The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-02-16
LAUGHTER WON A BATTLE
BY JAMES LEWIS.

"How about an Indian story, COLO
nel?" asked one of the Boy Scouts
"A story with a punch about some
fight that you saw with your own
eyes?"
The colonel reflected as he rubbed
his stiff knee-the kneecap that was
smashed by ball from the rifle or a
swarthy brave.
Every WE'LL" he said. "I'll tell you
about Olaf and Jens, two young
Swedes we had with us when we went
after some Indians that were on a
rampage in Arizona Olaf and Jens
were good fellows, but Indian fighting
was something new to them.
How they got into the army de-
clare don't know. They were always
too far ahead, or too far behind, or
too far to one side; and at first we
had almost to hide them when we met
Indians, for they didn't know enough
to come in out of the bullets.
I'VE were in pursuit of the Indians,
who were retreating through a very
wild and dangerous region. We had
marched steadily since sunrise, and
we were dusty, dry, hungry, tired and
cross. Moreover, we had good reason
to suspect that Indians, and plenty OF
them, were near by.
I'VE approached broad, shallow
arroyo that was full of scrub trees,
bushes, cacti and huge powders. Our
scouts, deploying cautiously, were just
entering the fringe of low thickets on
the edge of the arroyo, when a vol
ley from behind the powders and
chaparral killed them to man. The
enemy had tricked us in spite of our
watchfulness. They were on exactly
their own kind of battle ground. We
knew what sort of murderous job IT
would be to GUST them from those
powders and brush.
1--WE simply had to get into the ar
royo, where we could hide ourselves
and fight the Indians in their own
style, so the men scattered, and, yell
ing like the Indians themselves, ran
at top speed for the arroyo. More
were hit on that short run than we
could afford to lose,
1--WE made another dash, short
one, diagonally across the arroyo, and
flung ourselves behind low bank.
Crawling and running on our hands
and feet, we gradually made flank
movement, until we at last reached
the rocks and had a fighting chance.
Our loss was heavy by that time, and,
SO far as we knew, not single Indian
had been killed
"After two hours of peep-and-shoot-
quick fighting. night began to draw
on. The Indians got holder, too, and
began to close in on us. If we showed
an inch of hat brim, it was shipped
off.
Just then big Missourian named
Bill Humble suddenly bawled out:
"Look at the Swedes, will you?
They've gone plum crazy at last!'
"All the men stopped firing to look.
We saw Olaf and Jens Waging a hith-
erto unknown kind of Indian warfare"
What were they doing?" asked one
of the younger scouts, a bit impatient
ly.
The colonel smiled. "Olaf and Jens
we're hiding behind big bowlder and
they were shooting straight up in the
air as fast as they could load and fire.
I'VE watched them. so amazed that
we almost forgot about the enemy
Bill Humble shouted at them:
Here! What are you two doing?
"Jens blazed away at the zenith
and asked:
"'Vat ban natter
"'Why are you crazy men shootin
up in the SKYE Bill yelled back.
VEIL called back Jens, we cant
see dem Indian fallars, and We cant
shoot drough de rocks, so We shoot uT
in de air so de bullets fall on dem
"A shout Of deep throated laughter
burst from the men who heard him
and the others took it up as the wore
passed along the line In a few min
utes everyone was laughing. Why, {
man who had bullet in his back grin
ned in spite of the pain
1.-THE way that laughter took the In
! dams was as strange as it was unex
| pected They were suspicious and be
] gan to peep furtively round and owe
the powders. One of them. a bi.
hawk beaked savage, exposed himsel
! too much, and soldier left off laugh
ing long enough to shoot him.
He happened to be the chief an,
his braves, probably thinking that hi
end was caused in some way by tn
pale face laughter. broke from thei
hiding places and were soon goinj
hotfoot down the crooked gulch."
The colonel paused and the scou
who had proposed the story asked:
WAS that all?"
WELL" the colonel answered. az
was-about all. It was the last flgh
Of any consequence. I don't suppos
that the oficiai records mention 4
but Olaf and Jens really ended TIE