KIT CAREY ON HIS ROUNDS.
After a very early breakfast Kit Carey mounted his horse, and rode away
from the cabin of Vance Bernard.
He had thanked his host and hostess for their kind hospitality, and
urged upon Mrs. Bernard to appeal to her husband to at once leave their
home for a place of safety.
"Many have done so who could not afford it by any means, for they left
their all to destruction, and Mr. Bernard should not risk the lives of
those he loves to stay here," said the officer.
And from Mrs. Bernard came the calm rejoinder that they did not care to
desert their home, for then all would be destroyed, while they held not
the slightest dread of the Sioux.
"Blind fools!" came from between the teeth of the soldier, and in
saying farewell to Jennie he again urged the necessity of getting her
parents to depart.
"Father is determined to remain, and his word is my mother's law," was
the reply.
"Has your brother no influence with your father?"
"He, too, urges that we remain, for he has perfect confidence in the
Indians," was the reply, and Kit Carey could not but observe the look
of sadness that came over the lovely face of this young girl, hidden
away upon the frontier, almost within the very camps of the Indians.
It was with a feeling of deep regret and a foreboding of evil that he
bade her good-by, and rode away from the cabin home.
"Well, that is the strangest household I ever saw," he mused, as he
rode along. "That man Bernard is a mystery, for he has seen better
days, and he's educated and well informed. He has money, and yet
is willing to remain here, hiding his wife, child, and son in a
wilderness. His wife is a lady, yet blindly follows his will. His son
is of a morose nature, and better suited to this wild life than any of
them. But the girl? There's the rub, for she has it in her to reign as
a belle in a New York salon. She has been well educated by her parents
I cannot but admit. Yet, she is as wild as a deer, too, for she goes
about the country like an Indian, ropes cattle as only a cowboy can,
runs like a Comanche, and is not only armed, but can use her weapons.
I am so glad to find I was all wrong about my belief that she loved
that Red Hatchet; but her protection of him deceived me. But must this
beautiful girl be left to the mercy of these red fiends, for between
the Bernard home and the Bad Lands, where lie thousands of Indians,
there is no barrier. No, I will do all I can to protect them, as the
stubbornness of Bernard will not allow him to save himself and family."
The night's rest and good food had refreshed both himself and horse,
and he soon went at a more rapid pace, until he reached a position
about on a line with his encircling Indian scouts.
Then he branched off to the left, and kept up the same pace for miles.
At last he came to a secure hiding-place, and here he found one of his
squads of Indian cavalry.[2]
They were seven in number, had kept themselves thoroughly in hiding,
except that by night two of their number had been off on a scout to the
Bad Lands.
They had discovered that the hostiles were entrenched upon a high
plateau, to which only a few passes led, and which they had fortified.
The force of the hostiles they could not get an estimate of.
Kit Carey sat down, and wrote a note to the nearest commanding officer
of the military forces marching forward to hem the Sioux in, and stated
what he had done with his Indian police, about where the different
squads were stationed, and that he would report any move of the
hostiles.
He also made known the fact that a settler, Vance Bernard, had refused
to leave his home, and had within easy reach of the Indians, should
they make a raid upon him, all that could tempt them to pillage and
destroy, a well furnished house, filled store-rooms, grain, horses and
cattle, while his wife, daughter, and son, comprised the household.
"It might be well," the letter continued, "to send an officer and
force to remove Settler Bernard and his family from their home, thus
preventing a tragedy which will be sure to follow their remaining
there, or, at least, to send a troop to camp upon the place."
Having written this Kit Carey felt that he had done all he could to
force Vance Bernard from the danger his stubbornness kept him in.
Kit determined to place his own men in a position, just between
the settler's home and the hostiles' retreat, and to draw from the
different squads several men, so as to enlarge the party that could,
at least, serve as a small barrier to the Sioux making a raid in that
direction.
Sending his courier off with his report, Kit ordered the others to
a suitable point, which he had observed on his ride there, and then
started for his next post.
This was reached in a couple of hours, and two men were sent to
reinforce the squad that was encamped between the Bad Lands and the
Bernard home.
The third squad was next visited, and from this, too, men were drawn
for the party nearest the Bernard ranch, and the news gleaned by
his scouts here caused another courier to be dispatched to Colonel
Forsythe's command.
This Indian courier bore the information that the Sioux chief, Big
Foot, with his band, were encamped on Wounded Knee Creek, and expecting
to remain there as an advance post of the hostiles, unless driven on
into the main retreat in the Bad Lands.
The report ended with the words:
"I shall take two Indian scouts with me to-night, and send a more
definite report of Big Foot's intention, if I can discover it, and the
possibility of surrounding him before he can join the others, or do any
mischief."
The courier departed for the command of Colonel Forsythe, the three men
selected went off to join the squad near the Bernard ranch, and Kit
Carey and a couple of his Indian scouts went off toward Wounded Knee
Creek, leaving but three of the redskin guards on duty at that point to
watch the hostiles.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: Called irregular cavalry in the army.]