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Show 144 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. Price and her two children, and Mrs. Meeker, sixty-four years old, one of the gentlest, most motherly of women, were in the hands of the barbarians. All who are familiar with Indian customs and character will readily understand the awful trials that befel them in such hands. CHAPTER XXXIV THE SIX DAYS' SIEGE. Major T. T. Thornburg, in obedience to orders, left Rawlins immediately for White River agency. When his command reached the point where the road crosses Milk river they were attacked by about three hundred Warriors lying in ambush. The scene of the ambuscade was peculiarly adapted to the Indian method of warfare. It was a narrow canon, the bluffs on the north two hundred feet high and those on the south one hundred feet, both well nigh inaccessible to troops. On the top of the two ranges of bluffs the hostiles entrenched themselves in a series of pits, and poured a continual fire upon the soldiers, who fought valiantly and desperately, but melted away under the superior number and position of the savages. Major Thornburg, recognizing the terrible danger to which his command was exposed, at once mounted twenty of his men, and at the head of them made a bold charge upon the enemy. In this valorous dash the gallant leader was killed and Capt. Payne],came into command. About ten o'clock, Monday night, the first of the siege, Joe Rankin, a brave scout, stole away under cover of the darkness, and speeding swiftly through valleys and over hills, reached 'Rawlins between two and three o'clock |
