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Show CHAPTER XXX THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW AT last my horse topped a rise that gave me a clear view of the lower Meadows. A cry of relief burst from my lips. The massacre had not yet taken place. Yet the first glance showed me that all was ready for the fiendish work. The emigrants had been iured from their fortified camp and were coming slowly along the road up the Meadows. They were half a mile away from me, across a wide bend m the trail. In the lead were two Mormon wagons crowded with little children. A considerable interval behind them came the women and older children. After another interval, the men of the train followed in sin~le file, all unarmed and each with a Mormon mihtiaman walking beside him. Other Saints flanked the party, as if to ward off any attack that might be made on their prisoners. To the trustful victims it must have appeared to them that their captors were giving them the most careful protection against the Indians. For a moment even I doubted the truth. Then I caught sight of the savages stealing forward into the thick srowth of cedars that bordered the road a short dtstance ahead of the approaching wagons. Several Mormons were hurrying down the Meadows through the midst of their red allies. I jerked my horse out of the beaten track and dashed straight across the bend of the road without slackening speed. The wagons, pulling slowly up a rise were almost opposite the ambushed Indians. As my horse plunged wildly along, through the brush and over gullies and knolls, I caught a glimpse of ,s. THE MORMON LION Chilcott and Waller galloping out of the woods on the far slope of the valley, to join the flanking party of mthttamen. A few moments of mad racing through and over everything brought me crashing into the cedars amongst the lurking savages. My desperate plan was to dash through to the road, catch up Lucy before me on the saddle, and bear her away from the murderers. Though the lowness and dense growth of the cedars compelled me to rem m, to save myself from being swept out of the saddle, I had burst through to a few yards of the road when one of the painted devils sprang in front of me and caught my horse by the bndle. "Ugh! No scare 'em Mericatsl "he grunted. I clapped my rifle butt to my shoulder and fairly snarled at him : " Let go! curse you! " ., "No shoot! " he protested, flinging up his hand. MeAnkotash! No shoot!" "Ankotash !-you ? " I questioned incredulously. Ltke the others, he was ahnost naked and hideously ferocious with the markings of red and black warpamt. "Me Ankotash, Brother Ford," he insisted. I dropped my rifle muzzle and pointed swiftly about us. "Tell them-quick-the counsel is changed! You're not to kill the women! Quick! tell your bucks!" "Show'um paper," he demanded. " I've lost it- no, no, I mean Chilcott has it I " I stammered, glaring out into the road. " He-he cut across the other way to show it to Lee-to stop them--" . The wagons had gone past and were topping the nse. The foremost of the long line of women and g1rls and young boys had come up opposite us. I caught ghmpses of them between the interlaced boughs of the cedars. They were white and haggard |
