The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1906-12-20
n TALE OF TIE OLD WEST
HARRY L.EONW SON rs Av ggess q

1907 pU5kkSMYG
he saw her mothers prettlness, e
pink and white daintiness, and the
yellow shine of her hair.
"Her mother, then,-qutck!"
The boy pointed ahead.
up there-she told me to take care
of Prudence, and when the Indians
came out she made me run back here
to look for him" He pointed to the
still figure on the ground before them.
And then, making a brave effort to
keep back the tears:
"If I had a gun I'd shoot some In
dians;-I'd shoot you, too-you killed
him. When I grow up to be a man.
I'll have a gun and come here
He had the child in his arms, and
called to the boy:
Come, fast now! Go as near as you
can to where you left her"
They ran forward through the gray
smoke, stepping over and around
bodies as they went. When they
reached the first Of the women he
would have stopped to search, but the
boy lead him on, pointing. And then,
halfway. up the line, a little to the
right of the road, at the edge of the
cedars, his eye caught the glimpse of
a great las Of yellow hair on the
ground. She seemed to have been
only wounded, for, as he looked, she
was up on her knees striving to stand.
He ran faster, leaving the boy be-
hind now, but while he was still far
off, he saw an Indian, knife in hand,
run to her and strike her down. Then
before he had OWNED the intent, the
savage had gathered the long hair
into his left hand, made a swift Cir
cling of the knife with his right,-and
the thing was done before his eyes.
He screamed in terror as he ran, and
now he was near enough to be heard.
The Indian at his cry arose and for
one long second shook, almost in his
face as he came running up, the long,
shining, yellow hair with the CORY
patch at the end. Before his staring
eyes, the hair was twisting, writing,
and undulating,-like a golden flame
licking the Dronzed arm that held it.
And then, as he reached the spot, the
Indian, with a long yell Of delight
and a final flourish of his trophy, al
off to other prizes.
He stood a moment, breathless and
faint, looking with fearful eyes down
at the little, limp, still figure at his
feet. One slender, bare arm was flung
r,,f n g 80 ehn hoI Or,,oe rol Of fh0 ri 11o
big earth in her last agony.
The spell of fear was broken by the
boy, who came trotting up. He had
given way to his tears now, and was
crying loudly from fright. Joel made
him take the little girl and sit under a
cedar out of sight of the spot:
He was never able to recall the
events of that day, or of the months
following, in anything like their prop
er sequence. The, effort to do so
brought a pain shooting through his
head. Up to the moment when the
yellow hair had waved in his face,
everything had kept a CHASTITY dis
tinctness. He remembered each in
slant and each emotion. After that
all was dark confusion, with only here
and there a detached, i"nconsequent
memory of appalling vividness.
He could remember that he had
buried her on the other side of the
hill where a gnarled cedar grew at
the foot of a ledge of sandstone, using
a spade that an Indian had brought
him from a deserted camp. BY her
side he had found the scattered COP
tents Of the little bundle she had car
ried,-a small Bible, a locket, a worn
gold bracelet, and a picture of herself
as he had known her, a half-faded
daguerreotype set in a gilt oval, in a
square rubber case that shut with a
snap. The little limp-backed Bible
had lain flung open on the ground in
the midst Of the other trinkets. He
remembered picking these things up
and relying them in the blue silk
handkerchief, and then he had twice
driven away an Indian who, finding
no other life, came up to kill the two
children huddled at the foot of the
cedar.
Some of the men had camped on
the spot. Others had gone to Hamb-
Inns ranch, near the Meadows, where
the children were taken. He had sent
the boy there with them, and he could
recall distinctly the struggle he had
with the little fellow; for the boy had
wished not to be taken from the girl,
and had fought valiantly with fists
and feet and his sharp little teeth.
The little girl with her mothers bun
die he had taken to another ranch
farther south in the Pine mountains.
own, and that she was to be kept until
he came again.