



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Golden Face
A Tale of the Wild West
By Bertram Mitford
Published by Trischler and Company, London.
This edition dated 1892.
Golden Face, by Bertram Mitford.

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GOLDEN FACE, BY BERTRAM MITFORD.



PREFACE.

An impression prevails in this country that for many years past the Red
men of the American Continent have represented a subdued and generally
deteriorated race.  No idea can be more erroneous.  Debased, to a
certain extent, they may have become, thanks to drink and other
"blessings" of civilisation; but that the warrior-spirit, imbuing at any
rate the more powerful tribes, is crushed, or that a semi-civilising
process has availed to render them other than formidable and dangerous
foes, let the stirring annals of Western frontier colonisation for the
last half-century in general, and the Sioux rising of barely a year ago
in particular, speak for themselves.

This work is a story--not a history.  Where matters historical have been
handled at all the Author has striven to touch them as lightly as
possible, emphatically recognising that when differences arise between a
civilised Power and barbarous races dwelling within or beyond its
borders, there is invariably much to be said on both sides.



CHAPTER ONE.

THE WINTER CABIN.

"Snakes! if that ain't the war-whoop, why then old Smokestack Bill never
had to keep a bright lookout after his hair."

Both inmates of the log cabin exchanged a meaning glance.  Other
movement made they none, save that each man extended an arm and reached
down his Winchester rifle, which lay all ready to his hand on the heap
of skins against which they were leaning.  Within, the firelight glowed
luridly on the burnished barrels of the weapons, hardly penetrating the
gloomy corners of the hut.  Without, the wild shrieking of the wind and
the swish and sough of pine branches furiously tossing to the eddying
gusts.

"Surely not," was the reply, after a moment of attentive listening.
"None of the reds would be abroad on such a night as this, let alone a
war-party.  Why they are no fonder of the cold than we, and to-night we
are in for something tall in the way of blizzards."

"Well, it's a sight far down that I heard it," went on the scout,
shaking his head.  "Whatever the night is up here, it may be as mild as
milk-punch down on the plain.  There's scalping going forward
somewhere--mind me."

"If so, it's far enough away.  I must own to having heard nothing at
all."

For all answer the scout rose to his feet, placed a rough screen of
antelope hide in front of the fire, and, cautiously opening the door,
peered forth into the night.  A whirl of keen, biting wind, fraught with
particles of frozen snow which stung the face like quail-shot, swept
round the hut, filling it with smoke from the smouldering pine-logs;
then both men stepped outside, closing the door behind them.

No, assuredly no man, red or white, would willingly be abroad that
night.  The icy blast, to which exposure--benighted on the open plain--
meant, to the inexperienced, certain death, was increasing in violence,
and even in the sheltered spot where the two men stood it was hardly
bearable for many minutes at a time.  The night, though tempestuous, was
not blackly dark, and now and again as the snow-scud scattered wildly
before the wind, the mountain side opposite would stand unveiled; each
tall crag towering up, a threatening fantastic shape, its rocky front
dark against the driven whiteness of its base.  And mingling with the
roaring of the great pines and the occasional thunder of masses of snow
dislodged from their boughs would be borne to the listeners' ears, in
eerie chorus, the weird dismal howling of wolves.  It was a scene of
indescribable wildness and desolation, that upon which these two looked
forth from their winter cabin in the lonely heart of the Black Hills.

But, beyond the gruesome cry of ravening beasts and the shriek of the
gale, there came no sound, nothing to tell of the presence or movements
of man more savage, more merciless than they.

"Snakes! but I can't be out of it!" muttered the scout, as once more
within their warm and cosy shanty they secured the door behind them.
"Smokestack Bill ain't the boy to be out of it over a matter of an
Indian yelp.  And he can tell a Sioux yelp from a Cheyenne yelp, and a
Kiowa yelp from a Rapaho yelp, with a store-full of Government
corn-sacks over his head, and the whole lot from a blasted wolfs yelp,
he can.  And at any distance, too."

"I think you _are_ out of it, Bill, all the same;" answered his
companion.  "If only that, on the face of things, no consideration of
scalps or plunder, or even she-captives, would tempt the reds to face
this little blow to-night."

"Well, well!  I don't say you're wrong, Vipan.  You've served your
Plainscraft to some purpose, you have.  But if what I heard wasn't the
war-whoop somewhere--I don't care how far--why then I shall begin to
believe in what the Sioux say about these here mountains."

"What do they say?"

"Why, they say these mountains are chock full of ghosts--spirits of
their chiefs and warriors who have been scalped after death, and are
kept snoopin' around here because they can't get into the Happy
Hunting-Grounds.  However, we're all right here, and 'live or dead, the
Sioux buck 'd have to reckon with a couple of Winchester rifles, who
tried to make us otherwise."

He who had been addressed as Vipan laughed good-humouredly, as he tossed
an armful of fat pine knots among the glowing logs, whence arose a blaze
that lit up the hut as though for some festivity.  And its glare affords
us an admirable opportunity for a closer inspection of these two.  The
scout was a specimen of the best type of Western man.  His rugged,
weather-tanned face was far from unhandsome--frankness, self-reliance,
staunchness to his friends, intrepidity toward foes, might all be read
there.  His thick russet beard was becoming shot with grey, but though
considerably on the wrong side of fifty, an observer would have credited
him with ten years to the good, for his broad, muscular frame was as
upright and elastic as if he were twenty-five.  His companion, who might
have been fifteen years his junior, was about as fine a type of
Anglo-Saxon manhood as could be met with in many a day's journey.  Of
tall, almost herculean, stature, he was without a suspicion of
clumsiness; quick, active, straight as a dart.  His features, regular as
those of a Greek-sculpture, were not, however, of a confidence-inspiring
nature, for their expression was cold and reticent, and the lower half
of his face was hidden in a magnificent golden beard, sweeping to his
belt.  The dress of both men was the regulation tunic and leggings of
dressed deerskin, of Indian manufacture, and profusely ornamented with
beadwork and fringes; that of Vipan being adorned with scalp-locks in
addition.

These two were bound together by the closest friendship, but there was
this difference between them.  Whereas everyone knew Smokestack Bill,
whether as friend or foe, from Monterey to the British line, who he was
and all about him, not a soul knew exactly who Rupert Vipan was, nor did
Rupert Vipan himself, by word or hint, evince the smallest disposition
to enlighten them.  That he was an Englishman was clear, his nationality
he could not conceal.  Not that he ever tried to, but on the other hand,
he made no sort of attempt at airing it.

This winter cabin was a substantial log affair, run up by the two men
with some degree of trouble and with an eye to comfort.  Built in a
hollow on the mountain face, it hung perched as an eyrie over a ravine
some thousands of feet in depth, in such wise that its occupants could
command every approach, and descry the advent of strangers, friendly or
equivocal, long before the latter could reach them.  Behind rose the
jagged, almost precipitous mountain in a serrated ridge, and
inaccessible from the other side; so that upon the whole the position
was about as safe as any position could be in that insecure region,
where every man took his rifle to bed with him, and slept with one eye
open even then.  The cabin was reared almost against the great trunk of
a stately pine, whose spreading boughs contributed in no slight degree
to its shelter.  Not many yards distant stood another log-hut, similar
in design and dimensions; this had been the habitation of a French
Canadian and his two Sioux squaws, but now stood deserted by its former
owners.

Vipan flung himself on a soft thick bearskin, took a glowing stick from
the fire, and pressed it against the bowl of a long Indian pipe.

"By Jove, Bill," he said, blowing out a great cloud.  "If this isn't the
true philosophy of life it's first cousin to it.  A tight, snug shanty,
the wind roaring like a legion of devils outside, a blazing fire,
abundance of rations and tobacco, any amount of good furs, and--no
bother in the world.  Nothing to worry our soul-cases about until it
becomes time to go in and trade our pelts, which, thank Heaven, won't be
for two or three months."

"That's so," was the answer.  "But--don't you feel it kinder dull like?
A chap like you, who's knocked about the world.  Seems to me a few
months of a log cabin located away in the mountains, Can't make it out
at all."  And the scout broke off with a puzzled shake of the head.

"Look here, you unbelieving Jew," said the other, with a laugh.  "Even
now you can't get rid of the notion that I've left my country for my
country's good.  Take my word for it, you're wrong.  There isn't a
corner of the habitable globe I couldn't tumble up in every bit as
safely as here."

"I know that, old pard.  Not that I'd care the tail of a yaller dog if
it was t'other way about.  We've hunted, and trapped, and `stood off'
the reds, quite years enough to know each other.  And now I take it,
when we've lit upon a barrelful of this gold stuff, you'll be cantering
off to Europe again by the first steamboat."

"No, I think not.  Except--" and a curious look came into Vipan's face.
"Well, I don't know.  I've an old score to pay off.  I want to be even
with a certain person or two."

"You do?  Well now don't you undertake anything foolish.  You know
better than I do that in your country you've got to wait until your
throat's already cut before drawing upon a man, and even then like
enough you'll be hung if you recover.  Say, now, couldn't you get the
party or parties out here, and have a fair and square stand up?  You'd
make undertaker's goods of 'em right enough, never fear."

"No, no, my friend.  That sort of reptile doesn't face you in any such
simple fashion.  It strikes you through the lawyers--those beneficent
products of our Christian civilisation," replied the other, with a
bitter laugh.  "However, time enough to talk about that when we get to
our prospecting again."

"If we ever do get to it again.  Custer's expedition in the fall of last
year didn't go through here for fun, nor yet to look after the Sioux,
though that was given as the colour of it.  Why, they were prospectin'
all the time, and not for nothin' neither.  No, `Uncle Sam' wants to
have all the plums himself, and, likely enough, the hills'll be full of
cavalrymen soon as the snow melts.  Then I reckon we shall have to git."

"Well, the reds'll be hoist with their own petard.  It's the old fable
again.  They call in `Uncle Sam' to clear out the miners, and `Uncle
Sam' hustles them out as well.  But we may not have to clear, after all,
for it's my belief that the moment the grass begins to sprout the whole
Sioux nation will go upon the war-path."

"Then we'd have to git all the slicker."

"Not necessarily," replied Vipan, coolly.  "I've a notion we could stop
here more snugly than ever."

"Not unless we helped 'em," said the scout, decidedly.  "And that's not
to be done."

"I don't know that.  Speaking for myself, I get on very well with the
reds.  They've got their faults, but then so have other people.  Wait, I
know what you're going to say--they're cruel and treacherous devils, and
so forth.  Well, cruelty is in their nature, and, by the way, is not
unknown in civilisation.  As for treachery, it strikes me, old chum,
that we've got to keep about as brisk a look-out for a shot in the back
in any of our Western townships as we have for our scalps in an Indian
village."

The scout nodded assent; puffing away vigorously at his pipe as he
stared into the glowing embers.

"For instance," went on the other, "when that chap `grazed' me in the
street at Denver while I wasn't looking, and would have put his next
ball clean through me if you hadn't dropped him in his tracks so
neatly--that was a nice example for a white man and a Christian to set,
say, to our friends Mountain Cat, or Three Bears, or Hole-in-a-Tree,
down yonder, wasn't it?  But to come to the point--which is this:
Supposing some fellow had rushed us while we were prospecting that place
down on the Big Cheyenne in the summer and invited us to clear, I guess
we should briskly have let him see a brace of muzzles.  Eh?"

"Guess we should."

"Well, then, it amounts to the same thing here.  We are bound to strike
a good vein or two in the summer--in fact, we have as good as struck it.
All right.  After all the risk and trouble we've stood to find it,
Uncle Sam lopes in and serves us with a notice to quit.  It isn't in
reason that we should stand that."

"Well, you see, Vipan, we've no sort of title here.  This is an Indian
reservation, and Uncle Sam's bound by treaty to keep white men out.
There are others here besides us, and I reckon in the summer the
Hills'll be a bit crowded up with them.  So we shall just have to chance
it with the rest, and if we're moved, light out somewhere else."

"Well, I don't know that _I_ shall.  It's no part of good sense to chuck
away the wealth lying at our very feet."  And the speaker's splendid
face wore a strangely reckless and excited look.  "The scheme is for the
Government to chouse the Indians out of this section of country by hook
or by crook--then mining concessions will be granted to the wire-pullers
and their friends.  And we shall see a series of miscellaneous frauds
blossoming into millionaires on the strength of _our_ discoveries."

"And are you so keen on this gold, Vipan?  Ah I reckon you're hankering
after Europe again, but I judge you'll be no happier when you get
there."

The scout's tone was quiet, regretful, almost upbraiding.  The other's
philosophy was to end in this, then?

"It isn't exactly that," was the answer, moodily, and after a pause.
"But I don't see the force of being `done.'  I never did see it; perhaps
that's why I'm out here now.  However, the Sioux won't stand any more
`treaties.'  They'll fight for certain.  Red Cloud isn't the man to
forget the ignominious thrashing he gave Uncle Sam in '66 and '67, and,
by God, if it comes to ousting us I'll be shot if I won't cut in on his
side."

"I reckon that blunder won't be repeated.  If the cavalrymen had been
properly armed; armed as they are now, with Spencer's and Henry's
instead of with the sickest old muzzle-loading fire-sticks and a round
and a half of ammunition per man, Red Cloud would have been soundly
whipped at Fort Phil Kearney'stead of t'other way about."

"Possibly.  As things are, however, he carried his point.  And there's
Sitting Bull, for instance; he's been holding the Powder River country
these years.  Why don't they interfere with him?  No, you may depend
upon it, a war with the whole Sioux nation backed by the Indian
Department, won't suit the Govermental book.  `Uncle Sam' will cave in--
all the other prospectors will be cleared out of the Hills, except--
except ourselves."

"Why except ourselves?" said the scout, quietly, though he was not a
little astonished and dismayed at his friend and comrade's
hardly-suppressed excitement.

"We stand well with the chiefs.  Look here, old man: I'd wager my scalp
against a pipe of Richmond plug--if I wasn't as bald as a billiard ball,
that is--that I make myself so necessary to them that they'll be only
too glad to let us `mine' as long as we choose to stay here.  Just
think--the stuff is all there and only waiting to be picked up--just
think if we were to go in on the quiet, loaded up with solid nuggets and
dust instead of a few wretched pelts.  Why, man, we are made for life.
The reds could put us in the way of becoming millionaires, merely in
exchange for our advice--not necessarily our rifles, mind."  And the
speaker's eyes flashed excitedly over the idea.



CHAPTER TWO.

A NOCTURNAL VISITOR.

No idea is more repellent to the mind of a genuine Western man than that
of siding with Indians against his own colour.  Contested almost step by
step, the opening up of the vast continent supplies one long record of
hideous atrocities committed by the savage, regardless of age, sex, or
good faith; and stern, and not invariably discriminate, reprisals on the
part of the dwellers on the frontier.  It follows, therefore, that the
race-hatred existing between the white man and his treacherous and
crafty red neighbour will hardly bear exaggeration.  Thus it is not
surprising that Smokestack Bill should receive his reckless companion's
daredevil scheme with concern and dismay.  Indeed, had any other man
mooted such an idea, the honest scout's concern would have found vent in
words of indignant horror.

There was silence in the hut for a few minutes.  Both men, lounging back
on their comfortable furs, were busy with their respective reflections.
Now and again a fiercer gust than usual would shake the whole structure,
and as the doleful howling of the wolves sounded very near the door, the
horses in the other compartment--which was used as a stable--would snort
uneasily and paw the ground.

"You don't know Indians even yet, Vipan," said Smokestack Bill at
length, speaking gravely, "else you'd never undertake to help them, even
by advice, in butchering and outraging helpless women, let alone the
men, though they can better look after themselves.  No, you don't know
the red devils, take my word for it."

"I had a notion I did," was the hard reply.  "As for that `helpless
woman' ticket, I won't vote on it, Bill, old man.  There's no such thing
as a `helpless' woman; at least, I never met with such an article, and I
used to be reckoned a tolerably good judge of that breed of cattle,
too--"

His words were cut short.  The dog uttered a savage growl, then sprang
towards the door, barking.  Each man coolly reached for his rifle, but
that was all.

"I knew I wasn't out of it," muttered the scout, more to himself than to
his hearer.  "Smokestack Bill knew the war-whoop when he heard it.  He
ain't no `tenderfoot,' he ain't."

Swish--Whirr!  The fierce blast shrieked around the lonely cabin.  Its
inmates having partially quieted the dog, were listening intently.
Nothing could they hear beyond the booming of the tempest, which,
unheeded in their conversation, had burst upon them with redoubled
force.

"Only a grizzly that he hears," said Vipan, in a low tone.  "No red
would be out to-night."

Scarcely had he spoken than the loud, long-drawn howl of a wolf sounded
forth, so near as to seem at their very door.  Then the hoof-strokes of
an unshod horse, and a light tap against the strong framework.

"It's all straight.  I thought I knew the yelp," said the scout.  Then
he unhesitatingly slid back the strong iron bolts which secured the
door, and admitted a single Indian.

The new comer was a tall, martial-looking young warrior, who, as he slid
down the snow-besprinkled and gaudy- blanket which had
enshrouded his head, stood before them in the ordinary Indian dress.
The collar of his tunic was of bears' claws, and among the scalp-locks
which fringed his leggings were several of silky fair hair.  But for
three thin lines of crimson crossing his face, and a vertical one from
forehead to throat, he wore no paint, and from his scalp-lock dangled
three long eagle-feathers stained black, their ends being gathered into
tufts dyed a bright vermilion.  For arms he carried a short bow, highly
ornamented, and a quiver of wolfskin, the latter adorned with the
grinning jaws of its original owner, and in his belt a revolver and
bowie knife.  This warlike personage advanced to Smokestack Bill, and
shook him by the hand effusively.  Then, turning to Vipan, he broke into
a broad grin and ejaculated--

"Hello, George!"

He thus unceremoniously addressed made no reply, but a cold,
contemptuous look came into his eyes.  Then he quietly said:--

"Do the Ogallalla dance the Sun-Dance [Note 1] in winter?"

"Ha!" said the Indian, emphatically, grasping at once the other's
meaning.

"When I was lost in the Ogallalla villages, all the _warriors_ knew me,"
went on Vipan, scathingly.  "There may have been _boys_ who have become
warriors since."

"Ha!"

The Indian was not a little astonished.  This white man spoke the
Dahcotah language fluently.  He was also not a little angry, and his
eyes flashed.

"You are not of the race of those around us," he said, "not of the race
of The Beaver," turning to the scout.  "Your great chief is George."

"Don't get mad, Vipan," said Smokestack Bill, hastening to explain.  "He
only means that you're an Englishman.  It'll take generations to get out
of these fellers' heads that Englishmen are still ruled by King George."

Vipan laughed drily.  He had given this cheeky young buck an appropriate
setting down.  Whether or no it was taken in good part was a matter of
indifference to him.

Meanwhile, the scout, having put on a fresh brew of steaming coffee,
threw down a fur in front of the fire, and the warrior, taking the pipe
which had been prepared for him, sat in silence, puffing out the
fragrant smoke in great volumes.

This done, he drew his knife, and proceeded to fall to on some deer ribs
provided by his entertainers.  The latter, meanwhile, smoked tranquilly
on, putting no question, and evincing no curiosity as to the object of
his visit.  At length, his appetite appeased, the warrior wiped his
knife on the sole of his mocassin, returned it to its sheath, and
throwing himself back luxuriously, ejaculated--

"Good!"

To the two white men, the visit of one or more of their red brethren was
a frequent occurrence; an incident of no moment whatever.  They were
accustomed to visits from Indians, but somehow both felt that the
arrival of this young warrior had a purpose underlying it.

The pipe having been ceremonially lighted and passed round the circle,
the guest was the first to break the silence.

"It is long since War Wolf has looked upon the face of The Beaver"
(Smokestack Bill's Indian name), "or listened to the wise words which
fall from his lips.  As soon as War Wolf heard that The Beaver had built
his winter lodge here, he leaped on his pony and wasted not a moment to
come and smoke with his white brothers."

Vipan, listening, could have spluttered with sardonic laughter.  Though
he had never seen him before, he knew the speaker by name--knew him to
be, moreover, one of the most unscrupulous and reckless young
desperadoes of the tribe, whose hatred of the whites was only equalled
by their detestation of him.  But he moved not a muscle.

"It is long, indeed," answered the scout.  "War Wolf must have journeyed
far not to know, or not to have heard of Golden Face," and he turned
slightly to his friend as if effecting an introduction.

By this _sobriquet_ the latter was known among the different clans of
the Dahcotah or Sioux, obviously bestowed upon him by reason of his
magnificent golden beard.

"The name of Golden Face is not strange, for it is not seldom on the
lips of the chiefs of our nation," continued the savage with a graceful
inclination towards Vipan.  "The hearts of the Mehneaska [Americans] are
not good towards us, but our hearts are always good towards Golden Face
and his friend The Beaver.  To visit them, War Wolf has journeyed far."

"Do the Ogallalla [a sub-division or clan of the Sioux nation] send out
war-parties in winter time?" asked the scout, innocently.  But the
question, harmless and apparently devoid of point as it was, conveyed to
his hearer its full meaning.  The eyes of the savage flashed, and his
whole countenance seemed to light up with pride.

"Why should I tell lies?" he said.  "Yes, I have been upon the war-path,
but not here.  Yonder," with a superb sweep of his hand in a westerly
direction.  "Yonder, far away, I have struck the enemies of my race, who
come stealing up with false words and many rifles, to possess the land--
our land--the land of the Dahcotah.  Why should I tell lies?  Am I not a
warrior?  But my tongue is straight; and my heart is good towards Golden
Face and his friend The Beaver."

Vipan, an attentive observer of every word, every detail, noted two
things: one, the boldness of this young warrior in thus avowing,
contrary to the caution of his race, that he had actually just returned
from one of those merciless forays which the frontier people at that
period had every reason to fear and dread; the other, that having twice,
so to say, bracketted their names, the Indian had in each instance
mentioned his own first.  In his then frame of mind the circumstance
struck him as significant.

After a good deal more of this kind of talk, safeguarded by the adroit
fencing and beating around the bush with which the savage of whatever
race approaches a communication of consequence, it transpired that War
Wolf was the bearer of a message from the chiefs of his nation.  There
had been war between them and the whites; now, however, they wished for
peace.  Red Cloud and some others were desirous of proceeding to
Washington in order to effect some friendly arrangement with the Great
Father.  There were many white men in their country, but their ways were
not straight.  The chiefs distrusted them.  But Golden Face and The
Beaver were their brothers.  Had they not lived in amity in their midst
all the winter?  Their hearts were good towards them, and they would
fain smoke the pipe once more with their white brothers before leaving
home.  To that end, therefore, they invited Golden Face and The Beaver
to visit them at their village without delay, in fact, to return in
company with War Wolf, the bearer of the message.

To this Bill replied, after some moments of solemn silence only broken
by the puff-puff of the pipes, that he and his friend desired nothing
better.  It would give them infinite pleasure to pay a visit to their
red brethren, and to the great chiefs of the Dahcotah nation especially.
But it was mid-winter.  The weather was uncertain.  Before undertaking
a journey which would entail so long an absence from home, he and his
friend must sleep upon the proposal and consult together.  In the
morning War Wolf should have his answer.  Either they would return with
him in person, or provide him with a suitable message to carry back to
the chiefs.

In social matters, still less in diplomatic, Indians are never in a
hurry.  Had the two white men agreed there and then upon what their
course should be, they would have suffered in War Wolfs estimation.  The
answer was precisely what he had expected.

"It is well," he said.  "The wisdom of The Beaver will not be
overclouded in the morning, nor will the desire of Golden Face to meet
his friends be in any way lessened."

While this talk was progressing, Vipan's eye had lighted upon an object
which set him thinking.  It was a small object--a very small object, so
minute indeed that nine persons out of ten would never have noticed it
at all.  But it was an object of ominous moment, for it was nothing less
than a spot of fresh blood; and it had fallen on the warrior's leggings,
just below the fringe of his tunic.  Putting two and two together, it
could mean nothing more nor less than a concealed scalp.

"Bill was right," he thought.  "Bill was right, and I was an ass.  He
did hear the war-whoop right enough.  I wonder what unlucky devil lost
in the storm this buck could have overhauled and struck down?"

The discovery rendered him wary, not that a childlike ingenuousness was
ever among Vipan's faults.  But he resolved to keep his weather eye
open, and if he must sleep, to do so with that reliable orbit ever
brought to bear upon their pleasant-speaking guest.

Soon profound silence reigned within the log cabin, broken only by the
subdued, regular breathing of the sleepers, or the occasional stir of
the glowing embers.  The tempest had lulled, but, as hour followed hour,
the voices of the weird waste were borne upon the night in varied and
startling cadence; the howling of wolves, the cat-like scream of the
panther among the overhanging crags, the responsive hooting of owls
beneath the thick blackness of the great pine forests, and once, the
fierce snorting grow