The Scalp Hunters Read online

  * * *

  Shortly after, I was wandering out to the caballada to look after my horse, when the sound of a bugle fell upon my ear. It was the signal for the men to assemble, and I turned back towards the camp.

  As I re-entered it, Seguin was standing near his tent, with the bugle still in his hand. The hunters were gathering around him.

  They were soon all assembled, and stood in groups, waiting for the chief to speak.

  "Comrades!" said Seguin, "to-morrow we break up this camp for an expedition against the enemy. I have brought you together that you may know my plans and lend me your advice."

  A murmur of applause followed this announcement. The breaking up of a camp is always joyous news to men whose trade is war. It seemed to have a like effect upon this motley group of guerilleros.

  The chief continued-

  "It is not likely that you will have much fighting. Our dangers will be those of the desert; but we will endeavour to provide against them in the best manner possible.

  "I have learned, from a reliable source, that our enemies are at this very time about starting upon a grand expedition to plunder the towns of Sonora and Chihuahua.

  "It is their intention, if not met by the Government troops, to extend their foray to Durango itself. Both tribes have combined in this movement; and it is believed that all the warriors will proceed southward, leaving their country unprotected behind them.

  "It is my intention then, as soon as I can ascertain that they have gone out, to enter their territory, and pierce to the main town of the Navajoes."

  "Bravo!" "Hooray!" "Bueno!" "Tres bien!" "Good as wheat!" and numerous other exclamations, hailed this declaration.

  "Some of you know my object in making this expedition. Others do not. I will declare it to you all. It is, then, to-"

  "Git a grist of scalps; what else?" cried a rough, brutal-looking fellow, interrupting the chief.

  "No, Kirker!" replied Seguin, bending his eye upon the man, with an expression of anger. "It is not that. We expect to meet only women. On his peril let no man touch a hair upon the head of an Indian woman. I shall pay for no scalps of women or children."

  "Where, then, will be your profits? We cannot bring them prisoners? We'll have enough to do to get back ourselves, I reckon, across them deserts."

  These questions seemed to express the feelings of others of the band, who muttered their assent.

  "You shall lose nothing. Whatever prisoners you take shall be counted on the ground, and every man shall be paid according to his number. When we return I will make that good."

  "Oh! that's fair enough, captain," cried several voices.

  "Let it be understood, then, no women nor children. The plunder you shall have, it is yours by our laws, but no blood that can be spared. There is enough on our hands already. Do you all bind yourselves to this?"

  "Yes, yes!" "Si!" "Oui, oui!" "Ya, ya!" "All!" "Todos, todos!" cried a multitude of voices, each man answering in his own language.

  "Let those who do not agree to it speak."

  A profound silence followed this proposal. All had bound themselves to the wishes of their leader.

  "I am glad that you are unanimous. I will now state my purpose fully. It is but just you should know it."

  "Ay, let us know that," muttered Kirker, "if tain't to raise har we're goin'."

  "We go, then, to seek for our friends and relatives, who for years have been captives to our savage enemy. There are many among us who have lost kindred, wives, sisters, and daughters."

  A murmur of assent, uttered chiefly by men in Mexican costume, testified to the truth of this statement.

  "I myself," continued Seguin, and his voice slightly trembled as he spoke, "am among that number. Years, long years ago, I was robbed of my child by the Navajoes. I have lately learned that she is still alive, and at their head town with many other white captives. We go, then, to release and restore them to their friends and homes."

  A shout of approbation broke from the crowd, mingled with exclamations of "Bravo!" "We'll fetch them back!" "Vive le capitaine!" "Viva el gefe!"

  When silence was restored, Seguin continued-

  "You know our purpose. You have approved it. I will now make known to you the plan I had designed for accomplishing it, and listen to your advice."

  Here the chief paused a moment, while the men remained silent and waiting.

  "There are three passes," continued he at length, "by which we might enter the Indian country from this side. There is, first, the route of the Western Puerco. That would lead us direct to the Navajo towns."

  "And why not take that way?" asked one of the hunters, a Mexican. "I know the route well, as far as the Pecos towns."

  "Because we could not pass the Pecos towns without being seen by Navajo spies. There are always some of them there. Nay, more," continued Seguin, with a look that expressed a hidden meaning, "we could not get far up the Del Norte itself before the Navajoes would be warned of our approach. We have enemies nearer home."

  "Carrai! that is true," said a hunter, speaking in Spanish.

  "Should they get word of our coming, even though the warriors had gone southward, you can see that we would have a journey for nothing."

  "True, true!" shouted several voices.

  "For the same reason, we cannot take the pass of Polvidera. Besides, at this season, there is but little prospect of game on either of these routes. We are not prepared for an expedition with our present supply. We must pass through a game-country before we can enter on the desert."

  "That is true, captain; but there is as little game to be met if we go by the old mine. What other road, then, can we take?"

  "There is still another route better than all, I think. We will strike southward, and then west across the Llanos to the old mission. From thence we can go north into the Apache country."

  "Yes, yes; that is the best way, captain."

  "We will have a longer journey, but with advantages. We will find the wild cattle or the buffaloes upon the Llanos. Moreover, we will make sure of our time, as we can `cache' in the Pinon Hills that overlook the Apache war-trail, and see our enemies pass out. When they have gone south, we can cross the Gila, and keep up the Azul or Prieto. Having accomplished the object of our expedition, we may then return homeward by the nearest route."

  "Bravo!" "Viva!" "That's jest right, captain!"

  "That's clarly our best plan!" were a few among the many forms by which the hunters testified their approval of the programme. There was no dissenting voice. The word "Prieto" struck like music upon their ears. That was a magic word: the name of the far-famed river on whose waters the trapper legends had long placed the El Dorado, "the mountain of gold." Many a story of this celebrated region had been told at the hunters' camp-fire, all agreeing in one point: that there the gold lay in "lumps" upon the surface of the ground, and filled the rivers with its shining grains. Often had the trappers talked of an expedition to this unknown land; and small parties were said to have actually entered it, but none of these adventurers had ever been known to return.

  The hunters saw now, for the first time, the prospect of penetrating this region with safety, and their minds were filled with fancies wild and romantic. Not a few of them had joined Seguin's band in hopes that some day this very expedition might be undertaken, and the "golden mountain" reached. What, then, were their feelings when Seguin declared his purpose of travelling by the Prieto! At the mention of it a buzz of peculiar meaning ran through the crowd, and the men turned to each other with looks of satisfaction.

  "To-morrow, then, we shall march," added the chief. "Go now and make your preparations; we start by daybreak."

  As Seguin ceased speaking, the hunters departed, each to look after his "traps and possibles"; a duty soon performed, as these rude rangers were but little encumbered with camp equipage.

  I sat down upon a log, watching for some time the movements of my wild companions, and listening to their rude and Babel-like converse.

>   At length arrived sunset, or night, for they are almost synonymous in these latitudes. Fresh logs were flung upon the fires, till they blazed up. The men sat around them, cooking, eating, smoking, talking loudly, and laughing at stories that illustrated their own wild habits. The red light fell upon fierce, dark faces, now fiercer and more swarthy under the glare of the burning cotton-wood.

  By its light the savage expression was strengthened on every countenance. Beards looked darker, and teeth gleamed whiter through them. Eyes appeared more sunken, and their glances more brilliant and fiend-like. Picturesque costumes met the eye: turbans, Spanish hats, plumes, and mottled garments; escopettes and rifles leaning against the trees; saddles, high-peaked, resting upon logs and stumps; bridles hanging from the branches overhead; strings of jerked meat drooping in festoons in front of the tents, and haunches of venison still smoking and dripping their half-coagulated drops!

  The vermilion smeared on the foreheads of the Indian warriors gleamed in the night light as though it were blood. It was a picture at once savage and warlike-warlike, but with an aspect of ferocity at which the sensitive heart drew back. It was a picture such as may be seen only in a bivouac of guerilleros, of brigands, of man-hunters.

  * * *

  El Sol, I have said, was standing over the prostrate Indian. His countenance indicated the blending of two emotions, hate and triumph.

  His sister at this moment galloped up, and, leaping from her horse, advanced rapidly forward.

  "Behold!" said he, pointing to the Navajo chief; "behold the murderer of our mother!"

  The girl uttered a short, sharp exclamation; and, drawing a knife, rushed upon the captive.

  "No, Luna!" cried El Sol, putting her aside; "no; we are not assassins. That is not revenge. He shall not yet die. We will show him alive to the squaws of the Maricopa. They shall dance the mamanchic over this great chief-this warrior captured without a wound!"

  El Sol uttered these words in a contemptuous tone. The effect was visible on the Navajo.

  "Dog of a Coco!" cried he, making an involuntary struggle to free himself; "dog of a Coco! leagued with the pale robbers. Dog!"

  "Ha! you remember me, Dacoma? It is well-"

  "Dog!" again ejaculated the Navajo, interrupting him; and the words hissed through his teeth, while his eyes glared with an expression of the fiercest malignity.

  "He! he!" cried Rube, at this moment galloping up; "he! he! that Injun's as savagerous as a meat axe. Lamm him! Warm his collops wi' the bull rope; he's warmed my old mar. Nick syrup him!"

  "Let us look to your wound, Monsieur Haller," said Seguin, alighting from his horse, and approaching me, as I thought, with an uneasiness of manner. "How is it? through the flesh? You are safe enough; if, indeed, the arrow has not been poisoned. I tear-El Sol! here! quick, my friend! tell me if this point has been dipped."

  "Let us first take it out," replied the Maricopa, coming up; "we shall lose no time by that."

  The arrow was sticking through my forearm. The barb had pierced through the flesh, until about half of the shaft appeared on the opposite side.

  El Sol caught the feather end in both his hands, and snapped it at the lapping. He then took hold of the barb and drew it gently out of the wound.

  "Let it bleed," said he, "till I have examined the point. It does not look like a war-shaft; but the Navajoes use a very subtle poison. Fortunately I possess the means of detecting it, as well as its antidote."

  As he said this, he took from his pouch a tuft of raw cotton. With this he rubbed the blood lightly from the blade. He then drew forth a small stone phial, and, pouring a few drops of liquid upon the metal, watched the result.

  I waited with no slight feeling of uneasiness. Seguin, too, appeared anxious; and as I knew that he must have oftentimes witnessed the effect of a poisoned arrow, I did not feel very comfortable, seeing him watch the assaying process with so much apparent anxiety. I knew there was danger where he dreaded it.

  "Monsieur Haller," said El Sol, at length, "you are in luck this time. I think I may call it luck, for your antagonist has surely some in his quiver not quite so harmless as this one.

  "Let me see," he added; and, stepping up to the Navajo, he drew another arrow from the quiver that still remained slung upon the Indian's back. After subjecting the blade to a similar test, he exclaimed-

  "I told you so. Look at this, green as a plantain! He fired two: where is the other? Comrades, help me to find it. Such a tell-tale as that must not be left behind us."

  Several of the men leaped from their horses, and searched for the shaft that had been shot first. I pointed out the direction and probable distance as near as I could, and in a few moments it was picked up.

  El Sol took it, and poured a few drops of his liquid on the blade. It turned green like the other.

  "You may thank your saints, Monsieur Haller," said the Coco, "it was not this one made that hole in your arm, else it would have taken all the skill of Doctor Reichter and myself to have saved you. But what's this? Another wound! Ha! He touched you as he made his right point. Let me look at it."

  "I think it is only a scratch."

  "This is a strange climate, Monsieur Haller. I have seen scratches become mortal wounds when not sufficiently valued. Luna! Some cotton, sis! I shall endeavour to dress yours so that you need not fear that result. You deserve that much at my hands. But for you, sir, he would have escaped me."

  "But for you, sir, he would have killed me."

  "Well," replied the Coco, with a smile, "it is possible you would not have come off so well. Your weapon played you false. It is hardly just to expect a man to parry a lance-point with a clubbed rifle, though it was beautifully done. I do not wonder that you pulled trigger in the second joust. I intended doing so myself, had the lasso failed me again. But we are in luck both ways. You must sling this arm for a day or two. Luna! that scarf of yours."

  "No!" said I, as the girl proceeded to unfasten a beautiful scarf which she wore around her waist; "you shall not: I will find something else."

  "Here, mister; if this will do," interposed the young trapper Garey, "you are heartily welcome to it."

  As Garey said this, he pulled a coloured handkerchief out of the breast of his hunting-shirt, and held it forth.

  "You are very kind; thank you!" I replied, although I knew on whose account the kerchief was given; "you will be pleased to accept this in return." And I offered him one of my small revolvers-a weapon that, at that time and in that place, was worth its weight in pearls.

  The mountain man knew this, and very gratefully accepted the proffered gift; but much as he might have prized it, I saw that he was still more gratified with a simple smile that he received from another quarter, and I felt certain that the scarf would soon change owners, at any rate.

  I watched the countenance of El Sol to see if he had noticed or approved of this little by-play. I could perceive no unusual emotion upon it. He was busy with my wounds, which he dressed in a manner that would have done credit to a member of the R.C.S.

  "Now," said he, when he had finished, "you will be ready for as much more fighting in a couple of days at the furthest. You have a bad bridle-arm, Monsieur Haller, but the best horse I ever saw. I do not wonder at your refusing to sell him."

  Most of the conversation had been carried on in English; and it was spoken by the Coco chief with an accent and emphasis, to my ear, as good as I had ever heard. He spoke French, too, like a Parisian; and it was in this language that he usually conversed with Seguin. I wondered at all this.

  The men had remounted, with the intention of returning to the camp. Extreme hunger was now prompting us, and we commenced riding back to partake of the repast so unceremoniously interrupted.

  At a short distance from the camp we dismounted, and, picketing our horses upon the grass, walked forward to search for the stray steaks and ribs we had lately seen in plenty. A new chagrin awaited us; not a morsel of flesh remained! The coyotes had taken advantage of our absence, and
we could see nothing around us but naked bones. The thighs and ribs of the buffaloes had been polished as if scraped with a knife. Even the hideous carcass of the Digger had become a shining skeleton!

  "Wagh!" exclaimed one of the hunters; "wolf now or nothing: hyar goes!" and the man levelled his rifle.

  "Hold!" exclaimed Seguin, seeing the act. "Are you mad, sir?"

  "I reckon not, capt'n," replied the hunter, doggedly bringing down his piece. "We must eat, I s'pose. I see nothin' but them about; an' how are we goin' to get them 'ithout shootin'?"

  Seguin made no reply, except by pointing to the bow which El Sol was making ready.

  "Eh-ho!" added the hunter; "yer right, capt'n. I asks pardon. I had forgot that piece o' bone."

  The Coco took an arrow from the quiver, and tried the head with the assaying liquid. It proved to be a hunting-shaft; and, adjusting it to the string, he sent it through the body of a white wolf, killing it instantly. He took up the shaft again, and wiping the feather, shot another, and another, until the bodies of five or six of these animals lay stretched upon the ground.

  "Kill a coyote when ye're about it," shouted one of the hunters; "gentlemen like we oughter have leastwise two courses to our dinner."

  The men laughed at this rough sally; and El Sol, smiling, again picked up the arrow, and sent it whizzing through the body of one of the coyotes.

  "I think that will be enough for one meal, at all events," said El Sol, recovering the arrow, and putting it back into the quiver.

  "Ay!" replied the wit; "if we wants more we kin go back to the larder agin. It's a kind o' meat that eats better fresh, anyhow."

  "Well, it diz, hoss. Wagh! I'm in for a griskin o' the white. Hyar goes!"

  The hunters, laughing at the humour of their comrades, drew their shining knives, and set about skinning the wolves. The adroitness with which this operation was performed showed that it was by no means new to them.

  In a short time the animals were stripped of their hides and quarters; and each man, taking his quarter, commenced roasting it over the fire.