“So you are nearly out of fresh meat, are you? Do your men get that way often?”
“Yes, sir. These Pawnee scouts can’t eat like white men. When they have any fresh meat on hand they eat all they can, and when it is gone they look to us for more.”
“Well, I suppose I shall have to send an officer out after some. I think I will try Lieutenant Parker. He has been a pretty good young officer since he has been out here, and perhaps it will do him some good to get a little exercise. Orderly, send Parker here.”
This conversation took place between Col. Dodge, the commander of a small fort situated Page 2 on the outskirts of the Standing Rock Agency, and his commissary, who had come in to report the condition of the garrison in regard to supplies. There was plenty of everything except fresh meat, and their Pawnee scouts were already grumbling over their diminished supply. Their commander must send out and get some more. Game of all kinds was abundant a short distance back in the mountains, but it was a little dangerous to send a body of troops out there. Something out of the usual order of things had happened within a few miles of Fort Scott, and there was every indication that Sitting Bull, who had settled down at Standing Rock Agency since he came from Canada, was trying to set his braves against the whites and drive them from the country. The thing which started this trouble was the Ghost Dance—something more of which we shall hear further on.
The orderly disappeared, and presently a quick step sounded in the hall, the door opened, and Lieutenant Parker entered.
It was no wonder that this young officer had proved himself a good soldier, for he came Page 3 from West Point, and it was plain that he could not be otherwise. To begin with, he was handsome above most men of his rank, with a well-knit figure, and eyes that looked straight into your own when he was speaking to you. He stood among the first five in his class, and upon graduation received his appointment to the —th Cavalry at Fort Scott. Of course he found army life dull, compared with the life he had led at the Point, but that made no difference to him. If he lived he would in process of time become a major-general, and that was what he was working for. He first saluted the colonel, then removed his cap and waited for him to speak.
“Well, Parker, you find this army life slow, don’t you?” said he.
“Sometimes, sir,” said the lieutenant with a smile. “One does not get much chance to stir around.”
“You know the reason for it, I suppose?”
“Yes, sir. Sitting Bull is going to make trouble.”
“He has not made any trouble yet, and I Page 4 propose to send you out in the presence of all his warriors.”
“Very good, sir,” replied Parker.
Most young officers would have opened their eyes when they heard this, but it did not seem to affect Lieutenant Parker one way or the other. He knew his commander had some good reason for it, and with that he was satisfied.
“Yes,” continued the colonel, “I propose to give you command of a dozen men, including a sergeant, two corporals, two wagons and a guide, and send you into the mountains after some fresh meat. We got some only a little while ago, but the Pawnee scouts have eaten it all up.”
Lieutenant Parker grew interested at once. He was a pretty fair shot for a boy of his age, and had brought his Winchester from the States, together with a fine horse that his father had given him; but he put his rifle upon some pegs in his room, and there it had remained ever since he had been at the fort. He looked at it once in a while and said to his room-mate:
“That Winchester can rust itself out before I will have a chance to use it. I was in hopes I should have a chance to try it on a buffalo before this time.”
“It seems to me that you have not read the papers very closely,” said Lieutenant Randolph, “or you would have found out that the buffalo have all but disappeared. There is only one small herd left, and they are in Yellowstone Park, where they are protected by law.”
“But there are antelope on the plains,” said Parker.
“Yes, and maybe you will have a chance at them by the time old Sitting Bull gets over his antics. It won’t do for a small company of men to go out on the plains now. The Sioux are too active.”
“Well, the colonel knows best,” said Parker with a sigh. “I have asked him twice to let me go out but he has always refused me, and now I shall not ask him again.”
But now the colonel seemed to have thought better of it, and was going to send him out to try his skill on some of the big game that Page 6 was always to be found in the foothills. He was delighted to hear it, and his delight showed itself in his face.
“Do you think you can get some meat for us?” asked the colonel with a smile. “You appear to think that you are going to have an easy time of it.”
“No, sir; I suppose we shall have a hard time in getting what we want; but if you can give me a guide who will show me where the game is, I believe I will have some for you when I come back.”
“How will Carl, the Trailer, do you?”
“I don’t know, sir. I have often seen him about the fort, but have never spoken to him.”
“We will put two boys at the head of the expedition, and see how they will come out with the captain who went out two weeks ago,” said the colonel, turning to his commissary. “Sit down, Parker. Orderly, tell Carl, the Trailer, that I want to see him.”
The orderly opened the door and went out, and Lieutenant Parker took the chair toward which the colonel waved his hand. While they were waiting for the guide the officer Page 7 proceeded to give his subordinate some instructions in regard to the way he was to conduct himself in case the Sioux molested him. Of course he could not expect, with the few men that the colonel was going to give him, to stand against the whole body of the Sioux, but he could run, holding a tight rein in the meantime, until he came to a clear spot free from gullies and underbrush, and there he could dismount his command and make the best fight possible. If he wasn’t back at the fort in a week a company would be sent out to look for him; but suppose he was found dead and scalped? Lieutenant Parker thought of this, but his ardor did not abate in the least. He had come out on the plains to take just such risks as this, and he supposed that it was the orders every young officer received when he was about to encounter the Indians for the first time. But he did not believe that the Sioux were going to get after him. They had enough to do with the Ghost Dance to prevent them paying attention to anything else.
“But I hope they will keep clear of you Page 8 until you come back,” said the colonel. “The first thing you do, go to work and fill up one of those wagons with game and send it to the fort with six men, commanded by the corporal. He knows the way and won’t get lost. After that, you stay with the other six men until you fill up the other wagon, and then come home yourself.”
Just then another step was heard in the hall, and the door opened to admit Carl, the Trailer. Parker told himself that he was glad that Carl was going with him as guide, for he would have opportunity to talk to him, and perhaps he might find out where he got that curious name.
Carl was young in years—he did not look to be a day older than Lieutenant Parker—and the years of toil and hardship he had seen on the plains, if indeed he had seen any of them, did not mar his face as they had that of older scouts. He was as straight as an arrow, bore a frank and honest face, and his blue eyes, as he turned them from one to another of the occupants of the room, did not express the least surprise that he had been Page 9 called upon to go on a dangerous mission. He supposed that the colonel wished to send him to Standing Rock Agency with dispatches, and he was ready to take them. It was something that he had frequently been called upon to do, and he had always returned in safety. He did not look like a plainsman, for he was dressed in a suit of moleskin, as fine a pair of boots as money could buy, and a sombrero, which he removed as he entered the room.
“Here I am, colonel,” said he cheerily, “and all ready to go on to Fort Yates, if necessary. What do you want of me?”
“Are you acquainted with Lieutenant Parker?” asked the colonel in reply.
“I have seen him, but I don’t know him,” answered the guide.
“Well, here he is. Lieutenant, this is Carl, the Trailer, the name by which you will probably know him, but his name is Preston.”
The lieutenant got up from his chair and extended his hand to the guide, but was not very well pleased with the reception he met. Carl took his hand, gave it a little squeeze and dropped it, and then turned his Page 10 face toward the colonel and waited for him to go on and explain what he wanted done. There were two things about it, Lieutenant Parker told himself: Carl was not favorably impressed with his appearance; and, furthermore, he could not have been raised in that country all his life, for he used as fine language as he did himself.
“Carl, I want you to guide twelve men to the foothills and get some fresh meat for us,” continued the colonel.
At this the guide turned again and gave the lieutenant a good looking over. It seemed to be the first time that he had taken a fair view of him. He surveyed him all over, from his boots to his head, gazed straight into his eyes for a moment, and then turned his attention to the colonel again.
“Do you think the lieutenant will do?” asked the officer.
“Oh, yes; provided a grizzly don’t get after him and tear him up,” replied the guide with indifference.
“But you must not let a grizzly do that. If you start now you can easily reach Lost Page 11 River, can’t you? Very well. You may get ready, and the commissary will find the wagons and mules for you and twelve hunters. Be sure you pick out the best shots in the command.”
The commissary and the guide went out, and Parker was alone with the colonel. The officer looked into the lieutenant’s face as he took his chair again, and could not repress a smile at the expression of disappointment he saw there.
“Well, Parker, what do you think of Carl, the Trailer?” he asked.
“I think more of him than he does of me, sir,” replied the lieutenant. “He doesn’t hold me in very high estimation as a hunter.”
“Neither do I,” said the colonel.
Parker did not know what reply to make to this. He looked at the colonel, and then his gaze wandered down to the floor.
“You must do something to prove yourself a good shot and a man who can bag game every time he sees it,” continued the officer. “Do your part of the work faithfully, and I warrant he will come back with a different opinion of you.”
“But, colonel, that fellow was never born and raised in this country.”
“What makes you say that? On account of his language? He was born in this country, about forty miles from here. His father was a Harvard graduate.”
“Oh, that accounts for it, sir. Has this Carl, the Trailer, ever been to school?”
“Never a day in his life. He despised school and everything connected with it, and longed for horses, guns and excitement. I guess he has seen plenty of it. His father died about two years ago, and he left his ranch in charge of a foreman and has been on duty at this post ever since.”
“He does not dress at all like a plainsman, sir.”
“Oh, Carl is rich. I don’t suppose he knows how many cattle there are, running loose on the plains, that bear his brand. But if all reports are true he is not going to be allowed to keep his money for a great while. There are some fellows about here who wouldn’t be any too sorry to see him deliver up his life, for then the property would come Page 13 into their possession. But he bears a charmed existence in spite of all they can do. I guess I have told you everything I could think of, and you may as well get ready and go on. Remember, I want you to fill up one of the wagons at once and send it to me in command of a corporal. I shall look for you to come back in safety at the end of a week, if you don’t get all the game you want before that time, and I shall expect to hear a good account of you.”
The colonel arose to his feet, and the lieutenant, taking this as a hint that he wanted the interview brought to a close, shook hands with him and hurried out.
At the door Lieutenant Parker found the officer who was acting as commissary of the post waiting for him.
“I have not picked out your men yet,” said he. “I didn’t know but you had some men in your own company you would be glad to have along with you.”
“I have indeed,” said the lieutenant. “I would be obliged to you if you would let Sergeant Leeds go with the hunters to take command of them. As for the two corporals, Mason and Smith will do as well as anybody. As for the hunters——”
He thought for a moment, and then named over twelve of the best shots in the company whom he would like to have with him, and then hastened off to get his hunting equipments together and to saddle his horse, for be it known that it was against the law for Page 15 an officer to hire an enlisted man to take care of his stock. He was obliged to act as his own servant or his work would not be done. He ran into his own room, where Lieutenant Randolph was lying on the bed reading a novel, and began taking his Winchester down from the pegs on which it had hung for so long a time.
“Come here, old fellow,” said he gleefully. “We are going to see what you can do now. If you don’t shoot everything you are pointed at——”
“Has the colonel given you permission to go hunting?” asked the lieutenant in surprise.
“Yes, sir. He sent for me on purpose to tell me to go to the foothills and shoot some big game for the post,” said Parker. “I guess those Pawnee gluttons must be pretty nearly out.”
“Now I don’t see why it is that I don’t get an invitation to go on such an expedition as this,” said Lieutenant Randolph, flinging his book across the room and stretching himself out with his hands under his head. “I have always tried to be a good and loyal soldier of the Republic——”
“Always?” said Parker, with a sly look at his companion. “When you appeared on dress parade with your horse’s legs covered with dust, and your necktie all adrift instead of being tied up as it ought to be, did you think you were setting a proper example to the men?”
“But the colonel did not say anything about it.”
“No, but the captain did, and of course the colonel knew it. The captain gave you something of a blessing, too, judging by the looks your face wore when you came into this room.”
Lieutenant Randolph did not say anything, for he knew it was all true. They were just as strict in the army where there were no visitors to see them as they were at West Point. He had come out there to join the —th Cavalry at the same time Parker did, and his room-mate ranked him just about five minutes; that is, Parker’s appointment was signed before Randolph’s was. But the same habits that clung to him at West Point followed him here. He was just a moment too Page 17 late for everything, and the colonel thought that keeping him in while the other officers were allowed privileges would in time cure him of his bad habits. He lay on his bed and watched Parker while he filled his belt with cartridges and hastily put some extra clothes into a small valise which he intended to take with him, and then he went out to saddle his horse.
By the time Lieutenant Parker emerged from the stable the expedition was ready to start. The drivers were in their seats on the wagons, and the twelve hunters, with Sergeant Leeds at their head, were waiting for him. Carl, the Trailer, was there, superbly mounted, and when Lieutenant Parker led his horse up, he surveyed the animal with rather a critical eye. The conclusion he came to was not very favorable to Parker’s Kentucky thoroughbred. He said to himself that if the two horses were ever put into a race he was sure that his own mustang would win every time.
Parker’s rifle and valise were on the porch, and it did not take him long to deposit them in one of the wagons; then he saluted his superiors, Page 18 several of whom had gathered on the steps beside the colonel to witness his departure, kissed his hand to some of the second lieutenants, and swung himself into the saddle. “Forward!” said the sergeant, and in a few minutes more the little train had passed through the gate and wended its way toward the foothills, which lay all of thirty miles away. Then Parker turned his attention to Carl, the Trailer, who rode by his side in the rear of the wagons.
If he was an object worthy of admiration to Lieutenant Parker while he was afoot, he demanded extra admiration now that he was on horseback. His sombrero sat jauntily over his long, curly hair, his Winchester was confined by a strap at his back, leaving his hands, which were protected by gauntlet gloves, free to manage his horse, and the face he turned toward Lieutenant Parker was as handsome as a girl’s. The two boys looked at each other in silence for a moment, and then the lieutenant said:
“You seem rather young to go on an expedition like this.”
“And so do you,” returned Carl. “When the colonel sent for me I had made up my mind to do something desperate. I was sure he was going to send me to Fort Yates with dispatches; but when I found that he was going to send me out after game—why, I thought he would send a man with me; that’s all.”
“Then I don’t suppose I shall fill the bill,” said Parker, modestly. “I lack some years yet of being a man. What do you expect me to do while you fellows are hunting?”
“Oh, you will loaf around the camp bossing the job, eat more than your share of the grub, and when we get back to the fort you will brag as loudly as though you had done something. If we should accidentally kill a bear, you would appropriate the hide and proudly exhibit it as your own. That is the way the young officers always do.”
“Then you have had some experience with them?”
“Certainly. I remember shooting a bull elk while out once with a second lieutenant, who offered me twenty-five dollars if I would say that he killed the elk himself. You know the man. You have seen him every day.”
“I cannot think who you refer to, for I don’t know of any officer who has got a pair of antlers in his room.”
“Oh, he has sent them home.”
“Then I am glad I don’t know him, and I shall make no effort to find him out.”
Carl, the Trailer, looked at Parker with a smile of disbelief on his face.
“I mean it,” said the lieutenant earnestly. “I should not care to associate with any man who could tell a lie like that.”
“Maybe the colonel knows it, and that was the reason he selected you to command this expedition.”
“I don’t know why he selected me unless it was because I have always tried to do my duty. This is his way of telling a young officer that he is satisfied with him. Would you mind telling me how you came by your odd name—Carl, the Trailer?” added Parker, who was anxious to change the subject of the conversation.
“It was nothing at all, only just because I happened to do my business as I ought to have done it,” said Carl, “although I felt proud of it at the time I did it.”
With this he threw his leg over the pommel of his saddle, produced a well-worn brier-root from his pocket, and proceeded to fill up for a smoke. When he had got his pipe fairly lighted he went on with his story something in this way:
It all happened a few years ago, when Carl was, as he considered himself, a little boy. He was the only scout at the fort, and it became necessary to send some dispatches to Fort Belknap. The fort was just on the outskirts of the Comanche country, and they were pretty hostile, and felt exceedingly vindictive toward anybody with white blood in their veins. Carl did not know much about the country, having never been down there but once, but he knew how to trail Indians. In fact, he could not remember the time when he couldn’t do it. On the way he fell in with a troop of soldiers who were out punishing the savages for some outrage they had committed Page 22 on the settlers, and as they were journeying toward the fort he kept company with them, and he never regretted it but once in his life. The company were all green; not even the officers had ever been out after Indians before, and Carl did not know why it was that the Indians did not make an assault upon them. The Indians were all around them; they could not help but see them, for they were on the summit of high swells looking at the troops, and at night they took extra pains to make a camp where they thought no Indians could surprise them.
Carl interrupted himself right here to say that if there was anybody on earth who could beat a Comanche in stealing horses, he had yet to hear of him. He would go inside a camp that was double guarded, get away with the best horse that could be found, and nobody would be the wiser for it until morning, by which time the Comanche would be so far away, and cover up his trail no nicely, that pursuit was impossible. When the time came for the soldiers to go to bed, he brought his horse in from the stable-lines and made his Page 23 lariat fast to his wrist. Then he would go to sleep, knowing that if any Indians came about, his horse would be certain to awaken him. They always had extra sentries out, and Carl felt perfectly safe.
One night, after the guide had been with the soldiers about three or four days, he was awakened about twelve o’clock by a terrible hubbub in camp. He started up and grabbed his lariat, and found that his horse was safe; but that was more than a dozen men could tell, all owning the best stock, too. A good many men had followed his example and tied their horses fast to them, but every one of them found his lariat cut and his horse gone. Of course those Comanches must be overtaken and punished for stealing their horses, but it seemed that Carl was the only one in camp who knew how to follow the trail. The commanding officer did not know it until he told him. When daylight came half the soldiers were out examining the trails, and they all led away in different directions.
“It is of no use, men,” said the captain. “The trails branch out every which way, and Page 24 those of us who have lost our horses will have to go to the fort on foot.”
That was the time for Carl to make known one of his accomplishments.
“Captain,” said he, “I can lead the men in three days to the place where these trails will all come together again.”
The captain looked at him in surprise, and during that time he surveyed him from head to foot. No doubt he thought that, for one of his years, he was talking a little too big; but after thinking a moment he ordered breakfast got ready and told the guide to go ahead.
“You say you have lived on the plains all your life,” said he. “Then you must have seen Indian trails before. Be sure you don’t disappoint me now.”
Breakfast over, the cavalcade started, and for the first fifty miles Carl never followed a single trail. He kept right ahead toward a prominent butte that could be seen in the distance, and the captain, although he did not put much faith in him, allowed him to do as he pleased. The soldiers camped that night—and a sorry camp it was, too; they had no Page 25 fire to cook their grub by, and, worse than all, the boys had to do without a smoke—and about nine o’clock the next morning the guide found first one trail and then another, until he counted the tracks of a dozen shod horses. Carl looked at the captain, who reached over and shook hands with him.
“You see he was green,” said Carl in an attempt to shield the captain. “He learned something during the time he was out with me, and when I came to go with him a second time he did not ask any help. He could follow the trail himself.”
“In two days from now, if nothing happens to prevent, you will have the satisfaction of shooting at the Indians who stole your horses,” said the guide.
A little before dark, while they were riding swiftly along a rocky trail that here ran through a gorge, Carl looked down and happened to see something that brought him to a standstill. He dismounted, and found that the dirt had been thrown up and stones placed upon it to hide it from curious eyes. He threw aside the stones and began investigating Page 26 with his sheath knife, the soldiers all standing around and wondering what he was looking for. A few prods with the knife, and Carl unearthed the horseshoes which had been removed by the Indians so that they could not be followed so easily.
“This beats me,” said the captain. “How did you know that the shoes were there?”
“I just saw it,” answered the guide. “When one is following a trail he must keep his eyes about him. I don’t suppose you know that there is an Indian watching us over the summit of that swell, do you?”
The captain was profoundly amazed. He looked in every direction except the right one, but could see nothing.
While the guide was engaged in tossing out the shoes so that the soldiers could examine them he kept his eyes busy, and finally discovered something that fastened his gaze. It looked like a tuft of grass on the top of a swell, but as Carl looked at it he saw it move just a trifle. He was as certain as he wanted to be that there was an Indian behind that grass. He was watching the soldiers, and he had pulled up that grass to conceal the movements of his head.
“You are joking, ain’t you?” said the captain.
“I don’t joke in a case like this,” said the guide. “There is an Indian up there, and he wants to see what we are going to do.”
Carl pointed out the object that drew his attention, and the captain brought his binoculars to bear upon it. After gazing at it for a long time he said:
“I see some grass up there.”
“That’s grass, but there is a Comanche not far off. My advice would be to turn around and ride the other way as though we had missed the trail, and hide behind some of these swells until that tuft of grass goes away. That will give them confidence in themselves, and as soon as it comes dark we’ll take the trail again.”
“You don’t suppose you can follow this trail in the night-time, do you?”
“I can try,” said the guide, modestly.
Very reluctantly the captain gave the order to turn about, and in the course of an hour they got behind one of the swells, out of sight. Then the guide told the captain that if he would go back with him he would show him something. The officer left the command behind the swells, and after a long and toilsome creep up the hill they took off their hats and Carl made a hole in the grass for him to see through.
“I see that tuft of grass yet,” said the captain, looking through his binoculars.
“So do I; but if you watch it for a few minutes you will see it go away.”
They watched that swell for more than half an hour, and then the tuft of grass was laid aside, and the Indian showed his head and breast above the hill. He held that position for five or ten minutes, and then jumped to his feet and ran out of sight. The captain was much amazed to learn how easily Carl had picked out some grass that sheltered an Indian, and declared that if the guide had not been with him he never would have seen those Comanches again. They made their camp there behind the swell, eating hardtack and raw pork for want of a fire to cook by, and shortly after dark started on the trail again. At midnight the men stopped to rest, and Carl set out with a single soldier to hunt up the Indians’ camp. Of course it was miserable going, with rocks and trees to impede their progress, but finally they came to the end of the gorge, and there Carl smelled smoke. The Indian camp was around there somewhere, so the guide left the soldier and went on ahead.
“I tell you there is no fun in creeping up on an Indian camp in the dead of night when Page 30 you don’t know how many savages there are watching you,” said Carl, once more interrupting himself in his story. “I made out that there were just three Indians in the lot——”
“How did you make that out?” said Lieutenant Parker.
“They had to dismount when they went into camp, didn’t they?” asked Carl. “That was the time I counted them. I found three moccasin tracks of different sizes, and that’s the way I found out how many of them there were.”
“Three Indians go into a camp of—how many men did you say you had?”
“About sixty, I reckon.”
“The idea of three Indians going into a camp of sixty soldiers and stealing a dozen horses!” said Parker, in surprise. “They must have been horse-thieves indeed.”
“Oh, I can tell you worse things than that,” said Carl. “Yes; the three savages went into that camp and stole a dozen horses, and now we were close onto them. When I reached a point a little farther on I came to Page 31 an open space in the gully, and there I saw their camp fire. I took just one look at it, and then turned and went back. Of course the camp was alive after they found that I had located the Indians. Three or four men were left to care for the horses, and the rest of us crept forward to make the attack. The captain would not listen to my advice in regard to surrounding the camp, but when he arrived within sight of it he was going to make a rush, and kill or capture the Indians right there. That settled one thing in my mind. The captain may have been a brave man, but he was going to find an empty camp when they charged upon it; but I said nothing. If he had a mind to ride two hundred miles to turn the Indians loose, it was nothing to me.”
Carl then proceeded with his story. In the course of time they arrived within sight of the fire, and then with a fierce yell the men bounded to their feet and rushed upon the camp. For himself, Carl did nothing. He just waited to find the Comanches, but he did not hear anybody shoot. After a time he walked up and found the soldiers rushing Page 32 frantically about looking for the redskins; but the last one of them had skipped out.
“Where have they gone?” asked the captain.
“They ran when they heard you getting ready to charge,” said the guide. “You did pretty well during the pursuit, but you are no man to fight Indians. You have got your horses, but you will have to look somewhere else to find the Comanches.”
The captain was astonished and mortified beyond measure, as Carl knew he would be if he attempted to capture the Indians in that way, but he had but little to say. He sent a couple of men down after the horses he had left in the ravine, and ordered the soldiers to go into camp. It was good to feel the fire once more, for the nights were getting cold, and to get some pork that they did not have to devour raw.
“But how did you get the name of The Trailer?” asked Parker, when his companion knocked the ashes from his pipe.
“Well, you see the soldiers belonging to that troop were mostly new to the business. Page 33 It was the first time they had ever been on a scout, and the way I followed the trail was something marvellous to them. Some of them had friends in Fort Scott, and when I went back I took a lot of mail for them. Of course they had something to say about their scout after the Comanches, and I came in for a share of the praise. Some one spoke of me as Carl, the Trailer, and I have been known by that name ever since.”
“Now, if you have got all through with that story, I want to ask you about something else,” said Lieutenant Parker. “Do you know anything about the Ghost Dance? Some people in the East think it is a myth, a new religion that has been taken up by a few fanatics, but which will fade away by the time the white folks quit noticing it.”
“I know all about it,” answered Carl, “fully as much as the Indians themselves know. If the people down East think it is a myth, they want to go among the Sioux at the present time. They will think there is a dread reality in it before they have been there very long.”
“It was gotten up for the sake of going to war with the whites, I suppose?”
“No, it was not. It was gotten up by Wovoka, better known as the Cutter. He was a Piute Indian, and lived on the borders of the Mason Valley, which is a long way from here. The time he discovered the new religion was once when ‘the sun died’ and he was taken up into the other world.”
“What in the name of sense is the meaning of that?” asked Parker.
“I will tell you how I account for it. About that time the Cutter, as I shall call him, was taken very ill with a fever, and some of the ranchmen attended him. You see he was very well known by the farmers, used to work for them, and so when he was sick they did all they could for him. While he was on what everybody supposed to be his deathbed the eclipse of the sun took place, and that is an event that is regarded with horror by all primitive people. The Indians hold that the sun is a living being, and that some monster Page 35 is trying to devour it; and the noise and hubbub which they create to frighten this monster away, such as firing off guns, blowing upon horns and yelling, is enough to drive one crazy. The excitement and alarm, acting upon a mind and body already enfeebled by disease, resulted in delirium, during which time he was taken up into the other world. Between 1884 and 1890 there was one eclipse which was total in Nevada; that was in 1889. Ever since that, the Cutter has been subject to cataleptic fits; and I suppose you know what they are.”
Lieutenant Parker listened to Carl in silent admiration. Here was a boy who had never been to school a day in his life, and yet knew more about some things than he did. He began to look upon him with a great deal of respect.
“Yes, I know what catalepsis is,” said Lieutenant Parker. “It is a sudden suspension of sensation and volition, the body and limbs preserving whatever position may be given them. For example, you put the hand up, and it stays there till you put it down; or you put the foot up, and it remains there.”
It was now Carl’s turn to look in surprise Page 36 toward the lieutenant. There was something in West Point after all, if it taught their young officers such things.
“And when he came to himself I suppose he was all ready for war,” continued Parker.
“No, he wasn’t. The Cutter is a peaceful man; he has never been seen on the warpath; when he came back to this earth he was more for peace than he ever was. He told his people that they must send their children to school and cultivate the ways of the white man as nearly as they could. They must all love one another and stop fighting.”
“The Sioux don’t take it that way,” said Parker.
“I will come to the Sioux after awhile,” said Carl. “Of course such a tale as that speedily spread to all the tribes round about. The Piutes gave it to the ones nearest them, and in less than a year it was spread all over the plains. It even got to Washington, and the Department sent out a man to inquire into it. I might have gone with that man as well as not, but I was like the majority of our people out here. We heard of the new religion Page 37 and laughed at it; but it seems that there was something in it. Wovoka did not claim to be the Messiah, but he did claim to be a dreamer. But an Indian never does anything without a dance, and he taught them this thing which has since developed into the Ghost Dance. To render his visit more binding he gave the Washington man a cloak of rabbit skins, some pi?on nuts, some tail feathers of the magpie, and a quantity of red paint, which they were to mix with red paint of their own and put on whenever they engaged in the Ghost Dance.”
“Well, what is the doctrine of the Ghost Dance, anyway?” asked Lieutenant Parker.
“The doctrine is that the time will come when the whole Indian race, living and dead, will reunite upon the earth and live a life of happiness, free from death, disease and misery.”
“But their game is all gone,” said Parker.
“They can’t live the same as they did before.”
“Their game is going to come back. During one of his fits the Cutter caught a glimpse of an immense crowd of warriors coming toward the earth driving before them a lot of animals—buffalo, Page 38 deer, elk and ponies. But the Great Spirit—that is the Messiah—turned them back, for he said the proper time had not yet come.”
“And the Sioux think this can only come by extinction of the whites?” inquired Parker.
“The whites must be rooted out before the time arrives. They are going to keep up this Ghost Dance to help the matter along. I am almost to the Sioux now.”
“I beg your pardon,” said Lieutenant Parker. “I will not interrupt you again, but I want to get at the truth of the matter.”
“This is just what I want you to do. I want you to see that, while this new religion came upon the earth as a gospel of peace, it has taken such a hold of the Sioux that it means war. Whether or not the men they sent out to investigate the matter lied to them I don’t know; but if this thing is not put a stop to right away, we are going to have an outbreak as sure as you are born. If all the Sioux look upon it as do those six hundred men that go with Sitting Bull and Red Cloud, we shall have a war here that will do your heart good.”
“How many men can the Sioux raise if they all go to war at once?” inquired Parker.
“Probably five thousand men; and we can bring about three thousand to oppose them.”
“How many people does the Sioux nation number altogether?”
“About twenty thousand.”
As Carl said this he brought out his tobacco-bag and filled up for another smoke.
“This man, although he was an officer sent out from Washington to look into the matter, did many things to help this trouble along, but he did not know it at the time,” continued Carl, after drawing a few vigorous pulls at his pipe to make sure that the tobacco was well started. “When he came back he went among the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, because he had some friends among them, and he wanted to set their minds at rest. He told them what Wovoka, the Cutter, had said to him, claiming that he was not the Messiah but one who had seen him, and gave them some of the pi?on nuts to eat. You haven’t seen any of those pi?on nuts around here, have you?”
“No, I haven’t,” said Parker.
“Well, out in the country where the Piute Indians live they are used every day for food; Page 41 and yet those Arapahoes and Cheyennes received them as if they came from the hands of the Messiah himself. Those Indians were anxious to touch this man by the hand and lay hold of his clothes, believing that if they but touched the Cutter some good would come to them. When the man went East to make his report to Washington, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes sent some prominent men to investigate for themselves. They were gone all winter, and brought back some queer stories that this man had not told them, because he did not know anything about them. Finally the Sioux got hold of it, and became excited at once. They seemed to think it was what they had so long been waiting for—a summons to go to war and wipe the whites off the face of the earth. They, too, sent out some men, and they brought back some other strange stories. One thing the Cutter told them was, that if they got weary with their journey—Wovoka lives all of a thousand miles from here—they had but to call upon the Great Spirit, and he would set them miles ahead on their route. Another thing was, that if they killed a buffalo Page 42 on their journey they were to take everything except the tail and hoofs, and that after they got out of sight the buffalo would come to life again.”
Lieutenant Parker laughed loudly when he heard it.
“The idea,” he exclaimed. “To think that twenty thousand people could be fooled in that way! After a buffalo is dead he is dead, and nothing can bring him to life again.”
“Well, I don’t know that the Indian is so much to blame for that,” said Carl, looking down at the horn of his saddle. “You know how susceptible the savage is to superstition. All his life he has been planning and thinking about getting rid of the whites. We are his evil genius; and if we could be driven out of the country everything would go along as smoothly as it did before. One of their agents, in making out his report to Washington, has twelve different counts against our people.”
“What have we done to the Sioux?” demanded Parker, opening his eyes in surprise.
“Take, for instance, a supply of goods which ought to have been here by August but Page 43 did not get here until midwinter,” said Carl in reply. “I guess that was enough to set a more patient people than the Sioux on the warpath. A good many of them starved to death in spite of all the army could do to prevent it. I tell you, you would find it mighty hard to be loyal to a Government that could deliberately go back on you in that way.”
“Why, Carl, I did not know you were such an Indian lover,” said Lieutenant Parker.
“I am an Indian lover in this way: I say they have been abused, and shamefully, too. When the Black Hills were given up to them, they were assured that they should belong to them and their heirs forever. Everything went on smoothly until gold was discovered there, and from that time the trouble began. Custer was sent through that country, not with any instructions to turn the settlers out, but just to examine the spot; and the consequence was that in less than a year the Black Hills were overrun with prospectors.”
“Well, the Indians were in our way,” said Lieutenant Parker. “If they had behaved themselves——”
“Yes, and seen their buffaloes all killed before their eyes. I tell you, lieutenant, you don’t know what a buffalo is to an Indian. It furnishes him with everything he needs, including skins for his tepee, robes to keep him warm in midwinter and sinews for sewing his clothes together. A white man kills them just to make a record. Sometimes he takes their tails home to hang up in his study and sometimes he don’t. There are but few buffaloes left, and they are in Yellowstone Park. I hope the Government will take a hand in protecting them.”
Lieutenant Parker could not say a word against this, for he knew it was all true. He knew how he would feel if some people stronger than his own should follow him year after year, take his land away from him, and destroy the only means he had of making a living. He had never looked at it in this way before. He supposed that the redskins were born with a natural enmity against the whites, and that nothing could turn them from a desire to take vengeance on them. He did not know that he blamed the Indian so much, after all.
“When the Sioux Indians who had been sent away to inquire into the matter came back,” continued Carl, “they brought with them the news that they had seen the Messiah himself, that they had talked with him, and that when the proper time came he was going to help the Indians, and not the whites.”
“That shows that they meant to get up a war,” said Parker, forgetting, so deeply was he interested in the story, that he had promised not to interrupt any more.
“It certainly looks that way. The Sioux said he would be here by the time the grass was green in the spring; but, in order to speed his coming, they must engage in a dance which was to last five days.”
“That accounts for the exhaustion that some of the dancers experience. They go on until they are completely played out and then swoon from the effects of it.”
“That is my idea exactly,” said the guide. “A great many people who have witnessed the dance lay it to hypnotism. Now, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know that I can tell you,” said Parker, after thinking a moment. “It is a certain form of sleep, brought on by artificial means, in which there is a suspension of certain bodily powers and unusual activity of others. That is as near as I can get at it. And when they come back to earth again—I don’t know whether they lie or not—they tell big stories of what they have seen in the spirit land.”
“And they are going to keep it up until we go to war with them,” said Carl earnestly. “You see they have got their homes to fight for, and when the time comes for the Indians to take possession of this country, all the whites and tribes who do not believe as they do will be overwhelmed by a flood; but the believers, those who did the dancing, will escape by fleeing to the tops of the mountains.”
“And Sitting Bull is to blame for that?”
“Yes—and Red Cloud. They are as strongly in favor of the dance as anyone they have got under them, and they are keeping it up in defiance of all the army officers can say and do against it. They are very sly; they talk only in their own language, although Page 47 some say that Sitting Bull can sign his name in English; but I don’t believe it. Nobody can get at anything an Indian does, and when this outbreak comes, it will come like an avalanche.”
“All you have said is news to me,” said Lieutenant Parker thoughtfully. “I believe that the Ghost Dance is not a myth; but, as you say, it will lead to something else.”
The lieutenant grew uneasy after that, and wished his companion would offer some advice about watching over the men in his little train; but he did not act as if there was an Indian within a thousand miles of him. Carl knew all about the plains and those who inhabited them, and when he began to be uneasy it would be time enough for him to do something; but he thought it would be worth while to ask some counsel on the subject.
“You said that this outbreak would come before we are aware of it,” said he. “How do you know that it will not come on us who are out hunting?”
“There is little danger of that, unless some Indian saw us when we left the fort or will Page 48 run against some of us while we are away from the camp. This country all belongs to them, and it would be right and proper that we should be wiped out.”
Of course Lieutenant Parker did not feel any easier for asking his guide to express an opinion on the situation. He did not show it in his face, but he felt the cold chills run all over him.
“I don’t know that he talked that way in order to frighten me,” thought Parker, “but I hope that we shall not see any Indians while we are gone. I would not know how to act.”
The hunters did not stop when they reached Lost River, but drove past a camp which those who had gone before them had made during their hunt in the foothills. The sergeant did not halt at that camp, for he wanted a “fresh spot” in which to pass the night. Half a mile farther on he found a place that suited him, and there he stopped his men and rode back to Lieutenant Parker, who had been riding behind the wagons all the way.
“Will this place suit you, sir?” said he, with his hand to his cap.
The lieutenant dismounted from his horse, ran his eye up and down the river, and said the place selected for the camp would answer the purpose. He directed the sergeant to detail some of the men to clear away the underbrush, the others to take care of the horses and pitch the tents, while he and Carl removed their saddles and seated themselves at the foot of the nearest tree to have their talk out. The tents were pitched, one for himself and Carl and the other for the men, and one of the soldiers proceeded to wash his hands and begin to get supper.
But we don’t propose to spend much time with their supper or with the hunts that came off during the week following. We have set out to write about the Ghost Dance and the various incidents connected with it, and so the hunting will have to do for another story. It will be enough to say that the party was successful beyond its hopes; that one wagon was loaded in two days and sent to the fort under the command of a corporal, that they killed more than one bear, and that the lieutenant fairly shot himself into the good graces Page 50 of Carl, the Trailer. In fact his marksmanship rather surprised himself, he had been so long out of practice. He either shot his game dead, or it did not run over fifty yards before it was found. Carl began to treat the lieutenant with more courtesy than he had previously shown him.
But at length the week for which they had come out drew to a close, and they began making preparations to return to the fort. When they were ready to start, Carl, who had been behaving rather strangely of late, keeping his Winchester with him all the while and walking around the camp when he supposed everyone else was asleep, drew up beside Parker, who was riding in his usual place behind the wagon.
“Have you seen any signs of Indians lately?” he asked.
“Nary sign,” replied Parker, “and I looked closely, too.”
“Well, I saw some,” replied the guide in a quiet way which made the lieutenant open his eyes. “I saw the print of an Indian’s foot by the side of that stream that we were hunting Page 51 upon a few days ago, and I know that they have been loafing around our camp ever since.”
“Why did you not tell me of it?” asked Parker with some heat.
“What good would it have done? You were having a good time during our hunt, and I did not want to say anything to take away your pleasure. Besides, they were too small a party to attack us, if they had any such thought in mind, and were only watching us to see where we went. It is my belief that we shall see some more of them before we reach the fort.”
Lieutenant Parker was profoundly astonished. The idea that his guide should see Indian signs and say nothing to him about it was something he had never dreamed of. It was not treating him right as commander of the expedition. He did not want to say anything more to him, and Carl, as if guessing the way his thoughts ran, relapsed into silence and rode on without saying a word; but he kept his eyes open, and carefully scanned the top of every swell they passed. Lieutenant Page 52 Parker did likewise, for somehow he could not get over the thought that was uppermost in the mind of the guide “that they would be sure to see more of the Indians before they reached the fort.” Sergeant Leeds was an old soldier, and was constantly on the lookout for suspicious signs; consequently he was not at all alarmed when he discovered a solitary savage, on the top of a neighboring hill, closely watching all their movements. He took one look at him, and then reined in his horse to wait until his superior came up.
“There’s a Sioux up there, sir,” said he, “and he seems to be more interested in our movements than we are ourselves.”
Lieutenant Parker had thus far ridden with his hands in his pockets, but when he pulled them out to take up the reins he found that they trembled in spite of himself.
Lieutenant Parker, accompanied by his guide, rode up to the head of the line, where he could get a good view of the Indian. His face was very pale—he knew it as well as if he had glanced into a mirror to see it—and he looked at the savage through his binoculars. He thought of Lieutenant Kidder, who, with the thirteen men composing his expedition, had been completely annihilated by these same Indians, and wondered if destiny had the same fate in store for himself. The Indian was alone, but that was no proof that his band might not be on the opposite side of the swell, waiting to see what the result of his investigation was going to be. He was dressed in war costume. On his head was a bonnet gaudily ornamented with feathers which trailed and fluttered behind him, and he held a gun of some description in his hands. Page 54 As Parker looked at him he dismounted from his horse, held his gun up so that the hunters could see it, and laid it upon the ground.
“He is disarming himself,” said the lieutenant.
“That is a sign that he wants to speak to you,” said Carl.
“Well, I don’t want to speak to him. If he comes any nearer to us I shall send him back.”
The expedition had not halted at all during this time, but kept straight ahead, as though the way was perfectly clear. Having disarmed himself, the Indian mounted his horse and rode down the hill to meet the hunters.
“There are Sioux on both our flanks,” said the guide after a little pause.
“So there are,” said Lieutenant Parker, casting a hasty glance on both sides of him. “Keep your eyes open, Carl, and the first move they make let me know it. That Indian has come close enough.”
The lieutenant raised his hand and made a signal to halt and go back, just as a boy who is playing “I spy” does to a comrade whose Page 55 interest it is to keep out of sight. The Indian stopped and made other signs which Parker did not understand; but the Indian understood the signal to halt, however, and when it was repeated with more energy than usual, he turned his horse and rode back to the top of the swell. Parker glanced at his men, and was gratified to see that every one had put away his pipe and held his carbine in readiness for use. It certainly looked as though there was going to be a fight. He thought of all the instructions the colonel had given him, and was ready to carry them out. His voice was as steady as usual when he inquired of his guide:
“What did that Indian mean when he made those other signals?”
“He simply wanted to communicate—that was all,” replied Carl.
“And what do you suppose would have been the result if I had spoken to him?” continued Parker.
“He would have come up and held some conversation with you through an interpreter, and in the meantime his band would have Page 56 slipped over and been all ready to carry out his programme, whatever it is.”
“Then you really think he has got some other Indians waiting for him on the other side of the hill?” said Parker.
“Certainly I do. They would have come over here one by one, so as not to arouse your suspicions, and when there were enough of them here to overpower us the chief would have given his war-whoop, and in less than two minutes we would all have been dead men.”
“But some of them would have done their last shooting,” said Parker, his eyes flashing while he gripped his Winchester with a firmer hold. “My soldiers were all ready.”
“Of course; that was to be expected. But you don’t suppose that the loss of a few warriors would whip his whole band?”
“Well, I did perfectly right in telling that chief that I did not want to speak to him,” said Parker, drawing a long breath of relief. “Do you think he will pitch into us when we get to the top of the hill?”
“No, for he could not choose a worse battleground. Page 57 He will probably follow along behind us for a few miles and then give it up.”
Lieutenant Parker afterward said that he never in his life felt such a tremor of fear as he did when he mounted the swell on which the Indian had stood half an hour before. He expected that the appearance of his cap above the hill would be the signal for a volley of rifle-balls. His guide rode beside him all the way, and as Parker looked at him he wished he had some of that boy’s fearlessness. He did not seem to care for the Indians at all, and neither did his face change color. He took off his sombrero, smoothed his long hair down across his shoulders and out of range of his eyes, all the while keeping his gaze directed toward the hills on each flank, to see that the savages did not make a rush upon them. When they mounted to the top of the swell not an Indian was to be seen, either in front or on the flanks. They had disappeared completely.
“Well, that squad of Sioux was easily whipped,” said Parker; and only those who have been in similar situations can realize Page 58 how great was his satisfaction. “I looked for us to be laid out the minute we came in sight.”
“There isn’t a gully within half a mile of here,” said Carl, “and this proves to be the sort of fighting-ground that they don’t want. They would surround us with a horde of shrieking savages, all going at the top of their speed, so that we would find it difficult to hit one of them, and when they tired their horses they would go into that gully and rest and make up some other scheme for getting the advantage of us. Then they would come out and go at it again.”
“I declare there is some more of them over there,” said Parker, whose eyes had been constantly sweeping the horizon.
“Yes, and I am glad to see them.”
“Are they soldiers?” exclaimed Parker.
“They are, and the Indians caught sight of them before we did. That is what drove them away.”
Lieutenant Parker breathed easy after that. With his glass he could not make out the blue uniforms because they were so far away, but Page 59 he had faith in his guide’s word; and just then Sergeant Leeds came up and saluted.
“The colonel was getting skeary on account of us, sir,” said he, with a wink of his eye that spoke volumes. “Them are soldiers who are coming out to see what has become of us.”
At the end of an hour the approaching cavalcade was near enough for the hunters to see their uniforms, and Parker and his guide galloped out to meet them. There were two troops of them, and this proved that the colonel knew something of the strength of the band which he was afraid would meet them on the way.
“Well, old boy, I am glad to see that you got back safe,” said the captain in command, as he leaned forward and extended his hand to Lieutenant Parker. “Did you see any of them?”
“Yes, sir. We saw one standing on the top of that swell back there, and he made signs that he wanted to speak to us; but I replied that I did not want to speak to him, and at the same time my guide discovered some other Indians looking at us over the swells on our flanks.”
“You did well, sir; you did well. You will make an Indian fighter one of these days. Now let us see how much game you have.”
“Did that other expedition get through all right, sir?” asked Parker.
“Oh, yes. They did not see any Sioux on the way to bother them at all. You see, the way we found out that they have an inclination to go on the warpath at all was this: Agent Galbraith sent a couple of men——Well, I will give it up. They got more game than we did, sergeant.”
While the captain was speaking he rode around to the rear of the wagon, lifted the canvas and looked under it. It was literally filled with the animals that had fallen to the hunters’ rifles; and when the officer reached in and felt the plump quarters of an elk his mouth watered.
“I must have a piece of that elk for my supper,” said he.
“How about the Sioux getting on the warpath, sir?” said Lieutenant Parker. He was anxious to hear about that.
“Oh, yes. Lieutenant Hawkins, you take Page 61 command of the column and march them back to the fort. I will ride behind with the boys. You see, Agent Galbraith sent up a couple of men to order the Sioux to stop their Ghost Dance, and when the Sioux found that they were coming they pointed their guns at them and warned them to go back. That was all the news we wanted. The next day they sent a band of warriors to loaf about the fort, and that is what scared the colonel. He was sure they would find you out here and he sent me to look you up.”
“I am sure it was very kind of him,” said Parker. “Are all the Sioux engaged in this Ghost Dance, sir?”
“No, there are probably twenty thousand of them in all, and more than half of them don’t take any stock in the Ghost Dance. They can no doubt raise six hundred or a thousand men, and we have three thousand to oppose them. We are all around them, too. I wish that old Sitting Bull was captured.”
During the ride to Fort Scott the captain, who talked plainly and explained many things about the Ghost Dance which the young officer Page 62 had failed to understand, finally convinced him that his guide had told him nothing but the truth. As American Horse, a brave chieftain of the Sioux, once said while making a speech before the Peace Commissioners: “We were made many promises, but have never heard from them since.” Take, for instance, the issue of beef which was made at the Standing Rock Agency. In one year it amounted to eight million pounds; and in three years more, after the whites had got all the land the Indians wanted to sell, it was reduced to four million pounds, or just half of what they wanted. It was no wonder that the Indians complained of starvation; and when they asked permission to go off their reservation to hunt for the food that was to keep their families from giving way to the appeals of hunger, they were refused.
“I don’t blame the Indians so much, after all,” said Parker.
“And if you come right down to that, neither do I,” whispered the captain. “The Government will not give the Indians over to the War Department, as many thinking men Page 63 advise them to do, and we have got to stand by and see them suffer. And another thing: you don’t know how those Indians behave themselves when they take the bit in their teeth and go off their reservation. I tell you, you would remember all the broken promises the whites have made you and go in strong for revenge. Of course we soldiers can’t stand by, with our hands in our pockets, and let innocent people suffer because of what the Department at Washington has done to them, and we have to stand between the settlers and Indian barbarities.”
“And the Sioux don’t think much of us any way, do they, sir?”
“Not now they don’t, for they are as well armed as we are. In olden times, when the trappers roamed through this country, the Indians were all armed with bows and arrows, and it was very seldom you heard of a company of men being annihilated. The trappers had so little to steal that the Sioux did not think it worth while to lose the lives of three or four men in the effort to get it. The trappers were dead shots, and they brought an Page 64 Indian every time they pulled on him. The Indians would keep an eye on the trappers’ camps, and when there was no one there to protect them they would sneak up and steal everything they could lay their hands on. But now the case is different. The savages are armed with rifles and revolvers, and it has to be a pretty strong force that can march through their country.”
“You really think there is going to be a war, do you, sir?”
“I do, unless we can go to work and arrest that Sitting Bull, and that will take our whole force. Those Sioux are not going to stand by and see us capture their biggest medicine man without some resistance.”
Lieutenant Parker drew a long breath and told himself that his prospects of seeing an Indian fight were very good indeed.
“By the way, Parker, I think the colonel has some other business for you to transact when you get back to the fort,” said the captain, when they had ridden a little while in silence. “Of course the colonel has not said so, but I rather gained the idea from something I heard the adjutant say to him.”
“I am ready to assume anything he thinks I can do, sir,” said the lieutenant, who wondered what this new business was going to be. “I will even go to Standing Rock Agency.”
“And I suppose that is right where he wants to send you with dispatches for General Miles,” said the captain. “You will have one guide with you, and as large an escort as the colonel may think you need.”
“I am ready to undertake it,” said Parker, “but I don’t intend to be captured.”
“That’s the way to talk,” said the captain. Page 66 “But the colonel does not expect that the Sioux will attempt to capture you and hold you as a prisoner. You will have to go right by the place where they are holding their Ghost Dance, and if the Indians discover you, they will lose no time in keeping you until their dance is over.”
“I don’t see what good that will do, sir. Don’t they want us to know anything about it?”
“Well, I guess they don’t. The Sioux have a theory that if anyone outside their tribe witnesses the ceremony, that will make the dance of no account, and it will all have to be done over again.”
Lieutenant Parker seemed to have grown two inches when he heard this. He was going to get a chance to make a hero of himself—that is, if the colonel thought fit to send him with the dispatches. He thought of what old California Joe would have done in a case like this. After Custer’s fight with Black Kettle, in which a great victory was gained and the power of the Cheyennes completely broken, Joe was selected as a courier to carry the report Page 67 to General Sheridan, whose headquarters were at Camp Supply. The journey was only about a hundred miles long, but it was through a country that was thickly covered with hostile Indians. General Custer offered him an escort of fifty men, but to his surprise Joe said he did not want anybody except Jack Corbin, his partner. Custer told him to go ahead, and these two men made the journey—two hundred miles—in just forty-eight hours, although they had several wide detours to make in order to keep clear of the savages. Lieutenant Parker did not know whether or not he was experienced enough to try such a plan as that, but he determined that he would attempt it. Everything depended on getting by the Sioux without being seen. If the Indians discovered him he would certainly be captured, and what would be done with him after that he did not know. He would not say anything to the captain about it, but if the colonel asked him how large an escort he wanted, he would take Carl, the Trailer, and set off.
The captain was a talkative fellow, and Page 68 during the twenty years of his life that he had passed on the plains and among the wild Indians he had gained a world of information, and accumulated an almost inexhaustible fund of stories which he was ready to tell for the benefit of younger officers. He related one after another of his anecdotes during the march to the fort; and when at last the whitewashed stockade came into full view and Lieutenant Parker rode through the wide gate, he saw that the teamsters and soldiers stopped and raised their hats to him, a thing they had never done before. Parker was popular among the soldiers; for, although he was very strict,—as much so as the colonel himself,—and tried as hard to make his men “toe the mark,” when off duty he was “hail-fellow well met” with everybody. The captain and Parker came out from behind the wagon to see their men come into line in front of the colonel’s headquarters, and then dismounted and went in to report.
“I have returned, sir,” said the captain. “I found the lieutenant coming along the prairie all right. He had some experience Page 69 with the Sioux, but he came on ahead as though there was nothing there.”
“Very good, sir,” said the colonel. “You may dismiss your men.” Then, unbending a little from his official dignity, he held out his hand to Parker and smiled upon him over his gold spectacles. “Well, my boy, I am glad to see that you have returned all right.”
“I have returned, sir,” said Parker, not forgetting that part of his duty, “and I have a wagonful of game.”
“Well, now, go on and tell me something about those Sioux you met. Were they a large party?”
“I did not see all of them, sir; not more than a dozen. The chief made signs that he wanted to talk to me, but I sent him back. I thought if he wanted to talk to anybody he could come down here and talk to you. He knew where your headquarters were as well as I did.”
“There were a good many more than a dozen men in that party,” said the colonel. “That was the reason I sent the captain out after you. Have you had sleep enough?”
“Yes, sir, all I want,” said Parker, who now thought he was about to hear of the additional business the colonel had for him to do.
“Can you go without sleep to-night?”
“Yes, sir, and for forty-eight hours longer.”
“I guess somebody has been saying a little to you about what I have on hand,” said the colonel with a smile. “Well, I don’t know as I blame the captain for that. How large an escort of soldiers do you think you will want to go with you to Standing Rock Agency?”
“I want just one, sir.”
“One!” exclaimed the colonel, opening his eyes. “Remember that you will have to cross their lines somewhere.”
“I know it, sir; but it will be easier for two men to hide than it will for a larger number. If I were going to ask for a larger squad than I have named, I should ask for your whole force.”
The commanding officer settled back in his chair and stared at the lieutenant without speaking.
“I would like to have one man go with me, sir, if I might be allowed a choice,” said the lieutenant.
“Who is it?”
“Carl, the Trailer.”
“You seem to have got on pretty good terms with him during the last week,” said the colonel, straightening up again. “Well, come around in about half an hour and I will talk to you. I want to add something to these dispatches about the war-party of Sioux you met while coming home. Bring Preston with you. You may dismiss your men, and detail two of them to cut up game enough for supper. Perhaps you had better get something to eat before you go.”
Lieutenant Parker arose to his feet, made his best salute, and went out. He seemed to be treading on air. The colonel thought enough of him to send him where he had always sent a brave and experienced man, and here he was scarcely six months out of West Point. The captain was standing just outside the door, with his hands on his hips, watching his men, who were going toward the stables, Page 72 and hearing the lieutenant’s footsteps behind him turned and looked over his shoulder.
“I tell you it pays to keep your weather-eye open, sir,” said Parker, as he came up and saluted.
“Have you got it?” demanded the captain, who seemed as delighted as the lieutenant himself.
“I don’t know, sir, but I have orders to come around in half an hour and bring Carl, the Trailer, with me.”
“Then you are going—you can bet on that. Did you hear who else he is going to send with you? I wonder if he will select me?”
“That is all I want, sir.”
“All! Carl, the Trailer!”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good heavens, young man, you’re crazy! You will never get through their lines in the world.”
“Don’t you think it would be easier for two men to hide than it would be for fifty, sir?”
“Are you going to hide from them? Did you tell that to the colonel?”
“I did, sir.”
“Then you won’t go; you can bet your bottom dollar on that. You don’t want to hide from them,” continued the captain, seeing that the lieutenant looked disappointed over what had been said. “You want to go by them openly and above-board, so as to let them know that we are not afraid of them. If they see that we know they are going on with the dance, I think they will stop it. Be careful in the future, when the colonel is talking of sending you on an expedition, that you don’t say anything about hiding. That’s a word that won’t go down.”
“But look here, captain,” said Parker, a bright idea striking him, “the colonel suggested that I get something to eat before I go.”
“W-h-e-w!” whistled the captain. “This beats me. Here you are ordered to take dispatches through a band of savages who have never yet done the first thing to indicate that they were on the warpath excepting to point their guns at those two men that Galbraith sent out to stop them in their Ghost Dance, Page 74 and the colonel does not object to your hiding from them! I can’t understand it.”
“Perhaps he does not want it to get out among them that he has been sending dispatches to General Miles,” suggested Parker.
“Oh, he needn’t think to stop it that way. Mark my words,” said the captain, approaching close to Parker and laying his forefinger upon his shoulder, “the Sioux will know of that dispatch as soon as Miles will. You needn’t think to keep it from them.”
So saying the captain walked away, leaving Parker lost in wonder. He glanced about the parade ground, but he couldn’t see anything of a Sioux brave there; and then, seeing his men drawn up in line and waiting for him to dismiss them, he beckoned Leeds to approach him.
“Break ranks,” said he, “and set two of the men at work cutting up some of that game for supper. Remember that the captain wants some of that elk.”
Having thus disposed of his men, Lieutenant Parker walked slowly toward the place where Carl, the Trailer, was standing, waiting to see what was going to happen.
“Say, Carl,” he said, sinking his voice almost to a whisper, “do you see any Sioux Indians around here?”
“Nary one,” said the guide.
“I have been ordered to take some dispatches to General Miles, and you are to go with me to show me the way. You and I are to go alone.”
“I am ready,” said Carl.
“I have been talking with the captain about it, and he says that the Sioux will know of that dispatch as soon as Miles will. Now, it strikes me that there must be somebody here to carry the news.”
“I don’t know whether he meant that or not—I can’t say; but I have no fear of not getting into the fort with dispatches. When we come out and try to get home is where they are going to catch us.”
“Do you think that is the place they will watch for us?”
“It is always the place where I begin to use caution,” said the guide.
“You are not afraid to attempt it?”
Carl, the Trailer, raised himself up to his Page 76 full height and looked at the lieutenant. He did not speak, and Parker did not press him for an answer.
“I don’t know but I should be afraid if I were in your place,” continued the lieutenant. “There are some people here who would not be anyways sorry to hear of your death.”
“Let them come,” said Carl; and Parker had never seen such an expression of rage and contempt as overspread his features. “I am ready for them.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Of course I do.”
Lieutenant Parker waited to hear more. He wanted to find out whether or not those people who would in any way profit by the death of the guide were relatives; but Carl had no more to say. He stood with one arm thrown over his saddle, and waited for Parker to send him away about his business.
“Well, then, I suppose you are all right,” said the lieutenant. “Go and get something to eat, and be on hand in half an hour. It is now four o’clock,” he added, glancing at his watch. “We must see General Miles, get Page 77 his return dispatch, and be back here in forty-eight hours. Do you suppose we can do it?”
“If you can keep up I’ll be on time,” said the guide, leading his horse toward the gate.
“I really wish I had not said anything about that,” said Parker, as he led his own horse away toward the stables. “I’ve got him down on me, and that is one thing I don’t like.”