CHAPTER XVII
THE RUSE OF THE BUFFALO TRAIL
Simon Sprott approached them, smiling as Indian medicine men are notsupposed to smile.
"You'll put up in my lodge until we can get your own outfit broughtalong," he said. "You'll both be hungry, after what you've gonethrough. Indian food, cooked by Indians, isn't at all bad."
He conducted them into his teepee, and Rube Carter was surprised to seehow comfortably furnished it was, with a camp bed and washing-stand, atable and two or three chairs, as well as a stove, and even a shelf ofbooks.
Simon Sprott looked at Kiddie in deliberate scrutiny.
"Friend of Gid Birkenshaw's, you tell me?" he said very slowly. "Andthe son of Buckskin Jack. Well, Gid and me, we was pals years andyears ago, trapping up on the head waters of the Platte. Yes, andafterwards, when he'd settled down in his ranch on the Sweetwater, Iseem to remember a nipper that he'd bought from an Indian and adopted.Dare say it was yourself. What was the name he'd given you? LittleCayuse, was it?"
"Quite right," answered Kiddie. "That was me, sure. And you mended mywheelbarrow and taught me how to throw the lariat."
"As for Buckskin Jack," continued Sprott, "there never was any one likehim. Best all-round scout I've ever known, Red or White; and thetruest gentleman. English, too, he was, and that means a lot to me--alot it means. I'm proud to meet the son of Buckskin Jack. And ifthere's anything I can do for you, just name it."
"Thank you, Simon," returned Kiddie. "But you've done enough inhelping me to rescue young Rube here. We'll stay the night in yourcamp and then get back to our canoe and home to Sweetwater Bridge."
"What's your all-fired hurry?" questioned Simon. "You'll stay as longas ever you like. It can't be as long as I should like. Stay a whilefor my sake. Just consider. It's years since I've heard my mothertongue spoken as you speak it, and I'm sore longing to have a chat witha friend who isn't a Crow Indian. Your young partner'd like to stay,if I know anything of boyhood. The adventure would suit him, andto-morrow the Crows are going out on a buffalo hunt. A big herd hasbeen seen, back of Washakee Peak."
Kiddie glanced towards Rube.
"Like to go buffalo huntin', Rube?" he asked.
"Wouldn't I just!" Rube answered. "But you'll come, too, won't you?"
"Oh, yes," Kiddie agreed.
Rube was so hungry after his long fast that he considered the Indianfood quite delicious, and he ate heartily.
After the meal he wandered out of the lodge; but there was little forhim to see except the dark shapes of the wigwams and here and there agroup of silent Indians seated round their camp fire; and so hereturned and took comfortable refuge between the blankets and buffalorobes provided for him by one of Simon Sprott's attendant braves.
Before he fell asleep, however, he listened to the conversation betweenKiddie and their host.
"He's got spies everywhere," Simon was saying. "Yes, even among thetrappers, even working among the cowboys on the ranches. Many of thecowboys themselves are in his pay, stealing horses for him from theoutlying corrals, or smuggling firearms into his reservation. For, asa rule, he gets others to do his dirty work for him. Naturally, we'vegot scouts as well as he, and we're not ignorant of his strength or hisintentions."
Rube knew by now that it was of Broken Feather that they were speaking.
"If all I've heard of him is true," said Kiddie, "he has as strong afollowing as any chief within a week's ride. As for his intentions, Idon't pretend to have any special knowledge, excepting that he's a manwho thinks a tremendous lot of himself and has the ambition to be agreat military genius like Sitting Bull or Red Cloud."
"That's just the point," resumed Simon Sprott. "And to achieve hisambition, he's aiming at conquering the smaller tribes, one byone--Crows, Blackfeet, Arapahoes, Pawnees. But the Crows first of all.Any day he may lead his army on the war trail against us, here in theFalling Water Reserve."
"If you're certain of that, why not be the first to attack?" suggestedKiddie. "You could take him by surprise."
Short Nose grunted deep in his throat and shook his head.
"Unfortunately," he answered, "the Crows have no warrior capable ofplanning and carrying out such an enterprise. It'll be as much as wecan do to defend our village when we ourselves are attacked. Now, ifBuckskin Jack were here----!"
There was a long spell of silence in the lodge, broken only by thecrackling of the fire. Rube had closed his heavy eyes when he againheard Kiddie's voice.
"Tell me this, Simon," said Kiddie, seeming to change the subject fromwarfare to hunting. "Exactly how did you learn of that herd ofbuffalo, back of Washakee Peak?"
Simon Sprott was meditatively puffing at his tobacco pipe; but hepaused to answer--
"Word was brought in by one of our scouts."
"Did that scout see the herd with his own eyes?" Kiddie pursued.
"Well, no; I believe not," Simon answered absently. "A lone trapper onBox Elder Creek gave him the information; said it was the biggest herdseen on these hunting grounds for many summers back."
"Trapper might have been one of Broken Feather's spies," Kiddiesuggested very quietly.
"Eh?" Simon Sprott looked up sharply and blew a long, slow jet ofsmoke from his lips.
"It's possible," he acknowledged; "quite possible, but not just likely.And why should the trapper, if he was a spy, tell the scout that thebuffalo were there, and even recommend the hunt?"
"Yes, why?" Kiddie asked. "For my own part, I don't believe thatthere's a herd of buffalo within a hundred miles of Washakee Peak. Iguess the trapper had his instructions to tell that story, just to getyour warriors out on the buffalo trail, leaving your village undefendedfor Broken Feather to make his unopposed attack upon it in yourabsence."
Simon Sprott stared at Kiddie in amazement.
"That's cute," he said, "very cute indeed of you to hit upon such anidea. It's just the sort of idea that Buckskin Jack himself might havesprung out of that wonderful brain of his. I believe you're right.Broken Feather would do a cunning thing like that. It's quite in hisline. Nothing more likely. In any case, the Crows are going to altertheir programme. All preparations for the buffalo surround arecomplete. You and friend Rube there were to have had a great time.But that buffalo hunt isn't going to come off."
When Rube Carter awoke the following morning he found himself alone inthe teepee, and might have believed himself to be back in Kiddie's campon Sweetwater Lake but for the medley of sounds that came to himthrough the open door-flap.
He heard the neighing of horses, the barking of dogs, and thehigh-pitched voices of squaws and children.
He listened sleepily for a while. Just outside of the lodge a party ofyoung braves were quarrelling for possession of a cooking-pot.
"For people who have the reputation of bein' silent, Injuns are capableof makin' a heap of noise," Rube said to himself, "I never heard such aracket in all my days."
He sat up and reached for his moccasins, and was surprised to find hislost fur cap, with the bedraggled eagle's feathers in it, lying besidethem. His revolver also had been restored to him.
He was examining the injury done by the fire to his leggings andmoccasins when he heard Kiddie's voice from outside raised almost to ashout of command, as if he were drilling a company of soldiers. Rubeflung his blankets aside and crept across the floor to look out. Whathe saw astonished him greatly.
The wide open space in front of the chief's lodge was now crowded withmounted Indians, in full war paint, drawn up in regular ranks. Apartfrom them, and halted in a group facing them, were Falling Water andhis principal warriors, all wearing their feathered war bonnets andarmed with rifles, clubs, and tomahawks.
Falling Water, mounted on a fine black mustang, carried his great staffof high office, decorated with coloured beads and fringed withscalp-locks. He looked very magnificent and dignified, and youngerthan Rube had at first supposed him to be.
But it was the rider at the
chief's side--a rider astride of a lank,piebald prairie pony--who arrested Rube's closest attention. Therewere but two feathers in his simple war bonnet, which was partly hiddenby his blue-and-white blanket. His back was towards Rube, who couldnot see his face or know if it was painted with vermilion, but by hisseat on horseback and the way he held himself Rube instantly knew thatit was Kiddie.
Kiddie was giving commands to the Crows in their own language. Clearlyhe had been placed in authority over them as their general andfield-marshal--he who, hardly twelve hours before, had crept secretlyinto their camp, an unknown trespasser!
Rube Carter marvelled at the strangeness of the situation, though notfor an instant did he doubt Kiddie's fitness and ability. In Rube'sestimation there was nothing great and honourable that Kiddie wasincapable of doing.
Rube wanted to go up to Kiddie now and ask him how this transformationhad all come about; but he did not dare. Instead, he stood watchingKiddie riding slowly along the files, inspecting them, followed byFalling Water, Short Nose, and the principal warriors.
It was not until after Rube had washed and made himself tidy that hehad a chance of speaking with Kiddie. They were then at breakfast, orwhat passed for breakfast in the Indian encampment. As a matter offact, it was an enormous feast that was served to them, of buffalosteak, beaver tail, prairie chicken, stewed berries, and greatquantities of rich new milk, with all the other luxuries that theattentive Crows could lavish upon them.
"Looks as if they'd bin turnin' you into a boss war chief, Kiddie,"Rube began. "Some sudden on their part, ain't it?"
"Well, yes," returned Kiddie, "it's certainly sudden, seeing that I'mjust a stranger among 'em. But you see, it's this way. After you'dgone to sleep last night, one of Falling Water's scouts came in,reportin' that the story of the herd of buffalos was all a made-upaffair. He'd been on a big scout round about the Broken FeatherAgency, and he was able to prove that Broken Feather and his warriorsand braves were busy gettin' ready to come out on the war-path againstthe Crows. The expedition's timed to start so as to be right herewhile the Crows are out huntin' imaginary buffaloes."
"Just your own idea," commented Rube, "the same idea to a tick! And sothe Crows are fixin' up things to be ready for the defence, I conclude?"
"Not exactly that," Kiddie corrected. "They're goin' ter strike thefirst blow by makin' a surprise attack on the Sioux. They're notfigurin' to wait until Broken Feather makes the assault."
"But then," Rube objected, "didn't Short Nose--otherwise SimonSprott--say last night that the Crows hadn't a warrior capable ofundertakin' such an expedition?"
"Seems he's changed his mind," said Kiddie.
Rube scratched the back of his ear, which was his habit when thinkingdeeply.
"Somethin' new, eh, t' get a English nobleman ter lead a band ofpainted Redskins on the war-path?" he said. "Though I reckon you c'ndo it if anyone can. 'Tain't as if you was a tenderfoot at thebusiness."
"Feel inclined to come along with us, Rube?" Kiddie casually inquired."You c'n keep in the rear, you know."
"I shall keep right back in the rear if that's where you are goin' t'be yourself, Kiddie," returned Rube. "I'm figurin' t' be alongside o'you wherever you are. When d' we make a start?"
"As soon as you're ready," Kiddie intimated, "for I see you'redetermined to be with us. I oughtn't to allow you; but I think you maybe of use, and if you come through it all right it will be a greatexperience for you. I've found a good pony for you and an apology fora saddle. Your own rifle would have been handy if you'd brought it.The Crows have none light enough. Don't neglect to take cartridges foryour six-shooter. And if the battle comes off, don't expect me t' belooking after you all the time."
"I understand," Rube acquiesced. "You've gotter concentrate ondefeatin' Broken Feather, and you mustn't be worried thinkin' of mysafety. Well, all right. I shall not interfere with you any."
Rube was certainly determined to be present in the expected battle. Heconsidered it a more than ample substitute for the mythical buffalohunt.
He did not speak with Kiddie again for many hours. But he saw himfrequently, riding at the head of the long procession of mountedIndians.
The Crows were divided into three armies--the first commanded byKiddie, the second by Falling Water, and the third by Short Nose. Theyrode in single file, with scouts in front and rear and on either flank.Towards noon there was a halt on the banks of Poison Spider Creek, andthe march had not yet been renewed when Kiddie sent Rube out alone toscout for possible signs of the enemy outposts.
Rube had not gone many miles in advance when on crossing the ridge of arange of foothills he looked down upon the wide rolling prairie beyondand saw a vast, well-ordered army of the Sioux, moving very quickly andin numbers far surpassing the forces of the Crows, whom it was evidentthey had come out to meet.
Making a rapid calculation of their strength, Rube rode back at topspeed and reported his significant discovery to Kiddie.
This unexpected news that the enemy were out of their reservation andmaking a forced march towards Falling Water's encampment caused anentire change of plan. The coming conflict was not to be a meresurprise attack on Broken Feather's village, but a pitched battle inthe open. Kiddie, however, was equal to the occasion.
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