The Plow-Woman Part 23

Matthews straightened up.

She put out one arm and measured a small length upon it. "When our warriors come, thus short a s.p.a.ce will it take to rid the land," she said. And was gone before any could answer.

There was a long "Ho-o-o!" of a.s.sent.

"What's this all about?" asked Colonel c.u.mmings.

"She wants me t' go," said Matthews.

"Well, so do I."

The Indians conferred among themselves. Suddenly, as if they had reached a decision, they fell silent and settled back. Lame Foot spoke.

"In the Moon of Wild Strawberries," he said, "the sun is warm and the gra.s.s is growing." He turned to the interpreter. "Ask our brothers to send the women then, _and follow them_. We shall go free; and as we go, we shall free the land."

"But if your brothers cannot come?" said Matthews.

Lame Foot answered. "The white chief will send us to Standing Rock Agency. From there, braves will go out to hunt--and arrows fly silently.

There are some of two tips. These bite like the rattlesnake----"

Matthews rubbed his chin. He knew that what Lounsbury had told him in the colonel's library was true. All legal and moral claims to the valuable town site across the river were gone. He could secure the Bend now only by underhand means. And here were those who would do what he dared not.

"They make a cunning wound," continued Lame Foot, "and no one finds the arrow."

Colonel c.u.mmings was growing impatient. "Interpret, interpret," he ordered.

"They think it's all up with 'em if I don't go," said Matthews. He looked down thoughtfully. The trip would be a comparatively short one, and offered good reward. Whatever happened, if the Indians kept their word with him, he would have both the pay and the land.

"Will they tell me where the camp is?" asked the Colonel.

Matthews met his eye. "Ye-e-e-s," he answered. "If _I_ go." He addressed the warriors: "If your promise is a promise----"

An old chief caught his arm. "We are not liars," he said.

"It is a task for a child," added Lame Foot.

"Enough," answered Matthews. To Colonel c.u.mmings he said, "I'm your man, sir."

"Good!"

Then the interpreter and the Indians, with the commanding officer unwittingly taking a part, sealed their compact in a pipe of peace.

CHAPTER XIV

ANOTHER PROMISE

The green pung was ten miles or more beyond Clark's before the section-boss recovered appreciably from his long sulk. "What d' y'

s'pose Lounsbury reckoned could happen t' my gals?" he demanded of David Bond.

The evangelist shook the reins at Shadrach. "A storm, cold, want," he replied. "There are many evils that might befall two young women alone in a shanty on the prairie."

"Wal, nothin' 's ever happened t' 'em before," declared Lancaster. But he whistled to stay a change in good fortune, and rapped the wood of the wagon-box with his bare knuckles.

David Bond busied himself with urging on his horse. "G.o.d will watch over them," he said devoutly. "'Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.'"

The section-boss sniffed. Sure of the safe trend of his affairs, he was in a mood to scoff at any religious allusion. Reverence, with him, was entirely a matter of urgent physical need. He had called to his Maker but twice in his life: once, when an ugly-tempered peon threatened him with a spade; again, when, falling from his swiftly moving flat-car, he felt the heavy wheels grinding him, flesh and bone.

"Storm kain't tech th' shack," he said proudly. "She 's built like a ship, t' stan' any win'. She's warm, too, an' thet Injun, he brings us plenty of wood. An' they's grub 'nough t' las'."

The evangelist was politely attentive.

"They's jes' one man thet might come botherin' 'em," Lancaster went on.

"But 'tain't likely he'll see these parts before spring. An' _Ah_ don'

b'lieve he'll come then."

David Bond set his brows together. The previous night an unshaped thought had made him pause a second before leaving Dallas. Now, that thought became a suspicion--a suspicion of the real truth. "A man?" he said questioningly; "a man?"

Being thus prompted on the subject of the claim, Lancaster was willing to proceed, for he had no feeling that he was obeying Dallas. "Ah'm speakin' of a man thet filed on my section in July," he said. "His six months is up t'-day. So Ah reckon he'll hev t' work a new piece of track. For Ah inten' t' hang on t' thet quarter--it's goin' t' be worth a pile."

The evangelist threw him a swift glance. "What is the name of that man?"

he asked.

"Ah dunno. Ah clean gone an' f'got it. Ah ought t' wrote it down----"

"Would you know it if you heard it?"

"W'y, yes--'twas some ornery name."

"Was it--was it Matthews?"

Complete bewilderment spoke from Lancaster's wide-open eyes and mouth.

He whirled about upon the evangelist and seized the reins. Shadrach came to a squatting stop, his ears turning round to catch a command. "Thet's it! Thet's it!" cried the section-boss. "An' how d' _you_ know?"

The two men looked at each other in silence. Lancaster's face was dark with distrust; David Bond's, pale with alarm.

"How?" exclaimed the latter, when his tongue at last answered his will; "how? Because Matthews came north with me yesterday!"

If Shadrach possessed the sense his master claimed for him, he must have concluded then and there that the human beings in the pung had gone stark mad. For after some excited shouting, the one to the other, they brought him square about and sent him scurrying back toward Brannon.

They did not retrace their way, but steered due south, thus saving the few miles that could take them again through Clark's. Shadrach approved the change in direction, which pointed to a snug corner beside the friendly bull-calf, and fairly skimmed the hard snow. He had already gone forty long miles since morning. Yet, undaunted, he took up the return with good zest, holding a smart pace unwearily. He breathed deep, and his long Roman nose--thrust out on a line with his rocking back--smoked like an eager charger's.

In the first half-hour that followed the evangelist's disquieting admission, he listened to a wild, profane tirade: against himself, for having failed to speak of Matthews; against Dallas, for being in such a tarnal hurry; against Lounsbury on general principles. The section-boss found only one person wholly exempt from blame--himself. So he cursed, he threatened, he wrung his hands, he grabbed a crutch, and, leaning forward, poked the straining flanks of the white horse.

"Gentle, gentle," admonished David Bond. "He goes fastest who goes steadily. I have driven Shadrach ninety miles in twenty-two hours. And if we are patient with him now, he will get us home by reveille."