The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-02-28
Alice of Old Vincennes
By Maurice Thompson
coPYRIGHT 1908 ALICE THOMPSON

string Of pearls, gave somehow a sug-
gestion Of patrician daintiness.
Long-Hair looked keenly into
Auce's eyes, when she stopped to take
the locket from his hand, but said
nothing.
She and Jean now hurried away,
and, so vigorously did they paddle the
pirogue. that the sky was yet red in
the west when they reached home and
duly received their expected scolding
from Madame Roussillon.
Alice sealed Jeans lips as to their
adventure; for she had made up her
mnd TO save Long Hair If possible,
and she felt sure that the only way TO
do it would be to trust no one but
Father Beret-
1t turned out that Long-Hair's
wound was neither a broken bone nor
a cut artery. The flesh of his leg,
midway between the hipe and the
knee, was pierced; the bullet had bored
a neat hole clean through. Father
Beret took the case in hand. and with
no little surgical skill proceeded to
set the big Indian upon his feet again.
The affair had to be cleverly managed.
Food, medicines and clothing were
surrepuiously borne across the river;
a bed of grass was kept fresh under
Long Hairs back; his wound was reg
ularIy dressed; and finally his weapons
"a tomahawk, a knife, a strong bow
and a CULVER of arrows-which he had
hidden on the night of his bold theft,
were brought to him.
Now go and sin no more" said
good Father Beret. but he well knew
that his words were mere puffs of
articulate wind in the ear of the grim
and silent savage. who umped away
with an air of stately dignity into the
wilderness.
A load fell from Alice's mind when
Father Beret informed her Of Long
Hairs recovery and departure. Day
and night the dread left some Of the
men should find out his hiding place
and kill him had depressed and wor-
ried her. And now. when It was all
over. there still lowered like an elu-
sive shadow in her consciousness a
vague haunting impression Of the IN
cidents immense significance as an
influence IN her life. To feel that she
had saved q man from death was a
new sensation Of itself; but the man
and the circumstances We're pictur-
esQUe;- they invited Imagination; they
furnished an atmosphere of romance
dear to all young and healthy natures.
and somehow stirred her soul with a
strange appeal.
Long Hairs imperturable calmness,
his stolid, immobiIe countenance. the
mysterious reptilian CLEAN Of his
shiftly black eyes, and the soulless ex-
preston always lurking in them. kept
a fascinating hold on the girls mem
DRY. They blended curiously with the
impressions left by the romances she
had read IN B. Roussillon's widowed
books.
LOng-Hair was not a young man:
but 1t would have been impossible to
guess near his age. His form and
face showed long experience and i'm
measurable Vigor. Alice remembered
with a shuddering sensation the look
he gave her when she took the locilet
from his hand. It was Of but i sec
search every nook Of her being with
its subtle power.
Romancers have made much Of their
indian heroes, picturing them as mod
els Of manly beauty and nobility,
but all fiction must be taken with
liberal pinches Of salt The plain
truth IS that dark savages Of the
pure blood often do possess the mag
netism Of perfect physical develop
ment and unfathomable mental
strangeness; but real beauty they
never have. Their innate repulsive-
ness is so great that, like the snakes
charm, It may fascinate; yet an in
/ describable. haunting disgust goes
with It. And. after all, If Alice had
+ been asked to tell just how she felt
toward the Indian she had labored so
hard to save she would promptly
I have said:
Il loathe him as I do a toad"
Nor would Father Beret. put to
the same test, have made a sub
stantially different confession. HIS
work. to do which his life went as fuel
to fire. was training the souls OF In
dams for the reception Of divine
grace; but experience had not changed
/ his first impression of savageg char
aCter. When he Travelled in the VIII
/ derness he carried the Word and the
| Cross: but hewas also armed with a
gun and two good pistols, not to men
ton a dangerous knife. The rumor
prevailed that Father Beret could
/ drive a nail at sixty yards with his
rifle, and at twenty snuff a candle
with either Of his pistols.