The Press., 1892-01-21

uCbulLS was aL prSS6uG bO D6 SalueQ Dy nearer approach. they kept about five hundred yards away. One particular Indian. riding piebald lnus:.ng, and seeming from his profusely decorated person to be a great chief, made himself especially conspicuous by prancing about the field. anilnating his braves and ap { sparently giving orders.
 [ 1.-The utmost effective range of our ; ordinary hunting rifles was about three hundred and fifty yards; but it<so hap- pened that Seth Morris, the husband of the woman who had done us SO good a service the day before, had brought with him heavy target rifle, provided with telescope sights. This cumbrous weapon had not as yet been once used on the journey. but now it's owner looked up the oak casein which 1t was packed. put it together, carefully loaded it with eight dra1ns of powder and long. conical ball. and declared that he would try a shot at the audacious chief. Captain Jim highly approved the idea, and Morris. lying down beneatha wagon and resting the lnuzzle of his gun on con venient spoke. gave few turns to the elevating screw at the rear end of the telescope nnd waited until his mark be- came stationary. Then. taking care full aim, he fired, while we watched in breathless interest The heavy slug in it's flight must, of course. describe the arc of 8 great curve, and it seemed to us such an appreciable time, after it left the muzzle before we could gauge the result that we had leisure enough to fear it had missed. But no; ere the half formed thought found voice the tall warrior sprang high in his stirrups, threw up both arms and pitched head. long, to the groundl I
 'So thunderstruck were the savages by, this, to them, inexplicable catastrophe that for full half minute they remained absolutely dumb, but then from all sides arose appalling cries of frantic rage as the circling bands swept ia from every part of the field and congregated in a serried mass around the fallen chief, whose body they at once bore away-to the shelter of the coulee. For some little time after this the plain was quite de serted, and when our enemies resumed the siege they were careful to keep be- yond the range of even the terrible tar get. rife. Yet this gave us no relief, as it was clearly impossible for party to reach the spring and return without be- ing intercepted.
 All the second day passed in this tedious manner, and once again, as night came down, the pass was duly garri- soned. The. hours of darkness went by, and no attack was made; but just as the &v.cf ct1 1f peared in the east the tireless guide, who had not yet slept wink, effectually aroused all hands by quietly saying, Boys, the cussed reds is a-gatherin up agin, an they'll be down on us in two minits.' None of us, however, had now the least fear of a home charge, and, as matter of fact, neither the large body of Indians coming from the coulee nor the. smaller one from the pass ventured on. this occasion nearer than three hun dred yards, when, finding that we were on the alert, they again retired to @ more respectful distance. Why, indeed, they should risk any of their worthless lives at all. when they might so easily starve us out, was a mystery we could not fathom.
 "We had now but quarter rations of water for twelve hours left, and some of the men, rendered reckless and savage by the long constraint and the distress of the women. advised that we should break corral and boldly fight our way through, and so many others came over to their way of thinking that the cap tain waa obliged to make decided stand. 'Fellers,' said he. don't letsus hev' no foolish talk. We're safer'n a church Ser+ ~ F &---el-se hr,,s,e on what water we've got, an twelve more, sartin, with mary drop, only what we save fur the wimmin folks, an eff suthin don't turn up, this time ter morrer I'll be soon huff ter talk uv a runnin fight
 ''This settled the question of breaking camp, but we were so sure the Indians dared not charge on the corral that we did twice manage to pasture our animals for an hour or two right in their teeth. When we first tried it the savages moved toward us in the old way, but the heavy rife again picked off one of the foremost, and they concluded to patiently bida their time.