Yellowstone Jack: Trappers of the Enchanted Ground — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

46 a little reflection he told Ada that they must give up all hope of reaching her friends that day, or else take the perilous trail that wound along the right wall of the canyon; that upon which they stood when Maynard was shot. . Ada besought him to take this trail; anything was preferable to longer separa- tion from her friends. And thus they crept along the narrow ledge. _ Along the face of the canyon, at that dizzy height, each footstep was one of peril, where one false step would doom the one taking it to a horrible death upon the rocks below. Then the ledge widened. They pro- ceeced more rapidly. Pethonista sud- denly staggered back. A shrill yell burst from his lips. He flung aloft his arms aud then disappeared over the escarp- ment. A sullen thud. Ada sank fainting to the ground, a rifle-crack ringing In her ears, CHAPTER XV, CAMPBELL COUNTS A COUP. p7HLLOWSTONE JACK and his com- Yi rades closely followed the young avengers advice, and when the warcry of their dreaded enemy was re- coenized, and so ably seconded, the sava- ges broke and fled in hot haste. The trappers and Campbell were warmly greeted by the survivors of the fight. “OH counting heads, it was found that four emigrants had been Inlled, nine more wounded, one mortally. This heavy loss, together with the unknown fats of Maynard and the two women, cast a gloom over all, The scouts gathered round a hitle ecamp-fire which had been made in the centre of the corral of waggons, and while enjoying their pipes, began to dis- cuss the pleasures and dangers of prairie life. First Campbell told of the slaughter of his family by the Blackfeet, and the vengeance that he had taken upon his bloodthirsty enemies. Next, Brindle Joo related the incidents of the attack upon the Pawnees by the Sioux, in what is now called the ** Massacre Canyon,” on the Republican River, at which he YELLOWSTONE JAOK, t-shirts SE EE SSeS SS -such privileges, and he showed me a had been present, and from which he ‘ had barely escaped with his life. = “Thirteen years agro, he began, “ th Pawnee Indians—seven hundred in number, all told, men, women, and © children—came down from the north, and camped in the west fork of the canyon. Mee, “They came to hunt buffalo—to lay in their winter supply of meat. They in t tended to stay a month or so, for takes some time to jerk meat enough to — feed seven hundred Indians six months, - “About the time the Pawnees cast — anchor there, I and a young hunter named Ben Zant, were in the samo — district hunting bisons, too, and as soon as Ben heard the Pawnees were camped — in the canyon, nothing would do him but we must visitthem. . Ret “T kicked back, but Ben pulled for- ward. I just concluded that I weren’t done with these locks, but Ben assured me he had a passport to the Pawnee camp, and that he would run me in on “T asked him how he had come by & ” , . € . ; . ~ little charm made of bone, with some ~ figures on it. He said the Pawnee chief had given it to him by request of his— chief’s—daughter, Prairie Rose, i “Then it all became clear to me, Ben — was in love with that Pawnee girl, and I gaw all creation couldn’t hold Fim back, so [ told him to go in and see his red darling, and I’d wait for him over at the head of another canyon. , '« Se “So away he went, and I went backto — wait for his coming. ae “Night settled down over the prairie. — Still I could not sleep. I had a presenti- ment of danger. It wasin the air; but the night pulled slowly along. Sa “Tt was just growing a little light in ~ the east, where the laay old moon was poking up, when I heard a faint sound © like soft-treading feet. ) “7 listened, and found the sound was up above me on the prairie. ad “T crept up a pocket of the canyon and peeped over, and I beheld a thou- sand shadowy forms stealing along to- wards the Pawnee camp. 4 “T waited and watched. Se “The moon came up, and, before the last of the band of shadows had passed, I recognized them as Sioux warriors’ in war paint, , ae comicbooks.com