Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 272 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

. ~ - >—ae ~—“ * Peste! Mordieu! It isde Devil Major! Ciel, but be haf made baste.” Slocum looked up and round, but could see nothing on the prairie to justify the exclama- tion, till Montana, who had the glass at his eye, corroborated Bat. ‘*By gosh! It is the Devil Major and no one else. He must have put like a streak, What’il we do, Bat?’ The half-breed looked regretfully at the a i feeding so greedily upon the rank erbage, and then shook his fist in a vengeful manner at the distant major, whom Slocum could not spy, even with the glass. “ Saccrre nom,” he growled. ‘If be vould leaf me alone till de night, I vould not care; but vo haf to cross de sand, and dey must be fet, to last it in dis veddaire ” | Montana George looked glum. ** Who'd have thought he’d march like that?” he said, savagely. “I wish I could get at his canteen I'd spill bis whisky fur bim, darned quick, and then he’d put for the fort sure.” Bat made a gesture of disgusted and unwilling resignation, as he said: Il faut aller—ve most go. It is no use to vait, He vill catch us. us go and saddle up. ‘They went back to the ponies, while Slocum tried to make out the party of whose advance they seemed to be so certain. After sweeping the borizon in vain for some time, he caught sight of some dark dots and counted five in a row, with something dark be- hind them that he took for the column. He had hardly spied it when be heard Montana George shouting: Come, burry up, Slocum, no time to fool if ‘ou don’t want to go back to the fort. I didn’t ire to do all the work.” ‘Then he went back and helped pack and sad- dle the ponies, who grunted their disapproval of the move as they were being girthed, and made all the resistance they could, in their obstinate eye } Inside of half an bour they were all packed and moving out, when Montana George, who had been talking earnestly to Bat, approached Slocum, saying: ‘*Mr. Slocum, Bat and I have been holding a pow wow.” 66 VY ’ ** And we think it’s a darned shame the sogers should try to spoil our game.” _ “So do 1; but what are you going to doabout it?’ $ Pil tell you, sir, if you’re game for a little 38. | Siocum looked surprised. “A muss? What do you mean? We can’t Hight them.” : at interposed eagerly. : **No, no, 1 no say dct, Not fight. But I say stop dem, so dey go no furder.” “** And bow will you do that?” Tho balf-breed laughed. “*Steal de horse. Let dem go home on de two feet.” Slocum started. The idea had not occurred to him before. ** How can you do that?” be asked. Montana George answered him. * All we want you to do isto go on with the squaws to the next camp, and we will steal the horses.” ‘ Thank you,” answered Slocum dryly. ‘Td rather let you go on, and I’1l stay bebind with one of you, and see the stealing is done without bloodshed. Iam the man who will suffer if we are found out, and it is a serious thing to steal horses out bere.” Moutana George shrugged bis shoulders. “* As you please, I ain’t anxious to undertake the job myself [assure you. But you ain’s able for it,” - * IT can do what I'm told.” “Maybe you can; but I suppose you know what you'll bave to do?’ ‘‘No. But I can be told.” ‘* You'll bave to stay bere without a boss,” said George, looking bim in ‘he eye, ‘ Lay out all night while tbe rest of us go on, with the sogers oct fur ye, and then stampede the hosses and git off the best way ye know how, bareback.” " ‘“* Will Bat be with me?’ “Sart’in he will. Ye’ll have to stick pretty close together, too, and if they ketch ye it’ll be all day with ye,” Slocum drew a deep breath, The scheme was a daring one, but he was young and full of pluck, and, 1t was the only one that promised a cessation p “TV ibdo it,” be said, “if Bat will trust me to help him.” beu turning to the Frenchman, he pursued, in the language the latter best understood: “T trust my brother with my life. On his faith I repose. Will he give me the pledge?” Bat hesitated a moment. “It will.be a bard task, brother,” he said, “and you will need to have a hard heart.” “ Yet vou trust this man, whois not a Brother of the Cloud,” returned Slocum, steadily eying t looked confused. of the pursuit of the scouting-party. . Seth Slocum, Railroad Surveyor. *‘It is not that I doubt your faith,” he said, ‘**but you are from the East. Can you ride a horse without saddle or bridle and change at full speed?” ‘‘T can. I have ridden bareback many a time,” said Slocum promptly. , Bat bowed his head gravely. ‘“My brother shall go with me,” he said; *fand I promise not to desert him.” Then turning to George, he said: ‘Go, I vill stay vid my brodair.” Montana George nodded rather in a doubtful way. As he was about to ride off he said to Slocum: ° ‘*'You’re clear grit, Mr, Slocum, and no mis- take, if you come out alive. Good-by, if I never see yeagain. I'll take the hosses and go. You don’t need notbing but a whip and a bit of rope for a halter, Put yer duds where they won’t shake off and God bles; ye.” Ten minutes later the cavalcade was moving off over the sandy desert at a trot, while Bat Ricbards and Slocum, alone and unarmed, were sneaking away along the edge of the grass to a safe hiding-place to await the approach of the cavalry scouting-party. CHAPTER XIIL WATCHING. THE place where Bat Richards had elected to hide was a quarter of a mile from the spot where the teepese had been pitched, and the balf-breed made his approach thereto with true Indian care and caution. The ground where the grass melted into the sand was so bard that it left no impressions of footsteps, and Bat told Slocum to take off bis boots and follow bim, turning his toes in as be walked, a matter of some difficulty with the young engineer They saw novbing of the cavalry scouting- party, but succeeded in hiding themselves in such a position tbat they commanded a distant view of the pool, and the place where the teepee bad been pitehed. Then they — down in the light of the noon- day sun, and Slocum found it difficult to keep awake after bis fatigue. The night before had been cold, and the sun was very grateful with its heat. ‘Sleep, brother,” said Bat gravely. ‘“' They will not be here till sunset, and they will camp by the pool.” ‘** What makes you think so?” ‘* Because their horses will be tired, and the men, too. The sand-trail is so — they will think to follow it easy by the light of the moon but they will need to give their borses rest. and food before crossing the sand, They are right. No one but the Devil Major would have got 50 far go soon. Sleep safely. I shall sleep And the half-breed set the example by clos- ing his eyes, when Slocum followed suit in a few moments. How long he slept he could not tell; but be was waked by a pull at the sleeve, and found Bat lying by him, while the sound of voices, not far off, told bim that the soldiers had come. He turned his head slowly in that direction, and could herdly repress an exclamation of a. he sun bad set, but it was still bright twi- light, and below bim, not three bundred yards off, a herd of horses was feeding, while the guards were cracking their whips to keep the animals from straying, and the yoice of Major Ireland was calling out: ‘*Get your suppers quick, boys. As soon as the moon rises we move out, We'll have the scoundrels before noon of to-morrow,” Slocum caught sight of the tall figure of the major moving about, and thanked his stars that it wa: growing dusk as fast as October evenings admitted. The soldiers of the escort seemed to be tired, for they moved about slowly and wearily, pick- ing up sticks or pulling up busbes for fires, and Slocum heard a deal of grumbling. | Some of them in their search came within twenty yards of where be lay, and he b one say to the other: ‘*Be gob, Mike, fur tin cints the ould horse w’u’d go lame to-night.” ; ‘ And fur five I’d stick a spike in the ould roan’s hind leg,” returned the other in the ame grumbling tone, “ Divil Jack ought to get shot. “ And so he is, bedad, shot in the neck, and bad luck to bim fur an ould soak,” the first man retorted savagely. ‘Ava man c’u’d only get at the crater’s canteen, and put a bole in oe we'd go back; but as long as he’s.crazy, he’) march us and march us till we drop.’ Slocum saw the men distinctly close to him, and the glare of a fire, just lighted, showed tbe yellow stripes of a corporal on the sleeves of the one who had just spoken so bitterly. Tbe second man shook bis fist at the fire at which the tall figure of Ireland could be seen, and Slocum saw that the big major was just taking a drink from a canteen. ‘ “Ay, ay, swill away, ye ould thief,” said he savagely. “ And wouldn’t we all like to see ye from sulkythe vicious way in which be slapped ed “_ in the jim-jams, so we’d have an excuse to tie ye. ere the voice of the ‘‘ Devil Major” himself broke in on the colloquy, shouting: ‘* Holloa there, you two men up there. Come in, What are you hanging out there for? Do ou want to get laid out by Indian prowlers? k to those borses, Don’t you see they’re scattering? Confound your lazy carcasses! Il make some of you walk to-morrow and lead your horses into the bargain.” The men addressed seemed to be cowed by the major’s tone, for they sauntered off toward the fire muttering and swearing the whole way, but obeying the order for all that, Bat whispered to Slocum in French; ‘They will not keep good watch. You mark the word. He will have trouble when the moon rises, to wake them up.” | Slocum thought be was right, but be noticed that the major seemed to have perfect control over bis men and was well seconded by two younees officers who were with him and very active. The two spies watched from their covert till e men had all had their supper and beard the oraer: | ‘‘ All fires out now, and no talking. Get your saddles in line and lie a on your arms, The horse-guard will be he] sible if the herd get out of this bottom. hen the moon rises westart. Till then all can sleep but the guard.” Slocum heard these orders in the still night air, as distinctly as if they bad been spoken in the same room, though the speaker was several bundred yards off, and Bat whispered to him: “Jt is well, We begin now very soon.” ‘When?’ asked Slocum, his beart beating ‘more rapidly with excitement than it bad since he: was watching the sevtry at Fort Gladstcne. ‘* When they are asleep,” replied Bat. ‘‘ You will see, they will sleep well.” He began slowly to creep out of bis lair in the rass as be spoke and the younger man followed n the same cautious way. Both were stripped for action. Bat wore only a breechcloth and had painted bis body dark by rolling in the mud and I+tting it dry on, so that it served the double purpose of a disguise in the dark and a protection against the nipping night air. Slocum bad a dark-blue, skin-tight rowing- shirt, and had rubbed his arms with the same mud so that he was practically invisible in the dark, though he retained his leather breeches and boots, the latter against Bat’s advice. Each man had with him bis whip, with a short handle like a policeman’s club and the long lash that goes by the name of} black- snake” or “quirt,” in different parts of the country; and each bad round his wuist a piece of.thin tougb rope for a balter. They moved a few feet and then Jay still watching, while the cavalrymen were putting their saddles in a line and preparing for a sleep. Within ten minutes after one might hear the snoring all over the camp and the only persons left awake were the tbree officers who sat at one end of the line, talking in low tones end apparently watching the horse-guards who kept moving about armed with whips to keep the borses from straying. ‘ Every now and thencame a vicious squeal from the berd, followed by a hollow * thud” “thud” as two of the horses got into a squabble «ver some patch of berbage, and then came a burst of scolding and whip-cracks from the horse- guards as they chased the fighters away. Bat lay and listened for nearly half an hour and then whispered: “* Suivez mor.” (Follow me, He slipped off like a snake through the grass, going only a few feet at a time and frequently opEne to listen. ‘ll was quiet in the rr and the voices of the officers grew less and less frequent as the spies got into the bollow, : Presently they were down within a bundred yards of the borses,and within fifty feet of one of the horse-berders who was sloucbing along muffled in his overcoat evidently sleepy axd at any horse that bappened to stray outward from the herd, ae, % Bat crept on like a snake till he was less than ten feet from the man’s long beat and waited till the soldier bad gone to the other end, Then he whispered to Slocum. ** Now, my brother, you sball see how we of the Black Cloud in the West steal horses.” There was something in bis tone that alarmed Slocum who whispered back; ‘* No murder, remember,” ‘No, no,” answered Bat. “No murder. It is not necessary with these fellows.” ~ he spoke the horse guard came slouching CK, Bat let him come close by and pass within ten eet. Slocum, unused to such closeness to an enemy felt his heart beating bard, but lay still, till the | man passed, when to bis ¢ whispered: ‘* Now, forward.” Witb that, both men glided forward into the path of the sentry bebind his back and Bat whispered; | ‘comicbooks CO