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Updated: May 27, 2025
Despite the savage nature of Shackaye, a feeling of gratitude had been roused within him by the act of Avon in saving him from the enraged steer. Whether the white youth was already dead or not he did not know, but he interposed a vigorous plea that no further harm should be done him.
When, therefore, the time came for the opening of the negotiations with the cowboys, the wounded and unarmed captain was left in charge of Shackaye, while the others went forward and maintained their places within reach of Wygwind and Richita, during their interview with Gleeson.
The fact that the Comanches knew he was in charge of two thousand cattle, and had made him prisoner instead of slaying him, established this truth in the minds of Oscar Gleeson and his comrades. Furthermore, the Texan was confirmed in his belief that the act of Shackaye in joining the company before the start was the first step in an elaborate plot.
In such emergencies there is but the single thing to do: that is, to shoot the animal, and to hesitate to do so means certain death to the endangered cattleman. Two causes prevented Shackaye from appealing to this last and only recourse.
The youth gave his promise, though in his mind there was no doubt of the identity of the man that had come so near shooting him from his mustang. He saw the wisdom of not allowing Shackaye to know that he was suspected. The cattle having been located, the couple had little to do but to hold them where they were. This proved less difficult than at other times.
It was characteristic of his race that the atrocious crime was undertaken by him as a matter of course. The very chance for which Wygwind and his band were waiting came that morning when Captain Shirril, his nephew, and Shackaye set out to hunt the estray cattle.
The lull in the stirring proceeding led Avon to recall the mishap of Shackaye, who had escaped the horns of the other steer by such a narrow chance. He cast his eye toward the body of the dead animal plainly seen across the prairie, but the young Comanche himself was not in sight. He concluded that he must have remounted his mustang and galloped back to camp.
"Did you see Shackaye among 'em?" asked Gleeson, his face like a thunder-cloud. "He was not with those who attacked us; I could not have failed to see him if he had been." "But what became of him? He started off with you, and you must have parted somewhere on the road." Young Burnet now told about Shackaye's encounter with the steer which came near slaying him.
But the unaccountable stampede of a portion of the herd had roused all, and, at the moment "Ballyhoo," as he was known to his friends, reined up, preparations were under way for a general start after the absent ones. "Where's Madstone and Shackaye?" asked Gleeson, looking down in the faces of the group, dimly shown in the firelight, and noticing that two of their number were missing.
Shackaye arrived at the critical moment, when the helpless leader was being lifted upon the horse of Wygwind in front of him, and Avon lay senseless beneath the body of the mustang. The fact that Thunderbolt was still lying on the ground bleeding from his two flesh wounds led to the belief that he was mortally hurt, and no effort, therefore, was made to take him away.
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