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4

any movement the end of the splint which projected beyond my foot was tied to the bed post at the foot of the bed on the left and for ten days I was not permitted to turn or move. At noon one day during this time my attendant had gone to dinner after heaping some fresh wood on the fire. In a short time the fat pinon sticks all ablaze rolled off the fire onto the floor. The chimney was built of sticks and plastered upon the inside with mud. The sticks of the chimney took fire which quickly mounted to the ceiling of dry pinon vegas laid side by side and under these it rapidly spread and the whole room overhead was aflame. I could not move and had no knife in reach with which my fastenings could be cut. A pitcher of water and a glass were within reach and I made an ineffectual attempt to a first extinguish the fire by throwing water from the glass. Then finding it impossible to release my foot I covered myself as well as was possible with a blanket, tucking in the sheets as far as I could reach. Of course I had exhausted myself in unheard calls for help. In a few minutes fir began to fall all over the room and on my bed and the thick black smoke descending threatened suffocation. Then I wetted my handkerchief in the water and spread it on my face and waited with the hope that the fire would find its way out of the cabin and be noticed before I should perish. It seemed a long while and it was becoming scorching hot and difficult o breathe when there cam a violent rush through the front door and into ? and the bed was picked up and carried out with me upon it. So ended a disagreeable experience. I was removed to the quarters of my friend Captain J.P. Hatch.

News soon arrived that Colonel Bonneville the Department Commander was on his way