The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-20
THREE STORIES FROM SANTA re.
A Guilty Pair Killed-Married a Redskin
"A Man with a Secret.
Santa Fo Letter in New York Sun.

erners sat together smoking and chatting.
Presently the conductor came along, bit the end
off a cigar, lighted it, and joined them. One of
the men was a miner and the other a cattle
raiser. They were full Of a~necdote, and after
both had told several stories, the conductor took
his turn. The miner first got his feet up on the
back of the seat ahead of him, and remarked,
slowly; 'seven years ago this winter was a
mighty dull season is our camp. The weather
was colder'n usual, there wasn't any water, we
were out of grub, and the Indians were very
troublesome. We had about fifteen or sixteen
in the camp, l believe, and we had to 90 pretty
easy on our eatables. so as to make them last. 1
had beer keeping several men there, thinking
every day that we'd strike something rich, and
when they got more and more dissatisfied I prom
ised them bigger and bigger shares. I suppose l
promised more'n a hundred fortunes that win
ter, but something told me that if I hung on 1
would make 1t. l could see that the men were
getting about ready to jump me. and that they
had begun to look upon me as something of a
~lunatic. They would hold long conferences to-
gether, speaking in low tones, and when I came
around they would pretend to be talking about
the weather, or something of that kind. had
used them all pretty well, and they hated to
leave me-, but they were getting uneasy.
Zone day toward shutdown, when L was about
ready to give up myself, ayoung Mexican couple,
who were bound for Sonora, struggled into our
~diggings a good deal the worse for wear, They
had been up in Colorado, and had started for
home with a team and driver, but the Indians
had got on their trail, killed the driver, and
stolen the horses and wagon. The travellers
managed to get away while the driver was hold
ing the savages at bay, and lying in hiding until
n%ightfall, they had worked their way on foot into
our camp. The young woman was one of the
p~rettiest girls ! ever saw. She was about sick
abed when she arrived, but the next day she
was around as clipper as anybody, and the boys
were all making themselves very agreeable.
Says | to myself: This is a special dispensation
of Providence; if 1 can keep the girl here for a
while, there will be no trouble about the boys;
they'll stay too never heard a word of grum-
bling from them that day or the next. They
Just walked around on eggs all the time, and
butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.
II was a little afraid the greaser would get
jealous and knife somebody; but then l thought
it he does the rest of the boys will finish him,
and then we will have the girl anyway. The
Mexican seemed anxious to get away, but l
made one excuse and another for not helping
him right away, and one morning he was miss
ing. He had sloped during the night. leaving the
girl to us. Well, she was pretty well cast down
y dWAliti Ulb l. explained TO HeF tnaG prODdDlV
her husband had gone to get horses and an
escort, and that he had taken this course be-
cause he knew she would have objected to his
going alone. This faint hope seemed to give her
some comfort; and the rest of the boys fell in
with me, and it became the settled conviction
about the camp that he would be back presently.
She 1Vened up some, and the boys made them
selves very agreeable. When two weeks had
gone by and nothing had been heard of her
husband, she insisted on being taken home, and
offered US any amount of money, which she said
her father would pay, if we would escort her
over the border. l began to fear that her
husband was never coming back, and, to tell
the truth l had a still stronger suspicion of
something else; so l agreed to start with her
the next morning at sunrise, and told the boys
to be in readiness. That afternoon we heard
unearthly screams up one of the gulches Always,
and several of the boys, running up with
blanched faces to see what the matter was.
found the little woman beside a new-made and
very shallow grave, into which she had dug far
enough to discover the body of her husband. As
the boys stood there aghast she sprang to her
feet quickly. and, drawing a revolver, sr0t two
of them dead before any Of US could find. voice.
l threw up my hands and begged of her to de-
sist, and when some of the boys grabbed their
guns | pulled mine and made them put them up.
Then | got her back to the cabin, disarmed her,
set one trusty fellow to watch her, and called
the others up into tho gulch. We uncovered
the dead man and found two bullet holes in his
back.
"'Who put them thercq said I sternly to the
men.
1.-the two men whom she shot, they an
swered.
Impossible says l. How could she know.
She didn't know. She just hit them right
by chance said one Of the party. We knew
when they did it, but We didn't want to say any
thing about it. They thought toe rob him and
run off with her, but she seemed TO be afraid Of
them more than of the others
"Well, | got kind Of tired Of that place after
that A-4 rnIA- 7 1T Isa-- 49, l. H. -
home l packed up my own things also, and as
We set out | says to the boys: Good bye, old
men. You can work the claim or not, just as
you please. 1t amt likely that I'll ever be back
here again And never did go back. They
skunk away after a while, too, and I've heard
that nobody has ever worked there since. /
took the girl home to her father and left her
there. She's there now. Yes, L see her &C.
easionally. In fact, l don't mind telling you
she's my wife, and has been for two or three
years"
The stock raiser pulled a quart bottle. with an
outline of Pixies Peak blown in one side of it,
from his o%vereoat pocket, took a drink, passed il
on, and when it came back to him took another
drink and said; I'm pretty much of a now
conner in this country. Most of my life as a cat
tie man has been passed in western Kansas and
Nebraska, where I know every inch of the land
from Medicine Lodge to Fort Robinson. Your
story reminds me of something that happened in
northwestern Nebraska about four years ago.
Old man Norris owned o big ranch out there,
and when he got his house built he made his
two daughters go out and live in it. They were
delicate girls, and it was n terrible place to put
them. Indians were roaming around freely, and
the white men whom they saw were a good deal
more savage than the Indians. The girls had
been fairly educated, and they had tastes which
made their life on the ranch extremely irksome.
One of them was a romantic girl, who saw a
possible lover oy knight in every man who came
along, white or red, but the other refused to be
interested in anything, and before very long
sickened and died. 1t SO happened that a
young Indian from Robinson, named Lone Grow,
was at the house on the day of the funeral, and,
seeing the young girl in tears, he spoke to her
pleasantly and sympathetically. He was a
and PrG'S When She gazed mon his staiWart frame
and handsome features she took as much inter
est in him as he had in her. He managed to get
around that way frequently after that, until it
haoama the talk nfnnnr the cnwhnVs that the