e screened from their sight by the high
banks. When we were close enough to them we dismounted and tied our
horses to some bush. I then crawled up the bank alone to see just where
the Antelope were, and to my surprise I found that there were two or
three hundred of them feeding almost on the edge of the ravine in close
gunshot to us. I slipped back down the bank and got to the boys as quick
as possible and told them that the Antelope were on the top of the bank
in close gun shot of us. We scattered along down the ravine for perhaps
a hundred yards. I took my handkerchief out of my pocket and told them I
would tie it around my ramrod. "And now don't any of you shoot until
you see this red handkerchief waving, for the color being red it will
attract their attention, and you will see more heads looking towards it
then you ever saw in your life before. Now take good aim and be sure
and hit your game, and as soon as you have emptied your guns pull your
pistols and get some more while they are running away; we ought to get
at least twenty Antelope out of this band."
When I waved the handkerchief, it seemed as if every rifle cracked at
once, and it was a lively time for a few minutes for all of us. When we
counted the Antelope we found we had shot twenty-two. We each took an
Antelope in front of us on our horses and put out for camp. When we got
there we unloaded, and some of the men that were at the camp commenced
dressing them and cutting them up in pieces to cook, while the other
boys went back to get those we had left where we killed them.
The women had the fires burning when the meat was ready for cooking,
and when supper was ready all the Antelope were dressed and distributed
around among the emigrants, and there was enough to last until the
second day.
Jim had cut long sticks and had hung the scalps on the wagons so they
could be seen quite a distance away. After he had them all fixed, he and
I were standing together talking, he telling me the effect the sight of
the dead Indians had on the emigrants and especially when they saw that
their scalps had been taken off.
Two of the women came to us and invited us to eat supper with them at
their tent. I will here explain to the reader that every family in the
train had their own separate tent and cooked at their own fire. Jim and
I accepted the invitation as we always did of the first that invited us
to each meal.
As we finished eating it seemed as though all the w
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