The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1905-01-27
THE INDIAN TRACKER
He is A'REAL WIZARD IN HIS ABILITY
TO FOLLOW A TRAIL.


The westerner pulled his horse into 0
walk and lit cigar, dropping the
match carefully on to a wet place ir
the trail, for fear of prairie fires.
'Yes," he said, "there are a lot OF
people, not only in the old country, but
right here in the colonies, who thinB
that because man has spent couple
of years on ranch and wears n COW.
boy hat and long spurs he's sort OF
combination of Misunderstanding and
Sherlock Homes. Now, man may be 0
good enough scout to avoid walking in
to trap and to find his way about IL
q strange country and to take cover.
but when it comes to tracking he's o
sticking babe compared with some OF
the Indians and half breeds. A seoul
may be made, but a tracker must be
born so. Let me tell you the kind OF
thing mean.
Il was managing the X ranch some
years ago, about 100 miles from the
American border. One night some
horse thieves dropped in suddenly and
carried off sixteen Clydesdales-'heavy
horses, I'VE call them here. Next morn
ing early l started in pursuit with a
couple of my cowboys. The trail
wasn't difficult at first, and we man.
aged to pick it out all right at n walk,
but the men we were hunting were
riding at gallop, and l saw we should
have our work cut out to catch them.
We talked the matter over for n bit,
and then l made up my mind that
knew the locality they were making
for, about a hundred miles away, so /
dropped the trail altogether, and we
rode to the point as hard as we could
go to cut them off.
"When we got there we camped and
strung out n lot of sentries and wait.
ed. Well, we waited and waited, and
nothing turned up, so we saddled up
again and went home, feeling a bit
sick. Then we did what we should
have done at first. We went on to the
Indian reserve and asked for Colonel
NJ, the Indian agent. 1 got him to act
as interpreter, and 1 put 5000 into his
hands. asking him to explain that this
sum would be paid to any Indians who
should bring me in sight of my lost
horses. That was all l wanted them
to do. l could attend to the rest of the
business myself. They held bit of
powwow, and then three of them,
White Wings and two more, whom !
called Jack and Charlle-I couldn't
tackle their Indian names-stepped out
and volunteered to accompany us.
ut was ABOUT the first week in Az
gust, and the prairie grass was long,
dry and yellow. They took up the trail
at a smart canter and made for the
border not quite straight, but so that
they struck it about 1870 miles or 40
miles southwest from the ranch. The
country was mostly prairie, some fiat,
some rolling. There We're some deep
valleys and coulees and one or two
ranges of hills. We followed them az a
fast trot, but sometimes they were so
far ahead that we had to fire shots to
attract their attention and make them
stop. We had some difficulty in max
ing them understand, and they Travelled
at such n pace that l couldn't believe
they were on the line at all. We
couldn't make out anything, not even
bruised blade Of grass. But every now
and then we came to soft place,
where the hoof marks were discernible,
and some of the stolen horses played
out here and there, and we passed
them, still following the main body.
One mare was a confirmed jibber. l
never could do anything with her my
self, and they turned her loose, so that
when we struck the border there were
only nine horses left in the bunch.
There were three horse thieves, and
they had taken a long rope and fas-
tened it to the saddle of the leader. At
the other end rode q second man, try
ing to keep it as taut as possible. The
stolen horses were battered along this
rope, eight on each side, and the third
man rode alongside, with a whip, to
keep them moving. Now and then the
leading pony and the trailing pony
would stop and change places. When
ever this had happened the Indians
called our attention to it. They always
knew the exact position of each Of the
men we were hunting. We rode eighty
miles the first day and reached the Dor
der on the second, and after that we
struck trail that was as much trav-
eled as the main street of a big city.
1--WE followed that for thirty miles
or more, and we hardly slackened |
speed either One Of the hunted horses
had q broken SHOE and the Indians |
would point out that particular track |
whenever we were in doubt Of their |
being on the right line. At last W
came to place where the band had |
divided, six horses going in one dlrec-
ton and three in the other. We fol- |
lowed the six.
"Well, to cut long story short we |
came ON three horses at last in the |
Yellowstone park tied up to trees and |
400 miles from their starting point, |
having averaged over eighty miles n
lay during the chase. We commune |
Gated with the local authorities, and |
the men were arrested almost imme-
diately and taken to Fort Beaufort, |
while 1 sent back to Canada for Sher-
iff Chaplain to come and extrndite
them. Unluckily in those days there
was extradition for pretty nearly ev-
-