IN THE OLD WEST 149 



and instantly acted upon. Springing to their 

 feet, the trappers seized their rifles, and com- 

 menced the slaughter. The Indians, panic- 

 struck, fled without resistance, and numbers fell 

 before the death-dealing rifles of the mountain- 

 eers. A chief, who had been sitting on a rock 

 near the fire where the leader of the trappers sat, 

 had been singled out by the latter as the first 

 mark for his rifle. 



Placing the muzzle to his heart, he pulled the 

 trigger, but the Indian, with extraordinary tenac- 

 ity of life, rose and grappled with his assailant. 

 The white was a tall powerful man, but notwith- 

 standing the deadly wound the Indian had re- 

 ceived, he had his equal in strength to contend 

 against. The naked form of the Indian twisted 

 and writhed in his grasp as he sought to avoid 

 the trapper's uplifted knife. Many of the lat- 

 ter's companions advanced to administer the coup- 

 de-grace to the savage, but the trapper cried to 

 them to keep off^: " If he couldn't whip the Injun," 

 he said " he'd go under." 



At length he succeeded in throwing him, and, 

 plunging his knife no less than seven times into 

 his body, he tore off^ his scalp, and went in pursuit 

 of the flying savages. In the course of an hour 

 or two all the party returned, and, sitting by the 

 fires, resumed their suppers, which had been in- 

 terrupted in the manner just described. Walker, 

 the captain of the band, sat down by the fire where 



