Beadle's Dime Library, No. 13 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

38 The eyes of the two girls met with an inten-- sity of emotion on the part of each—hatred, jealousy, and revenge on the one hand; won- der, consternation, and fear on the other. Both were formed fair by Nature, and both siJently admitted the fact. “Lead on!” said Carlota to Brace. The latter shook his head sullenly, and re- lied : : “T won’t trust my back to the dog, noways. As soon's I turn, the chances are two to one that he’ll spring to my shoulders, and put hi-. teeth into the back of my neck. I know the natur’ o’ Nick Whiffles’ dogs. This one isn’t so savage as t’other; but he’s l’arnin’ his tricks right fast. No, no, miss! I ain’t to be tore to pieces by quadrupids.” “Send him away!” said Carlota, sharply, to Madge. “Tt grieves me to part with him,” she an- swered, looking hesitatingly from Brace to Smuggler, as if measuring*the chances of a combat between them. The eyes of the dog followed those of his mistress ; he was evidently ready to try his strength at her bidding. “He’s a fine brute; but you must kill him, Brace,” added Carlota, after a moment's re flection. — “Go, Smuggler, go!” said Madge—“ go back to your master.” muggler looked at her wistfully, as if to divine he purpose by her features. It was not until she had repeated her command in a more inperative voice that he obeyed, and then reluetantly—halting, now and then, to see if the order would not be revoked. “ Now that you are relieved of the animal, go on,” said Carlota. The mountain robber shouldered his rifle, and moved toward the east. Carléta and Madge followed him. CHAPTER XXXIIL SEVEN-PLUMKS. The rays of the sua gleamed brightly on the varied scenery. The summits of the moun- tain-ranges were tipped with crimson and gold. The long, trembling beams of light gilded the branches of the trees, darted down into the valleys, flickered against the broad surfaces of the rocks, and painted fantastic pictures upon lake and stream. But the charms of Nature were lost upon Madge. A sense of personal peril—a — apprehension —voutweighed all other considerations. Occa- sionally, Carléta’s eyes kindled as she glanced sutiead her; but if she found room in her agi- tated breast for the beautiful, she did not ex- press the sentiment. Madge watched for some softening of her expression; but the feelings that guided her movements were too strong te yieid so readily. Madge did not waste words in useless ap- peals ; but followed her silently. She noticed that Brace kept along the margin of the val- ley, following its general course. Sometimes, the way was exceedingly rough, and her feet were wounded upon the sharp stones; but the girl of the mountains, more used to such traveling, sprang =: after Brace with light- ness and agility. If she unconsciously gained upon Madge, and left her behind, she paused for her to come up—and once helped her across a chasm, but dropped her hand sud- denly, as if the contact wounded her. They reached a spot where the valley fell off precipitously. Madge could Jook down many feet u sterile crags, ledges of red sandstone, and shat- tered columns of basalt. Carlota paused to rest. Madge was glad to recline beneath the shade of a cottonwood, It was past noon. Brace stood on the poe! of a precipice, leaning upon his rifle, and looking at the scenery beneath. His face was more serious than usual. Possibly a shadow of the coming event had fallen within the circle of his consciousness, thrilling him with a vague fear. Madge saw a figure sprin from the background and pause on tbe brin of the abyss. So sudden and unexpected was the intrusion, that for an instant she was not aware that Brace had disappeared. Carlota uttered an exclamation of surprise. On the spot where the outlaw was last seen stood a tall and painted form, gazing at the two girls with 8 grim, exultant look. © Although Brace had ever been an object of abhorrence to Madge, she coulc not repress 4 chill of horror at his fate. The Indian had hurled him down the precipice. “Treachery! treachery!” cried Carlota. —— - a eS Ss See eee - The New York Library. n the tops of stunted trees, “ Redskin, what have you done?” “Pushed him over; he fall great ways— kill him dead! White squaws go with Seven- Plumes. Wigwam ten, ‘leven, twenty miles off,” answered the Indian, calmly. “Seven-Plumes has deceived Dick Hen dricks. How can he tell him a straight story, when he meets him? He cannot; his tongue will stammer like a squaw’s,” answered Car- léta, with wonderful self-possession. “The Bear’—Seven-Plumes pointed down the abyss—“ had a bad tongue; he no speak truth; he lie to Seven-Plumes, the chief of the Blackfeet. He say, he give—he no give. Now he no lie no more.” “The warriors of Seven-Plumes will bleed for this! The white chief of the Valley will cause his young men to fall like leaves when the trees are shaken by the wind in the au- tumn of the year,” responded Carlota, with a menacing gesture. “Seven-Plumes no care for Cap’n Dick! He want one, two squaw; he find one, two squaw—he take’em. He fight for Cap’n Dick, too; but Cap’n Dick he no give him ’nough powder, and lead and hatchet.” “T will see that you have all that he agreed to give you,” replie Carlota, thinking diploma. | cy the best policy. “No want hatchet and powder now; want squaw ; got squaw—keep bin '? Carlota struggled to restrain her indignation and disappointment. Fear of captivity did not operate so strongly upon her as the thwart- ing of her plans. “Do you hear what this redskin says ?” she demanded, almost fiercely of Madge: “he talks of his wigwam and squaws.” “It is but a change of masters. I hail this new captivity with different emotions from you. Thraldom with savages cannot be so dreadful as yonder valley and you,” replied Madge. “True, I forgot; I can hope nothing from you. But the wife of achief! "Tis mon- strous !—Seven-Plumes, name the reward that you demand for our freedom. How many rifles, how many hatchets and knives, how many pounds of powder, how much red stuff for your favorite squaws ?” The Indian knit his painted brows. His wild and intractable nature could not brook contradiction. He had enjoyed savage free dom from infancy; his will had been law among his people fot many summers. Should he submit to the dictum of a squaw ? “ Seven-Plumes is a chief. When he speak, the great Blackfoot nation do as he say. I he say, ‘ Go on the war-path,’ to his young men, they go. If he say, ‘ Wash the war-paint from your faces,’ they come into the wigwame with cleau skins. If he say, ‘Kindle the torture fires,’ they are kindled. If he say to squaw, ‘Go to such a lodge and be the wife of such a warrior,’ she go. White squaw of the Valley, come with Seven-Plumes.” Then to Madge, with eyes that glowed with conscious authori- ty, * Pale-face girl with the painted skin, git ap and follow the chief of the Blackfoot na- ion.” There were imperiousness and ape au- tocratic dignity in the manner of the red-man. rhe wild, wayward girl of the Valley changed color and felt her danger, realizing, for the first time, that there were natures as strong and unbending as her own. “ Chief,” she said, after a little silence, skill- fully and artfully modulating her voice to its most persuasive notes, “reflect that we are but girls, children, almost, while you are & man and a warrior, with a heart of iron and an arm of steel. You are strong; we are weak ; the weak look to the strong for pro- tection. The strong ought to be magnani- mous. A brave man is always generous—a coward always the most abusive of power. Do you hear me, chief of the Blackfeet ?” e smile that illuminated the swarthy vis- age of the Indian was both wily and exult- ant. His rude and native pride was flattered, 0. “Tt is well-spoken for a squaw! I have lis- tened to the voices of many, but of few whose talk was so cunning. Seven-Plumes is glad you speak so weil. You make him want be more to keep his lodge and to weleome him when he returns from the successful trail. He kill deer with his own hands ; he kill buffalo ; he catch beaver and otter ; he lay the choicest meat and the best peltries at the feet of the white squaw.” Tears of vexation, burning, bitter tears roll- ed scorching down Carléta’s cheeks. She pressed the handle of the dagger in her bo- som, glanced at her own smal d and arm, then at the hereulean proportions of the chief. He observed her with the eyes of an eagle, and smiled with satisfaction at the strength of her — Betore, she was but a pebble; now, she was a diamond. Seven-Plumes pointed proudly to the north- 2ast. “ Yonder,” said he, “are the Saskatchewan | rairies, and the best hunting-grounds of the lackfoot. Many warriors will weleome the return of the chief. Come!” Madge was already on her feet, and Carlota reluctantly arose. She glanced toward the pas then at the mountains, the hills, the vales, the stretches of timber with which she uad been familiar, then followed Seven-Plumes with reluctant feet. “ Nothing happens according to our expec- tations,” she muttered. “ All things change. We are blown to and fro about the world like a wait of thistle-down. Even our triumph ie short-lived and our revenge imperfect. Wo- man—they call you Sebastian—you exult in my disappointment.” “Tam grateful for any change that takes me from your hand. Exultation over one like you I ns not, cannot feel. I experience emo- tions of pity in seeing one so young, so gifted and fair, so ees so on ey 80 depaavéa by bad pg een F “Oh, you look down upon Carlota of the mountains with lofty compassion, but I do not thank you. Your pity adds another drop to my resentment. If you exhibit these quali- ties to me, how muck more pains have you taken to display them to the hunter in gray. And that wound! Howl hate you for that wound !” “This is no time to indulge in such feeli We are entering upon a captivity that thay be long and dangerous ; for aught we know, Tite. long. We may drag out years of miserable servitude ; or, if we rebel, find a quicker, though painful release by the fagot and light- ed pile. As for this wound, he who gave it has gone to his reward; he lies at the Bottom of yonder abyss. The birds will hover over the spot before to-morrow, and the wolves will bicker with each other for his bones. Let his | fate show you the end of villainy. This poor arm, it would seem, saved a life that is dear to you ; rather thank me for the office, than bring it against me as a crime.” ‘‘ Prosy and inane moralizer! I detest female sermonizers! I’d rather hear behind me the long gallop of tne wolf, than the voice of a canting woman. For the brute who lies man- o in the valley, I have few tears. His fall rom the cliff has perbaps saved him a fall from the seaffold,” answered Carlota. “ But Nick Whifflee—honest Nick! I have feared—I yet shrink from asking concerning him ?” said Madge, anxiously. Carlota stopped on the instant. Something like consternation appeared upon her face. “T had forgotten him—I had really forgot- ten him!” she said, as if speaking to herse “Where did you leave him ?” continued Madge, the manner of Carlota increasing her apprehensions. “Where did I leave him!” repeated the girl, with lips that paled in spite of her firmness. “Yes, that is the question—where? I’ll tell ron In a dungeon of solid rock! No one nows where he is but myself; no one will earry him food ; he will starve!’ “Infamous!” cried Madge, indignantly. oe Nick! This makes me miserable, in- eed.” “TI did not intend this,” added Carlota, thoughtfully. “I expected to have seen him long ago, but this treacherous Blackfoot has thwarted my plans. The trapper was hard on me while’I was Indian ‘Joe, and his suspicions were aot ill-founded; but even his severity was not without a touch of good-nature. Yet the man Doubledark is dangerous. He has been watching us, and the mountaineers like not to be looked after too closely.” “Squaw he talk too much; he talk twice where he walk but once,” said the Blackfoot, with a scowl of displeasure. The captives went on, but the feet of Madge had grown heavier, while every step, it seemed to her, was taking her from one to whose rea- eue she ought to fly. “ Yes,” added Carlota, as if speaking to her self, “ the people of the Valley consider him an enemy, but Carlota is not cruel to those who have not injured her. Sebastion—” the girl’s lip curled contemptuously. | JOOKS (ECO HAV ICE ae egy a tie