A PROPOSAL AND A PROMISE
The medicine lodge of the Indians stood just within the sliding-panel of
the stockade. Thirty poles, their tops lashed together so as to leave a
smoke-hole, their bases spread to form a generous circle, supported a
covering of tanned buffalo hides seamed with buckskin thongs. Here,
barely an hour after Matthews' arrival at Fort Brannon, Squaw Charley
entered hastily and thrust some red coals under a stick-pile at the
centre of the lodge. And at once, by the flickering light of his fire,
the warriors of the band entered the low entrance and seated themselves
in a semicircle.
When Colonel Cummings learned that an interpreter had been found, he
promptly ordered the completion of preparations for the Jamieson
expedition, and the calling of a council, unsatisfactory, but necessary.
The redskins jailed in the stockade must know both the object of the
trip and his terms, so that they, realising their peril, would reveal
the whereabouts of the winter camp of the hostiles.
His interview with Matthews threatened a change in his plans. The
latter, having listened to the story of the captured women and to the
scheme for their rescue, astonished the commanding officer by declining
absolutely to take the proposed journey.
"I'd like t' be obligin'," he said, "but I can't go. I didn't know
there was goin' t' be any travellin'. There's business that'll keep me
here."
"Why, man!" cried the colonel, "I've made you a good offer."
"I ain't a-sayin' y' didn't," was the curt answer.
Colonel Cummings knew to what "business" he referred; but realised that
a discussion of it would not aid in bringing the desired consent. He
pretended to guess at reasons for the refusal.
"There's scarcely a possibility of trouble during the journey," he said.
"Indians don't like to fight in the snow, especially when their families
are with them and their war-ponies are feeding on cottonwood bark.
Besides, their head chief will be sharp enough to see that he'll have to
treat and not fight if he wants to save the necks of his favourites.
Then, as far as the safety and comfort of my men are concerned,
everything is being done. Better reconsider, Matthews."
"Can't do it."
Colonel Cummings left his library, where he had been talking, and sought
Lounsbury's advice. The two held a short, whispered conversation in the
entry.
"Let me have a few words with him," said the storekeeper. Matthews'
balking was not altogether a surprise. Nevertheless, it was a keen
disappointment. He had hoped to be able to send Squaw Charley across the
river soon with good news. "Let me see him. Maybe I can bring him
around."
They entered the library.
"Matthews," began Lounsbury, "you might as well go along. If you stay,
you can't get a hold o' that claim." He looked at the colonel's clock.
"It's midnight. Your six months are up. If you did have a chance, it's
gone. Possession's nine points in law, and Lancaster's up at Bismarck
nailing the tenth."
If the storekeeper's blunt assertions were of any particular interest to
the other, he failed to show it. He occupied himself with finding a
cigar, cutting it carefully, and lighting it at the stove. Then he
turned about to Colonel Cummings, his glance, as it travelled, utterly
ignoring Lounsbury.
"Not to mention the risks you run with the boys," added the storekeeper
easily, amused by the play of indifference.
"Oh, I guess Shanty Town can take keer of itself," observed Matthews,
sending up smoke rings.
Lounsbury walked out.
There was but one thing left for Colonel Cummings to do: Ask this man to
interpret in the Medicine Lodge, that at least the Indians might learn
their position. Knowing it, they might be prevailed upon to select one
of their own number to accompany the expedition and repeat the terms.
The commanding officer, rather provoked at Lounsbury, who, he thought,
had harmed, and not helped, his cause, immediately suggested this course
to Matthews.
"I can parley-voo for you there, all right," agreed Matthews,
patronisingly. "But how you goin'?"
"You and I, alone."
Matthews stared. "Carry any guns?" he asked.
"Not when I go into the stockade. The Indians are without weapons. And I
like to show them that I trust them."
The other laughed. "You go t' tell some redskins that they's goin' t'
be strung up, and y' don't take no gun. Well! not for _me_, Colonel!"
"Then, we'll have a guard."
"O. K. I'm with you."
A scout who understood the sign language was despatched to the stockade.
And by the time the braves were settled down before the blaze, Colonel
Cummings, Matthews, and a detail of armed men were before the aperture
of the Medicine Lodge.
The soldiers waited outside the big wigwam, where they made themselves
comfortable by moving up and down. Their commanding officer and the
interpreter went in. At their appearance, the warriors rose gravely,
shook hands, and motioned the white men to take seats upon a robe placed
at Lame Foot's left hand. The air in the place was already beginning to
thicken with kinnikinick and fire smoke; the mingled smell of tobacco
and skins made it nauseating. Colonel Cummings would gladly have hurried
his errand. But Indian etiquette forbade haste. He was forced to contain
himself and let the council proceed with customary and exasperating
slowness.
The first step was the pipe. A young Sioux applied a burning splinter to
a sandstone bowl and handed the long stem to the medicine-man. His
nostrils filled, he gave the pipe to Colonel Cummings, from whom, in
turn, it passed to Matthews, Standing Buffalo, Canada John, and thence
along the curving line of warriors. When all had smoked, the bowl was
once more filled and lighted, and once more it was sent from hand to
hand. Not until this ceremony had been repeated many times did the
council come to speech.
But neither the commanding officer nor his interpreter made the first
address. Though the braves guessed that something unusual had brought
about an assembly at this hour, and though their curiosity on the
subject was childishly live, they surpassed their captor in patience.
Stolidly they looked on while Lame Foot rose to his feet.
The war-priest was not the figure that had led the band south after the
battle; not the haughty, stately brave that the sentimentalist loves to
picture. He was feathered and streaked as before. A stone mallet hung
from his belt. But he wore no string of bears' claws. They had gone the
way of the sutler, which was a tasty way, strewn with bright-labelled,
but aged, canned goods. And as for his embroidered shirt, it was much
soiled and worn, and he had so gained in weight--through plentiful food
and lack of exercise--that he pressed out upon it deplorably with a
bulging paunch.
Pompously, but using no gestures or inflections, he began a rambling,
lengthy account of his past deeds of valour. From these he finally
swerved to the recital of his people's wrongs. He climaxed, after an
interminable amount of talking, with a boast that awakened the hearty
approbation of his sloven fellows. "We but wait for the winter to go,"
he said, "for in the spring we shall have freedom. Our brothers, who are
sly as foxes and swift as hawks, will sweep down upon the pony soldiers
and slay them."
He sat down amid a chorus of "Ho! Hos!" The semicircle moved and bent
and nodded. It was plain that he had expressed a common belief.
There was one Indian not of the council to whom his words meant more
than freedom. That Indian was Squaw Charley. A moment after Colonel
Cummings' arrival, the pariah had crept noiselessly into the lodge and
lain down in the shadows. From there, careful all the while to be quiet
and to keep himself well screened, he listened to Lame Foot. But when
the chief came to his bragging conclusion, Squaw Charley forgot his own
degradation for a moment, and forgot to fear discovery. Was a battle
indeed coming! New hope all at once!--the hope that he would have the
opportunity, long desired, of getting away from the squaws, the old men,
and the mocking children, and going with the warriors. Once with them,
even in the role of cook or drudge, the chance might come to do a brave
act, such an act as would reinstate him. Perhaps he could wound an
enemy, and count coup upon him; perhaps he could face bullets or arrows
to rescue a brother----
His dull eyes glinted like cut beads. In very excitement, he raised his
bent, spare body.
Hearing the movement, Lame Foot glared round, and his eyes fell upon the
outcast.
"Woo!" he cried. "A squaw in the council-lodge! Woo!"
There was a general turning, and those nearest the pariah made
peremptory gestures.
A second Charley stood uncertainly. Then the look of one accused came
into his face. He tottered backward, through the lodge opening, and out
into the snow.
The council continued.
A dozen warriors followed the war-priest in speech-making. Each of them
said no more than he. To Colonel Cummings' disgust, each one said no
less. Added to the tediousness of it all were Matthews'
interpretations. Toward three o'clock, however, the prime object of the
meeting was reached.
When the commanding officer at last rose, he was in no mood to mince
matters. He used few words, but they were forcible. He asked the
interpreter to repeat them precisely.
They had their effect. While Matthews was doing this, the colonel did
not glance away from the council-fire, yet he knew that in the
semicircle there was genuine consternation. Grunts, startled, angry,
threatening, ran up and down the line. Those warriors named for possible
execution alone were silent.
Presently, one of the others spoke. "If we tell you where to go, how do
we know the white chief will not fall upon the winter camp of our
brothers as Custer, The Long-Hair, fell upon Black Kettle's?"
"I am not going with the pony soldiers," Matthews hastened to say.
"Across the Muddy Water, where the road passes, is a wide piece of land
which has been stolen from me."
One of the four condemned glanced up. It was Lame Foot. "By The
Plow-Woman?" he asked.
"By her father. I shall stay until that land is mine again. One of you
must ask your chief that he give up the pale-face squaws."
Canada John answered him. "A brave can but take the words of the white
chief. That is not well. One of a double tongue must go."
"The white chief has but one," said Matthews, and tapped his own chest.
A silence followed.
"The journey begins when the sun is little," he added, and sat down.
"Will not the white chief wait until spring?" asked Lame Foot, whose
guile made up for his physical defect.
The others studied Colonel Cummings' face as the question was put to
him. They saw the purpose--postponement, which might bring freedom for
them, and also a retention of the captive women.
The colonel's answer did not need interpreting. "No!" he said, and
struck his knees with his open palms.
"Why should two squaws matter?" asked Shoot-at-the-Tree. "Are there not
many everywhere? We will give the white chief some of our ponies."
"Your ponies floated, belly up, down the river moons ago," said
Matthews.
Twenty pairs of eyes sparkled with hate. That was news indeed!
Lame Foot spoke again. There was a mathematical phase of the terms which
troubled him. "Why should four die for two?" he demanded. "Among the
whites, has a squaw the value of two soldiers?"
Matthews answered gravely that it was so. The brave snorted
contemptuously.
Canada John shook his head. "Thus comes much evil because we shot the
pinto buffalo."
At that point, the hoof-sheaths that trimmed a rope near the entrance
rattled. The semicircle craned their necks. A plump hand was pulling
aside the flap of the lodge. Then, through the low aperture and into the
light of the fire stepped an Indian woman. She flung back a head-shawl
and faced red man and white. A murmur came from the braves. It was Brown
Mink.
As with the men of the band, plentiful food and no exercise had worked
wonders with her. She was less slender and more solid than formerly. Her
full cheeks shone like the bulging sides of a copper kettle. But her
spirit was little changed. She waited no invitation to speak. She paused
for no words. In her earnestness, she leaned forward a little.
"Brown Mink is young," she said. "She is but an unfledged crane walking
in strange waters. But she speaks with the voice of her father, your
mighty chief that was. Canada John talks straight. One of a double
tongue must go. The white chief is very angry, so that he plucks the
hairs from his hands. The squaws must be brought back, or four braves
will be choked by ropes. But who can make things smooth? Only The
Double-Tongue. Promise him much--promise to help him drive the thief
from his land."
Matthews straightened up.
She put out one arm and measured a small length upon it. "When our
warriors come, thus short a space will it take to rid the land," she
said. And was gone before any could answer.
There was a long "Ho-o-o!" of assent.
"What's this all about?" asked Colonel Cummings.
"She wants me t' go," said Matthews.
"Well, so do I."
The Indians conferred among themselves. Suddenly, as if they had reached
a decision, they fell silent and settled back. Lame Foot spoke.
"In the Moon of Wild Strawberries," he said, "the sun is warm and the
grass is growing." He turned to the interpreter. "Ask our brothers to
send the women then, _and follow them_. We shall go free; and as we go,
we shall free the land."
"But if your brothers cannot come?" said Matthews.
Lame Foot answered. "The white chief will send us to Standing Rock
Agency. From there, braves will go out to hunt--and arrows fly silently.
There are some of two tips. These bite like the rattlesnake----"
Matthews rubbed his chin. He knew that what Lounsbury had told him in
the colonel's library was true. All legal and moral claims to the
valuable town site across the river were gone. He could secure the Bend
now only by underhand means. And here were those who would do what he
dared not.
"They make a cunning wound," continued Lame Foot, "and no one finds the
arrow."
Colonel Cummings was growing impatient. "Interpret, interpret," he
ordered.
"They think it's all up with 'em if I don't go," said Matthews. He
looked down thoughtfully. The trip would be a comparatively short one,
and offered good reward. Whatever happened, if the Indians kept their
word with him, he would have both the pay and the land.
"Will they tell me where the camp is?" asked the Colonel.
Matthews met his eye. "Ye-e-e-s," he answered. "If _I_ go." He addressed
the warriors: "If your promise is a promise----"
An old chief caught his arm. "We are not liars," he said.
"It is a task for a child," added Lame Foot.
"Enough," answered Matthews. To Colonel Cummings he said, "I'm your man,
sir."
"Good!"
Then the interpreter and the Indians, with the commanding officer
unwittingly taking a part, sealed their compact in a pipe of peace.