The Free Rangers: A Story of the Early Days Along the MississippiAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Free Rangers: A Story of the Early Days Along the Mississippi
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction; Mississippi River -- Juvenile fiction
Thinking of Braxton Wyatt he looked for him and, as he looked, the
renegade came from a point near the shore toward the commander. It was
evident that Wyatt had been faring well. His frontier dress had been
partly replaced with gay Spanish garments. He now wore a cap with a
feather in it, and a velvet doublet. He, too, had a most complacent look.
Wyatt approached Alvarez and the commander courteously invited him to a
seat on the hillock near him. When he took the seat a soldier brought the
renegade a cup of wine, and he drank, first lifting the cup toward Alvarez
as if he drank a toast to the success of the alliance. There could be no
doubt about the perfect understanding of the two; and Henry's anger rose.
It was impossible to set a limit to what a ruthless and determined man
like Francisco Alvarez might do.
Wyatt rose presently after a nod to the commander and walked among the
soldiers. He seemed to have no particular object in view and his
strollings brought him near to the edge of the swampy forest.
"Perhaps he's spying about, and will come into the woods where we are,"
whispered Henry. "Maybe he has those maps and plans upon him, and it would
be a great thing to get them. I don't believe he could make a new set
soon."
"It's a risky thing to try," said Shif'less Sol, "but ef he comes in here,
an' you think it the best thing to do, I'm ready to help."
The two crouched a little lower and remained breathless. Braxton Wyatt
strolled on. He was making a sort of vague inspection of the camp, but he
was really thinking more about the great triumph that he saw ahead. Since
he had turned renegade, leaving his own white race to join the Indians, a
thing that was sometimes done, he had been stung by many defeats and he
wished a great revenge that would pour oil upon all these wounds.
A bad nature grows worse with failure. Seeking to injure his former people
and failing at every turn, Braxton Wyatt hated them more and more all the
time. His wrath was particularly directed against the five who had been
such great instruments in sending his careful plans astray. His scheme
with the Indian league had failed chiefly through them, but he felt that
he could now come with a Spanish force that would prove irresistible. That
was why he glowed with internal warmth and pride. The settlements would be
destroyed and he, in fact, would be the destroyer.
Braxton Wyatt entered the edge of the woods, still occupied with the cruel
triumph that was to be his. He did not notice that the foliage was
gradually shutting out the firelight. Presently he saw, or believed that
he saw, a shadowy but terrible figure. It was the figure of the one whom
he dreaded most on earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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