Beadle's Pocket Library (no. 486) (1893 05 03)
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; “Copyrighted, 1893, by Bravia xp brik as Second Class Matter at the New York, N. ¥., Post Office, May 3, 1893, 5 Published Weekly by Beadl aA No. 486, ete: oe a 98 eekly by Beadle vane: ar Five cats. Vol. XXXVI UW : = — s nE ADVANCED WITH A QUICK MOTION, AND LAID HIS HAND ROUGHLY ON HER ARM, ___. =‘ COME)” SAID THE HARSH VOICE, ‘‘ SUN-HAIR MUST GO!”
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ae The Dwarf Decoy; THE WHITE STEED RIDER. A Tale of the Old Dahcotah Country, BY MARO O, ROLFE. CHAPTER I. VINNIE'S PERIL, THe scene of our story is laid in the great Northwest. It was a bleak, windy day in November. The shrill blasts wailed through the forest trees like the last despairing cry of a Jost spirit, and gust after gust beat and roared around the little log cabin standing so silently and lonely, half buried in the midst of the Titanic oaks that spread their long branches protectingly over its low roof, aud whose sturdy trunks environed it, seeming to keep silent and untiring guard over its four rough walls, The scene within the cabin was in striking contrast with the wild aspect without. ft was a rude but homelike place, and despite the chinked walls and rough furniture, there was such an air of plain comfort as one might expect to see in the abode of the sturdy Western ploneer. A young girl sat by a table engaged in em- broilering a broad strip of dressed deer-skin with fancifully colored beads and quills—a blue- eyed, slender-looking little woman with shining masses of golden-brown hair falling unconfinet about her small, shapely head, and down over her shoulders unti) it reached the waist of her bre which fitted her willowy form to perfec- tion, Her sunny blue eyes held a soft, loving light, and a bright smile played continually upon her dainty face and around her rosy little mouth, with its ripe dpe half-parted from the rows of small white teeth, 3 But the azure eyes could flash with courage and determination, and the pretty. mouth could be hard and stern with its strawberry lips tightly drawn and its tiny, gleaming teeth hard- set. The settler’s daughter was very lovely, and she a nerveand courage far beyond her sex. A tall, powerfully-made man of fifty stood near the . ad wide-mouthed fire-place, in which aruddy blaze leapt and glowe fantastically, shedding a pleasant radiance over the homely place that could not but be grateful to one who, like Emmett Darke, was preparing to leave it and go out into the wind and cold of the chill November day. But the settler, long used to the perils of border life, thought little of this. His sharp gray eye and firm though pleasant mouth bespoke indomitable courage and strength of will; and as he stood there in the red glow of the dancing ag Snel buckling on his deerskin belt, in which he thrust a long, keen-edged hunt- -knife, with a brace of heay. BS csi he the personification of the ideal hunter of Je COY. - A huge bloodhound lay on the floor at his feet—a large, red-eyed creature with white, gleaming teeth—a brute that mizht bea true and faithful friend, but could not but be a ter- ribly dangerous enemy. 3 The object in the room most likely to attract the attention of a casual observer was a small Peg box of polished wood, standing on the table, Besides the tall clock ticking in a corner, this casket was the only visible thing that hore evi- dence of having been made by hands more skilled than those of the settler, or with tools other than those common implements ever ready at the pioneer’s grasp, the ax and the auger. What this curious little box contained will appear hereafter. Soon the hunter’s preparations were com- pleted, and slinging a Jong rifle, which he had taken down trom its pe on three pegs in the wall, across his shoulders, he turned to his daughter who had wound the soft deerskin belt, upon which she had wrought innumerable fanc: devices, gracefully about her waist and shoul- ders, eH stood regarding him with a merry light pporeink in her blue eyes, “How do I look, papa?” she asked, some dusky forest princess?” And she finished by placing a jaunty turban in which were fastened several bright-colored ee which drooped down until they touched h Like er beautiful golden hair, coquettishly on her ead, “More like a regular angel, wings and all!” he exclaimed, admiringly: for Emmett Darke loved his beautiful motherless child more than his life. ‘'That- hair and those eyes of yours don’t look very Injiny. Wouldn’t that red lover of yours go wild if he saw you now? I don’t wonder he’s half-crazy and calls you ‘ Sun-Hair? How about that youngster, Clancy Vere, eh, Vinnie? Has he an eye to beauty?” The maiden blushed rosy red; but the laugh- ing eyes became thoughtful in a moment. = “Do you know, papa, that [ often think of him—the Indian? Oh, if he should come some day when you are gone! He is wild and blood- thirsty and he has takena solemn vow to make me his wife!” ‘He shall never fulfill that vow!” cried the old man, with a dangerous light in his cold gray eyes. “Il have his life, first! If he comes here again I'll give him a free pass to the happy hunting-grounds!” Emmett Darke’s face was almost white with rage, and he brought the heavy stock of his long rifle down on the floor with a sbarp bang, “Just so sure as that red devil has the mis- fortune tc be caught anywhere near my cabin, I will shoot him down like the coward he is! My daughter is never to become a squaw, eh, Vinnie?” ‘Never, father! ~ Never will I become the In- dian’s wife! I would sooner shed my own heart's blood!” She spoke so calmly and yet determinedly that her father half-shuddered. He knew that she meant every word, and he breathed an inward prayer that God would watch over patie 8 child and guard her from all peril during absence, 7
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The hunter stood silent and motionless for a few moments, thinking intently. Arousing him- self at length, he said, turning to the blood- hound, who was on his feet in an instant, run- ning around him and licking his hands: “Come, Death] We must go.” In a few minutes they had passed out, and were walking rapidly and silently through the forest. As Darke went away, a face appeared among the thick bushes close ee the eabin—a red-face, hideously daubed with black and yellow paint, with long, coarse black hair, hanging down the sunken jaws, and fierce black eyes flashing tri- umph and exultation as the hunter disappeared from view, After her father was gone, Vinnie went and stood before the fireplace, looking down into the red mass of leaping flames. She wag deeply buried in thought, and she heard no sound save the hissing of the fire and the wailing of the wind around the corners of the cabin, and through the bare branches of the great oaks outside. She little thought what a lovely picture she made as she 8 thus, silent and motionless— one might almost imagine breatbless—with a dreamy, far-off look in her soft eyes, and the glancing blaze lighting up her fair face till she looked, in fantastic guise, like some beautiful Fairy queen, some incomparable silvan goddess, She was vatonscious of this—unconscious, also, of another presence in the cabin until the back-log fell suddenly with a dull thud, throw- ing out a shower of red sparks and arousing her on the instant from the fit of abstraction into which she had fallen, With a quick start, she turned her head and saw a tall form close behind her—so near that it -might easily have touched her.,. ra was the form of an Indian, powerful and massive. The face was the same that had peered through the shrubbery a few minutes before, There was a strange light glowing in the fierce eyes fixed so steadily on the lovely face before him—a look ef wild passion as dangerous as it was intense, The sayage did not speuk nor even stir; but the hard, cruel lines on his forehead and about his mouth relaxed a little as he tried to twist his ugly visage into the semblance of a smile that was nearer the leer of an exultant fiend than | the smile of a human being. Vinnie’s face was deathly pale, and her heart seemed for a moment to lay still in her bosom; but she tried to meet the gaze of those devilish eyes calmly. She stood quite still, looking into the cruel face, but she dared not trust her voice, The Indian spoke at length, in a tone harsh and rasping, like the snarl of some wild animal: “Ku-nan-gu-no-nah has come for his squaw. Sun-Hair is very beautiful. Ku-nan-gu-no-nah is a mighty warrior. He has always loved the white maiden since he met her in the forest many moons ago. The great chief’s heart has been burning for Sun-Hair. He has prepared his wigwam, Sun-Hair willbe a queen, The Indian women will bow down their heads in shame before the beautiful Sun-Hair! Is she ready? Will she go with the great chief? His warriors are waiting to see their queen!” The Dwarf Decoy. For a moment Vinnie did not speak, then the hg came clear and sharp from her white ips: **No! I will never go!” The chief’s face was fairly demoniac in an in- stant--the sickish leer was gone, and the savage teeth shone through the drawn lips in two white, gleaming rows. He advanced with a quick motion, and laid his hand roughly on her arm, “Come!” said the harsh yoice, ‘* Sun-Hair must go!” CHAPTER It. CLANCY VERE AND HIS TROUBLE, * Here I am!” It was a young man who spoke, standing on the bank of a small stream that had its course through the forest at a point about two miles distant, as a bird flies, from Emmett Darke’s cakin. He was tall and well-formed, with hazel eyes and dark-brown hair. His face was clear-cut and nesters Opes and frank in its expression while it indicated a goodly stock of firmness and courage, This is Clancy Vere, the young hunter, an al- lusion to whom had brought the rich blood to Vinnie’s face that very afternoon, . He was clad in a complete suit of dressed deerskin, elaborately ornamented about the shoulders with bright-colored beads and quills, his bunting-shirt being gathered about his waist with a wide belt from which protruded the stock of a heavy revolver and the silver-mount- ed hilt of a long bowie-knife, while a powder- horn and bullet-pouch were slung by a leathern cord under his left arm. As he spoke, be dropped the butt of his rifle, a trim, beautifully mounted weapon, until it rested on the turf at his feet; then he stood leaning on it for a long time, looking intently down into the depths of the eddying stream be- fore him, He was thinking—of a girl with blue eyes and gence owe hair—of Emmett Darke’s beauti- ul daughter, Vinnie. : . Clancy Vere loved Vinnie devotedly, and not hopelessly, she had led him to think; though, as yet, he had never made any formal declaration of his passion. y He lived at a small settlement a half-dozen miles away, and had set out that morning to visit the cabin of the hunter. His errand there may be easily surmised. He had proceeded thus far on his way without adventure worthy of note, and intended to cross the stream in a canoe that he knew Darke kept concealed in the undergrowth at a place a hun- dred yards below the spot where he now stood, Sointent was he upon his musings, that he heard no sound save the rippling of the water and the roar of the wind through the trees.” He did not see the bushes part close behind him and a dusky form emerge from its conceal- ment, to be followed by another, then another, until six Indians had entered the little grassy space in which he was standing, and hegan stealthily to take different positions around him — his chances of escape were cut off on all es, =
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He was brought to realize his situation ina moment, ; A chorus of shrill, exultant yells rung out on every hand. He turned on the instant, and his quick eye measured the strength of his savage foes, They were too near at hand for him to bring bis rifle to bear; but gripping it firmly around the bar- rel, he brought the ponderous stock down on his nearest assailant, crushing in his skull like an ea shell. here was a muffled thud as the deadly weight fell a second time, and another savage sunk over on the ground without a groan. An Indian was creeping up stealthily behind him. As Vere raised his clubbed rifle a third time, throwing it high above his head, in order that the blow might be more effective, the sav- age, who had mn crouching down on the ground a moment close beside him, sprung high in the air, and clutching the gun-barrel near the lock, wrenched it from the young hunter’s hands just as it began to descend. This quick, hard pull upon the weapon, which he griped with all his strength, caused him to stagger a trifle, and before he could regain his footing and draw his bowie-knife, the three re- maining Indians sprung upon him and bore him to the ground, In a moment his elbows were pinioned behind his back, and his weapons were transferred from his belt to those of bis captors. They pulled him roughly to his feet, and an In- dian took his place on either side, leading him along by the arms. The brave who had disarm- ed bim walked behind, while the remaining sav- age, who was evidently a warrior of some im- portance, to judge from the number of eagle’s feathers which ornamented his head and the many trophies of the war-path and the chase which were hung about his neck and secured to his belt, led the way up the stream, pausing ever and anon to give some guttural command in bis native dialect to his followers, who clutched their captive’s arms firmly, as if they feared that, bound and almost helpless as he was, ho would attempt to escape. For an hour they kept on, over fallen trees and heaps of rock, through tangled masses of undergrowth, now bearing a little to the right, then to the left; but always keeping within hearing of the stream, whose monotonous mur- murings seemed to grow louder and_hoarser as proceeded, until they changed to a wild, ' the saint roar, like the impetuous rushing and dash- ing of a cataract. : At length, after a long silence, the leader of the pers turned toward Vere and said, impres- sively: : ss the pale-face hear the song of the water- fall? It is chanting his death-song! The black waters laugh because they will swallow up the pale-face.” Soon the sun appeared through an opening in ths leaden-gray clouds that had drifted tazily through the sky until they were gathered to- gether in a dark, lowering mass overhead, and its bright rays trembled for a moment upon the surface of the water, ‘** See!” continued the Indian, pointing to the falls just visible through the trees, ‘* See the The Dwarf Decoy. waters smile! They laugh because the red-men will give them a pale-face victim! Let the white man hear them sing! ‘Ha! ha!’ they say, ‘the pale-face must die!’ It is bis death- chant! The great Manitou is speaking through the laughing waters, He is happy with his red children when a pale-face dies, The white hun- ter is brave. He is not afraid to fight. But his heart will grow small within his bosom when he must go down into the black waters—the river of death! The laughing waters are crying aloud for their victim, The white man must die!” - “We all must die,” said Vere, calmly, not caring to show the concern hereally felt, ‘* Men have died before, why should I fear death?” An expression of surprise flitted over the In- dian’s painted face. Few men could meet death so calmly. The young hunter had resolved not to die with- out a desperate struggle; but he preferred that his captors should think him resigned to his fate —the barrie fate which seemed inevitable. A few rods above the falls a tree grew far over the water, rushing madly to the cataract below. The bank at this point was rough and jagged, its steep and rocky sides jutting out fully twenty feet above the black, roaring mass underneath, The party halted here. ‘The pale-face hunter’s fect must be tied,” said the Indian, who had spoken before. ‘‘ He must not fight with the laughing waters.” Producing a stout leather thong, about twelve feet in length, one of the savages advanced to coil it around the captive’s ankles, As he stooped, Vere drew his foot hack sud- denly and planted it with tremendous forco squarely in his long nose and knocking out sey- eral of his sharp white teeth. The Indian rolled over on the ground with a wild screech. : i The pain was terrible, and be lay for a mo- ment, pressing his disfigured face and giving utterance to a series of hoarse, agonized groans. Then he sprung up suddenly with a wild yell of rage and vengeance. He was upon Vere in an instant, his long fin- gers entwined in his hair and his scalping-knifo circling with lightning rapidity around his head. The young hunter’s arms were securely pin- ioned. * He was utterly powerless in the red fiend’s hands; but he did not flinch. His fearless eyes were fixed on the Indian’s face, and his own did not change when he felt the keen knife-point pricking the skin upon tho crown of bis head, He was not afraid to die. He thought of the terrible, because unknown life beyond the grave—and of Vinnie! Would she weep when he was gone? He trusted so, and stood calmly awaiting the great change. CHAPTER III, , VINNIE’S STRATAGEM, VINNIE’s face was very pale, but she did aot ery out. A wild fear, an awful terror, was tug- ging at her heart, but she would not give way to it, She knew she would need all her native
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The Dwarf Decoy. . courage and coolness in the ordeal which she | hope—a hope that she might yet outwit her cap- foresaw she must endure, Ku-nan-gu-no-nah’s hand retained its rough grip on her arm, and his harsh voice repeated: *Come. Sun-Hair must go!” Resistance would, she knew, be of no avail. She must have recourse to stratagem. So, to gain time, she said as calm] ble, but with a wild throbbing at which she tried in vain to still: ‘So the great chief loves the pale-face mai- den? He would make her a queen? He would spend his whole life to make her happy? Is it not so?” “Yes,” he said eagerly. ‘‘ Ku-nan-gu-no-nah loves Sun-Hair as the bird loves its mate. He will always make her happy.. She shall never know what itis to weep. it sball be like a day when the green grass is new on the ground, and the dancing waters, freed from their cold bonds of ice, are laughing in the bright sunlight.” ** And my life shall be like une long day in the bright spring-time?” she said, as bravely as she could, smiling through all her fear. Ag Yes,” again said the chief, with a searching look in her white face. He had expected tears and opposition, and he received instead, smiles and apparent acquies- cence, and he was surprised and partially thrown off his guard, ; _ “Maybe the white maiden will go with her Indian lover,” said Vinnie. ‘‘Give her time to think. It is very hard for ber to leave her home and her kind old fatner. Does the chief think he can make Sun-Hair happier than she has been here? Can be make her forget her father and ber home?” “Did not Ku-nan-gu-no-nah tell the beautiful Sun-Hair that she should be a queen? She shall wear robes as dazzling as the light of the sun. She need not work like the Indian women. She need donothing but:it and sing like a bird all day long. The red-women will bow their heads in shame before her bright face, and the war- riors will sing songs about her beauty. What more can Sun-Hair wish?” 8 “T think I will go,” said the girl slowly. * Only give me time to think.” “Ugh! It is well!” grunted Ku-nan-gu-no- nah, with another of his sickish smiles. Then frowning darkly, and with a significant tap on the handle of his tomahawk: ‘But Sun-Hair no fool the chief! If she does he will kill her! She can’t get away. Take care!” The Indian let her free now; and he sat down on a low stool near the door, as if half-fearing some treachery on Vinnie’s part, but he was pretty well assured, after all, that she would gu with him without much resistance. Vinnie stood for some time, striving to think of some plan by which she might escape the Indian, who watched her every motion from under his heavy, overhanging brows, as closely as a cat watches a mouse. But the poor girl rejected plan after plan as impracticable, + last, when she had es given up in de- spair, a thought suggested itself to her brain— how, she never knew, it was so wild and strange as possi- ner heart that made her heart leap with a new-born 7 tor and gain time until something—she knew not what—should intervene to save her from the, fate he had marked out for her, She sat down by the table and opened the small box of polished wood, of which mention was made in our first chapter, the Indian watching her the while from his place near the door, This casket, on being opened, proved to be a small galvanic battery; and Vinnie was but a moment preparing it for.action, When all was in readiness, she took a pair of electric slippers from a drawer in the table, and placed them beside the battery. Then, knowing the superstition of the Indian race, she arose, and waving her hands several times very slowly around her head, seemed to be invoking a charm, Her eyes were fixed ap- parently on vacancy, and she stood motionless for several minutes, then smiling sweetly, she turned to Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, who had advan to the center of the room, and stood regardin her mystic performance with a sort of aw wonder, and said in a low, soft voice, that sounded to him like the murmuring of a distant brooklet: “Does the chief know that the Great Manitou has given the white maiden a mysterious power, greater than is possessed by any of the Indian medicine-men? ould Ku-nan-gu-no-nah like to see evidence of the white maiden’s power?” The Indian stood quite still while she was Srakiiy with a look of mingled doubt and awe on his face. At last he said in his harsh voice: “Ugh! Let Ku-nan-gu-no-nah see what Sun- Hair can do. She is not a great medicine- ‘voman. There is but one y.ho has a mighty power from the Great Spirit, and that is Yon- da-do, the great conjurer of my tribe, Sun- Hair can’t get away. Tho chief will kill her if she tries. t Ku-nan-gu-no-nah see!” ‘** Let the chief look and be convinced!” Vinnie attached the slippers to the conductors leading from the battery, and set them side by side on the cabin floor. Then, taking up her position behind the table, she commenced to operate the machine slowly at first, then faster, until the slippers began to skip about, dancing a sort of shuffle, which caused the Indian’s face to take on a look of still greater wonder. “See,” she said, turning the little crank faster, causing the magic slippers to jump higher and oftener than before. “Do you longer doubt my power? You, Ku-nan-gu-no- nah, strong brave though you are, cannot hold those dancing moccasins when I command them to move!” : The chief’s face lighted up in an instant with a look of scorn and contempt. No one bad ever doubted: his strength before. Surely he could hold those skipping bits of leather. - “Look!” he said. “ Let Sun-Hair see the - chief hold them so fast they cannot tremble.” He stoo down and raised them from the floor, holding one in each band, ae Be siutoh Aa ge Bi at ee went on a e chief hold them, A pappoose cou doit. See—”
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: The Dwarf Decoy’ _ AER SS a SE EE ES 5S EL a aie eae Mi Wis words were cut short suddenly, the sli pers dropped from. his hands, and with a wild shriek of terror he ran to the further side of the room. He stood motionless several minutes, his dusky face the picture of blank amazement, looking at the palms of his hands as if he would see what had acted upon them with such powerful effect. He could not conceal his chagrin as Vinnie said, tauntingly: “ Ku-nan-gu-no-nah is a great brave, Ho is very strong. He cannot hold a pair of moc- easins. They jump out of his hands, and he runs away like a whipped dog! The big chief is ey strong. Whata mighty warrior he must ! “Tt is a lie!” yelled the Indian, almost beside himself with rage and mortification. “I can hold the daucing moccasins!” “Try it,” said the beautiful magician, sen- tentiously Ku-nan-gu-no-nah advanced timid- Wy, and took the slippers up daintily between his thumbs and fore-fingers. “Get a firm hold,” said Vinnie. ‘‘ You will need all of your boasted strength. Ku-nan-gu- no-nah, a great chief and a brave warrior, has said that a ve 5 se eould hold the dancing moccasins, t us see if he can do what a pap- poose could do. He says that Sun-Hair has no mysterious power, more terrible than that of the Indian medicine-man Yon-da-do, He will see. Is he ready?” The savage gripped the magic slippers with all his strength, seeming determined that this time he would give the fair conjurer no oppor- tunity to taunt him with lack of success. st Ugh!” he grunted, ‘ Ku-nan-gu no-nah is ready.” Vinnie could not repress a smile as he an- swered, clutching the electric slippers tighter than before. “ Yes;-they not stir now.” She muttered a few words in a low tone, pass- ing her hands backward and forward before her face, and commanded the slippers to dance, At the same instant she set the battery in ac- tion, and the chief’s hands, acted upon by the electricity, which she had made more powerful than before, seemed to clutch the slippers like a vise, - A horrible rig Prinses of mingled rage and in crossed his distorted face, and he gave ut- rance toa shrill scream of fear and agony that might have been heard, so loud and res- onant was it, fully a mile away At last Vinnie ceased to turn the machine, and Ku-nan-gu-no-nah reeled back and sunk down in a corner of the cabin almost exhausted. His eyes rollad wildly ‘in their sockets, his mouth twitched nervously, bis long, coarse black hair stood half-erect, and he trembled with an awful, superstitious fear in every fiber ot his being. ; ‘* What does the chief think now of the white maiden’s power?” asked Vinnie. ‘‘ What does he think of the little box and the dancing moc- casins? Where now is his vaunted strength? Can the great brave do what a pappoose can do? Does he want to try again?” ‘No! No!” ted Ku-nan-gu-no-nab, with chattering teeth. ‘ Sun-Hair is a great con- 4 jurer. She has a power from the Great Spirit! he has a devil-bow, and moccasins such as are worn where the Long-knives go when they die— where there is fire always! Hell, they call it. The white maiden is a greater conjurer than Yon-da-do, She has a devil-box and hell-moc- easins |” At this moment there were sounds of foot- falls outside the door. The noise came nearer, and there was a sharp, scratching sound on the door like that produced by some keen-pointed instrument, Vinnie felt a terrible fear forcing its way to her heart. “My God!” she thought. ‘‘ What if it should be some of Ku-nan-gu-no-nah’s warriors? Would they show me any mercy after the trick I have played on their chief?” The scratching noise was repeated, louder than before, and she could see the heavy door tremble. With a white face, she stood awaiting —she knew not what! The Indian still cowered down in the corner, rs teed heedless of what was passing around im, CHAPTER IV. THE PHANTOM WARRIOR, Bot it was not fated that Claney Vereshould die by the sealping-knife. : The Indian who had acted as the leader of the party leaped forward with a sharp cry, and with a quick blow of his powerful hand, sent the knife flying from the maddened brave'’s grasp into the water tossing and roaring twenty feet low, ‘*What would Bear-Killer do?’ he said, giv- ing the baffled savage a sudden push that sent him staggering back against the tree. ‘‘ Has he forgotten the laws of our nation? Does he for- get that the great chiefs have said that when a number of warriors take a captive all shall have a share in putting him to death?” Bear-Killer was cowed; but he stood with lowering brows, glowering upon the young hunter with a look of fierce hatred that made him appear, with his dark face bruised and bleeding, absolutely diabolical. ‘“Wy-an-da is right,” he said, at length. ‘Bear-Killer forgot. The pale-face must die hard! Bear-Killer must be avenged!” “We will give the white hunter to the laugh- ing waters,” said Wy-an-da. ‘‘ He must die! * He must die!” The four Indians repeated these three omi- nous words in a hoarse chorus, and began to circle slowly around the captive, brandishiaz their tomahawks and knives furiously and screaming the wild scalp-halloo of their tribe. Several minutes passed thus, Vere standing in the circle of screeching bravescalm and un- moved; then all became suddenly silent, stand- ing still and dropping their hands by their sides _ as if moved by a common impulse. “Ts the pale-face ready to die?” asked Wy- an da, “T have said that I do not fear death!” re-— plied the young hunter, calmly. “TI amready!” The last faint ray of hope was extinguished now, He was bound an "~'p’ess—they could
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The Dwarf Decoy. do with him as they would; and as calmly as — he resigned himself to his fate—the orrible fate that seemed inevitable! “ Wy-an-da will tell the pale-face hunter how he may die,” said the chief. ‘‘ It is not a pleas- ant death. He will be afraid. His heart will row small within his bosom and his face will e white as the snow in winter. He will not like to die so. Will he be brave at the last mo- ment?” **T tell you I am ready to die!” shouted Vere. He knew that the pds was trying to torture him, and he would not let him see what pain it really gave him—the anticipation of this sudden and terrible departure from the life that had just begun to seem so happy to him. ‘““Why do you wait?” he added, stolidly. ‘I tell you I am ready!” “Tt is well,” said Wy-an-da, ‘The white hunter is a brave man. He shall die thus: he will be hung by a lasso, head downward, from the branch of that tree there that reaches out over the laughing waters. Then the Indian that can throw his tomahawk the truest will cut the lasso, and the white man will fall down and the laughing waters will sweep him over the rocks. Then his body will be dashed to pieces on the sharp stones below! Is it pleasant to think of it? ill the pale-face be brave?” ~ This speech was greeted by a chorus of satis- fied grunts from the yaa: A shudder ran betes ere’s frame and his spirits sunk as he heard the chief pronounce his fearful doom; but it was only for a moment. Then he appeared calm and apparently un- moved, : Five minutes later he was swinging, head downward, over that black flood hastening on with a wild roar to the precipice below. “The chill autumn wind, wailing in fitful gusts through the forest trees, gave bis body an oscil- lating motion, and it seemed, as he swayed at that dizzy hight, as if every vibration would ‘precipitate him into the water below. ; After the lasso was securely fastened to the protruding branch, the Indians drew back about twenty paces from their mee ge victim and prepared for their trial of skill in hurling the tomahawk. Each was anxious to have first throw. At length it was decided that Wy-an-da should have the espe ce. He took his place with a confident air, like one who is assured of success, : Carefully noting the distance, he drew bis tomahawk back, and, taking deliberate aim, ae jerk; and it went whirling out nd. They watched its flight eagerly. It missed the lasso by six inches. The swaying hunter was saved thus far. : =a tall Indian of massive frame stepped for- ward. ‘“‘O-wan-ton try,” he said. He measured the space accurately with his keen eye; but his tomahawk flew wide of its mark, burying itself to the eye in the limb to which the was secured. ‘The victim of the laughing waters was saved Sa: Next came Wolf-Nail.- i ground, The young hunter watched him with a white face and a heart wild with despair. He stepped forward slowly, and hurled his tomahawk without much care. The swinging cord was a difficult target. Vere felt the lasso jerk, and thought the end had come. But he was saved again. The handle of the tomahawk struck the lasso, and the weapon glanced off and fell with a muf- fled splash into the water. Bear-Killer was the last to try. He was yet half-wild with rage; and with the blood still streaming from his disfigured face, he made ready to hurl his tomahawk, hoping to sate his vengeance and send the young hunter to eternity. Vere was looking at him, and bis heart seem- ed for a moment to stop its pulsations. He saw that the red_demon did not intend to throw at the cord. He was taking deliberate aim at his head! The young hunter saw him draw back his weapon, and closed his eyes. There was a moment of terrible agony to the man vibrating, as it were, between earth and ‘eternity—and then all became dark! He seemed to be shooting down—down—and he knew no more. He had fainted. Those few terrible moments of suspense—ages they seemed to him—had been more than he could bear. Bear-Killer was exultant. A moment more, and his fiend-like longing for vengeance would be satisfied. He noted the distance carefully with his prac- ticed eye, and with a grim smile of triumph on his blood-streaked face, raised his tomahawk aud prepared to make the fatal throw, Suddenly a wild, gees cry, like a pro- longed wail, rung out on the wind, sounding strangely ghastly above its moanings. Bear-Killer’s tomahawk slip grasp, and a sickly pallor ove and those of his companions ashen hue. The four Indians.gave utterance to wild cries of fear and consternation. “ The Spirit Warrior! The Spirit Warrior!” A white steed was flying across a small open- ing in the forest directly toward them, and mounted upon its bare back, guiding it with neither bridle nor reins, rode a ghastly human skeleton of gigantic proportions. With cries of terror, the stricken little band of savages turned to fly. On came the terrible Phantom Rider with the speed of the wind! As it drew near, it sprung up suddenly, and standing upright on the back of” its _ ‘steed, threw something round and black high in the air; then, with another unearthly scream, rode on and disappeared in the forest. _ The thing went up with a hissing noise, a broad, brill fant streak of flame marking its course, and then fell with a terrific explosion in - the very midst of the Indians. = Then there came a chorus of eet shrieks, and three of the savages were laid dead on the from his read his face, anched to an
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The Dwarf Decoy. Bear-Killer escaped, and fled with a loud, ter- rified how] into the forest. Then all was silent save the roaring cataract and soughing wind, Not a being was in sight, save the unconscious one who swung by a smal! chord between this life and the one beyond the grave! CHAPTER V, THE MAYBOB TWINS. . Emmett DARKE went into the forest in search of game; and he was successful, for in an hour’s time he had shot and dressed a larga buck. He only took the choicest portions of the deer, which he rolled carefully up in the skin, leaving the remainder to the wolves, panthers, and other beasts of prey that infested the forest. He bound the pelt around the meat he had selected by means of deerskin thongs through a firmly tied loop, in which he thrust his gun-barrel: and throwing his burden across his shoulder, set out for home, The bloodhound, Death, who had rendered his master valuable service in securing the deer, trotted along after him, asif pleased with the idea of returning to the cabin so soon. The hunter had proceeded but a short distance, however, when he met with an accident that nearly cost him his life. a As the afternoon advanced, the chill Novem- ber wind blew harder and colder, till itsmoan- ings changed toa fierce roar, and it was evident, even to eyes less accustomed to weather-signs than Darke’s that a fearful storm was approach- ing—one of those cold, gusty rains peculiar to to the Northwest, . As he was passing a dead oak, whose barkless, decayed trunk and bare, broken branches bore marks of the storms and winds of a hundred years, he was startled by a loud crash overhead, Looking up; he saw that a fearful gust of wind that just then swept through the wood, blowing the dried leaves and twigs hither and thither and everywhere in wild confusion, had broken off a massive limb, which was falling with lightning velocity directly toward him, Dropping his burden, he sprung aside, but though the movement saved his life, he did not escape the full force of the blow. - Tbe ponderous mass came whirling down, one end of it striking him on the back of the head. He reeled and staggered twoor threo steps, and then sunk down insensible among the fallen leaves. ; After surveying his fallen master a minute or two, the bloodhound advanced and lay down by his side, as if to keep guard over him. For several minutes he lay in this posit’on, then _ probably not noting any signs of vitality in the unconscious maps he arose, and, after whining several times a low key, the sagacious - creature took the sleevo of his hunting- shirt between his teeth and pulled it gently. This action was repeated several times; and at om dee no reply from his master, the fait dog set out’ as fast as his feet would carry him for the cabin. Bee he forsaken his master, or gone after Darke remained unconscious he stance? _ How long knew not, } ae aT ee | When consciousness returned, he found him- self in a sort of cavern fitted up as a hunter's lodge, apparently, for great piles of skins were to be seen in different parts of the place, anda couple of rifles leaned against the rocky wall at one side, while a small keg, that evidently con- tained powder, stood near by, half concealed by a deerskin hunting-shirt, which was thrown carelessly over it, with a bullet-pouch and pow- der-horn secured to the belt. He noticed also that the cave was divided into two apartments, for a curtain made of the skins of various wild animals was suspended from a cord overhead. A dull, hard pain in his head caused him to think of himself, and he now saw, for the first time, that it was bandaged, and he was reclining ona bed made of the pelts of the bear and the panther at one side of the place. If any further evidence was required to satisfy the hunter that the place was inhabited, it was forthcoming in the shape of a savory odor of broiling venison that was wafted from the inner apartment, ‘“ Where was he? Whohad brought him to this place?” These and many other questions he asked him- self, but after five minutes had been consumed in vain conjecture, he was as far from the solu- tion of the mystery as at the moment when he first awoke to consciousness. He remembered the circumstance of the falling limb in the forest, and after that, all was blank. He did not know when he came, or who had brought him to this place, He was familiar with the country for miles around, he thought, and yet he did not know that there was such a cavern in the vicini- ty of his cabin. Of one thing, however, he was assured. The people who oceupied the place must be friendly, else why had they brought him here and cared for him so eg b Soon he heard a voice in the other part of the cave—a coarse, heavy voice, evidently that of a man. It said: ‘Give us the whis’, "Lon. I guess he’s comin’ round all correct. A good pullat this ll fetch his idees back, I reckon.” A corner of-the curtain was raised, and a man appeared, carrying a small bottle of liquor—so Darke inferred from the words he had just heard, ““ Well, stranger, how do you feel?” said he, approaching the hunter, “TI reckon you gota right smart of a swat along side yer poll with that ar’ twig out yender, I shouldn’t wonder if it'd ’a’ splintered when it struck terry-firmy if you hadn't ’a’ happened along jest in the nick o? time to break its fall. Iwas a witness of the lamentationable catastofy, and see the stick when it broke off; but I observed that *twas bonnd to fall, and knowin’! couldn’t stop its wild career, I let if fall; and then started to go to you, but I had to stop and watch that ar’ pu © yourn. He’s a nation cute plant, he is, and reckoned he was a-goin’ to snake you home; but after awhile he give up and started off for help. Then I went out and picked you up and be ir you here and laid you ont. Here, take a little pull at the whis’. It'll kinder regulate yer pulse, set yer heart in stidy operation, and ile up yer _ 47 GP. ig s \
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The Dwarf Decoy. Sea 9 thinkin’ merchine. Don’t say a word, I ain’t ready for you to talk yet, and, besides, I don’t b'lieve as how you're a nat’ral talker anyhow. Now I’m a nat’ral-born talker. When I was an infant and didn’t weigh but fourteen pounds, my uncle Peter informed my ma that he thought l’d become a preacher or an auctioneer with the proper advantages—and my uncle Peter wasa physionologist and a powerful judge of live- stock!” Darke took the flask, drank some of its con- tents, and handed it back to the man, whom be had been regarding attentively from head to foot all the while he had becn speaking. He was very tall—nearer seven feet than six— and his frame was massive in proportion. He was, to judge from his face, which was partially obscured by a thin growth of sandy beard, thirty-five years of age, though one might easily have called him five years older or five years younger. He had pale, watery-blue eyes; a ca- pacious mouth, from which projected the points of a few large, scraggy teeth; very high and sharp cheek-bones; enormous ears; long, sunken jaws, with hollow cheeks, and a high, sloping forehead, blowing about which, and streaming down his back, were a few long, thin locks of red hair, escaping from beneath the rim of a battered and dirty old silk hat that had once been white, though evidently a good while since. This ancient tile was secured to the giant’s great head by means of a light strap of deer- skin, which was lost to view under bis’ chin among: his sparse, bristling whiskers, He was dressed in a fur garment, part coat, part panta- loons, that enveloped his person from his chin to his feet, which were enormously large, and incased in a pair of cowhide boots that looked, so extensive were they, and at the same time so old, as if they might have seen service, in the removal of the baggage of the patriarchal Noah and his sons and daughters from the family mansion to the ark, when they were compelled to pull up stakes and emigrate at the time of the universal deluge. ‘Where am I? Who are you?” This Darke asked after the ‘natural talker” had stopped to take breath. “Why, stranger, or Mr, Darke, I might say— for I've known you by sight this four year— Bites right here, and safe, [ reckon. I’ve lived ere six years, and I’ve never seen any 1’al gine- wine ghosts yet. I’m Leander Maybob, former- ly of Maybob Center, down in old Massachu- setts. If I was real up in etiquette, I s\pose 'd ‘9) introducted myself afore.” At this moment the curtain which divided the cavern was pushed back at one side, and another person advanced toward Darke and his Titanic com on. He came and stood by Leander Maybob, and the hunter looked from one to the other in aston- ishment. , - He was scarcely four feet in hight, the top of __ his head barely poaching the giant’s waist. His apparel resembled that of bis more portly companion, with the exception of the covering for the head and feet. ‘ The dwarf’s round little pate was surmounted by a grotesquely broad-brimmed wool hat, and he appeared, as his small keen eyes flashed quick nervous glances about, not unlike the traditional ‘toad under a cabbage-leaf,” while his lower extremities were adorned by a pair of nicely- fitting deerskin moccasins. “He's my little brother.” the giant said, b way of introduction. “We're the Maybo twins. We ain’t much alike you see. e’s a little mite of a feller, and I’m big enough to be his daddy; he’s dumb—can’t speak a word— and I’m a nat’ral talker. Now uncle Peter said as how he thought ’twasn’t hardly fair, makin’ me so big and so complete in ie way, and him so little and scarce; but says daddy, berks he—and he was a universal smart man dad M was—says he it’s all in the family, and the’ both together make a couple of middlin’ good- sized men—they’ll about average, and it’s all in the family. My little brother’s name’s Alonphi- lus. But if we're different in sich respects, we're alike as fur as the one great principle of our lives goes. Ain’t we, Lon?” There was a scintillant “glow in the dwarf’s little black eyes as he nodded assent. CHAPTER VI. OUT IN THE STORM. TREMBLING herself witb a fear all the more ter- rible because of its vagueness and uncertainty, and with her beautiful face pale as death, Vin- nie stood and watched the trembling of the heavy cabin door, as the scratching noise was repeated for a third time. ‘he sound was louder, more imperative than before. The chief seemed suddenly to arouse from the state of frightened inactivity into which he had fallen, and rising on his feet, walked, or rather gx pees toward the shaking door. e seemed to have lost all his strength, for he reeled across the floor like a drunken man, For two or three minutes the sound was not repeated, and Vinnie and the savage stood wait- ing with bated breath. They had not long to wait. Again came that harsh, grating sound, as though some one was digging the point of a knife, or some other hard, sharp instrument into the door, Almost simultaneously with this noise, came a Jong, low whine, evidently that of a brute. Vinnie started. The look of wild fear left her face, and she ad- vanced toward the door, while the low wail was repeated in a louder key and more pro- ae than before, She gave utterance to a glad exclamation. “Tt is Death !” > Tt was evident in a moment that Ku-nan-gu- no-nah, also, had discovered the cause of the strange sounds. He seemed to gain new strength. “Tt is the dog!” he said harshly, laying hold of the girl’s hand, just_as she was about to open the door to admit Death. Winnie nodded. “ He is large and strong,” continued the chief, “and his teeth are like the points of knives!” She knew her power over his untutored, super- stitious mind, and she was no longer afraid, She nodded again and said;
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The Dwarf Decoy. ‘* Yes, he is very strong, and his teeth are like needles. If he sets them into an Indian’s flesh he will die. Shall L let him into you? His name is Death!” The savage gripped her hand tighter. “No,” he said, with evident alarm Hair must not let the dog in.” Giving her a quick sudden pull, he drew her across the room and through the other apart- ment to a rear door, Her face changed color and she tried to re- jease herself from his hold, but without avail. Here he unhanded her, and went back and Closed the door between the two rooms Bar- ring it securely he returned, and laying his heavy hand on her shoulder, he bent over ti'l his dark face almost touched hers, and fairly hissed through his set teeth: “Sun Hair has a mighty power from the great Manitou. She has escaped Ku-nan-gu-no- nah this time, with her devil-box , but let her be- ware! [f the dog could get at the chief he would Jal! him, but Ka-nan-gu-no-nah is safe, Before Sun: Hair can open both doors he will be away in the forest, Let the pale-face medicine- woman beware!” Vinnie did not try to Wetain him. She could not. All the time he had been speaking, his hard, bony fingers were closed on her shoulder like an iron vise, He let go his hold suddenly, and an instant later was running across the little open space at the rear of the cabin. Vinnie saw him disappear among the trees, and then turned and sae the door that led in- to the other apartmen In a moment she had undone the fastenings of the other one, and the bloodhound sprung into the cabin He stopped before Vinnie, and looking up in- to her face, gave utterance to a long, low whine. She patted his head and caressed him, but he would not be satisfied Still whining piteously he turned, and with es red eyes fixed on her face walked toward the oor. She did not heed this mute appeal. He turned again and gomg up to her, took hold of her dress with his teeth and pulled it . quietly : ‘“ Why, Death, old fellow!” she said, caressing the bon ee brute again. -‘‘ Whatis the mat- ter? here is your master?” When she mentioned her father the dog pulled harder at her dress, almost pulling her along to- ward the door. : A wild fear seemed suddenly to force its way to her heart. There was only one way in which a Nate account for the strange demeanor of e dog, Surely something must have happened to her father! ~ She was sure of this when she remembered a story that he had told her once, about the bloodhound’s saving her life when she was a child of five or six, The chill wind was blowing harder than when the iy set out from the cabin, and the black, angry clouds, hanging low in the sky, threaten- ed momentarily open and shower down the cold, half-frozen November rain over the earth, “ Sun- Suddenly, while Vinnie looked ont, there came a fierce gut of wind tearing through the great leafless branches * oaks and rattling their heavy against the walls of the cabin. Twigs and leaves were flying in wild confusion through the air, and it was growing darker every moment. ‘““A wild and fearful stcrm is approaching,” said the girl, shudderingly: ‘‘ but I must not hesitate. My father is in danger—may be he is—” She paused a breath, as if fearful to say the word. and then went on: ‘‘ Maybe he is dead!” The dog was tugging. at her dress again. “ Yes,” she said, im reply to his dumb, eager look, ‘ Yes,l am going, “Come!” And shutting thé door after her, she followed her brute guide out into the storm, which had now begun to fall, and away through the forest till they arrrved at the placo where the hunter had met with the accident from the falling limb a short time before Here the dog stopped, and after sniffing about for a moment, readily found the trail which the giant hunter had made as he carried Darke away to the cavern, where he left bim at the close of our last chapter Then he turned, and pulling again at Vinnie’s dress, trotted slowly away on the track he had just discovered, . - The storm had been steadily increasing, and _ ‘it had been growing darker all the time, till the forest was indescribably somber and gloomy. The brave girl did not shrink, but drawing a blanket she had thrown around her on leaving the cabin closer about her slender form, to shield her in a measure from the sleet that dashed against her person, cutting almost like a knife; she pushed on after the bloodhound, mereasing her speed to keep up with him. By and by Death stopped suddenly at the foot of a steep, rocky acclivity. He seemed, all at once, to have lost the trail. Vinnie drew her blanket closer about her face and shoulders, and crouching close up against the trunk of a large tree, watched him eagerly. He ran back and forth several times along the base of the acclivity, searching for the lost trail, then paused at last, with a quick, glad yelp, before a large rock that, almost hidden by the thick overhanging sbrubhery along the hill- side, seemed to be firmly 1mbedded in the earth. Then for several minutes he made no sign. Had he lost the trail again? He whined, and began to scratch away at the earth about the bottom of the bowlder, Vinnie, at a loss to account for his strange be- havior, drew the blanket up over her head, and creeping closer up under the friendly shelter of the great tree-trunk, looked on in wonder, lt did not oceur to her that the flat stone might conceal the entrance to the cavern be- yond—for she was indeed at the opening that led into the place where Leander Maybob, the giant hunter, had carried her father but a little — while before. Soon the bloodhound stopped digging, and sat down, with another long, low whine, keeping his red eyes fixed immovably on the dark sur- face of the rock before him. an * “What can it mean?” Vinnie asked herself, _
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The Dwarf Decoy. Hoe does not search for the trail any longer. Why does he stop here? What is there about that rock? I wonder if it is immovable. Per- haps it covers the trail some way. [am going to attempt to move it, It looks very ponder- ous, It must be very heavy.” She examined the bowlder closely, but could see nothing to indicate that it had ever been stirred from the place where it seemed so firm- ly imbedded into the earth. She laid hold of a, corner that appeared to project more than any other portion of the rock, and pulled with all her strength, The stone remained immovable. Of what avail were her weak little hands? “T can not stir it,” she said. ‘It is as firmly fixed as masonry. I am not strong enough.” When the dog saw that she was trying to re- move the bowlder, he recommenced scratching at the dirt at its base, giving utterance ever and anon to quick, glad yelps, She tried once more, but her second efforts were as unavailing as her first. “Tt 1s no use,” she said, half to herself and half to the bloodhound, “I can not stir. it, But what does 1t mean? In what manner does it cover the trail? It does, somehow. or Death would surely pick 1t up and follow on Whata fearful storm! I never saw one like it before. How the sleet cuts my face and hands!” And she shrunk back into her old shelter The dog kept his place before the bowlder, from which he never removed his eyes till his anick ear caught a strange sound, whic% even Vinnie neard plainly above the roar of the storm, Following the direction of the brute’s gaze, the girl saw a sudden and unexpected sight Some one was approaching on a white horse. She cowered down out of sight behind the tree-trunk and watched The storm half blind- ed her, but she could see that 16 was a man, and that something, wrapped in a thick, black cloth, hung limp and helpless across the horse before him. Jt was like‘a human being Was it alive or dead?” CHAPTER VII OVER THE PRECIPICE, THE minutes—ten—thirty —sixty, dragged slowly by, and Clancy Vere knew naught of them: All this time he bad hung by a cord be- tween this life and the next, but he compre- hended it not. He was still insensible, The wind increased in force until it swayed the great tree from which he was suspended, and swung him backward and forward, pendu- lum-like, over the turbid, roaring flood below, Still he knew it not. By and by a lithe, dark form, with great fie eyes and ravenous jaws drew its dark lengt out of the cover of a thicket near by, and creep- ing stealthily along the ground, ascended the tree, and:crouched menacingly on a branch di- rectly above him, It was a panther For ten minutes the terrible brute eyed him with its red, fiery eyes, and then, settling fur- ther back on its haunches, prepared to pounce upon him, ‘ _ Still he knew not his peril! Closer down on the branch of the tree crouch- ed the panther, its great red eyes seeming fairly to blaze, while its long tail waved to and fro lashing first one of its sleek, shining si es an then the other, It was all ready to. spring—in an ins‘ant it would dart from its perch on the linib and shoot like an arrow down upon its swaying prey; every muscle of its lithe body was contracted, One breath—and then? There was a dull, cutting sound, as a tense- drawn bow-string was jerked straight, and a long, slender arrow came whizzing out of a copse near at hand, and, pierced to the heart, the panther rolled off of the limb, and fell quivering to the ground at the very moment when its victim seemed so secure and its triumph so complete. Its lower jimbs straightened out, and the ravenous brute was dead In a moment a form emerged stealthily from the thicket, and crept across the opening to the foot of the tree, “ It was Bear-Killer! His ugly face still bled from, the effects of the kick he had received from thé young hunter a couple of hours before. His purpose in return- ing so soon to the scene of his late discomfiture and the death of his companions, 1s easily sur- mised when the reader remembers that he was as vindictive and vengeful as a fiend He gave the panther a kick with the toe of his moccasin, and saw at once that it was quite dead. “The panther would cheat the red-man out of his revenge,” he said, savagely. “It must not beso, Nothing can save bim now He must die! Therevenge of Bear-Killer is near at hand. The white hunter’s time has come ” As the Indian ceased speaking, he drew his tomahawk, and stepped back a few paces where his aim at the head of the swinging and senseless young hunter would be true and certain He noted the distance accurately with his practiced eye, and poised his weapon ““ How quick he willdie!” he muttered ‘‘ How easy Bear-Killer will slay him!” : ‘** Bear-Killer will not slay him!” said a deep voice, close at his side, and a heavy hand was laid on his arm, so suddenly and with such force that the tomahawk fell from bis grasp and half- buried itself among the leaves at his feet. Bear-Kaller turned with a sharp grunt of rage and surprise. His mutilated face expressed nothing, but his small, baleful eyes scintillated~ like those of a cowed and baffled wolf. The band on bis arm tightened its hold, and the deep, stern voice repeated authoritatively; ‘** Bear-Killer will not slay him!” The speaker was an Indian, tall and massive in build, and manifestly the superior of Bear- Killer in strength, His dress and equipments indicated him to be a chief. Bear-Killer seemed to recognize his superiority, either of rank or strength, or both, t was Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, who had just now made his escape from the cabin of Emmett Darke, and the terrible power which he believed Veunie possessed, and he was making his wa back through the forest toward the Indian yi lage, when he discovered Bear-Killer in the act of consummating his dreadful vengeance on the unconscious white man, — “the
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The Dwarf Decoy. Ku-nan-gu-no-nah recognized this white man at a glance He knew 1t was Clancy Vero. And he had particular reasons for not wishing Bear-Killer to become his slayer Perbaps his chief reason was that he wanted ee the young hunter to death himself, e was aware that Clancy Vere was his suc- cessful rival in the affections of Vinnie Darke, or Sun-Hair, as he was won't to call her Jexlous and vindictive as he was, this was sufficient to make him hunt his pale-faced rival to the ends of the earth, if he could not compass his death without. With a sudden movement, Bear-Killer wrenched himself free from the chief’s grasp, and faced him half angrily, at the same time nigred up the tomahawk out of the leaves at is feet. . ‘*Why does the chief interfere?” he asked. “Because,” said Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, ‘he would slay the pale-face hunter himself. He has cause for revenge!” “ And has not Bear-Killer cause for revenge” the Indian almost yelled. ‘Look at his face! Yonder white man did this, The pain is like a thousand tortures. What says the chief? Has he greater cause for revenge than Bear-Killer?’ ** The chief has greater cause for revenge than Bear-Killer,” said Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, “Ae has not!” said the Indian, decisively. “ Bear-Killer will not be cheated out of his ven- geance! He saved the pale-face from the panther that be might kill him himself!” “ And the chief has saved him from the ven- geance of Bear-Killer that he might have his re- venge!” said Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, with a grim, devilish smile, ‘‘ Let the warrior wait, and he shall see the vengeance of a chief.” He advanced toward the tree, and, as he neared it, his gaze feli on the dead and horribly mangled vodies of the savages who had fallen before the terrible charge of the Phantom Rider. The undergrowth had concealed them from his view until now, He started back with a loud cry of surprise and wonder. “‘ Did he do it?” he asked, pointing” toward the swa ing white man, ; “No,” said Bear-Killer, in a voice that was half a gasp. ‘No, it was the Spirit Warrior.” * The Spirit Warrior !” The chief reiterated the words in a dazed sort of way, like one under some subtle spell, while for an instant a shudder seemed to convulse his massive frame. **'Yes,” said Bear-Killer, “it was the Spirit Warricr—the spirit of the outcast chief, Meno, When will Meno's vengeance be complete?” ** When Ku-nan-gu-no-nah and all his braves are no more! When the sons of the red-men who tortured their own chief to death are all numbered with the dead! Then, and not before will the vengeance of the outcast and murdered sachem, Meno, be complete. Every day brings it nearertheerd!” _ The two Indians started as though a keen- edged knife had pierced their vitals, Then they _ stood transfi with fear, staring into each other’s eyes as if to inquire the source of the an- | swer that had come to Bear-Killer’s question almost before it had left his lips. The tones of, the voice that had spoken the words were hollow, and the weird and terrible. menace seemed to be borne to them on the winds from afar off, in a wild, ghastly chant that thrilled every fiber of their superstitious beings — a vague horror that they could not shake off, Tho dismal wailing of the wind through the forest trees, the sullen roar of the storm which bad set in a little while ‘before, and the monoto- nous dashing of the cataract below, all combined to inspire them with a sort of awed dread, that the spirit voice, crying out to them above the crash of the wind and storm, augmented into a wild, ungovernable fear For several moments, the two Indians stood silent and motionless, neither daring to speak or stir. For a few seconds the wind was hushed and the dashing storm seemed to have spent its fury. Then in an instant it seemed as if the storm demon had sent forth all his forces of wind and sleet. ‘Trees were blown over, limbs were flying hither and thither, and the wind increased to a perfect tornado, wailing and shrieking like a regiment of fiends. The Indians saw that the white man was swinging to and fro at a fearful rate. Itseemed as though the lasso must break at every oscillation. He vibrated backward through a space of fully twenty feet. They could not keep their footing, and were obliged to terow themselves prostrate on the ground. High above the fearful roar, and crashing of uprooted trees and fallen limbs, loud and clear above the shrieking of the wind, was borne to them again the voice of Meno, the Spirit War- rior: “ Let Ku-nan-gu-no-nah beware! Meno’s ven- geance will overtake him. He will die a more horrible death than even his devilish mind can comprehend! Let him beware!” The two Indians remained motionless upon the earth, trembling at every joint. ; Clancy Vere’s peril was imminent, The tree, from a branch of which he was sus- pended, groaned and cracked under the force of the storm, threatening momentarily to break loose from its place in the bank and go crashing over the precipice, A quarter of an hour passed, during which the two savages did not arise from their recumbent position and the spirit voice did not again speak, The tree remained firm and the lasso seemed to deride all attempts on the part of the tempest to break it. It would crack, but it would not part. : Thus far, Clancy Vere had been saved; but he was still unconscious, and had not realized the terrible danger that bad menaced him, Soon the storm began to abate somewhat, Ku-nan-gu-no-nah and Bear-Killer got upon their feet by-and-by, when the fury of the storm was in a measure spent. Their mee sense of hearing had been keenly — alert to catch any further words from the Spirit Warrior, But they did not hear the terrible, menacing voice again, ‘Tt has gone,” said the chief. - ‘“* Yes,” assented Bear-Killer, in a tone of re-
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The Dwarf Decoy. . lief. ‘‘We shall hear it no more to-day, It went away on the storm.” “The vengeance of Meno 1s terrible!” said the chief, with a shudder ‘‘ But we are safe now. Now for my revenge!” “Stop,” said Bear-Killer. ‘*We will draw lots. I, too, have come here for vengeance on the white hunter,” The chief grunted a guttural and very unwill- ing compliance to this proposition, “We must hurry,” he said, ‘or he will be dead, He is almost dead now.” Bear-Killer made a very small mark on the » trunk of the tree, “ The one that throws bis tomahawk the near est to the mark wins,” said he They took their places almost on the verge of the high bluff on which they were standing. Ku-nan-gu-no-nah threw first, His tomahawk buried itself in the tree-trunk, within half an inch of the mark There was a baleful glow in BeatKiller’s wolfish eyes as he poised his weapon, a treacher- ous glitter that the chief did not fail to notice. Just as the handle of the tomahawk was slipping out of his grasp, the chief dealt him a powerful blow on the side of the head. He staggered a moment and his body swayed to and fro as he tried to regain his balance on the very edge of the bank. The next instant his wild death-yell came up from below! CHAPTER VIII THE GIANT’S STORY. DaRKE noted the angry flash in the dwarf’s little black eyes, as he nodded an eager assent to his brother’s strange question, and wondered not a little what the “‘one great purpose” of this queerly assorted pair’s lives was, but he forbore to question the giant, nut doubting that, if it was not some secret that they did not wish to disclose, he would explain himself in good time, And this belief was not far from correct, as the giant hunter’s next words attest- ed, Hesat down ona stool near at hand; and _ as Fs ab ones came and stood at his side, he said: “Yes; we're livin’ for some purpose, We have given our lives up to revenge! We're a- gittin’ revenge every day, hain’t we, Lon?” The dwarf’s round little pate was bent for- ward again until Darke just caught the glitter of the dusky eye under the broad rim of his slouch hat; and this he interpreted to be a token of assent to the giant’s question, As his face wes raised to view again, he thought he saw the dwarf’s mute lips move, as if in an at- tempt to speak, and he imag'ned that volumes of vindictive, vengeful words were struggling for utterance. But the dumb tongue was in- capable of expressing even a tithe of the dark passion that was written on every lineament of the pigmy’s face. “And we've anuff to be revenged for, God knows!” Leander Maybob went on. “ We can’t never wipe out of our memories our old father and mother that the red devils murdered in cool blood; we can’t never forgit the awful sight our eyes rested onto, when we came home from a hunt one morning; we can’t never wipe this out of our minds, But, the just God help- ~_43 in’ us, we'll wipe every one of their murderers off o’ the earth before we die! The devil that led them shall die a more horrible death than even his own hellish mind has planned for his poor helpless victims! We've done a deal tward fulfillin’ our vow in the past six years; eh, Lon? We've made many a savage bite the dust in that time!” ‘The dwarf’s band darted into the bosom of his base vestment, it came out again in an instant and he held up to Darke’s view a deerskin — about four feet in length, which was knotted most from one end to the other, He touched each knot in succession with the forefinger of his right hand, accompanying every motion with u nod of the head. “There’s just a hundred an’ forty-eight knots,” said the big hunter; *‘an’ every one on emis a red-skin’s ps age That slender strip of deerskin, simple and harmless as it appeared, told a ghastly story of conflict and of death and of half-sated venge- ance. “Well git our hands on him yet,” the big hunter went on, ‘‘ We’ve bad chances to kil him of’en enough, but jest a common death ain’t enough fer him. He desarves more; an’ I want to five him bis jest desarts. He must die an awful death! Our vengeance’ll overhaul him yet, "Lon. Then you may tie a double knot! tte give him two varses to his eppytoph; eh, n The dwarf nodded, touched the hilt of his hunting-knife significantly, and made motions as 1f to tie a knot in the string which he held in his band. ““Of whom do you speak?” queried Darke, as he supported himself on his elbow. “The red fiend that led the attack on our cabin! The devil that shot my mother and car- ried my old father’s white scalp away in his belt! Hain’t we got reason plenty bg his ance? Do ye wonder that we bunt and kill In- dians as you would kill serpints? Do ye think it’s strange that we don’t want to let that red imp die a common way?” he big hunter had arisen while he spoke, drawing his Titanic form up to its full hight. The expression on his face was terrible to look upon. As he finished, he brought his ponderous clinched fist down, striking it in the horny palm of his other hand. Darke half shuddered. ** No—no!” he cried. ‘No death—no torture on earth is horrible enough to be meet punish- ment for the atrocities of such a fiend incarnate! Is he an Indian chief?” The giant nodded. His ungovernable rage seemed to have entirely spent itself, and he did not speak; butstood with folded arms end down- cast eyes, his massive frame as motionless as eg carved out of the solid rock around them. Alonphilus seemed to partake keenly of this feeling of undying, inveterate batrec of the In- _ dians. His face wore a hard, implacable look, and he drawing the record of their venge- ance slowly throngh his fingers from one hand to the other, as if he longed to tie the short end of it that was yet unmarked by the little death register into one hard knot, that could never be
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The Dwarf Decoy. entangled, in commemoration of the passage from this life to the next of the murderer of his parents and the triumphant consummation of their terrible work of vengeatice, ‘The spell that was on the big hunter was only momentary, and it was buf a minute or two he- fore he was himself again; and he sigmfied his willingness to resume the conversation by say- ing, as he reseated himself on the stool at the side of the couch of skins on which Darke re- clined: “Well, I heerd Elder Fugwoller say one’t— and he was college l’'arnt—*‘ It’s a long tow-path, or cow-path, or suthin’, as hasn’t got no turns into’em,;’ and I believe it’s true as gospil.” The dwarf turned and walked across the cav- ern, and pushing aside the dividing curtain, dis- appeared within the inner apartment, replacing the death record in his bosom as he did so, “The day of retribution is sure to come at last. It is not often that the guilty escape pun- ishment,” said Darke. “It issure to overtake them sooner or later. God’s justice is certain.” “Tm a-thinkin’,” returned Leander Maybob, ‘fas how Ku-nan-gu-no-nah’s tow-path or cow- path’ll take a mighty unexpected turn some day. © Ku-nan-gu-no-nah!” The big hunter seemed surprised at Darke’s sudden exclamation, ‘* Yes,” he said, that’s the devil’s name. Do you know him Have you got an account ag?in’ him!” “Yes,” cried Darke, sitting bolt upright on the couch, while a hard, stern look settled on his face. ‘‘ Yes, I believe [have. And I am going to present it for settlement the very first time I see him!” - ** What do you mean?” the otber asked, evinc- ing no small degree of interest in the words and actions of Darke, ‘‘Hashe ever—” “Pll tell you,” interrupted Darke. ‘ Then you'll understand how it is, We—I mean Vin- nie, my motherless daughter, and myself—live alone in our little cabin. Theré is no one to ae us company and no one that I can leave with her when, as [am often compelled to do, I go 1n search of game out in the woods, Some- times I am absent a whole day together; but I never stay away over night. Some time last summer, while Vinnie was wandering through the edge of wood that skirts our little clearing, Ku-nan-gu-no-nah saw her and conceived the idea of making her his wife. Always choosing times when I was away, he has several times come to my cabin, trying to persuade Vinnie to go with him to his wigwam and become his squaw. He ‘has never offered her violence, but the last time, failing to induce her to do as he wished, he threatened to abduct her and bear her away to the Indian village. I have left her a pistol to be used as a protector, and she has not been brought up on the frontier without learning how to handle it, Iam staying away to-day, I fear, longer than I oughtto. I “hope I shall be able to go home soon, How long is it since you brought me here? I begin to feel stronger, as if I could walk easily enough now. Have I been here long, did you say?” se] ye here some’eres about the middle of the a’ternoon,” replied the other. ‘‘and it’s purty near night now, ‘Lon’s comin’ back with the glimsnow. You've b’en here som’ere’s abotif three or four hours, D’ye b’lieve ye'r’ fit to travel now?” 3 Yes,” said Darke, “TI think all of my strength has come back, Ido not feel weak or faint; but my head aches terribly—tkat’s all, f must go.’ The dwarf entered at this juncture, bearing four or five pitch-pine torches, which he lighted and stuck into niches in the rocky walls of the cavern, “T s'pose ye calkilate to shoot him?” said Leander Maybob, eagerly, ‘I s’pose ye’ll kill him. ‘Twould only jest be in the natur’ of things fer ye to do so; but I wish ye wouldn't, I wish ye wouldn’t harm a hair of his head. Yo see he can’t die only onc’t; and if you kill bim he won’t suffer only one death. If we wipe him out, he'll hev to die a hundred deaths in one! If ye jest load a gun in the common way and fire it off, that’s all there is of it; but if ye puts ina good many loads and rams’em down good till ye’ve got it chuck full cl’ar to the muzzle, and then manage some way to git out of danger and gives the trigger a leetle jerk, why then ve'll bu’st the ’tarnal fetag: Ye see when we tech Ku-nan- gu-no-nah off, we calkilates to bu’st him. I wish ye’d jest let us pay it all off together—your score and our own. What d’ye say?” “You know a man always feels better for taking his own revenge,” said Darke, ‘ It’s more satisfactory.” + : “Yes, I know ’tis,” replied the big hunter. “1 know “tis, and 1 wouldn't nohow let any man take our job outen our hands; but when tell ye our story, I b’lieve ye’ll agree as we're the ones that ought to have the prime chance at Ku-nan-gu-nonab, If Pll tell it to ye, ye'll jest give the subjick a few minutes thort, wont **T should like very much to hear your story,’ said Darke; “and Tl consider what you have propos Jt is unnecessary that we should follow Lean- der Maybob through the somewhat tedious length of recital, during which he made man pauses and* numerous repetitions; but we wi give the reader the substance of his sad story, The giant hunter had, with his dwarf brother * and his parénts, considerably advanced in life come from the East seven years before, an erected a pioneer’s cabin ata place down the river twenty or twenty-five miles from their cavern lodge. They commenced making a little clearing, and for several months al] went well; although the Indians made almost daily visits to their forest-home, they never molested any. thin or offered any violence The days .went by an they began to fancy themselves secure from an harm from the savages, But they put too muc faith in their treacherous natures, When Darke heard how a band of the dusky fiends, led b Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, attacked the old settler’s cabin one dark, stormy night in the absence of his sons—when he heard how the stout-hearted, gray-haired old man and his feeble wife had been driven out, after defending their cabin and . their lives gallantly for nearly two hours, by the flames which were devouring their little log home, whose rough walls had warded off the la-
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. their sides; how they had been butchered as they came out from the roaring, crackling mass —when the giant avenger told him with a mois- ture suffusing his eyes of the return next morn- ing of himself and Alonphilus and the heart- sickening sight they beheld; when he heard all this, he could not wonder that these strange brothers had taken a solemn and fearful vow to avenge their parents’ death. He knew that their claim on the chief was greater than his; so : he said, as he arose from the couch—for he was f much stronger now: ni “*T will promise you this: Unless I find it ab- ] solutely necessary to protect myself and mine, I i will try to forego my revenge on Ku-nan-gu-no- nah and leave him to your disposal. Is this satisfactory? I betieve you have a better right to kill him than I.” “Thank ye!” said the big hunter, grasping Darke’s hand and squeezing it almost paintully in his bony fingers, ‘‘Thank ye, Mr. Darke. It seems es how I can’t thank ye enough.” ‘Never mind the thanks,” said Darke. “I am your debtor. You took me in when—” “There! that'll do!” interrupted Leander. “Come,” ~ As he ceased speaking, he turned and led the way into the inner apartment of the cavern. Darke felt quite well now, with the exception of an acute pain in his head, and he followed his strange entertainer with no difficulty what- ever. The place where he now found himself re- sembled the outer cavern a good deal, only it was much smaller and contained a sort of rude fireplace, on the hearth of which a bright fire was blazing merrily, sending showers of sparks up a narrow fissure that served as an outlet for the smoke; in short, it was a natural chimney, and could not have answered its purpose better had it been built up of stone and mortar in the usual way. Another small apartment was cur- tained off from this in the same manner that the two larger apartments of the cavern were separated from each other, only the curtain of = was closely drawn, as if special pains had en taken to shut out the interior from the view of any one in the other part of the cave, The big hunter motioned Darke to a seat on the stool near the fire, and then, followed by the dwarf, passed into this smaller room, if such it might be called, carefully closing the curtain behind him, Soon Darke heard him say some- thing in a subdued tone that he could not under- stand. A moment later he caught a few words that caused him to wonder greatly. Evidently there was a mystery connected with the little apartment. He heard the rough voice of the big hunter say: “Does he show any signs of life yet? Can’t be he’s dead!” The next moment they returned, but the giant offered no explanation of the mystery, whatever it was, and Darke thought best to act as though he had not overheard the strange words quoted above. A e oaken chest stood nearly in the center of the 3; and on its hd Alonphilus had ezranged. a savory supper of broiled venison. The Dwarf Decoy. | _dians’ bullets, which had rattled harmlessly from The brothers each drew a stool up by the side of this strange table, and Leander invited Darke cordially to do the same. After he had partaken of the food so hospita- bly offered by his new-found friends, he an- nounced his intention to depart at once for home. The big hunter told him that it was al- ready growing dark outside, and he knew that he must have been away from Vinnie at least five hours, now; and he feared that she would grow uneasy if he did not return soon. " | He thanked the twin avengers for their kind- ness, and was about to go, when he saw Alon- philus raise one end of the chest as if to earry it to some other part of the cavern, He stood close at hand, and he laid hold of the other handle to assist the dwar? in its removal. _ They hai gone but a few Pres, however, when Alonphilus tripped and fell, dropping his part of the burden to the ground; and the sud- den jar caused the other handle to slip from Darke’s grasp. The chest overturned, the coyer flying back as it did so, and its contents rolled out at the woodman’s feet with a weird, ghastly rattle as it struck the rocky floor, Darke, strong, brave man though he was, started back with a quick, sharp cry of alarm. White and terrible at his feet, lay a grinning, horrible skeleton of gigantic proportions | ~ “Our secret! Our secret!” cried the big hun- ter, hoarsely, “You hev diskivered our se- cret! CHAPTER IX, LOST IN THE FOREST, Striz crouching down by the great tree-trunk at the entrance of the cavern cee of the May- bob twins, in whose care her father, of whom the reader recollects she came out in search, was at that very moment, though she knew it not, and had no knowledge of the cave itself, Vinnie watched, as best she might, through the blinding storm, the approach of the rider of the white horse and his mysteriousburden. Death, desist- : ing for a moment from his persistent pawing of the earth at the base of the rock that had defied the girl’s weak attempts at removal a few min- utes before, came, and standing close beside her, poked his sharp nose out through the bushes - that grew thick around the foot of the tree, and watched with his keen eyes the horseman, who was coming nearer every moment, . She could-not see the man’s face very dis tinctly, for he wore a wide, slouch hat, that when he bent far forward on his horse, to prevent the sleet from beating into his eyes and mouth, almost entirely concealed it from view, But the mysterious burden that he carried be- fore him was plainly visible, and seemed, per- haps because of its very mystery, to have a sort of weird fascination for her. : She could not see the object, itself; it was so closely rolled in and so carefull’ the driving storm by the heavy 4 entirely enveloped it from head to foot—for she bel firmly determined that it was a human ~ form. Only one question remained unsolved in her mind now. “ Was it alive or dead?” While she yet k wrap that ly protected from ndered on this mystery, and with her eyes on the horseman, everything—the — white horse—its rider—the man or woman, or “ b> is sera av t Se ee
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‘epent its fury. The wild roar of the wind had : “ “corpse, that he had carried before him—what- ever it was thai was hidden from sight so ef- fectually within the folds of that pall—she could not believe it was anything ¢lse—while yet she saw him coming toward the place of her. con- cealment, all vanished from her sight as sud- denly and as surely as though the earth had opened and swallowed them up. She uttered a little cry of consternation. Then she rubbed her eyes and looked again, But there was nothing there, where the man and the horse and that other thing had been, only the falling storm, still raging with all its aa? hat could it mean? She asked herself this question shudderingly, while, in her fear, she clung around the neck of her great brute companion, glad in the terror that possessed her of the company which he, dumb animal Nat he was, could be to her. The bloodhound had never, for an instant, re- raoved his gaze from the place where the mys- terious horseman, with his black burden, had so unaccountably disappeared a few moments be- fore, and while Vinnie’s arms were yet around his neck he tore himself from her embrace and darted out of sight among the shrubbery that grow dense and heavy about the spot. Vinnie called to him repeatedly, but he did not come back, She waited, then called again and again with a like resuit. The dog did not come; nor could she hear him beating about the undergrowth, Had he deserted her? She would not believe it, and she cried again, her voice almost losing itself in the roar of the storm. ‘Death! Death! Death, come back! Here, Death—good old fellow! Come back!” Again she waited and listened. The wind and storm were all the sounds she ea Then it seemed to come to her all at once that she wasalone Even her brute protector had deserted her. i All alone in the tempest that was raging through the forest like a thousand furies! “He has gone!” she quavered, hugging the tree-trunk closer, as a gust of wind wilder than any before swept through the forest, uprooting a large sycamore not far away, and blowing the covering off from her head, letting the sleet dash in its sharp, cutting way into her face, “ He is gone,” she repeated with slow iteration, ‘and I am all alone!” She thought of returning to the cabin, but sho dared not face the storm. It was almost certain death to attempt to make her way home with the storm at its hight and while trees were falling almost constantly, and branches flying hither and thither all the time, crashing through the tree-tops and whirling in mid-air as though they had been but feathers instead of massive pieces of wood. She dared not venture out of her shelter So she shrunk back as far as possible and waited. Perhaps the storm would abate somewhat after awhile. She hoped it would; and this was her one bit of comfort. Yn an hour’s time the tempest seemed to have ro he Dwarf Decoy. — dwindled to a low, mournful moaning, and the sleet had ceased to fall; but the rain fellin a slow, monotonous drizzle that seemed likely to continue through the night. The afternoon was now very far advanced, but it lacked more than an hour of nightfall. Vinnie arose to her feet now, and walked slowly back, as nearly as she could find her way, over the trail she had come. She followed it without much difficulty for a sbort distance, but by and by when she lost sight of the indis- tinct pathway that led away from the cavern, she was obliged to be guided solely by her judg- ment of what direction she ought to take to reach her father’s cabin, For nearly an hour she kept on, picking her way through the thick undergrowth, and climb- ing over fallen trees and heapsof the debris of the storm which was scattered through the length and breadth of the forest, It was begin- ning to grow dark, and the cold November rain, kept falling slowly and steadily, The sky was, overcast with black clouds. Vinnie felt that; she made but slow progress, hasten as she might. The night, when it came, would be very dark, and she dreaded lest it might overtake her before she reached home, With wildly beating heart she pressed on, and soon the landmarks began to grow familiar to. her She was weary'‘and almost heartsick, but she began to feel more hopeful. Things along: her way looked more and more as though she had seen them before every minute. Was she; nearing the cabin? She thought so She had kept a sharp lookout for the elearning: that her father had made around their forest- prt but she could see nothing to remind hen of it. She kept on bravely, though, néver doubting: one minute that she would catch a glimpse of the cabin through the trees the next. The trees on either hand appeared familiar, She was feeling really hopeful now. “Til be there in a few moments, I’m sure,” she said to herself as cheerily as she coul % That old crooked sycamore there looks like an old acquaintance! ‘he clearing must be just ahead!” She pressed onward quite hopefully now; and, five minutes later, she found herself—just where she had started from an hour before, There was the rock that she had tried in vain to move, and the great tree behind whose sturdy trunk she had Focus a persel shelter from the storm! She staggered back, clutching at a bush for support. ** My God!” she moaned, ‘‘ I am lost!” She sunk down on the wet earth almost de- spairfully. Then her old brave spirit reasserted itself, ‘* What a poor miserable little coward I am! she exclaimed, almost angry with > ‘What can I do that is more likely to get me out of my trouble than to try again?” It was coring dark very fast now and the. cold rain was falling as slowly and monoto- nously as ever; but she would not allow herself: to think of either the coming night or the driz- zling rain—and she set out for home a second. time quite bravely, It was no desirable task that she had before EB
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ke ee LO pe OO Oy we crs The Dwarf Decoy. ener “ See annem —s — aa her, and she did not look upon her weary wallé asamere pleasure trip, by any means, Still that bold, hopeful spirit that had borne her up through her adventures with the chiet that afternoon was with her now; and she was far from being despondent. “Tf I try, and keep trying,” she mused, as she hurried on, ‘‘I may reach home in safety by- and-by; and if Iam really lost and must stay in the forest, I suppose there is very little choice in sleeping-places. So, upon the whole, I think I had better keep traveling about as long as I ean, I will try and not get faint-hearted again, anyway.” n twenty minutes it was as dark as Erebus! Still the girl pressed bravely forward through the night, She could no longer see with any certainty. rane any specific course was out of the question, and it was with great difficulty that she kept her feet, at times, among the fallen trees and tangled undergrowth, But she tried to keep a bold heart. Glancing ahead, through the blackness, to a dense thicket just in advance, she saw some- thing that made her pause in terror. It was a pair of eyes! Vinnie stood quite still, too much frightened to stir or cry out. That pair of fixed, fiery eyes had a sort of weird fascination for her All at once, while she yet looked at them, she felt the blood leaving her heart, and an awful terror took possession of her whole being. The eyes were slowly and unmistakably ad- vancing toward her! She tottered back a step or two with a low ery. Just then there was a loud report near at hand. An unearthly screech, half-human, rung out on the night-air. The eyes seemed to shoot up a few feet and then they disappeared. A man came dashing through the under- growth, and in a moment he stood beside her. Vinnie!” ** Oh, father!” * Don’t be afraid, little one,” Darke said, re- assuringly. “It was a panther, but it is dead now. ltisa fearful night. Let us hurry home. When we get there, you must tell me how you came here,” He took her hand in his and they hastened on through the night, CHAPTER X, A BAFFLED VENGEANCE, KU-NAN-GU-NO-NAH had not intended to push Bear-Killer over the bluff. He knew that treachery was one of his strongest characteris- tics, and fearful lest in some manner he should lose his revenge, or rather his chance for re- venge, on his white rival, he watched him nar- rowly as he made ready to burl his tomahawk in the trial of skill he had proposed, to determine which of the two should put the unconscious young hunter to death: and he detected almost instantly the intention of Bear-Killer to act in accordance with this most prominent trait of character, He saw that the treacherous brave was pois- ing his tomahawk to throw, not at the mark on the tree-trunk, but at the head of their victim! All the quick, wild nor mage of his fierce nature was aroused in an instant, He was not one to brook treachery. With a cry of rage, he struck Bear-Killer a sudden powerful blow with his fist. , The dooured savage lost his balance and top- pled over the precipice. While yet his wild death are rung out on the storm, Ku-nan gu-no-nuh threw himself flat on the ground, and craning his neck out over the tent , looked down into the foaming water be- ow. At first he saw ae but the jagged rocks and the tossing flood, Then, a little down. stream, the dusky face of his victim was visibie for an instant amid the eddying waters, then it sunk from sight forever “He will be carried over the waterfall,” said the chief. ‘He will lodge on the rocks below. I will send the pale-fave after him, and he can take his revenge down there. He will not dis- pute my right to the first chance, [ will take my revenge now. He can have his afterward— all he can get!” There was no place in the red fiend’s heart, , for remorse for any evil deed, He had looked upon the whole affair as a fortunate accident that had rid him of one who stood in his way—- nothing more! He arose from the ground and turned his gaze? upon bis hated and senseless rival. It would be impossible to depict the fierce: rage and triumph that flashed from the chief's: eyes, as le regarded his victim, Clancy was still swaying slowly backward’ and forward over the whirling, roaring waters far below, that seemed to be filled with hoarse,, clamorous voices, crying aloud for his life, The motion of his body was more gentle now’ that the wind had died down. The lasso no longer jerked and cracked, threatening to break: and let him down into the jaws of death, gaping; wide below, He hung pulseless and heavy, likea man thats was dead—there was’ neither a tremor nor a pulsation to tell if he lived or not. A hand placed on his heart would have felt the faintest kind of a flutter, that was all! He was alive, but for how long? It was impossible for Ku-nan-gu-no-nah to touch him from the bank, He was uncertain whether he was yet alive, But if he clove his head with his tomahawk,) he would be sure that he was dead. Was he going to wreak vengeance for a fan- cied wrong, on his vital, breathing rival, or on his soulless body? He did not know. He feared that the sonl would leave the body before his vengeance was accomplished! If the form swaying before him was alive he would leave it dead. Was he going to tomahawk a man or a corpse? He did not know, and he did not care! With an expression of fiendish exultation on his dark, evil face, he took a position not more than twenty feet distant from Vere, and drew his tomahawk Long practice had made him an adept in the use of his favorite weapon and he poised it in- stantly, without any apparent care. .He was sure of his aim at such close range, and ina second the tomahawk went whirling out of his . hand,
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The Dwarf Decoy. But it missed its human mark by six inches, and fell with a dull splash into the water. The wind*and the swinging motion of the young hunter had baffled him! . He uttered a deep curse, and drew a small pis- tol from his belt. To cock it and bring the sights to a level with his eye was but the work of a moment. He ulled the trigger, There was a click as the ammer came down—that was all. It was not loaded! Clancy Vere remained unharmed. The hand of Providence was in it! With a low ery of baffled rage, he set ahout loading the pistol. He had accomplished it in a minute. ould anything baffle him now? He cocked it, put on a cap, and took careful aim at Clancy’s head There was a flash and a sbarp report, He ran to the edge of the bank and examined his mtended victim’s face critically, and there was nothing to indicate that the shot had been effective. Surely it.had not touchel his face, and there was nothing that looked like a bullet- tet any part of the young hunter’s deerskin ‘clothing. Ku -nan-gu-no-nah was almost frantic with eens rage. z n his ungovernable passion before, at being ‘twice baffled, he had neglected to put a ball in ‘the pistol! This \explained why.he had, as he thought, mithough he had taken accurate aim, missed his mar Ku-nan-gu-no-nah was a great warrior of his ‘tribe. When he went on the war-path he al- ways returned laden with scalps and other ghastly trophies of rapine and murder Be- sides this, he was looked upon as the best shot among all the braves who ackno wledged his au- thority as chief and leader Now he seemed to have lost his skill, and his rage and chagrin were unbounded. With a snarl like that of a caged tiger, he threw the pistol over the bluff ‘‘ Maybe it will go down to Bear-Killer,” he said. “It’s good enough for him! He won't do much fine shooting now, I guess! Maybe he will have his revenge on the pale-face with it, Pm going to cut the lasso and send him down, too, now. I think Sun-Hair, the squaw ma- gician, has saved him to-day with her deyil- ox, some way Vil cut the lasso, and see if she can keep him from falling into the water! A tomahawk won’t kill him, and a pistol is just as powerless to do him harm!” As he ceased speaking, he drew his hunting-knife and ran his finger along its edge, he result of the examination was apparently satisfactory—the blade was sharp. .S¥ don’t believe she can hold him up in the ‘air after the lasso is cut,” he muttered. Sioplacing the hunting-knife in his belt, he ad- vancéd to the root of the tree, and began climb- ing up its trunk, 5 in two or three minutes he had gained the limb to which the end of the lasso was secured. Crawling slowly along it—for it was not * large, and the waters pitching and tossing un- derneath, made his head swim just a trifle—he worked his way out to the place where the lasso was*tied. How the water roared and rung in his ears! He swung himself astride of the limb, clutch- ing it with his left hand to make bis position more secure, while with his right he disengaged his knife and dropped its keen edge on the lasso, where it was passed several times around the projecting branch. Just then a sudden gust of wind swept past, causing the tree to sway a little. ‘ Quick as thought he placed the end of the horn handle of his knife between his teeth, and with both hands clung to the branch on which he sat, It swung from side to side two or three times, and the chief reeled for a momertit as if he had lost his balance. He gripped the branch with the energy of desperation, his sharp nails sink- ing into the rough bark, and his swarthy face turned to an ashen hue 5 Ina minute or two the branch became mo- tionless and he was once more securely seated, with one hand clinging to the limb and one foot twisted in the lasso in such a manner that he could disengage it at the instant of cutting the knot His situation was a perilous one, but his mind was so intent on the hellish work he was braving so much to accomplish that he heeded it not. The least motion of the tree—a sudden gust of wind—a false movement on his part—the merest trifle, would bring upon him the death he had planned for the man swinging below, who, until the lasso shonld be severed, was more secure than he. Again he clutched the keen-edged hunting-knife, and was about to draw it -across the coils of the lariat. A strange sound arrested his attention. It was the voice of a man, ‘ Btoadying himself in his seat, he turned his eu ead. He beheld a sight so startling that he almost loosened his grip on the limb. Théknife Beale _| from his grasp and he held on with both hands. - A white man stood on the bank not ten yards distant, with a rifle leveled at his head. He was a very tall and very massive man, of very grotesque appearance, and when the reader is told that it was Leander Maybob, the giant hunter, and no one else, a personal de- scription is unnecessary. The muzzle of his rifle pointed steadily at the Indian’s head, and he said in a rough tone of command that the chief was.afraid to disobey, and, at the same — time fearful to obey: ; ** Come down!” Ku-nan-gu-no-nah realized that the time oc- cupied in the passage of a bullet from the big - hunter’s unerring rifle to his brain would be very short. . He attempted to hitch backward along the limb and came near losing his hold and shooting down into the roaring water below, - He looked at the giant in a half-despairful way, which he only noticed by saying: **Come down, or I'll shoot!” Again he essayed to move himself backward along the limb. It was eapertoe undertaking, — but death stared him grimly in the face, let him — look whichever way he would. oe 5 Once more, This time he swayed so far to one }
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The Dwarf Decoy. side that it was with the greatest difficulty that he regained his equipoise on top of the branch. Now he turned his gaze for an instant again tothe man on the bank who held his rifle in his hands—the man whose father and mother he bad murdered, though he knew it not. If he had known the terrible oath of ven- geance that the giant hunter had registered against him, he would have chosen to strangle in the stream underneath rather than to fall into his hands, He paused a moment, shuddering as he half lost his hold on the limb. — that stern command rung in bis ears: **Come down!” His efforts at moving along the branch toward the body of the tree were attended with better success, now that the limb began to grow larger and his seat more secure. Still his progress was very slow. He could have moved forward cg enough, but he dared not turn around. When he paused to take breath a moment, he heard the big hunter say in his implacable voice; ‘*Come! D’ye want ter be shot?” He exerted himself to the utmost, and five minutes later slid down the trunk of the tree and stood doggedly before his captor.” “Ku-nan-gu-no-nah is a great chief, am’t he?” the giant said, tauntingly. ‘He climbs trees and can’t get down ag’in without help. Ain’t ye glad I happened eng help ye down? He is a mighty warrior! @ goes with twenty or thirty of his greasy braves in the night to kill and scalp a white-haired old man and a de- crepit old woman! Some time I'm goin’ ter wipe ye out, ye cowardly red divil! but not now, Pm atte ter let yer live a little longer, and then when I git ready to kill ye, you'll suffer as many awful deaths as all of your victims put together! Yer can go now. I’m done with yer for the present. Come, don’t stand there! Go!” He drew his rifle to his face and kept it aimed at on Indian’s head till he had gone out of sight. CHAPTER XI. A WELCOME VISITOR. Hann in hand Vinnie and her father hurried on through the storm and darkness, The way was intricate and difficult to travel; but a good half-hour’s walk brought them to the edge of the clearing, and the weary girl greeted the sight of the cabin, which looked like a large square patch of blackness, through the gloom, with feelings of grateful satisfaction. It was the work of but a few moments for Darke, while Vinnie lighted a candle, to rekindle the fire that had burned out during their absence. The girl set thelight on the table, and almost exhausted with the vicissitudes of the past few hours, throw herself upon a seat. The fire was now crackling merrily on the hearth, sending sbowers of sparks up the wide chimney, and Darke, divesting himself of his hunting shirt and belt, stood before its genial blaze todry the water that adhered to his deerskin apparel. When he took off his wide-rimmed hat and, after shaking off the rain, tossed it into a corner, Vinnic noticed for the first time that his head was ban- dage@ about with a white cloth, The hat had concealed it before, and he had not spoken of it, or asked her any questions as they came home} his mind being filled with the mystery of the oaken chest and its horrille contents and the strange words of the giant hunter in regard to his discovery of their “secret.” He had made no reply to these words. He could make none except to regret the accident that had brought to his notice anything that the twin avengers aid not wish him to see; and thanking them again for the kindness they had extended to him, he came away. Vinnie arose and coming over to where he was standing put her hand on his arm, saying; anxiously; -‘* You are hurt, papa! I knew something had happened to you, or Death would never have acted sostrangely. Tell me about it, won’t you? Does | it pain you much? What can I do for you? : ‘Nothing, little one, It is well enough now. The pain 1s very slight, and it is well cared for already. I don’t think of anything that would make it any better But where is the dog? I don’t see him here. 1 know he came here after L was hurt. Did he go out with you into the forest?” : ** Yes,” she replied with a smile, ‘“ Or I went with him, rather. I would not have gone if it had not been for him.” “Tell me about it, child,” said the woodman, eagerly. Then noticing for the first time, the electric machine on the table which Vinnie bad left open just as she had used it that afternoon, and the magic slippers still attached to the bat- tery and lying on the floor near by, he went on ‘‘Have you been taking a private shock or en- joying an electric jig all by yourself?” : ** No,” she replied, coolly enough, as though it was the most trivial of incidents she was speak- ing of, instead of a struggle for more than life with a bloodthirsty savage. ‘‘I have not been electrizing myself; but Ku-nan-gu-no-nah called here this afternoon while you were gone and I guess I shocked him considerably. He seemed to be not a little affected by the experiments of which he was the subject. I think he entertains quite an exalted idea of my attainments as an electrician.” ‘* What do you mean, girl?’ he asked, excited- ly, placing a hand on either shoulder and looking pn into her face in a curious, half-startled way. ‘I don’t understand you. Has that bloody-hearted devil been here to-day? Explain yourself! Tell me what you mean!” Seating herself before the fire, whileher father , listened eagerly, interrupting ber often with ex-. clamations of surprise and anger, she told bim the story of the afternoon’s adventures from the time of his departure from the cabin to the mo- ment when he came to her deliverance in the forest as she recoiled in terror before the ap- proach of that pair of lurid eyes, not omitting the mysterious disappearance of the white horse and its rider, and the limp, helpless burden that, rolled in the pall-like cloth, he carried before him across his saddle, and her subsequent unac- countable desertion by the bloodhound. Darke was convinced from her description of the place, that she had witnessed this strange scene somewhere in the vicinity of the twin ra we an
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The Dwarf Decoy. avengers’ cavern lodge; and he recalled to mind the words that he had overheard the big hunter speak in the small, closely-curtained apartment of the cave, He seemed to hear them again, so vividly were they impressed on his mind. ‘Does he show any signs of life yet? Can’t be he’s dead!” Was there any connection between these un- explained words and the, mystery of the white horse and its rider? Were they in any way identified? Darke thought so, He stood leading against the rude mantlepiece rover the fireplace for several minutes, his mind ‘busy with conjectures. But no satisfactory ex- ;planation came to the relief of his mystitied aind; and the mystery of the oaken chest, the secret of the Maybob twins, the strange words of the giant hunter, and the disappearing horse and man, persisted in remaining as deep a mys- se as ever. , Vinnie, who was-naturally anxious to learn the particulars of her father’s accident and sub- sequent protracted absence and fortunate though = -for appearance in the forest at the very moment when he could be instrumental in saving her life, had been regarding him atten- tively for a while, waiting for him to speak, and not wishing to break in on his musings, “Strange!” he said, at last, looking up sud- denly. ‘*‘ What can have become of the dog? I never knew him to behave so before! It must be that—” He was interrupted by a slight noise at the door, He listened intently; and a moment later the bloodhound’s well known appeal for admit- tance greeted his ear. “Tt is: Death!” said Vinnie, hastening to open .the door. ‘' He’s come back!” The next moment he sprung into the room, ‘shaking the water ina little shower from his dripping coat, and leaping gladly against his master, who returned his tokens of regard with ‘@ pat on the head, ‘You deserve a good whipping, you ungallant fellow,” Vinnie said, half in earnest and half playfully, ‘‘for running off and leaving me to get lost in the woods!” The dog paid little heed to her rebuke, and she continued, addressing her father: ‘‘ Maybe if Death could only talk, he would have a story to tell, too. Perhaps he has discovered the mystery of the disappearing horseman! But you have not told your story yet. Iam very anxious to hear about your ac- cident, and everything else that has happened to you since you went aways You'll tell me all about it now, won’t you?’ And she unclosed his lips with a kiss; and he began at the beginning, and related his adven- tures to her, leaving out only that portion which bore directly on the mysterious secret of which the big hunter had spoken. He had blundered into a partial. knowledge of the private affairs of his newly-found friends and entertainers, and his rigid ideas of honor forbade him to make so questionable a return for their disinterested hos- pitality as the disclosure of their privacy eyen to Vinnie, whom he would not have hesitated to intrust with the keepnig of a life-and-death se- ¢ret, had it been his own. “Tt has been an eventful afternoon to us both,” said Vinnie, after she had heard him through, ‘‘and as far as I am concerned, { do not know thatI am very much the worse for my share of its trials. If you are not severely injured, I think we may thank our stars for having escaped as well as we have.” ‘“‘T think so too,” replied her father, ‘ But, my child, you look upon the perils through which you have passed too lightly. It is no trivial matter, I shudder when I think of what might have been the ending of either of your adventures, I believe, of the two, the ravenous, half-famished panther, and that fiend incarnate, Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, the latter was much more to be dreaded. To the ferocity and bloodthirsti- ness of the beast of prey, is added the treachery and vindictiveness of a devil, and the reasoning powers of the human mind; and, in his hellish- ness and subtlety, the chief falls but litéle short of Lucifer bimself! Do you realize what you have escaped, Vinnie? What should I have done, little one, if I had lost you to-day? And, Vinnie, there is another who, I am sure, would find life very void and destitute of joy did ho not dream that some day you might consent to share it with him, [I allude to Clancy Vere. He is a true man in every sense of the word, and I know of no one to whose loving care I would rather resign you than his,” He had no need to ask her if Clancy Vere’s suit would be successful, He could read it in her blushes, It was growing late now, and as they were somewhat rested, Vinnie set about the prepara- tion of the evening meal, singing in a low voice, and building rosy air-castles as she worked, while her father busied himself with cleaning and reloading his trusty rifle, of which he felt justly proud; for a truer or more unerring Weapon was not to be found for many a long mile, travel which way soever one might. After they had partaken of the supper which Vinnie’s deft hands had spread neatly upon the table in an incredibly short space of time, Darke fastened the cabin doors and windows securely for the night. As he barred the rear door he noticed that it was even darker than when they came home, and the chill rain was‘falling yet in a slow, persistent drizzle: The wimd had died down. The next morning the storm had ceased, but the sky was overcast, and everything as far as the eye could reach bore witness to the fury of the tempest of the night before. Nothing unusual transpired at the cabin dur- ing the sey all its inmates seemed. very little worse for having endured the vicissitudes of the previous afternoon. Vinnie had got up in the morning completely refreshed by the night’s sleep, and the pain was entirely gone from her father’s head, leaving nothing to remind him of the injury he had sustained but a slight bruise on his temple that would go away in a day or two, Toward the middle of the afternoon, as they were seated cosily by their fire of hickory wood, recounting little incidents oftheir adventures that had esca them the night before, they were startled by aloud rap on the cabin door,
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The Dwarf Decoy. Darko hastened to open it, and was no less sur- prised than gratified to meet Clancy Vere. “Welcome, boy!” he exclaimed, giving the youth a hand-shake and a greeting smile in which there was no conventionality, and which was as heartily returned by Clancy, whose eye wandered over the old man’s shoulder in quest of Vinnie. The vivid blush that mantled cheek and brow, as her eyes met his, in no way deteriorated from the prettiness of her face, Clancy thought; and when she step forward half-shyly and put her trembling ‘little hand in his for a mo- ment, I think he may be pardoned for allowing his heart to look out of his eyes and wishing, as he choked back words that struggled for utter- ance now harder than they had ever done be- fore, that just a little while his old friend Darke was in China, or Jericho, or anywhere but there, witnessing and, in his quiet way, en- joying the young people’s happy confusion, I am sure any of my readers who may ever have been placed in a similar situation will exonerate him from all blame. The young hunter looked pale and worn, and Dark noticed_that when he came forward to tnke the seat Vinnie had placed for him before the fire he walked with considerable difficulty. in reply to the woodman’s inquiries in regard *o his jaded appearance and the manifest trouble he experienced in walking, Clancy told the story of his capture by the Indians the day before very substantially as it has already been told the reader in the preceding pages of our story, It is not necessary that we should weary the reader with a recapitulation of what has already been stated, but taking up Clancy’s narrative at a point where consciousness returned, we will follow it to its close, ‘““When my senses came back,” said he, “I found myself reclining on a couch of skins and blankets in what appeared to be a very small apartment of a cave. 1 was’ watched over by a dwarf, who was not much more than four feet high and as dumb as a door nail, This diminutive watcher strengthened me by a liberal use of spirits, and as soon as I was able to speak, summoned his giant brother, who, unlike hifnself, was gifted with a ready tongue and introduced himself to me as Lander May- beb, of Maybob Center down in old Massa- chusetts, e said he was a ‘natural talker,’ and proceeded to substantiate the statement by a very wordy account of the sayings and doings of his uncle Peter an old Massachu- setts minister named Tugwoller, interspersed with snatches of an old love affair between Elder Tugwoller’s niece, Sally Niver, and himself. It seems that the young couple, who were, of a verity, true lovers, were separated for life in consequence of a ludicrous blunder on the part of my giant host. After awhile I gathered from his voluble flow of words that he had rescued me from my perilous situation and brought me to his cavern lodge, -When I had sufficiently recovered from the effects of my swing, I partook of some strengthening food that my new-found friends prepared for me. That was early this morning. As the day ad- yanced, I found myself rapidly gaining strength , and an hour or more agol felt myself strong enough to come on here, and, Lea ay strange entertainers for their kindness, 1 too my departure. As I passed out through the cavern I saw that it was also divided into two larger apartments, one of which was used as a sort of home by the two strangely contrasted twin brothers, and the other was fitted up asa kind of store-room for trophies of the chase, for it was well supplied with arms and ammunition, while the skins and pelts of various animals were deposited in piles about the place.” . ‘How much the latter part of Clancy’s story is like yours!” exclaimed Vinnie to Darke when he bad finished. ‘‘He was rescued by the same strange person and taken to the same place and nursed back to life in the same manner!” ‘*Yes,” assented Darke, “it is a singular coincidence.” Then turning quickly toward the young hunter he said: ‘* You must have Jain insensible in the smallest part of the place while I was there—I think you did. They did not tell you that I had been there before you came away, did they?” ‘* No,” said Clancy, who had been wondering all along at the strange words of the woodman, “they did not tell me anything of the kind. I never knew it till now.” “Strange!” replied the other. ‘And al- though I am sure I was there for quite a length of time while you lay uvconscious in the little place curtained off at the back end of the cay- ern, the giant did not tell me of your presence. It cannot be that there was any cause for this concealment; and concealment does not seem to be a predominant trait of the big hunter’s.” “T do not understand you,” said Vere, won- deringly. ‘‘Do you mean to say that_we were. both at the cave at the same time? Please ex- plain yourself,” And Darke told Clancy the story of his ac- cident the day before, and how Leander May- bob had carried him to the cavern lodge of bis: brother Alonphilus and himself, cared for him till he was able to come home, carefully guard- ing against any allusion to the oaken chest and its ghastly contents, but telling him of the strange episode of the little apartment, and re- peating the mysterious words of the giant bun- ter, whose meaning he had until now vainly tried to discover. They held no hidden portent: new. He knew instinctively that the words he: had so vainly wondered at, ‘* Does he show any signs of life yet? Can’t be he is dead!” referred to Clancy Vere. One mystery was solved! For several minutes both men remained si- jJent. Darke was ruminating over the discovery he had just made, and Clancy was thinking what a lovely picture Vinnie made as she lean- ed carelessly againt the mantle, looking intent- ly into the dancing blaze of the fire, whose red glow litup her fair face till it seemed fairly radiant in its fresh young beauty. Was she building air-castles again? Clancy was! Raising ber long lashes suddenly, she met his ardent, passionate, yet respectful gaze. Both pair of eyes sought the floor simulta neously; and it would have been no easy task for one to have determined which face flushed
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The Dwarf Decoy. the deepest—the maiden’s or her lover’s; for Clancy Vere knew he did love Vinnie Darke with all his heart. Darke had not noticed this little by-play, and he asked, suddenly, as the pretty air-castles both had been rearing up vanished as air-castles are wont to do when they are rudely jarred: “How long do you think you were at the cavern before your consciousness returned?” Su i am not quite certain—two or three hours I uess, de And it was Leander Maybob that rescued you? yen Yes, but he did not himself carry me to the cave. It was more thana mile away that he found me, and although he is very strong, he could not lug me on his back all that distance. When consciousness returned he told me about it. Alonphilus, the dwarf, conveyed me to the cave.” “How?” asked Darke. **Oh, Leander told me all about that, too, I was brought on a horse—” “What color was the horse?’ interrupted Vinnie. “On a white horse?” pursued the woodman, “ce Yes.” “You were rolled up from head to foot in a heavy black cloth, were you not?” Darke went on, eagerly. **T do not know,” said Clancy, surprised at so many questions. ‘‘ But be carried me before him across the saddle.” Father and daughter uttered simultaneous cries of surprise, : Another mystery was solved! -__ CHAPTER XII, THE FOREST ROSE, Ku-NAN-GU-NO-NAH walked swiftly away with the deadly rifle of Leander Maybob, the giant hunter, still leveled at his head, fairly demoniac with wild and impotent rage. The workings of his dark face were fearfully suggestive of the denizens of the bottomless pit, Had he been armed he would not have left the vicinity without first attempting the life of the man who had him in his power and who held his very life at his disposal, but he was power- Jess, having no weapons except a short, sharp- pointed knife which he always carried in ad- dition to his hunting-knife, and this would be useless, except in a hand-to-hand conflict, which even in his wild passion he had not the hardi- hood to dare. : In an hour’s time he came to the boundary of the wilderness and the broad prairie stretched its level surface before him as-far as he could see, Nota tree or a bush was there visible in all this vast plain; only the tall grasses, beat down and tangled by the fearful tempest that had raged through the afternoon. -Turning from the nearly direct course he had been pursuing, the chief made his way, with long, rapid strides, to the place where, in the midst of a dense growth of bushes in the center of which there was a little plat of smooth, assy ground, destitute of undergrowth, he _ had _ tethered his horse early in the afternoon. Tu less time than it takes to tell it, he was _ mounted and galloping away over the plain, In a little while he struck an indistinct, scarce- ly worn road, or rather broad track—one of the emigrant routes of the Northwest. He followed the track for an hour or more and then makin a edo detour to the left, kept on at a swift rolling gallop which he never slackened till hoe reached the Indian encampment, situated at the foot of a steep, rocky hill that loomed up through the storm and darkness, in dull relief against the leaien sky, Throwing himself has- tily from his horse, he stalked rapidly along and entered a wigwam at the further end of the en- campment. An aged Indian sat on a roll of skins atone side of the place, in an attitude of deep grief or despondency. ‘ He simply glanced up as the chief entered, then dropping his face again into his hands, sitting silent and appar- ently in great agony of mind. ~ . ‘* How is the Forest Rose to-night?” the chief asked, glancing toward a conch of skins and blankets on the opposite side of the lodge, on which he could see the form of a female reclining by the dim fire-light that illuminated the wig- wam. She lay silent and motionless as thoug! life had fled, “* The Forest,Rose is very ill,” replied the old Indian, mourhfully, “and she will die! Yon- da-do, the great medicine-man, has said so, He has made use of all his ceremonies and mystic arts, but he can not save her, The lovely For- est Rose must die!” As he ceased king he arose, and lighting a small pitch-pine torch in the fire, went over to the side of thecouch. Throwing aside the covering from her face, he allowed the hght to fall upon it fora moment. It was a beautiful face, darkly lovely—the face of an Indian mai- den in the first flush of womanhood. She was rather light for one of her dusky race, with heavy masses of raven-black hair falling in lovely confusion about her statuesque face, i whose contour the hard angularity of the ‘In- dian type was not discernible, and down upon her Rage Sars ae neck, and softly-rounded shouiders. Her long, heavy lashes lay upon her cheeks, which were very pale, hiding her dark lustrous eyes, which, when lighted up with health, added not a little to her almost bewilder- ing beauty, . But now the lovely Forest Rose lay like one dead, f “Let my father look up and be happy,” said the chief. ‘* Ku-nan-gu-no-nah has seen a medi- cine-woman to-day, that can surely bring back life to the Forest Rose, The medicine-woman that I saw was a mighty conjurer. The Great Spirit has given her a greater power than that of Yon-da-do!” ‘Who is this mighty magician?” “She is a pale-face maiden, as beautiful as the Forest Rose,” replied the chief. “Would she come?” asked the old Indian, while a hopeful light flashed out of his aged eyes, undimmed by the flight of time. ‘ Would a white medicine-woman come to give life back to an Indian girl?’ Y “She would not come willingly,” said the crafty chief, “ but she must be brought! If she is not, the Forest Rose will die.” 5 “Then she must be brought!” said the old In- ‘dian, decisively. ‘I will calla council of braves in the morning, aud a party shall be sent to
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The Dwarf Decoy. r, bring the white magician. The Forest Rose must be saved!” The aged Indian was tho real chief of the tribe —that is, although he was too old to go on the war-path, leaving the active fighting to the ounger and more warlike Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, © was the real moving spirit; always planning and ordering all important movements of the band, The languishing Forest Rose was his daughter, “It is well,” said Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, as he went away. ‘* The great medicine-woman will save the Forest Rose, and again she will sing like the birds in the trees to gladdert the heart of her father, the great chief.” Wild Buffalo, the aged sachem, called a coun- cil of braves carly in the morning, and at mid- day, the subtle Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, at the head of a dozen picked warriors, was riding over the prairie in quest of ‘*Sun-Hair,” the beautiful magician, CHAPTER XIIL THE FACE AT THE WINDOW. “So the mystery of the disappearing horse- man is explained very satisfactorily at last, Vinnie,” said Darke, after their surprise had subsided somewhat, “Yes,” she replied ‘‘all but the mystery of his disappearance,” “True,” said her father, ‘* We are still in the dark concerning that, How could it have been accomplished?” “T know not, eyes!” “Tt was doubtless owing to some peculiar turn of the path he was following, or something of that sort,” reasoned the woodman, ‘‘A very sudden turn spacng te dense growth of shrub- bery that is so thick about the place might have concealed the white horse and his rider from view almost ea: a “] think very likely it was owing to that ora similar cause,” returned Vinnie. “I suppose we shall have to accept that explination tll a better one presents itself. It is strange that I should have allowed myself to be alarmed at so trivial a matter. Ido not think Iam supersti- tious. But that limp, helpless-looking black thing did appear ghastly through the storm!” Tt will be rembered that Clancy had not heard of Vinnie’s adventures and perils of the day be- fore, and he did not understand the conversa- tion that the others had kept up for the past few minutes, Noting the questioning look on his face, the woodman said: “ There is still another story of peril and es- cape that you are yet to hear, I believe I will take a short bout in the forest in search of a turkey, and if I am successful we'll have a sup- per fit for the President. Vinnie can tell you the story when lam gone, Be sure you don’t leave out any of the important points, and don’t forget to mention your lover's visit yesterday. A truthful account of the shocking manner in which you treated him ought to be a caution to sparks. If I was a young fellow, now—” : “There now! stop!” said Vinnie, with a vivid blush, ‘I think you're really too bad! And besides, you are not fit to go out to-day, after your burt, and--” It vanished before my very “That will do,” interrupted Darke, banter- ingly, examining the lock of his rifle the while. “tam well enough for anything now, and L mean to take just this one more hunt while I’ve an opportunity. I dare not leave you here any more alone, you know, and I’m going while I’ve got Clancy here to keep guard over you. So good-by, and don’t think of my coming back for two hours at the very soonest!” So she went up to him for her customary kiss. “*There,” said he, as he bent and pressed his; lipsto hers. ‘‘ Good-by, littleone. And,Clancy, I want you to see thatno one repeats this opera- tion during my absence. She's all I’ve got, and I leave her in your care, Don’t forget the story, Vinnie!” And a moment later he passed out, ey: followed by the bloodhound. Vin- nie seized hold of one of the great brute’s long ears, and bending low over him, to hide her flushed face from Clancy’s view, said, playfully : “There, Death, don’t run away from him as you did from me yesterday!” Then, while the young hunter thought she was putting herself to a great deal of useless trouble, considering that the room was very warm already, she went and busied herself at the hearth, for what seemed to him a very long time, stirring the fire and putting on more wood. “What story does your father mean?’ he asked, whenshe had atlast finished. ‘I thought from what you said that you saw the dwarf when he was carrying me to the cave. It cannot be that you were out in that terrible storm?” ‘*But I was,” said Vinnie, with a smile, ‘‘ and I half think I was the victim of almost as seri- Papa told must. prise and wonder; and when she had finished, and sat demurely before him, with her little hands folded in her lap, and her lovely face sober and thoughtful, he said: “Heaven be praised for your deliverance! What if you had not escaped?” “Why, then, I suppose—” she began, sur- prised at his excited manner, But he cut short whatshe would have said, by saying, vehemently: “Tf you had not, I would not now account my life worth as much as a burnt charge of powder!” Vinnie glanced up at him quickly, but her long lashes drooped as she met his ardent look, He arose to his feet, and standing up before her, went on in rapid, eager tones: “‘T love you, Vinnie Darke, asI can never love another woman in the whole world! I ask for your love in return, Can you—will you give it to me, Vinnie darling?” She sat silent a moment—a moment that seem- ed intermivable to the anxious young hunter— with flushed face and downcasteyes, The next, she was clasped in his strong arms, and he pressed a, tender kiss on her’ brow, as he said, in a low voices
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The Dwarf Decoy. ‘*TDo you love me, Vinnie?” The lovely, golden-brown head bent down un- itil it was pillowed on his bosom, the red, full lips were pressed half-timidly to his, the deep, loving blue eyes looked trustfully up into his own, and Clancy knew that she was his till death! “My own darling Vinnie!” said he, proudly, “Ves,” sho whispered, ‘* yours always!” Tam afraid if the woodman could have seen the little episode that was taking place in the ‘cabin then, he would have thought Clancy just the least bit forgetful of the injunction he had put upon him when hs went away—of course he Ronid not willfully ignore it! There was aslight, almost imperceptible sound ‘outside the cabin, that escaped the young hun- ter’s usually quick ear, and a dark face was pressed for an instant against ono of the lower panes of the little window at the side of the deor. It was withdrawn almost as soon as it appeared, “And you will be my wife, Vinnie—mine to love and cherish always?’ Clancy went on, ee Yes,” ** And your father? What will he say?” ** T do not think he will oppose us very strong- ly,” she said, remembering his words to her that afternooon. “We will ask him and see, when he comes back.” Again that dark face peered into the room a ream and then vanished as it had done be- ore. But so engrossed were they with each other— their minds so filled with their new-found hap- piness—that they had no time to think of any thing else. Z ‘How hard I shall try tobe worthy of your priceless love,and to make your life happy!” said- the young hunter, as she released herself from his embrace. As she stood up, her eyes were turned toward the window. The face was flattened against the glass again! ** Merciful Heaven!” she cried, * there is Ku- mMan-gu-no-nah! Oh, Clancy, save mo!” CHAPTER XIV VINNIE A PRISONER. DARKE had been gone but a little while from the cabin, before he was startled by the report of fire-arms, and the shrill war-whoop of the band of Indians who, under the leadership of the wily Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, had been sent out to capture Vinnie and bring her to the relief of the suffering Forest Rose, who, although they knew it not, was dead, having drepped quietly ani peacefully away soon after they left the encamp- men! These sounds came from the direction of the eabin, and by a kind of intuitive perception, he aie in an instant what was taking place there, He had just discharged his rifle at a fine turkey that the bloodhound had come upon in a dense thicket; and reloading it as he ran, he dashed with his utmost speed through the tangled undergrowth and over fallen trees and heaps of half-decayed brushwood back toward the scene of the conflict, which still continued, as the sharp, oft-repeated reports of guns and the ey vers | screeches of the Indians attested. The terrible suspense and agony of mind that he suffered in the few minutes that passed be- fore he reached the edge of the clearing, it would be impossible to depict. He knew that the young, hunter was as brave as a lion, and would not give up while life lasted; but he = from the steady and rapid fire kept up oy the savages that the odds against him were fearful. ** My God!” he gasped, as be bounded forward, holding his long rifle ready for use at an in- stant’s warning, ‘‘ the bloody fiends will butcher them both! If I could only be there to help them!” Suddenly, as he ceased speaking, the firing, which for two or three minutes past had been almost incessant, stopped. There was a moment of awful silence to the listening woodman, then there came a loud crash. Darke knew what this was, ** Heaven!” he cried, “the devils have forced the door! Nothing can save them now! Their doom is sealed! Oh, Vinnie! Vinnie!” His agony was terrible. He had reached the boundary of the clearing, It was rapidly growing dark now, and he had little fear of discovery. He paused a moment to reconnoiter. Only two Indians were visible outside the cabin. He raised hisrifle to his face; his aim was quick and sure; and an instant later one of the savages threw up his arms, and with an ear-splitting screech of agony, fell on his face, dead. Almost simultaneously with the report of the woodman’s trusty weapon, another rung out in- side the cabin, ‘tt is Vinnie’s revolver!” muttered Darke, as he stepped quickly out of sight behind a clum of bushes, and p led to reload, “ Than! Ged she yet lives!” Peering out, he discovered that the remaining Indian had set fire tothe cabin and was skulkin around the other side, probably to get out o' range of his uuerring rifle, It was nearly dark now, but the settler fired again, and a bullet went crashing through the savage’s breast, justas he had almost gained the coveted shelter, Vinnie’s revolver cracked again instde tho cabin as Darke rammed home another load; and he uttered another fervent ‘*‘ Thank God!” as he thought that she had been saved thus far. At his request, she had placed it upon her nm that morning, and he had reason to think that it was being fired by her own hands. He could not distinguish the sound of Clancy’s weapon . from the Indians’; but he knew him well enough to be certain that he would not yield except with his life. The fire was creeping u> the side of the cabin, gaining ground rapidly in the dry timber of which it was constructed. In a few moments the whole building would be in a light blaze. An attempt to extinguish the flames, would, Darke saw, be fruitless, There was no one to oppose his advance across the clearing since he had slain the two savages left on the outside to fire the eabin and guard | against a surprise by any gue from without, aud
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The Dwarf Decoy. : Closely followed by Death, he dashed over the intervening space to the open door of the cabin. Looking within he saw, by the light of the fire blazing on the hearth, that Clancy Vere was engaged in a desperate, hand-to-hand strug- gle with three Indians. His back was against the wall, and with an almost superhuman effort he forced them back and kept them at bay with his clubbed rifle. Their guns were not loaded; but the young hunter detected one of the trio in the act of charging his rifle, while the two others vainly tried to get at him with their knives, aud, quickly whipping out his six- shooter, one chamber of which held a leaden bullet that soon proved a quietus to this most Gangerous of his assailants, he discharged it and had only two enemies to contend with. The next moment the young hunter’s clubbed weapon fell with deadly force upon the head of one of the Indians, crushing it like an egg-shell, while at the same instant the other fell, pierced through the brain by aball from Darke’s uner- ring rifle. ancy had fought like a tiger, and though he had not been dangerously wounded, he had not escaped unscathed. A bullet fired through the window, before the Indians had forced an en- trance through the battered-down door of the cabin, had grazed his temple, making an ugly though not dangerous furrow, and carrying away a portion of his ear, The blood was trick- ling down his face, and dropping-upon the floor at his feet. Darke sprung into the room at a single bound. ‘* Vinnie!” he cried. ‘* Where is Vinnie?” **Gone!” gasped Clancy. ‘Gone! My God! what do you mean!” “*The Indians made her a prisoner!” “Vinnie! My Vinnie a prisoner in the hands of those devils! And you let them take her?” “Stop!” exclaimed the young man, while an “2 gueie of keen pain swept across his face, ‘TY could not help it! I would os have laid down my life to save hers! For a time we fought them side by side. There are five dead Indians here on the floor, She killed two of them, Only two of the chambers of her revol- ver were loaded; and after they were emptied I fought them alone, shielding her form with mine. Then I was set upon from all sides at once, and she was snatched away from me, I did all I could. She was my Vinnie, too, Mr. Darke, and I will wrest her from the power of that red demon or die in the attempt! You do me injustice!” “Pardon me, boy,” said the woodman, ex- tending his hand which was readily taken b Clancy. ‘‘I wasmad! I did not mean what said—please forget it if youcan. If we can not gether back, I believe I shall go crazy!” “Oh, we can get her_back—we must !” cried the young hunter. ‘ We must get help and fol- ae them and take her out of their hands or ie! ‘How many are there in the party!” asked Darke. - ; rom “Tam not certain. At the beginning I think fif do not there were about a or fifteen— know exactly. Five are dead.” _ There are seven dead!” replied Darke. “I “shot two outside!” . 25 ‘“‘Then there must be a half-dozen, more or less, that have escaped, taking Minnie with them.” “They have been gone twenty minutes,” said the woodman; “and we must act at once!” **We can not follow them to-night,” said ig “Not to-night! Why?’ and Darke evinced gry See ‘Because they are mounted. They left their horses at the edge of the forest, It is scarcely three miles away. Before we could overtake them they would bo miles out on the prairie, riding at their horses’ best speed. We can do nothing alone, and horses are indispen- sable—we must hayé them.” “Where can we get them?’ Darko asked, ad- mitting to himself the truth of Clancy’s reason- iz. “At the settlement. We can have every- thing ready to-night, and start before day- break.” **Whodo you think we had better get to go with us?” asked Darke, ‘‘ We must have good “T think we can do no better than to have Pete Wemple for one,” said Clancy, ‘A truer and braver mar can not be found in the North- west. “True,” said the woodman, ‘And the big hunter for another.” “Tf we could only get him!” exclaimed Clancy. ‘Pm sure he will go. He hates the Indians with an undying hatred, and is glad of any op- portunity to wreak his terrible vengeance on them for the cold-blooded butcbery of his aged ents, § “Yes.” said the young hunter, “he told me his story. What a fiend incarnate the chief is!” ** You mean Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, Was he with the party?” “ Fe led them,” said Clancy, ‘‘ I think he in- stigated the attack to get possession of Vinnie.” The youth shuddered as he thought what might be her fatein such hands. How he longed for the morning. Darke remembered the promise he had made to Leander Maybob the day before, and won- dered if he could restrain himself from shooting the red demon at sight, “Do you think we will need any one else?” he asked, “T think not. There will be four of us; and te Wimp'e and the giant hunter will be a host in themselves,” “We must make all our preparations to- night,” said Darke, ‘‘so as to be far on our way at Fe Sensi “Yes. Wemust— What’s that? It sounds like fire.” 3 A strange sound had arrested his attention. ‘*Tt is fire!” replied Darke. ‘‘ I saw one of the devils fire the cabin. It must be all ina light blaze before this time.” ‘*Then it was fired before you came in?” “Yes, It was set at the rear, and thatistho reason you have not seen or heard it till now. The flames were climbing the roof as I crossed — the clearing. But we must not stay here. One © ‘ of us must go to the settlement and the other to i NS * —_ m
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26 the cavern to-night. Do you think you can walk well enough to undertake to get to the settlement? Your ankles must be—” ‘* Yes,” and the look on his face confirmed what he said, ‘‘ I could do anything—brave any- thing for her! There is nothing that I would not attempt to save her from pain—nothing that I would not dare to make her happy! Vinnie is more to me than my life, Mr. Henkel To- day, before those red devils came to tear her away from me, she promised to become my wife.” “YT believe you, boy!” exclaimed Darke, ‘I could not intrust her to the protecting love of a better man. ‘‘ If we can only save her she shall be yours.” “Thank you!” said the young man earnestly. ** We must save her from that demon’s power! The thought that she is in his hands is madden- ing! But we must act. I will go to the settle- ment and obtain horses and enlist Pete Wimple in our cause, while you proceed to the cave to secure the services of the big hunter. I’m sure he will not refuse us his aid.” : “Right,” assented Darke. ‘‘ Where shall be our place of rendezvous?” ‘* Near the big pine tree at the edge of the forest. We must be mounted and on our way before daylight.” The fire had caught in the great oak trees that had been left close up by the walls of the woodman’s home as a partial protection against wind and storm, aad the flames, shootin heavenward, cast a lurid glow over the dark forest for quite a distance in every direction. The two men hastened away, the burning cabin lighting their way tbrough the wood, Death, the bloodhound, keeping close to Darke, and manifesting his sense of the calamity that had overtaken them by giving utterance ever and anon to low, sorrowful whines. CHAPTER XV. WHAT THE SCOUTS FOUND. WHEN the sun rose the next morning—for the day broke clear and cloudless with a keen, frosty atmosphere—its rays fell on a heap of smolder- ing ruins, encircled by a dozeu charred trees burnt and blackened to their bgt tops. This Ab all that remained of Emmett Darke’s cabin ome. The four men, Darke, Clancy Vere, Leander Maybob, the giant hunter, and Pete Wimple, a tried and trusty scout and Indian-fighter, were atthe appointed place of rendezvous at a very early hour, and, well mounted on four fleet, strong horses that Clancy and the scout had ob- tained at the settlement, they were at daybreak er ragir the smooth, level prairie in pur- suit of Ku-nan-gu-no-nah and his party. For hours they kept on ata rapid, even gal- lop, which they neither quickened nor slack- ened. Clancy and the scout, riding side by side and keeping a sharp lookout ahead for any signs of the enemy, while Darke and the giant hunter were ever on the alert to guard against the approach of any hostile party from,the rear. None of the four had spoken more than a few words since they left the big pine, hours before, Er The Dwarf Decoy. even Leander Maybob, usually so loquacious, maintaining a thoughtful and unbroken silence, The day continued as it had dawned, clear and sunshiny, the pure, bracing air inspiring the little band to more than common vigilance and alertness, while it added fresh vigor to their steeds, and they kept on at the same quick, regular-rate of speed until mid-day without meeting with adventure of any kind. Then Pete Wimple drew his horse up sudden- ly, and in obedience to his low-spoken command, the three others reined in their horses. ‘* What is it, Pete?” asked Clancy. “Tt don’t know for sart’in,” and the scout, cee his eyes with his hand, looked long and earnestly across the wide, grassy plain before them. Following the direction of his gaze, the others saw dimly in the distance a thin blue cloud of smoke rising from the surface of the prairie. “* Tt’s a fire!” said Darke. “That it are!” confirmed the bi **Can it be a camp-fire?” asked Clancy, “Very likely,” said the scout. ‘I think as how it’s some’eres ’long the line of the emigrant trail. We'll. strike it. purty quick—it’s jist ahead thar—and we've got to foller it for sev- eril hours. We've got to pass that fire, and afore we get too cluss, I want to know what it means!” “Tt mought be whites, an’ ag'in it mought be reds!” said Leander Maybob, riding to the front and examining the thin, vapory cloud for a mo- ment or two. ‘It mought be emigrants takin’ thar grub and it mougtn't, ye see. Prob’ly ’tis and prob’ly ’tain’t, as my Uncle Peter said when Elder Tugwoller axed him if his youngest-born son war a boy or a gal?” The others could not restrain a laugh at this; and when their merriment had subsided Darke asked: ‘* What do you think is best to be done, Wim- ple? You and Leander are learned in every de- rtment of prairie life and warfare, while lancy and I are the merest novices. We shall trust ourselves and our enterprise in your hands.” ‘“*T think, as it’s about grub time, you and me had better ride ahead and diskiver, if we can, whether there’s white men or Injuns or suthin’ else around that are smudge, or whether it’s jest a muskeeter smoke, while Low-lander, as you calls him, and the boy busies ’emselves about gittin’ suthin’ for our appetites ag’in’ our _ return.” ; **T agree with ye thar!” said the giant, ‘‘as Elder Tugwoller remarked to my daddy when he expressed his opinion as how donations was a geet institution; but my name ain’t Low- nder.” ‘““What’s in a name?” laughed Darke, as he and the scout rode away. “Thar’s a good deal in names, I notice,” said the big hunter, half-musingly, as he swung his long left leg over his horse’s head and slippea to the ground. “TI reckon thar’s a sight o’ valler in names. If ’twasn’t for folks bein’ named so’s to tell’em apart, they’d gitall mixed and twisted up so a feller couldn’t tell w’ich from t’uther or tuther from wich! Now I don’t go very strong for seein’ thiugs git all mixed and twisted upso’s hunter.
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The Dwarf Decoy. e can’t discrimernate w’ich from wi’ch. If it n't been fer jest sich a durn’d mixin’ and twistin’ of two different things together in my head, I'd likely now be a married man, livin’ as happy as a hornet in yer breecherloons, down to old Maybob Center in Massachusetts, the Bay State and capital of Bosting, the hub of the uni- varsal terry firmy. It’s an awful world we’re livin’ in,” he went on, as he tied his horse, as Clancy had already done, by means of lariats they had brought with them, ‘It’s an awful world! I never know’d a man to go clar through it’ithout gittin’ the wind knocked outen him somehow! It’s this mixin’ an’ twistin’ as does it all! It’s that as caused all my misery and pains and heart-longin’s, and sighin’s and so forth and soon. I know folks in gin’ral wouldn’t go for to take me for a lovyer—you, now, young- ster, look more like a lovyer than I do; sorter like a despondin’ lovyer, more’n SAS But don’t ye git down-hearted now. We're a-goin’ to git yer sweetneart back to-day! Tl tell you how I found out about it,” he explained, noting Clancy’s look of surprise, ‘‘I heerd ye talkin’ about her afore ye come to, fairly, yisterday. I didn’t mean ter hear yer, and didn’t go fer to pry into any of yer secrets; but I couldn’t help earin’ ye say ev’ry few minits, ‘ Vinnie!’ Vin- nie!’ I heerd Darke say his gal’s name was that to-day, and so I put this and that together and know’d you was her lovyer. Tl tell you *bout my gal an’ my love affair, and then we'll be even, All our trouble came of this mixin’ an’ twistin’, as I told you afore, Elder Tugwoller’s niece, Sally Niver, as 1 urty a gal as ever wore ealiker—she used to live along o’ the Elder and his wife—and we got acquainted with each other to singin’ school, and afore we know’d it we was both on us purty nigh as deep into love as Lord Lovel and the Lady Nancy. The elder didn’t *prove of the match, and Sally an’ me uster spark on the sly. The elder found it out and licked Sally and forbid her ever to speak to me again. I kissed Sally good-by and I hain’t never seen her since. The elder sent her away to school and I come West—and that’s the end on’t all. I s’pose she’s married long ago!” he finished, sadly. ‘She was jest the sort of gal as ketcbes men!” By the time they had prepared the noonda meal Clancy saw Darke and Wimple coming back and in Jess than ten minutes they threw them- selves from their horses a few rods away, and after tethering them, came up with rapid strides, ‘© What did you find?” asked Clancy, eagerly; * any signs of Vinnie or her captors?” “We found some of the devil’s own handi- work!” answered the scout, a dark, fierce look on his usually pleasant face that the young hun- ter never saw there before. “ The smoke we saw arises from two burning emigrant-wagons that the Indians have plun- dered and then set fire to,” said Darke. “One man, evidently the guide, lay dead and scalped, his body, with those of three savages who had been shot in the affray, half-burnei up m the fire! The remainder of the party, which I should jadee was not very large, have either escaped or m made prisoners.” “ Tt is Ku-nan-gu-no-nah’s work!” said Clancy. hea 27 “ve made up my mind to settle with him yu soon!” said Leander Maybob, sternly, rty * His time’s ’most up!” CHAPTER XVI. THE PHANTOM RIDER. FIvE minutes later the little party was on the move again, About the middle of the afternoon they halt- ed for a moment’s consultation. Darke was not surprised when the scout informed him that the Indian encampment was not more than a half- dozen miles distant. He had long been anxious to reach the village. The suspense was growing to be almost unendurable to him, At first, Leander Maybob_ took little part in the conversation, and bent his gaze anxiously every few minutes upon the horizon in the direc- tion whence they had come, ‘Would you advise a bold charge through the Indian setae rae asked Clancy. ‘‘ Do you think we would be likely to accomplish our object in that way?” he scout thought not. The savages might be on the lookout for some such movement as that, as they would probably expect that an attempt would be made to rescue Vinnie, in which case they would run great risk of falling into some trap set for them by the Indians, if they ap- proached the encampment boldly and in the full glare of the sunlight. Their party was too small to hazard being taken at so great a disad- vantage. They dared not show themselves open- ly in the camp of their enemies, The odds would be too great against them. “No!” said Wimple, emphatically. ‘‘We mustn't try such a planas that, It would be worse than useless. hat we do must he done by stratagem, There’s a steep bluff, only ’tain’t a bluff, neither—thar ain’t no river under it— jist back of the Injin camp. This hill’s all grown over with low scrub-oak and other stuff so thickeye can’t see a rod any way. If we could only git up there and hide till arter dark, and then two or three of us jist step quietly down and release the prisouers, leaving some one to have the horses ready to mount at an in- stant’s warnin’,I think we could git the gal clar without much blood-lettin’, and maybe the other prisoners, whoever they are. It’s the best plan I can think of now,” , Darke agreed with the scout that nothing eould be done by daylight, but he was getting very impatient. ‘“T think,” said the big hunter, ‘‘ as how ye’re partly right in yer calkerlations and mayhap partly wrong. I don’t believe as how us four rushing into the imps’ nest would do much good, We'd be very likely to git our little lump o’ lead, every one on us, and that’d be the end on’t all; but instid e’ climbin’ the hill, if ye’ll jist take the advice of one who has fit Injins some, and stop in the border of the wood, down level with the edge of the prairie, and wait and see what hap- pens, I b’lieve we can do sutbin’ as’ll amount to suthin’. I’ve knowed some of the best kind of jobs to be did in gittin’ away prisoners from the reds, jist by watchin’ and takin’ advantage of accidents and the like. If you'll all do jist as I say and not git flustered or go to gittin’ away up there on top of the hill, PM promise that every
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88 prisoner in the Indian camp shall be safe before sundown—yes, in less than two hours. You don’t know what amazin’ helps accidents is sometimes, in sich cases as this one.” ** Can-you do it?” asked Darke, eagerly. “ Yes,” ‘What do you mean by accidents?” inquired Pete Wimple. ‘‘ What d’ye expect’s goin’ to happen to-day?” “Tnar’s no tellin’ exactly,” replied the big hunter. ‘A feller can’t most always tell what is goin’ to take place. But I’m safe in guaran- teein’ thirty or forty of them reds one of the tallest accidents in a little while—bout as soon as we can git to their camp—thbey ever had any ijee of !” “Lo you expect to kill as many as that?” asked Clancy, in some wonderment. **T calkerlate as how, if yer a mind ter foller my lead, we can e’ena’most clean out the nest and git yer gal and the rest of the prisoners away safe, besides! What do yesay? Shall I go ahead?’ “Yes,” cried all three with one voice. shall lead us!” ‘*T believe you can do what what you say!” added Darke, ‘But remember that a mistake on our part might prove fatal to Vinnie and the others! “There sha’n’t be no balks or mistakes!” said the giant, in a tone of assurance, taking his lace at the head of the party. ‘‘ We've got to eave this emigrant ro here and take to the left a little. An hour’s sharp ridin’ *ll bring us to the Injun camp. Let’s be movin’ on.” And tightening their reins, the quartette dashed away. There was a plain trail, left by Ku-nan-gu-no- nah’s band, leading directly to the encampment of the savages. The litle party followed this for a while at a swift gallop, and then in obedi- euce toa low, tersely-spoken command from their leader, left it suddenly, and bearing s_ill further to the left, dashed for a few minutes through the edge of a broad belt of timber, lying along the base of a range of low hills, halting at last ina chaparral not more than a hundred yards distant from the Indian village. ‘* Here we are,” said Leander Maybob, throw- ing himsolf off his horse, ‘‘ Jist git off yer nags and stretch yerselves a little, while I take a look outside. Make the most outeu your restin’-spell, for I can tell yer that ye won't have long to lay idle. I’m expectin’ an accident soon!” And wit these strange words which the three men were assured held more meaning than they expressed, the giant strode away and disappeared from view among the shrubbery. In less than five minutes he-came back, and his face showed that the result of his reconnoissance was satis- factory. ~ ‘* There'll be an accident soon,” said he, “ How soon?” inquired the scout. “Inside of a quarter of an hour.” _ “Will it assist usin any manner?” inquired Darke. ‘Yes; it'll be the makin’ of our job.” ‘* How?” asked Clancy, : “Tt’s onsart’in,” replied the big hunter. ‘* Ac- cidents is onsart’in things; but this one ‘ll be “You - sart’in to help us if we’re ready to help ourselves, - The Dwarf Decoy. I’ve noticed as how the same accident don’t happen twice, any more’n a boy takes his fu’st chaw of terbacker twice, °’Tain’t anyways like- ly this ’ere accident we've been waitin’ for ‘ll happen more’n onc’t. So we must be ready to take advantage of it jest at the right minit! Now, then, how many shots have we got alto- gether?” “Tye got a six-shooter and @ rifle, both loaded,” said the scout. ‘* Seven,” said Leander, counting. “ And Dve got six,” said Clancy. Thirteen,” counted the big hunter. “And DPve got two revolvers and a rifle,” said the scout. : ‘“Twenty-six,” sail the giant, ‘‘and I’ve got seven more—thirty-three in all. If there ain’t any of ’em wasted, we can shoot jist thirty-three Injuns without stopping to load! Now git on yer horses and stick yer pistols in yer belts and hold yer rifles ready for instant use. I want to take one more lookout, and Pll be with ye in a minit.” The big hunter’s prompt manner and cool, bafiling way of telking had inspired the three men with the utmosé confidence in himself and his power to bring their enterprise to a success- ful termination, and they obeyed his orders im- plicitly. In a moment they were mounted, their unerring rifles ready for use at a moment’s warning. “ Are we going to dash into the encampment?” asked Clancy, examining the lock of his revolver. “Tt looks like it,” answered the scout, sen- tentiously. ; “ What can the accident be?’ questioned Darke, ‘That's a riddle!” said Wimple. ‘* And a hard one to guess!” added the young hunter, 2 Just then the giant camo running through the chaparral, and hastily seizing his rifle, which he had left standing against a tree, threw himself upon the back of his horse and rode to the head of the little band of wondering, anxious men, “ Wait a minit!” he balf whispered. There was a moment of dead silence, the four men almost holding their breath in their sus- pense, Then a shriek rung out on-the air—a shriek that_was half a wail, half a curse—so weird and so unearthly that for a moment the blood seemed. to stand still in the veins of tho three startled men. . “My God! What is that? cried Darke, “Tt’s the accident we've bin waitin’ for,” said the big hunter, calmly. .‘‘ It’s purty near time for us to take advantage of it. Git ready.” At that moment there came from the diree- tion of the Indian encampment an almost deaf- ening report, followed instantly by cries of ‘ony and fear. “Now's our time!” cried the big hunter. “ Shoot down every red-skin you see! But don’t harm a hair of Ku-nan-gu-no-nab’s head if you can help it! Take him alive! !” ; As they cleared the chaparral, they saw a sight for which evep the terrible cry of a mo- | ment before had not prepared them. x Tt was a gigantic human skeleton, standing upright on the back of a milk-white horse that Pe hia
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The Dwarf Decoy. moved with more than the s eed of the wind. In the bony, grisly arms of the Phantom Rider was Vinnie Darke ! CHAPTER XVII. A REUNION OF HEARTS, “Tr is Vinnie!” cricd Darke, wildly. God, save my child!” . “ Heavens!” cxclaimed the young hunter, in the same breath. ‘“ What is that? Ob! my darling! She is lost! lost!” and he reeled in Lis saddle. 3 “Easy!” said the giant. ‘She is safe, and he shall both speak wjth her in a few minutes, t is Meno, the Spirit Warrior! He never harms the whites—he is their friend; and he'll carry the gal tosafety. Git yer rifles ready. When ye see Injuns, fire sure, and den’t miss a shot, After yer rifics are emptied, git out yer pistols and shoot down ther devils as long as yer have a load left! They won’t show fight much after the accident that’s jist happened to ’er!” A moment later they hac left the timber be- hind, and were dashing across the little strip of prairie that lay between it and the encamp- ment, but a few rods distant. The four ‘unerring rifles rung out almost simultaneously, and four savages lay dead or dying on the ground. “ Now yer pistols!” shouted the giant, plung- ing his spurs into his horse’s flanks, and draw- ing and cocking bis heavy Colt’s revolver. On they sped, their firearms keeping up an incessant rattle, dealing death on all sides, They charged through the encampment, then, whirling, came back, separating and shooting down every brave in their path, as long as they had a load left. The giant caught sight of Ku-nan-gu-no-nah trying to hide himself behind one of the Jodges and leaping from his horse, dragged the cowe and tre:nbling fiend out into the middle of tke “Oh encampment, shrieking and howling with fear, » “Tis time we bad a sort of a settlement,” said the giant, grimly. ‘‘I guess we'll look over our accounts now.” The Indians, nen, women and children, such as had not fallen before the terrible Phantom Rider aud the subsequent charge of the four hunters, bad sought refuge in the forest and thick brushwood growing on the summit of the steep, rocky acclivity at tho back of the en- campment, To the credit of our friends, be if said, that they shot down only the braves, For the most pe the squaws and children escaped un- armed, but with the exception of Ku-nan-gu- no-nab and a half-dozen others, every warrior was slain, “Where’s the whites?” the giant asked tre chief, with his long, bony fingers choking out the answer: **- Yonder, in the council-house.” Following the direction of the chief's eye, they saw a log-building, the only one in the encamp- ment, about twenty yards distant. It had the appearance of being very strongly put up, and had evidently been built with a view to use as a council-house. ~~ Darke and the scout hastened to liberate the captives, while Clancy, attracted thither by the 29 loud snarls and yelps proceeding from the in- terior, went and looked over the top of a small stockade, or rather pen, about ten feet square, standing a little at one side. = ‘““My heavens!” ke cried. “It’s full ‘of wolves!” “Wolves!” repeated the big hunter, as he fin- ished binding his cowed and terrified captive to a stake near by. ‘‘ How many on’em?”’ “Eight,” returned Clancy, counting. ‘Shall I shoot them?” *‘ No,” Said the giant avenger, a sudden thought entering hismind. ‘‘ We may have use for ’em bimeby !” “Use for them! hunter. For answer, the giant pointed to Ku-nan-gu- no-nah! : “Come,” he said, * let’s go and take a lock at the prisoners. They’re free now. 'Tbhar’s two men and a woman; and one of the men’s got on a plug hat and a white shirt and a swallow-tail coat and a standin’ collar aud a dirty choker,” he went on, as they drew near the liberated emi- grants. ‘“‘He looks for all the world lixe a preacher!” Just then the face of the man described by the giant—a smvovh-shaven, sanctimonious face, that had not been wrinkled with a smile for ten years—was turned toward them, end the big hunter stopped and stood still in his tacks a moment, overcome with astonisbment, staring hard at the emigrants, who, with Darke dud Wimple, were advancing toward them. Clancy regarded him with amazement. “Gracious!” he said, at last, “it’s Elder Tuc- woller! And oh, Lordy! thar’s Sally! My Sally, I mean! Oh, Lord! it’s Sally! Sally! SaLiy!” he cried, 2nd a moment later he had picked her off her-feet, and was holding ber in is great, strong arnis, as if she hud been a baby. ry She had recognized him when he called out to her, and flew to meet bim. - ‘ The elder and the other man, as well as the rest of the party were regarding them with astonishment. Catching sight of thé stranger, Leander set Sally down as suddenly as he had taken her up, saying anxiously, as he thought he might have been hugging another man’s wife: ‘Are ye married, Sally? Is that yer man?” “No, Lei How?” asked the young ander,” sho replied, throwing herself again into bis arms; and after vainly trying to reach her hands around his neck—for she was very short, her head reaching but a little above his elbows—she buried her blushing face, not in the orthodox style in his bosom, but in bis fur vestment somewhere below. ‘' No, Leander; I hain’t married. I wouldn't never marry noman but you! I’ve had fifteen offers since I see you - last, and I refused ’em all} I thought we'd mect -ag’in sometime, the good Lord willin’!” ** And he was willin’, Sally! Ye'r’ mine now, ain't ye?” “Yes,” she replied, ‘‘yourn allers—till the Bunker Hill Monument crumbles to dust!” ‘* And we won’t never git things mixed and twisted ag*in?” “No,” said she; “‘nothin’ sha’n’t never part us ag*in.” : ats And the long sundered hearts were reunited. ” ax
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30 “Sarah,” said the elder, through his nose, “are you going to marry with that ungodly man of strife?” “ Yes, Uncle Tugwoller,” she answered; ** ’'m a-goin’ to marry that ungodly man of strife, av’ be jist as good a wife to him as I know how!” Darke was beginning to evince great anxiety to see his daughter once more, and the ludicrous reunion of the big hunter and his old-time sweet- heart, that he had just witnessed, somehow made Clancy long to meet Vinnie. _ ‘*Come,” said the woodman, “let us go at once.” “Waita few minits,” answered the now happy Leander. ‘‘ We've got a little bizness to attend to yet. D’ve got Ku-nan-gu-no-nah tied to a stake down thar, and it’s about time he retired from bizness. He’s committed crimes—blacker ones than ye can imagine—and he must have his punishment. We'll give him a trial before we finish him off. Come on.” And he led the way back to the open space in the center of the encampment, where to the same stake to which Ku-nan-gu-no-nah had so often bound his captives, he was himself tied so se- curely that, struggle as he might, he could not get free, and knowing that bis doom was at hand, he had made superhuman: efforts to break his bonds, but without avail. He was completely cowad; at the last, all bis courageand hardihood seomed to have left him, and he stood, quaking — terror, his dusky face blanched to an ashen ue! ' ‘‘Now,” said the big hunter, laying his hand on the Indian’s shonlder, ‘ef any one here has got any charges to prefer ag’in’ the prisoner at the Stake, the court is ready to attend to the case, “‘The prisoner pulled off my dicky to-day,” said the elder, dolorously, ‘‘and otherwise dis- arranged my apparel. I think he deserves con- dign punishment!” But other charges of graver import were to come. ; ‘* He shot our guide,” said Sally Niver; ‘‘and put his arm round my waist, when he lifted me outof the wagon, and no decent man would do that—unless he had a right to,” she added, witha glance at Leander. ‘TI think he ought to be hung for murderin’ the guide, anyway!” “ He killed my brother John!” said Wimple. ‘He butchered my old father and mother!” said the giant, ‘Sand he’s got to die an awful death for it! If any one here thinks he ought to live after committin’ all these crimes, let him speak!” There was no voice to sperk against the exe- cution of the giant’s sentence, and he said: “Shall he live or die? I'll give him one more chance.” ** Let him die!” was the answer; and almost before the startled spectators realized what had taken place, Leander Maybob had cut the thongs that bound the doomed chief to the stake, and rearing him above his head, hurled him over the low stockade, among the snariing, half-famished wolves! Retribution had come at last! He had ex- pistes his many crimes! The vengeance of _ Leander and Moughiten Maybob was accom- plished! The Dwarf Decoy. A few moments later, the whole party rodo out of the almost depopulated Indian village, the liberated captives mounted on some Indian had found tethered near by. arke, we'll go to yer gal!” said ponies that the “Now, Mr. Leander. CHAPTER XVIII CONCLUSION. In a little chaparral not far away they found innie, and near her, sitting on the ground, was Alonphilus, the dwarf, t a little distance was tethered the white horse—there could be no mistaking it—the same milk-white steed that had carried the ghastly form of Meno, the Spirit Warrior, as he rushed by them a little while before, bearing the girl in his grisly em- brace. Pete Wimple approached the animal, as it stood quietly picking at the beaten-down prairie-grass, and half-timidly touched it once or twiee on the back. “What ye doin’? asked Leander. to see if it’s well groomed?” “No; Iwas tryin’ to make up my mind if a ra’al, ginuine hoss-flesh, or jist a shad- er. ‘““Tt’s a real hoss!” said the giant, stooping, while all oe eyes followed every .motion curiously, and stretching up the ghastly length of the bony frame of a large, powerfully-built man from out of the thick grass at his feet, “And here’s the Spirit Warrior as has killed and scart to death more [njins in the last six years than ten men could finish off in the old- fashioned way in ten years! My little brother, thar on the ground, a-tyin’ a big knot in the end of that string, ain’t very wide acrost, as ye can see, and the space atween the ribs of this ‘ere thing is big anuff for him to crawl in all over. So, when he gits inside of it, and stands upon that white hoss and flings bomb-shell, and fires off rockets among a pack of reds, I guess they tnink he’s one of the tallest kind of spirit warriors, and about the worst accident as ever befell’em! I'm a sort of a vantriloquizer, and I uster hide in the woods, and holler like Meno, the spirit, is said to,” : Darke, leaving Vinnie and Clancy to the en- joyment of each other’s society for a few mo- ments, had come forward while the giant was speaking, and as he finished, he said: * And that explaims the mystery of the oaken chest, also, does it not?” “That's all there is of the hull mystery and the hull secret,” said the giant in reply, ‘I don’t mind tellin’ about it now, ’cause ’m a-goin’ to marry and retire from bizness. My uncle Peter—and he was a unavarsal—” “But your brother is dumb. How did he produce that awful screech?” Alonphilus raised a small, curiously-contrived whistle to his lips, and a moment later, the same. “Tryin? wild, terrifying cry that they had heard before, Be rung out on the air. F Ten minutes more, and they were again mounted and ready to set out for the settle- ment. . _ “Sarah,” said the elder, in his nasal voice, —
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ask you again if you contemplate becoming ae pees of that worldly man of con- et “Yes, Uncle Tugwoller,” she replied, sweetly, reining her horse up by the side of Leander’s. You'll marry us to-morrow, won’t you?” “Tf I must,” he said, dolorously, tugging away at the corner of his disarranged dicky, . if I must, and my remuneration is forthcom- ing. **You’ve triumphed, Sally,” said the giant lover, with a tender intonation on the name. “My Uncle Peter uster to say as how a female would if she wanted to, and if she didn’t, she wouldn’t. I hope the elder ain’t a-gittin’ things mixed and twisted.” It was after nightfall before the party arrived at the settlement. At times along the way, the elder experienced much difficulty in maintain- ing his place on the back of bis horse. Once he lost off his dicky, but he bore the trip with sur- prisivg equanimity. The elder was alone in the world now, save a Sally, his wife having died two years be- ore, With his niece, in company with Henry Black —the man whom, in our last chapter, Leander suspected might be the husband of his sweet- heart—the Reverend Tugwoller was on his way to join a colony of Eastern people then forming in the far Northwest, whither he had been called to act in his ministerial capacity. Of course now that Sally had so happily—or un- fortunately, he would have said—met with her first. and only love, and they had been so felici- tously reunited, this plan was abandoned; and the next morning he pronounced them man and wife, at Pete Wimple’s, where the company spent the night in the presence of our assembled friends, He settled quietly down with his niece and her husband, who abandoned the wilderness soon after and took up the life of a farmer in the interior of Michigan. He vuried in vain to bring Leander to a realizing sense of his innate wick- edness, and began to think at last that Sally might bave done worse, after all, when it came to his knowledge that the beatified fellow was the fortunate possessor of two or three hundred acres of fine land, clear of all claims, besides ibout five thousand ‘ellars hard cash that his ‘ather had received for his place in the Kast. The dwarf dwelt with them and was tenderly cared for by his giant brother and his kind- hearted sister-in-law, to the end of his life. He always kept the death record with the big knot atone end in commemoration of the terrible charge of the four men through the Indian en- eympment and the awful death of Ku-nan-gu- no-nah, the slayer of bis parents. Clabey and Vinnie were married in due time, and, with Mmmett Darke, they went further south, and purchasing a farm, lived very hap- pily indeed. Pete Wimple, the scoutsis a gray-haired old man now; but his eye is as clear and his form - 8s erect as in the days of yore; and his story of the chase and the war-path are tho delight of all the boys in the settlement, Death, the bloodhound, died of old age twenty years ago, =~ THE END, he Dwarf Decoy. BEADLE AND ADAMS’ STANDARD DIME PUBLICATIONS Speakers, Each volume contains 100 large pages, printed from clear, open type, comprising the best collec- tion of Dialogues, Dramas and Revitations. The Dime Speakers embrace twenty-five volumes viz.: 1, American Speaker. 15, Komikal Speaker. 2. National Speaker. . Youth’s Speaker. 3. Patriotic Speaker, . Eloquent Speaker, . Comic Speaker. . Hail Columbia Speak- 5. Elocutionist. . Humorous Speaker, er. . Serio-Comic Speaker, . Standard Speaker. | . Select Speaker. 21, Funny Speaker. 9, Juvenile Speaker. . Jolly Speaker. . Spread-Eagle Speaker | 23. Dialect Speaker. . Dime Debater. 24, Recitations and Read- 2, Exhibition Speaker. ings. 3. 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