The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-11-21
BILL NLRSTOA, THE TRAPPER.
A Story Of Border Life.

In the autumn of 1916 l concluded to
so on hunting trip TO the head waters
of SAscstchewan-the North Branch
and speedily found myself travelling in
= northwest direction, well supplied with
the simple necesssries for q six months
absence in that wild region. | had pro.
yided myself with 8 INDUSTRIOUS Ken.
lucky rifle, which in itself was heavy
load, but which valued highly on &C
count of its accuracy and long range.
My companion in this expedition was
an old trapper, with whom l had been
intimate 81 trading rost. He had
taken fancy 70 me 81 4 sh' ,Oting match
wherein had won the envisble reputa-
ton of 1.-THE crack shot" This was no
mean distinction in place where eight
out of ten bullets were always put into
bulls eve" Of about o ae and q hs;f
inches in diameter, at n distance Of
eighty yards. This exec 1ence As COOL
riheman stood tine in g cd stead, as the
sequel will show.
Ny companion was 3. tall. rsv-boned
heayy-shouldered m In, wao.e natIorsI:
lty would have pup lied physics, omist.
as nothing OF his ace could b.: seen but
a very large no nan pose, a pair of pierc.
lnggrey eyes, and an unlimited quantity
OF grZElea 'eard. de had said little Of
himself, <cept chat he hsd "trspped
anu mug ed on and on for he didn't know
no" zig in them parts" and "kalker.
Is.e ss how some.uu 'ud find his old
e .izzled karkis out there some bright
Gay, for he couldn't abide the settle.
nents nohow." As for myself, wa. A
young man of ordinary variety, about
twenty rive years of age, and a Canadian
by birth. | had spent some five years in
the hudson's Bay territory, and was on
my way southwark and homewards.
when | formed the idea OF joining Bill
MarstOn in his win ter's hunt.
MsrstCn's reputation as a keen and
wary hunter stood high among the rough
band Of which he had long been a Quasi
member, and 1t was admitted that he
could draw q quicker and a truer
bead than any man Whereabouts. He
never hunted in company with others of
his class, but came and went-no one
knew whence or whittier; and the sur.
prise was great when | was seen stepping
into his old "dugout" and taking a
hand IN the management Of that rather
Slcklish craft. / eyea heard another
grlzzied, buck skirned old tfapper saw
that he had PROPOSED accompanying nv
companion or.t be had been repulsed in
pretty snort terms; " and now" said the
indignant one, splitting out huge food of
Tobacco Juice, "he's tuck that young 'un
lns'-ssd 20 keep him in perpetooaI hot
later" Marston must have heard this,
as l did, but he took no notice of it
whatever; and ], little taken down,
Sas glad when he gave the "dugout"
strong push of shore, and sprang in with
astonishing agility for man of his age
which l afterwards learned was over
6fty.
We were about three weeks in reach.
ing Msrston's camp-far, far from any
human habitation, except the occasional
wlgwam OF some Indian hunter engaged
like ourselves. Part of the way we
sailed along in our dugout between the
beautifully tinted and ever varying tree
clad banks of the river, pushing along
by day as rapidly as possible against the
strong current, aud, carefully drawing
up our canoe under some overhanging
tree, passing the night enveloped in our
warm blankets.
at the end Of two weeks we arrived
At for of the river, where we left cur
canoe-concesling il in the hollow of an
old button.woO log, which Marston had
used for this purpose for N any years.
DE told me there was q considerable fall
short distance above the forks, over
which we could not get the canoe; so we
shouldered our packs and made the rest
of our journey On foot.
On tue fourth day of our march, Mars
tons keen eye detected "Indian signs"
here and there along our route, and
while he seemed TO be annoyed at being
meddled with, and perhaps his traps
stolen" II did not greatly affect me, as /
knew that all the tribes of British
indians were on friendly terms with the
company and the hunters.
Atlength we reached the "lodge," as
MarstOn invariably called his hut, wi n
out seeing anything more of the Indians,
and my hosts temper was visibly i'm.
proved when he found everything was
exactly as he left il two months before.
He at once commenced initiating me in.
10 the art and mystery of making I'D
and setting traps for mink, beaver and
otter, with which the river and adjacent
meadows seemed to be alive, and in q
short time | could do this as we'll az my
teacher, though perhaps less expediti.
ously.
One morning, after we had been thus
occupied about three weeks, and had
taken and cured large number of fine
skins, MarstGa got up and went out very
early, laying he would visit some distant
otter traps which had been set a long
time. remained in camp several hours,
but finally, after psyinga visit to all the
other traps in our Northumberland
ting those thst had been sprung-I took
my rife and went in search of game to
supply our larder. This usually fell to
my lot, and il WAS by no means labori.
GUS occupation, as deer were plenty and
tame, while partridge and grouse few up
at almost step.
had been about an hour, had Ragged
several fine birds, and wis intently look.
ing up into a giant old pine for one Of a
covey had just flushed, when the
distant report OF a rife broke the still
ness Of the mid.forest air. 1t seemed TO
me As IL there were two reports almost
simultaneous; but just as came 70 the
conclusion that IL must have been merely
the echo of Msrston's gun, the thought
suddenly struck me that he had that
morning left his rifle at the lodge, as he
expected 10 BE- laden with peltries on his
return, sDd the rife would make his
journey rather iTksOme. No sooner had
this fa,hed through my mind than felt
sure that some Of the wandering Indians,
who perhaps knew of Msrston's solitary
habits, had attempted TO murder him
for his pel.ries and traps.
Leaving the partridge undiscovered, ]
hastily turned in the direction Of the
camp. Among the first things that
caught my eye on reaching 1t was 9
small min kskin hanging from the beckett,
where nlg gun usually hung, and or
looking a. tue inside of this read the
following words, rudely carved Thereon
with the puint OF bullet:
"Injlns air round I've bsen hit
Keep dark. FolIer found by Ole
Rluh."