José — page 188: what you’re looking at

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

JOSE. 181 “Is this a way to treat a friend who comes to - shelter two guests in the tent of the chief of the Comanches?” the hunter at last began, in a voice that sounded like the sullen rumble of thunder; “or is there a lack of warriors here who have chased the buffalo and antelope with me and know me?” All eyes quailed beneath the terrible glance with which the speaker penetrated the circle, but it did not banish the sullen look from the faces of the savages, and nota foot was stirred to make room for the pale-faced arrivals. “Why do you bar our way?” the old man con- tinued, excitedly. “Do you not know Iron-Fist better than to think he will turn his face and leave with- out having seen Tehohpee, the Black Bird?” _ It was evident that the Indians dreaded to meet the gaze of the aged hunter; yet noiselessly the circle contracted, until hardly a foot of room re- mained for the menaced whites. Then Bob’s Hercu- lean form suddenly straightened up till he seemed to tower half a head above the tallest of the throng. Winding his rifle strap around his left fist. he raised the gun to a horizontal position with his right, and with abrupt and irresistible force pressed it against those standing nearest him, thus quickly opening a breach in the solid circle around him and hardly giving those who had fallen backward under the forcible application, time to guess the source of the sudden attack; then he raised his left fist on high, : and with a face whose expression was almost sug:] gestive of the rage of a ravenous animal, he stepped; back. “Have you forgotten Iron-Fist? Clear out or gather your skulls up in broken fragments,” he cried, ina tone that resembled the roar of a lion, Eomicbooks.co