Adventure Magazine Cover — page 123: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Gentlemen of the North “We must go back now.” I had known him long enough to realize that he was disturbed at something. Thanking Big Man and telling him he should have presents when our traders arrived, we returned to the river and were ferried across. “Something makes my brother sad,” I remarked in Chippewa after we had stepped ashore. “T was glad when I heard that the Blind was away on a buffalo hunt. My heart is heavy now, for they send to bring him home to meet the Cheyennes.” “You believed we should find him here before we arrived,” I reminded. “T knew and hoped for the best. When we came and found him gone my heart sang. I believed we should get away before he returned. Now to find he will come back, makes me sorry.”’ ‘“‘The Blind does not like white men?”’ “He likes white men,” was the laconic response. “Then why feel sad to know he is coming back?” “He likes women. He has never seen such a woman as Medicine Hair. He is a mighty war chief. His word is law in both Minnetaree and Mandan villages. When we fought the Sioux and the Assini- boins I thought only of escaping to a place where we would not be killed. I knew we would not be harmed in these villages. Now I have had time to think. What the Blind wants he takes.” The danger must be pressing when an Indian would be troubled over the fate of a white woman. His words reduced my complacency to ashes. I could only say— ‘We must start before he comes back.” “They will think our coming is a trick if we go away too quickly,” he warned. “T will talk with the Mandans and ask if they have seen any signs of —Assiniboins or Sioux to the north. We must visit the villages, but in one or two sleeps we might start for the Mouse. Once we reach Fort Assiniboin the Medicine Hair will be safe.” “But Le Borgne would be very blind to make the whites angry by taking one of their women,” I protested. Flat Mouth smiled in grim pity at my ignorance. “Vou do not know the Blind,” he mur- mured. “He takes what he wants. No 9 chief is as powerful as he. When I was here before, he took a woman from a Mandan chief who went with his war-club to bring her back. They buried his war- club with him. He likes white men. He will treat you better than his warriors, but he doesn’t let anything stand between him and the thing he wants.” a=] FROM the end of the village rose ____} the girl’s wonderful voice, singing =} ber quaint song, in which one heard the rush of the river and the sighing of the wind, a voice of sadness and pathos, yet colored with a rare beauty. For the first time I realized there were no Indians hang- ing about us begging for tobacco and gifts. We walked to the guest-hut and found the entire village grouped about it. Black Cat was seated on a robe, before the entrance, smoking his Missouri tobacco—villainous stuff—and wondering at the medicine of her voice. ‘“‘When she sings her medicine song I see the leaves turn yellow and drop, and I feel the first of the snow. I hear the ice break- ing up and smell the first grass,” said Black Cat as we stood beside him. “She calls the voices from rivers and sends them back when she is tired of them,” Flat Mouth boasted. “She is very strong medicine. It is her hair. The Chippewas are afraid of her.” ‘“‘The Chippewas are old women,” snorted Black Cat. Flat Mouth’s visage grew very wicked. From inside the robe he was wearing Mandan-fashion he pulled forth a grisly string of Sioux scalps, shook them in Black Cat’s face and hoarsely taunted: “T am a Chippewa. I do not hide in a village when the Sioux of the Plains come near. I go out and killthem. Have the Mandans any old women who take scalps like these?” It was a master-stroke for putting the beggars in their proper place. The Cat was unable to speak for a full minute. His eyes glowed and gloated over the trophies, He sprang to his feet and loudly proclaimed: ‘‘My Chippewa brother is a very brave man. I will adopt him asason. He shall have a new war name. He shall have many wives. He shall carry the pipe for us against our enemies.’ I feared Flat Mouth would indulge in more boasting and scornfully flout the Gomichooks. co nm