THE FUGITIVE'S HISTOKY. 393 



die, and discharged a pistol full at his pursuer's 

 breast, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, the half- 

 dozen negro soldiers at the station had been alarmed, 

 and now ran out and commenced firing. The Indians 

 fled in dismay, without stopping to secure their dead 

 chieftain, who was at once scalped by the station men, 

 and left where he fell. 



Next morning the soldiers revisited the place, and 

 found that the band had returned in the night, and 

 removed the corpse. The negroes followed the trail 

 for a mile or more, in order to discover the place of 

 burial, and shortly found the chief's body lying ex- 

 posed on the bank of the Smoky. It had apparently 

 been abandoned immediately upon the discovery that 

 the scalp had been taken, from the belief, probably, 

 which all Indians entertain, that a warrior thus mu- 

 tilated can not enter the Happy Hunting Ground. 

 Now for the apparition in question. As the soldiers 

 approached the spot, a white woman, in a wretched 

 blanket, fled away. In vain they called out to her 

 that they were friends ; she neither ceased her run- 

 ning, nor gave them any answer. The men pursued, 

 but the fugitive eluded them among the trees, and 

 disappeared. A few days after, she was again seen, 

 but once more succeeding in escaping. 



It afterward transpired that, a year or so before, 

 a white girl had been stolen from Texas, and passed 

 into possession of one of the tribes. She lost her 

 reason before long, and, like all the unfortunate 

 creatures of this class among the Indians, became 

 an object of superstition at once. One morning she 

 was missed by her captors, and a few days later a 



