CHAPTER XXX.
THE HALF-BREED DIES GAME.
Kidd was spending the night without any rest. Besides the tumultuousemotions excited by the proximity of the treasure land, theuncontrolability of his forces worried him exceedingly. He wasconfident that on finding gold, admitting that they penetrated theFirehole country unimpeded, it would be each man for himself. Evennow he felt lonely enough. Dan Steelder had determinedly set off ona scouting expedition to see what had befallen Dona Rosario. He hadexpressly charged his associate to watch Leon well; but lo! Thatyouth had slipped away as well as Lottery Paul, whether in company orseparately was unsettled. As for Joe, he was left behind to guard thewomen and goods. And the departure of Dearborn increased Kidd's miseryat being abandoned, for the guide had shown him the promised goal anddeparted.
"If only in cutting our way through these unknown enemies we lose thebulk of this riffraff," he muttered, "I shall perhaps have a choice fewwhom I can govern. All may yet be for the best, and Joe and me can setup a hotel for summer tourists, with the richest gold mine in our winecellar, right there in the heart of the Yellowstone."
Leon had not gone away with the Frenchman, but the latter's departurewas directly the cause of his. The Drudge, angered at being dividedfrom the Carcajieu, was only awaiting an opportunity to leave thecaptain. As payment for his long unremunerated services, he took ahorse from Foxface and arms and equipment, passing the outposts withthe truth seeming plea that he was sent on a special mission by theleader.
"It's stuck him up high," muttered the outer guard. "The boy is quitehandsome all of a sudden!"
In fact, Leon was transformed, for, being of an eagle race, themore doleful he was in captivity, the more haughty and noble he wasunfettered.
Long hours of meditation over the wilderness had "soaked" knowledgeinto him of wood and desert craft almost unawares.
He rode at once into the high grass and canebrake in the wet pits atthe bottom of the canyon, for it was so high that he was hidden on thehorse's back.
He mocked at the night, confident that he could guide himself bythe stars. He ate in the saddle, and though he did not ride fast,kept on ceaselessly till he had gone by the Medicine Rock, where theHalf-breeds were showing a fire in their ceremonies, pious perhaps, butassuredly imprudent.
Here he halted. From all Dearborn and Joe had imparted to him, he knewthat friends were approaching and from the west. But should he proceedthitherward on the chance of crossing the trail of their outliers, orclimb the other side of the giant defile and join Corky Joe, with whomhe could be comparatively at ease, and if anything befell Kidd, as freeas now?
His brooding was almost tragically put an end to by a gunshot abovehim, and whilst he instinctively looked up, his poor horse leaped andfell sidewise to the ground. In the flash he had recognised the face ofthe Frenchman. He threw himself off the dying horse, and none too soon,for a second shot, from a large pistol this time, carried away his hat,and with a fragment of the bullet laid the flesh open on his cheekbone.He stumbled at the shock, and rolled on the grass beside the stiffeninghorse.
"Aha!" cried Paul, who could be heard descending in the brushwood, "SoI have served out my spy this time. Our dear captain, he does so hateto lose a man, that he sends after him. Who is it, anyhow, that I'vepeppered?"
Leon remained prone, but slewed his gun round ready. As he lay, thedead steed formed a rampart: he was well posted.
"He's my meat," muttered the Frenchman, holding on by a bush andpeering down through the gloom.
"Not precisely!" interrupted another voice, on the same level; "It isyou, dog, who shall die!"
On this threat from an unexpected quarter, Paul dropped to the nextledge and jumped behind a tree. Leon rose slowly and cautiously, andlooked up. By the stranger's voice he had, he believed, recognisedDearborn.
He and the bandit were at the limits of a comparatively clear space.The youth stole off obliquely to the right so as to left flank theFrenchman. He aimed his rifle, and, leaving shelter, cried so loudlythat the Englishman could also know him by his voice:
"You are all wrong. Mr. Paul, it is you who must die."
Lottery Paul looked at him steadily and replied:
"Maybe--two to one is odds--but you shall lead the way to Kingdom come."
But before he had time to change the direction of his piece, bearing onthe Englishman, Leon fired, knowing what kind of murderous fellow hewas.
Over he rolled, clawing up the moss, with a fractured skull.
Dearborn ran up. But at the same time there was a noise in the thicket,and several men appeared. Nothing was more impressive than thispeopling of the solitude in such obscurity.
"Drop your guns!" shouted one of the newcomers, authoritatively; "We'reall friends here, I reckon."
"Bill Williams!"
It was the Cherokee and Filditch, and his eight or ten men besides.
"What's the meaning of all this?" said Filditch, as there was a groupformed around the dead robber and the guide and the servant of CaptainKidd.
"In the first place," said the hunter, "there's your son in that youngman. It is a sufficient card of introduction that he has rubbed out oneof the vermin anyway, though we are lucky if their confounded rattle ofshots does not spoil the scheme."
"My son!"
"Yes, Rosa's brother," went on the hunter. "We won't mind you two.Well, Mr. Dearborn, out of the trap?"
"Yes. I was looking for some of you, when I found there was a horsemanbelow, and, on descending, was in time to see him overturned by acouple of shots from that ruffian. But the boy did not require myintervention. He avenged himself."
"Good boy! Well, now, all your information."
As soon as the hunter learnt details of the arrangement of the enemy,he formed a fresh variation, or rather supplement to the plan.
"Gentlemen," said Bill, thereupon, "over there, across the canyon, arethe women and children. We will go straight to their camp. The guardknow Leon and Mr. Dearborn, and, anyhow, Joe, their lieutenant, willaccept them and remove any doubts. They will say they came back fromthe captain, who requites every spare hand, and decoy them into thebushes, where they must roaster them. The remainder should be but agulp and they're gone, to us."
All is fair in war as in love. Dearborn accepted the task.
"Can you spare your son?" asked Jim of Filditch, beside whom stood Leon.
"I would like to go with him, Jim. I want a good deal to see this younglady who was such a comfort to Rosa."
"Go along, then."
Into the fog dived the detachment--Dearborn, Filditch, and Leon;Cherokee Bill as conductor, and a few men.
The others concluded all preparations for the desperate fight.
But it was not till half after ten that the stubborn fog, torn anddrifted away by the sun and one of those strong gales which sweep up acanyon so lofty at the sides, melted away like a playhouse gauze andunmasked the sunny landscape.
Spite of this theatrical discovery, no one betrayed himself. Never hadthe desert seemed more untroubled. An undisturbed calm soothed themajestic solitude, and yet many men, strangers to one another, werestraining to fly at the throat with ferocious rage fur gains vaguelydefined.
At this moment, a red scout leaped up among the hunters' pickets, withthe sign of friendliness and that he was a Blood Indian.
"Well, brother?" demanded Ridge.
"The Half-breeds slipped us during the fog, and have joined the goldrobbers though not intermixing."
"They had some suspicion."
"The chiefs conjecture that something evil before them in the mad rootswamp appalled them."
"Maybe Ahnemekee is heading them off there."
The scout shook his head as if he did not believe the Crows wouldventure so near the hallowed ground.
"In any case, we are ready. Return to your comrades and begin thebattle. We shall also advance if we are not attacked."
"Good!" and the grinning demon bounded away along the hillside.
Ver
y soon the scream of the grey eagle arose, shrill and prolonged.
Firing was opened with that absence of unison betokening that bothsides were irregulars. The sound seemed to approach. All at once thewar whoops of the savage union resounded like a cannon shot. Thegunfire became more intense, and painful cries were tempering cheersand yells of triumph.
Kidd had indeed found the Crows in the dwarf wood, and feared tocross a mad root (Indian turnip) marsh in their teeth. He began afeigned retreat and enticed them into the mouth of the canyon wherethe Bois-Brules fell on them, running down the slopes and almostannihilating them in the charge. The few survivors were carried by theimpetus in among the rocks and pools of the bottomland, where they wereslaughtered almost to a man. But even as the Canadians raised a cryof victory, the Piegans and their allies were rushing upon the whitemen in much the same manner. The Half-breeds hastened to coalesce withtheir confederates, and strengthen them against this onset. There wasan obstinate struggle, the Indians seeking to detain the whole whilstthey encircled them. Kidd, on the contrary, endeavoured to retireup the canyon and regain the tableland on high, where Joe and therearguard were posted. It was a natural fort.
But suddenly, out of the most innocent bushes, but which had not beenplanted there across the way when they passed along, a deadly firegushed from rifles far more potent than the Indians.
The bandits and the Manitobans were caught between two fires.Nevertheless, whilst the red men seemed the more numerous, the firingelsewhere allowed a sanguine man to believe that these new assailantswere so limited in force that they were obliged to ambush themselves.
Kidd flourished his Spanish rapier, rallied his men, and shouted:
"Over them! Through them! It's our only chance. Come on, boys, wherewe have comrades!" and the column ran into the hunters' fire. At thesame time, common enough when an enemy falter, the Indians whoopeddiabolically and charged the Half-breeds.
They and Kidd had not only the flank but the front fire to sustain, andnearly every second man seemed to fall.
However, those who escaped death, if not wounds, scrambled into thebushes. They were ungarrisoned, being merely a line beyond the realentrenchment, moat, and brushwood _chevaux de frize_.
The conflict became horrible when the bandits and Half-breeds, nowserried together with little order, were brought up, all standing,against the barricades. They gave up hope, and so furiously fought thatnone dreamt of asking quarter. Forming a rampart of their own dead, andof those of the redskins who had rushed on the guns too rashly, thedetermined remnant held out, dumb, calm, and gloomy, like men of stone,certain of death, but bravely selling their lives.
Overcome with horror and pity for such a sublime resolution, Jim Ridgeunexpectedly sprang over the breastwork, followed by Leon, who knewmost of the sufferers, and shouted in a voice everybody heard:
"Quit of shooting! It's too all-fired mean to butcher them when theystand out so well."
On both sides he was obeyed; so much authority was in the voice of onefor whom the reds and whites felt a profound respect, and to whom theyknew they owed so much of success.
Without any weapons, the Yager, still accompanied by the generous boys,advanced up to the resistants till near enough to pull hair. At thewall of dead men they stopped.
Kidd was binding up a wound; Dagard was the ostensible leader.
"What do you want?" he asked, lowering his rifle and pistol, both handsbeing thus occupied.
"We come to offer you life. Injins like 'sand' in a man, and your gritis first brand."
"We asked no quarter," was the proud reply. "We would have given none,I daresay. We are not plumb played out, and we mean to die pullingtrigger."
"Yes, we are 'on' that," chorused the others.
"Now, don't be silly. I grant you are not used up, and our spoilingyour hopes must 'stubborn' ye. But, by the Great Star! You have mightylittle to go on with. Look at the slope, full of Injins as a book ofletters; not the kind loud on a whoop and singing small when they haverevolvers and scalpers to meet. You had better hear my offers, for I am'white' on this thing, and I am about the only man who can snatch yeout of the burning."
"I'm thankful, old hunter, but your words now are like wheels of thethistledown--they sail away on the wind. You have cut too deep forbalsam. You have allied yourself with those reds agin' your colour, andall we want is revenge for your slaughtering our mates."
"Vengeance!" cried his men, and Kidd's.
"But, let me straighten out things," persisted Ridge, "in Heaven'sname! I offer you life and freedom too."
"You may straighten out our corpses if you like. Meanwhile, we attachno faith in your words, and pledges, and good-for-nothing advice. Backwith you! We are going to hold our end of this unequal combat up to thelast."
He lifted his firearms so threateningly that the others interpretedthe action as a signal for resumed hostilities. A rattling dischargeensued. Leon threw himself frantically before his granduncle, andreceived at least one bullet which would not otherwise have missed him.The youth fell, and the Yager dropped also, but this time to shield himand out of prudence. Over their heads a double volley crossed. Uponthis sudden aggression, reasonably regarded as treachery, the battlerenewed itself with unequalled bloodthirstiness on the confederates'part, and constant resolve on that of the foes.
Meanwhile, though under fire, Jim's first act was to see how his nephewwas hurt. He uttered an outcry in joy amid the whizzing bullets,hurtling arrows, and falling boughs severed by the missiles: Leon waspale, but unwounded. The ball had flattened itself on the buckle ofhis belt, dented it, but not penetrated. The blow was a smart one, andknocked all the breath out of his body; but in a few minutes he cameround, and was delighted to find that he had saved the old man's life.
During this the defenders had been hemmed in closely, fairly pushed outof their little fort, and were being mowed down. It was no fight, butcarnage--a massacre which gives a name to the spot to this day.
Leon saw that the French Half-breed was literally pulled down, like abull on whom the dogs cluster, by several of the Piegans and trappers.
"Oh! I must save that brave fellow," cried he.
Springing like a panther into the medley, he pulled off and pushed offthe assailants, and embraced the Manitoban with both arms.
"My prisoner!" he shouted.
"His meat!" added Jim Ridge, who had closely followed.
"Back!" said Filditch, running up and repulsing the baffled men, who,however, betook themselves to other game.
Dagard looked sadly about him. Of his own race, hardly another saveMargottet was upright anywhere near him. He shook his head despairingly.
"My poor children," said he in French, stifling a sob.
"Come out of this," cried Leon, offering to draw him away.
"I thank you, generous boy," was the answer with a noble courtesy,repulsing him gently, "and you, too, brave old hunter," he subjoined,addressing Ridge, "but your interference is useless. I am catching thehot soup deservedly for having linked myself with a chain gang. Lookround! All the boys from Red River are dead, or gasping their last,under our feet. I am not seeking to escape the massacre. But, anyhow,here goes to save my top hair!"
And before anybody could thrust out a hand, he drew one of those pocketpistols, loaded to the muzzle, which frontier men often carry expresslyto blow off the skull pan, in order to rend the scalp to shreds andremove the suicide from the tortures. He clapped the muzzle to hisforehead, pulled the trigger, and fell headlong in the smoke, utteringone word:
"My country!"
Ridge and the youth recoiled, and even the Piegans were stupefied intoinaction.
"Good notion, boys!" cried Captain Kidd in his sarcastic voice, "Let ussave our topknots same fashion!"
Half a dozen pistol shots cracked, and as many of the bandits droppedto the earth. But what was the amazement, though only temporary, of thesavages, on rushing forward, to find that the supposed suicides hadcrawled away in the smoke!
With
marvellous presence of mind, Kidd, under pretence of imitating theHalf-breed's heroism, had turned the act into a "dodge." They heard thelaughing, taunting whoop of his little band of survivors as they raceddown the slope and glided among the boulders.
Some of the reds took up the chase, and others remained, hewing andhacking the corpses with spite and pitiless malignity.
Ridge collected a few of his immediate followers and hastened afterthe fugitive gold robber. The whole of the bottomland rang with theyells of the pursuers, the red men delighting in the ruse of Kidd, whomnow they believed a foeman worthy of their fiendish ingenuity at thetorture stake.