Weekly journal-miner., 1909-10-27
LAST CENTER SHOT
 REACHED |TS MARK
Arizona ReminiScence Recalled in The Passing of Sam (. Miller
 Early Pioneer.
By E. W. Wells.

the western sky, lengthening the shadows of the tan pines as the long summer day was fading into the approaching inviting moonlight so common in the clear atmosphere of the Northern Arizona mountains.
 Looking of to the east the big round moon had climbed up over the highest peaks, chasing the hot rays of the July sun away to the west, over the mountain tops.
 Not a cloud was to be seen in the bright blue sky above. Nothing dis turbed the majestic quiet of the per vading stiffness, save the occasional quirrel of the red-headed wOOd-pecker as he hammered away on some dead branch overhead, or the chirring love note of the pinon jay, pruning his wings to the mountain breeze as he played hide and seek with his mate among the branches of the lofty pines, or the distant call of the naughty plumed quail collecting his scattered flock amidst the thick oak brush covering the adjoining hills.
 Not a single thing in the restful silence indicated a shadow of trouble. No warning of danger disturbed the quiet monotony. No suspicion whatever of the approaching storm with its whirlwind fury and mad ness. ..--.
 Two men were sitting upon a log in a clump of trees on the edge of a heavy pine forest which skirted an open draw or little valley, run ming down to the north between the nearby mountain slopes. -,
 From their, dress and manner it WAS readily seen they were hunters and frontiersmen.; Each wore a buck skin hunting shirt, leggings and heavy mOeeasins, a leather belt around the waist from which hung on one side a seabbard carrying a Colts army revolver, and on the other side a heavy hunting knife. A bullet pouch, powder horn and pow der charger suspended to a leathern strap, by buekskin thongs, swung across the left shoulder down under the right arm, and each carried a long heavy Kentucky breech-loading rife.
 Shep (E. W. Shepard), the younger of the two, wore a spotted fawn skin cap. From its crown hung a long bushy tail of the black pine squirrel. He was scarcely thirty years of age, of medium stature, well knit frame, sandy complexion and clear gray blue eyes. Brave and fearless to a fault, he was a fit associate to his companion, Uncle Jack (John J. Miller, hunter and trapper, the father of Sam c. Mil ler), who was many years his senior.
 Uncle Jacks face was covered with a short stubby gray beard, his iron gray hair falling in strands to his shoulders. He wore a narrow brim black felt hat, the crown run ming to a peak, adding several inches to his height.
 Looking from under heavy eye brows were a pair of piercing steel gray eyes, usually cool and sympa- thetie, but when aroused shot thun- derbolts, eleetrifying all within their reach He stood five and one-half feet tall, with broad, square shoul- ders and a deep, heavy chest.
 1.-the and sinewy, his powers of endurance were equal to any red skin which infested the surrounding mountains, and with whom he had frequently pltted his craftiness against Indian cunning, with no discredit to his courage or prowess.
 In the open space just beyond the edge of the pines and on an elevated point overlooking the slOping draw, . Uncle Jack and Shep had built their cabin of rough unhewn logs. The space between the logs was filled with loose chinking, with here and there a loop hole for purposes of defense, and through which the outside was visible in all directions.
 The roof was a covering of shakes or writhed elapboards. The cabin door was made of heavy rough boards hung on wooden hinges and fastened on the inside with a stout timber bolt, and wooden latch from which a buekskin string passed through the door to the outside. A corral four feet high of logs and fallen timbe- was built eireling