The Watchers of the Plains: A Tale of the Western PrairiesCullum, Ridgwell
General
The Watchers of the Plains: A Tale of the Western Prairies
Cullum, Ridgwell
Western stories
"You wear these, they my own. I get him for you. See. You put on, I go get
saddle. The blanket here. So. Nevil, my Nevil, from home. Wana not know
where. But maybe he come quick an' find you an' then----"
Wana did not finish expressing her fears. She seemed suddenly to remember
of whom she was speaking, and that there was disloyalty in what she was
saying.
But Rosebud was paying little heed. She was already changing her clothes.
She knew the value of time just then, and she had been forced to waste
much already. While she was completing the transformation, the squaw went
out and changed her saddle and bridle for an Indian blanket and surcingle
with stirrups attached to it, and a plaited, gaudy rope bridle and spade
bit.
When she came back the white girl had completed her toilet, even to the
moccasins and buckskin chapps. Even the undemonstrative Wanaha exclaimed
at the metamorphosis.
She saw before her in the dim starlight the most delightful picture of a
squaw. Rosebud's wealth of golden hair was hidden beneath the folds of the
colored blanket, and only her fair white face with its dazzling eyes,
bright now with excitement, shone out and destroyed the illusion.
"You are much beautiful," the Indian declared in amazement. Then she stood
gazing until Rosebud's practical voice roused her.
"Food, my Wana."
"I give bread and meat. It in bags on the horse. So. Now you go?"
"Yes, dear Wana. I must go."
Rosebud reached her arms up to the tall woman's neck, and drawing her dark
face down to her own, kissed her. Though she loved this dark princess she
knew that her kiss was the kiss of Judas. Then she passed out, and,
mounting her horse, rode away.
Within five minutes of her going, and while Wanaha was still standing in
the doorway looking after her, a party of warriors, headed by Little Black
Fox himself, rode up to the house. The chief had come in search of Nevil
Steyne. He angrily demanded the white man's whereabouts of the woman who
was his sister.
The ensuing scene was one of ferocious rage on the part of the headstrong
man, and fear, hidden under an exterior of calm debate, on the part of
Wanaha. She knew her brother, and in her mind tried to account for her
husband's absence. After the warriors had departed she passed a night of
gloomy foreboding.
All unconscious of her narrow escape, Rosebud headed away to the
northeast. She had no elaborate scheme of route. With the instinct of her
prairie training she knew her direction. She would make her destination as
the crow flies, chancing everything, every danger, so that she could make
the best time; no personal considerations entered into her calculations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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