Category: Historical Novels

The Trappers of Arkansas; or, The Loyal Heart

I. THE PRAIRIE II. THE HUNTERS III. THE TRAIL IV. THE TRAVELLERS V. THE COMANCHES VI. THE PRESERVER VII. THE SURPRISE VIII. INDIAN VENGEANCE IX. THE PHANTOM X. THE ENTRENCHED CAMP XI. THE BARGAIN XII. PSYCHOLOGICAL XIII. THE BEE-HUNT XIV. BLACK ELK XV. THE BEAVERS XVI. TREACHE...

Chapters

41. CHAPTER XV.

The old soldier, so roughly treated for some time past, was delighted to press to his bosom the innocent child who constituted his whole family, and who, by a miracle, had escap...

40. CHAPTER XIV.

As soon as the doctor had entered the grotto with the captain, Eagle Head, certain of having discovered the retreat of the pirates, had rejoined his friends, to whom he imparted...

5. CHAPTER III.

On the morrow the sun rose splendidly on the horizon. The storm of the night had completely cleared the sky, which was one of deep blue; the birds warbled gaily, concealed benea...

22. CHAPTER XVI.

The return was dull, the general was plunged in profound reflections, caused by his conversation with the trapper. Doña Luz was thinking of the warning that had been given her;...

35. CHAPTER IX.

It was an unheard-of piece of audacity in the captain, after what had taken place, to come thus and deliver himself up, without the slightest resistance, into the hands of men w...

3. CHAPTER I.

The search for gold was the origin of the discovery of the New World; that gold once found, America became for its conquerors merely a storehouse, whither greedy adventurers cam...

4. CHAPTER II.

The environs of Hermosillo are a thorough desert. The road which leads from that city to the Hacienda del Milagro (Farm of the Miracle) is one of the dullest and most arid possi...

15. CHAPTER IX.

Birds flew hither and thither, uttering strange cries, whilst others, concealed under the thickest of the foliage, poured forth melodious concerts. Now and then a deer raised it...

36. CHAPTER X.

The childhood of the maiden had passed away, pale and colourless, amidst the extravagant religious practices of a country where the religion of Christ is rather a paganism than...

21. CHAPTER XV.

The beavers had not only intercepted the course of the river by means of their industrious community, but, still further, all the rivulets that ran into it had their courses sto...

26. CHAPTER XX.

As soon as the scalp dance was over, the principal warriors of the tribe ranged themselves before the stake, their arms in hand, whilst the women, particularly the most aged, fe...

12. CHAPTER VI.

Scarce had his enemies disappeared among the trees, ere Eagle Head raised himself softly up, bent his body forward, and listened to ascertain if they were really departing. As s...

8. CHAPTER II.

Loyal Heart--this name was the only one by which the hunter was known throughout the prairies of the West--enjoyed an immense reputation for skill, loyalty, and courage among th...

19. CHAPTER XIII.

The sun was scarcely above the horizon, when the general, whose horse was already saddled, left the reed cabin which served him as a sleeping apartment, and prepared to set out...

9. CHAPTER III.

It was perfectly visible in the high grass, and if now and then it appeared to be effaced, the hunters had but slightly to turn to one side or the other to regain the prints of it.

29. CHAPTER III.

During the first moments, according to the custom of his brethren, he puzzled his brain to endeavour to make out the signification of the words, somewhat cabalistical in his opi...

39. CHAPTER XIII.

A considerable space of ground, situated in front of the grotto inhabited by Loyal Heart, had been cleared, the trees cut down, and from a hundred and fifty to two hundred huts...

25. CHAPTER XIX.

Notwithstanding the stormy conversation he had had with Eusebio, Eagle Head had continued to treat the prisoners with the greatest kindness, and that extreme delicacy of proceed...

23. CHAPTER XVII.

Eagle Head was a chief as prudent as he was determined; he knew he had everything to fear from the Americans, if he did not succeed in completely concealing his trail.

20. CHAPTER XIV.

In the desert, this word man almost always means an enemy. Man in the prairies is more dreaded by his fellow than the most ferocious wild beast. A man is a rival, a forced assoc...

27. CHAPTER I.

The hunters, who a moment before were at the mercy of the Indians, felt they were not only in a manner free, but that they had it in their power to impose hard conditions.

10. CHAPTER IV.

About the same hour that the trappers issued from the grotto, and took up the trail of the Comanches again, at twenty miles' distance from them, a rather large party of white tr...

24. CHAPTER XVIII.

The precautions taken by Eagle Head to conceal his march were good as regarded the whites, whose senses, less kept upon the watch than those of partisans and hunters, and little...

38. CHAPTER XII.

But he was too much accustomed to the life of the prairies not to suspect that several of his enemies would follow his track at a distance. Therefore, he had put in practice, to...

16. CHAPTER X.

A few minutes after the two men had quitted the camp of the Mexicans, the general left his tent, and whilst casting an investigating look around him, and inhaling the fresh air...

18. CHAPTER XII.

The general had kept the causes which made him undertake a journey into the prairies from the west of the United States so profound a secret, that the persons who accompanied hi...

37. CHAPTER XI.

When the redskins and the hunters had recaptured the camp of the Mexicans, the pirates, according to the orders of their leader, had spread about in all directions, in order the...

11. CHAPTER V.

The Indians depended upon the vigilance of their sentinels. Far from suspecting that their enemies were so near them and were watching their motions, they crouched or lay around...

6. CHAPTER IV.

As soon as the hacienda had disappeared behind a swell in the ground, Don Ramón stopped, drew a silk handkerchief from his breast, bandaged the eyes of his son without saying a...

7. CHAPTER I.

To the westward of the United States extends, many hundred miles beyond the Mississippi, an immense territory, unknown up to this day, composed of uncultivated lands, on which s...

33. CHAPTER VII.

As soon as the camp was invaded, the captain left his people to pillage and kill at their pleasure. Without concerning himself any more about them, he rushed towards the tent.

14. CHAPTER VIII.

The captain, surprised by the silent attack of the Comanches, had been suddenly awakened by the frightful war cry they uttered, as soon as they had set fire to the materials hea...

34. CHAPTER VIII.

The interior of the cavern, lighted by numerous torches of that wood which the Indians call candlewood, which burned, fixed at distances on the projections of the rock, presente...

30. CHAPTER IV.

Whilst these terrible events were being accomplished, the doctor was quietly herbalizing. The worthy _savant_, enraptured by the rich _flora_ he had beneath his eyes, had forgot...

28. CHAPTER II.

Concealed in a ravine, deeply enclosed between two hills, about forty men were assembled around several fires, dispersed in such a manner that the light of the flames could not...

13. CHAPTER VII.

Scarcely was the independence of North America proclaimed, and peace concluded with the mother country, ere those very men who cried out so loudly against tyranny and oppression...

32. CHAPTER VI.

The general, exasperated by the death of Captain Aguilar, and perceiving that with such enemies there was no quarter to be expected, had resolved to resist to the last, and to k...

31. CHAPTER V.

After walking straight forward about ten minutes, without giving himself the trouble to follow one of those innumerable paths that intersect the prairie in all directions, the h...

17. CHAPTER XI.

Like the spoken language, the language of signs has, in America, infinite fluctuations; everyone, so to say, invents his own. It is a compound of strange and mysterious gestures...

1. PART I.

I. THE PRAIRIE II. THE HUNTERS III. THE TRAIL IV. THE TRAVELLERS V. THE COMANCHES VI. THE PRESERVER VII. THE SURPRISE VIII. INDIAN VENGEANCE IX. THE PHANTOM X. THE ENTRENCHED CA...

2. PART II.

I. LOYAL HEART II. THE PIRATES III. DEVOTEDNESS IV. THE DOCTOR V. THE ALLIANCE VI. THE LAST ASSAULT VII. THE BATTLE VIII. THE CAVERN OF VERDIGRIS IX. DIPLOMACY X. LOVE XI. THE P...