Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-02-15

and vultures would have left nothing to
| ideHtif and the assassins would have
| been conspicuously present at the
agency. 1t is still the unwritten law of
| the frontier that when a man threatens
| YOUR life even if he is drunk at the time,
| YOU are expected to protect yourself by
! shooting him first. / had witnesses that
| these Indians had threatened to wipe me
! out. was expected to shoot any one OF
/ them on sight. I'd have been called a
/ fool or coward to take any other course
1t was the cunning of the red man
/ against the wisdom OF the white. If
| was wrong in my conclusions then my
! life would pay the penalty. l knew they
! would not act upon their threat at once,
/ as they would expect me to be on my
/ guard and perhaps have an escort, and
/ waited until my second trip before
carrying out my plans. The Indians
/ would reach the canon in the afternoon.
/ A lookout could see me five miles away.
/ Half a mile from the spot, however, there
/ was a wooded ridge to hide my imme-
! date approach, and this ridge ran
/ around to the canon.
| I moderated the pace of my horse to
suit my plans, and approached the valley
half an hour ahead of my usual time.
! When three miles away 1 dismounted,
! tied a string tightly about my horses
/ right knee, and then advanced leading
him. The cord caused him to limp as if
he had gone lame, through accident. l
felt that l was under the eyes of one of
| the Indians, and that before l reached
| the timbered ridge he would rejoin his
/ two companions in the canon.
/ 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 | struck
into the timber and circled around to get
as close to the mouth of the canon as
possible. The last 200 feet of the dis
lance | crawled upon my hands and
knees.
My horse had stopped by the way to
catch up mouthful of grass here and
there, and | got my first look into the
mouth of the canon just as he approached
the spring. For moment | was ready
| to acknowledge that l was beaten at my
! line of reasoning, as l could see nothing
Of the redskins, but while the horse was
drinking, the wouIdbe assasslns, who
were crouched in the mi-darkness,
moved forward into view. Yes, the
/ three of them were there, and each had
his rifle, and they had come to kill me.
/ Their actions proved it. They waited
/ three or four minutes to see why l did
not come up, and were then about to
move forward when l opened fire. |
/ dropped Half Moon in his tracks, tumbled
Cloudy Day over as he sprang for shell
ter, and fired upon, but missed, Red
Earth as he lodged behind great boul-
der. Had he jumped backward into the
/ canon he would have had all the advan-
tage, but in his sudden surprise he made
three or four leaps, and took shelter be-
tween me and the spring.
| should not have fired upon him had
he run off, and if he had asked for a
truce should have granted it. But he
was determined to have my life. He had
a good Winchester, and he got such Sc
cure cover that | 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 he would soon lift my scalp,
and he called out, as if to other Indians,
to get in behind me. He did this to
rattle me and make me expose myself to
his aim, but saw though his game. I
do not know how I would have come
out had we been left undisturbe 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 down be-
hind the rock and charged him savagely.
The fellow sprang up and exposed him
self, and was waiting for the oppor-
tunity.
The three Indians had come to the
ambush on horseback. I took their
ponies, rifles, and other truck to the pest
with me and turned them over to the
commandant. He sent word to the head
men of the tribe at the agency of what
had happened, and a chief named
Lame Deer, accompanied by three bucks,
came after the things. 1t was explained
to him that the men bad threatened my
life and were in ambush to shoot me
down, and Lame Deer took a pull at his
whisky bottle, looked me over with a
grunt of approval, and said:
Man Who Rides Fast do ust right.
In ;un must let him alone. Who got
smoke tooack for Lame Deer?"-New
York Sun.
PLANTING Seed nv ArfiIInrV