News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-01-28
SHY's WONDERFUL FIGHT.
Single-handed RepuIsing a Band of Hostile
Apaches, and Saving his Wife.
TFrom tine AIbuoueroue Democrat


Mr.. Shy Is a sturdy, plain-spoken,
intelligent man, and apparently una
ware that he has achieved feat 1nexcell-
ed by any of the knights of romance:
He was Just sitting down to his dinner
with his wife and boy, and had one arm
in a sling because of some recent injury
to the hand. He heard some slight noise
in the yard, and, glancing through the
window just in his rear, he was Mortified
to see painted Apache steathily creep
ing up. Quick as thought he tore the
bandages from his arm, sprang to the
cornet of his room, where his Winchester
was resting, ana seizlng it wheeled
around just in time to receive the fire of
the savage, which he instantly returned.
Mrs. Shy closed and locked the door at
the same moment. And the Indians,
seeing that they had brave man to fight,
placed themselves out of view of the
window and opened a rafting fire upon
the house from all sides. It was a fimsy
frame structure, bullet would go
through the walls as though they were
pasteboard 1t was terrible time for
about an hour inside ofthat little house,
with the pale, terror-stricken wife and
boy crouching in the loft and the des-
perate ranchmau crouching in the room
below, firing only when he could see an
Indian through the window, listening to
the angry zip of the bullets as they tore
through the thin walls and whistled
about his head
After awhile there was lull in the
firing. A few yards distant from Mr.,
Shay's house was the house of Mr.. A. J.
Yeater, his partner in cattle ranch,
and who was at that time being butch
cred in company with his wife, four
miles awav. The lull in the firing was
caused by the fact that the savages had
broken open Mr. Yeater's residence and
were making themselves merry eating
and drinking and breaking up the furni-
ture. After getting through with this
they fired the house, which in a few
minutes was q mass of flames. Mr..
Shy saw that his own house would be
on fire in a few minutes, and for mo-
ment was well nigh paralyzed with des-
pair He glanced at his wife and boy,
and knew from the ominous signs with
out that the Indians were only waiting
for the flames to drive them out. In a
moment his house was on fire, and tell
ing his wife and boy to come down from
the loft, he prepared to open the door
and make rush for safety for some
large rocks near by. Opening the door
he threw his body half way out and |
fired full at a group of savages; at the |
same instant he sprang back within the |
house. The next moment at least a
dozen bullets were buried in the door
facing. The flames were getting too hot,
however, to remain in doors, and Mr.. |
Shy telling his wife and boy to follow
him, sprang outside and made a rush |
for large rock near by. When he got |
within about twelve feet of it, five !
savages jumped up from behind it and |
fired right in his face. By wonderful |
providence not bullet struck him, and |
lie instantly started for another large |
skins fired voliey in his face 4 storm |
of bullets were whistling around him |
from all sides, but he seemed to bear |
charmed life, and not one of them |
touched him. He had the presence of
mind before leaving the house to fill his
pockets with cartridges, and he kept |
popping away at the savages.
Out in the open and knowing that he
could no longer be tortured to death
like a rat in hole, all sense of fear left
him, and he actually assumed the
aggressive and ran the savages in body
some distance away, where they secreted
themselves behind some large rocks. He
also placed himself behind rock, and
in this position wherever he could see
the body of an Indian exposed he fired
at it. Meanwhile his little boy had
been shot down, and Shy had kept the
Indians so busy by his own determined
work that Mrs. Shy had an opportunity
to get up the gulch. The wounded boy
had crawled into a thicket where his
father had directed him to 90, but not
before his devoted mother, fearlessly ex-
posing herself to the firing had taken
off one of her skirts and wrapped it
around the little fellow. There are
details connected with the
fight which I have no sps Ne for, but it
is sufficient that this hersic ranchman
kept back the savages until dusk, when
they retired. Meanwhile Mrs. Shy had
made detour and started on a tEi for
Deming, twenty miles away, hoping to
get assistance for her husband. The
poor lady was found in an exhausted
late at night struggling along
the road about ten miles from Deming.
She was picked up by a relief party of
men who had been notified by cowboys
that Shy was surrounded by large
nartv of hOqtiIaS