The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1892-06-02

an old log cabin, or rather seriss ~
cabins. with dirt roofs. which for some
reason the Indians had left unburncd.
We thought We knew why afterwar&
1.-THE colonel decided TO stable ell
the horses there; for though we hadn't
seen an Indian that day. We knew they
were watching us, and feared a STAN
pede.
THAT done for, and our hardtacl.
and coffee with it. the guard was
doubled. and orders issued that no one
should go near the cabins under any
pretext. for fear some one might leave
a door open. Our horses once gone,
the Indians could have penned us in
and picked us off al their leisure, OF
starved us of, for that matter, and
saved their ammunition.
The men went into camp hundred
or-more yards away. down by the
river
gsJ, with an Indian scout, was sta
TONED to reinforce the guard on a
knoll commanding the barred door Of
the stockadc. We might Incidentally
have furnished. fine target there
against the sky for some beggarly
| Sioux, SO we set to work with our
KNIVES, and with prairie dog hole as
la basis, followed out a pit large
tenough to hold us il we doubled uT
| enough. AS we lay there, the breeze
| sprang up from the mountains cool and
fresh, bringing the thought of snow
drifts in to that beastly hole.
4.But it was light there. An Indiar
smeared 9th stratum of red and vel
low ochre, which rather retards per
| SEPARATION, is not an agreeable subject
| even with some veilings of purifying
atmosphere around him. But in that
| hole!
TT hens- make it =merse.=the=he horses
Of the settlement had evidently beer
corralled there, and the refuse and
straw we lay in, in the damp night all
from the river, was very like what we
have here now
| "But we lay still enough, while q
groggy-looking moon came up ano
turned everything dark along the ridge
Between us and the stockade it was
impossible to see anything. Half q
regiment could have crawled up thai
draw and we never seen them.
Suddenly, as we lay there trying te
fit our elbows into the angles of thai
hole, light flashed out over the rise
and some one whistling and swinging q
lantern walked leisurely toward the
stockade door. He made a mighty
noise about it.
II m afraid that ragged heap af bones
over the hill and the grave-like hole we
were in had unnerved me trifle. Any
| how ! thought had never heard any
| thing SO cheering and homelike IS thai
whistling. 1t made me think Of time.
when / used to go out to the burn a
night when l was kid; it was 50 boy
ish and awkward.
It's some boy afraid of the dark, ~
| whispered.
MY companion grunted: Yes, Injur
no whustle.'
THAT was so; they never do.
"'But what the dickens is the young
fool doing there, disobeying orders?
believe I'll scare him bit, whis
pered; and with that whipped up my
rife and fired at random over bis head
1.-THE light dropped and we heard {
scurrying of feet in the deaf grass
which was taken up and prolonged il
the camp as the men staggered out o
their sleep, with a rattle of steel scab
bards on bootlegs, cursing and stun
bling over each other in the darkness
.'When the excitement was all owe
and the men that had got up cursinl
because there was an attack hat
thrown themselves down again cursin@
because there was none, my companion
spoke. Good shot; break um light,
he said, and squatted down in his hole
/ again.
There was no more disturbanc.
that night. - =,
&4n~the morning they fofnd an In
dian in his war paint dead by ths
stockade door. He was tall, very tall
as he lay on his face in a black pool o
blood where he fell, shattered Lantern