Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 189 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

Wild Bill’s Gold Trail. 17 . CHAPTER XXXTI. WILD BILL’S MISSION, WuHen Wild Bill left the spot where he had visited such just, aad summary punishment upon Captain Corduroy, be searched for and found the trail of Hyena Harry, who in his character of Count Carlos, had so hastily left the scene of combat, when the Fighting Par- son had charged upon the villains. That Hyena Harry was a brave man, red as was his heart, no one would doubt; but in his past life he had done deeds which were punishable by hanging, and he had a supersti- tious dread of the rope, though he would face foes with revolvers at any time where there was a chance of escape, He had believed the Vigilantes were upon them, and instantly spurred away, for he could not think that one man, and that man a preacher, would dare attack three, unless aid was bebind him. He had only gone to Poker City, when he felt secure in his disguise as a foreign noble, but all the time had felt nervous of there being an avenger upon his track. He made it a rule never to leave the strong- hold, to go further than the Overland trail, to attack a coach, and when Harvey Havilani charged upon them, after one shot which failed to bring the daring parson down, his only desire was to get back into the retreat and he forced his horse through the forest at a breakneck speed. Wild Bill having found his trail, at once started off at a right angle, and disappeared in the forest. But before long he returned, and was mounted upon his matchless black Midnight. “As I thought, the trail wears round and goes back to the stronghold. “Now if [can only keep it I will be all right,” muttered Wild Bill. t, after a few miles’ ride, splendid trailor and. skillful prairie and mountain man that he wag, he could not follow the trail across some rocks, where not a vestige of a trace was left, the outlaw having evidently there muffled the hoofs of his horse. “Tt is just where I was at fault before,” he said with chagrin, and for some moments lost in deep thought. “Yes, it is my best course, and I will go at once and get the aid of the Red Dove and a couple of her best warriors, for her people are huntin’ only a sharp half day’s ride from here, and she must be with them. ‘Miss Insley is safe, and that parson will take care of her, and I can do nothing alone to rescue her father and that unfortunate lady. _“But with the Red Dove and a few of her braves that can trail a bird, I shall ferret out this stronghold of the Desperado Dozen. ‘‘Come, Midnight, we must push ahead, old horse, and I want'you to do your best.” The intelligent horse seemed to understand his master well and set off at a fast pace. After several hours, quick travel the moun- tains were left behind and the prairie was ut, darkness coming on, and no sign of the Indian hunters being seen, Wild Bill deter- mined to p for the night, and after a frugal supper down to sleep, with his blanket for a bed, and his saddle for a pillow, while Mid- night cropped the juicy grass near. With the first glimmer of dawn Wild Bill awoke, took a bath in a prairie stream, ate his breakfast, and by the time it was good light, was going across the prairie at a swift pace. For some hours he rode on, now on the prairie, now in the hill-land, and suddenly ‘ew rein. e heard the fall of hoofs, and saw dash into Mog: making for the hills, a large herd of buf- ce) Behind them were scores of Indian hunters, yet not near enough to bring any of the ani- mals down, A glance at the herd, showed Wild Bill that the buffaloes were comparatively fresh. A look at the Indians discovered that their horses were tired and that they were dropping back, and must lose their game. ‘Yes, they are Sioux from old Black Bear’s village, and I will do them a good turn,” he sai Unslinging his repeating rifle from his sad- dle, he got himself and horse well together, and, like an arrow from a bow, dashed out into the midst of the large berd. They swerved wildly, but the daring hunter went into their thickest ranks, and at every crack of bis rifle a buffalo fell. Reloading as he rode along in their midst, he again emptied his rifle, and then his revolv- ers, and the herd passed on, leaving him in the rear, and half a hundred of their number dead upon the prairie behind them. The Indians had drawn rein, at seeing a white hunter dash out from the shelter of the hills; but evidently recognizing him, they gave shouts of welcome, and came on as rapidly as their tired ponies could bring them. As they dashed up to where Wild Bill stood by his horse awaiting them, he addressed them in their own tongue, and said: “I saw that my red brothers’ ponies were tired, so killed some game for them. ** Tt is all for my Sioux brothers.” They were astounded and delighted at the havoc the mighty bunter had made in the herd, for the idea that one man, in a single run, and in a few minutes, could kill half a hundred buffaloes, had never entered their heads, and Wild Bill, their friend, and the white brother of their bead chief and their queen, Red Dove, was still the more exalted as a mighty bunter and great brave. ‘*TIs the Black Bear’s village near?” he asked. They pointed to a far distant clump of tim- ber, and a warrior said: ‘The tepees of the great chief are there.” “Ts the Red Dove with the hunters, or back in the village of the tribe in the mountains?” ““The Red Dove is there.” “Good!” and Wild Bill rode rapidly on, leaving the Indians to bring the game into camp. CHAPTER XXXII. BLACK BEAR AND RED DOVE, THE village of the Sioux hunters was pitched in a pleasant grove of timber, through which ran a crystal stream. Very few of the squaws of the tribe were along, and none of the pappooses, they baving been left in the head village of their people in the mountains. Their chief, Black Bear, was a man far above the average in intelligence; and having bad for his wife a white maiden, the daughter of a settler, and who had sacrificed herself to save the settJement from fire aud rapine at the Indians’ hands, he had become, in a manner, civilized. His daughter, the child of his white wife, was the queen of the village, and her beauty and lovely character deservedly won for’ ber that rank, even had not her father’s rank done so. She was a maiden still in her teens, and both form and face were exquisitely lovely, she having inherited all of her mother’s beauty and grace. ' Taught by that mother differently from what the others of her sex were, she had thoughts and feelings which never entered the minds of her companions. Her father made her his idol, though his dead son, Iron Eyes, the child of an Indian wife was ever in his thoughts. It had been better, perhaps, for Red Dove had she been allowed to grow up an untutored savage, and not had her finer feelings and nature cultivated by her mother, for then she would not have suffered in mind and heart as she had been made to suffer. Her beauty made her the object of admira- tion in the hearts of all the young warriors, and even old chiefs, while it caused her to attract the gaze of Hugi Harcourt, who, under the name of the Lone Pale-face, was then living a hermit life near the Indian camp, The father of Red Dove’s mother, who had cowardly allowed the sacrifice made by his daughter, to save his own life and riches, had bitterly repented in after years, and when dying, had left to her child, his grandchild, whom he bad heard lived in the Indian camp, his fortune, and she at once became the game which a city lawyer, who was the executor, intended to run down. His plan was to make her his wife and there- by gain her fortune. His pilgrimage to the far West, his finding of the Indian maiden, and carrying her to St. Louis, with her half-brother, Iron Eyes, is all told in the story preceding this one, and entitled ‘‘Wild Bill’s Trump Card, or The Indian Heiress,” as is also the fact that, finding her husband meant her harm only, and that he had killed her halt-brother, Iron Eyes, to get him out of the way, she became an avenger, and took the life of the man who had so infured and deceived her to gain her gold, and the gallows would bave been her end, had not Wild Bill gone to St. Louis, bribed Dan Dale, then the prison-keeper, and rescued her from. death. It was no wonder then Lone Star loved the white chief with all her heart, for before thab had Wild Bill saved her from cruel foes, and her whole heart went forth to him, though she knew he loved her not. This hopeless love, and the shadow of the past banging over her, was the sorrow of her heart, and in the wild life she led among her people, and which she had come back to after her escape from prison, she loved far more than the butterfly existence she had led in the city. In roaming the vast prairies and trackless: mountains, she tried to forget her sorrows, and loving devotedly her Indian father, she devoted herself to him. Racognizing the black steed and rider coming across the prairie at a sweeping gallop, Red Dove gave a cry of joy, which brought her father from his tepee, She was preparing breakfast, and a frugal meal it was, as the hunters had been very unsuccessful in getting game, and instantly she left all and bounded forward like a deer to meet Wild Bill. But, seemingly forgetting herself, and that her act might appear unmaidenly in the eyes of the white chief, she returned to the fire in front of her tepee and awaited his coming, while Black Bear advanced to receive him, _ CHAPTER XXXIV. RED ALLIES. ‘The Great White Chief is welcome, ‘Black Bear offers him bis hand and heart,” said the chief, with dignity, and he grasped both of Wild Bill’s hands, as he sprung from bis horse. ' Red Dove would have given her life, with her heart, dared she offer it; but, checking the impulse that made her desire to give the one man in the world to her, the greeting which ber heart dictated, she said simply: “The white brother knows how glad the | Red Dove is.to see him.” * And I am glad to find both the Black Bear and the Red Dove here, for I have came to see them,” answered Wild Bill, ‘ Just then a Sioux brave rode up with some choice pieces of buffalo-meat, and he told the chief, in a few words, of the marvelous run of the white hunter in the herd, and Black Bear said: ‘My white brother is always great, and we owe to bim many thanks, for we were hum gry.” _— “If your hunters will go with me on my return, I will show them where they can get — enough to fill their tepees,” said Wild “The chief is kind, and we will all go. “Now let the Red Dove give us food that our white brother has brought us.’ But Red Dove was already at work prepar- ing breakfast and working with a will, that their honored guest might fare as sumptuously as he could. 3 After a substantial breakfast, which Red Dove seemed to enjoy immensely also, Wild Bill sat in silence, and both father and daugh- ter knew that he had something to communi- cate, and the maiden filled pipes and handed them to Black Bear and their guest. Then all sat in silence for some moments. Wild Bill noted, as he glanced into the faces of his red friends, that the eyes of Red Dove seemed to have grown more sad and dreary since the last time he had seen her, and about her mouth was a look of sternness that ill became the full, pouting lips, She had gone back wholly to her Indian costume in dress, but it was richly worked, made of the finest tanned ¢kins, and was cer- tainly mest becoming to her. Her father’s face, too, seemed to have grown much older and sterner, and there was a far- _ away look in his face, when in repore, that seemed as though his thoughts were in the grave with his son, his noble, brave, Indian boy, whom he had so hoped would one day rule the tribe. | ‘*T have come to ask the Red Dove a favor,” said Wild Bill, after a long silence, in which he puffed calmly at his tomabawk pipe. “ The Red Dove grants it before it is asked,” was the low reply. | (ECON MUCELONOO SS eon