Escaped to Love

Rose Marie Kelly, a six-year-old, was traveling with her family on a wagon train to California when white traders and a few wild Indians raided their wagons while the travelers were camping near a friendly Sioux Indian village. The raiders slaughtered all the men and women but gathered all the children in a large circle. Rose had been playing with several Indian children who decided to hide her in some bushes. She witnessed her eight year old brother being carried away with the white traders.

After twelve years had passed, the Sioux Indian chief wanted Running Bear, his son, to wed. The young man chose Rose to be his bride. Although Running Bear was a good man, Rose didn’t want to be an Indian maiden, so on the day of the wedding she escaped from the village. With several braves chasing her for days, she discovered a cave at the top of a mountain to hide in. Scared and exhausted, after looking the cave over, she fell asleep.

William Jackson Henderson, a trapper and rancher, had received a message that he was needed at home. As he traveled through the mountains with his dog, a storm was brewing so he entered a cave to wait out the storm. His dog went charging inside the cave and discovered a sleeping girl. When the trapper first saw the girl he thought she was an Indian child until she sat up and glared at him with big blue eyes. Trembling all over, she pleaded for water in broken English. What in the world was he going to do with this lovely girl or was she a woman?