The Free Rangers

The Free Rangers

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Altsheler This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: The Free Rangers A Story of the Early Days Along the
Mississippi
Author: Joseph A. Altsheler
Release Date: February 14, 2005 [EBook #15055]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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RANGERS ***

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THE FREE RANGERS
[Illustration]
JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
The FREE RANGERS

The FREE RANGERS

A STORY OF EARLY DAYS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI
BY
JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
AUTHOR OF "THE YOUNG TRAILERS," "THE FOREST
RUNNERS," ETC.
[Illustration]
APPLETON-CENTURY-CROFTS, INC.
NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
_All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, must not be
reproduced in any form without permission of the publishers._
Copyright, 1936, by Sallie B. Altsheler Printed in the United States of
America
"THE FREE RANGERS," WHILE AN INDEPENDENT STORY IN
ITSELF, CONTINUES THE FORTUNES OF THE TWO BOYS AND
THEIR COMRADES WHO WERE THE CENTRAL CHARACTERS
IN "THE YOUNG TRAILERS," "THE FOREST RUNNERS," "THE
KEEPERS OF THE TRAIL" AND "THE EYES of THE WOODS."
CONTENTS


CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE CALL 1
II. A FOREST ENVOY 17
III. AN INVISIBLE CHASE 39
IV. TAKING A "GALLEON" 54
V. ON THE GREAT RIVER 74
VI. BATTLE AND STORM 96
VII. THE LONE VOYAGER 115
VIII. THE CHATEAU OF BEAULIEU 133

IX. PAUL AND THE SPANIARD 153
X. A BARBARIC ORDEAL 171
XI. THE SPANIARD'S OFFER 181
XII. THE SHADOW IN THE FOREST 196
XIII. THE WHITE STALLION 214
XIV. NEW ORLEANS 230
XV. BEFORE BERNARDO GALVEZ 251
XVI. IN PRISON 271
XVII. THE FLAW IN THE ARMOR 285
XVIII. NORTHWARD WITH THE FLEET 302
XIX. THE BATTLE OF THE BANK 322
XX. THE BATTLE OF THE BAYOU 334
XXI. THE DEFENSE OF THE FIVE 349
XXII. THE CHOSEN TASK 361

THE FREE RANGERS


CHAPTER I
THE CALL
The wilderness rolled away to north and to south, and also it rolled
away to east and to west, an unbroken sweep of dark, glossy green.

Straight up stood the mighty trunks, but the leaves rippled and sang low
when a gentle south wind breathed upon them. It was the forest as God
made it, the magnificent valley of North America, upon whose edges
the white man had just begun to nibble.
A young man, stepping lightly, came into a little glade. He was white,
but he brought with him no alien air. He was in full harmony with the
primeval woods, a part of them, one in whose ears the soft song of the
leaves was a familiar and loved tune. He was lean, but tall, and he
walked with a wonderful swinging gait that betokened a frame wrought
to the strength of steel by exercise, wind, weather, and life always in
the open. Though his face was browned by sun and storm his hair was
yellow and his eyes blue. He was dressed wholly in deerskin and he
carried over his shoulder the long slender rifle of the border. At his belt
swung hatchet and knife.
There was a touch to the young man that separated him from the
ordinary woods rover. He held himself erect with a certain pride of
manner. The stock of his rifle, an unusually fine piece, was carved in an
ornate and beautiful way. The deerskin of his attire had been tanned
with uncommon care, and his moccasins were sewn thickly with little
beads of yellow and blue and red and green. Every piece of clothing
was scrupulously clean, and his arms were polished and bright.
The shiftless one--who so little deserved his name--paused a moment in
the glade and, dropping the stock of his rifle to the ground, leaned upon
the muzzle. He listened, although he expected to hear nothing save the
song of the leaves, and that alone he heard. A faint smile passed over
the face of Shif'less Sol. He was satisfied. All was happening as he had
planned. Then he swung the rifle back to his shoulder, and walked to
the crest of a hill near by.
The summit was bare and the shiftless one saw far. It was a splendid
rolling country, covered with forests of oak and elm, beech, hickory
and maple. Here and there faint threads of silver showed where rivers
or brooks flowed, and he drew a long deep breath. The measure of line
and verse he knew not, but deep in his