Red Belt, the Tuscarora — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

54 RED GELT, THE TUSCARORA. burst into the room. “The old woman reeled back and clutched the bag of gold. Then a knife flashed and struck home. It was buried in an aged, withered breast. The next morning a dirk-sheath was found in that room, alongside a dead eld woman, whose white hair trailed in her own clotted gore. That sheath had a name engraved upon it. The last of the line was reached; the contest was almost over. ‘The Tuscarora was now heading for the dense timber- wood, but he could not hope to reach it. Only one brawny pursuer bung behind him; the others had abandoned the race. Suddenly the poor fellow stumbled and dropped heavily to the earth. A moment, and with a wild cheer, he who pursued stood over thé fallen brave. The tomahawk, in a flashing circle of light, glittered in the moonbeams, and— ) A faint puff of pale blue smoke curled over a clump of bnshes ahead, and the sharp ring of a rifle echoed over the prairie. The Indian, whose note of exultation was scarcely from his lips, sprung in the air and fell backward, dead. Then suddenly from the bushes a tall, lank form, darted out, recharging his rifle as he ran, In a moment he stood by the senseless Tuscarora. For a moment he gazed pityingly at him; then slinging his long rifle to his back, he clutched the Indian in his strong arms—slowly straightened up, and fol- lowed by his dog, strode. away toward the black line of the forest. And the Tuscarora’s broad deer-skin belt was dyed a deep- red olor inthe gore, which had dashed upon him from the conmicldoolkks.conn