Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1911-10-07

Is Eagle Eye 3 coyote, that ne
hesitates : she questioned. See
the winner will ride before Ma.
thala, dreaming of joys to come.
There is a lonely place where the
trail leads along the cliff. Should
Nathala speak, the ear of the
winner will be quick to hear.
When his head is turned in an.
swer-
Enough, Eagle Eye under
stands. The son Of Big Elk will
not live to see the daughter of
White Plume in the wigwam of
another. If he cannot enter the
lists to strive for her hand he can
take her from him who wins in
the contest. Go back to the vii
lage, oh, my beloved. Do every.
thing as your father bids you.
Eagle Eye will not sleep. And
those who would take Nathala
from him may blacken their faces
in mourning.
Then Nathala, pressing her
lovers hand, went back to her
mothers wigWam to dream of
the prowess of Eagle Eye. That
blood would be shed she knew,
but was she not the daughter Of
a chieftain, in love with one man
and about to be given to another?
To her unciVilized heart the plan
proposed was but one of justice.
Had she not seen the timid deer
turn upon the gray wolf in de-
tense of its mate, and with hoof
and horn beat the animal TO
death ? Why should not her
lover rescue her from peril ?.
4
Six light limbed, sleek. bodied
ponies nibbled the grass at the
outskirts of the Indian village.
Their owners stood haughtily
apart, taking no share in the
general conversation. But the
stately quiet of the tall young
braves concealed nothingof their
real feeling from the young men
and maidens gathered on the
common ground about which
stood the family wigwams, nor
from their elders squatted at the
doors or before the council cham
Der. Down to the boy just big
enough to draw bow string,
everyone knew those six young
braves were suitors for the heart
of their chieftain's daughter, and
that every copper. colored bosom
was afame with desire to win
her.
These savage lovers had not
wooed Princess Nathala after the
manner of their plale-faced
brothers. None of them had
ever spoken to her. Their ad-
admiration had been shown only
through gifts of rare stones or
strings of wampum given into
the hands of her father, or by
launches of venison or of wild
pigeons laid before her mothers
wigwam. Butnow, according to
tribal custom, they were to strive
for possession Of her in joust
with bow and spear, through
strength of limb, fieetness of foot
and the speed of their several
ponies.
y
A man and q maid rode down
from the village in the soft moon
light. Behind them flared and
fiickered the flames of the feast
fires while the rhythmical beat
of drums and the minor strains
of the chant filled the air with
sounds of weird monotony. The
trail led through the spring
brook and wound upward under
a cliff that reared black and
shadoWless against the western
sky. The man rode a few PAGES
in advance, sitting proudly erect,
as became the possessor Of
the daughter of an hereditar y
chie ftain. Occasionally he
broke forth with a bar of the
chant, the mellow cadence of
which foated down from the
dancers about the feast fires, and
his black eyes flashed and the
plumes of his head-dress trembl-
ed with the passion that thrill.
ed his savage soul.
Now the trail climbed up the
face of the cliff, and the riders
were half way to. the mountain
top. On one side irreglar bouId-
ers shouldered each other in the
half light; on the other a sheer
descent Of a thousand feet into
the yaWning canyon.
AS the man rode out upon a /
small plateau he heard his name
called softly. He turned, his
head quickly rejoicing in this
first sweet recognition of his