Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XI.

  HOW DICK LOST HIS SCALP.

  TWO 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 tellinga yarn of adventure, he said, when he had finished:--

  "About the closest thing as I know was that adventure that Dick tharhad. Dick, take off that thar wig of yourn."

  The hunter put his hand to his head and lifted at once his cap, made ofskin, and the hair beneath it, showing, to Frank's astonishment, a headwithout a vestige of hair, and presenting the appearance of a strangescar, mottled with a deep purple, as if it was the result of a terribleburn.

  "You see I have been scalped," the hunter said. "I don't suppose younoticed it--few people do. You see, I never takes off my fur cap nightor day, so that no one can see as I wears a wig."

  "There's nought to be ashamed of in it," Abe said, "for it is ashonourable a scalp as ever a man got. Do you tell the story, Dick."

  "You know it as well as I do," the hunter replied, "and I ain't good attalking."

  "Well, I will tell you it then," Abe said, "seeing that I knows almostas much about it as Dick does. The affair occurred the very year afterwhat I have been telling you about. Dick was attached as hunter andscout to Fort Charles, which was, at that time, one of the furthest westof all our stations. There was fifty infantry and thirty cavalry there,and little enough too, for it war just on the edge of the Dacotacountry. The Dacotas are a powerful tribe, and are one of the mostrestless, troublesome lots I knows. Several strong parties of our troopshave been surprised and cut to pieces by them; and as to settlements, noone but a born fool would dream of settling within reach of them.

  "I never could quite make out why we wanted to put a fort down so closeto them, seeing as there warn't a settlement to protect within a hundredand fifty miles; but I suppose the wiseacres at Washington had some sortof an idea that the redskins would be afraid to make excursions to thesettlements with this fort in their rear, just as if they couldn't makea sweep of five hundred miles if they took it into their heads, and comeback into their country on the other side.

  "Just at that time there was no trouble with them; the hatchet wasburied, and they used to come into the fort and sell skins and furs tothe traders there for tobacco and beads. After that affair I was tellingye of, Rube and me, we went back for a spell to the settlement, and thentook a fancy to hunt on another line, and, after knocking about for atime, found ourselves at Fort Charles. That was where we met Dick forthe first time.

  "The Commander of the fort was a chap named White, a captain; he hadwith him his wife and daughter. A worse kind of man for the commanderof 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 beenfighting agin other white men he would have done well enough; but henever seemed to have an idee what Injin nature was like, and weren'tnever likely to learn.

  "First place, he despised them. Now, you know, the redskins ain't to bedespised. You may hate them, you may say they are a cussed lot ofrascals and thieves, but there ain't no despising them, and any one asdoes that is sure to have cause to repent it, sooner or later. There wasthe less reason with the Dacotas, for they had cut up stronger bodies oftroops than there was at Fort Charles without letting a soul escape.Then, partly because the captain despised them, I suppose, he was alwayshurting their feelings.

  "Now, a chief is a chief, and a man who can bring three hundred horsemeninto the field, whether he is redskin or white, is a man to whom acertain respect should be paid. But Captain White never seemed to seethat, but just treated one redskin like another, just as if they wardirt beneath his feet. Well, as I told you, he had with him his wife anddaughter. His wife was too fine a lady for a frontier fort, still, shewas not badly liked: but as to the daughter, there warn't a man in thefort but would have died for her. She war about fifteen year old, and aspretty as a flower. She war always bright and merry, with a kind word tothe soldiers as she rode past them on her pretty white mustang.

  "Dick, here, he worshipped her like the rest of us. If he got aparticular good skin, or anything else, if he thought she would like ithe would put it by for her, and she used, in her merry way, to call himher scout. Well, one day Black Dog, one of the most powerful chiefs ofthe Dacotas, rode into the fort with twenty of his braves. Just as hecame in, Queen May, as we all called her, came galloping up on hermustang, and leapt like a bird from her saddle at the door of thecommander's house, where her father was standing. I war standing next tohim, and so I saw Black Dog's eye fall on her, and as long as she stoodtalking there to her father he never took it off; then he said somethingto the brave as was sitting on his horse next to him.

  "'Cuss him!' Dick said to me, and I could see his hold on his rifletighten, 'what does he look at Queen May like that for? You mark mywords, Abe, trouble will come of this.'

  "It was not long before trouble did come, for half an hour later theDacota rode out of the fort with his men in great wrath, complainingthat Captain White had not received him as a chief, and that his dignitywas insulted. It war like enough that Captain White was not asceremonious 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 wouldhave come of it if it hadn't been that Black Dog's eye fell on that gal.

  "I believe that there and then he made up his mind to carry her off. Wedidn't see any redskins in camp for some time; and then rumours werebrought 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 shouldbe dug up again. Captain White he made light of the affair; but he wasa good soldier, and warn't to be caught napping, so extra sentries wereput on.

  "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 thetrail of a large number of redskins going east. We guessed as there mustbe nigh two hundred of them. They might, in course, have been goinghunting, but we didn't think as it were so; sartainly they had no womenwith them, and they had been travelling fast. We guessed the trail wasthree days old, and we thought we had best push on straight to the fortto let them know about it.

  "When we got thar we found we were too late. On the morning of the dayafter we had started a scout had arrived with the news that a strongwar-party of Dacotas were on their way to the settlements. Captain Whiteat once mounted half his infantry on horses, and with them and thecavalry set out in pursuit, leaving the fort in charge of a youngofficer with twenty-four men. Just after nightfall there was a sound ofhorsemen approaching, and the officer, thinking it was the Captainreturning, ordered the gate of the stockade to be left open. In a momentthe place was full of redskins. The soldiers tried to fight, but it wereno use; all war cut down, only one man making his escape in thedarkness.

  "At daybreak, the Captain, with his troops, rode into the fort. Dick,who had been with him, had, when the party was returning, gone outscouting on his own account, and had come across the back-track of theredskins. The moment he had brought in the news the horses werere-saddled again, and the party started back; but they had gone nearlysixty miles the day before, and it was not until morning that, utterlyexhausted and weary, they got within sight of the fort. Then they saw asit war too late.

  "Not a roof was to be seen above the stockade, and a light smoke risingeverywhere showed as fire had done it. They rode into camp like madmen.There lay all their comrades, killed and scalped; there were the bodiesof Mrs. White and her servants, and the nigger labourers, and the traderand his clerks, and of all who had been left behind in the camp, exceptthe Captain's little daughter; of her there weren't no signs. Rube andme arrived half an hour later, just as the soldier who had escaped hadcome in and was telling how it all came about.

  "It war a terrible scene, I can tell you; the Captain he were nigh madwith grief, and the men were boiling over with rage. If they cou
ld havegot at the Dacotas then they would have fought if there had been twentyto one against them. Dick war nowhere to be seen; the man said that hehad caught a fresh horse, which had broken its rope and stampededthrough the gate while the massacre was going on, and that he had riddenaway on it on the Indian trail.

  "If the horses had been fresh the Captain would have started in pursuitat once, and every man was burning to go. But it was lucky as theycouldn't, for if they had I have no doubt the whole lot would have beenwiped out by the Dacotas. However, there was no possibility of movingfor at least a couple of days, for the horses war altogether used upafter the march. So they had time to get cool on it.

  "That afternoon the Captain, who was in council with the two officerswho remained, sent for Rube and me, and asked us our opinion as to whatwas best to be done. We says at once that there weren't nothing. 'Youhave lost nigh a third of your force,' says I, 'and have got little overforty left. If we were to go up into the Dacota country we should getambushed to a certainty, and should have a thousand of them, perhaps twothousand, down on us, and the odds would be too great, Captain; itcouldn't be done. Besides, even if you licked them--and I tell you asyour chance of doing so would be mighty small--they would disperse inall directions, and then meet and fight you agin, and ye wouldn't be nonearer getting your daughter than you war before.

  "'If you ask my advice, it would be that you should send back to thenearest fort for more men, and that you should at once get up thestockade where it has been burnt down, for there is no saying when youwill be attacked again. I tell you, Captain, that to lead this partyhere into the Dacota country would mean sartin death for them.'

  "Mad as the Captain was to go in search of his daughter, he saw that Iwas right, and indeed I concluded he had made up his mind he could donothing before he sent for us, only he hoped, I suppose, as we mightgive some sort of hope. 'I am afraid what you say is true,' says he. 'Atany rate we must wait till Dick, the scout, returns; he will tell uswhich way they have gone, and what is their strength.'

  "By nightfall the soldiers had buried all the dead just outside thestockade, and had built a temporary wall--for there wasn't a stick oftimber within miles--across the gaps in the fence.

  "At nightfall Rube and me, whose horses war fresh, started for thenearest fort, and four days afterwards got back with forty morehorse-soldiers. We found that Dick had not come back, and we made up ourminds as he had gone under. When we were away we had heard that theredskins had attacked the settlements in a dozen different places, andthat there was no doubt a general Injin war had broken out. The officerat the fort where I went to was a major; it was a bigger place than FortCharles, which was a sort of outlying post. I had, in course, told himabout the Captain's daughter being carried off.

  "He sent up a letter with the soldiers to the Captain, saying how sorryhe was to hear of his loss, and he sent up forty men; but he orderedthat unless Captain White had received some intelligence which would, inhis opinion, justify his undertaking an expedition into the Indiancountry with so small a force as he could command, he was at once toevacuate the place and fall back with his force on the settlement, asthe position was quite untenable, and every man was needed for thedefence of the settlers.

  "When the Captain got the order he walked up and down by hisself forfour or five minutes. Yer see it war a hard choice for him; as a fatherhe was longing to go in search of his child, as a soldier he saw that heshould be risking the whole force under his command if he did so, andthat at a time when every man was needed at the settlements. At last theorder was given that the troops should take the back-track to thesettlements on the following evening.

  THE ESCAPE OF THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER.]

  "The Captain told the officers that he should wait till then to give thehorses of the men who had arrived with us time to rest; but I know inhis heart he wanted to wait in the hope of Dick arriving with news.

  "The next day, at four in the afternoon, the men war beginning to saddletheir horses, when the sentry suddenly gave the cry of 'Injins, Injins!'

  "In a moment every man seized his carbine and sword, and shoved hisbridle 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 beenburnt with the huts.

  "Sure enough, there in the distance war some horsemen coming across theplain; but they war straggling, and not many of them. I could not makehead nor tail of it. They war Injins, sure enough, for even at thatdistance I could tell that by their figures. Then I saw as there wasmore of them coming behind them; the idea suddenly struck me: 'Ride,Captain!' I shouted; 'ride with your men for your life, they are chasingsome one.'

  "There warn't any necessity for Captain White to give any orders; therewas a rush to the gate, and as fast as they could get through theystarted out at full gallop. Me and Rube dropped over the stockade, forour critters war picketed outside. We didn't wait to saddle them, youmay guess, but pulled up the ropes, jumped on to their backs, andgalloped on; and we war soon by the side of Captain White, who wasriding as if he was mad. We could see them a little plainer now, andsays I, suddenly, 'Captain, there is a white horse in front, by gum!'

  "A sort of hoarse cry came from the Captain, and he spurred his horseagin, although the critter was going at its best speed. They war twomiles from us yet, but I could soon make out as the white horse andanother was a bit ahead, then came eight or ten Injins in a clump, and ahundred or more straggling out behind. It seemed to me as they war allgoing slow, as if the horses war dead-beat; but what scared me most wasto see as the clump of Injins war gaining on the two ahead of them, oneof whom I felt sure now was the Captain's daughter, and the other Iguessed was Dick.

  "The Captain saw it too, for he gave a strange sort of cry. 'My God!' hesaid, 'they will overtake her.' We war still a mile from them, when wesaw suddenly the man in front--this chap Dick here--part sudden from thewhite horse, wheel straight round, and go right back at the Injins. Theyseparated as he came to them. We saw two fall from their horses, and thewind presently brought the sound of the cracks of pistols. There war no'Colts' in those days, but I knew that Dick carried a brace ofdouble-barrelled pistols in his holsters. Then the others closed roundhim.

  "There was a sort of confusion; we could see tomahawks waving, and blowsgiven, and when it was over there war but four Injins out of the eightto be seen on their horses. But the white horse had gained a hundredyards while the fight was going on, and the Injins saw that we wara-coming on like a hurricane, so they turned their horses and gallopedback again.

  "Three minutes later the Captain's daughter rode up. She war as white asdeath, and the Captain had just time to leap off and catch her as shefainted dead away. The rest of us didn't stop, you bet; we just gave acheer and on we went, and the Dacotas got a lesson that day as they willremember as long as they are a tribe. Their horses were so dead-beatthey had scarcely a gallop in them, while ours were fresh, and I don'tthink ten of the varmints got away.

  "We didn't draw rein till it was dark, and next morning we counted twohundred and fifteen dead redskins on the plains. The first thing in themorning, Rube and me rode back to where the fight began, to give Dick aburial. We looked about, but couldn't find him. There was Black Dog,with one of his bullets through his forehead, two others shot throughthe 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 Captainhad had him carried to the fort, and we rode on there.

  "When we got there we found as he was alive. It seems at the moment theCaptain's daughter recovered from her faint she insisted on going backwith the Captain to see if Dick was alive. They found him well-nighdead. He had got an arrow through the body, and two desperate clips withtomahawks, and had been scalped, but he was still breathing. There warno one else nigh, for every man had ridden on in pursuit; but theymanaged, somehow, between them, to get him upon the Captain's horse. TheCaptain he rode in the sad
dle, and held him in his arms, while hisdaughter led her horse back to the fort. There they dressed his wounds,and put wet cloths to his head, and watched him all night.

  "In the morning he was quite delirious. Fortunately the Captainconsidered that after the way they had licked the redskins the daybefore there was no absolute necessity for evacuating the Fort; so thetroops cut turf and made huts, and parties were sent off to the nearesttimber to bring in boughs for roofs, and there we stopped, and in sixweeks Dick was about again with his wig on his head.

  "You will wonder whar he got his wig from, seeing as that sort of thingain't a product of the plains; but he is wearing his own hair. Among thefust of the Injins we overtook and killed was a chap with Dick's scalphanging at his girdle, and when it was known as he was alive theysearched and found it; and one of the soldiers who was fond ofcollecting 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 ownscalp. So if any one says to Dick as he ain't wearing his own hair, Dickcan tell him he is a liar.

  "Lor', how grateful that gal was to Dick; he never was a particulargood-looking young fellow, and he wasn't improved by the scrimmage, butI believe if he had axed her she would have given up everything andsettled down as a hunter's wife."

  Dick growled an angry denial.

  "Well, mate, it may be not quite that, but it war very nigh it. It wasdownright pretty to see the way she hung about him, and looked afterhim, just for all the world as if she had been his mother, and he a sickchild. The Captain, too, didn't know how to make enough of Dick; and asfor the men, they would have done anything for him for having saved thelife of Queen May. I heard, three or four years afterwards, as shemarried the young officer who was in command of the horse-soldiers atthe next fort."

  "But tell me," Frank said, "how did Dick manage to get her away from theIndians?"

  "That," Abe said, "he'd better tell you himself, seeing as concerningthat part of the business he knows more nor I do. Now, Dick, speak out."

  "There ain't much to tell," Dick said gruffly, taking the pipe from hismouth. "Directly as we got back to camp, and I found she had gone, itseemed to me as I had got to follow her; and my eye lighting on theloose horse, I soon managed to catch the critter, and, shifting mysaddle to it, I started. As you may guess, there war no difficulty infollowing the trail. They had ridden all night, though they knew therewas no chance of their being pursued. But about fifty miles from thefort I came upon their first halting-place; they had lit fires andcooked food there, and had waited some hours.

  "The ashes were still warm, and I guess they had left about four hoursafore I arrived; so I went on more carefully, knowing that if I threwaway my life there was no chance of recovering the gal. I guessed, bythe direction which they were taking, they were going to Black Dog'svillage; and, after going a bit further on the trail to make sure, Iturned off, and went round some miles, in case they should have left anyone to see if they war followed. I knew where the village was, for I hadbeen hunting near it.

  "I camped out on the plains for the night, and next day rode to withinfive miles of the village, which was among the hills. I left my horse ina wood where there was water, and, taking my rifle and pistols, wentforward on foot to the village and arrived there after dark. As Iexpected, I found the hull place astir. A big fire was blazing in thecentre; on a pole near it hung the scalps they had taken, and they werea-dancing round it and howling and yelling. I didn't see any signs ofthe gal; but as there were two redskins with their rifles hanging aboutthe door of a wigwam next to that of the chief, I had no doubt she wasthere.

  "This wigwam was in the centre of the village, and there were lots ofold squaws and gals about, so that I could not, for the life of me, seeany way of stealing her out. Next night I went back to the camp andwatched, but the more I thought on it, the more difficult it seemed. Thesecond 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 Igot far enough away I questioned him, and found that in two days therewas to be a grand feast, and Black Dog was then going to take the whitegal as his squaw. So I saw as there was no time to be lost. I strappedup the Indian boy and tied him to a tree, and then went back to thevillage.

  "This time the gal was sitting at the door of the tent. I crept upbehind, cut a slit in the skins, and got inside. As I expected, therewas no one in there, the squaws as was watching her was outside; so Icrept 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, andthen sat as still as a mouse.

  "Says I, 'I don't see no plan for getting you away secret, you arewatched 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 nowand walk across to where he is picketed, and feed and pat him; thento-morrow morning early do the same. They won't be watching veryclosely, for they will think you are only going to do the same asto-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 ofthe valley. They may overtake us, but they won't hurt you; if they docatch you, they will just bring you back here again, and you will be noworse off than you are now. Will you try?' The gal nodded, and I creptaway out of sight.

  "A few minutes afterwards I saw her going along with some ears of maizeto where the horses were tied up. Two Indians followed her at a littledistance, but she walked across so natural that I don't think they hadany suspicion; she fed the horse, and talked to it, and petted it, andthen went back to the village. Next morning, before daylight, I mountedmy horse and rode to the mouth of the valley, a quarter of a mile fromthe village.

  "Half an hour after daylight I heard a yell, and almost directlyafterwards the sounds of a horse's hoofs in full gallop. I rode out, andalong she came as hard as the horse could go. Three or four mountedIndians war just coming into the other end of the valley four hundredyards away.

  "'All right, Queen May, we have got a fine start,' says I, and then wegalloped along together. 'Not too fast,' I told her, 'it ain't speed aswill win the race. There is a long hundred miles between us and thefort. We must keep ahead of them varmint for a mile or two, and thenthey will settle down.'

  "For the first five or six miles we had to ride fast, for the redskinstried the speed of their horses to the utmost; but none of them gainedanything on us, indeed we widened the gap by a good bit. You see atfirst they only thought it was a wild scheme on the part of the gal, andthe first as started jumped on the first horses that came to hand; itwasn't till they saw me that they found it was a got-up thing. One ofthe first lot galloped back with the news. But by the time the alarm wasspread, and the chase really taken up in earnest, we was a good mileaway, and a mile is a long start.

  "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 BlackDog should have known; but I reckon he was too mad at first tocalculate. By hard riding he and his best-mounted braves got within halfa mile of us when we war about ten miles from the village. But by thattime, as you may guess, the steam was out of their horses, while we hadbeen riding at a steady gallop.

  "The first party that had started had now tailed away, and was as farback as the chief. It was safe to be a long chase now, and I felt prettysure 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 carryingno weight to speak of. I didn't feel so sure about myself, for though myhorse was a first-class one, and had over and over again, when outhunting, showed herself as fast as any out, there might be as good onesor better among the redskins, for anything I knew. When we were fairlyout on the plains, I could see that pretty nigh the whole tribe ofredskins had joined in the chase.

  "At first I couldn't make out why; for alt
hough they are all wonderfulfor bottom, some of the redskins' horses ain't much for speed, and manyof them could never have hoped to have come up with us. But when Ithought it over, I reckoned that seeing I had joined the gal, they mighthave thought that I had brought her news that the Captain, with all thesoldiers from the fort, was coming up behind, and I expect that's whythe chief and his braves rode so fast at first.

  "I don't know as I ever passed a longer day than that. We went at asteady gallop, always keeping just about half a mile ahead of theredskins. Sometimes I jumped off my horse and ran alongside of him withmy hand on the saddle for half a mile, to ease him a bit. The gal rodesplendidly; the mustang had a beautiful easy pace, and she set him as ifshe was in a chair. For the first fifty miles I don't think the redskinsgained a yard on us; they warn't pressing their horses more than wewere, for it was a question only of last now. Then little by little Icould see that a small party was leaving the rest and gaining slowlyupon us; I darn't press my horse further, but I began to give the galinstructions as to the course she should keep.

  "'What does it matter, Dick,' she asked, 'when you are here to guideme?' 'But I mayn't be with you all the time,' says I; 'it air quitepossible that them redskins will overtake me twenty miles afore I get tothe fort, but your critter can keep ahead of them easy, he is going nighas light now as when he started; when they get a bit closer to us youmust go on alone.' 'I shan't leave you,' she says. 'Dick, you got intothis scrape to save me, and I am not going to run away and leave you tobe killed; if you are taken, I will be taken too.'

  "'That would be a foolish thing,' says I, 'and a cruel one, ef you liketo put it so. I have risked my life to save you, just as I have riskedit a score of times before on the plains; ef my time has come, it willbe a comfort to me to know as I have saved you, but ef you were takentoo I should feel that I had just chucked my life away. Besides, youhave got to think of the Captain; now that your mother has gone you havegot to be a comfort to him. So you see, Miss, ef you was to get takenwilful you would be doing a bad turn to yerself, and to me, and to yerfather.'

  "It was a long time before she spoke again, and then she didn't sayanything about what we had been talking of, but began to ask whether Ithought we were sure to find the soldiers still at the fort. In course Icouldn't say for sartin, but, to cheer her up, I talked hopeful aboutit, though I thought it was likely enough they had fallen back on thesettlements. I did some long spells of running now, and got morehopeful, for the Injins didn't gain anything to speak of.

  "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 hada few mouthfuls of water. It wasn't till we were within ten miles of thefort that the Injins really began to gain. They must have felt thatthere was a good chance of our slipping through their fingers, and theydetermined to catch us if they killed every horse in the tribe.

  "I tried to urge my critter forward, but he hadn't got it in him; andwhat frightened me more was that the mustang didn't seem much faster; hehad trod in a dog-hole when we war about half-way across the plains,and must have twisted his foot. I could see now he was going a littlelame with it. The redskins gained on us bit by bit, and were pressing ushard when first we caught sight of the fort about four miles away.

  "I had begun to despair, for they warn't more than two hundred yardsbehind now. The gal had held on bravely, but she was nigh done. Goodrider as she was, it was a terrible ride for a young gal, and it wasonly the excitement which kept her going; but she was nigh reeling onthe horse now. Sudden I says to her, 'Thank God! Miss, there are thesoldiers; keep up your heart, your father's coming to save you.'

  "The Injins saw him too, for I heard the war-whoop behind, and the soundof the horses came nearer and nearer. I spurred my horse, and it was thefirst 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 thinkshe heard me. She was looking straight forward now at the sojers; herface was like death, and with a hard set look on it, and I expectedevery moment to see her drop from her horse.

  "I saw as it was all up; the redskins war but fifty yards behind, andwere gainin' fast upon us. So I says, 'Thar's your father, Miss, ride onfor his sake,' then I turns my horse, and, with a pistol in each hand, Irides back at the redskins. The gal told me afterwards that she did nothear me speak, that she didn't know I had turned, and that all that timeafter she had first caught sight of the sojers seemed a dream to her.

  "I don't remember much of the scrimmage. Black Dog was the first redskinI met, and I hit him fair between the eyes; arter that it was allconfusion, I threw away my pistols, and went at them with my rifle. Ifelt as if a hot iron went through my body, then there was a crash on myhead, and I remember nothing more until I found myself lying, as weak asa baby, in the hut in the fort, with Queen May a-sitting working besidethe bed. So, as you see, it ain't much of a story."

  "I call it a great deal of a story," Frank said; "I would give a greatdeal to have done such a thing."

  "Well, shut up, and don't say no more about it," Dick growled, "ef youwant us to keep friends. Abe's always a-lugging that old story out, andhe knows as I hates it like pizen. We have had more than one quarrelabout it, and this is the last time, by gosh, as ever I opens my lipsabout it. Pass over the liquor, I am dry."