The Fur Bringers Part 58

Thus ended the Kakisa rebellion. The Indians had no further thought of resistance. The b.u.t.ts of their guns dropped to the ground, and they stared at the oncoming troopers with characteristic apathy.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

ANOTHER CHANGE OF JAILERS.

The police advanced to within twenty-five yards and, drawing closer together, halted.

"Watusk, come out of that!" barked the inspector in his parade ground voice.

Ambrose had his first look at him. He was a little man, trigly built, with a bullet head under a closely cropped thatch of white. A heavy white mustache bisected his florid face.

No one could have mistaken him in any dress, for aught but a soldier.

He did not look as if patience and fair-mindedness were included among his virtues, which was unfortunate for Ambrose as the event proved.

As Watusk gave no sign of stirring, he was seized by many hands and boosted over the edge of the pit. He rolled over, knocking down some of the bushes and finally rose to his feet, standing with wretched, hang-dog mien.

His appearance, with the frock coat all rubbed with earth and the military gear hanging askew, caused the troopers to shout with laughter. Here was a change from the fire-eater of half an hour before.

"Ho!" cried Inspector Egerton. "The conqueror of the English!"

Watusk drew closer and began to whine insinuatingly. "I sorry I mak'

that talk, me. I can' help it at all. Ambrose Doane tell me that. He put his medicine on me. I sick."

Ambrose attempted to cry out in his angry astonishment, but only a m.u.f.fled groan issued through the handkerchief. He was not visible to the troopers where he stood in the corner, and he could not move.

"Is Ambrose Doane there?" demanded the officer.

Watusk quickly turned and spoke a sentence in Kakisa. Ambrose saw the look of craft in his yellow face. One of the men who guarded Ambrose drew his knife and cut his bonds and untied the handkerchief.

Ambrose's heart beat high. It never occurred to him that they could believe the wretched liar! He drew himself over the edge of the pit, helped by those behind.

"h.e.l.lo!" he cried.

There was no answering greeting. The faces before him were as grim as stone. For Watusk they had a kind of good-humored contempt--for him a cold and deadly scorn.

Evidently their minds were made up in advance. The inspector twirled his mustache and regarded him with a hard, speculative eye.

Ambrose's heart failed him terribly. These were men that he admired.

"What's the matter?" he cried. "Do you believe this liar? I have been a prisoner up to this moment--bound hand and foot and gagged. The marks are still on my wrists!"

Inspector Egerton did not look at his wrists. "H-m! Not bad!" he said grimly. "You're a cool hand, my man!"

The blood rushed to Ambrose's face. "For G.o.d's sake, will you tell me what I could hope to gain by stirring up the Indians?" he demanded.

"Don't ask me," said the inspector. "You were ready to grasp at any straw, I expect."

In the face of injustice so determined, it was only humiliating for Ambrose to attempt to defend himself. His face hardened. He set his jaw and shrugged callously.

"You're under arrest," said the inspector.

"On what charge?" Ambrose sullenly demanded.

"A mere trifle," said the inspector ironically. "Unlawful entry, conspiracy, burglary, and a.s.sault with intent to kill. To which we shall probably add treason."

Ambrose made no answer. In his heart he had hoped that the empty charges at Fort Enterprise had fallen of their own weight before this.

The inspector turned his attention back to Watusk. "Deliver over your a.r.s.enal!" he said.

Watusk meekly unfastened his various belts and handed them to a trooper. Having observed Ambrose's rebuff, his face had become smooth and inscrutable again.

By this time the Indians had issued out of the pit by the rear and were standing in an uncertain group a little way off.

"Order them to pile their weapons on the ground," commanded the inspector. "Let each man make a mark upon the stock of his rifle so that he can identify it when it is returned. Send messengers to the other pits with orders for all the men to bring their guns here."

Watusk was eager to obey him.

"Where is your camp?" the inspector asked him.

Watusk pointed. "One mile," he said.

"After we get the guns you shall go there with me and we will examine the people."

Ambrose, hearing this, turned to the trooper who was nearest. "If you go to the camp get me my dog, will you?" he asked sullenly.

"What's that?" demanded the inspector.

Ambrose explained where his dog was to be found. They looked at him curiously as if surprised that such a desperate criminal should be solicitous about a dog. The trooper promised to bring him.

Inspector Egerton continued to issue his orders. "Bafford, ride back and bring up the baggage. Have my tent pitched in the middle of the valley below. Emslie"--this was the yellow-haired youth--"I shall hold you responsible for the white prisoner. You needn't handcuff him. He couldn't escape if he wished to."

Ambrose had to undergo the humiliation of walking down hill at the stirrup of the young trooper's horse. Emslie showed a less hard face than some of the others.

Ambrose sought to establish relations with him by asking for tobacco.

He was hungry for speech with his own kind. But the look of cold contempt with which his request was granted precluded any further advances.

Upon Inspector Egerton's return from the Kakisa village a meal was served. Afterward the inspector sat at his folding-table inside his tent and held his investigations.

There was a deal of business to be transacted. In due course Ambrose was brought before him. Watusk, whose services were in continual demand as interpreter, was present, and several troopers.

"It is customary to ask a prisoner upon arrest if he has anything to say for himself," said the inspector. "I must warn you that anything you say may be used against you."

Ambrose felt their animosity like a wall around him. "What's the use?"

he said sullenly. "You've already convicted me in your own mind."

"What I think of your case has nothing to do with it," said the inspector coldly. "You will be brought before competent judges."