, 1897-12-04
THE FIGHT IN THE DuGouT.
A Valorous Battle with Indians IN a
Heroic Rescue from Burning.

~
THE old Santa Fe Trail" the follow
ing story. related by Uncle John Smith
the famous trapper and guide, is relat-
ed:
We'll boys. 80 years ago, beaver. OF
ter and mink were found in abundance
on all the streams in the Rocky moun
tains. The trade in them furs was a
paying business for the little army OF
us fellows called trappers. They amt
any OF 'em left now. nc morn the ami
mails we used to hunt. We had to move
from place to place just as
If we was so many lngins.
Some times we'd construct lit
tie cabins In the timber. or a dugout.
where the game was plenty, where we'd
stay maybe for a month or two. and
once in awhile-though not often-for
a whole year.
The Ingins was our mortal enemies:
they'd get a scalp from our fellows oc.
casionally, but for every n they had
of ours we had a dozen of theirs.
In the summer of 1876 there was a
little half dugout. half cabin. opposite
the mouth of F%renchman's creek, put
up by Bill THORPE. Al. Boyd and Rube
Stevens. Bill and Al. was men grown
and know'd more about the prairies
and the timber than the Ingins them.
selves They'd hired out to the
Northwest Fur company when they
was mere kids and kept on trapping
ever since Rube-'Little Rube,' as the
old men called him--was about l9,and
plumb dumb: he could hear we'll
enough, though, for he wasn't born
that way. When he was II his father
moved from his farm in Pennsylvania
to take up a claim in Oregon. and the
whole family was compelled to cross
the plains to get there; for there wasn't
no other way. While they were camp.
ed In the Bitter Root Valley one even
ing, just bout shutdown. a party OF
Blackfeet surprised the outfit and mas,
sacred all of them but Rube. They
carried him of and kept him as a
slave, and, to make sure Of him cut
out his tongue at the roots. But some
OF the women who wasn't quite so
deyilish as their husbands, and who
took pity on him went to work and
cured him OF his awful wound. He
was used mighty mean by the bucks
of the tribe, and made up his mind to
get away from them or kill himself;
for he could not live under their harsh
treatment. After he'd been with them
for morn a year the tribe had a terri
BILE battle with the Sioux, and in the
scrimmage Rube stole a pony and lit
out. He rode on night and day until
he came across the cabin Of the W
rappe have told you about. and
they, of course. took the poor boy in
and cared for him.
"Rube was a splendid shot with a
rifle, and he swore to himself that he
would never leave the prairies and do
nothing for the rest OF his life but kill
Ingins, who had made him a homeless
orphan and so mutilated him.
After RUDE had been with Boyd
and Thrope a year they was all one
day in the winter examining their traps
which was scattered long the stream
for miles. After rebating them they
concluded to hunt for meat. which was
getting scarce at the cabin; they let
Rube go down the creek where 1t
widened out lake-like, to fish through
a hole in the Ice, and AL and Bill o
their rifles and hunted in the timber for
deer. They all got separated Of course,
Rube being furtherest away. while Al
and Bill did not wander so far from
each other that they could not be
heard II n wanted his companion.
"Al shot a fat black-tail deer. and
Just as he was going to stoop down to
cut its throat. Bill yelled out to him:
"'Drop everything AL. for Gods
sake. and let's make for the dugout:
they's coming, a whole band Of Sioux!'
III we can get to the cabin replied
AL, we can keep off the whole nation.
l wonder where RUDE is? I hope he'll
get here and save his scalp
lat this instant. poor Rube dashed
up to them. an Ingin close upon his
tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten
to take his rifle with him when he went
to the creek. and now he was at the
mercy of the savage; at least both he
and his pursuer thought so. But be-
fore the Ingin had fairly uttered his
veil of exultation, AL. who with Bill
had held his rife in readiness for an
emergency, lifted the red devil of his
feet, and he fell dead without knowing
what had struck him.
"Rube, thus delivered from a sudden
death, ran at the top of his speed with
his two friends for the cabin. for. If
they could reach 1t. they did not fear
a hundred paintbedaubed savages.
Luckily they arrived in time. Where
they lived was part dugout and part
cabin. It was about ten feet high and
right back Of it was q big ledge of
rock, which made 1t impossible Tor any
one to get into 1t from that side. The
place had no door; they did not dare
to put one there when Il was built.
for they were likely to be surprised
at any moment by a providing band.
20 the only entrance was a square hoie