THE COMPACT.
After leaving his camping ground, Captain Kidd soon parted from the Englishman, whom he sent on through a valley, where he disappeared. Kidd had not much practice in using snowshoes, for he was a horseman of southern plains life; and the inevitable pain at the instep forced him to reach the higher land of the valley divide or crest, and trudge on with the rackets at his back. Here the wind had left but an inch or two of snow; and he walked for a couple of hours without noteworthy inconvenience. Finally, he came within half a mile of the Red River Half-breeds' ill-fated encampment.
When "Quarry Dick" preceded him there, he found the Canadians still digging out the wagons, and binding up their wounds and frostbites. He was much surprised at seeing so many women and girls; and, at the first words addressed to him, was still further filled with astonishment. Instead of going on to the place where—whether he knew it or not—the Botany Bay convict had prepared an enviable reception, his captain chose an elevated knoll, cut some long sticks with his hatchet knife, laid them upon the snow, and across one another in strata, so as to form a platform, and kindled a fire upon this greenwood, a tolerably familiar act in the winter. Soon the flame sprang up, hot enough to roast a buffalo whole; but he threw a couple of handfuls of stinkwood upon it to cause a black pillar of smoke.
On spying this token that his leader was at hand, the "Sydney Duck" remained in the Bois Brulés' camp as a hostage, according to usage, though the precaution would have been waived, and their captain came forth to confabulate with the other commander. Gliding along over the snow with the Canadians' expertness on what are national footwear to them, the Half-breed speedily hailed the man quietly seated at his fire.
"Who comes?" challenged the latter, cocking his rifle, for form's sake.
"Dagard, the Bois Brulé, one of the leaders of the Red River Rovers!"
"I am the leader of a large band of gold hunters," was the reply. "Glad to see you; come on."
Captain Dagard was one of those independent spirits, who would always be in conflict with the town authorities in civilisation; and also, in the wilds, did pretty much as he pleased, and executed, with delightful nonchalance, many an unjustifiable deed. His mixed blood made him now hate the whites—now scorn the reds—but all the time resist government in general, and the British Colonial one in particular. It is to be borne in mind, too, that never were two more incongruous elements in one country than the Scotch and the French settlers of Canada—the one sober, steady, strict Puritans; the other volatile, indolent for periods out of proportion to their fits of activity, and staunch upholders of the feasts of the Church.
Unprejudiced beholders cannot see any difference in the treatment by the rulers of either people; but still the French Canadians, and principally these Half-breeds, never cease complaining that they do not enjoy the same privileges as the conqueror race.
Kidd and the Manitoban sat down by one another.
"You might as well have come on into my camp," said l'Embarrasseur, reproachfully, "though we are a little upset by the storm. The moment I learnt from your adherent—a stout fellow, eh? Though a bit of a brute!—That you were so kind as to help me when the Crows were in our midst, you could be sure you were as my brother!"
"Yes, of course," stammered Kidd, at a loss to understand the allusion. "I—I came in—in the nick, didn't I?"
"Like a miracle! We thought we were gone under, sure, when you poured in that volley, and made the Crows take the back track. By all that's blue! You gave them such a share that we have seen not a feather of them since! That is one kind thing for which we are all grateful. Now, is it in our power to repay you?"
"That depends."
"You are prospecting; is our local knowledge any use to you?—it is freely yours, captain."
"I can say neither yes nor no now, for my comrades must be consulted. We are going into the Yellowstone Basin after gold—"
"Ha, ha!" laughed Dagard; "Another dive into the famous Northern El Dorado, where the way is paved with gold and silver, and the fishponds are boiling water whence one draws the poisson d'avril ready cooked!"
"Do you not believe it is likely?" queried Kidd, earnestly.
"As you say, neither yes nor no. We gave the 'Firehole' a wide berth, for we are not at home in sulphur marshes, soda lakes, and burning pits, like that of the bad place. If there be gold there, though—"
"I promise you that," returned Kidd, confidently; "all points to it. Will you join us—sharing and sharing alike—if my men agree to the union? There is enough and to spare for all of us. Besides, blood being spilt of the Indians, I am afraid my men need be five hundred, and yet prove feeble. These mountain Indians are hardy, not given to the rum bottle, and warlike above all their brethren of the plains."
"They fought like devils incarnate, I repeat. Half my command is disabled or dead, and we were lost irretrievably but for your intervention. I say that again. But what am I to do with the women?"
"What women?"
"I have under my charge sixteen women, that is, those over twenty-five years, and fourteen young girls, to say nothing of still tenderer children—"
"Oh, pshaw! If you are dragging your families about with you," began the gold hunter, contemptuously.
"You are off the track. These are valuables, not encumbrances," rejoined Dagard, tartly. "In two words, they are the captives of the Dakotas, taken away from their burnt cabins in recent raids, and they were placed in my charge so that the Indian agents might discover no traces of them. Thus I have secured the friendship of the Sioux, and if the English come to attack our little Red River Republic, they will find us reinforced by plenty o' fighting men!"
"And," proceeded Kidd, with a chuckle, "if the redcoats defeat you and you take flight back into Uncle Sam's territory, you can obtain his protection by a handing over of the captives whom you charitably snatched from the wigwam. Well conceived, Captain Dagard!"
"Well or ill conceived, it is not my invention."
"Well, anyway, no fool thought of it."
"That's where you are wrong. It's the idea of a lubberly man of mine, Dave Steelder, 'Daft Dave.' He's an innocent, as we Bretons say, an idiot, if you prefer the word."
"Oh, Daft Dave!" exclaimed Kidd, with a sparkle of the eye under his snow goggles.
"Do you know him?"
"I met him at the Humboldt Washup when the flume burst and carried away his hut and savings. They say that drove him stupid. That was in 1869, or so, but others make out he was cranky before."
"If he is an acquaintance of yours, perhaps you would like to see him. Shall I whistle him over?"
"Well, no, some other occasion! He may have the delusion that I look like one of the awkward cusses that broke a plank in the flume and let the flood spoil the diggings. Astonishing what a family likeness the red flannel shirt, the patched pants, and the high up boots gave us all at the gold mines. I have often been taken for another!" concluded Kidd, with a wink.
"How unfortunate!" said l'Embarrasseur, drolly laughing. "Then, I should not advise you to run against Dave. He's apt to tear when he's mad. Still, his strength makes him useful about a camp, though he's not bright, and though he's not trusted on guard, he throws out valuable hints now and again, as these dullards do. But this is wind work, mere talk. What have you come over to propose?"
"Well, I am thinking that you and I might work in double harness."
"Strike a bargain, eh? There's no knowing! There will be a stir up on the frontier—the Britishers are pressing on that railroad. I want all the friends I can cluster. What's your proposal?"
"Assist me to find the gold hoard in the Firehole, and I, who am not without friends in Congress, will engage to restore your captives in so glorious a manner to their relatives, that you will become a hero and have a monument in every Western city! It is true the Sioux will sharpen their knives to punish your breach of faith, but I never heard that there were many Sioux in the hotels of the Eastern States!"
"Then we unite! And instead of my being a poor leader of only a score hale men, I become a subchief of over two hundred!"
"My lieutenant! The sooner I reinforce you the better, eh? White women in the mountains and Indians within rifle range: it's a temptation they can't withstand. I ought to add that another danger exists. They say in the towns that that old rogue, Jim Ridge, boasts that he regulates this chain of the sierras."
"His friends the trappers lynch a horse thief now and then, and shoot offhand anyone robbing cachés, but that's sound trapper law."
"If he and his friends block our entrance into the Yellowstone 'Park,' what would you do?"
"Oh, when there's a man between me and what my empty pocket gapes for, either he or I go under!"
"You're the true colour," ejaculated Kidd, using a gold miner's phrase, and not, of course, reflecting on his colloquist's complexion—a sore point with mixed bloods. "I will send you a dozen men from the camp the moment I return, and you can join me at our next tent pitching, of which they will bear you word. By the way, tell Quarry Dick to make straight for that Blackstone of a Negro head shape as well as hue. I will meet him there by a circuit, for I can make no way on these confounded snowshoes."
"It comes by practice, my brave captain," said Dagard merrily, "like spending money. Au revoir! Our rally word is—"
"Gold!"
"And the countersign?"
"Beauty!"
They drank each from the others pocket flask in token of absolute trust, and the gold hunter was left to raise his little camp after carefully smothering the fire to prevent firing the brushwood of the vale beneath.