512 



RECREATION 



upon the superstition of the Indiana 

 and leaving them to spread their own 

 version among the whites. Three dif- 

 ferent times they ran across the mys- 

 terious tracks and each time the man's 

 trail was lost in the trail of a pack of 

 wolves. At last they became supersti- 

 tious themselves and left the park and 

 located a claim where the celebrated 

 Wolf mines are now situated. Here 

 they struck it so rich that they made 

 their permanent abode alongside of the 

 diggings. Old Darlinkle's "pard" mar- 

 ried a squaw and Darlinkle married a 

 blue-eyed, golden-haired emigrant girl 

 he found hiding under the ruins of an 

 emigrant's wagon surrounded by dead 

 horses and butchered relatives who had 

 emigrated to a better land through the 

 instrumentality of a wandering band of 

 redskins. A year later Big Pete was 

 born at the exact spot where our camp 

 was now located, where his parents were 

 then camping. 



Old Darlinkle's rifle had its stock 

 covered with notches, each of which 

 represented the death of some member 

 of this party of Indians, but he often 

 said he had half a mind to forgive them 

 because of the beautiful wife they had 

 unconsciously left him. However; be- 

 fore he had quite made up his mind to 

 quit hunting Indians he himself was 

 caught and his body was afterwards 

 found pinned to the ground with ar- 

 rows. This proved a deathblow to 

 Pete's mother, and she was buried soon 

 after. Big Pete's aunt, as he called the 

 squaw wife of his father's "pard," filled 

 his young head full of stories of the 

 "Wild Hunter," and as near as Pete 

 could make out this same mysterious 

 hunter had haunted the park since its 

 discovery, but had only been seen at 

 long intervals. Although Pete himself 

 had spent some part of every year of his 

 life in the park, he had seldom seen 

 this strange being. 



Incidentally I gained a piece of infor- 

 mation that put my heart in my mouth. 

 Pete's father's name was Daniel Albert 

 Robert Linkle, and had been corrupted 

 or shortened by his comrades from D 



A. R. Linkle to Darlinkle, and this ren- 

 dition was accepted by Pete's father. 

 I have often remarked that in the West 

 such prefixes as Van, Von and O are 

 frequently omitted and forgotten. This 

 startling coincidence led me to fear that 

 Big Pete was, in some way, connected 

 with Bob Vanlinkle, the trapper, the 

 man in the Copley portrait. 



I am ashamed now to acknowledge it, 

 but the truth of the matter is that con- 

 tact with ever mysterious Nature, my 

 strange companion and the weird "Wild 

 Hunter" must have made me more 

 superstitious and credulous than I was 

 willing to admit even to myself. 



It is plain to me now that I was afraid 

 that that foolish blood curse might find 

 a victim in my guide and friend. Of 

 course, I did not really believe in the 

 power of the curse, but Big Pete was 

 not in need of money or estates in New 

 York and the city life might ruin him, 

 and if a fatal accident should happen 

 to him it would be a great shame. Pete 

 had, no doubt, sins of his own to look 

 after, and I saw no justice in making 

 him suffer for those of a remote ances- 

 tor. 



CHAPTER V. 



CHASED BY BUFFALO. 



It is hard to realize that the great 

 trees surrounding the lake in Darlinkle's 

 park were fully grown and mature when 

 Columbus was busy smashing the end 

 of a hard boiled egg to make it stand 

 on end, and that the tall cedars 

 and evergreens of Big Pete's private 

 game preserve interlaced their branches 

 as they do now, concealing their lofty 

 tops and forming a screen through 

 which the powerful rays of the noon- 

 day sun are filtered, refined and sub- 

 dued to a dreamy twilight below. A 

 twilight in which the soft green mosses 

 and lace-like ferns thrive into luxuriant 

 growth. 



Wherever a small opening in the 

 woods allows the genial heat of the sun 

 to reach and warm the dark earth, 

 masses of deep, dark blue blossoms of 



