INDIAN COUNTRY
After an enjoyable supper of antelope meat, Hank Marshall drifted over
to visit Zeb Houghton and Jim Ogden, and judging from the hilarity
resulting from his call, it was very successful. The caravan was now
approaching the Indian country and was not very far from the easternmost
point where traders had experienced Indian deviltry. Neither he nor his
friends were satisfied with the way guard was kept at night, and he
believed that a little example was worth a deal of precept. On his way
back to his own part of the encampment he dropped over to pay a short
visit to some tenderfeet, two of whom were to mount guard that night.
Jim Ogden, sauntering past, discovered him and wandered over to borrow a
pipeful of tobacco.
"Wall," said Ogden, seating himself before the cheerful fire, "'twon't
be long now afore we git inter buffaler country, an' kin eat food as is
food. Arter ye sink yer teeth inter fat cow an' chaw a tongue or two,
ye'll shore forgit what settlement beef tastes like. That right, Hank?"
"It's shore amazin' how much roast hump ribs a man kin store away
without feelin' it," replied Hank. "But thar's allus one drawback ter
gittin' inter th' buffaler range; whar ye find buffaler ye find Injuns,
an' nobody kin tell what an Injun's goin' ter do. If they only try ter
stampede yer critters yer gittin' off easy. Take a Pawnee war-party,
headin' fer th' Comanche or Kiowa country, fer instance. Thar off fer
ter steal hosses; but thar primed ter fight. If thar strong enough a
caravan'll look good ter 'em. One thing ye want ter remember: if th'
Injuns ain't strong, don't ye pull trigger too quick; as long as yer
rifle's loaded thar'll be plumb respectful, but soon's she's empty, look
out."
"I've been expecting to see them before this," said one of the hosts.
"Wall, from now on mebby ye won't have ter strain yer eyes," Hank
remarked. "They like these hyar timber fringes, whar they kin sneak
right up under yer nose. They got one thing in thar favor, in attackin'
at night; th' twang o' a bowstring ain't heard very fur; but onct ye
hear it ye'll never fergit th' sound. Ain't that so, Jim?"
Jim nodded. "Fer one, I'm keepin' an eye open from now on. Wall, reckon
I'll be movin' on."
"Where do you expect to run into Indians?" asked one of the men near the
fire.
Jim paused, half turned and seemed to be reflecting. "'Most any time,
now. Shore ter git signs o' 'em at th' little Arkansas, couple o' days
from now. May run inter 'em at Turkey Creek, tomorrow night."
Hank arose, emptied his pipe, and looked at Jim. "Jine ye, fur's our
fire," he said, and the two friends strolled away. They had not been
gone long when two shadowy figures met and stopped not far from the
tenderfeet's fire, and held a low-voiced conversation, none of which,
however, was too low to be overheard at the fire.
"How'd'y, Tom."
"How'd'y, Zeb."
"On watch ter night?"
"No; you?"
"No. Glad of it."
"Me, too."
"This is whar Taos Bill war sculped, ain't it?"
"They killed 'im but didn't git his ha'r."
"How'd it happen?"
"Owl screeched an' a wolf howled. Bill snuk off ter find out about it."
"Arrer pizened?"
"Yes; usually air."
"Whar ye goin'?"
"Ter th' crick fer water."
"I'm goin' ter see th' capting. Good night."
"Good night; wish it war good mornin', Zeb."
"Me, too. Good night."
At that instant an owl screeched, the quavering, eerie sound softened by
distance.
"Hear that?"
The mournful sound of a wolf floated through the little valley.
"An' that? Wolves don't generally answer owls, do they?"
"Come along ter th' crick, Zeb. Thar ain't no tellin'."
"I'm with ye," and the two figures moved silently away.
The silence around the camp-fire was profound and reflective, but there
was some squirming and surreptitious examination of caps and flints. The
questioning call of the hoot owl was answered by a weird, uncanny,
succession of sharp barks growing closer and faster, ending in a
mournful, high-pitched, long-drawn, quavering howl. The noisy activity
of the encampment became momentarily slowed and then went on again.
The first guard came off duty with an apparent sense of relief and grew
very loquacious. One of them joined the silent circle of tenderfeet
around the blazing fire.
"Phew!" he grunted as he sat down. "Hear those calls?" His question
remained unanswered, but he did not seem surprised. "When you go on,
Doc?" he asked.
"One o'clock," answered Dr. Whiting. He looked around pityingly.
"Calls?" he sneered. "Don't you know an owl or a wolf when you hear
one?" There was a lack of sincerity in his voice which could not be
disguised. The doctor was like the boy who whistled when going through
the woods.
Midnight came and went, and half an hour later the corporal of the next
watch rooted out his men and led them off to relieve the present guard.
He cautioned them again against standing up.
"To a Injun's eyes a man standin' up on th' prairie is as plain as
Chimbly Rock," he asserted. "Besides, ye kin see a hull lot better if
yer eyes air clost ter th' ground, lookin' agin' th' horizon. Don't git
narvous, an' don't throw th' camp inter a scare about nothin'."
An hour later an owl hooted very close to Dr. Whiting and he sprang to
his feet. As he did so he heard the remarkably well imitated twang of a
bowstring, and his imagination supplied his own interpretation to the
sound passing his ear. Before he could collect his panic-stricken senses
he was seized from behind and a moment later, bound with rawhide and
gagged with buckskin, he lay on his back. A rough hand seized his hair
at the same instant that something cold touched his scalp. At that
moment his attacker sneezed, and a rough, tense voice growled a
challenge from the darkness behind him.
"Who's thar?" called Tom Boyd, the clicking of his rifle hammers sharp
and ominous.
The hand clutching the doctor's hair released it and the action was
followed by a soft and hurried movement through the woods.
"Who's thar?" came the low growl again, as Tom crept into the bound
man's range of vision and peered into the blackness of the woods.
Waiting a moment, the plainsman muttered something about being mistaken,
and departed silently.
After an agony of suspense, the bound man heard the approach of another
figure, and soon the corporal of his guard stopped near him and swore
vengefully under his breath as his soft query brought no answer.
"Cuss him," growled Ogden, angrily. "He's snuk back ter camp. I'll peg
his pelt out ter dry, come daylight." He moved forward to continue his
round of inspection and stumbled over the doctor's prostrate form. In a
flash the corporal's knife was at the doctor's throat. "Who air ye?" he
demanded fiercely. The throaty, jumbled growls and gurgles which
answered him apprised him of the situation, and he lost no time in
removing the gag and cutting the thongs which bound the sentry. "Thar,
now," he said in a whisper. "Tell me about it."
The doctor's account was vivid and earnest and one of his hands was
pressed convulsively against his scalp as if he feared it would leave
him.
Ogden heard him through patiently, grunting affirmatively from time to
time. "Jest what I told th' boys," he commented. "Wall, I reckon they
war scared away. Couldn't 'a' been many, or they'd 'a' rushed us. It war
a scatterin' bunch o' bucks, lookin' fer a easy sculp, or a chanct ter
stampede th' animals. Thievin' Pawnees, I reckon. Mebby they'll come
back ag'in: we'll wait right hyar fer 'em, dang thar eyes."
"Ain't you going to alarm the camp?" incredulously demanded the doctor,
having hard work to keep his teeth from chattering.
"What in tarnation fer? Jest 'cause a couple o' young bucks nigh got yer
h'ar? Hell, no; we'll wait right hyar an' git 'em if they come back."
"Do you think they will?" asked the doctor, trying to sound fierce and
eager.
"Can't never tell what a Injun'll do. They left ye tied up, an' mebby
want yer h'ar plumb bad. Reckon mebby I ought ter go 'round an' warn th'
rest o' th' boys ter keep thar eyes peeled an' look sharp fer 'em;
'specially them nigh th' animals. Bet ye stood up when ye heard 'em?"
"Yes, I did; but I'll never do it again!"
"Thought so. Now you lay low out hyar till I tells th' others. Be back
soon," and before any reply could be made the corporal had become
swallowed up in the night. The weather was not warm, yet Doctor Whiting
sweat copiously, and after he had been relieved and sent back to the
encampment he had great trouble in falling asleep.
Hank Marshall slipped up behind Jim Ogden as that person came in, and
imitated the significant twang. Jim jumped a foot in the air and then
bent over, convulsed with silent laughter.
"Dang ye, Hank; I don't know how ye do it!" he exclaimed. "I never heard
th' like. Thar'll be one bunch o' greenhorns lyin' flat, an' all eyes
an' ears from now on. I war weak from laughin' afore I went out to
stumble over him. When th' guard war changed they couldn't hardly find
him, he war spread out so flat. Jest like a new born buffaler calf that
its maw has cached in a bunch o' grass. Bet ye could fool an Injun with
that thar twang."
"I've did it," said Hank, chuckling.
The next morning Dr. Whiting was quite a hero, and as the caravan left
the creek he rode by the side of Patience, talking until he had
thoroughly exhausted the subject. After he had left her to go
helter-skeltering over the prairie a mile ahead in eager and hopeful
search of buffalo, Hank Marshall rode up to the wagon and took his
place.
He listened to Patience's excited comment about the doctor's narrow
escape, and then, picking up the reins, twanged sharply, winked at her,
and rode off to the flanking line. She stared after him for a moment and
then stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth. When she had command over
herself again she turned indignantly toward her chuckling uncle.
"Just the same, it was a mean trick!" she declared.
"Giddap," said Uncle Joe, and chuckled all the more.
"But it was!"
"It learned 'em all a lesson," he replied. "May save their fool lives,
and ours, too. Giddap!"
It was a long haul to Turkey Creek, but the caravan made it and was
corralled before dark. Buffalo signs had been seen shortly before the
creek was reached, and when old Indian signs were found near the camp
site, the day's excitement took on new life. A broken lodge-pole, some
odds and ends of tanned hides and a discarded moccasin, somehow
overlooked by the Indians' dogs, were discovered near the blackened
spots on the prairie where camp-fires had burned. The night passed
quietly, every sentry flat against the earth and trying to rob the
senses of smell and touch to enrich those of sight and hearing.
In leaving the creek, the two column formation was abandoned and the
wagons rolled up the little divide in four evenly spaced divisions.
There was some semblance of flankers and a rear guard now, and even the
cannons were not forsaken. Then came the great moment.
Two hours after the creek had been left the first herd of buffalo was
sighted. That it was a small one and more likely to provide tough bull
rather than fat cow, made no difference; rear guard, flankers, and
cannon were forgotten in one mad, frantic, and ridiculous rush. Men
dashed off toward the herd without even their pistols. In ten minutes a
moderate sized war-party could have swept down on the caravan and had
things nearly their own way. There would have been no buffalo meat in
camp that night except that the experienced hunters with the advance
guard managed to down two cows and three bulls before the yelling,
excitement-maddened crowd stampeded the little herd and drove it all
over the prairie.
One tenderfoot, better mounted than his fellows, managed to keep up with
a running bull, firing ball after ball into it as fast as he could
re-load. He was learning that a bull-buffalo was a hard animal to kill,
and when it finally wheeled and charged him, he also learned that it was
willing to fight when goaded and made desperate with wounds. Another
greenhorn, to get better aim, dismounted and knelt on the earth. With
the roar of his gun his horse, with all its trappings, gave one snort
and ran away, joining the herd and running with it. It was an hour
before anyone had time to listen to his entreaties, and then it was too
late to go after the runaway animal. He hoofed it back to the caravan,
an angry but wiser man, and was promptly robbed by the man from whom he
bought a horse.
It was an open question whether buffalo tongue or beaver tail was the
better eating, but no one in the caravan had any fault to find with the
portions of buffalo meat which fell to their lot. Despite the toughness
and tastelessness of the old bull meat, it was the first fresh meat they
had enjoyed since leaving Independence, with the exception of the few
who had shared in Hank's antelope, and its poor qualities were
overlooked. No one had a chance to gorge himself and to learn that
overeating of buffalo flesh causes no distress. They found the meat with
the fat and lean more intermixed, juicier, and of a coarser grain than
beef. The choice bits were from the tongue, the udder came next in
merit, followed by the hump-ribs, tenderloins, and marrow bones. They
were fortunate in the selection of the bulls which had been killed, for
they were quite fat and in this condition ran the cow meat a close race;
all but one old bull, which was tough and stringy beyond belief. Despite
the fact that the next camp spot was not very far ahead, the caravan
nooned on the open prairie for the cooking of the fresh meat.
The captain signalled for the four-square corral and the evolution was
creditably performed. The animals were unhitched and staked outside the
enclosure and soon many fires were burning around the encampment and the
savory odors of broiling buffalo meat arose on all sides. Coffee pots
steeped or boiled at every fire, for coffee was the one unstinted drink
of the caravan. It was not long before the encampment was surrounded by
groups seated around the fires, most of the men eating with their
fingers, Indian fashion, and from the universal satisfaction shown it
was evident that buffalo meat had been given a high place by every
palate. In contrast to a steady diet of bacon it was a feast fit for
epicures. The travelers cared little about their good fortune in finding
cows with the first small herd, instead of the usual vanguard or outpost
of bulls, for the cows had been there and they had obtained two of them.
Two hours later the caravan was moving again, and late that afternoon
reached the Little Arkansas, where the first trouble with a treacherous
river bed was experienced.
Knowing what was in store for them, the captain and his lieutenants went
ahead with a force of workers to cut a way through the steep banks and
to bridge the muddy bed. They found that the banks had been cut by the
preceding caravan, but the causeway by now was useless, except as a
foundation for a new one. The stream was not very wide, but made up for
that by the meanness of its bottom. The trees and brush along the banks
provided material for the temporary causeway and it did not take long to
build up a "bridge."
The more or less easy-going manner of the captain changed here and his
commands had a snap to them that should have given them an unquestioned
weight. Because of the restricted space chosen for the camp, the
circular corral was formed, and as the divisions reached and crossed the
causeway they fell in behind the last wagon of the one ahead and crawled
around until the circle was complete and compact. All animals were to be
staked outside the circle until twilight and then driven inside and
hobbled for the night. Care was taken to see that there were but few
gaps between the wagons and that those were securely closed by chains.
The length of the first tour of guard duty was increased considerably,
for the first watch went on as soon as the wagons stopped. They were
getting fairly into the Indian country now. Directly north of them lay
the range of the Pawnees; to the west of that the home of the Cheyennes;
directly west of the Little Arkansas roamed the Arapahoes, and to the
southwest were the Kiowas and Comanches, both of the latter superb
cavalrymen. The last three tribes were being stirred by jealous New
Mexicans to harass the caravans. And the interest of all these tribes,
and of others beyond them in several directions, was centered on the
prairie between the Little Arkansas and the valley of the Arkansas,
eastward from where the latter river left the mountains. This was the
great range of the buffalo, and the buffalo was food, clothing,
habitation, and figured very largely in other necessaries of the savage
tribes.
The peculiar, curving, and ever-shifting migration of the great herds
was followed by hunting parties, which became war-parties in a wink.
Many were the bloody battles fought between the tribes on that stretch
of prairie between the Little Arkansas and the two Coon Creeks. The
Pawnees claimed sovereignty over that part of the country around Pawnee
Rock, but it was one that the tribe did not dare to enjoy with any
degree of permanence. Raiding parties from the south, west, and north
constantly challenged their title, and because of these collisions
hardly a hunting party dared show itself unless in strength. There were,
it is true, small bands roaming the plains, especially after dark, which
traveled on foot; but these were out with the avowed and set purpose of
stealing horses, on which, if successful, they made their escape and
rode home. This especially was a Pawnee trick, and especially adept were
the Pawnees in creeping up to a herd of draft animals and stampeding the
whole bunch. More than one party of traders had thus been left afoot in
mid-prairie and forced to abandon what they could not carry on their
backs. While the Pawnee country was supposed to be north of the Platte,
up around the Loup Fork, they often raided in force well into the
Comanche and Apache country and were as much at home on the south side
of the Arkansas River as on any other part of the plains.
When the orders came to drive the animals inside the corral and hobble
them, there was a great deal of complaint. It was contended that they
could not get food enough in such a restricted space, crowded as it
would be with horses, oxen, and mules; that they would injure each
other; that there would be great trouble in each man getting his own in
the morning; that they would burst through some weak spot and wander
away during the night. To all these objections the captain remained
obdurate. Any man who left his animals outside the corral and lost them
would not be given replacements at the expense of other teams, and could
make what shift he thought best for the transportation of his
merchandise.
Tom and his trapper friends, with some of the more experienced traders,
went among the grumblers and labored with them, preaching that from now
on the utmost, unremitting vigilance would be necessary day and night,
for the danger of losing the animals would grow with every mile and
would not cease until the Mexican settlements were nearly in sight. And
the worse the weather was, the greater would be the need to be alert;
for with tumultuous Nature to arouse the excitability of the animals and
to mask the movements of the Indians, a savage raid would scarcely fail
to cause a wholesale stampede unless the strictest watch was maintained.
To make up for the poor grazing inside the corralled wagons, the
picketing outside the circle in the evening would be supplemented by
more grazing on the outside before leaving in the morning. This would
necessitate later starts, but it could not be avoided.
Tom and Hank were not quite through eating their evening meal when Pedro
paid them a visit.
"Ah, senores," he beamed, "I haf laughed thees day! Just like my Mexico
eet was to see thee _atejo_ that you haf! Thee _mulera_ weeth her seven
childr-ren mar-rching behind her like _soldats_!" He leaned back and
laughed heartily, his teeth gleaming like old ivory.
Hank grinned and glanced at Tom. "If she'd only lead 'em 'round th'
customs we'd think a hull lot more o' her. It riles me ter have ter pay
ter git our goods inter a town arter such hard work gittin' 'em _to_
it."
"Ah," replied Pedro, smiling broadly. "That ees thee law," he reproved
them. "But I deed not know you were going to Santa Fe, senores. Eet was
said somewhere, by somebody, I do not remember who, that you were going
to thee Senor Bent on thee Arkansas. To hunt and to tr-rap, was eet
not?"
Tom emptied his pipe and blew through the stem. "No," he said. "We're
goin' ter Santa Fe. After we sell th' goods we aim ter go up ter Bent's
for th' fall an' winter huntin' an' trappin'. Takes a lot o' money ter
outfit two men th' way they should be, fer a hull season in the
mountains." He grinned. "That's why we're packin' goods ter Santa Fe.
Got to raise some money." Arising he nodded to his guest. "Now, if ye'll
excuse me, friend, I'll leave ye with Hank. See ye later, mebby?"
Pedro nodded and laughed heartily, wagging an accusing finger at the
young plainsman. "Ah, what should keep a br-rave _caballero_ from sooch
a senorita! Pedro has eyes, senor; an' Pedro, he weesh you ver' _mucho_
luck. He weesh you so ver' _mucho_ luck that per-rhaps he can get you
past those customs. Of thees we weel talk more, eh?"
Hank slapped his leg and pushed his plug of tobacco into the visitor's
hands. "Smoke some of that thar Virginny, friend," he urged. "Ye'll find
it some better than that thar husk, or willer bark you people smoke." He
looked at his partner and chuckled. "These hyar young fellers, now; thar
jest ain't no holdin' 'em."
Pedro thought that this particular young "feller" was going to be held
very securely before he saw Santa Fe, but he grinned and waved his hand,
and after Tom had disappeared among the wagons he turned toward the
hunter.
"Has Senor Boyd ever been een our Santa Fe?" he asked in polite
curiosity.
Hank nodded carelessly. "He war thar some years back."
"Perhaps then I can show heem a new way to thee city," said Pedro,
significantly. "One that my br-rother knows ver' good. Thee knowledge of
thees tr-rail ees of _mucho_ less cost than thee customs that you an' me
like so leetle. But of thees we weel talk more some other time. I must
leeve you, senor. _Adios._"
"_Adios_, senor," beamed Hank, again offering the plug.
After a quiet night and a somewhat later start than usual, the day's run
to Cow Creek began, and not five miles from the camp site a sizable herd
of buffalo was sighted. The same thing took place again, the same
confusion, the same senseless chasing without weapons, but this time
there was added the total abandonment of several wagons while the
drivers, unhitching one animal, grabbed guns and joined in the attack,
not realizing that mules hardly were suited for chasing an animal which,
clumsy as it appeared, nearly equalled a horse in speed when once
started on its awkward gallop. But in the results of the chase there was
one noticeable difference between this and the previous hunt, for the
green nimrods had asked questions of the hunters since their first try
at the prairie cattle, and they had cherished the answers. They no
longer fired blindly, after the first flush of their excitement died
down, for now they ranged up alongside their lumbering victims from the
rear and aimed a little behind the short ribs, or a few inches above
the brisket and behind the shoulder. And this hunt was a great success
from the standpoint of the plainsmen who had bought Colt's newfangled
repeating pistols, for they proved their deadliness in such capable
hands, and speeded up the kill.
A group of tenderfeet watched an old hunter butcher a fat cow in almost
the time it takes to tell of it, slitting the skin along the spine from
the shoulder to the tail, and down in front of the shoulder and around
the neck. He removed it as far down as the brisket and laid the freed
skin on the ground to receive the fleece from along the spine, the
protruding hump ribs, which he severed with a tomahawk; and then he
added the liver, tongue, kidneys, certain parts of the intestine, and
one shoulder. Severing the other shoulder and cutting the skin free on
both sides of the body, he bundled up the choice cuts in it, carried it
to his horse and returned to camp. In a few moments the butchering
became general, and soon the triumphant hunters returned to the wagons
with fresh meat enough to provide an unstinted feast for the entire
caravan.
The journey was resumed and the twenty miles to Cow Creek was made in
good time. Here the difficulties of the Little Arkansas were again met
and conquered and the wagons corralled before dark.
It was at this camp that Tom and Hank became certain that they were
being spied upon by Pedro and his companions. Seated around their fire,
smoking with deep content after a heavy meal of fresh buffalo meat, Hank
began to push his foot back and forth on the ground, making deeper and
deeper, longer and longer, the groove his moccasin heel was slowly
wearing in the soft earth. Finally his foot touched his companion's knee
but, without pausing, kept wearing down the groove.
"Th' geese went over early this year," he said, looking up at the starry
sky. "Reckon we'll have th' hot weather a leetle ahead o' time on th'
Dry Route."
Tom did not change a muscle as the familiar, warning sentence struck his
ears. "Yes," he replied. "Be glad when I gits inter Santa Fe, with th'
cool mountains all around. Reckon you'll spend most o' your time playin'
_monte_, an' be clean busted when it's time ter hit th' trail fer
Bent's."
Hank laughed softly. "Did I hear ye say Jim Ogden had some good likker?"
he asked.
"That's what I said."
"'Tain't none o' that thar Taos lightnin'?" skeptically inquired Hank.
"How could it be, him jest a-comin' from Missouri?"
"Wall," chuckled Hank, slowly rising. "Reckon I'll wander over an' see
fer myself. Jim must be considerable lonesome, 'bout now."
"Must be, with only Zeb, Alonzo, Enoch, and a passel o' them fool
tenderfeet a-settin' 'round his fire," snorted Tom. "Go ahead an' git
yer likker; I'll wait fer ye hyar."
It was only a few minutes later when Hank returned, shaking his head.
"All gone," he mourned, and sat down again, regarding the dying embers.
"Jest my luck."
Tom laughed. "Yer better off without it," he replied, and communed with
his thoughts.
Minutes passed in reflective silence and then Jim Ogden loomed up beside
them. "Come on over," he invited, grinning. "Thar warn't no use showin'
a bottle with them thirsty greenhorns settin' 'round ter lick it up. Now
that thar gone, we'll pass it 'round."
Hank looked knowingly at his partner as he hastily arose, and the three
went off together. When half way to the other fire Jim spoke in a low
voice.
"He war thar, Hank; layin' in that little gully, watchin' ye like ye war
pizen." He turned to Tom. "Shall we go an' drag him out?"
"No," answered Tom. "Let him think we don't know nothin' about it. Him
an' his trail inter Santa Fe! Reckons mebby that if them barefoot
soldiers try ter take us in front o' th' caravan they'll get a good
lickin'; but if he can coax us off from th' rest, he kin run us inter an
ambush. If thar's airy way inter Santa Fe that we don't know, I'm danged
if _he_ knows it! Let him spy on us, now that we know he's doin' it.
Thankee, Jim."
By the time they had reached Jim's little fire a figure was wriggling
down the gully, and at an opportune time arose to hands and knees and
scurried to the shelter of Franklin's wagons, a smile on its face. Now
it was certain that Tom Boyd was going through to Santa Fe, and all
would be well. He chuckled as he recalled what he had said about the
Mexican troops not meeting the caravan until Point of Rocks was reached;
they would meet the train at any point his messenger told them to.
At Cow Creek another quiet night was followed by another delayed start
and shortly after noon the vanguard raised a shout of elation, which
sent every mounted man racing ahead; and the sight repaid them for their
haste.
Under their eyes lay the Arkansas River, dotted with green islands, its
channel four or five hundred yards wide, and so shallow that at normal
stage it was formidable at many points. While its low, barren banks,
only occasionally tinted with the green of cottonwoods, were desolate in
appearance, they had a beauty peculiar and striking. As far as the eye
could see spread the sand-hills and hillocks, like waves of some pale
sea, here white and there yellow, accordingly as to how the light was
reflected from them. Its appearance had been abrupt, the prairie floor
rising slightly to the crumbling edge, below which and at some distance
flowed the river, here forming the international boundary between Texas
and the United States. While territorially Texas lay across the river,
according to Texan claims, actually, so far as supervision was
concerned, it was Mexico, for the Texan arm was yet too short to
dominate it and the ordinary traveler let it keep its original name.
While its northern bank was almost destitute of timber, the southern one
showed scattered clumps of cottonwood, protected from the devastating
prairie fires from the North not only by the river itself, but also by
the barren stretch of sand, over which the fires died from starvation.
To the right of the caravan lay the grassy, green rolls of the prairie,
to an imaginative eye resembling the long swells of some great sea; on
the left a ribbon of pale tints, from gleaming whites to light golds
which varied with the depths of the water and the height and position of
the sun. Massive sand dunes, glittering in the sunlight made a rampart
which stretched for miles up and down the river and struck the eye with
the actinic power of pure, drifted snow. Here the nature of the prairie
changed, losing its rich, luxuriant verdure, for here the short buffalo
grass began to dominate to a noticeable extent.
The excitement spread. Eager couriers raced back to the plodding caravan
to tell the news. Some of the more impressionable forthwith rode toward
the river, only a few yards away, hot to be the first to splash in its
waters; but they found that prairie air was deceptive and that the
journey over the rolling hillocks was a great deal longer than they had
thought. But a few miles meant nothing to them and they pushed on,
careless of Comanche, Kiowa, or Pawnee Picts, some with their guns empty
from the salute they had fired at sight of the stream. The caravan kept
stolidly on, following a course roughly paralleling the river and not
stopping until evening found it on the far side of Walnut Creek after
they had crossed a belt of such poor grass that they had grave doubts
about the pasturage at the encampment; and the flinty, uncompromising
nature of the ground down the slope of the little divide, in which
seemingly for eternity was graven the strands of the mighty trail,
seemed to justify their fears. But then, while they were worrying the
most, the grass improved and when they had crossed the creek not far
from its mouth they found themselves in a little, timber-fringed valley
thick with tall grass. And they now had entered one of the great danger
spots of the long trail.
Hank Marshall got his fire started in a hurry while his partner looked
after the pack mules; and when Tom came back to attend to the fire and
prepare the supper, Hank dug into his "possible" sack and produced some
line and a fish hook. Making a paste of flour, he mixed it with some
dried moss he had put away and saved for this use. Rolling the little
doughballs and hardening them over the fire he soon strode off up the
creek, looking wise but saying nothing; and a quarter of an hour later
he returned with three big catfish, one of which he ate after he had
consumed a generous portion of buffalo hump-ribs; and he followed the
fish by a large tongue raked out of the ashes of the fire. To judge from
his expression he had enjoyed a successful and highly gratifying day,
and since he was heavy and drowsy with his gorging and had to go on
watch that night, he rolled up in his blanket under a wagon and despite
the noise on all sides of him, fell instantly asleep. He had "set
hisself" to awaken at eleven o'clock, which he would do almost on the
minute and be thoroughly wide awake.
Fearing for the alertness of the sentries that night, a number of
plainsmen and older traders agreed upon doing duty out of their turns
and followed Hank's example, "settin'" themselves to awaken at different
hours; and despite these precautions had a band of Pawnees discovered
the camp that night they most certainly would have been blessed with
success; and no one understood why the camp had not been discovered, for
the crawling train made a mark on the prairie that could not be missed
by savage eyes miles away.
Because of the height and the luxuriance of the grass within the corral
the morning feeding, beyond the time needed for getting ready to leave,
was dispensed with and the train got off to an early start, fairly
embarked on the eastern part of the great buffalo range and a section of
the trail where Indians could be looked for in formidable numbers.
This great plain fairly was crowded with bison and was dark with them as
far as the eye could see. They could be numbered by the tens of
thousands and actually impeded the progress of the caravan and
threatened constant danger from their blind, unreasoning stampedes which
the draft animals seemed anxious to join. Because of the matted hair in
front of their eyes their vision was impaired; and the keenness of their
scent often hurled them into dangers which a clearer eyesight would have
avoided. So great did this danger become shortly after the train had
left the valley of the Walnut that the rear guard, which had grown
slightly as the days passed, now was sent out to protect the flanks and
to strengthen the vanguard, which had fallen back within a few hundred
feet of the leading wagons. Time after time the stupid beasts barely
were kept from crashing blindly into the train, and the wagoners had the
most trying and tiring day of the whole journey.
Several bands of Indians at times were seen in the distance pursuing
their fleeing game, but all were apparently too busy to bother with the
caravan, which they knew would stop somewhere for the night. No longer
was there any need to freight buffalo meat to the wagons; for so many of
the animals were killed directly ahead that the wagoners only had to
check their teams and help each other butcher and load. This constant
stopping, now one wagon and now another, threw the train out of all
semblance of order and it wandered along the trail with its divisions
mixed, which caused the sweat to stand out on the worried captain's
forehead. His lieutenants threatened and swore and pleaded and at last,
after the wagons had all they could carry of the meat, managed to get
four passable divisions in somewhat presentable order.
While the caravan shuffled itself, chased buffalo out of the way, turned
aside thundering ranks of the formidable-looking beasts, and had a time
hectic enough to suit the most irrational, Pawnee Rock loomed steadily
higher, steadily nearer, and the great sand-hills of the Arkansas
stretched interminably into the West, each fantastic top a glare of
dazzling light.
Well to the North, rising by degrees out of the prairie floor, and
gradually growing higher and bolder as they neared the trail and the
river, were a series of hills which terminated abruptly in a rocky cliff
frowning down upon the rutted wagon road. From the distance the mirage
magnified the ascending hills until they looked like some detached
mountain range, which instead of growing higher as it was approached,
shrunk instead. It was a famous landmark, silent witness of many bloody
struggles, as famous on this trail as was Chimney Rock and Courthouse
Rock along the great emigrant trail going up the Platte; but compared to
them in height it was a dwarf. Here was a lofty perch from which the
eagle eyes of Indian sentries could descry crawling caravans and pack
trains, in either direction, hours before they reached the shadow of the
rocky pile; and from where their calling smoke signals could be seen for
miles around.
Two trails passed it, one east and west; the other, north and south. The
former, cut deep, honest in its purpose and plainness, here crossed the
latter, which was an evanescent, furtive trail, as befits a pathway to
theft and bloodshed, and one made by shadowy raiders as they flitted to
and from the Kiowa-Comanche country and the Pawnee-Cheyenne; only marked
at intervals by the dragging ends of the lodgepoles of peacefully
migrating Indian villages, and even then pregnant with danger. Other
eyes than those of the prairie tribes had looked upon it, other blood
had been spilled there, for distant as it was from the Apaches, and
still more distant from the country of the Utes, war parties of both
these tribes had accepted the gage of battle there flung down. On the
rugged face of the rock itself human conceit had graven human names, and
to be precise as to the date of their foolishness, had added day, month,
and year.
While speaking of days, months, and years it may not be amiss to say
that regarding the latter division of time the caravan was fortunate.
Troubles between Indians and whites developed slowly during the history
of the Trail, from the earlier days of the fur trains and the first of
the traders' caravans, when Indian troubles were hardly more than an
occasional attempted theft, in many cases successful, but seemingly
without that lust for blood on both sides which was to come later. After
the wagon period begun there was a slight increase, due to the need
which certain white men found for shooting game. If game were scarce,
what could be more interesting when secure from retaliation by the
number of armed and resolute men in the caravans, than to pot-shoot some
curious and friendly savage, or gallantly put to flight a handful of
them? The ungrateful savages remembered these pleasantries and were
prone to retaliate, which caused the death of quite a few honest and
innocent whites who followed later. The natural cupidity of the Indian
for horses, his standard of wealth, received a secondary urge, which
later became the principal one, in the days when theft was regarded as a
material reward for killing. While they may have grudged these periodic
crossings of the plains as a trespass, and the wanton slaughter of their
main food supply as a constantly-growing calamity, they still were
keener to steal quietly and get away without bloodshed, and to barter
their dried meat, their dressed hides, their beadwork, and other
manufactures of their busy squaws than to engage in pitched battle at
sight. Had Captain Woodson led a caravan along that same trail twenty or
thirty years later, he would have had good reason to sweat copiously at
the sight of so many dashing savages.
The captain knew the Indian of his day as well as a white man could. He
knew that they still depended upon trading with the fur companies, with
free trappers and free traders, and needed the white man's goods and
good will; they wanted his trinkets, his tobacco to mix with their inner
bark of the red willow; his powder, muskets, and lead, and, most of all,
his watered alcohol. He knew that a white man could stumble into the
average Indian camp and receive food and shelter, especially among those
tribes not yet prostituted by contact with the frontier; that such a
man's goods would be safe and, if he minded his own business, that he
would be sent on his way again unharmed. But he also knew their lust for
horses and mules; he felt their slowly growing feeling of contempt for
men who would trade them wonderful things for worthless beaver, mink,
and otter skins; and a fortune in trade goods for the pelt of a single
silver fox, which neither was warmer nor more durable than the pelt of
other foxes. And he knew the panicky feeling of self-preservation which
might cause some greenhorn of the caravan to shoot true at the wrong
time. So, without worrying about any "deadly circles" or about any
period of time a score or more years away, he sweat right heartily. And
when at last he drew near to Ash Creek, the later history of which
mercifully was spared him, he sighed with relief but worked with the
energy befitting a man who believed that God helped those who helped
themselves; he hustled the caravan down the slope and across the stream
with a speed not to be lightly scorned when the disorganized arrangement
of the train is considered; and he halted the divisions in a circular
formation with great dispatch, making it the most compact and solid wall
of wagons seen so far on the journey.