CHAPTER XVI.
IN THE CAMP OF THE ENEMY.
From then until near noon we worked our passage if ever men did. On thehigh benches it was not so bad for the springy, porous turf soaked upthe excessive moisture and held its firmness tolerably well. But everybank of any steepness meant a helter-skelter slide to its foot, witheither a bog-hole or swimming water when we got there, and getting upthe opposite hill was like climbing a greased pole--except that therewas no purse at the top to reward our perseverance. Between thesucceeding tablelands lay gumbo flats where the saturated clay hung tothe feet of our horses like so much glue, or opened under hoof-pressureand swallowed them to the knees. So that our going was slow andwearisome.
About mid-day the storm gradually changed from unceasing downpour tosqually outbursts, followed by banks of impenetrable fog that wouldshut down on us solidly for a few minutes, then vanish like the goodintentions of yesterday; the wind switched a few points and settled to asteady gale which lashed the spent clouds into hurrying ships of theair, scudding full-sail before the droning breeze. Before long littlepatches of blue began to peep warily through narrow spaces above. Thewind-blown rain-makers lost their leaden hue and became a softpearl-gray, all fleecy white around the edges. Then bars of warmsunshine poured through the widening rifts and the whole rain-washedland lay around us like a great checker-board whereon blackcloud-shadows chased each other madly over prairies yellow with the hotAugust sun and gray-green in the hollows where the grass took on a newlease of life.
That night we camped west of Lost River, lying prudently in abrush-grown coulee, for we were within sight of the Police camp--bygrace of the field-glasses. At sundown the ground had dried to such adegree that a horse could lift foot without raising with it an abnormalportion of the Northwest. The wind veered still farther to the south,blowing strong and warm, sucking greedily the surplus moisture from thesaturated earth. So we resolved ourselves into a committee of ways andmeans and decided that since the footing promised to be normal in themorning the troop would likely scatter out, might even move camp, andtherefore it behooved us to get in touch with them at once; accordinglyPiegan rode away to spend the night in the Police tents, with a tale ofhorses strayed from Baker's outfit to account for his wandering. Fromour nook in the ridge he could easily make it by riding a little afterdark.
"Goodell and Gregory and Hicks you know," said MacRae. "Bevans is asecond edition of Hicks, only not so tall by two or three inches--asquare-shouldered, good-looking brute, with light hair and steel-grayeyes and a short brown mustache. He has an ugly scar--aknife-cut--across the back of one hand; you can't mistake him if you getsight of him. Stick around the camp in the morning if you can manage it,till they start, and notice which way all those fellows go. The soonerwe get our hands on one or more of them the better we'll be able to getat the bottom of this; I reckon we could find a way to make him talk. Ofcourse, if anything out of the ordinary comes up you'll have to use yourown judgment; you know just as much as we do, now. And we'll wait herefor you unless they jump us up. In that case we'll try and round upsomewhere between here and Ten Mile."
"Right yuh are, old-timer," Piegan responded. "I'll do the best I can.Yuh want t' keep your eye glued t' that peep-glass in the mornin', andnot overlook no motions. Yuh kain't tell what might come up. So-long!"And away he went.
When he was gone from sight we built a tiny fire in the scrub--for itwas twilight, at which time keen eyes are needed to detect either smokeor fire, except at close range--and cooked our supper. That done, wesmothered what few embers remained and laid us down to sleep. Thatwasn't much of a success, however. We had got into action again, withmore of a chance to bring about certain desired results, and inevitablywe laid awake reckoning up the chances for and against a happyconclusion to our little expedition.
"It's a wonder," I said, as the thought occurred to me, "that Lyn quitWalsh so soon. Why didn't she stay a while longer and see if thesefamous preservers of the peace wouldn't manage to gather in the men whokilled her father? Why, hang it! she didn't even wait to see if youfound that stuff at the Stone--and Lessard must have told her thatsomebody had gone to look for it."
Mac snapped out an oath in the dark. "Lessard simply lost his head," hegrowled. "Damn him! He told her that he had sent us to look for it, andthat we had taken advantage of the opportunity to rob the paymaster. Oh,he painted us good and black, I tell you. Then he had the nerve to askher to marry him. And he was so infernally insistent about it, that shewas forced to pull up and get away from the post in self-defense. That'swhy she left so suddenly."
Well, I couldn't find it in my heart to blame Lessard for that last, solong as he acted the gentleman about it. In fact, it was to be expectedof almost any man who happened to be thrown in contact with Lyn Rowanfor any length of time. I can't honestly lay claim to being absolutelyimmune myself; only my attack had come years earlier, and had not beenvirulent enough to make me indulge in any false hopes. It's no crime foran unattached man to care for a woman; but naturally, MacRae would beprejudiced against any one who laid siege to a castle he had marked forhis own. I had disliked that big, autocratic major, too, from our firstmeeting, but it was pure instinctive antipathy on my part, sharpened,perhaps, by his outrageous treatment of MacRae.
We dropped the subject forthwith. Lessard's relation to the problem wasa subject we had so far shied around. It was beside the point to indulgein footless theory. We knew beyond a doubt who were the active agents inevery blow that had been struck, and the first move in the tangle wesought to unravel was to lay hands on them, violently if necessary, andthrough them recover the stolen money. Only by having that in ourpossession--so MacRae argued--could we hope to gain credible hearing,and when that was accomplished whatever part Lessard had played woulddevelop of itself.
By and by, my brain wearied with fruitless speculation, I began to doze,and from then till daylight I slept in five-minute snatches.
Dawn brought an access of caution, and we forbore building a fire. Ourhorses, which we had picketed in the open overnight, we saddled and tiedout of sight in the brush. Then we ate a cold breakfast and betookourselves to the nearest hill-top, where, screened by a huddle of rocks,we could watch for the coming of Piegan Smith; and, incidentally, keepan eye on the redcoat camp, though the distance was too great to observetheir movements with any degree of certainty. The most important thingwas to avoid letting a bunch of them ride up on us unheralded.
"They're not setting the earth afire looking for anybody," Mac declared,when the sun was well started on its ante-meridian journey and therewas still no sign of riders leaving the cluster of tents. "Ah, therethey go."
A squad of mounted men in close formation, so that their scarlet jacketsstood out against the dun prairie like a flame in the dark, rode awayfrom the camp, halted on the first hill an instant, then scatterednorth, south, and west. After that there was no visible stir around thewhite-sheeted commissary.
"They're not apt to disturb us if they keep going the oppositedirection," Mac reflected, his eyes conning them through the glasses."And neither do they appear to be going to move camp. Therefore, we'llbe likely to see Piegan before long."
But it was some time ere we laid eyes on that gentleman. We didn't seehim leaving the camp--which occasioned us no uneasiness, because a lonerider could very well get away from there unseen by us, especially if hewas circumspect in his choice of routes, as Piegan would probably be.Only when two hours had dragged by, and then two more, did we begin toget anxious. I was lying on my back, staring up at the sky, all sortsof possible misfortune looming large on my mental horizon, when MacRae,sweeping the hills with the glasses, grunted satisfaction, and I turnedmy head in time to see Piegan appear momentarily on high ground a mileto the south of us.
"What's he doing off there?" I wondered. "Do you suppose somebody'sfollowing him, that he thinks it necessary to ride clear around us?"
"Hardly; but you can gamble that he isn't riding for his health," Macresponded. "Anyway, you'll
soon know; he's turning."
Piegan swung into the coulee at a fast lope, and we stole carefully downto meet him. In the brush that concealed our horses Piegan dismounted,and, seating himself tailor-fashion on the ground, began to fill hispipe.
"First thing," said he, "we're a little behind the times. Your birds hastook wing and flew the coop."
"Took wing--how? And when?" we demanded.
"You'll _sabe_ better, I reckon, if I tell yuh just how I made out,"Piegan answered, after a pause to light his pipe. "When I got there lastnight they was most all asleep. But this mornin' I got a chance to sizeup the whole bunch, and nary one uh them jaspers I wanted t' see was insight. So whilst we was eatin' breakfast I begins t' quiz, an', one wayan' another, lets on I wanted t' see that Injun scout. One feller up an'tells me he guess I'll find the breed at Fort Walsh, most likely. Aftera while I hears more talk, an' by askin' a few innocent questions I getsnext t' some more. Puttin' this an' that together, this here's the wayshe stacks up: Lessard, as you fellers took notice, went in t' Walsh,takin' several men with him, Gregory bein' among the lot. He leavesorders that these fellers behind are t' comb the country till he calls'em off. Yesterday mornin', in the thick uh the storm, a buck trooperarrives from Walsh, bearin' instructions for Goodell, Hicks an' anotherfeller, which I reckon is Bevans. So when she clears up a little alongtowards noon, these three takes a packadero layout an' starts,presumable for Medicine Lodge. An' that's all I found out from thePolicemen."
"Scattered them around the country, eh?" Mac commented. "Damn it, we'rejust as far behind as ever."
"Hold your hosses a minute," Piegan grinned knowingly. "I said that wasall I found out from the red jackets--but I did a little prognosticatin'on my own hook. I figured that if them fellers hit the trail yesterdayafternoon as soon as the storm let up, they'd make one hell of a goodplain track in this sloppy goin' an' I was curious t' see if they litstraight for the Lodge. So when the bunch got out quite a ways, I quitsthe camp an' swings round in a wide circle--an' sure enough they'd lefttheir mark. Three riders an' two pack-hosses. Easy trackin'? Well, Ishould say! They'd cut a trail in them doby flats like a bunch uhgallopin' buffalo. Say, where _is_ Medicine Lodge?"
"Oh, break away, Piegan," Mac impatiently exclaimed. "What are youtrying to get at? You know where the Lodge is as well as I do."
"Well, I always thought I knowed where 'twas," Piegan retortedspiritedly, a wicked twinkle in his shrewd old eyes. "But it must 'a'changed location lately, for them fellers rode north a ways, an' thenkept swingin' round till they was headin' due southeast. I folleredtheir trail t' where yuh seen me turn this way, if yuh was watchin'.Poor devils"--Piegan grinned covertly while voicing this mocksympathy--"they must 'a' got lost, I reckon. It really ain't safe forsuch pilgrims t' be cavortin' over the prairies with all that boodle intheir jeans. I reckon we'll just naturally have t' pike along after 'eman' take care of it ourselves. They ain't got such a rip-roarin' startof us--an' I'm the boy can foller that track from hell t' breakfast an'back again. So let's eat a bite, an' then straddle our _caballos_ forsome tall ridin'."