The morning call., 1891-07-05
INDIAN STRATEGY.
A Savage Foe BlrieS Himself Alive to XIII
Ills Enemy,

A man was riding over the wild stretch
of prairie land-riding galloping mustang
whose fiery nostrils were distended with
fear or excitement, aid which swerved
neither to the right nor left as ii ran, says
the Detroit Free Press. The rider was young
and active, and alert for some danger that
seemed TO menace him; and as he rode his
rifle swung at his saGdle-bow, and the
handle of a dirk-knife sh0ne at his Delt. He
was riding for life-not for himself, but for
his comrades, who were engaged in deadly
teud with hostile Indians, with the chance
of being cruelty murdered by excess of num-
bers
The man riding at full speed was the
ayenger of his people. He had vowed to
kill every red man he met on this enforced
journey, and If outnumeered 10 sell his own
life dearly.
Suddenly his horse swerved from its long,
swinging lope, and had he not been a good
horseman he would have bitten the dust.
As it was, he swayed in his saddle, and as
the instructive fear of the brute cemmuni-
Gated itself to the rider, he reached for his
pistols and in a moment was ready for the
foe.
But no foe was in sight. His eyes swept
the horizon and saw nothing that looked like
human life. A small grove of scrub oaks
was on his right, but he could see the horizon
through the scattered trunks. A jack-rabbit
or a prairie dog could not have escaped his
yigilant eye.
But it was at something nearer than the
trees that his wild Mexican mare was look
ing with blood-shot eyes, while she stopped
stock still at the risk of throwing her rider
over her head, and trembling as ii she
scented danger in the air
The man who bestrode her was no coward
and he had viii as untamed as her own.
lie struck her over the head with the butt
end of his riding whip aud she reared with
him and nearly lost her balance, but ad-
vaDced not one inch beyond the point where
she had swerved and thea refused to stir.
Her rider raised his whip again, but be-
fore he could strike 4 buxZard sailed slowly
over his head, darkening the sun and cast
ing its baleful shadow oE the ground.
Then he saw tia graTe-a long shallow
grave at his horses feet, the sage brush
spread lightly over it. and packed with
sticks and earth, and flattened down to re-
sembe nothing but the prairie itself. Had
not the keen instinct of the Mexican mare
warned her of danger he would never have
noticed the slight abrasion of the earth,
even with his keen vision.
What he did not see was pair of treach-
erous eyes full of hate and revenge looking
up at him from the clods of earth and the
thin covering OF sage brush. The mare saw
them and snorted in terror, the buzzard saw
them as it poised laAly overhead, but the
man who bent abOvo them saw nothing but
q grave at his feet.
Poor begear" he said gently, as he flung
himself from his horse; another victim or
the cursed redskins, no doubt, for this is a
white mans grave. God rest your soul,
friend, and give me strength to avenge
you"
His head was barred, his head lifted to the
pure sky above him. They had looked their
last OH the beautiful world and on his fell
low-man.
The buzzard had alighted at little dis
lance and was waiting-waiting.
Bish! bish! bIshi
1t WAS the report of a Winchester rife
repeated to make sure of its deadly aim,
and the traveller fell prone on MS face, the
bride Of his horse dropping away from his
broken arm.
And sitting up in his grave where he had
been buried alive, the painted brave, still
grasping his smoking rifle, sent another
shot after the gallopiBg mustang, and then
shaking himself clear Of the grave earth
sought the scalping knife at his belt
And the buzzard that had been waiting so
long was not deprived Of it, feast gained for
h.rt IA "A