Lou Silt Read online

  It was near sunset when we crested the rise Hitch had pointed out. We estimated that we were still at the base of the Pioneers and could see across a massive valley to the Bitterroot Mountains. We stopped and got off our horses. Bella nudged me and shook her head. She was a smart animal and was probably wondering what we were doing so far from home. I rubbed her head and blew into her nostrils. That always seemed to calm her. She pawed the ground and flashed her big teeth. I was sorry I had no apple or carrot to give her.

  We tethered the horses and set up the spy glass on Breezy’s gun mount. I lay prone and very slowly scanned the area in front of us from left to right. At first I saw nothing. A light wind rippled the tall grasses and in the far distance the heat caused waves that obscured my vision. The Big Hole River wound its snaky way through the far side of the valley. I was beginning to get bleary eyed so I passed the glass to Hitch. I asked Breezy about the boys with Josephus. She said all four of them were only 15 or 16 years of age. She said they probably thought they were off on a lark and had little idea of what they were getting into. She said they weren’t bad boys just lazy and wanted off the mountain figuring they could cowboy and not farm. She was sure they would be no problem.

  “What I fear Lou is that he might get some Injun’s on his side. He was always off doing trades with the tribes up north. That is why he is probably running to Flathead territory. A lot of years ago he brought back a squaw from one of his hunting and trading trips and he about killed that poor girl. She finally had enough of him beating on her and she run away. We never heard what happened to her.”

  She looked up at me all of a sudden. “Lou, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to worry you more than you already are. I do not think he would mistreat a white woman. Miss Violett will be all right.”

  I knew Breezy was trying to be

  encouraging but both of us understood that she might already be dead. I had to hold out hope but it was getting more difficult as each day passed.

  “Breezy,” I said. “They must be riding awfully hard to get so far ahead of us so fast. I bet that glass is seeing for miles and still no sign of them. Do you think Dorcas could have been mistaken about the direction they might have took?”

  “Well, Lou, I reckon it’s the best guess we got. She knew him better than anyone even if it did not help her in the end. She said she would never leave that mountain and I guess she was right. I just wish her passing could have been of a more peaceful nature. I do not like to hold hate in my heart but I will know no peace until that cur is in the ground.”

  We turned as Hitch came crawling rapidly towards us.

  “I seen something. I can hardly believe it but it looks like an entire Injun nation is heading our way. You come and look, must be thousands of horses and a couple of hundred warriors and woman and children. I can’t quite make out who it is but I do believe it is the non treaty Nez Perce we heard was on the move.”

  We crawled to the edge of the peak we were on. I took the spyglass and Hitch was right. It was a huge group spread out across the face of the mountains and heading for the bank of the river. I passed the glass to Breezy. She looked and whistled.

  “By God, we got trouble now. If they keep coming we got no choice but to go back the way we came. I ain’t tangling with no war party that big.”

  “Hitch, you know the Nez Perce. You said they was allies of the Crow. You think we can just pass through them? Maybe we could rig up a white flag; you can talk to them.”

  Hitch sat and took his hat off and wiped his brow. His red hair was all wet and tangled. “Lou, if they is out for scalps I do not think they will be in a hospitable mood. I think we should wait and see if they keep coming. The sun is nearly setting behind the mountain and they will probably stop for the night. If they camp we can see what they are up to in the morning. It could be they are heading to join up with the high country Crows. I know for a fact that some of them young Crow bucks is talking about putting up a fight if the army says they have to be farmers and can never hunt again.”

  “I hate to wait any longer, Hitch. We ain’t seen hide nor hair of Josephus in all these days. Where in the hell is he? Can they be so far ahead of us that they made it by the pass before them Injuns came down? How are we ever going to catch up with them now?”

  “Well, Lou,” Breezy said, “We know that if they come this way then they are headed up to Flathead country. Most likely when they get there they won’t be moving anywhere soon. Winter comes early up here and they will have to hole up. We will find them but right now we got to make sure we ain’t caught by these Nez Perce. I think Hitch is right and we should wait out the night. If they keep coming our way we will have to double back and find a place to hide and let them pass.”

  Suddenly Hitch leapt from his seated position and held a finger to his mouth. He signaled behind me and ran crouching into the tree line. Breezy and I grabbed our weapons and faced back behind us. I saw and heard nothing. A few tense moments passed until Hitch came walking out of the trees half a circle away from where he went in. Following him were our Injun visitors from our first trip up the mountain to see Old Dorcas. Breezy and I put up our

  weapons. I told her that it was Two Leggings; an old childhood friend of Hitch’s from when he was a Crow captive.

  I stood and greeted Two Leggings. He had three men with him. He nodded a hello as I bade them to be seated. Hitch and him carried on in Injun talk for a bit including an awful lot of sign language. I knew enough of Injun ways that these kinds of things took time, so I held my peace. However, I got to admit that I was right nervous, what with a whole giant group of Nez Perce not too far off and them just showing up. This was not Crow Territory and I could not help but wonder what they were doing here.

  Hitch broke out the tobacco and we all moved off into the trees so as not to give off any smoke that might be spotted by the Nez Perce, who, as Hitch had said, were busy setting up camp for the night. We seated ourselves in a circle. Breezy stayed with the horses. Hitch handed Two Leggings the tobacco. He pulled a pipe from his possibles pouch or parfleche, I think they call it, and stood up. He said

  something in Crow and blew tobacco upwards. I guess this was an offering to the Great Spirit or some such. He then filled the bowl and scratched a flint to spark the pipe to life. We passed it around in a very solemn manner. After everyone had a few puffs he began to speak to Hitch in what seemed a very earnest manner.

  They finally finished up their talkin’. We went back to our camp and Hitch explained to us that Two Leggings had been sent to see if it was true that the Nez Perce were planning on coming to join forces with the Crow against the Army. Some of the Crow elders believed the Nez Perce wanted to join them on their land or to make a run for Canada. Crazy Horse and his Sioux band had run across the border after the Little Big Horn fight. However, the Crow had no intention of joining forces with the Nez Perce. They knew it would only mean death at the hands of the US army. They had, in fact, volunteered to help out the Army by stealing the giant horse herd that they knew the Nez Perce would be running.

  Two Leggings seemed to be listening intently to Hitch explaining things to me and I began to suspect that maybe he understood English. I told Hitch to relate to him just what we were doing and how much we wanted to continue our journey after Violett. I asked if he knew of a way around the Nez Perce. Hitch talked to him some more and he kept looking at me and Breezy. His men sat like silent stones. It sure was hard to read an Injun’s face. They did not seem to react to things the way we did. I could gather no clue as to what he felt. I did notice that they were not wearing war paint which was a good sign, as far as I was concerned.

  Hitch said that they planned on going across the plain to talk to Ollokot and Looking Glass, the Nez Perce war chiefs. They wanted to get a look at how many head they were running and how big a group of warriors they had. They then planned on heading back with the

  information. They were a long way from home but could move much faster than an entire village of wome
n and children.

  As Hitch told me later, Two Leggings also asked about Josephus and where we thought he was heading. He told Hitch of forays against the Flat heads for counting coup and stealing horses, something for which the Crow were famous. He said that he felt bad for me and Breezy. He also said that our best chance was to do what Breezy said and hide until the tribe passed.

  At last the sun dropped behind the Bitterroots setting the hills and mountains behind us aflame. The bright colors crept down the hillsides until they died off in a slow fade to gray and then black. We kept our horses near and set up a sentry system to keep watch. We could have no fire so we just ate hardtack and jerky. The Injuns kept their horses separate from ours as they did not seem to get along. The Crow mostly rode paints and they were fine looking animals but skittish. Two Leggings wanted to stay on the rise with us because as fearless as these warriors were they did not want to cross an open plain towards an encamped village on high alert.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  It was still dark when the sound of gunfire echoed across the plain and up to our camp. We jumped out of our blankets with guns drawn. Crawling to the edge of the overlook we could see the flash of powder in the Nez Perce camp. It was still too dark to make out anything.

  “What the hell is going on down there?” I asked.

  Two Leggings spoke in Crow. “He says that it is most likely the Army attacking the village,” Hitch translated. “They must have caught up in the night and are trying to catch them off guard.”

  All we could do was listen and watch the flashes of light from the guns firing until the dawn broke. Slowly the sky lightened and in the early dawn we could make out soldiers running through the village and trying to set fire to the teepees. With the aid of the spyglass I could make out many dead bodies scattered about the village. What the Army could not see was that the main body of Injun’s had gathered to the north of the camp and were regrouping. At the same time we could see some of the Nez Perce heading up the hills behind the camp where the horses were gathered. While many of the warriors, having found higher ground, were killing the soldiers sitting in the camp, the giant horse herd was being chased away from the battle by just a few warriors. The herd was running to safety. Why the soldiers did not scatter the horses nor press their advantage was a mystery to me.

  The morning progressed slowly with the soldiers being driven back across the river by the Injun’s withering gunfire. After wading through the marshy banks of the Big Hole they found some elevation and dug in. The Nez Perce surrounded the Army and kept them bottled up in their pits.

  It was agonizing for me but all we could do was watch and wait. While a large body of warriors kept up the deadly and accurate fire, the rest of the tribe regrouped and emptied what they could from the village and began to move south. They had no time to bury the dead. They threw robes over the bodies and I could only imagine the grief and pain they suffered having to find so many of their woman and children murdered. I was amazed at how efficiently they could gather things up and get moving.

  Evening came but with no change. The warriors kept the soldiers pinned down and in their holes. The Army must have been running out of ammunition as they were barely returning fire while the Injuns never stopped. It was not until the late afternoon of the following day that all the Nez Perce that were surrounding the soldiers mounted ponies and rode off. They galloped away, waving lances in the air and followed the woman and children along with the giant herd of horses. They were bypassing our position and I could only stare in wonder at the determination and speed with which they traveled.

  I told Hitch and Breezy that we had to leave now. The Injun threat was past and the Army seemed to be sitting and licking their wounds. Hitch told Two Leggings what our plan was and he shocked all of us by his reply. As Hitch translated, in fits and starts, this is what we learned.

  Two Leggings wished to become a great warrior and a medicine man and leader of his people. He said that all his life he had strived to accomplish his goals but had met with much competition and bad luck. He was now reduced to being a scout and not privy to the war councils back in Crow territory. The path to greatness as a warrior came through counting coup, taking scalps and stealing horses. He now felt that if he came with us and raided the Flathead camps and returned with horses, scalps and stories of great victories his legend would grow and he would be rewarded for his efforts. He and his friend, Bull Does Not Fall Down, wanted to come with us. Not only to help Hitch but for the reasons he had shared with us.

  I stared hard at Two Leggings and as usual could read nothing. I turned to Hitch. “You believe that this is what he truly wants? And what about Bull there; you know him at all?”

  Before Hitch could answer me, Breezy walked in between us. “Wait just a minute. What are we talkin’ about here? How we going to travel all that way with two Injuns? We don’t know what they is up to. Maybe they want our scalps to take back. I have never trusted any Injun and I ain’t about to now. I know he is some sort of kin to you Hitch, but I ain’t at all sure about this.”

  “You do not know the Crow, Breezy,” Hitch said. “When they say something it is the truth. They will be a big help. It is two more fighting hands and they know the territory. Besides if we come across any troopers we can say they is our guides. What do you think Lou?”

  Considering where we were heading and what we might face I could see no objection. Even without being able to understand Two Leggings or get a sense of his feelings I could still see the strength that he held. Pappy had told me tales of meetings with the Crow when the mine was first starting and what reasonable and fine people they were. I stated my feelings and assured Breezy that Hitch knew what he was talking about when it came to redskins. I said all you had to do was look at the color of his hair to see that he really was a true redskin. She got a laugh out of that and after Hitch translated for the Injuns, even they laughed.

  We saddled the horses and prepared to leave. Two Leggings sent the other two Crow to catch up with the Nez Perce, learn what they could and get back home with the story of what happened at the battle. They could also tell the story of why he and Bull were not returning. They said their farewells and we started down the hillside staying well east of the river and bypassing the soldiers on the other side. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  We traveled at a rapid clip and avoided detection. Towards the end of the day we saw a line of troopers galloping towards us. I reined us in and the soldiers stopped as they reached us.

  I held up my hand in greeting. They seemed mighty jumpy and had rifles and pistols pointing at us.

  “Whoa there, troopers,” I said. “I am Marshal Lou Silt and need to speak to your commanding officer. We have just come from the battlefield and the Nez Perce is gone. You are too late if it’s a fight you’re lookin’ for.”

  A deep tanned sergeant with huge mutton chop whiskers eyed me warily and told his men to watch us as he heeled and galloped back down the line. Soon a group rode up with regimental colors flying. A handsome officer with a full beard rode to the front and stopped in front of me.

  “I am General Howard and we are racing to relieve General Gibbons. Have you any knowledge of what has occurred?”

  I got off Bella and waited until he dismounted. “Sir, I am Marshal Lou Silt of Lost Path in Montana territory. My posse and I are in pursuit of a fugitive by the name of Josephus Larue. He is a murderer and kidnapper. He has my fiancé and along with 4 youths is headed for Flathead country. Did you by any chance run across them on your way through the

  Bitterroots?”

  He removed his hat and wiped his brow. He looked carefully at our disparate little group. “No, we have not seen anyone of that description. Your posse, Marshal, if you don’t mind my saying, seems to have a rather odd composition.”

  I turned and then grinned at the General. “You might say so sir. Hitch there is my deputy and Miss Larue is kin to the fugitive. Two Leggings and Bull are Crow and are acting as scouts for us. We witnessed t
he battle from afar and I would suggest you make all haste, for while the Nez Perce are long gone, I do believe the soldiers are in a bad way. I am sorry I could not have been of more help to them but we must go on as I fear for my fiancé and how far they may be ahead of us. I wish you luck in your

  endeavors. We have to take our leave.”

  I swung myself onto Bella and waved farewell to the General and his men. They were soon past us as we rode on silently into the hovering dusk. I hoped that Lost Path would not prove to be on the route of the running Nez Perce as blood would surely flow. I feared for the fate of my town being stuck with an

  inexperienced man like Lt. Scribine in charge. At least Captain Lawton, although not a field officer, seemed much more level headed. There was little I could do about any of that now.

  We stopped for the night and Breezy made us some Johnny cakes, stew and beans. That, along with the smell of coffee brewing, made us all ravenous and when she signaled it was ready we all dove in and the sound of chewing, slurping and belching flew around our fire-lit circle. Every time Breezy let loose with a lip-flapping belch Hitch and I roared with loud guffaws of laughter while Two Leggings and Bull only stared at us without expression. I guess the General was right; we were a strange group.

  After we had eaten our fill and cleaned up I had Hitch question the Crow’s in detail about the Flatheads. I wanted to know as much as possible about what we might be facing when we caught up with Josephus just in case he was among them.

  Two Leggings said that relations were mostly peaceful between Crow and Flathead but at times they were enemies. He recounted in detail a long story about a battle with the Flathead when they arrived at the same valley looking for buffalo. He was just a young warrior then and trying to make his reputation with daring deeds. He told us how he was wounded but managed to almost kill and scalp a Flathead brave but was pulled away to help another wounded Crow. He seemed very proud of this encounter and Bull agreed. He also told us that the Flathead nation which also included the Pen D’oreilles and Kootenai, had realized, like the Crow, that resistance to the whites was futile and had accepted reservation life. Some still roamed and hunted when the notion took them but they were but a few warriors. He felt that they would be wary of anyone traveling with a captive white woman as they did not want trouble with the Army. He thought they would turn away Josephus unless he had something they wanted badly. I was not happy to hear this as they might then just continue to Canada. I had no