The Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail Part 39

"Oh, Dr. Martin!"

"But not just to-night."

"Oh, I knew it."

"Not to-night," I said. "I don't know what the outcome may be, but it looks as bad as it well can."

"Oh, that's all right," cried Mandy cheerfully. Her burden of responsibility was lifted. Her care was gone. "I knew it would be all right."

"Well, whether it will or not I cannot say. But one thing I do know, you've got to trot off to sleep. Show me the ropes and then off you go.

Who runs this camp anyway?"

"Oh, the Chief does, Chief Trotting Wolf. I will call him," cried Mandy.

"He has been very good to me. I will get him." And she ran from the tent to find the Chief.

"Isn't she wonderful?" said Moira.

"Wonderful? I should say so. But she is played right out I can see,"

replied the doctor. "I must get comfortable quarters for you both."

"But do you not want some one?" said Moira. "Do you not want me?"

"Do I want you?" echoed the doctor, looking at her as she stood in the glow of the westering sun shining through the canvas tent. "Do I want you?" he repeated with deliberate emphasis. "Well, you can just bet that is just what I do want."

A slight flush appeared on the girl's face.

"I mean," she said hurriedly, "cannot I be of some help?"

"Most certainly, most certainly," said the doctor, noting the flush.

"Your help will be invaluable after a bit. But first you must get Mrs.

Cameron to sleep. She has been on this job, I understand, for three days. She is quite played out. And you, too, need sleep."

"Oh, I am quite fit. I do not need sleep. I am quite ready to take my sister-in-law's place, that is, as far as I can. And you will surely need some one--to help you I mean." The doctor's eyes were upon her face. Under his gaze her voice faltered. The glow of the sunset through the tent walls illumined her face with a wonderful radiance.

"Miss Moira," said the doctor with abrupt vehemence, "I wish I had the nerve to tell you just how much--"

"Hush!" cried the girl, her glowing face suddenly pale, "they are coming."

"Here is the Chief, Dr. Martin," cried Mandy, ushering in that stately individual. The doctor saluted the Chief in due form and said:

"Could we have another tent, Chief, for these ladies? Just beside this tent here, so that they can have a little sleep."

The Chief grunted a doubtful acquiescence, but in due time a tent very much dilapidated was pitched upon the clean dry ground close beside that in which the sick boy lay. While this was being done the doctor was making a further examination of his patient. With admiring eyes, Moira followed the swift movements of his deft fingers. There was no hesitation. There was no fumbling. There was the sure indication of accurate knowledge, the obvious self-confidence of experience in everything he did. Even to her untutored eyes the doctor seemed to be walking with a very firm tread.

At length, after an hour's work, he turned to Mandy who was a.s.sisting him and said:

"Now you can both go to sleep. I shall need you no more till morning. I shall keep an eye on him. Off you go. Good-night."

"You will be sure to call me if I can be of service," said Mandy.

"I shall do no such thing. I expect you to sleep. I shall look after this end of the job."

"He is very sure of himself, is he not?" said Moira in a low tone to her sister-in-law as they pa.s.sed out of the tent.

"He has a right to be," said Mandy proudly. "He knows his work, and now I feel as if I can sleep in peace. What a blessed thing sleep is," she added, as, without undressing, she tumbled on to the couch prepared for her.

"Is Dr. Martin very clever? I mean, is he an educated man?"

"What?" cried Mandy. "Dr. Martin what?"

"Is he very clever? Is he--an educated man?"

"Eh, what?" she repeated, yawning desperately. "Oh, I was asleep."

"Is he clever?"

"Clever? Well, rather--" Her voice was trailing off again into slumber.

"And is he an educated man?"

"Educated? Knows his work if that's what you mean. Oh-h--but I'm sleepy."

"Is he a gentleman?"

"Eh? What?" Mandy sat up straight. "A gentleman? I should say so! That is, he is a man all through right to his toe-tips. And gentle--more gentle than any woman I ever saw. Will that do? Good-night." And before Moira could make reply she was sound asleep.

Before the night was over the opportunity was given the doctor to prove his manhood, and in a truly spectacular manner. For shortly after midnight Moira found herself sitting bolt upright, wide-awake and clutching her sister-in-law in wild terror. Outside their tent the night was hideous with discordant noises, yells, whoops, cries, mingled with the beating of tom-toms. Terrified and trembling, the two girls sprang to the door, and, lifting the flap, peered out. It was the party of braves returning from the great powwow so rudely interrupted by Cameron.

They were returning in an evil mood, too, for they were enraged at the arrest of Eagle Feather and three accomplices in his crime, disappointed in the interruption of their sun dance and its attendant joys of feast and song, and furious at what appeared to them to be the overthrow of the great adventure for which they had been preparing and planning for the past two months. This was indeed the chief cause of their rage, for it seemed as if all further attempts at united effort among the Western tribes had been frustrated by the discovery of their plans, by the flight of their leader, and by the treachery of the Blackfeet Chief, Running Stream, in surrendering their fellow-tribesmen to the Police.

To them that treachery rendered impossible any coalition between the Piegans and the Blackfeet. Furthermore, before their powwow had been broken up there had been distributed among them a few bottles of whisky provided beforehand by the astute Sioux as a stimulus to their enthusiasm against a moment of crisis when such stimulus should be necessary. These bottles, in the absence of their great leader, were distributed among the tribes by Running Stream as a peace-offering, but for obvious reason not until the moment came for their parting from each other.

Filled with rage and disappointment, and maddened with the bad whisky they had taken, they poured into the encampment with wild shouting accompanied by the discharge of guns and the beating of drums. In terror the girls clung to each other, gazing out upon the horrid scene.

"Whatever is this, Mandy?" cried Moira.

But her sister-in-law could give her little explanation. The moonlight, glowing bright as day, revealed a truly terrifying spectacle. A band of Indians, almost naked and hideously painted, were leaping, shouting, beating drums and firing guns. Out from the tents poured the rest of the band to meet them, eagerly inquiring into the cause of their excitement.

Soon fires were lighted and kettles put on, for the Indian's happiness is never complete unless a.s.sociated with feasting, and the whole band prepared itself for a time of revelry.

As the girls stood peering out upon this terrible scene they became aware of the doctor standing at their side.

"Say, they seem to be cutting up rather rough, don't they?" he said coolly. "I think as a precautionary measure you had better step over into the other tent."

Hastily gathering their belongings, they ran across with the doctor to his tent, from which they continued to gaze upon the weird spectacle before them.

About the largest fire in the center of the camp the crowd gathered, Chief Trotting Wolf in the midst, and were harangued by one of the returning braves who was evidently reciting the story of their experiences and whose tale was received with the deepest interest and was punctuated by mad cries and whoops. The one English word that could be heard was the word "Police," and it needed no interpreter to explain to the watchers that the chief object of fury to the crowding, gesticulating Indians about the fire was the Policeman who had been the cause of their humiliation and disappointment. In a pause of the uproar a loud exclamation from an Indian arrested the attention of the band.

Once more he uttered his exclamation and pointed to the tent lately occupied by the ladies. Quickly the whole band about the fire appeared to bunch together preparatory to rush in the direction indicated, but before they could spring forward Trotting Wolf, speaking rapidly and with violent gesticulation, stood in their path. But his voice was unheeded. He was thrust aside and the whole band came rushing madly toward the tent lately occupied by the ladies.

"Get back from the door," said the doctor, speaking rapidly. "These chaps seem to be somewhat excited. I wish I had my gun," he continued, looking about the tent for a weapon of some sort. "This will do," he said, picking up a stout poplar pole that had been used for driving the tent pegs. "Stay inside here. Don't move till I tell you."

"But they will kill you," cried Moira, laying her hand upon his arm.