The doctor nodded.
"Good! Me tell you."
[page 259]
"I want to go, Washington," said the lieutenant.
"And I too," said the lieutenant's guest, myself.
George Washington was one of the Nez Percé prisoners surrendered by Joseph to General Miles after the battle of Bear-Paw Mountain. The dead man was one of the wounded in that action who died from his wounds, aggravated, no doubt, by fatigue and exposure while the prisoners were marching to the east in the winter of 1877 under orders from the War Department. George spoke a few words of English, and was quite an intelligent Indian. He was very clean—for an Indian—and was comfortably clad.
"How soon?" asked the doctor.
"He—call me—when he ready: me call you."
"Good! Then I shall go to dinner."