Cut off and surrounded by
Injens Woonded—laying between
ded hors and ded buffalow
standing them off.
Catriges nearly all gon
God hep me
John S. Kel
Gran
Mo.
The name seemed to be something like Kelton, Kelsey, or Kelley, and several of the other words were so imperfectly written that I had to guess them out. We guessed the name of the town to be Granby, Missouri.
As I finished rendering my interpretation of the inscription Jack said, as he devoutly crossed himself:
"'God help me!' the poor fellow said, an' no doubt the Good Man took pity on him an' let him in at the gate, for the good Book do tell us that he never was known to go back on such a prayer as that. Well, he must have hurted some of them Injuns in the row. It would be a satisfaction to find some sign that he got away with some of 'em; so let's mount an' take a circuit 'round over the prairie for two or three hundred yards out an' see if we can find anything."
We did so and were rewarded by finding the bones of two small horses, probably Indian ponies that the man had shot in defending his position.
"That's some satisfaction," said Jack as we returned, "for it's more'n likely that he killed some of the Injuns, too. Well, what'll we do with these things?" pointing to the skull, jaw-bone, and buffalo shoulder-blade.
"I was thinking of taking them back to camp with us," I replied, "to see what Tom will say."
"Just what I was thinkin'," said Jack, dismounting and preparing to tie the skull and jawbone to his saddle. "I'll carry these an' you can carry the shoulder-blade. You'd better carry it in your hand, an' be careful of it so's not to rub out the writin' any more, for it's hard enough to make out as it is."
Of course Tom was interested in the memorials we brought and asked us many questions about the signs we had found.