Red Plume — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

52 RED PLUME. he could command, and gazing reverently at the weapon. “ Much big medicine !” “ What can it do?” he was asked. Selecting one of the Indians who understood broken Eng- lish passably well, Eben made him interpreter to the rest, and - proceeded to explain the wonderful qualities of the “ medi- cine,” much after the fashion in which his countrymen of the present day advertise their “justly celebrated ” cure-alls. It would go where he wished it to go, and would do what he ordered it to do; it could draw the thunder down from the clouds, and could tell when it would rain and.when it would shine; it could cure the sick ; it could bring the dead to life ; it could find lost trails-and forgotten caches; it could do more strange and startling things than the Indians had ever heard or dreamed of. | As these statements were listened to by his captors with evident incredulity, Eben indignantly told them to loose his arms, and he would show them that he had spoken the truth. When this request was translated, a general assent was given, and he soon found himself free from all restraint, except that of the men who surrounded him. After rubbing his wrists, to remove the numbness cansed by the cords with which he had been bound, he drew the at- tention of the red-skins to a sapling that stood at the distance of nearly one hundred feet from him. Then he took the har- poon, poised it with. great precision, and placed himself in such an attitude as would enable him to make the best possi- ble use of his powers. After taking a very careful aim, he drew back his long and brawny arm, and sent forward the weapon with all the force of which he was capable. It struck the sapling, and hung there, quivering, for a moment, when it dropped to the ground. The Indians uttered exclamations of wonder, and Eben himself was surprised at his performance, for the light was so uncertain, the distance so great, and the sapling so small, that he had hardly believed he would be abie to accomplish the feat. Several of the Blackfeet took the instrument, and endeavored to imitate the Yankee, but none of them could cast it so far, or with the least accuracy. Eben explained to them, through the interpreter, that the “ medicine” was utterly comicbooks.com