"Surely," said Curtis, as they rose from the table, "being Indian agent is not the grim, vexatious experience I once considered it. If the charm of such company should get reckoned in as one of the perquisites of the office, the crush of applicants would thicken into a riot. I find it hard to return to my work in the office."
"Don"t be hasty; we may turn out to be nuisances," responded Elsie.
XVI
THE CAMP AMONG THE ROSES
During the remainder of the day the agent found office work most difficult. His mind wandered to other and pleasanter things, and at last he began to make out a list of the necessaries for the camping trip.
The next day, about four o"clock, Crow Wing and Crawling Elk came into his office bringing a young Tetong, who said he had been struck on the head by a sheep-herder.
Curtis was instantly alert. "Sit down--all of you!" he commanded. "Now, Yellow Hand, tell your story."
Yellow Hand, a tall and sinister-looking fellow, related his adventure sullenly. "I was riding the line of the reservation, as Crawling Elk had told me and as you commanded, when I came upon this sheep-man driving his flocks across the river. I hollered to him to keep away, but he kept on pushing the sheep into the river; then I tried to drive them back.
This made him angry and he threw a rock at me, and struck me here." He touched his bandaged head. "I had no gun, so I came away."
"Did you throw rocks at him?" asked Curtis.
"No, I was on my horse."
"You rode among his sheep?"
"Yes."
"Well, that was wrong. You should have reported to me and I would have sent a policeman. You must not make trouble with these men. Come to me or report to Grayman, your head man over there. The ranchers are angry at Washington, and we must be careful not to make them angry at us. I will send Crow back with you and he will remove this man."
As they went out Curtis said to Wilson: "This is the second a.s.sault they have made on our boys. They seem determined to involve us in a shooting sc.r.a.pe, in order to influence Congress. We must be very careful. I am afraid I ought not to take this camping trip just now."
"Don"t put too much importance on these little sc.r.a.ps, Major. Yellow Hand is always getting into trouble. He"s quarrelsome."
"I"d disarm a few of these reckless young fellows if it would do any good."
"It wouldn"t. They"d simply borrow a gun of some one, and it won"t do to disarm the whole tribe, for if you do these cowboys will swarm in here and run us all out."
"Well, caution every one to be careful. I"m particularly anxious just now, on account of our visitors."
"I don"t think you need to be, Major. You take your trip with your friends. I"ll guarantee nothing serious happens down here. And as you are not to leave the reservation, I don"t see as the department can have any roar coming."
Nevertheless, it was with some misgiving that Curtis made his final arrangements for the start. Crane"s Voice and Two Horns had interested Elsie very much; therefore he filled their places with other men, and notified them to be in readiness to accompany the expedition, an order which pleased them mightily. Mary, the mother of Crane"s Voice, was to go along as chief cook, under Jennie"s direction, while Two Horns took general charge of the camp.
Elsie burdened herself with canvases. "I don"t suppose I"ll paint a picture while I"m gone, but I"m going to make a bluff at it on the start," she said, as she came out and took her place with the driver amid the mock lamentations of Lawson and Parker and Jennie.
"Can any of you drive--no!" replied Elsie, in German fashion. "Then I am here."
"I like her impudence," said Lawson.
As they drove up the valley, Curtis outlined his plan for using the water on a huge agency garden. "I would lay it out in lots and mark every lot with the name of a family, and require it to be planted and taken care of by that family. There are sites for three such gardens, enough to feed the entire tribe, but so long as a few white men are allowed to use up all the water nothing can be done but continue to feed the Tetongs in idleness, as we are now doing."
As they rose the gra.s.s grew greener, and at last Elsie began to discover wild roses growing low in damp places, and at noon, when they stopped for lunch, they were able to eat in the shade of a murmuring aspen, with wild flowers all about them. The stream was swift and cold and clear, hardly to be cla.s.sed with the turbid, sluggish, discouraged current which seeped past the agency.
"It is a different world up here," Elsie said, again and again. "I can"t believe we are only a half-day"s drive from the agency. I never saw more delicious greens."
Mrs. Parker, being an amateur botanist, was filled with delight of the thickening flowers. "It is exactly as if we had begun in August and were moving backward towards spring. I feel as though violets were near. It is positively enchanting."
"You"ll camp beside violets to-night," replied Curtis.
Lawson pretended to sleep. Parker smoked a pipe while striding along behind the wagon. Elsie drove, and of course Curtis could not leave her to guide the team alone. Necessarily, they talked freely on many topics, and all restraint, all reserve, were away at last. It is difficult to hold a formal and carefully considered conversation in a jolting buckboard climbing towards a great range of shining peaks, and every frank speech brought them into friendlier relation. Considered in this light, the afternoon a.s.sumed vast importance.
At last, just on the edge of a small lake entirely enclosed by spa.r.s.e pines, they drew into camp. To the west the top of a snow mountain could be seen, low down, and against it a thin column of blue smoke was rising. The water, dark as topaz and smooth as oil, reflected the opposite sh.o.r.e, the yellow sky, and the peak with magic clearness, and Elsie was seized with a desire to do something.
"Where is my paint-box? Here is the background for some action--I don"t know what--something primeval."
"An Indian in a canoe, _a la_ Brush; or a bear coming down to drink, _a la_ Bierstadt," suggested Parker.
"Don"t mention that old fogy," cried Elsie.
Lawson interposed. "Well, now, those old chaps had something to say--and that"s better than your modern Frenchmen do."
She was soon at work, with Lawson and Parker standing by her side, overlooking her panel and offering advice.
"There"s no color in that," Parker said, finally. "It"s a black-and-white merely. Its charm is in things you can"t paint--the feel of the air, the smell of pine boughs."
"Go away--both of you," she commanded, curtly, and they retreated to the camp, where Curtis was setting the tents, and Jennie, old Mary, and Two Horns, with swift and harmonious action, were bringing appetizing odors out of various cans and boxes, what time the crackle of the fire increased to a gentle roar. There they sat immovably, shamelessly waiting till the call for supper came.
They were all hungry, and Jennie"s cooking received such praise as comes from friends who speak and devour--Parker nearly devoured without speaking, so lank and empty was he by reason of his long walk. Elsie seemed to have forgotten her life of luxury, and was reverted to a primitive stage of culture wherein she found everything enjoyable. Her sketch, propped up against a basket by Curtis, was admired unreservedly.
Altogether, the trouble and toil of civilized life were forgotten tyrants, so far as these few souls were concerned. They came close to the peace and the care-free tranquillity of the redman, whose ideals they had come to destroy.
As soon as supper was eaten and the men had lighted their cigars, the whole party walked out to the edge of the little pond and lounged about on blankets, and watched the light go out of the sky. Talk grew more subdued as the beauty and the mystery of the night deepened. Elsie listened to every sound, and asked innumerable questions of Curtis. She insisted on knowing the name of every bird or beast whose call could be heard. The young soldier"s wood-craft both pleased and astonished her.
Mrs. Parker, with her lap full of botanical specimens, was absorbed in the work of cla.s.sifying them. Parker was a gentleman of leisure, with nothing to do but watch the peaceful coming of the dusk and comment largely on the universe.
It was natural that, as host, Curtis should enjoy a large part of Elsie"s company, but neither of them seemed to realize that Lawson was being left quite unheeded in the background, but Jennie was aware of this neglect, and put forth skilful effort to break the force of it.
Lawson himself seemed to be entirely unconscious of any loss or threatening disaster.
A little later, as they sat watching the fire grow in power in the deepening darkness, Curtis suddenly lifted his hand.
"Hark!"
All listened. Two Horns spoke first. "One man come, on horse."
"Some messenger for me, probably," said the Captain, composedly. "He is coming fast, too."
As the steady drumming of the horse"s hoofs increased in power, Elsie felt something chill creep beneath the roots of her hair. Perhaps the Indians had broken out in war against the whites! Perhaps--