Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/596

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
466
ESCORTING EMIGRANTS.

emigrant train came along we sent the Misses Gordon on to Fort Yuma, and from there they drifted on into California, and I never heard of them again.


CHAPTER XXXIV.


MASSACRE OF THE DAVIS FAMILY.—A HARD RIDE AND SWIFT RETRIBUTION.—A PITIFUL STORY.—BURIAL OF THE DEAD.—I AM SICK OF THE BUSINESS.

We remained here for some weeks yet, piloting and escorting emigrants through the mountains, but having very few scraps with the Indians. When the emigrants quit coming and our provisions had run very low, we made preparations to return to Fort Yuma. But to make sure that no more of the crawling trains would be winding along that way this season, myself and another scout, with two days' rations, started on a little scurry eastward. But a tour of four days developed no further sign of emigrants or Indians, so the scout and I returned to find the command all ready to start. We were just about taking up the line of march for Yuma when a teamster on his way to Phoenix with a load of freight,