The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-26

footprints of a white man behind them.
The natural way 10 go would have
been down the river or through one of
river bank. The most dangerous way
was TO go straight up over the bald
hill in front of the island StilweIl
thought the ravines would be full of
Indians, and he also thought that the
water course would be most closely
guarded. so he chose the trail over
the bald hill. trusting TO their DISCUSSES
if seen.
Luck Was With Him
In conversation between StilweH and
some of these same Indians asserward
it was proven that they had made a
lucky stroke in not attempting to make
their escape by the waterway or the
adjacent ravines-
Crawling on their hands and knees.
they were able to make only three miles
before dawn that night They saw IN
dams on every hand and were forced
TO lie still frequently The three miles
brought them TO the divide between the
Arickaree and South Republican, and
there they concealed themselves for
the day in Washout. or the head of
hollow, where the banks had been
overgrown with tall grass and Sunf1oW-
ers- They left no trail behind them
and they were satisfied that they would
not be discovered. From over the hill
they could hear firing all day, which
told them that their comrades still held
out.
When the darkness came they started
south again. During the night they
saw two parties of Indians in front of
them, which delayed them greatly, and
yet daylight found that they had
reached the South Republican. They
also discovered, to their surprise and
ehagrin, that they were about a half
mile from the Sioux and Cheyenne vii
lage. How that happened they did not
know then, but it was afterward
learned that the trail turned south
about mile west of where the battle
was being fought, and that turn had
led them into the very heart of dan
ger.
AS the sun was about to rise they
IN the tall grass of a kind of bayou,
and there they lay in the water all
day without moving. Indians crossed
very near to them during the day, for
II was a kind of ferry. Once some
warriors stopped not thirty feet away
from them to water their horses, and
they heard them talking about the
white men on the island and how soon
they would be starved out. They could
hear the beating of the tomtoms in
the village near by as the squaws
mourned their dead, and saw them car
rying out several bodies to the sepul-
chre of scaffold
Hid in Buffalo Carcass.
That night, almost crazed by the
mental worry the noises of the day
had caused them, they crept away
across the south fork of the Republi-
can, and the morning of the fourth
day found them on the prairie near
the head of Goose creek The indians
seemed to have been left behind, and
the boy and the man concluded to
travel by day. 1t pretty nearly cost
them their lives. for about 8 o'clock
in the morning they saw coming to-
ward them the advance guard of what
thew afterward found out was the Dog
Soldiers"
Fortunately, the Indians lad not dis
covered them yet 1t was necessary to
hide, and hide quickly. In looking for
a place to conceal themselves on the
open plain they Accidentally discov-
cred some yellow weeds growing about
buffalo carcass. The weeds were not
high enough to conceal then, but they
crawled to the carcass. intending TO
break of the stems and cover them
selves. The buffalo had evi1entIv been
killed the winter before, for the. skeIe-
ton was intact, with little pieces of hide
adhering TO the ribs in places.
In moment they had crawle1 into
the skeleton. The stencil was almost
unbearable- But they could not come
out, because the mounted Indian scouts
approached very near during the day
and scanned the country in all dirae-
tons for more than an hour 81 a time.
While one of these scouts was sitting
his horse not fifty yards away oc-
CURED the .'rattlesnake" affair which
has been so widely published. There
was a snake in the carcass and he
crawIed around and made it exceed
ingly uncomfortable for the two scouts
who seemed to be usurping his nome
They could not move a han1 to kill
him. for fear of the Indian They
could only lie still StilweI finally spit
tobacco juice on its head by well
directed shot, and the snake vacated
the premises at once.
His Companion Died.
But this was the last straw t. the
Gamers back. Trudeau broke down
completely after the Indian scout had
satisfied himself that there were no
white men near. He seemed to lose
his mind and wanted to shoot his re-
vOlver and sing. StilweIl kept him
quiet until nightfall, when he persuaded
him to go to the nearest river and
drink
The water did wonders for him. and
they Travelled on as rapidly as possible
The fourth day was foggy day, and
they could travel by daylight with
out trouble. About II o'clock, when
they were nearly exhausted, they saw
coming out of the haze of the Denver
wa on road, on which they were trav-
ing, two mounted men. They could
not tell whether they were Indians or
not, but they had horses, and the
weary scouts needed the horses. They
had come over eighty miles on foot in
four lays.
When the horsemen drew near, Still
well discovered that they we're sol
diers, two couriers on the road II Col
onel Carpenters command, lying at
Lake Slater, some sixty miles from
where General Forsyth was besieged
AS soon as they heard of Forsyths
predicament they spurred away to
Colonel Carpenter, who responded
promptly, marching his entire force to
FOrs-th's relief
Trudeau never recovered from the
terrible strain of that journey, but died
the next spring He lies buried at Fort
S3ll, O. T.
rTTCTn