Czytaj książkę: «Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California», strona 11

"So we sets to work a-probing the buffalo with our knives again. They started on ahead as hard as they could, bursting a way through the crowd. We followed close behind them, keeping up the scare until we finds ourselves in front of the herd; then we spurred our horses on, and dashed out in front. Done as the horses were, they knew they had got to go, for, with the herd coming like thunder upon their heels, it was death to stop. We swerved away to the right, but it took us half an hour afore we war clear of the front of the herd. We went a few hundred yards further, and then drew rein.

"Rube's horse fell dead as he stopped, and mine wasn't worth much more. For half an hour we could hear the herd rushing along, and then it had passed. We had got out of our biggest fix, but it warn't a pleasant position.

"There we war out on the plains, with only one horse between us, and he so done up that he couldn't put one foot afore the other.

"Where the Cheyennes war there was no saying; the band might have been wiped out by the Utes, or they might have got away. At any rate there was no counting on them. The Utes who had followed the herd would be sure to be on our trail in the morning; they would follow all night, or as long as the herd ran. When the buffalo war fairly tired out they would lay down, and the Utes would see then as we warn't there. Then they would set out upon the back-trail, skirting along each side of the line trampled by the herd until they came upon our trail; the dead horse was a sign as they could see a mile away, so it was clear that we must foot it as soon as we could. We gave the horse an hour's rest; and it did us as much good as him, for I can tell you we war pretty well used up. We drove him afore us until, after six hours' walking, we came to a stream. We went up this for an hour, then we both filled our hunting-shirts with stones and fastened them on the horse, and then drove him off."

"What did you put the stones on his back for?" Frank asked.

"To make the Utes think as he was carrying double. Each of the loads was about the weight of a man, and the horse was so tired that he staggered as he walked; so as they would see his tracks, and wouldn't see ours, they would naturally come to the conclusion as we war both on his back. It warn't likely as the critter would go far before he laid down, perhaps not more than half a mile; but that would do for us. We went back a few hundred yards in the stream, and then struck off across the prairie, the same side as we had come from, taking care to make as little sign as possible.

"The Utes would be riding along by the side of the stream and looking for a horse's print, and the chances war that they wouldn't see ours. When they came up to the horse and found out the trick, they would gallop back again; at least half of them would go up the stream and half would take the back-track; but, you see, as they went up they would have trampled across our track, and they would find it mighty hard work to pick it up again.

"We footed it all day, and the prospect warn't a pleasant one. The nearest settlement was nigh a thousand miles away, we had no horses, and we daren't fire a gun for fear of bringing Utes down upon us. We had made up our minds to strike for the Cheyennes' country, that being the nearest where we could expect to find friends. For two days we tramped on. The third day we war sitting by the side of a stream, eating a prairie-dog as we had trapped, when Rube stopped eating suddenly, and said, 'Listen!'

"I threw myself down and put my ear to the ground, and, sure enough, could hear the gallop of horses. 'Injins,' says I, and chucks a lot of wet sand and gravel over the fire, which was fortunately a small one. I knew, in course, if they came close that way, as they would see it; but if they passed at some distance they would not notice us. Then Rube and I bounded into the water, and laid down close under a high bank, where the grass grew long, and drooped over to the water so as to cover our heads.

"We heard the redskins coming nearer and nearer, and they stopped at the stream a quarter of a mile or so above us. We listened, I can tell you, for the sound of their going on again; but no such luck, and after a quarter of an hour we knew as they were going to camp there. I felt pretty thankful as it was late in the afternoon, for I guessed, in the first place, as they would light their fire and cook their food, so none of them war likely to be coming down our way until it was after dark.

"We waited and waited, till it got quite dark; then we followed the stream down for another four or five miles, and then took to the plains again. It was another three days afore we fell in with a party of Cheyennes. It seemed as how most of those we had been with had been killed by the Utes; the others had taken the news home, and the whole tribe had been turned out. We war pretty well done up, but the chief dismounted two of his men and put us on their horses, and we set off at once. We knew pretty well the line that the party as was following us had taken, and the next night we saw the fires of their camp, and you bet not one of them went home to tell the tale."

"That was a narrow escape indeed, Abe," Frank said.

"It war all that. It war lucky that it war late afore the hunt began; if it had been early in the day nothing could have saved us – onless, of course, our horses had been fresh, and faster than those of the Utes, and then we should have made straight away instead of getting into the herd."

"They don't seem to go as fast as a horse, Abe. I seemed to keep up quite easily with that bull I shot."

"Yes, for a burst a horse is faster than a buffalo, but when they once gets going on a downright stampede they will tire out any horse, and go well-nigh as fast too. I tell you you have to be pretty spry, even if you are well-mounted, when a downright big herd, well on the stampede, comes on you. It's a terrible sight, and it makes one tingle, I can tell you, especially as the horse is pretty nigh mad with fear."

"It must be as bad as a prairie fire."

"Worse, my lad; ever so much worse. You can see a prairie fire fifty miles away – more nor that at night, ever so much – and you have plenty of time to set the grass afire ahead of you, and clear the ground afore it comes up, though it does travel, when the wind is blowing, much faster than a horse can gallop. I have seen it go thirty miles an hour, the flames just leaping out ahead of it and setting grass alight a hundred yards before the main body of the fire came up. I tell you it is a terrible sight when the grass has just dried, and is breast-high; but, as I say, there ain't no cause to be afraid if you do but keep your head. You just pulls up a band of grass a couple of feet wide, and lights it ahead of you; the wind naturally takes it away from you, and you look sharp with blanket or leggings to beat it down, and prevent it working back agin the wind across the bit of ground you have stripped. As it goes it widens out right and left, and you have soon got a wide strip cleared in front of you. In course you don't go on to it as long as you can help it, not till you are drove by the other fire coming up; that gives it time to cool a bit. If you must go on soon, owing to being pressed, or from the fire you have lit working round agin the wind – as it will do if the grass is very dry – the best plan is to cut up your leggings, or any bit of hide you have got with you, the rawer the better, and wrap them round your horse's feet and legs; but it ain't often necessary to do that, as it don't take long for the ashes to cool enough so as to stand on."

Fortunately a bottom with good grass had been found close at hand to the place where they encamped, and when the caravan proceeded the draft oxen were all the better for their two days' rest.

"We shall have to begin to look out pretty sharp for Injin signs," Abe said, as they started early next morning. "Fresh meat is good, but we can do without it; there's enough pork and jerked meat in the waggons to last pretty nigh across the plains; but we are getting where we may expect Injins in earnest. We might, in course, have met 'em anywhere, but as they know the caravans have all got to come across their ground, it don't stand to reason as they would take the trouble to travel very far east to meet 'em. I don't say as we won't knock down a stag, now and agin, if we comes across 'em, but the less firing the better. We have been hunting up till now, but we must calculate that for the rest of the journey we are going to be hunted; and if we don't want our scalps taken, not to talk of all these women and children, we have got to look out pretty spry. I reckon we can beat them off in anything like a fair fight – that is, provided we have got time to get ready before they are on us, and it depends on us whether we do have time or not."

CHAPTER XI.
HOW DICK LOST HIS SCALP

TWO or three days after they had moved from their last halting-place, when they were sitting at the fire one evening, and Abe had been telling a yarn of adventure, he said, when he had finished: —

"About the closest thing as I know was that adventure that Dick thar had. Dick, take off that thar wig of yourn."

The hunter put his hand to his head and lifted at once his cap, made of skin, and the hair beneath it, showing, to Frank's astonishment, a head without a vestige of hair, and presenting the appearance of a strange scar, mottled with a deep purple, as if it was the result of a terrible burn.

"You see I have been scalped," the hunter said. "I don't suppose you noticed it – few people do. You see, I never takes off my fur cap night or day, so that no one can see as I wears a wig."

"There's nought to be ashamed of in it," Abe said, "for it is as honourable a scalp as ever a man got. Do you tell the story, Dick."

"You know it as well as I do," the hunter replied, "and I ain't good at talking."

"Well, I will tell you it then," Abe said, "seeing that I knows almost as much about it as Dick does. The affair occurred the very year after what I have been telling you about. Dick was attached as hunter and scout to Fort Charles, which was, at that time, one of the furthest west of all our stations. There was fifty infantry and thirty cavalry there, and little enough too, for it war just on the edge of the Dacota country. The Dacotas are a powerful tribe, and are one of the most restless, troublesome lots I knows. Several strong parties of our troops have been surprised and cut to pieces by them; and as to settlements, no one but a born fool would dream of settling within reach of them.

"I never could quite make out why we wanted to put a fort down so close to them, seeing as there warn't a settlement to protect within a hundred and fifty miles; but I suppose the wiseacres at Washington had some sort of an idea that the redskins would be afraid to make excursions to the settlements with this fort in their rear, just as if they couldn't make a sweep of five hundred miles if they took it into their heads, and come back into their country on the other side.

"Just at that time there was no trouble with them; the hatchet was buried, and they used to come into the fort and sell skins and furs to the traders there for tobacco and beads. After that affair I was telling ye of, Rube and me, we went back for a spell to the settlement, and then took a fancy to hunt on another line, and, after knocking about for a time, found ourselves at Fort Charles. That was where we met Dick for the first time.

"The Commander of the fort was a chap named White, a captain; he had with him his wife and daughter. A worse kind of man for the commander of a frontier station you could hardly find. He was not a bad soldier, and was well liked by his men, and I have no doubt if he had been fighting agin other white men he would have done well enough; but he never seemed to have an idee what Injin nature was like, and weren't never likely to learn.

"First place, he despised them. Now, you know, the redskins ain't to be despised. You may hate them, you may say they are a cussed lot of rascals and thieves, but there ain't no despising them, and any one as does that is sure to have cause to repent it, sooner or later. There was the less reason with the Dacotas, for they had cut up stronger bodies of troops than there was at Fort Charles without letting a soul escape. Then, partly because the captain despised them, I suppose, he was always hurting their feelings.

"Now, a chief is a chief, and a man who can bring three hundred horsemen into the field, whether he is redskin or white, is a man to whom a certain respect should be paid. But Captain White never seemed to see that, but just treated one redskin like another, just as if they war dirt beneath his feet. Well, as I told you, he had with him his wife and daughter. His wife was too fine a lady for a frontier fort, still, she was not badly liked: but as to the daughter, there warn't a man in the fort but would have died for her. She war about fifteen year old, and as pretty as a flower. She war always bright and merry, with a kind word to the soldiers as she rode past them on her pretty white mustang.

"Dick, here, he worshipped her like the rest of us. If he got a particular good skin, or anything else, if he thought she would like it he would put it by for her, and she used, in her merry way, to call him her scout. Well, one day Black Dog, one of the most powerful chiefs of the Dacotas, rode into the fort with twenty of his braves. Just as he came in, Queen May, as we all called her, came galloping up on her mustang, and leapt like a bird from her saddle at the door of the commander's house, where her father was standing. I war standing next to him, and so I saw Black Dog's eye fall on her, and as long as she stood talking there to her father he never took it off; then he said something to the brave as was sitting on his horse next to him.

"'Cuss him!' Dick said to me, and I could see his hold on his rifle tighten, 'what does he look at Queen May like that for? You mark my words, Abe, trouble will come of this.'

"It was not long before trouble did come, for half an hour later the Dacota rode out of the fort with his men in great wrath, complaining that Captain White had not received him as a chief, and that his dignity was insulted. It war like enough that Captain White was not as ceremonious as he should have been to a great chief – for, as I told you, he war short in his ways with the redskins – but I question if harm would have come of it if it hadn't been that Black Dog's eye fell on that gal.

"I believe that there and then he made up his mind to carry her off. We didn't see any redskins in camp for some time; and then rumours were brought in by the scouts that there war going to be trouble with them, that a council had been held, and that it war decided the hatchet should be dug up again. Captain White he made light of the affair; but he was a good soldier, and warn't to be caught napping, so extra sentries were put on.

"As Rube and me didn't belong to the fort, of course we war independent, and went away hunting, and would sometimes be away for weeks together. One day, when we war some forty miles from the fort, we came upon the trail of a large number of redskins going east. We guessed as there must be nigh two hundred of them. They might, in course, have been going hunting, but we didn't think as it were so; sartainly they had no women with them, and they had been travelling fast. We guessed the trail was three days old, and we thought we had best push on straight to the fort to let them know about it.

"When we got thar we found we were too late. On the morning of the day after we had started a scout had arrived with the news that a strong war-party of Dacotas were on their way to the settlements. Captain White at once mounted half his infantry on horses, and with them and the cavalry set out in pursuit, leaving the fort in charge of a young officer with twenty-four men. Just after nightfall there was a sound of horsemen approaching, and the officer, thinking it was the Captain returning, ordered the gate of the stockade to be left open. In a moment the place was full of redskins. The soldiers tried to fight, but it were no use; all war cut down, only one man making his escape in the darkness.

"At daybreak, the Captain, with his troops, rode into the fort. Dick, who had been with him, had, when the party was returning, gone out scouting on his own account, and had come across the back-track of the redskins. The moment he had brought in the news the horses were re-saddled again, and the party started back; but they had gone nearly sixty miles the day before, and it was not until morning that, utterly exhausted and weary, they got within sight of the fort. Then they saw as it war too late.

"Not a roof was to be seen above the stockade, and a light smoke rising everywhere showed as fire had done it. They rode into camp like madmen. There lay all their comrades, killed and scalped; there were the bodies of Mrs. White and her servants, and the nigger labourers, and the trader and his clerks, and of all who had been left behind in the camp, except the Captain's little daughter; of her there weren't no signs. Rube and me arrived half an hour later, just as the soldier who had escaped had come in and was telling how it all came about.

"It war a terrible scene, I can tell you; the Captain he were nigh mad with grief, and the men were boiling over with rage. If they could have got at the Dacotas then they would have fought if there had been twenty to one against them. Dick war nowhere to be seen; the man said that he had caught a fresh horse, which had broken its rope and stampeded through the gate while the massacre was going on, and that he had ridden away on it on the Indian trail.

"If the horses had been fresh the Captain would have started in pursuit at once, and every man was burning to go. But it was lucky as they couldn't, for if they had I have no doubt the whole lot would have been wiped out by the Dacotas. However, there was no possibility of moving for at least a couple of days, for the horses war altogether used up after the march. So they had time to get cool on it.

"That afternoon the Captain, who was in council with the two officers who remained, sent for Rube and me, and asked us our opinion as to what was best to be done. We says at once that there weren't nothing. 'You have lost nigh a third of your force,' says I, 'and have got little over forty left. If we were to go up into the Dacota country we should get ambushed to a certainty, and should have a thousand of them, perhaps two thousand, down on us, and the odds would be too great, Captain; it couldn't be done. Besides, even if you licked them – and I tell you as your chance of doing so would be mighty small – they would disperse in all directions, and then meet and fight you agin, and ye wouldn't be no nearer getting your daughter than you war before.

"'If you ask my advice, it would be that you should send back to the nearest fort for more men, and that you should at once get up the stockade where it has been burnt down, for there is no saying when you will be attacked again. I tell you, Captain, that to lead this party here into the Dacota country would mean sartin death for them.'

"Mad as the Captain was to go in search of his daughter, he saw that I was right, and indeed I concluded he had made up his mind he could do nothing before he sent for us, only he hoped, I suppose, as we might give some sort of hope. 'I am afraid what you say is true,' says he. 'At any rate we must wait till Dick, the scout, returns; he will tell us which way they have gone, and what is their strength.'

"By nightfall the soldiers had buried all the dead just outside the stockade, and had built a temporary wall – for there wasn't a stick of timber within miles – across the gaps in the fence.

"At nightfall Rube and me, whose horses war fresh, started for the nearest fort, and four days afterwards got back with forty more horse-soldiers. We found that Dick had not come back, and we made up our minds as he had gone under. When we were away we had heard that the redskins had attacked the settlements in a dozen different places, and that there was no doubt a general Injin war had broken out. The officer at the fort where I went to was a major; it was a bigger place than Fort Charles, which was a sort of outlying post. I had, in course, told him about the Captain's daughter being carried off.

"He sent up a letter with the soldiers to the Captain, saying how sorry he was to hear of his loss, and he sent up forty men; but he ordered that unless Captain White had received some intelligence which would, in his opinion, justify his undertaking an expedition into the Indian country with so small a force as he could command, he was at once to evacuate the place and fall back with his force on the settlement, as the position was quite untenable, and every man was needed for the defence of the settlers.

"When the Captain got the order he walked up and down by hisself for four or five minutes. Yer see it war a hard choice for him; as a father he was longing to go in search of his child, as a soldier he saw that he should be risking the whole force under his command if he did so, and that at a time when every man was needed at the settlements. At last the order was given that the troops should take the back-track to the settlements on the following evening.

"The Captain told the officers that he should wait till then to give the horses of the men who had arrived with us time to rest; but I know in his heart he wanted to wait in the hope of Dick arriving with news.

"The next day, at four in the afternoon, the men war beginning to saddle their horses, when the sentry suddenly gave the cry of 'Injins, Injins!'

"In a moment every man seized his carbine and sword, and shoved his bridle on his horse's head, buckled up, and jumped into the saddle. There was no occasion for any orders. I climbed up on to the stockade, for the country was pretty nigh a dead flat, and the lookout had been burnt with the huts.

"Sure enough, there in the distance war some horsemen coming across the plain; but they war straggling, and not many of them. I could not make head nor tail of it. They war Injins, sure enough, for even at that distance I could tell that by their figures. Then I saw as there was more of them coming behind them; the idea suddenly struck me: 'Ride, Captain!' I shouted; 'ride with your men for your life, they are chasing some one.'

"There warn't any necessity for Captain White to give any orders; there was a rush to the gate, and as fast as they could get through they started out at full gallop. Me and Rube dropped over the stockade, for our critters war picketed outside. We didn't wait to saddle them, you may guess, but pulled up the ropes, jumped on to their backs, and galloped on; and we war soon by the side of Captain White, who was riding as if he was mad. We could see them a little plainer now, and says I, suddenly, 'Captain, there is a white horse in front, by gum!'

"A sort of hoarse cry came from the Captain, and he spurred his horse agin, although the critter was going at its best speed. They war two miles from us yet, but I could soon make out as the white horse and another was a bit ahead, then came eight or ten Injins in a clump, and a hundred or more straggling out behind. It seemed to me as they war all going slow, as if the horses war dead-beat; but what scared me most was to see as the clump of Injins war gaining on the two ahead of them, one of whom I felt sure now was the Captain's daughter, and the other I guessed was Dick.

"The Captain saw it too, for he gave a strange sort of cry. 'My God!' he said, 'they will overtake her.' We war still a mile from them, when we saw suddenly the man in front – this chap Dick here – part sudden from the white horse, wheel straight round, and go right back at the Injins. They separated as he came to them. We saw two fall from their horses, and the wind presently brought the sound of the cracks of pistols. There war no 'Colts' in those days, but I knew that Dick carried a brace of double-barrelled pistols in his holsters. Then the others closed round him.

"There was a sort of confusion; we could see tomahawks waving, and blows given, and when it was over there war but four Injins out of the eight to be seen on their horses. But the white horse had gained a hundred yards while the fight was going on, and the Injins saw that we war a-coming on like a hurricane, so they turned their horses and galloped back again.

"Three minutes later the Captain's daughter rode up. She war as white as death, and the Captain had just time to leap off and catch her as she fainted dead away. The rest of us didn't stop, you bet; we just gave a cheer and on we went, and the Dacotas got a lesson that day as they will remember as long as they are a tribe. Their horses were so dead-beat they had scarcely a gallop in them, while ours were fresh, and I don't think ten of the varmints got away.

"We didn't draw rein till it was dark, and next morning we counted two hundred and fifteen dead redskins on the plains. The first thing in the morning, Rube and me rode back to where the fight began, to give Dick a burial. We looked about, but couldn't find him. There was Black Dog, with one of his bullets through his forehead, two others shot through the body, and one with his skull stove in with a blow from Dick's rifle, which was lying there with the stock broken. So we supposed the Captain had had him carried to the fort, and we rode on there.

"When we got there we found as he was alive. It seems at the moment the Captain's daughter recovered from her faint she insisted on going back with the Captain to see if Dick was alive. They found him well-nigh dead. He had got an arrow through the body, and two desperate clips with tomahawks, and had been scalped, but he was still breathing. There war no one else nigh, for every man had ridden on in pursuit; but they managed, somehow, between them, to get him upon the Captain's horse. The Captain he rode in the saddle, and held him in his arms, while his daughter led her horse back to the fort. There they dressed his wounds, and put wet cloths to his head, and watched him all night.

"In the morning he was quite delirious. Fortunately the Captain considered that after the way they had licked the redskins the day before there was no absolute necessity for evacuating the Fort; so the troops cut turf and made huts, and parties were sent off to the nearest timber to bring in boughs for roofs, and there we stopped, and in six weeks Dick was about again with his wig on his head.

"You will wonder whar he got his wig from, seeing as that sort of thing ain't a product of the plains; but he is wearing his own hair. Among the fust of the Injins we overtook and killed was a chap with Dick's scalp hanging at his girdle, and when it was known as he was alive they searched and found it; and one of the soldiers who was fond of collecting bird-skins, and such like, just preserved it in the same way, and when Dick was able to go out again he presented him with his own scalp. So if any one says to Dick as he ain't wearing his own hair, Dick can tell him he is a liar.

"Lor', how grateful that gal was to Dick; he never was a particular good-looking young fellow, and he wasn't improved by the scrimmage, but I believe if he had axed her she would have given up everything and settled down as a hunter's wife."

Dick growled an angry denial.

"Well, mate, it may be not quite that, but it war very nigh it. It was downright pretty to see the way she hung about him, and looked after him, just for all the world as if she had been his mother, and he a sick child. The Captain, too, didn't know how to make enough of Dick; and as for the men, they would have done anything for him for having saved the life of Queen May. I heard, three or four years afterwards, as she married the young officer who was in command of the horse-soldiers at the next fort."

"But tell me," Frank said, "how did Dick manage to get her away from the Indians?"

"That," Abe said, "he'd better tell you himself, seeing as concerning that part of the business he knows more nor I do. Now, Dick, speak out."

"There ain't much to tell," Dick said gruffly, taking the pipe from his mouth. "Directly as we got back to camp, and I found she had gone, it seemed to me as I had got to follow her; and my eye lighting on the loose horse, I soon managed to catch the critter, and, shifting my saddle to it, I started. As you may guess, there war no difficulty in following the trail. They had ridden all night, though they knew there was no chance of their being pursued. But about fifty miles from the fort I came upon their first halting-place; they had lit fires and cooked food there, and had waited some hours.

"The ashes were still warm, and I guess they had left about four hours afore I arrived; so I went on more carefully, knowing that if I threw away my life there was no chance of recovering the gal. I guessed, by the direction which they were taking, they were going to Black Dog's village; and, after going a bit further on the trail to make sure, I turned off, and went round some miles, in case they should have left any one to see if they war followed. I knew where the village was, for I had been hunting near it.

"I camped out on the plains for the night, and next day rode to within five miles of the village, which was among the hills. I left my horse in a wood where there was water, and, taking my rifle and pistols, went forward on foot to the village and arrived there after dark. As I expected, I found the hull place astir. A big fire was blazing in the centre; on a pole near it hung the scalps they had taken, and they were a-dancing round it and howling and yelling. I didn't see any signs of the gal; but as there were two redskins with their rifles hanging about the door of a wigwam next to that of the chief, I had no doubt she was there.