Red Plume — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

88 RED PLUMRE. was put upon him by Nip-muck-we, for the purpose of humili- ating him and lowering him in his own estimation and in that of the tribe. Nevertheless, he went to his station, sullenly and in silence, and thought how: he could best take revenge for the insults that had been heaped upon him. I’rank Steele was sitting under an oak, with his hands and feet securely tied, and his body bound to the trunk of the tree. Tiis position had been an unpleasant one, and his suffering had been increased by the continual annoyance of the old women ~and children, who had amused themselves by spitting in his : face, pinching his skin, striking him with sticks, and wreaking their spite in every practicable way. He had also been as- sured that he would certainly be put to death on the morrow, the chief having consented that the friends of those who had been slain should then satisfy their vengeance. Escape was impossible, as he could not loosen his limbs from their bonds; certain death stared him in the face. Notwithstanding this gloomy prospect, he felt relieved when the crowd of ugly women and screaming children had left him, and endeavored to forget his pains and troubles in sleep. He had sunk into a doze when Kotselo came to take the place of the Indian who had: been standing guard over him, The red-plumed warrior, seeing that the prisoner was sleep- ing, and that he was* securely bound, took no further notice of him, but walked aside among the trees, with folded arms, communing with his own thoughts. The passions of love and revenge were sufficient to fill his breast, to the exclusion of every thing else. / The prisoner and his guard were on a wooded knoll, one of the first of the waves in which the land rolled back from the valley to the open prairie. Below them, a piece of meadow land, dotted with tall trees, stretched to the river. In the meadow a number of horses were picketed, some of them grazing, andsome lying down. The night was clear, although there was no moon, and objects below could easily be dis- tinguished. As Kotselo paced his lonely round, gazing dreamily at the shining surface of the river, he-noticed a man walking among the horses. Thinking it strange that any one should be there at that hour, he stepped to the brow of the little hill, and comicbooks.con