"Red Feather asked me if I knew Mr. Gledware was my stepfather, yet
hadn't acknowledged it to me. I said yes. He asked me if I didn't
know Mr. Gledware had kept still about it because he didn't want the
trouble and expense of taking care of me. I said, of course I had
thought of that. He asked if I knew he had deserted my mother's dead
body in the desert to save his miserable life. I said I knew that, but
he had taken me with him, and he had tried to save me, and I was going
to save him.
"Red Feather shook his head. No, he said, I could not save him, for he
would be dead in two or three minutes--and then he bent over Mr.
Gledware, who all this time was afraid to move or to make a sound. I
hurried to remind him that he hadn't told me his reason for wanting to
kill the man.
"Then Red Feather said that when that man rode with me among the
Indians, Red Feather's daughter had taken a fancy to him, and Mr.
Gledware had married her; and I had been kept away from him so he'd
forget me and not turn his thoughts toward his own people; and they had
taught me that my name was Willock because they were going to take me
to you, Brick. Isn't it wonderful? That day you found the deserted
wagon, and buried my mother, Red Feather was watching you from the
mountain and he wouldn't kill you because you made that grave and knelt
down to talk to the Great Spirit. Afterward, when he rode home and
found that his daughter and Mr. Gledware were to be married, he made up
his mind that if you succeeded in keeping hidden from Red Kimball and
his band, you would be the one to take care of me. And when two years
had passed and you were still safe, he brought me to you! What a glad
day that was!
"When Red Feather's daughter wanted Mr. Gledware's life saved, it was
so. And Red Feather gave them a great stretch of land, and Mr.
Gledware got to be important in the tribe; he made himself one of them,
and they thought him greater than their own chief. At the end of a few
years, there was the great agitation over the boomers coming to the
Oklahoma country, and much talk of the land being thrown open. The
Indians didn't want it done, and they joined together to send some one
to Washington to address congress on the subject. Mr. Gledware was
such an orator that they thought him irresistible, so they selected
him, and, for his fee, they collected over fifty thousand dollars.
Think of it!
"Of course he didn't go near Washington. It was the time of Kansas
City's great boom. He went there and bought up city lots, and sold out
at the right time, and that's why he's rich today. In the meantime,
the Indians didn't know what had become of him, and Red Feather's
daughter died from shame over her desertion--just pined away and hid
herself from her people till she was starved to death. That's why Red
Feather meant to kill Mr. Gledware.
"When he had finished, Red Feather bent over Mr. Gledware and said to
him, 'Me speak all true? Tell Lahoma--me speak all true?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account