Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

98 “I’d hoped to find a hiding place,” he muttered. “This is too open. It’s dan- gerous.”’ | “We can turn the horses loose and hide in the grass,” the girl suggested. “We must keep the horses. We must have water and something to eat,” he told her. ‘We can go without water for a day or two, and I don’t feel as if I could ever eat again. If we can’t hide here we can ride for it.” He swept his gaze around the dim sky- line, searching for timber. There was a scattered growth along the river in the north, but he dared not venture near the road. Undulating grass was all he beheld except for the uprights of a scaffold on a low ridge directly south of their position. ‘You're not scared of dead Indians?”’ he suddenly asked. “‘Never of dead ones,”’ she muttered. “Come.” And without mounting he walked rapidly toward the burial platform. It was on the open prairie and the sun was not yet up when he halted beside it. “If we hide on the platform we must leave the herses to wander,”’ she reminded him. “If they stay here feeding they may draw the Indians to us.”’ ‘“That’s the of it!” he muttered. “Wait a bit.” | He shinned up an upright and gained the platform. There was but one occupant, and he must have been a man of importance in his lifetime, as his mummified form was encased in richly decorated blankets and a war pipe was at his side, its embellishments showing that he had carried the pipe four times. Murray had intended to bundle the silent tenant to the ground, but the dozen feet of elevation permitted him te discern a small house in a grassy hollow some distance in the south. A black gap told him that the door was open and the place deserted. Back of it was a fringe of trees. He immediately changed his plans. Sliding down a pole, he informed the gir): ‘“‘An empty house south of us. Probably belonged to a farmer Indian, and yet it may be off the reservation. There’s trees, and they mean water. We’ll look at it.”’ ‘Without a word, yet inwardly glad that she was not to utilize the platform for a hiding place, she followed him. The grass Adventure was tall, and their progress was slow. He was a rod ahead of the girl; and it was his horse, attempting to break loose, that gave him the warning. He halted and quieted the animal and stared about to locate the danger spot. He could discover nothing. There was no sign of life along the horizon nor in the grass close at hand. When he attempted to ad- vance the horse shied and tried to bolt. “It’s something in the grass straight ahead,’’ she whispered. He had given the knife, taken from God- frey, to Mrs. De Camp, and was without the simpliest of weapons. “Hold the nag,” he whispered, as if fear- ing the reddening horizon had hostile ears. Then, feeling more nervous than when he hunted Pollacker’s bull in the tall grass, he walked ahead. Each second he ex- pected to behold a Sioux springing to his feet to complete the ambuscade. eZ BUT the cause of the horse’s fright A) would never harm white nor red —< man. A white man, dead, lay on his face. At first Murray thought the whole top of his scalp had been removed, then saw the man was bald-headed. The stiff side whiskers reminded him of Shanty Mose. The man had been shot twice. There were marks of shod hoofs around the spot.- A Maynard military carbine was pro- truding from under the body. As Murray extracted this he discovered a navy Colt ina belt. The revolver was loaded. Search- ing farther, Murray found a bag of brass cartridges in the grass. He quickly reconstructed the tragedy. The man had had a running fight and al- though mortally wounded had managed to ride clear of his pursuers. Unseen by the Sioux, he had dropped dead from his horse while attempting to reload the carbine. “What is it?” softly asked the girl. With a surge of courage such as he had not felt since being made a captive Murray told her: ‘“‘A mighty fine gun for me and a revolver for you. Lead the horses around ine.” ‘Some one has been killed?” “Shot. Not scalped. He had life enough to outrun them.” He permitted her to lead both animals while he studied the gun and the ammuni- tion. Besides the brass cartridges with rimmed heads there was a quantity of caps. CoOMmicbhool< A) CO =