Red Belt, the Tuscarora — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

THE ORY OF DEFIANCE. 13 " gentle strokes, turned the canoe’s head down the Kanawha. ’ Itsoon gathered headway, and sped on silently and swiftly. Not a word was spoken. Some fifteen minutes elapsed, when the hunter turned the boat in shore, and drove it rap- idly toward the bank. As the canoe grated, or, rather, creaked, over the soft mnd, a low growl came from the thicket ahead. “Hist! Be quiet, Eagle!’ and the hunter leaped ashore. “Something’s wrong, Red Belt,” he said, a moment after, in a serious tone; “ Eagle is here, tied to a tree; but, Roy is not here |” At that moment a wild, peculiar cry echoed far up the river, _ then it was suddenly stifled. 3 The old hunter, uttering an exclamation, reeled backward, ’ and clutched at a tree for support. _ “Too venturesome! too venturesome !” he muttered. - In a moment the old man felt a hand laid upon his shoul- He turned at once. It was the young Indian, who had ~ silently made the canoe fast to the bank, and stepped ashore. “ Be brave, great warrior !* he said, in a low voice of sym- | pathy; “if our white: brother, the Leaping Deer, is snared > by the foe, Jet us tell him that he bas friends upon the trail = who will fight for him to the death !” a © Ay, ay, Red Belt! ‘You are right; we will fight for him to the death; and we must not let him now die for lack of ~ willing fingers to pull the trigger !” = As he spoke, the old man placed his hand to his mouth, and a uttered a long, shrill, peculiar cry. * - Before the sounding woods had ceased to fling back the echoes of that cheering cry, Red Belt threw back his head alo, and, in quick succession, sent forth three notes, which "Pung grandly through the glades of the sleeping forest. Then _ there was a complete silence, ani! naught could be heard save the sad wash of the Kanawha, sweeping on in the black night, _ and the melancholy forest hymn, moaning above them ' . Breathlessly the hunter waited. _ At last it came, and suddenly: a wild, almost unearthly > whoop, from far up the river, and again and again. Then all __- Was quiet once more. - __ *°Tis Oo-lum-lah, the Mingo brave, my brother! The dog 4 oe to us his battle-cry. We'll accept his “ - es # cae EomtePOOks. com _ wa