Buckskin Mose: Or, Life From the Lakes to the Pacific, as Actor, Circus-Rider, Detective, Ranger, Gold-Digger, Indian Scout, and Guide.Perrie, George W.
History
Buckskin Mose: Or, Life From the Lakes to the Pacific, as Actor, Circus-Rider, Detective, Ranger, Gold-Digger, Indian Scout, and Guide.
Perrie, George W.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Latter Day Saints -- Fiction; Western stories
About one hundred yards west of the station, we found the body of
Simmons, lying on his face upon the ground. A small bullet-hole was just
outside of his heart. He must have been slain instantly. Myself and the
other boys felt his death as keenly as we had done anything, for some
time. Scarcely eight days since, we had been sitting with him, and
talking of the butchery of the Chinese; and now we saw that his life had
been sacrificed by the red devils as relentlessly, although in a less
cowardly manner. As for Le Roy, when he saw the body, he flung himself
on the ground beside it, and throwing his arms around the lifeless form
of his friend, burst into a savage flood of tears. Within the burned-up
timber of the station lay poor Curry, who had been slain there. The
third man had evidently attempted to escape by flight. But the Indians
had been too quick for him. Judging by their tracks, which were still
clearly visible, he had been pursued, overtaken, and brought back. Less
fortunate than the others, his death had not been so speedy. He had been
stretched upon the earth with his face downwards. His hands and feet had
been fastened by thongs to stakes driven into it. Brush and branches,
hewn from the trees, had been then heaped upon his body and set fire to.
It would be unnecessary to say, that had anything been wanting to
quicken our desire for retaliation, this must have done so. After
attending to a hurried burial, we took the trail, which led us evidently
in the direction the white Mahala had indicated to me, when I had asked
her to tell me where Smoke-creek Sam and his gang were generally to be
found.
Two days after, we camped for the night in a small valley in the
mountains above Black Rock.
This valley was some six miles, or more, distant from an almost level
piece of ground, to which the name of Soldier Meadows had been given.
After attending to the demands of our stomachs, for we had been on our
own legs or those of our horses since daybreak, I went out with some
other of the Rangers, as scouts, to discover if we were yet near the
red-skins. Possibly an hour and a half may have elapsed, when some
camp-fires were seen by me in the direction of the upper part of Queen's
River. Shoshonee John had accompanied me, and detected them as quickly
as I had done.
"Pah-ute Ingin!" he at once said.
"Or Smoke-creek Sam!" I could not help replying.
"All, heap same. Pah-ute as bad, only Smoky-creek Sam some worse."
Without pausing to discuss his exceeding Irish summary of the merits of
the original tribe, and those who had absconded or been expelled from
it, we immediately returned to our camp, being joined upon our way by
Butch' Hasbrouck, who had also detected the same camp-fires.
"How far off, Butch', did you believe the red-skins were?"
"Ten miles will bring yer to 'em."
"He right!" sententiously observed the Indian who had accompanied me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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