Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1122 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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10 block-house, and consigning them to the care of four well-armed negroes, the colonel, Strother, Thornley, Carrol, and eight of the negroes, all armed to the teeth, set off to beard the tiger in his den. CHAPTER XIV, THE BLACK STALLION. In a deep recess or bay, formed by two jut- ting projections or spurs of the Cross Timbers, lay the camp of the vagabond: Seminole chief. . It was surrounded on all sides, except the front, by the low, scrubby vegetation of the Timbers. Close-atented oak, hickory, and black-jack ris- ing to an average hight of about twelve feet, and closely covered below with thorny under- brush, formed a curtain of defense, impenetra- ble except with the ax. Within the bay, which might have contained some fifty acres, was spread the camp of Tiger Tail, numbering be- tween fifty and sixty lodges. The tent of the chief himself was dignified by a pole in front, on which dangied a row-of scalps, the flowing light hair on more than one attesting that it had been torn from the head of a white woman. Tiger Tail’s lodge was of the largest kind, and contained over a dozen women of various degrees of comeliness, for the Semi- noles are a handsome race of Indians. Several of them were lounging round the door, nursing pappooses, and watching the boys of the camp at play on the green in front. he camp was almost denuded of warriors, and there were but few horses feeding outside; but the word had just been passed that Tiger Tail was returning, and the urchins of the camp ran yelling out (o welcome the warriors, In they came at full gallop, brandishing their ears, and yelling for triumph, headed by the chief himself, who bore across his horse’s withers a bound and helpless. form. Tiger Tail rode up to his lodge, and threw himself from his horse, when he roughly pulled off the prisoner, and dropped him on the ground, like a bale of goods. Then it might be seen that the captive was a white man, dressed in the blue cottonade blouse and trowsers of a Louisiana Creole, his head swathed in a red blanket, that completely blinded him. The next man to Tiger Tail was the Black Mustanger, riding a freshly-caught wild horse, of great beanty, which he checked on its haunches, with a powerful Spanish bit, as he said, in a low voice: ‘*T must go now, chief. Keep him safe, and on no account let him know that [ am your friend. I will disarm-suspicion by going to the corral. Those fools will never find out. Re- member, to-night, before they get their block- house ready. Good-by, I will take the short cut through the timber.” “Good!” said Tiger Tail, briefly; ‘‘my young men wil] be there.’ . Lebar das!ied the spurs into his horse’s sides, and galloped off to the very end pf the bay. Here several narrow paths were to be seen, that had been cut through the underbrush, in past times, by the Seminoles, as a means of escape if they were attacked by superior forces. One and all were quite invisible until you were close to ‘them. Lebar appeared to know his way well, for he chose one of the paths without any hesitation, and forced the unwilling horse to his utmost speed alony the narrow, tortuous way. In ten minutes’ rapid riding he gained the edge of the Cross Timbers, at another point, and beheld before him, at a mile’s distance, the mus- tanger’s corral, of which he was supposed to be in charve. A glance assured him that the corral was in- tact, and the captured herd still safe, and then he tore away toward thei at the best speed the maddened mustang was capable of, and reached the gate in about two minutes. Here he pulled up tbe horse with such a jerk of the bit, that the arima! reared violently up, wed the air for a moment, and went over ckward to the ground, But Lebar, though a poor hand with the lasso, was by no means a bad. rider. He my out of the saddle, and stood by the fallen steed, unhurt, as the poor creature trembling and exhausted, arose and stood quaking and covered with sweat before his con- The Black Mustanger took down the bars, and led the horse into the corral, turning him. loose, after unsaddling, all reeking as he was, “Lucky for me those fellows haven’t come pack,” he said to himself, as he looked at the ex- hausted animal. * They might have suspected Beadle’s Half-Dime L a ————EEeeee out there. I wonder how long it will be before they find out the loss of young Dupre? Curse him! [ll have him killed for what he said to me once. Thank Heaven! he didn’t see me. If Tiger Tail lets him go for a ransom, it would have been awkward if he had recognized me, Old Magoffin might have pulled up stakes, and gone for those Regulators, and where should | have gone then? No one at that camp knows me, except her and her brother. The rest are all Termmesseeans. Heigho! It’s slow work waiting for those two fellows. Wonder what they can find so interesting at the Magoflins’ camp.” He went to the top of one of the swells, and looked out in the direction of the emigrant en- campment. For some time nothing was to be seen, but at last he caught a glimpse of a horse- man’s head, followed by several others, coming over the top of a swell, several miles off, and heading toward Tiger Tail’s camp, by the prairie way. By this path, the distance from Magoffin’s to the Seminole village was at least six miles, whereas by the short cut through the Cross Timbers, of which Lebar alone knew, it was only about two and a half. The Black Mustanger watched the cavalcade with close attention, counting the numbers. He counted twelve figures, and recognized the di- minutive figure of Wash Carrol, and the huge form of the overseer in advance, “They’ve found it out,” muttered Lebar, ex- citedly. ‘f They must b¢ going in search of him. Perhaps to offer Tiger Tail a heavy ransom. Ha! ha! He’ll ask enough to sicken old Macof- fin of the Cross Timbers. I’ve primed him well.” He continued to watch the distant horsemen, who were going ata loping gallop, straight to- ward Tiger Tail’s village, till they were hid- den from sight by a swell of land. ‘*T wonder what they'll say to the vhief,” mut- tered he, ‘‘ If heonly knew they were coming he might arrange a surprise for them. gWhy not? I’m the nearest still, by four miles, and I can warn him in time. ~ Why shouldn't. we bag the whole crowd of them, Wash Carrol and all? Then I might be rich. By heavens! ’tis a rood plan! I'll try it. But I shall need a swift horse in case there’s any hitch. My own beast is good, but he’s only a mule. I guess I'll eatcha frésh mustang. Ill have plenty of time.” The Black Mustanger turned round and picked up bis long lariat. from: where it lay by his sad- die. He climbed over the bars of the gate, and advanced toward the captured herd, which was quietly feeding near the pond, His: appearance produced a stampede as usual, and again the an- umals huddled together against the fence in the corner, kicking and squealing. Lebar selected his mark,'a fine steel-gray young stallion, and advanced close to the herd. But he was by no means skillful enough with the lasso. In order to. keep the noose open, he whirled it round his head, and increased the ter- ror of the horses to such an extent by.the ges- ture that they broke. loose from the corner and made a mad plunge post him m wild terror. As they dashed by, Lebar threw his lasso with no very accurate aim into the midst. of the sea of tossing heads. The next minute he felt himself jerked from the ground, the rope cutting into is waist, while he was dragged along the whole length of the corral, receiving many bruises. in the operation, till the frantic horse stopped in the corner of the corral, backing away to the end of his tether. Lebar gathered himself up, cursing furiously. He was a man of great personal strength and savage temper, and from that moment forgot everything, for some time, but his desire of re- venge on the horse. He found that he had las- soed a splendid black stallion by accident, one of the leadets of the herd,;the noose having caught the wild horse round the neck, where it had slipped up close to his head. ‘Tl fix you, curse you!” bellowed the in- furiated mustanger, as he rose to his feet, smart- ing from his wounds, and began to pull up, by main force, to the frightened horse. But his furious gestures produced a bad result. The wild horse, to be approached success ‘uly, needs caution and patience, and Lebavr’s. gestures frightened the wild stallion to such an extent that he made a second desperate break away -to the middie of the corral, dragging the. Black Mustanger after him, in spite of his desperate struggles to hold:back. It was not for fully ten minutes that Lebar could get near him, and then the horse dropped on the earth, nearly dead from suffocation, | The mustanger came up, hand-over-hand, and something, if they had seen me galloping about | loosened the noose to allow the borse to breathe. TY REE AE TS He began te wish he had taken his slow old r.ule, after all, but it was too late nuw. He must make up for lost time by fast riding. When he loosened the noose the wild stallion slowly rose, with an air of bewilderment, and made*but little resistance on his way to the gate. Lebar let down the rails, and the stallion bounded through the opening with a joyful neigh, nearly, dragging the mustanger off his feet again in his efforts to escape. He did drag him so far from the gate that Lebar had no.time to put up the barrier again till the stallion fella secon tume from strangulation. But the Black Mustanger had: recovered his coolness, and secured the lasso toa tree before he liberated the animal, when he left him to rise, while he put up the bars again. ‘*Curse you!” he muttered, vindictively, as he again approached the horse, with his saddle over his arm; ‘‘you shall pay for this pres ently.” but, as if in scorn of his words, the black stal- lion let fly both heels at him as he approached, with a violence that would have ended Louis Lebar’s days then and there but for a timely spring backward. Then the mustanger did what he ciught to have done at first. He hauled on the lasso for the third time, and pulled up to the horse’s head the animal straining chokingly on the cord, tilh he got near enough ‘to put lis hand over the creature’s nose and breathe into nostrils. The effect on the wild horse was appare:t. It ceased to strugele, and subunitted, trembling, te be saddled, while Lebar inserted the noove of the halsimo intoits mouth. twitching the uuder jaw and nose with merciless violence, With all his best’ endeavors, however, imitat ing the tactics of Carrol as near as he knew how, it was fully a quarter of an hour more of strug: gles, all of them induced by his own clumsiness and savage violence, before he at last succeeded in throwing his leg over the back of the wild staliion, with a bridle in its mouth, When he did, the real struggle commenced. No longer under the choking restraint of the halkimo, the wild steed was at, full liberty to use its best efforts to unseat its rider. It proceeded to use them as well as it. knew how. Back jumps from the ground with all four le stiff, a combination of the leap and a kick in the air, Whirls. round and, round, standing almost erect on the hind legs, only to make a spri from them: all these various tricks did the wild horse try. Lebar kept a tight gripe on the pommel! of the saddle or the floating mane of the horse, and mahaged to retain bis seat, though with great difficulty, answering every effort of the charger with a fresh dig of his buve spwrs, He did not ride like a Mexican vaquero. The latter would have sat erect like a tower, with loose bridle, laughing at the horse’s mad efforts, secure in his seat. but he did ride sufticiently well to stick on somehow, till the stallion had exhausted himself, when the Black Mustanger drove in the spurs for the last time, and sent his charger off in a wild burst of speed toward the hidden path in the Cross Timbers. Once the wild horse is got to his speed, his comanen is certain. The harder he runs, the quicker will he exhaust himself. Lebar smiled grimly as he wiped the sweat from his dark, for- bidding-looking face, and spurred the conquered beast harder than ever, The creature seemed to fly over the prairie, and less than two: minutes brought him to the secret path, into which his rider dashed. Once out of sight in the scrub timber, however, Lebar began to.draw on the bit, and brought his ani- mal to a slower gallop, under which he arrived at the Seminole camp. When he pulled up at the edge of the clearing, he saw that he was too late. The party of white men was just riding into the camp, Lus CHAPTER XV, BEARDING THE TIGER, “Now, cunnel,” said Wash Carrol, ma fow tone, as he rode into the outskirts of the Semi- nole camp, “‘ you jest ‘eave this hyar biz to me, 1 know this hyar sneakin’ cuss well. Will yer do.as I tell yer?” ‘* [ will, Wash, on the honor of a gentleman,” * said the colonel, earnestly, “You know the Indians better than I do. But, oh! Wash, sup Eee they’ve killed him! How shall I ever face is poor sister again?” ‘He ain’t dead, cunnel; “I'D sw’ar’t. Ef they'd ’a' killed him, we'd ‘a’ found his karkidge, already skulped. Leave.’tter me and my neigh bor hyar, and do as we) does or tells yer.” The colonel nodded silently, and the little cbooks.c ee — eh ee ee «Soe wee 8 ee : a cepa eee agree t- ms 5 4 4 om . a he 4