Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1894-07-04
ARGUS
MISCELLANEOUS.
ATTACKED BY INDIANS.


lake in Northwestern Minnesota.
It's banks are fringed with lofty
pines, and the rough foothills of a
spur of the Beaver Tails" form
craggy palisades full of caves.
On the plain thus sheltered stood
a big log farmhouse built by a Nor
wegian emigrant.
Olaf Gunsberg was a good repre-
sentative of the old vikings; man
of gigantic statue, his huge, red
beard giving him ferocious aspect.
He was one of the richest of the
Morse emigrants, but with his flock
and herds he gave himself little
concern. He left his affairs to the
thrifty management of his wife.
With his flask of brandy, his rifle
and his hounds, he spent most OF
his time off in the pine forests in
chase of moose, elk and bear.
His son, Thorsward, was the very
opposite, not at all given to field
sports, but a student instead. He
was interested in chemistry and had
fitted up a laboratory of his own
for experiments. He had spent
several years at school in st. Paul,
and then returned home out OF
health.
His father had no patience with
his tastes. 1.-THE men of our race
hacked their names with their
swords all over Europe, and left
learning to the shaven monks he
said, with laugh like the roar of
wild beast. "They had no use for
chemistry"
But Thorsward was encouraged
in his taste for science by both his
mother and sister, and as his
father spent little of his time at
the ranch, the boy did not have a
very bad time of it.
One day during the year
1868 Gunsberg was sitting by
the kitchen fire, having returned
from hunting. At the farther end
of the big room the women were
busy with household tasks. Thors-
valid sat on wooden settee near
the corner of the wide hearth, talk
ing with his mother and sister.
The Norwegian suddenly turned on
the three. What are you telling
there?"
81 was saying" replied Thors-
wald, "that young Leaping Deer
came down to the lake this morning
and warned me that the Crows and
Blackfeet are gathering. He thinks
we will have trouble"
"Braugh-h!" growled the Nor
wegian. 1.-THE brutes are always
plotting. They ought to be hunted
like wolves"
Common prudence would teach
us to take some precautions" Thors-
wald said gently.
ITO the devil with common pru-
dence" interrupted his father.
But we may be caught unpre-
pared, father" said the boy. The
big red-bearded hunter looked at
his son contemptuously between
his half-closed eyelids and emitted
a cloul of blue smoke.
81 will 60 out and hunt them as
| would hunt BEARS" he said. "But
who has heard of a Gunsberg of the
race of the Eric taking precautions !?
Thorswald, your blood is thin"
The tall, slender boy colored, and
still more deeply as his father add
ed, 81 will leave the precautions to
you and the women"
Nothing more was said until the
next morning, when Thordwald
Joined Hilda in the barn.
This barn had been constructed
in one of the immense dry caves in
the cliffs of the Tarn, adjacent to
the farmhouse. The sides of the
barn were smooth rock, and the
floor of fine dry white sand.
AS there was no cellar under the
farmhouse, the cave barn was used
as an immense store-room and not
infrequently as a sitting-room by
the family in summer.
About thirty yards from the en-
trance stood gigantic pine, which
lowered a hundred feet above the
cliff. The trunk was hollow for
about thirty feet from the base, a
discovery made by Thorswald some
years before. It was delightful
labor to hew it out neatly and con.
trive room in there for secrecy.
He also made an opening so cum
ningly concealed and covered with
bark that no one would suspect q
thick door gave entrance to the hol-
low chamber. II was the lad's castle
of Otranto, his cave Of Ali Baba, his
fortunes and his enchanted castle,