The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-04-18
FOUND IN A WAGON BOX.

THE bloody villains" muttered
Sandy McGovern to himself, as he
sat on his horse surveying the scene
of desolation and death; ''the bloody,
numbering scoundrels p
In front of little knoll on which
Sandy had reined his horse, was a
confused heap of broken wagons.
Here and there dead horse, already
partially stripped by the cayotes,
and scattered up and down the line
of wagons the bodies of men who
evidently died fighting.
1t did not need the hideous red
patches on top of the skulls, where
the scalps had been torn of, to tell
the old frontiersman that he saw be-
fore him all that was left of an emf
grant train that had been surprised
bv Indians. The arrows in the
mems bodies, the wanton destruc-
ton of the wagons, told the tale but
too plainly.
Sandy lifted his horses rein, and
the trained animal picked his way
down the little descent to where the
fight had been. Here the signs"
were palmer than ever, and as San
DIV rode slowly along the line where
the unayailing battle had been
fought, his mind was filled with re-
gret that he, in company with a
score of stout fighters like himself,
had not been there. Mingled with
this was a feeling of desire for ven
geance.
To his experienced eyes, the
slight signs which would have es-
capped a man new to the plains, told
him that he massacre had taken
place, at the most, but two days be-
fore.
The most horrible and yet the
surest proof, was the fact that the
cayotes had not had time TO finish
their work OF eating the dead.
As he rode slowly along he sud-
denly heard faint sound The ST.
lence of the desert is SO intense that
one becomes accustomed to it, and
any noise, however slight, attracts
the attention instantly. With his
nerves strung by the scene which lay
before him, the frontiersman whose
senses were always alert, found his
attention attracted at once, and
stopping his horse he listened in.
tently.
In about a minute he heard il
again, and noticed that it came from
one of the wagons. Dismounting
and walking to the place he listened
once more. In another minute be
heard it again. 1t was something
like faint cry and it seemed to be
smothered in some way.
Sandy stood close by the wagon,
his hands resting upon the foot
board in front Again he heard it
and this time more plainly than be-
fore. Fairly leaping to the foet-
board, he opened the long box in
front, the top of which forms ia
prarie schooner the drivers seat,
and saw lying in it a little child.
The big frontiersman lifted the
baby-for it was scarcely more-out
of its strange resting place as ten
derby as mother.
He saw that the child was very
weak from its long fast, and, plac.
ing il gently on his blankets, be be
gan to search for something fit for il
to eat. Finding bag of -four, be
made, with little sugar, a kind Of
thin Cruel, heating it over q FIRE he
had hastily kindled. Taking the
baby in his arms, he fed it slowly
and cautiously. With infinite pa.
tience the big bearded man went
through his strange task, until, af
ter some time he had the satisfaction
of seeing the little one refuse to
swallow any more.
Then sitting on the tongue of the
wagon, with the dead lying around
him. Sandy rocked the baby in hi.
arms until it went to sleep.
Placing it in his blankets and
covering it up carefully, he exam
ined the box in which he found it