The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1914-06-11
CHAPTER v.
The Trail Of a War Party.


F.: Before the suns rays touched the
summit of the bluff we were climbing
the sides of the ravine, with light
packs on our shoulders. Brady led the
way, tireless and watchful, his long
rifle held ready in the crook of his
arm, his alert eyes searching out the
ground ahead. Behind him numbered
Schultz, heavy-footed, and grumbling
Dutch oaths at every misstep, yet
somehow managing to keep up; while
l brought up the rear, my gaze intent
on the surrounding ridges.
| For three days we encountered moth
; ing to alarm. Brady purposely kept
away from all trails, trusting implicitly
: to his instinct as a woodsman to dis
cover safe passage. He possessed
the instincts of the wild. the subtlety
Of the savage, born of constant peril
and loneliness.
; Once, where we forded a consider.
able stream, which think now must
have been the Vermilion, we came up
on the blackened remains of camp
+: fire, apparently deserted but a few
:hours before. Brady examined 1t with
great care, trailing the party to the
river bank, and then making a wide
circuit of the woods, before he finally
:returned satisfied.
LESS than three hours gone" he
:said soberly, land travelling north"
"Do you know who they were?"
asked. How many were in the party?"
F.; Miamis and Ojibwas, reckon, and
they had prisoner, bound to that
small tree out yonder; see here, Hay
ward, the fellow had boots on, and not
moccasins. From the trail they made
here on the bank there must have been
twelve or fifteen Indians; ay, and a
white renegade" he bent down again
to study track in the mud, 'for this
is no redskins foot, with the toes
stunned out" He swore the only oath
:had heard thus far from his lips, pluck
ing few long hairs from off a spittle
of underbrush, and holding them up in
to the sunlight. "A war party all right,
with scalps. One fellow brushed
against this bush as he came down
the bank; from the color they must
have been raiding the German settle
ments''
I stared at the floating hairs, shud-
dering in horror, and hands gripped
hard on my rifle.
Good God! and they are going our
:way?"
That needn't trouble us, while they
leave plain trail behind. Those devils
feel safe enough now, or they'd take
more care. We are in no danger while
they keep ahead of u.s."
We made detour to the right,
plunging straight forward into the IN
broken woods. Brady led at fast
gait, his trained iron muscles tireless,
:while | urged the breathleSs soldier to
new eXertions, frightening him by con-
slant reference to the raiders SO close
lat hand. The perspiration rolled down
his face, yet he kept close at Brady's
heels, falling fiat on the ground dur
ling our brief halts, but determined not
: to be left behind. There was certainly
good stuff in the fellow, although he
swore Stifliy, and had tread like an
elephant. Just before dark, the forest
about us already in gloom, we sudden
: ly emerged from out the shadow OF
great trees, and stood on the shore Of
: a lake girded with woods. A few hun
bred feet from where we stood small
rocky island, dense with trees, rose
above the mirrored surface. After one
swift glance about the line of shore
Brady's eyes rested on this haven
as though questioning its feasibility ~