Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 74 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

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The cavalcade moved on, and about noon it debouched into a great prairie, stretching away in gentle undulation for leagues and leagues. cross this prairie the party took its course, and just at sunset they struck a small wooded stream, that found its source in Lake Okibogie. Upon this stream the party went into camp, for here they could obtain water and grazing for their animals. The night passed without any excitement and by daybreak the band was mounted anc moving onward, following the course of the stream northward. Old Optic and Clouded Heart rode together, ~ as usual, and as they were now approaching the Sioux village, they began discussing the best plans to effect the object of the expedi- dition. As it was not known what force they would have to contend with, they could settle upon no _ definite course of action, until after they had ascertained the strength of the enemy. The second day was nearly half-gone, and the party had just stopped at noon, when one of the guards suddenly descried a party of horsemen galloping over the plain directly toward them. Were they Sioux? The question passed from lip to lip, and great excitement prevailed. The rks was over two miles away, and, withotin oubt, were Sioux or Arapahoes. Red Wing shook his plumed head ominously, then, ne to his warriors, bade them pre- pare for battle. They had halted in a little clump of cotton- wood trées on the banks of the stream. This would afford them a temporary screen, and with rifle in hand, the savages crouched among the trees, waiting the approach of the enemy. Old Optic noticed that Clouded Heart seemed uneasy, and believing that all was not right, he resolved to keep a watch upon his movements for the suspicion that the masked stranger hac led him into a trap now entered his mind. The old trapper noticed that Clouded Heart kept a close watch upon the approaching party, and when it suddenly swept into plain view from behind a gentle swell, not over half a mile away, the mysterious stranger stepped from the ve into plain view of the horsemen, and tak- fen red scarf from his bosom, waved it above his head. ‘Traitor!’ burst in fierce accents from Old ic’s lips, and the next moment his rifle was leveled full at the breast of Clouded Heart. CHAPTER XIII. THROUGH FIRE. As Nora’s cry rung sharply out over bayou and river, the savage grasped the rim of the canoe and essayed to raise himself from the water into the craft; but scarcely had the maid- -en’s scream died away, when there came a under through the water and reeds, followed by the dull crash of a blow; then from the lips of the savage pealed a yell of death that fairly in Nora’s veins. She felt the cunning red-skin release his hold upon the canoe and fall backward like a leaden weight, while to the eyes of the distressed maid- en another form appeared. It approached the canoe, and seizing hold of it, threw itself into . the craft. ““ Nora 1"? ‘ joy. It was the voice of Hawkeye Harry! ‘Oh, Harry! I was so ’fraid you had been slain! My prayers for your deliverance have been answered! But, are you hurt?” “ Not a bit of it, little one! Ididn’tgeteven a scratch, but I had an awful tussle with the red varmint.” - © But your clothes are wet, Harry, and you will get chilly and cold,” she replied. pee No, little girl; our danger will require such active work as will keep my blood warm. This is nothing tome. Many’s the time [’ve lain in a pond of water all night to escape the red- skins. I’m used to such exposure—hardened to every mo- ment, ‘ ' The maiden could scarcely repress a cry of ; a, i / a. Ww : : : | once—ah! I hear the red-skins now, approach- ing through the reeds!” his conversation had been carried on in a low tone, and was interrupted by a crashing through the dry reeds. Taking a position in the prow of the canoe, the young ranger began parting the reeds be- fore him and drawing the canoe through the opening thus made e had proceeded a couple of rods under cover of this minute forest, when he stopped to listen. He could hear the Indians talking in excited tones over the dead bodies of their comrades. He also learned that they were in doubt as to the force of the enemy, and that they had heard Nora’s scream. The youth listened intently in hopes of find- ing out the course the savages intended to pur- sue to dislodge their enemy; but in this he was disappointed. He heard them, however, lift- ing the lifeless forms of their friends into their canoes, and then move away toward the shore. Hawkeye now felt satisfied that the savages would resort to some other means of dislodging them from their covert, though he could form no idea what that recourse would be; for their stock of expedients was inexhautibles. No tims, however, was to be lost in getting from that wilderness of reeds and shade. So he applied himself vigorously to work. He had now reached a point where it was more difficult to proceed; the reeds, out from the dense sha- dows of the over-hanging trees, were sere and brown with autumn’s touch, and the water not being so deep, was obstructed with flakes of moss and tufts of rank, tall wire-grass. Still he worked on, ever and anon stopping to listen; but the wind was rising again and roaring through the reeds and forest, and drowning all other sounds. Hecould hear noth- ing of the enemy. Their silence made him all the more uneasy. He knew they were not idle, and suddenly, when he had taken into considera- tion the tinder-like dryness of the reeds and grass, and the strong head-wind blowing across a bayou, a terrible fear took possession of im. Like one whose life depended upon his ac- tions, the youth pulled away at the canoe, and now, in his impatience, anxiety and fear, every foot of the way seemed to grow more ob- structed. Suddenly a cry of terror burst from Nora’s ps. / The young ranger turned quickly. It re- quired no words to tell him the cause of the maiden’s affright. His worst fears had been realized. The savages had fired the reeds to the wind- ward of them! One dense ball of red flame, reaching almost to the tree-tops, came rolling over the miniature wilderness toward them with a roar. Escape before that sheet of flame was impossi- ble. Two minutes more, and the bayou will be stripped of its fringe of reeds to the water's edge by that devouring billow of roaring, hiss- ing, crackling flame! CHAPTER XIV. A FEARFUL MOMENT. DEATH stared the two fugitives in the face— death by the flames. They could not flee; the water was beneath them, and the reeds around them. Oh, it was awful thus to perish. All the terrors of a lifetime were compressed into a moment’s duration. And the fire! It was a sight as grand as ter- rible; and, with blanched face and glaring eyes Hawkeye Harry sat and gazed upon the ved wave that would soon envelop him and the fair being at his side. ‘Oh, Harry! we will perish!” The maiden’s words started the youth from his stupor, and, as he gazed down into her face now appearing ghostly in the lurid light, anc saw her nestling closer to him, as if for protec- tion, his manhood was aroused, and his usually quick inventive mind put to a terrible test. He gazed quickly around. There was no pos- sible chance of escape, but something must be done. His eyes fell upon Nora’s shawl. Seizing it, he plunged it into the water, at the | same time bidding Nora to throw herself in. the | bottom of the canoe. The half-terrified maiden quickly obeyed, and | the next moment she felt the wet shaw] thrown | She saw the youth’s object—it | 'made manifest, by a slight convulsion of tho body. over her form. was to save her. ‘This is your only salvation, Nora,” he said, and then reaching out, he grasped several handfuls of moss that lay upon the surface of great flakes, he spread it over the maiden, also permitting it to trail over each rim of the canoe to protect its sides from the flames. he poor girl found herself unable to move under her wet, dripping cover of shawl and moss. Setting his rifle in one end of the canoe, the youth bade Nora not to attempt to remove her protection until the fire had passed, then he sprung out into the bayou and hastened to se- cure himself. On rolled the billow of flame, that gathered strength and volume as it advanced. Close to the water’s surface the dry reeds were shaven by the flame, which swept all before it like a scythe. No smoke hovered over the fire’s trail. The wind drove it on, in advance of the flame. Behind the fire, the water was black with ashes and studded with a million tiny sparks that lingered upon the burnt stubs near the surface of the water only for a moment, then died out, leaving the darkness unbroken. Close upon the fiery heel of the flame crept three canoes. Their occupants were savages— ten in number. A light of fiendish triumph glowed in the small, basilisk eyes of that ten; and their half- nude forms and painted faces made them ap- pear grotesque and demon-like in the glare of the burning reeds. Eagerly they glanced over the surface of the water, where it had been cleared of reeds, for the canoe, or writhing forms of their hidden en- emy. Suddenly acry of joy burst from their lips. The flames swept by a canoe that lay rocking like a cradle upon the surface of the water. Like arrows the canoes of the savage fiends shot toward the little stranger-craft. They ran alongside of it ere the fire was ten feet away. Eagerly they gazed within it. No sign of life was there. But in the front of the canoe reclined a rifle, whose barrel was glim-. - mering with heat, and in the canoe and over its | sides was a heap of moss, smoking with heat and steam. . Gray Hawk, second in rank to Black Buffalo, and his warriors sat motionless for several min- utes, and gazed, in astonishment and baffled tri- umph, around them. Where was the enemy that they had expected. to find? They had not escaped from the reeds, for warriors had been posted all around the ba- you. Again the chief fixed his eyes upon the canoe and steaming moss, as though loth to believe. that an enemy was not in it. Then, reaching out, he took hold of the moss and began drag- ging it out. Little by little the warm and wet moss was removed from the craft and thrown overboard. As the last of the moss was taken away a cry of surprise burst from the chief’s lips. In the bottom of the canoe appeared the outlines of a human form wrapped in a red blanket or shaw]. Among the savages was the outlaw guide, Ul- ric Dubois, who had joined the Indians shortly after dark, having come directly from the camp of Henri Roche with the captain’s message to Black Buffalo, who, with most of his warriors, had set off for his village, leaving Gray Hawk to continue the search for the maiden and Hawkeye. Dubois had remained to assist in the search, and no sooner did his eyes fall upon the red object in the canoe than he recognized it as the crimson shawl of Nora Gardette. He at once reached out and pulled it away, and there, in the bottom of the canoe, they saw a prostrate and motionless form. ‘*Tt’s her!” cried Dubois, ‘It’s the gal, Gray Hawk, that the durned boy stole from our wagon.” “Waugh!” exclaimed the chief; ‘‘ she’s dead!” ‘*T b’lieve not, chief,” returned Dubois; “she war well protected. The flames couldn’t get to her through that moss and shawl, and both soakin’ wet. Lift her up, chief; lift her up.” Gray Hawk sprung into the canoe and raised the motionless form in his arms. A cry burst from his lips. She was not dead— the flames had not tonched her, so swiftly did it pass by. She had swooned, no doubt from par- tial suffocation and fear. The chief dipped up some water in the hollow of his hand and dashed it into her face, while Dubois produced a small flask of brandy, and soured a few drops of the liquid between her ips. : Signs of returning consciousness were at once 3ut where now was young Hawkeye? Did not Henri Roche charge Black Buffalo to cap- ture him at all hazards? The daring lad had | | JOOKS.cOM ~ Cc