CHAPTER VII
ARRIVAL OF CAVALRY ON THE ELKHORN--A DEER HUNT--WHAT THE SCOUTS SAW--THE STORY OF THE TWO LITTLE GIRLS--THE DEAD AND WOUNDED--MEN HIDDEN IN THE BRUSH--AN INDIAN LEGEND--ARRIVAL OF THE INFANTRY--THE DEER HUNT IN THE MORNING--DEATH OF THE DEER
JUST as the sun appeared above the top of the Twin Mounds, Joe, whocould not keep quiet when among the timber or on the prairie, wasscouting around on his own hook, while the remainder of the party waslying on the grass eating the cold breakfast they had brought fromErrolstrath. Suddenly he rushed down to them, and yelled at the top ofhis voice:--
"The cavalry are coming! I saw the gleam of their carbines on the ridgeabout a mile away toward the trail to Fort Harker."
Every man was on his feet in an instant; and sure enough, in a fewminutes they heard the clanging of sabres and the sound of the hoofs ofapproaching horses. Presently a fine-looking set of men wearing thefatigue uniform of the United States Cavalry, splendidly mounted onsleek bay animals, swung around the point of timber where Captain Tuckerand his scouts from the Oxhide valley were standing. The trumpetersounded the "Halt," and in another moment the horses, in obedience tothe signal, stood still as if petrified, while the commander of thetroop, Colonel Keogh, of Custer's famous regiment, rode forward andtalked with Captain Tucker, whom he had at once recognized as the leaderof the scouts.
They conversed for some moments, each giving the other what informationhe had of the movements of the Indians. Then the Colonel told CaptainTucker that his orders were to camp on the Elkhorn with his company, andscout through the valley, protecting the settlers. He said that adetachment of infantry was also ordered to the creek, and was to remainthere, while he with his mounted men would move from point to point, andthus prevent the savages from making another raid in that part of thecountry. He thanked Captain Tucker for the promptness with which he andhis neighbors had responded to the appeal of Alderdyce. He said thatnow the cavalry were there the men might go home feeling assured that nomore attacks were to be feared from the Indians, and that GeneralSheridan would soon have enough soldiers under his command to whipthoroughly the allied tribes, and force them to a peace which they wouldbe glad to keep.
Captain Tucker told the Colonel how bright Joe was in relation to Indianaffairs, and what a great hunter he had already become. After ColonelKeogh had himself conversed with Joe, he took a great fancy to him. Hetold him that he was going on a deer hunt just as soon as he was settledin camp, and the infantry had arrived, and he invited Joe to be one ofthe party.
Joe thanked the Colonel, and spoke modestly of the compliments which hadbeen paid him by Captain Tucker. He promised that he would certainly goon the hunt with him, and be delighted to do so.
He spoke up boldly: "When do you expect to go, Colonel? I know there arelots of red deer and elk, too, on the Elkhorn, and this is a good timeto find them; I've been here with the Pawnees often."
The Colonel said: "The infantry, in all probability, will reach thecreek some time this evening, as they were getting ready for the marchwhen I left Fort Harker with my troop. Suppose, Joe, we say the dayafter to-morrow? You can remain here with me; I have buffalo robes, andyou shall have a bed in my tent. So go and ask your father at once andcome back to me as quick as you can and report his answer. You'll findme somewhere about the camp. My tent is not yet put up, but you willknow it when it is, by its similarity to an Indian tepee. It is called a'Sibley,' and was patterned after the Sioux lodge by its inventor, anofficer of the army of that name."
Joe, wild with delight, ran off to find his father, to whom he told ofthe invitation, and finding that no objections were made, thanked himfor his permission to remain.
Captain Tucker had informed the Colonel that as his men and animals weresufficiently rested, and the horses filled with the rich grass, heintended to go to the scene of the massacre with Alderdyce, to findwhether any of the settlers were hiding and not daring to showthemselves, or if any of the wounded were still living. Should he findany of the latter, he would return by way of Fort Harker and notify thecommanding officer, so that he might send an ambulance for them andmedical assistance.
Telling his men of his intentions, they immediately brought in theirhorses and saddled them. They then mounted, and rode slowly west towardSpillman Creek, which was about seven or eight miles from the Elkhorn.Joe, of course, went with them, as they wanted him to find out which waythe Indians had gone after committing their devilish deeds. He intendedto leave the party at the ford of the Elkhorn on its return, and to joinColonel Keogh.
In about two hours the party arrived at the mouth of Spillman Creek, andthe first evidence of the acts of the savages confronted the men. Ridingup to a small cabin which the Indians had not consigned to the torch, nodoubt having missed it on their fiendish rounds, they discovered twolittle girls crouched in one of its dark corners. One of them was onlysix years old, and her sister but eight. They were very bright fortheir age, and told a wonderfully sad story of their escape from theIndians. They said that a big band of savages rode up to their home veryearly in the morning; that their father and mother were not yet out ofbed. The Indians killed both of them, and after setting the house onfire, threw the children on their ponies and rode off. Coming to the topof a high hill, they saw a company of soldiers in the distance, and theythen dropped them on the prairie and hurried away as fast as theirponies could run. The girls were not hurt at all. They wandered on,frightened nearly to death, and seeing the cabin down in the valley,they went to it and slept there all night. They had waked very early inthe morning, and on going out of doors, saw the wild grapes growing onthe vines at the creek; they ate some for their breakfast, but soonhearing the sound of horses' hoofs, and thinking the Indians were comingto look for them, they crawled back into the corner where the scouts hadfound them.
Captain Tucker and the rest of the scouts were in a dilemma at firstwhen they found themselves with the two little orphaned children ontheir hands; and they did not know exactly what to do. But soon Joe'sexcellent judgment manifested itself. He proposed that one of the menshould be sent back to Colonel Keogh's camp to tell him of theirdiscovery, and ask him to send his ambulance out to take the children toFort Harker, where they would be cared for by the kind ladies of thepost.
The suggestion was acted upon at once. Every man volunteered to go, soit was left to the Captain to select one. This he did, started him off,and left Mr. Thompson to stay with the little girls until the arrival ofthe ambulance. He and the others of the party then rode up on the valleyof Spillman Creek, as the savages appeared to have confined theiratrocities to that narrow region.
As they were riding close to the bank of the stream, about three milesfrom where they had found the two girls, they saw a wagon with thehorses still attached. As they came up to it for a closer examination,two men, both of whom were known to Alderdyce, came out of theunderbrush.
They had a story to tell, too. Early in the morning they were on theirway to examine a claim on the Spillman, when they perceived at only ashort distance from them, what appeared to be a body of soldiers. Theywere all dressed in blue blouses, and were marching four abreast just asthe cavalry do. The men stopped for a moment to get a closer view asthey rode up the divide, when to their horror they discovered thesupposed soldiers to be a band of Indians. They turned their team about,and made for the nearest timber on the creek and hid themselves. Nextmorning they still decided to remain in ambush until they saw some whitepeople. They had plenty of food with them, so they had remained untilthey were discovered by Captain Tucker's scouts. Learning that all wassafe, they climbed into their wagon, whipped up the team, and droveaway. Presently the scouts came to the remains of a cabin, partlydestroyed by fire, where they discovered the dead bodies of a man andwoman, probably husband and wife. These they decently buried and rodeon.
They next found the body of a young man, dead in his field, where he hadevidently been at work when the savages surprised him. He was murderedwith his own hatchet, which
was found by his side, his face having beenchopped until it was not recognizable. His body was interred too.
It is useless to relate all that the scouts saw on their mission ofdiscovery up the Spillman. In all, thirty bodies were found, and somedozen or more persons who had been wounded and had managed to hide afterthe savages had supposed them to be dead. During the next twenty-fourhours these were gathered and taken to the hospital at the fort. Somerecovered, but the majority died.
The party returned to Colonel Keogh's camp, because they had discoveredso much that it was thought best he should know. When they arrived therethey learned that the little girls had been sent to the fort under anescort of a squad of the troopers, and they also found Mr. Thompson inthe camp waiting for them.
After winding their horses for about half an hour, all returned toErrolstrath, with the exception of Joe, who remained to go on theproposed hunt when the infantry arrived.
Colonel Keogh's tent was already pitched, and Joe sat in there with himdiscussing the atrocities on Spillman Creek and the deer hunt.
"Colonel," said Joe, "you know that deer have no gall-bladder and theantelope no dew-claws. Did you ever hear the Indian legend about thereason?"
"I know the deer have no gall-bladder and the antelope no dew-claws, butI don't think I have ever heard the reason. What do the Indians sayabout it, Joe?"
"Well, old Yellow Calf, the chief of the band of Pawnees which hascamped on our creek ever since we have lived there, told me that a longtime ago a deer and an antelope met on the prairie near the Great Bendof the Arkansas. At that time both animals had a gall and dew-claws.They fell to talking together and bragging how fast each could run. Thedeer claimed that he could outstrip the antelope, and the antelope thathe could beat the deer. They got awfully mad at each other, and finallydetermined they would try their speed. The stakes were their galls, andthe trial was made on the open prairie. The antelope beat the deer andtook the deer's gall. The deer felt very unhappy at his defeat, and hebecame so miserable over it, that the antelope felt sorry for him, andto cheer him up took off both his dew-claws and gave them to the deer.Ever since then the deer has had no gall-bladder, and the antelope nodew-claws.
"I met some Kaws once, and I told them what the Pawnees had told meabout it, and the chief of that band said the story the Pawnees had toldwas only partly correct. The Kaw chief's version was that after theantelope had won the race, the deer said to him, 'You have won, but thatrace was not fair, for it was over the prairie. We ought to try again inthe woods to decide which of us is really the faster.' So the antelopeagreed to run the second race, and on it they bet their dew-claws. Thedeer beat the antelope that time, because he could run faster than theantelope through the timber, over the fallen trunks of trees, and in thethick underbrush, and he took the antelope's dew-claws."
"Well, Joe, that is a very funny story; I never heard it before." Then,looking out of the front of his tent, the Colonel turned to Joe, andsaid, "There comes the company of infantry, so we may go on our huntto-morrow."
Joe ran out and watched the infantry as they filed into the timber. Itwas after sundown, but far from dark. The men were soon settled in theirtents, their camp-kettles bubbling over the fires, and preparations infull swing for their evening meal.
Joe wandered among the troops and soon picked up an acquaintance withthem. They admired his Indian suit, and earnestly listened to the taleof his adventures with the Pawnees. Presently he was called by theColonel's orderly to come to supper. He went back to the Sibley tent,where he sat down at the table with Colonel Keogh and his twolieutenants.
Their simple table was improvised out of the end gates of two of thewagons, and the cook, a colored soldier, had managed to provide anexcellent meal, and as Joe was very hungry, he did ample justice to it.
When the trumpets and the bugles sounded the retreat, Joe went out withthe Colonel, who inspected the men to see that everything was in goodorder for the night. They then returned to their canvas quarters, wherethe Colonel smoked his pipe, and again discussed to-morrow's hunt withthe boy.
They were to make a very early start in the morning, so, as soon as"taps" had sounded, which meant that all lights must be put out and thesoldiers retire to their tents, the Colonel suggested to Joe that he hadbetter go to bed, while he would sit up a while and write out his reportto the commander at Fort Harker. Calling in the orderly, the Coloneltold him to fix up a sleeping-place for the boy. The man spread fourheavy buffalo robes on the floor of the tent, and putting two blanketson top, the bed was ready for Joe, who tumbled into it and was soon fastasleep.
When the trumpeter sounded the reveille, at the first streak of dawn thenext morning, the Colonel, who had already risen, called Joe, whobounded out of his soft bed like a cat. Breakfast was ready in a fewmoments, and after he and the Colonel had eaten, and the latter hadgiven his orders to the officer who was to command the camp during hisabsence, Joe and he started out on foot for the hunt.
The night had been cold, and although it was the middle of May, thewhite rime of the late frost covered the earth. It was a good omen, asthe sharp footprints of the animals could be more easily distinguished.
Carefully examining their rifles and cartridges as they walked brisklyon, they soon struck the main branch of the Elkhorn, and continued alongits margin in a southerly direction for a mile or more, when they cameto a little opening.
There Joe suddenly stopped, and turning to Colonel Keogh, who had on theinstant also halted, said, "Doesn't that look a little deerish,Colonel?"
The Colonel, though a good shot and hunter, could distinguish nothingout of the ordinary after scrutinizing the ground to which the boy hadpointed. The earth looked the same everywhere in the Colonel's eyes.
"Here!" said Joe, as, noticing the bewildered appearance of his newfriend, he turned over a fallen cottonwood leaf with his foot. There theColonel saw, after carefully stooping down, the very faint impress of ahoof.
"Is that a fresh track, Joe?" he asked.
"You may be sure it is," replied Joe, "and only about an hour old!"
"Well, I want _that_ deer," said Colonel Keogh, enthusiastically. Herose from a stump on which he had been sitting for a few moments, withhis rifle across his knees, and started quickly for a little patch ofbox-elder not a hundred yards distant.
"Hold on, Colonel!" said Joe, cautiously; "the deer isn't there now.Don't you see his hoof-marks point the other way? Look, here's wherehe's nibbled the grass," pointing with his rifle to a strip ofbunch-grass in the opposite direction from the box-elders. "Let's go on,Colonel; deer don't stay long in one spot so early in the day, and if wedon't get a move on us, it may be hours before we can get a shot at'em."
They trudged on for about a mile and a half, walking side by side, theColonel telling the boy some of his experiences in the war of theRebellion. Suddenly Joe, touching the Colonel's shoulder, said, "Hark!"in a hoarse whisper, at the same instant elevating his head like astag-hound that has just winded game. In another minute they heard arustling as though something were stepping on dead leaves.
"There's a buck deer in there, and a big one, too," said Joe, in awhisper, as he pointed to a bunch of upland willows whose slender topswere oscillating slowly as if disturbed by a gentle breeze, though therewas not a breath of wind blowing. "He's probably got a half dozen ormore does around him, and if we are mighty careful, we may both get ashot."
The willow copse was on the top of a little knoll, and the ground wassmooth on the side of it where the Colonel and Joe stood. Here and thereat intervals were great trees, but without any underbrush to snap undertheir feet as they quietly trod over the soft, black soil.
At Joe's suggestion, he and the Colonel separated, widening the distancebetween them to about twenty paces, Colonel Keogh on the right of Joe.They crept on as silently as savages on the trail of an enemy, and soonarrived at the base of the elevation, which was only some fifty yards toits crest. There they noticed that the dark earth had been cut up inevery direction by the sha
rp, delicate foot-marks of the creaturessupposed to be in front of them. A significant glance rapidly passedfrom one to the other as they drew nearer their quarry.
At that juncture, just as they reached the edge of the copse, eachmasked himself behind a good-sized cottonwood, which seemed to havegrown where it did for their especial use. The Colonel in his enthusiasmcould not repress the remark in a whisper to Joe:--
"Look there, Joe. There's a dozen deer!"
Sure enough, right in front of them were a dozen fat does lying downruminating their morning meal. The old buck, the guardian of the wholeherd, was standing up as if watching over his charge, and stamping theground with his sharp hoofs to drive off the buffalo gnats that swarmedthickly around him.
In another instant, at a signal previously agreed upon, a low whistlefrom the Colonel, the rifles of the hunters were dischargedsimultaneously, and all but two of the terribly frightened animalsbounded off through the timber.
Before the echoes of the pieces had died away, Joe was among thestruggling deer with his hunting-knife, cutting their throats whilethey were yet in their death throes. The stately buck had been theColonel's game, and he asked Joe to take its head to the ranche so thatthe Pawnees, when they arrived in the autumn, could preserve it with itsmagnificent set of antlers, which he desired to keep as a trophy oftheir hunt.
It was but a little more than two miles to camp, and they did not haveto wait more than an hour for a wagon to arrive, as the driver had beentold by the Colonel to start the moment the sharp double report of therifles reached his ears. The dead animals were soon loaded into it, andthe proud hunters walked leisurely alongside of it, back to camp,arriving there before eleven o'clock.
The deer were skinned by Joe. The meat was cut up into saddles andhaunches, and hung on the limb of a great tree, to secure it from theprowling wolves, who already scented blood and began to make theirappearance on the bluffs, so keen is the nose of that vicious andcowardly brute. The Colonel had brought with him from the fort, half adozen hounds, among them some of General Custer's celebrated animals,but they were left tied up in camp that morning, as the Colonel haddecided to make a still hunt the first day, and to chase with the dogsthe next.
That evening, just as all were about to roll themselves up in theirblankets, a scout arrived from Fort Harker with the intelligence thatthe Cheyennes and the Kiowas, under the leadership of the bloodthirstySa-tan-ta, the notorious war-chief, had made a raid upon the settlementsnear Council Grove, and Custer was leaving at once for the field withhis regiment. As Colonel Keogh's company was part of it, he must returnto Fort Harker immediately, and another detachment of colored infantrywere on their way to take its place on the Elkhorn.
All was bustle in a few moments. Tents were struck, and in less than anhour the cavalry command was on its way, Joe riding at the head of thecolumn with the Colonel.
They arrived at Fort Harker long before daylight, and Joe bade theColonel good by and rode on to Errolstrath, where he pulled up his ponyjust as his father and Rob were coming out of the house to go to thespring to wash themselves.
The boy was gladly welcomed back by all the family, and they sat at thetable for more than an hour after they finished eating their breakfast,listening to Joe's experiences at the scene of the massacre, and hishunt with Colonel Keogh.