Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-01-01
CHAPTER XXXIII.

T lHE dark of the moon was come.
All that day the sun had
ls=ESSy baked, and the steady south
SEs1J blow had been like the draft
of an oven. As evening came. brush
ing glory of red from the sky, the
| wind quickened instead of lulling and
| fetched up clouds that rested on the
ridge tops and rooted the wide valley.
| Through these not star showed. But
now and then. for an instant, the post
| sprang into sight out of the blackness
| to the weird play Of the heat lightning.
In the stockade there was perfect
| quiet-a quiet tense with excitement.
Secrecy forbade any strong heart
songs and dances. Caution advised
against mosquito fires, and suspense
did away with drumming, shrill laugh
| ter and feast shout. The aged men.
4 the women and the children kept close
within their lodges. where they whis-
pered and nodded, nose to nose. The
| warriors stayed outside. preserving
their calm with kinnikinick. In the
dark the open bowls of their scattered
pipes were so many ruddy gl0wworms.
| From the pitchy shelter of the shin
gle roof SQuaw Charley looked out. He
| sat on his heels, about him the few
NANCY dogs that had not found the
| dinner pot. One of these stirred. Half
rising he gave it kick. just as one Of
| his brothers might have done. Then
| he squatted again. and through the
ragged strands of his bang his black
eyes sparkled eagerly. for of late ey-
cry warriors lodge had seen secret
| flesh painting. Under every warriors
blanket were hidden gaudy tracings of
vermilion. scarlet. orange and blue,
and was he not painted too?
He had sought in an ash pile for
Goals, found beef bone and snapped
it for marrow. next taken from. his
i worn pouch lump of red earth. He
had rubbed the Goals to powder in a
square of rag, after which he had
| mixed the powder and the grease to
make a paste. Then he had pulled off
his mourning blanket and his squaw's
shirt and barred his body to the waist.
| Nermilion, orange, scarlet and blue
these colors had been laid in stripes,
circles and figures upon the braves.
They were colors that he. an outcast,
might not use, but there. was one poor
privilege in flesh painting that even he
could claim. Kneeling again in clout
and squaw's skirt he had smeared the
black and red in rude signs upon his
chest The braves. his brothers, had
painted themselves for battle, but he
the pariah, had painted himself in the
colors of death.
Suddenly he forsook the roof for the
shadow of the log wall. There he
/. waited. Two warriors had left the
lodge of Brown Mink and We're cross
ing the pen. He knew them. The
shorter was Canada John, the eldest OF
the four condemned. The other was a
Sioux who had been captured that day
and cast into prison at sunset. He
was q giant in stature, wore full wal
paint and dress and belt that testified
his valor, for 1t hung thick with scalps
some jetty and coarse, taken from
, heads of his own kind, some brown OF
] fair, with the softness that belongs t.
the hair of white women and children
The two were talking low together
I'll
) outcast heard the deep murmur of theil
voices. then their words. He leaned
! toward them, all ears.
Z How many sleeps before the dove
J callsr 1t was the bass Of the stran
ger.
Perhaps only another" answered
Il Canada John.
4 There was great laugh, like the or,
) of a full fed loon. Surely Big o,
I stays not long! But how can my friend
he sure that the Double Tongue viii
have horses readyT
3l HE claims reward"
"Ho, no! And whatY'
81 Canada John halted close to Squav
I Charley. There is cottonwood lodg
beyond the river" he said. TT shout,
belong to the Double Tongue He
kept out. An old paleface and his tw
z daughters seized it in the moon Of vii,
S cherries, and they would not go"
q IAN old man, you sayT
5 But he hunts the white buffalo
9 Only the daughters are there"
81 Are they youngf"
3 Young and sleek. One Is called tn
3 Pillow Woman. She is tall. and sh
81 watches like the antelope. The your
5 ger has hair like the grass when 1t
g withered'
8 They live alone?"
z 1.-THE Squaw guards
Sl "Wuffv'
& And the Man Who Buys Skins
= May he. be strr by the zigzag dre,r'