NARROW ESCAPE. 123 



from camp, and the Indians knew it, as was proved by their 

 derisive shouts as I turned and came back. I saw now that I 

 was in a fix, the Indians, to the number of seventeen, having 

 spread out in a line between me and camp. I knew of no 

 place for which I could make on this side ; but how I was to 

 get through them was the question. 



So far as I could see with a glass, they had no big horses, 

 and I did not think that any Indian pony could catch Polly; 

 still five miles was a long gallop, and the ponies would be 

 driven by every means known to Indian cruelty, so that I was 

 far from safe, even if I did get through the line. 



At last I thought of a plan, and proceeded to put it into 

 execution. I rode along the line of Indians at a hand gallop, 

 they keeping parallel with me, gradually increasing the pace 

 till I had dropped the slow ponies, and had about eight of the 

 fastest opposite to me, and this I kept up for about two miles, 

 by which time there was a gap of quite three hundred yards 

 between the first lot of Indians and the second. I had been 

 edging in gradually, and was now not more than a hundred 

 yards from them, when I suddenly turned, and keeping the 

 butt of my gun going against the mare's ribs, I rode through 

 the gap, lying as flat as I could on my horse. I passed within 

 sixty or seventy yards of those behind ; but though they fired, 

 it was while galloping over rough ground, and no aim could 

 be taken, so that neither I nor the mare was hit, and I was 

 soon out of shot and gaining fast, and it now all depended on 

 whether the mare could hold out. She had done two miles 

 before I got through the line, making it a long gallop ; so I 

 eased her a little up the hills, which fortunately were not very 

 steep, and the only place where the Indians gained on me was 



