The Prairie-Bird

by Sir Charles Augustus Murray

Again the Crow chiefs consulted together for some time, and at length they resolved to agree to the terms proposed by Wingenund. The medicine–pipe was brought, and was passed from the chief to him, as well as to Ethelston and the missionary; after which Wingenund said to White–bull, “There is no time to be lost; let sixty of the best warriors be chosen, twenty to go with Wingenund, and forty with White–bull; and let one be found, very large and tall; let him put on the dress of Mahéga; Wingenund will take the whistle, and all will be ready.”

A short time sufficed to collect and marshal the party; and Ethelston was, at his own earnest request, permitted to join the band led by the Delaware youth, being anxious to see the manœuvres about to take place, and Besha having made himself responsible for his fidelity.

Wingenund led the way at a swift pace, until he gained the summit of the first range of hills; nor did he slacken it until he had crossed the valley beyond, and stood upon the opposite brow of the heights, whence the Black–foot band was visible. Here he concealed and halted his party, until he had crept forward and examined all the range of hills within sight. As soon as he had satisfied himself that all was quiet, he drew his party gently on, and at length succeeded in hiding White–bull and his forty men behind some rocks in the steepest and narrowest part of the gorge leading down to the glen below. His quick eye had noted the spot before, and a more minute inspection now convinced him that there was no other pass by which the enemy could ascend the height, and that a handful of determined men might defend it against ten times their number.

Having warned White–bull to keep his own men close, and to stir neither hand nor foot until he heard the Lenapé war–cry, which was the appointed signal, he retreated with his own band of twenty men to the point where the interview between Mahéga and the Black–foot had taken place, which was about forty yards higher up the mountain, and where the gorge was almost as narrow and precipitous as at the pass below. Here he concealed his men among the rocks, and Ethelston primed and loaded three rifles, which they had taken from the Osages, and which were now destined for the use of Wingenund and himself.

For several weary hours the youth watched in vain for the approach of the Black–feet; and any nerves less steady than his own would have been shaken by the remembrance of the disagreeable consequences that might result from the failure of his plot. He lay, however, still and motionless as the stone upon which his elbow rested, until, just as the grey hue of evening was beginning to steal over the landscape, he descried an Indian slowly ascending the steep, followed at a distance by a long line of warriors. A low whistle from Wingenund warned his party to be ready, but he moved not until the advancing band were sufficiently near for him to recognise in their leader the chief who had conferred with Mahéga on the preceding day.

While they were approaching in careless security, the Crows prepared for the attack, each man being provided with a tough halter of bison–hide, in addition to his usual weapons of bow, knife, and war–club; and the leader of the Black–feet had already passed the lower gorge (where White–bull and his party were concealed), ere he sounded the signal preconcerted with Mahéga. Wingenund immediately replied by a similar sound drawn from the whistle which he had secured, desiring at the same time the Crow who wore the dress of the slain Osage to show himself at the edge of the rock skirting the pass. The Black–foot chief, completely deceived, toiled lazily up the steep and narrow ascent, beckoning to his men to follow; and just as he reached the upper station, Wingenund, seeing that twelve or fourteen of them were now fairly caged between the party below and his own, leapt from his concealment upon the astonished leader of the Black–feet, and dealing him a blow on the head that stunned and disabled him, shouted aloud the war–cry of the Lenapé.

No sooner was the signal uttered, than White–bull rushed from his ambuscade, and seized the pass below; so that the unfortunate Black–feet, enclosed between the two parties, panic–struck by the suddenness of the attack, and the fall of their leader, could neither fight nor fly; and in spite of their desperate but unavailing attempts at resistance, were all in the course of a few minutes disarmed and securely bound.

Meanwhile the main body of their comrades made a gallant attempt to force the lower pass, but it was so stoutly defended by the Crows, and was in itself so narrow and difficult, that they were soon forced to retire with loss. Neither could those who succeeded to the command bring them again to the attack. The war–cry of the Lenapé had never before been heard in these glens, and the dismayed Black–feet thought that the evil spirits were fighting against them; while to increase their terror, Ethelston and Wingenund fired two of the rifles over their heads, the bullets from which whistled past them, and the echoes of their report, prolonged by the rocks and crags around, died away at length like the muttered thunder of a distant storm. Terrified by the suddenness of the attack, and by the noise of the fire–arms, ignorant of the number, position, and even of the nation, of their unexpected assailants, and fearful that another manœuvre might cut off their retreat, they fled precipitately down the mountain–side, and halted not until they brought their tale of disgrace and disaster into the Kainna camp.

In the course of a few hours after the events above narrated, Wingenund and White–bull stood together before the lodge of the aged chief of the Crows, whom the former addressed as follows:—“My father, see there the Kainna chief, and twelve of his best warriors; they are prisoners; their life hangs upon my father’s breath; the promise of Wingenund has not been blown away by the wind.”