The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1905-07-27

on the march; and when that was spent
or spoiled we did as we could, being
never comfortably filled, l think, and
oftener haggard n enfeebled for the
want Of food. Since we dared not stop
to go aside for game, the CatawOa
would set overnight snares for rab-
bits: n for another shift we cut
knobbed sticks for throwing and ran
keen-eyed along the trace. alert to muir
der anything alive and fit to eat. In
this haphazard hunting nothing ever
fell to Jennifer's skllless clubbing, or to
mine; but, the old borderer and the In
dian were better marksmen, and now
and then some bird or squirrel or rab-
bit sitting on it's form came to the pot,
though never enough Of all or any to
more than sharpen the famine edge Of
hunger.
For all the sharp %privations OF the
forced march there was no hint on any
lip of turning back. With Margery's
desperate need to key us to the I'M
finching pitch, Richard n I would
go on while there was strength to set
one foot before the other. But for the
old borderer and the Indian there was
no such bellows to blow the fire Of
perseverance. None the less, these two
uiu lilOic llltn SGCOIO us, lCey SET lNS
pace and held us to it; the
Catawba ~Spartan-proud and uncom-
planning; the old hunter no whit less
t1reless and enduring. AT this far-dis-
tant day l can close my eyes and see
the gaunt. leather-clad figure of Eph-
RAIN Yeates, striding on always in the
lead and ever pressing forward, tough,
W1ry, and iron to endure, and yet withal
SO elastic that the shrewdest discour-
agement served only to make him re-
bound and strike the harder. Good
stuff and true there was In hat old
man; and had Richard or 1 been less
determined, his fine and noble heroism
In a cause which was not his own would
nave shamed US into following where
he led.
We had been ten days in this starv-
ing wilderness. driving onward at the
pace that kills and making the most OF
every hour Of daylight, before Yeates
and the Indian began to give us hope
that we We're finally closing in upon
our quarry.
The dragging length of the chase
grew upon two conditions. From the
beginning the kidnappers were able to
Increase their lead by stretching out the
days and borrowing from the nights;
also, they We're doubtless we'll provis-
1oned, and they had horses for the cap
tives and their impedimenta. But as
for us. we could follow only while the
daylight let us see the trail, and though
we ran we'll at first, the lack Of proper
food soon took toll of speed.
So now, though the hoof prints grew
hourly fresher, and we We're at last so
close upon the heels Of the k~idnappers
that their night camp fires were scarce
ly cold when we came upon them, we
ran no longer-could hardly keep a
logged foot pace for the hunger pains
that griped and bent us double.
The tenth day, as I we'll remember,
was furnace hot, as were all the fair
weather days Of that never-to-be-for-
forest that hung thick and ~lifeless like
the atmosphere of an oven; this though
we We're we'll among the mountains and
rising higher with every added mile Of
Westering. Z
The sun had passed the meridian,
and we We're toiling, sweaty-weak, up
a rock-streWn mountain side, when a
thing occurred to rouse us roughly from
the famine stupor and set us watch
fully alert. In the steepest part Of the
ascent where the wood scanted of root
ing ground by the thickly sown strew-
ing Of boulders, was open and free Of
underground, Ephraim Yeates halted
suddenly, signed to IS with upfung
hand, and dropped behind q tree as one
iAoS IN ~ lliC LII ~ Tie Va
tawba, running at Yeates' heels,
lurched aside and vanished as If the
earth had gaIed and swallowed him.
A moment later the twang
Of a bow string buzzed
o the breathless noontide stiffness,
and Jennifer clutched and dragged me
down in good time to let the arrow
whistle harmless over us. Then, like
a distorted echo Of the buzzing DOW
string, the sharp crack Of the old Dor
derer's rifle rang out smartly, setting
the cliff-crowned mountain side all
with hooking repetitions.
missed him, slick and clean, by the
eternal coon-skin!" growled the old
marksman. sitting up behind his tree
to reload. THAT there's what comes O.
being SO dad-blame' hongry that We
can't squinch fair atween the gun
sights. I reckon ez how ye'd better
Town and lie clost, you two.
'Twouldn't s'prise me none If that red
skin had a wheen more O. them sharp
p'inted sticks in his The Lord be
praised for all His marcies! the chiefs
got him!"
presently, his black eyes swapping with
disappointment. saying in answer to
Yeates' question that the yell was his
ow1i; that his tomahawk had sped no
truer than the old borderer's bullet.
"Chelakee snake heap slick: heap
quick dodge" was all We could get out
of him; n when that was said he
squattedl calmly on a fiat stone and fell
to work grinding the nick out Of the
edge of the missped Ratchet.
Continued Next Weekly
1t Was tho Same Bunch.