The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault Read Free Book Online Page B

recognized him right off, as he had been up to Batoche several times over the years. That is how I have come to know him: his trips here to Batoche. He had come in the guise of a friend, but soon we were to learn that it was all trickery.
    â€œI simply couldn’t believe my luck it was him. I wanted to kill that man right then. I broke off from my companions and made my way along Tourond’s Coulée, trying to get close enough that I could shoot him right between his eyes. But I couldn’t get a good shot at him, and I didn’t want to reveal myself and miss. By the time I was in position, Middleton had found a scow and his second column was crossing the river. We’d killed ten and wounded more than forty, so the day belonged to us. Dumont ordered a retreat. I was the last to leave. Dumont ordered us to retreat to Batoche. It took General Middleton more than two weeks to pull himself together again.” La Biche grinned.
    â€œWhen Middleton finally reached Batoche, I was dug in just near a ravine and had a good shot at your Dominion soldiers as they came up through the trees. The whole time I was looking for Wake, but because he was with the horses, I couldn’t find him. I knew I would have to do something if I was going to get close to him, so when the soldiers started to fall back to take their supper, I slipped out of my trench and headed up the Humboldt Trail. I got a bit of luck there and come across some cattle that had been spooked, so when I gave myself up I looked just like a farmer. Told the Dominion soldiers that took me that I was tired of Riel’s religious ranting and that I didn’t want to fight for him any longer. What do you think they did?” He laughed. “I think they were happier to see those cows than they were a deserter such as myself.
    â€œThey marched me back here and made me dig trenches all night, and the next day I got put in with the cooks. I kept trying to get away to find Wake, but he was always out tending to his horses. Until that last day.” La Biche was suddenly serious.
    â€œI saw that he got his arm shot up at La Jolie Prairie, and I knew that was going to be my chance. I had even put away a meat hatchet I was going to use to do the job. The battle cry went up and all the men were charging this way and that. I lost track of Wake. The next thing I know, there are these two men on me, dragging me away from the pots I was scrubbing and putting me in chains. Now here I am. And Wake is dead, but I didn’t kill him.”
    â€œWhen they took you away, they said you had Wake’s Colt in your possession.”
    â€œI didn’t have a gun. How could I have gotten a gun? When I gave myself up they searched me. I was unarmed. I had the hatchet hidden in one of the stores, but like I have told you, I didn’t get a chance to use it on the man.”
    â€œWhere exactly did you stow it?”
    â€œI had it hidden under a sack of flour in the cookery. Go and see for yourself.”
    â€œSub-Inspector Dickenson has told me that you had Wake’s pistol in your coat and that there were two rounds fired.”
    â€œI didn’t have the pistol when the men came for me.” He made an “empty” expression with his hands. “They took my coat from me when I was arrested. I slept last night with just this,” he said, his fingers holding the light fabric of his tunic. “No blanket. Not even a hot meal, just one of those terrible biscuits. I didn’t even get to eat that damned cow!”
    â€œYou knew Wake from before. You said that he’d been here over the last year?”
    â€œHe had been here several times. In fact, he was here when General Dumont and his companions went to Sun River, south of the Medicine Line, to bring our father, the prophet, home.”
    â€œWhat did Reuben Wake have to do with the business of bringing Riel back to Batoche?”
    Suddenly Dickenson appeared in front of the