OCR Text |
Show I E IB! .l HERE TOD Y. RSKINEj 1AL.E. captured In infancy bv tho redskins of Kentucky, is adopted by tho chief o the Phnw-nea Phnw-nea and given tho nnnie of White Arrow. Ho If told that his mother jviis captured with him but was Inter Maltreated by an Indian brave, Er-.-klne flees to a settlers' stockade ami is recoKTiizcd by his mortally wounded wound-ed father. DAVE YAXDCL .t pioneer, acts as guardian ;uid studs the boy to Red Oakes, the great. Pale plantation on the James, occupied by COLOXEL DAEE. younger brother of Erskino's father. Erskine is kindly received by his cousm BARBARA and HARRY. So6n he quarrels with Dane Grey and threatens to Elab him, lrUor Erskine is ashamed ol his outburst and flees to the wll-, derness. Dav Yandell, Marry i and HugH Willuughby, another j i nnsin. Ktarl In nursuit. I GO ON WITH Till STORY I At sunset Davo knew that they I were not far behind him, but when I darkness hid the lad'a tracks Dave n slopped for the night. i Davo laughed aloud 1 1 1 - next Core- I noon: J "lie's seen us tracking him and I he's doubled on us and is tracking J us. I expect he's looking at us from A somewhere around here." 1 lie hallooed at the top of lit- voli i t A war-whoop answered almost In their cars that made the blood leap In both the boys. Even Dave wheel) ! J with cocked rifle, and the lad stepped from behind a bush scarcely ten lect behind them. "Well, by gum." shouted Dave, "fooled us. after all." ' A faint grin of triumph was on I the lad'a lips, but In his eyes was a waiting Inquiry directed at Harry and Hugh. They sprang forward-"We're forward-"We're sorry"' , On Firefly. Harry buckled the boy's saddle and motioned for him to climb up. "He's your horse, cousin,' said Ham. "My father sent him to you and says his home is yours whenever when-ever you please And liarbara tent her love." At almost the same hour in lh-.treat lh-.treat house on the J allies Up- old negress was carrying to Colonel Dale a kingly deed that the lad had left behind him- It was a rude scrawl on a sheet of paper, signed by the boy's Indian name and his totem mark a buffalo pierced by an arrow. "It make me laugh. 1 have no use. I give hole dam plantashum JJarbara." Thus read the acraw i ! IX Three days later r iched t in- broad, beautiful Holaton river, passing pass-ing over the plee-crested, whltc-i whltc-i ocked summit of Clinch Mountain, .ind came to the last outlying fort of the western frontier. Xexl day they started on the long, Ions wilderness trail toward the Cumberland range Oil the third day therefrom the gray wall of the. Cumberland gathered Its flanks into sleep gray cliffs and dipped dip-ped suddenly Into Cumbt-rland Gap. I p this they climbed. On the summit sum-mit they went Into camp, and next morning Dave swept a long arm toward to-ward the wild expanse to the west. "Four more days," he. cried, "and we'll be there!" Toward sunsi-t Dave, through a Mj sixth sense, had the uneasy feeling that he was not only being followed W lut watched from the cliffs along- H side, and he observed, that Brsklne, Hj too, had more than once turned in l his saddle or lifted his eyes search - H' injrly to the shaggy flanks of the The trail was broad enough next H morning for them to ride two abreasi H Dave and Erskine in advance. Hl They had scarcely gone a hundred H; yards when an Indian stepped Into HJ tho path twenty yards ahead. Iu- H ntinctlv.lv Dave threw his rifle tip, 1 but Erskine caught his arm. The Indian had lifted his hand palm up-wai up-wai d . "Shawnee." said tho lad, ns two more appeared from tho bushes. The eyes of the two tidewater boys grew largo, and both clinched their guns , convulsively. The Indian spokesman paid no heed except to Erskine and only from the lad's fuce. in which surprise was succeeded by sorrow and then deep thoughtful-I thoughtful-I nesa, could they guess what the guttural gut-tural speech meant, until Erskino , turned to them. I They were not on the war-path (against the whites, he explained. His foster-father Kahtoo, the big chief, the king was .ry Hi. and his mcs-sage, mcs-sage, brought by them, was that Erskin should come back to the tribe and become chief, as the chief's only daughter was dead and his only -.;i had been killed bv the palefaces. The) know that in the tight at the ioil airBitme una niuca m diiw-i diiw-i nee, his tormentor, for they knew the arrow, which Erskine had not ' hnd time to withdraw. The (b ad Shawnee's brother Crooked Lightning Light-ning WOS with them. lie it was who had recognized the boy the day before, and they had kept him from killing Brsklne trom tho bushes. lie sat on hjfl hoise like a king and M'ok'- as a king. He thanked thorn lor holding buck Crooked Lightning's evil hand, but contemptuously ho spitt toward the huge savage ho was not to die by that hand. He was a paleface and the Indians had slain hia whiti- mother. Ho had forgiven that, tor he loved tho old chief and his foster mother and brother and sister, and the tribe had always been kind to him. Then they had killed his white father and he had gone to visit his kindred by the big waters, and now he loved them. "I w ill come w hen tho leaves fall." j he concluded, "but Crooked Light - nino nrjfi pucn nis lodge in me j tviiderhesa and be an outcast from tho trine until he can shov that his I henrt is good" And then with an (imperious gesture he waved his hand ; toward the west; "Xow go!" It was hard even for Dave to realize that the lad. to all purposes, was actuully then (he chief of a powerful iriDo, and even he was a little aweil by the instant obedience or the savages, who, without a word, i melted Into the - bushes and disap- ! puared. It was Bearing sunset and from a little hill Dave pointed to a thin blue u Lsp of smoke rising fur ahead from j tho green expanse. "There's the fort, ooys!" he cried. X. The green of the wilderness dulled i the burst into the yellow scarlet and jtho russet. This glory' In turn dulled and the leaves, like petals o withered with-ered flowers, began to drift to tho earth. Througa thr shower of them went Erskino and Firefly, From hii cuonskln cap the bushy , tall hung like a plume; his deerskin I hunting-shirt, made by old Mother Sanders, was beaded and fringed I fringed across the breast, at the wrists, and at the hem, and girded by a' belt from w hich the horned handle of a scalping-knlfo howed ! I in front and the head "f a tomahawk I behind, his powder-horn sw ung under one shoulder and his bullet-pouch. ' wadding, flint, and steel under tin other, his long rifle across his Baddle-j Baddle-j bow. For food he carried onlv a I little Back Of salt, for his rifle would "Four More lux- and We'll Be Thorn - bring him meat and the forest would give him nuts and fruit. On the fourth day he reached th- ; river and swam it holding, rifle and ; powder-horn above hla head. On the seventh he wits neai ing the village where tho sick chief lay. and when i he caught sight of the "teepees in a little creek bottom, he fired his rifle, and putting Firefly into a gallop and with his right hand high swept into tho village. Tho flaps of the chief's tent parted and his foster-mother stnrted toward him with a sudden stream of t ar-t and turned quickly back. Tho old chief's keen black eyes were waiting for her and h spoko before she-could she-could open hor llpt "White Arrow) It Is well. Here at once!" Erskine had swung from his horse and followed. Tho old chief measured mea-sured him Horn head to foot slowly and his lace grew content: "You must ride north soon to carrj-the carrj-the white wampum and a peace talk. And when you go you must hurry back, for when the sun is highest on thtf day after you return, my spirit, will pass." He turned his face and went back into sleep. The lad saw an aped Indian emerge from one of two tents that sat apart on a little rls.. "Who is that?' he asked, "The new prophet. ' sold his foster-mother. foster-mother. An armful of pine fagots wa tossed on the blaze, and in a loap 0i light he saw tho face of a woman at ;thi other tent. Startled, he caught his mother by the wrist: "And that." "A paleface, Kahtoo bought her and adopted her but" the old woman wo-man gave a little guttural cluck of tiniMiih "she dies tomorrow Kahtoo Kah-too will burn her." "Burn her?" burst out the boy The palefaces have killed manv of Kahtoo s kin!" A little later when he was passing - too whit... u-oniiin's tt-nt a "irl U in front of it poundmg corn In a mortar Bha looked up at him and Staring. ... smiled. She had the skin ..f the half-breed, and ho stopped startled by that fart and her buiUtv .- to find his foster-mother watching him. "Who Is that girl"" The old wo-' ntau looked displeased. "Ha tighter of tho white woman. " What is her name?" "Early .Morn." Ho would like to know more of those two. but tho old Indian woman caught him by the arm. "You will only ihake more trouble.'! Ho followed the flash of hor eyes to tlm edge of tho firelight where a young Indian iood watching and scowling! who is that?" "Black Wolf, son of Crooked L.ight- ! ninfc ' Within the old chief called faintly Olid the Indian woman motioned tho hul to go wll Inn. "Talk!" he commanded. "I have been with my people," said the lad simply. "They are many and strong and rich. The) j have big houses of Rtono such as I had never seen and they plant more ) corn than all tho Shawnees and Iro- I Miiois. (Continued In Our MToxt Issue) I |