Wigwam and War-path Or the Royal Chief in Chains Part 40

Riddle again repeats the warning: "Gentlemen, I have been talking with my wife; she has never told me a lie, or deceived me, and she says if you go to-day you will be killed. We wash our hands of all blame. If you must go, _go well armed_! I give you my opinion, because I do not want to be blamed hereafter." Riddle retires and Gen. Canby enters. Riddle's warning is repeated to him. The general replies: "I have had a field-gla.s.s watching the trail all the morning; there are but four men at the council tent. I have given orders for the signal station to keep a strict watch, and, in the event of an attack, the army will move at once against them,"--meaning the Modocs. Dr. Thomas expressed his determination to keep the compact, saying that he is in the hands of G.o.d, and proposes to do his duty and leave the result with his Maker. He thinks Riddle and his wife are excited; that they are not reliable. "I differ from you, gentlemen; I think we ought to heed the warning. If we do go, we must go armed; otherwise we will be attacked. I am opposed to going in any other way."

Mr. Dyer says: "I agree with Mr. Meacham; we ought to go prepared for defence. We ought to heed the warning we have had." Gen. Canby repeats, "With the precaution we have taken there can be no danger." Dr. Thomas also saying, "The agreement is to go unarmed; we must be faithful on our part to the compact, and leave it all in the hands of G.o.d."

Previous to starting, Dr. Thomas goes to the sutler's store and pays for some goods bought for the Modocs the day previous, when this compact was made. From this act it would appear that he has doubts about the result.

Indeed, to another gentleman he says that he is not _sure that he will return_; but "I will do my duty faithfully, and trust G.o.d to bring it out all right." Gen. Canby is holding council with Gen. Gilliam and other officers. He leaves them, coming to his own marquee, says something to his faithful orderly,--Scott,--then to Monahan, his secretary, and then, in full dress he walks to the "Peace Commission tent," where he is joined by Dr. Thomas and _starts for the council tent_. Side by side they walk away.

The doctor is dressed in a suit of light-gray Scotch tweed. The officers and men are standing around their tents, talking of the danger ahead. They differ in opinion, and all declare their readiness to fly to the rescue in the event of treachery. Bogus is with the general and the doctor. He carries a rifle; it is his own. In that rifle is a ball that will crush through the brain of Dr. Thomas in less than two hours. Having seen them start, Bogus hastens to the council tent, scanning the route as he goes, to make sure that no soldiers are secreted among the rocks.

A few moments since, Meacham and Fairchild were in earnest conversation.

Meacham says, "John, what do you think? is it safe to go?"--"Wait here a minute, and let me have another talk with Bogus; I think I can tell," says Fairchild. After a few minutes he returns, whittling a stick. Slowly shaking his head, he says, "I can't make out from Bogus what to think. I don't like the looks of things; still he talks all right; may be it's all on the square." Meacham replies, "_I must go_ if the general and the doctor do." Fairchild goes again to Bogus; but the general and doctor are starting. Bogus is impatient, and cuts short the talk. Meacham is hurrying to the tent. He seats himself on a roll of blankets, and with a pencil writes,--let us look over his shoulder and see what:

LAVA BEDS, April 11th, 1873.

MY DEAR WIFE:--

You may be a widow to-night; you shall not be a coward's wife. I go to save my honor. John A. Fairchild will forward my valise and valuables. The chances are all against us. I have done my best to prevent this meeting. I am in no wise to blame.

Yours to the end,

ALFRED.

P. S.--I give Fairchild six hundred and fifty dollars, currency, for you.

A. B. M.

"Here, John, send these to my wife, Salem, Oregon, if I don't get back."

Mr. Dyer approaches, and says, "Mr. Fairchild, send this parcel to Mrs.

Dyer."--"Mr. Dyer, why do you go, feeling as you do? I would not if I were in your place. I must go, since I am the chairman of the commission, or be disgraced." Mr. Dyer replies, "_If you go, I am going. I will not stay, if all the rest go._"

By the tent door the Indian woman is weeping, while holding a horse by a rope. Standing beside her is a white man, and also a boy ten years old.

They are talking in Modoc, and we may not know what they are saying. That little group is Frank Riddle and his wife Tobey, and their little boy Jeff. Their warning has been disregarded. They are loth to give up their efforts to save the commissioners and Canby.

"Tobey, give me my horse; we must go now."

"Meacham, you no go; you get kill. You no get your horse. The Modocs mad now; they kill all you men." She winds the rope around her waist, and throws herself upon the ground, and, in the wildest excitement, shrieks in broken sobs, "Meacham, you no go; _you no go! You get kill! you get kill!_"

Can the man resist this appeal to save his friends and himself? His lips quiver and his face is white; he is struggling with his pride. His color changes. Thank G.o.d, he is going to make another effort to prevent the doom that threatens! He calls to Canby and Thomas. They await his approach.

Laying a hand on the shoulder of each, he says, "_Gentlemen, my cool, deliberate opinion is that, if we go to the council tent to-day, we will be carried home to-night on the stretchers; all cut to pieces_. I tell you, I dare not ignore Tobey's warning. I believe her, and I am not willing to go."

The general answers first: "Mr. Meacham, you are unduly cautious. There are but _five_ Indians at the council tent, and they dare not attack us."

"General, the Modocs _dare do anything. I know them better than you do, and I know they are desperate. Braver men and worse men never lived on this continent than we are to meet at that tent yonder._"

The general replies, "I have left orders for a watch to be kept, and, if they attack us, the army will move at once against them. We have agreed to meet them, and we must do it."

Dr. Thomas remarks, "I have agreed to meet them, and I _never break my word. I am in the hands of G.o.d. If He requires my life, I am ready for the sacrifice._"

Meacham is still unwilling to go, and says, "If we must go, let us be well armed."

"Brother Meacham, the agreement is to go _unarmed_, and we must do as we have agreed."

"_But the Modocs will all be doubly armed. They won't keep their part of the compact; they never have, and they won't now._ Let John Fairchild go with us, him and me with a revolver each, and I will not interpose any more objections to going. Do this, and I pledge you my life that we bring our party out all right. I know Fairchild. I know he is a dead shot, and he and I can whip a dozen Indians in open ground with revolvers."

"Brother Meacham, you and Fairchild are fighting men. _We are going to make peace, not war._ Let us go as we agreed, and trust in G.o.d."

"But, doctor, _G.o.d does not drop revolvers down just when and where you need them_."

"My dear brother, you are getting to be very irreligious. _Put your trust in G.o.d. Pray more, and don't think so much about fighting._"

"Doctor, I am just as much of a peace man as you are, and I am as good a friend as the Indians ever had on this coast, and I know in _whom to put my trust in the hour of peril_; but I know these Modocs, and I know that they won't keep their word, and I want to be ready for trouble if it comes. I don't want to go unarmed."

"The compact is to go unarmed, and I am not willing to jeopardize our lives by breaking the compact."

"Well, since we must go, and I am to manage the talk, I will grant to them any demand they make, rather than give them an excuse; that is, if they are armed,--as I know they will be,--and more than five Indians will be there, too."

Gen. Canby replied, "Mr. Meacham, I have had more or less connection with the Indian service for thirty years, and I _have never made a promise that could not be carried out. I am not willing now to promise anything that we don't intend to perform._"

"Nor I," breaks in the doctor. "That is why Indians have no confidence in white men. I am not willing to have you make a promise that we don't intend to keep."

"Hear me, gentlemen, I only propose doing so in the event that the Modocs have broken the compact by being armed. I don't believe in false promises any more than you do, only in such an event; and I tell you I would promise anything an Indian demanded before I would give him an excuse to take my life, or yours. I say that is not dishonest, and my conscience would never condemn me for saving my life by such strategy."

The general and the doctor both insist on making no promise that is not _bona fide_. Meacham's efforts to prevent the meeting fails. He turns slowly, and with hesitating steps goes towards the peace tent in the camp.

Canby and Thomas start off side by side. Meacham turns again:--

"Once more, gentlemen, I beg you not to go. I have too much to live for now; too many are depending on me; I do not want to die. If you go, I must go to save my name from dishonor."

"That squaw has got you scared, Meacham. I don't see why you should be so careful of your scalp; it is not much better than my own."

"Yes, the squaw _has_ scared Meacham; that's true. _I am afraid; I have reason to be._ But we will see before the sun sets who is the worst scared."

O my G.o.d! They refuse to turn back. Their fate is sealed. The action of these few minutes involves so much of human woe; so much blood, so many valuable lives, so much of vast importance to _two_ races. Oh, how many hearts must bleed from the decision of that hour! We feel sad as they walk away. Is it true that the stately form of the gallant Christian soldier is to fall on the rocks, pierced with Modoc bullets, and that savage hands will in two short hours rudely strip from him the uniform he so proudly wears? Can it be that a Modoc bullet will go crashing through the head that has worn well-earned laurels so long? Must the n.o.ble heart that now beats with kindest throbs for even those who are to murder him so soon, beat but two hours more, and then alone on the gray rocks of this wild sh.o.r.e cease its throbbing forever? Can it be that the lofty form of Dr.

Thomas will fall to rise no more; that the lips that have so eloquently told of a Saviour's love will turn white until the blood from his own wounds smothers the sound of his last prayer, while impious hands strip him of his suit of gray, and mock him in his dying moments?

Let us not look at that picture longer, but follow the other commissioner back to the waiting, anxious friends who gather around the door of the Peace Commission tent. He does not step with his usual quick motion; his heart is heavy, and visions of a little home, with weeping wife and children, enter his mind. Funeral pageants pa.s.s and mourning emblems hang now over his soul. But he is firm, and his closed lips declare that his mind is made up.

"Fairchild, promise me upon your sacred honor, one thing. Will you promise?"

The gray-eyed man with earnest face answered,--

"I promise you anything in my power, Meacham."

"Promise me, then, that, if my body is brought in mutilated and cut to pieces, you will bury me here, so that my family shall never be tortured by the sight. Do you promise?"

"O Meacham, you will come back all right."

"No, no; I won't. I feel now that I won't; there is no chance for that. I tell you, John, there is but one alternative,--_death_ or _disgrace_. I can die; but my name never has been and never shall be dishonored."

Fairchild draws his revolver from his side and says, "Here, Meacham, take this; you can bang brimstone out of 'em with it."