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Show REMINISCENCE OF A FREIGHTER. 49 " The chief's horse started off with a gallop, and the Indian, being a very large man, broke the strap with which he was tied on, and fell to the ground near where he was shot. We saw the blood fly from Dick's face and the gun bound away out of his hands, but he quickly jumped to his feet, wiped his face, grabbed up the old musket and ran as only a long-legged Missourian knows how to run, for the corral. The musket had kicked, and the hammer had torn away a ' chunk '-as he said-of his cheek. "Upon the fall of the chief, the Indians made a rush to secure his body; but we kept up such a continuous fire that they could not get near it safely. Dick then proposed that as he had killed him, if we would charge on them and drive them back towards the south side of the corral, he would go out and get his 'scalp.' This we did, and Dick bounded out with an old butcher knife, and in less than a minute he sat himself across old Lo, and we could hear him tearing the scalp away. When the Indians saw what he was doing they made a desperate charge and drove us back, but not until Dick had secured the prize from that Indian's head. "The loss of the scalp of their chief seemed to be a signal for retreat, for without any apparent order or sign from any of them, the remainder rode rapidly off towards the river, and disappeared among the hills. " The trophy justly belonged to Dick. He stretched it and tacked it on the hoop of a keg, and from there to Fort Morgan, despite our entreaties and protests that it would certainly invite our destruction should we meet a large war party, it floated from the mast of his 'prairie schooner.' We were stopped of course at Fort Morgan by the commanding officer, who, I believe, was a brother of 4 |