Frontier America by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2019-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Jamie thought Lieutenant Tyler looked a little nervous as they approached the rise along with Preacher. That was understandable. Tyler had never dealt with the Indians, had never even seen any close up except the ones who had been killed during that battle with the Pawnee.

Tyler didn’t flinch, though. He walked with Jamie on his right and Preacher on his left. Most of the Crow warriors displayed hostile expressions as the three white men came up the slope and stopped facing Broken Pine.

Preacher said, “Broken Pine, this is Lieutenant Hayden Tyler of the United States Army. Lieutenant Tyler, Chief Broken Pine of the Crow people.”

Tyler nodded and said, “Chief Broken Pine, it is an honor to meet you.” He glanced at Preacher as if waiting for the mountain man to translate what he had said.

“I speak your tongue,” Broken Pine said. His face was impassive, as if carved from stone. “I need no one to tell me your words.”

“Oh. Ah . . . Well, that’s good. We can talk to each other and understand.”

“What I do not understand is why you attacked a peaceful hunting party that meant you no harm.”

Preacher said, “It wasn’t the lieutenant who did that. It was another fella, a sergeant named O’Connor. I reckon he spotted you and the others and lost his head. He thought you were hostiles.”

“Because all Indians look the same to white men,” Hawk said.

“To some white men, maybe,” Jamie responded. “But I can tell you right now, Sergeant O’Connor and I don’t see eye to eye on much of anything.”

“Nevertheless,” said Tyler, “the sergeant is under my command, and I apologize for what he did, Chief Broken Pine.”

“I am not your chief,” Broken Pine said. “You do not have to call me that.”

“Regardless, I’m sorry for what happened. Your man who was wounded . . . is he going to be all right?”

“It seems so.”

“I’m glad to hear that. The soldier who was wounded isn’t badly hurt, either.”

Broken Pine just gazed coolly at the young officer, as if to indicate that he didn’t care what happened to Private Jenkins.

Jamie was glad to see that Tyler was smart enough to just let that pass. Instead, Tyler went on, “My commanding officer and I have been sent here to speak with you, Broken Pine. I thought that we would have to visit your village in order to do so. Perhaps this meeting, as unfortunate as it was when it started, will prove to be a good thing after all.”

“You come to ride into our village without being invited?” Broken Pine shot back at him. “That is the same thing as attacking it.”

Jamie said, “We would have sent a small party and asked for permission to speak with you. Most of the soldiers would stay outside the village.”

Maybe Lieutenant Davidson would have done that, and maybe he wouldn’t, Jamie thought even as he spoke those reassuring words. It was entirely possible that Davidson would have just bulled in with the whole troop and started a battle that would have wrecked the whole mission and gotten a bunch of them killed.

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