Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1888-08-08


had more with them. In fact, whis-
ky was to form good part of the Gel
ebration, and they had lot with 'em.
1t was about midnight when l woke
up hearing big yell, and before l
could turn around | was tied so tight
| couldn't move. The Chicago man
was terribly frightened, but / don't
know that he was any more scared
than we were, for we knew better'n
he did just what was waiting for us.
The cowboys were sobered up, now
that there were tied with their own
lassoes so that they couldn't bulge.
They tied us onto our burros, and at
daylight they moved on for the noun
tains, keeping down in the hollows as
well as they could. This day was the
Oath, and we had expected to get into
camp that evening. When one of the
cowboys got near me he whispered:
"'Our only chance is to let them
know some way that we have a lot of
whisky with us, and then they'll get
drunk and we'll have chance to get
away
Don't you bet on that says
some of them will keep sober enough
to keep us all right, tied as we are
"'Tied ? said the cowboy, Il can
slip out of this tic the moment / want
to. No Indian can tie me up. fused
to travel with spiritualist company
and am up to the tieing game
"Well, we camped that night four
or five miles north of the ranch, but
in hollow where we were out of
sight They didn't light a fire and
we knew there was little chance of the
boys finding us, although we expect
ed they would all be on the lookout.
The cowboy motioned to his guard
that he wanted to get at bag that
was on one of the burros and the In
dian opened it for him. 1t was full
of jugs packed in prairie grass. There
was great excitement in camp when
the Indians found the whisky. But
it was just as | said four of 'em stay
ed as sober as judges and kept the
rest quiet. Still they could not resist
the temptation to take swig or two
and all were pretty sleepy. About
10 o'clock, and it was mighty dark,
too, the cowboy rolled over once or
twice and got near me.
Where's the tenderfoot,' he asked.
"'Right here | said,
"'See here, Chicago, what package
is them fire crackers in |?
"'The two barrels are full of EN-
he whispered.
"'Can we get the head off one of
'em without making a noise p
"'What do you want to do, set 'em
off?'
"'You bet. I'm going to make
those Indians think regiment has
jumped in on 'em with repeating rifles.
"Well, you can't get the head off
the barrel very easy, but if you can
get along side of one of them, you can
cut between the slaves with knife
and break package inside and get
the end of the fuse out, then touch it
off with match. Then you want to
get away from that barrel mighty
quick
"Do you think the boys will hear
it in camp when it goes off, supposing
the Indians don't scare?'
"'Hear it i? Lord, they'll hear it
in Chicago still night like this. In
the inside of that barrel there's some
cannon bombs that will fill the sky
and a lot of rockets besides. Some of
them will go up mile
"The cowboy rolled away gradual
ly and it seemed two hours before
there were any indications. He had |
cut our ropes before he left so that if
the barrel bounded near us we could |
get out of the way. All at once | saw
a faint glow as if match had been
struck and one of the Indians jumped
to his feet, but without making any
outcry. The next instant it was simp-
ly Hades broke loose. There was one
eternal rip, and then as if ten thous-
and men were firing off revolvers all
at once. That barrel danced all over
the camp like a whirlwind of fire and
then bomb went off and burst it in
a thousand fragments. 1t looked as
if the earth had gone to pieces. All
the camp was seething mass of fiery
snakes. The rockets shot into the air
and skinned along the ground and
seemed bursting away up and all
round the horizon, bombs went like
cannon and showers of fire was falling
like rain. Every animal in the place
stampeded and scattered in all direc-
lions. The Indians ? | don't know
what became of them. l never saw
one OF them again. We heard some
awful yells above the racket, but they
we're ten miles away before the din
subsided. Shortly after the show was
over we heard the yells of the cowboys