Betty Zane, Zane Grey [top 10 books to read txt] 📗

of death was already stealing over the pallid face, but from the grey eyes shone an indomitable spirit, a spirit which nothing but death could quench.

“Quick!” the lad panted. “Send men to the south wall. The redskins are breakin’ in where the water from the spring runs under the fence.”

“Where are Metzar and the other men?”

“Dead! Killed last night. I’ve been there alone all night. I kept on shootin’. Then I gets plugged here under the chin. Knowin’ it’s all up with me I deserted my post when I heard the Injuns choppin’ on the fence where it was on fire last night. But I only⁠—run⁠—because⁠—they’re gettin’ in.”

“Wetzel, Bennet, Clarke!” yelled Silas, as he laid the boy on the bench.

Almost as Silas spoke the tall form of the hunter confronted him. Clarke and the other men were almost as prompt.

“Wetzel, run to the south wall. The Indians are cutting a hole through the fence.”

Wetzel turned, grabbed his rifle and an axe and was gone like a flash.

“Sullivan, you handle the men here. Bessie, do what you can for this brave lad. Come, Bennet, Clarke, we must follow Wetzel,” commanded Silas.

Mrs. Zane hastened to the side of the fainting lad. She washed away the blood from the wound over his temple. She saw that a bullet had glanced on the bone and that the wound was not deep or dangerous. She unlaced the hunting shirt at the neck and pulled the flaps apart. There on the right breast, on a line with the apex of the lung, was a horrible gaping wound. A murderous British slug had passed through the lad. From the hole at every heartbeat poured the dark, crimson lifetide. Mrs. Zane turned her white face away for a second; then she folded a small piece of linen, pressed it tightly over the wound, and wrapped a towel round the lad’s breast.

“Don’t waste time on me. It’s all over,” he whispered. “Will you call Betty here a minute?”

Betty came, white-faced and horror-stricken. For forty hours she had been living in a maze of terror. Her movements had almost become mechanical. She had almost ceased to hear and feel. But the light in the eyes of this dying boy brought her back to the horrible reality of the present.

“Oh, Harry! Harry! Harry!” was all Betty could whisper.

“I’m goin’, Betty. And I wanted⁠—you to say a little prayer for me⁠—and say goodbye to me,” he panted.

Betty knelt by the bench and tried to pray.

“I hated to run, Betty, but I waited and waited and nobody came, and the Injuns was getting’ in. They’ll find dead Injuns in piles out there. I was shootin’ fer you, Betty, and every time I aimed I thought of you.”

The lad rambled on, his voice growing weaker and weaker and finally ceasing. The hand which had clasped Betty’s so closely loosened its hold. His eyes closed. Betty thought he was dead, but no! he still breathed. Suddenly his eyes opened. The shadow of pain was gone. In its place shone a beautiful radiance.

“Betty, I’ve cared a lot for you⁠—and I’m dyin’⁠—happy because I’ve fought fer you⁠—and somethin’ tells me⁠—you’ll⁠—be saved. Goodbye.” A smile transformed his face and his gray eyes gazed steadily into hers. Then his head fell back. With a sigh his brave spirit fled.

Hugh Bennet looked once at the pale face of his son, then he ran down the stairs after Silas and Clarke. When the three men emerged from behind Capt. Boggs’s cabin, which was adjacent to the blockhouse, and which hid the south wall from their view, they were two hundred feet from Wetzel. They heard the heavy thump of a log being rammed against the fence; then a splitting and splintering of one of the six-inch oak planks. Another and another smashing blow and the lower half of one of the planks fell inwards, leaving an aperture large enough to admit an Indian. The men dashed forward to the assistance of Wetzel, who stood by the hole with upraised axe. At the same moment a shot rang out. Bennet stumbled and fell headlong. An Indian had shot through the hole in the fence. Silas and Alfred sheered off toward the fence, out of line. When within twenty yards of Wetzel they saw a swarthy-faced and athletic savage squeeze through the narrow crevice. He had not straightened up before the axe, wielded by the giant hunter, descended on his head, cracking his skull as if it were an eggshell. The savage sank to the earth without even a moan. Another savage, naked and powerful, slipped in. He had to stoop to get through. He raised himself, and seeing Wetzel, he tried to dodge the lightning sweep of the axe. It missed his head, at which it had been aimed, but struck just over the shoulders, and buried itself in flesh and bone. The Indian uttered an agonizing yell which ended in a choking, gurgling sound as the blood spurted from his throat. Wetzel pulled the weapon from the body of his victim, and with the same motion he swung it around. This time the blunt end met the next Indian’s head with a thud like that made by the butcher when he strikes the bullock to the ground. The Indian’s rifle dropped, his tomahawk flew into the air, while his body rolled down the little embankment into the spring. Another and another Indian met the same fate. Then two Indians endeavored to get through the aperture. The awful axe swung by those steel arms dispatched both of them in the twinkling of an eye. Their bodies stuck in the hole.

Silas and Alfred stood riveted to the spot. Just then Wetzel in all his horrible glory was a sight to freeze the marrow of any man. He had cast aside his hunting shirt in that run to the fence and was now stripped to the waist. He was covered with blood. The muscles of his broad back and his brawny arms swelled and rippled under the