“In the morning I will see my white friends
again,” he said, and without further adieu turned
and walked gravely back to the fort.
LEAPING HORSE
“He is a fine fellow,” Jerry said, after
the Indian had left him. “You must have
a talk with him one of these days over his adventures
among the ’Rappahoes and Navahoes, who are both
as troublesome rascals as are to be found on the plains.
An Indian seldom talks of his adventures, but sometimes
when you can get him in the right humour you may hear
about them.” “He talks very fair
English,” Tom said.
“Yes; he has been ten years among us. He
was employed for two or three years supplying the
railway men with meat; but no Indian cares to hunt
long in one place, and he often goes away with parties
of either hunters or gold-seekers. He knows the
country well, and is a first-rate shot; and men are
always glad to have him with them. There is no
more trusty red-skin on the plains, and he will go
through fire and water for those whom he regards as
his special friends. I should say he is about
the one man alive who could take you to your uncle.”
“Do you think he would?” Tom asked eagerly.
“Ah, that is another matter; I don’t know
what his plans are. If he is engaged to go with
another party he will go, for he would not fail anyone
to whom he had made a promise. If he isn’t
engaged he might perhaps do it. Not for pay,
for he has little use for money. His hunting
supplies him with all he wants. It gives him food,
and occasionally he will go with a bundle of pelts
to the nearest town, and the money he gets for them
will supply him with tea and tobacco and ammunition,
and such clothes as he requires, which is little enough.
Buckskin is everlasting wear, and he gets his worked
up for him by the women of any Indian tribe among
whom he may be hunting. If he were one of these
fort Indians it would be only a question of money;
but it would never do to offer it to him. He
does not forget that he is a chief, though he has
been away so many years from what there is left of
his old tribe. If he did it at all it would be
for the sake of your uncle. I know they have
hunted together, and fought the Apaches together.
I won’t say but that if we get at him the right
way, and he don’t happen to have no other plans
in his mind, that he might not be willing to start
with you.”
“I should be glad if he would, Jerry. I
have been quite dreading to get to Fort Bridger.
I have had such a splendid time of it with you that
I should feel awfully lonely after you had gone on.”
“Yes, I dare say you would feel lonesome.
I should have felt lonesome myself if I did not light
upon some mate going the same way. We got on
very well together, Tom. When Pete Hoskings first
put it to me whether I would be willing to take you
with me as far as this, I thought that though I liked
you well enough, it would not be in my way to be playing
a sort of schoolmaster business to a young tenderfoot;
but I had got to like the notion before we left Denver,
and now it seems to me that we have had a rare good
time of it together.”
