Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-06-20

frowns, his anger is hot an his ven
gcance is nigh; back, back to your
wigwams, yer cowardly hounds, squaws,
child-stealers, murders; let me pass
BY"
Poetry Dan had sprung from his
steed and, as he hurled his denuncia-
tions ut the wonderstricl1en savages,
he elbowed his way TO the door of the
medicine lodge where his knowledge
of Indian customs taught him that the
stolen child would be found, IL. indeed,
present in the village. A tall, power
full Comanche, wearing the eagle
feathers of chief stood barring the
doorway, but the scout brushed him
aside with contemptuous dash of his
long arm, and disappeared within, just
as | reached the last line of Lord Ten
nyson's masterpiece, and switched of
without break, upon the beginning OF
Lochiel's Warning"
"Lochiell Lochiell Beware Of the day"
How impressively | waved my white
clad arms, and with what strenuous
stress fingered on the last syllable Of
Beware" Never was an orator more
bent on pleasing his audience; and
never did congregation give a
speaker more. respectful attention.
Again the buffalo robe that hung at
the entrance OF the medicine lodge was
dashed aside, and Poetry Dan APP
peared. My heart thrilled with sudden
Joy, for closely held in the borderer's
arm was poor little lost Rose, alive and
apparently uninjured, but screaming
with fright at her strange surroundings.
There's blood in the air, an there's
blood in the sky; there's blood on the
moon, an blood in my eye; an a whirl-
wind of woe, an destruction, AN wrath,
shall descend on the Injun that hlndres
my path"
could detect n jubilant ring in the
old mans voice, but the Comanches
shrank back like whipped children UNI
der his fierce oratory. He tossed the
shrieking child into my arm, and
waved his hand toward the road we had
just travelled, and | turned and dashed
the spurs deep in my horses flank. A
ark-browed, villainous redskin made
an involuntary motion to catch my
bride rein, but as lifted my clenched
hand TO emphasize the 'canny Scots"
disdainful false wizard, avauntm the
warriors brown skinny claw dropped
harmlessly TO his side and rode forth
unmolested.
At the angle in the ravine, / glanced
back and saw the border poet still
standing by his horses side, surround
ed by the mystified Comanchcs, and
could tell by his wild gesticulations that
he was still "reeling OFF, his everlast-
ing rhymes with an easy volubility
worthy of a minstrel of old, and was no
doubt. favoring his hearers with q
change of metre at the end of every
fourth sentence, With few reassur-
ing words to the still frightened child,
j crowded my tired steed to the eX-
treme limit of his endurance, barely
pausing at the clump OF stunted cedars
to leave my borrowed disguise and re-
gain my rife, and just as the full moon
was midway in the starry canopy of
night, little Rose was safe once more
in her mothers arms.
That night we made a forced march,
pressing onward through the long hours
of darkness, and early the next day
were delighted TO fall in with party
of rangers that had been sent out to
obtain information of the movements
of Featherfoot ana his band. Upon
hearing my story they continued on to-
ward the scene Of my late adventure,
leaving us to proceed on our journey in
comparative safety.
| never afterw, Jrd met with the hero
Of this SKETCH but after the lapse OF
some years, l heard of his tragic death.
Wandering northward into the wilds of
Colorado, he encountered and conquer
ed many difficulties, finally dying from
the effects of his wound received in a
conflict with an enormous grizzly. So
badly disabled that he could not reach
his camp, he lay by the body of the
giant bear, during one Of the coolest of
winter nights, and was discovered the
next day by a party of sportsmen,
calmly declaiming on the hardships of
his condition, and defying death in the
purest OF iambic pentameter.
He survived his injuries but a few
days, although attended by the best
obtainable medical talent, and above
his lonely grave in the mountain glen
some admiring friend has erected a
slab with this inscription, carved in
rough letters:
"POITREE DAN
was n slyNvar nm man -