KIT CAREY TO THE RESCUE!
When upon his return to the ranch, the keen, ever-watchful eyes of
Herbert Bernard had seen Jennie coming along the trail.
"Ha! not a moment too soon was I," he said.
"She is already off," and quickly he wheeled out of sight and rode back
toward the Indians whom he knew were following him.
As he came in sight of them he raised his hands, made certain signs[6]
which caused the band to at once scatter to shelter on either side of
the trail, hiding amid the rocks and brush.
Herbert Bernard saw that his signs were read as thoroughly as though he
had spoken, and at once he wheeled off the trail and disappeared in the
timber.
And on rode his intended victim, poor Jennie.
She had made up her mind to take a trail that would carry her toward
the nearest settler's house, and from there she would go on her way,
she hardly knew how, or where.
But if she could find friends she would then be able to place her case
in the hands of an attorney, and make Vance Bernard account for her
property which he held.
With these half formed ideas in her mind she had left the home she had
deemed her own.
She dared not wait to keep her appointment with Kit Carey, for she was
afraid to ride toward the Indian lines, fearing to meet Red Hatchet.
And now she rode right into the midst of the band of the very chief
whom she had feared and wished to avoid.
She wheeled her horse quickly to fly, but around her circled the
warriors, and she was completely cut off from all escape.
"Does the Snow Flower fly from the Red Hatchet?" asked the cunning
chief, coming forward with a look of satisfied triumph which even his
war paint did not conceal.
Jennie was quick to take advantage, and to show fear of the cunning
chief and disappointment she knew would make matters worse for her.
She did not know that she had ridden into a trap, and so said,
pleasantly:
"I did not know that it was the Red Hatchet, my friend. I was going to
the house of a neighbor."
"The Snow Flower is in danger, for redskin warriors and pale-face
braves are on the war-path. The Snow Flower must go with the Red
Hatchet."
"Where?"
"To his people."
"Do you mean I am to go to the hostiles' camp in the Bad Lands?" asked
Jennie, in alarm.
"Yes, for the Sioux are to take the war-trail and kill, and the Snow
Flower will be safe among the people of Red Hatchet. Blood has flowed
over on Wounded Knee, and there are Sioux warriors, women and children
to be avenged. The white soldiers of the Great Father shall be swept
off the earth, and the homes of the pale-faces will be destroyed, their
women and children killed, as their men killed ours. With my people the
Snow Flower will be safe. She must go."
Jennie listened in dire alarm, and yet her nerve did not leave her.
She knew that she was powerless to resist, and if she went willingly,
or rather apparently so, she would have a chance of escape, while if
she went as a captive, she would not have.
So she forced a smile to her face, and said:
"The Red Hatchet is the friend of Snow Flower, and she will go with
him, for with his people she knows she will be safe; but he must
protect her people, and do them no harm."
"The White Gold chief is safe with the Sioux, he and his squaw and the
young warrior. The Snow Flower will be safe with the people of the Red
Hatchet. She will come."
As she could do nothing else, Jennie rode alongside of the Sioux chief,
and the band at once started upon the retreat for the Bad Lands,
going by the upper trail, while the wicked young settler, from his
hiding-place, saw them ride off with their captive, and muttered to
himself with malicious glee:
"Now she is safe for awhile, and when I go for her she will gladly come
to my terms."
As he felt his dangerous position, now within a country where he might
dash upon a party of cavalry, Red Hatchet moved rapidly along the trail
he had decided to return by to reach the Bad Lands with all dispatch.
His only desire was to get Jennie safe within the hostiles' retreat,
for he believed that their camp was impregnable, and no soldier dare
come there.
Of the camp of the Cheyennes under their soldier captain, Kit Carey, he
did not know, and not until he suddenly heard wild cries and beheld a
party of horsemen dash out of a ravine in pursuit, did he realize that
he had a deadly foe near.
"It is the White War Eagle! He is like a wolf on a trail," the Chief
Red Hatchet said to his fair captive and braves, as he beheld at the
head of the Cheyenne soldiers their gallant captain, Kit Carey, coming
on in hot pursuit.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 6: The Indian sign language is almost as expressive as words,
and most tribes can understand it, though not knowing each other's
tongue.]