Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-11-07

whites roped up their four reds and
filed out of the village toward the
southern mountains. They had their
men to do as they would. The general
understanding of the situation by the
Indians was that the four would be
lined up and shot at the first favorable
opportunity, unless the white men
previously met the same fate.
But the white men were keenly IA
miliar with the game they had to play
and were playing it as 1T had to be
tor lived by his knowledge Of wood
craft and nerve. The three brought
their prisoners back across the line.
Remorseless execution and speedy
flight offered now the safest recourse
The Indians comprehended this and
met 1t with the pretense Of pleading fol
their lives. 1t was pretense purely
for Montana puts little of the yellow In
her human products, white or red
From plodding along in stole assur-
ance of being vengefully rescued, the
prisoners offered to show where the
murdered mems supplies had been
cached If their lives were spared, and
intimated that one member of the five
might still be found alive.
Understanding Indian nature as they
did, the three prospectors accepted
the chance of truth in this. They
moved on, one in the lead another
among the prisoners and third in the
rear.
The Indians probably reasoned that
apparent acquiescence in their propos-
al indicated relaxation Of purpose and
vigilance on the part Of the white
men. On this theory one of them
managed to slip his hands loose and
grab a gun from a pack horse. He
probably never realized the error, for
Fishers rifle belched in the same in
slant. They went into camp, three
whites relentlessly cautious, three In
dians murderous and helpless and not
beyond the range Of sensations Of any
sort.
One of the Indians weakened under
the night watch and said that the fifth
man who escaped left the country
Dead or alive, there would be no pros
scribed how the doomed miners had
been ambushed, shot and burned
somewhat because of red hatred OF
whites. but largely because of the ca
bins store of food. Cochran cooked
his rifle as he listened and his COM
panions displayed similar sentiments
but the six were all on the trail again
a. daylight.
Waiting to be killed. however. 1t Is
something not even Indian indiffer-
ence is long equal to. In the afternoon
of the second day two Of the remain
ing prisoners began sullenly hopeless
attempt to free themselves. Warnings
were only wasted on them now.
The white men were In a position to
consider but one other alternative
ha1 t,tv Of fy~an RI
watch with their own lives staked on
the consequences Of single oversight
Men under a strain Of that dimension
are precarious persons to trifle with
The two Indians effected their freedom
through the medium Of a lariat sus-
pended from a limb.
The third remained passive until
they came back to the old camp. Real
izing then that the ruse Of finding sup
plies long since devoured could be nc
longer kept up he struggled to reach a
gun as they lifted him off a pony. In
consequence he died on the spot where
he had helpd kill the men lately buried
there.
Three of the white victims and their
four murderers had been accounted
for. The fourth white man was found
later in the bushes near the camp. A
bullet had broken his leg. and he
crawled into hiding to starve to death
Fisher, Cochran and McDougall
went on prospecting up the Kootenai.
They found fortunes in discovering the
Wild Horse mining district.
A cruel, bloody story of neither use
nor ornament?
Rather unyielding. deadly circum-
stances, wrought in time and place
where the white man had to be true
to every predominating impulse Of his
kind or cease to be man Of any sort.
Parbarism never has been overcome
with caresses, and no men understood
this better than those who accepted
Montana's heavy odds in the game of
life or death.-Spokane Spokesman
Review.