Buffalo Bill, the Border King; Or, Redskin and CowboyIngraham, Prentiss
General
Buffalo Bill, the Border King; Or, Redskin and Cowboy
Ingraham, Prentiss
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917 -- Fiction; Dime novels; Indians of North America -- Fiction; Scouts (Reconnaissance) -- Fiction
The young man left his village and journeyed aimlessly for two days
through the mountains. So unnoticing was he that finally he came to a
place where he did not know his way out. He was not so far from Oak
Heart’s village, but its direction he did not know for sure. And this
valley in which he found himself seemed an uninhabited place.
Many of the braves were out on hunting bent, but Red Knife had not
seen any of them for twenty-four hours. Nor had he beheld a white man
until, coming down to drink at the edge of the stream which watered
this valley, he suddenly saw a figure in buckskin sitting upon a great,
white horse on the opposite side of the stream. In the fading light
of the evening the being looked gigantic to the red man--who was in
a state of mind to see ghosts or anything else eerie! The strange
figure was that of a white man. He had hair flowing to his shoulders,
and he sat his horse with folded arms, staring off into the distance,
evidently wrapped in deep thought.
The wind was with the brave, and the horse even did not notice his
presence. Red Knife might have crossed the stream and leaped upon the
unsuspicious white man. Yet his mind was not upon killing, and when he
finally recognized the stranger as the far-famed Pa-e-has-ka or Long
Hair he feared and would not, single-handed, have attempted the man’s
death.
Seldom might Buffalo Bill have been so easily caught napping. But he
had seen no trace of Indians in the valley; he had ridden through it to
this spot, and now his mind had reverted to his deep sorrow regarding
Dick Danforth’s death, and he thought of nothing else.
He roused at last from his reverie with a sigh, and glanced about him.
His vision fell upon the figure of the young brave standing, likewise
with folded arms, upon the edge of the stream. He could not repress a
start of surprise at the appearance.
“How!” grunted Red Knife.
“How!” repeated the scout, in English.
Then in the Sioux dialect he said:
“Is it peace, brother?”
“It is peace.”
The scout had seen that the young buck was not panoplied for war, and
now he dismounted and came to his side of the stream.
“You are one of Oak Heart’s people?” Cody asked.
“I _was_ Red Knife, of the Sioux.”
The scout overlooked the emphasis on the “was” for the moment. His
attention was particularly stung by the name the brave gave.
“‘Red Knife!’” he repeated.
The brave bowed and was silent.
“It was you who killed the white chief of the pony soldiers?” gasped
Cody.
Red Knife nodded again.
The scout fiercely gripped the rifle he carried. In his heart he felt
like shooting the brave down where he stood. But he repressed this
momentary feeling and said:
“I have sworn vengeance against all who had to do with the death of
that young man. He was as my son. Will Red Knife fight Pa-e-has-ka? Let
him choose his own weapons and come against me that I may kill him in
fair fight.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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