The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-12-21
0utwitting the Indians,

-
Indians.
Markhead, some years ago, was
treacherousIy murdered by the Mexicans
near Taos. AT the time of his death he
was not more than twenty-seven years
old, and he could not have been more
than twenty-five when he had the ad-
venture which we are going to relate
The old PIONEERS of the upper Mis-
souri, speak of Markhead as most re-
markable boy, go muscular and of such
powers of endurance, that he would run
fifteen or twenty miles without apparent
fatigue. Indians he held in trifling
regard, and delighted In skirmish with
them; though he bore the scars of not
less than dozen of their bullets and
arrows. But, here is our story
Young Markhead went on trapping
excursion for beaver, up one of the head
creeks of the Yellowstone, locality not
much resorted to by other trappers, on
account of the deadly hostility of the
Blackfeet, who were very jealous of the
white hunters, and killed every hunter
they could surprise.
AS was his custom, he had his horse
with him, for carrying traps and pro
visions, and at this time had made his
camp in clunp of cottonwoods, on the
banks of the creek, near the foot of
range of bluffs which fronted the stream
on the east side.
That morning-it was in the month
of October--he had set off early to look
to his beaver traps, of which he had a
line both up and down the creek. He
had proceeded but short distance, when
he found one of his steel traps missing
from under the bank where he had set
it.
There were bear tracks in the mud
about the bank very large ones, leading
back into the cedar bushes, toward the
bluff.
The trail was fresh, and Markhead
followed 1t cautiously through the
cedar
Coming at length to the foot of the
bluff, he found that the animal had
turned aside, and gone further up the
bottom. But just at that moment he
Thought he heard 1t thrashing about in
the cedar little way ahead.
So he carefully mounted the side of
the bluff, twenty or thirty feet, hoping
to catch sight of the animal over the
tops of the bushes. From this point he
saw large grizzly, sitting on broad
flat rock, not more than forty or fifty
yards distant.
Watching the creature a moment, he
found that it limped painfully, and that
it walked short distance on three legs.
Finally it turned about and limped back
to the stone again and Markhead now
perceived that the grizzly had his
beaver trap hard and fast on one of his
forepaws.
The bear was much annoyed by the
trap. 1t sat down on the stone again,
and from where he lay Markhead could
see him examining 1t attentively, hold
ing it close up to his nose and gravely
turning his paw over and over. Then
it would tip its head to one side and look
from out the corners of its eyes in q
most comical manner, as If at an entire
loss to make out what the novel and
painful appendage could be that had got
such fast hold of his toes.
Anon, the puzzled animal would try
to step on its foot but instantly took it
up from the stone again, with low
whimper, and would then commence
licking the trap, as If wishing to APP
pease its anger and coax it into letting
go its grip. nuina3s vti
This pantomine SO interested the trap
per that he could scarcely take aim with
his rifle. But not wishing to lose his
good steel trap, he was on the point of
shooting the bear, when he was startled
from 1t by the neigh ofa horse.
CHANGING out over the tops of the
bushes, he saw, some four or five hun
dred yards down the opposite bank of
the creek, a party of six Indians, sitting
on their ponies. They had refined up,
and stood among some little sand-hil-
locks, looking across, directly toward
where his camp was,in the cottonwoods.
1t then flashed to his mind that 1t was
his horse which had neighed. That
was why the Indians had pulled up so
suddenly and were staring across the
creek.
Markhead saw, that even could he
himself escape them, the Indians would
inevitably discover his camp and capture
his horse and provisions, together with
all the peltries he had trapped. That