Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER VII.

  AN INDIAN WAR PARTY.

  When Hugh and Jack started next morning the sky was overcast, and a coldwind blew from the north. Before they had travelled far, it began torain. Soon the rain changed to snow and it grew very cold. They put ontheir coats and slickers, and for an hour or two travelled through ahowling snow-storm. Suddenly the wind ceased, the snow stopped falling,the sun came out, and it grew very warm. The snow which had covered theground speedily melted, and again they travelled along over a summerprairie.

  It was near mid-day when Hugh suddenly drew up his horse, and motionedto Jack to ride up beside him. He pointed to the ground, where Jack sawmany old tracks of horses, and besides these, a half dozen ruts in thesoil, like those made by wagon wheels, but irregular, moving from sideto side as they proceeded, and looking as if something had been draggedalong the ground, following in some degree the inequalities of itssurface. Jack could see that these marks, as well as the hoof prints,had been made a good while before, yet after the grass had begun to growin the spring. The trail pointed nearly in the direction which they werefollowing, so that by keeping on, they would cross it at an acute angle.

  "There, son," said Hugh, "there's been a camp of people along here."

  "Indians?"

  "Yes, quite a bunch of 'em. There was quite a band of horses, and thelodge poles and travois, as you see, make a pretty big trail. I expectthere must be a dozen lodges of 'em at least; maybe more."

  "Oh," said Jack, "I was wondering what those queer marks were; those arethe travois, are they?"

  "Yes, them and the lodge poles. You know, when they're moving over theprairie they tie a bunch of lodge poles on either side of the horse,over his withers, and the big ends of the poles drag on the ground;that's what's cut the prairie up this way. Them people are going prettynear the same way we're going, but it's three or four weeks sincethey've passed. I've a notion we'll follow this trail for a while, andsee which way they're going. If they seem to be going the same way weare, we'll branch off and travel closer to the mountains, where thecountry is rougher and there's more timber."

  Hugh rode on, close by the trail, and Jack followed, driving the packhorses. A mile or two further along, Hugh stopped again, and Jack rodeup to him. Hugh pointed again to the ground before him, and then got offand carefully inspected a moccasin track in the trail that looked muchfresher than the others. "Well," said he, as he stood up after lookingcarefully at it, "I don't like that very much. Somebody's been alonghere quite a while after the bulk of these people passed. It's hard totell much about that track, because it's been rained on, but it looks tome as if it wa'n't more'n a day or two old. You go back and drive thehorses on slowly, and I'll see whether I can make anything out of thisfresh trail or not."

  For an hour or two Jack followed Hugh, who went on quite slowly,frequently dismounting and looking at a track, and then sometimes goingon foot for some little distance before mounting again. At length thetrail bore off considerably to the right, and here Hugh left it andstruck off sharply to the left. A little later, he called Jack up to himand said, "There seems to be seven or eight men following that trail onfoot, and I expect likely it's a war party that's going to try to catchthat camp and steal their horses. If that's so, you and me want to getas far away as we can, and I expect the best thing we can do is tostrike off toward the mountains, and when we camp to-night to cache aswell as we can; and maybe we'll take an early start to-night, after thehorses have fed and got rested, and make a quick drive, camping prettyearly in the morning, and starting out again just before night, and ridehalf the night. I don't want to get mixed up in no squabbles between anyIndians that we're likely to meet here a way."

  They rode on pretty rapidly. Down in a little hollow they stopped,looked carefully over the packs, tightened all the saddles, and thenremounting, started at a still better pace, trotting wherever it waslevel or down hill, and only walking the horses on the steeper slopes.By this time it had become very hot. Jack had tied his slicker and coaton behind the saddle, but was still uncomfortable under the broilingrays of the sun.

  It was late in the afternoon when they reached the valley of a stream,and instead of camping in the broad open bottom, which offered a goodplace to picket the horses, Hugh rode up the stream to where the valleywas dotted with frequent clumps of willows, and riding in among these,halted at the edge of a thick clump, midway between the stream and thebluffs.

  "Let's unsaddle here," he said, "and tie up the horses among thesewillows; they ain't so likely to be seen, if anybody happens to lookinto the creek bed. We'll just build a little fire here, and cook, andthen put it right out. I don't want to make no smoke if I can help it."

  The loads of the horses and the camp were well concealed, and after theanimals had drunk, they tied them rather short to the clumps of brush,intending to move them from time to time to fresh grass.

  Although the sun was low now, it was still intensely hot; and down inthe bottom, shut in by the bluffs, there was no air stirring. The willowbrush, too, cut off what little wind blew up or down the creek, and Jackfelt as if he were almost choked. They cooked and ate, and after theyhad done that, Hugh said, "I'm going up this ravine, back of camp, toget on a hill and take a look. You'd better stay here and watch thehorses. Don't move around much, and if you see anybody, just keep out ofsight all you can. Of course if anybody tries to take any of the horses,why you'll have to shoot, but I don't expect you'll see no one. I'll beback here pretty quick." Putting his pipe in his pocket, Hugh picked uphis gun and disappeared in the willows, and Jack sat and sweltered inthe heat.

  Presently, he thought he would go down to the brook and get a drink; sohe walked down there, and stood on a little gravelly beach, over whichthe water poured with a cool, merry rattle. In the stream there werelittle fish, and as his shadow fell upon it, they darted in alldirections, in great alarm. He drank of the water, but it was not socool as it looked, and then he wet his hands and his wrists and hishead. This gave him some relief, and he thought he would take off hisclothes and wet his body all over in a pool a foot or two deep, at thefoot of the ripple. He put his gun down at the edge of the willows,quickly stripped off his clothes, stepped into the pool, and lay down init. This was delicious. In a moment he forgot how hot he had been justbefore, and the water almost reminded him of the morning's ride throughthe snow storm. Still, as soon as he raised his body out of the streamhe was warm enough again. After ducking under two or three times, hehappened to look toward his clothes, and as he did so his heart almoststopped beating.

  Standing by his clothing and gun, was a tall half-naked man with a robehanging from his waist and an eagle feather tied in his head. He stoodleaning on his gun and looked at Jack with a broad grin of triumph,which showed his white teeth. He did not have the long straight hair ofan Indian; it was crisp and curled tight to his head, and his skin wasnot brown, but was black; in fact, he looked like a negro. All this Jacksaw, but he had no time to reason about it. He realised only the onething, that the man was standing over his gun and cartridge belt, whilehe was naked and unarmed. Jack cast a glance over his shoulder, with ahalf formed idea of running away, but in this direction there was nohope, for standing on the opposite bank of the stream, and within a fewyards of him was an Indian. About this one, there could be no mistake;his brown trunk was naked, crossed by a belt which held a quiver, thefeathered arrows projecting above his left shoulder; on either side ofhis face, his long hair hung down in braids, and in his right hand hecarelessly held a bow and a sheaf of arrows. Crossing his body, over theright shoulder and under the left arm, was a coil of raw hide rope. Jackwas surrounded. There was no escape.

  Jack did not know what to do. He had never before felt so utterlyhelpless. He wished he had stayed at camp as Hugh had told him to, butit was all so quick that he was conscious of nothing except a horriblesinking of the heart, and this feeling that he was helpless. These mencould kill or capture him. He could make no resistance. Before he hadtime to think, the man stan
ding by his clothes raised his open righthand above his head, and moved it toward Jack, at the same time saying:"Keep quiet, don't be scared, sonny, you ain't agoin' to be hurt. I wantto talk to you."

  The sound of these words, spoken in English, gave Jack a tremendoussense of relief; it didn't seem that any one that spoke so goodnaturedly could wish to harm him. At that moment the Indian behind himcalled across to the other, and two or three sentences were exchangedbetween them. Then the negro, for such he proved to be, called out,"Come ashore, sonny, and put your clothes on. Don't be scared, youwon't get hurt. I'll just move your gun a little, though, so it won't bein your way and then we'll talk." Saying this, he moved the gun andcartridge belt a few yards from the pile of clothing, and standingbetween Jack and his weapons, motioned towards the clothes which Jackbegan to put on. Then he said, "Where ye goin'?"

  Jack had to swallow two or three times before he could speak aloud thenhe answered in a voice that shook a good deal, "We're going up north tothe Piegan camp."

  "What ye goin' to do there?" came next.

  "We're going to visit John Monroe, and stay in the camp all summer."

  "Who's them Piegans ye're talkin' about?" said the negro.

  "Why," said Jack, "they're a tribe of Indians up north."

  "Who's John Monroe, ye was speaking of?" said the negro.

  "He's a half breed, Hugh says, that was raised in the Piegan camp;always lived with them. He was down last summer to our ranch, and heasked Hugh and me to come up this summer and visit him."

  On receiving this reply, the negro thought for a little while, and thentalked in the unknown tongue to his companion, who had now crossed thestream and was standing near Jack. After the two had spoken for a fewmoments, the negro again turned to Jack, and said, "Who's that old manye're travellin' with?"

  "That's Hugh Johnson," said Jack; "he works on my uncle's ranch, downsouth."

  Suddenly the negro threw back his head and laughed very heartily for along time; then he said to Jack, "Come on, sonny, and get your gun;we'll go to your camp with you. Seems queer, you all goin' up to see thePiegans, meet a Piegan war party down here. I'm a Piegan, myself. Thishere's young Bear Chief, and there's five other young men in this brushall around us. We see you when you come down, and young Bear Chief seethe old man, and knowed him; but I thought we'd better make sure, andwhen he went upon the hill, and you come down here and went in swimmin',I thought we'd talk to you. You see, we're friendly," and he stepped upto Jack and shook hands with him heartily, and the Indian did the same.

  "My name's Hezekiah Alexander," said the negro. He seemed delighted tohave an opportunity to talk English. "I have been with the Piegansmore'n twenty years. I was raised down in Tennessee, myself. I belongedto old Marster Alexander. One day the overseer give me a terrible hardwhipping and I run. I was only thirteen years old. I smuggled myself onboard a Memphis packet, and got across to the Illinois side, and workednorth mighty quick. I came up into this country as boy for Mr.Culbertson, of the American Fur Company, but I didn't stay long withhim, but joined these Indians, and been with 'em ever since. I got awife and four babies in the camp: you'll see 'em this summer."

  Jack had passed so quickly from despair to joy, and from joy toconfidence that he had hardly recovered his self-possession or his voiceas yet. Carrying his gun he led the way up to the camp, where, as soonas he came in sight of it, he saw Hugh standing, frowning, as if angryor puzzled, and holding his gun in the hollow of his left arm. As soonas they were close to camp, Jack called out, "It's all right, I guess,Hugh; these are Piegans;" but Hugh's expression did not alter until theIndian stepped up to him, and tapping his own breast, as he said,"_Ninnah okyaiyu_," stretched out his hand toward him. Then Hugh's facechanged, and he smiled in recognition as he said, "Why, so it is," andshook hands very heartily with the young man.

  While Hezekiah and Bear Chief talked eagerly to Hugh in the Piegantongue, Jack had time to recover his equilibrium, and when he had donethis he stared at the two strangers with all his eyes. They were dressedalmost alike, but while Bear Chief's face was painted, Hezekiah's wasnot, and showed a thin mustache, but no beard. Bear Chief's scalplockhung down to between his shoulders, and was ornamented by a large flatpink shell, two inches in diameter. Hezekiah, of course, had no sidebraids, but he had a little short scalplock, which stuck straight outbehind from his woolly head, and at the base of this, an eagle's featherwas tied. Jack noticed that as the two talked with Hugh, Hezekiahfrequently laughed loudly, while Bear Chief's face was always grave andearnest. Presently the Indian rose to his feet, and strode off into thebrush, while the negro turned to Jack, and said, with a broad grin, "Iexpect you was pretty scairt, sonny, when you see me standing by yourgun just now."

  "Yes," said Jack, "I was. I never was so badly scared in my life, and Ididn't know what to do. I tell you," he added, turning to Hugh, "Iwished I'd stayed in camp, as you told me to."

  "Yes," said Hugh, gravely, "that's what you ought to have done. If thesefellows had been anything else but Piegans, you'd have been killed,likely, and me, too. These men made the tracks we was looking at thismorning; they followed that trail that we was on, until they came towhere the people had camped, and then they saw that they'd been gone solong, it wa'n't no use to follow 'em, and they left the trail and struckup toward the mountains, to rest. They've been out quite a long time.Where was the camp," he continued, turning to Hezekiah, "when you leftit?"

  "They was camped on the Mussel-shell," answered the negro, "but theytalked of moving up north onto the Marias before long. I expect you'llfind 'em there; or, maybe further north, either near the Sweet-grassHills, or maybe over close to the mountains; maybe over by ChiefMountain, or on some stream near it."

  A moment later, Bear Chief returned accompanied by another Indian, andafter speaking a few words to Hugh, sat down, and taking his fire bagfrom his belt, drew out a large, curiously carved, black stone pipe andits stem, fitted them together, and drawing his knife, commenced to cutsome tobacco. One by one, other Indians came marching into camp, until,including Hezekiah, there were seven there. They were a stalwart groupof men, all young, yet full grown, except two, who were boys, one ofthem about Jack's age, and the other a little older. As they talked,Hezekiah gave Jack a hasty sketch of what they had done since they leftthe Piegan camp. They had seen no enemies, and made no war. Once, asthey were travelling along, they saw, far off, people coming, making agreat dust. They hid on top of a high butte, and watched these people,who passed within a half mile of where they were. They were soldiers,and the Indians kept very close until they had passed out of sight, andthen started on to put as great a distance as possible betweenthemselves and the troops. Their food gave out at one time, and theywere two days without anything to eat; then, one of the young men killedan elk, and they feasted, and dried a little of the meat. The next day abuffalo bull was killed, and they dried more meat; and since then hadhad plenty to eat. Now they were thinking of turning their stepsnorthward, following close along the foot-hill of the mountains, hopingto find some camp of enemies, and take some horses.

  While they were talking, Hugh built a fire, and gave half an antelope totwo of the young men to roast, while he baked some bread and made a potof coffee. Then the Indians were invited to eat, and feasted on theunwonted luxuries. Again, Bear Chief filled the pipe, and as they sataround in a circle, it passed from hand to hand, each one, except Jack,drawing in several whiffs of the smoke; and each one, also, holding thestem in succession toward the sky, the earth, and the four points of thecompass, and speaking a few words. Jack at the time did not understandwhat this meant, but Hugh afterward explained to him that they wereoffering prayers. After this was over, Bear Chief stood up andtightened his belt about his waist, and all the others did the same;then, after a few words with Hugh, all gravely shook hands with the twowhites, and they filed into the brush. Hezekiah remained a moment behindthe others, and said, "Well, good-bye, Mr. Johnson, good-bye, sonny;you'll get to camp before we do, but we'll be pretty close
behind you. Idon't expect we're goin' to make no war this trip; I dreamed wewouldn't. Don't feel hard toward me, sonny, 'cause I scared you to-day.I wouldn't o' done it, only I was afraid ye might run for your gun, andshoot some of us, if I didn't get there first. Good-bye," and hefollowed the Indians into the willows. A little later, Hugh and Jackcaught a glimpse of them, walking in single file up the valley, theirbrown bodies glistening in the sun, and the feathers in their headsnodding as they walked.

  "Well, son," said Hugh, "I don't know which of us was the most scaredthis afternoon, but if you was scared as bad as I was, I'm mighty sorryfor ye."

  "Well, Hugh, nobody could have been scared as badly as I was. I expectedto feel the arrows going through me every second, for a little while.Why, when I first saw Hezekiah standing there I thought I'd die. If hehadn't spoken right away I don't know what I'd have done. It don't seemas if I could have stood it. It seemed the longest time after I'd seenhim before he spoke, and yet it couldn't have been more than half aminute. When I first saw him standing there smiling, I thought he wasjust laughing because he'd got me, but when he made that sign and spokeEnglish I felt like crying, I was so glad."

  "Well," said Hugh, "you've got to be more careful; you hadn't nobusiness to go away from camp to-day, and if you'd got killed, I don'tknow what I'd have done."