Harper's Round Table, April 21, 1896

by Various

After two days of anticipation, Harry stepped off the train at Chicago to greet a lad whom he had seen on the platform from the car window, and whose resemblance to Uncle Joel permitted no doubt as to his relationship. Frank had been written to some days previous concerning the companion that had been selected for him for the summer, and had been anxious to meet his cousin, so, as he expressed himself to a school-mate, "to size him up and see what stuff he was made out of."

For a moment after Uncle Joel had introduced them, in his bluff but kindly way, the boys held back just a trifle, as though measuring one another according to individual standards; then a mutual smile of pleasure and satisfaction lit up their faces, and they shook hands heartily and walked off arm in arm, to the gratification of Mr. Williams, who heard them exchanging confidences and speculating over the coming vacation.

The ride from the foot of Lake Michigan to the city of Cheyenne was full of novelty and excitement for the Eastern boy, whose previous travelling had never carried him beyond the limits of the Empire State.

On the morning of the day that the train rolled into the capital city of Wyoming, Mr. Williams pointed to a natural and lofty pyramid of rocks situated a few hundred feet away from the track, telling them to take in the situation quickly, as the train would shortly round a curve and hide it from view.

Harry asked his uncle if there was a history connected with the scene, and learning that his suspicious were well founded, begged for the story. Mr. Williams began in the orthodox fashion:

"A long time ago, when I was a young fellow about twenty-three years of ago, I first came out to this part of the country as a member of a railroad surveying party. One awfully hot August afternoon we had worked our stakes along until we reached the big mass of rock that I pointed out to you a few minutes ago. As there was a promise of a thunder shower, according to the big black clouds soaring up out of the northwest, and as we were all knocked up with the heat, our chief gave orders to unhitch the cattle and to camp under the shade of the rocks.

"We had two good guides and Indian-fighters in our outfit, and being in a hostile country, of course they were always on the alert for Indian signs and ambushes. Although we had had several attacks from the hair-lifting individuals, the same had always been made when we were prepared for them, owing to the warning given by our guides. Well, why it was that they were so careless on that day I speak of I cannot say, unless the burning heat of the forenoon had taken away their shrewdness and caution.

"As far as the eye could reach in every direction there was nothing but rolling prairie, except right against our backs, where the bare and ragged rocks went up almost straight into the misty, heat-charged atmosphere. As we intended to remain in camp for the remainder of the day and coming night, sentinels were stationed on the four sides of the rock, and the mules and horses were allowed to crop the parched grass in the vicinity as far as their picket-ropes would allow them to wander, it being intended to drive them within the square of wagons before dark, so as to make them secure against a stampede.

"About four o'clock the storm came sweeping across the prairie, and for about an hour the thunder rolled and cracked and the lightning flashed as it knows how to do in Wyoming; then when it seemed to be dying away, there came a blinding flash of fire in our faces and the most awful crash I ever heard. It stunned us all for a moment, so that when something came pitching down from the rocks just over our heads and fell with a thud on the sodden grass a few feet away, we imagined it to be a piece of the cliff detached by the last concussion. After that the rain ceased and the sun shone out. Then it was that we discovered the thing in front of us to be a Cheyenne warrior. After the first look there was no use in seeking for signs of life in him, for his face was as black as that of a negro's, and one side of him was horribly burned. It didn't take us long to reason that he had been hidden away among the rocks, spying on us, and that the last lightning bolt had been attracted to him by the steel tomahawk in his belt. Well, after that we pulled out on the open prairie and kept a close watch on that pile of rock for the remainder of the afternoon and night, for we didn't know how many more of the heathen there might be in hiding up there; but nothing further happened, and in the morning we said good-by to it with a big feeling of relief."

At Cheyenne, Mr. Williams's foreman and several ranch hands were in waiting with saddle horses for the party. During the two days that the party remained in the city Frank gave Harry some valuable lessons in horsemanship, and after about a week's experience, in which time he became hardened to the saddle, Harry found no greater enjoyment than in galloping about the range on the back of a fiery young horse that his cousin had raised, and which he presented to him "for keeps," as he expressed it.