"I admit some small prejudice," said Sheriff Tom in the course of one of his numerous arguments with Walter Lowell. "When I see old Crane hanging around Bill Talpers's store, he looks to me jest like the cussed Comanche that rose right out of nowheres and scared me gray-headed when I was riding along all peaceful-like on the Picketwire. And that's the way it goes. Every Injun I see, big or little, resembles some redskin I had trouble with, back in early days. The only thing I can think of 'em doing is shaking buffalo6 robes and running off live stock—not raising steers to sell. I admit I'm behind the procession. I ain't ready yet to take my theology or my false teeth from an Injun preacher or dentist."
Lowell preferred Sheriff Tom's outspokenness7 to other forms of opposition8 and criticism which were harder to meet.
"Some day," he said to the sheriff, "you'll fall in line, but meantime if you can get rid of a pest like Bill Talpers for me, you'll do more for the Indians than they could get out of all the new leases that might be written."
"I've been working on Bill Talpers now for ten years and I ain't been able to git him to stick foot in a trap," was the sheriff's reply. "But I think he's getting to a point where he's all vain-like over the cunning he's shown, and he'll cash himself in, hoss and beaver9, when he ain't expecting to."
When the sheriff arrived at the agency, with the warrant for Fire Bear in his pocket, he found a string of saddle and pack animals tied in front of the office, under charge of two of the best cowmen on the reservation, White Man Walks and Many Coups10.
"I'll have your car put in with mine, Tom," said Lowell, who was dressed in cowpuncher attire11, even to leather chaparejos. "I know you're always prepared for riding. There's a saddle horse out there for you. We've some grub and a tent and plenty of bedding, as we may be out several days and find some rough going."
"I judge it ain't going to be any moonlight excursion on the Hudson, then, bringing in this Injun," observed Redmond.
Lowell motioned to the sheriff to step into the private office.
"Affairs are a little complicated," said the agent, closing the door. "Plenty Buffalo has turned up something that makes it look as if Jim McFann may know something about the murder."
"What's Plenty Buffalo found?"
"He discovered a track made by a broken shoe in that conglomeration12 of hoof13 marks at the scene of the murder."
"Why didn't he say so at the time?"
"Because he wasn't sure that it pointed14 to Jim McFann. But he'd been trailing McFann for bootlegging and was pretty sure Jim was riding a horse with a broken shoe. He got hold of an Indian we can trust—an Indian who stands pretty well with McFann—and had him hunt till he found Jim."
"Where was he?"
"McFann was hiding away up in the big hills. What made him light out there no one knows. That looked bad on the face of it. Then this Indian scout15 of ours, when he happened in on Jim's camp, found that McFann was riding a horse with a broken shoe."
"Looks as if we ought to bring in the half-breed, don't it?"
"Wait a minute. The broken shoe isn't all. Those pieces of rope that were used to tie that man to the stakes—they were cut from a rawhide16 lariat17."
"And Jim McFann uses that kind?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where McFann is hanging out?"
"He may have moved camp, but we can find him."
The sheriff frowned. Matters were getting more complicated than he had thought possible. From the first he had entertained only one idea concerning the murder—that Fire Bear had done the work, or that some of the reckless spirits under the rebellious18 youth had slain19 in a moment of bravado20.
"Well, it may be that McFann and Fire Bear's crowd had throwed in together and was all mixed up in the killing," remarked the sheriff. "A John Doe warrant ought to be enough to get everybody we want."
"We can get anybody that's wanted," said Lowell, "but you must remember one thing—you're dealing21 with people who are not used to legal procedure and who may resent wholesale22 arrests."
"You'll take plenty of Injun police along, I suppose."
"No—I'm not even going to take Plenty Buffalo. The whole police force and all the deputies you might be able to swear in in a week couldn't bring in Fire Bear if he gave the signal to the young fellows around him. We're going alone, except for those two Indians out there, who will just look after camp affairs for us."
"I dunno but you're right," observed Redmond after a pause, during which he keenly scrutinized23 the young agent's face. "Anyway, I ain't going to let it be said that you've got more nerve than I have. Let the lead hoss go where he chooses—I'll follow the bell."
"Another thing," said Lowell. "You're on an Indian reservation. These Indians have been looking to me for advice and other things in the last four years. If it comes to a point where decisive action has to be taken—"
"You're the one to take it," interrupted the sheriff. "From now on it's your funeral. I don't care what methods you use, so long as I git Fire Bear, and mebbe this half-breed, behind the bars for a hearing down at White Lodge24."
The men walked out of the office, and the sheriff was given his mount. The Indians swung the pack-horses into line, and the men settled themselves in their saddles as they began the long, plodding25 journey to the blue hills in the heart of the reservation.
The lodges26 of Fire Bear and his followers27 were placed in a circle, in a grove28 somber29 enough for Druidical sacrifice. White cliffs stretched high above the camp, with pine-trees growing at all angles from the interstices of rock. At the foot of the cliffs, and on the green slope that stretched far below to the forest of lodgepole pines, stood many conical, tent-like formations of rock. They were even whiter than the canvas tepees which were grouped in front of them. At any time of the day these formations were uncanny. In time of morning or evening shadow the effect upon the imagination was intensified30. The strange outcropping was repeated nowhere else. It jutted31 forth32, white and mysterious—a monstrous33 tenting-ground left over from the Stone Age. As if to deepen the effect of the weird34 stage setting, Nature contrived35 that all the winds which blew here should blow mournfully. The lighter36 breezes stirred vague whisperings in the pine-trees. The heavy winds wrought37 weird noises which echoed from the cliffs.
Lowell had looked upon the Camp of the Stone Tepees once before. There had been a chase for a cattle thief. It was thought he had hidden somewhere in the vicinity of the white semicircle, but he had not been found there, because no man in fear of pursuit could dwell more than a night in so ghostly a place of solitude38.
It had been late evening when Lowell had first seen the Camp of the Stone Tepees. He remembered the half-expectant way in which he had paused, thinking to see a white-clad priest emerge from one of the shadowy stone tents and place a human victim upon one of the sacrificial tablets in the open glade39. It was early morning when Lowell looked on the scene a second time. He and the sheriff had made a daylight start, leaving the Indians to follow with the pack-horses. It was a long climb up the slopes, among the pines, from the plains below. The trail, for the greater part of the way, had followed a stream which was none too easy fording at the best, and which regularly rose several inches every afternoon owing to the daily melting of late snows in the mountain heights. It was necessary to cross and recross the stream many times. Occasionally the horses floundered over smooth rocks and were nearly carried away. All four men were wet to the waist. Redmond, with memories of countless40 wider and more treacherous41 fords crowding upon him, merely jested at each new buffeting42 in the stream. The Indians were concerned only lest some pack-animal should fall in midstream. Lowell, a good horseman and tireless mountaineer, counted physical discomfort43 as nothing when such vistas44 of delight were being opened up.
The giant horseshoe in the cliffs was in semi-darkness when they came in sight of it. Lowell was in the lead, and he turned his horse and motioned to the sheriff to remain hidden in the trees that skirted the glade. The voice of a solitary45 Indian was flung back and forth in the curve of the cliffs. His back was toward the white men. If he heard them, he made no sign. He was wrapped in a blanket, from shoulders to heels, and was in the midst of a long incantation, flung at the beetling46 walls with their foot fringe of stone tents. The tepees of the Indians were hardly distinguishable from those which Nature had pitched on this world-old camping-ground. No sound came from the tents of the Indians. Probably the "big medicine" of the Indian was being listened to, but those who heard made no sign.
"It's Fire Bear," said Lowell, as the voice went on and the echoes fluttered back from the cliffs.
"He's sure making big medicine," remarked the sheriff. "They've picked one grand place for a camp. By the Lord! it even sort of gave me the shivers when I first looked at it. What'll we do?"
"Wait till he gets through," cautioned Lowell. "They'd come buzzing out of those tents like hornets if we broke in now, in all probability."
The sheriff's face hardened.
"Jest the same, that sort of thing ought to be stopped—all of it," he said.
"Do you stop every fellow that mounts a soap box, or, what's more likely, stands up on a street corner in an automobile47 and makes a Socialist48 speech?"
"No—but that's different."
"Why is it? An Indian reservation is just like a little nation. It has its steady-goers, and it has its share of the shiftless, and also it has an occasional Socialist, and once in a while a rip-snorting Anarchist49. Fire Bear doesn't know just what he is yet. He's made some pretty big medicine and made some prophecies that have come true and have gained him a lot of followers, but I can't see that it's up to me to stop him. Not that I have any cause to love that Indian over there in that blanket. He's been the cause of a lot of trouble. He's young and arrogant50. In a big city he would be a gang-leader. The police and the courts would find him a problem—and he's just as much, or perhaps more, of a problem out here in the wilds than he would be in town."
The sheriff made no reply, but watched Fire Bear narrowly. Soon the Indian ended his incantations, and the tents of his followers began opening and blanketed figures came forth. Lowell and the sheriff stepped out into the glade and walked toward the camp. The Indians grouped themselves about Fire Bear. There was something of defiance51 in their attitude, but the white men walked on unconcernedly, and, without any preliminaries, Lowell told Fire Bear the object of their errand.
"You're suspected of murdering that white man on the Dollar Sign road," said Lowell. "You and these young fellows with you were around there. Now you're wanted, to go to White Lodge and tell the court just what you know about things."
Fire Bear was one of the best-educated of the younger generation of Indians. He had carried off honors at an Eastern school, both in his studies and athletics52. But his haunts had been the traders' stores when he returned to the reservation. Then he became possessed53 of the idea that he was a medicine man. Fervor54 burned in his veins55 and fired his speech. The young fellows who had idled with him became his zealots. He began making prophecies which mysteriously worked out. He had prophesied56 a flood, and one came, sweeping57 away many lodges. When he and his followers were out of food, he had prophesied that plenty would come to them that day. It so happened that lightning that morning struck the trace chain on a load of wood that was being hauled down the mountain-side by a white leaser. The four oxen drawing the load were killed, and the white man gave the beef to the Indians, on condition that they would remove the hides for him. This had sent Fire Bear's stock soaring and had gained many recruits for his camp—even some of the older Indians joining.
Lowell had treated Fire Bear leniently58—too leniently most of the white men near the reservation had considered. With the Indians' religious ceremonials had gone the usual dancing. An inspector59 from Washington had sent in a recommendation that the dancing be stopped at once. Lowell had received several broad hints, following the inspector's letter, but he was waiting an imperative60 order before stopping the dancing, because he knew that any high-handed interference just then would undo61 an incalculable amount of his painstaking62 work with the Indians. He had figured that he could work personally with Fire Bear after the young medicine man's first ardor63 in his new calling had somewhat cooled. Then had come the murder, with everything pointing to the implication of the young Indian, and with consequent action forced on the agent.
A threatening circle surrounded the white men in Fire Bear's camp.
"Why didn't you bring the Indian police to arrest me?" asked the young Indian leader.
"Because I thought you'd see things in their right light and come," said Lowell.
Fire Bear thought a moment.
"Well, because you did not bring the police, I will go with you," he said.
"You don't have to tell us anything that might be used against you," said the sheriff.
Fire Bear smiled bitterly.
"I've studied white man's law," he said.
Redmond rubbed his head in bewilderment. Such words, coming from a blanketed Indian, in such primitive64 surroundings, passed his comprehension. Yet Lowell thought, as he smiled at the sheriff's amazement65, that it merely emphasized the queer jumble66 of old and new on every reservation.
"I'll ask you to wait for me out there in the trees," said Fire Bear.
Redmond hesitated, but the agent turned at once and walked away, and the sheriff finally followed. Fire Bear exhorted67 his followers a few moments, and then disappeared in his tent. Soon he came out, dressed in the "store clothes" of the ordinary Indian. He joined Redmond and the agent at the edge of the glade, and they made their way toward the creek68, no one venturing to follow from the camp. At the bottom of the slope they found the Indian helpers with the horses.
"Fire Bear," said Lowell, as they paused before starting out, "there's one thing more I want of you. Help us to find Jim McFann. He's as deep or deeper in this thing than you are."
"I know he is," replied Fire Bear, "but it wasn't for me to say so. I'll help find him for you."
They had to fight to get Jim McFann. They found the half-breed cooking some bacon over a tiny fire, at the head of a gulch69 that was just made for human concealment70. If it had not been for the good offices of Fire Bear on the trail, they might have hunted a week for their man. McFann had moved camp several times since Plenty Buffalo had located him. Each time he had covered his tracks with surpassing care.
Lowell, according to prearranged plan, had walked in upon McFann, with Redmond covering the half-breed, ready to shoot in case a weapon was drawn71. But McFann merely made a headlong dive for Lowell's legs, and there was a rough-and-tumble fight about the camp-fire which was settled only when the agent managed to get a lock on his wiry opponent which pinned McFann's back to the ground.
"You wouldn't fight that hard if you thought you was being yanked up for a little bootlegging, Jim," mused72 Tom Redmond, pulling his long mustache. "You know what we've come after you for, don't you?"
McFann threshed about in another futile73 attempt to escape, and cursed his captors with gifts of expletive which came from two races.
"It's on account of that tenderfoot that was found on the Dollar Sign," growled74 Jim, "but Fire Bear and his gang can't tell any more on me than I can on them."
"That's the way to get at the truth," chuckled75 the sheriff triumphantly76. "I guess by the time you fellers are through with each other we'll know who shot that man and staked him down."
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1
dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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outspokenness
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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coups
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| n.意外而成功的行动( coup的名词复数 )；政变；努力办到难办的事 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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conglomeration
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| n.团块，聚集，混合物 | |
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hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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rawhide
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| n.生牛皮 | |
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lariat
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| n.系绳，套索；v.用套索套捕 | |
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rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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scrutinized
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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lodges
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| v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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jutted
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| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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36
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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37
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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38
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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40
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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42
buffeting
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| 振动 | |
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43
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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44
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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45
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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46
beetling
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| adj.突出的，悬垂的v.快速移动( beetle的现在分词 ) | |
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47
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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48
socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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49
anarchist
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| n.无政府主义者 | |
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50
arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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51
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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52
athletics
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| n.运动，体育，田径运动 | |
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53
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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54
fervor
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| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
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55
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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56
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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58
leniently
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| 温和地，仁慈地 | |
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59
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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60
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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61
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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62
painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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63
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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64
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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65
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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66
jumble
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| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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67
exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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69
gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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70
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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71
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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72
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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73
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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74
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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75
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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