The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chief of Scouts, by W.F. Drannan

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Title: Chief of Scouts

Author: W.F. Drannan

Release Date: July 12, 2004 [EBook #12895]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHIEF OF SCOUTS ***

Produced by William Boerst and PG Distributed Proofreaders

[Illustration: Captain William F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts.]

CAPT. W.F. DRANNAN,

CHIEF OF SCOUTS,

As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the
Wild West of Fifty Years Ago.

AS TOLD BY HIMSELF,

AS A SEQUEL TO HIS FAMOUS BOOK "THIRTY ONE YEARS ON THE PLAINS AND IN
THE MOUNTAINS."

_Copiously Illustrated by E. BERT SMITH._

1910

PREFACE

The kindly interest with which the public has received my first book,
"Thirty-one Years on the Plains and in the Mountains," has tempted me
into writing this second little volume, in which I have tried to portray
that part of my earlier life which was spent in piloting emigrant
and government trains across the Western Plains, when "Plains" meant
wilderness, with nothing to encounter but wild animals, and wilder,
hostile Indian tribes. When every step forward might have spelt
disaster, and deadly danger was likely to lurk behind each bush or
thicket that was passed.

The tales put down here are tales of true occurrences,--not fiction.
They are tales that were lived through by throbbing hearts of men and
women, who were all bent upon the one, same purpose:--to plow onward,
onward, through danger and death, till their goal, the "land of gold,"
was reached, and if the kind reader will receive them and judge them
as such, the purpose of this little book will be amply and generously
fulfilled.

W.F.D.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

[Illustration: The Attack Upon the Train.]

ILLUSTRATIONS

FROM DRAWINGS BY E. BERT SMITH.

Captain W.F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts

With the exception of Carson, we were all scared

As soon as they were gone, I took the Scalp off the dead Chief's head

The fir