Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 114 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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the. leader, as he gazed upon her, who forgot all else in her solicitudoe for him. “Do not fear, little sister,” hesaid. “ There is really no danger; and my duty calls me to act,’ But, all atremble, she pressed her eager way through the horses and came to him, putting her arm about bis waist. ** Lot m9 go with you then,” she urged, ‘If ou leave mo, you will never come back! I now it!l—I fecl it.” And gazing into that upturned face with its quivering lips and tear-swimming eyes, this man, from whose sore heart her gentle minis- trations had gradually wooed all the bitterness and: distrust, smiled with a rare sweet smile, and ‘stroked her hair with a lingering fondness, and touched his lips to her wet cheek with a reverent tenderness that left his own eyes humid. There were others touched by her devotion — a men whose hearts were yet ‘in the right nee.” 7 Beneath his burr-oak exterior Judd Baker felt quickening emotions which he would have been ashamed to acknowledge, though they Waa in truth, evidences of his sterling man- 100d. “Look a-hyar, cap’n,” he said, fidgeting nerv- ously, ‘‘ Vm the man to go out an’ meet that ‘jzen critter. Ef they rub me out, nobody’s ho wuss fur it. But jest you stay back an’ mind this hyar Icettle roxe-bud. Gosh-all-fish- hooks! ef I had any woman-critter—” But Judd suJdenly lefs off in hopeless confu- sion. The Gentleman from Pike smiled, and sail:— “Thank you, Judd. You mean all right. But. you must) know that my little girl is as brave as the best of you, and would be the last one to wish me to shirk my duty, when she takes a second thought. “Return to your place, dear. It would take all the manhood out of me to feel that you were not aoree about b7 all the safeguards at our command.” Avain he touched her cheek lightly, disengag- ed her clinging hands, and waited to see her re- turn to the scant shelter of the horses, HEven there, there was danger of her being trampled | upon, if the animals became unmanageable. The girl obeyed in silence, only following | rar hy her fond eyes as he strode boldly orth. The Ute chief was a grim-looking old cut- throat, who owed his humorous sobriquet toa certain dilapidated straw hat in which he had strutted about the Injian agency during the making of one of the many treaties, boasting insolently that he had taken it, along with the , scalp it had covered, from the head of a ‘‘big | white chief.” | Now, with a facetiousness which he had caught from contact with the reckless moun- tain men, with whom the gravest situation is not free from its jest, he said, with a guttural chuckle; * Ugh! Got ’um big white chief darn tight!” Truth to tell, the noble red-man delivered | himself of an uncompromising Western oath; butout of deference to the amenities of polite literature, we euphemize it into that substitute | with which Brother Jonathan has sought to cheat the devil, while enjoying, in its essence, © the luxury of profane swearing. | ‘Did you:eall me out here to tell me that?” | ask the Gentleman from Pike coldly. The savage shrugged his shoulders, then said, with a sly watchfulness in his black eves: “White chief do squar’ t’ing by Dick Hat-— band, let’um go, maybe! No git out nasty hobble, if don’tlet’um go. Knock ’em socks off from white chief—take ’em scalp, white brave, every son-of-a-gun! Ante up—let ’um go?” tdo you want?” denianded the Gentle- man. from Pike. ‘* Dick Hat-band powerful big chief. Reckon ’um got nice warm wigwam,” said the savage, watching the effect of this feeler, ‘ ““Well?’? asked Carleton, at a loss to divine whither it tended. ‘*S’pose white chief give ’um darn fine squaw? Heap tender, like prairie hen. Yum—yuu! Dick Hat-band bully old boy! Like ’um young squaw pooty good!’ And the chief laughed—a horrible laugh to | one'who knew the unspeakable sufferings to which white women have in hundreds of cases been subjected upon falling into Indian captiv- it . Tat first the Gentleman from Pike did not comprehend his meaning; then, as the terrible truth dawned upon his mind, a wave of fur and a thrill of agony swept through his soul: and with a savage oath he sprung forward and raised his fist to fell the barbarian to the earth. Dick’s Hat-band leaped back with a startled ery. Seat went the rifle of some hot-headed savage, the bullet putting two holes in and out of ‘the white man’s buckskin adr just under | the'arm, and scorching a rib inits passage. is narrow escape brought the enraged man: to bis senses, and he instantly raised his hand — to eheek @ funillade from his followers, of us may escape! The Gentleman from Pike. - A ténder, inward light irradiated the face of | | — It was a ‘‘ticklish” situation. Neither the Gentleman from Pike nor Dick’s Hat-band had ever been in greater jeopardy. After a moment of terrible suspense, the dan~- ger passed, ‘*Give ’um squaw, let ’um go, all right,” per- sisted the Indian. ‘‘No ante squaw, take ‘um all same—rake ’um board,” Controlling his anger, the other said: ‘* Go back to your devils, and do your worst; but understand, you cannot touch a hair of that girl’s head until you hold the scalp of every man that can raise a hand to protect her!” And he turned on his heel. A sullen frown settled down on the bronzed visage of the savage. ‘*All right! Take ’um all same! Look out! Dick Hats band darn bad pill when ’um got blood in eye! And muttering these threats, little in accord with the Spies utterances that Cooper has iven us, this modern king cf the forest stalked bey with angry stride to his skulking myrmi- ons. The Gentleman from Pike did not explain the nature of the abortive negotiation. Her ears awaited the horrible tale aseagerly as any- body’s. He only said: ‘It’s fight to the death! And men, in God’s name! never give up while you have a drop of blood in your veins!’ They saw the suppressed agony that wrung reat beads of sweat from his b'ow and gave hat wild appeal to his eyes; and, though it was unintelligivle to her—ah! would she not have swooned with horror, had she been able to read those signs aright?—to those who were versed in Indian character came a slow consciousness, until they set their teeth and turned their blaz- ing eyes one upon anotber, and then and there, mutely, they swore never to abandon her while life lasted! An ominous quiet reigned on the part of the savages. As for the whites, hemmed inin that mountain pocket, they could hope for nothing until the orang of nightfall. But the danger came long before the dark- ness. There was a rattle of firearms from overhead and the patter of bullets, many of which found their mark, as cries from men and horses told. ‘Thay have gained the hights!” cried the leader. ‘‘Wecan stay bere no longer. They could pick off every man of us in half an hour. We have but one chance. We must ride through yonder ambush! Mount, men! A few Remember!—as long as there is one man left, he must protect this poor | child!” ‘ PALA, swear to do that, cap’n!” shouted Judd aker. And from lip to lip ran the pledge: ‘* We swear !” ‘‘ Judd!” cried the Gentleman from Pike, wringing his hand with an agony that was be- _ yond words, “it is my place to lead! Take her and keep her in the center! Do not leave her side, I charge you!” ‘*Cap’n, you kin tie to ole Judd Baker, every time!” was the assurance of the hopest moun- tainman. Then all leaped into the saddle, with Lilian _ Amberleigh in the middle. There was no time for leave-taking, when every moment of delay cost a life. Awed by the giant emotions that swept away | these strong men, the girl obeyed every injune- tion without demur, nor did she seek to divert from his higher duties, to herself, the attention of the man toward whom her heart went out now as never before. ‘‘ CHARGE!” thundered the leader. In a compact body they swept down into that hell of carnage! CHAPTER VIII. RUNNING THE GANTLET. Down into that vale of withering death swept the devoted band! Guiding bis horse by his knees, the bridle- rein hanging loose, the commander led the van, with a cocked revolver in either hand. Not a foe was-in sight, but well they knew that death lurked behind every bowlder, every ine! , It came! . A hundred vivid flashes!—a bundred puffs of white, sulphurous smoke!—a hundred sharp re- ports that filled the crags with rattiing echoes !— _a hail of whistling bullets!—the agonized cries of wounded men and horses!—the rearing, plung- ing steed; the rider toppling from his sadale!—a chorus of blood-curdling yells, as if the demon hordes of Tartarus had burst its iron bound !— then hell unvailed its horrors, and the fiends of, destruction held high carnival! Like the fabled warriors that sprung armed of the cap a-pie from the earth at the stam mailed heel of their leader, every rock, every coppice semed to yield its dusky brave. | Not, as of old, with flying missiles—the arrows and tomahawks’of their fathers—did these mod-- ern lords of the forest fill the air; but in their hands were trusty rifles, with which this strange- ly magnanimous government arms its foes for the slaughter of its citizens, and revolvers which they used with a deadly skill not interior to that of many of the whites. \ But many a plumed and painted savage went down before the concentrated fire of Lilian Am- berleigh’s sworn defenders, the yell of defiance | ending in the death-rattle; and more than one dusk ‘iron warrior was beaten tothe earth by the oofs of those madly charging steeds! Ou either hand the revolvers of the Gentile- man from Pike flashed incessantly, until the hammers descended upon caps that had already set in train the doom of some yelling demon. Then Lilian Amberleigh, whose eyes had never for an insiant wandexyed from her brave champion, saw him sway in his saddle and put his hand to his breast, A cry of anguish and terror leaped from her blanched lip. **Oh, Will! Will! He is struck! In Heaven’s name, save him!” She dug her tiny spur into her horee’s flank; and with great bounds he forced his way through his fellows that hedged bim about, and bore his rider to the side of the man who braved all for her sake and for whom she would as readily have laid down ber life. Hard hit, the commander clutched at his sad- die-horn, that he might not fall beneath the hoofs of his own followers’ steeds, to await the scalping knife of the ruthless 1ed butcher! But a deadly vertigo paralyzed his brain; the world spun round; the air became sucdenl filled with flakes of ebon blackness; the sounds of carnage seemed muffled and receding in the distance: all conscious things were slipping from his grasp. Was this death? Even then his thought was of her. Was she safe? “Oh, God! will Judd Bakor fail of his trust?” As if conjured by the mighty travail of his soul, the woman, beside whom all the world else sunk into insignificance, suddenly appeared at his side, a cry of unspeakable anguish on her lips; her distended eyes glassy with horror and dread unutterable; her frail arms about tottering form! Dimly be perceived her. “Thank God! she is safe yet! Heaven pro- tect her to the end!” was the aspiration of his soul, But Judd?—where was he? Had he fallen? Was she left entirely alone? “Go! Leave me!” murmured the Gentleman from Pike, the words falling heavy from his re- luctant tongue. He felt her clasp him more closely; then he seemed to fall from the frail support of her faithful bosom, and al] consciousness left bim. But the brave man was not to be left to the mutilation of the savage scalping-knife. Staunch Judd Baker had followed Lilian urging his horse to Carleton’s other side; and now his stout arm encircled the toppling form ot the wounded leader, plucking it from the embrace of the girl, who otherwise would have been borne from her saddle by its too great weight—but never, ob, never would she have abandoned it! ‘* Ob, Judd! Judd!” screamed the affrighted girl. ‘‘See! he is dying! el help! Oh! cannot something be done? See how ghastly he is! Oh, Judd! Oh, Heavenly Father! eyes are closing! Heisdead! He is dead! Oh! Oh! Oh!” She was wild with grief. She lost sight of ie danger to herself. In that mad dash she might be borne from her horse’s back by the limb of some tree. She heeded nothing. She looked only at the man in whose loss all the world seemed blotted out, No words could console such despair. Her safety was the one thing to be struggled for now. ‘* At ’em, boys! Waste no shots! Give ’em Hail Columbia!” yelled sturdy Judd Baker, the blood already streaming over his face from a wound in the hoad. ‘' Push ahead, fellers, an’ ive us the center! Vl look out fer the cap’n, uard! guard, thar! That devil’s reachin’ fer Miss Lilian!” In that wild melee they fought like Titans; but they were outnumbered ten to one, hen the savage bullet found its mark and the gallant rider reeled in his saddle, they had not their leader’s good fortune—no Judd Baker was at hand to sustain them. So their ranks were thinned until there were not enough left to surround Lilian as they had done at the outset. Thus she was left exposed to savage assault. But the Indians had received their ordersfrom their chief—the white squaw was to be captured alive and unharmed, end reserved to grace the wigwam of the great Dick’s Hat-band, nd now Judd Baker’s warning cry was elicited by the sudden appearance of the chief himself di that was so desperately fighting its way to life and liberty; the dusky inamrato had his his re- More than this hand on Lilian’s bridle-rein, and alread pulsive visage was aglow with a horrible umph. | In the midst of that awful carnage gigh 9a His | rectly in the path of the little band Pp sinsiwinunninseeaneaeoentioiont seine eis ee Gom (0) Gbooks:;e