Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 20 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

— Na — - 36 “LOOK nere, sald Valentine, ofterin him a pistol. ‘‘ Blow out your brains; tt = be sooner over, and you will suffer ess. The bandit seized the weapon with a diabolical grin, and, with a movement swift as thought, fired at the hunter. But Curumilla was watching him, and cleft his skull with his tomahawk. The bullet whistled harmlessly past Valen- tine’s ear. ** Thanks,’’ said the bandit, as he rolled on the — The three men dug a hole into which they threw the bandit’s body. The rest of the night passed without in- cident, and at daybreak the hunt recom- menced. Gradually, the forest grew clearer, the trees became rare, and they at length enter- ed a vast prairie. ““Stop,”’ said Valentine, ‘‘ we must be ap- tegen 3 I believe we shall do well, now that we have an expanse before us, to ex- amine the horizon.”’ He stood upright in his saddle, and began looking carefully around. Presently he got . down. ‘* Nothing,”’ he said. At this moment, he saw something glis- tening in the grass, on the river bank. “What is that?’’ he asked himself, and bent down. But, instead of rising again, he bent lower still, and ina second turned to Curumilla, “The moccasin,’’ he said, sharply. The Indian handed it to him. ** Look !”’ the hunter said. At this spot the sand was damp, and under a pile of leaves, there appeared clearly and distinctly the trace of a man’s foot, with the toes in the water. ‘* They are only two hours ahead of us,” said Valentine. ‘‘One of them lost a horse- bell here.”’ ‘* They have crossed the river,’’ said Eagle- we. ‘* That is easy to see,’’ the General re- marked. Valentine smiled, and looked at Curumilla, who shook his head. ‘“‘No,’’ the hunter said. ‘It is a trick, but they shall not catch me.” Making his comrades a signal not to stir Valentine turned his back to the river, an walked rapidly toward a tree-covered hill a short distance off. ‘*Come!’’ he shouted, as soon as he reach- ed the top. Several dead trees lay scatteredin an open space. Aided by Curumilla, Valentine began removing them. The Mexicans, whose curiosity was aroue- ed toan eminent degree, also lent a hand. In a few minutes, several trees were rolled on one side. Valentine then removea the leaves, and discovered the remains of a fire, with the ashes still warm. ** Come, come,’’ he said, ‘* Red Cedar is not so clever as I thought.’’ Don Miguel, his eon, and the General were astounded, but the hunter only smiled. ‘‘Tt is nothing,”’ he said. ‘‘ But the sha- dow of the sun is al eady lengthening on the horizon; within three hours it will be night ; so remain here. When the gloom is thick, we will start again.” They bivouacked. ‘« Now sleep,’’ Valentine bade them. ‘I will wake you when necessary, for you will have smart work to-night.” And joining example to precept, Valentine lay down on the ground, closed his eyes, and slept. At about an hour after sunset he woke again ; he looked around; his com- rades were still asleep, but one was absent —Curumilla. “Good,” Valentine thought; “the ehief has seen something, and gone to recon-, noiter.”’ He had scarce finished this aside, when he noticed two shadows standing out vaguely in the night; the hunter darted behind a tree and cocked his rifle. At the same instant, the ery of the swan was audible a short distance off. ‘‘ Hallo!’’ said Valentine, as he withdrew his rifle, ‘‘ can Curumilla bave made another prisoner? Let me have a look.” A few minutes later Curumilla arrived, closely followed by an Indian warrior, who was no Otherthan Black Cat. On seeing him, Valentine repressed with difficulty a ery of surprise. — ‘* My brother is welcome,”’ he said. ‘| was expecting my brother,” the Apache chief said, simply. ‘* How so ?”’ | ‘‘My brother is on the trail of Red Ce- dar ?”’ as Yes.”’ ‘“Red Cedar is there,’ said Black Cat, pointing in the direction of the river. ‘Good, How does my red brother know —— —_ —————- -= The New York Library. it?’ the hunter asked, with ill-concealed suspicion. “The great pale warrior is the brother of Black Cat; he saved his life. The red-skins have a long memory. Black Cat assembled his young men, and followed Red Cedar to deliver him up to his brother Koutonepi.”’ Valentine did not for an instant doubt the good faith of the Apache chief. Black Cat had formed analliance with him, and he could place implicit confidence in bis words. ‘“Good,” he said, ‘‘ I will wake the pale- warriors; my brother will guide us.” The Indian bowed and folded his arms on his chest. A quarter of an hour later, the hunters reached the encampment of the red- skins, when they found that Black Cat had spoken the truth, for he had one hun- dred picked warriors with him, so cleverly concealed in the grass that ten paces off it was impossible to perceive them. Black Cat drew Valentine aside, and led him a short distance from the bivouac, ‘« Let my brother look,”’ he saia. The hunter then saw, a little way off, the fires of the gold-seekers. Red Cedar had placed his camp against a hillside, which prevented the hunters see- ing it. The sgaatter fancied he had throwa Valentine out, and this night, for the first time since he knew he was pursued, he allow: his people to light a fire. CHAPTER XXXYV. THE COMBAT. Rep CErDAR’s camp was plunged in si lence ; all were asleep save three or four whe watched over the safety of their comrades, and two persons, who, carelessly reclining be- fore a tent erected in the center of the camp, wére conversing in a low voice. They were Red Cedar and Fray Ambrosio, The squatter seemed suffering from con- siderable anxiety; with his eye fixed on space, he seemed to be sounding the dark- ness, and guessing the secrets which the night that surrounded him bore in its bo- som. ‘*Do you believe that we have succeeded in hiding our trail from the white hunters ?”’ the monk said. ‘* Those villains are dogs at whom I laugh ; my wife would suffice to drive them away with a whip,’’ Red Cedar replied, disdainful- ly; ‘*I know allthe windings of the prairie, and have acted for the best.” ‘Then, we are at length freed from our re ogee the monk said, with a sigh of re- ief. ‘* Yes,”’ the squatter remarked with a grin; ‘(now you can sleep calmly.’’ ‘* Ah,’’ said the monk, “all the better.” At this moment, a bullet whistled over the holy father’s head, and flattened against one of the tent poles. ‘* Malediction !’”’ the squatter yelled as he sprung up; “ those mad wolves again. To arms, lads; here are the red-skins.’’ Within a few seconds, all the bandits were alert and ambuscaded behind the bales that formed the wall of the camp. « At the same moment, fearful yells, follow- ed by a terrible discharge, burst forth from the prairie. The squatter’s band comprised about twenty resolute men, with the Pirates he had enlisted. They did not let themselves be terrified; but they replied by a point-blank discharge at a numerous band of horsemen, galloping at full speed on the camp. The Indians rode in every direction, utter- ing ferocious yells, and brandishing burning torches which they constantly hurled into the camp. The Indians, as a general rule, only attack their enemies by surprise. But on this oc- casion the red-skins seemed to have given up their ordinary tactics, so obstinately did they assai. the intrenchments; frequently re- pari they returned with renewed ardor, ghting in the open and trying to crush their enemies by their numbers. Red Cedar, terrified by the duration of a combat in which his bravest comrades had perished, resolved to attempt a final effort, and conquer the Indians by daring and te- merity. By a signal he collected his three sons around him, with Andres Garote and Fray Ambrosio: but the Indians did not leave them the time to carry out the plan they had formed; they returned to the charge with incredible fury, and a cloud of incen- diary arrows and lighted torches fell on the camp from all sides at once. The fire added its horrors to those of the combat, and ere long the camp was a burn- ing fiery furnace. The red-skins, re te profiting by the disorder the fire cause escaladed the bales, invaded the camp, rushe on the whites, and a hand-to-hand fight commenced, In spite of their courage and skill in the ase of arms, the bandits were overwhelmed by the masses of their enemies; a few minutes longer, and all would be over with Red Cedar’s band. The squatter resolved to make a supreme effort to save the few men still left him; taking Fray Ambrosio aside, who, since the beginning of the action, had constantly fought by his side, he explained his inten- tions to him; and when he felt that the monk would certainly carry out his plans, he rushed with incredible fury into the thickest of the fight, and felling or stabbing the red-skins who stood in his way, he suc- ceeded in entering the tent set up for the women. Clara, with her head stretched forward, seemed to be anxiously listening to the noises outside. Two paces from her, the squatter’s wife was dying; a bullet had passed through her skull. On seeing Red Cedar, the maiden folded her arms on her bosom, and awaited him. ‘She is still here,’ the brigand exclaimed. “Follow me, girl, we must be off.” ‘*No,”’ she answered, resolutely. “I will not go.”’ “Some, child, obey; do not oblige me to employ violence ; time is precious.’ ona Clara shrugged her shoulders. The squatter saw that any discussion was useless, and he must settle the question by force; 80, leaping over the corpse of his wife, he tried to seize the girl. But the lat- ter, who had watched all his movements, bounded like a startled fawn, drew a dagger from her breast, and with flashing eye, quivering nostrils, and trembling lips, she a tery to go through a desperate struggle. here must be an end of this, so the squatter raised his saber, and with the flat . dealt such a terrible blow on the girl’s deli- cate arm, that she let the dagger fall, and uttered a shriek of pain. But the unhappy girl stooped at once to pick up her weapon with her left hand. Red Cedar took advantage of this move- ment, bounded upon her, and made her a girdle of his powerful arms. The maiden, who had hitherto resisted in silence, shrieked with all the energy of de- spair : a“, Help, Shaw, help!”’ ‘Ah!’ Red Cedar howled; “he, then was the traitor! Let him come, if he dare.”’ And, raising the girl in his arms, he ran toward the entrance of the hut, but he fell back suddenly, with an oath. A man barred his passage, and that man was Valentine. **Ah, ah!’ the hunter said, with a sarcas- tic smile; ‘‘ there you are again, Red Cedar. My master, you seem in a hurry.” ‘Let me pass,’’ the squatter yelled, as he cocked a pistol. ‘* Pass ?”’ Valentine repeated, with a laugh, while carefully watching the bandit’s move- ments. ‘‘ You are in a great haste to leave our company. Come, no threats, or I kill you like a + “‘T shall kill you, villain,’’ Red Cedar ex- claimed, pulling with a convulsive move- ment the trigger of the pistol. But, although the squatter had been so quick, Valentine was not less so; he stooped smartly to escape the bullet, which did not strike him, and raised his rifle, but did not dare fire, for Red Cedar had fallen back to the end of the tent, and employed the maiden as a buckler. At the sound of the shot Valentine’s com- rades hurried up to the tent, which was simultaneously invaded by the indians. The few gold-seekers who survived their companions, about seven or eight, whom Fray Ambrosio had collected by the squat- *ter’s orders, guessing what was occurrin and desiring to aid their chief, crept stealth ily up, and seizing the tent ropes, cut them all at once. The mass of canvas, no longer supported, fell in, burying and dragging down with it all who were beneath it. - There was a moment of terrible confusion among the Indians and hunters, which Red Cedar cleverly employed to step out of the tent and mount a horse Fray Ambrosio held in readiness for him. But, at the moment he was going to dash off, Shaw barred his passage. ‘*Stop, father,’’ he shouted, as he boldly o seized the bridle; “ give me that girl.” ‘* Buck, villain, back,”’ the squatter howl- ed, grinding his teeth; ‘* back !”’ ‘*You shall not pass,” Shaw continued. **Give me Dona Clara !”’ Red Cedar felt that he was lost. Valentine, Don Miguel, and their com- rades, at length freed from the tent, were hurrying up at fall speed. **'Wretch !|’’ he exclaimed. And making his horse bound, he cut his son down with his saber, The witnesses uttered a cry of horror. +?