Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-02-22
"llTTLE PHIL"
How Pawnee's Thievish Design Wa
Irrnsfrnfe1.

Frustrated.
To the west of our camp is stretch of
tall dry grass, it's western edge close to
the chaparral. At the eastern edge our
cavalry horses are feeding at the rope
The hour is O'Clock in the afternoon, and
most of the men are bathing in the river
below. said all the horses, but should
have made an exception. The lieutenant's
chestnut, which is a thoroughbred and
came from Kentucky, is as docile and good
natured as kitten in all respects save
one When in the field. no man must place
halter on his head or lariat about his neck
He will not be tied, though he will not
wander away if left at liberty.
At the hour named, as happen to glance
over the horses munching their feed, I no
tice that Little Phil, as the men long ago
named the chestnut, has his head in the
air and is gazing fixedly at the edge of the
Chaparral. We long ago discovered that
he had wonderful powers of scent, and
l swiftly realize that the light breeze blow.
ing down from the thicket has given him
"sign." 1t may mean Indians, or it may
mean a wild animal. We caught sight of
few Pawnees the other day, but they
showed no disposition to follow us and II
a band of 900 of them had gathered in the
thickets they would not dare attack us at
this hour of the day. Rising to my feet
and moving little to the left, | can cover
the same line of sight as the horse. He is
picture to look at. His ears pointed
forward, his eyes dilated, and but for the
heave of his sides and the fiutter of his
nostrils he might have been carved out of
stone. The other horses make no sign of
having discovered the presence of danger
There is a movement of the tall grass
II
emigrant would have said it was caused
by puff of wind. But for the attitude of
Little Phil, I should have said that hare
or coyote was moving about. Something
is approaching, but it's movements are so
cautious and wary that the sharpeSt eyes
might be deceived. The breeze is not
steady, but comes in puffs at intervals.
Whenever puff comes to set the field of
grass waving, then the object moves for
ward. AT the end of 10 minutes the horse
lifts his head higher, shifts the air suspi
ciously, and now almost every other ami
NAL shows by it's demeanor that danger
menaces. A horse in camp does not trou
BILE himself about prowling animals unless
it be night. Sergeant Swift is sitting on
the ground, 10 feet away. AS l look
around at him note that he has just fin
ished cleaning his carbine. | tptoe over
to him and whisper:
"There's Pawnee creeping through the
grass out there to reach the horses and ere
ate stampede You go carefully to the
right of the line. and l will take the left.
When you have thanked the line, work
down behind it and meet me in the rear of
Corporal Johnson's horse. That's about
the spot the redskin is aiming for.
The sergeant quickly arose and walked
away, and passed down the line to turn
the left flank AS l did so the chestnut
backed away from the rope, and heard
his teeth grinding together. He hated the
sight or smell of redskin, and our Indian
scouts were obliged to give him a wide
berth. AS l dropped down to make my
way to the center of the line he was still
moving. There might be two Indians in
the grass, and there would surely be a doz
en- mounted ones hiding in the thicket
The game would be to creep close to the
horses, and if they We're not too FESTIVE to
cut the long feed rope and then raise yell
and shake n blanket at them and start
them off. The stampeders might mount
two of them and go with the rush, or they
might run back to their own ponies in
waiting for them. Yelling and screaming
and making great confusion, the Others
would dash ont, swing in behind the ter
rified horses, and away would go the whole
mount, leaving so men to make the post 20
miles away on foot.
Five minutes after sinking down | met
the sergeant, and we both lay flat down
and pushed our carbines out for a shot
There was a thick bush in front of us, and
the chances were good that we would bag
our game. Two, three, five minutes went
by. Then we heard n shout of surprise
a mad Scream-a cry of terrOr-ahd we
leaped up to behold 4 curious sight Lit
tie Phil had backed himself clear of the
line and then followed the sergeant, though
taking wider circuit Men who saw him
moving said that he exercised the greatest
caution and advanced more like wolf
than horse. His circuit was wide enough
to bring him in rear of the creeping Indian,
and he followed him up and dashed upon
him so suddenly that the warrior cried out
like n woman. What we the In
dian held high in the air and being shaken
from side to side rs the terrier finishes a
rat. The horse had seized him by the hip,
and he tossed him about in the most saw
age manner for two or three minutes. The
redskin had n knife in his hand, but there
was no chance to use it. The breath must
have been well shaken out of him when
he was flung to the ground, and the chest
nut began paving and striking him. We
closed up, but did not interfere In the
course of five minutes the almost naked
body was nearly buried from sight in the
soil, and when sure that his work was fin
ished the horse walked back to the line
and resumed his place. We ran through
the grass to the chaparral just beyond
its fringe was n glade, and in that glade IA
band of Mt least 20 mounted Indians had
been in waiting When they saw the fate
of their companion, they made off, leaving
only the hoof marks to prove their pres
ence. We pulled the body out of the grass
to have look at it before the buzZards
came. 1t was not body, but pulp Had
the warrior been blown from the mouth of
a cannon death would have come sooner,
but the corpse would not have presented n
more shocking spectacle. NJ. QUAD.