CHAPTER XIX.
A STRONG TEMPTATION.
As Jack and Hugh walked away from the crowd, Hugh leading the horse, hetalked with Jack about all the mysterious performances of the MedicineLodge, and said how sorry he felt that they had been away when theceremonies began.
"It's a great religious performance with these people," he said; "kindo' like Christmas, when everybody gives presents and everybody prays,and then the Medicine Lodge women pray for everybody in the camp and forthe welfare of the whole tribe. It's a mighty solemn time, I tell you."
They had nearly reached the lodge when Hugh handed the horse's rope toJack and told him to tie the animal near it.
"I want to stop to speak to Double Runner," he said, and he turned andentered one of the lodges.
Jack went on to John Monroe's and tied the horse to a pin, and then wenton beyond, within the circle of the lodges, looking at the paintings onthe different ones, and at the bundles tied to tripods that stood behindeach. He wondered what the different paintings meant, and thought hewould sometime get Hugh, or maybe Joe, to walk around the camp with himand see if they could explain them. As he was thinking about this, hesuddenly heard quickly running footsteps behind him, and turned to seeJoe rushing towards him as fast as he could; his hair flying in thewind, and his white teeth disclosed by a broad grin. His arms werestretched forward as if he were about to seize Jack. Jack sprang to oneside, but Joe turned quickly and caught him around the body, trying toswing him off his feet, but Jack had the under-hold and resisted, andfor a moment or two they wrestled there in silence. Then Joe laughed andsaid, "Can't I throw you?" and gave him a swift twist to the left, butJack responded only by bending Joe's back toward him as strongly as hecould. For a moment the back was stiff, and then, little by little itbegan to yield, but before this had gone far Joe made a mighty effort,and twisted himself free from the encircling arms, and started offrunning as hard as he could go. Jack pursued and for some minutes theyraced around in and out among the lodges until at last, Joe findinghimself before John Monroe's, threw himself on the ground, laughingmerrily.
"Ha! my brave one," he said; "you are strong and run fast. I thought Ishould throw you at once, but I could not." Jack sat down beside him andfor some moments nothing was heard except their quick breathing.
"Well," said Joe, "I think you must feel proud of what has happened thisday. It was a great thing to be able to stand out in front of all thepeople and count a coup. I was proud myself to see this thing happen tomy friend."
"Well," said Jack, "I was so surprised that I did not think anythingabout it, and I didn't know what Hugh was going to do when he dragged meout into the open space. I guess the idea must have come to him all of asudden; anyhow, he never said a word to me about it, but just got up andtook a hold of me, pulled me out, and the first thing I knew he wastalking. Then I didn't know what he was talking about, but it made meashamed to be standing with everybody looking at me."
"Well," said Joe. "It's a big thing. It's the biggest thing everhappened to anybody near your age since I have been in the camp. I tellyou, if such a thing had happened to me, I wouldn't speak to anybody fora week, I think, I would feel so big.
"And then your having a horse given to you, that made it all the better.He is a nice horse, too, a good riding horse, maybe a buffalo horse."
"Yes," said Jack, "it's a pretty good looking horse. I am going to askJohn Monroe about him when I see him."
"Why do you call him John Monroe?" said Joe; "that's his white man'sname; but we here all call him Pis'kun; that means buffalo corral."
"Oh, yes," said Jack; "I have heard Hugh tell about how they used todrive the buffalo over the cliff into the pen. I don't suppose they dothat any more, do they?"
"No," said Joe, "there's plenty of men in the camp that's helped to dothat, but since they got so many guns and such good horses they don't doit no more. Some day likely the camp will stop near one of the oldplaces where they used to jump the buffalo, and then we can go thereand see the piles of stones on the prairie, where the buffalo used torun. And down under the jumping off place you can see yet lots of bonesand old horns."
"I'd like to see one of those places," said Jack; "maybe you could diground in the dirt and find some of the old tools that the Indians usedto use."
"Sure," said Joe. "Often they dig up the old stone arrows, and sometimesother tools of stone and bone there, that were left by the old-timepeople."
"Gracious," said Jack, "I'd like to get some of those things to takeback with me when I go home."
"When are you going?" said Joe.
"I don't know," said Jack; "not for a good while yet; not until theautumn comes."
"That's good," said Joe, "we will have plenty of fun first then."
"Oh, yes," said Jack, "I guess so. I expect we will be here a couple ofmonths yet. I haven't spoken to Hugh yet about it."
There was a moment's pause, and presently Joe burst out, and said:
"Say, don't you want to go off on the warpath with some young men?There's a war party going to start out pretty soon, and the young menhave asked me to go along, and the leader said he'd like to have you gotoo. He didn't say that until after you had counted your coup."
"Jerusalem," said Jack, "I'd like that. That would be fun," and helooked at Joe with his face beaming with excitement. Suddenly, his lookchanged, and he said:
"But no, I could not go anyhow. Hugh would never be willing for me togo on a trip like that, and I wouldn't sneak off without speaking to himabout it.
"You see, Joe," he went on, "when I came up here, I promised my unclethat I would listen to Hugh about everything, and would take his advicealways. It wouldn't be square either to Hugh or to my uncle if I didn'tdo as I promised I would. Besides that Hugh has been mighty good to me.He has helped me a whole lot and pretty much everything I wanted to dohe's said I could. Look at his going off with us the other day when wewent to hunt antelope. I don't expect that there was much fun for him inthat. I think he went because he thought I wanted to go and wanted togive me pleasure. It wouldn't be the square thing for me to go back onHugh that way.
"He'd be mighty uneasy all the time I'd be gone. Likely he'd be huntingfor me, and what would be lots of fun for me would be giving him amighty bad time. Besides, suppose anything should happen to me, and Ishould get hurt or killed, he'd feel mighty mean going back to my uncleand telling him what had happened."
"Well," said Joe, "I guess what you say is right. It would be mean tomake White Bull feel that way. I'd like to have you come. We could goand get a lot of horses and come back and people would say we had donewell. I wish you could go, but you have got to do what you think isgood."
Jack felt badly. He could think of nothing that would be so much fun asto go off with these young men and make a long journey, and take somehorses from the enemy's camp and then return and be praised by all thepeople, but he knew as well as he knew anything that Hugh would neverconsent to his going, and he felt that it was impossible to break faith,even for so great a pleasure. He remembered all that Hugh had done forhim, and especially how he saved his life at the Musselshell River, andhe knew well that the more he thought about it the more firm would behis resolve not to give Hugh this great anxiety.
They talked about it a little longer and at last Joe got up to go andJack went into the lodge. There he found John Monroe's woman cookingsupper, and spoke to her, thanking her for the gift of the horse made tohim that afternoon.
"Why," she said, "I was proud that anybody living in my lodge shouldhave done so brave a thing as you did. Many years ago the Assiniboineskilled my brother. Since then my heart is always glad when I hear of oneof their people being killed."
Jack sat down on his bed and gave himself up to gloomy reflections. Whata wonderful time he could have if he were to go off with this war party;how much he could learn of the ways of the Indians in their fighting;what adventures he might perhaps have, and what strange stories he couldtell to the people at home when he returned to N
ew York. But thereseemed no way in which he could decently go. He determined, at allevents, he would speak to Hugh about it, and see what he said.
He had not long to wait, for presently, the curtain of the door wasthrown aside and Hugh entered. When he had seated himself and had filledhis pipe, and lighted it by a coal from the fire, Jack said:
"Hugh, I have got something to say to you, something that's troubling meand that I think I ought to tell you. Joe came to me this afternoon, andtold me that a war party of young men is going to start out, and they'dlike to have me go with them. At first I jumped at the invitation, butthen when I thought about it, I felt 'most sure that you would not bewilling for me to go, and I told Joe so. Of course, I'd love to go morethan anything, but I suppose there's no use thinking about it."
For a moment or two, Hugh said nothing, and then he turned and looked atJack.
"Well, son, suppose your uncle was here, do you think he'd be willing tohave you go?"
"No," said Jack, "I don't believe he would."
"Well," said Hugh, "suppose your father and mother were here, what doyou think they'd say about it?"
"Well," said Jack, "I suppose you know as well as I do."
"Yes," said Hugh, "I expect I do, and if you and I both know what youruncle and your father and mother would say about it, we both know what Iwill say about it."
"Yes," said Jack with a sigh, "I suppose so."
"You see, son," said the old man, "a good many people would have thoughtit was a mighty big risk for a boy of your age to go travelling acrossthe country the way we done, to an Indian camp to stop here for two orthree months. Of course, there's danger in it; but then there's dangereverywhere, and if people have good sense, and keep their wits aboutthem, there ain't no more danger travelling on the prairie, than thereis travelling on a railroad train, or going about back in the states.Anyway that's how I look at it, but as I have often told you before, Idon't want you to go hunting for danger. I want you to keep as far fromit as you can. Now, I told your uncle when he let us come off up here,that I would take as good care of you as I knew how. I have done it andI am going to keep on doing it. You might go off on a war party andnever have any trouble at all, and then again you might get killed. Idon't want to see you get any nearer to danger than you have to, and Iwouldn't let you go to war if I could help it. Now, there's one morething. I understand just as well as if you'd told me how much you wantto go with this party, and what fun you think you'd sure have. 'Course,you could have slipped away out of the camp without saying anything tome, and as likely as not I never would have seen you until you got backagain, and of course, while you were gone I should have felt mighty bad,not knowing but what you might get killed. Your speaking to me this wayjust makes me think more than ever what I have always thought since Ifirst got to know you; that you are square; that when you say you willdo a thing you will do it. Now, it ain't every boy of your years thatwould have had the pluck to say no when a chance of this kind came tohim, just because he knew that to say yes, would make a friend feel bad.I understand pretty well how you felt about it and just what has beengoing on in your mind, and I won't never forget it. It makes us closerfriends than we have ever been yet;" and reaching out his hand, hegrasped Jack's in a firm, close grip, that brought the tears to theboy's eyes.
"Never you mind, son," Hugh went on, "we'll have plenty of good timesyet while we are in this camp, and we'll keep our words to the peopledown south and back east that we made promises to. We may have troubleof one sort or another, but we won't give anybody a chance to call usliars."
That night after supper as they were sitting around the fire, Hugh andJohn Monroe talking, and Jack listening, partly to what they said, andpartly to the distant sounds of the camp--the singing, the drumming, thehum of conversation, the laughter and the galloping hoofs--he noticedthat some of the singing sounded constantly more distinct, and presentlyit was directly in front of the lodge. Here two or three songs weresung, and Hugh taking a piece of tobacco from his pocket handed it tothe woman who passed it out through the door of the lodge. A momentlater Joe's smiling countenance appeared in the doorway, and he said toJack:
"Come on out, and go round the camp with us."
"Go on," said Hugh to Jack. "They're a lot of young men going roundsinging in front of the different lodges; maybe it's your war partygetting ready to start out."
Jack seized his hat and dived through the doorway, and when he wasoutside and his eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness he saw that agroup of eight young men stood before the lodge. Joe took him by the armand said to him:
"We're going round singing in front of the lodges, and sometimes theygive us presents. These are the men that are going off to war. You knowBull Calf, and likely before you leave the camp you will know all therest of them."
In a moment or two, the little group started on, and after passingseveral of the lodges, stopped before one, where they sang two or threesongs. These were plaintive and melancholy to Jack's ear, and yet fullof spirit. Of course, he did not know the airs and could not sing, buthe listened. He looked about over his strange surroundings and halfwondered whether it could be possible that he were standing here withthese Indian boys under the brilliant moon and in this circle of whitelodges. The music as it was sung thrilled and moved him strangely and itseemed to him as if it must all be a dream.
A little bundle was passed out from this lodge door, and they set outagain. Jack whispered to Joe, as they walked along:
"How strange these songs are."
"Yes," said Joe, "they ain't much like white men's songs. These thatthey are singing now are all camp songs, but there are lots of otherkinds. Some of them for war and some of them for dancing, or songs thatyoung fellows sing when they are courting their girls, or songs thatthey sing when they are praying; lots of different kinds."
"Well," said Jack, "I'd love to know some of them so that I could singthem when I went back East."
For a long time the young men wandered about through the camp, but atlast stopped not far from John Monroe's lodge. There they separated andwent to their several homes. Joe walked back with Jack and said goodnight to him in front of the lodge. When Jack entered he found Hugh andJohn Monroe still talking. Soon after, they all went to bed and the firedied down.