THE AVENGER OF WOUNDED KNEE.
The renegade, as Vance Bernard is now known to be, rode slowly along
over the rough country, holding on to the rein of the horse ridden by
Jennie Woodbridge.
As they wound around a rugged spur, the sharp report of a rifle was
heard.
"My God! I have received my death wound!" cried the renegade, and he
reeled in his saddle, drew rein, and slowly slipped from his saddle to
the ground.
Instantly Jennie checked her horse and sat motionless in her saddle,
gazing about her in a dazed sort of way, when suddenly there bounded
into the trail before her the tall form of a Sioux chief. Seizing the
bridle-rein of Jennie's horse, he said in a voice full of triumph:
"The Snow Flower cannot run away from the Red Hatchet."
They were his last words, for a form came bounding toward him, and the
chief turned quickly and raised his rifle.
But he was not as quick as the one running upon him, for a revolver
shot rang out, and Red Hatchet fell dead, a bullet in the center of his
forehead.
"Do not be alarmed, Miss Woodbridge, for I am Kit Carey now, not Moon
Eyes, the medicine man," and the soldier stepped forward, while he
added:
"The sooner we get away from here the better for us."
"But he is not dead, sir," cried Jennie, now finding her voice and
pointing to Vance Bernard.
"Ah! I supposed Red Hatchet had made no mistake. Yes, he is alive,
and----"
"Yes, I am dying, Captain Carey, for your words tell me who you are,
and in your disguise as Moon Eyes you heard enough to hang me. It is
better that I die by the redskin's bullet than upon the gallows."
"You deserve the gallows, Bernard, most certainly, for I now know
you as renegade, road agent, and a Black Hill's bandit, by your own
confession in the Sioux council lodge. But I am not one to strike a man
when he is down, and if you will allow me I will aid you to your horse."
"No, no, let me die here; for I cannot live half an hour at longest.
Then, too, I have something to tell this child, and it will ease my
conscience, and you are to hear, too, Captain Carey."
"If you mean that she is not your child, she told me that in the
hostiles' camp."
"There is more to tell, for it was I who attacked the stage-coach in
which she and her mother were coming west to join Brookes Woodbridge,
her father. The mother was killed by a random shot, and I took the girl
and sent her to my wife, for I knew Woodbridge had struck it very rich
in the mines, and she would be his heiress. Well, when he was about to
go east, never having known of his wife's death, I killed him----"
"You murdered my father?" gasped Jennie, in a tone of horror.
"Yes, I confess all now."
"And my mother, too--now I know why I never could love you, as my
father, though so I believed you to be."
"Yes, I am guilty of the crimes of murder and robbery, and more. I was
a renegade chief over the Sioux against my own people. This my wife and
son never knew, for they deemed me only one who had led a desperate
life in the mines. But my wife can give you, Jennie, the papers that
will prove who you are, and enable you to claim your name and the
fortune that is yours. Now go your way, for the shots will bring Indian
scouts here, and you may both be killed. See, I am getting generous,
and losing my feeling of revenge with death's grip upon me."
"But I can take you along, and----"
"No, place your hand here over my heart and you will see that my wound
is fatal, for I am slowly bleeding to death. Now leave me, Captain
Carey, you and this girl, for her presence haunts me."
"I dislike to leave a dying man----"
"Hark! don't you hear the Sioux coming? They will care for me, and I
will tell them that the Red Hatchet attacked me, I killed him, and the
girl escaped--go! or it will be too late!"
This Captain Carey fully realized, and, springing upon the horse of
the dying renegade, he seized the rein of Jennie's horse and dashed
away just as a score of dark forms were visible in the moonlight coming
along at a run.