ORIGINAL TALE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 50, 23 January 1869, Page 5

ORIGINAL TALE.

H TJ N T E D .

" Yea, sir," said my companion, Tim R. Banks,- a tall, muscular, grey-headed man; "yes, Bir, I will not be thirty years old till next fall." " You must have "had some rough times, old man," I replied. "Bet, hoss," said he, "my haif turned grey in a single night." "Spin iaway,'.' said I, lighting a cigar ; "we are to camp all day tomorrow, so we may as well kill a few hours before rolling in." Tim stretched himself, took a pull at the canteen, and spoke as follows : "In 1856, there was a kind of rush jto Oregon, I was engaged to hunt for a caravan crossing the plains. There were in all twenty families, all thorough Yaijks, who knew about as much of perarie life as I do about waltzing. I engaged to guide the crowd tp their destination, and keep, them supplied in buffalo beef, for one thousand dollars. Had they been a leBB helpless crowd I could have done it for half the money ; but only twentyfour of ihein were able-bodied men, the rest of the eighty-seven souls entrusted to, my care being, women and children. I resolved tp engage four skilled hunters to accompany me, and was fortunate enough to meet on the same day my old mate, Bill Hutton,. who went shares with me ; the other three fellows I got were little better than so many greasers. Well, after any amount of bother we got started on our journey ; and a nice jpb, I tell you,'-it was 1 to keep ttfose, twp dozen Yanks in order. Most pf them had never handled a rifle before, and kept crack, crack away at every ground squirrel or prairie chicken that crossed the track. After passing Laramie, this game became risky, as I saw plenty of signs, and felt sure the hprsethieving Pawnees were hanging round, watching to stampede our cattle ; and Bill said he felt sure the Blackfeet were on our trail. The three men Bill and I had engaged as help at Leavenworth proved useless: we two had to .do ; all the hunting, and keep I our eyes barked at Ihe same time. I After passing Laramie, the track tq * the Oregon strikes off to the northIwest, skirting Utah, and passing, ■through the gorges at the north ■lof that territory. Bill and I ar- ■ ranged to hunt day about, , as the Imfortunate down-casters could no L l aore hold on to their own hair than ) [ew-born babies. * Well, I remember I was on a fine Sunday evening we b yuck a fork of the Bed Eiver, which j ilwe once crossed we were pretty safe ; m a time. It was getting dusk when 5 t! reached the stream, and the whole > clwd refused to' budge. Waggon * uwers and all swore they meant to [ s* where they were; that we only wlted to scare them by talking about LAms, in order to get bigger pay at [ thTend 'of the journey. The three b. cbls I had engaged chimed in, and 3 oftled to guide them the rest of the , wailfor five dollars a head. The end 1 of it was that Bill and I were paid 1 offm to date and ordered out of the } cani. Well, I didn't care much, the fools were bringing destruction s upaa themselves; but there was one t poot young thing with two babies that had*en placed under Bill's care, and » he silre blue murder flhe would be i sayeil whoever lost his hair. Three *- or fool of the more sensible also joined c us anlcrosßed the creek without dee lay. ji was well acquainted there, for * I hadlimtedjthe former winter in that '.r. r quarta; so l! toted jhe crowd to my ■t cache,! kind ' oIHMBJ cave halfway c up a lnff, ancb^^^^H|gve^yn£nts. a We'li|Eedafi^^^H^^^By ■^ charqu»-fbrii^^^^^^^^^^^^^H alHJbc fJue-^^^^^^^^^^^^H c Aboui lUm^^^^^^^^^^H

cuttipg bpughs to erect wigwam* Our situation was indeed serious, ft we had .barely enough provisions flast tWr. od wpi'p beset bffoes three days, and weie beset w whose patience was only equal*, oy their ferocity. Bill and 1, at ™f™° consultation, came to the opinujtnat our only chance was to get a nfsage taken to Fort "Washington, a dance of about two hundred miles, there a v D«^r,«mi*alDS^ F^ no other hope of saving ou|alps, and Bill and I were the only tymen capable of undertaking the tasE We agreed to start together by #^ n* routes, in order that the wipinw* ot one of us might not spill the p*ajtogether: but on stating this X the others they raised such a h^*^ ol? about their defenceless cond^tijttnat sve determined to try it with oAmessenger. "We drew lots for the Jfegerous servipe, and I was the cho*ione. My mustang was tethered closl) the cave, and I mounted it read! or a st?yrt f - Bill and one or two <ocrs crept along the bluff to a poi tcontrary to the direction I was i >»Ke, and attracting the attention (the besiegers gave me an oppo fcnity. Off I went at full speed, passi 'Only a few. yards from a party of th( Jackfeet, who wounded me in sever* laces with their arrpws, and at onceiiaae a rush for their horses. On llwent through the fork on tp thlraine beyond; not unpursued, forficould hear the plash of at leastjdozen horsemen close on my rear. M; horse was nothing tq brag of, but jpie o my own desperation seemed tlmdden him, for he rushed on at Iterrmc cai-ryingmeoveratleastsixtiiaeso ground in- half-a-dozen hoifi But my pursuers were close on n* and a they each led a spare horse, fened o me every moment. My miitog was much disirossed; his flan*heaved and all at once he stumbleJnd teU throwing me hea\ily to tl sgrouna The next moment I was s nsoner A consultation was at once bid, an it was resolved to put me to t tortur without delay. A post wa cut an fixed in the grpund, and 3 brave formed themselves into ad< iftle luie andlwasinformedthatlmi*profon my misery until the whole t|)e judge by successfully running thijauntlet As I glanced around a hope $ escap strengthened me to an effort.| Abou a quarter of a mile to the : ;ht wa one of those- brakes or scru jungle which are found dotted here t d ther over the prairies. Nerving n 'eltlo a desperate effort, I dashed a| mat th savage who stood on the ngt ;ot th lmc enclosing me. My ruse 8i seeded and in a moment I was cleajjoi th reds, speeding -away in the •dm ttujn the scrub. With a fiendish Jljt he started in pursuit, too excited >.thi of mounting their horses, ;O| to dashed, at length gaining p paire covert, and using all my wcodtralt evade my pursuers. For tvelfe lo hours did I play hide andjseek; la then, having apparently sfceeedea tiring tho savages, I staged mjt direction of the Eort. -Miiven ?n knows how I managed t| drag m weary body along; but I \*a met pj foraging party just as a bodfc of Blac feet were galloping towardftne^l three days I had neither my recover/y|M^^^^^ |ttfcra£Qbi2f^^^^^^^^^^^^