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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58568 ***
+
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+
+  Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by
+  =equal signs=.
+
+  Small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase.
+
+  Blank pages have been eliminated.
+
+  Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the
+  original.
+
+
+
+                          TALES OF THE TRAIL
+
+                     SHORT STORIES OF WESTERN LIFE
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          COLONEL HENRY INMAN
+
+          _Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army_
+
+         AUTHOR OF "THE OLD SANTA FÉ TRAIL," "SALT LAKE TRAIL"
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                            _FIFTH EDITION_
+
+
+                      CRANE & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
+                            TOPEKA, KANSAS
+                                 1917
+
+
+
+
+                    Copyright 1898, by CRANE & CO.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+These "Tales of the Trail" are based upon actual facts which came under
+the personal observation of the author, whose reputation as a writer
+of the frontier is national. His other works have met with phenomenal
+success, and these sketches, which have appeared from time to time in
+the current literature of the United States, are now compiled, and
+will form another interesting series of stories of that era of great
+adventures, when the country west of the Missouri was unknown except to
+the trappers, hunters, and army officers.
+
+Some of the characters around which are woven the thrilling incidents
+of these "Tales" were men of world-wide reputation; they have long
+since joined the "choir invisible," but their names as pioneers in the
+genesis of great States which then formed the theater of their exploits
+will live as long as the United States exists as a great nation.
+
+However improbable to the uninitiated the thrilling experiences of the
+individuals who were actors in the scenes depicted, may seem, they are
+a proof that "truth is stranger than fiction."
+
+It is fortunate that Colonel Inman during his forty years on the
+extreme frontier was such a close observer, and noted from time to time
+these stories of the frontier which form such an interesting part of
+our Americana.
+
+                                                JAMES L. KING,
+                                                _State Librarian_.
+  TOPEKA, KANSAS, March 1, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                              PAGE.
+
+  GENERAL FORSYTHE AT THE ARRICKAREE                              1
+
+  EL SOLITARIO, THE HERMIT PRIEST OF THE OLD SANTA FÉ TRAIL      24
+
+  MEDICINE BLUFF      45
+
+  A RACE FOR LIFE: An Incident of the Indian War of 1864         58
+
+  THE TRAGEDY AT TWIN MOUNDS: An Incident of the
+    Indian War of 1866-'67                                       96
+
+  WAL. HENDERSON                                                129
+
+  KIT CARSON'S PAWNEE ROCK STORY                                151
+
+  SHERIDAN'S ROOST                                              170
+
+  THE PASSING OF THE BUFFALO                                    179
+
+  JUDGE LYNCH'S COURT AT WHOOPING HOLLOW                        192
+
+  THE WOOING OF AH-KEY-NES-TOU                                  240
+
+  KIT CARSON'S "FIRST INDIAN"                                   256
+
+  DID GENERAL CUSTER COMMIT SUICIDE?                            270
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                     PAGE.
+
+  General Forsythe                                       1
+
+  The Charge                                            13
+
+  The Hermit Priest                                     24
+
+  Little Beaver                                         45
+
+  Kicking Bird                                          58
+
+  Susie Réaume                                          96
+
+  Sitting Bull, Crow Eagle, and Buffalo Bill           101
+
+  Sa-tan-ta                                            104
+
+  The Mirage                                           119
+
+  Wal. Henderson                                       130
+
+  O-ton-son-e-var                                      163
+
+  Pacer's Son--Chief of all the Apaches                166
+
+  General Sheridan                                     170
+
+  Catching Wild Turkeys in Gen. Sheridan's Camp        178
+
+  Wolves Attacking a Buffalo                           191
+
+  A Lynching Scene                                     238
+
+  Mandan Chief                                         240
+
+  Mandan Canoe                                         246
+
+  Mandan Village                                       248
+
+  Kit Carson                                           256
+
+  Train at Pawnee Rock                                 266
+
+  General Custer                                       270
+
+  Little River                                         273
+
+  Sitting Bull                                         277
+
+
+
+
+GEN. FORSYTHE AT THE ARRICKAREE.
+
+A THRILLING STORY OF INDIAN WARFARE.
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL FORSYTHE.]
+
+I was sitting in my office at Fort Harker on a warm evening in the
+latter part of September, 1868, musing over a pipeful of "Lone Jack,"
+upon the possible extent of the impending Indian war, which had already
+been planned by Gen. Sheridan, in the seclusion of my own quarters,
+only the night before. It was rapidly growing dark; the somber line of
+the twilight curve had almost met the western horizon, and only the
+faintest tinge of purple beneath marked the intermedium between the
+gloaming and the rayless sky.
+
+Nothing disturbed my revery as I wandered in my imagination over the
+bleak expanse of the Arkansas, Cimarron and Canadian rivers, so soon to
+be the scene of active operations, except the monotonous clicking of
+the relay in the window of the next room, where the Government night
+operator was on duty, who was also meditating in the darkness.
+
+The terrible massacres on Spillman creek, only a few weeks before,
+still furnished food for vengeful thoughts that would not down, as
+images of the murdered women and little ones rose in horrible visions
+upon the thick night before me.
+
+The dismal howl of a hungry wolf borne upon the still air from the
+timbered recesses of the Smoky added to the weird aspect that my
+surroundings were rapidly assuming, and there seemed some portentous
+and indescribable thing bearing down upon the place.
+
+Suddenly the operator--while the clicking of the instruments
+became more nervous and varied from their monotone of the whole
+evening--exclaimed, "My God! Major, what's this?"
+
+"What is what?" said I, jumping from my chair and rushing to his side.
+Quickly lighting his little lamp and seizing his pencil, he wrote upon
+a blank as I looked over his shoulder and read--while the clicking grew
+more convulsive still--these words:
+
+  "Gen. Forsythe surrounded by Indians on the Republican. Lieut.
+  Beecher, the doctor, and many of the scouts killed; nearly the
+  entire command, including the general, wounded. Stillwell, one of
+  the scouts, ran the gauntlet of the savages, and brings report.
+  Col. Carpenter, Tenth Cavalry, and his command, leave immediately
+  to relieve them."
+
+This was a fragment of the whole dispatch going over the wires from
+Fort Hays to Fort Leavenworth and Washington. We had taken enough of it
+to know that a terrible disaster had befallen the gallant Forsythe, of
+Sheridan's staff, and his plucky band of scouts, who were all civilians
+and Kansans.
+
+The headquarters of Gen. Sheridan, who was at the date of this
+narrative in command of the Department of the Missouri, were
+temporarily established at Fort Harker. He was consummating his
+arrangements for a winter campaign against the hostile tribes, and the
+idea suggested itself that a body of carefully selected men, composed
+of the best material to be found on the frontier, under the leadership
+of an experienced officer, could effect excellent results.
+
+These scouts, as they were to be termed, were to go anywhere, and act
+entirely independent of the regularly organized troops about to take
+the field.
+
+Generals Custer and Sully, the next in rank to Sheridan, both already
+famous as Indian fighters, coincided with this view of the commanding
+general; and it was determined to pick fifty equipped frontiersmen at
+once, commission Forsythe as their leader, who in the incipiency of the
+movement modestly solicited the responsible position.
+
+The fifty-four men were chosen from an aggregate of more than 2,000
+employed by the Government at various positions at Forts Harker and
+Hays. The reader may rest assured that only those were accepted
+who possessed the essential qualifications of indomitable courage,
+wonderful endurance, perfect markmanship, and a thorough knowledge of
+the Indian character.
+
+Gen. Forsythe chose for his lieutenant his particular friend F. H.
+Beecher, of the Third Infantry, a nephew of the celebrated Brooklyn
+clergyman.
+
+Some days were occupied at Fort Harker in fitting out the little
+expedition, but no unnecessary equipage or superfluous camp
+paraphernalia formed any part of the supplies.
+
+There were no tents or wagons. Pack-mules carried the commissary
+stores, which were of the simplest character, and as the object of the
+party was war, its impedimenta were reduced to the minimum.
+
+Each man was mounted on an excellent horse, his armament a
+breech-loading rifle and two revolvers.
+
+This troop of brave men left Harker for Hays in the latter part of
+August, from which point their arduous duties were commenced.
+
+On the 29th of that month, all the preliminaries for taking the field
+having been completed and their surgeon joined, they marched out of the
+fort on their perilous mission. After scouting over a large area for
+several days without meeting any sign of the Cheyennes, they concluded
+to go to Wallace to recuperate and refit.
+
+Sometime during the second week in September the Indians made a raid on
+a Government wagon train near Sheridan station, on the Kansas Pacific
+Railroad, about twelve miles east of Wallace. As soon as the news
+reached the fort over the wires, Forsythe and his little band of scouts
+started to intercept the savages on their retreat.
+
+Next morning the little command struck the fresh trail of the Indians,
+and by forced marches came so close that they compelled them to
+separate into insignificant detachments, but night coming rapidly on,
+the General lost the trail. The conclusion was, after a consultation
+with the best plainsmen among the party, that the Indians would
+naturally go northward; so it was determined to take that direction in
+pursuit.
+
+The scouts continued their course for more than a week without the
+least trifling incident to relieve the wearisome monotony of the march.
+
+Suddenly, on the afternoon of the eighth day, as they were approaching
+the bluffs of the Republican river, they discovered an immense trail
+still leading to the north. The signs indicated that a large body of
+warriors, with pack animals, women and children, and lodges of a big
+camp, had recently camped there.
+
+It was growing dark, and rather than take the chances of losing this
+trail in the night, it was determined to bivouac in the vicinity, rest
+the animals, and continue the pursuit at the first streak of dawn.
+
+It was well that this course was decided upon, or there would have been
+none left to tell the story of the fight, as the result will show. The
+spot selected for the bivouac had some slight strategic value, and was
+for that reason chosen by the General, after it had been pointed out by
+two of his men, Tom Murphy and Jack Stillwell; though he had no idea
+at the time that any benefit would result from their judgment in this
+particular. It was an elongated low mound of sand (such as are seen at
+intervals in the Arkansas) which the Arrickaree fork of the Republican
+at this time embraced (as the Cheyenne does the Black Hills), forming
+an island.
+
+If this trail had not been struck, it was the intention to have
+gone back to Wallace for provisions, as only sufficient for one day
+remained; but upon prospects of a fight, it was unanimously agreed to
+go, and take the chances of finding something to eat.
+
+In the early gray of the next morning, while the stars were still
+twinkling and at the hour when sleep oppresses more than at any other
+time, the sentinels posted on the hills above the island yelled,
+"Indians!"
+
+In a moment the camp was awake. With rifle in hand, each scout rushed
+for the lariat to which his horse was picketed, knowing of course that
+the first effort on the part of the Indians would be to stampede the
+animals. As it was, a small party of them dashed in with a horrid
+whoop, and shaking their buffalo robes, succeeded in running off a
+small portion of the pack-mules, besides one or two of the horses.
+
+A few shots fired by the most advanced of the scouts scattered the
+Indians, and quiet reigned again for a few minutes.
+
+Almost immediately, however, before the scouts had completed saddling
+their horses--which the General had ordered--one of the guides nearest
+Forsythe happening to look up, could not help giving vent to the
+expression, "Great heavens! General, see the Indians!"
+
+Well might he be excited. Over the hills, from the west and north,
+along the river on the opposite bank--everywhere, and in every
+direction, they made their appearance. Finely mounted, in full war
+paint, their long scalp-locks braided with eagles' feathers, and with
+all the paraphernalia of a barbarous war party, with wild and exultant
+shouts, on they came.
+
+It was a desperate-looking preponderance of brute force and savage
+subtlety, against the cool and calm judgment of the disciplined
+plainsmen. But the General, without glancing at the hell in front
+and all around him, with only the lines of determination in his face
+a little more marked, grasping the terrible picture before him,
+stoically ordered his men to take possession of the sand mound with
+their horses, and then determined, almost against hope, to accept the
+wager of battle.
+
+It happened, fortunately, that on this island were growing some stunted
+shrubs, to which the animals were fastened, their bodies forming a
+cordon, inside of which the luckless scouts prepared for the demoniacal
+charge which they knew must come with its terrible uncertainty in a few
+minutes.
+
+They had scarcely secured their animals, when like the shock of a
+whirlwind on came the savages, and the awfully unequal battle commenced.
+
+It was just the break of dawn; the Indians, taking advantage of the
+uncertain light, dismounted from their ponies, and creeping within easy
+range, poured in a murderous fire upon the scouts.
+
+The Indians were splendidly armed as usual, through the munificence
+of the Government, by its apathy in preventing renegade white men or
+traders from supplying them.
+
+When the full morning came, which had been anxiously waited for by the
+scouts, then they first realized their desperate situation. Apparently
+as numerous as the sand-grains of their little fortification, the
+Indians hemmed them in on all sides. More than a thousand hideously
+painted and screaming warriors surrounded them, with all their hatred
+of the race depicted on their fiendish countenances, in anticipation of
+the victory which seemed so certain.
+
+Scattered among these, out of rifle-range, were the squaws and children
+of the aggregated band, watching with gloating eyes the progress of the
+battle, while the hills reëchoed their diabolical death-chant and the
+howling of the medicine-men inspiring the young warriors to deeds of
+daring.
+
+No one can form the slightest conception of the horrid picture
+spread before the scouts on the clear gray of that morning, unless
+he or she has realized it in the hostile encounters with the hostile
+tribes on the plains. Language is inadequate, and all the attempts at
+word-painting fall so short of the reality that it were better left
+wrapped in its terrible incomprehensibleness.
+
+The General and his brave men took in their chances at a glance. They
+saw little hope in the prospect, but they determined, however, never
+to be taken alive--a thousand deaths by the bullet were preferable to
+that; so made up their minds to fight to the bitter end, which would
+only come when the ammunition was exhausted or themselves killed.
+
+To this end they commenced to intrench as best they could, by scraping
+holes in the sand with the only implement at their command--their
+hands. They succeeded in making a sort of rifle-pit of their position,
+but before the work was completed, two of the scouts were killed
+outright, and many wounded--among the latter the General himself.
+
+Owing to the dreadful firing of the Indians, who continually charged
+down upon the island, the doctor was compelled to abandon the care of
+the wounded and become a combatant; he did excellent work with his
+rifle, but a bullet soon pierced his brain, and he too fell dead.
+
+In a few seconds after the doctor's death, in the midst of a terrible
+onslaught by the Indians, the General was again struck--this time near
+the ankle, the ball perforating the bone as perfectly as if done with
+an auger.
+
+The firing of the scouts had not all this time been without telling
+effect upon the Indians--many a painted warrior had bitten the dust
+before the sun was two hours high. At each successive charge of the
+redskins, the scouts, cool and careful, and deliberate, took aim,
+and when their rifles were discharged each put a savage _hors de
+combat_--there was no ammunition wasted!
+
+Nor had the besieged escaped from the fearful onset of their enemies:
+besides the casualties related, nearly all the horses had been
+killed--in fact, before noon all but one had fallen, and it is told
+that when he too was killed, one of the warriors exclaimed in English,
+"There goes the last horse, anyway!"
+
+At this juncture, with all their horses killed or wounded, the Indians
+determined upon one more grand charge which would settle the unequal
+contest. So they rallied all their forces and hazarded their reputation
+upon the aggregated assault.
+
+This charging column was composed of about one hundred and fifty "dog
+soldiers" and nearly five hundred more of the Brulés, Cheyennes, and
+Arapahoes, all under the command of the celebrated chief "Roman Nose."
+
+Superbly mounted, almost naked, although in full war dress, and painted
+in the most hideous manner, formed with a front of about sixty men,
+they awaited in the greatest confidence the signal of their chief to
+charge.
+
+Their leader at first signaled to the dismounted men beyond this line
+of horsemen to fire into the scouts, and thus make his contemplated
+charge more effective. At the moment of the fusillade, seeing the
+little garrison was stunned by the fire of the dismounted Indians, and
+rightly judging that now if ever was the proper time to charge, Roman
+Nose and his band of mounted warriors, with a wild ringing war-whoop,
+echoed by the women and children on the hills, started forward.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHARGE.]
+
+On they came, presenting even to the brave men awaiting their charge, a
+most superb sight.
+
+Soon they were within the range of the rifles of their friends, and of
+course the dismounted Indians had to slacken their fire for fear of
+hitting their own warriors.
+
+And this was the opportunity for the scouts. "Now!" shouted Forsythe;
+and the scouts, springing to their knees, cast their eyes coolly along
+the barrels of their rifles, and opened upon the advancing savages a
+deadly fire.
+
+Unchecked, undaunted, on dashed the warriors. Steadily rang the sharp
+report of the rifles of the frontiersmen. Roman Nose falls dead from
+his horse; "Medicine Man" is killed; and for an instant the column, now
+within ten feet of the scouts, hesitates--falters.
+
+A cheer from the scouts, who perceive the effect of their well-directed
+fire, as the Indians begin to break and scatter in every direction,
+unwilling to rush into a hand-to-hand struggle. A few more shots, and
+the Indians are forced back beyond range.
+
+Forsythe inquires anxiously, "Can they do better than that, Grover?"
+
+"I have been on the plains, General, since a boy, and never saw such a
+charge as that before."
+
+"All right, then; we are good for them."
+
+It was in this grand charge, led in person by their greatest of all
+warriors, Roman Nose, that Lieut. Beecher was mortally wounded. He
+suffered intensely, and lingered some hours before his manly spirit was
+extinguished.
+
+He and I were warmly attached to one another. I knew full well
+the generous impulses of his warm young heart, and his perfect
+unselfishness. He was brave, the very soul of honor, and a favorite in
+all garrisons.
+
+Before night closed in on the terrible tragedy of that day, the Indians
+charged on the weary and beleaguered scouts again and again, but were
+as often driven back by the dreadful accuracy of the rifles of the
+besieged, with an increasing loss each time.
+
+The darkness which had been earnestly looked for at last brought the
+welcome respite, and it was made possible for the unfortunate men to
+steal a moment's rest, that was needed, oh, how much!
+
+Hungry, exhausted, with an empty commissariat, every animal dead, their
+comrades lying stark upon the dreary sand, and a great number writhing
+in all the agony of torturing wounds; a relentless enemy ever watching;
+no skilled hand to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, and the only
+hope of help that might never come, more than a hundred miles away.
+
+Think of that; grasp it if you can!
+
+Later, while the night yet thickened, preparations were made to meet
+the events that were sure to come with the morning's light, and the
+little fort--for it had certainly now reached the dignity of that
+title--was made still stronger. For gabions, the swollen carcasses of
+the dead horses were used, and huge slices were cut from their thighs
+for food. Thank God, the torturings of thirst were not added to their
+other sufferings, for water was easily obtained by digging a short
+distance.
+
+Thus strengthened, a midnight council of war was held in whisperings,
+and it was determined to send two of their number to Fort Wallace, as
+desperate as the undertaking was. A mere boy, Stillwell, and another,
+Truedell, expressed their willingness to make the attempt.
+
+The brave men crawled from the "island" to run the gauntlet of the
+watchful savages, ever on the alert to take advantage of the least
+unfavorable demonstration on the part of their prey, as they fully
+believed them.
+
+We will leave them making their way cautiously but hopefully in the
+darkness, for it is not the purpose of the writer at this time to tell
+of the noble efforts of these brave messengers in their hairbreadth
+escapes on their lonesome and perilous journey; but let us turn to the
+worn-out and wounded band of heroes again, to learn how they fared
+during the long days before help could possibly reach them, even were
+Stillwell and his companion able to reach Wallace.
+
+The sun rose in all the splendor of a Kansas autumn morning, but the
+landscape bore the same horrid features of the day before. All through
+the weary hours the Indians kept up an incessant firing, though
+no serious charge was attempted--they had had more than they had
+anticipated, in their efforts in that direction yesterday. The scouts,
+now pretty effectually intrenched, suffered but little from the wild
+firing of their besiegers, but it was annoying, and kept the brave men
+ever prepared for a possible charge, the result of which might not be
+so fortunate as former ones.
+
+Night again came to throw its mantle of rest upon the little band, and
+shortly after dark two more scouts were sent out to reach Fort Wallace,
+if possible; but they failed to get beyond the line of watchful
+savages, and were compelled to abandon the idea.
+
+This unsuccessful attempt to go for help cast a gloom over the little
+command, for it could not yet be known what had been the fate of the
+other two who had gone out the night previously.
+
+The next day the state of affairs assumed a more cheerful aspect--if
+that could be possible. The squaws and children had disappeared,
+indicating a retreat upon the part of the Indians, although they still
+kept up their firing at intervals: perhaps they, too, were getting
+short of ammunition and provisions.
+
+In the afternoon the savages hoisted a white rag upon a pole and
+expressed a desire to talk, but our heroes were too wary to be caught
+with such chaff as that, for with Indians a flag of truce means a
+massacre, half the time.
+
+That night two more men were sent out, and these carried that famous
+dispatch of Forsythe's, which should hold its place in history with
+that other memorable one of Grant's: "I intend to fight it out on this
+line if it takes all summer." Forsythe's read:
+
+  "I am on a little island, and have still plenty of ammunition
+  left. We are living on mule and horse-meat, and are entirely out
+  of rations. If it were not for so many wounded I would come on and
+  take the chance of whipping them if attacked. They are evidently
+  sick of their bargain. I can hold out six days longer if absolutely
+  necessary; but lose no time."
+
+The morning of the fourth day, on the now historic island, broke
+somewhat more cheerful still. The Indians could be seen moving rapidly
+away, only a few comparatively remaining in sight, to wait till
+exhaustion and starvation should place the scouts in their power. They
+little knew the metal of the men lying behind those breastworks of
+rotten carcasses, or they too would have gone with the old men, women
+and children of the tribe.
+
+A few shots were fired by the scouts in response to the occasional
+random fusillade of the Indians: they contented themselves with saving
+their ammunition for a possible last grand act in the drama, only
+shooting when an Indian came within certain range, when he was sure to
+be sent to the "happy hunting-grounds."
+
+Night again came with its relative rest, and then another weary day of
+watching and waiting, without any special demonstration on the part of
+the Indians.
+
+New horrors now made their appearance in the shape of gangrened wounds,
+and suffering for food. The putrid flesh of the dead horses and mules
+was all that remained to support life, and however revolting, it had
+to be swallowed. The nauseating effluvia of the rapidly decaying
+carcasses, too, made the place almost intolerable, and so insufferable
+did it become that the General told those who were disheartened to go;
+but all to a man, to their honor be it recorded, refused, electing to
+remain with their companions-in-arms--to be rescued, or die with them.
+
+Two more days of torture, and then, on the ridge between them and the
+golden sunlight gleamed the bright bayonets of Col. Carpenter and his
+column of "the boys in blue."
+
+Their Havelock had reached this American Lucknow, and cheer after
+cheer--feeble though they were--went up from the little island, and our
+story closes with the rescue of these brave men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GENERAL FORSYTHE (himself wounded in both legs) gives a very graphic
+description of the charge of the Indians, and the appearance of their
+hero and chief, Roman Nose. He says:
+
+  "As Roman Nose dashed gallantly forward and swept into the open at
+  the head of his superb command, he was the very _beau-ideal_ of an
+  Indian chief. Mounted on a large, clean-limbed chestnut horse, he
+  sat well forward on his bareback charger, his knees passing under
+  a horsehair lariat that twice loosely encircled the animal's body,
+  his horse's bridle grasped in his left hand, which was also closely
+  wound in its flowing mane, and at the same time clutched his rifle
+  at the guard, the butt of which lay partially across the animal's
+  neck, while its barrel, crossing diagonally in front of his body,
+  rested slightly against the hollow of his left arm, leaving his
+  right free to direct the course of his men. He was a man over six
+  feet three inches in height, beautifully formed, and save for a
+  crimson silk sash knotted around his waist and his moccasins on his
+  feet, perfectly naked. His face was hideously painted in alternate
+  lines of red and black, and his head crowned with a magnificent
+  war-bonnet, from which, just above his temples and curving slightly
+  forward, stood up two short black buffalo horns, while its ample
+  length of eagles' feathers and herons' plumes trailed wildly on
+  the wind behind him; and as he came swiftly on at the head of his
+  charging warriors, in all his barbaric strength and grandeur, he
+  proudly rode that day the most perfect type of a savage warrior it
+  has been my lot to see. Turning his face for an instant toward the
+  women and children of the united tribes, who literally by thousands
+  were watching the fight from the crest of the low bluffs back from
+  the river's bank, he raised his right arm and waved his right hand
+  with a royal gesture, in answer to their wild cries of rage and
+  encouragement as he and his command swept down upon us; and again,
+  facing squarely towards where we lay, he drew his body to its full
+  height and shook his clenched fist defiantly at us; then, throwing
+  back his head and glancing skyward, he suddenly struck the palm
+  of his hand across his mouth and gave tongue to a war-cry that
+  I have never yet heard equaled in power and intensity. Scarcely
+  had its echos reached the river's bank when it was caught up by
+  each and every one of the charging warriors with an energy that
+  baffles description, and answered back with blood-curdling yells
+  of exultation and prospective vengeance by the women and children
+  on the river's bluff and by the Indians who lay in ambush around
+  us. On they came at a swinging gallop, rending the air with their
+  wild war-whoops, each individual warrior in all his bravery of war
+  paint and long braided scalp-lock tipped with eagles' feathers,
+  and all stark naked but for their cartridge belts and moccasins,
+  keeping their line almost perfectly, with a front of about sixty
+  men all riding horseback, with only a loose lariat about their
+  horses' bodies, and about a yard apart, and with a depth of six or
+  seven ranks, forming together a compact body of massive fighting
+  strength, and of almost resistless weight. 'Boldly they rode and
+  well,' with their horses' bridles in their left hands, while with
+  their right they grasped their rifles at the guard and held them
+  squarely in front of themselves, resting lightly upon their horses'
+  necks.
+
+  "Riding about five paces in front of the center of the line, and
+  twirling his heavy Springfield rifle about his head as if it were
+  a wisp of straw, Roman Nose recklessly led the charge with a
+  bravery that could only be equaled but not excelled; while their
+  medicine-man, an equally brave yet older chief, rode slightly in
+  advance of the left of the charging column.
+
+  "To say that I was surprised at this splendid exhibition of pluck
+  and discipline, is to put it mildly; and to say, further, that
+  for an instant or two I was fairly lost in admiration of the
+  glorious charge, is simply to state the truth--for it was far and
+  away beyond anything I had heard of, read about, or even imagined
+  regarding Indian warfare."
+
+
+
+
+EL SOLITARIO, THE HERMIT PRIEST OF THE OLD SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
+
+    "No stream from its source
+    Flows seaward, how lonely so 'er its course,
+    But some land is gladden'd. No star ever rose
+    And set without influence somewhere. Who knows
+    What earth needs from earth's lowliest creatures?
+    No life
+    Can be pure in its purpose, and strong in its strife,
+    And all life not be purer and stronger thereby."
+
+                                    --OWEN MEREDITH.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE HERMIT PRIEST.]
+
+The tourist _en route_ to the Pacific coast cannot fail observing on
+his right a huge, relatively isolated peak, cutting the incomparably
+clear mid-continent sky, almost immediately after the train emerges
+from the picturesque cañon of El Moro, and commences to descend the
+long gradual slope to the quaint old Mexican village of Las Vegas,
+New Mexico. Its scarred and verdureless front looms up grandly in the
+beautifully serrated landscape, of which it is the most conspicuous
+object. More prominently defined than any other individual elevation of
+the Taos Range visible from the point of observation, the shadow of its
+irregular contour reaches far out over the lesser mountains beneath,
+the moment the sun has crossed the meridian of its crest.
+
+At its foot, grassy little valleys stretch eastwardly, which are
+cultivated by the primitive Mexicans under a system of irrigation as
+primitive as themselves--simple earth ditches, involving a very limited
+knowledge of engineering.
+
+Foaming little torrents splash and sparkle in the sunshine, as
+they course through the fertile intervales. Their sources are cool
+mountain springs hidden in the dark recesses of the towering range,
+which were, until the restless "Gringo" invaded the solitude of the
+charming region at the advent of the iron trail to erect saw-mills,
+filled with that most epicurean and gamy of all the finny tribe, the
+speckled brook-trout. Now, the disciple of the revered Walton vainly
+essays the streams with elegant modern appliances for lazy methods of
+angling, retiring disgusted, as the listless native, answering his
+interrogatory of "Where have they all gone?" with a characteristic
+shrug, and his ever-ready "Quien sabe?" quietly opens his little ditch
+to let the tenantless water overflow his limited patch of corn, beans,
+and onions.
+
+Maybe, in the sad and weird mythology of those strange people the
+Aztecs, this storm-beaten spur of the Rockies occupied an important
+place. Their Olympus, or Parnassus perhaps, for not many miles remote,
+on the bank of the classic Pecos, where lie the ruins of the once
+fortified Cicuye, referred to so graphically in the itinerary of the
+historian of Coronado's wonderful march in search of the "Seven Cities
+of Cibola," is the reputed birthplace of their culture-hero, Montezuma
+(not to be confounded with the dynasty of sovereigns of that name), who
+was the Christ of their faith, for whose second advent the Pueblos, the
+lineal descendants of the Aztecs, look for so hopefully with the rising
+of every morning's sun.
+
+Upon the summit of the Rincon de Tecolote, "The Owl's Corner," now
+known as "El Cumbre del Solitario" (The Hermit's Peak), as this grand
+old sentinel of the range is called by the Mexicans, an area comprising
+several acres, there is a remarkable cave. Around this natural grotto
+at such a great elevation, are clustered by the simple natives the
+most cherished memories of the humble and beloved curious individual
+who once occupied the sequestered spot. It is sacred ground with them,
+upon which no sacrilege would for a moment be brooked.
+
+Near its narrow entrance a spring of clear cold water gushes out of
+the indurated rock, which, after flowing for a short distance over the
+rounded pebbles in its deeply worn bed, tumbles down the precipitous
+side of the mountain in a diminutive cascade, joining the streams in
+the valley on their resistless way to the sea. A few scattered piñons
+cast a grateful shade over a portion of the generally bald blear level
+of the limited plain, and at regular distances apart, in the form of a
+circle, are twelve rude crosses, typical of the number of the Apostles.
+They were erected years ago by the humble Mexicans living in the
+hamlets below, in memory of the deeply religious man who made his home
+in this sequestered spot, and whose name is revered only a degree less
+than that of the tutelary saint of the country, Our Lady of Guadalupe.
+On certain feast-days, particularly in midsummer, large fires are kept
+burning at night, and the devotees to the memory of the cave's once
+holy occupant, long since hastened by the hand of an assassin to the
+unknown beyond, assemble there under the stars, and in a most devout
+spirit perform certain ceremonies, with a zeal possible only to the
+earnest believers in that ancient and widely disseminated faith, the
+Catholic religion.
+
+Of the history of this remarkable man, who by his exemplary life made
+such an impression upon the untutored minds of a large number of the
+degraded primitive New-Mexicans, but fragmentary leaves have been
+obtainable. To intelligently understand even these, the reader must let
+his mind drift backward for more than a generation to the plains of
+central Kansas, and learn of his advent into the State as I recall it.
+
+It was late in the spring of 1861. Our Civil War had been inaugurated
+by the firing upon Sumter, and the loyal States were preparing for the
+great impending struggle, upon the result of which depended the destiny
+of the Republic. Kansas at that time, so far as its agricultural
+possibilities were concerned, was not materially considered in that
+connection; it was a remote, relatively unknown Territory. It is true,
+its eastern portion, a narrow belt contiguous to Missouri, had a bloody
+political history; beyond which fact, it was merely the portal to the
+vast mountain region on the west, to be reached only by crossing the
+"Desert" supposed to be included within the new State's geographical
+limits, through which ran the trail to far-off Santa Fé and Chihuahua.
+
+There arrived one morning in the busy little hamlet of Council Grove,
+Morris county, Kansas, during the month of May, a strange, mysterious
+person. He attracted much attention, for he was to the denizens of that
+remote frontier town as curious a personage as the Man in the Iron
+Mask, or the awkward Kaspar Hauser, whose appearance at the gates of
+Nuremburg once startled the good people of that staid and quiet town,
+hoary with the conservatism of centuries.
+
+The stranger who came so unexpectedly to Council Grove in the spring
+of 1861, evidently a priest, talked but little; it was an exceedingly
+difficult task to engage him in conversation, so profoundly did he
+seem impressed with the idea of some impending danger. He acted like
+a startled deer, ever on the alert for an expected enemy, and weeks
+rolled by before two or three of the town's most reputable citizens
+could gain his confidence sufficiently to learn from him something
+of his varied and romantic history. In a simple sketch, as this is
+intended to be only, nothing but a mere outline of his checkered life
+previous to his advent in America can be presented, as it was gathered,
+very reluctantly on his part, in detached fragments at odd moments in
+his erratic moods of communicativeness. It certainly contains enough of
+pathos, suffering and tragedy to form the web of a thrilling novel.
+
+Matteo Boccalini, at the date of his appearance in Council Grove, was
+about fifty-five years old. He possessed the eye of an artist, a head
+that was beautifully symmetrical, with a classically moulded face; and
+notwithstanding his age, his hair, of which he had a profusion, was
+long, black, and lustrous as a raven's wing. Yet the heart-sorrows
+he had experienced were indelibly impressed upon his benevolent
+countenance in deeply marked lines. He was a lineal descendant of
+Trajano Boccalini, the witty Italian satirist, author of the celebrated
+"Ragguagli di Parnaso," who died in Venice in 1618. Matteo was born
+about the beginning of the present century, in Capri, that charming and
+most romantic island of Italy, situated in the Mediterranean, at the
+entrance to the Bay of Naples, twenty miles south of the beautiful city
+whose name the bright waters bear.
+
+His youth was passed on the island, in the city of Capri, the seat of
+a bishopric. There he received his early education, devoting himself
+to the Church, and commencing those theological studies which were soon
+to be the cause of his sufferings, his wanderings, and eventually his
+tragic death.
+
+The island of his birth, which has so often been sung by the muse, is
+historic as well as picturesquely beautiful. It was there that the
+Roman emperor Tiberius passed the closing decade of his life, and the
+ruins of the twelve gorgeous palaces he erected during that period are
+still visible. Capri, too, as tourists well remember, is famous for a
+cavern called the "Grotto of the Nymphs," or the "Blue Grotto." Matteo
+declared it was there that during his youth, in the calm recesses and
+sequestered nooks of that delightful underground retreat, he first
+learned to love the companionship of his own thoughts, a desire for
+solitude, and that to him indescribable peace which a life apart from
+the "madding crowd" assures. It was this strange characteristic,
+absence of that love of gregariousness common to man, which earned
+for him in Council Grove half a century later, the sobriquet of "The
+Hermit Priest of the Santa Fé Trail," and a year after his departure
+from that place, among his devoted adherents in the mountains of New
+Mexico, the more applicable one, "El Solitario" (The Solitary Man), in
+contradistinction to "El Hermito" (The Hermit), which he never was in
+the strict interpretation of the term.
+
+When but eighteen, the youthful Matteo left his native island, under
+the patronage of the good bishop, who loved him, to perfect his
+education in Rome, beneath the very shadow of St. Peter's, where he
+took holy orders at the early age of twenty-one. Then, according
+to his sad story, began that life of stormy passions and sorrowful
+pilgrimages, culminating in his assassination forty years afterwards in
+the far-off Occident.
+
+He was called by the Church "Father Francesco," and although so young,
+was noted for his eloquence, subtile philosophy, and the boldness of
+his political utterances. But notwithstanding his pronounced views,
+the Pope named him as one of his secretaries. The College of the
+Propagandists, however, refused to confirm him, and placed him under
+interrogation and discipline. He eloquently defended himself, and the
+charges were not sustained. The severe discipline ended to which he
+had been subjected, and he was assigned to duty in the purlieus of the
+Eternal City.
+
+In a short time, Matteo Boccalini's sunny nature and warm passions
+caused his disgrace. He became enamored of a fair devotee, one of
+his charge--a dark-haired, lustrous-eyed, bewitching creature of the
+"Land of the Vine." Alas! the too susceptible young priest succumbed to
+the wiles of the "radiant maiden," and he fell in a most earthly and
+fleshly way. Poor Boccalini was immediately and openly charged with
+the enormity of his crime, prosecuted, and denounced. He was despoiled
+of his sacerdotal functions, and compelled to flee; became a wanderer
+upon the face of the earth, supping with sorrow, and in despair for
+companions throughout the remainder of his mundane pilgrimage.
+
+For a short time after his unwarranted and sinful escapade he
+campaigned with the heroic Garibaldi; then he turned with appealing
+looks toward America, the haven for all who are oppressed; crossed the
+ocean, and in a few weeks began his eventful journey on this continent.
+Never again was he to behold the place of his birth, the chalky
+outlines of fair, beautiful Capri, which so gloriously begems the
+Mediterranean. The phosphorescent Bay of Naples, the sky, the sunshine
+and vine-clad hills of dear old Italy, were never more to stir his once
+impulsive nature, or quicken into life his now deadened heart.
+
+Years rolled on; youth passed by and middle age was upon the homeless
+priest, when, after having roamed wearily from place to place,
+visiting one Indian tribe here and another there, in the vain hope of
+discovering some clan, or people near unto nature's heart, whose souls
+were attuned to his own, who would receive him in the simplicity of
+his severe and pious penance, he arrived among the Kaws, or Kansas,
+whose reservation was in the lovely valley of the Neosho, a few miles
+below Council Grove. But that tribe, a dirty, despicable race, very
+suspicious, and withal not remarkable for their reverence of any
+religion, did not take kindly to the weary old man, who had entered
+their midst with the purest intentions: his pious zeal, his abstinence
+and self-denial made them fear to approach him. They did not understand
+that--
+
+    "When holy and devout religious men
+    Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
+    So sweet is zealous contemplation."
+
+The miserable savages looked upon him, the meek and humble pilgrim, as
+an intruder; said he was "bad medicine." So Father Francesco was no
+more at ease with them in their rude skin lodges than he would have
+been in the gilded halls of the Vatican.
+
+He then came to Council Grove, as stated--came as the tramp has since
+come, unheralded and uninvited, but not to beg bread at the doors of
+its residents, as the latter now does. Nor did he come to tell off his
+beads in the presence of the vulgar curious, but went upon the hillside
+beyond the town, to seek the solitude and retirement of a natural cave
+in the limestone rock of the region, troubling no one; an enigma to the
+world, and a subject for the idle gossip.
+
+There for five months he lived, accessible to but few, with whom,
+when he felt and recognized in them the quickened glow of a soul that
+believed in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, he would
+talk in tenderest strains of everything that was good, true, and
+beautiful.
+
+The "hermit priest," as he was now called, had of earthly possessions
+so little that he could have vied with the lowly Nazarine in the
+splendor of his poverty. Of crucifixes, devotional mementoes, and
+other religious trinkets, sweetly suggestive of better and happier
+days, he had preserved a few. His greatest solace was in half a dozen
+well-thumbed small volumes, between whose covers none peered but
+himself. He was ever regular at his devotions; for notwithstanding he
+had grievously sinned, as he declared, he was constantly striving to
+outlive its horrid memory, and to repair the injury he had done his
+Master's cause.
+
+He possessed one article of property that tinges his sojourn at Council
+Grove with a delightfully romantic remembrance among the very limited
+number now living there, who knew of the vagaries of the remarkably
+strange man; these were sometimes his confidants and friends, within
+a limited degree. It was a rudely constructed mandolin, which during
+all the years of his erratic pilgrimage he had tenaciously clung to,
+until its exterior presented a confused mass of scratches and dents,
+indicative of hard usage. Despite all that, curious as it may seem,
+by some mysterious means its rich tones had been preserved in their
+original purity and depth.
+
+On the evenings of Kansas' incomparable Indian summer, during the early
+part of which season he was living in his cave near Council Grove,
+the "hermit priest," seated on a projecting ledge at the mouth of his
+rocky and isolated retreat, would sweep the strings of his treasured
+instrument with a touch as light, deft, and sorrowfully tender as a
+maiden whose pure young heart had just been thrilled by its first
+breath of love.
+
+To those who were so fortunate--and they were very few--as to be
+invited to spend an hour with him, his vesper hymns, rendered in his
+exquisite tenor voice, were as soul-inspiring as the gentle earnestness
+of a young girl's prayer. His sometime Neapolitan songs and soft airs
+of his native isle were as sweet as the chant of the angels he invoked
+when in a deeply religious mood, and his heart-feeling tones mingled
+sadly with the soughing of the evening breeze in the dense foliage on
+the margin of the placid Neosho that flowed near by. Thus, in the calm
+enjoyment of his self-imposed solitude, he lived with
+
+    "The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
+    His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well."
+
+Among the various languages necessary for the communication of ideas
+between the motley crowd comprising the civilization of the then remote
+region, there was none that Matteo Boccalini did not understand and
+speak fluently, so liberal had been his education in that particular.
+
+Once, when a stabbed and dying Mexican, the victim of some
+gambling-quarrel among the drivers of the "bull-train" to which he was
+attached, asked a service for the repose of his soul, Father Francesco
+hastened to the anxious man's side. There he administered the last
+sacrament of the church to the expiring creature in his own language,
+who died with a resigned look upon his face, as he listened to the
+absolving words he could perfectly understand, which was a thing of joy
+to the holy man who had performed the sacred office.
+
+One day late in the month of October, now nearly thirty-six years
+ago, the "hermit priest" saw walking through the streets of the
+little village a dark-visaged person, clad in clerical garb, and whom
+Boccalini believed to be the lover of the woman he had wronged in his
+youth, and that the stranger, if it were he whom he suspected, could
+never be persuaded to think that Matteo was not wholly to be blamed for
+the life he had blasted.
+
+He told his friends he could no longer tarry with them; he would go
+away to the mountains of New Mexico, seek another cave, rear again the
+blessed cross, emblem of his Master's suffering, and once more live in
+solitude, from which he had here somewhat strayed.
+
+He frequently, when in a communicative mood, had talked much to them
+of the delights of absolute solitude. It was, he argued, the nurse of
+enthusiasm; that enthusiasm was the parent of genius; that solitude had
+always been eagerly sought for in every age; it was the inspiration
+of the dominant religion of every nation; that their founders were
+men who, seeking the quiet and seclusion of caverns or the desert, and
+subordinating the flesh to the spirit, had visions of the "beyond."
+The veil hiding the better world had been lifted for them, and their
+teachings had come down to us through the æons, elevating man above the
+brute.
+
+The next morning after the sudden appearance of the stranger whose
+presence had so discomposed the usually calm priest, a delicious
+morning in the month of "autumn's holocaust," when the breeze was
+billowing the russet-colored grass upon the virgin prairies, Father
+Francesco gathered up his few precious relics, and, accepting the
+escort of a caravan just ready to start for New Mexico, left Council
+Grove, his cave, and the warm friends he had made there, forever.
+
+The caravan under the protection of which the frightened prelate went
+westward was owned by a Mexican don, a brother-in-law to Kit Carson.
+He still resides near the spot where the ill-fated Italian, a year or
+two after his wearisome journey across the Great Plains, was hurried to
+eternity.
+
+This venerable Mexican and old-time voyageur of the almost obliterated
+Santa Fé trail, when I last visited him at his hospitable home in the
+mountains, fourteen years ago, entertained me by relating some of the
+more prominent characteristics of his strange _compagnon du voyage_
+during that memorable trip with the "hermit priest" from Council Grove
+more than twenty years previously. He said that the strange man would
+never ride, either on horseback or in one of the wagons, despite the
+earnest invitation extended to him each recurring morning by the master
+of the caravan; preferring to trudge along uncomplainingly day after
+day during the sunny hours beside the plodding oxen through the alkali
+dust of the desert, and faltered not.
+
+Neither would he at night partake of the shelter of a tent, constantly
+offered but as constantly and persistently refused, preferring to
+roll himself up in a single coarse wrap, seeking some quiet spot
+removed from the corral of wagons, where for an hour or two under the
+scintillating stars he would tell off his beads, or, accompanied by
+his mandolin, chant some sad refrain to the Virgin, until long after
+the camp had gone to sleep. For his subsistence he himself caught and
+cooked the prairie dog, ground squirrel, and gopher. Only occasionally,
+when hard pressed, would he accept a meal, which was constantly
+proffered by the Mexican teamsters, begging the "hermit priest" to
+share with them; for in their love for the Catholic Church, to which
+they were so devoted, he seemed to their untutored minds a most zealous
+but humble exponent of their religious tenets and visible form of their
+sacred faith.
+
+Thus reticent, thoughtful and devout, he marched with the caravan
+for many weeks, until at last the city of Holy Faith, the quaint old
+Spanish town of Santa Fé, was reached. There he parted company with
+his escort, and for nearly a year afterward wandered all over that
+portion of the Territory of New Mexico, and into Arizona, still seeking
+the Alnaschar of his dreams, a suitable abiding-place in the recesses
+of the hills, and a people whose souls might be made to attune with
+his. But he miserably failed in all that he desired during his sad
+pilgrimage throughout the Southwest. Then, turning northward again,
+he slowly and almost despairingly retraced his steps until he arrived
+in the sequestered valley of the Sapillo, where he at last found a
+humble class and his coveted cave on the summit of the mighty mountain
+described at the opening of this chapter.
+
+There, content after so many years of unsatisfied wandering, he
+commenced that life of religious ministrations, and exercised those
+unselfish acts of kindness and love, whose remembrance is imprinted so
+indelibly on the hearts of his devoted followers; for,
+
+  "Through suffering he soothed, and through sickness he nursed."
+
+There again, under the constellations, which nowhere else shine more
+brilliantly, were the strains of his mandolin, and the rich notes of
+that magnificent voice, heard by the enchanted people who listened each
+evening at the doors of their rude adobe huts in the valley below the
+huge hill that cast its great shadow over them.
+
+Notwithstanding the "hermit priest" had found a class congenial to his
+soul's demands, his eccentricities still clung to him. His persistency
+in living apart from his chosen people enforced them to always speak of
+him as "El Solitario" (The Solitary Man).
+
+He would visit among them to solace and nurse the sick, and give
+absolution to the dying, which his and their religion so beautifully
+promises, but he would never break bread within their hospitable doors;
+preferring, and insisting, always, upon a crust and a cup of cold water
+outside.
+
+Nor would he sleep upon the soft woolen _colchons_ which even the
+poorest of New-Mexican homes afford, but, absorbed by devout thoughts,
+wrapped himself in his single coarse blanket and laid himself on the
+bare ground; or, if it was stormy, in some outhouse with the sheep and
+goats. This, of course, was part of his self-imposed penance, from
+which he never deviated, rigorous as it was.
+
+One day, after his familiar and beloved face had been missed for more
+than a week by his devotees, a sorrowful party went out to seek him.
+They found him dead on the rugged trail to his lonely home; his beads
+enfolded in his delicately shaped fingers, and his countenance wearing
+a saint-like expression. A poisoned dagger in his heart, by the hand of
+an assassin, had accomplished the foul deed which for a whole lifetime,
+during every moment of the unhappy man's active and dreaming hours, was
+a continually disturbing fear.
+
+Thus passed away, as he had predicted in his youth, the eccentric but
+holy Matteo Boccalini, "Hermit Priest" of the old "Santa Fé Trail," and
+the "El Solitario" of the New Mexico mountains. A man of sorrow and
+grief, yet with as much repentance, and as many penances as sins; one
+of those ethereal beings who might become physically unclean, but never
+spiritually impure.
+
+For years after his departure from Council Grove, the "hermit
+priest's" cave was an object of much interest. Until within a very
+short period, when the quarrymen tore down its last vestige, upon its
+time-worn walls could be traced, rudely carved, his name, "Matteo
+Boccalini," a cross, "Jesu Maria," and "Capri"--all so dear to the
+lonely and sad man's heart.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+MEDICINE BLUFF.
+
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE BEAVER.]
+
+Unknown, perhaps, to the reader, in the very heart of the Wichita
+range, in the Indian Territory, there is an immense hill, which, by
+triangulation effected during the winter campaign of 1868-69 by the
+engineer officer attached to General Sheridan's headquarters, is three
+hundred and ten feet high. At its base there is a clear, running river,
+or properly a creek--for it is only about seventy feet wide. The shape
+which the stream assumes at the immediate foot of the mountain is that
+of a crescent, forming quite a large pool or basin.
+
+Under the shadow which the great mass of disrupted rock throws over the
+water at certain hours, the pool looks as black as ink. The moment the
+water emerges into the sunlight again, it sparkles and scintillates
+until it is painful for the eyes to rest upon its rapidly flowing
+ripple. That the great elevation of this detached portion of the range
+was caused by some extraordinary convulsion, which moved it from its
+normal position, is apparent, and curiosity is excited to assign a
+reason for the limited area of the upheaval.
+
+The stream which flows so picturesquely at the base of the isolated
+mountain is called by the Indians Medicine Bluff Creek; the hill above
+it, Medicine Bluff. From the time when the memory of the various tribes
+"runneth not to the contrary," Medicine Bluff has been a prominent
+and sacred spot in the traditions and legitimate history of the many
+nations of savages, but especially in that of the Comanches and
+Wichitas. It was a sort of "Our Lady of Lourdes" place, where the sick
+were cured in the most miraculous manner after they had been given up
+by the celebrated doctors of the tribe. If the party afflicted had
+never seriously grieved the Great Spirit, the cure was as sudden as
+marvelous; if the sick, who were carried to the top of the bluff by
+their friends, had at any time offended the Great Spirit, they died at
+once, the wolves devoured their flesh, and their bones were transported
+to the "Land of Terrors." Sometimes, when the individual taken up to
+invoke the aid of the Indian god had lived an exemplary life, instead
+of being cured of his fleshly ills he or she was translated, like
+Elisha of old, to the happy hunting-grounds.
+
+The Comanches declared that at night the Great Spirit frequently rested
+on the top of the mountain, and when that occurred the whole region to
+the verge of the horizon was lighted up with a strange glow, resembling
+that emanating from an immense prairie fire reflected upon the clouds.
+The Indians also claimed that no dew or rain ever fell upon the extreme
+summit of the bluff, where the sick were to lie and wait for the
+manifestation of the Manitou; nor did the wind blow there--so that it
+was a calm spot, comprising all the essentials to a speedy recovery.
+
+One among the many traditions connected with the charming but weird
+place was told by an aged warrior of the Comanches one evening, around
+the camp-fire, in 1868, after white-winged Peace had spread her wings
+once more over the prairies, and we were pulling vigorously at our
+"brier-woods" filled with fragrant "Lone Jack." The old fellow,
+wrinkled and black with the smoke of the tepee in which he had lived
+for nearly eighty years, and now wrapped in that of his stone pipe,
+which he sucked as industriously as an infant, told this story:
+
+There was once, ages before the white man had invaded the country of
+the Indian, a very old warrior, who, sick and despondent, went to
+the top of Medicine Bluff to be cured. He for many years had ceased
+to hunt the buffalo, lived with the women of the tribe, and settled
+himself down to a peaceful calm, awaiting the time when he should be
+called to join his fathers. One day he struggled to the top of the
+bluff in the hope that he might die and be carried bodily to the happy
+hunting-grounds, as he knew from the traditions of his tribe others had
+been before him.
+
+He had been absent from his lodge and the village for three nights.
+During all that time the frightened people down below, who had been
+diligently watching, observed a great blaze on the top of the mountain,
+as if it were a signal-fire to warn them of some impending danger to
+the tribe.
+
+On the third morning a young warrior was seen descending the trail from
+the heights of the bluff, drawing near to the village. When he entered
+its streets he looked about him in evident surprise. He approached the
+chief's lodge and sat down by the fire.
+
+The warriors of the tribe gazed at him with awe and that curiosity
+which a stranger ever evokes. No one seemed to recognize him. All
+remained silent, waiting for him to speak. Lighting his pipe with
+a coal, he took a pull at it himself, Indian fashion, then passed
+it around the circle. The warriors noticed that his pipe-stem was
+decorated with the feathers of the gray eagle, denoting him to be a
+great warrior, one who had captured a large number of scalps, so they
+regarded him with still greater wonder. After every one in the circle
+around the chief's fire had taken a whiff, the stranger commenced his
+story:
+
+"After I arrived at the top of the Medicine Bluff, I looked off at the
+vast expanse which surrounded me. I saw the village of my people; I
+could hear the dogs bark and the children laugh; I could hear my own
+family mourning, as if some one had been taken from them; I saw the
+buffalo covering the prairie, and the cunning wolf lying in wait to
+pounce upon his prey. When I again looked all around me, and beheld the
+young warriors in their pride and strength, I asked myself: 'Why do I
+live any longer? My fires have gone out. I must follow my fathers. The
+world is beautiful to the young, but to the old it has no pleasure. I
+will go there!'
+
+"With this upon my mind, I continued: 'Far away toward the setting sun
+are the hunting-grounds of my people.' Then I gathered all my strength
+and leaped from the giddy height before me. I knew no more of the woes
+of this life. I was caught up in mid-air and suddenly transported to a
+country where game was countless; where there was no wind, no rain, no
+sickness; where all the great chiefs of the Comanches who had ever died
+were assembled; where they were all young again, and chased the buffalo
+and feasted as when on earth. There was no darkness. The people were
+continually happy. Beautiful birds sang on the trees. The war-whoop was
+never more heard."
+
+The old chief had been rejuvenated, and now came back to his people
+with all his youthful vigor, to live again with his own tribe. The
+story of the strange warrior captivated the Indians.
+
+He at once became an oracle and great medicine-man in his tribe; his
+power to cure the sick was wonderful, and his counsel was implicitly
+obeyed ever afterward.
+
+Medicine Bluff has of course lost much of its prestige among the
+Indians, for the reason that since the extinction of the buffalo and
+other large game the tribes have been scattered, being generally pretty
+closely confined to the reservations, with the children taught in
+schools, and the superstitions, or at least many of them, having passed
+gradually out of the remembrance of the new generation, known only to
+the few old warriors left.
+
+The savage, like the white man, in his disappointments and miseries
+sometimes resorts to suicide as a cure-all for and end-all of life's
+burdens. Among the powerful Comanches Medicine Bluff was, for an
+unknown period, one of their famous places, like the Vendome Column
+in Paris, from which to terminate an unsatisfactory and miserable
+existence. The bluff was also a rendezvous for the young warriors, who
+were to go for the first time in battle with the tried soldiers of the
+tribe, to propitiate the Great Spirit.
+
+The sun in that nation, as in the old tribe of Natchez, symbolized
+their god. For three consecutive mornings the youthful aspirant for
+military honors was obliged to go to the highest point of the great
+hill, where, armed with his buffalo hide, and alone, he was with
+the utmost reverence to present the front of his shield to the early
+morning sun as its rays gilded the rocky crags of the mountain,
+assuming the attitude of a warrior in the heat of battle, on guard
+against his enemy's spear and shower of arrows. This ceremony on
+the part of the novitiate, if reverently performed, gave his shield
+invulnerable power.
+
+A story told to many of us during the campaign referred to, by
+one of the oldest of the Comanches, the oldest Indian I have ever
+seen--"Little Beaver," of the Osages--is very interesting, showing
+to what an art the despised savage of thirty years ago reduced
+story-telling. The dried-up old warrior prefaced his tale by stating
+that he was so aged "that he was brother of the highest peak of the
+Wichita Mountains," at the foot of which we were camped on a cold
+December night in 1868. Here is the story:
+
+So many years ago that it seemed like a dream even to the narrator,
+the Comanches were the greatest tribe on earth. Their warriors were as
+numerous as a herd of buffalo on the Arkansas in the fall. They were
+more cunning than the coyote. Their herd of ponies contained so many
+animals--all fine and fat--that no man could count them in a year. All
+the other Indians of the plains and mountains feared and trembled at
+the name of Comanche.
+
+In the tribe, as is ever the case, there were two warriors who
+excelled all the others in their prowess. One was young, and the other
+middle-aged. They were very jealous of each other, each constantly
+attempting some deed of daring at which, it was hoped, the rival would
+balk. One fall, when the Indian summer made the air redolent with the
+sweet perfume of thousands of flowers and the mountains were bathed in
+the amber mist of that delicious season, all the great warriors were
+returning from one of their most famous victories.
+
+They camped under the shadow of Medicine Bluff late one afternoon,
+where the young brave, who was quietly smoking his pipe as he hovered
+over the little camp-fire on which he was broiling a piece of antelope
+steak, happened to fix his gaze on the highest point of the bluff,
+and in that position continued for several minutes wrapped in a most
+profound study, while all the rest of the band stopped whatever they
+were doing and gazed at him as intently.
+
+Suddenly he rose to his full height and cast a defiant look upon the
+warriors scattered around on the grass, who, excited at his strange
+manner, sprang up to learn what he meant. Presently he turned his face
+toward the sun, which was about two hours high, and broke out with this
+boast:
+
+"No warrior equals me! I am the greatest of all the Comanches! I
+resemble that mountain!" pointing with his spear to the highest peak of
+Medicine Bluff. "My actions are as far above yours as that mountain is
+above the stream at its foot! Is there a warrior here who dare follow
+me?"
+
+Then he shook his spear and brandished his shield in defiance of any
+and all. His rival was all the time swelling with rage and pride. He
+knew the boast was intended for him alone, although he was the elder
+of the two. He approached the braggart with all the dignity of the
+savage that he was, and, striking himself on the bosom several times,
+exclaimed:
+
+"So! You are the greatest warrior of the Comanches? You are the
+buffalo that leads the herd? I am the old bull to be driven away by
+the cowardly coyote and die, leaving my bones to whiten? You ask me to
+follow you? Never! I never follow! I will go with you!"
+
+The remainder of the band gathered around the two celebrated warriors.
+They wondered what new deed of daring they were going to attempt, as
+the rivals arrayed themselves in their best buckskin dress and mounted
+their favorite ponies. With shields held in a defying position, their
+faces painted, and their bonnets of war-eagle feathers flowing in the
+breeze, they rode away without another word.
+
+They forded the stream. The younger now started up the difficult trail
+which led to the sacred summit of the Medicine Bluff, where, stopping
+his affrighted steed, he pointed to the fearful precipice a few rods
+off, and exclaimed:
+
+"You have followed me here; follow me farther."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then shouting the war-whoop, which made the echoes of the mountain
+awaken, and thumping the flanks of his animal vigorously, he darted
+toward the awful brink. His rival instantly raised his pony on his hind
+legs, and with a whoop more piercing followed the young man, who, when
+he had reached the edge of the precipice, failed in courage and pulled
+his pony violently back on his haunches. The elder saw his chance. With
+an awful yell of defiance and triumph, he forced his horse to make the
+terrible leap in mid-air.
+
+All the warriors on the grassy bottom below watched with eager interest
+what was going on above them. They heard the whoop of the aged warrior
+as he jumped into the awful abyss. They saw him sit as calmly as if in
+his "lodge" as he descended, seated as upright on his pony as if his
+animal were walking the prairie, and, above all, they heard his clear
+voice as it rung out in the clouds: "Greatest of all the Comanches!"
+
+Sadly they wended their way to the foot of the bluff, where both horse
+and brave rider lay a mangled mass on the rocks, the old warrior with a
+smile on his wrinkled face of unmistakable triumph.
+
+The boasting rival became a wanderer among the tribes. His name was
+accursed of all Indians. The very dogs of the camps snapped at him
+as he passed. At last, overcome with remorse at his cowardice and
+treachery, he killed himself. One day he was found dead on the grave of
+his rival at the foot of the bluff. His body was eaten by the coyotes;
+his shield and spear, by which he had been identified, were lying on
+the ground at his feet.
+
+
+
+
+A RACE FOR LIFE.
+
+AN INCIDENT OF THE INDIAN WAR OF 1864.
+
+
+[Illustration: KICKING BIRD.]
+
+In 1864 the magnificent valley of the "Smoky Hill," with its rich
+share of wooded streams and fertile uplands, and the still more
+Elysian expanse watered by the great Arkansas--that embryo granary of
+two continents--were simply known as the region through which passed
+twin inter-oceanic trails, the Oregon and the Santa Fé, both now mere
+memories.
+
+The commerce of the Great Plains over that broad path through the
+wilderness, the Santa Fé Trail, was at its height, and immense trains
+rolled day after day toward the blue hills which guard the portals of
+New Mexico. Oxen, mules, and sometimes horses, tugged wearily week
+after week through the monotony of their long journey, their precious
+freight ever tempting the wily nomads to plunder, dissimulation,
+and murder. Pawnee Rock, Walnut, Coon, Ash and Cow creeks were mute
+witnesses of a score or more battles that reddened the blossoming
+prairie in springtime, and the slopes of the Pawnee, Heath's Branch and
+Buckner's were resonant with the yell of the Kiowa and Cheyenne, who
+under the pale moonlight held their hideous saturnalia of butchery.
+
+To protect the trains on their weary route through the "desert"--as
+the whole of this region was then termed, and confidently believed by
+the world to be--troops were stationed, a mere handful, relatively, at
+intervals on the "great trail," to escort the freighters and the United
+States mail over the most exposed and dangerous portions of the route.
+
+The incident which is the subject of this sketch is as thrilling,
+perhaps, in its details, and as marvelous in its results, as any that
+have come down to us in the history of those memorable times. It
+deals with plain facts, and men who are now living--one of whom, the
+principal actor in the scenes to be related, is known favorably all
+over the State. [Capt. Henry Booth, just passed away--1898.]
+
+Fort Riley, in the year referred to, was one of the extreme permanent
+military posts. Here, in November, 1864, Capt. Henry Booth was
+stationed. He was chief of cavalry and inspecting officer for the
+district of the Upper Arkansas, the western geographical limit of which
+extended to the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+Early in the month, in company with Lieut. Hallowell, of the Ninth
+Wisconsin Battery, he received orders to make a tour of inspection of
+the several outposts, which extended as far as Fort Lyon, in Colorado.
+
+Salina was occupied by one company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, under
+command of Capt. Hammer. Where the old Leavenworth stage route crossed
+the Smoky Hill, in a beautifully timbered bend of that stream, was a
+little log stockade, commanded by Lieut. Ellsworth, also of the Seventh
+Cavalry.
+
+To this comparatively insignificant post--insignificant only in its
+appointments, not in importance--the commanding officer gave his own
+name, which the county of Ellsworth will perpetuate in history.
+
+At the crossing of the Walnut, on the broad trail to the mountains,
+were stationed three hundred unassigned recruits of the Third Wisconsin
+Cavalry, under the command of Capt. Conkey. This was one of the most
+important points of observation on the "Great Overland Route," for
+near it passed the favorite highway of the Indians on their yearly
+migrations north and south.
+
+This primitive cantonment grew rapidly in its strategic aspect, was
+later made quite formidable, defensively, and was named Fort Zarah in
+memory of the youngest son of Maj. Gen. Curtis, killed by guerrillas
+somewhere south of Fort Scott, while escorting Gen. James G. Blunt, of
+Kansas fame.
+
+At Fort Larned, always a prominent point in the military history of
+the Plains, one company of the Twelfth Kansas and a section of the
+Ninth Wisconsin Battery commanded by Lieut. Potter were stationed.
+From these troops--the isolated disposition of which I have hurriedly
+related--squads, consisting usually of from a dozen to twenty men or
+more, as the case might be, under the charge of a corporal or sergeant,
+were detailed to escort the mail coach, freighters, Government trains,
+etc.
+
+On the morning the order (to make the special inspection of the
+outposts referred to) was received at Fort Riley, Captain Booth and
+Lieut. Hallowell immediately commenced active preparations for their
+extended and hazardous drive across the prairies.
+
+All preliminaries arranged, the question as to the means of
+transportation of the two officers was determined in this wise, and
+as the sequel will show, curiously enough saved the lives of the two
+heroes in the terrible gauntlet they were destined to run.
+
+Lieut. Hallowell was a famous "whip," and prided himself upon his
+exceptionally fine turn-out which he daily drove around the picturesque
+hills of Fort Riley.
+
+"Booth," said he that morning, "let's not take a great lumbering
+ambulance on this trip. If you will get a good team of mules from the
+quartermaster, I will furnish my light wagon, and we will do our own
+driving."
+
+"All right," replied Booth; "I'll get the mules."
+
+Lieut. Hallowell therefore had a set of bows fitted to his light rig,
+over which was thrown an army wagon-sheet, drawn up behind with a cord,
+similar to the fashion of the average emigrant outfit now so often to
+be seen upon the roads of our Western prairies. A round hole was thus
+left at the end, which served as a window, and as will be seen further
+on, played a most important part in the tragedy in which this simply
+covered wagon figured so conspicuously.
+
+Two valises containing their dress uniforms, a box of crackers and
+cheese, meat and sardines, and a bottle of anti-snakebite, made up the
+precious freight for the long journey; and in the clear cold of the
+early morning they rolled out of the gates of the fort, escorted by
+Company L of the Eleventh Kansas, commanded by Lieut. Jacob Van Antwerp.
+
+Junction City was in those days in reality the limit of civilization,
+although Abilene with its solitary log cabin, and Salina with only
+two, made great pretensions as the most westerly cities of the Great
+Plains. A single glance at the howling wilderness surrounding either
+place, however, dissipated all idea of possible or probable future
+metropolitan greatness.
+
+The rough bluffs that border Alum and Clear creeks, in Ellsworth
+county, through which the trail wound its tortuous way, were always
+in those days a favorite haunt of the Indians, and many a solitary
+straggler has met his death from their swift arrows in what are now
+called the "Harker Hills."
+
+Safely through these dangerous bluffs and across the beautiful bottoms
+that are to-day dotted with some of the most picturesque homes in
+Ellsworth county, marched the little army and its one white covered
+ambulance. Not an incident disturbed the quiet of the grand autumn
+day, except the occasional slaughter of buffalo in mere wantonness now
+and then by some straggling soldier; and early in the afternoon the
+stockade in the bend of the Smoky Hill was reached.
+
+After an inspection of this remote little garrison, which was found in
+excellent spirits and condition, the line of march was resumed next
+morning for Capt. Conkey's camp on the Walnut.
+
+The company of 100 men acting as an escort were too formidable a number
+to invite the cupidity of the Indians, and not a sign of one was seen
+as the dangerous flats of Plum creek and the rolling country beyond
+were successively passed; and the cantonment on the Walnut was reached
+with nothing to disturb the monotony of the march.
+
+Capt. Conkey's command at this important outpost were living in a rude
+but comfortable sort of way in the simplest of dugouts constructed
+along the bank of the stream, and the officers, a little more in
+accordance with military dignity, in tents a few rods to the rear of
+the line of huts. A stockade stable had been built, with a capacity of
+two hundred and fifty horses, and sufficient hay had been put up by the
+men to carry the horses through the winter.
+
+The Captain was a brusque but kind-hearted man, and with him were
+stationed his other officers, one of whom was a son of Admiral
+Goldsborough, of naval fame.
+
+The next morning Capt. Booth made a rigid inspection of the place,
+which took all day, as an immense amount of property had accumulated
+for condemnation; and when evening came, the papers, books, etc.,
+were still untouched, and this branch of the inspection was postponed
+until the morning. In the evening while sitting around the campfire,
+discussing the war, telling stories, etc., Capt. Conkey said to Booth:
+"Captain, it won't take more than half an hour in the morning to
+inspect the papers and finish up what you have got to do: why don't you
+start your escort out early?--then they won't be obliged to trot after
+the ambulance, or you to poke along with them. You can then move out
+briskly and make time."
+
+Acting upon this suggestion, Capt. Booth went over the creek to Lieut.
+Van Antwerp's camp and told him he need not wait for the ambulance
+in the morning, but to march at about half-past six or at seven
+o'clock, in advance. So at daylight the escort marched out agreeably
+to instructions, and Booth continued his inspection. It was found,
+however, that either Capt. Conkey had misjudged the amount of work to
+be done or the inspecting officer's ability to do it in a certain time,
+and nearly three hours elapsed before the task was completed.
+
+At last everything was closed up, much to the satisfaction of Lieut.
+Hallowell, who had been chafing under the delay ever since the troops
+departed. When all was in readiness and the ambulance drawn up in front
+of the commanding officer's tent, Lieut. Hallowell suggested to Booth
+the propriety of taking a few of the men stationed there with them
+until they overtook their own escort, which must now be several miles
+on the trail toward Fort Larned. So, upon this, Booth mentioned it to
+Capt. Conkey, who said: "Oh, there is no danger; there hasn't an Indian
+been seen around here for more than ten days."
+
+If they had known as much about Indians then as they afterward learned,
+Capt. Conkey's response, instead of assuring them, would have made
+them insist upon an escort, which Booth in his official capacity had
+the power to order; but they were satisfied, and concluded to push
+on. Jumping into the wagon, Lieut. Hallowell took the lines, and away
+they went, rattling over the old log bridge that used to span the
+Walnut, as light of heart as if riding to a dance. It was a clear
+cold morning, with a stiff breeze blowing from the northwest; their
+trail was frozen hard in some places, and was very rough, caused by the
+travel of heavy trains when it was wet.
+
+Booth sat on the left side with the whip in his hand, occasionally
+striking the animals to keep their speed. Hallowell struck up a tune
+(he was a good singer), and Booth joined in as they rolled along, as
+oblivious of danger as though they were in their quarters at Riley.
+
+After they had proceeded some distance, Hallowell remarked, "The
+buffalo are grazing a long distance from the road to-day--a
+circumstance which I think bodes no good." He had been on the Plains
+the summer before, and was better acquainted with the Indians and their
+peculiarities than Capt. Booth; but the latter replied that he "thought
+it was because their escort had gone along ahead, and had probably
+frightened them away." The next mile or two was passed, and still they
+saw no buffalo between the trail and the river; but nothing more was
+said relative to the suspicious circumstance, and they rolled rapidly
+on.
+
+When about five or six miles from Zarah, on glancing toward the river,
+to the left and front, Booth saw something that looked strangely
+like a drove of turkeys; he watched them intently for a few minutes,
+when they rose up, and he discovered they were horsemen. He grasped
+Hallowell's left arm, and directed his attention to them, saying,
+"What's that?" Hallowell cast a hasty look to the point indicated,
+and replying, "Indians, by George!" immediately turned the mules and
+started them back toward Fort Zarah on a full gallop.
+
+"Hold on," said Booth; "maybe it is a part of our escort."
+
+"No, no," replied Hallowell; "I know it's Indians."
+
+"Well," replied Booth, "I am going to see;" so, stepping out on the
+footboard and holding onto the front bow, he looked back over the top
+of the wagon. There was no doubt now that they were Indians. They had
+fully emerged from the ravines in which they were hidden, and while he
+was looking were slipping their buffalo robes from their shoulders,
+taking arrows out of their quivers, drawing up their spears, and making
+ready generally for a red-hot time. While Booth was intently watching
+their hostile movements, Hallowell asked, "They are Indians, aren't
+they?"
+
+"Yes," replied Booth, "and they are coming like blazes!"
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Hallowell, in a despairing tone; "I shall never see
+poor Lizzie again." He had been married for only a few weeks, and his
+young wife's name was Lizzie.
+
+"Never mind Lizzie," said Booth; "let's get out of here!" Although he
+was as badly frightened as Hallowell, he had no bride at Riley, and as
+he tells it, "was selfishly thinking of himself and escape."
+
+Promptly in response to Booth's remark came back from Hallowell in a
+firm voice, clear and determined as ever issued from mortal throat:
+"All right; you do the shooting and I'll do the driving," and suiting
+the action to the word, he snatched the whip out of Booth's hand,
+slipped from the seat to the front of the wagon and commenced lashing
+the mules.
+
+Booth then crawled back, pulled one of his revolvers--he had two,
+Hallowell only one--then crept, or rather fell, over the "lazy-back"
+of the seat, reached the hole made by the puckering of the sheet, and
+counted the Indians. Thirty-four feather-bedecked, paint-bedaubed
+savages, as vicious-looking an outfit as ever scalped a white man, were
+coming down upon them like a hawk upon a chicken.
+
+Booth had hardly reached his place at the back of the wagon before
+Hallowell, between his yells to the mules, cried out, "How far off are
+they now, Cap.?"--for he could see nothing in the rear as he sat.
+
+Booth answered him as well as he could, and Hallowell renewed his
+lashing and yelling.
+
+Noiselessly the Indians gained, for as yet they had not uttered a whoop.
+
+Again Hallowell asked, "How far off are they now, Cap.?" and again
+Booth gave him an idea of the distance between them and their merciless
+foe. From him Hallowell gathered fresh inspiration for fresh yells and
+still more vigorous blows.
+
+Booth was sitting on a box containing crackers, sardines, etc.,
+watching the approach of the cut-throats, and saw with fear and
+trembling the ease with which they gained upon the little wagon.
+He realized then that safety did not lie in flight alone, and that
+something besides mules' heels would be necessary to preserve their
+scalp-locks.
+
+Once more Hallowell inquired the distance between the pursued and
+pursuing, but before Booth could answer, two shots were fired by the
+rifles from the Indians, accompanied by a yell that was enough to make
+the blood curdle in one's veins, and no reply was needed to acquaint
+the valorous driver that the fiends were sufficiently near to commence
+making trouble. He yelled at the mules, and down came the whip upon the
+poor animals' backs. Booth yelled, for what reason he did not know,
+unless to keep company with Hallowell, while the wagon flew over the
+rough road like a patent baby-jumper. The bullets from the two rifles
+passed through the wagon-cover immediately between the officers, but
+did no damage; and almost instantly the Indians charged down upon them,
+dividing into two parties, one going on each side, and delivering a
+volley of arrows into the wagon as they rode by.
+
+Just as they darted past the mules, Hallowell cried out, "Cap., I'm
+hit!" and turning around to look at him, Booth saw an arrow sticking in
+his head above his right ear; his arm was still plying the whip, which
+was going as unceasingly as the sails of a windmill, and his yelling
+only stopped long enough to answer, "Not much," in response to Booth's
+"Does it hurt?" as he grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his head.
+
+The Indians by this time had passed on, and then, circling back,
+prepared for another charge.
+
+Booth had already fired at them three or four times, but owing to
+the distance, the jumping of the wagon, and the "unsteadiness of his
+nerves," as he declared, the shots had not decreased to any material
+extent the number of their assailants.
+
+Down came the red devils again, dividing as before, and delivering
+another lot of arrows. Hallowell stopped yelling long enough to cry
+out, "I'm hit again, Cap.!"
+
+Looking around, Booth saw an arrow sticking in Hallowell's head,
+just over his left ear this time, and hanging down his back like an
+ornament. He snatched it out, asked Hallowell if it hurt him, but
+received the same answer as before--"No; not much."
+
+Both were yelling at the top of their voices, the mules were jerking
+the wagon along at a fearful rate--frightened nearly out of their wits
+at the sight of the Indians and the shouting and whipping of their
+drivers. Booth, crawling to the back end of the wagon again and looking
+out, saw the Indians moving across the trail, preparing for another
+charge. One old fellow mounted on a black pony was jogging along in the
+center of the road behind them, quite near, and evidently intent on
+sending an arrow through the puckered hole of the wagon-sheet. As Booth
+looked out, the Indian stopped his pony and let fly. Booth dodged back
+sideways; the arrow sped on in its course, and came whizzing through
+the hole and struck the black-walnut "lazy-back" of the seat, the head
+sticking entirely through, the sudden checking causing the feathered
+end to vibrate rapidly with a vro-o-o-ing sound. With a sudden blow
+Booth struck it, breaking the shaft from the head, leaving the latter
+imbedded in the wood.
+
+As quick as he could, Booth rushed to the hole and fired at his aged
+opponent, but failed to hit him. While he was trying to get another
+shot at him, an arrow came flying from the left side, and struck him on
+the inside of the elbow, hitting the nerve or "crazy-bone," which so
+benumbed his hand and arm that he could not hold on to his revolver,
+and it dropped from his hand to the road with one load still in its
+chamber. Just then the mules gave an extra jump, which nearly jerked
+the wagon from under him, and he fell on the end-gate, evenly balanced,
+with his hands sprawling outside, attempting to clutch at something to
+save himself.
+
+At this the Indians gave a terrible yell--of exultation, probably,
+supposing Booth was going to fall out; but he didn't. He caught hold of
+one of the wagon-bows and pulled himself in again, terribly scared. It
+was a "close call" and no mistake!
+
+While all this was going on, Hallowell had not been neglected by the
+incarnate fiends; about a dozen of them had devoted their time and
+attention to him, but he had not flinched. Just as Booth had regained
+his equilibrium and drawn the second revolver from his holster,
+Hallowell yelled, "Right off to the right, Cap.--quick!"
+
+Booth tumbled over the back of the seat, clutching at a bow to steady
+himself, and "right off to the right" was an Indian just letting fly at
+Hallowell. The arrow struck the side of the wagon; Booth at the instant
+fired at the Indian, missed him of course--but he was badly scared, and
+throwing himself on the opposite side of his pony, scooted off over the
+prairie.
+
+Back over the seat Booth piled again to guard the rear, where he found
+a young buck riding close behind and to the right of the wagon, his
+pony following the trail made by the ox-drivers in walking beside their
+teams. Putting his arm around one of the wagon-bows, to prevent being
+jerked out, Booth quickly stuck his revolver through the hole; but
+before he could fire, the Indian flopped over on the side of his pony,
+and all that could be seen of him was his arm around the pony's neck,
+and from the knee down, one leg. Booth did not fire, but waited for
+him to come up--he could almost hit the pony's head with his hand, so
+closely was he running. He struck at it several times, but the Indian
+kept him close up by whipping him on the opposite side of his neck.
+Presently the Indian's arm began to work, and Booth looking saw that he
+had fixed an arrow in his bow behind the pony's shoulder, and was just
+on the point of shooting at him, with the head of the arrow not three
+feet from his breast as he leaned out of the hole in the wagon-sheet.
+Booth struck frantically at the arrow and dodged back into the wagon.
+Up came the Indian, but Booth went out again, for he realized that the
+Indian had to be gotten away from there, as he would make trouble.
+Whenever Booth went out, down went the Indian; up he rose in a moment
+again, but Booth fearing to risk himself with his head and breast
+exposed at this game of "hide-and-seek," drew back as the Indian went
+down the third time, and in a second up he came again--but this was
+once too often. Booth had only gotten partly in and had not dropped his
+revolver, and as the Indian rose, instinctively, and without taking
+aim, fired.
+
+The ball struck the Indian in the left nipple (he was naked to the
+waist), the blood spurted out of the wound almost to the wagon, his
+bow and arrow and lariat-rope dropped, he fell back on the pony's
+rump and rolled from there heavily onto the ground, where, after a
+convulsive straightening of his legs and a characteristic "Ugh!" he lay
+as quiet as a stone.
+
+"I've killed one of them, Hallowell!" yelled out Booth, as the Indian
+tumbled off his pony.
+
+"Bully for you!" came back the response; and then he continued his
+shouting, and the blows of that tireless whip fell incessantly upon the
+mules.
+
+All the Indians that were in the rear and saw the young warrior fall,
+rode up to him, circling around his dead body, uttering the most
+unearthly yells,--but different from anything they had given vent to
+before.
+
+Hallowell, from his cramped position in front, noticed the change in
+their tone, and asked, "What are they doing now, Cap.?"
+
+Booth explained to him, and Hallowell's response was more vociferous
+yelling and harder blows upon the poor galloping mules.
+
+Booth was still sitting on the cracker-box, watching the maneuvers of
+the Indians, when suddenly Hallowell sang out, "Right off to the right,
+Cap.--quick!" which startled him, and whirling around instantly, he
+saw an Indian within three feet of the wagon, with his bow and arrow
+almost ready to shoot. There was no time to get over the seat, and as
+he could not fire by Hallowell, he cried out, "Hit him with the whip!
+Hit him with the whip!" The lieutenant, suiting the action to the word,
+simply diverted one of the blows intended for the mules, and struck the
+Indian fair across the face.
+
+The whip had a knot on the end of it to keep it from unraveling, and
+this knot must have hit the Indian in the eye, for he dropped his bow,
+put his hands up to his face, rubbed his eyes, and digging his heel
+into the left side of his pony, was soon out of reach of a revolver,
+but nevertheless he was given a parting shot--a sort of salute, for it
+was harmless.
+
+A terrific yell from the rear at this moment caused Booth to look
+around, and Hallowell to inquire, "What's the matter now?" "They are
+coming down upon us like lightning!" replied Booth; and sure enough,
+those who had been prancing around their dead comrade were coming
+toward the wagon like a whirlwind, and with a whoop more deafening and
+hideous than any that had preceded it.
+
+Hallowell yelled louder than ever and lashed the mules more furiously
+still, but the Indians gained on them as easily as a blooded racer on
+a common farm plug. Separating as before, and passing on each side of
+the wagon, the Indians delivered another volley as they charged by.
+
+As this charge was made, Booth drew away from the hole in the rear of
+the wagon-cover and turned his seat toward the Indians, but forgot in
+the moment of excitement that, in the manner that he was sitting, his
+back pressed against the sheet, his body probably plainly outlined on
+the outside.
+
+When the Indians rushed by and delivered their storm of arrows,
+Hallowell cried out, "I'm hit again, Cap.!" and Booth, in turning
+around to go to his relief, felt something pulling at him. Glancing
+over his left shoulder to learn the cause of his trouble, he discovered
+an arrow sticking into him and out through the wagon-sheet. With a jerk
+of his body he tore it loose, and going to Hallowell, asked, "Where are
+you hit now?" "In the back," he answered; where on looking Booth saw
+an arrow sticking, the shaft extending under the "lazy-back" of the
+seat. Taking hold of it, he gave it a pull, but Hallowell squirmed so
+that he desisted. "Pull it out! Pull it out!" he cried. Booth thereupon
+took hold of it again, and, giving a jerk or two, out it came. He was
+thoroughly frightened as he saw it leave the lieutenant's body, for it
+seemed to have entered at least six inches, and looked as if it must
+have made a dangerous wound; but Hallowell did not cease belaboring the
+mules, and his yells, accompanied by the blows, rang out as clear as
+before.
+
+After pulling out the arrow, Booth turned again to the opening at the
+rear of the wagon, to see what new tricks the miscreants were up to,
+when Hallowell yelled again, "Right off to the left, Cap.--quick!"
+
+Rushing to the front of the wagon as soon as possible, Booth saw an
+Indian in the act of shooting at the lieutenant from the left side, and
+about ten feet away. The last revolver was empty, but something had to
+be done at once; so, leveling the weapon at him, Booth yelled, "Bang!
+you son-of-a-gun!"
+
+Down went the Indian; rap, rap, went his knees against his pony's
+sides, and away he flew over the prairie.
+
+Back over the seat Booth tumbled, and began to load his revolver. The
+cartridges they had in those days were the old-fashioned paper kind,
+and biting off the end of one he would endeavor to pour the powder into
+the chamber, but the wagon was tumbling from side to side and jumping
+up and down as it flew over the rough trail, and more of the powder
+went into the bottom of the wagon than into the revolver.
+
+Just as he was inserting a ball in the chamber, Hallowell cried out
+again, "Right off to the left, Cap.--quick!" Over the seat Booth went
+once more, and there was another Indian, with his bow and arrow in
+his hand, all ready to plug the lieutenant. Pointing his revolver at
+him, Booth yelled as he had at the other, but the Indian had evidently
+noticed the failure to fire at the first, and concluded that there were
+no more loads left; so, instead of taking a hasty departure as his
+comrade had done, he grinned a demoniacal grin and endeavored to fix
+the arrow into his bow.
+
+Thoroughly frightened now at the aspect things were assuming, Booth
+rose up in the wagon, and grasping hold of a bow with his left hand,
+seized the revolver by the muzzle, and with all the force he could
+muster, hurled it at the impudent brute. It was a new Remington octagon
+barrel, with sharp corners, and when it was thrown turned in the air,
+striking the Indian, muzzle first, on the ribs, cutting a long gash.
+
+"Ugh!" grunted the Indian, and dropping his long spear and bow, he
+flung himself over the side of the pony, and away he went over the
+prairie, to bother them no more.
+
+Only the one revolver left now, and that empty, and the Indians still
+howling around the apparently doomed men like so many demons.
+
+After he had driven the Indian off, Booth fell over the seat, picked up
+the empty revolver and attempted to load; but before he could bite off
+a cartridge, Hallowell yelled again, "I'm hit again, Cap.!"
+
+"Where are you hit now?" asked the gallant captain.
+
+"In the hand," replied Hallowell.
+
+Looking around, Booth saw his right arm was plying the whip to the now
+laggard mules, and sticking through the fleshy part of his thumb was an
+arrow, which was flopping up and down as his arm rose and fell in its
+ceaseless and evidently tireless efforts to keep up the speed of the
+almost exhausted animals.
+
+"Let me pull it out," said Booth.
+
+"No, never mind," said Hallowell; "can't stop, can't stop"--and up and
+down went his arm, and flip-flap went the arrow with it, until finally
+it tore through the flesh and fell to the ground.
+
+Along they bowled, the Indians yelling and the occupants of the wagon
+defiantly answering them, while Booth was still making a desperate but
+vain effort to load the revolver. In a few moments Hallowell shouted,
+"They are crowding the mules into the sunflowers!"
+
+Along the sides of the trail huge sunflowers had grown the previous
+summer, and now their dry stalks stood as thick as a canebrake, and if
+the wagon once got among them the mules could not keep up their gallop,
+and would soon be compelled to stop.
+
+The Indians seemed to realize this fact, and one huge fellow kept
+riding beside the off mule and throwing his spear at him and then
+jerking it back with the thong, one end of which was fastened to his
+wrist, the other to the shaft of the spear. The mule on the side next
+the Indian was jumping frantically and pushing the near mule from the
+road.
+
+Stepping out on the footboard, and holding a bow with one hand, Booth
+commenced kicking the mule vigorously. Hallowell, meanwhile, was
+pulling on one line, whipping and yelling; so together they forced the
+animals back into the trail, and away they shot at the top of their
+speed.
+
+The Indian kept close to the mules, and Booth made several attempts
+to scare him by pointing his revolver at him; but he would not scare,
+so he threw it at him. It missed the Indian, but struck the pony just
+behind the rider's leg, which started the latter off over the prairie,
+thus removing the immediate peril from that source.
+
+They were now absolutely without firearms--nothing left but their
+sabers and valises; and the Indians, soon learning that there were no
+more shots to be fired, came closer and closer.
+
+In turn the two sabers were thrown at them, as they came almost within
+striking distance; then followed the scabbards after the yelling
+fiends, as they surrounded the wagon. Some rode immediately in front
+of the mules, impeding their progress with the most infernal noises
+and attempts to spear them (the Indians having evidently exhausted all
+their arrows)--and the camp on the Walnut still a mile and a half away.
+
+There was nothing left for our luckless travelers to do but whip and
+kick the mules and yell, all of which they did most lustily--Hallowell
+sitting as immovable as a sphinx, except his right arm, which from the
+time he had started had not ceased, and Booth kicking the poor animals
+and shouting in concert with their importunate foe. Looking casually
+over the seat, Booth saw twelve or fifteen Indians coming up behind,
+with their spears all unstrung and ready for action, and he felt that
+something must be done, and that right speedily, to divert them; for
+if these were added to the number already surrounding the wagon, the
+chances were they would succeed in forcing the mules from the trail,
+and the end of the tragedy would soon come.
+
+Glancing around the bottom of the wagon, in his despair, for some
+kind of weapon with which to resist them, Booth's eye rested upon the
+valises containing the dress suits, and snatching his, threw it out,
+while his pursuers were yet some four or five rods behind. The Indians
+noticed these new tricks with a yell of apparent satisfaction, and as
+soon as they reached the valise they all dismounted, and one of them
+grabbed it by the two handles and attempted to open it; failing in
+this, another drew a long knife from under his blanket, and, ripping up
+one side, thrust in his hand and pulled out a sash, and began winding
+it around his head (as a negro woman winds a bandana), letting the
+tassels hang down his back.
+
+While he was thus amusing himself, another had pulled out a dress coat,
+a third a pair of drawers, still another a shirt--all of which they
+individually proceeded to put on, meanwhile dancing around and yelling.
+
+Booth reported to Hallowell how the sacrifice of his valise had
+diverted the Indians, and said, "I'm going to throw out yours."
+
+"All right," he replied; "let her go; all we want is time." So out it
+went, and shared the same fate as the other.
+
+As long as the Indians were busy helping themselves to the wardrobes
+contained in the two valises, they were not bothering the mules, and as
+Hallowell had said, "all they wanted was time."
+
+But while the diversion was going on in the rear, the devils on each
+side and front were still attempting to force the mules from the road
+by rushing at them and yelling, and brandishing their spears; none
+of them had as yet tried to kill them, evidently thinking they could
+wound the two officers and secure them alive--a prize too valuable for
+an Indian to lose. But as they were now drawing near the creek, on
+the opposite bank of which the camp was situated, and the chance of
+escape grew brighter, one miserable cut-throat of the band apparently
+conceived the idea of killing one of the mules, for he charged down
+on the wagon, rode close up to one, and discharging his arrow at him,
+struck him on the fore leg, severing a small artery, from which the
+blood spurted by jerks. The mules had no blinds on their bridles, and
+the one hurt, seeing the blood, became so frightened that he gave a
+terrific jump and started off at a break-neck gait, dragging the other
+mule and the wagon after him; so all the occupants had now to do was to
+pound and kick the uninjured one to make him keep up.
+
+This fresh spurt of speed had carried them away from the Indians, but
+Booth and Hallowell knew that the animals could not continue it, and
+they became convinced that the Indians now meant to kill one or both of
+the mules in order to stop them.
+
+The lull caused by the mules outstripping the Indians gave our almost
+despairing heroes time to talk the matter over.
+
+Hallowell said he did not propose to be captured and taken to Medicine
+Lodge creek, or some other place, and then butchered or burned at the
+leisure of the Indians. He said to Booth, "If they kill a mule and we
+stop, let's kick, strike, throw clods or anything, and compel them to
+kill us on the spot." So they agreed, if worst came to worst, to stand
+back to back and fight them off.
+
+This may seem overdrawn to many of our readers of to-day; but if they
+have ever seen the remains of men and women hacked and mutilated, as
+the writer has, and realize as fully as the occupants of the little
+wagon did that such a fate awaited them in the event of capture,
+they too would have courted death sudden, certain, and immediate, in
+preference to that other, more remote but just as sure, and far more
+terrible.
+
+During the discussion of the situation by Booth and Hallowell, the
+speed of the mules had slackened but little; the arm of the latter
+still plied that effective lash, and they drew perceptibly nearer the
+camp, where there were men enough to rescue them if they could only be
+made aware of their situation; and as they caught the first glimpse
+of the tents of the officers and dugouts of the men, hope sprang up
+within them, and life, hanging as it were by a slender cord, seemed
+more precious than ever. In the hope of arousing and attracting the
+attention of some of the soldiers, they again commenced yelling at the
+top of their voices; the mules were panting like hounds on the chase;
+wherever the harness touched them it was white with lather, and they
+could not keep on their feet much longer.
+
+Would they hold out until the bridge was reached, provided they escaped
+the spears of the Indians? The whipping and kicking had little effect
+on them now; they still continued in their gallop, but it was slower
+and more labored than before, and as the Indians fell back to make
+fresh charges, the mules also slackened their gait, and it became
+almost impossible to accelerate their motion.
+
+Hallowell kept his whip going mechanically, and Booth continued his
+attention to the little near mule with his foot; but the worn-out
+animals began to evince unmistakable signs of breaking down, and
+longing eyes were turned toward the camp, now so near.
+
+Though the Indians who had torn open the satchels had not come up, and
+did not seem inclined to further continue the fight, there was still a
+sufficient number of the fiends pursuing to make it interesting; but
+they could not succeed in spearing the mules, as at each attempt the
+plucky animals would jump sideways or forward and evade the impending
+blow.
+
+One gigantic fellow followed them with a determination and valor worthy
+of a better cause, the others seeming now to have almost abandoned the
+idea of capturing either men or animals; but this persistent warrior
+was in all probability related to the young "buck" Booth had killed,
+and was thirsting for revenge. At any rate, he was loth to give up the
+chase, and followed the wagon to within a few rods of the bridge, long
+after the other Indians had fallen back entirely.
+
+The little log bridge was now reached; their pursuers had all
+retreated, but the valorous Hallowell kept the mules at the same
+galloping gait. This bridge was constructed of half-round logs, and of
+course was extremely rough. The wagon bounded up and down enough to
+shake the teeth out of one's head, as the mules went flying over the
+rude structure. Booth cried out to Hallowell, "No need to drive so fast
+now--the Indians have all left;" but he answered:
+
+"I ain't going to stop until I get across," and down came the whip, on
+sped the mules, not breaking their gallop until they pulled up in front
+of Capt. Conkey's tent. Booth could not stand the fearful bounding of
+the wagon as it rolled across the bridge, so he crawled out behind and
+walked up to the quarters.
+
+The rattling of the wagon on the bridge was the first intimation the
+command had of its returning. The sentinel on the post had been walking
+his beat on the east side of the long stockade stable to keep out of
+the cold northwest wind, and had heard nothing of the yelling and
+talking until they struck the bridge, when he came around the stable,
+saw the wagon and two or three of the Indians behind, fired his
+carbine, and thus aroused the camp.
+
+The officers came running out of their tents, the men poured out of
+their dugouts like a lot of ants, and the wagon and its occupants were
+soon surrounded by their friends. Capt. Conkey ordered the bugler to
+sound "boots and saddles," and in less than ten minutes ninety troopers
+were mounted, and, with the Captain at their head, started after the
+Indians.
+
+Lieut. Hallowell reached the line of officers' tents before Booth,
+and as the latter came up was attempting to rise so as to get out;
+but each effort only resulted in his falling back. It was thought at
+first his wounds were the cause, but when asked, "What's the matter?
+Can't you get out?" replied, "I don't know. I seem to get up only so
+far." Some one stepped around to the other side to assist him, when
+it was discovered that the skirt of his overcoat had worked outside
+the wagon-sheet and hung over the edge, and that three or four of the
+arrows fired by the Indians had struck the side of the wagon, and
+passing through the flap of his coat, had pinned him down. Booth pulled
+the arrows out and helped him up. He was pretty stiff from sitting in
+his cramped position so long, and his right arm dropped to his side as
+if struck with paralysis.
+
+While Hallowell walked into Capt. Conkey's tent, assisted by the
+adjutant and quartermaster, some of the soldiers unhitched the poor
+mules and led them to the corral. On examining the inside of the wagon,
+twenty-two arrows were found lying in the bottom, innumerable holes
+through the sheet made by the passage of arrows, besides two from
+bullets, and the outside of the bed was scarred from one end to the
+other.
+
+Booth stood looking on while Hallowell's wounds were being dressed,
+when the adjutant said, "What makes you shrug your shoulders so,
+Captain?" Booth replied that he "did not know; something caused it to
+smart." The adjutant looked, and said, "Well, I should think it _would_
+smart!--here is an arrow-head sticking into it;" and he tried to pull
+it out, but it would not come. Capt. Goldsborough then attempted it,
+but was no more successful than the adjutant. The doctor told them to
+let it alone and he would take care of it after he had finished with
+Hallowell, which he soon did, and with his lance cut it out. The point
+of the arrow had struck the thick part of the shoulder-blade and made
+two complete turns, wrapping around the muscles, which had to be cut
+apart before it could be withdrawn.
+
+Both of the principals in the terrible ride were soon attended to
+and made as comfortable as possible. Booth was not seriously hurt.
+Hallowell, however, had received two severe wounds: the arrow that had
+struck in his back penetrated almost to his kidneys, and the wound in
+his thumb was very painful, caused not so much by the simple contact
+of the arrow, as the tearing away of the muscles by the shaft while he
+was whipping the mules; his right arm, too, was swollen fearfully, and
+became stiff, from the incessant use of it during his drive, and for
+nearly a month he required help in dressing and undressing. The mules,
+the veritable saviors of our heroes, were of little account after their
+memorable trip;--they remained stiff and sore from the rough road and
+their continued forced speed. Booth and Hallowell went out the next
+morning to take a look at them as they hobbled around the corral, and
+from the bottom of their hearts wished them "green fields and pastures
+new."
+
+About half an hour after the little wagon had returned to Capt.
+Conkey's camp, a portion of the escort which had been sent out in
+advance in the morning came galloping up, and from them the following
+was learned in relation to their movements:
+
+They had started early, as ordered the night before, and moved out
+on a brisk walk toward Fort Larned. There were plenty of buffalo on
+the north side of the trail, and they saw no signs of Indians except
+the absence of buffalo near the river. They kept looking back, and
+slackened their gait somewhat after getting out four or five miles,
+to enable the wagon to catch up; and after they had proceeded about
+a mile beyond the point where the Indians made their first attack,
+and the wagon had been turned toward the camp, one of the lieutenants
+said to the other that they were getting too far ahead of the Captain,
+and suggested the propriety of halting; but Van Antwerp, who was in
+command, thought it better to leave a part of the company at that spot
+to wait. Accordingly, a corporal and fifteen men were detailed to
+remain there until the wagon should arrive, and the remainder moved on
+toward the fort.
+
+The squad that had been detailed remained beside the trail for half an
+hour or so, when, becoming chilled, the corporal took them toward the
+river into a ravine that sheltered both men and horses from the cold
+northwest wind. There they remained some time, when the corporal,
+becoming anxious, sent one of the men up the trail to see if the wagon
+was coming, but he soon returned, reporting nothing in sight. Waiting a
+few minutes longer, he sent out another man, who on returning reported
+that the wagon was coming, and had an escort. This last man had seen
+them a long way off while the Indians were chasing them, and supposed
+they were an escorting party--which was correct in one sense, but not
+as he thought and reported.
+
+Remaining in the ravine until the corporal supposed the wagon had
+arrived nearly opposite, he moved out his squad on the trail, but
+seeing no wagon, and suspecting something had happened, started his
+party toward the camp on Walnut creek. They had proceeded but a short
+distance when one of his men cried out, "Here's an arrow!" Hardly were
+the words out of his mouth before a second said, "Here's another!" They
+knew now the reason why the wagon had not come up, and the corporal
+gave the command to gallop, and away they flew toward the camp. As they
+successively passed by the empty valises and the innumerable arrows on
+the trail, they fully realized what kind of an escort had accompanied
+the little wagon when the soldier had reported, "They are coming, and
+have an escort."
+
+Capt. Conkey's command returned about midnight. He had seen but one
+Indian during the entire ride, and he was on the south side of the
+river, in the sand-hills.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE TRAGEDY AT TWIN MOUNDS.
+
+AN INCIDENT OF THE INDIAN WAR OF 1866-'67.
+
+
+[Illustration: SUSIE RÉAUME.]
+
+The highest points of the divide separating the beautiful valley of
+the Saline from the Elkhorn, in central Kansas, are two relatively
+elevated peaks, close together, known all over the region as the Twin
+Mounds. They can be seen from anywhere within a radius of thirty miles,
+cutting the deep blue of the sky on clear days as sharply as a summer
+thunder-cloud. In their contour they are so exactly similar, even to
+two white patches of limestone on their southwestern slopes, that
+their name would immediately suggest itself to a stranger, for never
+were twins born so perfect in resemblance as these dual masses of
+disrupted rock.
+
+Under their conical shadow runs the trail of the Mormon hegira to
+far-off Deseret, when that sect was driven out of Illinois; and
+also that of General John C. Frémont, on his memorable "Exploring
+Expedition" across the continent in 1843. Until very recently, when it
+was ruthlessly cut down, there stood in the valley, on the bank of the
+Elkhorn, immediately below the mounds, a large oak tree, at the foot of
+which the General caused that mutineer to be shot, the circumstances of
+which are related in his itinerary of that wonderful march.
+
+But that was nearly a quarter of a century before the occurrence of
+the events to be related in this story; and they date back nearly the
+same length of time from the present. Both trails may still be seen
+in places where the land has not yet been subordinated to the plow;
+almost obliterated wagon-tracks in the short buffalo-grass covering
+that portion of the prairie through which the expedition passed, which
+each recurring season grow dimmer, and in a few more years will have
+vanished forever.
+
+The valleys of the Elkhorn and the Saline were heavily timbered--are
+to-day, relatively. They were a favorite haunt of the Indians; and
+elk, buffalo, bear, and an occasional panther sought the rocky and
+vine-involved recesses of the primitive forest.
+
+But the savage and the beasts of the plain have passed away. Now the
+land is full of harvests and green meads. Yet the Indian summer now
+as then wraps the hills in its mellow tints; the grass grows brown
+and rusty as each autumn fills its measure, and the days, as in the
+long-ago, are as grand as the golden sunshine of that incomparable
+season of the Great Plains ever lighted up; the mirage, as of old,
+weaves its fantastic forms out of the charming landscape, and under
+certain atmospheric conditions a man on top of one of the Twin Mounds
+will appear, as does the specter of the Brocken, like a huge giant in
+mid-air.
+
+When Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill, about fifteen miles south of
+the Twin Mounds, was established as a military post by Gen. Hancock
+in the fall of 1866, the whole vast area of central Kansas was the
+hunting-ground of the cruel and bloodthirsty Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and
+Kiowas. Their opposition to the intrusion of the whites manifested
+itself at every opportunity where it was possible to murder or carry
+into captivity. The empire of the plow had just then dawned, and the
+march of the homesteader but fairly begun. The satanic genius of Indian
+hatred brooded over the beautiful landscape, and the harvest of the
+unlabored fields was blood.
+
+It is true a few hardy trappers had for years roamed over the prairies
+and camped temporarily on the banks of the wooded streams, but there
+was no attempt at permanent settlement except in the immediate vicinity
+of the several forts; but they were established only from time to time
+at remote distances from each other, generally on the line of the
+Oregon and Santa Fé trail, under the protection of which it was alone
+safe to remain in the country.
+
+About the time the site for the new post of Fort Harker had been
+determined upon, and troops--the Fifteenth Infantry and Gen. Custer's
+Seventh Cavalry--were camped on the grassy bottoms of the river and
+creeks in the vicinity, waiting for their permanent quarters to be
+erected, a bold and persistent frontiersman named Paul Réaume, who had
+been a pioneer in the wilds of Wisconsin twenty years before, emigrated
+from that State to Kansas.
+
+After looking around for some time, visiting all the inviting
+localities of the new commonwealth, in decided opposition to the advice
+of the military authorities at Fort Harker and the commanding general
+of the department he took up a "claim" and established a ranch at a
+magnificent spring a few hundred rods north of the base of the Twin
+Mounds.
+
+Réaume was a widower, but his eldest daughter, Susie--dark-haired,
+rather handsome, and withal a modest, gentle girl of eighteen--kept
+house and acted the rôle of mother to her four young sisters and
+brothers, who loved and obeyed her with all the intensity of their warm
+natures, (Réaume was French but one generation removed,) which she
+reciprocated in an equal degree. They were a charming little family, of
+more means and greater refinement than are usually found in the average
+pioneer immigrant.
+
+The fertile valley stretching many miles north and south afforded a
+rich pasturage, and the relatively deep woods on the margin of the
+Elkhorn a splendid shelter in winter for the herd of cattle that Réaume
+had driven from his old home. So he built as his needs required a
+comfortable log house and spacious corrals, where with an abundance
+of game all around him, from the trim-feathered quail to the huge
+shaggy-coated buffalo, he settled down to a life of rude contentment.
+
+Of the many Government scouts at Fort Harker, among whom were William
+F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill"), William Hickok ("Wild Bill") and others,
+was Jack Hart. Hart was a young light-haired boy, not more than
+twenty-three years old. He was fairly well educated, neither slangy nor
+dialectic in expression of thought; courageous as a lion, and endowed
+with a degree of endurance under hardships incident to his vocation
+that was marvelous in its contemplation by a novice. Jack was a
+remarkably fine shot with either rifle or revolver. He could toss up an
+empty oyster can and put every ball out of his two Colts into it before
+it fell to the ground, and either "crease" or center the heart of an
+antelope at five hundred yards, as he might elect.
+
+[Illustration: SITTING BULL, CROW EAGLE, BUFFALO BILL.]
+
+He was as keen on the trail as any Indian, whose original astuteness
+and strategy he had mastered, and was the superior of the savage, as
+is any white man when once thoroughly familiar with their cunning.
+Besides, in that quick perception and determination so essential to
+success in the moment of danger, when dealing with the wily nomad of
+the Plains, Hart was unequaled by any other scout I ever knew, and I
+have intimately known all who have figured at all conspicuously during
+the past thirty-five years.
+
+Jack was a great favorite with all the officers at the military posts
+in the whole Department of the Missouri; had their entire confidence,
+and when any duty in his line became necessary requiring exceptional
+bravery, judgment and promptness in its execution, Hart was invariably
+detailed, if present, to perform it.
+
+One day in April, 1867, as he was returning from the Platte river to
+Fort Harker with a company of the Fifth Calvary he was guiding to the
+post, they halted at the spring where Réaume had established his ranch,
+to feed the horses, rest and water. Then for the first time in his life
+Jack saw Susie Réaume, who was cheerfully preparing an excellent dinner
+in her father's modest cabin for the officers of the command, who had
+politely requested of her something to eat.
+
+It was the same old story of mutual love, the moment their eyes met;
+and ever after that memorable noon halt, when Hart had a day off he
+would mount his own roan broncho Tatonka, ride across the country to
+the Twin Mounds, and pour out his heart's thoughts to the gentle and
+confiding Susie, who before a month had elapsed promised to be his wife.
+
+"There's no chaplain at the post now," said he, one evening after
+they were engaged, as they were sitting on the porch of her father's
+cabin in the bright moonlight, discussing plans for the future and
+building those airy castles in space as lovers are wont; "but I heard
+from the adjutant yesterday that one had been ordered to Harker from
+Fort Leavenworth, under an escort of a squadron of the Fifth Cavalry.
+They will be up in a couple of weeks, and when he arrives we will get
+married immediately. Eh! darling?" pleadingly continued Jack.
+
+Susie blushingly assented to Hart's importunity, and then he told her
+that he had saved enough to stock a ranch and build a house; that he
+proposed to leave the Government employ as soon as they were married,
+take up a "claim" on the Elkhorn near her father's, so that he would
+not be separated from her at all, or she from her family. Then Jack,
+after cautioning Réaume, who had long before given his consent to the
+proposed match, to keep a sharp lookout for Indians, started about
+midnight on his lonely ride back to Fort Harker, where he was obliged
+to be early the next morning.
+
+Jack arrived at the post long before daylight, and went to bed. When he
+reported to the commanding officer the next morning immediately after
+guard-mount, he found himself (much to his disgust, now that he was in
+love) ordered to guide a scouting-party composed of four companies of
+the Seventh Cavalry, commanded by Col. Keogh, to the region of Pawnee
+Rock and the Great Bend of the Arkansas, seventy miles to the southwest
+of Harker, where the Kiowas, under the leadership of the dreaded Chief
+Sa-tan-ta, had been for the past fortnight successfully raiding the
+overland coaches and the freight caravans to New Mexico.
+
+[Illustration: SA-TAN-TA.]
+
+The command to which Hart was attached remained away, having occasional
+brushes with the Indians, for several weeks. During its absence the
+allied tribes had become excessively impudent and threatening. They
+culminated their atrocities in a most fiendish and cruel massacre of
+the settlers on Spillman creek, upon the receipt of the news of which
+the Government determined to inaugurate an extended campaign against
+them, in which Gen. Sheridan was to take the field in person, with such
+famous Indian-fighters for his lieutenants as Gens. Sully, Custer,
+Carr, and others. Consequently all the scouting-parties were called in
+to their respective stations by courier, to prepare for the impending
+great conflict.
+
+Of course, the moment Hart returned to Fort Harker he made preparations
+to leave for the ranch at Twin Mounds and the girl who had so
+photographed herself on the tablets of his memory. It was early the
+next morning after his arrival at the post; he had shaved, put on a new
+suit purchased from the sutler, and otherwise made himself presentable
+after his long scout. But he had hardly cinched the saddle on Tatonka
+before an orderly came to the corral and informed him that the
+commanding officer desired his presence at once. So Jack, with terribly
+depressed feelings and mentally cursing his luck, mounted his horse
+and rode slowly up to headquarters, where he found the General standing
+on the porch waiting to receive him.
+
+"Jack," said he, as the scout dismounted, "I'm awfully sorry to be
+compelled to call upon you to make another trip right away, when you
+have just returned from such a long one, but the fact is there's not
+another scout at the post; they are all away. I want you to start
+immediately for the Saline. Part of the Fifth Cavalry are _en route_
+from Fort Saunders here, and will probably reach the ford northwest of
+Fort Hays sometime to-day. It is now only six o'clock," looking at his
+watch; "you can reach there as soon as they do--before, if you start
+now. So go at once and guide them in. They don't know anything about
+that country on the river. You remember how terribly broken it is out
+there. Here are some dispatches you are to give to whomever you find in
+command;" and he handed the scout a small package of papers.
+
+"All right, sir," replied Hart, as he put the bundle in the
+breast-pocket of his flannel shirt; "I'm off now, as soon as I go to my
+quarters for my saddlebags and carbine."
+
+With a sad heart as he cast his eyes on the blue cones of the Twin
+Mounds, looming up so suggestively of the ranch at their base, Jack
+left the post in a few minutes after his interview with Gen. Sully,
+fully mindful of the responsible duty intrusted to him. Hart made
+excellent time. He was anxious to get back as soon as possible. By two
+o'clock he had crossed the Saline, and when about three miles the other
+side of where the handsome little village of Sylvan to-day nestles so
+picturesquely in the wealth of woods surrounding, he met the troops, to
+whose commander he reported, and delivered his dispatches. He turned
+with them to the river, where, as it was now past three, the command
+went into camp for the night.
+
+After grazing Tatonka for half an hour, feeding him some corn, and
+eating his own dinner, the thought suddenly struck Jack to ask
+permission to go over to the ranch at the foot of the Twin Mounds,
+whose dual peaks were plainly visible only fifteen miles away to the
+southeast as the crow flies. The colonel cordially granted Jack's
+request. He promised to join the column on the trail early in the
+morning before it had marched any great distance; then, at the
+commanding officer's suggestion, Jack drew in the sand with his finger
+a rough map of the route to Fort Harker, supplementing it by pointing
+out certain divides and ledges of rock that could plainly be seen on
+the trail from where the colonel and the scout stood.
+
+When Jack had finished he left the camp for the spot where he had given
+his heart more than two months before, his soul filled with rapture at
+the prospect of soon meeting again the gentle girl he loved.
+
+His horse was a medium-sized broncho, full of power and endurance,
+which he knew could easily make Réaume's ranch in three hours. That
+would bring him there about seven o'clock, in time for supper, and
+more than an hour and a half before dark. So he struck a bee-line for
+the Mounds, his feelings better imagined than described; an ecstasy
+indefinable except to those whose experience has been similar to that
+of the overhappy scout.
+
+The sun was just sinking below the horizon when Jack arrived at the
+Elkhorn, in the immediate vicinity of the ranch. A flood of golden
+light poured into the beautiful little valley as he crossed the ford
+and entered the circular grove, in the middle of which Réaume had
+built his log cabin and corrals. As he rode toward the place where the
+cluster of rude huts should be, his eyes, which were ordinarily as keen
+and as bright as an eagle's, suddenly filled, for he looked upon a
+scene that caused his bronzed cheeks to blanch and an exclamation of
+horror to escape his lips. The cabin was roofless, and the green timber
+composing its sides and ends was still slowly burning.
+
+"Cheyennes!" he muttered with set teeth, as he unslung his carbine,
+spurred his horse forward, while a prayer for the safety of the girl he
+loved was formulated in his brain. When he reached the opening where
+the once happy home was so picturesquely located he drew up on the
+reins, and as Tatonka stopped a deep groan escaped Jack. Lying under
+the mighty trees, close to the ruins of the cabin, were the scalped and
+mutilated remains of Réaume and his four youngest children.
+
+But where was Susie, the woman he loved? Dazed and stupefied for a
+moment, Jack began to search for her body. She was not with the rest
+of the murdered family. "Oh, my God!" he cried in his agony, "has she
+been saved for a fate worse than death! Carried off a miserable captive
+among the soulless savages? Great God, no! I cannot think of it. Sooner
+would I see her here dead with the others!"
+
+Although almost overcome with grief, and furious with passion as these
+thoughts, so terrible in their contemplation, crowded thick upon his
+brain, he was determined not to lose his self-control. Pausing for a
+moment, cautiously looking around to assure himself that none of the
+paint-bedaubed fiends were lurking in the timber, he dismounted, tied
+his horse to an oak sapling, walked to where his dead friends lay,
+and silently contemplated the horrid butchery. He dared not think of
+the probable fate of the faithful young girl who had promised to be
+his wife, but he uttered bitter curses against the demons who had
+so wantonly, and without the slightest provocation, annihilated the
+peaceful little family. He swore to himself that he would have ten
+lives for one, in his determined revenge. He turned away, sick at
+heart, from these victims of Indian hatred, and walked slowly toward
+the spring to quench his feverish thirst and to collect his dazed ideas.
+
+It was six or seven rods from where the cabin had stood to the wall
+of rock in the hillside out of which the water gushed, and it was
+completely hidden by a dense growth of cottonwoods, willows and elders,
+covering more than an acre. As he approached the edge of this tangled
+thicket, a low moan reached his ear; whether animal or human, so faint
+was it, he could not distinguish.
+
+Stopping for an instant, every sense on the alert, he cocked his
+carbine, and listened attentively. The strange sound was repeated.
+He moved cautiously on the narrow trail. Then suddenly as he arrived
+at the spring, which made quite a pool as it fell from a shelf of
+sandstone, with a cry of horror from his lips he saw prone on the
+ground, her pale mouth just touching the water's edge as it flowed in a
+diminutive rivulet, the apparently lifeless body of Susie Réaume.
+
+"Susie, my darling!" cried he, as he knelt reverently by her side and
+kissed her forehead, for he believed her certainly dead. But the girl's
+eyes opened as she felt the warm impress of his lips, and she looked
+up into his anxious face with an unmistakable glance of recognition,
+vainly essaying to speak.
+
+"Oh, Susie, are you seriously hurt? Tell me, if you can," he lovingly
+pleaded, as he then for the first time noticed, with fear depicted on
+his countenance, a pool of dried blood on the sod beneath her.
+
+After an evident struggle she laboredly gasped: "Yes--Jack--here,"
+touching her right side with her left hand, causing her much effort to
+accomplish it.
+
+Jack at once commenced to unfasten her dress, but she instinctively
+attempted to raise her arms to prevent him, while a delicate blush
+spread over her pale face.
+
+"Susie, dear," said Jack, as he understood what her motion was intended
+to convey to him, "there are no woman's hands here to do what under the
+circumstances must be done; so, darling, let there be no false modesty.
+I want to save you, and you want to live."
+
+Upon this appeal she made no more resistance, but her eyes closed, and
+the glow of her maiden delicacy deepened, while Jack, with the most
+sacred feelings, cut open her bodice with his sheath-knife and exposed
+her virgin bosom to the evening breeze. On the right side, immediately
+on a line with her shoulder, he discovered an ugly lance-wound, which
+had bled so profusely that she had fainted, and was almost exhausted
+when Jack found her. The wound had evidently stopped flowing some time
+since, and fortunately the blade had not penetrated her lungs; at least
+so thought Jack in his careful and gentle examination, determining the
+matter from the fact that there was no hemorrhage from her mouth, and
+he silently thanked God.
+
+It was now long after sundown. In the lingering twilight he carefully
+washed the wound with water, using a portion of her skirt he had cut
+off for the purpose. Completing this office, and binding on a wet
+compress, Jack then moved her tenderly to a mat of soft buffalo-grass
+near by, made a pillow of his saddle, and a covering for her out of his
+saddle blanket, then busied himself in making her a cup of coffee, a
+supply of which and a small pot he always carried with him.
+
+The coffee and some hardtack he had, revived the wounded girl very
+materially, reduced the incipient fever which had set in, and permitted
+her to fall into a gentle slumber; while Jack, under the brilliant
+constellations of the incomparable June night, nursed her through its
+silent watches. The poor fellow leaned patiently over her with looks of
+the most tender solicitude, bathing her temples now and then with water
+from the spring when she became the least restless, and occasionally
+running his fingers through her dark ringlets with the fondness of a
+young but constantly growing affection--for it was his first love, and
+he had given his soul up to it with all the strength and weakness of
+his passion.
+
+The sun, though not yet above the horizon of the valley, was just
+gilding the crests of the Twin Mounds next morning when Susie awoke
+with a glance of approving affection on Jack. Although she did not
+speak, there is a language of looks which is sufficient for the
+purposes of love. As he quietly kissed her he understood it perfectly,
+and it filled his soul with joy.
+
+Jack then, after his ablutions at the spring, made a little fire, put
+on his coffee-pot, which soon boiled, and while it was settling he
+tenderly washed the wounded girl's face and placed a fresh compress on
+the cruel hole in her side.
+
+After Susie had partaken of her frugal breakfast, she was able to
+converse a few minutes. She expressed herself in words that were music
+in Jack's ears, of the deepest gratitude and love for the care he had
+bestowed upon her, assuring him that but for his opportune coming and
+devotion, she would hours since have been dead.
+
+"Do you think, Susie, you could ride on my horse?" pleadingly inquired
+Jack. "We could reach Fort Harker early in the afternoon, if you have
+strength enough to sit in the saddle, and can bear the fatigue. I
+am certain you need a doctor's care and a woman's nursing. Were it
+possible to leave you here, I would make the post in three hours, and
+bring back an ambulance for you. But that would require every minute
+from now until four o'clock; and to compel you to remain here and alone
+until I return, with the Indians perhaps hovering around, cannot be
+thought of."
+
+Susie was now sitting up, leaning against the trunk of a big elm
+to which Jack had carried her, in order that she might be more
+comfortable; and in answer she said:
+
+"I think I am strong enough, Jack. I _must_ be. That is the only thing
+that can be done. I haven't much fever now, and my wound hasn't bled
+any since yesterday. Let's try, at least. I've lots of courage--you
+know that--and I believe that I can make the trip."
+
+Jack then watered Tatonka, saddled him, and after tying him to a tree,
+told Susie he would go up on the hill and make a reconnoissance before
+they started; that he would be gone only about ten or fifteen minutes,
+and not to worry during his absence.
+
+The sun was fairly above the horizon when Jack, with only his
+sheath-knife, started for the bluffs above the creek bottom, where he
+could see over the country for miles. He wanted to satisfy himself
+whether there were any Indians skulking in the vicinity, as he dared
+not take such desperate chances, handicapped with the helpless girl, as
+he would if he were going to make the trip to Fort Harker alone.
+
+He had not forgotten his promise of the afternoon before, to join the
+cavalry column and guide it to the post; consequently he was somewhat
+disturbed at first. But when he left the colonel he of course never
+imagined that such a fate had befallen Réaume's ranch and the girl Jack
+loved. So the scout did not, when he considered the matter a moment,
+weigh his duty in the scales of his affection. He would have sacrificed
+place, friends and everything to save his affianced. What man would
+blame him?
+
+He had just reached the second bottom above the creek and was emerging
+from the heavy growth of timber out on the prairie at the foot of
+the most southerly of the Twin Mounds, when he was confronted by a
+monstrous she-panther, with three young ones not more than six weeks
+old. Ordinarily, that animal of the _genus felis_ will not attack
+man,--preferring, rather, to shrink from his presence, unless provoked
+by wounds. But in this instance both Hart and the panther were face
+to face on the edge of the woods before they were aware of the fact.
+Which was the more surprised, the man or the beast, it would have been
+difficult to determine.
+
+If there had been no little ones with her, in all probability the
+panther would have incontinently bounded into the timber at the first
+glance of Jack's eyes; but the presence of the kittens aroused
+the maternal instinct for their safety. So, with a low growl and a
+characteristic "spit" at him, she flew at the scout's breast, fastening
+her great claws into his shoulders before he could draw his knife, and
+they both fell by the sheer impetus of the cat's onset.
+
+Jack, unfortunately for himself at this juncture, had left his carbine
+and revolvers with Susie. She could use them very effectually in case
+of emergency, but she was too far away to be able to hear him if he
+should call, and too weak to come if she could hear him. Now, his only
+dependence for defense from the murderous attack of the ferocious beast
+was his knife, but he was an expert in its use.
+
+They struggled fearfully, the infuriated animal endeavoring to
+insert its teeth in the scout's throat, which luckily he succeeded
+in preventing by the dexterous use of his knife. But in the awfully
+unequal battle he was terribly cut by the sharp, active claws of the
+enraged beast, and was bleeding profusely from more than a dozen wounds
+already inflicted on his shoulders, legs and body. He had, fortunately,
+been able to keep the cat's great paws off his face.
+
+At last, by one desperate effort Jack succeeded in giving a home thrust
+in the region of the creature's heart, which ended the struggle;
+luckily for him, too, for at that moment he swooned from loss of blood.
+The panther loosened her hold--she was dead.
+
+This final effort of the scout occurred on the extreme edge of a
+rocky shelf, whither both man and beast had been forced during their
+desperate fight. Below this shelf, at a distance of only a few feet,
+fortunately, the level prairie hugged the timber, the latter throwing a
+deep shade over the spot. Into this grassy little place both Hart and
+the panther fell--he insensible from loss of blood, with the lifeless
+beast alongside him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the cavalry camp on the Saline the troopers were busily grooming
+their horses at the picket-line. The captains of companies near by were
+superintending this important duty, while the colonel, surrounded by
+a group of officers, nearly all of whom were smoking their matutinal
+pipes, stood in front of headquarters tent, drinking in the charming
+landscape and delicious freshness of the early summer morning.
+Suddenly, as his eyes happened to rest upon the double cones of the
+Twin Mounds that loomed up blue and clearly defined in the coming light
+from the east, he pointed in their direction with a field-glass he had
+in his hand, and exclaimed:
+
+"Look, gentlemen, look! A mirage! a mirage!"
+
+Every one turned; and presently, while all were gazing with enchantment
+on the strange phenomenon, far above the peaks, in the sky, but
+inverted, two moving figures appeared, surrounded by that waving
+purple mist characteristic of the mirage on the Great Plains. One of
+the celestial apparitions was in the similitude of a man, the other
+of a beast. Both were gigantic and exaggerated in outline; both were
+grappling in a deadly struggle!
+
+[Illustration: THE MIRAGE.]
+
+Every soldier stopped his work to watch the curious picture suspended
+in the heavens; some regarded it with a superstitious awe, thoroughly
+frightened at the manifestation, which they never dreamed of as within
+the range of possibilities.
+
+The colonel recognized the huge figure of the man in the clouds,
+disproportioned as he was, to be the scout who had left him the
+afternoon before, but what the beast was none of the men could make out.
+
+"Great Cæsar!" cried the colonel; "what a place for a battle, away up
+there in the clouds! It reminds me of Lookout Mountain, when I was with
+Hooker."
+
+Every one intently watched the strange combat, filled with excitement
+at the novelty of the thing, until presently the figures appeared to
+fall over an immense precipice and vanish, although they seemed to
+disappear with an upward movement. Then there was nothing left but the
+inverted mounds, the woods and the prairie of the wonderful mirage; it,
+too, was all dispelled in a few moments more.
+
+The colonel turned to his adjutant and ordered "boots and saddles"
+sounded at once.
+
+"For we must be off," said he, addressing the officers around him
+generally. "Life may depend upon our promptness in reaching the scene
+of that strange conflict."
+
+In less than a quarter of an hour the column had moved out, headed in
+a "bee-line" for the Twin Mounds, every man in the whole command as
+anxious as his comrade to reach the place, for all were excited over
+what they had witnessed.
+
+It required four hours of brisk marching before they arrived on the
+plateau at the base of the Mounds, and by that time it was past eleven
+o'clock, and intensely hot. The command halted there, while the
+colonel, the adjutant, the surgeon, several other officers and a detail
+of five enlisted men instituted a search for the missing scout.
+
+In a little while they found the bodies of Hart and the panther close
+together, lying in the shade of the huge oaks, where they had fallen
+in their last struggle, and when they had disappeared to those who had
+watched the combat from their camp on the Saline.
+
+Upon examination, the surgeon discovered that the scout was alive, but
+terribly lacerated by the sharp claws and teeth of the panther, as well
+as badly bruised in consequence of his fall from the ledge of rocks,
+though no bones were broken, nor were any of his wounds necessarily
+serious. He had merely become insensible from loss of blood and
+exhaustion incident to the awful struggle. The doctor placed a flask of
+brandy to the unconscious man's mouth, which he pried open with Jack's
+own knife, still clutched in his right hand when discovered; and in a
+few moments, as the stimulating liquor reached his stomach, he slowly
+opened his eyes, looked around in a bewildered manner at first, then
+apparently taking in the situation of affairs at a glance, partially
+raised himself, and in a hoarse whisper, pointing in the direction
+where he had left her, said:
+
+"Susie Réaume! Near the spring! Quick, for God's sake!"
+
+"Who?" replied the astonished doctor; "Susie, a woman, here too?"
+
+Jack had by this time gotten over his dizziness somewhat, and was able
+feebly though intelligently to convey the story of the awful massacre
+at the ranch, his relations to the wounded girl, and the state of
+affairs when attacked by the panther. Then looking at the sun, and
+realizing that hours must have elapsed since he had left Susie, he
+urged the doctor to go at once, upon which he attempted to get on his
+feet to guide him to the spot, but he was too weak yet, and would have
+fallen if one of the men had not caught him.
+
+"No! no!" exclaimed the doctor, when he divined Jack's intention;
+"don't try to walk yet. I'll leave one of the troopers to look after
+you and I'll go and attend to the young girl immediately. You'll be
+all right in half an hour; then you can follow."
+
+So, with directions from Jack, the doctor, the colonel and two soldiers
+started for the spring, which they found without any difficulty, the
+trail to that point having been explained in such a clear manner by the
+anxious scout.
+
+Entering the maze of willows by a well-beaten trail that led from the
+kitchen door of the destroyed cabin, they found Susie in nearly the
+same position in which Jack had left her early in the morning, sitting
+on the grass against the big elm, weak and feverish. She involuntarily
+gave a little cry of surprise when she saw the officers approaching,
+and with a slight blush mantling her cheeks, laid the rifle she had
+raised from the ground at her side when she first heard footsteps,
+back in its place, and bowed her head gracefully in response to the
+colonel's courteous salutation. Both he and the doctor were surprised
+to find so much refinement and culture as Susie evinced, in such an
+unlooked-for place.
+
+"Miss Susie," said the colonel, as he irresistibly lifted his hat to
+the charming picture of rusticity, "I have brought our surgeon, at
+Jack's request, who will see what he can do for you, and then we'll
+find means to transport you comfortably to Fort Harker, where you
+can be properly cared for. The doctor will tell you all about Jack's
+mishap--there, don't be alarmed," as Susie made a convulsive start;
+"he's all right, and will be here presently." Then bowing again, the
+colonel and his two men retired some distance, while the doctor, as
+modestly as possible, examined the gentle girl's wounds, and told her
+the story of Jack's strange adventure.
+
+Susie Réaume was a girl of the strongest affections, but not in
+the least degree demonstrative. Her grief at the horrible fate of
+her father, brothers and sisters was as deep as the circumstances
+were appalling, her love for the young scout as pure as it would be
+enduring; but on both subjects of the sorrow which had come to her
+in a single day she was reticent, or communicated so little that the
+first impressions of the colonel and the doctor were that she was as
+emotionless as a marble statue. There was never a greater error of
+judgment: concealment of her anguish was a prominent characteristic of
+her nature, while she suffered unutterable mental torture.
+
+By the time the doctor had finished dressing Susie's wounds the command
+was well established in camp on the stream, and dinner in progress.
+Jack had returned to the spring too, holding a conference with the
+colonel as soon as he arrived there, explaining that he was not a
+quarter of a mile away from a good trail to Fort Harker, that ran a
+little distance west of the Elkhorn, where they now were.
+
+Jack was thinking and congratulating himself upon the curious chain of
+circumstances which had thwarted all his plans, provided better for the
+wounded Susie, and at the same time saved his honor, if indeed it were
+at all involved, in breaking his word to the colonel.
+
+Both of the doctor's patients in a short time received some excellent
+nourishment, prepared by the hospital steward out of the medical
+stores, under the surgeon's direction, reviving the wounded girl
+materially and putting Jack fairly "on his feet" again, for he was "as
+tough as a knot."
+
+About half-past two the column was ready to move out. Susie was
+made comfortable on a litter, fashioned after the Indian method of
+transporting their wounded, constructed of saplings and blankets,
+which was carefully slung between two pack-mules of the supply train,
+respectively led by two troopers detailed for that duty. This novel
+equipage the colonel ordered to march in advance of the column, so
+that the dust raised by the company's horses should not annoy Susie;
+while Jack, who was able to mount Tatonka, though he was terribly sore
+and stiff, rode alongside of her and piloted the command on the trail.
+Before they left the ruined ranch, however, the colonel caused the
+bodies of the unfortunate Réaumes to be temporarily interred and large
+stones put over their graves, to prevent the wolves from digging up and
+eating the flesh off their bones, as it was Hart's intention to have
+them taken to the post and decently buried in the little cemetery there.
+
+After an eventful march the command arrived at Fort Harker just as the
+sun was setting, where Susie was kindly cared for, and Jack went to his
+own quarters, to be patched up and plastered by the post surgeon.
+
+Hart was out and ready for duty inside of a week; but Susie did not
+gain rapidly. She seemed to be slowly wasting away with a fever, though
+the wound in her side had closed, and there was no longer danger
+from that source. It was the terrible agony of her soul; she did not
+complain, and the doctor was puzzled. The awful mental strain incident
+to what she had passed through, coupled with the morbid fear that the
+marriage with the man she loved could not be consummated, was doing its
+work. Only time, the great healer of sorrows, could bring relief, and
+both she and Jack were impatient.
+
+The weeks dragged their weary length along, and the golden October
+days came before she was convalescent; but with that subdivision of
+the year came also the inauguration of that celebrated winter campaign
+against the allied tribes, for which Gen. Sheridan had been making
+vigorous preparations all summer. Of course there could be no marriage
+now until the war was over, and it lasted (officially) for one hundred
+and sixty-three days, counting from the 21st of October, but virtually
+ending with Gen. Custer's annihilation of Black Kettle and his band of
+warriors in the battle of the Washita, in November.
+
+At last, in May, 1869, that month of floral beauty on the Central
+Plains, on a delicious Sabbath morning, Jack and Susie were married
+by the post chaplain in the large unoccupied ward of the hospital
+at Fort Harker, which had been garlanded with wild flowers, roses
+predominating, and great bunches of the creamy-petaled yucca, for the
+occasion.
+
+Gens. Sheridan, Custer, Sully, and all the officers, with their wives,
+who were part of the garrison stationed there, graced the ceremony with
+their presence. Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill, and all the other famous
+scouts on duty at Fort Harker, were also present; and many substantial
+presents were received from all the distinguished guests by the favored
+couple.
+
+Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since then. All the famous
+generals mentioned are dead. Hart is now a prosperous ranchman, with
+large herds of mild-eyed Jerseys and broad-backed Shorthorns peacefully
+grazing in his extensive pastures. On the porch of his beautiful home,
+Susie, now a stately matron, and Jack with his pipe in his mouth, may
+be seen sitting in their large arm-chairs at the close of day, resting
+from the labors the ranch imposes. A bevy of handsome children are busy
+with hammock or swing under the great trees of the lawn; and as the
+twilight gathers, the old folks relate to the little ones the story of
+those terrible hours on the Elkhorn so many years ago--a picture on
+"memory's walls" that time can never efface.
+
+
+
+
+WAL. HENDERSON.
+
+
+In one of the busy little mining camps just over the range in New
+Mexico there prowled around, about twenty-five years ago, a notorious
+character whose life was made up of desperate adventures, and whose
+tragic death, which is the subject of this sketch, illustrates the
+inevitable fate of the average border bully.
+
+Wal. Henderson was born and "raised"--as he termed it--in Missouri. He
+came over the mountains into the New Mexico mines from Colorado soon
+after the first discovery of gold in the Moreno hills, where he staked
+off a claim in Humbug Gulch, and commenced working in an apparently
+honest way. He was a rough, illiterate fellow, possessing the physique
+of a giant, courageous as a she-grizzly with cubs, and such a dead shot
+with his revolver that he soon became a terror to the whole mountain
+population. He was a desperado in its fullest sense, without one
+redeeming quality, except that he was kind to his dog, a wicked-looking
+cur, fit companion for such a surly master.
+
+[Illustration: WAL. HENDERSON.]
+
+Any more intercourse with Wal. than was absolutely necessary was
+carefully avoided by every one, and the idea of getting into a dispute
+with him--who would rather shoot than eat--never entered the heads
+of those who worked claims in the vicinity; so that, virtually, he
+commanded the respect of a king. One afternoon Wal. was seized with a
+desire to start off on a little prospecting tour to another portion of
+the range, where he suspected the existence of a quartz lead. He left
+his claim in the "Gulch" only partially opened, never dreaming for an
+instant that anyone would have the temerity to jump it in his absence,
+after they had discovered that he owned it; which he took good care
+they could easily learn, for before he went he asked one of his more
+educated neighboring miners to "come over and cut his name" on a dead
+pine stump that stood near the mouth of his pit.
+
+This friend was nothing loth to oblige his surly comrade, so just after
+dinner he came over, and with his keen bowie-knife slashed out a huge
+
+                      "Wal henDerSoN his KLaime"
+
+on the dead stump.
+
+It took him nearly two hours to complete his literary labors, while
+Wal. stood by impatiently watching him, and when his friend had just
+finished the last touch of his rude letters, remarked:
+
+"Well, I guess there hain't no one goin' for to touch that thar."
+
+Then, swinging his pick and shovel over his shoulder, he whistled to
+his dog, took his bearings by a look at the sun, started down the cañon
+on a sort of shuffling trot, and was soon out of sight.
+
+He was gone three days. When he returned he found that his ground had
+been "jumped" by a party of Irish miners who had come into the diggings
+during his absence.
+
+Wal., in as quiet a manner as his bulldog nature permitted, told them
+to "git!" But they swore they would hold the claim in spite of him; and
+if he was as big as "Finn McCool" they would fight him.
+
+Wal. smothered his rage for the moment, coolly walked off to his cabin,
+where he armed himself with two revolvers, a Spencer carbine, and a
+wicked-looking IXL blade, and started back to the gulch, determined to
+drive the intruders away, or kill them if necessary--it mattered little
+as to choice.
+
+"Git out of this!--quick!--jump! or I'll fill you full o' holes!" was
+Wal.'s greeting as on his return he came in sight of the intruders. But
+one of the plucky Irishmen made a break for Wal., intending to finish
+him by a well-directed blow from his shovel.
+
+Wal. quick as thought brought down his revolver, killing his man
+instantly, the bullet hitting him in the forehead directly between the
+eyes--a spot that was Wal.'s invariable target, which in his list of
+nearly a score of victims he never failed to center.
+
+The two now thoroughly frightened companions of the dead miner fled to
+camp and told the story of the murder.
+
+Wal., believing that he would have a crowd on his heels in a little
+while, started hurriedly for his cabin, proposing to "light out" for
+a while as he said; but a mob of plucky men intercepted him. He was
+arrested, taken to camp, and confined in a little log building, around
+which a guard was placed.
+
+As the news of Wal.'s latest exploit spread around the hills, the Irish
+miners flocked in from all directions, bent on revenge. The people of
+the town expected a general outbreak between the Irish and American
+elements, if any resistance was offered to the infuriated friends of
+the murdered man in their attempt to take Wal. from the improvised
+jail, which they openly proclaimed they would do as soon as night came
+on.
+
+The building used for the incarceration of Wal. was an abandoned log
+store, about sixteen feet square; the interstices of the logs were
+"chinked" with mud, and the whole surmounted by a brush-and-dirt roof.
+In the corner of the room, after the Mexican fashion, a huge but rude
+fireplace had been constructed of stone and earth, from which a large
+chimney composed of the same material communicated with the open air
+through the roof above.
+
+No sooner had the heavy door closed on Wal. than he began an accurate
+survey of his quarters, with a view of escaping as soon as the mob he
+confidently expected should make their appearance.
+
+One glance at the immense fireplace, which yawned like the opening to a
+cave, and a look at the clear sky above through the chimney, satisfied
+him that he would be out of his prison and up some mountain gulch
+before his intended captors could think twice.
+
+Shortly after dark a motley crowd of rough miners, half-crazed with
+the villainous liquors they had been drinking all the afternoon,
+assembled at the jail. They at once ordered the guard away, fired their
+pistols in the air, and made the very hills ring with their curses and
+imprecations upon the prisoner within the little hut.
+
+Wal. meanwhile had determined to escape; in fact, at the very time the
+crowd had reached the door he was on the roof, quietly waiting for the
+mob to make a rush inside, at which moment he proposed to leap to the
+ground from the rear of the building.
+
+He waited for the signal, which soon came in the shape of a volley of
+pistol- and carbine-shots, and a wild yell from the would-be avengers,
+who with a desperate rush made for the door. Under the pressure it flew
+from its fastenings, and swung open with a loud report, throwing half a
+dozen of the mob upon the dirt floor.
+
+For a moment or two no one could enter, as those nearest the door
+became wedged together, while the pressure from the crowd in the rear
+held them more securely imprisoned than Wal., who at this juncture
+jumped from the roof, and, to use his own expression, "lit out ----
+lively."
+
+When the crowd became aware that Wal. had escaped they threatened
+to lynch the guard, and but for the intercession of some of the
+cooler-headed and less drunken members of the party, no doubt their
+threats would have been carried into execution.
+
+They divided into little bands and scoured the camp, visiting every
+suspected house or hole where their game might possibly be secreted,
+and it was not until early morning that the search was abandoned.
+
+The following day the events of the preceding night were fully
+discussed, and as many conjectures were suggested in relation to Wal.'s
+escape and whereabouts as there were groups of men: each had his own
+theory, each knew exactly how and when he got away.
+
+Old Sam Bartlett, a short, thick-set, grizzly veteran miner, expressed
+it as his opinion that "Wal. went up that thar chimbly, and by this
+yer time is well heeled somewhar near camp, surrounded by a battery of
+small-arms, ready to fight the whole outfit."
+
+Sam's surmises proved true. No sooner had Wal. made his escape than
+he went to his own den for a moment, to secure arms and ammunition;
+then to an abandoned tunnel about a mile up the nearest gulch, where
+he immediately commenced to fortify his position, prepared to sell his
+life as dearly as possible if the mob pursued him. As he afterward
+said, "Did not intend to pass in his checks until he had made a sieve
+of a few of 'em."
+
+The Mexican woman with whom he lived proved a faithful ally. Under the
+shadow of the night she secretly conveyed food and blankets, never
+revealing to a soul where her "Americano" was; always earnestly denying
+any knowledge of the fugitive.
+
+For nearly a week Wal. lived in the abandoned mining tunnel. At the
+expiration of that time, when the excitement had somewhat subsided,
+and it was generally supposed he had fled the country, he quietly
+walked into camp at midnight, broke open a stable, took out a horse,
+saddled him, and galloped off to Taos, which place he reached next
+morning. In justice to Wal., let it be said he was not a professional
+horse-thief--he had not gotten so low as that; but having perfect faith
+in the old saw that "self-preservation is the first law of nature," he
+seized upon the only reliable means to escape strangling by a mob. On
+his arrival at Taos, where he felt secure, he returned the animal to
+his owner with thanks, complimenting him on his architectural skill in
+constructing a stable that could be entered so easily, and upon the
+endurance of his horse that had carried him so well.
+
+A little more than a month later, the camp was somewhat startled
+one afternoon at seeing Wal. riding down the main street mounted on
+a Mexican pony, with four revolvers buckled around his waist and
+a carbine slung across his back. Halting in front of a saloon, he
+alighted, and with a devil-may-care sort of a nod to the loafers
+hanging around, invited them all in to take a drink. To the crowd
+at the bar he related his adventures since he had been among them;
+said he was tired of Taos, and had come back to look after his mining
+interests up Humbug Gulch, which he thought he had neglected too long.
+He added "if any gentlemen (?)" were sympathizers with the would-be
+stranglers, he would be pleased to step out on the street and give them
+an exhibition of his peculiar manner of managing the portable battery
+he had provided himself with. No one seeming particularly anxious to
+witness the proffered entertainment, war was not declared, and after a
+round or two of "Taos lightning," as whisky was called in those days,
+Wal. quietly mounted his horse and made his way toward his little
+"dug-out," where he was met by his faithful Señora and provided with a
+bountiful repast of tortillas and frijoles (corn cake and beans).
+
+The excitement in camp gradually exhausted itself, and it was mutually
+agreed that Wal. should not be molested if he kept away from Humbug
+Gulch.
+
+Wal. apparently accepted the situation; turned his attention to the
+laudable ambition of supplying the camp with cord-wood, and almost any
+day thereafter could be seen coming into town with his load.
+
+One day about two months after he had settled himself down to
+legitimate pursuits, while sitting in a saloon, fatigued by a somewhat
+arduous morning's work, a party of Irish miners entered, all of whom
+were more or less under the influence of liquor. After bandying words
+with Wal. in reference to his claim and the murder of their companion,
+one, rather more bold then discreet, approached Wal. holding a large
+stone, and said, "Be jabers, Wal., you would look better dead than
+alive;" when Wal., as quick as thought, drew his pistol, and drawing a
+bead on the Irishman, said, "Drop that rock!"
+
+The stone dropped. Wal. quietly resumed his seat without another word,
+replaced his pistol in its holster, coolly lighted his pipe, and
+commenced to smoke. The gang were evidently bent on mischief; but Wal.
+could not be intimidated, and made no move to leave his seat, but kept
+his keen eye on every act of the drunken mob.
+
+He listened coolly and indifferently for a while to their coarse jests
+and braggadocio threats cast at him. But there comes a moment when
+"patience ceases to be a virtue," and comes soonest to men of such
+caliber as Wal. When another of the belligerents approached too near
+with an outrageous remark, Wal. jumped to his feet and said, "By ----!
+I think I'll kill one of you just for luck, and put a stop to this
+---- nonsense." Drawing out his pistol he fired, the ball, as always,
+taking effect in the bridge of his victim's nose, passing through the
+right eye and coming out in front of the ear.
+
+At the report of the pistol a crowd rushed in, but no one attempted to
+interfere with Wal., who took a position against the side of the room,
+where he invited any one who wanted him, to "step up; but if any one
+did he would make a sieve of him."
+
+No one desirous of being converted into that useful article just then,
+not a soul stepped forward.
+
+The alcalde[1] and sheriff were sent for, and soon arrived. Wal. gave
+himself up, and was remanded to his old quarters, the little log jail
+from which he had so successfully made his escape by way of the huge
+chimney, on a former occasion.
+
+       [1] The Spanish title of a magistrate corresponding to justice
+       of the peace.
+
+The drunken companions of the murdered miner immediately upon the
+arrest of Wal. started off to muster up a crowd of their countrymen,
+determined this time to mete out summary vengeance upon the assassin of
+their comrade.
+
+To preclude the possibility of an escape on the part of the prisoner,
+an additional guard was employed to watch the outside of the jail, and
+two men were posted on the roof--"no goin' up that thar chimbley this
+time."
+
+Shortly after dark another mob, composed of the friends of Wal.'s last
+victim, poured into camp from the gulches and hills and proceeded
+directly to the jail, determined that this time their game should not
+slip through their fingers.
+
+In a few moments the infuriated and howling would-be lynchers forced
+the door of the building open in the same manner as they had done
+before, but their bird had flown--Wal. was not there!
+
+Knowing the desperate character of the men who had come to take his
+life, Wal. had resolved to make a determined effort to get away from
+them if possible, when he first heard them surging and howling in the
+distance, and putting all his quick wits at work, soon decided what
+might be done.
+
+Standing at the side of the door as it was crushed from its fastenings,
+he allowed the crowd to tumble and rush pell-mell into the dark room,
+while he quickly slipped past them out into the street, walked slowly
+to the first corner, then shot into the night--and was free!
+
+The rage and disappointment of the exasperated miners on the discovery
+that their man had again eluded them, can better be imagined than
+described.
+
+Wal. proceeded to his little home, took one of his horses from the
+stable, rode rapidly out of camp over a mountain trail, and in a few
+hours was miles away, where he found a safe retreat.
+
+The disappointed crowd on discovering that for the present at least
+Wal. was beyond their power, slowly retired to their homes, swearing
+they would kill Wal. on sight if he ever made his appearance in camp
+again.
+
+But a few days elapsed before Wal. again dropped into town; though
+strange as it may seem, no attempt was made to arrest him.
+
+For weeks everything about camp moved along quietly, and it was hoped
+that further disturbance was at an end. One afternoon, however, while
+Wal. was standing in front of one of the little stores scattered
+at intervals through the long main street of the town, engaged in
+conversation with a lot of miners who had congregated there, a horseman
+came galloping up the principal thoroughfare, halting directly in front
+of the door where Wal. and his companions were talking.
+
+Taking a single glance at Wal., he exclaimed, "You are the man I am
+looking for!" and drawing his revolver, commenced shooting. He fired
+three shots in rapid succession, neither of which, however, took
+effect; but before he could cock his pistol again, which he was in the
+act of doing, Wal. had "drawn a bead" on him and fired.
+
+The ball struck him in the trigger thumb and thereby turned, or it
+would have found its proper center between the eyes. Finding himself
+disabled, the rider put spurs to his horse and fled to the friendly
+shelter of the nearest ravine, but soon returned dismounted, as he
+discovered that he had not been followed by the terrible Wal.
+
+A crowd gathered around to "shoot the wretch who had so deliberately
+jeopardized the lives of innocent citizens"; but he called out that he
+was wounded--"for God's sake not to kill him!" He would give himself up
+quietly if he could be permitted to see a doctor.
+
+The doctor happened to be sitting in front of his office near by, and
+took him in and amputated his thumb.
+
+He was then turned over to the sheriff, who placed him in an unoccupied
+log building, and appointed a guard to watch him.
+
+During the night, however, following in the footsteps of the
+illustrious Wal., he eluded the vigilance of the guard, made good his
+escape and ran to the mountains, where he was received by friends, who
+were determined to protect him from rearrest.
+
+The following day word was sent the doctor to come out and dress his
+wounds. Obeying the summons, the doctor found him within a hundred
+yards of his cabin, at the side of a mining-ditch, surrounded by an
+array of pistols, carbines, and knives, determined to resist any
+attempt to rearrest him, the point selected commanding every avenue of
+approach up the mountain-slope.
+
+Here he remained several days. He sent word to the alcalde, through
+some of his friends, that he would die before giving himself up to the
+"stranglers," but would submit if soldiers were to come for him.
+
+Upon this message of defiance no further effort was made to capture
+him, and the town lapsed once more into its wonted quietude. Even
+Henderson became remarkably docile, no further disturbances occurring
+between him and the miners--the trouble ending, apparently, by mutual
+consent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some months subsequent to the incidents related in the foregoing,
+the little camp was again thrown into a state of excitement, in
+consequence of a report of the robbery of the mail in the cañon between
+Elizabethtown and Ute creek.
+
+It was bruited about, and proved true, that when the coach (which made
+tri-weekly trips between the camp and the Cimarron, to connect with the
+great Southern Overland Line) reached a lonely point in the cañon where
+the road was narrow and wound around a side-hill covered with a dense
+growth of scrubby pines, three disguised men would slip out and order
+the driver to halt; then, without moving from their place on either
+side of the confined pass, with their rifles pointed toward him, demand
+that the express box be thrown from the boot.
+
+This modest request was always complied with, after which they ordered
+the driver to move on, much to the relief of the thoroughly frightened
+conductor, and the two or three passengers inside.
+
+Five or six depredations of this character were committed in the course
+of a month. The people in camp began to have their suspicions aroused,
+and many were the conjectures as to who the guilty parties could be.
+
+A company was formed to scour the cañon, but not even a clue of the
+highwaymen could be found, nor a place that exhibited any signs of a
+rendezvous.
+
+This fact confirmed the suspicions of the law-abiding portion of
+the community, that there existed in their midst and neighboring
+settlements on Ute creek an organized band of "road agents," who
+started out only on favorable opportunities for carrying on their
+nefarious purposes.
+
+It was believed by many that persons residing in Elizabethtown kept
+watch, advised their partners in this crime at Ute creek at what time
+a large shipment of gold would probably be made, and the number of
+passengers, with their names, the coach would carry.
+
+Wal. absented himself from the camp a day or two at a time, and it
+began to be murmured that he could tell, if he would, a great deal
+concerning these systematic robberies. It was even hinted that he not
+only directly aided and abetted the attacks on the coach, but took an
+active part himself.
+
+He was very reticent on the subject, and it was a fact commented upon
+by nearly every one in camp, that after an absence of two or three days
+he would invariably turn up the very morning after a robbery with a
+load of wood for sale, and as demurely ride through town on his little
+wagon as if such a thing as an attack on the coach the day before had
+never taken place.
+
+Of course no positive proof of his complicity could be obtained, yet
+it was generally believed that he belonged to the gang.
+
+The man who kept the principal saloon was well known throughout the
+Territory, not only on account of his size and weight but also in
+consequence of his insatiable thirst for "bug-juice" and his dexterous
+manipulation of the cards; and he was withal a law-abiding citizen. He
+would tolerate nothing that was not strictly "regular" in the eye of
+the law. He wouldn't steal a horse, or carry off a red-hot stove, but
+woe to the unfortunate and confiding individual who sat down to his
+game with the expectation of leaving with a cent in his clothes.
+
+His thorough knowledge of monte, faro, poker, and other "genteel"
+games, made him as much a terror behind the green-covered table as a
+pack of highway robbers. While he would not hesitate to fleece some
+unsuspecting victim in a "gentlemanly" game, he had no sympathy with
+any law-breaker or "road agent" who would halt a man for his money
+without the farcical proceeding of having a little bout of cards to win
+it honorably.
+
+One afternoon while the robberies of the mail coach were at their
+height, three or four broken-down gamblers sauntered into his saloon
+and commenced to discuss the last depredation, and the _modus
+operandi_ of the efficient "agents."
+
+Prominent among the group was Wal.; each had his theory to advance, and
+each expressed it freely.
+
+The barkeeper said: "Don't yer understand,"--a favorite expression when
+excited--"don't yer understand, the ---- rascals don't live a great
+ways from this camp, and I wouldn't wonder if a few of them--don't
+yer understand--are right in sight of this shebang now, don't yer
+understand. I hain't got no sympathy for any such work--don't yer
+understand--and would help hang every mother's son of 'em, don't yer
+understand!"
+
+Old Sam Bartlett expressed it as "his opinion that Reub. Jones, of Ute
+creek, knowed all about it, and was at the head of the gang."
+
+Wal. put in his oar occasionally, but from his remarks it was apparent
+that his sympathy was rather in favor of that style of robbing than
+"stealing it through a ---- old faro-box."
+
+Words waxed high, and it was evident there "was going to be a
+difficult," as Kit Carson used to say.
+
+The proprietor saw that trouble would ensue if the conversation was not
+dropped; so, desirous of putting an end to it, he turned to Wal. and
+said: "Wal., we've had enough of this--so come on and have a drink and
+go home."
+
+Wal. accepted the invitation, and with a closing remark that "he
+considered the robbers were a ---- sight better than some of the
+genteel thieves who lived right in camp," he walked up to the bar,
+while the owner from behind said, "Wal., what will you have?"
+
+"I'll take whisky in mine," answered Wal.
+
+Glass and bottle were set out, and while the proprietor was mixing a
+toddy beneath the bar for himself, Wal. seized the bottle, poured his
+glass full to the brim, then deliberately emptied it on the counter
+with the remark, "If you don't like that, why, then take your change
+anyway you want it," at the same instant putting his hand on his hip as
+if in the act of drawing his pistol.
+
+As quick as thought, the proprietor, knowing the desperate character
+of the man he had to deal with, seized a pistol from behind the bar,
+leveled it, fired, and Wal. fell dead; then, immediately stepping from
+where he was to the front, pistol in hand, he emptied the remaining
+chambers of his revolver into the prostrate body.
+
+He gave himself up at once; an examination was shortly held before the
+alcalde, where all the facts were elicited, and the verdict of the
+jury was, "Justifiable homicide."
+
+Thus ended the career of Wal. Henderson, whose bones are reposing on
+the little hill above the now abandoned camp, where a score or more of
+others lie who went the same way.
+
+
+
+
+KIT CARSON'S PAWNEE ROCK STORY.
+
+
+Pawnee Rock has probably been the scene of a hundred fights, and a
+volume could be written in relation to it. Kit Carson, one night some
+years ago, when camped half-way up the rugged sides of "Old Baldy" in
+the Raton Range, told in his peculiarly expressive way, among other
+border reminiscences, the following little story, the incidents of
+which occurred long years ago.
+
+The night was cold, although midsummer, and we were huddled around a
+little fire of pine-knots, more than eight thousand feet above the
+level of the sea, close to the snow limit. We had left Maxwell's early
+in the morning to trace a quartz lead that cropped out near the mouth
+of the copper mine worked by him, and night overtook us many miles from
+the ranch; so we concluded to remain on the mountain until daylight. We
+had no blankets, and of course had to sit up through the long hours;
+and as it was terribly cold, we made a fire, filled our pipes, and
+spun yarns to keep awake. Our lunch that we had brought was all eaten
+about noon,--so we were supperless as well; but a swift cold mountain
+stream ran close to our little camp, and we took a swallow of that
+occasionally, which served the place of a meal.
+
+Kit (the General, as every one called him) was in a good humor for
+talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out,--for
+usually he was the most reticent of men in relation to his own
+exploits. The night was pretty dark, there was no moon, and our fire
+of dry knots blazed up beautifully every time the two Indians, whom we
+had appointed to this special duty, threw a fresh armful on. The flames
+cast their weird and fanciful shadows on the side of the mountain, and
+contrasted curiously with the inky blackness all around below us, while
+far above could be seen the dim outline of "Old Baldy's" scarred and
+weather-beaten crest--crag piled upon crag, until they seemed to touch
+the starlit sky.
+
+For an hour or two the conversation was confined to the probabilities
+of gold being found in paying quantities in the mountains and gulches
+of the range; and when the interest on that subject flagged, Maxwell
+having made a casual remark in relation to some peak near by, just
+discernible in the darkness, and connecting the locality with some
+trouble he had had ten or a dozen years before with the Indians, his
+reminiscences opened Kit Carson's mouth, and he said he remembered
+one of the "worst difficults" a man ever got into; so he made a fresh
+corn-shuck cigarette and told us the following about Pawnee Rock,
+which he said had been written up years ago, and that he had a paper
+containing it (which he afterward gave me), and which, with what Kit
+related orally that night, is here presented:
+
+"It was old Jim Gibson--poor fellow, he went under in a fight with the
+Utes over twenty years ago, and his bones are bleaching somewhere in
+the dark cañons of the range, or on the slopes of the Spanish Peaks. He
+used to tell of a scrimmage he and another fellow had on the Arkansas
+with the Kiowas, in 1836.
+
+"Jim and his partner, Bill something-or-other,--I disremember his name
+now,--had been trapping up in the Powder river country during the
+winter, with unusual good luck. The beaver was mighty thick in the
+whole Yellowstone region in them days, and Jim and Bill got an early
+start on their journey for the River[2] that spring. You see they
+expected to sell their truck in Weston, Mo., which was the principal
+trading-point on the River then. They walked the whole distance--over
+fifteen hundred miles--driving three good mules before them, on which
+their plunder was packed, and they got along well enough until they
+struck the Arkansas river at Pawnee Rock. Here they met a war party
+of about sixty Kiowas, who treed them on the Rock. Jim and Bill were
+notoriously brave, and both dead shots.
+
+       [2] In the old days, among the plainsmen and mountaineers,
+       whenever "the River" was alluded to it was understood to mean
+       the Missouri.
+
+"Before they reached the Rock, to which they were driven, they killed
+ten of the Kiowas, and had not received a scratch. They had plenty
+of powder and a pouchful of bullets each. They also had a couple of
+jack-rabbits for food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls
+of the Rock made them a natural fortification--an almost impregnable
+one.
+
+"They succeeded in securely picketing their animals on the west side of
+the Rock, where they could protect them by their unerring rifles----but
+the story of the fight must be told in Jim's own way; he was a pretty
+well educated fellow, and had been to college, I believe, in his
+younger days,--lost the gal he was going to marry, or had some bad
+luck or other, and took to the prairies when he was about twenty. I
+will try to tell it as near as he did as possible:
+
+"After the durned red cusses had treed us, they picked up their dead
+and packed them to their camp at the mouth of the creek a little piece
+off. In a few moments back they all came, mounted, with all their
+fixings and war-paint on. Then they commenced to circle around us,
+coming closer, Indian fashion, every time, till they got within easy
+rifle range, when they slung themselves on the fore sides of their
+ponies, and in that position opened on us. Their arrows fell like a
+hail-storm around us for a few minutes, but as good luck would have it,
+none of them struck. I was afraid that first of all, they would attempt
+to kill our mules; but I suppose they thought they had the dead wood
+on us, and the mules would come mighty handy for their own use after
+our scalps were dangling at their belts. But we were taking in all the
+chances. Bill kept his eyes skinned, and whenever he saw a stray leg
+or head he drew a bead on it, and _thug!_ over tumbled its owner every
+time, with a yell of rage.
+
+"Whenever they attempted to carry off their dead, that was the moment
+we took the advantage, and we poured it into them as soon as they
+rallied for that purpose, with telling effect. We wasted no shots; we
+had now only about forty bullets between us, and the miserable cusses
+seemed thick as ever.
+
+"The sun was nearly down by this time, and at dark they did not seem
+anxious to renew the fight that night, but I could see their mounted
+patrols at a respectable distance on every side, watching to prevent
+our escape. I took advantage of the darkness to go down and get a few
+buffalo-chips to cook our supper, for we were mighty hungry, and to
+change the animals to where they could get a little more grass,--though
+for that matter it was nearly up to a man's head all over the bottom.
+
+"I got back to our camp on top without any trouble, when we made a
+little fire and cooked a rabbit. We had to go without water, and so did
+the animals; though we did not mind the want of it so much ourselves,
+we pitied the mules, which had had none since we broke camp in the
+morning. It was of no use to worry about it, though; the nearest water
+was in the spring at the Indian camp, and it would be certain death to
+attempt to get there.
+
+"I was afraid the red devils would fire the prairie in the morning and
+endeavor to smoke or burn us out. The grass was just in a condition to
+make a lively blaze, and we might escape the flames,--and we might not.
+
+"We watched with eager eyes for the first gray streaks of dawn that
+would usher in another day--perhaps the last for us.
+
+"The next morning's sun had scarcely peeped above the horizon, when,
+with an infernal yell, the Indians broke for the Rock, and we knew some
+new project had entered their heads.
+
+"The wind was springing up pretty fresh, and nature seemed to conspire
+with the red devils if they really meant to burn us out,--and I had no
+doubt now from their movements that that was what they intended. The
+darned cusses kept at such a respectful distance from our rifles that
+it chafed us to know that we could not stop the infernal throats of
+some of them with our bullets; but we had to choke our rage and watch
+events closely.
+
+"I took occasion during the lull in hostilities to crawl down to where
+the mules were and shift them to the east side of the Rock, where the
+wall was the highest, so that the flames and smoke might possibly pass
+by them without so much danger as on the exposed other side.
+
+"I succeeded in doing this, and also in tearing away the grass for
+several yards around the animals, and was just starting back when Bill
+called out, '---- 'em, they've fired the prairie!'
+
+"I reached the top of the Rock in a moment, and took in at a glance
+what was coming. The spectacle for a short interval was indescribably
+grand. The sun was shining with all the powers of its rays on the
+huge clouds of smoke as they rolled down from the north, tinting them
+with a glorious crimson. I had barely time to get under shelter of a
+projecting point of the Rock when the wind and smoke swept down to the
+ground, and instantly we were enveloped in the darkness of midnight.
+We could not discern a single object, neither Indians, horses, the
+prairie, nor sun--and what a terrible wind! I have never experienced
+its equal in violence since. We stood breathless, and clinging to the
+projection of our little mass of rock did not realize that the fire was
+so near until we were struck in the face by the burning buffalo-chips
+that were carried toward us with the rapidity of the wind. I was
+really scared; it seemed as if we must suffocate. But we were saved
+miraculously. The sheet of flame passed us twenty yards away, as the
+wind fortunately shifted the moment the fire reached the Rock. Yet the
+darkness was so perfect we did not see the flame; we only knew that we
+were safe, as the clear sky greeted us "behind the dense cloud of smoke.
+
+"Two of the Indians and their horses were caught in their own trap,
+and perished miserably. They had attempted to reach the east side of
+the Rock where the mules were, either to cut them loose or crawl up on
+us while bewildered in the smoke, if we escaped death. But they had
+proceeded only a few rods on their little expedition when the terrible
+darkness of the smoke-cloud overtook them.
+
+"All the game on the prairie which the fire swept over was killed too.
+Only a few buffaloes were visible in that region before the fire, but
+even they were killed. The path of this horrible passage of flames,
+as we learned afterward, was marked all along with the crisped and
+blackened carcasses of wolves, coyotes, turkeys, grouse, and every
+variety of small birds. Indeed, it seemed as if no living thing it met
+had escaped its fury.
+
+"The fire assumed such gigantic proportions and moved with such
+rapidity before the terrible wind, that even the Arkansas river did
+not check its path for a moment, and we watched it carried across
+as readily as if the river had not been in the way. This fearful
+prairie-fire traveled at the rate of eight miles in fifteen minutes,
+and was probably the most violent in its features that ever visited
+that country. It was the most sublime picture I ever looked upon, and
+for a moment it made us forget our perilous position.
+
+"My first thought, after the danger had passed, was of the poor mules.
+I crawled down to where they were, and found them badly singed but not
+seriously hurt. I thought, 'So far so good;' our mules and traps were
+all right, so we took courage and began to think we should get out of
+the nasty scrape in some way or other.
+
+"In the meantime the Indians, with the exception of four or five left
+to guard the Rock so we could not escape, had gone back to their camp
+on the creek, and were evidently concocting some new scheme to capture
+or kill us.
+
+"We waited patiently two or three hours for the development of events,
+snatching a little sleep by turns, until the sun was about four hours
+high, when the Indians commenced their infernal howling again, and we
+knew they had hit upon something; so we were on the alert in a moment
+to discover it, and euchre them if possible.
+
+"The devils this time had tied all their horses together, covered them
+with branches of trees that they had cut on the creek, packed all the
+lodgeskins on these, and then, driving the living breastworks before
+them toward us, themselves followed close behind on foot. They kept
+moving slowly but surely in the direction of the Rock, and matters
+began to look serious for us once more.
+
+"Bill put his hand in mine now, and said, 'Jim, now by ---- we got to
+fight; we hain't done nothin' yit; this means business.'
+
+"I said, 'You're right, Bill, old fellow; but they can't get us alive.
+Our plan is to kill their ponies and make the cusses halt.'
+
+"As I spoke, Bill--who was one of the best shots on the Plains--kind o'
+threw his eye carelessly along the bar'l of his rifle, and one of the
+ponies tumbled over on the blackened sod. One of the Indians ran out to
+cut him loose, as I expected, and I took him clean off his feet without
+a groan. Quicker than it takes me to tell it, we had stretched out
+twelve of them on the prairie, and we made it so hot for them that they
+got out of range, and were apparently holding a council of war.
+
+"We kept watching the devils' movements, for we knew they would soon be
+up to some confounded trick. The others did not make their appearance
+immediately from behind their living breastworks, so we fired two shots
+apiece into the horses, killing three of them and throwing the whole
+outfit into confusion.
+
+"We soon stopped their little plan, and they had now only the dead
+bodies of the ponies we had killed, to protect them, for the others
+had broken loose and stampeded off to camp. It was getting pretty hot
+for Mr. Indian now, who was on foot and in easy range of our rifles.
+We cleaned out one or two more while they were gradually pulling
+themselves out of range, when of course we had to stop firing. The
+Indians started off to their camp again, and during the lull in
+hostilities we took an account of stock. We found we had used up all
+our ammunition except three or four loads, and despair seemed to hover
+over us once more.
+
+"In a few moments we were surprised to see one of the warriors come
+out alone from camp, and tearing off a piece of his white blanket, he
+boldly walked toward the Rock. Coming up within hearing, he asked if we
+would have a talk with him. We told him yes, but did not look for any
+good results from it. We could not expect anything less than torture
+if we allowed ourselves to be taken alive, so we determined not to be
+caught in any trap. We knew we had done them too much damage to expect
+any mercy, so we prepared to die in the fight, if we must die.
+
+"We beckoned the young buck nearer and listened to what he had to
+say. He said they were part of White Buffalo's band of Kiowas; that
+the war chief who was here with them was O-ton-son-e-var ('a herd of
+buffaloes'), and that he wanted us to come to the camp; that we were
+'heap brave'; we should be kindly treated, and that the tribe would
+adopt us. They were on their way to the Sioux country north of the
+Platte; that they were going there to steal horses from the Sioux. They
+expected a fight, and wanted us to help them.
+
+[Illustration: O-TON-SON-E-VAR.]
+
+"Bill and myself knew the darned Indians too well to swallow their
+chaff, so we told them that we could not think of accepting their
+terms; that we were on our way to the Missouri, and meant to get there
+or die in the attempt; that we did not fear them,--the white man's God
+would take care of us; and that if that was all they had to talk about,
+he could go back and tell his party they could begin the fight again as
+soon as they pleased.
+
+"He started back, and before he had reached the creek they came out and
+met him, had a confab, and then began the attack on us at once. We made
+each of our four loads tell, and then stood at bay, almost helpless and
+defenseless: we were at the mercy of the savages, and they understood
+our situation as quickly as ourselves.
+
+"We were now thrown upon our last resource--the boy's-play of throwing
+stones. As long as we could find detached pieces of rock they did not
+dare to make an assault, and while we were still wondering what next,
+the white flag appeared again and demanded another talk. We knew that
+now we had to come to terms, and make up our minds to accept anything
+that savored of reason and our lives, trusting to the future to escape
+if they kept us as prisoners.
+
+"'The Kiowas are not prisoners, and they know brave men,' said the
+Indian; 'we will not kill you, though the prairie-grass is red with the
+blood of our warriors that have died by your hands. We will give you
+a chance for your lives, and let you prove that the Great Spirit of
+the white man is powerful, and can save you. Behold,' said the Indian,
+pointing with an arrow to a solitary cottonwood on the banks of the
+Arkansas, a mile or more away, 'you must go there, and one of you shall
+run the knife-gauntlet from that tree two hundred steps of the chief
+out toward the prairie. If the one who runs escapes, both are free, for
+the Great Spirit has willed it. O-ton-son-e-var has said it, and the
+words of the Kiowa are true.'
+
+"'When must the trial take place?' said I.
+
+"'When the sun begins to shine upon the western edge of the Rock,'
+replied the Indian.
+
+"'Say to your chief we accept the challenge and will be ready,' said
+Bill, motioning the young warrior away. 'I am sure I can win,' said he,
+'and can save both our lives. O-ton-son-e-var will keep his word--I
+know him.'
+
+"'Bill,' said I, 'I shall run that race, not you;' and taking him by
+the hand I told him that if he saw I was going to fail, to watch his
+chance, and in the excitement of the moment mount one of their horses
+and fly toward Bent's Fort; he could escape--he was young; it made no
+difference with me--my life was not worth much, but he had all before
+him.
+
+"'No,' replied Bill, 'my heart is set on this; I traveled the same race
+once before when the Apaches got me, and their knives never struck me
+once. I ask this favor as my life, for I have a presentiment that it is
+only I can win. I know how to get every advantage of them. So say no
+more.'
+
+"The sun had scarcely gilded that portion of the dark line of the
+Rock that juts out boldly toward the western horizon, before all the
+warriors, with O-ton-son-e-var at their head, marched silently toward
+the tree and beckoned us to come.
+
+[Illustration: PACER'S SON--CHIEF OF ALL THE APACHES.]
+
+"Quickly we were on the prairie beside them, when they opened a space,
+and we walked in their center without exchanging a word. There were
+only thirty left of that band of sixty proud warriors who had commenced
+the attack on us the day before, and I could see by the scowls with
+which they regarded us, and by the convulsive clutching at their
+knives by the younger ones, that it was only the presence and power of
+O-ton-son-e-var which prevented them from taking summary vengeance upon
+us.
+
+"As soon as we reached the tree, O-ton-son-e-var paced the two
+hundred steps, and arranged his warriors on either side, who in a
+moment stripped themselves to the waist, and each seizing his long
+scalping-knife, and bracing himself, held it high over his head, so as
+to strike a blow that would carry it to the hilt at once.
+
+"The question of who should be their victim was settled immediately,
+for as I stepped forward to face that narrow passage of probable
+death, the chief signaled me back with an impulsive gesture not to be
+misunderstood, and pointing to Bill, told him to prepare himself for
+the bloody trial.
+
+"I attempted to protest, and was urging my most earnest words, when
+O-ton-son-e-var said he had decided, and 'the young man must run,'
+adding that 'even a drop of blood from any one of the knives meant
+death to both.'
+
+"Each savage stood firm, with his glittering blade reflecting the rays
+of the evening sun, and on each hard cold face a determination to have
+the heart's blood of their victim.
+
+"The case seemed almost hopeless--it was truly a race for life; and as
+Bill prepared himself I wished ourselves back on the Rock, with only as
+many good bullets as the number of red devils who stood before us, the
+very impersonation of all the hatred of the detestable red man.
+
+"How well I remember the coolness and confidence of Bill! He could not
+have been more calm if he had been stripping for a foot-race for fun.
+He had perfect faith in the result, and when O-ton-son-e-var motioned
+to commence the fearful trial, Bill spoke to me, but I could not
+answer--my grief was too great.
+
+"He stripped to his drawers, and standing there awaiting the signal,
+naked from the belt up, he was the picture of the noblest manhood I
+ever saw. He tightened his belt, and stood for a few seconds looking,
+with compressed lips, down the double row of savages, as they stood,
+face to face, gloating on their victim. It seemed like an age to me,
+and when the signal came I was forced by an irresistible power to look
+upon the scene.
+
+"At the instant Bill darted like a flash of lightning from the foot of
+the tree; on rushed the devils with their gleaming blades, yelling, and
+crowding one another, and cutting at poor Bill with all the rage of
+their revengeful nature. But he evaded all their horrible efforts--now
+tossing a savage here and another there, now almost creeping like a
+snake at their feet, then like a wildcat he would jump through the
+line, dashing the knives out of their hands, till at last, with a
+single spring, he passed almost twenty feet beyond the mark where the
+chief stood.
+
+"We were saved, and when the disappointed savages were crowding around
+him I rushed in and threw myself in his arms. The chief motioned the
+impatient warriors away, and with sullen footsteps followed them.
+
+"In a few moments we slowly retraced our way to the Rock, where,
+taking our mules, we pushed on in the direction of the Missouri. We
+camped on the bank of the Arkansas that night, only a few miles from
+the terrible Rock; and while we were resting around our little fire of
+buffalo-chips, and our animals were quietly nibbling the dried grass
+at our feet, we could still hear the Kiowas chanting the death-song
+as they buried their lost warriors under the blackened sod of the
+prairie."
+
+
+
+
+SHERIDAN'S ROOST.
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN.]
+
+Less than a third of a century ago the western half of southern Kansas
+and the whole region beyond, including the historical Washita, where
+General Custer defeated the famous chief of the Cheyennes, Black
+Kettle, was the habitat of our noblest indigenous bird, the wild
+turkey. The dense woods bordering all the streams were full of them,
+for the wild turkey makes his haunts in the timber.
+
+Having visited that once favorite winter rendezvous of the Cheyennes
+and Kiowas during the early spring, and stood again on the ground
+where Sheridan and Custer in their celebrated campaign of 1868-9 so
+effectually subdued the Indians that the Western frontier has ever
+since been exempt from their bloody raids, the recollection of many
+exciting wild-turkey hunts by the two incomparable soldiers came
+vividly to my mind. I remember distinctly, as if it were but a week
+since, how during that winter campaign of nearly thirty years ago the
+troops sent into the field against the allied hostile tribes subsisted
+for days on wild turkey--luckily for them, too, as they were almost
+without a ration, and would have suffered in a greater degree than they
+did but for the presence of great flocks of the delicious birds.
+
+In addition to the stern necessity of securing them, shooting them
+under the brilliant mid-continent full moon that nowhere else shines
+more intensely, afforded an immense amount of sport to both officers
+and enlisted men, divesting their weary march through that then
+desolate region of its terrible monotony. General Sheridan was a
+crack shot, recognized as an expert in pheasant-hunting when a young
+lieutenant in the wilds of Oregon, long before the Civil War, and where
+large game roamed in immense numbers through the vast forests. Then the
+height of the embryo great General's ambition was that he might attain
+the rank of Major before he died!
+
+There is a large body of timber on the North Fork of the Canadian river
+in the Indian Territory, about sixty miles directly south of the Kansas
+line, known as "Sheridan's Roost"--so marked on the maps. It was there
+that General Sheridan with Custer bagged an almost incredible number of
+wild turkeys while camping on the now historic spot.
+
+It was on the afternoon of one of the last days in the month of
+December, 1868, when the tired command found itself encamped very
+near an immense turkey roost. Both Sheridan and Custer, as soon as
+they had dismounted from their horses, made the fortuitous discovery
+and grasped the important situation: an abundance of food for the
+half-starved troopers and a relief to the ennui and tiresome routine of
+the monotonous march through the seemingly interminable sand-dunes so
+frequent in that region.
+
+In order that the necessities of the command and the anticipated sport
+might not be thwarted by a general firing of the rank and file under
+the excitement natural to the average soldier, Sheridan immediately
+issued an order that no one--officer, enlisted man, or civilian--should
+leave camp without his permission. He was well aware of the fact that
+if any prowling around was allowed, the now absent birds would not
+return to their accustomed resting-place when night came on.
+
+The whole command was restless, anxious and impatient for hours,
+waiting for the seemingly tardy sun to set. At last, after two hours of
+suspense, the fading rays began to gild the summits of the low range
+of hills west of the camp. Then, just as the twilight curve reached
+the horizon, the General, with Custer and several other officers whom
+he had chosen as companions, left their camp-fire of blazing logs and
+sauntered slowly into the thick woods where it had been discovered
+early in the afternoon that the coveted birds were in the habit of
+congregating to roost.
+
+Arriving at the very center of the vast sleeping-place, at the
+suggestion of General Custer each gentleman took a position on the
+ground, separated from each other some distance, to watch from their
+individual vantage-point until the moment should come for the birds to
+seek their accustomed resting-place.
+
+They did not have to wait long. Before it had grown fairly dark,
+two or three flocks containing at least two hundred of the bronzed
+beauties came walking stealthily down the sheltered ravines leading
+out into the broad bottom where the great trees stood in aggregated
+clumps, under whose shadows General Sheridan had first observed the
+unmistakable signs of a vast roost. At the head of each flock, as it
+unsuspiciously advanced, strutted a magnificent male bird in all the
+arrogance of his leadership, and on whose bronzed plumage the soft
+full moon which had just risen, glinted like a calcium light as its
+golden rays sifted through the interstices of the bare limbs of the
+winter-garbed forest.
+
+When the leader had arrived at the spot where his charge had been
+accustomed to roost, he suddenly halted, glanced all around him for a
+few seconds, then seemingly satisfied that everything was right, he
+gave the signal--a sharp, quick, shrill whistle. At that instant every
+bird with one accord and a tremendous fluttering of wings, raised
+itself and alighted in the loftiest branches of the tallest trees.
+
+In a few moments more, many more flocks arrived and went through
+exactly the same evolutions as the first two, when, having settled
+themselves for an undisturbed slumber, General Sheridan gave the word
+for the slaughter to begin. Each officer then began to shoot on his own
+account, and the turkeys fell like the leaves in October. The stupid
+birds not killed at the first fusillade did not seem to have sense
+enough to get out of harm's way: they flew from tree to tree at every
+shot, persistently remaining in the immediate vicinity of their roost
+with all the characteristic idiocy of a sage-hen, which, according to
+my observation, has less sense than any other bird that flies.
+
+It was soon time that all honest men whether "in camp or court" were in
+bed, but the two famous generals and their companions, so exciting was
+the rare sport, did not leave until the moon was far down the western
+horizon.
+
+They then returned to the friendly fires near their tents and counted
+the number of birds which had fallen under the accurate aim of those
+engaged. It was discovered they had bagged nearly a hundred of the
+magnificent bronzed creatures, of which Sheridan had killed the lion's
+share.
+
+From that midnight incident in the beginning of that eventful winter
+on the Great Plains, "Sheridan's Roost" received its name; the spot
+became classic, and will go down to the generations yet unborn with its
+suggestive title.
+
+Although the majority of the birds stuck to the vicinity of their
+roost, yet continually slaughtered by the unerring rifles of the
+officers, appearing to be too senseless to avert their doom by
+flying off, some, however, did go recklessly into the very camp of
+the troopers. The picket-line had long since been stretched, and
+preparations for the men's evening meal, scanty as it was to be, were
+fairly under way. But the cooks, expecting that some of the birds
+would, frightened as they evidently were by the deadly shots of the
+officers, fly into camp in their bewilderment, were a little slow and
+perfunctory, anticipating that the bill of fare, that night at least,
+would vary materially from the customary horse-meat and hardtack.
+
+Sure enough, several large flocks "rounded up" in full view of the
+command just as the firing commenced. It was a curious as well as a
+remarkable scene to watch the evident surprise and discomfiture of the
+birds to discover the whole ground usurped by the soldiers; they were
+bewildered beyond the power of description. They stood still for a few
+moments seemingly paralyzed, but as other flocks began to enter the
+camp, all in the quickest imaginable time flew into the tallest trees.
+At this juncture every soldier was seized with a desire to shoot, and a
+fusillade began right there, resulting in tumbling off the huge limbs
+fifty or more of the crazed birds. Of course, the remainder were driven
+away from their roost, until the very air was black with the alarmed
+and bewildered turkeys.
+
+As the dark night came on, not knowing where to go, and failing to seek
+another quiet roosting-place, back they all came, but in increased
+numbers, evidently determined to roost there or nowhere. The air was
+filled and the ground covered with wild turkeys. They were dazed at the
+turn affairs had taken, and great flocks ran, bewildered, right among
+the soldiers and wagons of the supply train. Then was a scene enacted
+such as perhaps was never before witnessed, nor has it since, in all
+probability. All the dogs in the command--and there was every breed and
+every size in the camp, for the average American soldier loves a dog
+and keeps as many as he can--joined in the pandemonium that ensued in
+the chase after the frightened birds, accompanied by a fusillade which
+in point of rapidity and volume of noise would have done credit to a
+corps in a general engagement.
+
+Some casualties occurred, of course, but no lives were lost save that
+of a horse, under the following circumstances: One of the troopers
+of the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry, who was in the act of leading his
+animal to the picket-line at the height of the chase, was somewhat
+astonished to find that his faithful beast failed to respond to the
+tugging at his halter-strap as he endeavored to bring him to the
+stretched rope, and looking around to discover the cause, the excited
+trooper saw the unfortunate animal on the ground, dead, having been
+instantly killed by an erratic ball!
+
+There was great feasting in the command that night. Never did turkey
+taste so delicious as did the magnificent birds served in every
+conceivable style at that late meal in camp on the classic Washita,
+to the half-famished soldiers of the famous Seventh Cavalry and the
+gallant boys of the Kansas regiment.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSING OF THE BUFFALO.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+To the old trapper and hunter of the palmy days of '68 and '70, I
+dedicate this chapter. That time is now faded into the past, and so far
+faded, indeed, that the present generation knows not its sympathy nor
+its sentiment.
+
+The buffalo--as my thoughts turn to the past, the memory of their "age"
+(if I may so call it) crowds upon me. I remember when the eye could
+not measure their numbers. I saw a herd delay a railroad train from
+9 o'clock in the morning until 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Countless
+millions, divided by its leaders and captains like an immense army! How
+many millions there were, none could guess. On each side of us, and
+as far as we could see--our vision was limited only by the extended
+horizon of the flat prairie--the whole vast area was black with the
+surging mass of affrighted animals, as they rushed onward to the south
+in a mad stampede.
+
+At another time Gens. Sheridan, Custer, Sully, and myself rode through
+another and larger one, for three consecutive days. This was in the
+fall of 1868. It seems almost impossible to those who have seen
+them, as numerous apparently as the sands of the seashore, feeding
+on the illimitable natural pasturage of the Great Plains, that the
+buffalo should have become practically extinct. When I look back only
+twenty-five years and recall the fact that they swarmed in countless
+numbers even then as far east as Fort Harker, only 200 miles west from
+the Missouri river, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?" And yet,
+such is the fact. Two causes can be assigned for this great hecatomb:
+First, the demand for their hides, which brought about a great invasion
+of hunters into this region; and second, the crowds of thoughtless
+tourists who crossed the continent for the mere novelty and pleasure
+of the trip. This latter class heartlessly killed for the excitement
+of the new experience as they rode along in the cars at a low rate of
+speed, often never touching a particle of the flesh of their victims,
+or possessing themselves of a single robe.
+
+The former, numbering hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots,
+with thousands of novices, the pioneer settlers on the public domain,
+day after day for years made it a lucrative business to kill for the
+robes alone, a market for which had suddenly sprung up all over the
+country.
+
+The beginning of the end was marked by the completion of the Kansas
+Pacific across the Plains to the foot-hills of the Rockies in 1868,
+this being the western limit of the buffalo range.
+
+In 1872 a writer in "The Buffalo Land" said:
+
+  "Probably the most cruel of all bison-shooting pastime is that
+  of firing from the cars. During certain periods in the spring
+  and fall, when the large herds are crossing the Kansas Pacific
+  Railroad, the trains run for a hundred miles or more among
+  countless thousands of the shaggy monarchs of the Plains. The bison
+  has a strange and entirely unaccountable instinct or habit which
+  leads it to attempt crossing in front of any moving object near
+  it. It frequently happened, in the time of the old stages, that
+  the driver had to rein up his horses until the herd which he had
+  started had crossed the road ahead of him. To accomplish this
+  feat, if the object of their fright was moving rapidly, the animals
+  would often run for miles.
+
+  "When the iron horse comes rushing into their solitudes, and
+  snorting out his fierce alarms, the herds, though perhaps half
+  a mile from his path, will lift their heads and gaze intently
+  for a few minutes toward the object thus approaching them with a
+  roar which causes the earth to tremble, and enveloped in a white
+  cloud that streams further and higher than the dust of the old
+  stage-coach ever did; and then, having determined its course,
+  instead of fleeing back to the distant valleys, away they go,
+  charging over the ridge across which the iron rails lie, apparently
+  determined to cross in front of the locomotive at all hazards. The
+  rate per mile of the passenger trains is slow upon the Plains,
+  and hence it often happens that the cars and buffaloes will be
+  side by side for a mile or two, the brutes abandoning the effort
+  to cross only when their foe has emerged entirely ahead. During
+  these races the car windows are opened, and numerous breech-loaders
+  fling hundreds of bullets among the densely crowded and fast-flying
+  masses. Many of the poor animals fall, and more go off to die in
+  the ravines. The train speeds on, and the act is repeated every
+  few miles until Buffalo Land is passed."
+
+Almost with prophetic eye he continued:
+
+  "Let this slaughter continue for ten years, and the bison of the
+  American continent will become extinct. The number of valuable
+  robes and pounds of meat which would thus be lost to us and
+  posterity, will run too far into the millions to be easily
+  calculated. All over the Plains, lying in disgusting masses of
+  putrefaction along valley and hill, are strewn immense carcasses of
+  wantonly slain buffalo. They line the Kansas Pacific road for two
+  hundred miles."
+
+A great herd of buffaloes on the Plains in the early days, when one
+could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch its
+organization, and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed to
+exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features of the
+spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the immense mass
+of shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action indicating a
+degree of intelligence to be found only in the most intelligent of the
+brute creation. Frequently the larger herd was broken up into many
+smaller ones, that traveled relatively close together, each led by an
+independent master. Perhaps only a few rods marked the dividing-line
+between them, but it was always unmistakably plain, and each moved
+synchronously in the direction in which all were going.
+
+The leadership of the herd was attained only by hard struggles for the
+place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized,
+and kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he
+became superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his
+inevitable fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves.
+
+In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate yet
+consolidated herds rushed off together, as if all had gone mad at
+once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic horse,
+stampedes on the slightest provocation--frequently without any
+assignable cause. Sometimes the simplest affair will start the whole
+herd: a prairie-dog barking at the entrance of his burrow, a shadow of
+one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is sufficient to make
+them run for miles as if a real and dangerous enemy were at their heels.
+
+Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the Plains.
+The Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of
+robbery. They even trained their horses to run from one point to
+another, in expectation of the coming of the wagon trains on the trail.
+When a camp was made that was nearly in range, they turned their
+trained animals loose, which at once flew across the prairie, passing
+through the herd and penetrating the very corrals of their victims. All
+of the picketed horses and mules would endeavor to follow these decoys,
+and were invariably led right into the haunts of the Indians, who
+easily secured them. Young horses and mules were easily frightened; and
+in the confusion which generally ensued, great injury was frequently
+done to the runaways themselves.
+
+At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over the
+prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become wild
+fell a prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the lot of
+stampeded horses bred in the States, they not having been trained by a
+prairie life to care for themselves. Instead of stopping and bravely
+fighting off the bloodthirsty beasts, they would run. Then the whole
+pack were sure to leave the bolder animals and make for the runaways,
+which they seldom failed to overtake and dispatch.
+
+Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the
+alarm in case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels
+were always to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some
+distance from the main body. When they saw something approaching that
+the herd should beware of or get away from, they started on the run
+directly for the center of the great mass of their peacefully grazing
+congeners. Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as sentinels on the
+edge of the main herd, watching the vedettes; the moment the latter
+made for the center, the former raised their heads, and in the peculiar
+manner of their species gazed all around and sniffed the air as if
+they could smell both the danger and its direction. Should there be
+something which their instinct told them to guard against, the leader
+took his position in front, the cows and calves crowded in the center,
+while the rest of the males gathered on the flanks and in the rear,
+indicating a gallantry that might be imitated at times by the _genus
+homo_.
+
+Generally, buffalo went to their drinking-place but once a day, and
+that late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each
+other in single file, which accounts for the many trails on the Plains,
+always ending at some stream or lake. They frequently traveled twenty
+or thirty miles for water; so the trails leading to it were often worn
+to the depth of a foot or more.
+
+That curious depression so frequently seen on the Great Plains, called
+a "buffalo wallow," is caused in this wise: The huge animals paw and
+lick the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is broken the
+loose soil drifts away under the constant action of the wind. Then,
+year after year, through more pawing, licking, rolling and wallowing by
+the animals, the wind wafts more of the soil away, and soon there is a
+considerable hole in the prairie.
+
+Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following a
+buffalo trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo wallows
+usually retain a great quantity of water, and they have often saved the
+lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses.
+
+There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen
+every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after
+the grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the Plains,
+thousands--yes, millions--of them, which the early travelers, who did
+not divine their cause, called "fairy rings." From the first of April
+until the middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon
+its recurrence almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at
+the proper time. This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as
+they, unlike our domestic animals, only rutted during a single month;
+consequently the cows all calved during a certain time; this was the
+wet month, and as there were a great many gray wolves that roamed
+singly or in immense packs over the whole prairie region, the bulls,
+in their regular beats, kept guard over the cows while in the act of
+parturition, and drove the wolves away, walking in a ring around the
+females at a short distance, and thus forming the curious circles.
+
+In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious
+young bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were
+ever ready to test their claims for the leadership; so that it may
+be safely stated that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle
+between them for the supremacy--though, strangely enough, the struggle
+seldom resulted in the death of either combatant.
+
+Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is more strongly
+developed than in the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by
+her side as a she-grizzly with cubs.
+
+The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the
+most pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old
+age has probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the
+unpardonable sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered in his
+dreary isolation, near some stream or lake, where it does not tax him
+too severely to find good grass; for he is now feeble, and exertion
+an impossibility. In this new stage of his existence he seems to have
+completely lost his courage. Frightened at his own shadow, or the
+rustling of a leaf, he is the very incarnation of nervousness and
+suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from birth, solitude, foreign to
+his whole nature, has changed him into a new creature; and his inherent
+terror of the most trivial things is intensified to such a degree
+that if a man were compelled to undergo such constant alarm, it would
+probably drive him insane in less than a week. Nobody ever saw one of
+these miserable and forlorn creatures dying a natural death, or even
+heard of such an occurrence. The cowardly coyote and the gray wolf
+had already marked him for their own; and they rarely missed their
+calculations.
+
+Rising suddenly to the top of a divide with a party of friends in 1866,
+we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, the very
+picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves in the
+act of challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, undoubtedly
+realizing the hopelessness of his situation, had determined to die
+game. His great shaggy head, filled with burrs, was lowered to the
+ground as he confronted his would-be executioners; his tongue, black
+and parched, lolled out of his mouth, and he gave utterance at
+intervals to a suppressed roar.
+
+The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semicircle immediately
+in front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken
+buffalo gave vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves howled in
+concert in most mournful cadence.
+
+After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made a
+dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent prairie;
+but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder of the
+pack started for his hind legs to hamstring him. Upon this the poor
+beast turned to the point of attack, only to receive a repetition of it
+in the same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had as quickly turned
+also and fastened themselves on his heels again. His hind quarters
+now streamed with blood, and he began to show signs of great physical
+weakness. He did not dare to lie down; that would have been instantly
+fatal. By this time he had killed three of the wolves, or so maimed
+them that they were entirely out of the fight.
+
+At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the
+wolves allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+JUDGE LYNCH'S COURT AT WHOOPING HOLLOW.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Whooping Hollow is the uneuphonious name of a mining camp in the very
+heart of the Taos Range--or rather, _was_, for it has been expunged
+from the map these twenty-five years, and but few of the present
+generation in New Mexico are aware that such a place ever existed. It
+was almost inaccessible, so awfully abrupt and broken were the bare
+granite ridges surrounding it, out of which the circumscribed valley
+in which the town lay seemed to have been literally scooped when
+the rocks were plastic--Titanic hands holding the scraper, and the
+lightning the propelling power. How the place received its strange
+appellation was a mystery even to the majority of the miners who worked
+there for nearly five years with picks, shovels, long-toms, sluices,
+and other appliances for extracting the ore from the refractory rock.
+The quantity of the precious metals shipped during that period made
+the camp famous, and resulted in building up a town of rude shanties
+and dugouts which at the height of its prosperity numbered over twelve
+hundred souls. But you cannot find Whooping Hollow on any modern map,
+for it played out in less than six years from the date of the discovery
+of gold there; though several fortunes were mined in that time, and
+made by traffic the specialty of which was bad whisky.
+
+There was a legend current in the early days of the valley's occupancy,
+that was honestly believed in, which affirmed that the first party
+of prospectors, consisting of four or five men, all Tennesseeans,
+who entered the great cañon in their search, were rewarded well for
+their pains, finding plenty of water, game, fuel, together with other
+necessaries in the prosecution of their vocation--a beautiful place
+for their camp, lots of silver, and gold in paying quantities--were
+scared out of the gulch (to which they never returned) by an unearthly
+screeching, seemingly emanating from a human throat. Its ghostly owner,
+they declared, visited their camp every night about 11 o'clock, and on
+the top of a timbered knoll, where they could plainly see it as the
+moonlight sifted through the scattered piñons and dwarfed cedars, took
+its stand, setting up its blood-curdling cries, which it continued
+with short intervals of cessation, until daybreak. Those men, it was
+alleged, were a very ignorant and superstitious set, who, after three
+nights of their weird experience, could bear it no longer, and were
+absolutely driven away through fright.
+
+Of course they told others of their rich strike, not forgetting to
+mention the "hant" of the place, as they called it; but these others,
+old mountaineers, not fearing any disturbance from the moonlight
+specter, went there, established their camp--to which hundreds soon
+flocked--calling it Whooping Hollow, in derision of the tale told by
+the alarmed Tennesseeans; which name it retained during its whole
+existence, and was known and recognized by that as a postoffice on the
+mail records in Washington.
+
+In all probability what the men really heard was the mottled or
+American screech-owl, which makes a plaintive noise, and a peculiar
+sound during part of its mournful notes, like the chattering of teeth,
+keeping up its alternating whooping and moaning all night. It loves to
+perch on some blasted tree in the moonlight, and the disembodied form
+seen by the superstitious miners must have been a shattered and denuded
+piñon, on which the nocturnal bird sat, that, escaping their vision in
+the daytime, was exaggerated by their frightened eyes at night into the
+"hant" of the place!--But this is not a ghost story, and the reader
+will pardon the digression.
+
+The region in which Whooping Hollow was situated is the roughest, and,
+to employ a mining phrase, the "lumpiest" portion of the whole Taos
+range. It is a deep gulch in the strictest interpretation of the word,
+formed by two lofty divides, whose crests tower skyward from their
+bases more than 3,000 feet, which themselves are over 5,000 feet above
+the Atlantic's level, and the distance across the narrow valley at its
+widest part scarcely three-quarters of a mile. The angle of the slope
+of the two opposing mountains is a little less than 35 degrees, making
+their sides, as maybe inferred, very precipitous.
+
+The town's era of prosperity was long before the days of railroads in
+that portion of the continent, and such feats of engineering as have
+been accomplished since in the way of "hog-backs," loops and tunnels
+were not dreamed of as among the possibilities of mountain travel. Nor
+was there even a wagon-road to Whooping Hollow. Such a thing would
+have been regarded equally as difficult and expensive as the wonderful
+achievement of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé in climbing the Raton
+Range a dozen years later. Everything was "packed" into the place on
+muleback, at a minimum cost of twenty-five cents a pound, whether the
+simplest necessaries of life or a sawmill, and the zig-zag trail the
+sure-footed beasts were compelled to travel up and down the fearful
+slopes of the great divides to get in and out of the rocky streets of
+the narrow town, made one dizzy to look at.
+
+The rude collection of shanties, through courtesy called the town of
+Whooping Hollow, was built on one side of a little creek which ran at
+a fearful rate in the bottom of the gulch, whose waters, boiling and
+foaming, like all mountain streams, rushed over and around the immense
+bowlders with which its narrow bed was choked; while on the opposite
+side, immediately facing the principal street, extending for miles
+both ways, on the hill, the mining claims were located. The houses
+were in most instances mere shells, constructed of rough slabs; while
+a few were of hewn logs, presenting a relatively neat appearance. The
+roofs of all, however, were flat, and covered with earth; they rose
+one above the other like a flight of stairs, so that one could easily
+step out of his door upon the top of his neighbor's dwelling below,
+so precipitous was the side of the mountain on which the place was of
+necessity laid out. The town consisted of four streets--one devoted
+entirely to business, the other three to residences only. There were
+five stores, whose stock was of that character known throughout the
+West and in the mountains as "general." That is, their proprietors
+almost literally kept everything, from a toothpick to a steam engine,
+or from a shoestring to a silk dress. The place boasted also of twelve
+banks--of deposit only--faro and monte; for the unfortunate individual
+who once laid his money on the green-cloth tables of these institutions
+rarely saw any of it again: it was permanently invested! Of saloons,
+too, Whooping Hollow had its full complement--I think there were thirty
+at one time; and their owners were not obliged to contribute anything
+to the support of the town, for as to municipal expenses, there were
+none. Yet the discipline of the place was fair, to say the least:
+the ratio of violent deaths to the number of inhabitants was not
+nearly as great as in any of the Eastern cities; and as to thieving or
+burglary, such crimes were as rare as a church service--which Whooping
+Hollow never had during the whole period of its existence. Of course
+such a unique condition of morality is easily accounted for. "Judge
+Lynch's" court was the only tribunal for the trial of offenses against
+the peace and dignity of the town, and from its decisions there was
+no appeal. Besides, society there was so constituted that it could
+condone a murder if there existed the slightest shadow of extenuating
+circumstances, but it would never forgive the unlawful appropriation
+of another's goods, particularly of horses; horse-stealing being the
+unpardonable sin, as it is generally on the frontier, the prompt remedy
+for which was "a short shrift and a long rope."
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that perhaps there were hundreds of men in
+Whooping Hollow to whose ears the shrill whistle of a bullet would
+sound sweeter than the soft notes of a flute, still their general
+good-nature, when sober, and principle of "honor among thieves," kept
+them within bounds. Occasionally--very naturally, too--there were
+desperate fights over the gambling-tables in the hells which abounded
+in Whooping Hollow, and frequently an outrageously obstreperous
+individual, full of "bug-juice," as the vile whisky dispensed in
+the saloons was called, would get a hole drilled into him by a No.
+44 revolver-ball, or his vitals carved with an eleven-inch bowie.
+But arrests were rarely made in quarrels of that character, because
+extenuating circumstances generally existed. Often, under the excellent
+care of the skillful doctor--a former army surgeon, who had established
+himself there--the belligerents would recover from their fearful
+encounter, but oftener took up their last "claim" of six-feet-by-two in
+"The Bone Orchard," as the cemetery on the timbered knoll (where it was
+alleged the "hant" was originally seen) had been dubbed by the citizens
+of Whooping Hollow.
+
+The average miner (and the miners' claims radiated from the place in
+all directions at varying distances, some as far as thirty miles)
+would come into town once a week at least, generally Sunday, and if he
+had been fortunate in his diggings would make a break for the first
+gaming-table in his way. If he by any chance won he would "make the
+rounds," which in local parlance meant stopping at every saloon to
+treat the crowd of thirsty bummers always present on such occasions,
+and sometimes provoking a quarrel with the first man who got in his
+way. But if losing, the rule generally, he went drunk and sulky back to
+his claim, consoling himself with the hope of better luck next time.
+And so the lives of the majority were passed. Not a few died "with
+their boots on" in some drunken row with their friends, to whom they
+had offered a real or fancied insult.
+
+As in all mining-camps at the period of Whooping Hollow's boom, a most
+heterogeneous crowd composed its residents and transient occupiers.
+In its rough but busy streets you met all shades and nationalities.
+The tall, plodding Yankee, fresh from the hills of New England, green
+as a gourd, but with sufficient gall to extricate himself from any
+little difficulty he might stumble into; the active, restless Texan;
+the jauntily dressed commercial traveler, with his samples of bad
+whisky and worse cigars; the swarthy Mexican, with his broad sombrero,
+scarlet sash, and irrepressible _cigarito_; that darker specimen of the
+_genus homo_, the negro; and, last of all, the "heathen Chinee." Nearly
+every State had its dozens of representatives in the motley group of
+individuals who had come to seek their fortunes in this new El Dorado.
+It was a grand place to study character; to learn how all the finer
+attributes of man may be completely crushed out of his nature by years
+of adversity, and how, under the same circumstances in others, all that
+is noble and pure predominates, no matter how hellish or pestilential,
+morally, may have been their surroundings.
+
+The principal store of the town was owned and conducted by Jemuel
+Knaggs, a man of reputable character, an old plainsman and mountaineer,
+full of enterprise and grit, the acknowledged "leading citizen" of
+Whooping Hollow. In every community, whether the most enlightened or
+barbarous, there is always to be found some individual who, by his
+force of character and other inherent attributes, becomes foremost
+in all that concerns the welfare and prosperity of the people who
+compose it, and this was the rôle that Jemuel Knaggs played in the
+rough mining-camp of Whooping Hollow. He was a veteran miner, too,
+of California in '49; Fraser river, in British Columbia, in '58; and
+Pike's Peak in '59. But having amassed several thousand dollars during
+his erratic wanderings, in 1859 he abandoned the pick and shovel for
+the more pleasant occupation of keeping a general miners' store, whose
+necessities none knew better than he. So he opened up in Whooping
+Hollow in the days of its incipiency. He was a man about fifty years
+old, rather slender than otherwise, but there was something in his air
+and features which distinguished him from common men. The expression
+of his countenance was keen and daring; his forehead was high, and his
+lips thin and compressed, indicating great determination of will. One
+would not have hesitated to confide in his honor or courage, but would
+have been extremely reluctant to provoke his hostility. He always wore
+a dark-blue navy shirt, to the collar of which was attached a curious
+button. Around his waist was tightly buckled a broad leather belt, in
+which a formidable looking bowie-knife was stuck; to be used, as is
+usual with all frontiersmen, for various purposes indifferently--to
+kill a man, cut food, pick his teeth, or for whittling when he had
+nothing else to do.
+
+Matters progressed very smoothly in Whooping Hollow for two or three
+years, under the watchful care of Knaggs and a few others of like
+sterling character, who will be hurriedly described as they appear in
+this sketch. But at the end of that period a pall suddenly fell on
+the place. Men would leave for a visit to some neighboring camp or
+on a hunting expedition, and never be heard of again. Sometimes it
+would be one of the best citizens who would disappear all at once; the
+number of instances of this character in one year aggregating twenty.
+At last the whole town became aroused, and suspicions of foul play in
+the matter entered their heretofore apparently too lethargic brains. No
+one felt safe, and when, to "cap the climax" as it were, Jemuel Knaggs
+was declared "missing," an investigation was immediately but secretly
+instituted.
+
+It then developed that with one or two exceptions all of those who
+had disappeared had left Whooping Hollow for Sandy Bar, the nearest
+mining-camp, sixty miles distant, and to which there was only one
+possible trail over the divide. That the parties had been murdered
+was now conceded; but upon whom could suspicion rest? and where on
+the lonely route were the damnable deeds committed? These were the
+questions discussed one evening by half a dozen prominent men of
+Whooping Hollow, who had secretly met in a room about a week after
+Jemuel Knaggs failed to return at the appointed time. He was last seen
+on the day of his departure from town by some reputable miners, who
+had met and conversed with him on the trail to Sandy Bar, not more
+than twelve miles from his home. He had never arrived at Sandy Bar,
+however; that fact was ascertained to a certainty through diligent
+inquiry there. It was only a small camp of less than three hundred
+people, and he was as well known there as in Whooping Hollow.
+
+About half-way between Whooping Hollow and Sandy Bar there was a
+narrow, rocky valley, known as Willow Springs Gulch; abandoned long
+ago as a mining region, the ore in that vicinity having consisted of
+a series of small "pockets" only, which were naturally exhausted in
+less than six months from the date of their discovery, and that was
+more than two years before operations had begun in Whooping Hollow.
+But the place was still famous for its pure water, which gushed out of
+the indurated wall of a small cañon in a stream as large as a man's
+arm--clear, cold and sparkling; the best water to be found in the
+whole sixty miles' ride. The entrance to the rocky cañon was almost
+concealed by a dense growth of mountain willows; hence the name. But
+the beautiful spring was the only redeeming feature in the otherwise
+barren and desolate landscape. Near this lonely spot stood a small
+adobe cabin, or rather hut, the only habitation anywhere within twenty
+miles of the dreary place. Its sole occupant was a miner, ostensibly,
+who pretended to own a claim near Sandy Bar, but it was alleged that
+no one ever saw him work it; yet he always apparently had sufficient
+money to supply his wants, ever paying gold for his purchases. He
+was a tall, angular, villainous-looking specimen of humanity; rough,
+illiterate, dialectic in his talk, but possessing the physique of a
+giant, as courageous as a she-grizzly with cubs, a dead shot with the
+revolver, and withal believed by every one to be a desperado in the
+most rigid acceptation of the term. Viewed superficially--for nobody at
+Whooping Hollow or Sandy Bar knew anything about his antecedents--he
+was apparently without one redeeming quality, except that he was kind
+to his dog, a mangy, spotted, wicked-looking yellow cur, with only one
+eye, and tailless--fit companion for such a surly-disposed master. This
+strangely mysterious being, with whom no one had any more intercourse
+than was absolutely necessary, and that confined to the limited
+conversation required when he entered stores to make purchases, lived
+a supremely isolated sort of an existence, for he was as carefully
+avoided by every one as were the rattlesnakes that infested the rocky
+arroyos of the bald bleak hills where his hut was located. Upon him,
+then, black suspicion naturally at once fell--so prone is human nature
+to be guided by visible forms; though there was not an inkling of
+proof, either circumstantial or direct, upon which to base this man's
+guilt.
+
+Fortunately, they who were quietly investigating the cause of the
+disappearance of Jemuel Knaggs were men of excellent judgment; cool,
+calm and deliberate in their proceedings, but terribly in earnest. They
+had received their education in the great "school of the world": they
+knew that suspicions were not facts; that appearances are too often
+deceiving; and they were nonplussed because convincing proof was not
+forthcoming to convict the only man upon whom a shadow of probable
+guilt could fall.
+
+This strange creature, about whom nobody knew anything, was called,
+whenever reference to him became necessary (often now, for he was in
+everyone's thought a murderer), "Willow Gulch Jack," because his real
+name was not ever known--adopting the Indian's method of nomenclature
+and associating him with his locality. It may readily be inferred that
+it was only his villainous aspect and isolated life that brought this
+wholesale condemnation upon him, for he had never been guilty of any
+disreputable act that the people could discover, and now they left no
+stone unturned to find something against him; but they avoided and
+suspected him as a sheep-raiser does a strange cur in his neighborhood.
+Consequently a system of espionage was inaugurated on his movements,
+but nothing, as yet, had been discovered to cast a shadow on his
+every-day life. He knew that he was suspected and watched; so, for
+some special reason which had not yet been made clear to the people of
+Whooping Hollow, he was now almost constantly absent from home, passing
+his time on the trail between his cabin and the top of the divide
+above the town, always accompanied by the one-eyed, tailless dog, his
+constant companion. His enemies were aware of his perambulations, but
+could not divine the cause, and the mystery connected with his isolated
+life seemed to them more impenetrable than ever. Of course they did
+not hound his every footstep, because, as they reasoned, that would
+give him no opportunity to commit himself; they merely adopted such
+precautionary measures as would prevent his escape from the country,
+and that would permit them to arrest him at any time they wanted to if
+he attempted to leave, or whenever they had gathered sufficient proof
+to convict him, which as yet seemed as remote as ever--flattering
+themselves all the while that he was unconscious of their intentions.
+
+One day, about two weeks after the investigation of the cause of the
+disappearance of Jemuel Knaggs had been fairly inaugurated, this Willow
+Gulch Jack, as I shall have to call him in the absence of the knowledge
+of his real name, rode quietly into Whooping Hollow, dismounted, tied
+his mule to a stump in front of Tom Bradford's log cabin, walked up to
+the door, gave it a heavy kick, and waited until it was opened--his
+cur, at a word from his master, lying down close to the mule.
+
+Tom Bradford was a veteran miner, one of the best citizens Whooping
+Hollow possessed, whose opinions on important matters were generally
+regarded as conclusive--such faith the curiously assorted people of
+the town placed in his excellent judgment, which fact Jack was fully
+aware of. Bradford himself came out on the porch in response to Jack's
+tremendous knock, but when he saw who his visitor was, a shade of
+evident displeasure passed over his countenance--for he too, although
+he knew that not a scintilla of proof had been forthcoming after all
+these days of investigation, believed in this man's guilt. Tom Bradford
+regarded Jack intently for a moment, as if wondering what to say or
+do, so astonished was he at his presence; but Jack broke the painful
+silence in a few words:
+
+"I say, Tom Bradford," (nobody was "mistered" out there in those days,)
+"I hev kim ter talk ter ye. I knows this hyar's onexpected, but I don't
+keer, an' w'at I hev ter tell I wants ter tell ye whar no one kin har
+we-uns. Hev yer sich a place whar we-uns kin converse ondisturbed?"
+
+Bradford eyed Jack closely for a few seconds--not that he had any fear
+of the man, villainous as he looked, and giant that he was--then told
+him to follow as he led the way through the cabin door. They passed out
+of one room into another at the rear (there were only two apartments in
+the building), where he pushed a dilapidated rush-bottomed chair toward
+Jack, himself taking another, and, throwing his feet upon a rickety
+table, the only other article of furniture in the rude log den, he
+pulled his pipe out of his pocket, filled it, lighted it, and handed
+another to Jack with the tobacco from a box nailed against the wall
+within easy reach. He gave a few vigorous pulls at his own, emitting a
+cloud of smoke that almost enveloped him, then, fixing his eyes on his
+unwelcome visitor, said:
+
+"Now then, I'm ready to hear what you have got to communicate."
+
+"Tom Bradford," began Jack upon this invitation, "I knows thet I hev
+been 'spected of these hyar murders w'at hev tuk place; an' I knows
+thet I hev been hounded an' watched, which you-uns hed no idee I
+knowed; but ye knows, Tom Bradford, thar haint er shadder kin be proved
+agin me."
+
+"I am aware of that," said Bradford, hurriedly; "and although you are
+and have been the only man in the mines suspected, we folks here are
+determined that no innocent person shall suffer upon mere suspicion
+and under the excitement of the moment; we are also determined that
+no guilty party--or parties, if there should be more than one person
+implicated--shall escape the swift, summary punishment the hellish acts
+deserve. We have no organized courts here, but organize them as we need
+them ourselves. No mere technicality will save a rascal either, as it
+does sometimes in what are called civilized communities."
+
+"Tom Bradford," continued Jack, "you nor no one else hez ever seen me
+a-loafin' roun' saloons, nor gamblin'-hells; an' no one hain't never
+seen me drunk nuther--hev they? I knows my looks is agin me; but looks
+hain't nothin', nor no judge ter go by. I hain't no harnsome man--never
+sot any claim ter sich. I oncet tuk ther prize fer grinnin' through a
+hoss-collar, at er county fair way back in old Kaintuk, w'en I war
+young."
+
+At this admission a change that was evidently intended for a smile
+suddenly crept over Jack's face as he opened his ponderous jaws; but
+the effect made his cavernous mouth, which literally stretched from ear
+to ear, look as if it had been made by a broadax at a blow.
+
+"Waal," he continued, as the paroxysm caused by the remembrance of his
+youth passed off, "I hev been doin' some _de_tective work myself; an'
+w'at I hev diskivered is w'at hez brung me hyar ter talk ter ye 'bout.
+It war all a accident, though; an' ef it hedn't 'a' been fer thet thar
+ornery dorg o' mine, I wouldn't er foun' out nothin'. You-uns'll all be
+surprised ez I wuz, w'en ye kim ter larn who ther murd'rer for sartin
+is. In ther fust place, I knowed them folkses ez war missin' never got
+pas' my cabin"----
+
+Bradford looked Jack suddenly in the eye, as if to catch the
+true meaning of his last assertion; but Jack, seeing that he was
+misunderstood, became a little heated, and in a most emphatic manner
+said:
+
+"Never reached thar, Tom Bradford, ez I wants ye ter onderstand! Now I
+wants yer ter tell me," he continued, getting more excited, "how many
+cabins--whar folkses lives, I means; 'course thar's lots o' 'bandoned
+ones--'twixt Whoopin' Holler an' mine?"
+
+"Well," replied Bradford, in response to Jack's interrogatory, "there
+are but two--Cal. Jones's and Ike Podgett's. Why?"
+
+"Don't yer see, Tom Bradford, ef them ez is missin' never got ter my
+cabin, they never got by one o' them t'others?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Bradford, looking up excitedly into Jack's
+face.
+
+"I means jes' w'at I says," replied Jack, gazing as earnestly now into
+Bradford's. "Ef er man leaves Whoopin' Holler fer Sandy Bar, he kain't
+git offen ther trail, kin he? Thar hain't but one trail, is thar? An'
+ef he don't kim back, an' don't go ahead, he mus' 'a' stopped somewhar
+'twixt ther two places, mus'n't he? An' ef he haint heerd of fer a long
+while, he mus' hev stopped fer good, eh? Now do yer understan', Tom
+Bradford?" and Jack emphasized his remarks by bringing down his huge
+fist like a sledgehammer on top of the rickety old table right in front
+of Bradford.
+
+Tom Bradford smiled at Jack's earnestness, and looking him squarely in
+the eyes, said:
+
+"Why, you must be insane, man! Cal. Jones's cabin is right on the
+highest point of the divide. If you were out on my porch, you could see
+it from here. You ain't crazy enough to suppose that a murder could
+be committed at such an exposed place, and everybody in town not know
+it in ten minutes? And as for Ike Podgett--ha! ha! ha! Ike Podgett!
+why, man, Ike Podgett is one of our best citizens; one of the most
+enterprising men in the place; always has plenty of money; spends it
+freely, too. To be sure he gambles some, and drinks. Who don't? They
+are mighty few--you know that. He don't come to town very often; stays
+at home a good deal; but then, he's got a fine paying claim, and works
+it for all there is in it; at least that is what he tells all of us
+here in town. Ike Podgett--ha! ha! ha! That's a good one, I swear!"
+
+Jack's eyes snapped as Bradford laughed in his face. He was getting mad
+at the manner in which his statements were being received; he grew very
+red, and blurted out:
+
+"Ike Podgett hain't home now, is he?"
+
+"No," answered Bradford; "he's gone bear-hunting with a lot of the
+boys; been gone several days; won't be back for a week yet; they were
+going as far as the Spanish Peaks."
+
+"His'n is er mighty lonesome place, hain't it?" queried Jack.
+
+"Yes," answered Bradford, "a mighty lonesome place. I don't see how
+he can live there--such a rocky, dark cañon--hardly a ray of sunlight
+enters there until late in the afternoon. But he says he loves
+solitude, and don't like neighbors too near"--
+
+"I'm his closest, I reckon," interrupted Jack again.
+
+"I believe you are," replied Bradford.
+
+"He's married, though, hain't he, to a Spanish woman?--on'y a child,
+'pears ter me; I've seed her oncet or twicet."
+
+"He's got a woman out there with him--don't know whether she's his wife
+or mistress. We folks here don't bother our heads about such matters;
+it's none of our business; she's Mexican, though," answered Bradford.
+"But why," continued he, impatient and disgusted with the interview's
+length, "why do you ask these ridiculous questions? I have no time to
+waste!" He then petulantly rose, knocked the ashes out of his pipe,
+evidently tired, and determined to end the matter right there and get
+rid of his annoying visitor.
+
+"'Cause, Tom Bradford," slowly and solemnly replied Jack, at the same
+time getting up from his chair, too; and putting his mouth close to
+Bradford's ear, he hoarsely whispered:
+
+"'Cause Ike Podgett is the murderer of Jemuel Knaggs, anyhow, an' w'y
+not o' all the t'others ez is missin'?"
+
+"My God, man! what do you mean?" excitedly asked Tom Bradford, suddenly
+wheeling around and placing both of his hands on Jack's shoulders.
+
+"Tom Bradford, I mean 'zac'ly w'at I kin prove; an' ter tell this hyar
+is w'at hez brung me ter this hyar cabin."
+
+"Hold on!" cried Bradford, violently agitated; "you must prove it,
+must tell all you know; but in the presence of others. Wait--sit down
+here--I'll be back directly, and bring some one with me. Wait!" and
+Bradford rushed out into the street in a terrible state of excitement.
+
+He returned in less than twenty minutes in company with a short,
+thick-set, grizzly veteran miner, a man about sixty years of age. This
+was old man Bartlett--better known, however, and generally accosted
+as "Judge," because he had so frequently presided over the locally
+instituted courts in the diggings everywhere he had been during his
+long career in the mountains and on the Plains. He was regarded by
+everybody as the most level-headed, honest and discreet man in the
+whole Range. In fact, that had been his reputation wherever he had
+traveled, following him in all his erratic wanderings since his advent
+in the Far West, forty years before he turned up in Whooping Hollow. He
+had "whacked bulls" on the old Santa Fé trail; had lived for months on
+hardtack and bacon in the mountains of California; had nearly starved
+to death on the sage-bush plains of Nevada; had been captured by
+Apaches in Arizona, but was rescued by a detachment of United States
+dragoons just in time to escape the torture of the stake, the fires
+for which were already lighted; and years before all these strange
+experiences, had "filibustered" with Walker in Nicaragua. Altogether,
+he had seen as eventful a life as ever fell to the fortune of one man.
+
+When the two men entered the little barren log room where Jack was,
+they found him sitting at its only window, his number twelve feet on
+the broad sill, pulling vigorously at the clay pipe that Bradford in
+his rough hospitality had originally provided him with, blowing great
+rings of smoke out of his huge mouth as he sat there as imperturbable
+as a rock. He greeted Bartlett with a short "Howdy, Jedge," and then
+resumed his pipe, waiting for him or Bradford to open the conversation.
+
+Old Sam pulled an enormous plug of navy tobacco from his hip pocket,
+tore off a liberal portion with his teeth, rolled the immense quid
+over in his mouth several times, and then, looking earnestly at Jack as
+if to measure him in his mind, said:
+
+"Jack, Bradford's been telling me some mighty queer stories. Ike
+Podgett a murderer? I don't believe a word of it. He," jerking his
+thumb toward Bradford, "wanted me to come over and hear your statement,
+which I agreed to; but I tell you beforehand, the proofs will have to
+be clear as Holy Writ to convince me that Ike Podgett knows what has
+become of Jemuel Knaggs any more than me and Tom here does."
+
+"The Judge" was not always a rigid follower of the rules laid down
+by Lindley Murray in the construction of his sentences, therefore
+frequently got the cases of his pronouns mixed, although he was a
+college graduate; but he generally talked fairly correctly.
+
+"Let's hear your story," continued he; "tell us what you know, and how
+you know, as you have asserted to Bradford that Ike Podgett killed
+Jemuel Knaggs."
+
+"Waal," commenced Jack, leaving his place at the window, rising to his
+full height, stretching out his long arms, giving a tremendous yawn
+as he did so; then moving his chair to the end of the table between
+the two men, who had seated themselves on opposite sides, their feet
+of course on top, where, resting his elbows on it, his immense paws
+supporting his shaggy head, Jack looked his interlocutor squarely in
+the eyes, and continued:
+
+"Waal, yer knows, sence I war satisfied that I war a-bein' watched an'
+hounded an' 'spected by you-uns hyar in Whoopin' Holler, I 'lowed ter
+myself thet I would do a leetle _de_tective work on my own 'count--ez
+I hev told Bradford hyar. So I gits onto my mule, tuks Jupe--thet's
+thet thar yaller, no-'count, ornery dorg o' mine--an' we jes' nat'rally
+comminces ter prowl thet thar trail from t'other side o' Ike Podgett's
+'twixt thar an' ther Holler, fer more'n er week. But we-uns didn't see
+nothin' 'spicious till day afore yisterday, 'long in ther shank o' ther
+evenin'. Then I war ridin' by Podgett's place--Jupe hed run 'way 'head
+o' me--I war goin' toler'ble slow an' thinkin' powerful; an' w'en I got
+clos't ter ther cabin, I seed thet thar fool dorg o' mine er diggin'
+an' er pawin' et suthin' he hed unyearthed. Ther no-'count cuss is
+always hungry an' always huntin' fer suthin ter eat. Then ez I obsarved
+thar warn't no one ter home, I gits down offen my mule, hitches him,
+an' lights out fer ther r'ar o' ther cabin whar ther dorg war, ter see
+w'at he war so consarned 'bout; an' w'en I reached thar, gentlemin, et
+war a human leg and foot. An' stoopin' down, I picked this hyar outen
+ther dirt ther dorg hed pawed up!"
+
+Getting up from his seat as he said this, Jack pulled out of the
+breast-pocket of his flannel shirt a little mass of iron pyrites,
+an octahedrite in shape--a rare form of that common combination of
+iron and sulphur--which was drilled onto a plate of gold, making it a
+perfect but unique collar-button.
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed Bartlett and Bradford simultaneously, as they
+both jumped up excitedly at the sight of the trinket Jack held in his
+hand.
+
+Tom Bradford gave vent to his feelings first. Slapping his fist on the
+table, and then pointing his finger at Jack, who stood as calm as a
+statue, said vehemently:
+
+"Judge Bartlett, either this man's story is true, or he is the murderer
+himself!"
+
+"Great God!" reiterated Bartlett, putting his hand to his head in
+his evident bewilderment; "Bradford--I don't know--I'm completely
+dumbfounded! Everybody in the mines knows that collar-button. There's
+not another one like it in the mountains. Knaggs always wore it at the
+neck of his flannel shirt. He's told me many a time that he'd refused
+$50 for it. This matter must be thoroughly investigated."
+
+He then reached for the button, which Jack promptly handed to him, and
+which he examined carefully for a few moments in silence, sitting down
+for that purpose. Then turning suddenly to Jack, who--now conscious
+that he had at least caused Bradford and Bartlett to believe that he
+might be innocent, and that his story might be true--had resumed his
+seat, and was coolly filling his pipe again, the old Judge asked him:
+
+"Jack, did you leave the leg and foot where the dog found it, or what
+did you do with it?"
+
+"I left it thar," replied Jack, "but I kivered it up agin; an' I
+stomped ther groun' down 'roun' it so ez it looked like it hed n't been
+tech'd. Then I went ter my cabin; then I kim hyar ter Bradford's. Ther
+on'y thing I brung 'way war thet button, an' fer which I'll thank yer
+ter gin me ag'in. I wants to keep it er while yit!"
+
+Bartlett hesitated a moment, rolling over in his fingers the mute
+evidence of a crime committed; looked at Bradford interrogatively, who
+nodded significantly, and then he handed the curious object back to
+Jack.
+
+"Thank ye, gentlemin," said he, as he put it carefully into his pocket
+again; "I'm et yer sarvice et any time, and so is this hyar button w'en
+ye wants it; an' I hopes you-ns means ter 'vestigate this hyar matter
+ter oncet. Ike Podgett's 'way now, an' w'en he kims back it's mebby too
+late."
+
+Bartlett and Bradford consulted aside in a low tone for a few moments;
+then walking back to the table where Jack was still sitting, pulling at
+his pipe, and almost invisible because of the smoke, the old Judge said:
+
+"Jack, this is a strange piece of business, and we are both staggered.
+Yet we are not unreasonable; we know that nothing is more deceptive
+than a man's estimate of human nature; it seems mighty hard to come to
+your way of thinking; but we all may have been most terribly deceived
+in Ike Podgett. We will examine his premises and investigate the matter
+to the end. Now we want you to go quietly out to your cabin from here;
+say nothing to anyone about what you have told us. To-night we will
+discuss, with some of our best citizens, what is best to be done; and
+to-morrow meet us at Podgett's. If we arrive there first we will wait
+right on the trail for you, and take no action before you come; but
+if you get to the place before we do, wait for our party. Don't go
+near the cabin and don't touch a thing, and then nobody can raise any
+suspicions of a job, which some of Podgett's friends might accuse you
+of. We will try to be there by eleven o'clock, and that will allow you
+ample time to reach there as soon as that hour too."
+
+The old Judge having finished his instructions and warnings, the
+three men went out of the cabin and separated. Jack mounted his mule,
+whistled to Jupe, and rode slowly up the steep divide into the hills,
+where he was soon lost to sight. Bartlett and Bradford walked down to
+the main street, their feelings wonderfully affected, and entered the
+little building that did duty as the postoffice for Whooping Hollow and
+surrounding mining-camps, to look up the proper persons with whom to
+consult concerning the terrible revelations of a few moments before.
+
+That evening just after the candles were lighted, Judge Bartlett,
+Tom Bradford, Doctor Chase, and Issachar Noe, the last of whom was
+postmaster, met in the little rectangular space behind the rude rack of
+letter-boxes in Noe's store, to formulate plans for their trip on the
+morrow to Ike Podgett's cabin, the bloody story concerning it having
+been imparted to Noe and the Doctor when Bartlett and Bradford came
+down-town that afternoon, immediately after their interview with Jack.
+
+A little after daylight next morning the four prominent citizens of
+Whooping Hollow who had secretly met at the postoffice the previous
+evening were well on the trail to Podgett's. They had only twenty-three
+miles to go, but the zig-zag up to the crest of the divide was so
+rocky, rough and precipitous that they were compelled to "wind" their
+horses every few rods; consequently the trip was so fatiguing to both
+men and animals that they did not arrive there until nearly noon.
+
+Podgett's cabin, one of the better class, roomy, and adorned with
+a veranda, was situated in the most God-forsaken looking region
+imaginable. There was not a tree, bush, or any vegetation, not even a
+cactus, in sight. It was hidden among great water-worn columns of lava,
+which so completely enveloped it in their ominous shadows that only
+late in the afternoon the sun's lingering rays, low down in the west,
+entered the gloomy cañon in which the isolated cabin was located.
+
+"God in Israel!" said Issachar Noe--a favorite expression of his when
+excited--"how can a man content himself in such a spot as this? I
+wouldn't live here for a hundred dollars an hour," he continued, as he
+surveyed the dismal surroundings of the barren and repulsive place.
+
+"Some men love solitude," said the Doctor, as if in response to Noe's
+comments. "I know many natures among my acquaintances in the East who
+could be perfectly happy in such a sequestered spot as this. To them,
+solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and"--
+
+"Great Cæsar!" interrupted Tom Bradford, destroying at once the thread
+of the Doctor's philosophy. "See those wolves!" at the same moment
+pointing with his "quirt" to half a dozen or more of that large gray
+mountain species that were scampering over the angular lava bowlders
+up the cañon in the rear of the cabin. These animals had not before
+been observed, because the party from town had seated themselves on the
+trail immediately in front of the hut, upon their arrival at the place.
+They had not ventured any nearer, in accordance with the agreement made
+at the conference held in Tom Bradford's room that neither the party
+nor Jack was to investigate alone, but together.
+
+In a few moments the cause of the wolves' hasty retreat made its
+appearance in the shape of the one-eyed tailless dog Jupe, slowly
+shambling around a curve in the trail, closely followed by the gaunt,
+angular figure of Jack, seated on his mule. As he approached, the
+party from Whooping Hollow, who were reclining on the rocks scattered
+on the trail, rose, while Jack, dismounting, hitched his animal to a
+bowlder, and saluting all with a "Howdy, gents," he joined them. Then
+without further talk at that moment, they proceeded to the rear of Ike
+Podgett's cabin, piloted by Jack. They soon arrived at the spot he had
+told Bradford and Bartlett of, but the moment he cast his eyes on the
+place he exclaimed:
+
+"Great heavens! ther wolves hev been hyar!"
+
+The earth was torn up, and lying on the edge of the shallow grave, sure
+enough, were a human leg and foot--the same described by Jack, which he
+had reinterred, but which the wolves had again dragged out of the hole.
+
+"Well, I'm ----!" ejaculated old Sam Bartlett, as he contemplated the
+horrid spectacle, and he vigorously mopped his bald head--out of which
+the perspiration now oozed in great beads--with an enormous red bandana.
+
+"There's no question about that leg and foot," said the Doctor, as he
+stooped and picked up the ghastly objects to examine them more closely.
+"They're human--no getting over that, but whether they belonged to
+Jemuel Knaggs, of course I can't say." Pulling them out of the soft
+dirt, he found clinging to the end of the femur a piece of cloth of
+some kind, which the instant Tom Bradford saw he took in his hands,
+held it up, and exclaimed:
+
+"Well, this is the last straw that breaks the camel's back for me!" All
+could see that it was the fragment of a blue flannel shirt, its broad
+collar, with the buttonhole, torn apart.
+
+"A piece of Jemuel Knagg's shirt, or I'm a liar," solemnly said
+Issachar Noe, as he gazed on the bit of telltale garment. "He always
+wore that kind," continued Noe. "I sent to St. Louis for them myself
+for him; that is a part of one of them."
+
+The astounded party, upon this confirmation of Podgett's guilt, looked
+at each other in silence for a few seconds, when Bartlett, breaking the
+awful stillness, said:
+
+"Gentlemen, I've seen enough here! Let's go and examine the
+cabin--which we've got a right to do now, as law-abiding citizens,
+after such damnable revelations outside of it!"
+
+On entering the cabin, effected by the colossal Jack making a sort of
+a side-lurch against the door, which immediately flew off its hinges
+at his first essay, they discovered in the corner of the room used as
+a kitchen a spot where the dirt floor seemed to yield a little to the
+pressure of their feet as they walked over it, appearing as if it had
+been disturbed quite recently. Searching for some implement with which
+to examine the suspicious corner more closely, they at last found a
+spade hanging on a peg in the wall of another apartment, evidently the
+sleeping-room. Here and there were evidences of a woman's occupancy.
+Under the bed a No. 1 pair of shoes tantalizingly obtruded. On the bed
+itself a corset was lying, where it had apparently been hastily thrown
+off by its petite owner; and suspended from some hooks in the logs
+forming the side of the building were several skirts and other portions
+of female apparel. For a moment, but only for a moment, these things,
+so rare in the mining-camps of that period, nearly diverted from their
+mission the stern and honest men who had entered there, so sweetly
+suggestive were the articles of mother, sister, or perhaps wife, so
+far away, and bright visions crowded thick upon their brains. It was
+soon dispelled, however, as the realization of the actual present
+forced itself upon them; so, taking down the spade from its place, they
+returned to the kitchen, and Jack, who had volunteered, commenced to
+dig.
+
+He had not excavated to a depth of more than two feet when he unearthed
+the mutilated fragments of another human body! Hereupon he rested from
+his labor for a moment; then stooped down and pulled something out of
+the hole, his hands trembling violently as he laid the object on the
+floor, and exclaiming as he rose up:
+
+"This hyar gits me, by ----!"
+
+Every one was now almost uncontrollably excited, and if Podgett had at
+that instant entered his own door he would have been annihilated by the
+infuriated men without a chance to explain, for just as Jack gave vent
+to his words he had lifted out of the hole a head, to which was still
+attached a long red beard. He recognized it at once, and that fact was
+the cause of his excitement.
+
+"God in Israel!" said Issachar Noe vehemently, as he got down on his
+knees to view the ghastly object more closely. "That's Tom Jackson's
+head, and he's only been missing about two months!"
+
+"That's so," solemnly replied old Sam Bartlett. "That's poor Tom's
+beard, sure enough!"
+
+For more than three hours the now determined men worked inside and
+outside the cabin that they now knew had such a bloody record. At
+the end of that time, when they ceased their horrid labor from sheer
+exhaustion, they had discovered the remains of twelve human bodies,
+among which was that of a baby's, which sorely puzzled them to account
+for. Many of the remains, where the head was not too much decayed, they
+recognized as once citizens of Whooping Hollow who had ridden out from
+it never to return.
+
+Charred fragments of skeletons, too, were found hidden in holes in the
+rocks, and it was reasonably supposed that many other victims than
+those whose bones they had brought to light must have been murdered by
+the demon Podgett, and their bodies left in the mountains just where he
+had killed them, to be devoured by the wolves.
+
+Putting portions of several remains in a sack, including the ghastly
+head of Tom Jackson, they induced Jack--towards whom their manner had
+entirely changed--to pack the repulsive-looking burden on the back of
+his mule, and they all returned to town.
+
+The result of their horrible experience was disclosed to several of
+the most reputable people of the place, who that same evening met
+with them in the postoffice, in "secret session," to devise plans for
+Podgett's arrest before he had an opportunity to revisit his cabin. It
+was conceded that he would come to town first with the hunting party
+that he had gone out with, which would return in three or four days
+at farthest, and it was resolved to secure him the moment he made his
+appearance. To this duty they appointed the now worthy Jack and one
+Bart Kennedy.
+
+On the afternoon of the fourth day after the meeting, Podgett rode
+unsuspiciously into town with his companions, and the instant he
+alighted from his mule found himself locked in Jack's vise-like
+embrace, who with others had been anxiously watching for his coming.
+He was at once secured in a little log building, and carefully guarded
+by two plucky Irish miners who had volunteered their services, for by
+this time all the law-abiding element of Whooping Hollow had become
+acquainted with the sickening discoveries at the wretch's cabin.
+
+Podgett thus safely under bolt and bar, a committee was sent over to
+Sandy Bar to interview his Mexican wife or mistress, whose people lived
+somewhere in the mountains near there, as it was learned that she had
+gone home. They found her with her father, a widower, who could speak
+nothing but Spanish, nor could she speak English at all. But Isaacher
+Noe, one of the party, understood and conversed in the language like a
+native; so no interpreter was necessary.
+
+The girl was very young, very pretty, but apparently too youthful
+for either wife or mother. From her some startling disclosures were
+elicited. She had witnessed a number of murders at the cabin, but had
+been afraid to say a word, because Podgett swore that he would kill her
+if she did. But when he dashed her baby's brains out in the most cruel
+and atrocious manner, right before her eyes, less than two months ago,
+she made up her mind that she would expose his bloody life as soon as
+she could find a safe opportunity. She had run away from him the night
+he went off hunting, and came to her father's, declaring that she would
+die before she would go back and consort again with such a monster.
+
+When the committee returned to Whooping Hollow, and had submitted their
+report, threats were freely and openly made by the exasperated miners
+that they would take Podgett out of the improvised jail and hang him
+at once. But better counsel prevailed, and it was finally agreed upon
+at an open-air meeting held that afternoon that he should have a fair
+trial, as had always been customary in dealing with criminals since
+the establishment of the camp. The prisoner would be allowed to select
+a jury of twelve men himself--but it must be composed of the most
+reputable citizens only; a judge should be elected by the crowd, he to
+appoint some one competent to prosecute, and another to defend.
+
+As soon as the preliminaries were agreed to by the now excited
+mob, George Burton's general outfitting store was selected for the
+court-room, and the trial set for eight o'clock the same evening.
+In that community no such thing as the law's delay was brooked; the
+citizens of Whooping Hollow believing in swift, stern justice on all
+occasions.
+
+Long before the hour appointed for the trial the crowd began to
+collect, and by half-past seven the little room selected was packed
+to its utmost capacity. On the outside of the building, compelled to
+remain in the street, was an indignant, determined mob, numbering
+more than three times as many as were inside, surging backward and
+forward, making night hideous with their yells, blasphemous remarks of
+impatience, and muttered threats of "getting even with him," "having
+his heart's blood," etc. Both outside and inside of that rough log
+building was gathered as motley and as hard-looking a crowd as ever
+got together in the mountains anywhere. It was a strange admixture of
+ignorance, manhood, vice, virtue, and villainy. Some of the truest
+men that ever lived stood there; and some were there, too, as deeply
+dyed in crime, if the truth were known about them, as Podgett himself.
+Miners, merchants, gamblers and Mexicans were mixed up promiscuously;
+but their determined faces and show of revolvers spoke more eloquently
+than language, that "there wasn't going to be any fooling in the
+matter."
+
+The dingy-looking room improvised for the purpose of the court was
+lighted by half a dozen tallow candles, which shed a dim, sallow
+haziness over the piles of bacon, picks, shovels, canned fruits, and
+other miners' goods stored there, and upon the hard-visaged men who
+had assembled there to mete out that justice which they believed had
+been already too long delayed. The red flames of a blazing fire, made
+of dry pine-knots, nearly as combustible as powder, occasionally shot
+up the throat of the huge chimney built diagonally across one corner
+of the room, whenever a fresh armful was thrown on by the two boys
+appointed to that office for the time being. When the flames had
+exhausted themselves, and only the embers glowed on the black hearth,
+a glimmering and a confused mist seemed to diffuse itself over the
+brindled crowd, while the fitful rays of the unsnuffed candles threw
+weird shadows on the whitewashed walls like ghosts, as if the spirits
+of the murderer's victims had come to be phantom witnesses of his agony
+and despair.
+
+Old Sam Bartlett, as usual, was chosen judge without a dissenting
+voice. A pile of bacon, packed in gunny-sacks and elevated four or
+five feet above the floor, on which Bartlett, with his legs dangling
+over the side, sat, constituted the official bench. The jury, composed
+of the best men in town, sat on the right of the judge, on boxes,
+nail-kegs, sacks, or anything that came handy. Ike Podgett, the
+miserable man for whom all this strange proceeding was instituted,
+crouching on the dirt-begrimed floor between his two determined guards,
+rivets his eyes on the resolute men before him, distracted alternately
+by hope and despair; for he now feels the enormity of his guilt, and
+knows in his cowardly heart that he deserves death right there, without
+the least show of mercy.
+
+Tom Bradford was appointed to prosecute the case, and a young
+man--Enoch Green, who had been graduated from the law school of Yale
+two or three years before--was appointed to defend Podgett. In a few
+pithy sentences Judge Bartlett explained the object of the gathering,
+and reviewed the terrible crimes that had been traced to the accused's
+den in the lonely cañon. He pointed to the ghastly remains and charred
+fragments of human skeletons piled upon a rude table in front of the
+jury, which he told them, in wonderfully impressive language, had
+been dug up, in his own presence, inside of Podgett's cabin and found
+among the rocks in the vicinity of the accursed place. The indignant
+old man grew almost eloquent in his recitation of the prisoner's
+damnable deeds, and a deathlike stillness pervaded the crowd as the
+words fell hot and earnestly from his lips, only broken now and then
+by the convulsive click of a revolver as the excited feelings of some
+pugnacious individual intensified under the judge's burning remarks.
+But for his admonition of their promise to give the miserable wretch
+Podgett a trial, in all probability the proceedings would have been
+ended before Bartlett closed his remarks.
+
+Tom Bradford, in his argument as the legally constituted prosecutor,
+merely reiterated in a measure what the judge had so forcibly
+expressed, but he scathed Podgett in a fearful manner, working up a
+more exasperated feeling, if that were possible, than existed before;
+and when he had finished his address he called his witnesses.
+
+The Doctor was first to testify; but he confined his evidence to
+the character of the charred bones, settling beyond the question of
+possibility that they were human.
+
+Willow Gulch Jack then appeared, and upon him all eyes were
+concentrated as he related to the jury the simple story. He described
+accurately, with a dead coal taken from the fireplace, on the top of
+a cracker-box, the location of the cabin, its surroundings, and the
+position in which the several bodies were found, particularly that of
+Jemuel Knaggs, a piece of whose blue shirt and curious collar-button
+he exhibited, the latter being recognized by nearly every man present.
+He made a graphic if not artistic sketch with his rude pencil, and
+its effect upon the jury and spectators was manifested by expressions
+addressed to Podgett more emphatic than elegant.
+
+Issachar Noe was the next and last witness called for the prosecution.
+He related in an impressive and convincing manner, as chairman of the
+committee, the interview with the young wife or mistress of Podgett,
+which was received by his listeners with that faith in its accuracy
+comparable to the high character of the man.
+
+Then young Green, the counsel appointed for the defense, though he
+had not a single particle of evidence to offer, and convinced of the
+deep villainy of his brutal and inhuman client, felt it incumbent to
+make an appeal in his behalf. This he did so eloquently, and built
+up hypotheses so rapidly, that some of the rougher element, afraid
+that his efforts might be effectual, became rather demonstrative, and
+crowded around him in a somewhat threatening manner. They were quieted,
+however, by a few positive words from old Tom. It was rather a decided
+but not particularly pleasant compliment to the youth's forensic
+ability!
+
+When the defense had closed its wonderfully ingenious argument, the
+judge made another of his significant addresses in his charge to the
+jury, and a little after midnight he submitted the case to them.
+
+An awful silence prevailed for a few moments while the twelve men put
+their heads together and consulted in a low tone without leaving their
+seats. Presently they all rose, and their spokesman, turning to the
+judge, uttered only one word: "GUILTY."
+
+[Illustration: "WITH PODGETT BETWEEN THEM."]
+
+Then, at a sign from stern old Sam, who immediately came down from his
+pile of bacon, the two determined-faced miners, with Podgett between
+them almost paralyzed with fear, walked out into the night, followed
+by the crowd, who fired off their pistols, and made the very hills
+tremble with their demoniacal yells.
+
+The early morning sun, as its rays entered the narrow valley, shone
+upon the lifeless body of Podgett, where, suspended by the neck from
+the limb of a huge oak tree on the main street of Whooping Hollow, it
+slowly oscillated at the sport of the warm south breeze.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE WOOING OF AH-KEY-NES-TOU.
+
+
+[Illustration: MANDAN CHIEF.]
+
+At a period late in the twenties, the Mandans, one of the most
+intelligent tribes of Indians on the continent, were almost swept out
+of existence by the smallpox. The story comes down to us in the form of
+a tradition among other savages, but it is nevertheless true, as there
+are a few old trappers yet living who remember all the particulars of
+the event.
+
+The Mandans resided in the vicinity of the mouth of the Yellowstone,
+where their villages were permanent for untold centuries, and at the
+time of the visitation of the fell disease which nearly annihilated
+them they comprised about three thousand families.
+
+Shortly after sunrise, one morning in June, 1828, a young white man was
+reclining idly on one of the grassy knolls overlooking the village,
+the great river, and the vast prairie stretching westwardly from its
+bank. He was intently watching certain movements in the town, where
+the warriors were preparing for a grand hunt. In the distance, the
+buffalo could be seen grazing in immense herds, whose presence was
+the cause of the commotion among the Indians. Soon he saw hundreds of
+warriors, armed with bows, their quivers filled with arrows, emerge
+from the shadow of their lodges, and in a long line ride out toward
+the unsuspecting animals so peacefully feeding. The old men and squaws
+alone remained in the village, and they were gathered in anxious
+groups, applauding the husbands, sons and lovers as they went proudly
+forth to battle for that subsistence which was their only dependence
+when the snows of winter filled the now sunny valley.
+
+A few moments after the warriors had disappeared in the purple morning
+mist of the prairies, a bevy of lightly dressed dusky maidens, in
+all their savage beauty, wandered toward the sandy margin of the
+Yellowstone to indulge in their favorite amusement of swimming in its
+clear sparkling tide,--for that stream in summer, like a great brook,
+ripples and babbles over the rounded quartz pebbles which compose its
+bed, with as rhythmical a flow as the tiniest rivulet in the recesses
+of the mountains.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was this group of Indian maidens that now attracted the gaze of the
+young stranger; one among them particularly, not yet seventeen, but
+more beautiful than the others, walked like some society queen on the
+beach at Newport. In a few moments she purposely separated herself from
+the rest and directed her steps toward the mound on which the young
+man was lying. He smiled when he saw her evident intention, and a flush
+of pride swept over his bronzed cheeks as he came down to the base of
+the elevation to await her approach.
+
+The young girl thus seeking the intruder was the affianced bride of
+"In-ne-cose" (The Iron Horn), principal chief of the Mandans--old
+enough to be her grandfather. She, the handsome Indian maiden, was
+known as "Ah-key-nes-tou" (The Red Rose), and was the pride of the
+Mandan nation.
+
+The young man, who had with impatience waited for her coming all
+the morning, was of course an American; an incipient doctor who had
+enlisted in the service of the great Fur Company a year before, whose
+agency was at the junction of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers,
+near the Mandan village. He had imagined himself in love many times
+in St. Louis, where was his home, but was now satisfied that he had
+really never felt the tender passion until he saw Ah-key-nes-tou at
+the general store one day, some months before the story of their fate
+commences.
+
+When he discovered that the beautiful girl was destined to be the fifth
+wife of the old chief In-ne-cose--a cross, ugly Indian, and moreover
+not a full-blooded Mandan--he took pity on her, loved her more than
+ever, and resolved to win her for himself. Ah-key-nes-tou had often
+admitted to the "White Medicine," as the band of Mandans called the
+youthful doctor, that she had a decided predilection for him; that she
+could never love the old chief; but as her father had been paid for her
+by the present of two horses, she felt bound to the bargain according
+to Indian usage.
+
+The doctor in a dozen interviews had told Ah-key-nes-tou of his deep
+love; that he was willing to leave his home forever for her sake,
+and, marrying her, would become an adopted son of the tribe. But poor
+"Ah-key," as her white admirer always called her, considered herself
+in honor bound to become the wife of In-ne-cose; consequently both the
+youth and the maiden were perfectly miserable.
+
+In a few moments the doctor and Ah-key met at the foot of the mound,
+where, without speaking, they seated themselves on the grass with which
+the ground was covered. After looking at her silently for some time, he
+took the maiden's hand and said:
+
+"It is a long time since Ah-key has come to her white lover. I have
+been very sad; the sun shone brightly, but I could not see its
+brightness, for you were far away. I learn that In-ne-cose intends soon
+to take you for his fifth wife. I want but one; you are that one; my
+lodge is empty--I cannot live without you."
+
+The Indian maiden trembled for a moment, then answered:
+"Ah-key-nes-tou's heart is small, but it is very red. My father has
+given me to the great chief. Two lovers have come to me; my heart can
+hold but one. I see in it the face of my young White Medicine only;
+but a river as wide as the Missouri parts us. In-ne-cose has given two
+horses for me; my father has spoken; I must be the fifth wife of the
+great chief. What can I do?"
+
+The idea of Ah-key-nes-tou becoming the bride of any other than
+himself, made the young doctor almost wild, and he would have given
+vent to some very emphatic language had not the girl at that instant
+said to him: "There is a snake in the grass that the pale-face does not
+see," and she pointed with her tapering index-finger to a spot not far
+off, where the weeds and sunflower-stalks seemed to move by some other
+power than the wind. It was In-ne-cose himself, who had stealthily
+followed and was watching Ah-key-nes-tou. "You must go to the village
+and eat with my people to-day," continued the trembling maiden, as she
+looked imploringly toward her lover.
+
+[Illustration: MANDAN CANOE.]
+
+The doctor was now satisfied they had a dangerous spy upon their
+actions, and grinding his teeth, hastened to obey her injunction at
+once. He dared not kiss Ah-key now, but they exchanged glances,--a
+language that is understood by all who love, whether white, black,
+or red; and as she walked away he shouldered his heavy rifle and
+ascended the knoll again, where he stood erect for a few minutes so
+that the whole village might see him. Remaining where he stood until
+Ah-key-nes-tou had rejoined the group of her friends on the beach,
+where they were preparing for their bath, the doctor descended, and
+moved quietly toward the nearest group of lodges.
+
+First, he made a visit to that of a subordinate chief who was friendly
+to both Ah-key-nes-tou and himself, looking with decided favor on his
+efforts to win the girl. Then he went to the lodge of Ah-key-nes-tou's
+father. He was received very kindly, invited to breakfast, and when
+that was disposed of, the pipe was passed around, an evidence of the
+warm feeling the Indian entertained for his white guest. After some
+time devoted to the fragrant fumes of the "kin-ne-ke-nick," the doctor
+opened up the subject always nearest his heart--his desire to marry
+the old savage's daughter. The father of the girl freely admitted that
+he should be highly honored by such an alliance, but that his word had
+been pledged to the "Iron Horn," and as presents had been accepted from
+him, the matter must be considered as settled; that the tribe would
+never condone any deceit on his part--he could not break his word.
+
+[Illustration: MANDAN VILLAGE.]
+
+The doctor agreed with his honorable host, that the difficulties were
+great, according to the Indian code of honor; nevertheless, he believed
+that the thing could be so arranged that it would be acceptable to
+all concerned. He then informed the old man that a steamboat (or
+"fire-ship," as the savages called it,) would arrive at the village
+that evening. On it were his trunk, tent, and all his belongings; he
+proposed to take up his abode with the tribe. To this, War Eagle, the
+father of Ah-key-nes-tou, cordially gave his approval; suggesting that
+the mound from which the villagers had first seen him that morning
+would be a suitable place to establish his lodge.
+
+Just before sunset the guns of the steamboat were heard in the
+village as she rounded a sharp point near her proposed landing-place.
+Immediately the entire population, men, women and children, flocked
+to the beach to see the wonderful canoe that moved without oars. They
+regarded it as a monster, gazing upon it with fear and trembling every
+time it came up the river.
+
+Early the next morning, with the assistance of some of his Mandan
+friends the doctor landed his traps and erected his tent on the spot
+designated by War Eagle. His equipments consisted of a neat camp bed,
+rich blankets, arms, ammunition, and a medicine chest, together with
+hundreds of little trinkets pleasing to the taste of the Indians of
+both sexes.
+
+The enthusiastic young doctor had hardly gotten his things in shipshape
+before a messenger from In-ne-cose arrived, demanding his presence
+at the council lodge. He obeyed the summons from the head chief, of
+course, but he could not divine why he had been sent for so suddenly,
+just as he had fixed himself comfortably in his new home. Reaching the
+lodge where the chiefs and head men were assembled, he found there
+also many women and children of the tribe, evidently expectant of some
+serious matter to be discussed.
+
+In-ne-cose sat in the center of his counselors, on a magnificently
+embroidered buffalo robe, smoking his great pipe trimmed with
+eagle-feathers, as stoical as an Egyptian mummy, excepting that around
+his mouth there played a smile of devilish import.
+
+Standing near her father, who had also been summoned to the council,
+was Ah-key-nes-tou, dusky and beautiful in her savage grace, with a
+look of pride on her countenance; for was it not certain that she was
+to be the subject for discussion by the suddenly assembled warriors?
+
+Wrapped around the shoulders of the stern In-ne-cose was a curiously
+wrought Mexican blanket, the sight of which, as the doctor's eyes fell
+upon it, caused his whole frame to tremble. He turned pale, and his
+entire aspect was that of fear and deep solicitude; but not a word did
+he utter.
+
+As soon as those who were called to the council had seated themselves,
+In-ne-cose rose and said:
+
+"A pale-faced medicine-man has fixed his lodge by those of the Mandans.
+We have plenty of ground here; there are great herds of buffalo roaming
+over the prairie, which the Great Spirit has sent to furnish food for
+his people; the rich young warrior with a white skin is welcome to his
+share of these. His heart is red, and he is the friend of the Mandans.
+But he is alone; he has no squaw to cook his meat or saddle his horse;
+no one to make his bed of the soft skins of the buffalo; no one to
+shape the moccasins for his feet; he has no wife to bring home the game
+that he kills. He cannot get a slave to do all these things, for we are
+at peace with every nation; there is no war. He must therefore take a
+wife from among the young women of the Mandans; there are many. He can
+buy two wives, for he is rich; let him choose when In-ne-cose takes
+Ah-key-nes-tou. I have said."
+
+The doctor immediately arose from his place, full of indignation and
+disgust at the old chief's cunning. Familiar with the language of the
+tribe, he addressed the assembled warriors in their own tongue. All
+eyes were riveted on him, for the majority of those present, and many
+who were absent, were in perfect accord with him in his honorable
+efforts to win Ah-key-nes-tou from the "Iron Horn," whom they feared
+but did not respect.
+
+"In-ne-cose is a dog!" boldly began the doctor. The chiefs gazed upon
+him with wonderment, but without betraying any emotion. "The Great
+Spirit is angry," continued the orator. "In-ne-cose is a vulture
+among eagles, and would carry off the prettiest eaglet. But the
+Great Spirit says that it shall not be so. Before the sun goes down
+seven times more, In-ne-cose will be dead! He will take with him to
+the happy hunting-grounds many Mandan warriors; many young women
+and children--perhaps Ah-key-nes-tou;" and the young man was deeply
+affected. He merely added the chief's own words, "I have said," then
+sat down.
+
+In a few moments, when his feelings had partially regained their normal
+state, he rose again to explain to the now bewildered and wondering
+warriors and women what he meant by the awful prophecy he had just
+uttered. He told them that on the passage of the steamboat up the
+river, only two days before she had landed at their village, a Mexican
+merchant on board had died of a frightful disease, the smallpox! He
+explained how terribly contagious it was to those who were not guarded
+against it by a great medicine operation performed by the white man.
+That the merchant who had died of the disease possessed a blanket, upon
+which he had breathed his last. In-ne-cose had stolen that blanket off
+the boat, and had it now wrapped around him. He told them that every
+Indian who went near him, who touched that blanket, or even breathed
+the same air where he sat, would die unless with his medicine he could
+save them. The doctor continued:
+
+"The Great Spirit is very angry. Darkness is coming over the lodges of
+the Mandans. In less than one moon, perhaps, not a lodge will be full.
+You love Ah-key-nes-tou; let her go to the lodge of the pale-faced
+Medicine Man, and he will go to that of the 'Iron Horn'--but I fear it
+is too late."
+
+By the time the doctor had completed his remarks so fraught with
+portent, all those assembled within the council lodge rapidly moved
+themselves from the presence of In-ne-cose. He however sat stoically
+smoking, apparently not the least disturbed by the fearful predictions
+of the doctor. In a few moments the old chief rose again, and thus
+addressed himself to the presumptuous white man:
+
+"The Great Spirit lives in the clouds. If he wills that all my people
+shall go to him, they must obey. My little ones slept on the mystery
+blanket last night; they awoke this morning and were well. Will the Bad
+Spirit touch them?"
+
+Then drawing the "death-blanket" closer around him, In-ne-cose
+apparently defied the evil effects of the wrap. But shortly afterward
+his dusky skin showed a slight pallor and he seemed strangely agitated.
+He again spoke, though this time in a disturbed voice, addressing
+himself, as before, directly to the doctor:
+
+"The chief of the Mandans is rich. He has four squaws already. If the
+young pale-face will drive away the Bad Spirit from the little ones of
+In-ne-cose, he may take Ah-key-nes-tou for his wife."
+
+The doctor, delighted at these words of the head chief, grasped the
+old man's hand, and told him that he would do his best to save the
+children. Then, ordering Ah-key-nes-tou's brother to lead his sister
+to his lodge on the knoll, he told another Indian to go and bring his
+medicine chest to the lodge of In-ne-cose. He then went to the chief's
+lodge himself, but on examining the little ones discovered it was too
+late for vaccination: the blanket had done its work!
+
+The next day the pestilence broke out in a hundred lodges. Very soon
+the Indians were not able to bury their dead--the latter outnumbering
+the living. In less than a month, out of three thousand families only
+eight survived. Where the Mandan village once stood, even as late as
+thirty years ago the traces of over eight thousand graves could be
+seen. It was an awful visitation, almost annihilating a whole nation!
+
+In-ne-cose, as predicted by the doctor, was the first to die.
+Ah-key-nes-tou was saved by prompt vaccination. The doctor took her
+to St. Louis, where they were married, the ceremony being performed
+by that grand and good old Catholic priest, Father DeSmet, who was
+stationed there at the time, and whose memory is kept green by every
+tribe of Indians on the continent. Ah-key-nes-tou was educated at one
+of the convents in the Mound City, became the pet of society, and her
+worthy husband a State Senator.
+
+
+
+
+CARSON'S "FIRST INDIAN."
+
+
+[Illustration: KIT CARSON.]
+
+I have been requested by several parties to offer something of Kit
+Carson's early days on the Plains. Having been intimate with that
+famous man during the declining years of his eventful life, and having
+heard from his own lips many of the adventures of his youth, while
+sitting around the camp-fire on several little "outings" with him and
+Maxwell in the mountains of New Mexico, I have chosen for my sketch
+Kit's first shot at an Indian.
+
+That portion of the great central plains of Kansas which radiates from
+the Pawnee Fork as its center, including the bend of the Arkansas,
+where that river makes a sudden sweep to the southeast, and the
+beautiful valley of the Walnut,--in all an area of nearly a thousand
+square miles,--was from time immemorial a sort of debatable ground,
+occupied by none of the tribes, but claimed by all to hunt in, for it
+was a famous resort of the buffalo.
+
+None of the various bands of savages had the temerity to attempt its
+permanent occupancy, for whenever they met there--which was of frequent
+occurrence--on their annual hunt for their winter's supply of meat, a
+bloody battle was sure to ensue. The region referred to has perhaps
+been the scene of more sanguinary conflicts than any other portion of
+the continent. Particularly was this the case when the Pawnees, who
+claimed the country, met their hereditary enemies, the Cheyennes.
+
+Through this region, hugging the margin of the silent Arkansas, and
+running under the very shadow of Pawnee Rock, the old Santa Fé trail
+wound its course, now the actual road-bed of the Santa Fé Railway,--so
+closely are the past and present transcontinental highways cemented at
+this point: one, a mere memory; the other, one of the great railways
+now spanning the continent.
+
+Who, among the bearded and grizzled old fellows like myself, has
+forgotten that most exciting and sensational (at least it was so to
+my boyish mind) of all the miserably executed illustrations in the
+geographies of their school-days fifty years ago--"Santa Fé Traders
+Attacked by Indians"? The picture located the scene of the fight
+at Pawnee Rock, which formed a sort of a nondescript shadow in the
+background of a crudely drawn representation of the dangers of the
+trail.
+
+I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of the Cheyennes
+and Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie, just
+north of the mouth of the Walnut, about four miles from where the city
+of Great Bend now stands. Both tribes were hunting the buffalo, and
+when each by accident discovered the presence of the other, with a
+demoniacal yell that fairly shook the sand-dunes of the Arkansas they
+rushed at once into the shock of battle.
+
+The Pawnees were of course friendly to the whites, and had permission
+from their agent to leave their reservation in the valley of the
+Neosho, near Council Grove. At that particular time, for a wonder, the
+Cheyennes too were temporarily at peace with the Government. So I had
+nothing to do but passively witness the savage combat.
+
+Both bands of the savages soon exhausted their ammunition, and then
+the chiefs of the contending factions appealed to me most earnestly to
+supply them with more, of which there was plenty at Fort Zarah, only
+half a mile away. I was necessarily forced to remain neutral, but my
+sympathies were with the "under dog" in the fight,--which happened to
+be the Cheyennes, whom the Pawnees drove off disgraced and discomfitted.
+
+That evening, in a grove of timber on the Walnut, the victors had a
+grand dance in which scalps, ears and fingers of their enemy, suspended
+by strings to poles, were important accessories to their weird orgies
+around the huge camp-fires.
+
+How true it is, as Longfellow declares: "The thoughts of youth are
+long, long thoughts." I remember that map in the geographies of fifty
+years ago (already referred to) on which was depicted "the Great
+American Desert," over which I pored in the little log school-house
+at the crossroads in the country, near my home in one of the Eastern
+States. How distinctly I remember seeing Bent's old fort marked on the
+western edge of the "Desert" on that quaint map. Then, in the "long,
+long thoughts" of my boyhood's fancy, it seemed to me to be away out
+on the confines of another world, for then I had never been thirty
+miles away from the farm on which I was reared. I have slept under
+the old fort's hospitable roof many times since, but long before the
+era of railroads, where, gathered around its huge adobe fireplaces, up
+whose cavernous throats the yellow flames crackled and roared, were the
+mighty men of the Ute nation, with Kit Carson, Lucien B. Maxwell, Bent,
+and other famous characters of the border, conversing in the beautiful
+but silent sign-language, that is so perfect in its symbolization. Of
+those who were present then, all but myself are long since dead, and
+the scenes of those days are only hidden pictures in the storehouse of
+my brain, to be called back in the quiet of the gloaming, with their
+host of accompanying pleasant memories of a shadowy past.
+
+In my boyhood days I honestly believed that Kit Carson was at least
+eight feet tall; that he always dressed in the traditional buckskin,
+fringed at the seams, and beaded and "porcupined" all over; that
+he carried innumerable eleven-inch bowie-knives, his rifle of huge
+dimensions--so large and heavy that, like Warwick's sword, no ordinary
+man could even lift it. I believed his regular meal to be an entire
+buffalo, which he raised with both hands to his mouth, and picked its
+immense bones as easily as the average mortal does a chicken's wing,
+and that he drank out of nothing smaller than a river. Boys, probably
+by the thousands, had the same "long thoughts," for boy-nature is the
+same everywhere.
+
+Kit Carson was really a man under the average height, rather
+delicate-looking in physical make-up than otherwise, but in fact,
+wiry and quick, though cautious, possessing nerves of steel and an
+imperturbability in the moment of supreme danger that was marvelous to
+contemplate.
+
+He was fond of cards and horse-racing, a famous rider in his younger
+days, having entered the lists in many a contest with the Indians, who
+are generally passionately devoted to trials of speed between rival
+ponies. I have myself seen, in the long-ago, as many as eight hundred
+horses bet by contending bands, whose wealth was counted by the number
+of animals they possessed.
+
+Kit once, years before he became famous, fought a duel, mounted; he
+escaped with a bullet-wound behind his left ear, the scar of which he
+carried to his grave, but he winged his equally youthful antagonist in
+the quarrel.
+
+Kit's nature was composed of the noblest of attributes: he was brave,
+but never reckless like Custer; unselfish, a veritable exponent of
+Christian altruism; and as true to his friends as steel to the magnet.
+
+He died in 1868, at Fort Lyon, on the Arkansas, while on his way to
+Fort Harker to make me a long-promised visit. For some time after
+his passing away he rested peacefully under the gnarled and knotted
+old cottonwoods which fringe the river--that Nile of America--in the
+vicinity of Lyon. Later, his remains were moved to Taos, his former
+New Mexico home, where an appropriate monument was erected over them;
+in the plaza of quaint and curious Santa Fé, too, there is a massive
+cenotaph which records his deeds and name.
+
+Kit was born in Kentucky, on the 24th of December, 1809. While a mere
+infant his parents emigrated to what is now Howard county, Missouri,
+which at that early date was literally a "howling wilderness" filled
+with "varmints" of all kinds.
+
+There, as soon as he was big enough to lift a rifle, the old-fashioned
+patch-and-ball, flint-lock affair, the embryo great frontiersman began
+to hunt, and by the time he was fifteen he became the most expert shot
+in the whole settlement. He could hit the eye of a squirrel every time
+he pulled the trigger, or it didn't count.
+
+At this period, however, his father apprenticed him to a saddler, with
+whom he worked faithfully for two years, spending all his leisure
+moments in the primitive forest, hunting bear, deer, and other large
+game that abounded there.
+
+In two years more, when Kit had reached the age of seventeen, the
+trade with Santa Fé began, with its initial point in the hamlet of Old
+Franklin, in Howard county, near where Kit lived (from which place it
+did not move to Independence until 1836).
+
+In the late spring of 1826, Col. St. Vrain, a prominent agent of the
+great fur companies, (a grand old gentleman whom I knew intimately,)
+arrived at Franklin and made preparations to fit out a large caravan
+destined for the far-off Rocky Mountains, loaded with goods to be used
+in trading with the Indians for the skins of the valuable fur-bearing
+animals of that remote and but little known region.
+
+Kit, as green as any boy of his age who had never been twenty miles
+from his home, was infatuated by the stories told by the old trappers
+of the Colonel's outfit, regarding the wonderful game in the land to
+which they were going, and he was easily persuaded to join the caravan
+in the capacity of hunter, his prowess with the rifle having reached
+the ears of the major-domo of the train. Kit ran away from home, I
+suspect, though he never told me so.
+
+The expedition was composed of twenty-six mule-wagons, some loose
+stock, and forty-two men. In addition to his employment as hunter,
+young Kit was to help drive the extra animals, take his turn in
+standing guard, and make himself generally useful.
+
+The party marched wearily along, day after day, Kit proving his right
+to the reputation of being a mighty hunter, without any adventure
+worthy of recording, until they arrived at the Walnut, where they
+discovered the first signs of Indians. They had halted for that day;
+the mules were unharnessed, the camp-fires lighted, and the men about
+to indulge in their ever-welcome black coffee, when they were suddenly
+surprised by half a dozen Pawnees, who, mounted on their ponies,
+hideously painted and uttering the most diabolical yells, rushed out of
+the tall grass on the Arkansas bottom, and swinging their buffalo robes
+attempted to stampede the animals of the caravan.
+
+Every man in the outfit was on his feet in an instant with his rifle in
+hand, so that all the impudent savages got for their pains were a few
+harmless shots as they scampered back to the river and over into the
+sand-hills out of sight.
+
+The next night the caravan camped at the foot of Pawnee Rock, and of
+course, after the experience of the afternoon before, every precaution
+was employed to prevent another surprise. The wagons were formed into
+a corral, so that the animals might be protected in the event of a
+prolonged fight with the savages. The guards were instructed to be
+doubly vigilant, and every man slept with his rifle on his arm, for
+the old Colonel assured them the savages would never rest content with
+their defeat on the Walnut, but true to their thieving propensities and
+their desire for revenge, would seize the first favorable opportunity
+to renew the attack.
+
+All this was a new and strange experience to young Carson, who had
+never before seen any Indians except a few friendly Shawnees and
+Osages. Of the methods and tactics of the wild Plains tribes, he
+literally knew nothing.
+
+When everything was arranged for the night, Kit was posted as a
+sentinel immediately in front of the south face of the Rock, nearly two
+hundred yards from the wagon corral. The other men who were on guard
+were posted on top, and on the open prairie on either side.
+
+About half-past eleven, as near as he could guess, Kit told me, one of
+the guards yelled out "Indians!" and ran the mules that were grazing
+near, into the corral, while the entire company turned out of their
+blankets on the report of a rifle on the midnight air coming from the
+direction of the Rock.
+
+In a few minutes young Kit came running down toward the corral, where
+the men had collected, and Col. St. Vrain asked him if he had seen any
+Indians.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRAIN AT PAWNEE ROCK.]
+
+"Yes," replied Kit, "I killed one of the red devils--I saw him fall."
+
+There was no further disturbance that night; it proved to be a false
+alarm; so all who were not standing guard that night were soon
+peacefully sleeping again.
+
+The next morning at the first streak of day, every one was up and
+anxious to see young Carson's dead Indian. They went out _en masse_ to
+the Rock, when instead of finding a painted Pawnee, they discovered
+Kit's riding-mule, dead--shot through the head.
+
+The boy felt terribly mortified over his ridiculous blunder, and it was
+a long time before he heard the last of his midnight shot at his mule.
+
+He explained to me the circumstances: He had not slept any the previous
+night, and he had watched so earnestly for a chance to kill a Pawnee
+that he supposed he must have fallen asleep leaning against the face of
+the Rock; "but I was wide enough awake to hear the cry of 'Indians!'"
+said he. "I had picketed my mule about twenty steps from where I stood,
+and I suppose it had been lying down. All I know is that the first
+thing I saw after the alarm was something rising up out of the grass. I
+thought sure it was an Indian; I took aim, and pulled the trigger. It
+was a center shot; I don't believe that mule kicked once after he was
+hit!"
+
+In the morning, a few minutes after the men had returned from a visit
+to Kit's dead mule, a real battle commenced. The Pawnees attacked the
+camp in earnest, and kept the little outfit busy all that day, the
+next night, and till the following night--nearly three whole days, the
+animals all that time shut up in the corral without food or water.
+
+On the second midnight the men harnessed up and attempted to drive out,
+but were driven back and had to give it up.
+
+The third night, just before morning, they tried it again, determined
+to reach the ford at Pawnee Rock to water their animals, or all would
+perish. It was a little more than ten miles distant from the Rock (and
+is now within the corporate limits of Larned).
+
+They succeeded in keeping off the savages, and arrived at the ford in
+comparative safety. The trail at that point crossed the creek in the
+shape of a horseshoe; or rather, in consequence of a double bend in the
+stream as it debouches into the Arkansas, the road crossed it twice,
+as all who have traveled the old Santa Fé trail in the early days will
+remember.
+
+In making this crooked passage many of the wagons were badly wrecked in
+the creek, because the mules were terribly thirsty, and their drivers
+could not control them.
+
+The caravan was hardly "strung out" again on the opposite bank of the
+Pawnee, when the Indians poured a shower of arrows and a volley of
+bullets from both sides of the trail into the train. But before they
+could reload or draw their arrows a desperate charge was made among
+them, headed by the Colonel, and it took only a few minutes to clear
+out the savages, and then the caravan moved on.
+
+During the whole fight at the Rock and at Pawnee Fork, the party lost
+four men killed, seven wounded, and eleven mules killed (not including
+Kit's), and twenty wounded.
+
+From this fight Kit said Pawnee Rock was named.
+
+
+
+
+A THEORY AS TO GEN. CUSTER'S DEATH.
+
+DID HE COMMIT SUICIDE?
+
+
+[Illustration: GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER.]
+
+Little is known of the origin of scalp-taking, and that, vague and
+indefinite: nearly every tribe has some wild, weird legend to account
+for the custom, but these traditions vary widely as to the cause. That
+"raising the hair" of an enemy is of great antiquity, there is no
+doubt, as in the Bible it is related how the soldiers tore the skin
+from the heads of their whipped foes. All, or at least all Indian
+tribes with which I am acquainted, scalp their enemies killed in battle.
+
+With the Indian there appears to be some close affiliation between the
+departed spirit and his hair. I have questioned many a blood-begrimed
+warrior why he should want a dead man's hair, and invariably there
+have been assigned a number of reasons, three of which are most
+prominent: First, it is an evidence to his people that he has triumphed
+over an enemy; second, the scalps are employed very prominently in the
+incantations of the "medicine lodge"--a part of their religious rites;
+third, the savage believes there is a wonderfully inherent power in
+the scalp of an enemy. All the excellent qualities of the victim go
+with his hair the moment it is wrenched from his head. If it be that of
+a renowned warrior, so much the more are they anxious to procure his
+scalp, for the fortunate possessor then inherits all the bravery and
+prowess of its original owner.
+
+I have known of but one instance in all my experience among the
+Indians, where a white man taken prisoner in battle escaped death.
+It was a great many years ago; the party, a dear friend, still
+living, was a grand old mountaineer,--but the homeliest man on earth,
+probably. He was red-faced, wrinkled, and pockmarked, with a mouth as
+large and full of teeth as a gorilla's, and there was no more hair
+on any part of his head than there is on the head of a cane. He was
+captured in a prolonged fight and taken to the village of the tribe
+where the principal chief resided. The latter gave one look at the
+prisoner, shook his head, and said he was "bad medicine"; that if he
+was not the "evil spirit" himself, he was closely allied to him. He
+then ordered his subordinates to furnish him with a pony, loaded him
+with provisions, provided him with a rifle, and told him to go to his
+people. This incident, which is a fact, shows that you cannot account
+for the occasional vagaries of the North-American savage.
+
+The Indians of the Plains and Rocky Mountains would rather, for the
+reason last above stated, take one scalp of a famous scout or army
+officer who has successfully chastised them, like Custer, Sully, and
+Crook, than a dozen of those of ordinary white men.
+
+Twenty-six years ago next November I was camping on the high "divide"
+between the Arkansas river and the Beaver, with a party of Government
+Indian scouts, members of three friendly tribes,--Osages, Pawnees,
+and Kaws,--employed by order of Gen. Sheridan in his winter campaign
+against the hostile Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas. It was a terribly
+gusty day, one of those so characteristic of our Plains region at
+certain times of the year. As with closely wrapped blankets we huddled
+around our little fire of buffalo-chips, the dust and ashes would rise
+in miniature whirlwinds and go dancing over the prairies until they
+exhausted themselves.
+
+I asked a venerable chief of the Osages who was present, "Little
+River," nearly eighty years old, what those fitful spirals indicated,
+in order to draw from his savage mind his ideas of the forces of
+nature. He replied: "They are the spirits of some southern Indians,
+killed and scalped up north, going back to the lodges of their people."
+
+I thought that if he had substituted the word "matter" for
+"spirit"--for everywhere we tread upon the dust of a lost
+civilization--probably he would have been nearer the truth than in the
+statement of one of the superstitions of his race.
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE RIVER.]
+
+Among the many myths of the American savage, the disposition of the
+soul after its separation from the body, and its close connection with
+its scalp, vary according to the religion of the tribe. With some,
+the "journey to the happy hunting-grounds" begins immediately; with
+others, the spirit remains near the grave. Again, if an Indian dies
+away from the lodges of his people, the spirit returns at once to them,
+where it hovers, as if reluctant to leave. Among the "upper-river
+tribes" it is believed that before the spirit finally departs from
+those who have died of wounds received in battle, "it floats toward a
+great cliff overhanging the Missouri, and carves upon the wall of rock
+a picture showing the manner of death." It is believed by most Plains
+tribes that the soul attaches itself to the scalp; that the soul of a
+person scalped does not suffer from the wounds inflicted on the body,
+but that the converse is the case where the scalp is not torn off.
+
+There are many instances on record where men have been scalped and yet
+survived the terrible ordeal, but in every case the scalper supposed
+his victim dead, the latter taking good care that the foeman should not
+be disabused of the supposed fact.
+
+One who kills himself in battle, accidentally or purposely, has
+positively no hereafter; he is irrevocably lost. Those who are struck
+by lightning, or die by any other apparently direct operation of the
+"Manitou" (the Great Spirit), are hurriedly buried where they fall,
+without any ceremony, and no mound or other mark is erected over them.
+If after a battle there are found corpses not scalped or their bodies
+not mutilated, it is certain that those persons came to death by their
+own hand, for it is part of the religion of an Indian not to scalp or
+mutilate the body of an enemy who commits suicide. His superstition in
+regard to persons dying by suicide or by lightning is as religiously
+observed as any other of his myths.
+
+Knowing this deep-rooted superstition as well as I do, I have been led
+to believe--though the statement may provoke discussion among those who
+know nothing of the Indian character--that the death of the lamented
+Gen. Custer in that awfully unequal battle of the "Little Big Horn"
+was not according to the accepted theory at that time, viz.: that he
+was killed by the Indian chief "Rain-in-the-face." The tale (which I
+regard as an idle fiction so far as the facts are concerned) as it has
+been told a thousand times and copied in the newspapers of the world,
+is, that one day the General's brother Tom, at one of the military
+posts where the regiment to which he was attached, the famous Seventh
+Cavalry (commanded by the General), was stationed, had a dispute with
+Rain-in-the-face, and struck him. The savage was furious with rage,
+but suppressed it, and mounting his pony rode off sullenly to his lodge.
+
+Years after the death of Gen. Custer, Rain-in-the-face, who
+unquestionably participated in the battle of the Rosebud (as the
+action is sometimes called), is said to have related that he killed
+Gen. Custer, thus avenging himself for the indignity put upon himself
+by the General's brother Tom, so long before. In all probability the
+story was made out of "whole cloth" by a certain New York newspaper
+correspondent, in whose journal it first appeared. I knew him well,
+and his reputation for unexaggerated truth was far from being as
+orthodox as he of the cherry-tree fame. Because it had a plausibility
+about it, and was highly sensational, the statement was accepted by
+the general public, or those who were not familiar with the methods of
+the North-American savage. No doubt Rain-in-the-face did, as would all
+Indians, treasure up such a grievance as that of having been insulted
+by a blow from a white man; but the circumstances of the battle of the
+Little Big Horn in all its horrors, so far as it is possible to know
+them, preclude the possibility of Sitting Bull permitting a subordinate
+chief, as was Rain-in-the-face, to arrogate to himself the right of
+revenge in the case of such a noted "white warrior" as Custer. If by
+any probability Rain-in-the-face did kill Custer, he certainly would
+have scalped him and mutilated his body. Custer was not scalped, nor
+was his person at all abused; and the reason generally given for this
+immunity from the common custom of savage warfare is, that the Indians
+had such a profound admiration for his wonderful bravery that they
+spared the great "white warrior" that humiliation. This is the weakest
+point of the whole argument--for the greater the man in the savages'
+estimation, the more eager would they be to secure his scalp.
+
+[Illustration: SITTING BULL]
+
+My own theory is--and the fact that Custer was not scalped or mutilated
+is not the only confirmation of it--that the General killed himself
+to escape the horrible torture that awaited him should he be captured
+alive. His capture was what Sitting Bull had undoubtedly determined
+upon, the moment he saw the tide of battle unmistakably turning in his
+favor.
+
+Custer was known to all the Plains tribes; he had given them ample
+cause to remember him, and these savages would never have allowed an
+opportunity to capture him alive to be defeated by permitting some
+aggrieved chief to kill him in order to gratify a personal revenge--the
+game was too big. The Indians called Custer the "Crawling Panther,"
+because he usually fell upon them with his troopers as stealthily as
+does that animal upon its prey.
+
+To those unacquainted with the methods of the American savage of the
+Great Plains, the statement that suicide would be infinitely preferable
+to the chances for life after having been captured by the Indians,
+may seem overdrawn, and wicked to be thought of. But if they had
+seen, as I have, the remains of men, women and innocent babes horribly
+mutilated, burnt, butchered, and hacked to pieces, they too, if they
+knew such a fate awaited them beyond the possibility of a doubt if
+captured alive, would unhesitatingly court death by their own hands,
+suddenly and immediately, rather than wait for the other, a few
+hours or days more remote, perhaps, but certain, and horrible in its
+prolonged agony.
+
+I know that it was commonly understood, if not actually agreed to
+among the officers at frontier posts, that each one should reserve the
+last bullet in his revolver for himself in the event of a horrible
+contingency. I have known of many officers in the long-ago of my early
+service among the Indians, who, whenever they went on an expedition
+against the hostile tribes, invariably had concealed about their
+persons, easily accessible, a small capsule of prussic acid or some
+equally potent and swift messenger of death, to be used in case of a
+possible contingency.
+
+Custer, it will be remembered, was shot through the head, and it was a
+curious coincidence that two or three of his subordinates whose bodies
+were found near his had been shot in precisely the same manner.
+
+In view of all these facts, there can be small doubt that those
+officers carried out the plan of death determined upon, the moment they
+recognized the hopelessness of their situation.
+
+That the story of Rain-in-the-face, if he ever told it, is not at
+all likely to be the truth, may be inferred from the fact that the
+average Indian, as I know him, when discoursing of his own prowess is
+the most unconscionable liar, and the truth is not in him. Of course
+if Rain-in-the-face could prevail upon a newspaper correspondent to
+flatter him in regard to the part he took in a battle in which a great
+white warrior was defeated, he would rather lie to that correspondent
+than not; and that is just what Rain-in-the-face did in this
+instance--provided, always, that the correspondent did not invent the
+whole tale.
+
+The truth of how Custer came to his death can never absolutely be
+known, for out of that awfully unequal conflict there came but one
+miserable Crow Indian and Col. Keogh's celebrated horse "Comanche,"
+alive. From the fact that the great soldier was not scalped, the theory
+I have suggested is certainly more plausible, and will be accepted by
+all who are familiar with the customs of the Indians, than that story
+which has made the rounds of the newspapers a dozen times.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of the Trail, by Henry Inman
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58568 ***