The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-31

VIC WSDks
 Diego Dan was very anxious and watchf0l, but no enemy appeared, We secured the gold, placed is in the boat and were ready to return to Cot tonwood, when Dan, who grew more and more apprehensive every moment and anxious to get away, suggested that Bonita and l should row slowly down the stream while he would walk across the strip of land forming the Devils Elbow and join us below,
 It was night again, and very clear; almost as light as day; the splendid scenery and calm, unrutiied river made a most enchanting picture in the moonlight,
 We dritted around the elbow with the current, turned the brow Of our boat shoreward, and were waiting in the still waters for Dams signal, when the midnight silence was broken by the sharp report of & revolver on the river bank, then another, and another.
 A moment later Diego Dan called to Us, and we quickly roweti across to where he was standing, on the low, white sand- bank.
 Near him man was lying on the shore, a dark spot in the silvery moon light, gasping In death struggle. l walked toward him, and discovered, to my unutterable astonishment, that 1t was tho Apache ohieftain, Coyote.
 "Diego Dan, murderer, robber, se- ducer !" cried the wing man in ENg- fish, and with an accent no Indian could ever attain, al am going"
 "Good- bye, my saintly friend, and pleasant journey to you," replied Dan, gaily, as he stepped into the boat, to which had also returned.
 "No, you will come with mel the wounded man gasped, suddenly ris- ing upon his knees and firing pistol with deadly aim and effect toward our esteemed friend.
 Then most awful thing happened.
 Dan fell heavily upon the bottom of the boat, his head struck one of the cross pieces violently, and both his eyes rolled out and rattled upon the boards.
 I knew then why his eyes had always worn that steel blue tint they were glass.
 Every one knows that wc see an object by simply having its image re- flected back upon tho perceptive fac ulties of the brain, just AS In a camera the image is thrown back from the lens upon the ground glass.
 Th;a uaa Ahs. sa. ,.aA Nt Ila ,,1s q, .,stae ful long range vision; his eyes were compound magnifers.
 As in a camera, so in his eyes. The image had always been inverted, which caused him to shoot an enemy in the legs at a distance.
 knelt beside Dan, who whispered ::
 "Put 'em back. am dying 1"
 knew he referred to his eyes, and quickly replaced them, when another most awful thing occurred. In my haste and excitement l had placed his eyes In backward.
 He writhed in agony, but deaths cold hand was pressing hard upon him as my Bonita and l, gazing upon those steel-blue orbs, read the dying mans thoughts, reflected from Wifhin, clearly and plainly.
 Now we knew that the words ut tered an hour ago by the dying white renegade-who had so long masqucr- aded beneath the name and dress of an Apache chief--werc true; and that Diego Dams soul was stained with crimes innumerable.
 Immigrants whom he had guided across the plains into the hands of the terrible Coyote; trappers, hunters and miners he had ambushed ; friends who had slept with him never to wake |; women who had loved him--thcir cruel murders were all re-enacted in terrible detail as they passed in the dying mans memory across those steel- blue lenses.
 Then came an old adobe house beside the river, and Bonita shrieked aloud as In those magic mirrors she beheld her loved parents slain in their beds by Dan and the Coyote.
 It was long, terrible sight, but we gszed spell bound and immovable un- til the end came, and we saw that sudden quarrel between these two men had saved us.
 We took the bodies aboard and re- turned that night 10 Cottonwood.
 There told the wonderful story to the proper authorities and collected a large reward offered for the Coyote, "dead or alive"
 Bonita and I were married A few weeks after our return, and settled down to keeping house very happily. soon discovered, however, that & great many of our leading and promi- nent citizens were financially ruined by the sudden dissolution of the firm of Diego < Coyote, road agents, etc, and very naturally entertained ex- tremeiy unpleasant feelings toward me. therefore, after several narrow escanes from their yenOeAnce yielded