The Last of the Chiefs | Page 5

all through the
day and night. Do these men with whom you travel go to anything

certain far over on the coast of the Western ocean? No, they are leaves
blown by the wind. The wind now blows in the direction of the Black
Hills, where the gold is said to be, and to-morrow the wagon train turns
its head that way."
Dick sat up straight, and Albert, wrapped in his blanket, leaned forward
to listen.
"But the engagement with us all," said Dick, "was to go to the Pacific.
Albert and I paid our share for that purpose. Conway knows it."
The Indian looked at Dick. The boy thought he saw a flickering smile
of amusement in his eyes, but it was faint, and gone in a moment.
"Conway does not care for that," said the Indian. "Your contracts are
nothing to him. This is the wilderness, and it stretches away for many
hundreds of miles in every direction. The white man's law does not
come here. Moreover, nearly all wish him to turn to the North and the
gold."
Albert suddenly spoke, and his tone, though thin from physical
weakness, was quick, intense, and eager.
"Why couldn't we go on with them, Dick?" he said. "We have nothing
definite on the Pacific coast. We are merely taking chances, and if the
Black Hills are full of gold, we might get our share!"
Dick's eyes glistened. If one had to go, one might make the best of it.
The spirit of romance was alive within him. He was only a boy.
"Of course we'll go, Al," he said lightly, "and you and I will have a tone
of gold inside a year."
Bright Sun looked at the two boys, first one and then the other, stalwart
Dick and weak Albert. It seemed to Dick that he saw a new expression
in the Indian's eyes, one that indicated the shadow of regret. He
resented it. Did Bright Sun think that Albert and he were not equal to
the task?

"I am strong," he said; "I can lift and dig enough for two; but Albert
will also be strong, after we have been a little while in the mountains."
"You might have strength enough. I do not doubt it," said Bright Sun
softly, "but the Black Hills are claimed by the Sioux. They do not wish
the white men to come there, and the Sioux are a great and powerful
tribe, or rather a nation of several allied and kindred tribes, the most
powerful Indian nation west of the Mississippi."
Bright Sun's voice rose a little toward the last, and the slight upward
tendency gave emphasis and significance to his words. The brooding
eyes suddenly shot forth a challenging light.
"Are you a Sioux?" asked Dick involuntarily.
Bright Sun bent upon him a look of gentle reproof.
"Since I have taken the ways of your race I have no tribe," he replied.
"But, as I have said, the Sioux claim the Black Hills, and they have
many thousands of warriors, brave, warlike, and resolved to keep the
country."
"The government will see that there is no war," said Dick.
"Governments can do little in a wilderness," replied Bright Sun.
Dick might have made a rejoinder, but at that moment a burly figure
came into the light of the fire. It was Sam Conway, and he glanced
suspiciously at the Indian and the two boys.
"Are you telling 'em, Bright Sun, when we'll reach California?" he
asked.
Bright Sun gave him an oblique glance. The Indian seldom looks the
white man in the face, but it was obvious that Bright Sun was not afraid
of the leader. Conway, as well as the others, knew it.
"No," he replied briefly.

"It's just as well that you haven't," said Conway briskly, "'cause we're
not going to California at all--at least not this year. It's the wish and
general consensus of this here train that we turn to the North, go into
the Black Hills, and fill our wagons with gold."
"So it's decided, then, is it?" asked Dick.
"Yes, it's decided," replied Conway, his tone now becoming positively
brutal, "and if you and your brother don't like it, you know what you
can do."
"Keep on alone for the coast, I suppose," said Dick, looking him
steadily in the face.
"If you put it that way."
"But we don't choose," said Dick, "Al and I have an interest in one
wagon and team, and we're going to hold on to it. Besides, we're quite
willing to try our luck in the Black Hills, too. We're going with you."
Conway frowned, but Dick also was not afraid of him, and knew that
he could not turn the two boys out on the prairie. They had a full right