Pentlands

“ She sketched her idea of the classic fireplace bier, the dead shepherd of the Pentlands, and the little prostrate terrier. “Immemorial man and his faithful dog. Our society for the prevention of cruelty to animals is finding it so hard to get people even to admit the sacredness of life in dumb creatures, the brutalizing effects of abuse of them on human beings, and the moral and practical worth to us of kindness. To insist that a dog feels, that he loves devotedly and with less calculation than men, that he grieves at a master's death and remembers him long years, brings a smile of amusement. ”

“ Sabine, remarking that she had always known that New England was the hottest place this side of Sheol, settled into a state of complete inertia, not stirring from the house until after the sun had disappeared. Even then her only action was to come to Pentlands to sit in the writing-room playing bridge languidly with Olivia and John Pentland and old Mrs. Soames.
The old lady grew daily more dazed and forgetful and irritating as a fourth at bridge. John Pentland always insisted upon playing with her, saying that they understood each other’s game; but he deceived no one, save Mrs. ”

“ 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." ”

“ The third Pentland had been the greatest evangelist of his time, a man who went through New England holding high the torch, exhorting rude village audiences by the coarsest of language to such a pitch of excitement that old women died of apoplexy and young women gave birth to premature children. ”

“ We must risk crossing the Missouri at the mouth of the Knife and striking northeast. If we waited until to-morrow and started from the Mandans we might find a band of Cheyennes waiting to act as escort. The chief told the Pillager he would see us to the Mouse."
"I'd rather start from here to-night and travel alone than wait any longer," she said. "Perhaps Flat Mouth could swing to one side and pick up the Cheyennes. If not, then a ride for it, and a clean, quick death at the worst."
"There must be no talk of death," I rebuked. "We'll go and get through. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ She asked me, but it is too near the summer war-path of the Sioux."
"Flat Mouth, chief of the Pillager Chippewas, has scared the Sioux back to their holes," scornfully cried my Indian. Then to my amazement, "I go with the Medicine Hair."
"Did the Rat come to hire you?" I sharply demanded. The Rat drew away, looking very uncomfortable. Flat Mouth readily admitted—
"She knows I am a great warrior."
"She doesn't make any bones of hiring my men, it seems!" And my resentment grew very strong.
"Her hair is great medicine. She calls the Voice. It comes. She tells it to go to sleep. It is gone. ”

“ Leaving out those in Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, and Haddington, where there was originally a Welsh-speaking people, ‘we find,’ he says, ‘the Cymric form of the word in the Grampians,’ which is utter nonsense, ‘the Pentland Hills,’ which is a corruption of Petland Hills, as the Pentland Firth is of the Petland Firth, ‘the Pennguaul Hills,’ which have no existence, and ‘Pendrich in Perth,’ which is a corruption of Pittindriech. ”

“ I could only say—
"We must start before he comes back."
"They will think our coming is a trick if we go away too quickly," he warned. "I will talk with the Mandans and ask if they have seen any signs of Assiniboins or Sioux to the north. We must visit the villages, but in one or two sleeps we might start for the Mouse. Once we reach Fort Assiniboin the Medicine Hair will be safe."
"But Le Borgne would be very blind to make the whites angry by taking one of their women," I protested.
Flat Mouth smiled in grim pity at my ignorance.
"You do not know The Blind," he murmured. ”

“ Flat Mouth hurried diagonally across the timber and emerged on the lower edge near the river. Drawing me down beside him, he pointed to the east bank and grunted—
"Sioux!"
"I heard their signal," I informed him.
"They came down the river on the other side. When it gets very dark they will bring their horses over. They heard your gun and they don't want to try it just now."
"When they cross we can not break through," I said.
"We will all be killed if we stay in the woods. You must stop them from crossing their horses for a little while. The Sioux on this side feel sure of a coup. ”

“ Meet them away from your fort and your rum and you will find they're very much savages."
A horseman suddenly darted toward us, his bow drawn, seeking to learn if we were keeping watch. I covered his bobbing figure as best I could and held my fire until he should come within decent range. Just as I began to hope, he pulled his pony about and scuttled back to his mates.
"Who are you? Where were you born?" I asked, lowering my gun.
"English—England," she murmured, her gaze wandering far beyond the wild horizon.
"And I'm an American. Flat Mouth thinks your hair is medicine." ”

“ All but half a dozen of the horsemen began to pivot on the left end of their line and, almost before I could understand what they were up to, this huge segment was galloping madly along, parallel to the woods and away from us.
"When night comes we shall ride very swift or very soft," mumbled Flat Mouth, resuming the task of gathering arrows.
In short, the Sioux were perfectly willing we should break from cover and ride south, and left the six men to keep watch on us. But if we attempted to ride north we must pass through the bulk of their band. ”

“ 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?" ”

“ The country grew rougher with each hour, and we lost the Assiniboins only when we dropped into the hollows. On surmounting ridge or hillock we raised them to view again, tenaciously sticking to our track. Flat Mouth had eyes only for what was ahead, seeking for some opportunity of shaking the enemy off. I was always staring behind me, fascinated by the implacable purpose that held the savages to the chase. The girl rode with head bowed, seldom bothering to lift her gaze from the ground. Her fear was an accident to her pony. ”

“ Henry ruled at the Pembina post, rival brigades usually travelled to the Forks each spring in a most neighbourly fashion.
Red Dearness, enveloped in a cloak, was in the first canoe. He turned and looked back only once, and then to wave his hand to the X. Y. Fort. Dearness, I deduced, was in a serious state of health, and some sudden symptoms had forced his departure. Which of the blanketed figures was the woman who talked in English, French, and Chippewa it was impossible to determine. Angus, the clerk, stood clear of the woods on the little point and limply waved a hand in farewell. ”

“ Without a word Putnam ran to the door and raised the latch. Willis halted at the threshold as if wishing to run away. The light from the open door cut the walk under the shade-trees and afforded the ranger a glimpse of a forest runner in fringed shirt making by the house and down the hill.
“Ahead of me, sir,” sternly ordered Putnam, catching Willis by the wrist and shoving him through the door. “A colored petticoat can raise more deviltry in his Majesty's forces than all the French praying Indians that Vaudreuil can ever let loose. Through the house, and see she does not get away.” ”

“ I declared. "You may paint the marks of death and the feet of horses on your body and on your tent to show you killed a man while riding hard."
The chief toned down his vanity on meeting the girl's clear gaze and confessed:
"Eshkebugecoshe is a mighty warrior, but the white woman's medicine helped him. It made the Sioux blind till I could creep very close."
"Couldn't we get across the river? I can swim," eagerly spoke up Miss Dearness.
Flat Mouth said it would be foolish to cross before dark, but he suggested that I reconnoitre the river while he watched the Indians. ”

“ The Cheyennes promptly migrated across the Missouri, and since then the red shadow of the Sioux has hung over the Chippewas, with no neutral nation between to minimize the shock of an attack.
The crossing was not difficult and we made it easily and surmounted the opposite bank, but left a trail a bull buffalo could read. Flat Mouth held up his hand for silence and cocked his ear. I heard nothing beyond the usual noise of wood life.
"They're following our trail," he warned. "If we stick to the woods they will overtake us. Our only chance is to take to the open now and ride for it. ”

“ He eagerly explained:
"She goes to make discoveries in the Red Lake River country. She thinks to send hunters there."
"She can get no hunters," I sneered.
"She thinks she can get some Crees, some Assiniboins," he retorted.
I began to believe that she could. All she need do would be to threaten a second theft of the Voice from the Qu'Appelle. I began to feel normal, to look on her as a rival whom I must best in trade. ”

“ Anxious to get at the truth, I went after Flat Mouth. I despaired when I observed that even this intelligent and—with me—very frank fellow was sobered almost to the point of dejection. At first he would make no reply to my questions.
"My friend, the great war-chief of the Pillagers, looks sad when four Sioux scalps hang in his tent. And he refuses to tell his white brother, who would drive the shadows away," I complained.
"My brother can not drive the shadows away," he grunted.
"Medicine is strong." ”

“ She has been to our castles many times. She knows the woods like an Indian. I will find her. She shall not go to Ticonderoga.”
“See she is taken to General Lyman. He will send her to Albany, where she can do no more mischief.”
Young Brant moved away from him, then softly called back:
“She shall go where she will so long as she doesn't go north. She is a friend of my people.”
“That's the Mohawk of it,” grumbled Putnam. “The brat is crazy to become a warrior by killing the French. ”

“ Ahead were the steep red banks of the Missouri. At our feet were two cows freshly slain. Flat Mouth inspected them, and for the first time since our flight from the Cheyenne his immobile features showed animation.
"The brains have been taken to dress hides. Hunters did it, not a war-party after meat. Only Mandans hunt here."
The Assiniboins had been lost to sight for a day. In their place we were dreading a Sioux war-party, for the Sioux hung closely about the Mandan villages, seeking to pick off a victim or two. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then the kings and royal princes that were with him, finding him bent on battle, and knowing well that the Northumbrians would not begin the attack, came to Penda saying—
“We would counsel thee, O king, to wait still until Feargus and Osbert shall reach us, for of a certainty they will come: here are we face to face with a host mightier than ours.”
Then the king answered: “And hath not the host of Penda oft-times conquered hosts twice as mighty as itself, led by greatest warriors of the world? Strength lieth not in numbers, nor in big warriors or little, but in the hearts and minds of men. ”