XIV
ELSIE REVISITS CURTIS
Jennie thought her brother the handsomest man in the State as theywalked up and down the station platform waiting for the express trainwhich was bringing Elsie and Lawson and a famous Parisian-Americansculptor and his wife. Curtis was in undress uniform, and in the midstof the slouching crowd of weather-beaten loafers he seemed a man ofvelvet-green parade grounds and whitewashed palings, commanding lines ofpolished bayonets.
He was more profoundly stirred at the thought of Elsie's coming than hecared to admit, but Jennie's delight was outspoken. "I didn't know howhungry for a change I was," she said. "They will bring the air of thebig city world with them."
The whistle of the far-off train punctuated her sentences. "Oh, George,doesn't it seem impossible that in a few moments the mistress of thatgreat Washington home will descend the car-steps to meet us?"
"Yes, I can't believe it," he replied, and his hands trembled a littleas he nervously buttoned his coat.
The train came rapidly to a stop, with singing rods, grinding brakes,and the whiz of escaping steam. Some ordinary mortals tumbled out, andthen the wonderful one!
"There they are!" cried Jennie. "And, oh--aren't her clothes maddening!"
Lawson, descending first, helped Elsie to the platform with an acceptedlover's firm touch. She wore a blue-cloth tailored suit which fittedmarvellously, and her color was more exquisite than ever. AdmiringJennie fairly gasped as the simple elegance of Elsie's habit becamemanifest, and she had only a glance for the sculptor and his wife.
Elsie, with hands extended, seized upon them both with cordialintensity. A little flurry of hand-shakings followed, and at last Mr.and Mrs. Jerome Parker were introduced. He was a tall man with a bush ofyellow beard, while she was dark and plain; but she had a pleasantsmile, and her eyes were nice and quiet.
"Do you know, I'm overjoyed to get back!" said Elsie to Curtis. "I don'tknow why I should be, but I've been eagerly looking for the Cleft Butteall day. Jerome will tell you that I expressed a sort of proprietorshipin every prairie-dog."
"We are very glad to have you here again," replied Curtis. "And now thatyou _are_ here, we must get your belongings together and get away. Weare to camp to-night at the Sandstone Spring."
"A real camp?"
"A real camp. We could drive through, of course, but it would betiresome, and then I thought you'd enjoy the camp."
"Of course we shall. It's very thoughtful of you."
"Everything will be ready for us. I left Two Horns to look after it."
"Then it will be _right_," said Lawson, who was beaming with placidjoy. "Isn't it good to breathe this air again? It was stifling hot inAlta City. I never knew it to be hotter in the month of June."
While they talked, Crane's Voice was collecting the trunks, and in a fewminutes, with Elsie by his side, Curtis drove his three-seated buckboardout upon the floor of the valley, leaving the squalid town behind.Lawson and Mrs. Parker occupied the middle seat, and Jennie and the tallsculptor sat behind. They were all as merry as children. Elsie took offher hat and faced the sun with joyous greeting.
"Isn't this glorious? I've dreamed of this every night for a month."
"That's one thing the Tetong has--good, fresh air, and plenty of it,"said Lawson.
"A thin diet, sometimes," Curtis replied. He turned to Elsie. "Yourstudio is all ready for you, and I have spoken to a number of the headmen about you. You'll not lack sitters. They are eager to beimmortalized at your convenience."
"You are most kind--I am going to work as never before."
"You mustn't work too hard. I have a plan for an outing. One of mydistricts lies up in the head-waters of the Willow. I propose that weall go camping up there for a couple of weeks."
"Do you hear that, Osborne?" she called, turning her head.
"I did not--what is it?"
Curtis repeated his suggestion, and Parker shouted with joy. "Just whatI want to do," he said.
Curtis went on: "We'll find the redman living there under much morefavorable conditions than down in the hot valley. We have a saw-mill upin the pines, and the ladies can stay in the superintendent's house--"
"Oh no!" interrupted Elsie. "We must camp. Don't think of putting usunder a roof." A little later she said, in a low voice: "Father is inChicago, and expects to be out here later. I mean, he's coming to make atour of the State."
"How is his health?" Curtis asked, politely.
Her face clouded. "He's not at all well. He is older than he realizes. Ican see he is failing, and he ought not to go into this senatorialfight." After a pause she said: "He was quite ill in March, and I nursedhim; he seemed very grateful, and we've been very good friends since."
"I'm glad of that," he replied, and bent closely to his driving.
"You drive well, Captain."
"An Indian agent needs to be able to do anything."
"May I drive?"
"You will spoil your gloves."
"Please! I'll take them off. I'm a famous whip." She smiled at him withsuch understanding as they had never before reached, as she stripped hergloves from her hands and dropped them at her feet. "Now let me take thereins," she said. He surrendered them to her unhesitatingly.
"I believe you can drive," he said, exultantly.
Her hands were as beautiful as her face, strong and white, andexquisitely modelled; but he, looking upon them with keen admiration,caught the gleam of a diamond on the engagement finger. This should nothave chilled him, but it did. Then he thought:
"It is an engagement ring. She is now fairly bound to Lawson," and alight that was within him went out. It was only a tiny, wavering flameof hope, but it had been burning in opposition to his will all the year.
As she drove, they talked about the grasses and flowers, the mountainrange far beyond, the camping trip, and a dozen other impersonal topicswhich did not satisfy Curtis, though he had no claim to more intimatephrase. She, on her part, was perfectly happy, and retained her hold ofthe reins and the whip in spite of his protest.
"You must not spoil your beautiful hands," he protested; "they are forhigher things. Please return the lines to me."
"Oh no! Please! Just another half-hour--till we reach that butte. I'mstronger than you think. I am accustomed to the whip."
She had her way in this, and drove nearly the entire afternoon. When hetook the reins at last, her fingers were cramped and swollen, but herface was deeply flushed with pleasure.
"I've had a delicious drive," she gratefully remarked.
At the foot of a tall butte Curtis turned his team and struck into aroad leading to the left. This road at once descended upon acrescent-shaped, natural meadow enclosed by a small stream, like a babein a sheltering arm. All about were signs of its use as acamping-ground. Sweat lodges, broken tepee-poles, piles of blackenedstones, and rings of bowlders told of the many fires that had beenbuilt. Willows fringed the creek, while to the south and west rose atall, bare hill, on which a stone tower stood like a sentinel warrior.
Elsie cried out in delight of the place. "Isn't it romantic!" Alreadythe sun, sinking behind the hill, threw across the meadow a mysteriouspurple gloom, out of which a couple of tents gleamed like gray bowlders.
"There is your house to-night," said Curtis. "See the tents?"
"How tiny they look!" Elsie exclaimed, in a hushed voice, as thoughfearing to alarm and put them to flight.
"They are small, but as night falls you will be amazed to discover howsnug and homelike they can become."
Two Horns came to meet them, and Parker cried out, "Hello! see the bigIndian!"
The chief greeted Lawson with a deep and hearty "Hah! Nawson--my friend.How! How!" And Lawson, with equal ceremony, replied, in Dakota:
"I am well, my brother; how is it with you?"
"My heart is warm towards you."
Elsie gave him her hand, and he took it without embarrassment orawkwardness. "I know you; you make pictures," he said, in his owntongue.
"Jerus
alem, but he's a stunner!" said Parker. "Hello, old man! How youvass, ain't it?" and he clapped the old man on the shoulder.
Two Horns looked at him keenly, and the smile faded from his face. "Huh!Big fool," he said to Lawson.
"You mustn't talk to an Indian like that, Parker, if you expect to havehis friendship," said Lawson. "Two Horns hates over-familiarity."
"Oh, he does, does he?" laughed Parker. "Kind of a Ward McAllister,hey?"
Lawson, a little later, said, privately: "That was a bad break, Parker;you really must treat these head men with decent respect or they'llhoodoo you so you can't get any models. Two Horns is a gentleman, andyou must at least equal him in reserve and dignity or he will report youa buffoon."
Parker, who had done his figures from models procured in Paris fromBuffalo Bill's show, opened his eyes wide.
"Lawson, you're joking!"
"You'll find every word I tell you true. I advise you to set to work nowand remove your bad impression from Two Horns, who is one of the threeprincipal chiefs. You can't come out here and clap these people on theback and call 'em 'old hoss.' That will do in some of the stories youread, but realities are different. You'll find money won't command thesepeople, either."
"I thought they liked to be treated as equals?"
"They do, but they don't like to have a stranger too free and easy. Youhaven't been introduced yet."
While Crane's Voice attended to the teams, Jennie and Two Horns workedat getting supper. Their comradeship was charming to see, and theParkers looked on with amazement. Two Horns, deft, attentive, careful,anticipated every want. Nothing could be finer than the perfectlycheerful assistance he rendered the pretty cook. His manner was likethat of an elder brother rather than that of a servant.
"I didn't suppose Indians ever worked around a camp, and especiallywith a woman," remarked Parker.
"What you don't know about Indians is still a large volume, Parker,"retorted Lawson. "If you stay around with this outfit for a few weeksyou'll gather a great deal of information useful for a sculptor ofredmen."
Elsie took Lawson mildly to task for his sharp reply.
Lawson admitted that it made him impatient when a man like Parker openedhis mouth on things he knew nothing about. "You never can tell what yourbest friend will do, can you? Parker is decidedly fresh. If he keeps onhe'll become tiresome."
Elsie presumed on her enormous experience of three months on thereservation, and gave Parker many valuable hints of how to wheedle theTetongs in personal contact.
"It seems I'm being schooled," he complained.
"You need it," was Lawson's disconcerting reply.
As night fell, and the fire began to glow in the cool, sweet dark withincreasing power, they all sat round the flame and planned the trip intothe mountains.
"I have some Tetongs up there who are disposed to keep very clear of theagency. Red Wolf is their head man. You may all go with me and see mycouncil with him if you like."
"Oh! that will be glorious fun!" cried Elsie.
But Parker asked, a little anxiously, "You think it safe?" which amusedCurtis, and Parker hastened to explain: "You've no idea what a badreputation these Tetongs have. Anyhow, I would not feel justified intaking Mrs. Parker into any danger."
"She is quite safe," replied Curtis. "I will answer for the action of mywards."
"Well, if you are quite sure!"
"How far away Washington seems now!" remarked Elsie, after a silence. "Ifeel as if I had gone back to the very beginning of things."
"It seems the end of things for the Tetongs," replied Lawson. "We forgetthat fact sometimes when we are anxious to have them change to our ways.Barring out a few rudenesses, their old life was a beautiful adaptationof organism to environment. Isn't that so, Curtis?"
"It certainly had its idyllic side."
"But they must have been worried to death for fear of getting scalped,"said Parker.
"Oh, they didn't war much till the white man came to disturb them, bycrowding one tribe into another tribe's territory. Their 'wars' weresmall affairs--hardly more than skirmishes. That they were infrequent isevident from the importance given small forays in their 'wintercounts.'"
One by one the campers began to yawn, and Jennie and Mrs. Parkerwithdrew into the tent reserved for the women, but Lawson and Elsie andCurtis still remained about the fire. The girl's eyes were wide withexcitement. "Isn't it delicious to be a little speck of life in thislimitless world of darkness? Osborne, why didn't we camp last year?"
"I proposed it, but Mattie would not hear to it. I have a notion thatyou also put my suggestion aside with scorn."
She protested that he was mistaken. "It is the only way to get close tothese wild people. I begin to understand them as I sit here beside thisfire. What do you suppose Two Horns is thinking about as he sits overthere smoking?"
As they talked, Lawson began to yawn also, and at last said: "Elsie BeeBee, I am sleepy, and I know Curtis is."
"Not at all," protested Curtis. "I'm just coming to myself. As thecamp-fire smoulders the night is at its best. Besides, I'm in the midstof a story."
"Well, I didn't sleep very well last night," began Lawson,apologetically. "I think--if you don't mind--"
"Go to bed, Sleepy Head," laughed Elsie. "We'll excuse you."
"I believe I will," and off he went, leaving the two young people alone.
"Go on!" cried Elsie. "Tell me all about it."
Curtis glowed with new fire at this proof of her interest. "Well, therewe were, Sergeant Pierce, Standing Elk, and myself, camped in AvalancheBasin, which at that time of the year is as full of storms as a cave isof bats." A yelping cry on the hill back of them interrupted him. "Theregoes a coyote! Now the night is perfect," he ended, with a note ofexultant poetry.
She drew a little nearer to him. "I don't enjoy that cry as well as youdo," she said, with a touch of delicious timidity in her voice. "That'sthe woman of it, isn't it?"
"I know how harmless he is." After a pause, he slowly said: "This is thefarthest reach of the imaginable--that you should sit here beside myfire in this wild land. It must seem as much of a dream to you as yoursplendid home was to me."
"I didn't suppose these things could shake me so. How mysterious theworld is when night makes it lone and empty! I never realized it before.That hill behind us, and the wolf--and see those willows by the brook.They might be savages creeping upon us, or great birds resting, or anysilent, threatening creature of the darkness. If I were alone my heartwould stand still with awe and fear of them."
"They are not mysterious to me," he made answer. "Only in the sense thatspace and dusk are inexplicable. After all, the wonder of the universeis in our brains, like love, rather than in the object to which weattribute mystery or majesty. To the Tetong, the simplest thingbelonging to the white race is mysterious--a button, a cartridge, atin-plate. 'How are they made? What are they built for?' he asks. So,deeply considered, all nature is inexplicable to us also. We whitechildren of the Great Ruler push the mystery a little further back, thatis all. Once I tried to understand the universe; now I am content toenjoy it."
"Tell me, how did you first become interested in these people?"
He hesitated a little before he replied. "Well, I was always interestedin them, and when I got out among the Payonnay I tried to get at theirnotions of life; but they are a strange people--a secretive people--andI couldn't win their confidence for a long time. One day while on ahunting expedition I came suddenly upon a crew of wood-choppers who hadan old man tied to a tree and were about to burn him alive--"
"Horrible! Why?"
"No reason at all, so far as I could learn. His wife sat on the groundnot far away, wailing in deep despair. What treatment she had suffered Ido not know. Naturally, I ordered the men to release the old man, andwhen they refused I cut his bands. The ruffians were furious with rage,and threatened to tie me up and burn me, too. By this time I was tooangry to fear anything. 'If you do, you better pulverize the buttons onmy uniform, for the
United States government will demand a head forevery one of them.' Had I been a civilian they would have killed me."
"They wouldn't have dared!" Elsie shuddered.
"Such men dare do anything when they are safe from discovery--and thereis always the Indian to whom a deed of that sort can be laid."
"Did they release the old man?"
"Yes; and he and his wife camped along with me for several days, andtheir devotion to me was pathetic. Finally I came to understand that heconsidered himself dead, so far as his tribe was concerned. 'My lifebelongs to you,' he said. I was just beginning the sign language at thattime and I couldn't get very far with him, but I made him understandthat I gave his life back to him. He left me at last and returned to thetribe. Thereafter, every redman I met called me friend, and patientlysat while I struggled to learn his language. As I grew proficient theytold me things they had concealed from all white men. I ceased to be anenemy. I became an adviser, a chief."
"Did you ever see the old man again?"
"Oh yes. He was my guide on several hunting expeditions. Poor old Siyeh,he died of small-pox. 'The white man's disease,' he called it, bitterly.He wanted to see me, but when he understood that I would be endangeredthereby, he said: 'It is well--I will die alone; but tell him I fold myhands on my breast and his hand is between my palms.'" The soldier'svoice grew hard and dry as the memory of the old man's death returnedupon him.
Elsie shuddered with a new emotion. "You make my head whirl--you and thenight. Did that determine your course with regard to them?"
"Yes. I resolved to get at their hearts--their inner thoughts--and mycommanders put me forward from time to time as interpreter, where Icould serve both the army and the redman. In some strange way all theNorthwest tribes came to know of me, and I could go where few men couldfollow me. It is curious, but they never did seem strange to me. Fromthe first time I met an Indian I felt that he was a man like othermen--a father, a son, a brother, like anybody else. Naturally, when theplan for enlisting redmen into the cavalry came to be worked out, I waschosen to command a troop of Shi-an-nay. I received my promotion at thattime. My detail as Indian agent came from the same cause, I suppose. Iwas known to be a friend of the redman, and the department is nowexperimenting with 'Curtis of the Gray-Horse Troop,'" he added, with asmile. "Such is the story of my life."
"How long will you remain Indian agent?"
"Till I can demonstrate my theory that, properly led, these people canbe made happy."
"I am afraid you will live here until you are old," she said, and therewas a note of undefinable regret in her voice. "I begin to feel that youreally have a problem to solve."
"It lies with us, the dominant race," he said, slowly, "whether the redrace shall die or become a strand in the woof of our national life. Itis a question of saving our own souls, not of making them grotesquecaricatures of American farmers. I am not of those who believe inteaching creeds that are dying out of our own life; to be clean, to bepeaceful, to be happy--these are the precepts I would teach them."
"I don't understand you, and I think I would better go to bed," shesaid, with a return to her ordinary manner. "Good-night."
"Good-night," he replied, and in the utterance of those words wassomething that stirred her unaccountably.
"He makes life too serious, and too full of responsibility," shethought. "I don't like to feel responsible. All the same, he is fine,"she added, in conclusion.
The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop Page 14
