FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   >>  
ant; "but in your present disabled state you cannot make use of it." "At least I will try," returned the Virginian. "If I could but slay the black-souled Pee-to-tum, I should revenge the treachery of this day, and perhaps be the means of saving the remnant of our brave fellows." "Oh!" gasped Nixon, as he fell suddenly dead upon the body of his wounded officer. He had been shot through the back and under the left rib. A fierce veil followed, and Ronayne beheld the hellish face of the Chippewa, looking more disgusting than ever in the loss of his left eye, as, with shining blade, he bounded forward to take the scalp of his victim. The body of the serjeant lay across his shattered leg, and not only gave him great anguish, but impeded his action, faint, moreover, as he was from loss of blood from several subsequent wounds received during his transit from the spot where he first had fallen. But the opportunity of avenging his wife, himself, and his slaughtered companions--the latter all murdered at his instigation--was one that would never occur again, and all his energies were aroused. Even while the half--drunken savage was in the act of taking the scalp of the unfortunate Nixon, Ronayne removed the bayonet from the musket, and grasping it with all the fierce determination of hatred, drove the sharp long instrument with such force through his exposed body, that not only the point protruded several inches on the opposite side, but the inner edge of the socket itself cut deeply into the flesh. Absolutely roaring with pain, the Chippewa left his bloody work unfinished. The knife fell from his grasp. He sprang to his feet, and having at once seen by whose hand the blow had been inflicted, a sudden thought appeared to occur to him. Down again he threw himself furiously upon the body of the wounded officer, who, anticipating the act, had by this time armed himself with the knife that lay with its handle on the ground and the trickling blade across the down-turned cheek of the serjeant. He sought to encircle him in his death grip, but, in falling, the handle of the bayonet had struck the ground, driving the weapon even deeper in, and thus adding to his torture. But the greater his suffering, the more desperate became his thirst for revenge. He now managed to throw his arms round the neck of the Virginian, and said something in broken English, which, accompanied as his language was by a fiendish laugh rendering his coun
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   >>  



Top keywords:

serjeant

 

officer

 

wounded

 

Ronayne

 

Chippewa

 

handle

 

ground

 
fierce
 

bayonet

 

revenge


Virginian
 

exposed

 

sprang

 

hatred

 
determination
 
grasping
 

musket

 

instrument

 

protruded

 

deeply


Absolutely

 

roaring

 

socket

 

opposite

 
inches
 

unfinished

 

bloody

 
anticipating
 

managed

 

thirst


torture

 

adding

 

greater

 

suffering

 

desperate

 

fiendish

 

language

 

rendering

 
accompanied
 

broken


English

 

deeper

 

furiously

 

inflicted

 

sudden

 

thought

 

appeared

 

trickling

 
struck
 

falling