We heard the wires above us humming mysteriously in the wind,
but if they bore messages east or west, we might not read them, nor
might we send any message of our own.
At times old Auberry growled at this new feature of the landscape. "That
was not here when I first came West," he said, "and I don't like its
looks. The old ways were good enough. Now they are even talkin' of
runnin' a railroad up the valley--as though horses couldn't carry in
everything the West needs or bring out everything the East may want. No,
the old ways were good enough for me."
Orme smiled at the old man.
"None the less," said he, "you will see the day before long, when not
one railroad, but many, will cross these plains. As for the telegraph,
if only we had a way of tapping these wires, we might find it extremely
useful to us all right now."
"The old ways were good enough," insisted Auberry. "As fur telegraphin',
it ain't new on these plains. The Injuns could always telegraph, and
they didn't need no poles nor wires. The Sioux may be at both ends of
this bend, for all we know. They may have cleaned up all the wagons
coming west. They have planned for a general wipin' out of the whites,
and you can be plumb certain that what has happened here is knowed all
acrost this country to-day, clean to the big bend of the Missouri, and
on the Yellowstone, and west to the Rockies.
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