Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 48 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

won't be up fur an hour yet, and it’s your tirn.”’ “*Done!” said Darling, quietly. “I must warn you that I’ve been practicing lately, Jack.” *“You kin practice all you like,” said Jack Hardin, a little SCORE ay ““1’m from Ken- tuck, pardner, whar they lams the little boys, rr they don’t hit a squirrel in the eye, every ime. As he spoke he stalked into the little hut, where the <n sides were as strongly con- trasted_as their respective owners. Darling’s bed was neatly made, and raised on a frame- work of slender poles, his horse equipments hung on a stand, all hig various garments and accouterments ss, while a looking-glass hung on the wall. entuckian’s bed was on the floor, and 6 every thing was iu order for instant use, dirt was carelessly brushed off © Hardi —- <A belt and pistols, and the huf. Dick Darling put away his pipe with a scrupulous care, and buckled his t tightly around him, before he followed. Hardin insérted a broad silver dollar in the cleft of a thin stick, threw the stick as far as it would go, and then remarked: “Stick it up thar, youngster. That’s fur yed. He found enough fur you. I’l) stand pe hd Dick Darling smiled and o the wand, with the dollar still in the cleft, some hundred feet away, where he stuck it into the ground; leaving the dollar edgewise to Hardin, en walked back, remarking, ey .“* Any fool can see a dollar, full face. Let’s see you knock it out that way, Kentuck.” Jack Hardin’s face became grave at once. The feat demanded of him required the powers of a first-class marksman. ~** Wal, Dick,” he said, dryly, ‘‘Tll not deny that ef you kin hit that ar’ dollar, that ar’ way, you hev improved; but old Kentuck ain’t so wat ee arter all. Stand cl’ar.” “Raising -his pee he took a steady and delib- erate aim, an fired. The white stick was seen te tremble, but remained standing. It was only grazed. ‘Hardin uttered a disappointed oath, then turned to Darling. -“ Take a shot, young feller,” he said, curtly. *‘ The smoke of this durned pipe got in my eyes that time, but you kurn’t beat it, anyway.” . Without a word Dick Darling fired. The stick fell, and the dollar was sent flying in the air. ' ) CHAPTER II. . TWO CURIOUS GIRLS. Mr. Jonn HARDIN removed the pipe from his mouth, and gazed on Dick Darling with an air of new-born respect, for nearly half a minute, without speaking. ‘Then he dived into his trow- sers pocket. and extracted a large silver dollar therefrom, which he extended to Dick, observ- ing: k Fa’r play’s a jewel, pard. You've won her. Thar she is. Two to one you kurn’t do it ag’in, hand runnin’,” -Dick was about to answer, when the low rum- bling thunder of horses at a gallop struck on thei: senses, and Hardin started. ‘** By the ghost of Gineral Jackson, pard, thar’s them gals a-comin’ ag’in. Put up yer iron. You hev me this time, but Pll git squar’ next match, and leave this durned pipe behind. I didn’t think ye hed it in yer.” ‘ While he spoke, he was hurriedly loading the discharged chamber of his pistol, and Darling, with his usual neat habits, was wiping out the barrel of his own weapon with the wiping-stick. The sound of, galloping horses came plainer and plainer on the ear, and two equestrians were to be seen approaching the station, from the diregtion of Humboldt Pass. Dolores Station was on the es Express route, at the edge of the gloomy and cheerless Alkali Desert, in one of the fertile valleys that intersect that part of Nevada, among the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Snowy summits rear- ed their giant heads in the distance on all sides, and frowned ga y over the green vales along which the Hastings road ran from Sal Lake City to Carson. A branch road forked off at Hastings Pass to Provo, and along both these routes the Pony _Express men galloped from station to station, at th» full speed of their game little horses. These stations were the only habitations, save the low brush huts of the Utes, for hundreds of miles, till you came to the old Mission of Santa Clara, where two convents, one of nuns, another of monks, stood in holy rivalry, within a mile of each other. Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. The equestrians coming toward Dolores Sta- tion were not of the civilized order. So much was clear. But whether warriors or squaws was not so clear till a nearer view. Both rode handsome little mustangs, of that beautifully variegated color on account of which the frontiersmen denominate them “ paint horses,” which are generally appropriated to chiefs, Both rode in manly -style, bestriding their steeds with ease dnd grace worthy of a riding-master, and both were fully equipped as warriors. Still, there was something the dress of both, feminine in its character, and a near approach revealed the two riders to be wo- men. Women they were, or rather girls, handsome in face, supple in figure, not yet disfigured by the labors, which turn squaws, at thirty years, into wrinkled hags. From the fairness of their complexions and the cast of their features, it was evident that they were not full-blooded In- dians, but crossed on some Caucasian stock. The texture and material of their dresses, and the fact of their carrying firearms of handsome make, also proclaimed them to be connected with white men, either the wives or daughters of some mountain man, whose traps and rifle were “ lucky.” As they came up, it was hard to tell them apart; They seemed to be twins, so closely did they resemble each other. Both had great black eyes, high, hawklike profiles, straight, glistening black hair, rounded chins, and full, sensuous lips, like Egyptian queens. It was in very fair English, with a strong French accent, that one of them said, as they pulled up: ‘*Good-morning, Darling. How is my Dar- ing?” Dick Darling flushed up at this address, for he was a modest youth, with all his good looks. ‘Very well, thank you, Mademoiselle Chev- rette,” he said, in a low voice. ‘‘ How do you find yourself?” Before answering, the girl sprung off her horse with the lightness of a bird, and stood before the youth, a model for Diana in bronze. ‘‘ Bh bien, Levrette and I are always well. We were out hunting, and thought we would come your way, trys Cat’s Eye is on the war-path near your trail. Look to yourselves, you and Blackbeard.” Jack Hardin started. ‘** Look here, Chevrette, this ain’t no time fur foolin’ a feller. How do you know that cuss is on the war-path? Is it against us?” ‘Oh, no,” laughed the half-breed beauty care- lessly. ‘*‘ He has too much good sense for that. No. He’s out against ws /” And both girl¢ laughed scornfully. Dick Darling looked puzzled. ‘Tell me vrette,” he said. ‘‘ You’re the quietest of the two. What does she mean?” Levrette, the second sister, answered more soberly: ‘‘She means that Cat’s Eye and Crow’s Foot came after us yesterday, and asked us to enter their lodges; that we refused; and that they swore to follow us till they captured us and made us marry them.” Dick frowned. ‘The insolent do What did you say?” ‘“‘T said,” replied Chevrette, with ing eyes, ‘‘ that my father was a white man, my mother a queen of the Echipeta, and that if a dog of the Blackfeet bit the hand of a Ute brave, he sickened at the taste. I told him to do his best, and fear my revolvers.” ‘‘Good fer yer grit,” said Hardin, with em- hasis. ‘‘I want to see the red sneak round yar, that’s all. Ef he meddles with this child, he’ll swaller lead mighty suddint.” Here the second girl, who was called Lev- rette, slowly swung herself off her horse, with a l grace, strikingly in contrast with the active motions of her twin sister, from whom, otherwise, she was hardly to be distinguished. ‘“ Well,” she said, with the same freedom of —— and manner which was assumed by hevrette, ‘‘and have you no welcome for us, Darling, when we come to see you? I believe a, rough old Blackbeard, here, is more po- Dick Darling stammered and blushed, as he offered the hospitality of his cabin. Jack Hardin, on the other hand, grinned with the utmost affability, and ushered the girls into the low hut as if it been a palace. ‘““Walk in, ladies,” he said. ‘‘’Tain’t often we gets a visit from an g but coyotes out hyar. Walk in and make yourselves to hum.” A moment later the two girls were in the hut, and we grieve to say that the fair Chevrette de- liberately pulled out a very large cigar, lighted ee ee ——E it at the fire, and commenced smoking, in con- cert with her sister. These two half-Indian characters. Their father, Jean Baptiste Ledoux, had been a fur-trader and Indian-agent of some wealth, who had married an Indian wife, as was the custom of those times. His daughters, whom he had whimsically named Chevrette and Lev- rette (Fawn and Leveret), had _received, first, some education at a Canadian convent, then a second one on the prairies. Levrette could play a polka on the piano, talk French, English, and a dozén Indian dialects, ride a mustang, shoot bow, rifle and revolver, and fling a lasso. Chev- rette could do all these better t her sister, and was quite a rapid draughtsman also. Their father, dying when they were at his ape Seg left them all his wealth, and his wishes that they would go to Montreal to live; but the wild blood of the Indian mother was too firmly rooted in freedom to submit to this. | Eagle’s Wing, head Medicine Chief of the Echipeta, had offered to adopt them into the Eeibe, and the girls had eagerly accepted the offer. Their wealth made them favorites; they were generous and free; the Indians gave them all the liberty of young warriors; and they were happy, to all are t was only when Dick Darling began to ride on the Salt é trail that trouble rose. Both girls fell in love with the handsome Liege and did not scruple to tell him so. Had he been a man of maturity, they would, yerhaps, have been more modest. As it was, th actually besieged the bashful boy all the time, while a score of Blackfoot and Ute braves were = persistent after Levrette and Chevrette. It was under these circumstances that our heroines enter the scene. HAPTER II. GOING FOR THE PRIZE. LATE in that same day, two men were slowl creeping toward Dolores Station, carefully hid- ing themselves behind eyery rock and bush, and yet advancing nearer all the while, unseen from the station. Both were Indians, and armed with rifles, which they trailed after them in the grass as they advanced. Each carried in his belt, more- over, a large revolver, rusty and grimy, but serviceable. Pretty soon they had arrived at a group of bowlders, beyond which the land was open to the station, and afforded no further conceal- ment. Then both halted and crouched behind the rocks to watch, with the stoic patience of the Indian warrior. These men were true western Indians, of that half Mongol type which is so grim and repulsive. Their faces were broad and square, with high cheek-bones, small eyes, heavy, jaws and low, broad foreheads. The streak of paint on their features told that they were on the war- path, and their army clothes, dirty and begrim- ed, announced them as ** Regervation Indians,” whom Uncle Sam feeds and clothes, through the medium of thieving agents, till some robbery of the latter drives them to retaliation and all the the wild excesses of a savage nature. Around the station all was quiet and peaceful. The warm afternoon sun shone on the low hut, the stockade inclosure, the mustangs who were dozing in their straw yard, and on the two brightly-spotted chargers that stood before the door, covered with gay housings. Sitting on the bench before the door was a up of four persons, the sight of which seemed incite the Indians to frenzy, for their eyes began to glare, and the nervous clutch with which they began to handle their rifles portend- ed mischief. The four persons were Jack Hardin and Chev- rette Ledoux, and Dick Darling and Levrette, a very graceful, picturesque group in attitude and surroundin The blue uniforms of the men, and the bright scarlet skirts of the two girls, with the mingling of civilization and savagery in their costumes, made a very attractive pic- ture for an artist, but the two Indians did not = to admire i : = e of them turned and whispered to the other, “Tet us fire, Cat’s Eve. Tis a fair shot. We can each take one, and rush for the girls.” Cat’s Eye was a cunning looking with very narrow eyes, whence his name. He laid his hand on the other’s arm. “Tet Crow’s Foot listen,” he whispered. ‘The men must die, the squaws must be ours, Is it not so?” girls were curious cS (El) GOomicvioe