It is absolutely impossible by mere words to convey any idea of even the tenth part of the agony which this caused me. Ten thousand needles, red-hot, seemed to be piercing my flesh and stabbing me in every part of my body with their lancing flame.
Up to this moment, I had not abandoned all hope.
Perhaps, the boys might come up in time to save me.
In my now maddening suffering, I actually prayed that it might end. Heaping every species of opprobrium on the red demons, that I could, in my own tongue, I added to them such galling Indian terms as I had been able to pick up during my life in the West. These were not over-numerous, but they would have been more than sufficient to have inspired the incarnate devils with a greater fury, and, in a few moments more, I should have been quit of all the trouble and suffering of the world in which I had been a dweller.
As this desire was surging incontrollably above my bodily agony, I heard the crack of a dozen rifles.
The same number of the Indians dropped in the very places on which they had been sitting or standing, and I knew that I was saved.
CHAPTER X.
Between Torture and Safety—The Value of Popularity—Uncle Sam's Blue-coats—A Trapping Expedition—In for it—The Capture of my First Pet Grizzly—Skinning and Carving—"Prospecting" for Silver—A Living Blanket—Darkness and the Surprise—Carried off as a Captive—Out of the Thongs—The Butt and the Muzzle—Who is the Real Hero?