Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-11-07

The reader who has been following
the tales of James Kings overland
caravan en- route on the Santa Fe
trail half a century ago. will find the
present installment an interesting one.
The last chapter told Of finding the
skeleton in the cave and the herd Of
elk. In the present the ways of the
party perpetrate a trick on the super
stitious fear Of Irish Mike who had
natural dislike for skeletons. but the
jokers paid the price without getting
the results sought. The finding Of
friend with train of supplies when
the party's rations were down to a
! low ebb. is the happy event Of the
trip as recorded in this installment
which follows:
The elks brought US good luck. at
least they got the credit, for soon
after they disappeared we came to an
other beautiful lake OF clear water. 1t
was fed by small stream meanderlng
through the high uplifts to the north,
while to the southwest the overflow
wound It's way gracefully onward to
the sea.
Here we campel for there was good
grazing for the time Of the year
There was plenty Of ironwood and
cedar for fuel on the surrounding hills
There were plenty Of jackrabbits and
also the same kind of bird We had
found on the Cinmaron river. Cor
man and Gray went out into the up
| lifts and soon returned with fine
young deer and it was venison on top
OF venison and when had finished
nv evening meal felt as satisfied as
young minister after his first chick
en- dinner at some good brothers
home.
kept my skeleton in the wagon
where friend Morrow and slept. IT.
ish Mike had no use for my pet and
was aways Gliding me about carrying
/ the devil in the wagon. Zigler the
bugler was an adept ventriloQuist, and
after dusk he engineered as we sup
posed first class stunt with Mike as
, the victim. took the skeleton out
,, Of the wagon and Jim Marrow and
some of the other boys tied string
to il and placed it near Mike who was
enjoying an evening game by the hre'
light. When the proper time came
the skeleton was dragged by the string
clear to where Mike was squatted and
Zigler got in his work as ventrilo-
auist for as the bones came close to
Mike he sang out Save me Mike!
Save ME Mike" Right here is where
Mike didn't scare but fooled us all
Those of us who were on the inside
expected to see Mike let out a huge
veil and start for the hills but Mike
failed to 60 to the hills as the bunch
of bones implored him to. With one
leap he Strengthened up and springing
| 1t in the air he came down with his
heavy COWBOY boots and his one hun
dred and eighty pounds OF avoirdupois
and landed gracefully on my beloved
skeleton and before any one could in.
terfere he had the bones of the de-
parted ground to powder under his
foots. When Mike got the skeleton
| thoroughly pulverized he assumed a
dignified attitude and looking down al
the bone dust he said, How. We bloom.
ing divil. did you know me name was
Mike" There he stood like victor
gazing about to see whom else he
might devour and he spied German
! holding the string and with one leap
: he landed on the projecting part of
Germans anatomy. Suffice il TO say
that German had to sleep that night
| in an inverted position and the next
day he had to stand up TO drive his
team instead of sitting comfortably on
| the spring seat Thus ended our sur,
prise on Irish Mike.
! The uplifts appeared to he literally
| alive with large gray wolves while the
4; edge OF the pond showed that deer and
! wolves came there tor water while n
/ larger split hoof track plainly showed
! that the elks also came hither to drink
from the heaithful waters Of this beau
tiful lake. We named the lake Elk lake
but We afterwards learned that IL had
been named Rabbit Ear lake. We were
: now in a much rougher country thai