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Show 242 INDIAN DEPREDATIONS closures were left empty, and untold damage done; but of the nine persons beseiged only one had been hurt, and the grain stacks were safely standing. For these mercies Mr. Lee was a thankful man. A few of the men remained to assist the family while the others pushed on after the Indians. It did not take those on the trail very long to understand the situation. The range was silent and empty, and the fat young cattle found shot along the trail, told them the whole story. They knew that the relations between this family and their Indian neighbors had always been friendly, therefore it was highly improbable that this attack had any per-sonal ill will behind it; but was made solely because the little ranch lay in the track the Indians wanted to use in a great cattle raid. Although they must have known that the family was hurrying to get away for the winter, they could not postpone the raid because they also knew the white men were preparing for an extensive roundup, and they, the Indians wished to be beforehand. These men followed the Indians and cattle sixty or more miles without overtaking them, swift as they had been to follow. There they were forced to turn back because their hasty preparations were so inadequate to a long march or for a hard fight. At the farm the great concern was to get the wounded man and the family away before night. The team was gone, the harness demolished, the wagon heaped up with potatoes ; and the only vehicle that had come from town was a very light buggy belong-ing to Bishop E. Murdock. This could not even convey the wounded man, who was too weak from loss of blood to sit erect. Just here the meinorv of |
