In the Old West

the Arkansa, were camped a band of trappers on a creek called Bijou. It was the month of October, when the early frosts of the coming winter had crisped and dyed with sober brown the leaves of the c

d in the language of the mountains, "to make meat." Round the camp fed twelve or fifteen mules and horses, their fore-legs confined by hobbles of rawhide; and, guarding these animals, two men paced backwards and forwards, driving in the stragglers, ascending ever and anon the bluffs which overhung the river, and leaning o

sure to the extreme climate of the mountains; his long black hair, as yet scarcely tinged with gray, hanging almost to his shoulders, but his cheeks and chin clean shaven, after the fashion of the mountain-men. His dress was the usual hunting-frock of buckskin, with long fringes down the seams, with pantaloons similarly ornamented, and moccasins

lot of boys was camped thar, about a quarter from the town, and the way the whisky flowed that time was some now, I can tell you. Thar was old Sam Owins-him as got rubbed out * by the Spaniards at Sacramenty, or Chihuahuy, this hos

from the Indian

D

, it

; and, adapted from the Indian figurative language, wasn't Bill Garey along, too? Didn't him and Chabonard sit in camp for twenty hours at a deck of euker? Them was Bent's Indian traders up on Arkansa. Poor Bill Bent! them Spaniards made meat of him. He lost h

wasn't no

ick as shootin'. He 'counted a coup,' did St. Vrain. He throwed a Pueblo as had on poor Bent's shirt. I guess he tickled that nigger's hump-ribs. Fort William *

called "Spaniards"

pearance) by th

n trading fort

is s

is next trip, and made a raise of his dollars, wagh! Uncle Sam hung'em for it, I heard, but can't b'lieve it

s animals on Cimmaron: a hundred and forty

child as saw the putrefied forest in the Black Hills. Black Harris come in from Laramie; he'd been trapping three year an' more on Platte and the other sid

ris, I hear you're

'this nigger's no trav'ler; I ar' a

v'lers, and you goes over a sight of ground i

d on Columbia, on Lewis Fork, and Green River; I've trapped, marm, on Grand River and the Heely (Gila). I've fout the Blackfoot (and d---d bad Injuns they are); I've raised th

what you mean. The

a string, and, fl

ition, should a be

w

ter Harri

y foot deep, and the bufler lay dead on the ground like bees after a beein'; not whar we was tho', for thar was no bufler, and no meat, and me and my band had been livin' on our moccasins (leastwise the parflesh **) for six weeks; and poor doins that feedin' is, marm, as you'll never know. One day we

cal

ade of buf

e crittur elegant; its darned head spinning away from the body, but never stops singing; and when I take

he blade as big as my hand. We looks at the animals, and thar they stood shaking over the grass, which I'm dog-gone if it wasn't stone, too. Young Sublette comes up, and he'd been clerking down to th

ll this, bo

e, looking smart; "putref

putrefactions! why, did the leaves and

a tree and puts it in my trap-sack, and carries it in safe to Laramie. Well, old Captain Stewart (a clever man was that, though he was an Englishman), he comes along next spring, and a Dutch doctor chap was along too. I

e Poche Frenchman, who shot him for his bacca and traps. Darn them Frenchmen, they're no accou

o. What was his name? All the boys called him Cap'en, and he got his fixings from old Choteau; but what he wanted out thar in the mountains, I never jest rightly know'd. He was no trader, nor a trapper, and flung about his dollars right smart. Thar was old grit in him, too, and a hair of the black b'ar at that. ** They say he took the bark off the Shians when he cleared out of the village with old Beaver

Company, having a

Company, is known

rn trappers. Their

ian c

ce of th

t to that camp to see the boys afore they put out; and you know,

nty, old coon,'

uts my traps into the sack, gets credit for a couple of pounds of powder at Owin's store, and hyar I ar on

have to put out pretty early to reach Black Tail by this time to-morrow. Who's fust guard, boys? them cusse

eek, one dam water-party, parceque they no hosses, and have de

I'm thinking, if the devils are a

r close-is out; mais I

ock round here too often. That Injun put me afoot when we wa

head, and roll out some of your d

ghts that sp

critturs turn back their heads and jump right away from me. 'Hurraw, Dick!' I shouts, 'hyar's brown-skin acomin', and off I makes for the mule. The young greenhorn sees the goats runnin' up to him, and not being up to Injun ways, blazes at the first and knocks him over. Jest th

frequently call

tain

n his back handsome, and Dick gets the ball down at last, blazes away, and drops another. Then we charged on 'em, and they clears off like ru

I tuk'em all out slick, and away we go to camp (for they was jost a-campin' when we went ahead), and carryin' the goat too. Thar was a hurroo when

hite at that? Look to your guns, boys; send out a strong

from their rifles; and when the crowd broke, the two boys were on the ground and their hair gone. Well, that ar Englishman just saved the cavayard. He had his horse, a regular buffalo-runner, picketed round the fire quite handy, and as soon as he sees the fix, he jumps upon her and rides right into the thick of the mules, and passes through'em, firing his two-shoot gun at the Injuns; and, by gor, he made two come. The mules, which was a-snortin' with funk and running before the Injuns, as soon as they see the Englishman's mare (mules'll go to h-- after a horse, you all know), followed her right into the Corral, and thar they was safe. Fifty Pawnees came screechin' after'em, but we

of our boys got rubbed out that time, and seven Injuns lay wolf's meat, while a many more went away gu

g the wagons destined for Santa Fé, have trailed us up the Arkansa to Bent's Fort; thence up Boiling Spring, across the divide over to the southern fork of the Platte, away up to the Black Hills, and finally camped us, with hair still preserved, in the beaver-abounding valleys of the Sweet Water, and Cache la Poudre, under the rugged shadow of the Wind River Mountains; if it had not so happened, at this juncture, as all our mountaineers sat cross-legged round

d his tall leather-clad form, and, placing his hand over his mouth, made the prairie ring with the wild protracted note of an Indian war-whoop. This was instantly repeated from the direction where the animals belonging to the camp were grazing, under the charge of the horse-guard. Three shrill whoops answered the warning of the leader, and showed that the guard was on the watch, and understood the signal. However, with the manifestation of their presence, the Indians appeared to be satisfied; or, what is more probable, the act of aggression had been committed by some daring young warrior, who, being out on his first expedition, desired to strik

rowled Killbuck, biting hard the pipestem between his te

untaineer. "However, one of you quit this arrow out of my hump," he continued, bending forwards to the fire, and exhibiting

ed" out. This was accordingly effected with the ready blade of a scalp-knife; and a handful of beaver-fur being placed on the wound, and secured by a strap of buckski

the valley, and the upper branches of the cotton woods, with their withered leaves, began to rustle with the first breath of the coming storm. Huge drops of rain fell at intervals, hissing as they dropped into the blazing fires, and pattering on the skins with which the hunters hurriedly covered the exposed baggage. The mules near the camp cropped the grass with quick and greedy bites round the circuit of their pickets, as if conscious that the

nning into him as he lay; then taking a single robe, he carefully spread it, placing under the end furthest from the fire a large stone brought from the creek. Having satisfactorily adjusted this pillow, he added another robe to the one already laid, and placed over all a Navajo blanket, supposed to be impervious to rain. Then he divested himself of his pouch and powder-horn, which, with his rifle, he placed inside his bed, and quickly covered up lest the wet should reach

lodge for the balance of his days; but when it comes to caching of the old traps, I've the smallest kind of heart, I have. Certain, the old State comes across my mind now and again, but who's thar to remember my old body? But them diggings gets too overcrowded nowadays, and it's hard to fetch breath amongst them big bands of corncrackers to Missoura. Beside, it goes against natur' to leave bufler-meat and feed on hog; and them white gals are too much like picturs, and a deal too 'fofarraw'

ys "a heap" hungry

rave; in fact, "a h

y m

d, striding into the darkness, cautiously reconnoitered the vicinity of the camp. When he returned to the fire he sat himself down as before, but this time with his rifle across his lap; and at intervals his keen gray eyes glanced piercingly around, particularly towards an old weatherbeaten and

threading the back trail of his memory, he passed rapidly through the perilous vicissitudes of his hard, hard life-starving one day, reveling in abundance the next; now beset by whooping savages thirsting for his blood, baying his enemies like the hunted deer, but with the unflinching courage of a man; now, all care thrown aside, secure and forgetful of the past, a welcome guest in the hospitable trading fort; or back, as the trail gets fainter, to his childhood's home in the brown forests of old Kentuck, tended and cared for-his only thought to enjoy the hominy and johnny cakes of his thrifty mother. Once more, in warm and well-remembered homespun, he sits on the snake-fence round the old clearing, and, munching his hoe-cake at set of sun, listens to the mournful note of the whip-poor-will, or the ha

jun

avage yells broke suddenly upon their ears from all directions round the camp; a score of rifle-shots rattled from the thicket, and

And he rushed towards his mule, which jumped and snorted mad with fright, as a naked Indian strove

triking him full, and at the same time pulling the trigger, actually driving the Indian two paces backwards with the shock, when he fell in a heap, and dead. But at the same moment, an Indian,

w his knife round the head to separate the scalp from the skull. As he bent over to his work, the trapper named La Bonté saw his companion's peril, rushed quick

horses, which having been fastened to the shanties had escaped the Indians, and, placing their squaws upon them, showering curses and imprecations on their enemies, left the camp, fearful of another onset, and resolved to retreat and cache themselves until the danger was over. Not so La Bonté, who, stout and true, had done his best in the fight, and now sought the body of his old co

asked Killbuck; "for my head

fting it," answered the other, ki

up; so scalp the nigger right

him. Within a few feet of the bank lay the body of one of his companions, who had formed the guard at the time of the Indians' attack. It was lying on the face, pierced through the chest with an arrow which was buried to the very feathers, and the scalp torn from the bloody skull. Beyond, but all within a hundred yards, lay the three others, dead, and similarly mutilated. So certain had bee

oon made up. "First," said he, "I get back my old mule; she's carried me and my traps these twelve years, and I ain't a-goin' to lose her yet. Second, I feel lik

aver, and no counsel could have more exactly tallied with

selves with securing their packs of beaver in buffalo robes, and tying them in the forks of several cotton-woods, under which the camp had been made. This done, they

the savage Indian in bringing to a successful issue their numerous hostile expeditions against the natural foe of the white man in the wild and barbarous regions of the West. Ready to resolve as they are prompt to execute, and combining far greater dash and daring with equal subtlety and caution, they, possess great a

westward, and entered the rugged gorges of the mountains. It was now evident to the two trappers that their destination was the Bayou Salade, *-a mountain valley which is a favorite resort of the buffalo in the winter season, and which, and for this reason, is often frequented by the Yuta Indians as their wintering ground. That the Rapahos were on a war expedition against the Yutas, there was little doubt; and Killbuck, who knew every inch of the ground, saw at once, by the direction the trail had taken, that they were making for the Bayou in order to surprise their enemies, and, therefore, were not following the usual Indian trail up the canon of the Boiling Spring river. Having made up his mind to this, he at once struck across the broken ground lying at the foot of the mountains, stee

of South Park,

that," chuckled Killbuck, as he recognized his old grizzled mule making g

ir, as certain as this gun has got hind-sights; but they arn't a-goin' to pack them animals after'em, and have crawled like ratt

warriors of the Indi

ortion of a buffalo's liver, which they both discussed, raw, with infinite relish; eating in lieu of bread (an unknown luxury in these parts) sundry strips of dried fat. To have kindled a fire would have been dangerous, since it was not impossible that some of the Indians

examining his rifle, and drawing his knife-belt a hole or two tighter, he proceeded on his dangerous errand. Ascending the same bluff whence he had first discovered the Indian camp, he glanced rapidly around, and made himself master of the features of the ground-choosing a ravine by which he might approach the camp more closely, and without danger of being discovered. This was soon effected; and in

s his body quivered with a suppressed chuckle, when any movement in the Indian camp caused him to laugh inwardly at his (if they had known it) unwelcome propinquity. He was not a little surprised, however, to discover that the party was much smaller than he had imagined, c

party; each warrior touching the ground with the heel of the pipe-bowl, and turning the stem upwards and away from him as medicine to the Great Spirit, before he himself inhaled the fragrant kin-nik-kinnik. The council, however, was not general, for only fifteen of the older w

ifference between an

er places the end

ter, the center, b

dians truly say, "T

not approach to wa

he four scalps of the trappers killed the preceding night; and underneath them, affixed to the same spear, was the m

losing and reopening them repeatedly-meaning, that although four scalps already ornamented the medicine pole, they were as nothing compared to the numerous trophies they would bring from the Salt Valley, where they expected to find their hereditary enemies the Yutas. "That now was not the time to count their coups" (for at this moment one of the warriors rose from his seat, and, swellin

est dawn; and also, that no more than four or five of the younger warriors would remain with the captured animals. Still the hunter remained in his position until the sun had disappeared behind the ridge; when, taking up their arms, and throwing their buffalo-robes on their shoulders, the war-party of Rapahos, one behind the other, with noiseless step and silent as the dumb, moved away f

as he reached him. "Hyar's grainin' to do a

giving himself a shake. "What's the

ive, boy. How

ze for ha

, and as soon as she gets

and charge into it, "lift" as much "hair" as they could, recover their animals, and start at once to the Bayou and join the friendly Yutas, warning them of the coming danger. The

upper, which, as before, consisted of raw buffalo-liver; after discussing

he edge of the little plateau of some hundred yards square, where the five Indians in charge of the animals were seated round the fire, perfectly unconscious of the vicinity of danger. Several clumps of cedar-bushes dotted the small prairie, and amongst these the well-hob

e received with a whinny of recognition, which would at once alarm the enemy. He therefore first ascertained where his ow

icient to make sure their work of bloody retribution. Not a pulsation in the hearts of these stem determined men beat higher than its wont; not the tremor of a nerve disturbed their frame. They stood with lips compressed and rifles ready, their pistols loosened in their belts, their scalp-knives handy to their grip. The lurid glow of

nd, when within a few paces of their retreat, a gleam of moonshine revealed to the animal the erect forms of the two whites. Su

e reverberated through the gorge. The Indians jumped to their feet and seized their arms, when Killbuck, with a loud shout of "At'em, boy; gi

retching out his wiping-stick, planted it on the ground at the extreme length of his arm. As methodically and as coolly as if about to aim at a deer, he raised his rifle to this res

bending low to the ground to get their objects between them and the light, and thus render their aim more certain. The trappers, however, did not care to wait for them. Drawing their pistols, they charged at once; and although the bows twanged, and the three

ck could ram home another ball, he sent a shot flying after them as they scrambled up th

appers confronted each other: "We'

the other, pulling an ar

how," continued the first

first prostrate body, he turned it over to examine if any symptom of vitality remained. "Thrown cold!" he exclaimed, as he dropped

om the skull; then with a quick and sudden jerk of his hand, he removed it entirely from the head, and giving the reeking trophy a wring upon the grass to free it from the blood, he coolly hitched it under his belt, and procee

their tracks;" and thrusting his knife, for mercy's sake, into the bosom of the I

below the barb, he drew it out, the blood flowing freely from the wound. A tourniquet of buckskin soon stopped this, and, heedless of the pain, the hardy mountaineer sought for his old mule, and quickly brought it to the fire (which La Bonté had rekindled), lavishing many a caress, and most comical terms of endearment, upon the faith

they made their way, the ground being much broken, and covered with rocks. Kill-buck's wound became very painful, and his leg stiffened and swelled distressingly, but he still pushed on all night, and at daybreak, recognizing their position, he left the Indian trail, and followed a little creek which rose in a mountain-chain of moderate

ite resort of all the larger animals common to the mountains; and in the sheltered prairies of the Bayou, the buffalo, forsaking the barren and inclement regions of the exposed plains, frequent these upland valleys in the winter months; and feeding upon the rich and nutritious buffalo grass, which on the bare prairies at that season is either dry and rotten or entirely exhausted, not only sustain life, but retain a great portion of the "condition" that the abundant fall and summer pasture of t

oes, Sioux, and

s caught sight of them; and instantly one of them, lassoing a horse from the herd, mounted it, barebacked, and flew like wind to the village to spread the news. Soon the lodges disgorged their inmates; first the women and children rushed to the side of the strangers' approach; then the younger Indians, unable to restrain their curiosity, mounted their horses, and galloped forth to meet them. The old chiefs, enveloped in buffalo-robes (softly and delicately dressed as the Yutas alone know how), and with tomahawk held in one hand and resting in the hollow of the other arm, sallied last of all fro

ves. The elder chiefs immediately met in council, and, over the medicine-pipe, debated as to the best course to pursue-whether to wait the attack, or sally out and meet the enemy. In the mean

to be approaching, which he delivered in their own language, with which he was well acquainted. In a short time the council broke up; and without noise or confusion, a band of one hundred chosen warriors left the village, immediately after one of the scouts had galloped in and communicated some intelligence to the chiefs. Killbuck