The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-05-13
INDIANS AND SNAKES
OLD PLAINSMAN TELLS OF AN
ESCAPE FROM DIRE PERIL
Endeavoring to Escape From Their Red
Enemies. Two Men Crawl Into Den
of Observation-Disclosures Ending of
the Adventure,

Wen, see the President has Sc
lccted my old friend, Judge Baker. to
NIL the vacancy existing on the Su-
preme Bench of New Mexico" remark
ed "Bill" Liddiard, an old-time scout
and plainsman, now living in Omaha
"Ben's good man for the position all
right. and l guess he'll give as good
satisfaction as any man that could be
named, but 1 remember the time when
he wouldn't have given 30 cents for his
chance Of holding down that or any
other chair.
1T was about twenty years age.
when the Indians were hunting scalps
every other Friday. / happened to be
at Chadron at the time, and Ben came
to me and wanted me to pilot him
through the Bad Lands. 1 didn't care
much about taking the job. as the In
dams were pretty mean just then and
l had some other matters to attend to,
but Ben said he'd have to make the
trip, and he just couldn't get along
without me. He pressed me so hard
that a bargain was finally made, and a
Few days later we struck out from
Chadron, well provisioned and with
plenty OF presents for the redskins.
"a couple Of weeks Before we started
on this trip two men had been up that
way and had succeeded in cheating the
Indians on trade for pelts. They got
away with their plumber, but the In
dams were as mad as hornets. and
vowed they'd kill the first bunch of
palefaces they ran across. AS Ben and
l had heard nothing of the trouble we
walked right in to the trap, as it were
1On the second day out--we hadn't
seen a sign of an Indian yet, mind you
Il caught sight of a band of dozen
redskins rounding bend in the trail,
coming towards US, about a mile away.
We rode along as unconcerned as could
be and soon met the Indians. Baker
thought that a good chance to get on
the good side of them so he ran his
hand down in the saddlebags and
fshed up handful of glass beads and
some tobacco.
Much heap magnificent; make pa
poose look purity said Ben, Offering
the Indians a lot of the beads. The
red devils only grunted, shook their
heads. and never once offered to take
them.
Red man heap tobac, smoke with
paleface brother remarked Baker, Of
fering an old buck a package of Bull
Durham.
ugh. wahi Tobac heap bad medi-
cine was the only answer.
Il thought ii was mighty funny they
wouldn't accept anything from Baker,
so thought I'd try my hand. The In
dams looked at me curiously, with
their hands hid under their blankets.
but refused to accept any presents.
When saw how they acted l knew
something was up. and advised Baker
to get ready to pull our freight
If we won't get out of this soon,'
/ said, we might as well count our
beads and map out plans for fording
the River Jordan when we get to it
Do you really think there's any
dAnEerE inquired Baker. with chatter
ing teeth.
Il told him thought we had got
ourselves in a nice mess. but advised
him to brace up. put on a bold front,
and we'd make q grand bluff to get
away. The Indians did not modest us.
but kept my old Winchester handy in
case I'd have TO use it
I'VE Travelled along until about noon.