The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 236: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

930 THE BOY SOLDIER: ‘OR,’ GARIBALDI’S YOUNG CAPTAIN. SSeS ) “TE was certainly not altogether right among the Redskins ; but, to make up for that, you had a jolly little’ fieht 1 now and then!’ - * “The devil |! fights still more’ delicious. than ever take place now. ‘No ; the''world is much | ‘too spoiled for such excitement. ‘“ There ‘is no' life now, a the Indias: have bécome just such'sleepy heads as'the whites. & You should have been here ten years ago ; theré ‘were men to be found then—thunder and lightning !—men who fought when they hadn’ tas much skin left’ on their heads as ‘would cover a finger-nail | een? Men ‘who made ‘faces cat their fobs long, alter they were dead ! . Pe “Aye ! those: were the times ! “Only think, not. far from” here—we shall pro- rey bably pass the spot’ to-morrow—there isa heap of | stones, and under it one of my best friends. “He was generally known’ by the name of Jolly Be tiste, for never did ‘a white hunfer. put a bullet ‘the | eye of a’ stag or into’ the brain’ of ‘an Hatin with a merrier facé than Jolly Baptiste did. “'*He might be a year or’ two older than I, but you must not forget that’ many years have passed since then. |“ ““Good,.then ; he and I, and half a dozen hearty beaver- “trappers,” were going to" the Guadaloupe River to hunt as free trappers \ with friendly Indians, and were camping ina ravine not far’ from’ ‘the heap of stones which, as I said, we ‘shall probably pass to-morrow. “Tt was an-evening just as fine as this one. “The spidér-webs were floating just as slowly through the air, and the prairie wolves were howl- ing and bar ing just as sweetly as to-day. ‘Ah, poor Baptiste ! it. was Ais last Indian summer—his last evening! “ Confound’ the thing, I would give my rifle and horse for him to be still alive |’ “But no matter, he died like’ a man—like a watrior. “Well, we had' made our camp, were smoking tobacco, ‘and chewing dried meat, ‘We had not been lucky in hunting’ during the last few days, so says Jolly Baptiste, “* Hang me, if I will blunt my teeth any longer on this stuff ; I must have fresh méat.” * “So he’ takes his rifle, and goes down into the plain. ‘ “We were all satisfied with this, wished ‘him luck, and advised him'not to return empty-handed, “We thought of anything’ less than Adiadd! for we had not seen the fresh print of a mocassin for at least ten days. “A good half-hour may have dead? the sun was | about as low as now, when we suddenly heard in the distance the crack of Baptiste’ s rifle. “I knew its voice as’ certainly as’ my own mother’s: I.mean years a0, when she was-still alive, and I was a boy. “ We guessed from the shes erack that’ the shot had been fired on the plain and'‘not in'a gully, and went up to'learn the result. “What do ‘you think we saw? Oh, Jupiter! I felt the blood stand in my veins, for I was” at that time quite a young fellow, to whom stich ’a thing might happen—I saw my friend, Jolly Baptiste, fighting with no less than four accursed villains of the Blackfeet. — ‘One of the dogs lay already on the fPround, for Baptiste’s bullet had passed through his brain. __. But the threé others attacked him at the same time, firing arrow after arrow at ‘him, «J begau to think ‘that. th Baptiste, for at the moment when He ‘became visible to us he fell down on the grass ‘But it was only his cinding. " ‘‘ For when we scaled the hill again. to nasaiten ‘to Were tod much for | | | his ‘help—we ‘had ‘merely run ‘back to. fetch our rifles—he was on his tegs’ again. ““ The merry lad only wanted to get the ' yillaing | nearer to him, and lost no time. “He swung the heavy rifle’ round his eda as if | if were a twig, and the second of his’ foes fell’ ‘to | the ground with a'fractured skull. “But now the two last were upon him : “we! rs them struggle with him for a Tittle while, ‘and then all three fell. “We could not disti aes anything further. is-We ran’ ‘as jasenty as we" could set one foot before the other, ‘and yalled afd “im hold out a. few minutes loriger, iv «But it was too late, and poor’ Baptiste: s fighting was over. «we had not bared within rifle: shot, when ene of the Indians suddenly rose; uttered his fierce war-yell, and shook Jolly. Pees ota ‘Scalp ‘at. us. 4 “Yes, I still see him’before me, 72!) 18 “T would have given ten TERRE of ay life if rea been within gunshot. : s “But what was the use? ©” Sat eek “The dog bounded away like an ‘antelope, ea I shed tears of fury, “The scéne we witnessed on reaching the battle- field was, although bloody, most truly consoling, — “« There ‘lay our brave friend in the midst of his defeated foes. “At about a rifle- shot’ off was the’ man he’ first killed. ‘* Two paces from him was the one Whose brains he had dashed oyt with his clubbed rifle, “And close to him the third) ' whom’ he had throttled with his right hand in the fullest’ sense of the term. ‘He held the fellow 30" tight, that’ “We ‘Wore obliged to cut his neck muscles to free Baptiste’s hand, ‘Tn spite of the four of five atrows which stuck mplored' him to ,¢ @ deep in his body, Jolly Baptiste had succeeded in settling two of the prairie villains. “He would have given the last one his dose if the throttled man had not driven his knife- up to the hilt in his chest, and the runaway split his skull with his tomahawk. The dog had also stripped off ‘his scalp with ae cleverness that’ not a single hair was Jefe. be- ind, “Only a thorough old hunter could have given such a circular cut. “Tt is, at any rate, a consolation that he was not scalped by a boy. _. “And Jolly Baptiste, what do you think he did after he;was dead? ‘He looked wildly after the flying Indian, and | thrust out his tongue at him. ‘“Yes, such &@ man was Baptiste. if “A doctor at the military Station! ‘to “whom T | mentioned this fact, said that the Indian must have knélt on the dying man’s throat, “and produced such a stran ge performance, ” “ But that i is a lie, “T have rin about the piat jong enough 8 be — a judge of such things. “Tt was’ pure Impudence | on'‘his part to make faces, “He would have shook ‘Kis’ fist, too, only’ he ‘did not like to let loose his victim’s thrdate’ i a St or at — ~ 7 Gomichsoo S (©