(69) ON the 9th of June, 1869, Robert Horne took as a homestead the northwest quarter of section 21, Cedar township. This was the farthest off of any of the homesteads in that neighborhood, his nearest neighbor being Jesse T. Bennett, who was located on the northwest quarter of section 9, two miles farther north. Mr. Horne was an Englishman and had always lived in the city, consequently was wholly unused to the ways of pioneer life. He was slow in getting his house ready to occupy, but by the help of the neighbors it was ready to be lived in about the first of November, 1870. Prior to this last date his family had remained at the house of Mr. Bennett while Mr. Horne was at work on his claim. The house being ready for the family, Mr. Horne had moved a part of his goods and all his provisions and supplies and stored them in the house, intending to move the remainder of his goods and his family the next day. The next day, on reaching his place with his family, he found that the house had been broken into, all his goods overhauled, and many things carried off. The sacks containing flour and potatoes had been emptied and the sacks taken. All the clothing and bedding was either carried off or destroyed. Everything not carried away was torn or injured in some way so as to render it useless.

     While Mr. Horne and his family were waiting, undecided what to do, and not knowing what to think of it, Mr. J. H. King, who was located about three miles northeast, came along and at once discovered moccasin tracks in the flour. A number of the neighbors were called together as quickly as possible, but the Indians had so cunningly concealed (70) their tracks that nearly a day was spent before any definite conclusion could be reached as to which way they had gone. A plain trail struck out from the house toward the southwest, where they had gone back and forth in the grass, but after crossing a dry branch of the creek, about thirty rods distant, it entirely disappeared. Here they had evidently scattered, and could not be trailed.

     Finally, about half a mile from the house a camp was found in a large thicket of plum brush, where they had cooked their supper and sorted over the stolen goods, throwing out such things as they did not want. They also threw away a lot of squaw corn which they had been carrying for their provisions, as they now were fully supplied with something that suited them better. This corn was gathered up by the whites and planted the next spring, being used in place of sweet corn. At this camp they had also roasted a piece of fresh pork by placing it on sticks with the flesh side to the fire. As fast as it cooked they had eaten it off, and finally had thrown away the skin, still covered with bristles. This pork, no doubt, they had obtained by killing a hog in some other settlement, as none were missed here. No trail left this camp in any direction. Finally, after circling around the camp in constantly increasing circles, the whites found an occasional moccasin track in the gopher mounds. These all pointed northwest, and by following on in that direction, examining every place where fresh dirt had been thrown up by the gophers, a track was found occasionally, but not often. These tracks showed plainly that the Indians had spread out over the prairie so as to make no trail, that they had left some time during the night, or they would not have betrayed the course taken by stepping on the soft earth, and that they were Sioux Indians, as no others were located in that direction. From certain other indications observed at the camp it was supposed that there were ten of the Indians.

     Early the next morning five of the Cedar Creek settlers started in pursuit, taking a northwest course to the mouth of the Clearwater and picking up one man on the way, (71) making six in all. They took along one team to carry the bedding and provisions. Crossing the Elkhorn just below the mouth of Clearwater Creek, they camped for the night on M. L. Freeman's claim, where Mrs. Freeman had her adventure with the Indians some months before, as related in the preceding chapter. In the meantime Mr. E. R. Palmer had been sent from the Cedar Creek settlement to the Snider and Hopkins neighborhood to spread the news and get help to follow the Indians. Just as the Cedar Creek men were breaking camp the next morning, reinforcements arrived. These had started in the night from Crandall Hopkins' place. As soon as the new arrivals could eat breakfast, they all pushed on up the valley. There were now fourteen men, as follows:

      They had one heavy wagon, two light wagons, and three riding horses. The men were armed mostly with shotguns and squirrel rifles, old style and muzzle loaders. There were three exceptions. Trueblood had a fine heavy muzzle-loading target rifle, and Crandall Hopkins and Kimball each had a breech-loading carbine, one a Spencer, the other a Sharps, both good long-range guns; there were also a few revolvers and single-shot pistols in the outfit.

     At noon they halted at Ash Grove, near where Ewing is now located. Here it was decided to send Alex Belmer and A. J. Leach across to the south side of the river to look for signs of the Indians on that side, while the main body continued up along the north side of the valley. The party were also anxious to get a deer, as none of them, except part of the Hopkins party, had any meat. Several deer had been started during the forenoon, but every one had gone directly across the river. It was thought that by (72) dividing the party there would be a better chance of killing some game.

     About an hour before sundown, as those on the north side were making toward a grove in a bend of the river, about a half-mile distant, where they intended to camp for the night, two or three of the men thought they saw smoke, as of a camp-fire just started. A halt was called and all looked for the smoke and examined the grove with a glass, but nothing unusual could be seen. Allen and Jeptha Hopkins and Kimball, being on horseback, rode on in advance to reconnoiter. Kimball, having the best mount, rode rapidly into the thicket and, coming back, soon reported that he saw one squaw fording the river, but saw no other signs of Indians. Allen and Jeptha Hopkins rode on slowly into the brush, near the river bank, and when near the middle of the bend in the river Jeptha Hopkins saw an Indian's head through the brush. Looking carefully, he discovered several Indians lying down flat upon the ground behind a bank of sand screened by willows. He called out "How," but there was no response. Again he called, "How," when one of the Indians answered, and all got up and showed themselves, there being eleven of them. By this time the other men and the teams had come up. The Indians could not understand English, or pretended they could not. Trueblood, who could speak the Omaha language, addressed them, but they made no reply. He knew something of the sign language and made use of it. One large, athletic Indian said he was a chief. He held up three fingers on one hand, saying in sign language that he was good for three white men. They were the right Indians, without doubt, for Palmer and Seeley recognized some of the garments they were wearing as those belonging to Mr. Horne; several Indians were wearing leggins made from the skirt of Mrs. Horne's black and orange ladies' cloth dress. They were armed with bows and arrows and some had guns.