Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881Gillett, James B.
History
Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881
Gillett, James B.
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Gillett, James B., 1856-1937; Texas -- History -- 1846-1950; Texas Rangers
In a minute we had killed two horses and one Indian was seen to be
badly wounded. In another minute the redskins had mounted their horses
and were fleeing in every direction. Captain Roberts now ordered us to
mount and follow them. The roar of the guns greatly excited my pony
and he turned round and round. I lost a little time in mounting, but
when I did get settled in the saddle I saw an Indian running on foot.
He carried a Winchester in his hand and waved to another Indian who
was riding. The latter turned and took the one on foot up behind him.
As they started away for a race I thought to myself that no grass
pony on earth could carry two men and get away from me and Old Coley.
The Indians had a good animal, but I gradually closed on them. The
redskin riding behind would point his gun back and fire at me, holding
it in one hand. I retaliated by firing at him every time I could get
a cartridge in my old Sharps carbine. I looked back and saw Ed Seiker
coming to my aid as fast as old Dixie would run. He waved encouragement
to me.
Finally the old brave ceased shooting, and as I drew a little closer
he held out his gun at arm's length and let it drop, probably thinking
I would stop to get it. I just gave it a passing glance as I galloped
by. He then held out what looked to be a fine rawhide rope and dropped
that, but I never took the bait. I just kept closing in on him. He now
strung his bow and began using his arrows pretty freely. Finally he
saw I was going to catch him, and turned quickly into a little grove
of mesquite timber. I was considered a fairly good brush rider, and
as we went in among the trees I drew right up within twenty steps of
the brave, jumped from my mount and made a sort of random shot at the
horse, Indian and all. The big .50 caliber bullet struck the Indian
pony just where its head couples on its neck, passed through the head
and came out over the left eye. It killed the horse at once and it
fell forward twenty feet.
The old warrior, hit the ground running, but I jumped my horse and ran
after him. As I passed the dead horse I saw the front rider struggling
to get from under it. To my surprise I saw he was a white boy between
fifteen and sixteen years old with long bright red hair.
By this time Ed Seiker had arrived and was dismounting. The fugitive
warrior now peeped from behind a tree and I got a fine shot at his face
but overshot him six inches, cutting off a limb just over his head. He
broke to run again, and as he came into view Ed placed a bullet between
his shoulders. He was dead in a minute. As Ed and I walked up to the
dead Indian we found he had also been shot in one ankle and his bow had
been partly shot in two. In his quiver he had left only three arrows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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