The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-10
AN ENGINEERS STORY

InOunuilns anu ne ndu Deen nurt In COL
lision in the Trinidad yards. He was the
travelling engineer of the road, and while
he was asleep In Colonel Rickers special
"a standard gauge engine had crashed into
the car and Wilson had his right leg bro.
ken above the knee Wilson was 30 years
old, and the process of knitting the broken
bono together was extremely painful 1t
grew so serious at one time that wo were
alarmed The sufferer was thrown into
fever and talked "out of his head 4" Away
in the night, when the nurse nodded over
against the wall, Wilson delirious. told
me some wonderful tales
Frank" said | one day when no was
able to sit up in bed you used 10 tell the
best Indian stories when the fever was
high that ever heard.
When had retold some of them TO him,
he took of his glasses and declared that
what he had said in his delirium was
wholly true. He had been the engineer on
the construction train which laid the track
of the Kansas Pacific. II have often run
90 miles without being out of sight of
buffalo, said he. 81 have seen "a single
band that made a procession so long that
you could see neither the head nor the tail
of the herd They were interesting, but
not nearly so much so as the Indians were.
/ remember one morning our conductor
took a rifle and went out to shoot buff
falo for breakfast Our camp was in a lit
tie valley along one side of which ran u
high chalk bluff. We had seen no Indians
for nearly week, and so were getting
careless. The conductor was stalking a
herd, hugging the bluffs. when he was
surprised by band of Indians who began
to shower arrows at him from the top of
the wall He must have seen that they
could not descend so steep cliff but in
stead of retreating across the open vale
out Of the reach of their arrows, no sought
refuge under the bluff. Here for time
he was secure. A line of redskins stood
upon the wall ready to fill his back with
arrows the moment he started to fly, while
others with clubs, tomahawks and rocks
| began the work of crumbling the shelflike
| wall away in order to reach their victim.
For nearly an hour the wild yells Of
| the bloodthirsty hair filters filed his ears
| and froze his blood At first the falling
| debris dropped some feet in front of him,
| but as the Indians, by constant stamping
| and beating, wore the projecting shelf
| away the broken rock began to pile high
| in front of him, and, rolling about his
feet, threatened to bury him alive. Now
the red villains, hanging over the wall,
| began to send arrows at him. The cloud
of dust made by the falling rock and dirt
made it impossible for the conductor to
use his rifle when the Indians poked their
| painted faces over the wall The most he
] could do was TO discharge his rifle at ran
dom occasionally to show them that he
was still alive and fighting. Almost be-
| fore he was aware of it, he found himself
,,,iCn ha,h it, of p,nly hn1 lnA
! about his feet until he found it impossible
! TO move. There was nothing now to hope
for, as he knew well that his tormentors
would never give over the fight until he
was either killed by an arrow or buried
/ alive.
"What the poor fellow thought or how
| he felt in the face of this crisis we may
not know.
"When an hour had gone by and no did
not return, n party went to look for him.
In little while we came within sight OF
the band of murderers on the cliffs and
readily guessed that the conductor was be
! ing besieged.
Squirting our horses to dead run, We
| charged the band, and when within rifle
range began to pour the lead into them
| For u time they withstood the storm brave
| ly, but never an arrow was aimed at us.
IAN Indian would hang over tho wall
two or three of his companions holding or
to his feet, and send poisoned arrow aft
| or the conductor. Some of them were
wounded or killed by our bullets, but that
| seemed to make them more determined t.
kill the prisoner We were by no means
anxious to approach within reach of theil
arrows, but the problem of rescuing tn.
conductor was now becoming serious
one. Even now he might be dead, for WI
could neither see nor hear him, so great
was the din and the dust.
Finding it impossible to drive the rec
devils away from their murderous work
our commander ordered us to charge, ant
galloping up within "a hundred yards o.
the bluff we halted, and taking deliberate
! aim let fly shower of lead that sent &
half dozen Indians to the earth. AT tha
moment an Indian who had just discharged
an arrow at the imprisoned conductor
, leaped to his feet and gave an exultan
yell Instantly the whole band, taking
up the cry, disappeared behind the edge o.
the cliff. Leaving a majority of our force
on guard, the captain and / approached
the spot toward which the Indians hat
been aiming their arrows. So dense wa:
the cloud of dust that hung about the hill
in the still morning air that we were un
able for time to locate the unfortunate
man. To all our calls he made no reply
and we knew that he was beyond human
aid.
when we finally found him, he wa:
still standing upright with the chalk from
the bluff piled above his waist. A mum
Der of arrows were sticking In his arm.
and shoulders. Only the small end of ONT
stood above his coat. 1t had entered just
behind his collar bone, near the left side Of
his neck, and passing downward the point
of it had pierced his. heart. His head hung
upon his breast, while his helpless hands
rested upon the rocks that had been heaped
around him. 1t would be as impossible
for me to describe the expression on the
dead mans face as it has been for me &c
forget it. 1t was a sight to take out of O
white mans heart any whit of Christian
sympathy he may have harbored there fol
his red brother. 1t was hard to look upon
there, but when we had carried the poor
fellows body back to his home and borne
1t up to the door of a little white cottage
to the very spot upon which he had kissed
his wife and baby goodby only few days