The Topeka state journal., 1902-12-09

in the business of occurring leases and
developing the property
l was in Pittsburg late that summer,
when / got a long letter from Baffin.
dated at Ardmore, in the ChickasaW
country telling me that he had found
a great and hitherto unknown deposit of
asphalt in the black hills above TaiIa,
and seven miles to the northwest by the
trail. Tt was nearly six weeks later,
after days mean riding, that 1 got
well up into the rocky hills into which
/ the trail had led me. I had pack mule,
besides my saddle pony. for l didn't
know how Baffin was situated, and I
had stopped with the intention of fry
/ ing some bacon for my dinner when 1
/ heard a rife shot sound across the val
| ley, reverberating against the high rocks
with a roar that fingered like reced1ng
thnder. / looked about and at last saw
Baffin standing on a point of rock far
above me, his rifle on his arm and eyes
searching across the deep canyon.
caleld his name, and was astonished to
see him drop fiat on his face like man
pursued. and peer over the edge of his
hiding place.
1 scrambled into my saddle and was
soon within speaking distance of him.
He came out with glad smile, but 1
noticed that there was a hunted look in
his wide, black eyes, and some gray
hairs above his temples that 1 had not
noticed before. He asked me if had
! heard the shot. "Of course" said 1,
what were you shooting at" But he
4 said that he didn't shoot at all, that it
was somebody else. and so led me up
/ the narrow passageway between the
rocks till we came into a little clearing
at the top. 1 saw that he had built
/ good shanty there, and l also saw that
/ the old sQuaW was yet with him, Tor she
was sitting there by the front door as
| If doing in the westering sunlight.
But L was not prepared for the sudden
/ change that come over Baf1n when he
saw her. With an awful oath ne stopped
] T L. ut n foa
was ashen and his fiery eyes were fixed
upon the old hag. I was afraid he was
i'll. and asked him. but he said no, and
4 then becoming quite calm, he sat down
on a shady rock and said;
Did you ever hear that story, what
you might call legend, about the mas
| sacre of the Tonkawas?"
/ 1 thought it a queer, irrelevant ques-
! ton, but I sat down and said I had not
Il never believed it he resumed, "apd
/ I never told it before, but I'd rather you
heard it from me than from someone else 1t
| is said that in the old days the TOnkawas
ate their prisoners. They were cannibals,
as you call them. It must be a lie. But
the Apaches and the Kiowas, as well
/ the Comanches, wish to believe it. I
don't know how long ago, but some time
when the Tonkawas were at with
/ the Comanches, they stole baby from
the Comanche village that was in the
West Cache, near the foothills of the
Washita, and cooked it for the Tonkawa
/ chief. 1t was two nights later that go
Kiowas and Comanches fell upon the Ton
/ kawa camp in the rock gorge of Bio dy
/ Mountain and massacred the whole tribe.
They slew and burned till there was not
Tonkawa left. and when they had counted
the scalps they knew that every fighting
man was dead. But when they came
/ back into the valley they found that one
woman and her baby had escap ped
| There were tears in his eyes when he
! looked across the sunlit clearing toward
his shanty and, pointing his big, brown
hand at the old squaw, said
There she sits. She was the last of the
Tonkawas. unless can be called Tonka-
wa
"You?'' I said. not understanding; but
he went on: 'She was my mothers
mother My father was Gerald Baffin. an
English trapper. He married the Tonka
wa baby. But the Comanche followed
them as they have followed me. They
shot my mother while she was nursing
me. My father disappeared, but old
Shaiga hid me and 1 have repaid her we'll
till now
''she must be very DID, I said. not
knowing why he bowed his tousled head
so low.
More than a century, he answered
"And you think it was your enemies
who burned your houses and manned your
cattle2"
TT doesn't matter I didn't mind that
but this he had risen and I followed
him toward the shanty where the old wo-
man was sitting motionless-"this is hard
to forget. It that shot you heard" "
The old squaw quite dead