Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 48 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

Dick Darling. The early dawn found them nearly forty miles away, with the track of shod horses at a gallop still before them. aney had passed several stations, all lighted up, with horses safely housed behind stockades, doors barred, and rifles ready to welcome an attack. To all these they had given a wide berth, for, from their experience of Hardin’s pes) a 9 character, they anticipated trouble; and Eagle Wing’s policy was one of undeviat- ing peace and non-interference with the whites, : policy which had borne the happiest fruits, so ar. Now that the morning was come, Antelope Eye sat up straight, and glanced around him as he rode along. He oe si evidently a diver- gence from the beaten track. Nor was he mistaken. That apparently mys- terious quality, which renders an Indian track- er’s judgment so unerring, is in reality merely the exercise of a keen faculty of comparison, knowledge of the country and of the habits of the game followed, be it man or beast, white or red. The detective in a city, who follows upa criminal, displays exactly ilar qualities in a different field. Antelope Eye knew that his party was but a few miles behind the Utes, and that the latter were certain to deviate from the track in day- light, in order to escape observation from the Pony Express Stations. He jud that they would follow the Carson trail, in general di- rection, from what he had heard said by Levrette and Chevrette, about Darling. Antelope Eve, with his other hidden accomplishments, under- stood considerable English and some French, though he never spoke either. His semi-civil- ized friends the half-breed girls, had assisted him in that, unknown to themselves; and in listening to them he had acquired a new tongue, Little thought either of the burning and con- suming ion, that was hidden under the placid exterior of the handsome young chief, on whom they looked as almost a boy with good- natured indifference. Suddenly, at the very moment the sun rose, Antelope Eye waved his hand to the right swerved from the path, still at a gallop, an followed without hesitation a narrow but plain- ly marked track of shod horses, going at a gal- lop, which led off up a side gorge into the moun- An hour later he called a halt. The trail ended in a deep narrow mountain stream, and not a vestige of tracks appeared on the other side. | Bear Killer ordered the warriors to dismount and feed their horses. Antelope Eye started up- stream, on foot, Levrette and Chevrette follow- ed its course downward, and both were looking for tracks. Ten minutes later, the sharp war-whistle of the young chief pointed them up-stream. The trail was found again. CHAPTER XIII. COL. SAM JONES IN THE SADDLE. In front of the ruins of Dolores Station, by daylight the morning after the assault, a party of some forty rough bearded miners and moun- tain-men, armed to the teeth with rifles, revol- vers and knives, were gathered in groups about their horses, discussing the situation, in frontier style; while on the roof of the little stone - ary, all that was left of the station buil gs Mr. Jack Hardin was seated, pipe in mouth, conversing with the relief , and awaiting the construction of a rough ladder, to release him from his tmperlstiiiilesai. Had the station-master been sound and whole, this help would not have been needed. Had the door opened inward, it might also have been broken down. As it was, it @ necessary first, to help down the wounded and then to introduce a =a, party to break out the door, which defied efforts from outside, not offering space to insert even a wedge. Around the blackened walls of the adobe hut, several corpses were scattered, four of them be- ing Utes, in ra U. 8. uniforms, the fifth that of the ortunate driver. Poor Grimes’s body had been f yY mutilated, according to the barbarous practice of the Western Indians. The scalp was gone, the body was stuck full of arrows, strip and treated with every conceivable rs No wonder, that in the faces of the rough miners, gathered round, could be seen a look of grim a ince such as boded ill to any In- dians that might cross their path. Such out- So shar pily still common in the West, and will be, as long as the irreconcilable antag- onism between two fierce races is not put down by the strong hand of the higher law of the general Government. To tell half the truth would cauge us all to blush for human nature. ° Jack din had just finished his account of the attack, while his friends below were lashing together the rounds of their rude lad- der, when the leader of the relief party in- pis And how is it that we find the fire out, and the brands pulled away from the door, Hardin, if they rode away as you say, leaving you to burn up?’ ; The speaker was Colonel Sam Jones, super- intendent of the line, a man of old border ex- perience, ‘*'Waal, cunnel,” said the Kentuckian, slow- ly, “twar Injuns as put out that fire, Pll not en ’ “Indians! What Indians? . Utes?” Waal, no, cunnel, ’twar Blackfeet.” ‘* Speak out, man, what you mean. Are there Blackfeet round here?” o fur sartin, cunnel. "Twar them p’isen Utes as stampeded the stock and killed r Billy, and I reckon ’twar Cat’s Eye’s band. al, arter I tetched off the skyoodles, they ca- vorted around a right smart chance, and then put, on the Carson trail. Ill allow I war e’en- a’most gone, when I heern voices outside, and a couple o’ war a-screechin’ fur me. Waal, ter make a long story short, I hollered to ’em to put aout the fire, fur God’s sake; and fust thing I know’d, slump come the water, and that ’ar’ door cracked open, fur it war nearly white-hot.” - Well, well,” said the superintendent, im scimny fs ‘set through. How did you find t your friends were Blackfoot Indians?” ‘“Seen ’em,” replied the station-master, com- . ** You don’t s’ I kurn’t tell a Ute rom a Blackfoot, cunnel? "T'war some of Eagle Wing’s band, in the mountings, yonner, and there war two gals, as pretty as picters, a-ridin’ thar at thar head. But you bet the painted cusses couldn’t fool me, cunnel. They tried their darndest to git into the station , by pre- tendin’ to be my friends, but Jack Hardin ain’t no chicken, you bet.” ‘*Did they fire at you?” demanded Jones, curtly. “ No, cunnel, I'll not. say they did. The gals talked sweet, and tried to purtend as they was friends, axin’ whar war Dick Darling, as war out on the trail, and oughter be back ter-night, ef the p’isen imps don’t snatch him bald-headed. But they couldn’t git no news aout of me, ’baout Dick, you bet.” ‘‘Oh, stop your infernal blowing, Hardin,” cried the superintendent, in the rough, sharp way he had acquired in controlling such char- acters as the bragging station-master, t did the Blackfeet do at last?” “The rid off, cunnel,” said Hardin, promptly. “Very good. Now you're talking. Did they fire at you before leaving?” ** Nary shot.” ** Where were os ’ aout of the scuttle-hole.” = Could they see you?” ** Guess so, cunnel.” “Then they didn’t treat you so badly, after “ Didn’t say they did.” ““Umph. Did they say anything in leaving?” ‘**Nary word, cunnel. _ “Did they seem angry?” ‘Waal, cunnel, that ar’s a difficult question.” “Aha! You’re hiding something from me, then.” ‘‘ Nary hide, cunnel—but—” ‘But what? Out with it!” ‘* Waal, cunnel, they war ty of a we onsivil breach of tittikit, I reckon they calls it, afore leavin’.” ‘ A what?’ ‘“‘ A breach o’ tittikit, cunnel,” said the Ken- tuckian, with a d air. “What the devil are you i about Zora: asked Jones, paleedvetified, halt anus’ “A breach o’ tittiquit, cunnel. What the Frenchers calls a fox paw.” The superintendent stared at the station-mas- ter a moment in amazement, then, as a light broke in on him, he smiled grimly at the mis- take. ‘* Drop Pictionary, Jack. What was this breach of etiquette?” “Waal, cunnel, ez the of the ted galoots took hold of his snoot, and darned ef they didn’t snivel at me, as ef the thunk I war a han’kercher or a barroom towel, and darn thur painted hides, ef I don’t spit in the fae ot the next red imp I meets, cuss me for a ou?” rid away, every one Mr. Hardin delivered this last sentiment with considerable heat. He had been deeply stung by the contemptuous manner of the Blackfeet, and the pee intendent could hardly help laugh- ace. in his we Never mind, Jack,” “he said, consolingly. “Your scalp’s safe, ole = Don’t be in too much of a hurry to offend Eagle Wing’s band. They are dangerous fellows, and may not be on the war-path inst us, possibly.” ‘*Darn the difference, cunnel,” said the sta- tion-master, shrewdly. ‘‘ A Injun buck on the war-trail ain’t apt to stick at trifles. You kee your eyes skinned ef you meet the cusses, that’s allI say. One skulp’s wuth a dozen bald heads any day, old hoss.” : ‘*Keep your advice to yourself, my friend,” said Jones, er pah 5 “‘Tl’ve not required it yet, that I know of. that ladder r there?” It was; and a few moments later Hardin was released from his solitary perch, while a party of men entered the building through the scuttle- hole, with crowbars and blacksmith’s tools, with which from the inside, they very soon forced the door open. Then, while the wounded Kentuckian was arg in an ambulance and carried away to lt Lake City, the rapid, energetic Jones put the station in order once more, with a Pat: ness and celerity which were the grand secrets of his success in managing ‘‘ The Company’s” affairs on the Pony Route. Twenty men were left to repair the stockade, and form the nucleus of a newstation; horses were temporarily secured for the in-comin rider, who was from Salt Lake; an the superintendent, with his formidable party of twenty more, galloped off to the next station to ascertain how far the raid had spread, and what damage was done, Colonel Sam Jones was not the man to let the prass under his feet, or he would not have n General Superintendent U.S. Pony Express. Inside of an hour from the time when Hardin was released, the superintendent was at Guadalupe station, next on the route. He found every thing snug, the horses in their stockaded stable, while the station-keeper and mail-rider were on guard with loaded rifles, e ing attacks mo- mentarily. They had heard two bands of In- dians _— in the night, and had been unmolested, by either. 6 superintendent, leaving the rest of his es- cort to follow at more leisure, took with him only six men, as moe ge as the station could mount, and determined to ride post from statiou to station, so as to overtake any Indians that might be on the trail, by t change of horses. At an hour before noon, he started on the Pony Route, CHAPTER XIV. RED AND WHITE FRIENDS, | THE young moon was hanging in the faint of the sie up the lov of the ecarvenk of Santa Clara, on "the same night on which the young mail-rider was am- bushed, when the thunder of gallo ing hoofs was heard in the distance, and a of plumed horsemen, Deatng lon came riding u from the eastwar oo . At their head galloped two chiefs, one tall and slender, and resembling a spirit more than a man, for he was appareled in white from sole to crown, and his charger was snow-white. The other was short, broad and sturdy, with glitter- ing medals on his naked b in the moonlight. He e a powerful charger, spot- jaguar. Behind the two chiefs came two girls on spot- ted horses, and fourteen couples of plumed war- riors followed in double file. As they neared the convent, ata from Antelope Eye the Echipeta warriors fell into a walk; and the young chief, throwing his bridle to Killer, leaped off his horse, and ran for- ward, half bending over, to inspect the trail more closely. Right o te the gate, he suddenly halted threw up hands im warning, and remained as if rooted to the spot, while the band, at the signal, remained statio : | t was a strong proof of the youth’s marvel- ous skill as a tracker, that such an old and experienced warrior as Bear Killer should have allowed him to head the party solong, It was “os a OF a who now came up, on foot, and de- manded: e chief poi @ ground, “The Blood 0 dogs,” he said. In the faint light of the moon, a dark patch 6)(6\(6) <eom (E <S (0)