Ted Strong in Montana Part 78

"Then Running Bear make you. Hate white boy. Not make play this time."

Before Ted was aware of his intention, the Indian had sprung upon him from the side. He was immensely powerful, and forced Ted backward toward the edge of the pit, evidently with the intention of breaking his neck by the fall.

But Ted managed to get a good hold at last, and forced him back gradually.

Then Running Bear came at him with greater strength, and again they wrestled perilously near the edge of the pit.

Running Bear took advantage of Ted's trip over the loose tree roots, and slowly forced him backward, in spite of his herculean efforts, to the pit's edge.

He had bent Ted's head back until his neck cracked, and if he threw him into the pit, it likely would kill him.

From where they stood, on the opposite side of the pit, none of the boys could get a shot at Running Bear without endangering the life of Ted.

It was a pretty tight situation, and the boys were really alarmed for Ted's safety, when out of the woods ran an apparition--a woman so covered with blood as to be unrecognizable. But Stella uttered a scream.

She had seen that it was Singing Bird, who had been terribly injured by her brute of a husband, who had evidently tortured her to get from her the information she possessed about the mother lode.

Before any one could divine what she was about to do, the Indian girl had sprung toward Running Bear and plunged a long, keen knife into his back to the hilt.

It was an Indian's revenge. She had given him blood for blood.

Running Bear staggered backward, then suddenly wheeled, caught the knife from the girl's hand, and was about to plunge it into her, when he fell forward on his face and lay quite still.

Singing Bird weaved back and forth for a moment, then she, too, sank to the ground.

When the horror of the sudden tragedy pa.s.sed from them sufficiently, the boys rushed to the side of the unhappy couple, but they both were dead.

That was the tragedy of the "Mother Lode Mine" on the upper Missouri, which became the property of the Moon Valley Company, and which paid enormously until it worked out, for it was only a pocket, thus putting an end to the placer mining on the islands farther down the river.

The rest is soon told. Barrows was never heard of again, for he knew that if he returned to take a court-martial for his misconduct, he would have fared badly.

That fall the officers at the post sent word to Ted that if his cattle were for sale they would be glad to buy them at his own figure, so that his independence in repudiating the first contract was a good thing after all, for, besides the profits which came from Stella's gold mine, the herd paid handsomely. But Stella never forgot Singing Bird, whose gentle life paid the penalty for the greed for gold. Not far from the mine she was buried, and a stone carved with the story of her death still marks the place where she was laid to rest.

THE END.