Hugh Pendexter

“ As he induced me to walk back to the village, he talked softly, saying:
"If her medicine grows weak we will go down like brave men, taking her with us. To strike now would be as foolish as to lay an ambush and then shoot at the first warrior to approach it, instead of waiting till the game was well trapped. Wait! My manito whispers that many things will happen if we wait. Would Le Borgne sell the white woman?"
"We have nothing to trade," I sullenly reminded. "He wants guns, but we have none. He is bad."
"He is a great warrior. He wants the white woman for his wife. ”

“ An evil spirit draws you to your death and you do not know it. I, chief of the Pillager Chippewas, wearer of many eagle feathers for the men I have scalped in battle, say it. An evil spirit, sent by the Sioux's great manito, tells you to take the white woman. So be it."
Le Borgne's smile twisted his lips convulsively, and for a moment I believed he was to grapple with my friend. But Flat Mouth's boldness appealed to him. The warning about the Sioux manito laying an ambush and baiting him with the girl also registered deeply. ”

“ But no new people have come to the village except a white man, a brave Pillager Chippewa and a mighty medicine woman."
"By heavens! They build the hut for us. They expect us to stay here!" I cried in English.
My emotion gave him his cue, rather than any knowledge of English, although he was able to pick up words here and there.
"They let men sleep in the big hut or where they will," he said. "A new hut means a new wife for a big chief. I have said it. Let the white woman use her medicine now if she would go back to the Red River." ”

“ Chief of the Wolves now impatiently reminded:
"My uncle, the Blind, is waiting for you to bring him a talk. It is not good to keep him waiting."
"The White Snake brings good news?" asked Flat Mouth, as the escaped warrior turned to mount his pony.
"Strangers come. It is good or bad," retorted the Snake. "My medicine let me get away while the Sioux were riding to meet the strangers. If they are friends of the Sioux they will come here to kill us."
Chief of the Wolves ran ahead and looked back, and the Snake remembered it was not good to keep Le Borgne waiting. ”

“ I will go to Le Borgne's hut to-night. While I am there you must get the girl from the hut, take her to the corral, get ponies and ride north to the Missouri."
He promptly shook his head in refusal.
"Where will my white brother be if I do get the girl away?"
"I will follow you."
"The trail you will follow will lead far from the Missouri. Even if I, chief of the Pillagers, could do this thing, the Medicine Hair would not. It is poor medicine you plan to make. The white woman's manito is strong enough to let us all get away. We will wait. The feast is not for two sleeps. ”

“ Le Borgne was a wise man. If his Indian nature would permit him to defy the medicine of the girl—and this I could scarcely believe—his astuteness would restrain him from killing what he believed was a chance for a permanent post in the village. The great advantage of having an N. W. trader constantly supplying him with arms and ammunition would greatly outweigh his lust for a woman, whether she be red or white. War came first; women next. ”

“ Le Borgne's lips writhed and twisted over his big teeth as he sought to give his smile an amiable cast. From his medicine log he took a long-stemmed, redstone pipe and filled it with Missouri tobacco. Lighting the stuff, he took a whiff and puffed it towards the heavens and passed the pipe to me and motioned for me to sit beside him. Flat Mouth squatted on his heels beside me to translate the chief's words. Our host began:
"I like white men. They bring me goods. We trade with the Spaniards through the Cheyennes and southern tribes when we are not at war with them. ”

“ Rugged and conscienceless, inexorable in moods; thoroughly self-dependent because of his brute strength, the man typified the muddy river which was even now carving new channels for itself and clawing banks and cottonwoods into its swollen waters. ”

“ No dogs rushed out to mangle us. We had Le Borgne to thank for this much. Even though he murdered a woman, he was invariably hospitable to white men.
As we passed the hut where the two Assiniboins had died I asked about them, and Flat Mouth said they had been secretly buried in one of the empty corn-cellars. The village as a unit took it for granted the Cheyennes had sneaked in and killed them. It was hoped to keep the news of their death from their tribe until Le Borgne could bring about a peace with the Cheyennes, or call in a large war-party of his old allies, the Crows. ”

“ Le Borgne is not like other Indians. He has his own way more than other chiefs. He thinks his manito is very strong—stronger than any other manito, for has he not always had his own way? When he wants anything he is like a child; he wants it and can think of nothing else. He killed a woman before our eyes. ”

“ I warmly assured. "His friends told him to build his post among the Sioux but the woman's medicine told him to build it here. The post will make the Minnetarees the greatest and strongest of all Indians so long as they do not wrong the white chief."
"I will brain the man or woman who touches his goods," declared Le Borgne, toying with the axe he had so recently used in murdering the woman.
"He will come soon with many white men and many guns," I added.
"Why does he bring many men and many guns when he comes to his friends?" ”

“ I read it to Flat Mouth who was highly pleased with this proof of the girl's power to communicate with me. But when I would have commenced a precipitate search he restrained me, saying:
"We shall get an axe stuck in our heads. The white woman will be left with her medicine to fight alone. It is no time to run like a badger after game. We must be the fox. Le Borgne will kill us if we hurry." ”

“ Then he jumped from his pony and ran to us seizing the Pillager's hand and shaking it warmly, crying:
"They say you are the Chippewa chief who killed the Sioux. They say the scalps you wear came from Sioux heads. Your name is heard throughout the Sioux country. The Sioux chiefs call you a great warrior and make medicine to get your skull as a drinking-dish. I, White Snake, a Minnetaree and their prisoner, heard them tell these things."
"I am a mighty warrior," readily agreed Flat Mouth. "The Snake's medicine was strong to help him get away." ”

“ They are very big medicine with the Minnetarees. Even Le Borgne does not own five such as you have, down in the Mandan hut. The skin of the calf is worth more than the big robes to these Indians. They believe a white calf-skin is mighty medicine."
Here was the nucleus of an idea. In the white robes and calfskin I held a value equivalent to many hundreds of skins—to many ponies. It was such a trade that was seldom, if ever, offered to a Minnetaree. Ordinarily it required a syndicating of property to purchase one robe. The bargain was made as soon as suggested to an ordinary war-chief. ”

“ The Pillager glanced at the axe and shifted to the man's blind side, and I noted my friend carried one hand gracefully on his hip, near the haft of the hidden knife. Walking thus between us he kept up a running fire of comments upon the white men whom he said he loved as brothers and added some mild criticism of the absent H. B. agent, at the Mandan village, whom we were to oppose, but never once did he refer to Miss Dearness. I grew uneasy, thinking he intended to proceed to the guest hut. ”

“ He believes the white woman's medicine is strong, but he believes his is stronger. If he takes her to a new hut as his woman he will show that his manito is stronger. Then he will boast he has tamed her medicine and that it will work for him. With the two medicines working for him he will believe the big white chief we have told about will be glad to build a post here. ”

“ They were his chattels and of no more account than his dogs. If he were so inclined he would murder them, and no one dared question the act. He had slain more than one of his wives. He went even further and appropriated any matron or maid that took his fancy, and this without protest from husband or parent, an acquiescence I never found in any other Indian community.
I knew much of his character by reputation and from the Pillager's gossip. What details of his grim history I lacked I soon learned during my stay in the village. ”

“ Don't run any risks for me. You have done too much already. I am very brave. It will not be hard.
"A very good medicine," I said, stepping back and feeling the cold sweat standing on my forehead. "But it is the woman part of the medicine. There is a man part that makes it whole. I will give you the man part because you are the brother of the mighty chief and will open his ears to what I say about a trading post here."
While the Pillager told him this, I picked up a bit of charcoal from a dead fire and rapidly wrote:
It shall not happen. ”

“ The scalps were another danger added to our list. Did the Minnetarees so much as suspect the Pillager was the slayer there would be no mercy shown him. Even a Sioux was safe if he succeeded in entering the village. What happened to him when he started for home was another matter. However, it was useless to argue with the Pillager. As profitable to ask a fanatic to forsake his religion as to expect an Indian to do what he believed would spoil his medicine. ”

“ I assured her. "Don't be afraid. If an American can't help an English girl he must have very weak medicine."
Flat Mouth caught the last word and gravely told her:
"The white woman's medicine makes me feel very strong. I can throw a buffalo bull when her eyes watch me."
She forced a smile and we left her.
On entering Le Borgne's hut Choke-cherry accompanied us only to the door. We found the chief seated at the left and facing the fire-hole, gravely contemplating his medicine-log. He sat on a couch raised a foot from the floor by willow mats and several heavy robes. ”