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Frontispiece.

■^._-

w^^

RED CLOUD,

THE SOLITARY SIOUX.

51 gtori) of the (Great jpvaivic.

LIEUT.-COLONEL BUTLER, C.B.

AUTHOR OF "THE GREAT LONE LAND," "THE WILD NORTH LAND,"

ETC., ETC.

NEW AXD CHEAPER EDITION.

" \AVc a wind, that shrills
All night in a waste land, where no one coinej.
Or hath come, since the making of the world."

Tennyton,

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON

Limited
|»t. 5it"slrtn'8 Jjouse

Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.G.
i8S8
[All ri^/iis n'sa-veJ']

Frontispiece.

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME,

With numerous Illustrations, is. td. \ gilt edges, 3*. td. each.
THE TWO SUPERCARGOES. By W. H. G. Kingston.
DICK CHEVELEY. By W. H. G. Kingston.
THE HEIR OF KILFINNAN. By W. H. G. King-
ston.
OFF TO THE WILDS. By G. Manvii.le Fenn.
THE SILVER CANON. By G. Manville Fenn.
UNDER THE METEOR FLAG. By Harry Colling-

WOOI).

JACK ARCHER: A Tale of the Crimea. ByG.A. Henty.
THE MUTINY ON BOARD THE SHIP

" LEANDER." By B. Helumann.
WITH AXE AND RIFLE ON THE WESTERN

PKAIUIKS. By W. H. G. Kingstj).m.
RED CLOUD, THE SOLITARY SIOUX: A Tale of

the Great Prairie. By Col. Sir William Butlee, K.C.B.
THE CRUISE OF THE AURORA. By Harrv

COLLINGWOOD.

CHARMOUTH GRANGE: A Tale of the Seventeenth

Century. By J. Percy Groves.
SNOWSHOES AND CANOES. By W. H.G. Kingston.
THE SON OF THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE.

By Louis ROUSSRLET.

To be/oliffivtd by othert.

LONDON :
SAMPSON LOW. MARSTON, SEARLE,& RIVINGTON,

Limited,

St. Dunstan's Housk,
Fettfr Lane. Fleet Strhet, E.C

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PACB

Our home in Glencar— A glimpse at the outside world— My
parents — My schoolmasters— Donogh — Cooma-sa-hnrn
—The eagle's nest—" The eagle is coming back to the
nest" — Alone in the world— I start for the Great Prairie
— Good-bye to Glencar i

CHAPTER II.

Sunset in the wilds— Our first camp— Outlooks— The soli-
tary Sioux— Losses— The Sioux again— A new departure
—The cache at the Souri— The story of Red Cloud—
The red man's offer 28

CHAPTER III.

To the West— Wapiti in sight— A stalk— A grand run—
The sand-hills in sight— The finish— A noble beast— A
gorgeous sunset— A vast landscape— The Hills of Life
and Death .^

CHAPTER IV.

We reach the hills of the Wolverine— Somethin<T moves far
out upon the plains— The wounded Cree— His story—

Contents.

FAGB

Adventure with a grizzly bear— Left alone— A long crawl
for life— Hunger, thirst, and travail— A grizzly again —
" The Great Spirit, like an engle, looks down upon the
prairie" — Saved— Watched 67

CHAPTER V.

An Assincboinc camp — The trader I.IcDermott— The chief
*' Wolverine" — Fire-water and finesse — The Assineboine
war-party — A chance of a Crce scalp — The trader hears
a well-kaown name— A big bid for murder, two hundred
skins ! 82

CHAPTER VI.

The Sioux forecasts our course — On the watch — Directions
— We separate — Red Cloud is seen far out on the plains
— Rival tactics— Scent versus sight — A captured scout —
The edge of the hills again — The signal fire

CHAPTER VII.

The watched one halts— A light to the north-east — The
Stonies find their mistake — Distant thunder — A light in
the dark -The fire wind — Sauve qui pent — How the fire
was lighted — We ride across the fire field — Enemies in
sight — A dilemma — Between friend and foe — The scout
throws in his lot with us— We ride to the rescue

III

CHAPTER VIII.

The fight — The Sioux and the swamp — The trader's
triumph— Red Cloud fights on foot — The trader finds he
has other foes to reckon with — The Assineboine draws a
straight arrow-r-The trader's flight— Our losses and gains
— Winter supplies— Our party is completed — "All's well
that ends well."

129

Contents.

AGS

CHAPTER IX.

III

129

TAGB

\Vc again go West — Hiding the trail— Red and white for
once in harmony — Peace and plenty — An autumn holiday
— We select a winter's camp — The Forks— Hut-building
— Our food supply — The autumn hunt — The Great
Prairie— Home thoughts — Indian instincts — The Lake of
the Winds— Buffalo— Good meat — A long stalk — The
monarch of the waste — A stampede — Wolves — The red
man's tobacco 144

CHAPTER X.

Winter— Wolves— A night's trapping — A retreat — In the
teeth of the north wind — The carcajou — A miss and a
hit — News of Indians —Danger ahead — A friendly storm
— The hut again

177

CHAPTER XI.

Winter comfort— Snowshoe-making — Snow and storm — The
moose woods— A night camp — Memories — A midnight
visitor— Maskeypeton the Iroquois — Danger — A moose
hunt — Indian stalking — The red man's happy hunting-
grounds— Plans — Raft-building

CHAPTER XII.

The winter draws to an end— A keen look-out — Signs — The
break-up of the rivers — An ice block — The evening ap-
proaches — A noiseless arrow — The ice still fast — The ice
floats — The war-cry of assault— A parley — We embark on
the rafts — The hut in flames — On shore again — Fi-cedom
— Winter gone

CHAPTER XIII.

Horses wanted — New plans — We start south — The Prairie
in Spring — No buffalo insight — Starvation — A last resort
— Buffalo at last— We fall in with Blood Indians — The
camp — Tashota — A trade— Rumours of war — W^e depart
from the Blood camp

191

212

228

Contents.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the trail— A pursuit — The mark is overshot— A night
march — Morning — The curtain rises — We are prisoners —
Blackfect— Pcnoquam— The Far-Off Dawn — His history
— His medicine robe — Interrogations — New arrivals— The
trader again

CHAPTER XV.

The council of the nation — The wager of battle — Signs of
friendship — A private interview — A fair field and no
favour — The trader on the scene — I leave the camp — I
camp alone — The rock on the hill — The skulking figure —
Preparations for the start — The race for life — The snake
in the grass — A desperate strait — The odds are made

PAG a

247

even — Hand to hand-

-A last chance— Out of range

260

CHAPTER XVI.

Revulsion — Home again — New plans — We depart for the
mountains — The Hand hills— The great range — Home
memories — A murderous volley — Donogh sees "the
land beyond the grave'' — Vain regrets — We enter the
mountains— The island — A lonely grave— The Indian's
home

279

CHAPTER XVII.

Signs of trouble — Reconnoitring — Precautions — We retire
into the island — Daylight — The enemy shows himself — A
search — He prepares to attack the island — A midnight
storm — The raft — " Aim low, and fire fast" — In the whirl of
waters— On the lip of the fall— The end of crime . . 297

CHAPTER XVIII.

The beginning of the end — Deeper into the mountains —
The western slope — On the edge of the snow — The golden
valley — It is all mine— Night thoughts — Last words — I
see him no more 315

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

"lORHEAR, I CRIED, STRIKING UP THE LEVELLED liARRIL

Froutis/>icte
The solitary Sioux . 33

The Sioux was now almost at the flank of the

wapiti (^^

WAirHINO AN opportunity, THE TRADER ADDRESSED THE

leader of the BAND g^

Firing the prairie grass 120

\\K liOTII SPRANG TO OUR FEET, AND RAN WITH ALL SPEED

towards the animals ,68

Strange footprints 2,

I STRUCK the iron BUTT HEAVILY DOWN UPON THE

trader's HEAD ... «-_
277

RED CLOUD,

THE SOLITARY SIOUX,

CHAPTER I.

Our home in Glencar — A glimpse at the outside world — My
parents — My schoolmasters — Donogh — Cooma-sa-harn — The
eagle's nest — " The eagle is coming back to the nest " — Alone
in the world — I start for the Great Prairie — Good-bye to
Glencar.

Far back as I can remember anything I can remember our
cottage in Glencar. It was a small thatched house, with
plenty of June roses and white jessamine trailing over two
sides of it, through wooden trellis-work. The ground rose
steeply behind the house, until the trees that covered it gave
place to scattered clumps of holly bushes, which finally
merged into open mountain, heather-covered, and sprinkled
here and there with dwarf furze bushes. In front of the
cottage the little lawn sloped downwards to a stream, the

Red Cloud.

bed of which was strewn with great boulders of rock, which
were bare and dry in summer, but in winter scarcely showed
over the surface. Between the big rocks there were poo^s
and shallows, in which trout rose briskly at the midges in
the early summer evenings. Whenever I think of that cot-
tage home now, it seems to me to be always sunshine there.
There must have been dark days, and wet ones, too, but I
can't call them to mind. There was a large flat rock in the
middle of the lawn half way down to the stream ; one end
of this rock was imbedded in the earth, the other leant out
from the ground, giving shelter underneath. The only dark
thing I can remember about the whole place was that
hollow under the big stone. I used to sit in there on the
very hot days, looking out across the stream upon the one
road that led from the outer world into Glcncar. When the
weather was not too warm I lay on the top of the rock,
looking at the same view. The road came into the glen
ever a hill that was four miles distant from our cottage ; you
could see the white streak crossing the crest of ridge, flanked
on each side by the dark heather mountain. You caught
sight of the road again as it came down the hillside, and
here and there at turns, as it wound along the valley to the
old five-arched bridge over the Carragh river, and then
disappeared around the hill on which our cottage stood.
When in the summer days I used to lie on the rock, or
beneath its shadows, I was always thinking of the country

A glimpse at the outside ivorld.

that lay beyond the boundary ridge, the land to v.hich the
white road led when it dipped down behind the hill : that
was the outside world to me, the glen was the inside one.
As I grew older I came to know more of the outside world ;
I was able to climb higher up the steep hill behind the
house, to get beyond the holly bushes out into the heather,
and at last one day I reached the mountain-top itself. That
was a great event in my life. It took me a long while to get
up ; the last bit was very steep ; I had to sit down often
amid the rocks and heather for want of breath. At last I
gained the summit, and sank down quite exhausted on an
old weather-beaten flat rock ; I was just ten years old that
day. Thirty years have gone by since then. I have climbed
many a lofty mountain, lain down for weeks alone in forests
and on prairies, but never have I felt so proudly conscious
of success as 1 did that day. It was my first view of the
outside world. How vast it seemed to me. The glen, my
world, lay below, winding away amid the hills. Ail the
streams, all the lakes, were unfolded to my sight, and out
beyond the boundary ridge was the great open country.
That was on one side — the glen side ; but as I turned round
to look beyond the mountain I had come up, I saw a sight
that filled me with utter astonishment. Below me on that
side there lay another glen, smaller than ours ; then the hill
rose again, but not to the height of the ridge on which I
stood ; and then, beyond the hill, there spread a great, vast

6 a

Red Cloud,

I; I

waste of blue water— out — out, until I could see no more,
where the sky came down upon it — the end of the world.
It was the sea !

It was getting dark when I reached home that day. I
went straight to my mother. " Mother," I said, " I have
been to the top of Coolrue, and have seen the end of the
world." I was fearfully tired; I had fallen over rocks
coming down, and was bruised and torn ; but what did it
matter ?

From that day forth the glen seemed a small place to m^,
and my mind was ever at work shaping plans for the future.
About this time I began to read well. There were many
old books in our cottage — books of travel and adventure,
books of history, and one large old atlas that had maps of
every country in the world in it, and in the corner of each
map there was a picture of the people of the land, or of
some wonderful mountain, or waterfall in it.

I read all these books in the long winter evenings j and
many a time I sat poring over the maps, moving my finger
up a long waving line of river, and travelling in fancy from
island to island in the ocean.

And now I must say something about the inmates of our
home. They were few. There was my mother, one old ser-
vant woman, and an old man who kept the garden tilled,
drove in the cow at nightfall, and took care of everything.
In truth there wasn't much to be taken care of. We were

My paretits.

very poor, and we were all the poorer because we had once
been rich — at least my mother had been. My father had died
before I could remember him. His picture hung over the
fireplace in our little parlour ; and I caii almost say that I do
remember him, because the picture is confused in my mind
with the reality, and I have a dim recollection of a man,
tall, pale, and dark haired ; but I can't add to it voice or
action ; it is only a vague kind of shadow. I was four years
old when he died.

When I was seven years old my mother began to tell me
about him. She used to sit often in the winter evenings
looking at his picture ; and as I sat at her feet, and she spoke
of the old times, and how brave and honourable he was, I
remember her voice used to tremble, and sometimes she
would stop altogether.

As I grew older I learned more about him. I heard how
we had first com.e to Glencar. It had been a favourite spot
with my father in his early days, and whenever he could get
leave of absence he used to come to it, for the lakes held
plenty of trout, and the mountains had snipe, woodcock, and
grouse upon them. After my father's marriage he had built
the cottage. My mother was as fond of the glen as he was,
and they used to come here for two or three months every
year. When they had been three years married my father's
regiment was ordered to India. My mother went too. I
was only two years old at the time. When we reached Indis

Red Cloud.

\ i •■

h !

the regiment was ordered up country, for war had broken
out. At the battle of MooLlkee my father was severely
wounded. After a while he was able to be moved down to
the coast, where my mother had remained when the regi-
ment went on service. From the coast he was invalided to
England. The voyage home was a long one. We arrived
in England in the end of summer.

The autumn and winter came. The cold told severely
upon my father's weakened state, and when spring arrived
it was evident he had but a short time to live. He wished
to see Glencar again. With much difficulty he was brought
to the cottage, to die.

In the upper end of the glen there was a wild secluded
lake called Lough Cluen. A solitary island stood under the
shadow of a tall mountain wall which overhangs the lake on
one side. The island is little more than a rock, with yew-
trees and ivy growing over it. A ruined church, half hidden
in the trees, stood on this rock. It was my father's grave.
He had wished to be buried in this lonely island, and his
wish was carried out.

The little cottage, a few acres of land, the rugged moun-
tain and the stream — now formed, with my mother's scanty
pension, all our worldly possessions. Here, then, we took
up our residence, and here I grew up, as I have already
described— the glen my world ; the mountain, lake, and
stream my daily playground*

My schoolmasters

'5B

About a mile from our cottage there lived an old pen-
sioner, who, forty years earlier, had followed Wellington
from the Tagus to Toulouse. He had served his full term
of twenty-one years, and being at the time of his discharge
a staff-sergeant, his pension was sufficient to secure him a
comfortable home for the rest of his days. He had a few
acres of land around his cottage. He was the best angler
in the glen. He was ray earliest friend and guide with rod
and gun on river, lake, and mountain side.

Sergeant MacMahon, formerly of her Majesty's 40th Regi-
ment, was, when I knew him, a man who had passed his
sixtieth year. Yet time, despite a score years of fighting and
exposure, had dealt lightly with the old soldier, who still stood
as straight as the ramrod he had so often driven home upon
the bullet of his firelock. From him I got my first lessons
in other things besides fishing and shooting. He taught
me the " extension motions," the " balance step without
gaining ground," the manual and platoon exercises, and the
sword exercise. He also showed me the method of attack
and defence with the bayonet.

He had the battles of the Peninsula by heart, and day after
day did he pour forth his descriptions of how Busaco was
won, and how Fuentes d'Onore had been decided, and how
Lord Wellington had outmarched " Sowlt," as he used to
call him, at Pampeluna, or had out-manoeuvred Marmont at
Torres Vedras. His personal adventures were told in

Red Cloud.

another style. He had stories of bivouac — " bivoocing " he
used to call it — of nights on outlying picquet, of escapes
when patrolling, and of incidents in action, that he loved to
recount to me as we sat by the river side waiting for a
cloud to cross the sun before we tried a cast of flies over some
favourite stream.

Once every quarter he set off in his mule-cart for
Killarney to draw his pension. On these occasions I used
to notice that his voice on his return sounded a little thick,
and his face generally appeared flushed. But the next day
all would be the same as usual. At the time I fancied that
the exertion of the journey had been too much for him, or
that the excitement of meeting some old comrades (there
were three other Peninsula heroes in the town) had over-
come him. He had been a great ally of my poor father's
in earlier days, and to my mother he was equally attached.
With all his stories of wars and fighting his heart was true
and gentle. He was fond of all animals, knew the notes
of every bird, and could tell the names of the trees in the
wood, or the wild flowers by the river side. He was my
outdoor schoolmaster. I learned from him many a pleasant
lesson, and many a useful one too.

But I had another schoolmaster at this time. A mile
down the glen from our cottage stood the priest's house,
next to our own cabin-cottage the most comfortable
residence in Glencar. In summer the old man was usually

My schoolmasters.

to be found in his garden, in winter in his little parlour,
always buried in some old volume from his well-stored
shelves.

His had been a curious career. His early student days
had been passed in an old French city. In middle age he
had been a missionary in the East, and at last he had taken
charge of the wild district of Glencar, and settled down to
the simple life of parish priest. Here he lived in the
memory of his past life. Nearly half a century had gone
since last his eyes had rested on the vine-clad slopes of the
Loire, but it was ever an easy task to him to fling back his
thoughts across that gulf of time, and to recall the great
names that had risen in the sunrise of the century, and
flashed such a glory over Europe that the lustre of succeed-
ing time has shone faint and dim in contrast. He had
seen the great emperor review his guards in the courtyard
of the Tuileries, and had looked upon a group of horsemen
that had in it Murat, Ney, Soult, Lannes, and Massena.
How he used to revel in such memories ! and what point
such experience lent to the theme ! He never tired talking
of the great campaigns of the Consulate and Empire. I
followed him in these reminiscences with rapt eagerness ;
the intensity of my interest gave increased ardour to his
narrative, and many a winter's night sped rapidly while the
old man, seated before his turf fire, rambled on from battle-
field to battle-field, now describing to me the wonderful

!|!

Rid Ootid.

strategy of some early campaign in Italy, now carrying my
mind into the snows of Russia, and again taking me back
into the plains of France, to that last and most brilliant effort
of warlike genius, the campaign of 1814.

At such times, the storm among the mountains would
sometimes lend its roar in fitting accompaniment to the
old man's story, and then the scene would change to my
mind's eye as I listened. The little parlour would fade
away, the firelight became a bivouac, and I saw in the
grim outside darkness of the glen figures dimly moving ; the
squadrons charged ; the cannon rumbled by ; and the pine-
tops swaying in the storm, were the bearskin caps of the
old Guard, looming above smoke and fire !

Such were my schoolmasters; such the lessons they
taught me.

The years passed quickly away. Notwithstanding my
strong love of outdoor life, I devoted a good many hours
every day to reading and study, and by the time I was
fifteen years of age I had contrived to master a curious
amount of general knowledge, particularly of history and
geography, such as does not usually fall to the lot of boys
of that age. I had a slight knowledge of Latin, was toler-
ably well acquainted with French, knew the habits, customs,
and limits oi every nation and tribe under the sun, and
could travel the globe in fancy with few errors of time, dis-
tance, and position.

Donogh.

One companion I had in all these years who has not yet
been mentioned— poor Donogh Driscoll, a wild and ragged
boy, two years my junior.

In every adventure, in every expedition among the hills,
Donogh was my attendant. He it was who used to wade
into the reeds of Meclagh river to catch gudgeon for the
baits for my night-lines in the Carragh ; he carried my bag,
later on, when my shooting time came ; he marked with
clear eye the long flight of the grouse pack down the steep
slope of Coolrue ; he brought me tidings of wild duck feed-
ing on the pools and ponds amid the hills ; he knew the
coming of the wild geese to the lonely waste that lay beyond
Lough Acoose ; he would watch the pools in the Carragh
river, and knew to a foot where the salmon lay. Faithful
companion through all my boyish sports and pastimes, he
shared too with me my dreams of enterprise, my hopes of
adventure in the big outside world. Often as we sat on
some rock high up on the heather-covered side of Seefin,
looking out over the vast waste of ocean, he would wonder
what it was like over there " beyant the beyant."

" You wont lave me here alone by myself, when you go
away, sir?" he used to say to me. " It's lonely Fd be thin
entirely."

" You'd have the fishing and shooting, Donogh," I would
reply. " You'd have the hares and the salmon all to your-
self when I was gone."

Red Cloud.

" What good would they be to me, ave you wasn't here
with them ? " he'd answer. " Sure the duck in November
above in Cluen, and the salmon in 'Coose in April, and the
grouse here on Seefin in August, would only remimber me
of the ould days when we hunted thim together."

I used at such times to promise him that whenever I
did set out on my travels I would take him with me ; and
indeed, in all my plans for the future his companionship was
always reckoned upon.

At the upper end of the glen, a narrow pass, or gap
between two mountains, led out upon a wild a::d lonely lake,
around the sides of which the mountains rose in a gloomy
precipice of rock for many hundreds of feet.

Cooma-sa-harn, the name of the tarn that lay thus en-
compassed by cliffs, was a place that in my earliest wander-
ings filled me with feelings of awe and wonder. Strange
echoes haunted it. Stones loosened from the impending
cliffs rolled down into the lake with reverberating thunder,
and their sullen splash into the dark water was heard repeated
for many seconds around the encircling walls. On one side
only was the maigin of the lake approachable on level
ground. Here loose stones and shingle, strewn together,
formed a little beach, upon which the sullen waters broke
in mimic waves j and here, too, the outflow of the lake
escaped to descend the mountain side, and finally add its
tribute to the many feeders of the Carragh river.

Cooma-sa-haru.

I was about twelve years of age when I first extended
my wanderings to this lonely spot. Later on, Donogh and
I made frequent expeditions to it. Its waters held no fish,
and its shores rose too steep and high for game. But for all
these deficiencies, Cooma-sa-harn held one wonder that suf-
ficed to atone for every other shortcoming, and to make it
a place of unceasing interest to us. It had an eagle's nest.
There, 600 feet over the lake, in a smooth piece of solid
rock, was a shelf or crevice, and in that hollow a golden
eagle had built his nest year after year. From the little
beach already mentioned we could see the birds at their
work. From the top of the encircling cliffs we could look
down and across at them too ; but the distance in either case
was great, and do v/hat we would to obtain a closer view,
we were always baffled by the precipitous nature of the
mountain. We tried the mountain immediately above the
nest, but could see nothing whatever of the smooth rock.
We worked our way along the edge of the water, by the
foot of the precipice, but were again baffled in the attempt.
Projecting rocks hid the whole side of the cliff. We were
fairly puzzled.

Many an hour we spent looking up from the shore at the
coveted shelf, which it seemed we were never likely to learn
more about. The eagles seemed to know our thoughts, for
they frequently soared and screamed high above our heads,
as though they rejoiced in our discomfiture. It was not

Red Cloud.

alone in the spring and summer that wc were reminded of
our enemies thus perched on their inaccessible fortress. In
the last hour of daylight of winter evenings a solitary speck
over the valley would often be seen sailing downwards
through space. It was the golden eagle going home to his
ledge at Cooma-sa-harn.

It would be idle to deny that we both felt keenly our
inability to get to this eagle's nest. During four years we had
looked across the dark waters, had watched the old birds
flying in and out, had seen the young ones sitting on the
ledge, and had listened to their screams as their mother
came down to them with a prey fiom the surrounding
hills. There was in our cottage an old telescope that had
belonged to my father in his early days. This I brought
out one day, and looking through it, with elbows resting
upon knees, and glass directed upon the shelf of rock, I
could discern plainly enough the inmates of the rough nest;
but all this only made more tantalizing our helplessness to
scale the rock, or to descend from above to the projecting
ledge. The day on which I brought out the telescope to
make a closer survey of the spot, was bright with sunshine.
As the hours grew later the sun moving towards the west,
cast its light full upon the face of the nest, which had
before been in shadow. The inequalities of the surface,
and the formation of the cliffs around the large flat rock,
became much more apparent than they had ever been

The cackle's iicst.

before to me. Among other things, I observed that
the ledge in which the nest was made was continued
in a shallowed state along the face of the cliff until it
touched the end at one side. I noticed also that on the
top of the smooth-faced rock there was a ridge, or kind of
natural parapet, and that this ridge was connected with a
deep perpendicular cleft, or chimney, which opened at
top upon the accessible part of the mountain. Scanning
with the utmost attentiveness all these places, I began to
see what I thought might prove a practicable line of
approach to the much-desired nest. That it was possible
to reach the top of the smooth-faced rock by means of the
chimney shaft appeared tolerably clear, but this top ridge
or parapet already mentioned, was fully forty feet above the
ledge on which the nest stood.

By the time I had fully investigated all these details, so
far as they could be examined by means of the telescope,
the face of the cliff had become again involved in shadow,
and it was time to turn our faces homewards for the even-
ing ; but enough had been discovered to give us food for
conversation that night, and to raise high hopes that our
efforts to reach the nest might yet prove successful.

We started early next morning for the top of the moun-
tain ridge which looked down upon Cooma-sa-harn. On
the previous evening I had taken the precaution of fixing
the position of the top of the chl^iney, by getting it in line

'^^JBBBBESSSISSS

Red Cloud.

i !

■V'i^o

with two large boulders — one on the beach by the lake, the
other some distance back from the shore. Arrived at the
upper edge of the encircling basin I had no difficulty in
bringing the two boulders, now at the further side from us,
in line with each other, and then at the edge of the rocky
rim we found a break in the rock, as though water in time
of heavy rain had flowed down through it to the lake.

We entered this break, and descending cautiously soon
found ourselves on the top of the flat rock. Below us lay
the black pool of Cooma-sa-harn ; on each side the flat
parapet ended in steep mountain side ; above us was the
mountain top, accessible only by the hollow shaft through**"
which we had descended. So far all had gone as the survey
through the telescope had led us to hope — we had reached
the top of the smoothed-faced rock ; but the nest lay thirty
or forty feet below us, still, apparently beyond our reach.
We sat down on the top of the rock, reluctant to quit a spot
so near to the long-coveted prize. The rock on which we
rested was flanked on one side by a broken slant of mountain,
down which a descent seemed possible if there was any-
thing at hand to hold fast by; it was, however, bare of
vegetation. It occurred to me now that a descent could be
made down this slant by means of a rope, held by a second
person standing on the ridge where we stood. The ledge
which held the nest was situated so perpendicularly under-
neath as to be hidden altogether from our standpoint ; but

' I \

The eagles nest.

:ii

if my survey through the telescope had been correct, a per-
son descending the slant should be able to reach that end
of the ledge which I had seen in tlie sunlight extending on one
side to the extremity of the rock. All that was required to
put this theory to the test of practice was a strong rope
some fifty feet long, which, held by one at the top, would
act as a support to one of us while going down the slanting
rock, and would afterwards afford help for a , ide move-
ment along the narrow ledge to the nest itself. As I sat
thinking out this plan one of the birds came soaring on
moveless pinion from the mountain downwards towards the
uiest. He s."w us long before he reached the ledge, and his
loud and angry screams rang around the steep rock-walls,
making strange echoes over the gloomy water.

We went home that evcxiing full of the thought that we
had at last discovered a means of getting to the eagle's
nest. It would take a few days to obtain a rope of the length
and strength necessary for the undertaking, and then a final
effort would be made to solve the long-considered problem.
It took me some days to procure the rope. I had consulted
Sergeant MacMahon vaguely on the subject, but finding that
he was opposed to it as being too dangerous, I had fallen back
upon my own resources and those of Donogh. At length all
preparation.! were completed ; we had tested the rope by
fastening one end of it to the fork of a tree and swinging
out on the other end ; we had also got an iron stake to fix

Red Cloud.

in a crevice of the rock by which to attach the rope ; with
these and a few other necessary articles we set out early
one morning for Cooma-sa-harn. We struck across the
shoulders of Meelagh mountain, dipped into Glentahassig,
and breasting up the steep side of Secfin came out on the
edge of the cliff which looked down upon the dark lake.
Descending the chimney, we were soon in our old position
on the parapet rim of the large flat rock. We now set to
work to fix the iron stake firmly between two detached rocks
we fastened the rope securely to the stake, letting the
loose end fall down the mountain by the edge of the per-
pendicular cliff. Now came the anxious moment ; holding
on by the rope, I began to descend the steep slanting face
of the mountain. During the first twelve feet of the descent
the work was easy enough. I was in sight of Donogh, whom
I had directed to remain at the stake to see that all was
right there. After a bit the hill side became steeper, a piece;
of smooth rock occurred, and then there was a drop of
about six feet, that hid Donogh from my view. AVhen I
had passed this drop the slant became again easier, and
without much difiiculty I gained the end of the ledge or
groove upon which, but still distant from me, stood the nest.
The real difficulty of the undertaking was now before me.
I had to move along the ledge, a narrow shelf on the
face of a perpendicular rock many hundred feet above
the lake. It was now Donogh's work to unfasten the

iill

The eaglis nest.

rope from the iron stake, and to move along the top, keeping
pace with my progress on the ledge beneath. F\er3^-
thing depended upon his steadiness ; but I had full /aith in
his strength and skill. Up to this time all had been per-
fectly quiet at the nest ; there was no sign of the old bird,
nor could we hear the young ones screaming. I began
very cautiously to move along the narrow ledge ; step
by step I went along As I proceeded forward the ledge
became wider, and I found sufficient room for both my
feet to stand together upon it. I could not yet see the
nest, as the rock curved out towards its centra cutting off
the view beyond. Arrived at the bend of the rock, I leant
round the projection and peered anxiously forward. There,
on the bare shelf of the ledge, lay the eagle's nest ; two
young eaglets sat dozing on the rock ; around lay fragments
of bones, tufts of far torn from rabbits, feathers, and the
dry stems of heather.

Another step and I was round the bend and at the nest.
At this spot the shelf deepened considerably into the rock,
leaving space sufficient to give standing-room without need
of assistance. Intent only upon securing the young birds, I
let go my hold of the rope, and seized the nearest eaglet
before he was fully awake ; the second one, hearing his
companion scream, retreated further into the hole. Then it
was that, looking outward, I saw the rope hanging, dangling
loosely in mid-air. It was beyond my reach. For a moment

C 2

! II

.1.

Red Cloud.

the fearful position in which I so suddenly found myself
caused me to sink upon the shelf. All the reality of my
situation rushed full upon my mind. The rope hung fully five
or six feet out over the abyss, for the rock above the ledge was
formed like the roof of a cavern, projecting outward between
me and Donogh's standpoint, and when I had let go my
hold of the line it had swung out to its level fall. That I
could get back over the space I had come, and ascend again
to the parapet where Donogh stood, I knew to be impos-
sible. To reach the line from the nest seemed quite hopeless.
In Donogh lay my sole chance of relief. If by any means he
could convey the rope to me, all would be well. If not,
there seemed nothing save the awful alternative of death
by starvation or the precipice before me. I shouted to
Donogh what had happened. I told him that I could not
reach the rope by fully three feet — that ray sole chance of
escape lay in his being able to follow my line of descent and
bring the rope to me, leaving it fixed at the other end, in
some part of the parapet above which would allow the line
to pass from the nest to the end of the ledge.

The minutes now passed in terrible suspense. Donogh
shouted to me that he was looking for a secure place
to fasten the upper end of the rope to. I remained seated
in the hollow, scarcely daring to think what the next few
minutes might bring forth. Suddenly Donogh shouted to
me, " The eagle is coming back to the nest." The news

" The eagle is coming hack to the nest.

roused me from my stupor — the eagle was coming back ! I
crouched into the inmost recesses of the hollow. I still
held one of the young birds in the bag round my waist,
the other bird kept on the ledge at the further side from
that by which I had approached. I had not much fear as
to what the bird could do ; I had a knife in my belt, and
while an arm was free I knew I was more than a match foi
any bird. From the spot where I sat I could see out over
the lake into the blue and golden sunshine.

All at once a large dark object crossed the line of light
— soon recrossing it again as another wheel brought the
huge bird nearer to its nest. Loud screams were now
audible as the eagle became aware of something being
wrong in the nest. Then there was the fierce beating of
wings close outside the aperture, and the bird was perched
on the edge of the rock, fiercely defiant, and making the
echoes wild with her tumult. But amid all these surround-
ings I was only conscious of one fact. The eagle had
struck the rope as it hung down in front of the opening; it
had caught in the large outstretched pinion, and it was
again within my reach, passing under the flapping wing of
the bird as she stood clasping the rock ledge in her talons.
There was not a moment to be lost ; I thrust the young
eagle at full arm's length towards the mother; she fluttered
forward as I did so — the rope Avas again within my grasp.
In an instant the eagle had relaxed her hold upon the rock,

Red Cloud.

J'-.

and clutching her young in her talons she went soaring
downward to a lower ledge amid the cliffs. I thought
I could never get away flist enough now. A complete
change had come over my mind. I had learnt a lesson never
to be forgotten; and my life, forfeited in a vain and fool-
hardy attempt to gain the eagle's nest at Cooma-sa-harn,
was given back to me by the wild bird whose young I had
come to rob from her. I now called out to Donogh that
all was again right, and that he was to reverse his former
practice to enable me to rejoin him. I passed safely back
along the ledge, reascended the slant, and gained once more
the parapet.

" Come, Donogh," I said when I waf? again with my
companion, " let us leave this spot. Whatever happens, we
will never again rob the nest or kill the young of birds or
beasts. There is sport enough in the world for us without
that."

On the edge of the mountain side we paused for a
moment to look down upon Cooma-sa-harn, and the scene
that lay beyond it. One eagle was screaming loudly from
the nest, the other was sweeping down on outspread pinion
from the purple wastes of Seefin.

I have dwelt long upon this episode in my early career,
not so much from its importance, but because it did mo''e
to bring home to my mind certain truths that are often
realized later on in life than anything that had happened

Alone in the world.

to me up to my sixteenth year. I had soon to learn another,
and a more bitter lesson.

The summer passed away ; autumn came ; the smell of
dying leaves was in the woods of Carragh, the wind sighed
amid the sedgy grass of Lough Clucn, the pine-trees by
the priest's house moaned in the breeze. Things looked sad
in the glen, but they wore even a sadder aspect in our little
cottage. !My mother was leaving me for ever.

One evening in October I was sitting with her in our little
parlour ; the flush was bright upon her cheek, her wasted
hand was resting upon mine ; she spoke to me in a low
voice.

" You will soon be alone in the world," she said. " My life
has only a little while to run. It is better that I should go. I
could have been of litde use to you in life, and I might have
ht'ld you back in the world. In any case we must have parted
soon, for your days could not have been spent here in this
distant glen. The mountains and the lakes have been
good friends to you, but it is time for you to leave them,
and go forth to take your place in the work of the world.
I should have wished you in your father's profession, but
that could not be \ we are too poor for that. Of one thing
I am satisfied, no matter what the future may have in store
for you, I feel you will be true to your father's name and to my
memory. When I am gone you will have the world all be-
fore you to choose from. Bear well your part in life whatever

Red Cloud.

it may be. Never be ashamed of your God, or of your
country. And when the day is over and you kneel down in
prayer, do not forget the two graves that lie far away in the
little island of Lough Cluen."

About a week alter this she passed quietly away, her
hand clasped in min :, its pressure still speaking her affection
long after the power of utterance had ceased.

\Vhcn all was over I left the chamber of death, and moved
out mechanically into the open air. Night had fallen ; the
moon was high over the glen. I walked onward, scarcely
knowing whither I was going. I saw all things around as
though in a dream. I passed through the wood behind the
cottage ; the moonlight shone bright upon the silver stems
of the birch-trees ; streaks of vapour lay in the hollows
where the trees ended. I saw all these things, and yet my
brain seemed unable to move.

I turned back from the end of the wood, passed the
garden gate, and entered the little plot of ground in which
my mother had been wont to tend flowers. It was now
wild and desolate ; grass grew on the walks ; weeds and dead
leaves lay around ; only a few chrysanthemums were still in
blossom — she had planted them in the past summer, and now
their short life had lasted longer than her own — their pale
flowers in the moonlight gave forth a sweet fragrance on the
night air.

Death had chilled my heart ; my eyes had been dry ; my

/ start for the Great Prairie.

your
hvn in

I in the

brain seemed to have stopped its working ; but here the
scent of the flowers she had planted seemed all at once to
touch some secret sympathy, and bursting into a flood of
grief I bowed my head to the cold damp earth, and prayed
long and earnestly to God.

A footstep on the walk roused me. The old priest had
sought me out. " Weep not, my poor boy," he said, as he
took my arm in his own and led me to the cottage. " You
pray for your mother on earth. She is praying for you in
heaven."

My boyhood was over. I was alone in the world. The
winter deepened and passed, the spring dawned, and with
its returning freshness and sense of life my old dreams of
distant travel came again upon me. I determined to seek
my fortune abroad, to go forth into the waste wilds of the
earth. Glencar had but trained my mind and body to
further flights. I must go forth to the struggle. It did not
take long to arrange matters for this great change. My
worldly possessions were easily realized; the cottage and
little farm soon found a purchaser; the few mementoes of
my fathei's life, the keepsakes which my mother had left me,
were put carefully away in charge of the old priest ; and I
found myself the possessor of a few hundred pounds in
money, a gun, my father's sword, a small case containing

Red Cloud.

miniature portraits of my parents — with which to face the
new life that lay before me. What was that life?

It was to be a life of wandering in the great wilderness of
Western America. I had formed from books a pretty
accurate idea of the great divisions of the Northern Con-
tinent of America which yet remained in the domain of
uniamcd nature. I knew that far beyond the last settler's
hut there lay a vast region of meadow, which finally gave
place to a still vaster realm of forest, which in time yielded
dominion to a wild waste of rock and water, until the verge
of the Polar Sea. I knew too that these great divisions held
roving and scattered tribes of Indians, sometimes at war
with each other, always engaged in the pursuit of the wild
beasts and birds whose homes were in those untamed
wastes. More I did not need to know. I had trust, firm
trust, in this great Nature, her lonely hill-tops, her wild
lakes. The sigh of winds across November moors had had
for me no sense of dreariness, no kinship with sorrow.
Why should I dread to meet this world, whose aspects I
loved so well, in the still wilder and grander scenes of an
empire where civilized man was a total stranger?

Nor was I to be altogether alone in my travels. Donogh
was to continue in his old sphere of companion and
attendant. Together we had roamed the hill sides of Glencar;
together we would tread the vast prairies, pine forests, and
mountains of the American wilderness.

Good-bye to Gkncar,

;e the

The day of our clcparture came.

It was a bright morning in early summer. We put our
small baggage on Sergeant MacMahon's mule-cart, said
good-bye to all our friends, and set out upon our road.
The old sergeant insisted upon accompanying me as far as
Killarney, from which place the train would take us to Cork,
where the steamer for New York called. As we approached
the priest's house, the old man stood at his gate waiting for
us. His voice trembled as he said good-bye, and gave us
his blessing. " God is everywhere, my boy," he said, as he
wrung my hand. " Remember Him, and He will not forget
you."

At the crest of the hill where the road left the valley, we
stopped a moment to take a last look at the old glen. It
lay deep in sunshine, every peak clear and cloudless in the
summer heaven.

Red Cloud.

CHAPTER II.

Sunset in the wilds— Our first camp— Outlooks — The solitary
Sioux — Losses — The Sioux again — A new departure — The
cache at the Souri — The story of Red Cloud — I'he red man's
offer.

A YEAR passed away.

It was summer again — summer hurrying towards autumn
— and the day drawing near the evening.

The scene had changed.

Far away into the west stretched a vast green plain. No
hills rose on either side; sky and earth met at the horizon in
a line almost as level as though land had been water. Upon
one side some scattered clumps of aspens and poplars were
visible ; save these nothing broke the even surface of the
immense circle to the farthest verge of vision.

I stood with Donogh in the centre of this great circle,
realizing for the first time the grandeur of space of land. We
had travelled all day, and now the evening found us far
advanced upon our way into the great plains. It was our
first day's real journey, Early on that morning we had left
behind us the last sign of civilized settlement, and now, as

Our first camp.

evening was approaching, it was time to make our first camp
in the silent wilds. The trail which we followed towards the
west approached some of those aspen thickets already
mentioned. The ground, which at a little distance appeared
to be a uniform level, was in reality broken into gentle un-
dulations, and as we gained the summit of a slight ascent
we saw that a small sheet of blue water lay between the
thickets, offering on its margin a good camping-place for
the night.

The sun had now touched the western edge of the prairie ;
for a moment the straight line of the distant horizon seemed
to hold the great ball of crimson fire poised upon its rim ;
then the black line was drawn across the flaming disc ; and
then, as though melting into the earth, the last fragment of
fire disappeared from sight, leaving the great plain to sink
into a blue grey twilight, rapidly darkening into night.

We stood on the ridge watching this glorious going down
of day until the last spark of sun had vanished beneath the
horizon ; then we turned our horses* heads towards the
lake, still shining bright in the after-glow, and made our
first camp in the wilds. It was easy work. We unloaded
the pack-horse, unsaddled the riding-horses, hobbled the
fore-legs, and turned them adrift into the sedgy grass that
bordered the lakelet. Donogh had a fire soon going from
the aspen branches, the lake gave water for the kettle, and
ere darkness had wholly wrapt the scene we were seated

Red Cloud.

Im1!

i; 1 1.!

t 'Li

!;^

ill
ill

before the fire, whce light, circled by the mighty solitude,
grew ever brighter in the deepening gloom.

While here we sit before our first camp fire, it will be
well that I should say something about our plans and pro-
spects for the future.

Without adventure of any kind, and with only those
difficulties to overcome that lie in all undertakings of life
where real efiort has to be made, we had reached the
confines of civilization ; a kind of frontier settlement, half
wigwam half village, had sprung up to meet the wants of
those traders in furs and peltries who form the connect-
ing link between the red man of the wilds and his white
brothers in civilization. This settlement marked, as it were,
the limits of the two regions— on one side of it lay judge
and jury, sheriff, policemen, court-house, and fenced
divisions j on the other, the wild justice of revenge held em-
pire, and the earth was all man's heritage.

I had only delayed long enough in this frontier settlement
to procure the necessary means of travel in the wilds. I
had purchased four good ponies, two for saddle use and
two to act as pack animals for our baggage — arms we
already possessed — ammunition, blankets, knives, a couple
of copper kettles, a supply of tea, sugar, salt, pepper, flour,
and matches, a few awls, and axes. These I had obtained
at one of the Indian trading stores, and, keeping all our
plans as much as possible to ourselves, we had on this

Outlooks,

solitude,

will be
and pro-

ly those
s of life
hed the
ent, half
wrants of
connect-
,is white
i it were,
ly judge
I fenced
held em-

}ttlement
ft'ilds. I
use and
arms we
a couple
)er, flour,
obtained
g all our
on this

very morning set our faces for the solitude, intent upon
holding on steadily into the west during the months of
summer that yet remained. By winter time I counted upon
having reached the vicinity of those g.eat herds of buffaloes
which kept far out from the range of man, in the most re-
mote recesses of the wilderness, and there we would build a
winter hut in some sheltered valley, or dwell with any
Indian tribe whose chief would bid us a welcome to his
lodges.

Of the country that lay before us, or of the people who
roved over it, I knew only what I had pictured from books
in the old glen at home, or from the chance acquaintances
I had made during our stay in the frontier settlement ; but
when one has a simple plan of life to follow, it usually
matters little whether the knowledge of a new land which
can be derived from books or men has been obtained or
not ; time is the truest teacher, and we had time before us
ard to spare.

We ate our supper that night with but few words spoken.
The scene was too strange — the outlook too mysterious, to
allov/ thoughts to find spoken expression.

Had I been asked that nigh^ by Donogh to define for
him the precise objects I had in view in thus going out
into the wilds, I do not think that I could have given a
tangible reason I did not go as a gold-seeker, or a trapper
of furs, or a hunter of wild animals. We would follow the

::iii

Red Cloud,

chase, trap the wild animals of the streams or marshes, look
for gold too ; but it was not to do all or any of these things
that I had left civilization behind me. This great untamed
wilderness, this home of distance and solitude, this vast
unbroken dominion of nature — where no fence crossed the
surface of the earth, where plough had neve:- turned, where
lakes lay lapped amid shores tenanted only by the moose
and the rein-deer — all this endless realm of prairie, forest,
rock, and rapid, which yet remains the grandest domain of
savage nature in the world, had had for me a charm, not the
less seductive because it could not then find expression in
words, or give explanation for its fancy. Enough that we
went forth with no sinister object in view against man or
beast, tree or plain ; we went not to annex, to conquer, nor to
destroy ; we went to roam and rove the world, and to pitch
our camps wheresoever the evening sun might find us.

Before turning in for the night I lefL che light of the fire,
and wandered out into the surrounding darkness. It was
A wonderful sight. The prairie lay wrapt in darkness, but
above, in the sky, countless stars looked down upon the
vast plain ; far away to the south, the red glow of a distant
fire was visible ; our own camp fire flamed and flickered,
sheding a circle of light around it, and lighting up the
nearer half of the lakelet and the aspen clumps on the
shore. At times there passed over the vast plain the low
sound of wind among grasses — a sound that seemed to bring

is, look
2 things
ntamed
his vast
>sed the
1, where
I moose
u forest,
)main of
, not the
ssion in
that we
man or
ir, nor to
to pitch
us.

"the fire,
It was
ness, but
upon the
' a distant
flickered,
g up the
)S on the
n the low
d to bring

^ ■

iii

•»
-^

The solitary Sioux

Page 33

llie solitary Sioux.

to the ear a sense of immense distance and of great loneli-
ness. For a moment I felt oppressed by this vague lonely
waste ; but I thought of the old priest's words, and looking
up again from the dark earth to the starlit heavens, I saw
all the old stars shining that I used to know so well in the
far-away glen at home. Then I knelt down on the prairie,
and prayed for help and guidance in the life that lay before
me.

Daylight had broken some time when I awoke, and rose
from my blanket bed for a survey of the morning. How
vast seemed the plain ! Far away it spread on all sides ; all
its loneliness had vanished; it lay before me fresh, fair,
and dew-sparkled— our trail leading off over distant ridges,
until it lay like a faint thread vanishing into the western
space.

As my eye followed this western path, I noticed a
mounted figure moving along it about a mile distant,
approaching our camping-place at an easy pace. I called to
Donogh to get the fire going and make ready our break-
fast, and we had barely got the kettle on the flames when
the stranger had reached our camp.

He rode right up to the spot where we stood, alighted
from his horse, and throwing the reins loose on the animal's
neck, came forward to meet me. I advanced towards him
and held out my hand in welcome. A large shaggy hound,
half deer half wolf-dog, followed closely at his heels. We

Page 33

Red Cloud.

: «

j
'i'i

1 ;
\
.1

111

shook hands ; the stranger seated himself near the fire, and
silence reigned for a few minutes. My experience in the
settlement had taught me the few rules of Indian etiquette,
and I busied myself in helping Donogh to complete the
arrangement for breakfast before questioning the new
comer upon his journey or intentions.

Our breakfast was soon ready. I handed a cup of tea
and a plate of pemmican to the Indian, and sat down
myself to the same fare. When we had eaten a little, I
addressed our guest, asking him his length of journey and
its destination.

He had come many days from the west, he said in reply.
His destination was the west again, when he had visited the
settlement.

Then it was my turn to tell our movements. I said
exactly what they were. I told him that we had come from a
land across the sea, and that we were going as far aa the
land would take us into the north-west, that we were
strangers on the prairie, but hoped soon to learn its secrets
and its people.

While the meal proceeded I had opportunity of study-
ing the appearance, dress, and accoutrements of our guest,
They were remarkable, and quite unlike anything I had
before seen.

He was a man in the very prime of life ; his dress of
deer-skin had been made with unusual neatness ; the sleeves

■

The solitary Sioux.

re, and
in the
iquette,
ete the
le new

D of tea

It down

little, I

ney and

in reply,
sited the

I said
ne from a
ir aa the
we were
its secrets

of study-
Dur guest,
ng I had

s dress of
he sleeves

fully interwoven with locks of long black hair, were covered
with embroidered porcupine-quill work, which was also plen-
tifully scattered over the breast and back ; the tight-fitting
leggings and sharp-pointed moccasins were also embroidered.

He carried across his saddle-bow a double-barrelled
English rifle ; but the ancient weapons of his race had not
been abandoned by him, for a quiverful of beautifully
shaped Indian arrows, and a short stout bow, along the
back of which the sinews of the buffalo had been stretched
to give it strengtii and elasticity, showed that he was per-
fectly independent, for war or the chase, of modern weapons
and ammunition.

As head covering he wore nothing, save what nature
had given him — long jet-black hair, drawn back from the
forehead and flowing thickly over the shoulders. A single
feather from an eagle's tail formed its sole ornament. The
end of the feather, turned slightly back, was tied with the
mystic "totem" of chieftainship. His horse, a stout mustang
of fourteen hands high, carried the simple trappings of the
plains—the saddle of Indian workmanship, the bridle, a
single rein and small snaffle with a long laret attached, and
from the neck was suspended the leather band by means
of which the rider could lay his length along the horse's
flank farthest from his enemy while he launched his arrows
beneath the animal's neck, as he galloped furiously in lessen-
ing circles around his foe.

r 4

Red Cloud.

' bt flK

I ^; Ti-

■''■

He spoke English with an accent that showed he had been
taught in western schools; but though the language was
English the manner of its utterance was wholly Indian ; it
was Indian thought put into English words, and accom-
panied by the slow and dignified action of Indian gestu'-e.
He took the tobacco pouch which I offered him when our
meal was finished, filled his greenstone pipe, drew a lighted
stick from the fire, and began to smoke quietly, while his
dark eye seemed to rest upon the ashes and embers ot the
fire before him. But the keen sharp eye was not idle ; and
one by one the articles of our little kit, and the horses which
Donogh had now driven in preparatory to saddling for the
day's journey, had been conned over in his mind.

After smoking for some time he spoke. " Does my
brother know what he will meet on the path he is following?"
he asked. I told him that I had only a very shadowy idea
of what was before us ; that I intended going on from day
to day, and that when the winter season came I hoped to
build a tent, and live in it until the snow went, and I could
wander on again. I told him, too, that I was not going to
seek for gold, or to trade for furs and peltries, but only to
live on the prairies — to meet the red men, to breathe the
open air of the wilderness, and roam the world. Then I
asked some more questions about his own intentions. I
asked him how it was that he was all alone on this long
journey ; for I knew that the Indians were in the habit of

The solitary Sioux.

ad been
age was
dian; it
accom-
gestu'-e.
rhen our
I lighted
hile his
rs ot the
le ; and
2S which
for the

)oes my
owing ? "
)wy idea
Tom day
loped to

I could
going to
; only to
ithe the

Then I
:ions. I
his long
habit of

moving in parties, and that it was most unusual for
them to be seen travelling alone. He replied that he
travelled by himself partly from choice and partly from
necessity.

" I am the last of my people," he said, " the last of the
I^Iandan branch of the Sioux race. It is true that I might
find companions among the Ogahalla or Minatarree
branches of my nation, but then I would have to dwell
with them and live their lives. The work I have to do can
only be done by my?elf ; until it is finished I must follow a
single trail. I have for companion this dog, an old and
oft-tried friend."

I then asked him if he had seen much of the prairie.

He replied that he knew it ail; that from the Stony
Mountains to the waters of the Lake Wiiinipeg, from the
pine forest of the north to the sage-bush deserts of the
Platte, he had travelled all the land. Shortly after this ho
rose to depart We shook hands again ; he sprang lightly
into his saddle and rode off towards the east. When he
was gone we rolled up our blankets and traps and departed on
our western way. It was the morning after the second night
from this time that we found ourselves camped at break of
day in the valley of a small stream which flowed south
toward the Souri river. So far, all had gone well with us.
We had met with no difficulty, and had begun to think that
our western course would continue to be marked by

Red Cloitil

unchanging success. On this morning, however, we awoke
\o other thoughts.

Two of our horses had disappeared. At first we thought
that they had strayed farther away than the others, but
^fter searching far and near over the prairie we came to the
lonclusion that they had been stolen. It was a cruel blow.
At first I felt stunned, but bit by bit I thought the matter out
and determined to face the difficulty. After all it might
have been worse, we had still two horses left ; we would put
all our supplies on one animal, and ride by turns on the
other. We would camp early, let the horses feed while it
was yet daylight, and keep them picketted by our camp at
night. So, putting a good face upon the matter, we got our
things together, and set out about mid-day on our western road.
Donogh was on foot leading the pack-horse ; I rode slowly on
in front. It still wanted two full hours of sunset when we
halted for the evening. We turned out the horses to graze.
I took my gun and sat down on a ridge to watch them as
they fed. It was then that the loss we had suffered seemed
to come heaviest to me. As I sat there I thought over the
length of time we must now take to reach the distant
prairies of the west, and my heart sank at the prospect of
slow and weary travel, with the chances of further losses
that would leave us helpless upon the vast plains.

As I sat thus brooding upon our misfortunes I noticed
one of the horses raise his head from feeding and gaze

Losses.

e awoke

thought
lers, but
,e to the
lel blow,
atter out
it might
Duld put
on the

while it

camp at
e got our
ern road,
slowly on
when we
to graze.

them as
i seemed

over the
e distant
ospect of
ler losses

I noticed
and gaze

steadily back upon our trail. Looking in that direction I
saw a solitary figure approaching upon horseback. A glance
sufficed to tell me that it was the same man who had visited
our camp two mornings earlier. For a moment I involun-
tarily connected his presence with our loss; but then it
occurred to me that he would not seek our camp again if he
had stolen our horses, and I remembered too that he had
told me he was going west when he had visited the frontier
settlement.

He came up to where I was, and shook hands with
me without dismounting, his dog keeping close by his
horse's flank. I told him of our loss, and spoke freely of its
serious nature to us. I baid we were now reduced to only
two horses, and asked him frankly if he ;;ould do anything
to help me. He listened quietly, and when I had done
speaking he said, —

" The prairie without horses is like a bird without wings.
When I left you two days ago, I thought you would soon
learn that life in the wilderness was not all so easy. Your
horses have been taken by some Salteaux Indians. I saw
their trail at mid-day to day as I came hither. They arc
far away from here by this time. I am sorry for you," he
went on, " for you are the first white man I have ever met
who came out to this land of ours with the right spirit. You
do not come to make money out of us Indians : you do not
come to sell or to buy, to cheat and to lie to us. White men

t5:i:

:>Ji.

Red Cloud.

think there is but one work in life, to get money. When you
told me your story a couple of mornings since I thought it
was my own life you were telling me of. Now you ask me
if I can help you to get back the horses which have been
taken from you. I could get them back, but it would take
time and long travel. I can do better for you, my brother \
I can get you new horses in place of the old ones."

I scarcely believed the words I listened to, so good was
the news they told me.

" If you like," he went on, " to learn the life of the prairie,
I will teach it to you. Do not sorrow any more for your loss ;
we will camp here to-night, and to-morrow we will see what
can be done."

So saying he unsaddled his horse, and throwing saddle,
bridle, and blanket on the ground, sat down by the fire and
began to smoke. When supper was ready I gave him a share
of our meal, and he camped with us that night.

Wc were astir very early on the next morning. In order to
travel with greater speed the Indian divided our baggage
into three portions, which he placed equally on the three
horses, adjusting the loads in front and behind the saddles.
This enabled Donogh to ride'; and although it put a heavy
load on all the horses, it would only be for one day. What
plan the Indian had formed I had at this time no idea of,
but I already looked upon him in the light of a true bene-
factor, and I was prepared to follow implicitly his guidance.

A new departure.

'1 he sun had just risen when we quitteil our camping-place
and took the old trail to the west ; but an hour or so after
starting, the Indian, who led the way, quitted the trail and
bent his course across the plain in a south-westerly direction.
During some hours he held his way in this direction ; there
was no trail, but every hill and hollow seemed to be familiar
to our guide, and he kept his course in a line which might have
appeared to me to be accidental, had I not observed that
when we struck streams and water-courses the banks afforded
easy means of crossing. About mid-day we quitted the open
prairie, and entered upon a country broken into clumps of
wood and small copses of aspen ; many lakelets were visible
amid the thickets ; and the prairie grouse frequently rose
from the grass before our horses' feet, and went whirring away
amid the green and golden thickets of cotton-wood and
poplars.

It was drawing towards evening when our little party emerged
upon the edge of a deep depression which suddenly opened
before us. The bottom of this deep valley was some two or
three miles wide ; it was filled with patches of bright green
meadow, and dotted with groups of trees placed as though
they had been planted by the hand of man. Amidst the
meadows and the trees ran a many-curved stream of clear
silvery water, now glancing over pebble-lined shallows, now
flowing still and soft in glassy unrippled lengths.

Drawing rein at the edge of this beautiful valley, the

'Ill

Red Claud.

ilil

Indian pointed his h<and down towards a small meadow
lying at the farther side of the river. "There is the S iri
liver," he said, " and those specks in the meadow at the far
side are my horses. Our halting-place is in the wood where
you see the pine-tops rise above the cotton-trees." So
saying he led the way down the ridge. We soon became lost
in the maze of thickets in the lower valley ; but half an
hour's ride brought us to the meadows bordering upon the
river, and soon we gained the Souri itself. The Indium
xed the way into the stream, and heading for a shelving bank
on the other side ascended the opposite shore. On ihe very
edge of the stream at the farther side stood the grove of
pines which we had seen from the upper level half an hour
before.

Into this grove we rode, pushing through some poplar
brushwood that fringed its outer edges. Once inside this
brushwood, the ground beneath the pine-trees was clear.
Almost in the centre of the " bluff " an Indian lodge was
pitched. It stood quite hidden from view until we were
close upon it. I soon saw that the pine bluff occupied a
" point " on the river ; that is to say, the stream formed almost
a complete curve around it, encircling the bluff upon three
sides. From the doorway of ihe lodge a view could be
obtained of the ground within and beyond the narrow neck
formed by the river's bend as they approached each other.

Immediately on arrival the Indian had dismounted.

•J

■i

TJic cache at tJic Souri.

meadcw
je S iri

the far
d where
s." So
ame lost

ha]f an
ipon the

Indian
ing bank
I ihe very
grove of
f an hour

le poplar
nside this
vas clear,
odge was
we were
;cupied a
ed almost
5on three
could be
row neck
;h other,
ted.

" Here," he said, " is my home for the present, and
whenever I wander into these regions. To-night we will
rest here, and to-morrow continue our way towards the west.
This morning you gave me food from your small store ; to-
night you will eat with me."

So saying he set about his preparations for evening.

From a branch overhead he let down a bag of dry meat
and flour ; from a pile of wood close by he got fuel for a
fire in the centre of the lodge ; from a cache in the hollow
trunk of one of the trees he took a kettle and other articles
of camp use ; and before many minutes had passed our even-
ing meal was ready in the lodge, while the horses were adrift
in the meadow beyond the " neck," with the others already
grazing there.

Before our meal was finished evening had closed over the
scene, and in the shadow of the sprrce pines it was quite
dark. An ample supply of dry fuel was piled near the tent
doer, and the fire in the centre of the lodge was kept well
supplied. It burned bright and clear, lighting up the
features of the Indian as he sat before it cross-legged upon
the ground. He seemed to be buried in deep thought for
some time. Looking across the clear flame I observed his
face with greater attention than I had before bestowed upon
it. It was a handsome countenance, but the lines of care
and travail showed deeply upon it, and the expression was
one of great and lasting sadness. In the moments of action

Red Cloud,

.\m,

liii

in the work of the prairie this sad look had been less ob-
servable ; but now, as he sat in repose, looking intently into
the fire, the features had relapsed into their set expression of
gloom.

At last he raised his head and spoke.

" You must know my story. When you have heard it,
you can decide for yourself and your friend what course
you will follow. I will tell you how it has happened that I
am here, and why I am going west so soon. Listen to me
well."

Then, as we sat around the fire in the centre of the
lodge, he thus began : —

"Among men I am called 'Red Cloud.' It u now
more than ten years since I joined my people, the Mandan
Sioux, on the shores of Minnie Wakan. They had just been
driven back by the soldiers of the United States. My
tribe had dwelt on the coteau by the edge of the great Pipe
Stone quarry. The buffalo were numerous over all the sur-
rounding prairies. We were then at peace with the Ameri-
cans. They had purchased from our chiefs the valley of
the Bois des Sioux, the Red River, and the land of the
Otter Tail. We had given up all that fair region of lake
and meadow, hill and copse, which still carries the name
we gave it, " Minnesota," or the Land of Sky-coloured
Water. The white waves were coming on faster and faster
from the east, and we, the red waves, were drifting before

The story of Red Cloud.

ess ob-
itly into
ssion of

eard it,
course
d that I
\ to me

of the

ij now
Mandan
ust been
;s. My
eat Pipe

the sur-
e Ameri-
i^alley of
d of the
I of lake
lie name
coloured
nd faster
ig before

them farther and farther into the west. I dwelt with my
people at the Minnie Wakan, or the Lake of the Evil Spirit.
It is a salt and bitter water which lies far out in the great
prairie; but it was a favourite haunt of the buffalo, and the
wapiti were many in the clumps of aspen and poplar along
its deep-indented shores.

"^For a time after the surrender of Minnesota peace reigned
between our people and the white man ; but it was a hollow
peace ; we soon saw it could not last. Many of our old
chiefs had said, * Take what the white man ofifers you. Let
us fix the boundaries of our lands far out towards the setting
sun, and then we will be safe from the white man, who ever
comes from the rising sun. We will then live at peace with hiiU.'

" Well, we went far out into the prairie ; but the white
man soon followed us. The buffalo began to leave us ; the
wapiti became scarce around the shores of Minnie Wakan.
We were very poor. At the time when I jomed my people
an army had taken the field with the avowed intention
of driving the remnants of our once strong race across the
great Missouri river. I could not remain an idle spectator
of a struggle in which my people were fighting for home
and for existence.

"It is true I had been brought up a Christian, edu-
cated in a school far away in Canada with white people,
and taught the UHc-lessness of contending with civilization;
but what of that ?

f i'i

/?^^ Cloud.

" Blood is stronger than what you call civilization ; and
when I got back again into the prairie, and to the sky-
bound plain — when I felt beneath me the horse bound
lightly over the measureless meadow — and when I knew
that my people were about to make a last fight for the
right to live on the land that had been theirs since a time
the longest memory could not reach — then I cast aside every
other thought, and turned my face for ever towards the
wilderness and my home.

"The Mandans received me with joy. As a boy I had
left them ; as a man I returned. My father was still
a chief in the tribe, and from his horses I had soon the
best and fastest for my own.

" I had forgotten but few of the exercises which an Indian
learns from earliest childhood. I could ride and run with
the best of them, and in addition to the craft and skill of
the wilderness, I had learned the use of the weapons of
civilization, and the rifle had become as familiar to hand
and eye as the bow had been in the days of my boy-
hood.

"Soon we heard that the Americans were advancing
towards the cotcau. We struck our lodges by the Minnie
Wakan, fired the prairie, and set out for the south. By the
edge of the coteau our scouts first fell in with the white men.
We did not fire, for the chief had decided that we would not
be the first to fight, but would seek a parley when we met.

The story of Red Cloud.

; and

e sky.

bound

knew

for the

a time

It was my work to meet the white people and hear what
they had to say. I was able to speak to them.

" I approached their scouts with a few of my men, and
made signs that we wished to talk. Some of the white
people rode forward in answer, and we met them midway.
I began by asking what they wanted in our land ; that
they were now in our country, and that our chief had sent
me to know the meaning of their visit.

" One of them replied that they had come by order of
the Great Father at Washington ; that the land belonged to
him from sea to sea ; and that they could ride through it
where they willed.

" While we spoke, one of my braves had approached a
large, strongly-built man who rode a fine black horse. All
at once I heard the click of a gun-lock. In token of peace
we had left our guns in the camp ; we carried only our bows.
The gun thus cocked was in the hands of the white man
liding the black horse. It has been said since that he did
the act fearing that the Indian who stood near meant harm ;
if so, his belief was wrong, and it cost him his life. The
Indian heard the noise of the hammer. With a single
bound he was at the horse's shoulders, had seized the barrel
of the gun and twisted it from the white man's hands. As
he did so, one barrel exploded in the air. An instant later
the other was discharged full into the white man's breast,
and before a v/ord could be uttered, the brave was in his

*1.

Red Cloud.

saddle, driving the black horse furiously over the plain.
There was nothing for it but to gallop too ; we were well
mounted, and the shots they sent after us only made our
horses fly the faster. We reached our people. The war
had begun.

"I will not tell you of that war now. In the end we
were beaten, as we always must be. Two men will beat
one man, twenty will do it faster.

" Many of us were killed ; many more fled north into
English territory. My father was among the latter number.
I remained with a few others in the fastnesses of the Black
Hills.

" Now listen to me.

" My father, the old chief, v^ent, I have said, north into
British land. I never saw him again. A year later I also
sought refuge in this region, and this is the story I gathered
from the few scattered people of our tribe.

" My father, * The Black Eagle,' had been invited to a
trader's house on the banks of the Red River, not fifty miles
from where we now are. This trader had given him spirit
to drink. In the spirit he had put laudanum. My father
drank unsuspectingly, and was soon plunged into deep un-
conscious sleep. From that sleep he woke to find him-
self in the hands of the Americans.

" It was the depth of winter. His betrayers had bound
him while asleep upon a sledge drawn by a fast horse. In

"'*.

The story of Red Cloud.

the dead of night they had carried him to the American
lines at Pembina, and there sold him to the Yankee
officer, bound and helpless.

" The price paid was 500 dollars. A week later the old
chief, my father, was hanged as a traitor in sight of the very
river by whose banks he had been born.

" You wonder what has brought me to these northern
lands? My father's spirit has brought me. Five times since
that day I have sought my father's murderer, and each time
my search has been fruiHess. Yes, through all these years,
through many changes, and from far distant places, I have
come here to seek revenge. Again I have been baffled.
I The man for whom I look has gone far out on the

plains, trading with the Crees and Blackfeet. I learned
this two days ago, in the settlement, and at once turned
ia my horse's head towards the west, determined to seek

this spot, get my horses, pack up, and follow the trail
of my father's murderer into the great prairie.

"By chance I saw you again this morning. You are
different from all the white men I have ever met. You
seem to love the wilderness for its wildness, as a bird
loves the air for its freedom. Well, it is for that that I love
it too. In our old times, when the Sioux were strong and
powerful, the young men of the tribe, the best and bravest,
used to swear an oath of brotherhood and lasting friendship
to the young braves ot other tribes. That oath meant,

Red Cloud.

»iii

that if they met in battle, or in danger, the life of one
was sacred to the other.

"To you I wui give that promise and that oath. I
have no friends but my horse and dog. My people are scat
tered far and wide over the wilderness. Most of those who
were with me ten years ago are now dead. I am an out-
cast on the earth ; but I am free, and fear no man. We
will together roam the wilderness ; at any time if you
desire it, you are free to part. I do not ask your assis-
tance to revenge the wrongs I have suffered. That shall
be my own work. For the rest I have quarrel with no
man. Ever since that war with the Americans I have fired
no hostile shot at a red man of any race or tribe. When
attacked I have defended myself; but I huve joined nc
tribe to fight another tribe. If I fall into the hands of my
enemies I know that my fadier's death will be my death —
that as his bones were left to bleach in sight of the land .a
which he was born, so mine would be dso gibbetted, as a
warning to the wretched remnants of my race who yet live,
spectral shadows, on the land that once had owned the
dominion of the Sioux.''

The Indian ceased speaking. The fire still burned bright
and clear.

As the light ot the evening grew fainter, and darkness
clor^d over the scene, the sounds of the wilderness fell dis-
tinctly upon our ears — the ripple of the rivsv, the lonely

•^

The Red Man's offer.

ife of one

at oath. I

pie are scat

ff those who

am an out-

man. We

:ime if you

your assis-

That shall

rel with no

I have fired

ibe. AVhen

2 joined nc

ands of my

my death —

the lard .a

netted, as a

/ho yet live,

owned the

cry of grey owls, the far-off echo of some prowling

wolf.

For some minutes the silence of the lodge remained
unbroken. I was too much affected by the story I had
listened to to speak, but I held out my hand to the Sioux
and shook his, in silent token that henceforth we were
brothers.

jrned bright

id darkness

less fell dis-

the lonslv

E 2

5«

Red Clouds

CHAPTER III.

To the V\ .^<5t — Wapiti in sight— A stalk— A grand run— The
sand-hills in sight — The finish — A noble beast — A gorgeous
sunset — A vast landscape— The Hills of Life and Death.

At dawn on the following morning we departed from
the camp on the Souri, holding our way towards the
west.

It was a fair fresh morning ; the summtr, verging towards
autumn, held already in its nights and first l.ours of day the
faint breathings of the northern chill of fro?t ; the dew lay
upon the ground in silvery sheen and glitter ; all was yet
green in meadow and willow copse ; the current of the river
ran with fresh and sparkling eagerness, and from its mimic
rapids on the shallows little streaks of vapour rose — an indi-
cation that the air of the morning was cooler than the water
of the river. Overall the scene, over the hill and the valley,
on wood and stream and meadow, there lay a sense of the
perfect rest and ceaseless quiet of the wilderness.

The path which the Indian took led for awhile along the
valley of the SourL At times it climbed the higher ridges

To the West.

run— The
gorgeous
cath.

ted from
^ards the

g towards
)f day the
dew lay
II was yet
f the river
its mimic
— an indi-
the water
he valley,
use of the

along the
lier ridges

that bordered on the north and south the alluvial
meadows which fringed the river, and at times it dived into
the patches of poplar thicket and oak-wood copse that
dotted alike both hill and valley.

The Sioux was mounted on the same horse which he had
ridden on the previous day, but a change had fallen on the
fortunes of Donogh and mys'ilf. We now bestrode two
close-knit wiry horses, whose sleek coats and rounded flanks
showed that the early summer had been to them a season of
rest, and that they had profited by the quiet of the last few
days to inprove the " shining hours " on the fertile meadows
of the Souri. We went along now at an easy pace, half
walk, half trot — a pace which got over the ground with little
fatigue to man and horse, and yet made a long day's journey
out of the travel hours of daylight.

As the morning wore towards mid-day, and the trail led at
times over places which commanded a wider view of river and
valley, the Indian riding in front watched with keen glance
each open space, and often cantered his horse to the upper
level for a better survey of the higher plateau. All at once
he stopped, and lay low upon his horse. He was some
distance ahead of us, but near enough to be seen by me.
I at once pulled up. 'Presently the Sioux came back to
where we were standing. Theie were wapiti in sight, he
said ; I could go forward with him on foot and see them.
We left our horses with Donogh, and went forward very

Ri'd Cloud.

carefully to the spot from whence the Sioux had seen the
game. It was at the end of a willow copse. From here,
looking partly through and partly over the leaves of some
small aspens, I now saw at the farther side of an open
space which was more than a mile across, a herd of
large dun-coloured animals, and high above all stood one
stag, erect and stately, looking in our direction, as though
the echo of our approach had apparently reached
him.

These were the wapiti, the giant red-deer of North
America. The monarch of the group was evidently a
gigantic specimen of his race, who, with the true kingship of
nature, kept watch and ward over his weaker subjects, and
did not, as in modern society, delegate that chiefest function
of leadership to other less favoured mortals. And now how
was this noble animal to be reached ? The forest of antlers
fixed and rigid showed that his gaze was fixed too upon the
spot from whence an attack might be expected.

The Indian, surveying the ground for a moment, whis-
pered to me, " We cannot approach him from this side ; his
suspicions are already aroused. And yet he is a noble
prize, and well worth the trouble of the chase. There is only
one way it can be done. Where the ground rises to the
north, on the right of where we now stand, there is a large
open expanse of prairie, once on that level plain it would
rest with our horses to reach him; the few scattered clumps

A stalk.

seen the

)m here,

of some

an open

herd of

ood one

3 though

reached

)f North

dently a

ngship of

ects, and

t function

now how

of an tiers

'^'li

upon the

nt, whis-

side ; his
a noble
■e is only
is to the
s a large
it would
d clumps

of trees growing upon it cannot hide him from our view ; he
must be ours. So far, he has neither seen nor winded us ;
he has simply heard a sound; he is watchful, not alarmed.
Let us see what can be done."

Having said this, he drew back a liltlc, plucked the heads
of a few long grasses growing near, and flung the dry liglit
seeds into the air. They floated towards the east; the
wind was from the west. ** Now," he said, having noted
this, " we must retrace our steps along the path we have
come for some distance, then it will be possible to get round
yonder beast. We shall see."

So saying, we fell back with easy and quiet footsteps,
and, followed by Donogh, were soon a long way from the
open glade and its denizens. Having gained the required
distance, the Sioux stopped again to detail to us the
further plan of attack; it was simply this. We were to make
a long detour to the south ; when the right position had been
attained, we would advance in the direction of the herd,
emerging upon the clearing full in view of the stag, whose
course, the Indian said, would when alarmed at once lead
up the wind, or towards the west. This, however, was not the
direction in which the Indian ^vanted him to go. How then
was it to be done ? We shall presently see.

Striking from the trail towards the south, we pursued our
way through mixed open and thicket country until the re-
quired distance had been gained, then bending round to the

Red Cloud.

if 1

west we gradually drew nearer to the open ground on
which the wapiti had last been seen.

When the neighbourhood of the open space was reached
the Indian again stopped, and spoke his last directions to
us. " Wait here until you hear a wolf cry twice ; at the
second call ride straight to the north at an easy pace.
When you emerge upon the open you will be in sight of
the big stag, but a long way from him; after looking at
you for a moment he will trot tway to your left; then
you must ride straight up the hill until you gain the level
plain on the summit ; you will then see the stag not very far
trom you. I will be there too. Let the pack-horses follow
quietly to the upper ground." Having said this, the
Indian turned his horse to the west, and was soon lost to
sight in the thickets and undulations of the ground.

About a quarter of an hour passed ; at length we heard
the cry of a wolf sounding a long way off to north and
west. We listened anxiously for the second signal. It
soon came, and as it died away in the silence of space we
put our horses into a trot and rode straightforward. Two
minutes' riding brought us to the edge of the prairie, on the
other side of which, but now some miles distant, we had first
looked upon the wapiti. As we entered upon the open
ground v e caught sight of the herd, still in the same spot.
The chief had apparently ceased to reconnoitre, for his
huge antlers no longer towered aloft ; he was quietly feeding

A grand nm.

ound on

s reached
ctions to
;; at the
sy pace.

1 sight of
ooking at
Jft; then
tlie level

)t very far
ses follow
this, the
•on lost to
J.

we heard
lorth and
ignal. It
space we
rd. Two
ie, on the

2 had first
the open
ame spot.
, for his
ly feeding

like the others. We now rode at a walk straight for the
herd. Our presence in their area of vision was almost in-
stantly detected, and all heads were lifted from the ground
to examine the enemy ; then the leader led the way, and
the band, following his steps, filed off quietly towards the
wind.

I was sorely disposed to follow, but, remembering the
directions of the Indian I put my horse into a sharp canter,
and held straight for the high ground, the edge of which was
visible in our front. As we crossed the centre of the open
space, a shot rang out some distance to our left, and then
there came a faint Halloo ! borne down the west wind. Still
we held on our course, and climbing the steep ridge, gained
the open prairie land above. As our heads topped the
ridge, we beheld a sight that made our hearts beat fast v/ith
excitement. There, not half a mile distant, going full across
the plain, was the herd of wapiti, still close grouped together ;
behind them, and not more than three hundred yards dis-
tant from them, rode the Indian, his horse held full within
his pace but going at a free gallop across a level plain,
on which the grass grew short and crisp under a horse's
hoof. I did not need the ■'vaving arm of the Indian to
tell me what was to be done. My horse seemed to realize
the work too ; I shook free his rein, and was soon in fast
pursuit of the flying stag.

There are many moments in wild life, the minute sensations

! f

U»

Red Cloud.

W •;

of which are worth the oft-indulged recollections of after
time — moments when every nerve is strained to action, when
eye and ear and nostril are filled with the sound, the sight
and the scent of nature's freshness— and when the animate
or inanimate thing that bears us, the horse or the canoe,
become sharers in the keenness of our progress, and seem to
quiver with the excitement of our impetuous onset; there are
such moments in the wild life of the wilderness, amply suffi-
cient to outweigh the hardships and privations of travel and
exposure in a land where the sky is the roof, and the
ground the bed, the table and the chair of the wayfarer.

Much toil and trouble had befallen us since that distant
day when we had quitted the little roof of our far-away
home ; the goal aimed at had often seemed a long way off,
and many had been the obstacles that had forced in between
us and the wild life I had sought to reach ; but now it was
ours — fully, entirely ours ; and as my horse, entering at once
into the spirit of the chase, launched himself gamely along
the level sward I could not repress a ringing cheer, the
natural voice of freedom found, and of wild life fully
realized.

I was now in wild pursuit. I directed my horse towards
a spot far in advance of the flying herd; the wapiti in
turn, not slow to perceive the advance of a fresh enemy
from the flank, bent away in the opposite direction, giving
the Indian the advantages of a similar advance upon an

The sand-hills in sight.

of after

)n, when

le sight

animate

e canoe,

seem to

there are

iply suffi-

avel and

and the

farer.

It distant

far-away

g way off,

1 between

>w it was

g at once

ily along

heer, the

life fully

; towards
ivapiti in
h enemy
in, giving
upon an

oblique line to cut them off, and so cause them to again
alter their course in my favour.

It is a singular fact in the hunting of vvild game, that if a
particular animal of a herd be selected for pursuit, even
though he may at the time be in the n^ulst of a number of
other animals all flying from the hunter, nevertheless, the one
marked out as the sv:ccial quarry will quickly realize that he
alone is the object of the hunter's aim, and he will soon
become the solitary one, deserted by his companions, who
seem to understand his position. Such was now the case.
One by one the meaner ones in the little herd had
dropped off to the right or to left, and ere two miles had
been ridden the monarch stag pursued alone his wild
career.

His pace was still the long rapid stride or trot peculiar
to his breed. To the inexperienced eye it looked a rate of
speed which could be easily overtaken by a horst , but,
nevertheless, although a good horse will always outrun a
wapiti, it takes both time and open country to enable him
to do so. The long swinging trot is really the wapiti's best
pace. When he is forced to change it for a gallop, his end
is near — his course is almost run.

Right on over the level prairie held the stag, and at full
speed we followed his flying steps. The prairie lay an
almost unbroken level for six or seven miles, then a succes-
sion of sand-ridges appeared in view, and farther still rose

I r^

!ii

(1 iVi

I ; ■

ii : I
il ' ; (

Red Cloud.

the blue outlines of more distant hills. It was toward this
refuge that the stag now held his way.

When the last of his little band had fallen from him, and
he was plone with his pursuers, it seemed that his energies
only reached their fullest power ; for, more than half way
across the plain he not only kept his distance in the race,
but increased it by many lengths; nor did he appear to
labour in his stride, as with head thrown forward, and antlers
lying back almost upon his haunches, he spurned behind
him the light soil of the plains.

With rapid survey the Indian scanned the hills towards
which his quarry was now leading, and his practised
eye soon caught the features of the land, while he
still maintained the same headlong speed. We knew
that if the stag once gained those ridges of light brown
sand his chances of final escape would be great. The
yielding surface would give the spreading cloven hoof the
support which it would refuse to the more solid pressure
of the horse.

In all these things nature never fails to instruct her crea-
tures in the means of escape she provides for them in their
hours of trouble. The hare seeks the hill when coursed by
the grey-hound, because the great length of her hind
legs gives her an increased power to traverse with rapidity
rising ground.

When the falcon is abroad, the birds know that their

Nature teaches her creattircs.

,'ard this

him, and

energies

half way

the race,

ippear to

id antlers

d behind

3 towards

practised

while he

We knew

ght brown

'%!

reat. The

n hoof the

d pressure

:t her crea-

em in their

coursed by

her hind

ith rapidity

^ that their

wings are their weakest refuge, lying close hid on tuoorland
or in cover.

The moose makes his place of rest for the day to the
leeward of his track during the night, so that he may have
the wind of every hunter who follows in his trail.

It is in that acute knowledge of all these various resources,
instincts, and habits, possessed by the wild game which they
pursue, that the Indian hunter surpasses all other hunters
of the earth.

It is not too much to say that a good Indian hunter can
anticipate every instinct of the animal he is in quest of.

We have seen in the present instance how completely the
Sioux had forced the herd of wapiti to take the upper level.
This he had achieved by knowing exactly where they would
run upon being first disturbed, and then placing himself in
such a position that they were enabled to scent his presence
before they could see that he meant to follow them. By
this means he caused them to abandon the partly wooded
country before they had become thoroughly frightened by a
closer attack.

Under the different conditions of suspicion, fear, and
absolute danger, wild animals, like human creatures, show
widely different tactics. It is these finer distinctions of
habit and emotion that the red man has so thoroughly
mastered, and it is this knowledge that enables him almost
invariably to outwit the keenest sense of animal cunning.

Red Child.

III

In most of the wisdom of civilized man he is only a child.
His perceptions of things relating to social or political life
are bounded by narrow limits. But in the work of the
wilderness, in all things that relate to the conquest of savage
nature, be it grizzly bear, foaming rapid, or long stretch of
icy solitude, he is all unmatched in skill, in daring, and in
knowledge.

But while we have been speaking thus of Indian skill in
the chase, our stag has been nearing v/ith rapid strides the
sand-hills of his refuge.

We had now drawn closer to each other in the pursuit,
and it seemed that hunters and hunted were straining their
every nerve, the one to attain, the other to prevent, the
gaining of this refuge.

I had thought that the horse ridden by the Sioux had
been going at its utmost speed. But in this I was mistaken,
as the next instant proved.

All at once he shot forward, laying himself out over the
prairie as I had never before seen any horse do.

He was soon close upon the flying foosteps of the stag,
which now, finding himself almost outpaced, broke from his
long-held steady trot into a short and laboured gallop, while
his great antlers moved from side to side, as he watched
over his flanks the progress of his pursuer.

The sand-hills were but a short half-mile distant.
Another minute would decide the contest. Just when I

e if; only a child.
or political life
he work of the
nquest of savage
long stretch of
1 daring, and in

f Indian skill in
rapid strides the

: in the pursuit,
:re straining their
• to prevent, the

)y the Sioux had
is I was mistaken,

iselfout over the
se do.

steps of the stag,
sd, broke from his
Dured gallop, while
de, as he watched

half-mile distant,
est. Just when I

I.!

■ t

.iil

!F '■■•

The Sioux was now almost at the flank of the wapiti.

Page 63.

■^

T/i^ finish.

thought the stag must win, I saw the Sioux urge his horse
to a still faster effort. He was now ahnost at the flank of
the wapiti. Then I saw him with the quickness of lightning
ansllng his short bow, and place an arrow on the string
One sharp draw, apparently without any aim, and the shaft
sped upon its way, piercing the heart of the giant stag,
which, with one great leap forward into space, rolled dead
upon the prairie.

He was a noble specimen of those gigantic animals now
growing scarce on the American prairies.

From fore hoof to tip of shoulders he stood seventeen
hands high. His antlers were the finest I ever saw. They
branched from his frontlet in perfect symmetry and regularity,
each tier was the exact counterpart of the opposite one
From brow to tip they measured more than five feet, and
their ribbed sides shone like roughened bronze, while the
strong tips were polished ivory. Starding breathless beside
my breathless horse, I looked on the dead animal in mute
admiration, while the Sioux set to at the more practical work
of getting some meat for dinner.

" You may well look at him," he said to me; " he is the
finest of his tribe I have yet seen."

" It is almost a pity we have killed such a noble beast,"
I replied ; " to lay such a proud head low."

" Yes," answered the Indian. " But it is in such things
that we learn the g -^at work of war. To ride a chase to

^g'-vg/e/c^'p*'.^

tl.

Page 63.

i t

f '

' Hi

:i|f

Red Cloud.

the end; to shoot an arrow fast and true after a six-niile
gallop ; to watch every turn of the game enemy, and to note
every stride of the steed ; to avoid the deadly charge of the
buffalo, and to wheel upon his flank as he blindly pursues
his impetuous onset ; to stand steady before the advance of
the savage grizzly bear, and to track the wary moose with
silent footfall into the willow thickets, — these are the works
by which, in times of peace, the Indian learns his toil in the
deeper game of war.

" And then, the health, the strength, the freshness of
these things ; the pleasure they give us in after-time when
by the camp fire in the evening we run back in memory'
some day of bygone chase. Well, now we have other work
to do. This run has taken us far from our trail. The sun
gets low upon the plain. We must away."

So taking with mz a few tit-bits of the wapiti, we retraced
our steps to where the pack-horses had been left with
Donogh when I joined the pursuit, and then rode briskly
towards the now declining sun.

By sunset we came in sight of a small creek, on the banks
of which grew a few dark pine-trees. Beneath one of these
pines we made our camp ; the horses found good pasturage
along the edge of the creek, and from a high sand dune
which rose behind the camp the Sioux pointed out to us our
course for the morrow.

As we stood together on the summit of the sand ridge,

A gorgeous sunset.

' a six-niile
and to note
large of the
dly pursues
advance of
moose with
; the works
) toil in the

•eshness of
-time when
in memorc
other work
The sun

^ve retraced
left with
)de briskly

n the banks
)ne of these
i pasturage
sand dune
Lit to us our

sand ridge,

the scene that lay to the west was enough to make even
the oldest voyageur pause in wonder as he beheld it.
Many a long mile away, over a vast stretch of prairie, the
western sky blazed in untold hues of gold, safifron, orange,
green, and purple. Down to the distant rim of the prairie,
the light shone clear and distinct. No fog, no smoke
blurred the vast circle of the sky-line. Never before had
we realized at a single glance the vastness of earthly space.
The lustrous sky made dim the intervening distance, and
added tenfold to the sense of immensity.

The Indian pointed his finger full towards the spot where
the sun had gone down.

" There lies our course," he said. " Would that, like yon
sunset, the prairie land circled the world, then we might for
ever travel into the west."

" Well, master, we're in the big wilderness, surely," said
Donogh, as he stood by my side watching intently this vast
ocean of grass, slowly sinking into night beneath the many-
hued splendours of the western skies. " When we used to
sit together on the top of Seefin, talking of the lands be-
yond the seas, I didn't think that one short year would carry
us so far."

" How do you like it, Donogh ? " I asked him.

" Like it, sir ! I like it as long as it holds you in it.
And I like it for all the fine wild birds and beasts it has.
But I'd like it better if it had a few more hills, just to remind

Red Cloud.

:!!■

1:1:' m

mc of Coolrue, and the rest of the old mountains about
Glencar 1 "

" We'll come to the hills all in good time," I replied.
" There, beyond where you see the sun has gone down,
twenty long days' riding from here you will see hills that
will make Seefin and Coolrue seem only hillocks in com-
parison—mountains where the snow never melts."

" What name do the Indians call the Rocky Mountains ? "
I asked Red Cloud, who was listening to our conversation.

" The Blackfect call them the Ridge of the World," he
answered. My people named them the Mountains of the
Setting Sun ; and the Assineboines, who dwell at their feet,
call them the Hills of Life and Death, because they say
that the spirits of the dead climb them to look back on life,
and forward on the happy hunting-grounds."

" Do you hear, Donogh ? " I said.

He laughed as he answered, —

" Who knows but we'll see Glencar from ther<^^ sir ? "

lins about

«f

I replied,
one down,
I hills that
LS in com-

•

ountains ? "
nversation.
World," he
tains of the
It their feet,
se they say
jack on life,

■p, sir?"

CHAPTER IV.

We reach the hills of the Wolverine— Something moves far out
upon the plains — The wounded Cree — His story — Adventure
with a grizzly bear — Left alone — A long crawl for life — Hun-
ger, thirst, and travail— A grizzly again—" The Great Spirit,

# like an eagle, looks down upon the prairie" — Saved—

"'i Watched.

In five days' easy travel, riding each day at a kind of ambl\
half trot half w^ k, we reached the hills of the Wolverine,
a low range of ridges surrounded upon all sides by a vast
plain. We pitched oamp close beside a small lake which
was situated nigh the western extremity of the group of hills,
and from the top of a ridge behind the lodge the eye ranged
over an expanse the greater part of which was destitute of
trees.

It was the Indian's wont every evening, after camp had
been made, to make a long circuit around the camping-
place armed with his fowling-piece. From these excursions
he usually returned at dusk, bringing with him a brace of
wild ducks or a few prairie grouse for the morning meal.

On the evening of our arrival at the Touchwood Hills he

F 3

Red Cloud.

and I set out as usual upon this evening ramble, leaving
Donogh to look after the camp. Ascending the ridge I
have spoken of, we surveyed intently the plain which
stretched from the base of the hill on which we stood until
it was lost to sight in the western horizon. It was so vast
a prospect that the eye wandered over it for a length of
time ere it could note even the nearer portion that lay well
within the range of vision. The Sioux took a long survey
of the scene. Shading his eyes with his hands, he slowly
traversed the great circle of the horizon; then his gaze
sought the nearer landscape, passing along it in a manner
that left no portion of the field of sight unscanned. As
thus he looked, his slow-moving eyes all at once became
I'teadily fixed upon one object set within the mid-distance
of the scene. To an ordinary eye it appeared a speck, a
rock, or a bush, or perhaps some stray wolf roving the plain
in search of food ; to the quick eye of the Sioux it was none
of these things. It moved very slowly in the landscape ;
it appeared to stop at times and then to go on again, keeping
generally the same direction. It was slowly approaching
the Wolverine Hills, At last the Sioux seemed to satiF'fy
himi.'clf as to the nature of this slow-moving object. Quitting
the summit, he descended with rapid steps to the camp,
caught his horse, told me to secure mine, passed a
piece of leather into his mouth as bridle, and springing
upon his bare back and calling upon me to follow, set

Something moves fdr ojit upon the plains. 69

J, leaving
e ridge I
in which
tood until
LS so vast
length of
it lay well
ng survey
he slowly
, his gaze
a manner
tined. As
:e became
id-distance
a speck, a
5 the plain
; was none
andscape ;
n, keeping
:)proaching
I to satiF'fy
Quitting
the camp,
passed a
springing
follow, set

off at a gallop into the plain in the direction of the strange
object.

It yet wanted about half an hour of sunset, and by riding
hard we would reach the spot ere night had closed in ; for
darkness comes quickly on the heels of the day in the
prairie, and though a lustrous after-glow lives sometimes in
the western sky, the great plain instantly grows dim when
che sun has gone beneath the horizon. From the lower
level of the plain at the foot of the hills no sign was visible
of the object which he had seen from the summit ; but this
mattered little to the Sioux, whose practised eye had taken
in the line of direction by other objects, and his course
was now held straight upon his mark.

When we reached the neighbourhood of the spot in which
he had last seen the moving object, he pulled up his horse
and looked around him on every side. There was nothing
to be seen. The plain lay around us motionless and silent,
already beginning to grow dark in the decreasing light. A
man gifted with less acute sight would have rested satisfied
that the moving object which he had looked upon was a
wild animal — a wolf or a wolverine, whose sharp sense of
sound alarmed at the approach of man, had caused it to
seek concealment; but the Indian had noticed certain
peculiarities in the object that led him to form other con-
clusions regarding its nature. In a loud, clear voice he
called out in an Indian language that he was a friend, and

I'' I

.1 -i'

Red Cloud.

that whoever was near need have no fear to discover
hhnself.

" It is the Red Cloud who speaks," he said. " No In-
dian need fear to meet him." Scarcely had he thus spoken
when from a dry watercourse near at hand there rose up a
figure which seemed in the twilight to be that of a man who
was unable to lift himself fully upon his feet. He was
distant about one hundred yards from us, and it was evident
from the manner in which he drew himself out of the de-
pression in which he had lain concealed from sight, that
he had difficulty in making any movement. As the figure
emerged from the hollow, it resumed the crouching attitude
which had been first noticed. We w'ire soon beside ihis
strange apparition. It proved to be a young Indian of the
Cree nation, a man so spent and worn, s ) thin in face and
figure, and so tattered in dress, that he scarcely resembled a
human being. He was utterly unable to rise from a kneel-
ing position. One arm hung at his side, broken below the
elbow ; one leg was painfully dragged after him along the
ground ; his leather dress hanging in tatters upon his back
showed many cuts and bruises upon his body. The Sioux
spoke a few words to this wretched object ; but the man
answered in such a broken voice and rambling manner
that little could be gleaned from what he said.

The Sioux having dismounted for a better examination
of this maimed creature, now lifted him without difficulty

The ivounded Cree.

discover

■' No In-

5 spoken
)se up a
man who
He was
Ls evident
f the de-
ight, that
;he figure
g attitude
eside ihis
lan of the
I face and
sembled a
n a kneel-
below the
along the
a his back
The Sioux
t the man
ig manner

xamination
t difficulty

on to his own horse ; then mounting himself, we set off at
an easy pace for the camp. The man now appeared quite
senseless, his head and feet hanging down the horse's sides
like that of a dead body. The night had quite closed in
when we rounded the base of the outer line of hills and
came full into the firelight of the camp. Donogh was
astonished to see us bearing back to camp an apparently
lifeless body, which was immediately taken from the horse
and laid on the ground before the fire.

The warmth of the fire, and a drink of hot tea which was
soon given him, brought consciousness back again to the
poor creature. For a while he looked wildly and vacantly
around, seemed slowly to take in the new state of existence
that had so quickly come to him, then he seized the vessel
of tea that Donogh was holding near his lips and drained
it to the dregs. Some time elapsed, however, ere he could
answer in a collected manner the questions put to him by
the Sioux, but by degrees the following story was elicited.
It ran thus : —

" More than forty days ago I quitted a camp of Crees near
the Lone Mountain prairie to go south on the war-trail,
there were fourteen of us in all ; our horses were fat, and we
travelled fast. On the fifth day we reached the woody
hills. There were no Indians near, and we began to hunt
buffalo, which were numerous over all the prairies south of
the Qu'appelle river.

1 ': t

':ii I

\l'

( ■

• 1

Red Cloud.

" It was about the tenth day that one of our party, who
had gone out with the horses in the morning, came back to
camp saying that he had struck the trail of a large grizzly
bear some little distance from where we lay. Four of us
started out with him to hunt the bear ; I was one of them.
We soon struck the trail. The bear had crossed a ravine
and ascended a steep bank beyond ; the side of this bank
was covered with cotton-wood thicket. We followed the
trail right into the thicket ; we were all on foot. All at
once we heard, as we walked in file along the trail, a heavy
tread sounding close at hand, and a loud breaking of
branches and dry sticks. Then appeared in front the object
of our chase. He was a very large grizzly, and so wicked
that he did not wait for us to attack him, but came all at
once full upon us.

" I stood second in the line. The foremost brave sprang
aside to enable me to fire, and also to get clear of our line
hi'nsdf. I levelled my gun and fired full upon the huge
beast ; one or two other shots sounded about me, but I saw
chrougi\ the smoke that the bear had not been killed by
them — lie was advancing right upon me. I stepped back
01' cne side, with the intention of running until I could
r.';;a'i load xny gun, but at that instant the upraised root of
a ace caught my foot, and 1 fell full upon the ground almost
at the feet of the advancing animal, now doubly maddened
by the wounds he had receiver' I had only time to draw

Adventure ivith a grizzly hear.

irty, who

I back to

;e grizzly

)ur of us

of them.

a ravine

his bank

Dwed the

. All at

I, a heavy

eaking of

the object

so wicked

ame all at

ive sprang
)f our line

the huge
, but I saw

killed by
3ped back
il I could
sed root of
Lind almost
maddened
le to draw

my knife from my belf wVipn hp wn« full upon mo. i bcruck
blindly at him, but it was no use, his claws and his teeth
were fastened in my flesh ; I was bruised, wounded and torn
ere I could repeat the blow with my knife. Then I heard
two or three shots above my head, a heavy crushing weight
fell upon me, and I knew no more.

** When next I knew what was passing around me every-
thing was changed. I was a helpless cripple ; my leg and
my arm had both been broken ; I was torn all over my body.
My companions had carried me back to camp, but what
could they do with me ? They were all braves whose work
is war and the chase ; our women and old men lay far awa^
six long days' riding, ten easy days' travel. Besides weweic
on the war-path. At any moment the Blackfeet might appear.
I would be worse thin useless to my friends, I would 1 a
burden to them. I read their thoughts in their face., and
my mind was made up.

*' ' Dry plenty of buffalo meat,' I said to them \ * put it
where my hand can reach it ; lay me by the edge of the
stream of water ; then go away and leave me to die here.
Destroy the trail as you go away, so that no one will i jr
find the spot, and my scalp will not hang in the lodge of a
Blackfoot.'

** They did as I told them ; they put beside me a pile of
dry buffalo meat ; they loaded my gun and left it at my right
hand, so that I could defend myself against a wild beast

Red Cloud,

i< *{;

ii i

g 1

'm 1

M '

while my life lasted ; and they laid my blanket by the edge
of a stream of water, so that I could get drink without
moving ; then one by one they wished me good-bye, and I
saw them depart for ever.

*' It was ihe middle of the day when they tlius left me.
When they were all gone and I could no more hear the
sound of man or horse, I felt very lonely, and wished to die.
I saw the daylight growing dim and the night coming down
through the trees. Then I felt hungry, and taking some meat
from the pile bcs'c'e me, I ate it, drank some water, and
slept.

" When I awoke next morning I felt better. My leg and
arm were both useless, but my flesh-wounds were beginning
to heal, and I did not seem so weak as I had been. That
-lay 'passed, and another, and another. I began to get ac-
customed to the solitude, and to watch everything around
me. Two whiskey jacks came and sat looking at me on a
branch close to my head. I threw small bits of meat to
them, and at last they came so close that they took the
food from my hand and hopped over my body. I was glad
to have them, they were company to me during the long
daylight hours. About ten days passed, and I was still
alive — alive, and gaining strength day by day. What was
to be done ? I looked at my store of meat, and saw that it
could not last more than ten days ; after that time I would
starve to death. I began to think very anxiously on what

A long craivlfor life.

the edge
without

^e, and I

left me.
hear the
d to die.
ng down
»me meat
Iter, and

'^ leg and
beginning
n. That
3 get ac-
l around
me on a
meat to
took the
was giad
the long
was still
Vhat was
w that it
I would
on what

I could do to save myself from this death. To stay where
I was, meant to die a lingering death after ten days. I
thought I would try to move and practise myself in moving
even on rny hands and knees. Each day I crept more and
more about the thicket in which I had been. I ..rept to
the edge of it and looked out over the plains. Tiiey i"'y
around me to the north and west far as my eye could reach.
They never seemed so large to me before. I saw buffalo
feeding a long way off towards the north ; that was the way
we had come. My camp lay away in that direction — but
so far. I thought over the direction in my mind ; I remem-
bered rll the streams we had crossed, the places where
we had camped, the hills and the valleys we had passed :
it seemed as long as a dream at night.

" For four days I kept moving to and fro, crawling on
hands and knees about the thicket. I began to go farther
and farther away from it, and each day I found I could
move faster. I had the use of one leg and one arm quite
strong ; the other arm was sound to the elbow, but the
hand was helpless; my left leg had been broken below the
knee. I felt much pain when I moved, but that did not
matter ; anything was better than lying in the trees waiting
for death. On the sixth day after this I put together all that
remained of my dry meat store, and with nothing but my
knife in my belt (I never could have carried my gun), I
crawled forth from the camp in which I had lain during

7(5

Red Cloud.

I i

P I

so many days. I held my slow way towards the north
almost along the same line we had travelled but a month
earlier, when we swept so swiftly along over the prairie.

" For many hours I plodded on. It seemed as though I
could never get out of sight of the thicket ; often I looked
back, and there it was still close to me ; at last the night
hid it from sight, and I stretched my aching limbs upon the
ground

•'AH next day I went on. About noon I came to a stream,
drank deeply, and washed my wounds in the cool water ;
again I crawled on towards the north, and slept again in
the middle of the plain.

" By the fifth day I had finished the last scrap of my meat.
I now looked about anxiously for the bodies of buffalo that
had been killed. On our journey down we had killed
many buffaloes, and I was now passing over ground where
we had hunted twenty days before ; but it is one thing to
look for buffalo on horseback, and another thing to seek
for it lying level upon >^he ground. I could not see far
before or around me; s metimes I crawled to the top of a
hillock for a wider survey of the plain. The night came, I lay
down without food or water Next morning I began to move
as soon as it was light er 'i to see. I made for a small
hill that stoof^ little to 'de of my line; from its top

I saw, a long .ance away uommy course, a small black
speck. T knew it to be a lead buffalo. I made for it, but

|e north
month

lirie.

(hough I
looked

le night

ipon the

I stream,
water ;
igain in

ly meat,
falo that
d killed
d where
thing to
to seek
see far
top of a
le, I lay
o move
a small
its top
11 black
it, but

Hunger, thirst, and travail.

it was noon when I had reached it. I ate a little, then cut
with my knife as much as I could carry, and set out to find
water, for I was very thirsty. I held on in the direction of a
valley I had noticed from the top of a hill. It was sun-
set when I got to it, and to my great joy I found water;
then I ate a great deal of my meat and drank plentifully of
the water, and lay down to sleep, happy.

" The next morning I ate and drank again, and then set
out once more. Day by day I went on; sometimes I
dragged myself all day along, starving and thirsty ; some-
times I had to lie down at night with burning throat ; some-
times I came to a buffalo, so long killed that of his flesh
the wolves had left nothing except the skin and muscle of
the head and hide. At night when I had got no food
during the day I used to dream of old times, when the
camp had feasted upon freshly-killed buffalo, when the
squaws had dressed the tongues; and at other times I thought
I had some moose noses before me, and was seated in my
lodge while the briskets were being boiled over the fire in
the centre ; and then my lips would open and close, and I
heard my teeth strike together as though I had been eating,
and I woke to find I was weak and hungry, and that only
the great dark prairie lay around me.

" At last I lost all count of the days. I only thought of
three things — food, drink, and the course I had to travel.
My pain had become so much my life that I had ceased to

I si ;

1; -li

If !•! i

•III

:} m

r !

i?r^/ Cloud.

think about it. One day I was as usual dragging myself
along when I noticed right in front of me an object that
filled my heart with terror. Before me, over the ridge of an
incline which I was ascending, appeared two small pointed
objects. They were sharply seen against the sl.y over the
rim of the ridge. I knew instantly what th:y were. I
knew that under these two small pointed objects there were
the head and body of a grizzly bear. He was ?ying there
right in my onward path, watching for buffalo. I knew
that he had seen me while aflir, and that he now awaited
my approach, thinking that I was some wild animal of v/hose
capture he was certain.

"I laid myself flat upon the ground, and then I di?\v
away to the left, and when I had gained whr.t I had deemed
sufficient distance I again tried to ascend the incline; bui
again, full in my front, I saw the dreaded pointed tips over
the prairie ridge. The bear had seen me as I moved to
the left, and he too had gone in that direction to intercept
me on the brow of the hill. Again I laid myself flat upon
the prairie and crawled away to one side, this time taking
care not to attempt to cross the ridge until I had gone a
long way to the flank. Creeping very cautiously up the
hill, I looked over the ridge. The bear was nowhere to
be seen. I made all haste to leave behind the spot so
nearly fatal to me, and continuing to crawl long after night
had fallen, I at length lay down to sleep, feeling more tired.

The Great Spirit, like an eagle, looks on the prairic,^^ 79

myself
.'ct that
?e (^i an
pointed
)vcr the
ere. I
re were
S there
I knew
a'vaited
f uhose

I dr^\\r
Jeemod
»e; bui
OS over
)vt1 to
itercei.t
t upon
taking
gone a
up the
lere to
pot so
f night
; tired.

and hungry, and exhausted, than I had yet been since I set
out first upon my long journey. That was only a few days
since. Three days ago I came In sight of these hills, they
filled my heart with hope ; but only last night I had again
to lie exposed to a great danger — a band of Indians passed
me making for these hills. I could hear them speaking to
one another as they went by; they were Assineboine
Indians on the war-path ; they were so close that some of
their horses scented me, for I heard one say, * Fool, it is only
a wolf you start from.'

"This morning I almost gave up hope of ever reaching
succour. I knew my people must have left these hills, or
else the Stonies could not have been there. Then I thought
that some of their scouts would be sure to see me on the
plain, and that it would be better to lie down in some water-
course and die there, than to die at the hands of my
enemies and have my scalp hung at the mane of an Assine-
boine's horse ; but when I thought of all that I had gone
through — of how, when I had been dying of thirst, water
had lain in my track — of how I had found food when starv-
ing, — I took hope again, and said to myself, * The Great
Spirit sees me. Like an eagle in the mid-day, His eye is cast
down upon the prairie ; He has put food and water on the
plain ; He has shielded me from the grizzly, and wrapt the
night around me when my enemies passed near me. I will
not lie down and die \ I will go on still, in hope.'

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

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Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

1^ ^\ "^^

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23 WeST MAIN STRieT

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716)872-4303

Red Cloud,

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ii|

i *

" Well, I went on, and it grew dark once more. I was
determined to drag on until I reached these hills, for I
knew that there was plenty of water here. Then all at once
I heard the noise of a horse's hoofs, and I hid myself, think-
ing it was an Assineboine scout; and then I heard your
voice, and I knew that I was safe."

Such was the story.

The poor fellow spoke in his native tongue, which tne
Sioux understood, and as to him many Indian dialects were
familiar, interpreted to me as we sat at the camp fire. The
Red Cloud, familiar as his life had made him with every
phase of hardship of Indian existence on the great prairie,
had never before met with such a singular instance of
Indian fortitude and perseverance as this was; but the
concluding portion of the Cree's narrative had roused other
thoughts in his mind, and to these he directed his questions.

"The Assineboines that passed by you last night," he
said, " how many might they have numbered ? "

" They were but few," answered the Cree ; " about fifteen
men."

" What part of the hills were they making for ? "

" They were on a line that would lead them north of
where we now are."

The Sioux remained silent for some time. He was
thinking deeply upon the presence of this war-party. It
boded trouble in the future. It was true he had quarrel

Saved — Watched.

'4.

with no Indian tribe ; but a small war-party of fifteen braves
is not particular on the score of cause of enmity, and if
horses are to be captured or scalps taken, it usually matters
little whether actual war has been declared beforehand ; and
the adage that those who are not with me are against me,
holds good on such wild raids as that upon which the party
seen by the Cree were now bound. Thinking out many
different courses, and weighing well their various probabili-
ties of success or failure, the Sioux at length wrapped him-
self in his blanket and lay down to rest. We had spread a
blanket for the Crce, and had done all we could to make
him comfortable. At first the poor creature seemed
scarcely to understand the meaning of so much kindness
and attention from a stranger. Under the influence of a
good supper he soon forgot the fearful hardships which
he had so lately passed through, and the full realization of
his immediate safety seemed to obliterate all anxiety for
the future. And yet, as he now lay by the camp fire of
his preserver there was as much danger hanging over him
as ever had threatened him in the darkest moment of his
terrible journey.

Over the brow of a hill close by, a pair of watchful eyes
were looking into the camp, intently noting every move-
ment in and around it

Red Cloud.

CHAPTER V.

An Assineboine camp— The trader McDermott— The chief
"Wolverine" — Fire-water and finesse — The Assineboine
war-party— A chance of a Cree scalp— The trader hears a
well-known name — A big bid for murder, two hundred
skins !

I !i

The events that now began to unfold themselves in my
life and in those of my companions, took shape and context
only after long lapse of time had passed by.

It was frequently when months had vanished that I learned
the various threads of action which had led to incidents of
more or less importance to me. Hitherto I had been only
a boy-actor in the drama of existence. I was now about to
become a sharer in a larger sphere of action, and to partici-
pate in scenes of adventure the springs of which were
involved in the lives and actions of other men. Writing now
as I do from a standpoint of life which looks back across
many years to those early adventures, I am able to set
down the record with its various parts complete. I can see
the lines of life upon which other men moved, and can
trace the impulses upon which they acted — can fill in, as it

An Assinehoine camp.

The chief
issineboine
er hears a
hundred

ves in my
lid context

it I learned
icidents of
been only
w about to
to partici-
hich were
riting now
)ack across
ible to set
I can see
, and can
11 in, as it

were, the gaps between their action and mine own, and
give to the story of my life at that period an insight into
events which then lay veiled from me by distance. It will
therefore be necessary, in order that my readers may com-
prehend clearly the thread of the events I am about to relate,
that I should at times carry them away to scenes in which
personally I was not an actor, and that they should occasio-
nally o'erleap the boundaries of the moment to look upon
a far wider theatre of events than I myself had at the time
beheld.
\ h We will therefore leave the scene at the camp-fire in the

Wolverine hills, and travel in imagination a hundred miles to
the south-west, where, on one of the sources of the Qu'appelle
river, a large camp of Assineboines, or Stone Indians, is
pitched.

The camp is a large one, for the buffalo have been
numerous all the summer long on the prairies south of the
Qu'appelle, and many scattered bands of the tribe have come
together to hunt and feast upon the mighty herd. A brisk
trade is being carried on too in skins and robes ; for a rich
trader has arrived in the camp, with goodly store of guns,
blankets, trinkets, powder and ball, and beads ; and chief and
brave, and squaw and boy, are busy at the work ot barter
and exchange.

On the evening we speak of, the chief of the Assineboines
was seated smoking in his lodge, when the leather door was

G 2

Red Cloud.

raised and the figure of a white man entered. It wa
McDermott, the trader from the Red River.

The Wolverine extended his hand to the new comer, the
trader shook it, seated himself on the opposite side
of the small, clear wood fire that burned in the centre
of the lodge, and began to smoke in silence. The
Indian scarcely moved a muscle, but sat smoking too,
his eyes fixed upon the flame. At last the trader broke
silence. " Has any news come of the young men who a.-e
on the war-path ? " he asked.

" No," answered the Wolverine, " they will carry their own
news ; when they have something to tell and to show, then
they will return."

McDermott had his own reasons for asking ; he wanted
horses, and he knew that if the war-party was successful he
would obtain them for a trifle. Horses lightly got upon the
war-path, are lightly parted with by their captors. A trading
gun and some ball and powder would purchase a good
horse in the camp ; ten guns' value would not buy him in
the English settlement on the Red river.

The Wolverine knew well that the trader did not ask these
questions without good reason ; and although he had that
day received news of the war-party, both of their where-
abouts and future movements, he was not going to give the
smallest item of that news to his questioner without receiving
some substantial return for it.

ft It ■

I \.

TJic trader McDcrmot.

It \va

comer, the
osite side
the centre
nee. The
3king too,
der broke
n who are

J their own
jhow, then

he wanted
:cessful he
•t upon the
A trading
se a good
buy him in

it ask these
e had that
eir where-
o give the
t receiving

On his part McDermott was also aware that a messenger
had come in during the day from the war-party, but of the
purport of the news, or the movements of the party, he could
not glean any tidings ; but he had brought with him to the
lodge of the Wolverine a potent key to unlock the secret
store of that chiefs mind, and as he now produced from his
pocket a bottle of the strongest fire-water, there came a look
into the impassive eye of the old Indian opposite that told
the trader at once that the information he sought for would
soon be his.

Taking a small tin vessel, he poured out into it some of
the fiery poison, and handed the cup across the fire to the
chief. As his hand passed over the flame he shook a few
drops of the spirit on the fire ; a bright blue flame shot
quickly up, illuminating all the interior of the lodge and
lighting up the dusky features of the Wolverine, whose arm
was already outstretched to receive the drink he so deeply
thirsted for.

" It is good fire-water," he said as he saw the blaze, " so
it will light up the heart of the red man as it does this red
stick."

McDermott cautiously refrained for some moments from
asking any more questions of the whereabouts of the war-
party. A perfect adept in the ways of Indian trade, he
knew the fire-water would soon do its work on the brain of
the Wolverine.

Red Cloud,

The Indian drank, and returned the empty cup to his
visitor.

" I wished to learn the movements of your young men,"
said McDermott after a long pause, during which his sharp
eye had noted the Indian's face as he sat glowering over the
fire, " because I am about to quit this camp, and I am afraid
they may come upon my horses at night and mistake them
for those of an enemy."

" What direction do you travel ? " asked the chief.

" Towards the settlement," replied the trader. " My sup-
plies are nearly exhausted, and it is time to return home."

This was a lie. He had no intention whatever of leaving
the plains, and the best portion of his goods he had kept
concealed from the Assineboines in a cache on the
Qu'appelle river. For the third time he filled the cup, and
already the eye, glistening in the firelight like that of a
serpent, told the effect the fiery liquor was having upon the
Wolverine's brain. " I want you," went on the trader, " to
send with me the Indian who came to-day from the war-
party. He will protect my horses from being taken, in
case I should fall in with your young men."

'* There will be no danger to your horses," said the Indian.
" My young men are far away from the trail that leads to
the settlement \ but you want to get the horses they have
taken, not to protect your own. Well, give me the rest of
that bottle, and you may take with you the young man who

Fire-zvater and finesse.

cup to his

ng men,"
his sharp

g over the
am afraid

take them

ef.

" My sup-
i home."
of leaving
had kept
e on the
2 cup, and
that of a
; upon the
rader, "to
I the war-
taken, in

le Indian,
leads to
:hey have
lie rest of
man wiio

to-day has come from the party. He will lead you where
you will find them."

The bargain was soon struck, and as the trader quitted
the lodge the Wolverine was clutching in his bony
fingers the fatal fire-water, which, more than war, hunger,
or exposure, has destroyed the red man's race over the
wide continent of North America.

McDermott having obtained the chief's consent to his
taking the brave lately arrived from the war-party away
with him, without which permission it would have been fatal
to his future interests in trade to have moved him, lost no
time in setting out or his road. He put together the
greater portion of his goods, and leaving a half-breed
servant to continue the exchange of those things that it was
impossible for hi*^ to take away, he departed from the camp
at midnight, and by daybreak was far away from the last
trace of the Assineboines.

He had with him the Assineboine scout as guide, and two
retainers, a French half-breed and a Salteaux Indian. The
party rode rapidly ; they had a large band of horses, and
packs and saddles were frequently changed. By the evening
of the first day they drew near the last mountain range of
hills. The scout led the way. When night fell upon the
plain they were on the edge of the hills ; presently a small
lake was reached. It was now dark, but the guide knew the
track, and he pushed on into the hills.

Red Cloud.

■r

t r^

i :

A long ride further through rough and broken ground, on
which they had carefully to pick their way, brought them
suddenly face to face with a small fire burning it; a glen
between abrupt hills. Around the fire were seated several
figures. It was the camp of the war-party. The braves sat
late around their fires, but there was reason for their doing
so. A scout had only lately returned with news of impoit-
ance. The story he had to tell was to this effect, At
sunset he had been looking from a hill over the prairie
to the west ; he had suddenly observed two horsemen riding
from a point in the line of hills farther to the south, out
into the plain. Judging from the lateness of the hour, that
a camp must be in the neighbourhood of the place from
whence those horsemen had gojie, the scout had ridden
cautiously forward towards that portion of the hills. He
had soon discovered a fire, beside which a solitary white
man sat. Concealing himself effectually from sight, he
had watched and waited.

Soon there had come an Indian and another white man,
bearing with them what seemed the dead body of another
Indian. But this man was not dead; he shortly began to
speak, to eat, to drink. He was a Cree, who told a story of
having crawled a long way over the prairies from the south.
The scout knew only a little of the Cree language, and he
had been able only to follow roughly what the wounded
man had said. As for the otlier men — the white men he

The Assineboine ivar-party.

ground, on
ught them
it; a glen
ed several
braves sat
icir doing
of impoil-
Jffect. At
the prairie
men riding
south, out
hour, that
place from
bad ridden
hills. He
itary white
sight, he

i^hite man,
3f another
' began to

a story of
the south.
^, and he

wounded
; men he

had never seen before, but the red man was tlie Red Cloud,
the famous wandering Sioux.

Now the principal item of this story that had interest for
the Assineboines, who sat eager listeners around the fire, was
that which had reference to the wounded Cree Indian : the
Crees were enemies ; the war-party had as yet taken no Croc
scalps. How could they return to their camp with no
trophy to show ? The women and children would laugh at
them; the old men would say, "Ah ! it was different in our
time ; we did not come in from the war-trail without horses
or scalps." Here then was a great chance of supplying
this most pressing want.

It was true that the Red Cloud was well known over all
the northern prairies. It would be no easy matter to carry
off the Cree from his protection ; nor would it be safe to
molest the white men who were with him, for the noise of
harm done to white men travelled sometimes far over the
prairies, and reached even the ears of the Great Mother who
dwelt beyond the big sea in the land where the sun rose.

These things considered made it wiser to attempt the
capture of the Cree while both the Indian and his white
friends were absent from their camp. If this could be
effected, then indeed the party might return in triumph to
their friends and justly receive the rewards of bravery.

It will be seen from the foregoing summary of the con-
versation which had been held over the fire by the Assine-

rigf'

Red Cloud,

boincs now grouped around it, that the bravery of the party
individually or collectively was not of the highest order ; but
in truth the tiling we call courage is much the same among
red men as among white all the world over. Confined to
no class or to no people, its examples will be found often
mixed with strange evidences of cowardice ; and side by
side with the man who dares for the sake of daring, will be
found the man in whose heart a bit of cheap courage is only
less cherished than his life.

It was while thus the party of Assineboines debated their
future action that the voice of the scout who had left them
some days previously was heard saluting from the darkness.
The new arrivals came for, yard into the circle of light.
McDermott was an old acquaintance, and he and his
Salteaux were soon seated around the fire. The presence
of the trader did little to interrupt the flow of conversation
between the Assineboines. Too much engrossed by the pro-
spect of such an easy prey, they soon resumed the thread of
their discussion, and after some questions asked and
answered the new comer was left to smoke in silence.

But as the Assineboines debated their plans, and mention
had been made once or twice of the two men in the other
camp against whom the braves had no quarrel, there came
into the trader's face an expression of rapt attention, and he
listened eagerly to every word that fell from his companions.
He might well start at the utterance of one name — the

The trader hears a well-known nAme.

the party
>rder ; but
ne among
Dnfined to
md often
d side by
|g, will be
ge is only

ated their
left them
darkness,
of light.
and his
presence
iversation
y the pro-
thread of
^ed and
e.

mention
the other
ere came
1, and he
panions.
tne— the

name of the Red Cloud, the son of the man he had foully
betrayed to his doom.

Face to face he had never met the Sioux chief, but a
vague undefined fear had oppressed him whenever his
name had been mentioned. He well knew that the ven-
geance of the Sioux is deep and lasting ; he knew too
that if any act merited revenge it was the act which he had
committed upon the father of this man with whom he had
had no cause of quarrel, with whom he had been on terms
of long and deep intimacy, in whose tent he had eaten
in former times, when the Sioux had held their lands up
to the shores of the Otter Tail and to the sources of the
Mississippi.

Nine years had passed since that foul deed had been
wrought. In the wild life of the prairies, and amid a society
whose deeds of violence were of too frequent occurrence,
the memory of any particular act of bloodshed is soon for-
gotten ; but time had never blotted out the recollection of
the treachery of the trader McDermott. There was not
a Sioux on the most southern tributary stream of the great
Missouri who had not heard of that dark night's work, when,
drugged at the feast to which he had gone in the confidence
of old friendship, the chief Black Eagle was carried
through the snow of the winter night and yielded a prisoner
at the frontier post on the Red river.

Since that lime the trader had groAvn rich. He had many

Red Cloud.

successful ventures on the plains; ior the quraiels of the
Sioux were not the quarrels of the Crees, the Assineboines,
and the Blackfeet, the Sircees or the Salteaux ; but throu";h
all these years he lived as it were in the shadow of his owl
crime, and he felt that while a Sioux was left to roam
the prairie, the dead body of the man whose life he had sold
was still unburied. Many a lime when the shadows darkened
upon the great landscape had he heard in his heart the
mysterious voice of conscience, upbraiding him with the
deed of blood; but more than all had he conceived,
with the intuitive faculty of fear, a dread of the Red
Cloud.

Whether there came tidings of a battle or a skirmish,
fought between the remnants of the Sioux, the Mandans,
the Minatarre, or the Ogahalla branches of that once mighty
nation with the troops of the United States, McDermott
longed to learn that this wandering chief, whose presence
ever haunted his imagination, had at last met his end. But
he ever seemed to bear a charmed life.

At one time he was heard of in a raid upon the American
post on the great bend of the Missouri ; again came tidings
that he had led a small band of the Ogahalla against a de-
tachment of soldiers in the fort hills of Montana, and that
not one living soul had escaped to tell the fate of the
American soldiers; and again there came news that a solitary
Indian had been seen by the Touchwood hills, or in the

Fear of Retribution,

rels of the

sineboines,

ut throuf^h

of his OWL

: to roam

e had sold

3 darkened

heart the

with the

conceived,

the Red

skirmish,
Mandans,
ice mighty
[cDermott
J presence
ind. But

American
ne tidings
nst a de-
, and that
.te of the
a solitary
9r in the

1 ■?.

broken ridges of the Mauvais Bois, and that this roving red
man was the Red Cloud.

That curious instinct which danger frequently gives to
the mind long before any actual symptom of its approach
is visible, had warned the trader McDermott that while the
Sioux lived he had reason to dread at his hands a fate as
cruel as the one to which he had consigned the old chief.

Now all at once, sitting here at this camp fire, he heard the
dreaded name of his enemy, and gathering from the con-
versation that only a few miles away from where he sat lay
camped the man he feared more than anything on earth,
it is little wonder that his heart beat loudly within his
breast, and his face showed unmistakable traces of the con-
flict of passion that raged within him. For with the news
of this proximity of his hated enemy there was also a
chance not to be lightly lost. Here was the Sioux in com-
pany with a wounded Cree, close to a war-party of Assine-
boines hungry for trophies and for plunder. His course
was plain. Could he succeed in inducing the Assineboines
to attack the Sioux camp, and end for ever his hated enemy?
It would go hard with him if he could not.

Listening to the conversation of the braves, and at the
same time endeavouring to frame his plans for the destruc-
tion of the Sioux, he sat silent for some time. The pre-
sence of white men in the camp of the Sioux alone dis-
quieted him; it prevented his openly proposing to the

Red Cloud.

ii4

! ■!

Indians who were with him to attack the camp, and joining
them himself in doing so.

The death on the prairies of two Indians would have
mattered little, but the murder of two white men was an
event that might give rise to unpleasant questions being
asked in the Red River ; and when next he visited his home
there, it might be to find himself charged with complicity or
actual share in the crime.

He pretended therefore not to have heard much of what
the Assineboines had been speaking among themselves, but
to approach his object from an outside point altogether.

Watching an opportunity, and addressing himself to the
leader of the band, he began.

" I see no trace of war," he said, " and I hear of no
horses having been captured. Are the Crees too strong,
that your braves have feared to encounter them ? or do they
watch their horses so closely that you cannot get near them ?

The taunt struck the mark it had been aimed at. " We
have not taken scalps," replied the leader, "because the
Crees keep together and shun our presence. The horses of
the Crees are fleet to run away \ but it may not be long," he
added, " before we have horses, and scalps too."

" I want some good horses," went on the trader, " and I
will give a large price for them ; but they must be of the
right kind — not small, starved ponies, but mustangs of size
and power, fit for a chief to ride."

id joining

mid have
n was an
ons being
his home
nplicity or

:h of what
selves, but
jether.
ielf to the

lear of no
too strong,

or do they
near them ?

at. "We
ecause the
le horses of
»e long," he

ler, " and I
t be of the
angs of size

Watching an opportunity, the tra-^ler addressed the leader of the band.

Page 94,

I i
.'1

! -I

I s

■III'

■I

ii;

is,-

. 11:.
1 is..

A big bid formnrder.

He well knew the horses which the Red Cloud usually
rode and used, and in mentioni:^ the style of horse he now
required he painted exactly those of his enemy.

" And what would you give for such a horse ? " asked the
Assineboine leader.

The trader thought for a moment. Here was his oppor-
tunity. Now or never he would name a price dazzling to
the Indian — cheap to him, since it might for ever rid him of
the man he feared and hated.

"I would give for such a horse," he slowly replied,
" two hundred skins."

Two hundred skins ! Never had horse fetched such a
price since the mustang breed had reached these northern
prairies from the great plateau of New Mexico and the
Spanish frontier, two hundred years ago. The Indian was
dumb with astonishment — for three such horses he and his
band would get 750 skins. Why they would be rich for
evermore. They would be the envy of every young
Assineboine in the tribe. The fairest squaws would be their
wives, for they could lay such a pile of presents at the
lodge doors of the parents that it would be impossible
to deny their suit. What guns, too, they could buy, and
fancy rifles, and store of beads and gaudy dress, with porcu-
pine quills, and blankets of brightest hue !

All these things flashed through the minds of the war-
party as they listened to the trader's offer. The bid was too

Red Cloud,

I tii

high ; the last doubt about attempting to kill the Cree and
carry off the horses of the Sioux vanished, and already they
began to speculate upon their future disposal of so much
wealth and so much finery. So far as they were concerned
the doom of the Cree, and for that matter of the Sioux,
and his associates if resistance was offered, was settled.

The trader saw with suppressed joy this realization of
his fondest hopes. He well knew the Sioux would fight to
the bitter end sooner than lose friend or horse. He
had only one fear, and that was that the murder of the
Cree and the capture of the horses might be effected
while the Sioux was absent from his camp, and that thus the
life of his enemy might be saved.

As he wrapt himself in his robe a little later on in the
night, and lay down to sleep by the still smouldering embers
of the camp fire, he felt at last that his long fear was wearing
to an end, and that the fate of his enemy was sealed.

Cree and
ready they
" so much
concerned
the Sioux,
ttled.

ilization of
Id fight to
orse. He
ier of the
e effected
at thus the

on in the
ing embers
'•as wearing
ed.

CHAPTER VI.

The Sioux forecasts our course — On the watch— Directions—
We separate — Red Cloud is seen far out on the plains — Rival
tactics— Scent versus sight — A captured scout — The edge of
the hills again — The signal fire.

And now the reader must come back to our own camp,
where we have all this time been comfortably settled for the
night. The concluding portion of the Cree's story had
thoroughly alarmed the Sioux. From the few words in
which the Cree had described the passing of the war-
party, he had easily been able to put together all that was
needful for thoroughly understanding the situation. His
knowledge of the prairies, and his complete mastery of
every detail of Indian thought and habit, made easy to him
the task of tracking the further progress of the party, and
guessing their whereabouts almost to exactness.

They were camped, he thought, only some seven or
eight miles distant, in the same range of hills, and not far
from where the level prairie bordered on the west the
broken ground.

Ot course he knew nothing of the arrival, in the camp of

Red Cloud.

\he war-party, of his deadly enemy, the trader ; but he had
long surmised the whereabouts of that individual to be not
very remote, and from the information which he had gained
when in the neighbourhood of the settlement, he was led
to conjecture that the first large Indian camp he came to
would have the trader as one of its inmates.

But as to the probable movements of the party, he formed
a very correct anticipation. Their scouts' would be sure to
discover our camp at furthest on the morrow, even if they
had not already done so ; the Cree would prove to them
too strong a temptation to be resisted, and the near presence
of such good horses would be sure to give rise to some
attempt at robbery. He did not communicate any of
these thoughts to us, his companions, now. He determined
to wait quietly until we were asleep, then to drive in the
steeds, and to remain on watch until daybreak. With these
precautions there would be little danger.

Departing quietly from the camp when our easy and regular
respiration told him that we were asleep, he drove in the
hobbled horses to the fire; then hobbling them so that the neck
and forelegs were fastened together in addition to the fasten-
ing of the two forelegs, he withdrew to the shelter of a small
thicket which commanded a view of the camp and its
neighbourhood, and wrapping himself in his robe sat down,
with his rifle between his knees and his dog beside him, to
pass the night on guard.

On the watch.

.It he had
to be not
ad gained
e wns led
came to

he formed
3e sure to
en if they
e to them
r presence
e to some
te any of
ietermined
ive in the
With these

md regular
Dve in the
at the neck
the fasten-
■ of a small
ip and its
; sat down,
ide him^ to

How weary such a night to a white man 1 How slowly
the long dark hours would roll by ! How anxiously the
first gleam of light would be looked for in the east ! Not
so with the red man; night after night will he thus sit,
watching with eyes that never close, with ears that never
deaden in their keen sense of sound. Sometimes in his
lodge, sometimes as here in the thicket on the plain, thus
will he sit hour after hour until the grey light steals into the
east, grows broader over the sky, and the night is done.

At the first gleam of daylight Red Cloud moved gently
back to camp, threw wood upon the fire, roused me from
my slumbers, and got breakfast ready.

The meal over, he took me aside and unfolded to me
his plan of action.

" To-day," he said, " we are sure to be found out by the
war-party of Assineboines. They will not venture openly to
attack us during the day, but they will reconnoitre our
camp, and probably to-night they will attempt to run oft
the horses and kill this Cree. We cannot wait here, they
are too many for us; neither can we move out into the
plain, they would instantly see us and give chase; and
though you and your companion might make a good stand
with me by ourselves, yet with this Cree we could not do
it. What I propose doing is this : the Cree is able to sit a
horse; you three will start at once, taking the hound with
you, heading straight into the hills. The Cree will know the

lOO

Red Cloud.

line to follow, and how to keep the bottoiw of the valley.
Until one hour beiore noon you must hold your course deep
into the hills due east, then you will turn to the north and
ride fast for three hours until the sun is half-way to the
prairie. Then turning quickly to the west, you will con-
tinue your way until you come again to the edge of three
hills ; by this course you will have followed three sides of a
square. Within that square lies the camp of the Assine-
boines. This evening, if you do all I say, you will be as
far to the north of that camp as we are to the south of it
now. Look how the grass falls."

So saying, he threw some dry grass into the air. It fell
towards the south, the wind was blowing from the north.

" To-night," he said, " that wind will blow in the direc-
tion I want. You will reach the edge of the hills before the
sun has set. When it is quite dark make a small fire on the
slope of one of the hills facing towards the plain ; let it be
in such a position that while visible to a person out on the
prairie, it will be concealed from the sight of any one in
the hills to the south. Keep the fire burning for half
an hour after dark ; then extinguish it, and make your
camp near the spot, but within the shelter of the hills.
Soon after that time I will be with you. For the rest, fire
no shot during the day unless you should happen to be
attacked, and move silently in your course through the
hills."

le valley,
urse deep
north and
ay to the
will con-
i of three
sides of a
e Assine-
vill be as
)uth of it

r. It fell

north,
the direc-
before the
(ire on the
; let it be
)ut on the
ny one in
g for half
nake your

the hills.
iC rest, fire
pen to be
rough the

Red Cloud is seen far out on the plains, loi

The preparations for moving were soon made ; there was
no time to be lost. We took three horses and set off into
the hills. The Sioux spoke a word to the dog, ordering
him to go with us; the dog reluctantly obeyed, but his
training was perfect and he trotted on after the Crce.
Having seen us out of the camp and behind the first in-
tervening rise of ground, he turned his horse's head full
for the plains, and taking the lariat of a loose pack-horse
carrying only a few light articles, he set off at a sharp pace
into the great prairie.

He had kept his own plans to himself, but they will
unfold themselves to view as we follow his steps.

Keeping for some time along the base of the hills, he
had at length begun to edge farther and farther out into
the plain, until after a couple of hours' riding he was many
miles in a diagonal line from his starting-point. Then
he began to direct his horse more to the west, making a
wide curve the base of which was the range of hills, then
turning towards the north he continued for some time to
hold a course in that direction. He was now fully ten
miles out in the plain, a distance which made him and his
horse appear mere specks in the immense range of vision.

Small as these specks of life were, they did not escape,
however, the watchful glance of a scout, who from the
neighbourhood of the Assineboine camp scanned the
plains ; but not even Indian sight could resolve at that

102

Red Cloud.

distance these objects. Horsemen or horseman certainly—
but what horsemen ? No human eye could tell.

The scout's report brought quickly to the standpoint some
more of the braves, but no additional light could be gleaned
from their opinions as to who the distant specks might be,
or where their course was laid for. At break of day that
morning the trusty scout who had first discovered the camp,
and had brought tidings of the Cree to his companions, had
started to again reconnoitre the place and its occupmts.

While Red Cloud is thus slowly making his way across
the plain, under the distant range of vision of the Assine-
boines, we will- follow for a time the fortunes of this
single scout, whose work it was to watch during the
day the camp, the attack of which had been fixed for the
following night.

In his survey of the previous evening, the Assineboine
scout had observed that at the farther side of the camp to
the one on which he had approached it, there stood a hill
partly covered with brushwood, which would afford him, if
he could gain its shelter, a better position for watching the
movements and hearing the conversation of the occupants
of the camp. His only means of reaching the cover of
this hill was to make a long detour through the broken
ground lying towards the east, and by coming out south of
the camp approach it from its most distant side : this he
determined to attempt;

Rival tactics.

103

ertainly—

loint some
:)e gleaned

might be,
fday that

the camp,
nions, had
npmts.
way across
he Assme-
es of this
luring the
ed for the

^ssinebolne
le camp to
stood a hill
ford him, if
atching the
; occupants
le cover of
the broken
at south of
de : this he

Estimating the two camps to be ten miles from each
other, the course the Assineboine proposed to travel would
take him about fifteen or twenty miles. He pushed rapidly
along, keeping to the hollows between the ridges, and at
times leading his horse through thickets and copsewood,
and ever and anon in wet and boggy ground, slopping to
listen, or ascending some ridge higher than others for a
wide view around.

Thus it happened that about the same time of the morn-
ing the Assineboine scout and our little party were pursuing
two circular courses, the lines of which must intersect
each other at one point. Whoever came to that point last
would be made aware of the passage of the others. No
eye could fail to see a trail in the soft turf of the valleys.

Leaving the scout to pursue his way, we will now follow
our own fortunes along our path. Without incidents of any
kind, we had continued our course through the hills towards
the east. It was almost time for that change of direction
which the Sioux had enjoined upon us.

I led the way, closely followed by Donogh; the Cree
was in the rear with the dog. Between them ran two pack-
horses. The Cree was mounted on the other pack-horse
whose load was now light, inasmuch as the supplies of meat
had been considerably lessened by the consumption of the
past three days, no large game having fallen since the
death of the wapiti ; the wild ducks and prairie grouse

:■ i!

US'.

I':

I ■('!

iJiH

104

Red Cloud.

so plentiful in this part of the plains having amply sufficed
to keep our party in food.

As we now journeyed on, the Cree, who was in rear of all,
saw by the attitude of the dog that it suddenly betokened
the presence of some animal to the left. He called my
attention to the fact.

The dog showed unmistakable signs of having either seen
or smelt some living thing. He stood with head turned
towards the left, and ears pointed forwards, as though he
partly expected an advance from that quarter, of man or
beast. At times a low growl escaped his half-closed mouth.

Determined to discover what it could mean, I spoke a
few words to the dog. Instantly he bounded forward full
into a thicket, which stood only some sixty paces distant.
There was a loud noise and breaking of branches in the
thicket ; a succession of fierce barks were succeeded by a
sharp howl of pain, and there broke forth from one side of
the thicket the figure of an Indian on horseback closely
followed by the hound. Ere the horseman had got quite
clear of the wood the dog was upon him, upon the side
nearest to us. With a terrific spring he fastened upon the
right leg of the Indian. In vain the man struck him with a
short bow and a handful of arrows which he held in his
right hand. In an instant the dog had dragged him from his
pony, and both dog and man were rolling together upon the
ground.

A captured scout.

105

ly sufficed

rear of all,
)etokened
:alled my

ither seen
ad turned
;hough he
f man or
ied mouth.
I spoke a
)r\vard full
es distant,
hes in the
eded by a
me side of
,ck closely
got quite
n the side
i upon the
him with a
eld in his
n from his
r upon the

At this moment we rode in upon the struggle. Ere the
Indian could rise and shake himself loose from his savage
assailant I had struck him a violent blow upon the head
with the butt of my gun, which effectually put a stop to
all power of resistance ; then ordering the dog to loose his
hold, we had time to take note of both dog and captive.
The first-named was bleeding profusely from an arrow,
which the Indian had shot at him at the mon.ent he had
entered the thicket The shaft had struck full upon his breast
between his fore legs, but the direction of the arrow fired
from on horseback was downwards, and the point had pene-
trated the .''esh and muscle of his chest, coming out again
beneath his ribs. Still it was an ugly wound, one half-inch
higher, or fired even from the level of a man on foot instead
of on horseback, and the poor dog must have been a dead
animal.

But it is these half-inches that make all the difference
between a dead dog and a captured Assineboine ] for, as
the reader must be aware, the Indian was no other than
the scout on his way to reconnoitre from the south the
camp we had so lately quitted.

And now the question presented itself to our minds what
was to be done with the captive. The Cree's solution was
perfectly s.'mple— it was to instantly despatch him as he lay,
and with his scalp and his horse in our possession (for the
steed had in true Indian fashion stopped when his rider

■ H

;'r

io6

j??^'^ Cloud.

fell) resume our way ; but I could not hear of this proposal.
First tying the Assineboine, so that no attempt at escape
could become possible even if he were sufficiently recovered
from the vigorous application of the butt of the gun, I next
examined carefully the dog's wound, and having extracted
the arrow by breaking the shaft outside the wound and
drawing the head fully out, we saw that it was not dangerous.
Then we caught the Assineboine's pony, and bringing the
steed to its fallen rider — who by this time had sufficiently
recovered consciousness to be fully aware of all that had
passed and was passing around him — we made him mount
his horse, his arms still remaining tied \ then passing a
leather line tightly round his legs, we strapped our prisoner
to the horse's girth, and passing a double line through the
animal's mouth, remounted our own horses, and set out on
our road — first having given the Assineboine a pretty
intelligible hint that any attempt to escape would
quickly cause the revolver in my holster to speak its
mind.

The course was now to the north, and for some hours
we held our way in silence, through the small hills and
deep valleys in which thickets of alders and cotton- wood
trees abounded. In many places the grass rose above our
horses' knees thick and dry, the hot sun of the summer, now
nearly over, had made it as sere and yellow as straw, and
it sounded against the horses' legs like stalks of corn, as our

Our prisoner.

lo;

proposal.

at escape

recovered

un, I next

extracted

oimd and

dangerous.

inging the

sufficiently

1 that had

him mount

passing a

ur prisoner

irough the

set out on

I a pretty

pe would

speak its

ome hours
1 hills and
otton-wood

above our
mmer, now

straw, and
:orn, as our

'*^-

»:

file of horsemen came along at a good pace through hill
and dale.

I now realized as I rode through this tangled mass of
dry vegetation what a prairie fire must be when it has such
a material to feed on in its rapid flight across the plains in
autumn. For the first time, too, as I rode along this day,
the idea of my being the leader of a separate movement of the
character of a branch expedition became present to my
mind. I felt elated to think that in such a very short space
of time I had reached the real home of adventure, and was
bearing my part in the wild work of the wilderness. I had
each day learned something of that life I had so often longed
fiar, and as my experience had widened out, it seemed that
each item of knowledge gained had also lengthened out the
time, and distance.

I could scarcely believe that it was but a week since we
had started on this journey with only the hope of toiling on
day by day into the prairie. Already we had become actors
in a real adventure, and were engaged in the performance
of those things the mere recital of which at home had so
often given me the keenest pleasure.

While thinking these pleasant thoughts now as we rode
along, I nevertheless watched with jealous eye the security
of our prisoner. I was especially anxious to take the
Assineboine alive into camp ; the Cree's method would on
no account have suited me. I desired to be able to hand

:i :

1 08

Red Cloud.

•.!i

II! !i

over the prisoner to Red Cloud, and to say, " Here is an
Assineboine brave taken by your dog. The Cree wanted
to kill him. Dead men tell no tales ; but neither can
they give any information. From this man you will
hear all news — the Assineboine plans will be laid bare to
you."

Thus ruminating within myself we held our way, until the
time had come for changing the course towards the west.

Taking advantage of a valley running through the hills
in that direction, we turned abruptly to our left, and riding
for about two hours began to draw nigh the edge of the
broken ground.

The sun, now low upon the horizon, poured along the
little valley the full flood of his evening splendour. Soft
and still the landscape lay, tinged in many a colour of green
and gold ; for the first shades of autumn on the cotton-
wood trees gave back the salute of the sunset from their
bronzed and yellow leaves, and the green of longer-lived
foliage lay still intermixed among them, as fresh as though
spring had but lately left these quiet hillsides.

At last we reached the edge of the hills ; before us the
great plain lay in the glory of the sunset, stretching into
what seemed an endless west : it was an ocean of green
shored by a sky of gold.

But I had other things to think of, and leaving tl.e
prisoner in a hollow in Donogh's charge, I rode to the

-Jl

' 1

The signal fire.

109

;re is an

2 wanted

ther can

you will

i bare to

until the

I west,
the hills
,nd riding
je of the

ilong the
)ur. Soft
r of green
e cotton-
rom their
nger-lived
as though

)re us the

hing into

of green

aving t'.e
ie to the

summit of one of the hills and began anxiously to scan
the plain beneath. No trace of life met my eye ; the great
ocean of grass held upon its bosom no sign of existence.
Then I set myself to do all that Red Cloud had told me.
The camp was made some little distance in rear amid the
shelter of the hills. Donogh with gun in hand sat sentry
over the prisoner, and the dog lay alternately licking his
wounded chest and gazing ominously at his enemy, as though
the very smallest provocation would induce him to repeat
his onslaught of the mid-day.

By the time camp was made night had fallen. I had
already selected my ground for the signal fire ; it was a saddle-
back depression between two ridges, it was fully open to
the plain west and south-west, but a higher ridge hid it from
the direct south. Here I made a small bright fire, con-
tinuing to feed the flames with dry wood, which cast up a
bright clear light about three feet in height. For half an
hour I kept the flame steadily burning; then quench-
ing it, I returned to our camp to find supper nearly
ready.

We could as yet only communicate with the Cree by
signs, but Donogh was quickly becoming an adept in the
sign language of the wilds, and he and the Cree had ex-
changed much information. The prisoner evidently regarded
me as his sole guarantee for safety, and his face brightened
considerably when 1 returned to camp.

Red Cloud.

Another half-hour passed ; supper had been ready some
time, and the Cree and the Assineboine had already fallen
to upon their portions of dry meat. I began to look
anxiously towards the western darkness for the arrival of
the Sioux.

\'\\

idy some
dy fallen
to look
arrival of

III

CHAPTER VII.

The watched one halts— A light to the north-east— The Stonies
find their mistake — Distant thunder — A light in the dark—
The fire wind — Sauve qui pent — How the fire was lighted
— We ride across the fire field — Enemies in sight — A
dilemma— Between friend and foe— The scout throws in his
lot with us — We ride to the rescue.

I MUST leave our little group round the camp fire, anxiously
awaiting the arrival of the absent one, and carry my readers
away to follow the fortunes of Red Cloud, whom we left far
out upon the plains, under the vision, at a long distance,
of the watchful eyes of many Assineboine enemies.

About the mid-day hour he halted by the edge of a small
pool of brackish water, let his horses crop the short grass,
and lay down himself as though he fully intended to camp
upon the spot for the remainder of the day and the ensuing
night. He well knew that all his movements were now
under the closest observation from the distant line of hills,
and each move he made was the result of much forethought j
bit by bit the entire line be was pursuing, had been
thought out during the previous night as he sat watching

}

''1

1 >

J, 1?

U\ if

1 Ii

1 "

i ■

■. -i

! i(

' 1

;

112

Red Cloud.

our camp in the aspen thicket. And this curious course
which he had held to-day, as well as the lines upon which
he had directed us to travel, were alike the result of careful
plans long considered in every detail.

The Assineboines who watched his progress had, in fact,
planned an expedition to intercept his further course, when
suddenly they observed him halt, and camp upon the open
plain. His capture now appeared to them to be certain ;
they had only to wait for nightfall, and then make a dash
from the hills upon him, carry off the horses, and, if he
was an enemy, take his scalp.

They therefore, watched with impatience the decline of
day, and as soon as the first shades of twilight were thrown
across the prairie they were riding hard for the spot where
the last gleam of light had shown them the solitary traveller
camped in fancied security.

But no sooner had these first shades fallen, than the
seemingly unsuspecting traveller had sprung to his feet and
made a rapid movement towards departure. As he jumped
into his saddle a faint speck of light began to glow far off
towards the north-east; soon it was seen to burn into a
steady flame. Full upon the beacon Red Cloud held his
way. It was his object to make as much distance as possible
while the little ray of light still burned, so he galloped
hard over the level ground. All at once it disappeared as
suddenly as it had arisen, but the line it had given him he

The Stonies find their mistake.

113

ous course
pon which
; of careful

ad, in fact,
)urse, when
)n the open
36 certain ;
lake a dash
and, if he

decline of
i^ere thrown

spot where
iry traveller

1, than the
his feet and

he jumped
^low far off
•urn into a
d held his

as possible
le galloped
ippeared as
^en him he

had marked by a star in the north-east heavens, and he
kept on with unfaltering pace.

Anticipating every move of his enemies, he felt assured
they would leave the hills as soon as twilight promised cover
to their approach.

If he had allowed the fire to be continued in our camp,
the Assineboines could not fail to see it when they
reached the neighbourhood of his resting-place in the plains ;
but he had calculated all things exactly, and when about an
hour after nightfall they sought in vain for trace of man or
horse upon the very ground where, during the daylight, they
had, as they thought, marked their prey, nothing save the
dim blank of the prairie wrapped in darkness met their eyes,
and no sound came to their listening ears save the long
sigh of the night- wind through the dry grass of the plains.

Then all at once it flaslied upon them. It was Red
Cloud, the Sioux, whom they had watched all day upon
the prairie ; he had placed himself thus as a decoy to dis-
tract their attention from the camp where lay the sick Cree
and the horses. While they had been watching this solitary
Indian, doubtless the others had slipped away to some dis-
tant place of meeting, and the much-coveted prize of horses
and scalp were lost to them for ever.

But men who have set their hearts upon gaining some-
thing which they eagerly long to obtain do not easily relin-
(juish all hope of success. After a short consultation the

114

Red Quuii.

Assineboines determined to return to their camp, and early
on the morrow to set out on a vigorous pursuit of the fugi-
tives, who, they reasoned, encumbered by stores and a
wounded comrade, would be able only to move slowly along.
At the Sioux camp it would be easy to strike the trail, and a
couplo of days' riding would place them upon the skirts of
the party again.

Arguing thus amongst themselves, and feeling that the
much-coveted prize might still be theirs, the Assineboines
returned to their camp. The rage of the trader McDermott
knew no bounds when he heard the result of the stratagem
by which the Sioux had eluded his enemies. Never had
such a chance been given him of freeing himself for ever
from the terror of his life — never had chance been so utterly
and foolishly thrown away. Bitterly he reviled the Assine-
boines for their want of sagacity in thus letting slip a prize
almost within their grasp.

" I gc.ve ye," he said, " a chance of becoming at onc
stroke chiefs among your tribe. Ye have lost that chance ;
but your enemies can't be far away. To-morrow, if ye set
out at daybreak, and do not rest until ye have overtaken
them, ye will yet return to your people as big Indians."

But meantime a fresh cause for anxiety arose amongst the
Assineboines. Their comrade who had gone out in the
morning to spy the camp had not returned. Some mishap
must surely have befallen him ; and yet it seemed difficult

«l

and early
f the fugi-
>res and a
Dwly along,
trail, and a
le skirts of

g that the
isineboineG
vIcDermott
! Stratagem
Never had
;lf for ever
:n so utterly
the Assine-
slip a prize

ing at onc
lat chance ;
\v, if ye set
J overtaken
idians."
amongst the
out in the
)me mishap
led difficult

The fire-tvind.

115

to imagine how he could have suffered harm at the hands
of a wounded Cree and a couple of young white men. The
morning would, perhaps, bring him forth safe and sound.

While thus around the camp-fire of the Assineboine
war-party various surmises were afloat, and different
plans were being formed for reversing on the morrow the
mishaps of the day just passed, there was heard a low,
distant noise — a sound seemingly far away in the night —
tKit caused the Indians to spring suddenly to their feet,
and gaze anxiously out into the darkness. And then
they beheld a sight which the glare of their own fire
had hitherto concealed from them. It was a lurid glow
which overspread the entire northern heaven. Against
this red light the trees and thickets of the nearer hills
showed black and distinct. A fresh breeze was blowing
from the north, and on its wings came the low roar of
flame— that terrible noise which, when echoed in the
full volume of a prairie fire, is one of the most awful
sounds the human ear can listen to. And now, as the
Assineboines looked and listened, the roar grew each
moment louder, the glare spread into broader sheets of
light across the north. For behind the fire there was
rising the well known fire-wind, which came to fan into
furnace flame the devouring element, and to hurl it in more
furious bounds along the quivering earth.

Borne on this hot blast, the roar ot the many-tongued

I 2

ii6

Red Cloud.

i4-

flame came louder than the waves against the rocks in
winter tempest. Within the vast vokniie of sound could be
distinguished the sharper crackle of the dry trees as the tiilt-
of fire reached some thickets, and at a single bound
swept through them, from end to end, shooting out great
tongues of flame high into the heavens, and sending others
to leap madly on towards the south in strides that mocked
the speed even of wild birds to escape before them.

A glance had been sufficient to tell ti " Assineboines of
their danger. Wildly they rushed for their horses, and
strove to get together their arms. Many of the horses had
been only lately turned adrift, and these were easily caught ;
but the animals belonging to tho trader were further away,
and his pack-saddles, containing his provisions and several
articles of trade — gunpowder, lead, flour, tea, sugar, and a
small bale of blankets — lay on the ground near the camp.
Amidst the dire confusion of the scene, while the Indians
ran hither and thither, and the horses, already frightened at
the roar of the approaching fire, began to snort in terror,
the wretched trader might have been seen rushing frantically
amid his packs, shouting orders that were unheeded, and
vainly trying to get his goods together.

His Indian and half-breed attendants meantime rushed
to the spot where the horses had been left, and managing to
secure the five, came riding back in all haste with them to
the camp. But the confusion and terror of all concerned

•^

Sative qui pent.

117

z rocks in
d could be
as the tide
gle bound
out great
ling others
lat mocl;cd

leboines of
lorses, and
horses had
lily caught ;
rther away,
and several
igar, and a
• the camp.
:he Indians
ightened at
t in terror,
5 frantically
eeded, and

ime rushed

nanaging to

ith them to

concerned

had now reached the ^/ildest pitch. In the great glare
of the approaching fire faces and figures were plainly
visible. Each man seemed only to think about his own
safety, and all were so busy at their own work that they
had no time to think of another's. One by one they
began to get away from the scene, all taking the direc-
tion of the plains, and soon only the trader and his two
attendants remained in the camp. By dint of great exer-
tions the saddles were placed upon three of the horses ;
but it was impossible to get the heavier packs on to the
animals.

The near approach of the fire, and the multitude of
sparks that already filled the air around where they stood,
caused the horses to kick and plunge violently, and it
soon became apparent that a longer delay would only
engulf the entire party in ruin. A last hope seemed to
seize McDermott. There was a small pond of water near
the camp ; into this he would put his goods. Much would
be hopelessly spoiled ; but many of the articles would
sustain but little damage, and he would return again to
succour them. Hastily acting upon this idea he carried
the packs into the pond, and laid them in about two
feet of water, not far from the shore. The half-breed
helped him with the work. The Salteaux stood ready with
the horses. Then the trader sprang into the saddle, and all
three rode wildly from the scene. It was a close shave.

Ii8

Red Cloud,

As they cleared the hills the tongues of flame were licking the
air above their Iieads. The fragments of fire were falling in
showers around them. Once out in the plain they were
safe ; the grass was short and crisp, and the flames could
make only a slow progress upon it.

When the trader and his two companions were safe be-
yond the range of the fire, they looked around on every
side for their late friends ; but no trace could be seen of
man or beast. The great mass of flame made visible a wide
circle of prairie \ beyond that circle all was profound dark-
ness.

They rode on farther into the gloom. The circle of light
began to decrease in area as they got farther away from
the blazing hills. Still there was no sign ot life. Their
companions had evidently deserted them.

McDermott determined to encamp where he was, and to
trust to daylight to show him his friends or restore to him
at least some portion of his lost goods. The Assine-
boines had indeed acted in a cowardly manner. They had
ridden straight away into the plains to a spot many miles
distant. A sudden panic appeared to have possessed them.
Abandoning the trader to hi3 fate, they had retired to con-
coct amongst themselves fresh plans for the future.

Leaving McDermott, gloomily watching from his bleak
bivouac the raging fire as it flew along its course to the
south, we must come back to our camp, where sat the Cree,

j«#

Hoiv the fire was lighted.

119

e licking the
2re falling in
1 they were
ames could

ere safe he-
ld on every
. be seen of
visible a wide
ofound dark-

:ircle of light

r away from

life. Their

was, and to
store to him
The Assine-
, They had

many miles
sessed them,
tired to con-
are.

m his bleak
lurse to the
iat the Cree,

Donogh, the Assineboine prisoner, and his capturers, by the
fire in the Wolverine hills.

The Cree and his prisoner had just finished their meal of
dry meat and tea — the latter a luxury which Donogh gave
them as a great treat, making no distinction between his
ally the Cree and his captive the Assineboine — when from
the hill close by there sounded the low plaintive cry of a
wolf.

I recognized instantly my friend's signal, and made
answer in the fashion the Sioux had taught me. Then
Red Cloud came riding up into the circle of light which
surrounded the camp-fire, and safe after a long and adven-
turous day our little prairie party stood once more united.

The Sioux did not lose time, however, in asking questions
or in listening to the recital of the day's work. There was
still much to be done ere it was time to sit down and eat or
rest. The questions and answers would keep.

Bidding me follow him, and telling Donogh and the Cree
to keep watch, with his gmi at the " ready," over the pri-
soner, whose legs were still firmly fastened together, he
walked straight from the camp into the dark hills towards
th<^ south.

Walking close behind him in his Yootsteps, I waited
anxiously to know what this new movement portended. I
had not long, however, to wait. Some little distance to the
south of the camp a chain of lakelets, partly joined together

120

Red Cloud.

by swamps, ran through the hills from east to west. Passing
over one of the causeways of hard, dry ground which lay at
intervals through this chain, and going round a small lake
until he had reached the farther side of the water, the Sioux
stopped and turned ♦•o me.

" Now," he said, " I am going to fire the grass along the
edge of this water. The wind blows strongly from the north
— it will blow stronger when this grass is on 6 re. Standing in
the wet reeds you will be perfectly safe from the flames ;
tliey will quickly burn away from you. I will fire the grass
in many places along this line. I want you to do the same
to the east while I do it to the west. The flames will not
burn back towards the north in the face of this wind, and
across these wet swamps, but to the south ! Ah ! there you
will see such a blaze as you never before saw in your
life!"

So saying, he struck a match r"d applied it to the dry
and withered grass. For an instant it flickered low amid the
blades and stems; then it caught fully. A sudden gust of north
wind smote it and drove it down amid the roots of the grass,
and then it rushed wildly away up the inclined plane which
rose from the water and spread out to either side in widen-
ing circles of vivid fire.

The Sioux tore some dry grass from the ground, held it
in the blaze, and then ran quickly along, touching the grass
as he went, and leaving behind him a trail of fire. On the

est. Passing
which lay at
a small lake

ter, the Sioux

ass along the
•om the north
Standing in
fl the flames ;

fire the grass
3 do the same
lames will not
his wind, and
Ah ! there you

saw in your

it to the dry
:d low amid the
m gust of north
3ts of the grass,
ed plane which
side in widen-

;round, held it
ching the grass
f fire. On the

Firing the prairie grass.

Page 120.

'■

We ride across the fire field.

121

Other side I did the same. Wider grew the void— faster
down the wind sped the rushing flame. In a very short
time an immense band of fire lay across the hills — a band
that moved to the south with a pace that momentarily grew
more rapid— a roar that increased in volume every instant,
until, in a great surge of flame, fanned by the full strength of
the fire-wind, the torrent fled southward over hill and
valley towards the camp of the Assineboines.

Half an hour later we met again in the camp, and as the
roar of the fire grew fainter in the hills we sat together over
our supper, and had full time to talk of the adventures of
the day.

Before daybreak next morning a thick rain began to fall.
The Sioux roused me, and told me that he intended to
reconnoitre the site of the Assinboine camp, to which he
would make the prisoner lead the way. He explained to
the captive that his people had of necessity fled from the
fire ; that he did not desire to be brought into contact
with them, but that he wished to see the line of their retreat.
He also explained to the prisoner, that while he had no
intention of taking his life in cold blood, yet that never-
theless any attempt at escape, or any appearance of treachery,
would at once lead to his (the prisoner's) being shot.
Donogh and the Cree were left in the camp, and as they
were fully armed there was no danger to apprehend from
attack.

122

Red Cloud.

The ground lying south of the chain of marshes was now
one vast black waste. It would have been impossible to
have ridden over it if the rain had not extinguished the
glowing ashes at the roots of the burnt grass and cooled the
surface of the ground. Here and there a thicket still smoked,
or the trunk of a fallen tree smouldered in the morning air ;
but the rain had blotted out all signs of fire save the black-
ened earth, which, under the influence of the damp, made
the entire landscape appear as if it had been overspread
with ink.

Guided by the Assineboine, who was securely tied in his
saddle, and whose left arm was firmly fastened to his side,
we drew nigh to the site of the abandoned camp. As we
gained the summit of a hill which commanded a view of
the place from the north side, the Sioux, who led the way
with the prisoner at his side, pulled in his horse abruptly,
and motioned me to hold back ; for there, by the edge of
a small pond at the foot of the hill were three dark figures,
and some spare horses on the darker ground. A glance
had sufficed to show the Sioux that one of these figures was
a white man ; making a significant gesture to the prisoner,
he whispered for a moment into his ear. A dark shadow
crossed the face of the Sioux as he listened to his captive's
reply. Here, within four hundred yards of him, stood his
hated enemy, the man whose life he sought, the murderer
of his father. And yet it was not thus he had longed to

Enemies in sig7it.

123

es was now
ipossible to
guished the
1 cooled the
)till smoked,
norning air ;
e the black-
damp, made
I overspread

y tied in his
I to his side,
,mp. As we
16. a view of
led the way
rse abruptly,
r the edge of
dark figures,
3. A glance
e figures was
the prisoner,
dark shadow
his captive's
im, stood his
the murderer
ad longed to

meet him. For the two men who were with his enemy he
cared little. A sudden attack upon the three he would not
have shrunk from, even though the odds would have been
desperate; but how could he involve another in such a
struggle? and what should he do with the Assineboine
prisoner, who at the first symptom of attack would turn
against his captors ?

Rapidly he had taken in all these things; but for a
moment he was unable to frame his course amid so many
conflicting thoughts. Soon, however, his mind appeared
made up, and he began to retrace his steps in the direction
from which we had come. When we had gained a sufficient
distance from the scene he again halted, and spoke to me.
" There are some people in front whom it will be better
that I should examine alone. Return with the prisoner to
our camp ; if I fail to rejoin you there before sunset, you may
know that I have ceased to live. My horses and all I
possess will then be yours. I am sorry that I should be
forced to leave you thus ; but you will not be worse off
than when we met one week ago."

Then taking my hand, he shook it in silence, and turned
back towards the ridge from whence he had seen the
strange figures.

I was dumb with astonishment. What was the meaning of
this strange conduct on his part? I tried in vain for an
explanation. I remembered that the Assineboine had

i i

124

Red Clotid.

spoken to the Sioux, and that it was the information he had
given which had first caused the change in my friend's plan.
Instinctively I now looked towards my prisoner in the hope
of finding an explanation of the mystery. The juisoner
met my look with an expression of face that seemed to say,
"I know what you are thinking of; but I cannot .peak
your tongue."

The Indian is, however, an adept in the art of communi-
cating his thoughts by sign and gesture. There are few
incidents of life on the plains that he cannot portray by the
motion of his hands, the attitudes of his body, or the
expression of his features. There is in fact a universal
sign language common to all the various tribes over the
vast wilderness, and when Sioux meets in peace Arrapahoe,
or Crow and Blackfoot come together, they are able by
means of their sign language, to exchange with each
other all news of war, chase, or adventure, though no
spoken word will have passed between them.

As the Assineboine now looked me full in the face, he
began by instinct to express his meaning by signs. He
placed his head resting on one side with his eyes closed, to
indicate a camp or resting-place \ then he pointed to him-
self, and held up the fingers of one hand twice, to show that
it was the camp of his friends the Assineboines that he
meant; then he touched me on the cheek and held up one
finger, at the same time pointing in the direction of the

A dilemma.

125

ion he had
end's plan,
n the hope
le prisoner
led to say,
inot .peak

' communi-
;re are few
tray by the
)dy, or the
a universal
les over the

Arrapahoe,
ire able by
: with each

though no

the face, he

signs. He

res closed, to

nted to him-

to show that
lines that he

held up one
action of the

ridge which they had just quitted, and moving his hand in
the form of a circle, to show that he wished to carry his
companion in thought beyond the circle of that ridge.
Again he pointed to my face and repeatedly held up one
finger. This was easily understood, it meant a white man ;
and following this clue I arrived at the fact that in the camp
of the Assineboines there had been a white man. That was
enough for me ; my friend guessed, and guessed quickly, the
rest The white man was the trader McDermott. One of
the three men seen by the Sioux from the ridge-top was
the enemy he had so long sought for, and now he had gone
back to risk his life in a desperate and unequal struggle with
this inveterate foe.

I looked towards the ridge, and noticed that the figure of
the Sioux was no longer visible upon its black surface.
He was evidently following the valley, to [^ain some point
from which he might make a closer onslaught upon the party.

I had small time left for reflection j but when a man
keeps one great object steadily in view, it is ever an easy
matter to decide upon the general outline of the course he
has to follow ; that great object in this case was to help my
friend — to save him, if possible, in the desperate venture in
which he was about to engage, I could not accept quietly
the part which in this instance the Sioux would have assigned
to me. Friendship is no limited liabiUty, and in the peril of
the work we had undertaken it should be all and all alike.

126

Red Clond.

lit;

The presence of the Assineboine was, however, a fact not
to be overlooked in the affair. It would have been an easy
matter to have rid myself of this prisoner, and then galloped
direct to the assistance of my friend ; but I could not enter-
tain such a thought for a second. Life taken in fair fight
had little terror for me ; but not even the safety of my
friend's life, or of my own, could induce me to slay in cold
blood a fellow-creature.

One sign I made to the Assineboine. Holding up two
fingers, I pointed to the Assineboine and then motioned with
my hand across the ridge. The question was understood, and
the prisoner shook his head in reply — the other two men whom
we had seen were not Assineboines. That was all I wanted
to know. In an instant I had severed the cords which bound
the prisoner in his saddle, and had cut free his left arm from
its binding ; then I motioned with my hand that he was free
to go whither he pleased. Since the prisoner's capture
many things had caused him unutterable astonishment
His life had been spared, he had been well fed ; his leg,
which had sustained only a trifling injury from his encounter
with the dog, had been carefully looked after by the man
who had taken him prisoner; and here now, when he could
fully read in that white man's face the reasons why he (that
white man) might have taken his life in order to be free to
assist his comrade, liberty was given to him, and he was
told to go which way he might select.

The scout throws in his lot with us.

127

, a fact not
»een an easy
len galloped
1 not enter-
in fair fight
afety of my
slay in cold

ling up two
otioned with
lerstood, and
men whom
all I wanted
which bound
left arm from
it he was free
ner's capture
•stonishment
fed ] his leg,
his encounter
by the man
hen he could
why he (that
to be free to
and he was

He was a bold and adventurous Indian, this Assineboine—
perhaps of his party the best and bravest. Still he would
not have scrupled at any moment, had occasion offered,
to make an effort for his freedom at the expense of the lives
ofthosp nr/Mt.r.d him ; but now, the generous act of the white
man struck him in a totally new light, and he sat on his
horse unable to shape a distinct line of action amidst the
many conflicting thoughts that thronged his brain.

There had existed, in days when his people, the Assine-
boines, were one of the most formidable tribes on the
northern prairies — when Teltacka, or the Left-handed, ruled
from the Souri to the South Saskatchewan — there had been, he
knew, a custom in the tribe for young men to show unexpected
clemency to a vanquished foe -, but never had he heard,
amid the stories told over the camp firo of deeds of by-
gone battle or of ancient prowess, such an example of
generosity and courage as that now before him. As a
boy he had heard his father tell how cnce, in a battle
with the Gros Ventres near the Knife river, he had spared
the life of a young man whose horse had plunged into a
snow-drift, leaving its rider completely at his mercy, and
how years after the same Gros Ventre had repaid the gift by
saving his former benefactor from the fury of the victors,
when the might of the Assineboines was crushed by the
same band on the banks of the Missouri. These things
now all flashed through the mind of the Assineboine, in a

128

Red Child.

tenth of the time it has taken me to put into words the scene
in which he found himself suddenly set at liberty, and free
to follow what course he pleased.

I did not wait to see what my late prisoner would decide
upon, but turning my horse quickly from the spot I rode
in the direction of the place where the Sioux had been
last seen. I had not gone very far before I was aware that
my late prisoner was following in my wake. An idea of
treachery at once crossed my mind ; but looking back I
saw the Assineboine making signs of friendship. I pulled
ujD and awaited his approach. As he came up he pointed
to his defenceless state ; then to the bow and arrows which
I had taken on the previous day, and which I still carried
slung over my shoulder ; then the Assineboine's arm was
directed towards the ridge, and placing his hands in the
attitude of those of a man drawing an arrow to full stretch
at the moment of firing, he indicated plainly enough his
meaning. He would help in the coming struggle if he had
arms to do so. I handed him his bow and quiver, and
then we two, so lately captor and captive, rode forward as
comrades to the fight

i2g

^ords the scene
)erty, and free

would decide
10 spot I rode
oux had been
was aware that
An idea of
ooking back I
jhip. I pu'.led
up he poiated
i arrows which

I still carried
>ine's arm was
I hands in the
' to full stretch
ily enough his
iggle if he had
id quiver, and
)de forward as

CHAPTER VIII.

The fight— The Sioux and the swamp— The trader's triumph-
Red Cloud fights on foot— The trader finds he has other foes
to reckon with — The Assineboinc draws a straight arrow —
The trader's flight— Our losses and gains— V/inter supplies—
Our party is completed — '* All's well that ends well."

There was no time now for reconnoitring the ground before
the attack began. There was in fact nothing for it but to
ride straight over the ridge, and lunge at once into the
struggle, for, as we rode briskly up the black incline towards
the top of the hill the sharp report of a shot already echoed
through the hills, a signal that the fray had begun. It was
even so.

The Sioux, following the valley round the foot of the
ridge, had debouched close to his foe, and had put his
horse straight for the spot where the trader was still engaged,
on the edge of the pool, in loading the stores which he had
just carried from the water, upon the backs of his pack
animals.

The presence of the Sioux became instantly known to
his enemy. Relinquishing his work, the trader seized his
gun from the ground where it was lying, and dropping upon

1,1

■r 1

f-^i

130

J^ed Cloud.

one knee he took deliberate aim at the advancing horseman.
The Sioux bent low upon his horse's neck as the white
smoke flashed from the muzzle, and the bullet whis ed over
hia lowered head, burying itself in the hill-side.

Meanwhile the trader's two attendants had sprung to their
saddles, apparently more ready for flight than for fight. The
onslaught of the Sioux vas so sudden and so unexpected
that tliese men had no time to realize the fact that there
was only one assailant ; more than this, they had engaged
with their master to trade, not to fight; and, though
neither of them was thoroughly deficient in courage, the
first impulse of both on this occasion, v>^as to fly ; and had
the Sioux been permitted to continue his onward career
full upon McDermott he would have found himself alone
face to face with his hated foe ; but such was not to be.

Between the Sioux and the trader there lay a small
swampy spot, half stagnant water, half morass, not more
than six paces across ; it ran inland from the pool for some
distance. The blackened ground lying on every side had
completely hidden from the keen eye of the Indian the
dangerous nature- of the spot. All at once he saw before
his horse, now at full gallop, this fatal obstacle. To have
checked his horse would have been no easy matter, so im-
petuous was his rate of motion ; but had it been possible to
have stayed his own charger, he would have presented such
a sure mark foi the keen eyes of the men on the further side

The Sioux and the swamp.

131

ing horseman.

as the white

whi£ ed over

prung to their

for fight. The

unexpected

fact that there

had engaged

and, though

courijge, the

fly ', and had

bvvard career

himself alone

not to be.

lay a small
iss, not more
pool for some
i'ery side had
le Indian the
he saw before
cle. To have
matter, so im-
en possible to
presented such
lie further side

of the pond as to ensure the destruction of botli horse and
rider. There was nothing for it then but to go full at the
dangerous '.pot, and trust to strength of horse and skill of rider
to come through.

Raising the horse a little in his pace, the Sioux held
straight upon his course ; the soft ground broke beneath the
horse's feet, but so rapid were the movements of his legs,
and so strong were his efforts to draw himself clear of the
spongy soil, that for a second or two it seemed as though
he would pull through and win the other side. At the far edge,
however, a softer and deeper spot opened beneath the vigorous
hoof, and, despite all efforts, the brave little animal sank
helpless to his girths.

The Sioux sprang to his feet, and in another second he
had gained the dry, firm ground at the farther side; but
the water of the swamp had for a moment covered his
gun, the priming had become hopelessly clogged, and the
weapon utterly useless to him. The mishap had given his
adversary time for reflection and preparation ; and the tv;o
retainers, realizing the fact that they were attacked by only
one assailant, and that even that one was already half
engulfed amid a swamp, took heart and came down to the
assistance of their employer ; while the trader himself had
profitted by the delay to jump into his saddle and to fall back
out of reach of the Sioux in order to reload his gun.

Long practice in following the herds of buffalo over the

K «

t I

132

Red Cloud.

prairies at headlong speed, liad made him an expert hand
at rapid loading and firing on horseback. To throw from
his powder-horn a charge of powder loosely into the gun ; to
spit from his mouth a ball down the muzzle, so that the
action caused at the same instant the powder to press out into
the priming-pan and the bullet to fit against the powder —
these motions of the buffalo-hunter took him but a few
seconds, and wheeling his horse at the charge, he now came
thundering down full at the Sioux. But though little time
had been lost in these movements of loading, enough had
passed to enable Red Cloud to change his tactics and
to secure himself from the first furious onslaught which he
saw impending. Springing across the treacherous morass, he
gained the side on which he had first entered it, and with
his bow at the " ready " he calmly awaited the charge of his
enemy.

While yet fully one hundred yards distant, McDermott
saw and realized the change on the part of the Sioux, and
knowing the fatal nature of the ground, he forbore not only
to risk his horse across the swamp, but to approach within
fifty yards of its nearer side— a distance which would have
brought him within range of his enemy's fire ; he however
looked upon the fate of the Sioux as certain ; and well it
might appear so to him.

All chance of escape was now cut off; the horse still lay
helpless in the morass, buried to the girths ; his rider, active

Red Cloud fights on foot.

133

expert hand
throw from
the gun ; to
so that the
ress out into
e powder —
but a few
e now came
1 little time
enough had
tactics and
It which he
s morass, he
it, and with
;harge of his

McDermott
Sioux, and
)re not only
•oach within
would have
he however
, and well it

orse still lay
rider, active

and expert though he was on foot, could only hope to delay
his fate when pitted in fight against three horsemen, and
with nothing but a bow and arrow to oppose to their fire-
arms. If the position could not be forced in front, there was
ample room to turn its flank and move round it on the hill
side. Thus menaced in front and attacked in rear, the
position of the Sioux might well seem desperate.

Fully did Red Cloud in these few seconds of time realize
the dangers that encompassed him \ nevertheless, he thought
far less of his own peril than of his inability to meet his
deadly foe. Bitterly he repented of his rash onslaught, and
still more bitter were his regrets that he should have left
his trusty double-barrelled rifle — which he usually carried
slung upon his back — in the camp that morning, and that he
had no more effective weapon now than the bow and arrows,
which he could so dexterously handle, but which were only of
use at fifty or sixty yards, while his rifle would have enabled
him to cover his enemies at four times that distance.
McDermott was, as we have said, no novice in the art of
prairie war or chase. He quickly saw the strength or weak-
ness of his adversary's position.

Calling to his attendants to watch the side of the small
swamp nearest to where he stood, and thus prevent the Sioux
from again executing a movement across it, he wheeled his
horse rapidly to one side, and rode furiously towards the
base of the hill, so as to pass round upon the dry ground at

|l7fl

134

Red Ootid.

the end of the swamp, and bear down upon his foe from
behind. As he passed his retainers, he shouted to them to
ride up and fire upon the Sioux, promising that the horse
and all that belonged to its rider should be the reward of him'
who would bring the foe to the ground.

The French half-breed showed little inclination, however,
to render the already long odds against the Sioux still more
desperate; but the Salteaux belonged to a tribe long at
deadly enmity with the Sioux nation, and he also inherited
much of the cowardly ferocity of his own tribe, who, unable
to cope in the open country with their enemies, never
scrupled to obtain trophies which they could not win in
war, by the aid of treacherous surprise or dastardly night
attacks. The present was a kind of warfare peculiarly suited
to his instincts, and he now rode forward to fire upon the
Sioux across the swamp, at the moment when he would be
engaged with a more formidable enemy on his own side.

These movements, quickly as they passed, were all
noted by the watchful eye of the Sioux. He cast one
quick look at his horse, in the hope that it might be pos-
sible to extricate him from the swamp ere the trader had yet
got round the northern side ; but a glance was enough to
tell him that all hope in that quarter was gone, for the
ooze had risen higher upon the poor animal, and nothing
but the united labour of two or three hands, could now draw
him from the quicksand. His head was still free^ however,

The trader has other foes to reckon with. 135

is foe from
I to them to
It the horse
ward of him''

n, however,
X still more
ibe long at
so inherited
who, unable
mies, never
not win in
tardly night
iliarly suited
re upon the
le would be
wn side,
d, were all
le cast one
ight be pos-
ader had yet
enough to
•ne, for the
md nothing
d now draw
:ei however.

and Red Cloud had time to notice in his own moment of
peril how the eye of his faithful friend and long- tried servant
turned upon him what seemed a look of sympathy in his
great extremity. But now the trader had gained the end of
the swamp and was already beginning to wheel his horse
towards where the Sioux stood. A natural impulse bid the
latter move forward to meet his foe. Short as was the
space that separated the two men, rapid as was the pace at
which one was momentarily lessening that distance, Red
Cloud rushed forward to meet the advancing horseman.
The trader's plan was to keep just out of the range of
the Sioux' arrows, and to manoeuvre his horse so that he
could get frequent shots at his enemy without exposing him-
self to the slightest danger. He knew too well with what
terrible accuracy the red man can use his bow at any object
within fifty yards of his standpoint. McDermott was a
true shot, whether on horseback or on foot ; he knew, too,
all those shifts of body by which the Indian manages to par-
tially cover himself by his horse at moments of attack ; but
on the present occasion he intended simply to continue
hovering round the Sioux, who was just in the angle formed
by the swamp and the lake, and to take his time in every
shot he would fire. Pulling up his horse at about eighty
yards' distance, he placed his gun to his shoulder and laid his
head low upon the stock, aiming right over the ears of his
horse upon the advancing figure of the Sioux. But while yet

136

Red Cloud.

his finger paused ere pressing the trigger, the sharp ring
of a bullet smote his ear ; his horse gave a convulsive spring
upwards, and the trader, retaining his seat with difficulty,
fired wildly and harmlessly into the air. Then, ere he could
sufficiently recover his suddenly startled senses, there came
loud shouts of advancing men from the ridge upon his left.
Turning his head in that direction, he beheld two horsemen
riding at a furious gallop down upon him. His life was
dearer to him than the hope of destroying his enemy.
Fortunate at finding that his horse had only received a
flesh wound, and that he was still able to carry a rider,
McDermott wheeled quickly to the rear, to retire the way he
had come. As he did so, an arrow grazed his shoulder, and
whistled past into the ground ; then, from the ridge another
shot rang out, this time fired in the direction of the Sal-
teaux, who had advanced to within sixty paces of the Sioux
on the opposite side of the swamp. The ball went suffi-
ciently near its mark to cause that worthy to abandon his
attempt at murder, and to execute a rapid retrograde move-
ment ; indeed, so thoroughly did he appear convinced that
the battle was irrevocably lost, that he ceased not to continue
his flight, quite unmindful of any fate which might overtake
either his master or fellow-servant.

McDermott seeing that the game was up, now made a
final effort to save his pack animals from capture ; but my
blood was now thoroughly roused — the fever of fight was

'•ii-

A final effort.

137

sharp ring
ilsive spring
:h difficulty,
re he could
there came
•on his left,
o horsemen
3is life was
his enemy,
received a
irry a rider,
i the way he
houlder, and
idge another
of the Sal-
of the Sioux
went suffi-
bandon his
;rade move-
i^inced that
to continue
;ht overtake

)w made a
re ; but my
►f fight was

■■$

on me, and no power on earth could stay my onward
career.

Followed closely by the Assineboine, I s\vept round by
the head of the swamp, and made straight for the spot
where the trader was endeavouring to get his pack animals
into motion. As I rode along at full gallop, I passed the
French half-breed at some distance ; the latter dropped his
gim across his bridle arm and fired in front of my horse. The
ball struck the animal in the neck, and plunging forward,
horse and rider were instantly stretched upon the ground in
one confused mass. But the Assineboine was riding close
in my wake.

Seeing the action of the half-breed, he turned his horse
slightly to the right, and with an arrow drawn to the fullest
stretch of his stout Indian bow, he bore full upon the flank
of this new enemy.

Too late the half-breed saw his danger, and turned to fly.
At thirty paces' distance the Assineboine let fly his shaft,
with so true an aim that the arrow pierced the half-breed's
leg and buried itself deeply in his horse's side. He
did not await another shot; drawing a pistol, he fired
wildly at the Assineboine, and followed the Salteaux in his
flight.

Meantime the Sioux had crossed the swamp, and was
approaching swiftly on foot to this new scene of combat.
The trader beheld with rage the sudden turn which the

I i

r
i;

ifl!

ii 11

Red Cloud.

fight had taken. Hi? horse had suffered little from his flesh
wound, and now that the only two steeds wliose pace and
mettle were mc^ches for his own were disposed of, he could
still easily distance any attempt at pursuit ; but to delay
longer in endeavouring to save his goods would soon have
cost him his life. Red Cloud was drawing rapidly near —
the Salteaux and the half-breed had fled. For a moment
he thought of falling back to continue the fight at longer
range, using his horse to carry him from ridge to ridge ; but
now another rider suddenly appeared upon the sky-line on
the side from which the first attack had been delivered. It
was Donogh riding down to the rescue. This fresh accession
to the strength of his enemies decided him.

Utterly beaten at all poiiitF, and flinging an impotent
malediction towards his enemies, McDermott hastened from
the scene of the disaster, leaving two pack-horses and all his
stores in the hands of the victors.

Donogh r.ow joined us. He was wild with excitement,
and his joy at finding me safe knew no bounds. For some
time after cur departure from camp he had sat quiet, but the
Cree had told him by signs that a fight was probable,
and then he could stand inaction no longer. He had
followed our trail j as he neared the scene of action, the
report of fire arms had told him the struggle had already
begun; and then lie had galloped straight to the rescue.
Seeing me on the ground, his first idea was to charge the

>w^

The Assincboitie draws a straight arroiv. 1 39

from his flesh
lose pace and
;d of, he could

but to delay
iild soon have

apidly near —
or a moment
ight at longer

to ridge \ but
le sky-line on
delivered. It
fresh accession

\ an impotent
iiastened from
rses and all his

h excitement,
Is. For some
: quiet, but the
was probable,
ier. He had
of action, the
e had already
;o the rescue,
to charge the

trader, and it was this new and impetuous onset that finally
decided McDermott's flight.

The Sioux made it his first care to ascertain what
damage had befallen his friend. I had half risen from the
ground ; but the violence of the shock had been so great that
it was some little time before I fully understood what was
passing around. As soon as Red Cloud had ascertained
that I had sustained no greater injury than the concussion
the fall had given me, he turned his attention to the
Assineboine, whose aid, at the most critical moment, had
completely turned the fortunes of the day. It was in his
own noble nature to comprehend the change which had
worked upon our late prisoner and made him a staunch
and firm friend ; he took the hand of the Assineboine, and
shook it warmly. *' I owe you much for this day," he said ;
" I shall begin to repay it from this moment. Help me to
draw my horse from yonder swamp, and then we shall see to
our prizes."

So saying, but first securing the pack animals, and
giving the lariat which held them into my hands, the
Sioux, Donogh, and the Assineboine turned to rescue the
horse from the swamp where he had lain, sinking gradually
deeper, since that disastrous moment when first breaking
through the spongy soil he had so nearly ended for ever the
career of his rider.

By dint of great exertions, working with leather lines

■t '

': I

140

Red Cloud.

passed around the neck and quarters of the horse, they
at length succeeded in drawing him from the morass. The
Sioux v/as overjoyed at once more recovering his long-tried
horse \ for a moment he half forgot the bitterness of having
lost his enemy, in the pleasure of finding himself still the
owner of this faithful friend.

But the full importance of the victory just gained only
burst upon our little party when we came to examine the
goods that had fallen to us as victors. The two pack-horses
had only been partly loaded, and many of the parcels and
bags still lay in loose heaps upon the ground j they were all
dripping with water, having been only recently brought from
out of the lake, where they had lain since the alarm of fire on
the previous night ; but a careful examination showed that
they had sustained little damage from the water. It is well
known that flour lying closely packed in a sack resists for
a great time the action of damp, the portion nearest to
the sack becomes a soft sort of cement, which prevents
the water from penetrating more than a couple of inches
further in. Thus, the three sacks of fine Red River flour
formed a most precious treasure to men whose winter hut
was to be built still farther among the vast solitudes than the
spot they were now on. A small barrel of gunpowder, cop-
pered on the inside, was of course perfectly water-tight ; a
case of knives, with some axe-heads and saws, only re-
quired to be dried and cleaned to be again in perfect order ;

V r

Oiiy losses and gains.

141

lorse, they

)rass. The

long-tried

of having

f still the

ained only
:amine the
)ack-horses
Darcels and
ey were all
ought from
m of fire on
lowed that

It is well

: resists for

nearest to

h prevents

of inches
R.iver flour
winter hut
es than the
>wder, cop-
er-tight j a

only re-
fect order ;

t:^

a few hours' exposure to sun and wind would suffice to dry
the blankets and flour ; the tea, most precious article, was to
a great extent saved by being made up in tin canisters —
only that portion of it which was in lead paper had suf-
fered injury; and the sugar, though the wet had quite
penetrated through the bag, could still be run down by
the action of fire to the consistency of hard cakes, which
would be quite serviceable for use in that state. Ttvo bags
of salt, though wet, were also serviceable.

Of course such things as shot, bullets, and a few hard-
ware articles, had suffered no injury whatever.

Thus as, one by one, all these things were unpacked
and laid out upon the ground, we realized how for-
tunate had been the chance that had thrown so many
valuable essentials of prairie life into the possession of our
party.

" We are now," said the Sioux, " quite independent of
every one. We have here supplies which will last us for the
entire winter and far into next year. You, my friend," he
said to the Assineboine, "will continue with us, and share
all these things ; they are as much yours as they are ours.
If you decide to join us, even for a while, you will live as
we do. We are on our way far west, to hunt and roam the
plains ; we will winter many c .ays' journey from here. If it
should be your wish to go and rejoin your people, one of
these horses and a third of these things shall be yours to

142

Rid Cloud.

■i

' I,

1 ;

take away with you ; but if you remain with us, you will
share our camp, our fire, our food."

The Assineboine did not ponder long upon his decision ;
to return to his people would have been to open many causes
of (]uarrel with them or with the trader or his agents. The
new life offered everyUiing that an Indian could covet.
Red Cloud was a chief of the Sioux — a people who had
ever been as cousins to his peoi)le — whose language closely
resembled his own. ** Yes he would go west with these
men, even to where the sun set."

The Assineboine — who in future shall bear the name by
which he was first known to us, of the scout — had possessed
himself of the half-breed's gun, which that worthy had
dropped at the moment he received the arrow wound. His
steed, a thoroughly serviceable Indian pony, had both speed
and endurance, and was therefore suited for any emergency
which war or the chase might call forth. My horse had
been the only loss in the affair ; but in his place there had
been a gain of two good steeds, and there were spare goods
in the packs sufficient to purchase a dozen horses from any
Indian camp the party might reach.

While the Sioux and the scout were busily engaged in
looking through the trader's captured stores, I sat revolving
in my mind every incident of the recent struggle. On the
whole I felt well-pleased; it was my first brush with an
enemy, and I had not flinched from fire or charge.

Airs 7veU that cuds well.

143

h, you will

[s decision;
;iny causes
nts. Tiio
uld covet.
"' wlio had
igc closely
with these

- name by
possessed
orthy had
und. His
>oth speed
emergency
^orse had
there had
are goods
from any

•'*, .

From the moment of my first shot from the ridge top —
a shot fired at two hundred yards' range — to my last on-
slaught upon the retreating trader, I had never lost my
head ; eye, hand, and brain had worked together, and I had
unconsciously timed every move to the demand of the
passing moment.

I fully realized the reasons why Red Cloud had decided
not to involve me in his struggle with the trader, but I could
not help saying to my friend when wc were about to leave
the spot, " We were to have been brothers in war, as well
as in peace. You have not kept your word fairly with me."

" All's well that ends well," said the Sioux. " Henceforth
our fights shall be shared evenly between us."

Having stripped the dead horse of his saddle and trap-
pings, I mounted one of the captured animals, and his load
divided between the other animals, the whole party set out
at a rapid pace for our camp.

gaged in

revolving

On the

with an

144

Red Cloud.

CHAPTER IX.

We again go west — Hiding the trail— Red and white for once in
harmony — Peace and plenty — An autumn holiday — We select
a winter's camp — The Forks— Fut-building — Our food sup-
ply — The autumn hunt — The Great P^-airie — Home thoughts —
Indian instincts — The Lake of the Winds — Buffalo — Good
meat — A long stalk — The monarch of the waste — A stam-
pede — Wolves — The red man's tobacco.

As wc rode back to camp, the Sioux learned from the scout
all that had happened in the camp of the Assineboines,
from the time that he had himself brought news of the pre-
sence in the hills of the disabled Cree and his protectors,
until the moment when he had been captured by the united
efforts of the dog and his masters.

The Sioux listened eagerly to the story of the trader's
having literally set a price upon his head ; and when he re-
flected that all the precautions which he, Red Cloud, had
taken had been done in complete ignorance of the
machinations of his enemy, and only from casually learning
from the Cree that a party of hostile Indians had passed
him on the previous night, he felt how true is that lesson

We again go West,

145

"br once in
We select
food sup.
houghts—
ilo— Good
—A stam-

the scout
leboines,
the pre-
rotectors,
le united

trader's
n he re-
>ud, had
of the
learning

passed
t lesson

in war which enjoins never neglecting in times of danger to
guard against the worst even though the least may only be
threatened.

But Red Cloud learned from the story of the scout
information for future guidance, as well as confirmation of
the course he had already followed. He realized the fact
that though the fire had already freed him from the presence
of the Assineboines, yet, that it could only be a short re-
spite ; the bribe offered by the trader was too high to allow
these men to relinquish all hope of taking prizes which
were to make them great Indians for the rest of their
lives. The necessity of quickly shifting his ground, and of
leaving altogether that part of the country, became so fully
apparent to him that he lost no time in communicating to
us his plan of action.

It was, to march that evening about ten miles towards
the north, and then to strike from the hills due west into
the great plain. Being heavily loaded with stores, we could
not hope by dint of hard marching to outstrip our enemies;
but by taking unusual precautions to hide oui trail, we might
succeed in successfully eluding the watchful eyes of the
Assineboines.

A hasty dinner followed the return of the party to camp,
and then preparations for departure were at once made.
The Cree had made, in the rest and care of the last two
days, more progress to recovery than in the whole period

)

146

Red Cloud.

of his former convalescence, and he was now well able to
take his share in the work of striking camp.

When men bivouac in the open it takes but little time to
make a camp or to quit it, and ere the sun had set the
whole party had got in motion, and, led by the Sioux, were
threading their course through the hills farther towards the
north.

The rain had ceased, but the grass was still too wet to
burn, so that the simple expedient of setting fire to the
prairie in order to hide a trail, was in this instance im-
possible. As, however, the point of departure from the
hills for the west was the point most essential to obliterate,
the Sioux did not so much care that our trail while in the
hills could easily be followed.

Not until midnight did he give the word to camp, and
the first streak of dawn found us again in motion. While
the morning was still young we arrived at a small river
which flowed out from the hills into the plain, and pursued,
far as the eye could determine to the west, a course sunken
in a narrow valley deep beneath the level of the prairie. Here
was the point of departure. The stream was shallow, and the
current ran over a bed of sand and pebbles. The Sioux,
Donogh, and I, led the pack-horses along the centre of this
river channel, while the scout and the Cree were directed to
ride many times to and fro up the farther bank, and then to
continue their course towards the north for some miles.

Hiding the trail.

i\\ able to

le time to
d set the
oux, were
wards the

30 wet to
ire to the
tance im-
from the
obliterate,
lile in the

amp, and
I. While
nail river
pursued,
;e sunken
:ie. Here
^ and the
le Sioux,
re of this
rected to
i then to
liles.

It was Red Cloud's intention to camp about fifteen miles
lower down the stream ; he would only keep his horses in
the bed of the channel for one hour, by that time he would
have gained a considerable distance down stream ; then
selecting a dry or rocky place, we would have left the
channel and continued our course along the meadows on
one side.

When the scout and the Cree had put some miles between
them and the stream they were to turn sharp to their left
hand; first one, and later on the other, and then rejoin
us some time during the following day. By these plans
the Sioux hoped to foil any pursuers who might be on his
trail, and he would certainly succeed in delaying a pursuit
until the fine weather would again make the grass dry
enough to allow it to burn.

Down the centre of the stream we led the pack-horses
in file, and away to the north went the scout and the Cree.
It was toilsome work wading along the channel of the river,
which in some places held rocks and large loose stones ;
but by little and little progress was made, and ere sunset
the dry ground was once more under foot, and our party
was pursuing a rapid course along the meadows to the west.

Red Cloud had told the scout that he would await him
at the Mmitchinas, or Solitary Hill, a conical elevation
in the plains some twenty miles away to the west. At the
north side of this hill our whole party came again together

L 2

lift 'i

148

Red Cloud,

about the middle of the following day, and after a hearty
meal we turned our faces towards that great plain whicli
stretches from the base of this solitary mound into what
seemed an endless west.

Everybody was in high spirits ; even the dog had quite
recovered from the effects of his arrow-wound, and the
scout and he had become firm friends.

It was a curious group this, that now held its course into
the western wilds.

There were representatives of three of those strange families
of the aboriginal race of North America — that race now
rapidly vanishing from the earth, and soon only to be known
by those wild names of soft sound and poetic meaning which,
in the days of their glory, they gave to ridge, lake, and
river, over the wild wilderness of their vast dominions;
and two white men from a far-distant land, alien in
race, strange in language, but bound to them by a sym-
pathy of thought, by a soldier instinct which was strong
enough to bridge the wide gulf between caste and colour,
and make red and white unite in a real brotherhood — a
friendship often pictured in the early dreams of the red
race when the white man first sought the wilds, but never
fully realized in all these long centuries of war and strife,
save when the pale-faced stranger whom they called the
Black Robe, came to dwell amongst them and to tell them
of a world beyond the grave, more blissful than theii

Peace and plenty.

149

a hearty
ain whicJi
into what

lad quite
and the

Durse into

:e families
race now
be known
ng which,
lake, and
'minions \

ahen in
y a sym-
is strong
i colour,
hood— a

the red
Jt never
iid strife,
illed the
ell them
in theii

fabled happy hunting-grounds, where red men and white
were to dwell, the servants of One Great Master.

And now days began to pass of quiet travel over the
autumn prairies — days of real enjoyment to me, who hour
by hour read deeper into the great book which nature ever
holds open to those who care to be her students — that book
whose pages are sunsets and sunrises, twilights darkening
over interminable space, dawns breaking along distant
horizons, shadows of inverted hill-top lying mirrored in
lonely lakes, sigh of west wind across measureless meadow,
long reach of silent river, stars, space, and solitude.

Ten days of such travel carried our little party far into
the west. We had reached that part of the northern plains
which forms the second of those sandy ridges or plateaux
which mount in successive steps from the basin of the
great lake Winnipeg, to the plains lying at the base of the
Rocky Mountains.

In this great waste game was numerous. Buftalo roamed
in small bodies hither and thither ; cabri could be seen
dotting the brown grass, or galloping in light boujids to some
vantage hill, from whence a better survey of the travellers
could be had ; wolvc?s and foxes kept skulking in the
prairie depressions, and dodged along the edges of ridges
to scent or sight their prey. The days were still fine and
bright j but the nightly increasing cold told that winter was
slowly but surely coming on.

150

Red Clouds

w w

It was now the middle of September, early enough still lor
summer travel, but it would soon be necessary to look out
for some wintering-ground, where wood for a hut and fuel
could be easily obtained, and where the grass promised food
for the horses during the long months of snow.

Almost every part of this vast ocean of grass had become
thoroughly known to Red Cloud. Land once crossed by
a red man is ever after a living memory to him. He can
tell, years after he has passed along a trail, some of the
most trifling landmarks along it ; a bush, a rock, a sharply
marked hill, will be all treasured in his memory ; and though
years may have elapsed since his eye last rested upon this
particular portion of the great prairie, he will know all its
separate features, all the little hills, courses, or creeks which
lie hidden amid the immense spaces of this motionless ocean.

For some days the Sioux had been conning over in his mind
the country, seeking some spot lying within easy reach of
where he was now moving which yielded what our party
required— timber, fuel, and grass. A few years earlier he
had camped at the point of junction of two rivers, the Red
Deer and the Medicine, not more than four days' journey to
the north-west of where he now w^as. He remembered that
amid a deep thicket of birch, poplar, and cotton-wood, there
stood a large group of pine-trees. If fire had spared that
part of the prairie, he knew that the alluvial meadows along
the converging rivers, would yield rich store of winter food

Seeking a luintcr camp.

151

Ii still ibr
look out
and fuel
(ised food

become
>sscd by

He can
? of the

sharply
I though
^oji this
^ all its
s which
s ocean.
»is mind
each of
r party
■lier he
le Red
rney to
sd that
I, there
:1 that
along
' food

for the horses. He knew, too, that in other respects the
spot had many recommendations in its favour ; it lay
almost in the centre of that neutral zone between the Crce
country and the sandy wastes of the Blackfeet nation, and
that it was therefore safe in winter from the roving bands ol
these wild tribes, whose warfare is only carried on during
the months of spring, summer, and autumn. All these
things combined made him fix upon this spot for vhe WMnt(r
camping-ground, and he began to shape the course of the
party more to the north, to see if the place held still in its
sheltered ridges all the advantages it had possessed when
he had seen it for the first and last time.

Riding along one sunny ' ■ -day, he explained to me the
prospect before us.

" It is getting late in tlie season," he said \ " all the grass
is yellow ; the wind has begun to rustic in the dry seeds
and withered prairie flowers ; the frost of night gets harder
and colder. At any moment we may see a great change ;
that fir off sky-line, now so clear cut against the prairie,
would become hidden ; dense clouds would sweep across
the sky, and all the prairie would be wrapped in snow-drift.
*' The winter in this north land is long and severe; the
snow lies for months upon the plains, in many feet in thick-
ness it will rest upon yon creek, now so full of bird-life,
The cold will then be intense \ all the birds, save the prairie-
grouse, the magpie, and the whisky jack, will seek southern

r» t

152

/Vr-^ Clovd.

I i

lands; the buffalo will not, however, desert us, they may
move farther north into the Saskatchewan, and wolves, foxes,
and coyotes will follow in their wake. Neither horse nor
man can then brave for any time the treeless plains.

" We must prepare for the winter," he went on, " and
my plan is this : some days' march from this is a spot which,
when I last saw it, had around '• all that we shall require for
our winter comfort. Where two rivers come together there
stands, sheltered among hills, a clump of pine-trees. The
points of the rivers are well wooded, and the marshes along
the banks hold wild vetch, and the pea plant of the prairie
grows through the under-bush, high above the snow, giving
food to horses in the worst seasons of the year.

" I don't know any fitter place for winter camp in all the
hundreds of miles that are around us. We are now bound
for that spot, and if things are as I last saw them, we shall
make our hut in the pine wood and settle into our winter-
quarters ere the cold has come. We have still much to do,
and it is time we set to work."

I heard with joy these plans for the winter. The life was
still so new to me — the sense of breathing this fresh bright
atmosphere, and of moving day by day through this great
ocean of grass, was in itself such pleasure, that I had latterly
ceased almost altogether to think much about the future,
feeling unbounded confidence in my Indian friend's skill and
forethought.

Au autumn holiday.

153

they may
i^es, foxes,
lorse nor

m, "and
ot which,
equire for
her there
:es. The
hes along
he prairie
w, giving

in all the
»\v bound
we shall
r winter-
:h to do,

) life was
h bright
lis great
[ latterly
; future,
skill and

Donogh and I had in fact been enjoying the utmost bl'sc
of perfect freedom— that only true freedom in life, 'U.:.
freedom of fording streams, crossing prairies, galloping ovv -
breezy hill-tops, watching wild herds in their daily hal 's of
distance, seeing them trail along slowly into golden suhoeis,
or file in long procession to some prairie stream for the
evening drink ; or better still, marking some stray wolf into
a valley where he thought himself unseen, and dashing down
upon him with wild hulloo ready for the charge, while the
silent echoes wake to the clash of hoof and ring of cheer.
All these things, and many more, had filled the hours of our
life in the past month to such a degree, that our spirits
seemed to have widened out to grasp the sense of a freedom
as boundless as the wilderness itself.

It was on the third day following the conversation above
recorded, that we came in sight of a low dark ridge, showing
itself faintly above the northern horizon.

Flowing in many serpentine bends, a small creek wound
through the prairie at our left hand, cotton-wood clusters
fringed the " points " of this stream, and long grass grew
luxuriantly between the deep bends, which sometimes formed
almost a figure eight in the roundness of their curves. Our
party moved in a straight line, which almost touched the
outer points of these deep curves, and from the higher
ground along which we marched, the eye could at times
catch the glint of water amid the ends of grasses, and mark

' I

',1

It I

154

Red Cloud.

the wild ducks sailing thickly on the rushy pools. I had
used my gun frequently during tlic morning, and when the
mid-day hour had come we had a plentiful supply of wild
ducks hanging to our saddles.

In this life in the wilderness I had early learned the
lesson of killing only what was needed to supply the wants
of the party. When wild ducks were so plentiful, it would of
course have been easy to shoot any quantity of them ; but that
habit of civilized sport which seeks only the " bag " had long
since ceased to influence me, and I had come to regard the
wild creatures of the prairie, birds and beasts, as far more
worthy of study in life than in death. That terrible misnomer
'* good sport " had for me a truer significance. It meant
watching the game by little and little, and killing only what
was actually required for the use of our fellow-travellers and
myself. During the mid-day halt on this day Red Cloud
held a long conversation with the other Indians upon the
place they were now tending to. The Assineboine had
never visited the spot, the Cree had been there on a
war-party two summers ago \ but it was now, he thought, so
late in the season that there would be little danger of meeting
any roving bands of Blackfeet, and the Crees he knew to be
far away towards the eastern prairies.

It would have been difficult to have imagined a more
periect scene of a mid-day camp than that in wliich our
little party found itself on this bright autumnal day.

The Forks,

155

The camp fire was made at the base of a round knoll,
which ran from the higher plateau of the prairie into one
of the deep bends of the creek ; upon three sides a thick
fringe of cotton-wood lined the edges of the stream ; the
golden leaves of poplars and the bronzed foliage of the
bastard maple hung still and bright in the quiet September
day. Immediately around the camp grew small bushes of
wild plum, covered thickly with crimson and yellow fruits oi
delicious flavour.

Ah, what a desert that was ! When the wild ducks
and the flour gelettes had been eaten, a single shake
of the bush brought down showers of wild sweet fruit,
and when we had eaten all we could, bags were filled for
future use.

But even such prairie repasts must come to an end, and
it was soon time to saddle and be off. So the horses were
driven in, and resuming our course, the evening found us on
the banks of the Red Deer river, not far from its point of
junction with the Medicine. We camped that night upon
the banks of the stream, and early next day reached
the point of junction. A ford was soon found, and to the
Sioux' great joy no trace of fire was to be seen in the
meadows between the rivers, or on the range of hills that
lay to the north and east ; all was still and peaceful as he
had last seen it. The pine bluff yet stood dark and solemn
at the point where the rivers met, and the meadows, as our

411

156

Red Cioud.

party rode through them, were knee-deep in grasses and
long trailing plants.

And now began in earnest a period of hard work. First
the small lodge of dressed skins was pitched upon a knoll
amid the pine-trees ; then the saddles and stores were all
made safe, upon a rough stage supported upon poles driven
fast into the ground. Next began the clearing of trees and
brushwood or the site selected for the hut. It was a spot
close to the point formed by the meeting of the two rivers,
but raised about twenty feet above the water, and partly
hidden by trees and bushes. Tall pines grew on the site,
but the axe of the Sioux and the scout soon brought down
these giants, and made clear the space around where the hut
was to stand.

It was wonderful to watch the ready manner in which
the Indians worked their hatchets ; never a blow missed
its mark, each falling with unerring aim upon the spot
where the preceding one had struck; then a lower-struck
cut would cause the huge splinters to fly from the trunk,
until, in a few moments the tree crashed to the earth in the
exact line the Indians wished it to fall.

Although a novice at woodman's craft, I was no idle specta-
tor of the work. If a man has a quick eye, a ready hand, and
a willing heart, the difficulties that lie in things that are un-
known to us are soon overcome. Every hour's toil made a
sensible improvement in my work. I soon learnt how to

^mmimmmimmm

Hut-huilding

157

roughly square the logs, and to notch the ends of them so
that one log fitted closely to the other.

Donogh and the wounded Cree meantime looked after the
horses, gathered fuel for the fire, and cooked the daily meals
of our party, and often gave a hand at the lifting of log or
labour of construction. Thus the work went on without
intermission, and day by day the little hut grew in size.
All day long the sound of wood-chopping echoed through
the pine wood at the point, over the silent rivers, causing
some passing wolf to pause in his gallop and listen
to the unwonted noise ; but no human ear was there to
catch it, or human eye to mark the thin column of blue
smoke that rose at eventime above the dark pine-tops when
the day's work was over. There was no lack of food either.
With a few hoc s and lines Donogh managed to do good
work among the fishes in the rivers. The creeks and ponds
still held large flocks of wild ducks, and many a fat black
duck fell to a steady stalk of the Cree, whose crawling powers
were simply unmatched. The black-tailed buck were
numerous in the thickets around, and with so many things
the larder never wanted for game, venison, wild fowl, or
fish.

Thus the days went by, and at last the hut was finished
and ready for occupation. It was an oblong structure,
measuring twenty-five feet by twenty. A low door gave
admission upon the south side ; east and west held windows

ill!

V'\

158

Red Cloud.

of parchrr.cnt-skin drp.wn over a wooden frame that opened
and shut on leather hinges. At the north side stood the
fireplace, a large hearth, and a chimney capable of holdhig a
quantity of pine logs. Half the wooden door frame was also
bound with parchment skins ; thus plenty of light could be
obtained in rough weather, and when the days would be still
and fine both door and windows could be open.

''When the snow has fallen," said Red Cloud to us.
" the light from the ground will be very great. The snow
hanging on the pine boughs will also ligiit up the place, and
the winter's day will be brighter than you can imagine. At
night our logs will blaze brightly upon the hearth."

The fireplace and chimney were built of stones and mud.
The Indians had carefully mixed the latter so as to ensure
it3 standing the great heat of the winter fires. The logs
•:omposing the walls were all of pines, or, more properly
speaking, of white spruce ; they had been roughly squared
and notched at the end, to allow of their catching each other
and fitting tightly together ; mud and moss had then been
pressed into the interstices so as to make them perfectly
ulr-tight. The roof was composed of long reed-grass, cut from
a neighbouring swamp and dried in the sun. The floor was
plastered with a coating of mud, which, when fully dry, made
a smooth and firm surface. Altogether the interior presented
an aspect of great comfort — rude, it is true, but still clean,
bright, and cheerful

tass>

Ony food supply.

159

t opened
tood the
lolding a
was also
could be
d be still

i to us.
he snow
lace, and
ine. At

nd mud.
3 ensure
'he logs
properly
squared
ch other
en been
perfectly
:ut from
oor was
y, made
esentcd
1 clean,

It was a marvel to me how all this labour had been done,
and this result achieved, with only a few rude implements —
a couple of axes, a saw, a few gimlets and awls, and those
wonderful knives which the Indians themselves make from
old files— those knives with which a ready man can fashion a
canoe, a dog-sled, or a snow-shoe, with a beauty of design
which no civilized art can excel.

But although shelter for the winter had been thus provided,
an equally important want had still to be attended to ; a
supply of meat sufficient to last three months had to be
obtained.

The Red Cloud had often spoken to me of the expedi-
tion which we had still before us in the first month of the
winter, and now that the hut was finished the time had come
for setting out in quest of buftalo.

** Of all the winter food which the prairie can give," said
he to me, " there is no food like the meat of the buffalo.
The time has now come when the frost is sufficiently keen
all day to keep the meat frozen, therefore all we kill can be
brought in ; none of it will be lost. The last buffalo we
saw," he continued, " were on the plains south of the Elk
river j they were scattered herds of bulls. The cows
were then absent three days' march south of that ground ;
the herds were moving very slowly to the west. About a
week's journey firom here there is a small lake in the plains,
called the Lake of the Wind, from the ceaseless movement of

If:: )

1 60

Red Cloud.

its waters. Day and night, even when the winds are still,
the waters of that lake move and dash with noise against
the pebbles on the shore. It is a favourite haunt for buffalo.
To that lake we shall steer our course ; for four days we
shall have to cross a bare plain, on which no tree or bush
grows ; but at the lake there will be wood in the caverns
around the shores, and we can get shelter for our tent,
and fuel for fire, there. The horses are now all strong and
fat, and they will be able to stand the cold, no matter how
severe it may come."

The Sioux spoke truly ; a prairie horse is all right if he be
fat. It matters little in winter what he may be in speed, or
strength, or activity ; as long as he .is thick fat there is always
a month's work in him.

Early on the day following the com])letion of the hut, all
the horses were driven in from the m'.adows in which they
had spent the last three weeks. Tliey all looked fat and
strong.

During some days past the Cree had been busy preparing
sleds, for light snow had now fallen ; and although it
had not lain long upon the ground, it was, nevertheless,
likely that ere the time for the return of our party had
arrived the ground would be white with its winter covering.
These sleds would be carried crossways upon a horse until
the snow would allow of their being drawn along the
ground ; they would each carry about 500 pounds of meat,

We stai't for the south-zvest.

i6i

Is are still,
)ise against

for buffalo,
ur days we
•ee or bush
the caverns
r our tent,

strong and
matter how

ight if he be
in speed, or
sre is always

f the hut, all
1 which they
)ked fat and

isy preparing
altho'.'gh it
nevertheless,
r party had
ter covering,
a horse until
1 along the
nds of meat,

and that would form an ample supply for the winter, with
the venison and wild game that could be obtained in a ten-
mile circle around the hut-
All preparations having been finished, Red Cloud, Doriogh,
the scout, and myself started on the following morning,
bound for the south-west. We took with us a small tent,
^::; liorses, nnd plenty of powder and ball. The Cree and
the dog remained to take charge of the hut. We expected
to be absent about one month. It was the 20th of October,
a bright, fair autumn day ; hill and plain lay basking in a
quiet sunlight, the sky was clear and cloudless, the air had
in it that crisp of frost which made exercise a pleasure.

Winding along the meadows of the Red Deer, the pine
bluff at the Forks was soon lost to sight behind its circling
hills.

The evening of the third day after quitting the hut at the
Forks found our little party camped on the edge of that
treeless waste which spreads in unbroken desolation from
the banks of the Eagle Creek near the North Saskatchewan
to the Missouri. The spot where the lodge was pitched
bore among the half-breed hunters of the plains the title of
Les Trois Arbres.

It would have been difficult to have found a wilder scene
than that which spread itself to the south and west from this
lonely group of trees.

'' Beyond the farthest verge of sight," said the Sioux, as

vn ', ,

162

Red Cloud.

he pointed out the general direction he proposed to follow
on the morrow, " lies the lake which the Indians have
named the Lake of the Wind. From yonder group of trees
to the shore of that lake, four long days' journey, there does
not grow one tree or bush upon the prairie. We must halt
here to-morrow, to bake bread and cut wood, to carry on
the sleds, sufficient to last us across this bare expanse. Once
at the lake we shall find wood in plenty, and I think the
buffalo will not be far distant."

The sight upon which we now gazed was in truth almost
sublime in its vast desolation. The sun, just descended
beneath the rim of the western prairie, cast up into the sky
one great shaft of light.

The intense rarity of the atmosphere made the landscape
visible to its most remote depths. A few aspen clumps, and
the three trees already mentioned, grew near the standpoint
from which we looked ; but in front no speck of tree met
the eye, and the unbroken west lay waiting for the night in
all tiio length and breadth of its lonely distance.

Ne^-er before had I beheld so vast an extent of treeless
g:ound. The other prairies over which we had journeyed
were dwarfed ir. my mind by the one now before me. I
r.?iii.ied '. J be standing upon the shore of a rigid sea — an
ocean, whose motionless waves of short brown grass ap-
peared to lie in a vast torpor up to, and beyond, the sunset
itself; and this «)ense of enormous space was heightened by

:d to follow
dians have
Dup of trees
, there does
; must halt
o carry on
anse. Once
[ think the

;ruth almost
t descended
into the sky

le landscape
clumps, and
e standpoint
of tree met
the night in

L of treeless
,d journeyed
fore me. I
gid sea — an
vn grass ap-
I, the sunset
eightened by

Home thoiti^kts.

163

the low but profound murmur of the wind, as it swept
by our standpoint, from vast distance, into distance still
as vast.

The whole of the following day was spent in preparations
for crossing this great waste. A quantity of dry poplar sticks
were cut into lengths suitable for packing upon the sleds.

The fire in the leather tent was kept briskly going, and a
good supply of gelettes was baked before it.

" We will need all the wood we can carry with us," said
the Sioux, "for the work of boiling the morning and even-
ing kettle."

When the sunset hour had again come, I was out agai
upon the hill top to watch the sun set over the immeasurable
waste. My wanderings had taught me that it was at this
hour of sunset that t^^e wilderness put on its grandest aspect;
and often was it my wont to watch its varying shade , as,
slowly sinking into twilight, the vagueness of night stole
over the prairie.

It was at these times of sunset, too, that I seemed to see
again all the well-remembered scenes of my early days in
the old glen. Out of the vast silent wilderness came i'le
brown hill of Seefin, and the gorse-covered sides of Knock-
more. I could fancy that my ear caught the murmur of the
west wind through the heather. How far off it all seemed
— dreamlike in its vividness and its vast distance !

Very early next morning the tent was struck, the horses

164

Red Cloud.

.1, : '

were driven in, loads packed, and all made ready for the
launch of the little expedition upon the great prairie sea.

Tlie Sioux led the advance. Long ere mid-day the last
glimpse of the Trois Arbres had vanished beneath the plain.
In the afternoon a snow-storm swept across the waste,
wrapping earth and heaven in its blinding drift. Still the
Indian held his way r.t the same steady pace.

" It is well," he said to me as I rode close behind him.
" If there are any roving bands on the borders of this great
prairie, they will not see us in this storm."

Before sunset the storm ceased, the clouds rolled away
to the south, and the boundless plain lay around us on all
sides, one dazzling expanse of snow.

Camp was pitched at sunset in the bottom of a deep
ccuke. A night of intense cold followed the storm ; but
within the leather lodge the fire soon gave light and warmth ;
and as soon as supper was over we lay down on each side
of the embers, wrapped in our robes.

Thus we journeyed on for some days, until, on the after-
noon of the fourth from quitting Les Trois Arbres, we drew
near the Lake of the Wind.

The weather had again become fine, and, for the season,
mild. The snow had partly vanished, and the sun shone
with a gentle lustre, that made bright and golden the yellow
grasses of the great waste.

For several hours before the lake was reached, the trees

i*4,

i ' -

IndiaJi instincts.

165

idy for the
irie sea.
ay the last
h the plain,
the waste,
Still the

ehind him.
f this great

oiled away
i us on all

of a deep
storm ; but
nd warmth ;
1 each side

n the after-
is, we drew

the season,

sun shone

1 the yellow

I, the trees

» 'm,

that grew near its shores had become visible. I had noticed
that these clumps had risen out of the blank horizon straight
in front of us, showing how accurate had been the steering
of the Sioux across a waste that had presented to the eye of
the ordinary beholder apparently not one lariiunrk for
guidance.

I asked the Indian by what marks he had directed his
course.

" I could not tell you," replied the Sioux. " It is an
instinct born in us ; it comes as easy to us as it does to
the birds, or to the buffalo. Look up," he went on ; "see
that long line of * wavies ' sailing to the south. Night and
day they keep that line \ a week ago they were at the North
Sea ; in a few days they will be where winter never comes.
Before man gave up this free life of the open air, while yet
the forest and the plain were his homes, he knew all these
things better even than did the birds or the beasts ; he knew
when the storm was coming ; the day and the night werv
alike to him when he travelled his path through the forest;
his course across the lake was clear to him : but when he
grew to be what you call civlized, then he lost the know-
ledge of the sky, and of the earth ; he became helpless. It
is so with the red men; year by year, we lose something
of the craft and knowledge of wood, plain, and river. One
hundred years ago, our young men hunted the buffalo and
the wapiti with the weapons they had themselves made ; now

» ^ij-.-t'oae gsi at 't'a

■'*■''

'J' I

1 66

Red Cloud.

it is the gun or the rifle of the white man that is used by
them. Without these things, which they buy from the
traders, they would die, because they have mostly forgotten
the old methods of the chase. Before the horse came to us
from the Spaniard, we hunted the buffalo on foot, and our
young men could chase the herds from sunrise until dusk of
evening ; before the gun came to us from the French we
killed pven the grizzly bears with our arrows, and straight
and trut they flew from the bow drawn on horseback or on
foot."

As thus the Sioux showed how deeply he had studied the
past history of his race, the scattered woods that fringed the
lake took better defined form, and soon the sheen of water
became visible through openings in the belts of forest.

As we drew still nearer, the whole outline of the lake was
to be seen. It lay between deeply indented shores at its
northern, or nearer end. but farther off to the south it
stretched out into a broader expanse of water. The evening
was perfectly calm, the branches of the trees did not move,
but the water, still unfrozen in the centre of the lake, was
agitated with many waves, and a restless surge broke upon
the edges of ice with an se which was plainly audible on
the shore. It was a sing scene, this restless lake lying
amid this v.t ' ri^^d wast he Sioux bent his way into one

of the long pi' ; ontories, and soon a spot was selected amid
a thick screen of ispens and maple, where the tent was

used by
rom the
"orgottcn
.mc to us
and our
I dusk of
rench we
straight
ck or on

idied the
Inged the
of water
est.

lake was
es at its
south it

: evening

ot move,
ake, was
ike upon
dible on
.ke lying
7 into one
ted amid
tent was

•I

T/ie Lake of the Winds.

167

pitched in sheUer, and all made comfortable against the now
approaching night.

Next day broke fresh and fair ; the air was keen and cold,
but the dry fuel, now obtainable in plenty, had kept the lodge
warm ; and soon after sunrise the sun came out, glistening
upon the white branches of the leafless trees, and the hoar-
frosted grass, and shallow snow of the plain, and making all
things look bright and cheerful. We were soon in the saddle.
The Sioux led the advance, and swinging round by the
southern end of the lake we gained some high and broken
ground. The Sioux had ridden on some distance in
advance, and I was about to quicken my pace in order to
overtake him, when suddenly I caught sight of a dark object
appearing above a depression in a ridge some way to ray
right; the ridge itself concealed lower ground beyond it,
and the object, which for a second had caught my eye was
the back of some animal that was standing partially hidden
within this lower space.

I was glad to have thus caught first sight of game, be-
fore even the quick eye of the Sioux had lighted upon it.
Keeping low upon my horse, I galloped forvv-ard, and told my
companion what I had seen. He immediately reconnoitred
the hollow, and came back to say that it held three animals,
two buffalo cows and one calf. As I had first discovered
the game, I was to have first shot. We both dismounted,
and crept cautiously up to the edge of the ridge and looked

i68

Red Cloud.

^Sif

f n ![

over. From this edge to where the animals stood was
about one hundred and fifty yards. I laid my rifle over the
ridge top, took a steady aim, and fired at the cow that
stood nearest to mc Then wc both sprang to our feet, and
ran with all speed down the hill towards the animals. The
cow I had fired at moved off with difficulty, the others
bounded away up the opijosite ridge. It was now the
Sioux' turn. Stopping short in his long stride he fired
quickly, and ran on again. The buffalo at which he fired
had gained the summit of the distant ridge, and was for a
moment clearly shown on the white hill-top and against the
blue sky beyond it. I was so intent upon watching my own
animal that I had no time to take note of whether his shot
had struck; but, reloading as I ran, I soon reached the
bottom of the little valley. My buffalo was still moving quietly
up the incline, evidently sorely wounded. Another shot
from my rifle ere the beast had reached the top of the
ridge brought her to the ground, no more to rise. We
breasted quickly up the incline until the top was gained,
and there, just beyond the summit, lay the Sioux' buflalo,
quite dead in the snow. What a scene it was as we stood on
this prairie ridge ! Away on all sides spread the white and
yellow prairie, the longer grasses still showing golden in the
sunlight above the sparkling layer of snow; there was not
a cloud in the vast blue vault that hung over this glistening
immensity ; the Lake of the Wind lay below us, its line of

ood was
over the
cow that
feet, and
lis. The
le others
now the
he fired
1 he fired
was for a
gainst the
I my own
:r his shot
ached the
ng quietly
ithcr shot
op of the
rise. We
as gained,
x' buffalo,
rQ stood on
white and
den in the
re was not
1 glistening
its line of

We both sprang to our feet, and ran with all speed towards the animals.

Page 168.

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Buffalo,

169

shore-wood showing partially dark against its snow, and its
centre of open water lying blue as the sky above it, set in
a frame of snow-crusted ice. Close at hand, on either side
of the ridge where we stood, lay the dark bodies of our
buffalo, stretched upon the shallow snow.

Both animals proved to be in very good condition. " You
will taste to-night," said the Sioux to me, " the best bit of
meat to be got in the prairie — the flesh of a fat cow buffalo ;
the finest beef is but poor food compared to it."

We were still so near our camp that we determined to get
the sleds out and drag it in, before night would give the
wolves a chance of plundering our winter store of meat.
The Sioux began to skin and cut up the buffalo, and I went
back to where we had left the horses, and then rode to the
camp to bring Donogh, the scout, and the sled to the scene.
It was astonishing to see the rapid manner with which the
two Indians cut up these large animals. Early in the after-
noon we were all back in the camp, with three sled-loads of
primest meat ; we brought skins, marrow-bones, tongues,
and tit-bits j and the remainder of the daylight was spent in
aiTanging the supplies safe from the ravage of prowling wolves
and in preparing for a good feast after the labours of the
day.

Pleasant it was that night, when the darkness had fallen
over the silent wilderness, to look at the cosy scene presented
by our camp. We had swept clear of brushwood and snow

'fl

170

Red Cloud,

a large space on one side of our leather lodge. Maple-trees
grew thickly around it ; in the centre burned clear and bright
a fire of dry logs. Steaks were roasting before glowing
embers, the kettle was steaming from a cross-stick, marrow-
bones were toasting, gelettes were baking in a pan set
facing the fire and backed up with hot embers, while, seated
on bufialo robes, around the fire we sat, canopied by the
starlight, circled by the vast and lonely wilderness.

The next morning found us again in the saddle, but this
time Donogh came to share our sport. Our course now lay
in a westerly direction from the lake. It was in that line
that the yearling calf had retreated on the previous day, and
there it was likely we should fall in with buffalo. It was mid-day
however before the sight of buffalo gladdened our eyes. Far
away to the south dim dark specks were visible. Ascending
a ridge in the direction of the animals, we had a better view
of the plains. A large herd was distinctly visible, moving
slowly towards the north-west. We watched them for som3
minutes. " We must cross them on their line of march,"
said the Sioux to me ; then we rode briskly off towards the
south-west keeping our horses along the hollows of the
prairie. It was his intention to take up a position in advance
of the herd, and then await itscoming. He preferred thismode
of attack in the present instance to running the buffalo upon
horseback: the light covering of snow was sufficient to render
the prnirie dangerous, since it had partially hidden the badger

I i

•i

A long stalk.

17'

holes, and llie surface was hard with frost. " Our horses
have to carry us home to the Red Deer river," he said as
we cantered along; we must be careful how we use them.
We soon reached the edge of what seemed to be a channel
of a stream through the prairie ; but there was no water in
the wide grassy hollow that ran in sweeping curves over the
plains, nor could a stream of water ever have flowed in it,
because it followed the general undulations of the land around,
although the floor or bottom of it was always lower than the
land that bordered it on either side. We now saw that the
line of the buffalo's advance was up this grassy hollow, and
as the wind was favourable we would only have to conceal
ourselves in the floor of this depression and to await the
approach of the herd. Leaving the horses in a deep hollow,
we gained a spot in the grassy channel where we could lie
concealed behind tufts oi grass and snow ; here we lay down
to await the buffalo. It was not very long before the leading
ones came in sight of our hiding-place, round a curve in the
depression about four hundred yards distant.

Then in scattered files more came into view, walking
slowly and deliberately forward in that complete unconstraint
with which the wild animals of the earth take their leisure
when they fancy their great enemy, man, is far away from
them.

A very old bull led the advance, moving some distance
in front of any other beast.

172

Red Cloud.

The snow of many a winter's storm, the gleam of many a
summer's sun, had matted and tangled his shaggy mane and
sweeping frontlet.

As he approached nearer to us we could see his eyes gleam-
ing brightly from beneath the thick masses of hair that hung
from his forehead ; but there was no trace of that anger or
fright such as the hunter sees when in pursuit of a flying
herd. The look now was calm and tranquil ; the great beast
was at home in this solitary waste, as his race through count-
less generations had been at home here ; for in these wilds,
so green in summer, so white in winter, he and his had
roamed since time began.

" Do not fire at him," said the Sioux in a low tone to
me. " He would be useless to us."

The old veteran had now come to a halt, about thirty
paces in front of where we lay. He was so close to us
that we could mark with ease every movement of his shaggy
head, every expression of his eye. Some vague idea that
there was danger in front seemed to have come upon him, for
once or twice he turned his head round, as if to see whether
his comrades were close at hand.

As they came closing up to him from behind, the same
vague feeling of fear or suspicion seemed to have communi-
cated itself to them, for they also paused irresolute on their
way. Thai the suspicion was not directed towards any par-
ticular point, was evident from the looks which the huge

)

The monarch of the waste.

17:

);

animals continued to turn to either side. As thus they stood,
gradually closing up from behind upon the leader, a storm
that for some time had been threatening, broke over the
prairie, whirling snow in dense drifts before it, and wrapping
the scene in chaotic desolation.

Truly, a weird wild picture was that before us — the
great waste narrowed for the moment by the curtain clouds
of wintry tempest, the dark animals vaguely seen through
the wrack of drift, and the huge form of the monarch of
the prairie standing out against the background of gloom.
It is many a long day now since I looked upon that scene,
but I see it still before me, through time and distance.

The old buffalo, as though reassured by the proximity of
his friends, now began to move forward again.

The Sioux whispered to me to aim at a young bull that
had come up towards the front. He was some little way
behind the old leader, but his side was partly visible to mc.
I aimed low behind his shoulder, and fired. In a second,
the scene had changed ; all was wild confusion among the
herd. Where all had been torpor, all became movement ;
to sense of security followed intense fright ; and away in
wild stampede, through drift and storm, fled the suddenly
startled animals. The young bull had, however, received his
death-wound ; he soon dropped from the ranks of the
flying herd, and lay down to die.

It was now so late in the day that we could not hope to

174

Red Cloitd,

get the beast home to our camp before the morrow. But
to leave the dead animal as he was, on the prairies, exposed
for the night to the ravage of wolves and foxes, would have
been to find little remaining save his bones next day. The
Sioux stuck his ramrod into the ribs of the buffalo, and
fiistened his powder-flask to the rod, letting it swing in the
wind. This precaution made the carcase safe from attack,
at least for one night ; for keener than the scent of food with
the wolf is his scent for powder, and he will long continue
to circle around meat thus protected, ere his greed will bring
him close wO it for plunder.

As we rode home to the camp, the snowstorm that had
swept the plains abated ; but a bitterly cold wind was blow-
ing across the prairie, and a lurid sunset foreshadowed a
continuance of wild weather.

The stock of dry wood ^or fuel was, however, large ; and
sheltered amid the thickets, our camp-fire blazed brightly,
while again we brought back from our long day's work
those keen appetites to relish the good things of steak and
bone and tit-bit that only the prairie hunter can ever know.
Pleasant used it to be on such nights to sit before the camp
fire and watch the wind, as, blowing in gusts, it whirled the
yellow flames through the dry logs, while the peeled willows
baked by the embers.

On this evening the scout brought out a plentiful supply

The red man's tobacco.

175

of willow rods, which he had cut during our absence along
a part of the lake shore to which he had wandered. The
outer bark of these willows was a bright red colour. This
outer bark the scout had peeled off, leaving beneath it a
soft inner skin. Having carefully peeled down this inner
skin, so as to make it form ringlets or curls of bark at the
knots on the willow rods, the ends of the rods were now
stuck in the ground close by the fire. The heat soon
caused the strips of bark to become crisp, and fit for
smoking. It is in this manner that the Indians make their
" Kinni-kinnick " tobacco.

Wherever the red willow grows, by margin of lake or
shore of river, along the edge of swamp or thicket, there the
tobacco pouch of the red man is easily replenished; and
mixed with real tobacco, this inner bark of the willow forms
the universal smoking-mixture of the tribes that roam the
northern wastes.

In the " thick wood " country, lying between lakes
Superior and Winnipeg, the red willow is scarce, but a weed
not unlike dwarf box is found. Dried before a fire, its
leaves form kinni-kinnick, like the willow bark. True to
his habit, of taking a last look at the horses before lying
down for the night, the Sioux arose from his robe at the
fire and went out into the open. The horses had sought the
shelter of the thicket ; the wind was beginning to rise ;

l?IT

176

Red Cloud.

no stars were visible, the branches of the dwarf trees sent
forth a mournful sigh as the night-winds pasijed through
them.

" To-morrow," he said, when he came back to the tent,
" winter will be on all the land."

It did not matter. We wrapped ourselves in our robes
and lay down to sleep, heedless alike of rising storm and
falling snowflake.

[ 1

177

sent
*ough

tent,

rubes
and

(

CHAPTER X.

^Vintcr— wolves— A nicjht's trapping-A retreat— In the teeth
of the north wind-The carcajou— A miss and a hit— News
of Indians-Danger ahcad-A friendly storm-Thc hut
again.

The next morning, plain and thicket, hill and lake, lay
wrapt m a white mantle. The storm had sunk to calm, the
snow had ceased, but winter was on all the land, no more
to leave it until the winds and showers of spring should
come from the south to chase him back into his northern
home. It was piercingly cold when we issued from the tent
to begin the day's work. The cold was different from any.
thing I had yet experienced. The slightest touch of metal
sufficed instantly to freeze the fingers. A gun-barrel, the
buckle of a girth, the iron of a bit, struck so deadly cold
upon the hands, that I found it was only by running to the
embers of the fire, and holding my fmgcrs for a moment in
the blaze that I could restore them to working power.

Red Cloud and the Assineboine appeared, however, to
take slight notice of this great cold. The work was done
as usual, quickly and neatly; packs and saddles wciu

178

Red Cloud.

arranged, the two spare horses were got ready to bring back
the buffalo killed on the previous evening, and in a very
short time our little party trooped out from the sheltering
thicket into the great prairie.

All was now a dazzling sheet of most intense white. The
clouds had cleared away, and the sun shone out, making the
vast surface glisten as though millions of diamonds had been
scattered over it. The snow was not yet deep upon the
prairie ; the wind of the preceding night had driven it into
the hollows, or flattened it down amid the grass, so that the
horses were able to make their way along.

About two hours' ride brought us in sight of the dead
buffalo. It was visible a long way off, showing very dark
upon the white surface of the plain. The scene around it
was a curious one. Fully a score of wolves were circling
and dodging around the carcase, some looking anxiously at
the longed-for meat, others sitting farther away, as though
they had determined to await the discoveries of their more
venturesome comrades ere they would approach the dead
animal.

Red Cloud looked at them for some time.

" There are a good many warm skins," he said, " in that
lot, and they are easily carried compared with the skin of
those buffalo cows we shot yesterday. If we had a few of
those wolf robes, we could make our winter beds warm
enough in the hut at the Forks."

•

Wolves,

179

He thought a moment, and then continued, —

" There arc so many wolves here that it would be worth
while to camp near this to-night and trap some of them.
We will take two loads of meat back to the camp at the lake,
then return here, bringing with us the tent, and wood suffi-
cient for the night. We will fetch hither all the traps we have
with us, and then see if we cannot catch some of these
white and grey wolves."

We had now reached the buffalo, and the work of skinning
and cutting up went on apace. Soon light loads for the
horses were ready, and I and the scout set out for the lake,
leaving the Sioux to keep watch over the carcase.

When we had departed, the Sioux set to work to outwit
the cunning wolves, who still lurked around, hiding behind
the hillock, and looking every now and again over the sky-
line of a hill to watch their much-coveted food.

Noticing that a small ravine ran curving through the
prairie within easy rifle-shot of the dead buffalo, he followed
our tracks for some distance, until reaching a depression in
the ground, he turned aside into it ; then bending down so
as to be completely hidden from the wolves, he gained the
ravine at a considerable distance from where the bufiftilo lay.
Following the many windings of this coulee, he reached at
last the neighbourhood of the animal. He did not need
to look up above the ledge of the ravine, because ere he
set out upon his stalk he had marked a tuft of tall dry grass

N 2

i8o

Red Cioiid.

<ii

which grew at the curve which was nearest the buffalo, and
now keeping the bottom of the ravine, he saw this tuft appear
in view as he rounded a bend in the hollow. Looking
cautiously up from the base of the dry tuft, he saw, about
a hundred yards distant, several wolves busily engaged at
tearing at the hide and legs yet remaining of the buffalo.
Singling out the largest wolf, he took a quick but steady
aim, and as the report rang out, he saw the wolf spring
into the air and fall dead beside the buffalo carcase. A
second shot, fired as the other wolves galloped rapidly
away, was not so successful. The bullet cut the snow
beneath their feet, and in another few seconds they were
out of range.

When we again appeared upon the scene, bringing the
tent and traps, we found a magnificent wolfs skin added
to our stock of winter goods.

Pitching the leather lodge in the shelter of the ravine, all
was made comfortable against the night. The spare horses
had been left at the old camping-place, and only those
ridden by the hunters had been brouglit to tliis exposed
place.

Just before nightfall the Sioux set his traps in a circle
round the spot where the buftalo lay. I watched with interest
the precautions by which he hoped to baffle the cunning of
the wolves. To the chain of each trap a heavy stick was
attached. This weight would prevent the wolf dragging the

A nighfs trapping.

i8i

trap any considerable distance ; but both the trap and the
stick had to be concealed in the snow, and care taken to
prevent the fine powdery snow drifting in underneath the
plate, so as to allow the pressure of an animal's foot to
spring the trap.

The circle of traps was soon complete, and just at dusk
we were all ensconced within our lodge, busily preparing
the evening meal.

" About an hour after dark the wolves will grow bold,"
said the Sioux. " They are circling round now, but they
are too cautious to go near just at first. We will go round
the traps when supper is done, and again before we turn in
for the night."

When supper was finished, we crept out of the lodge
and went to visit the traps. The night was intensely cold ;
the stars were shining with wonderful brilliancy over the
vast white prairie. The first trap we approached held nothing,
— and so on until we reached the fourth. Here we saw a dark
object struggling hard in the snow. As we drew nearer to it I
was able to distinguish an animal closely resembling a huge
grey dog. The Sioux had brought with him a stout pole
four feet in length, Coming close to the wolf he struck him
a violent blow with this pole, kiUing him instantly. Then
he re-set the trap, and dragging the dead wolf along, we pro-
ceeded to finish our round. All the other traps were empty.
But two hours later, when another visit was made, a coyote

l82

Red Cloud.

and a kit fox were found, so that the stock of winter skins
began to increase rapidly.

Another wolf was captured during the night ; but when
morning came we found that he had succeeded in dragging
the trap, and the stick to which it was attached, a long way
over the prairie. It was the trap which had been set by me.

" Curious," said I. " The wolf caught last night was just
able to move the trap, and now this one carries trap and
stick far over the prairie. He must be a stronger wolf than
the first one."

" No," replied the Sioux. " But do you see the track that
the stick has made in the snow ? Does it not run straight,
end on, after the wolf? "

I noticed that it did so.

" Well," said Red Cloud, " that is because you did not
select the exact centre of the stick in which to place the
chain. The consequence is that one end of the stick is
heavier than the other. This heavy end trails after the
chain, so that the wolf has less difficulty in dragging it along.
It glides over the snow easily, whc^reas when both ends of
the stick are evenly balanced, it lies across the animal's
line of flight. That is the reason why this wolf has got away
so far. But we will reach him yet."

Following rapidly along, we overtook the trapped animal
in the bottom of a coulee^ in the soft snow of which he could
not make much way. He was quickly despatched, and

A retreat

183

skins

dragged back to the tent, his skin to be added to those
already taken.

The weather was now so intensely cold that Red Cloud
began to fear the horses would be unable to drag the load of
meat back to the Forks. There was meat fully sufficient
to load the three sleds we had brought to their utmost
capacity. Fortunately the spare horses had had an easy
time of it up to the present. They were still in fair condition ;
but the riding horses already showed signs of feeling the
terrible severity of these exposed treeless plains, and to delay
the return to the Forks longer than was absolutely necessary,
would only be to imperil the lives of the most valuable
animals possessed by us.

Accordingly the lodge was struck, and the retreat to the
hut at the Forks began.

During four days our line of sleds and men toiled slowly
over the treeless waste, dark specs upon a waste of white.
The north wind blew with merciless rigour. Sometimes the
air was still, and the sun shone ; but at other times terrible
storms swept the wild landscape, whirling powdery snow
over hills and ravines. ^Vith downbent heads men and horses
plodded on; at night the lodge was pitched in some coulee
for better shelter, and in the early morning so black and cold
and desolate looked all visible nature, that I used to long to
be again in the tent. Still I struggled hard to keep a bold
front before my Indian comrades; they did not complain,

1 84

Red Cloud.

why should I ? One good thing was, we had plenty of buffalo
meat, and we could be I'airly warm at night by lying dose
together in the "lodge."

At last, on the fifth day, the wood at Les Trois Arbres was
reached, and piling on the firewood, that night the tent
was made warm and comfortable.

The poor horses were now very weak. On the treeless
plains the grass had been short and covered in many places
with snow ; but in the thickets wild vetch and pea grew,
twining, through the brushwood, and these succulent grasses,
sweetened by the frost, were eagerly sought for by the
hungry steeds. It was decided to give a day's rest here, for
the worst portion of the journey was now over. Accord-
ingly the lodge was pitched in a sheltered spot amid thickets,
and the horses turned adrift in what at this season of the
year was good pasturage.

The next day we spent in a long hunt on foot amid the
thickets and open prairies. The " poire " tree grew in many
places amid the aspen groves, and the Indians declared that
where the poire flourished there the bear was to be found —
so our hunt this day was to the sleeping-place of the bear.
When the last berry has disappeared, and the first snow has
come. Bruin begins to bethink himself of seeking a place
wherein he can sleep away the long winter months.

Beneath the trunk of a fallen tree, under a rock, often-
times on the level ground of aspen or poplar thicket, he digs

Setting out on a iung hunt.

185

his hole. When it is deep enough to hold his fat body he
backs into it, and placing his nose between his fore paws goes
fast asleep. Sometimes the sleep is for four or five months
duration ; but at other times, when the sun comes out
warm and bright in mid-winter, he will crawl forth from his
burrow, roam a little way around, and then retire again into
his den. It is no easy matter to find his nest. Like all wild
things he selects his place of rest with an eye to security ;
but hide it as he may, the Indian's sharp eye pierces through
all disguises, and in the time before the snow has fallen
deep enough to cover tree stumps and hollow in one undis-
tinguishably level of white, the couch which Bruin has made
with so much care for his winter's sleep becomes his death-
bed ere his first doze has well begun.

Red Cloud and I took one direction, the scout set off in
another. The day was calm and fine ; scarcely a breath of
wind stirred over the prairie, and the rays of the sun fell
brightly upon the snowy surface, through which the yellow
grass still showed in many places. Dressed in a light
leather shirt, and Indian leggings and moccasins to match, I
stepped briskly along, following in the footsteps of the Sioux.
In and out of aspen thickets, over open patches of prairie
land, along the tops of small ridges quite bare of snow, the
Indian held his way with rapid stride. At length we
emerged upon the edge of a deep coulee. In the bottom of
this ravine a few pools of fro3en water were visible. The

1 86

Red Cloud,

sides of the ravine were steep, but in the bottom the ground
was level ; some stunted bushes grew at intervals along it. As
we stood on the sharp edge of the prairie looking down this
depression, the eye of the Indian suddenly caught sight of
a moving object some distance away to his right. It was
an animal that had plunged over the edge and quickly dis-
appeared in the valley. Before many seconds had elapsed a
second object crossed over the ridge and dived into the
coulee. The Indian exclaimed, " Lie down, it is a carcajou ;
he is hunting a deer. The deer will follow the coulee, and
will pass right beneath where we stand ; we should get them
both." We lay flat upon the prairie edge with rifles ready.
Presently along the bottom of the gorge appeared a large
jumping moose. He was evidently sorely pressed by his
pursuer, who, only about fifty yards behind, came along at
that slouching gallop peculiar to his species. Red Cloud
whispered to me, " Fire as the deer passes. Aim in front,
and low, for it is down hill. I'll take the carcajou." My
heart beat last ; the distance was under seventy yards, but
the pace was good. A shot rang out. " Missed," cried the
Sioux as the deer went bounding by. Quick as thought I
pulled again, this time aiming well in front and very low.
The deer staggered — fell— rose again to his feet, and then
plunged over upon his side, dead. Meantime the
wolverine was coming along at a tremendous pace. All
at once a shot rang out in front ; then another. His pace

The Carcajou.

187

was too rapid to be checked in an instant; but the reports from
the ridge to his left caused him to swerve from the bottom
of the coulee^ and to ascend the bank nearly opposite the spot
where we lay. As he went up the steep bank he presented
a beautiful mark to the Indian's rifle. For an instant the
weapon followed the upward course of the animal, then it
poured forth its unerring fire. The carcajou staggered in his
gallop, and slipped back a short way down the steep hill side j
then he recovered himself, and began again to ascend. But
now a second report rang out, and, shot quite dead, the
beast rolled down tbe shingly side, and lay still, within a few
yards of the deer he had followed to the death.

My first shot had not allowed sufficiently for the depth of
the coulee ; the bullet had just gone over the deer's back, but
the second had passed clean through the animal's ribs.

And now to carry the game home to camp. It was no
easy matter ; the Sioux, however, proved himself, as usual,
fully equal to the difificulty.

In a very short time he had skinned both the animals.
The flesh of the wolverine was useless, but the skin was a
very fine one.

When the skin of the deer was removed, it was placed
upon the snow, with the side that had been next the body
of the animal turned downwards upon the ground. Then
the venison was packed upon the hairy side, and the ends
of the skin wrapped over it to prevent the pieces falling {'i\

• I

l88

Red Cloud,

!■

then to the two fore-legs of the skin the Sioux fastened the
string of leather called " shagganappi," which he always
carried with him, and passing the band of the line round
his shoulders, he drew the load of meat easily over the
snow. We followed the coulee for some distance, until
coming to a spot where the bank was less abrupt, we were
able to draw the load to the level of the piairie; then
trudging along over snow and grass, we arrived at the lodge
ere yet the winter's sun had touched the horizon.

It was still later when the scout returned. He had much
to say about his day's work. Soon after setting out in the
morning he had struck the trail of a moose, and had followed
it for a long distance. The moose had travelled far, and
ere the day was half done the scout found himself a long
way from camp. Still he persisted in keeping the trail. At
last he beheld a sight that made him think of other things
besides his game. From a ridge over which the trail led, he
espied some Indian lodges pitched on the edge of the
woods. The hunter instantly became the brave ; he
approached the neighbourhood of the tents with the utmost
caution. He waited long enough until he discovered the
tribe to which the Indians belonged ; then he returned with
all speed to tell his tidings to his comrades. The band, he
said, belonged to the Cree tribe ; they were trapping and
hunting in the vicinity of the elbow of the South Saskatche-
wan, and had now been here for some days. This was

Danger ahead.

189

bad news for us. We had hoped that our winter hut at the
Forks would remain unknown to any Indians ; and now this
band of Crees were close upon us. Unless a fall of snow
would quickly come, our homeward trail to the hut must be
struck by some Cree brave in the next few days, and once
struck it was sure to be followed. The Crees were not hostile,
but that was a fact upon which we could not long count.
Besides, the news of the existence of a hut at that point
would soon spread among the tribe, and other Indians
would hear of it before the winter was over. Mischief might
easily come from it. We must endeavour to hide our trail
by some stratagem.

For hours that evening the Sioux sat silently before the
tent fire, buried in deep thought. A snow-storm would
have put an end to all his difficulties ; but the night looked
fine and clear, the stars were shining over the prairie, the
yellow lustre of the sunset still hung in the western sky.

It was possible to branch away at right angles from our
present line, and to continue that course until the weather
changed, and then to resume the old direction and make
straight for the hut ; but that would entail much extra march-
ing upon the horses already thin and weak, and would pro-
bably lead to the loss of some of them. Under all circum-
stances the best course to adopt seemed to be to remain
camped in the neighbourhood until a change of weather
would obliterate the trail. Accordingly next morning a move

i! ,1 '

! HI

190

Rec/ Cloud.

was made a few miles further away from the Crees, and
camp was again pitched in a spot not likely to catch the eye
of any roving Indian.

The next night brought a change in the weather ; the
wind began to rise, clouds came drifting up from the north-
east, and ere midnight came the snow was falling over the
plain. We were ready for it ; the horses had all been driven
in at nightfall ; the sleds got ready for the march. By the
light of the fire the tent was struck and packed, and long
ere morning began to break upon the driving scene of snow
and storm our little cavalcade was far 'away on its march
to the hut. All day the storm blew, the snow fell ; and all
day too, Red Cloud led the march through blinding drift,
and small chance was there of keenest eyes ever finding our
trail. The wind blew the surface of the snow before it,
quickly filling every cavity, and piling up the fine drift
in dazzling heaps. We carried on all day, and camp was
only made long after nightfall, when many a mile of snow-
clad wilderness lay between us and the Crees.

Another day's march brought us within sight of the p'ne-
blufF at the Forks, and that night the tired horses were
turned adrift in the sheltered meadow by the river, and
we lay down to rest in the hut at the Pascopee.

1!
'I

I9X

CHAPTER XI.

Winter comfort— Snowshoe-making — Snow and storm — The
moose woods — A night camp — Memories — A midnight
visitor — Maskeypeton the Iroquois — Danger — A moose
hunt — Indian stalking — The red man's happy hunting-
grounds — Plans — Raft-building.

All was well in the hut; the Cree had kept watch
and ward. No Indians had found the place. Every-
thing promised a quiet, peaceful winter, with ample time to
mature plans for the spring. The stage which had been
built soon after our first arrival at the spot was now filled
with prime buffalo meat ; the flour, blankets, and other
stores taken from the trader, were stored carefully away on
shelves in the hut. The Cree and the scout dried and
rough-tanned the wolf, carcajou, and buffalo skins ; rude
bedsteads were put up along the walls, and upon them
dried grass, skins, and blankets made most comfortable
beds. A large store of fuel was chopped, and piled outside
the door ; and harness, guns, skins, axes, &c., gave a fur-
nished appearance to the interior, which, when lighted up
by the pine-logs in the evening presented a look of comfort,

192

Red Cloud.

H, I

in striking contrast with the savage desolation of the wilder-
ness without when the mid-winter rigour came full upon it.

As the end of the year drew nigh the storms increased in
intensity. The snow deepened over all the land, but the
meadow chosen for the horses held such an abundance of
food that the animals stood the cold well. When the vetch
and wild peas were exhausted, a swamp, which in summer
grew a thick sedge-like grass, gave excellent sustenance to
them. The snow was easily pawed away by the horses'
fore-feet, and the coarse grass, sweetened by the frost, was
laid bare beneath. Day after day the Sioux, with myself, or
the scout, or Donogh, set out on a hunt for venison, and
many a buck fell to our rifles in the valleys and thickets of
the surrounding hills.

As the snow deepened over the land, the use of the snow-
shoe became a necessity in walking. Before the want had
arisen the Indians had taken measures to supply it. Birch-
wood had been cut and seasoned, the gut of the jumping
moose dried and prepared, and the rough framework put
together, afterwards to be strung, and turned into the re-
quired shape.

As I watched the clever manner with which the wood was
pared down and shaped, and with what beautiful accuracy
the cross-pieces, the toes and heels, were fitted, turned, and
made ready for the sinew strings — all done too with only a
small knife and an awl, and done with such apparent ease,

Snozvshoe- making.

193

wilder-
Don it.
ased in
)ut the
ince of
e vetch
lumnicr
ince to
horses'
Dst, was
yself, or
on, and
ckets of

le snow-
ant had

Birch-
jumping
'ork put

the re-
rood was
accuracy
ned, and
h only a
ent ease,

I I'elt tempted to say, " I too will make a pair of snow-
shoes ;" but it was only to find how futile was the effort to
imitate the handicraft of the wild man in the work of the
wilderness.

By the time the snowshoes were finished the snow was
deep enough on the river and the plains to fully test their
capabilities. I determined to accustom myself early to the
use of the shoes, so that I might be able to keep pace with
my friends, whose power of snowslioe-walking had growii
from infoncy. With this object I was out every morning
as soon as breakfast was over, tramping along the frozen
and snow-covered expanse of the rivers, or forcing my
way through the thicket-lined shores, and up the hills
and slopes of the surr-ounding country. At first I found
it no easy matter to tread my way over soft and deep
snow, or through places where the brambles and weeds
lay half-buried in the drifts and dazzling banks; but
in a few days my step grew more firm, my stride
became longer and more rapid, and after a week I
was not ashamed to join Red Cloud for a hunt after
game.

Thus we four denizens of this wild and lonely spot
ranged over the land surrounding our solitary dwelling ; and
ere the new year had come there was not a pine-blufi or a
thicket of aspens—there was not a band on the rivers, or a
glade among the hills, whic!. was not known and explored.

194

Red Cloud.

It was a strange, wild life, this vaiitcr roving over the great
untamed wilderness of snow.

At times the days were bright and calm — the sun shone
with dazzling lustre upon the unspotted surface of the eartli.
The branches of the trees glistened in the white rime of the
morning, the dry powdery snow sounded hard as sand under
the shoe.

Again the scene would change, and wild storms swept
sky and earth ; the bitter blast howled through the thickets,
the pine-trees rocked and waved, and the short daylight
closed into a night of wrack and tempest. Such days and
nights would run their courses, and again the scene would
change ; the wild wind would sink away, the snow would
cease to fall or to drift, a death-like stillness would ensue,
and with a brilliancy of untold beauty the moon would be
seen above the still and tapering pine-tops, and the white
light of frosted silver, set with myriad sparkling gems,
would overlay all the land.

The new year came ;. January drew to a close. Colder
and colder the iron hand of winter seemed to grasp the
forest and the ridge, the silent frozen rivers, and the lonely
hills.

One day the Sioux set out with me to visit a large wood
of pines and poplars, the tops of which could be discerned
from a ridge lying a few miles away from the hut. It was
a long tramp, and the dogs were taken to carry kettle,

\ k

The moose luoods.

195

■ \

blankets, and food, in preparation for camping during the
night in the wood in order to continue the hunt on the fol-
lowing day.

As the morning was fine, the sun shone brightly on the
snow, and the dogs followed closely in the footsteps of the
Sioux, as with rapid strides he passed over the white ridges
and intervening gullies drifted deep ?n snow. I walked
behind the sled that carried the supplies for the camp.

The day passed away, varied by nothing save exercise,
broken only by the mid-day halt for food. It was the middle
of the afternoon when we drew near the broad belt of wood
which was to be our home for the night.

For some miles we had followed a tract of low meadow-
land along the ri" :r ; but now the Sioux led across the frozen
stream, and slipping his feet from the snowshoe-strings as
he gained the farther shore, he began to ascend a very steep
ridge that rose directly from the opposite bank.

The dogs worked might and main to follow their leader.
I urged them with voice and whip from behind ; and up the
slippery ridge we scrambled until the top was gained. Here
a halt was made, to recover breath and take a survey of the
scene.

Beneath, spreading away for many a mile, lay a broken and
wocded region, over which patches of dark green pine-trees
stood in marked contrast to the snowy surface of level and
ridge. Here and there the eye caught glimpses of unbroken

O 2

ic)6

Red Cloud.

sheets of sno\v, telling the presence of frozen lakelets be-
neath. Indeed, the pine-trees were themselves sufificient
to indicate the fact of water in abundance being there, for
it was water alone that had protected thern in the dry
autumn days from the wild ravage of the prairie fire.

The Sioux scanned with careful sweep of vision all the
wide scene from east to west. Then seemingly satisfied
with his scrutiny, he resumed his snowshoes, and struck
down a long gradual incline towards the belt of wood-
land.

It wanted but an hour of sunset when the first pine-trees
were reached ; and shortly after, the small grey owl's hoot
sounding through the vast solitude bade us select a thick
clump of firs, in the midst of which a cosey camp was
quickly made.

Few who have not experienced it can realize the full
measure of comfort which the wilderness, even in the depth
of winter, can hold forth to its denizens. It seems difficult
to believe that a camp, made in the open snow, amid a
clump of fir-trees, with nought save the branches between
the traveller and the sky, with only the frozen earth swept
clear of snow for his floor, and with blankets and a skin for
bed and covering, could be anything save the most miserable
of lodging-places. But it is marvellous how quickly the
wild hunter will change these unpromising materials into a
spot where genial warmth can be felt, where rest can come

I i

• I

A night camp.

197

to weary limbs, where food can fill hungry stomachs, and the
pipe of peace can be smoked in pleasant repose.

At first the night was still and fine ; but as the midnight
hour drew on the wind arose, and the tree-tops began to
bend their heads, and the melancholy cadence of the sway-
ing branches fell upon our ears as we slept.

Long habit had given the Sioux the faculty of conscious-
ness in sleep ; the senses, all save that of sight, still carried
to his brain their various messages.

The swaying of the branches soon roused him to wake-
fulness, and throwing aside his robe he looked out at the
night. The fire had burned down to ashes, which the night-
wind, when its gusts came strongly now and again, blew into
dull red embers. The snow-light made visible the tree-
trunks around. Overhead he could mark the clouds moving
rapidly from the east ; the storm was rising.

He got up, raked the ashes together, threw some wood
upon the embers, and sat down to watch the flickering
flames and to wait for the dawn. The noise awoke me, and
I watched him from where I lay. Oftentimes it was his
wont thus to sit watching in those hours of the late night.
More than once I had, on other occasions, looked out from
my robe, to see thus seated before a few embers the figure
of my friend. Who can tell the thoughts that at such
moments passed through the mind of this strange man ?
Memories of that great wilderness he loved so well — of these

' I

ijii I

lOS

■J

Red Cloud.

vast solitudes, which to him had nothing awful. Glimpses
of far-stretching prairies — of rivers flowing in wide curves
through endless distances — of trees sinking beneath waves
of meadow-land. Such were the scenes he saw in the pine-
fire embers. Then too he would listen to the voice of the
tempest in far-off forests ; and as the sound swept through the
lone hours of the night, there came to him many a thought of
boyhood in the land lost to his tribe. But always, as he has
often told me, his mind running along those grooves found
the same resting-place — the spot where, in the island of the
mountains, lay the bones of his murdered father. And then,
with all the bitter wrath of his heartfanned into flame, he would
rise to his feet, and stalk away into the dark forest or the
silent prairie, and looking up at the cold stars he would cry,
" Father, thy son does not sleep. He wanders over the earth
only to revenge thy fate."

As now he sat, with head sunken on his hands, and eyes
fixed on the embers, there sounded close by a noise as of
human steps upon the snow. The Sioux turned towards
the side from whence the sound proceeded, and saw in the
dim light of the snow the figure of a man. Calm as he
habitually was — accustomed to regard the sudden indications
of danger with the outward semblance of repose, he never-
theless on this occasion felt creep upon him the sensation
of fear. Weird and ghostly, the figure seemed to have
risen out of the white ground. Instinctively the Sioux

A midnight visitor »

199

grasped the rille that lay near him. The strange figuie
seemed to catch the movement : he spoke.

" As a friend I have sought your camp," he said. " Had
I come as an enemy, you would not have seen me."

Red Cloud relinquished his half-grasped rifle, and rose
to meet the stranger.

"Who are you?"

" I am Maskeypeton the Iroquois."

The wind still rising, now blew a scrong gust, which swept
the camp, causing the flames to flare for a moment through
the dry wood of the fire. The light fell full upon the face
of the stranger, revealing features we'l known to the
Sioux.

" Maskeypeton the Iroquois," he ^aid, " no matter what
has brought your steps at this hour to my camp, you are
welcome. Sit down and share my fire."

The stranger answered, " There was a day, years ago, when
you turned your horse's head to take a wounded Iroquois from
under the guns of the Long-knives by the banks of the Yellow-
stone. Maskeypeton is here to-night because of that day.
Last evening," he said, " I struck your trail on the ice
of the Pascopee. I was then bound for where I had heard
your hut lay. I followed your trail while daylight lasted,
rested until the moon rose, and then kept the track that led
me hither."

The Sioux listened in silence.

200

Red Cloud.

" I have not come," went on the Iroquois, " without a
reason; that reason is a warning. Enemies watch for
you. They have found the spot where you have built
your winter hut ; and when the snow leaves the prairies,
and the ice breaks in the rivers, the Sircies will seek your
life."

" But I have no quarrel with the Sircies," answered the
Sioux. " No man of the tribe has ever known injury at my
hand. Why should they now try to harm me ? "

" Because there is another enemy hidden behind
them," said the Iroquois. " The white trader finds many
weapons with which he strikes his blows."

The eyes of the Sioux reflected with a strange wild glare,
the fitful light of the fire, but he said nothing. After a
while he asked, —

" Is the trader with the Sircies ? "

" No, he is living at the white man's fort by the river of
the Gros Ventres."

The Sioux thought in silence over the tidings the Iroquois
had unfolded to him, and already his mind had formed its
plan, but he did not even thank his informant for tlie timely
warning.

Looking towards the northern sky, he saw by the posi-
tion of the Great Bear that morning was drawing near,
and that it was time to prepare for the work of the
coming Jay. The conversation with the new comer

Danger.

201

had been carried on in a low tone. To me it was un-
intelligible at the time, but later on I became aware of its

meanmg.

Of the purport of the stranger's visit, Red Cloud now
said nothing, he simply explained the presence of the
Iroquois, by remarking that he had struck and followed
our trail of the previous day, that he was an old friend,
and would join them in hunting the moose during the next
few days. The morning already gave every indication ot
being followed by a day well suited to the pursuit of the
moose ; the trees rocked and swung under the gusts of storm,
and the moan of the wind through the stretch of pine forest
promised the hunters the best guarantee of a noiseless ap-
proach to the resting-place of that most suspicious and far-
hearing denizen of the waste. Breakfast over, we set out
from the camp, leaving the sled and harness suspended
in the fork of a tree to save the leather fastenings from
the attacks of the dogs. Red Cloud led the way, plunging
directly into a labyrinth of wood, which soon opened upon
a frozen and snow-covered lakelet. At the farther side of
this open, a profusion of willow bushes were seen ; along
these we bent our steps, and soon, in the deep snow that
had drifted around the willow stems, a series of large hoof-
prints became visible, now leading around the edge of the
thickets, now into the midst of them, while the tops in many
places hung down, bruised and broken, as though some

202

Red Cloud.

tall animal had been browsing upon them as he travelled
along. The Indians looked at the tracks intently, and then
pushed their way through the thicket to the edge of the
forest at the farther side ; here a perfect network of foot-
marks seemed to lead in every direction, crossing each
other in apparently hopeless confusion. But the Sioux did
not appear to have any doubt as to the line he should
follow. Passing again into the forest, he held his way with-
out pause through tangled brake and thicket. I, however,
noticed that we were now following a double track, that is
to say, a track made by an animal which had gone to and
returned from the willows by the same line, but the double
marks were not always distinctly defined. On the contrary,
it required the most careful scrutiny to discover the existence
of a double footprint in the holes, so exactly had the ani-
mal appeared to place one footstep in the impression al-
ready made by him in the snow. I noted that the Sioux,
when he did bend down to examine the holes, paid particu-
lar attention to the edge of the snow at the point where the
hoof of the moose had last quitted the track. At this edge a
few fine grains of snow lay on the surface of the older fallen
mass, and these light particles seemed to give to the tracker
his test of proximity to his game. Sometimes he would blow
gently upon them, sometimes he would content himself with
pushing the muzzle of his leather-covered gun into the foot-
marks.

A moose hunt.

203

All at once a change passed over his mode of pursuit.
His pace slackened ; his step was more carefully planted,
and his eye scanned more closely the surroundings of copse,
brake, and thicket. He now motioned the Iroquois to stay
in one spot, and whispering me to keep close behind him,
and to tread as much as possible in his footsteps, he turned
aside at a right angle and bore away deep into the forest,
apparently following no track of any kind.

Following closely behind, I noticed that the course was
not straight — it bent inwards in a wide circle, so that if
continued it must again strike the trail of the moose. It
was so ; with long drawn steps the Sioux came back again
upon his old line at a point some quarter of a mile from
where he had quitted it. Arrived near the line of tracks he
made a most careful study of the ground, and noted each
footprint with great care ; then he bent his steps back again
in the way he had come, and again bent round so as to
make another half circle, this time a considerably shorter
one. His course I can but illustrate by the following
diagram —

The straight lines representing the original track ot the
moose, and the curved ones the course which we followed,

204

lied Cloud.

• i

in lessening half-circles, that ended and began again some
few yards short of the trail.

The object of these curious tactics was not at once ap-
parent to me ; but I noted two points that threw some
light upon them. One was the lact that the circles were always
made to the side away from the wind ; and the other was,
that the Sioux on arriving near the line of trail invariably
directed his scrutiny of bush and thicket to the space lying
between us and the line, little care being taken to examine
the forest directly along the trail to the front.

Three circles had thus been made without any result,
and we had once more drawn nigh the line of trail. A few
steps, more carefully taken than any that had gone before,
brought us to their limit, some few yards short of the line.

To the left front as we looked towards the trail there
stood a small clump of broken and tangled wood, lying
within twenty paces of the trail. The Sioux looked long
and steadfastly, then he advanced half-a-dozen paces to his
front, noiseless as the footfall of a hare in a thicket ; all at
once he stopped. As yet the gun-cloth had not been taken
from his gun, but now I noticed that the barrel was un-
covered ; still the hammer remained upon half-cock. I had
not gone forward the last ten paces, for I instinctively
realized from the manner of my companion that the final
moment of the stalk was at hand.

Without changing his position Red Cloud now bet oned

Indian stalking.

205

some

me to his side, with a gesture impressing the utmost caution.
Both of us had long since taken off our snowshoes, and
our moccasined feet scarcely sounded in the snow. When
we were close together Red Cloud said, in a low whisper, —

" Look in the centre of yonder thicket."

I looked, and saw nothing beyond the maze of tangled
branch half-sunken in soft snow. Red Cloud now raised his
gun, but it still remained at the half-cock. I looked, and
looked again, but could make out nothing. All at once
the sharp click of the hammer, drawn to full cock with some-
what unusual strength, and therefore noise, struck the ear ;
a second later and there rose up in the thicket centre, fifty
yards from where he stood, a huge, dusky animal. The
Sioux seemed in no hurry, he took matters as coolly as though
the moose was working in obedience to his own movements ;
the moose stared blankly at us, the Sioux looked quietly at
the moose. The pause was only for four seconds, but to
me it seemed an age. All at once the spell was broken.
Quick as lightning the gun was raised to the shoulder, the
shot rang out, and the moose bounded like a ball from a
cannon, crashing out of the thicket. " Missed," thought I
— no ; not a bit of it. Thirty paces were not covered ere
the great beast plunged forward in the snow, a struggling
mass amid the spotless white.

We drew near the quarry. He was a noble animal. The
Sioux regarded him with looks of pride. It was a stalk

^:i .

206

J^cd Cloud,

well done; it had been a triumph fairly gained over an
animal remarkable over all the wild animals of the North
American forest for cunning and sagacity.

And now as we waited for the Iroquois, I had fully ex-
plained to me the tactics I had just witnessed. When the
time for lying down comes, in the early dawn, the moose
selects a safe spot to the leeward side of the trail he has
followed ; in fact, he retraces his tr'^il for some distance be-
fore deviating from it. He takes up his resting-place for
the day, guided by instinct to select a spot from which he
can catch the wind of any person following his footsteps.
To defeat this excessive caution was the object of those
curious lines of approach taken by the Sioux ; each time
he came out within sight of the line on which he knew that
the moose was to be looked for in some adjoining thicket.
Thus each brake had been scanned. To have followed the
(•rail would have been to have given the animal warning of
our approach. It was only by cautiously examining all
possible lurking-places from behind them, i. e. to leeward of
them, that the result we have seen could be attained.

The work of skinning and cutting up the moose was now
proceeded with. The distance from the camp was not far,
and while the Sioux made ready the carcase, I went back
along our track to bring the dogs for the meat. When I
got back from the camp with the sleds all was ready. Skin,
marrow-bones, and meat were all packed away, and before

The Red Mmh happy hu:itiu(^-grovnds. 207

the low-set sun had touched the pine-tops in the west we
were back again in our camp.

It was a grand feast that evening for both dogs and men.
We sat long in the red light of the fire, frying the delicious
marrow-bones, and toasting rich bits of meat. The Iroquois
looked the picture of content. He had had a hard time of
it for some weeks he told us ; his gun had not shot straight;
the moose had been wild, the days calm ; but now plenty
had come, and he seemed determined to make up for past
misfortunes. He spoke English fairly well.

" White Brother," he said to me, amid one of the pauses
in our repast, " these are the happy moments in our lives j
these are the moments which, when we think of them in
civilization, draw us out again into the wilds. Months of
hunger and cold are forgotten in a day such as we have
spent to-day."

" But," said I, " you are a stranger here ; your people
dwelt far away beyond the great lakes, where the white
man's cities now cover the land, and where the rivers are
furrowed by the wheels of his fire-boats."

" Yes," he answered, *' that was my home, and a remnant
of my race still dwell by the shores of the St. Lawrence ;
but for me it would not do. I came here twenty years ago,
a youth, in the canoe of a trader. I have lived in these
woods and prairies ever since. In my own land I was a
stranger, in this strange land I found myself at home."

! !'■-

nil

208

Red Cloud

'■I''

H I

I !;■!■■

I' i

Next morning the return march to the hut was begun.
The Iroquois formed one of our party. We moved over
the snow-clad wilderness in silence. Red Cloud was
busily engaged in forming plans by which we might hope
to elude the designs of his enemies The Iroquois, always
reserved and taciturn, moved along wrapped in his blanket,
silent and impassive ; and I felt in no humour to break in
upon the plans or meditations of my companions.

Darkness had quite fallen when the dogs, tired by the
weight of the moose meat which they were hauling, came
in sight of the hollow in which the hut lay. Then the
weary load grew light in anticipation of home, and, pulling
vigorously at the traces, the fire-lit doorway of the little
hut was soon reached.

But long before the journey was over Red Cloud had
fully matured in his brain a plan which promised him
escape from the toils that encompassed him. That plan
he briefly explained to me as follows, —

On the ice-covered little indentation, or mimic bay, close
beneath the east wall of the hut, we would construct a large
and solid raft of dry pine-trees. The raft v.'hen finished
would be lashed to the trees on the shore to await the
disruption of the frozen river. The ice once gone and the
structure afloat, the work of loading goods and chattels,
guns and ammunition, would begin ; then, at the first signal
of assault from hostile Sircies, the hut and its fixtures would

Plaiis.

209

be fired, and down the swift-rolling flood of the loosened
rivers would glide the ark, bearing to realms of safety our
little party from the ruined site of our winter home. Such
were the means by which he hoped to defeat once more
the machinations of his foes.

The next morning saw the beginning of the refuge raft.
The pine bluff echoed with the ringing strokes of well-
wielded axes, and soon a dozen dead and dry pine-trees
had fallen, and their trunks were rapidly being cleared of
branches and cut into even lengths of fourteen feet, and
others of ten and twelve. The dry trees were the only ones
fit for the work ; the green ones, heavy with sap, would have
floated too low in the water to allow of weights being placed
on them.

When a sufficient number of dry trees had been felled
and cut into lengths, the work of drawing them to the little
bay began. Every one worked with a will ; but many of
the trees had been cut at a considerable distance from the
hut, and it was laborious work to get the larger pieces into
position upon the ice. Then was done the work of notch-
ing and shaping the various parts of the raft, and forming
the outer framework upon which the higlier platform was
to be built. The two longest and thickest trunks were
placed as outside pieces, these two were connected together
by cross sticks at either end, and all formed a massive
frame twenty feet in length by eight feet across ; over these

210

Red Cloud.

in turn were placed eight pieces of lesser bulk and size,
crossed and held together by transverse sticks.

While these preparations were going on, theCreewas busily
engaged in cutting up and stretching into pliable lengths long
strips of " Shahar -ppi," or buffalo and moose skin; these,
when fully stretched, were passed ground the trunks, lacing
the entire structure into a most compact and powerful raft.

In three days' time the raft was finished, and as it had
been in the first instance laid upon the exact spot on the
ice which it was meant to occupy when afloat, no further
labour was necessary to drag the ponderous mass into posi-
tion, and nothing remained but to complete the arranging
and sorting of the stores, and many minor details, and to
make everything ready for rapid embarkation when the
hour of movement would have arrived.

The first object aimed at by Red Cloud was to avoid
leaving in the hands of his enemies any token of his de-
feat. He was determined that, if he could help it, not a
gun or trophy should be shown as things that had been
taken from the wandering Sioux. Nothing in fact save
the possession of a barren site should be left to his enemies.
The chief difficulty lay in the horses. How were they to
be removed ? There could be no reason to expect that
the Sircies would allow a day of pracucable weather to
elapse after the melting of the snow before their scouts
would be on the alert, around a wide circle of the banks,

« i

Raft building.

211

to prevent the escape of the party by land. It looked as
if all the horses must be sacrificed. The idea of killing
his favourite horse, his long-tried, faithful friend, was a
thought that Red Cloud could not endure. He spent many
hours in thinking out some method of escape. At last he
hit upon what seemed to promise success. He would
build another raft, and putting himself upon it, and his steed
swimming behind it, he would run the river alone ; the others
would go on the first raft. He told me his plan. I pro-
posed that the raft should be made large enough to carry
two people, and that I shouM also take my horse, and still
continue to share the fortunes of my friend.

The Sioux consented to this arrangement, a^d the work
of building soon began. Some changes were made in the
shape and construction of the second raft, to enable it to
bear the unequal strain likely to be put on it. In the
course of a fev/ days it was declared finished, and, moored
side by side with the one first built, was in readiness to
receive its cargo whenever the moment would arrive. Thus
we found ourselves ere the close of winter preparing to
meet as best we could a foimidable attack from powerful
enemies. The forewarning given by the Iroquois had
enabled us to forearm, and it now only remained to await
ihe attack when the breaking up of the ice would let loose
the passions of our enemies, and the flood-gates of our friends
— the Pascopee and the Red Deer rivers.

r* 2

212

Red Cloud,

CHAPTER XII.

The winter draws to an end — A keen look-out — Signs — The
break-up of the rivers — An ice block — The enemy ap-
proaches — A noiseless arrow — The ice still fast — The ice
flows — The war-cry of assault — A parley — We embark on the
rafts — The hut in flames— On shore again — Freedom — Winter
gone.

The end of the long winter was drawing nigh : the snow
yet lay on plain and forest, the ice held dominion as firm
as ever over lake and river, the frost at night was still severe ;
nevertheless, there were many signs of approaching spring.
The knolls and edges facing the mid-day sun had become
bare of snow ; the air, during the hour of noon, felt warm
and balmy; the surface of the snow became soft under the
sun j and there was in the atmosphere an indescribable
sense of freshness, that presaged the near retreat into more
northern realms of the grim winter king who had so long
ruled with iron grasp the subject land.

As the first symptom of the enemy's approach might now
be looked for in the neighbourhood, it became necessary to

llie ivinter draivs to an cud.

213

adopt all precautions against surprise, and to get the horses
under the protection of the hut.

There remained from last summer a total of five horses,
two having been lost after the prairie expedition in the
end of November. The five were now driven in from their
wintering ground j they were found to be in excellent con-
dition after their three-and-a-half months in the snow ;
two of them were, however, of little value, and it was
decided that it would be better to sacrifice these at once
— not only because their ultimate fate was sealed, but also
because the means of keeping the remainder in food were
extremely limited, no supply of hay having been stored in
the previous autumn.

The roof of the hut held, however, a large stock of the
long reedy grass that horses love so well to feed upon, and
the thick covering of snow which, during the entire winter
had overlaid this thatch had Icept the grass clean and suc-
culent. One side of the roof was now divested gradually
of its covering, and enough of provender was obtained
to keep the three horses alive during the few remaining
days they had to wait. We had already erected a small
stockade, which covered the approach to the rafts, in case
an attempt should be made to rush the place.

It was the habit of Red Cloud to spend many hours of
the day in reconnoitring the line by which alone it was
possible for any hostile party to approach the hut. The

11-

214

Red Cloud.

i ii

k II

time had now arrived when signs of scouts must be evident
if the expected attack was to take place. The ice had
begun to loosen in the rivers, and the snows were vanishing
quickly from the face of the prairies.

About the fourth day after the Sioux had begun to re-
connoitre, the Iroquois started out to examine the country
along the North river. Keeping the low ground between
ridge and river, he watched intently the drifts and open
spaces by which a scout would have been likely to pass.
At a spot lying about a mile from the Fori: , he came upon
a footprint that had not, he thought, been made by any
denizen of the hut. He brought the Sioux to the place,
and a comparison of the snow-shoes of the party with that
of the impression in the snow, showed the surmise to be
correct. There had been strange Indians lurking about.

But the Sioux was now quite prepared for any movement
of his enemies. The ice still held in the rive *s, but each
hour gave increasing symptoms of its disruption ; great
seams and rents had opened in it ; in the central portion
channels of open water were to be seen, where the current
ran with immense velocity, escaping for a moment from the
superincumbent weight of ice, and again vanishing beneath
it. The ravines that seamed the plain were daily pouring
down streams of water to swell the volume of the river,
causing the ice to rise, and producing the rents and chasms
already spoken of.

S.^

e evident
ice had

I'anishing

m to re-
; country
between
nd open
to pass,
tne iijDon
■ by any
e place,
vith that
se to be
bout.
)vement
'Ut each
J great
portion
current
rom the
beneath
pouring
e river,
chasms

Strange footprints.

Page 214.

i|!

The break-tip of the rivers.

215

At last the change occurred. It was night-time. A
great tremor seemed to vibrate along the entire surface ;
water sprang in innumerable places through the fissures j
great blocks of ice reared up and fell crashing upon their
fellows, and the mighty mass began slowly to move.

When daylight came a whirling volume of crashing ice-
floe was seen, and the rapidly rising river told the story of
a complete break-up along the entire channels.

The rafts held well to their moorings. A few hours more
must settle the question of escape. The river had now
risen to a height of seven or eight feet above its frozen
surface, and soon it must begin to subside ; then the
larger ice would rapidly disappear. Red Cloud watched
the water-mark; so long as the floes kept drifting, the
water was rising, or stationary ; vhen the floes would show
stranded along the shores, then the time of subsidence had
come.

At last the tide turned and the river began to fall. The
ice in the little bay had been rent and broken, and the
water rising, from beneath, had submerged it ; the rafts were
half floating.

And now began the work of loading stores : saddles,
food, guns, blankets, kettles, and sundries, were ranged in
carefully prepared lots upon the raft destined for them,
and in an hour's time everything was ready for departure —
everything save the river ; another block had taken place

2l6

Red Cloud.

in the ice below the junction, and the pent waters were again
beginning to rise.

Mid-day came, and yet the block continued; fortunately
the rising water had ample room to spread itself over the
low-lying grounds along the rivers, and the rise was not
sudden. Still the danger of some huge block of ice being
forced upon the rafts was considerable, and it was necessary
to watch narrowly the rising tide, and to stand by the rafts,
with poles ready, to keep them afloat in case of a rapid
subsidence setting in.

The evening was drawing near. All day the Iroquois
had watched the plain at the top of the point, from the
screen of forest that fringed its edge. The Sioux and I
had spent the time between this advanced post and the
scene at the rafts, and the scout had stood ready with rifle
and pole. Donogh and the Cree had charge of the horses.
Dry grass and wood shavings had been piled inside the
now empty hut, ready for the match ; but still the scene
remained unchanged — no enemy appeared; the river was
yet blocked.

All at once there came alow signal-call from the Iroquois
upon the ridge. Red Cloud and I rapidly ascended to
the look-out point. The Iroquois had seen a strange figure
emerge from a thicket half-a-mile distant, and disappear
over the edge of the ridge. Then half-a-dozen others
followed, one by one, and glided over the edge. The sight

The enemy approaches.

217

had been for an instant only ; but it was enough — the
enemy was at hand.

Leaving the Iroquois at his post, Red Cloud and I turned
f^^. aloiig the slope of the ridge, on the side towards which
the figures had been seen to disappear. About one hun-
dred yards from the hut, a landslip on the steep bank
had carried away all trees and brushwood, leaving the sandy
sloping bank quite bare of cover. This open space of
fifty yards across had already been marked by us as a glacis
over which an advancing enemy must expose himself to
view. On the edge of this open, we now awaited the further
approach of our enemies. It was in fact the only vulnerable
side ; the rivers protecting the point upon two sides, while
the rest of the angle was completely commanded by the
look-out ridge.

Keeping now well within cover, we silently watched the
open landslip. The Sioux carried his double-barrelled
rifle, his short bow, and a quiverful of arrows.

" They make no noise," he whispered to me, " and at
this distance are better than bullets."

It was now sunset : there was still about half an hour of
good light. Would the hostile party await darkness, or
make its advance without further delay ?

" Had they meant to attack after dark," said the Sioux,
" they would not have shown in the open. They will come
on at once."

2lS

Red Cloud.

li I.

*'*

lie lad bcaiccly whispered this to lac, when from the
brushwood on the opposite side of the slip appeared the
dark figure of an Indian. He was quickly followed by
others. They came full into the open, heading directly
across for the spot where we stood ; they thus presented
only a single file to us. Ere the leading figure had gained
a (juarter of the way, a noiseless arrow sped from the bow
of the Sioux. The aim was a true one ! The shaft struck
the leader in the shoulder, and brought the whole party
to a halt.

At forty yards the arrows from a practised hand will
follow each other in rapid succession. Scarcely had the
fust arrow struck, ere another was winging its way, narrowly
grazing the now startled band. Instinctively the entire
party fell back upon the cover which they had just quitted,
and ere they had gained its shelter another shaft found its
billet amongst their rearmost ranks.

" Go quickly to the rafts," whispered Red Cloud to me ;
" see if the river runs. I shall remain here ; the enemy
will not attempt to cross the open again for some time.
When it is quite dark I will fall back upon the hut, and
before morning the channel must be clear."

The war party of Sircies made no further attempt to
cross the open. They formed, in fact, only an advanced
party of the main war-trail, and they decided to wait the
arrival of the entire force before making any onward move.

The ice floivs.

219

fully

tiie

They had hoped to surprise us ; but we were

alert, and neither the hour nor the strange silent method of

our defence induced th(Mn to advance.

The river still remained fast. Darkness came on. We
were now within the hut. The hostile Indians had as yet
made no further sign of their proximity ; but any moment
might find them full upon the place, and all depended upon
their method of attack. If they decided to make an assault
in force upon the defences, their numbers must prevail ;
but as they were in ignorance of the existence of the rafts,
and looked upon the ultimate capture of the little party at
the hut as a certainty, there was every reason to suppose
that they would not press an assault upon what in time,
they deemed, must be their own.

Slowly the night wore on. Towards midnight the river
showed symptoms of subsiding ; the water slowly ebbed
along the edge of the little bay, and the ice began to strand
upon the shore ; but the subsidence was so gradual that it was
impossible to say whether it really meant a final break in the
barrier below. About three hours before daylight, however,
the decrease in the water-level grew more rapid ; not only
did the shore give its symptoms, but the central portions of
the streams were heard in movement. At first slowly the
downward motion began, then faster and faster it became,
until soon, in many a wild whirling eddy, the vast mass of
broken ice poured along.

220

Red Cloud.

The river had fully broken up, and the time of escape was

at hand.

there

mdcd from the hiijh ridf

Just at this moment
above a wild and well-known cry. It was the war-whoop
of the Sircies.

The hills at the opposite side caught up the sound, and
sent it ringing back in answering echoes. It was the signal
for assault upon the hut.

The main body of the war party had in fact arrived upon
the scene, and there no longer existed any reason for delaying
the attack. The cry was rapidly followed by a ringing
volley from the brushwood at the farther side of the stock-
ade. The bullets struck right and left among the trees, but
did no damage to any of our little party. As yet we made
nc sign by voice or weapon of our existence. Screened
behind the stockade, the Sioux and the Iroquois watched
with eagle eyes the open space around the hut. The Cree
stood by the horses, Donogh and I watched the raft.

Another volley came crashing around the hut, but still
no response was made ; no shot sounded from the stockade.

The first silent flight of arrows had made the Sircies care-
ful in their advance, and now not a brave ventured to show
himself outside the sheltering screen of wood. While thus
the enemy contented himself with firing at random into the
surrounding trees, the river continued to pour down its flood
of ice-floes, and to dcciease in level; but the difficulties of

The war-cry of assault.

221

withdrawing from the position in front of a watchful foe
during daylight were so great that the Sioux determined to
abandon the stockade before day had set in, and to attempt
the work of embarkation under cover of darkness.

In order to prevent the enemy from making an assault
during the last moments of night he now engaged in a pre-
tended negotiation for surrender with them. He began by
inquiring the reason for this attack. He reminded them
that he had no quarrel with them, but that he was fully pre-
pared to resist to the utmost every attack, and to sell his life
as dearly as possible.

After a time a response came from the leader of the
Sircies. It is easy to find cause of quarrel when quarrels be
once determined on. In this respect the wild man is not a
whit behind his more civilized brother ; so on the present
occasion there was little difficulty in showing, to the satis-
faction at least of *he Sircie braves, that there existed ample
reasons for the attack upon our hut at the Forks.

" Why was the hut there at all ? " demanded the Sircie
leader. " Was the ground on which it stood Sioux ground *
Was it Cree ground ? And had not the Sircies hunted over
it for many generations ? "

To these questions Red Cloud replied, —

" That he had come to winter there, believing the place
to be neutral territory ; but that if the Sircies could
prove to him their right to it, he was willing to pay com-

' V-

222

Red Cloud.

pensation for his occupancy; but," he continued, "this
compensation must be the result of peaceful negotiation and
not evoked from him by war. He would meet peace with
peace, and he was equally ready to oppose war with war."

These sentiments, expressed at much greater length than
I have here recorded, carried the waning hours of the night
further towards the day, darkness still blotted out the features
of the landscape, but the stars told us there was not much
time to lose. Ere the harangues were finished, the work of
embarkation had begun and was being swiftly proceeded
with ; the raft with the baggage was ready, save to take on
board its human freight, and the horses were to be led into
the water astern of the second raft at the moment it was to
be shoved from the shore, and allowed to swim after it in its
descent of the stream.

A low whistle from the little bay now announced to the
Sioux that all was ready for the final move. He again ex-
pressed aloud to the enemy his resolve to defend himself to
the last, then falling back silently and swiftly to the rafts he
saw that all was ready ; so far as we could see, the river was
now free of ice. Then the Sioux went back to the hut again,
struck a match, and threw it into the dry hay and shavings
which had been piled against the wooden walls. The blaze
kindled rapidly, but we had previously taken the precaution
to close up the windows with clay and pieces of skin, so that
no appearance of light could be seen from without ; leaving

. -I *— ^■. tT j ; TTj ^ M

IVc' embark on the rafts.

223

the hut, the Sioux closed the door carefully behind him. In
another moment he was with us at the raft. The word was
given to shove out from the little cove. As the first raft
glided into the current we unfastened the horses from the
tree and stepped upon our own raft; a word of encouragement,
a tightening of the reins, and the two horses followed us into
the flood.

Then we pushed cautiously out ; the current caught the
raft and bent its course down river. At first the horses as
they began to lose their footing showed many signs of
fright, snorting and breathing fast ; but after a few seconds
they seemed assured, by the low-spoken words of encourage-
ment as well as by the facility with which they :,wam.

And now, as the distance lengthened out between the point
and our raft, a change occurred in the scene. From out the
dark grove of pines there came a bright flame ; at first it
broke in fitful flashes from amid the trees ; but anon it cast
a clear and steady light on trunk and branch. Quickly it
grew in strength ; up through the motionless pines at last it
rose, a pyramid of flame, so bright and clear that no longer
<;ould even the Sircies doubt its cause.

It was the hut in flames !

Struck with astonishment, and deeming the conflagration
to be a ruse of the Sioux for some further onslaught upon
them, they still hesitated what to do.

At last one or two, bolder than their comrades, pushed

li r li

.r!i

224

Red Cloud.

■I

over the open space and passed the stockade. All was
silence save the sharp crackling of the still rising flame. Then
others followed ; and at last the whole band approached the
point. The enemy was gone! No horse, no gun remained ;
and as the fire poured forth through roof and door and walls,
the discomfited Sircies ran hither and thither, vainly seeking
for that prey whose capture, but a few moments before, they
had counted upon as assured.

Far down the river by this time we stood on the raft,
spectators of this strange scene. The leading raft, a few yards
ahead, also held its course undisturbed j and as now the
towering flame shot up high above the pine clump, and cast
its reflection on the steep bordering ridges, every point of
which was so well known to us, I knelt upon the moving
raft, and thanked God for an escape from a terrible situa-
tion which but a short time before had seemed hopeless
enough.

Gamely the horses held their way down the river in the
wake of the last raft. Every now and again the Sioux spoke
some well-known Indian word to them. Both horses had
been so fully accustomed to obey a single word of command
from their masters that the instinct had reached that stage
when it becomes the highest form of discipHne — perfect
obedience.

The rafts reached the end of the long river-reach that
lay below the Forks. Another minute, and the bend

On shore again.

225

11 was
Then
led the
ained ;
walls,
:eking
e, tliey

of the river would hide from our eyes the last glimpse of
flaming hut and surrounding hill. There was a strong
temptation on the part of some of the men on board the
first raft to fire back a parting salute of defiance and
triumph ; but it was wiser to give the Sircies no token or
trace of their flight. Doubtless the daylight would reveal
the track which we had taken, by showing the footprints in
the soft mud of the shore where the rafts had touched ; but
by that time many miles would intervene between us and
our foes, and all chance of pursuit would be impossible for
the present. So round the curve the rafts ran swiftly, and
then nothing was visible but the river, showing grey under
the sky, and the dark outline of the wooded shores on
either side.

After half an hour's work, Red Cloud hailed the leading
raft to carry on until mid-day, and then to put in to the
south side of the river ; to make camp by the shore, and to
send the scout up to the high ground where the more open
country began, to watch for our approach by land.

The horses had had quite enough of the water. We
would put to shore, select a good landing-place, and leav-
ing the raft, follow the upper bank of the river for the
remainder of the journey.

The two rafts now separated, and were finally lost to
each other.

Cautiously drawing near the south side, the horses soon

226

Red Cloud,

lii

found their feet upon a bank, which in the summer would
have been dry ground. The shore was but ten yards beyond ;
it shelved up in an easy ascent from the water. We pushed
in until the end of the raft grounded, then we stepped into
the water and led our dripping and tired horses on to dry
earth.

We had taken with us from the hut only saddles, arms,
and ammunition, and some pemmican, and tea, and axes ;
these were soon brought on shore, then moving further into
the wood, we made a fire. The horses stood close to the
flame, which soon dried their dripping flanks. Here we
passed half an hour ; the morning air was very cold, and it
was pleasant to sit before the genial warmth of the fire.
Often we spoke of the past escape, and often our conversa-
tion wandered on to the future, with its plans and outlooks.

As the daylight began to show objects distinctly we set
out, leading our horses by the bridles through the tangled
maze of thicket, up the steep ridge that rose directly from
the river bank.

The summit gained, the course lay to the east, along the
edge of woods that here filled the space between the
prairies and the water. But now the horses carried their
owners, and right glad were we to feel ourselves once more
in the saddle, free to steer where we pleased over the open
plains. Right glad too seemed the horses to find them-
selves on firm ground.

Winter gone.

227

The snow yet lingered in hollow places, bu. the prairie
was clear and dry. The grass of la.t year lay in yellow tufts
around ; the leafless trees and bushes looked bright in the
early sun ; and the earth smelt fresh and pure as it once
more gave forth its odours to the air. The long winter at
last Nvas j:;onc.

Q 2

III ■

228

Red Cloud.

CHAPTER XIII.

Horses wanted — New plans— We start south— The prairie in
Spring — No buffalo in sight — Starvation— A last resort —
Buffalo at last— We fall in with Blood Indians — The camp—
Tashota — A trade — Rumours of war — We depart from the
Blood camp.

Riding quietly along the edge of the open ground for
many hours, we drew in sight of the spot where the first
raft had stopped at mid-day.

The camp had been made in Lhe low ground near the
river, and the Iroquois was at his post on the upper level,
alert and watchful.

By evening our little band was again united together, and
a substantial meal was laid out, at which we all joined, with
appetites not the less keen because of the exertions and
anxieties of the past twenty-four hours. A long council
followed the meal.

It was necessary to decide upon a course which should
embrace in its plans the next six months of the summer
season.

The latest acquisition to the strength of the party — the

Horses IV an ted.

229

laine in
resort —
camp —

rom the

und for
.he first

ear the
r level,

er, and
d, with
is and
council

ihould
immer

—the

Iroquois — had declared his wish to share the fortunes of our
band for some months. To this no one objected. Indeed,
it might have been said that all owed to him their safety.
Had it not been for his timely warning, it was impossible
to say what fate might not have befallen us, unsuspicious as
we had been of attack or molestation.

We therefore numbered four on the raft, and two horse-
men. Now in the season which was beginning horses
would be a necessity of life on the plains ; therefore the
first and most pressing want was a horse for each of the
dismounted men.

Another necessity was the safe stowing away of the
surplus goods which we possessed. These could not be
carried without seriously retarding the freedom of move-
ment across the prairie. It was therefore decided that the
stock should be placed in cache some four days' journey
further down the stream, and that at the point where they
would be stored the four men would wait in camp the
arrival of the other two, whose duty it would be to go in
search of horses for the complete equipment of the whole
band.

After every man had in his possession a horse, then it
would be time to form plans for future action.

But it was one Ihing to say that each man should possess
a horse, an.' quite another thing to provide the required
number. True, horses could be obtained from many bands

230

Red Cloud.

! J

.1 J

■ :!

11"' ■'

1:1 ^

of Indians by barter ; but to hit off the whereabouts of a
band on the open plains was no easy matter.

Out of many courses open to him the Sioux determined
upon one. He would start with me on the following morn-
ing, and directing his course due south would seek for buffalo
in the great prairie. Once with the herds, he need have no
further difficulty on the score of food. They might then
wander on as the buffalo moved, keeping the great herd in
sight ; by this means they would be certain to fall in with
Indians out upon their spring hunting expeditions. From
some of these bands horses could readily be exchanged for
some articles of arms, which we could easily carry on the
horses in addition to oar own weapons.

So far went the plan.

It was computed that in three days we should fall in with
buffalo, that a week more might elapse ere Indians were
met with, and that perhaps a month might altogether
intervene ere we would be back again at the point agreed
upon for the cache.

All these matters having been talked over and arranged,
preparations for the journey were next undertaken.

A couple of revolvers and an American repeating rifle,
together with a few other items — all of which had originally
formed a portion of the trader's cargo — were taken from the
raft and packed between the two horses. Blankets, a kettle,
two tin cups, two axes, extra flints and steels, provisions

We start south.

231

of a

to last four days — all the requisites, in fact, for prairie travel
— were packed in bundles easily attached to the saddles,
and everything made ready for a start at daybreak the
following morning.

These preparations, together with the arrangements to be
made by the party at the cache, occupied the remainder of
the afternoon, and roon after dark we all lay down to sleep
— the sleep to which our long-borne exertions had so well
entitled us.

The dawn of a very fair spring morning saw Red Cloud
and myself on the move ; nor had its light long to shine
ere the raft was bearing the other four down the swift
current of the Red Deer river.

From the edge of the ridge where wood and plain met,
we looked back to the river bank to catch a last glimpse of
our friends. The raft was well in the centre of the stream
going merrily along. The keen eyes of its occupants caught
quick sight of the horsemen on the sky-line above them ;
there was a wave of hands, a faint shout of farewell, and then
the frail link of sight wcs broken.

All day we held our southern way at an easy pace.

The horses were all too unused to work, to allow of more
than a walk or trot being used ; but the calculations of time
had been based upon easy going, and there was no neces-
sity for rapid movement.

I have already spoken of the general character of the

232

Red Cloud.

\ i

prairie through which \vc travelled. Here and there small
copsewood studded the face of the great expanse of rolling
grass-land ; at times, the sheen of a blue lakelet caught the
eye ; and as the morning sun flashed over the scene, strange
glimpses of hill-top, rock, and large trees were visible
on the far-away horizon — those tricks of mirage which
so frequently deceive the sight of the traveller while
the morning and evening beams are slanting along the
wilderness.

Pleasant is this every-day life of travel over these great
northern prairies, when the spring has come up fum his
southern home, bringing all his wealth of bird and bud to
deck his roadway to the Polar Sea.

How fresh are the cotton-wood thickets where the paired
partridges nestle, and roll in the dry scented leaves of last
year's autumn ! How sweet are the early flowers that seem
to burst all at once from the yellow grass, specking the
knolls with pale blue buds, that open to look at the mid-
day sun as he passes overhead, and then close again as the
evening chills creep over the scene !

Over the ridge -line to the south, long V-shaped lines of
wild geese come sailing on their northern way, some trail-
ing behind as though they fain would cry halt along the
margins of many of these soft and quiet lakes, whose blue
waters spread invitingly below them ; but inexorable instinct
bids them follow on behind the wide arms of the moving

The prairie in Spring.

!33

small

oiling

It the

trange

siblc

which

while

g the

wedge-shape column, into regions where yet the spring is a
laggard, but in Avhich man is a total stranger.

Yes, it is pleasant work that daily routine of prairie travel
— work that brings to the heart of man as much of the
simple satisfaction that exists in breathing, seeing, living, as
can perhaps be found the whole earth over.

Over such a scene we now held our way, and evening
found us camped by a tiny lake many miles from the start-
ing-point.

The next day and the next day beheld us still holding
south. But a change had gradually crept over the land-
scape. The thickets had become few, the lakelets scarce.
Long stretches of unbroken plain lay before us, and, rolling
away to east and west, the same treeless and yellow grassy
hills spread out to the farthest verge of vision.

But there were no buffalo to be seen. Far and near the
eye of the Sioux scanned in vain for a trace of those dark
specks so welcome to the hunter's sight — those moving
specks, so infinitely small on the horizon, so impressive in
the nearer distance, that tell him the great herds are at
hand.

The fourth day had arrived, the last day for which food
had been brought. More than loo miles had been travelled,
and yet not one trace of buffalo was visible on any side.
From the evening camp that day we made a long survey of
the plains. A ridge higher than its neighbours gave us a

1 ^'- -f" ■
'it'''

^.il

234

Red Cloud.

far extending view over the prairies, and as we stood upon
its summit while the sun was nearing the western horizon,
vast indeed was the scene that lay within the compass of a
single glance. If ever the mere fact of space can be
thoroughly realized by man on earth, instantly embodied as
it were in a single sweep of vision, brought home to the
mind by the simple process of sight, it is when the eye
sweeps over such a scene a<5 this upon which we now looked.
Not a cloud obscured it ; no iii'<^t arose from stream or river ;
no blur of smoke crossed its immense aepth. To the west,
all was brilliant colour ; to the east, the pale tints of the
coming night were faintly visible above the horizon.

A grand sight surely ! but one, nevertheless, upon which
we now looked with a keen sense of disappointment; for all
this scene of lonely distance held in its vast area no hope
of food.

Still the Sioux was determined to hold his course further
out into the waste.

" For two days more," he said, as we finished the last bit
of pemmican in a hollow beneath the hill from which our
survey had been made — " for two days we will journey on
to the south."

" And then," I inquired, " if v/e should not fall in with
buffalo what will you do ? "

" And then," said the Sioux, " I will show you how we
ctill can live and still can travel."

No buffalo in sight.

235

Next morning we were off at daybreak, and all the long day
through a steady pace was maintained to the south. Even-
ing fell — morning dawned — and yet no food or sign of food
appeared. The bird-life of the park-like prairie that lay to
the north had wholly vanished. The lakelets lay at long
intervals apart. Trace of buffalo there was none.

Still the Sioux kept his course unchanged, and so confi-
dently had he spoken of the certainty of finding food that
evening, that I never doubted for an instant that all would
yet be well.

Each ridge that lay before us seemed to me to be the one
that would bring to view the much desired game ; but as
ridge after ridge was passed and yet no sign of life became
visible, I often bent my gaze to the west in order to measure
the moments of daylight yet remaining.

At last, from one of those innumerable eminences that
dot the surface of the prairie the Sioux drew rein and dis-
mounted. All was unchanged. The vast circle of sky-line
held no living creature in its embrace. Close by there lay
a small sheet of water, and by its margin we two hungry
men, unsaddled for the night.

But this time the Sioux did not perform the usual process
of hobbling and turning adrift his horse.

" I promised you that you should have food to-night," he
said to me, " and now you shall see how it is to be done."

So saying, he drew from his leather coat a small pocket-

lii ^

236

Red Cloud.

, i I

knife, and took from the pack of his saddle a tin cup holding
about a pint. Then he passed the laret with a running
noose round his horse's neck, drawing it tight as he did so.
He then spoke a few words of encouragement to the horse,
and the faithful animal answered by turning his head and
rubbing his nostrils against his master's arm.

Watching these proceedings with great interest, I saw to
my astonishment the Sioux open a vein in the horse's neck,
and begin to draw from it a thin stream of blood. The horse
never winced at the puncture, nor indeed did he appear to
be aware of what was going on. In a few minutes the little
vessel was quite full \ the cord was slackened, and the drain
ceased.

Approaching the small fire of old buffalo chips and small
sage stalks, which had just been lighted, the Sioux placed the
vessel of blood upon the flame. Into it he crushed a few
leaves of the wild sage which grew so profusely around.
When the mixture had simmered for some minutes, he
handed the cup to me. It did not look an inviting repast ;
but hunger borne for two days will make palatable most of
the dishes that it is possible to put before a man.

The feeling that gnawed my stomach was something more
than mere hunger, and urged by its raging pangs I took with
eagerness what would otherwise have been to me a nauseous
compound. Strange as it may appear, it really was palat-
able, and what was still more important, it was ncuiishing

Starvation — A last resort.

237

Img
|ning

so.
)rse,
and

and sustaining. While half of the contents of the tin yet
remained, I handed it to the Indian, and our supper was
soon over.

Strange shifts are those the red man learns in order to
sustain his life amid the perils of the wilderness. Many of
these shifts I had been taught in the past year, but none so
strange as this one.

" See," said the Sioux, when the scanty meal was finished,
" the white man would have killed his horse when hunger
had come upon him ; he would have lived for three days, or
four, and then he would have died. On these two horses
we can live, if necessary, for many days, and they will still
carry us along our way."

At dawn next morning we were astir.

The Sioux ascended the hill at once. I remained in the
camp. It was yet indistinct light, and the eye failed for a
time to reach even midway across the vast field of vision
that lay around. But at length the reddening eastern sky
cast its reflection deeper into the west, and pierced the
prairie in every direction. Suddenly the Sioux waved his
hand, and shouted a wild whoop of triumph ! The buffalo
were in sight !

Far off and faint, dwarfed down by distance to mere dark
specks, they dotted the horizon to the south-west, and
spread nearer into the scene in atoms that were evergrowing
more distinct.

238

Red Cloud.

1^ .

I was quickly at his side. Well indeed might the Indian
have called his war-note. The sight would have been one
to call forth no scant measure of enthusiasm, even had it
been looked upon by men whose minds had not been strung
by hunger to most anxious intensity, for in itself it was a
glorious prospect.

Upon this vast silent plain had come, during the dark
hours, a mighty invasion. The frontier of the horizon had
been passed ; the columns had spread out like some great
fan-shaped cloud, and where the evening sun had gone down
over a landscape lonely and untenanted, the glory of the
morning beams had come flushing up upon the myriad
surges of that wild animal life which, in size, majesty, and
numbers, stands all unequalled over the earth.

"How far are they away?" I asked, after I had for some
moments gazed upon this grand scene.

" Three hours' riding will take us to the foremost bulls,"
answered the Indian. " The cows are a day or two farther
off; but we cannot afford to pick our animals. We must take
the first that comes."

Descending the ridge we were soon in movement towards
the sky-line of the south-west.

Towards mid-day the leading files of the herd were close
at hand,

The ground was broken into many ridges, having between
them valleys that afforded perfect facilities for approach.

idian

one

id it

trung

ks a

Buffalo at last.

239

It was not long, therefore, ere a shot from the rifle of the
Sioux had brought down a young bull, near whose prostrate
body our camp was at once made, and hunger fully satis-
fied — the tongue and some of the marrow bones being
quickly put to roast over a fire made of sage sticks and dry
grass.

The plan now formed by Red Cloud was to keep along
the outskirts of the main body of the advancing column,
which he judged to be many miles in length.

It was not, he thought, necessary to proceed much farther
on our present course, as the Indians with whom he hoped
to fall in, would be sure to follow the movements of the
buffalo, and to have their camp one day or so behind the
main body.

In this his surmises were perfectly correct. The next day
saw the herd moving steadily towards the north-east ; but
it also brought a body of Indians into sight, whose quick
eyes were not slow to detect the presence of strangers in the
vicinity.

Having scouted for a time along ridges that commanded
a view of our camp, a body of six braves, satisfied with their
observations, came riding up at a gallop. They proved to
belong to a branch of the Blood Indians, the main body of
which tribe was now " pitching " two days farther south,
near the range of wooded hills known as the Cypress
Mountains.

■•I t.

.; 1

140

Red Cloud.

The buffalo, they said, had only recently passed the
American boundary-line; and there had been some con-
flicts between Indian bands which had followed them over
British territory, and the people of their own (the Blood)
tribe.

Their cousins and allies, the Peaginoos, Blackfeet, and
Sircies, were away to the west and north ; but doubtless they
would all soon draw near the buffalo, when they heard the
news that they had reached " the great prairie."

These were not altogether cheering tidings for us.
The presence of the Sircies would undoubtedly lead to
hostilities ; and although there existed no actual cause of
quarrel between the Sioux and the Blackfeet or their kindred
tribes, still their known hostility to almost all other races of
red men around the wide circle of their boundaries, made
it more than likely they wo"ld not hesitate to attack a
solitary wanderer in their midst.

To the inquiry of the Sioux as to their having horses to
barter, they replied that there were many horses with their
tribe ; and that if the Sioux and the white man would visit
the camp, they had little doubt but that a trade could be
readily entered upon.

It was arranged that the visit would be paid, and then
the braves rode away in the direction from which tliey had
come.

The object which the Sioux had hoped to attain was to pro-

The camp of the Blood Indians.

241

the
icon-
lover
)ocl)

cure the horses he stood in need of before any of the kindred
tribes already nientioned had joined the Bloods.

Once in possession of half-a-dozen horses, and with one
day's start, he would defy the united efforts of all the Sircies,
Blackfeet, and Peaginoos to overtake him ; but our position
he well knew would be most hazardous if one or all of these
bands should arrive ere his trade was concluded.

Early next morning, accordingly, we moved in the trail of
the six Blood Indians, and by evening drew near the camp
of the main body at the base of the Cypress hills.

The lodges were pitched along a level piece of ground
a short distance away from a stream, which had its source
in the neighbouring hills. The banks of this stream held
growth of poplar, and bastard maple, and willow, w^hich kept
the camp in fuel, and yielded materials for the work of hic!e
stretching and pemmican making— all which operations were
in full swing in front of the lodges.

The arrival of the strangers was the signal for the commg
forth of many braves ; but etiquette did not permit the
chief to come out from his lodge until the visit of ceremony
had been duly paid to him by the strangers.

As we entered the camp we shook hands with the warriors
and men of lesser note, who stood around on every side.

Finally dismounting near the chiefs lodge, and beckoning
me to follow him, Red Cloud passed in beneath the low
opening, and shaking hands with the chief, sat down on a

242

Red Cloud.

ll ■

\ 1

ij .■

buffalo robe at the farther side of the fire which smouldered
in the centre.

The chief Tashota, or the Left-handed, was a tall and
powerful-looking man, just past the prime of life. He sat
reclining on his robe, looking straight into the fire before
him, and blowing slow \ ffs from a calumet of green pipe-
stone, curiously carved into the body and head of a bird.
I also shook hands, and then seated myself in silence.

A minute or two passed, and Tashota, taking his pipe
from his lips, spoke.

" Have my friends come far ? "

" Yes. Seven days have passed since we left the Red
Deer river."

Then followed questions at slow intervals on most of the
subjects of interest in prairie land — the game, the news of
war, the movements of tribes, the doings of the white traders ;
but all semblance of curiosity on the part of the chief
to know the objects of the present visit was carefully avoided,
and that eagerness which, in civilization, is so prone to go
at once " to the point " was nowhere observable.

Nor was the Sioux, anxious though he felt on the score of
time, over hasty to develope his object. Of course he said
nothing about the party left at the cache. He merely ac-
counted for his presence in that part of the country by his
desire to fall in with buffalo after the winter j and while
expressing his willingness to become the purchaser of a

ered

and
sat
fore
ipe-
Ibird.

A trade with the chiefs Tashota.

243

few horses, he also adroitly touched upon the ch icei the
other tribes shortly expected to arrive, being ^ '^s. "'^sed of
many superfluous animals which they would be ea^er to
dispose of.

This was a clever bit of trade tactics. Tashota was not
anxious to see a customer go even to his cousins ; so after
a time he asked what kind of animals the Sioux might
require, and what he had to offer in exchange for them ?

He wanted five or six animals of average size and
speed. He had only a few weapons to offer in exchange ;
but they were good ones. He would show them to the
chief.

Whereupon he took out a short but very handy American
repeating rifle, carrying in its magazine fourteen cartridges,
which, by a simple action of the trigger-bar, were passed
one by one into the barrel, and fired in succession with
great rapidity ; and he also laid on the ground a bag of
cartridges and three revolver pistols.

The eyes of Tashota glistened as they looked at these
weapons, and in his mind he resolved that they should be
his.

Calling in one of his braves he ordered his band of
horses to be driven in. Meantime his wife had been busily
engaged in preparing dinner for us strangers. A plentiful
supply of the best bits of the buffalo were put to boil over
the re ^enished fire, and a meal was soon ready, to which

R 2

,3
it!!

['!f

244

Rec^ Clcud.

the memory of the long fast so recently endured caused
ample justice to be done.

A lodge had been pitched for us, and when dinner was
over we withdrew to it for the night, to await the arrival
of the horses on the following morning.

But Red Cloud well knew that our position was anything
but secure; there were other dangers threatening him
besides those that lay in the expected arrival of the Black-
feet or of the Sircies, He reckoned that at least a week
must elapse ere that portion of the Sircies which had
attacked the hut at the Forks could reach the Cypress
hills ; so far as they were concerned he was safe. But the
stray rumours he had caught of war between the Ogahalla
branch of his own race and the Bloods were ominous of
trouble to him.

If the Bloods had suffered at the hands of his race, they
would not hesitate to revenge their injuries or their losses
upon him. One thing was certain, and that was that
the sooner he got away from his present position the
better.

These thoughts gave him ample material for reflection
during the night. Early next morning the horses had been
driven in, and word came to the hut where we were lodged
that Tashota was ready to do a trade.

It was not long before the Sioux had selected five horses
from the band. The terms of barter were quickly settled,

(

We depart from the Blood camp.

245

„

and the chosen horses having been caught, were duly handed
over to their new owner, whose rifles, revolvers, and ammuni-
tion passed over to the Blood chief.

By this time it was midday. The camp was quiet, but
the mind of the Sioux was not easy. Things seemed to him
to have run too smoothly in their exchange. His quick eye
had detected what he considered to be faint indications of an
intention to take back, if possible, the horses now bartered.
In the camp he knew he was safe ; the laws of hospitality
forbade a guest, once received, being ill-treated ; but once
outside the last lodge he would have all his tact and watch-
fulness put to the test — so at least he surmised, and we shall
soon see how true were his fears.

It was necessary for him, however, to hide completely from
our hosts all tokens of suspicion. If our escape was to be
effected it must be done soon, and before the Bloods could
have taken steps to secure our capture. He determined,
however, to make no secret of his intention to depart, judging
truly that it would have been impossible to have got away
unnoticed, and that it was better to maintain a show of
confidence in the good faith and loyalty of the Bloods
until the moment of any hostile act of theirs had actually
arrived.

His plan was to leave the camp two hours before night-
fall, so that our movements might be fully visible to the
Bloods, and that they might see the direction we had chosen

I! i

•I

i',..- !

246

Red Cloud.

to take ; for the rest, his real intention would be developed
only when night had fallen.

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when we
directed our steps to the lodge of Tashota. The chief was
alone ; not a movement of eye or feature betrayed that he
meant mischief to the person or property of his visitors.
Yet all the while a deep-laid plot had been arranged, to rob,
and if necessary to kill, the Sioux after he had quitted the
camp.

'* I am starting this evening," said the Sioux as he seated
himself at the fire. " I am going north to the posts of the
white traders, and the journey is long. I have come to bid
my brother farewell."

The chief nodded, and Red Cloud continued : " I have
heard rumours of war between the Ogahalla Sioux and your
people. For myself, I raise my hand against ho red man ;
the quarrel of the Ogahallas is their own."

The chief still kept silence.

Red Cloud arose, and held out his hand across the fire ;
the Blood shook it. Then the Sioux lifted the door-curtain
of the lodge, and we passed out into the open.

Ten minutes later we two men, with seven horses, rode
slowly from the camp.

2^17

CHAPTER XIV.

On the trail — A pursuit— The mark is overshot — A night
march — Morning — Tlic curtain rises — Wc are prisoners —
IJlackfeet — Penoc|uani — The P\ir- Off Dawn — His history — His
medicine-robe — Interrogations — New arrivals — The trader
again.

Well watched by sharp and restless eyes were we that
evening as our figures grew fainter in the grey of the prairie.

Tas Ota had already laid his plans; and although no
overt act had yet been taken, everything was ready to ensure
a rapid pursuit when the proper moment had arrived.

Two hours passed, and darkness began to close over the
plains. Then over both sides — the travellers and t>c camp
—a marvellous change suddenly passed.

It is true that, long before darkness had begun, jsrepara-
tions must have been rife within the camp; and horses ready
for a foray, and braves busy getting arms and ammunition
together, must have been visible on all sides. The red man
is ever more or less equipped for war, and it takes little time
for twenty men to be in all respects ready for a week's raid.

As the sun went down, each man of the war-party stood

ill

M '

Y ^

(
i

't^

ready by the lodges for the signal to pursue, and many
anxious eyes doubtless followed us and our band of led
horses, grudging every step that daylight permitted us to
take farther on our way.

But darkness was not thus descending upon us to find us
wrapt in a false sense of security. Scarcely had the camp
been left behind, ere the Sioux imparted to me all his
forebodings of evil and his plans for averting it.

" When night has come," he said, ** these men will pursue
us. If thev fail to overtake us to-night, they will continue
on our trail day after day. It is impossible we can escape
them by fair riding, encumbered as we are with these horses.
They will, in the long-run be certain to outpace us.

" At the same time it is impossible for us to leave the
direction we are now following and to strike on a new line
home. We have not food sufficient to last us six days, and
we could not draw upon our horses for more, except in case
of actual st£;rvation. What I intend to try is this. When it
is quite dark, we will turn abruptly from the present line and
seek shelter in the ravine of that stream on our left. The
pursuing party will push on in the darkness thinking we will
Viave travelled all through the night.

"At daybreak they will separate to seek our trail. They
will search all day, but will not find it ; their horses will
then be dead tired ; they will rest, but they will not give up
the attempt to overtake us. As we have not been found in

On the trail.

249

front or to the right or left, they will determine to seek
us on the back trail \ but they will not have come to that
decision until to-morrow evening, when their horses will be
useless for pursuit.

"On to-morrow evening at nightfall we will start from here
with horses all fresh, and we will direct our course to the
right of the line we followed when leaving the camp. So as
to hit off the buffalo two days from here. We will travel all
night, change saddles at daybreak, and travel all day to-
morrow: by that time we should be far away from our
pursuers."

Soon the evening hour drew on. The short twilight
rapidly deepened into night, and as the last glimmer of light
vanished, the plan was put into operation. Turning sharp to
the left, we plunged down amid some broken ground that
led to the ravine by the stream, and were soon securely
ensconced amid the bluffs and rocks that fringed its lowest
levels.

It >vas a dark moonless night, and once amid the broken
ground all objects became a shapeless blank.

The Sioux pulled up as soon as he found himself at the
bottom of the ravine. He dismounted, and gave me his
horse and the laret which ran through the Ijits of the three
he led.

" I will go back on foot and lie near the trail," he said.
" Sit you down here until I return." So saying he vanished

(I f

pli

250

Red Cioud.

on foot into the darkness, and reaching the neighbourhood
of his former trail, lay down in the grass to watch.

He had not long to wait.

Through the gloom there suddenly passed, riding at a
hard pace, a body of men. They had swept by almost
as soon as the keen ear of the Sioux had detected
their approach, and quick as they had come they were
gone.

The Sioux came back to the ravine and the night passed
slowly away.

When dawn revealed the features of the surrounding
neighbourhood, we moved into a more sheltered position,
where, amid rock and bushe.-, we remained perfectly
screened even from any observer who might have stood at the
edge of the ravine. Here during the day we relieved each
other in the work of allowing the horses to graze with a laret
passing from one to another.

At length evening came again. The meal of dried meat
was eaten, with water from the rill that trickled tlirough the
bottom of the glen ; then saddles were adjusted j girths were
drawn, and as night wrapped its black mantle around the
waste, we emerged upon the level prairie to begin our long
march to the north.

It was quite dark 3 not a sound stirred over the wilder-
ness. The Sioux led the advance ; he had three horses to
his laret. I followed, leading two. The pace was a sharp

A pursuit.

251

trot, and the course lay with undeviating precision to the
east of north.

At last the long monotony of the night was over.

Light, faint enough it is true, but still light, began to show
itself along the line where the prairie and the sky touched
each other in the east ; then it grew into a broader band of
pale yellow, and soon stray tints of rose began to streak it,
and to push the first faint reflection still higher into the
heavens.

How weird and distant it used to look, that first dawn
over the virgin wilderness ! Shadow-land, grim darkness
going, glorious light approaching — approaching so stilly,
with such solemn steps that seemed ever to hesitate as they
trod the gloomy sands of the shore of the night ! Then
gradually growing bolder, they rolled back the waves of
darkness, and drew from the abyss hill-top after hill-top, until
all the wondrous beauty of the sun was flashed upon the
silent land.

Little time had I to think of these things as now, in hot
haste, the saddles were taken from the two old horses and
placed upon the backs of two of the recent purchases.

Then away we went again, and the morning wore on to
mid-day, and the evening came and found us still moving to
the north-east.

When night again fell we stopped, unsaddled, and turned
the weary horses out to rest.

252

Red Cloud.

• .1

We were one hundred miles from the camp of the Indians.

Morning again ; a thin rain fell. The south-west wind
carried with it fleecy folds of mist, that at times completely
obscured the prairie and wrapt ridges and hollows in veils of
vapour.

As we pursued our course and the mid-day sun began
to exercise more influence upon the vapoury clouds, the
mists drew up from the valleys and drifted slowly along
from the ridges and elevations. All at once the wind
changed; a light, dry breeze swept over the land, driving
before it all traces of fog and mist, until the whole plain
stood revealed to its depths before our eyes.

The first sight that greeted us was ominous. A little to
the west a long cavalcade of Indians was passing towards the
south. Scarcely a mile intervened between us and them ; the
ground on all sides was bare and open; recognition by
the cavalcade was immediate; from its front, centre, and
icar braves were seen to start simultaneously towards us, and
ere five minutes had elapsed twenty or thirty Indians had
iuncunded us. The meeting was not a hostile one ; the
Indians v/cre not on a war-trail. It was the whole camp
v^hich was on the move, and though trouble might afterwards
arise from the meeting no violence was now offered or
threatened. Still there was a display of force on the part of
the new comers that made compliance with their wishes
necessary, and when they turned their horses' heads back

# ?

Penoqnavi, or the Far-Off Dawn.

253

along
wind

towards the cavalcade it was evident that the Sioux and X
were virtually prisoners.

" There is trouble before us," said Red Cloud to me, as
we rode towards the spot where already, in anticipation of our
arrival, camp was being pitched. " These arc Blackfcet ; but
they will not detain you."

Upon reaching the camp, we were conducted at once
into a circle of Indians who were seated upon the ground,
apparently waiting to receive us. Prominent amid the circle
sat a powerful Indian, whose dress and bearing proclaimed
him chief. He wore a deer-skin shirt beautiful! embroi-
dered on the breast with stars, and circles of co red por-
cupine-quill work. The sleeves were fringed M.ii human
hair. On his head he carried a sort of helmc ^x cap, of
ermine talk and eagle feathers, and his legginr ,-. -nd mocca-
sins bore similar tokens of elaborate handiwoiic

In common with many of the surrounding braves he
smoked in solemn silence.

Penoquam, or the Far-Off Dawn, was indeed a savage
well worthy of the name he bore, and of the power which
he wielded. His fame had for years spread far over prairie
land. Twenty years before the time we speak of, his repu-
tation for dauntless bravery had been for ever established
by an extraordinary raid which he had made alone, far down
the Missouri River, into the countries of the Mandan and
Minatarree Sioux. A few years later he had engaged in

m
fill

' ..

254

Red Cloiid.

! i

single combat with a celebrated Crow chieftain named
Octoo, or the Lightning. The combat had been in
full view of the rival tribes, and both Blackfect and Crows
had fairly kept the conditions of the conflict and abided
faithfully by its issue.

A fa^/ourite tale by Blackfeet camp-fire for many years
after, was that long and varying struggle. The old men
loved to dilate upon the joy that filled the hearts of the
onlookers when they saw the horse of the Crow chief fall
pierced by an arrow, leaving his rider on foot, almost at the
mercy of his still mounted antagonist ; and how that feeling
of wild exultation changed to anxious suspense when they
beheld their champion spring from his horse, disdaining to
accept the fortunes thus given to him, and advance on foot
to meet his foe on equal terms of ground and weapon.

Not less terrible were the feelings with which they watched
the closing moments of the fight. When the combatants
met in the last deadly embrace, from which one should
never rise ; and how at last that deadly struggle ended in
the victory of the Far-Off Dawn, who, bleeding at many
wounds, rose alone from the sandy soil, gained with a great
effort his saddle, and rode slowly back to his people, to fall
into their ready arms, while their shouts of triumph fell un-
heard upon his ears.

On the medicine robe of the Far-Off Dawn's history,
the central figure, representing a man standing over the

His Dicdicinc-rohe.

255

prostrate form of unoLlicr man, and holding aloft the scaip
of his enemy, still commemorated that great victory.

At the time of which I write, his power over the Blackfcct
and their confederates was very great. His possessions
too, in the light of Indian wealth, wer*, > ,1/ large. Fully
four hundred horses ran in his bands. His weapons for
war and for the chase included almost every specimen of
modern fire-arms. His generosity was said to be in keeping
with his courage j he gave freely away his share of the booty
that fell to his lot. Altogether Penoquam was a chief
whose reputation for valour, capacity, and wealth, might
favourably compare with that of any Indian leader from
Texas to the great Sub-Arctic Forest.

Such was the man in whose presence we now found our-
selves. A buffalo robe was spread for us in a break of
the circle directly facing the spot where Penoquam sat, and
the discourse began at once.

Interrogated as to place from whence we had come,
destination, and object of our journey, the Sioux replied
in answers as short as they could well be made, consistently
with replying to the main questions put to him. He was
coming from a camp of the Blood Indians near the Cypress
hills. He was returning to the banks of the Red Deer
river, and the object of his journey had been to get horses.
He had purchased some of his present band from the chief.

When Red Cloud had finished replying to the qu'istions

4f3.a

256

Reel Cloud.

which had been put to him in the Sioux language, some
conversation was carried on in Blackfeet among the men
who sat around. Presently one of them spoke : —

" Our young men who have lately been to their cousins
tlie Sircies, have spoken about a wandering Sioux having
built himself a hut at the forks of the Red Deer and Pasco-
pee rivers, and of war that was carried on between him
and their tribe. Are you not that Sioux against whom
our cousins have had war ? "

To which Red Cloud replied, —

" I built a hut at the spot you speak of, and dwelt in it
during the past winter ; but I made no war on the Sircies
or with any other tribe."

The others consulted together for a few minutes, and
then the chief spoke, —

" Our cousins the Sircies are only two camps' distance
behind us on this trail," he said; "they can be here by to-
morrow'? sunset. If they have no quarrel with you, I shall
be your friend ; but my cousins' quarrel must be mine also.
You can stay in my lodge until our cousins have arrived,
and then yon lall be free to go if your hands are clean of
their blood. for the white man who is your companion,

ve ave \v a rel with him ; he is at liberty to depart or
to tay with ) ou, as he pleases."

In ict th Sioux was a prisoner. His horses and arms
we: aken aw and he found himself treated, it is true^

'•y

■%

Nczo aryivah.

257

e, some
the men

r cousins
IX having
id Pasco-
veen him
nst whom

dwelt in it
the Sircies

.nutes, and

5s' distance
here by to-
you, I shall
e mine also,
ave arrived,
are clean of
companion,
to depart 01

ses and arms
;ed, it is true,

but bereft of

means of

with no indignity of durance,
flight or of fight, and constrained to await the arrival of
those very foes wliose unprovoked attack on liim a few
days before was now to be brought as evidence against him
of enmity to the Blackfcct confederated tribes.

In the lodge which was now given to us (for it is need-
less to say I gave not a second thought to the permission
to depart) there was ample tinic to con over the position,
and to realize fully its dangers. The arrival of the Sircies
would undoubtedly be the signal for an outbreak of angry
feeling vigainst the Sioux on the part of the united camps
of Blackfeet and Sircies. The defeat and disappointment
which the latter had suffered at his hands, to say nothing of
the wounds he had inflicted upon at least two of their
braves, would now be counted heavily against him — all
added to whatever incentive to his destruction the trader
had originally held before them. These thoughts were by
no means reassuring as we sat moodily through the night
in the lodge ) but long before morning lie had determined
upon a plan which would at least defeat in some measure
the machinations of his enemies, and miglit eventually be
the means of freeing him altogether from danger.

From two quarters next day there arrived at the Blackfeet
camp enemies to the Sioux. A party of Bloods from the
Cypress hills, and the Sircies from the Medicine, appeared
upon the scene ere the sun had set.

■i

iV'\

-Vf-^

258

Red Cloud.

As may be supposed, their joy at hearing of the capture
of the Sioux was very great ; but there was this differ-
ence between them — that whereas the Uloods only sought
the property of their enemy, the Sircies longed for his
life.

The trader had laid his scliemes this time with no un-
certain purpose, and the price to be paid to the Sircie chief
was for the life of his enemy, not for his horses or weapons.
Little wonder was it then that wlien they found actually in
their possession the same man who had recently completely
bafOed all their machinations, escai)ing from their snares in
a most mysterious and unaccountable manner at the very
moment they had deemed his capture most assured, that
they should give vent to their feelings in loud yells and
shouts of savage triumph, the sounds of which told but too
surely to Red Cloud the confirmation of his worst antici-
pations.

In a large council held this evening, and at which all the
chiefs and leading men were present, it was almost unani-
mously resolved that the Sioux was a lawful prize. Firstly,
by reason of the aggression made by tlie Ogahalla tribe
upon the Bloods ; and secondly, by the wounds inflicted
upon the bodies of two Sircies at the hut at the forks of
the Red Deer river.

It was decided, however, that before any final decision
was come to with reference to the punishment which the

I i

he captiuo
his differ-
Illy souglit
ed for his

ith no uu-
sircic chief
r weapons,
actually in
completely
ir snares in
at the very
ssured, that
1 yells and
old but too
orst antici-

Thc Sioux to he heard in full comic U, 259

captive was to suffer he should be heard in full council, and
an opportunity given him of putting forward anything he
had to say in his defence. This was done more on account
of my presence in the camp than from any idea of justice
to the Sioux. It was thought that the white man miglit
carry to the forts on the Saskatchewan information that
might afterwards lead to trouble between the white man
and the Indians, and it was therefore advisa])le to carry out
as many of the forms of justice as it was possible to arrango-
This council was to meet on the following day, and to it
were summoned the chiefs and leading men of the Bloods,
Sircies, and Blackfeet here assembled.

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iiost unani-
56. Firstly,
ahalla tribe
ids inflicted
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Red Cloud.

CHAPTER XV.

The council of the nation — The wager of battle— Signs of friend-
ship — A private interview — A fair field and no favour — The
trader on the scene — I leave the camp — I camp alone — The
rock on the hill — The skulking figure — Preparations for the
start — The race for life — The snake in the grass — A desperate
strait — The odds are made even — Hand to hand — A last

chance-

-Out of range.

It was an imposing spectacle this council of the Black-
feet on the next morning. On the rounded top of a prairie
knoll sat the chief and old men of the tribes ; the space
surrounding the knoll held the fighting-men seated in
circles. I sat with the Sioux on the slope. Penoquam oc-
cupied the centre of all. For a time the silence was only
broken by low murmurs of voices ; everybody smoked.
At length the tall and majestic figure of the Far-Off Dawn
rose in the centre ; every eye became fixed upon him.
Wrapping his robe around his body, he spoke, —

" Chiefs and braves of the Blackfeet nation. When the
fatl .<r of our tribes crossed the mountains of the setting
sun, and pitched his lodge in this great prairie, he traced
for his sons the paths they were to follow in life. To one he

Accusation by the Sioitx chief »

261

gave fleetness of foot, to another he gave strength of arm,
to another he gave sight to track the bufifalo, the elk, and
the moose ; but to all alike he said, Be thy courage big in
battle, and thy tongue just in council. Brothers, we are here
in council to speak the straight word. Our brothers the
Sircies are here ; our cousin the Sioux is here ; they have
had quarrel with each other. We \n\\ ask our brothers the
Sircies to tell us why there has been war between them
and our cousin ; and we will ask our cousin to say why he
has quarrelled with our brothers. Then, when we have heard
each the word which he has to speak, our judgment will be
given with a straight tongue."

Then Penoquam called upon the Sircie chief to state the
cause of his quarrel with the Sioux.

The Sircie now told his version of the attack upon the
hut at the Forks, dwelling at length upon the wounds
suffered by his braves, but keeping carefully concealed the
part played by the trader in the affair. He represented
the attack as made because the ground on which the hut
had been built was a portion of the hunting-grounds of the
Sircie tribe ; and he also spoke of the presence at the hut of
Indians belonging to tribes that were at war with his
people. In conclusion he demanded that the Sioux should
be given up to him for punishment.

Then the Sioux, rising from the ground to his feet, spoke
in answer.

262

Red Cloud,

" Chiefs and men of the great Blackfeet nation. It is
true that I fought against the Sircies, but I fought only in
self-defence. Who is there among you who will not push
aside a falling tree, or hold his shield against a hostile
arrow? I am known to you all. My hand has never been
raised against a red man's life, save to defend my own ; but
if this Sircie thinks I owe him blood for blood, I am free to
offer him the trial of my life against his own. Here, on
horseback or on foot, I am ready to meet him in the
combat."

A murmur of approval ran round the dusky circle. The
Sircie was for the moment abashed ; this was the last turn
he could have wished the affair to take. The Sioux, he was
well aware, was more than a match for him at any weapon ;
nevertheless he could not openly decline the proferred
combat. He would pretend to accept the battle wager.
When he announced his readiness to fight, his followers at
once demurred.

It was not combat they wanted, they said, but the death
of their enemy. The Sioux had already shed the blood of
their brethren ; why should he be given an opportunity of
shedding more ? His own life should now be the penalty.

It was clear that a considerable portion of the Blackfeet
shared this view. Nor was it to be wondered at ; their
brotherhood with the Sircie was stronger than their cousin-
ship with the Sioux. But as I watched the faces around,

The ivager of battle.

263

It is

and took note of each varying expression, I thought I could
see in the face of the chief Penoquam indications of other
feelings towards my friend. It seemed to me that he
wished if possible to stand between the Sircies and their
prey.

The face of the red man is slow to betray his thoughts,
but the eye of true friendship is quick to read sign of favour
or affection towards a friend, when the balance of fate hangs
suspended between his life and his death.

I was right in my surmise. Penoquam wished well to the
Sioux. He had heard through his spies the true story of
the under-current which the trader had set to work for the
destruction of Red Cloud, and he was determined if pos-
sible to save him j but neither his power over his own
people, nor his influence with other tribes, great though they
undoubtedly were, could enable him openly to avow his
intention. He must dissemble his real motives, and pretend
acquiescence in the demands of the Sircies. His voice
was now heard above the murmurs of the chiefs and braves.

" It is right," he said " that our brothers the Sircies should
ask the blood penalty, but it is also right that our cousin
should be given the chances of the custom of our people.
The Blackfeet are strong in battle, they do not fear any
tribe on the prairie, or in the thick wood ; but as they are
brave, so are they just. This Sioux has offered fight j our
brother is ready to meet him in the combat ; but if the

264

Rc'cil Cloud.

Sioux should gain the battle, the reckoning for the blood
already shed would still be due. No ; we will not grant
the combat to the Sioux, nor shall we give to the Sircies the
life of our cousin. Seven days from to-day we will say
what shall be done with the Sioux ; until that time he is our
prisoner."

The council now broke up, and I was soon alone with
Red Cloud in our lodge. It was after nightfall that a mes-
senger came to say Penoquam desired our presence in his
tent.

It was only a few yards distant.

We found the chief alone, seated before a small fire,
smoking. He motioned us to sit by him, and when we had
all smoked for a while in silence, he spoke. He had only a
few words to say, but they meant a great deal to us.

" In seven days," he said, " the Sioux would be given a
chance of his life. He would have his own horse again, and
his freedom would then rest with himself. He would be
given a clear start of three bow-shots' distance. His enemies,
the Sircies might catch him if they were able. For four days
Penoquam would say nothing to the tribe of this resolve,
but on the fifth day he would announce to them his de-
cision."

We went back to our tent and silently thought over
this proposal. It had many things to recommend it, so
far as the chances of ultimate safety were concerned. It

The trader on the scene.

265

is true the horse of the Sioux was yet unused to trial of
speed after the winter's snow, but those of the Sircies were
no better prepared, perhaps not so well. But on the other
hand, the proud heart of my friend revolted at the idea
of having to fly before his enemies. So galling did this
thought seem to him that he actually determined to refuse
the chance offered to him, and to tell Penoquam that he
was ready to die facing his foes, but not to fly with his
back towards them.

I tried to dissuade him from this resolve, but all my
efforts were useless, and I lay down to sleep that night
with the gloomiest forebodings of approaching evil.

It was yet early on the following morning when there
arrived in the Sircie camp one whose presence soon caused a
change in the resolution formed by the Sioux; it was the trader
McDermott. What connexion this arrival could have with
the determination of Red Cloud to accept the offer of Peno-
quam I could not discover, but that the presence of the
trader was the cause of this acceptance I could not doubt ;
indeed it was easy to see that the resolution to decline the
chance of flight was at once abandoned when the news of
McDermott's arrival was received.

So far things began to look brighter. I had such com-
plete fliith in my friend that I felt he could not fail unless
the odds were altogether against him, and I knew that there
could not be many horses on the plains whose speed would

266

Red Cloud.

|;l

outmatch his. So the few days passed away, and at last
came the morning that was to announce, to Blackfeet, Sircics,
and trader alike, the judgment of Penoquara.

The announcement was received by the braves with much
excitement. It promised them a spectacle that was dear to
the red man's heart ; for the Sircies or the Sioux the majority
•cared little, but their interest in the race for life was keen.
Three days had still to elapse before the race.

It was necessary that I should decide upon some line of
movement for myself. If the Sioux escaped, I would still
be a denizen of the camp. If he fell, I felt that I could
not meet his enemies save as my own. And yet I could not
bear the idea of leaving him to face alone this ordeal. True,
I could be of no service to him ; but that did not seem to
lessen the horror of deserting him at such a time. It was
on the evening of this day that he spoke his wishes to
me, —

" I want you, my friend, to do me a great service. Peno-
quam has told me that I am to be set free on the east side
of this camp. I will make for the east at first. If I find
that I am not likely to be overtaken I will bend away to the
north in the direction of our cac/ie. You must go before
me on that course. You have three spare horses besides
the one you ride. Take these horses at nightfall to-morrow
out of camp. Depart on your way to the north. Halt
some little way to the east of north. "When morning breaks

/ leave the camp.

267

choose some ground where you can remain safe during the
day and night, and then on the forenoon of the second day
from to-morrow look out to the south for me. If the Sircies
follow me with fresh horses I may want your help then. If
I should not come by the evening of that day, wait for
me no longer, but endeavour to get to the cache as best
you can, and tell them what has happened."

The next day I made my preparations quietly for depar-
ture, and when evening came I quitted the camp. A son of
Pcnoquam came to see me clear of the lodges. I had not
dared to do more than silently press the hand of my friend.
He sat in his tent composed and quiet, as though to-morrow
was to bringto him the usual routine of prairie life. Once clear
of the camp, I held on straight towards the north, steering
by the pole star. I travelled without halting all night, and
the first streak of dawn found me many miles from the
Llackfeet camp. I turned off towards the light, and held on
for some time longer. The sun was now drawing near
the horizon. It was time to halt, I looked about for
hollow ground in which to camp, and soon found it ; then I
hobbled the horses, spread out a robe, and lay down. But I
could not sleep ; the thought of what was so near at hand
kept my mind on the stretch, and the confidence which I
had before felt as to the result of the race for life, seemed
now to vanish in swift-recurring fears of disaster to my friend.
The dew lay wet upon the prairie. I pulled the short green

268

Red Cloud.

grass, and bathed my feverish forehead in it ; then I arose
and began to ascend a ridge that lay to the southward of my
camping-place. From the top 1 could see far over the prairie ;
dew-freshened and silent it spread around; not a sign of life
was to be seen upon any side. Faraway to the south, and some-
what to the east of where I was, a ridge stood out high over
other elevations ; there appeared to be on its summit some-
thing like a large boulder. I remembered, one day when stroll-
ing around the Blackfeet camp, having noticed a similar object
far away to the north-east ; it was the same hill. A thought
now struck me \ I might go in the night towards this hill,
and at daylight gain its northern side. The camp would
then be in view, and I would see something of what took
place. I determined to do this as soon as darkness had
come.

I descended the hill and lay down again on my robe.
Still I could not rest. The trader McDermott seemed to
haunt my mind ; his presence in the camp filled me with
vague apprehensions. I felt that he would strain every effort
to destroy the man he held in so much dread, and who
was now almost in his power. At last the day wore to an
end. When it was quite dark I set out for the rock hill. I
only took my own riding-horse ; I carried a double rifle.
I steered a course slightly east of south. When the
night was about two-thirds over I stopped to wait for day-
light. I was afraid lest in the darkness I should overshoot

The skulking figure.

2C9

the rocky hill. When day 1 roke I saw the rock still be-
fore me, but further off than I had expected. Keeping
the hollow ground as well as I could, I went on. It was
sunrise when I reached it. I then haltered my horse in a
hollow on the north side of the ridge, and went up the
hill on foot. The rock at the top proved to be a granite
boulder, here stranded cycles ago from some iceberg fleet
sailing south, when this ocean of grass had been a still
vaster ocean of water. I did not then trouble myself much to
think what it had been in the past ; to me now it was
everything I wanted — vantage-point, shelter, position.

I looked out from the edge of the rock over the prairie
to the south and west. Far off, I saw the lodges of the
Blackfeet camp, with thin pillars of light blue smoke as-
cending in the morning air.

The atmosphere was very clear, and objects were visible
to a great distance ; everything was quiet in the intervening
distance. I stood some time leaning against the boulder,
surveying the scene outspread beneath. Suddenly I saw a
figure on horseback appear in the middle distance. It was
only for a moment, and he was lost again in some prairie
hollow. Keeping my eyes on the place I soon saw the
figure show again — this time the head and upper part of a
man's body. This also soon vanished, but only to reappear
again and again at intervals. The man, whoever he was,
seemed to be making across the line that led to the camp.

270

Red Cloud.

■

He was nearly midway between the camp and my stand-
point. At first I thought it might be the Sioux, but a httle
reflection told me it could not be my friend. At last I saw
the figure stop, and dismount from his horse. Following with
my eyes the line he had taken, I noticed that there seemed
to be a marked depression in the prairie in that quarter.
Standing on high ground, I could see into portions of this
depression, but to a person on the level the figure would have
been almost wholly invisible. It was evident the figure was
that of some person who desired, like myself, to keep con-
cealed from view. What object could he have in thus keeping
so far out in the plain from the camji on the line the Sioux
would tukc. Then it occurred to me that this man might
be the trader McDermott. Could it be ? Every circum-
stance I had noted — the line followed— the care taken to
conceal himself — all tended to convince me that it must be
the trader. My heart sank within me at the thought ; a cold
perspiration broke upon my forehead, and I leant against the
granite rock for support. Then came the thought — could I
not do something to defeat this stealthy scoundrel, who was
thus hiding to intercept the escape of my friend and strike
him a traitor's blow? Alas, what could I do? Fully five miles
of open prairie lay between me and the hollow where
this wolf had taken up his ground. Long before I could
reach the spot I must be observed from the camp. While
I was yet thinking what to do, I observed in the far distance,

The snake in the grass.

271

on the confines of the camp, signs as of the movement of
men and horses. I could sec specks moving to and from on
the level plain of grass that lay on the side of the camp
nearest to me. It was not long before I saw these specks
assume shape. A line of horsemen was dislinguisiiable,
with one mounted figure in advance ; this was only for a
moment. Then I saw the whole move forward almost in an
easterly direction, and to the left front of where 1 stood. My
* heart beat so that I could hear iis throbbing like the tick of
a clock. I was wildly excited, but with the fever of heart
and brain came strength and power of thought such as I
had never before experienced. Concealment was no longer
necessary. I ran back to the hollow where I had left my
horse, drew tight the saddle-girths, jumped into the saddle,
and rode up to the rock again. The short interval had
changed the scene. The horsemen had come on, but
the line was no longer uniform ; there were stragglers already
dropping behind, and there were others who, at the distance
from which I saw them, seemed to be almost nearer the
leading horseman than they had been before.

I saw that the direction of the leading horseman was
changing a little towards the north, but for what reason it
was impossible to say. This change of direction if continued
would leave the place where I had last observed the skulk-
ing figure considerably to the right.

I now observed that this man appeared to be aware of

272

Red Cloud,

tlie alteration of direction, for he began to move further to
to the west on the Hne he had already been pursuing.

In the time I have taken to tell these changes and move-
ments the main scene itself was sweeping rapidly along.
Scarcely two miles now separated the Sioux from the
figure in ambush, but I saw with joy that in his efforts to
keep concealed from view the horseman in the hollow was
quickly losing the great advantage of position which he had
first held, and that there was every chance that instead
of being able to cut off the Sioux on a line at right angles
to that of the original pursuit, he would be compelled to
strike at him on the longer course of an acute angle. On the
other hand, I knew that while the horse ridden by my friend
must now \.z showing signs of the pace at which he had come
for four miles, that belonging to the man in ambush was
almost fresh.

All at once the horseman in the hollow came out into
full view. He rode at topmost speed to cross the line on
which the Sioux was moving. To avoid the fresh attack
I saw the Sioux bend further away to his left, and I noticed
that his course was now directed almost straight upon my
standpoint.

Nearer and nearer he came ', the original pursuers were
now far behind, in fact only four or five of them were still
in the race ; the rest had ridden their horses to a standstill.
But I thought little about these Sircie braves ; my eyes fol-

A dcsperaic strait.

273

lowed the course of the new enemy , my heart sank as I
marked the rapidity of his advance, and the evident fresh-
ness of his strong black horse.

As I have already remarked, the line upon which he
advanced was calculated to meet that upon which the Sioux
was moving ; and the point at which they would meet if
continued as they were now directed, would be not very far
away from where I was standing.

Of the two horsemen, the trader was the nearest to me ;
he w?s still a couple of miles away, but I judged that when
he passed the western base of my hill he would not be
half a mile distant.

Red Cloud was evidently in no hurry to edge away to
his left and thus make the chase a stern one. Perhaps he
feared that any change of direction westward would throw
him back up to the Sircies, or it may have been that he felt
his gallant horse still strong beneath him. Anyhow, on
he held his course, apparently little heeding his dangerous
enemy on the right.

It is difficult for me to tell the exact process of thought
which my brain went through while my eyes were fastened
on this scene. What I must have thought the subsequent
action proves j but I cannot recall any distinct effort
of thinking, or any line of reasoning guiding me to action.
I saw and acted. After all, in the real crises oi existence it
is on such action that our lives turn.

274

Red Cloud.

I hastily turned my horse down the northern slope of the
hill, and sweeping round by the north-west base, galloped
out into the open prairie.

And now I beheld a strange sight. Less than a mile
distant, straight in front of me, the trader was riding furiously,
following hard upon the Sioux. The latter had turned his
horse full towards the west. There did not seem to be two
hundred yards interval between pursuer and pursued ; and
judging by the terrific pace at which the trader's horse was
going, that short distance was rapidly being lessened. No
other figures were anywhere to be seen.

I took in all this as, with spurs hard set into my horse's
flanks, I flew in pursuit of the trader.

Once or twice I saw him raise his gun to his shoulder
to fire at the Sioux j but he dropped it again to await a nearer
and more certain shot.

Fast as the two men were flying before me, my horse was
going even faster still. I was gaining at every stride upon
them ; but of what use was my effort when any moment a shot
might end the life of my friend ? I was too far off to render
assistance. I might, however, avenge his death if he fell.

And now, as straining every nerve, I rode along, expecting
every instant to see the puff of white smoke, and hear the
report of the fatal shot, I beheld the strangest sight of all that
I had looked upon during this eventful morning.

Suddenly I saw the Sioux swerve to the right from his

The odds are made even.

^7i

onward course, and, wheeling with the rapidity which only
the Indian can turn, bear down full upon the trader.

So unexpected was the movement, so quick was its exe-
cution, that the trader was completely thrown out. Had the
Sioux made his wheel to his left hand the advantage of shot
across the bridle arm would have been with the trader ; but
now this wheel to the right brought the Indian upon the off
side of his enemy, and put McDermott in a disadvantage,
which was instantly increased by the still forward movement
of his own horse.

Just as the Sioux's horse had completed his wheel, the
trader fired a snap-shot, his gun held straight at the full
stretch of his right arm. The range was under one hundred
yards, but the rapid motion of his own horse made the shot
a difficult one, and I shouted with joy when I saw that
neither man nor horse was harmed.

Still the odds were terribly against the Sioux. He had
neither gun, nor bow, nor knife, while his opponent was
fully armed. More in the hope of distracting McDermott's
attention and confusing his aim, than with any expectation
of hitting him at the distance I was still away, I now fired
two shots at him as he stood out clear from the Sioux,
whose wheel had placed him well to one side. Both shots
missed their object, but I saw that he turned a quick glance
in my direction just as the Sioux came thundering across
the short space that still lay between them.

T z

276

Red Cloud,

The career which McDermott had long followed made
him an expert in all the exercises of wild life on the prairies.
He could pull a cool trigger amid the fierce stampede of
buffalo, and take a sure aim in battle or in the chase. He
would have wagered the best horse in his possession that
an unarmed enemy charging him on the open prairie, if
such a man were found mad enough to attempt the venture,
would have been a dead man within twenty paces of his
standpoint; and even now, although coward conscience
trembled in his heart as he faced his enemy, his levelled gun
was pressed firmly to his shoulder, and held steady in tlie
bridle-hand, while his horse stood true to the teaching of
Indian tactics, the obedient servant and trained auxiliary of
its rider.

I saw the Sioux low bent upon his horse ; I saw the
smoke flash forth from the trader's gun ; and then for an
instant all was confusion. With a wild convulsive leap
forward, the Indian's horse fell, crashing almost at the feet
of the trader's steed \ and then — so quick was the upward
spring that I could mark no interval of time — the red
man's grasp was round his enemy, and the game of life
or death was at last being played on even terms.

I reached the spot at the final moment. The Sioux, with

one knee firmly planted against the trader's saddle, had

'" clasped both arms around his enemy, wrenching him by a

mighty effort from his horse. In the struggle McDermott

i made
prairies,
pede of
le. He
ion that
■airie, if
venture,
s of his
nscicnce
lied gun
y in the
ching of
xiliary of

saw the
a for an
jive leap
t the feet
; upward
-the red
le of life

oux, with
Idle, had
him by a
cDermott

j.' I

■',■ I

I';

I Struck the iron butt heavily down upon the trader's head.

Page 277.

-^J

:-M

^^-r*

sr^S^^^^^rC^

.~^.-^':

uc.

Hand to hand.

277

had flung aside his empty gun in order to better grapple
with his assailant ; so the fight was now without weapons.
Both men rose from the ground still locked in a fierce
embrace. P'or a moment it seemed that the heavier ft-ame
and greater bulk of the white man must prevail over the
lither figure of the Indian. Once or twice the trader lifted
his assailant almost off his feet; but the marvellous agiUty
of the Sioux again gave him the advantage, and after a long
and desperate rally the white man was borne backward
and forced upon his knees.

So far not a word had escaped the two men ; they had
fought in grim silence. But now when victory seemed about
to declare itself for the Sioux, a savage laugh broke from
the trader, and with a mighty effort he locked his arms
around the Indian, intent only upon holding him in his
grasp. Well might he think the game was still his own.
A low ridge three hundred yards to the south, suddenly
darkened with galloping horsemen and with loud war-
cries of triumph, a dozen Sircies came sweeping down upon
us. One chance yet remained to us. I pushed my horse
close to the struggling men, and with my gun held by the
barrel, I struck the iron butt heavily down upon the trader's
head. The strong tension of his grasp relaxed, and h(?
sank, apparently lifeless, to the ground.

But so intent was the Sioux upon his enemy that hs
resented my interference, and glared at me for a moment >

ge 277.

lt>

278

Red Cloud.

then I saw him seeking for a weapon, heedless of the ap-
proaching danger, now so close upon us.

" Quick," I cried to him, " or we are lost! Jump upon
the trader's horse."

My word recalled him from the frenzy of passion which
had absorbed every faculty of heart and brain.

The horse had stood quietly during the struggle, as his
old training had taught him ; the trader's gun lay at his feet.
To seize the gun from the ground and spring into the
vacant saddle was the work of an instant, and ere the head-
most braves were quite upon us, we were off at headlong
speed towards the north ; one arrow quivering through the
flesh of my right leg, and two or three others hurtling harm-
lessly around us. Twenty seconds more, and our fleet
horses had carried us out of range.

279

CHAPTER XVI.

Revulsion — Home again — New plans — We depart for the
mountains — The Hand hills — The great range — Home
memories — A murderous volley — Donogh sees " the land
beyond the grave " — Vain regrets — We enter the mountains—
The island — A lonely grave — The Indian's home.

We rode hard for a couple of hours. I led the way to-
wards the place where, on the previous evening, I had left
my three horses. Long ere we reached it, the Sircies had
abandoned their pursuit, and turned back towards their
camp. Now we had time to talk over the past. For many
hours that morning, and all the previous night, I had been
moving as though in a dream. During the past two hours
I seemed to have lived an age ; there had been moments
of agony so acute, that my brain reeled when I thouglit
over them. But now all was past ; the long night of doubt
and captivity was over, and the fair morning of hope and
freedom shone full upon us.

My heart soon answered the helm of such thoughts, and
my spirits rose in unison with them. Not so with the Sioux.
The abstraction of the flight seemed to be still upon him;

28o

Red Cloud.

for a long time he rode on, looking vacantly before him.
Once or twice I spoke to him, but he did not seem to hear
what I said. At length he roused himself and spoke.

** If you had ever said to me that one day I should have
had that man within my grasp, and that I would have
failed to take his life, I would have told you that it was
impossible. And yet," he went on, "it is better that he
should still live. Had he fallen at the hands of another, my
father's spirit would have remained unavenged."

" Live ? " I answered. " He fell, when I struck him with
my gun, as though life had left him."

" For all that he is not dead. Men like him do not die
so easily. He was stunned by the blow ; he will be laid up
for a week, and then he will be as well as ever."

I confess to feeUng glad at this. Although I had struck
the trader to save my friend's life, I cared not to have on
my hands his blood. It is true that had my gun been
loaded at the moment when he held the Sioux tightly locked
in his embrace, I would not have hesitated shooting him
dead to set free my friend, but I would always have regretted
being compelled to do so.

It was better as it was ; the Sioux was safe. McDermott
still lived.

We then spoke of the earlier events of the morning. I
heard how Red Cloud had always counted upon his enemy
forming part of the pursuing force. It was that belief which

Home again.

281

him.
hear

had induced him first of all to accept tlic chance of flight
offered by the Blackfoot chief. I asked him how he had
hoped to resist the trader successfully, seeing that he was
without arms of any kind.

" The spirit of his dead father would watch over him,"
he said. And when I told him of my fears and anxieties on
the previous day, and how I had determined to turn back
to the rock hill, with a vague purpose of helping him in his
need, he again remarked, —

" It was the spirit of my father that led you."

Of the loss of his favourite horse he thought much.

" Had I done my work as well as he did his," he said,
" my enemy would not have escaped me."

"But you have gained even a better animal," I said,
" than the one lost."

" No, not better to me," he replied. " For three years,
through every change of land and season, through danger
and difficulty, through fight and chase, that poor beast bore
me — and all only to fall at last by the builet of my enemy.
Well, it adds another name to the list. It will perhaps be
longer before it is closed."

We now reached the place where I had left the horses.
They were feeding together almost on the same ground ; and
without any delay longer than was necessary to get them
together, we started for the cache. Although the events
of the morning made the time appear an age, the day was

•f

282

Red Cloud.

•

yet young. I had dry meat sufficient for both our needs, a
Like gave us water ; with only a halt of a minute or two we
held on until long after nightfall, and when daylight broke
next morning the woods were in sight. Bearing away to
the cast wc kept in sight of these woods all day, and at
evening drew in towards their shelter, camping once more
amid the pleasant leaves of trees, and enjoying a couple of
partridges for our supper.

We were at a point considerably below where we had left
our party less than three weeks before, but still above the
place where the cache was to have been made.

Continuing our course next day, we reached, early in the
afternoon, a spot which commanded a long view of the river
valley. Far winding between partly wooded banks, it lay for
many a mile amid the silent wilderness — the shallows at
curves catching the sunlight, the quiet reaches reflecting the
clear blue sky.

How calm and tranquil it all looked ! The contrast
between its peacefulness and the strife I had just witnessed
struck me with profound wonder. Here was a bit of the
earth as it came from the Creator's hands, bright with the
glow of summer, decked inthe dress of leaf and blossom, sweet
with the perfume of wild flower, fresh with the breezes of
untold distance ; and there below the southern horizon, but
two days' riding away, man's passion, guilt, and greed ruled
rampant in the land. According to the directions which the

Neiv plans.

'83

Sioux had given as to the place for the cache to be formed,
wc must now be near the camp of our comrades.

So indeed it proved. On the edge of the woods we came
suddenly upon the Iroquois; he had seen us from a lofty look-
out point which he had established on the far side of the river,
and had crossed over to meet us and show the way to the
camp. It was formed upon an island in the river. There wc
found Donogh, the scout, and the Cree, al^ well, and long-
ing for our return. They were amply provided with food ;
moose were plentiful, they had trapped several young
beavers, and smaller game was abundant. We sat late that
evening talking over our adventures.

The Indians listened with breathless interest to the story
of the capture by the Blackfeet — the pursuit, the fight, and
the escape. Donogh was never tired asking questions about
my share in the final struggle with the trader. Had he been
there to help, he said, McDermott would not have got off so
easily.

A week now passed quietly away; the horses wanted
rest after their arduous travel ; plans had to be made for
future movements. It was not likely that we should be left
long unmolested in this neighbourhood. If the Sioux was
right in the belief that a week or ten days would suffice to
cure the injuries which the trader had suffered, then the
Blackfeet, the Sircies, or Bloods, would soon beat up our
quiet cam') Besides, the life of the wilderness must ever be

284

Red Cloud.

• \ \

a life of wandering. The bird seeks the sunlit atmosphere to
try his wings ; the horseman on the prairie roams because he
cannot sit down and call a patch of the earth his home. His
home is sky-bound ; and wherf"he can no longer wander, his
grave is not far off.

Farther to the west there yet lay a vast region, into which
we had not entered. At its western extremity rose the pine-
clad sides and icy peaks of the Rocky Mountains, whose
deep-rent valleys and vast glaciers fed this stream upon
which we were now camped, as well as countless other
streams and rivers, whose waters eventually seek the far
separated seas of Hudson's Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
To this region of prairie bordering upon mountain we would
direct our course, and remain until the autumn must again
make us think of winter-quarters.

We had four full months of summer before us ; we had
horses, arms, and goods; our guns would give us food.

So we were once more on the move. We divided our
stores and goods evenly among the five horses, and being
one horse deficient, Donogh, the Iroquois, and the scout
took it in turn to walk. As the weather was now very fine
and warm, we cached the leather tent, and some other
items for which there was no use. We travelled quietly,
but by starting early and camping late managed to make
good distances each day. Our course lay along the line of
mixed wooded and prairie country which bordered the Red

We journey to the motmtains.

285

Deer river. We kept a sharp look out for hostile Indians,
and took precautions at night to secure the horses from
attack.

As thus we journeyed towards the west, we entered
upon a very beautiful land ; grassy hills spread away beyond
each other in a constant succession, long winding lakes
came in view as we gained the summits of ridges, and the
valleys and lake shores held groves of mixed cottonwood and
pine-trees, which gave camping grounds of fairy-like beauty
amid the vast stillness of the wilderness. One evening, it
was about the end of June, we gained a range of hills which
during two days had bounded our horizon on the west.

Long ere we reached them, Red Cloud had promised me
a view from their ridges surpassing anything I had yet looked
at in the great prairie.

Slowly up the east side of the hill we held our way, while
every now and again a long-eared hare sprang from the grass
before us, and vanished Into brake or coppice. At last the
top was gained. The sun yet shone on the bare ridge, but
the prairie beneath on either side was in shadow, and
already the blue line of shade was creeping up the hill to
where we stood. Fifty miles away to the west the vast plain
came to an end. A huge rampart mountain rose up into the
sunset skies, poising for a moment the great orb of the sun on
its loftiest pinnacles of snow. Far away to north and south
this rampart range was laid along the horizon, until the edges

286

Red Cloud.

r
I i !'

1 !

m '

liM '

lijj ;

■;

of mountain tops were only faintly visible above the plain on
the verge of vision to south-west and north-west.

" The Rocky Mountains at last," I said, half musing, to
myself, as thus I beheld this grand range lying in all the glory
of the summer sunset.

" That is the name the first fur-traders gave them," said
Red Cloud ; " but the Indian has better titles for them ; * The
Mountains of the Setting Sun,' * The Ridge of the World.'
He who would scale the icy peaks, they say, would see the
land beyond the grave."

As now I looked across the great intervening plain,
slowly fading into twilight, and saw the glittering edge of the
long line of mountain top, clear cut against the lustrous after-
glow, the red man's thought which would make this giant
range the line of separation between life and death seemed
to be no far-fetched fancy. Here ended the great prairie.
There was the shore of that vast wilderness, over which my
steps had wandered through so many varied scenes of toil,
tumult, and adventure. Beyond, all was unknown. And
then came back to me a vision of those well-remembered
hill-tops of my early days \ the heather-covered slopes of
Seefin, the wild crags of Cooma-sa-harn, the flat rock that
marked the giant's grave on Coolrue.

The sound of a footstep approaching from behind roused
me from my reverie of home. I turned ; Donogh stood
beside me; there was a strange wistful look in his eyes.

A vutrdcroiis volley.

287

"Ah, master!" he said, "it makes me think of the
old home again, to look at those mountains, and the sun
going down behind them as he used to do in Glencar."

The tone of his voice was sad. I asked him if he felt
home -sick ?

" No, not home-sick," he replied ; " but I have been
dreaming for nights past of all the old places — the eagle's
nest over Cooma-sa-harn, tlio rocks that hung over Lough
Cluen, the island in the south end of the lake. I saw them
just as they were in the old times. It Avas only last night that
I dreamt we were climbing the face of the cliff to the
eagle's nest, and I thought the old bird came suddenly
swooping down, and that I fell into the lough below."

*' Would you like to be back again in the old glen ? " I
asked him.

"Not unless you were to come too," he answered.
" This is a lonesome country sure enough, but I don't
mind it so long as you are near."

We made our camp that night in a hollow, lower down
on the west slope of the hill. We had killed some hares
during the day, and had boiled them into a thick kind of soup,
which, flavoured with wild sage, gave us an excellent supper.
The meal over, we were sitting around the fire chatting and
smoking, when suddenly a volley of musketry rang forth
close at hand, and half a dozen bullets struck around us.
In the wild confusion that followed, I only remember

288

Red Cloud.

springing to my feet, and seeing the others spring up too.
Not all, alas ! for poor Donogh had fallen forward from the
place where he was sitting, and the Cree only rose, to fall
again. Seizing my gun, I sprang to where Donogh was
lying ; but at this moment I felt my hand suddenly grasped
with iron strength, and I was dragged forward into the
dark.

" Lie down," hissed Red Cloud in my ear, " or we arc all
lost. Look at the fire, and shoot when 5'ou see them in the
light."

The whole thing had happened so quickly, that ere I had
time to collect my senses I was lying in darkness, just over
the brow of a knoll fifteen paces from the fire.

I had not long to wait. Suddenly there came a wild
war-whoop of savage triumph, and a dusky group of men
swept down into the circle of light from the outer darkness.

They thought that the first volley had given them undis-
puted possession of our camp, and that scalps and spoils had
only to be gathered. Now it was our turn. Quick from our
dark shelter the shots rang out ; but few were thrown away.
One brawny savage, with knife in hand, had reached the
spot where Donogh was lying, but a bullet from my gun
stopped his deadly purpose, and laid him low beside my
poor friend

Another fell dead near the fire, and we saw two more
stagger 'neath our bullets. This unexpected reception

I felt DonogJUs hand groiving cold and clam my. 289

up too.
"rem the
', to fall
'gh was
grasped
into the

-e arc all
m in the

re I had
just over

e a wild
of men
larkness.
n undis-
Doils had
from our
m away,
hed the
my gun
side my

''o more
iception

checked the ardour of the attack, and drove back our
assailants.

We took advantage of their repulse to drag our stricken
comrades from the light.

Alas ! one had already passed from the light of life to
the darkness of death. The Cree had ceased to breathe,
but Donogh was still alive.

When we had breathing time to think of other matters
than our lives, Red Cloud sent the Iroquois and the scout
to drive the horses to a place of safety.

"We have given these Sircies something to occupy them,"
he said ; " but after a while they may try to get our horses,
since they have failed to take all our lives."

Soon the fire burned itself out, and the darkness of the
short summer's night lay around.

Yet how long it seemed to me, as sitting by poor Donogh's
side, and with his hand fast in mine, I waited for the dawn !
He was quite conscious, but every now and again a stifled
moan broke from his lips, and as the night wore on I felt
the hand growing cold and clammy. When daylight came
I saw that the poor boy's end was near.

The shot had struck him in the chest, and his life-blood
was ebbing fast.

I could not trust myself to speak. I could only hold his
hand in mine, and try to stanch the red stream from his
death-wound.

2.()0

Red Cloud.

< I

" Master," he said to nie, in a very faint voice, " I never
knew father nor mother, brother nor sister, and so there's no
one that will miss me, except it's yourself. You'll sometimes
think of me, sir, won't you — when you see the deer on
the hill-top, and the wild ducks on the pond, and the
grouse on the mountain side, all the things that we used
to hunt together? And master," he went on, "if ever
you go back to the old glen again, you'll say to the priest
that the poor boy he used to teach of a Sunday didn't for-
get the lesson at the end. You'll bury me up on the hill-
top, where we first saw the mountain from ? " he said again,
ufter a pause. " It's something like the top of Seefin, where
we used to sit looking out on the world — the big lonesome
world."

Then his voice hushed, and after a time the lips only
moved as the poor boy repeated some prayer of his child-
hood.

It was the long summer dawn that had looked upon the
scene. As the boy's life ebbed away the glory of the
morning had been growing brighter; and the sun, whose
setting lustre had recalled the home scenes to his memory
on the previous evening, was now close beneath the
horizon on the east. But never more was my faithful
Donogh to see the sun. When its level rays struck upon
our camp on the Red Deer hill, he had. gone before us
to the icy peaks of the " Mountains of the Setting Sun " —

I never
lore's no
netimes
leer on
^nd the
e used
if ever
e priest
In't for-
;he hill,
i again,
I, where
nesome

ps only
5 child-

)on the
of the

whose
lemory
:h the
aithful

upon
)re us

in "—

Donogh sees " the land beyond the graved 291

he had crossed the "Ridge of the World," and was
already in " the land beyond the grave."

On the hill-top near at hand we laid the two bodies in
a single grave. With knife and axe we dug a trench in a
small clump of cottonwood, and there the red man and his
white brother slept side by side.

Then we made haste to leave the fatal spot; not from
fear of pursuit, as our assailants had suffered too severely
to make it likely they would soon follow us up. An exa-
mination of the ground convinced Red Cloud that the
Sircies had not numbered more than seven men. They had
evidently followed us for some time past, and had probably
made their attack as much because we were now within
the country of their enemies, the Rocky Mountain Assine-
boines, into which they did not wish to penetrate, as be-
cause of the ground being favourable for a surprise. At
least five out of the seven had suffered from our fire — two
had fallen, and the traces of their retreat showed unmistakable
evidence that three others had been wounded. That they
were the hired assassins of the trader, there was little doubt.
The gun and knife belonging to one of the fallen were
similar in pattern to those we had captured from McDermott
in the preceding year. He had evidently outfitted this
party, as probably he had done the same by many others.
That the survivors would fall back upon their main camp,
many days' travel distant, was now nearly certain.

u a

292

Red Cloud.

Nevertheless, although the chances of immediate molesta-
tion were remote, we were in haste to quit a spot that had
been so fatal to our fortunes. As for myself, I literally felt
heart-broken at the thought that I was no more to have in
life the companionship and faithful service of my earliest
friend. Never before had I seen death brought home to
me with such vividness. Only yesterday I had spoken to
Donogh in the full pride of his youth and strength. The fire
at which he met his death still smouldered in its ashes ; yet
he who had gathered its fuel and set it alight was gone, his
flame of life extinguished ] his gun, bullet-bag, and powder-
horn, his saddle and bridle, the horse he used to ride — all
were there, yet he had disappeared. My heart was wrung
with grief; I felt as though life had been a long dream, and
that now I had suddenly awakened to its grim realities.
Then there came upon me a thousand bitter thoughts, and
unavailing regrets of the long hours we had spent together.
Why had I not made more of my poor friend ? Why had
I not treasured those hours when he was with me ? It
seemed as though death, in taking him away from me
had taken away too all the mist of selfishness, and that I
saw clear and distinctly the worth of the friendship I had
lost.

I had remained for some time sitting by the lonely grave,
sunk in these sad thoughts, when I felt a hand laid upon
my shoulder, Red Cloud stood beside me.

We enter the niountains.

293

"nolesta-
lat had
•ally felt
lave in
earliest
ome to
ken to

The fire
es; yet

)ne, his

)o\vder.

de— all

5 wrung

m, and

"alities.

ts, and

gether.

fly had

2? It

m me

that I

I had

p-ave,
upon

" It is time to go," he said. " Your poor brother's name is
one more added to the long list that cry for vengeance."

Mechanically I obeyed. The horses were already
saddled and loaded.

The Indians moved silently about ; the light of our little
party seemed to have gone out.

Slowly we filed off from the fatal spot, winding down the
long incline towards the mountains, until the lonely thicket
was lost in the distance.

About three days after this fatal day we entered one of the
gorges that led into the mountains.

The scenery had undergone a complete change. The trail
led along the bank of the Red Deer river, which had now
shrunken to the dimensions of a small and shallow stream ;
on each side the hills rose steep and pine-clad, while, as side
valleys opened upon the larger gorge along which we were
travelling, the eye caught glimpses of snow-clad summits far
above the world of pine-trees.

Often, as we rode along, my mind kept going back to that
fatal night on the Hand hills. Here we were now amid
those mountains whose fastnesses Donogh had so often
wished to reach, while he, poor boy, was lying out in the
great wilderness. But the work of travel, and the rough
road our horses had now to follow, kept my mind engaged,
and gave distraction to my thoughts.

Pursuing our course for a couple of days deeper into the

294

Red Clouds

mountains, wc gained at last a beautiful level meadow, set
round on dl sides by lofty hills, backed by still loftier moun-
tains. A small clear lake occupied one end of this level
plain.

We had quitted the valley of the Red Deer river, and
crossing a height of land had entered the valley of the parent
stream of the Saskatchewan, which here, after passing through
the lake, foamed down a ledge of rock, precipitating its
waters perpendicularly from a great height into a deep pool,
with a roar that was audible at the farther end of the valley.

Above this fall a small rocky island stood, in the centre of
the river. One end of this island was level with the edge of
the cataract, the other was in smooth water, not very far from
where the river issued out of the lake. As the water ap-
proached the edge of the fall it ran in many eddies and rapids,
but at the end nearest to the lake the stream was smooth
enough to permit a canoe to reach the island.

This rocky wedge, set between the lake and the cataract,
was covered with trees, and, excepting at the upper end in the
smooth river, its sides were steep and water-worn. I noticed
that as soon as we came in sight of this wooded isle Red
Cloud's usually passive face wore a look of unwonted interest.

I inquired if he knew the spot.

" Know it ? " he replied. " Yes, it is the only place I can
home in all this great wilderness. To-morrow we shall

reach it, and then you will know why I call it my home.

The island, the Indian's home.

295

We camped that evening near the spot where tlic river
came out of the lake. There was a clump of pine-trees close
at hand, and before night had closed in the well-wielded
axes of the Sioux and the Iroquois had felled some dead
trees, and lopped their trunks into lengths of twelve feet.

Early next morning, they had put together a small raft.
Dropping down stream on this raft, Red Cloud landed alone
on the little island. I had rambled off to the upper end ot
the lake while the morning was yet young ; when I got back
to camp I found the Sioux had returned, and that a small
canoe was moored to the river bank, where the raft had been
built.

Our mid-day meal over, Red Cloud asked me to visit the
island with him. He dropped down the stream as before,
and steered dexterously into the small spot of quiet water
which lay at the head of the island. I then noticed what
before I had not seen, that this quiet water was of very
limited extent, and that the current on either side of it ran
with a speed that became momentarily of greater velocity as
it drew nearer the rapid. I saw in fact that it required
knowledge of the spot, and skill in the use of the paddle,
to hit off this little eddy of waters.

A small indentation between two rocks gave shelter to our
canoe, and also held the raft which Red Cloud had built
during the morning. The canoe he had found on the island.
We landed on the rock, fastened the canoe to a tree, and

: i'

296

Red Cloud.

struck into the forest that covered the entire space. I could
tell by the increasing sound of the waterfall, that we were
approaching the end of the island which overhung the
cataract. We soon reached this spot : a few old pine-trees
grew upon it j the density of their branches had destroyed the
undcrijrowth, and the ground between the massive trunks
was clear of brushwood. In the centre of this clear space?
shadowed by the sombre arms of these old pines, there was
a solitary mour-l. Red Cloud stood before it.

" It is my father's grave," he said. *' Eight years
ago I carried his bones all that long way from where
he was killed to this distant spot. I had intended
bearing them with me wherever I wandered as aa ever-
present reminder of the oath I had sworn, but on first
seeing this spot I selected it as a resting-place. Here
I made my home ; hither have I come when, baffled by
my enemy, I have sought for a time rest for myself
and my horses ; and again from here have I gone forth to
seek my enemy, only to find him always too strong or too
cunning for me."

397

years
where
itcndcd
a ever-
3n first
Here
fled by
myself
)rth to
or too

CHAPTER XVH.

Sl^^ns of trouble — Reconnoitring— Precautions— We retire into
the island— Dayliffht — The enemy shows himself— A search-
He prepares to attack the island — A midnight storm — The
raft — Aim low and fire fast — In the whirl of waters — On the
lip of the fall — The end of crime.

When we got back to the camp near the lake the scout
had news that at once excited the suspicions of Red Cloud.
Pie had gone, he said, back upon our trail towards where we
had entered the valley, to look for one of our horses which
had strayed in that direction. He had found the missing
animal, but during the search he had observed a single white
wolf standing on the edge of a thicket some distance away.
Endeavouring to approach the place in order to get a shot
at this beast, he had found the animal gone, and no trace
of trail or footmark could he see, but he had noticed the
impression Of a moccasined foot in the soft clay of the thicket.
When he first had noticed this solitary wolf, it appeared to
him to be standing three parts within the thicket, only the
head and portion of the neck being visible.
Such was th*^ story which roused the suspicions of the Sioux.

ill

298

Red Clottd,

The north side of the valley was bounded by a wooded
ridge, which commanded a view of the trail uy which we had
approached our present camp. To this ridge Red Cloud
directed his steps, having first taken the precaution to have
the horses driven in from the farther end of the meadow to
the close vicinity of the camp, and our baggage made ready
for any sudden shift of quarters that might be necessary.
The Iroquois remained in camp ; the scout was to join us on
the look-out ridge.

As Red Cloud was fully convinced that our movements
were even now under the observation of hostile eyes, he
directed that we were to separate as though in pursuit of
game, and by circuitous routes gain the points of observation
selected. He believed that the object seen by the scout
had been a Sircie disguised under the head and skin of a
white wolfj these masks were often adopted by the plain
Indians, when reconnoitring previous to an attack. They
enabled the Indian scout to approach a camp, to lurk along
a ravine, or to show himself upon the sky-line of a hill-top,
when no other means of concealment could be used.

If the Sioux's surmise was correct, the hostile parcy to
which this \"olf-scout belonged was not far away, and ic was
likely that ere the evening closed in some indication of its
presence would be noticeable.

From the top of the look-out hill a view was obtained of
the trail leading to our camp, the only path by which men

precautions against a Sircies zvc-party. 299

|ooded

^e had
ICloud

coming from the east could enter the valley of the lake
and meadow ; but no sign of man, hostile or peaceful, was
visible j and the summer winds as they stole gently through
the whispering pines, alone made audible sound in the
solitude. Nevertheless the suspicions of the Sioux were
not to be allayed by the quiet aspect of the trail by which
our camp could be approached.

None knew better than he that if the Sircies had really
followed us into these hills, they would have come in all the
craft and concealment of their race, keeping within the cover
of the woods by day, and moving when night hid their pre-
sence. He knew too that any party venturing into these
solitudes would be strong in numbers, and that nothing but
the most powerful incentive could induce men whose
natural sphere of life lay in the open prairie country, to
venture among those rough rocks and tangled woods.

The day was yet young ; there was plenty of time to examine
the trail further towards the east ; the scout would push his
way quietly through the woods, and return by nightfall to
our camp. Red Cloud gave him a few directions as to his
movements, and we returned back to the meadow, to prepare
for action in the event of attack. We at once proceeded to
ferry our goods across to the island ; the horses were swum
one by one in the wake of the canoe, and landed in the
little bay between the rocks.

At this season of the year there was ample forage for

: . ,

300

Red Cloud

them among the rocks and trees, and in several places,
where the soil was low and swampy, the goose-grass, so
greedily sought for by horses, grew plentifully.

It was evening by the time we had finished this work,
and the shadow of the great mountain that rose between us
and the west was already darkening our little meadow.
The lake surface was broken in a hundred places, by the
rising of many trout at the midges and flies brought forth
by the approach of night. We still kept our fire lighted at
the place of our first camp, but we were ready to fall back
at a moment's notice upon the island ; in fact, we only
awaited the return of the scout before returning to that
secure resting-place for the night.

We had not long to wait. The light was still good when
his signal-cry sounded from the entrance to the valley, and
he was with us a few minutes later. His news was soon
told. The Sircies were in force below the ridge which
ended the valley of the Red Deer river — they were in fact
not six miles distant. He had counted a score of braves,
and there were others whom he could not see. There
was a white man with them — at least he had seen an English
saddle on the back of a strong horse picketted under
the trees.

All this was conclusive ; our preparations had not been
made a moment too s. on ; the night now closing around
us would scarcely pass without an attack.

We retire into the island.

301

ices,

3, so

The small dug-out canoe just held three persons. At
the first trip the Iroquois and I landed on the island, then
Red Cloud returned to fetch over the scout, who had
remained at our camp. The Sioux was absent longer than
I had expected; the daylight had now all gone, and it
was too dark to discern his movements, but soon
we saw the fire burning brightly, and in its red reflection
upon the water I made out the canoe, dropping quietly
down for the island.

Red Cloud and the scout now landed, and then we all
sat quiet in the shade of the trees, waiting for what the
night would bring forth. The hours passed by — nothing
appeared; the fire still burned at our old camp. Save the
rushing of the water by the island shores, and the dull
thunder of the cataract below its plunge, all was silent.

Three of us lay down to sleep. The Iroqi'-ois )'emained
alone to watch. How long I had slept I could not say,
but I was deep in dreams when a touch was laid upon my
shoulder, and I awoke instantly to that consciousness to
which wild life in the wilderness soon accustoms its
followers.

" Look out," v/hispered Red Cloud. " They are come at
last."

I looked out over the water, but I could see nothing.
It was yet night, but the first faint ray of light was in the
east behind us as we looked from the island, and its

t* <

302

Red Cloud.

:>'

fl 1^

indistinct hue made vague and shadowy the whole rang(?
of vision. The fire was no longer visible.

As I strove to pierce the gloom, there suddenly flashed
forth in the darkness a long volley of musketry, and the
echoes from a hundred mountain cliffs rolled in tumultuous
thunder around our island ; nor had they ceased ere their
reverberations were blended in the fierce war-cry of the
Sircies, which pealed forth close to our old camp. We lay
within our shelter while this wild storm of shot and shout
died away. We could then hear a scurrying of feet, and
voices raised in tones of rage and disappointment j then all
was again quiet.

The daylight was now gaining rapidly upon the darkness ;
soon we could distinguish figures moving to and fro where
our camp had been, and then we could make out with
greater precision the dress and faces of individual Indians,
some on the borders of the lake, others in the clump of
trees, and others along the banks of the river, within one
hundred paces of where we lay.

And now as the dawn momentarily filled the valley with
increasing light, there appeared upon the scene a figure which
centred upon it all our attention. I looked at Red Cloud, to
mark how he bore himself within sight of his arch-enemy, for
the mounted man who now rode up to our camping-place
was none other than the villain trader ; but neither in feature
nor in gesture did the Sioux show symptoms of those long-

The enemy makes a search.

303

range

lashed
id the
iltuous
their
of the
Ve lay
shout
'; and
len all

cherished feelings which must have filled his heart. There,
within easy rifle-shot of where we lay, stood this man, whose
slowly accumulated crimes and long-pursued hatred, had
brought him even to this remote resting-place of one whose
life he had betrayed — to this home of him whose murder he
had so often tried to compass ; yet the rifle of Red Cloud
remained lowered, and his eye betokened neither rage nor
astonishment as he thus beheld his enemy.

As yet there seemed to have occurred to the war-party
no suspicion that we had retired to the island. Our disap-
pearance from camp was evidently an event which they had
not calculated upon ; and even now, when the camp was
found deserted, while traces of its recent occupation were
numerous, they did not imagine that we had done more
than conceal ourselves in the surrounding woods.

That our ultimate destruction was assured, naturally ap-
peared certain to them, for excepting the trail by which they
had entered the valley, no outlet was apparent to them ; and as
they now held that sole means of egress, a thorough search
seemed certain to promise our capture.

They therefore set to work at once when daylight enabled
them to see the ground, to hunt us up amid the rocks and
woods that lay between the meadow and the loftier hills,
whose rugged and precipitous sides forbade all chance of
escape.

At the upper end of the valley, where the river first

304

Red Cloud.

entered the level space, the perpendicular walls of a canon
prevented horses going further into the mountains in that
direction. It is true that by scrambling over the boulders
and many rocks which lay piled on each side at the base
of these walls, a man on foot might force his way at low
water; but at this time the snows of the upper mountains, the
vast glaciers which here formed the parent spring of the Sas-
katchewan river, were pouring forth their volumes under the
influence of the midsummer sun, and the snow-fed river
was foam.ing full through the rocky aperture into the prairie
valley.

If they could have found our horses, then the question of the
possibility of our escaping on foot up some cleft or landslip in
the mountain wall would still have remained an open one; but
wherever we had got to, there also must be our horses, and
the horses must still be within the confines of the valley.
They now set to work diligently to seek us out ; while some re-
mained near our old camping-p^ace, the greater number spread
themselves along both sides of the lake. Meantime the sun
had risen. All through the forenoon the search went on^
and when mid-day came there was not a spot in the valley
which had not been visited, excepting the island on which
we stood. It was now that, returning from their fruitless
quest, they turned their attention with more persevering
examination to the ground around our old camp. The spot
where the little raft had been constructed showed more

The enemy resolves to invade the island. 305

signs of wood-cutting than the supply of the summer camp
would have necessitated ; the bank of the river also
betrayed our trail at the water's edge. Then we saw them
consult together, while their looks and gestures, as they
pointed towards the island, clearly told us that the next
attempt would be made in our direction.

Coming down upon both sides of the river, they tried to
find a place where they could cross the water, and we could
sec them endeavouring to peer through the close-set
branches that fringed the rocks, for indications of our
presence. The central portion of our rocky refuge was,
however, more depressed in level than the edges, so that
our horses would have been quite concealed from view
even had the bordering screen of brushwood been less
dense.

When they found the current flowing on both sides of
the island was everywhere too rapid to permit a man to cross,
we saw them gather again about our old camping-place, and
a^ain we could discern by their actions that the idea of
making a descent upon the point of the island above the
rapid — the point where we ourselves had landed— had not
escaped their notice.

But to think of the descent was one thing, to carry it
out was another. No man could hope to swim to that point,
and carry his life to the island, if the men whom they sought
were there ; on tlie other hand, a landing in force from a

'S n

J ■' ,

306

Red Cloud.

raft would promise far greater chance of security even in
daylight, and if made at night there was no reason why
they could not gain the island without loss.

That they reasoned thus was evident to us, for they now
set to work to cut down several trees, and the remainder of
the day was spent by them in drawing out the felled tree
trunks, and putting them together in a raft. That this raft
was to be a large one we could tell by the number of trees
carried out to the place at which it was being built. So the
day passed away, the long evening closed in twilight, and
darkness at last lay upon the scene.

The night cap".:, very dark. The shadow cast by the
lofty mountains was rendered still more obscure bv a thick
canopy of clouds which drifted across the sky as the night
closed in. At first this veil of clouds came unaccompanied
by wind ; but soon we heard a noise of pine-trees swaying
in the upper valleys, and later came the crash of storm, as
the thunder tempest drew nearer to our glen.

Intense as were the feelings of excitement with which I
looked forward to the night that had now begun, I never-
theless could not help almost forgetting the peril of our
position, and the proximity of our enemies, in the stupen-
dous spectacle of the warfare of the elements to which we
were now spectators.

At first the rapidly succeeding flashes of lightning were
at the farther side of the mountains that encircled our valley ;

A midnight storm.

307

-ven in
)n why

night

but as the storm rolled on, broad sheets of flame filled the
Kiult above us, and streams of jagged fire poured down on
crag and pinnacled pine ; while the crash of thunder,
multiplied tenfold by echo, seemed to shake the massive
mountains to their base. At last the full fury of the storm
burst upon us : the rain splashed down in blinding torrents,
the trees swayed wildly in the rush of the tempest, and
tlie roar of the cataract grew louder as the swollen waters,
hissing under the rainfall, poured down past our island.

It must have been some time after midnight, when the
fury of the storm having spent itself, there came a lull in
the wind and rain. Everything was still dark — it was the
gloom before the dawn : it was also the hour at which we
might expect our enemies to attempt a landing upon the
island.

V/e had lain .exposed to all the rain and stoim during the
night. We did not want for food, for we had the meat of an
elk, killed by the Iroquois when we first entered the valley ;
but as a fire lighted on the island would have been seen by
the Sircies, we had of course to lie exposed to the violence
of the tempest, without chance of drying our dripping clothes
or of warming our chilled bodies.

At first I had thought little of these hardships'; the ex-
pected attack had kept me fully awake and on the alert. But
now, as the small hours of the night drew on, a sense of
drowsiness began to overcome me, and insensibly I found

X 2

r 5

In 1 '

?o8

/v'ffl? Cloud.

myself falling into fitful snatches of sleep upon the wet rock
against which I was lying. In these brief moments of
slumber, the outward surroundings of our position, the rush
of the river, the drip of leaves, the occasional flash of still
vivid lightnings, and the rumble of the receding thunder, nil
found semblance in a vague sense of the danger that menaced
us, and I would start to sudden wakefulness, to find the
reality and the dream so much alike that it was difticult to
distinguish one from the other.

I was in this state, the result of overstrung toil and
anxiety, when I felt a hand laid upon my shoulder. I started
to full wakefulness. Red Cloud whispered in my ear,
" Make ready ; they are coming down upon us." I seized my
gun, and looked out over the edge of the rock behind which
I had been lying. There was nothing to be seen ; all seemed
inky darkness ; the rushing river was alone audible.

All at once there came a flash of lightning ; it burst from
a cloud that had rolled down the valley behind us. It lighted
up the rocks, the trees, and the whole valley above us. For
an instant the surface of the river shone out in dazzling
brilliancy, and upon it, full in the centre of the stream,
flowing with the current right in the direction of the spot
where we were lying, was tlie raft, crowded with dark figures.

This flash of light was only instantaneous, but it sufficed
to reveal to me the full reality of our position.

Immediately behind where we lay the ground rose, and

"Aim loiu, and fire fast.^*

309

the top of the high bank held a few lofty pine-trees, whose
dark cones thrown out against the eastern sky, now streaked
with the first pale hue of coming day, gave the Sircies a
point to steer for amid the darkness.

At the moment of the flash the raft appeared to be dis-
tant from the island about 100 or 150 yards. We were all
lying behind the same rock, which was immediately over
the landing-place, and only a few feet raised above it.

A faint glimmer of light fell now upon the water ; wc
could distinguish the surface some fifty yards away, where it
was still glassy and unbroken j beyond that all was still in
gloom.

**When you see the raft," said Red Cloud, "I will give
the word, and then fire at it as quickly as you can."

During the storm we had kept the locks of our guns
carefully covered with leather hoods ; these had been now
removed, and all was ready. With eyes levelled upon the
streak of light water we waited for the Sioux's word.

Out of the darkness into the lighter water came the raft,
faint and shadowy.

" Aim low, and fire fast," said the Sioux.

My double gun was stretched along the top of the rock.
I dropped the muzzle well below the line of the approach-
ing floating object ; then I pulled first onetrigger, and then the
other. To my right and left shots rang out in quick succession.
Again I loaded ; and again I fired. We could see nothing now,

310

Red Cloud.

\ : ■ I

for the smoke hung in the damp night air. Then Red Cloud
called out to stop firing. Eagerly we looked through the
murky atmosphere where the raft had been.

It was no longer in the direct line of our landing-place ;
it had drifted to the left-hand side, and was now in rapid
water but still close to the rock, going down stream with
momentarily increasing speed. We could see many confused
figures, trying with might and main to get the unwieldy
craft to the side of our rock. It was only for a short
second, and then the raft was borne along into still rougher
and faster waters, to be caught in the remorseless grasp of
the furious torrent above the falls, now swollen by the
thunder deluge of the night.

We could see no more, the trees hid it from sight ; but
we had no need for further eye-witness or ear-witness of the
fate of raft and crew. Once in the grasp of that torrent,
there could be no escape. High above the roar of the
cataract one loud cry did indeed reach us a very few seconds
later, and then there was silence, only broken by the swirl of
eddy, the rush of water against the rock, and tha dull thun-
der of the fill.

As the dawn broadened into day I went down to the
lower end of the island. From the grave of the Sioux
chief the ground sloped steeply up, until it dropped abruptly
to the rapid, forming a bold front of rock immediately over
the edge of the fall. The top of this rock stood out bare of

/// the zvhirl of waters.

Cloud
gli the

trees j beneath it was the rapid, the edge of the fall, and the
seething whirlpools below the cataract.

Red Cloud had preceded me to this place; when I reached
the grave I saw him on the bare summit beyond, looking
fixedly down upon the fall. His arms were folded across
his breast. I was beside him a moment later. My eyes,
following his fixed glance, rested upon a strange spectacle.
Almost in the centre of the fall a rock stood, right on the
edge of the descending flood. I had seen it on the previous
day, when it had been more exposed to view ; now the
rising water had covered three parts of its surface, and
only the top showed above the flood. On this rock there
was a figure.

The light was still too indistinct to allow us to discern
features, we could only see that some wretched creature was
clinging to the rock, on which he had been cast at the
moment the fated raft had taken its plunge into the dark
abyss.

But although I was unable at this moment to identify
this unfortunate castaway, there flashed across my mind, at
the first instant of my seeing him, the thought that it was
the trader McDermott who was before me in this terrible
position, now hopelessly hanging between life and death.

For a glance at the raging mass of water was sufficient
to tell me that escape was impossible, and that no hope of
extrication remained to the doomed man.

, i

1' .11

III

it:

312

Red Cloud.

The sight filled me with a strange dread. I feared to think
that it was our enemy, our bitter enemy, who had thus been
reserved, as it seemed, for a death more awful than any that
had already overtaken the poor dupes ot his evil counsel
and the recipients of his bribes. Then I thought of my poor
murdered Donogh,'and my heart grew hard ; and then again
came the whispering of a better nature, and the terrible
spectacle before me chased away the promptings of revenge.
That the figure was really that of McDermott there could
no longer be any doubt,. Turning his head wildly towards
either shore in the vain hope of obtaining assistance, he had
now observed us as we stood on the projecting rock, and
his voice, raised in cries for assistance, reached us, even
through the din of the cataract and above the whirl of
waters.

" Help, help ! " he cried, in tones that rang with the terror
and the horror that had seized upon him. But the merciless
torrent rolled down in a volume ever increasing, still rising
higher, and momentarily breaking the frail link that bound
him to life. The sight was all too much for me. I forgot every-
thing of the past in the horrible fact before me of a human
being in this awful extremity, and turning to the Sioux I
exclaimed, —

" Can we save him ? Can we reach him by any means ? "

But I had little counted on the real depth of the animosity
with which Red Cloud regarded his enemy.

On the lip of the fall.

313

" Save him ? Reach him ? " he cried. " Do you imagine
that if I could reach him I would let yon torrent rob me of
his death ? "

As he spoke, his eyes glared, his frame shook with passion,
and in the grasp which he laid upon my arm his fingers
closed in iron strength. Wild with rage, he let go my arm
only to seize his gun- as he cried in tones of savage exulta-
tion, —

*' Ho, villain trader, who is it to whom you cry for help ?
It is the son of him whom you sold to a cruel death. It is
he whose life you have sought through years of blood Ii
is Red Cloud, the Sioux. Behold, you are at the grave of
the man you sold and murdered. His spirit is in the air
that surrounds you, in the trees that mock at your agony,
in those waters that are dragging you to death. But they
shall not take you from me. You shall die, villain, by my
hand."

He raised his rifle. His hand was now steady, his eye
seemed calm ; another instant, and the trader's deathwould
have been certain j but I could stand it no longer.

" Forbear," I cried, striking up the levelled barrel. " He
is in tlie hands of Him who has said. Vengeance is Mine.
See, through all these long years you strove to compass
his punishment, and you failed ; but now here, within sight
of the grave of his victim, a mightier Power has brought
him to his doom."

-n (

314

Red Cloud.

Red Cloud dropped his rifle — a deep shadow passed over
his face.

"You are light," he said slowly. *'We are but the
children of the Great Spirit. We see the beginning of the
trail ; He alone can foresee the end."

While he thus spoke the rising waters had completed
their task ; the trader had been swept into the terrible abyss,
and only a splash of spray shooting outwards from the lip
of the fall marked the presence of the sunken rock.

;ed over

but the
g of the

315

mpleted

e abyss,

the h'p

CHAPTER XVIII.

The beginnuig of the end — Deeper into the mountains — The
western slope — On the edge of the snow — The golden valley —
It is all mh;c — Night thoughts — Last words — i see him no
more.

Two days passed away. They had been days of peace
and rest. No further attempt had been made to molest
us. Awed by the terrible fate of so many of their bravest
men and leaders, who had lost their lives on the raft over
the cataract, the Sircies had abandoned the valley and
returned to their own country.

When the fact of their departure was fully ascertained
by the scout, we moved out again to the meadow by the
lake ; but before we quitted the island Red Cloud had a
long conversation with me regarding our future movements.
Seated by his father's grave on the evening next but one
after the events recorded in the last chapter had taken
place, he began by telling me that the object of his life
was now achieved, and that henceforth he was careless as
to what might happen to him, or whither he would go. He
would probably turn his face towards the south again, and

3i6

Red Cloud.

join some scattered remnant of his tribe at the headwaters
of the Platte, or in the country of the Yellowstone.

I told him that it was all the same to me which way he
urned his steps ; I was ready to follow him.

But he replied that it must not be. Already his com.
panionship, he said, had cost me heavy. My faithful
friend had lost his life, my own had often been in hazard.
He had still many enemies. The Sircies, the Bloods, the
Blackfeet, and the Peaginoos, would all bear to him in
future an enmity, not the less active because it was based
upon wrongs done to him by them in the first instance.
For himself, it mattered little now what his enemies might
do ; his father's spirit could rest in peace. But for me it was
different. I had been a true brother to him ) he could no
longer lead me into danger. There was yet one place to
which we would travel on the same road, and when that
place was reached we would part.

Such was the substance of whnt he said to me.

It is needless to say that I felt terribly cast down by this
threatened ending of our companionship. It seemed im-
possible to think of life without Red Cloud. True, only
a year had elapsed since he and I had met, but that year
had been equal to five. From him I had learnt all I knew
about the prairie and its wild things. Would it be possible
for me now to face its chances and its trials alone ? And
where else could I go? I had literally no home.

Deeper into the mountains.

317

idwaters
1 way he

lis com.

faithful

hazard,
ods, the

him in
s based
nstance.

s might
le it was
:ould no
place to
ten that

by this
led im-
le, only
at year
I knew
)ossibIe
' And

This wild life, while it taught the lessons of braver}',
hardihood, endurance, activity, and energy, did not bring
worldly wealth to those who followed it. I had come to
the prairie poor. I would leave it even poorer still. As these
thoughts crowded upon me, my face no doubt betrayed to
the Sioux their presence. He spoke in a cheerier tone, —

" Our parting time," he said, "has not yet come. Wait
until it is at hand, and the path you will have to follow will
be clearer to you."

Next day, as I have said, we quitted the island, and
made our camp again by the lake. On the following day
we packed our horses, and moved off to the upper end of
the valley. I had thought that there was no outlet in that
direction, but in this I had been mistaken, for shortly after
mid-day we came to where a steep face of cliff rose before
us. The front of this slanting wall held a zigzag narrow
path, just wide enough for a single horse or man to move
along it. Its beginning in the valley was hidden by a growth
of firs and underbush, and was known only to Red Cloud.
We ascended by this trail, and having gained the top of
the cliff, hit upon a well-defined path, winding in and out
between wooded hills. Following this for some hours, we
reached before sunset a wild glen high up in the moun-
tains.

On the next day we followed up this glen until evening,
and camped amid some dwarf fir-trees at a spot where

\ S;

i I':

■! ' i

318

/^t'</ Cloud.

a small spring trickled from the hill-side and flowed out
towards the west. All the other streams had flowed eastwai ds,
but we were now on the " divide," and this westward-flow-
ing spring was one of the parent rills of some mighty
Pacinc river.

The snow-line was not very far above our camping-place ;
we could see the mountain sheep upon a bare ridge of hills \
and the "bleating " cry of the ptarmigan reached our ears
when, next morning, the sunrise was glistening on the
snowy summits around us.

We remained at this camp all that day. The scout and
the Iroquois set out for a long hunt after mountain
sheep, and Red Cloud asked me to go with him in another
direction. No one stayed to watch the camp, for we were
now high above the usual haunts of men, where the great
hill-tops dwelt in utter loneliness. We reached, after a
toilsome walk, a deep secluded valley, opening upon the one
that held our camp.

A ragged forest of pine-trees fringed its sides, through
which we pushed our way for a considerable distance. At
length, the Sioux began to look around him, as though he
was seeking for some landmark, or spot known to him in
other times, and once of twice he looked to the right or
left for some remembered mountain peak by which to mark
his whereabouts.
. The valley hi'! :iow closed in, until it was only a narrow

The golden valley.

319

^ed out
itwaids,
rd-flow-
mighty

cleft between steep overhanging cliffs. It looked as though
some long ago conv.ilsion of nature had split open this
fissure, over which i.i time had grown a sparse old forest.
Large stone rocks and debris half-imbedded in the earth,
cumbered the floor of this valley. With a few strokes of
his small axe Red Cloud now cut down a dry p'ne
stick, off which he knocked the side branches; then he sat
down on one of the rocks, and said, "The valley which
holds our camp leads down to the west side of the mountain.
If you follow it down for three days you would come to a
river flowing for a time towards the north, then bending
west, and at last turning south, until it falls into the sea. Far
down on that river, on the sandbanks and bars of its
course, there are many white men at work. They are wash-
ing the sand and the gravel for a yellow dust ; that yellow
dust is gold. They have killed the Indians, who lived in
that part of the country since the world began, but who
thought more about the salmon in the river than of the
yellow dust that lay amongst its sands. The water that
carried that gold to these sand-bars, came from this
mountain range where we now are, the gold came from
it too."

As he spoke he began to wedge the pine stick between
a fragment of rock and the bank to which it partly adhered.
The stone, loosened from its place, rolled down to a lower
level. Where it had been, there lay exposed to view a

.'I 1E(

II'

320

Red Cloud.

hollow space, in which a number of dull yellow lumps were
seen, mixed with white stones and withered pine-moss.

Red Cloud laid his stick upon this hollow in the darker
rock.

" Look," he said, " there is the yellow dust for which the
white man fights, and robs, and kills. There it is in plenty
— not in dust, but in stones and lumps ; take it. A white
man without that yellow stone is like an Indian who has
no buffalo. Take it, my friend. You have been a brother to
me j you have fought for me, you have lost much for me :
here is all I have to give you. Around where we stand
this gold lies thick among these rocks. Five years ago an
old Shusv/ap Indian, who had once been in the mining
camps of the 1 ?wer country, si. iwed me this spot, which he
had long kept secict, dreading lest the white man should
find it out, and come here to kill the Indians as he had done
elsewhere. That old Shusv'ap is dead, and I alone know of
this place. See ! all around you these white veins run through
the rocks i Look up overhead, you will see them glistening in
the sun ! See below, where the dry stream-bed is choked
with the broken masses, and the golden lumps lie thickly
about ! In a few hours you can knock out from these crum-
bling pieces gold enough to load a horse with. It is all yours.
To me it would be of no use. I would not track th? moose
better if I had it ; my aim with my arrow or rifle would not be
truer, my eye would not see clearer, my arm would not be

It is all mine.

mps were
moss,
le darker

which the
n plenty
A white

L who has

brother to
:h for me :

we stand
irs ago an
he mining
;, which he
lan should
e had done
le know of
Lin through
listening in

is choked
lie thickly
liese crum-
is all yours,
th? moose
)uld not be
uld not be

321

stronger; but you are nothing if you have it not. All your
courage, your friendship, your energy, will count for 1- .le if
you have not plenty of these yellow stones. There, fill this
saddlc-bag to-day ; to-morrow we will come here again, and
then on the next day we will ir.ovc away, ^^'here the valley
divides below our camp, our paths in life must separate."

I seemed to be in a dream as I listened to all this. I
looked around, and saw plainly enough the truth of what he
said. There, running in every direction through the rocks,
were the white scams of quartz; and thick amid their snowy
surface shone the rich yellow lumps of gold. A few yards
away, where the splintered rocks lay piled together, small
nuggets lay mixed with gravel and broken stones ; and in
the hollow beneath the stone which he had at first moved
from its position, was the hoard, long since gathered and
hidden there by the old Indian who had discovered the
place. And now all this was mine — mine to do what I liked
with. I who but a day since was a poor v/anderer, possess-
ing only a horse, a gun, and a few items of prairie trappings,
was now the owner of this golden glen, with enough to
purchase all Glencar twice over. And yet I was not elated
at the sudden change in my fortunes. I saw that the end
of my Vt'ild life had come. I saw the future, with its smoke
of cities, its crowds chained to the great machine called
civilization, pulling slowly along the well-beaten road. No
more the great v.'ilderness ; no more those vast and gorgeous

I'i

1 a- I:

^ i

322

/^C(l Cloud,

sunsets ; no more my companionship with this strange lonely

man.

The Sioux read my thoughts. " You think tlie wild life
would be better than this gold I have given you. You look
upon your life as closed. j\Iy friend, you are wrong. Your
life is still all before you. You are only setting out upon
its prairies. INIany long years from now, when you are in
sight of the Mountains of the Setting Sun, you will know
that I, Red Cloud the Sioux, showed you the right trail,
though he could not follow it himself. ^Vc cannot change
our colours. The red man cannot give up the wilderness j
he dies amid the city and the fenced field. You cannot
make this wild life your own, even though you may wibli to
do so. You have other work to do ; you must go back
and do it."

'* And you? " I said, rousing myself from the dream into
which I had fallen, "will you not come with me, and
share the wealth you have given me ? With the hundredth
part of the gold lying around us liere, we can traverse the
earth from side to side. There arc vast spaces in other
lands as well as in this one. Asia has wilds as lonely as
America. There are sky-bounded plains in Southern Africa,
where the wild animals roam in savage freedom. Come
with me, and we will seek these huge horizons, far away
from the bustle of crowds and the smoke of cities."

He shook his head. " My brother," he said, " it would

Return to camp.

323

lonely

ilc^ life

|u look

Your

upon

arc in

i know

t trail.

not do. The great prairies arc dying ; the bufialo are going,
The red man must pass away loo. Come, let us to work
while there is yet time."

He began to collect together several pieces of gold in
the hollow where the old Shuswap had made his store.
\\'hen many pounds' weight had been gathered, he filled
two sadc'le-bags ; but there was still remaining enough to
fill two more leather wallets. The Shuswap's store held
pieces of pure gold of every shape and size — some flattened
pieces, others rugged knobs like walnuts, and rounded
nuggets as large as eggs.

It was indeed a wonderful sight, all this treasure lying
hidden away in this remote and desolate valley, thousands
of feet above the sea level ! " Curious ! " I thought. " Man
struggles and strives for this metal, lives for it, dies for it,
forgets every other pursuit, gives up health for it ; and here
it lies a stone amid other stones. The winds blow heedlessly
upon it ; the sun looks down in summer ; the snow covers
it in winter, and the pine-tree rustles in the evening breeze
unmindful of its presence."

The sun was getting down behind the western ridges as
we started on our way back to camp laden with our golden
loads. When we reached the camp the two Indians had
retimed, both bringing loads of mountain mutton, the result
of their hunt. Red Cloud said nothing to them about our
day's work. The fewer persons who knew the secret of the

Y 2

3-4

Red Cloud.

!,i i:

Golden Valley, the better would it be, he thought, for man-
kind in general, and for Indians in particular. So we ate
our supper of wild mutton that night, and lay down under
the stars, wrapped in our robes; but all the golden wealth
tliat lay beside me could not reconcile me to accept with
contentment the prospect of abandoning this wild roving
life fur the smoother roads and softer beds of civilized
existence.

For a long v.hile I tried in vain to sleep ; my mind was
dwelling too strongly upon the events of the preceding day
to allow my eyes to close in rest. Our camp lay facing
towards the east ; right opposite, a great tooth-shaped moun-
tain top lifted itself high into the starlit heavens. The stars,
wondrously clear in the transparent atmosphere of our lofty
position, rose from behind the triple peaks of this giant.
I lay watching them as the night wore on ; at last there
came one lustrous star; right between the forked peaks it
rose, throbbing in many-coloured rays of light, until it looked
like a gigantic diamond glistening in the icy crown of tlie
mountain king. Then I fell asleep, and dreamt that I had
scaled the summits of the Rocky Mountains, and was looking
down upon the great prairies of eternity.

The following day was a repetition of the one that pre-
ceded it. Again we sought the golden valley, and again we
returned to camp with loads of the precious metal. The
whole treasure wlicn packed in wallets made a load just

AiU'thcr visit to the golden valley.

3=5

man-
hvc ate

uiulur
kcalth
k with
roving
i'ilized

sufficient for one horse to carry. Red Cloud did the work
of packing the loads himself.

All was completed early on the morning of the second
day* and quitting our high camp, we began to descend the
valley in a western direction. We soon came in sight of
the low country upon that side. It was different in every
aspect to the prairie region of the east. There the green
meadows had spread out into measureless distan^x-, here
ridge after ridge of pine-trees stretched away into tlu est.
Many a rugged range of mountain rose amid the wilderness
of pines, and bold summits of naked rock, or snow patch
glistened, above the sombre world of endless forest.

Winding along a descending trail we often lost sight of
this panorama, as some projecting ridge of our mountain
closed the outward view.

By sunset we had reached a spot where the trail forked —
one branch descending still westward towards the mining
camp on the Fraser river, the other bearing away in a
northern direction.

Here we camped. Wc had come down many hundreds
of feet during the day. The forest growth was large and
lofty, and the pine grouse and the partridges were again
around us. Far down in the plain a light haze of smoke
hung above the tree tops.

On the next morning we were to separate. The Iroquois
and the scout would accompany me to the first mining camp,

326

Red Cloud.

from whence they would rccross the mountp.ins to tlicir
own peoples. Red Cloud would take the northern trail to
the Athabasca valley. The preparations were soon ready,
but we delayed the moment of parting to the last. At length
Red Cloud rose, and began to unfasten his horse from tb.e
tree to which it had been tied. It was the signal of separation.

We shook hands in silence.

" See," he said, *' the smoke of your people's fires far
belov ; there is your road, and here is mine" — he pointed to
the mountain ti ail. " I could not go with you, I would have
to begin life again ;— I am too old to change now. There
is no one to come after me. The Sioux are nearly all gone,
the Buffalo are fast going; but the wilderness will last long
enough for me."

** And is there nothing then that I can do for you ? " I
said. " You have done everything for me : let me do some-
thing in return."

"Well, my friend," he replied, "sometimes think of me.
When I am camped at night far out on the great prairie,
I v/ould like to say to myself, my white brother remembers
me. That is all."

Then he turned off to the north, leading his horse by the
bridle up the mountain path. I stood watching him as
step by step the void of space grew wider between us.
How lonely it all seemed, this solitary man turning off
into the mountains to go back from the shore of civilization

/ see Red Cloud no more.

327

to tlicir

h trail to

|n ready,

.t length

[from tlie

jparation.

fires far
ointed to
luld have
There
all gone,
last lon^jf

you ? " I

do some-

ik of me.
t prairie,
members

;e by the
him as
iveen us.
rning off
k'ilization

into the great prairie sea ! As thus I watched his slowly
receding figure, memory was travelling back over the long
trail of our companionship — back through all the varied
scenes of strife, and chase, and travel, to that distant day
when first on the shore of the wilderness our lives came
together. " Think of you ! " I said, sj^eakinghalf aloud my
thoughts. " Yes, that I will. Whenever the wind stirs the
tree-branch, or rustles the reeds and meadows- wherever tlie
sun goes down over distance of sea or land — in the moon-
light of nights, in the snow of long winters, you will be
near me still."

At a bend in the trail he turned to look back : it was
but a moment, and then the mountain path was vacant,
and I saw him no more.

THE END.

LONDON :

PKINTED 13Y GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LD.,

ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELI, ROAD, E.G.

SAM

A Catalogue of American and Foreign Books Published or

Imported by Messrs. Sampson Low & Co. can

be had on application.

St. Dunstaii's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, London,
April, 1888.

91 Selection from tbe 2Lis!t of Boofesf

PUBLISHED BY

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEA RLE, & RIVINGTON,

LIMITED.

liil:

ALPHABETICAL LIST.

A BBOTT {C. C.) Poaetquissii'gs Chronicle: Upland and
•^~^ Meadow. loj. 6^/.

Waste Land Wanderings. Crown 8vo, 7^. dd.

Abney (W. de W.) and Cunningham. Pioneers of the Alps.

With photogravure portraits of guides. Imp. 8vo, gilt top, 2\s.
Adatn (^G. Alercer) and Wetherald. An Algonquin Maiden,

Crown 8vo, t^s.
Adams {C K.) Manual of Historical Literature. Cr. 8vo, 12^. dd.
Agassiz (Alex.) Three Cruises of the Blake. With many Illus-
trations. 2 vols., 8vo,
Alcott. Works of the late Miss Louisa May Alcott : —

Eight Cousins. Illustrated, 2s.; cloth gilt, 31. 6cl.

Jack and Jill. Illustrated, 2s. ; cloth gilt, y. 6il.

Jo's Boys. 5j.

Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, &c. Illustrated, cloth, 2j. ; gilt edges,
3s. 6d.

Little Men. Double vol., 2J. ; cloth, gilt edges, y. 6d.

Little Women, is. ") i vol., cloth, 2s. ;

Little Women Wedded. \s. ) edges, ^s. 6d.

Old-fashioned Girl. 2s. ; cloth, gilt edges, 3^. dd.
Rose in Bloom. 2s. ; cloth gilt, y. 6d.
Silver Pitchers. Cloth, gilt edges, 3J-. 6d.
Under the Lilacs. Illustrated, 2s ; cloth gilt, 5J.
Work: a Story of Experience, is. \ I

Its Sequel, " Beginning Again." is. )

larger

ed., gilt

vol., cloth, gilt
edges, 3^. 6d.

Alden ( W. Z.) Adventures of Jimmy Brown, written by himself.

Illustrated. Small crown 8vo, cloth, 2s.
Aldrich {T. B.) Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book, &^c. Very

choicely printed on hand-rnade paper, parchment cover, 3^. 6d.
Alford {Lady Marian) Needlework as Art. With over 100

Woodcuts, Photogravures, &c. Royal 8vo, 21s. ; large paper, 84^-.

i ';!

1 1 'Hi-

1% <ii

Sampson Lmv^ Marston, <S^' Coh

Amateur Angler^ s Days in Dove Dale : Three Weeks^ Holiday

in 1884. By E. M. \s. 6d. ; boards, is. ; large paper, 5^.
Andersen. Fairy Tales. An entirely new Translatioqi. With

over 500 Illustrations by Scandinavian Artists. Small 4to, 6s.
Anderson (W.) Pictorial Arts of Japan. With 80 full-page

and other Plates, 16 of them in Colours. Large imp, 410, ;^8 8j. (in

four folio parts, £2. 2s. eachi ; Artists' Proofs, ^12 12^.
Angler's Strange Experiences (An). By Cotswold Isys. With

numerous Illustrations, 4to, 5^. New Edition, 3^-. 6d.
Ambling See Amateur, "British," "Cutcliffe," "Fennell,"
""Halford," "Hamilton," "Martin," " Orvis," " Pennell," " Pritt,"

"Senior," "Stevens," "Theakston," "Walton," "Wells," and

"Willis-Bund."
Annals of the Life of Shakespeare, from the most recent authorities.

Fancy boards, 2S.
Annesley ( Chas.) Standard Opera Glass. Plots of 80 Operas,

with dates, is. 6ci.
Amiual American Catalogue, Books of 1S86 and iSS'j. Each

loj. 6<t. ; bound, I4J-.
Antipodean Notes, collected on a Nine Months

World. By Wanderer, Author of " Fair Diana,"
Appleton. European Guide. 2 Parts, 8vo, los. each
Ar/nytage {Hon. Mrs.) Wars of Victorians Reign, s^s.
Art Education. See " Biographies," " D'Anvers," " Illustrated

Text Books," "Mollett's Dictionary."
Attwcll {Prof.) The Italian Masters. Crown 8vo, -^s. 6d.
Audsley {G. A.) Handbook of the Organ. Top edge gilt, 42^-. ;

large paper, 84^.
Ornamental Arts of "jfapaii. 90 Plates, 74 in Colours

and Gold, with General and Descriptive Text. 2 vols., folio,;iil5 I5i'. ;

in specally designed leather, £22) ^-f-
The Art of Chromo-Lithography. Coloured Plates

and Text. Folio, 63J.
and Tomkinson. Ivory and Wood Carvings of Japan.

84J. Artists' proofs (100), i68i-.
Auerbach {£.) Brigitta. (B. Tauchnitz Collection.) 2s.

On the Heights. 3 vols., ds.

Spinoza. 2 vols., i8mo, 4^.

"' Tour round the
Crown 8vo, "js. bJ,

DADDELEY {St. Clair) Tchay and Chianti.

■^ Visit to Russia and Finland. Small post 8vo, 5.?.
Baldwin {James) Story of Siegfried. 6s

A Short

List of Piihlications.

Holiday

1). With
6s.

full-page
£>^ Sj-. (in

With

Fennell,"

"Pritt,"
ells," and

uthorities.

3 Operas^

Each

round the
8vo, 7j. 6(/.

Jlustrated

■• dd.
^ilt, 42^-. ;

1 Colours

;d Plates
of Japan.

2S.

A Short

Illustrated by

Baldwin {James) Story of the Golden Age.
HovVAUU Pyl:-. Crown 8vo, yj. 6ct.

Story of Roland. Crown 8vo, 6s.

Bamford {A. J.) Turban:, and Tails. Sketches in the Un-
romantic East. Crown 8vo

Barlow {Alfred) Weaving by Hand and by Power. With
several hundred Illustrations. Third Edition, royal 8vo. £i 5.r.

Barrow {J.) Mountain Ascents in Cumberland and Westmore-
land. Crown 8vo, 'js. 6d.

Bassett {F. S.) Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and of
Sailors. Crown 8vo, 1$. 6d.

THE BAYARD SERIES.

Edited by the late J. Hain Friswell.

Comprising Pleasure Books of Literature produced in the Choicest Style.

" We can hardly imagine better books for boys to read or for men to ponder
over," — Times.

Price 2 J. td. each Volume, complete in itself, Jlexible cloth extra, gilt edges,
vdth silk Headbands and Registers.

The Story of the Chevalier Bayard.

Joinville's St. Louis of France.

The Essays of Abraham Cowley.

Abdallah. By Edouard Laboullaye.

Napoleon, Table-Talk and Opinions.

Words of Wellington.

Johnson's Rasselas. With Notes.

Hazlitt's Round Table.

The Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia,

&c. By Sir Thomas Browne, Knt.
Coleridge's Christabel, &c. With

Preface by Algernon C. Swinburne.
Ballad Poetry of the Affections. By

Robert Buchanan.

Lord Chesterfield's Letters, Sen-
tences, and Maxims. With Essay
by Sainte-Be-uve.

The King and the Commons. Cava-
lier and Puritan Songs.

Vathek. By William Beckford.

Essays in Mosaic. By Ballantyne.

My Undo Toby ; his Story and
his Friends. By P. Fitzgerald.

Reflections of Rochefoucauld.

Socrates : Memoirs for English
Readers from Xenophon's Memo-
rabilia. By Edw. Levien.

Prince Albert's Golden Precepts.

A Case containing li Voluines, price 31^. dd. ; or the Case separately, price y. 6d.

Baynes {Canon) Llyinns and other Verses. Crown 8vo, sewed,

IJ.; cloth, I J. td.

Beccher {Henry IVard) Authentic Biography, and Dla^y.

By his Son and vSon-in-law, Illustrated, large Svo. [Prepari/i<^.
Behnke and Browne. Child's Voice : its Treatment luith regard

■■ to After Develojiment. Small Svo, y. 6d.
Beyschlag. Female Costume Figures of various Centuries. 1 2

reproductions of pastel designs in portfolio, imperial. 2\s,
Bickersteth {Bishop E. H.) The Clergyman in his Home.
Small post Svo, \s.

A 2

; !f

W> ■

Sampson Low, Mats ton, &^ Co.^s

Bickersteth {Bishop E. If.) Evangelical ChnrcJimanship and

Evangelical Eclecticism. 8vo, is.
From Year to Year : Original Poetical Pieces. Small

post Svo, 3 J. dd. \ roan, ds. and t^s.; calf or morocco, \os. 6d.
• The Master's Home- Call ; or, Brief Men? oria Is of Alice

Frances Bickersteth. 20th Thousand. 32nio, cloth gilt, is.
The Master's Will. A Funeral Sermon preached on

the Death of Mrs. S. Gurney Buxton. Sewn, 6il. ; cloth gilt, i.f.

The Reef, and other Parables. Crown Svo, 2 j. dd.

The Shadow of the Rock. A Selection of Religious

Poetry. i8mo, cloth extra, 2s. 6d.
The Shadowed Home and the Light Beyond. New

Edition, crown Svo, cloth extra, 5J.
Biographies of the Great Artists {Illustrated). Crown Svo,

emblematical binding, 3^. 6(/. per volume, exce]5t where the price is given.

Claude le Lorrain, by Owen J. Dullea.
Correggio, by M. E. Heaton. 2s.6d.
Delia Robbia and Cellini. 2s. 6ci.
Albrecht DUrer, by R. F. Heath.
Figure Painters of Holland.
FraAngelico, M asaccio, and Botticelli.
Fra Bartolommeo, Albertinelli, and

Andrea del Sarto.
C\insborough and Constable.
■ fhiberti and Donatello. 2s. 6d.
Giotto, by Harry Quilter.
Hans Holbein, by Joseph Cundall.
Hogarth, by Austin Dobson.
Landseer, by F. G. Stevens.
Lawrence and Romney, by Lord

Ronald Gower. 2s. 6d.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Little Masters of Germany, by W.

Mantegna and Francia
Meissonier, byj. W. Mollett. 2s.6d.
Michelangelo Buonarotti,by Clement.
Murillo, by Ellen E. Minor. 2s. 6d.
Overbeck, by J. B. Atkinson.
Raphael, by N, D'Anvers.
Rembrandt, by J. \V. Mollett.
Reynolds, by F. S. Pulling.
Rubens, by C. W. Kett.
Tintoretto, by W. R. Osier.
Titian, by R. F. Heath.
Turner, by Cosmo Monkliouse.
Vandyck and Hals, by P. R.

Head.
Velasquez, by E. Stowe.
Vernet and Delaroche, by J. Rees.
Watteau, by J. W. Mollett. 2s. 6d.
Wilkie, by J. W. Mollett.

B. Scott.
Bird {F.J.) American Practical Dye^s Companion. Svo, \2s.

{H. E.) Chess Practice. Svo, 2s. 6d.

Black {Robert) Horse Racing in France : a History. Svo, 14^.
Black { Wm.) I^^vels. See " Low's Standard Library."

Adventures of a House-Boat. 3 vols., crown Svo.

Blackburn {Charles F.) Hints on Catalcguc Titles and Index

Entries, with a Vocabulary of Terms and Al ■■evialions, chiefly from

Foreign Catalogues. Royal Svo, 14^.
Blackburn {Henry) Breton Folk. With 171 Lilust. by Randolph

Caldkcoit. Imperial Svo, gill etlges, 2\s.; plainer binding, los. ii,i.

Ltst of Publications.

hip and
Small
of Alice
led on

I.r.

6d.

eligious

New

Blackburn {Henry) Pyrenees. With loo Illustrations by
GusTAVE DORE, corrected to 1881. Crown 8vo, 7j. bd. See also
Caldecott.

Black more {R. D.) Lorna Doone. 'Edition deluxe. Crown 4to,
very numerous Illustrations, cloth, ^nlt edges, 31.?. dd.; parciiment,
uncut, top gilt, 35^-. ; new issue, plainer, 2\s. ; small post 8vo, 6^.

Novels. See " Low's Standard Library."

Sprifighaven. With 124 Illustrations by Parsons and

Barnard, square 8\;o, 12*.

Blaikie {Williani) How to get Strong a?id how to Stay so.
Rational, Physical, Gymnastic, &c.. Exercises. Illust., sm.post8vo, $s.
Sound Bodies for our Boys and Girls. i6mo, 2s. 6d.

Bo?iwick. British Colonies. Asia, 15'. ; Africa, is. ; America,
is. ; Australasia, is. One vol., cloth, $s.

Bosanquet {Rev. C.) Blossoms from the King's Garden : Sermons
for Children, 2nd Edition, small post 8vo, cloth extra, 6j.

Jehoshaphat ; or, Sunlight and Clouds. \i

Boussenard {£.) Crusoes of Guiana. Illustrated. 55.

Gold-seekers. A Sequel to the above. Illustrated.

i6mo, 5^-.

Boyesen {P.) Story of Nonvay. Illustrated, sm. 8vo, yj. 6^.

Boyesen {li. H.) Modern Vikings : Stories of Life and Sport
in Norseland. Cr. 8vo, ds.

Bofs Froissart. King Arthur. Mabinogion. Percy. See Lanier.

Bradshaw {f.) Ne7v Zealand as it is. 8vo, \2s. 6d.

Brannt (JF. T.) Animal and Vegetable Fats and Oils. 244
Illust., 8vo, 35^.

Bright {fohn) Public Letters. Crown 8vo, 75". (>d.

Brisse {Baron) Mhius (366). A WdV///, in French and English,
for every Day in the Year. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo, <,s.

British Fisheries Directory. Small Svo, 2s. 6d.

Brittany. See Blackburn.

Broivne {G. Lennox) Voice Useand Stimula7its. Sm. Svo, Si'. dd.

and Behnke {Emit) Voice, Song, and Speech. Illus-
trated, 3rd Edition, medium Svo, 15J.; Popular Edition, 55.

Bryant ( IV. C.) and Gay {S. H.) History of the United States.
4 vols., royal Svo, profusely Illustrated, 6oj.

Bryce {Rev. Professor) Afanitoba. Illust. Crown Svo, 75. 6d.

Short History of the Canadian People, ^s. 6d.

Burnaby {Capt.) On Horseback through Asia Minor. 2 vols.,
Svo, 38J. Cheaper Edition, I vol., crown Svo, loj. 6d.

9^-

l!«

■m

1 . 1

y- y

Sampson Zo7v, Afarsfon, &•» Coh

Burnaby {Airs. F.) High Alps in Winter; or^ Mountaineering
in Search of Healtli. With Portrait of the Authoress, Map, and other
Illustrations. Handsome cloth, 14J. See also MAIN.

Burnley {James) History of Wool and Woolcombing. Illus-
trated with mechanical Diagrams, 8vo, 2IJ.

Burton {Sir R. F.) Early, Public, and Private Life. Edited
by F. HiTCHMAN. 2 vols., 8vo, 36J.

Butler {Sir W. F.) Campaign of tlie Cataracts. Illustrated by
Lady Eutler. 8vo, iSj.

Ijivasion of England, told twenty years after, by an

Old Soldier. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.

— — Ped Cloud; or, the Solitary Sioux. Imperial i6mo,
iiiimerous illustrations, gilt edges, 3^.60'.; plainer binding, 2j. 6d.

The Great Lone Land; an Account of the Red River

Expedition, 1869-70. New Edition, crown 8vo, cloth extra, yj. 6</.

' The Wild North Land ; the Story of a Winter Journey

with Dogs across Northern North America. 8vo, i8j. Cr. 8vo, "js. 6d.

It-'

■J:

r^ABLE {G. W.) Bonaventure : A Prose Pastoral of Acadian

^ Louisiana. Sm. post 8vo, 5.?.

Cadogan {Lady A.) Illustrated Games of Patience. Twenty-
four Diagrams in Colours, with Text. Fcap. 4to, \2s. 6d.

Ne7v Games of Patience. Coloured Diagrams, 4to, 12s. 6d.

Caldecott {Randolph) Alen.'oir. By Henry Blackburn. With
170 Examples of the Artist's Work. 14J.; large paper, 21s.

California. See Nordhoff.

Callan {H., M.A.) Wanderings on Wheel and on Foot through

Europe. Crown 8vo, boards, is. 6d.
Campbell {Lady Colin) Book of the Running Brook: and of

Still Waters. $s.
Canadian People : Short History, Crown 8vo, 'js. 6d.
Carleton ( Will) Farm Ballads, Farm Festivals, and Farm

Legends. Paper boards, is. each ; i vol., small post 8vo, 3j. 6d.

City Ballads. Illustrated, 12^. 6d. ', paper boards, i^.