Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1896-12-25

were scattering. In front Of me was n
beaten ford, and I made for il. l was
tho only one Of the party to cross this
particular ford, snd l didn't wait to al
low my thirsty animal to drink. but
hurried him over and almost before l
knew it was on tho land again and GO
ing along at n gallop. Under ordinary
circumstances, when my horse was not
tired out, no was as sure footed as a
cat, but just tiien he was very uncertain
and Ifelt a little lump rise in my throat
as / saw directly in front Of me, less
than u mile of, a little bunch Of braves
coming for me. l never halted, but
pushed along until the reds began to
circle about. BY this time firing was
going ON about inc, and in another sec
ond four Of tho Indians in front of me
left the circle and without firing a shot
came directly at me, their ponies On a
dead run.
II have never felt just that way be-
fore or since. l can't describe my feel
ings for a minute, but there was no
time to hesitate, and / sic wcd up and
finally dropped to the ground, with my
carbine unslung. The Indians did rot
offer to open fire, so l dropped on one
knee, and when they were near enough
l opened fire and shot as careful as /
might. Ny first shot took effect, and l
knew ] had made a hit when L Of the
braves let out a yelp. 1 had not fired
more than the third shot, whom TIE res
turned and made off again and JOINED
larger force which was coming up from
the west.
81 reloaded, mounted and took after
them again. They were running freely
in front of us, and. as their ponies We're
fresh. they had little trouble in keeping
out Of the reach Of our shots. Our men
were pretty well scattered, but finally
to the east l saw a little knot appear ON
the brow of a slope, and among them
was Cody. They gallopcd down after
the reds, End the direction taken by
them soon brought me in their midst.
Then it became q steady trot. The reds
loafed and did not seem particularly
anxious to get away or to stop ard 81 c
battle. This seemed to bother Buffalo
Bill considerably, and after we had been
VII AlIb Nlti0t lOI ONtA ul AiAA AO CuliNu
a halt. He had tumbled to the little
game planned by the Indians. He ex-
planned hat by their manner he knew
they were leading us into n trap, and
that it was more than likely that some
distance on, hidden from view, there
was a big village encamped, and if VIC
kept ON we were liable to find ourselves
in a trap, and no one in the party would
live to tell the tale. l don't exactly
know whether Bill was right or wrong.
He was not riding his own horse at the
time, and had tried to exchange the
animal he had for one Of ours, but 10
one would change, and ] kind Of thouf 1t
he was fearful of risking a fight Gu the
horse he rode, because he would sta.d
no chance in getting away in case it
was necessary to retreat. Subsequent
developments demonstrated that he was
right when he said we were being led
into a trap, and it was lucky for us that
we followed his advice.
"We abandoned the chase and rode
back to the stream, which we reached
by nightfall. Hero we found the entire
command encamped. Colonel C~rittenton
had come up with tho main body Of
troopers, but instead of sending out a
detachment to aid us he had quietly
gone into camp and sat down and waited
for us to return or TO receive word that
we had gone to that land from which
there is no return.
1.-THE next day we moved en- to the
point where we had turned back, al
less than a mile farther found the re-
mains Of a big Indian camp containing
10 less than 500 braves. The camp was
hidden in a canyon, and the fires Were
still warm, and it is certain that VIC
would have met our fate the day L.
fore bat for the timely advice of Buffalo
Bill Cody. Detroit News-Tribune.