But each hour, almost, would bring a new story of danger and a new cause for a stampede.  Some of my neighbors buried their effects and prepared to flee.  In the midst of this word reached me one afternoon that the people at Prineville were forting up, and that a company had been organized to go out to meet the Indians.  Mounting good horses my brother and I set out for Prineville, nearly thirty miles away.  We arrived there about dark after a hard ride, but it did not take me long to size up the situation.  The “company” was worse panic stricken than the people, and the fort that had been started was worse than a trap.  It was absolutely worthless for defense.  Everything, however, was confusion and one scare followed another in rapid succession.

I tried to get a few, men to go with me on a short scouting expedition to discover if the Indians were coming that way.  Not one could be found who would volunteer to go.  I then returned home and taking one of my young men and a younger brother, struck out for the old Indian trail leading along the crest of the McKay Mountains.  After riding some distance, keeping well in the timber, we met two white men who were making their way through the mountains.  They told us that the Indians had crossed the John Day at the Cummins ranch, of the fight Jim Clark had at Murderers Creek and the death of young Aldridge.  As it was now useless to proceed any further we turned back, and reached Prineville next day.  All the ranches were deserted, but we had no difficulty in obtaining food for ourselves and horses.

Chapter XVII.

Bannocks Double on their Tracks.

Matters now settled down, the scare was over and ranchers returned to their homes and began repairing damages.  Fences that had been thrown down that stock might help themselves were repaired that as much as possible of the crops might be saved.  I returned to my ranch and was busy with haying and harvest when another report reached us, borne on the wings of the wind, that the Bannocks had doubled on their tracks and were scattering death and destruction in their path.  The last scare, if possible, was worse than the first.  About the same time the Governor ordered Gen. M. V. Brown with the Linn county company, under Capt.  Humphrey, to hasten to our aid.  This was the only organized troop of the militia available for immediate service, and without loss of time they crossed the Cascade Mountains and arrived at Prineville about the 10th of July.

The company was a magnificent body of men, and represented the best families of Linn County.  One of the privates was the son of a former United States Senator, while others were young men of superior attainments—­law and medical students.  George Chamberlain, present United States Senator from Oregon, was first sergeant of the company, Capt.  Humphrey was a veteran of the Civil War, commanding a company in many sanguinary