“As a matter of fact the saloon keeper was struck by a bullet aimed at Howling Wolf by a cowboy. Where is that cowboy? Why has he not been arrested?”
“I don’t believe it. You’ll take——”
“It’s not your business to believe or disbelieve. Did you have a warrant to arrest Wolf?” asked the captain sternly.
“No matter whether I did or not,” replied the sheriff insolently, “he’s here and you can’t take him away. You can protect your thieves and murderers in the reservation, but when they come in here and go howling around you’ll find the case different.” In this tone he blustered.
The captain was firm. “I believe Wolf to be entirely innocent and I’ll see justice done.” He called Claude again and said, “Tell Howling Wolf to be quiet—tell him not to be scared. He’ll have to remain in jail till I can get a release. I’m going to see the judge now. Tell him I’m his friend and I won’t let these people harm him.”
The visit to the judge was still more disheartening. He, too, was suave and patient, but it was plain he intended to do nothing to help the agent. “It may be that a mistake has occurred, but if so the trial will clear your man. As it is the Indian is arrested in a street brawl in which a man is shot. The Indian is arrested, I may add, in due course of law and must stand trial.”
“Very well, we’ll go to trial—but meanwhile release my man on parole. I’ll answer for him.”
The judge had been expecting this, but professed to ponder. “I don’t think that would be wise. We’ve had great difficulty in apprehending offenders. We might find this man hard to reapprehend. I appreciate your desire to——”
“Judge Bray, you are mistaken,” replied Cook with heat, for he understood the covert insult. “You have never failed of getting your man but once, and then, as you know, it was the fault of your sheriff. Where could this man go? I know every man on my reservation. He could not hide out on the hills, and he would be a marked man on any other reservation. Besides all these considerations—I know Howling Wolf. I am peculiarly anxious to have him released till his trial. He dreads confinement—he feels his arrest as an injustice and it will embitter him. More than this I have pledged my word to him to secure his release.”
The judge was obdurate. “The citizens are incensed at the frequent depredations of your charges,” he said, “and they will not submit longer to any laxity. I cannot help you.”