The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-09-01
THE MASTER OF APPLEBY|
By Fr.nci. Lynde.
CHAPTER NXvII-continued.


CHAPTER NXvII-continued.
SOFTLY" he cautioned: here are
their vedettes."
Just beyond the crooking elbow the
dull red glow from a tiny fire gone to
Goals showed us two Indian sentries
set to keep the pass. Dick drew his
claymore, but he was chilling again
and h M thai grasped the
great blade was shaking as with a
| palsy. Yet he would mutter, as the
teeth-chatterinE suffered him:
What say YOU, Jack? Shall we rush
them? There's naugat else for it," And
then, With a grittilg oath: ooh, damn
this cursed chilling!!"
l whispered back that we would wait
till he was better tit. He was loath to
admit the necessity, but, as it CHANGED,
the momentary delay saved our lives
in that strait. While we paused, hug
ging the shadows in the crooking ell
bow the gloomy depths beyond the
sentries were suddenly starred with
flaring fambeauo lighting the way for
a hasting rah5le of savages; and had
we been entangled in the struggle with
the two Sentinels We would have been
taken r~ed-handed.
AS it a we had to make the quick
est play to say ourselves. In the same
breath we both remembered the mar
row side passage just behind in which
we We're nigh to losing our way, and
INTO this we plunged reckless of pos
eible pitfalls. We We're no more h
safely out of the main corridor When
the runners, some of them, as we
guessed, .trooped past our covert in full
cry, leaving us half smothered in the
smoky trail of their pitch-pine fam
bcaX.
Nov what a-devil has set this hor-
nets nest OF theirs abuzz so SUDDENLY"
/ whispered, when the smoke-choke
gave US liberty to speak without
coughing to betray ourselves.
"Our pony-riding T~uckaseges, doubt
less" was Richards ready answer. by
all he chances, they should have met
the Great Bear and his peace-offering
out yonder on the trace-which same
they did not. So when they bring this
tale to camp there is the devil to pay
and no pitch hot. God help our tough
old Ephriam and the Catawba If these
b~loodhounds win out in time to over
take them!"
Aye" said I; and hen we crept out
of our dodge-ilole and made ready to
go about our business with the SEN
tries.
But when we came to peer again
around the crooking elbow it would
seem thai the hurrying search party
had fought our battle for us. The
watch-fire was there to light a little
We're gone. We CHANGED a guess that
they had Joined the hue and cry, and SO
we pressed forward, past the handful
of embers and into the pit-black depths
beyond.
Twenty PAGES farther on it came to
playing blind mans huff With the rocky
walls again, and measured by the trip
pings and standings twas a long alb
BATH days journey to that final turn in
the great e~arth-burrow whence we
could see the glimmering of the enenly's
camptires in the sunken valley.
Now God be praised!' quoth Rich
ard most fervently. another hour in
this cursed kennel with the fever on me
and 1 would be q yammering loose
Wit" And I, too, was glad enough to
see the stars again, and to be at large
beneath them.
Emerging from the s~ubterranean
way, we held to the camp side Of the
stream, making an ample circuit to the
left to come down upon the eneny's
position from the wooded slope behind
the encampment. We met III let or
hindrance in this approach. Secure in
their stronghold, the Indians had no
patrols out; and as for the Englishmen,
every mothers son of them, it seemed
was basSing in the light of a great fire
built before the p~ine-bough shelters.
Favored by a dense thicketing Of
laurel we made a near-hand reconnais-
sance of the little wigwam which held
u dear lady. AS I a said, this was
pitched in the thinning Of the forest
which covered the steep slope behind
the encampment, and so was the farth-
est removed from the stream, and from
the Indian lodges disposed in a half
moon at h waters edge. Here all was
quiet as the grave, and the clamor of
the Indian camp came softened by the
distance to a low monotonous hum
ming like the buzzing of a bee hive.
The flap of the tepee lodge was closely
drawn, and the bit of fire before it
a burned out to a heap Of white
asbed embers. n
They are safe as yet, thank God!"
says Richard, heaving a most palpable
his veins to whip his natural ardor into
hasty action: "'Twill be hours before
Eph and the Catawba can come in by
your upper raNine, Jack, and we shall
never have a better chance than this.
Hold you quiet here, whilst L"
But 1 laid fast hold of him and would
not hear to n such a foolhardy mar
ring of Ephriam Yeates' plan.
Heavens boy! are you gone clean
mad?" 1 would say. "'Twlll be risky
enough with midnight in our favor;
with the camp we'll asleep, and hat
great 11re burned down to give US some
thing less han broad daylight to work
I'M"
He turned upon me like a pettish
child. "oh, to the devil with your
stumoling-blocSs, John Ireton! You
are always for holding. back. BY
heaven! I'll swear you have no drop
of lovers blood in your veins!"
so o have said before. But let
that pass, we must abide by our prom
Use to Yeates, which was not to inter
fere unless Margery stood in present
peril. Moreover, we should learn the
lay of the land better while we have
the freight to help. When the time for
action comes we must he able to make
the play with our yes shut, If need be.
Come"
Twas like pulling sound teeth to get
him away, but he yielded at length
and we crept on to have some better
sight OF the troop amp. We had it;
had also a glimpse of the baronet-cap-
tain playing loo with his lieutenant and
another. The tableau at the fire gave