Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 20 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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war, and I do not seek to. oppose it; but among them there is onefor whom my heart, swells with pity.’’ ‘*My brother is white. The pale-faces have a gilded tongue; they know how to find words which say all they wish. My brother is aware that I can refuse him noth- ing. Who is the warrior he desires to save ?” ‘*Does my brother promise me that the man shall not perish, whoever it may be, whose life I demand? - The Comanche chief was silent for a mo- ment, looking fixedly at the hunter, who watched him with equal attention. ‘*Unicorn is my friend,’’ Valentine con- tinued. ‘“‘Il have a perfectly new rifle; if it pleases my brother, I will give it to him.”’ At this insinuation a slight smile enliven- ed the chief’s face. ‘* Good : L accept the rifle,’ he answered. “It isa proper weapon for a sachem. My brother has my word. Who is the warrior he wishes to save ?”’ _ “ Black Cat.”’ ‘Wah! I suspected it; however, no mat- ter, my brother can be at his ease. Black Cat shall be saved.”’ “LT thank my brother,’”’ Valentine said, warmly. ‘‘I see that his heart isnoble! He is a great warrior |” Then, after affectionately pressing the chief’s hand, Valentine returned to his sta- tion, suppressing asigh of satisfaction. CHAPTER XXYV. THE TORTURE. . THe Apaches, who had been fastened for a long time to the stakes at which they were to be tortured, regarded the ter- rible preparations for their atrocious pun- ishment with a calm eye, and not a muscle uivering in their stoical and _ indifferent aces. So great was their carelessness, or, at any rate, it appeared so, that you might have fancied that they were merely about to figure as spectators in the gloomy tragedy preparing, although they were destined to play so terrible a part in it. So soon as Valentine left him, Unicorn ordered the torture to commence, but he suddeuly altered his mind. ** My sons,”’ he said, addressing the Co- manche warriors, and pointing to Black Cat, ‘‘this man is a chief, and as such can claim an exceptional death, in which he can prove to us his constancy and courage under suffering. Send him to the happy hunting- pronnde in such a way that the warriors of is nation whom he meets in another life may give him a reception worthy of him. To-morrow the old men and chiefs will as- semble round the council-fire, to invent a punishment meet for him. Take him from the stake.” The Indians frenziedly applauded these words, which promised them an attractive spectacle for the morrow. ‘The Comanches are boasting and cow- ardly women,’ Black Cat broke out; “they do not know how to torture war- riors. I defy thera to make me utter a groan, if the punishment lasted a whole day. _“*The Apache dogs can bark,’’ Unicorn said, coldly; ‘‘ but, if their tongue is long, their courage is short; to-morrow, Blac Cat will weep like a daughter of the pale- faces.”’ Black Cat shrugged his shoulders con- temptuously, and the Comanches repeatea their frenzied applause. ‘‘Unfasten him,” Unicorn commanded a second time, Several warriors approached the Apache chief, cut the cords that bound him to the stake, and then secured his limbs and threw him at the foot of a tree, Black Cat not deigning to make a sign evidencing the slightest irritation. . After omchaneiind » glance with Valentine, Unicorn placed himself at the head of a band of warriors, who formed a semicircle round the prisoners. A chieftainess placed herself epposite to him, with the women; the band struck up more noisily than ever, and the torture be- an. - The squaws and warriors danced round the prisoners, and in passing before them, each, whether a man or woman, cut off a strip of flesh with sharp scalping-knives. he Apaches smiled on their torturers, and excited them still more by telling them that they did not know how to treat their prisoners ; that their wounds were only so many musketo stings. - The Comanches, redoubled their fury, and did not leave off till they had destroyed all appearance of humanity. The victims were then sealped, and thrown into the fire pre- pared for them, —— The New York ‘Library. SE —_. Valentine, despite the almost insurmount- able disgust this scene had occasioned him, did not wish to retire, as he feared Black Cat might be massacred by the Comanches ina moment of mad fury. This precaution was not vain; several times, had he not resolutely interfered, the Apache chief would also have been sacri- ticed to the hatred of his enemies, who had attained a paroxysm of fury impossible to describe. When the camp was pianged in silence, and everybody asleep, Valentine proceeded cautiously in thedirection where the Apache chief lay bound, who watched him come up with a very peculiar glance. Not saying a word, the hunter, after assuring himself that nobody was watching his movements, cutall the cords that bound him. The Apache .bounded like a jaguar, but fell back again on the ground; the cords had been tied so securely that they had entered into his flesh, ‘““My .brother mnst be prudent,’ the Frenchman said, gently. ‘‘l wish to save him.’ hie then took his flask, aud poured a. few drops of brandy on the pallid lips of the chief, whe gradually recovered, andat length stood on his feet. Bending a searching glance dn the man who so generously paid him attentions he was far from expecting, he asked in a hoarse voice; a does the pale hunter wish to save me ?”’ - Beeause,”’ Valentine answered, without hesitation, ‘‘my brother is a great warrior in his nation, and must not die. He is free.” And holding out his hand to the chief, he helped him te walk. The Indian followed him unresistingly, but without a word. On reaching the spot where the horses of the tribe were picketed, Valentine selected one, saddled it, and led it to the Apache, who, during the hunter’s short absence, had remained motionless on the same spot, **My brother will mount,” he said. The warrior was still so weak that Valen- tine was compelled to help him into the saddle. ‘*Can my brother Keep on his horse ?” he asked, with tender solicitude. ‘** Yes,’’ the Apache answered, laconically. The hunter took the gun, bow, and pan- ther-skin quiver of the chief, which he handed to him, saying gently : ‘My brother will take back his arms. A reat warrior as he is must not return to his tribe like a timid woman; he should be able to kill a stag, if he met one on the road.” The Indian seized the weapons; a con- yulsive tremor ran over his limbs, and joy ained the victory over Indian stoicism. ‘his man, who had faced a horrible death without change of countenance, was con- quered by the Frenchman’s noble conduct ; his granite heart was softened ; a tear, doubt- less the first he had ever shed, escaped from his fever-parched eyes, and a sob burst from this overcharged breast. “Thanks,’’ be said, in a choking voice, so soon as words could find their way to his lips; “thanks; my brother is good, he has a friend.” ““My brother owes me nothing,’’ the hunter BE? simply; ‘‘I act as my heart and my religion order me.”’ The Indian remained pensive for a mo- ment, then he muttered, shaking his head dubiously : “Yes, | have heard that said before, by Father Seraphin, the Chief of Prayer of the ale-faces. Their God is omnipoteut. He s before all merciful; is not that a bless- ing ?”’ % Remember, chief,” Valentine quietly interrupted him, ‘‘that I save your life in the name of Father Seraphin, whom you seem to know.”’ The Apache smiled softly. “Yes,” he said, “these are his words, ‘Requite good for evil.’ ”’ ‘Remember those divine precepts which { put in practice to-day,” Valentine ex- gamed ‘*‘and they will support you in suf- ering. Black Cat shook his head. ‘*No,” he said; ‘“‘the desert has its laws which are immutable; the red-skins are of a different nature from the pale-faces: their law is one of blood, and they can not alter it. Their law says, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth fer tooth.’ The maxim is derived from their fathers, and they are obliged to submit tu it, and follow it; but the red-skins never forget au insnlt or kindness. Black Cat has a great memory.” . : ‘here was a silenee of some minutes, during which the two men regarded each other attentively. 3 ge ~ - At length the Apache spoke again. ‘My brother will lend me his gourd.” The hunter gave it to him; the Apache quickly raised it to bis lips, and took a mouthful. Then, bending down to Valen tine, he placed his hands on his shoulders, and kissed him on the lips, while allowing a portion of the fluid he held in his mouth to pass into the hunter’s. On the prairies of the Far West this ceremony is a species of mysterious initia- tion, and the greatest mark of attachment one man can give another. When two men have embraced in this way, they are hence- forth friends, whom nothing ean separate Save death, and they help one another with- out hesitation under all circumstances. Valentine knew this, and hence, in spite of the disgust he internally experienced, he did not oppose the action of the Apache chief. On the contrary, he yielded to it joyfully, comprehending the immense ad- vantages he should, at a later date, derive from this indissoluble alliance with one of the most influential Apache sachems, those allies of Red CeGar, on whom he had sworn to take an exemplary revenge. ‘* We are brothers,’’ Black Cat said, grave- ly. ‘‘ Henceforth, by day or night, wherever the great pale hunter may direct. his foot- steps, a friend will constantly watch .over him.”’ ‘‘We are brothers,’’ the hunter replied ; ““* Black Cat will ever find me ready to come to his assistance.”’ *] know it,” said the warrior. ‘* Fare- well; I will return to the warriors of my tribe.” ‘* Farewell,’’ Valentine said. And vigorously lashing his horse, the Apache chief started at full speed, and soon disappeared in the darkness. Valentine listened for a moment to the écho of his horse’s hoofs on the hardened ground, and then returned thoughtfully to the hut, in which Ellen was nursing White Gazelle. CHAPTER XXVI» TWO WOMEN’S HEARTS. ELLEN felt moved with pity at the sight of this young and lovely woman, who lay on the floor of the hut, and whom life seemed to have quitted forever. She felt for her, although she never remembered to have seen her before, asympathy for which she eould not account, and which instinctively attracted her. Who was this woman? How haa she, still so young, become mixed up in these scenes of murder, and associated with these savage prairie-men, to whom every human being is an enemy, every valuable article a booty? Whence arose this strange ascend- ency which she exerted over outlaws, whom she made cry like children ? All these thoughts crossed Ellen’s mind, and hightened, were that possible, the in- terest she felt in the stranger. And yet, in her heart, a vague fear—an undefinable pre- sentiment—warned her to be on her guard, and that this woman, gifted with a strange character and fatal beauty, was an enemy, who would destroy her happiness forever. As Ellen was ene of those rare women for whom evil sentiments did not exist, and who made ita principle to obey, under all circumstances, the impulses of her heart, without reflecting on the consequences that might result from it, she silenced the feeling of revolt within her, and bent over White Gazelle. And with that exquisite tact, innate in the female heart, she sat down by the side of the sufferer, laid her beautiful head on her knees, loosened her vest, and gave her that busy attention of which the other sex alone possess the secret. , | The two maidens, thus grouped on the uneven floor of a wretched Indian hut, of- fered an exquisite picture. Both deliciously lovely, though of differ- ent beauty—for Ellen had the most lovely golden locks ever seen, while the Gazelle, on the contrary, had tbe warm tint of the Spanish woman, and hair of a bluish black —presented the complete type, in two dif- ferent races, of the beau-ideal of woman. Fora long time, Ellen’s cares were thrown away. White Gazelle remained pale and cold in her arms- The maiden began to grow alarmed. She knew not to what she should have recourse, when the stranger made a slight movement, and a faint ruddiness tinged her cheeks. She uttered a profound sigh, and her eyelids painfully rose. She looked round her hy amazemeut, and then closed her eyes After a moment, she opened them once more, raised her hand to her brow as if to dissipate the clouds that obscured her mind, fixed her eyes on the person who was at- tending to her, and then, with a frown and quivering lips, she tore herself from the arms entwined her, and, bounding like a panther, sought shelter in one of the cor- ners of the hut, without ceasing to gaze ee comicboo 7