River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-07-27
CHAPTER ii
The Scene Of Tragedy.

before this, and those moving DlacR
spots away yonder to the west, that
he had discerned from the bluff. were
undoubtedly the departing raiders.
There was nothing left for Keith to
do except determine the fate of the
unfortunates, and give their bodies de-
cent burial. That any had escaped,
or yet lived, was altogether unlikely,
unless, perchance, women had been in
the party, in which case they would
have been borne away prisoners.
Confident that no hostiles would. be
left behind to observe his movements,
Keith pressed steadily forward, lead
ing his horse. He had thus traversed
fully half mile before coming upon
any evidence of fight-here the pur-
suers had apparently come up with
the wagons, and circled out upon
either side. From their ponies tracks
there must have been a dozen in the
band. Perhaps hundred yards furth-
er along lay two dead ponies. Keith
examined them closely-both had
been ridden with saddles, the marks
oP the cinches plainly visible. Evil
IDENTIFY one Of the wagon mules had
also dro pped in the traces here, and
had been dragged along by his mates.
Just beyond came a sudden depression
in the prairie down which the wagons
had plunged so heavily as to break
one of the axles; the wheel lay a few
yards away. and, somewhat to the
right, there lay the wreck of the wag-
on itself, two dead mules still in the
traces. the vehicle stripped of con-
tents and charred by fire. A hundred
feet further along was the other
wagon. its tongue broken, the canvas
top ripped open, while between the
two were scattered odds and ends of
wearing apparel and provisions, with
a pile of boxes smoking grimly. The
remaining mules were gone, and no
semblance of life remained anywhere
Keith dropped his reins over his
horses head, and, with Winchester
cooked and ready. advanced eau
tiously
Death from violence had long since
become almost a commonplace occur
renee to Keith, yet now he shrank for
an instant as his eyes perceived the
figure of a man lying motionless
across the broken wagon tongue The
grizZled hair and beard were streaked
with blood, the face almost unrecog-
nizable, while the hands yet grasped
a bent and shattered rifle. Evidently
the man had died fighting, beaten
down by overwhelming numbers after
expanding his last shot Then those
tends had scalped and left him where
he fell Fifty feet beyond, shot in
the back, lay younger man, doubled
up in a heap also scaIped and dead.
That was all; Keith secuted over a
wide circle, even scanning the stretch
Of gravel under the river bank, before
he could fully satisfy himself there
we're no others In the party. It seem
ed impossible that these two travelling
alone would have ventured upon such
a trip in the face of known Indian
hostility. Yet they must have done
so, and once again his lips muttered:
"Of all the blame fools!"
Suddenly he halted, staring about
over the prairie, obsessed by a new
thought, an aroused suspicion. There
had appeared merely the footprints
of the one horse alongside of the flee
ing wagons when they first turned
out from the trail, and that horse had
been newly shod. But there were two
dead ponies lying back yonder; Meth
er shod, yet both had borne saddles.
More than this. they had been spur
red, the blood marks still plainly Wis
ible, and one of them was branded.
he remembered it now, a star and ar
row. What could all this portend !?
Was 1t possible this attack was no
Indian affair after all? Was the dis
figuring of bodies, the scalping. mere
~ done to make it appear the act of
sayages? Driven to investigation by
this suspicion, he passed again over
the trampled ground, marking this
time every separate indentation, ey.
cry fainIest imprint of hoof or foot.
There was no impression of a mecca
sin anywhere; every mark remaining
was of booted feet The inference
was sufficiently plaintiffs had been
the deed of white men, not of red; foul
murder, and not savage war.
The knowledge seemed to scar
Keith's brain with fire, and he sprang
TO his feet, hands clinched and eyes
blazing He could have believed this
of Indians. it was according to their
nature, their method of warfare; but
the cowardliness of it, the atrocity of
the act, as perpetrated by men of his
own race. instantly aroused within
him a desire for vengeance. He
wanted to run the fellows down. to
discover their identity. Without
thinking of personal danger he ran
forward on their trail, which led di-
rectly westward. along the line of
cottonwoods. These served to con-
Ceal his own movements, yet for the
moment, burning with passion, he
was utterly without caution, without
slightest sense of peril. He must
know who was guilty of such a crime;
he felt capable of killing them even as
he would venemous snakes. 1t was a
perfectly plain trail to follow, for the
fugitives. apparently convinced of
safety, and confident their cowardly
deed would be charged to Indian raid
ers, had made no particular effort at
concealment. but had ridden away at
a gallop, their horses hoofs digging
deeply into the soft turf. On this re-
treat they had followed closely alons