At Shorakapok

Pard was stone dead. I didn’t have time to ponder it.

That red-paint injun grabbed his bloody hair and sliced off the top of his scalp with a long steel blade. I heard of this practice, but this was the first time I seen it with my own eyes.

He turned and clubbed me good across the face, knocking me back into the water. He seized my ankle and started hauling me toward the bank. Once there, he put his knee in my back and lashed up my wrists with a hank of sinew.

All around me I heard shrieks and screams.

These was devils.

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  1. neilmacdon

    There’s an intriguingly distanced voice to this. I think it’s the “I’d heard of this practice, but this was the first time I witnessed it”. By the way, while I’m quoting, shouldn’t “he put his knee in his back” be “he put his knee in my back”?

  2. 4963andypop

    Sounds like youve been watching the latest Coen brothers movie, too! Hard to imagine the hardships of those times, both of the scalper and the scalpee. You make us feel his fear.

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