CAUGHT BY THE INDIANS--A PLEASANT RIDE--ONE PITYING FACE--BENEFIT
OF BEING A MASON--THE EVIL EYE--INDIAN BEAUTY AND INDIAN
EATING--THE OFFER OF MARRIAGE--DECLINING IT, MAKES ME A FRIEND--A
SECOND AND MORE TEMPTING OFFER--DECLINING IT, DOES NOT MAKE ME AN
ENEMY--PULLING UP MY STAKES WITH HONOR--THE PONY EXPRESS--AGAIN
WITH THE TRAIN.
Previous to our reaching Fort Laramie, we had been able to procure
plenty of fresh meat.
The antelope and buffalo had almost seemed waiting for our rifles. Now,
however, we met with few or none of either of these, and the scarcity
began to be severely felt.
Even Captain Crim grew more peppery with us than he had before been, and
Brighton Bill lost his usual ruddy jollity.
Consequently, one morning, I started out with a determination to find
fresh meat or die. To tell the truth, it came very near to being the
latter.
As yet, all the Indians we had met with on the Plains had been of
friendly tribes, and at this time no danger was anticipated. I was
already some six or seven miles from our train, on the upper side of the
North Platte, past what they call the Rattlesnake Hills, when I beheld
approaching me a party of Indians. At this time, I was unaware what
tribe they were, although now I should pretty readily be able to tell
that they were Cheyennes. These are generally hostile to the whites,
unless overawed by superior numbers. I necessarily mean, a
proportionately superior number--about one, perhaps, to three. The party
approached me in an apparently friendly manner, or else the fleet
gelding I was mounted on might easily have distanced them. On
approaching nearer, they requested, in the usual Indian manner, for
tobacco or powder. The first, I readily enough gave them. The latter I
was not inclined to part with. Suddenly one of the Indians drew closer
to me, and laid his hand on my rifle. I pulled it back from him, and at
the same moment was grasped round the waist from behind, by a savage
whom I had not previously noticed.
My desperate struggles were in vain. I was torn from my horse, and in a
few moments more found myself weaponless, with my arms pinioned behind
me, and lashed on the back of one of their ponies. The raw hide-whangs
round my waist were tied so tightly as almost to stop the circulation.
The animal was then turned loose, and followed with whoop and yell by
the savages as if they had been nothing else than a band of devils. The
Cheyenne who was probably their chief had appropriated my horse. How
madly I wished that Charlie would throw the red demon as he galloped
after me, shouting and whooping like an incarnate fiend.
In that mad race, for at the moment I almost fancied the Indians and
myself were all lunatics on a wild race to the infernal regions, what a
paroxysm of despairing thought rushed through my mind. Was I to go out
of life something like the dying snuff of a candle, without one free
blow in a square fight? And these were the Indians I had read of as a
boy, these cowardly, sneaking red curs, who had not dared to give me a
chance for my life. Great God! Where was Brighton Bill and my other
companions? What would Captain Crim say if he ever heard of this? Then I
thought of my father, Pinkerton, Maggie Mitchell; and, as my wife's face
rose on my vision--my good little wife, I could or would think no more.
All became momentarily a blank. Again, however, I returned to my senses.
I heard the whooping yell of the red devil who was astride of my
gelding, Charlie, and I cursed him in good round Saxon, as if he could
understand me.
But what is the use of dwelling upon this. After a ride of some two
hours and a half, in a fashion I had never expected to attempt, my
captors came in sight of an Indian village.
Here I was cut loose from the pony upon which I had performed the most
painful feat of horsemanship I had ever attempted, and dragged instead
of led into the presence of the chief of the tribe. All the inhabitants
of the village surrounded me. Squaws, old and young, papooses of either
sex, and all the components of an Indian mob, were crowding around the
white captive.
One only face I saw which displayed anything like pity. It was that of
an Indian girl of some sixteen years. Whether it was pretty or ugly, I
knew not. I only felt that I saw sorrow in her large and star-like eyes,
as they gazed upon me.
Curiously enough, they gave me a sensation of hope. The moment before I
had been madly desiring that the drama of life, with me, might come to
an end. Now, I began to think and weigh my chances, which, to own up, at
the present moment appeared slim enough for safety.
My hands and arms seemed almost dead, and some minutes elapsed before
they recovered the consciousness of life. Looking in the face of the
chief, I saw that he was an old man. As in great age it not unfrequently
happens, his face had regained somewhat of the kindliness of youth. At
any rate it lacked the repulsive character which marked that of my
captor. Suddenly, it seemed to me--was I dreaming? No! This time, I was
certain of it. He had made the Masonic sign of distress. The girl's
sympathetic glance had been palpably an omen of good.
Trembling with agitation I responded.
What immediately followed I am unable to recall. Indeed, I doubt whether
at the time I was thoroughly conscious of it.
When I undoubtedly had fully recovered my presence of mind, I found that
matters had completely changed for me. The death at the stake, which had
seemed to be my destiny, had faded from my senses. The red devils almost
seemed to have been transmuted into copper-colored angels. I was seated
on a buffalo-robe, and some of the elder squaws were bathing my swollen
limbs with cooling lotions, and looking--gratitude was almost compelling
me to say what literal truth cannot. They certainly did not look in any
wise amiable or handsome.
While this was going on, a tall and splendidly formed specimen of the
red man entered the hut. He was dressed in a robe or tunic,
magnificently embroidered with shells and beads. He had evidently been
sent for by the chief, as I soon discovered, because he was able to
speak English. The only blemish in his personal appearance was a sort of
dip in his right eyebrow, which partially closed the organ beneath.
White superstition might possibly have gifted him with the evil eye. The
Indian name he bore somewhat corresponded with this, as he was called
Par-a-wau, or "The Warning Devil."
First, addressing the chief (I afterwards found this was Old Spotted
Tail) in their own tongue, he received an answer.
Then turning to me, he extended his hand and gave me the Masonic grip.
After this, he seated himself beside me, and addressed me in my own
tongue, asking how I came upon the hunting-grounds of the Cheyennes,
where I was from, and whither I was going? When he had received my
answers and repeated them to the chief in the tongue of their tribe, he
next began to inquire very minutely about Masonry among the palefaces.
In subsequent conversations with him, for in the present case I had only
to reply, I found that the Indians had first been initiated in its
mysteries by the agents of the Hudson Bay Company. Neither had it been
much carried beyond the northern and western tribes. This was learnt
from Par-a-wau, when I began to feel perfectly at ease with him.
At this time I was merely a captive, although I had, from the mere
chance of Old Spotted Tail's appreciation of my personal appearance,
escaped the risk of no longer being one, by the most speedy means of
escape from life my red acquaintances could have devised for me,
consistently with their own amusement. Be it remembered, in stating this
fact, individual vanity bears no part--the Indian idea of comeliness
being very much the reverse, in general, of the white man's idea of that
desirable qualification.
After his examination of me had been brought to an end, he made an
oration of some length to the aged Cheyenne chief. He had risen to his
feet as he did so, and the grace of his movements, with his full and
rollingly sonorous voice, might have done credit to the best of our own
orators. Indeed, so completely did his gesture translate his speech,
that I could almost follow every word of the appeal he was making for
me. He was evidently pleading for my pardon. This I feel I should have
received, if I am sufficiently a judge of human features to have
translated the benign savageness of Old Spotted Tail's countenance. But
there are always two sides to a question, and the young chief, who had
appropriated not only myself but my gelding, Charlie, now put in for a
long talk. I could swear he was not half as eloquent as Par-a-wau.
However, what he said in a harsh voice, and with a large amount of what
might be called temperate wrath, settled the question in discussion. The
elders of the tribe gave him, twice or thrice, that discordant grunt of
acquiescence which Fenimore Cooper, the modern writer, has translated
more musically as--
"Ugh!"
Consequently Old Spotted Tail pronounced a few words, and my red
lawyer--so I began to consider Warning Devil, although I had been unable
to fee him--turning to me, said in English:
"Will my brother come with Par-a-wau to his dwelling?"
Of course I would, because I must. How, indeed, could I do otherwise? So
I followed him. The fact is, I had begun to entertain a certain degree
of liking for the chief with the evil eye. He had befriended me. If my
Cheyenne captivity had been a long one, I scarcely doubt that this
liking would have ripened. However, I had now to accompany him. Let my
readers conceive how great was my astonishment when I entered his hut
after him, to find my first glance riveted by his daughter.
She was the Indian maiden whose look of sympathizing pity had, some two
hours previously, called back my numbed senses to new life and hope.
"Will Clo-ke-ta provide my brother food?"
She too, then, spoke, or at any rate comprehended, my language, for she
made no reply, but began to busy herself in preparing an Indian meal.
During the time which elapsed before it was ready, I was able in a most
satisfactory manner to take an inventory of her personal attractions.
These I shall, however, refrain from inflicting upon my readers. Let it
be sufficient to say that she was one of the most beautiful children of
the red man (if not the only really beautiful one) I had ever seen.
Perhaps it was well for me, that while I was watching her every supple
and graceful movement, the thought of the dear little wife who was
waiting for me in the far East, appealed to my love for her.
Otherwise, it may have been possible that I might have forgotten
civilization forever. The nomadic life had always great attractions for
me. Where could I more thoroughly have indulged in it, than as the
son-in-law of Warning Devil, and the owner of such a charming squaw as
Clo-ke-ta might have proved to me? However, this was a wrong, as well as
not altogether agreeable, reflection.
Turning my head with something like a sigh on my lips to Par-a-wau, I
saw that his one unhidden eye was fixed steadily upon me.
"My brother is sad," he said. "But the trees are not always green. He
must wait in peace until they once more bud."
He had scarcely interpreted the meaning of my sigh. Yet his poetical
words (whatever nonsense may be prated about them by novelists, such
Indians as I have met with rarely display any trace of poetical feeling)
brought me thoroughly back to my present position, and I asked him:
"How long I should have to remain a captive with the Cheyennes?"
This he was unable to say, but he informed me Old Spotted Tail had
granted me the freedom of the village, although with the precaution that
an Indian guard should accompany me whenever Par-a-wau could not.
Clo-ke-ta now had the meal prepared, which was a very satisfactory
spread for an appetite which had been unattended to since the early hour
in which I left Captain Crim's camp. The jerked antelope and the roasted
maize were in truth excellent, and if I only had been offered a horn of
whiskey to wash it down with, I might not altogether have regretted the
dinner I had lost. This, especially when I now remember the bright eyes
and raven hair of her who attended to the need of my inner man.
The fancy, which Old Spotted Tail had evidently taken for me, was
destined to exhibit itself in true Indian fashion.
He offered me one of his own daughters in marriage.
But I was not educated in Mormonism; and even had I been, it may be
questionable, while I daily saw Clo-ke-ta, whether El-eu-e-na, which was
the name of the chief's daughter, would have had any attractions for
me. She was not particularly interesting in appearance. Whether she had
any fancy for my luckless self or not, it would be impossible for me to
say. An Indian girl's affections do not count for much in the eyes of
their fathers. In spite of this, I most respectfully declined the
alluring offer, through Par-a-wau, with, as he afterwards informed me,
the most profound expression of thankfulness for the undeserved honor
Old Spotted Tail had done me.
This seemed to me, as I listened without understanding, to greatly
gratify the chief who had captured me, and led to a result that was
infinitely more gratifying to myself, as he aspired to the honor of
registering himself as one of Old Spotted Tail's sons-in-law.
On the same evening, however, I was destined to a really far greater
temptation. It was after the evening meal, and I was seated near
Par-a-wau. His child was putting away the willow platters and other
means of serving up and disposing of the food she had, as customary,
prepared. While she was attending to her domestic duties, Warning Devil,
without any warning, addressed me.
"My brother has keen eyes."
"They are sharp enough at times, but they could not keep me out of the
hands of the Cheyennes."
"He knows that El-eu-e-na is not fair to look on." I could not help
laughing as he said this. "Nor would she make a good squaw. She could
not prepare the buffalo or the antelope, nor clean my brother's rifle,
nor embroider his moccasins, as a great chief needs that she should."
What the deuce was he coming to? I was not doomed to wait long, for
after a pause he addressed me this question in an affirmative manner,
which I at once understood. "My brother has seen Clo-ke-ta?"
"Yes!"
"And what does he think of her?"
For my life, I could not have helped casting a swift glance at the
Indian girl. She was standing near us, with her eyes veiled by their
brown lids, and a crimson blush glowing through her dusky skin, over her
cheeks, forehead, neck, and all of the upper portion of her person which
was exposed. So fierily red was this flush, I could not help seeing it
even in the gathering gloom.
"Cannot my father see with his own eyes," I replied. "She is as fair as
the young red morning."
This was said by me in a grave and reserved tone, which among men of my
own race would have precluded the continuance of the parent in what I
felt he had been about to say. But I had not counted truly upon the
Indian nature. My present gravity was the exact reproduction of his own.
It was so unlike my usual manner, that he evidently supposed I had taken
the matter he was about to propose into serious consideration. He
consequently again spoke.
"If my brother will take Clo-ke-ta as his squaw, he shall be to
Par-a-wau as a son, in place of the young warrior who is dead. He knows,
for he has seen what Clo-ke-ta can do for her father's friend. She will
do more for him who marries her. Shall it be as Par-a-wau says?"
It must frankly be admitted that for one moment the loveliness of the
face I had just seen, and which I dared not again glance at, made me
waver. Then, the memory of my wife and my own actual father rushed
across me with passionate force, and I spoke. I was no longer a coward.
Looking up, I told the noble savage--for I have the right to call him
noble--all. I told him that I was already married, and had my father
still living; that if I were to do what he had offered me the means of
doing, I should bring a stain upon my name their tenderness might never
blot from it.
[Illustration: "Looking up, I told the noble savage, for I have the
right to call him noble, all."--_Page 63._]
For some time, all was silent.
Then I felt my hand clasped in the cold fingers of two small and dusky
ones, and raised to the lips of Clo-ke-ta.
"My brother is right," she said. "If he made Clo-ke-ta his squaw, and
left her to return to the East, Clo-ke-ta would die."
Immediately after, I and the Warning Devil were alone in the gloom.
It almost seemed to me as if Par-a-wau must have resented my implied
refusal to marry his daughter. But he did not. Nay! on the contrary I
soon found he either assisted me in my wish for liberation, or was glad
to get rid of me. Nevertheless, I am inclined to think that my captor
also assisted in promoting my liberation. In his wish to become the
son-in-law of Old Spotted Tail, he was, at least, equally anxious to get
rid of my presence in the tribe. On the ninth day of my captivity, the
aged chief gave me permission to pick up my stakes and quit my enforced
camping-ground.
In doing so, he presented me with many presents, among which was a
war-club, magnificently decorated with Indian carvings. This, he
informed me through Par-a-wau, would be a protection to me from all
hostile tribes, east of the Rocky Mountains.
However, it was to the gratification of finding me no longer opposed to
the chief who had captured me, that I was mostly indebted. This young
brave restored me not only the gelding he had deprived me of, but my
rifle, the revolver I carried, and even the tobacco-pouch which he had
appropriated. Let no one, from this time, henceforth say that there is
no gratitude in a savage breast. He had found that I did not propose
standing in his way. Why should he interpose any obstacles to my
removing myself completely out of it.
Par-a-wau also gave me a pony and a magnificent Indian robe or tunic.
But the farewell that touched me most was that of Clo-ke-ta.
As I was about leaving the Cheyenne village, she placed in my hand, with
a pair of embroidered moccasins, a flower. It was the one which among
the Indians is supposed to typify memory and regret.
Regretfully, I looked after her as I left the Cheyenne settlement. She
had, however, vanished. Only the Warning Devil and the young chief who
had taken me prisoner, were visible among the thronging red men who were
watching my departure. The last made a single gesture. It might have
been interpreted to mean one of two things, either--
"God speed!" or--
"Please the devil! that I may never see you again!"
I was, at any rate, once more a free man, and had full liberty to wander
where or in what direction I would.
The chief had given me two guides. As these Indians could not speak a
word of English, I was in one sense of the word companionless. It was
barely some two miles from the Cheyenne village when the wild waste of
the country spread out in an unbroken plain before my view, and I
almost seemed to feel alone in the world. The primal days of Adam seemed
to have settled on the solitary waste. There was no friendly word to
greet our progress, no hostile arm to impede our rushing gallop. Not the
slightest sign of civilization was visible. The enforced taciturnity of
the two Indians made this but the more obvious.
So, the first day passed.
On the second, I saw an antelope. The stillness, which had heretofore
been unbroken by anything save the tramp of our animals, our own breath,
or the muttered exclamations of my two guides, was now shattered by the
crack of my rifle. As the antelope fell to the earth, I heard the
guttural exclamations of my guides, in which they gave the expression of
their wonder as well as their gratification.
It was very certainly a good shot. The antelope had been at long range.
The two Indians had been astonished.
As they trotted off, to secure the fallen animal, I could not help
feeling that in their eyes, at least, I had in some measure justified
the benevolence towards me of Old Spotted Tail.
On the third day we struck the Emigrant trail. The night before, we had
encamped in a spot which was as lovely as any I have ever seen. A
running rivulet of deliciously cool water, fledged by green trees and
arched in by the broad blue heaven, which girdles in life on the Plains,
gave us, on its banks, a resting-place. Here, I slept well, and woke in
the morning with a fresh consciousness of the life, vigor, and beauty of
the world.
Two hours after our start this day, we struck the trail.
The guides came to a sudden halt, and pointing to the route I had to
continue, abruptly left me. Their characteristic taciturnity had not
deserted them for a single instant.
During the whole of this day I followed the trail, overtaking and
passing one Emigrant train, from whom, naturally enough, I could learn
nothing of any which had preceded it. On the succeeding morning, I,
however, encountered the Pony Express, and on inquiry learnt that a long
train, with a large number of horses, had been passed by it. This train
had been encamped at Sweet Water, close to Independence Rock, near what
the rider called the old Frenchman's.
"How far off, is it?" I asked.
"You may reach them or their halting-place by to-morrow noon," was the
response.
He evidently did not know the speed of the animal I was mounted on, or
my temper. It was before nine on the following morning, that I arrived
at Captain Crim's halting-place. He had been detained here by a
distemper which had attacked the horses, and possibly, as Brighton Bill
asserted, by a faint hope that I might yet make my re-appearance.
The first who saw me approaching the camp was Tom Doyle. His wild shout
startled all in the camp.
"Hillo! Here's Mose."
The cry was enough. In a few moments, I was surrounded and almost torn
to pieces by the nervous hands which clutched mine. Even Captain Crim
squeezed my fingers with his own stalwart grip, and told me, "how glad
'he' was to see me, whole and safe again."
After this came question and reply, so fast, that my tongue, silent
during the last two days and a half, literally ached with its answers,
and I was glad enough when the hour for eating came, to which portion of
the antelope I had killed on the preceding day made no despicable
addition, as game had still been scarce with the boys.