diff options
Diffstat (limited to '36599.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 36599.txt | 9102 |
1 files changed, 9102 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/36599.txt b/36599.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b639fd --- /dev/null +++ b/36599.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9102 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Golden Face, by Bertram Mitford + +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: Golden Face + A Tale of the Wild West + +Author: Bertram Mitford + +Release Date: July 3, 2011 [EBook #36599] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOLDEN FACE *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Golden Face +A Tale of the Wild West +By Bertram Mitford +Published by Trischler and Company, London. +This edition dated 1892. +Golden Face, by Bertram Mitford. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +GOLDEN FACE, BY BERTRAM MITFORD. + + + +PREFACE. + +An impression prevails in this country that for many years past the Red +men of the American Continent have represented a subdued and generally +deteriorated race. No idea can be more erroneous. Debased, to a +certain extent, they may have become, thanks to drink and other +"blessings" of civilisation; but that the warrior-spirit, imbuing at any +rate the more powerful tribes, is crushed, or that a semi-civilising +process has availed to render them other than formidable and dangerous +foes, let the stirring annals of Western frontier colonisation for the +last half-century in general, and the Sioux rising of barely a year ago +in particular, speak for themselves. + +This work is a story--not a history. Where matters historical have been +handled at all the Author has striven to touch them as lightly as +possible, emphatically recognising that when differences arise between a +civilised Power and barbarous races dwelling within or beyond its +borders, there is invariably much to be said on both sides. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE WINTER CABIN. + +"Snakes! if that ain't the war-whoop, why then old Smokestack Bill never +had to keep a bright lookout after his hair." + +Both inmates of the log cabin exchanged a meaning glance. Other +movement made they none, save that each man extended an arm and reached +down his Winchester rifle, which lay all ready to his hand on the heap +of skins against which they were leaning. Within, the firelight glowed +luridly on the burnished barrels of the weapons, hardly penetrating the +gloomy corners of the hut. Without, the wild shrieking of the wind and +the swish and sough of pine branches furiously tossing to the eddying +gusts. + +"Surely not," was the reply, after a moment of attentive listening. +"None of the reds would be abroad on such a night as this, let alone a +war-party. Why they are no fonder of the cold than we, and to-night we +are in for something tall in the way of blizzards." + +"Well, it's a sight far down that I heard it," went on the scout, +shaking his head. "Whatever the night is up here, it may be as mild as +milk-punch down on the plain. There's scalping going forward +somewhere--mind me." + +"If so, it's far enough away. I must own to having heard nothing at +all." + +For all answer the scout rose to his feet, placed a rough screen of +antelope hide in front of the fire, and, cautiously opening the door, +peered forth into the night. A whirl of keen, biting wind, fraught with +particles of frozen snow which stung the face like quail-shot, swept +round the hut, filling it with smoke from the smouldering pine-logs; +then both men stepped outside, closing the door behind them. + +No, assuredly no man, red or white, would willingly be abroad that +night. The icy blast, to which exposure--benighted on the open plain-- +meant, to the inexperienced, certain death, was increasing in violence, +and even in the sheltered spot where the two men stood it was hardly +bearable for many minutes at a time. The night, though tempestuous, was +not blackly dark, and now and again as the snow-scud scattered wildly +before the wind, the mountain side opposite would stand unveiled; each +tall crag towering up, a threatening fantastic shape, its rocky front +dark against the driven whiteness of its base. And mingling with the +roaring of the great pines and the occasional thunder of masses of snow +dislodged from their boughs would be borne to the listeners' ears, in +eerie chorus, the weird dismal howling of wolves. It was a scene of +indescribable wildness and desolation, that upon which these two looked +forth from their winter cabin in the lonely heart of the Black Hills. + +But, beyond the gruesome cry of ravening beasts and the shriek of the +gale, there came no sound, nothing to tell of the presence or movements +of man more savage, more merciless than they. + +"Snakes! but I can't be out of it!" muttered the scout, as once more +within their warm and cosy shanty they secured the door behind them. +"Smokestack Bill ain't the boy to be out of it over a matter of an +Indian yelp. And he can tell a Sioux yelp from a Cheyenne yelp, and a +Kiowa yelp from a Rapaho yelp, with a store-full of Government +corn-sacks over his head, and the whole lot from a blasted wolfs yelp, +he can. And at any distance, too." + +"I think you _are_ out of it, Bill, all the same;" answered his +companion. "If only that, on the face of things, no consideration of +scalps or plunder, or even she-captives, would tempt the reds to face +this little blow to-night." + +"Well, well! I don't say you're wrong, Vipan. You've served your +Plainscraft to some purpose, you have. But if what I heard wasn't the +war-whoop somewhere--I don't care how far--why then I shall begin to +believe in what the Sioux say about these here mountains." + +"What do they say?" + +"Why, they say these mountains are chock full of ghosts--spirits of +their chiefs and warriors who have been scalped after death, and are +kept snoopin' around here because they can't get into the Happy +Hunting-Grounds. However, we're all right here, and 'live or dead, the +Sioux buck 'd have to reckon with a couple of Winchester rifles, who +tried to make us otherwise." + +He who had been addressed as Vipan laughed good-humouredly, as he tossed +an armful of fat pine knots among the glowing logs, whence arose a blaze +that lit up the hut as though for some festivity. And its glare affords +us an admirable opportunity for a closer inspection of these two. The +scout was a specimen of the best type of Western man. His rugged, +weather-tanned face was far from unhandsome--frankness, self-reliance, +staunchness to his friends, intrepidity toward foes, might all be read +there. His thick russet beard was becoming shot with grey, but though +considerably on the wrong side of fifty, an observer would have credited +him with ten years to the good, for his broad, muscular frame was as +upright and elastic as if he were twenty-five. His companion, who might +have been fifteen years his junior, was about as fine a type of +Anglo-Saxon manhood as could be met with in many a day's journey. Of +tall, almost herculean, stature, he was without a suspicion of +clumsiness; quick, active, straight as a dart. His features, regular as +those of a Greek-sculpture, were not, however, of a confidence-inspiring +nature, for their expression was cold and reticent, and the lower half +of his face was hidden in a magnificent golden beard, sweeping to his +belt. The dress of both men was the regulation tunic and leggings of +dressed deerskin, of Indian manufacture, and profusely ornamented with +beadwork and fringes; that of Vipan being adorned with scalp-locks in +addition. + +These two were bound together by the closest friendship, but there was +this difference between them. Whereas everyone knew Smokestack Bill, +whether as friend or foe, from Monterey to the British line, who he was +and all about him, not a soul knew exactly who Rupert Vipan was, nor did +Rupert Vipan himself, by word or hint, evince the smallest disposition +to enlighten them. That he was an Englishman was clear, his nationality +he could not conceal. Not that he ever tried to, but on the other hand, +he made no sort of attempt at airing it. + +This winter cabin was a substantial log affair, run up by the two men +with some degree of trouble and with an eye to comfort. Built in a +hollow on the mountain face, it hung perched as an eyrie over a ravine +some thousands of feet in depth, in such wise that its occupants could +command every approach, and descry the advent of strangers, friendly or +equivocal, long before the latter could reach them. Behind rose the +jagged, almost precipitous mountain in a serrated ridge, and +inaccessible from the other side; so that upon the whole the position +was about as safe as any position could be in that insecure region, +where every man took his rifle to bed with him, and slept with one eye +open even then. The cabin was reared almost against the great trunk of +a stately pine, whose spreading boughs contributed in no slight degree +to its shelter. Not many yards distant stood another log-hut, similar +in design and dimensions; this had been the habitation of a French +Canadian and his two Sioux squaws, but now stood deserted by its former +owners. + +Vipan flung himself on a soft thick bearskin, took a glowing stick from +the fire, and pressed it against the bowl of a long Indian pipe. + +"By Jove, Bill," he said, blowing out a great cloud. "If this isn't the +true philosophy of life it's first cousin to it. A tight, snug shanty, +the wind roaring like a legion of devils outside, a blazing fire, +abundance of rations and tobacco, any amount of good furs, and--no +bother in the world. Nothing to worry our soul-cases about until it +becomes time to go in and trade our pelts, which, thank Heaven, won't be +for two or three months." + +"That's so," was the answer. "But--don't you feel it kinder dull like? +A chap like you, who's knocked about the world. Seems to me a few +months of a log cabin located away in the mountains, Can't make it out +at all." And the scout broke off with a puzzled shake of the head. + +"Look here, you unbelieving Jew," said the other, with a laugh. "Even +now you can't get rid of the notion that I've left my country for my +country's good. Take my word for it, you're wrong. There isn't a +corner of the habitable globe I couldn't tumble up in every bit as +safely as here." + +"I know that, old pard. Not that I'd care the tail of a yaller dog if +it was t'other way about. We've hunted, and trapped, and `stood off' +the reds, quite years enough to know each other. And now I take it, +when we've lit upon a barrelful of this gold stuff, you'll be cantering +off to Europe again by the first steamboat." + +"No, I think not. Except--" and a curious look came into Vipan's face. +"Well, I don't know. I've an old score to pay off. I want to be even +with a certain person or two." + +"You do? Well now don't you undertake anything foolish. You know +better than I do that in your country you've got to wait until your +throat's already cut before drawing upon a man, and even then like +enough you'll be hung if you recover. Say, now, couldn't you get the +party or parties out here, and have a fair and square stand up? You'd +make undertaker's goods of 'em right enough, never fear." + +"No, no, my friend. That sort of reptile doesn't face you in any such +simple fashion. It strikes you through the lawyers--those beneficent +products of our Christian civilisation," replied the other, with a +bitter laugh. "However, time enough to talk about that when we get to +our prospecting again." + +"If we ever do get to it again. Custer's expedition in the fall of last +year didn't go through here for fun, nor yet to look after the Sioux, +though that was given as the colour of it. Why, they were prospectin' +all the time, and not for nothin' neither. No, `Uncle Sam' wants to +have all the plums himself, and, likely enough, the hills'll be full of +cavalrymen soon as the snow melts. Then I reckon we shall have to git." + +"Well, the reds'll be hoist with their own petard. It's the old fable +again. They call in `Uncle Sam' to clear out the miners, and `Uncle +Sam' hustles them out as well. But we may not have to clear, after all, +for it's my belief that the moment the grass begins to sprout the whole +Sioux nation will go upon the war-path." + +"Then we'd have to git all the slicker." + +"Not necessarily," replied Vipan, coolly. "I've a notion we could stop +here more snugly than ever." + +"Not unless we helped 'em," said the scout, decidedly. "And that's not +to be done." + +"I don't know that. Speaking for myself, I get on very well with the +reds. They've got their faults, but then so have other people. Wait, I +know what you're going to say--they're cruel and treacherous devils, and +so forth. Well, cruelty is in their nature, and, by the way, is not +unknown in civilisation. As for treachery, it strikes me, old chum, +that we've got to keep about as brisk a look-out for a shot in the back +in any of our Western townships as we have for our scalps in an Indian +village." + +The scout nodded assent; puffing away vigorously at his pipe as he +stared into the glowing embers. + +"For instance," went on the other, "when that chap `grazed' me in the +street at Denver while I wasn't looking, and would have put his next +ball clean through me if you hadn't dropped him in his tracks so +neatly--that was a nice example for a white man and a Christian to set, +say, to our friends Mountain Cat, or Three Bears, or Hole-in-a-Tree, +down yonder, wasn't it? But to come to the point--which is this: +Supposing some fellow had rushed us while we were prospecting that place +down on the Big Cheyenne in the summer and invited us to clear, I guess +we should briskly have let him see a brace of muzzles. Eh?" + +"Guess we should." + +"Well, then, it amounts to the same thing here. We are bound to strike +a good vein or two in the summer--in fact, we have as good as struck it. +All right. After all the risk and trouble we've stood to find it, +Uncle Sam lopes in and serves us with a notice to quit. It isn't in +reason that we should stand that." + +"Well, you see, Vipan, we've no sort of title here. This is an Indian +reservation, and Uncle Sam's bound by treaty to keep white men out. +There are others here besides us, and I reckon in the summer the +Hills'll be a bit crowded up with them. So we shall just have to chance +it with the rest, and if we're moved, light out somewhere else." + +"Well, I don't know that _I_ shall. It's no part of good sense to chuck +away the wealth lying at our very feet." And the speaker's splendid +face wore a strangely reckless and excited look. "The scheme is for the +Government to chouse the Indians out of this section of country by hook +or by crook--then mining concessions will be granted to the wire-pullers +and their friends. And we shall see a series of miscellaneous frauds +blossoming into millionaires on the strength of _our_ discoveries." + +"And are you so keen on this gold, Vipan? Ah I reckon you're hankering +after Europe again, but I judge you'll be no happier when you get +there." + +The scout's tone was quiet, regretful, almost upbraiding. The other's +philosophy was to end in this, then? + +"It isn't exactly that," was the answer, moodily, and after a pause. +"But I don't see the force of being `done.' I never did see it; perhaps +that's why I'm out here now. However, the Sioux won't stand any more +`treaties.' They'll fight for certain. Red Cloud isn't the man to +forget the ignominious thrashing he gave Uncle Sam in '66 and '67, and, +by God, if it comes to ousting us I'll be shot if I won't cut in on his +side." + +"I reckon that blunder won't be repeated. If the cavalrymen had been +properly armed; armed as they are now, with Spencer's and Henry's +instead of with the sickest old muzzle-loading fire-sticks and a round +and a half of ammunition per man, Red Cloud would have been soundly +whipped at Fort Phil Kearney 'stead of t'other way about." + +"Possibly. As things are, however, he carried his point. And there's +Sitting Bull, for instance; he's been holding the Powder River country +these years. Why don't they interfere with him? No, you may depend +upon it, a war with the whole Sioux nation backed by the Indian +Department, won't suit the Govermental book. `Uncle Sam' will cave in-- +all the other prospectors will be cleared out of the Hills, except-- +except ourselves." + +"Why except ourselves?" said the scout, quietly, though he was not a +little astonished and dismayed at his friend and comrade's +hardly-suppressed excitement. + +"We stand well with the chiefs. Look here, old man: I'd wager my scalp +against a pipe of Richmond plug--if I wasn't as bald as a billiard ball, +that is--that I make myself so necessary to them that they'll be only +too glad to let us `mine' as long as we choose to stay here. Just +think--the stuff is all there and only waiting to be picked up--just +think if we were to go in on the quiet, loaded up with solid nuggets and +dust instead of a few wretched pelts. Why, man, we are made for life. +The reds could put us in the way of becoming millionaires, merely in +exchange for our advice--not necessarily our rifles, mind." And the +speaker's eyes flashed excitedly over the idea. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +A NOCTURNAL VISITOR. + +No idea is more repellent to the mind of a genuine Western man than that +of siding with Indians against his own colour. Contested almost step by +step, the opening up of the vast continent supplies one long record of +hideous atrocities committed by the savage, regardless of age, sex, or +good faith; and stern, and not invariably discriminate, reprisals on the +part of the dwellers on the frontier. It follows, therefore, that the +race-hatred existing between the white man and his treacherous and +crafty red neighbour will hardly bear exaggeration. Thus it is not +surprising that Smokestack Bill should receive his reckless companion's +daredevil scheme with concern and dismay. Indeed, had any other man +mooted such an idea, the honest scout's concern would have found vent in +words of indignant horror. + +There was silence in the hut for a few minutes. Both men, lounging back +on their comfortable furs, were busy with their respective reflections. +Now and again a fiercer gust than usual would shake the whole structure, +and as the doleful howling of the wolves sounded very near the door, the +horses in the other compartment--which was used as a stable--would snort +uneasily and paw the ground. + +"You don't know Indians even yet, Vipan," said Smokestack Bill at +length, speaking gravely, "else you'd never undertake to help them, even +by advice, in butchering and outraging helpless women, let alone the +men, though they can better look after themselves. No, you don't know +the red devils, take my word for it." + +"I had a notion I did," was the hard reply. "As for that `helpless +woman' ticket, I won't vote on it, Bill, old man. There's no such thing +as a `helpless' woman; at least, I never met with such an article, and I +used to be reckoned a tolerably good judge of that breed of cattle, +too--" + +His words were cut short. The dog uttered a savage growl, then sprang +towards the door, barking. Each man coolly reached for his rifle, but +that was all. + +"I knew I wasn't out of it," muttered the scout, more to himself than to +his hearer. "Smokestack Bill knew the war-whoop when he heard it. He +ain't no `tenderfoot,' he ain't." + +Swish--Whirr! The fierce blast shrieked around the lonely cabin. Its +inmates having partially quieted the dog, were listening intently. +Nothing could they hear beyond the booming of the tempest, which, +unheeded in their conversation, had burst upon them with redoubled +force. + +"Only a grizzly that he hears," said Vipan, in a low tone. "No red +would be out to-night." + +Scarcely had he spoken than the loud, long-drawn howl of a wolf sounded +forth, so near as to seem at their very door. Then the hoof-strokes of +an unshod horse, and a light tap against the strong framework. + +"It's all straight. I thought I knew the yelp," said the scout. Then +he unhesitatingly slid back the strong iron bolts which secured the +door, and admitted a single Indian. + +The new comer was a tall, martial-looking young warrior, who, as he slid +down the snow-besprinkled and gaudy-coloured blanket which had +enshrouded his head, stood before them in the ordinary Indian dress. +The collar of his tunic was of bears' claws, and among the scalp-locks +which fringed his leggings were several of silky fair hair. But for +three thin lines of crimson crossing his face, and a vertical one from +forehead to throat, he wore no paint, and from his scalp-lock dangled +three long eagle-feathers stained black, their ends being gathered into +tufts dyed a bright vermilion. For arms he carried a short bow, highly +ornamented, and a quiver of wolfskin, the latter adorned with the +grinning jaws of its original owner, and in his belt a revolver and +bowie knife. This warlike personage advanced to Smokestack Bill, and +shook him by the hand effusively. Then, turning to Vipan, he broke into +a broad grin and ejaculated-- + +"Hello, George!" + +He thus unceremoniously addressed made no reply, but a cold, +contemptuous look came into his eyes. Then he quietly said:-- + +"Do the Ogallalla dance the Sun-Dance [Note 1] in winter?" + +"Ha!" said the Indian, emphatically, grasping at once the other's +meaning. + +"When I was lost in the Ogallalla villages, all the _warriors_ knew me," +went on Vipan, scathingly. "There may have been _boys_ who have become +warriors since." + +"Ha!" + +The Indian was not a little astonished. This white man spoke the +Dahcotah language fluently. He was also not a little angry, and his +eyes flashed. + +"You are not of the race of those around us," he said, "not of the race +of The Beaver," turning to the scout. "Your great chief is George." + +"Don't get mad, Vipan," said Smokestack Bill, hastening to explain. "He +only means that you're an Englishman. It'll take generations to get out +of these fellers' heads that Englishmen are still ruled by King George." + +Vipan laughed drily. He had given this cheeky young buck an appropriate +setting down. Whether or no it was taken in good part was a matter of +indifference to him. + +Meanwhile, the scout, having put on a fresh brew of steaming coffee, +threw down a fur in front of the fire, and the warrior, taking the pipe +which had been prepared for him, sat in silence, puffing out the +fragrant smoke in great volumes. + +This done, he drew his knife, and proceeded to fall to on some deer ribs +provided by his entertainers. The latter, meanwhile, smoked tranquilly +on, putting no question, and evincing no curiosity as to the object of +his visit. At length, his appetite appeased, the warrior wiped his +knife on the sole of his mocassin, returned it to its sheath, and +throwing himself back luxuriously, ejaculated-- + +"Good!" + +To the two white men, the visit of one or more of their red brethren was +a frequent occurrence; an incident of no moment whatever. They were +accustomed to visits from Indians, but somehow both felt that the +arrival of this young warrior had a purpose underlying it. + +The pipe having been ceremonially lighted and passed round the circle, +the guest was the first to break the silence. + +"It is long since War Wolf has looked upon the face of The Beaver" +(Smokestack Bill's Indian name), "or listened to the wise words which +fall from his lips. As soon as War Wolf heard that The Beaver had built +his winter lodge here, he leaped on his pony and wasted not a moment to +come and smoke with his white brothers." + +Vipan, listening, could have spluttered with sardonic laughter. Though +he had never seen him before, he knew the speaker by name--knew him to +be, moreover, one of the most unscrupulous and reckless young +desperadoes of the tribe, whose hatred of the whites was only equalled +by their detestation of him. But he moved not a muscle. + +"It is long, indeed," answered the scout. "War Wolf must have journeyed +far not to know, or not to have heard of Golden Face," and he turned +slightly to his friend as if effecting an introduction. + +By this _sobriquet_ the latter was known among the different clans of +the Dahcotah or Sioux, obviously bestowed upon him by reason of his +magnificent golden beard. + +"The name of Golden Face is not strange, for it is not seldom on the +lips of the chiefs of our nation," continued the savage with a graceful +inclination towards Vipan. "The hearts of the Mehneaska [Americans] are +not good towards us, but our hearts are always good towards Golden Face +and his friend The Beaver. To visit them, War Wolf has journeyed far." + +"Do the Ogallalla [a sub-division or clan of the Sioux nation] send out +war-parties in winter time?" asked the scout, innocently. But the +question, harmless and apparently devoid of point as it was, conveyed to +his hearer its full meaning. The eyes of the savage flashed, and his +whole countenance seemed to light up with pride. + +"Why should I tell lies?" he said. "Yes, I have been upon the war-path, +but not here. Yonder," with a superb sweep of his hand in a westerly +direction. "Yonder, far away, I have struck the enemies of my race, who +come stealing up with false words and many rifles, to possess the land-- +our land--the land of the Dahcotah. Why should I tell lies? Am I not a +warrior? But my tongue is straight; and my heart is good towards Golden +Face and his friend The Beaver." + +Vipan, an attentive observer of every word, every detail, noted two +things: one, the boldness of this young warrior in thus avowing, +contrary to the caution of his race, that he had actually just returned +from one of those merciless forays which the frontier people at that +period had every reason to fear and dread; the other, that having twice, +so to say, bracketted their names, the Indian had in each instance +mentioned his own first. In his then frame of mind the circumstance +struck him as significant. + +After a good deal more of this kind of talk, safeguarded by the adroit +fencing and beating around the bush with which the savage of whatever +race approaches a communication of consequence, it transpired that War +Wolf was the bearer of a message from the chiefs of his nation. There +had been war between them and the whites; now, however, they wished for +peace. Red Cloud and some others were desirous of proceeding to +Washington in order to effect some friendly arrangement with the Great +Father. There were many white men in their country, but their ways were +not straight. The chiefs distrusted them. But Golden Face and The +Beaver were their brothers. Had they not lived in amity in their midst +all the winter? Their hearts were good towards them, and they would +fain smoke the pipe once more with their white brothers before leaving +home. To that end, therefore, they invited Golden Face and The Beaver +to visit them at their village without delay, in fact, to return in +company with War Wolf, the bearer of the message. + +To this Bill replied, after some moments of solemn silence only broken +by the puff-puff of the pipes, that he and his friend desired nothing +better. It would give them infinite pleasure to pay a visit to their +red brethren, and to the great chiefs of the Dahcotah nation especially. +But it was mid-winter. The weather was uncertain. Before undertaking +a journey which would entail so long an absence from home, he and his +friend must sleep upon the proposal and consult together. In the +morning War Wolf should have his answer. Either they would return with +him in person, or provide him with a suitable message to carry back to +the chiefs. + +In social matters, still less in diplomatic, Indians are never in a +hurry. Had the two white men agreed there and then upon what their +course should be, they would have suffered in War Wolfs estimation. The +answer was precisely what he had expected. + +"It is well," he said. "The wisdom of The Beaver will not be +overclouded in the morning, nor will the desire of Golden Face to meet +his friends be in any way lessened." + +While this talk was progressing, Vipan's eye had lighted upon an object +which set him thinking. It was a small object--a very small object, so +minute indeed that nine persons out of ten would never have noticed it +at all. But it was an object of ominous moment, for it was nothing less +than a spot of fresh blood; and it had fallen on the warrior's leggings, +just below the fringe of his tunic. Putting two and two together, it +could mean nothing more nor less than a concealed scalp. + +"Bill was right," he thought. "Bill was right, and I was an ass. He +did hear the war-whoop right enough. I wonder what unlucky devil lost +in the storm this buck could have overhauled and struck down?" + +The discovery rendered him wary, not that a childlike ingenuousness was +ever among Vipan's faults. But he resolved to keep his weather eye +open, and if he must sleep, to do so with that reliable orbit ever +brought to bear upon their pleasant-speaking guest. + +Soon profound silence reigned within the log cabin, broken only by the +subdued, regular breathing of the sleepers, or the occasional stir of +the glowing embers. The tempest had lulled, but, as hour followed hour, +the voices of the weird waste were borne upon the night in varied and +startling cadence; the howling of wolves, the cat-like scream of the +panther among the overhanging crags, the responsive hooting of owls +beneath the thick blackness of the great pine forests, and once, the +fierce snorting growl of a grizzly, so near that the formidable monster +seemed even to be snuffing under the very door. + +The two owners of the cabin are fast asleep; Vipan with his blanket +rolled round his head. The scout, however, is lying on his back, and +his blanket has partially slipped off, as though he had found its weight +too burdensome. The three are lying with their feet to the fire in +fan-shaped formation from it: the scout in the centre, their guest on +the outside. The latter, too, is fast asleep. + +Is? Surely not. Unless a man can be said to sleep with both eyes open. + +A half-charred log fell into the embers, raising a small spluttering +flame. This flame glowed on the fierce orbs of the red warrior. For a +fraction of a second it glowed on something else, before he hid his hand +within his blanket. But the still, steady breathing of the savage was +that of a sleeping man. + +"Tu-whoo-whoo-whoo!" + +Nothing is more dismal than the hoot of an owl in the dead silent night. +That owl is very near; almost upon the tree overhead. His voice must +have had a disturbing effect upon the dreams of the red man, for in some +unaccountable fashion the distance between the latter and the sleeping +scout has diminished by about half. Yet the white man has not moved. + +"Tu-whoo-whoo-whoo!" + +That time it is nearer still. Noiseless, and with a serpentine glide, +the head of the savage warrior is reared from the ground, in the +semi-gloom resembling the hideous head of some striped and crested +snake, and in the dilated eyeball there is a fierce scintillation. + +The attitude is one of intense, concentrated listening. + +Honest Bill slumbers peacefully on. That hideous head raised over him, +scarce half a dozen yards distant, is suggestive of nightmare +personified. Yet its owner is his guest, who has eaten at his fireside, +and now rests beneath his roof. Why should his slumbers be disturbed? + +"Tu-whoo-whoo-whoo!" + +Again that doleful cry. But--look now! What deed of dark treachery is +this stealthy savage about to perpetrate? He is a yard nearer his +sleeping host, and his right hand grips a long keen knife. Ah! will +nothing warn the sleeper? + +The murderous barbarian rises to his knees, and his blanket noiselessly +slips off. And at that moment through the intervening space of gloom +comes a low distinct whisper: + +"Are the dreams of War Wolf bad, that he moves so far in his sleep?" + +Vipan has not moved. His blanket is still rolled round his head, but +the fierce Indian, darting his keen glance in the direction of the +voice, espies an object protruding from the speaker's blanket that was +not there when last he looked. It is about three inches of a revolver +barrel, and it is covering him. No fresh scalp or scalps for him +to-night. + +Let it not be supposed for a moment that the treacherous villain was in +any way abashed. It was not in him. He merely replied, pleasantly: + +"No--I cannot sleep. I am hungry again, for I have ridden far, and it +is now near morning. I would have found the `chuck' [food] without +disturbing Golden Face and The Beaver, who are very weary, and sleep +well." + +And, knife in hand, he deliberately stepped over to the corner where +hung the carcase from which they had feasted the evening before, and +cutting off a portion, placed it upon the coals to broil. + +Vipan could not but admire the cool readiness of both reply and action. +He knew that but for his own wariness, either his friend or himself-- +possibly both--would by now be entering the Happy Hunting-Grounds, yet +from his bloodthirsty and treacherous guest he apprehended no further +aggression--that night at any rate. The surprise had failed abjectly; +the enemy was on the alert; it was not in Indian nature to make a second +attempt under all the circumstances. Moreover, he recognised in the +incident a mere passing impulse of ferocity, moving the savage at the +sight of these two victims ready,--as he imagined--for the knife, +combined with the overmastering temptation to the young warrior to bear +back to his village the scalps of two white men--men of considerable +renown, too--taken by himself, alone and singlehanded. So he calmly +laid down again as if nothing had happened. + +The scout, who had awakened at the first sound of voices, and who took +in at a glance the whole situation, fully equalled his friend's +coolness. + +"Snakes!" he remarked, "I had a pesky bad dream. Dreamt I was just +goin' to draw on some feller, when I awoke." + +"The Beaver has slain many enemies," rejoined War Wolf, nodding his head +approvingly. "When a man has taken scalps, he is prompt to take more, +even in his dreams." + +"And to lose his own, you pison young skunk!" thought Smokestack Bill, +in reply to this. "I'll be even with you one day, see if I don't." + +But the "pison young skunk," unenlightened as to this event of the +future, merely nodded pleasantly as he sat by the fire, knife in hand, +assimilating his juicy venison steak with the utmost complacency. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Part of the initiatory festival during which, by virtue of +undergoing various forms of ghastly self-torture, the growing-up boys +are admitted among the ranks of the warriors. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +A TRAGEDY OF THE WILD WEST. + +It may seem strange that on the face of so forcible a demonstration of +the treacherous disposition of their guest, yet a couple of hours after +sunrise should see our friends starting in his company for the Sioux +villages. But the incident of the night, which might have had so tragic +a termination, impressed these men not one whit. It was "all in the +day's journey," they said, while admitting that they had been a trifle +too confiding. That, however, was a fault easily remedied. But to men +who habitually carry their lives in their hands, one peril more or less +matters nothing. + +As they threaded the mountain defiles nothing could be more good +humoured and genial than the young warrior's manner. He chatted and +laughed, sang snatches of songs in a high nasal key, bantered Vipan on +the poor condition of his nag, and challenged him to a race as soon as +they were domiciled in the village. He wanted to know why Golden Face +had not followed the example of other white men in the matter of squaws. +Red Cloud's village could furnish some famous beauties. Golden Face +was rich--he could take his choice. There would be great festivities in +his honour, and the prettiest girls would be only too glad to be chosen +by a man of his prowess. Thus the genial War Wolf--who amid shouts of +laughter extended, or, to be more accurate, "broadened" this vein of +fun. Now all this was very jolly, very entertaining; but on one point +our two friends were of the same mind. Under no circumstances whatever +should the sportive young barbarian be suffered to ride behind. When he +stopped, they stopped; and one or two crafty attempts which he made to +fall back, they, with equal deftness, resolutely defeated. + +It was a lovely morning, crisp and clear. A thin layer of snow lay +around, diminishing as the altitude decreased. The frosted pines +sparkling in the sun, the great crags towering up to the liquid blue; +here the ragged edges of a cliff shooting into the heavens, there a long +narrow canon, whose appalling depth might well make the wayfarer's head +swim as his horse slipped and stumbled along the rugged track which +skirted its dizzy brink--all this afforded a scene of varied grandeur, +which, with the strong spice of danger thrown in, was calculated to set +the blood of the adventurously disposed in a tingle. + +They struck into a tortuous defile, whose lofty sandstone walls almost +shut out the light of day. High above, soaring in circles, a couple of +eagles followed the trio, uttering a harsh yell, but otherwise the +voices of Nature were still. Vipan found an opportunity of chaffing the +Indian, whom he challenged to bring down one or both of the birds with +his bow--a proposal which was met by the suggestion that he could do so +with a rifle--would Golden Face let him try with his? Then a wide +valley, into which boulders and rocks seemed to have been hurled in +lavish confusion. Oak and box elder, dark funereal pines and naked +spruce, lay dotted in clumps about a level meadow, through which rushed +a half-frozen stream. Suddenly a white shape darted through the +leafless brake. + +Flash--bang! A snap shot though. + +"Get to heel, Shanks! Darn yer hide, you've become so tarnation fat and +skeery you ain't worth a little cuss, you ain't," cried the scout, +dropping the smoking muzzle of his piece. The dog thus apostrophised +was a mangy and utterly useless Indian cur, which the scout had picked +up in the woods, and which Vipan was continually urging upon him to +shoot. "Sho! you gavorting jack-rabbit! A white wolf 'll make a +mouthful of you. And he ain't touched," went on Shanks's master, +disgustedly, as the dog slunk to heel. Better not to fire at all than +to miss in the presence of an Indian. Then something seemed to strike +him. + +A raven rose from the ground, uttering a plethoric croak, then another, +and the pair flopped heavily up to a limb overhead. A plunge or two +through the leafless thicket and they were in a small open space. The +wolf--the ravens--each had been disturbed in a hideous repast. There, +in the midst of their ravaged camp, the remnants of its fire strewn +around them, lay the corpses of two white men, half-charred, frightfully +mangled, and--scalped. + +Looking upon this doleful spectacle the scout was able to locate the +war-whoop he had heard the night before. Vipan, for his own part, +cherished a shrewd conviction that he could restore the missing scalps-- +though too late--merely by the simple process of stretching forth an +arm. But the matter was no concern of his. On the other hand, to seize +and hold on to the chance of monopolising the search after the precious +metal here, pre-eminently was. + +The unfortunate men were evidently miners. The implements of their +calling lay around, together with their modest baggage; but their +weapons had disappeared. Both had been shot to death with arrows, and +that at very close quarters, probably while they were asleep. They were +rough looking fellows, one red-haired and red-bearded, the other +hatchet-faced, but both with skins tanned to parchment colour. + +"Reckon we'll give the poor boys a hoist under the sod," said the scout, +shortly. Then as for a moment his steady gaze met that of War Wolf, the +latter said: + +"Wagh! Bad Indians are about. The white men were too reckless. When +they come to find wealth in the country of the Dahcotah they should +sleep warily. The Beaver is going to bury his friends. Good. When the +shadow is there" (about half an hour) "War Wolf will return." + +If there was the faintest satirical gleam in the warrior's eyes as he +uttered these words, there would be nothing gained by noticing it. +Smokestack Bill, seizing one of the murdered men's picks, began to dig, +lustily and in silence, every now and again shaking his head ominously. +Vipan, who thought this voluntary sextonship a bore, lent a hand to +oblige his friend. These two unknown miners were no more his kin than +the savage Sioux who had slain them. He had no kin. All the world was +an enemy, to be turned to advantage when possible, and defeated at any +rate when not. Had he been alone he would merely have looked, and +passed on his way. + +By half an hour a hole of adequate dimensions received the two mangled +and mutilated corpses. Then, having trodden down the last spadeful of +earth, the scout, with a knife, marked a couple of rude crosses upon the +trunk of the nearest tree. His companion, consistently callous, said +nothing. + +As they turned to leave this lonely grave in the wilderness, they were +rejoined by the young warrior. He had not been idle. A brace of +ruff-grouse, shot by arrows, dangled from his saddle, and the three +moved forward in silence, seeking a suitable midday camp. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +THE "SQUARSON" OF LANT-HANGER. + +The Rev. Dudley Vallance was "squarson" of Lant with Lant-Hanger, in the +county of Brackenshire, England. + +Know, O reader, unversed in the compound mysteries of Mr Lewis Carroll, +that the above is a contraction of the words squire-parson. + +On the face of this assertion it is perhaps superfluous to state that +the Rev. Dudley was a manifest failure in both capacities--superfluous +because if this is not invariably the rule under similar circumstances, +the exceptions are so rare as to be well-nigh phenomenal. + +As squire he was a failure, for he had a pettifogging mind. He was not +averse to an occasional bit of sharp practice in his dealings, which +would have been creditable to an attorney after the order of Quirk, +Gammon, and Snap. Moreover, he was lacking in geniality, and for field +sports he cared not a rush. + +As parson he was a failure; for so intent was he upon the things of this +world that he had neither time nor inclination to inspire his +parishioners with any particular hankering after the things of the next. +Now this need not seem strange, or even severe, since the fiat has gone +forth from the lips of the highest of authorities--"Ye cannot serve God +and Mammon." + +In aspect the Rev. Dudley was tall and lank. He had a very long nose +and a very long beard. Furthermore, he had rather shifty eyes and a +normally absent manner. When not absent-minded, the latter was suave +and purring. His age was about fifty. + +In the matter of progeny he was blessed with a fair quiverful--eight to +wit--of whom seven were daughters. His spouse was nothing if not fully +alive to a sense of her position. This she imagined to consist mainly +in a passion for precedence, gossip, cliquerie, and deft mischief-making +at secondhand. If she fell short in one thing it was in that aggressive +and domineering fussiness habitually inseparable from the type, but this +was only because she lacked the requisite energy. Howbeit, she never +forgot that she was "Squarsina" of Lant with Lant-Hanger--if we may be +allowed to coin a word. This was not wholly unnecessary, for others +were wont to lose sight of the fact. + +Lant Hall--commonly abbreviated to Lant--the abode of the Vallances, was +rather an ugly house; squat, staringly modern, and hideously embattled +in sham castellated style. But it was charmingly situated--dropped, as +it were, upon the side of a hill, whose vivid green slope, falling to a +large sheet of ornamental water, was alive with the branching antlers of +many deer. Overshadowing the house lay a steep wooded acclivity--or +hanger--at one end of which lay the village, whence the name of the +latter. "A sweetly pretty, peaceful spot," gushed the visitor, or the +tourist driving through it; "a nook to end one's days in!" + +Scenically, the prospect was enchanting. On the one hand, line upon +line of wooded hills fed the eye as far as that organ cared to roam, on +the other, softly undulating pastures, with snug farmhouses and peeping +cottages here and there. Skirting the village on one side, the limpid +waters of the Lant sparkled and swirled beneath the old grey bridge-- +which bore the Vallance arms--and then plunged on, to lose themselves in +a mile of dark fir wood, where the big trout lay and fattened. A lovely +champaign, in sooth; small wonder that the aesthetic stranger should be +smitten with a desire to end his days in so sweet a spot. + +But this sweet spot had its disadvantages. It was frightfully out of +the way, being five miles from the nearest railway station, and that on +a branch line. The necessaries of life were only to be obtained with +difficulty, and farm and dairy produce was expensive, and in supply, +precarious. There was one butcher, and no baker, and a post-office +chiefly noteworthy for the blundering wherewith Her Majesty's mails were +received and dispensed. Moreover, the Brackenshire folk were not of a +particularly pleasant rustic type. They were very "independent," which +is to say they did what seemed right in their own eyes, irrespective of +such little matters as honesty or square dealing. They were, as a rule, +incapable of speaking the truth, except accidentally, and they had very +long tongues. Suffice it briefly to say, they excelled in the low and +sordid cunning which usually characterises the simple-hearted rustic of +whatever county. + +The Rev. Dudley Vallance had a shibboleth which he never wearied of +pronouncing. This was it:--County Society. + +Now, at Lant-Hanger this article, within anything like the accepted +meaning of the term, did not exist. + +It was a crying want, and like all such so capable, it must be supplied. +Our "squarson" set to work to supply it by a simple device. He went +into bricks and mortar. + +His jerry-built "bijou residences," and tinkered-up rustic cottages soon +let, and let comfortably--for him. Not so for the tenants, however, for +the honest Brackenshire craftsmen "did" their employer most thoroughly, +and the luckless householders found themselves let in for all sorts of +horrors they had never bargained for. Thus the Rev. Dudley "did" as he +was "done." But he got his "County Society." + +This, at the period with which we have to deal, in the year of grace +1875, consisted of a sprinkling of maiden ladies and clergymen's +relicts, who leased the delectable dwellings aforesaid; a retired +jerry-builder, who knew better than to do anything of the kind; the +village doctor; a few neighbouring vicars of infinitesimal intellect; a +couple of squireens evolved from three generations of farmers, and, +lastly, Mr Santorex of Elmcote; all of whom, with the notable exception +of the last-named, constituted an array of satellites revolving round +the centre planet, the Rev. Dudley himself. + +The Lant property, though comparatively small, was a snug possession. +Aesthetically a fair domain, it was all of it good land, and the five to +six thousand acres composing it all let well. Wholly unencumbered by +mortgages or annuity charges, it was estimated to bring in about 7,000 +pounds a year, so that in reckoning the present incumbent a fortunate +man, the neighbourhood was not far wrong. There were, however, +half-forgotten hints, which the said neighbourhood would now and again +let drop--hints not exactly to the credit of the present squire. For it +was well known that the Rev. Dudley had inherited Lant from his uncle, +not his father, and that this uncle's son was still living. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE SANTOREXES OF ELMCOTE. + +"Now, Chickie, hurry up with the oats, and we'll go and try for a brace +of trout before the sun blazes out." + +"Mercy on us, do let the child finish her breakfast! It's bad enough +being obliged to have it twice laid, without being hurried to death, one +would think." + +But the "child" stands in no need of the maternal--and querulous-- +championship. + +"I'm ready, father," she cries, pushing her chair back. + +"Right. Get on a hat then," is the reply, in a prompt and decisive, but +not ungenial tone, and the head which had been thrust through the +partially opened door disappears. + +"That's your father all over," continued the maternal and querulous +voice. "How does he know I don't want you at home this morning? But +no, that doesn't matter a pin. I may be left to toil and slave, cooped +up in the house, while everybody else is frisking about the fields all +day long, fishing and what not--" + +"But, mother, you don't really want me, do you?" + +"--And then your father must needs come down so early, and, of course, +wants his breakfast at once, and then it has to be brought on twice; and +he must flurry and fidget everyone else into the bargain. Want you? +No, child, I don't want you. Go away and catch some fish. If I did +want you, that wouldn't count while your father did--oh, no." + +Yseulte Santorex made no reply. She did the best thing possible-- +however, she kissed and coaxed the discontented matron, and took a +prompt opportunity of escaping. + +One might search far and wide before meeting with a more beautiful girl. +Rather above the medium height, and of finely formed frame, it needed +not the smallness of her perfectly shaped hands and the artistic +regularity of her features to stamp her as thoroughbred. It was +sufficient to note the upright poise of her head, and the straight +glance of her grand blue eyes, but surer hall-mark still, she was +blessed with a beautifully modulated voice. When we add that she +possessed a generous allowance of dark brown hair, rippling into gold, +we claim to have justified our opening statement concerning her. Her +age at this time was twenty; as for her disposition, well, reader, you +must find that out for yourself in the due development of this +narrative. + +Losing no more time than was necessary to fling on a wide straw hat, the +girl joined her father in the hall, where he was waiting a little +impatiently--rod, basket, landing-net, all ready. + +"You shall land the first fish, Chickie," he said, as they started. "It +isn't worth while taking a rod apiece, we shall have too little time," +with a glance upward at the clouded sky which seemed disposed to clear +every moment. + +"I oughtn't to tax your self-denial so severely, dear," answered the +girl, "when I know you're dying to get at the river yourself." + +"Self-denial, eh? Thing the preachers strongly recommend, and--always +practise. Beginning here," with a slight indicating nod. + +Yseulte laughed. She knew her father's opinion of his spiritual +pastor--in point of fact, shared it. + +"I knew a man once who used to say that self-abnegation was a thing not +far removed from the philosopher's stone. Its indulgence inspired him +with absolute indifference to life and the ills thereof, and at the same +time with a magnificent contempt for the poor creatures for whose +benefit he practised it." + +"Very good philosophy, father. But the compensation for foregoing the +delights of having one's own way is not great." + +"My dear girl, that depends. The key to the above exposition lies in +the fact that that individual never had a chance of getting his own way. +So he made a virtue of necessity--an art which, though much talked +about, is seldom cultivated." + +"Your friend was a humbug, father," was the laughing reply. "A doleful +humbug, and no philosopher at all." + +"Eh? The effrontery of the rising generation--commonly called in the +vulgar tongue--nerve! A humbug! So that's your opinion, is it, young +woman?" + +"Yes, it is," she answered decisively, her blue eyes dancing. + +"Phew-w! Nothing like having your own opinion, and sticking to it," was +all he said, with a dry chuckle. Then he subsided into silence, +whistling meditatively, as if pondering over the whimsicality he had +just propounded, or contemplating a fresh one. These same +whimsicalities, by the way, were continually cropping up in Mr +Santorex' conversation, to the no small confusion of his acquaintance, +who never could quite make out whether he was in jest or earnest, to the +delight of his satirical soul. To the infinitesimal intellects of his +neighbours--the surrounding vicars, for instance--he was a +conversational nightmare. They voted him dangerous, even as their kind +so votes everything which happens to be incomprehensible to its own +subtle ken. What sort of training could it be for a young girl just +growing to womanhood to have such a man for a father--to take in his +pernicious views and ideas as part of her education, as it were? And +herein the surrounding vicaresses were at one with their lords. Stop! +Their what? We mean their--chattels. + +But Yseulte herself laughed their horror to scorn. Her keen perceptions +detected it in a moment, and she would occasionally visit its expression +with a strong spice of hereditary satire. She could not remember the +time when her father had treated her otherwise than as a rational and +accountable being, and the time when he should cease to do so would +never come--of that she was persuaded. Nor need it be inferred that she +was "strong-minded," "advanced," or aspiring in any way to the "blue." +Far from it. She had plenty of character, but withal she was a very +sweet, lovable, even-tempered, and thoroughly sensible girl. + +There were two other children besides herself--had been, rather, for one +had lain in Lant churchyard this last ten years. The other, and eldest, +was cattle-ranching in the Far West, and doing fairly well. + +Mr Santorex was unquestionably a fine-looking man. A broad, lofty +brow, straight features, and firm, clear eyes, imparted to his face a +very decided expression, which his method of speech confirmed. He was +of Spanish origin, a fact of which he was secretly proud; for although +Anglicised, even to his name, for several generations, yet in direct +lineage he could trace back to one of the very oldest and noblest +families of Spain. + +Though now in easy circumstances, not to say wealthy, he had not always +been so. During the score of years he had lived at Lant-Hanger, about +half of that period had been spent in dire poverty--a period fraught +with experiences which had left a more than bitter taste in his mouth as +regarded his neighbours and surroundings generally, and the Rev. Dudley +Vallance in particular. Then the tide had turned--had turned just in +the nick of time. A small property which he held in the north of Spain, +and which had hitherto furnished him with the scantiest means of +subsistence, suddenly became enormously valuable as a field of mineral +wealth. + +With his changed circumstances Mr Santorex did not shake off the dust +of Lant-Hanger from his shoes. He had become in a way accustomed to the +place, and was fond of the country, if not of the people. So he +promptly leased Elmcote, a snug country box picturesquely perched on the +hillside overlooking the valley of the Lant, and having moved in, sat +down grimly to enjoy the impending joke. + +He had not long to wait. Lant-Hanger opened wide its arms, and fairly +trod on its own heels in its eagerness to make much of the new +"millionaire," whom, in his indigent days, it had so consistently +cold-shouldered as a disagreeable and highly undesirable sort of +neighbour. Next to Lant Hall itself, Elmcote was the most important +house in the parish, and its tenant had always been the most important +personage. So "County Society," following the example of its head and +cornerstone, the Rev. Dudley Vallance, metaphorically chucked up its hat +and hoorayed over its acquisition. + +Down by the river-side this warm spring morning, Yseulte, never so happy +as when engaged in this, her favourite sport, was wielding her fly-rod +with skill and efficiency, as many a gleaming and speckled trophy lying +in her creel served to show. + +The movement became her well. Every curve of her symmetrical form was +brought out by the graceful exercise. Her father, standing well back +from the bank, watched her with critical approval. True to his +character as a man of ideas, he almost forgot the object of the present +undertaking in his admiration for his beautiful daughter, and his +thoughts, thus started, went off at express speed. What a lovely girl +she was growing--had grown, indeed. What was to be her destiny in life? +She must make a good match of course, not throw herself away upon any +clodhopper in this wretched hole. That young lout, Geoffrey Vallance, +was always mooning in calf-like fashion about her. Not good enough. +Oh, no; nothing like. Seven thousand a year unencumbered was hardly to +be sneezed at; still, she must not throw herself away on any such +unlicked cub. He fancied he could do better for her in putting her +through a London season--much better. And then came an uneasy and +desolating stirring of even his philosophical pulses at the thought of +parting with her. He was an undemonstrative man--undemonstrative even +to coldness. He made at no time any great show of affection. He had +long since learned that affection, like cash, was an article far too +easily thrown away. But there was one living thing for which, deep down +in his heart of hearts, he cherished a vivid and warm love, and that was +this beautiful and companionable daughter of his. + +"Never mind about me, dear. I think I won't throw a fly this morning," +he said, as the girl began insisting that he should take a turn, there +being only one rod between them. "Besides, it's about time to knock off +altogether. The sun is coming out far too brightly for many more +rises." + +"Father," said the girl, as she took her fishing-rod to pieces, "I can't +let you shirk that question any longer. Am I to pay that visit to +George's ranche this summer or not?" + +"Why, you adventurous Chickie, you will be scalped by Indians, tossed by +mad buffaloes, bolted with by wild horses. Heaven knows what. Hallo! +Enter Geoffry Plantagenet. He seems in a hurry." + +"No! Where? Oh, what a nuisance!" + +Following her father's glance, Yseulte descried a male figure crossing +the stile which led into the field where they were sitting, and +recognised young Vallance, who between themselves was known by the above +nickname. He seemed, indeed, in a desperate hurry, judging from the +alacrity wherewith he skipped over the said stile and hastened to put a +goodly space of ground between it and himself before looking back. A +low, rumbling noise, something between a growl and a moan, reached their +ears, and thrust against the barrier was discernible from where they sat +the author of it--a red, massive bovine head to wit. Struggling to +repress a shout of laughter, they continued to observe the new arrival, +who had not yet discovered them, and who kept turning back to make sure +his enemy was not following, in a state of trepidation that was +intensely diverting to the onlookers. + +"Hallo, Geoffry!" shouted Mr Santorex. "Had old Muggins' bull after +you?" + +He addressed started as if a shot had been fired in his ear. It was bad +enough to have been considerably frightened, but to awake to the fact +that Yseulte Santorex had witnessed him in the said demoralised state +was discouraging, to say the least of it. + +"That's worse than the last infliction of Muggins you underwent, isn't +it, Mr Vallance?" said the latter mischievously, referring to the +idiotic game of cards of that name. + +"Did he chevy you far, Geoffry?" went on Mr Santorex, in the same +bantering tone. + +"Er--ah--no; not very," said the victim, who was somewhat perturbed and +out of breath. "He's an abominably vicious brute, and ought to be shot. +He'll certainly kill somebody one of these days. I must--er--really +mention the matter to the governor." + +But there was consolation in store for the ill-used Geoffry. Having +thus fallen in with the Santorex's it was the most natural thing in the +world that he should accompany them the greater part of the way home. +Consolation? Well, have we not sufficiently emphasised the fact that +Yseulte Santorex was a very beautiful girl? + +It must be admitted that the future Squire of Lant did not, either in +personal appearance or mental endowment, attain any higher standard than +commonplace mediocrity. He was very much a reproduction of his father, +though without his father's calculating and avaricious temperament, for +he was a good-natured fellow enough in his way. "No harm in him, and +too big a fool ever to be a knave," had been Mr Santorex' verdict on +this fortunate youth as he watched him grow up. Had he been aware of +it, this summing-up would sorely have distressed the young Squire, for +of late during the Oxford vacation Geoffry Vallance had eagerly seized +or manufactured opportunities for being a good deal at Elmcote. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE INDIAN VILLAGE. + +A long, open valley, bounded on either side by flat, table-topped hills, +and threaded by a broad but shallow stream, whose banks are fringed by a +straggling belt of timber. Sheltered by this last stand tall conical +lodges, some in irregular groups, some dotted down in twos and threes, +others in an attempt at regularity and the formation of a square, but +the whole extending for upwards of a mile. In the far distance, at the +open end of the valley, the eye is arrested by turret-shaped buttes, +showing the _bizarre_ formation and variegated strata characteristic of +the "Bad Lands." The stream is known as Dog Creek, and along its banks +lie the winter villages of a considerable section of the Sioux and +Cheyenne tribes. + +The westering sun, declining in the blue frosty sky, lights up the river +like a silver band, and glows upon the white picturesque lodges, +throwing into prominence the quaint and savage devices emblazoned upon +their skin walls. Within the straggling encampment many dark forms are +moving, and the clear air rings ever and anon with the whoop of a gang +of boys, already playing at warlike games; the shrill laughter of young +squaws, and the cackle of old ones; an occasional neigh from the several +herds of ponies feeding out around the villages and the tramp of their +hoofs; or vibrates to the nasal song of a circle of jovial merrymakers. +Here and there, squatted around a fire in the open, huddled up in their +blankets, may be descried a group of warriors, solemnly whiffing at +their long pipes, the while keeping up a drowsy hum of conversation in a +guttural undertone, and from the apex of each pyramidal "_teepe_" a +column of blue smoke rises in rings upon the windless atmosphere. It is +a lovely day, and although the surrounding hills are powdered with snow, +down here in the valley the hardened ground sparkles with merely a crisp +touch of frost. + +Then as the gloaming deepens the fires glow more redly, and the life and +animation of the great encampment increases. Young bucks, bedaubed with +paint, and arrayed in beadwork and other articles of savage finery, +swagger and lounge about; the nodding eagle quill cresting their +scalp-locks giving them a rakish, and at the same time martial, aspect, +as they wander from tent to tent, indulging in guffaws amongst +themselves, or exchanging broad "chaff" with a brace or so of coppery +damsels here and there, who, for their part, can give as readily and as +freely as they can take. Or a group is engaged in an impromptu dance, +both sexes taking part, to a running accompaniment of combined guttural +and nasal drone, varied now and again by a whoop. Wolfish curs skulk +around, on the look-out to steal if allowed the chance, snarling over +any stray offal that may be thrown them, or uttering a shrill yelp on +receipt of an arrow or two from some mischievous urchin's toy bow; and, +altogether, with the fall of night, the hum and chatter pervading this +wild community seems but to increase. + +Great stars blaze forth in the frosty sky, not one by one, but with a +rush, for now darkness has settled upon the scene, though penetrated and +scattered here and there by the red glare of some convivial or household +fire. And now it becomes apparent that some event of moment is to take +place shortly, for a huge fire is kindled in front of the large +council-lodge, which stands in the centre of the village, and, mingling +with the monotonous "tom-tom" of drums, the voices of heralds are +raised, convening chiefs and warriors to debate in solemn conclave. + +No second summons is needed. The unearthly howling of the dancers is +hushed as if by magic, the horseplay and boisterous humour of youthful +bucks is laid aside, and from far and near all who can lay claim to the +rank of warrior--even the youngest aspirants to the same hanging on the +outskirts of the crowd--come trooping towards the common centre. + +Within the council-lodge burns a second fire, the one outside being for +the accommodation of the crowd, and it is round this that the real +debate will take place. As the flames shoot up crisply, the interior is +vividly illumined, displaying the trophies with which the walls are +decked--trophies of the chase and trophies of war, horns and rare skins, +scalps and weapons; and, disposed in regular order, the mysterious +"medicine bags" and "totems" of the tribal magnates, grotesque affairs +mostly, birds' heads and claws, bones or grinning jaws of some animal, +the whole plentifully set off with beadwork and paint and feathers. + +Then the crowd outside parts decorously, giving passage to those whose +weight and standing entitle them to a seat within the sacred lodge, and +a voice in the council. Stately chieftains arrayed in their most +brilliant war-costumes--the magnificent war-bonnets of eagles' plumes +cresting their heads and flowing almost to the ground behind, adding an +indescribably martial and dignified air to their splendid stature and +erect carriage--advance with grave and solemn step to the council fire +and take their seats, speaking not a word, and looking neither to the +right nor to the left Partisans, or warriors of tried skill and daring, +who, without the rank and following of chiefs, are frequently elected to +lead an expedition on the war-path, these, too, in equally splendid +array, have a place in the assembly; after them, lesser braves, until +the lodge can hold no more. The crowd must listen to what it can of the +debates from without. + +From the standpoint of their compatriots, some of these warriors are +very distinguished men indeed. There is Long Bull, and Mountain Cat, +and Crow-Scalper, all implacable and redoubted foes of the whites. +There is Burnt Wrist, and Spotted Tail, and Lone Panther, and a dozen +other notable chiefs. Last, but not least, there is Red Cloud, orator, +statesman, and seer, the war-chief of the Ogallalla clan, and medicine +chief virtually of the whole Sioux nation. + +The flames of the council fire leap and crackle, casting a lurid glow on +the stern visages of the assembled warriors. Many of these wear +brilliantly-coloured tunics of cloth or dressed buckskin, more or less +tastefully adorned with beadwork or shining silver plates. Over this, +carelessly thrown, or gracefully dangling from its wearer's shoulder, is +the outer "robe" of soft buffalo hide, blazoned all over with +hieroglyphics and pictures setting forth the owner's feats of arms or +prowess in the chase, and among the scalp-locks fringeing tunics and +leggings may be descried not a few that originally grew upon Anglo-Saxon +heads. But all is in harmony, tasteful, barbarically picturesque; and +the air of self-possessed dignity stamped upon the countenances of these +plumed and stately warriors could not be surpassed by the most august +assembly that ever swayed the affairs of old civilisation. + +One more personage is there whom we have omitted to mention. Leaning +against a lodge pole, as thoroughly unconcerned and at his ease among +the red chieftains as ever he was in Belgravian boudoir, his splendid +face as impassive as their own, sits Rupert Vipan, and if ever man lived +who was thoroughly calculated to inspire respect in the breasts of these +warlike savages, assuredly he was that man. That he is here at all is +sufficient to show in what honour he is held among his barbarian +entertainers. + +And now in order to render more clearly the drift of the subsequent +debate, some slight digression may here be necessary. + +The Sioux, or Dahcotah, as they prefer to be called, are about the only +aboriginal race in North America whose numbers and prowess entitle them +to rank as a nation. They are sub-divided into clans or tribes: +Ogallalla, Minneconjou, Uncpapa, Brule, and many more, with the +specification of which we need not weary the reader, but all more or +less independent of each other, and acting under their own chiefs or +not, as they choose. At the time of our story the whole of these, +numbering about 60,000 souls, occupied a large tract comprising the +south-western half of the territory of Dakota, together with the +adjacent extensive range in eastern Montana and Wyoming, watered by the +Yellowstone and Powder Rivers and their tributaries, and commonly called +after the last-named stream. On the border-line of Dakota and Wyoming, +and therefore within the Indian reservation, stand the Black Hills, a +rugged mountain group rising nearly 8,000 feet above the sea level, an +insight into whose wild and romantic fastnesses we have already given. + +At that period popular rumour credited the Black Hills with concealed +wealth to a fabulous extent. Gold had already been found there, not in +any great quantities, but still it had been found, and the nature and +formation of the soil pointed to its existence in vast veins, at least +so said popular rumour. That was enough. Men began to flock to this +new Eldorado. Parties of prospectors and miners found their way to its +sequestered valleys, and soon the rocks rang to the sound of the pick, +and the mountain streams which gurgled through its savage solitudes were +fouled with the washing of panned dirt. + +But the miners had two factors to reckon with--the Government and the +Indians. The former was bound by treaty to keep white men, particularly +miners, out of the Indian reservation; the latter became more and more +discontented over the non-fulfilment of the agreement. The shrewd +tribesmen knew that gold was even a greater enemy to their race than +rum. The discovery of gold meant an incursion of whites; first a few, +then thousands; cities, towns, machinery. Then good-bye to the game, +whereby they largely subsisted; good-bye, indeed, to the country itself, +as far as they were concerned. They threatened war. + +It became necessary for something to be done. Troops were sent to +patrol the Black Hills, with strict injunctions to arrest all white men +and send them under guard to the settlements. This was extensively +done. But the expelled miners, watching their chance, lost no time in +slipping back again, and their numbers, so far from decreasing, had just +the opposite tendency, arrests notwithstanding. + +Then the United States Government resolved to purchase the Black Hills, +and made overtures to the Sioux accordingly. The latter were divided in +opinion. Some were for terms, the only question being as to their +liberality; others were for rejecting the proposal at any price, and if +the Government still persisted in its neglect to keep out the white +intruders, why then they must take the defence of their rights into +their own hands. + +Pause, O philanthropic reader, ere running away with the idea that these +poor savages' rights were being ruthlessly trampled on; and remember the +old legal maxim about coming into court with clean hands. The +Government tried to do its best, but in a vast, rugged, and lawless +country the inhabitants are not to be policed as in a well-ordered city +of the Old World. Men could not be hung merely for encroaching on the +reservation, and the state of popular feeling precluded any sort of +deterrent punishment. And then, were the Indians themselves strictly +observing their side of the treaty? Let us see. + +For several summers the bands roaming in the Powder River country had +perpetrated not a few murders of whites, had run off stock and destroyed +property to a considerable extent, in short, had taken the war-path, and +this although nominally at peace. Now it was by virtue of keeping the +peace that their exclusive rights over the encroached-upon territory had +been conceded. + +We have said that the Sioux were made up of various sub-divisions or +clans. Now at that time there was not one of these which did not +furnish a quota of warriors to swell the ranks of the hostiles. +Nominally at peace, and drawing rations from the Government, the +turbulent spirits of these tribes would slip away quietly in small +parties, to join the hostile chiefs for a summer raid, returning to the +agencies when they had had enough fighting and plunder, and becoming--in +popular parlance--"good Indians" again. These escapades were either +winked at by the tribal chiefs, who remained quietly at the agencies, +"keeping in" with the Government, or were simply beyond their power to +prevent. Probably both attitudes held good, for the control exercised +by an Indian chief over his band or tribe seldom amounts to more than +moral suasion. + +Briefly, then, the Sioux and their allies, the Northern Cheyennes, might +be thus classified:-- + +1. The hostiles, _i.e._, the bold and lawless faction who hardly made +any secret of being on the war-path. These held the broken and rugged +fastnesses of the Powder River country already referred to. + +2. The Agency Indians who, sitting still on their reserves, helped +their hostile brethren with information and supplies. + +3. The turbulent youths on the reservation, always ready to slip away +on their own account, or to join the hostiles, in search of scalps, +plunder, and fun in general. + +4. The whole lot, ripe for any devilment, provided it offered a safe +chance of success. + +Such was the state of affairs in 1873-4-5, and now apologising to the +reader for this digression, let us get back to our council. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +THE COUNCIL. + +In silence the "medicine-man" prepared the great pipe, his lips moving +in a magical incantation as he solemnly filled it. Then handing the +stem to Vipan, who was seated on the right of Red Cloud, he applied a +light to the bowl. This "medicine" or council pipe was a magnificent +affair, as suited its solemn and ceremonial character. The large and +massive bowl was of porous red stone, the stem, upwards of a yard in +length, being profusely ornamented with beadwork and quills, and at +intervals of a few inches flowed three long and carefully-dressed +scalp-locks. Vipan, fully alive to the position of honour he occupied, +gravely inhaled the aromatic mixture with the utmost deliberation, +expelling the smoke in clouds from his mouth and nostrils. Then he +passed it on to Red Cloud, who, after the same ceremony, in similar +fashion passed it to the chief next him on his left, and so in dead +silence it went round the circle, each warrior taking a series of long +draws, and then, having handed the pipe to his neighbour, emitting a +vast volume of smoke by a slow process which seemed to last several +minutes, and the effect of which was not a little curious. + +No word had been uttered since they entered the lodge, and not until the +pipe had made the complete round of the circle was the silence broken. +Then a sort of professional orator, whose mission was something similar +to that of counsel for the plaintiff--viz., to "open the case"--arose +and proceeded to set forth the grounds of debate. The Dahcotah, he +said, were a great nation, and so were their brethren the Cheyennes, who +also had an interest in the matter which had brought them together. +Both were represented here by many of their most illustrious chiefs and +their bravest warriors, several of whom, in passing, the orator +proceeded to name, together with the boldest feat of arms of each, and +at each of these panegyrics a guttural "How-how!" went forth from his +listeners. The Dahcotah were not only a great people and a brave +people, but they were also a long-suffering people. Who among all the +red races had such good hearts as the Dahcotah? Who among them would +have remained at peace under such provocation as they had received and +continued to receive? + +The debate was getting lively now. An emphatic exclamation of assent +greeted the orator, whose tone, hitherto even, began to wax forcible. + +When the Dahcotah agreed to bury the hatchet with the Mehneaska +[Americans]--went on the speaker--a treaty was entered into, and under +this the Great Father [the President of the United States] promised that +the reservations they now occupied should be secured to them for ever-- +that no white men should be allowed within them, either to hunt or to +settle or to search for gold, and on these conditions the Dahcotah +agreed to abandon the war-path. That was seven years ago. They had +abandoned it. They had "travelled on the white man's road," had sat +within their reservations, molesting no one. They had made expeditions +to their hunting-grounds to find food for their families and skins to +build their lodges, but they had sent forth no war-parties. They had +always treated the whites well. And now, how had the Great Father kept +his promises? White men were swarming into the Dahcotah country. First +they came by twos and threes, quietly, and begging to be admitted as +friends. Then they came by twenties, armed with rifles and many +cartridges, and began to lay out towns. Soon the Dahcotah country would +be black with the smoke of their chimneys, and the deer and the buffalo, +already scarce, would be a thing of the past. Look at Pahsapa [the +Black Hills]. Every valley was full of white men digging for gold. +What was this gold, and whose was it? Was it not the property of the +Dahcotah nation, on whose ground it lay hidden? If it was valuable, +then the Great Father should make the Dahcotah nation rich with valuable +things in exchange for it. But these intruding whites took the gold and +gave nothing to its owners--threatened them with bullets instead. It +had been suggested that they should sell Pahsapa. But these Hills were +"great medicine"--sacred ground entrusted to the Dahcotah by the Good +Spirit of Life. How could they sell them? What price would be +equivalent to such a precious possession? There was a chief here of +mighty renown--the war-chief of the Ogallalla--who had led the nation +again and again to victory, whose war-whoop had scattered the whites +like buffalo before the hunters, the "medicine chief" of the Dahcotah +race. When the council should hear his words on this matter their path +would be plain before them. + +As the orator ceased an emphatic grunt went round the circle with a +unanimity that spoke volumes. Red Cloud [Note 1], thus directly +referred to, made, however, no sign. Motionless as a statue, there was +a thoughtful, abstracted look upon his massive countenance, as though he +had not heard a word of the harangue. + +A few moments of silence, then another chief arose--a man of lofty +stature and of grim and scowling aspect, his eyes scintillating with a +cruel glitter from beneath his towering war-bonnet. After less than +usual of the conventional brag as to the greatness of his nation and so +forth, speaking fiercely and eagerly, as if anxious to come to the +point, he went on:-- + +"What enemy has not felt the spring of Mountain Cat? From the far +hunting-grounds of the Kiowas and the Apaches to the boundary line of +the English in the North, there is not a spot of ground that Mountain +Cat has not swept with his war-parties; not a village of the crawling +Shoshones or skulking Pawnees that he has not taken scalps from; not a +waggon train of these invading whites that he has not struck. When in +the South the destroying locusts sweep down upon the land, they come not +in one mighty cloud. No. They come one at a time at first, then a few +more, fluttering quietly, far apart. It is nothing. But lo! in a +moment there is a cloud in the air--a rush of wings, and the land is +black with them--everything is devoured. So it is with these whites. +One comes to trade, another comes to hunt, a third comes to visit us, +two more come to search for this gold, and lo! the land is hidden +beneath their devastating bands. Their stinking chimneys blacken the +air, their poisonous firewater kills our young men or reduces them to +the level of the whites themselves, who drink until they wallow like +hogs upon the earth, and brother kills brother because he has drunk away +his mind and has become a brute beast. Who would have dealings with +such dogs as these? + +"There was a time when our hunting-grounds shook beneath the tread of +countless buffalo. Then we were great because free and feared--for who +in those days dared incur the enmity of the Dahcotah? What happened? +The whites built their accursed roads and the steam-horse came puffing +over the plains, and where are the buffalo to-day? The land is white +with their skeletons, but will skeletons feed the Dahcotah and supply +skins for their winter lodges? The Great Father" (and the savage +uttered the words with a contemptuous sneer) "then said, `Let us send +and kill all the buffalo, and the red races will starve.' So the white +hunters came from the east and destroyed our food for ever. And where +are we to-day? Are we not living like beggars? Are we not dependent on +the Agencies for our daily food and clothing, instead of upon our own +arrows and lances as of yore? First came the settlers, whom we treated +as friends, then the steam-horse and the iron road, then the finding of +the gold. Where this gold is, there the whites swarm. What do we gain, +I say, by treating with these lying Mehneaska? What have we ever +gained? When they sought to throw open our territory by cutting it with +a broad road, did we treat? No, we fought. Where is that road to-day? +Where are the forts built along it to keep it open? Gone--all gone. +But the buffalo--what few are left--are there. How many would be left +now had we traded away our rights? Not one. The whole Dahcotah nation +went out upon the war-path. + +"The whites begged for peace, and we granted it them. They agreed to +respect our country, which was all we asked. Seven years have gone by, +and how is that agreement kept? Go, count the white men digging in +Pahsapa. Ha! There are many scalps to be had in Pahsapa." + +His tone, which had hitherto been one of quick, fierce emphasis, here +assumed a slow and deadly meaning. The young warriors, listening +without, gripped their weapons with a murmur of delighted applause. +Mountain Cat was a chieftain after their own heart. Let him but set up +the war-post that very night. All the young men in the village would +strike it. + +"We are strong," he continued, "strong and united. Our bands are +defending our hunting-grounds between this and the Yellowstone, but what +shall be thought of us if we allow the whites to invade us here, to +deprive us of the medicine hills without a struggle? Are we men, or +have we become squaws since we began to receive doles of Government +beef?" + +Then the fierce savage, raising his voice, his eyes blazing like +lightning, stretched forth his arm in denunciatory gesture over the +assembly, and continued: + +"Mountain Cat will never trust the promises of these Mehneaska. If they +want Pahsapa, let them take it by right of conquest--by seizing it from +the unconquerable Dahcotah. There are scalps to be taken in Pahsapa. +Let the whole Dahcotah nation once more go out upon the war-path. I +have said." + +Vipan, listening impassively, though with keen attention, to every word +that was uttered, here caught the eye of War Wolf. The young warrior's +face was a study in sardonic ferocity at the words, "There are scalps to +be taken in Pahsapa," and he grinned with delight over the fiendish joke +shared between himself and Golden Face. + +The young bucks in the background were in ecstasies of glee. They +anticipated no end of fun in the near future. + +Several other speakers followed, and opinions on the advisability of war +varied considerably. Most of them advocated the sale, but for an +enormous price. There was a white man among them to-night, they said, +of a different race to these other whites, and towards him their hearts +were good. He loved his red brethren; he was their brother. He had +told them about other lands than that of the Mehneaska--lands as large +and as rich beyond the great Salt Lake. They must listen to him, for he +was wise. He understood the ways of the whites, and would teach the +Dahcotah how to deal with them--so that if Pahsapa should be sold they +should receive full price; and not, as in other transactions, receive +payment in promises. + +This, more or less plainly put, was the burden of their speeches. +Vipan, listening with more than Indian composure, felt that things were +tending all as he would have them. It may here be stated that he was +alone among his red entertainers; Smokestack Bill, foreseeing how +affairs were likely to drift, having returned to the log cabin among the +mountains. For once the adventurer was glad of his comrade's absence. +He could play his cards more freely; besides, the Indians trusted him as +belonging to another race. Had the scout been still in the village, the +two white men would not have been admitted to this council. + +Then arose Spotted Tail, the head chief of the Brule bands, and after +Red Cloud, perhaps one of the most influential chiefs of the nation. He +made a long oration, of considerable eloquence, but it was all in favour +of peace. There was no need, he said, to reiterate that they were a +great nation. Everybody knew it. As many speakers had asserted, the +Dahcotah had never been conquered. Why was this? Because they were not +only a brave but a prudent people. A brave man without prudence was +like a grizzly bear--he might slay so many enemies more or less, but he +invited his own destruction by rushing upon their rifles. As with a +man, so it was with a nation. Prudence was everything. This gold which +white men were now finding among the Hills--did not all experience show +that wherever it was discovered, there the whites would soon appear in +countless swarms? Gold was the "medicine" of the whites--they could not +resist it. Not even all the warriors the Dahcotah could muster could in +the long run stand between the whites and gold--no, nor all the warriors +of every tribe from the Apaches in the south to the Blackfeet on the +English boundary line. The last time they went upon the war-path it was +to prevent the whites from making a broad road through their country-- +and they succeeded. If they went upon it this time it would be to keep +the whites away from this gold. That was a thing which no tribe or +nation had ever succeeded in doing yet, or ever would. Let the Dahcotah +be prudent. + +As for these Hills, it was true they were "great medicine," but the +people seldom hunted in them. They were not of much use. The Mehneaska +were very anxious to possess them, and the Great Father was so rich he +could afford to give such a price as would make the Dahcotah rich too. +Besides, it was evident that he wished to treat them fairly this time, +for had he not sent troops to drive away the intruding gold-seekers? +They had come back, it was true; but this only proved the difficulties +besetting the whole question. Let the Dahcotah nation be prudent-- +prudence was the keystone to every matter of international difficulty. +His counsel was for entering into negotiations at once about the +purchase. He was also emphatically on the side of peace. + +Very faint were the murmurs of applause from the young men outside as +Spotted Tail resumed his seat. The war spirit was in the air, and the +burden of his speech was unpalatable to them. Then Red Cloud said: + +"Golden Face sits in an honoured place at the council fire of the +Dahcotah people. They will listen to his words as to the voice of a +brother." + +With a slight bend of the head in acknowledgment of this graceful +invitation, Vipan arose. As he stood for a few moments silently +contemplating the circle of stately chiefs, the firelight glinting on +the flowing masses of his beard and bringing into strong relief the +herculean proportions of his towering stature, there was not an eye +among the crowd of fierce and excitable savages but dilated with +admiration. Here was indeed a man. + +"Who am I that stand to address you to-night?" he began, speaking in +their own tongue with ease and fluency. "Who knows? I will not boast. +Suffice it to say that I have led men to war, in other lands beyond the +great salt seas. I have struck the enemy, and that not once only. I +have seen his back, but he has never seen mine. Enough. Who am I? It +has been said that I am not of the race around us. That is so. There +are many white races; that to which I have belonged matters nothing, for +I own no race, I am akin to all the world," with a sweep of the arm that +would have done credit to one of their own most finished orators. + +"The people whose hearts are straight towards me, whether light or dark, +white or red, that is my people. Those who deal fairly with me, I deal +fairly with; those who do not, let them beware. You in council have +asked my advice. I cannot give advice, but my _opinion_ the chiefs +before me can value or not. + +"I have listened to the speeches of many valiant men. Some have +advocated peace, others have been for war. It is a simple thing to go +to war. Is it? When the red men strike the war-post, they muster their +warriors, and go forth to battle. When the whites decide on war, they +collect their dollars, and pay soldiers to go and fight for them. The +red men fight with weapons, the whites with dollars. The red men would +rather forego their chance of booty than lose one warrior. The whites +would rather lose a thousand soldiers than five thousand dollars. But, +you will say: If the whites have the dollars, and value not the lives of +other people, what chance have we, for they are rich, and can pay? Wait +a moment. Men are wonderfully alike, whether red or white. Is it your +experience that the richest man is the man who cares least for his +possessions? It is not mine. + +"Now let your ears be open, for this is the point. The fear of losing +men will not deter the whites from going to war; no, not for a moment, +but the fear of losing dollars will. It is not the soldiers who make +the war, it is the people who pay for it. These will not allow war to +be made by their rulers for fun. + +"Were I a councillor of the Dahcotah nation, this is what I should say: +First, let the Great Father prove that he is in earnest by turning all +the whites out of Pahsapa, or allowing us to do so. When this is done-- +but not until then--we will enter into negotiations for the purchase. +Then I should ask eighty million dollars in cash. It is a large sum, +but nothing compared with the value of the ground itself. The Mehneaska +will gladly pay this, rather than embark in a war which they know will +cost them twenty times as much, for they know the prowess of the +Dahcotah nation, and respect the name of Red Cloud," turning with a +graceful inclination towards the chief at his side. + +"And there are many whites who will refuse to pay for a war with the red +men. They love their red brethren, they say. It is no trouble to love +people you have never seen. They do not really love you, but pretend +to, which is more to your interest still; so that others shall +say:--`What good people, to take such care of the poor red man.' They +will take your part and see that you are not wronged, because sympathy +gives no trouble, and is cheap, and they think it a sure and easy way to +the white man's Happy Hunting-grounds. + +"In short, then, were I one of themselves, these would be my words to +the chiefs and warriors of the Dahcotah nation:--Be firm; fix your +price, and in any attempt to beat you down, stand as immovable as the +towering Inyan Kara. Having fixed it, get someone whom you can trust to +see that you obtain it; and, above all, write in your hearts the warning +of the great chief who has just sat down, for it contains the words of +golden wisdom: `A brave man without _prudence_ is like the grizzly +bear--he invites his own destruction.' + +"There is one more thing to talk about. I and the warriors of the +Dahcotah nation are brothers, and our hearts are the same. I who speak +with you am of no race. I am akin to all the world, to all men whose +hearts are good towards me. But although I am of no race I have friends +of every race. When the war-parties of the Dahcotah are abroad, it may +be that they will find me. Who would strike the friends of his brother? +Such of the Mehneaska as may be with me are my friends, and the +Dahcotah warriors will pass on, saying:--`We do not strike the friends +of our brother, lest we turn him into an enemy.' Yet why should I talk +of this? Only that in the days of youth the blood is hot, and young men +upon the war-path strike first, and think afterwards. Enough, my words +are for the ears of chiefs. My heart and the hearts of the great chiefs +to whom I speak, are the same. I have spoken." + +The clear ringing voice, the fluent language, the determination, even +the veiled menace in the last words of the speaker, appealed straight to +the most susceptible side of his savage hearers. One white man alone in +their midst, and he did not shrink from threatening them with his +hostility in the event of certain contingencies--threatening _them_, in +their own estimation the most redoubtable warriors in the world! +Assuredly he knew the way to their respect. + +There were some there, however, in whom these last words aroused a +feeling of rankling hostility, among them that fierce, that +uncompromising abhorrer of the whole white race, Mountain Cat. This +grim chieftain smiled sardonically to himself, as he inwardly promised +what sort of treatment should be meted out to anyone whom his war-party +should surprise, be they the friends of whom they might. Then ensued a +period of silence, and every eye was turned with expectation upon Red +Cloud. + +But that crafty chief was not yet prepared to commit himself to a +definite policy either way. Sitting motionless, he had weighed every +word which had fallen from the speakers, and notably from the last. He +was too far-sighted to plunge his nation into open war before the time +was ripe: and his thinking out of the situation had convinced him that +it was not. There were still cards to be played. So when he spoke it +was briefly. Cautiously touching on the _pros_ and _cons_ of the +speeches they had listened to, he announced that the situation must +further be delayed, hinting that meanwhile such of his countrymen as +felt aggressively disposed towards the common enemy had better exercise +great prudence. + +The council was at an end. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. This chief, over and above his skill and intrepidity as a +warrior, enjoyed a high reputation among the Indians of the Northern +Plains as a magician and a seer--a reputation really due to his +astuteness, keen foresight, and extraordinary luck. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +THE SCALP-DANCE. + +Uncas and Wingenund are very pretty creations, but they represent the +savage as he really is about as accurately as the Founder of +Christianity represents the average Christian of the current century. +Which may be taken to mean that all preconceived and popular ideas of +the "noble red man" can safely be relegated to the clouds. + +Nobody was more aware of this than Vipan, consequently he knew exactly +at what valuation to take all these overwhelmingly fraternal speeches of +his red brethren. He knew--none better--that the wily chiefs intended +to make use of him; he knew, moreover, that he could be of use to them; +equally was he determined to receive a full equivalent for his services, +and this equivalent he intended should be nothing less than the +exclusive right of mining in the Black Hills. + +His shrewd mind had grasped the sense of the council, and he realised +that a sort of desultory warfare, for which no one was responsible, +would be undertaken against the white men already there. These, +isolated by twos and threes at their scattered mining camps, could not +hope to make a successful stand against bands of savages raiding upon +them incessantly. They would be driven out, and then he, Vipan, the +friend and "brother" of the red possessors, would pick out all the best +claims, work them with a will, and quickly make his fortune. + +A daring and unscrupulous plan? Yes; but Nature had endowed the man +with indomitable daring, and circumstances had combined to render him +utterly unscrupulous. In advising the chiefs to ask the enormous sum +named above, and to abide by their demand, he was perfectly well aware +that the United States Government would not agree to it, but the larger +the demand the more protracted would be the haggle, and the more +protracted the haggle the more time would be his wherein to enrich +himself. + +There was one factor which he overlooked--or if it occurred to him he +preferred to put it aside--the possibility that the yield of gold would +not come up to anything like his expectations. But he was sanguine. +Adventurers of his type invariably are. Give him a fair chance and his +fortune was made. + +Vipan was very popular in the Indian village. Apart from the +consequence attaching to him as the friend and guest of the great +chief--for he had taken up his quarters in Red Cloud's own lodge--he +mixed freely with all the warriors, chatting with them, and treating +them as friends and equals. Indians in private life are arrant gossips, +and the adventurer being one of those adaptable persons at home in any +society was in great request, for he was essentially "good company," and +two-thirds of the night would be spent in this or that warrior's +_teepe_, the structure crowded to suffocation, listening to his droll, +or tragical, or romantic stories of all parts of the world. Then, too, +he would accompany the young bucks on their hunting trips, in no case +allowing their success to excel his; or would organise shooting matches +among them. There were instances even wherein he was not above cutting +out one or two of them in some--what we will call--boudoir intrigue, +purely for the devilment of the thing, and if only to show them that +there was nothing in which he could not surpass them--whether in love, +war, or the chase. All this told. Their respect and admiration for him +were unbounded, yet had they by chance the good fortune to surprise him +alone on the prairie, and get him into their power, it is doubtful +whether any consideration of friendship would suffice to restrain some +of the young bucks from taking his scalp. And of this he himself was +well aware. + +It was the evening of the day after the council. Vipan, returning from +a solitary hunt, to the success of which an antelope strapped behind his +saddle, and several brace of sand-grouse dangling from the same, bore +silent testimony, found his thoughts fully occupied weighing the +position of affairs, and the more he looked at it the less he liked it. +There was a hitch somewhere, and on this he had no difficulty in putting +his finger. A powerful faction in the village was hostile to him +altogether, and this was the uncompromising war-faction--Grey Wolf, the +chief of the Cheyenne band; Mountain Cat, the Ogallalla; also War Wolf, +who, although not a chief, yet aspired to this dignity, and who, his +youth notwithstanding, was a warrior of such prestige among his fellows +as to be no mean adversary. These especially--and there were others--he +knew distrusted him and his plans. They were inveterate haters of all +whites indiscriminately, and while they had hitherto treated him with +grim courtesy, yet the covert hostility of their manner and words was +not lost upon so shrewd an observer as himself. But it was certain that +although the distrust or antipathy of these men might place obstacles in +his path, yet no sort of alarm did it inspire him with. He was the +proper stuff out of which adventurers are made--utterly reckless. + +The crisp, frosty ground crackled beneath the hoofs of his powerful +black horse; the sun had gone down, and the white conical lodges of the +Sioux village stood spectral in the grey twilight. There was a +stillness and peace pervading the scene, which was very unusual in such +close proximity to the savage encampment. Suddenly, shrilling forth +loud and clear upon the evening air, rang out the terrible war-whoop. + +To say that Vipan saw that his weapons were ready to hand would be +superfluous, for they were always in a state of readiness. But he did +not quite like the look of things, and more than one keen, anxious +glance did he cast, without seeming to do so, into the belt of timber +which he was skirting. Suddenly the semi-gloom seemed alive with dusky +shapes flitting among the tree stems, and then all around him arose once +more the war-whoop, which was taken up and echoed back from the village +amid the frantic hammering of many drums. + +"What's it all about, Three Elks?" he asked tranquilly, as a tall +warrior glided past him in the twilight. + +"How! Scalp!" replied the savage laconically, and then opening his +mouth he once more set up the hideous shout as he rushed on. + +The aspect of the Sioux village was that of the nethermost shades with +all the fiends holding high revel. For the open space in front of the +council-lodge was alive with excited Indians, those coming in from +without whooping or shrilling their war-whistles as they rushed into the +thick of the surging throng. Gangs of squaws squatted around, keeping +up a wild, nasal, yelling chant, to the monotonous "tom-tom" of drums. +Red fires glared upon the night; while hundreds of excited warriors, +plumed and hideously painted, falling into something like a circular +formation, revolved around several poles, from which dangled and flapped +scalps in various stages of preservation--some dry and parchment-like, +others fresh and only half cured. + +Round and round circled the wild dance, the hoarse howling of the +warriors, varied occasionally by a deafening war-whoop; the nasal +yelling of the squaws; the hammering of drums and the screech of +whistles; the lurid glare of the fires upon the fierce bounding shapes +and the hideously streaked bodies and plumed heads; the gleam of weapons +and the disgusting trophies flapping up aloft; all went to make up a +weird and appalling pandemonium which baffles description. And yet so +contagious, so insidious in its effect was this barbarous saturnalia +that Vipan could with difficulty restrain himself from rushing into the +maddened throng, and, brandishing his weapons, whoop and howl with the +wildest of them. + +One thing he observed which, in any other man as well acquainted with +the Indian character as himself, would have been productive of +uneasiness. The dancers consisted almost entirely of young bucks, every +chief or partisan of any note being conspicuous by his absence. But +although he knew that his position was precarious in the extreme there +in the midst of that crowd of savages, quickly working themselves into a +state of uncontrollable excitement, yet there was such an irresistible +fascination about the whole thing that he felt rooted to the spot. + +Suddenly War Wolf, bounding up to one of the poles, detached a couple of +scalps, and, waving them aloft, uttered an ear-splitting yell. The +savage, bedaubed from head to foot with yellow paint spotted all over +with blotches of vermilion, brandishing a tomahawk in one hand and the +ghastly trophies in the other, while with blazing eyes he yelled forth +the history of his bloody exploit, looked a very fiend. Then as his +eyes met those of Vipan, standing on the outside of the circle, he gave +vent to a devilish laugh, flourishing the scalps ironically towards the +latter. + +The war-whoop pealed forth again, shriller, fiercer, and many a +bloodthirsty glare was turned upon Vipan from a hundred pairs of eyes, +as the maddened barbarians revolved in their frenzied rout. But he +never quailed. The fascination was complete. And through it he noted +two things. Both scalps were fresh. Hardly a week had passed since +they grew upon the heads of their owners--and one of them was +plentifully covered with a thick crop of red hair. + +A voice at his side, speaking in quiet tones, broke the spell. + +"Golden Face should be hungry and tired. Will he not come in, and rest +and eat?" + +Turning, he beheld Red Cloud. The latter's eyes wandered from his to +the crowd of furious dancers with a meaning there was no mistaking. +Without a word he turned and strolled away with the chief. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +SOME OLD CORRESPONDENCE. + +Mr Santorex and his daughter were seated in the former's own especial +sanctum, busily engaged in sorting and destroying old letters and +papers. + +The room was a pleasant one, somewhat sombre perhaps--thanks to its +panelling of dark oak--but the window commanded a lovely view of the +Lant valley. Round the room stood cabinet cupboards, enclosing +collections of insects, birds' eggs, plants, etc., and surmounted by a +number of glass cases containing stuffed birds and animals. +Fishing-rods on a rack, a few curiosities of savage weapons, and a +portrait or two adorned the walls. + +"Had enough of it, Chickie? Rather a sin to keep you boxed up here this +lovely morning, isn't it?" + +"No, father, of course it isn't. Besides, we are nearly at the end of +these `haunting memories of bygone days,' aren't we? or we shall be by +lunch-time, anyhow." + +It was indeed a lovely morning. The sweet spring air, wafting in at the +window, floated with it the clear song of larks poised aloft in the blue +ether, the bleating of young lambs disporting amid the buttercups on the +upland pastures, and many another note of the pleasant country blending +together in harmonious proportion. + +"`Haunting memories,' eh?" replied Mr Santorex, seeming to dwell +somewhat over the sheaf of yellow and timeworn papers he held in his +hand. "Instructive--yes. A record of the average crop of idiocies a +man sows in earlier life under the impression that he is doing the right +thing. Acting under a generous impulse, I believe it is called." + +Thus with that cynical half-smile of his did Mr Santorex keep up a +running comment on each separate episode chronicled among the papers and +letters filed away in his despatch-box. Some he merely looked at and +put aside without a word; others he descanted upon in his peculiar dry +and caustic fashion which always inspired the listeners with something +bordering on repulsion. Yseulte herself could not but realise that +there was a something rather cold-blooded, not to say ruthless, about +her tranquil and philosophical parent that would have awed--almost +repelled--her but that she loved him very dearly. Her nature was a +concentrative one, and unsusceptible withal. She had hardly made any +friends, because she had seen no one worth entertaining real friendship +for, and she was a girl who would not fall in love readily. + +"I wish I hadn't seen this just now, father," she said, handing him back +a sheaf of letters. It was a correspondence of a lively nature, and +many years back, between himself and Mr Vallance. "You see, the +Vallances are all coming up here this afternoon, and I don't feel like +being civil to them immediately upon it." + +"Pooh! civility means nothing, not in this location at least. Why, when +we first came here we were overwhelmed with it. It didn't last many +months certainly, but it broke out afresh when rumour made me a +millionaire. Why, what have you got there?" + +For she was now scrutinising, somewhat intently, a photograph which had +fallen out of a bundle of papers among the piles they had been sorting. +It represented a youngish man, strikingly handsome, and with a strong, +reckless stamp of countenance; and though the original must have been +prematurely bald, the mouth was almost hidden by a long heavy moustache. +A queer smile came into Mr Santorex's face. + +"Think that's the type you could fall in love with, eh, Chickie? Well, +I advise you not to, for I can't bring you face to face with the +original." + +"Why? Who is it?" + +"Who is it? No less a personage than the disinherited heir, Ralph +Vallance. The plot thickens, eh?" + +"I didn't know. I thought he was dead, if I ever knew there was such a +person, that is. Why was he disinherited?" + +"Ah, that's something of a story. Poor Ralph! I think he was most +unfairly treated, always did think so; especially when that hum--er, I +mean, our spiritual guide, jumped into his shoes. No, I daresay you +never heard much about it, but you are a woman now, my dear, and a +deuced sensible one too, as women go, and I always hold that it is +simply nonsensical and deleterious to their moral fibre to let women-- +sensible ones, that is--go about the world with their eyes shut. To +come back to our romance. The old squire of Lant was a straight-laced, +puritanical fossil, and Master Ralph was just the reverse, an +extravagant, roystering young dog who chucked away ten pounds for every +one that he was worth, in fact the ideal `Plunger' as you girls estimate +that article. Naturally, there were occasional breezes down at the +Hall, nor were these effectually tempered by the crafty intervention of +cousin Dudley, who ran the vicarage in those days. The old man used to +get very mad, especially when Ralph began dabbling in _post obits_, and +vowed he'd cut off that hopeful with a shilling, and leave everything to +his reverend nephew. Finally, the regiment went on foreign service, and +while the transport was lying at the Abraham Islands, where she had put +in for coal and other supplies, that young idiot, Ralph Vallance, must +needs get mixed up in a confounded domestic scandal there was no +clapping an extinguisher on. The mischief of the thing was that it +nearly concerned the Governor of the place, whose interest was +considerable enough to get Master Ralph cashiered, in the event of his +failing to send in his papers at once. Of the two evils, he chose the +latter, and least; and as it could not be kept from his affectionate +parent, that sturdy Pharisee duly cut him off with a shilling and +departed this life forthwith. So the revered and reverend Dudley reigns +in both their steads." + +"I wonder Mr Vallance has the conscience to take the property at the +expense of his cousin, whatever the latter might have done." + +"You do, do you! Oh, Chickie, to think that you and I should have been +sworn allies all through your long and illustrious career, and you still +capable of propounding such a sentiment! Know then, O recreant, that +our sacred friend, although he may be something of a kn--ah'm! has +nothing of the fool about him, although the other was a consummate young +ass, or he would never have gone the length of getting himself cut out +of his patrimony." + +"But didn't Mr Vallance do anything for him?" + +"I have it on the best authority, that of the victim himself, that he +did not. Ralph, however, was determined not to be outdone in +generosity, for he came raging down here one fine day consumed with +anxiety to take his reverend cousin by the scruff of the neck and give +him a liberal thrashing. It was just as well, perhaps, that chance +enabled me to prevent him." + +"You knew him then, father?" + +"Yes, we struck up acquaintance on that occasion. Poor Ralph! He was a +fine fellow, whatever his faults, and, mind you, my impression is that +in the last affair it was a case of clapping the saddle on the wrong +horse, that he was screening somebody else, and allowed the blame to +fall on himself rather than `peach.' It was magnificent, but--stark +idiotic." + +"He has a very, fine face," said Yseulte, again taking up the photograph +and examining it thoughtfully. The fact that he had suffered at the +hands of his slippery cousin was quite enough to enlist all her +sympathies in behalf of the romantic scapegrace. + +"Yes, it is. You know I am not given to indiscriminate eulogium, but +without hesitation I think Ralph Vallance was about the finest specimen +of manhood I ever saw." + +"What has become of him now?" + +"I haven't the faintest notion. All this happened a good many years +ago, when you were almost in your cradle. Why, Ralph, if he is alive, +must be getting on in years by this time. There, that's about all the +story that it's worth your while to know, my dear, and now we'll lock +the correspondence away in my private safe. Let me have the portrait +again when you have done with it." + +Yseulte, as we have said, was not a romantically inclined girl, yet, +somehow, this faded portrait of the man of whom nobody had heard +anything for almost as many years as she herself had lived, made a vivid +impression on her. As she sat contemplating it, a voice arose from the +lawn beneath, saying in the most approved Oxford drawl: + +"Ah, how do you do, Mrs Santorex? I've brought rather a queer plant +that your husband may not have in his collection. It strikes me as a +curious specimen." And then Mrs Santorex was heard asking the speaker +in. + +Father and daughter looked at each other with the most comical +expression in the world. Then the former murmured, with a dry, +noiseless laugh: + +"He's found the four-leaved shamrock. Oh, Chickie, Chickie! have some +pity on poor Geoffry Plantagenet, and put him out of his misery, once +and for all!" + +The girl could hardly stifle her laughter. Her father, for his part, +was thinking resignedly that to the bald expedients devised by enamoured +youth as pretexts for numerous and wholly unnecessary visits to the +parent or lawful guardian of its idol, there is no limit. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +POOR GEOFFRY. + +The clever author of "Mine is Thine" lays it down as an axiom that +nothing so completely transforms the average sensible man into a +consummate idiot for the time being as an _arriere pensee_; and it is an +axiom the soundness of which all observation goes to prove. + +Geoffry Vallance, if not passing brilliant, was endowed with average +sense and more than average assurance, yet when he found himself seated +opposite Yseulte at the luncheon table in accordance with that young +lady's father's impromptu invitation, his wits were somewhat befogged. +Not to put too fine a point upon it, he was distressingly conscious of +feeling an ass, and, worse still, of looking one. His conversation, +normally lucid, and, like the brook, apt to "go on for ever," was now a +little incoherent, jerky, and limited in area; his demeanour, normally +self-possessed, not to say a trifle assertive, was now constrained, +spasmodic, and painfully apprehensive of saying or doing the wrong +thing. + +The poor fellow was over head and ears in love, which blissful state +developed a new phase in his character--a self-consciousness and a +diffidence which no one would have suspected to lie hidden there. Eager +to show at his best in the eyes of Yseulte and her father, he, of course +showed at his worst. It never occurred to him--it does not to most men +under the circumstances--that heroic qualities are not essential to the +adequate looking after of multifold dress baskets and hand luggage at +the railway station or on board the Channel packet; that a Greek profile +is hardly requisite to the unmurmuring liquidation of milliners' bills, +or the torso of a Milo to the deft fulfilment of the _role_ of domestic +poodle. These considerations did not occur to him, but a wretched +consciousness of his own deficiencies in appearance and attainments did, +and now to this was added the recollection of that ridiculous position +they had seen him in only a day or two ago, and which had lain heavily +on his mind ever since. + +"Too great a fool ever to be a knave" had been Mr Santorex's dictum, +not meaning thereby that Geoffry was a dunce or a blockhead, the fact +being that he was a hard reader and expected to take high honours at the +end of the ensuing term. But in other matters, field sports and real +_savoir vivre_, he was something of a duffer. Yet though father and +daughter disliked the residue of the house of Vallance, they entertained +a sort of good-humoured kindness towards Geoffry, who was at worst a +muff, and good-natured, and with no harm in him. And of this feeling +poor Geoffry had an inkling. + +A little chaff about Muggins' bull, and Yseulte, seeing that the topic +was distressful to the hero of the adventure, good-naturedly turned it; +for in spite of her previously expressed disinclination for showing any +civility towards the Vallances that day, she seemed quite to have +forgiven them as far as Geoffry was concerned, and was as kind to him as +ever. The plant, by the way, which had served as pretext for this +visit, was a fraud of the first water, but Mr Santorex, while showing +its worthlessness as a specimen, had not only spared, but even +flattered, the feelings of the donor, for, thorough cynic as he was at +heart, in his practice he was a very tolerant man where the wretched +little tricks and subterfuges of mediocrity in distress were concerned, +always provided that these were not intended to serve as a cloak to +knavery. When they were, his merciless predilection for, and powers of, +dissection had full indulgence. + +The hereditary searing-iron must have found place in his daughter's +composition, though untempered by the experience of years and maturity. +For there was something of feline cruelty in the way in which, when +luncheon was over, she lured poor Geoffry out into the garden, talking +serenely in that beautifully modulated voice of hers, as, every action +full of unconscious grace, she bent down to pluck a flower here, or +raise a drooping plant there; or looking up into his face now and then +with such a straight glance out of her grand eyes as to make the poor +fellow fairly tremble with bewilderment, and stammer and stutter in his +attempts to express himself, until he was pitiable to behold. But +though ashamed of the impulse, Yseulte was unable wholly to resist it. +This poor-spirited adorer of hers--was he not standing in another's +place, smugly enjoying and thriving upon what had been reft from its +rightful owner by a pitiful and underhanded trick--a trick which, though +legally permissible, was morally as complete an act of deliberate fraud +as any for which men were sent into penal servitude? That photograph, +you see, had fired a new train of thought in the girl's adventurous +mind. It was a splendid face, that which looked at her from the bit of +faded cardboard. Its strong, reckless expression had seemed to haunt +her ever since. She had never seen anything like it. And it was that +of an injured and ill-used man; a man, too, with a vein of real heroism +running through his character, and therefore unlike other men; for had +not her father expressed his conviction that this man was suffering +wrongfully, was a beggar for life, rather than speak the word which +should inculpate someone else? She looked at her stuttering, flurried +admirer there present, and turned away to hide a contemptuous curl of +the lip; she thought of the defrauded and absent one--whose place he had +usurped--wandering destitute over the earth, and her feelings were +strangely stirred. Yet the former she knew well, his failings and his +good points; the latter she had only seen in a portrait--and an old and +faded portrait at that. Was she going to fall in love with an old and +faded portrait? Well, it was beginning to look uncommonly as if she +might. + +Geoffry was on tenterhooks. They were alone, and likely so to be left +for some little while longer at any rate. Should he try his fate? +Anything was better than this suspense. He would. + +Alas for the defeat of praiseworthy enterprise! The words would not +come. He pounced upon a flower which Yseulte had been toying with and +had thrown down, and while stuttering over the discarded blossom as a +preliminary, a well-known and silky voice behind the pair made him start +and redden like a child detected in the forbidden jam-cupboard. + +"Ah, there you are, Geoffry. We thought you were being well taken care +of by our good friends here, so we didn't wait lunch for you. How are +you, Yseulte? My young people will be here soon. I left them on the +road, or just starting." + +It is doubtful whether Geoffry's feelings towards his sire were +affectionate just then. Yseulte, however, felt that the latter's +presence was rather welcome. Her adorer's embarrassment portended +something she preferred to avoid. So she welcomed the reverend squire +quite cordially. + +A gleam of colour on the lawn and the sound of voices betokened the +arrival of the rest of the family, and lo--Lucy and Agnes and Cecilia +and Anastasia, tennis-racquet in hand and arrayed in white flannels or +scarlet flannels, or blue flannels, and crowned with hats of stupendous +dimensions. They were all fair, blue-eyed girls, passable-looking if +somewhat expressionless, very much alike, and numbering just a year +apiece between their ages. + +No great cordiality existed between these young ladies and Yseulte +Santorex, as we have said; still, society has its duties, and leaving +the latter to fulfil the provisions of this threadbare truism on the +sunny lawn at Elmcote, wave we our magic wand to transport the reader to +a very different scene. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +"HANDS UP!" + +A dull, leaden-grey sky; a few stray feathery flakes floating upon the +frosty air; an icebound stream; a dark serrated ridge rising to the +heavens on the one hand; on the other a lofty peak towering away into +the misty heights. The dull moaning noise of the wind through the +forest, and the distant howling of wolves, for the wintry evening is +rapidly closing in, renders the whole scene and surroundings +indescribably desolate and dreary. + +A hoof-stroke on the frost-bound earth. Who is this riding abroad in +the weird wilderness at such an hour, with the snowstorm lowering +overhead, darkness and the multifold perils of the great mountains in +front! Phantom steed and phantom rider? + +Whether visionary or material, however, the latter glances upward +anxiously from time to time. Darkness and the impending storm! What he +urgently needs is daylight and tranquillity. He reins in his powerful +black steed, and gazes intently for a few moments at the towering peak +half lost in the snow-cloud; then abruptly turning his horse, rides +about forty yards at right angles, and again sits contemplating the +lofty crag. + +Somewhat of an extraordinary proceeding this. Why does not the man +hasten upon his way? A matter of but a few hours and these desolate +solitudes will be the theatre of such a strife and whirl of the elements +that any human being, one would think, would strain every effort to +reach a place of safety and comfort before the fury of the tempest is +upon him. But this man seems in no sort of hurry; indeed, were it not +for his occasional anxious glances heavenward, he might be deemed +ignorant of the impending cataclysm. + +"There is Ma-i-pah, the Red Peak," he muses. "There is the forked pine, +and I have got them in line. So far good. The next thing is to find +the scathed tree. But--oh curse the snow-cloud! It may be months +before--" + +"Cau-aak!" + +A flap-flap of wings in the brake. A raven, rising almost under the +horse's feet, wings its way to the boughs of a neighbouring oak. + +So sudden is the hideous croak, echoing upon the stillness of this +deathly solitude, that even the iron nerves of the horseman are not +proof against a superstitious thrill. But those nerves are strung up to +a pitch of suppressed excitement which is all engrossing. + +"Cau-aak--Cau-aak!" + +A second raven rises from the brake, and floats lazily off to join the +first, resembling in its grim blackness some foul demon of the +wilderness disturbed in his den of horrors. Struck with an idea, the +rider turns his horse and enters the covert. Following him, we seem to +have stood on this spot before. + +There are the two crosses recently cut upon the huge pine-trunk, so +recently that the fresh resin exuding from them is all red and sticky as +though the very tree were weeping blood for the two hapless ones, +victims of a deed of blood, lying beneath it. There is the mound of +earth and stones. Stay! that mound has surely undergone a +transformation; for it is half overthrown, and the earth is rent and +burrowed, and cast up in all directions. And there, scattered around, +lie the bones of the murdered men, broken and picked nearly clean by the +carrion beasts and birds of the wilderness. By a ghastly coincidence, +the two scalpless heads, half denuded of flesh, lay side by side +grinning as if in agony, their sightless sockets, gory and half filled +with earth, gaping up at the intruder. An awful, an appalling sight to +come upon suddenly in the twilight gloom of that grisly forest--a sight +to shake the strongest nerves, to haunt the spectator to his dying day. + +But he who now looks upon it is little concerned, though even he cannot +repress a slight shiver of disgust as he contemplates the horrid +spectacle. He dismounts, and leading his horse away from the mournful +relics, at which the animal snorts and shies in alarm, hitches him up to +a sapling, and then proceeds narrowly to scrutinise the ground. + +The man's figure looks gigantic in the semi-gloom, as casting his ample +buffalo robe off one shoulder, he lays his rifle on the ground and +extracts something from the breast of his fringed hunting-shirt. It is +nothing less than a crumpled and dirty piece of paper, oblong in shape, +and containing what is evidently a plan of some sort, rudely drawn, and +undecipherable without the aid of a few words equally rudely written and +misspelt, clearly the work of some unlettered person. + +"_Forkt pine, Red Peak, Blarsted tree, the creek where half-buried +rock_!" + +"The plot thickens," murmurs the investigator excitedly, conning over +the laconic cipher. "Having established the relationship between the +forked pine and Ma-i-pah, otherwise the Red Peak, the next thing is to +discover the blasted tree, which should not be difficult, unless the +term represents obloquy rather than the effects of lightning. That +done, the rest will be easy." + +A few steps further into the brake. Suddenly the blood surges into his +face. Something white and ghostlike glints athwart the gloom. A huge +pine, dead, and stripped of all its lower bark, clearly by several +successive strokes of lightning. This can be no other than the "blasted +tree" of the cipher. Almost trembling with excitement, once more he +unfolds the dirty sheet of paper and eagerly scans it. + +"Hands up, stranger! Hands up! or you're a stiff 'un, by God!" + +The harsh, threatening voice, cleaving the twilight solitude, where a +moment before Vipan had imagined himself absolutely alone, was enough to +unnerve a less resolute hearer. It proceeded from a tall, +sinister-looking man, who standing on a ridge or bank some +five-and-twenty yards off, and slightly above him, had him covered with +a rifle-barrel. There was no disputing the grim mandate. The other +held him at a complete disadvantage. Any hesitation to comply would +mean a bullet through his heart that instant. But while holding both +hands high above his head, his eyes were keenly on the look-out for the +smallest chance. + +"I don't seem to have the pleasure of your acquaintance, friend," he +answered coolly. What a fool he was to have parted company with his +Winchester, he thought. + +"You don't?" yelled the man, amid a volley of curses. "You soon will, +though, I reckon, you pesky-white Injun. I'll learn you to set the red +devils on to scalp and knife my pardners. Now, you jest throw down that +hunk of paper, slicker nor greased lightning--mind me." + +The tone was so fierce and threatening that there was no room for delay. +No man living was more keenly competent to realise the situation than +he who had now the worst of it. + +"All right," he answered. "I'm standing on it. You'll see it when I +move my foot." + +"Don't move a hair else then, or you're a stiff," was the grim +uncompromising reply. + +"Now," went on the fellow, having assured himself that the paper was +there, "take six steps backward--six and no more. Quick march!" + +With the deadly rifle-barrel still covering his heart, Vipan obeyed. + +"Well! what's the next thing?" he said, and at the same time he noticed +that the other carried a lariat rope dangling in loose coils from his +left arm. + +"The next thing, eh?" jeered the fierce aggressor. "I and some of the +boys have kept our eye upon you for a good while, and the next thing is +we're going to lynch you. Now--Turn round!" + +The man in his eagerness had made a step forward, with the result that, +the little ridge of ground whereon he was standing being slippery with +the frost, he missed his footing, stumbled, staggered wildly in his +efforts to recover his balance, and finally rolled headlong almost at +Vipan's feet. + +Crack! + +The aggressor lay writhing in his death-throes. All this time warily on +the look-out for the smallest chance in his favour, Vipan, quick as +thought, had whipped out the little Derringer which he carried in his +breast-pocket, and sent a bullet through his adversary's brain. + +"I think I've turned the tables on you with effect, my hearty," he said, +contemplating the dead man with a savage sneer. Now that there was no +further necessity for coolness, his blood boiled at the recent +humiliation this fellow had made him undergo. "Ha, ha! Go and tell +your two precious `pardners' what a sorry hash you made of it on their +account, you miserable idiot, and bait a few more Tartar traps down in +the nethermost shades. Ha, ha!" + +The first thing he did was to pick up and secure the sheet of paper. +Then he searched the dead man lest anything bearing upon the cipher +might be in his possession, but without avail. He was about to leave +the spot, when an idea struck him. + +For a moment he stood contemplating his late enemy. Bending down, an +expression of strong disgust in his face, he gripped the dead man by the +hair--a couple of quick slashes, and the scalp was in his hand. Then he +drew his knife across the throat of the corpse. + +"The Sioux--his mark," he muttered, with grim jocosity. "Faugh! Now to +stow away this beastly thing," wiping the scalp upon its late +proprietor's clothing. + +He removed the latter's weapons--rifle, revolver, knife--and keeping a +sharp look-out against any further aggression, regained his horse. In +mounting, he trod on something which crackled crisply. It was a dried +and shrivelled knee-boot, from which the leg-bone still protruded. And +his attention being once more attracted to these ghastly relics, it +almost seemed to him that the two heads had changed their position, and +were glaring at him with hideous and menacing scowl. The ravens, from a +neighbouring tree, renewed their lugubrious croak, as if resentful at +being so long kept away from their repulsive feast. Overhead, the sky +grew blacker and blacker, and the snowflakes whirled round the horseman +as he emerged from the gloom of that grisly brake. + +"There's more carrion for you, you black devils," he muttered, +apostrophising the ravens. "Heavens! What had I to do with the brute's +unwashen `pardners'? If I'm to be held answerable for the scalp of +every idiot who goes to sleep with both eyes shut, I've got my work cut +out for me. Ha, ha! The red brother comes in mighty convenient +sometimes." + +Thus musing, he had gained the crossing of a mountain torrent, at the +entrance to a long, narrow canon, whose sheer, overhanging walls were +gloomy and forbidding, even by the light of day. Dismounting, he took +out the scalp, and wrapping it round a stone, hurled it away into a +deep, swirling pool, whose centre was free from ice. The dead man's +weapons followed suit. + +"There! Pity to throw away good serviceable arms, +but--`Self-preservation, etc.' I only treated the dog as he would have +treated me, but I don't want to establish a vendetta among his desperado +mates with myself for its object. A lot the scoundrels care about such +a plea as self-defence. No. Let them credit the reds with the job." + +The rising gale shrieked wildly overhead, but within the black walls of +the canon the wayfarer was entirely protected from its force. The +snowflakes, large and fleecy, now fell thickly about him. And now there +was exultation in place of the former anxiety in his glance as ever and +anon he studied the dark and overcast sky. + +"Better and better. Nothing like snow for covering up a trail, and by +the time it's open again there'll be not much left of yon carrion. Up, +Satanta! We'll soon be home now." + +The black steed arched his splendid neck responsive to his master's +voice. And his said master, muffling himself closer in his buffalo +robe, settled himself down in his saddle with every confidence in the +ability of one or other, or both of them, to keep the right trail, even +through the pitchy blackness which was now descending upon them. The +driving snow, the shrieking of the gale, the howling of wolves in the +dark forest, the grisly sight left behind, the stain of blood, were +nothing to him who rode there--on--on through the night. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +"TO QUIT." + +When Vipan narrated the events of the last chapter to his friend and +partner, the latter looked grave. + +"I know the chap you dropped," he said, "and he'll be no loss to this +territory, nohow. He's one o' them desperate, hard-drinkin', cussin' +bullies that a whole township--ay, and many a township 'll be only too +glad to see laid. But then, you see, there are his mates to reckon +with; bullies, all of 'em, like himself. I'm afraid if they light upon +the trail we shall have some warm work along." + +"But they won't light on it, Bill, thanks to this friendly blizzard. +Why, the snow'll be there for the next three months, but most, if not +all, of my late friend won't. He'll be pretty evenly distributed among +the wolves and crows by that time," was the grim reply. And the speaker +kicked the logs into a blaze, and took a long pull at his whisky-horn. +"Besides," he added, "I took all precautions. If they do strike the +trail, they'll credit the whole business to the red brother." + +The scout puffed earnestly at his pipe for some little while, his +features in no wise relaxing their gravity. + +"See here, Vipan," he said, at length; "that's one side of the affair +I've been cudgelling over. Most of the chaps located around have got a +notion that you're too thick with the reds, and they're pretty mad. +I've run against several of 'em, and have been hearin' some tall talk +among 'em while you were away down there. Now, the best thing we can do +is to clear out our _caches_ [Note 1] as soon as the weather lifts, and +git." + +"No, no, Bill; that's not my line at all. It's no part of my idea to be +choused out of the goose with the golden eggs just as I've brought that +biped home, not to mention being obliged to sneak away from a lot of +yapping curs, any one of whom I'm ready to meet, how, when, and where he +chooses." And Vipan's face was a picture of contemptuous resentment. + +"Whatever they are, old pard, they can shoot--they can. I don't know +what's to stand in the way of a straight volley just any time we hap to +be on the move, even if not when we poke our noses out of our own door. +But if your mind's set on stayin' on, I'll just dry up." + +The other's face softened. This staunch and loyal comrade of his was +prepared, as a matter of course, to stand by him and equally share the +peril in which the jealous resentment of the incensed miners placed or +might place himself. + +"Now, look here, old chum," he said, "I'll just tell you what sort of a +prospecting I've made. I always maintained the upper bend of Burntwood +Creek was worth tapping. It's my private opinion we've at last struck +the real yellow, and if you don't think it worth following up after what +I'm going to show you, why I'll fall in with your idea, and light out +now for some where else. Look at this," and he placed in his friend's +hand the paper which he had taken from the pocket of one of the dead +miners whom he had helped to bury. + +Smokestack Bill studied the plan thoughtfully for a few moments. + +"It's tarnation vague," he said at length: "`Forkt pine, Red Peak, +blarsted tree, and the creek where half-buried rock.' Why, there's +parks of forked pines, and as for the blasted tree it's like enough to +be some stem against which one o' them chaps was squelched by his mule, +and known only to them. And the creek's just chock full of half-buried +rocks." + +"Ha, ha, ha! Bill, my boy, I've located them all--all but the +half-buried rock, that is. The tree's a scathed pine all right, close +to where the two fellows were scalped. I was just going to locate the +creek part of the business, when that unhung skulker `jumped' me. You +may just bet your bottom dollar we'll light upon something rich." + +"Well, well, I'll see you through it," said the other in a tone as if he +began to think there might be something in it. "But seems to me we +shan't be much the better for a lot of gold even if we find it. You're +bent on a rush to Great Britain, Vipan, I can see that. Well, my boy, +if we light on a find, you can take the bigger half, and go and pay off +old scores with the party that's tricked you. I've not much use for the +stuff, I reckon." + +"Bill, old friend, you're an extraordinary production of your day and +species--a thoroughly unselfish specimen of humanity to wit. Now, do +you think it in the least likely that I should agree to any such +arrangement? No, no; share and share alike is the motto between +partners. If we make a good thing of it we'll take our jaunt together." + +"'M, p'raps. Cities don't like me, and I don't like cities. If it were +otherwise I should be jingling my tens of thousands of dollars to-day, +instead of owning nought but a good rifle, a good horse, and a _cache_ +full of pelts. There's mighty mean tricks done in cities, and those +done in a lawyer's office ain't the least mean. My old dad was in that +line, and though a good chap in other ways, I saw queer things done in +that office of his. I couldn't stand it, and I couldn't stand the life, +so I kicked over the stool and struck out West. I got blown up in a +Missouri steamboat first thing, and came down on a chunk of the +smokestack into the mud on the Nebraska side--leastways, that's what the +boys declared, and that's why they call me Smokestack Bill, though I +reckon I must have got astride of the smokestack while I was half +drowning. And now my brother Seth, who took kindly to lawyering, is the +richest man in Carson County." + +"But that you are thoroughly happy as a plainsman, Bill, I should say +you had made a mistake," answered Vipan, in whom the other's story +seemed to have touched a sympathetic chord. "Otherwise the man who +sacrifices wealth--beggars himself for a principle--is a consummate ass, +and deserves all he condemns himself to; that is, a lifetime spent in +regretting it," he added, with an unwonted bitterness. "But never mind +that," resuming his normal tone. "When the snow melts we'll go down and +prospect Burntwood Creek, and as it's unlucky--deuced unlucky--to +discount one's successes beforehand, we'll just dismiss the subject out +of hand until then. Meanwhile, life being uncertain, we'll _cache_ the +cipher in some snug place in case anything should happen to me." + +Three months went by. All the rigours of winter had set in upon the +Black Hills. Everywhere the snow lay in an unbroken sheet, attaining in +many places such prodigious depths as almost to bury the brakes and +thickets of a shorter growth. The dark foliage of the great pines +afforded some relief from the dazzling whiteness around, but even that +was almost concealed by the huge masses of snow which had there effected +lodgment. And here and there a mighty cliff of red sandstone stood +forth from the surrounding snow, its face half draped with glistening +icicles. But the weather was glorious, and the air as exhilarating as +champagne. The peaks, shining like frosted silver, rearing their heads +to the ever-cloudless blue--that marvellous combination of subtle shades +of the richest azure, tempered with green, which is produced by contrast +with a snow-enshrouded earth--the smooth face of each great precipice, +frowning beneath its brow of dark and bristling pines; the muffled roar +of the mountain torrent struggling for freedom, far down under its +successively imprisoning layers of ice; the wild cry of bird or beast, +even more at fault in the icebound rigours of its native waste than its +artificial enemy, man--all this went to make up an engraving from the +scenes of Nature in her winter magnificence, in all her savage primeval +beauty, in her unsurpassable and most stately grandeur. + +In the midst of it all our two friends were thoroughly comfortable. +They trapped a good deal and hunted occasionally. Many a valuable fur +of silver fox and marten and beaver were added to their stores, and the +thick coat of the great white wolf, and the tawny one of the cougar, or +mountain lion. Two grizzlies of gigantic size also bit the dust--the +redoubted "Old Ephraim" standing no chance whatever before the rifles of +two such dead shots--while deer, both black-tailed and red, unable to +make much running in the deep snow, fell an easy prey. + +The entrance to their cabin was all but buried in snow, but within it +was thoroughly warm and snug. Here, before a blazing fire, they would +lounge at night. Stores of every kind were plentiful--flour, coffee, +and sugar, whisky, warm furs, and abundance of tobacco--and surrounded +by every creature comfort they would sit and smoke their long pipes, +after a day of hard and healthful exercise, while the wind shrieked +without, and all the voices of the weird wilderness were abroad, and the +great mountains reverberated ever and anon the thunderous boom of some +mighty mass of snow which, dislodged by the wind or its own weight, +roared down the slopes, perchance to plunge with a crash over a huge +cliff. Now and then old Shanks would lift his shaggy head and growl as +the dismal yell of a cougar would be borne upon the night, but he was +well-used to the sounds of the forest, and quickly subsided again. And +the ghostly hooting of owls, and the shrill barking of foxes, in the +dark pine forest mingled with the ravening howl of the wolves in +ceaseless chorus from the frozen and wind-swept slopes. + +Sometimes an Indian, belated on his hunt, would take advantage of their +hospitality, and on such occasions Vipan would delight to "draw" his +savage guest, with the result that the red-skinned warrior, replete with +good cheer and good humour, would lie back on his furs, puffing out huge +clouds of tobacco smoke, and narrate--with that absence of reserve which +characterises the savage when so engaged--many a strange tale of love +and war, and among them, here and there, an instance of such fiendish +and ruthless atrocity as would have caused the ordinary listener's hair +to stand on end with horror and repulsion, not swerving in the smallest +degree from his smiling and good-humoured imperturbability during the +narration. But Vipan was wholly proof against any such ordinary +weakness. The way to know Indians, he said, was first to get them to +talk, and then to let them talk. _He_ wanted to know Indians +thoroughly, and reckoned by this time he had about succeeded. So in him +the red warrior found an attentive, not to say appreciative, listener. + +Thus the months went by, and when the crocuses and soldanellas began to +appear from beneath the melting snow, and the torrents and creeks ran +red in the first spring freshets, an impatience, a feverish longing to +be up and doing came upon Vipan, rendering him moody, and at times +irritable. But until the rivers should have run off the melted snows +nothing could be done. In vain his comrade preached philosophy. + +"I judge you'll get no good by tearing your shirt, old pard," said the +honest scout. "See here, now. Did you ever set your heart on a single +thing, that when you got it you wondered how the snakes you could ever +have been so hot on gettin' it? No, you didn't. About this _placer_. +Maybe we shall find plenty of stuff--maybe little--maybe none at all. +But whatever we find or don't find, it's no part of good sense to tear +our shirts a' thinkin' of it." + +"No, it isn't," agreed the other. "But--`many a slip,' etc." + +"'M, yes. What's the odds, though? We can always light on fresh +ground. And if the reds go on the war-path soon as the grass grows, +it'd do us both good to get a scouting berth with the command for a +spell." + +Vipan's forebodings were destined to be realised. A few mornings later +the two occupants of the winter cabin were awakened by the trampling of +many hoofs. With their minds full of the threats of those around them, +both seized their rifles and stood ready for any emergency. But with no +body of jealous and exasperated miners had they now to deal. Cautiously +peering forth, their gaze fell upon the trappings and accoutrements of a +cavalry patrol. + +A furious curse escaped Vipan's lips. His plans were ruined. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. A _cache_ is a sort of underground storeroom or place of +concealment--generally jar-shaped--wherein peltries and other goods are +deposited, pending their convenient removal. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +HENNIKER CITY. + +Henniker City was a typical prairie township in no wise bearing out the +imposing idea which its name might convey. + +It might have contained some five score dwellings, mainly of the log-hut +order; a few frame houses, with real glazed windows figuring as the +aristocratic and advanced representatives of civilised architecture +among the more primitive structures. It boasted a brace of churches, +one of which, only occasionally used, having been reared through the +efforts of a travelling priest attached to the nearest Catholic mission, +the other representing no creed in particular, though chiefly resorted +to by what our friend Smokestack Bill was wont to define as "the +pizenest kind of Hard-shell Baptists," a definition we should be loth to +attempt to elucidate. It boasted more stores than churches, and more +drinking saloons than stores. It contained a bank, whose manager +reckoned handiness at drawing, and, if necessary, using, the six-shooter +at least as essential a qualification for his clerks as the footing up +of figures. It boasted a sheriff, whose three predecessors had "died in +their boots" within less than the same number of years. And for +population, fixed and floating, it mainly comprised about as daredevil, +swash-bucklering, unscrupulous a set of cut throats, as ever shot a +winning adversary at euchre or "held up" [from "Hold up your hands"--the +"road agent's" warning] the Pony Express. + +Such was the place to which our two friends were moved by the detachment +of troops which had so suddenly and unwelcomely invaded their mountain +retreat. A shout of mingled mirth, derision, and resentment went up in +the township at this fresh evidence of the high-handedness of Uncle Sam, +and in a trice the whole population crowded around the prisoners and +their escort. + +"Hello, pard!" sung out a slouching-looking fellow in a frowsy shirt and +cabbage-tree hat, addressing Vipan. "Don't be down on your luck, now. +When the Colonel here's fightin' the Sioux, we're the boys to slide back +and pouch the stuff. Hey!" + +"Say, Colonel! Going after Sittin' Bull soon?" sung out another, to the +officer in command of the cavalry. "'Cause Smokestack Bill's the boy to +raise a mob of scouts for yer, and we're the boys to jine." + +"Not till you put a hunk of lead through yon cussed white Injun, I +reckon," growled a forbidding ruffian, on the outskirts of the crowd, +with a scowl at Vipan. + +"Snakes! Wasn't he with the Injun as scalped Rufus Charlie and Pesky +Bob?" said another, taking up the suggestion. And then a knot of men, +gathered in conclave, eyed the object of the discussion in a manner that +boded no good. + +Meanwhile the crowd, surging round the new arrivals, continued to pour +forth banter and queries. + +"Got the `dust' about yer, strangers, or did yer _cache_ it?" + +"Say, pardners, whar did yer leave yer squaws? Or did Uncle Sam +confiscate 'em as national property? Ho, ho!" + +"See here, boys, am I sheriff of Henniker City, or am I not?" drawled a +cool, deliberate voice, as the chaff reached its height. "'Cause if I +am, jest clear a way; and if I'm not, I reckon I'd like to cotch a +glimpse of the galoot as says so." A shout of mirth greeted this +speech, and speedily a lane was opened through the crowd, down which +advanced a tall, spare man. This worthy's sallow visage was adorned +with a grizzled beard of the "door-knocker" order, above which protruded +a half-chewed cigar, a pair of whimsical grey eyes, and a determined +mouth. In his hand he carried a Winchester rifle, and the inevitable +six-shooter peeped forth from his hip-pocket. + +"How do, Colonel? Brought me some more citizens, hey? Smokestack Bill, +as I'm a miserable sinner! That your pard, Bill? All right, come this +way. Citizens of Henniker, the High Court is about to sit." + +Without more ado, the two "prisoners" and their custodian, resuming the +thread of their previous conversation, followed the whimsical sheriff +into the Courthouse, as many as could crowding in until the room was +full, laughing, chatting, bantering each other; kicking up an +indescribable uproar. At last, raising his voice above the shindy, the +whimsical sheriff succeeded in obtaining something like silence. + +"Citizens!" he said, "we must proceed with the business which has +brought us together. The prisoners at the bar having been handed over +to me to be dealt with according to law--that is, kept in custody until +able to take their trial for 'truding on Indian lands--cannot be so kept +because the gaol with which this city is supplied would not hold a clerk +of a dry goods store, let alone a couple of Indian fighters. That being +so, the prisoners may consider themselves under bail to the tune of +fifty dollars apiece, to appear when wanted; snakes, and that'll be +never," he parenthesised, in an undertone. "Citizens, the court is +adjourned--and now disperse--git--vamoose the ranch. Those who are not +too drunk will go home peaceably, those who are, will adjourn to +Murphy's saloon and get drunker. Prisoners at the bar, you will +accompany me right along and take supper. I have spoken." + +If any confiding reader imagines that when night settled down upon +Henniker City the wearied denizens of that historic township retired to +their welcome couches to recruit their toil-worn limbs in sweet and +well-earned repose--why we are sorry to dispel the illusion. But in the +interests of stern truth we must place it upon record that the hours of +darkness usually witnessed the liveliest of scenes, for it was only then +that the township began to live. The saloons drove literally a roaring +trade, for the shindy that went on in them as the night wore on, and +their _habitues_ waxed livelier, was something indescribable. Miners in +their rough shirts and cabbage-tree hats, here and there a leather-clad +trapper, cowboys and ranchmen in beaded frocks and Indian leggings, and +more or less "on the burst," but all talking at a great rate; all +tossing for, or shouting for, or consuming drinks, and, we regret to +say, a large proportion somewhat the worse for the latter. Now and then +a chorus of ear-splitting whoops, a clatter of hoofs down the street, to +an accompaniment of pistol-shots, while the red flashes and whistling of +balls in the darkness, warning those who might be under cover not to +venture forth just yet, told that a group of cowboys were engaged on the +time-honoured and highly popular pastime known among their craft as +"painting the town red," _i.e._, galloping through the streets whooping +and discharging their six-shooters at everything or nothing. But this +was far too ordinary an occurrence to attract any attention. It all +meant nothing. Here and there, however, it did mean something. +Partitioned off from the bar-room was the space devoted to card-playing, +and it might be that from here the ominous sound of cards vehemently +banged down with a savage curse upon the table warned those who heard it +to stand clear. In a twinkling the flash and crack of pistol-shots-- +then a lull, and amid inquiries from many voices, eager, hurried, +perhaps in a lowered tone, a dead man is raised and deposited on a table +or carried forth to his home if he have one. + +"Who is it?" + +"How did it happen?" + +"Was it a fair draw?" + +"Oh yes, both blazed together!" "All right--fair and square enough!" +and the other players resume their gamble, and the talkers their +narratives, and more drinks are ordered, and nothing further is thought +of the affair. + +At that time Henniker City was blessed--or the reverse--with a +considerable influx on its normal population. Grouped around the +outskirts of the town lay the tents of many of the dispossessed miners-- +who, like our two friends, had been removed from the Indian lands. All +these men were more or less discontented; and suffering in addition from +enforced idleness, it follows that monotony and drink rendered them ripe +for any mischief which might suggest itself. Moreover, among their +ranks was a sprinkling of the very scum of the frontier--horse thieves, +"road agents" or highwaymen, professional assassins, and bullies of +repute whose presence here was due to the fact that they had rendered +every other State too hot to hold them, and where, did they venture to +return, they would be lynched without fail, if not shot on sight. + +Into one of these tents we must invite the reader to peep with us. + +Look at those two knights of the hang-dog countenance. He who is now +speaking would stand not a chance before any intelligent jury, if only +on account of his aspect alone. By the dim oil-lamp in the tent we can +make out two other forms lying around, but the cloud of tobacco smoke, +added to the dimness aforesaid, precludes a more familiar study of their +not less forbidding features. + +"See now, Dan," hang-dog number one was saying. "May I be chopped in +splinters by the reds if I allow this darned white Injun to get away out +o' this without a carcase full o' lead. So we'd better go up and finish +the job to-night." + +"Can't be done, I reckon. What about his pard--eh? To say nothin' +about Nat Hardroper, who seems to have kinder taken him up!" + +"Darn his pard, and darn Nat Hardroper!" replied the other, furiously. +"Only a set of doggoned skunks 'ud have elected Nat Hardroper sheriff, +and only a set of white-livered coons 'ud have kep' him in the berth. I +guess I don't fear him." + +"See here, Rube," suggested the other, "why not tumble to my plan? +He'll be going to Red Cloud's village in a day or two--see if he don't. +Then we can ambush him at Bald Eagle Forks and plant him full of lead." + +"Don't want that. Want to string him up. Shooting's too good. Didn't +he set the red devils on to sculp my pardners? Didn't he wipe out my +brother? leastways, he must have, for I reckon Chinee-Knifer Abe ain't +the boy to be taken playin' possum. Ef it hadn't bin for a squad of his +reds, we'd have strung him up down in Burntwood Creek the day before the +snow." + +"Guess our scalps sat loose that day. Snakes! but they ran us hard," +answered the fellow addressed as Dan. "This Vipan 'd have been +buzzard-meat then but for that." + +"Reckon he shall be to-night," furiously retorted the first speaker. +"I've said it--and Bitter Rube ain't the boy to go back on his word. +That blanked white Injun, helpin' to dance around my pardners' sculps!" + +And a volley of curses drowned the speaker's utterance. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +IN A TIGHT PLACE. + +"Stranger--I guess I want this floor!" + +The place, an inner room partitioned off from Murphy's saloon; the time, +late evening; the speaker a tall, half-drunken ruffian in frowsy miner's +dress; the spoken to, Vipan--who, lounging against a table was chatting +with the saloon-keeper; the tone, insolent and threatening to the last +degree; the attitude, that of a man sure of his advantage. + +"Stranger--I guess I want this floor!" + +"And I guess you've got it," came the quick reply, but not more quickly +than the change of attitude which it described. For, in a twinkling, a +straight "right and left" from the shoulder had sent the aggressor to +earth like a felled ox, while his pistol-bullet buried itself in the +wall half a yard above Vipan's head. + +Then ensued a stupendous hubbub. Pistols cracked, as the stricken man's +mates in the outer room hurled themselves at the partition door intent +on taking up their comrade's quarrel. But the door, a solid slab one, +met them in full career, pinning the foremost of their number half in, +half out. + +"Now, Dan Harper, back's the word!" said the quiet, but stern voice of +Smokestack Bill, to whose promptitude was due this first check to the +enemy. + +"You move a little inch forward and you're a stiff, you bet." + +"Leggo the darn door, then--F-fixed t-tight," gasped the pinned one, +who, with the muzzle of the scout's six-shooter within an inch of his +nose, would willingly have obeyed, but could not. Smokestack Bill, +however, relaxing his pressure, the crushed one was able to draw back, +considerably bruised, into the outer room, and the door was jammed to, +but not before a couple of bullets fired into the room had narrowly +grazed Vipan's shoulder. + +"Now then, boys," called out the scout. "Anyone feel like trying an +entrance? Better not, believe me." + +All this had befallen within infinitely fewer minutes than it takes to +chronicle. The felled bully lay prone where he had first dropped, +stunned, insensible, and motionless--and disarmed, for the first act of +his adversary was to put it out of his power to get the advantage of +them. The room, half filled with stifling smoke from the pistol-shots; +the barricaded door, against which the besieged ones had run up a couple +of casks; the two determined men, fully prepared to defend themselves at +the expense of any number of their adversaries' lives; the fierce, +threatening summons to yield entrance from the infuriated gang without; +all went to make up a strange and startling metamorphosis on the +hitherto quiet evening, which the two men had reckoned upon when they +retired into the private room of the saloon-keeper to be clear of any +disturbance. + +"Air you agoin' to open?" sung out a harsh voice, at the close of a +muttered consultation. "We know you, Smokestack Bill, and we've nothin' +again you. But that pizen skunk, the white Injun, we're bound to have +him if we burn down the old log to do it. So you come out of it, Bill, +right along, while you can." + +"You be advised, Dan Harper," cried the scout in reply. "You're a dead +man this very night if you don't git--mind me." + +"So are a dozen of you, by God!" sung out Vipan. He knew the whole +business was a deliberate plan to take his life. The ruffian whom he +had felled was to pick a quarrel and shoot him on sight, while his +scoundrelly mates stood ready to make sure of him if the first part of +the scheme miscarried. A roar went up from the crowd. "Let's get at +him! What'll we do with him, boys?" + +"Tar and feather him!" + +"Burn him at the stake!" "Scalp him!" "String him up!" were some of +the yells that burst from the maddened throng as it surged round the +building, narrowly scanning every door and window for a chance of +forcing an entrance. But the defenders of the inner room knew better +than to be caught that way. + +"One minute before you begin any tricks," cried the scout, and his voice +had the dangerous ring about it of that of an ordinarily cool and quiet +man roused at last. "One minute, and just listen to me. We've molested +nobody, and don't want to molest nobody. Bitter Rube in here picked a +quarrel with my pardner and got knocked down. If he'd done it with any +of you boys he'd have been shot dead. He'll be shot before anyone gets +in here--" + +"Darn Bitter Rube! Serve the bunglin' fool right! What do we care +about Bitter Rube? It's the pizen white Injun we're going to lynch--and +lynch him we will--by God!" + +"Try it!" rejoined the scout. "There'll be a few of you dead in your +boots before mornin', I reckon. And anyone who thinks Smokestack Bill +the boy to go back on a pardner is makin' an almighty big error in the +undertaking. So now, stand clear for squalls." + +A roar and a yell was the only reply. A deafening crash, as some of the +rioters in the outer saloon vented their rage in smashing all the glass +they could lay hands on; then a shock, as the end of a beam, wielded as +a battering ram, came full against the door. A couple of flashes and +reports, mingling like a single one. The beam fell to the earth at the +same time as three of its bearers, whom the fire of the besieged, +discharged through a chink at such close quarters, had literally raked +in line. The remainder promptly got out of the way. + +"Put in the faggot. Don't give any of the skunks a further show," +yelled the frantic mob, exasperated by this reverse. And a rush was +made for the further end of the building. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +JUDGE LYNCH TAKES A BACK SEAT. + +It is not wonderful, all things considered, that the citizens of +Henniker, together with its fortuitous and floating population, should +have been moved to such lengths as to resolve upon lynching Vipan. +Indeed, it would have been surprising had matters turned out otherwise. +Here was a man they very much more than suspected of being in league +with their barbarous and dreaded foes, at a time when the frontier was +almost in a state of war. A man of known daring and unscrupulousness, +and whom they knew to have been present--the only white man--at an +important council, involving issues of peace or war; to have taken part +in its deliberations, going even so far as to advise the chiefs, and +that, if report were to be believed, by no means in the direction of +peaceful results. Several of their friends and neighbours had been +murdered and scalped, those who had escaped a similar fate being obliged +to carry on their mining or other operations rifle in hand, even if not +forced to quit altogether. Meanwhile, this man, it was well known, +could move about the country perfectly unmolested, visiting the Indian +encampments at will--indeed, in one instance he was known to have +witnessed a scalp-dance, wherein the prime attraction of the +entertainment lay in the exhibition of the scalps recently torn from the +heads of two of their murdered comrades. + +And then he was an alien, which was the crowning point of the whole +offence; and the good citizens of Henniker were virtuously stirred that +a foreigner--an Englishman--should, while dwelling on their free and +sacred soil, presume to be on friendly terms with its dispossessed and +original owners; even as here and there in Great Britain may still be +found a misguided and hard-headed Tory moved to honest indignation at +the prospect of Fenians and Invincibles and National Leaguers stirred up +to dynamite and murder by Irish-American agents and American dollars. + +But how came it that so much should be known of Vipan's movements, +seeing that he himself was almost the only white man who could safely +penetrate the semi-hostile country or venture among the roving bands who +even then were raiding and murdering at their own sweet will? Well, +human nature is rather alike all the world over. Gossip on that wild +Western frontier was circulated through very much the same channels as, +say, at Lant with Lant-Hanger in the county of Brackenshire--through the +agency of the squaws to wit. Some of the miners owned red spouses, +others, again, were not above open admiration for the savage beauties-- +and, presto!--sooner or later the gossip of the Indian villages leaked +out. + +Peering through the chinks, the besieged could descry a sea of +threatening faces, savagely hideous in the red torchlight. Prominent +among these was a man who held a noosed cord. Hither and thither he +moved, stirring up the crowd, his sinister features distorted with +malicious rage. Hatred, envy, disappointed greed, all were depicted +there, as with blood-curdling threats the mob clamoured for the object +of its resentment. + +Suddenly a clatter of approaching hoofs became audible alike to +besiegers and besieged. The crowd paused aghast, the first thought +being that of an Indian attack. Then a score of horsemen darted into +the light, and a ringing voice was heard inquiring-- + +"Say, boys, what in thunder's all this muss?" + +"That's the sheriff," said Smokestack Bill, coolly, lowering his +revolver. "We're out of this fix, anyhow." + +A roar was the answer. + +"The white Injun! The pizen white Injun! We're going to lynch him." + +"I guess not," was the reply. "Not while Nat Hardroper's sheriff of +Henniker City. When it comes to reckoning with that invaluable officer, +Judge Lynch'll have to take a back seat. Eh, boys?" turning to his +well-armed followers, a score of cowboys and well-disposed citizens, +whom he had prudently collected in haste on receiving the first +intimation of a riot. + +"That's so, sheriff," was the prompt reply. + +"Say, Dan Harper," called out the sheriff, "Judge Lynch's sittin' in the +State you've just left. Why not go and talk to him there?" + +The face of the fellow named blanched at this allusion. + +Meanwhile the crowd, composed mainly as it was of ruffians and bullies, +began to show a disposition to slink off, in the presence of these +well-armed and determined representatives of law and order. + +"Never mind, boys," shouted someone. "We'll plant him full of lead yet. +Now let's git." + +"How do, sheriff?" said the scout, calmly stepping forth with extended +hand. "Guess you've raised the siege on us right slick in the nick of +time." + +"How do, Bill? How do, colonel?" to Vipan. "Now you come right along +to my log and we'll talk." + +"Hold hard, friends," objected Vipan. "We've got to drink first. +Murphy, bring out the juice." + +"Whurroo, sheriff darlint," chuckled the saloon-keeper. "Whurroo! but +it's purty shootin' there's bin around here afure you came. Be jabers! +and thur'll be a big inquist to-morrow, and the power of the `crame' 'll +be on hand for the jewry, I reckon. Bedad! and whur's that shuck-faced +omadhaun?" he added, gazing at the corner. For Bitter Rube, having +recovered his confused senses, had profited by the confusion to steal +away unperceived. + +"Now, boys, mind me," said Nat Hardroper to Vipan and the scout, after a +substantial supper a few hours later. "This same Henniker City's a +powerful survigerous place. I've got you out of one fix, but I can't go +on getting you out of fixes. It's too big a contract on one man's +hands, I want you to see. Now, a power of those chirruping roarers'll +be on your trail first thing you show your noses out of this shebang. +If I warn't sheriff this'd be my advice--to take your hosses this very +night and git. But it ain't my advice, because, you see, I _am_ +sheriff, and you're under my charge. No, no; it ain't my advice." + +Save for the faintest possible wink, he looked them straight in the +face, as solemn as an owl. Vipan burst into a roar of laughter. + +"Right you are, Nat. It's not your advice--we'll remember that." + +"Well, good-night, boys; good-night." + +They shook hands heartily. But our two friends did not go to bed; they +went to the stable. By daybreak they had put a considerable number of +miles between Henniker City and themselves. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +A CONJUGAL DEBATE AND ITS SEQUEL. + +With all his failings, the Rev. Dudley Vallance had one redeeming +point--he was excessively fond of his children; but it is probable that +he loved his only son more than all the rest put together. To him he +could refuse nothing. Indeed, so loth was he to part with him even for +a time that he could not bring himself to allow Geoffry to enter any +profession. He must remain at home. There was no need for him to earn +his living, since he would one day succeed to the Lant property, and +meanwhile he could be learning to look after it. + +Fortunately, Geoffry was something of a bookworm, and studious of +temperament, or the bringing-up he had received, and the aimless life +which it entailed upon him, would have sent the boy straight to the +dogs. As it was, he was cut out by Nature for a college don rather than +for a country squire, and during his University career he was known +essentially as a reading man. + +It may be imagined, then, that when he returned home at the end of the +summer term, after taking a brilliant double first, the pride and +delight of his reverend parent knew no bounds, and by a series of +festivities, unparalleled since the distinguished youth's coming of age, +was Lant-Hanger at large, and particularly its "County Society," bidden +to share the parental joy. + +But, alas! that the latter should be so short-lived. The object of all +this fun and frolic seemed in no way to relish it at all. Instead of +returning home cheerful, overflowing with spirits, thoroughly enjoying +life with the zest of the average young Englishman who has just scored a +signal success, and sees a congenial and rose-bestrewn future before +him, poor Geoffry seemed to have parted with all capacity for enjoyment. +He was pale and listless, absent, bored, and--shall we own it?--at +times excessively irritable, not to say peevish. His father was deeply +concerned, and his mother, who read off the symptoms as briefly as the +village doctor would diagnose a case of incipient scarlet fever, felt +more of anger than concern. + +"I really don't know what to do about the boy," said the Rev. Dudley, +dejectedly, coming into his wife's morning-room the day after the last +of their house party had dispersed. "It's dreadful to see the poor +fellow in such low spirits. He must have been working too hard, +whatever he may say to the contrary. It's hard to part with him so +soon, the dear fellow, but we positively must send him abroad to travel +for the summer. Nothing like travel." + +"Try him, and see if he'll go," was the short reply. + +"We must insist upon it. We must get medical advice--a doctor's opinion +to back us up. The boy will be ill--ill, mark me. He eats nothing. He +doesn't sleep, for I hear him moving in his rooms far into the small +hours. He looks pale and pulled down, and doesn't even care for his +books. Then, when all the people were here, he would steal away from +everybody, and wander about and mope by himself all day. We had some +nice people, too; and pleasant, good-looking girls. Come, hadn't we?" + +"Oh, yes; a most complete party. Only one ingredient left out." + +"And that?" + +"Yseulte Santorex." And Mrs Vallance shut down the envelope she was +closing with a vicious bang. + +"God bless my soul! you don't say so? Surely it hasn't gone so far as +that?" + +"It has gone just as far as that abominable girl could carry it," was +the uncompromising reply. "Surely you are not simple enough to imagine +that the daughter of that hybrid Spanish atheist would neglect such an +opportunity? The girl has simply made a fool of him." + +"You dislike her to that extent?" said Mr Vallance, vacantly, his mind +full of the woeful plight into which his son was plunged. "I don't +know. Sometimes I think her not a bad sort of girl considering the +fallow in which her mind has been allowed to lie. And Geoffry might do +worse." + +"Oh, yes. He might, but not much. A forward, bold, masculine minx, +tramping the countryside, fishing and shooting. And she is utterly +devoid of respect for her elders, and as for principle or religion-- +faugh! I beg leave to think, Dudley, that he hardly could do worse." + +This spitefulness on the lady's part was not wholly devoid of excuse. +For her elders, as represented by Mrs Dudley Vallance, Yseulte +certainly had scant respect. And then, if she became their son's wife, +the day might come when Mrs Vallance would have to abdicate Lant Hall +in her favour, whereas no such calamity could in the nature of things +ever befall its reverend squire. Of course Geoffry must marry somebody +or other one day; but Geoffry's mother could contemplate such a +contingency with far more equanimity than that of being dispossessed by +a girl whom she detested, and whom she knew despised her. + +"Well, well! we won't say that; we won't say quite that," rejoined Mr +Vallance. "Perhaps you are a little hard on poor Yseulte. She is +young, remember, and at a thoughtless age. But she is thoroughbred in +the matter of birth, and will be well off. We must not expect +everything at once. And the girl is very pretty, with all her faults. +I am not surprised at Geoffry's infatuation." + +"No more am I," was the short reply. + +"Oh, but you must look at a question of this kind apart from prejudice. +And then I can't bear to see poor Geoffry simply eating his heart out +like this. I am becoming seriously alarmed about him; and I tell you +what it is, my dear, as he really has staked his happiness on this girl, +he shall have her. I'll see Santorex about it this very day." + +"Oh, well, if you have quite made up your mind, the sooner you do so the +better," answered his spouse, resignedly. + +"Very well, then, that's settled," said the Rev. Dudley, with a sigh of +relief. + +There was just one thing they forgot, this worthy couple, namely, that +before settling a matter of the kind so comfortably and out of hand, it +might be necessary to obtain the concurrence of the party most +concerned, to wit Yseulte Santorex herself. But that Yseulte might +unhesitatingly decline the honour of the projected alliance never +occurred to them for one moment, and any suggestion of the bare idea of +such a contingency would have thrown them into a state of wild +amazement. + +During the above debate, the subject thereof was doing exactly as his +father had said; wandering about by himself--and moping. Strolling down +the cool mossy lane, shaded between its high nut-hedges, he found +himself upon the river-bank. It was time to go home. They would be +wondering what had become of him; perhaps sending everywhere in search +of him. In his then morbid frame of mind, Geoffry shrank from being +made a fuss over. Mechanically he turned to retrace his steps. + +"Great events from little causes spring." The little cause in this +instance was a little flock of sheep, which a farmer's lad, aided by his +faithful collie, was driving into the lane from an adjacent field. The +animals were kicking up a good deal of dust; Geoffry was no fonder of +walking in a cloud of dust than most people. The lane was narrow, and +sheep are essentially idiotic creatures; were he to try and pass these, +they would, instead of making room for him, inevitably scamper on ahead +as fast as their legs could carry them, thereby kicking up about ten +times more dust. That decided him. He would extend his walk. + +Over a rail, an unexpected flounder into a dry ditch, and he stood up to +his neck in brambles and nettles. But the sting of the latter was +hardly felt; for his eyes fell upon an object which set his knees +trembling and his heart going like a hammer. A moment earlier and he +would have missed the phenomenon which evoked this agitation, but for +the sheep. What was it? Only a broad-brimmed straw hat, and beneath it +a great knot of dark brown hair rippling into gold. + +It needed not this, nor the supple figure in its cool light dress which +became visible, as with an effort poor Geoffry staggered up from his +thorny hiding-place, to reveal the identity of this new feature of the +situation. She was standing with her back towards him, about fifty +yards away, taking a fishing-rod to pieces, and she was alone. + +At the tearing and rustling noise caused by his efforts to free himself +from the clinging brambles, she turned quickly, the half-startled look +upon her features giving way to a wholly amused one as she took in the +situation. Geoffry, noting it, felt savage, reckless, mad with himself +and all the world. Could he never appear before her but in a ridiculous +light--the central figure of some absurd situation? + +"Why, Mr Vallance, you seem to have fallen among thorns," she cried, +adding, with a merry laugh, "and the thorns have sprung up and choked +you. But never mind. Sit down and rest here in the shade, while I do +up my tackle, and then we can walk home together as far as our ways +lie." + +The tone was kind and sympathetic, and Geoffry felt soothed. Red and +perspiring, he cast himself down with a grateful sigh upon a mossy bank, +in the shadow of the great oak beneath which she was standing. + +"That'll be some consolation," he replied ruefully. "It was nothing, +though--the tumble, I mean. I must have caught my foot in something, +and came a cropper. But, it was well worth while." + +Yseulte smiled, trying hard not to render the smile a mischievous one. + +"Well, you're the best judge of that. And now, have all your visitors +left?" + +"Yes, and a good job too," was the fervent reply. + +"How ungrateful! I'm sure they did their best to make themselves +agreeable, especially to you. Confess; you are dreadfully bored now +that they are gone." + +"Not in the very least. _You_ are here--and--and--" He broke off, +helpless and stuttering. + +"But I shall not be much longer. I am going away too." + +He sprung to his feet as if he had been stung. + +"What? You are going away? When?" + +"Very soon. In a week or ten days; perhaps not quite so soon." Already +she wished she had not told him. It would have been better, for every +reason, that he should have heard the news at second hand. + +"In a week or ten days!" he echoed. "But not for long--Yseulte, say it +will not be for long!" + +If at times the girl had been guilty of a touch of feminine spitefulness +in the reflection that she had completely subjugated--and through no +artful intent--the hope of this family whom, not without reason, she +detested, assuredly she felt sorry and ashamed of it now, as she noted +the pitiable effect which her announcement produced upon her admirer. +His face was as pale as death. + +"But what if it will be for long?" she answered, gently. "For months, +perhaps--or a year." + +"Then I'll go and hang myself." + +Poor Geoffry! For weeks--for months--he had been anticipating such a +moment as this; had revolved every kind of set speech; every form of the +most moving entreaty; every promise to devote his life to her happiness +and welfare; all in the most impassioned language that the earnestness +of his love could suggest: and had shivered with apprehension lest his +nervousness and misgiving should intervene to mar the effect and leave +him stuttering and looking an ass; yet now that the critical moment had +come, all his carefully-planned oratory had resolved itself into the +brusque, passionate statement--"Then I'll go and hang myself." Yet +never was declaration more exhaustive. + +She understood his meaning; she did not wish him to say more; and her +tone was very gentle, very pitiful, as she replied: + +"Be a man." + +The utterly wretched expression upon his face, showed that he had +understood her. Never was proposal more terse; never refusal more +prompt and decisive. It was impossible for each to misunderstand the +other. + +"Have I no chance, Yseulte?" he said, the eager trepidation of his +former tone having given way to one of dull hopelessness, which moved +her infinitely. + +"No," she answered, gently. "It would be cruel to leave you in any +doubt. There are many reasons against it--insuperable reasons." + +"Oh, what are they? Tell me what they are," he cried, relapsing into +his former tone. "They can be removed--there is nothing I will not do, +or give up, for you. What are they? You don't like my people, I know; +but you have always been kind and friendly with me. Surely my relations +need not stand in the way?" + +"You must not ask me for reasons, Geoffry. Let us talk over this +rationally. If I cared for you as you wish, nothing should stand in the +way. But as I do not, even you would not thank me for coming between +yourself and those who do. Only think what a firebrand I should be." + +"No, you would not. I tell you there is nothing I would not do for +you--or would not give up for you. Only just try me." + +What complication-loving fiend should have brought to her recollection +then the vision of that pictured face which had made such an impression +upon her--the face of the disinherited heir of Lant Hall? The leaven of +her father's cynical philosophy almost moved her to experiment on this +_corpus vili_ ready to her hand, and ascertain whether his protestations +would go the length of espousing her ideas of right and wrong as +regarded that particular subject. But she restrained herself in time. + +Very dejectedly and in silence he walked beside her as far as their ways +lay together. He would fain have reopened his pleadings, but with a +hurried farewell she left him before he could detain her. + +"Well, Chickie? Been having it out with Geoffry Plantagenet?" said her +father, who, from his library window, had witnessed their parting at the +divergence of the roads. + +"Yes; that's just what I have been doing. And--I think, dear, we +oughtn't to laugh at poor Geoffry quite so much." + +"Oh, that's how the land lies, is it?" answered Mr Santorex, struck by +the unwonted gravity which she had brought to bear upon the subject. +"All right, we won't. Not that _we_ shall have much longer to laugh at +anyone," he added somewhat ruefully. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +WAR WOLF IS "WANTED." + +"Say, Vipan. Guess we'd better draw off out o' this for a bit. There's +no call for us to help do police work just now, and we can't stand +looking on. There'll be hair-lifting here in a minute, I reckon." + +Thus Smokestack Bill to his friend and boon companion as the two lounged +on the turf, a hundred yards or so from the trading store attached to +the Blue Pipestone Agency. The place was alive with Indians, gathered +there for the purpose of drawing the rations with which a paternal +Government supplied them, contingent on their good behaviour and in +consideration of their peaceably abiding on their reservation and +eschewing the fiery delights of the war-path. So Uncle Sam's red +nephews occupied the ground in crowds, indulging in much jollification +on the strength of newly-acquired beef and flour and other commodities +which should refresh and comfort both the inner and the outer man, and +while the squaws were busily packing these upon their much-enduring +ponies, their lords were lounging about, chatting, smoking, +merry-making, and having a good time generally. Meanwhile, the trading +post had been doing a brisk business. + +"Police work, eh?" returned Vipan, with a glance at the detachment of +U.S. Cavalry, which, encamped in the neighbourhood of the store, showed +no sign that any serious undertaking was in contemplation. "Who are +they after nobbling?" + +"See here, old pard--if I didn't know you well enough to stake my life +you'd never go back on a pardner, you and I wouldn't be here together +to-day. If they can't claw hold of their man, it mustn't be through any +meddlin' of ours." + +"Who is it they want?" + +"War Wolf." + +"The devil they do! They gave out a different story." + +"That's so. Joe Ballin, who's with them, 's an old pard of mine. We've +done many a scout together in '67 and '68. Well, he told me all about +it. This command is out after no less a chap than War Wolf. You see +the pizen young skunk has been braggin' all over the section how he +scalped Rufus Charley and Pesky Bob, them two fellers we buried down by +Burntwood Creek. It's got to the General's ears, and now they've come +to take him over to Fort Price. They've given out a lie that they're +bound down the river on the trail of a Minneconjou who ran off a lot of +Government beef last month, but that's just a red herring. As sure as +War Wolf comes along, they'll grab him--mind me." + +Vipan meditatively blew out circles of smoke into the air, without +replying. This was a most untoward _contretemps_. He remembered the +scalp-dance which he had witnessed; the two scalps--including the +red-haired one--which War Wolf had so boastfully brandished during that +barbarian orgie, and it flashed across him vividly now that, were the +Indian arrested for the deed, the bulk of his clansmen and the Sioux at +large would look upon himself as having betrayed their compatriot into +the enemy's hand, or would for their own purposes affect to. Here were +the troops, and he, Vipan, on good terms and hob-nobbing with their +leaders. The capture--if it took place--would be to himself most +disastrous. It was characteristic of the man that he lost sight of the +grave peril in which he himself would be placed, alone here in the midst +of hundreds of exasperated savages. His plans of future enrichment +would be utterly broken up, and it was of this he was thinking. +Unscrupulous, self-seeking as he was, Vipan had his own code of honour, +and he would no more have dreamed of betraying his friend's confidence +than of cutting his friend's throat. But had the information reached +him through any other channel, it is more than doubtful whether Uncle +Sam's cavalry would have effected their capture that day. + +"You're right, Bill," he said, at length. "There'll be an almighty +rumpus if that game's tried on. Why, there are enough reds here to chaw +up this command twice over, and they'll do it, too, I'll bet a hat. Why +the devil did they send out so few men?" + +"Well, what d'you say? Hadn't we better git?" + +"Not this child. You see, if we make tracks, and War Wolf gets grabbed, +the reds'll certainly think I gave him away. He's an infernal young +skunk, and I'd gladly see him hung; still, it nohow suits my book that +he should be just now. So I'll see it out, but if you'd rather be +outside it, don't stay. We can rendezvous anywhere you like +afterwards." + +"Oh, well; it's no great matter. I don't care if I stay," answered the +scout, with his usual imperturbability. "Here's a big burst of rain +coming. We'd better get inside the store, anyhow." + +Great drops began to plash around them; there was a steely gleam, +followed by a long, muttering roll of distant thunder. As they made +their way towards the log-house, the Indians were breaking up into +groups of twos and threes, and hurrying away in the direction of a +cluster of _teepes_ erected hard by. Failing any necessity for it, they +were no more inclined for a ducking than most people. The cavalrymen, +beyond taking precautions for keeping their arms and ammunition dry, +seemed indifferent to the weather. + +"Hello, Smokestack Bill!" cried a hearty voice, as they entered. "So +that's how Nat Hardroper custodies his State prisoners, eh?" + +They recognised in the speaker the officer who had arrested them in the +Black Hills. With him was Joe Ballin, the scout above referred to. +Vipan, especially, further noticed a sergeant and a dozen men posted, +apparently by accident, within the room. + +"Lord, Colonel," replied the scout, "you don't want us to foot the +Henniker trail again?" + +"Not I," said the other, with a laugh. "Other game afoot this journey." + +Then at Vipan's suggestion, drinks were dispensed, the storekeeper--a +long, lank Eastern man--participating in the round. + +Suddenly the latter exclaimed: + +"Snakes! here come three reds. Your man in 'em, Colonel?" + +Through the open door three Indians could be descried approaching +rapidly. It was raining hard, and their blankets were drawn over their +heads and shoulders, leaving only a part of their faces visible. The +swarthy features of Ballin the scout lit up with a momentary excitement. + +"The centre one, Colonel," he whispered, hardly moving his lips. "The +centre one. He's the skunk we want, and no mistake." + +The Indians continued to advance with their light, springy step. When +about a hundred yards from the store they were suddenly joined by a +large band of fully-armed and mounted warriors, clearly a band which had +just arrived upon the ground, but which had hitherto been unseen by +those inside the store, owing to the limited range of vision afforded by +the latter's doorway. + +This untoward arrival placed a critical aspect on the state of affairs. +But Captain Fisher's orders--the higher rank by which that officer was +commonly addressed, was mere popular brevet--were concise. They were to +the effect that he should apprehend upon sight, and convey to Fort Price +an Ogallalla Sioux, known as War Wolf. This was sufficient. If that +Indian were not apprehended it would only be because he had made himself +remarkably scarce. As it was, however, here he stood before them, +advancing confidently into the trap. But then, he had at his back a +formidable force of his compatriots, outnumbering the cavalrymen three +to one, not reckoning the number of warriors already on the ground, and +whom the first whoop would bring upon the representatives of authority +in crowds. Clearly here was a critical situation. So thought Vipan, +who stood prepared to watch its _denouement_ with intense interest. So +thought Smokestack Bill and the storekeeper, who, however, with +characteristic phlegm, stood prepared to act as events should decide. +So, especially, thought the Captain and the dozen men disposed inside +the store to effect the capture. + +The whole band, in delightful disorder, was now straggling around the +door; the three pedestrians, who had been joined by a couple of the new +arrivals, leading. All unconscious of danger, War Wolf was chattering +and laughing with his companions. Then a shadow darkened the doorway, +and the first Indian entered. Before his eyes became sufficiently +accustomed to the sudden darkness--for the windows had been purposely +shaded--the second was in the room. A rapid movement, a sudden +exclamation, and two struggling bodies--all quick as lightning. Captain +Fisher had seized the second Indian from behind, effectually pinioning +him. + +It was done in a moment. The desperate struggles of the lithe and +active savage taxed all the efforts of the half-dozen men who had been +told off for the purpose, while the remainder held the entrance. In a +trice he was subdued, disarmed, and securely bound. His comrade, to +whom Ballin the scout had hurriedly explained that no harm was intended, +stood by sullen and immovable. + +Then arose an indescribable hubbub. The warriors outside, who had +dismounted, rushed helter-skelter for their ponies, and the loud, +vibrating shout of the war-whoop rose above the clamour of angry and +inquiring voices. At its sound the temporary village became as a +disturbed ants' nest, Indians pouring from the _teepes_ in swarms: and +in less than a minute a crowd of excited savages--mounted and afoot-- +came surging down upon the log-store, brandishing their weapons, and +fiercely clamouring for the instant release of their compatriot. + +But a line of disciplined men barred their way. Drawn up in front of +the store, the troopers, some fifty strong, stood with carbines +levelled, awaiting the word of command; while Ballin, duly instructed, +went outside and informed the Indians that, should they approach twenty +paces nearer, the troops would fire. + +The effect was magical. The entire mass halted dead. Then, yelling the +war-whoop, a number of young bucks darted out from the main body and, +putting their ponies at full speed, began circling round the tenement +and its defenders. But a peremptory mandate from one of the chiefs +present recalled these young-bloods, and for a moment the two rival +forces stood contemplating each other--the savages with a fierce scowl +of hatred, the troops, cool, determined, and not altogether anxious for +a peaceful solution to the difficulty. + +Then the chief who had recalled the more ardent of his followers, +advanced making the peace-sign--extending his right hand above his head +with the palm outwards. + +What had War Wolf done, he asked, that he should be seized like a common +thief in the white men's towns? Had he not come peaceably with the rest +to obtain his rations, and had obtained them--a clear proof that the +Government was not angry with him? He had been living on the +reservation with them all, as everybody knew; why then should the Great +Father send soldiers to take him? + +Briefly Captain Fisher explained the charge against the young warrior. +The killing of two citizens in time of peace was murder--not an act of +war. The prisoner would have to answer for it before the Civil Courts +of the Territory. + +The chief's face was a study in admirably feigned surprise, as the above +was interpreted to him. He was a warrior of tall, commanding aspect, +just past middle age, and looked almost gigantic beneath his nodding +eagle plumes. He was the head war-chief of the Minneconjou clan, and +had the reputation of being well-disposed towards the whites. He +rejoiced in the name of Mahto-sapa, or The Black Bear. + +"What the white Captain had just told them contained sound sense," he +replied. "But would it not do as well if War Wolf were released now, +and called upon to answer to the charge against him later on, when the +Great Father should want to try him. Such a course would be most +gratifying to his countrymen, who were highly incensed that a warrior of +his standing and repute should be seized in the way he had been. It +would be best, perhaps, for all parties," the Indian explained, with +just a shadow of meaning in his uniformly courteous tone--"for his young +men were so hot-blooded and impatient, he feared they might not act with +the prudence and moderation to be looked for in men of riper years, a +contingency which would be in every way lamentable to himself and the +other chiefs of the Dahcotah nation." + +If the speaker expected his veiled threat to produce any effect on +Captain Fisher, he must have been sadly disappointed. Concisely that +officer informed him that, in the matter of a grave charge of this kind, +War Wolf could not expect more lenient treatment than would be accorded +to a citizen under similar circumstances. No white man would be held to +bail if arrested for murder, and an Indian must look for precisely the +same treatment--no better and no worse. At the same time he guaranteed +that the prisoner should receive every consideration compatible with his +safe keeping until such time as the authorities should decide upon his +guilt or innocence. As for the anger of the warriors he saw before him, +greatly as he should regret any breach of the peace, that consideration +could not in any way be suffered to interfere with him in the discharge +of his duty. Were he, the speaker, the very last man left of the +command they saw before them, he should still do his best to convey his +prisoner whither he had been ordered, and would die rather than release +him. + +The chief, seeing that further parley was useless, turned and rejoined +his followers. Then once more arose a wild hubbub of angry and +discordant voices, and for a moment it seemed that the crowd of +impulsive and exasperated barbarians would hurl itself forward and in +one overwhelming rush annihilate that mere handful of troops. Suddenly +a body of warriors, some hundred strong, sprang on their ponies, and, +unmindful of their leader's mandate, scoured away over the plain, +whooping and brandishing their weapons. The remainder having withdrawn +some little distance gathered into knots, or squatted in circles on the +ground, talking in eager and menacing tones. + +"Thunder! Reckon that lot's gone to raise hell among the pesky varmints +camped along your return trail, Colonel," said the lank storekeeper, +pinning a fly to the wall with his quid at half-a-dozen paces. "You'll +need to keep a bright lookout on the road if you're ever going to get +this skunk to Fort Price." + +And what of the captive? The first expression of rage, mingled with +amazement and mortification, having rapidly glinted across his +countenance, his features became as a mask of impassibility. Only once, +as his glance met that of Vipan, his eyes glared as he hissed in a tone +inaudible to those around: + +"Golden Face! The Dahcotah's _brother_! Ha! We shall meet again!" + +"War Wolf walks straight into the trap, as a silly antelope walks up to +the fluttering rag upon the hunter's wand. Who is to blame but War Wolf +himself?" replied Vipan, in the same almost inaudible tone. But the +Captain hearing it, turned sharply round. Vipan's reputation as being +on more than ordinarily friendly terms with the Sioux had already +reached him. However, he made no remark, but having disposed his +prisoner in such wise as to guard against all possibility of escape or +rescue, he prepared to start. Just then the other Indian who had +accompanied the prisoner into the store, inquired if he might go and +fetch his pony. War Wolf was his brother, and he, Burnt Shoes, did not +intend to leave him. He would go as a prisoner too. + +"He's a fine, staunch fellow," said the Captain, kindly, as this request +was interpreted. "But we can't take him. Tell him so, Ballin, and also +that he can serve his brother's interests better by going back to his +people and notifying them that in the event of their making any attack +upon us either now or along the road, the prisoner will be shot dead." + +This was interpreted, and at War Wolfs request the two Indians were +allowed a few moments' conversation together. Then Burnt Shoes, having +taken leave of his brother, strode away, looking straight in front of +him. + +The threat and the warning were by no means superfluous. As the +troopers appeared outside with their prisoner, the bands of savages +clustered hard by sprang to their feet with an angry shout. Many of the +warriors could be seen fitting arrows to their bowstrings, and the click +of locks was audible as they handled their rifles in very suggestive +fashion. + +Even the emphatic message which Burnt Shoes strove to deliver, +concerning the fate awaiting his brother in the event of a rescue, was +hardly heard. The clamour redoubled, and the attitude of the savages +became menacing to the last degree. Meanwhile the cavalry escort, with +its prisoner in the midst, had got under way, and was retiring +cautiously, and at a foot's pace. By this time, however, the authority +of Mahto-sapa, and the earnest appeals of Burnt Shoes, had availed to +quell the tumult. The crowd began to melt away. By twos and threes, or +in little groups of ten or twelve, the warriors began to disperse over +the plain in all directions, only the chief, with comparatively few +followers, remaining. + +"Say, but there'll be trouble when those chaps come up with the +sodgers," said the lank storekeeper, contemplating the retreating +Indians. "They'll jump 'em in an overwhelming crowd somewheres about +Blue Forks, and I'll risk ten dollars there'll not be a scalp left in +that command." + +"Well, I'm going to persuade the residue to hear reason, anyhow," said +Vipan carelessly, making a step towards the door. + +"Don't risk it," urged his friend, promptly. "They're plaguy mad, and +it's puttin' your head into the alligator's jaws to go among 'em jes +now." + +"Well, you see, it's this way," was the rejoinder. "They are plaguy mad +just now, as you say, but they'll be madder by-and-by. A classical +authority has said, `agree with thine adversary quickly,' and I'm going +to agree with mine." + +"You're a dead man if you do," said the storekeeper. + +"No fear. Mahto-sapa and I are rather friends. I reckon I'm going to +sleep in his village to-night, and I'll risk twenty dollars if you like, +Seth Davis, that I look round here again, with all my hair on, within a +month." + +"Done!" said the storekeeper, shortly. + +They watched him join the group of sullen and brooding savages--moving +among them, alone, absolutely fearless, as among a crowd in an English +market-town--addressing one here, another there. Then they saw him +fetch his horse and ride away with the band, which had been preparing to +take its departure. + +"Gosh! I never saw such a galoot as that pard of yours," said Seth +Davis, ejecting an emphatic quid. "Takes no more account of a crowd of +Ingians a-bustin' with cussedness, nor though they were a lot o' darned +kids. Wal, wal! Reckon that wager's on, all there; hey, Smokestack +Bill?" + +"That's so," was the laconic reply. "Let's liquor." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +"THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY." + +About a month later than the events just detailed, a solitary individual +might have been descried occupying one of the high buttes overlooking a +large tract of the northern buffalo range, somewhat near the border +between the territories of Montana and Wyoming. Howbeit, we must +qualify the statement in some degree. Save to the keen eye of yon +war-eagle, poised high aloft in the blue ether, the man was not to be +descried by any living thing, for the simple reason that he took very +especial care to keep his personality effectually concealed. + +Beneath lay the broad rolling plains extending in bold undulation far as +the eye could reach, stretching away to the foothills, and then the +distant snow peaks, of the Bighorn range. No cloud was in the sky. The +atmosphere in its summer stillness was wondrously clear, all objects +being sharply definable up to an incredible distance. From his lofty +perch the man looks down upon the surrounding country as upon a map +lying outspread before his feet. + +That something is occupying his attention is evident. Lying flat on his +face, his gaze is riveted on the plain beneath. What object has +attracted his keen vision--has sufficed to retain it? + +Crawling onward, unwinding its slow length like some huge variegated +centipede, comes a waggon train, and, though it is at least ten miles +distant, the observer, from his vantage-ground, can with his unaided +vision master every essential detail--several great lumbering waggons, +veritable prairie schooners, their canvas tilts looking like sails upon +that sea of rolling wilderness; a little way ahead of these a lighter +waggon, drawn by a team of four horses. He can also make out a few +mounted figures riding in front. + +"Looks a pretty strong outfit," would run his thoughts, if put into +words. "Looks a pretty strong outfit. The boss--two guides, or +scouts--six or eight bullwhackers--a chap to worry the horse team-- +probably two or three more men thrown in--a dozen or more all told-- +possibly a score. But then--the family coaches--Lord knows how many +women-folk and brats they hold--all down-Easters, too, most likely, who +never saw a redskin, except a drunken one at the posts. A dozen men +ought to be able to stand off the reds; and anyhow whether they can or +not the next few hours will decide. But then they've got their women to +look after, and their cattle to mind. No, no; they must be idiots to +come crossing this section at this time of day." + +The observer's reflections are, to say the least of it, ominous for +those who belong to the waggon train. Let us see what there is to +justify them. + +Far away in front of him, at least as far as the waggon train itself-- +ahead of it, but rather off its line of route, is another object; an +object which he has espied before the outfit appeared, and the sight +whereof has kept him immovable on his lofty observatory for upwards of +an hour. This object the inexperienced eye would hardly notice, or +would pass over as an indistinct clump of scrub lying on the slope of a +deep ravine. To the practised eye of the watcher, however, that object +stood revealed in its true light at the very first glance, and it hardly +needed the aid of the powerful double glass which he carried, and which +rendered an object at ten miles almost as distinct as one at a hundred +yards, to tell him that the harmless-looking clump of scrub was nothing +less formidable than a strong band of Indians--a strong band of red +warriors _on the war-path_. + +"That'll be it," he mused. "The old game. They'll jump that outfit at +yonder creek while it's unhitching just about sundown--rather over two +hours from this. If those chaps are, as I suspect, down-Easters, +they'll be thrown into the liveliest confusion, and while a few of the +reds run off every hoof of the cattle, the rest'll rush the whole show. +Their guide or guides can't be worth a damn, anyhow, to judge from the +free and easy way in which the whole concern is shuffling along. +There'll be fresh scalps among that war-party to-night, I'll lay long +odds; but--it's rough on the women-folk, to put it mildly." + +To the ordinary observer there would have been something terrible beyond +words in the situation. That little handful advancing fearlessly into +the vast wilderness, their every step watched by the hawk-like gaze of +savage videttes lying face to the ground on more than one of the +adjoining heights, advancing step by step into the trap, heedless of the +awful cloud overhanging their march, even that lurking band of the +fiercest and most ruthless barbarians to be found upon the earth's +surface. And the radiant sun shedding the golden glories of his nearly +run course upon the majestic vastness of those fair solitudes sank lower +and lower to his rest, only too certain to be lulled in his far-off +mountain bed by the crash and rattle of shots, the exultant yells of +human fiends, the unheeded prayer for mercy, then massacre mingled with +a demon orgie of sickening barbarity from the very thought of which the +average mind shrinks in dismay. Well, what then? Only one more chapter +of horror in the annals of the blood-stained West. + +But if to the ordinary mind the situation would have been appalling, +repulsive and incomprehensible to the last degree would have been the +attitude of this man, who lounged there as cold-blooded a spectator of +the coming struggle as a frequenter of the bull-ring awaiting his +favourite entertainment, and in much the same vein; who saw those of his +race and kindred advancing step by step to the most terrible form of +death--for the chances in their favour were about equal to those of the +bull when pitted against the _cuadrilla_--and made no effort to warn +them of their peril. Yet had he delivered his mind on the subject he +would coolly have justified himself by the explanation that in the first +place he made a point of never interfering in other people's business; +while in the next he was a man who recognised no race or kindred, and +who, if anything, had a greater respect for the savage red man than for +the huckstering, swindling, lying white Christian. The former was man +ruthless as Nature made him, the latter a nondescript product--equally +ruthless, but _plus_ hypocrisy and cant wherewith to cloak his +blood-sucking propensities. + +And now the waggon train was well-nigh abreast of his position. +Cautiously adjusting his field-glasses so that no ray of the sun +glinting on the lens should betray his whereabouts, either to friend or +foe, he narrowly scanned the travellers. There were, as he had +conjectured, females among them, two of whom rode on horseback among the +group of men in front. He scanned the ground beyond, and not a detail +escaped him, even to the heads of the three Indian scouts lying _perdu_, +like himself, at intervals along a high ridge overlooking the line of +march. Then he closely scrutinised the lurking war-party. + +The latter was astir, and he could easily make out a sea of plumed +crests and painted countenances, even to the colour of the pennons +floating from the lance-heads. Warriors might be seen rapidly +caparisoning their ponies, while others, already prepared for action, +were gathered around the little group of chiefs in the centre apparently +engaged in debate. It wanted an hour to sundown. + +Once more he brought his glasses to bear upon the travellers. Suddenly +the blood surged in waves over the man's bronzed and sunburnt +countenance, and his hand trembled to such an extent that he nearly +dropped the telescope. What did he see? Pausing a moment, with an +angry frown at his own weakness, again he sent a long, eager, steady +look into the group riding ahead. What did the powerful lens reveal to +upset the equanimity, to shake the very nerves of this cool, hardened, +cynical plainsman? Among the group of advancing specks is a white one-- +a mere white speck. Framed within the lens, however, that speck becomes +a white horse, and upon his back is a girl of extraordinary beauty. +Surely this is not the disturbing factor? We shall see. + +"_That's_ too good for our dear red brother, anyhow," said the watcher +half-aloud, shutting up his glass. Then, without arising to his feet, +he slid behind the knoll. But before doing so he sent one more glance +at the distant halting place of the savages. The band was on the move, +riding slowly down into the ravine. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +WINTHROP'S OUTFIT. + +Nearer, nearer, the sun sank down to the western peaks, and upon the +wilderness rested the sweet and solemn stillness of the evening hour. +Save the call of a bird at intervals within the timber belt, there was a +silence that might be felt. The broad stream, tranquilly flowing around +its bend, gleamed first with living fire, then red, as the last rays of +the sun fell upon its surface, to lift in a moment, leaving its waters +grey and cold. Then one last kiss of golden light upon the tree-tops, +and the lamp of day had gone down. + +One living creature moved within this solitude, however. Alone, +enjoying with all her soul the spacious grandeur of the Western +wilderness, stood a very lovely girl. Every now and then she would +pause for a few moments to drink in that glorious sense of unfettered +freedom which the vast expanding roll of hill and plain, never ending, +like a sea of billowy verdance stretching from sky to sky, inspired in +her, then return to her occupation. That occupation was--fishing. + +She wore a riding-habit which, fitting her like a glove, revealed the +undulating curves of an unrivalled figure. By some clever contrivance +she had shortened its otherwise inconvenient length, and with the grace +and deftness of a practised hand she was wielding a trout-rod. What a +spectacle to come upon suddenly in the heart of the wild and +blood-stained West! And what insane fatuity should bring her here alone +in the fast falling twilight? + +At this moment, however, the last thought in her mind is any fear of +danger. Her cast whirls in the air; the flies drop noiselessly into a +bubbling eddy. There is a rush through the water and a splash. An +eager light comes into the velvety blue eyes, fading as rapidly to give +place to one of vexation as the cast, suddenly released from its +tension, springs high overhead, describing many a fantastic gyration. + +"How sickening," she cries, with a little stamp of impatience. "How +unutterably sickening! That _was_ a beauty, and I shan't rise another +to-night. But--it's nearly dark. I must go back." + +What is that stealthy rustle in the depths of yonder scrub? For the +first time the girl is conscious of a shade of nervousness as she +hurriedly begins to take her rod to pieces. Her thoughts suggest the +proximity of some hideous snake, or a panther perhaps. + +She turns towards where she left her pony. Can the gathering dusk be +playing her tricks? The animal is not there. Though securely fastened, +it has disappeared. + +But the sight which does meet her eyes roots her to the ground with +horror. Stealing noiselessly towards her, in the dark shade of the +timber, are three half-naked Indians--tall, athletic, hulking savages, +hideously painted. They halt for a moment as they see themselves +perceived. They are barely a dozen yards distant. + +"How, lily gal!" grunts the foremost, wreathing his repulsive face into +a frightful grin, and advancing with outstretched hand. "How, lily gal! +No 'fraid! Me good Injun, me. Ha, ha! Me good Injun brudder." + +The exultant mockery underlying this friendly address was too +transparent. Her eyes dilating with horror, the girl stepped back, the +consciousness that she was alone in the power of these fiends turning +her limbs to stone. They, for their part, secure of their beautiful +prize, were enjoying her terror. + +"No run 'way," said the first speaker, who had diminished the distance +between them. "No run 'way. Injun, good brudder." And he seized her +left wrist in the grasp of a vice--while another, with a fierce +chuckling laugh, made a movement to seize her right one. + +But the brutal contact broke the spell of horror which was weaving +around her. A wild cry of indignation escaped her lips, and her eyes +blazed. Wrenching her right wrist free, she dashed the heavy butt end +of her fishing-rod with all her force--and it was not small--full into +the first assailant's face, knocking out some of his front teeth, and +causing him to loosen his hold. + +With the fierce growl of a wounded cougar, the savage sprang at her +again, the blood streaming from his mouth, and as the unhappy girl +recoiled to renew her efforts to keep her persecutors at bay, such a +marvellous change came over the scene that not one of the actors in it +was quite aware what had happened. + +An enormous dark mass seemed to fall from the very heavens, +simultaneously with a thundrous roar. The girl, now tottering on the +verge of faintness, saw, as in a flash, her first assailant lying with +his skull crushed to pulp, another lay gasping in the agonies of death, +while the third was just vanishing in the timber! At him pointing the +still smoking muzzle of a revolver, mounted on a huge black horse, was +the most splendidly handsome man she had ever seen. + +"Quick! Drop all that gear and mount in front of me. Give me your +hand." + +There was no disobeying the curt commanding tone. Resisting a deadly +impulse to faint right away, she extended her hand. In a second she was +swung up before the stranger on his powerful horse. + +It was all done like lightning. The first appearance of the savages-- +the assault--the rescue--occupied barely a couple of minutes. Pale to +the lips, shaky, and unnerved, she could hardly now realise it all. But +often in the time to come would she look back to that strange ride, the +weight of the appalling danger she had just escaped still hanging over +her, the courage and promptitude of her rescuer, the struggle she was +waging with her own natural terror, dreading she knew not what. + +The black steed was going at a gallop now, but his rider had him well in +hand. The girl noticed that they were making something of a _detour_ +which took them far out on the open plain, whereas her ride down to the +river had led her along the very edge of the timber. She noticed, too, +the anxious, alert look on the stranger's face. Though he did not turn +his head, she felt assured that not a detail in the surroundings escaped +him. + +"There are your people," he said briefly, as they suddenly came in sight +of the camp. The waggons had just unhitched, and the mules and oxen +were being driven down to the water; not the river we have seen, but a +small creek running into it. Already columns of smoke were rising on +the evening air. + +"I can never thank you enough," said the girl, suddenly and with a +shudder. "But for your promptitude where should I be now?" + +"Say but for your own courage and self-possession. The average idiot in +petticoats would have shrieked and fainted and gone into hysterics. +Meanwhile, the reds would have captured her and shot me," he rejoined, +somewhat roughly. "Be advised by me now. Don't startle the rest of the +women, or they'll hamper us seriously. Now we'll dismount." + +He lifted her to the ground, and, without another word, turned to +confront a man who had hurried up. But the girl's clear voice +interrupted him before he could speak. + +"This gentleman has rescued me from frightful danger, Major Winthrop. +There are Indians about." + +"By Jove!" said he addressed, with a start of astonishment, looking from +the one to the other. He was a man below middle age, of medium height, +active and well-built, and there was no mistaking him for anything other +than what he was--an English gentleman. + +"Boss of this outfit, I take it?" said the new arrival shortly. + +"Yes. Allow me to offer you my most grateful thanks for--" + +"Well, there's a big lot of Sioux preparing to `jump' you at any moment. +Corral your waggons without delay, and have your cattle brought in at +once. Not a second to lose." + +A frightful yell drowned his words. There was a thunder of hoofs upon +the turf as a band of some fifty mounted Indians, dashing from their +cover, bore down upon the herd of draught stock which was being driven +back from the water in charge of three or four men. On came the +savages, whooping and whistling, brandishing blankets and buffalo robes +with the object of stampeding the now frantic cattle. + +But among those in charge of the latter there chanced to be a couple of +experienced plainsmen. In a trice there rang out three shots, and two +of the assailants' ponies went riderless. Crack--crack! Another pony +went down. This was more than the redskins could stand. Like a bird of +prey alarmed in its swoop, the entire band swerved at a tangent and +skimmed away over the plain as fast as their ponies could carry them. +The herd was saved. + +"There goes the first act in the drama," said the stranger coolly. "Now +stand clear for the second." + +The suddenness of it all--the yelling, the shots, the swoop of the +painted and feathered warriors--had created a terrible panic in the +camp, and had the main body of the savages charged at that moment +nothing could have saved its inmates. As the stranger had at first +conjectured, two of the waggons were full of women and children, the +families of some of the emigrants. These at once rushed to the +conclusion that their last hour had come, and shrieks and wailings +tended to render confusion worse confounded. But Major Winthrop, with +military promptitude, had got the men well in hand, and a very few +minutes sufficed to corral the waggons, bring in the cattle, and put the +whole camp into a creditable state of defence. It was now nearly dark. + +"Will they attack us to-night?" enquired Major Winthrop, as, having +completed his arrangements, he returned to where the stranger was seated +smoking a pipe and gazing narrowly out into the gloomy waste. + +"I should be inclined to say not. Their surprise has fallen through, +you see, and then Indians don't like fighting at night. But it's at the +hour before dawn, when we're all infernally sleepy and more or less +shivery with being up all night--it's then we shall have to keep a very +bright look-out indeed. I should keep about half your men at a time on +guard all night through if I were in your place." + +"Who air you, stranger?" said a not very friendly voice. + +He addressed turned, and beheld a lank, dried-up individual who might +have been any age between thirty and fifty. His hawk-like face was the +colour of mahogany, and, but for a small moustache, was devoid of +hirsute adornment. His deep-set grey eyes, however, were those of a man +prompt and keen to act in the moment of difficulty or danger. His dress +consisted of a rather dirty blue shirt and fringed breeches. + +"Who am I? Why just who I look--neither more nor less," was the +rejoinder, given with provoking tranquillity. + +"And what might your name be--if it's a fair question?" + +"It might be Jones, or it might not. The question is a fair one, +however. That being so, I don't mind telling you my name is Vipan. +What's yours?" + +"I'm Oregon Dave, champion bronco-buster [ranch term for a professional +horse-breaker] of Wyoming. I'm boss-guide of this hyar outfit, and the +chap who reckons he knows Injuns and their little ways better nor I had +best just step out and say so." + +"If I were boss-guide of any outfit, I'm damned if I'd let a young lady +belonging to that same start off by herself to go fishing among a Sioux +war-party," said Vipan, with a quiet satire in his tone that was +maddening to the last degree. He resented the other's truculent +bearing, and intended to let him know it. + +"Eh! Say that again," said the first speaker, flushing with anger. + +"We mustn't quarrel my friends, we mustn't quarrel," put in Major +Winthrop, earnestly. "It was mainly owing to your pluck and +promptitude, Dave, that we haven't lost every hoof of our cattle. And +but for Mr Vipan, here, Miss Santorex would at this moment be a +prisoner among the Sioux. I was to blame in that matter, and I bitterly +acknowledge it." Then he told him the circumstances of Vipan's +unexpected and opportune appearance among them. Before its conclusion +Oregon Dave turned to the latter with outstretched palm: + +"Shake, stranger, shake. You're all there, and I'm only fit to be +kicked into a kennel to yelp. Guide? No, I ain't no guide, only a +tenderfoot--a doggoned professor. Scalp me if I don't go and hunt bugs +upon the perairie with a brace o' gig-lamps stuck across my nose. I'll +go now and ask the reds to tar and roast me. Good-bye, Kurnel; +good-bye, stranger, I ain't no guide, I ain't. Thunder, no!" + +"Nonsense, man," said Winthrop, clapping him on the shoulder. "We were +all to blame. We were informed along the road that the Indians were +peaceable, and that all chance of war was at an end, for this summer, at +any rate," he explained, for Vipan's benefit. "That being so, we have +travelled much too carelessly, although in camp we've been on the alert +for horse or cattle thieves." + +"I've been watching your outfit, and I've been watching the reds for +nearly two hours," said Vipan. "They mean't jumping you yonder at the +creek, and would have done so before this if you had not changed your +plan, and camped here. As near as I can count, there are about three +hundred of them. See that butte away up there? That's where I've been +located. Came down to warn you--none too soon, either." + +"No, indeed. We owe you a debt of gratitude we can never repay, myself +especially. Good God, if harm had befallen Miss Santorex! I can't even +stand the idea of it." + +"Relative of yours?" said the other shortly. + +"_No_. She's the sister of a neighbour of ours--man who runs the +adjoining ranch. She's come out from England to stay with her brother +for a bit, and took the opportunity of travelling with us. And--if +anything had happened--good God, if anything had happened! It's an +awful responsibility, and I devoutly wish we were safe through it. Now, +I think, we may go and get some supper." + +Major Winthrop, as we have said, was English. He had retired early from +the service, and being an energetic fellow had soon found an unoccupied +life pall upon him. Accordingly he had migrated to the Far West and +started ranching--a life that suited him thoroughly. His wife, a pretty +little vivacious brunette, was American. She was considerably his +junior, and they had not been long married; and at the time we make +their acquaintance were returning from a visit to her home in the +Eastern States. + +"My! what a fine-looking fellow!" she whispered to her friend, as she +watched the approach of her husband's guest. "Why, Yseulte, it was +worth while getting into a fix to be rescued by such a knight-errant as +that." + +To her surprise the colour came to the girl's face--visible in the +moonlight--as she answered: + +"What nonsense, Hettie! Do be quiet, or they'll hear you." + +"I ought to scold you severely, Miss Santorex, for running such an awful +risk," said Winthrop, as they sat down to supper, picnic fashion, beside +the horse waggon which served as the ladies' bedroom, saloon, and +boudoir--and in bad weather, dining-room--all run into one. + +"Please don't, for I assure you I'm very penitent," she answered. + +"And then just think what an adventure she'll have to tell about when +she gets home again," put in Mrs Winthrop. "Well, now, Yseulte, what +do you think of our Indians, now you have seen them--real ones--at +last?" + +"Oh, don't ask me!" answered the girl, who was still rather pale and +shaky, in spite of her plucky efforts to recover her self-possession. +"That last charge was all over so quickly. But aren't they rather +cowardly?" + +"Why?" said the Major. + +"Well, a number of them like that to be turned back by three men." + +"I trust you may have no practical occasion to alter your opinion," put +in Vipan, speaking for the first time. "That was a small surprise party +bent on running off the stock--not fighting. As it was, they lost two +killed and wounded at the first fire, and one pony, which is enough to +turn any Indian charge of that strength." + +"Killed! Were there any killed?" asked Mrs Winthrop, in a horrified +tone. "They seemed only frightened." + +"H'm, perhaps that was all, or they may have been only wounded," said +Vipan, inventing a pious fraud for the occasion. These two delicately +nurtured women would require all their resolution on the morrow; there +was no need to unnerve them with an instalment of horrors to-night. So +both men affected an unconcern which one of them at any rate was far +from feeling, and little by little the contagion spread, and the +emigrants' families began to forget their first fears, and the spell of +brooding horror which had first lain upon them began to pass away, and +the terrible danger with which they were threatened seemed more remote, +yet, the night through, men sat together in groups, chatting in an +undertone, as, rifle in hand, they never entirely took their gaze off +the moonlit waste, lest the ferocious and lurking foe should creep upon +them in his strength and strike them unawares. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +THE WAR-PATH. + +"Steady, boys. Here they come!" whispered Vipan, his eyes strained upon +the point of a long narrow spit of scrub looming dark and indistinct in +the heavy morning mist. Within the waggons, whose sides were securely +padded with sacks of flour and other protective material, the women and +children, worn out with anxiety and apprehension, were slumbering hard. +It was the gloomy hour of early dawn. + +A moment's aim, and he discharged his Winchester. The report rolled out +like thunder upon the heavy mist-enshrouded atmosphere. Then a moment +of dead silence. + +Suddenly a line of fire darted along the ground. Then whirling down +like lightning upon the corral came what resembled a number of wavy +balls of flame. There was a roar and thunder of hoofs, the loud, +horrible, quavering war-whoop rent the air, and a plunging sea of +hideously painted centaurs, streaming with feathers and tags and +scalp-locks, and bathed as it were, in a ring of flame, surged around +the corral, enfolding it in a mighty moving mass of demon riders and +phantom steeds. A shower of blazing torches came whizzing right into +the midst of the camp, followed by another. Thick and fast they fell, +lying sputtering and flaring everywhere. The encampment and its +defenders were in a sheet of flame, and amid the clouds of sulphurous +smoke, even the crash and rattle of volleys was well-nigh drowned in the +demoniacal and stunning yells of the attacking savages, who, pressing +the advantage afforded them by this unlooked-for panic, saw success +already theirs. + +In the excitement of this sudden surprise the shooting on both sides was +wild in the extreme. Amid the whirling, plunging mass, a warrior was +seen to leap convulsively in his saddle, and, throwing up his arms, sink +beneath the pounding hoofs. More than one pony rolled upon the ground, +but still the flying horde circled in nearer and nearer, full half its +strength preparing for a final and decisive charge. It seemed that the +doom of every man, woman, and child in that camp was sealed. + +Maddened by the terrific yells, by the flames of the burning missiles +scorching their legs, the frantic animals picketed within the corral +plunged and kicked, and strained wildly at their picket ropes. It only +needed for them to break loose to render the general demoralisation +complete. + +But amid the indescribable tumult, the yelling of the Indians, the +plunging of the frenzied cattle, the crash and rattle of volleys, the +fiery peril which threatened to wrap the whole camp in flames, the +on-rushing squadrons of demon centaurs, and the piteous shrieks of +terrified women and children, three or four men there kept their heads, +and well indeed was it for the rest that they did so. + +"Keep cool, boys! Don't fire too quick," thundered Vipan, deliberately +picking up one of the blazing torches and hurling it with good aim full +against the striped countenance of a too daring assailant. Winthrop, +whose trained eye took in the weakness, the frightful jeopardy of the +situation, had his hands full at the side of the corral which he had +elected to attend to. + +"Jee-hoshaphat!" exclaimed Oregon Dave, between his set teeth. "Now for +it, boys! They mean hair this time." + +For the Indians, who, wheeling and turning on their quick active little +steeds in such wise as to render themselves difficult targets in the +uncertain light, as well as to bewilder the eye of their enemy, were now +seen to mass together with marvellous celerity. Then, with a long, +thrilling whoop, they charged like lightning upon the weakest point in +the defences. + +Never more deadly cool in their lives, half-a-dozen men, among them +Vipan and Oregon Dave, stand in readiness. + +"Now let drive," whispers the latter. + +A raking volley at barely a hundred yards. Several saddles are emptied, +but it does not stop the charge. Led by a chief of gigantic stature and +wildly ferocious aspect, the whole band hurls itself forward, as a stone +from a catapult. Then the fighting is desperate indeed, for it is +hand-to-hand. A score of warriors slide from their horses and leap +within the enclosure, their grim and savage countenances aglow with the +triumph of victory, only, however, to retreat helter-skelter as several +of their number drop dead or wounded before the terrible six-shooters of +that determined half-dozen. In the confusion the gigantic chief, +watching his opportunity, puts forth his lance and spears one of the +unfortunate emigrants through the heart. Then bending forward he drags +out the still quivering body, and with amazing strength throws it across +his horse. + +"That's that devil Crow-Scalper," cries Vipan, amid the roar of rage +which goes up at this feat. But the chief, flinging the body to the +earth again, wheels his horse and utters his piercing rallying _cry_, +brandishing aloft the bleeding scalp he has just taken. More than one +bullet ploughs through the eagle plumes of his war-bonnet; his horse is +shot under him; but he seems to bear a charmed life. Leaping on the +pony of a warrior at that moment shot dead at his side, again he utters +his shrilling, piercing whoop and strives to rally his band. + +But the latter have had about enough. The deadly precision of those +unceasing close-quarter shots is more than Indian flesh and blood can +stand up to. + +"They're off, by th' Etarnal, they're off!" roared one of the emigrants, +a tall Kentuckian who boasted a strain of the blood of the Boones. +"Give 'em another volley, boys!" + +"Guess so, Elias," yelled his spouse, a raw-boned masculine virago, who +throughout had been wielding a rifle with good effect. But the Indians +showed no desire to wait for this parting attention. They kept up a +show of fight just long enough to enable them to bear away their dead, +always an important feature in their military drill. Then with a final +whoop of defiance they vanished into the mist. + +Suddenly they returned, but only a handful. One of their fallen +comrades had been overlooked. Darting from among the rest a couple of +warriors, riding abreast, skimmed rapidly along towards the corral. +Suddenly they were seen to bend over, and seizing an inert corpse by the +neck and heels, raise it and fling it across the pommel in front of one +of them. Then, almost without abating speed, they wheeled their ponies +and disappeared. + +"By the Lord! but that was well done," cried Winthrop. + +Throughout this desperate affray, which had not occupied many minutes, +the weaker members of the community, frozen with fear, crouched +shudderingly within their shelters. These helpless women knew what +terrible fate awaited them in the event of the savages proving +victorious, and to their appalled senses the hideous war-whoop, the +thunder of charging hoofs, the shouts and the wild crashing of shots +seemed as a very hell opening before them. + +Shivering in her well-padded waggon, poor little Mrs Winthrop was in a +pitiable state of terror and anxiety. + +"Oh, Yseulte, I wish I could be as brave as you," she moaned, clinging +to her friend as to a final refuge. "How do you manage it? Tell me." + +"I don't know," answered the girl, with something of a warrior-light +shining in her eyes. "Only I'm sure we shall win." + +The calm, steadfast tones conveyed to the distracted, terrified +creature, as she herself phrased it, "tons of comfort." Then the tumult +had ceased. + +The mist was rolling back, unfolding heaven's vault of brilliant blue, +and in less than half an hour the whole country-side stood revealed. +Not an Indian was in sight. Slain ponies lay around, and here and there +a dark clot of gore showed where a warrior had fallen. + +"Will they come again?" said Winthrop, turning to Vipan. Many an ear +hung upon the answer. + +"No," replied the latter, tranquilly, beginning to sponge out his rifle. +"I never saw a finer charge than that last, and they know perfectly +that if it wouldn't carry the corral nothing will. They intended a +surprise, you see, but it broke down completely, and unless they try the +palaver trick we shall see no more of them just yet. But we shall have +to keep a bright lookout, for depend upon it, they won't let us be out +of sight long--for some time at any rate." + +"Waal, boys," drawled the tall Kentuckian, "I reckon we'll jest squat +around a bit, and be darn thankful." + +"That's so, Elias," assented his martial spouse, diving into the waggon +to lug out her brood by the ears, as if nothing had happened. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +TRUCE. + +It was afternoon, and quiet had settled down upon the emigrants' camp +once more. While its inmates were despatching their much-needed +breakfasts Vipan and Oregon Dave had sallied forth upon a scout. They +soon returned, reporting the whole party of Indians to be retiring over +a distant range of hills some twelve miles to the eastward. So, pickets +being posted to give warning should they think better of it and return, +the cattle were driven down to the water and were now enjoying a graze +under the watchful supervision of half-a-dozen men. + +It was afternoon. Most of the inmates of the camp were recruiting +themselves after their night of watching and the exciting events of the +morning's conflict. A few drowsy snores, or now and then the puling cry +of some child within the waggons, or perchance the clatter of pots and +pans, as one or two of the women were cleaning up the culinary +implements which had served for the morning meal; these were the only +sounds which broke the slumbrous stillness. + +Stretched upon the turf about fifty yards outside the corral, puffing +lazily at an Indian pipe, lay Vipan. He alone of all there present +seemed to feel no need of slumber. The dash and excitement of the +conflict over, a strange reaction had set in. There was a look upon his +face as of a man who, turning back upon the chapters of his own history, +finds the reminiscences therein recorded the reverse of pleasant. It +was also the look of one who is undergoing a new experience, and a +disquieting one. + +A light step on the grass behind him. + +"Are you really made of cast-iron, Mr Vipan?" + +"H'm, why so, Miss Santorex?" + +"Because everyone else is snoring like the Seven Sleepers, and you, who +have had as trying a time of it as any three of the rest put together, +are still wide awake." + +"I might say the same of you. You, too, have been awake all night." + +"Oh, dear no; nothing like it. And now--and now we are alone, I want +really to thank you as I ought, but--but--I don't know how," broke off +the girl, with a comic ruefulness that was inexpressibly bewitching. +"Really, though, I never was further from joking in my life. Now that I +have seen what those dreadful savages are like, I seem to realise what a +frightful fate you saved me from," she added earnestly, with a lovely +flush. + +"Let us talk of something else," he answered, somewhat abruptly. "You +showed extraordinary grit during the recent little unpleasantness +between us and our red brothers. May I ask where, when, and how you +served your apprenticeship as an Indian fighter?" + +She laughed and gave a slight shiver. Now that they were over, the +appalling experiences of the early morning could not but tell upon her. +She was rather pale, and dark circles round her eyes told of an +apprehensive and restless night. + +"Poor Mrs Winthrop is quite ill this morning, and no wonder. I hope we +shall have no more of those frightful experiences. And yet, to look +round the camp no one would suspect that anything out of the way had +happened." + +Vipan followed her glance. He was glad that all traces of the bloody +struggle had been removed--the dead bodies, including that of the +unfortunate emigrant who had been scalped, had been buried while the +terrified and worn-out women were sleeping the slumber of exhaustion. + +"No, it was all horrible--horrible," Yseulte went on, speaking gravely +and sadly. "If I was not half-dead with fear it was thanks to my +father's teaching. He always used to say that panic was fatal to +self-respect, and still more fatal to self-preservation. Child as I +was, the idea took root, and I was able to conquer my fears of bulls or +savage dogs, or mysterious noises at night, or at any rate very nearly +so." + +"Quite, I should say. Your father must be a somewhat rare type of man." + +"He is. Wait till you see him. Then you will think so." + +"Is he coming out here, then?" + +"Coming out here!" she echoed, wonderingly. "Oh, no. I am going back +in a few months' time. I mean when you come to see us and give him the +opportunity of thanking you as I never can." + +Vipan looked curiously at her. They had been strolling all this while, +and were now well out of earshot of the camp. + +"When I come and see you," he repeated. "To begin with, it is extremely +unlikely I shall ever leave these festive plains, let alone go back to +England." + +"Ah, you _are_ English. I guessed that much from the very first. But I +thought--we all thought--you were only out here on a trip." + +He did not even smile. + +"Do you think, Miss Santorex, that a man out here `on a trip' would be +up to every move of a Sioux war-party? No; I have been out here a good +many years. There are those in the settlements who speak of me as the +white Indian, who have more than once attempted my life because I happen +to feel more respect for the savage as he is than for that vilest of all +scum of humanity the `mean white.' Why, not many weeks ago I was in a +far tighter place than this last little shindy of ours, and narrowly +escaped with my life at the hands of the latter." + +"Bang!" + +The picket posted on an eminence a mile distant had discharged his +piece. + +"We must cut short our walk," went on the adventurer. "That shot means +Indians in sight." + +A few minutes and the pickets could be seen riding in. As arranged, the +cattle, which had been brought near on the first alarm, were now quickly +driven into the corral. + +The man who had fired the shot reported a large party of warriors +approaching rapidly from the direction in which the assailants had +retired. He reckoned it was the same lot coming back. + +"Hoorar! Guess we'll lick 'em into pounded snakes again," drawled the +long Kentuckian, on hearing this news. + +"They don't want to fight," said Vipan, "or they wouldn't have drawn off +so kindly to let us water and graze the stock. This time they're coming +to talk." + +"Well, that's better, anyhow," said the Major. A sentiment which his +wife, who was standing at his side looking very pale and scared, +thoroughly echoed. + +Mounted figures now began to appear on the ridge about a mile away, and +presently the entire band was halted upon the eminence. Then a couple +of warriors rode out from the main body, and advancing a little +distance, made the peace-sign. By way of answer a white towel was run +up on a pole and waved above the waggon corral. + +"I want you to see this, Miss Santorex," said Vipan. "It's a sight you +may not see again in a lifetime." + +The band had now left its halting place and was riding slowly down +towards the camp. If in the wild fury of their swooping charge the +Indians had worn a savagely picturesque aspect, with their waving +plumes, and flowing tags and scalp-locks on weapon and garment, none the +less now was the appearance of the warrior phalanx stately and striking +to the last degree. So thought Yseulte Santorex, as she gazed with more +admiration than fear upon this array of the barbaric chivalry of the +Western plains. + +The Indians approached in crescent formation, some half-dozen chiefs +riding a little in advance. All were in their war-paint--the dresses of +some being, moreover, exceeding rich with colour and embroidery--the +eagle-plumed crest of many a noted brave streaming to the ground as he +rode. Not a warrior but showed some bit of gorgeous colour. Even the +ponies' manes were adorned with feathers and vermilion, and the +lance-heads and floating pennants gleaming above the sea of fierce stern +faces put the finishing touch to a battle array as martial and +gallant-looking as it was redoubtable and ruthlessly unsparing. + +"It is magnificent!" said Yseulte, as from the coign of vantage which +the other had secured for her she surveyed the approaching band. "What +tribe are they, Mr Vipan?" + +"Sioux. There may be a few Cheyennes among them, but the war-party is a +Sioux one. Take the glass, and I'll tell you who some of them are. The +chief there most to the right is Crow-Scalper, of the Uncpapa clan, a +record of whose atrocities would keep you awake at night for a week." + +"He's a splendid-looking fellow," commented the girl, gazing withal at +the gigantic warrior who had led the last and most persistent charge +upon the camp. + +"Oh, yes; I know him well. Many's the hour I've spent in his lodge +making him talk. Now, look again. The middle one is Mountain Cat--the +trappers call him Catamount, but the other's the real rendering of his +name. He hates the whites more than any Indian on this continent, and +would willingly put a bullet into me if he got the chance. He's an +Ogallalla, and a good big chief too." + +"He looks an awful savage," answered Yseulte, with the glass still at +her eyes. "I never saw a more diabolical expression. Who is the man +who has just joined them?" + +"Lone Panther--a half-bred Cheyenne--a small chief in standing, but a +fiend when he heads a war-party. And now I must leave you for a little, +and go and hear what they have to say. It may interest you to watch the +progress of our conference through the glass." + +"That it will. But, oh, Mr Vipan, do try and persuade them to leave us +in peace. You know them so well, I am sure you can." + +"I'll try, anyhow, if only for your sake," he answered, with a queer +smile. + +The three chiefs named had halted their band, and, attended by a couple +of warriors displaying dingy white rags on their lance-points, were +cantering down towards the corral. Arrived within two hundred yards, +they halted. There went forth to meet them Vipan, Major Winthrop, and +one of the latter's cowboys, who rejoiced in the name of Sam Sharp; also +two of the teamsters to hold their horses. + +When within a hundred yards of each other, both parties dismounted. The +three chiefs, giving their horses to their attendants, advanced with +slow and stately gait to where the three white men awaited them. + +"Do we meet in peace, or do we meet in war?" began Vipan, as both +parties having surveyed each other for a few moments the Indians showed +no inclination to break the silence. No answer followed this straight +question. Then Lone Panther, breaking into a broad grin, said: + +"Injun brother Goddam hungry. White Colonel gib him heap `chuck.'" +[Food.] + +Of this flippant remark Winthrop, to whom it was addressed, took no +notice beyond a signal to Vipan to carry the negotiations further. + +The latter explained to the chiefs that the "white Colonel" entertained +his friends, not his enemies. They had attacked his outfit, tried to +run off his stock, and had made themselves a dangerous nuisance. But +that the camp had been vigorously defended they would have killed every +one in it. They could not do this, and now they came and asked to be +feasted as if they were friends. + +To this Crow-Scalper, putting on his most jovial smile and manner, +replied that the whole affair had been a mistake. Young men, especially +when on the war-path, would not always be restrained; that being so, the +chiefs were obliged to humour them. Beside, the warriors had no idea +that these whites were among the friends of Golden Face, or that Golden +Face was in the camp at all. Otherwise they would never have attempted +to run off even a single hoof. + +Vipan could hardly keep from roaring with laughter at the twinkle which +lurked in the speaker's eye, as he delivered himself of this statement. +Both he and the red man knew each other well--knew the futility of +trying to humbug each other. Hence the joke underlying the whole thing. + +What himself and his warriors most ardently desired now, went on +Crow-Scalper, was to show themselves friends of the friends of Golden +Face. To this end they proposed to accompany the waggon train as an +escort. There were, he feared, bands of very bad Indians roaming the +country, who would leave them unmolested if they had for escort a +Dahcotah war-party. This course would wipe out all bad blood between +them, and atone for the mistake they had made in attacking their dear +friends the whites. So having settled this to his own satisfaction, +Crow-Scalper suggested that a proper and most harmonious way of +cementing their new friendship would be for the white men to join camp +with their red brothers and to invite the latter to participate in a +feast. + +Vipan managed to preserve his gravity while translating these proposals +for the benefit of his companions. The chiefs meanwhile watched every +expression of their faces with steady and scrutinising gaze. + +"They must take us for born idiots," said Winthrop. + +"Thunder! I guess there's no end to the sass of a redskin," said Sam +Sharp, the cowboy. "Travel with a war-party of pesky Sioux! +Haw-haw-haw!" + +"Better conciliate them to a small extent, though I never did believe in +buying off your Danes," said Winthrop. "I'll give them an order for +coffee and sugar and tobacco on the post we last quitted; but I'll see +them hanged before they'll get anything out of us here." + +This resolve Vipan communicated to the chiefs. The white Colonel felt +quite strong enough to protect his own camp and did not need the escort +so kindly offered. At the same time his red brothers could best show +their friendship by retiring altogether and leaving him quite alone. +The chiefs had admitted their inability to control their young men under +all circumstances, and this being so, it would be best to part good +friends. They could proceed to Fort Jervis and obtain the supplies, for +which he would give them an order. + +The emissaries saw that the game was up. They might eventually wear out +the patience and watchfulness of the whites, and obtain the scalps and +plunder they so ardently desired, but they would have to fight. No safe +and easy way of treachery lay open to the coveted spoil, and this they +recognised. + +Then Mountain Cat, who up till now had preserved a stern and +contemptuous silence, said: + +"Golden Face, the friend and brother of the Dahcotah! Should he not +rather be called Double Face?" + +The sneering and vindictive tone was not lost upon the other two whites, +although they understood not a word of its burden. Glancing at Vipan, +they noticed that he was as unconcerned as though the other had never +spoken. + +"Does one friend kill another?" went on the savage, his eyes flashing +with hatred. "Ha! More than one of our young men has been shot this +day. Who was their slayer? Golden Face--the friend and brother of the +Dahcotah nation!" + +"What were my words to the great Council at Dog Creek?" was the calm +rejoinder. "`Those who strike my friends strike me, and turn me into an +enemy.' Were there not enough whites abroad upon the plains for your +war-party to strike without attacking my friends whom I accompany? +Enough. My words stand. I never go back from them." + +For a moment things seemed to have come to a crisis. The chief made a +step backward and cast a half-involuntary glance in the direction of his +party. A threatening scowl came over his grim countenance, and his hand +made a movement towards the revolver in his belt. But Vipan never moved +a muscle, beyond carelessly dropping his rifle so as to cover the Indian +in a manner apparently accidental. + +"The Dahcotah have entertained a false friend in their midst," went on +Mountain Cat, darting forth his hand with a menacing gesture, "one who +smokes in their council and then betrays them. Where is War Wolf?" + +"Is War Wolf my horse or my dog that it is my business to take care of +him?" was the coldly contemptuous reply. + +"Who witnessed the scalp-dance in our village at Dog Creek, when War +Wolf showed his scalps? Who delivered him into the hands of the +soldiers?" said the other, meaningly. + +"I know who did not--and that was myself. We may as well speak plainly. +War Wolf appears to have gone about the country bragging how he took +the scalps of two white men, when he ought to have kept his mouth shut. +If he was seized by the soldiers he has himself to thank for it, and +nobody else--certainly not me, any more than yourself. I would even +have warned him if I had been able, but it was impossible. That is +enough about the matter." + +"Good," repeated the savage chieftain, in a tone full of grim meaning. +"Golden Face talks well, but in future our war-parties will know an +enemy from a friend." + +"So be it," replied Vipan, wholly unmoved by the threat. "If your party +attacks our outfit again, we shall fight, as we did before." + +"Excuse me," put in Winthrop, who was waxing impatient during this +protracted conversation. "Excuse me--but our friend there does not seem +to enter into the situation in a right spirit. Here is the order. It +is made available only up till three days hence. So if you will kindly +inform him accordingly, no doubt we shall get rid of the whole crew." + +On the principle of "half a loaf," the other two chiefs grasped the bit +of paper eagerly. They were beaming with smiles, and brimming over with +affection for their dear white brothers. Only Mountain Cat held +scowlingly aloof. Then they returned to their men. + +It was uncertain now how matters would turn. Watching them, the +occupants of the corral could see that an animated conference was being +held. Would there be another battle? Even if not, a large war-party +like this, determined to annoy them, could soon reduce their position to +one of imminent peril. By closely investing the camp they could render +it nearly an impossibility for the stock to obtain proper grazing--let +alone bringing all progress forward to an utter standstill. They could +even make it a matter of extreme difficulty to replenish the water +supply--and then, too, there would be the constant strain and fatigue of +ever being on the watch against surprise--whether by day or night. So +that when their conference ended, the whole party mounted their ponies +and retreated in the same way as they had come, the feeling evoked in +the minds of the spectators was one of entire and undiluted relief. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +A PERIL OF THE PLAINS. + +"A `tenderfoot,' and--`turned round'!" [Lost.] And the speaker hands +his field-glass to his companion. The latter brings it to bear and +gazes with interest upon the object under observation. + +The said object is a horseman, now between three and four miles distant. +The observers from their point of vantage and concealment, a little +belt of scrub and timber cresting a knoll, have been watching this +object ever since it appeared on the skyline. + +Thanks to the powerful glass they can make out every movement of the +solitary horseman, and very irresolute his movements are. Now he reins +in, and looks anxiously around; now he spurs his nag to the brow of some +slight eminence, only to encounter disappointment, for the broad rolling +plains lie around in unbroken monotony, affording no sort of landmark +for the guidance of this inexperienced traveller. There is weariness +and disappointment in his every movement. In his countenance there is +more--an expression of strong apprehension, not to say alarm. This, +too, thanks to the developments of science, is clear to the observers. + +"A `tenderfoot,' and turned round," repeats Vipan. "Now, what the deuce +can he be doing here, alone, and away from his outfit? Why--what's the +matter, Miss Santorex?" + +"Look--look!" is the hurried reply. "There--to the right--down in the +hollow! What--who are they?" + +In her eagerness she has seized his arm, and her face has gone pale as +death. But Vipan has seen at the same time what she herself has. His +reply is grave and in one word. + +For a new factor has appeared on the scene. Stealing around the slope +of the hill, out of sight of the horseman, but so that a few minutes +will bring them suddenly upon him, come nearly a score of mounted +figures. Their plumed heads and long lances show them to be Indians, +their painted faces and the fantastic trappings of their ponies show +them to be warriors on the war-path. Their stealthy glide, as nearer +and nearer they advance upon their wholly unconscious victim, leaves no +doubt whatever as to their present intentions. Indeed, the observers +can plainly distinguish the exultant grin on each cruel countenance as +the warriors exchange glances or signals. A few moments, and the +solitary horseman will ride right into their midst. + +"Oh, can nothing be done to save him?" cried Yseulte Santorex, clasping +her hands in the intensity of the situation. + +"I'm afraid, under present circumstances--nothing," was the reply, given +with a calmness that outraged and exasperated her. + +"What! I should never have believed it of you, Mr Vipan," she cried, +her eyes flashing with indignation. "I should never have believed that +you--you of all men--would stand by and see a fellow-creature +barbarously done to death, and make no effort to save him, or even to +warn him." + +There was a strange look in Vipan's eyes as he met her scornful and +angry glance--full and unflinchingly. + +"Should you not!" he replied. "Well, then, I would stand by and see a +hetacomb of `fellow-creatures' done to death, if the alternative lay in +exposing you to serious danger." + +"Forgive me," she said, hurriedly, and in a softer tone. "But leave me +out of the question, and let us try and save him. See! There are not +many Indians; we can surely do something. Oh! It is too late!" + +The stranger's horse was seen suddenly to stop short, pause, swerve, +then start forward with a bound that nearly left his rider rolling on +the plain. He had scented the Indians, who at the same moment appeared +within a few hundred yards of the white man. Feigning astonishment at +the suddenness of the meeting, one of the foremost warriors called out +in broken English: + +"How! White brother not run away. We good Injun--damn good Injun! +Stop!--say `how.' Smoke pipe--eat heap `chuck'! Damn good Injun, we! +White brother--stop!" + +But the "white brother," though obviously a greenhorn, was not quite so +soft as that. For all answer he dug the spurs into the sides of his nag +in such wise as materially to increase the distance between himself and +the savages. The latter, baulked of an easy and bloodless capture, +together with the rare sport of putting a prisoner to death amid all +manner of slow and ingenious tortures, cast all pretence to the winds, +as they darted in pursuit. + +Then began a race for life, which the spectators could not but watch +with thrilling interest. Fortunately for the fugitive, his horse was an +animal of blood and mettle, and seemed likely to show a good lead to the +fleet war-ponies. But on the other hand the fugitive himself was an +indifferent rider, and more than once, wholly unaccustomed to the +tremendous pace, he would sway in the saddle, and only save himself by a +hurried clutch at his steed's mane from being cast headlong to the +earth. The whoops and yells of the savage pursuers sounded nearer and +nearer in his ears, and the expression of his countenance, livid as with +the dews of death, and eyeballs starting from their sockets, was that of +such despairing horror as to turn one of the two spectators sick and +faint. + +"There's just a chance for him," muttered Vipan, more to himself than to +his companion. "If he takes the right fork of the valley he's a dead +man--nothing can save him. If he takes the left, it'll bring him close +under us, and I'll give him a hail." + +"Do, for the love of Heaven!" gasped the girl through her ashy lips. +"God will help us, if we try and save this stranger." + +Along the valley-bottom swept this most engrossing of all hunts--a +man-hunt. Whatever advantage the superiority of his horse afforded him +the fugitive was throwing away by his own clumsiness; for wildly +gripping the bridle to steady himself in his seat, he was checking and +worrying his steed to a perilous extent. Bent low on the necks of their +ponies, the savages were urging the latter to their utmost speed. +Slowly but surely now they were gaining. But a minute more and the +fugitive must choose--the right fork of the valley, away into certain +death--the left, succour, possible safety. + +Suddenly a warrior, urging his steed in advance of the rest, literally +flying over the ground, comes within fifty yards of the fugitive. +Five--ten--another effort and he will be within striking distance. Then +rising upright in his saddle the savage whirls a lasso in the air. +Another moment and the fatal coil will have settled around the doomed +man's shoulders. + +But it is not to be. A crack and a puff of smoke from the spectators' +hiding-place. The distance is too great for accuracy of aim--six +hundred yards if an inch--but the ball ploughs up the ground under the +pony's feet, causing the animal to swerve and the rider to miss his +cast. The warriors, disconcerted by this wholly unlooked-for danger, +halt for a moment, gazing in the direction of the report. At the same +time a stentorian voice calls out: + +"This way, stranger. This way, for your blessed soul, or you're a dead +man!" + +The fugitive needs no second invitation. His horse's head is turned +towards the never-so-welcome refuge. Amid a shower of bullets and +arrows from his discomfited pursuers he gallops up the gradual slope +which lies between himself and safety, and, fainting, exhausted, +speechless, more dead than alive, at length flings himself upon the +ground at his rescuers' feet. + +Vipan's attention is for the moment more taken up with the red warriors +than with the man he has saved from their ruthless clutches. The whole +party has now withdrawn beyond range, and is busily discussing the +sudden turn affairs have taken. Then turning to the panting and +exhausted man stretched at full length upon the ground with closed eyes, +he remarks drily: + +"You've had a narrow squeak for it, friend. I don't think your scalp +could sit much more lightly than it has done within the last few minutes +short of coming off altogether." + +But the fugitive seemed not to hear. His whole attention was fixed-- +riveted--upon the beautiful face bending over him in alarm--solicitude-- +then unbounded surprise. + +"Yseulte!" he stammered. "Yseulte! Is it really you, or am I dead or +dreaming?" + +"Why it's Geoffry. Geoffry Vallance! Why, Geoffry, where on earth +_have_ you dropped from?" + +"Er--I was trying to catch up your--er--Major Winthrop's party--and lost +my way," he answered stupidly--rubbing his eyes in sheer bewilderment. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +THE "TENDERFOOT." + +If Yseulte Santorex stood lost in amazement at this wholly unlooked-for +meeting, there was really considerable excuse for some upsetting of her +mental poise. Beyond a brief and formal farewell in the presence of her +family, she had not seen her former admirer since that passionate and +despairing declaration of his in the summer meadows which skirted the +pleasant Lant, and neither at that time nor since had the faintest idea +crossed her mind that he contemplated any such undertaking as Western or +any other travel. And now here he was, flung, so to say, by Fate at her +very feet, escaping by the narrowest chance from the hands of hostile +savages, the most ruthless in the world. And she had been mainly +instrumental in saving him. + +But Geoffry had the advantage of her, in that his surprise was mainly +confined to the circumstances and place of their meeting. When he had +quarrelled with and separated from the rather worthless guide whom he +had engaged at the nearest frontier post, he had reckoned on pushing on +so as to overtake Major Winthrop's outfit in a day at the outside, and +having found it, the first part of his object would be accomplished. +Then he had lost himself, as we have seen, and but for the present +opportune meeting his fate was sealed. And now here was the object of +his search, more winsome, more beautiful than ever, her loveliness +enhanced tenfold by the glorious open-air life she had been leading. +But who on earth was her companion? Not her brother. George Santorex +could never have altered beyond recognition within three or four years; +besides, he was dark-haired--darker than Yseulte herself--and had not +the herculean build of this stranger. Thus ran Geoffry's thoughts as, +with half-closed eyes, he lay on the sward, thoroughly done up with +fright and exhaustion. + +Vipan, for his part, took no notice of the man whose life he had saved. +He saw before him a loosely hung, shambling sort of youth, commonplace +of aspect, and in no wise over-burdened with practical intelligence. +Beyond the first half-bantering, half-contemptuous remark, he hardly +seemed to think his new acquaintance worth addressing. Nor did he seem +to think the unexpected recognition between him and Yseulte Santorex +worthy of notice. + +"Will they attack us, Mr Vipan?" asked the latter, with a shade of +anxiety. For the Indians, having finished their consultation, were +riding just beyond range, so as to make a wide circuit of the position. + +"I doubt it. They are going to find our trail leading in here, so as to +discover the extent of our force. They will find the trail of two +horses, and not having seen you will take for granted that represents +two men, instead of one man and a non-combatant. That, with our friend +here, makes three. Three men with rifles, snugly fixed in a strong +position, constitute far too tough a nut for a small force like that to +try and crack, and they are only sixteen. No. They will conclude to go +away and leave us alone." + +Yseulte gave a sigh of relief. A skirmish would mean bloodshed, and, +brave as she was, the idea of seeing men shot down, even in +self-defence, could not be otherwise than abhorrent to her. + +"Look," went on Vipan, "they have picked up our trail, and--there goes +the inevitable white rag." + +The warriors had stopped, clustered together, and having briefly +scrutinised the ground, one of their number rode out, waving a dirty rag +on a lance-point. + +"Flourish away, friend," remarked Vipan, drily; "I guess we're not going +to be drawn by any such childish device." + +"Don't they want to make terms?" said Yseulte. + +"No doubt. But we don't. They know our number. What they want now is +to find out our strength--who we are, in short. Now there isn't a red +on the Northern Plains who doesn't know me, by sight or intuition, and +this time I'm going to let them entertain a Tartar unawares; if they try +fighting, that is." + +Finding no notice whatever was taken of their signals, the savages again +gathered in consultation. Then the warrior who had hoisted the white +flag advanced from among the rest, and yelled out in broken English: + +"Ha-yah, ha-yah! Golden Face Injun's brudder! Good hoss, ole debbil +Satanta--make big trail. Golden Face bring out lily white gal. Good +squaw for Injun brudder! Ha-yah!" + +The whole band screamed with laughter, but the insolent buck grinned +rather too soon. Long as the range was, a ball from Vipan's rifle +crashed through his shin-bone, and both he and his pony rolled upon the +ground; the latter in the throes of death. Their mirth changed into a +yell of rage; the band scattered, and withdrawing to a more respectful +distance, began circling frantically around the position, waving their +weapons and bawling out such expletives and coarse expressions as their +limited knowledge of Anglo-Saxon allowed. Finally, their vocabulary +having given out, they once more collected together, and with a parting +jeer rode leisurely away. + +"There go sixteen as disgusted reds as are to be met on the Plains this +day," said Vipan as the last of the warriors disappeared over the far +rise. "And now, Miss Santorex, sorry as I am to disappoint you, we must +put off our picnic _a deux_, or rather _a trois_, and get back to camp +as soon as possible. Those chaps might fall in with a lot more of their +tribe, and double back on us sharp, or half-a-hundred things might +happen. So we've no time to lose." + +Vipan was not the man to leave anything to chance, but although no +square foot of the surrounding country escaped his keen glance, as they +cantered merrily away from the scene of the late _fracas_, not a sign of +their recent foes was visible. The vast rolling plains shimmering in +the afternoon heat lay silent and deserted, and save that a film of +smoke in the far distance, marking the site of the emigrants' camp, was +faintly discernible, might have been untrodden by human foot. + +"By the way, Mr--er?" began Vipan. + +"--Vallance." + +"Well, Mr Balance." + +"Er--Vallance." + +"Oh, Vallance, I beg your pardon. Well, Mr Vallance, I was going to +say, what do you think of Indian fighting? Never saw `Mr Lo' [Note 1] +on the war-path before, I take it?" + +"No, never. And I don't particularly care if I never see him again," +answered Geoffry, flurriedly. "Er--you have saved my life, Mr--er--?" + +"Vipan." + +"--Mr Vipan," he stuttered; "and but for you I should be a dead man at +this moment." + +"Not strictly accurate, and that in two particulars," was the quiet +reply. "In the first place, you should have said `But for Miss +Santorex'; in the second, you would not have had the luck to be a dead +man at this moment. You would be squirming a good deal nearer to a slow +fire than is either pleasant or salubrious." + +Geoffry turned pale, nor could he repress a slight shudder as he thought +of the ghastly fate from which he had escaped, as it were, by the skin +of his teeth. Then the sight of his enslaver--so unexpectedly met with, +and, like himself, dependent for aid and protection amid the grisly +perils of these Western wilds, upon this mysterious stranger, who +treated him, Geoffry, with a patronising and tolerant air which under +any other circumstances would have been galling in the extreme--roused a +wave of jealousy and distrust in the young man's breast. What the deuce +was she doing here, careering about the country with this splendidly +handsome desperado? But the latter's next words seemed to solve the +enigma. + +"I reckon you'll follow the crowd next time you feel like running +buffalo, Miss Santorex. I ought not to have exposed you to even this +small risk." + +"A delicate way of reminding me that I've only myself to thank for +risking being scalped," she replied demurely, but with a mischievous +smile struggling not to break forth. "Well, it's perfectly true. I +made you take me, and you all agreed it was quite safe. But we killed +our buffalo after all--though I didn't like the killing part of it--and +I shall never get the chance of a buffalo hunt again. Besides," with a +glance at Geoffry and a serious ring in her voice, "it looks as if we +had been sent here on purpose." + +"I say," sputtered Geoffry, staring at Vipan, as though bursting with a +new idea. "I say, w-were you ever at the 'Varsity?" + +"Which 'Varsity?" + +"Why, Oxford or Cambridge, don't cher know. You give me the idea of a +man who has been there." + +"Do I? If I was there at all, it must have been rather before you were +born," replied the other, imperturbably. + +"Hang the fellow, he needn't be so close!" thought Geoffry, with a +sullen sense of having been "shut up." But he was glad enough to see +safety and comfort in the shape of Major Winthrop's camp, which lay +about a mile distant, between them and the setting sun, although he was +conscious of a profound feeling of jealousy and distrust towards the man +to whom he owed that safety and comfort. + +"My partner will show up this evening," said Vipan, tranquilly. "In +fact I shouldn't wonder if we found him in camp when we arrive, and +what's more, he'll know exactly what we've been doing since I joined +you." + +"How on earth will he know?" asked Yseulte, wonderingly. + +"That's just how he will know," was the amused reply. "By looking on +the earth. We have a code of our own. But, you'll see, anyhow." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. A Western joke, from the passage in Pope's Essay on Man which +runs: "Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +A BOMB FOR THE REV. DUDLEY. + +The Rev. Dudley Vallance sat in his library sorting out the contents of +the post-bag. + +There was his usual correspondence, all of which he knew at a glance, +and tossed impatiently aside, and two or three missives in an unknown +hand, which met with no greater attention. But that which he sought was +not there. Not a line from his absent son. + +More than a month had elapsed since Geoffry had started on his travels. +To the surprise of his parents, he had as suddenly come round to their +plans, and was as ardently ready to go abroad as he had been formerly +opposed to the idea. Still more to their surprise, he had expressed a +firm determination to travel in the United States and nowhere else; and, +with an energy wholly foreign to his limp nature, had extorted from them +a promise to reveal no word of his intention until after his departure. +Of course, the reason of this was soon made manifest; yet his indulgent +father would not oppose him. And now, for nearly a fortnight, no news +of him had been received. To be sure, he had been on the eve of +quitting the furthest limits of Western civilisation when he last +wrote--probably opportunities of communication were few and far between. +Yet the Rev. Dudley felt very anxious, very disappointed. + +Mechanically he opened his letters, one after another, but hardly +glanced at the contents. Even the announcement that a couple of farms +would shortly be thrown on his hands--a notice which at any other time +would have disturbed his rest for a week--passed unheeded now. Suddenly +his face paled, and a quick gasp escaped his white lips. He had come to +the last letter of all, and it was from his solicitors. + +We know of nothing more calculated to knock a man out of all time than a +wholly unexpected and equally unwelcome communication imparted through +the agency of the post. If imparted by word of mouth, he can find some +relief in questioning his informant, but when coming through the medium +of a letter, especially a lawyer's letter, there is that in the cold, +stiff paper, in the precise, hateful characters, as unbending, as +inexorable as the very finality of Fate. The communication which, even +in the midst of his paternal anxiety, had knocked Mr Vallance so +thoroughly out of time, conveyed nothing less than the news that a +claimant had come forward to dispossess him of the Lant estates, to +contest the late squire's will on several grounds, including that of +fraud. And the said claimant was no less a personage than the late +squire's son. + +And really it is not surprising that he should have been knocked out of +time. In a lightning-flash there passed before him a vision of years of +litigation, draining his resources and impoverishing his estate--and +that even should things not come to the worst. The tone of his lawyers' +letter was not reassuring. This meant that, in their opinion, the +claimant had a good case. How good that case might be was a +consideration which turned the reverend squire's features a trifle +paler. + +Then came a ray of hope. Ralph Vallance had not been heard of for +years, nearer twenty than ten. He had probably gone to the dogs long +ago, had joined the ranks of the "shady," and, in keeping with his +umbrageous character, was now trying to extort a compromise, or, failing +that, a sum of money not to make himself troublesome. But to this happy +idea succeeded a darker one, dousing the first as in a rush of ink. +Probably with the extraordinary luck which now and then befalls the +thorough adventurer, Ralph was returning a rich man, prepared, out of +sheer vindictiveness, to devote a large portion of his wealth to +plunging his cousin into protracted litigation, with all its harassing +and impoverishing results. This would be about as disastrous, in the +long run, as the actual establishment of the claim. + +Again and again he read the hateful missive, until every word of it was +burnt into his brain, but he gleaned no comfort. From whatever point he +thought it over, the outlook was about as gloomy as it could be. The +summer air came into the room in soft and balmy puffs, laden with the +scent of roses. He could hear his children's voices on the terrace +below, and away over many a mile of rolling down his eye wandered over +pleasant pastures alternating with velvety woodland, and yellow +corn-fields awaiting the sickle; to the river flashing like a silver +streak through the shade of the beeches, where the deer lay in antlered +and dappled groups, lazily chewing the cud in the soft and sensuous +forenoon. All this was his own, and his son's after him--an hour ago, +that is. But now? He saw himself adrift in his old age, and his +idolised son drudging miserably for daily bread. He saw the kinsman, in +whose place he had for so long stood, ejecting him pitilessly, +vindictively; exacting, it might be, all arrears to the uttermost +farthing. Even after this lapse of years (nearer twenty than ten) he +cowered beneath the bitter and burning home-truths which that kinsman +had hurled at him, here, in this very room, and his heart quaked and his +blood curdled at the promise of a terrible and unlooked-for vengeance +with which his kinsman had left him. Time had gone by; year had +succeeded year; his children growing up, and he himself in undisturbed +possession, and the force of these denunciations and threats had become +dulled. He had long since come to categorise them in his own mind as +the furious vapourings of a desperate and disappointed man. And now +they were to bear fruit, to strike him down in his old age, to turn him +and his homeless and helpless on the world. The wretched man dropped +his head into his hands and groaned aloud. + +But, the reader will ask, what was the man made of to start by +discounting the worst; to throw up the sponge so abjectly at the very +first threat of battle? Well, there may be something in the adage that +conscience makes cowards--of certain temperaments, or there may have +been a something underlying the whole affair unknown even to Mr +Vallance's own lawyers, or, possibly, a good deal of both. We can only +say: Reader, persevere, and discover for yourself. + +Suddenly there floated in upon the summer air a mellow peal of church +bells. Mr Vallance aroused himself. He had forgotten it was Sunday, +forgotten his anxiety about Geoffry, forgotten everything in this new +and terrible blow that threatened him. The turning of the door-handle +made him fairly start from his chair, so overwrought were his nerves. + +"The girls have gone on, Dudley," said his wife, entering, a sumptuous +presence in her church-going attire. + +"All right, my dear. Kindly overtake them, will you? I'll follow you +when I'm ready." + +"But you'll be very late. Why, what is the matter?" she broke off, +alarmed by his appearance and the huskiness of his tone. Then glancing +at the pile of newly-opened letters--"Is it bad news? Not--not about +Geoffry?" + +"_No_, not about Geoffry; thank Heaven for that. There is no word of +the boy or his movements. It is--er--merely a very unfortunate and +perplexing matter of business. Please don't wait for me." + +Those who caught a glimpse of their pastor's face that morning as he +swept up the church behind his little procession of choir-boys were +startled at the grey, set expression it wore; and when, after several +mistakes and omissions in the performance of the service, he brought it +to a close without a sermon, the parish--such of it as was present, at +least--came to the conclusion that something must have gone very wrong +indeed. Had Mr Vallance heard bad news about his son? No, for when +the retired jerry-builder, who was also churchwarden, meeting the parson +after service, made the enquiry in a sepulchral and sympathising +stage-whisper, he met with a very unconcerned answer in the negative. + +"Parson do look main sick, surely" was the verdict of the village, as, +represented by its choicest louts, it hung around the churchyard gate, +and subsequently at the corners of the roads and lanes, previous to its +afternoon Sunday loaf among the same. "Parson, he be agein', he be." + +Thus the village verdict. + +"Poor Mr Vallance was looking very ill this morning," remarked Mrs +Santorex at dinner that day. "He could hardly get through the service. +Everybody thought at first that he had heard bad news of Geoffry, but it +appears not. In fact, he had heard no news of him at all." + +"Likely enough he has been hard hit in the pocket department," rejoined +her lord. "Probably, `poor Mr Vallance' has been dabbling in bubble +investments; and his particular bubble has--gone the way of all bubbles. +Rather rough that he should hear about it on Sunday, though, the day of +all others when he has to show up in public. So he blundered over the +service, did he? Well, our shepherd ought to know by this time that he +can't serve two masters--ha--ha!" + +But when later in the afternoon Mr and Mrs Vallance, with a brace of +daughters, dropped in, Mr Santorex felt persuaded that at least one of +the quartet had come there with further intent than that of making a +mere friendly call, and accordingly he awaited events in a kind of +mental ambush congenial to his cynical soul. + +"Any news of Yseulte?" asked Mrs Vallance, rising to depart. + +"Yes. She has fallen in with a Major Winthrop and his wife. They seem +very good sort of people, and the little girl is going to travel under +their charge. They are neighbours of my boy George, and are returning +to their ranche." + +"Can I have a word with you, Santorex?" said the Rev. Dudley, lingering +at the gate, having told his wife and daughters to go on without him. +"Er--the fact is," he continued, lowering his voice, as the other nodded +assent, "the fact is--er--something rather troublesome--a mere trifle +that is to say--has occurred to worry me. Have you any idea of the +whereabouts of Ralph Vallance?" + +"Not the faintest." + +"Oh. I thought perhaps you might know something about him. I believe +you and he were--er--on friendly terms at one time?" + +"Yes, we were. Why? Have _you_ heard anything about him?" + +"Er--well, I may say this much. I fancy the poor fellow is in need of +assistance--if only I knew where he was." + +"Afraid I can't help you to learn. Stay. It was only lately I was +turning out a lot of old correspondence, and there was a whole bundle of +Ralph's letters. It was just before Chickie went away. I'll hunt them +up and see if they afford any clue." + +The other started. A scared, anxious look came into his face at the +mention of the correspondence. + +"Might I--might I just look over those letters?" he asked, eagerly. + +"H'm. I'm afraid I can hardly agree to that. But if I find anything in +them likely to be of service to you I won't fail to let you know." + +With this, Mr Vallance was forced to be content. His late host stood +shaking his head softly as he looked after his retreating figure, and +that cynical half-smile played about the corners of his mouth. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +POOR GEOFFRY AGAIN. + +True to Vipan's prediction, the first person they met on their return to +camp was Smokestack Bill. + +Leaning against a waggon-wheel, lazily puffing at his pipe, his faithful +Winchester ever ready to hand, the scout watched their approach as +imperturbably as though he had parted with his friend but half-an-hour +back, instead of nearly a month ago, when he had watched the latter ride +off with Mahto-sapa's band into what looked perilously like the very +jaws of death. But he could not restrain a covert guffaw as he marked +in what company he now met his friend again. + +"Hello, Bill! Any news?" cried the latter, as they rode up to the +waggon corral. "By the way, I must call round and collect that twenty +dollars from Seth Davis." + +"Guess you'll have to trade his scalp to raise it," was the grim reply. +"And you'll find it drying in the smoke of an Ogallalla _teepe_." + +"That so?" + +"It is. Couple o' nights after War Wolf was run off, a crowd of 'em +came along and shot Seth in the doorway of his store. Then they cleared +out all the goods and burnt down the whole shebang. They couldn't nohow +get rid of the idea that he'd had a hand in giving War Wolf away." + +"Well, we've just stood off a handful of reds." + +"Sho! With the young lady too! Say, stranger"--he broke off, turning +to Geoffry--"are you the `tenderfoot' them reds was after?" + +"Er--yes. But--how did you know?" answered Geoffry, staring with +astonishment. + +"Struck your trail. But jest before, I'd struck the trail o' them +painted varmints. Knew they'd jump you, but reckoned you'd make camp +'fore they got within shootin' distance." + +"You're out of it this time, Bill," said Vipan. "He'd have been roast +beef by now if we hadn't happened along. It was a very pretty chase, +though," he added, with a laugh. "Our friend here covered the ground in +fine style." + +"Bless your heart, stranger, that's just nothing," laughed the scout, +noting the offended look which came into the young man's face at this +apparently unfeeling comment on the frightful peril from which he had +barely escaped. "Why, me and Vipan there have had many and many such a +narrow squeak when we've been out scoutin' alone--ay, and narrower. +Haven't we scooted for a whole day with a yellin' war-party close on our +heels, and no snug corral like this handy to stand 'em off in!" + +"Really!" exclaimed Geoffry, open-mouthed. "You bet. Them devils were +just a lot of young Cheyenne bucks out in search of any devilment that +might come handy. But you were in luck's way, stranger, this time." + +Smokestack Bill was the bearer of news which tended not a little to +relieve the travellers' minds. He had thoroughly scouted the country +ahead and pronounced it free from Indians. He was of opinion that no +further trouble need be feared. The Sioux, he declared, had quite +enough to occupy their attention at home, for they were mustering every +available warrior to resist an expected invasion of the troops, and to +this end all raiding parties then abroad on the Plains had been called +in. A council of war on a large scale, together with a grand medicine +dance, was to be held at the villages of Sitting Bull, Mad Horse, and +other chiefs of the hostiles, and it was expected that from twelve to +fifteen thousand warriors would assemble. Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and +some few other chiefs still remained on their reservations, but the bulk +of their followers had deserted and joined the hostiles. The scout was +of opinion that they would encounter no considerable body of Indians, +though their stock might be exposed to the risk of stampede at the hands +of a few adventurous young bucks, such as those who had so nearly +captured Geoffry Vallance. + +The latter's arrival in the camp, or rather the manner of it, was +productive of no slight sensation among the more inexperienced of the +emigrants. The seasoned Western men, however, characteristically viewed +the incident as of no great importance, and after one glance at the new +comer, tacitly agreed that the advent of a "tenderfoot" more or less +constituted but a sorry addition to their fighting force. However, with +the consideration and tact so frequently to be found among even the +roughest of the pioneers of civilisation, no sign of this was suffered +to escape them, and beyond a little good-humoured chaff, and an +occasional endeavour--generally successful--to "cram" the "Britisher," +Geoffry had no reason to complain of lack of kindliness or hospitable +feeling on the part of the travellers, who, while amusing themselves at +the expense of his "greenness," were ever ready and willing to give him +the benefit of their experience or lend him a helping hand. + +By the Winthrops the young man was made warmly welcome. The Major, glad +of such an acquisition as an educated fellow-countryman, pressed him to +remain with them until they arrived at their destination, and see +something of the West under his own auspices, and his kind-hearted +little wife, very much impressed by his tragic escape from such a +terrible fate, took the young stranger completely under her wing, and +was disposed to make a hero of him. + +Thus the days went by, and the waggon train pursued its slow course over +the Western plains; now winding around the spur of some high foot-hill +of a loftier range; now emerging from the timber belt fringing some +swiftly-flowing river, upon a level tableland carpeted with the greenest +of prairie-grass, bespangled with many a strange and delicate-hued +flower. The exhilarating air, the unclouded blue of the heavens, the +danger lately threatening them removed--removed, too, by the sturdy +might of their own right hands--infused a cheerfulness into the +wanderers. And when the camp was pitched and the waggons securely +corralled for the night, many a song and jest and stirring anecdote +enlivened the gathering round the red watch-fires. By day the more +enterprising spirits would diverge from the route to track the red deer +or the scarcer blacktail in the wooded fastnesses of some neighbouring +ravine, while the waggons creaked on their slow and ponderous course. + +To this strange new life Geoffry Vallance took with a readiness which +was surprising to himself. Indeed, he would have been thoroughly happy +but for one thing. From the moment they had recognised each other, when +he reeled panting and exhausted to the ground at her feet, Yseulte's +demeanour towards him had been one of studied coldness and reserve. She +would never address him of her own initiative, and deftly defeated any +attempt on his part to be with her alone. The poor fellow was beside +himself with mortification; and when he recalled the circumstances of +that first recognition, how he had found her alone with the splendidly +handsome scout, to his mortification was added a perfect paroxysm of +jealous rage. + +Mrs Winthrop took in the situation at a glance--indeed, it would have +been manifest to a far less clearsighted observer, so transparent were +the symptoms in so simple a subject as poor Geoffry--and it annoyed her. + +"I can't think why," she began one day, when the latter was away on some +hunting expedition with most of the men, and the two ladies were alone +together, "I can't think why you treat the poor fellow so standoffishly, +Yseulte. I'm sure he worships the very ground you walk on, and you +might be a little kinder to him." + +"Really, I don't see that the fact entails upon me a corresponding +reciprocity," was the reply, given a little coldly. + +"There you go with your long words, Yseulte. And now you turn the +stand-offishness upon me. I only mean, dear, that I want everyone to be +friendly and on good terms around. Let him say what he wants to say. +Then give him an answer. That'll fix him one way or another right +along, and put everything on a friendly footing again." + +"Would it? Supposing I were to tell you, Hettie, that Geoffry Vallance +can't take No for an answer, you would retort that you thought the more +of him for it. But there is more than that. He should not have +followed me out here. It was not right--it was even ungentlemanly. He +has taken an unfair advantage in besieging me like this. In fact, he +has placed me in a thoroughly false position." + +"But, dear," mischievously, "so far from following you, it was you who +brought him here." + +"Say Mr Vipan, rather. _I_ am not an Indian fighter." + +Then spake Hettie Winthrop unadvisedly. + +"Well, Mr Vipan, then. But, Yseulte dear, you are always pleasant and +cordial enough with Mr Vipan. Naturally the other poor fellow notices +it." + +Yseulte turned her grand eyes full upon the speaker, and there was an +angry flash in them. These two friends were as near a quarrel as they +would ever be likely to arrive. + +"I don't know what you mean, Hettie. Mr Vipan saved me from the most +horrible of fates. Am I to show my appreciation by keeping him at arm's +length to please Geoffry Vallance?" + +"Tut-tut! You needn't be so fiery about it," said the other, laughing +mischievously. "I didn't mean anything in particular that I know of, +and I guess I don't hold a brief for any Geoffry Vallance." + +That evening, for the first time since her rescue just alluded to, +Yseulte was strolling by herself. She had been strangely reserved and +silent all day, and now had stolen quietly away to be alone and think. +A stream flowed between its fringe of fig and wild plum trees, about two +hundred yards off the camp, and now she stood meditatively gazing into +the current and thinking with a pang over the loss of her trout-rod. +The evening air was lively with many a sound, the screech of myriad +crickets, the shout of the teamsters driving in the animals for the +night, the occasional cry of a fretful infant, and the wash and bubble +of the water flowing at her feet. Suddenly the utterance of her own +name broke in upon her meditations. There stood Geoffry Vallance, the +expression of his face that of eagerness to make the most of his +opportunity. + +"Why do you always avoid me now?" he began, with a quick glance around, +as if fearful of interruption, "What have I done that you will hardly +speak to me now?" + +A flush of anger mounted to her face. + +"Have they come back from hunting?" she said, ignoring the question. + +"No, I came back by myself. I couldn't go on any longer till I knew +what I had done to offend you. Have I not followed you to the end of +another world? And this is how you treat me." + +She could have struck him. "What an idiot the boy is!" she thought. +"Father was right. A witless idiot!" + +"That is just what you have done," she flashed forth. "Who gave you any +sort of encouragement to follow me to what you are pleased to call `the +end of another world'? Why did you come here to render me thoroughly +ridiculous, to place me in a false position? By what right do you +presume to call me to account? Answer me that, and then kindly leave me +at once." + +For a moment he seemed thunderstruck, and stood staring at her in blank +dismay. Then a light seemed to dawn upon him. + +"I thought, at any rate, that one more to protect you--to stand between +you and harm--in this wild country, counted for something. But it seems +to constitute an offence. Well, I will leave, this very night if you +wish it." + +"Nonsense!" was the angry retort. "Have you so soon forgotten the +result of trying to cross the plains alone? You know perfectly well I +don't want you to run any such foolish risk. But you should not have +followed me here at all. I thought I had given you a final answer once +and for all at Lant--" + +"Good evening, Miss Santorex!" struck in a voice behind them. And Vipan +raised his hat as he rode by at a foot's pace within a dozen yards of +them. So engrossed had they been that they had not heard the +hoof-strokes of his horse. A flush came over Yseulte's face. Could he +have heard? she thought. Surely he must have. The evening air was so +still, and Geoffry's voice was of the high "carrying" order. Oh, that +unlucky Geoffry! And for the moment she found it in her heart to wish +that he had been left to the tender mercies of the red men. + +"I can't think how it is," said Geoffry, moodily, bringing his glance +back from Vipan's retreating form to the flushed face of his companion. +"I've a dim recollection of having seen that fellow before--how, when, +and where is just what puzzles me." + +Yseulte started. If she was thinking the same thing she was not going +to say so. She suggested a return to the camp. + +"And it's my belief," pursued Geoffry, with a dash of venom--"my firm +belief, that he's a bad hat." + +"Is it?" + +"Yes. I've heard one or two queer whispers about him in the camp. It's +said that he's too friendly with the Indians." + +"Especially the other day when you and I had the pleasure of meeting. +Where would you be now but for him, or where should I? I don't think we +ought to go out of our way to cultivate a bad opinion of a man who has +saved both our lives, do you?" + +She left him, for they had now reached the camp--left him standing there +feeling very sore, very resentful, and thoroughly foolish. Yseulte +Santorex could be very scornful, very cutting, when she chose. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +"AT HIS TIME OF LIFE." + +"Something not quite right there--not quite right. No, sir," said the +scout to himself, shaking his head softly as he furtively watched his +companion. "And I reckon I can fix it," he added. "Lord! Lord! To +think what we may come to--the most sensible of us as well as the most +downright foolishest." + +Vipan, stretched at full length beside the camp fire, smoking his long +Indian pipe, looked the very picture of languid repose. Yet his +thoughts were in a whirl. Why had he come there?--why the devil had he +stayed? + +The hour was late--late, that is, for those destined to rise at the +first glimmer which should tell of the rising dawn--and sundry shapes +rolled in blankets, whence emanated snores, betokened that most of the +denizens of the encampment were sleeping the sleep of the healthy and +the just. The murmur of voices, however, with now and then an airy +feminine laugh from the Winthrops' side of the corral, told that some at +any rate were keeping late hours. + +"Say, Bill, I conclude I'll git from here." + +No change of expression came into the speaker's face. Nor did he even +glance at him addressed. The words seem to escape him as the natural +and logical outcome of a train of thought. + +"Right, old pard. I'm with you there. Where'll you light out for?" + +"I think I'll go to Red Cloud's village and see what's on. Perhaps look +in upon Sitting Bull or Mahto-sapa on the way." + +"There I ain't with you," answered the scout decisively. "Better leave +the reds alone just now. Haven't you been shooting 'em down like +jack-rabbits around here, and won't they now be bustin' with murderation +to take your hair? No, no." + +"May be. But I want a change, anyway. So I'm for looking up that +_placer_ on upper Burntwood Creek. The troops won't molest us this +time, because all the miners'll have left. Besides all available +cavalry will be told off against Sitting Bull." + +"It's strange that Mr Vipan hasn't been near us all day," Mrs Winthrop +was saying. "But I suppose he'll clear out as suddenly as he came. +These Western men are queer folks, and that's a fact." + +"Vipan isn't a Western man," answered the Major, thoughtfully. "And +it's my private opinion he could give a queer account of himself if he +chose. Sometimes I could swear he had been in the Service. However +that's his business, not ours." + +"Well, he might be a little more open with us, anyway, considering the +time we have been together." + +"Just over a week." + +"That's as long as a year out here. But I shall be sorry when he does +leave us--very sorry." + +"May I hope that remark will apply to me, Mrs Winthrop?" said a voice +out of the gloom, as its owner stepped within the firelight circle. +"It's odd how things dovetail, for as a matter of fact I strolled across +for the purpose of taking leave." + +"Oh, how you startled me!" she cried. "Of taking leave? Surely you are +not going to leave us yet, Mr Vipan? Why, we hoped you would accompany +us home, and stay awhile, and have a good time generally. You really +can't go yet. Fred--Yseulte--tell him we won't allow it." + +"Why, most certainly, we won't," began the former, heartily. "Come, +Vipan--your time's your own, you know, and you may just as well do some +hunting out our way as anywhere else." + +"Of course," assented his wife. "But--I know what it is. We have +offended him in some way. Yseulte, what have you done to offend Mr +Vipan? I'm sure I can't call to mind anything." + +"There is no question of offence," protested Vipan. "I am a confirmed +wanderer, you see, Mrs Winthrop--here to-day, away to-morrow. The +country is clear of reds now, and you will no longer need our additional +rifles. If we have rendered you some slight service, I can answer for +it, my partner is as glad as I am myself." + +No man living was less liable to be swayed by caprice than the speaker. +Yet suddenly he became as resolved to remain a little longer, as he had +been a moment before to leave. And this change was brought about by the +most trivial circumstance in the world. While he was speaking, his eyes +had met those of Yseulte Santorex. + +Only for a moment, however. + +When Vipan, in his usual laconic manner, informed his comrade that he +concluded to wait a bit longer, the latter merely remarked, "Right, +pard. Jest as you fancy." But as he rolled over to go to sleep, he +nodded off to the unspoken soliloquy-- + +"It's a rum start--a darn rum start. At his time of life, too! Yes, +sir." + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +IN THE "DUG-OUT." + +Yseulte Santorex was conscious of a new and unwonted sensation. She +felt nervous. + +Yet why should she have felt so, seeing that this was by no means the +first time she had undertaken an expedition _a deux_ under her present +escort? But somehow it seemed to her that his tone had conveyed a +peculiar significance when he suggested this early morning +antelope-stalk at the time of making up his mind to remain. + +It was a lovely morning. The sun was not an hour high, and the air was +delicious. But their success had been _nil_. To account for the +absolute lack of game was a puzzle to Vipan, but it could hardly be the +cause of his constrained taciturnity. + +Yseulte felt nervous. Why had he induced her to come out like this +to-day? Instinctively she felt that he was on the eve of making some +revelation. Was he about to confide to her the history of his past? +Her nervousness deepened as it began to dawn upon her what an +extraordinary fascination this adventurer of the Western Plains, with +his splendid stature and magnificent face, was capable of exercising +over her. A silence had fallen between them. + +"I want you to see this," said Vipan suddenly as they came upon the +ruins of what had once been a strong and substantial building. "It's an +old stage-station which was burnt by the reds in '67." + +There was eloquence in the ruins of the thick and solid walls which even +now stood as high as ten or twelve feet in places, and which were still +spanned by a few charred and blackened beams, like the gaping ribs of a +wrecked ship. The floor was covered with coarse herbage, sprouting +through a layer of _debris_, whence arose that damp, earthy smell which +seems inseparable from ancient buildings of whatever kind. Standing +within this relic of a terrible epoch, Yseulte could not repress a +shudder. What mutilated human remains might they not actually be +walking over? Even in the cheerful daylight the flap of ghostly wings +seemed to waft past her. + +"If these old walls could speak they'd tell a few queer yarns," said her +companion. "Look at these loop-holes. Many a leaden pill have they +sent forth to carry `Mr Lo' to the Happy Hunting-Grounds. I don't know +the exact history of this station, but it's probably that of most others +of the time. A surprise--a stiff fight--along siege in the `dug-out' +when the reds had set the building on fire--then either relief from +outside, or the defenders, reduced by famine or failure of ammunition, +shooting each other to avoid capture and the stake." + +"Horrible!" she answered, with a shiver. "But what is a `dug-out'?" + +"Let's get outside, and I'll tell you all about it. Look--you see that +mound of earth over there," pointing to a round hump about a score of +yards from the building, and rising three or four feet above the ground. +"Well, that is a roof made of earth and stones, and therefore bullet +and fire proof. It is loop-holed on a level with the ground, though +it's so overgrown with buffalo-grass that the holes'll be choked up, I +reckon. This roof covers a circular hole about ten or twelve feet in +diameter, and just high enough for a man to stand up in. It is reached +by a covered way from the main building, and its object was this:--When +the reds were numerous and daring enough they had not much difficulty in +setting the building on fire by throwing torches and blazing arrows on +the roof, just as they threw them into our camp the other day. Then the +stage people got into the `dug-out,' and with plenty of rations and +ammunition could hold their own indefinitely against all comers. The +`dug-out' was pretty nearly an essential adjunct to every stage-station, +and a good many ranches had them as well. And now, if you feel so +disposed, we will try and explore this one, and then it will be time to +start camp-wards." + +She assented eagerly. First going to the mound, the removal of the +overgrowth of grass revealed the loop-holes. + +"It is like looking into the _oubliettes_ of a mediaeval castle," said +Yseulte, striving to peer through the apertures into the blackness +beneath. + +"Now come this way," said her companion, leading the way into the +building once more. + +A moment's scrutiny--then advancing to a corner of the building he +wrenched away great armfuls of the thick overgrowth. A hole stood +revealed--a dark passage slanting down into the earth. + +"Wait here a moment," he said. "I'll go in first and see that the way +is clear." + +The tunnel was straight and smooth. Once inside there was not much +difficulty in getting along. But it suddenly occurred to Vipan that he +might be acting like a fool. What if he were to encounter a snake in +this long-closed-up _oubliette_, or foul air? Well, for the latter, the +matches that he lighted from time to time burnt brightly and clear. For +the former--he was already within the "dug-out" when the thought struck +him. + +He glanced around in the subterranean gloom. It was not unlikely that +the floor of the tomb-like retreat might be strewn with the remains of +its former owners, who had perished miserably by their own hands rather +than fall into the power of their savage foe. But no grim death's-head +glowered at him in the darkness. The place was empty. Quickly he +returned to his companion. + +"It's pretty dark in there," he said. "Think you'd care to undertake +it? It may try your nerves." + +But Yseulte laughingly disclaimed the proprietorship of any such +inconvenient attributes. She was resolved to see as much wild adventure +as she could, she declared. Nevertheless, when she found herself buried +in the earthy darkness as she crawled at her companion's heels, she +could not feel free from an inclination to turn back there and then. + +But when she stood upright within the underground fortress, and her eyes +became accustomed to the half-light, she forgot her misgivings. + +"How ingenious!" she cried, looking first around the earthy cell and +then out through the loop-holes. "Now, let's imagine we are beleaguered +here, and that the savages are wheeling and circling around us. We +could `stand them off'--isn't that the expression?--till next week." + +"And then if nobody came to get us out of our fix next week?" + +"Oh, then we could hold out until the week after." + +"You think that would be fun, eh?" + +"Of course," she answered, her eyes dancing with glee in response to his +queer half-smile. + +"H'm. Well I'm very glad there's no chance of your undergoing the +actual experience," he answered drily, turning away to gaze out on the +surrounding country, but really that she should not see the expression +that swept across his face. For it had come to this. Rupert Vipan-- +adventurer, renegade, freebooter--a stranger, for many a year, to any +softening or tender feeling--a man, too, who had already attained middle +age--thought, as he listened to her words, how willingly he would give +the remainder of his life for just that experience. To be besieged here +for days with this girl--only they two, all alone together--himself her +sole protector, with a violent and horrible death at the end of it, he +admitted at that moment would be to him Paradise. Yet a consciousness +of the absurdity of the idea struck him even then. Who was he in her +eyes, in the eyes of those around her, her friends and protectors? An +unknown adventurer--a mere commonplace border ruffian. And--at his time +of life, too! + +"Were you ever besieged in one of these places?" asked Yseulte. + +Her voice recalled him to himself. + +"Once," he answered. "In '67, on the Smoky Hill route, four stagemen +and myself. The reds burnt us out the first night, and we got into the +dug-out. It was wearisome work, for they preserved a most respectful +distance once we were down there. They wouldn't haul off, though. So +one man kept a look-out at the loop-holes, while the rest of us played +poker or varied the tedium by swapping lies." + +"Doing what?" + +"Oh, exchanging `experiences.' Tall twisters some of them were, too. +Well, by the third night we got so sick of it that we made up our minds +to try and quit. The reds were still hanging around. We needn't have, +for we had plenty of rations and ammunition, but the business was +becoming so intolerably monotonous. Well, we started, and the upshot +was that out of the five, three of us fell in with a cavalry patrol the +next evening, having dodged the reds all day, each of us with an arrow +or two stuck more or less badly into him, and the Cheyennes went home +with a brace of new scalps. Otherwise the affair was tame enough." + +"Tame, indeed? But you tell it rather tamely. Now, how did the Indians +first come to attack you? You left that out." + +"Did I? Oh, well, I happened to discover their propinquity, and +concluded to warn the stage people. The red brother divined my +intention afar off, and came for me--and them." + +"You ought to be called the Providence of the Plains," she said, with a +laugh that belied the seriousness of her face. "There, I christen you +that on the spot." + +"That would be a good joke to tell them over in Henniker City! But to +be serious, in these latter days I never go out of my way to spoil the +red brother's fun. None of my business, any way." + +"But you made an exception in favour of us. I don't believe you are +talking seriously at all." + +"You don't?" he echoed, turning suddenly upon her, and there was that in +his tones which awed her into wonder and silence. "You don't? Well, +let me tell you all about it. It was you, and you alone, who saved +every soul in that outfit from the scalping-knife and the stake. I +sighted your party straggling along just anyhow, and I'd already been +watching the Sioux preparing to ambush it. Then while promising my self +a good time lying up there on the butte, and looking on at the fun, I +chanced to catch sight of--you. That decided the business. Instead of +assisting at a grand pitched battle in the novel character of a +spectator, I elected to warn your people. Otherwise--ambling along +haphazard as they were--they'd have lost their head-coverings to a dead +certainty. That is how you saved them." + +"What! You would have done nothing to warn them? I cannot believe it." + +"Wouldn't have lifted a finger. Why should I?" he broke off, almost +angrily. "What interest had I in a few ranchmen and bullwhackers more +or less? They were no more to me than the painted savages lying in wait +to scalp them. Stop, you were going to say something about colour, +religion, and all that sort of thing. But a white skin as often as not +covers as vile a nature as a red one, and for the other consideration +look at its accredited teachers. About as good Christians as the +average Sioux medicine-man, neither better nor worse. It was a blessed +good thing, though, that I had a first rate field-glass on that +occasion." + +She raised her eyes to his as if expecting him to continue, and they +seemed to grow soft and velvety. But he did not continue. Instead, he +had taken a rigid attitude, and appeared to be listening intently. + +"What can you hear?" she began, wonderingly. + +But the words died away on her lips, and she grew ashy pale as her +dilated glance read her companion's face in the gloomy half-light of the +"dug-out." No need to pursue her enquiry now. + +For, audible to both, came a dull muffled roar, distant, faint, but of +unmistakable import. Even Yseulte did not require her companion to +explain the sound. Even she recognised in the long, dropping roll the +heavy discharge of firearms. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. + +A TERRIBLE DRAMA. + +The waggon train had just pulled out. + +Winding along over the wide prairie came the string of great cumbrous +vehicles, their white tilts gleaming in the morning sunshine, the +monotonous creaking of their axles mingling with the cheery shout of the +"bullwhackers" and the crack of whips. Here and there along the line +rode horsemen in twos and threes, some leading spare horses, others +giving a general eye to the progress of the train. Squads of children +chattered and squabbled in the waggons, a shrill feminine voice now and +again rising high in remonstration. Women sat placidly sewing or +knitting--indulging too in gossip--of which perhaps Yseulte Santorex was +the subject more frequently than she would have guessed or approved. +All were in good spirits, for their journey was nearing its end. No +room was there for apprehension either, for they had now reached the +extreme limits of the Sioux range. So far from all minds was any +thought of danger that even scouting precautions had been of late very +much relaxed. + +Thus they journeyed. + +"There's something moving away there on the bluff, Dave," said Winthrop, +suddenly, shading his eyes. + +"D'you say so, Colonel?" answered the cowboy, who with his employer and +mate was riding some little way ahead of the train. "Likely enough it's +Smokestack Bill coming back. He started off in that direction before +daybreak to hunt." + +They were skirting a range of low round-topped bluffs, on one of which +had appeared the object which attracted Winthrop's attention. + +"It's gone now," said the latter, still gazing intently. "I could have +sworn it was somebody's head." + +"Oh, thunder! Look!" said the cowboy, quickly reining in his horse with +a jerk. + +Well might even his stout heart--the heart of every soul in that +company--die away. For the crest of the bluff was by magic alive with +mounted figures. A great sheet of flame burst forth, and amid the +deafening crash of the volley a storm of leaden missiles whizzed and +hummed around the ears of the party. Oregon Dave had uttered his last +words. He threw up his arms with a stiffening jerk, and toppled heavily +from his saddle. + +Then followed a scene of indescribable terror and confusion. Rending +the air with their shrill, vibrating war-whoop, a vast crowd of painted +horsemen swooped down in full charge upon the doomed and demoralised +whites. Flinging themselves behind their trained steeds, the Sioux +delivered their fire with deadly effect, then, recovering themselves in +the saddle with cat-like agility, they rode in among their writhing, +shrieking victims, spearing and tomahawking right and left. Perfectly +mad with terror, the draught animals stampeded. Waggons were +overturned, and their inmates flung screaming to the ground, or crushed +and mangled beneath the wreckage. + +The surprise was complete; the demoralisation perfect. Utterly +panic-stricken, helpless with dismay, men allowed themselves to be cut +down without offering a shadow of resistance. Apart from the terror +inspired by the suddenness of the onslaught, there was literally not a +minute of time wherein to mass together and strike a blow in defence. +Even the privilege of selling their lives dearly was denied these doomed +ones. + +The waggon train, pulled out at its full length, offered an easy prey, +and along this line, after the first and fatal charge, the warriors, +breaking up into groups, urged their fleet ponies; shooting down the +wretched emigrants with their revolvers, and ruthlessly spearing such +few who, being wounded, instinctively tried to crawl away. Whooping, +yelling, whistling, brandishing their weapons, they strove to increase +the terror of the maddened teams, who, unable to break loose, upset the +vehicles wholesale. They goaded the frenzied animals with their +lance-points, laughing like fiends if the wheels passed over the bodies +of any of the inmates thrown out or trying to escape; and once when a +whole family, driven wild with terror, instinctively flung themselves +from the creaking, swaying vehicle, which, upsetting at that moment, +crushed mother and children alike in a horrible mangled heap beneath the +splintering wreckage, the glee of the savages knew no bounds. + +It was all over in a moment. Not a man was left standing--not a man +with power in him to strike another blow. All had been slain or were +lying wounded unto death. All? Stay! All save one. + +Winthrop, alone out of all that outfit, was untouched. But he had +better have been dead. His wife! Oh, good God! For her to fall into +the power of these fiends! + +There was the light horse waggon; but between himself and it already +surged a crowd of skimming warriors. Many a piece was aimed at him-- +many a bullet sang about his ears, but still he went unscathed. + +Spurring his horse, straight for the waggon he went--straight into the +thick of the yelling, whirling crowd. Already, searing his ears like +molten lead, rose the piercing shrieks of miserable women writhing +beneath the scalping-knife, or struggling in the outraging grasp of the +victorious barbarians. He sees a number of small bodies flung high into +the air--even marks the piteous terror in the faces of the wretched +little infants as they fall, to be caught dexterously on the bright +lance-points extended to receive them, and the laughing yells of the +painted fiends as the warm blood spurts forth and falls in jets upon +their hands and persons. All this passes before his eyes and ears as a +vision of hell, and more than one of those fierce and ruthless +assailants deftly turns his horse away rather than face the awful fury +of despair blazing from his livid countenance. One after another falls +before his revolver. A moment more and he will reach his wife. Then +they will both die together by his own hand. + +The crowd of whirling centaurs seems to give way before him, and with +his eye upon his goal he spurs between their ranks. But a roar of +mocking laughter greets his ears. + +The canvas curtains of the waggon-tilt part, and a great savage, +hideously painted, springs forth, uttering an exultant whoop as he +brandishes something in the air. It is a scalp--the blood trickling +freely down the long, shining, silky tress. + +The whoop dies in the Indian's throat. Winthrop's ball has sped true. +His wife's slayer falls heavily, still grasping in the locked grip of +death the relic of the murdered victim. Yet, grim as it may seem, the +murderer really deserves the gratitude of both. Then a thumping blow on +the arm sends his pistol flying out of his hand. + +"How! white Colonel," says a gruff voice at his side. "How! +Crow-Scalper big chief. White scalp damn better nor `chuck.' How?" + +Grinning with delight, the gigantic warrior extended his hand in the +most friendly fashion; with difficulty curbing the plunges of his +excited steed. He felt sure of his prey now. + +Not yet. + +Quick as thought, Winthrop had whipped out another pistol--a Derringer. + +But for a timely swerve, Crow-Scalper would have been sent straight to +his fathers. Then thinking things had gone far enough, the chief +pointed his revolver and shot the unfortunate Englishman dead. + +It was all over in a moment--the firing and the din, the shrieks of +tortured women, the dying groans of mortally-wounded men--over in an +infinitely shorter time than it takes to narrate. Not a man was left +alive; and already many a corpse lay where it had fallen, stripped and +gory, a hideous mangled object in the barbarous mutilation which it had +undergone. Some of the Indians were busy looting the waggons. Others, +scattered far and wide over the plain, were in pursuit of the fleeing +animals, which had stampeded in every direction. All were in the +wildest degree of excitement and exultation. They had mastered the +outfit at a stroke, with the loss of only three warriors. They had +wiped out their former defeat, and had reaped a rich harvest of scalps. +They accordingly set to work to make merry over their plunder. + +Over the worst of what followed we will draw a veil. There were females +in that doomed waggon train. Where these are concerned the red man, in +his hour of victory, is the most brutal, the most ungovernable fiend in +the world. + +Singing, dancing, feasting, whooping, the barbarians kept up their +hideous orgie. Then in furtherance of a new amusement a number of them +began to pile together the beams and planks of the wrecked waggons until +a huge heap was formed, in shape something like a rough kiln. Up to +this structure were dragged about a dozen bodies. + +Dead bodies? No; living. + +Men wounded unto helplessness and death, yet still with just the spark +of life in them. Women, two or three, too elderly or unattractive to +fulfil the terrible fate invariably befalling the female captive of the +ruthless red man. Some of the elder children who had not been speared +were also there. All these, bound and helpless, were first deliberately +scalped, then flung inside the improvised kiln. Fire was applied. + +Drowning the appalling shrieks of their miserable victims in shrill +peals of laughter, the whole array of painted and feathered fiends +danced and circled around the blazing pyre in an ecstasy of glee. For +upwards of an hour this frightful scene continued. Then when the +anguish of the tortured victims had sunk in death, the savages gathered +up their spoils and departed, refraining from setting fire to any more +of the wreckage lest the too conspicuous sign of their bloody work +should by its volume be visible at a greater distance than they desired. + +One more tragedy of the wild and blood-stained West. A pack of coyotes, +snapping and snarling over their meal of mangled and defaced corpses, +whose scalpless skulls shone red and clotted in the sunlight. A cloud +of wheeling, soaring vultures, a few piles of charred and shattered +wreckage, and many an oozy, shining pool of gore. One more frightful +massacre. One more complete and ruthless holocaust to the unquenchable +vendetta ever burning between the unsparing red man and his hated and +despised foe, the invading white. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. + +THERMOPYLAE. + +"The camp is attacked," said Yseulte, not even pausing to brush off the +dust which had gathered upon her clothing during her passage into and +out of the "dug-out." + +"I'm afraid so." + +Both stood eagerly listening. Again came the long, crackling roll, this +time more dropping and desultory, also more distinct than when they +first heard it underground. + +"How will it end?" she asked. + +Their glances met. In the grave and serious expression of her +companion's face Yseulte read the worst. + +"We must hope for the best. Meanwhile, my first care must be for your +safety, so we must leave this spot at once. See what comes of allowing +oneself to get careless. As a matter of fact, we are off the Sioux +range, and reckoning on that we haven't been scouting so carefully as we +ought." + +"When can we return to the camp?" + +"Not a moment before dark," he replied, wondering if she knew that the +chances were a hundred to one against there being any camp to return to. +For to his experienced mind the situation was patent. That sudden and +heavy fusillade meant a numerous war-party. It also meant a surprise. +Further, and worst of all, he realised that at the time it took place +the waggon train would have pulled out, in which event the Indians would +not allow it time to corral. Again, the firing had completely ceased, +which meant that one of two things had happened. Either the assailants +had been beaten off; which was hardly likely within such a short space +of time. Or they had carried the whole outfit at the first surprise; +and this he decided was almost certain. But there was no need to break +the terrible news to his companion. + +"Can we not wait here?" said the latter. "We could retire into the +`dug-out' if they discovered us." + +"How very near your ideal of fun has come to being realised!" was the +reply, with a shadow of a smile. "No, we should stand no chance." + +It did not escape Yseulte that, previous to starting, her escort gave a +quick, careful look to her saddlery and girths, pausing to tighten the +latter, and her heart sank with a chill and direful foreboding. + +"You see, it's this way," continued Vipan. "It is almost certain that +the war-party is a Sioux one, probably our old friends Crow-Scalper and +Mountain Cat. This is the extreme western edge of the Sioux range, +consequently when the reds quit the scrimmage they are bound to travel +north or north-east. So we must put as much space as we can between us +and them in the contrary direction. For the same reason, if your +friends have whipped them--" + +He paused abruptly, but it was too late. She turned to him, her eyes +dilating with horror. + +"_If_! Oh, tell me the truth. You think they have no chance?" + +"One can but hope for the best." She turned her face away, and the +tears fell thick and fast. She could hardly realise it. Her dear +friends, under whose protection she had travelled many and many a day, +in whose companionship she had been initiated into the delights of this +wild new land, and also its perils, now massacred; even at that moment, +perhaps, falling beneath the merciless blows of these bloodthirsty +savages. She could hardly realise it. Her mind felt numb. Even the +sense of her own peril failed to come home to her. + +But her companion realised it to the full. This was no time to think of +anything but how to neglect no possible means of effecting her safety, +yet he could not banish the thrill of triumph which the thought inspired +in him that her fate, her very life, was absolutely in his hands. +Suddenly she turned to him. The black drop of suspicion was corroding +her mind. + +"Why did you bring me away from them all this morning?" she said, +speaking quickly and in a hard tone. "Did you _know_ what was going to +happen?" + +The adventurer's face went ashy white. Even she could entertain such +suspicions! + +"You forget, Miss Santorex. My tried and trusted friend of years is in +that outfit. Should I be likely to sell his scalp, even if I sold those +of _your_ friends?" + +There was a savour of contempt in the cold incisiveness of his tone that +went to her heart. What is baser than the sin of ingratitude? Did she +not owe her life--and more than her life--to this man already, and now +to be flinging her pitiable and unworthy suspicions at him! Would she +ever recover his good opinion again? + +"Forgive me!" she cried. "Forgive me! I hardly knew what I was +saying." And she burst into tears. Even yet she would hardly believe +but that her fellow-travellers would succeed in holding their own. + +Young though the day was, the torrid rays of the sun blazed fiercely +down upon the great plains. Some distance in front rose a rugged ridge, +almost precipitous. The only passage through this for many miles was a +narrow canon--a mere cleft. Beyond lay miles and miles of +heavily-timbered ravines, and for this welcome shelter Vipan was making. +This plan he explained to his companion. + +"Look! What are those?" she cried, growing suddenly eager. "Indians? +No. Wild horses? I didn't know there were any wild horses in these +parts." + +Save for a scattered line of brush here and there, the great plains +until they should reach the defile above referred to were treeless, and +presented a succession of gentle undulations. Nearly a mile distant, +seeming to emerge from one of these belts of brush, careering along in a +straggling, irregular line converging obliquely with the path of the two +riders, came a large herd of ponies. It almost looked as if the latter +were bent on joining them. + +Yseulte did not see the change in her companion's face, so intent was +she on watching the ponies. + +"Get your horse into a gallop at once, but keep him well in hand," he +said. But before she could turn to him, startled, alarmed by the +significance of his tone, the sudden and appalling metamorphosis which +came over the scene nearly caused her to fall unnerved from her saddle. +By magic, upon the back of each riderless steed there started an upright +figure, and, splitting the stillness of the morning air with its loud +fiendish quaver, the hideous war-whoop went up from the throats of half +a hundred painted and feathered warriors, who, brandishing their weapons +and keeping up one long, unbroken, and exultant yell, skimmed over the +plain, sure of their prey. + +"Keep quite cool, and don't look back," he said. "We've got to reach +that canon before they do--and we shall. The war-pony that can overhaul +old Satanta when he's in average working order has yet to be built." + +So far good, so far true. But the same would not precisely hold good of +Yseulte's palfrey, which steed, though showy, was not much above the +average in pace or staying power. + +The race was literally one for life, and the pace was terrific. To the +girl it seemed like some fearful dream. Sky and earth, the great +mountain rampart reared up in front, all blended together in rocking +confusion during that mad race. The yells of the pursuing barbarians +sounded horribly nearer, and the pursued could almost hear the whistle +of their uncouth trappings as they streamed out on the breeze. + +Vipan, reaching over, lashed her horse with a thong which he detached +from his saddle. The animal sprang forward, but the spurt was only +momentary. And the war-ponies were horribly fresh. + +Nearer, nearer. The great rock walls dominating the entrance to the +pass loomed up large and distinct. Again he glanced back at the +pursuers. Yes, they were gaining. It was more a race than a pursuit-- +the goal that grim rock-bound pass. Even should the fugitives reach it, +what then? Their chances would still be of the slenderest. + +Ah, the horror of it! Yseulte, white to the lips, kept her seat by an +effort of will, her heart melting with deadly fear. Her companion, +fully determined she should never fall alive into the hands of the +savages, held his pistol ready, first for them, then for her, his heart +burning with bitter curses on his own blind and besotted negligence. It +was too late now. They were to founder in sight of land. Ah, the +bitterness of it! + +Bang! + +The whiz of a bullet, simultaneously with a puff of blue smoke--this +time in front. Vipan ground his teeth. There was no escape, they were +between two fires. + +But the regular thunder of the pursuing hoofs seemed to undergo a +change. What did it mean? + +Bang! + +Then a glance over his shoulder told him that as the second ball came +whizzing into their midst, the painted warriors had swerved, throwing +themselves on the further side of their horses. + +Only for a moment, though. Realising that this new enemy represented +but a single unit, they hurled themselves forward with redoubled ardour, +yelling hideously. + +"The gulch, pardner! Streak for the gulch!" sung out a stentorian +voice; and sending another bullet among the on-rushing redskins, this +time with effect, Smokestack Bill kicked up his horse, which had been +lying prone, and in half a minute was flying side by side with his +friend. + +Short though this check had been, yet it had given them a momentary +advantage. But, now, as they neared the mouth of the pass, it became +clear to these two experienced Indian fighters that one of them must +give his life for the rest. + +"Take the young lady on," said the scout. "You're in it together, and +must get out of it together. Reckon I'll stand them back long enough +for you to strike cover." + +Here was a temptation. Vipan knew well that it was so. A short ten +minutes would save her--would save them both. His friend could hold the +bloodthirsty savages in check for more than that. A struggle raged +within him--a bitter struggle--but he conquered. + +"No, no, old pard. I'm the man to stay," he answered, slipping from his +saddle, for they were now at the entrance of the pass. "Good-bye. Take +her in safe." + +It was no time for talking. The pursuers, rendered tenfold more daring +by the prospect of the most coveted prize of all--a white woman--were +almost on their heels, the rocks re-echoing their exultant yells. +Yseulte's horse, maddened with terror and stimulated by a shower of +blows from the scout, bounded forward at a tearing gallop. + +"Wait, wait! We cannot leave him like this! We must turn back!" she +cried, breathless, but unable to control her steed, which was stampeding +as though all the Sioux in the North-West were setting fire to its tail. + +"Help me! Help me to turn back!" she cried, in a perfect frenzy of +despair. "We have deserted him--left him to die!" + +Left alone, the bold adventurer felt no longer any hope, but in its +stead he was conscious of a wild elation. His death would purchase +_her_ safety, and death was nothing in itself, but every moment gained +was of paramount importance. Carefully he drew a bead on the charging +warriors and fired. A pony fell. Another rapid shot. This time a +human victim. This stopped their headlong rush, and still wheeling in +circles they hesitated to come nearer. + +He glanced around. Overhead, the slopes, almost precipitous, offered +many a possible hiding-place. He might even escape--but he was not +there for that. He was there to hold back the enemy--till night, if +necessary. + +The day wore on. The Sioux, who had drawn off to a distance, seemed in +no mood to renew the attack. They were resting their ponies. + +Suddenly he saw a score of them leap on horseback again and ride rapidly +away. What could this mean? + +A shadow fell between him and the light. There was a hurtling sound--a +crash--and before he could turn or look up, the whole world was blotted +out in a stunning, roaring, heaving sea of space. Then faintness, +oblivion, death. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY. + +"I WOULD RATHER HAVE DIED WITH HIM." + +Not till they had covered at least two miles could Yseulte Santorex +regain the slightest control over her recalcitrant steed. In fact, in +her fatigue and nervousness it was as much as ever she could do to keep +her seat at all. At length, panting and breathless, she reined in and +turned round upon the scout, who had kept close upon her pony's heels. + +"I am going back," she cried, her great eyes flashing with anger and +contempt. "I would sooner die than desert a--a friend." + +"Not to be done, miss," was the quiet answer. "Vipan said to me the +last thing--`Bill, on your life take her safe in.' And on my life I +will. You bet." + +Yseulte looked at him again. A thought struck her and she seemed to +waver. + +"See here, miss," went on the scout. "Vipan and I have hunted and +trapped and prospected together and stood off the reds a goodish number +of years. We are pardners, we are, and if he entrusts me with an +undertaking of this kind, I've got to see it through. Same thing with +him. So the sooner we reach Fort Vigilance, where I'm going to take +you, and you're safe among the people there, the sooner I shall be able +to double back and try what can be done for Vipan." + +"Oh, I never thought of that. Pray do not let us lose a moment." + +"So. That's reasonable. You see, miss, it's this way. Women are +terrible dead-weights when it comes to fightin' Indians. The +varmints'll risk more for a white woman than for all the scalps and +plunder in this Territory rolled together. No. Like enough, now that +you're snug away, they'll turn round and give up my pard as `bad +medicine.' I reckon there ain't a man between Texas and the British +line knows Indians better than my pardner. One day he's fighting 'em, +another day he's smokin' in their lodges. He knows 'em, he does." + +With this she was forced to be content. + +Loyalty to his friend thus moved him to reassure her, but, as a matter +of fact, the honest scout felt rather bitter towards this girl. He +blamed her entirely for his comrade's peril. He had narrowly watched +that comrade of late, and accurately gauged the state of the latter's +feelings. Why had this fine lady come out there and played the fool +with his comrade--the man with whom he had hunted and trapped for +years--with whom he had fought shoulder to shoulder in many a fierce +scrimmage with white or red enemies? They had stood by each other +through thick and thin, and now this English girl had come in the way, +and to satisfy her vanity had sent Vipan to his death--his death, +possibly, amid the ghastly torments of the Indian stake. She would +probably go home again and brag of her "conquest" with a kind of +patronising pity. + +In silence they kept on their way--the scout's watchful glance ever on +the alert. Suddenly his companion's voice aroused him from the +intensity of his vigilance. He started. + +"Tell me," she said. "What chance is there of rescuing your friend?" + +Her tone was so calm, so self-possessed, that in spite of the deathly +pallor of her face it deceived the worthy scout. He felt hard as iron +towards her. + +"About as much chance, I judge, as I have of being elected President," +he replied, gruffly. "And now I want you to know this--If you hadn't +troubled your dainty head about my pard, he wouldn't be where he is now. +And mind me, if it hadn't been for him, where d'you think you'd be +to-day? You'd be wishing you were dead. You'd be doin' scavenger work +in a Sioux village, leading a dog's life at the hands of every sooty +squaw in the camp--if it hadn't been for Vipan. And now if the Lord +works an almighty miracle and I get my pard clear of the red devils, +maybe you won't say overmuch to him if you meet him--won't be +over-anxious to say you're glad to see him safe and sound again--" + +The speaker pulled up short, staring blankly at her. She had burst into +a wild storm of sobs. + +"You are unjust. Oh, God! Oh, God! send him back to me!" Then turning +to the dumbfoundered scout, and controlling herself to speak firmly: +"Listen. If it would save his life I would cheerfully undergo death at +this moment. I would suffer the slow fire or anything. Think what you +like of me--God knows I speak the truth." + +"Say that again, miss," stammered the other. "Well, I ask your pardon. +I allow I don't know shucks of the ways of women. If it's to be done, +my pard'll be brought out. What shall I tell him if so be I find him?" +he added, as if struck with a bright idea. + +"Tell him," and her voice shook with a tenderness she now no longer +cared to conceal, "tell him to come straight to me wherever I am. And +if--ah, I cannot think of it--I would rather have died with him!" + +Thus the secret of her tortured heart escaped her in that cry of +anguish; not to a sister woman, but to the rough and weather-beaten +frontiersman who was piloting her across that grim and peril-haunted +wilderness. + +Again she relapsed into silence, and her escort noted that her tears +were falling thick and fast. Suddenly she asked about the attack upon +the waggon train. + +Smokestack Bill felt in a quandary. She had gone through so much +already, she still had need of all her strength, all her nerve, before +she should reach the distant frontier post to which he was guiding her. +What would happen if he were to tell her the horrible news that they two +were the sole survivors of the ill-fated caravan; that he owed his +escape from the hideous massacre to the same cause as she did her own-- +accidental absence? He felt unequal to the task, and evaded the +necessity of replying by the invention of a somewhat cowardly pretext, +to wit, the imperative advisability of preserving silence as far as +possible. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. + +A RACE FOR--DEATH. + +When Vipan recovered consciousness he found himself unable to stir. A +lariat rope was tightly coiled around him from head to foot, binding his +arms to his sides, and rendering him as helpless as a log. + +He tried to move, but an acute pain shooting through his head seemed to +crush him again, and he half closed his eyes, stunned and confused. + +A dark face peered into his. A tall Indian was bending over him. In +the grim painted lineaments he recognised, to his astonishment, the +countenance of War Wolf. + +"Ha, Golden Face. You feel better now? Good! We will start." + +He made no reply. Glancing around him, he noted that the warriors were +making their preparations to move. The ponies, which had been grazing +all ready saddled, were caught; and at a sign from War Wolf two of the +Indians proceeded to loosen the lariat rope in such wise as to allow him +the use of his legs. + +"Now, mount," said one of them, as his fellow led a pony alongside of +the captive, who surveyed his steed designate with a dubious air. + +"That sheep isn't up to my weight," he said. + +"He will carry you as far as needful," was the reply, ominous in its +grim brevity. "Quick, mount." + +As he turned to obey a wild thought rushed through the adventurer's +mind. Could he not seize the opportunity to make a dash for it? His +wily guards must have read his thoughts, for, catching his eye, they +shook their heads with a ferocious grin. Then with a raw hide thong +they secured their prisoner's feet beneath the horse's belly, and one of +them winding the end of the lariat rope which served as a bridle round +his hand, the band started. + +Ever with a keen eye to opportunity, Vipan noted two things--one that +the band had undergone diminution by at least half its original number, +the other that they were travelling almost due north-east. The halt had +been made not many miles from the fatal gorge, whose frowning entrance +he could just see as he turned his head. + +No one could be more thoroughly aware than himself of the desperate +strait into which he had fallen. He had witnessed more than one +instance of men taking their own lives at the last critical moment to +avoid capture and its inevitable sequel, a lingering death amid tortures +too horrible to name. And now even that alternative was denied to him. +The opportunity was past and gone. + +"Ha, Golden Face," said War Wolf, ranging his horse alongside his +prisoner. "You thought I should have been hung before this." + +"Well, yes, I did. How did you manage to get clear?" + +Then the savage, in fits of laughter, narrated all that had befallen him +at Fort Price; how, after a time, he had been allowed a certain amount +of guarded liberty, and how he had deftly managed to disarm the sentry +and make his escape. It was a bold exploit, and so his listener +candidly told him. + +"Ha!" cried the warrior, chuckling and swelling with inflated vanity, "I +am a man. Even the stone walls of the Mehneaska cannot hold me. I +laugh, and down they go!" + +Several of the Indians gathered around, and the conversation became +lively. No one would have thought that this white man in their midst, +with whom they were chatting and laughing so gaily was a prisoner, +doomed to the most barbarous of deaths at their hands. The conversation +turned on his own capture, and, in a nonchalant way, Vipan asked for +particulars of that feat. + +"Ha! Burnt Shoes is not a fool," said War Wolf. "He is my brother." + +The warrior named grinned, and at a word from the chief he narrated how +he had slipped away from the main body, and, unobserved by the prisoner, +had gained the rocks over the latter's head. When he was ready he had +signalled to his fellows, who had made that unexpected move in order to +fix the prisoner's attention. He could easily have shot his enemy, but +the temptation to take him alive was great. Therefore, seeing a +convenient boulder handy, he had hurled it upon his enemy's head, with +the most satisfactory result to himself and his tribesmen. + +"But," added this candid young barbarian, "your scalp will be mine, +anyhow." + +Vipan took no notice of this remark. He knew the speaker by sight apart +from having recognised him as War Wolfs brother. Then he asked what had +become of Satanta. + +Here the Indians looked foolish, at least most of them did, while those +who did not, unmercifully chaffed their companions. It came out that +the black steed objected to the new ownership which it was purposed to +assert over him, and watching his opportunity, which occurred while his +saddle was being changed during the recent halt, had concluded to part +company with the band. In a word, he had started off as fast as his +legs could carry him. But several warriors had gone after him, added +the speaker. + +"They are after a shooting star, then," said Satanta's lawful owner. +"They had the best horse in the North-West, and they have let him slip +through their hands." + +The party had been travelling at a rapid pace, and now the day was +merging into twilight. Despatching pickets to neighbouring heights, the +savages prepared for a good long halt. + +Vipan was released from his steed, and allowed to seat himself upon the +ground by the side of a fire that had been built. His captors crowded +round him, laughing and talking in the friendliest fashion, and, noting +it, his heart sank within him. + +And who shall blame him? Bound and helpless, he knew the moment had +come for putting him to the most hellish tortures. He read it in the +grim, painted visages closing him in on every side. And between those +ruthless demon-faces he beheld in the background a sight whose meaning +he knew but too well. + +Two Indians were busy driving strong pegs into the ground at intervals +of several feet apart. + +Then he did a strange thing. Quick as thought, and without any warning, +he spat full into War Wolfs face. + +With a yell of rage, the young chief, starting back, swung his tomahawk +in the air. In another instant the prisoner would have gained his wish. +He intended to exasperate the Indian into killing him on the spot. + +But the others were wider awake. Seizing their chiefs arm, a couple of +bystanders succeeded in arresting the blow. Then half-a-dozen sinewy +warriors flinging themselves upon Vipan began to drag him towards the +pegs aforesaid. + +A barbarity popular among the Plains' tribes is that known as "staking +out." The wretched captive is stripped and thrown on his back. Each +hand and foot is then fastened to a peg driven firmly into the ground at +the necessary distance apart. Thus spread-eagled, he is powerless to +stir, beyond a limited wriggle. Then the fun begins, and when is +remembered the hideous agony that a handful of live coals stacked +against the soles of a man's feet alone is warranted to produce, it +follows that the amount of burning at the disposal of the red demons +before death mercifully delivers the victim from their power is +practically unlimited. In fact, their hellish sport may be bounded not +by hours, but even by days. They generally begin by roasting the +tenderest parts of the body, finally piling up the fire all over the +stomach and chest of the sufferer. + +Vipan, aware of the fate in store for him, seized his opportunity. +While the savages were slightly relaxing their grasp in order to pull +off his clothes, he made one stupendous effort. Cramped as he was, his +herculean strength stood him in good stead. A couple of violent kicks +in the stomach sent as many warriors to the earth gasping, and dragging +others with them in their fall. Like a thunderbolt he dashed through +the group, and before his enemies had recovered from their confusion he +was many rods away, speeding down the hillside like a deer. + +A frightful yell went up from the startled redskins. A score of rifles +covered the flying fugitive, but a peremptory word from War Wolf knocked +them up. Their prisoner was safe enough, no need to spoil sport by +killing him. Though his legs where free, his arms were bound. A rush +was made for the ponies. The plain was open for miles and miles. In +five minutes they would retake him with ease. + +Of this Vipan was only too well aware. The chances of escape had never +entered into his calculations when he made his wild attempt. On foot +and unbound he might have distanced the savages, but what chance had he +against their ponies? A water-hole lay in the bottom, a mile away. He +would strive to reach this, and, bound as he was, an easy death by +drowning would be the alternative to hours of fiery torment. + +And as he ran it seemed to the hunted man that this was no real +occurrence--only a horrid nightmare. The events of a lifetime shot +through his mind. Then the thunder of flying hoofs behind. + +He glanced over his shoulder. Would he reach the water? Ah, never did +hunted man strain every nerve and muscle for life as did this one with +death before him as the prize. + +Nearer! The water-hole gleams cool and inviting. A hundred yards--then +fifty. The roar and thunder of hoofs is in his ears. It stuns him. +Now for the final leap. Then death! Twenty steps more. He poises +himself for the final spring. But it is not to be. The coil of a lazo +has settled around him; he is jerked from his feet, dragged back a dozen +yards--stunned, half senseless. + +Then, as he wearily opens his eyes, doubtful whether he is dead or +alive, he finds himself in the midst of a crowd of Indians, all mounted +save the half-dozen who have run forward to secure him. With a +sensation of surprise, his glance wanders amid the sea of painted +visages--of surprise because many of them are known to him, and were +certainly not among the band that effected his capture. And--can he +believe his ears?--the chief of the party, a fine martial-looking +warrior, is giving instructions that his bonds shall be cut. + +"Wagh!" ejaculated the latter, with the ghost of a smile. "You have +fallen upon rough times, Golden Face." + +Then the prisoner, once more a free man, looked up at the speaker and +knew that he was safe. He recognised Mahto-sapa. + +And now a great hubbub arose as War Wolf and his party rode up, and +angrily demanded their prisoner, emphasising their request by making a +dash at the latter. But at a sign from the chief a dozen warriors +placed themselves in front of Vipan. + +Then the debate began to wax very breezy, and small wonder. By every +right of immemorial custom and usage, the late prisoner was absolutely +their property, and had they not been "choused" out of a rare and +exquisitely enjoyable form of sport? Vipan, though too far off to hear +all that was being said, caught the name "Tatanka-yotanka" as mentioned +pretty frequently, and it seemed to have the effect of a damper on War +Wolf. That impulsive savage, having indulged in a good deal of swagger, +ended by sullenly accepting the situation. There is not much +hard-and-fast law among Indians in a matter of this kind. If the +redoubted war-chief of the Minneconjou clan, surrounded by a large armed +force, chose to retain half-a-dozen prisoners, War Wolf, who was not, +properly speaking, a chief at all, had no redress, save such as he might +attain by force of arms. But his following numbered barely thirty +warriors, whereas Mahto-sapa was at the head of fully five times that +number. + +Dismounting, the Minneconjou chief gravely sat down upon the ground. +Then filling his pipe, and applying a light to the bowl, he handed it to +Vipan without a word. In silence the latter received it, and after a +few puffs handed it back. + +"What was said just now about Sitting Bull?" he enquired at length. + +"This. I have come out to look for you, Golden Face. Sitting Bull is +anxious that you should visit him." + +"Oho, I begin to see," said the adventurer to himself, as he lazily +watched his late captors draw their ponies out of the crowd and ride +sullenly away. + +Now, in the debate just held, his rescuer had justified his action on +twofold ground. War Wolf having allowed his prisoner to escape had +forfeited all claim to him; secondly, the said prisoner, being an +Englishman, his presence was required by Sitting Bull, the renowned +chief of the hostiles, for political purposes. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. + +THE VILLAGE OF THE HOSTILES. + +All night long--with a brief halt towards morning--the war-party, with +Vipan in its midst, pushed forward at a rapid pace. + +The sun rose. They had passed the intricate defiles of the Bad Lands, +and were now threading the rugged and broken country beyond. Piled in +chaotic confusion, the great peaks leaning towards each other, or split +and riven as by a titanic wedge, caught the first red glow upon their +iron faces. Dark pinnacles soaring aloft, huge and forbidding, stood in +the first delicate flush like graceful minarets; and here and there +through a vista of falling slopes, the striped and fantastic face of a +_mesa_ would come into view, seamed with blue and black and red, +according to the varying strata of its soft and ever-crumbling +formation. A hundred bizarre shapes reared their heads around. Here a +clean rock shaft, so even and perpendicular in its towering symmetry +that it seemed impossible to have been planned by the hand of Nature +alone, standing side by side with some hugely grotesque representation +of a head, changing from animal to human with every fresh point of view, +so distorted yet so real, so hideous and repelling as to suggest +involuntary thoughts of a demon-guarded land. There a black and yawning +fissure whose polished sides would hardly seem to afford resting-place +for the eyrie of yon great war-eagle soaring high above, his plumage +gleaming in the lustre of the new-born day. Dark, cedar-clad gorges +rent the mountain sides, and on the nearer slopes the flash of something +white through the tall, straight stems of the spruce firs showed where a +deer, alarmed by this redoubtable inroad on his early grazing ground, +had darted away, with a whisk of his white "flag." + +And in thorough keeping with its surroundings was the aspect of the wild +host, threading its way through these solitudes. A clear, dashing +mountain brook curved and sparkled along a level bottom carpeted with +the greenest of sweet grass, and along this, strung out to the distance +of a mile, cantered group after group of mounted savages, the fantastic +adornments of themselves and their steeds streaming out to the morning +breeze; their waving plumes, and painted faces, their shining weapons +and brilliantly-coloured accoutrements, and the easy grace with which +they sat their steeds as they defiled along the ever-winding gorge, +forming about as striking and wildly picturesque a sight as would be +happened upon, travel we the whole world over. + +All fear of pursuit being now over, the warriors rode anyhow, broken up +into groups or couples as the humour possessed them. Most of them were +chatting and laughing with that ease and light-heartedness which in +their hours of relaxation is characteristic of most savage peoples, a +light-heartedness and freedom from care which renders them akin to +children. Near the rear of the party rode Mahto-sapa and his prisoner, +together with three or four warriors of high rank. + +For that he was such, Vipan himself was not left in any doubt, nor was +there room for any. Though relieved from the indignity of bonds, yet +his arms had not been returned to him, not even a knife. Moreover, the +steed he bestrode was far from being the best in the party. All of +which he had hinted as delicately as possible to the chief. The +latter's reply was characteristic. + +"Patience--Golden Face. It is not we who have taken your weapons; it is +War Wolf and his party. As for horses, my young men are none of them +too well mounted. Besides," added the Indian, a humorous gleam lighting +up his fine face as he noted the other's deprecatory shake of the head, +"besides--Golden Face has shamefully neglected his red brothers since +the Mehneaska waggons came along. Why do they bring beautiful white +girls into a country where the ground is too rough for their tender +feet? No. Have patience. My young men would be more than angry did +you leave them now to go and look after a white woman. She is safe now, +but both she and the Brown Beaver would have fallen into the hands of +War Wolf had you not acted as you did," he continued. "Wagh! Golden +Face, it is not like you to throw away your life for a squaw!" + +The adventurer made no reply, but the other's remark set him thinking. +It left, so to say, an unpleasant taste. He was at an age when most men +have parted with their illusions, and he himself certainly was no +exception. To his keen, cynical nature absolute trust was well-nigh +impossible. Would he ever see Yseulte Santorex again, and even if he +did, would he not be in the same position as before--a king in these +Western wilds, in civilisation a pauper? He knew the world--none +better. It was one thing for this beautiful and refined girl to feel +drawn towards a companion and protector in the midst of the perilous +vicissitudes of Western travel, but that after months of reflection on +her return to safety and comfort she should still continue to think of a +man whose antecedents were doubtful, of whose very identity she was +ignorant, in the face, too, of the opposition of friends and relatives, +was quite another. For long he rode in silence, and his thoughts were +very bitter. + +All day the march continued. That night the Indians, being +comparatively beyond fear of pursuit, camped for a long rest, and +resuming their progress at dawn, towards nightfall reached the bank of a +river. This was immediately forded, and then halting on the opposite +bank the whole band collected together. Then, after a word of +instruction from their chief, the warriors formed into line, and with a +loud and prolonged whoop dashed forward at a brisk canter. + +The shout was answered from some distance ahead, and lo! as by magic, +there sprang up the red glow of many a fire, and among the +thinly-scattered timber bordering the stream tall lodges might be +descried, standing in groups or in long irregular lines, hundreds and +hundreds of them. Then in the gloaming the whole village swarmed with +dusky shapes. Squaws flung down their burdens, or abruptly quitted +their household employments, and, dancing and singing, crowded around to +welcome the returning war-party. Young bucks, eager to know what had +been done in scalps and plunder, turned out by the dozen. Children +yelled and curs barked and howled, and still the ever-increasing crowd +gathered about the returned warriors. + +Suddenly the latter, reining in their ponies, burst into a wild +war-song. It was taken up by the motley crowd following upon their +ponies' heels, and as the savage horsemen, in all the trappings of their +martial bravery, paced at length into the centre of the village, the +shrill, weird chorus echoing from many thousand throats, while the red +light danced and glowed upon plumed crests and burnished weapons rising +above the sea of fierce painted visages, the bold mind of the white +adventurer was filled with admiration as he gazed upon this stirring +picture which for grandeur and awesomeness left nothing to be desired. + +Thus they entered the camp of the hostiles. + +"Listen, Golden Face," said Mahto-sapa, as he spread a buffalo robe for +his guest. "It will not be well to wander in the camp alone." + +"No, I am a prisoner, and unarmed." + +The other smiled slightly, with a significant glance at an old leathern +wallet hanging to the pole. Then he left the lodge. + +The adventurer, following his glance, promptly explored the receptacle. +He found an old single-barrelled pistol and a scalping-knife. The +pistol was capped and loaded. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. + +SITTING BULL. + +The morning after his arrival in the village of the hostiles Vipan was +seated eating his breakfast in the lodge of his host, in company with +the latter and one of his brothers, when the door of the _teepe_ was +darkened, and an Indian entered. + +Now there was nothing in the appearance of this warrior to denote +special rank. His dress was strikingly plain, the beaded blanket thrown +around his shoulders was considerably the worse for wear, not to say +shabby, and his head was adorned with a single eagle quill stuck in the +back of his hair. Yet a glance at the powerful, thickly-built frame, +the deep-set, though penetrating eyes, the square jaw and slightly +pock-marked countenance, and Vipan felt instinctively that this was none +other than the redoubtable war-chief of the hostiles himself. + +With a grunt of salutation, the new arrival sat himself down among the +inmates of the _teepe_, then, without a word, and as a matter of course, +proceeded to help himself out of the three-legged pot containing the +smoking and savoury stew which constituted the repast. Not a word was +spoken, not a question asked, and the four men proceeded with their meal +in silence. + +Tatanka-yotanka, or Sitting Bull, was at that time in the very zenith of +his pride and influence. He represented the fearless and implacable +war-faction in the nation, and in his persistent and uncompromising +hostility to the Americans and the United States Government he differed +from the more diplomatic Red Cloud. As in the case of the latter, +however, Sitting Bull was not born to hereditary chieftainship, yet at +that time the influence he had achieved among his countrymen by his +personal prowess and skilful generalship was so solid and far-reaching +that sagacious and powerful war-chiefs such as Mahto-sapa deemed it +sound policy to co-operate with him; for the authority of a chief among +the Plains tribes, in addition to his prowess in war, depends not a +little on his conformity with the sense and wishes of his tribesmen, and +he who should commit himself unreservedly to a peace policy in +opposition to the desires of his people would soon find himself in the +position of a chief without any adherents. Yet as savages rarely do +things by halves, it followed that however inclined for peace they might +be at first, such chiefs and warriors once they stood committed to war +threw themselves into the prosecution of hostilities with all the ardour +and aggressiveness of their more bloodthirstily disposed brethren. + +Sitting Bull--like many another savage leader--was a shrewd thinker. +The experience of the last campaign had inspired him with profound +contempt for the United States Government. The latter's demands had +then been successfully resisted, and after a sharp and sanguinary +struggle, culminating in the Fort Phil Kearney massacre, the Government +had retired, almost precipitately. The Sioux nation had never been +conquered. The Sioux warriors were as daring and warlike to-day as +then, and were better armed, for they could obtain, and had obtained, +from unscrupulous traders as many weapons of the latest improved +patterns and as much ammunition as they could afford to purchase. The +Government, he reasoned, had not kept faith with them in the matter of +the Black Hills and other sections of their country, then full of white +men; therefore, let the Government look to itself. That the Indian +leader's reasoning was sound according to his lights, was proved by +subsequent events, among them the calamitous massacre of nearly three +hundred brave soldiers, together with one of the most dashing cavalry +officers and successful Indian fighters the United States army has ever +possessed. [Note 1.] But no savage of his race and instincts could be +expected to take into his reckoning the steady tide of immigration +pouring into the American continent from the Old World, for the simple +reason that his conception of the very existence of an Old World was of +so shadowy a nature as to be practically legendary. + +The meal over, each of the three Indians wiped his knife upon his +leggings or the soles of his moccasins with a grunt of satisfaction. +Then the inevitable pipe was filled, lighted, and duly passed round. + +Vipan, thoroughly restored by a good night's rest, and with perfect +confidence in himself, looked forward to the keen skirmish of wits which +was at hand, and in which the slightest failure in coolness and wariness +might cost him his life, with feelings not far short of downright +enjoyment. + +After the pipe had gone round in silence, Sitting Bull spoke. He had +often heard of Golden Face, the friend of the Dahcotah nation, he said. +Now he was glad to have an opportunity of smoking with him, and learning +from his lips. + +The speaker paused, and Vipan merely acknowledged the compliment by a +grave bend of the head. The chief continued: + +Golden Face, he had been given to understand, had been a great fighting +man among his own people, and a leader of warriors. He was not of the +Mehneaska, the nation with whom no faith could be kept. Why, then, had +he fought for the Mehneaska against his Dahcotah brethren? + +Vipan, with due deliberation, replied that those for whom he fought +_were_ his own countrymen--not Americans. They were subjects of the +Great White Queen, whose dominions lay to the north (Canada). Why had +the Dahcotah attacked them and run off their stock? + +"Were they all King George men?" asked the shrewd chief, half closing +his eyes and looking into space. + +This was a staggerer, but Vipan was equal to it. + +"They were not," he said. "Only the leader and his household. For the +rest, they bore me as little love as they do the Dahcotah warriors who +ran off their horses and cattle. Listen now, and mark." Then he +graphically narrated the circumstances under which he had warned +Winthrop's outfit of the lurking war-party, making it appear that his +warning had been due simply and solely to his recognition of his +fellow-countrymen among the travellers. + +Not a muscle of Sitting Bull's crafty countenance moved as he listened. + +"How!" he said, quietly, when the speaker ceased. "Did not Golden Face +declare that he owned no nationality?" + +This was another staggerer, and a more serious one than before. But +Vipan's imperturbability was of a quality warranted to stand shocks. +Inwardly he laughed over the other's shrewdness in bringing up his own +words in judgment against him. + +That was true, he replied. But apart from the fact of that particular +white man being his fellow-countryman, and therefore one against whom +the Dahcotah nation had no quarrel, he was the son of a man who had once +rendered him a most important service. Who worthy of the name and +dignity of a warrior ever forgot to requite a good turn once rendered, +even at the peril of his life? + +This answer, if not altogether received as gospel by his hearers, sent +him up ten per cent, in their estimation. Nowhere is diplomatic talent +and readiness in debate held in such high respect as among savage races. + +"The white girl who hunted with Golden Face is very beautiful," went on +Sitting Bull. "Was it for her he lifted his rifle against his Dahcotah +brethren?" + +"Who would not fight for a beautiful woman, be she white or red?" +answered Vipan, with a burst of well-timed frankness. "Sitting Bull is +a great chief, let him judge if my words are straight. Did War Wolf and +his followers come to me as to a friend? No; they attacked me as +enemies. Then when they treated me as an enemy and an ordinary prisoner +of war, did I complain? Sitting Bull is a great chief, a warrior of +renown, but who is War Wolf? Who is he, I say? Enough: I have smoked +in council with Red Cloud and the chiefs of the Dahcotah nation. My +words are for the ears of chiefs, not for those of boys, who passed the +Sun-dance but yesterday." + +The ghost of a smile flitted across Sitting Bull's grim features at this +reply, while a murmur of approbation escaped the other two auditors. No +one understood better than the speaker the advantage of making the most +of himself among these people, nor was the dexterous compliment to his +own eminence thrown away upon the bold and sagacious warrior who had, so +to say, risen from the ranks. + +"But," rejoined the latter, "if the white girl was of the race of King +George, with whom we have no quarrel, why did not Golden Face bring her +among his Dahcotah brethren, where he might have lived with her in peace +and safety?" + +Vipan explained that a white girl such as her of whom they were speaking +would never consent to accompany him unless as his wife, and even then +she must be married according to the customs of her people. To this the +wily chief quoted the case of his friend and brother, Mahto-sapa, who +had a white wife. She had been taken to wife according to Dahcotah +custom; and whose lodge was more comfortable than hers; who was cared +for better than she? + +Now Vipan was aware of the existence of this personage, yet strange to +say, bearing in mind his friendship with the Minneconjou chief, had +never seen her. He was aware, too, that she was originally a white +captive, seized by the Indians during one of their dreaded raids upon a +settlement or waggon train some years previously, but that was the +extent of his knowledge. It must be confessed he felt a good deal of +curiosity on the subject, but he was not the man to allow any sign of it +to appear. His answer, however, was ready and to the point. + +That might be true, he replied; but it was a matter of which he, Vipan, +knew nothing, nor did it concern him in any way. What he did know was +this: The white girl in question was of very considerable account in her +own country. True, most of the warriors in Sitting Bull's village were +his--the speaker's--brethren. But some were not. There were some in it +at that moment who looked upon him as an enemy, who had treated him as +one. What if he had brought this white girl with him, and she had met-- +with harm at the hands of any of these? Would not her people require a +heavy reckoning? The Dahcotah hunting-grounds were bounded on the north +by the British line. Would it be the act of a friend to do anything +which should embroil the Dahcotah nation with two strong Powers instead +of one, in such wise too that they should be surrounded with enemies on +every side? + +He had played a very trump card in making this reply, and he knew it. +For he had seen through Sitting Bull's motives in requiring his presence +in the camp of the hostiles, and was resolved to make the most of it; +and upon the extent of his success he was well aware that his very life +depended. + +"Wagh!" exclaimed the chief, with well-feigned indifference. "The +Dahcotah people fear the enmity of no one. Yet they seek no quarrel +with the countrymen of Golden Face. They have always heard that the +King George men have straight tongues, and that the Great White Queen +keeps her promises, and fulfils her treaties with the red tribes within +her territory." + +Then followed a good deal of what, for want of a better word, we will +call "dark" talking. Sitting Bull in a series of highly diplomatic +hints, and using much figurative language, strove to sound his prisoner +as to the probability of the British being induced to espouse his +people's cause in the event of the coming campaign ending disastrously +to them. Vipan, ever mindful of his precarious position as in fact a +prisoner, though treated outwardly as a guest, answered cautiously, and +to the effect that although the British would be to the last degree +unlikely actively to interfere in their favour, yet it would be fatally +imprudent to commit any act tending to incur the hostility of the great +and mighty Power who occupied the northern boundary line of their +country, and whose territory, indeed, might yet serve them as a refuge +in time of need, for who could foretell the chances of war? At the same +time he threw out more than one dexterous hint as to the services he +himself might be able to render his Dahcotah brethren in the event of +any such lamentable contingency. + +Judging that enough had been said for the present, Sitting Bull arose. + +"It is well," he said, throwing his blanket round his shoulders, as he +prepared to depart. "The counsels of Golden Face are always good to +listen to. His presence is very welcome to his red brethren." + +Judging the moment a favourable one, Vipan delicately hinted that so +welcome a guest should not be treated in a manner unworthy the dignity +of a warrior--in a word, that his weapons should be restored to him. + +Again that ghost of a smile crossed the face of the wily chieftain. + +"No one could mistake Golden Face for anything but a warrior," he said, +sweetly. "Is he not surrounded by his friends, his brothers? Who +requires to go armed among his friends?" + +There was nothing for it but to accept the position, and, moreover, to +accept it with a good grace. Suddenly there arose a terrific din +outside--shrieks and yells, shouts of demoniac laughter, and the +trampling of many feet. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. General George A. Custer, who fell into an ambuscade on the +Little Bighorn river, and perished with his entire command at the hands +of the hostile Sioux, under Sitting Bull, on the 25th June, 1876. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. + +THE TWO VICTIMS. + +If ever a spectacle of hell let loose was vouchsafed to mortal eye, +assuredly it must have borne a strong family likeness to that presented +by the Indian village, as Vipan and the three chiefs stepped gravely +outside the _teepe_ to see what was going on. + +A wild, roaring, yelling crowd came surging into the open space where +stood the council-lodge. Bucks and squaws, children and dogs, all +mingled together in a motley mass, whooping, laughing, chattering and +grinning. A sea of wild excited faces, the crowd poured onward, +gathering as it rolled. Then the cause of all this excitement became +discernible. In the front of the throng, in the centre of a group of +yelling squaws, hustled, beaten, kicked, dragged along by the +bloodthirsty harpies, were two white men. Their arms were tightly bound +behind their backs, but their feet were tied so as to enable them to +make short steps. They had been stripped naked, and their bodies, +already lacerated with many a weal, and bruised from the switches and +clubs of their tormentors, were plentifully besmeared with their own +blood. + +"Wagh, Golden Face!" exclaimed Sitting Bull, with grim humour. "Our +squaws seem to handle your countrymen very tenderly." + +The adventurer made no reply. Even he felt his heart sicken within him +at the thought of the hideous fate these two wretched men were about to +undergo. Yet drawn by an uncontrollable impulse, he found himself +moving beside the three Indians, who were strolling leisurely in the +direction taken by the crowd. Not that his red friends manifested any +interest in the proceedings. The torture of helpless prisoners was +sport for boys and squaws, and unworthy of the attention of great chiefs +or warriors of renown. Still, with the characteristic weakness of their +race to witness anything unusual, they followed the crowd. + +As the latter thundered along the open space, the inmates of the +clustering groups of _teepes_ on either side poured forth to swell its +ranks. Young bucks would dart out in front, and execute a series of +leaps in the air, uttering shrill whoops, and even the river was dotted +with bull-boats, as the inhabitants of the villages on the opposite bank +crowded over in hundreds to see the fun. Knives were flourished in the +prisoners' faces, kicks and slaps were their portion at every step; +indeed, it almost seemed that the ill-usage of the infuriated mob would +mercifully end their sufferings before they should reach the terrible +stake. Something of this seemed to strike their tormentors themselves, +for all of a sudden a compact band of young bucks charged into the mass, +drove back the yelling squaws, and seizing the two unhappy wretches, +dragged them forward at a smart run. + +Just outside the village was a clear space. Here a couple of stout +posts, eight or nine feet high, had been driven into the ground about a +dozen yards apart. + +And now Vipan had an opportunity of estimating the strength of the band +or bands into whose midst he had so involuntarily penetrated. Far along +the river-banks on either side, extending a distance of five or six +miles, the tall lodges stood in lines and clusters among the thin belt +of timber which lined the stream. These and the village behind him, +roughly reckoning, he estimated to represent some four or five thousand +warriors. Overhead the great mountains shot up their craggy heads, +blasted into a score of fantastic shapes, frowning down upon the +barbarous scene like grim tutelaries of destruction. + +The two miserable men were backed against the posts and firmly secured, +their arms being drawn up high above their heads and stretched to the +utmost. Powerless to move a limb, they were ready for the torturers. + +Suddenly a piercing cry for help burst from one of them. In it Vipan +recognised his own name. + +In deference to their rank, the crowd had made way for the chiefs in +whose company he was. At a sign from Sitting Bull, it now gave way +further, and Vipan was able to approach within easy speaking-distance of +the prisoners. + +"Oh, for God's sake, Mr Vipan, save me from torture! Kill me--put me +out of my misery at once!" + +Vipan stared at the utterer of this agonised prayer. In the distorted +features, cut and bruised out of all knowledge, and livid with the dews +of bodily and mental anguish, in the strained eyeballs staring from +their sockets in deadly fear, he could hardly recognise the unfortunate +Geoffry Vallance. + +A curious change passed over the adventurer's face, so curious that even +many of the Indians standing around noticed it and wondered. + +"I am the last person in this world, of whom _you_ ought to ask a +benefit," he said curtly. + +Had there been time for reflection, poor Geoffry might well have been +amazed. Now, half-frenzied with terror, he only moaned: + +"Save me from the torture! Kill me, that is all I ask you!" + +"I cannot if I would," was the answer, in a more relenting tone. "How +did you manage to let them capture you?" + +"It was the day the camp was taken," gasped the wretched prisoner. "I +was lingering behind and got lost, and then my horse ran away when I was +dismounted. I don't know how it was, but I looked up and found myself +in the middle of the Indians." + +"Well, I can do nothing for you. Mind me, though. I knew a chap in +your position once. He managed to roll his tongue back into his throat +and choke himself. He escaped the fire that way. Try it. It's your +only chance." + +The despairing moan with which this gloomy alternative was received was +drowned by a loud cry from the other white man. + +"Colonel Vipan. Git us out of this fix, for the Lord's sake! I kin put +you on to a good thing, I kin!" + +The adventurer turned in amazement. He saw what was a villainous +countenance at the best of times, and now with the shaggy beard matted +with saliva and gouts of blood, it was hideous and horrible in the +extreme. He recognised the man he had felled in the liquor saloon at +Henniker City--Bitter Rube. + +"How in thunder did you get into this hobble?" he said. + +"It's this way, Colonel. The red devils jumped us at our _placer_. +They scalped the other three." + +"Burntwood Creek?" + +"That's it, Colonel. You get me out of this, and I'll make you a rich +man for life. There's gold there worth millions and millions." + +"Glad to hear it, Bitter Rube," was the unconcerned reply. "I know the +place all right; going to work it by and by. It's where your mate +jumped me and got laid out for his pains. Remember your scheme to lynch +me, eh, Bitter Rube?" + +"Oh, Lord, Colonel. It was the other chaps. See here now--" + +"Well, I can't even repay the little service you were going to render +me--a short shrift and a long rope," interrupted Vipan, the scowling +glances and increasing murmurs of the throng convincing him of the peril +he himself was incurring. A frantic yell burst from the prisoner. + +"You snake-spawned white Injun! Here's a white man being cut into +chunks before your eyes. I'll haunt yer! I'll ghost yer! I'll make +life a hell to yer!" + +The miserable wretch went on to bellow the most frantic blasphemies. +One of the young Indians, stepping up behind him, thrust a red-hot +faggot into his open mouth. This was greeted as an excellent joke by +the onlookers, who shouted and screamed with laughter. Then one of them +applied a light to the victim's unkempt and shaggy beard. It frizzled +and flared up, burning the wretched man frightfully about the face and +head. The mirth of the spectators became well-nigh uncontrollable. + +"How! white brudder," said a burly buck, grinning hideously into +Geoffry's face, and patting him fraternally on the shoulder. "Injun +brudder hab heap fun. Injun brudder not hurt you first. Other man hurt +first--you see him--you hab heap good fun. You hurt first, you no +laugh--other hurt first, you plenty laugh--Injun brudder plenty laugh. +How--how!" + +Then the wretched Geoffry understood that with a diabolical refinement +of cruelty the savages intended that he should witness the torture and +death of his companion in adversity before his own turn came. He could +only raise his eyes stupidly to the grinning countenance of his +addresser. + +Two squaws now stepped forward--hideous hags whose long flattened +breasts fell in disgusting flaps below their waists. They were nearly +naked, and each held in her hand a sharp knife. Advancing to the +sufferer they made an incision down each of his sides, and proceeded to +skin him alive as coolly as a butcher would flay a dead sheep. + +The anguished shrieks of the victim were terrible to hear; but no spark +of pity did they stir in the hearts of the ruthless fiends who crowded +around, gloating over this diabolical performance. They danced and +laughed, leaping high in the air, hurling taunting epithets at the +miserable victim, and exhorting the other prisoner to observe what was +in store for him. And in their hellish glee the women, if anything, +surpassed the younger and more ferocious of the warriors. + +For nearly an hour the scene went on--varied at intervals by the passing +of a lighted torch along those portions of the victim's body already +laid bare. The piercing shrieks of the tortured wretch sunk into +laboured and hollow groans--then ceased altogether. He had fainted. + +A glance having sufficed to show them that he was not dead, the +performers stood back, contemplating their handiwork with a grin of +ferocious satisfaction. And so deftly had they done it, that from chin +to feet, the front and sides of the sufferer's body was entirely denuded +of skin, which hung from his shoulders in a bleeding and ghastly mantle. +Yet this was only the first stage of his torture. + +Vipan, who had perforce witnessed this hideous spectacle, felt seized +with a violent and well-nigh uncontrollable nausea, and would have +turned away. But as the exhibition of the slightest repulsion or +feeling would have been not merely inexpedient, but highly dangerous, he +was constrained to master himself. Besides, a sort of horrible +fascination rooted him to the spot--an overmastering and morbid +curiosity to see how the other prisoner would fare. + +Sitting Bull, who with a few other chiefs had been witnessing the +hellish performance with grave impassiveness, must have read his +thoughts. + +"They are not King George men," he remarked laconically. "They are not +your countrymen, Golden Face." + +Vipan made no reply. The remark suggested an idea. He might be able to +save Geoffry by claiming him as a fellow-countryman. A strange struggle +took place within him. Why should he? If he attempted to do so it +would be at deadly risk to himself, and even then would he meet with +success? And apart from these considerations, as he himself had told +the unfortunate one, he was the last man from whom the latter should +claim any assistance. + +Then the bloodthirsty rage of the barbarous horde took a fresh turn. +Their one victim was for the time being insensible to pain, but there +was another. Him they had been reserving with this end in view. Shouts +were raised that it was time to begin upon him. + +With a wild-beast laugh, the two fiend-like hags approached the new +victim, their reeking knives in hand, the yells and roars of the crowd +urging them on. The miserable Geoffry, bound immovably to the stake, +watched their approach. His eyes protruded from their sockets, a cold +sweat rained down his distorted countenance, and there was a strange +hoarse rattle in his throat. It was a sight to haunt the spectator for +a lifetime. Then his head fell heavily forward on his chest. + +Seizing him by the hair, one of the female fiends forced it back. It +was as lead in her grasp. Then the truth became apparent. The +miserable captive was stone-dead. He had died of sheer horror and +fright. + +A moment of silence, then with a wild yell of disappointed fury the +ferocious crowd flung itself upon the corpse and hacked and mutilated it +into a shapeless and gory mass. Then the blind madness of their +bloodthirsty rage fairly let loose, they turned once more to the first +victim. The scalp was torn from his head; knives and burning splinters +were stuck into his flesh; and the yet warm and palpitating heart was +plucked out and reared aloft on the point of a lance. Then bundles of +dry brushwood were piled around both of the mangled corpses, and set +alight, and soon the red tongues of flame--whose roaring and crackling +was drowned by the frenzied yells of the savages as they danced and +leaped around like devils let loose from the nethermost hell--shot +upward, licking around the cruel stakes of torture, and a horrible and +sickening odour of burning flesh hung upon the air. A great volume of +smoke mounted to the heavens, and, after watching it for a while, the +whole fiend-like crowd surged back to the village, there to hold a +gigantic scalp-dance--bearing the reeking trophies aloft on +lance-points. + +All that remained of the border ruffian and the unfortunate Geoffry +Vallance were two little heaps of calcined bones. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE. + +THE SUN QUEEN. + +A month had gone by. The mountain air had become thin and steely, and +the gorgeous glories of the golden-hued woods were falling fast. Winter +was in the atmosphere. + +In the villages of the hostiles time was of no account. Dancing and +warlike exercises, gossip, story-telling and gambling, and hunting in +the adjacent mountains, thus this great gathering of savages on a +war-footing solaced their leisure hours--which were many. Bands of +warriors, under some favourite chief or partisan, would strike the +war-post, and sally forth on some more or less desperate foray, +returning in due time with scalps or plunder, or both. Once they +brought with them a wretched prisoner, who was promptly done to death +under the usual circumstances of revolting barbarity. + +Now, of this life Vipan had become heartily sick. Accustomed as he was +to come and go at will among the camps and villages of the Sioux, the +restraint of knowing himself a prisoner galled him. For although +allowed a certain amount of liberty, and rather ostentatiously treated +as a guest, he was carefully watched. But it is doubtful whether +another cause had not more to do with his weariness and disgust. That +was no mere passing passion whose expression had so nearly escaped him +when standing in the dug-out with Yseulte Santorex. By an inexplicable +rebound from his wild and reckless life, this man's mature mind and +strong nature had sprung to the other extreme. Well he knew--none +better--his position, or, rather, the utter lack of it, did he return to +civilisation, and there were times when he felt tempted to throw himself +in heart and soul with his Indian friends, to lead them on the war-path, +and in ferocity and daring excelling even the savages themselves, to +devote the remainder of his life to acts of vengeance upon that +civilisation whose laws had placed it in the power of a specious +hypocrite to drive him forth from its midst a pauper and an outcast-- +acts of barbarous and bloody vengeance that should render his name a +terror to the whole of the Western frontier. What had he to do with +softness--with love--at his time of life? Yseulte Santorex would be +safe in her English home by this time, probably recalling--when she did +recall it--their acquaintanceship only as a passing romance embedded +among her other adventurous experiences. With such reflections would he +lash and torture himself. + +More than once when accompanying some of their hunting parties into the +mountains he had been seized by a wild impulse to make a dash for +liberty. But the cat-like watchfulness of the Indians never flagged, +and upon such occasions a glance was enough to show the impracticability +of any such scheme. The first step would be the signal for a volley of +bullets through his body--moreover, he was never allowed the use of +anything but an inferior steed. + +And now, day by day, his situation became more precarious. Sitting +Bull, Crazy Horse, and the other chiefs had somehow waxed more than +doubtful of late as to whether his services in regard to a possible +British intervention would be of any use at all--and this idea was +insidiously fostered by his enemies, who were many and powerful-- +Mountain Cat, the Ogallalla war-chief, and Crow-Scalper, who hated all +whites, and the band of young desperadoes who had attached themselves to +the fortunes of War Wolf. The latter brave's bumptiousness had become +simply overwhelming. Full of the recently-acquired importance conferred +upon him by his captivity among the whites and subsequent escape, he +would strut and swagger around, bedecked in all his war-paint and +finery--passing Vipan with a contemptuous laugh or a remark of covert +insolence. The only consideration that restrained the latter from +inflicting summary chastisement was the certainty that the hour he did +so would be his last. And his friend and protector, Mahto-sapa, was +frequently absent on warlike or diplomatic expeditions. The sullen and +hostile feeling growing around him was written on every grim and +scowling face. He felt as helpless as a fly in a spider's web. + +Pondering over these things, he was seated one day alone in the lodge of +his host--the latter being away upon one of those absences which +constituted such a peril to himself--when a shadow darkened the entry +and a feminine voice inquired in English: + +"May I come in?" + +He started, as well he might. The accent was pure and refined, the tone +firm and pleasing. For answer he rose and bowed, and the speaker +entered. + +Strange as it may seem, during all this while Vipan had seen his host's +white wife by no more than a few stray passing glimpses, and then at a +distance. It had always struck him that she avoided him with design, +and he had respected her motives. She dwelt in two _teepes_, which she +occupied all to herself--an unwonted luxury--and was attended on by a +Shoshone slave girl of unrivalled hideosity, captured on one of the +chief's forays into the country of the Snakes. + +He saw before him a tall, fine-looking woman who might or might not have +been under forty. She was habited in the tasteful Indian dress, and the +tunic and leggings of soft doeskin, beautifully embroidered, brought out +every line and curve of a splendidly-moulded figure. Her face, browned +and hardened by exposure to the sun, and a life not altogether free from +privation, was lighted up by a pair of clear blue eyes, and must +formerly have been one of striking beauty. But the chief attraction was +her hair. This was not arranged in two long plaits after the Sioux +fashion, but rippled over her shoulders in a heavy redundant mass, +forming a very mantle of sheeny, ruddy gold, explaining to the +astonished spectator the name she bore among her adopted compatriots, +The Sun Queen. But--Heavens--what an apparition to meet with in the +camp of the hostile Sioux! + +"Thanks," she said, simply, seating herself upon the pile of robes which +Vipan had dragged forward for that purpose. Then pausing a moment to +see if he would break the silence, she went on: "You do not seem to +remember me." + +"Pardon me. I am not likely to have forgotten you," was the quiet +reply, with an undercurrent of cutting satire. "Who that had seen her +could ever forget the beautiful Miss D'Arcy--the Belle of the Island?" +She broke into a bitter laugh. "Is that what they used to call me? I +had forgotten--it seems such a long, long time ago. Could it have been +myself? I, Isabel D'Arcy, who held the whole island in thrall; +Government House, the garrison--all--all my humble devoted slaves, now +the wife of a painted savage! In a word, an Indian squaw!" + +"And because I declined to make one of the crowd of your humble devoted +slaves you ruined my life. You blighted my whole career as a sacrifice +to your ruffled vanity. One word from you would have exonerated me--yet +you did not speak it." + +"Why did you not defend yourself? Why did you not explain the matter +fully?" + +"I was a fool not to, perhaps. In fact, I am sure I was. Well, you +see--it was no part of my creed to give away a friend, nor yet a woman-- +for it was in a secondary degree on your account that I kept silence and +set up no defence." + +"On my account?" she echoed. + +"Yes. Your only chance of getting clear out of the business was to deny +the whole thing and stick to it. If I had cut in with the story of the +other man borrowing my charger for the occasion, especially as owing to +our striking resemblance we were often taken for each other--why the +whole murder would have been out. No, there was nothing for it but the +denial." + +"And--and have you never explained a word of it since?" + +"Never. What was the use? I was already condemned. Your uncle, Sir +George, had more than enough influence for that, and I was practically +cashiered. I must, however, give him credit for the astute way in which +the business was hushed up. Barentyne, I suppose, couldn't clear me for +fear of giving _you_ away." + +"And what became of Major Barentyne?" she asked eagerly. + +"He left the service soon afterwards. He's a governor-general now, a +sort of viceroy, and all sorts of things; while I'm--well, a fair +specimen of a Western border ruffian. Thus, in this world, is the +saddle clapped upon the wrong horse, and the scapegoat is jerked forth +into the wilderness--and it doesn't much matter." + +There was no heat, no upbraiding in his tone. After the first touch of +satire underlying his recognition of her he spoke in an even, almost +monotonous voice, puffing slowly at his long Indian pipe with the +impassiveness of the red men themselves. Then a silence fell between +them. The meeting, the conversation, seemed to have bridged over the +weary, hopeless years of captivity of the one, the aimless and chequered +wanderings of the other. By magic the Indian _teepe_, with its +confusion of _parfleches_ and robes and cooking-pots and wicker-beds, +seemed to have disappeared, and once more their minds were back among +the Government House state and the garrison festivities of the island +colony, and many a familiar, but long-forgotten, face and memory of +other days. And now the once beautiful girl who had queened it there, +the descendant of a good old line, was the weary, middle-aged wife of a +Sioux chief, doomed to live and die among the red barbarians. Truly the +whirligig of Fortune was executing a strange freak when it brought these +two face to face thus. + +"I have, indeed, injured you," she said at length. "But I can yet make +some amends?" + +He shook his head. + +"Listen," she went on. "I can do this. I can give you in writing a +full and true statement of the whole affair. Then you can return home +and clear yourself." + +"And to what end?" he answered. "Nothing on earth is to be gained by +raking up old troubles already forgotten. Besides, you are forgetting; +I am a prisoner here, and, candidly, have very small hope of ever +knowing liberty again. My time is about run out. Do you know that from +hour to hour I live in unceasing apprehension of treachery? Any moment +may be my last. See, I have an old pistol here--only one shot. I am +keeping it for myself, if necessary, for I will never figure at their +hellish stake." + +She shuddered. + +"But," she urged, lowering her voice, and speaking quickly, "but what if +I can help you to escape?" + +He looked up, a flash of hope in his eyes. Then he shook his head. + +"I'm afraid it can't be done. They would be certain to detect your +agency in the matter, and then what would be _your_ fate?" + +"What, you can still make that a consideration!" she exclaimed in +amazement. Then, suddenly she burst into a flood of tears. + +"Forgive me," she said, quickly recovering herself. "I am very foolish. +But you are the first of my race I have conversed with for eight long +years. The only white faces I have seen during that time have been +those of wretched prisoners brought in for torture and outrage, or of +horse thieves and border ruffians, more repulsive and villainous than +those of the savages themselves." + +"I had no idea of your identity," he said, "until you came in here just +now. Then I recognised you, for I never forget a face. I am not easily +astonished, but I was then. If the subject is not painful I should be +glad to know the circumstances of your being here at all." + +She laughed drearily. + +"Oh, no! Feeling is pretty well dead by now, and happily so. The story +is that of many another, only I suppose I ought to reckon myself +fortunate when I think of what I have seen others go through. In an +evil moment I arranged to come home from the Islands with some friends, +who were anxious to do the trip overland. We landed at San Francisco, +and all went well until we reached this side of the mountains. We were +a small party, so small that the people at Fort Laramie tried all they +could to dissuade us from going on, as most of the tribes were on the +war-path. We were attacked on the banks of the North Platte, about two +days out from Laramie. It was early in the morning, and we had just +hitched up for a start. The spring waggon containing ourselves was a +little behind the rest. Suddenly a band of warriors, hundreds of them +it seemed, charged in upon us yelling like fiends. The teamsters were +shot dead in a moment. Mr Elsdale, under whose protection I was +travelling, was run through with a lance almost before he had time to +fire a shot, and his wife and I were at the mercy of the savages. Even +now I would rather not think of what she had to go through." + +"And yourself?" + +"I fainted, mercifully. I must have remained unconscious for hours, for +when I came to I found myself tightly held by a powerful Indian in front +of his saddle. The party was travelling at a considerable pace, and +some of them carried freshly-taken scalps, those of our unfortunate +outfit. My captor smiled good-humouredly as I opened my eyes, and, with +signs and a word or two of English, told me not to be afraid, they were +not going to kill me. Even then it struck me that he had a fine face. +There was an expression of humanity and kindness in it totally absent +from the hideous and painted visages of the rest. That man was +Mahto-sapa." + +She paused, and seemed to make an effort to proceed. Her listener, +keenly interested, still smoked gravely without speaking. + +"That night, when we halted, there was a frightful scene. Mrs Elsdale +was a prisoner too, but I had not seen her until then. Well, you know +Indians and their ways. She was dead before morning. That I escaped +the same brutal treatment was due to the chief. It appears that he had +captured me with his own hand, and he claimed me as his exclusive +property. There was nearly a fight over me, and I have since learned +that it was little short of a miracle that he carried his point. Well, +I was taken to their head village unmolested, for the chief protected me +unswervingly the whole way, and then he took me as his wife. What could +I do, at the mercy of a band of ruthless savages? Some women might have +killed themselves, but I was a full-blooded creature and clung to life; +besides I always had a strong dash of the Bohemian in me." + +Vipan remembered how that very thing used to be said of her among the +envious gossips of the island colony, who had predicted all sorts of +queer futures for Isabel D'Arcy. Surely, however, that which had +befallen her was many degrees queerer than even they had ever designed +for her. + +"The chief was a splendid-looking man," she continued, "and I felt +genuinely grateful to him when I thought what he had saved me from. So +I made a virtue of necessity, and resolved to make the best of the +situation; and that I succeeded in obtaining a certain amount of +ascendancy over him you may judge from the style in which I am allowed +to live. He has always treated me well, and I have never been molested +in the smallest degree from the time it was an understood thing that I +was his property. I have more than once been the means of saving a +wretched prisoner, not from death--that would be beyond even my power-- +but from the frightful ordeal of the stake. The reason why those two +unhappy wretches were done to death outside the village the last time +instead of here, in its midst, was on my account. The horrible sights I +have witnessed here would make even you turn sick. Well, I laid myself +out to acquire influence among the Indians, doctoring them in a small +way and teaching them various little things; and once my position +assured I took no small pains to keep up its dignity. They soon named +me The Sun Queen." + +"And do you never contemplate a return to civilisation--to your +friends?" said her listener as she paused in her narrative. + +"Never. Friends! Why, I never had a real one; and as for relations, +they would spurn me from their door. No, I am accustomed to this life +now, and I shall live and die among the Sioux, the squaw of a savage. +Rather a contemptible object, am I not?" she ended, with a harsh and +bitter laugh. + +"No, I should not say that," said Vipan, slowly, puffing out a great +cloud of smoke. + +"What!" eagerly. "You do not despise me in your heart?" + +"Certainly not. Look here. Let us put the case fairly and without +prejudice. Supposing you had lived the ordinary society life. You +might, as hundreds have done before you, have married some vulgar +_parvenu_--we'll say from force of circumstances--or a fellow who got +drunk on the quiet and threw empty bottles at you, or some execrable +gutterling who happened to be rolling in money. Civilised men and +Christians, mind. I am brutally frank, you see. Or again, more than +one Englishwoman of birth and breeding has been known to espouse some +slant-eyed, sallow-skinned Oriental for the sake of his rank and jewels, +sometimes not even that. Well, you have allowed that Mahto-sapa, as a +man, is not contemptible either in aspect or qualities. Now I call him +a king in comparison with such as I have just mentioned. Of those who +would define him as a heathen and a savage, not one in a hundred could +boast half his good points. My opinion is that you have shown sound +judgment in making the best of the situation." + +"Do you know, you have taken a weight off my mind. I had often thought +of what you now say, but required someone else's opinion. No, I shall +live and die among these people. But you? I will think out and form +some plan for you to escape, but I do not disguise from you that it will +be difficult and risky. And should you find yourself threatened with +immediate danger, do not delay, take refuge at once in my lodge. I +believe they would hesitate to pursue you there." + +She rose from her seat with a lithe, rapid movement, grasped his hand, +and glided from the lodge. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY SIX. + +A TARDY REPARATION. + +Vipan, left alone, felt drowsy, and kicking up the lodge fire into a +blaze, rolled himself in a blanket and lay down in the long wicker +basket which did duty as his bed. But sleep refused to come. This +strange meeting had something weird about it. That this woman, whose +selfish reticence had ruined his life, to screen whom he had sacrificed +his prospects up to blighting point, as to whose whereabouts he had long +ceased to speculate, should appear before him alone in the camp of the +hostile Sioux--living there as one of themselves--struck him as little +short of miraculous, and a superstitious feeling seemed to warn him, +eagerly as he strove to dismiss it, that an occurrence so startling, so +entirely out of all reckoning, portended some grave crisis to himself. +Was her appearance after all these years destined to herald some other +turning-point in his life? Thus musing, sleep at length overcame him, +and still his dreams were haunted by the sad face of the ex-society +belle, doomed to spend her life among savages, even resigned to that +deplorable destiny. + +A stealthy form wormed itself quickly through the opening of the +_teepe_. Vipan, who slept with one eye open, never moved, but his hand +tightened on the stock of the pistol in his breast. Only for a moment, +though; for he recognised the hideous lineaments and beady eyes of the +Shoshone slave girl. + +"Rise quickly, Golden Face," whispered the latter. "The Sun Queen sends +for you. Come at once." + +Prepared for any emergency, he obeyed without a word. It was already +dusk, and at the other end of the village were signs of a gathering of +some sort which was about to take place. Unobserved, he entered Isabel +D'Arcy's tent. + +Enjoining caution by a sign, she beckoned him to a seat. The firelight +glinted on her shining hair, and he noticed that her still handsome face +was clouded with anxiety. The _teepe_ was furnished in quasi-civilised +style. There was a camp bedstead instead of the Indian wicker basket, a +table, two trunks, and even a few books. + +"I have just learned something," she began, "that renders it necessary +for you to make the attempt at once. Listen. Time is short, and we +must lose none of it. There is to be a big scalp-dance to-night in the +Ogallalla camp. Hark! They are beginning now. Afterwards you are to +be seized and put to the torture. I know the plot--never mind how. +Nothing can save you. The Ogallallas have fourteen hundred warriors in +the village, and are all-powerful. The whole of our band, except about +fifty, are away with Mahto-sapa, and even he could hardly protect you if +he were here. Mountain Cat, War Wolf, Long Bull, and a dozen others are +all in the plot. Now, quick--quick, I say!" stamping her foot. "Obey +me or you are lost. Take as much as you can carry of this," handing him +a _parfleche_ half full of dried meat. "And this is the only weapon I +can find." + +With a thrill of satisfaction he found himself in possession of a large +navy revolver, loaded in every chamber. + +"But," he objected, "if I get clear will they not visit it upon you?" + +"No. They dare not. Quick. You have only an hour's start, with the +best of luck. You may not have ten minutes. Roll your blanket round +your chin, so as to hide your beard, and put on this." + +She handed him an Indian head-dress of beadwork and cloth, from whose +summit rose a tall eagle-feather. Fixing it on, he stood there +transformed into a stalwart savage. + +"Now, my plan is simple--in fact, ridiculous. You must personate an +Indian larking with my slave girl here. She will pretend to run away, +and you must pursue her. She will lead you to the nearest herd of +ponies; you must catch one and trust to luck. Now, good-bye. God speed +you!" + +He thought he detected a quaver in her voice as she grasped his hands, +and would have lingered. She stamped her foot angrily. + +"Go, go! You are endangering both of us, and the plan will fall +through." And she almost pushed him from the lodge. + +A mischievous cackle, and the dark form of the Shoshone girl glided +round the outside of the _teepe_. Vipan, entering thoroughly into his +_role_, started boldly in pursuit. So well did he act up to it that a +group of squaws whom he passed within ten yards screamed with laughter +at the sight of a stalwart buck larking after the Sun Queen's hideous +slave, no less than at the broad jests which he was gruffly hurling +after her as she ran. + +The dark figure still glided on between the _teepes_, hardly visible in +the falling gloom. To those who did see it the sight was an everyday +one, so that beyond a shout of mirth and a boisterous wish for his +success, no notice was taken of it. + +The last line of _teepes_ was passed. In front lay the timber belt, +then a subdued "crunch, crunch," betokened the proximity of a group of +ponies. The dark figure of the Shoshone girl had disappeared. "The +nearest," his deliverer had said. His lariat rope was ready. Gently, +soothingly, he approached the one he reckoned the best. Up went the +perverse brute's head with a resentful snort, as it sidled and backed +away. He tried another, with the same result. His heart was in his +mouth. The ponies had stopped feeding, and were gazing at him in alarm. +The least thing might stampede the herd and arouse the attention of its +owners. There was no time to lose. Whirling the noose around his head +he let fly. The coils tautened out. The affrighted animal thus noosed, +plunged, and fell heavily. He was upon it like lightning. Avoiding the +kicking hoofs, he wrenched a bight of the rope into its mouth, jerked +the trembling and terrified steed to its feet, and was on its back like +a circus-rider. The rest of the herd trotted away, snorting and +throwing up their heels. + +Suddenly a wild, shrill whoop went up from the village. Ah! now for the +race for life; but what were the odds in his favour? They had +discovered his flight. + +On, through the darkness, the fugitive urged his unwilling steed, whose +bucking and plunging would have unseated any less skilful horseman. And +as he fled, carefully picking his ground with the instinct of a +consummate plainsman, he strained his ears through the darkness to catch +the first sounds of pursuers behind, of a possible manoeuvre to outflank +and head him in front. But the discovery had not, in fact, been made. +The wild shouts were the yells of the scalp-dance just beginning. +Fainter and fainter behind him sounded the savage chorus, then died +away, and amid the solitude of the grim mountain waste only the soft +hoof-beats of his steed, and the occasional scream of a panther among +the craggy heights, broke upon the dead and ghostly silence of the +night. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN. + +BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. + +With the first lightening of dawn, the fugitive realised that it behoved +him to exercise tenfold wariness. Save one brief halt to rest his +steed, he had ridden the night through, and now he intended to lie +hidden in some snug retreat until darkness again should cover his flight +beneath its friendly folds. A shallow stream flowed close at hand, now +losing itself in the timber, now gurgling along a grassy bottom, to +emerge a few hundred yards further down. Into the water Vipan now +guided his steed, and riding down stream, emerged a mile or so further +on. This manoeuvre, executed with the object of hiding his trail, he +had performed already twice that night. + +The morning dawned but slowly; dark and cold, for a thick mist had +settled down on the land. And now it seemed to Vipan that the ground +was becoming less precipitous. Could he be getting clear of the +mountains already? Suddenly the murmur of guttural voices struck upon +his ear, and strangely enough they sounded ahead of him. + +Softly he checked his horse. Then to his unbounded amazement the +subdued murmur arose again. This time _it was behind him_. + +A puff of air drove a space through the mist, and now Vipan's heart +stood still. On either side of him, all around, gigantic in the filmy +wrack which swept over them in thickening or decreasing folds, loomed +shadowy horsemen. Their deep-toned conversation, their plumed heads and +painted faces, were only too familiar to this man who was flying there +for his life. _He was riding in the very midst of a war-party_. + +Their strength he could not estimate. Ghostly forms appearing and +disappearing as the mist thickened or partially dispersed, no clue could +he obtain as to their numbers. One even called out to him a remark. He +answered with a laconic grunt, and in his heart fervently blessed the +foresight of his deliverer which had invested him with the eagle-crested +head-dress. The savages evidently took him for one of their party. +Fervently, too, did he bless the welcome fog and its kindly aid, for the +fraud could not have lived a moment in broad daylight. + +Gradually, imperceptibly, he checked his steed. Any moment the fog +might lift. He must back out of this perilous escort as imperceptibly +as he had entered it. But, just as he reckoned himself clear, a fresh +group of figures would start up on his rear, and canter forward in the +wake of those who had gone before. These ceased, and by the time the +fog began fairly to roll back beneath the dispelling power of the rising +sun, Vipan, to his inexpressible relief, found himself alone. Then +spying a confused heap of rocks and bushes high up on the slope of a +hill he made for it. As a hiding-place it was perfect. Entering its +welcome shelter, he secured his tired steed in such wise that the animal +could crop the green herbage growing in the cool shadow of the rocks. +Then he lay down and fell fast asleep. + +When at length he awoke it was with a shiver of cold. The sun was not +an hour from the western horizon. He had slept the whole day. + +Cautiously he peered forth. His hiding-place, being at a considerable +elevation, afforded a wide view of the surrounding country. The blue +line of the Black Hills cleft the sky to the south-eastward, and he +could make out the granite cone of the towering Inyan Kara. His course +had so far been an accurate one. + +Suddenly a moving object caught his eye. Was the land absolutely +bristling with enemies? Advancing along his trail far down in the +bottom came a file of mounted figures. Though nearly three miles off, +there was no mistaking them or their object. Then he chuckled +sardonically. The trail of the war-party, under whose escort he had so +unwillingly travelled for ever so brief a space, would obliterate his +own a hundred times over. + +Nearer and nearer they drew, riding at an easy canter. He made out +forty-one Indians in war-costume. He watched them with a sneer and a +chuckle. + +Suddenly, when nearly abreast of his position, the leader halted, gazing +intently at the ground. The band clustered round him, then scattered, +as if searching for more trail. Then a smothered curse escaped the lips +of the watcher. In obedience to a rapid signal, the whole band had +diverged from the trail of the war-party, and was heading straight for +his place of concealment. It was all up with him. They had lighted +upon his trail. It was time to give them the slip. + +He sent one more glance at the party. Strung out in single file, the +warriors were riding along his trail, like a pack of hounds with their +noses to the ground. In their leader he recognised his implacable and +untiring foe, War Wolf. + +"All right," he muttered between his teeth, as he twisted the lariat +rope into the horse's mouth. "All right, my friend. You're bound for +the Happy Hunting-Grounds this time. We'll get there together." + +His horse, fresh and rested, bore him bravely as he dashed forth, +leaving the hill and the covert between himself and his pursuers. Well +he knew what would happen. The Indians would not ride straight up to +the bushes. They would halt and cast round the hill to see if his trail +led away again. This would give him a start. + +The face of the country on this side was a series of rolling slopes +freely dotted with clumps of straggling timber. Some distance ahead he +noted a long dark line of forest. Night was at hand; could he reach +this in time he might yet hope to escape. + +Then a long, pealing whoop went up. The Sioux had discovered him, and +with exultant shouts each warrior lashed his pony into the utmost speed. + +For half an hour the furious chase continued. Vipan, glancing over his +shoulder, became aware that his pursuers were slowly gaining on him. +On--on. The forest belt would soon be reached, and meanwhile the +dusking shadows were lengthening around. + +He gained the first straggling patch of scrub. A few hundred yards and +he would be within the welcome refuge, when his horse put a foot on the +crusted surface of a mud-hole, turned a somersault, and his rider came +whizzing to the earth. + +Vipan arose. Throughout the horror of the shock his self-possession did +not desert him, for he retained firm hold of the lariat rope. He was on +his feet again, active as a cat, though stiff and bruised, but his steed +stood shaking with alarm, using its right foreleg limpingly. + +A yell of exultation went up from the pursuers. Half-a-dozen warriors, +better mounted than the rest, were some distance ahead. So easy a +capture would be that of the unarmed fugitive that they had not troubled +to hold a weapon in readiness. Now they began to whirl their lassos +ready for a throw. + +Vipan, perfectly cool, crouched behind a bush, his revolver pointed. On +they came, War Wolf leading, a grin of triumph wreathing his fierce +features. A hundred yards--then fifty. A ringing report--a jet of +flame in the glooming twilight. War Wolf threw up his arms and lurched +heavily forward upon his horse's neck. The terrified animal, snorting +and rearing, dashed away at a tangent, dragging his rider, who had +somehow become entangled in the caparisonings. + +And what a howl of rage and consternation rent the air! They had not +bargained for this, for they believed the fugitive to be unarmed. +Panic-stricken for the moment, they halted, then some of them dashed off +to the succour of their leader. But they need not have done so. The +bullet had sped true. The young partisan had shouted his last +war-whoop. + +Profiting by this temporary check, the hunted man had again sprung on +the back of his horse. Lame or not, the animal must carry him further +yet. On--on. The forest belt was gained. He plunged beneath its +shadows, only to find it was mere straggling timber--not thick enough +for hiding purposes. The frosty air cut his face and the leaves +crackled crisply under his horse's hoofs. He drew his knife and pricked +the poor brute furiously in the hinder quarters. The fierce yells of +the savages drawing nearer and nearer told only too plainly that they +had no intention of relinquishing the pursuit, and the horse was +beginning to go dead lame. + +"Cau--aak!" + +He glanced involuntarily upward. A huge raven disturbed on its roost +flapped away in alarm. But another sight met his eye. Extending +horizontally from two sturdy limbs of a Cottonwood tree, cleaving the +wintry sky, was a long dark object. Vipan recognised one of those +platforms on which the Indians deposit their dead--like Mohammed's +coffin, midway between earth and heaven. + +His mind was made up in a flash. Checking his horse he dismounted, and +tearing a bunch of thorns from a bush, proceeded deliberately to insert +them beneath the poor animal's tail. Then, as the horse galloped off in +a perfect frenzy of pain and terror, he slipped up the tree and gained +the burial platform, literally flattening himself against its ghastly +burden. It was a hideous alternative. + +Scarcely had he gained this gruesome refuge than the pursuers passed +beneath. They were barely fifteen feet below him as he lay flattened +there, not even daring to breathe as the savages swept by, guided by the +frenzied gallop which, seeming to have gained redoubled speed, they +could hear still ahead of them. It was a desperate expedient, but it +had answered so far. + +"Cau--aak! Cau--aak!" + +Like an evil spirit let loose beneath the frosty heavens came the black +swoop of the raven he had disturbed, and the hunted man saw it with a +cold shiver. He dared not even turn his head. The warriors might +return at any moment from their fool's errand, and then even a breath +might seal his fate. A strong shudder of disgust ran through his frame. +The hideous croak of the ill-omened bird brought back vividly that +other scene--the two grinning blood-stained skulls lying there in the +dark forest by Burntwood Creek, and the startling challenge of their +would-be avenger. Involuntarily he turned his head, and a revulsion of +horror caused him to shrink back in spite of himself, and nearly to fall +from his precarious resting-place. For within six inches of his face +his glance lighted upon a fearful sight. A human countenance scowled +upon him--but such a face. From the blackened and mummified skin drawn +tightly over the protruding bones, the glazed eyes seemed to glare anew +with menace and hate towards the violator of their resting-place. +Shadowy yet distinct in the light of the new moon this horrible +countenance, peering as it were from the fantastic cerements of +barbarous sepulture, was enough to unhinge the stoutest nerves. A +grisly skeleton-claw raised in mid-air, as though about to grapple with +the impious intruder, completed the horror, while overhead, like the +fierce spirit of the departed warrior yet hovering around its decaying +tenement, the grim raven flapped in circles, emitting its gruesome +croak. + +"Pooh!" said the fugitive to himself, making a strong effort to overcome +his not unnatural horror. "Pooh! While the country's swarming with +live redskins hunting for my scalp, am I going to be scared by one dead +one? Not much--not much!" + +An hour wore on--then two. Wolves howled dismally over the midnight +waste, and still that grisly countenance glared menacingly in the +moonlight--and still they lay side by side, the dust of the +half-forgotten dead, and the living, breathing, vigorous frame--welded +together in that weird partnership--its object the saving of a life. + +Thus they lay, side by side--the dead warrior preserving the life of the +hereditary enemy of his race. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT. + +ANOTHER BOMB FOR THE REV. DUDLEY. + +Once more we must peep into the library at Lant Hall. + +Mr Vallance sat in his accustomed chair, thinking. His gaze would +wander from the window to the blazing fire and back again, and the frown +of anxiety deepened on his features. Without, the wind howled shrilly +through the bare boughs, and a few scattered flakes of snow whirled in +the air. + +"Why did we ever let him go?" he exclaimed aloud. "Why did we ever let +him go?" + +Even as when last we saw him, Mr Vallance was terribly anxious on +behalf of his son. His former misgivings had been allayed by the +subsequent receipt of a letter from Geoffry; which missive, however, had +given him to understand that it was the last the writer would have an +opportunity of sending for some time--in fact, until he should be on his +way home again. Characteristically, too, this letter contained only +vague and general information that the writer had fallen in with and +joined Winthrop's outfit; and of his meeting with Yseulte Santorex, not +a word. It was of no use worrying about the matter, decided the Rev. +Dudley. Any post might now bring intelligence that the boy was on his +way home. It was poor comfort, and again he found himself repeating: + +"Why did we ever allow him to go?" + +Of the other affair which had so sorely troubled him--his cousin's +unexpected and preposterous claim--he had heard no more. His +apprehensions first were lulled, then subsided altogether. The whole +business was palpably a "try on." + +A sound of subdued voices outside, then a knock. + +"A gentleman wishes to see you, sir." + +In his then frame of mind, Mr Vallance could not but feel startled by +the interruption. + +"Who is he, James?" he asked, quickly. + +"He wouldn't give his name, sir. He said as how you'd be sure to see +him, sir." + +"Quite right, quite right," said a deep voice, whose owner entered +behind the astonished flunkey. "Er--How do, Dudley!" + +If Mr Vallance had been startled before, the expression of his features +now betokened a state of mind little short of scare. His face had +turned as white as a sheet, and his jaw fell as he stood helplessly +staring at his visitor. + +"Why--bless my soul--Ralph," he stammered. Then advancing with +outstretched hand, "Why--Ralph--I'm--I'm glad to see you. I hope you +have come to stay with us for a time." + +The visitor's reception of this friendly--this hospitable overture, was +singular. Standing bolt upright, he deliberately put his hand behind +his back. + +"Glad to see me!" he echoed, with a sneer. "No, you are not. Why tell +a--tarra-diddle. Such a tarra-diddle, too--and you a preacher--er--I +beg your pardon--a _priest_, it used to be, if I remember right. You +would sooner see the devil himself at this moment than me." + +Under the sting of this reply, the parson recovered a certain amount of +dignity. + +"Really," he said, stiffly, "your behaviour is strange, to put it +mildly. May I ask, then, the object of your intru--your visit." + +"Certainly, if it affords you any satisfaction." Then glancing around +the room, and finishing up with a look out of the window, he went on. +"Say, cousin Dudley, this is a pretty shebang enough. The object of my +visit is this: You've bossed up this show about long enough. Suppose +you abdicate now and let me have a turn?" + +"Have you taken leave of your senses?" + +"Not much. Have you?" + +There was a sternness about the speaker's laconic reply which caused Mr +Vallance to quail involuntarily. He made a step towards the bell-pull. +The other laughed. + +"No, no. Don't exert yourself. I'm not going yet--and if you bring in +all the pap-fed flunkeys and swipe-guzzling stable-hands on your +establishment, the poor devils'll only get badly hurt without furthering +your object. I mean what I say--you've got to quit sooner or later. If +you're wise it'll be sooner." + +"Indeed! And why?" was the answer, given with cutting politeness. + +"Well, it's this way. If you agree to clear at once, I'll give you five +hundred a year--no, I'll make it six--out of the property for your life. +That and the parsonic pickings will keep you in clover. If you mean +fighting, I'm your man. But I warn you I'm prepared to plank down ever +so many thousands of pounds to get you out--and when I've got you out +I'll come down on you for every shilling of arrears, by George, I will!" + +"Oh, you will?" + +"You may bet your life on it." + +For some moments the two men looked full in each other's faces without +speaking. The sneer of conscious power on that of the one was matched +by the expression of defiance, hatred, mingled with fear, on that of the +other. + +"Well, well," said Mr Vallance at length. "Take your own course. +Only, let me remind you that you are in England now, and that in this +country we don't settle important matters in any such rough and ready +fashion." + +"Oh don't make any mistake; I'm not going to _hurt_ you, if that's what +you're thinking about. You see, I've been knocking around a goodish few +years, and now I've a fancy for settling down--settling down _in my own +place_, you understand." + +There was a smug smile of triumph on the parson's face now. His cousin +was merely "bouncing" to extort terms. It would come to that in a few +minutes. But the look aroused a very demon in the other. His eyes +burned like live coals, though when he spoke his voice was under perfect +control. + +"Again, I say, you needn't be afraid," he said. "Everything shall be +done in due course of law." + +"But--but, my good fellow, surely you are aware you haven't a leg to +stand on?" + +"I reckon I'm the best judge of that. See here, most reverend Dudley. +Do you remember our last interview, here, in this very room? Safe in +the triumph of your successful fraud--fraud, I say, if you prefer it, +forgery--you jeered at me, jeered at the man you had robbed. Remember?" + +"`Fraud!' `Robbed!'" sputtered the parson, trying to lash himself into +anger to drown the sinking sense that had come over him. "Do you know, +sir, that you are using actionable words?" + +"Ah, ah! History repeats itself. That is precisely as you spoke on the +former occasion, friend Dudley. I will say it again, call in witnesses +if you like. Having defrauded and robbed me of my patrimony by lies and +intriguing, _and_ worse--you, a preacher of the Gospel, a teacher of +Christian morality--you threatened me with the law. You made your +lawyers write to threaten me with an action for libel if I dared so much +as venture an opinion on your behaviour. Do you remember my words to +you as I left this room?" + +Well, indeed, did he remember. And now at the sight of the deadly wrath +on this man's features, all the more terrible because so completely held +in hand--of the towering form with its back just half a yard from the +door, precluding alike entrance or exit--again Mr Vallance could not +restrain a shiver of physical fear. + +"I told you my time would surely come, didn't I? How many years ago was +it? Nearer twenty than ten--yes. You slandered my name and stole my +possessions--you, a sacred dispenser of sacraments--and I went forth a +beggar, followed by your jeers of triumph. If you go where I have been +during those years, and take the trouble to enquire, you will learn that +few persons have played me a scrofulous trick without bitterly rueing +it. You have played me the most scrofulous trick of all, and you are +going to rue it." + +"Well, I must trouble you to let me pass, please. I shall ask you to +excuse me wasting my time any longer," said Mr Vallance, making a move +as if to leave the room. But the other only smiled. + +"Not yet. Not quite yet," he said. "By the way, Dudley. Heard +anything of Geoffry lately?" + +The tone was easy--smiling--but it struck a chill to the parson's heart. +He glanced up quickly at his interlocutor's face, his own white with +deadly fear. His lips parted, but he was powerless to articulate. The +other stood immovable--smilingly enjoying his apprehension, but the +smile was that of a fiend. + +"Not heard anything of him?" he said, slowly, while like the hellish +hiss of red-hot irons in quivering flesh there passed through his mind +the recollection of his cousin's defiant sneers over the successful +intrigue that had robbed him of his patrimony, there in that same room, +whose very walls seemed to echo their refrain even now. "Not heard +anything of him? Well I'm not surprised, for--he's dead." + +"Dead?" echoed Mr Vallance blankly, as though in a dream. + +"As the proverbial door-nail." + +"Murderer!" gasped the wretched man, spasmodically clutching the air +with his fingers, and gazing at his tormentor as through a far-off mist. + +"Oh, no. You are under a delusion," was the cool reply. "It's odd that +it should devolve on me--on me above all people--to give you the latest +news of him. He died at an Indian stake." + +Even the pitiless, revengeful heart of the man who stood there smilingly +unfolding his horrible news was hardly prepared for the awful +metamorphosis that came over the smug, smooth-tongued, purring parson at +those words. With a scream that rang through the house from top to +bottom, and froze the blood of all who heard it, the miserable man +leaped at his tormentor's throat like a wild cat at bay. But he might +as well have leaped at a rock. The powerful arm was raised, and the +mere shock of the recoil sent the poor wretch sprawling. He lay--his +livid features working in mania--the foam flying from his lips in +flakes. + +The other glanced at him a moment, then opened the door. + +"You, James?" he said, coolly, to the trembling flunkey, who had not +been many yards from the door during the interview. "You, James? Your +boss is taken bad, I guess. Better see after him. Tell him, when he +comes round, I'll call again by-and-bye, and give him further +particulars." + +With the same easy smile upon his lips he passed through the crowd of +frightened women-folk who met him on the stairs, and who shrunk back +before his glittering eyes and towering form, and gained the front door. +Then he smiled in fearful glee. + +"The last time I passed out this way," he said to himself, half-aloud. +"The last time I passed out this way, I was saying my time would surely +come--and it has. Aha! my exemplary and most reverend cousin I think +I'm nearly even with you now--very nearly!" + + + +CHAPTER THIRTY NINE. + +IN THE TWILIGHT OAKWOOD. + +Yseulte Santorex was slowly wending her way homeward through the now +leafless oak woods which overhung Elmcote. + +The lonely ride looked ghostly and drear in the early dusk of the +November afternoon. A chill and biting wind moaned through the covert, +and now and again a pheasant or rabbit scuttling among the undergrowth, +raised a stealthy rustling sound that would have been somewhat startling +to any other of her sex who should find herself belated in that lonely +place. But in this solitary pedestrian it inspired no fear, only a +sweet, sad recollection--albeit reminding her of the most perilous +moment in her whole life. For it brought back vividly, by an +association of sound and surroundings, the shadowy timber belt, and the +stealthy tread of the grim painted savages advancing to seize her on the +lonely river-bank in the far Wild West. + +But what a change had befallen her! The happy, even-tempered girl who +had so gleefully left her home in keen anticipation of a period of +adventurous travel amid new and stirring scenes had disappeared, and +this pale, wistful-eyed woman walking here seemed but the mere ghost of +the Yseulte Santorex of yore. + +Often in her dreams she again goes through those terrible experiences-- +the perilous flight with the scout across the rugged ranges, momentarily +expecting the volley of the lurking Sioux ambushed in the dense timber. +Often in her dreams she is once more fleeing for dear life across those +wild plains, the war-whoops of the painted fiends ringing in her ears, +the thunder of their pursuing steeds shaking the ground. Often in her +dreams she is again entering the frowning portals of that dread +Thermopylae, where one man had unhesitatingly laid down his life in +order that she might reach a place of safety. Often, too, she is once +more amid her genial, kindly, travelling companions, only to wake up +with a start and a shiver to the remembrance of their horrible fate. + +But never as long as she lives will she forget the moment when her +brother, finding her out at Fort Vigilance, brought the news which had +confirmed her fears to the uttermost. He who had offered his life for +her was dead--dead amid the horrid torments of the Indian stake, as the +savages themselves affirmed--and to her, thenceforward, life seemed a +grey and valueless thing. There was nothing further to be gained by +opposing her brother's wish that she should at once accompany him home +to Lant-Hanger. Travelling through the British possessions safe beyond +the reach of the hostile Sioux, who still carried terror and pillage +over the plains of Dakota and Wyoming, they had set forth on their +journey and had reached home in due course. + +Shocked out of even his philosophy by the change, nothing could exceed +the affectionate consideration her father had show for her since her +return. Even her mother forgot to grumble and scold in her relief at +having the girl back again safe and sound, for George had judiciously +put them up to the real state of affairs. It was not in the nature of +things that her parents should be well pleased that she had buried her +heart in the grave of an unknown adventurer, who had, moreover, met with +a horrible death, but time, they hoped, would work a gradual cure, and +she was young yet. Then, too, apart from this unfortunate affair, her +experiences had been terrible for a refined and luxuriously-nurtured +English girl. So no care or trouble was spared to induce her to forget +them. + +But Yseulte herself was the last to second these well-meant efforts. +She would brace herself up to appear cheerful and at ease, but seemed +never so happy as when alone, rambling for hours through the fields and +woods, to her parents' concern and alarm. But any expression of the +latter would be met by a wan smile and a remark that one who had heard +the war-whoop and shots fired in grim earnest, and had twice been chased +by red Indians on the war-path, felt pretty secure among the peaceful +lanes and meadows of tame Old England. And one other thing noteworthy +was that she avoided Lant Hall and its denizens with a horror and a +persistency that was little short of feverish. She had never divulged +poor Geoffry's presence with the waggon train, and shrank morbidly from +doing so now. He might have escaped, but that he had fallen in the +general massacre which overtook the unfortunate emigrants she could +hardly doubt. + +This evening she was returning from a long walk, having gone out to join +at luncheon her father and brother, who were shooting some distant +coverts, and who would drive home by the road. She, preferring her +solitary ramble through the fields and plantations, had left them early +in the afternoon. + +The sharp air had brought a tinge of colour to her pale cheeks, as, +defying its rigours in her warm winter dress and toque, she stepped +along the woodland ride with the easy grace of a perfect physical +organisation. An owl dropped softly from overhead, hooting as it glided +along on noiseless pinions, the bark of a fox echoed from the depths of +the brake; but these weird sounds amid the gathering mists of night +caused her no uneasiness, let alone fear. She even stopped to listen to +them with a wistful yearning, for in the cry of the wild creatures of +the woods, and the swirl of the wind through the denuded branches, she +seemed to feel once more borne back to those nights of peril and of +fear--but oh! how sweet the recollection--in the wild and blood-stained +West, to walk alone in the spirit presence of him whom her mortal eyes +should never more behold. + +"Would to God we had died together!" she exclaimed aloud, her eyes +dimmed with a rush of blinding tears. "Ah, why did I not die with him +when it was still in my power to do so? Ah, why?" + +And the owl flitting ghostly through the brake, answered: + +"Tu-whoo--whoo-whoo!" + +A sound smote upon her ear as she turned the bend of the path--a sound +as of the footfall and snort of a horse. She looked up, and the sight +that met her eyes rooted her to the ground, while the blood at her very +heart stood still. But not with fear. Yet--what was that but a +phantom--a phantom horseman--advancing towards her at scarce thirty +paces? For the noble proportions of the coal-black steed there was no +mistaking--and his rider--ah!--through many a night of horror and +anguish she had seen in her dreams that towering frame, mangled and +mutilated by the barbarous vengeance of the red demons, that splendid +face, drawn and livid in the throes of an agonising death. Rider and +steed had been parted in life--here in the lonely woods, in the glooming +twilight, they were together again. + +Her eyes met those of the phantom. An ecstasy shook her frame, and she +was powerless to articulate. A sweet smile played on her lips; her gaze +was strained upon the apparition, as though in the very strength of her +yearning she could constrain it to remain with her, could retard its +return to the shadowy unknown. + +"Yseulte--love--I am no spectre," said the voice she knew so well. "I +have come straight to you as soon as I learned where to find you. Come +to me, darling!" + +He had sprung to the ground, and stood awaiting her. The spell was +broken. A loud cry rang through the wood, and then she was in his +arms--laughing, weeping, sobbing, then laughing again. Words were out +of the question. + +The wintry night fell black upon the glooming oakwoods, weirdly musical +with the mournful hooting of the owls. But there was no gloom in the +hearts of these two who now stepped from those thickening shades. + +A crunch of wheels on the gravel, a flash of lamps, and the dog-cart +deposited the two shooters at the front door. + +"Hallo, Chickie! What's in the wind, now?" exclaimed Mr Santorex, +staring in amazement, as his daughter, hardly giving him time to alight, +had flown at him and flung her arms around his neck, her face all aglow +with more than the happiness of former days. + +"Father! _He's_ in there. Go in and see him!" + +"_He_? What the deuce! In where? Give a fellow a chance! Who's +_he_?" + +"Mr Vipan." + +"Oh, ah--I remember. The champion scalp-hunter. Come to life again, +has he? Let's have a look at him." + +As the door opened a tall figure rose from a chair, advancing with +outstretched hand. + +"How do, Santorex?" + +He thus unceremoniously addressed stared, as well he might. This was +Western brusquerie with a vengeance, he thought. + +"Confound it! am I altered so dead out of all recognition?" said the +other with a careless laugh, standing full in the light. + +"Why, no--that is, yes. We none of us grow younger in twenty years. +Well, well, Ralph. I'm heartily glad to see you, heartily glad." And +the two men grasped hands in thorough ratification of the sentiment. + +"No, by George! I should never have known you," went on Mr Santorex. +"And Chickie, here, called you something else just now--what the deuce +was it?" + +"Vipan? Yes, it was an old name in the family at one time. I've +revived it lately for my own convenience. That's how I was known out +West." + +"Think you'd have known the child here?" went on "the child's" father, +turning to Yseulte, who had followed him into the room, and was now +staring in amazement at this new revelation. + +"Well, I've had rather the advantage of her; a mean advantage she'll +say." + +"She" was incapable of saying anything just then. That photograph of +the disinherited Ralph Vallance, which, since her return home, she had +managed to conjure out of her father's boxes of old correspondence, and +had treasured because it bore some slight resemblance to her dead lover, +now turned out to be nothing less than his actual portrait. Yet during +all their daily intercourse, so well had he guarded his secret, that not +a shadow of a passing instinct had ever warned her of his identity. It +was astounding. + +"Been to call on Dudley yet, Ralph?" said Mr Santorex, with a twinkle +in his eye. + +"Oh, yes. We had a talk over old times. By the way, that's another +misnomer. My real name's Rupert. They used to call me the other for +short. Heaven knows why, but they did, and I dropped it when I went +West. Shan't revive it." + +If ever there was a snug family party gathered together, it was that at +the Elmcote dinner-table that night, when Rupert Vallance, as we must +now call him, yielding to general request, but especially to an +appealing glance from Yseulte's blue eyes, narrated his experiences from +the time of his capture to his escape from the camp of the hostiles, +only generalising however as to the agency of this latter event, and +omitting for the present all mention of poor Geoffry's horrible death. +But when it came to the narrator literally tucking himself in with the +grisly denizen of the Indian grave, in the ghostly silence of the +darkling forest, Mrs Santorex shivered and announced her intention of +fainting; however, this effect was soon dispelled by the more pleasing +_denouement_ of the stirring tale, how just in the nick of time, when +alone, dismounted, barely half armed, and the savages still in search of +him, he had been found by Smokestack Bill, who all this while, in hourly +peril himself, had unweariedly watched his chances of coming to the aid +of his friend. Smokestack Bill, too, with no less a companion than old +Satanta, who had been wandering the country ever since his escape from +the Ogallalla war-party, defying white or red to capture him, until, +seeming to recognise his master's friend, he ran whinnying to the latter +of his own accord. + +"He's a grand fellow, that scout," said Mr Santorex. "Why didn't you +bring him over with you, Rupert?" + +"Wouldn't come. He's going as chief scout to an expedition just about +to be sent against the hostiles. I made him promise, though, to come +over directly after the war." + +But the acme of this marvellous and stirring life's romance was reached +when later--after the ladies had retired to bed--Rupert Vallance +recounted, in strict confidence, the circumstances of his meeting in the +Sioux camp, the unfortunate woman who had ruined his career hitherto by +allowing him to suffer for another's intrigue. + +"By Jove!" said George Santorex, junior. "I've heard of that party. +Always supposed, though, she was a common sort of woman. A lady! and +prefers to live among a lot of dirty redskins! Why, the tallest yarn of +old Mayne Reid's is skim-milk to this. But I guess she pretty well +wiped out old scores by chousing the reds out of your scalp in that +clever way, eh, Rupert!" + +He nodded. "That's so." + +Just then there was an interruption. A messenger had arrived from Lant +Hall. The Rev. Dudley was not expected to live through the night, and +particularly wished to see Mr Santorex. + +"Phew-w!" whistled the latter. "I suppose I must go. What on earth can +he want to talk to me about? Perhaps it's about you, Rupert." + +"Maybe it is," replied the latter, puffing out a cloud of smoke with as +complete nonchalance as though they were discussing the weather. And +George Santorex, junior, furtively watching the unconcerned, relentless +face, thought he could well understand the reputation which this man had +set up in those Western wilds which had been for so many years their +common home. + + + +CHAPTER FORTY. + +CONCLUSION. + +Summer has come round once more, and again, amid all the glories of a +cloudless evening, we stand beside the banks of the rippling Lant-- +howbeit not without misgiving, for are we not about to enact the part of +eavesdroppers towards those two strolling languidly, contentedly, there +by the shining water? + +"It strikes me, child, you seem inclined to find life rather a happy +thing," a voice well-known to us is saying. "And you've no business +to." + +A loving pressure of the strong arm on which she is leaning is the only +answer Yseulte deigns at first to make. Then: + +"Why not?" + +"Because you've done a very wrong thing. If the late lamented Dudley +were alive, he would tell you that a man may not marry his grandmother, +and by parity of reasoning a woman may not marry her grandfather. Now +this is just what you have done, and it's very wrong of you." + +She gave his arm a pinch. + +"I never liked--boys!" she replied with a sunny smile. And then she +sighed. For it was on this very spot, beneath this same spreading oak +here on the river-bank, that poor Geoffry had made his passionate and +despairing declaration barely a year ago. And now at the thought of the +poor fellow and his miserable end far away in that savage land, she +could not repress a sigh. + +"By Jove!" cried Rupert Vallance, flinging a stone into the river. +"Something here seems to remind me of that evening when I came upon you +staving in the red brother's grinders with the butt end of a +fishing-rod. I wonder, by the way, what became of that same weapon? I +expect Mountain Cat's band still keep it as a big medicine-stick. +Deuced bad medicine it was for the buck you were laying it into. Ho, +ho!" + +"Don't remind me of that horrible moment," she said, coming closer to +him with a slight shiver. "Let us go home, it's getting cold." + +The Rev. Dudley Vallance was dead. The shock of learning his son's +horrible end had brought on a stroke, and the following day he had +breathed his last--not, however, before he had made what reparation he +could for the wrong he had done his cousin, who, by the way, had so far +relented as to satisfy him that he had borne no hand in poor Geoffry's +death, and, in fact was powerless to prevent it; added to which he had +himself rescued him from the same fate on a previous occasion. So on +his death-bed he had signed a hastily drawn-up will, bequeathing the +Lant property to Rupert Vallance absolutely, save and except a yearly +charge on the estate for the support of his widow and daughters. To +this Rupert had added with ample liberality. Once "the old man had +climbed down," as he euphemistically put it, he himself was willing to +let bygones be bygones, and had endowed the widow accordingly; needless +to say, without earning the slightest degree of gratitude from the +latter. + +They strolled homeward across the meadows in the falling eve, and, lo, +as they entered the gate of the home paddock there arose a whinny and a +stamp of hoofs. + +"Dear old Satanta!" said Yseulte, stroking the velvety black nose which +the noble animal thrust lovingly against her hand. "You have well +earned your ease for life, at any rate." + +"I should rather think he had. No more arrows flying in his wake. No +more brack water or willow-bark provender. All oats and fun for life. +We shall have to give the war-whoop occasionally, just to remind him of +old times." + +"Please, sir," said a man-servant, meeting them in the hall. "Postman +says was he right in leaving this, sir?" + +His master took the letter, glanced at the address, and exploded in a +roar of laughter. It bore the United States stamp, and was directed-- + + "Judge Rupert Vipan, Lant Hall, + Brackenshire County, + Great Britain." + +"Nat Hardroper's fist! Come along, Yseulte, and let's see what that +'cute citizen's got to say. `Judge!' Great Scott! With infinite +trouble I got him out of calling me Colonel, and now he's elevated me to +the judicial bench! `Vipan,' too! The old name seems to stick, +anyway." + +He broke open the letter and began to read-- + + Henniker City, Dakota, 14th July, 1876. + + Dear Rupe,--Seems to me you're fixed up pretty tight and snug, after + "baching" around all these years. My respects to Madam. + + May be you'll not be sorry to hear I've sold your interest in the + Burntwood Creek Mine to a New York Syndicate for two hundred and fifty + thousand dollars, and five hundred fully paid-up shares in the new Co. + If you weren't so keen on settling down in Great Britain again I + reckon this find would make you more than a millionaire. However, + I've banked the specie here, where it'll be safe enough till you + undertake to ship it to Great Britain--safe enough, that is, while I'm + Sheriff of Henniker City--though they did "hold up" the bank in Jabez + Humbold's time. + + The pesky Sioux are still on the war-path, as I judge you'll have + learned even in Great Britain, but they're in a fair way of being + soundly whipped. And now I've got to tell you what you'll be dead + sorry to hear. + +Yseulte, watching her husband's face, marked the change that came into +it, as he turned the sheet and glanced hurriedly down it. A terrible +frown--a frown similar to that which she had seen there when, dismounted +and alone, he had turned to face the savage pursuers at the entrance of +the canon that never-to-be-forgotten evening of her escape. Mastering +himself, he continued to read: + + Your old pard, Smokestack Bill, is rubbed out. He fell at the Little + Bighorn with Custer and his command, and I reckon the red devils have + had many a dance round his hair by this time. Poor Bill! I allow + it's kinder rough when men have been pardners all the years you and he + have; but he fell in fair fight, and that's better, as he himself + would allow, than dying of a slow sickness, or being knifed in the + back by some slinking wall-eyed rowdy in a saloon. Well, well! There + wasn't a straighter, stauncher, all-round man, nor a better scout on + this continent than Smokestack Bill, and if so be as any man says + there was, why he'll be ill-advised to make the remark anywhere around + this section. I judge that's about all the news you'll care for just + now, and with my respects to Madam, now as ever, old hoss, your + sincere: + + Nathaniel J. Hardroper, Sheriff of Henniker City. + +For some time Rupert Vallance stared vacantly at the hateful paper in +dead silence. All the stirring experiences they had gone through +together crowded upon his mind, and the fate of his friend, staunch, +unswerving, true as steel, moved him more than he cared to show, even to +his wife. + +"Ah, well!" he said at last, laying down the letter with a sigh. "It's +bitterly rough on a fellow. For upwards of a dozen years we've chummed +together like twin brothers, in tight fixes and out of them, and now the +poor chap's wiped out. Yes, it's rough!" An arm stole round his neck. +"Darling, can I forget that the noble, unselfish fellow saved your life +and brought you back to me! And don't think me unfeeling, but if I had +never gone out there you might be lying there too, at this moment, +having shared the poor fellow's terrible fate." + +"That's so," he assented. "I hadn't thought of it in that light." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The End. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Golden Face, by Bertram Mitford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOLDEN FACE *** + +***** This file should be named 36599.txt or 36599.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/5/9/36599/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |