2-Gun Western, February 1954 — page 61: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MEET YOU ON THE MISSOURI Colter could run—but fast. The big party of Indians let up a wild frenzy of yells and started after him, He had six miles to go across a prairie studded with prickly pear—with bare feet—to get to a stream. He headed. toward the. Jefferson Fork at full speed, and .was more than halfway there before he dared look behind him. What he saw gave him a little more hope. The Indians were spread out and some distance behind him, except one In- dian who was close to him, carry- ing a spear. The speed that Colter had exert- ed to put him so far ahead of the party of Indians was telling on him. Blood gushed from his nose and covered his face and chest. He was still about a mile from the river, and hearing the Indian close behind him, he cringed, waiting for the blow of the spear. Then he turned quickly and spread out his arms. The Indian, probably shocked by the sudden halt and the dreadful appearance of Colter’s naked body covered with blood, stopped _ too, stumbled, and in attempting to throw the spear at Colter, stuck it in the ground. Colter jerked the spear from the ground and pinned the Indian fatally in the dirt. In almost the same movement, though almost fainting and exhaust- ed, Colter ran for the sheltering cottonwood trees and the river. The Indians reached their dead com- panion and stopped to set up a yell. Colter reached the river, plunged into it, and, with the luck he had certainly earned by now, saw that there was a small island against the upper point of which a drift of logs had lodged. He swam under after several tries got his head above water under the drift and managed to settle himself without being seen. All day the Indians, who were enraged at his disappear- ance, screeched and yelled around him. They crossed the drift many times, Colter able to see them through the chinks, but they did not find him. The horrible thought the drift and 61 came to Colter that they might set the drift on fire. So until night he lived with this suspense—but it did not materialize. By nightfall, the Indians went off in the other direction. It was quiet. Colter chanced coming out from under the raft and swam down river as quietly as possible. He swam a long distance, came on shore, and travelled all. night. It was a. seemingly impossible es- cape that he had made, but his situ- ation still was anything but good. He was completely naked, there was a burning sun, he was hungry but had no means of killing food, he had to cross a snowed-in pass in the mountains, his bare feet were filled with thorns from the prickly pear, and he was seven days from > Lisa’s fort. Any but an American might have given up right then, but seven days later Colter arrived at the fort. A tall tale? There have been many told about Colter, but this one was related by a man who knew Colter and had talked to him, and it was a story Colter himself had > told. His appearance when he reached the fort substantiated the story, although it was a while be- fore even the frontiersmen fully believed it. ORE STORIES as incredible about Colter might be read if Colter had kept a journal. We might also know more detail of his cross- ing what today is Yellowstone Park if there were more evidence than what he said to others. The Indians knew about Yellow- stone and its geysers and _ hot springs, but they avoided it be- cause of fear and_ superstition. When Colter came upon it, it prob- ably was not with superstition but with wonder and awe. He crossed this territory on a mission he made at the request of Manuel Lisa, who wanted him to go to the Indian tribes in their winter quarters and tell them that Manuel’s Fort was open for trading. Colter’s exploits and adventures are pieced ~ together from written Go NOOKS AUG (C@)