The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-07-11
Tor 4 hard pressed 4 knew my only
safety would be in returning 70 The

couple Of arrows after me
that went whistling by nv head in q
manner anything but comfortable. I
kept on running, however, till suddenly
l felt q singing blow on my right leg,
and looking down, I saw the feathered
shaft OF an arrow projecting out behind.
l could feel the warm blood trickling
down into my boot. The pain, to.
gether with the savage yells of the two
Indians, who saw that I was wounded,
angered me; and then, too, there was a
chance that they might put an arrow in
my back, which would stop my running
forever. Accordingly I determined to
check those fellows up q little, and,
whipping out a heavy Colts revolver
which I carried, I stopped short and
whirled about, facing them. They
stopped, too, but I downed one of them
before he could, think of using his
weapon; the other, however, managed
my second shot, which carried
the cap from my head and
rasped roughly over the top of my
head, but it was the last arrow he ever
shot. / turned and ran as swiftly as I
could, for the pause, while of only a few
seconds duration, had permitted the
other pursuers to gain a good deal on
me.
Before I had gone far, I found to my
CONSERVATION that my wounded leg was
failing me, and that I could not hold
up to my ordinary rate of speed.
I saw that my pursuers were slowly
but surely gaining and that I would be
compelled to get to a place of safety
shortly or my time on this earth was
short. I was running close to the river
at the time and was nearly opposite the
place where my friend lived, with
whom I had been stopping. I knew
that the recent warm weather might
have weakened the ice so as to render
it very unsafe, but I reasoned that it
was my only chance to trust to the
river; so, thrusting my revolver,
which I had been carrying in
my hand, into its holster, and
picking up a pole which was
about ten feet long and as thick as my
arm, I trotted boldly and as lightly as
I could out on the ice.
1.-THE pole 1 carried so in case I broke
through, it might catch across the open
ing and sustain my weight till I could
get back on the ice, for I did not be-
lieve the Indians would come close to
me if 1 should break through, though
they might stand back and try to pick
me off with their arrows.
could hear the ice crack under my
weight, and in glancing over my shout
der I saw that the Indians had paused
at the edge of the ice; so [ slackened
my trot to walk. They were evidently
holding a parley as to whether or no
they should follow, and, one of their
number, who carried a rife. tried his
hand at a shot but missed me.
They only paused a moment, then
four of them ran out boldly on the
ice and came after me in q
long, swinging trot; then three more
followed them some ten yards behind,
and ter wards behind them came the
other ee.
TIVE, y feet more and I would have
been On dry ground one more, when
the ice suddenly gave way under my
right foot as I put it forward, and down
I went. Ny pole caught across the
opening and held me up, and there I
lay, n leg and arm on the ice, my
wounded leg down in the water, and my
other arm over the pole, on which my
body partly rested. The arrow had
caught a. I fell and broken short off to
the flesh.
The Indians yelled joyfully as they
saw my new trouble and advanced more
slowly.
7 threw my weight on the pole and
tried to lift myself o N the sound ice,
but to my borrow I felt the ice under
one end Of my pole give away and felt
myself going down, down.
T wasn't much of q praying
man those days, but I did man
age to utter a few words for
mercy as I felt myself sinking. The
next instant the end of my pole touched
bottom, and then my feet, and I stood
erect with the water up to my arm pits.
The instant I felt my feet touch bot
tom I turned about to look for the In
dians, and as my eyes rested on them
they gave o yell of mortal terror and
then went plunging down from view.
Their combined weight had been too
much for the ice, and it had given
away under them, and thereby saved
my life.
The others, witnessing the terrible
fate of their companions turned and
made their way to the Nebraska shore
as fast as they dared to go.
I knew that I must be on one of the
many bars of the river and that it nc
doubt extended to the shore. So I laid
the pole up on the ice beside me, and,
unslinging my rifle from my back, I
commenced to break the ice ahead OF
me and to advance slowly
toward the shore, feeling
every inch of the way
as I went. In a few moments I stood
upon dry ground and gazed back with
q shudder on the hole where the In
dams had gone down, and over which
had crossed only a few moments before
and which might have been my grave
as we'll as theirs had kind Providence
not willed it otherwise.
lost no time in making my way tc
my friends house. a neighbor who
had some knowledge of surgery, was
summoned, who speedily removed the
arrowhead from my leg. but the flow
ers were blooming in the spring before
my wound wal fully healed and l was
myself AGAIN.