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diff --git a/43210-8.txt b/43210-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c6f299d..0000000 --- a/43210-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4181 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The War-Trail Fort, by James Willard Schultz - -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/license - - -Title: The War-Trail Fort - Further Adventures of Thomas Fox and Pitamakan - -Author: James Willard Schultz - -Illustrator: George Varian - -Release Date: July 13, 2013 [EBook #43210] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR-TRAIL FORT *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - - The War-Trail Fort - - _Further Adventures of Thomas Fox and Pitamakan_ - - BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ - - - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY - GEORGE VARIAN - - BOSTON AND NEW YORK - HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY - The Riverside Press Cambridge - - COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY PERRY MASON COMPANY - COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - - - - -[Illustration: WE SAW HIM STOOP OVER THE FALLEN MAN, THEN RISE WITH A -BOW AND A SHIELD THAT HE WAVED ALOFT] - - - - -Contents - - - I. A COMPANY DISSOLVES AND A NEW VENTURE STARTS 1 - - II. A HOSTILE TRIBE LEAVES FOOTPRINTS 22 - - III. FAR THUNDER RIDS THE PLAINS OF A RASCAL 41 - - IV. THE STEAMBOAT REFUSES TO STOP 61 - - V. TWO CROWS RAISE THEIR RIGHT HANDS 79 - - VI. ABBOTT FIRES INTO A CLUMP OF SAGEBRUSH 99 - - VII. LAME WOLF PRAYS TO HIS RAVEN 119 - - VIII. THE MANDANS SING THEIR VICTORY SONG 139 - - IX. BIG LAKE CALLS A COUNCIL 158 - - X. THE RIVER TAKES ITS TOLL 174 - - - - -Illustrations - - - WE SAW HIM STOOP OVER THE FALLEN MAN, THEN RISE - WITH A BOW AND A SHIELD THAT HE WAVED ALOFT _Frontispiece_ - - WE FOUND THE TRACKS OF THEIR BARE FEET IN THE MUD 40 - - AT LAST WE HAD ALL THE HORSES IN LEAD AND WITH - FAST-BEATING HEARTS ... STARTED TOWARD THE RIVER 102 - - AWAY WE WENT, LEAVING BEHIND US MORE THAN THREE - HUNDRED FINE HORSES 178 - - - - -The War-Trail Fort - - - - -CHAPTER I - -A COMPANY DISSOLVES AND A NEW VENTURE STARTS - - -One of the most vivid impressions of my youth is of a certain evening in -the spring of 1865. It was the evening of May 21. Just before sundown -the first steamboat of the season, the Yellowstone II, arrived from St. -Louis and brought the astounding news that the American Fur Company was -going out of business and was selling its various trading-posts, forts -and stocks of goods, good-will and all, to private individuals. - -To most of us in Fort Benton, factor, clerks, artisans, voyageurs, -trappers and hunters, it was as if the world were coming to an end. The -company--by which we meant the Chouteaus, father and sons--was the -beginning and the end of our existence. We revered the very name of it; -we were faithful to it and ready to die for it if need be. Now we were -left to shift for ourselves. What were we to do? - -Boylike, I had gone aboard the boat as soon as it landed and had passed -an hour in wandering about it from end to end and from hold to -pilot-house. Up in the pilot-house I found Joe La Barge, the most famous -and trusted of the Missouri River pilots. - -"Well, Master Thomas Fox," he said to me, "it is bad news that we have -brought you, isn't it? What is your Uncle Wesley going to do, I wonder, -now that the company is selling out?" - -"The company is selling out? What do you mean?" I faltered. - -He told me, and I turned from him instantly and ran ashore. I sprang -through the stockade gate of the fort and paused, struck by something -unfamiliar there in the great court: it was the strange silence. The -voyageurs, the trappers and hunters, most voluble of men, were sitting -in the doorways of their quarters and saying never a word; the terrible -news had tongue-tied them. I had been hurrying to my uncle's quarters to -ask the truth of what the pilot had told me; but the dejected attitude -of the employees was proof enough that the news was true. - -A tall, lean voyageur rushed by me to the center of the court and raised -his outstretched hands to the sky. "My frien's," he cried, "dis ees mos' -unjust! Dis ees one terrible calamitee! I call le bon Dieu to weetness -dat eet is but two summer ago, een St. Louis, dat Pierre Chouteau, he -say to me, 'Louis, you are ze bon cordelier! You are serve us mos' -faithful dese many year! W'en de time come dat you can no longer pull -eet de cordelle, de company, he shall give you a pension; een your hold -hage you shall be mos' comfortable!' - -"An' now, my frien's, ze great company, he ees dead! Ze pension pour le -pauvre Louis, eet is not!" he went on in an increasingly frenzied -shriek. "My frien's, I am hask you, w'at am I to do? I am fear ze Pieds -Noirs; ze Gros Ventres; ze Assiniboins! I no can trap ze beav'! I no -can hunt ze buf'! Eet ees zat I mus' die!" - -He turned and with wild gestures fled from the court. His listeners -slumped even more dejectedly into their lowly seats. I went on to my -uncle's quarters and found two of the clerks, George Steell and Matthew -Carroll, sitting with my uncle, and his wife, Tsistsaki,--true mother to -me,--at his shoulder. I sat down upon my cot in a corner of the room and -listened to their conversation and gathered that the Chouteaus had -written to the three men, offering to sell them the fort and its -contents upon most reasonable terms, and that my uncle had declined to -enter into partnership with the two in purchasing the place and carrying -on the business. At that, like poor Louis, the voyageur, I, too, was -dismayed. "What, then, are we to do?" I asked myself. - -The two visitors expressed great regret at my uncle's decision, said -that they feared he would soon find that he had made a mistake, and went -out. As soon as the door closed behind them, my uncle sprang from his -seat, whirled Tsistsaki round three or four times, made a pass at me, -and cried, "Well, my woman, well, Thomas, this is my great day! I am no -longer under obligations to the company--there is no more company. I am -free! Free to be what I have long wanted to be, an independent, lone -Indian trader!" - -Tsistsaki thoroughly understood English but never spoke it for fear that -she would make a mistake and be laughed at. In her own language she -cried, "Oh, my man! Do you mean that? Are we to leave this place and -with my people follow the buffalo?" - -"Something like that," he told her. - -"O good! Good!" I all but shouted. "That means that I shall have no end -of good times riding about and hunting with Pitamakan!" - -He, you know, was my true-and-tried chum. Young though we were, we had -experienced some wild adventures. We two had passed a winter in the -depths of the Rockies; we had been to the shore of the Western Sea and -back; and we had seen the great deserts and the strange peoples of the -always-summer land. It was in my mind, now, that this sudden turn in the -affairs of my uncle was to be the cause of more adventures for us. I -could fairly scent them. - -As to Tsistsaki, she went almost crazy with joy. "The gods are good to -us!" she cried. "They have answered my prayers! Oh, how I have begged -them, my man, to turn your steps to the wide plains and the mountains of -our great hunting-ground! It is not good for us, you know, to live shut -within these walls winter after winter and summer after summer, seeing -no farther than the slopes and the cutbanks of this river bottom. To be -well and happy we must do some roaming now and then and live as Old Man, -our Maker, intended us to live, in airy buffalo-leather lodges, and -close upon the breast of our mother [the earth]. Tell me, now, where we -are going and when, so that I may have all our things packed." - -"I cannot tell you that until I have talked with the chiefs. I am going -now to counsel with them, for the steamboat starts back for St. Louis -very early in the morning, and upon the decision of the chiefs depends -the size of the trade-goods orders that I shall send down with the -captain." - -"We shall go over to camp with you!" Tsistsaki declared. - -My uncle told me to order the stableman, Bissette, to saddle three -horses for us. Within fifteen minutes we were heading for the valley of -the Teton, five miles to the north, where more than ten thousand Indians -were waiting to trade their winter take of robes and furs for the goods -that the steamboats were to bring to us. All the North Blackfeet and the -Bloods and the Gros Ventres were there, and our own people, the Pikuni, -the southern, or Montana, branch, of the great Blackfoot Confederacy. We -called the Pikuni "our people," because nearly all of our company men in -Fort Benton were married to women of that tribe. - -What a thunder of sound struck our ears as we arrived at the edge of the -valley slope and looked down into it! It was all aglow with fires -shining yellow through the buffalo-leather lodge skins. Drums were -booming; people were singing, laughing, and dancing; children were -shouting; horses were impatiently whinnying for their mates; and dogs -were howling defiance to their wild kin of the plains, the deep-voiced -wolves and shrill-yelping coyotes. We paused but a moment, listening to -it all, and hurried on down to the camp of the Pikuni and the lodge of -White Wolf, chief of the Small Robes Clan, brother of Tsistsaki and -father of my chum, Pitamakan--Running Eagle. - -Tethering our horses to some brush, we went inside and were made -welcome, my uncle taking the honor seat at the right of the chief. In as -few words as possible my uncle explained why we had come and the need -for hurry, and White Wolf at once sent messengers up and down the valley -to ask the different tribal head chiefs to come to his lodge for a -council with Pi-oh' Sis-tsi-kum--Far Thunder--as my uncle had been most -honorably renamed at the medicine-lodge ceremonials of the previous -summer. Within an hour they had all arrived, Big Lake of the Pikuni, -Crow Foot of the North Blackfeet, Calf Shirt of the Bloods, and Lone -Bull of the Gros Ventres, and with them came some of their -under-chiefs--clan chiefs and chiefs of the various branches of the All -Friends Society. The lodge became so crowded with them that the women -and children were obliged to retire to other lodges. - -"Well, Far Thunder," Big Lake said to my uncle, when all were seated and -the pipe was going the round of the circle, "we were all busy directing -our women in the packing of our robes and furs for to-morrow's trade, -for we had been told of the arrival of the fire boat; but when you -called we came. Speak; our ears await your words!" - -My uncle had a wonderful command of the Blackfoot language. Briefly in -well-chosen words he told them that the great company was winding up its -affairs. He explained that Steell and Carroll would take over the -company fort and the business, and then said that he himself had decided -to enter into close trade relations with them, especially to keep them -supplied with goods and ammunition during their winter hunts; he asked -them to decide at once where they would pass the coming winter, for upon -their decision depended the size of the order for goods that must be -sent on the fire boat, which was to return down-river in the morning. -Loud clapping of hands and cries of approval answered this last -statement, and then Crow Foot, the greatest chief, perhaps, of the -confederacy, said, "Far Thunder, brother! Your offer to winter-trade -with us is the best news we have ever had. No more will our young men be -obliged to make long and dangerous journeys through winter snows and -killing blizzards to the fort across from here for fresh supplies of -powder and balls, and other things. No longer will our hunters be -obliged to sit idle in their lodges. Brother, I think we may safely -leave the choice of our coming winter-hunting country to you!" - -"Ai! Ai! Far Thunder, brother, the words of Crow Foot are our words!" -cried some of the chiefs. And others said, "Yes, Far Thunder, be yours -the choice!" - -"I thank you for your generosity," my uncle replied. "Brothers, I choose -a part of our country that is black with buffalo; whose wooded valleys -shelter countless elk and deer. In its very center will I build my -trade-house. Brothers, before the Moon of Falling Leaves is ended you -shall see it standing, full of goods, at the mouth of On-the-Other-Side -Bear River!" - -"Ha! At the mouth of the Musselshell, where the steamboats will unload -the trade goods almost at our doors!" I said to myself. - -"No! No! I protest! Not there, brothers!" cried Lone Bull, the Gros -Ventre chief. "That is too dangerous a country! Last winter, during all -its moons, the Assiniboins were encamped in its northern part, the -valley of Little River [Milk River on the maps. So named by Lewis and -Clark], and the Crows were at the same time camping in the valley of -On-the-Other-Side Bear River, where they will doubtless hunt again this -coming winter!" - -"Ha! All the more reason that we should winter there!" cried Big Lake. -"We have too long neglected that part of our country. It is our plain -duty to go down there and clean it of our enemies and keep it clean of -them. If we fail to do so, they will be soon claiming it their very own, -the gift of their gods to them." - -"Right you are, brother," cried Crow Foot, "and wise is Far Thunder! He -could not have made a better choosing. What say you all? Is it decided -that we winter down there?" - -"Yes! Yes!" they all answered--all but Lone Bull and his under-chiefs. - -"You still object to the choice?" said Big Lake to him. - -"I do, though I shall be there with you. My silence now is my warning to -you all that you are making a mistake for which we shall pay dearly with -our blood!" he answered. - -"Ha! Since when were we afraid of our enemies!" Calf Shirt exclaimed. - -So was that matter settled. White Wolf knocked the ashes from the smoke -pipe, and the chiefs filed out of the lodge to go their homeward ways. -As the women returned, I said to my chum, "Pitamakan, almost-brother, we -are certainly going to see some exciting, perhaps dangerous times down -in that On-the-Other-Side Bear River country!" - -"Excitement, danger, they make life," he answered. - -Tsistsaki, coming in, heard my remark. She turned to my uncle. "So, man -mine, we go to the On-the-Other-Side Bear River country, do we? Yes? Oh, -I am glad! Down there grow plenty of plums. I shall gather quantities of -them for our winter use!" - -We went out, mounted our horses, and hurried home and to bed. That is, -Tsistsaki and I did; my uncle worked all night, writing out his -trade-goods orders. The steamboat men worked all night, too, unloading -freight for the fort, and when I awoke in the morning the boat had left -with its load of company furs. - -When we were eating breakfast, my uncle said to us, "Well, woman, well, -youngster, we start upon a new trail now, a trail of my own making, and -I feel that it is going to be a trail easy and worth blazing. All that I -have in the world, about twenty thousand dollars, I am putting into the -venture, and on top of that I am asking for more than ten thousand -dollars' worth of goods on a year's time. Thomas, we have just got to -pay that bill when it comes due, fourteen months from now, or Wesley -Fox's name will become a byword in St. Louis." - -"We shall pay it, sir," I said. - -"Absolutely, we shall pay it, if I have to beg robes and beaver skins -from my people to make up the amount!" Tsistsaki declared. - -Looking back at it after all these years, I see that the dissolution of -the American Fur Company was an historical event. Its founders and its -later owners, the Chouteaus, had been the first to profit by the -discoveries of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and year by year they had -built a string of trading-posts along the Missouri, which did an -enormous business in trading with the various tribes of Indians for -their buffalo robes and beaver and other furs. But little by little the -richness and vastness of the Missouri River country became known to the -outside world; first came various opposition fur-traders, then settlers -upon the rich bottom lands of the river. - -Before the settlers the Indians and the buffaloes fled, and the income -of the company correspondingly decreased. The Chouteaus simply could not -brook opposition, or trade with penny-saving settlers, profitable as -that might have been; so in this year of 1865 they went out of business. -At the time only two of the company posts, Fort Union, at the mouth of -the Yellowstone, and Fort Benton were in what may be termed still virgin -country; that is, country still rich in buffaloes and fur animals and -controlled by various powerful tribes of Indians. It was fear of the -Indians that kept the settlers back. - -We were to embark for the mouth of the Musselshell upon the next -steamboat that arrived, and my uncle was very busy getting together our -necessary equipment and engaging the help that we should need. I helped -him as much as I could, but found time to ride over to the camp on the -Teton and ask Pitamakan to go down-river with us. His father objected to -his going, on the ground that he was needed in camp to herd the large -band of horses that belonged to the family, and in which I had then -about forty head, my very own horses. But finally a youth was found to -take his place, and Pitamakan was free to come with us. On the last day -of May the second steamboat of the season tied up at the river-bank in -front of the fort, and in the afternoon of the following day we went -aboard it with our outfit and were off upon our new adventure. The -outfit comprised ten engagés, all of them with their wives, women of the -Pikuni, several of whom had children; six work-horses and two heavy -wagons; three ordinary saddle-horses, property of the engagés, and three -fast buffalo-runners, one of which was Is-spai-u, the Spaniard, the most -noted, the most valuable buffalo-horse in all the Northwest; eleven -Indian lodges, one to each family; tools of all kinds; some provisions; -a six-pounder cannon with a few balls and plenty of grapeshot; and of -course our own personal weapons. - -The women were tremendously excited over their first ride in a -steamboat; they marveled at the swiftness with which it sped down the -river and cried out in terror every time the boilers let off their -surplus steam with a loud roaring. Soon after passing the mouth of the -Shonkin, a few miles below the fort, we sighted buffaloes, and from -there on to our destination we were never out of sight of them grazing -in the bottom lands, filing down the precipitous sides of the valley to -water and climbing out to graze upon the wide plains. - -Other kinds of game were also constantly in sight, elk, white-tailed -deer and mule deer, antelopes, bighorns upon the cliffs, wolves and -coyotes, and now and then a grizzly. - -All too quickly we sped down the river, which is swift and narrow here, -and at night tied up at the mouth of Cow Creek, where twelve years -later a small party of us from Fort Benton were to fight the Nez Percés, -just before General Miles rounded them up. This was the Middle -Creek--Stahk-tsi-ki-e-tuk-tai--of the Blackfeet, so named because it -rises in the depression between the Bear Paw and the Little Rocky -Mountains. - -Shortly before noon the next day the boat landed us and our outfit at -the mouth of the Musselshell River. There was a fine grove of -cottonwoods bordering the stream, but we had no thought of taking -advantage of its cool, shady shelter. Instead we put up our lodges in -the open bottom on the west side of the Musselshell, about three hundred -yards from it and something like fifty yards back from the shore of the -Missouri. My uncle declared that we had too many of them and made one -lodge suffice for three families. We therefore put up four lodges, as -closely together as possible, and cut and hauled logs for a barrier -round them. We completed the barrier that evening and felt that we were -fairly well protected from the attacks of war parties. As Pitamakan -truly said, we were camped right upon one of the greatest war trails in -the country. Crows, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes going north, and -Assiniboins, Crees, and Yanktonnais going south, here came to cross the -Missouri upon the wide and shallow ford just below the mouth of the -Musselshell. Had my uncle been unable to buy the six-pounder cannon from -Carroll and Steell, I doubt whether he would have ventured to build a -post at this place. We felt that "thunder mouth" would be of as much -service to us in a fight with a war party as fifty experienced plainsmen -would be, could they be obtained. The Indians were terribly afraid of -cannon, not so much because of the execution they did, I have often -thought, as because of the tremendous roar of their discharge. To the -mind of the red man it was too much like the fearful reverberations of -their dread thunder bird, wanton slayer of men and animals, shatterer of -trees and of the very rocks of the mountains. - -Taking no chances with our horses, we picketed them that evening with -long ropes close to our barricade, and at bedtime Pitamakan and I went -out and slept in their midst; but nothing happened to disturb our rest. -At daylight we arose and turned the work-horses loose to graze near by -until we needed them. The day broke clear and warm. Up in the pine-clad -bad-land breaks that formed the east side of the Musselshell Valley we -could see numerous bands of buffaloes, and there were more in the valley -itself and in the bottom of the Missouri directly across from us. -Hundreds of antelopes were with the buffaloes, and elk and deer were -moving about in the edge of the timber bordering the smaller stream. We -went over to the Musselshell and bathed, and then heard Tsistsaki -calling us to come and eat. - -"Now, then, you youngsters," my uncle said to us when we were seated, -"the engagés have their instructions, and here are yours. You are not to -lift a hand toward the building of this fort, for I have three other -uses for you. You are to take good care of the horses, keep the camp -well supplied with meat, and be ever on the lookout for war parties." - -"Easy enough!" Pitamakan exclaimed. "With so little to do, I see us -growing fat, and with fat comes laziness. I see this camp going hungry -before many moons have passed." - -"You needn't joke," said my uncle, very seriously. "This is no joking -matter. Upon the alertness and watchfulness of you two depend our lives -and the success of this undertaking!" - -"I take shame to myself," Pitamakan said. "As you say, this is important -work that you charge us with. If trouble comes, it shall be through no -fault of ours!" - - - - -CHAPTER II - -A HOSTILE TRIBE LEAVES FOOTPRINTS - - -By the time Pitamakan and I had finished breakfast the engagés had -hitched up the teams and gone to cut logs, and my uncle was marking out -the site for the fort on level ground just behind our barricade. He had -drawn the plan for it while we were coming down the river. It was to be -in the form of a square. The south, west, and north sides were each to -be formed by the walls of a building eighty feet long, twenty feet wide, -nine feet high. The roof was to be of poles heavily covered with -well-packed earth. At the southwest and northeast corners there were to -be bastions with portholes for the cannon and for rifles. The east side -of the square was to be a high stockade of logs with a strong gate in -it. - -Leaving my uncle at his work, Pitamakan and I watered the saddle-horses -and then, saddling two, rode out after meat. We could, of course, have -gone into the timber just above the log-cutters and killed some deer or -elk, but we wanted first to explore the valley. Here and there were -narrow groves of timber with growths of willows between them; and again -long stretches where the grass grew to the very edge of the banks. - -We carefully examined the dusty game trails and every sandbar and mud -slope of the river for signs of man, but not a single moccasin track did -we see. That was no proof, however, that war parties had not recently -passed up or down the valley. Instead of following the course of the -river, they were far more likely to keep well up in the breaks on the -east side of the valley, from which they could constantly see far up and -down it. - -I was not very keen for hunting that morning, because I was worrying -about my uncle's charge to us. "Almost-brother," I said presently as I -brought my horse to a stand, "the load that Far Thunder has put upon us -is too heavy for our backs. Look, now, at this great country; this brush -and timber-bordered stream; those deep, pine-clad bad-land breaks; the -great plain to the west, seamed with coulees; the heavily timbered -valley of the Big River. We cannot possibly watch it all. We have not -the eyes of the gods to see right through the trees and brush and -discover what they conceal. Watch as we may, a war party can easily come -right down to the mouth of this stream and attack the log-cutters or -charge our barricade, and we never know of their approach until we hear -their shots and yells!" - -"What you say is plain truth!" Pitamakan exclaimed. "But well you know -that Far Thunder is a wise chief. He does not expect us to do the -impossible; his heavy talk was just to make us as watchful and careful -as we possibly can be. But come, we waste time. We have to provide meat -for the middle-of-the-day eating!" - -"All right, we go," I answered, "but I am uneasy. When we return to camp -I shall say a few words to Far Thunder." - -Not far ahead a band of a hundred and more buffaloes were filing down a -sharp, bare ridge of the bad lands to water. Under cover of the brush -we rode to the point they would strike and awaited their coming. They -were thirsty; the big cow in front was stepping faster and faster as she -neared the foot of the slope; then, scenting the water, she broke into a -lope. The whole band came thundering after her, raising a cloud of fine, -light dust. - -We let our eager horses go when the buffaloes were about fifty yards -from us. Pitamakan shot down the old lead cow, and I a fat two-year-old -bull; then what a scattering there was! - -Drawing my six-shooter, I turned my horse after another two-year-old -bull and gained upon it, but just as I was about to fire it sprang -sharply round and dodged back past me. My horse turned, too, with a -suddenness that all but unseated me. He had the bit in his teeth. I -could not have checked him if I would, and he was determined that the -bull should not escape. Nor did it. I overtook and downed it after a -chase of several hundred yards, but was then, of course, out of the run. -Away up the flat Pitamakan was still in the thick of the fleeing band. I -saw him shoot twice, and then he, too, came to a stand. In all we had -shot six fine animals, meat enough to last our camp for some time. We -carefully butchered them all, cutting the carcasses into portions that -could be easily loaded into the wagon that would come for them, and -then, packing upon our horses several sets of the boss ribs for dinner, -we started back. - -The day was now very hot; so we rode in the shade of the timber -bordering the stream and in a short time entered the big grove at the -mouth of it. We could plainly hear the incessant thudding of axes and -the crash of the big cottonwood as it struck the ground. I told -Pitamakan that the men were working like beavers, and then he laughed. -It was a simile quite new to him. - -There was here dense underbrush, much of which was higher than our heads -and penetrable only by the well-worn zigzag trails of game. We were -following what seemed to be the most direct of the trails and were now -so near the choppers that we could plainly hear several of them talking, -but still, owing to the dense, high brush, we were unable to see any of -them. Then suddenly, right in front of us, a shot rang out; and in -answer to it, Pitamakan brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired at -something that I could dimly see tearing away from us through a thick -growth of rosebushes. "Enemies! My horse is hit! Look out!" - -Simultaneously we heard a piercing shriek of pain and fear, the -well-known voice of Louis, the cordelier, he who had bewailed the death -of the company and the loss of his promised pension. "Help! Help! I am -shot! I die! Help, messieurs! Ze enemy, he comes, tousans of heem!" - -I grasped the situation at once and, fearing that others of the choppers -would mistake us for enemies, dashed on past Pitamakan, shouting, "Don't -shoot! It is we! Don't shoot!" I cleared the high brush just as the -roused men were gathering in a circle about Louis, who was still wildly -shrieking for help. - -"Now, what is all this about?" cried my uncle as he came running up to -the group. - -"I am shot! Me, I die!" Louis cried. - -"He thought us enemies. He fired at Pitamakan and got shot himself," I -explained. - -"Let us see the wound," my uncle demanded. - -"No use! I die!" - -"Throw him down, men, throw him down! We'll see how badly he is hurt!" -my uncle ordered; and down he went. - -"Huh! Just as I thought! Nothing but a bullet scratch! Get up, you crazy -scamp! Get up! Go to the river and wash yourself, and then come back to -work!" said my uncle disgustedly. - -"Where is his rifle?" some one asked. - -"Dropped right where he fired it," I hazarded; and there it was found. - -"Wal, now, me, I call Louis's hittin' that hoss a plumb miracle!" -exclaimed an American engagé, Illinois Joe, so called because he was -always talking about the glories of that State. "To my certain knowledge -that there is the fust time Louis ever come nigh hittin' what he aimed -to kill!" - -The men resumed their work, and my uncle went to the camp with us. We -unloaded the boss ribs and picketed our horses, Pitamakan rubbing some -marrow grease into the wound of his animal. I then told my uncle that I -thought that we could not possibly guard the men from sudden surprise by -the enemy. - -"You will do the best you can, and that is all I ask from you," he -answered. "From now on, one of the engagés shall stand guard while the -others work, and I will take a turn at it myself. You have meat up -there? Take a team and wagon and bring it in." - -We had the meat in camp by two o'clock; then my uncle advised us to ride -out upon discovery. As Pitamakan's runner would be of no service for -some time to come, I borrowed Is-spai-u and let him have my fast horse. -We could, of course, have ridden the scrub horses of the engagés, but -did not care to trust our lives to their slow running in case we should -be surprised by a war party. - -Is-spai-u was a horse with a history. Four summers before, in the spring -of 1861, a war party of seven of the Pikuni, led by One Horn, a noted -warrior and medicine man, had gone south on a raid with the avowed -intention never to turn back until they had penetrated far into the -always-summer land and taken fine horses from the Spanish settlers of -that country. That meant a journey southward on foot of all of fifteen -hundred miles and an absence from us of at least a year. They chose to -go on foot because they could thus most surely pass through that long -stretch of hostile country without being discovered by the enemy. - -Fifty--yes, a hundred--warriors begged One Horn to be allowed to join -his party, but he had had a dream in which the Seven Persons, as the -constellation of the Great Bear was called, had appeared and advised him -what to do, and he would take only six men. Each one of the six was a -man of proved valor and intelligence. - -The summer passed and the winter. One Horn and his party were to return -in the Moon of Full-Grown Leaves, but they came not. With the appearance -of the Berries-Ripe Moon they were long overdue, and some said that -without doubt their bones were whitening on the sands of the grassless -plains far to the south. Still, hoping against hope, the old medicine -man prayed on for them at setting of the sun, and all the people prayed -with him. - -It was in the Moon of Falling Leaves--October--that we in Fort Benton -noticed a lone horseman fording the river and wondered who he could be. -Then we saw that it was One Horn. He approached the gate, mournfully -calling over and over the names of his six companions; and we knew that -they were dead, and the women set up a great wailing for them. When he -rode slowly into the court we thought that we had never seen so thin and -careworn a man; he was just bones covered with wrinkled skin, and across -his breast was a tightly drawn bandage of what had evidently been his -buffalo-leather leggings. - -We were so painfully struck with his forlorn appearance that we did not -at first notice the horse he rode; but when he slipped from it and -staggered into the outstretched arms of the crying women, Antoine, the -stableman, stepped up to it to lead it away, and he cried out, "See, my -frien's, dis horse so beautiful!" We almost cried out with him. The -animal was shining black and in good flesh, clean-limbed, of powerful -build, gentle and proud. - -"A thoroughbred, if ever there was one!" said my uncle, who was standing -beside me. "Unquestionably of Andalusian stock!" - -Tsistsaki had One Horn carried into our quarters and a robe couch made -up for him. A woman brought in some soup hot from her hearth, but he -would take only a few sups of it. My uncle cut away the bandage round -his breast and disclosed a jagged wound several inches long, partly -healed, but badly discolored and suppurating at the lower end. - -"It was all healed over, then it got bad again," One Horn whispered. - -My uncle shook his head. "Mortification has set in; I fear there is no -hope for him," he said in English to Tsistsaki and me. - -Then he carefully washed the wound, medicated it, and put a clean, soft -bandage upon it. - -When the wounded man awoke that evening, my uncle asked him to tell us -his adventures on the long south trail. - -We thought that he was never going to answer, so long did he stare -straight up at the roof; but finally he said, so low that it was with -straining ears that we heard him: "Far Thunder, Tsistsaki! My words -shall be few. We went far into the country of the Spanish white men and -came upon a camp of plains people and in their herds of good horses saw -the horse that I rode here to-day. We raided that camp and took many -horses, among them the black, Is-spai-u, as I have named him. We got -safe away from that camp. But then--oh, my friends! through my fault my -companions died. I was in great hurry to get back here. I would not heed -the warnings of my dreams. I took chances. Through a rough country I led -my men in the daytime when I should have traveled at night. We were seen -by the enemy, but saw them not. They made ready for our coming and -suddenly rode out at us. My companions fought bravely, killed many and -were themselves killed. I was wounded, but because I was upon this -black horse I escaped. So swift was he that none of the enemy could -overtake me. At first my wound was very bad; then it got better, and I -took courage. I said to myself that I would return to this south country -with all the warriors of the Pikuni and avenge the death of my -companions. Then my wound got steadily worse. Far Thunder, my wound is -killing me. No, don't deny it; you know it as well as I do. From the -time you and I first met we have been friends. You have been good to me. -Now we part. This night I am going upon the long trail to the Sand -Hills. I give you the black horse. You must promise me always to keep -him. You promise? That is good! North and south, east and west, he is -the swiftest, the most tireless horse on all the plains. I know that you -will be good to him. I can talk no more." - -Nor did he ever speak again. He soon became unconscious and died before -midnight. - -Now, my Uncle Wesley was a great sportsman and loved more than anything -else the excitement of a buffalo run with a good horse under him, a bow -in his hand, and a quiver full of arrows at his back. "You can have your -rifle and your six-shooters for the chase," he would often say, "but the -bow for me. While you are fooling away time reloading your weapons, I -shall be slipping arrows into good, fat cows!" - -Several months after the death of One Horn, a herd of buffaloes drifted -into the upper end of the bottom and gave him a chance to try Is-spai-u. -Word spread that my uncle was going to run the buffaloes, and when he -rode out from the fort all the men followed him who had horses or could -borrow them. I shall not go into the details of that run, but will -simply say that when it ended twenty-seven buffaloes lay strung along -the plain with my uncle's arrows in them! It was the best run ever made -in the whole Northwest, so far as was known, and the success of it was -owing more to the swiftness and endurance of Is-spai-u than to the skill -of my uncle with the bow. The reputation of the black horse was -established. Through visiting Kootenay Indians it spread to all the -west-side tribes, the Kalispels, Nez Percés, and Snakes. When bands from -the Blackfoot tribes came into the fort at different times in order to -trade, the first request of the chiefs and warriors was for a sight of -the wonderful animal. - -In time our engagés took word of him to our different forts along the -river, and thus all the other tribes, Sioux, Assiniboins, Crows, Crees, -and Yanktonnais, came to know about him. Deputations from all the tribes -that were at peace with the Blackfeet came to the fort and made fabulous -offers for the animal. At the risk of their lives, some Snakes brought -in one hundred and ten good ordinary horses that they wanted to trade -for the black runner. A chief of the Yanktonnais, then trading mostly -with the Hudson's Bay Company at their Assiniboin River post, sent word -that he would give two hundred horses for him. My uncle's one answer to -all of the would-be purchasers was that the black was not for sale. We -soon heard that many a warrior of the tribes hostile to the Blackfeet -had vowed to get the horse in one way or another. Within a year three -desperate attempts were made to steal him right out from the fort, and -the last raiders, three Assiniboins, paid for the attempt with their -lives. - -On the evening before we left Fort Benton George Steell had begged my -uncle to leave Is-spai-u in his care. "You know how flies swarm about a -molasses keg. Well, so will the hostiles swarm about you down there when -they learn that the runner is with you. Be sensible for once, Wesley, -and let me have him until your fort is completed." - -"George, I know you mean well," my uncle replied, "but, consarn it, -you're too reckless! You would cripple him in no time. Is-spai-u goes -with me!" - -Half angry at that, Steell shrugged his shoulders and turned away from -us without another word. My uncle had been right in refusing him the use -of the animal; he was the most reckless, hard-riding buffalo hunter in -all the country. - -After this explanation, you can imagine my pride and happiness in -mounting Is-spai-u for the first time. He was eager to go; I let him -have the bit. - -"Well, almost-brother," I said to Pitamakan, "we are off upon discovery. -Which way shall we go?" - -"First, straight to the head of the breaks yonder, from which we can see -far up and down Big River and the plains to the north of it," he -answered. - -We passed through the grove in which the men were working, crossed the -Musselshell and began the steep climb, following a game trail that was -sure to keep us out of trouble in the maze of bad-land breaks ahead. Two -thirds of the way up the breaks we entered the lowermost of the -scrub-pine and juniper growths that concealed the heads of most of the -coulees, from which great numbers of mule deer and occasionally some -fine-looking elk fled at our approach. Within an hour we arrived at the -summit, and there in a dense grove found a war lodge that had been put -up not more than three nights before. By its size, and the signs within, -we judged that it had been the one night's resting-place of a party of -between fifteen and twenty men, and the pattern of the beadwork of a -pair of worn-out moccasins that we found partly charred in the fireplace -proved to us that they were Assiniboins. Circling the place, we found -their trail in the spongy, volcanic ash of which the bad lands are -mainly composed. They were going south, and I said to Pitamakan that -they would doubtless come back the same way from their raid against the -Crows, or whatever tribe they were heading for, and would, of course, -discover our camp. - -"Well, what else can you expect? I should not be astonished if some -enemies already have their eyes upon it," he answered. - -After watching for some time the valley of the Missouri and the great -plains to the north of it we turned south along the heads of the breaks -and traveled at a good pace for an hour or more along a rolling plain. -We then turned westward into the valley of the Musselshell and saw -across it the narrow and sparsely timbered valley of a small stream -putting in from the Moccasin Mountains, the eastern end of which, Black -Butte, seemed very near to us. I had read the journal of the Lewis and -Clark expedition many times, and so recognized that small and generally -dry watercourse by their description of it. - -The sun was near setting when we struck the small grove of timber at the -junction of the two streams, and there in a dusty game trail we found -the moccasined footprints of men--a war party, of course--traveling -north. We could not determine how recently they had passed, but upon -following the trail to the shore of the river we saw where they had sat -down to remove their moccasins and leggings, and we found the tracks of -their bare feet in the mud at the edge of the stream. In several of the -footprints the water was still muddy; in others the mud had settled. - -[Illustration: WE FOUND THE TRACKS OF THEIR BARE FEET IN THE MUD] - -"They have crossed here since we left the head of the breaks!" Pitamakan -exclaimed. - -"Yes!" I said. "We must get to camp with the news as fast as our horses -can carry us!" - - - - -CHAPTER III - -FAR THUNDER RIDS THE PLAINS OF A RASCAL - - -We crossed the river and rode up Sacajawea Creek to the valley. Then we -climbed to the rim of the plain and rode along it to camp. I had -constantly to hold in Is-spai-u so that Pitamakan, riding my fast -buffalo-runner, could keep up with me. It was dusk when we arrived in -camp. The women--some of them, not Tsistsaki, you may be sure--cried out -in alarm at the news that we had found the fresh trail of a war party -traveling down the valley, and Louis wailed, "Pauvre me! Pauvre me! I am -lose my pension; and now I shall be keeled by zese war parties! Oh, wat -a countree terrible ees zis!" - -"Oh, be still, Windy!" Sol Abbott growled at him. "You make us all -tired! Be a man!" - -Solomon Abbott, a lank, red-haired Missourian six feet two inches in -height, a famous plainsman and trapper and a brave and kindly fellow, -was our best man. He was helping in our work only because of his great -liking for my uncle. As soon as our post was built, he would again go -out with his woman upon his lone pursuit of the beaver. The Blackfeet -had affectionately named him Great Hider, because he was so crafty in -escaping from the enemy. He had had many thrilling escapes from the -Assiniboins, the Sioux, and the Crows, and had killed so many of them -that they had come to believe that he was proof against their arrows and -bullets. - -"Well, Sol," said my uncle to him now, "it is best to have the horses -right here in the barricade with us this night, don't you think?" - -"Sure thing! Right in here, and some of us on guard all night!" he -answered. - -Some of the men were sent to bring in the animals that were picketed -near by, and Tsistsaki called Pitamakan and me to eat. Abbott presently -came into our lodge, and my uncle and he decided upon the different -watches for the night. Pitamakan, my uncle, and I were to take our turn -at two o'clock and watch until daylight, about four o'clock, when the -horses were to be taken out to graze. A night in the stockade would be -no hardship to them, for the new grass was so luxuriant that they would -eat all that they could hold. - -Another point of discussion was whether the cannon should be loaded and -made ready for the expected attack. Pitamakan and I were asked how many -we thought there might be in the war party and replied that there were -between fifteen and twenty men, certainly not more than twenty-five. - -"Well, we'll load the cannon, because it should be loaded and kept -loaded and the touch-hole well protected from dampness," said my uncle, -"but we will not fire it at any small war party; our rifles can take -care of them. We will just keep the cannon cached, as a surprise when a -big war party comes." - -The lodge fires did not burn long that night. Pitamakan and I went to -sleep while our elders were still smoking and talking. - -Promptly on time Abbott came into our lodge and awakened us, and my -uncle, Pitamakan, and I were soon in our places at the edge of the -barricade. There was a piece of a moon, the stars were very bright, and -in the north there was a perceptible whitish glow in the sky, as if from -some far distant aurora playing upon the snow and ice of the -always-winter land. Pitamakan, coming and standing at my side, said that -Cold-Maker was dancing up there and making medicine for the attack upon -the sun that he would begin a few moons hence. - -"The old men, our wise ones, say," he went on, "that Cold-Maker may -sometime obtain what he is ever seeking, a medicine so powerful that it -will enable him to drive the sun far, far into the south and keep him -there. Think how terrible it would be! Our beautiful prairies and -mountains would become an always-winter land! The game, the trees and -brush and grasses, would all die off, and we, of course, should perish -with them!" - -"Don't you worry about that!" I told him. "Sun has a certain trail to -follow, and he is all-powerful. Let him make what medicine he may, old -Cold-Maker cannot halt his course!" - -"Ha! That is my thought, too. Wise though our old men are, they -certainly don't know all about what is going on up there in the sky!" - -Off to the south of us I heard my uncle mutter something about youthful -philosophers and then laugh quietly. - -From where we stood, with our shoulders and heads concealed by some -brush stuck into the barricade, we could see the black mass of the grove -and the silvery gleam of the river sweeping by it. The hush and quiet of -the night were almost unbroken; not even an owl was hooting. The only -sound that we could hear at all was the murmur of the river close under -the cutbank on our left. The Missouri is a deceptive river. Though its -heaving, eddying, swift flow is apparently without obstructions, yet it -has a voice--an insistent, deep, plaintive voice that rises and falls -and makes the listener imagine things; that seems to be trying to tell -all the strange scenes and changes it has witnessed down through the -countless ages of its being. - -"Do you hear it, the voice, the singing of the river? Isn't it -beautiful?" I said. - -"It is terrible, heart-chilling. What you hear is not the voice of the -river; it is the singing of the dread Under-Water People who live down -there in its depths and ever watch for a chance to drag us down to our -death!" - -My uncle slipped up behind us so quietly that we were startled. "You -youngsters quit talking; use your eyes instead of your mouths!" he -whispered, and stole back to his stand on the south side of the -enclosure. - -"We were and we are using our eyes, but maybe we were talking too loud; -we will whisper from now on," said Pitamakan. - -"Do you think that the war party discovered our camp last evening?" I -asked. - -"They were coming this way and had plenty of time before dark to arrive -in the grove down there where is all the chopping. No doubt they saw us -ride out of the valley and along its rim. Yes, almost-brother, you may -be sure that they have seen our camp. Will they try to break in here and -take our horses? Hide in the grove and attack the men when they go to -work? Go their way without attempting to trouble us? Ha! I wonder!" - -An hour passed, perhaps more; and then from the direction of the grove -we saw a dark form slowly approaching us; then came more forms, all upon -hands and knees, sneaking through the grass like so many wolves. - -Pitamakan nudged me with his elbow. "Don't shoot until they come quite -close," he whispered. I answered him by pressing his arm. - -Meantime my uncle had also discovered the enemy and now came to us, -crouching low and stepping noiselessly; he got between us and whispered: -"Aim at men at right and at left. I will shoot at a center man. Pull -trigger when I say _now_!" - -I selected my mark, the man at the extreme end of the line nearest the -river, and anxiously awaited the word to fire. I thought that my uncle -would never give it; the longer I aimed at my mark the worse my rifle -seemed to wabble; the bead sight made circles all round the outline of -the creeping man. At last, "Now!" or rather, "Kyi!" my uncle said and -pulled the trigger as he said it. The flash from his gun blinded me for -a moment, and I did not fire. But Pitamakan's rifle cracked, even a -little before my uncle fired, and we heard a groan and a sharp cry of -pain. My vision came back to me. I saw fifteen or twenty men running -from us, making for the grove. I fired at one of them, and missed. After -all my experience in shooting at night at the word of command, I had -been too slow! - -Right after I fired, the aroused men came running with weapons in hand, -and the women, crouching low within the lodges, hushed the children as -best they could. - -"What is up? What did you fire at? Where is the enemy?" the men cried, -crowding close to us. My uncle was hurriedly answering them when, from -down near the grove, ten or twelve guns spit fire at us, and we heard -several balls thud into the logs in front of us, and one ripped through -the leather skin of a lodge. We ducked, and the men returned the enemy -fire. - -"Well, Wesley, I call this downright mean of you!" Sol Abbott said to my -uncle reproachfully. "Why on earth didn't you let us in on this? Why -didn't you call me, anyhow? Pluggin' these here cut-throat night raiders -is my long suit, and you know it! Here you've had all the sport -yourself! 'Twasn't fair, by gum!" - -"Oh, well, they were but few. I knew that they would run as soon as we -fired. I didn't think it worth while to awaken you. I really believe -that I never gave you a thought." - -"You got one of them!" some one exclaimed. - -"Two! Two of them are lying out there in the grass," I said. I had had -my eyes upon them all the time I was reloading my rifle. - -"Perhaps they are not dead; we'll go out and soon finish them off," -Abbott proposed. - -"You shall not!" my uncle exclaimed. But he was too late; Pitamakan was -already over the barricade and running to the enemy that he had shot. We -saw him stoop over the fallen man, then rise with a bow and a shield -that he waved aloft with his free hand. - -"I count coup upon this enemy. I call upon you, Far Thunder, and you, -almost-brother, to witness that I take these weapons from this enemy -that I have killed!" - -"We hear you!" I answered. - -"Far Thunder," he called to my uncle, "come and take the weapons of your -kill!" - -My uncle laughed. "I am past all that," he began, but never finished -what he intended to say. - -"Far Thunder, my man," Tsistsaki interrupted, "think how proud of you I -shall be when those weapons out there are hung with the others that you -have taken upon the walls of the home that we are building here! As you -love me, go out and count your coup!" - -So, to please her, and, I doubt not, with no little pride in what he had -accomplished, my uncle went out to his fallen enemy and leaned over -him; then, with a flintlock gun in his hand, he suddenly straightened up -and cried, in the Blackfoot tongue, of course: - -"I call upon you all to witness that I killed this man! I count coup -upon one of our greatest enemies, a chief of the Assiniboins, Sliding -Beaver!" - -Oh, how we shouted when we heard that name! We could hardly believe our -ears. And Tsistsaki sprang over the barricade and ran toward my uncle, -crying, "Are you sure?" We all followed her and gathered round the -fallen man, forgetting in the excitement of the moment that we were -offering a large and compact mark to the guns of his followers. Day was -beginning to break, and we could see the man's features fairly well--the -massive, big-nosed, cruel-mouthed face, with the broad scar across the -forehead, mark of the lance of our chief, Big Lake. - -"He is Sliding Beaver and no other!" Sol Abbott cried. "Wesley, my old -friend, here's to you! You sure have rid these plains of the most -blood-thirsty rascal, the meanest, low-down murderer, that ever -traipsed across them." - -No fear of the enemy could now hold back the other women of our camp. -They came running to us with their children squawling after them, for -the moment forgotten. Crowding round my uncle, they chanted over and -over: - -"A great chief is Far Thunder! Oho! Aha! Our enemy he has killed! He has -killed Sliding Beaver, the cut-throat chief!" - -"Well, what shall we do with him--and the other one?" I asked. - -"Into the river they go!" Abbott answered. And in they went with big -splashes. As they sank, Pitamakan cried out, "Under-Water People! We -give to you these bodies! If you can injure them still more than we have -done, we pray you to do so!" - -It was now broad daylight. After the enemy had fired their lone, -long-range volley at us we heard no more from them, nor could we see -them; they were doubtless down in the grove. We returned to the -stockade, and my uncle told a couple of the men to take the horses out -to graze; but they did not go far out with them. The women hurried into -the lodges and began preparing breakfast, singing, many of them, the -song of victory. They were happy over the death of the dread Assiniboin -chief. We remained outside, watching the valley and counting up the -record of his terrible deeds, so far as we knew them. Trading entirely -with the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, he had always been an enemy of -the American Fur Company and at various times had waylaid and killed -eight of its trappers. Pitamakan said that he had killed four men and -seven women of his tribe, and then recounted the well-known tale of his -fight with Big Lake. - -Leading about a hundred mounted warriors, Sliding Beaver had approached -a camp of the Pikuni and signaled that he had come to fight its chief. -The challenge was accepted, and presently Big Lake, armed with only a -lance, rode out to meet him. The Assiniboin was carrying a gun and a bow -and had no lance. - -"You proposed this fight, so you must use the weapons of my choice; go -get a lance from your warriors." - -Sliding Beaver rode back to them, left his gun and bow, borrowed a -lance, and, raising the Assiniboin war song in his terrible voice,--a -thunderous voice it was,--wheeled his horse about and rode straight at -Big Lake, who likewise charged at him. They neared each other at -tremendous speed, and Big Lake tried to force his horse right against -the other animal; but at the last Sliding Beaver turned the animal aside -and they swept past. They lunged out with their lances, and Big Lake -slightly wounded the Assiniboin in his shoulder, getting not even a -scratch in return. Then again they charged, and Big Lake, sure that his -enemy would not meet him fairly, swerved his horse to the right just as -the other was doing likewise, dodged Sliding Beaver's thrust, and with -his spear gave him a glancing blow on the forehead that laid open the -skin, but failed to pierce the bone. But Sliding Beaver reeled in his -saddle from the force of it, and a mighty shout went up from the -Pikuni, for they thought he would fall from his horse. - -He recovered his seat, however, and fled far, far out across the plain. -Big Lake, try as he would, could not overtake him. His followers fled as -soon as they saw that he was running away, and the Pikuni killed a -number of them. The victory was without question with Big Lake; he had -not only wounded Sliding Beaver in fair combat, but in the presence of a -hundred of his warriors had proved him to be a coward. - -"I'll bet he told his warriors he had broken his lance and had to flee, -and that he did break it against a rock before his men overtook him!" my -uncle exclaimed. - -Long afterwards we learned he had done that very thing. - -The women presently called us all to eat. We washed and went inside, and -Tsistsaki said to my uncle, "Chief, and chief-killer, be seated. Eat the -food of chiefs!" Setting before him a huge dish of boiled boss ribs and -a piece of berry pemmican as large as my two fists, she served -Pitamakan and me equally large portions of the rich food, and gave us -cups of strong coffee and slices of sour-dough bread. We ate with -tremendous appetite, having been up so long, but I could see that my -uncle was worried about something; I surmised what it was before he -said: "Well, Thomas, our troubles begin. Without doubt Sliding Beaver's -followers are cached down there in the grove. I dare not take the men to -work this morning." - -"What did he say?" Pitamakan asked Tsistsaki. She told him. - -"I can see no help for it," said my uncle; "the men must remain in camp -to-day, for those cut-throats are doubtless in the grove lying in wait." - -"Yes, and they may remain there more than one day; they may hold up our -work many days," Tsistsaki put in. - -Just then we heard a woman cry, "Oh, look! Look! The cut-throats are -going!" - -We all ran outside and looked where she was pointing. Below the mouth of -the Musselshell, the Missouri bent toward the south and swept the base -of a high, cut bluff. The enemy were ascending it, heading, apparently, -for the next bottom below. We counted seventeen men, about the number -that we thought there should be. - -"Ha! All is well!" my uncle cried. "Men, finish your breakfast and let -us get to work!" - -We went back to our lodge, and when Tsistsaki had poured us fresh coffee -Pitamakan said to my uncle: "Far Thunder, those cut-throats could have -sneaked away without our knowing it. I believe that they wanted us to -see them going. Why? Because they intend to sneak back, perhaps to-day, -maybe to-morrow, and surprise the men when they are working down there -in the timber." - -Abbott had come in. My uncle turned to him and said: "You heard what he -said. What do you think about it? What do you advise?" - -"Well, how would it do for Thomas and Pitamakan to go down and watch -that trail running over the bluff and on down the river, and for me to -watch the breaks of the Musselshell and its valley above the grove? -Then, if the cut-throats should come sneaking back, either the boys or I -would discover them in time to warn you and the men." - -"You have said it!" my uncle exclaimed. "You boys, take some -middle-of-the-day food, saddle your horses, and go watch that trail!" - -"Do I ride Is-spai-u?" I asked. - -"Not to-day. Ride the men's horses, you two. Any old plug is fast enough -to keep out of the way of a war party on foot." - -Pitamakan and I were not long in getting off. We rode down through the -head of the grove, crossed the Musselshell and went on, not upon the -trail that the enemy had followed, but above it along the steep bad-land -slope, until we could see the whole length of the trail from the -junction of the two rivers on down into the next bottom, where there was -a thin fringe of cottonwoods and willows. - -We got down from our horses, tethered them to some juniper-brush, and -scooped out comfortable sitting-places upon the steep slope. From where -we sat the lower end of the grove at the mouth of the Musselshell was in -sight, and well beyond it on the high ground that bordered the Missouri -was our barricaded camp. Looking again into the bottom below, we saw a -small bunch of bighorns, old rams apparently, heading down into its -lower end; going to drink at the river, of course. Bighorns were -plentiful then and for many years afterwards in all the Missouri -bad-land country. A fine early morning breeze was blowing down the -valley. I called Pitamakan's attention to it, and said that, if the -enemy were concealed in the timber, the bighorns would apprise us of the -fact. Bighorns leave their cliffs and steep slopes only when need of -water or of food compels them to do so. Those we were watching traveled -freely enough down the slope, but the moment they stepped out upon the -level bottom land they became timid, advancing but a few steps at a time -and pausing to sniff the air and stare in all directions. In this manner -they crossed the narrow bottom, descended the gravelly shore below the -end of the timber, and drank. We had proof enough that the Assiniboins -were not in the timber. - -"The gods are with us; they make the animals do scout work for us!" -Pitamakan exclaimed. - -"I am wholly of the opinion that the cut-throats are upon their homeward -way," I said, "and that they will return with a couple of hundred -warriors and try to wipe us out!" - -"Yes, sooner or later we are in for a fight with them. But something -tells me we are not yet through with Sliding Beaver's men." - -We sprang to our feet. The west wind brought plainly to our ears the -sound of shots and yells up in the big grove and the frightened cries of -women in our camp above it. - -"There! What did I tell you!" Pitamakan exclaimed. - -"How in the world could they have got back in there without our knowing -it?" I cried. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE STEAMBOAT REFUSES TO STOP - - -We ran to our horses, untethered and mounted them, and rode toward the -grove as fast as we could make them lope along the steep, soft slope. -The firing and yelling had ceased as suddenly as it had begun. I was -almost trembling with anxiety. Was it possible that the enemy by a -surprise attack had killed my uncle and all his men? Pitamakan, whose -horse was the faster of the two, was in the lead. I belabored mine with -heels and rope. When we quartered down to the river trail for the sake -of the better going, the rise of the bluff ahead of us cut off our view -of the grove and our camp. Then, as we neared the foot of the bluff, two -of the enemy appeared on top of it. - -"Our men are pursuing them! We've got them! Come on!" Pitamakan shouted -back to me. - -We were perhaps a hundred yards from the foot of the bluff, and on our -right, about the same distance off, was the cutbank of the river. We -rode on faster than ever and saw the two men crouch, one with ready bow -and the other with pointed gun. Then, as we arrived at the foot of the -slope, they suddenly sprang up and retreated out of our sight, and -Pitamakan yelled again to me, "We've got them! Come on!" - -Our horses panted up the slope, groaning and grunting their protests at -every whack of our ropes. We topped the rise, and Pitamakan's horse -shied at a couple of robes lying close to the trail. Beyond, a couple of -hundred yards away, we saw my uncle and his men running toward us; he -stopped at sight of us and signed, "Go out! They went down off the end -of the bluff!" - -We loped to the end of the bank and looked down. It was not a -perpendicular bluff; it sloped to the river at an angle of about eighty -degrees. Two fresh streaks in the dark and crumbling surface showed -where the cut-throats had slid down into the water. - -We looked out upon the swift-running river, but could not see the men. -Presently they appeared in the center fully three hundred yards -downstream, swimming swiftly and powerfully toward the far shore. We -sprang from our horses in order to take steady aim at them, but both -dived before we could fire. Holding our weapons ready, we watched -eagerly for them to reappear. But, incredible as it may seem, we never -saw them again until they emerged on the shore five hundred yards below. -They turned and waved their arms at us derisively, and then slowly -walked into the willows that lined the edge of the river. - -"Oh, how disappointed I am! When they turned back from us there at the -top of the rise, I was sure that I should soon count another coup," -Pitamakan lamented. - -We turned now to meet the men who were hurrying toward us and who were -almost winded by their steep climb. "Where are they?" my uncle gasped. - -"Across the river!" I answered. - -I happened to look off at our camp. "A rider is at the barricade," I -said. - -"Abbott, no doubt, quieting the women," said my uncle, and added in -Blackfoot so that Pitamakan would understand, "Well, they killed the -Curlew! Shot him in the back of the head, poor fellow!" - -"Poor Louis! His troubles are over," I said. I was sorry that we were -never again to hear him bewailing in his falsetto voice the loss of his -pension and his endless other worries. - -My uncle went on to explain to us just what had happened. The -Assiniboins had climbed out of the valley in plain view of us, leaving -two of their number, who were probably near relatives of Sliding Beaver, -to avenge the chief's death. Those two had lain concealed in the thick -willows at the upper end of the chopping. Arriving in the timber, all of -our men except Louis, who had gone farther up in the grove to trim and -cut into proper lengths a cottonwood that he had previously felled, had -begun loading logs on the wagons. Then a gun had boomed right behind -Louis; he had toppled over, dead, and the two cut-throats had rushed out -to scalp him. The men had fired and had driven them back into the -willows before they had accomplished their purpose, and they had run -toward the river trail with my uncle and some of his men after them. - -It was evident that the two had not seen or heard Pitamakan and me ride -past the head of the grove toward the river trail; we believed that it -had been planned to kill as many of our men in the grove as they could, -and to decoy us down the river, where we might be ambushed by the main -party. - -By the time we got back into the grove the men who had been left with -the teams had dug a grave for poor Louis, and one of them had been to -camp with the news of his passing. We buried him while his woman mourned -for him and the other women cried in sympathy. - -My uncle had the men knock off work early that afternoon so that the -horses should have ample time to eat before we brought them into the -stockade for the night. Then, while waiting for our evening meal, my -uncle, Abbott, Pitamakan, and I held a war council out by the -river-bank, where the men would not overhear our talk. They were a -timid lot, French engagés all of them, and we did not want them to -suspect how serious we thought our situation to be. - -"The older I grow the less sense I have! I should have known better than -to come down here with these few timid engagés to build a fort upon the -most traveled war trail in the country," said my uncle. "I should have -had ten--yes, twenty--more men. I shall send by the next up-river boat -for all the men that can be engaged in Fort Benton." - -"Yes, we are in a risky position," said Abbott. "This war party may be -right back at us to-night; they may keep hanging round until they get -more of us. If they have started home, they will be coming again as fast -as they can get here with a big war party. We do need a lot more men, -but I doubt whether even ten more can be engaged in Fort Benton." - -"Far Thunder! Almost-brother! Listen to me!" Pitamakan exclaimed. "Not -uselessly are we members of the Pikuni; we have but to let our people -know what danger we are in, and a hundred of them will come to help us -as fast as their horses can carry them. They are just two days' ride -from Fort Benton at their camp on Bear River. Send for them, Far -Thunder, and we will do our best to survive the dangers here until they -join us." - -"Ha! That is a life-saving plan you have in that good head of yours! I -will get a letter about it ready right away; a steamboat may turn the -bend down there at any moment! Carroll and Steell will lose no time in -getting a messenger off to camp for us!" - -"One more thing," Abbott interposed as my uncle rose to leave us. "If -those cut-throats are going to sneak back into the grove again to-night -and attack us, we have to know it. I propose that these two boys and I -stand watch down there until morning." - -My uncle agreed to that, and we went in to eat supper. - -At early dusk Abbott, Pitamakan, and I went down into the grove, -accompanied by all the men and women in a compact group. Then all the -others turned back to camp. If the enemy were watching us from the -breaks, they could not possibly count those who went to and from the -grove, and so learn that three of us were remaining in it. - -More than once during the night our hearts went thumpety-thump at the -approach of dim and shadowy objects, but the objects always proved to be -elk or deer. Pitamakan watched the river trail, I the breaks from the -middle edge of the grove; Abbott had his stand at the upper end. Along -toward morning I got a real scare when an animal that I thought was a -stray buffalo proved to be a big grizzly coming straight toward me. I -did not know what to do. If I ran, he would probably chase me; if I -fired at him, I might only wound him--it was too dark to shoot -accurately. I looked about for a tree small enough to climb, saw one, -and was on the point of running to it, when the bear turned off sharply -and I heard him slosh through the river. - -We maintained our watch until my uncle came down with the men in the -morning and stationed some of them to take our places. We thus had only -six men at work; at that rate we should be all summer and winter -building the fort! As we three were starting toward camp, my uncle told -us that Tsistsaki was to stand watch there over the picketed horses and -that we were to sleep as long as we could. - -At about four o'clock in the afternoon, Tsistsaki roused us from our -heavy sleep with the news that the smoke of a steamboat was in sight -down the river. Springing from our couches and running outside, we saw -the black column of smoke about two miles away, and I went down into the -grove to notify my uncle. He hurried back to camp with me and got ready -his letter to Carroll and Steell, and put it into a sack with a stone, -so that he could throw it aboard; then we all went out to the bank of -the river and waited for the boat to come in close at our hail. It -presently rounded the bend a mile or more below and headed up the center -of the broad, straight stretch. How interested I was in watching it, -this freighter from far St. Louis! It had left the city only thirty or -forty days before; what a lot we could learn of the news in the States -if we could have a chat with its crew! I said as much to Abbott, and he -exclaimed, "Oh, shucks! Who wants to know about the hide-bound, -cut-and-dried, two-penny affairs and doings in the States! Here is where -life is real life! Why, a fellow can get more excitement here in a day -than in a lifetime back there!" - -The steamboat came steadily on against the swift current, and as soon as -it had passed the bar below the mouth of the Musselshell we fired -several shots, and Pitamakan waved his blanket to attract the attention -of the captain and the pilot; but the boat never changed its course, and -after a few moments of anxious suspense my uncle exclaimed, "Is it -possible that the captain does not intend to come in to us? Fire a -couple more shots! Pitamakan, wave your blanket again." - -We fired, waved our blanket and arms, and shouted. The crew on the lower -deck and a few passengers on the hurricane deck came to the rail and -waved greeting to us, and the man standing beside the pilot, evidently -the captain, stuck his head out of the side window of the wheelhouse and -looked at us, but still the boat held its course well over toward the -farther shore; the captain intended to pay no attention to our signals. -That he should not do so was almost unbelievable! My uncle turned red -with anger. "The hounds! They are going to pass me! Me! A company man! -That captain shall smart for this! Can you make out the name?" - -I read the name on the wheelhouse. "It is the Pittsburgh," I told him. - -"Ha! That explains it," he said. "It is not a company boat. This is its -first trip up the river. The captain is sure a mean man; he will never -get any of my custom!" - -"But, Wesley, seems to me you've just got to get that letter aboard," -said Abbott. - -"Yes, I have to! It can be done, and it must! Thomas, Pitamakan, saddle -up, you two, chase that boat, and when it ties up for the night--" - -"I had better go with them, don't you think? There's no telling what -they may run up against," Abbott said to him. - -My uncle scratched his chin and frowned as he always did when perplexed, -and after some thought exclaimed, "Well, I can't let the three of you -go! The men down there in the timber are about as timid a set of sheep -as ever was. No, Abbott, you'll have to help me here, and the boys must -do the best they can." - -Pitamakan ran for the horses. I did not ask whether I were to ride -Is-spai-u; I just brought him in and put the saddle on him. Pitamakan -saddled my runner, for, as you know, his fast horse had had his shoulder -gashed by a bullet. My uncle handed me the letter and told us to be very -cautious, but to get it aboard the boat at any cost. Tsistsaki came -running out and handed us some sandwiches, and we were off. - -The Upper Missouri Valley is the worst country in all the West for the -rider. It is fine enough going in the wooded or grassy bottoms of -varying lengths, but between the bottoms are steep slopes and ridges -that break abruptly off into the winding river, and that are so seamed -with coulees, many of them with quicksand beds, that they are well-nigh -impassable. - -I did not intend that we should follow the valley until obliged to do -so. On leaving camp we rode on the plain and followed it from breakhead -to breakhead. Occasionally we got a glimpse of the valley far below and -of the smoke of the steamboat puffing its way up the river. We were soon -in the lead of it, for, while we were making seven or eight miles an -hour on a straight course, it was going no faster than that on a course -as crooked as the body of a writhing snake. From the time we topped the -rise above camp we were continually pushing into great herds of -buffaloes and antelopes. - -On and on we rode until the lowering sun warned us that we must keep -close track of the progress of the steamboat. We turned down a little -way into the breaks, looking for a well-worn game trail to follow, and -soon found one. I never went along one of those bad-land trails without -wondering how far back in the remote past it had been broken by a band -of thirsty buffaloes heading down from the plains to water. Since that -time how many, many thousands of them had traveled it! - -When part way down the long incline, and still all of two miles from the -river, we came to a sharp turn in the ridge, and from it saw the smoke -of the steamboat, not, as we had expected, somewhere down the river, but -all of three or four miles above the point where we should enter the -bottom. - -The sun had set, and the night was already stealing down into the -valley; the boat would soon be tied up. There was not a pilot on the -river that would venture to guide a steamboat up or down it even in the -light of a full moon, and this night there would be no moon until near -morning. - -"Almost-brother, we have some hard traveling to do!" I said. - -"We each have good legs. When our horses fail us, we will use them," -Pitamakan answered. - -The bottom that we were heading into proved to be all of a mile long, -and we traversed it and went over a rather easy point into the next -bottom before real night set in. We had starlight then, just enough -light to enable us to see in a rather uncertain way forty or fifty feet -ahead of our horses. Midway up the bottom we came to the first of our -troubles, a cut coulee that ran across it from the bad lands to the -river. We turned up along it almost to the slope of the valley before -Pitamakan, on foot and leading his horse, found a game trail that -crossed it. Presently we arrived at the point at the head of the bottom, -and could find no trail leading up it, in itself a bad sign. We both -dismounted and began the ascent. Our horses' feet sank deep into the -sun-baked, surface-glazed volcanic ash with a ripping, crunching sound -as if they were breaking through snow crust. Almost before we knew it we -found ourselves on a steep slope with a cut bluff above us and the -murmuring river below us. Our horses began to slip. - -"We shall have to make a quick run for it!" Pitamakan called back to me. - -The horses slipped and frantically pawed upward in a strenuous effort -to avoid plunging down into the river. We made it and, gasping for -breath, found ourselves upon the gently sloping ground of the next -bottom. - -"Almost we went into the river!" Pitamakan exclaimed. - -"Don't talk about it!" I replied. - -"The Under-Water People almost got us!" - -"Oh, do be quiet! Mount and lead on, or let me lead!" I cried. - -We went on up through that bottom, across a point, through another -bottom and over a very rough point seamed with coulees. In the next -bottom I called a halt. "The boat must be somewhere close ahead. We can -no longer travel outside the timber; from here on we have to see both -shores of the river--" - -"It will be impossible for us to see the far shore," Pitamakan broke in. - -"Of course. But the boat has lights burning all night long. We shall see -them," I explained. - -We mounted, and I took the lead into the timber close ahead. I let my -horse pick his way, reining him only sufficiently to keep him close to -the river and guiding myself by its sullen murmur. We groped our way -through the timber of that bottom and of another; then from the next -bare point we saw the lights of the boat some little distance up the -river against the blackness of the north shore. - -We rode through a belt of cottonwoods and some willows to the head of -the bottom and then out upon a sandy shore right opposite the boat. -White though it was, we could see nothing of it except its two lights, -and they were so faint that we knew the river was of great width. We -dismounted, and I told Pitamakan that I would fire my rifle to attract -the attention of the watchman, and then shout to him, as loudly as -possible, to send a small boat across for us. - -I fired the shot; it boomed loudly across the water and echoed sharply -against the other shore. "Ahoy, there! We want to come aboard!" I -shouted, waited for an answer, and got none. Again I shouted, with the -same result. - -"Now you fire your rifle!" I told Pitamakan. - -He fired it, and then we did get an answer. The flash of a dozen guns -for an instant illuminated the white paint of the boat, and with the -dull booming of them we heard several bullets strike in the trees behind -us! - - - - -CHAPTER V - -TWO CROWS RAISE THEIR RIGHT HANDS - - -We got back into the timber in no time. - -"The crazy ones! They think that we are enemies!" - -"Well," I said in answer to this dismayed exclamation of Pitamakan's, -"you know what we have to do now; swim across with our letter." - -"And be shot as soon as we are seen!" - -"Not a shot will be fired at us. I'll see to that. Come, let us picket -the horses outside the timber and hunt for a couple of dry logs for a -raft," I told him. - -Let me tell you that it was no fun blundering along that shore in the -darkness, testing the logs we stumbled against for their dryness and -trying to roll them into the water, always with the fear of feeling -rattlesnake fangs burn into our hands. At last we got two logs of fair -size into the water side by side and lashed them firmly together with -willow withes. Lashing our clothing and weapons on top of a pile of -brush in the center, we pushed out into the current--but not until -Pitamakan had called upon his gods to protect us from the dread -Under-Water People. He clung to the front end of the unwieldy logs with -one hand, pawed the water with the other, and kicked rapidly. I did -likewise at the rear of the raft, but for all our efforts we could make -the raft go toward the other shore little faster than the current would -take it. - -It was absolutely certain that the raft would not waterlog and sink -during the time that we had use for it, yet it was with feelings of -dread and suspense that we worked our way well out into the center of -the stream. Then Pitamakan suddenly yelled to me: "The Under-Water -People! They are after us! Kick hard! Hard!" - -"Oh, no! You are mistaken!" I told him. - -"I am sure that they are after us!" he cried. "I touched one of them -with my hand, and he hit me in my side. O sun, pity us! Help us to -survive this danger!" - -"Take courage! So long as we cling to the logs they can't drag us down," -I told him. - -"Oh, you don't understand about these Under-Water People! They can do -terrible things. They are medicine." - -He said no more, nor did I. It was useless for me to tell him that he -had encountered a big catfish or sturgeon swimming lazily near the -surface. - -From where we pushed out into the river to the point where we landed -must have been all of a mile. We dragged the raft out upon the sand as -far as we could in case we should want to use it again and then put on -our clothes and started off up the shore. In a little while, looking out -through the brush and timber, we saw the ghostly outline of the -steamboat close upon our left. Silently we stole to the edge of the -sloping bank and looked down upon it. A reflector lantern lighted the -lower deck and the boilers, flanked with cordwood, and there was a light -shining through the windows of the engine-room; but no one was in sight, -not even the watchman. I believed that a number of men were on guard -and did not intend to take any chances with them. I whispered to -Pitamakan that the time had not come for us to make our presence known, -and we sat down right where we were in the brush. - -Presently a big clock somewhere abaft the boilers struck the hour of -three, and a tall, lank, black-whiskered man came out into the light of -the lower deck and began to arouse men sitting or lying behind the rows -of cordwood. "It is three o'clock," I heard him snarl. "Git a move on -you! Light the fires under them boilers!" - -Three or four men sprang to obey the command, and another went up to the -hurricane deck to arouse the cook and his helpers. - -"Hi, there, mate, throw out the gangplank and let us aboard!" I shouted. - -Black whiskers jumped as if he had been shot and dodged behind a boiler; -the men crouched in the shelter of the cordwood. - -"Don't be afraid and don't shoot at us again. Let us aboard!" I said. - -"Who be you?" the mate shouted from his shelter. "Git down there into -the light and show yourself!" - -I told Pitamakan to remain where he was, and, going down to the edge of -the shore where the light streamed upon me, I explained that I was -Thomas Fox, that I had an Indian with me, and that I had a letter to -deliver into the captain's care. - -"Sounds fishy to me," the mate began; then from the upper deck a deep -voice called, "Slim, you let that boy and his friend on board! I know -him!" And to me, "Hello, Thomas, my boy! I'm dressing. Come up to my -room as soon as you get aboard and tell me all about it!" - -"That I will, Mr. Page," I answered. I knew as soon as he spoke that it -was Henry Page, long a pilot for the American Fur Company, and now, of -course, piloting boats for the independents. - -Out came the gangplank. I called to Pitamakan, and we went aboard and -straight up to Mr. Page, while the mate and his men stared after us. In -a few words I explained why we were there. - -"I knew," he said, "it was your Uncle Wesley and his outfit there at -the mouth of the Musselshell. I learned at Fort Union that he is -starting a fort there, but the captain wouldn't let me turn in when you -signaled. I'll bet you had a rough time coming up here and getting -across the river." Then he lowered his voice. "This captain--Wiggins is -his name--is the meanest steamboat man that ever headed up this river!" - -"Maybe he will not set us across the river, nor even deliver the -letter," I hazarded. - -"Give me the letter. I'll deliver it, and I'll put you across right -now," he replied, and led the way down to the lower deck and ordered a -boat put into the water. - -On our way across I explained to our good friend the danger we were in -from a grand attack upon us by the Assiniboins and how urgent it was -that the Pikuni should get our call for help without delay. - -"Well, I believe I have good news for you and your uncle," he said. "I -happened to hear in Fort Union that the Assiniboins are encamped over on -the Assiniboin River in Canada; so they are farther from the mouth of -the Musselshell than your Pikuni over on the Marias River are. I feel -sure that your friends will be with you in good time for the big battle, -if there is to be one." - -"In that letter to Carroll and Steell that you have my uncle also asks -them to send him any loose men that can be engaged in Fort Benton. I -hope that your captain will give them passage and land them at our -place." - -"He has to land passengers wherever they wish to go. I'll try, myself, -to engage some men for you," he replied. - -Then we struck the shore and with a few last words parted from our good -friend. - -"It wouldn't do any harm to have a short sleep before we start back," -said Pitamakan. - -"No sleep for me until I strike my couch in our lodge," I told him. - -By that time day was breaking. We went out through the timber to our -horses and found that we had picketed them upon really good grass and -plenty of it. We saddled them and watered them at the river, and as we -rode away from it the steamboat slipped her moorings and went on -upstream. - -Without adventure upon the way we arrived in camp at noon just as the -men were returning to it for their dinner. - -"Did you deliver the letter?" my uncle shouted eagerly. - -"We did!" I shouted. - -Later, while we were eating, I told the adventures of the night while -Pitamakan held Tsistsaki and the other women spellbound with his -description of the dangers that we had encountered. They made no comment -other than a casual "Kyai-yo!" when he told of the steamboat men's -firing at us, but his description of our swim and his encounter with the -Under-Water Person brought forth cries of horror. - -My listeners were loud in their denunciation of the steamboat captain. -My uncle vowed that the Pittsburgh should never carry a bale of his furs -to St. Louis or bring up freight for him. - -"Well, boys," my uncle said to the men as they were starting back to -work, "there's this much about it: help is sure coming to us. We'll just -peg along the best we can and trust to luck that all will be well with -us." - -Abbott was asleep, having been on guard all night. Pitamakan and I soon -lay down and slept. At supper-time we got up and had a refreshing bath -in the river, where Abbott joined us, and toward dusk we three went to -guard the grove during the night. My uncle arranged with the engagés to -stand watch in the barricade by turns, for he was completely worn out by -his day-and-night work and had to have one night of complete rest. - -The night passed quietly; when morning came we were all convinced that -Sliding Beaver's followers and survivors had gone on to their camp. -Nevertheless, we did not intend to relax our vigilance. - -According to my uncle's plan of the fort, three hundred and ten logs, -twenty feet long and a foot in diameter, were required for the walls and -the roof supports, and for the two bastions ninety logs twelve feet -long were required. Of that large number only a few more than a hundred -had been hauled out. With our present force we could not possibly build -the fort in less than three months. At Abbott's suggestion that he build -upon a much smaller scale, my uncle had replied, "No, sir! This place -calls for a real fort, a commodious fort. I am going to have it or none -at all." - -On that day Pitamakan and I slept until noon and after dinner saddled -Is-spai-u and my runner and rode out for meat, I, of course, upon the -black. - -There were plenty of buffaloes in the valley not more than a mile above -camp. Pitamakan and I rode down into the grove to notify my uncle to -have a man follow us with a team and wagon, for we intended to make a -quick killing. Sneaking through the timber close to a herd of buffaloes -and chasing them across the flat, we killed four fat ones. We hurriedly -butchered them and helped the engagés to load the meat upon the wagon; -then we remounted our horses. - -Off to the south lay country unknown to me. "Come! Let us ride out upon -discovery," I said to Pitamakan. - -"I knew that was in your mind by the way you used your knife on our -kills," he replied. - -We rode out upon the west rim of the valley, following it to the mouth -of the Sacajawea Creek, which we crossed, then again along the rim for -perhaps five miles to the top of a flat butte from which we had a -wonderful view of the country. Pitamakan pointed out to me where Flat -Willow Creek and Box Elder Creek, at the nearest point about forty miles -to the south of us, broke into the Musselshell from the Snowy Mountains. -Both streams, he said, were from their mouths to their heads just one -beaver pond after another. - -We had, of course, disturbed numerous bands of buffaloes and antelopes -along our way up the rim, and now, turning down into the valley of the -Musselshell on our homeward course, we alarmed more of them. - -"If any war parties are cached along here in the timber," said -Pitamakan, "these running herds are putting them upon their guard!" - -"Let us keep well out from the timber," I proposed. - -I had no more than spoken when two men came walking slowly out from a -grove about two hundred yards ahead of us, each with his right hand -raised above his head, the sign for peace. - -"Ha! Maybe they mean that, and maybe they are setting a trap for us; we -must be cautious," said Pitamakan. - -We advanced slowly until we were about a hundred yards from the -signalers and brought our horses to a stand. - -"Who are you?" I signed to them. - -One of them, dropping his bow and arrows, extended his arms and rapidly -raised and lowered them several times in imitation of the wings of a -bird, the sign for the Crow tribe. Then he waved his right hand above -his shoulder, the query sign that I had made. - -"We want nothing to do with them," Pitamakan said to me hurriedly. - -I signed that I was white. - -"The rider with you, who is he? Where are you camped? Let us be friends -and go together to your camp," the Crow signed. Then his companion -added, "Come, let us meet and sit and smoke a peace pipe. We are two, -you are two. It will be good for the four of us to be friends and -smoke." - -"What a lie! Now I am sure they want to trap us! Signing to us that they -are but two! Close behind them the timber is full of Crows!" Pitamakan -muttered. - -"What shall we do?" I asked him. "Cross the river, ride off beyond the -breaks, where they can't see us, and then turn homeward?" - -"It would be useless to do that. They are bound north and will see our -camp; we may as well make a straight ride to it." - -"Well, then, we go," I said and pressed a heel against Is-spai-u's side. - -Away we went, circling out from the grove; and our horses had not made -four jumps when a number of Crows--at least twenty, we thought--sprang -from the timber and discharged their few guns at us while the -bow-and-arrow men raised the Crow war cry and uselessly flourished their -weapons. Several of the bullets whizzed uncomfortably close to us. - -Pitamakan was about to return their fire when I checked him. "Don't -fire! We have enough trouble to face!" I cried. - -Our swift horses carried us out of their range before they could load -and fire their guns again. - -"More trouble for us, I'm sure!" my uncle exclaimed, as we halted our -sweating horses in front of the barricade just before sunset. - -"Yes, a war party of twenty or twenty-five Crows fired at us. They seem -to be heading this way," I replied, and told him and the men all about -our meeting them, while Pitamakan answered the women's questions. - -When I had finished, the engagés, Abbott excepted, of course, wore -pretty long faces. They all went into Henri Robarre's lodge as we, with -Abbott, answered Tsistsaki's call to supper. - -We had barely finished eating, when Robarre came to the door of our -lodge and asked my uncle to step outside. We all went out and found the -men lined up near the passageway in the barricade. - -"Huh! Still more trouble!" my uncle muttered. Then to them he said, -"Well, my men, what is it?" - -They looked at one another and at us hesitatingly, and several of them -nudged Henri Robarre. After much urging he stepped forward and said to -my uncle: - -"Sare, M'sieu' Reynard! We hare mos' respec' hask dat we have hour -discharge. Dat we hembark for Fort Benton on ze firs' boat dat weel take -hus." - -"Ha! You want to quit, do you? What is the trouble? Am I not treating -you well?" - -"Wait! They are to have a big surprise," said Tsistsaki and turned from -us back to the lodges. - -"Sare, M'sieu' Reynard," Henry continued, "eet ees no you. You hare one -fine mans. Les sauvages, Assiniboins, Crows, many more zat wee' come, he -are ze troub', m'sieu'." - -"But you can't go back on your contracts!" my uncle exclaimed. "You all -agreed to come down here and work for me a year; you signed contracts to -that effect." - -"Sare, honneur, we hare no sign eet ze pap' for fight heem, les -sauvages. We no sign eet ze pap' for work all days and watch for les -sacrés sauvages hall ze nights. Pretty soon we hall gets keel, m'sieu'. -We hare no pour le combat; we hare jus' pauvre cordeliers, engagés in ze -forts. M'sieu', you weel let hus go?" - -I knew by the set expression of my uncle's face what his answer was to -be, but he never gave it. Out came the women; their eyes were blazing, -long braids were streaming, and they carried lodge-fire sticks in their -hands. They charged upon their men, crying, "Cowards! You shall not -desert our chief! Stay in the lodge and do our work; we'll build the -fort! Give us your clothing; you shall wear our gowns!" - -Never shall I forget that scene! The poor engagés shrank from the -attack. Wild-eyed, they begged the women to desist, all the while -getting painful whacks from their sticks and the most terrible -tongue-lashing that could be given in the Blackfoot language! My uncle -and Abbott laughed at their plight, and Pitamakan and I actually rolled -upon the ground in a perfect frenzy of joy. When, at last, we sat up and -wiped our eyes, there were the engagés heading for their lodges, and -each one was followed by his woman, still shrieking out her candid -opinion of him. - -"Well, I guess that settles it!" Abbott exclaimed. - -It did! When my uncle called the men together and gave out the detail of -the night watch, not one of them made objection, and never again did -they ask for their discharge. - -With the setting of the sun, Abbott, Pitamakan, and I went down into the -grove to our accustomed place, Abbott at the head of the grove and we -at its east side. We fully expected that the Crow war party, repeating -the tactics of the Assiniboins, would sneak into the grove during the -night with the intention of making a surprise attack upon the men when -they resumed work in it in the morning. It was agreed that, if they did -come, we were to withdraw without letting them know, if possible, that -we had seen them. That would mean, as my uncle remarked with a heavy -sigh, that the grove would be given over to the enemy for an indefinite -time, during which work on the fort would, of course, be suspended. -Pitamakan said that, in his opinion, the war party, having had a good -view of Is-spai-u and doubtless believing him to be the wonderful -buffalo-runner they had heard about, would be far more likely to try to -sneak him out of our camp than they would be to ambush us in the grove. - -To our great astonishment the night passed without the Crows appearing -either at the grove or at the barricade. We did not know what to think. -Was it possible, Abbott asked, that the party was homeward bound to the -Crow country across the Yellowstone after an unsuccessful raid north of -the Missouri? - -"War parties seldom go home on foot," Pitamakan well replied. - -As soon as my uncle came into the timber with the men and placed his -guards and set the six to work we three watchers returned to the -barricade, had breakfast, and turned in for the sleep we so much needed. -The day and the following night passed quietly; and when the next day -and night passed without our detecting any signs of the Crow war party, -we said to one another that it had gone its way without discovering our -camp. - -The third day after our meeting the Crows came. After watering and -picketing the saddle-horses close to the barricade, the men hitched up -the teams as usual and came into the grove, and Pitamakan, Abbott, and I -went to camp, had our morning meal, and as usual took to our couches. We -had not been asleep more than three hours, when Tsistsaki came into the -lodge and shook us by turns until we were wide-awake. "Take your gun and -hurry out!" she said with suppressed excitement. "Several clumps of -sagebrush are moving upon us!" - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -ABBOTT FIRES INTO A CLUMP OF SAGEBRUSH - - -"What do you mean? Sagebrush can't move," I said to her. - -"Oh, yes, it can when enemies are behind it, pushing it along!" she -cried. "Hurry! Follow me and stoop low so that you cannot be seen over -the top of the barricade." - -Tsistsaki led us to the south side of the barricade, and, lining us up -beside her to look through the narrow space between the top log and the -one next it, told us to watch the sagebrush beyond the picketed -saddle-horses. - -They were upon smooth grass. A hundred yards or so farther on were -scattering growths of sage and of greasewood, the outer border of a -growth that two hundred yards beyond became a solid tract of brush from -three to four feet high, which extended a long way up the valley. I -noticed at once that here and there with the near growth of short -bushes were taller, thicker clumps that seemed to be out of place; and -as I looked one of them advanced a foot or two with a gentle quivering -of its top. - -At the same time Pitamakan exclaimed: "She is right! Sagebrush can move. -Behind every one of those tall bushes is an enemy!" - -"Sneaking in after Is-spai-u!" I said. - -"There are twenty or more of them. If they knew that we are but three -guns here, they would rush in upon us in no time!" said Abbott. - -"Oh, you talk, talk! Quick! Do something! Save Is-spai-u!" Tsistsaki -hoarsely whispered. - -"If we rush out there," said Pitamakan, "the enemy will know that they -are discovered and will charge in and fight us for the horses. -Almost-brother, you and I will wander out there, just as if we were -going to water the horses. The enemy will surely think that is our -intention, but we will lead them toward the river, then bring them round -the north side of the barricade and into it." - -"Now, that is a sure wise plan. Go ahead, you two, and meanwhile -Tsistsaki and I will get the loud-mouthed gun across to this south-side -firing-place," said Abbott. - -There was here, as in a number of places round the barricade, a -brush-covered space through which the six-pounder could be pointed. The -women of the engagés were in their lodges, and Tsistsaki whispered to us -that she had not told them of her discovery for fear some of them would -make an outcry. - -Pitamakan and I sneaked back into the lodge for our blankets and put -them on, first, however, sticking our rifles under our belts and -pressing them close along the left side and leg; then we walked -carelessly out through the passageway of the barricade. We were talking -and laughing, but you may be sure our laughter was forced. When we were -twenty or thirty feet from the barricade he said to me, "Let us pause -here and have a look at the country." - -We halted and looked first to the north, then down to the grove, from -which both teams were emerging with wagons loaded with logs. There were -three engagés with the outfit. I pointed to them. "What would they do if -they knew what is ahead of them?" - -"They would fly! Their fear would be so great that it would give them -power to grow wings instantly!" Pitamakan grimly answered. - -Fear! Well, I was afraid, and so was my almost-brother. Who would not be -afraid in such a situation--just three of us against twenty or more -enemies watching and planning how to get away with our horses and our -scalps, too? - -We turned to face the south and scrutinized the tall, thick clumps of -sagebrush standing among the shorter, scattered growth. They never -moved, not so much as a quiver of their slender, pale-green tops. - -Pitamakan broke out with a quick-time dance-song of his people and -danced a few steps to it as we neared the horses. I sauntered up to -Is-spai-u, he to his fast runner, and we unfastened and coiled their -ropes. Leading them, we moved on to one after another of the other -four horses, ever with watchful eyes upon those clumps of sage, the -nearest of which was not more than a hundred yards away. We feared every -moment to see them thrown down and the enemy come charging upon us; but -at last we had all the horses in lead and with fast-beating hearts and -rising hopes started toward the river, never once looking back, much -though we wanted to. Pitamakan seemed to know my thought, for he said -cheerily: "Never mind; you don't need to look back. If they make a rush, -Great Hider and Tsistsaki will shout before they can make two jumps -toward us." - -[Illustration: AT LAST WE HAD ALL THE HORSES IN LEAD AND WITH -FAST-BEATING HEARTS ... STARTED TOWARD THE RIVER] - -Ha! What a long, long way those few yards were to the shelter of the -stockade. At last we rounded it. Breathing freer, we passed along the -north side, led the horses in through the passageway, turned them loose, -and put up the bars across it. Then we pretended to go into our lodge, -but crouched away from the doorway and sneaked over to the two watchers -kneeling at either side of the cannon and looking out across the flat. - -"You made it! My! That little song and dance of Pitamakan's, that sure -fooled 'em! He is some actor, that boy," Abbott said. - -"Well, what are we to do now--fire the cannon at them? Give them a big -scare?" I asked. - -"I don't know what to say. If only Far Thunder were here--" Abbott -began. - -"He is coming. Look!" said Tsistsaki. - -Sure enough, he was on his way to dinner with three men, leaving three -to guard the grove, as usual. The teams were almost to the site of the -fort. I went out to meet them and told the men to take the horses into -the barricade. - -"But the horses, they should be heat ze grass. Yes?" one of them said, -and all looked at me questioningly. - -"Well, maybe we shall have a fight before we eat. A war party is cached -out there in the sagebrush," I replied; and they shrank back as if I had -struck them. At the same time I heard some slight commotion within the -barricade. At Abbott's suggestion Tsistsaki was warning the women of -our impending trouble and commanding them to make no outcry. - -"Shut your mouth!" I hissed to one of the teamsters, who with upflung -arms was beginning to make great outcry. "Not a word from any of you -now. Just get those horses inside; then pretend to go to your lodges, -but sneak across to the south side and remain there." - -I stood by the passageway until the others arrived, and when I had told -them, too, what to do, my uncle said to me as we went crouching in -across the barricade, "The war party is undoubtedly the Crow outfit that -you met the other day." - -We joined the others, and Abbott said to him, "We've had a pretty close -call, Wesley." - -"Just where are the rascals? Let me see them!" my uncle demanded. He -laughed grimly when we had pointed out to him the tall brush here and -there concealing them. "I'll bet that they are some tired, lying there -in the hot sun and straining themselves to keep the brush upright and -motionless!" After a moment of thought he added, "Tsistsaki, bring me a -couple of firers for this loud-mouth gun." - -"I have them already," she answered and handed him a fuse. He stuck it -into the touch-hole of the cannon and poured some fine powder from his -horn in round it. "I will attend to this," he said to us then. "Now, -you, Henri Robarre! You being about as poor a shot as ever cordelled up -this river, you fire at the foot of one of those bunches of tall sage, -just to start this surprise party. You others then do the best you can." - -He waited until Tsistsaki had interpreted his words to Pitamakan and -then told Henri to fire. Henri did so. None of us saw where the ball -struck, and I doubt whether he himself knew where he aimed. The loud -boom of the gun echoed across the valley and died away; the smoke from -it lifted, but none of the enemy made a move; not one of their shelters -even quivered. - -"Just what I expected! Abbott, let us see what you can do," said my -uncle. - -Abbott stood up, head and shoulders above the barricade, took quick aim -and fired at a bunch of the brush; down it fell as the man behind it let -go his hold upon it and with loud yells of warning or command to his -companions ran straight away from us. At that all the others sprang from -their places of concealment like so many jumping-jacks, and those with -guns fired at us before they turned to run. When we fired at them three -went down at once, and two more staggered on a little way before they -fell. At that our engagés took heart and yelled defiance at the enemy as -they hastily began reloading their guns. I heard Abbott calling himself -names for having failed to kill the man behind the brush that he had -fired into. - -The enemy, twenty or more of them, were drawing together as they went -leaping through the sagebrush, straight up the valley; and presently -they halted and faced about and with yells of hatred and defiance fired -several more desultory shots at us. That was the opportunity for which -my uncle was waiting. He hastily sighted the cannon at them and lighted -the fuse. The old gun went off with a tremendous roar, and with wild -shrieks of fear the enemy ran on faster than ever, if that were -possible--all but two whom the grapeshot had struck. - -"Help, here! Powder and a solid shot!" my uncle yelled. - -Those, too, Tsistsaki had ready for us. Abbott and I rammed the charges -in; Tsistsaki inserted a fresh fuse. We wheeled the gun round into -place, and my uncle again sighted it and touched it off. We waited and -waited, and at last saw a cloud of dust and bits of sagebrush puff into -the air close to the left of the fleeing enemy. As one man they leaped -affrightedly to the right and headed for the mouth of a coulee that -entered the valley from the west. Before we could load the cannon again -they had turned up into the coulee and were gone from our sight. - -"Well," my uncle exclaimed, "I guess that settles our trouble with that -outfit!" Almost at the same moment a heated argument arose among our -engagés, every one of whom asserted that he had killed an enemy. "Here, -you, the way for you all to settle your claims is to go out there and -show which one of the enemy you each downed!" - -Not one of them made answer to that; not one of them wanted to go out -there, perhaps to face a wounded and desperate man. Pitamakan stared at -them, muttered something about cowardly dog-faces, and leaped over the -barricade. Abbott, my uncle, Tsistsaki, and I followed his move, but we -had gone out some distance before the engagés began to follow, moving -slowly well in our rear. - -We, of course, did not proceed without due caution. The very first one -of the dead that we approached was one of the two Crows who had tried to -entice Pitamakan and me into a peace smoke with them, which would have -been our last. We were glad enough that he was one of the dead. - -"I killed him," said Pitamakan as we passed on. "I killed him; he -dropped when I fired, but I cannot count coup upon him." - -"Why not?" Tsistsaki asked. - -"Because of that!" he replied, turning and pointing to the engagés. -They had come to the body of the Crow and three were pretending to have -fired the bullet that laid the enemy low. "I cannot prove that I killed -him," he added sorrowfully. - -Now the three engagés who had been left on guard in the grove came to -us, out of breath and excited, and my uncle promptly ordered them back -to their places. We made the round of the dead, the engagés taking their -weapons and various belongings; then we went back to the barricade for -dinner, first, however, watering and picketing the hungry horses. Later -on, when the teams were again hitched, the engagés drove about and -gathered up the dead and consigned them to the depths of the big river. - -That evening as Pitamakan, Abbott, and I were preparing to go down into -the grove for our nightly watch the engagés were celebrating our victory -of the day. They had all assembled in Henri Robarre's lodge, singing -quaint songs, boasting of their bravery and accurate shooting, and -calling loudly for the women to prepare a little feast, for they were -going to dance. The women! They were gathered in another lodge, laughing -at their men. Otter Woman, Henri Robarre's wife, who was a wonderful -mimic, was making the others ache from laughing as she repeated her -man's futile protests and his gait when she had driven him home from the -gathering of the men who requested their discharge. - -"Those women have a whole lot more sense than their men," Abbott -remarked. - -The night passed quietly. Late in the following afternoon, just after we -three had ended our daily sleep, the women cried out that they could see -the smoke from a down-river steamboat, and Tsistsaki ran to the grove to -let my uncle know of its coming. - -He hurried up to the barricade and eagerly watched the approaching -smoke. "We shall have help now; you boys will not have to stand night -watch much longer. That old tub is bringing plenty of men!" - -The boat soon rounded the bend above and drew in to our landing. Two men -leaped ashore, and the roustabouts threw their rolls of bedding after -them. From the pilot-house Henry Page tossed out to us a weighted sack. -"I'm sorry, Wesley, that we couldn't get more men for you. There's a -letter that explains it all!" he called. "Well, keep up a good heart; -your Blackfeet will soon be with you. So long!" Then the surly captain, -standing beside him, rang some bells, Page whirled his big wheel, and -the boat went on. The two men came up the bank and greeted us. I had -been so intent upon our few words with the pilot that I had not noticed -who they were. - -Now I was glad when I saw the rugged, smooth-shaven faces of the -Tennessee Twins, as they were called all up and down the river. The -Baxters, Lem and Josh, were independent bachelor trappers who roamed -where they willed, despite the hostile war parties of various tribes -that were ever trying to get their scalps. They seemed to bear charmed -lives. As a rule the American Fur Company had not been friendly toward -independent trappers, but those two men were so big-hearted and had -done us so many favors that we all thought highly of them; and Pierre -Chouteau himself had given orders to all the factors up and down the -river that they were to be treated with every consideration. - -"Well, Wesley, here we are," said Lem Baxter after we had shaken hands -all round. - -"You don't mean that you have come to work for me?" my uncle exclaimed. - -"That's about the size of it," Josh put in. - -"You see, 't was this way," Lem went on. "When we heard of the trouble -you were in, and Carroll and Steell couldn't engage any men for you, we -saw it were our plain duty to come down and lend you a hand." - -"Who said that we were in trouble?" - -"Why, that there steamboat captain, Wiggins," Lem answered. "You see, 't -was this way: Henry Page bawled the captain out fer not allowin' him to -put in here in answer to your hail. So to kind of play even the low-down -sneak begins to blow about the battle you are expectin' to have with the -Assiniboins. Yes, sir, makes a regular holler about it as soon as his -boat ties up in front of the fort. Well, I guess you know them French -engagés. The minute they hear about the Assiniboins Carroll and Steell -can't hire nary a one of 'em for you." - -"Well, now, that Wiggins man is a real friendly kind of chap, isn't he?" -my uncle exclaimed. By the tone of his voice I knew that that captain -was in for trouble when the two should meet. - -"Still, Wesley, you're in luck," Lem went on. "Who but your own -brother-in-law, White Wolf, should happen to be in the fort when Page -delivered your letter to Steell. As soon as he was told what was up he -said to us, 'You tell Far Thunder that we shall all be with him for that -battle with the cut-throats! Tell him to look for us to come chargin' -down by the Crooked Creek Trail!' Then he lit out for his camp as fast -as he could go." - -"Ha! Down Sacajawea Creek. They will cross the river at Fort Benton. -Down the north side would have been the shorter way," said my uncle. - -"We mentioned that to him, and he answered that better time could be -made on the south-side trail," said Josh. - -"And there you be! Don't worry!" cried Lem. "Now, Wesley, is it sartin -sure that you plunked that there Slidin' Beaver?" - -"His body is somewhere down there in the river!" I replied. - -"You bet! Wesley finished him!" Abbott exclaimed. - -"Glory be! Look how near that there cut-throat got me!" cried Lem, and -pointed to a bullet crease in the side of his neck. - -"Hurry! Tell me the news they brought!" Pitamakan demanded of me as we -all turned toward the barricade. He fairly danced round me when he -learned that his own father had taken word of our need to the Pikuni and -that the warriors would come to us as soon as possible by the south-side -trail. - -Presently Tsistsaki called us to supper. During the meal we told the -Twins all that had happened to us since we landed there at the mouth of -the Musselshell. Then, having learned the details of our day-and-night -watch, they declared that they wanted to stand watch in the grove that -night and laughed when we said that we thought three men were needed to -guard it. - -We three were only too glad to let them have their way. However, we -relieved the engagés from watch duty in the barricade, dividing the -night between us, and they were therefore in good shape the next morning -for a day of real work. Beginning that day, they were all ordered to cut -and haul logs while the rest of us performed what guard duty had been -their share. In consequence the heaps of logs round the site of the fort -grew rapidly, and we began to look forward to the day when we should -begin work upon the walls. My uncle said that at least one side of the -fort must soon be put up, in which to store the trade goods that would -surely be landed for us within six weeks. - -A day came soon, but not too soon for Pitamakan and me, when the camp -required more meat. I asked to be allowed to ride Is-spai-u, but my -uncle shook his head. - -As we were saddling our horses, the men started for the grove and Henri -Robarre called out to us: "Eet is halways ze buf' dat you keel! Why not -sometames ze helk, ze deer, ze hantelopes?" - -"Kyai-yo!" Tsistsaki exclaimed. "He knows that real meat is the best; it -is only that he must be continually making objections that he talks that -way. Pay no attention to him; kill real meat for us as usual." - -"Oh, kill elk or deer along with the buffalo! Kill some badgers if they -want them! Anything for peace in camp!" my uncle exclaimed. - -It was easy enough to get the buffalo; they were always in the valley -within sight of camp. That morning we found a herd within a mile of it, -killed five fat animals and had the meat all loaded upon the following -wagon by nine o'clock. The teamster then headed for camp, and we went on -to kill what our horses could pack of some other kind of meat. - -Now, we did not want to ride into the brush-filled groves along the -river in quest of elk and deer, for as likely as not we should be -ambushed by some wandering war party. We therefore turned back through -the grove in which the men were at work and thence went on down the big -game trail running from the mouth of the Musselshell down the Missouri -Valley. Where it entered the first of the narrow bottoms we turned off. -We had gone no more than a couple of hundred yards when four bull elk -rose out of a patch of junipers on the hill to our right and -inquisitively stared at us. I slipped from my horse, took careful aim, -and shot one of them. - -We tethered our horses close to my kill and were butchering it when we -were startled by a loud but distant hail and sprang for our rifles, -which were leaning against some brush several steps away. We looked down -into the bottom under us and there, just outside the narrow grove that -fringed the river, we saw five Indians standing all in a row. - -"Ha! Another war party, and no doubt another invitation to a smoke that -would be the end of us!" Pitamakan exclaimed indignantly. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -LAME WOLF PRAYS TO HIS RAVEN - - -That morning I had not forgotten to sling on my telescope before leaving -camp. I got it out, then took a good look at the men, and said to -Pitamakan, "They don't appear to be a war party; they are all old men, -and some have large packs upon their backs!" - -"Ha! It is well-planned deception, but I shall take no chances with -them. I am sure that the brush behind them is full of warriors!" -Pitamakan replied. - -I somehow believed that for once he was mistaken, and when a moment -later the five men started toward us, all making the peace sign and -singing a strange, quaint, melancholy song, so weird, so strangely -affecting, that it almost brought tears to my eyes, Pitamakan himself -said, "I was mistaken! They are men of peace! I believe that they are -men of the Earth-Houses People." - -We met the strangers at the foot of the slope. They continued their -quaint song until we were face to face with them; then their leader, -first making the sign that he was one of the Earth-Houses People, as the -Blackfeet call the Mandans, embraced me and Pitamakan, and so did the -others, each in his turn. - -"We are glad to meet you this good day," said the leader to me in the -sign language. "We have often heard about you. We know that you are the -Fox, the young relative of Far Thunder. We know that your companion is -the young Pikuni, Running Eagle. We have come a long way to see and talk -with Far Thunder. His camp is close by, there where the two rivers meet, -is it not? Yes? We are glad!" - -"Our hearts are the same as yours," I replied. "We are glad to meet you -this good day. Just up there we have killed an elk. Wait for us until we -have butchered it and loaded the meat upon our horses; then we will go -with you to Far Thunder." - -The old leader signed his assent to the proposal, and Pitamakan and I -hurried back up the hill to our work. We were not long at it, taking -only the best of the meat; then I told Pitamakan to hurry on ahead and -notify my uncle of the Mandans' coming, so that he could meet them with -fitting ceremony at the barricade. I then rejoined the visitors, leading -my horse and walking with them, and in the course of an hour we were -greeted by my uncle at the passageway into camp. One after another they -embraced him; then he signed to them that his lodge was their lodge, and -he led them into it, where Tsistsaki greeted them with smiles and turned -to the big kettles of meat and coffee that she was cooking for them and -broke out a fresh box of hard bread. - -With due formality my uncle got out his huge pipe, filled it with a -mixture of l'herbe and tobacco and passed it to the old leader of the -party to light. The old man capped it with a coal from the fire, -muttered a short prayer, and, blowing great mouthfuls of smoke to the -four points of the compass, started it upon its journey round the -circle. The Mandans made no mention of the object of the visit to us, -but said that, having heard from the men of the first down-river fire -boat that my uncle was building a fort on the great war trail where it -crossed Big River, they had thought that a visit of peace should be paid -to him. In turn, my uncle asked how the Mandans were faring and told of -our troubles with the Crows and Assiniboins. The news of the passing of -Sliding Beaver was good news to them; they greeted it with loud clapping -of hands and with broad smiles. "Far Thunder," their leader signed, "you -must surely have strong medicine. The gods have been very good to you to -give you the power to wipe out that terrible, bad man, worst of all the -men of the cut-throat tribe. Far Thunder, for what you have done the -Earth-Houses People owe you much!" - -"I wish that they were all here, all your warriors, for I am expecting -to have a big fight with the cut-throats!" my uncle signed. - -"We have sent for the warriors of my people to hurry down here and help -us, but fear that they will not arrive before the cut-throats appear," -Pitamakan put in. - -After some inquiries about just what we had done toward getting the help -of the Pikuni, the old leader turned to my uncle. "Far Thunder," he -signed, "you see us, five old men and almost useless; our weapons, five -old north stone sparkers [Hudson's Bay Company flintlock guns] and four -bows. But such as we are, Far Thunder, we are yours in this fight with -the cut-throats, if you want us!" - -"You are very generous. We will talk about that later. Just now you are -to eat. I see that the food is ready for you," my uncle replied; and -Tsistsaki passed to them plates piled with boiled meat, hard bread and -dried-apple sauce, and huge bowls of sweetened coffee. - -The men now came up from the grove for their dinner. In the afternoon -our guests rested, and it was not until evening that we learned the real -object of their visit to us. "Far Thunder," the old leader then signed, -when we were all gathered in our lodge, "no doubt you wonder why we -five old men have come the long way through dangerous country to enter -your lodge. It is because we are old and are soon to die that we chose -to take the place of young and useful men on a mission to you from our -people, to bring you gifts and to ask a gift from you." - -"Ha! Now I know what is coming; they are after Is-spai-u!" Pitamakan -whispered. - -"Far Thunder," the old man continued, "no doubt you know that the -Spotted-Horses People [the Cheyennes] visit us every summer with their -robes and furs and tanned leathers to buy some of the corn that we raise -and the pots of clay that we make. Also they come to race their fastest -horses against our fastest horses. Know, chief, that for the last five -summers they have won every race they made with us, and have gone their -way with great winnings, laughing at us and saying, 'Poor Earth-Houses -People! Your horses are of little account; even the best of them are -only travois horses for our women!' Thus we are made poor and greatly -shamed. Recently we counseled together about this. 'We do not,' said one -of the chiefs, 'much need the things that the Spotted-Horses People -bring here. Let us send them word that they need not come again to trade -with us; thus will we be saved from again losing all that we have in -racing our horses against theirs and being told that our best animals -are of no account.' - -"We all agreed that this plan should be followed. Messengers were -selected to take our decision to the Spotted-Horses People. And -then--but wait, Far Thunder--" - -The old man turned and spoke to his companions. They began to unwrap the -bundles that they had carried and soon displayed to our admiring eyes a -cream-white cow buffalo robe beautifully embroidered with porcupine -quillwork of gorgeous colors upon its flesh side; a war suit of fine -buckskin, quill embroidered and hung with white weasel skins; a fine -shield fringed with eagle tail feathers; and a handsomely carved red -stone pipe with feather and fur ornaments on its long stem. One by one -the old leader took them as they were opened to view and impressively -laid them upon the end of my uncle's couch. Then, straightening up in -his seat, he continued: - -"Those, Far Thunder, are gifts to you from your friends, the -Earth-Houses People! - -"The messengers were about to start to the camp of the Spotted-Horses -People," he said, resuming his story. "Then the first fire boat of the -summer came back down the river, and we learned from its men that you -and yours were coming down to the mouth of this little river, to this -great war-trail crossing of Big River, where you were to build a fort, -and that you had with you your fast, black buffalo-runner. Again we -counseled together. This is what we said: 'Far Thunder is a man of -generous heart. We will go to him with our trouble; we will ask him to -give the one thing that will enable us to wipe out the shame that the -Spotted-Horses People have put upon us.' Far Thunder, pity us! Give us -your black buffalo-runner!" - -The eyes of all five of the old men were now upon my uncle, eyes full -of wistful anxiety, and he hesitated not a moment to give his reply to -their request, the one reply that he could make. - -"My friends," he signed, "I must tell you about my black horse. A dying -man gave him to me, the man who seized him in the far south country. -With his last breath that man--you knew him, One Horn--asked me to -promise that I would always keep the horse. I promised. I called upon -the sun to witness that I would keep my promise!" - -The old men slumped down in their seats in utter dejection, and oh, how -sorry we were for them! Their long and dangerous journey, their gifts of -their most valued possessions, were all for nothing! - -Finally, the old leader spoke a few words to the others; one by one they -answered, and several of them spoke at some length and with increasing -animation. We wondered what they were saying, in that strange, -soft-sounding language. At last the old leader turned again to my uncle. - -"Far Thunder!" he signed, "when you told us of your promise to the -dying man, and that it was a sun promise you gave him, not to be -broken--when you told us that--our hearts died. But now, chief, our -hearts rise up. Failing one thing, we gain another. We now see that the -gods themselves sent us to you, that in our old age we should have one -last fight with the cut-throats. Chief, we will remain with you and help -you fight them with all the strength that we have left in our poor old -arms. If we die, how much better to die fighting than in sickness and -pain in our lodges!" - -"I am glad that you will stay with us and help fight the cut-throats. -These valuable things that you have laid here, you will take them back," -my uncle replied. - -"No! We give, but do not take back!" - -It was all very affecting. There was a lump in my throat as I looked at -those old men, simple-minded, kind-hearted, still eager in their old, -old age to face once more their bitter enemies and, if need be, to die. -Tsistsaki threw her shawl over her head and cried a little in sympathy -with them. They presently broke out in a cheerful song of war. - -Pitamakan and I took up our rifles and went out to our guard duty. -"Those ancient ones, what real men they are!" he said to me. - -The night passed quietly. In the morning when the Tennessee Twins came -from guard duty in the grove and learned about our evening talk with the -old men, they shook hands with them one by one. "You are the strong -hearts! We shall be glad to fight alongside with you," Josh signed to -them. - -Cramped as we were for space within the barricade, Tsistsaki insisted -that the old men should have a lodge of their own. The women set up one -of the lodges of the engagés, and all contributed to its furnishings of -robes and blankets and to its little pile of firewood beside the door; -then the widow of poor Louis volunteered to cook their meals. Thus were -the ancient ones made perfectly comfortable. At noon of that day, when -the men came in for their dinner, our guests went to my uncle and told -him that they wanted to help him not only in the coming fight with the -cut-throats, but in other ways as well. Old though they were, their -eyesight was still good; therefore they would do all the daytime guard -duty, three of them in the grove and two in camp. We were glad enough to -accept their offer, for, as the engagés were now entirely relieved from -all share in our constant watch for approaching enemies, the work on the -fort progressed rapidly. - -The leader of the old men, Lame Wolf, was a medicine man and had with -him his complete medicine outfit, the main symbol of which was a stuffed -raven, to the legs of which were attached bits of human scalp-locks of -varying lengths. To Pitamakan, who became a great favorite with him, the -old man said that the raven was his dream, his sacred vision, and very -powerful. It had by its great power brought him safe through many a -battle with the enemy and had four times in his dreams warned him of the -approach of enemies, so that he and his warriors had been able to -surprise them and count many coups upon them. Every evening now he -prayed the raven to give him a revealing vision of the cut-throats and -any other enemies who might be approaching us, and his companions joined -him in singing the songs to his medicine. - -"Far Thunder, my man," said Tsistsaki, the first evening that we heard -the old men praying and singing, "I feel that the gods are with us in -this matter of our fort-building upon this hostile war trail. As fast as -our troubles have come we have conquered them, and now come these five -old men, whose leader is favored of the gods, to help us. I have great -faith in his raven medicine." - -"All right. You put your faith in that raven skin. I put mine in our -watchfulness and in our rifles," my uncle laughed. - -"Ah, well," she answered, "the day will come when your eyes will be -opened to these sacred things." - -During the next few days three different steamboats passed up the river -en route to Fort Benton, and when the first of them came down it -answered our hail and put in to shore. The captain had intended to put -in, anyhow, for he had a letter to us from Carroll and Steell. My uncle -handed him a letter for the Fort Union traders, asking them to tell the -Mandans that their five old men were staying with us to help fight the -Assiniboins, and that they were unable to get Far Thunder's fast runner -because of his vow to the sun that he would never part with it. He had -prepared the letter at the request of Lame Wolf, and the old man heaved -a sigh of satisfaction when he saw it pass into the captain's hands. - -Our letter apprised us that the Pikuni, the whole tribe, warriors and -all, had forded the river at Fort Benton, on their way to us, only four -days before. That news made us low-hearted, for, if the warriors -continued on with the tribe at the slow rate it was obliged to travel, -we feared that they would never arrive in time to help us in the big -fight that every rising sun brought nearer to us. - -My uncle declared that, short of logs as we still were, a beginning must -be made at once upon the walls of the fort; and after dinner Pitamakan, -Abbott, and I went out to assist him in laying the first four logs of -what was to be the southwest corner building of the fort, the one that -was to be my uncle's quarters, and Pitamakan's and mine as well. We -rolled the two bottom logs into place and made them level by putting -flat stones under the ends; and then Abbott, with quick and skillful -axe, saddled the ends; that is, cut deep notches in them. We then rolled -on them two end logs and cut notches in the ends to match the saddles in -the others. The first fitted snugly down into place; the second did not -fit well and was notched deeper at one end; and then, when it fitted -into place and we rested, Tsistsaki, who had come to watch, raised her -hands to the sky and cried out: "O sun! this home that we are starting -to build, let it be a home of peace and plenty; a home of happy days and -nights. Have pity upon us all, O sun. Give us, we pray you, long life -upon these, your rich and beautiful plains!" - -Our team horses, working all day and corralled in the barricade the -greater part of the night, were rapidly losing their flesh and spirits -and no longer minded the flick of the whip. It was plain enough, said my -uncle at our evening meal, that they must be put upon good feed at -night, or else we must soon stop work. He looked at Pitamakan and me. - -"Well, say it!" I cried. "What do you want us to do about it?" - -"Night-herd them. Night-herd the whole outfit, saddle-horses and all, up -west on the high plains where the feed is good. Leave here after dark so -that any wandering war party hanging about will not know just what way -you are going or be able to follow you." - -"Oh, my man!" Tsistsaki exclaimed, "I do not like them to do that. -Think! Just they two against all the travelers upon this great war -trail!" - -"Many are the hunters of the fox; he eludes them all," said Pitamakan. - -"We shall strike out with the outfit as soon as it is dark," I said to -my uncle, and that settled the matter. - -Of course I rode Is-spai-u when we started out, driving the loose stock -ahead of us. We headed southwest--almost south up along the gentle -slope, then, when well out from the valley, northwest--and finally -brought the animals to a stand at the head of the breaks of the -Missouri, about two miles due west from camp. We then hobbled all but -two, Is-spai-u and Pitamakan's buffalo horse, which we picketed with -long ropes. By turns we watched our little band during the short night -and at sunrise drove them back to the barricade. - -"Boys," Tsistsaki said to us after we had finished breakfast, "I have -something to say to you before you sleep." - -"Say it! We are all but asleep now," Pitamakan answered from his couch. - -"It is this: you must not take your horses to-night to feed where you -had them last night; every night you must drive them to a different -place." - -"As if we didn't know enough to do that! We decided upon to-night's -grazing-ground when we were coming in this morning!" Pitamakan -exclaimed. - -"Wise almost-mother. What good care you have for us!" I told her. - -And what a loving, cheerful smile she gave me! Ah, that was a woman, let -me tell you! - -There was too much going on in our lodge for us to sleep well; so we -took a robe and a blanket apiece and sneaked quietly into the lodge of -the old Mandans, who were sleeping after their night watch in the -barricade. - -At about four o'clock the old men aroused us, and Lame Wolf signed that -they were going to bathe; would we go with them? We did, and were -refreshed. Then, after we were back in the lodge and dressed, old Lame -Wolf painted our faces with red-earth paint, the sacred color, and -prayed for us. We could not, of course, understand what he said, for he -did not accompany the prayer with signs, but Pitamakan said that made no -difference; it was, of course, good and powerful prayer. - -At supper that evening we talked about the big fight we were expecting -to have with the Assiniboins, and wondered whether our people would -arrive in time for it. It was possible that the warriors were coming on -ahead, and if they were they might come riding down at any moment. - -"If we could only figure the probable time of the coming of the -cut-throats as well as we can that of our people!" my uncle exclaimed. - -"Wal, now, Wesley, you're goin' to know what I've had in my think-box -for some time; I can't keep it shut any longer," Abbott said. "We've -heard that the Assiniboin camp is away off on the Assiniboin River. But -you can hear a lot that ain't so. Maybe it is nowhere like that far off. -Ag'in, that there war party that we routed don't have to go clear home -to get help to try to wipe us out; the Assiniboins and the Yanktonnais -are about the same breed of pups--both Sioux stock. All those pals of -Slidin' Beaver's have to do is to let the Yanktonnais know that we have -that there Is-spai-u horse with us, and they'll come a-runnin' after -him, even if they don't care shucks about avengin' the death of Slidin' -Beaver. I'll lay four bits that the Yanktonnais camp is a long way this -side of the Assiniboin River. Let's look the thing in the face. It's -possible, fellers, that the ball may open this very night!" - -"Let her come; we're here first!" Josh exclaimed. - -"You bet you! I'm jest a-achin' for a scrap with those cut-throats!" his -twin chimed in. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE MANDANS SING THEIR VICTORY SONG - - -My uncle was not anxious for a fight with our enemies. I had never seen -him so worried. When Abbott and the Twins had gone out of the lodge, he -said to us: "I was too eager for this undertaking. Carroll and Steell -warned me of its dangers, but I wouldn't listen. I shouldn't have come -down here until I had engaged thirty or forty men to build the fort. We -may all be wiped out! What would become of you, my woman, and of you, -Thomas, if I were to go under now with the load of debt that I have -incurred in St. Louis? And after all my years of endeavor, what a bad -name would be mine!" - -"Now, Far Thunder, just you quit that worrying, for everything is going -to come out right for us. I know it! I just know that the gods are with -us," said my almost-mother. - -I could think of nothing to say. As I nodded to Pitamakan and we went -out to drive the horses to their night-grazing I wished that I were not -so tongue-tied. - -"What was he saying?" Pitamakan asked me. I told him, and back to the -lodge he went, thrust his head inside the doorway and said: "Far -Thunder, you have overlooked our main helper. That loud-mouthed gun of -ours can defeat the cut-throats and all their brother tribes, too." - -"Maybe so, if they give us time to point and fire it at them," my uncle -answered; and my almost-brother came back to me lightly humming his -favorite war song. - -A cloudy sky made the night very dark. We mounted and drove the loose -stock straight west out of the valley, then went southwest for a couple -of miles and hobbled them. We picketed Is-spai-u and my runner, which -Pitamakan had saddled that evening. We then drew back outside of the -sweep of the long ropes, and were about to spread our buffalo robe and -lie down when we heard the whir of a rattlesnake close in front of us -and another at our right. "Ha! This is worse than facing a war party!" -Pitamakan exclaimed. At the sound of his voice the snakes rattled again, -and a third somewhere close on our left answered them. We were afraid to -move lest we step upon one of the rattlers and get a jab in our -moccasined feet from its poisonous fangs. - -"We must get back upon our horses and move on," I said. - -"Well, you have matches. Begin lighting them and we will do that," said -Pitamakan. - -I felt in the pocket of my buckskin shirt where I usually carried a few -matches wrapped in paper and waterproof bladder skin. The pocket was -empty. I felt in my ball pouch and in my trousers pockets, although I -knew it was useless to do so, and Pitamakan groaned, "You have lost -them?" - -"Yes!" - -"We just have to pray the gods to guide us," he said. - -As we turned, it seemed to our straining ears that snakes rattled upon -all sides of us. - -"Go slowly!" Pitamakan cautioned. "Stamp the ground hard, and keep -swinging your rifle out in front of you." - -Thus step by step we drew away from the rattlers, fearing all the time -that we should encounter one that would strike before warning us of its -presence. - -At last we came to Is-spai-u, a dim shadow in the darkness, and took up -his rope and led him on to the other picketed animal. Our scare was -still with us as we went among the horses and removed their hobbles, -but, getting into our saddles, we drove the stock on for fully a mile. -Before hobbling them again, we circled round and round and made sure -that we were not occupying another patch of snake-infested plain. - -"Well, we survived that danger! I believe it is a sign that we are not -to be bitten by the two-legged snakes that will soon attack us," said -Pitamakan after we had spread our robe and were resting comfortably upon -it. - -Since I was no believer in signs, I did not say anything on the -subject. - -"You sleep; I'll take the first watch," I told him. - -The heavy clouds soon disappeared, the moon came up, and I could see our -surroundings very well. The horses were ripping off great mouthfuls of -rich bunch-grass and lustily chewing it. Their deep, satisfied breathing -gave me a glad feeling. All round us wolves were howling and coyotes -were yelping in high falsetto voices. How different were these two -branches of the great wolf family, I thought. The wolves were of a -serious, dignified nature; they seemed never to howl except to -communicate with one another. The coyotes gathered in bands and wandered -aimlessly from ridge to ridge, stopping frequently and raising their -sharp, pointed noses to the sky and yelping. - -My thoughts were not long upon the wolves. I remembered how worried my -uncle was when I had left our lodge; how serious was the expression of -Abbott's eyes when he predicted that the attack by the cut-throats was -about to take place. - -I stared at the faint, moonlit outlines of the Moccasin Mountains, away -off to the southwest. Somewhere along the trail at the foot of them the -Pikuni were doubtless camping that night. Unwittingly I cried out in -Blackfoot, "Oh, hurry! Hurry to us, you men of the Pikuni, else you will -come too late!" - -"What? What did you say? Do you see enemies?" Pitamakan whispered as he -sat up suddenly at my side. - -"Oh, nothing. I was just calling to our people to hurry to us. I am so -afraid that they may not get here in time to help us," I answered. - -"You forget that the loud-mouthed gun is of great strength. It can shoot -one of those big, hard metal balls a long way. And at short range just -think what it can do with a sackful of our small, soft balls!" - -"Yes, true enough. But think how long it takes to move and sight and -fire it! Loud-mouth is now pointing out the south side of the barricade. -Should the cut-throats suddenly attack us from the north side, we should -never even get a chance to fire it!" - -"Ha! What a crazy head I am, never to have thought about that! -Loud-mouths are of sure help only when there are two of them, each in a -little outsetting house of its own, at opposite corners of a fort. -Almost-brother, Far Thunder should send us at once to meet our people -and get the warriors here as fast as their horses can carry them." - -"You have spoken my thought, too. We will tell him about it in the -morning," I answered. - -"Yes, we will do that. Let us drive the horses in very early." - -After a time we detected off to the west a dark, wide, cloud-like mass -slowly moving over the plain. It was composed of buffaloes, of course, a -large herd of them grazing straight toward the horses. It would not do -to let them come on, for in the stampede that was sure to occur the -frightened horses might go with them. We went slowly and silently toward -them and suddenly sprang forward, waving our blankets. They paused, -stared at us for a moment, then turned and went thundering off to the -south. There must have been a thousand of them, judging by the noise -that they made. - -We returned to our watching-place, and I lay down and soon was asleep. -When I awoke, I knew by the position of the Seven Persons, as the -Blackfeet name the constellation of Ursa Major, that day was not far -off. I said that I would take the remainder of the watch, but Pitamakan -had no more than lain down when the faint, far-off boom of a gun brought -us both to our feet. - -"Where was it?" he asked. - -"Off to the north," I answered. - -Again we heard shots, four or five of them, faint and low, like distant -thunder, then one that was sharper, like the crack of a whip. - -"That last one was from Far Thunder's rifle!" Pitamakan exclaimed. - -"Yes. Great Rider's words have come true: the cut-throats are attacking -camp!" - -We ran to the horses and fumbled at their hobbles; then we coiled the -ropes of our picketed saddle-animals, mounted and drove the little band -on the run for camp. - -"There is no more shooting!" I exclaimed. - -"Not another shot! It looks bad to me! Maybe our people are wiped out!" -Pitamakan answered. - -He expressed my own fear. We forced the horses to their utmost speed. It -was all of three miles to the mouth of the Musselshell, and never were -there such long miles. Day was breaking as we neared the valley rim -overlooking camp. A hundred yards or so away from the edge we slowed up, -dropped the loose stock, and with ready rifles rode slowly on. - -When at last we looked down upon the camp, I could have yelled my -relief. I saw smoke peacefully rising from the lodges and a couple of -women going from the barricade to the river for water. Then we heard the -old Mandans singing a song that we had not heard before, a triumphant -song in quick, strongly marked time. - -"All is well!" I exclaimed. - -"Yes, something pleasant has happened. What can it be?" - -With light hearts we turned back to our loose stock, drove them down -near the barricade, and let them go to graze as they would until it was -time for the work of the day to begin. I was in the lead as we drove -into the barricade to unsaddle, and as I passed through the entrance -Is-spai-u gave a sudden turning leap that nearly unseated me, and then -stood staring and snorting at a huge grizzly that lay at one side of the -path. My uncle and Abbott came out of our lodge and grinned broadly at -us. - -"Well, boys," said my uncle, "that's a real bear, isn't it!" - -"We've had some excitement here, and 't isn't all over yet. Listen to -the old boys in there, singin'!" said Abbott. - -"We heard the shots and thought that you were all wiped out, they ceased -so suddenly," I said. - -We unsaddled and followed the men into the lodge, where Tsistsaki, who -was preparing breakfast, gave us cheerful greeting. - -"This is what happened, as near as we can make out from the old Mandans -and from what we saw of it," my uncle said to us. - -"It was about an hour back when old Lame Wolf, who was on guard at the -north side of the barricade, saw a big bear close in front of him. It -was a chance to count a coup that he couldn't resist. Taking good aim -with his old fuke, he fired and let out a yell. But his yell wasn't so -loud as the roar of the bear when the bullet spatted into his side. We -all waked and rushed outside, but the other old watchers were ahead of -us. They ran to Lame Wolf, and the first of them fired at the bear, -which was growling and biting at its wound. At that, the bear came with -a rush over the logs right in among them. He was badly hurt, but would -surely have mauled and killed some of them had it not been for the -powder smoke from their fukes, which blinded him and made him cough. The -old men were running away in all directions, but he couldn't see them. -He sat up to get his bearings, and just then the smoke lifted; and there -he was, a mountain of a bear close in front of me. I took quick sight at -him and broke his neck. It all happened so quickly, and the old men were -so intent upon getting out of reach of the bear, that they never knew -that I gave him the finishing shot. One of them, looking back, shouted -something to the others, and all turned and ran to the bear; and old -Lame Wolf tapped him on the head with the barrel of his fuke and counted -coup on him. He claimed it, no doubt, because he had fired the first -shot into his carcass." - -"And what did the engagés do?" Pitamakan asked. - -"What did they do! You should have heard Henri Robarre praying to be -saved. The others joined in and ran about among the lodges, carrying -their guns as though they were so many sticks!" Abbott exclaimed. - -"They did better than that in our Sliding Beaver fight," I said. - -"So they did, and they probably will be of some help when another real -fight takes place. I have just given them my opinion of their actions in -a way they will not soon forget," said my uncle. - -We washed and had breakfast while the old men still sang their quaint -song of victory. Afterwards, when we went out, old Lame Wolf was cutting -the claws from his coup. He did not want the hide, nor did we; the hair -was the old, sunburned, and ragged winter coat. So the engagés hitched -an unwilling team to the carcass, dragged it to the edge of the -river-bank, and rolled it into the water. They all then went down into -the grove, and the Tennessee Twins came up from it for their breakfast -and their sleep. The night had been quiet down there. One of them had -come to learn the cause of the firing in camp and had gone back, my -uncle said, almost bursting with anger at the cowardly and disgraceful -exhibition the engagés had made of themselves. - -That day Pitamakan and I had Tsistsaki waken us shortly before noon, and -when my uncle and Abbott returned to the lodge for dinner we proposed -that we be allowed to go to meet the Pikuni and bring them on--a part of -the warriors, at any rate--with all haste. - -Abbott said he thought we should do that, but my uncle decided against -it. If we did not night-herd the horses, he said, they could not work. -He thought that the Pikuni would arrive in time to fight the -cut-throats. - -"I think you are making a mistake, Wesley; you had better let them go -for help; we'll probably be needing it sooner than you think," Abbott -told him. - -If my uncle had a fault, it was that he relied too much upon his own -judgment. In reply to Abbott he merely said: "No, we'll take a chance on -another day of good, hard work. Then if the Pikuni don't show up, the -boys can go look for them." - -Pitamakan and I had not much enthusiasm for the afternoon work, and -when, about two o'clock, the old Mandans came to us and told us that -they were going to scatter out upon discovery we so longed to go with -them that we fairly hated our log-laying. Tsistsaki stood by, watching -us with pitying eyes, but my uncle, never noticing our dissatisfaction, -whistled as he skillfully swung his axe. - -"Thomas, boy," he said, "this log-laying reminds me of a church-raising -that I attended long ago, 'way back in the States. It was a little log -meeting-house that they were putting up, and your father and I lent a -hand with the chinking. Your grandfather was the preacher of that sparse -congregation, and a mighty man with the axe as well as with the Word." - -"How did you happen to leave the States?" I asked. - -"Your father and I were different," he answered. "Somehow, the farm life -there did not appeal to us. We made a break for the West. Your father, -poor fellow, never got beyond St. Louis. If he had only come on with me! -How he would have enjoyed this life!" - -"You know well why he didn't come," I said. - -"Of course. It was your mother, dear soul! He promised her that he would -never engage in the Far West trade, and he was a man of his word." - -During the afternoon we brought the walls of the building up to a height -of five logs,--about the height of my shoulder,--and as we knocked off -work my uncle said, "Two more rounds of logs, well chinked, and we'll -have a pretty respectable defense against the enemy." - -Returning to the barricade, we found that three of the Mandans had come -back, unnoticed by us. They reported that they had been some distance up -the Musselshell Valley and had seen no signs of enemies. Later, while we -were eating supper, old Lame Wolf and his companion came in, and the -moment they passed through the doorway I knew from the expression of -their faces that they had something important to tell. They hurriedly -took seats upon my couch, and Lame Wolf signed to my uncle: "Far -Thunder, chief, enemies are here! We climbed to the top of the point -between the two valleys, the point there across from the grove, and upon -the very top of it found where enemies have been lying, looking down and -watching us!" - -"Probably a small war party, too small to attack us and gone upon their -way," my uncle answered. - -"Not so! Decidedly not so!" the old man signed on. "They have watched -there for several days--at least five men. They sneaked away when they -saw us coming. Why did they do that when they could easily have -surprised and killed us? Because they are the scouts of a multitude -coming to attack us, and are to tell the chiefs just how to do it." - -"I believe that the old man is right!" Abbott exclaimed. - -"He may be, but I doubt it," said my uncle. "Up there is the lookout -place for all the war parties passing along this great trail. I doubt -not that one was recently there. I can't believe, however, that five or -six enemies withdrew from the point upon the approach of these two old -men. Had they been there at that time, they would certainly never have -overlooked such an easy opportunity to count two coups." - -"Well, whether you believe they are right or not, I advise you to keep a -good guard round the barricade to-night and to keep the horses in, too," -said Abbott. - -"The horses must go out to feed as usual. In any event, they will be -safe off there upon the dark plain." - -Abbott threw out his hands with a gesture of despair. "All right, you -for it! I've said my say." - -Old Lame Wolf, of course, understood nothing of what was being said. He -waited until the talk apparently was ended, got my uncle's attention -once more and signed, "What shall you do?" - -"We shall some of us stand watch with you to-night," my uncle answered. - -"That is good. Be sure that the loud-mouthed gun is well loaded and -ready to fire," the old man concluded, and the two went out to their -evening meal. - -When supper was over, my uncle called the engagés together, told them -the old Mandans believed that the enemy might attack us during the -night, and ordered them to look well to their guns. He then called the -names of those he wanted for extra guard duty, and of those who were to -help him with the cannon. But to this plan Tsistsaki made strong -objection. - -"No," she said; "let each man use his rifle. We will help with the gun." -And my uncle promised that she should have her way. - -As Pitamakan and I were preparing to take the horses out, I had a last -word with my uncle. - -"If you are attacked to-night, what shall we do?" I asked. - -"I would not be sending you out if I believed that was to happen. -However, if it does happen, you must do the best you can; your own -judgment must guide you," he answered. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -BIG LAKE CALLS A COUNCIL - - -It was quite dark when Pitamakan and I drove the horses out from the -barricade for their night-grazing. We flicked them into a lope up the -rise to the plain, but when we were nearly to the top they suddenly -shied at something ahead and dashed sharply off to the left. I was -riding Is-spai-u as usual, and he was so frightened that it was all I -could do to keep him from running ahead of the loose stock. Pitamakan -and I went some distance before we managed to head the horses up the -slope; and as soon as we were well out on the plain I asked Pitamakan -what he thought had frightened our animals. - -"I will tell you my real belief," he answered. "It was the enemy, maybe -a number of them, lying there to see in what direction we would drive -the horses, so that they could trail on and take them from us." - -"It may have been a bear." - -"If a bear had been there, we should have seen him; there is starlight -enough for that. The low, sweet sage growth along the slope could not -have hidden a bear from us, but it is high enough to conceal men lying -flat in it. Almost-brother, I believe with old Lame Wolf that trouble is -about to break upon us!" - -"Well, they shall not get these horses," I declared. - -When, at last, we hobbled the loose animals and picketed Is-spai-u and -Pitamakan's runner we felt sure that no enemy could find us. But there -was to be no sleep for us that night; we settled down to listen for the -far-off boom of the cannon, which would tell us that the cut-throats had -attacked our camp. - -About midnight we nearly started for the west and southwest and the -Pikuni, but we decided to wait a little longer and listen for the boom -of the cannon. We watched the Seven Persons swinging round in the -northern sky, and at last they warned us that day was not far off. The -attack upon camp had not opened; so we decided to urge my uncle to allow -us to go at once in search of the Pikuni. We unhobbled the loose stock -and drove them in with a rush. There was only a faint lightening of the -eastern horizon when we arrived at the barricade, and Abbott, standing -on watch at the passageway, let down the bars for us. - -"You are in plenty early this mornin'," he said as we drove past him. - -"We have reason for it. We want to persuade my uncle to let us start -right now after the Pikuni," I answered. - -"You said it! That is just what he should have you do!" he exclaimed. - -As we got down from our horses we saw dimly here and there the other -watchers approaching to learn whether we had anything to tell of the -night. Then in the direction of the grove we all heard the patter of -feet striking harshly upon the stony ground. - -"It's the Twins!" Abbott exclaimed. - -"Behind them the cut-throats!" said Pitamakan, and at the same time our -ears caught the faint thudding of many moccasined feet. - -Then the Twins loomed up hugely in the dusk. They dashed in through the -passageway, and Josh gasped out, "They're right at our tails! Run that -cannon out!" - -The cannon was in the center of the barricade, loaded with trade balls, -fused, and covered with a piece of canvas to protect it from the -weather. As Abbott, the Twins, and I ran to it, Pitamakan hurried on to -our lodge to rouse my uncle; and the engagés, who had been on watch with -the Mandans, quietly slipped round awakening the inmates of the other -lodges. I flipped the cover on the cannon, and, just as we got it into -the passageway, the fight opened with shots and yells on the west side -of the barricade. The thought flashed into my mind that Pitamakan had -been right. It had been some of the enemy, lying concealed upon the -slope, that our horses had shied from when we were driving them out to -graze. - -"Never mind the racket back there; our job is right here! Now! Swing her -round!" Abbott shouted to us, and he had to shout in order to make -himself heard. - -We swung the gun round. I kept hold on the tailpiece while Abbott -sighted and called, "To the right a little! Left a trifle! There!" - -As he lighted the fuse I sprang out of the way of the recoil and for the -first time looked ahead. Out of the dusk of the morning, less than a -hundred yards away, a horde of warriors were coming toward us swiftly -yet with cautious, catlike steps. There was something terribly sinister -in their approach, far more so than if they had come with the usual war -songs and shouts of an Indian attack. _Boom!_ went the cannon. The flash -of it blinded us; the smoke drifted into our faces. Lem, who was -carrying our rifles in his arms, shouted to us to take them. - -"No! Lay 'em down! Help load! Where's the powder for this gun?" Abbott -yelled. - -"Right here!" cried my uncle as he and Tsistsaki and a couple of other -women joined us. "Use your rifles!" - -We snatched them from Lem, and, lo! as the smoke drifted away we could -see no one to shoot at, nor could we hear anything but the hollow murmur -of the river, as if it were mocking us. - -"By gum! They've just flew away!" Lem exclaimed. - -"Not they!" said my uncle, proceeding to thrust a charge powder into the -cannon and ram it home. "Just step over to the river-bank and look down, -and you'll see them." - -"Ha! So that's their scheme, is it? Goin' to shut us off from water! I -might have knowed it! What beats me is, why didn't they come on? If they -had, 't would have been all over with us in about two minutes!" said -Lem. - -"What say they?" Pitamakan asked me, and I told him. - -The Mandans and the engagés now came to us from the other side of the -stockade, with the women and children trailing after them. - -"The cut-throats ran down over the river-bank," old Lame Wolf signed to -my uncle. - -"Sare, M'sieu' Reynard," Henri Robarre said to him, "hon our side ze -cut-throats were but few. Zey holler much, zey fire deir guns no at us. -Zey shoot hup at ze stars, an' zen run hide behin' ze bank of ze riv' -M'sieu', what hit means, dat strange conducts?" - -"I don't understand it myself, except that when the Twins discovered -them their plan of attack went all wrong," my uncle answered in a -puzzled voice. - -"I know all about it," Pitamakan said in the sign language so that the -Mandans should understand. - -"Well, let us hear," said my uncle. - -"This is it," he went on. "The cut-throats want our scalps, but they -want also Is-spai-u. A few of them laid in wait for my almost-brother -and me, hoping to seize the runner when we drove the herd out last -night; but they failed. The chiefs then planned to wait until we should -bring the horses back into the barricade and kill us in a surprise -attack as we all stood fighting their few men on the west side. Thus -they would take no chances of shooting the black runner. They would have -wiped us out, had not the Twins discovered them down there in the -timber. Now they plan to make us go mad from want of water and then wipe -us out." - -"You women, how much water have you?" Tsistsaki asked. - -One by one they answered; there was not a bucketful in any lodge! - -"Far Thunder, it is now time for my almost-brother and me to go after -our people," Pitamakan said to my uncle impressively. - -"It is! Go--as fast as you can!" he replied. - -"I ride Is-spai-u," I said. - -"You do not! He is our shield, it seems. You ride your own runner!" - -We had saddled up and were ready to start within five minutes. Day had -come. To the west and east there was not a single body of the enemy. -Abbott could hardly believe his eyes. - -Tsistsaki, ever thoughtful of us, had tied little sacks of food to our -saddles, and now we mounted our runners. Nowhere along the bank of the -river was there the least sign of the enemy, but we were certain that -many a pair of eyes was watching the barricade from clumps of rye grass -and sweet sage. - -"You'll better lie low on yer horses an' go out flyin'; they'll prob'ly -shoot at you," Abbott warned us. - -My uncle came and grasped my hand. "It is a terrible risk you are -taking. I wish I could take it for you, but my place seems to be here. -I've got you all in a bad fix, my boy, but I hope you and Pitamakan will -pull us out of it." His voice was unsteady. - -"We'll do our best," I answered. - -"Go, I am praying for you both!" Tsistsaki called out to us. - -We took a running start, hanging low upon the right side of our animals, -and went out through the passageway with a rush. We turned sharply to -the right, and in no time had the barricade between us and the river. -Not a shot was fired at us. We rode straight up the valley for fully a -mile before we turned out on the plain. There we halted for a last look -at camp. How peaceful it seemed! But how terrible was the situation! -There were at least two hundred enemies between our few people and -water. - -As we rode on we kept looking for the trail of dust raised by thousands -of dragging, sharp-pointed lodge poles and travois and horses' hoofs, -that would mark the advance of the Pikuni. We were not long in reaching -Crooked Creek, and there at the rim of the valley we parted, Pitamakan -to go due west toward the buttes of It-Crushed-Them Creek, I to follow -up the stream. At the head of it, close to the foot of the mountains, he -said, I should find the deep, well-worn trail of the Pikuni, which ran -straight east past the foot of Black Butte to the Musselshell. If I -should fail to meet the Pikuni along Crooked Creek I was to go west -along the trail until I found them or the place where they had turned -northeast in the direction of the buttes toward which he was heading. - -It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when I struck the big -east-and-west trail at the head of the creek, not more than a mile from -the foot of the Moccasin Mountains. My horse went on more easily in one -of the broad, smooth tracks, and I was more expectant. The Pikuni could -not be far from me now, I thought. - -Toward sundown I topped a long, wide, sloping ridge and looked back -along the way I had come--more than forty miles. My horse was showing -the strain of the long, hot ride. My throat was burning hot from want of -water; my lips were cracking. - -A mile or two ahead were low, pine-capped hills, and between two of them -I saw a patch of the bright green foliage of cottonwoods, a sure sign of -water. It was growing dusk when I arrived at the place. I slid from my -horse and held his rope as he stepped into the narrow stream. He all but -fought me when I pulled him away from it and picketed him near by. Then -I drank and had a hard fight with myself to stop long before I had had -enough. - -From the description of the country that Pitamakan had given me I knew -that I was at the head of the east fork of It-Crushed-Them Creek. I did -not know how far it was to the other fork, but, near or far, it was -impossible for me to go on until my horse had had a good rest, with -plenty of grass and water. In the gathering night I found a good -grazing-place a little way below the crossing, picketed him upon it and -sat down beside the small clump of buck-brush round which I had fastened -the end of his rope. An hour or so later I took him again to water and -that time I drank all that I wanted. Then back at the grazing-place I -ate the meat and hard bread that Tsistsaki had tied to my saddle while -my runner greedily cropped the short, rich grass. Long and hard though -my ride had been, I was too worried to sleep. As plain as if it were -right in front of me, I could see our little camp at the mouth of the -Musselshell and its weary watchers staring out at the river-bank, -expecting every moment that the enemy would swarm up and attack them. - -I fell asleep, and my dream was worse than my waking vision. I saw our -camp within the barricade a wreck, with smouldering heaps of lodges, and -scalped bodies strewn among them. The dream was so real, so terrible -that the force of it woke me and I came to myself standing and tensely -gripping my rifle. - -I looked up to the north and was astonished. The Seven Persons had -nearly completed their nightly course; morning was at hand. How could I -have slept so long? I sprang up and saddled my horse, watered him, and, -mounting in the light of the half-moon, again took up the trail to the -west. - -When I had gone two or three miles from my camping-place my horse raised -his head and neighed loudly. I angrily checked his attempt to neigh -again and probably betray my presence to some enemy near by. When he -pulled on his bit and pranced sidewise, eager to go on, I fought his -attempts and looked up and down the rise in front of me as far as I -could see in the moonlight. I listened and heard the far-off but -unmistakable howling of dogs. How my heart rose at the sound of it! -Ahead was the camp of the Pikuni, I was sure. Crows or other enemies -would not dare bring their women and children so far into Blackfoot -country. I let my eager horse go. We fairly flew up over the next rise -and then over another, and there at the foot of it, in the light of -breaking day, scattered up and down a willow-fringed streamlet, were the -lodges of my people and their herds of horses blackening the valley. - -Smoke was rising from several of the lodges as I rushed into the camp, -sprang from my horse in front of White Wolf's lodge, and dived into it. - -"Hurry! Hurry! Call the warriors! The cut-throats are at our camp! Oh, -why were you so slow in coming?" I all but shouted. - -"Now, calm yourself! Excited ones can't talk straight--" White Wolf -began. - -But his head wife interrupted him by springing to my side, grabbing my -arm, and fiercely crying, "My son--Pitamakan! What of him?" - -"Somewhere near here, looking for you," I answered; and with a queer, -choking croon of relief she sank back upon her couch. - -"If we are too late, it is Far Thunder's fault," White Wolf said to me -sternly. "His message was that the cut-throats were encamped upon their -own river in the north. Why should we hurry, then, when they were more -than twice as far from you as we were? Well, tell us how it is!" - -I explained our situation in a few words, but, few as they were, they -set White Wolf afire. "There is no time to lose! Come! Quick to Big -Lake's lodge!" - -We ran and burst in upon the head chief, who was still lying under his -robes. I had not half finished telling why I had come when he had one of -his women running for the camp-crier. Five minutes later the crier and -several volunteers were hurrying up and down the long camp calling out -the warriors and ordering the clan chiefs and the chiefs of the bands of -the All Friends Society to hurry to a council in Big Lake's lodge. - -They came, running and eager, and in a very short time it was decided -what bands of the society should hurry on to fight the cut-throats and -what ones should guard the following camp. About six hundred men were -ordered to be ready to start as soon as possible, each one with his two -best horses. - -The boys and the old men were running in the herds as White Wolf and I -returned to his lodge. I told one of the women to catch for me two -certain horses in our band and fell upon the food that was set before -me. Then, just as we began eating, we heard a great outcry near by, and -Pitamakan came in and sat beside his father, who fondly patted him on -the shoulder. His horse had played out at the It-Crushed-Them Creek -buttes, and he had remained there all night. - -Now the warriors were beginning to gather out in front of the center of -the camp, each band round its chief. We soon joined them with our fresh -mounts. Raising the war song, and followed by the cries of the women -calling upon us to be of good courage and win, we set out upon our ride -to the Musselshell. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE RIVER TAKES ITS TOLL - - -Pitamakan and I rode in the lead with the chiefs, because in a way we -were the guides of the relief party. Behind us came the different bands -of the I-kun-uh-kah-tsi, or All Friends Society, each one herding its -extra horses. Our pace was so fast that there was little opportunity for -talk; and Pitamakan and I had no desire to do so. Our thoughts were with -our little camp of besieged people. - -At noon we halted for a short rest. The chiefs at once gathered in a -circle and began to plan just what should be done at the mouth of the -Musselshell; that is, if Far Thunder and his engagés still held the -barricade. Pitamakan and I told how they would be suffering from want of -water and urged that we ride as straight as we could to their relief. - -Then up spoke Heavy Runner, chief of the Braves, and the war chief of -the Pikuni: - -"It is true," he said, "that Far Thunder and his people, if still alive, -must be choking from need of water, but for their own good and the good -of all the Blackfoot tribes they must choke a little longer. Should we -go charging straight to their barricade, the enemy would see us from far -off and have plenty of time to retreat from the bank of the river into -the grove, and there make a good fight, kill many of us, perhaps, and -escape in the darkness. What we must try to do is to give the -cut-throats a lesson that they and their children and their children's -children will remember as long as the sun makes the days. I therefore -propose that we ride down Crooked Creek into Upon-the-Other-Side Bear -River, right into the stream bed, and follow it to the edge of the big -grove. There half of us will leave our horses and go on and surprise the -enemy under the edge of the bank of Big River and drive them out upon -the open flat away from the grove. There we afoot and the other half of -us on horseback and Far Thunder with his loud-mouth gun will just let -one or two of the cut-throats escape to tell his people what the Pikuni -did to their warriors." - -Without exception the chiefs approved this plan, but Pitamakan and I -made objections. "It is a roundabout way," said Pitamakan, "to go clear -to the mouth of this creek and then down the winding bed of the other -stream. We haven't the time to do it." - -"If Far Thunder and those with him are still alive, their sufferings -from need of water are something terrible," I said. "Chiefs, let us -leave Crooked Creek right here and strike straight across the plain as -soon as possible!" - -"I shall say a few words about this!" White Wolf exclaimed. "I have a -big interest in that little party down there in the barricade; my own -sister is there. And yet I say that as she is suffering, so must she -suffer a little longer for the good of the Pikuni. But not much longer. -In a time like this what is one horse to any of us? Nothing! We will -leave our tired horses right here, and if a Crow or other war party -comes along and takes them--well, we shall probably recover them some -day. Upon our fresh horses we can go this roundabout way and certainly -arrive at the head of the big grove before sundown. Then we will wipe -out those cut-throats, every last one of them, before it becomes too -dark for us to shoot straight. Come! let us hurry on!" - -"Yes! We will do that! There's nothing the matter with the bird's head!" -cried Heavy Runner as he sprang up, and all laughed and cheered as we -mounted our fresh horses. The chief's slang expression was a favorite -one of the Blackfeet, and equivalent to our saying, "I don't care; -everything goes with me!" - -Away we went, leaving behind us more than three hundred fine horses, -fast buffalo-runners every one of them. Occasionally during the -afternoon we cut bends, but for the most part we followed the straight -northeast course of the valley and at about five o'clock entered the -valley of the Musselshell. - -[Illustration: AWAY WE WENT, LEAVING BEHIND US MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED -FINE HORSES] - -Now we had to proceed more slowly, but even when fording, we never went -at a pace slower than a trot; and so toward sundown we approached the -grove. Heavy Runner brought us to a halt about three hundred yards from -it and told Pitamakan to dismount and sneak out to see whether our -little camp was still standing. He went, climbing the bank with flying -leaps, and then upon hands and knees disappeared from our view into the -tall, thick-growing sagebrush. At last he returned, and, as soon as he -came in sight, thrust his right hand above the point of his shoulder, -with the index finger extended and the others closed. "They survive!" - -I almost yelled out my relief when I saw him make that sign! - -During his absence the chiefs had decided which of our bands were to go -on foot into the grove and which were to remain upon their horses where -we were until the battle opened. I was more than glad that the band of -which Pitamakan and I were members, the Kit-Foxes, was one of those -chosen to go into the grove. Only the Doves, Tails, and Mosquitoes were -to form the follow-up party on horseback. - -"Not all the cut-throats are under the river-bank in front of the -barricade," said Heavy Runner to us as we were starting. "Probably most -of them are resting in this grove. As soon as they discover our -approach, we must charge and do our very best to drive them from the -timber toward the barricade. When the first shot is fired, we charge!" - -We soon entered the grove by way of the stream bed. On and on we went, -hearing nothing of the enemy until we were almost at the mouth of the -stream. There we smelled smoke, and Heavy Runner brought us to a stand, -then signed us to move out into the timber to the west. We climbed the -bank and, looking through the willows, saw several small groups of the -enemy sitting and lying about small fires that they had built. They were -all unconscious of our approach, and the nearest were not more than -fifty yards from us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pitamakan on my -left raising his rifle, and I raised mine and quickly sighted it at one -of the reclining figures. Of pity there was not an atom in my heart; as -the cut-throats would do to that little band of sufferers in the -barricade, so must we do to them, I thought. - -I believe that Pitamakan was the first to fire and I second; and then -all up and down our line guns boomed and bowstrings twanged. With wild -yells of, "Now, Kit-Foxes!" "Now, Crazy Dogs!" "Now, Soldiers!" we -rushed out into the open timber after the fleeing enemy. I noticed -several of them dead as we passed their camp-fires. If shots had been -fired at us I had not heard them. We had stampeded the cut-throats by -our sudden attack, and they were running in the one direction that they -could go, straight for the bank of the Missouri at the upper edge of the -grove. There, for several moments, they made a stand and killed one of -our men and wounded three. But we kept pressing closer, and the right of -our line gained the edge of the grove at the river, from which they -obtained a clear view of the bank and the shore. Numbers of the enemy -still under the bank came running down the shore toward the grove to -join their comrades who were in the point of it. Some of them fell as -our right fired into them. The river-bank was no longer a shelter for -them; they had not the courage to attempt to force us back, although, -had they known it, they far outnumbered us and could have broken through -our line. There seemed to remain but one thing for them to do, and they -did it: they broke out from the point of the grove and headed up the -valley, intending no doubt to gain the shelter of the tall sagebrush, in -which they might stand us off until nightfall and then in the darkness -make their escape. - -We all halted at the edge of the timber and let them go, well knowing -what was about to take place. Hurriedly we reloaded our weapons. As I -rammed home a ball on top of a charge of powder poured in by guess I -looked out at our barricade and saw the lodges standing in it intact. - -"Pitamakan, our relatives survive!" I cried. - -"Of course! I so signed to you! See, they are wheeling the loud-mouth -out from the passageway!" - -But I had no time to look. Our mounted party had followed on after us -pretty closely and now broke out from the timber and charged at the -enemy. How we yelled when the enemy came to an abrupt stand and then -turned and headed back toward the river, shedding their robes, pouches, -ropes, everything they carried except their weapons! Right then was my -uncle's one chance to fire into them without our being in the line of -his aim, and he seized the opportunity. _Boom!_ went the old cannon, and -_Bang! Bang! Bang!_ sounded the rifles of his men. Though the enemy were -far from him, several of them went down. - -On sped the others toward the river while we fired into them. Meanwhile -our riders were rapidly gaining on them, but not rapidly enough to -overtake them before they went leaping down the bank and into the water -with furious pawings and kickings and cries of terror and despair. Our -whole force soon lined the bank and fired at them, but the treacherous, -sand-laden, swirling current of the river took more toll of their number -than our shots did. - -I could not shoot at the defenseless swimmers; so I called to Pitamakan -and we left the bank and ran toward the barricade. - -There at the passageway a strange sight met our eyes. My uncle, with -parched lips and bloodshot eyes, stood guard with his rifle over -Tsistsaki, who doled out a cupful of water to one after another of the -engagés, while they, crazed from want of it, alternately called him bad -names and cried and begged for more. Now and then one of them ran to -scale the barricade and go to the river, only to be forced back by -Abbott and the Twins. - -"Look at 'em! Look at the pigs!" Josh was exclaiming. "They'd just -natcherly drink 'emselves to death if we'd let 'em!" - -My uncle turned and saw us at his side. - -"Ha! Here are my faithful boys!" he exclaimed in a hoarse, cracked -voice. - -"Through you we survive!" Tsistsaki said to us, and we could barely hear -her strangely pitched voice. - -Behind the engagés were their women and children; they, it seemed, had -been served first from the two buckets of water that Abbott had brought -from the river as soon as the bank was clear of the enemy. I looked over -the little crowd, missed the Mandans and asked for them. - -"They are down at the river; they will not kill themselves drinking, as -these worthless rascals would if they could git to it!" said Abbott. - -"There! They have all drunk," said Tsistsaki, taking the cup from Henri -Robarre, who was begging wildly for just a little more of the water. -Turning, she held a cupful up to my uncle. - -"No! You first," he signed. She drank and then he did. Then his voice -came back to him and he hoarsely roared to the engagés: "Now, then, you -all get back out of my sight until you are called to drink again! I am -mighty sick of you and your contemptible whinings!" - -"Leave 'em to us, Wesley; we'll herd 'em for you!" Lem called; and with -a sigh of relief my uncle turned away from them. - -Some of the women were leading the half-dead horses toward us. - -"Look at that! They've got a whole lot more heart than their men, those -women have!" Abbott exclaimed. - -My uncle took Tsistsaki by the hand, and we all four went out to the -river-bank. The fight was over, and the Pikuni on horseback and on foot -were going about counting the dead cut-throats and counting coup upon -them, too. Whereupon Pitamakan cried, "How could I have forgotten? I -have a coup to count down there in the timber." - -He went from us as fast as he could run. - -Abbott and the women came to the head of the water trail with the horses -and began relieving their torment with a bucketful all round. Back in -the barricade we could hear the engagés begging the Twins to turn them -loose. The five old Mandans came up from the water and one by one -gravely shook my hand. - -"We survive!" Lame Wolf signed to me. "I knew that you would bring the -Pikuni in time; my medicine told me that you would be here before the -setting of this sun. And here you are! The sun is good to us!" - -"Yes. Good to us!" I answered. - -I had no more than told my uncle and Tsistsaki briefly of our ride in -quest of the Pikuni and listened to a short account of their trials with -the thirst-crazed engagés when in the gathering dusk White Wolf and -Heavy Runner and the other chiefs came up to us. They all knew the old -Mandans and affectionately greeted them. Tsistsaki ran to her brother, -White Wolf, and embraced him and cried a little with joy at seeing him -again. We then all turned to the stockade, and my uncle called out to -the Twins, "Josh, Lem, let those rascals go now! If they waterlog -themselves it will not be my funeral!" - -They made a wild onset upon the bucket of water that the Twins were -guarding, upset it, and with strange, wild cries leaped the barricade -and rushed to the river. They were just animals, those old-time French -Creole engagés! Perhaps it would be better and a little nearer the truth -to say that they were just irresponsible children of man's size. - -Tsistsaki started a little fire in our lodge; then we all gathered in -it. Outside the women were employing every pot in camp to cook meat and -boil coffee for our guests. We had to provide for the chiefs and a few -of the head warriors only; the others were gathering about fires of -their own in the grove, and would have no food until they could kill -some meat in the morning. My uncle regretted that we had nothing except -coffee to send down to them. - -"It doesn't matter," Heavy Runner told him. "They are so happy over what -they have done to the cut-throats that they are not thinking about -food." - -Presently Pitamakan came in, much excited. "Here is news for you, -chiefs!" he said. "We have counted forty-one dead, and of that number -only seven are cut-throats; the rest are Parted Hairs!" (Kai-spa: Parted -Hair: the Yanktonnais Sioux.) - -"Ha! That accounts for it!" White Wolf exclaimed. "Your message, Far -Thunder, was that we were to help you fight the cut-throats who would -come from their far north river; therefore we did not hurry, since we -had only half as long a trail to travel." - -"That was the word I sent you. I could not know that instead of going -back to their people for help to wipe us out, Sliding Beaver's war party -would turn to the nearest Parted Hairs," my uncle answered. - -Heavy Runner laughed. "All they had to do was to tell the Parted Hairs -that you had your Is-spai-u horse here, and they came running." - -"And their shadows, ha! How many of them are now on the dreary trail to -shadow land!" some one exclaimed. - -"There must be a hundred, perhaps two hundred, dead in the river; and of -us but two are dead and three wounded!" said Pitamakan. - -Pitamakan's estimate of the loss of the enemy proved to be not far from -correct. The following spring we learned in a roundabout way from the -Hudson's Bay Company post on the Assiniboin River that the total loss of -the enemy was one hundred and eighty-two out of the four hundred and -more men who had so confidently started south to wipe us out and take -our black racer. Of that number one hundred and forty-one had been shot -or drowned in the river, and not one of the survivors had reached the -shore with his weapons. - -Pitamakan and I were so utterly worn-out that we could not take part in -the talk and the rejoicings over the defeat of the enemy. As soon as we -had finished eating, we took some bedding and went some distance west of -the barricade, where we lay down and fell asleep listening to the -thunderous triumphant singing of the warriors round their camp-fires -down in the grove. We had not recovered our saddle-horses, but well knew -that some of our friends were caring for them. - -On the following morning every member of our little party of -fort-builders awoke with the feeling that our troubles were ended. In -honor of the occasion my uncle gave the engagés a holiday and turned -the horses out to graze wherever they would. The chiefs remained with -us; some of the warriors went back to meet the oncoming caravan of the -Pikuni; others scattered to hunt, and still others remained in the -grove, resting, singing, talking over with one another every detail of -the battle. - -In the afternoon Pitamakan and I saddled the three engagés' horses and -rode with Tsistsaki to meet the Pikuni, which we did about three miles -out on the plain. Long before we met the long caravan we could hear the -people singing, laughing, rejoicing over the great news that had been -brought to them. They greeted us with smiles and jests as they passed -along. Tsistsaki fell into line with White Wolf's family. Then Pitamakan -and I sheered off to the heads of the Missouri breaks, killed a couple -of mule buck deer, and took home all the meat that our horses could -carry with us on top of the loads. That evening, as we looked up the -valley from the barricade, how pleasant it was to see the lodges of the -Pikuni strung for a mile or more along the course of the river! -"Thomas," said my uncle as he stood with me looking at them and -listening to the cheerful hum of the great camp, "Thomas, I was rash; I -took too great chances in this enterprise. But all is well with us now. -We cannot fail to make a big trade here. I can hardly wait for the -morrow to resume work upon the fort. You must bear a hand at it when you -and Pitamakan are not getting meat for camp." - -I did "bear a hand." The engagés, relieved of all fear of the enemy and -anxious to move into snug, log-walled quarters, worked as I had never -seen them work before. When in due time the Yellowstone II arrived with -our large shipment of goods, we had a long stock-room and a trade-room -ready to receive it; and in the early part of October the fort was -completed, bastions and all, and the engagés were told to get in the -winter firewood. At about that time the other tribes of the Blackfeet -and our allies, the Gros Ventres, arrived and went into camp at various -points along the Musselshell and the Missouri. Crow Foot, chief of the -Blackfoot tribe, brought us a letter from Carroll and Steell. I -remember word for word a sentence or two in it: "Well, Wesley, by this -time you have completed your War-Trail Fort, and you have done it by the -merest scratch. Had the Pikuni been a day or two longer in arriving at -the mouth of the Musselshell, your scalp would now be hanging in a -Yanktonnais lodge. Aren't you the lucky man!" - -"I certainly am! And thankful, too, to the good God for all his -mercies!" exclaimed my uncle when he had read it. From that remark you -will see that he had not altogether forgotten his early religious -training. - -Perhaps you can imagine how Pitamakan and I kicked up our heels when, -one fine October morning, my uncle announced that we were free to roam -wherever we pleased. The Pikuni were going to hunt and trap along the -foot of the Snowy Mountains and the upper reaches of the Musselshell and -its tributaries, and we went with them and had great adventures. At -Christmas-time we returned to the fort with more than our full share of -beaver pelts. - -From then until spring I was kept busy in the fort day after day helping -in the trade for the furs and robes that came to us in a perfect stream. -In the following June our shipment totaled seven thousand fine -head-and-tail buffalo robes; twenty-one hundred beaver pelts; four -thousand elk, deer, and antelope skins; and about three thousand wolf -pelts. After receiving the statement of the sale of them in St. Louis my -uncle clapped his hands and laughed and cried out: "Tsistsaki, Thomas, -this is how we stand: all our bills are paid, and we are ahead one good -fort and forty-two thousand dollars in cash!" - -"Ha! What happiness is ours!" my almost-mother exclaimed. - -"And," said I, "we are not asking for goods on credit for next winter's -trade, are we?" - - -THE END - - - The Riverside Press - CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - U. S. 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