The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-09-14


he wanted to make a reputation for
himself in Montana and the Job was al
together to his liking. The man who
told this story to me was the other man
selected to go and he went under pro-
test. I give his story in his own words,
a near as I cam recall:
when we left the ranch, that June
morning, we We're we'll armed and each
had an extra horse tailed to our sad
die horse and each of these horses was
loaded with a small pack of grub or
blankets. Our horses We're all good ones
and we easily made Henry lake, Is
miles away, by shutdown, where we
went into camp for the night. There
we learned that the men We were after,
three in number, had five days the
start of us, but, as there were young
colts in the band Of stolen horses, 1t
was thought that they could not be
driven over 80 or 40 miles per day. The
trail led towards the Jackson's Hole
country and it looked as II they stood
good chance of getting there before we
could overhaul them.
"At this camp we rested for about hve
hours, and, saddling up our lead horses
we once more took the trail, riding
couple of hours before daylight broke.
About o'clock we came to place
where the men had camped their hrst
night out from Henry lake. Their way
to corral their horses for the night was
to find a clearing in the timber, not
over an acre in area, which are ccm-
mon i'm many parts of the t:mbered Sec
tion at the head of the Snake river,
into which they would drive the horses.
Then while two of the members OF uhe
party would hold the animals In the
center of the clearing, the other Woulo
chop trees all around the circle, letting
| them lop over so as to strike morse
| breast high, thus creating a rude renee
where the horses would be LETT sa1ely
until morning.
| "At this place, about 30 miles from the
lake, We camped for rev hours anu
cot something to eat and a little sleep.
Ahout dusk the same evening we came
into a second camp on one of the prongs
~. Warm River and here camped for a
night. We took more sleep than usual
that night, two Of US watching the horses
while the others slept, and we did not
| START until daylight. We found another
| of their camps before noon and still
| another camp was encountered before
dark. In the last one we found three
| little colts which had been killed, as they
had played out and We're delaying pro-
gress.
| "Just before we reached this camp,
while Big Hank was riding ahead, he
| suddenly leaped from his horse and mo-
| toned for me to come to him quick. AS
soon as got close to him he took aim
| and fired at some object which I could
| not see. l craned my neck to see what
he shot at and could make out an object
a few hundred feet away, which IN the
aim light looked for all the world like a
man with gun leveled directly at US. In
an instant had my gun on 1t and took
| pot shot in that direction and had the
satisfacti of seeing the gun fly from its
resting place and fall sharmlessly to the
ground. We ran quickly to the place and
| saw that the man" was simply
charred stump with a bunch of fungus
growing on 1t and that the gun" was
grarled branch protruding from it.
THE next day was without incident
worthy of mention, save that the trail
was becoming so warm that 1t fairly
smoked. Towards evening we found
| colt that had been killed for tagging l'e-
hind and its body was still warm. Just
at dusk we found a good place to camp.
in the timber near a spring and where
there was a grassy glade. which would
make good feeding ground for our horses.
We ptcketed our animals and just as the
Frenchman had begun to start the fire to
cook supper the sound of some one chop
! ping rang out sharp and clear, apparent
~ not over half a mile away from US.
! II motioned for the Frenchman, whose
name was Abe DeFoe, not to light the
fire and to make as little noise as pos
sible. For nearly an hour the sharp.
clear strokes of the axe were heard, and
then. with the darkness, a hush which
seemed almost supernatural fell upon the
| mountains.