Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1931-10-29
drive me out there. GINS got the
buggy. He went out with her"

D'fS]- sit Htbt out with hti-
He did not ask where Yancey was.
He asked nothing. "Go home" he said,
wait on your porch. I'll get my rig
and come for you. They shouldn't
see you. DO YOU want me to go home
with you trst?"
No. no. I'm not afraid. I'm not
afraid Of anything"
Sol Levy had two very fine horses;
really good animals They won the
races regularly al the local fairs The
little light ris with its smart rubber
/ tires whrled behind them over the red
/ dusty Oklahoma prairie roads. His
| slim hands were not expert with
horses. ffe-wds nervous. ierky
| driver. They left the town behind
| them. were swallowed up by the
| prairie. The reservation was full
! two hours distant. Sabra took off her
hat The night air rushed against her
| face. cooling It, A half hour
! LET me drive. will You. Sol?s
| Without Il word lie entrusted the
! reins 10 her strong, accustomed hands.
the hands of one who had come of
generations Of horse Lovers The ami
mails sensed the change They leaped
ahead in the darkness The light
buggy rocked and bounced over the
rntted roads. Sol asked her nothing.
They drove in silence Presently she
began to talk. disiointedy. Yet. sur
/ rrisingly enough. he seemed intni-
lively to understandable fill In the
gaps with his own instinct and imag.
nation What she said sounded all
surd: he knew it for tragedy.
=. pineapple and marshmal-
low salad +. hates that kind OF
thing Ruby Biz Elk :. !. Gin
=. his face peyote The
resa lump
Il see,a said Sol Levy, soothingly
"Sure. Well, sure. The hoy will be
all right. The boy will ne all right.
Well. Yancey-you know how he is
Yancev. DO you think he has gone
away again? | mean-gone?"
Il don't know" Then. YES"
Three o'clock and after They came
In sight Of the Usage reservation.
scattered settlement OF sterile farms
and wooden shanties sprawled on the
bare unlovely prairie.
Darkness. The utter darkness that
precedes the dawn. Stiffness. except
for the thud OF their horses flying
hoofs and the whir and bump Of the
buggy wheels. Then. as Sabra slowed
them down. uncertainty, undecided as
TO what they might hest do. they heard
1.-THE weird wavering cadences OF
the Meseal song the hail-like clatter OF
the gourd rattle shaken vigorously and
inonotonouslv: and beneath and above
and around 1t all. reverberating
haunting. uminuus, the beat of the
buckskin drum. Through the still, cool
night air of the prairie 1t came to
fhem--to the overwronIht woman, and
TO the little peaceful jew Barbaric
sounds, Wild sinister. She pulled up
the horses. They sat 4 moment. listen
Ing. Listening. The drum. The saw
dEc nuuIiu III the UTum.
Fear was gnawing ut her vitals,
Wrnging her very heart with clammy
fingers, yet Sabra spoke matter-of-
factly. her voice holding hard little
note because she was trying to keep 1t
from auayering.
He'll be in the Mescal tepee next to
Big Elk's house. They built II there
when he was chief, and they still use
It regularly for the ceremony. Yam
sey showed it to me once, when he
drove me out here" She stopped and
cleared her throat. for her voice was
suddenly husky She wondered. con-
fnsedly, Ii that sound was the drum or
her own heart beating. She gave
little cracked laugh that hordered on
hysteria. "A drum in the night. II
sounds so terrible. So savage"
Sol Levy now took the reins from
her shaking fingers There Is moth
ing 10 be frightened about. A lot OF
poor ignorant Indians trying to forget
their misery. Come" perhaDs no
man ever made more courageous
gesture, for the little sensitive Jew
was terribly frightened
Uncertainty, In the blackness, they
made their way toward the drum beat
Nearer and nearer, louder and louder.
And yet all about, darkness, silence.
Only that pulsing cry and rattle and
beat pounding through the night like
the tide. What II he Is not there?
thought Sabra.
Sol Levy pulled up In the roadway
before the trampled yard that held the
Mescal tepee, round, to typify the
sun, built of wood. larger than any /
other building on the reservation. The
horses were frightened. FESTIVE All |
about in the blackness you heard the
stamp Of other horses hoofs. heard
them crunching the dried heritage Of
the autumn prairie. With difficulty he |
CROPPED his way to stump that served
as hifching post, and tied the horses. AS
he helped Sahra down her knees sud-
denly bent, and he caught her as she
sank. "Oh! It's all right. Stlfr, l
guess-from the ride She leaned