The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-04-20
(WHICH FOR WHO


to Deadwood. Soft fakes of snow
sailed in eccentric course through
the night air, and finally settled
down into the spluttering fire or
upon the cold earth.
There were other men on the
trail before and behind. Men
rush wherever the precious metal
is discovered There were broken
wagons, dead horses and human
skeletons along every mile of the
tail, and fierce-eyed Indians look
ed out from every ravine and down
upon travellers from every hill.
The dozen gathered closer as
darkness shut down and the snow
flakes came faster, and by and by
an old man with grizzly locks and
piercing eye, said as if speaking to
himself:
"Custer went in to kill. 1t was
an awful thing TO do-to rush
three hundred men down upon
five thousand reds, but he did it,
and meant to win. No other man
will eyre take such chances"
And yet one was near by who
meant to take greater chances.
So cat-like was his step that he
had almost entered camp before
the sentinels saw him. He was q
giant in size, and as he halted
where the light Of the fire shone
full in his face, three or four men
uttered ordinations or surprise
and horror. There was blood on
the strangers face-blood on his
great rough hands-blood oyer his
clothing clear down to his boots.
1t was q terrible sight, and yet, as
if something greater was needed,
the stranger turned his back to the
men, and they saw that an attempt
had been made to scalp HIM.
"Water-foodP' he whispered as
he looked from face to face.
Both we're given him, and after
drinking a fnll quart of water, he
grasped q loaf bread and a hunk
of meat, and tore them with his
teeth as a wolf would have done.
BY and by, when his hunger had
been somewhat appeased, he said /:
at happened OF this way, nigh
10 twenty miles. / lost the trail
somehow, and the red devils
swooped down at noon on me to-
day. The old woman and five
children were in the wagon. There
were forty or fifty rods, and it
wasn't three minutes before the
whole family was dead--all but
mer
His eyes. blazed with. fury; be
seemed to grow in height, and
casting the remnants Of food into
the fire, he fiercely shouted:
think of the old woman hav-
ing her brains beaten out by the
fiends! Think of the children be-
ing hauled out'n the wagon and
scalped and stabbed and their
threats cut from ear to ear! Come
on come with me-"
He leaped over the fire and
bounded away into the darkness,
but presently returned and said in
q calmer voice:
Il fit, of course. 1t was which
for who, but they were fifty to
one. 1 drove them from the corp
ses. / dubbed 'em off with my
rifle, but they were too many.
They shot and stabbed me; they
run me to the hills; they have
hunted me all the afternoon"
The giant trembled like a leaf,
and the fresh blood ran from his
wounds and trickled down in red
paths over his neck and cheeks
and clothing. The leader of the
party tried to soothe him, promis.
ing aid as soon as daylight came
but the stranger waved his arms
and cried out:
"Whst can you do? The wolves
are feeding on my wife and chill
dren tonight; their scalps are
back in the hills with the Indian
devils! Can you bring life back
to them? Give me gun and an
axe"
No one moved for two or three
seconds, being spellbound by his
wild look and words, and the
stranger picked up a cavalry car.
bine and its box of cartridges
seized the light axe used about
the camp fire, and in another min.
ute was lost sight of in the dark
ness, calling back, as his step was
lost to hearing: sFrt ~
at is which for who
Next day, about mid-afLernoon
party cane upon two dead Indian
ponies, lying between the trail nd
the foot hills to the right. A few
yards further on was a great stain
of blood on the two inches of snow
covering the grass. A warrior
had fallen here and been carried
of by his comrades. There was
the trail of a white man on foot
heading for the foot hills, but NOV.
ing slowly, and there were plain
traces that the man had halted ev,
cry few rods to use his weapons.
All along the trail were the hool
tracks OF ponies, and an old hun
ter shock his head and said:
"It is the man who left the camp
last night. Back thar is whar the
reds fust lighted him, and he stood
In his tracks and killed two ponies
and one iDjun. Thar was q gang
of forty or fifty reds, and the white
man moved To git among the hills
and have fair play. Jist look thar
Fifteen or twenty rods ahead
were three dead ponies lying close
together. The band of redskins
had made charge upon the lone
man at this point, and he had met
them bravely. The snow told ey-
erything. Standing in his trac ks,
and not lifting a foot except to
whec! around, he had whipped the
whole gang. There were three
dead ponies within q hundred feet
of the white mans position. and
again the snow was crimsoned
with two great patches of blood
where the warriors had fallen.
"Great Godi but how he fitr'
whispered the old hunter. as he