THE VALLEY OF THE BUREAU
I glanced backward across my shoulder toward the others. Both girls
were sleeping soundly, while beyond them, down the slope, the three
horses were quietly cropping away at the herbage. I managed to rise.
"Let's move back to the spring, where we will not wake them up," I
suggested. "Now we can talk."
My eyes sought the face of the lad questioningly. He was a
loose-lipped, awkward lout, trembling still from a fright he could not
conceal.
"You belonged to that squad killed out yonder?"
"Yes, seh; I reckon I'se the only one whut ain't ded," he stammered, so
tongue-tied I could scarcely make out his words. "I wus gone after
wahter, an' when them Injuns begun fer ter yell, I never dun nuthin'
but just run, an' hid in the bush."
"But you are wounded?"
He put a red hand to his face, touching it gingerly.
"I dun got racked with a branch; I wus thet skeered I just cudn't see
nuthin', seh."
"I understand. What is your name?"
"Asa Hall."
"Well, Asa, I suppose those were militiamen; you belonged to the
company?"
He nodded, his eyes dull, his lips moving, as though it was an effort
to talk. Quite evidently whatever little intellect he had ever
possessed, now refused to respond. Kennedy broke in impatiently.
"It takes thet boy 'bout an hour fer ter tell enything, Cap," he
explained gruffly. "I reckon he's skeered half ter death in the furst
place, an' then thar's sumthin' wrong with him enyhow. Maybe I kin
give ye the main pints. Them thar fellers belonged ter Cap. Hough's
company frum down Edwardsville way--greener then grass, most ov 'em.
They'd cum up frum sumwhar on the Illinoy, an' wus a headin' fer Dixon.
Never onct thought thar might be Injuns down yere, an' never kept no
guard. Them Injuns jumped 'em at daybreak, an' not a soul knew they
wus thar, till they yelled. 'Twan't no fight, just a massacre. This
feller he got away, just as he sed he did, by a hidin' in the bush. I
reckon he wan't even seed at all, but he wus so blame close thet he
heerd 'bout all thet went on, an' even seed a bit ov it. Lord! I hed
ter poke him out; he wus thet skeered he cudn't stand."
"Wal, I reckon yer'd a bin too," the boy stuttered angrily. "I ain't
never seed no Injuns afore."
"An' don't wanter ever see no more, I reckon. Hell! I don't hanker
after eny myself. Howsumever, it's whut he seed an' heerd, Cap, thet
sounds mighty queer ter me. He sez thar wus mor'n fifty bucks in thet
party, an' that ol' Black Hawk wus thar hisself, a leadin' 'em'--he
done saw him."
I turned, surprised at this statement, to stare into the boy's face.
He half grinned back at me, vacantly.
"Black Hawk! He could scarcely be down here; what did he look like?"
"'Bout six feet high, I reckon, with a big hooked nose, an' the
blackest pair o' mean eyes ever yer saw. I reckon he didn't hav' no
eyebrows, an' he wore a bunch o' eagle feathers, an' a red blanket.
Gosh' Mister, but the Devil cudn't look no worse'n he did."
"Wus thet him, Cap?" burst in Tim, anxiously.
"It's not a bad description," I admitted, yet not convinced. "I can't
believe he would be here with a raiding party. If he was, there must
be some important object in view. Is that all?"
"No, 'tain't; the boy swears thar was a white man 'long with 'em, a
feller with a short moustache, an' dressed in store clothes. He wan't
no prisoner nuther, but hed a gun, an' talked ter Black Hawk, most like
he wus a chief hisself. After the killin' wus all over, he wus the one
whut got 'em ter go off thar to the south, the whole kit an' kaboodle.
Onct he spoke in English, just a word, er two. Asa cudn't make out
whut he sed, but 'twas English, all right."
"I don't doubt that. There have always been white renegades among the
Sacs and plenty of half-breeds. Those fellows are more dangerous than
the Indians themselves--more savage, and revengeful. If Black Hawk,
and this other fellow are leading this band, they are after big game
somewhere, and we had better keep out of their way. I favor saddling
up immediately, and traveling all night."
"So do I," and Tim flung a half-filled bag from his shoulder to the
ground. "But I vote we eat furst. 'Tain't much, only a few scraps I
found out thar; but it's a way better then nuthin'. Here you, Hall,
give me a hand, an' then we'll go out, an' round up them hosses."
If the party of raiding Indians, whose foul deed we had discovered, had
departed in a southerly direction, as their trail would plainly seem to
indicate, then our safest course would seemingly be directed eastward
up the valley. This would give us the protection of the bluffs, and
take us more and more out of the territory they would be likely to
cover. All this I explained to Eloise as we struggled with the hard
bread, and a few strips of smoked bacon. Most of the bag had held corn
meal, but no one suggested a fire, as we were glad enough to possess
anything which would still the pangs of hunger. Eloise, filled with
sympathy, attempted to converse with Hall, who ate as though
half-starved, using hands and teeth like a young animal, but the boy
was so embarrassed, and stuttered so terribly, as to make the effort
useless. Within twenty minutes we were in saddle, descending the steep
hillside through the darkness, Tim walking ahead with the lad, his
horse trailing behind, and the long rifle across his shoulder.
It was a hard night journey. Occasionally as we toiled onward I could
hear Elsie moan and sob, but Eloise gave utterance to no sound, except
to reply cheerfully whenever I addressed her. The exceeding roughness
of the passage made our progress slow, and quite frequently we were all
obliged to dismount, generally glad enough of the change, and plod
forward for some distance on foot. I possessed no knowledge then as to
where we were, the map having deceived me so often I had long since
lost all confidence in it as a guide, but now, in this later day, I can
trace our progress with some degree of accuracy, and know that we
passed that night in the valley of Bureau Creek, blindly groping our
way forward toward a fate of which we little dreamed.
Nor did those weary hours of darkness bring to us the slightest
warning, I do not recall feeling any special fear. In the first place
I was convinced that we must already be at the extreme limit of Black
Hawk's radius, and that, traveling as we were eastward, must before
morning be well beyond any possible danger of falling into the hands of
his warriors. The other pursuers I had practically dismissed from
thought. Not for twenty-four hours had we perceived the slightest
signs of Kirby's presence in our rear, and my faith was strong that his
party had either lost our trail, or been turned aside by fear of
encountering Indians. In this respect Kennedy remained more
pessimistic than I, yet even in his mind confidence began to dawn that
we had outstripped our enemies, both white and red, and that a few
miles more must bring us in safety to some pioneer settlement. The
poor condition of our horses compelled us to rest frequently, and our
own utter exhaustion led to our dropping asleep almost the moment we
halted. We were without food, and in no mood to converse. Shortly
after midnight my horse strained a tendon, and could no longer uphold
my weight. On foot, with the poor beast limping painfully behind me, I
pressed on beside Eloise, both of us silent, too utterly wearied with
the strain for any attempt at speech.
The early dawn found us plodding along close beside the creek, a fair
sized stream, which meandered quietly through a beautiful valley
protected on either side by high bluffs, rising to the plateau of
prairie beyond. The bluffs themselves were wooded, but the lower
expanse was open, covered with luxuriant grass, and containing only an
occasional tree, like some lone sentinel, diversifying the landscape
with the darker coloring of its leaves. It was a delightful scene, a
bit of wilderness beauty undefiled, appearing so peaceful and perfect
in its outer aspect as to cause even our tired, jaded eyes to open in
eager appreciation. I noticed Eloise straighten up in the saddle, her
face brightening in the early light as she gazed enraptured at the
varied shades of green decorating the near-by bluff, fading gradually
into the delicate blue of the arching sky overhead. The clear water of
the creek sparkled and rippled musically over a bed of yellow gravel,
while the soft lush grass clothing each bank waved gracefully in the
light wind, rising and falling like the waves of the sea. It was all
primitive nature untouched, nor was there evidence anywhere within our
vision, that this isolated valley in the midst of the prairie, had ever
before been visited by man. No dim trail crossed our path; no
appearance of life, human or animal, met our eyes; we forced our own
passage onward, with nothing to guide us, feeling more and more deeply
the dread loneliness and silence of this strangely desolate paradise.
The rising sun topped the summit of the bluff, its red rays seeming to
bridge with spans of gossamer the little valley up which we toiled. I
had lost my interest, and was walking doggedly on, with eyes bent upon
the ground, when the girl beside me cried out suddenly, a new
excitement in her voice.
"Oh, there is a cabin! see! Over yonder; just beyond that big oak,
where the bluff turns."
Her eager face was aglow, her outstretched hand pointing eagerly.
The logs of which the little building had been constructed, still in
their native bark, blended so perfectly with the drab hillside beyond,
that for the moment none of us caught the distant outlines. Tim
possessed the keenest sight, and his voice was first to speak.
"Sure, Miss, thet's a cabin, all right," he said grimly. "One room,
an' new built; likely 'nough sum settler just com' in yere. I don't
see no movement, ner smoke."
"Fled to the nearest fort probably," I replied, able myself by this
time to decipher the spot. "Be too risky to stay out here alone.
We'll look it over; there might be food left behind, even if the people
have gone."
We must have been half an hour in covering the distance. There were a
number of shallow gullies to cross, and a long, gently sloping hill to
climb. The cabin stood well up above the stream, within the shade of
the great oak, and we were confirmed, long before we reached it, of our
former judgment that it was uninhabited. The door stood ajar, and the
wooden shutter of the single window hung dejectedly by one hinge. No
sign of life was visible about the place; it had the appearance of
desertion, no smoke even curling from out the chimney. A faint trail,
evidently little used, led down toward the creek, and we followed this
as it wound around the base of the big tree. Then it was that the
truth dawned suddenly upon us--there to our right lay a dead mule,
harnessed for work, but with throat cut; while directly in front of the
cabin door was a dog, an ugly, massive brute, his mouth open, prone on
his back, with stiffened legs pointing to the sky. I dropped my rein,
and strode forward.
"Wait where you are," I called back. "There have been savages here;
let me see first what has happened inside."
The dog had been shot, stricken by two bullets, and I was obliged to
drag his huge body to one side before I could press my way in through
the door. The open doorway and window afforded ample light, and a
single glance was sufficient to reveal most of the story. It was a
well-built cabin, recently erected, with hip roof and puncheon floor,
the inside of the logs peeled, and white-washed. It had a homelike
look, the few scattered articles of furniture rudely but skillfully
made. A bit of chintz fluttered at the window, and a flower in a can
bloomed on the sill. The table had been smashed as by the blow of an
axe, and pewter dishes were everywhere. The bed in one corner had been
stripped of its coverlets, many of them slashed by a knife, and the
straw tick had been ripped open in a dozen places. Coals from the
fireplace lay widespread, some of them having eaten deeply into the
hard wood before they ceased smouldering.
I saw all this, yet my eyes rested upon something else. A man lay,
bent double across an overturned bench, in a posture which hid his face
from view. His body was there alone, although a child's shoe lay on
the floor, and a woman's linsey dress dangled from a hook against the
wall. I crept forward, my heart pounding madly, until I could gain
sight of his face. He was a big fellow, not more than thirty, with
sandy hair and beard, and a pugnacious jaw, his coarse hickory shirt
slashed into ribbons, a bullet wound in the center of his forehead, and
one arm broken by a vicious blow. His calloused hands yet gripped the
haft of an axe, just as he had died--fighting.
The sight of the man lying in that posture of horror was so terrible
that I instantly grasped the body, dragging it from off the overturned
bench, and seeking to give it a resting place on the floor. But it was
already stiffened in death, and I could only throw over it a blanket to
hide the sight. Tim's voice spoke from the doorway.
"Injuns, I reckon?"
"Yes, they have been here; the man is dead. But there must have been
others, a woman and child also--see that shoe on the floor, and the
dress hanging over there. The poor devil fought hard."
Kennedy stepped inside, staring about him.
"I reckon likely he wus yere alone," he commented slowly, evidently
thinking it out. "I figure like this--thet he'd heerd rumors o' Injuns
bein' raidin' this way, an' hed sent his fam'ly back ter sum fort
'round yere, but decided fer ter take his own chances. Thar ain't no
waggon round yere, an' no hosses, 'cept thet muel. He'd sure hav' sum
sorter contivance fer ter ride in. Then agin he sorter looks like thet
kind ov a feller ter me--he wudn't do no runnin' hisself, but I reckon
he'd take keer o' his folks. Whut's this yere under the bench?--hell,
a letter." He held it up to the light, in an effort to decipher the
description. "'Herman Slosser, Otterway, Illinoy--ter be held till
called fer.' Thet's it, Cap; thet's his name, I'll bet ye; an' so we
can't be so blamed fur frum this yere Otterway fort. Good Lord! won't
I be glad fer ter see it."
"Do you think it best to stop here?"
"Why not? 'Tain't likely them devils will be back agin. Thar sure
must be somethin' fer us ter eat in the place, an' the Lord kno's we
can't go on as we are. Them gurls be mighty nigh ready ter drop, an'
two o' the hosses has plum giv' out. I'm fer liftin' this body out'r
yere, an' settlin' down fer a few hours enyhow--say till it gits
middling dark."
Undoubtedly this was the sensible view. We would be in far less danger
remaining there under cover than in any attempt to continue our journey
by daylight. Together we carried Slosser's body out, and deposited it
in a thicket behind the cabin, awaiting burial; and then dragged the
dead dog also out of sight. The disorder within was easily remedied,
and, after this had been attended to, the girls were permitted to
enter. Little was said to them, for they had seen enough with their
own eyes to render the situation sufficiently clear, although in truth
both were so wearied with the night ride, and the strain of those hours
of night, as to be practically incapable of feeling any occurrence
deeply. Horror after horror had followed us, until all sense of such
things had become seared and deadened. The mind had reached the limit
of endurance, and refused longer to respond. Even as I repeated
briefly what it was we had discovered, and the conclusions drawn, their
faces expressed only a dull comprehension, and they seemed rather to be
struggling to even keep an appearance of interest. Eloise sank back on
the bench, her head supported against the wall, the lashes of her
half-closed eyes showing dark against the whiteness of her cheeks. She
looked so pitifully tired, the very heart choked in my throat.
The rest of us found a small stock of provisions, and Elsie, with Tim
to aid her, built a fire and prepared breakfast. A half-filled bottle
of whisky discovered in the cupboard, helped to revive all of us
slightly, and gave Asa sufficient courage to seek outside for a spring.
Tim, comparatively unwearied himself, and restless, located a trapdoor
in the floor, rather ingeniously concealed, which disclosed the
existence of a small cellar below. Candle in hand he explored this,
returning with two guns, together with a quantity of powder and ball,
and information that there remained a half-keg of the explosive hidden
below.
"Must a bin aiming ter blow up stumps, I reckon," he commented,
exhibiting a sample. "Coarsest I ever saw; cudn't hardly use thet in
no gun, but it's powder all right," and he crumbled the particles
between his fingers, flinging the stuff into the fire.
To remove the debris out of our way, I was gathering up the straw tick
and slit blankets, and piled them all together back on the bed.
Clinging to one of the blankets, caught and held by its pin, was a
peculiar emblem, and I stood for a moment with it in my hand, curiously
examining the odd design. Eloise unclosed her eyes, and started to her
feet.
"What is that you have?" she asked,
"A pin of some kind--a rather strange design; I just found it here,
entangled in this blanket."
She took it from my hand, her eyes opening wide as she, stared at the
trinket.
"Why," she exclaimed in surprise, "I have seen one exactly like it
before--Kirby wore it in his tie."