Beadle's Dime Library, No. 13 — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

en - Joe stopped and supported himself by a sree, then tas form sank, and he gradually slid down to the root, murmuring: “Ingin Joe tired ; no walk no more.” Nick stepped back and deliberately raised the lad’s head from his hands in which he had rested it. “What a set o’ boys we’ve got, by mighty! The sarpint’s cryin’, or jest ready to, true’s you live. You'll make a great warrior, won't you, sonny? Your name’ll be famous ’mong your red brethren ’thout doubt !” “You are hard upon Joe,” said Pathaway. ‘He is probably unused to walking. Child- ren among the Blackfeet are accustomed to ride from infancy, or at least as soon as they are large enough to cling to a horse’s mane Your dog is too watchful, and really partakes of your own distrust. Call him away, Nicho- las, and I’ll help Joe along.” ‘‘Qoeer boy! condemned queer boy!’ aut- tered Nick to himself. “Wabuma!” exclaimed the Shoshoue, lead- ing on again. athaway took the Indian youth vy the arm, and with this friendly support he. was able to roceed for half an Sout onger, when a sud- en turn in the valley brought chem in sight of the mimie city. “The Ingin knows what ne’s about,” said Nicholas, in reply to an inyuiring glance from Pathaway. “ Hfs's doubied on onr track and come back agin. The critters won't think 0’ lookin’ for us so near home. A little ahead of us is the Devil’s Gate, wnich is hid from view now by the objecks atween. The chief knows & hidin’-place for us up thereaways, I'll be bound.” Multnomah struck to the left, and the par- ties wert soon winding among towering rocks, beside which their figures looked like pigmies. Pathaway believed he now understood what the chief meant when he spoke of the birds building their nests high up among the rt? “Twas a good idee,” quoth Nick. “ The Shoshoné is wise. Dear up a few minutes lon- ger, little ’un, and we'll be at the end of our tramp. It’s hard elimbin’, but we’ll soon con- quer it.” rietrnta, 1 cecasionally for the parties to breathe, Multnomah ascended obliquely the mountain-side to a point half way to the sum- mit, and nearly opposite the Devil’s Gate. At that spot the towers, walls, and columns of the mimic city were most conspicuous, rising like gigantic works of art fallen to ruins. “ Doubledark, here we rest. A band of warriors might hide here. Our enemies are like dogs thrown from the scent of game by runving water,” said Multnomah. ~ All that’s true enough, Ingin ; but we shall have to eat and drink the same as other folks in the course o’ natur’, and game can’t be very sbundant hereabout.” “ Doubledark is a hunter; he knows the th of the mountain-sheep, and the trail where the deer and the buffalo go down to the streams to drink. He is not a squaw to sit down and starve.” “True, Shoshoné! Doubledark, nor them that is with him will never starve while there’s a hoof or a feather of game in the Nor’west.” Pathaway examined with considerable euri- osity the retreat in which he now found him- self. He was particularly impressed with the vast monuments around him. He had seldom contemplated Nature in a wilder and grander mood He had some difficulty in persuading himself that he was not treading the ruins of an ancient city. But there were no marks of the chisel upon the broad surfaces of column and shaft; the walls were hewn by Nature — aptorn from the quarry beneath by a mighty strength. Multnomah had choser for a place of con- cealment a rocky chamber at the base of one of the most imposing of the mimic castles. Nick and Portneuf covered the rough floor with a carpet ef wild sage and such foliage as they could find growing where there was suff- eient soil for vegetation. The blankets of the ies were spread over this, furnishing a couch by no means to be despised by wearied and hunted fugitives. It is true that the iron frame of Nick had sufferec little or no dimi nution of strength; but Sebastian and the In- dian youth were so much exhausted, that evi- dently they could have proceeded no farther. CHAPTER XXVIII. SEX ANT SEBASTIAN, Nick Whiffles aended carefully to the wounde] arm, and when the lad was as com- Pathaway. fortably placed as his meagre means would al- | low, he seemed greatly relieved, and much of | his anxiety vanished. “He needs sleep and rest arter his exer- tions,” he remarked to Pathaway, as they is- sued together from the stony portals of their hiding-place. ‘It’s somethin’ peculiar to the lad that he likes to be by hisself when any thing ails him.” Then to Multnomah: “Chief, is there any water hereabouts? The boy must be powerful thirsty by this time.” The Shoshoné made an affirmative move- ment of the head, and went to procure the el- ement in question. “There’s a suhject upon which I wish to talk with you,” said Pathaway, drawing Niek aside. “ Well, colonel, I’m willin’ to hear any man’s talk when it’s reasonable. Let's set down in the shade o’ this wall, for [pose it’s a subjeck that can be spoke on settin’ as well as stannin’.” “Tt is a matter that I ssareely know how to approach,” Pathaway added, with some em- barrassment. “Can't ’magine what ‘tis, rejoined Niok, with a little start. “Never had no secrets in my life ; and not in my life, neither, but none worth mentionin’, lately. Some o’ my family had secrets; an aunt o’ mine was full of ‘em. Myster’ous lookin’ critter, she was. Was al- lers shakin’ her head ina mighty knowin’ way, and puttin’ her finger her lips. She got to be so full o’ information that it perduced com- bustion o’ the brain, at last.” “T have observed,” continued Pathaway, “vour treatment of young Delaunay—” “ Treatment!’ exclaimed Nick; ‘ ha’n't I allers treated him well? Could I treated him better if he’d been my own brother ?” “You could not, indeed; and it was that very fact, combined with the peculiar delicacy of the boy, that first aroused my suspicions.” The trapper’s face flushed ; and either an- ger or confusion, or a blending of both, strug- gled within him. “S'picion,” he said, slowly, “is a word I gon't like to hear; for if ] understan’ the defermation of the word, it means a sort of mistrust that all isn’t right—or, ‘# other words, is a kind o’ low cunnin’ about some- thin’ that should be open and above-board. Your talk don’t begin well, colonel, and I think we'd better let the subjeek drop; though I'll be eondesined if I know what the subjeck is.’ “T mean no offence in the world !’’ answer- ed Pathaway, earnestly. “ But I wish simply to say, that your tenderness of the youth; your constant regard for his welfare; your affection for him displayed in innumerable ways; your ready and sometimes incongruous apologies for his weaknesses—together with the singular beauty of his face and form, the smallness of his hands and feet—have given rise to the suspicion that the object of your solicitude is not a boy, but a woman.” Nick’s embarrassment was too evident to be unnoticed—and with it, too, was mingled much that was painful. Pathaway waited for him to recover from the effects of his announce- ment. ‘‘He’s as good a boy,” suid Nick, doggedly, “as ever walked. You can see he’s a boy, lain ‘nough, by his clothes; for any fool are that a boy wears boy’s clothes, and a gal wears gal’s clothes. They’re made different, boy’s and gal’s clothes be. It’s jest the diff*r- ence atween gowns and trowsers. Now, do ou s’pose if that boy had been of t’other sex, bat ra put masculine toggery on him? Oh Lord, no! I'd as soon ’a’ thought o’ puttin’ ‘® grizzly bear in a monkey-skin, or jest contrawise — which would be a monkey in a bear-skin. What do you s’pose a feminine could do straddlin’ about’ mong the rocks in trowsers ? "I'would be as ludickerous as "twould be for me to put on petticoats, and give myself the dainty airs of acity miss. Begin to see how rydicerlous "tis, don’t ye? Never felt more like laughin’ nor I do now, I swear to gracious !”’ Nick tried to laugh his old whimsical laugh, but the effort was a miserable fail- ure, } “Tt won't do, friend Nicholas—the boy is a girl!” replied Pathaway, smiling. “Do you think that we Nor'westers ketch gals in trowsers as we do beavers in traps ? 8 feminine natur’ so abundant that we haven't petticoats to put it in? ‘"Tisn’t easy for a woman to ’pear like a boy, I tell ye. My old- est sister tried it, for a lark, among the young eee ee 33 ee ee ee eee ee ' fellers; hut the smallness of her waist, and the gin’ral developments of her constitution, together with her mincin’ way o’ steppin’, brung her out to once. Now a woman don't step coat Colonel; but that boy Sebastian ‘ll span the ground beyend all account. You'd oughter to see him pace it off when he’s ina hurry! Ag’in, a feminine has a kind o’ knit- tin’-work, swingip’ motion sideways; but you may draw u line each side o that boy close to him, and he won't niggle enoug). either way to tetch. As for the matter o' hands and feet, I don’t ’member that I’ve seed bigger ones on any lad of his age and size. liecollect, Colonel, I said age and size.” “J admire your fidelity to your interesting protégé, but tell you plainly that tae question is settled beyond doubt in my own mind. Even Indian Joe detected the imposture at once.”’ “ Ingin doe ’l! git his ears cut off if he isn’t keerful !” returned the trapper, tartly. Pathaway waited for Nick to cool again. “It’s sometimes pesky hard,” he added, anon, persuasively, “‘ to tell a boy from a gal. I knowed a p’ison diffikilty that growed out of sich a case: ‘twas an offspring of Dr. Whiffles was the subjeck of it. Fust, they tried petti- coats ; then, trowsers; then, finally, fell back on petticoats agin ” “ Believe me, my friend, I am deeply in- terested in the youth you call Sebastian; and I have no doubt but you are governed by the best of motives. Rest assured that I shall do nothing to disoblige you, but everything in my power for her protection and somfult. Whether she had any part in the tragedy ef Black Rock, I know not, nor shall I ask. I seek no disclosures from you. I did not think it right longer to deceive you in regard to m convictions. Woman ever has and ever will have paramount claims upon my respect and the protection of my arm.” « Vou mean well, Colonel, and I thank ye ; and you argué so well, that I should doubt the gender myself if I hadn’t made up my mind. But I ean’t quite give in; I’ve said boy, and boy it shall be. When my gran’father writ a thing when he’s travelin’, he never altered it and writ it over, if it turned out to be never so big a lie arterwards; and he gin- erly put a rote in the margin under sich places to prop’em up. But so fur’s the boy’s consarned, there’s no weak places to prop up. Once when he’s travelin—my gran’father— in Hindostan, in his hoss and shay (ahout which hoss and shay a song has been writ and composed, and which I'll sing to ye when I it time), he seed a child hangin’ from a tree in a basket. He stopped his vehickle imme- jiate, arter ridin’ round the tree three times to collect his fakilties and the facks, and writ that all the children born in Hindostan was put in baskets, and left to swing on the treea till they perished or was eat up by the birds. A few paragrams below he writ (hd driv into a village then, I s’pect) that the kentry was thickly settled with a ‘normously increasin’ poperiahen, which threatened to overrun ita orders if some sickness didn’t put a stop to it. My gran’father took the census of every kentry he driv through, which was a work o’ some magnitude in some places, ‘specially where they didn’t hang their children in bas kets. Some races o’ men he found worry ex- tinct. The Tartars, for instance, was reduced to a hundred million — which was melan- choly.” ' Pathaway listened patiently for Nick to talk himself out of breath; but the trapper exhibited no sign of weariness. Subject-mat- ter appeared to stretch before him as measure- less as the prairies he delighted in, and as va- ried as the Northwest. While he was mak- ing a longer pause than usual at a period, the hunter arose and quietly left him, to take a more careful survey of Trapper Valley and the region around it. ; This conversation took place just outside the natural chamber where Sebastian was re- clining. Now it happened that there was a passage between the rocks that transmitted sounds with great facility ; and thus the youth accidentally ena a party to all that ogi between the hunter and the me Be e lis- tened with varying emotions, and sought the Shoshoné at the close of the singular inter- view. He spoke earnestly with the chief for a few moments ; and shortly after, when Nick looked for Multnomah, he could not be found, —_—_—_——— (EOMANTICE Noval KS (El) ee a ‘ ew ee ee;