AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE.
Wahneenah did not lift her eyes. For the moment an unaccustomed fear
held her spellbound, and it was the Sun Maid's happy cry which roused
her at length, and restored them all to composure.
"Black Partridge! My own dear Feather-man!"
With a spring, the child threw herself upon the Indian's breast and
clasped his neck with her trustful arms. It was, perhaps, this
confidence of hers in the good-will of all her friends that made them
in return hold her so dear. Certain it was that the chief's face now
assumed that expression of gentleness which was the attribute small
Kitty ascribed to him, but which among his older acquaintances was not
considered a leading trait of his character. Just he always was, but
rather severe than gentle; and Wahneenah marked, with some surprise,
the caressing touch he laid upon the Sun Maid's floating hair as he
quietly set her down and himself dropped upon a ledge to rest.
"You are welcome, my brother. Though, at first, I feared it was some
alien who had discovered our cave."
"It is not the habit of the Happy to fear. She who forebodes danger
where no danger is but paves the way to her own destruction."
Wahneenah glanced at her brother sharply.
"It is the Truth-Teller himself who has put foreboding into my soul.
He--and the new-born love which the Sun Maid has brought."
The face of Black Partridge fell again into that dignified gravity
which was its habitual expression and he sat for a long time with the
"dream-look" in his eyes, gazing straightforward into the embers of
their little fire.
"Is you hungry, Feather-man? We did have such a beau'ful supper. Nice
Other Mother can cook fishes and cakes and--things. Shall she cook you
some fish, Black Partridge?"
"Will my chief eat the food I prepare for him?" asked Wahneenah,
seconding the child's invitation.
"With pleasure. For one hour he will let the cares of his life slip
from him. He will have this night of peace, and while the meal is
getting he will sleep."
With a sigh of relief the tall Indian moved a few steps back into the
cave and stretched himself at length upon the ground. His eyes closed,
and before Gaspar had made ready his line to catch the fresh trout he
had sunk into a profound slumber.
Wahneenah put her finger to her lip to signify silence, but she need
not have done so. Gaspar had long ago learned the red man's noiseless
ways, and the Sun Maid immediately placed herself beside the prostrate
chief, and clasping his hand that lay on his breast snuggled her cheek
against it, and followed his example.
The Black Partridge, like most of his race, could sleep anywhere, at
any time, and for as long as he chose. He had elected to wake at the
end of a half-hour, and he did so on the moment. Sitting up, he gently
placed the still slumbering Sun Maid upon the ground and moved forward
to the fire. While he ate the food she had provided for him, Wahneenah
continued standing near, but a little behind him; ready to anticipate
his needs, and with a humility of demeanor which she showed toward no
other person.
Gaspar watched the pair, wondering if they could really be of the same
race which had destroyed his childhood's home, and now again that
second home of his adoption--the Fort. He liked, and was impelled to
trust them both, and was already learning to love his foster-mother.
But when they began to converse in their own dialect, and with
occasional glances toward himself and the sleeping Kitty, the native
caution of his mind arose, and made him miserable. He remembered a
byword of the Fort:
"The only safe Indian is a dead one"; and with a sudden sense of
danger leaped to his feet and ran to bend above the unconscious maid.
"If you harm her, I'll--I'll--kill you!" he shouted fiercely.
Wahneenah looked amazed, but the Black Partridge instantly
comprehended the working of the boy's thoughts, and a smile of
satisfaction faintly illumined his sombre features.
"It is well. Let every brave defend his own. The Dark-Eye is no
coward. His years are few, but he has the heart of a warrior and a
chief. He must begin, at once, to learn the speech of his new tribe.
He that knows has doubled the strength of his arm. Draw near. There is
good and not evil in the souls of the chief and his sister. We are
Truth-Tellers. We cannot lie. We have pledged our faith to the
Dark-Eye and the Sun Maid--though she needs it not."
The sincerity and admiration in the Indian's eyes compelled the lad's
obedience; and when, as he stepped into the firelight, the chief
indicated that he should sit beside himself, and also nodded to
Wahneenah to take her own place opposite, his heart swelled with pride
and ambition. So had the white Captain trusted and counselled with
him. He had been faithful through all that dreadful day of massacre,
and he had felt the man's spirit within his child-body. Now again, a
commander of others, the wise leader of a different people, was
honoring him with a share in his council. There must be good in him,
and some sort of wisdom--even though so young--else they had paid him
no heed. His cheek flushed, his breast heaved, and his beautiful eyes
shone with the exultation that thrilled him.
"Let the chief pardon the child--which I was, but a moment ago. I am
become a man. I will do a man's task, now and forever. If I suspected
evil where there was none, is it a wonder? I have told Wahneenah, the
Happy, the story of my life. The Black Partridge knew it already."
Quite unconsciously, Gaspar dropped into the Indian manner of speech,
and he could not have done a better thing for himself had he pondered
the matter for long. Black Partridge nodded approvingly, and remarked:
"Another Sauganash is here! Well, while the Sun Maid sleeps, let us
consider the future. The evil days are near."
"What is the evil that my brother, the chief, beholds with his inner
vision?" questioned the woman.
"War and bloodshed. Still more of war, still more of death. In the end
will our wigwams lie flat on the earth as fallen leaves, while the
remnant of my people moves onward, forever onward toward the setting
sun."
Wahneenah kept a respectful silence, but in her heart she resented the
dire forebodings of her chief. At last, when her brooding thought
forced utterance, she inquired:
"Can not the wisdom of the Black Partridge hinder these days of
calamity? If the great Gomo, and Winnemeg, and those white braves who
have lived among us, as the Sauganash, take counsel together, and
compel their tribes to keep the peace, and to copy of the pale-faces
the arts which have made them so powerful--will not this avert the
evil? Why may there not in some time and place, a mighty grave be
digged in which may be buried all the guns that kill and the knives
that scalp, with the arrows which fly more swiftly than a bird? Over
all may there not be emptied the casks and bottles of the fearful
fire-water, that, passing through the lips of a warrior, changes him
to a beast? Then the red man and his pale brother may clasp hands
together and abide, each upon the earth, where the Great Spirit placed
him."
"It is a dream. Dreams vanish. Even as now the night speeds, and we
are far from home. It avails us not to think of what might--but never
will--be. Occasional friendships bridge the feud between our alien
races, but the feud remains. It is eternal. Endless as the years which
will witness the gradual extinction of the weaker, because smaller,
race. Let us dream no more. Has Wahneenah, my sister, observed how the
store she left in the old cave has grown? How the few sealed jars have
become many, and how there are heaps of the good gifts which the Great
Father sent to his white children at the Fort for the red children's
use?"
"Yes. I thought it was the miser, Shut-Hand, who had placed them here
in our cave."
"It was I, the Black Partridge."
"For what purpose, my brother?"
"Against the needs of the time I have foretold. It is a sanctuary.
Here may Wahneenah, and the young son and daughter which have been
given her, find shelter and sustenance."
Something of her old tribal exultation seized the woman, who was a
great chief's daughter. Rising to her fullest height, her fine head
thrown slightly back, she demanded, indignantly:
"Is the heart of my brother become like that of the papoose upon its
mother's shoulders? Was it not to the red men that the victory came,
but so brief time past? What were all the pale-faces, in their gaudy
costumes, with their music and their guns and their childish way of
battle? The arrows of our people mowed them like the grass upon the
prairie when a herd of wild horses feeds upon it. But yesterday they
marched in pride and insolence, scorning us. To-day, they are carrion
for the crows overhead, or they flee for safety like the cowards they
were born. The Black Partridge has tarried too long among such as
these. He has become their blood brother."
The taunt was the fiercest she could give, and she gave it from a full
heart. In ordinary so gentle and peace-loving she had been roused, for
a moment, to a pitch of emotion which astonished even herself. Yet
when, as if she had been a fractious child, the chief motioned her to
again become seated, she obeyed him at once. She had set her thoughts
free, indeed; but she would never presume to fight against the
conditions which surrounded her; and obedience to tribal authority was
inborn.
"The Snake-Who-Leaps will be at the tepee of my sister each day when
the sun climbs to the point overhead. The three horses will be always
ready. The children who do not know, and Wahneenah who has, maybe,
forgotten how to ride, will practise as he instructs, until there will
be no horse they cannot master, or no spot to which a horse may be
guided that they do not know. But here first. That is why the store of
food and cloths. At the first assault upon our Muck-otey-pokee, mount
and ride. Ride as no squaw nor papoose ever rode before. Here the
Black Partridge will seek them, and here, if the Great Spirit wills,
they may be safe. Enough. Let the Dark-Eye go forward and make the
horses ready."
The Black Partridge rose as he spoke, and striding toward the sleeping
Sun Maid, took her in his arms and left the spot. Gaspar, already
darting onward toward the beloved Tempest, paused, for an instant, and
regarded his chief anxiously. But when he saw that the little girl had
not awakened, he sped forward again, and by the time Wahneenah had
disposed of the remnants of the chief's supper and followed, he had
loosed the animals and led them to the nearest point for mounting.
Still holding the Sun Maid motionless upon his breast, the Black
Partridge leaped to the back of his own magnificent stallion, which
whinnied in affectionate welcome of his approach. Then he ordered
Gaspar:
"Ride behind me on Tempest, and lead the Snowbird. Wahneenah will
follow all on Chestnut."
By the time they were out upon the prairie the wind had risen and the
sky was heavily clouded. It was so dark that the boy could not see
beyond the head of his own horse, but he could hear the steady,
grass-softened footfall of the stallion as, with unerring directness,
the Indian chieftain led the way homeward to the village.
When they rode into it, all Muck-otey-pokee seemed asleep; but the
perennially young, though still venerable, Snake-Who-Leaps, had been
prone before Wahneenah's wigwam, and silently rose from the ground as
they drew rein beside him.
"Ah, the Sleepless! The Wise Man. Did he think his pupils had ridden
away to their own destruction?" asked the squaw, as she stepped down
from her saddle.
"No harm can happen the household of my chief save what the Great
Spirit wills."
"And you think He will not waste time with three wild runaways?"
"Wahneenah, the Happy, is in good spirit herself. I remembered her
not, save as the message may concern. That is for the ear of my friend
and the father of his tribe, the Black Partridge."
Handing the Sun Maid into his sister's embrace, he for whom the
message waited slipped the bridles of two horses over his arm while
the Snake-Who-Leaps led the others. Whatever they had to say was not
begun then nor there, and if Wahneenah had any curiosity in the matter
it was not to be gratified. Yet she stood, for a moment, listening to
the receding sounds as the darkness enveloped the departing group; and
in her heart was born a fresh anxiety because of the little one she
carried, and for the orphan lad who followed so closely at her skirts
as she lifted her tent curtain and entered their home.
But nothing occurred to suggest that the message of the
Snake-Who-Leaps had been one of warning. He was at his post of teacher
exactly on the hour appointed on the following day, and this time all
his pupils conducted themselves with a grave propriety that greatly
pleased him; and thereafter, for many days, and even weeks, while the
dry season lasted, did he instruct and they perform the marvellous
feats of horsemanship which have made the red man famous the world
over.
"But," said Osceolo one day, tauntingly: "you were the pale-face who
would learn nothing from an Indian!"
"Because a person is a fool once, need he remain so always?" answered
Gaspar, hotly.
"You were a fool then? I thought so. Once a fool always one."
"Only an Indian believes that."
"How? You taunt me? Fight, then!"
Gaspar Keith was a curious mixture of courage and timidity. His
courage came by nature, and his timidity was the result of the
terrible scenes through which he had passed now twice, young though he
was. The impress of this terror would remain with him forever; and if
ever he became a hero in fact, it would be because of his will and not
his inclination. At present neither the one nor the other inspired
him; and though he eyed the larger boy scornfully, and felt that he
could easily whip the bully, if he chose, he now turned his back upon
him and walked away haughtily.
But Osceolo's sneer followed him:
"The One-Who-Is-Afraid-Of-His-Shadow! Gaspar--Coward!"
No boy could patiently endure this insult, even though it came from
one much larger and stronger than himself. Gaspar's jacket was off and
his arms bared on the instant; but before he could fling himself
against his enemy a strong hand was laid upon his own shoulder, and he
was tossed aside as lightly as a leaf.
"Hold! Let there be none of this. It is a time for peace in our
village. Wait in patience. The hour is coming, is almost here, when
both the pale-face and the son of my tribe will have need of all their
prowess. Go. Polish your arrows and point their heads, but let there
be none of this."
It was the great chief himself, who had separated the combatants, and
as he stalked majestically onward he left behind him two greatly
astonished and ashamed young warriors. In common, no grown brave
bothered himself over the petty squabbles of striplings; unless,
indeed, it might be to incite them to further conflicts. For the Black
Partridge to interfere now was significant of something far deeper
than a boyish fight.
Gaspar put on his coat and walked thoughtfully home to Wahneenah and
Kitty, while Osceolo slunk away to his own haunts, to lie at length
upon the grass and plot with a cunning worthy of better ends the
various devices by which he could torment the young white lad of whom
he was so jealous.
Wahneenah heard the tale with a gravity that impressed the chief's
action more strongly than before upon the lad's mind; while Kitty took
it upon herself to lecture him with all severity about the dreadful
"naughtiness of striking that poor, dear Ossy boy."
"Hmm, Sunny Maid! you needn't waste pity on him. He doesn't deserve
it."
"Maybe not, Dark-Eye. Maybe not. But heed you the warning. The
dwellers in one village should keep that village quiet," interrupted
Wahneenah.
"Yes, but they don't. There are almost as many sorts of Indians here
as there are people. Some of them are horrible. I see them often
watching Kitty and me as if they would like to scalp us. It's been
worse within a little while. It grows worse all the time."
"All the more reason why you should be wise and careful. But it is
dark in the tepee, and that's a sign the Dust Chief is almost ready to
shut up your eyes. Run, Gaspar, son, and Girl-Child. See which will
sleep the first. And to the one who does, the bigger lump of my best
sugar in the morning."
They ran, as she suggested, but there was to be no further haste till
Kitty had made Gaspar kneel beside her and repeat with her the "Now I
lay me" little prayer, which her Fort mothers had taught her. The
short, simple prayer, beloved of childhood the world over, that has
carried many a white soul upward to its Father. Even to Wahneenah,
though her mission training had been of another creed, the childish
petition was full of sacredness and beauty; and as she stood near
them, she bowed her head humbly and echoed it with all her heart.
Each was in bed soon after, and each with a lump of the toothsome
dainty they loved.
"For Gaspar must have it because he was first; and my Girl-Child
because she was the last. That equals everything."
They thought it did, delightfully: if they stayed awake long enough to
think at all. But when they were both asleep, and the sound of their
soft breathing echoed through the dusky tepee, Wahneenah took her seat
at its entrance, and began to sing low and softly, with a sweetness of
voice which rendered even their rudeness musical, the love songs of
her girlhood.
As she sang and gazed upward through the trees into the starlit sky,
an infinite peace stole over her. Indeed, the joy that possessed her
seemed almost startling to herself. All that was sad in her memories
dropped from them, and left but their happiness; while the present
closed about her as a delight that nothing could disturb. Her love for
the Sun Maid had become almost a passion with her, and for her
Dark-Eye there was ever an increasing and comprehending affection.
She remained so long, dreaming, remembering, and planning, that the
first grayness of the dawn came before she could go within and take
her own bit of sleep. But Muck-otey-pokee was always early astir; and
if for no other reason, because the dogs which thronged the settlement
would allow no quiet after daybreak. That morning they were unusually
restless.
Cried Wahneenah, rising suddenly, and now feeling somewhat the effects
of her late sitting:
"Can it be sun-up already? The beasts are wild this morning. I have
never heard them so deafening."
Nor had anybody else. There was no cessation in their barking.
"It's a regular 'bedlam,' isn't it? That's what the Fort mothers used
to say when there was target practice, and the children cheered the
shooters. What makes them bark so?" answered Gaspar.
Wahneenah shivered, and suggested:
"Run out and play. Eh? What's that? The Snake-Who-Leaps? So early,
and with the horses, too? But mind him not. Take the Sun Maid
out-of-doors, but keep close to the green before the lodge. Where
I can see you now and then, while I get breakfast ready."
Everybody was up; and more than one commented upon the strangeness of
the three horses being brought to the tepee so early.
The warning message which had come from the south, and had been
delivered to his chief by the Snake-Who-Leaps, on that dark night some
weeks before, was now to be verified. "What the red men have done to
the pale-faces, the pale-faces will now do to them. Retaliation and
revenge!"
Yet not one was quite prepared for the events which followed. Followed
even so swiftly that the women left their porridge cooking in their
kettles and their cows half-milked; while the men of the village
promptly seized the nearest weapon, and rushed to the hopeless
defence.
The rude sound that had startled every dweller in that pretty
settlement was the report of a gun. Then came a galloping troop of
cavalry--more firing--incessant, indiscriminate!
There was a babel of shrieks as the women and little ones fell where
they stood, in the midst of their work or play. There were the
blood-curdling war-whoops of the savages, answering the random shots.
Above and through all, one cry rang clear to Wahneenah's
consciousness.
"The horses! The horses! Ride--ride--ride--as I have taught you! For
your lives--Ride!"
It was but an instant. Wahneenah and her children were amount and
afield. But as, in an anguish of fear for his friends, and no thought
of himself, once more the Snake-Who-Leaps shouted his warning, the
whistle of a death-dealing bullet came to him where he watched, and
struck him down across the threshold of Wahneenah's happy home.