Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 48 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

al and a dull red t 8 - | 8 -- ——_-—_—__-__ ___ _____. —_— SS . Dry as matches as was the fuel, the flame pera spread. The paint and varnish on the coac ee to make it fiercer, and the wind, fanning the fire, soon made the heat unbearable os ip a stone’s throw. en the Utes, with a parting yell, oped off down the valley, on their wa bo ahuntnte the mail-rider, an attempt which we have seen so nearly successful. While they were lighting and piling the fire, Jack Hardin, within, had not been idle. By the assistance of the whisky-flask, he was inspired w.th factitious strength, under the influence of wich he dragged out three more rockets, one efter another, and sent them whizzing up into the air through the directing-tube, to scatter their warning sparks hes the-night. When he heard the galloping horses of the Utes and their farewell yells, the rough station- master shook his clenched fist vindictively after them and muttered: __ ““Ah, ye infernal brutes, ye may run, but ef I don’t get even with ye yet, I ain’t Kentuck.” _ Then he set to work, with the coolness of an old frontiersman, to wash and bind up his wounds, ‘which were numerous, but luckil not deep. Grazed he had been by several bullets, two ar- rows stuck in the fleshy part of his left arm, two knife wounds were in his back; but he seemed as tough as ever,-as he deliberately broke off the arrow-shafts, drew them out of the flesh, and bound strips of old bags tightly around them to ‘confine the bleeding. _ Hé had already drank nearly half a pint of whisky, which had no effect save to clear his head, and when he had finished attending to his wounds, he applied himself once more to the flask, and took a long and hearty swig. The effect was immediate. He stood up and walked round, as strong as ever, to all seeming. And then it was that he first began to be sen- ‘sible of an increasing heat in the small and con- fined granary, as the fire, which had been wasting its heat outside, be center of the pile. Through the narrow loop- holes, under the eaves, the bright tongues of flame began to dart; and had the roof been made of wood, the whole edifice would soon ‘have been a mass of flame. The heavy iron may Be oe to glow with heat, ! iftly becoming brighter overy are tol a the ee awe Oo ae wood in roaring flame was begining to make Stent felt. The interior of the ary, five minutes later, was like an oven in blast, and _ the iron door was nearly white hot. The tough station-master, fainting and nearly suffocated with the heated air, gasping on the ground, and began to believe that his time was come, : His fall saved his life, for the earthen floor, still cool and damp, revived him, and he became aware that the builders of this granary, careless and hasty workmen, had built it in a most im- perfect manner. The walls had settled, leaving cracks and chinks in the mortar, and in one me a hole, large enough to thrust a hand into, been formed close to the ground, from which a cold stream of air was pouring toward _ the fire. With a muttered thanksgiving, the station- ' master crawled toward the hole, and breathed in long draughts of that cool air, which he had never, till then, fully appreciated. Meantime the heat above him became, if pos- sible, fiercer than before, and a new danger re- vealed itself to his remembrance. The hay-bales and grain-sacks were all un- ~ covered, and at any minute the heat of the lowing doorway might set them on fire. Be- aes t not ~ feet from his head, lay the ~ bundle of rockets, at least a dozen of which re- _ & wagon-tilt over the hay-bales, on - the door. mained. As Hardin thought of the en- ces of a fire inside, the col out from every pore. y he started up, and eared away the rockets to the gee 9 corner, behind some grain-sacks, while he teary down e side next ble co sweat bu Hardly had he done so, when he heard the sound of voices outside, the tramping of horses, and became sensible that some one was him in loud tones. “Blackbeard! Blackbeard! Where are you?” The voice was the voice of a woman, and he reco it. It Oras the voice of Levrette Ledoux. Jack Hardin tried to answer, but, to his sur- , he could not make himself audible. His t seemed to be parched and dry, and re- fused to form a sound louder than a w r. Instinctively, he rushed to the water-k which stood by the flask of strong liquor, an Beadle’ took a deep cool draught. Then he hailed back. : ‘‘Here, here! For God’s sake put out the re! He had hardly spoken, when there was a cry of joy outside, and he heard a confusion of voices, while the sound of hissing steam and de- creasing heat, showed that his friends, whoever po were, had obeyed the injunction. he corral contained a little pool of water, and Levrette and the Echipeta warriors were busily engaged in casting its contents on the fire by the blanketful. Two warriors would seize a blanket by the corners, dip it rapidly into the water, scooping up several gallons in the sag- ging depression, then, running a few steps, cast a shower over the fire? The closely-woven, felt- like, Mackinaw blankets, worn by the warriors, were almost water-proof, and fifteen blankets, as simultaneously and incessantly, soon pro- uced a marvelous effect. Inside of three minutes the last vestige of fire was extinguished; and the iron door, cracked from top to bottom, exhibited the powers of sudden contraction in a striking de- gree. Jack Hardin, inside, felt the heat decreasing, while the fire was being extinguished, and at last heard his friends knocking at the iron door. a he pulled out the key, and tried the ock. A fresh discovery awaited him there. The heat had so bent and warped the wards of the tent lock, that it refused to turn, and he ound himself a prisoner in his own fortress. For a moment he was aghast at the discovery. In another he remembered that ‘‘ the Company ” had provided another means of , in an iron ladder in the corner of the room, which led to a trap door in the roof. Calling out this Se ponte through a chink in the door, he clim the ladder, emerged oe the trap, and stood once more in the open Looking down into the faint gloom of the starlit night, he was astonished and horrified to perceive that his deliverers, as he had fancied them, were nothing less than a fresh band of dians. No sooner had he made the discovery than he dived into the trap-door once more, ex- op the whiz of a bullet past his head as he so. But none came, and after a silent pause he heard the voice of Levrette ing out: ** Blackbeard! Blackbeard! ere are you? Here are your friends that have come to save you, and you will not look out to see us. These are no Utes, but warriors of the Echipeta, come to help you and punish Cat’s Eye.” Hardin cautiously protruded his head. ** All very pooty, iss Levrette, but haow am I to tell that? Injuns is Injuns, and Injuns is ‘isen. No offense to you, but hyar I’m safe. de I don’t know haow long my skulp and me mout keep company, and I vallys my ha’r jess as much as yeou, miss.” . THE RED TRAILERS. LEVRETTE uttered an impatient laugh of vex- ation. “ Fool,” she cried, angrily, ‘‘do you sup we should have come here to put out this fire, when we might have helped to burn hr UP, if we had any need of your scalp? here my Darling? Tell me that, anil you may stay ss we all we care. Tell us, where is our r “Waal,” returned Mr. with exem- lary caution, “‘ he mout be hyar, and he mout . That’s how itis, Miss Levrette.” ‘T know he’s on the Carson trail,” cried Che- vrette, impatiently interrupting her sister. ‘* We saw him ride off this morning. What we want to know is, how far off is he now, when does he come back, and are the Utes likely to eg! him? tor ae that.” : “a ‘i 0, ye don’t, missy e said, shrewdly. “Betwixt you and me, T ain’t on the — biz to-night. You know how it is, yourself.” ‘In shart,” said Levrette, flercely, “you re- fuse to tell us?” ‘** You bet,” nded Hardin, laconically. “ Then his blood be on your head, if we fail to find him, fool,” said the girl, vindictively. “The Utes have gone toward Carson, on his trail, and if they catch him before we get up, a lose bag Poenrnde. iF a saying, she turned an away, an Keto bee Wain tn the ines jputtural lackfoot tongue; for not one among them had updersiood the colloquy that was going on in Engl On hearing her words, the Blackfoot chiefs s Half-Dime Library. uttered a sarcastic, taunting sound, between a laugh and a yell, in chorus, and turned away their horses, Then, as they galloped away on the Carson trail in single file, each chief con- temptuously blew his nose at the ary, in token of his disgust at the white man’s pusil- gee He Jack Hardin took it very coolly. ‘‘Snivel away, ye darned old painted var- mints,” he muttered. ‘Safe keep, safe find, ’s an old sayin’; and one skulp’s wuth a dozen bald heads. Ef you think Jack Hardin’s (ee ter trust a Blackfoot, arter he’s jest nigh killed by them Utes, you kin jest take it out in thinkin’, Hyar I stay, till the sogers comes, or the cump’ny sends on help. The hosses air gone, and I ain’t gwine to ride no posts till I’m relieved, hyar. "Anh the station-master carefully secured the trap-door, and made a safe descent into the for- tress, where he made his bed, lighted a pipe, and sat down for a solitary smoke, before turning in. ‘“‘ Poor Billy Grimes,” he soliloquized, ‘* wiped out by a durned Digger Injun. You and I'll never hev another draw together.” And these few regretful words constituted the only epitaph ever received by poor Bill Grimes. eantime the Blackfoot warriors rode rapid- ly down the valley along the Carson trail, fol- lowing, ina manner that none but Indians could have attempted at such a pace, and in such a light, the tracks of the drove of stolen horses and the marauding Utes. There seemed to be no hesitation or embar- rassment on the of a single warrior, as they followed the lead of a slender young chief who rode in the advance, crouched on his horse’s neck and carefully watching the ground ahead in the faint starlight. And who was this young chief whom all fol- lowed so cheerfully? It was no other than Antelope Eye, the young warrior noted for the beauty of his large melt- ing eyes, which were also remarkable for their ny ar salle sy of seeing in the dark. 6 on Fg Indian in ae ree to i wer was Cat’s e, the ana between hit” the hoary old reprobate, and the young and elegant Antelope Eye, a mortal hate, the deeper because it was hidden by both, existed. Some years before, when the young Blackfoot was only a —, of sixteen, Cat’s Eye had met him, when out hunting, all alone. . e savage Ute, bein e stron , had also taken the lad by surprise, stolen me and weapons, with the assistance of two other Utes taken away his horses, one of which was loaded with game, and turned the lad out, stark naked, without so much as a knife, a hundred miles from his own camp. He had only refrained from killing him for fear of the Blackfoot vengeance that was dread- ed by all the weary erste Bae Antelope Eye reached home after terrible suf- ferings, nearly dead, and from that moment had never spoken’a word to his tribe of the means by which he had been brought to such a pass. His mortification was keener than his pains. But from oe perenne he se ee os himself to acquiring the knowledge of a warrior in every manner, and especially had become the most ex- pert tracker and hunter in his tribe, alwa cautious, never again trusting any one outside of his tribe. All earnings in the chase had been devoted to the purchase of arms, ammuni- tion, and horses; all his spare time was spent in secret expeditions among the mountains, with what object, even his tribe knew not. One thing was certain, that Antelope Eye pos- sessed the finest horses and the weapons in the tribe, and that the product of the chase was not at all sufficient to account for his riches. Had any one taken the trouble to watch him, they might have found the recret, in the trans- fer of certain little yellow lumps, brought from remote valleys, to the Indian traders at the ose nuggets were found by An- telope Eye. | But Indians are not prone to watch their own friends, and entertain too much contempt for gold, as a general rule, to care to preserve it. So Anielaes Eye, in his silent self-contained manner, had been preparing for his first war- we and his vengeance; the solitary glens hat witnessed his secret preparations witnessed also the fruits of such a long patient practice in marksmanship as an Indian rarel ogy ym and which was yet to elevate the silent in- chief at a single bound. All night aes Antelope Eye led the band al at a rapid canter, seldom halting save to breathe the horses, never hesitating at the trail. IJOO eom “S (E (E@)