Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-05

driven from the herd in disgrace and
that they were always considered ugly
and dangerous. He,had known of their
attacking a single hOrsemau, but the
presence Of a large party like ours
would Of course brighten him off,. Two
days after this explanation we were
strung out for three miles along the
river, on the march hnd survey. Some
thing was lost by an, officer. and one of
the troopers was sent back to recover it.
Ten minutes later the article supposed
to be lost was found in one OF the ambu-
lances, and was sent back to notify the
trooper. He had galiopcd back to camp,
a distance OF two miles, and was search
ing around on foot when l arrived in
sight. was about 10 fire a shot to at
tract his attention, when from the
cottonwood grove beyond the camp n
horse came charging out. He was II
"rogue,n and bent on mischief. The
soldiers horse was grazing, and the sol
dier had his eyes on the ground, and I
was so astonished by the sudden charge
of the rogue that l made no move to
stop him or to warn the trooper. In
reached him in time. His back was to
the approaching horse, and the rogue
seized him in his teeth by hold be-
tween the shoulders and dragged him
twenty rods before finging him to one
side. Then he started for the cav
airy horse, which stood with
head up facing him and I got
my revolver out and spurred forward.
l was yet u quarter OF mile away
when the rogue reached his second VIC
tim. He ran at full speed, with ears
back and lips parted to show his teeth,
and the sight was too much for the do
,.1 1,N Ns,,A x~f
turning to fly when the other cOllided
with him. 1t was rs il a locomotive had
struck him. He went down into heap
and rolled over and over four or five
times before he brought up, while the
rogue took n half circle to bear down
upon the trooper again. The man was
on his feet and limpiiig Of; but he would
have been n gOner had l been further
away. rode across the rogue's path
and opened fire on him, ard after shak
ing his head in an ugly way he gal
loped into the grove and disappeared.
The troopers horse did not seem to have
suffered any by the shock, but soon
after noon lay down and died. The man
was actually crying when rode up to
him, although he had taken a hand in
several Indian fights and was reputed
brave fellow. The danger had come
upon him SO suddenly as to overcome
his nerves. The horses teeth had not
broken the skin through his thick
clothing and ile did not have bruise to
show. but such was the sudden shock
that he was on the sick list for two
weeks.
We were within two days ride OF the
Bonita, and had been in camp two or
three days when one of the hunters
rode in Just before dark with some
4 ho< ,>f ,,&
least 800 wild horses were grazing
about three miles to the east of us.
This was on the opposite side of the
Pecos, which just here spread out over
n rocky ledge, and was 200 feet wide
and about q foot deep. Below our
camp was an old grove with many dead
trees in it. IL WAS there we got our
wood. In all other directions the
ground was open. We had about twelve
tents in camp, aside from the wagons
and ambulances. The best feeding
ground was on the west of the camp,
and all the animals were staked out
there Outside OF the bunch OF ami
mails was guard Of soldiers, and two
more we're between the animals and the
wagons. There was no danger appre-
hended from the Indians, and the guard
was set to keep prOwling wolves out Of
camp and to assist any horse which
might get tangled in his lariat.. 1t had
been n hot day, with thunder heads"
showing in the sky, but when the sun
went down the sky was perfectly clear
and all signs pointed to quiet night.
1t was midnight, when, the sharpest
flash of lightning ever saw, followed
by such crash of thunderas made the
earth groan, tumbled every sleeper in
camp out of his blankets. | say the
no OF h, I fnt Il
| awake in time to see most OF it. 1t was
so fierce that it seemed to burn our eye
lids. | was hardly on my feet before
there came another flash, followed by
| another roar. i knew it was going to
rain great guns, and l jumped into
| trousers and boots and grabbed up the
rest Of my clothes and made for a wagon
only few feet away. The two wagons
were close to each other, but the for
ward ends pulled away so that the ve-
hicles. formed V. While the space
between the off hind wheel OF one and
the nigh hind wheel of the other was
not over foot, the space between the
| tongues WAS six or eight. The sky was
black as l rushed out of the tent, and all
| the camp fires had burned low. flung
my clothes into one OF tho wagons, aud
then hurried back and got my weapons
some other articles, and during this
time the heavens seemed aaame and the
earth fairly rocked.
Men were shouting, horses neighing,
and the din was awful, but as l reached
the wagon the second time there came a
sound to drown all others. 1t was a
steady roar like the rush of great waves,
and it grew louder all the time. could
not understand it for two or three min
utes. The noise came from the west,
and I stood upon the wagon so that /
could overlook the tents. A fash OF
lightning was followed by moment OF
pitch darkness, and then came long,
tremulous flash, lasting three or four
seconds. By its light caught sight OF
the herd OF wild horses bearing down
upon us in a mad mob, and just as the
lightning ceased they entered the
stream.
The splash OF the waters had the
sound Of breakers, and though shouted
warning at the top Of my voice no one
| could have heard me twenty feet away.
Next morning that terror-stricken herd
was in camp, while the clouds opened
and the rain came down in torrents.
scrambled back into the wagon, and
what saw during the next ten minutes
can never be forgotten. The frightened