Beadle's Dime Library, Vol. II, No. 14 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

-— ---y oun ———— «a+ —_— ——_. SSF —-= t= ee - she would haye been had it not been for the arm of the bold young brave. Thayendanegea, bearing Kathleen tenderly in his arms—for she was now senseless from terror—rode back to the group in the clearing, and resigned her to the care of her father and sister, who, almost dumb with fear and anx- iety, had witnessed her peril and her reseue. “ God's life, lad! you fave done a deed of which wc knight in Christendom would be proud! You have saved my daughter's life! Ask any gift in my power, and it shall be thine ! Speak out, lad, and be not afraid of any denial!” cried the overjoyed baronet. “Even if it be her hand as thy bride, thou shalt have it!” “ Thayendanegea asks nothing. The Pale- Rose is safe, and he is contented!” said the brave youth, even though her eyes were opening upon him with a look of love and ratitude, for she had so far recovered as to ear and understand her father’s words. She sighed as she heard his calm reply, and her bosom rose and fell, and the color in her cheeks went and came, and two pearly tears came out of her great blue eyes, and stole silently down her cheeks — wherefore, she scarcely dared to ask herself. The storm passed away almost as rapidly as it had come up, and before the hour of the sun's setting arrived, all was still again, and not a cloud obscured its golden path when it went down beneath the blue-hilled horizon in the west. Thayendanegea brought back the white pony, which had stopped just beyond the great fallen pine, too much terror-stricken to run further, and the party remounted, now resumed their way toward Johnson Halli, although they could proceed but slowly in consequence of the many fallen trees across their path, most of which they were obliged to pass around, for they were so pretected by their chevauz-de-frise of branches that to leap over them was frequently impossible, Night was upon them before they emerged from the wood, but the bright moon and countlese stars shone from a cloudless sky, and darkness did not incommode them The atmosphere, made cool and pure by the elee- tricity of the storm, was bracing and delight- ful, and the past danger was almost forgotten in the pleasure of the present, except by one, who, silent and half-tearful, rode as near to her preserver as she could. I need not say who it was. When the party arrived at the hall, Ipisico and Guy were on the piazza watching them. “ By heaven! they are all back safe 1” mut- tered Guy, discontentedly, as they rode up. “The devil wouldn't hear my prayer, or two of them would have had their necks broken !” “The Great Spirit must have held his hand above them!” said the Indian. “Remember the white pony and the black stallion, to-night!” said Guy, as he rose and went into the house, so as to avoid the neces- sity of speaking to the party who were dis- mounting. . ‘‘ T have spoken, and I will do that which my brother wants done!” said the young In- dian, as he followed. CHAPTER XV. Night, still and calm, lay lightly over the earth, for the moon and stars looked softly down upon it, mirroring their sweet faces in the lakes, silvering the rippling streams and gemming the cascades and rushing brooks— making the dew-drops glitter on the spray. and peeping in amid the branches and the flowers, playing hide-and-seek with the sha- dows as the branches gently waved to and fro. It was midnight, or after, when Sir William, —who ever slept lightly, he had lived so lon amid danger—was aroused by the most terri- ble shrieks and outeries in the direction of the stables, also by the wild, shrill neighings of a horse. Hurriedly he arose, threw on 4 night-wrap- er, thrust his feet into a pair of slippers, and urried out to see what was the matter. On his way to the door, he met his son John and also Thayendanegea, who had been aroused by the same alarm. And as they went toward the stables they found several of the servants hurrying thitherward; but what most aston- ishe em, was the sight of two of the ooms, who slept in the loft over the stables, dragging forth the body of what seemed to be an Indian, but ee borribly crushed and die 10 The New York Library. figured about the face and body that he hardly looked like a human being. “Who is this, and what is the matter?” eried the baronet, as he approached the spot where the men, without much care, had tossed their bloody burden upon the turned-up bot- tom of an old sleigh body. “Tt is that bloody young Injin that your honor has been treating so well, and without he is plum dead, he hasn’t got half what he deserves, sir !”’ said the groom. “What, Ipisico? What has he been doing ?” * Look at the knife still in his hand. sir! The white pony which you gave twenty guineas for—the one that Miss Kathleen rides —lies in the stall with its throat cut—and the red hound was going to serve the black stal- lion the same way, but the biter got dit there, thank the Iord! The stallion wasn’t to be caught napping, and has kicked the life out of the murdering villain, I hope!” “God's life, what a wretch! What can this mean? Who can have put the young fiend up to this work? He surely had no reason for such a dastardly act. one one must have impelled him to it!” “Where is Guy? He must sleep very sound not to be awakened by all the noise which has been made!” said John. “Go and findhim! This matter must be investigated. And call Doctor Daly : we must get life enough into this groaning dog to find out why he did it!” cried Sir William. Thayendanegea, who had been to the stable to see if his horse was injured, now returned, and while John hurried to fulfill his father's orders, the young brave stood with folded arms and regarded the writhings and groan- ing of the injured Ipisico with unconcealed pleasure “Vescvius has spoiled the beauty of the Squaw-face!” he said,as he looked at the scarcely discernible features of the young In- dian, and remembered how much he had rided himself upon the regularity of those eatures. in a few moments, John returned with the doctor, and also reported that he had found Guy asleep. “ But,’ he added to Thayendane- gea, in a low tone, “I believe he was playing possom, for he never was so hard to wake before !” “He is a snake, and Ipisico has been his tool! Both are fools!” replied the young brave, in a tone as low as that used by the other. “ Well, doctor, how ag oy the dog hurt !” asked the baronet, after the physician had spent some time in examining the Indian with true professional roughness. In a brogue so rich and sweet that it would have delighted an office-seeking Scott, even more than “the foreign accent of the Ger- man,” Doctor Daly replied : “ Bedad, it’s as purty a smash-up as ever I saw, Sir William! One arta broken, a shoul. der knocked out of joint, a collar-bone splin- tered, three or four ribs staved in, a jaw-bone cracked, a nose flattened into nothing, and half the teeth dropped out or swallowed! Bejabers, it’s as purty a piece of work as I’ve seen since I left the ould counthry !” “Will the fellow die or live ?” “Sure, sir, if he’s properly attinded to, I don’t see why he should die; but he’ll need a deal of mending to put him in any kind of shape, and the beauty of the baste, if ever he had any, is gone from him forever. The whole print of a horse’s fut will remain in his ugly countenance till he dies and rots!” “So much the better!” said the baronet. “Can he answer a question?” “Not with that broken jaw of his very asily, Sir Willaim ; but wait till I wash the blood down his throat with a drop o’ brandy, and maybe he’ll understand one, and answer ye by signs.”’ “What is the matter here? Why, is this Ipisico, poor Ipisico ?” asked Guy, who now came forward, drowsily, as if just awakened from a sleep as deep as that which held Rip Van Winkle in bonds. “ You recognize him more quickly than I could,” said the baronet, casting a suspicious glance ut his nephew. “I knew him by his dress—how did he get hurt ?” asked the innocent Guy, approaching still closer, and bending over the bleeding youth. “Betray me not, or you die!” he whis- ered, as the young Indian’s eyes opened upon i m. But the latter, who could not speak, ex- 78 eee D 6 Ae aes Hoe ad hibited no pleasure at seeing him ; but, on the contrary, the most violent anger, pushing him away with his sound arm. “Who told you to kill the horses ?” asked Sir William, seeing that the Indian was con- BClOUS. The latter pointed to Guy, and vainly tried to speak. “Tt is an infernal lie—I never did!” shouted Guy. An’ what did you bid him not to betray you for, just now, sir?” asked the physician, who had overheard his whispered caution and threat. ‘I did not!’ boldly replied the unblushing young man. “ You didn’t whisper to him, but a blessed moment ago, ‘Betray me not, or you die!” and I didn’t hear you do it?” “ No 1"? “ Ipisico, ye red rascal, ye’ll not tell a lie when mayhap you'll die in an hour. Did Master Guy there caution or threaten you, or not ?” The young Indian, though writhing wita pain, nodded his head affirmatively. “It is a vile lie—you both lie!” shouted Guy, now livid with rage, at being so fairly eornered. “ Master Guy Johnson, yov are the nephew of a baronet, and the son of an Irish jintle- man, and I’m only a poor follower of the great Esculapius, but, by the powers o’ light and darkness, if you don’t ate those words, and apologize for them in just one minute, I'll horsewhip you till you wear all the colors of the rainbow on your dirty back!’ said the doctor, dropping his instruments and snatch- ing up ateam-whip, which happened to be lying near at hand. “Touch me if you dare, you miserable devit!” shouted Guy, who was now actually oeside himself with rage, forgetting who was TThe doctor waited for no second invitation, but plied the whip with a heavy and a skill- ful hand, and with such effect that Guy in an instant ran yelling to the house, pursued by his now heated punisher, who gave him u cut at every leap, and only relinquished the pur- suit when the young villain had entered the house. The doctor now returned to the baronet, and said : “| beg your pardon, Sir William, for using this weapon in your presence, but I’ve borne insult and injury too long from that fellow to stand more, and I'l] let no man living call me a liar to my face, when I’m only spaking truth before God and man!” “I do not blame you at all, Daly,’’ said Sir William ; “he richly deserved more than you ive hi». and if he were not the son of my Sead brother, he should not rest another hour beneath my roof!” “ Would you have me patch up this vit o° disfiguration, Sir William ?” adlscd the doctor, much pleased at not incurring blame from his patron, while he pointed at Ipisico. “Yes, do the best you can for him. I do not blame him so much now as I did; forI see ‘lainly that Guy has but used him as a tool in the matter. The Indian knew no better, and Guy did. Use all your care and skill for the poor devil—when he gets able to talk he may tell us all about it!” pisico, whose eyes till now had only flash- ed anger and hatred, seemed touched by these words cf the old nobleman, and seizing the hanJ of the latter, he pressed it to his heart, and looked grateful at him, as if to express thanks for the one kind expression, when “he so little deserved it. ‘Let the men carry him in carefully, Daly!’ said the baronet, “and order any- thing from my stores which you deem neces- “T'll do all that lays in my power, Sir Wil- liam !”’ said the doctor, as the baronet return- ed to his house and bed, for the chill night air did not feel very comfortable to an e'? *rly man, thinly dre “I didn’t know that you was a master of’ two professions befure, doctor!” said John Johnson, after his father had left. “It bothers the sowl o’ me to know what ye mane, Master John!” said the doctor, with & puzzled look. “ Why, you're a doctor to begin with, and a first-rate dancing-master to boot. I never saw any one learn a running hornpipe quicker a cousm Guy did, just now, in all my @ ” Gomilcbooks.co Pe