IN THE HANDS OF THE SIOUX
The excuse that Cyrus made, that he wanted to lie down and get a wink
of sleep before the Colonel's Orderly came to find him, was merely a
pretense to get rid of the officer, and nothing else. When Guy went
out he lay down on his bunk, but he did not stay there more than five
minutes. No one came in to bother him, and Cyrus, thinking that as
good a time to reach the Colonel's quarters without attracting the
attention of anybody, got up and, by keeping close to the palisades and
behind the out-buildings, drew up at last before one of the windows
of the commanding officer's room. It really was not a window at all,
but an opening left in the logs and covered with a piece of muslin so
as to admit the light. He listened, but could hear nothing but the
steady tramp of the Colonel as he paced back and forth in his room.
Then he raised his hand and with his knuckles gave a peculiar rap on
the casement. A moment afterward the corner of the piece of muslin was
drawn aside and the Colonel's face appeared.
"I am here," said Cyrus. "I want those dispatches that you have ready
for me."
"Come in," said the commanding officer, and with a few moves he drew
the tacks which confined the window and made a hole large enough for
Cyrus to squeeze his broad shoulders through.
"Have you a needle and thread?" asked Cyrus.
"Yes, everything is all handy. You sit down here in my bedroom, and if
any of the officers come in to see me they will be none the wiser for
it."
Cyrus seated himself in one of the spots which the Colonel pointed
out to him--it was not a chair, however, but an empty box which had
once contained canned beef--and pulled off his buckskin jacket, while
the Colonel went into the next room and presently returned with the
dispatches for which the boy was about to run so much risk. It was
a very small package, but there was a great deal written on it. It
conveyed to the Commanding General the information that the Colonel
had succeeded in building Fort Phil Kearney, but instead of using it
as a basis for movements against the hostile Indians, the Sioux had
shut him up in it, hoping that when their ammunition and provisions
gave out, they could make a raid and destroy every man there was in
the Fort. His condition was perilous in the extreme. Every wagon train
that he sent out for fuel was protected by a large force, and if the
Sioux were smart enough to cut off one of those forces, or get between
them and the Fort, thus dividing his men, the annihilation of all of
them would be a matter of hours and not of days. He begged earnestly
for re-enforcements of five hundred men, and he could do nothing until
such force arrived.
"I wish the General could be here for about five minutes and see just
how we are situated," said the Colonel, as he placed the dispatch on
the table by the side of Cyrus. "He would learn better than to send
out such a small body of troops as mine to confront the whole tribe of
Sioux Indians. Cyrus, I hope you will get through with that dispatch."
"Kurn, if any living man can accomplish it, I can," said the scout.
"Now, have you got the other dispatch ready?"
"Yes, but I don't place any faith in that. If you are caught the
savages will strip you--"
"And this dispatch will be the only one they will find. Our fellows
fooled the rebels more than once by carrying concealed papers--"
"But rebels and Indians are two different things. To be honest, I do
not think that you will be able to get through; but if you do, talk to
that General as you would to a father. You can tell him more in regard
to our situation here than I could write in a week."
"I will do my best, Kurn, but you must not place any dependence on me.
Tony and his partner have tried it and failed, and that leaves but a
small chance for me."
Cyrus, having pulled a knife from his pocket, was busy with his
buckskin shirt which he had drawn off, cutting away the inside lining
to make a receptacle for the dispatches about which the Colonel was
so anxious. It was close up under his arm, so that when the shirt was
on and Cyrus stood at his ease, no one would have supposed that there
was anything hidden away there. The opening for them being made, Cyrus
folded the dispatches into a smaller compass than they were before, and
having placed them therein proceeded with his needle and thread to sew
up the opening again, just as it was before.
This being done, he was ready for the second dispatch, which was really
a "bogus dispatch" and was intended solely for the Indians to read.
The Colonel knew that there were some savages in that party who could
read English, and he knew, too, that this bogus dispatch, if the other
could be concealed, would have an alarming effect upon them. It was the
idea of Cyrus, and the Colonel had reluctantly agreed to it. It was
very different from the dispatch that had been concealed in the scout's
hunting shirt, and said that the General's letter had been received,
that the re-enforcement of one thousand men would be amply sufficient
to break up the Sioux camp, and that when they arrived he would be
ready to assume the offensive.
"I don't suppose Red Cloud will believe that, even if it is read to
him," said the Colonel. "The General's letter has been received. Pshaw!
There is not a man living who can get through those lines and reach me
with a dispatch from him."
"So long as they don't know that, we don't care what they believe,"
said Cyrus, pulling off his moccasin and stowing the dispatch away
inside of it. "If it will only throw his camp into confusion that is
all we ask for. Well, Kurn, good-by. Remember, I will do my best."
"Good-by, Cyrus," replied the Colonel, extending his hand. "You have
been faithful and just to me while you were here, and I shall depend
upon you."
"Don't do that, Kurn; don't do that," said Cyrus, earnestly. "I will do
my best, and that is all anybody can do."
Cyrus pressed the Colonel's hand for a moment, then turned toward
the window and in another instant was gone. He made his way to his
quarters without seeing anybody, threw himself upon his bunk, and in
a little while was fast asleep. His comrades came in and aroused him
when it was time to go to supper, but Cyrus did not want any. He kept
his bunk until his roommates were all in bed and fast asleep, and the
sentries on duty had proclaimed "Twelve o'clock and all's well!" when
he began to bestir himself. His first duty was to satisfy himself that
all the scouts were in dreamland, and when this had been done he took
his rifle, put on his hat, and noiselessly left his quarters. The next
thing was to pass the sentries; but a man who could pass within five
feet of a slumbering Sioux was not to be deterred by passing a white
sentry on his post. To climb the logs and drop down on the other side
was an event that was easy enough for Cyrus to accomplish, and in a few
minutes the tramp of the sentries was left out of hearing.
Why was it that the Colonel was so anxious to have him leave the
Fort without being seen by anybody? To tell the truth, everybody in
the Fort was becoming discouraged. Three weeks had now elapsed since
the erection of the palisades, and during that time the Sioux had
completely surrounded them and shut them in as tight as though they had
"been bottled up." A person was at liberty to go anywhere within a mile
of the Fort, because certain guns which had been accurately trained
covered every foot of the space; but over the hills it was as much as
a man's life was worth to venture. Guy Preston was the only one, when
searching for his birds, who had disobeyed that order; but it was a
miracle that he had been allowed to come back. The signal tower, which
stood at the distance of half a mile from the Fort, was manned every
morning by four men who went out there to keep watch of the Indians;
but every time that group was ready to go out, it took a Company of
men to protect them. That was before Red Cloud had made his new order,
that the only way to get rid of the whites was to kill all the men
and burn the palisades, and this order was in force at the time Cyrus
left the post. By drawing his warriors off in the daytime, Red Cloud
was tempting the Colonel to send out a train for fuel, and when that
was done the massacre was to begin. The Colonel was determined to get
dispatches through by some means, but he did not want to let the men
know that another person had tried it and failed. It would not be long,
he thought, before the men would think that it was utterly impossible
to get through the Sioux lines, and so would give it up, stay there,
and be massacred. He knew better than any other man did the danger that
they were in, and it was no wonder that he felt downhearted.
The Fort being left out of sight and hearing, Cyrus threw himself on
all fours and made his way toward Piney Creek, a little stream on the
banks of which the post was located. He intended to get as far as
possible below the encircling bands of Sioux before daylight, then
arise to his feet and go toward his destination as fast as he could.
This was a new way of leaving the lines behind him, the other scouts
preferring to strike out over the prairie and try their chances in that
way; but it seems that the Sioux were alive to this movement also. The
stream was not large or deep enough for him to descend its current,
otherwise he would have sought a log somewhere and attempted to swim by
them; but as it was he was compelled to wade sometimes in the water and
at other times to flounder through bushes so thick that the darkness
could almost be felt, and he did not cover more than a mile an hour.
Every few feet he would stop and listen until his acute senses told him
that the way was clear, and then he would struggle on again.
But Red Cloud, the head chief of the Ogallala Sioux who were making
war because they were determined that the road should not pass through
their country, was an old campaigner and not to be beaten by any such
trick as this. He withdrew his warriors in the daytime so as to tempt
the Colonel to send out a train to get fuel, but knowing that the train
could not come out at night, he sent his men in closer, being equally
determined that no scout should get out to carry the news of their
condition to other quarters. Consequently Cyrus had not progressed more
than a mile or two when he heard a smothered exclamation in front of
him, and before he could sink down where he was and get his weapon
into a condition for use, he found himself in the clutches of a Sioux
warrior, upon whom he had almost stepped. Of course Cyrus resisted,
but it was all in vain. Another Sioux joined in the fracas, another
and another came up to assist, and in less time than it takes to tell
it, the scout was thrown prostrate on the ground, his weapon twisted
out of his grasp, and his hands bound behind his back. It was all done
quietly, and one standing at a distance of twenty feet away would not
have known that there was anything going on. Why did Cyrus not take out
his letter when the Sioux caught him? Because his hands were bound, and
he knew that those who had him prisoner were not the ones who had any
authority in the band.
In spite of what he had said to the contrary, Cyrus was not a little
alarmed when he found himself powerless in the hands of the Sioux; but
it was useless to resist the savages, lest he should feel the prod
of a knife in his flesh, and when they put a rope around his neck and
started off with him, Cyrus went along with them as quietly as if he
had formed one of the party.
It was four miles to Red Cloud's village, and Cyrus could not see
anything on the way to remind him where he was. The Indians knew the
course, and when they brought him into their town he was surprised
at what he saw there. He had never seen so large a multitude of
savages as was gathered there under Red Cloud. There were several camp
fires scattered about among the lodges, none of which were wholly
extinguished, and, aided by the light that they threw out, Cyrus could
see nothing but tepees on all sides of him. He was conducted at once
to a lodge a little apart from the others; one brave threw up a flap
of it which served as a door and Cyrus was thrust in. It was all dark
in there, and Cyrus hesitated about stepping around for fear that he
should tread upon some of the inmates, when one of his captors came in
and seized him by the shoulder.
"Sit down," said he fiercely.
Here was one Indian who could talk English, and the hope arose in the
captive's breast that perhaps he could learn something from him.
"Where shall I sit down?" said he. "Are there any persons here asleep?"
The answer was not given in words, although Cyrus wished it had been.
The Indian seized him by the neck and in a moment more he was laid out
prostrate on the ground.
"Sit down where you are," said the savage, more fiercely than before.
Cyrus did not say anything more just then, but straightened up as soon
as he could and looked around to see what the Indian was going to do.
By the aid of a camp fire whose light streamed in through the flap of
the door that was now open, he could observe the movements of his enemy
quite distinctly. He saw him pull his blankets about his shoulders and
take a seat beside the door with his rifle across his knees. Cyrus drew
a short breath of relief for he had nothing more to fear from him until
daylight. That tepee was to be his prison, and the savage was to be his
watcher as long as the darkness continued.