The Sun Maid Part 6

"Just so. A whole 'lot.' About five hundred, or a few less."

The two were busily at work, packing the last of the few possessions that the commandant must convey to Fort Wayne, and which he could entrust to no other hands than his own and those of this deft-fingered lad, and they made no pause while they talked. Indeed, Gaspar's movements were even swifter now, as if he were eager to be through and off.

"Five hundred, sir? They are friendly Indians, though. Black Partridge and Winnemeg----"

"Are but as straws against the current. Gaspar, I shall need a boy who can be trusted. These red neighbors of ours are not so 'friendly' as they seem. They are dissatisfied. They mean mischief, I fear, though G.o.d forbid! Well, we are soldiers, and we cannot shrink. You must ride Tempest. You must tell n.o.body why. You can keep at a short distance from our main band, and act as scout. Captain Wells will march in front with his Miamis, upon whose a.s.sistance--the Miamis', I mean--I do not greatly count. They are cowards. They fear the 'canoe men.'

Well, what do you say, my son?"

Gaspar caught his breath. His own fear of an Indian had been nearly overcome by the friends.h.i.+p of those chiefs who were so constantly at the Fort; but the night before had brought him a recurrence of the terrifying visions which were as much memories as dreams. After such a night he was scarcely himself in courage, greatly as he desired to please the captain. Then he reflected how high was the honor designed him. He, a little boy, just past ten and going on eleven for a whole fortnight now, and--of course he'd do it!

"Well, I'll ride him. That is, I'll try. Like as not, he'll shake me off first try."

"Make the second try, then. You know the copy in your writing-book?"

"Yes, sir. I wrote the whole page of it, yesterday, and the chaplain said it was well done. Shall I get him now? Are you almost ready?"

The commandant looked at the waiting wagons, the a.s.sembled company, the women and little ones who were so dear and in such a perilous case. For a moment his heart sank, stout soldier though he was, and it was no detriment to his manhood that a fervent if silent prayer escaped him.

"Yes, fetch him if you can. If not, I'll come."

Tempest was a gelding of fine Kentucky breed. There were others of his line at the garrison, and upon them some of the women even were to ride. But Tempest was the king of the stables. He was the master's half-broken pet and recreation. For sterner uses, as for that morning's work, there was a better trained animal, and on this the commandant would make his own journey.

A smile curled the officer's lips despite his anxiety as, presently, out from the stables galloped a bareheaded lad, clinging desperately to Tempest's back, who tried as desperately to shake off his unusual burden. But the saddle girth was well secured, and the rider clung like a burr. His bow was slung crosswise before him and his full quiver hung at his back.

A cheer went up. The sight was as helpful to the soldiers as it was amusing, and they fell into line with a ready step as the band struck up--what was that tune? _The Dead March?_ By whose ill-judgment this?

Well, there was no time to question. Any music helps to keep a line of men in step, and there was the determined Gaspar cavorting and wheeling before and around the soldiers in a way to provoke a mirth that no dismal strain could dispel. So the gates were flung open, and in orderly procession, each man in his place, each heart set upon its duty, the little garrison marched through them for the last time.

Of what took place within the next dread hours, of the Indians'

treachery and the white men's courage, there is no need to give the details. It is history. But of brave Gaspar Keith on the wild gelding, Tempest, history makes no mention. There is many a hero whose name is unknown, and the lad was a hero that day. He did what he could, and his empty quiver, his broken bow, told their own story to a Pottawatomie warrior who came upon the boy just as the sun crossed the meridian on that memorable day.

Gaspar was lying unconscious beneath a clump of forest trees, and Tempest grazing quietly beside him. There was no wound upon the lad, and whether he had been thrown to the ground by the animal, or had slipped from his saddle out of sheer weariness, even he could never tell.

The Indian who found him was none other than the Man-Who-Kills; and, from a perfectly safe distance for himself, he had watched the young pale-face with admiration and covetousness.

"By and by, when the fight is over, I will get him. He shall be my prisoner. The black gelding is finer than any horse ever galloped into Muck-otey-pokee. They shall both be mine. I will tell a big tale at the council fires of my brothers, and they shall account me brave.

Talking is easier than fighting, any time, and why should I peril my life, following this mad war-path of theirs to that far-away Fort Wayne? Enough is a plenty. I have hidden lots of plunder while the men of my tribe did their killing, and the Man-Who-Kills will always be wise, as he is always brave. I could shoot as fast and as far as anybody if--if I wished. But I do not wish. It is too much trouble. So I will tie the boy on the gelding's back and lead them home in triumph. Will my squaw, Sorah, flout me now? No. No, indeed! And there is no need to say that I dared not mount the beast myself. But I can lead him all right, and when the Woman-Who-Mourns, that haughty sister of my chief, sees me coming she will say: 'Behold! how merciful is this mighty warrior!'"

These reflections of the astute Indian, as he rested upon the shaded sward, afforded him such satisfaction that he did, indeed, handle poor Gaspar with more gentleness than might have been expected; because such a person commonly mistakes brutality for bravery.

Oddly enough, Tempest offered no resistance to the red man's plan, and allowed himself to be burdened by the helpless Gaspar and led slowly to the Indian village. There the party aroused less interest than the Man-Who-Kills had antic.i.p.ated, for other prisoners had already been brought in and, besides this, something had occurred that seemed to the women far more important.

This was the fresh grief of Wahneenah as she roamed from wigwam to wigwam, searching for her adopted daughter and imploring help to find her. For again the Sun Maid had disappeared, as suddenly and more completely than on the previous day though after much the same manner.

The child had been attending her injured squirrel and giving her bowls of orchids fresh drinks, upon the threshold mat of her new home, and her indulgent foster-mother had gone to fetch from the stream the water needed for the latter purpose. At the brook's edge she had stopped, "just for a moment," to discuss with the other squaws the news of the ma.s.sacre that was fast coming to them by the straggling bands of returning braves.

But the brief absence was long enough to have worked the mischief. The small runaway had left her posies and her squirrel and departed, n.o.body could guess whither.

Till at last again came Osceolo, the mischievous, and remarked, indifferently:

"The Woman-Who-Mourns may save her steps. The White Papoose and the s...o...b..rd are far over the prairie while the women search."

"Osceolo! You are the son of the evil spirit! You bring distress in your hand as a gift! But take care what you say now. You know, as I know, that n.o.body can mount the White s...o...b..rd and live. Or if one could succeed and pa.s.s beyond the village borders, it would be a ride to some far land whence there is no return. What is the mare, s...o...b..rd, but a creature bewitched? or the home of the soul of a dead maiden, who would rather live thus with her people than without them as a spirit in the Great Beyond? You know all this, and yet you tell me----"

"That the Sun Maid is flying now on the s...o...b..rd's back toward the setting sun, who is her father."

"How do you know this?"

"I saw it."

"Who took her to the s...o...b..rd's corral? Who? Osceolo, torment of our tribe, it was you! It was you! Boy, do you know what you have done? Do you know that out there, on the prairie where you have sent her, the spirit of murder is abroad? Not a pale-face shall escape. She was safe here, where your own chief, the Black Partridge, placed her. Hear me.

If harm befalls her, if by moonrise she is not restored to me, you shall bear the punishment. You----"

By a gesture he stopped her. Now thoroughly frightened, the mischievous boy put up his arms as if to ward off the coming threat.

Half credulous, and half doubtful that the Sun Maid was more than mortal, he had made a test for himself. He had remembered the s...o...b..rd, fretting its high spirit out within the closed paddock, and a daring notion had seized him. It was this:

"While the Woman-Who-Mourns gossips with her neighbors, I'll catch up the papoose and carry her there. She'll come fast enough. She ran away yesterday, and she played with me before the Spotted Adder's hut. She trusts everybody. I'll have some fun, even if my father didn't let me go with him to the camp yonder."

Among all nations boyhood is the same--plays the same wild pranks, with equal disregard of consequences; and Osceolo would far rather have had a good time than a good supper. He thought he was having a perfectly fascinating good time when he bound a long blanket over the s...o...b..rd's back and then fastened Kitty Briscoe in the folds of the blanket. He had laughed gayly as he clapped his hands and set the mare free, and the little one riding her had laughed and clapped also. He had watched them out of sight over the prairie, and had felt quite proud of himself.

"If she is a spirit she'll come back safe; and if she's nothing but a white man's baby--why, that's all she is. Only a squaw child at that, though the silly women have made such ado. I wonder--will I ever see her again? Well, I'll go around by Wahneenah's tepee, after a while, and enjoy the worry. It's the smartest thing I've done yet; and she did look cunning, too. She wasn't a bit afraid--she isn't afraid of anything--which makes her better than most girl papooses, and she was laughing as hard as I was when she went away."

With these thoughts, Osceolo had come back to the spot where Wahneenah met him and demanded if he knew aught of her charge; and there was no hilarity in his face now as he watched her enter her wigwam and drop its curtains behind her. He suddenly remembered--many things; and at thought of the Black Partridge's wrath he turned faint and sick.

But the test had been made and no regret could recall it.

Meanwhile, there came into his mind the fact: a black horse had just entered the village and a white one had gone out of it. The narrow superst.i.tion in which he had been reared taught him that the one brought misfortune and the other carried away happiness; and, in a redoubled terror at his own act and its consequences, Osceolo turned and fled.

CHAPTER VI.

THE THREE GIFTS.

"The Black Partridge has served his white friends faithfully. He should now remember his own people, and rest his heart among them,"

said the White Pelican as he rode homeward beside his chief, not many hours after the ma.s.sacre of the sandhills.

The elder warrior lifted his bowed head, and regarded his nephew in sadness. His eyes had that far-away, dreamy look which was unusual among his race and had given him, at times, a strange power over his fellows. Because, unfortunately, the dreams were, after all, very practical, and the silent visions were of things that might have been averted.

"The White Pelican, also, did well. He protected those whom he wished to kill. He did it for my sake. It shall not be forgotten, though the effort was useless. The end has begun."

The younger brave touched his fine horse impatiently, and the animal sprang forward a few paces. As he did so, the rider caught a gleam of something white skimming along the horizon line, and wondered what it might be. But he had set out to attend his chief and, curbing his mount by a strong pull, whirled about and rode back to the side of Black Partridge.

"What is the end that has begun, Man-Who-Cannot-Lie?"

"The downfall of our nations. They have been as the trees of the forest and the gra.s.ses of the prairie. The trees shall be felled and the gra.s.ses shall be cut. The white man's hand shall accomplish both."