4 The Dangerous Ford

Roka and Pehansan arose at dawn, but they did not awaken the others, and they bade the sentinels lie down beside them. Then, arrow on the string and muscles alert, they inspected their field of battle, and looked for traces of great bears. But the ground was too hard to show tracks.

“It may be,” said Roka, “that we will not have to deal with them until we finished with the wolves.”

“And as many of the wolves with their leader are left alive,” said Pehansan, “they may yet give us much trouble.”

“It is true, Pehansan, but the victory we have won must not make us careless. We shall meet many more dangers, but with the young warriors we have we can conquer them all. Never did anybody have more splendid young men!”

“Truly spoken, Roka. They are brave and skillful and they are at the age when one dares anything.”

The start was not made until about noon. When there was nothing urging the Indian he always took an abundance of rest, being able to lie in a completely relaxed state much longer than the white man. Will now had this power, and, when he opened his eyes about the middle of the morning, and saw there were no preparations to start he closed them again, falling into a pleasant dream in which the whole terrific scene of the dark hours passed before his eyes again.

When the sun was at the zenith they took up the march, packs on backs, and passed through the neck of the pass, emerging by the side of giant cliffs where the wind struck them with tremendous force. But all the warriors, stoical as they were, uttered murmurs of admiration. Before them lay a steep descent then a wilderness of faint green, vast forests already touched by spring, and far beyond, around the whole three quarters of the circle, lofty mountains tipped with snow. Silver gleams of water, rivers and little lakes, appeared through the foliage.

“It is a good land,” said Roka, “but we must pass through it and reach the wide northern buffalo plains which we know lie to the east.”

Will and the young warriors were not averse to the great journey. They were anxious to go and see.

“In a country such as this we may find tribes that will attack us,” said Pehansan. “It is the misfortune of the Indians that they should be so much at war with one another.”

“Perhaps,” replied the astute Roka, “but there are not many people in the far north, where the cold lasts so long. It is possible that man has never been in the region that we see before us.”

“And if so, my chief, the great animals will be all the more numerous because there has been none to slay them or to fight them.”

“Likely enough, Pehansan, but we have the bows that have served us so well, and if we should use all our arrows we can make new ones.”

They began the descent, Roka, in his right as leader, going first, the others, as usual, following in single file. The going was not difficult for warriors as sure of foot as they, the way taking them through alder, pine, birch and aspen which grew larger the farther down they went. Half way to the bottom and Will glanced back.

“Look!” he cried to his comrades.

Upon a jutting rock, far above them, stood a gigantic wolf, colored tawny gold in the blazing sunlight and enlarged in the glowing beams to a size beyond that of any wolf that ever existed in any age. It was the master wolf himself, and Will knew that his gaze was a threat, full of ferocity and vengeance.

“He is telling us that he will still follow us,” he said.

“Since we have destroyed most of his pack,” said Inmu, “he is resolved more than ever to pull us down and devour us.”

“Truly spoken,” said Roka. “The king of the wolves now has revenge added to the other reasons why he wishes to sink his teeth in us. He has not given up the fight. He does not yet concede that man and not wolf is the lord of the wilderness.”

The great wolf did not move. In the glowing sunlight his figure grew larger and larger, and his attitude was full of menace. Once more Will felt the hair lift on his head. They had been victorious the night before, but he realized now that they had won a battle and not a campaign. He felt a certain admiration for the giant leader.

“He does not yield easily the leadership of the forest,” he said to Roka.

“No,” replied the Dakota. “He will not give up. I do not think they will attack us again in the open, but we must guard now against ambush.”

“And, as we’re going to enter dense forest, ambush will be easy there.”

“It looks like it, Waditaka. Once more I say to all of you that we must remain close together.”

When they looked back again the great wolf was gone from the jutting crag, but Will still felt the weight of his threat, and he resolved, when they reached the dense forest below, to take no incautious step. Another hour and they reached a region of magnificent timber, the trees rising in vast cones to a height of two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet. Will knew that the whole region must be watered by the plenteous rains of the Pacific brought by the high clouds over the mountains. He renewed his old belief that they were far north of the American line in a land as yet untrodden by white men, a land in which everything was on a great scale.

The ten were delighted by the splendor of nature visible all about them, the size of the trees, the great mountains with their white crests towering on the circle of the horizon, the obvious richness of the soil with the young grass already showing under the dead leaves of winter, and the inevitable conclusion that the forest swarmed with all kinds of game great and small.

“Ours are a people who love to hunt the buffalo. We could find a home here, but we would not be happy in summer unless we were on the plains,” said Roka.

They penetrated some distance into the forest before night came, and camped by the side of a cold stream that rushed down from the mountains. Tarinca and Hoton, dropping their lines into the current, caught a species of large trout which they found very savory and delicate, and they were light of heart when they ate supper, despite the dangers that still clustered about them.

Inmu, Pehansan and Will, scouting about the camp, found many tracks of game, particularly of the ordinary deer, the mule deer, the elk, and of the great Alaskan moose, then unknown to white men, save to a few wandering prospectors. The three looked with intense interest at the huge imprints and Will, building up the body from the hoof, concluded that the animal making them must have weighed more than a ton.

“We shall have noble game to follow,” he said.

“So great that I am almost tempted to leave the plains forever for a life in the forest,” said Pehansan.

They did not find any tracks of wolf, and, because of the lack, their hearts grew lighter. They would not admit it to themselves, but the ferocious pursuit had weighed heavily upon their nerves, and their spirits were frayed somewhat by it. But they found instead tracks belonging to the cat tribe, and Pehansan pronounced them those of the puma or panther, enlarged far beyond the ordinary size, as all animals seemed to be in these remote and highly vitalized valleys.

“The puma, cougar or panther, whichever name you call it, is usually a cowardly beast,” said Will, “but I don’t fancy the looks of these tracks. Maybe, like the wolves and bears, the panther takes on uncommon ferocity in this region.”

“He is rarely found so far north,” said Pehansan, “and maybe only a few lone animals of the kind are wandering here.”

They followed the great tracks, large like those of a lion, until they were lost at the edge of a small watercourse, and then returned to the camp. Will was apprehensive. While the panther was cowardly most of the time, the lion often ran away too, and here in the north these isolated, gigantic specimens might not be afraid of man. He knew from his reading that in the far interior of South America the jaguar, while lacking in the height, often attained the body and weight of a great tiger, and he suspected an attack.

That night when he was on guard with Inmu by the fire, he heard a crying in the wilderness, a sound much like the wailing of a woman, but the two knew better. It was made by the great panther, which no doubt, from some place of vantage, was watching their fire with yellow, angry eyes. The panther’s cry was the most weird and lonesome of all the sounds Will had ever heard. It was a combined note of ferocity and despair, and it made the lad’s blood grow chill in his veins.

“If that brute would quit weeping and wailing,” he said to Inmu, “I’d like it better. It sounds to me like mock grief over the fate he intends for us. He’s shedding what we white people call crocodile tears.”

“I know nothing of the crocodile,” said Inmu, “but I do not like the presence of the panther. The wolves could trail us on the ground only, but the panther can hunt us from the trees also.”

“And do you think this panther or a lot of ’em, if he has friends, will follow us as the wolves have done?”

“I do not know, Waditaka, but we seem to have come into a country that belongs to the animals only. Maybe they will join together and destroy us before we grow too strong, and before we have a chance to take their country from them, as the white man treats the red man.”

“You can’t tell me, Inmu, that wolves, bears and panthers will form an alliance for the annihilation of man! Why, such a thing was never heard of in the history of the world!”

“Waditaka, who has read many books where the wisdom of the wise is stored, has never before claimed that he knew everything. Does he say that a thing has never happened because he has never heard of it?”

“No, I don’t, Inmu, but it appears incredible.”

“Our legends and tales, passed on from father to son through countless generations, tell of many strange things not in the books of the white man. You do not believe all of them, and I say to you in reply that I do not believe many of the tales in your books. Listen, the giant panther is crying again!”

“You understood what the master wolf said that night when he howled outside our camp, now why is it that you can’t interpret any of the panther’s talk?”

“I have not said, Waditaka, that I could not, but even Waditaka himself could not learn a language in a few minutes. Be patient and perhaps I will understand.”

Will and Inmu walked a little distance from the fire. The long, whining cry, full of ferocity and complaint, rose again and again. It was a curious note. It seemed to spread and fill the air. It was impossible to tell whether it came from a point on the ground or high up among the trees. Inmu listened with extraordinary concentration.

“Now I know his language,” he said at last. “His words run so: ‘You have fought with the wolves, O, man, and so far you have been the victor, but you have not yet fought with me! The wolves run upon the ground and they may lie in ambush there, but you know where to seek them! I find my way in the trees! I lie upon the bough where you do not see me, and when you think I am far away I spring upon you! I, the giant panther, am the real monarch of the woods!”

Will, despite himself, looked up and scanned every bough within forty or fifty feet of them. He was relieved to find no huge and tawny form crouching there. Inmu’s eyes had followed his, and, noting his change of countenance he laughed low, but with great amusement.

“You believed my words, O Waditaka,” he said. “You believed the threat of the panther, as I told it to you, and you looked in the trees for him.”

“I don’t know whether I did or not, Inmu, but, at least, you created an illusion in my mind, you were so much in earnest. For the time, I suppose, I had faith.”

“You had faith, then, and you will have it again. The panther is still talking, Waditaka. You can hear him yourself. He is saying: ‘You are in the deep forest now, O man, and that is where I hunt best. You cannot look at the ground and the sky at the same time. When you are thinking least of me I shall come. I am more dangerous than the wolf because I am larger and stronger than he, and I have my choice of two paths while he has only one. I am more dangerous than the great bear because I am more cunning and I hate more.’”

“I don’t believe he’s telling the truth wholly, Inmu. I doubt whether he’s more cunning than the great bear, although he’s right when he says he hates more. Taking it by and large, I’ve a pretty good opinion of bears, and I don’t believe they hate much. I fight ’em in self-defense only.”

“Truly spoken, Waditaka. The bear is the noblest of animals, though not the wisest, perhaps. He is not so cunning and tenacious as the wolf, and he does not steal upon you like the panther, but he has paws and teeth more terrible than either. And we do not really know that the great bears of the north, the monstrous ones, do not remember and follow even as the wolf does.”

“But we’ve had no encounter with ’em yet, at least, not since that fight in the winter when we went out from the village.”

“But we have seen their tracks. We will yet meet them.”

“Let’s wait until then. We’ve now to deal with the wolves and the panther. There goes the tawny brute again! What’s he telling us, Inmu?”

“He is saying: ‘I have warned you now, O man, that I will come when you are least expecting me. I am not the panther of the south. I am far larger and far more fierce than he and you cannot escape me. This is my last warning to you. Now I go.’”

The ferocious crying in the wilderness ceased and they heard only the light crackle of the fire behind them. Will felt cold.

“Inmu,” he said, “I almost believe you’ve been telling me the truth.”

“You believe it wholly, Waditaka. When I gave you the words of the king wolf did they not come true? And what I take from the lips of the panther will come true also. You know it.”

Will said nothing, but again he examined very carefully the boughs of all the adjacent trees, and, when his watch was over and he lay down, he chose a place that no animal could possibly reach by a single leap from an overhanging bough. The sharp eyes of Inmu noted the fact, but he kept silent, merely smiling to himself. Will awoke an hour later, and once more he uneasily inspected the trees. But they were free from crawling animals and the voice of the panther did not come out of the forest again that night.

Dawn disclosed a wilderness magnificent, untroubled and apparently free from danger. The young warriors rose, expanded their chests, and were eager to be led forward. Like the great animals, they seemed to have acquired new size and strength in the fertile valleys of the far north. There was something in the soil and climate that made for growth.

“Let us go on,” said Hoton, the teller of tales, “I wish to see all the mountains and rivers and lakes and what they contain, and when I return to the village I will tell of them as none of you can.”

“As none of us will,” said Wanmdi, whose name meant the Eagle. “O Crow, you know that whatever we may achieve it will not be the half of what you will tell.”

“Then you should rejoice because of it, O Eagle, because though you may do little I shall make it appear to the village that you have done much. Thus, without running the risks you will seem to the people a slayer of great beasts, and a mighty warrior.”

“You are well named the Crow, because you can chatter forever. If the wolves attack us again I will ask Roka to send you forth to talk to them, and your tongue will run so fast and so long that they will fall dead from sheer weariness. Thus we will save our arrows.”

“And if I can do it, Wanmdi, will I not deserve to be created a great chief?”

Will listened to them with amusement, knowing there was no animosity in the controversy of the Crow and the Eagle. He had long since learned that among themselves the Indians were talkative and had an abundant fund of jest and irony. They loved to chaff one another in their own peculiar way.

“Hoton,” he said, “both you and Wanmdi should fly through the air if your names mean anything. Now, tell me, since the animals grew so great up here why shouldn’t the birds do the same? Won’t we find eagles, for instance, mighty of beak and talon, and twice as large as those we’ve known in our own lands farther south?”

“It is a wise question that you ask, Waditaka,” interrupted Roka. “I have never known eagles to attack man, save a little child now and then, but, since we are threatened by wolves and bears on the ground and panthers in the trees, it may be also that great birds in the air will try to molest us.”

All the young warriors, driven by the same impulse, looked up, but the blue heavens were unflecked by any dark objects that could be turned into fierce carnivorous eagles. Nothing floated there against the emerald sea save the little white clouds, and they signified only peace.

“I don’t think we are to expect any attacks from the air,” said Hoton.

“Learn, O Hoton,” said Roka gravely but in a spirit of instruction rather than reproof, “that a clear sky is no proof we will never have a storm. Because no enemy is in sight now we must not conclude that none will ever appear.”

“It is true, wise chief,” said Hoton, “and gladly I admit it. I have learned in this wilderness of marvels to expect everything.”

“And to be ready for anything, my Hoton. A mighty talker are you, but a brave warrior also. None did better than you in the great fight with the terrible wolf pack.”

The blood of gratified pride came into the bronze of Hoton’s face at the words of praise that Roka so rarely spoke.

“I thank you, Roka,” he said briefly, but speaking from a full heart.

“And keep on talking,” said the leader, smiling. “It is well, that a band should always have one with a light and gay tongue. When a river is happy its waters sing to themselves, and when the tongue of the Crow goes on and on we know that we are doing well.”

“In truth, Hoton is our minstrel,” said Will. “Like the knights of old, we are cheered up by him when the day’s work and fighting are over, though he has neither lute nor song.”

“Minstrel! what is that, Waditaka?” asked Roka.

Will explained as well as he could to a group that listened with great attention and interest, and the leader nodded sagely.

“I think I understand, Waditaka,” he said.

They talked in the same vein as they walked, because they anticipated no attack from any source as long as the daylight lasted. The forest did not lend itself readily to ambush. As in the smaller valley it was almost free from undergrowth, and they walked between ordered rows of magnificent trunks. Despite the great canopy of leaves that would appear later on, turf grew there, and already enough of it had appeared to make a springy carpet for their feet. Their packs grew lighter and the spirits of the young warriors, already high, ascended into empyrean heights.

“The air blowing upon us is life itself,” said Hoton. “If it grows any stronger Wanmdi and I, true to our names, will rise high in the air and fly ahead of the band.”

“Behold the great moose,” said Will, pointing to the right, where a huge animal stood between two trees, regarding them, a moose probably doubling in weight his brother of the farther south.

“Maybe he, too, claims to be the lord of the forest,” said the irrepressible Hoton, “but, unlike the wolf, he does not yet know man, nor is he so cunning and wise as Xunktokeca (Wolf).”

“The moose, no matter how great his size, will attack us only at certain times,” said Pehansan, a mighty hunter who knew the ways of all animals, “and we are glad he and his brethren are here. Food for a great Dakota war band marches on those four hoofs.”

The moose regarded them with a stately air of disdain, and then walked away among the trees. A half hour later, they came to a deep, swift stream, cutting straight across their right of way, the water an intense blue and free from ice.

“We shall have to swim it,” said Roka, “unless we find a ford.”

They searched several hundred yards both up and down the stream, but they did not care to look long for a ford. They were too hardy to fear either the current or the cold, and selecting a comparatively narrow place, with easy slopes for the departure and the landing, they prepared, baring their bodies and making their clothing, weapons, ammunition and food into packs that they could carry on their heads, thus keeping them dry. Roka, as became his leadership, swam first and arrived safely on the other side. He was followed by Hoton, Wanmdi, Tarinca and others until only Will and Inmu were left on the first shore.

Will was preparing to take the stream when a fierce shout of warning came from Roka and an arrow whistled over his head. He turned and was paralyzed for an instant as he saw a great wolf leap straight for his throat. It would have been his last minute, but another arrow fired by Hoton, great talker and great warrior, sang close to his face, and pierced the neck of the leaping brute through and through. The momentum of the wolf was so great that his dead body knocked Will down, and, although he quickly sprang to his feet again, he was dazed.

A mighty yellow shape launched itself from the over-hanging bough of a tree, but it was met in mid air by four arrows, which did not slay, but which broke its flight. The huge panther dropped almost at Will’s feet, and the snap of its terrible fangs missed him but little. He sprang back, and the shout rang in his ear:

“Swim, Waditaka! Swim, Inmu! Swim for your lives!”

The great panther had risen to its feet for another spring and the wolves also were closing in anew. It was the impulse of both Will and Inmu to stretch out their arms, bend their bows and fight then and there, but those on the other bank knew better. Conscious of the desperate need and with muscles of steel eight men shot their arrows close together and so fast that before one struck its target another had left the bow. Never were arms and eyes more true. The whistling shafts were a bristling wall between Inmu and Will and their enemies. They stood out all over the body of the great panther, and wolves died almost at the feet of the two. And always above the deadly rustle of the arrows and the terrible growling of the beasts, rose the commanding shout:

“Swim, Waditaka! Swim, Inmu, for your lives!”

Will and the young Dakota collected their senses at last, and, still carrying their packs on their heads, leaped into the stream, then swam desperately for the other bank, where their comrades, great marksmen, stood covering their struggle for life with flight after flight of arrows. Will reached the bank, struggled up, and sank down almost unconscious. But he recovered himself quickly, and began to dress with all speed, Inmu, close at hand, being engaged in a similar task.

“It was a narrow escape, Waditaka,” said the grave voice of Roka. “We underrated the cunning of the wolves and of the great panther, and you two came near being trapped at the ford. But the panther, monster though he is, has paid the price. Look!”

Will turned his eyes toward the other shore. The panther, tawny and vast, was outstretched there, the shafts of more than a dozen arrows protruding from his body. By the side of him lay eight dead wolves, and he knew that others must have limped away wounded. Truly, the eight warriors on the other shore had shot magnificently, and Will’s heart swelled with gratitude and pride.

“Roka,” he said, “Inmu and I owe our lives to you. Never were arrows sharper, and never did they fly faster.”

“We shot so well because we were not willing to lose our youngest two, but not our least valuable warriors,” said Roka, as he unstrung his bow. “But you will notice, Waditaka, that the king wolf is not among the slain. He laid well his plan to trap our rear guard at the ford, and, though he has been defeated with a large loss, he himself is yet alive, and, madder with rage than ever, will continue to follow us.”

“Do you think, Roka, that the panther was in alliance with the wolves? That the great animals, though of different kinds, could really form a league to attack us?”

“That I know not, Waditaka. It is a secret of Manitou, and he will not tell it to us, but whether by chance or intent, the panther came at the same time the wolves did.”

“He looks from here about three times the size of the ordinary cougar or panther, and the feathers of a lot of good arrows are standing out of him. Shall we cross and cut ’em out? We’ll need ’em.”

Roka shook his head.

“No, Waditaka,” he replied. “We will not dare the ford again. We might be attacked a second time when we were separated, and not fare so well as we have now. Perhaps the great bears themselves would come. The arrows in the panther and in the wolves are precious to us, but we must do without them and make new ones.”

“But ours is a great victory, a magnificent victory,” said Hoton, teller of tales, who had been fairly bursting with unspoken speech. “I shall be the first to tell it to the village, when we return. I claim it as my right.”

“It is yours, Hoton,” said the leader, smiling. “Man of many words though you are, yet valiant warrior you be too. And none other is so fit as you to sing of it, when we return. We know, too, that the tale will not suffer in the telling, and that when it is spun our valor will grow.”

Hoton, whom words alone could not now content, lifted up his voice, a full, Dakota bass, and sang in blank verse:

The air rang with his triumphant song, and the others joined in the last verse, when he sang it over again.

“I think, Hoton,” said Will, “that with your judicious compound of self praise and flattery you deserve to become some day a great medicine man, and adviser of the war chiefs.”

“Why so?” asked the teller of tales.

“Because in the shooting of the arrows and slaying of the great beasts, you put two men first, just a little ahead of the rest, yourself, whom you value highly, and Roka, our chief, to whom you must concede a merit at least equal to your own.”

“Did you not say, Waditaka, that I was fit to become a medicine man, and is not that what a medicine man would do?”

Roka himself smiled. He liked Hoton, who was in very truth what Will had called him, the minstrel of the band.

Roka decided that they had remained long enough on the bank, and, as they were now refreshed and warm again, they cast one glance upon the opposite bank, where the proofs of their prowess were so numerous and departed through the forests. But before they had gone far they heard snarling and snapping behind them on the other shore. Will shuddered. It was the wolves coming once more to devour their own dead.

Roka did not make the march long. He knew that his men, little though they showed it, had been shaken somewhat by the terrible battle at the ford, and they went into camp long before sundown, still among the huge trees which were free from undergrowth, thus disclosing at a great distance any enemy who might possibly approach. He also had a double supply of elk steaks served and they drew upon a precious little store of corn meal for thin cakes, at the cooking of which Tarinca and Wanmdi excelled.

“We will stay here a while,” said the leader, as they sat before the fire, and ate with keen pleasure their meat and unusual bread. “In a day or two we will hunt more game, though four warriors will go on the search while six remain here. Game should not be hard to find, as we have seen its traces everywhere. Then we will make arrows to take the place of those we left in the bodies of the beasts on the other side of the river. A band such as ours, which is to explore, hunt and fight, travels on its arrows. Unless we make new ones we shall soon be helpless against any foes that may come.”

The hunt was begun the next day by four warriors, headed by Tarinca, and they brought in a fine deer. They saw no sign of any enemy, and Roka knew it was because he had sent out four men instead of two. The master wolf was somewhere in the forest, watching them, but, cunning and wise, he would not attack four who had proved themselves to be of such mettle. The young men, born hunters, wanted to seek more game, but he would not allow it, saying they already had as much as they could carry, and now all of them could work at making arrows.

They spent a happy week there in the great forest, replenishing their supply of shafts, which they made with such speed and skill, filling every quiver to overflowing. They would have built wickiups had they needed them, but there were only flurries of rain, although a warm wind blew almost continually from the south, and the skies were soft and cloudy. Under such stimulating influences spring began to unfold rapidly in the mighty wilderness. Far above them in that high canopy of trees myriads of buds were bursting into bloom. Young grass was springing up from the earth, wherever the sun could reach it, and, in sheltered places, wild flowers bearing the most delicate shades of pink and purple and blue were coming into bloom. The majesty and sublimity of the great northern forest were now tempered by gentleness and beauty.

The young warriors, despite their hard work with the arrows, luxuriated. They varied their diet with excellent fish from several of the innumerable streams, and, at night, all save those who watched had many and untroubled hours of sleep. Roka, looking at his men, felt in very truth and not in fancy that they were acquiring a new stature and a new strength, like the great animals of the region, and, wise leader that he was, he rejoiced.

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