Red Plume — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

EBEN IN TROUBLE. 5l CHAPTER VIII. BIG MEDICINE ARROW. Esen GOOKIN, as may be supposed, was not a little as- tounded, when he found himself incontinently captured by the very red-men whom he had been endeavoring to avoid, and he ~ bitterly regretted the incautious exclamation that had brought the calamity upon him. Bound, and surrounded by a crowd of painted, excited, wrathful savages, his condition was by no means an enviable one, and he was at first so completely be- wildered, that he knew not what to say or do. His self- possession soon returned, however, and, with it, his Yankee mother wit, and he began to think how he might extricate himself from his unpleasant predicament. The Blackfeet thought, of course, that he must have had a companion, and eagerly questioned him, asking where tlie other had gone. “ None other,” answered Eben, shaking his head, and gesti- culating violently. But some of the savages had seen the minis of the Dela- ware’s moccasined feet, and hastened on his trail. “ None other with me,” protested Eben, as he noticed this movement, and divined its a “Some Injuns been around here, but I don’t know ’em.” Some of the Blackfeet had taken up the Yankee’s harpoon, and were examining it, with its long coil of stout line, very curiously. “ What this?” asked one of them. Eben Gookin had been long enough in the Indian country, and had sufficiently used his natural inquisitiveness, to be well acquainted with the habits and superstitions of the sav- ages, and he resolved to avail himself of his knowledge, and impose on their credulity, which he might the more easily do, as it was by no means. probable that any of them had ever Seen a.harpoon. “Big medicine!” he exclaimed, in the most solemn tones conniclsooks.com