The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1931-03-19

0ne-LneFe were TWO lnelr voices
we're distinct though low, and they
stood so close that their forms
shut out the light from the crew
ice. To his establishment Jeems
heard a language which Hepsibah
Adams had taught him, and it
was not Mohawk. These were
Senecas. The discovery thrilled
him. He hated the Mohawk hatch
ct wielders who were the scourge
of the southern frontier, but the
Senecas, also brethren of the Six
Great Nations, he doubly feared
for while the Mohawk killers were
the wolves of the wilderness. the
Senecas were its foxes and pan
Tiers combined. One was a crea-
ture of darkness and surprise, the
other lightning flash that came
and went with deadly swiftness.
He might trick a Mohawk, but a
Seneca was the cleverest of his
kind.
He felt his blood turn cold as
he listened to the two. One was
arguing that the arrow was a ruse
and that the fugitives were some
where not far away; the other,
whose mind was still on the huge
pile of stones, discredited the
thought that it had been thorough
ly searched and set off to find
some proof of his suspicious. The
first of the two speakers re-
NAMED, and neither Toinette nor
Jeems could hear him move. 1t
seemed an infinity of time before
movement came again outside the
rock. Metal scraped it as the
Seneca made a resting place of it
for his gun; footsteps went away,
returned, and halted close to the
narrow aperture through which
they had squeezed their bodies
under the stones.
The savage was looking at the
entrance to their hiding place!
Jeems pictured the warrior, his
doubt and hesitation, and was as
sure in his visioning as though no
barrier lay between them. He
heard a grunt. The Seneca was
on his stomach, peering in, and
the grunt was an expression of
the foolishness which had made
him grovel like this. In a mo-
ment, he would rise and go away.
But the moment passed. One
twO-three-a dozen. Toinette was
like one dead-unbreathing. Odd,
sensing a mighty danger, knowing
that it was coming. crouched like
sphinx.
At last the silence was broken
so softly that the disturbance
might have been that of a tress
of Toinette's hair falling from
her shoulder across Jeems' arm.
The Indian had thrust in his head
He was Observation-Disclosures
advancing slyly and cautiously
like a ferret on the trail of prey
There could no longer be a doubt
He knew there was something
under the rocks and, with true
Seneca courage, foreseeing glory
for himself even if death paid
for it, he was coming alone.
Every instinct reached its high
est tension in Jeems as a danger
approached which he would be
able to touch with his hands in
another moment or two. He re-
moved himself gently from Toi-
nette's embrace and prepared his
arms and body for action. Their
eyes had grown more accustomed
to the gloom, and Toinette could
see him as he crouched forward
and gathered himself for the
struggle which would mean life or
death for them. Suddenly she I'M
derstood that it would not be a
struggle. When the Senecas head
appeared Jeems' Ratchet would
smash it in. She could see the
Ratchet. It was poised to strike.
There would be no cry-no moan
only that terrible, hidden sound.
She listened to the doomed man
slowly coming.
The feathers of his tuft appeared
first, then the long black scalp
lock, the hair-plucked head, pail
of shoulders. Jeems put all his
strength behind the appraised hatch
ct. He knew there must be but
one blow-well placed in the mid
die of the skull. That would enc
it. He almost closed his eyes anC
the Ratchet descended little, ar
overwhelming sense of the horror
of the thing holding back his
stroke. 1t was not simply killing
it was murder The Seneca turned
his head and looked up. His eyes
were trained for use at night, anC
he saw more clearly than Jeems
He saw the white face, the Ratchet
the death behind it, and he waited
transformed to stone. No voice
came to his lips and no movement
to his cramped body in this mo
ment of shock and stupefactior
when he must have realized thai
all the power of his forest gods
could not help him. The pupils OF
his eyes glowed darkly. He did moi
breathe. Conscious of his impend
ing end, he was amazed but moi
terrified. His fine countenance die
not shrink from the steel about tc
sink into his. brain.
For a second more the blade die
not fall, and in that second Jeems
eyes and those of the savage me
steadily. Then the Ratchet clatteret
to the rock floor, and with pro
test of revulsion at what he haC
almost done, Jeems clutched at thu
Seneca's throat. The Indian wa'
at a disadvantage, and though hi:
powerful body strained and Tough
to loosen the choking grip, his DO