Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser

Author:George MacDonald Fraser [Fraser, George MacDonald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Action & Adventure, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780007217175
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2006-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Flashman And The Redskins

I must digress briefly to remind you of the vast change that twenty-five years had wrought in my own fortunes. Back in ‘49, though a popular hero in England, I’d been a nameless fugitive in the States; now, in 1875, I was Sir Harry Flashman, V.C., K.C.B., with all the supposed heroics of the Crimea, Mutiny, and China behind me, to say nothing of distinguished service to the Union in the Civil War. No one had been too clear what that service was, since it had seen me engaged on both sides, but I’d come out of it with their Medal of Honour and immense, if mysterious, credit, and the only man who knew the whole truth had got a bullet in the back at Ford’s Theatre, so he wasn’t telling. Neither was I-although I will some day, all about Jeb Stuart, and Libby Prison, and my mission for Lincoln (God rest him for a genial blackmailer), and my renewed bouts with the elfin Mrs Mandeville, among others. But that ain’t to the point just now; all that signifies is that I’d gained the acquaintance of such notables as Grant (now President) and Sherman and Sheridan-as well as such lesser lights as young Custer, whom I’d met briefly and informally, and Wild Bill Hickok, whom I’d known well (but the story of my deputy marshal’s badge must wait for another day, too).

So now you see Flashy in his splendid prime at fifty-three, distinguished foreign visitor, old comrade and respected military man, with just a touch of grey in the whiskers but no belly to speak of, straight as a lance and a picture of cavalier gallantry as I stoop to salute the blushing cheek of the new Mrs Sheridan at the wedding reception in her father’s garden.50 Little Phil, grinning all over and still looking as though he’d fallen in the river and let his uniform dry on him, led me off to talk to Sherman, whom I’d known for a competent savage, and the buffoon Pope, whose career had consisted of los?ing battles and claiming he’d won. They were with a big, abrupt cove, whiskered like a Junker, named Crook.

“And how the thunder do I keep ‘em out of the Black Hills?” he was demanding. “There are ten thousand miners there already, hungry for gold, and I’m meant to say, `Now, boys, you just leave the nuggets be, and run along home directly.’ They’ll listen, won’t they?” he snorted, and then Sheridan was presenting me. I expressed interest in what Crook had been saying, and was enlightened.

It seemed that a few years earlier Washington had made a treaty with the Sioux Indians granting them permanent possession of the Black Hills of Dacotah, which the Sioux regarded as their Valhalla; no white settlers were to come in without Sioux permission, but now that gold had been found in the hills (by a scientific expedition sent out under Custer, in fact) the miners were swarming in, the redskins were protesting, and Crook had been told to get the intruders out, p.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.