The White Scalper: A Story of the Texan WarAimard, Gustave
History
The White Scalper: A Story of the Texan War
Aimard, Gustave
Texas -- History -- Revolution, 1835-1836 -- Fiction; Western stories
"Oh, oh, what does that mean?" the young man muttered a moment later.
"It means that I was not mistaken, and that we shall have a fight, but
fortunately this time again it will be diamond cut diamond; warn John
Davis, and let him take the villains in the rear, while we face them."
"There is not a moment to be lost," Loyal Heart muttered, and he bounded
toward the camp.
The two experienced hunters had noticed a thing which would certainly
have been passed over by the eyes of men less habituated to Indian
customs. We have said that at intervals a capricious breeze passed over
the tops of the trees; this breeze blew from the South West over the
plain for a distance of some few hundred yards, and yet the same breeze
ran along the tall grass, incessantly approaching the hill where the
Comanches were encamped, but, extraordinary to say, it blew from the
North East, or a direction diametrically opposed to the former. This was
all the hunters had perceived, and yet it sufficed them to guess the
stratagem of their foes, and foil it.
Five minutes later, sixty Comanches, commanded by Tranquil and Loyal
Heart, crawled like serpents down the sides of the hill, and on reaching
the plain stood motionless, as if converted into statues. John Davis,
with the rest of the band, turned the hill. All at once a terrible cry
was heard--the Comanches rose like a legion of demons, and rushed
headlong on their enemies. The latter, once again surprised when they
hoped to surprise, hesitated for a moment, and then, terrified by this
sudden attack, they were seized by a panic terror, and turned to fly,
but behind them rose suddenly the American's band.
They must fight, or surrender to the mercy of an implacable foe; hence
the Apaches closed up shoulder to shoulder, and the butchery commenced.
It was horrible, and lasted till day. These deadly enemies fought
without uttering a cry, and fell without giving way to a sigh. As the
Apaches fell, their comrades drew closer together, while the Comanches
contracted the circle of steel in which they were enclosed.
The sun, on rising, illuminated a horrible scene of carnage; forty
Comanches had fallen, while of the Apaches ten men, all more or less
severely wounded, alone stood upright. Loyal Heart turned away in sorrow
from this fearful sight, for it would have been useless for him to
interfere to save the last victims. The Comanches, intoxicated by the
smell of blood and powder, furious at the resistance their enemies had
offered, did not listen to his orders, and the remaining Apaches were
killed and scalped.
"Ah!" Black-deer exclaimed, pointing with a gesture of triumph to a
mutilated and almost unrecognizable corpse, "the Sachems will be
pleased, for Blue-fox is dead at last."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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