Where the Trail Divides

ditch, and a parapet eight feet high. To the east was a double board wall with earth tamped between: a solid curb higher than the head of a tall man. Completing the square, to the sout

domain of the Uncpapas, the Blackfeet, the Minneconjous, the Ogallalas, came others; for the alarm of rapine and of massacre had spread afar. Very late to arrive, doggedly holding their own until rumour became reality unmistakable, was the colony from the Jim River valley to the east; but even they had finally surrendered, the dogging grip of fear, that makes high and low brothers, at their throats, had fled precipitately before the conquering onslaught of the Santees. Last of all, boldest of all, most foolhardy of all, as you please, came the tiny delegation from the settlement of Siou

rewd grey eyes were observing

e is Mc

is H

es," shortly. "I ca

t was stubby, sandy-whiskered

m wh

ux F

y n

e the answer, the tale o

your settlement

son to

l went,

chman hesitated. "All excep

not observing the company collectively now.

es

rl alone at this time?" The questioner's eyelids were closing omino

short legs spread belligere

he announced

involuntarily; his breath came quick. "It gives me the opportunity, sir, to tell you to your face that you're a damned coward.

You c

Gent

llectively, authoratively. "When I fight it will not be with one who abandons a woman and a child at a time like this.... God! it makes a man's blood boil. I've known the Rowlands for ten years, long before the kid came." Cold as before he had been

there was sil

't come," protested

, born leader of men, he turned to the waiting spectators. "It may be too late now,-I'm afraid it is; but if Sam

at question a bit superfluous, pard? We're all with you-that is, as many as you want, I reckon. Non

rammar and the motive alike for granted. "Get your ho

newcomers one man emer

me a horse?

r. Already the gr

jawed, his legs an inverted V; then sile

e was lean-faced Crosby, one cheek swelled round with a giant quid. Close at his heels followed Trapper Conway: grizzled, parchment-faced veteran, who alone had followed the Missouri to its source and, stranger to relate, had alone returned with his scalp. Then came Landor himself, the wiry little mustang he rode all but blanketed under the big army saddle. Following him, impassive, noncommittal as though an event of the recent past had not occurred, came McPherson, drew up in place beside the leader. All-seeing, Crosby spat appreciatively, but Landor gave never a glance. Following came not one but many riders; a half dozen, a score,-enough to make up the allotment, and again. In silence they came, grim-faced, more grimly accoutred. All manner of horseflesh was represented: the broncho, the mustang, the frontier scrub, the thoro

h the openin

ne

t his horse's heel

wo

re the leader's eyes and not a yard away, no number was spoken; no hint of recognition, of cognisance, crossed t

ng bare. Hitherto silent as they, the watching group back in the stockade had that instant found voice. All but to the ground swept twenty sombreros as out over the prairies, out where no human ear could hear, rolled a cheer, and repeated, and again;

e confines of the tiny frontier town were passed. Before them on the one hand, bordering on the river, stretched a range of low hills, dun-brown from its coat of sun-dried grass. On the other, greener by contrast, glittering now in the level rays of the early morning sun on myriad dew-drops, and seemingly endless, unrolled the open prairie. Straig

eir morning feeding, scurried away from the path of the invaders; curious as children, paused on the safety of the nearest rise, to watch the horsemen out of sight. Every marshy spot, every prairie pond, had its setting of ducks. The teal, the mallard, the widgeon, the shoveller, the canvasback-all mingled in the loud-voiced throng that arose before the leader's approach, then, like smoke, vanished with almost unbelievable swiftness into the hazy distance. Prairie dog towns, populous as cities of man a minute before their approach, went lifeless, desolate, as they passed throu

ir unprotected hands and throats. Under its touch the horses' necks, dark before with sweat, became normal again: between their legs, under the, edges of the great saddles where it had churned into foam, dried into white powder, like frostwork amid the hair. Gradually with the change, their breathing became audible, louder and louder, until in unison it mingled with the dull impact of their feet on the heavy sod like the exhaust of many engines. No horseman who value

p the trail. It was 3.45 when they swam what is

h, they approached the bordering hills that concealed the site of Sioux Falls settl

be stragglers; but no matter how many or how few there may be, charge them. If they run you know what to do-this is no holiday outing.

down into the valley beyond, was Landor. As he did so, grim Anglo-Saxon as he was, his whole attitude underwent a transformati

d. "Come on!" and the rowels of his great spurs dug de

tervening, it became a contagion, a mania, a stampede. Every brave for himself, stumbling, crowding through the dismantled ruins of what had the day before been a settlement, howling like their pursuers, seeking but one thing, escape, they headed for the thicket surrounding the river bank; the whistle of bullets in their ears, cutting at the vegetation about them. Into

d Landor had given the word to halt, to wait. Now, far to the east, apparently from the breast of Mother Earth herself, the face of the full harvest moon, red as frosted maple leaves through the heated air, slowly rising, lit up the level country softly as by early twilight. Lingeringly, almost reluctantly, Landor got into his saddle. Just to his left, impassive as the night, well to the front of the company as he had been that mortal drag

I give you warning. What we will find-where we are going, I do not doubt, now. I do not believe you doubt. For it I hold you responsible. You had best turn back before belief be

the moonlight, Landor waited; but no answer

romise of the morning th

I unde

passed; then without a word Landor turned. "You ha

into the open where had stood the shanty, where now was a thin grey layer of ashes, came the riders, and drew rein; their weary mounts crowding each other in fear at something they saw. Like a storm cloud they came; like the roll of thunder following was the oath which sprang to the lips of every rider save one. Good men they were, God-fearing men; yet they swore like pirates, like humans when ordinary speech is not adequate. In the pause but one man acted, and none intervened to prevent what he did. Out into the open, away from the others, rode

ed behind every chance shrub they passed, in the depths of every ravine, in the darkness of night, from every tangle of rank prairie grass in broad daylight. To it fro

is hand on the holster at his hip, Landor who sat staring as one wh

rubbed their eye

arth, were two tiny human figures, hand in hand. No wonder they who saw stared; no wonder they doubted their eyes. One, the figure to the right, was plump and uncertain of step and all in white; white which in the moonlight and against the black earth seemed ghos

oice, a piping

faces each to each, and stared anew. All save one. Off from h

was staring the other from head to toe,

iny bit of femininity nestled close, "Uncle

lasped their burden; unashamed, there wit

ell me how you came here,

ck crept two arms,

d me and took me out. I was afraid at first, but-but he's a nice boy, only he won't talk and-and-" T

of interested watching faces, returned

hungry, Kid?

the dark poll

ed it. He made a big fire. He's a nice

the intrepid brown waif who, that first word of

thing more, baby? You didn't he

attering, turbulent tear storm. Her small body shook, her arms clasped tighter and tighter. "Oh, Uncle Billy, I wa

e back, warmed by the animal heat, was a brown waif of a boy; not asleep or even drowsy, but wide awake indeed, silently watchful as a prairie owl of every movement about him, every low-spoken word. What whim of satirist chance had put him there, what fate for good or evil, they could only conjecture, could not know, could never know; yet there he was, strangest figure in a land that knew only the bizarre, with whom the unbelievable was the normal. Slowly now, weary to death with the long, long day, depressed with the inevitable reaction from the excitement of the past hours, they moved away, t