Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

118 ga-weh-ga, for otherwise you would be help- less.” Few Indians in the long chain of encamp- ments in the Onondaga Valley saw us march forth, and those who did thought we were only an advance scout, for we kept our pur- pose a strict secret, even from the warriors of our escort. They were told no more than that they were given an opportunity to go upon a hazardous venture which should yield them fame and a proportionate toll of scalps. That was all they wanted to know. Ta- wan-ne-ars was a leader they had fought under before. I was assigned a wholly un- deserved measure of fame because of my recent adventures in his company. We marched rapidly, taking advantage of the withering of the foliage to abandon the Great Trail and cut across country through the forest, which stood untouched outside the infrequent clearings of the Iroquois. For three days we averaged thirty miles a day, and each day, when we camped, I practised with the snow-shoes on some level bit of ground, learning how to walk without catching the points and tripping myself. We had not gone very far on the fourth day when O-da-wa-an-do, the Otter, a war- rior who had attached himself to me, pointed through the leafless trees toward a grayish-white bank which was rolling down upon us from the north. “O-ge-on-de-o,” he said. “It snows.” The word was passed along the line, and Ta-wan-ne-ars ordered the warriors to don their shirts. Fifteen minutes later the snow began to fall. Driven by a piercing wind, it descended like a vast, enveloping blanket, coldly damp, strangling the breath, blind- ing the eyes, numbing the muscles. We struggled along against it until we came to a hillside scattered with large boulders. Here we halted and built shelters for ourselves by roofing the boulders with pine saplings we hacked down with our tomahawks. Under these, with fires roaring at our feet, we made shift to resist the cold. The snow-fell for the better part of two days, so thickly as to. preclude traveling, and during that time we dared not stir from shelter, except to collect firewood. In the evening of the second day the storm passed, and the stars shone out in a sky that was a hard, metallic blue. “We have lost much time, brothers,” Adventure said Ta-wan-ne-ars, ‘‘and we have had a long rest. Let us push on tonight.” After the fashion of the Iroquois he al- ways gave his commands in the form of ad- vice; but no warrior ever thought of dis- puting him. “T no longer see the Loon above us,” I remarked to him as I put on my snow- shoes. ‘“‘How shall you find your way?” ‘“‘The Great Spirit has taken care of that,’ he answered, and he raised his arm toward the sparkling group of the Pleiades. ‘““There are the Got-gwen-dar, the Seven Dancers. They shine for us in the Winter, and we shall guide our steps by them.”’ OUR progress that night and for @ several days afterward was slowed ax considerably by my clumsiness on stow choc: But The Otter and other war- riors went to considerable pains to help me, picking out the easiest courses to follow, quick with hint or advice to remedy my ignorance. I became proficient enough to travel at the tail of the column, although my companions could never march as rap- idly as they would have done without me. After starting we met only one party of Oneida hunters, who had not heard of the decision of the Ho-yar-na-go-war to take the war-path against Murray. The Mo- hawks had all retired to their villages for the Winter, and the wilderness which was traversed by the Doom Trail was deserted because of the universal Indian fear of the False Faces. Ta-wan-ne-ars and I discussed this point as we neared the forbidden coun- try, and I suggested that he tell his follow- ers our destination. He waited until we were a long day’s march from and well to the northwest of the goal. about him as they mustered for the trail. “Soon, O my brothers,’ he said in the musical, “‘cadenced Seneca dialect which I was beginning to take pleasure in under- standing, “we shall strike our enemies. It is a desperate enterprise you go upon. No war-party ever set out to risk such heavy odds. No warriors of the Long House were ever called upon to practise such caution, to reveal such courage. “OQ my brothers, we are going into the Wood of Evil, the haunt of the False Faces which is the breeding-place of all the wick- edness that brands the Keepers of the cComicloooks Then he gathered the warriors . C©@