The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-24

oren. Before the sun was an hour high,
the caravan was under way.
From this, the South Fork of the
| Cheyenne, the main band, under Lone
Wolf, were to push directly through to
the Big Horn. Lafond. Rain-in the
Face, and the warriors detailed for the
expedition were to carry out the adj
venture of Pah-sah-pah to the half
breeds satisfaction, and were then to
reJoin the main body as soon as pos
sible.
The smaller band cut in to the Black
Hills shortly after daybreak one morn
ing. 1t rode up Spanish Gulch little
before noon.
Most of these warriors had never be-
fore entered the dark limits of Pah-
sap-pah. They were plainly in awe Of
its frowning cliffs and and rustling
pering uneasily. Even Rain-inthe-
Face failed to reassure them. Why
should he? He was a little afraid him.
self.
I.afond's knowledge of the topog-
raphy of the place was excellent. He
had visited it several times. He had
watched the doctor, step by step,
throughout a long day of geological
searching. He knew Jim Buckley's
dwelling, where he worked, what hours
he kept, and just how late he sat up
at night. Innumerable times he had
viewed the doctor Prue, and the scout
through the buck-horn sights of his
long rifle; yet he had never been even
tempted to pull the trigger. Why?
Because he was d Latin, and so the
atrical effects were dear to him; be-
cause he was an Indian, and so revenge
with him seemed to lie not so much in
the mere infiiction of injury as in the
victims realization that he was being
come up with. Lafond not only want
dnafAp kio 10
be killed, but he wanted them to know
why they were killed, and by whom. 1t
Was finer to be able thus to do the
thing with all the stage settings. The
dramatic instinct was part OF the bar
barrie quality of his nature, like love
for red.
So Lafond had let slip innumerable
opportunities of picking off his VIC
Tins single-handed. merely to gain the
local knowledge necessary to a final
coup de theater. Consequently, he
knew where the cabin was situated,
and quickly secuted the state of af-
fairs. The coast was clear. He gave
the required signal; the savages 81
lently approached on foot, and they en-
tered the little house together.
Now at this time of year, in the Black
Hills, there occurs a daily meteorologi
cal phenomenon of a rather peculiar
character. The hot air from the prair-
les sweeps over from the Missouri riv-
er, crossing number of lesser streams
in Its passage, until it strikes the slope
of the bills. There it is detected up
ward, gradually becoming colder as the
elevation rises, until, at the barrier of
Harvey, 1t gathers in rain clouds These
are at first mere wisps of down,
streaming in ragged ribbons from the
peak; but with incredible rapidity they
gain in density and extent, until they
| IL l. IL
surrounding country. Then they emp
ty themselves in a terrific deluge of
water and hail, accompanied by thun-
derclaps SO reverberant that they seem
TO arise from the rending of the hills
tn mselves. After this short crisis, the
dismembered clouds float out over the
prairie and are dissipated in the hot
air, even before they reach the first
white turrets of the Bad Lands.
So rapidly does the storm gather and
break. that there is but a short half
hour between the morning and the aft
ernoon clearness of the skies. To those
who have never experienced this phe-
nomenon, it is startling in the extreme;
to those who have, it is a matter of
seeking temporary shelter until the dis
turbance blows over. In any case, the
first indications are but scant warn
ing.
BY the time the little band of Indians
had reached the doctors cabin, the
first wisps of cloud were clingng to
Harvey. While they were in the house,
the ackness gathered and doomed and
darkened until the sun was obscured
and the western hills lost themselves
in rain.
The doctor was in the hills. Prue was
making the bed in the little bedroom,
and little Miss Prue was asleep on
rug in one corner of the larger apart
ment. The savages stole in with noise
less, moccasined feet behind the stoop-
excitement everything but the lust of
killing, stabbed her deeply twice in the
broad of the back. She fell forward
on the bed without a murmur, and the
murderer, Selling the knob of her hair,
circled her brow with his knifes edge,
and ripped loose the scalp. Then they
all glided back into the other room.
Three of the savages took from the
wood box near the crude fireplace some
of the dried kindling with which jim
Buckley had supplied the family. and
began to build a little wigwam-s hap-
ed pyramid against the side of the wall.
Others moved about furtively, pryiug
here and there for possible plumber.
They preserved absolute silence, for the
superstitious terror of the place was
working on them. and they had begun
to experience that panic-like tremor
which seems to create an invisible
clutch ready to seize from behind.
Even the encouraging presence of
Rain-in-the-Face was not potent
enough to prevent this. Out on The
plains the personality of the mar had
doomed large, but here the legend was
greater than he. The warriors felt
the imminence of the frowning, brood
ing manitou of Harvey; they almost
heard the moaned syllables of the Soul
less Ones complaint. Their move
ments were those of timid mice, ad-
vancing a little hesitating much, ready
to fee in panic.
Not so Lafond. He strobe roughly
over to tn corner where the child lay
In his mind, with new viVidness, burn
ed that old picture of his humiliation.
He began to realize now that the
patient repression of his hate was over
how potent it had been. Alfred aid
Billy Knapp were out of his reach for
the present but here were the otho.s
ready to his hand. He seized little
Prue by the hair of her head
The child thus suddenly awakened,
screamed violently, shrek upon Shrek,
as her terror became more fully con-
scious of the savage and his bloc "
knife. About the room the warriors
paused nervously Accustomed enough
to screams of this sort, they were now
dominated by superstitution and were
thrown off their wonted balance.
And then a fearful thing occurred
Before their eyes, in the open door,
CROPPED and staggered the woman La
fond had stabbed but a moment pefota.
From the red raw surface of her scalp