Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1918-03-08
NSITK CHARLEY ha

NS Other Indians might have
N0NNN known as much of the wis
dom of the trail as did he;
but he alone knew the white mans
wisdom, the honor of the trail, and
the law. But these things had not
come to him in day. The aboriginal
mind Is slow to generalize, and many
facts, repeated often. are required to
compass an understanding. Sitka Char
ley, from bOyhOOd, had been thrown
continually with white men, and as
a man he had elected to cast his for
tunes with them, expatriating himself,
once and for all, from his own people.
Even then, respecting, almost vener-
ating their power, and bordering over
1t, he had yet to divine its secret es-
sence-the honor and the law. And
1t was only by the cumulative evidence
Of years that he had finally come to
understand. Being an alien, when he
did know he knew it better than the
white man himself; being an Indian, he
had achieved the impossible.
And Of these things had been bred
a certain contempt for his own people
"A contempt which he had made it
custom to conceal, but which now burst
forth in a pOlyglot whirlwind of curses
upon the heads of Kah-Chucte and
Gowhee. They cringed before him like
a brace Of snarling wolf dogs, too cow
ardly to spring, too wOlfish to cover
their fangs. They were not handsome
creatures. Neither was Sitka Charley.
All three were frightful looking. There
was no flesh to their faces their cheek
bones were massed with hideOus scabs
which had cracked and frozen alter
nately under the intense frost; while
their eyes burned luridly with the light
which Is born Of desperation and hun
ger. Men so situated, beyond the
pale Of the honor and the law, are
not to be trusted. Sitka Charley knew
this; and this was why he had forced
them to abandon their rifles with the
rest of the camp outfit ten days be-
fore. His rifle and Captain Epping-
wells were the only ones that re-
manned.
"Come, get a fire started" he COM
manded, drawing out the precious
match box with Its attendant strips Of
dry birch bark.
The two Indians fell sullenly to the
task Of gathering dead branches and
underwood. They were weak, and
paused often, catching themselves, In
the act Of STOPPING. with giddy motions,
or staggering to the center Of opera
lions with their knees shaking like
castanets. After each trip they rested
for q moment, as though sick and dead
~ weary. At times their eyes took on
the patient stoicism Of dumb suffer
ing; and again the ego seemed almost
bursting forth with its wild cry, II,
/, want to exist THE dominant
note of the whole living universe.
A light breath Of air blew from the
south, nipping the exposed portions Of
their bodies and driving the frost. In
needles of fire, through fur and flesh
to the bones. So. when the fire had
grown lusty and thawed damp circle
in the snow about II, Sitka Charley
forced his reluctant comrades to lend
a hand In pitching fly. 1t was prim-
tive affair, merely blanket. stretched
parallel with the fire and to windward
Of it. at an angle Of perhaps fOrty-five
degrees. This shut out the chill wind.
and threw the heat backward and
down upon those who were to huddle
in its shelter. Then !. layer of green
spruce boughs was spread. that their
bodies might not come in contact with
the snow. When this task was COM