Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-11-02

Hhe E
| low Woman !
By ELEANOR GATES.
Author of 1.-The Biography of Prairie Girl"
COPYRIGHT. COMPANY s
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| that almost covered her horse. Hell
| haiv was braided neatly; her dark
| checks We're daubed with carmine. She
kept rigid seat aS'she passed Dallas,
/ and her black eyes answered the 9TH
ers kindly look with one full Of Sullen
pride Beside her hobbled an aged hag
| across whose wrinkled mouth and chin
was deep and livid scar.
When the Indians were past more
| troopers followed. After them trun-
died half dozen light fieldpieceS. the
wagon train and ambulances filed with
sick or wounded soldiers. all under
| once, six miles from the ferry landing,
where on the limbs of cluster of
! giant cottonwoOds that grew in the
| bottom of the gully n score of Indian
| dead We're dashed. their tobacco pipes,
| jerked beef and guns under the blanket
wrappings that hid them, and again at
! Murphy's Throat. four miles farther
up. where the coulee narrowed until Il
man standing in its bed with arms
outstretchcd could place the tips of
| his fingers against either rocky wall.
Beyond the Throat the crack 10 the
|
ed out TO the eastward and ut last
came to an abrupt end in a high mead
ow below the distant river bluffs.
For decades the road had been a
buffalo trail. foot wide and half as
| deep. that in the dry season guided
the herds i'll single file from the cak
| ing meadow to the distant waters of
the Missouri. Then the travee poles of
Indian tribes gave it the semblance of
a wagon track, the center of which
was worn bare by the hoofs of laden
ponies and the feet of trudging squaws,
and finally the numbering carts of trad
erS, the Studebakers of settlers and
those heavier wagons that roll in the
rear of marching men made of the
tract; plain and hardened highway.
Down it that morning, approaching
to the accompaniment of loud talking,
the tramping of horses, the cracking of
whips and the jingling of spurs, came
long procession. Yet so absorbed
was Dallas in her blowing that not
| until the head of its column was close
upon her and there was barely time to
go to the brides of the frightened
mules did she see it.
4 \ tanned. unkempt officer led the
way, with baying foNhuunds running
about him. On either hand rode his
staff and his scouts, Arickaree Indians
| in patched brooches and dusty blan-
kets. And behind, full bearded, all
| military look gone from their boots
hats and uniforms, came the cavalry,
| VII Ax-;r. 70. Il
| faded guidons.
Dallas had no chance to view the
front of the command. for the mules
claimed all her attention by hauling
| back on their bits. But now they
quoted little. and she was free to
watch the dozen or SO musicians who
came next, mounted, with their brass
instruments in hand. She saw that
these men were nudging one another
and directing at her glances which
We're bold and amused.
Something of her fathers hatred of
soldiers stirred her. She grew defiant.
yet only for q moment. The must
clans trotted by, and now Indians were
passing-men, women and children,
whose StOlid faces disclosed no hint of
grief or hatred for their captivity.
The braves, twenty in number, formed
the head of the band and kept no or
der of march as they spurred forward
their ragged, footsore ponies. Their
Springfield rifles, knives and tona-
hawks mad been taken from them. but
they still carried their once gay lances
and shields of buffalo hide covered
with rude pictures of the chase and
battle. But, though on other occasions
these would have betokened the free
warrior, they now only emphasized by
contrast the blankets that trailed in
gloriousIy from their wearers' Shout
ders to the ground and the dropping
feathers of the conquered chiefs.
4 war priest, whose string of bears
claws, triple feathers, charms and bag
plainly betokened the medicine man,
: headed the tribe. He was seated upon
gaudily decorated saddle. The nose
band, front and cheek pieces of his
horses bride were thickly studded
with brass nails. Bright pompoms of
colored wool swung from the curb and
the throatlatch, and the nag's tail was
| SllLlS Will SlIlJS VI WOOleIl,
scarlet and yellow and blue. Close be-
; side him rode two stately braves of
high rank, their mounts as richly ca
: parisoned, their buckskin shirts gor-
geous with bead and porcupine quill
embroidery, otter skin headdresses
upon their hair. Like their leader, the
dusky faces of the two Indians and of
those forming the rest Of the party
were hideously painted, showing that
all had but recently been upon the
warpath.
The other half of the redskin COM
pany was more squalid A score of
spotted, sway backed ponies crept
along, bearing and at the same time
dragging heavy loads. Each saddle
held a squaw and one or more small
children, the squaw with cocoon-like
papoose strapped to her back, and at
the tail of each horse. surrounded by
limping Indian dogs, came travee
laden with wounded or aged Indian
or heaped with cooking utensils, blan-
Iynt nd huff L. eli,