KILLED BY THE INDIANS 



horse have been killed by a wounded bull, an* the 

 bull then fell an' died with 'em, or which is 

 more likely the man killed the buffalo an', while 

 busy cutting some of the meat out, was corralled 

 by Injuns. How do you read it?" 



"The signs disprove your first proposition, 

 Jack," I answered, "but confirm the second. If 

 it had been an accident from a wounded bull there 

 would be some such remains as the metallic parts 

 of his gun or pistol, or buttons, spurs, buckles, and 

 so forth; but you see there's not a thing of that 

 kind to be seen. If he was killed by Indians they 

 would have carried off all his and his horse's 

 equipments; and I think that is what hap- 

 pened." 



"I guess you're right," admitted Jack. "It 

 must have been the work of Injuns." 



Just then he stopped and picked up an old 

 bleached buffalo shoulder-blade that seemed to 

 have been carefully placed, flat side down, on top 

 of the weather-whitened skull of the older set of 

 bones. "Halloo! what's this?" he exclaimed ex- 

 citedly as he began scanning the bone. "Here 

 it is, Peck. This'll tell us something about it if 

 we can only make out the writing. See if you can 

 make it out." 



On the flat side of the shoulder-blade was dimly 

 pencilled a partially obliterated and nervously 

 written inscription. It was without date, and 

 yet enough of the wording was legible to enable 



153 



