Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 52 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

— i EG mew ~~ wee —- = 12 them a good breakfast, and this was eaten at the base of the butte. “Now, remain here a few moments, while I $$ or = Their first proceeding was to dangle the scalps of their five victims in his face, and the poor fel- low was in such excess of terror that he could bring you a cup of water,” said Putnam, spring- | scarcely stand. This proof that the entire crew — is feet and hurrying away. | was massacred was terribly overwhelming, and He thought he knew where a brook was close | for one instant he felt himself swooning; but a ‘at hand, and he found it, as he anticipated, but | sense of his own peril roused him, and he put on ia few tods away. Carefully filling his cup, he | a face of indifference and bravado, which he started to return, deviating somewhat from his | was far from feeling. route, as he did so. | They jabbered and gesticulated to him, but He had gone but a short distance, when he _he could not comprehend a word they uttered, was startled by the sight of a dead Indian and for a time wastoo scared to getat the mean- stretched out upon the ground. He paused a> ing. of their signs. moment, and then approached closer and exam- | y and by, however, he saw that all this was ined the body. It was sotorn and mangled that meant to assure him that he was their man, and he knew at once that he had been killed by an | that they wished him to take charge of their encounter with some wild beast. His rifle was | prize. aving caught him near the engine, broken in several pieces, and scarcely any of they naturally supposed that he was the “ad- the clothing remained upon his lacerated ise | miral,” and the only one of the crew that could Undoubtedly he was slain by the very grizzly | not be dispensed with. The other five men were bear, that, in his turn, had been killed by Adri- | stark-dead and stiff in the woods on shore, and enne McHavens. their scalps dangled at the girdles of their inhu- Near at hand remained his heavy, finely- | man murderers, worked blanket, the very thing our friends The certainty that the Indians intended to use meeded. Overcoming his natural repugnance, | him, gave Jabez an exalted opinion of his im- the lieutenant picked up this useful article of | portance, and so dispelled his fears that he was | clothing and hastened with it to Adrienne, who, | able to think with some of his natural shrewd- ‘as may be supposed, was not a little surprised ness, ‘and delighted. In reply to inquiries, he stated that he had found it hard by, and it had proba- bly belonged to some Indian, who had no fur- ther use for it. All of which was strictly true. Throwing the blanket over his arm, Lieuten- ant Putnam took the lead, and the two lovers, as we may properly term them, started on their rilous and eventful journeyings toward the od eaten of the great Yellowstone of the North-west. ‘They want me to be their engineer, do they?” he muttered; ‘ well, I will, and if I don’t give them the biggest hoist they ever dreamed of, then my name ain’t Jabez Spikes, that’s all!” His thoughts were turned to Tabutesinhe Put- nam and Adrienne. It was so late in the after- noon that he saw they were liable to return any moment, and he determined to save them from falling into the hands of the Indians, if such a thing were possible. So great was the throng around him, and such was the pressure upon his movements, that it was some time before he could reach the upper deck. When he did so; he issued his warning in the unhesitating manner which we have de- scribed, and, satisfying himself that the rudder was so placed that the boat would turn out into the stream, he indulged himself in ordering the Indians to obey him, speaking as he would to a lot of dogs, when he hurried below to the engine- room. ‘* Now, by ginger’! clear out the way, all you copper-color skunks, or I'll kick the heads off you! This was a terrible threat; but the mild face and still milder manner conveyed no idea of its meaning to the recipients. Jabez found that the red-skins had penetrated the engine-room, and were so thronging around that there was a strong probability of some of them getting hurt, of which he was very glad— for if ever a man had an intense desire to injure others, he had to slay those merciless miscreants. One of the band dogs who had a scalp dangling at his waist, and who, from his dress and ap- pearance seemed to be the leader of the party, was just where Jabez ‘‘ wanted him.” The boiler was blowing off at a terrible rate, and he turn- ed on afull head of steam. Fortunately the en- gine had not stopped ‘‘on the center,” and the next instant the piston-rod made a spiteful and furious throb, and then went to work with a violence that threatened to jerk the engine to ieces, The first plunge it made downward, it struck the same chief on the head, doubling him up in the bing midst of a yell, and ending his earthly career forever. ‘Curiosity may be carried too far,” compla- CHAPTER XI. A FRIGHTFUL AND STRANGE ADVENTURE, WHEN the doomed steamer halted for the purpose of ‘‘ wooding up,” there were six men € ed in cutting and gathering the fuel. "in this number was included Captain Bennett and Jabez Spikes, who toiled as hard as the hardest, and who labored with scarcely any in- ‘termission until quite late in the afternoon. The engineer made occasional visits to his en- gine to assure himself that all was right, and ev ing progressed in a satisfactory manner until the dread calamity came, it will be remembered that the New-England- er showed no little interest in the working of the machinery of the boat; and, as he was nat- urally shrewd and keen-witted, he speedily = ed a knowledge of it sufficient to enable im to work and control it quite well. Believing this, the engineer, instead of return- ing to the boat on the last occasion, sent Jabez, instructing him to examine it carefully and re- port to him. Quite pleased with the confidence reposed in him, the Yankee hurried on board, went into the engine-room, which was on the lower gs ery then descended into the hold to take a look at the boiler, under which the fire had been permitted to smolder quite low. Asit would soon be time to start, Jabez raked over the coals, and threw in a half a cord or so, fer the purpose of firing up. He had just com- pleted this, and had shut the furnace door, and was about ascending to the engine-room again, when he was startled by what seemed the dash- ing of a thousand sticks of wood upon the deck, but which he found, after a minute’s listening, was caused by the hurried tramp of numerous feet. cently remarked Spikes, as the other Indians He peered up from the dark apartment in | seized hold of the y and hurried out of the which he oad and was terrified at seeing sev- | room. ‘I only wish a few more Indians would eral Indians in turn sete down upon him. | feel some curiosity to know how the engine He realized then that the boat was in the hands | works.” of the savages! ris? The steamer was now gliding up the Yellow- ‘What was to be done? Sabin hurried to the stone tines | swiftly, and upper deck to see that it was following the right direction. A little change of the wheel was all that was necessary, and he returned again to his engine. By this time it was growing dark, and would soon be intensely so. unning up the river at such speed would necessarily be dangerous, and Jabez determined to make it a great deal more so. Soe he had fully resolved to blow up the t! He was not yet prepared to be blown up with it, although, were the choice between that and death at the hands of the Indians, he would not have hesitated for an instant; but his intention was to escape from the boat, before the final catastrophe. So, by gesticulations, he managed to apprise the red-skins of what he wanted, and at his bid- ding, although with some timidity, they assisted Simultaneous with the discovery came the conviction that there was no y chance of his escaping, and he determined to cram the furnace chock full of wood, so as to blow him- self and his captors “p together. But, before he coul upon this resolution, these Indians leaped down in the hold beside him. Having no weapon with which to defend — lf, Jabez By vy pang hs billet es wood, but e savages made of peace. ey appre- ciated his usefulness, and indicated their wish that he should join them above. Cheered thus by a hope of life, Jabez willingly consented, and accompanied them the low- er deck, where there were fully a hundred In- dians. With their hideous faces daubed with ocher and paint, and their fiend-like eyes all agleam with ferocity, with knives and toma- hawks to infinity, y formed an array that might well appall the stoutest heart. 5 2 ee Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. ee wee ee OS + him in again cramming the over-heated furnace with wood, until it really seemed that the heat would set fire to the boat itself. This done, they made their way to the deck. he engine was working with a fury that caused the boat to throb from stem to stern, and the discharging steam made such an uproar that nothing else could be heard. With his own hands Jabez Spikes fastened down the safety- valve, so that no more clamor could come from that, and he also disabled the whistle, so that that infernal screeching was sto forever. “She can stand it about a half-hour longer,” murmured the Yankee, as he walked along on the upper deck, and peered into the gloom to make sure that they were not running in to shore—‘‘a half-hour moré, and this boat will be blown to atoms, and the best thing I can do, therefore, is to take my departure pretty soon.” This was quite an easy matter, for several reasons. There was no suspicion, in the first place, that he contemplated such a proceeding, and consequently he was not watched. He was allowed to pass about the boat unquestioned, the Indians making way for him as though he were a being naturally superior to themselves. In the intense darkness, therefore, all he had to do was to make his way to the stern and quietly drop overboard, ing care to keep clear of the furious little wheel. There was some howling and moaning over the chief whose career had been’so suddenly cut short by the steam-engine; but the Indians were so occupied with the novelty of their situation that they soon forgot their grief in the new sensation experienced. They were hurrying to and fro, and throng- ing in every part of the boat. They had plun- dered all the rooms and scattered the pro- visions about them in the most bewildering con- fusion, while a large party were constantly huddling about the engine-room, never tiring of watching the operations of the machinery. When the steamer was running at night under the charge of its proper officers, as a matter of course it was plentifully supplied with lanterns, that were displayed in every part of the boat. These lanterns were still on board and ready- trimmed; but Jabez Spikes took care that no more then one of them was lit. This was hung in the engine-room, where, under the present regime, it was ae e. This, with the lare from the over-heated boiler, was all the lumination on board the boat. There was some wonderment among the Indians that their pet piano, the whistle, was silent, and their only substitute was in clanging the bell, which they swung to and fro, with a never-ceasing vigor, Jabez Spikes began to grow nervous. He knew that the rapidly accumulating steam must soon find some vent besides that afforded by the working of the machinery, and the explosion was liable to take place at any moment, so he determined to wait no longer. His first proceeding was to shut off part of the steam, but still to leave enough to keep the engine going at a moderate rate of speed. Another matter gave the Yankee no little con- cern. He was only an ordinary swimmer, and he incurred no little risk in trusting himself to the water, but there was no help for it. Hastily fastening his gun to his back, he seized a large piece of wood, and cautiously made his way to the stern. He encountered plenty of Indians, but no one paid any heed to 1im in the darkness. He was but a foot or two above the water, and he hesitated a mo- ment. Then, with a prayer for protection, he lea over. wn he went into the cold water, that seem- ed to chill him to the very marrow. Buoying himself, by means of the large stick to which he so tenaciously clung, he turned his gaze toward the boat. He could easily tell where it was by the sparks streaming from the smoke-stacks and the clash and clangor that came from on board. “You’re happy now—tremendously happy,” muttered Spikes; ‘ but, by ginger! wait and see how it will be after awhile.’ So absorbed was Jabez in the scene that he had no thought of himself for the time. He lay motionless in the water, with one leg thrown over the huge stick, which easily supported him, listening and looking. Ding, déng, went the bell, and the whirr of the foaming wheel, and the whoops and yells of the Indians were the sounds that venched his ears. “You have murdered innocent and unoffend- ing men,” continued Jabez, in a moody tone ‘‘and now you will get your punishment. if you had come on board, like white folks, and Eeomicbooks. alt < |e s be ~ 4 | = —_— —