what when the 2nd one came & this dart landed with a whack behind the driver in the empty bed of the wagon I escorted. 2 more arrows sailed over me & some fellow cried Hostiles! & another shouted, “Where are they G__ D_____ it all?”
Well we did turn our horses & eyed the shallows to both sides of the trail which was atop the hills as I told you. After a moment of this the driver of the wagon I rode beside cried, “Down there!” pointing down the hill on the other side of the trail from me. A shot was fired & then another 2 or 3 more from behind me & I steered my mount to that side of the trail where she scuffed & danced til I could make her steady & take aim with my Springfield.
Before I could shoot I heard Nevin’s voice shouting for to hold fire that the Indians were on the run now. I could see them scarpering away down the hillside to the cover of the cottonwoods by a stream bank & crossing the stream. Some of them were mounted & some leading their mounts by the reins all of them giving hoots & hollers & Rebel Yells back at us but they did not appear to want a fight to which I gave thanks to God In Heaven for my head was thumping I tell you & the sound of musket fire would surely only make it worse. I felt that if some Brave did take my scalp that morning it would only make him sore to carry it & any savage who stopped to drink my blood would surely drop down dead so rank with poison was it.
“Stand down & keep moving,” says Nevin riding back along the train of wagons asking if everyone was all right. One driver took an arrow through the brim of his hat & he was laughing like a lunatic at this saying, “Look at my hat! Look at my G__ D___ hat boys!”
When it came time we rode vigilant & sharp descending from the hilltop trail & Mr. Lo made no appearance though my senses were sparking & small things such as a rabbit in the grass or a bolting herd of antelope in the distance served to fray my nerves further.
Tom came up to me. “Stay close by brother,” says he. “You do not look well at all.”
Well I did not feel well at all & it was nothing I had not done to myself before but I did feel a strong love for my elder brother then for he would look out for me I knew he would. And at this moment I felt sorry for thinking him a wrong headed fool for loving his girl & for being melancholy in drink about her & how she could not be freed from that b______ Kinney’s bondage.
My spirits did swing towards the gloomy then & the land & sky made like to match them. I watched the grass wash & flow like ocean waves to the wind in the vast meadow where we would corral the oxen & mules with the wagon boxes. The great grey clouds were like fists in the Heavens shifting in the sky above as if to beat into us the notion that our celebrations were finished & the dark 1/2 of the year was now upon us & of a sudden I had a feeling that we should not be here at all. None of us should be here I thought with our wagons & oxen & soldiers & timber men with their sawmill & fancy store bought repeating rifles. We are not welcome here I could not help but feeling & I could not take my eyes from the grass as it shifted & flowed in the wind that Valley grass seeming to whisper & hiss to me, “Go away Go away Go away” & I did thank God again that I had my brother with me.
“I will stay close to you brother,” says I. “And I am sorry about your girl.” I must of sounded a fool saying it but I did anyway.
“Thank you Michael,” said my brother.
“Stay sharp will you Tom?”
He gave me a nod & we entered into the Pinery crossing a waste of naked stumps to the rising wooded hill side the timber men were cutting that week. It was some weeks since I was in this lower stake of the Pinery