THE WOLF QUEEN, OR, THE GIANT HERMIT OF THE SCIOTO. BY CAPT. CHARLES HOWARD, AUTHOR OF “THE ELK KING,” (POCKET NOVEL NO. 45.) NEW YORK: BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUBLISHERS, 98 WILLIAM STREET. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by FRANK STARR & CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. CONTENTS PAGE I. THE RIVER COMBAT. 9 II. THE HERMIT AND HIS CAVE. 12 III. JIM GIRTY AND HIS PRISONER. 18 IV. THE EVENTS OF THAT NIGHT. 22 V. THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH-SHOTS. 27 VI. OUT OF THE CAVE TO DOOM. 31 VII. ALASKA IN HER FRENZY. 36 VIII. JIM GIRTY TRIUMPHS. 40 IX. ONE OF ALASKA’S WHIMS. 45 X. THE FATE OF WELL-LAID PLANS. 50 XI. THE MOLES ON THE SHOULDER. 56 XII. NOT YET! NOT YET! 60 XIII. THE BAFFLED RENEGADE. 66 XIV. SQUAW VENGEANCE, AND SQUAW RAGE. 71 XV. A LEAF FROM THE HERMIT’S LIFE. 75 XVI. THE KING OF THE WOLVES. 78 XVII. THE CONFERENCE ON THE KNOLL. 80 XVIII. SIMON GIRTY IN HIS WAR-PAINT. 82 XIX. A CHANGE IN AFFAIRS. 85 XX. THE BLOODY MEETING. 89 XXI. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS. 94 THE WOLF-QUEEN; OR, THE GIANT HERMIT OF THE SCIOTO. CHAPTER I. THE RIVER COMBAT. The sun was sinking, a great fiery ball, in the leaden west, at the close of an autumn day, in the year 1804, when a solitary canoe descended the Scioto, then vastly swollen by recent rains. The single occupant of the tiny bark was a youth of two and twenty summers, clad in buck-skin. His beardless face gave him an extremely womanish expression. Its smooth surface was yet untanned by the rays of the sun, which fairness of skin proclaimed him a novice in backwoods life.