218 WE SCALP AN INDIAN. 



to attack us, and at daylight, after a very hasty breakfast, we 

 were off again. We had a number of creeks to cross that 

 day, and always rode ahead to find out whether they were 

 lying in wait for us, but saw nothing of the Comanches, 

 except in the distance, till we came to a stream having very 



heavy timber and bushes on both banks, when F , H , 



and I rode along, about a hundred yards from the timber, 

 going at full speed, and lying, Indian fashion, on the side of 

 our horses, having one elbow in a noose round the horse's 

 neck and one foot on the saddle, and we had not gone more 

 than a few hundred yards when five or six shots were fired at 

 us, all of them going wide. We immediately turned and rode 

 in for the creek, hearing the Indians making their way through 

 the bushes but seeing none of them ; till one, thinking he was 

 concealed, came out on the opposite side and ran along in the 

 open, loading as he went. We all jumped off and waited till 

 he passed an open space, when we fired together, and over he 

 went, seeming to die at once. 



We now beckoned to the waggon and got it across, not far 

 from where the Indian lay, and oil going to see how he had 

 been killed, we found that a bullet had passed through the 

 shoulder and a no. 12 Metford shell had burst low down in 

 his back, making a hole almost as large as the crown of 

 a hat, and nearly cutting him in two. We had all said that 

 if we shot an Indian and could get at the body we would 

 scalp him and think nothing of it ; but when the time came 

 to do itj each one tried to get out of it, till the driver of our 

 waggon came up- and, asking why we made such a fuss about 

 such a trifle, took it off at once, removing merely the scalp- 

 lock and the skin under it, about the size of, and in the same 

 position as, the tonsure of a priest. 



