Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 328 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

4 space beneath the towering trees, utterly devoid of undergrowth, and covered with a soft carpet of dead leaves. The sun failed even to shootan arrow of light down into these dense shades, and it was a beautiful, as well as a wild and weird scene. Within this natural chamber of the bottom, which was surrounded by dense thickets, was one of Nature’s children—ay, a king of Nature—his every glance and bearing proclaim- ing this, beyond dispute, to any one gifted with 9 art of reading character by the form and ace. The scene, and the man, together with his horse, would have delighted the eye of an artist, and caused Cooper to seize his pen, with an inspiration far beyond that which ruled him, when he rendered historic, the ‘‘ Last of the Mohicans.” Leaning against a ae tree, in a proud and kingly poise, both hands clasped around the barrel of a rifle near its muzzle, was an Indian. He was tall, fully six feet, and with not an ounce of superfluous flesh upon his symmetrical rab gs which was muscular, and indeed per- ect. His face showed much more of intelligence than is often seen among the red-men. His brow was lofty, and his chin and lips indicated great ess, and an indomitable spirit. A beaded belt about his waist supported fanci- fully decorated and fringed buckskin leggins, an army size Colt’s revolver, and a long scalp- ing-knife. A shoulder-strap, over right and un- der left, held in position not only a bullet-pouch and paint-bag, but a bow and quiver of arrows ait os? too d ted with is i , were decorated with scalps. Noticcable Wad it, that these scalps were all of coarse black hair, like his own, which hung be- low his belt, and was held back of his ears Be a fancy fillet, which covered half his brow, and from which flaunted three eagle-feathers—the insignia of a chief. Three bars of vermilion ran up and down each cheek, across his brow and around his neck, a narrow pigment be between, with small spots of yellow ocher. pon his broad breast was a perfect representation of a turtle, with head and claws protruding. This was done in different colored pigments. Many scars might have n observed upon his arms and breast, as well as the track of a bullet across his temple. This was none other than Turtle, tho Tonk- away, afriend to Sam Houston, and to all Tex- | ans, as was his tribe, and its principal chief, “Old Placador.” Standing near its master, at times pawing the sward, and then gazing in a seeming wondering way at the chief, was a superb black horse, glossy, and weil marked for and endur- ance. The horse had, evidently, but recently satisfied itself in the way of grazing. It was without doubt, a cross between a mustang stud 5 Dil mare, having the better qualities o ‘ A Texan saddle was girthed upon the animal, but there was no bridle, for the simple Indian jaw-strap answered in lieu of the same. The horse stood free. Turtle’s keen black eyes roved, more from habit evidently than from any suspicion of enemies, seeming to pierce the thickets, and his sense of hearing arco to be strained. Per- haps something n to instinct warned him that a deed of blood was about to be consum- mated, beyond the dark rolling waters, that were arched with the limbs of trees from either a although these waters were not within his ew. His manner, in a few moments, changed; he leaving the support of the tree-trunk and stand- ing erect, in much the same position as described previously; for the black turned half-about, facing the river, and gazing suspiciously, its ears pricked in the same direc- tion. This was but for a moment. Man and mus- tang stood silent and rigid, as if turned to stone. Then rung and echoed the report of King Kent’s revolver. Waugh!” This guttural exclamation from Turtle ter- minated in a wonder and amazement. Then he, in one bound, eprtihg upon his steed, and urged the animal toward the river. Soon the Tonkaway sat his horse on the bank, the chief gazing over the stream. He evidently had not supposed that any were in the vicinity. As it was, he believed some hunter was over the Brazos. Yet it seemed strange that a hunter should not have used his rifle to shoot game. The practiced —_ of Turtle told him that a revolver been Yet no suspicion lurked in the breast of the eh that a tragedy had just been consum- ma Had this been so, he would at once have dashed into the river and swum his horse across. Not a living object met his view. The bank beyond the stream was thickly over- grown with bushes, causing it to be impossible orse had suddenly |: King Kent. to see beyond, even had the timber away from the river been free from thickets. But Turtle was fated soon to be not only as- tonished, but infuriated to a great degree. For, while he thus sat his mustang, gazing over the river, he beheld the form of a man shot through the screen of bushes, and plunged into the rolling waters. Although the Tonk- away caught but a flitting glance of the man who had n hurled into the river, he recog- nized in him one of the best friends he had on earth—Daring Dick—who had presented him with the very rifle he now held in his hand, and Ne ag he had traveled far to visit and hunt wi ; Almost at the very moment that the body of Dick struck the water, Turtle shot out a yell, expressive of his fury; for well he knew his young friend had met with foul play, and he was resolved that the murderer should expiate the crime with his life. Without hesitation, the chief urged the horse into the stream, the animal swimmin river in a quartering course; Turtle making calculations in connection with the current, and aiming to strike the point where the same would have carried the body by the time he had gained the opposite side of the Brazos. In a very short time the red chief reached the current near the shore, some distance below tho — where the miscreant, King Kent, had urled his victim. Eagerly the Tonkaway scanned the waters, not allowing his horse to swim near enough tho bank to endanger Daring Dick, should the latter still have life in his body; and soon the chief gave utterance to his usual ejaculation—this time blended with a vengeful fury that was ter- rible to witness, his black eyes being filled with a murderous light: “Waugh!” Bending over, as this single utterance Icft his lips, Turtle thrust his arm beneath the waters, and drew up the head of the seemingly dead man. The bank being too high at this point for the horse to surmount, the chief guided tho animal by pressure of thigh down the stream, parallel with the shore, and towing alongside the limp form of Daring Dick. Could the wretched assassin have witnessed this scene—could he have beheld the expression upon the face of the Tonkaway, usually so stoical, he would have hastened to put many miles between himself and tho scene of his crime, Turtle seemed to shrink from examining the eat his gaze being fixed upon the deathlike ace. Ho saw the wound upon the head of his white friend. Had the bullet penetrated tho brain? Was Daring Dick dead? If so, who had fired the fatal shot? These thoughts flashed through tho Tonk- away’s mind, and he swore vengeance. He dropped the jaw-strap from his left hand Smead placing his finger over the wound in ick’s head en, out from the chief’s lips came a yell, expressive of heartfelt joy, yet not devoid of a mixture of the vengeance that was his ruling passion. And no wonder was it that these yells of our red friend caused the miscreant who heard them, to pale and tremble, and then speed up the river, in his a A moment after his last outery, the Tonkaway discovered a small gully, that led down to the water; thus ng an exit from the river. He, therefore, guided his steed up the same, ringing from the horse, as the water grew shallow. Then, taking Daring Dick in hisarms, he bore him from the gully, and laid him upon the carpet of leaves near at hand, and beside a thicket. Giving a peculiar bird-like whistle the chief summoned his horse; the animal, dripping with water, walking deliberately to his side. Procuring a flask from his malettos, Turtle drew the cork, and placing the mouth to the lips of the wounded man, poured a tiny stream of “Goon ca Nie pre igh, followed b n he heaved a deep sigh, follow a ; and then clasped his forehead with his Rade’ pressing hard, as if his brain was tortured. A moment after, he opened his eyes, mee wildly about him, in a strange and bewilde manner, evidently not comprehending his con- dition, or position. ' The chief stood before him, erect, his arms folded across his b and his black eyes fixed upon the face of his white friend. The features of the Indian had resumed their usual stoical expression. A moment Dick gazed at the chief, who was oo wet; then he felt of his own clothing, ina -dazed manner. Instantly the near past seemed to be realized by him, and he sprung to a sitting posture; thrusting out his hand to the Tonkaway, as from the lips of the latter burst out again his favorite ejaculation: ** Waugh!” ‘Turtle, my red pard, in thename of wonder, how came you here, and what has happened?” : mign he placed his hand upon his wounded em ‘““T believe I have been shot, but how came I to be wet, and you and your horse also? From appearances, I should say that you have rescued me from the river; but, in Heaven’s name, how came I in the Brazos?” ‘‘Bad man shoot Dick,” answered the chief, with a sweeping gesture up the river. ‘‘ Turtle over Brazos. Hear shot. Ride fast to river. See Dick fallin water. Know bad man shoot, then throw in Brazos. Swim horse, then find my white brother. Heis here. It is good. ‘* Bad man bullet no go in head. Turtle he yell. Mebbe so bad man ride fast. Turtle follow trail. Have blood. War-pathopen. Who bad man shoot Dick? I havespoken. Turtle ears open.” ‘“There’s where you've got me, Tonk. I haven’t the remotest idea who shot me; but I reckon we can find out, and we will. Itwasthoe act of a murderous coward. Turtle, lowo you my life, and I shall not forget the debt.” ‘Too much heap talk,” returned the chief, passing the flask. ‘‘ Drink whisky. Make strong. Then come find trail. Turtle heap mad. Tako bad man scalp. War-path open, I5 is good. Waugh!” | CHAPTER V. TURTLE ON THE TRAIL. No sooner had the Tonkaway concluded his characteristic remarks upon the situation cf affairs, than he led his horse up to the side of Daring Dick, pointed significantly at the sad- dle, and then strode into the thicket, disappear- we & the river. ick felt not the least surprise at the sudden departure of his red friend; indeed, he was so wrapped in perplexing thoughts that he, after taking a swallow from the flask uf the chief became for a few moments utterly oblivious of his surroundings. This state was partially duo to the benumbing of his brain by the bullet, that had, luckily, glanced along his slrull, in place of penetrating it, and thus ending his carthly career, as the miscreant, King Kent, had intended it to do. Soon, however, Daring Dick recovered suf- ficiently to reason with sense; and he bathed his head, at the river, poured a quantity of the liquor from the flask upon his wound, and then, mounting the horse of the Tonkaway, gave tho animal free jaw-strap. The intelligent mustang immediately started up the river, the young man paying not tho slightest attention to his surroundings, for he was in a very strange stato of mind. He was puzzled, in the extreme, to account for his attempted assassination. He could form no idea as to who it was that had attempted his life. It did not seem possible that any roving In- dians could be in the vicinity; and, even if such was the case, they would not have used fire- arms, but arrows, to slay him. Few Indians firearms, as he was well aware. Even those who were friendly seldom owned a rifle, and none that he had ever seen carried a revolver, except Turtle, and his fellow-chief, Rattlesnake. From all his reasonings, Dick could not arrive at any reasonable conclusion in connection with it, except that it must have been either a white man or a Mexican. For all that he knew to the contrary, the Greasers on the ranch were friendly to him; in- deed, it did not seem possible that any one of them should hold an enmity to the extent of wishing to take his life; and, as to any white man making such a cowardly attempt, Dick could not bring to mind any one who could have a motive, unless it —— be some friend of the two ruffians whom he been obliged te shoot, in Austin, and who might, through a wee for revenge, arse o— up the Brazos, ‘or the express purpose 0 ying him. Once, indeed, King Kent entered his mind, as the ible assassin; but this idea was banished as absurd, for the home of Kent was near, and all his hopes and life were undoubtedly centered upon that home and his father; consequently he would not be likely to outlaw himself, even for the gratification of his jealous fury. : Dick well knew that King Kent hated him, for he had been informed that the young gam- bler and desperado had, as far as his craven heart was capable, loved Lola Landers; and that he had been a visitor at the ranch until he himself had arrived on the Rio Leon. It seemed im ible that Kent would thus endanger his life, and place his neck in the noose of a rope. Thus reasoned Daring Dick, as the horse of the Tonkaway bore him along the river-bank, toward the scene of the attempted assassination ; and he was much in the dark when he arrived within sight of the chief, as when he started. However, he was not long to remain in ignor- ance as to the name of the man who had attemp- ted his life. Turtle, the Tonkaway, stood, with his arms folded, and his rifle leaning against the nearest tree, as Dick rode up to his side. The face of the Indian was stern, and venge- ful glances shot from his black eyes, as he held up before the — man’s eyes, a portion of a ilkken scarf, of peculiar pattern, in colored em- broidery; such as was worn by Mexicans, and IOO <eom € > Eon | | |