Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-06-30


emily one of them rushed at me, beg
ging by signs that 1 have my men
pull away from shore to the centre of
the current
'Then, as best she could in the
sign-talk, she made known to me the
peril of landing. The strange Indi-
ans were Sioux, she said, who had
chased the Rees to our island, and
were waiting on both sides of the riv-
er to wayIay and destroy them. The
Rec men who had come with their
women had left them near us for
safety, and had slipped away at night,
in a bull-boat, in order to return to
the upper Rec town, and bring par
ty to attack the Sioux.
"This, on top of our calamity of
flood, was cheerful news. We made
hard struggle to get to the centre
of the current, which here set strong
ly toward the west. In spite of our
best efforts we drifted to within gun
shot Of the Sioux, who had gathered
upon point.
When we were nearing them, be-
feathered chief rode his pony to the
edge of the water, and began a sign
talk, the purport of which was that
we were desired to come to land and
surrender the Rees upon our raft,
and that if we would do so no harm
should befall us. Furthermore, in
that event they would send runners
to their village to bring all the furs in
camp and make a good trade for us.
''By the time the chief had finished
we had drifted opposite, and were
within two hundred yards. now
recognized the sign-talker as Lame
Elk, Hunkpapa with a very bad
reputation. Plainly we could not al
low ourselves to fall into his clutches.
parleyed, instructing my men to
pull away from shore in a careless
fashion.
by signs I indicated to the Sioux
that we had planned to land at the
fiat round a bend below, and that if
they would move down there we
would meet them and talk further.
Diplomacy won for the time, and
we passed out Of danger for the mo-
ment. AS we slipped by without
volley I noted the faces of those Rec
women cleaning with the satisfaction
Of having understood my purpose.
They knew that the white trader in
tended to foil the Sioux, and save
themselves and their children.
''The current now changed and
bore us away, into and beyond the
centre of the food; and then one of
the Rec women pointed out to me,
upon a distant bluff, what appeared
to be hay bunch Of elk, grazing and
lying down, but which she declared
were Indian ponies.
ga nearer approach, showing spot
ted animals, proved her in the right.
The Sioux on that side were lying in
wait for us also, and it soon became
evident that this party had cunningly
chosen a position where the current
of the flood set strongly in through
narrow channel and under pre-
cipitous range of bluff banks.
eve worked frantically at the
building had been watched and our
destruction deliberately planned. Nor
was it long until we discovered that
there was, as one might say, a de-
formity in our dilemma; it had three
horns instead of two! Sioux to right
of us, Sioux to left of us, and our
raft in danger of going to pieces!
Our ropes had begun to stretch
and give, and the logs were fast
wearing on them. Here and there
broken strands appeared, and it was
clear that the raft wouldn't hold to-
gether for more than two or three
hours.
TN spite of hard pulling, we were
swept steadily toward the bluffs lin
ed with hostile Indians. Seeing the
uselessness of rowing. we hastily pill
ed a barricade of bales and boxes.
eve had need of haste, for before
we could get wholly under cover a
flight of arrows struck the raft and
sputtered in the water all round us.
Fortunately, most of the Sioux
were armed only with bows, and the
range was considerable. The air was
thick with feathered sticks for two
or three minutes. Then we drifted
out of arrow-shot, and l took account
Of my crew.
zone of the Rec women had an
arrow sticking in her shoulder. 1t
had struck point down, and was buried
to the barb. The woman looked at
me and laughed as she wrenched the
shaft free and wiped the arrow tooth
upon her blanket. No one else had
been hurt.
Nov we lunged again into the mid
die of the flood, with rough tumble
of water Juggling at our straining
ropes. l had one rope left, a three
quarter-inch, about sixty feet in
length. With this I started in to tie
the spreading ends of the logs on one
side, beginning with corner log and