THE GUARD OF HONOR.
After a month’s stay at the fort, under the plea of his wound
unfitting him for service, for it was still troublesome, Lieutenant
Fallon resigned his commission, feeling that he had been vindicated
in having won it, unaided, and, with his daughter, went eastward, and
thence to Texas, to his old ranch home.
In a short time there was a wedding at the ranch, for thither had
gone Lieutenant Walter Worth to claim his bride. Shortly after the
lieutenant’s departure, Buffalo Bill set forth upon a new mission
which promised a harvest of adventures.
Having been appointed, for a special purpose, chief of scouts of the
Tenth United States Cavalry, a regiment of black troopers, Cody rode
off on one of his lone trails to reach the command at its frontier
post.
He loved the adventure and danger attending this new mission, yet
sought it also for the benefit he could bring to those who dwelt upon
the advance borderland, and depended upon just such men as himself to
protect them from the redskins of the wild West.
The noted scout had been ordered to Fort Aspen for his special duty,
as the commandant, Major Armes, had made the request that he should
be, on account of the threatened hostility of the Indians, and, also,
as Buffalo Bill was the man who knew that country better than any
other frontiersman.
Major Armes also had been much troubled by the lawless bands of
gold hunters who had sought to invade the Indian country, risking
massacres, and keeping the redskins constantly worried over the
determination of these palefaces to get a foothold in their hunting
grounds and then force them farther toward the “Land of the Setting
Sun.”
Many bands of lawless invaders of the beautiful country had
recklessly penetrated the mountain and valley recesses in search of
the precious yellow metal, and they had thus avoided the chain of
soldiers the government had put there to keep them out.
One band after another had met its doom in the forbidden land, and
been wiped out utterly by the Indians, who had left not one of them
to tell the story of the massacre.
They had taken their lives in their own hands, and, against all
warnings and efforts of the soldiers, had broken through the military
barrier and penetrated the Indian country, to meet there quick death.
Even several emigrant trains, with women and children along, had
foolishly ventured, and Buffalo Bill had reported that the groups of
whitened bones he had found told the story of their fate.
Though the soldiers were trying to protect their country from
invasion, the hostile Sioux were as bitter toward them as toward
those who sought to make homes there, and war, merciless and
unending, had been declared.
“If I had Buffalo Bill, as my chief of scouts, I believe he could,
with his knowledge of the country, of these Indians, and his great
skill as a frontiersman, head off these would-be settlers and bands
of gold seekers from what they regard as a promised land, and this
done, the Sioux would be more willing to make peace with the army,
realizing that our desire was to protect them.”
So wrote Major Armes, the commandant of Fort Aspen, to Colonel Carr,
in seeking to have the valuable services of William F. Cody as chief
of scouts.
And the letter further said:
“The Tenth Cavalry of colored troops also needs just such a man as
Buffalo Bill to steady them and give them perfect confidence in the
one who leads them upon deadly trails.
“They one and all have perfect confidence in Buffalo Bill, believe
that he bears a charmed life--as I also am inclined to believe--and
they know that the Indians dread him, regard him with a certain
superstitious fear, and his influence is very great along the whole
border.
“I, therefore, respectfully urge that he be sent to Fort Aspen, for a
while at least, if only to bring confidence to the garrison.”
The result of Major Armes’ letter was that the next courier through
to Fort Aspen brought dispatches stating that Buffalo Bill should
come very soon, and that, spoken to upon the subject, he had said
that, instead of making up a scouting band of white scouts, he would
pick colored soldiers to be his allies.
In other words, he would have a company of black scouts from the
Tenth Cavalry.
Major Armes at once notified the garrison that Buffalo Bill was
coming to Fort Aspen, and what his intention was regarding the band
of black scouts.
There was excitement at once in the garrison, and the colored
troopers were delighted that the great borderman was going to show
his confidence in them by taking his scouts from their regiment.
“Now we’ll blow de Injuns off de farm.”
“You better believe I speaks fer bein’ a nigger scout.”
“Annudder nigger heah does say de same.”
“Wonder if Massa Bill gwine ter brack hissef up so as ter look like
us?”
“Won’t dem red niggers git up an’ lead us brack scouts arter ’em?”
“An’ I guesses dem palefaces as wants ter go inter de Promised Lan’
will tarn back an’ settle somewhar else.”
Such remarks and others of a like kind ran the rounds of the colored
troopers, when they heard the good news that Buffalo Bill was
coming, and better still that he intended to pick men from their
regiment for his scouts.
Major Armes was much pleased, and knowing about the time the scout
was expected, he ordered a negro sergeant and twenty men to take the
trail as a guard of honor and meet him a day’s ride from the fort.
The sergeant and his picked men were as proud as peacocks at the
duty and the envy of all the rest of the regiment, who had to remain
behind.
Had the colored troopers had their say, all would have gone to meet
the scout and Fort Aspen would have been left without a garrison.
And so the black escort set out upon the trail to meet the noted
scout.