Buffalo Bill: His Life and Adventures in the Wild West — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

10 and prove to be their tomb. A terrible moment, for a shower of seks fell into the room, and the negro wowen and chil- dren tumbled over each other with cries and moans. The two negro men stood with riflés clutched, but these were useless against the terrible enemy that caused them to cringe and the perspiration to pour. from them. It was a terrible moment to the three Mexicans, braced amid corpseson the blood- strewn floor of the west room, with hissing flames over their heads, and yelling fiends surrounding the building in which they were, But it was death to linger, and out the trio dashed, to behold the verandah-root blazing and a perfect rain of burning frag- ments falling upon the flooring ; the smoke hiding all beyond, in the cool, free ar, from their view. like madmen the three Mexicans bounded through the showers of sparks and falling, burning resds, their black eyes glaring with desperation, and every nerve and muscle strained. The Apaches, who had begun to think they were to be sheated out of their prey, ave out ayell of exultation inchorus, as 2 Semen of. them darted forward, with up- iifted weapons. ‘Three rifle-shots, the guns aimed at random by the Mexicans, then a series of dull blows, and the three men lay dead at the feet of the red fiends. In the meantime tha fugitives groped _ their wey through the underground retreat. All was silent over their heads, and when the Beals cautiously cleared away the weeds and brambles that choked the long- disused exit, they only heard the far-off yells of exultation from the Apaches, danc- ing gleefully around the blazing house. ‘They emerged. Ali was re-assuring; not a breath along the river bank; not an - eye gleaming in the rushes, not the glint of @ weapon, The two men turned round to call forth their dear ones and the faithful blacks, when, of a sudden, a flight of arrows let out their life blood by a score of gashes to each brave body. The father and the son fell at the feet of their be Loved, almost without a groan. Then rose up in a dozen places the dis- guised Rustlers, headed by Jim, who had remembered this conauit, and who had at last repaid the Beals for what he cafied their ill-treatment of him. @ The next moment a horrid deed began, - he ruffians penetrated the cavern, and all in the dark hunted for the two women and the negroes, and slew them without uéy in the gloom. Tt “y - 7 ef Tr ew Fa" ja "Ts ee ke f 4 ae , " ‘S ‘ f > - : ,? Pe ) ‘ : ‘ ve’ J iid ‘ ae | (Tre This destruction of a family was e down to the Indians alone, and. ee event was accounted too ordinary a one to vex the mind of the settlers in the neigh- bourhood; until,~a mnew-comer havimg “squatted,” or unceremoniously ese1zed Beal’s Farm because much of it was land cleared of timber, he’ was soon compelled to give it up, although he had rebuilt he burnt house. He averred that he had been notified to quit by ghosts. He wa a stout-hearted fellow at whom nobody cared to joke, because of this spectral evic- tion, and even those who did not believe in phantoms, yielded to the more gex belief that there was something wra about the place. Ree NE ie eh Soon the dwelling became half-ruined with neglect and the ravages of weather, and briar and weeds choked up the pabaags and orchard. Nobody cared to pass the place, which stood, luckily, off the roa even in broad day, and at night, only the owl ventured about its flapping doors od paneless window. =~ Te eo: However there were two boys im the neighbourhood, who had sometimes used its shelter when they were caught is cee Y id shower, but more because they wanted tc show each other they were plucky, than because they liked to be in the dismal haunted farm. _ Pe These boys were playmates. Their fathers had the Dunn and Cody Farms, not distant, and Dave Dunn and Billy Cody rode on the latter’s horse to aC 100! every day, and wera as “ chummy’ as ye u may believe lads would be in a sparsely- settled district where boys were few Think of having to ride, a good long way, too, to school every day, and home to dinner, too! with “Sadia: wid ferrets, and white men along the roadside. ; Be One day the two boys had the mis fortune to have their them when they had alighted, on their homeward route, for some wild goose chase; and as a fearful storm was coming, to judge by the deep black clouds hurryimg up over the northern sky. « *” 7 » Just as spl ¥ ee (Oe he Ri Yy tL ny run away iro Nobody in Europe can form an idea of what a storm is on the wild western prairie. It sweeps down from the frozen north, over ice and chilly seas, over stretches of bleakness and ods, A s in whose depths snow is always ying; down from the high Rocky Mountains the ann led all saplings, and let nothing flourish but. i dy SK O n cboo ‘SscOm a