Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 85 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

arrested his attention as it had never been ar- rested before. He stared intently at the beautiful face, and the impression ran through him that he had seen it somewhere before; but think as he might, he could not remember where, although the longer he looked, the more convinced was he that it was not the first time be had encoun- tered her. And then he asked himself whether he should not fire his gun and kill one of the Apaches, and, attacking the other, rescue the girl. But he was too old a hunter not to understand the peril both to himself and the captive, but espe- cially the latter. There was no doubt but he would slay one of them, but ere he could reload, the second could brain the girl, and then the fight would be be- tween him and the red-skin, | Besides that, another consideration restrained his arm. As he carefully scrutinized her face, he fancied that the placid expression upon. it meant that if she was a captive, she was a will- ing one, and in slaying her captors, he would be slaying her best friends, nd while these thoughts were drifting through his mind the canoe passed around a bend out of sight, and he suddenly recollected that he had set out to reach his comrade, who probably was in great peril. CHAPTER IV. THE APACHE HORSE-THIEVES, WHeEN Dick Havens left the trappers’ camp, and made haste toward the grazing-place of the horses, it was with little thought of personal danger. He had passed the greater part of the dis- tance, when the near report of a rifle somewhat alarmed him, and caused a sudden checking of his steps. Besides the proximity of the report, he distinctly caught the whiz ofa bullet, as it passed within three inches of his cheek, This was pretty conclusive evidence that who- ever fired the gun had made him the target, and the furious trapper whirled about on his heel, and looked for the hiding-place of the assassin. From a small bush, about two hundred yards distant, he saw a faint wreath of smoke curlin upward. Hesitating only a moment, he dash in that direction at the top of his speed, mutter- ing: a I'll teach you better manners nor to try that game on Dick Havens, you all-fired coward.” Not for an instant while running did he take his eye off the bush; and as he sped rapidly over the ground, he drew his knife from his girdle, to ready for the desperate hand-to- hand encounter with the red-skin, who had had the temerity to make the attempt upon his life. And yet when he reached the clump of bush- es, and bounded over them, ‘‘red-hot’’ for the contest, not a man or sign of one was to be seen, For a few minutes he stared about in bewil- dered amazement, and then looked up over his head and then down to the ground, as thou h expecting to find some trace of him in those di- rections; and then collecting his wits, he stoop- ed down and carefully scrutinized the ground in quest of a “‘ sign.” : The wonderfully skilled eye of the mountain- eer was not tobe deceived, and on the rocky, flinty ground, he detected the shadowy imprint of a moccasin, confirmation of the tale that had been told by the smoke-wreath that followed the spiteful crack of the rifle. ‘But hang it, where has he genet? he mutter- ed, still staring stupidly around him. e then attempted to follow the trail but this was impossible even though the flight of the In- dian had been greatly hurried. The ground was very hard and flinty, and after a yard or so the trail was entirely lost. Whoever the treacher- ous red-skin was, he had made good his escape, ond the trapper was. now powerless to do any- ing. : Still Tene VONBORNCS, he examined his rifle, and turned his steps in quest of his horse, occasionally glancing over his shoulder, to make sure that he was not followed, and furtivel scrutinizing each rock and shrub behind Shia it looked probable that a red-skin might con- ceal himself. distance to pass, There was still considerable and the fact that he had been fired at made him exceedingly cautious in his movements, u , from some cause or other, he glanc- ed to the lett and he was certain saw the tufted head of an Indian peering from behind a bush, almost similar to the one from which the well-nigh fatal shot had been fired. Without waiting, the trapper raised his fn. and taking a quick, but sure aim, fired. en Buck Buckram... he paused long enough to reload, and dashed. forward to make sure of his victim. Upon reaching the bush, there lay an Indian, sure enough, stretched out cold and_lifeless, al- though his position was precisely the same as be- fore the hunter fired his gun. Here again another mysterious and inexplain- able thing was noted. rutinizing everythin with a hunter’s eye, the trapper saw that, al- though he had shot an Indian, yet it was a dead one. The Apache had been slain by a bullet fired several hours at least before his own. ‘* B’ars and beavers!” muttered Havens, ‘‘ that ’ere is a little the yt thing yet. e first time I ever fought dead Injins! At any other time, he would endeavor to in- vestigate the matter, but just now he was too sensible of the danger constantly impending over him; and, leaving the dead Indian where he lay, he hastened after his horses, A half-hour later he reached the spot where he had visited them the preceding day, but was somewhat alarmed at seeing nothing of them. He was not long in learning that the red-skins had also been here. He saw a number of moc- casin tracks where the ground was of a more— yielding character, and discovered where the two horses had been ridden out of the inclosure by their savage captors. The signs showed that it was but a short time since the Indians had left, and the trapper took the trail at once, following it with an assiduity that a mile further on brought him in sight of the thieves. He found that two Apaches had stolen the an- imals; and, after riding a short distance, had dismounted, slain both, and were enjoying a dinner upon the choicest portions of each. ‘‘Tll give you chaps a little pepper to take with that,” muttered vens exultingly, as he began cautiously creeping to a position from MS ea he might gain a good view of the red- skins. ‘Yer’ll find out that ’ere don’t taste as well as you’re countin’ on,” he added, as he secured the coveted position. As there were two savages to encounter, the trapper endeavored to maneuver so as to bring the two red-skins in range, in order that one bullet might finish both. But he failed, as they constantly changed their position, and he finally gave over the at- tempt, and concluded to shoot one, and then take the other in whatevef manner the savage elected. He carefully sighted his rifle over the ground and it required Tan a moment to make sure of his aim. “The next moment he pulled the trig- ger, and, with a shriek, one of the Apaches: threw up his arms and expired. It struck Havens as he rapidly began reload- ing his piece that it sounded strange when he fired it, and he ily saw the reason. At the very instant of discharging it some one else did the same, and the result was seen in the second Indian lying dead upon the ground. As mystery seemed the order of the hour, Havens would not have made an attempt to identify his friend, had he not ee on the ground, in the shape of Buck Buckram, who, springing from behind an adjacent rock, ex- claimed: . " 0 quick, Dick, yonder is a whole pack of em)’ At the same instant, he set the example by ee gpl the ravine with the swiftness of e win CHAPTER V. A RUN AND A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. MEN who are accustomed to lead the eyes and adventurous life of the trappers of the West are pretty certain to possess great fleetness of foot, and extraordinary powers of endurance. Buck Buckram and Dick Havens had been in THeDy. a ‘ tight place,” and had learned to use all the power given them by nature, with great skill. e warning word of the former was the signal for both to turn about and speed away, as fast as their logs could carry them, Buck was slightly in advance, and took a course down the ravine, and almost in an o site direction from the place where he le furs and peltries. He had two reasons for tak- ing this course, the first of which was that it offered the better prospect of escape, and the. second that it drew their pursuers away from their property, which was too valuable to be given up unresistingly. At the moment of starting, Havens saw no- thing of the Indians, whose presence had been announced by his companion; but they had run scarce a hundred yards when a series of whoo and yells emphasized the warning, and told 3 — —----—— hunters that their safety now lay in getting over the ground as fast as possible, While the earth was of a character to prevent anything like the speed of which both pursuer and pursued were capable, yet it perhaps could not have been more favorable to escape, as the hills, ravines, streams, and rocks gave them ev- ery opportunity to conceal themselves, and to resort to those artifices, by which a chase of this kind is so frequently decided, The first great necessity was to get so far be- yond the Apaches as to gain an opportunity for something of the sort, as nothing could be done when the intervening distance was so slight. Fully sensible of this; the trappers bent every energy and bounded over the ground with the velocity of a race-horse, while the Apaches, con- fident of capturing the two, forbore to fire their guns, but kept up their hooting and shouting, as though they would frighten them into giving over the chase at once, “Dick; let’s spread!” called out Buckram to his companion, when they had sped along for a short distance. | The two accordingly ‘spread ” on the instant —that is, they separated, believing that there was a better chance of success in doing this, than in remaining together. This, of necessity, compelled the red-skins al- so to divide their forces, although there still re- mained enough in each party to “settle the task ” of a dozen such trappers. There was very little, if any, difference in the fleetness of the two hunters, and the moment they separatei, they began rapidly drawing away from their enemies, several of whom dis- charged their guns, while all redoubled their exertions. A fortunate turn made the fortune of Buck Buckram. All at once he found himself upon the margin of a small tributary of the river. It was quite a creek, with high, gp pa ag sides, and apparently with considerable depth of wa- te At the time he discerned this obstacle, he was now within a rod or two of the edge; and, with- out stopping fo “‘look before he leaped,” he called up all the strength of which he was mas- ter, and, with one mighty bound, just reached the other shore. He cleared the space by scarcely a hand’s breadth, and without pauriug to look back, hastened on until he was buried in the wood. But Buckram had run but a short distarce when he saw that he was safe, and he turned about to see whether he could be of any assist- ance to his companion. The latter had not been quite so fortunate. When he *‘ spread,” he diverged to the left, tak- ing a direction which he judged would give him the woods, and would leave the matter to be simply a dead trial of speed. But the same creek which interposed across the path of Buck Buckram, and secured his safety also, after several tortuous Windings, laid itself upon the margin of a broad and deep stream, ; Its width was too great for him to leap, and he therefore turned quickly to the left and sped along the shore, his eye running rapidly ahcad, seeking some place over which he could jump. Instead of narrowing, the stream broader ed, until the fugitive began to fear that he was in a trap, for the Indians had him in plain sight, and were yelping like madmen at the easy | ros- pect of capturing him. In a sudden thrill of alarm he whirled al-cut to retrace his steps, but had gone scarcely a dozen yards when he perceived his mistake, and back agai By this dubious proceeding, he lost several minutes—precious time, and the Apaches were fearfully close. Havens saw that he had com- mitted such an error, that the only possible meone of securing his safety was by leaping the creek. Still onward he hurried, until at last he struck a t where it looked as if he might accom- plish the feat. Turning off somewhat to the side, so as to gain momentum, he made the run, and throwing all his strength in the effort, at- tempted the feat. py , He narrowly missed—striking the shore with- in a few inches, but still in water which was about ten feet in depth. He sunk to the bottom, but immediately came to the surface and began swimming to a pom a few rods down, where it looked easy for him to ascend the bank. He had taken less than a dozen strokes, when several brawny Apaches appeared upon the bank, and one of them made the attempt either to leap across, so as to confront him upon the ) te side, or else he purposely sprung into the water to capture him, before he came out. , ICO ¢€oim S) (E