Bower, 1874-1940 - The heritage of the Sioux

"All right — jus' for now I let you ron," he jeered. " Bimeby she's different. Bimeby I show yoh who's boss. I make yoh cry for Ramon be good to yoh! "

Annie-Many-Ponies did not betray by so muck as a glance that she heard him. But had he seen her face he would have been startled at the look his words brought there. He would have been startled and perhaps he would have been warned. For never had she carried so clearly the fighting look of her forefathers who went out to battle. With the little black dog at her heels she climbed a small, round-topped hill that had a single pine like a cockade growing from the top.

For ten minutes she stood there on the top and 306

'WAG ALEX A CONKA —COLA!"

stared away to the southeast, whence she had come to keep her promise to Ramon. Never, it seemed to her, had a girl been so alone. In all the world there could not be a soul so bitter. Liar — thief — betrayer of women — and she had left the clean, steadfast friendship of her brother Wagalexa Conka for such human vermin as Ramon Chavez!

She sat down, and with her face hidden in her shawl and her slim body rocking back and forth in weird rhythm to her wailing, she crooned the mourning song of the Omaha. Death of her past, death of her place among good people, death of her friendship, death of hope — she sat there with her face turned toward the far-away, smiling mesa where she had been happy, and wailed softly to herself as the women of her tribe had wailed when sorrow came to them in the days that were gone.

All through the afternoon she sat there with her back to the lone pine tree and her face turned toward the southeast, while the little black dog lay at her feet and slept. From the cabin Ramon watched her, stubbornly waiting until she would come down to him of her own accord. She would come — of that he was sure. She would come if 307

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he convinced her that he would not go up and coax her to come. Eamon had known many girls who were given to sulking over what he considered their imaginary wrongs, and he was very sure that he knew women better than they knew themselves. She would come, give her time enough, and she could not fling at him then any taunt that he had been over-eager. Certainly she would come — she was a woman!

But the shadow of the pines lengthened until they lay like long fingers across the earth; and still she did not come. Bill Holmes and Luis, secure in the knowledge that Eamon was on guard against any unlooked-for visitors, slept heavily on the crude bunks in the cabin. Birds began twittering animatedly as the heat of the day cooled and they came forth from their shady retreats — and still Annie-Many-Ponies sat on the little hilltop, within easy calling distance of the cabin, and never once looked down that way. Still the little | black dog curled at her feet and slept. For all the movement these two made, they might have been of stone; the pine above was more unquiet than they.

' WAGALEXA CONKA — COLA!"

Eamon, watching her while lie smoked many cigarettes, became filled with a vague uneasiness. What was she thinking? What did she mean to do ? He began to have faint doubts of her coming down to him. He began to be aware of something in her nature that was unlike those other women; something more inflexible, more silent, something that troubled him even while he told himself that she was like all the rest and he would be her master.

"Bah! She thinks to play with me, Eamon! Then I will go up and I will show her — she will follow weeping at my heels — like that dog of hers that some day I shall kill! "

He got up and threw away his cigarette, glanced within and saw that Bill and Luis still slept, and started up the hill to where that motionless figure sat beneath the pine and kept her face turned from him. It would be better, thought Eamon, to come upon her unawares, and so he went softly and very slowly, placing each foot as carefully as though he were stalking a wild thing of the woods.

Annie-Many-Ponies did not hear him coming. All her heart was yearning toward that far away 309

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mesa. " Wagalexa Conka — cola! " she whispered, for " cola " is the Sioux word for friend. Aloud she dared not speak the word, lest some tricksy breeze carry it to him and fill him with anger because she had betrayed his friendship. " Wagalexa Conka — cola! cola! "

Friendship that was dead — but she yearned for it the more. And it seemed to her as she whispered, that Wagalexa Conka was very, very near. Her heart felt his nearness, and her eyes softened. The Indian look — the look of her fighting forefathers — drifted slowly from her face as fog drifts away before the sun. He was near — perhaps he was dead and his spirit had come to take her spirit by the hand and call her cola — friend. If that were so, then she wished that her spirit might go with his spirit, up through all that limitless blue, away and away and away, and never stop, and never tire and never feel anything but friendship like warm, bright sunshine!

Down at the cabin a sound — a cry, a shout —

startled her. She brushed her hand across her

eyes and looked down. There, surrounding the

cabin, were the Happy Family, and old Applehead

'WAGALEXA CONKA —COLA!"

whom she hated because he hated her. And in their midst stood Bill Holmes and Luis, and the setting sun shone on something bright — like great silver rings — that clasped their wrists.

Coming up the hill toward her was Wagalexa Conka, climbing swiftly, looking up as he came. Annie-Many-Ponies sprang to her feet, startling the little black dog that gave a yelp of astonishment. Came he in peace ? She hesitated, watching him unwinkiugly. Something swelled in her chest until she could hardly breathe, and then fluttered there like a prisoned bird. " Cola! " she gasped, just under her breath, and raised her hand in the outward, sweeping gesture that spoke peace.

" You theenk to fix trap, you —! "

She whirled and faced Eamon, whose eyes blazed hate and murder and whose tongue spoke the foulness of his soul. He flung out his arm fiercely and thrust her aside. " Me, I kill that dam —"

He did not say any more, and the six-shooter he had levelled at Luck dropped from his nerveless hand. Like a coiled adder, Annie-Many-Ponies had struck. Like an avenging spirit she pulled the knife free and held it high over her head, fac-311

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ing Luck who stared up at her from below. He thought the look in her eyes was fear of him and of the law, and he lifted his hand and gave hack the peace-sign. It was for him she had killed — and she should not be punished if he could save her. But Luck failed to read her look aright; it was not fear he saw, but farewell.

For with her free hand she made the sign of peace and farewell — and then the knife descended straight as a plummet to her heart. But even as she fell she spurned the dead Eamon with her feet, so that he rolled a little way while the black dog growled at him with bared teeth; even in death she would not touch him who had been so foul.

Luck ran the last few, steep steps, and took her in his arms. His eyes were blurred so that he could not see her face, and his voice shook so that he could scarcely form the words that brushed back death from her soul and brought a smile to her eyes.

" Annie — little sister! "

Annie-Many^Ponies raised one creeping hand, groping until her fingers touched his face. 312

< WAGALEXA CONKA — COLA!"

" Wagalexa Conka — cola! " He took her fingers and for an instant, while she yet could feel, he laid them against his lips.

THE END

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