Hugh Pendexter

“ My refusal threw the chief into a paroxysm of rage, yet he restrained himself and said:
"Go to all the Minnetaree huts! Go to all the Mandan huts on the Missouri! Take what you will—all the ponies you will. If any Mandan tries to stop you, tell him I sent you!"
"My medicine tells me it is not robes and kettles and ponies I want," I replied. "I can get kettles among the white people. I can get better ponies and robes among the Cheyennes." ”

“ No one heeded this derisive speech, for a mighty trade had come to the Missouri and must be completed. Grunts and yelps arose when the Pillager produced the fourth and last of the robes and hung it in place.
"It is magic!" faltered Choke-cherry, edging backward. "The white man can make the Sioux-killer find white robes all day."
"If it is magic then the robes will turn brown after they have gone away," said Chief of the Wolves. ”

“ The white woman's medicine does not call you to fight him."
Le Borgne raised his war-cry and began stalking the empty spaces between the huts in search of a victim to satisfy his vow. Doors slammed throughout the village and the men on the roofs lay flat and hidden from view, although a Minnetaree should have had no cause for fear. Le Borgne doubled over and shook out his hair and danced from side to side, the silence of the people permitting the thud-thud of his stamping moccasins to be plainly audible. ”

“ His face lighted when he was told the white chief would build a post in the village because Medicine Hair, the white woman, was there. And it grew dark as night when he was warned what would happen if he troubled the white woman, or limited her coming and going.
"I have never wanted a woman I did not take," he roared.
"If her father, the big chief, is coming with many guns and men I do not need to buy her," I carelessly said, shifting the position of the calfskin so Le Borgne would observe the black markings round the right eye. ”

“ If I found something to my liking I would trade.
"So be it!" howled old Choke-cherry. "Take what you will. We can get more. But never was such a chance to get medicine robes. I will give my medicine-pipe. It is a great mystery—very strong medicine."
"Yet it could not make the Cheyennes lead their ponies under the stem," sneered Flat Mouth.
"The village shall buy them and give them to our chief, so his bad luck may grow red again," said Chief of the Wolves.
"The Blind needs much medicine to make him open his one eye," ironically remarked Flat Mouth. ”

“ Flat Mouth brought the two horses to the porch and, as I took charge of them, he backed his horse violently, splitting the mob into two sections. Then he brought his animal about, faced the savages and, with his axe held out to one side, he leaned forward and cried—
"Do you want to see a Pillager Chippewa cast his robe?"
Old Choke-cherry urged the men to give us room and not to crowd round us like foolish children. Chief of the Wolves crawled to his feet and glared murder at the Pillager's back. ”

“ Despite his hearty meal at our hut the Pillager broiled for himself several slices of meat and devoured them voraciously. When he had finished I said I was ready to offer the robes. To my surprise he objected.
"The white woman's medicine is working through the mad woman," he insisted. "Let the medicine work. We will wait. We have until the sun goes down. My blood tells me something is in the air that will make this day remembered among the Minnetaree."
"Do you think the woman's people—she being a Mandan—will make trouble for Le Borgne?" ”

“ Never before has a Minnetaree chief cast his robe and not done as he said."
"He needs new medicine," I advised.
"He will give many ponies for a new medicine," eagerly cried Choke-cherry. "Has the white man some magic he will trade for ponies?"
"I have some medicine I will trade," I replied. "I don't know whether I will trade for ponies, or robes, or something else. It is a very strong medicine and will kill all bad luck, but I will not trade it for poor ponies. I want ponies such as the Cheyennes have." ”

“ Feeling faint and remembering I had not eaten anything for hours, I sought out the hut where Choke-cherry was temporarily housed, gave him an inch of tobacco and motioned for food. He gave some order to his women and they began overhauling ancient meats. I insisted on fresh meat, for one end of the hut was covered with buffalo meat, the hunting party had brought in. This had not had time to spoil, and, after the Minnetaree and Mandan custom, was thrown down to grow tainted. ”

“ Choke-cherry's face showed great fear. If he told this to his brother, the chief would bitterly upbraid him for not turning over the two Assiniboins to the Cheyennes for the ten ponies offered.
"We have many good robes," he cried. "Let the white man bring out his medicine. I will tell the village to be ready to trade. If the medicine is new and strong and will help the heart of Le Borgne to grow stout again, and his head to grow clear again, we will give every robe in the five villages." ”

“ For some minutes she carried on in this violent fashion, then, with a despairing shriek, she turned and fled swiftly between the huts.
"It is bad to have such words spoken against you," gravely said the Pillager. "Le Borgne may say he doesn't care, but inside he is very much afraid."
The more frightened the Minnetaree became, the better the day looked for us, and, feeling almost optimistic, I led the way to Choke-cherry's hut and cooked some meat and sent it to Miss Dearness. ”

“ Her medicine will tell her in a dream, she shall say. She will tell it to the Minnetarees. Le Borgne thinks only he and White Snake and the Mandans in the lower village know about the white man. He will think it big medicine if she dreams it and tells him."
"Good!" I cried, deeply pleased at the deception Flat Mouth had so adroitly suggested. "It may give us a fighting chance. Le Borgne is in a bad mind."
"That is good! He will not have time to think of a new wife. He will be afraid bad luck is trailing him. He will be ripe for our trade." ”

“ Miss Dearness had written on the reverse side of my piece of bark:
People of the Minnetaree, and the Blind One, their chief: In the night dream medicine came to me. I saw many white men with many guns far down the Missouri coming to these villages of the Mandans and the Minnetarees. I saw the big white chief, the greatest of all traders, leading the white men. I saw the Sioux begging him to stop with them. He is too strong for them to rob or kill. I heard him tell the Sioux he was coming here to build a post because the white woman, Medicine Hair, is here. ”

“ When the woman reached him first his vow was spoiled; he had no promise left, so he threw away his axe to tell everyone the vow was dead. But it is very bad for him." There was almost a touch of sympathy in the Pillager's voice as he said the last.
"How long must we wait before we show the robes and offer to trade?" I asked.
"Now is a good time. Le Borgne knows bad luck is biting his heels. He is afraid that everything is against him. He needs a strong medicine. He is not thinking of feasts and a new wife." ”

“ The calfskin was much more valuable than the robes.
The deep silence which followed this climax was broken by the Pillager announcing—
"This is all we bring this time."
"You said you had nothing to trade," gasped Choke-cherry.
"I always have something to trade when I think there is something worth trading for," I corrected. "My medicine has told me in my sleep that I could make a good trade here. I am waiting to see what my medicine meant."
Men darted away to inform Le Borgne of the powerful medicine. Others scoured the village to round up property. A scene of amazing activity followed. ”

“ He cast his robe for nothing, and that is very bad medicine for him, but not so bad as if he stuck his axe in the woman's head. A strong medicine has shown him he can not always do as he promises. But it is very bad not to keep a vow. It will hurt him with his people unless he can get some good-luck medicine. The medicine of the white woman works against him all the time. ”

“ Probos, with tears running down his flaccid face, told me the Indians had grown to be very insolent; that his life was threatened every day. No trade had been brought in, as none of the hunters had gone out. It was believed the Sioux had killed me and the girl and the Pillager. On the morrow Tabashaw had proposed to raid the X. Y. post down the river and secure the supply of liquor. Then he proposed to burn all posts on the river.
Next morning I sent Probos back to the Reed River and had the Indian women clean up the fort. ”

“ By his touching his axe and the Sioux scalps I knew he was declaiming his greatness, and, as all must have known of his willingness to fight Le Borgne, he was heard with the deepest respect and attention. But when he reached behind him and fumbled with the cords of the pack and continued his talk his audience smiled skeptically.
He paused and said to me in Chippewa:
"I have told them we never bother to trade in anything but white robes. I have said we carry a pack of them with us wherever we go but never offer to trade unless we see something we want very much. ”

“ With a yelp of protest I leaned forward to aid in adjusting the hood and the capote and, losing my balance, would have made clumsy work of it had she not caught my elbow and steadied me for a second.
Flat Mouth, who had been with the horses to see that the torture inflicted by the mosquitoes did not stampede the animals, now drew up to our fire, the horses crowding in behind him to get into the smoke. I wanted to talk with the girl—to have her talk to me, and yet I was glad he came. ”

“ Flat Mouth said three days of ordinary travel would take us to the Côteau du Missouri, the high ridge separating the waters of the Missouri and the Mouse, but believed we should make it easily in a bit less than that as we had no pack animals and were sacrificing everything for speed.
He set the course for Miss Dearness and me to follow while he rode down the river to pick up the Cheyennes. The girl and I had not gone far before he came after us with twenty warriors. ”

“ Then, after puffs to sky and earth and the four wind-gods, he said—
"The strange men the Sioux talk about are white men."
"White men? Then they must be Hudson Bay men," I exclaimed, for I did not believe the N. W. or the X. Y. could be sending men to the Missouri, although the H. B. already had done so.
"Not traders. They carry a big flag. They have guns. The lower village was told about them by White Snake. Le Borgne now knows white men are coming up the river."
"What do you think about them?"
"The white woman's medicine brought them," he promptly declared. ”

“ She denounced him as a stealer of women, as a killer of women. These accusations, especially the first, might be easily overlooked, even accepted as something complimentary. But when she added he was a coward, that the sight of a man's blood made him sick, that he dared not leave his hut unless surrounded by many braves, the effect was quickly registered inside the hut. ”

“ So, when I reached the stretch below the X. Y. post on the Scratching, where poles must be used instead of paddles, I stayed in camp and killed time until she and the Pillager came up. I thought she wanted him to go on, but seeing me, he was eager to land. I greeted her and she eyed me blankly. I fidgeted and waited. Then I could not endure it longer. The Indian was some rods away, roasting some meat. I made sure of my position in my canoe, then turned to her and said:
"That time—back there—I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't loved you." ”

“ They have crossed the river in hope of falling on some hunting party before going home. We talked in the sign-language. I sent a sign-talk to the Cheyenne chief, saying we would leave here with the medicine woman after this one sleep. I said I would bring the Assiniboin scalps and he and his warriors must be ready to go with us to the Mouse. That was the trade we made when they were putting presents under the stem."
This would make it the following night. Well, we either would go or we wouldn't. I wrote on a strip of bark:
There are white men far down the river. ”

“ They do not dare lift their heads when he looks at them. They will say she took a Minnetaree man and now belongs to that tribe; that the daughter, the dead woman, is a Minnetaree. We will climb on a hut and watch what comes next."
This we did, selecting the hut we were in. Some thirty warriors were already there. They respectfully made way for the Pillager, and we took a position facing Le Borgne's hut. ”

“ Simon McTavish is dead. Sir Alexander MacKenzie is now willing to combine. There is no X. Y. company. It's the Northwest company now."
This was astounding and most welcome news. It would make it possible for N. W. Northmen to bring the Indians back to their senses. I said "When do you go?"
"Soon. In a day or so. There's a summer brigade coming down the Assiniboin. The Pillager is to paddle me to the Forks." ”