e outfit, and
massacred all of them but Rube. They carried him off, kept him as a
slave, and, to make sure of him, cut out his tongue at the roots. But
some of the women who wasn't quite so devilish as their husbands, and
who took pity on him, went to work and cured him of his awful wound. He
was used mighty mean by the bucks of the tribe, and made up his mind to
get away from them or kill himself; for he could not live under their
harsh treatment. After he'd been with them for mor'n a year, the tribe
had a terrible battle with the Sioux, and in the scrimmage Rube stole
a pony and lit out. He rode on night and day until he came across the
cabin of the two trappers I have told you 'bout, and they, of course,
took the poor boy in and cared for him.

"Rube was a splendid shot with the rifle, and he swore to himself that
he would never leave the prairies and do nothing for the rest of
his life but kill Ingins, who had made him a homeless orphan, and so
mutilated him.

"After Rube had been with Boyd and Thorpe a year, they was all one day
in the winter examining their traps which was scattered 'long the stream
for miles. After re-baiting them, they concluded to hunt for meat, which
was getting scarce at the cabin; they let Rube go down to the creek
where it widened out lake-like, to fish through a hole in the ice, and
Al and Bill took their rifles and hunted in the timber for deer. They
all got separated of course, Rube being furtherest away, while Al and
Bill did not wander so far from each other that they could not be heard
if one wanted his companion.

"Al shot a fat black-tail deer, and just as he was going to stoop down
to cut its throat, Bill yelled out to him:--

"'Drop everything Al, for God's sake, and let's make for the dugout;
they're coming, a whole band of Sioux!'

"'If we can get to the cabin,' replied Al, 'we can keep off the whole
nation. I wonder where Rube is? I hope he'll get here and save his
scalp.'

"At this instant, poor Rube dashed up to them, an Ingin close upon his
tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten to take his rifle with him when
he went to the creek, and now he was at the mercy of the savage; at
least both he and his pursuer so thought. But before the Ingin had
fairly uttered his yell of exultation, Al who with Bill had held his
rifle in readiness for an emergency, lifted the red devil off his feet,
and he fell dead without ever knowing what had struck him.

"Rube, thus delivered from