CHAPTER XXVI
WHILE the events recorded in the previous chapters were transpiring, four young women, who had been dragged from their homes by the merciless savages, were cowering in the Indian camp. Soon after their repulse at the Thomas cabin the Indians loaded their ponies, squaws and captives with plunder and started westward. Mrs. Thatcher was ill of a fever and scarcely able to walk, but the savages had no mercy. She was compelled to carry a heavy load and wade through snow and ice cold water, sometimes up to her waist. At night she was forced to cut and carry wood and assist in all the camp drudgery until she often sunk fainting in the snow. When she at last could go no longer, she was lashed to the back of a pony and carried along. She bore her sufferings with great patience in the knowledge that her husband, to whom she was devotedly attached, had escaped the massacre and would do all in his power for her rescue.
On the third day the Indians discovered that they were pursued by a company of soldiers. The warriors prepared for battle, while the squaws hastily tore down the tents and hid among the willows. One Indian was left with the captive women with orders to kill them when the attack began. An Indian sentinel in a tree watched the soldiers and signaled their movements to the warriors. After an hour and a half of intense excitement on the part of the Indians and captives it was known that the soldiers had turned back and abandoned the pursuit. The pursuing party was a detachment of twenty-four men, under Lieutenant Murray, which had been sent by Cap- [Vol. 1]
