Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-04-19

| SIG doAeus now speaking 10
her brother for the first time since they
had left the river. as he afraid q
squaw will outwit him?"
Washita gave her an angry look as he
answered:
If Washita not bind Nanita, she help
white squaw to escape while Iniun kill
ing white men and burning their houses.
Washlta need some one In his wigwam
to spread his blankets for him, and
make his moccasins, and cook his meat /;
and when Washita go back to Injun
village, he take the white lily of the
settlement to his wigwam and make her
his squaw."
The Indians waited until after dark,
and then crept into the settlement, ex-
| pecting to surprise the colonists; but
they were surprised and exasperated to
lind that their intended victims had re-
treated into the block-house.
The Indians tried first to undermine
the palisades that surrounded the block
house; then, wrapping dry bark which
they stripped from dead trees in the
forest, around the heads of arrows, they
ignited the bark and shot the arrows
over the palisades and on to the roof of
the block-house, hoping thus to set fire
to it. But the vigilance of the colonists
defeated all their purposes.
They finally became discouraged; and
wearied with this uncommon labor and
seeing no chance for success, they
fed, leaving behind them the
bodies of many of their braves, who
had fallen by the rifle balls of the
colonists. They had wounded only one
of the colonists, and killed none.
A messenger had been sent to large
settlement several miles down the river,
and while the Indians we're retreating
across the cleared fields that surrounded
the settlement, he arrived with one
hundred and fifty men. They were
Immediately joined by sixty men from
the block-house, and gave chase to the
savages, large number of whom were
shot down before they could gain the
shelter of the forest.
One of the few who made their escape
WAS Washita. Making his WY to the
spot where he had left Nanita and Ruth,
he found them gone.
The bright, full moon was near
the zenith, and by the aid of its light
he closely examined the two saplings to
which they had been bound and the
ground for several feet around them.
The stout deerskin thongs with which
the two girls had been bound were cut
with knife, and the footprints of white
men were plainly discernible in the soft
earth.
"Ugh!" muttered Washita. "Nanita
and White Lily gone with two white
men. But Washita follow trail, and
kill white men,"
"Washita's eyes have seen White
Lily, and his heart thinks of no
other squaw. When Washita take
squaw to wigwam, it must be pretty
white Lily of pale face. village"
Stealthily following the trail Of the
fugitives, he soon came in sight of a
high cliff. under which, on bed of dry
leaves, Ruth and Nanita were
sleeping peacefully. A few yards dis
tant, with his head pillowed on his
arm, lay the handsome young French
man, Henri Nantes.
For nearly fifteen minutes Washita
remained concealed behind a thick
cluster of bushes; then, feeling certain
that Henri and the two girls were
asleep, and that no one else was near,
with uplifted tomahawk he crept to-
ward the young Frenchman.
But before he had approached within
five yards of his intended victim, the
sharp report of rifle echoed through
the forest, and, uttering his death,
whoop, he sprang high in the air, and
came down in heap on the ground.
The ball had pierced his skull.
As the young Frenchman sprsng to
his feet, Arthur Leighton stepped from
behind the trunk of a tree, with
smoking rifle in his hand; and a mo-
ment later Ruth and Nanita hurried to
the spot in alright.
"There are no other Indians near"
said Arthur Leighton. as the two girls
cast frightened glances around them,
"or they would have rushed upon US
before now. The colonists have de-
feated the Indians, or Washita would
not have come here alone; and we need
not be afraid to return to the settlement
now"
at seemed cowardly of US to hide in
the forest while the colonists were fight
ing for their lives" said Henri Nantes,
as they were on their way to the settle
ment.
But we could not have gotten into
the block-house," returned Arthur;
"and we would have foolishly thrown
our lives away, had we attempted to
fight the Indians while we were out
side"
Nanita never again returned to the
Indian village that had been her home,
but remained with her friend, Ruth
Kenton, until, three weeks later, she
became the wife of Henri Nantes, and
accompanied him to his home In Canada.
She became the mother of a large
family of children, and lived to good
old age. Henri Nantes never regretted,
nor had cause to regret, that he had
chosen the beautiful forest maiden for
his wife.
The spring following the Indian out
break, which I have described above,
Arthur Leighton and Ruth Kenton,
who had loved each other ever since
they were children, were married and
went to keeping house" in log cabin,
which Arthur had built the previous
z