Old Shadow Shot — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

- we git into an Injun muss what you’d amount to?” “Try me!” was the quick reply. ~ “T’spect we'll hey thet chance afore long. It’s a long way yet to the mining country. Our oxen may be shot full of arrows ag’in to-morrow night, an’ we—sculped, p’raps!” The man looked up with triumph as if he had expected to frighten the boy; but his countenance fell into the slough of chagrin when he did not discover a sign of fear on the youthful face. It retained its ruddy colouring. “Tm goin’ back to the cap’n now,” he said, resolving to hide his failure by a hasty retreat. “Now, mind you, little Nat, no more screechin’ to-night. The cap’n ain’t in the. best of humours nohow. It’s him _ what’s doin’ most of the swearin’ ahead.” With this the man left the boy, and, pass- ing beyond the horns of the oxen, was soon lost among the shadows that concealed the foremost waggons. “Captain Lige hasn’t been very happy these six days past,” the musical prodigy muttered. “He is afraid that he will not get all the gold that they say is to be found along the shore of the big lake. Sometimes I think that something besides a'love for gold brought him into these woods, for didn’t the people tell us before we struck these woods that the ore was copper and not gold? But Captain Lige said that they lied, and here we are, creeping north towards Lake Superior. Maybe I did wrong in coming alone; but I guess I couldn’t well help my- eelf. I’m in for it now, at any rate, and I'll face the music as it comes.” A moment’s silence followed the boy’s low words, and then, unable to repress the music which, like a well-spring, flowed from his heart, he began to drum with the whip on the horns of the plodding ox. All at once the drumming ceased, for the loud voices of the men ahead failed to salute the boy-bird’s ears, and instead, there rang in them a strange, rough voice which he knew he had never heard before. It seemed to denote danger to the train. “ Get ready to fight!” cried a man who passed Nat at a quick pace, and, ghostlike, yanished towards the rear of the column. “That we will!” said the boy, as he tossed the whip forward upon the yoke, and slid quickly from~ the beast. “Wasps and erickets! I didn’t look for a brush so soon, but it seems that we're in for it. Well, we'll give the reds the best we've got in the train.” _ As he uttered the words he hastened to the waggon and drew forth arifle. Then he slung pouch and powder-horn over his head, and took his station at the heads of the oxen, which, at his command, had come to a halt. * ) SHADOW-SHOT. “They'll be down upon us in a minute!” he heard the voice of the man who had passed him say. “The woods to the right ar’ full of em. The cap’n says ‘fight,’ but this is a pretty place to corral the waggons, I’m thinkin’.” The man was coming back. “Who brought the news, Jack?” asked the boy, as the trainman came in sight. “I heard a strange voice down where the cap- tain is.” “ An’ a strange critter is the man what owns it,” was the reply. ‘“’Pon my word, Nat, you never see’d such a feller. We'll hev to wait till daylight to see whether he’s a white man. Oh, we’rein fur it! Hesays thet they’re not fur off, an’-—TI didn’t stay to hear all his gab. Cuss the day we sot oud fur the lake! Why, thar’s no more gold thar than thar’s in my eye.” “That is what I think, Jack. But we mustn’t whimper over spilled milk, not eyen when the pitcher is broken.” “Of course not; but the cap’n The man did not get to finish his sentence, for Zimri Paddock made his ap- pearance on the scene, and caught the boy rudely by the arm. “The cap’n wants to see you!” he said, in a tone that boded the youth no good. “It wasn’t hard to tell thet your screechin’ would git us into trouble. Why couldn’t yer keep yer tongue to yerself? The snake wouldn't know whar the cat-bird’s nest is if it wasn’t fur her squealin’.” Before the boy could reply, he found him- self jerked forward by the brutal man, who in a few words told Jack to guard the team until relizved by orders. At an inconsiderate pace Nightingale Nat was hurried towards the head of the train, from which came the voices of the men in conversation. He knew that the captain was in a passion, for sundry expressions, more emphatic than elegant, told him this, and he expected to encounter a simoom of rage where that worthy stood. “Here's the blatant brat!” strongly-built and dark-featured man as he sprang upon the youth, who was released by Paddock when he saw that he had attracted the attention of the group. again I have told him to bridle his tongue ; but he would sing. Here he is, sir. Come forward and look at the bird.” The captain’s last words were addressed Lb to a gaunt specimen of humanity whose - shaggy head looked in the dim light like a lien’s, perched, arid out of place, upon the shoulders of a man. : The quaint personage took a long stride forward, and from beneath a tangled mass Gomichooks cried a “Time and ( EI 0) S it My he Jv Af) i