The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1914-04-09
LAUGHTER WON A BATTLE
BY JAMES LEWIS.

4
How about an Indian story, colo
nel?" asked one of the Boy Scouts
"A story with 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 rife Of a
swarthy brave
Very WELL" 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 vol.
ley from behind the powders and
chaparral killed them to a 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 il
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, shori
! one, diagonally across the arroyo, and
flung ourselves behind a low bank
Crawling and running on our hands
and feet, we gradually made a 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 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
were hiding behind big bowlder ant
they were shooting straight up in the
air as fast as they could load and fire
1--WE watched them, so amazed thai
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:
Wat ban matterH
"'Why are you crazy men shootin
up in the SKYE Bill yelled back.
we'll called back Jens, we can
see dem Indian fallars, and We can
shoot drough de rocks, so We shoot VI
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 1t up as the wore
passed along the line. In few min
utes everyone was laughing. Why, l.;
man who had bullet in his back grin
ned in spite of the pain.
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 ovel
the powders One of them, a biz
hawk beaked savage, exposed himse
too much, and a soldier left off laugh
ing long enough to shoot him.
He happened to be the chief, anc
his braves, probably thinking that hi
end was caused in some way by thu
pale face laughter, broke from thei
hiding places and were soon goin,
hotfoot down the crooked gulch"
The colonel paused and the scou
who had proposed the story asked:
Was that all?"
We'll" the colonel answered, 81
was-about all. 1t was the last fgh
OF any consequence. | don't suppos,
that the official records mention II
but Olaf and Jens really ended tina
war"