Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 183 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

said, ‘‘ we dare not injure one upon whom the 1of the Great Spirit is laid,” | Indians bowed their heads silently, for they had seen the wild gestures and heard the shouts of the Lrish boy, and did not believe that any one in his senses could possibly behave in that manner. ‘Phat d’ye mane?” yelled Pat. ‘‘Is it that Tm crazy yees would sayin’? Och, thin, be the powers, and it’s a sad time that’s come to the blood ay the O’Driscolls, whin haythen like yees should call thim crazy. ‘The divila bit.” ‘*He’ll spoil all yet,” muttered the Guide, “‘and you can see that the Queen wants to save him. [f he does get away, and I ever meet him, Ill thrash him within an inch of his life for being such a fool. The young rascal don’t want sense, and he ought to show it now.” ‘‘He wuld not do it better,” said the chief. “*See, he dances like one mad, and waves his bands in the air.” .** Whillaloo, murther!” shouted Pat. ‘‘ Howly saints an’ martyrs be good to us, but it’s kilt intirely lam wid the thought of such shame coming to the houseav O'Driscoll. To the divil wid ye, thin, for 1 won’t stay wid ye at all, at all.” Bursting suddenly through the ranks of his eaptors, Pat plunged into the stream, and be- gan to swim lustily toward the island upon which the two men had found shelter. Think- ing him insane, the Indians had no intention of losing their prisoner, and before he had gone a hundred feet, four men were in the water, swimming after him with all their force, while he headed straight for the island. ‘The young villain is coming here,” said Gil- bert, in alarm. ‘‘ Let’s get out of this.” “No,” said the chief. ‘‘ They will sce us. Come up tree.” Clasping the trunk of a young beech-tree which grew close to the water’s edge, the In- dian quickly ensconced himself in the branches, while the Guide as quickly climbed a birch at his side, and lay hidden among the leaves. A s : LE Sess ————————————$— SSS loud, puffiug noise was heard, and Pat Dris- | coll’s bead emerged from the water. He drag- ged bimself out and cast a quick glance at his pursuers. Toey were not ten f-et away, and | snatching up a heavy bludgeon which lay up- on the bank, Pat danced wildly about, shout- ing to the savages to come, an invitation which they at once accepted. The first, rushing in- cautiously at the supposed maniac, received a terrific whack upon the head, which caused him quickly to coange the perpendicular for the hor- izontal position. They had thrown aside their weapons before plunging into the stream, not dreaming that the boy would make any resist- anee, but they reckoned without their host. Pat was a well-built young fellow, and though but nineteen years of age, was rather famous for athletic sports of all kinds. The first man being hors de combat, the Irish boy performed a peculiar pas seul. over his senseless body, and then rushed at the remain- ing savages, who were coming up the bank to seize him. All were athletic men, and were ashamed of the contest in which they were en- gaged, as being unworthy of their prowess, but they had yet to learn that the Irishman fights from a natural liking for the amusement. They ran in together to seize him, but, with a shout which would have done credit to the ‘‘ Horned Owl,” he bounded into the air like a stag, and planted his feet in the breast of the heaviest man, sending him to join the first victim upon his mother earth. Alighting upon his feet he knocked down the man upon his ight band, and, clinching the fourth, they rolled down the bank into the water with a resounding splash. The Indian was undermost, and bis head struck a stone protruding from the water with a shock which caused a nebulous flood to stream before his eyes, and consciousness was gone. Pat leaped up, shook both clinched hands at the as- tounded party upon the other side of the stream, and dar by the bank, just as Gilbert and his companion slid to the ground. Think- ing that he saw another enemy before him, Pat ran at Owasco with raised club, but the voice of Gilbert restrained him. ‘‘Hold on, Pat. What are you doing now, you young scoundrel; don’t you know your friends? to the canoe and away, for there is not a moment to lose.” Stopping long enough to give a parting rap to one of the Indians who showed signs of con- sciousness, Pat jumped into the canoe, follow- ed immediately by the Guide and Owasco, and, taking the paddle, Gilbert pushed desperately for the other bank, keeping the island between bim and the party of Indians, who had already pushed out their canoe and were making for the island, to capture their escaping maniac. They did not dream of the presence of Owasco | | simple yet excellent rule, Gilbert, the Guide. for the boy, whom they of course supposed to be still upon the island, they came upon the tracks of Gilbert and Owasco. ‘‘ Hugh!” said the Owl, ‘‘ Owasco has been here, and his white friend. Seek for him wherever you can, and we will light a fire and burn them.” They searched in every nook and cranny of the island, of course without success, until the Owl came upon the place where the canoe had left the shore, Trained from boyhood to read every signin the forest, he knew at once that the boy had esca and how. He sent a swimmer back with a message to the ‘‘ Queen,” and had the canoe carried over, and with seven men. besides himself pushed for the opposite bank. There they found the canoe, a large hole broken in the bottom, but no trail leading up the bank except in a single place, where it ended abruptly. ‘The Owl knew enough of forest craft to understand that the men he hunted were learned in the ways of the woods and that a pursuit of them now was hopeless. Though burning to avenge the injury which had been done him by Pat, be abandoned the design and pushed off. When the canoe was midway in the stream a rifle cracked upon the shore, and a puff of white smoke shot up from the bushes a hundred yards up the water- course, and the man who sat behind the Owl fell, shot through the shoulder. There spoke the rifle of Gilbert, the Guide, and the Owl knew its crack well. Fo. fifteen years, wherever it had been his destiny to wander, he had heard of this strange man as following him with the pezene endurance of one who had but a single object, and worked steadily to accom- plish it. Whatever the secret between them, which Gilbert had avowed he would work out, it was of sufficient importance to protect the chief from death, for in those long years the Guide had had opportunities of killing bim, had such been his object, a hundred times. Other Indians of the tribe had he killed witbout mercy, but this, his worst and hated enemy, was Tas for what object was only known to him- self, How had he left the bank of the stream with- out leaving tracks in the soil? The ways of the forester are full of wonderful contrivances to throw the enemy off the trail, and this was a Stripping off his hunting-shirt, and telling the others to do the same, he had spread them upon the ground and then stepped lightly over them, always stop- ping upon the last one to take up the one they iad just passed over and pass it to the front, where Owasco spread it carefully in advance, In this way they gained a hundred yards from the bank, always keeping the less experienced _boy between them, without leaving a foot- | arid the Guide or they would have made great- | er haste, and the canoe reached the other bank and was bauled up out of sight before they were at the island, where they found the sore- ly-maltreated Indians tumbled about in vari- ous positions upon the blood-stained sward, with ‘‘ bloody noses and cracked crowns”—the fruits of their encounter with this irate Mile- Sian, As they searched angrily up and down mark, This done, they put on their hunting- shirts and stole up the bank to watch the move- ments ot the enemy. They saw them turn away, baffled by their cunaing, and in this mo- ment the Guide could not resist the desire to fire at the canoe, All was in confusion for a moment, and the chief seemed to meditate pursuit, when a pecu- liar signal call from the rank upon which they had left the Queen of the Lake called them away, and the canoe was quickly buried in the foliage upon the other shore. | CHAPTER If, THE BATEAU. ** Ha!” cried the Guide. ‘‘ That means some- thing a little out of the ordinary line of events, or the Owl would never leave us after what has happened. Some one is coming, either up or down the river. Owasco, go down-stream and see if you can study it out, and I'll take the boy and goup. You'll stick by me, young one?” ndy Pat Driscoll is me name, and Ill niver disgrace it,” said Pat. ‘‘Av it’s a shindy ees would be l’ading me intil, I’m the b’y that’ll olly yees wheriver ye may like to go.” Owasco glided away, and telling the boy to follow and imitate as well as he could his agile and singularly silent movements, Gilbert pushed his way sek the tangled underbrush of the stream for half a mile. The dip of oars was heard, and a bateau shot out from a curve in the stream and held its course between the ver- dant banks. Four men were at the oars, while a fifth sat in the stern and guided it downward by a steering-oar. Just in front of him a huge wolf-dog lay, with his head upon bis paws, at the feet of a young and singularly beautiful woman, who was pulling the ears of the dog in a teasing, playful manner, “ Hil” eried Gilbert, running out upon the bank. ‘‘In the boat! Mr. Waterman! The young man who was steering looked up with a start of surprise, ard as he saw who called he turned the head of the bateau toward the shore and sprung out, shaking bands with the Guide heartily. | ‘Glad to see you, old boy,” he said. ‘‘ What OeIPRS you up the river now?”. “Danger, sir. How could you be so foolish as. to attempt the descent of the river now without letting me know? and with a lady, too! Are you aware that the Indians are on the war- trail, and that the approaching cloud of war- like bands is only the precursor of a mightier 3 force, which will sweep down like an avalanche from the west and north?” “We have heard some such rumors af the forts,” replied the young man; ‘‘ but we give little credence to them.” He was a tall, finely-built, aristocratic-looking man, in the dress of a civilian, though he was in fact an Indian agent of the United States Government. The lady, who had been sitting in the boat, rose and came forward. As hiseyes fell upon her face, the Guide gave a cry of sur- prise and started back, for he saw in that face the living counterpart of the ‘‘ Queen of the Woods,” except that the skin was fairer. In hight, in figure, in form of feature, the resem- blance was perfect and wonderful. She was dressed in a manner calculated to bear the more readily the fatigues of a backwoods journey, in a rather short dress of some dark stuff, with thick shoes and gloves. The dark, expressive eves which met his reminded him so forcibly of the Queen of the Woods that he gave vent to his feelings in the way we have stated. : ‘Who is this person, Mr. Waterman?” she said. “One ofthe guides of whom you spoke?’ “This, Helen, is the same oue whose wonder- ful escapes I have told you so much about, Gil- bert, the Guide. If his comrade. were here, I would show you the most perfectly-framed man in the North-west Territory.” “Tam glad to meet one who has made bim- self so famous in the annals of the border,” said the lady, quietly, ‘‘and | must congratulate my friend Waterman upon his sublime conquest over self, since haviug a symmetrical figure himself, he has granted that there lives a man who has a better.” ‘‘ An Indian of the Onondaga nation, and his name is Owasco,” said the agent. ‘‘I—” ‘‘ Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Waterman, but every moment we lose is precious. You are in great peril, for as I told you before, the Indiars are on the war. path, and the river is lined with them. The band I have just had a fracas with are nearly twenty in number, led by the famous chief, Horned Owl.” The laughing face of the young agent became instantly grave, and be looked anxiously at his lady companion, whose lip trembled a moment at the terrible news, and then became firm as steel. ‘ ‘‘ What shall we do?” said the officer. ‘‘ Oh Helen, I fear that I have led you into a dreadiu danger.” ** Your danger is not less,” she said, ‘‘ and I am the daughter of a soldicr, and can meet death boldly, if death must come. But is there no way of escape?” : ‘‘They are all on the west side of the stream yet,” said Gilbert, ‘‘and I am not certain that they dare attack you. Butif they do, and the lady isin the bateau, she is almost certain to be hurt. They have only one canoe, and that will carry ten men. What sort of fighters are those in the bateau?’ ‘‘They will fight, and fight well,” said the agent. ‘* We might break through, as you say they have but one canoe.” ‘“‘They’d pick off every man before you get half a mile down-stream, I’m afraid,” said Gil- bert, ina musing tone. ‘‘I must have Owasvo | up here, for the fellow knows their tricks,and _ he has found out just what they mean to do by this time.” He raised his hand to his mouth and gave the signal which he had used before in calling the chief, and it was answered from a spot so clcse at hand that the lady started and | oked sur- Shewga as the bushes parted and Owasco, a little ushed by the exercise of running, came sud- denly out. ‘Now, chief,” said the Guide, in a question- ing tone. “Is there any chance of the Lateau going down?” ea Too ** Not with white girl,” said Owasco. much shoot gun down there.” en Owasco was excited, he spoke broken English in a manner that would have put a Dutchman to the blush, and ke was excited ow, ‘What do ** Speak quick, *“Men go down in bateau; fight, kill Wyan- dot, then come back and take squaw.” ‘* But are there no more than these twenty of whom you yi ** Plenty down river,” said the chief, quietly. “* Kill ’em all.” ‘*T have a proposal to make,” sail Gilbert. “‘I donot know whether you will aceept it or not, but it seems to me the only plan. You must let the chief save this lady by hiding her in a place which he knows of. e, as Men, will join our forces and break through the lines of the enemy, and bring aid from below, at do you say? “T leave it entirely with Helen. If she is willing to trust herself to the guidance of Owasco, I can only say that no man here is more worthy of confidence than he,” replied aterman. . The chief drew himself up proudly, and looked me foresh wp that he Ww: firm, self-reliant. en, out & moment’s hesitation, pla herself at his side. , Ere “I will go with you,” she said, simply. (E@ANIKCElexexe) you propose?” said the Guide. ‘Ss (E(0) wt