José — page 260: what you’re looking at

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

JOSE. 953 I said, shaking my head. ‘The evil spirit looks at the act and repentance comes too late. I came hither not to give counsel, but to bid farewell and tell you why I leave. When your penance shall be ended then will I return, and perhaps you will give heed unto Iron Fist’s words before it be too late.’ With that I strode away over the dark plain and the deep silence that followed plainly told the state of the Indians’ feelings. “Thad not thought,” the speaker again resumed, after a brief pause, “that my early association with criminals should one day fit me fora noble task. I recollected a depraved druggist who had possibly for some time previous been practicing almost any- thing but by his potion restoring the ailing. 1 still had money left which was sufficient to enlist the service of mankind. Not a week passed until a Missouri boat had again put me on shore at Fort Leavenworth. In air-tight receptacles inside of my knapsack I carried concealed death for man and beast—prussic acid and the Indian bane, strychnine, enough to have exterminated the Kickapoos and all surrounding tribes. But that was not my purpose. I had also obtained a bait, as in times gone by it was employed by western horse thieves—an essence, the smell of which causes a horse irresistibly to yield. You will perceive that I meant to strike through the dearest thing the prairie Indian possesses, that which he cherishes above wife and child—his horse. Inthe dark of night I sought out the wig- wams of that portion of the tribe in which I sus- pected the murderers, and the next morning thirty horses were lying dead in their tracks—ten for each man slain. “JT did not show myself for two days after. I Eomichooks (E(0)