Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

gO in a clump of. timber and slept for several hours. The sun was not up when he was aroused by the sounds of shots, the rapid discharges of a six shooter, followed by yells of rage. He caught the hoarse voice of a white man barking defiance. Far down the road he glimpsed a horseman riding at a gallop and turning to fire at a string of horsemen as he rode. His sympathies were with the fugitive, and he fumbled his empty belt and glanced impotently at his pony. Even had he been armed he could not have done more than to die with the man, for the pursuers were closing in. The white man’s mount stag- gered and limped, then with a final effort carried his rider behind a stretch of bush growth and out of Mose’s sight. The savages screeching in exultation swept be- hind the bushes. : Mose looked for the man to reappear in the opening nearly abreast of his hiding place. He was startled to see the bushes violently agitated and the man reappear into the open on foot. Then the six shooter was rapidly emptied, and a crashing volley of rifles and shotguns in the road literally shot the man almost in two. Sick at heart, Mose held the nose of his pony and watched the Sioux break through the bushes and drag their victim back to the road and out of sight. There followed much whooping and yelling. “Thank God they didn’t take him alive!”’ whispered Mose. ‘‘And I ain’t got even a rock to make a fight with!”’ Other Indians kept coming up the road to vanish behind the bush-growth. At last the band remounted and rode into view up the road. Mose estimated that there were three aundred of them. They were hasten- ing to carry torture and death to the Yellow Medicine agency. Several were waving scalps, many were crazed from drinking. Mose waited until the last of the strag- glers had disappeared up the road; then he mounted and rode through the bushes in search of the unfortunate. The man was leaning against a willow tree. He was dead and scalped; and yet he stood upright, his head sagging on his shattered chest. Look- ing more closely, Mose discovered that the body was held in place by wagon-bolts riveting it to the tree trunk. Had Abner Page or Peter Clush or Murray Fall been present either would have identified the Ul Adventure victim as Mart, the horse-thief, alias “Oaks.” “The terrible devils!’’ whispered Mose as he quit the road and rode south. Inside of a mile he was chased by two In- dians, who left the road to run him down. But either his lead discouraged them or the clouds of smoke in the west invited them, for they soon abandoned the pursuit and turned back to participate in the looting of the upper agency. CHAPTER VIII FLIGHT he TER the search for Mose had proven futile, as confessed by Wapasha through the window to Mrs. De Camp, the latter drew Murray aside from the sleeping children and whispered: “You can get away. It will be easier for you than for your friend. He had to fight. No one will harm you. Perhaps you can reach Fort Ridgely or New Ulm and bring help.” “But I mustn’t leave you and the girls.” “We will be taken to a big camp. The Andrews girl is past helping. The rest of us will be safe. The Indians are beginning to remember that prisoners are valuable when they come to make peace. Several of their leaders will help us. We can count on Wapasha, Wacouta and Big Eagle. Mankato and Little Six, not even Little Crow, can harm us. We’re not their prisoners. You can help us most by going.” Murray stepped to the door and opened it a bit. There appeared to be no guards around the house. Many of the Indians were sleeping off their debauch on agency alcohol. Others were writhing in pain from the medicinal stores they had sampled. Those capable of pursuit were eagerly listening to an orator holding forth by a central fire, who was urging an immediate attack on the upper agency, or Fort Ridgely. The leaders were not agreed on the next objective: some were for plundering the upper agency forthwith; some insisted it should be left alone until Fort Ridgely and New Ulm were taken. When the orator had finished Little Crow suddenly took his place and said: “The strong house at the Yellow Medicine agency must be burned. They are brick CoOMmichook Wh) CO 5}