A CHEYENNE WAR-PARTY.
The war-party, detected by the wonderful eyesight of the Cheyenne scout
while they were yet miles away from him, had been for more than a week
engaged in attacking stages and wagon-trains on the Smoky Hill Trail.
Hiding behind some slight elevation, or in a cottonwood thicket near the
road, with keen-eyed scouts always on the lookout, they would burst like
a whirlwind on their unsuspecting victims, pour in a withering volley of
bullets and arrows, and disappear, almost before a return shot could be
fired. Sometimes they would maintain a running fight for miles with a
stage, their fleet ponies easily keeping pace with its frantic mules,
and many a one thus fell into their hands. Its fate was always the same.
If any of its defenders survived the fight they were either killed or
reserved for the worse fate of captives. Its mail-sacks were ripped open
and their contents scattered far and wide. Finally it was set on fire
and destroyed.
Sometimes the stages escaped; in which case their passengers had
marvellous tales to tell. One of these, that reached the safety of
General Lyle's wagon-train just in time to avoid capture, had but one
living passenger, a woman who was not even wounded during the almost
continuous storm of arrows and bullets of a ten-mile running fight. Four
dead men, one of whom was her husband, were inside the coach, and
another was on the box with the driver. The latter was wounded, and the
mules fairly bristled with arrows. The stage itself was shivered and
splintered in every part by the shower of lead that had been poured into
it, and many a blood-stained letter from its mail-sacks afterwards
carried a shudder into distant Eastern homes.
This, then, was the work of the war-party who were gathered about Glen
Eddy; and, even now, they were impatiently awaiting the appearance of
the stage from the east that was due that day. For this occasion they
had planned a new form of attack. It was not to be made until the stage
reached the ranch. There, while its mules were being changed, and its
occupants were off their guard, the Indians proposed to dash out from
the nearest place of concealment and attempt the capture of both it and
the station at the same time. It was a well-conceived plan, and might
have been successfully carried out, but for the arrival of the three
scouts, who were now so proudly exhibiting their prisoner and telling
the story of his capture. Before they had half finished, a few dazzling
flashes of light from the mirrors of the distant lookouts announced that
the eastern stage was in sight.
A minute later the warriors were mounted and riding cautiously towards a
point but a short distance from the ranch, where they could still remain
concealed from it until the moment of making their final dash. The three
scouts, being on other duty, were not expected to take part in the
fight, nor had they any intention of so doing, much as they would have
liked to; but they could not resist the temptation to witness it. So
they, with their prisoner, followed close behind the others to their new
place of concealment. When they reached it, these three, with Glen,
stood a little apart from the rest, so as not to interfere with their
movements.
Up to this moment, the boy had not the least idea of what was about to
take place, nor where he was. There was nothing to indicate that a stage
ranch and a well-travelled wagon road lay just beyond the ridge before
him. He wondered what these Indians were up to; but he wondered still
more when they would go into camp, and give him a chance to dismount
from the back of that hard-trotting mule; for his aches and pains had
again become very hard to bear. In spite of his thoughts being largely
centred upon himself, Glen could not help noticing the uneasy movements
of his steed, and his impatient snuffings of the air, that began as soon
as they came to a halt. The scouts noticed them, too, and watched the
mule narrowly.
Suddenly the animal threw up his great head, and in another instant
would have announced his presence to all the country thereabout by a
sonorous, far-reaching bray. Before he could open his mouth, however,
one of the scouts sprang from his pony and seized him by the nose. In
the struggle that followed, the end of the lariat held by Wolf-Tongue
was jerked from his hand. At the same moment the mule succeeded in
shaking off the scout with such violence that he staggered for nearly a
rod before recovering his balance. Then, so quickly that Glen was very
nearly flung from his back, the animal sprang to the crest of the little
ridge, and dashed, with astonishing speed, towards the corral that had
been his home for so long, and which he had scented so plainly the
moment he reached its vicinity.
Of course the entire body of Indians was in instant pursuit--not of the
mule, but of the prisoner that he was bearing from them. Like a
thunderclap out of a clear sky, they rushed down that slope, every pony
doing his best, and their riders yelling like demons. From the first,
Wolf-Tongue took the lead. It was his prisoner who was escaping, his
first one. He must have him again. He would almost rather die than lose
him. So he lashed his pony furiously with the quirt, or Indian
riding-whip of raw-hide fastened to his wrist, and leaned far over on
his neck, and yelled, and beat the animal's sides with his moccasined
feet, until he had gained a lead of all the others and was almost within
reach of the mule. Another moment and he would have that trailing lariat
in his hand.
Glen, too, was kicking the sides of his ungainly steed, and yelling at
him in a perfect frenzy of excitement. He saw the stage ranch, the
winding wagon trail, and the shining river beyond the instant he was
borne over the crest of the ridge, and knew what they meant for him. To
reach that little clump of buildings first, meant life, liberty, and
restoration to his friends. He must do it, and he fully believed he
could. He leaned as far as possible over the mule's neck, and shouted
encouraging words into his ears. What wonderful speed the long-legged
animal was showing! Who would have thought it was in him?
"Well done, mule!" yelled Glen. "A few more seconds and we'll be there!
They can't catch us now!"
Then came a burst of flame from the earth in front of him. The white
mule gave a convulsive bound and fell dead in his tracks, while poor
Glen was flung far over his head to the ground, which he struck so
heavily as to partially stun him.
Without checking the speed of their ponies in the least, two stalwart
warriors bent over, and, seizing the boy by the arms, raised him between
them as they swept past. A moment later the entire band, minus only
their white mule, had again reached their place of concealment, and poor
Glen, breathless, bruised, and heart-broken with disappointment, was
more of a prisoner than ever. Besides this, Wolf-Tongue, the only one
amid all those stern-featured warriors who had shown the least particle
of pity for him, was wounded--a rifle-ball having passed through the
calf of one of his legs.
[Illustration: "TWO STALWART WARRIORS SEIZED HIM BY THE ARMS AND RAISED
HIM BETWEEN THEM AS THEY SWEPT PAST"]
This sudden derangement of his plans caused the leader of the war-party
to abandon them altogether, and decide upon a new one. It would be
useless to attempt to surprise the stage and station now. Besides, it
might be just as well to leave the trail in peace for a few days, in
order that the large party of white men, of whom the scouts had just
brought information, might come on with less caution than they would use
if constantly alarmed. He would send runners to the villages of the
Kiowas, Arrapahoes, and Comanches, and tell them of the rich prize
awaiting their combined action. In the meantime he would return to his
own village and raise a war-party that, in point of numbers and
equipment, should be a credit to the great Cheyenne nation.
So the runners were despatched, and the rest of the party set out in a
northwesterly direction towards their distant villages on the American
Fork.
Shortly before the Indians halted for the night, even Glen almost forgot
his heartache and painful weariness of body in the excitement of seeing
his first buffalo, and witnessing an Indian buffalo-hunt on a small
scale. It was just at sunset, when the scout, who rode ahead, signalled,
from the top of an elevation, by waving his blanket in a peculiar
manner, that he had discovered buffalo.
Obeying a command from their leader, half a dozen warriors at once
dashed ahead of the party; and, joining the scout, disappeared over the
ridge. As the others gained the summit, they saw that the plain beyond
it was covered with a vast herd of buffalo, quietly feeding, singly or
in groups, and spreading over the country as far as the eye could reach.
There were thousands of them, and Glen was amazed at the wonderful
sight.
Those nearest to the advancing Indians had already taken the alarm, and
in less than a minute more the whole vast mass was in motion, with loud
bellowings and a lumbering gallop, that, shaking the earth, sounded like
the rush and roar of mighty waters. The fleet war-ponies speedily bore
the hunters into the thick of the flying mass, so that for a few seconds
they were swallowed up and lost to view in it. Then they reappeared
surrounding, and driving before them, a fat young cow, that they had cut
out from the rest of the herd. They did not use their rifles, as the
reports might have attracted undesirable attention to their presence.
From their powerful bows arrow after arrow was buried in the body of the
selected victim, some of them even passing completely through it, until
at length the animal fell, and the chase was ended.