“How did you like your ‘Modoc sirloin,’ eh? putty good, eh? didn’t take it raw, did you? Where’s that feller who was going to bring home a good-looking squaw for a—dishwasher? Wonder how he likes her about this time? Where’s that other fellow who was going to ride Captain Jack’s pacing hoss?
“Wonder if those boys who were spoiling for a fight are out of danger?
“Say, boys, there’s some old squaws over there near
the spring; they aint got any guns, aint no bucks there; may be you can take them.” Tossing his head a little to one side, a habit of his when full of sarcasm, he went on to ask the captain of a certain company, “if he found any difficulty in holding his boys back. Where was you during the fight, anyhow? I heard Gen. Wheaton asking for you, but nobody seemed to know where you was, ’cept Donal’ McKay, and he said you was down on the point; said he saw your general there with a mighty nice breech-loading bird gun, and that once in a while some of you would raise your heads and look round, and then Shacknasty Jim would shoot, and you would all lie down again.
“Now, captain, let me give you a little bit of advice; it won’t cost you nothing. When you raise another company to fight the Modocs, don’t you take any of them fellows that you can’t hold back, nor them fellows who want to eat Modoc steaks raw; they aint a good kind to have when you get in a tight place. Why, Shacknasty Jim could whip four of them at a time. Them kind of fellers aint worth a continental d—m for fightin’ Modocs. Better leave them fellers with their mammies.”
CHAPTER XXVI.
OLIVE BRANCH AND CANNON BALLS—WHICH WILL WIN?
A few days after this battle Captain Jack sent a message to John Fairchild and Press Dorris, proposing a “talk,” telling them that they should not be molested, and agreeing to meet them at the foot of the bluff, near the Modoc camp. Messrs. Fairchild and Dorris, accompanied by one other white man and an Indian woman (Dixie), visited the Lava Beds.