Corporal Cameron of the North West Mounted Police Part 66

"Say, figger that out, will yuh?" continued Mr. Cadwaller. "Allowed four times the territory, about the same number of Indians and about one-eighth the number of police. Say, General, I take off my hat again.

Put it there! You Canucks have got the trick sure!"

"Easier to care for 'em than kill 'em, I guess," said Mr. Raimes casually.

"But, say, General," continued Mr. Cadwaller, "you ain't goin' to send for them hosses with no three men?"

"I'm afraid we cannot spare any more."

"Jeerupiter, General!" exclaimed Mr. Cadwaller. "I'll wait outside the reserve till this picnic's over. Say, General, let's have twenty-five men at least."

"What do you say, Inspector d.i.c.kson? Will two men be sufficient?"

"We'll try, Sir," replied the Inspector.

"How soon can you be ready?"

"In a quarter of an hour."

"Jeerupiter!" muttered Mr. Cadwaller to himself, as he followed the Inspector out of the room.

"I say, Commissioner, will you let me in on this thing?" said Cameron.

"Do you mean that you want to join the force?" enquired the Commissioner, letting his eye run approvingly up and down Cameron's figure.

"There is McIvor, Sir--" began Cameron.

"Oh, I could fix that all right," replied the Commissioner. "We want men, and we want men like you. We have no vacancy among the officers, but you could enlist as a constable and there is always opportunity to advance."

"It is a great service!" exclaimed Cameron. "I'd like awfully to join."

"Very well," said the Commissioner promptly, "we will take you. You are physically sound, wind, limb, eye-sight, and so forth?"

"As far as I know, perfectly fit," replied Cameron.

Once more Inspector d.i.c.kson was summoned.

"Inspector d.i.c.kson, Mr. Cameron wishes to join the force. We will have his application taken and filled in later, and we will waive examination for the present. Will you administer the oath?"

"Cameron, stand up!" commanded the Inspector sharply.

With a little thrill at his heart Cameron stood up, took the Bible in his hand and repeated after the Inspector the words of the oath,

"I, Allan Cameron, solemnly swear that I will faithfully, diligently, and impartially execute and perform the duties required of me as a member of the North West Mounted Police Force, and will well and truly obey and perform all lawful orders and instructions which I shall receive as such, without fear, favour, or affection of or toward any person. So help me, G.o.d."

"Now then, Cameron, I congratulate you upon your new profession.

The Inspector will see about your outfit and later you will receive instructions as to your duties. Meantime, take him along with you, Inspector, and get those horses."

It was a somewhat irregular mode of procedure, but men were sorely needed at the Macleod post and the Commissioner had an eye that took in not only the lines of a man's figure but the qualities of his soul.

"That chap will make good, or I am greatly mistaken," he said to the Inspector as Cameron went off with the orderly to select his uniform.

"Well set up chap," said the Inspector. "We'll try him out to-night."

"Come now, don't kill him. Remember, other men have something else in them besides whalebone and steel, if you have not."

In half an hour the Inspector, Sergeant Crisp and Cameron, with the three American citizens, were on their way to the Blood reserve.

Cameron had been given a horse from the stable.

All afternoon and late into the evening they rode, then camped and were early upon the trail the following morning. Cameron was half dead with the fatigue from his experiences of the past week, but he would have died rather than have hinted at weariness. He was not a little comforted to notice that Sergeant Crisp, too, was showing signs of distress, while District Attorney Sligh was evidently in the last stages of exhaustion.

Even the steel and whalebone combination that const.i.tuted the frame of the Inspector appeared to show some slight signs of wear; but all feeling of weariness vanished when the Inspector, who was in the lead, halted at the edge of a wide sweeping valley and, pointing far ahead, said, "The Blood reserve. Their camp lies just beyond that bluff."

"Say, Inspector, hold up!" cried Mr. Cadwaller as the Inspector set off again. "Ain't yuh goin' to sneak up on 'em like?"

"Sneak up on them? No, of course not," said the Inspector curtly. "We shall ride right in."

"Say, Raimes," said Mr. Cadwaller, "a hole would be a blame nice thing to find just now."

"Do you think there will be any trouble?" enquired Mr. Hiram Sligh of Sergeant Crisp.

"Trouble? Perhaps so," replied Crisp, as if to him it were a matter of perfect indifference.

"We'll never git them hosses," said Raimes. "But we've got to stay with the chief, I guess."

And so they followed Inspector d.i.c.kson down into the valley, where in the distance could be seen a number of horses and cattle grazing. They had not ridden far along the valley bottom when Mr. Cadwaller spurred up upon the Inspector and called out excitedly,

"I say, Inspector, them's our hosses right there. Say, let's run 'em off."

"Can you pick them out?" enquired the Inspector, turning in his saddle.

"Every last one!" said Raimes.

"Very well, cut them out and get them into a bunch," said the Inspector.

"I see there are some Indians herding them apparently. Pay no attention to them, but go right along with your work."

"There's one of 'em off to give tongue!" cried Mr. Cadwaller excitedly.

"Bring him down, Inspector! Bring him down! Quick! Here, let me have your rifle!" Hurriedly he s.n.a.t.c.hed at the Inspector's carbine.

"Stop!" cried the Inspector in sharp command. "Now, attention! We are on a somewhat delicate business. A mistake might bring disaster. I am in command of this party and I must have absolute and prompt obedience. Mr.

Cadwaller, it will be at your peril that you make any such move again.

Let no man draw a gun until ordered by me! Now, then, cut out those horses and bunch them together!"

"Jeerupiter! He's a hull brigade himself," said Mr. Cadwaller in an undertone, dropping back beside Mr. Sligh. "Waal, here goes for the bunch."

But though both Mr. Cadwaller and Mr. Raimes, as well as Sergeant Crisp and the Inspector, were expert cattle men, it took some little time and very considerable manoeuvering to get the stolen horses bunched together and separated from the rest of the animals grazing in the valley, and by the time this was accomplished Indian riders had appeared on every side, gradually closing in upon the party. It was clearly impossible to drive off the bunch through that gradually narrowing cordon of mounted Indians without trouble.

"Now, what's to be done?" said Mr. Cadwaller, nervously addressing the Inspector.

"Forward!" cried the Inspector in a loud voice. "Towards the corral ahead there!"