100 ON THE FRONTIER 



>. 



tribes 'of the Plains were having a big talk together. Indians 

 belonging to the tribe who had committed the massacre in 

 Minnesota had been recognised among them ; doubtless, 

 therefore, a conspiracy was hatching for an organised assault 

 in force on the whites. The most timid among the shop- 

 keepers and dealers of Denver were sure their town would 

 be attacked, captured, and sacked, and the more they talked 

 the more they frightened themselves and each other. By- 

 and-by the climax came. 



A day's journey from Denver, on the road known as 

 The Cut Off, was a road station, kept by two Germans, 

 family men, each with vrou and kinder, but still not con- 

 sidered good settlers, for they were strongly suspected of 

 being habitually guilty of that least tolerated of frontier 

 crimes, trading whisky to Indians, a disreputable lot of 

 whom were always hanging about their place ; and while 

 the Denverites were alarming themselves about the pro- 

 bability of Indian hostilities, the drivers of a passing mule- 

 train discovered the scalped and mutilated bodies of these 

 German families lying in their plundered cabin, and bring- 

 ing the corpses with them into Denver, turned alarm into 

 panic. 



I happened to ride into Denver the evening of that day, 

 and found everybody apparently crazy. The mayor had 

 " gone off his head," and issued a proclamation calling upon 

 all able-bodied men to assemble at the Town Hall with 

 such arms as they might have. The gunsmiths' shops had 

 been taken possession of by the authorities, all their arms 

 and ammunition requisitioned, receipted for, and were to 

 be distributed amongst those citizens who were unarmed. 



