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WAR CHIEF SERIES, NO. 2.
BLAZING ARROW,
A TALE OF THE FRONTIER
BY EDWARD S. ELLIS
AUTHOR OF "BOY PIONEER SERIES," "DEERFOOT SERIES," "LOG CABIN SERIES," ETC., ETC.
PHILADELPHIA HENRY T. COATES & CO. 1900
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HENRY T. COATES & CO.
OVER THE FALLS.]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. LARRY AND WHARTON 1
II. ON THE BRINK 8
III. OVER THE FALLS 18
IV. BLAZING ARROW 32
V. THROUGH THE WOODS 42
VI. A MISCALCULATION 52
VII. A CHECK 62
VIII. A CHAT 69
IX. TURNING BACK 76
X. GROPING IN THE DARK 83
XI. IN A CORNER 96
XII. REVERSING POSITIONS 109
XIII. A BLUNDER 116
XIV. LOOKING ON 123
XV. A HAIL AND AN ANSWER 132
XVI. THE DETOUR 143
XVII. BY THE LAKE 153
XVIII. THE STRANGE SIGHT 160
XIX. ZANY OR LUNATIC 167
XX. ACROSS THE GORGE 176
XXI. A STRANGE PURSUIT 183
XXII. ARQU-WAO 190
XXIII. A SERIOUS QUESTION 199
XXIV. THE TRACKS OF HORSES 206
XXV. A SINGULAR MEETING 213
XXVI. FOOTPRINTS 223
XXVII. RED CROW 230
XXVIII. GOOD NEWS 240
XXIX. RED CROW'S ERRAND 247
XXX. ALL TOGETHER 254
XXXI. THE NEW ROUTE 261
XXXII. THE LAST HALT 271
XXXIII. CONCLUSION 278
BLAZING ARROW
A TALE OF THE FRONTIER.
CHAPTER I.
LARRY AND WHARTON.
"I'll follow him to the right, and you, Larry, go to the left; we'llhave him then, sure."
"All right; it's mesilf that will bate ye, fur all ye're the swiftestrunner in Kintucky."
"There isn't a minute to lose; move faster, Larry!"
"Do you attind to your own business, and lave Larry Murphy to himsilf."
The words were uttered quickly, for the two youths were eager andexcited. They had caught sight of an enormous bear a few minutes before,as he lumbered into the canebrake in the direction of the torrent whichswept furiously toward the Ohio. The young Irishman happened to be afew paces in advance of his companion, Wharton Edwards, and took aflying shot at the brute. Whether he struck him or not was uncertain.The probabilities were that, despite his skill with the rifle, he onlyscratched his bulky body, or missed him altogether. Before Wharton couldbring his weapon to bear, bruin was beyond reach for the time.
It was at this juncture that the fleet-footed youth bounded to the sideof his Irish friend and urged him to hurry to the left, while he circledin the other direction. One of them must head off the game, and itmattered little which did it provided it was done.
Larry Murphy was as ardent in his pursuit as his comrade, and washopeful of getting the prize away from him. Pausing, therefore, onlylong enough to exchange the words quoted, he was off like a deer.
"That young man houlds a high opinion of himsilf," he muttered, as hecrashed forward, "and I've saan worse fellys than Whart Edwards. He canbate all creation running, but I'm hoping that he may thrip his feet soas to give mesilf a show----"
It was poetical justice, perhaps, that the fate which the young Irishmanwished might overtake his friend claimed him for his own, for, while thewords were in his mouth, a wire-like vine on the ground did themischief. It wound round his ankle like an angry black snake, and hesprawled forward on his hands and knees, his gun flying several feetfrom his hands.
"Bad luck to it!" he growled, climbing to his feet; "that's just thesthyle I used to thrip up the spalpeens. I'm onsartin whether me neck isbroke off or not, but I'll have to lave it to find out till this littlejob is over."
The fall was so violent that he limped for a few paces, and his speedwas lessened; but the stream was not far off, and the rugged lad wasquick to rally from his discomfiture.
"Begorrah, but I've got the laugh on Whart," he exclaimed, a minutelater, as he caught sight of a dark object among the trees; "that shotof mine landed the beast, and knowing that it's mesilf that's entitledto him, he has left Wharton and turned off there to wait for me tofinish him."
If this quaint faith were genuine, Larry did not trust it farther thanhe was compelled to. Instead of waiting till he could draw nearer andsecure a truer shot, he stopped abruptly, brought his heavy rifle to alevel, sighted quickly but carefully, and let fly.
There was no doubt about his having hit the mark this time. He was agood shot, and the distance was too slight for him to miss. Forgettingthe law of the hunter, which requires him to reload his discharged gunbefore moving from his tracks, Larry lowered his weapon, and driving hisbroad honest face through the wreath of smoke before it could lift fromthe muzzle of his rifle, he dashed forward toward the game to which hewas sure he had just given the finishing touch.
In his excitement, and with his partly obscured view, he did not observethat the bear remained immovable. If he had noticed it, he would haveconcluded that the beast had been mortally wounded by the first shot andhad collapsed while on the way to the stream of water.
"Now Whart will be filled wid jilousy whin he finds that the bearsurrindered to me. Had it been him that come in sight of the beast hewouldn't have stopped, but obsarving that it was mesilf, he threw up hishands and----"
Larry paused in dismay. Crashing through the brush, he stopped close tohis supposed prize, and found that, instead of its being the game he hadin mind, it was the lower portion of an immense tree that had probablylain for years on the ground. It bore some resemblance to a prostrateanimal, but the youthful hunter never could have made the mistake exceptfor his flurried condition.
"Wurrah, wurrah, now, but that was a bad miss," he muttered, grinning athis own blunder. "I don't see any necessity for acquainting Whart widall the sarcumstances, but if the stump doesn't say anything about it,I'll hold me pace."
The slip took away from the youth about all the hope he had felt untilthen of bagging the bear. He knew at the time that young Edwards gavehim the better chance, for it was just like the magnanimous fellow todo that thing, and Larry had lost it through his own stupidity.
He listened for a few moments, uncertain which way to move or turn.There seemed little use in trying to regain his lost opportunities, butthe doughty fellow mortally hated to give up the peculiar contestwithout another effort.
He could hear the dull roar of the torrent as it poured over the fallsonly a short way off, and he fancie
d once that he detected the rush ofsome swiftly-moving body through the wood. Of this, however, he couldnot be certain, because of the interfering noise of the stream.
"Whist, now, but I forgot the same!" he suddenly added, as he recalledthat it was an empty weapon which he held in his hand.
"S'pose now that that cratur should turn 'round to make my acquaintance;I would have to ask him to have the kindness to wait awhile until Icould get the gun in shape, and he would be mane 'nough to objict."
Despite Larry's fondness for talking, either with a companion orhimself, and despite the apparent absurdity of many things he said, hewasted no time when it was of value, and he committed few errors ofjudgment.
The proper amount of powder was poured from the unstopped horn into thepalm of his hand and sent rattling down the inclined barrel of his heavygun. Then a bullet, clasped in a small square of oiled cloth, was rammedtightly upon the charge; the yellow flint was drawn back and the panfilled with the black grains; then the hammer was carefully lowered, andthe old-fashioned weapon was ready for use.
At that moment the report of a rifle broke the stillness, and thestartled Larry, glancing around, exclaimed in a guarded undertone:
"I b'leave Whart is in trouble."