CHAPTER XXVIII.
DRAWING TO A HEAD.
Red Knife blew his war whistle loudly. This was the cue for fortymen to spring on their ponies. The chief took the lead and all toreaway like fiends over the level ground. They soon "fanned out" there,banishing their guns over their heads, tossing up war clubs andcatching them when all but touching the ground, juggling with theirknives and pistols, all without drawing rein; executing, in fact,circus feats, after the manner of the Arabs, who employ this samemethod, or _fantasia_, to greet a celebrity. On his part, the trapperwas riding a steed without any harness whatever--one that he had caughtastray from the unfortunate Half-breed detachment that "bunked up"against the Cherokee. Except for the lasso which had ensnared it, andwhich served as a halter, it obeyed the rider by his voice and slap ofthe hand, and was restrained from rebellion by the threatening pressureof his knees, with which he would have crushed in the ribs.
This simple show of arrogant horsemanship delighted the Piegans, whojourney oftenest on foot, and they all fired off their guns. Then,forming a line abreast under cover of the smoke, they charged with aprodigious howling, but when almost overwhelming the solitary rider,they reined up by a miracle of skill, as if their poor broken-jawedhorses had suddenly taken root in the ground.
Jim had come on at the same round pace, as if the yelling cavalcadewere miles remote. He had been too long identified with Indiancustoms not to see in this demonstration what it really was--a strongmanifestation of the regard he was held in, and their joy at hisventuring by himself in their midst.
Red Knife and the others now fell in as an escort, and so accompaniedhim to the encampment, where the tedious ceremony of reception had tobe gone through. The _Grand Monarch_, in all his glories, was not morepunctilious than the Indians in their refined etiquette. The wholeperformances, as Bill termed them to Dona Rosario, were bound to lastan hour, and they protracted them to half as much again.
Old Ridge supported them like a king to the manner born. No such triflewas going to hinder him from his purpose.
Whilst the warriors continued their rejoicings, the chiefs went intothe medicine lodge, and more solemnly received Ridge there, theCherokee being his sponsor.
The Old Yager was in a predicament. The red men wanted him toco-operate with them in a league of the Indians against the whiteseast, south, and north; but as this would have been treachery, or atleast apostasy, they had to lessen their desires gradually duringa long discussion. As Jim said, he pared the proposition down tillit came to a smaller head! The Yellowstone Basin was to be defendedfrom all comers. On his side, Jim promised that none of the trappers,hunters, Scotch Canadians, and whoever might rally to him should enterthe Firehole Region. Kidd, the Half-breeds of Red River, and anyscoundrels who flocked to them as the redskins advanced and swept thecountry, were to be destroyed.
"You will have all the fighting you hunger for," remarked Jim drily,"with these rascals, without wanting to go on and injure the _Bostons_,or King George's men."
As the pact was clear for the morrow, and the savages do not lookforward beyond a day, the utmost good feeling remained.
Runners were sent out, and during the evening representatives camein from the hunting parties allied to the Piegans. There were chiefsof the Small Robes, Blackfeet proper, Blackfeet Sioux, which linkedthe league with the Dacotahs and counterbalanced the Crows, in caseAhnemekee objected to the new and narrow arrangement, and some Rovers.These summed up as one hundred and fifty war men. The Yager countedthem and recognised the elders among them with relief and gladness.He had resolved to crush out Kidd and his crew to the last man. Hehad contemplated the march of events with secret satisfaction, havingprepared many of them; and the great progress made in a few days wasenormously gratifying.
A little while before he and his nephew and Cherokee Bill stoodagainst huge odds. Now they were commanding an army. If the reds werenot perfect matches to the gold grabbers, they were quite so to theManitobans, and the Scotch Canadians and Americans formed a reserve, orbackbone, which ensured success.
Now the intruders were being enveloped in a net of which the mesheswere self-plaiting themselves all around them. When the fowler pulledthe string, the game would be inextricably caught.
At a final council held at night the concord was perfected. Sayingnothing of hostilities against the border settlers, Montana miners,railroad surveyors, and pioneers north, the objective point of theallied reds, with Jim Ridge as mere counsellor and volunteer private,was to be Elk's Leap, where Captain Kidd, reinforced by the FrenchCanadians, was tending to enter the Yellowstone Park.
Runners and riders went out to collect scouts and strayers. Messengerswere selected to throw a sheaf of arrows, a knife, and a bag of powderand balls into the camp of Captain Kidd and that of the Red RiverRovers if separate. The war pole, forty feet high, was set up at thePiegan camp, for the war dance to be performed round it. Jim Ridgedid not join in the capering, but the Cherokee, curtly remarking that"it would do him good," stripped, and paraded, and leaped among thedancers. The cut of his hatchet on the pole was a tie with Red Knife'sfor height of the bound and cleanness of the chop. At the dawn, thedeputies hurried to their camps to marshal their braves and conductthem to the rendezvous.
It is to be noted that the Red Indians spring sharply from theirlaziness of peacetimes into the strain of warfare. They become othermen. Metamorphosed entirely, they endure with unflinching stoicismthe greatest fatigue and longest privations. The very men who wereridiculous sloths and gluttons will never groan at having no sight offood for two, three, or even four days, or even at having no water.
Then they are granite and stop for nothing, and are not surprised atany disaster. Cold, heat, sun or rain, snow or hail, these are silentlymocked at. Hence the secret foundation of their rapid movements, thefury of their attack, and their unconquerable energy in battle.
After the final talk, Ridge had a short conversation with Williams,immediately after which the latter left the camp. The white trapperhad, we have remarked, kept himself out of the savage demonstration,sitting at a watch fire without even dozing off. A white man with anarmy of reds is like a chemist experimenting with an explosive of whichall the qualities have yet to be tested. In some unexpected manner thewhole may hoist the engineer himself.
About an hour after sunrise the Cherokee returned. He was accompaniedby two white hunters. They were to be the guards of Dona Rosario, who,though she made a wry face about it, as if she personally wished toassist in the deliverance of Miss Maclan, consented reluctantly tobeing lodged in one of Jim Ridge's mountain refuges.
"Poor girl," murmured he, as she departed, "what a blessing that shehas no idea that I am her kinsman, and that her father has perhaps losthis life in helping Bill to wrest her from that villain."
He was very thoughtful, and his chat with his comrades was more briefand in shorter phrases than ever. If he was idle in his moodiness,however, the Cherokee redoubled his activity in scouting.
There was already one screw loose in the machinery: the Crows hadlost connection with the Piegans. Their disappearance was perplexing,ominous even. The Piegans were completely puzzled. And all Ridgesurmised was that somehow Ahnemekee had learnt, or strongly supposed,that not Kidd, but the Mountain Men had interfered with his descent onthe Red River Half-breeds.
Red Knife, though, soon offered his opinion that the Crows werecowards, and had skulked away from the prospective battlefield.
Apart from this defection, all went on merrily enough for six days,when the concentration was perfected. Each day the border ruffians andCanadians were kept under view, and camp for camp invisibly opposedeach other. It is true the mixed bloods and the whites had their scoutsand outliers busy, but they found nothing to alarm. The trappers andBlackfeet seemed to be swallowed up in the mountain gorges.
The temperature became milder. The influence of the hot water springsof the Yellowstone certainly affected the air. In four days or so,toilsomely as the adventurers broke their way through th
e pathlesswilds, they would hail the promised golden land.
But one evening Cherokee Bill, as director of all the scouts, reportedthat there were more ingredients for the stew. Instead of findingAhnemekee's band in the eastward, his spies had descried evidences ofa strong force of whites. And in the Northwest also another body ofwhites were perceived.
This news very much disquieted Jim Ridge, and deepened histhoughtfulness. According to the flag to which they held allegiance,the newcomers might exert a preponderating influence on what was tobecome a veritable war. Hesitation would be fatal. It was imperativeto have done with present opposing elements as quickly as possible, orhave a double force to contest. It is soundest reason in the wildernessto believe enemies approach, and, anyway, white men would rathercombine with those of their complexion than the redskins.
This was strictly logical, but, as often happens in practical life,that itself made it wrong; but the Yager could not suspect this. Alwaysin his fears was that of the lovely enclosed country of the Yellowstonebecoming the prey to land raiders and freebooters. He warded offintruders from that garden like the dragon of antique fable.