Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
We made our bed in the center, keeping a guard out all night. Jim
Beckwith was the first man on duty, and my turn came second. By
the time I went to relieve Jim the moon was up, and he told me to
keep a keen lookout in the direction of the creek, "For," said he,
"I am almost sure I saw an Indian in that direction about half an
hour ago."
Of course this put me on my guard, and I kept my eye peeled in
great shape. About my second trip around the horses I looked in
the direction of the creek and thought I saw an Indian coming on
all fours.
He would only come a few steps and then stop. Being below me, I
could not get him between me and the moon, so I concluded I would
meet him half way. I got down on all fours and watched him, and
when he would start I would move ahead, keeping my eye on him, and
when he would stop I would stop also.
This I did so that to move at the same time he did, he could not
hear the noise made by me. When I was close enough I laid flat on
the ground, shut my left hand, and placing it on the ground,
resting my gun on my fist, took good aim and I got him.
At the crack of my gun the whole crowd were on their feet, and a
moment later were at the scene of war. We went to the place where
it lay, and beheld a very large white wolf lying there, "dead as a
door nail."
This was the first time I had ever made such a mistake, and it was
some time before I heard the last of it.
The next morning when we got up, instead of being one band of
Indians in sight, there were two. We made up our minds that we had
discovered the finest trapping ground in America, and had a poor
show to get away from it, but we went ahead and got our breakfast,
just as though there were no Indians in sight of us, but we
concluded we had better leave this part of the country, so we
pulled out southwest across the valley, having no trouble until we
struck the West Gallatin river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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