CHAPTER XVIII.
THE COUNTING OF A COUP.
The three young men, each taking his robe, prepared to go out to standguard. Hugh placed them, Joe to the north of the camp and Bull Calf tothe south, while Jack he took up to the top of the hill, west of camp,telling him that this was the most important place of all. There was nodanger of any approach from the east, since the lake would protect thatside.
"Now," said Hugh, as he left Jack, "you want to lie here on the groundjust below the crest of the hill and watch the sky line; then if anybodycomes over the hill, you'll be dead sure to see him. I would not stayalways in one place, but move about a little, but do it as quietly asyou can. There isn't any danger of attack, but it might be such a thingas a man or two would try to slip into the camp before morning, and takesome horses. If you keep low down, you're pretty sure to see anybodybefore he sees you, and you can let him come up pretty close beforeshooting. You don't want to shoot for nothing and scare the whole camp,and then find out that you made a fool of yourself. I don't expect youwill see anything, but you might, and you want to keep a sharp lookout.Likely, these Indian boys will go to sleep before very long, but Idepend on you to keep awake, and that is the reason I put you in theplace where you're most likely to see anybody that comes into the camp.Call me in about three hours." Then Hugh went down to the camp.
Jack spread his robe on the ground and lay down on it and began to watchthe sky line. For a little while this occupied him. He looked carefullyat the different stars that showed themselves just above the crest ofthe hill, and after he had been there a little time, he found thatalthough the night was dark--for by this time the moon had set and theclouds had disappeared, he could see quite plainly. After he had beenwatching for a while, his alertness wore off and he began to think aboutthe events of the night.
It certainly had been exciting enough. It seemed very strange that heshould happen to be the one to go out of the lodge and detect the manwho was trying to take a horse, and hardly less strange that when heshot at him, he should happen to hit him. Of course, shooting quickly ata galloping figure in the dark, was a very different thing from taking acareful shot at an object during the day, and not only was it strangethat he had hit him, but that he had hit him so as to kill him, for Jacknow realised, that when the man was trying to get on his feet, he wasonly making a dying struggle. Then he thought, suppose he had onlywounded him and knocked him off his horse and that, then when he ran upto him the man had shot him with his gun or with an arrow. It might justas well have happened that way as any other.
Then Jack asked himself, ought he to have shot at him? Certainly therewas no other way to have recovered the horse, for if he had shot andmissed the Indian, he would only have ridden away the faster. He mighthave killed the horse to be sure, but that would have been only todestroy his own people's property and would have been no better than toallow the thief to get away with the animal. It made him feel rathersolemn to think what he had done; for he had never expected, that in allhis life he would kill a man. He had often read about wars and thefighting of soldiers and about people being killed, but soldiers, as hehad always heard, just shot at the mass of the enemy who wereapproaching and no man knew just what his own bullet had done. No matterhow hard one of the soldiers had tried to kill an enemy, he never couldfeel sure that it was his bullet that had killed the man he shot at. Itwas a very different thing when a man fired a single shot at another andkilled him. He wondered what the people at home would say, if they wereto know what had happened, and he wondered, too, whether it would bebest for him to tell them at home.
All the time that he was thinking, he was keeping a sharp lookout andonce or twice, as Hugh had suggested, he moved a short distance northand then again south, going carefully and slowly, crouching low andkeeping himself covered by his robe. Any one who had seen him at alittle distance would have supposed that some large animal was passingalong the hill-side. Nothing had been seen and nothing heard; a longtime had passed and he had returned to the point where he had beenstationed and lay there on his robe watching the crest of the hill.After a time he began to grow sleepy, but he shook off the feeling androse to his knees, for after what Hugh had said to him, he felt bound inhonour not to neglect his post. As he crouched there, trying hard not toyield to the drowsiness which was creeping over him, he suddenly saw abright star close to the crest of the hill disappear, and then another.His sleepiness was forgotten in an instant, he grasped his rifle tightlyand, every nerve on edge, watched to see what would happen next. For alittle while nothing was seen, then again he saw a star disappear andthen another. These which were hidden, were close to the line of thehill, and it looked as if something or somebody was passing along closebehind the hill, between the boy and the stars. Suddenly two or threebright stars, one above another, went out and did not appear again. Someone was looking over the hill. Jack raised himself a little higher onhis knees and with his finger on the trigger, so that the lock shouldmake no noise, cocked his rifle and waited. He was keyed up to the veryhighest pitch of excitement, and was prepared for anything.
Then came the climax, and from the dark object, whose shape he coulddimly discern on the hill top, arose the plaintive, melancholy howl of acoyote. The little animal, attracted by the smell of blood, had stolenup to the top of the hill and was now calling to its fellows.
The reaction from the excitement of the moment before was extreme, andJack felt disgusted. He knew enough to feel sure that this animal wouldnot be where it was, if there were any enemies immediately about thecamp and felt that he would be safe in lying down on his robe and goingto sleep; and now that the wolf had told what it was, he felt reallysleepy.
As he looked toward the camp, he could see, far on the eastern horizon,a faint pale line, which told him that the dawn was near. Drawing hisrobe over his head and around him, so as to conceal the light, he lit amatch and looked at his watch. It was half past three and time to callHugh.
He slipped quietly down into the camp and going into the lodge rousedHugh, and telling him the time, Hugh said to him, "You lay down now andgo to sleep and I'll call two other men and we'll watch until it getslight, which won't be long. Then, as soon as day breaks, we will startback for the main camp."
Jack was soon fast asleep, and it was two hours later when Hugh calledhim and told him to get up and eat breakfast, for the camp was ready tomove. They were soon on their way and three days later reached the maincamp on the Saint Mary's River without adventure.
Here they found that the ceremonies of the Medicine Lodge had for somereason been set forward and were already in progress. The Lodge had beenbuilt and consecrated by the Medicine Lodge women, the sacrifices hadbeen hung on it, the sacred tongues had been divided among the people inthe camp, presents had been given, old quarrels had been made up, oldfriendships strengthened. All day long in their shelter, the men, whoseduty it was to keep the rain away, were dancing and whistling; and othersacred dances were going on in various parts of the camp.
After the returning party had pitched their lodges, Hugh and Jackstarted out to see what they could of the ceremonies that yet remained.Pushing their way through the crowd of people, who stood and sat aboutthe Medicine Lodge, they reached the inner circle about which the menwere seated.
Hugh whispered to Jack, "I am glad you are going to see this anyhow.These young men, that get up and make speeches, are counting theircoups. They are telling the brave things that they have done in warsduring the last year and you will notice whenever one tells of some verybrave thing that he has done, the men sitting at the drums pound onthem. There is Redshirt! I'll interpret to you what he says when he getsthrough." A young Indian rose to his feet, stepped out into the openspace, spoke earnestly for three or four minutes, making many signs, andwhen he finished and sat down, the drummers beat their drums, and then awoman, leading two horses, made her way into the open space, and threwdown the ropes.
"There," said Hugh; "Redshirt said something like this. 'In the Spring Iwent to
war; I went down the Little river; I found a camp ofAssiniboines. While I watched, a young man and a boy come riding outtoward me. I think they were going to get horses. When they got close, Ishot them both and counted coup and scalped them and took the horsesthey were riding!' You saw that woman come out and give him those twohorses. She is Antelope Woman, and her uncle was killed last year by theAssiniboines. You see when Redshirt killed these two people, he wipedaway her tears, and now she wants to show that she thanks him for givingher revenge on the Assiniboines."
Jack was intensely interested at all this and listened and watched, andalthough he could not understand what was said, he could gather from thesigns and from the applause of the listeners something of the meaning ofeach man's speech. The counting of the coups lasted some time, but atlast the intervals between the speakers grew longer. Suddenly Hugh roseto his feet and stepped forward to the open space, holding fast toJack's arm and pulling him after him, so that in a moment they stood outthere in the open, gazed at by all the people. Hugh made a short speech,pointing at Jack as he did so, and when he ended, the drummers strucktheir drums with a great noise and many of the people shouted. Hughturned and was about to lead Jack back to the place where they had beensitting, when suddenly a woman's voice was heard at the edge of thecrowd, and turning, Hugh saw John Monroe's wife leading a horse towardthem; he waited a moment, and when she entered the open space, took therope and, leading the horse, retired with Jack without the circle.
It had all happened so suddenly, that Jack did not know what to make ofit, and when Hugh stopped and looked down at him with an amused twinklein his eye, Jack said, "What in the world does this all mean, Hugh?"
"Why," said the old man, smiling, "I thought this was a pretty good timefor you to count your first coup, and as I knew that you could not do itfor yourself, because you can't talk Piegan, I had to do it for you,and John Monroe's wife, she came and gave you a horse. Pretty decentlooking horse, too, it is," he said walking around the animal, "lookslike it might run--"
"But say, Hugh, you don't mean to say that you told them about thatIndian trying to steal our horse and said that I had killed him."
"That's what," said Hugh.
"Well, but, Hugh, that sounds like boasting, even if I didn't know whatyou were going to do. Nobody knows that I didn't know about it, exceptyou."
"Pooh," said Hugh, "that's nothing; that's all right. This is the onetime in the year when a man is expected to talk about the good thingsthat he has done. All the rest of the time he has got to keep quietabout it, and only allow others to talk if they want to; but at theMedicine Lodge a man himself can tell what he has done.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they gave you a name now; maybe to-day.Likely enough some old man--likely some one of my friends will come overbefore the day is through and want to adopt you and give you a name.How'd you like that?"
"Oh," said Jack, "I'd like that. That would make me feel at home."
"Well," said Hugh, "it won't do you any harm, Come on, it is gettingtowards sun down, let us go to the lodge."