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