Chapter XVII: After the Clouds--The Sun!

The party to which the renegade Parsons had applied for assistance waited a long time for his coming and were about to give him up, when they were surprised by the appearance of the doctor and the beautiful Olive; and when all had been explained they waxed most exceedingly wroth and determined to leave the traitor to his fate.

In that they were wise.

Notwithstanding all the promises given to the scout, they had numerous spies out, and upon the first symptom of retaliation they would have ambushed, and cut to pieces the entire party--so little faith is there to be put in the word of the generality of Indians.

That the renegade would be punished far more effectually than they would have had the heart to carry out they did not doubt, and leaving him to his fate they returned to the waiting wagons, resumed the journey that had been interrupted, and pressed forward to make up for the precious time that had been lost.

It was almost as heaven for the doctor and Olive to be together again and in safety, and each had so much to tell that the long summer days were far too short. The sufferings through which they had passed made their love doubly dear, and they longed for the time when they could be joined in marriage.

That, however, was denied them until some settlement could be reached. But while thinking thus of their own happiness they never failed to remember the scout and Burning Cloud with tears of gratitude, and as the days lengthened out into a week, they wondered very much what had become of them.

One night their suspense was unexpectedly relieved. The couple were found waiting for the train on the banks of a river, and thenceforward the scout resumed his old position of guide, and as they were gathered around the little camp-fire he filled in the outlines of the story that the doctor had merely sketched.

When the first frontier fort was reached there was a double wedding, and though Olive shone in all her wondrous beauty yet the dusky child of the forest almost rivaled her in her semi-savage charms. This proceeding the scout, though more from bashfulness than for any other reason, had somewhat opposed.

"We have been married once," he said, "and ther Cloud am satisfied and so am I."

"It was a heathen ceremony," suggested Olive, who, womanlike, had her peculiar notions of what constituted the fitness of such things.

"Wal, it mought be, but thar hain't no priest nor prayer-book that kin bind us any tighter than we now am, nor make us any more true."

"That may be. But remember you come of a Christian people, and must educate your wife."

"When I hain't got no edercation myself!" he laughed.

Nevertheless he consented after having a talk with the Indian girl, and finding it was her wish to be married by the "Medicine of the Manitou of the pale-faces," and so it was done.

"And speakin' of the Medicine," the scout said, a few days afterward, when they were talking over the subject, "reminds me of ther old one of ther Sioux."

"What has become of him?" questioned the doctor. "I owe him a deep debt of vengeance, but I fear it will never be paid."

"Ef it hain't by this time I am very much mistaken."

"You did not kill him?"

"Not exactly, but I reckon it resulted in ther same thing."

"I do not understand how that can be."

"Wal, I'll tell yer, and that puts me in mind that I promised you, Cloud, ter do so some day. Don't yer remember what I said erbout er leetle business?"

"She never forgets what her brave tells," was the truthful and characteristic answer of the Indian woman, who looked up to her husband as no one of purely white skin would ever have done.

"Fust I must give yer er description of what kind of er den the old Satan kept."

He proceeded at length to do so, and then described how he had removed the ash and untied the animals so that both they and the terrible serpents could have full play.

"He must have met a fearful death," replied the physician, with a shudder.

"Thar hain't no doubt on that. Ef he chanced to miss ther sarpints--which I don't think he could--thar b'ar and ther wildcat must have gone fer him savagely and chawed him up in erbout no time."

"But his death was as nothing compared to that of the wretched white man."

"No, heaven keep us all from sich er one!"

* * * * *

The journey was finished without accident, and a few years later both the doctor and the scout had made themselves comfortable--one by practice and the other by patient industry and hunting. But never have they--never will they forget the terrible scenes through which they passed, and their children hear the story told with shudders. What then must have been the reality?

THE END.

* * * * *

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