A PRAIRIE SQUALL?

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 1

A PRAIRIE SQUALL?

j" • ■ ""'•' / '■ <.2fei. Tor fc Sun.) It was just noon when we reaohed White Horse Creek,' six troopers 'escorting California Joe with despatches. Our further I route lay across Little Chief Prairie, a dis- | tance of fourteen miles. The ground seemed as level as a, floor, and the grass stood knee high, and was parched and withered in the hot sun. We threw off the saddles, watered and staked out the horses, and spent an hour over our rations and pipes. "If it was me alone," said Joe, as we began saddling up, "I'd take to the right and skirt that gra3B." " Why ? " asked the sergeant. " Bsliase of that— and that — and them ar," answered the old man as he pointed to a signal smoke in the rear of us, another away to tlie left, and to four or five vultures sailing high in the sky to the south. The Indians had crossed our trail miles to the north. They could not hope to overhaul us, but they were signalling to their friends to the south of us. The south signalled to the east, a3 we stood gazing a column of smoke rose high in the 1 air to the west. It waß the Indian 1 telegraph line at work to capture or destroy us. Even as we countad the vultureß and made five of them, the number was 1 increased to six — seven — eight — ten. They scented a feast. . 1 "Too late now ! " muttered Joe, aa be ' survey <id the signals. " Ready, boys ? Then wa drive straight across, and never : a one bf us will live to see the sun go down i 1 Down with them blankets and give em a > goood eoakin' in the creek before you > mount!" When ready we struck right across the '< centra of the pianrie, taking Bluo Mouh- • tain for our guide. We kept our horses at ' a Bteady canter, making about ten miles » an hour, and were within two miles of the 1 base of the mountain when a horde of ' Indians sndcvenly rose out of the earth across our patfa. They had beon concealed i in a natural sink. There must have been » a full hundred of them, and we had scarcely • come to a halt before they had us sur- ' rounded on three sides. - The route by « which we had come was still open, and the > sergeant was about to give the order to 1 fall back when the old seoufc commanded : i . ■" Down with you and maka ready for a • rush ! If you fall back they'll hey your 1 scalps inside of two miles ! Can't you see i that's what they hey planned fur ?" i In two minutea the horses were down > and we were ready. The Cheyennes did ' not come. Saver, white msn, armed with • carbines and revolvers, would bring monrn--1 ing to many lodges before the laet one ; went under. They would have charged • two or three. They would have circled 1 four or five. They knew California Joe, and had set a price upon his l^ead. They [ would have given much to capture him > alive, but to know that lie wa3 dead would i be cause for gr^at rejoicing. They jeered n and taunted him. They called us white : squaws and dogs. ' They shouted out that they coald Bed tears on our faces and : note that our .guns trembled aa we took aim. r *' What sort of a move are they making ?" queried the sergeant as those on the flanks ; spread out farther. "Ever bin roaated alive?" answered [ Joe. " No.' \ " Waal,, you ar goin' to be now ! That's their dod/ge — to fire tho grass and roast us. ' I spected, that sort of deviltry when I told i tlie boys to wet their- blankets. They won't sive us, though — too much grass. ! Them bucks out on the flanks ar thar to head us off if we try to make a r break." i I turned my gaze upward as the though . of the vultures came to my mind, and the ten had increased to nineteen. They were sailing m a circle and lower than ; before. / > "No pertickler hurry jist at present," > continued Joe as he reached for his plug , of tobacco and began shaving it off and j filling hia pipe. " They will Bend some one j out to demand our surrender fust. Good ! i The wind is droppin' a leetie. Sergeant 3 how does the sky look to tho north ?" I " A cloud creeping up." I I " Goin' to be ft -bsa«?e, hut. aot poon

Snuff. Thar comes the critter who want(j us to swaller his promises and surrender our scalps." A chief detached himself from the force in front androdo toward tia with ono h/_.nd raised as a sign of peace. Ho was only ten rods away .when he: halted. He at first imperiously, demanded our sunw. nder. No one answered him, but Joe afyifced of the sergeant: ' . " Any change, in the _ky ?." " There's a small, Sark cloud w&'ich looks as if it might Bri'ag a equail." • The chief indulged' in threads, bnt as they were unheeded, he turnfeel to prolnieos. . He oft'eted to let tho i/eafc of us go if we would give up the soouti " Cloud spref^din' any> sergeant ?" asked Joe, as he brought out his-, j^aafahbox and handed a splint to every Kianh© could reach. .■ . / ' , •. . / .. ... . , "Ye 3, ,*md heye comes /the wind from "Hold, steady! I'm rfoin* to lift that Injun." 'The minute Iyfire light them' matches arid stick ' e^n fijf the grass ! Drat the C-i'-t9i£ bat he's off if . Eeady withyour matches!* ■'/'".•■'' Tho d/.y. grass alax'osfc exploded as the flameß tpuehed it. Jl wave of fire ran to the souf/h and spread away east and west with s/ach incredible. Jswiftneas that we stood y.mazed. Inaide of _i_c_y seconds tha fierce; gusts which ewept down from the cloud, had carried tliat wave to the cedars at'tl_e base of the mountain. In another min-ite the timber ori the mountain wasablaze There was oh§ grand yoll from th.. Indians as the smoke hid them, and I heard Joe strangling arid shouting: / "Eiver your heads and the heads of fosses. and ] we'll come out all right." .■'■• So we didij A quarter of an hour later the squall had settled into a fresh breeze, / which rolled the smoke againßt and Offer the mouhfcaiijft/fout it was long a.t9r dark before the" horses would take to the hot ground. . Between tlie spot we had occupied and the base of the mountain we counted right and left of our path twentytwo blackened heaps on the gray black surface of the prairie. Some were the bodies, of Indians, some of ponies. There were plenty of heaps we did not see in the darkness— -enough, as, we learned a year later, to make the loss almost a death blow to Whito Dog's ban<3. They had been consumed in the furnace prepared for us.