Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

"That is my name," said the old man, "where have you heard it?"

"Oh, Mr. Lajeunesse, wait until we find Hugh, then we must have a long talk with you. Were you chased by Indians once, long ago south of the Bear Paw Mountains? And did you lose a mule there?"

The old man smiled rather sadly, and said: "Truly, my son, I was chased there, and I did lose a mule and many other valuable things which I have never been able to find. But one of them I see now on your breast."

Jack quickly untied the powder charger and offered it to Baptiste who waved it away. Then Jack asked him: "Where can we find you in an hour or two? We will come back here with Hugh, I'm almost sure that he is the man that you call Casse-tête."

"I'll be near here all the day," said Baptiste, "and if I'm not in sight, the man in the saloon can tell you where I have gone." Without a word more, Jack and Joe started on a run toward the stable.

When they reached the stable, there was no one there, but a man loitering in the street near by, told them that he had seen "their partner" going up the street a little while before, with a sack of flour on his shoulder. At once, Joe led the way to the bank nearby, and entering it, they could see, behind the counter, Hugh and another man, in earnest conversation. As soon as Hugh saw them he introduced them to Mr. Finley, the manager of the bank, as his two partners. Hugh had already taken out the gold. It had been examined and weighed, and three drafts, each for $2,520.00 were now being made out, one to the order of each of the three.

Hugh told Jack that a few miles below the town, there was a steam-boat loading, on which they could get passage for Bismarck, and that he had made arrangements to have all their baggage hauled down to it.

"I reckon, we'll leave all the horses, except maybe Pawnee and your new horse, up here in charge of Joe. We can trust him to look after them carefully, and I reckon it's more than likely, that you may come back here again next season; and if you do, it will be a lot shorter for you to come direct and find your horses here, rather than to go to the ranch and have to ride up across country. That takes a lot of time.

"Of course, if you want to, you can leave all the horses here, we won't need them going down. And now, I reckon," he added, "we'll go out and buy some things. We'll stop in again to shake hands with you, Mr. Finley, before we quit the town."