Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 20 — page 1: what you’re looking at

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

-—S va" ¥ a ’ Mil Hit, Ug thE!) UAT ONAL Yop Ul! Hii D POR LSIOSTILI OIL I ; a Complete In One Number. The Bandit at Bay PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIES. BY GUSTAVE AIMARD, AUTHOR OF “THE TIGER-SLAYER,” ‘‘ RED CE- DAR,” ETOC., ETO, CHAPTER I. THE CACHE. WE are in the heart of the desert. Before us immensity is unfolded. What pen, however eloquent, would venture to describe those illimitable oceans of verdure to which have in imagery been given the poetic and mysterious name of the Far West? That is tosay, the truly unknown region, with its scenes at once grand and striking, soft and terrible; unbounded rairies in which may be ound that rich and luxu- riant Flora, against whose magic growth only the Indian can successfully struggle. These plains; at the first glance, offer the dazzled eye of the rash traveler who ventures on them a vast carpet of verdure em- bossed with flowers, fur- rowed by large streams; and they appear of a des- perate regularity, min- ling in the horizon with he azure of the sky. It is only by degrees, when the sight grows ac- customed to the picture, that, gradually mastering the details, the visitor no- tices here and there rather lofty hills, the escarped sides of the water-courses, and a thousand unexpect- ed accidents which agree- ably break that monotony by which the eye is at first saddened, and which the lofty grass and the iant productions of the lora completely conceal. How can we enumerate the products of this prim- itive nature, which form an inextricable confusion and interlacement, de- scribing majestic curves, producing grand arcades, and offering, in a word, the most splendid and sub- lime spectacle it was ever given to man to admire, through its eternal con- trasts and striking har- mony? Above the gigantic ferns, the mezquite, the cactuses, nopais, larches, and fruit-laden arbu- tuses, rise the mahogany treé with its oblong leaves, the moriche, or pine-tree, the abanijo, whose wide leaves are shaped like a fan, the ptrijao, from which hang enormous clusters of golden fruit, the royal palm, whose stem is de- nuded of foliage, and balances its majestic and tufted head at the slightest breath; the Indian cane, the lemon tree, the guava, the plantain, the chinciroya, or intoxicating fruit, the oak, the pine tree, and the wax palm, distilling its resinous gum. Then, there are immense fields of dahlias, 2A, (To CcCOoPrPrYrYRIiGHTE & im i i hei tia X ma VELIAML Ce ww a At A dip hdbhs Lb sus 4 . Beadle §& Adams, PVubdblishers, No. 98 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. flowers whiter than the snows of the Chimbo- razo, or redder than blood, immense lianas twin- ing and circling round the stems of trees, and vines overflowing with sap; and in the midst of this inextricable chaos fly, run, and crawl, in every direction, animals of all sorts and Sizes, birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, amphibious, singing. crying, howling and roaring with every note of the human gamut, some mocking and menacing, others soft and melancholy. The stags and deer bounding timidly along, with ear erect and eye on the watch; the big- horn leaping from rock to rock, and then rest- ing motionless on the verge of a precipice; the heavy and stupid buffaloes with their sad eyes; the wild horses, whose numerous droves make | the earth re-echo in their purposeless chase; the THE BANDIT AT BAY. alligator, with its body in the mud, and sleeping in the sun; the puma, that Fagen Bog, Tek ymanther and jaguar, cunningly watchi eir soa as it Faber brown bear, that glutton- ous honey-hunter; the grizzly, the most formi- dable denizen of these countries; the chameleon, whose skin reflects every hue; the green lizard, and the basilisk crawling silent and sinister be- neath the leaves; the monstrous boa, the coral snake, so small and yet so terrible. The feathered flock sing and twitter on the branches, hidden beneath the dense foliage; the tanagers, the curassos, the chattering lloros, the haras, the fly-catcher, the toucans, with their lavTs, BY BEADLE & ADAMS. a s a ‘ Te VA DA wn (tts Price, Ten Cents. } iJ enormous beaks, the pigeons, the trogons, the elegant rose flamingos, the swans balancing and sporting in the streams, and the light and grace- ful gray squirrels leaping with unimaginable — from creeper to creeper, from shrub to shrub. In the highest regions of air, hovering in long circles over the prairie, the eagle of the Sierra Madre, with widespread wings, and the bald- headed vulture, select the prey on which they dart with the rapidity of lightning. Then, suddenly, crushing under his horses’ hoofs the sand and gold-studded pebbles spark. ling in the sun, appears, as if by enchantment, an Indian, with his red skin glistening like new copper, robust limbs, gestures stamped with majesty and grace, and a commanding eye— a Navajoe, Pawnee, Co- manche, Apache or Sioux, who, whirling his lasso round his head, drives be- fore him a herd of star- tled buffaloes or wild horses, or else a panther, ounce, or jaguar, that fly his presence with hoarse roars of rage and terror. This child of the desert, so grand, and so disdain- ful of peril, who crosses the prairie with incredi- ble speed, and' knows its thousand turnings, is truly the king of this strange country, which he alone can traverse night and day, and whose countiess dangers he does not fear. He struggles inch by inch with civilization, which is slowly advanc- ing, driving him into his last intrenchments and invading his lands on all sides. Hence, woe to the trap- per or hunter who ven- tures to traverse these prairies alone! His bones will bleach on the plain, and his scalp adorn the shield of an Indian. chief, or the mane of his horse. Such is the sublime, striking, and terrible spec- tacle the Far West offers even at the present day. The day on which we commence our story, at the moment when the sun attained its zenith, the mournful silence brood- ng over the desert was suddenly troubled by a slight sound, which was heard in the tufted clumps that border the Rio Gila, in one of the most un- known districts of this solitude. The branches were cau- tiously parted, and amid the leaves and creepers a man displayed his face, dripping with perspiration, and marked with an expression of terror and despair. _ his man, after looking round him pig. and assuring himself that no one was on the watch, slowly disengaged his body from the grass and shrubs that conceal it, walked a few steps in the diréction of the river, and fell to the ground, uttering a profound sigh. Almost simultaneously €n enormous mastiff, with a cross of the wolf and Newfoundland, ee from the shrubs and lay down at his eet. The nan who appeared so unexpectedly on Yj, BY DS . . > AD J 3 SS Ss Hy hia , “f bj fh Vj Ue YY 4 V// Z Yih; iy ‘ y f, iV pd, y, COMIC 000 com