Page:The Indian History of the Modoc War.djvu/132

 the women, children and old folks. He was acting as leader or chief. He put two men on guard; the rest of them laid around camp, some sleeping and some just resting. About mid-afternoon the two guards rushed into camp and reported that a company of soldiers on horseback was right on them. They hurried their families south into a juniper thicket. The

Capt. George, U. S. Warm Spring Indian Scout. Indian name, Shar-kah.

warriors then laid in wait for the soldiers. The soldiers were very slow and careful. They had taken up the Indian trail early that morning with Warmspring scouts as trailers. When they got within two hundred yards of the anxious Modoc braves, one Warmspring scout said: "Stop, I think me see him Modoc run like this." He got down on his hands and knees and showed Capt. Anderson. He said: "Me see him, sure; putty soon, maybe so, him shoot." Just then a shot rang out in front of the soldiers, followed by fifteen or twenty more. One horse plunged forward, hit in the breast. He