Wheaton had the praise of capturing Captain Jack, he had but
little more to do with it than the President of the United States.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
STORY OF THE CAPTURED BRAVES.--WHY CAPTAIN JACK DESERTED.--
LOATHSOME CONDITION OF THE STRONGHOLD.--END OF THE WAR.--SOME
COMMENTS.
That evening I had a long conversation with Captain Jack, and from
him I learned the exact number of Indians in the cave. He said
there were twenty women, and maybe thirty children and twenty-two
warriors. He said they would not stay there long for they had
nothing to eat, and their ammunition was nearly gone.
I must admit that when I learned Jack's story of the way that he
had been both driven and pulled into this war, which I knew to be
a fact myself, I was sorry for him. He said that after the Indian
agent would not send them anything to eat he was forced to go away
from the reservation to catch fish to keep his people from
starving, for which purpose he was at the mouth of Lost river when
the soldiers came there. One morning before the soldiers fired on
him without even telling him to return to the reservation or
giving him any warning whatever. He said that he did not give
orders for his men to kill any white men that morning, but they
all got very angry at the soldiers for shooting at them. "That
day," said he, "I go to lava bed, my men scout all over country,
kill all white men they see.
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