<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
<h3>HOW DICK LOST HIS SCALP.</h3>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i010-t.png" width-obs="102" height-obs="100" alt="T" title="" /></div>
<div class='unindent'><br/>WO or three days after they had moved from
their last halting-place, when they were sitting
at the fire one evening, and Abe had
been telling a yarn of adventure, he said,
when he had finished:—</div>
<p>"About the closest thing as I know was that adventure
that Dick thar had. Dick, take off that thar wig of yourn."</p>
<p>The hunter put his hand to his head and lifted at once
his cap, made of skin, and the hair beneath it, showing,
to Frank's astonishment, a head without a vestige of hair,
and presenting the appearance of a strange scar, mottled
with a deep purple, as if it was the result of a terrible
burn.</p>
<p>"You see I have been scalped," the hunter said. "I
don't suppose you noticed it—few people do. You see, I
never takes off my fur cap night or day, so that no one
can see as I wears a wig."</p>
<p>"There's nought to be ashamed of in it," Abe said,
"for it is as honourable a scalp as ever a man got. Do you
tell the story, Dick."</p>
<p>"You know it as well as I do," the hunter replied,
"and I ain't good at talking."<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Well, I will tell you it then," Abe said, "seeing that
I knows almost as much about it as Dick does. The
affair occurred the very year after what I have been telling
you about. Dick was attached as hunter and scout to
Fort Charles, which was, at that time, one of the furthest
west of all our stations. There was fifty infantry and
thirty cavalry there, and little enough too, for it war just
on the edge of the Dacota country. The Dacotas are a
powerful tribe, and are one of the most restless, troublesome
lots I knows. Several strong parties of our troops
have been surprised and cut to pieces by them; and as to
settlements, no one but a born fool would dream of
settling within reach of them.</p>
<p>"I never could quite make out why we wanted to put
a fort down so close to them, seeing as there warn't a
settlement to protect within a hundred and fifty miles;
but I suppose the wiseacres at Washington had some sort
of an idea that the redskins would be afraid to make excursions
to the settlements with this fort in their rear,
just as if they couldn't make a sweep of five hundred
miles if they took it into their heads, and come back
into their country on the other side.</p>
<p>"Just at that time there was no trouble with them;
the hatchet was buried, and they used to come into the
fort and sell skins and furs to the traders there for tobacco
and beads. After that affair I was telling ye of, Rube
and me, we went back for a spell to the settlement, and
then took a fancy to hunt on another line, and, after
knocking about for a time, found ourselves at Fort
Charles. That was where we met Dick for the first time.</p>
<p>"The Commander of the fort was a chap named
White, a captain; he had with him his wife and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</SPAN></span>
daughter. A worse kind of man for the commander of
a frontier station you could hardly find. He was not a
bad soldier, and was well liked by his men, and I have
no doubt if he had been fighting agin other white men
he would have done well enough; but he never seemed to
have an idee what Injin nature was like, and weren't
never likely to learn.</p>
<p>"First place, he despised them. Now, you know, the
redskins ain't to be despised. You may hate them, you
may say they are a cussed lot of rascals and thieves, but
there ain't no despising them, and any one as does that is
sure to have cause to repent it, sooner or later. There
was the less reason with the Dacotas, for they had cut
up stronger bodies of troops than there was at Fort Charles
without letting a soul escape. Then, partly because the
captain despised them, I suppose, he was always hurting
their feelings.</p>
<p>"Now, a chief is a chief, and a man who can bring three
hundred horsemen into the field, whether he is redskin or
white, is a man to whom a certain respect should be paid.
But Captain White never seemed to see that, but just
treated one redskin like another, just as if they war dirt
beneath his feet. Well, as I told you, he had with him
his wife and daughter. His wife was too fine a lady for
a frontier fort, still, she was not badly liked: but as to the
daughter, there warn't a man in the fort but would have
died for her. She war about fifteen year old, and as
pretty as a flower. She war always bright and merry,
with a kind word to the soldiers as she rode past them
on her pretty white mustang.</p>
<p>"Dick, here, he worshipped her like the rest of us.
If he got a particular good skin, or anything else, if he<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</SPAN></span>
thought she would like it he would put it by for her,
and she used, in her merry way, to call him her scout.
Well, one day Black Dog, one of the most powerful chiefs
of the Dacotas, rode into the fort with twenty of his
braves. Just as he came in, Queen May, as we all called
her, came galloping up on her mustang, and leapt like a bird
from her saddle at the door of the commander's house,
where her father was standing. I war standing next to
him, and so I saw Black Dog's eye fall on her, and as long
as she stood talking there to her father he never took it
off; then he said something to the brave as was sitting
on his horse next to him.</p>
<p>"'Cuss him!' Dick said to me, and I could see his hold
on his rifle tighten, 'what does he look at Queen
May like that for? You mark my words, Abe, trouble
will come of this.'</p>
<p>"It was not long before trouble did come, for half
an hour later the Dacota rode out of the fort with his
men in great wrath, complaining that Captain White
had not received him as a chief, and that his dignity was
insulted. It war like enough that Captain White was
not as ceremonious as he should have been to a great
chief—for, as I told you, he war short in his ways with
the redskins—but I question if harm would have come
of it if it hadn't been that Black Dog's eye fell on that
gal.</p>
<p>"I believe that there and then he made up his mind
to carry her off. We didn't see any redskins in camp
for some time; and then rumours were brought in by the
scouts that there war going to be trouble with them,
that a council had been held, and that it war decided
the hatchet should be dug up again. Captain White<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</SPAN></span>
he made light of the affair; but he was a good soldier,
and warn't to be caught napping, so extra sentries were
put on.</p>
<p>"As Rube and me didn't belong to the fort, of course
we war independent, and went away hunting, and
would sometimes be away for weeks together. One day,
when we war some forty miles from the fort, we came
upon the trail of a large number of redskins going
east. We guessed as there must be nigh two hundred of
them. They might, in course, have been going hunting,
but we didn't think as it were so; sartainly they had no
women with them, and they had been travelling fast.
We guessed the trail was three days old, and we thought
we had best push on straight to the fort to let them know
about it.</p>
<p>"When we got thar we found we were too late. On
the morning of the day after we had started a scout had
arrived with the news that a strong war-party of Dacotas
were on their way to the settlements. Captain White at
once mounted half his infantry on horses, and with them
and the cavalry set out in pursuit, leaving the fort in
charge of a young officer with twenty-four men. Just
after nightfall there was a sound of horsemen approaching,
and the officer, thinking it was the Captain returning,
ordered the gate of the stockade to be left open. In a
moment the place was full of redskins. The soldiers
tried to fight, but it were no use; all war cut down, only
one man making his escape in the darkness.</p>
<p>"At daybreak, the Captain, with his troops, rode into
the fort. Dick, who had been with him, had, when the
party was returning, gone out scouting on his own
account, and had come across the back-track of the redskins.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</SPAN></span>
The moment he had brought in the news the
horses were re-saddled again, and the party started back;
but they had gone nearly sixty miles the day before, and
it was not until morning that, utterly exhausted and
weary, they got within sight of the fort. Then they saw
as it war too late.</p>
<p>"Not a roof was to be seen above the stockade, and a
light smoke rising everywhere showed as fire had done it.
They rode into camp like madmen. There lay all their
comrades, killed and scalped; there were the bodies
of Mrs. White and her servants, and the nigger labourers,
and the trader and his clerks, and of all who had been
left behind in the camp, except the Captain's little
daughter; of her there weren't no signs. Rube and me
arrived half an hour later, just as the soldier who had
escaped had come in and was telling how it all came
about.</p>
<p>"It war a terrible scene, I can tell you; the Captain
he were nigh mad with grief, and the men were boiling
over with rage. If they could have got at the Dacotas
then they would have fought if there had been twenty to
one against them. Dick war nowhere to be seen; the
man said that he had caught a fresh horse, which had
broken its rope and stampeded through the gate while
the massacre was going on, and that he had ridden away
on it on the Indian trail.</p>
<p>"If the horses had been fresh the Captain would have
started in pursuit at once, and every man was burning to
go. But it was lucky as they couldn't, for if they had I
have no doubt the whole lot would have been wiped out
by the Dacotas. However, there was no possibility of
moving for at least a couple of days, for the horses war<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</SPAN></span>
altogether used up after the march. So they had time
to get cool on it.</p>
<p>"That afternoon the Captain, who was in council with
the two officers who remained, sent for Rube and me, and
asked us our opinion as to what was best to be done. We
says at once that there weren't nothing. 'You have lost nigh
a third of your force,' says I, 'and have got little over forty
left. If we were to go up into the Dacota country we
should get ambushed to a certainty, and should have a
thousand of them, perhaps two thousand, down on us, and
the odds would be too great, Captain; it couldn't be done.
Besides, even if you licked them—and I tell you as your
chance of doing so would be mighty small—they would
disperse in all directions, and then meet and fight you
agin, and ye wouldn't be no nearer getting your daughter
than you war before.</p>
<p>"'If you ask my advice, it would be that you should send
back to the nearest fort for more men, and that you should
at once get up the stockade where it has been burnt down,
for there is no saying when you will be attacked again.
I tell you, Captain, that to lead this party here into the
Dacota country would mean sartin death for them.'</p>
<p>"Mad as the Captain was to go in search of his
daughter, he saw that I was right, and indeed I concluded
he had made up his mind he could do nothing before he
sent for us, only he hoped, I suppose, as we might
give some sort of hope. 'I am afraid what you say is
true,' says he. 'At any rate we must wait till Dick, the
scout, returns; he will tell us which way they have gone,
and what is their strength.'</p>
<p>"By nightfall the soldiers had buried all the dead just
outside the stockade, and had built a temporary wall—for<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</SPAN></span>
there wasn't a stick of timber within miles—across the
gaps in the fence.</p>
<p>"At nightfall Rube and me, whose horses war fresh,
started for the nearest fort, and four days afterwards got
back with forty more horse-soldiers. We found that Dick
had not come back, and we made up our minds as he had
gone under. When we were away we had heard that the
redskins had attacked the settlements in a dozen different
places, and that there was no doubt a general Injin war had
broken out. The officer at the fort where I went to was
a major; it was a bigger place than Fort Charles, which
was a sort of outlying post. I had, in course, told him
about the Captain's daughter being carried off.</p>
<p>"He sent up a letter with the soldiers to the Captain,
saying how sorry he was to hear of his loss, and he
sent up forty men; but he ordered that unless Captain
White had received some intelligence which would,
in his opinion, justify his undertaking an expedition into
the Indian country with so small a force as he could
command, he was at once to evacuate the place and
fall back with his force on the settlement, as the position
was quite untenable, and every man was needed for the
defence of the settlers.</p>
<p>"When the Captain got the order he walked up and
down by hisself for four or five minutes. Yer see it war
a hard choice for him; as a father he was longing to go
in search of his child, as a soldier he saw that he should
be risking the whole force under his command if he did
so, and that at a time when every man was needed at
the settlements. At last the order was given that the
troops should take the back-track to the settlements on
the following evening.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"The Captain told the officers that he should wait till
then to give the horses of the men who had arrived with
us time to rest; but I know in his heart he wanted to
wait in the hope of Dick arriving with news.</p>
<p>"The next day, at four in the afternoon, the men
war beginning to saddle their horses, when the sentry
suddenly gave the cry of 'Injins, Injins!'</p>
<p>"In a moment every man seized his carbine and
sword, and shoved his bridle on his horse's head, buckled
up, and jumped into the saddle. There was no occasion
for any orders. I climbed up on to the stockade, for the
country was pretty nigh a dead flat, and the lookout had
been burnt with the huts.</p>
<p>"Sure enough, there in the distance war some horsemen
coming across the plain; but they war straggling,
and not many of them. I could not make head nor tail
of it. They war Injins, sure enough, for even at that
distance I could tell that by their figures. Then I saw as
there was more of them coming behind them; the idea
suddenly struck me: 'Ride, Captain!' I shouted; 'ride
with your men for your life, they are chasing some one.'</p>
<p>"There warn't any necessity for Captain White to give
any orders; there was a rush to the gate, and as fast as
they could get through they started out at full gallop.
Me and Rube dropped over the stockade, for our critters
war picketed outside. We didn't wait to saddle them,
you may guess, but pulled up the ropes, jumped on to
their backs, and galloped on; and we war soon by
the side of Captain White, who was riding as if he was
mad. We could see them a little plainer now, and says
I, suddenly, 'Captain, there is a white horse in front, by
gum!'<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i020.jpg" width-obs="550" height-obs="355" alt="THE ESCAPE OF THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER." title="" /> <span class="caption">THE ESCAPE OF THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER.</span></div>
<p>"A sort of hoarse cry came from the Captain, and he
spurred his horse agin, although the critter was going at
its best speed. They war two miles from us yet, but I
could soon make out as the white horse and another was
a bit ahead, then came eight or ten Injins in a clump, and
a hundred or more straggling out behind. It seemed to
me as they war all going slow, as if the horses war dead-beat;
but what scared me most was to see as the clump
of Injins war gaining on the two ahead of them, one of
whom I felt sure now was the Captain's daughter, and
the other I guessed was Dick.</p>
<p>"The Captain saw it too, for he gave a strange sort of
cry. 'My God!' he said, 'they will overtake her.' We
war still a mile from them, when we saw suddenly the
man in front—this chap Dick here—part sudden from the
white horse, wheel straight round, and go right back
at the Injins. They separated as he came to them. We
saw two fall from their horses, and the wind presently
brought the sound of the cracks of pistols. There war
no 'Colts' in those days, but I knew that Dick carried a
brace of double-barrelled pistols in his holsters. Then
the others closed round him.</p>
<p>"There was a sort of confusion; we could see tomahawks
waving, and blows given, and when it was over
there war but four Injins out of the eight to be seen on
their horses. But the white horse had gained a hundred
yards while the fight was going on, and the Injins saw
that we war a-coming on like a hurricane, so they turned
their horses and galloped back again.</p>
<p>"Three minutes later the Captain's daughter rode up.
She war as white as death, and the Captain had just time
to leap off and catch her as she fainted dead away. The<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</SPAN></span>
rest of us didn't stop, you bet; we just gave a cheer and
on we went, and the Dacotas got a lesson that day as
they will remember as long as they are a tribe. Their
horses were so dead-beat they had scarcely a gallop in
them, while ours were fresh, and I don't think ten of the
varmints got away.</p>
<p>"We didn't draw rein till it was dark, and next morning
we counted two hundred and fifteen dead redskins
on the plains. The first thing in the morning, Rube and
me rode back to where the fight began, to give Dick a
burial. We looked about, but couldn't find him. There
was Black Dog, with one of his bullets through his
forehead, two others shot through the body, and one with
his skull stove in with a blow from Dick's rifle, which was
lying there with the stock broken. So we supposed the
Captain had had him carried to the fort, and we rode on
there.</p>
<p>"When we got there we found as he was alive. It
seems at the moment the Captain's daughter recovered
from her faint she insisted on going back with the
Captain to see if Dick was alive. They found him well-nigh
dead. He had got an arrow through the body,
and two desperate clips with tomahawks, and had been
scalped, but he was still breathing. There war no one
else nigh, for every man had ridden on in pursuit; but
they managed, somehow, between them, to get him upon
the Captain's horse. The Captain he rode in the saddle,
and held him in his arms, while his daughter led her
horse back to the fort. There they dressed his wounds,
and put wet cloths to his head, and watched him all night.</p>
<p>"In the morning he was quite delirious. Fortunately the
Captain considered that after the way they had licked the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</SPAN></span>
redskins the day before there was no absolute necessity
for evacuating the Fort; so the troops cut turf and made
huts, and parties were sent off to the nearest timber to
bring in boughs for roofs, and there we stopped, and in
six weeks Dick was about again with his wig on his head.</p>
<p>"You will wonder whar he got his wig from, seeing
as that sort of thing ain't a product of the plains; but he
is wearing his own hair. Among the fust of the Injins
we overtook and killed was a chap with Dick's scalp
hanging at his girdle, and when it was known as he was
alive they searched and found it; and one of the soldiers
who was fond of collecting bird-skins, and such like,
just preserved it in the same way, and when Dick was
able to go out again he presented him with his own scalp.
So if any one says to Dick as he ain't wearing his own hair,
Dick can tell him he is a liar.</p>
<p>"Lor', how grateful that gal was to Dick; he never was
a particular good-looking young fellow, and he wasn't improved
by the scrimmage, but I believe if he had axed her
she would have given up everything and settled down as
a hunter's wife."</p>
<p>Dick growled an angry denial.</p>
<p>"Well, mate, it may be not quite that, but it war very
nigh it. It was downright pretty to see the way she hung
about him, and looked after him, just for all the world as
if she had been his mother, and he a sick child. The
Captain, too, didn't know how to make enough of Dick;
and as for the men, they would have done anything for
him for having saved the life of Queen May. I heard,
three or four years afterwards, as she married the young
officer who was in command of the horse-soldiers at
the next fort."<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"But tell me," Frank said, "how did Dick manage to
get her away from the Indians?"</p>
<p>"That," Abe said, "he'd better tell you himself, seeing
as concerning that part of the business he knows more
nor I do. Now, Dick, speak out."</p>
<p>"There ain't much to tell," Dick said gruffly, taking the
pipe from his mouth. "Directly as we got back to camp,
and I found she had gone, it seemed to me as I had got to
follow her; and my eye lighting on the loose horse, I soon
managed to catch the critter, and, shifting my saddle to it,
I started. As you may guess, there war no difficulty in
following the trail. They had ridden all night, though
they knew there was no chance of their being pursued.
But about fifty miles from the fort I came upon their
first halting-place; they had lit fires and cooked food
there, and had waited some hours.</p>
<p>"The ashes were still warm, and I guess they had left
about four hours afore I arrived; so I went on more carefully,
knowing that if I threw away my life there was no
chance of recovering the gal. I guessed, by the direction
which they were taking, they were going to Black Dog's
village; and, after going a bit further on the trail to make
sure, I turned off, and went round some miles, in case they
should have left any one to see if they war followed. I
knew where the village was, for I had been hunting near it.</p>
<p>"I camped out on the plains for the night, and next
day rode to within five miles of the village, which was
among the hills. I left my horse in a wood where there
was water, and, taking my rifle and pistols, went forward
on foot to the village and arrived there after dark. As I
expected, I found the hull place astir. A big fire was
blazing in the centre; on a pole near it hung the scalps<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</SPAN></span>
they had taken, and they were a-dancing round it and
howling and yelling. I didn't see any signs of the gal;
but as there were two redskins with their rifles hanging
about the door of a wigwam next to that of the chief, I
had no doubt she was there.</p>
<p>"This wigwam was in the centre of the village, and
there were lots of old squaws and gals about, so that I
could not, for the life of me, see any way of stealing her
out. Next night I went back to the camp and watched,
but the more I thought on it, the more difficult it seemed.
The second night I catched an Injin boy who was
wandering outside the camp. I choked him, so that he
couldn't hollo, and carried him off; and when I got far
enough away I questioned him, and found that in two days
there was to be a grand feast, and Black Dog was then
going to take the white gal as his squaw. So I saw as
there was no time to be lost. I strapped up the Indian
boy and tied him to a tree, and then went back to the
village.</p>
<p>"This time the gal was sitting at the door of the tent.
I crept up behind, cut a slit in the skins, and got inside. As
I expected, there was no one in there, the squaws as was
watching her was outside; so I crept up close to the
entrance, and I says to her, 'Hush! don't move, your
scout Dick is here.' She gave a little tremble when I
began, and then sat as still as a mouse.</p>
<p>"Says I, 'I don't see no plan for getting you away
secret, you are watched altogether too close, the only plan
is to make a race for it. There ain't many horses on the
plain as can beat that mustang of yours, and I know you
can ride him barebacked. Do you take a head of maize
now and walk across to where he is picketed, and feed and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</SPAN></span>
pat him; then to-morrow morning early do the same.
They won't be watching very closely, for they will think
you are only going to do the same as to-night. I
have put an open knife down behind you. You cut his
rope, jump on his back, and ride straight; I will join you
at the bottom of the valley. They may overtake us, but
they won't hurt you; if they do catch you, they will just
bring you back here again, and you will be no worse off
than you are now. Will you try?' The gal nodded, and
I crept away out of sight.</p>
<p>"A few minutes afterwards I saw her going along with
some ears of maize to where the horses were tied up.
Two Indians followed her at a little distance, but she
walked across so natural that I don't think they had any
suspicion; she fed the horse, and talked to it, and petted
it, and then went back to the village. Next morning,
before daylight, I mounted my horse and rode to the
mouth of the valley, a quarter of a mile from the village.</p>
<p>"Half an hour after daylight I heard a yell, and almost
directly afterwards the sounds of a horse's hoofs in full
gallop. I rode out, and along she came as hard as the
horse could go. Three or four mounted Indians war just
coming into the other end of the valley four hundred
yards away.</p>
<p>"'All right, Queen May, we have got a fine start,' says
I, and then we galloped along together. 'Not too fast,' I
told her, 'it ain't speed as will win the race. There is a
long hundred miles between us and the fort. We must
keep ahead of them varmint for a mile or two, and then
they will settle down.'</p>
<p>"For the first five or six miles we had to ride fast, for
the redskins tried the speed of their horses to the utmost;<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</SPAN></span>
but none of them gained anything on us, indeed we
widened the gap by a good bit. You see at first they only
thought it was a wild scheme on the part of the gal,
and the first as started jumped on the first horses that
came to hand; it wasn't till they saw me that they found
it was a got-up thing. One of the first lot galloped back
with the news. But by the time the alarm was spread,
and the chase really taken up in earnest, we was a good
mile away, and a mile is a long start.</p>
<p>"Black Dog and some of his best-mounted braves rode too
hard at first. Ef we had only had a short start they would
have catched us, perhaps; but a mile's start was too much
to be made up by a rush, and so Black Dog should have
known; but I reckon he was too mad at first to calculate.
By hard riding he and his best-mounted braves got within
half a mile of us when we war about ten miles from the
village. But by that time, as you may guess, the steam
was out of their horses, while we had been riding at a
steady gallop.</p>
<p>"The first party that had started had now tailed away,
and was as far back as the chief. It was safe to be a long
chase now, and I felt pretty sure as the gal would escape,
for her mustang was a beautiful critter, and the Captain
had given a long price for it; besides, it was carrying no
weight to speak of. I didn't feel so sure about myself, for
though my horse was a first-class one, and had over and
over again, when out hunting, showed herself as fast as
any out, there might be as good ones or better among the
redskins, for anything I knew. When we were fairly out
on the plains, I could see that pretty nigh the whole
tribe of redskins had joined in the chase.</p>
<p>"At first I couldn't make out why; for although they<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</SPAN></span>
are all wonderful for bottom, some of the redskins' horses
ain't much for speed, and many of them could never have
hoped to have come up with us. But when I thought it
over, I reckoned that seeing I had joined the gal, they
might have thought that I had brought her news that
the Captain, with all the soldiers from the fort, was
coming up behind, and I expect that's why the chief and
his braves rode so fast at first.</p>
<p>"I don't know as I ever passed a longer day than
that. We went at a steady gallop, always keeping just
about half a mile ahead of the redskins. Sometimes I
jumped off my horse and ran alongside of him with my
hand on the saddle for half a mile, to ease him a bit. The
gal rode splendidly; the mustang had a beautiful easy
pace, and she set him as if she was in a chair. For the
first fifty miles I don't think the redskins gained a yard
on us; they warn't pressing their horses more than we
were, for it was a question only of last now. Then little by
little I could see that a small party was leaving the rest
and gaining slowly upon us; I darn't press my horse
further, but I began to give the gal instructions as to the
course she should keep.</p>
<p>"'What does it matter, Dick,' she asked, 'when you
are here to guide me?' 'But I mayn't be with you all the
time,' says I; 'it air quite possible that them redskins will
overtake me twenty miles afore I get to the fort, but
your critter can keep ahead of them easy, he is going
nigh as light now as when he started; when they get a
bit closer to us you must go on alone.' 'I shan't leave
you,' she says. 'Dick, you got into this scrape to save
me, and I am not going to run away and leave you to be
killed; if you are taken, I will be taken too.'<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"'That would be a foolish thing,' says I, 'and a cruel
one, ef you like to put it so. I have risked my life to save
you, just as I have risked it a score of times before on
the plains; ef my time has come, it will be a comfort to
me to know as I have saved you, but ef you were taken
too I should feel that I had just chucked my life away.
Besides, you have got to think of the Captain; now that
your mother has gone you have got to be a comfort to
him. So you see, Miss, ef you was to get taken wilful
you would be doing a bad turn to yerself, and to me, and
to yer father.'</p>
<p>"It was a long time before she spoke again, and then
she didn't say anything about what we had been talking
of, but began to ask whether I thought we were sure to
find the soldiers still at the fort. In course I couldn't
say for sartin, but, to cheer her up, I talked hopeful
about it, though I thought it was likely enough they had
fallen back on the settlements. I did some long spells of
running now, and got more hopeful, for the Injins didn't
gain anything to speak of.</p>
<p>"We war all going very slow now, for the horses were
pretty nigh beat. We had crossed two or three streams
by the way, and at each they had had a few mouthfuls of
water. It wasn't till we were within ten miles of the
fort that the Injins really began to gain. They must
have felt that there was a good chance of our slipping
through their fingers, and they determined to catch us if
they killed every horse in the tribe.</p>
<p>"I tried to urge my critter forward, but he hadn't got
it in him; and what frightened me more was that the
mustang didn't seem much faster; he had trod in a dog-hole
when we war about half-way across the plains, and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</SPAN></span>
must have twisted his foot. I could see now he was
going a little lame with it. The redskins gained on us
bit by bit, and were pressing us hard when first we caught
sight of the fort about four miles away.</p>
<p>"I had begun to despair, for they warn't more than two
hundred yards behind now. The gal had held on bravely,
but she was nigh done. Good rider as she was, it was a
terrible ride for a young gal, and it was only the
excitement which kept her going; but she was nigh
reeling on the horse now. Sudden I says to her, 'Thank
God! Miss, there are the soldiers; keep up your heart,
your father's coming to save you.'</p>
<p>"The Injins saw him too, for I heard the war-whoop
behind, and the sound of the horses came nearer and
nearer. I spurred my horse, and it was the first time I
had touched him since we started, but it wasn't no good.
'Ride, Queen May, ride for your life!' I cried out; but I
don't think she heard me. She was looking straight forward
now at the sojers; her face was like death, and with
a hard set look on it, and I expected every moment to see
her drop from her horse.</p>
<p>"I saw as it was all up; the redskins war but fifty
yards behind, and were gainin' fast upon us. So I says,
'Thar's your father, Miss, ride on for his sake,' then I
turns my horse, and, with a pistol in each hand, I rides
back at the redskins. The gal told me afterwards that
she did not hear me speak, that she didn't know I had
turned, and that all that time after she had first caught
sight of the sojers seemed a dream to her.</p>
<p>"I don't remember much of the scrimmage. Black
Dog was the first redskin I met, and I hit him fair
between the eyes; arter that it was all confusion, I threw<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</SPAN></span>
away my pistols, and went at them with my rifle. I felt
as if a hot iron went through my body, then there was a
crash on my head, and I remember nothing more until I
found myself lying, as weak as a baby, in the hut in the
fort, with Queen May a-sitting working beside the bed.
So, as you see, it ain't much of a story."</p>
<p>"I call it a great deal of a story," Frank said; "I would
give a great deal to have done such a thing."</p>
<p>"Well, shut up, and don't say no more about it," Dick
growled, "ef you want us to keep friends. Abe's always
a-lugging that old story out, and he knows as I hates it
like pizen. We have had more than one quarrel about
it, and this is the last time, by gosh, as ever I opens my
lips about it. Pass over the liquor, I am dry."</p>
<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i011-decoration.png" width-obs="400" height-obs="100" alt="Decoration" title="" /></div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.