Benning offered to pursue the retreating Arapahoes; but Colonel Wilder, who had tried their mettle, thought it would be the better course to leave them alone for the present and his opinion prevailed.
As the trappers were on their way to Benning’s rendezvous in Green river valley, Colonel Wilder and the Crows determined to accompany them. Those of the wounded who were unable to walk were placed in the wagons, and the entire cavalcade took up the line of march toward the north.
Captain Benning was overjoyed at meeting Silverspur, who had aided him in rescuing his wife, then Flora Robinette, from the Blackfeet and the Arapahoes, and he was greatly pleased at discovering her sister Kate, who had been so long lost that her existence was nearly forgotten. The two friends beguiled the way by relating their adventures, none of which were more strange and exciting than Silverspur’s pursuit of Dove-eye.
Colonel Wilder rode and conversed with Dove-eye during part of the journey, and Fred, when he saw him thus engaged, considerately kept away from him, believing, as was consistent with his own experience, that the girl of his choice needed only to be known to be appreciated.
The old gentleman could not help being respectful and friendly to her who had twice saved his life, and it was evident to Fred that he watched her with a growing interest. The more he saw her and talked with her, the more apparent became her good qualities. In fact, he was rapidly becoming convinced that she was not entirely savage, and that it would be possible to reclaim and civilize her. Before the journey was ended he came to the conclusion that it would not be at all difficult to reclaim and civilize her.
Fred only once rallied him upon his attentions to Dove-eye,merely for the purpose of getting an inkling of his real feelings with regard to her.
“She saved my life,” replied the colonel. “She saved it twice, and I have no doubt that she saved the lives of us all. It is only just that I should be kind to her. Between you and me, she would be the right kind of a wife for a man who expected to live in the wilderness. She could take care of herself, and of her husband too, if necessary.”
The young gentleman made no reply to this speech; but his thought was, “the governor is coming around.”
Old Blaze was restrained by no motives of delicacy from expressing his opinion.
“Tell ye what, colonel,” he said; “that gal is the right grit. She totes a true heart and a stout one. She was born to be a queen—that’s whar it is.”
The journey was accomplished safely and pleasantly, the party being too large to fear interruption by the Indians. When they reached the rendezvous, Kate Robinette was made known to her sister Flora, who had previously, during her captivity among the Arapahoes, considered and treated her as a sister. When she learned that her Indian sister was really her own elder sister, her joy was unbounded, and her affection displaced itself in all manner of extravagant demonstrations.
When Colonel Wilder saw Kate Robinette laughed over and cried over by her sister, who was undoubtedly white, and who called Bad Eye “uncle” as naturally as if he had not been a Crow chief, he began to doubt whether Dove-eye did not have white blood in her veins, and soon came to the conclusion that she was all white. Thereafter he addressed her as “Kate” and “Miss Robinette,” and was as courteous to her as if she had been a fashionable damsel fresh from the “settlements.”
“Now that sister Kate is found,” said Flora, when everybody had got over the novelty of the discovery, “it is time that we should devise a plan by which I can divide father’s property with her. I have no doubt that he would have divided it, if he had known that she was alive, and I am sure that there is enough for both of us. Besides, she is the eldest child, and has the best right to it.”
“There is no necessity for any division,” remarked Bad Eye. “You need not suppose that I, a white man, and a trader by education, have lived so many years among the Crows without making some use of the advantages of my position. On the contrary, I have had a splendid opportunity to amass a fortune, and have not entirely neglected it. I have trapped and traded until I have laid by a considerable sum, part of which is in the hands of Captain Benning, and the rest is mostly in St Louis. I intend that Kate shall have it all, and she will find, when it is gathered together, that she is not much behind her sister.”
It could not be that Colonel Wilder was influenced by the discovery that Kate Robinette was an heiress. He had a great respect for wealth and position, but was no worshiper of property. It is certain, however, not only that his demeanor toward her entirely changed, but that he really gave his consent to her marriage with Fred.
“That is, my son,” he proceeded to qualify, “after you have taken her to the East and kept her at school a few years. Education will soon polish her.”
“Do you think I could allow the ducks and turkeys of the settlements to laugh at my wild bird?” asked Silverspur. “Do you think I could be separated from her a few years, or a few months? She is sufficiently polished, and no one can educate her better than her husband.”
Fred had his way, and was married to Kate Robinette, without objection by any person. He entered into a partnership with Captain Benning as a fur trader, in which business both were remarkably successful. Kate’s brains and will soon made amends for the deficiencies of her education, and, when she accompanied her husband to St. Louis, no one who was not acquainted with her story would have supposed that the greater part of her life had been spent among savages.
Bad Eye returned to his tribe, being resolved, as he had often declared, to live and die a Crow.
A short time after the foregoing events, Colonel Wilder led a detachment of troops and a band of Crow warriors against the Arapahoes, who were badly defeated and compelled to sue for peace.
Old Blaze continued in the employ of his friend Silverspur, when his vagrant propensities did not compel him to seek other occupation, and never ceased to regret that he had not shot “that tradin’ chap.”
THE END.