The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-31
THE WESTERNERS
BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE.
Copyrighted by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.
IContinued from Last Sundays News
XII.

&COnunued from Last sunday s NeNS.)
XII.
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS
1t is not the purpose of this story
to describe the battle of the Little Big
Horn in detail. That has been done
many times. There is little about it
that is remarkable, excepting always
the heroism of the men who fought so
desperately. The scene itself must
have been impressive, as viewed by
the non-combatants of the Indians from
the bluffs near at hand-the swirl of
brown about the melting patch of blue.
After Custer fell, the savages turned
eagerly down the valley to attack Reno,
leaving the dead as they lay. Lafond
did not accompany them. The sight
had aroused certain reflections in his
breast, and he wished to work the thing
out.
After sunset, he went alone and on
foot over TO the battlefield. The troop
ers lay as they had fallen-frst, Cal
houn's company in line, with its ON
GERS in place then Keogh's; finally, on
the knoll, the remnant, scattered lrreg-
ularly among the dead of their enemies.
In the cold light their faces shone
the eagerness of battle; an eagerness
which death had transmitted from flesh
to marble. Near the center lay Custer,
his long yellow hair framing his face.
his hands crossed on his breast. He
alone was unmutlated, save by the
shot that had taken his life.
The half breed did not hesitate on
the outer circle of the combat, but
picked his way among the corpses un-
til he stood on the summit Of the little
knoll. Then he folded his arms and
looked steadily down on the white
mans inscrutable face
Whatever might be Lafonds intel
lectual or moral deficiencies lack of
perspicacity was not among them
Through the red glory of this apparent
victory, the most sweeping ever ac-
complished by the plains Indians, he
saw clearly the imminence of final de-
feat. The dead man before him lay
smiling, and Lafond perceived that he
smiled because he saw his people arts
ing to aVenge him. The beat of the
muster drum calling the avengers to
the frontier now sounded in prophecy
to his hearing, and the echoes of the
last battle shot merged into the clang
of an iron civilization. which was de-
stined to push these eXulting Victors
dispaSsionately aside. II was a striking
picture Of light and of shadow-this
dark. savage figure silhouetted against
the softened brightness of the sky, this
bright-hair warrior lying bathed in
the glorifcation of a Western night; the
white man Inundated, defeated, slain,
but seeing with closed eyes that at
which he smiled with deep content;
me savage, proud in success, triumph
ant, victor, but perceiving somehow,
in the very evidences of his achieve
ment, that which made him knit mis-
brows. How little was this great vic
inst fha h1 ITO IF
people whom it had outraged, and yet
how nightly it would stir that people
when once it became known!
Michail Lafond the savage stood be-
fore the body of Custer the fallen, for
an hour moving not one muscle all the
time. At the end of the hour Michail
Lafond the civilized turned slowly
away, and walked thoughtfully toward
the lodges on the other bank of the
Little Big Horn river. The sight OF
brave man, who had died as he lived,
had reformed Lafond, but whether
moralists would have approved of the
reformation is to be doubted.
The night ran we'll along toward
morning. The squaws, who had been
plundering and mutilating the dead,
had long since returned TO hear the
report of the warriors who had gone
TO attack Reno. The attack had fail
ed, but the fight had been desperate
>
of Clusters command, captured alive
was burned to death. At last, the en-
tire camp, with the exception of the
women sentinels, had gone to rest. To-
ward daybreak, even these became
drowsy.
Lafond arose quietly. He gathered a
few necessaries into a pack placed
them outside the doorway of the lodge,
hesitated a moment. and then return
ed. His two squaws slept, as usual
one each side of the little girl. La
fond lifted the child carefully in order
that he might not awaken her guard
ians or herself, and wrapped her close
~ in his blanket. AT the doorway he
again hesitated. Then, chuckling
grtmly, he deposited the child by the
bundle he had already prepared, and
returning, took down from the tent pole
the string of scalps which went to show
how successful and how savage a war
rior he had been. By the light of the
stars he selected one of these and laid
IT carefully between the two sleeping
women. 1t was the scalp of the little
girls mother Then he rehung the
string on the tent pole. and went out
side immensely pleased with his bit of
humor.
1t was his good-by to the wild life.
From that time on he dwelt in the
towns, where in a very few years his
name became known as standing for a
shreWdness IN management, keennesS
in Selling opportunities, and an infleM-
bility of purpose rarely to be met with
among his Anglo-SaXon competitors.
His present objective point, however,
was the Spotted Tail agency, which
was, from the valley of the Little Big
Horn, an affair of FIVE days. Michail
Lafond did it in four; or at least at
the end of the fourth he was within
few miles of the agency buildings. BY
the evening of the third day, ne had
transformed both himself and the lit
tie girl into an appearance of ciViliza-
ton, reclothing her in the garments
she had worn at the time of her cap
ture, and himself in a complete outfit
which he had collected piece by piece
on that last night with the savages
The change was truly astonishing.
His last camp in the open was pitch
ed within sight of the Spotted Tail res
ervation. The darkness was almost at
hand. He had fed himself and the
child, had put the latter TO rest under
one blanket and was just about to wrap
himself in the other, when he became
aware of a prairie schooner swaying
leisurely across the plains in his direc-
ton He at once sat up again. Every
man was TO him an object of suspicion
Not until the wagon had halted with