Page:The Indian History of the Modoc War.djvu/106

. The old

squaw seemed to be satisfied for the while. Pat and his com- rades were congratulating one another for their great success in making this capture. They was very much elated, because they had a Modoc prisoner in their possession. During this time the troops had been getting or putting cannons or mor- tars in position. After the soldiers got everything ready, they began to throw shells in and around the stronghold, that drew a heavy rifle fire from the Indians for just a few minutes. The old squaw could not sit still any longer. She jumped to her feet, and gave a genuine Modoc war whoop which nearly chilled the blood in Pat's veins. She threw herself against Pat's stone wall. It fell to the ground. Pat says : "Me Royal Queen, don't yer do the loikes again or by the Saints, I'll hammer yer doirty head." Pat and his comrades rebuilt their fort. They had not more than finished their job, when down went the rock wall again. The old squaw had knocked or rather pushed it down the second time. Modoc bullets was flying pretty thick about Pat's head by this time. Pat's Irish blood was up in great shape. Just then he grabbed his gun by the muzzle, swung it over his head, saying: "Yer doirty blackguard, I'll learn yer how to knock me fort down." He dealt the old squaw a blow on the side of her head. The lick crushed or fractured her skull, so she expired almost instantly. Pat, in dealing the blow, broke his Springfield rifle, so it was useless. He laid all day behind a part of his breastworks and other rocks gunless. Along in the evening, when the Modoc firing had quieted down, Pat crawled over to where his victim was lying, face down, dead. He took his jack knife and cut seven or eight pieces of skin and hair off the old woman's head, ranging in size from a quarter of a dollar to a silver- dollar. He gave them all to his comrades, but one. He kept it for himself, and after Pat's company was called in from the front, Pat and his comrades took great pride in showing the scalps to the other boys in blue who had not been so successful in killing Modocs. Pat would say when he would be showing the piece he had, "Every piece or scalp we have represents one Modoc warrior that we killed. Begorra, boys, every time I fired at me Injun, I got him sure. The Modoc