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Show THE MORMON LION " How's that? Got them all, you say? " called Chilcott, loping up behind us. . . "Yep," answered Waller. He whtrled Ius horse about and spurred him into a gallop. " Come on. Mebbe we can git there in time to see the sack opened. Been after another bunch of Piedes. The sneaking shtrks ht out m the mght. But we got enough a'ready." . . . . He twisted about m hts saddle to gnn at Clulcott. "Yep we sewed 'em up, four days gone," he continued. '" 'Member the big spring, rower end the Medders? When me an' Smith ftrst come south, I told the council at Parowan best wait till the cusses got into the Clara Canyon. You know, well's me, we could've wiped out the whole keboodlc there in two shakes. Trouble was it took time to git some of the boys het up, an' Lee couldn't hold the Piedes long enough. One sub-chief- that there Ankotash what come south with us last winter-didn't want his band to fight at all; but we got all t'others riled, an' he had to come along when Lee showed him the orders." It was fortunate that Chilcott was behind me and that Waller was looking back at him. Had they seen my face it must have betrayed to them my horror. At last I realized the truth. The militia had gone to help the Indians! Waller continued, venomously exultant and quite unconscious of the effect of his words on me : "Jest the same, we got the dirty cusses sewed up tight, first crack. At Cedar City we sold 'em fifty bushel of tithing wheat, knowing we'd mighty soon git most back agin. Their stock was so nigh used up it took 'em five days to come on to the Medders. They camped about a hundred yards from the spring. Well. at dawn some of us an' some of the Piedes painted up alike and slipped up the bed of the sp,ring creek. When we popped loose we got seven of "em, besides wounding a lot more." " Only seven? " asked Chilcott. " WI1y didn't you rush the camp-clean 'em up?" .,..., " .,,. r THE MORMON LION 279 "That was the idee, Bill. Only trouble, the cussed Gentiles wouldn't scare worth a little bit. They blazed back at us good an' hot. Some of 'em had long rilles. While the Piedes was running off their stock they got one buck at two hundred yards and gave two of the chiefs pills what settled 'e~ later on. That sort of took the starch out of the Lamanites. Then the Gentiles got their wagons in a circle an' dug a rille-pit in the middle what sheltered 'em all, wimmin an' men an' children." " Lord I " jeered Chilcott. " You let them do that ? " "Well," apologized Waller, "there wasn't only a few of us Saints, an' you know the Piedes don't amount to shucks. If they'd been Sioux- or even Snakes- it'd been diff'rent. Jest the same, we had the cusses sewed up tight. We laid behind rocks along lhe ridge top an' kept 'em close with our firing. Second day, two men made a break for the spring an' got back with two bucketfuls apiece. Did our best to pot 'em, too. lest the same, you can bet it's a mi~hty dty lot of Gentiles by now." ' How rang has this been going on ? " I managed to ask in a fairly steady voice. " Let's sec-- Yep, this here's the ftfth morning. It's took time to muster the militia reinforcements. Second evening, Piedes an' all, there was four hundred of us. We tried to rush the camp then· an' agin the next morning ; but 'twasn't no go. T;.,o of 'em got out that night an' made a break for Californy. One was shot. T'other got past our ambush. If he's went on to the Muddy, though, he won't git past Hatch an' his pard. Why, Boyle was sent clean to the Mohave, with a mailsack key, to overhaul the outgoing mail an' be ready for any of the cusses what mtght dodge our ambushes an' git across the desert." I listened, sick with horror. What could be the intentions of the Mormon leaders if they had taken such extraordinary precautions against the escape of a smgle man? |
