CHAPTER XI.THE GUARD OF HONOR.
After a month’s stay at the fort, under the plea of his wound unfitting him for service, for it was still troublesome, Lieutenant Fallon resigned his commission, feeling that he had been vindicated in having won it, unaided, and, with his daughter, went eastward, and thence to Texas, to his old ranch home.
In a short time there was a wedding at the ranch, for thither had gone Lieutenant Walter Worth to claim his bride. Shortly after the lieutenant’s departure, Buffalo Bill set forth upon a new mission which promised a harvest of adventures.
Having been appointed, for a special purpose, chief of scouts of the Tenth United States Cavalry, a regiment of black troopers, Cody rode off on one of his lone trails to reach the command at its frontier post.
He loved the adventure and danger attending this new mission, yet sought it also for the benefit he could bring to those who dwelt upon the advance borderland, and depended upon just such men as himself to protect them from the redskins of the wild West.
The noted scout had been ordered to Fort Aspen for his special duty, as the commandant, Major Armes, had made the request that he should be, on account of the threatened hostility of the Indians, and, also, asBuffalo Bill was the man who knew that country better than any other frontiersman.
Major Armes also had been much troubled by the lawless bands of gold hunters who had sought to invade the Indian country, risking massacres, and keeping the redskins constantly worried over the determination of these palefaces to get a foothold in their hunting grounds and then force them farther toward the “Land of the Setting Sun.”
Many bands of lawless invaders of the beautiful country had recklessly penetrated the mountain and valley recesses in search of the precious yellow metal, and they had thus avoided the chain of soldiers the government had put there to keep them out.
One band after another had met its doom in the forbidden land, and been wiped out utterly by the Indians, who had left not one of them to tell the story of the massacre.
They had taken their lives in their own hands, and, against all warnings and efforts of the soldiers, had broken through the military barrier and penetrated the Indian country, to meet there quick death.
Even several emigrant trains, with women and children along, had foolishly ventured, and Buffalo Bill had reported that the groups of whitened bones he had found told the story of their fate.
Though the soldiers were trying to protect their country from invasion, the hostile Sioux were as bittertoward them as toward those who sought to make homes there, and war, merciless and unending, had been declared.
“If I had Buffalo Bill, as my chief of scouts, I believe he could, with his knowledge of the country, of these Indians, and his great skill as a frontiersman, head off these would-be settlers and bands of gold seekers from what they regard as a promised land, and this done, the Sioux would be more willing to make peace with the army, realizing that our desire was to protect them.”
So wrote Major Armes, the commandant of Fort Aspen, to Colonel Carr, in seeking to have the valuable services of William F. Cody as chief of scouts.
And the letter further said:
“The Tenth Cavalry of colored troops also needs just such a man as Buffalo Bill to steady them and give them perfect confidence in the one who leads them upon deadly trails.
“They one and all have perfect confidence in Buffalo Bill, believe that he bears a charmed life—as I also am inclined to believe—and they know that the Indians dread him, regard him with a certain superstitious fear, and his influence is very great along the whole border.
“I, therefore, respectfully urge that he be sent to Fort Aspen, for a while at least, if only to bring confidence to the garrison.”
The result of Major Armes’ letter was that the next courier through to Fort Aspen brought dispatches stating that Buffalo Bill should come very soon, and that, spoken to upon the subject, he had said that, instead of making up a scouting band of white scouts, he would pick colored soldiers to be his allies.
In other words, he would have a company of black scouts from the Tenth Cavalry.
Major Armes at once notified the garrison that Buffalo Bill was coming to Fort Aspen, and what his intention was regarding the band of black scouts.
There was excitement at once in the garrison, and the colored troopers were delighted that the great borderman was going to show his confidence in them by taking his scouts from their regiment.
“Now we’ll blow de Injuns off de farm.”
“You better believe I speaks fer bein’ a nigger scout.”
“Annudder nigger heah does say de same.”
“Wonder if Massa Bill gwine ter brack hissef up so as ter look like us?”
“Won’t dem red niggers git up an’ lead us brack scouts arter ’em?”
“An’ I guesses dem palefaces as wants ter go inter de Promised Lan’ will tarn back an’ settle somewhar else.”
Such remarks and others of a like kind ran the rounds of the colored troopers, when they heard thegood news that Buffalo Bill was coming, and better still that he intended to pick men from their regiment for his scouts.
Major Armes was much pleased, and knowing about the time the scout was expected, he ordered a negro sergeant and twenty men to take the trail as a guard of honor and meet him a day’s ride from the fort.
The sergeant and his picked men were as proud as peacocks at the duty and the envy of all the rest of the regiment, who had to remain behind.
Had the colored troopers had their say, all would have gone to meet the scout and Fort Aspen would have been left without a garrison.
And so the black escort set out upon the trail to meet the noted scout.