Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1167 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

< - sl ee \ oe ad Sate oe, - * ; = 4 “Se a , - a a 5 - is a. of cou tel journeying, Pelosee for the first time entered sought trail. girl and to obey her implicitly. there is Eagle Nest, standing up like a giant! We've got around Deer Island where I met the hunters last night. You didn’t go back to the old man. Afraid to go without the dog, eh?” *Pelosee couldn’t-stand before Ocotoc and say that the big dog was dead,” was the reply. ‘He’d fume, I guess, over such a catastro- ho,” smiled Piney Paul, ‘‘I did the work, and t fine that that kick o’ mine got me into the hole, didn’t it, Pelosee?” “ Pelosee like big dog, and when the Moun- tain Cat threw him down to the wolves, arrows of madness, hot as fire, shot into her heart.” ‘And the Old Harry danced in your eyes,” said the boy. ‘‘But it’s all over now. You came backand saved me. Thatis good. I owe Nn a life, Pelosee, and you will not find Piney ail ungrateful. here are we going! That’s the question that puzzles me, and besides, I’m sort o’ hungry.” ‘Where would the mountain boy like to go?” asked Pelosee, with a curious expression of countenance. Piney Paul started at the interrozative. *There’s one place above allothers, not just now excepting paradise,” he cried, with eager- ness. ‘‘ Pelosee, you know where it is. You told ms last night that you did. Thither would Igo. Where is the lost lodge?’ The little hermit of the Adirondacks watched her with great anxiety and impatience; he ate his breath and heard the beating of his own eart. But Peloses’s eyes wandered from his face, anithe paddles rested in the limpid water. ‘* Where, Pelosee, oh where is it?” cried Piney Paul, unable to restrain his feelings. ‘‘ l¢ is where the white-faces wi if Pelosee doas not tell,” she said. * Bat you will tell, Yes, you are going to tell ms that I may kesp her from the hounds thit seek her for her blood,” ‘* And the mountain boy would forget Pelosee, and go and live with the lost girl?” The island witch was jealous. “But I will never forget you! Why, your hanl lifted me from the mouths of the wolves and I would be a dog if [did not lovemy red sister for this. Pelosee, I have sosnt five years of my life among these mountains hunting for the lost lodge, It is lost to me yet. my trails have ended suddenly like the path on the brink of a precipice. But you know where the hiddea wigwam is. Will you not tell me, and together we will go to it?” Pelosee’s eyes flashed with delight. ** Will the white hunter go with Pelosee?” she criel. ‘*Yos!” was the answer. ‘Only put an end to my long trails. I will follow you to the lost lodze.” The boat touched the bank as Piney Paul uttered the last words and the occupants de- barked. ‘** Sink the boat!” said Pelosee, and the craft was sent below the surface, there to remain tintil needed again. A minute later the pair were pushing through the forest. . ‘* Pelosee,” said the boy suddenly touching his guide's arm and causing her to hatt. ‘We are traveling without arms of any kind. The lost home is far away, perhaps.” “Tt is far away,” was the echo. | ‘‘My home is near,” he said. ‘There are weapons there, and food, too, Pelosas.” The girl hesitated and cast her eyes at the sun, - ** Wecan go to the mountain boy’s lodge,” she said, ‘‘ but we must not stay long. There are others on the trail. . "Yes, and we must outwit them. Now at last, Cacil Crane, Iam on the right trail!” — The pa and consultation resulted in a change se, and after several hours of uninterrup- never find it Piasy Paul’s hidden home. _ In the light of a cheerful fire the two new friends discussed a meal, and after a brief rest the cave was left behind. Piney Paul was eager to ste upon the long- He resolved to ollow the Indian Once more he was threading the damp rocks __ washed by the stream that thundered by his cave-home. The cliffs towered for many feet above them, but he was leading Pelosee to the woods above by a chasm stairway which to-day is the wonder and delight of tourists. All at once Pelosee uttered an ejaculation that startled Piney Paul. He turned as her hand fell 4 a" xe = eS sa 2 : . ot or. - x aa oe his arm, and beheld her pointing over- % om ; _ {| ~=He looked up. The gorge was not wide, and ss os : > XS . , ys a ae ong | z os SS as > ees i “is ey i _ ‘ wid ne mo egy are > _ wu pa bem Kr met a i * a ae ae owen OL EE et tate EE The Hidden Lodge. ney were midway between the foaming water and the top of the cliffs, A glance told Piney Paul that the place was not unknown to him, for upon several occasions he had crossed the chasm on the tree which some furious storm had converted into a bridge. The bridge was there spanning the wild Adi- rondack river at that giddy hight; but it was swaying beneath the weight of a human figure. Piney Paul and his guide kept their eyes riveted upon the form which, approaching from the left bank of the river, gradually came into view, proceeding with that caution which the hour demanded. It was the figure of an Indian, and as he reached the middle of the log, with steady tread, Piney Paul whispered to Pelosee; ** Nokomis!” ** One red man has crossed!” was the answer. ‘* It is Red Loon!” said the boy. The Upas crossed the dangerous bridge in safety, and then the figure of a white man a peared thereon. He was followed by another member of the race. “ Now for ep ponies villain of the gang!” Piney Paul grated through clenched teeth, with his eyes still fixed on the frail bridge. “ I don’t like to wish aay bad things, but I wouldn’t try to save him if [ saw the bridge giving way be- neath him. I wish it would!’ A fifth figure was on the tree, crossing slowly, and with evident trepidation. ‘* Cecil Crane, I'll end your trail here. You shall not live to baffle me at the very threshold of success.” Piney Paul’s eyes were sparkling like coals. The sight of the white man on the log goaded him to uncontrollable madness, Quick as a flash he raised his rifle, and the click, click of the lock, as the flint flew back, startled Pelosee. She saw the weapon directed upward, caught the flash of the hermit’s orbs as they covered the doomed man, and then thrust the rifle downward with her sinewy arm! “No!” she cried, ‘‘not now. The pale-face is on his last’ trail. waters.” The boy darted a maddened look at the girl. But she firmly held the rifle down. ‘Look up!” she said. ‘The mountain boy can shoot now.” ry, Paul looked up. The log was still swinging over the chasm; but Cecil Crane had disappeared. ‘Tt may be all right,” said the little hermit; ‘* but it looked like a sin to let that villain es- pore. He may be on the trail that leads to the hidden lodge, even now.” Pelosee did not reply. | hat scene, accompanied by bitter regrets, was to return to her thoughts before many days. CHAPTER IX, THE BROKEN INTERVIEW.” Far up in the wild Adirondack region, girt in by mountains whose ragged crests them- selves toward the clouds, lies a pee sheet of water which seems to sleep conti bosom of nature. At the time of which we write—the beg of the present century—the adventurous white man had not disturbed its repose, and the wild- ness that encompassed it seemed entirely un- broken by humanity. It was not a large lake, but large enough, withal, to boast of a wooded island, which, like an emerald gem in dark blue setting, lay in the center. Tall pines, clad in the peculiar foliage that add to the ulness of the trees, stood like guardians at the water’s edge, and at the - r season dropped their resinous cones into 6 lake. The roaming savage in his trails had glanced at the little tala and don. The prowlin panther had swum to it on more than one pred- atory excursion, and had returned +> the main- land with hungry maw, for no game offered itself to his appetite. But the island was inhabited, One night several days after the occurrence of the scenes recorded in the last chapter, the fi of a young girl appeared at the water’s ge and raised a little boat which had been concealed beneath the surface, There was grace in the movements of the girl- ish figure, which was tastefully clad in comfor- tably fitting forest garb. But the face was white; the long golden hair which fell upon the well-rounded shoulders and rested lightly there contrasted well with the mild blue eyes that glowed beneath long silken lashes. The hair was not confined, His grave must not be the | guage of the ually on the its only ornament was a | — - »* cael > —_ - —~—s tiny arrow tipped with bright feathers; the mid- dle of the shatt was concealed by the flowi tresses, while the shining barb and beauti pies ig conspicuously showed their salient points. The island beauty was not armed, as if no danger lurked around; and after bailing the boat, an cperation which was quickly performed by dextrously tipping it, she step into the craft and pulled for the mainland. A few easy strokes served to bring the boat to the shore, and she left it and for a moment stood revealed in the silvery moonlight which flooded the spot. It was evident that the girl was rage an appointed meeting, for her actions denoted this. But who could the lover be, in that wild, unfre- quented chamber of nature? We shall see. Shortly after the landing there came a sound from the shadows of the woods that brought a pceaee smile to the girl’sface, She did not fly, hough the step was cautious and full of stealth, but stood erect with her eyes fixed upon the figure slowly appearing among the pines. At last she was joined by a person to whom she held out her white hands, and her name, gently spoken by the new-comer, had a mu- sical sound, ‘Little Arrow is here. The Red Eagle knew that she would meet him and keep her word.” The speaker was a veritable Indian Apollo. He had not passed his eighteenth year; his form was symmetrical, his clothes close-fitting, and, after the backwoods manner, fashionable; his scalp-lock oiled, like the hair of the dandy. In face he was, for one of his race, remarka handsome; his eyes were large lustrous, and full of expression, and the hand that grasped the ornamented rifle which he trailed at his sido was womanish in its creation, That the pair were lovers, notwithstanding the contrasting hue of skin, was evident. The attitude in the moonlight, the deep look into each other’s eyes, the meeting, told this. ‘*T will never turn back when I can meet ou,” the white girl said, looking up into the dian’s face, ‘‘What havo you been doing away so long?” ‘Red Hapis has been in the forest. He has seen figures there like the beings from Manitou- land, They build fires in the mountains, and talk in a language that Red Eagle does not un- derstand,” . ‘Are they white?” asked the girl, curiously. » “Three are white, and the skin of the other two is red,” was the reply. The youth spoke in the olmost extinct lan- Tohicans, and Little Arrow an- swered him fluently in the same tongue. | The girl was perplexed. ‘Five persons in the forest?” she said, as if vigor with herself; but the wily ears of the young Indian heard. ‘‘ Five!” he exclaimed, holding up his left hand with the fingers outspread., : ‘ ucr a Sane she ves silent; Ber eee ightly, pensively, upon her boso when she lifted it It was to say: He ‘“What else has Red Eagle seen? We will not think of the five hunters. They will not find Little Arrow and her father,” ' The Indian’s countenance was troubled. He was ill at ease, and the words of the girl failed to reassure him. ‘This did Red Eagle find in the forest!” he im as his hand gli ed beneath the folds of his - hunting-jacket. ‘‘ By the falls where the rocks are sharper than knives it lay, as if the rocks a tag Xe. on ne foot.” a © speaker held up to the girl a moc beaded curiously from heel 8 and orna- mented by fringe, which had met with rough usage in the wood, hon ttle Arrow greeted the object with an ex- clamation of wonder, an ing it from Red Stee eg, held it up in the moonlight and adm it. x thee | | ‘* Whose can it be?’ she asked, with a glance at the Indian. ‘‘ Was it worn to the rocks, or did the waters carry it-to the place?” ‘‘Where Red Hagle found it, there it vag lost,” was the a PA ‘There were tracks along the river. le Arrow, the woods are full of strange people. They are not on the trail for any good, They will be here by and “No, no!” cried the girl, shuddering, and her face grew pale. “Do not say that they will ip to the island, Red Eagle. We are happy ere oe eri ‘She was not born ther, away tot an SE where the great lodges of ot" -wa— ~» ee “~L- wT ae & _ > tag ~s ~s 4 “ But it is not Little Arrow’s home,” the young un the %, Bee ~~ ;