CHAPTER XIV
THE GREAT WHITE QUEEN
Hal Haines' best driving team was lathered with foam and the buckboardswung through the gate on two wheels as Bill Cabot drove back to theDouble Cross Ranch.
The young cowboy whom Haines had ordered to carry the news of disasterto Mrs. Haines, seeing the buckboard and only Cabot driving, knewinstantly that something had gone wrong.
"What is it, Will?" she called, running down to the gate. "Didn't shecome? Has anything happened to Hal?"
"She was held up and carried off, Mrs. Haines."
"I know; I know. You played the joke; but what happened?" She lookedat the foaming horses. "What made you drive home like this?" shedemanded.
"She wasn't carried off by us, Mrs. Haines. Some other crowd got aheadof us--some crowd that meant what they was doing. The Boss and theboys has got the trail by this time, I guess. The Boss said I shouldcome and tell you."
For a moment Mrs. Haines looked at him in doubt.
"Is this another joke, Will?" she asked. "There hasn't been a hold-upin this section for ten years."
"I guess the jokin' is all knocked out've all of us," answered Bill,turning shamefacedly away. "No, ma'am, this is the truth and--and Iwish the Boss had took some one else's horse instid of mine."
"Never mind. They'll have all the men in Montana out to find thatgirl, if this isn't a hoax," cried Mrs. Haines in a voice that choked."Go tell the other boys to get ready. The Sheriff will want them, ifHal doesn't."
She sped back to the house and with a trembling hand rang the bell ofthe old-fashioned telephone that furnished a new blessing to theranches.
A moment later Curt Sikes, the telegraph operator at Rockvale, almostfell from his chair as he took the following message over the wire atMrs. Haines's dictation:
Harry Marvin,
Fifth Avenue, New York:
Pauline kidnapped. Come at once.
Mary Haines.
"What--what's it mean, Mrs. Haines?" he gasped into the transmitter."It ain't the young lady that Hal Just took off the express, is it?"
"Yes, that's who it is, Curt. Cabot and the boys are coming into townas fast as they can ride; but you call Sheriff Hill and get as many menas you can-in case we need them. You'll hurry, won't you, Curt?"
"Yes, ma'am; and I'll get your message right on the wire. They'll putit ahead all along the line."
If Curt's speed in getting the telegram away was inspired partly byburning need of telling the news to Rockvale that did not reflect onCurt. He flashed after the New York message a terse call up and downthe line to "Find the Sheriff," and then bolted out to the platform.His shout was heard not only at the little hotel across the street fromthe station, but at the city limits of Rockvale a good mile away.Rockvale answered the shout as a clan answering the beacozes flare.When Curt Sikes shouted it meant news.
His messages along the line had little effect. He had spent themorning flaunting the news to fellow operators and rival communitiesthat the Express had stopped at Rockvale. They had only half believedthat, and now this added flourish was too much. Even Sheriff Hill,whom the message overtook at Gatesburg, fifteen miles south, laughedwhen he read it, and started for Rockvale only because he was goingthere anyway to get Case Egan.
"There ain't much doubt which is now our leadin' city--Butte orRockvale," he remarked as he swung to his saddle and set off with twodeputies.
He found something more than overdone home town pride in Rockvale,however. The narrow streets were filled with men, women and curious,wide-mouthed children. Horses, packed for long riding, with riflesbolstered to the saddles, were tied all along the rails of both themain hotel and the station. Curt Sikes was the center of a changingbut ever interested group, but two of the Haines posse who had justcome in without any report of capture, but with all the vivid news ofthe hold-up were now the main objects of attention.
Briefly they told the story of the pursuit. With Haines leading theyhad struck a trail that took them to the river. They had waded theriver and found no trail on the other side. Knowing the bandits hadtaken to the middle of the stream, Haines had divided his party. Hesent two men down stream, one on each side and he and the three othersrode up stream, two on each side.
After long rough riding Haines had found a trail coming out of thewater. All four had followed it a long way. There were three banditsmaking the trail, but the three stopped and each took a differentdirection, one straight up into the hills, one straight down into thevalley, and the other off here towards town. Haines and one man hadstarted on the trail to the hills. The other two--the two talkingnow--had each taken one of the other trails, but had lost them. Theythought Haines would lose his, too. It had been a clean, up-to-dateexpert piece of work--this kidnapping. The getaway had been a workof art, just as the hold-up had been a wonder-piece of stage setting.
"You saw all the gang that held you up?" asked the Sheriff.
"We wasn't held up--tha'd a been a little too rich, I guess," saidone of the cowboys. "It was Boss Haines an' the girl that wasstopped."
"Well, then, I mean did Haines see the gang? Were any of themIndians?"
"Injuns? No. The Boss thinks some of 'em were cattle-crooks from theCase Egan outfit. I guess they ain't no Montana Injuns that'd startanythin' like that."
"You guess a lot more than you know," said the Sheriff quietly. "I maybe calling on any of you boys for some fast work against old Red Snakeany of these days."
"What's the trouble, Sheriff?"
"Oh, just one of their devils brewing bad medicine again up atShi-wah-ki village. Red Snake always was a little bit crazy--talkingabout the thieving white man that stole his country and looking for achance to get the rest of his people killed off."
"I heard that down at Hallick's last week," drawled a man in the crowd."The Sioux is only waitin' for the Great White Queen to come out o' theheart o' the airth an' lead 'em on the warpath. They got a surprisin'plenty o' arms, too, for reservation Injuns. Know that, Sheriff?"
The Sheriff nodded slowly. "I wish Haines would get in," he said."I'd like to have a talk with him before we start. But it's gettinglate."
The dull thudding of tired horses hoofs from the other side of the hillbelow town came, to him as an answer. Presently Haines and hiscompanion joined, silently, the eager crowd at the station.
The owner of the Double Cross seemed to have aged ten years since hehad driven away with Pauline from that same station platform only a fewhours before. He would have given all the acres of the Double Crossfor just a word about Pauline; he would have given his life to knowthat she was alive.
"There's nothing for it, Sheriff, but to rake the whole country," hesaid wearily. "They've hidden her somewheres, if they haven't killedher. And if they've killed her, mind, it's me you're to hang for it."
The Sheriff laid a strong hand on his old friend's shoulder. "I canget the state militia out to look for that girl, Hal," he said. "Bythe way, is there anything--anything queer about her?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Why, only that her folks have been writing to the Governor at Helena.Sikes just gave me this from Governor Casson himself. Who is thisRaymond Owen? Who's been wiring to the Governor?"
"That's her guardian, I think. H'm," mused Haines as he read themessage, "that is queer. I wish they'd have wired me that yesterday."
The Sheriff folded the telegram and putting it back in his pocket,stepped up on a box near the hotel door.
"I want to call for a hundred volunteer citizens to go hunt this girl,"he announced.
A minute later, all that was left of Rockvale was the buildings and thewomen, children and old men who stood watching a cloud of dust blottingthe sunset glow and listening to the retreating clatter of a flyingcavalcade.
Sikes kept the office open late. At 7 o'clock he telephoned to Mrs.Haines at the Double Cross:
"What does he say?" she cried.
"Just one word--Comin'," said C
urt in an aggrieved voice. "Hecould've sent ten words fer the same price," he grumbled.
Red Snake was one of the younger chiefs of the Sioux. He was too youngto have had a share in the bloody last stand of his race in theirMontana wilderness; but he was old enough to have watched the dwindlingof spirit and power among them for twenty years.
And every day of watching kindled new hate in the breast of theIndian. In him the spirit of his fathers had left the old unquenchablebelief in the Day of Restoration, when, by some supernaturalintervention, the Indians would return to their lands, the lands revertto their primeval state, and civilization be lost in the obliteratingwilderness.
The officers of the Agency had had trouble with Red Snake on severaloccasions. Twice he had started out at the head of war parties and hadbeen caught just in time to prevent bloodshed among the isolatedsettlers. But of late he had been docile and peaceful. The newdisturbances--the occasional shooting of a cowboy and the pettystealing of cattle dated from the beginning of the sway of a newmedicine man in Red Snake's principal village of Shi-wah-ki.
His name was of many syllables in the native language, but he was knownas Big Smoke. He was a young Indian who had spent some years among thewhites in the Southwest, had made a pretense at getting an education,but had reverted violently to the life and faith of his fathers. Bigsmoke had predicted to Red Snake the coming of the Great White Queen,who would empower the arms of the red man to overthrow the whites andwould make him again master of his rightful lands.
Red Snake, squatted on a blanket beside his teepee, listened withimmobile features but with a thrilled heart. He summoned a council ofthe chiefs, secretly, and the medicine man addressed his message tothem also.
Thereafter the Indians of Shi-wah-ki were restive. Their growingspirit of rebellion manifested itself in foolish little offensesagainst the white men. These were punished with the white man'scustomary sternness and this increased the rancor of the Indians. Itincreased, too, their eagerness for the fulfillment of the strangeprophecy of the coming of the White Queen.
On the very day when the white man's village of Rockvale was in ahubbub of excitement because of the kidnapping of Pauline, the villageof Shi-wah-ki was tumultuous with a different fervor.
Into the circle of the assembled chiefs, rimmed with awed faces ofsquaws and papooses, had danced the weird figure of Big Smoke. He hadbeen called upon by Red Snake to announce what further of the WhiteQueen his medicine had revealed.
Big Smoke wore the head of a wolf with cow's horns set over the ears.His lithe red body was covered with a long bear skin. His legs werebare to the tops of his gaily beaded moccasins.
He circled the silent group with fantastic gyrations and stoppedfinally in the center. Lifting his hands, he addressed the tribe.First, in glowing rhetoric, he pictured the ancient glory of the Sioux--their wealth in lands, their prowess in the hunt, their triumph overall other red men. He told of their long and brave struggle with thewhite man, who by the intervention of wicked gods had been enabled toconquer them. But the time of vengeance and retribution had come afterlong years. The Indian was to return to his own.
"The Great Spirit is sending us a leader," said Rig Smoke. "The GreatSpirit has spoken to me and said: 'Lo, I will send a White Queen withgolden hair. She shall come from the heart of the Earth, and she shalllead your warriors against the oppressor."
This was the third time Big Smoke had said this. That was what made itmost impressive to the listeners. Big Smoke had staked not only hisreputation as a medicine man, but, also his life, upon this wonderfulprediction, which had aroused his people as they had not been arousedin fifty years. For it was the law of the ancient code thatfulfillment must follow immediately the third announcement of themiracle. If fulfillment failed there remained only the Great DeathStone in the valley. No prophet of the tribe had ever won in therace with the Death Stone.
And so the chiefs sat in respectful silence and the young braves aroseeager for the war dance when Big Smoke finished speaking.
The dance, beginning slowly, waxed wilder; the tom-toms beat morevibrantly, until the whole village was encircled by the painted andbonneted tribesmen. The red glare of daylight fires illuminated thewild faces. The women cowered with their children beside the teepees.In the midst of the tumult, the medicine man stood with hands stretchedupward calling on the Great Spirit to send the White Queen.
When the dance had subsided, the Council resumed its deliberations.
It was arranged that there should be a hunt that afternoon and thefoxes or coyotes should be driven as near as possible to thesettlements. This would be a means of reconnoitering and it would makethe whites think the Indians were engaged in peaceful pursuits.
Pauline, after her first startled cry, stood spellbound by the twoglowing eyes that shone from the far end of the cave.
There was no light now--save for the eyes. The rift in the roof fromwhich the mysterious glow had come seemed to have been closedsuddenly. The pitch darkness made the eyes doubly terrible, and justperceptibly they moved and flashed which showed they were living eyes.
Pauline longed to scream, but could not. Behind those fiery pointsimagination could picture all manner of horrible shapes. Was thecreature about to spring upon her?
The eyes vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
The low rustling sound came again; then the utter silence.
Pauline, freed of the uncanny gaze, was able to think and act. If thatanimal could find its way into her prison house, there must be anotherentrance to the cave.
It was plain that the animal had been crouching on the slant rock abovethe ledge. Pauline began again to grope around the wall. She couldtouch the top of the ledge and now in several places she found smallcrevices in the wall by which she tried to climb.
Time and again she fell back. Her soft hands were torn by the jaggedrock; her dress was in shreds; her golden hair fell down upon hershoulders. She might have been some preternatural dweller of theplace.
At last her foot held firm in a crevice three feet above the floor.Clutching the ledge-top, she groped for another step--and found it.In a moment she was on the ledge.
She sank there, covering her face with her hands. The eyes had blazedagain scarcely three feet away. She felt the breath of hot nostrils,the rough hair of a beast, as the thing sprang. She felt that the endhad come, but she still clung to the ledge.
As she uncovered her eyes, slowly, she was astonished to see that thefaint light had returned. It came, as she had thought, over aconcealed shelf of stone above the rocky incline.
The eyes had vanished. The cave was still.
She began to scale the incline. Her hands and feet caught nubs andslits of the surface and a little higher she felt the cool dampness ofearth and grasped the root of a tree. As she drew herself up, shelooked over the shelf and saw, at one end of it, the open day.
She crawled a little way upon the shelf then stopped. She hardly daredto go on. What if the opening, large enough to admit the light, weretoo small for her to pass through? What if the light had been only alure to torture her? What if she must return into the darkness withthat thing unknown, the thing with the blazing eyes!
She crept on with her eyes shut. A stronger glow of light upon theclosed lids told her she had reached the end of the shelving. The nextmoment would tell her if she had reached freedom or renewed captivity.She looked up.
Three of Red Snake's young warriors had gained most of the plaudits ofthe village during the afternoon of the hunt. They rode together andnot only did they bring in many foxes and coyotes but much news of thewhite people. They had met armed men throughout all the mountaincountry, riding up and down the river. The armed men had greeted themfairly and had asked them for information of other white men who hadstolen a girl and carried her away. The white men were thus fightingamong themselves. It was a propitious time for the coining of the newQueen.
These three young men, about five o'clock in t
he afternoon, had juststarted the drive of a coyote towards the level country when the quarrydoubled suddenly and turned into the hills.
With shouts and shots, the Indians pursued it, but their horses were nomatch for it on the devious wooded paths, and grunting their disgustthey saw it dive into a burrow in a rocky hollow of the cliff.
They dismounted and stood about the mouth of the burrow grumbling and"cursing their luck" in an ancient tongue. At last two of them mountedand started to ride away, and their companion followed, slowly, leadinghis horse.
A sound made him turn his head. With a cry of mingled fear and joy, ofawe and triumph, he threw himself prostrate before the mouth of theburrow.
The other Indians dashed back. They literally fell from their horsesto the feet of the wonderful being who had risen from the heart of theearth--the promised goddess who would lead them against theoppressors. In the poor, disheveled person of Pauline, coming from herprison cave, they saw their great White Queen.