FROM DODGE CITY
"Dad, what's the day after to-morrow?"
Evan Lancaster pursed out his mouth and thoughtfully contemplated his
elder daughter.
"Ah c'd figger it out," he declared after a puzzled silence, "ef Ah had
th' almanac." He hunted about, found the pamphlet and began to study the
December page. "Trouble is," he said at last, "Ah don' know no day t'
figger fr'm--Ah los' track 'way back yonder at th' fore part o' th'
month. 'Sides, Ah kain't say whether this is Tuesday er Wednesday er
Thursday. Mar'lyn, d' you remember w'at day o' th' week it is?"
Marylyn left the farther window and walked slowly forward. As she halted
beside her sister, the latter put an arm about her tenderly and drew her
close. A change had recently come over the younger girl--a change that
Dallas had not failed to see, yet had utterly failed to understand.
Marylyn still performed her few tasks about the house, but with
absent-minded carelessness. Her work done, she took up the
long-neglected vigil at the windows, spending many quiet, and seemingly
purposeless, hours there--all unmindful that the beaded belt lay dusty
and unfinished on a shelf. Only by fits and starts was the shack
enlivened by her happy chatter. At all other times, she was wistful and
distrait. Now, as she answered her father, a faltering light crept into
her eyes.
"The last time Mr. Lounsbury was here," she said, hesitatingly, "it was
the 6th, and to-day is----"
"Ah c'n git it," the section-boss interrupted. After a moment's tallying
on his fingers, he sat back and clapped his knees in excitement. "W'y,
Dallas!" he cried, "th' day after t'-morrow's the end o' thet man's six
months!"
Dallas released Marylyn. "Yes," she said, watching the younger girl
wander back mechanically to the post she had forsaken; "and to-morrow
you ought to start for Bismarck. Maybe it wouldn't matter if you waited
a while before going; but as long as the weather's good, I think you
ought to go right off."
"Ah reckon," he replied, but not heartily.
And so, once more preparations for a trip were made. That night, when
all was ready, and Dallas and her father, having given the team a late
feed, were leaving the stable together, she spoke to him of her sister.
"There's just one thing that worries me about your leaving," she said.
"I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but Marylyn don't seem to be
feeling good."
"Y' think mebbe she takes after her ma?" ventured the section-boss.
Dallas nodded.
"No, no," he said, "she favours me, an' they's no need t' fret. They's
nothin' th' matter with her--jus' off her oats a leetle, thet's all."
The developments of the next morning swept every thought from Dallas'
mind save those concerning the journey. For, when it came time to
harness the mules, she found that Ben had unaccountably gone lame.
Whether his mate had kicked him, or whether he had sprained a leg while
exercising the previous afternoon, she did not know. But it was plain
that, as far as he went, the miles between quarter-section and
land-office were impossible. At once, Dallas suggested that Betty be
driven single to a small pung that had been built for water-hauling when
the well froze up. Accordingly, the mule was put before the sleigh.
Failure resulted. Though both Dallas and her father alternately coaxed
and scolded, Betty, with characteristic stubbornness, refused to budge a
rod from the lean-to without Ben.
Dallas was in despair. "She won't go, she won't go," she said. "We've
got to think of some other way."
"Yestiddy," observed the section-boss, as he unfastened the tugs, "y'
said it wouldn' matter ef Ah didn' go now." He was somewhat complacent
over the outcome of the hitch-up.
"I don't feel that way now," asserted Dallas.
"Thet ol' man up at th' leetle ben' has hosses," he volunteered when
they were again within the shack.
"He took 'em to Clark's two months ago, and walked back."
"Wal, how 'bout th' Norwegian over by th' Mountain?"
"He keeps oxen. If a blizzard came up, they'd never lead you out of it."
Then she was moved to make a suggestion which she felt certain, however,
would only be denounced. "There are hundreds of horses and mules at
Brannon. I could ask there for a team."
Instantly Lancaster's ire was roused. "Thet's all Ah want t' hear fr'm
you 'bout them damned Yankees," he said hotly. "An' Ah want y' t'
remember it."
"But you're wrong, dad."
"Eh?" He turned upon her in amazed disgust.
"You're wrong," she repeated gently. "We oughtn't to treat the soldiers
as if they was enemies. Some day we'll be in danger here----"
"Bosh!"
"And then we'll have to take their help."
He began to hobble up and down, working himself into a white heat. "'S
long as Ah live on this claim," he said, "Ah'll never go t' Brannon fer
anythin', an' they'll be no trottin' back an' forth. Thet ornery trash
over thar is th' same, most of it, thet fought th' South, jus' a few
years ago. Ah kain't forget thet. An' not _one_ of 'em'll ever set a
foot in this house."
After more hobbling, he burst forth again. "Ah tell y', Dallas, Ah won't
_hev_' you gals meetin' them no-'count soldiers----"
She smiled at him. "We don't want to meet any soldiers," she answered.
"But there are women at the Fort--women like mother. It seems a shame we
can't know them."
"Y' mother raised y' t' be's fine a lady as any of 'em over thar!"
"Maybe that's true. If it is, then they'd like us, wouldn't they? and we
could have friends. I'm not thinking about myself--just about Marylyn."
"You gals got each other. Meetin' th' women at Brannon means meetin' th'
men. _An' Ah won't hev it!_" His voice rose almost to a shout.
"I'll never speak to you about it again," she said. And her quiet
acceptance mollified him.
"M' gal, y' kain't think how Ah feel about them Yanks," he went on
tremulously. "An' Ah want y' t' promise me thet whether Ah'm 'live er
dead, y' 'll allus keep on you' own side of th' river."
She glanced up at him quickly. "Do you mean that, daddy?" she asked,
using the name he had borne in her babyhood.
"Ah _do!_ Ah do!"
"Then I promise." Her tone was sorrowful.
"Mar'lyn?"
The younger girl faced about slowly.
"D' _you_ promise?"
"Promise?" she repeated. "Yes,--I--I promise."
Dallas knew that the trip to the land-office was impossible unless
Lounsbury should chance along--which was unlikely, some weeks having
passed since his last visit. Undoubtedly were he to come, he would help
them. But would her father allow her to ask the storekeeper's aid?
Probably not.
"I'll tell Charley about it to-night," she said finally. "We just _got_
to find a way."
"What c'n _he_ do?" retorted her father. "Far's him's gitting a team's
concerned, we-all might's well look fer someone t' come right outen th'
sky."
Her determination to ask advice of the pariah was a natural one. The
morning that succeeded the night of the mules' terror, she had awakened
to find a reassuring explanation for their fear: In the growing light,
as the trumpet sounded reveille from the fort, she sprang up and looked
out expectantly. On the top of a drift in front of the door was a bundle
of sticks! A hard crust had formed during the night; and moccasin
tracks, leading up to the wood, and then pointing away again, were cast
in it with frozen clearness.
"That poor Indian!" she had exclaimed, in grateful relief.
Not once after his summoning before Colonel Cummings had The Squaw
forgotten daily to leave firewood at the shack. The evening of his
second trip across the Missouri, Dallas had lain in wait for him,
secreted under the dismantled schooner, which she had drawn into place
beside the door. And as, bringing his offering, he crossed the snow
softly and approached, the terrified mules again announced his coming,
and she hailed him.
"Come on, come near," she had called; "I want to see you."
Eager to prove his good intent, he had hastened forward; and she, just
as eager to show her thankfulness, had led him into the house. There,
with the distrustful eye of the section-boss upon him, and with Marylyn
watching in trepidation from a distance, he had eaten and drunk at
Dallas' bidding.
At the very moment when Dallas decided to confide in him, Squaw Charley
was not unmindful of her. Where the river-bluffs back of Brannon shoved
their dark shoulders through the snow, the wind having swept their tops
clean of the last downfall, he was working away like a muskrat. To and
fro, he went, searching diligently for buffalo-chips. A sack followed
him on a rope tied to his leather belt, so that he could beat his hands
against his breast as he covered every square rod of dead, curly grass
on the uplands. The bag crammed to the top, he took off his blanket
and, despite the cold, began to fill it also. For he knew, and fully as
well as they who watched the thermometer hanging just outside the
entrance at headquarters, that the night would require much fuel.
As he hunted along the bare ridge, something more than the frigid gusts
that whipped the skirt about his lean shanks urged him to finish his
gathering and go riverward. In the little snug cabin out on the prairie
a cheery welcome awaited him; before the glowing coals in the stone
fireplace he could warm his shaking legs; there was good food for his
empty stomach. But, better than all else, there a kindly face always
smiled a greeting.
The blanket piled so high with chips that its weight balanced the
grain-sack, he prepared to start riverward. But first, prompted by an
old habit, he climbed to a high point of bluff near by, and, standing
where lookouts had maintained a post before severe weather compelled
their withdrawal, carefully scanned the white horizon. To the west, from
where--the band in the stockade boasted--warriors of their tribe would
come in the spring to make a rescue; to the north, on either side of the
ice-bound Missouri; to the east, in the wide gap between the distant
ranges of hills, he saw no creature moving. But facing southward, his
hands shading his eyes carefully from the glare, he spied, on the
eastern bank, and at not a great distance, the approach of a familiar
milk-white horse, drawing a heavy pung.
The stooping pariah was transformed by the sight. He threw up his arms
with an inarticulate cry, and sprang away down the slope to his sack and
blanket. Seizing them, he made for the level ground north of the
barracks, descended to the ice, swiftly crossed and dragged the fuel up
to the cottonwoods. Then he started down the river, taking long leaps.
The upper part of the improvised sleigh that was tilting its way across
the drifts like a skiff on angry water, was the green box of an ordinary
farm-wagon, set on runners. The wheels of the vehicle lay on some hay in
the rear of the box. On the broad wooden seat was a man, facing rearward
to get the wind at his back. He was almost concealed by quilts, his arms
being wrapped close to his body, and the milk-white horse was taking his
leisurely way unguided. Above the man, and nailed so loosely to the
wagon-seat that it wavered a little from side to side and kept up a
squeaking, was a tall board cross, rude and unpainted.
When he came close to the sleigh, Squaw Charley caught the sound of
singing, and stopped. The traveller was comforting his lonely way with a
sacred hymn, the words of which, scattered by the wind, reached the
Indian in broken, but martial, phrases.
"_Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching ... war,
... the cross of Jesus
... on before._"
Again Squaw Charley spurred himself into long leaps. And behind Shanty
Town, on the open prairie, he brought the horse to a halt.
Once more he gave his wordless cry--a cry like the shrill hail of a
mute. It brought the man face about. Another second, answering, he stood
up, shook off the quilts to free his arms, reached down and caught the
pariah to his breast.
Tall and spare, he was, and aged; over his shoulders flowed long, white
hair; a beard as white fell to his waist; his sharp eyes were shaded by
heavy brows; he wore a coat of coarse cloth that touched his feet, and
about his head was wound a nubia; as, with face upraised, he embraced
the Indian, he was a stately, venerable figure.
"God be praised!" he said over and over. Then he held Squaw Charley away
from him a moment to look him up and down. "I feared some harm had come
to you--that your people had behaved so cruelly to you that you had
died. But you are well. Yet how thin! Ah! I am so glad to see you once
more!"
He held him close again, murmuring a blessing. When he released him, it
was to make room for him on the seat, and wrap him up in a thick, soft
quilt. All the while the benevolent old face was shining with happiness,
and tears were streaming down the wrinkled cheeks.
Squaw Charley, too, was overcome. His black eyes were no longer sad and
lowered. They glowed softly, almost adoringly, as he watched his friend.
"David Bond had not forgotten you, Charles," the old man said, as he
clucked to the white horse. "I was at Dodge City--that wickedest town of
the plains--when news came of the capture of your village. At once I
started, for I knew that my duty lay here, here with your poor people,
who will not realise how foolish and puny is their warfare. I did not
come alone," he added, casting a look behind; "a white man accompanied
me--a man so full of evil and blasphemy that I quake for the safety of
his miserable soul. He has walked most of the distance, for he is
warmer walking, and there are scarce enough quilts for two."
They looked back. A mile to the rear, trailed a solitary man.
Squaw Charley made a quick, questioning sign.
"His name is Matthews," replied David Bond; "and his mission, I fear, is
a bad one. All the way he has urged my poor Shadrach on and on, so that
we have hardly had time to rest and eat. And all the day, as he rides or
tramps, he mutters to himself. When I ask him what he is saying, he
replies, 'You'll find out quick enough!' and curses more vilely than
before."
The pung was now opposite the stockade. Looking across the river, David
Bond got his first view of the high-walled prison with its ever-moving
and wary guards.
He pulled up his horse. "Alas!" he exclaimed mournfully, "how misguided
they are--white and red men alike!"
The pung slid on until the cut in the river-bank was reached. Again the
old man reined. "I cannot cross the river while the ice is so smooth.
Shadrach could not keep his feet. And I will not leave him behind. But
where can I stop on this side?"
Glancing to the left, he saw the line of saloons. "There, Charles," he
said. "I shall drive there and ask for shelter."
He turned the white horse into the cut. As they approached the shanties,
a woman's voice was heard, raised in ribald song.
"God sends David Bond whither he is most needed," the old man murmured
fervently.
A shingle sign was nailed over the door of the first building. On it, in
bold, uneven letters, were the words: _The Trooper's Delight_. David
Bond climbed down and knocked.
There was a moment of dead silence within; then, sounds as if several
persons were moving about on tiptoe; again, silence. The old man knocked
louder. After a short wait, the door was thrown wide. A thick-set man,
whose eyes squinted at cross purposes over his flat, turned-up nose,
filled the entrance.
"What in the devil do you want?" he demanded roughly, when he saw David
Bond. But his seeming anger illy concealed his relief that it was not an
officered guard, searching for recreant soldiers.
"I wish for nothing in the name of the devil," was the simple answer.
"But in the name of God, I ask for a roof."
"That buck with you?" The squint-eyed man shut the door behind him as he
pointed at Squaw Charley.
"No; he lives in the stockade yonder."
"Oh! He's the one that goes prowlin' 'round here day an' night, sneakin'
an' stealin'!"
"He may prowl," said David Bond, stoutly, "but he does not steal. He is
a good, honest Indian."
The keeper of The Trooper's Delight laughed immoderately. "Get out! Who
ever heerd tell of a' honest Injun? Say!"--tauntingly--"where'd you an'
your broom-tail come from, anyhow?"
"From Dodge City."
"Dodge City!" the man cried. "Then maybe you seen my brother there, or
heerd if he' comin'. Nick Matthews is his name----"
David Bond lifted one hand and opened his mouth to answer. But the words
stopped at his lips. For, from the top of the high bank behind the line
of shanties, there came a shout. Looking up, the squint-eyed man, David
Bond, and The Squaw saw a face peering down upon them.
"Hello!" came the voice again. "Hello, Babe! Hello, gran'pa! you beat me
here, didn't y'? Look out! I'm a-comin'!"
And amid a little avalanche of snow, icicles, dirt and stones that
frightened the milk-white horse so that he all but overturned the pung,
Nick Matthews tobogganed down the bank on his overcoat and landed beside
them on the shelf.
"Short cut," he said, as he got up and shook out the coat. "Well, Babe,
old socks, how's things goin'? How"--he threw his thumb back over his
shoulder toward the east--"how 'bout over there? What news y' got?"
Squaw Charley followed the direction of the pointing.
"You ain't come a minnit too soon," declared Babe. "Only just a day or
two left of your six months, an' they----" The two moved toward the
shanty, whispering together.
David Bond called to the brothers appealingly. "May I put up here?" he
asked. "Have you a vacant building that I may share with Shadrach? I
have hay and food of my own."
Nick Matthews came back. He had a putty-coloured face upon which his
blonde eyebrows failed to show; but he summoned a look that was as near
to a scowl as possible. "Look a-here, gran'pa," he said, "d' _you_ think
I'm goin' t' let you sponge offen my frien's? Not by a long shot! Hain't
I come all the way fr'm Dodge City t' keep th' redskins fr'm takin' your
scalp? What _more_ d' y' want?" He gave a laugh in which there was no
humour, disclosing small teeth, ranged close, and like the first set of
a child's.
David Bond did not quail. "You have accepted my hospitality for a
month," he said. "I ask nothing that is not justly mine."
Matthews snapped his fingers derisively. "We can't have you here t'
snoop an' spy," he declared. "Git!" As he turned to enter the shanty, he
came face to face with the Indian. "What's this?" Then, noting the squaw
skirt, "Gran'pa, who's your lady frien'?"
Hate flashed across the pariah's face, like forked lightning on a dark
sky.
"One of Sitting Bull's warriors," answered David Bond; "and a good man."
"Uncapapa, eh?" said Matthews. "I savvy their lingo." He plucked at
Squaw Charley's dress. "Our warrior wears fine garments," he jeered,
speaking in the Indian tongue. Then, with another laugh, he followed his
brother into the shanty and banged the door.
David Bond took his horse's bridle. "We must find hospitality elsewhere,
Shadrach," he said resignedly. And he headed the pung up the river. As
he got back into the wagon-box, he looked round for Squaw Charley.
The pariah was standing close to the shanty, his head held forward, as
if he were watching to spring, his hands opening and clenching angrily.
"Charles!" pleaded the old man, reproachfully. "Remember--do good to
them that wish you evil, and love them that hate."
The Indian dropped his arm meekly and shuffled over to the pung. But
when David Bond again drew him on to the seat, his lips moved silently,
and until the cut was reached and Shadrach pulled them out upon the
prairie once more, he continued to glower back at the line of saloons.
"It will be a terrible night," the other said, as they came to a
standstill beside the cottonwoods. "It is getting late. I suppose I must
try to cross the river."
The pariah was recalled from his backward glances. Rising, he extended
an arm to direct David Bond's attention. And the old man, rising also,
made out the squat shack of the Lancasters, almost hidden from sight by
drifts. With a fervent prayer of thanksgiving, he touched up Shadrach
and steered him toward it, pausing only long enough for the Indian to
load the chip-sack and the filled blanket on top of the wheels and hay.
"If this lonely house will give me shelter and welcome," vowed David
Bond, urging his horse on, "it will find me grateful."
Squaw Charley made no answering sign. Bundled again in the soft quilt,
he sat in the wagon-box, brooding. For he had divined, with the instinct
of the savage, that if the shack on the rise before them would find a
faithful friend in him who sat beneath the wavering cross, it was
threatened by the presence of a dangerous foe--the man just come to the
shanty saloon by the river.