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Vol. IV.] APRIL 29, 1876. [No. 48.
THE PHANTOM TRACKER;
OR,
THE PRISONER OF THE HILL CAVE.
BY FREDERICK DEWEY,
AUTHOR OF “THE DOG TRAILER,” “WILL-O’-THE WISP,” ETC.
NEW YORK:
BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUBLISHERS,
98 WILLIAM STREET.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
FRANK STARR & CO.,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
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THE PHANTOM TRAILER;
OR,
THE PRISONER OF THE HILL CAVE.
CHAPTER I.
THE CAVE-HUNTER AND THE SHADOW.
It was a sultry, scorching day, on the banks of the riverGila—very sultry and silent. The sun in the zenith lookedwhitely down, and the yellow banks reflected its rays fiercelyon the sluggishly-creeping, warm river. Away over the flat,glistening plain reigned the utmost silence. As far as the eyecould reach it saw nothing—only dead level, dead heat, anddead silence. Here, mile upon mile from civilization, hundredsof miles away from any habitation, this vast wildernessstretched away—always level, always hazy, always silent—aspectral land.
A large catfish lazily rolled and tumbled on the surface ofthe river, too hot to swim, and too stupid to move—lyingthere, he only, at times, waved his fins and tumbled gently.A vulture sat on a sand-crag just above him—a water-vulture,or, rather, a brown, dirty fish-hawk. He was lazily watchinghis chance to swoop suddenly down upon the fish, and carryhim off in his talons. But it was too hot to undergo any uselessexertion, so he watched and waited for a sure chance,pluming himself moodily.
A panting coyote sat on his house at a little distance, watchingthe pair, and vaguely conscious that he was very hungry;a mule-rabbit under an adjacent tiny shrub tremblingly watchedthe coyote, starting violently at the slightest movement ofthe latter; and a huge yellow serpent, long and supple,dragged his scaly body up the bluff toward the rabbit.
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The sun shone redly down now, leaving its white appearancefor a sanguinary and blood-red hue; a haze was brewing.
Suddenly the quiet was disturbed. The coyote sneakedaway, with his bristly chin upon his lank shoulder; thisalarmed the rabbit, and he, too, fled, making the most giganticleaps; in ten seconds he had disappeared. The snake’s eyesflashed in enraged disappointment, and hissing spitefully, heraised his head to discover the cause of the hasty flight.
He soon saw it. On the barren banks he could have seena mouse at a long distance. The object he saw was the exactreverse of that diminutive quadruped, being a large, stalwart,swarthy man, on a large black horse.
He appeared suddenly, riding over the crest of an adjacenthillock. He stopped on the summit, glared