Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/367

 O'Shaughnessy, formerly of the Fourteenth Infantry, who had been brought up in the salmon districts of Ireland, was standing near me with a large mess just caught; he handed me his willow branch, most temptingly baited with grasshoppers, at the same time telling me there was a fine big fish, "a regular buster, in the hole beyant." He had been unable to coax him out from his retreat, but thought that, if anything could tempt him, my bait would. I cautiously let down the line, taking care to keep in the deepest shadow. I did not remain long in suspense; in an instant the big fellow came at full speed from his hiding-place, running for the bait. He was noble, heavy, and gorgeous in his dress of silver and gold and black and red. He glanced at the grasshoppers to satisfy himself they were the genuine article, and then one quick, nervous bound brought his nose to the hook and the bait into his mouth, and away he went. I gave him all the line he wanted, fearing I should lose him. His course took him close to the bank, and, as he neared the edge of the stream, I laid him, with a quick, firm jerk, sprawling on the moss. I was glad not to have had any fight with him, because he would surely have broken away amid the rocks and branches. He was pretty to look upon, weighed three pounds, and was the largest specimen reaching camp that week. He graced our dinner, served up, roasted and stuffed, in our cook Phillips's best style.

General Crook, wishing to ascertain with some definiteness the whereabouts of the Sioux, sent out during the first week of July a reconnoitring party of twenty enlisted men, commanded by Lieutenant Sibley, Second Cavalry, to escort Frank Gruard, who wished to move along the base of the mountains as far as the cañon of the Big Horn and scrutinize the country to the north and west. A larger force would be likely to embarrass the rapidity of marching with which Gruard hoped to accomplish his intention, which was that of spying as far as he could into the region where he supposed the hostiles to be; all the party were to go as lightly equipped as possible, and to carry little else than arms and ammunition. With them went two volunteers, Mr. John F. Finerty and Mr. Jim Traynor, the latter one of the packers and an old frontiersman. Another member of the party was "Big Bat."

This little detachment had a miraculous escape from destruction: at or near the head of the Little Big Horn River, they were