Sheriff Tom Redmond was a veteran of many ancient cattle trails. He had
traveled as many times from Texas to the Dodge City and Abilene points
of shipment as some of our travelers to-day have journeyed across the
Atlantic--and he thought just as little about it. More than once he had
made the trifling journey from the Rio Grande to Montana, before the
inventive individual who supplied fences with teeth had made such
excursions impossible. Sheriff Tom had seen many war-bonneted Indians
looming through the dust of trail herds. Of the better side of the
Indian he knew little, nor cared to learn. But at one time or another he
had had trouble with Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, Ute, Pawnee, Arapahoe,
Cheyenne, and Sioux. He could tell just how many steers each tribe had
cost his employers, and how many horses were still charged off against
Indians in general.
"I admit some small prejudice," said Sheriff Tom in the course of one of
his numerous arguments with Walter Lowell. "When I see old Crane hanging
around Bill Talpers's store, he looks to me jest like the cussed
Comanche that rose right out of nowheres and scared me gray-headed when
I was riding along all peaceful-like on the Picketwire. And that's the
way it goes. Every Injun I see, big or little, resembles some redskin I
had trouble with, back in early days. The only thing I can think of 'em
doing is shaking buffalo robes and running off live stock--not raising
steers to sell. I admit I'm behind the procession. I ain't ready yet to
take my theology or my false teeth from an Injun preacher or dentist."
Lowell preferred Sheriff Tom's outspokenness to other forms of
opposition and criticism which were harder to meet.
"Some day," he said to the sheriff, "you'll fall in line, but meantime
if you can get rid of a pest like Bill Talpers for me, you'll do more
for the Indians than they could get out of all the new leases that might
be written."
"I've been working on Bill Talpers now for ten years and I ain't been
able to git him to stick foot in a trap," was the sheriff's reply. "But
I think he's getting to a point where he's all vain-like over the
cunning he's shown, and he'll cash himself in, hoss and beaver, when he
ain't expecting to."
When the sheriff arrived at the agency, with the warrant for Fire Bear
in his pocket, he found a string of saddle and pack animals tied in
front of the office, under charge of two of the best cowmen on the
reservation, White Man Walks and Many Coups.
"I'll have your car put in with mine, Tom," said Lowell, who was dressed
in cowpuncher attire, even to leather _chaparejos_. "I know you're
always prepared for riding. There's a saddle horse out there for you.
We've some grub and a tent and plenty of bedding, as we may be out
several days and find some rough going."
"I judge it ain't going to be any moonlight excursion on the Hudson,
then, bringing in this Injun," observed Redmond.
Lowell motioned to the sheriff to step into the private office.
"Affairs are a little complicated," said the agent, closing the door.
"Plenty Buffalo has turned up something that makes it look as if Jim
McFann may know something about the murder."
"What's Plenty Buffalo found?"
"He discovered a track made by a broken shoe in that conglomeration of
hoof marks at the scene of the murder."
"Why didn't he say so at the time?"
"Because he wasn't sure that it pointed to Jim McFann. But he'd been
trailing McFann for bootlegging and was pretty sure Jim was riding a
horse with a broken shoe. He got hold of an Indian we can trust--an
Indian who stands pretty well with McFann--and had him hunt till he
found Jim."
"Where was he?"
"McFann was hiding away up in the big hills. What made him light out
there no one knows. That looked bad on the face of it. Then this Indian
scout of ours, when he happened in on Jim's camp, found that McFann was
riding a horse with a broken shoe."
"Looks as if we ought to bring in the half-breed, don't it?"
"Wait a minute. The broken shoe isn't all. Those pieces of rope that
were used to tie that man to the stakes--they were cut from a rawhide
lariat."
"And Jim McFann uses that kind?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where McFann is hanging out?"
"He may have moved camp, but we can find him."
The sheriff frowned. Matters were getting more complicated than he had
thought possible. From the first he had entertained only one idea
concerning the murder--that Fire Bear had done the work, or that some of
the reckless spirits under the rebellious youth had slain in a moment of
bravado.
"Well, it may be that McFann and Fire Bear's crowd had throwed in
together and was all mixed up in the killing," remarked the sheriff. "A
John Doe warrant ought to be enough to get everybody we want."
"We can get anybody that's wanted," said Lowell, "but you must remember
one thing--you're dealing with people who are not used to legal
procedure and who may resent wholesale arrests."
"You'll take plenty of Injun police along, I suppose."
"No--I'm not even going to take Plenty Buffalo. The whole police force
and all the deputies you might be able to swear in in a week couldn't
bring in Fire Bear if he gave the signal to the young fellows around
him. We're going alone, except for those two Indians out there, who will
just look after camp affairs for us."
"I dunno but you're right," observed Redmond after a pause, during which
he keenly scrutinized the young agent's face. "Anyway, I ain't going to
let it be said that you've got more nerve than I have. Let the lead hoss
go where he chooses--I'll follow the bell."
"Another thing," said Lowell. "You're on an Indian reservation. These
Indians have been looking to me for advice and other things in the last
four years. If it comes to a point where decisive action has to be
taken--"
"You're the one to take it," interrupted the sheriff. "From now on it's
your funeral. I don't care what methods you use, so long as I git Fire
Bear, and mebbe this half-breed, behind the bars for a hearing down at
White Lodge."
The men walked out of the office, and the sheriff was given his mount.
The Indians swung the pack-horses into line, and the men settled
themselves in their saddles as they began the long, plodding journey to
the blue hills in the heart of the reservation.
* * * * *
The lodges of Fire Bear and his followers were placed in a circle, in a
grove somber enough for Druidical sacrifice. White cliffs stretched high
above the camp, with pine-trees growing at all angles from the
interstices of rock. At the foot of the cliffs, and on the green slope
that stretched far below to the forest of lodgepole pines, stood many
conical, tent-like formations of rock. They were even whiter than the
canvas tepees which were grouped in front of them. At any time of the
day these formations were uncanny. In time of morning or evening shadow
the effect upon the imagination was intensified. The strange outcropping
was repeated nowhere else. It jutted forth, white and mysterious--a
monstrous tenting-ground left over from the Stone Age. As if to deepen
the effect of the weird stage setting, Nature contrived that all the
winds which blew here should blow mournfully. The lighter breezes
stirred vague whisperings in the pine-trees. The heavy winds wrought
weird noises which echoed from the cliffs.
Lowell had looked upon the Camp of the Stone Tepees once before. There
had been a chase for a cattle thief. It was thought he had hidden
somewhere in the vicinity of the white semicircle, but he had not been
found there, because no man in fear of pursuit could dwell more than a
night in so ghostly a place of solitude.
It had been late evening when Lowell had first seen the Camp of the
Stone Tepees. He remembered the half-expectant way in which he had
paused, thinking to see a white-clad priest emerge from one of the
shadowy stone tents and place a human victim upon one of the sacrificial
tablets in the open glade. It was early morning when Lowell looked on
the scene a second time. He and the sheriff had made a daylight start,
leaving the Indians to follow with the pack-horses. It was a long climb
up the slopes, among the pines, from the plains below. The trail, for
the greater part of the way, had followed a stream which was none too
easy fording at the best, and which regularly rose several inches every
afternoon owing to the daily melting of late snows in the mountain
heights. It was necessary to cross and recross the stream many times.
Occasionally the horses floundered over smooth rocks and were nearly
carried away. All four men were wet to the waist. Redmond, with memories
of countless wider and more treacherous fords crowding upon him, merely
jested at each new buffeting in the stream. The Indians were concerned
only lest some pack-animal should fall in midstream. Lowell, a good
horseman and tireless mountaineer, counted physical discomfort as
nothing when such vistas of delight were being opened up.
The giant horseshoe in the cliffs was in semi-darkness when they came in
sight of it. Lowell was in the lead, and he turned his horse and
motioned to the sheriff to remain hidden in the trees that skirted the
glade. The voice of a solitary Indian was flung back and forth in the
curve of the cliffs. His back was toward the white men. If he heard
them, he made no sign. He was wrapped in a blanket, from shoulders to
heels, and was in the midst of a long incantation, flung at the beetling
walls with their foot fringe of stone tents. The tepees of the Indians
were hardly distinguishable from those which Nature had pitched on this
world-old camping-ground. No sound came from the tents of the Indians.
Probably the "big medicine" of the Indian was being listened to, but
those who heard made no sign.
"It's Fire Bear," said Lowell, as the voice went on and the echoes
fluttered back from the cliffs.
"He's sure making big medicine," remarked the sheriff. "They've picked
one grand place for a camp. By the Lord! it even sort of gave me the
shivers when I first looked at it. What'll we do?"
"Wait till he gets through," cautioned Lowell. "They'd come buzzing out
of those tents like hornets if we broke in now, in all probability."
The sheriff's face hardened.
"Jest the same, that sort of thing ought to be stopped--all of it," he
said.
"Do you stop every fellow that mounts a soap box, or, what's more
likely, stands up on a street corner in an automobile and makes a
Socialist speech?"
"No--but that's different."
"Why is it? An Indian reservation is just like a little nation. It has
its steady-goers, and it has its share of the shiftless, and also it has
an occasional Socialist, and once in a while a rip-snorting Anarchist.
Fire Bear doesn't know just what he is yet. He's made some pretty big
medicine and made some prophecies that have come true and have gained
him a lot of followers, but I can't see that it's up to me to stop him.
Not that I have any cause to love that Indian over there in that
blanket. He's been the cause of a lot of trouble. He's young and
arrogant. In a big city he would be a gang-leader. The police and the
courts would find him a problem--and he's just as much, or perhaps more,
of a problem out here in the wilds than he would be in town."
The sheriff made no reply, but watched Fire Bear narrowly. Soon the
Indian ended his incantations, and the tents of his followers began
opening and blanketed figures came forth. Lowell and the sheriff stepped
out into the glade and walked toward the camp. The Indians grouped
themselves about Fire Bear. There was something of defiance in their
attitude, but the white men walked on unconcernedly, and, without any
preliminaries, Lowell told Fire Bear the object of their errand.
"You're suspected of murdering that white man on the Dollar Sign road,"
said Lowell. "You and these young fellows with you were around there.
Now you're wanted, to go to White Lodge and tell the court just what you
know about things."
Fire Bear was one of the best-educated of the younger generation of
Indians. He had carried off honors at an Eastern school, both in his
studies and athletics. But his haunts had been the traders' stores when
he returned to the reservation. Then he became possessed of the idea
that he was a medicine man. Fervor burned in his veins and fired his
speech. The young fellows who had idled with him became his zealots. He
began making prophecies which mysteriously worked out. He had prophesied
a flood, and one came, sweeping away many lodges. When he and his
followers were out of food, he had prophesied that plenty would come to
them that day. It so happened that lightning that morning struck the
trace chain on a load of wood that was being hauled down the
mountain-side by a white leaser. The four oxen drawing the load were
killed, and the white man gave the beef to the Indians, on condition
that they would remove the hides for him. This had sent Fire Bear's
stock soaring and had gained many recruits for his camp--even some of
the older Indians joining.
Lowell had treated Fire Bear leniently--too leniently most of the white
men near the reservation had considered. With the Indians' religious
ceremonials had gone the usual dancing. An inspector from Washington had
sent in a recommendation that the dancing be stopped at once. Lowell had
received several broad hints, following the inspector's letter, but he
was waiting an imperative order before stopping the dancing, because he
knew that any high-handed interference just then would undo an
incalculable amount of his painstaking work with the Indians. He had
figured that he could work personally with Fire Bear after the young
medicine man's first ardor in his new calling had somewhat cooled. Then
had come the murder, with everything pointing to the implication of the
young Indian, and with consequent action forced on the agent.
A threatening circle surrounded the white men in Fire Bear's camp.
"Why didn't you bring the Indian police to arrest me?" asked the young
Indian leader.
"Because I thought you'd see things in their right light and come," said
Lowell.
Fire Bear thought a moment.
"Well, because you did not bring the police, I will go with you," he
said.
"You don't have to tell us anything that might be used against you,"
said the sheriff.
Fire Bear smiled bitterly.
"I've studied white man's law," he said.
Redmond rubbed his head in bewilderment. Such words, coming from a
blanketed Indian, in such primitive surroundings, passed his
comprehension. Yet Lowell thought, as he smiled at the sheriff's
amazement, that it merely emphasized the queer jumble of old and new on
every reservation.
"I'll ask you to wait for me out there in the trees," said Fire Bear.
Redmond hesitated, but the agent turned at once and walked away, and the
sheriff finally followed. Fire Bear exhorted his followers a few
moments, and then disappeared in his tent. Soon he came out, dressed in
the "store clothes" of the ordinary Indian. He joined Redmond and the
agent at the edge of the glade, and they made their way toward the
creek, no one venturing to follow from the camp. At the bottom of the
slope they found the Indian helpers with the horses.
"Fire Bear," said Lowell, as they paused before starting out, "there's
one thing more I want of you. Help us to find Jim McFann. He's as deep
or deeper in this thing than you are."
"I know he is," replied Fire Bear, "but it wasn't for me to say so. I'll
help find him for you."
They had to fight to get Jim McFann. They found the half-breed cooking
some bacon over a tiny fire, at the head of a gulch that was just made
for human concealment. If it had not been for the good offices of Fire
Bear on the trail, they might have hunted a week for their man. McFann
had moved camp several times since Plenty Buffalo had located him. Each
time he had covered his tracks with surpassing care.
Lowell, according to prearranged plan, had walked in upon McFann, with
Redmond covering the half-breed, ready to shoot in case a weapon was
drawn. But McFann merely made a headlong dive for Lowell's legs, and
there was a rough-and-tumble fight about the camp-fire which was settled
only when the agent managed to get a lock on his wiry opponent which
pinned McFann's back to the ground.
"You wouldn't fight that hard if you thought you was being yanked up for
a little bootlegging, Jim," mused Tom Redmond, pulling his long
mustache. "You know what we've come after you for, don't you?"
McFann threshed about in another futile attempt to escape, and cursed
his captors with gifts of expletive which came from two races.
"It's on account of that tenderfoot that was found on the Dollar Sign,"
growled Jim, "but Fire Bear and his gang can't tell any more on me than
I can on them."
"That's the way to get at the truth," chuckled the sheriff triumphantly.
"I guess by the time you fellers are through with each other we'll know
who shot that man and staked him down."