The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-02-16

bone in his body, and a great share of
his face had been ground Off His
rifle could not find. while both knife
and tomahawk were broken. While
searching his cold and battered body
found buckskin bag containing about
three hundred dollars worth of small
nuggets of gold. and this gave me
hint to overhaul the other. l also got
from him a bag containing about two
hundred dollars worth of dust and
nuggets, and in the search found at
tached to his belt white mans scalp,
which had not been off the victims
head over two days. They must have
been in ambush part way up the
mountain, intent upon taking the her
mit's scalp, and but for the avalanche
they might have had mine as we'll
The day had gone by the time 1 had
overhauled the second Indians body.
Being at work the hours had passed
swiftly away, and had not given my
self any time to brood over the horrors
of the situation. After supper sat in
front of the fire for awhile, then wrote
up my daily journal. and when went
to bed l left the door wide open. 1t
seemed to me that the air was getting
foul down there, and by opening the
door the room was greatly purified. II
was midnight, as l afterward came &c
know, and the fire was all out, when
some noise in the room startled me.
sat up in bed and was soon convinced
that some one or some living thing be-
side myself was present could hear
labored breathing. together with
sounds as of some one pulling himself
along the floor, and l climbed over the
foot of the bed and lighted the candle.
What was my amazement to find third
savage in the cabin! He had quite
reached the side of the bed. and had got
out that way, as usual, he would have
at least wounded me, for he had his
naked knife in his hand and was bent
on murder. The hatchet was at hand,
but l did not need weapon. The
warrior had been dreadfully hurt, and,
rs investigation had proved, had been
buried just beyond the other two.
When left the bodies he had dug his
way to my tunnel, and then pulled
himself along to the door, intending to
have my life rs 1 slept. When baflied
in this, he glared at me with al the
hate a human heart can betray. He
was crushed ut the hips, and none but
Il savage could have accomplished
what he did. could have killed him
at a single blow, but the horrible work
was spared me. Death was already
beside him, and as stood and looked
down upon him, candle in hand, he
uttered a faint war-whoop, and fell
over, dead. When l was sure that life
had departed l dragged him into the
tunnel and shut and barred the door.
and SO upset had my nerves become
by the adventure that l did not sleep
again that night
In the morning l cxcavated hole
near where the two bodies lay, and
pushed the three into it, and packed the
snow over them. Then l began running
a tunnel for the ledge in front of the
cabin, and had gone about twenty feet
when the second night came. Early
in the third day had to abandon this
tunnel on account of q cave-in which
nearly smothered me. Then 1 turned
to the right to come out down the val
ley, and l was still at this work when
the first week closed. Early in the
second week Twas stopped by a bank
of rocks and earth. and when the
second week closed l was drifting 4
tunnel to the left. 1t was slower work
than you would think for. The snow
was packed very solid. and all l dug
out had to be thrown behind me, and
eventually carried off and scattered in
some hole under the tree tops. Every
few feet met with big rock or the
trunk of tree, and it was hard work
to get around such distractions.
Again cave-in would take place to
hinder further progress for day or
two, and l finally came to the con-
clusion that could never get out by
tunneling.
started in on the third week more
to be at work than from any hope of
escape. All that week | tunneled to
the right again, and at three o'clock
on Saturday afternoon broke into my
own tunnel. In other words, / had
done as man does when lost in the
woods. | made Il half circle and came
back on myself, while all the time l
felt sure l was going straight ahead.
The fourth week was spent mostly in
the house. 1 Twas now becoming much
weaker, and was ready to give up. 1t
was on the thirty-tifth night that the
cabin began grOaning and racking
again and l knew that The snow was
settling down around it. The noises
continued all night, giving me many a
fright, and at seven o'clock next morn
ing, when opened the door, 1 found
my tunnel filled up. l was lamenting
this when noticed that the fire was
drawing better than usual. Going
over to the fireplace took a look up
the chimney and saw the dark sky of
heaven. At the same moment three
or four drops of rain fell upon my face,
and then | understood that a great
thaw had set in and was reducing the
snow around me. 1t was three davs
more however, before / cot DAYLIGHT