10 Conservative.
licnn river. All that delightful am
invigorating Any wo zealously hunted
We found occasioimlly snuill bunds o
buirnlocs here and there among the
bluffs and hills along the valley of the
Republican. But these animals Avoro
generally aged and of inferior quality
besides such hunting , we found a greal
quantity of blue-winged and green-
winged teal iu the waters of the Repub
lican and bagged not a few of them.
There is no water-fowl , in my judgment ,
not even the redheaded duck and can-
vassback duck , which excels in delicate
tissue and flavor the delicious teal.
A UEAU SOVEREIGN.
Just a little before sundown , on the
third day of our encampment , by the
bluffs land of the Republican , Lieuten
ant Bush and Mr. Hoth in one party ,
and John Talbot and I in another , were
exploring the steep , wooded bluffs
which skirted the valley. The timber
growing at that time on the sides of
these bluffs was"much of itof very good
size and I shall never forget going down
a precipitous path along the face of a
hill and suddenly coming upon a
strange and ghastly sight among the
top limbs and branches of an oak tree
which sprang from the rich soil of a
lower level. The weird object which
then impressed itself upon my memory
forever was a dead Indian sitting upright
in a sort of wicker-work coffin which was
secured by thongs to the main trunk of the
tree. The robe with which he had been
clothed.lmd been torn away by buzzards
and only the denuded skeleton sat there.
The bleached skull leered and grinned
at me as though the savage instinct to
repulse an intruder from their hunting
grounds still lingered in the fleshless
head. Perfectly I recall the long scalp-
lot-k , floating in the wind , and the sense
of dread and repellant fear which , for
the startled moment , took possession of
me in the presence of this arborially
interred Indian whoso remains had been
stored away in a tree-top instead of hav
ing been buried in the ground.
A TUKKEY MEET.
Not long after this incident wo four
came together again down in the valley
at a great plum orchard. The plum
trees covered an area of several acres ;
they stood exceedingly close together.
The frosts had been just severe enough
to drop the fruit onto the ground.
Never before nor since have my eyes beheld -
held or my palate tasted as luscious
fruit as those largo yellow and red plums
which were found that afternoon lying
in bushels in the vallay of the Republi
can. While we were all seated upon
the ground eating plums and praising
their succulence and flavor wo heard the
click-cluck of a turkey. Immediately
wo laid ourselves flat upon the earth
and iu the course of ten minutes beheld
a procession of at least seventy-five wild
turkeys feeling upon plums. Wo re
mained moveless and noiseless until
those turkeys had flown up into the toll
cottonwood trees standing thereabouts
and gene to roost. Then after darkness
had settled down upon the face of the
earth we faintly discerned the black
forms or hummoclts of fat turkeys all
through the largo and leafless limbs of
the cottonwoods which had been nearly
defoliated by the early frosts of October.
It required no deft marksmanship or
superior sldll to bring down forty of
those birds in a single evening. That
number wo took into camp. In
quick time wo had turkey roasted , tur
key grilled , turkey broiled ; and never
have I since eaten any turkey so well
flavored , so juicy and rich , as that fattened -
toned upon the wild plums of the Re
publican valley in the year 18G1.
SATISFIED TO HETUUN.
At last , surfeited with hunting and its
successes , wo sot out on our return to
Fort Kearney. When about half way
across the divide , a sergeant , one of the
most experienced soldiers and plains
men of the party , declared that he saw
a small curl of smoke in the hazy dis
tance and a little to the west and south
of us. To my untrained eye the smoke
was at first invisible , but with a field
ijlass I ultimately discerned a delicate
little blue thread hanging in the sky ,
which the soldiers pronounced smoke
ascending from an Indian camp. Read
justing the glasses I soon made out to
see three Indians stretched by the
lire seemingly asleep , while two were
sitting by the embers apparently cook
ing , eating and drinking. Very soon ,
liowover , the two feasters espied our
wagons and party. Immediately they
came running on foot to meet us ; the
other three , awakening , followed them ;
speedily they were in our midst. They
proved , however , to bo peaceful Paw
nees. Mr. John Heth spoke the lan
guage of that tribe and I shall never for
get the coolness with which these repre
sentatives of that nomadic race informed
him that Mrs. Heth and his little two-
years-of-age daughter , Minnie , were in
good health in their wigwam at Fort
Kearney ; they were sure of it because
; hey had looked into the window of the
Hoth home the day before and saw
thorn eating and drinking at their noon
day meal.
ANNEXATIONISTS.
These Indians then expressed a wish
: 'or some turkey feathers. They were
; old to help themselves. Immediately
; hey pulled out a vast number of the
argo feathers of the wings and tails and
decorated their own heads with them.
The leader of this aboriginal expedition ,
11 conversation with Mr.Hoth , informed
lim that although they were 011 foot they
carried the lariats which wo saw hanging
rom their arms for the purpose of hitch-
ng onto and annexing some Cheyenne
) ouies which they were going south
; o steal. They walked away from
lomo , but intended to ride back.
The barbaric commander in charge
of this larcenous expedition was
named "Tho Fox , " and when questioned
by Mr. Hoth as to the danger of the en
terprise , and informed that ho might
probably lose his life and got no ponies
at all , Captain Fox smiled and said
grimly that he know he should ride
back to Pawnee village on the Loup
the owner of good horses ; that
only a year or two before that time
ho had been alone down into the
Cheyenne village and got a great
many horses safely out and up onto
the Loup fork among the Pawnees
without losing a single one. "The Fox"
admitted , however , that even in an ex
pedition so successful as the one which
he recalled there were a great many
courage-testing inconveniences and an
noyances. But ho dwelt particularly
upon the fact that the Cheyennes
always kept their ponies in a corral
which was in the very center of their
village. The huts , habitations , tepees ,
and wigwamsof the owners of the ponies
were all constructed around their com
munal corral in a sort of a circle , but
"The Fox" said that he nevertheless , in
his individual excursion of which ho
proudly boasted , crawled during the
middle of the night in among the
ponies and was about to slip a lariat on
the bell-mare without her stirring , when
she gave a little jump and the bell on
her neck rang out pretty loudly. Then
he laid down in the center of the herd
and kept stillvery still , while the horses
walked over him and tramped upon
him until he found it very unpleasant.
But very soon he saw and heard some
of the Cheyeunes come out and look and
walk about to see if anything was
wrong. Then he said ho had to stay still
and silent under the horses' hoofs and
make no noise , or die and surely bo
scalped. At last , however , the Chey-
enues , one after another , all went back
into their wigwams to sleep , and then
he very slowly and without a sound
took the bell off from the mare , put his
lariat on her neck quietly , led her out
and all the herd of Cheyenne ponies
followed. Ho never stopped until ho
was safe up north of the Platte river
and had all his equine spoils safe in
the valley of the Loup fork going to
wards the Pawnee village where Genoa
now stands.
The Fox was an "expansionist" and an
auuexatiouist out of sympathy for the
oppressed ponies of the Cheyeuues.
"Tho Fox" declared that the number
of horses he made requisition for at that
time on the stables of the Cheyennos
was three hundred. At this statement
some incredulity was shown by Mi- .
Heth , myself , and some others present.
Immediately "The Fox" throw back his
woollen blanket which was ornamented
on the inside with more ihau two
hundred small decorative designs
of horses. Among the Pawnees , and
ikowiso , if I remember rightly , among
the Otoes and Ouiahas , robes and blau-
