Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-12

She was halted close to the corn
land when CHEEKY singing reached her.
Marylyn had left the shack and was
going riyerward, dawdling with stud
led slowness.
We saw the Indians coming,
We heard them give a yell.
My feelings at that moment
No mortal tongue could tell.
We heard the bugle sounding.
The captain gave command,
ITO arms, to arms, my comrades,
And by YOUR ponies stand!'
We fought there full nine hours
Before the strife was DER.
Such sight of dead and wounded
/ ne'er had seen before
Five hundred noble rangers
AS ever saw the west
Were buried by their comrades.
May peaceful be their rest!
Dallas shivered. The song suggested
a cruel end for the gay troopers who
had just gone forth. "Marylyn"' she
called.
The younger paused to look back.
BE careful, honey. Keep in sight"
Marylyn nodded, threw a kiss and
strolled on.
All day Dallas tried to work away
her troublesome thoughts. When she
| had known that an Indian was signal
| ing from Medicine mountain she had
| felt no fear Why was she growing
| fearful now? For it was fear, not any
| mere nervousness or sadness over the
marching of the troops. 1t was even
more There was a haunting feeling
that something was going to happen.
| There was n terrible certainty weigh
| ing upon her-a certainty OF coming
| harm.
| Toward night she began to watch
about her-southward TO the shanty Of
| the Norwegian; eastward to where
the tent of the Sioux Falls man had
been; west, where the setting sun
touched the sentinel guns on the bluffs;
along the coulee, where the darkness
always crept first.
She found herself examining the tops
of distant rises. Medicine mountain
showed dark Speck at its summit
had she ever noticed that before? 9th
er peaks looked unfamiliar-were they
the lookouts of savage spies? And
|
was the smoke of campfire. In fancy
she saw the one who had lighted it
q warrior with yindictive, painted
face, who peered at the squat shack
on the bend as he famed and smoth-
cred the fame.
Night was at hand. The plover We're
wailing. The sad voiced pewits called.
One by one the frogs began Il lone
some chant. \ light had sprung up in
the shack She glanced that way.
And the window eyes of the log house
seemed to leer at her.
A warm supper, Marylyn's bright
face, her fathers placid retorts-all
] these did not suffice to drive away
her SorebOdings. What was there in
the coming night?
All her instinct spoke for caution.
! The lantern, was shaken out before
: the table was cleared. Her father and
sister early sought their beds. She
only lay down in her clothes. The
hours passed in a strange suspense
J She listened TO her fathers deer
D breathing to the mules when they
wandered into their stalls, to the snaI
| of Simon'S long brush as he whipped
at the mosquitoes. Her eyes KEPT
searching the black corners of the room
l. and the pale squares of the windows
: Her ears We're alert for every sound.
She fell to thinking of Squaw Char
s ley. He had not Enme for his supper
p or brought them ly basket. Wa.
d he growing indifferent-to them?
e 1t was when she could no longe
:. keep awake that her thoughts assum
l. ed even a terrible shape. She dreamed
G and in her dream Il head came through
e the dirt floor close 10 her bed 1t wa
e covered by war bonnet of feathers
e Beside it, thrust up by lissome finger
n fingers white and strangely familia
# was tomahawk
d Soon she made out a face-AIat
IS thews'. She squirmed, striving to sum
e mon her father. A flame fiickered u
s In he fireplace. The face change'
Of from white to red, and Charley dance
IS before her. She squirmed again. Th
e face faded
IS She found herself sitting bolt vi
J. right. Her hands were clinched de
L fensively. her teeth were shut so tigh
that her jaws ached. She was starin
D. wide eyed at the door.
The shack was no longer in darl
IL ness. Morning was come, and its ligf
made everything clear. She sprang u
~ and lifted the latch, then fell back, he
"a stiffened lips framing cry.
~ Before the shack, driven deep int
ID the nearest bit of unpaeked groun,
IS was a sapling new cut and Stripe
I'd clean of the bark. From its top, fiyin
pennon-like in the wind, was a scarf,
,n square. And at one corner of thi
on dangling to and fro In horrid sugge
re tiveness, swung a shriveled patch tn,
er held q lock Of hair
IS |,1---,-- (1e-..-E