The age-herald., 1897-08-01

to study the faces of these desperate red men who, having ceased yelling, weTe working with wonderful coolness to wipe each other from the face of the earth. Despite the fact that 1t was .aWfully in- teresting, there was something touchirg g. ly sad in the spectacle of these red des- peradoes. who were born brothers, and who ought to have been fighting shoulder to shoulder, if there was fighting to do, closing in upon one another in a desper- ate struggle that could end only In death.
 AS l stood watching a big Sioux, who was fighting three scouts single handed, and who, upiso this point seemed not only to hold his own, but who had killed one of his aSSailants, l observed PaWnee dart past me Turning to look where he ran, saw that he was engaging a Sioux who must have been sealing lip behind
 me. As the men came together they ap- pearad, by mutual agree ment, to drop their guns and pisllols and agree upon knives as the proper weapons with which 10 settle their differences. They came at each half crouched, but when no more than six fest separated them they paused and glared at each other like wild beasts. Then They flew at each other their knives clashed and they bounded back as if they had been rubber balls. Without talk ing lime to br athe, they were al 1t again, and mixed up so that 1 could not say which was which. Very naturally, wanited to help The Pawnee, whose bravery had saved my life, but 1 dared nod fire. or sven strike with my elubbed rife, for fear of hitting the scoIt. Perhaps the most | had eyer done for him was to give him a cigar or some very bad tobacco, but he had heroically taken my place in hot engagement, in which l would not have net last longer than a snowflake would in the firobox Of khe 49. When these savage souls had been leaping and slash- ing at each other for forty or if y sec onds, they were both covered with blood, but so far as fierceness w.nt, they were still undaunted. The hasc of the invading army had been driven back to the river. The scouts were running along the bank firing al the dark forms of the Sioux who were swimming down stream to gzt out of the range of tine deadly rifles of the Pawnees.
 Don't g and so close" said a voice from behind me, and at the same time the captain took hold of my arm and pulled me back. A ha If dozen scouts now joined us, but no one offered 70 help the PaWnee, whose face and arms were rocking with blood As they fought the men keTi. working away from the river and toward the roundhouse. It seemed to me that the Sioux had the bess of the fight, and 1 said so to the captain, but he refused to interfere or to believe that any living Indian could kill this Pawnee in single-handed enga cement. s
 't1ow m n could lose so much blood and sill fight so fiereely was a mystery to lllt, lbt iItSS Ett lIF u u kt than weaker as the battle progressed.
 "NithCnt not.O4ng Mnere 1 went, had been walking backward since the fight began. and of a sudder, finding it nec- essary to step quickly to keep clear of the knives, my back struck against the cot tonwood tree. Before I had time to slip away the Sioux. to escape the PaWnee, leaped back against me. The moment he felt himself come in contact with me he dug back With his bloody knife which n r. fxrap t,ax- ,irrl1f a.,.l body and stuck fast in the tree. The Pawnee was quick to take advantage of the situation and leaped upon his nn- tagoniSt. but the wiiy Sioux had not taken his eye from the scout, and now, twisting his knife from the cottonwood he made a last desperate effort to slay him. For a moment the men were so mixed up that it was utterly impossible to tell one from the other. They were on the ground, up again. now rolling over each other and then leaping high into the air. For a moment they seemed to be kneeling, eaasped in each others arms. Now the left hand of the Sioux went to the Pawnee's hair and at the sams in- stant the scout reached for the scalp of his foe. There was a swift flash of steel and the two men leaped to their feet They glared at each other; each at the bloody trophy the other held, and a mighty change came over the hideous features of ths' panting savages
 "The look of ferocous hatred disap- peared at once, and in it's place there came an expressiorl of utter hopeless ness and in1escribable despair
 "Of course, they could fight no more for, in the eyes of these Indians, to lose ones scalp was to lose ones life. As if moved by a single impulse they each dropped their scalps and weapons, put their heads down, and started for the river. Each eeemed berrt upon req ching the bank bsfore his dreadful companion could throw his hideous form into the cream, but they were not less equally matched in death than they had been in life, and so 1t came out, at the end of it all, that thsW leapod from the high bank together and went down into the dark water."-Cy. Warman, in New York Sun