Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1167 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

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Nor far from the scene of the thrilling inci- dents just narrated, and listening to the blows of the hatchet, stood two persons, Hand in hand they stood in the shadows of the cliffs and the trees, and the light of the rising moon fell at their feet, but did not expose their es. One of the listeners was an Indian athlete, youthful, and naked to the waist, for the frag- ments of a hunting-frock, that clung to his broad shoulders, could not be called clothing. His companion was a young white girl, beautiful but pale, and she listened, with clenched lips, to the ringing blows. Red Eagle and Little Arrow! The latter looked fatigued; the forced flight froma the little lake had told heavily upon her, but the endurance of the Indian did not seem im- paces in the least. Despite the journey, he ooked fresh and eager. They heard the crashing of the mass of vines, as it fell down the cliff, ae S| Piney Paul in its embrace, and the sound, loud and startling, made them exchange looks of wonder. ‘The red-men cut the heavy vines away!” the young savage said. ‘‘They are the hunters of Nokomis; they do not mean to er " ‘* We must not meet them!” said Little Arrow. ‘‘ No!” was the response. ‘‘ Red Eagle has no friends in that tribe, though he is one of its braves. They do not trail him; but they would not turn away to save his scalp.” The white girl did not reply, and for some moments the red brave kept his lips sealed. ‘* Red Eagle knows not where to go,” he said, in a puzzled manner, ‘To the south liés the | Sa city of the Yengees, to the north the omes of the Englishmen. In either place the whites would fall in love with Little Arrow, a take her from the chief. Better back to an, The girl gave him an anxious look. ‘‘ But the hunters are between us!” she said, Red Eagle drew his tomahawk. “T am not S peower a8 he cried. Ns brs est is as my lodge— ow every of it. Back to the island! if the trail swarms with hunters! Red Eagle will face the old man and tell him that he loves Little Arrow—that he fled with her, but to save her!” Little”Arrow, or Cicely, the lost girl, crept papery the young red-skin’s side. ~i follow!” she said, Score rereay. ** Not to the Americans, nor to the English; but back to the island lodge!” i, wt “To Patagan!” said Red Eagle, closing his lips firmly upon the last word, The flight of the twain from Pelosee had end- ed; they resolved to return to the island and there—where they believed they would be safe —live out the love of their lives. But there were fogs between them and the hid- den lodge; there were to be bloody leaves before Cicely’s feet could press the island soil again. Tramp! tramp! throu ugh the forest came the sounds of feet, that startled the lovers, and Red a drew the girl further back into the sha- ows, “The hunters of Nokomis!” he as? si “The Brown Ptarmigan leads them; he limps.” Like ters the eighteen hunters moved through the wide belt of moonlight, watched in silence by the twain. Gradually they p: from sight, and the sound of their feat died away. Cicely looked up to her red lover with beam- thankfulness in her eyes. t the danger had no There suddenly appce hunters a figure w in the wake of the ch at first resembled the over the fresh trail o ter; but rose erect a few feet from the ves. ey go down the river!” said the voice of the trailer. ‘‘ Do they follow the white girl and é her ae a or are they the Indians Cicely heard the voice and started Cand. a ther’s, though it was larger than that beast’s. un from its oo . 7 _ a se : aed f . *s aS , a a! ei ; ma, r sis _ — 4 . . * . ~* ed - ¥. . Se ge . a Ya - = * — > -<€ we. J per ~ 7 * - — a Fe ef: -—x = - aa ip Sc ee — ~ el ee ate ke? . PI me ‘brave and chivalrous white hunter now, — who hunt: Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. ee ee speaker, and a glance at Red Eagle told her that he, too, had made the same discovery. Standing in the edge of the moonlight, erect and statue-like, appeared the person whose dark eyes the girl dreaded to encounter—Pelosee! The red witch was still on her trail, and the countenance revealed by the moon, together with the long blade that glistened in her hand, caused the white virl to hone ferventiv that thev might as — again. or i “ oiseless e youn fagle dropr his otenreanttonis arm. She looked up sur eed at the action and saw the Indian ready to throw himself upon the huntress, He held a knife in his hand and his eyes flashed the mad passions of his heart upon the witch. Cicely did not restrain him. He darted for- ward with a cougar-like spring before she could have li a hand for that purpose. / The distance had not been miscalculated, for, with a startling cry, Pelosee fell back beneath the force of the plunge. ) She staggered toward the water shimmering in the weird moonlight, with the hand of the young Red Hagle at her throat, But she strug- sled while being forced back, and at last brought er prodigious strength into full play. But the Mohican was no mean antagonist. A belief that Pelosee sought the life of Cicely nerved him to desperation, and he resolved that her trail should end on the banks of the Crazy river. An anxious spectator of the combat, the white girl stood in the shadows with her eyes fastened re the figures that struggled in the moon- shine, She started forward when Pelosee forced Red Eagle back by & momentary advantage; but when the youth dextrously turned the tables, she would stop and pray for his final success. In one of her spells of eagerness she exposed her eran to the quick eyes of Pelosee, and a wild cry fell from the witch’s lips. The sight of her victim seemed to lend her ad- ditional strength, and she turned to Red Eagle, ting for breath, with the tury of the tigress. tout as the young brave was, he could not re- sist the new simoom'of fury successfully. He wrenched himself from Pelosee and flung his body between her rage and Cicely. He planted himself firmly there with drawn ife and waited the attack, It was not delayed. With an exclamation of rage the savage prin- |: cess sprung forward; but the Mohican met the shock with the old bravery of his famous tribe, He struck for the heart that beat beneath Pe- losee’s vest, and blood stained his blade, but it wasthe blood ofherrightarm. | The next instant he was flung aside, and the Island Witch cleared the distance between him and Cicely with a single bound. Cicely starting back with a shriek of terror essayed to fly, for she saw that Red Eagle did not rise from the ground, but the huntress was upon her, ‘The white girl fled from Pelosee, but she could not escape!” was the exulting cry. . ‘‘ She 1all go now the Mountain Cat, and before his eyes Pelosee will take her life.” Cicely heard all with a white face, and her glance wandered to the young Mohican. “The knife was in Pelosee’s hand when she struck!” the witch said, noticing the inquiring glance. ‘‘ The white Reena see him.” She carried rather than led Cicely to the spot where in .the a 8 lay the Mohican—the Kagle—with his scalp- lock on the ground, and his face paler than the natural hue. ‘‘He has gone to Watchemenetoc!” said Pe- losee, savagely. “No! no!” ‘cried the girl in anguish, as. she was permitted to kneel over the Indian, whose eyes, rolling wildly, became fixed Mis regard- her with a soft expression. ‘‘ The Red Eagle’ is not dead! He not die because Pelosee struck him!” ) The young Red Eagle will soon be on the Eag never-ending trail,” came the reply from the rostrate Indian, in tones that startled the lis- ners. ‘‘ The knife of the witch found his life lodge. Little Arrow will live for the young e hunts her to take her to the home from which Patagan stole her long il like the experi- | ago . te have always been Patagan’s child!” she cried. . The dying Indian slowly shook his head. ‘‘No! The lost lodge is to the south. The Red ss a ae have kept Little Arrow here love him. But bis tongue is not forked now. — we . eet The boy would take her back to the lodge ; the man would drive the knife to her heart!’ The death rattle followed hard and ominously upon the last words, and astream of blood gush- ed from the wound in the side. There was amoment of silence, which Pelosee in her madness did not attempt to break. | All at once Red Hagle tried to rise, but his ex. hansted strength prevented, and he fell back ‘against the foot of a pine, and diced there with nis eyes fixed on Cicely! ‘The long tradl!” said Pelosee, glancing signi- ficantly at the young chief. ‘* Come, we must “Go? Whither?’ Cicely rose and faced the scarlet witch. “ Whither are we going?” she demanded. ‘** To the mountain boy!” was the reply. “Tt am ready now. He wants to take me back to the long-lost home, Red Eagle said so before he died.’ For a moment Pelosee did not reply. She held Cicely at arm’s length, and gazed strangely into her white face, *. Yes! yes!” she said, fiendishly. ‘‘ The little Mountain Cat would take the white girl to the lost wigwam, and would make love to her there. But the knife shines bet*veen her and that wig- wam. It is Pelosee who talks thus to the Sh flower!” Cicely could not misinterpret the light that gleamed in the red gir]’s eyes. It was jealousy tinctured with its almost in- separable com Se eae ‘**'You would not kill me, Pelosee?’ she pee ‘ e laying her hand on the jealous one’s arm. should be sisters—not enemies!” The reply came y cegeret and full of bitterness, ‘The Mountain Cat belongs te Pelosee! She saved him from the wolves.” Cicely did. not reply; but wished herself far from the presence of the forest vixen. | ‘**Pelosee knows where the boy is!” the red girl said. suddenly. ‘‘The vines went down with him when the Brown Ptarmigan cut them away. The captive looked up into the speaker's face, at a loss to understand her. A moment later the twain were hastening from the spot. CHAPTER XVI. OUT FROM THE VINES. THE loosened vines, gathering into a mass al- most spherical in form, dashed down the pre- cipice and struck the rocks far below. ere it lay like a great ball partly unraveled and out of shape, washed by the water as it poured over the rocky bed of the gorge. | For several minutes there were no signs of life about the mass, but at last a singular figure — emerged therefrom, and looked up. ‘“'There was too much stuff around me!” said Piney Paul, smiling at his ludicrous situation. “ Big fishes! I thought I would never. stop. Over and over it went, until plump! calneis} right into the water. Now I’m for getting out 0’ this. Nobody about, I guess.” With no little difficulty the Adirondack boy left the mass and found himself on shore. Above him towered the cliff down whose sheer sides he had descended with the speed of a falling bomb. The top was deserted save by the stately pines whose overhanging branches he could see. He did not desert the spot directly, but exam- ined his surroundings with much care. T to the profusion of vines he had es- caped without bodily injury, and, with rifleand knife, he felt tolerably safe. _ ‘* There’s no use in stopping here when I’ve no business in the place. No more vines hereabouts to takeme up to the trees, and there isn’t a man in these parts who can scale the rocks, [| wonder if this gorge doesn’t end somewhere? I'll try it at any rate.” He down the ravine for the purpose of finding a Stairway to the pines overbtead. The place where he had encountered Cecil Crane and Nightwell was left behind, and, like a specter, he hurried on, hugging the cliffs and avoiding the water as much as possible, At no pare mountain river might have been called aries were confined by the walls of the chasm, and above in numerous places trees bridged the opening. ) ; Piney Paul at last discovered that the stream grew wider as he.advanced, and he emerged un- expectedly from the gorge upon a comparative- ly level shore. | , “Nature got tired of making rocks and 7 rs At the same time she recognized the | He knows why the white men are in the forest. | here,” he said, concerning the change, as : ow ; Fie | > : . et. atria” * 4 ~ * -* fs 4 y * s ct Ley 7 , Sy: 7 wie ie 8 t- ) ig re ey Le ra “~_ 7 * . ~ z te were > tres BRO <1 AS ae 4 o . Tor : wet! ' 4 ft : ‘ a oe iy 7 >; si * ' * . > bet a5 Pe A \ de. tt wae See ~ J ‘ “+r ? eh om * ” [_* Se Ce i ' . 4 ¢ ‘2 c le + we , 7 ee = 4 — i ‘Ta . ot . a S&F « - * 4 A an oth ‘ . ' : . 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