Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 70 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

Old Zip’s Cabin. 1 a big red-skin was creeping up to him. Wal, | planking both above and below these supports, - — eS -_- -—= a — —— ——— ‘*T think there’ll be some fun here, afore night which were so skillfully hid that their location could only be suspected from the outside, al- though Hugh Fullerton, and indeed all who had ever looked upon the cabin in the air, knew that, asa matter of course, some such a sup- port as this must have been provided for it from the first. CHAPTER XI. “CONCLUSION. “Wat, I ow I may as well tell the whole thing,” said Old = ‘‘This yer contrivance was put up over a dozen years ago, when such a thing as a white man wasn’t seen in these parts, onless he came to hunt and trap. Me and Jake Belgrist used to trap through these parts,and one day, when we was on t’other side the ravine, we noticed the hole in the rocks, and as we could see daylight through it, we come over to look at it. ‘*I was about to clear out, when Jake, who was always a feller with strange idees, says, says he, dip, what a bully place this would be to put up a house.’ ‘Whyso?saysl ‘’Cause, don’t you see,’ says he, ‘that we could fasten it here, and the red-skin ain’t born that could get at us. It would be one of the places whar we could both go to sleep at the same time, with- out dreamin’ of gittin’ our ha’r raised.’ *‘ Wal, I didn’t think nothin’ more about it, but Jake he was in earnest, and he went down in the ravine and looked at it, and then crawled through the hole ag’in, and the more he see’d of it, the more he liked it. ‘* Bime-by he says, says he, ‘Zip, do you re- member that saw-mill down on the Mississippi, whar them two chaps are gettin’ out the tim- ber to start a town? I told him Idid. ‘ Wal,’ say she, ‘I’m going down thar to fetch up the stuff and am going to locate here.’ “Thar wasn’t no use of talkin’ to Jake, when his mind was made up, so we saddled our ani- mals, took our two pack-horses, and started for the saw-mill, over a hundred miles away. ‘‘Wal, sir, we had to make rea SOE there, going the slowest kind of way, afore we got all we wanted down in the ravine thar’, but we got it at last. ‘* That ’ar’ Jake was a little the smartest chap I ever traveled with; it seemed to me that he could whittle any thing out with his Jack-knife and when we stopped, he had just the right number of planks we wanted. ‘*Then he rode off to one of the forts and got the spikes and nails, and we went to work. e run the two heavy beams out, (and Jake had trimmed ’em off with his hatchet,) and we fixed the ends in the rocks. ‘‘ Arter that Jake got the framework up, and fixed up the cabin in just the style you see it now. Afore we got it done, howsumever, we made an agreement never to enter the cabin through the passage onless we couldn’t possibly come the other way.” ‘‘ What was the reason.for that curious agree- ment?” inquired Hosmer. “On ~~ eer of Injuns. We covered up the mouth of the passage, and then put sod over it, so that any one in passing by wouldn’t be in danger of finding out the way of getting in. We couldn’t use the back way very often with- out leaving signs behind us, and that’s the reason we made the bargain.” ree Me ‘That necessitated one of you remaining in the building all the time?” ‘‘ No, it didn’t, for we used the entrance way a good many times, during the first year.” ‘What became of your companion, as I do not remember to have seen him?’ asked Fuller- ton. ‘‘Tt was queer about Jake,” replied Zip, in a changed voice. ‘“‘ He fixed a lagso by which we could draw ourselves up, and I know it saved his hair and mine more than once. We staid there all winter, and came back the next au- tumn, expecting to find it burned down with blazin’ arrers; _ — 2 a as natural as ever, and I wen ug e way, leaving it to Jake to fix every thing behind mie. while tf let the lasso down for him. Wal, he came up laughing and singing, and was so near that I could have reached him with my hand, when crack went a gun from the rocks up there Se Jake dropped down and never spoke a pee i Didn’t I feel bad and mad when I see’d t ‘Wal, I just sot in that cabin till night time, keeping off the varmints that was trying to get his foal i The first one I keeled over was the identi imp that had shot Jake. I had three more stretched out afore it got dark. ‘As soon as the light was gone, I slipped | we had it out with our knives, and when we got | comes.” through, I picked up Jake, and carried him off a mile in the woods, where I buried him out of the reach of wolves and red-skins. ‘‘That ’ere made me feel so bad that I didn’t go back ag’in tilla tp after, when I’ll be shot if there didn’t stan by the red-skins as was trying to burn it down, but couldn’t come it. Me and a lot of other fel- lers used it fur a while, and then when Hugh moved out here and gs up his shanty, 1 fetched Peggy from Saint Louis; need of telling any thing more.” ‘No; that explains every thing,” said Hugh, ‘““except the reason why you don’t stay here and stand the siege as you have done so often before.” ‘* Wal, it ain’t ’cause I’ve got any fear of the shanty: but ’cause thar’s most too many of us to make the thing comfortable. When Jake Belgrist put up the thing, he done it for me and him only, and countin’ noses, I find thar’s six of us, without taking into account Persimmons here, who can eat as much as all the rest to- gether, and ain’t worth his weight in shoe-pegs; so you see it won’t be pleasant for all, ’specially as I s’pect that Persimmons thar is covered with fleas.’ No pen could picture the contemptuous wrath of the subject of this insinuation; but he merely looked the ‘‘ words” his tongue could not speak, and awaited the movements of the hunter, who was manifestly now the one to whom the rest looked for counsel and guidance. There was no excuse for remaining longer, and Old Zip led the way through the : as dark as it could be. All —_ cautiously along in procession after him, till suddenly a ‘streak of light” entered the end toward which they were journeying, and Zip was seen peering carefully out of the wen gong 4 All’s right!” he called out, as he suddenly em- erged into the open air. ‘Now wait yer,” he said, to his companions, ‘till I go back and close up them boards, so if they git in they won’t be apt to see how we got out, without considerable s’arching.” The party waited a very long time on the out- side, during which they heard Old Zip, pounding and prying, as though he were toiling hard at some unusual work. What it was, no one could conjecture, and they waited with some impatience his reappear- ance again. When finally his pega head was thrust out of the opening, his face was seen to be covered with perspiration, as though his time had been spent in the severest kind of labor. He made no explanations, however, and none were asked of him. He a pore the flat stone that had just been removed, with great care, disguising its real office by covering it with the sod that had been somewhat displaced. Everything being done, they turned their faces toward the cavern, where Helena was awaiting them, Old Zip, of course, taking the lead. It may be said that there was not a step of the intervening distance which was taken incau- tiously, and no appearance ot impatience could hasten their guide, whose experience among the Indians he was striving to avoid had taught him that a single giving bs: Loe impatience, if only for a moment, often destroyed the work of hours. The forenoon was well advanced when the cavern was reached, where Helena was found, eager and anxious, and where her reunion with her parents and lover were of the most happy character. Here, Old Zi which were to pilot the p made known his intentions, to Alden, there to remain until the trouble with the Sioux should terminate. “We won't start till dark,” said he, ‘‘’cause the varmints are gettin’ a little too thick. While you’re waitin yer, ’ll take Ned Hosmer and show him a beautiful sight.” Fitzsimmons was glad to see the two depart, as it left him untrammeled to press his suit with his cousin Helena, whose heart, he was sure, must se to warm to him by this time. Indeed, he asked himself, was it not high time that she kp: rene the vast difference between the merits of the two? | _ After leaving the cavern, Old Zip and Ned Hosmer made their way to the ravine, along which they stealthily toiled, until they reached a point quite distant from the cabin, but which commanded a full view of it. Here they as carefully concealed themselves, down for the poor fellow, and got there just as | the hunter saying as they did so: | the old cabin yet, bristling | all over with arrers that had been fired into it | in | ‘** From what cause?” ‘‘ The varmints are so mighty anxious to get into the cabin, that I think they’ll do it.” ** And what of that?’ ‘* Wait, and you'll see.” ‘I think some of them are already prospect- near it.” | Id Zip raised himself somewhat, so as to see more distinctly, and then observed, sure enough, that fully a*dozen Sioux were assembled, ap- parently in consultation, beneath the cabin in and there ain’t no | the air. ‘It will take considerable musclé to lasso the shanty, but that’s what they’re going to try to do.” Even while he spoke, the rope was seen to circle up in the air, but only to fall to the ground again, without holding. “Is not the rope too short to hold?” asked Ned, watching the proceedings with deep inte- rest “Tf they expect to fasten it to the roof, it is, but that ain’t thar plan.” ** What is it?” ‘The way that rope , they’ve got a stone fastened to the end, and are aiming to throw it into the winder.” This manifestly was their plan, and it was the best under the circumstances. Again and again the rope was seen to go up- ward, like a great a apes striking at some ele- vated foe, only to fall back again, powerless and innocuous. This was continued several minutes, when, all at once, our hero called out: ‘* Look! look! it holds! they have succeeded.” * You’re right,” asserted the hunter, ‘“‘and I’m glad of it. Now, look out for fun.” What the precise character of the fun was to be, it was difficult to conjecture, but Old Zip an- nounced its coming with such confidence that Ned Hosmer scarcely took his eyes from the spot. Scarce a minute had elapsed, since the catch- ing of the upper end of the rope, which left the lower end dangling some distance from the ground, when an Indian was seen to leap up- ward and grasp it. Up he went, with the agility of a monkey, and holding himself suspended by the window, kicked open the door that had been left unfast- ened purposely by Old Zip, upon his departure from the cabin. Then the savage leaped in, fastened the end of pie rope more securely, and waited for his com- rades. Up they came one after another, swarming into the cabin, until every member of the Sioux party had managed to insinuate himself within. ‘That beats every thing!” exclaimed Hosmer, whose interest in the performances of the Sioux increased from the ‘ ~ rope Zip; “they’re piled in there bout as thick as the shanty can stand.” ‘1 think the stability of the cabin will be test- ed more severely than ever before.” Old Zip seemed about to make reply, but checked himself and indulged in a grin of the most significant character. Hosmer saw it and understood it to intimate that something of a startling nature was about to take place. ‘I wonder they did not try that before,” said Ned; “if they did not possess your rope, they had facilities for making lassoes that were equally available.” ‘They have tried it more than once, but thar war some of us so near that we managed to make ’em see it didn’t pay. They kept it up for several years, but stop at last. When me and Peggy was away, the varmints war pu docile, and so it happened mad A ke trouble the shanty, ’though it is queer that it lasted so ae They wouldn’t have tried it to-day, if it hadn’t been that there’s a bigger lot than usual of ’em and they’re madder than they’ve been in a long while.” ‘“*Do you think they have learned of the es- cape of Helena and Fitzsimmons from their captors?” F . ‘I’m sartin of it, and they’re like a lot of mad hornets. { tell yer it wouldn’t do to run ag’in’ ’em now.” “Tam grateful to Heaven that she is out of their power,” was the fervent exclamation of her Labi " ' ** You may well say that, for you don’t know and can’t think what she’s got Rb. from.” ‘“ Hark! they are shouting within the cabin.” ‘Yes; they nave muLaged to find room en- ough to get up a war-dance.” ‘* Merciful heavens! look!” As the exclamation esca Ned Hosmer, the cabin in the air was seen to topple, and then fall Gomicbooks (C (E(0)