THE

LIEUTENANT'S DILEMMA.

BY COLONEL H. R. BRINKERHOFF, U. S. Army.

The mountain country lying west of the San Juan river in New Mexico, and extending into Arizona as far as the cañon imbedded De Chelly, was a famous hunting ground for many years after the acquisition of the country by the United States.

During this time, parties from the nearest military stations were accustomed to visit this region in the fall or early winter each year for a period of hunting and trapping.

The Ute Indians claimed the country beyond the San Juan as their own, and regarded the white hunters who entered it as trespassers. None but their enemies, they asserted, would engage, as these hunters did, in destroying the game upon which they largely depended for subsistence.

In the vernacular of the trespassers, the Utes were inclined to be "ugly."

A condition of war scarcely prevailed between the hunters and the Indians, but much ill feeling existed, and encounters of a serious character were not uncommon.

The possibility that hostile bands of Indians might be met, induced the hunters who entered the country to unite in parties strong enough to successfully resist the atacks of small bands of Utes, such as were usually met with on the hunting grounds. Occasionally, however, small parties of two or three individuals were rash enough to venture alone into the Indian country beyond the San Juan. One of these parties, consisting of an adventuresome young Lieutenant of the Army, and an old trapper, who was thoroughly acquainted with the region, and possessed some knowledge of the language of the Navajoes and the Utes, set out in the early winter of fifty-five for a few weeks' hunting in the mountains between the San Juan and the De Chelly.

For several days the little party made its way up the De Chelly, hunting along the banks of the stream as it proceeded. The weather was delightful, and the air pure and exhilarating. Several herd of deer were observed each day, and other wild animals were almost

constantly in view, but for some reason they were exceedingly difficult to approach. The trapper succeeded occasionally in killing a deer or a turkey, but the Lieutenant lacked both the knowlege and skill necessary for success as a hunter, and failed in every attempt he made.

It annoyed the young man greatly that his efforts in hunting were unsuccessful. In common with the majority of young gentlemen fresh from a college course, he considered himself fully equipped for every vocation in life, and competent to enter any field of human endeavor with but little, if any, further preparation. That he should fail in such a common field as that in which he was now engaged annoyed him excessively.

"It's all luck," he observed to the trapper as he returned one day from an unsuccessful attempt to get a shot at a deer. "It's all luck," he repeated.

"And want of experience as well," suggested the trapper.

"Possibly," replied the Lieutenant, "but I doubt it. There's nothing in hunting that requires experience. You simply find your game and then approach it stealthily and shoot. That's all there's to it," he exclaimed, petulantly.

"I'm afraid you're in a hurry in reaching your conclusions, Lieutenant," said the trapper. "It seems to me that there is nothing in the world, even hunting, that can be well done until experience and training has been had. Some people think that simply putting on a uniform makes a soldier of the wearer, and buckling on a sword satisfies all needed requirements for an officer. You seem to have fallen into the same kind of impression, Lieutenant, about hunting."

"May be so," replied the officer, inpatiently, "but soldiering is a profession and a science, and experience and training are necessary for both officers and men. Hunting, I take it, is simply a pastime."

"Well, possibly you may be right," said the trapper, "but some people think that soldiering also is a pastime, and that experience and training are alike unnecessary. I know a volunteer Captain in our army during the war with Mexico who claimed that all an officer needed was a sword and a copy of the drill book, and that an enlisted man's qualifications comprehended only his ability to maintain a respectful attitude while the articles of war were being read to him." "He was a fool," said the Lieutenant.

"I'm glad you said that," observed the trapper earnestly. "The Captain was accustomed to call all regular army officers, 'fools,' and now you send it back at him."

"But as to this hunting business," he continued, “you must get down to it carefully or you won't succeed. You must try to learn. somthing about the habits of the creatures you hunt. You must learn to approach them at the right time, moving forward when they put their heads down to feed, and lying close when their heads are in the air. You must keep them always on the windward side, carry your rifle near the ground, and never shoot until you are sure of your aim."

The Lieutenant listened with much impatience, and apparently profited but little from the trapper's discourse. His vanity like

"The fragment of a nail beneath an honest compass," turned him from the truth. He drew in his horse to a halt when his companion had concluded, and was about to begin a reply, when suddenly a number of deer made their appearance, quietly grazing in a little valley not far away.

"I'll talk to you again about this business of soldiering and hunting," he said, "when we have more time. But now if you will stay with the animals, I will try my luck once more with that herd of deer."

He sprang quickly from his horse, and leaving the animal in charge of the trapper, moved hurriedly away, and was almost immediately lost to sight in the broken ground into which he had entered. The trapper remained mounted for some time and waited and watched anxiously for a signal from the Lieutenant, or to hear the discharge of his rifle, that he might follow him or go to his assistance if need be; but no signal came, and no report of a rifle broke the stillness of the solitude. It would have been imprudent, under these circumstances, for the trapper to have attempted to follow, especially so since he had no means of knowing in what direction the officer had gone after he had disappeared from his view. It was better, he reasoned, that he should remain where he was and await his return.

He dismounted, finally, when the darkness had come on, and tethered the animals carefully among some willow trees that grew along a little watercourse near by. When this had been accomplished, he gathered an armful of bark and roots, and striking a spark from a, flint into a piece of tinder that he carried, soon had the fuel in a blaze. He smothered the flame quickly with pieces of green willow twigs and bunches of grass, until he succeeded finally in sending up a column of smoke towards the sky as a signal to his companion.

The night wore away heavily hour after hour, as the anxious trapper maintained a weary waiting and watching for the return of

his companion. About midnight a faint halloo attracted the attention of the trapper, and proceeding quickly in the direction from which the sound came, he found the officer a few hundred yards away laboriously making his way towards the bivouac, carrying the body of a young deer.

"I followed your advice," he said, as the trapper approached him, "and you see I have been successful. A couple of hungry wolves seemed on the point of attacking me," he continued, "just as you came up, but I wouldn't have surrendered my deer to them if a whole pack of the creatures had wanted it, or a gold mine in Golconda had been offered me for it. I'm going to take the antlers home with me," he said, "and hang them up in my den as my first trophy in hunting. That's kind," he continued, as the trapper swung the deer upon his broad shoulders and started to carry it towards the bivouac. "I'm awfully tired, but I've got strength enough left to say that I think I can do better next time. I presume you will feel that such a remark is practically a concession, and proves your theory to be true. If you feel that way, I won't attempt to deprive you of the comfort it may give. It may be true that the man who aims at the sun, as I have been doing theoretically, will shoot high, but I am quite convinced that the man who shoots low and within the field of his personal experience and comprehension, will, to use a homley phrase, get the most meat."

On reaching the bivouac, the deer was hung in a tree by a gambrel, and as soon as the Lieutenant and his companion had partaken of some food they lay down to sleep near the horses. They had scarcely fallen asleep when they were awakened by the uneasy movements of the animals. The trapper at once got out of his blankets, and hurrying among them, endeavored to quiet them, at the same time giving particular attention to their fastenings. They quieted down somewhat soon after the trapper came among them, but they seemed nervous and apprehensive, notwithstanding his presence.

"There's a pack of wolves or Indians about," said the trapper to his companion, "and I think I'll stand watch for the rest of the night." He had scarcely ceased to speak when a big, grey wolf approached the bivouac, and squatting upon his haunches a few yards away, suddenly broke the stillness of the night by a long drawn, deepthroated, unearthly howl, followed quickly by the yelping of a dozen or more coyotes that accompanied him. As soon as the coyotes ceased their prolonged cries, the wolf again burdened the air with a fiendish howl, awakening the echoes for miles about him in every direction.

The terror-stricken horses plunged wildly about endeavoring to break their fastenings, quivering the meanwhile like aspen leaves in the breeze. The Lieutenant sprang quickly from his bed and joining the trapper, tried to quiet the animals as well as he was able. Finally, at the suggestion of his companion, he threw himself down, and crawling upon his hands and knees for a few yards towards the wolf, fired at him with his rifle.

The shot was a fortunate one, and the sound of the discharge had scarcely died away when the creature was observed to spring suddenly into the tir and fall back apparently mortally wounded or dead. The coyotes that accompanied the brute instantly dispersed, and the horses soon became comparatively quiet again.

A profound silence succeeded the disappearance of the coyotes, and the Lieutenant and his companion congratulated themselves that the trouble was over for the night, and once more prepared to obtain needed sleep. They had, however, scarcely stretched themselves upon their bdankets when the howl of a wolf, a half mile or more away, suddenly again broke the stillness of the night. A few moments later the howl was repeated, considerably nearer than before, and the yelping of a pack of coyotes that accompanied the wolf could be plainly discerned.

"That fellow's coming to make us a call," said the trapper. "The smell of your deer has reached him, and when he arrives it will be best, I presume, to give him the same kind welcome you gave his friend a moment ago."

The wolf stopped frequently as he approached, and squatting down each time upon the ground, gave tongue to a most weird and unearthly howl, prolonged in descending cadence until it died away at last in a moaning plaint, like the wail of an infernal spirit. Finally, as he drew near the bivouac, a deep-voiced wolf with a still heavier and more diabolical howl, drawled out a hoarse reply some distance away to the left, followed directly by another howl to the right.

"I'm afraid we're in for it, Lieutenant," said the trapper. "Those fellows are calling their friends together, and we will probably soon have to fight to save the lives of our animals, and possibly our own.”

Acting upon the suggestion of the trapper, the fastenings of the horses were once more carefully examined, and a fire was kindled near the animals.

In the meanwhile the howling of the wolves, and the yelping of the coyotes that accompanied them had become almost incessant. As the creatures came near, their gaunt forms could be seen by the