Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 48 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

descried the object of their search, a file of men in the far distant valley of Reese river, slowly and dejectedly trooping along to the south. Antelope Eye, who was riding near Bear Killer, noticed them first, when they were at least four or five miles off, and dimly visible as specks on the green surface of the valley. He uttered a low hiss like that of a snake, the well- oe warning of caution, and instantly halt- Under the guidance of Bear Killer, the Black- foot warriors receded in haste behind their horses, and made the animals lie down, to di- minish the chances of being seen by their foes, who, however, had their backs turned to them as they went. Then an animated discussion ensued between the chiefs as to the proper procedure. It was terminated by Antelope Eye, who suddenly de- veloped a determination and power of oratory for which no one had ever given him credit. In a short, animated speech, he pled him- self, if the warriors would but follow his guid- ance, to bring them to a t where he would eyo the Utes into their hands, like rabbits in a net. ‘If a single Ute scalp escapes without our leave,” he declared, ‘‘I will give my own scalp, the scalp of a chief of the Echipeta, to dry in the lodge of a root-digger. I only ask you to follow me this time, for I know where they are gome, and I have more wrongs to avenge than any ere.” Then he ended with an account of the indig- nities he had suffered from Cat’s Eye and the Utes, and demanded permission to go first, ro ae ee and fight his foes, to avenge those ies ith one accord the warriors assented to the request, and told him to lead on. The remark- able thing was, that the Echipeta seemed to fear only that their enemies might slip away from them, by some means. Of the impru- dence of allowing a single warrior to fight a whole band, as Antelope Eye proposed, they had no thought. For the Utes, single, they entertained a profound contempt. That very contempt it was, that made them so ferocious- ly anxious, lest a single one should escape to tell that he had insulted a maiden of the Echi- peta, As the Utes disappeared round a spur of the mountains, Antelope Eye led his party down a lonely pass into the heart of the Sierra. CHAPTER XVI. THE HUMAN CORRAL. CatT’s Eyse and Crow’s Foot, as perfect a pair of villains as the Great West has often seen, were riding slowly south from the nunnery of Santa ares ee over the death of their late enemy, Dick Darling, and discussing their future prospects, the next morning after their murderous onslaught. “The young riding chief died like a man,” observed Crow’s Foot, eagte t ‘but how are we to get the squaws? The man at the station has roused the country and the soldiers will be after us, with the guns that shoot all day.” Cat’s Eye shook his head thoughtfully. Like friend, he was beginning to realize that one ma ey too dear for a whistle. ‘** We ought to have mig the squaws while we had them,” he observed. “The Echipeta are t warriors, and they too may be soon on our track.” ‘‘The Echipeta are dogs,” said Crow’s Foot, savagely. ‘*Weean fight them, but the guns that shoot twice who can stand inst? He referred to the mountain howitzers used by the troops, whose shells were always an ob- ject of great dread to the Indians. ‘* Let my brother listen,” said Cat’s Eye, cun- ningly. ‘The soldiers cannot march as fast as we, and the Echipeta, if on our trail, may be near us now. Let us turn aside to the mountains and hide there. chat follow our trail, and we can ambush and y them like buffaloes.” _ Crow's Foot was not_lothto assent to the wis- dom of the counsel. Thé horses of the part ‘were completely d, having been rid- den for over seventy miles inside of twenty-four hours, and it became must take them at.a fearful disadvantage. ~~ _ They were Anas far out of the track of emi- ’ grants, and tering - unexplored and unknown to the whites. —_ A any pursuit from these they were | comparatively safe, from their at of the country, but the likelihood of their res by the Blackfeet was a different ma Hitherto, they had lived at peace with their evident that a pursuit. t on that wild and unknown | stretch of country in south-east He oa still Dick Darling. —— ——E—— ee grim neighbors, fearing them too much to pro- voke a collision, but an insult had been offered to the tribe which they had reason to fear | might provoke retaliation. Their party only numbered fifteen men all told, for they had lost seven warriors killed, in the contest at Do- lores Station and before the convent. Three of those present were slightly wounded, and they were in ill condition for a battle with un- known forces. Under these circumstances, at Cat’s Eye’s suggestion, the raiders turned aside out of the valley they were pursuing, the source of one of the tributuries of the Reese river, and entered one of the numerous canons that intersect that range of mountains. The canon led them winding deviously along through the heart of the range for six or seven miles, the poor, broken-down horses plodding along, with heads down, only partially ay Te orated by an occasional swallow of water. It then opened into a wide amphitheater, carpeted with luxuriant green grass, surrounded with perpendicular precipices, and from which the only exit was on the opposite side, where the canon continued, narrower than before, to the source of its stream. Into this sheltered paradise entered the fifteen ar, ferocious-looking brutes who followed at’s Eye and Crow’s Foot, and then for the first time began to show symptoms of mercy to their horses. With one accord they dismounted, and turned the ae creatures loose, to feed or rest, as they might prefer. ‘ith hardly an exception, the weary brutes threw themselves down on the soft, rich grass, utterly broken down, and not for several min- utes did they muster strength to eat as they lay. But the mustang blood is too stanch and en- during to give way thus forever. Before ten minutes had passed, first one, then another, hav- ing plucked wh ee ~ of the sweet grass round his head, began to roll, Then two rose simul- taneously, shook themselves, and began to graze with avidity; and before long, all of the mus- tangs were up and feeding. The coach-horses, “ha fine-looking animals with more bone and substance than the largest mustang, were not so easily restored. Only one of them seemed able to feed, lying down, and the rest gave every symptom of an early death, as they lay groaning and panting on the ground The raiders themselves were dinnerless and hungry. They had seized no food on their hur- ried journey, and were sufficiently forlorn. It was when they were clustered together in the midst of the little valley, gloomily debatin the advisability of killing a horse for food, tha the sharp war-cry of the Echipeta suddenly rung through the air. Instead of ambushing the Blackfeet, they found the tables turned on themselves, as thirty Echipeta warriors, on foot, rushed into the arena from the narrow canon beyond and charged across to the other entrance, without firing a shot. Fifteen remained to guard each exit, and before the scattered Utes could come together and make ready for defense, they were at the me of twice their number of warriors, any one of whom was more than a match for their best fighter. Then a dead silence fell on all the amphithea- ter, for the Utes did not dare to begin a fight which could have but one issue. They clustered together, dogged and sullen, grasping their pa to sell their lives dearly, but unwilling ) n. Cat’s Eye was the only coward among them. He was livid with terror, and shook from head to foot, for he felt that his race was run. It was in the midst of this silent pause that a slight movement occurred among the Blackfeet at the upper end of the valley. Four mounted figures rode out from behind the line and rode boldly and tranquilly forward to the front of the entrapped Utes. Cat’s Eye uttered a groan of dismay, and his bowels seemed to give way, as he Ser aay in front, the two girls whom he had but lately in- sul and on one side Bear Killer, the great -war-chief Echipeta. The slender, boyish on tl her side he ized instantly. was Antelope Eye, whom he robbed and turned out to starve, seven years before. - The only thing that gave him hope was, that ‘the a ‘did not seem to know hin, and that his 7 e young face wore an expression of | mildness that was positively seraphic. se 3 Antelope looked gentle, Bear Kill- er was as grim as a statue of cruelty, and Chev- rette and Levrette wore an expression of tri- umphant scorn that boded ill for the Utes. — ** So, dogs of root-diggers, skunks of the | brushwood,” commenced Levrette, in that free and elegant style affected by her and her sister, “the maidens of the Echipeta are to enter the | lodges of such as you, are they? Where were 'the ears of your warriors, that you could not hear the Echipeta horse-hoofs 6n your trail? We do not crawl, like snakes. here were | your eyes, that ye could not see the Echipeta trail when it crossed yours, or see our scouts watch ye safe into the valley? Go, you are ' dogs, skunks, not even squaws in war. A squaw of the Echipeta would hide her head in shame to _be counted such warriors as you. Ye are pap- pooses, fit to hang up behind a door and suck at _asquaw’s breast, to learn wisdom, Go!” | o all her taunts not a man inthe group an- _swered a word. Only Cat’s Eye shrunk down behind Crow’s Foot and tried to hide himself which Chevrette observed, and took her turn at “ railing, in true squaw style. No one would _ have ever dreamed that these two young ladies _had once been inmates of the Sacre Coeur con- vent, at Montreal, and received what is known as a civilized education. ‘The polish was pretty | well rubbed off by their wild desert life, and for the nonce they were thorougbred Indians. “See the cowardly Ute slinking behind his brother, like a coyote hiding in the hole of a | prairie-dog!” cried the girl, shrilly.. ‘* Dog and coward, come out and fall on your knees for mercy, or your heart shall be cut into small pieces and fed to the buzzards,” Trailing like a wounded serpent, in abject submission, the dastardly Ute crawled from the group and flung himself on his face at the feet _ of Chevrette’s horse. He was completely over- come with terror. The girl pointed at him contemptuously with her whip, and addressed Crow’s Foot in his turn: ‘You, too, dog! You who were not satisfied with one, but must have two maidens of the og! ag in your lodge, grovelin the mud and ask for pardon.” It was evident that she calculated on the force that surrounded her to enforce her mandates, In Crow’s Foot she found a different foe. Her words seemed. to “ara | the slugglish Ute to the quick. He uttered a foul epithet in the | Ute tongue, dealt Cat’s Eye a furious kick as he lay, and shouted: ‘‘Never! Take that, sow of the Echipéta!” And he flung his knife at her. Then, raisi his cocked pistol, he fired full at Bear Killer’s broad breast. CHAPTER XVIL. THE BOY CHIEF'S EXPLOIT. THe Blackfoot chief was not unprepared for such a maneuver. He had his cocked pistol in hand, for he had hardly expected that such an unconditional and absolute surrender as that of Cat’s Eye would be general. er Crow’s Foot fired, the Echipeta chief was in the act of spurring his horse on him with leveled wea- n. e Tihe Ute was just three seconds the quickest, and his bullet struck Bear-Killer in the center of the breast, oe ed him down in a moment, groppen from his horse like a stone, while his bullet exploded harmlessly. The next moment, the hitherto placid and ntle Antelope Eye suddenly became trans- ormed into a living thunderbolt. Before the sound of Crow’s Foot’s shot had ceased, the young chief, with a revolver in each hand, was standing on the ground in front of his horse, and firing into the aroused Utes. In allusion to his hitherto bloodless record, he wore a white hunting-shirt and le gs, his hair was covered with white clay, and his face was painted white, while his horse was white as snow, With his first shot he felled Crow’s Foot, pierced through the heart, and the next mo- ment the remaining thirteen Utes were firing at him, madly and confusedly. Like a rock stood Antelope Eye, a pistol in each hand, and his shots pealed out with a regularity and pitiless accuracy that were apps ‘ a Then were first revealed the fruits of that pa- tient training which the Mere chief sO long secretly und ne. It had developed, out of a sight abnormally keen, and stoic nerves, | ® marker Sy te ge as a e, oe every , and whose roving glance de- tected, at each shot, which was the man to kill ! Twelve shots ed forth in as er seconds, and when Antelo , Eye the still smoking weapons at the a of the two remaining men, the ground was covered with dead bodi _and he was still unwounded. With a fierce ye of triumph, the young chief snatched from his -_—— ; : CCC CC | ——————————— JOO eom (E SA ( Ele)