Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-04-15


wood, after help. Irode sal that day and
the night, and reached the station in o
little more'n sixteen hours. Thar want
many men at the station, but they was
brave fellows, and keen enough for q
chance 10 overhaul that thievin' rene
gade. They hated him, every man of
'em. NN Ha
THE Captain couldn't spare but
twenty-five on 'em, ell told; but that was
enough, we calculated, to handle the red
devils, if we could ever ketch 'em.
I'VE left the cottonwood before noon,
and made straight for Daybolrs Bluff. 1t
Was another all day and night ride for
me, and a mighty hard jaunt for my
little pony; but that wa MT to be consid-
cred, if we could only git along in time to
clean out the Ipjuns afore they come up
with the emigrants. 0 sa
"Well, about eight in the mornin' we
struck thar trail, leadin' away from the
Bluff. This looked mighty queer, but
still we kept on after EN-. After while
we seen signs of prisoners with EN-, a
woman and child; and little further
on a trail come iu which showed the
tracks of loose stock, horses and cattle.
Then we knew that the red devils had
been too quick for US, and murdered the
two emigrant families.
"We followed on all day, right clost to
the varmints, and at night come up onto
'em, and pitched into the whole cussed
pack. 1t was mighty close fight, but |
tell you we laid the rascals out right and
lefr, and them that had whole skin on
EN- was glad to git away with it in that
shape. ahN aausa .angg
we captured the stock, and got back
the white woman, but the young one was
killed in the 6ght-they tomahswked it,
the bloody imps Eleven of the var
mints was done for, but it cost us two of
our best men. But the Ingins didn't git
thar scslps, you bet
Well, we went right back to the bluff,
and thar we found the bodies of the
butchered whites, seven OF EN- lyin' scat
tered round the ruins of thar wagons.
That was less than ten rod from whar
we're sittin' now, right down by yon
spring in the willers
"Oh but it was O sickenin' sight
all of 'em scalped and cut with toma.
hawks, and stuck full of arrows. You
remember about it well enough. I've
seen many ugly sights, in my time, but
none wuss than that.
"Well, we turned to. TO bury the poor
things as well as we could, and while we
was layin' EN- straight and decent like,
one on EN- sort'y opened his eyes lit
tie way, and we see that he want dead
yet-though, Lordy you wouldn't be-
lieve it, he had been scalped, aud had
great cash iu the side of his head like
butchered hog, and three arrows stickin'
in his body.
"The Captain poured tin cup full of
corn juice down him, and that brought
him to after a while"
"Did he live ?" asked one of the party,
anxiously.
"You bet be did e said the old guide
" That ar was Sid Mason, the darndest
Ingun killer in Colorado to-day. We
fixed up q kind of litter atween two po-
nies, and put the poor feller on that aud
took him up to Jack Morrow's Station,
where he stayed till he got well enough |
to crawl out after Ipjuns.
"But long afore that time we was out |
agin after Bob Bent and his pack, and |
more seven hundred men was on his |
trail fore snow fell ag'iu. And Gale late |
be left behind him p'ard of hundred |
Of his sneakin' red skins ag'in be got |
back onto Verdigris river, to their winter
quarters. Bat then the devils got away
with mighty sight Of stock and plunder."
Old Farley ran on with one incident
after another, until his auditors, sue
cumbing to the irresistible influence of
sleep, had become so reduced in numbers
hat he Voluntarily subsided, and rolled
himself up in his blanket for the night.
In the morning it was discovered that
4 fine chestnut mare, the property of the
bid guide, was missing She was fine
,loeded animsl--nad been caught when
,olt from q drove Of wild horses in New
Mexico, and was widely known as the
leetest animal that trod the plains
She was moreover very sensible brute,
md Farley possessed an affection for
Ter very much like that which he would
AVE manifested toward a brother or
much loved companion.
That's Bob Bent's work-the cussed
neak exclaimed the old man, evi-
entity deeply s,ung with dissppointment
But I'll have her back sgain, or his
calp, afore a week, and | don't care 9
arm which"
1t was indeed true; the savages bad fol-
owed US 10 the station, and the renegade
sader, to punish the old guide, aud to
ossess himself Of the feetest animal in
be West, had cunningly slipped in and