Show STORY OF BUFFALO BILL three rifle balls in one indians head the following remarkable story of buffalo dill Js told by an old plains man and who passed through denver a few daya ago the story has never been published it reads several decades ago before the great chows were organized and whilo bill cody waa in the serce ol 01 the government ho wan engaged in leading a scouting party through a rugged and at that time particularly wild portion of abo black hills be sides cody and myself tho party consisted 0 four men among whom were a man named humphreys and ike smith who afterwards became one ot codye right hand men when he assumed the role 0 showman wa had with us horses and a supply wagon drawn by four mules one hot august afternoon we ft era tolling slowly towards the creet ot a hill which waa heavily wooded and were all keeping a sharp lookout for indians as vie had already had one rather lively brush with them and wa well knew what to expect cod told us to ride on eflowly while he dashed forward to reconnoitre lie bad galloped perhaps a couple of hundred yards when eight or ten rifles cracked from the timber in his front and the balls whizzed by him over our heads without stopping cody wheeled about and joined us we were pretty well up on fighting tactic for in thos days a mans lire depended upon knowing how and we were already our horses and in jiffy had the supply wagon swung side on the mules unhitched and lined up with the horses at the other side of the wagon this formed a fairly complete defense against the bullets which were now pouring in thick and regular accompanied by the ungodly hullabaloo which we recognized as the sioux battle cry we stood or knelt behind our and whenever we could locate one of the reds by the smoke of his let drive this desultory peppering continued forthe better part of an hour and none of us had yet been hit we had of knowing whether we had do ne any damage or not but we no that the opposing shots grew jn number and this was a good sign for it meant either that the sioux were shy of ammunition or else some pt hem bad been disabled altogether wei were taking things pretty easy our pipes and joking for there was no umber or concealment at our flanks or rear and we had nothing to fear from being surrounded we judged that the bucket did not outnumber us by more than five we knew that we could hold our own against that number or elso take to our conlea and make a dash for it one of our mules was killed and another which had been struck broke loose and dashed into the woods we redoubled bled our vigilance and with such good effect that all but on of the braves were either killed or dislodged upon tats one our attention was now centered and we located him behind the trunk of a large pine in a clump of scrub oak trees ins position was such that he was almost sure to be brought down if ho attempted to run away this fact he evidently realized and upon the safe course of holding the fort alone every few minutes a puff ot smoke would curl upward through the leaves and the bulet would come rattling against the thick bottom of the wagon or glance harmlessly from the poke of a wheel suddenly our mule driver threw up hie hands and fell dead with a bullet in his temple humphreys Humph ground his teeth and poured a particularly large charge of powder into his gun we must get that devil boys said cody and he drew a fresh bead a knothole in the center humphreys and I 1 were at bis left and jk smith and the other man were at thes extreme right of the wagon I 1 was staring fixedly at the buades a a I 1 caught a glimpse of a pair of ja teely glittering ayea which peered put from the leaves it was only for o 0 instant and I 1 had no time to fire before it was gone A single report at my right however ang jang j out and the indian gave a particularly unhappy gurgle and passed to the happy hunting grounds humphreys gun was smoking and I 1 know that he had fired the lucky shot bill cody stood with a peculiar grim smile upon bis face and ike smith chuckled with alon 1 I knew I 1 would fetch him that time said ike bis wreathed in smiles you asked cody in surprise why I 1 fired that shot myself 1 I reckon not ealda humphreys convincingly or rather I 1 beg pardon for doubting you buti killed the indian any ot coursed course 1 assented 1 I saw humphreys shoot the joke cody looked puzzled but I 1 fired at him he repeated you are wrong again cody ike replied 1 I did the shooting here was a dispute which bid fair to last until sundown for there had been but one report and each ot the three men claimed that he was responsible that report tt was clearly a case of who killed the indian the only thing to be done waa to have look at the corpse and as there was now no danger we strolled over to where it lay i m ike who was the first one on the scene ami he pointed lo 10 the indians head in the forehead were three round bullet holes one was exactly in the center one was an inch to the right and toe third was a halt inch to the left at that instant tour more astonished could not have been found on the face of the earth than we were as we stood there looking at the body it socked impossible that three Shots could have been fired at precisely the same instant and yet we could not doubt the evidence ot our senses tor the ballet holes could not lie cody was adeep la thought ike be eald suddenly humphreys Is the roan I 1 have been looking for when I 1 organize wild west show humphreys goes along as captain of the crack shots see and humphreys did that s the end ot the yarn except that a brother of the cheyenne bravi who then lay dead at our feet afterwards took service with show which proves that the of an indian Is not always eternal rocky mountain news |