Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 870 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

4 ‘ Norway Nels, the Big Boy Mountaineer, e outlaw put a momentary Yof the bunters, for his fol- had been fatally injured, but is oaths, the writhing villain the chase was continued. hunters ran on, I[t was in- ‘he defile, and as no furtber 2k on Dan and Alfa could be 0) means of locating friend or However, they groped abont i ‘ould with eye and ear on the alert. Suddenly Nels stumbled against a prostrate body from whose lips escaped a feeble moan. Stooping he fumbled over the body which he found to be that of a man, and as a terrible fear filled his mind, he exclaimed: ‘Good Lord! Dan, is it you?’ A feeble affirmative answer was received, The outlaws and savages were pressing close upon them. Acting upon the first impulse, Nels lifted his wounded friend in his strong arms and bore him rapidly away. He bad not gone far when his foot came in contact with another prostrate form, almost stumbling over if. Polar Sol hastily examined it and, though it was still warm, pronounced life extinct, ‘‘The youngster: bulleted the smart outlaw, but where canthe gal be?’ the old hunter observed. | Asno one of course, could answer, the three burried on up the defile, Norway witb his bur- den—the Red River Rogues following behind to cover his retreat. A retreat of safety was finally secured some distance up the defile where they could for a time, at least, defy the anges fe To their happy surprise, however, the foe relinquished the pur- suit long before they halted, At any rate, their random shooting and savage yelling had ceased, The wounded man was placed upon the ground in as comfortable position as was possible under the circumstances. He was unable to speak, nor could the hunter determine the location or extent of his injuries so intense was the dark- ness. T.We situation was indeed a desperate one. To strike a light would be to invite sure death, and - ..yet without it they could do nothing for their wounded and, perhaps, dying friend, Alfa’s fate was unknown, but with the hope of finding her hiding away somewhere in the darkness, Old Polar and Dismal left Norway with bis helpless _ companion and went off in search for her, -_ of the dead. » of sip The young hunter endeavored to draw from the wounded man some word as to his condition, but only an occasional feeble moan escaped his Te was nearly an hour before the ‘‘ Rogues” returned from the fruitless search for Alfa. They bad carefully explored the defile down to their late camp, and made up their minds that, unless she had passed on up the defile ahead of them, she had been recaptured by Kamas Kit’s minions. Of one thing they were dead sure, and that wasof the outlaws and red-skins having carried off all their camp equipage, In low tones the trio discussed the situation, and, while thus engaged, their attention was drawn to the woundsd man, from whose lips escaped a sound that startled them, “Ah!” exclaimed Old Polar, ‘‘that was his death-rattle! The boy’s done for!” ‘‘“Poor Dan Temple!” sighed big Norway; ‘it’s too bad! too bad! But, somebody suffers for it, mind what I tell you!” ; Kneeling by the side of the prostrate form, the young hunter found his wrist, and laid bis fingers upon the pulse. But the pulse had yearn to beat, The man was dead beyond a doubt, Tenderly Norway mccoy to straighten out the lifeless limbs, fold the arms across the breast, so that when daylight came they could give it burial. While he was thus engaged, an ex- clamation of surprise burst aloud from his lips, “Softly lad!” cautioned Polar Sol, ‘tor we might git a broadside fired into our jib-boom. What’s the matter?” “1m goin’ tostrikea match and get a glimpse of this dead man’s face, if it costs me my skulp!” responded the young giant, And, producing a match, he struck it on a stone, and a tiny blue blaze pierced the gloom. Screening it in bis “ capa ? hands until it was in full blaze, he let the light flash upon the face _ A cry, half-surprise and balf-joy, burst from - his lips, and dashing the light out he arose to his feet, ‘‘ Belted thunder!” he snapped out in evident disgust, ‘‘ that’s not the body of my friend, Dan Temple, but of an outlaw that I lugged up here, em i i EEO s| yh ; ° : v's 4 Sie ee and been mournin’ over in this purgatorian darkness!” ‘Then that other body you stumbled against must ’a’ been your friend’s,” opined Old Dismal, gloomily, ‘*[’'m afraid so,” responded Nels, sadly. ‘* He war dead, for sure,” added Sol, who had examined the body. ‘* Well, it’s a howlin’ blunder on my part,” Norway said, regretfully. ‘* But it can’t be helped now,” ‘* It’s not to be wondered at, Norway,” Dismal] observed, ‘tin the hurry and darkness; and then the feller bimself answered he war Dan, when you axed him the question. But, I reckon he war so nigh gone that he didn’t know what he war sayin’, ‘Thar’s one thing certain, how- somever, and that is that Dan got in bis work on the outlaw.” ‘* But what has become of that poor girl?” ex- claimed Nels, ‘* As we're foot-loose now,” suggestel Polar Sol, ‘‘s’pose we go ake a search for the var- mints’ camp, and if we find it, and that the gal has been recaptured, do some Old Master paintin’? I want you to see the Red River Rogues, Norway, lay on the sunset tints in a fight, Even if the gal isn’t there, our hosses and camp-fixin’s are, and that’s enough for us.” The three bunters at once moved back down the defile, carefully searching for that second ° body Nels had stumbled against in their re- treat. But they reached the smoldering em- bers of the Rogues’ late camp-fire without find- ing if. Retracing their footsteps, they repeated the search with no better result. The body was gone, and its whereabouts was as much a mys- ae to the hunters as was the fate of Alfa ond, CHAPTER 1X. RECONNOITERING THE ENEMY’S CAMP, FRoM the defile Nels led the way down to the main canyon, and then northward up that great pass in search of the enemy’s camp, And not over two miles had they traveled when the lights of two or three fires pierced the gloom before them, That they were in the Indian- outlaw rendezvous they had no doubt, and so the next move was to reconnoiter the place and ascertain, if possible, if Alfa Bond was there a captive. hey soon discovered, however, that great risks must be incurred in getting close enough to obtain the desired information, The walls of the canyon were high and precipitous both be- low and above the camp, so that the place could only be approached from the north or south, These approaches the hunters knew would be well guarded, and as the canyon was narrow, it was not at all likely that they would succeed in their reconnoissance without having first silenced that guard. But, whether that could be accomplished with- out raising an alarm was a question tbat the nerve and skill of the hunters must determine; and, with that object in view, they moved for- ward, keeping close along the base of the west bluff, that was skirted by a few pine bushes, and along which was strewn great rocks that the hand of time had dropped from the cliff above. When about thirty rods from camp—at a point where the canyon began to suddenly widen —they discovered two men on guard, They could not see them, but could hear them as they paced to and fro across the canyon, passing each other near the center, One of them was an In- dian, and the other a white man. This fact the old hunters could tell by their footsteps—that of the Indian being light and almost noiseless, while that of the other béing heavier clad gave a louder sound, Toeither dispatch these fellows or pass them was the next thing to be done. A whispered consultation was held and it was decided to attempt to passtheline, Every contingency like- ly to arise was tully discussed and ae of action in each instance agreed upon, Then the forward movement again was resumed. Never did shadows move more noiseless, They had timed themselves so as to cross the line as the booted guard was approaching, satisfied that if he wasa white man, his sense of sight and hearing would not be as acute as the savages’, Norway Nels took the lead, his companions following close at his heels—all three crawling is all-fours and carefully feeling every inch of the way before them. | Norway was almost on the line when the guard passed him to the endof his beat and ty ° 4 %. ua ‘ 4 ¥ ™ 4 ea NRE 30g a es an ” = turned to retrace his steps. In fact, he was so close that the big hunter could touch him, but holding his breath until the sentinel bad _ re- passed, he moved forward inside the dead-line, and soon the three were safe—beyond those guards, at least. Halting to congratulate themselves upon their success, they again consulted as to the next step to be taken. Norway, who was familiar with every feature of the canyon, explained the situ- ation to his companions, ‘‘ Now,” he said, ‘‘we can rumble ’rovnd here freely, East of that varmint-camp is a wide thicket of bushes extendin’ back to the bluff where there’s a nice spring of water. But I see from here the red-skins have got their horses bitched in there and our presence on that side might frighten the animals and leal us into trouble, On this side of the camp is, also, a fringe of bushes in which we can git within thirty paces of the camp. There’s also a bear-den, or a kind of a cave, in the bluff there that we might find handy in case we war hard pressed,” ‘ ‘‘Then let’s keep on this side,” said Polar ol, They moved on and finally gained a point opposite the camp and in front of the Bear-Cave spoken of, From the base of the towering cliff the ground sloped gradually downward to the bottom of the canyon, This slope was covered with a growth of pine sbrubbery three to five feet in height, but from their elevated position they could see over the’ thicket into the camp which was situated in the open valley. Two or three fires lighted up the camp enabling the scouts to see all that was going on and yet not be seen. They were somewhat surprised upon discover- ing no less then four-score persons in the camp. Two-thirds of these were Indians whom Norway Nels thought must be the thieving, cut-throat followers of a renegade chief called Gray Falcon, while the others were outlaws—follow- ers of Kamas Kit. A dozen rude lodges were pitched in a lino north of, and fronting the fires, Beyond the camp in the bushes could be seen a number of horses, the radius of hgbt reaching out to the edge of the thicket. On the ground in front of one of the lodges and covered with a blanket, lay what looked like a man’s form. Nothing however could be seen of Alfa Bond. That bold, bad ‘‘ Injin,” Kicking Horse, was the most conspicuous figure in camp, and Nels’s fingers fairly tingled to draw a bead on him, To complete the group of notorious marauders, Kamas Rit finally appeared on the scene. He came hobblirg from a tent with one foot bound up in a blanket, using a rifle for a crutch. ‘*Now if Old Gray’ Falcon would only show up,” said Nels, ‘‘tbe scene would be complete, ‘and— Ah! look there, pards! do you see that?” ‘‘ A gal—an Ingin princess, by the sword o’ Gideon!” exclaimed Old Sol, thrusting bis thumb into Dismal Dave’s ribs. True enough, a young woman dressed in the showy, glittering garb of an Indian princess emerged from one of the tents and, walking down to where that form lay covered with a blanket, stooped over and carefully drew the blanket aside. “That’s Raven-Eyes, Old Gray Falcon’s daughter by an Ingin squaw,” Norway an- nounced, “ She’s a screamin’ pretty little tigress as ever broke a beart or clawed an eye out. Her word and wish is law, and there isn’t a buck in that camp but ’d scalp hisself if Raven-Hyes ’d command him to,” , ‘‘ From here—at Icng range—she looks like a fairy,” Polar Sol observed, ‘* Steady, Polar!” cautioned Old Dismal; ‘‘ you know your failin’ bout wimmin. Her grand- mother would be a fairy in your eyes. very thing that wears dresses is a fairy with you, Solomon—ab! thatisa man lyin’ there! He must be a sick Ingin.” \ As the girl drew down the blanket the scouts saw an arm reached out in a feeble, groping way. : cs Yes, sir,” declared Norway, ‘ Raven-Eyes has got a patient on her hands, and I should say Bee a pretty sick man the way he seemed to act. ‘ They saw the maiden kneel by the sick man and adjust something about his head, then she arose and hurried away into a tent, returning shortly with a cup in her band. — ee ? Again kneeling, she raised the sick man’s head and held the cup to his lips, drank of the contents she assiste tng posture, | hese proceedings seemed to have interested — the group about the fire, for Kicking Horse and ‘ . : . ; im R y ly ti ~ay e >, Ar rtp ‘ . rc eta a wo ad 6 OLexe)} «i ef @ nd after he had > him to a sit- “3 j 7 ~ <4 a yor. aft 7 et A ’