Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 376 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

"0 I te = Mee re — te el _— California Joe’s First Trail. tell the men there to come with me, The Scotts will need no guide now, for they can see the walls of Deseret for themselves; but they need to be watched, and I can spare none of my old men. We have work in another direction. Take them, and lead them toward the city. To-night they can camp where they are and to- morrow thou wilt bring them in at the east ate, where there will be men waiting for thee. 0, and God speed thee,” oe, with a beating heart, bowed his head and said quietly: ** Tl do it, deacon.” Then he rode off with Alice, down the hills, and saw that the Mormon caravan took another way by which to enter the city, while he rode to the wagons of the Scotts. He found there several of the Mormon “ De- stroyers” and told them that the chief wanted them, an order which met with the usual un- hesitating obedience of the band, Then Joe found himself alone, for the first time since the arrival of the Indians, with the Scott and Gabelle family. The Scotts seemed to be stricken with won- der at the sight of him in his new equipment, with the very pretty girl who was riding beside him; and the Scott girls, especially, came out to stare at Alice, with the undisguised curi- osity of their natures, Joe affected a curt and authoritative manner; told the father of the family what were the orders of the chief Nephi; and saw that the Scott brood was comp etely subdued by the splendor of his appearance. He told them to go into camp, and they obey- ed him, while he took Alice Foster apart a little way, and began to tell her what he had de- termined to do that very night. CHAPTER XV. THE FLIGHT. THE stars were shining like diamonds in the clear and unclouded sky over the valley of Great Salt Lake; the white tilts of the wagons stood like sheeted ghosts in the gloom; the mules and oxen were lying down by the camp, and the loud snores of the men and women of the Scott family showed that they were fast asleep, when Joe rose from the place where he had been lying alone, pretending to sleep, and ap- aes what looked like a bundle of clothes ying on the grass near where two horses were picketed. fi 3 ** Alice,” he said in a low tone, ‘‘ it’s time, if ye dar’ try it. I’m a-gwine; but ef you're afeard ye kin stay bhyar. They won’t hurt ou. “4 The bundle moved, and the face of the ca tive girl was put forth from the blankets in which she had been wrapped by Joe’s fostering care, ‘‘T was not asleep,” she said, quietly, ‘“T was thinking that you are the noblest man God ever made, and that I would rather go with you and be killed on the way, than live here among these wretches, though they should make a princess of me. I am ready to go. She rose as she spoke, and the young hunter proceeded to saddle. the horses, which he had taken as hisshare of the spoil the day before. He led them carefully away from the vicinity of the camp, to avoid rousing the sleeping Scotts. Within a quarter of an bour they were saddled and loaded, when Joe helped his new companion to mount ber horse, and they rode away, silently as ghosts, in the darkness, taking the western route, by the foot of the great lake where the Mormons were settled. Not a word was spoken by either till they had gone neara mile from the camp without meeting a living creature, when Joe said to his companion: ‘ ‘‘Naow we kin talk, Miss Alice. Fu’st thing I got to tell you is this, to show ye ye needn't be skeered of bein’ alone with me. J’ma mar- ried man, and the gal I married, not six months ago, is the %ne I Jove with all my heart. Ye needn't hev no more fear of me nor ef I war _ brother. So don’t git skeered abaout bein yar alone with me, for I'll take good keer of e,” The girl all alone with him in the starlight, put out her hand and said, quietly: ‘‘T knew I could trust you from the first. Your face told me that, I am not afraid to be alone with you anywhere,” Joe felt his heart leap as she spoke, and he went on: “‘Thar’s another thing I wanter say to ye. My name ain’t what them others calls me. My name—” ‘‘ Never mind telling me,” interposed the girl. ‘‘I have trustea you under the name of California Joe, and I don’t want to bear any other name, till we are safe out of the perils that surround us. Tell me only this: what do you think of doing?’ Joe hesitated a moment, ‘I ain’t sure yet; but I’ve b’en lookin’ on the map, and [ find, on the other side of the Salt Lake, thar’s a hull grist of kentry we've got to cross, afore we git to Californey. Them Mor- mons is baound to foller us, when they find we're gone, and hunt us daown, ef they kin. We've got to trust to the heels of aour hosses, and to keep aout of the way of the Injuns.” Alice turned her head toward him in the starlight, to Oy ‘* My father knew a great deal about Indians, and he told me that, after we had passed Salt Lake, we should find them peaceable and quiet, some of them friendly to the whites, and all of them very different to the men of the plains, who ride on horses and know no mercy. Be- sides, he told me that there is a party of Uni- ted States troops, somewhere out here, survey- ing the country, and that we should be sure to meet them soon after we had passed the Mor- mon settlements.” ‘*TIs that so?’ said Joe, pleased at the news. “Did he tell ye where they were likely to be faound, Miss Alice?” ‘‘Hedid. The fact is—” Here the girl hesitated, and Joe said: ‘Speak aout, Miss Alice. What is it?” ‘“‘The fact is,” said the girl, ‘‘that there isa gentleman—an officer in the purty—who is an old friend of ours, and if we could once meet him, we should be safe,” “Phen, the sooner we make tracks to git aout of this darned kentry,” said Joe energeti- cally, ‘the better it will be fur us, Miss Alice. Hev ye any idee whar these sojers will be faound?” _ “* My father said that they were somewhere in the mountains, by a place called Pilot’s Peak,” Jos uttered an exclamation of satisfaction. ‘‘The very place I were a-lookin’ at, on the map, afore | come aout. We're on the straight road thar. The emigrant trail goes on the other side of the lake, and there’s a desert marked on the map, this side; so the Mormons wont think we’d dar go that way, but I reckia we kin struggle along somehaow,” ‘If you can doit, I can,” said she resolutely. Then they put their horses to a trot, and went on rapidly for several bours, till the green car- tof grass that had so long been under their a gave way to sand, and Joe said, with a sigh: ‘* We’ve come to the desert, and no mistake, Miss Alice. The question is, whether we kin push acrost it or not.” ‘*'We must /” she answered earnestly. “ If we die, we die, but anything is better than fall- ing into the hands of those wretches,” he urged her horse forward into the sand as she spoke, and Joe followed her. All night long they rode, and when the first glow of dawn appeared in the sky, they saw a chain of mountains before them and managed ae them before the light had become ng. The prospect around them as the sun rose was bare and barren enough, but there were rocks that promised shade from the sun, which was hot and scorching at that time of the year, and a hiding-place from any curious eyes that might be scanning the country below. | Just as the sun rose, Joe drew up his horse in the shadow of a great rock, and said: ‘*Naow, Miss Alice, it’s time we went into camp.” Alice looked round her disconsolately enough, but there was no help forit. The horses were tlred and covered with sweat, and to take them apy further in the heat which both knew was cone would be to distress them unneces- sarily. Besides, Joe, who had become a good deal of a scout in the course of his march from the Kansas, knew, from the lay of the rocks and bills round him, that he would probably find water near the place where they were, if he looked well. The formation of the hills was such that it made a good many basins, and he went off on foot through the hills, till he found one of these which contained drinkable water, beside which grew some trees and bushes. To return to Alice and transfer the horses and mule to the basin, where they went into camp in comparative com- fort, was the work of a short time, and the shade of the trees, with the water, soon fresh- ened up the horses, which were looking gaunt and distressed. 13 They set to work bungrily at the scanty grass in the little basin, while Joe went back to the place where they bad first stopped, where he scanned the plain to find if anybody was fol- lowing them. Notbing was in sight as far as he could see, and the rest of the day was passed in peace till about an hour from sunset, when he saw some dark moving objects, on the yeilow sand of the desert below him, which he soon re- solved into borsemen, coming on the trail he and his companion had left bebind them. They were a long way off, but he could count the dots; for his eyesight had become trained to the clear atmosphere of the western desert, and he bad acquired some of the Indians’ power of sppreciating character in distant things, He realized that there were fifteen horsemen on bis trail, and the problem of what was best to do, came to his mind at once. If he remained where he was, the enemy, if such was the approaching party, would come up with him, and he would bave to defend him- self and his companion, True, he felt confident that he could do so in the place where be was, and probably beat off anything less than a score of men; but Alice or himself might get hurt in the affair, and in that case nothing could save them. On the other hand, if he ran, before he was certain that the foe were on bis trail, he might run into another party, coming from some other direction. Thinking over all this, he watched tbe party as he rode along, and noticed that it followed the very trail that he had come by, the night before. Feeling certain that he bad no time to lose, he went back and roused Alice; saddled the horses, and set off, in the twilight, through the moun- tains, He took his course by the north star, that he saw gleaming over the mountain tops to the right, and traversed pass after pass, till the morning again began to dawn, when he and bis companion found themselves at the edge of the range, which they had been traversing all night. As the sun rose, they came out in view of an elevated plain, covered with grass, which re- joiced them greatly: and, far off in the plain, they saw something else, which gave them a start and caused them to hide burriedly behind some rocks for fear they might be seen—a curl of smoke rising from a fire, around which were spread the white coverings of several tents, shining in the light of the morning sun, — There were others besides themselves in the mountains, and the question was, who were the strangers. The increasing light revealed the mystery, when Alice cried joyfully: «See, see! The Stars and Stripes !” CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. Ir was indeed the Stars and Stripes, the flag of their native land and Government, which the fugitives from Mormon “ Destroyers” saw as the sun glanced on the banner. The distance was so great that they could not distinguish it plainly, but there was a flag on the top of one of the white tents, and it was of that general pinkish effect which is given by the American flag at a distance, while there could be no other that would be hoisted insucha place at such a time. Agee) The horses were not tired after their night- march, as they had been the night before; for they had gove at a much slower pace, and had had the advantage of a good rest. Therefore, when Joe proposed that they go on at once to the tents and find out what was the party there, Alice eagerly assented; and they rode off, de, scending the mountain as fast as they dared till they entered the plain. As they rode down into the first green grass they had seen since they left Salt Lake, Joe looked up behind him and was surprised to see, on the summit of the ridge they had just left, the figure of a horseman, outlined against the early morning sun, in full view. The next moment came a flash and a puff of white smoke. The biss of a bullet, dropping close to bis horse’s feet, showed that the ** De- stroying Angels” were after them. As the bullet dashed up a little cloud of dirt beside bim, Joe saw several other men come out beside the first, and a volley was sent down after the fugitives, which produced a disastrous effect. | Joe’s horse staggered, then pitched forward on its head, shot dead, while Alice’s animal, with a snort of terror, set off full speed, and the girl herself swayed to and fro in the saddle. boo