“Well, you see the soldiers belonging to that troop were mostly new to the business. It was the first time they had ever been on a scout, and the way I followed the trail was something marvellous to them. Some of them had friends in Fort Scott, and when I went back I took a lot of mail for them. Of course they had something to say about their scout after the Comanches, and I came in for a share of the praise. Some one spoke of me as Carl, the Trailer, and I have been known by that name ever since.”
“Now, if you have got all through with that story, I want to ask you about something else,” said Lieutenant Parker. “Do you know anything about the Ghost Dance? Some people in the East think it is a myth, a new religion that has been taken up by a few fanatics, but which will fade away by the time the white folks quit noticing it.”
“I know all about it,” answered Carl, “fully as much as the Indians themselves know. If the people down East think it is a myth, they want to go among the Sioux at the present time. They will think there is a dread reality in it before they have been there very long.”
“It was gotten up for the sake of going to war with the whites, I suppose?”
“No, it was not. It was gotten up by Wovoka, better known as the Cutter. He was a Piute Indian, and lived on the borders of the Mason Valley, which is a long way from here. The time he discovered the new religion was once when ‘the sun died’ and he was taken up into the other world.”
“What in the name of sense is the meaning of that?” asked Parker.
“I will tell you how I account for it. About that time the Cutter, as I shall call him, was taken very ill with a fever, and some of the ranchmen attended him. You see he was very well known by the farmers, used to work for them, and so when he was sick they did all they could for him. While he was on what everybody supposed to be his deathbed the eclipse of the sun took place, and that is an event that is regarded with horror by all primitive people. The Indians hold that the sun is a living being, and that some monster is trying to devour it; and the noise and hubbub which they create to frighten this monster away, such as firing off guns, blowing upon horns and yelling, is enough to drive one crazy. The excitement and alarm, acting upon a mind and body already enfeebled by disease, resulted in delirium, during which time he was taken up into the other world. Between 1884 and 1890 there was one eclipse which was total in Nevada; that was in 1889. Ever since that, the Cutter has been subject to cataleptic fits; and I suppose you know what they are.”
Lieutenant Parker listened to Carl in silent admiration. Here was a boy who had never been to school a day in his life, and yet knew more about some things than he did. He began to look upon him with a great deal of respect.
“Yes, I know what catalepsis is,” said Lieutenant Parker. “It is a sudden suspension of sensation and volition, the body and limbs preserving whatever position may be given them. For example, you put the hand up, and it stays there till you put it down; or you put the foot up, and it remains there.”
It was now Carl’s turn to look in surprise toward the lieutenant. There was something in West Point after all, if it taught their young officers such things.