San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-01

hurting his spear. With incredible ce-
lerity he whirled about. and before the
savage could check his rapid course ran
right into the Indians arms.
Golfers unexpected action and his
bloody appearance so startled the Black
foot that he stumbled, and the lance.
thrown ten feet, stuck in the ground
and broke off. While the redskin tried
to recover his equilibrium, Golfer picked
up the piece of spear that retained the
head and drove il through the body of
the Indian, pinning him to the ground
dead man. But fearing that the rest OF
the band would presently appear, the
trapper stopped only long enough to Sc
cure the dead mans weapons and then
ran on, reaching the river more dead
himself than alive.
After a rest of minute or two he
plunged into the stream and SWAN a
short distance to drift of trash and
limbs OF trees and brush. This drift had
lodged against the shore of small sand
bank and Golfer dived beneath it. CON-
ing up with his head among the thickeSt
leaved branches. In few minutes the
Indians reached the dead body of the
warrior, whom Golfer now knew to
have been chief by the wailing of the
band over his corpse. When this ex-
preston of grief was over, Golfer heard
their yells Cor vengeance. and, knowing
that if captured that death by the
most horrible torture awaited him, re-
solved TO drown himself rather than fall
into their hands. They ran to the banks
of the stream and, suspecting his hiding
place, SWAN out to it, and twenty times
the trapper sank beneath the drift by
grasping a sunken tree that was i'm
bedded in the sand. But, though the
Blackfeet spent over an hour searching
for him and poking the drift with their
spears, they finally concluded that he
had gone farther down the river and de-
parted to beat the banks.
Heard by the wretched trapper, they
spent nearly the whole day searching
for him, but returned toward evening to
the spot where the dead chief Law, and
Golfer could tell by their retreating
voices as they walled that they were
carrying home the body. As soon as he
thought they must be out of sight, Col.
ter crawled out, so chilled by the water
that he could scarcely use his limbs, and |
so exhausted by the loss of blood and his |
terrible race that he thought himself |
dying. But courage revived after a |
time, and he started for Lisas fort Oh |
the Yellowstone.
His situation was so desperate that he |
dared not let his mind dwell on it, for |
fear that he would lose his resolution |
and die of despair. The fort, the near |
est place where he could hope to fall in
with white man, lay full weeks jour- |
ney from him, and he was not only stark
naked, but without a weapon with which |
he could kill game and so support life.
His feet were in fearful condition, cut |
by the sharp rocks and the thoIns of the |
cacti over which he had run his race.
TO the heat of the sun by day |
and the dews of night, and tortured
often by hunger and thirst. the trapper
still pushed On, determined to live
through It all. ......
He subsisted for days on the wild |
plant known as sheep sorel, and the few
weeds and grasses peculiar to the wild
stretch OF country over which his way |
lay. One day he found the hole of
rabbit, in which was litter of young |
Having no way of cooking, and too fam
ished to wait to do it if he had had, Col
ter seized the little creatures and hastily |
killing them with a sharp stone that |
served him for knife, devoured their |
still palpitating bodies, tearing off their
skins with his naked hands. On another |
occasion Golfer attacked wildcat with |
only his stone weapon and killed it, |
sucking the blood and eating it to the |
very entrails.
On the ninth day after he had escaped |
from the Blackfeet party of two traders |
and a trapper named Mcclellan set out |
from Lisa's fort for the south, and when |
about six miles on their journey came !
across an object lying on the plain with
several buzzards lowering over it. TAX |
ing it for the carcass of a calf or deer
the travellers were about to pass it at
distance of twenty or thirty yards. when
Mcclellan happened to see it make
gesture, as if to fight off buzzard that
had alighted near it. The movement
excited the hunters curiosity and he
rode nearer the object.
Good Godr' he cried. BOYS, it is a
mani" 1t was Golfer who, unable to
take another step, had lain down to die
He was blistered from head to foot by
the suns fierce heat, and had had nothing
to eat for over two days and no water
for twenty-four hours. With all posi-
bic care he was taken back to the fort
and fhara remained his hnalth and