Red Men and White. Owen Wister
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу Red Men and White - Owen Wister страница 2

Название: Red Men and White

Автор: Owen Wister

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Языкознание

Серия:

isbn: 4057664566065

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ draw, if he can, characters who shall fit these strange and dramatic scenes? One cannot improve upon such realities. If this fiction is at all faithful to the truth from which it springs, let the thanks be given to the patience and boundless hospitality of the Army friends and other friends across the Missouri who have housed my body and instructed my mind. And if the stories entertain the ignorant without grieving the judicious I am content.

       Table of Contents

PAGE
SPECIMEN JONES Frontispiece
“BOASTING IN INDIAN FASHION” Facing page 6
“HIS HORSE DREW CLOSE, SHOVING THE HORSE OF THE MEDICINE-MAN” “ 14
“THE HEAD LAY IN THE WATER” “ 34
AN APACHE “ 38
CUMNOR’S AWAKENING “ 52
THE MEXICAN FREIGHT-WAGON “ 58
“ ‘AIN’T Y’U GOT SOMETHING TO SELL?’ ” “ 90
THE CHARGE “ 102
“HE HESITATED TO KILL THE WOMAN” “ 112
THE SHOT-GUN MESSENGER “ 122
“ ‘I’D LIKE TO HAVE IT OVER’ ” “ 128
“HIS PLAN WAS TO WALK AND KEEP QUIET” “ 148
“ ‘DON’T NOBODY HURT ANYBODY,’ SAID SPECIMEN JONES” “ 156
“ ‘YOU DON’T WANT TO TALK THIS WAY. YOU’RE ALONE’ ” “ 204
“EACH BLACK-HAIRED DESERT FIGURE” “ 238

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      Something new was happening among the Crow Indians. A young pretender had appeared in the tribe. What this might lead to was unknown alike to white man and to red; but the old Crow chiefs discussed it in their councils, and the soldiers at Fort Custer, and the civilians at the agency twelve miles up the river, and all the white settlers in the valley discussed it also. Lieutenants Stirling and Haines, of the First Cavalry, were speculating upon it as they rode one afternoon.

      “Can’t tell about Indians,” said Stirling. “But I think the Crows are too reasonable to go on the war-path.”

      “Reasonable!” said Haines. He was young, and new to Indians.

      “Just so. Until you come to his superstitions, the Indian can reason as straight as you or I. He’s perfectly logical.”

      “Logical!” echoed Haines again. He held the regulation Eastern view that the Indian knows nothing but the three blind appetites.

      “You’d know better,” remarked Stirling, “if you’d been fighting ’em for fifteen years. They’re as shrewd as Æsop’s fables.”

      Just then two Indians appeared round a bluff—one old and shabby, the other young and very gaudy—riding side by side.

      “That’s Cheschapah,” said Stirling. “That’s the agitator in all his feathers. His father, you see, dresses more conservatively.”

      The feathered dandy now did a singular thing. He galloped towards the two officers almost as if to bear them down, and, steering much too close, flashed by yelling, amid a clatter of gravel.

      “Nice manners,” commented Haines. “Seems to have a chip on his shoulder.”

      But Stirling looked thoughtful. “Yes,” he muttered, “he has a chip.”

      Meanwhile the shabby father was approaching. His face was mild and sad, and he might be seventy. He made a gesture of greeting. “How!” he said, pleasantly, and ambled on his way.

      “Now there you have an object-lesson,” said Stirling. “Old Pounded Meat has no chip. The question is, are the fathers or the sons going to run the Crow Nation?”

      “Why did the young chap have a dog on his saddle?” inquired Haines.

      “I didn’t СКАЧАТЬ