The Red Cloud chief., 1883-11-09
THE SKELETONS STORY.
Ride closer.

Ride closer!
Ii j. two miles ahead To the foothills
two miles of parchcd turf and rocky
.~pace. To the right-tbe lcft-behind,
Is the rolling prairie. This broad val
Is ~ n wall had been built across il.
What is il on the grass? Askull here
"A rib thcre-bones scattered about as
the wild beasts left them after the hor-
rible feast. The clean-picked skull
grins and stares-cvery bone and scat.
tered lock Of hair has its story Of n
tragedy. And what besides these rel
icse More bones moi scattered. but
lying in hcaps-a vcrtebra with ribs a.
tached-a ficshIess skull bleaching I'M
der the summer SUM-. Wolves, Yes.
Count the heaps Of bones and you will
find nearly a score. Open boats are
picked up ut sea with neither life nor
sign TO bctray their secret. Skeletons
are found upon the prairie, but they tell
a plain story TO those who halt beside
them. Let us listen:
Away off to the right you can see
~trec-tops. Away of 10 the left you can
See the same sight. The skeleton is in
line between the two points. He left
one grove to ride To the other. To ride!
Certainly; a mile away is the skeleton
of a horse or mule. The beast fell and
was left there. IL he left the grove ut
moo he would have been within n mile
of this spot at dusk. IL is therefore
plain that he did not leave until mid
afternoon, or possibly ut dusk. Signs
Of Indians may have driven him from
his trapping-ground. or mayhap he had
exhausted the game and was Shifting to
new fields.
IL is months since that ride, and the
trail has been obliterated. Were it
otherwise, and you took il up from the
spot where the skeleton horse now lies,
you would find the last three or four
miles made ut a tremendous pace.
'.Step! step! stepi'
What is IL? Darkness has gathered
over mountain and prairie as the hunt
or joys along over the broken ground.
Overhead the countless stars look down
upon ~him-around him is the pail of
night. There was the patter Of foot
steps on the dry grass. He halts and
peers around him, but the darkness is
too deep for him to discover any cause
for alarm.
''Patter! pattcr! patter,'
There il il again. Ii is not fifty wards
from where he Last halted. The steps
are too light for those Of an Indian. A
grizzly would rush upon his victim with
a roar of defiance and anger. A
panther would hurl himself through
thirty feet of space with n scream to
unnerve the hardest hunter.
Wolves" whispers the hunter, as a
howl suddenly breaks upon his ear.
Wolves! The gaunt. grizzly wolves
of the foot-hills-thin. and poor, and
hungry, and savage-thc legs tireless-
the mouth full of teeth that can crack
the shoulder-bone of n buffalo. He can
see their dark forms fitting from point
TO point the patter of their feet on the
parched grass proves that he is sur
rounded.
Now the race begins. There is no
shelter until the grove is reached. In
stinct guides the horse, and terror lashes
him with such a whip Is human hand
Y welded. Over space. through
the gloom, almost as swift as an arrow
sen by a strong hand. but a dark line
follows. A line of wolves spreads out
TO the right and left, and gallops after
tongues out-eyes fiashing-great flakes
of foam flying back to blotch stone and
grass and leave a trail to be followed by
the. cowardly coyotes.
Men ride thus only when life is the
stake. A horse puts forth such speed
only when terror follows close behind
and causes every nerve to tighten like n
wire drawn until the scratch of a finger
makes it chord with a wall of despair.
a pigeon could not skim the valley with
such swiftness, and yet the wings Of fate
are abroad, and long, and tirelcss. The
line is there-aye! it is gaining! Inch
by inch it creeps up, and the red eyes
take on q more savage CLEAN as the
hunter cries out to his horse and opens
fire from his revolvers. A wolf falls on
the right-a second on the left. Does
the wind cease blowing because il meets
a forest? The fell of one man in a mad
mob simply increases the determination
Of the rest.
With a cry so full of the despair that
wells up from the heart of the strong
man when he gives up his struggle for
life that The hunter almost believes a
companion rides beside him, the horse
Observation-Disclosures forward
uiiS W ~ Csftu. IL WAS u NlOTlOuS
struggle. but he has lost.
The wings of the dark line oblique to
the center-there is a confused heap of
snarfing. fighting. maddened beasts.
and the line rushes forward again.
Saddle. bride and blanket are in shreds
the horse a skeleton. And now the
chase is after the hunter. He has half
a mile the start, and as he runs the |
veins stand out, the muscles tighten,
and he wonders at his own speed. Be
hind him are the gaunt bodies and the
tireless legs. Closer. closer, and now
he is going to face fate as a brave man
should. He has halted. In an instant
a circle is formed about him-a circle
OF red eyes, foaming mouths and
yellow fangs which N to meet in his
flesh.
There is an interval-a breathing
spell. He looks up at the stars-out
upon the night. 1t is his last hour. but
tnere is no quaking-no crying out To
the night to send him aid. As the
wolves rest a flash blinds their eyes-a
second-a third-aud q fourth. anc they |
give way before the man they had look
Cd upon as their certain prey. But it is |
only Tor 3 moment. He sees them |
gathering for the rush, and firing his re-
manning bullets among them he seizes |
his long rife by the barrel aud braces to
meet the shock. Even 3 savage would
have admired the heroic fight he made |
fortlife. He sounds the war cry and whiris
his weapon around him. and wolf AFTER
wolf falls disabled. He feels a strange
Iexultation over the desperate combat, |
and as the mack give way before his |
mighty blows . CLEAN Of hope springs
mp in his heart
1t Is only for . moment; then the cir
Gle narrsws. Each disabled beast is |
replaced by three which hunger for
blood. There is r,sh-s swirl-and
the cry of despair is drowned in tho
chorus Of snaris IS the pack fight over