The Opelousas courier., 1889-03-09

ridge to hide my immediate approach,
and this ridge run around the canyon.
I moderated the pace of my horseto
suit my plans, and approached the val
ley half an hour ahead of my usual
time. When three miles away | dis
mounted, tied q string tightly about
my horses right knee, and then ad-
vanced, leading him. The cord caused
him to limp as if he had gone lame,
through accident. I felt that | was
under the eyes of n of the Indians,
and that before I reached the timbered
ridge he would rejoin his two COM
panions in the canyon. | slouched
| along as carelessly as possible until |
reached the ridge. Then | sent my
horse forward alone, knowing that he
would halt at the spring and wait for
me. AS soon as he was gone l struck
into the timber and circled around to
get as close to the mouth of the can
yon as POSI- The last two hun
dred feet of the distance | crawled
upon my hands and knees.
My horse had stopped by the way
to catch mp q mouthful of grass here
and there, and l got my first look into
the mouth of the canyon just as 9
approached the spring. For a moment
I was forced to acknowledge that was
beaten at my line of reasoning, as L
could see nothing of the redskins, but
while the horse was drinking, the
would-be assassins, who were crouched
in the semi-darkness, moved forward
into view. Yes, the three of them
were there, and each had his rife,
and they had come to kill me-.
Their actions proved it. They waited
three or four minutes to see why
I did not come up, and were then about
to move forward when l opened fire.
I dropped Half Moon in his tracks,
tumbled Cloudy Day over as he sprang
for shelter, and fired upon, but missed,
Red Earth as he lodged behind a great
bowlder. Had he jumped backward
into the canyon he would have had all
the advantage, but in his sudden sur
prise he made three or four leaps, and
took shelter between me any the
spring.
/ should not have fired upon him had
he run off, and il he had asked for a
truce I should have granted it. But
he was determined to have my life. He
had a good Winchester, and got such
secure cover that I was obliged to lie
low and let him do all the shooting.
He yelled out to me that he had me
dead to rights and would soon lift my
scalp, and he called out, as if to other
Indians, to get in behind me. He die
this to rattle me and expose myself te
his aim, but / saw through his game.
I do not know how I would have come
out had we been left undisturbed, but
my horse presently came to my aid.
The firing had excited him, and he had
been trained to look upon an Indian as
an enemy. He saw the red skin dowr
behind the rock and charged him saw
agely. The fellow sprang up and ex'
posed himself, and / was waiting fol
the opportunity.
The three Indians had come to the
ambush on horseback. / took theil
ponies, rifles, and other truck to the
post with me and turned them over tt
the commandant. He sent word to the
head men of the tribe at the agency O
what had happened, and a chief named
Lame Deer, accompanied by three
bucks, came after the things. 1t wa
explained to him that the men hat
threatened my life and were in ambush
to shoot me dawn, and Lar q Deer tool
a pull at his whisky bottles looked mi
over with a grunt of approf "a, ant
said:
Observation-Disclosures do just right
Injun must let Tim alone. Who go
smoke toback' for Lame Deer?"-N. Y
Sun.