Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 52 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 ae ——_—_ -$ —_____.. and boy in the village yelled ‘ Cock-tail!’ at me when | showed myself. I thought it would blow over after awhile, but it kept gettin worse and worse, until I got mad and left, an here I am. ** Now,” added Jabez, a moment later, as he heaved a great sigh, ‘‘ I want to be revenged on a are Stiggens and that bar-tender, and the t way I can do itis to catch the great ay Pane the white buffalo, and take him k hum, with me as the proprietor. Ain’t it natural that I should feel so?” All agreed that such a feeling was perfectly natural, CHAPTER V. ON GUARD. AFTER the recital of Jabez Spikes’s story, the trapper and lieutenant turned in for the night. bahs. $4 their blankets around them, they laid down with their feet to the fire, leaving the Yankee to act his part as sentinel. Filled with the importance of his situation, Jabez took his rifle in hand and walked out on the edge of the wood, in which they had en- onatttind: There. was a faint moon in the sky, and an impressive stillness rested upon every- thing. Nothing but the soft wash of the brook at feet, and the soft sighing of the night- wind through the tree-tops, caught his ear. ‘‘The American Indian roams everywhere,” reflected the sentinel; ‘‘who knows but what some of them are lurking near me this minute? Gingeration! no danger of my going to sleep!” For fully two hours Jabez back and forth through the wood, occasionally pausing and listening, but failing to detect anything icious. I don’t believe any of the ‘varmints,’ as Waufy calls them, are near us,” he soliloquized, as he paused in in the wood. ‘“ The fire has gone out, and they can’t see anything, so I will sit ae: and rest es " ES ) no purpose of sleeping, but, as ma su he had scarcely seated himself “Ave minutes, when his eyes closed and he passed off into the land of dreams. He slept a considerable time when, from some unaccountable cause he awoke. ‘*Ginger!” he muttered, as he rubbed his eyes ‘“‘T have been asleep, as sure as preaching! bu ony for a few minutes.” e rubbed the grit out of his eyes, yawned and muttered: ““It ain’t a safe thing to sit down to rest when you are acting, for you are pretty certain—” A cold chill crept over him as he distinctly heard a rustling among the trees but a few yous in front of him. Thoughts of Indians, mahawks and tortures flashed through his mind, and he sat like one paralyzed for a few moments, ** Who’s there?” he finally ventured, in a half- be og but there was no response. “ Tt’s Waufy or the lieutenant,” he concluded with a grin; ‘‘they are trying to scare me, bu Seyeen t do it.” ising stealthily to his feet, he made his way to where the camp-fire had smoldered almost to ashes. vomtape 5 ese up, so that they gave out a few flashes of light, he saw, with a terror it would be difficult to depict, the two forms of his friends, wrapped up in their blankets ping soundly. “Ginger! what does it mean?’ he fairly gasped, as he shrunk back into the shadows samen ‘* there’s somebody else near us, sure.” e stood a moment, hesitating whether he should wake his companions or not, but he was fearful of incurring their ridicule, and he con- cluded to make sure that danger threatened before disturbing them. *‘Just then he observed that he was without his hat, and he hurried back to the tree to recover it, but it was gone! There could be no mistaking the spot where he had just rested; but there was no hat there; and, while he was in a maze of wonderment as to that, he was astounded at discovering that his qun-end, istol had also vanished! ‘**Gingeration!” he fairly gasped, as the cold sweat stole over him. ‘“ Somebody stole them away from me when I was asleep, and who could it be?” _ Ay! that was the question, indeed. Certain it was that it was neither Lieutenant Putnam nor Wa the trapper, for they were sound aslee doubtless had not opened their eyes since down in slumber. ‘Some Indians have been here,” concluded a “and if that is so why didn’t they kill me? I wonder if I am scalped | : _ He clapped his hand upon his head, and was Bead le’'s Half-Dime Library. in grave doubt for an instant whether that | than they anticipated and saved them that operation had not been so neatly performed | trouble. upon him that the pain had not yet begun. But the yellow hair was still there in all its luxuriance, and he had the comforting assurance that his scalp was unharmed. Again a slight rustling caught his ear, and Jabez stealthy made his way through the wood, to the edge of the prairie. Could he believe his eyes? In the dim moon- light, he es a saw the figure of a man run- ning away at full speed. “Ginger!” he muttered, “what a narrow escape I have had; but what will they say, when they awake in the morning and find it out?” Only a few minutes elapsed, when he saw from the increasing light in the east, that morn- ing was at hand, proof that he had slept a much longer time than he had imagined hitherto. Jabez racked his brains to see whether he could get u we Ege theory to account for bis mishap; but he coul — nothing, and he wisely concluded to tell the truth. Tell the truth he did, without any prevarica- tion, and, as may be su d, his story created no little amazement. Lieutenant Putnam was not only astonished but greatly perplexed to account for the conduct of the enemy who had stolen in upon them and so cleverly outwitted the sentinel. The four horses were found undisturbed, which gave the incident a still more unaccount- able look. ‘IT can’t understand it,” remarked the officer, as they k of the morning meal. ‘“‘ Why a AF mt Indian should spare a white man’s @—’ Waufy nudged the lieutenant, and remarked in a voice that reached no ears but his for whom they were intended: “It wasn’t a red-skin at all.” Putnam turned upon him, the picture of per- plexity. ‘** Who then?” ‘‘Some white hunter or trappen; but don’t let him know it.” ‘Do you mean it was a joke?” “Sartinly; we'll find out what {t all means, afore we go very far to-day.” It was early in the forenoon when the three rode out from the sows Jabez Spikes wearing his cotton handkerchief bound about his head. They headed north-east, and had gone scarcely a half-mile, when, in passing over a small eleva- tion, they encountered two hunters just prepar- ing to start. e parties stared at each other a moment, and then called out. ‘* Hullo, Waufy!” ** Hullo, Baldy!” And Waufy rode up and shook both heartily by the hand, while Putnam and Jabez remained in the background, looking on and listening. The three trappers chatted and conversed in their characteristic manner, during which it transpired that “‘ Baldy,” and his companion were bound westward to Fort Laramie, where they had agreed to meet a caravan and carry it to Oregon. Then they approached closer, and conversed in such low tones that their sentences could not be understood. When they had finished, Baldy rode up to Jabez, and, handing him his gun, pistol, and stove-pipe, said: ‘I give ’em back to you, stranger; with the advice that the next time you undertake to keep watch in an Injin kentry, it ain’t a good plan to pit so sound asleep that we kin hear you snore a mile away.” And before the dumbfounded Yankee could make any reply, the two eS ey struck their horses into a gallop and speedily disappeared. pe Ginger! if it ain’t the identical gun and re- volver!” exclaimed Jabez, as he turned the weap- ons over in his hand, ‘‘ and the same old hat,” he added, as he pulled it down upon his head; ‘‘now that is what I call extremely fortunate— extremely fortunate.” _ And then Waufy explained to them how the joke had been perpetrated. Baldy and comrade had caught the star- like glimmer of the camp-fire, shortly after dar and stole forward to learn whether they h Indians or white men for neighbors. his way into the grove, he ned to Jabez Spikes’s story, and su his verdancy, de- termined to lay his joke upon him. He patiently waited until the sentinel sat down and went to sleep in the manner describ- ed, when he had no little difficulty in taking the articles mentioned from him. It was his in- tention to return them on the morrow, and he would have ridden into Waufy’s camp with them had not their acquaintance started sooner | | dy,” added ‘*'You oughter made the acquaintance of Bal- aufy. ‘Ginger! I rather think I did,” laughed Ja- be Z. “* He has seen the buffler!” : ‘* When—how long ago?’ demanded the excit- ed Yankee. ‘* Yesterday.” “Where was it?” ‘Right ahead—toward where we be going.” “Now you don’t say so!” added the delighted Jabez; ‘‘he was alive and well?” ** Never in better health.” *“They didn’t kill him?” ‘* No; he israther too old, and they liked some- thing young and tender a good deal better.” ‘i ! then we'll be sure to see him.” * It begins to look that way.” ‘‘ And catch him too. Ginger! won’t it be a magnificent victory for me? Won’t I sail into the village on the top of my big wagon paint- ed red, with the great phenomenon of the Far West? Won’t Mary Ann Stiggens feel bad, and Ma that bar-tender haul in his horns a ittle— ** There’s one thing I forgot to tell you,” inter- rupted Waufy. ‘What's that?’ ** The buffler that Baldy and Jim seen wasn’t white, but a dark color.’ CHAPTER VI. THE YELLOWSTONE STEAMER. THROUGH storm and sunshine, cold and heat, danger and safety, our three friends at length struck the great Yellowstone river far up in the North-west, in the center of what is still a wild and dangerous country. It was on the afternoon of a clear autumn day, that the travelers reined up their horses on the margin of the broad, turbid stream, and looked across to where the green woods and prairies were to be seen on the opposite side. ‘*The time will come when that will be tra- versed by shipping and steamers as the Hudson is to-day,” remarked Lieutenant Putnam. ‘* Yas;and if Lain’t powerfully mistook, there’s a steamer this minute,” returned the trapper, pointing down-stream. ; ‘* Impossible,” exclaimed his companions sim- ultaneously. But following the direction of his finger, they saw a thin, almost horizontal line of smoke dis- sipating into clear air at one end, while it kept wing and advancing at the other. It being low a curve in the river, had the a ce of being directly over the land instead of on the water, a delusion all unde : “T didn’t know that any steamers had ever ascended thus far,” remarked the lieutenant, after they had contemplated it several minutes. “Yas, there is; there’s a little purpellyer tpn lier) I b’leve you call ’em, that’s been up e Yallerstone several times.” ** How far?” . * Hundreds of miles above here, and if I ain’t powerful mistook that’s the same critter.” ‘*Ginger! look!” exclaimed Spikes. At this moment the steamer rounded the bend below, and came in full sight. It could be seen that it was quite small, but it was one bytes 4 built for river navigation, for it came throug the foaming water with t x It was a curious scene, this little poe boat, making its way through this vast solitude, the pioneer of the fleets that were to follow it. The three sat on their horses, watching it with no little —e when suddenly Lieutenant Put- nam asked: ‘* How far up do you think that boat is going! , , o, three hundred miles at least.” “That will be so much on our way; let’s go aboard and ride.” Jabez Spikes enthusiastically seconded the proposal, but the trapper held back. He didn’t think the four horses would be acceptable on that boat, although there undoubtedly was room for them; but the truth was, as Lieutenant Putnam saw, the old hunter was suspicious of the steamboat, and didn’t like the idea of trust- ing his person upon it. Still he hoped to over- come his dislike. The steamer kept near the center of the stream, and when ey Judged that they could beseen, Spikes waved his handkerchief on the end of his ramrod. The attracted immediate notice, but those on seemed somewhat reluctant to run in to shore in this dangerous country, until assured of the character of the party. JOO f Gom (e S) con ae