“Out to see the ball game. I happened to have only this one prisoner so thought I’d take him along. Blowed if I’m going to miss the game for a greasy buck-Injun.”
“Look out he don’t give you the slip.”
The sheriff winked meaningly. “There’ll be a right lively fox hunt if he does. The boys would like nothing better than to rope an Injun to-day. It would draw better than a bullfight.”
They both laughed at this notion and Howling Wolf seized upon the menace in the sheriff’s voice though his words were elusive. As they neared the grand stand the noise of the great crowd reached across the quiet fields and Howling Wolf saw hundreds of people streaming along the road before him. His limbs grew tense. It was plain that his captor was driving directly toward this vast throng of savage white people.
He looked round him. On either side were rows of growing corn and beyond the field on the right was the grove of trees which marked the course of the river. As he remembered this his final resolution came. “If I am to die I will die now,” and he sprang from his seat to the ground and dived beneath the wire fence. He heard the sheriff’s gun crack twice and thrice, but he rose unhurt and with a wild exultation in his heart ran straight toward the river. Again the sheriff fired, his big revolver sounding loud in the windless air.
Then, as if his shooting were a signal, a squad of cowboys rose out of a gully just before the fugitive, and with wild whoopings swept toward him. They came with lariats swinging high above their heads, and Howling Wolf, knowing well their pitiless ferocity, turned and ran straight toward the sheriff, who stood loading his gun on the inside of the fence. As he ran Howling Wolf could see great ranks of yelling people rushing over the field. He ran now to escape being dragged to death, hoping the sheriff might shoot him through the heart as he came near.
The Arrest of the Scout
Suspected of having kidnaped an Indian girl and murdered her mother, this man was traced to a tiswin camp, where he was found carousing with other drinkers. Though a member of their own corps, his brother scouts, after disarming and binding him, brought him back to the post, where he was lodged in the guard-house.
