The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-02-21
(Which For Who?"
New York Sun.

AROUND campfire on the trail to
Deadwood. Soft flakes of snow sailed
in eccentric cou1se 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 wher.
ever the precious metal is discovered.
There were broken wagons, dead
horses, and human skeletons along
every mile of the trail, and fierce.eyed
Indians looked out from every ravine
and down upon the travellers from
every hill.
The dozen gathered closer as dark
ness shut down and the snowflakes
came faster, and by and by an old man
with grizzly locks and piercing eye
said, as if speaking to himself
t'Custer went in to kill. 1t was an
awful thing to do-to rush three hun
dred men down upon five thousand
reds, but he did it, and meant to win.
No other man will ever take such
chances"
And yet one was near by who meant
to take greater chances. So catlike
was his step that he had almost enter
ed camp before the sentinels saw him.
He was a giant in size, and as he halt
ed where the light of the fire shone
full in his face, three or four men Ut
tered exclamations of surprise and
horror. There was blood on the stran-
gers face--blood on his great rough
hands---blood over his clothing clear
down to his boots. 1t was a terrible
sight. and, yet, as if something
further was needed, the stranger turn
ed his back to the men, and they saw
that an attempt had been made to scalp
him.
"Water-food!' he whispered as he
looked from face to face.
Both were given him, and after
drinking a full quart of water, he grasp.
ed a loaf Of bread and hunk of meat,
and tore them with his teeth as a wolf
would have done. By and by, when
his hunger had been somewhat an.
peased, he said.
1T happened off this way, nigh to
twenty miles. lost the trail some"
how, and the red devils swooped down
at nooa on me to-day. The old woman
and five children were in the wagon.
There were forty or fifty reds, and it
wasn't three minutes before the hull
family was dead all but me!'
His eyes blazed with fury he
seemed to grow in height, and casting
the remnants of food into the fire, he
fiercely shouted;
''Think of the old woman having
her brains beaten out by the fiends
Think of the children being 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. bnt presently
returned and said in a calmer voice:
81 fit. of course. 1t was which for
who, but they were fifty to one.
drove 'em from the corpses. dubbed
''em off with my rifle, but they were
too many. They shot and stabbed me;
they run me to the hills; they even
hunted me all the afternoon.
The giant trembled like leaf, and
the fresh blood ran from his wounds
and trickled down in red paths over
hiI neck and cheeks and clothing. The
leader of the party tried to soothe
him, promising aid as soon as daylight
came, but the stranger waved his arms
and cried out:
"What can you do! The wolves are
feeding on my wife and children to.
night their scalps are back in the
hills with the Indian devils! Can you
bring life back to them Give me a
gun and an axe" "
No one moved for two or three Sec
onds, being spellbound by his wild
looks and words, and the stranger
picked up a cavalry carbine and its
box of cartridges, seized the light. axe
used about the camp fire, and in
another, minute was lost sight of in
the darkness, calling back, as his step
was lost to hearing ...
ut is which for who -
Next day about mid-afternoon, the
party came upon two dead Indian pc.
MES, lying between the trail and the
foot of the hills, to the right. A few
yards further on was great stain of
blood on the two inches of snow GOV.
ering the grass, A warrior had fallen
here and been carried of by his com.
rades. There was the trail of white
man on foot, heading for the foot.
hills, but moving slowly, and there
were plain traces that the man had
halted every few rods to use his weap.
ons: All along the trail were hoof
tracks Of ponies, and an old hunter
shook his head and said: z5 4
ut is the man who left our camp
last night. Back thar is whar the reds