Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1122 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

i Sere gee ng 5 . —— -= ow —e Ae ee aN =. %5 a ee —s \ arty rode into the camp of the Seminoles. Not a single motion was made, as the white men and negroes rode in: but they were met with scowling and lowering glances on every side. Wash Carrol rode on, entire.y aware of the | danger he was running, but equally resolved to meet it at any cost, rode straight up to the lodge of Tiger Tail. ‘“Now, cunnel,” said Wash, hurriedly, “‘ you and your crowd stay on hossback; keep your eyes skinned, and be ready to blaze away into the cusses when I gives the word. Me and my neighbor, hyar, will do the torking.” He leisurely dismounted fro: his horse, along with Strother, and the two advanced to the chief’s front, with their rifles thrown back over the hollow of the left arm. Was! Carrol then drew from his belt the very same plug of tobac- co which he had found by the motte-side, all trampled with horse-hoofs as it was, and threw it down at the chief's feet. “ Whar do you think I found that, chief?’ he asked, abruptly. Tiger Tail looked up for the first time, and gaveagrunt. It was his only answer. “T found it by the tracks that told me as how you'd been a-stéalin’ away tle young white chief,” said Wash, firmly. ‘‘ Where have you got him?’ Ticer Tail gave another grunt. His eyes burned like live coals as he surveyed the puny frame of the hunter. “Who you, anyway?” Wash turned a little red, and his eyes twinkled with anger, but he merely nodded to the gigantic overseer, who ndvanced and took -up the word. Strother’s deep voice, like the growl of a bear, addressed the indian: ‘‘See hyar, you! You come to our canip this mornin’ and we treated yer like a gentleman, didn’t we? Answer that, ef ye kin—say!” Tiger Tail grunted contemptuously. ‘“ No,” he said; “ want whisky and powder. Much heap. Get bit blanket, lilly bit *baccer.” ‘“We cuv ye what we could,” said Strother. ““We hed no whisky to spar’. Well, what hev ye done? Ye’ve stole away jest the nicest young lier as lives in this hyar State, and ye’ve put family into mournin’ for fear ye mout hev killed him. What did yer dv it for, say?” -- Whar is he, say?” also demanded Wash, Tiger Tail’s eyes blazed again, but he mad~no sien of moving yet. He felt too secure in the numbers of his warriors, and never dreamed of the desperate courage of the whites. His lip curled in an insolent smile, as he said: “Want much heap whisky, much powder for be . Wash Carrol made a rapid signal with his eyes to Strother. The next moment the giant’s rasp was on the chief’s shoulder, thence Yrans- erred to his long hair, by which he plucked him to his feet as if he had beenachild. The cold muzzle of a revo) ver was pressed against the In- dian’s temple, as Wash hissed forth; ‘Call fur help, and [ll seatter yer brains over yer squaws, darn yer painted skin. WdHAR’s THAT BOY?” CHAPTER XVL THF REGU LATORS. A BAND of men were just breaking camp in the prairie at the dawn of that day. They were many miles to the south-east of the Cross Timbers, but the broad trail of their previous _ day’s march evinced that that was their direc- tion. Horses und men were alike tough and hardy in appexrance, eminently fitted for their wild prairie life. The horses were all half-bred between the small, wiry, spirited mustang, and the tall, large-boned “States horse,” the pré duct being an animal, unequaled in any part of the world, as a hunter or cavalry horse. Round -bodied, clean-limbed, sturdy and swift, full of fire and endurance, these Texan cross-Lred horses are often known to do their eighty miles a day, on nothing but prairie grass, for a week at a stretch, Their riders were all of the hunter class rough-bearded men, clad in buck-skin, an heavily armed. All carried revolvers, some boasting a pair of these formidable weapons, while the unrivaled Sharp breech-loading rifle was to be seen in the hands of inany of them, supplanting the old-fashioned pea rifle. e band nwnbered eighty men all told, and the sound of a bugle, blowing ‘‘ To horse,” prov- ed that some sort of military discipline was ob- served by these wild-looking frontiermen. The leader of the party, was, perhaps, the least conspicuous-looking of all, jas far as re- garded personal strength. He Was a small quiet-looking man, with sandy hair, streaked | | | The Wild-Horse Hunters. calmness and steady power of gaze. His dress | was more civilized than that of the rest, but sufficiently plain. His gray hat and gray home- spun coat, with high borseman’s boots, coming up to mid-thigh, were those of an ordinary far- mer or hunter of the South. The only marks of rank he appeared to possess were the beauty of his silver-mounted revolvers, and a Colt’s repeating rifle at his back. But his orders, given in a low, quiet, conversational tone, ‘were obeyed implicitly by the borderers, who addressed him as ‘“Colonel:” one or two | the denominations of | of them substituting ‘“ Sheriff,” or ‘‘ Mr. Hays.” This man was no other than the celebrated “« Jack Hays,” the most successful Indian-fighter of Texas in his time. In the early days of the Lone Star State, before its admission to the Union, his name had been a terror to Mexicans and horse-thieves alike, and it was under his leadership that the terrible band, known as the ‘‘Regulators,” had been so successful in sup- pressing the more atrocious class of criminals who fiocked to Texas, as a land of promise for thieves and murderers. By office, Hays was now Sheriff of Texas at large, with a sort of roving commission to exe- cute murderers and thieves, wherever found; and the forms of law were always satisfied, in case of a capture, by a summary jury trial, the ury being chosen by lot from among the Regu- ators themselves. At a second bugie signal the band mounted in military style, and moved off to the north-west in a column of fours, as regularly as trained dragoons. Sheriff Hays rode at their head, talk- ing to a dark, Indian-looking man, who was in reality a French ha!f-breed from Louisiana. “You say that you are certain he was the man we're after, baptiste?’ said Hays, interro- gatively, as they roue along. ‘* Remember that we don’t ike to make any mistakes. Our justice is so swift, it must be unerring.” ‘Quite sure, colonel,” said the half-breed, con- fidently. ‘‘From the description the tavern- keeper gave, Pl] swear its Antonio Miquelez. Just his hight and build, and his trick of rolling his eyes, when he was startled, His arrest aad conviction are ccrtain, if we can get him to New Orleans. The coroner’s jury didn’t rise from their seats after the evidence was in. Mille tonnerres! colonel, I hope he’il get his deserts! The young man he killed was a splendid fellow, I wish he was safe in New Orleans.” ‘If it’s the right man, I don’t think he’ll get as far as that,” said the sheriff, dryly. ‘ We'll settle his hash here.” ‘*So much the better, colonel. Pardieu, I should like to see him dangling at the end of a short rope. ‘We shall kill two birds with one stone up here, if I don’t mistake,” remarked Hays, pre- sently. ‘*There’s a band of Seminoles, who've left their reservation, and come down poaching on the Comanche hunting-grounds. If we fin them, I’ve got orders to ° ph & their ranch, if they won’t go back peaceably.” The half-breed looked puzzled. “Junp the ranch? I don’t understand.” “Kill ‘em all, except those that beg,” ea- claimed the sheriff. » The band of Regulators continued their march with such rapidity that by sunset they were witu- in ten miles of the Cross Timbers, where they went into camp by the borders of the sar ie stream that washed the side of Magoffin’s Claiun. CHAPTER XVIL A BOLD STROKE. AGREEABLY to preconcerted plan, the colm el and Edward Thornley pushed their horses for- ward, to screen the scene with Tiger Tail from the sight of the warriors in the other lodgés, while they threatened the squaws with cocked re- volvers, to keep them from screaming for help. The whole thing passed so quickly, that Tiger Tail saw himself surrounded by threatenin foes, and when he felt the mastering grips, pe read the pitiless sternness of the faces round him, the Indian chief cowered. Wash ¢ 1 saw his face assume the expression he was iooking for so eagerly—that of abject terror. Let go,” he said, quickly; and the oLedient overseer in a moment relaxed his gripe. ** Now, look hyar,” said Wash, fiercely, but in a low tone; ‘‘ you give us that ar’ boy ad yer safe, Lie to us, and I'll bore a hole right through yer. Whar ts he?” ' The brutal insolence was gone, as the chie/ said, in a low voice, that trembled in spite of himself. “Behind. In lodge.” Wash looked round to see if the warriors sus- pected rac tp a yet. Any moment might bring Li ee eS Se Oe OO ere ‘Now, look hyar,” said the hunter, in a low, savage tone; ‘you keep a still tongue in your head, and ef yer warriors come pokin’ round hyar, order’em back. Keep yer wimmin crit- ters quiet, too. Neighbor, ef he utters a screak, plug I im, and then put like all creation.” : The last words were uttered to Strother, who gave a grim smile, and renewed his grasp on the ndian’s shoulder, while he drew and cocked his revolver with the other hand. He had dropped his rifle when he first seized the Seminole. Wash Carrol dived into the lodge door, and found, as the chief had said, Eugene Dupre, bound hand and foot, with a gag in his mouth, The hunter eagerly cut the young man’s bonds and raised him to his feet, but Eugene was 8¢ stiff he could hardly stand. Carrol supported him outside. The colonel would have jumped down to welcome the returned one, but-for the hunter’s warning. ‘*Don’t ye stir; cunnel. We aren’t. through this mess yet. Keep yer eyes skinned, I tell yer, for ye’ll need ’em presently. Now we was a ack o’ durnation fools that we didn’t bring a oss for Mister Doopray, hyar. Never mind. You stay hyar.” The reckless hunter left the lodge, and walked beldly up to a handsome spvtted stallion, whose jaguar-skin trappings announced him to be the chief’s. The animal stood by a lodge close by, hitched to a spear, driven into the ground. Without any hesitation Wash plucked up the spear, and led the aninus.l up to Eugene. ‘‘Hyar, young feller,” he said; ‘‘ turn about’s fair play. Git outside o’ that critter’s back. The chief won’t mind it.” And he helped Eugene to leap on the back of the Indian charyer, without stirrups or bit as it was, a light rein of plaited horse-hair encircling its under jaw. Wash Carrol] then came up close to Tiger Tail, and pointed the p‘stol once more to his head. ‘You'll come with us, chief,” he said, quietly but with a wicked glitter in his eye. ‘* "Tain safe to trust yer loose till we’re outer gunshot.” Tiger Teil made no answer, except a sullen, vindictive glare. Likeasavage dog who has been choked nizh to death, the fight was taken out of the Semiaole, under Wash Carrol’s eye. * Hyer, neighbor,” said the hunter to Strother, “vou are as strong as a bull bufiler. Git on yer critter, and carry this cuss off, as a hostage. PU do the rest.” Strcther uttered a grim laugh, and turned away to mount his horse, a huge, heavy, power- ful beast, of Pennsylvanian breed. lie stooped and lifted the young chief to the ommel, as if he had been a child; while Wash srrol leaped on his own animal, and rode round in face of the whole camp. The Seminoles had become suspicious that uomething was going on, and had begun to crowd toward that part of the camp, when to them suddenly appeared the whole party, wheeling round with cocked rifles, while Wash Carrol called out in the Comanche language, which the Seminoles ail understood, “Tf a warrior fires a shot, we kill Tiger Tail Drop your arms!” ‘Then, in English, he shouted: “Porward, cunnel! Give ’em blazes ef they fire a shot.” The whole party broke into a gallop, and through the camp—Strother with a cocked pistol held close to the Seminole chief’s head lhe Indians, as if stupefied, allowed them to pass unchallenged, till they were a hundred yards out in the open prairie. Then Strother threw the chief to the ground without any further ceremony, and the whole party put spurs to their horses and mules (for the most of the negroes were only mounted on the colonel’s draft mules), tore away dowr the prairie at their best speed. The chief. struggled to his feet as soon as they had , and ran toward the camp, yelling: “Shoot! Shoot! Kill them, warriors!” The Seminole warriors came running from their camp, with a loud yell, and poured a scat- tering volley, but their fire was wholly ineffec- tunl, only eliciting a shout of derision, from whites and negroes alike, Wash Carrol, alone, puiied up his horse, and Finny to the ground to take a shot. He w a bead on the person of Tiger Tail, as the chief fled toward his camp, and had the satis- faction of seeitig the Indian halt and stumble forward, asif he was hit. © There was a tremendous rushing about and yell- ing in the camp; and'all the braves were soon mounted, and dashing out on the prairie, but only some fifty of them followed the emi t y, and these maintained a respectful dis with gray, having a gray eye of remarkable | a general . ce from the long-range rifles, contenting a ae