Show ta tippecanoe y C anor J d by SAMUEL mccoy recounting the adventures and love which canic came into and antoinette obannon of david larrence the lives in the days when pioneers were fighting red savages in the indiana wilderness 0 copyright 1916 by dobbs bobbs merrill co CHAPTER continued she shrank awny away from ills his filthy hand in unutterable loathing and threw herself face downward in a p paroxysm a r of weeping tile the music of the drains and fifes cifes had ceased outside the camp buzzed with nith activity the Trop prophet liet bent the red cup of bis big eyeless socket soc ketover over a lapful of grotesque amulets muttering incantations to himself girty passed his hand soothingly over the trembling shoulders of tile the girl and patted tile the tangled silken cloud of tier her hair 1 I kahnt blame ye my dear fur not a likin to sech a ug ugly gly ole critter as I 1 be but ive lied bed a hard life my dear a hard life I 1 been ornery ill grant ye I 1 been ornery but I 1 been oble eged to be theys a lot 0 pesky mean men in tills this world my dear an rye ive lied bed to fight hard agin em ive been maitia fur a likely young gal jike jah e you so es I 1 kin go into the settlements on the canady side and live gulet like a king im askin ye quiet to go with me ye see toinette only sobbed aint thet fair es I 1 put it to ye what kin be fairer nor thet I 1 kin see thet es pretty es a pleter pic terme me an of the fire me you IOU n settin in front fl 2 in the book about the blessed lamb 0 gad and oh ye may know knon I 1 was es good es any on em when I 1 was a beetle devil I 1 lied hed a good old mother Tol toinette nette wondered to hear him name his ais mother she made no reply and aie ie suddenly burst in a string of the foulest oaths cursing and blaspheming but he offered her to no violence he still hoped to find some officer in who gould bould pay a rich price for her and such a purchaser would demand her physically sound for this he had seen to it that no warrior had harmed her and be meant 40 claim his bis money in the end the drums had begun again loud defiant def lant but instead of drawing nearer their music passed farther and farther away fainter and fainter elaska stole cautiously from the tent suddenly there swept over Tol toinette nette the realization that girty had lied the fifes cifes were playing an air that redcoats never marched to the stirring swing of the presidents marchl march she leaped to her feet her eyes blazing fainter and fainter came the air to which she unconsciously fitted the triumphant words who fought and bled in rree freedoms doms cause arid and n hen the storm 0 of war was past listen she cried als tile the men irom from home hoiney she faced garty and all her days of dread all her hours of suffering were forgotten 1 I have prayed to god and he has answered ane bunei for a moment girty was silent before the white radiance of her falth faith but he threw off his hesitancy with a sneering laugh A pretty lot of good thet handful ua 0 ow sheep kin hin do he snarled by sundown down tomorra well bring ye ever one i of their wet fur ye to play he stepped hastily outdoors and assuring himself ill that at the troops had denied defiled from view he returned and seizing arm dragged her roughly from the tent As she T passed assed out into the raw november vember Ko wind Tol toinette nette shivered ye kin see fer herself they halat any on yer precious brave oe enough ter fight a papoose let alone all these braves he said tauntingly the innumerable warriors of the prophet hideous in war paint stalking to and fro among the tents of the village contemptuous of the cautious whites lent support to his boast toinette looked helplessly from side to olde clde seeking some avenue of escape and hope died in her eyes CHAPTER XIV the battle soundlessly in the dark hour after midnight tc great war bow of the indian was strung but the camp of the americans slept A light rain fell it was nearly dawn suddenly through the black mist y spat the red flame of a rifle ride with the name flame and the crack came the sound of a man running it was the ken tucklan tuc klan stephen mars liars of geigere geigers Gel Ge gers igers company an outpost A dozen rifles la in the hands of crawling indians rang out he fell in the wet and tangled brush ills bis face in the sodden ground the night which had been soundness save tor for the soft rush of the rain and tile the dripping of the water from the trees suddenly became filled with the ithe stir and uproar of the awakening ramp camp with nith the whooping of the hidden toe striking in the dark david aw oke from sleep and bounded to his feet feel A liand hand clutched ills w wrist rist and dragged him dumn down again while a voice commanded keep low I 1 I 1 ile he saw that all the others la in the company were quickly silently looking to their rifles but that all remained crouching on the ground the jells of the indians seemed loudest at the extreme left where geigere geigers Gel Ge igers gers stood and at the extreme right where spence spencers rs riflemen lay behind their kneeling horses before bis big own company which vilich with the other militia companies of wilson allson Vl lson norris and wilkins was wag stationed in the center of the rear tin line e the woods lay quiet seemingly empty of any indians indiana david turned about and glanced toward the center of the camp fifty yards away avay were the tents of the officers lighted up by the camp campfires fires he distinguish the figures of them all they were all fully dressed and were buckling on their sword belts as they talked harrlson harrison was standing impatiently waiting while an orderly struggled with his horse hargrove argrove II divining that it was tile the generals intention to ride away toward the points where the savages were e attacking in numbers struck david on the shoulder in his hurry go ask colonel decker it if we are to stand here quick before general harrlson harrison goes david ran toward the officers As lie he reached them harrison arrison II succeeded in getting his foot into the stirrup and threw himself into the saddle decker was about to mount david saluted as he ran crying Is captain hargrove to stand where he Is harrison Harr isoa answered before the colonel could reply all tho the captains are to hold bold t their heir companies as they stand you will do nothing but hold bold the ground until light enough to advance lie gathered up tile reins and with a bound was gone through the falling mist boyd owen oren hurst taylor washington johnston and dagless urging their horses at his big heels david ran back toward ills his captain the horrid tumult at the northwest and southeast angles grew louder da ild ld listened with an excitement that filled his ears cars with the sound of his own hearts throbbing two hundred yards away the rifles cracked in a ceaseless sputter the drums began the orderly drummer at the officers tents was beating the long roll the steady unvarying tattoo spread its imperious summons through the night with a sound that forced its way through all the ae wilder babel of the camp david wondered why it had not begun sooner it did not seem possible that not sixty seconds had elapsed since the first alarm had been given A cold gust made the raindrops waver he became cons conscious clous that his teeth were chattering two men wriggling on the ground succeeded in scattering the fire so that its light died down to the embers david saw the other company fires go out one by one but they bad not all been extinguished soon enough As the light of the fires died out the flashing of the rifles became more plainly visible the damp air was heavy with the acrid smell of powder smoke in id the swamp at the east david could see the flames of the indians rifles twinkling like fireflies the uproar at the northwest angle of the camp two hundred yards away grew louder david strained his eyes through the darkness but distinguished nothing suddenly from the dark angle a trumpet blared out its immemorial summons to charge on the last note arose a burst of cheering charging ejaculated hargrove at davids side it was the plan of the indians to wait until a girdle had been formed on three sides of the camp where a simultaneous attack might be made north east cast and south but before they had completed this detour of the wooded plateau the impatient savages stationed at the northwest corrier corner had drawn in closer and closer to the american sentries in their eagerness to rush in it was one of these whom stephen stars had bad heard gilding through the wet underbrush and at the report of his bis rifle the indians threw aside concealment and began egan the onset on the north flank of the he little army without waiting tor for more of their numbers to complete the circle on the east front and so the men of belgers Gel gers kentucky rifles and those thosa of captain bartons regular troops forming tile northwest angle awoke to find a hundred shadowy forms rushing on them blui ith the cries of wild beasts their answering fire burnt the very breasts of the indians arid and lighted up the painted hideous faces there was no time to reload the rifles became clubs that swung and crashed against rib and skull or red warrior and white went down locked in the terrible embrace which the bloody knife alone rising and falling might end but the angle held firm when harrlson harrison and his bis staff reined in their horses at the spots spot the hand band to oha hand conflict was over and the savages had retreated to the shelter of trees where they might have ume time to reload their guns behind them they left a score of dead and dying of their own number lumber but some bore at their belts the dripping scalps of the newly slain it was then that the trumpeter at major wells command had placed the trumpet to his lips and blown the charge with a cheer the men of bartons company heard the order repeated by their own captain and went head ahead at a run only a dozen doyen or so of belgers Gel gers men had been able to secure their frightened horses at the trumpet call but these riding from tree to tree drove tile the baffled indians before them into the willows by the creek where the horses could go no farther from the angle came an aide with harrisons order to sound the recall they came back it was wisdom that saved them from being cut off from the main body ot of the troops F for or the fight had just begun only a little breathing space they had and in it they looked upon the faces ot of their dead the commander and his stare staff inspected the lines letting their horses pick their way through the trees through the darkness loose reined each company as they passed it pleading to be allowed to go into the I 1 thick of the fight and the commander counseling each to hold its ground until at last they came to norris and companies at the corner of the right flank and here found spier spencers riflemen from corydon in the midst of a red baptism of carnage such as belgers geigers Ge Gel igers gers and bartons companies had just gone through at this moment david heard beard someone calling to lits his captain he strained ills his eyes through the alst and as the man ran up to hargrove david recognized him as georgae croghan captain hargrove spoke sharply the matter croghan saluted the chief surgeon has requested colonel decker to let him have some assistance we have only t three surgeons mates we need more help with the stretchers can you detail someone sir hargrove named larrence and cockrum they hurried away as croghan led from company to company they ran lifting the dead and wounded on rude litters and bearing them to the shelter of the wagons la in the center of the camp here they left their burdens and went back for a second and a third time and each time found some new victim and then david was in tile thick of the panting struggle which spier spencers men were enduring the horses lay on the ground and from over their backs the riflemen fired into the darkness peopled with the vague tague shapes of the howling savages but the horses terrorized by the uproar and mysterious stinging things that tore f aiom tried again and again to risa rise their masters kept them down only by superhuman exertions there was a momentary lull from across the little valley where the rush ing ng creek gurgled among the willows there came a strange and wild chanting high above the groans and the sounds of hurrying feet it rose the sonorous cadence of the aborigines prayer to the great Man manitou itou the fk father of all the shawnee prophet singing his own song said dubols dubois the interpreter at harrisons Harrl sons side david looked nt at general harrlson harrison the silent horseman seemed to have gathered in his eyes all the bremen f JOP jt the shawnee prophet singing 9 his own song dous tragedy of the despairing race of red men and then a grim smile crossed his face as he reflected that he and his big little array army uncouth profane greedy for material things sordid Is as all humanity was the flaming sword of the progress of humanity il driving riving out the old order substituting the new the song of the prophet the loud voice went on the white men heard it and were troubled the red men heard it and grew drunk with audacity the bullets of the white man shall fall at your feet my children ildren cli and their powder shall be saudi sand how could they be harmed again their wild a attack tta C k commenced they left the shelter of trees and fallen log and charged the slender line that held the right flank harrison arrison II shouted orders to his bis alis aids sew robbs company here for I 1 tell major floyd to place Pre scotts company in robbs position send snelling to the north west ivest angle cook and baen here tell colonel decker to send Wil wilsons sons company to the norwest northwest angle colonel bartholomew to send scotts company with win Wll Wil sons the night was slowly giving place to the gray dawn A taint faint light stole gradually through the dripping branches david could see sec how hov yellow the faces of the wounded looked in the pale break of day baen lie he knew was wounded mortally bartholomew hurt As he neared the center of the camp robbs mounted rifles 70 76 men went by him with a rush the galloping hoofs thudding on the wet turf nere here and there the smoldering embers of the campfires camp fires blazed up again david went on with the sickening work ot of the hospital corps ile he was carrying a wounded man to the shelter of the wagons when little jimmy spencer captain spencers fourteen year old son ran from the tents and clutched him by the sleeve begging to be told it if his father w was as unhurt david answered the boy re he had just seen the captain cheering on his men a bloody handkerchief tied about his head bead when they went back to the right jimmy ran at davids side refusing to stay behind father he cried and the soldier turned at the hall ball he was about to warn the boy to go back when a bullet struck him in the hip and passed through both thighs he tottered and fell go back to the tent son he s said ad smiling your tour mother will need you if I 1 dont go home he drew tile the boy down and kissed him F for or a long minute he rested till ills his faintness pass passed ed and then he began calling to his men to fight on suddenly the tha voice ceased altogether as a ballatore its way through his heart with the fifes cifes shrill music in their ears cars the yellow jackets held their ground though mac macmahan mallan who too took spencers place fell dead and berry his second lieutenant fell also held it for two hours in the face of the frenzied attack of the indians the men with the litters were very busy not only here but back at the northwest angle where the first attack had been made at the opposite angle so jo daviess was still chafing with impatience from behind a log |