A Sportsman 119 



of attack it was the habit of passengers to take the 

 rear of the stage, where a better resistance could be 

 given than when cooped up inside. On this trip no 

 attack was made, though we had some false alarms and 

 fancied we saw Indians occasionally in the distance. 



One morning at an early hour we saw a man a long 

 distance off, running toward us and waving his arm in 

 signal. A pocket-glass showed him to be a white man, 

 evidently about stripped of clothing. We held up for 

 him, and when he was able to gain his voice after re- 

 viving from his exhausted condition, we found him to 

 be the sole surv'^ivor of an Indian raid. The Indians had 

 captured a ranch house some miles off on a creek, 

 where a family of eight, which included four men, had 

 all been killed but himself. He, being taken un- 

 wounded a prisoner, was probably reser\^ed for torture. 

 He had been almost stripped of his clothing, and had 

 a finger chopped off, to secure a plain gold ring he 

 wore, which was difficult to remove. He could, he 

 said, have worked it off in a little while, but the im- 

 patient savages upon discovering it had a competition 

 for its possession, and it was settled abruptly by one of 

 their number cleverer than the rest, who lopped off the 

 offending member, and from ignorance of anatomical 

 operations very nearly severed two others. The pris- 

 oner had been tied up for two nights, held in reserve 

 for an hour of recreation, when the gentle savages 

 would have the leisure to fully enjoy the pleasure of 

 his sufferings at the stake, which he had reasons from 

 significant signs to believe would occur on the follow- 

 ing day. He had the night preceding his reaching us 

 managed to get loose from his thongs and steal off. 

 He travelled about in the dark, getting some miles 



