"Yes, it would be my duty--I have promised--but he will come. He trusts
me. I have ordered him to bring all his people and camp as usual just
above the agency store. Now, of course, no one can tell the precise
outcome of all this, and if you, Miss Brisbane, and Mr. and Mrs. Parker,
want to go down to the white settlement, I will send you at once. Mr.
Lawson will go with you, or I will ask the sheriff to take you--"
"The safest place on the reservation is right here!" said Lawson.
"Suppose the ranchers return--they will take control here, and use the
agency as a base of supplies; the fighting will take place in the hills.
Besides, our going would excite the settlers uselessly, and put Captain
Curtis deeper into trouble. I propose that we stay right here, and
convince the employes and the Indians that we are not alarmed. I don't
want to assume the responsibility of a panic, and our going this
afternoon might precipitate one."
Curtis was profoundly grateful to Lawson for this firm statement. "I
think you are right, Mr. Lawson," he said, formally. "You see my
position clearly. I feel sure I can control the sheriff by peaceable
means--and yet my responsibility to you weighs upon me." He looked at
Elsie again. "I think you can trust me. Will you stay?"
"Of course we will stay," she replied, and Parker sank into his chair as
if resigned to his fate.
Curtis went on: "I am not speaking to reassure myself. Perhaps I am too
positive, but my experience as an officer in the army has given me a
contempt for these six-shooter heroes. The thing I really fear is a
panic among the settlers. Naturally, I am disinclined towards the
notoriety I would gain in the press; but the troops will certainly be
here to-morrow, and that will settle the turmoil. The sheriff is less of
an embarrassment, now that he has only Calvin as deputy."
"Send the sheriff over here--we'll entertain him by showing him the
photograph album," called Jennie. "We helped out this forenoon, and we
can do it again."
"I don't think such heroic methods are necessary; an extra good dinner
will do quite as well," replied Curtis, smiling. "I'm sorry, Mr. Parker,
that your expedition for material is coming to this grewsome end."
Elsie interposed. "It is precisely what he wants; he will know from
positive knowledge how a Tetong brave dresses for war. I have always
claimed that no Indian ever wore that absurd war-bonnet."
Lawson added: "And _you_ will gain valuable information as to the
character of white settlers and 'Indian outbreaks.'"
"I ought to telegraph papa."
"I have already done so," replied Lawson--"in anticipation of the
hullabaloo that will break forth in the papers of the State to-morrow."
"I shall wire the department a full statement to-night," said Curtis.
"But we must be careful what we say at this point."
"Isn't it a foolish thing not to have a telegraph line connecting the
fort and the agency?" cried Jennie. "The troops could have been half-way
here by this time."
"It's the same penny-wise and pound-foolish method by which the Indian
service is run," responded Lawson.
"Here comes one of my scouts," said Curtis, as a young Tetong galloped
up to the gate, threw himself from his reeking pony, and strode into the
hall-way without knocking, his spurs clattering, his quirt dangling from
his wrist. As he stood before his chief, delivering his message with
shadowy silence and swiftness, Elsie thrilled with the dramatic
significance of the scene. The stern, almost haughty face of the young
man was in keeping with his duties.
Curtis dismissed the boy and translated his message. "He says the
settlers below us have fled towards Pinon City, taking all their goods
with them. White Wolf's band are all in camp except the young men, who
are scouting for the chiefs to see what it all means. That mob of
cowboys took delight, no doubt, in scattering consternation as they
passed. The settlers are in stampede."
"Wilson is coming across the street," said Jennie, "and has an Indian
with him."
"Another scout," said Curtis. "Now I will let you know all that goes on,
but I must ask you all, except Mr. Lawson, to leave me the library to
transact this business in." As Elsie passed him, she drew towards him
with a little, shrinking movement which moved him deeply. It was as
though she were clutched by a force greater than her will.
"It's like being at army headquarters," she said to Jennie.
"It is a little like a commander's tent in the field. I wish we dared to
throw that old sheriff off the reservation. He has no right to be
snooping round here."
Parker slumped deep in a big rocker, and Mrs. Parker sat beside him and
put her hand on his arm.
"Don't worry about me, Jerome."
He looked up gloomily. "I got you into this, dearest, and I must get you
out. If the soldiers come to-morrow I will ask for an escort to the
fort, and then we can reach the railway and get out of the cursed
country. I'd as soon live in a den of hyenas and rattlesnakes."
Elsie laughed. "Parker, you are too amusing. You are pathetic. When I
think of you as you pranced about the camp-fire two days ago and look
upon you now, my heart aches for you."
"I don't think it generous of you to make fun of us at this time, Bee
Bee," Mrs. Parker replied, reproachfully.
"Oh, let her go on. Her Latin Quarter English doesn't disturb me,"
Parker answered, savagely.
Curtis at this moment appeared. "My message was from the farmer at
Willow Spring. He says all his employes, with one or two exceptions,
have disappeared; that the band of Crawling Elk was threatened by a mob
of white men early this morning, and that they are all breaking camp in
order to flee to the hills. All the settlers on the Willow are hurrying
their women and children down towards Pinon City. The whole country has
been alarmed by the menace of the coroner's inquest, which is camped
below the agency at Johnson's ranch, waiting the sheriff's return. The
deputies had not reached there when this letter was written," added
Curtis. "The sheriff's message will disperse the crowds, and I am
sending a note of reassurance to the farmers and to the settlers."
"It's getting mighty serious, don't you think so?" asked Parker. "I wish
the troops were here. Can't we hurry them up?"
"No, all that can be done has been done. I am telling you all that goes
on, and I must request you not to repeat it. I wish you would all be
specially guarded in the presence of the sheriff. You might engage him
in a game of 'cinch' after dinner. Anything to keep him out of my way."
"We'll absorb him," said Jennie.
One by one Curtis called in his most trusted employes, and, quieting
their fears, put them to their duties. Special policemen were uniformed
and sent to carry messages to the encampments on the hills, asking the
head men of each band to come at once to the agency for council, and to
order their people into camp. The tranquillizing effect of the agent's
bearing made itself felt immediately. The threads of the whole tangle
were soon in his hands and made straight, and when he received the
sheriff at six o'clock he was confident and serene of bearing.
* * * * *
Two Horns came down from the hills, and at the agent's order gathered
his band close around his own tepee to camp until the trouble was ended.
Together they made a tour of the village, and Curtis made it plain that
he would protect them, and that no more armed men would come among them
to incite violence.
"They have turned back, for fear of the Little Father and of
Washington," said Two Horns to the old men, and they were glad of his
words.
Curtis was by no means at ease. As he recalled the threats of the
cattlemen, the encroachments of their flocks, the vicious assaults made
on Crow Killer and Yellow Hand, he divined a growing antagonism which
could go but little further without producing war. His mind dwelt on the
hurrying figure of Crane's Voice. Much depended on him. He saw him as he
faced the sentry. "If he should fail to reach the Colonel! But he will
not fail, and troops will be instantly despatched."
From these considerations he turned to the growing trust and confidence
which Elsie was displaying. That movement towards him, slight as it was,
and the softened look in her eyes, quickened his breath as he allowed
his inward self to muse on their meaning. She was looking to him for
protection, and this attitude was not only new, it was disturbing; and
the soldier found it necessary to put away his pipe and fall savagely
upon some work to keep his mind from ranging too far afield.