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
“Long Hair was sent to tell his big chief of my father’s warning, and
to bring people to bury the dead. Long Hair said he would return. Long
Hair is of a straight tongue. He is here!”
Instantly the strange chief standing so motionless in their presence
threw the war-bonnet aside and dropped the corner of the blanket which
muffled his face. Buffalo Bill stood revealed. A deep murmur ran around
the lodge, and it was half of surprise, half of admiration for the bold
paleface who had redeemed his word to the White Antelope. Fearlessly
the scout stood before his redskin foes, his eyes fixed upon the face
of Oak Heart.
“It is well,” said the old Sioux. “The Long Hair’s life was forfeit
when he was held by Death Killer. He has gone to his people; he has
returned as he said. Now he must die.”
But Buffalo Bill never changed color. White Antelope started forward,
her richly tinted face paling. It was a moment before she controlled
herself and stood calmly to speak as an Indian should.
“Let the White Antelope speak!” said Oak Heart quietly.
The girl, in rapid, burning words, related her capture by Boyd Bennett
and his death at the hands of the scout. The treachery of the renegade
was proved. Buffalo Bill had been the medicine chief’s prisoner. Why
should the Sioux hold the captive of a creature so dishonored?
Her plea evidently made some impression, but all eyes turned upon Oak
Heart, and at length the old chief spoke.
“The Long Hair is a mighty paleface chief. He has trailed the red man
to his village, and his belt is heavy with the scalps of my braves. He
came here under the war-bonnet of a Cheyenne chief, and has saved the
White Antelope from death.
“But the Long Hair has long been a foe to the Sioux. It was he who
brought help to the white soldiers in the fort when we would have
beaten them. It was he who took them ammunition. It was he who stole
our ponies.
“The Long Hair has ofttimes looked on death. He is not afraid of death.
He must show my warriors how a brave man can die.”
For the first time since entering the lodge, Buffalo Bill spoke:
“It is true, Oak Heart, that I have been your foe, and the foe of
your people of late. It was not always so. When the Sioux would dwell
at peace with the paleface, were content to live and hunt in these
mountains and not fall upon and kill the white soldiers, Long Hair was
their friend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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