The record-union., 1897-06-14


pair. No suspicion would have been
haps, but while the Indians were bar
tering with the blockhouse traders the
white man sauntered down to the boat
and hung around the workmen. He
talked carelessly, giving information
freely of himself and his companions,
the Hunk-pa-pas; said he had put in
the winter at their village on the Bad
River, that he had made a good catch
Of beaver and otter, and more buffalo
pelts at the Hunk-pa- pa town than the
Indians had ponies to pack in.
A SPY DETECTED.
He then asked when the boat would
start down the river, whether the
shift" would be mostly beaver, how
many men would be at the oars; said
he would like to go along if he did not
have to go back to Bad River to gather
ponies to bring in his buffalo pelts,
which the sQuaws were now tanning;
said he would bring down in June the
biggest and finest lot of "Injun tans"
ever carried by that boat. BATHS list
ened shrewdly to this talk, and when
the man finally returned to the station
and rode off up the river with the In
dians told his fellows that the pretend
ed trapper was one of Harke's men.
He was so sure of the fact that a
council was held among the men-there
We're a dozen or more-at the station,
and he succeeded in convincing his
companions that his suspicious were
correct. He then proposed a bold
scheme, which he would undertake with
the help of four of his fellows to carry
out. This, too, was agreed to.
There was an old fatboat lying in at
the station-a scoW concern-which had
been used by the trappers in seasons of
high water on the Niobrara. This boat
was about the size Of the bateau.
BATHS and his men set to work,
caulked and repaired it, and rugged it
with the sail of the bateau-a single
sheet of canvas used when the wind
was favorable. Then, in the night,
they ran the scoW into the shelter of
some willows, placed a barrel of gum
powder in the center and packed this
with coarse gravel and rocks, then
completed the freight with bales of
bark covered with packs of buffalo
boats presented the usual appearance.
bales of fur, packs of blankets and pro-
visions for the journey arranged so as
to give sweep to the oar handles and
bare room for the boatment to move
along the sides. Two pieces of fuse,
remnants Of which had been used oc-
casionally in splitting trees, We're in
serted in the barrel with ends project
ing between the packs which covered and
concealed the explosive and its packing
of rock.
THE STRATEGEM.
In the meantime, as it was believed
that spies Were on the watch. the ba-
teau was loaded in the regular way.
and again in the night the positions of
the two boats were exchanged and the
flatboats moored in front of the sta
ton. AT noon the next day, with Bat
us and four men aboard, and its three
sail set, the flatboat. trailing
a light skiff at the stern, set out on it's
errand.
The water was high, the current
swift, and, as the wind was fairly fa
Vorable, the boat made good progress
despite its clumsy build It was load
ed nearly to the waters edge. and from
the shore, piled as its was with light
and spurious bales. no eye could have
detected the build of the craft.
BY sundown the boat was MANY
miles below the block-house, and now
It's crew, with BATHS at the steering
oar, keenly watched the wooded shores
ana the sweep of the river in front.
BATHS believed the attack would
come that night while passing the
dense belt of timber which stretched
for fifty miles or more along the south
side of the river, PurposeIv. he ran tba
boat close in along that bang as the
waters OF the current would permit.
Inc men at a supper of ''doughboys'-
nara, dry blscuits-and dried venison.
Inc nlght wore on with all hands at
the oars and eyes strained with watch
ing. The mouth of the Jim River was
passed, morning close at hand tbe
Big Sioux River and the Omaha towns
not many miles in advance, and no
sign of the pirates. The men at tha
oars, weary and sleepy, wanted to run
the Hatboat ashore, take a rest and 90
BACK. They expressed the belief that
t1arke and his men were a thousand
miles away, not nearer than the yell
loWstone at least, and finally, in dis
gust at the fruitless journey, shipped
their oars and threw themselves unon
their blankets spread upon the bales
BATHS alone stubbornly remained at
his post. He held the sailrope in one
aand ana the steering oar in the other.
Inc WIND had gone down and the boat
hoated idly, drifting along the shore.
almost within the shadows of the great
7lms and cottonwoods which threw into
deep gloom every curve and point of
the bank
THE ATTACK.
heenly on the watch, While his COM
rades snored, BATHS, at length in an
preaching a point of timber. became
aware OF several dark objects living o1,t
from shore upon the current, and dim
y outlined against the dense shore line
them in sharp excitement
and suspicion, these objects took shane
and motion as he drew near
Beyond duobt they were canoes q
half-dozen or more, with men in them
1hey We're less than a hundred yards
alstaht when BATHS, as had been pre-
arranged, yelled Indians. Indians,'
His men jumped out of their
blankets, electrified
The pirates close at hand. Get into
the boat quick" hissed the vonng
leader sharply.
Then while the men scrambled to the
rear, sprang into the skif with their
and cut loose from the fatboat
amid an uproar of shots and wells from
the coming canoes, BATHS knelt hidden