The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-09-29
moved around he kept calling out:

moved around he kept calling out:
Got all fxed-got all fixed"
That night be went on duty as usual
Having slight fever was nervous and
restless, and at eleven o'clock / awoke
and heard him talking to the dogs. At
one o'clock / awoke again and he was
missing got up and walked down the
path hundred feet, and though the
dogs came to me nothing could be seen
of Our Fool. l thought that he had
been seized with some new fancy and
had perhaps absconded altogether, and
going back to the cave soon fell into
sound sleep.
Half an hour before daybreak several
things occurred to arouse every man in
the party in an instant. The walls and
floors of the cave trembled, dirt ratified
down into our faces, fierce screams rent
the air, and then came a binding fash
and report which made "old Tom Jones"
tremble in every nook and crevice. We
leaped up and ran out in the widest
alarm, and no one could yet say what
had aroused us, when Our Fool came
down from the wall between path and
| gulch as nimbly as squirrel.
Big noise-great fre-hurt 'em aw-
full badp" he shouted, as he danced
around us, and that's all the satisfac-
ton we could get.
The miners soon came to the conclu-
sion that our keg of powder had been
exploded near by, and as soon as day
light crept into the hills we climbed the
wall. 1t was an awful sight we saw in
the gulch below. The dry bed of the
stream was torn full of great holes, and
| great spots of blood stained the walls
almost to our feet. On the gravel were
! blackened and burned bodies, arms, legs,
heads, and parts of trunks-enough to
account for at least fifteen Indians. Had
shell exploded down there in the midst
of q crowd of soldiers the havoc could
not have been worse. There were bows
and arrows, shattered rifles, scalping-
knives bent and broken, and the horrible
odor of burning flesh filled the whole
gulch.
Our Fool was down there, grinning
and rubbing his hands, but no expana-
tions were needed from him. That gulch
had been overlooked by US. The Indi-
ans had discovered it, and they had
planned to creep down it, scale the
wall, and from thence get plunging fire
| vi tilC iuOuIll VI tl1c Cdft. 1uty WOulu
have been safe from return shots, and
could have killed every miner who
showed his head Our Fool had seen
this. He had stolen the keg of,powder,
and laid mine in the gravelly bed of
the gulch right where the Indians would
scale the wall How he knew that they
would appear on that particular night
we could not surmise, but it seemed that
he did know it, for he deserted his post
to scale the wall and be ready. He
probably fired the powder with a slow
match, but we could never find out how
it was arranged. The explosion took
place just as the savages had collected in
a body over the keg, and nearly score
of them had literally been blown to frag-
ments If there we're others, they lost
no time in limping away, probably SO
badly frightened that they did not hunt
for scalps for the next three months
Well, that was Our Fool, and that was
the trap he laid, and before climbing
out of the gulch we all shook hands with
him and
"Resolced, That we've got the cutest,
smartest and wisest fool in America"
He seemed to feel that he ought to
reply, and swinging his hat around he
yelled out:
Evoke boys all up in a hurry-te-he
te-heI'