Major Matt Devlin found out about the disappearance of his son Freddie when he returned to Fort Buffalo with Ned Wheatfall in custody. Beth was frantic with worry and had already gotten Sergeant Major O’Rourke to send several men around the post to find any spot where a twelve-year-old boy might hide. But the effort had been futile.
Under the circumstances there was nothing Devlin could do but comfort his distraught wife as he set about having more sophisticated search parties organized to hunt for the missing lad. Meanwhile, the harried major still had to go about the business of getting information and statements out of his prisoner. As much as he wanted to, the major could not take the time to personally lead the search for the missing boy. He delegated the authority to his trusted officers and sergeants to see the job was done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
However, after a week passed, Devlin’s initial fears subsided to irritated worry when he learned from his wife that some bread and jam were missing from the family kitchen. Also, when he received word that one of the Indian boys at the mission school, a particularly lively young fellow named Swift Rabbit, had also run away, Devlin knew what had happened. While there was no denying the danger of the open, wild country, both boys were capable, strong, and healthy, and one was an Indian who’d spent his entire life in the wilderness.
While squads of dragoons searched for the boys, Devlin began the task of getting testimony from Wheatfall. One of the guests invited to attend the confession was Major Harold Pendergrass from Fort Snelling. Getting him there meant keeping Wheatfall locked up for three days under constant grilling and threats, but that paid off, too. It softened up the militia colonel and made him fully realize the hell that awaited him if he reneged on his promise to cooperate.
After Pendergrass arrived at Fort Buffalo, he was quickly but thoroughly appraised of the situation. Then it was time for the official statement to be made in Devlin’s office. Because of the importance of the revelations about to be disclosed, three more persons were invited to attend the session. Gilbert Paxton and the two captains from the dragoon squadron were seated in the room to add to the list of official, credible witnesses.
When both the room and everyone concerned were ready, Devlin had a couple of guards bring Wheatfall into his office. Once more, the skillful young Private Evans was put to work with his shorthand skills.
When Wheatfall came into the office, he had no intentions of lying or trying to cover up. When first brought back from the Kiwota village and jailed, he was shocked to learn that his old pal Earling Denmore was also an inmate of the guardhouse. The other buffalo hunter was kept in a separate cell and unable to communicate with him. It didn’t matter. Wheatfall knew damned well that Denmore would have already blabbed like a drunken politician on election night about everything that had gone on during the gang’s time as both hired guns and territorial militia.
Another thing also made Wheatfall cooperative. He harbored a very real fear that he might be turned loose and eventually be back in Kiwota hands. When Devlin started asking questions, the prisoner talked so much and so fast that even Evans was sore put to keep up. The militia colonel and buffalo hunter left out no details as he implicated the senator, Harvey Puffer, and the agent Wheeler Coburn in a scheme to break the treaty with the Kiwotas and drive them to war. He explained how the senator was able to arrange for a shortage in the beef issues, and had told Coburn to do everything in his power to keep Kiwota tempers boiling over. The fact that innocent lives might be lost did not concern the office holder.
Using the statement as evidence, Devlin personally took a detachment of dragoons over to the agency trading store. He entered unannounced, finding Wheeler Coburn lounging at his stove behind the counter. The autumn weather had turned decidedly cooler, and the agent was snug and comfortable.
Devlin smiled at him. “Looks like winter is closing in, Coburn.”
Coburn nodded in agreement. “I reckon I’ll be all right again, though. Let the blizzards come.”
“It’s going to be sort of rough on the Kiwotas, isn’t it?” Devlin asked. “No buffalo, and the beef issues are getting smaller and later all the time.”
Coburn grinned. “I’ll turn in a report on that, Devlin.”
“No, you won’t,” Devlin said. “Under my authority as the military commander of the Buffalo Steppes, I am arresting you for fraud against the United States Government and the endangerment of the peace on the aforementioned Buffalo Steppes.”
Coburn, so surprised he lost his arrogance, got to his feet. “Just what the hell are you talking about, Devlin? You’re sure ’nuff gonna get in trouble.” He was taken aback when Devlin didn’t show the slightest inclination to back down. “I’ll tell Senator Torrance, by God!”
“Senator Torrance is going to be in enough trouble himself,” Devlin said. “He’ll be too busy trying to keep himself out of jail to lift a finger for you.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Devlin?” Coburn demanded to know.
“You’ll soon find out,” Devlin replied. “Let’s go.”
A couple of the dragoons went around the counter and grabbed the agent, dragging him along as Devlin led them back to Fort Buffalo.
Wheeler Coburn, when presented with the statements made by Wheatfall with some backup by Earling Denmore, knew the only thing that would save him from a stiff prison sentence was to cooperate. He became yet another willing government witness and added more damaging information as the amazed audience listened to testimony that revealed corruption in the Indian Bureau and the treacherous influence of a crooked senator.
When the episode was finished and Private Evans had filled no less than five pads with his scribblings of shorthand, everyone involved was exhausted. Although they were promised recommendations for leniency, Wheatfall, Coburn, and Denmore were still held in the post guardhouse as material witnesses in a government case. Arrangements would be made to take them to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and then farther east where the real power of the federal courts would be brought into the case.
Major Harold Pendergrass, charged with making the arrangements through the judge advocate general to press the case, made a hasty departure from Fort Buffalo. He shook hands with Matt Devlin just before leaving for Snelling and points east.
“Best of luck to you, Devlin, old man,” he said with a warm smile. “This is going to be a real coup for the army over both crooked politicians and that corrupt Indian Bureau. The departmental commander is going to be dancing with joy when I bring him the news of these hearings.”
“It can’t end there,” Devlin told him. “We’ve got some serious wrongs to right where the Kiwota tribe is concerned. After all, it was the tricks pulled through Torrance’s influence that caused the shortage of beef and those hunters keeping the buffalo clear of the reservation.”
“I already have some recommendations to make along those lines,” Pendergrass said. “You can be sure that both the army and the federal government will approve. Public opinion will force them to.”
“Do you think this will get in the newspapers?” Devlin asked.
“I’ll see that it does,” Pendergrass promised.
“What are those suggestions of atonement you’re going to recommend?” Devlin wanted to know.
“First, of course, is an immediate issue of beef cattle to make up for the shortages in the past,” Pendergrass said. “Then I’m going to get authorization to allow a large hunting party of Kiwotas to leave the reservation with dragoon escort to do some serious buffalo hunting. That should take care of them through this winter.”
“That’s fine,” Devlin said. He looked out at the weak scattering of snowflakes drifting down around them. “But you’d better hurry before the first blizzards arrive.”
“I shall,” Pendergrass promised. “And I imagine you would like to join those search parties out looking for your son without further delay. So I’ll bid you goodbye and see you at the trials.”
The two officers shook hands; then Pendergrass climbed up into the army wagon for his journey while Devlin rushed to the stables where a horse was already waiting for him.