The people, or a part of them, had been murdered and
the wagons burned, she and her younger sister had been taken
prisoners, and when night came they were tied hand and foot and
staked to the ground, and all laid down for the night.
"After we thought that the Indians were all asleep," she said, "I
made a desperate effort and freed one of my hands, although it
cost me a great deal of pain. After I was free I soon released my
sister and we then ran for our lives. We had got but a short
distance when the Indians discovered our absence, and raising the
yell, started after us. My sister outran me and I soon hid in a
little thicket and they missed me, but I fear they have overtaken
her."
I asked her what her name was and she said it was Mary Gordon, and
her father's name was Henry Gordon. He was sheriff of their county
in Illinois for two years before starting west. I now fired the
two shots to call Jim and Mike, and they were not long in getting
there.
As soon as Mike came up he said: "Sure, Captain, and wasn't I
after tellin's ye's that it was no bloody spalpeen of an Apache's
thrack that I be follerin' lasht avenin'?"
Miss Gordon now seemed just to have realized that she was alone in
a wild country, for she wrung her hands and said: "Oh! what shall
I do in this desolate country without a relative or a friend; it
would have been better if I had been killed when my poor father
and mother were.
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