During the remainder of the day the agent found office work most
difficult. His mind wandered to other and pleasanter things, and at last
he began to make out a list of the necessaries for the camping trip.
The next day, about four o'clock, Crow Wing and Crawling Elk came into
his office bringing a young Tetong, who said he had been struck on the
head by a sheep-herder.
Curtis was instantly alert. "Sit down--all of you!" he commanded. "Now,
Yellow Hand, tell your story."
Yellow Hand, a tall and sinister-looking fellow, related his adventure
sullenly. "I was riding the line of the reservation, as Crawling Elk had
told me and as you commanded, when I came upon this sheep-man driving
his flocks across the river. I hollered to him to keep away, but he kept
on pushing the sheep into the river; then I tried to drive them back.
This made him angry and he threw a rock at me, and struck me here." He
touched his bandaged head. "I had no gun, so I came away."
"Did you throw rocks at him?" asked Curtis.
"No, I was on my horse."
"You rode among his sheep?"
"Yes."
"Well, that was wrong. You should have reported to me and I would have
sent a policeman. You must not make trouble with these men. Come to me
or report to Grayman, your head man over there. The ranchers are angry
at Washington, and we must be careful not to make them angry at us. I
will send Crow back with you and he will remove this man."
As they went out Curtis said to Wilson: "This is the second assault they
have made on our boys. They seem determined to involve us in a shooting
scrape, in order to influence Congress. We must be very careful. I am
afraid I ought not to take this camping trip just now."
"Don't put too much importance on these little scraps, Major. Yellow
Hand is always getting into trouble. He's quarrelsome."
"I'd disarm a few of these reckless young fellows if it would do any
good."
"It wouldn't. They'd simply borrow a gun of some one, and it won't do to
disarm the whole tribe, for if you do these cowboys will swarm in here
and run us all out."
"Well, caution every one to be careful. I'm particularly anxious just
now, on account of our visitors."
"I don't think you need to be, Major. You take your trip with your
friends. I'll guarantee nothing serious happens down here. And as you
are not to leave the reservation, I don't see as the department can have
any roar coming."
Nevertheless, it was with some misgiving that Curtis made his final
arrangements for the start. Crane's Voice and Two Horns had interested
Elsie very much; therefore he filled their places with other men, and
notified them to be in readiness to accompany the expedition, an order
which pleased them mightily. Mary, the mother of Crane's Voice, was to
go along as chief cook, under Jennie's direction, while Two Horns took
general charge of the camp.
Elsie burdened herself with canvases. "I don't suppose I'll paint a
picture while I'm gone, but I'm going to make a bluff at it on the
start," she said, as she came out and took her place with the driver
amid the mock lamentations of Lawson and Parker and Jennie.
"Can any of you drive--no!" replied Elsie, in German fashion. "Then I am
here."
"I like her impudence," said Lawson.
As they drove up the valley, Curtis outlined his plan for using the
water on a huge agency garden. "I would lay it out in lots and mark
every lot with the name of a family, and require it to be planted and
taken care of by that family. There are sites for three such gardens,
enough to feed the entire tribe, but so long as a few white men are
allowed to use up all the water nothing can be done but continue to feed
the Tetongs in idleness, as we are now doing."
As they rose the grass grew greener, and at last Elsie began to discover
wild roses growing low in damp places, and at noon, when they stopped
for lunch, they were able to eat in the shade of a murmuring aspen, with
wild flowers all about them. The stream was swift and cold and clear,
hardly to be classed with the turbid, sluggish, discouraged current
which seeped past the agency.
"It is a different world up here," Elsie said, again and again. "I can't
believe we are only a half-day's drive from the agency. I never saw more
delicious greens."
Mrs. Parker, being an amateur botanist, was filled with delight of the
thickening flowers. "It is exactly as if we had begun in August and were
moving backward towards spring. I feel as though violets were near. It
is positively enchanting."
"You'll camp beside violets to-night," replied Curtis.
Lawson pretended to sleep. Parker smoked a pipe while striding along
behind the wagon. Elsie drove, and of course Curtis could not leave her
to guide the team alone. Necessarily, they talked freely on many topics,
and all restraint, all reserve, were away at last. It is difficult to
hold a formal and carefully considered conversation in a jolting
buckboard climbing towards a great range of shining peaks, and every
frank speech brought them into friendlier relation. Considered in this
light, the afternoon assumed vast importance.
At last, just on the edge of a small lake entirely enclosed by sparse
pines, they drew into camp. To the west the top of a snow mountain could
be seen, low down, and against it a thin column of blue smoke was
rising. The water, dark as topaz and smooth as oil, reflected the
opposite shore, the yellow sky, and the peak with magic clearness, and
Elsie was seized with a desire to do something.
"Where is my paint-box? Here is the background for some action--I don't
know what--something primeval."
"An Indian in a canoe, _a la_ Brush; or a bear coming down to drink, _a
la_ Bierstadt," suggested Parker.
"Don't mention that old fogy," cried Elsie.
Lawson interposed. "Well, now, those old chaps had something to say--and
that's better than your modern Frenchmen do."
She was soon at work, with Lawson and Parker standing by her side,
overlooking her panel and offering advice.
"There's no color in that," Parker said, finally. "It's a
black-and-white merely. Its charm is in things you can't paint--the feel
of the air, the smell of pine boughs."
"Go away--both of you," she commanded, curtly, and they retreated to the
camp, where Curtis was setting the tents, and Jennie, old Mary, and Two
Horns, with swift and harmonious action, were bringing appetizing odors
out of various cans and boxes, what time the crackle of the fire
increased to a gentle roar. There they sat immovably, shamelessly
waiting till the call for supper came.
They were all hungry, and Jennie's cooking received such praise as comes
from friends who speak and devour--Parker nearly devoured without
speaking, so lank and empty was he by reason of his long walk. Elsie
seemed to have forgotten her life of luxury, and was reverted to a
primitive stage of culture wherein she found everything enjoyable. Her
sketch, propped up against a basket by Curtis, was admired unreservedly.
Altogether, the trouble and toil of civilized life were forgotten
tyrants, so far as these few souls were concerned. They came close to
the peace and the care-free tranquillity of the redman, whose ideals
they had come to destroy.
As soon as supper was eaten and the men had lighted their cigars, the
whole party walked out to the edge of the little pond and lounged about
on blankets, and watched the light go out of the sky. Talk grew more
subdued as the beauty and the mystery of the night deepened. Elsie
listened to every sound, and asked innumerable questions of Curtis. She
insisted on knowing the name of every bird or beast whose call could be
heard. The young soldier's wood-craft both pleased and astonished her.
Mrs. Parker, with her lap full of botanical specimens, was absorbed in
the work of classifying them. Parker was a gentleman of leisure, with
nothing to do but watch the peaceful coming of the dusk and comment
largely on the universe.
It was natural that, as host, Curtis should enjoy a large part of
Elsie's company, but neither of them seemed to realize that Lawson was
being left quite unheeded in the background, but Jennie was aware of
this neglect, and put forth skilful effort to break the force of it.
Lawson himself seemed to be entirely unconscious of any loss or
threatening disaster.
A little later, as they sat watching the fire grow in power in the
deepening darkness, Curtis suddenly lifted his hand.
"Hark!"