CHAPTER X
HOW KATE WAS CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS--THE BAND RIDE RAPIDLY SOUTHWARD--AT THE INDIAN VILLAGE--HER DETERMINATION TO ESCAPE--TEACHES THE SQUAWS--IS TREATED KINDLY
IMMEDIATELY after dinner on the day that Kate was missed, she bethoughtherself that the raspberries might be ripe. She wanted to surprise hermother and sister, but as will be seen, was surprised in such a mannerthat she never forgot it as long as she lived.
Without saying a word to her mother or Gertrude, she took out of herroom a little basket made of par-fleche,[1] given to Joe by the Pawnees,and by him presented to her. She went out to the pasture, caught herpony, Ginger, saddled him, and rode out to the fatal raspberry patchwhere once she had such a terrible encounter with a she-wolf.
It was a fortunate thing that both the girls had learned to ride, for asad fate would have been in store for her had she not been a thoroughhorsewoman.
Arriving there in less than half an hour, she tied Ginger to a sumacbush, and to her delight found that the berries were quite ripe, and wassoon absorbed in the task of filling her basket. Suddenly, with the rushof a tornado, and uttering the most diabolical yells, a dozen Comanches,dressed up in their war paint and eagle feathers, swooped down on theunsuspecting girl as a hawk swoops down on a chicken. Before sherealized where she was, one of the red devils, leaning over from hispony, caught her by the arms and tossed her in front of his saddle, andin another instant the whole band was dashing away southward as fast astheir little animals could be urged.
Of course, she fainted for a moment, but strangely held on to herbasket. When she had recovered from her first shock, the Indiansendeavored to make her understand by signs that they were not going tohurt her. In fact, they treated her with a sort of savage kindness. Thegreat feather-bedecked brute made her as comfortable as he could infront of him, as he pounded the pony's flanks with his moccasined heelsto urge it on as fast as possible.
They rode rapidly on, staying for nothing, crossed Bluff Creek, andreached the Arkansas River that night. They waited there for an hour toallow their ponies to graze, and themselves to eat and smoke. They rodeon again until daylight the next morning, when the sand hills of theBeaver came in sight. There they halted for breakfast, and shared withthe now relatively calm girl their dried buffalo meat, and bread made ofground-roots.
That evening they arrived at their village on the Canadian, more thantwo hundred and fifty miles from the Oxhide. Kate was turned over to thesquaws, who treated her with the kindness innate in all women, becauseshe was only a little girl. Had she been a young woman, that monsterJealousy, which makes his home even in the rude tepee of the savage,would have made her lot entirely different.
She was allotted to the lodge of an old squaw, the old chief WhiteWolf's fifth wife, whose duty was to guard her and see that she did notattempt to escape. The savages, as Buffalo Bill had suggested, simplywanted to keep her until the Government should offer a ransom for thelittle captive, so it behooved them not to abuse her.
As the days rolled on in their weary length, the white captive becamemore reconciled to her fate. She had never given up the hope that theofficers at Fort Harker would soon send out the troops to seek her, andthat she would be restored to her dear Errolstrath home and her parents.At the same time, as she was a most excellent horsewoman, she alwaysthought that if the worst came to the worst, she would make her escapeand again ride the long distance she had ridden in coming to thevillage.
When she had regained her self-control on her dreadful journey, she hadlooked around her and had taken such observations as she could of thelay of the country, the timber, and the general aspect of the trail.Even then, in all the terrible excitement of her capture, she thought ofescaping at the first opportunity that offered itself. She indeliblyimprinted every tree, rock, and ford on her mind, so that the long rideover the trail to the village was like a photograph on her brain to betaken out of its storehouse whenever required.
In a very few days she had so ingratiated herself in the good opinion ofthe women of the village, that they really took a fancy to her. Shewillingly helped them in all the daily tasks heaped upon them by theirhard masters. She learned readily how to tan the different furs whichwere brought into the place after a hunt, made moccasins, herded theponies in her turn, and even became such an adept in cooking that shewas soon permanently assigned as cook for the occupants of the tepee inwhich she was lodged. Then she was spared the dirtier and harder laborwhich fell to the lot of the Indian women, for she had been brought upby her excellent mother to perform all kinds of work in which a whitewoman is supposed to become proficient, and now it served her in a waythat was never dreamed of.
The Indians occasionally had flour, but knew of but one way to prepareit. They made a kind of gruel, by boiling, and adding a little salt. Amost unpalatable dish! She made bread and biscuit, which she baked inthe most primitive way, on a piece of thin iron before the coals of thecamp-fire; but then the food was so different from that to which thesavages had been accustomed, that no one was permitted to prepare themeals for the lodge where she made her abode, but the White Fawn, asthey began to call her.
Like Constantinople, every village is overrun with dogs, and they arethe most vigilant guards that can be imagined. No one may hope toapproach an Indian lodge, or a group of them, without being saluted by achorus of the most unearthly barking and howling from the caninecataract that is sure to pour out the moment a strange footstep isheard. Kate, always a lover of pets, immediately began to cultivate thefriendship of the dogs of the village. There was, however, somethingmore in her method than mere natural affection for the brute creation;she had an object in view. She knew that when the time arrived for herto attempt to escape, the dogs must be thoroughly attached to her, sothat they would regard any movement she might make without the slightestsuspicion. This she soon effected, and in a short time every miserablecur in the village was her faithful ally.
The intense interest which she took in the herd of ponies may beimagined, for in one of them, at some time in the near future, wasconcentrated her hope of escaping from the hateful village. She hadnoticed a little roan pony which seemed to her to possess that power ofendurance that would be so necessary when she started on her long andlonely journey to the beloved Oxhide. She knew that he was the swiftestanimal of the hundred or more in the bunch, for she had watched himoften when the dusky warrior who owned him rode away on the hunt. Shehad read in some favorite magazine at the ranche, that in the old talesof English minstrelsy, the roan horse was the favorite color of theheroes of those stories, and she selected that animal out of the herd tocarry her away. So, whenever she could, surreptitiously, she petted him,and he became so attached to her that he would follow her like a dog.
The savages watched her very closely, and she dared not think of leavingthe village for many long weeks. At last she appeared to be so pleasedwith her new associations that their vigilance relaxed somewhat, andtheir eyes were not always upon her.
She very rapidly learned the language of her captors, and then, as shecould talk to the women, who were really kind to her, her isolation didnot seem so hard to bear.
The principal food of the savages was dried buffalo meat, and, as itwould keep sweet for a long time and was very nourishing, she hidportions of her rations in the hollow of an old elm that stood near hertepee, for use on the trip when the time arrived for her to run away.
The clothes which Kate wore when she was stolen soon began to show thehard service to which they had been subjected, and finally she had toresort to the blanket for a general wrap like her female associates. Shehad patched her civilized dress until it was like Joseph's coat, of manycolors, but she tenaciously clung to it, determining that she would wearit home, if she was fortunate enough ever to return. So she took it offand carefully stored it with her buffalo meat in the hollow of the oldelm.
She soon became aware that the savages were at war with the whites, foroften when the warriors went away dressed up in their fea
thers andhideous paint, they came back with their ranks decimated, and then therewas wailing and howling in the village.
She knew, also, that General Custer, whom the Indians called theCrawling Panther, was gradually outwitting them, for she heard thesobriquet they had given him often mentioned in their talks around thecamp-fires.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Par-fleche is the tanned hide of the buffalo, without the hair. TheIndians make baskets and boxes of it in which to pack their provisionsand other articles when they move their villages.