I don't understand your patience
+with them. Do you feel that you have made your demonstration?"
+
+"What I have done is written in lines of gold and green on the earth.
+The sky is too bright to remember my gray days," he replied, most
+exultantly.
+
+She looked at him quizzically. "You are developing new and singular
+powers."
+
+"I have a new and singular teacher."
+
+"New?" she queried.
+
+"New to me," he answered, and in such enigmatic way they expressed their
+emotion while Lawson and Jennie chatted gayly and in clear prose behind.
+Part of the time Elsie drove, and that gave Curtis an excuse to lay his
+hand on her wrist when he wished her to drive slow. At the half-way
+house she shuddered and made a mouth of disgust. "Let's hurry past here;
+I have a bad heart when I think of those horrible men."
+
+"They are thinning out, and this ranch has 'changed hands' as they say
+on restaurant signs in Chicago. Here's our north line of fence," he
+said, as they came to a big, new gate. "I hastened to build this at
+once before anything happened to prevent. This keeps the stock of the
+white man out, and has stopped all friction."
+
+As they came in sight of the flag-pole, Elsie cried out: "Just think!
+This is the third time I have driven up this road in this way. Twice
+with you."
+
+"I know it is wonderful. I don't intend you to go away without me."
+
+She was ignoring every one of his suggestions now, but the flush of her
+cheek and a certain softness in her eyes encouraged him to go on.
+
+As they alighted at the door, Jennie remained to look after her bundles,
+and Curtis and Elsie entered the library together. He who had waited so
+eagerly for this moment turned and folded her close in his arms. "I need
+you, sweetest! I'll never let you go again. Never!"
+
+This was her moment to protest; but she was silent, with her face
+against his shoulder.
+
+Jennie bounced into the hall with a great deal of premonitory clatter
+and hurried Elsie to her room to rest.
+
+"And now you're to be my really truly sister," she said, closing the
+door behind her.
+
+"I think--George," she hesitated a little, and blushed before speaking
+his name, "expects it--rather confidently."
+
+"Then give me a good hug, you glorious thing!"
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+THE MINGLING OF THE OLD AND THE NEW
+
+
+Early on the morning of the great day--before the dawn, in truth--the
+Tetongs came riding in over the hills from every quarter of the earth,
+bringing their finest clothing, their newest blankets, and their whitest
+tepees, all lashed on long poles between which the patient ponies walked
+as in the olden time. Every man, woman, and child able to sit a horse
+was mounted. No one wore a white man's hat or shoes or vest; all were in
+leggings and moccasins, fringed and painted, and they carried their
+summer blankets as they once carried their robes of the buffalo-skin.
+Even the boys of six and seven wore suits cunningly fashioned and
+decorated like those of their elders. The young warriors, painted, and
+with fluttering feathers, rode their fleetest ponies, with shoulders
+bare and gleaming like bronze in the sun.
+
+With all due form, without hurry or jostling, the whole tribe camped in
+a wide ellipse, each clan in its place, each family having a fixed
+position in the circle. The tepees rose like magic, and their threads of
+smoke began to creep up into the clear sky like mysterious plants,
+slender and wavering.
+
+Greetings passed from camp to camp, the head men met in council, and, as
+the sun rose higher, swarms of the young men galloped to and fro,
+laying out a racing-course and making up for a procession under Wilson's
+direction.
+
+Curtis said: "I am not interdicting any of their customs merely because
+they belong to their old life, but because some of them are coarse or
+hurtful. Their dance is not harmful unless protracted to the point of
+interfering with their work. That they are all living somewhat in the
+past, to-day, is true; but they will put away this finery and go to work
+with me to-morrow. To cut them off from all amusement is cruel
+fanaticism. No people can endure without amusement."
+
+"How appropriate their gay colors seem in this hot, dun land!" remarked
+Elsie. "They would look gaudy in a studio; but out here they are
+grateful to the sense."
+
+In the centre of the wide circle of tepees a huge bower of pines was
+being erected for the dance, and pulsing through the air the voice of
+the criers could be heard, as they rode slowly round the circle
+publishing the programme of the day.
+
+"Looking over the camp towards the hills it is not difficult to imagine
+one's self back in the old days," said Maynard. "I saw Sitting Bull
+camped like this. See, here is the 'Soldier Lodge' or chief's
+headquarters," and he pointed to a large, handsome tepee set in one of
+the foci of the big ellipse.
+
+Everywhere they went Curtis and his friends met with hearty greeting.
+"Hoh--hoh! The Little Father!" the old men cried, and came to shake
+hands, and the women smiled, looking up from their work. The little
+children, though they ran away at first, came out again when they knew
+that it was the Captain who called. Jennie gave hints about the cooking,
+and praised the neat tepees and the pretty dresses, while Elsie, looking
+upon it all with reflective eyes, could not help thinking, "Such will be
+my work if I do my duty as a wife."
+
+Once she looked at the firm, bold, facial outlines of the man she had
+learned to love, and snuggled a little closer into his shelter; he would
+toil to make every hardship light, that was certain; but, oh! the dreary
+winters! There were moments when she took to herself a part of the love
+and obedience this people showed Curtis. Here was a little kingdom over
+which Curtis reigned, a despotic monarch, and she, if she did her duty,
+would reign by his side. It had, at least, the virtue of being an
+unconventional self-sacrifice. And then, again, she smiled to think that
+Elsie Bee Bee should feel a touch of pride in being the wife of an
+Indian agent!
+
+Driving his guests back to the agency, Curtis returned to the camp and
+moved about on foot among his people. Wherever he went he seemed to give
+zest to the sports, and knowing this he remained with them till noon,
+and only came in to rest his weary feet and aching eyes for half an hour
+before lunch.
+
+It was unutterably sweet to stretch out in his big, battered easy-chair,
+in the shaded coolness of the library, and feel Elsie's smooth, light
+hand in his hair.
+
+"And you are never to leave me," he said, dreamily. "I can't realize it
+yet." After a pause he added: "I am demanding too much of you,
+sweetheart."
+
+"You are demanding nothing, sir; if you did you wouldn't get it. If I
+choose to _give_ you anything, you are to be grateful and discreetly
+silent."
+
+"Can't I say, 'Thank you'?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+"I am content," he said, and closed his eyes again to express it, and
+she, being unasked, bent and kissed his forehead.
+
+Rousing up a few minutes later, he said, "I have a present in keeping
+for you."
+
+"Have you? What is it? Is it from you? Why didn't you let me see it
+before?"
+
+He rose and opened a closet door. "Because the proper time had not come.
+Before I show it to you I want you to promise to wear it."
+
+"I promise," she instantly replied.
+
+"Don't be so ready; I intend it to be a symbol of your change of heart."
+
+"Well, then, I don't promise," she said, backing away.
+
+"I don't mean your change of heart towards me; I have a ring to express
+that; this is to express your change of heart towards--"
+
+"Towards Injuns?"
+
+"No; towards all 'the small peoples of the earth.'"
+
+"Well, then, I can't wear it; I haven't changed. Down with them!" she
+shouted, in smiling bravado.
+
+He closed the door. "Very well, then, you shall not even see the
+present; you are not worthy of it."
+
+"Oh, please! please! I'll forgive all the heathens of Africa, if you
+will only let me see."
+
+"I don't believe I like that, either," he replied. "You are now too
+flippant. However, I'll hold you to the word. If you don't mean it now
+you will by-and-by."
+
+Elsie clapped her hands with girlish delight as he held up a fine
+buckskin dress, beautifully adorned with beads and quills. It was
+exquisitely tanned, as soft as silk, and a deep cream color.
+
+"Isn't it lovely! I'll wear it whether my heart is changed or not."
+
+"Here are the leggings and moccasins to match."
+
+She gathered them all up at a swoop. "I'm going to put them on at once."
+
+"Wait!" he commanded. "Small Bird, who made these garments, is out in
+the kitchen. I want to call her; she can be your maid for this time."
+
+As Small Bird sidled bashfully into the hall Elsie cried out in delight
+of her. She was dressed in the old-time Tetong dress, and was
+exceedingly comely. Her face was carefully painted and her hair shone
+with much brushing and oil. Her teeth were white and even.
+
+"Can she speak English?" asked Elsie.
+
+"Not very well; but she understands. Small Bird, the lady says, thank
+you. She thinks they are very fine. Her heart is glad. Go help her
+dress."
+
+"Come!" cried Elsie, eagerly, and fairly ran up the stairs in her haste
+to be transformed into a woman of the red people.
+
+When she returned she was a sister to Small Bird. Her dark hair was
+braided in the Tetong fashion, her face was browned, and her little feet
+were clothed in glittering, beaded moccasins.
+
+"You look exactly like some of the old engravings of Mohawk princesses,"
+cried Curtis. "Now you are ready to sit by my side and review the
+procession."
+
+"Are we to have a procession?"
+
+"Indeed we are, as significant as any mediaeval tournament. I am the
+resident duke before whom the review takes place, and I shall be in my
+best dress and you are to sit by my side--my bride-elect."
+
+"Oh no!"
+
+"Oh yes. It is decided." He drew himself up haughtily. "I have said it,
+and I am chief to-day. It is good, Small Bird," he said, as the Tetong
+girl started to go. "My wife likes it very much."
+
+Elsie ran towards the girl and took her by the shoulders as if to make
+her understand the better. "Thank you; thank you!"
+
+Small Bird smiled, but surrendered to her timidity, and, turning, ran
+swiftly out of the room.
+
+Curtis hooked Elsie in his right arm. "Now all is decreed. You have put
+on the garb of my people," and his kiss stopped the protest she
+struggled to utter.
+
+Surely the day was a day strangely apart. Everything that could be done
+to make it symbolic, to make it idyllic, was done. Curtis appeared after
+lunch in a fine costume of buckskin, trimmed with green porcupine quills
+and beads, and for a hat he wore a fillet of beaver-skin with a single
+feather on the back. Across his shoulder he carried the sash of a finely
+beaded tobacco pouch, and in his hand a long fringed bag, very ancient,
+containing a peace-pipe, which had been transmitted to Crawling Elk by
+his father's father, a very precious thing, worn only by chieftains.
+
+"Oh, I shall paint you in that dress," cried Elsie.
+
+So accoutred, he led the way to the canopied platform under the
+flag-pole, where the reviewing party were to sit. In order that no
+invidious distinctions might be drawn, two or three of the old chiefs
+and their wives had been given seats thereon, and they were already in
+place. Not many strangers were present, for Curtis had purposely
+refrained from setting a day too long ahead, but Lawson's friends and
+some relatives of the employes, and several of the young officers from
+the fort made up the outside representation. Maynard was in his
+brightest uniform, and Jennie, looking very nice in a muslin gown, and a
+broad, white hat, sat by his side.
+
+From the seats in the stand, the camp, swarming with horsemen, could be
+seen. Wilson, as grand marshal, was riding to and fro, assisted by
+Lawson, who had entered into the game with the self-sacrificing devotion
+of a drum-major. His make-up was superb, and when at last he approached,
+leading the cavalcade, Elsie did not recognize him. His lean face, dark
+with paint, was indistinguishably Tetong, seen from a distance, and he
+sat his horse in perfect simulation of his red brethren. He was but
+re-enacting scenes of his early life. His hunting-shirt was dark with
+use, and his splendid war-bonnet trailed grandly down his back. He rode
+by, looking neither to the right nor the left, singing a new song.
+
+    "We are passing.
+    See us passing by.
+    We are leaving the old behind us.
+    The new we seek to find. We are passing, passing by."
+
+Crawling Elk followed, holding aloft a spear with a green plume; it was
+a turnip thrust through with a sharp-pointed, blackened stick, and
+behind him, two and two, came fifty of his young warriors carrying
+shining hoes upright, as of old they carried their lances, while at
+their shoulders, where quivers of arrows should have swung, dangled trim
+sheaves of green wheat and golden barley. The free fluttering of their
+feather-ornamented hair, the barbaric painting on their faces and hands,
+symbolized the old life, as the green arrows of the grain prefigured the
+new. Behind them rode their women, each bearing in her left hand a bunch
+of flowers. Those who could read wore on their bosoms a small, shining
+medal, and in their hair an eagle feather. No Tetong woman had ever worn
+a plume before.
+
+Standing Elk, quaint and bent, rode by, singing a war-song, magnificent
+in his dress as war chief, leading some twenty young men. His hands were
+empty of the signs of peace, and his face was rapt with dreams of the
+past, but his young men carried long-handled forks which flamed in the
+sun, and bracelets of green grass encircled their firm, brown arms.
+They, too, were painted to signify their clan and their ancestry, and
+the "medicine" they affected was on their breasts. Their wives were
+close behind, each bearing a stalk of corn in bloom; their beaded
+saddles and gay blankets were pleasant to see. Every weapon bespoke
+warfare against weeds. Every ornament represented the better nature, the
+striving, the aspiration of its wearer.
+
+Then came the school-children, adding a final note of pathos, poor
+little brown men and women trudging on foot to symbolize that they must
+go through life, plodding in the dust of the white man's chariot
+wheel--their toes imprisoned in a shapeless box of leather, their hair
+closely clipped, their clothing hot and restrictive. Each carried a book
+and a slate, and their faces were very intent and serious as they paced
+by on their way from the old to the new. They were followed by the
+school-band playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," with splendid disregard
+of the broken faith of the government whose song it was.
+
+And so they streamed by, these folk, accounted the most warlike of all
+red men, genially carrying out the wishes of their chief, illustrating,
+without knowing it, the wondrous change which had come to them; the old
+men still clinging to the past, the young men careless of the future,
+the children already transformed, and, as they glanced up, some smiling,
+some grave and dreaming, Elsie shuddered with a species of awe; it
+seemed as if a people were being disintegrated before her eyes; that the
+evolution of a race having proceeded for countless ages by almost
+imperceptible degrees was now and here rushing, as by mighty bounds,
+from war to peace, from hunting to harvesting, from primitive indolence
+to ordered thrift. They were, indeed, passing, as the plains and the
+wild spaces were passing; as the buffalo had passed; as every wild thing
+must pass before the ever-thickening flood of white ploughmen pressing
+upon the land.
+
+Twice they circled, and then, as they all massed before him, Curtis rose
+to sign to them.
+
+"I am very proud of you. All my friends are pleased. My heart is big
+with emotion and my head is full of thoughts. This is a great day for
+you and also for me. Some of you are sad, for you long for the old
+things--the big, broad plain, the elk, and the buffalo. So do I. I
+loved those things also. But you have seen how it is. The water of the
+stream never turns back to the spring, the old man never grows young,
+the tree that falls does not rise up again. So the old things come never
+again. We have always to look ahead. Perhaps, in the happy
+hunting-ground all will be different, but here now we must do our best
+to live upon the earth. It is the law that, now the game being gone, we
+must plough and sow and reap the fruit of the soil. That is the meaning
+of all we have done to-day. We have put away the rifle; we here take up
+the hoe.
+
+"I am glad; my heart is like a bird; it sings when I see you happy.
+Listen--I will tell you a great secret. You see this young woman," he
+touched Elsie. "You see she wears the Tetong dress, the same as I; that
+means much. It signifies two things: Last year her heart was hard
+towards the Tetongs; now it is soft. She is proud of what you have done.
+She wears this dress for another reason; she is going to be my wife, and
+help me show you the good way." At this moment a chorus of pleased
+outcries broke forth. "Now, go to your feast. Let everything be orderly.
+To-night we will come to see you dance."
+
+With an outburst of jocular whooping, the young men wheeled their horses
+and vanished under cover of a cloud of dust, while the old men and the
+women and the children moved sedately back to camp; the women chattering
+gayly over the day's exciting shows, and in anticipation of the dance
+which was to come.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were tears in Elsie's eyes as she looked up at Curtis. "They have
+so far to go, poor things! They can't realize how long the road to
+civilization is."
+
+"I do not care whether they reach what you call civilization or not; the
+road to happiness and peace is not long, it is short; they are even now
+entering upon it. They can be happy right here, and so can we," he
+ended, looking at her with a tender wistfulness. "Can't you understand?"
+
+"You have conquered," she said, with deep feeling. "Under the spell of
+this day, I feel your work to be the only thing in the world worth
+doing." Her words, her voice, so moved him that he bent and laid a kiss
+upon her lips. When he could speak, he said: "Now I want to ask
+something of you. I have a leave of absence for six months. Show me the
+Old World."
+
+She sprang up. "Ah! Can you go?"
+
+"When the crops are garnered and sifted, and my people clothed and
+sheltered."
+
+"I'd rather show you Paris than anything else in the world!" she cried.
+"I'd almost marry you to do that."
+
+"Very well, marry me; we will spend our honeymoon there; perhaps then
+you will be willing to spend one more year here with me, and
+then--well--Never cross the range till you get to it is a maxim of the
+trail."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop, by
+Hamlin Garland
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