Cattle drives -- Fiction; Texas -- Fiction; Western stories
The welcome between McMasters and Griswold was brief. The latter looked
inside the ambulance.
“You’ve got your man!” said he grimly. “How about the others?”
“They resisted arrest, sir,” replied Dan McMasters. “I had the help of
Wild Bill Hickok at Abilene. I have kept my word and brought in
Rudabaugh for you. Here’s your man.”
“Get out, you!” He spoke to Rudabaugh the first time, and cut his bands.
The prisoner climbed stiffly down and looked about him. He faced a row
of Army tents, a few rough huts. A clump of Indian tepees stood not far
distant. A strong shudder came across the body of Sim Rudabaugh. His
face went white in sudden premonition.
The Comanches were waiting for the man who had killed their women.
“Oh, my God!” moaned the prisoner, now really contrite. “Oh, my God,
have mercy!” Even then he knew.
* * * * *
Griswold called for his interpreter, ordered the Comanches to come
before his tent. They sat in council, the pipe passed. The beady eyes of
the Comanches were fixed on the prisoner, but they sat in silent dignity
until the proper time. At length Griswold arose, addressing Yellow Hand
and pointing to Rudabaugh, whom he kept standing, his hands again bound.
“Tell him,” said Griswold, nodding to his interpreter, and speaking to
Yellow Hand, “this is the man who shot down your women when they were
bathing over there by the Arbuckle Hills. You Quahradas, of the Staked
Plains, were visiting here. You had not harmed this man. He was not at
war with you. You had not harmed him. He killed your women. He did not
seek out your warriors.
“I said to you that I would bring this man back to you for you to try.
You can punish him as you like. I give him to you. You do not know this
man. You only know that the men who wear a yellow stripe on their
leggings never have lied to you. This is the man who killed your women.
I say it.”
He raised his hand as Yellow Hand started forward, his face convulsed.
“But I have your promise also, Yellow Hand. You shall not lie to me.
When I give him to you in place of your two women you must do as you
have promised.
“Will you now go back to your people and tell them to sit down? Will you
tell them to leave the war trail on the Staked Plains, to leave our
white towns and ranches alone, and the cattle they drive north?
“Will you come here, all of you, and join the northern Comanches and
your brothers the Kiowas and sit down forever, here on your land, where
the buffalo are many and the deer are running in the thickets as many as
the leaves on the trees? Here the sun is warm, the grass is good, the
water is sweet and cool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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