St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-29
Bleaching Bones in an Ari-
IONA Canon Tell a Dread
ful Story.
A White Han Bound With His
Face Just Out Of Reach
of a Rattlesnake,
And the Tightening Thong
Drawing Him Irresistibly
to His Death.
The Human Skull and the
Dried Snake Pelt--An
Apache Yarn.

:rags. But pass along the trail. upset a
boulder, throw a rock into clump of
lie cliff grass. and you will see some
thing alive. Coilcd in the dark places
are great diamond backed rattlesnakes.
Disturb one OF them and the whole dell
will hum With the music of the casta
nets.
In the bed of the canon, just above
the wash line, are some bones, polished
by the drift of the river, bleached by
The fierce sun for years. AS You pass
from the middle of the heap of ribs
comes the warning rattle of one of the
deadly deniZenS of the glen. The re-
mains of pack-Saddle are there and
what might once have been the pack.
There is fragment of blanket with
~. So or it. Near by is the rusted
steel of a Winchester rifle. Examine it
and you will find that still sticking fast
in the breech is a green and mouldy
cartridge.
! hat tells the story.
Some time back when this glen. alive
with rattlesnakeS, was even lonelier ana
farther out of the world than it is now,
some prOspectOr, deSerter. or hunler
came there driving his pack-mule.
Fifty yards away from the whitening
bones behind that bOWlder that iuts
from the cliff some empty rifle shells
are scattered There are more of them
concealed by that patch of greenwood.
and still others among the rocks on the
hillside.
Did the traveller with the army blanket
know that he was travelling on tine hid
den trail that only the Apaches knew
that pulling roundabout path that
started north and turned back south,
the road by which the San Carlos In
dams found their way unmOlested to the
Mexican Sierra Madre, though the sol
diers were all around.
The story is written in what was left
in the glen.
The Indians saw the white man come
around the bend of the hill far above.
The canon was perfect place for am
bush. Riding in the stiffness is drowsy
work. The solitary prospector comes
on with his rifle hanging careleSSly be-
fore him. Down the trail he comes,
past the green wood pa, CHI to the water
hole in the gully. His animals are hot
and tired. He loosens the girth and
leads them to the pool.
Out of the quiet, crashing like a thun-
derclap, comes the first shot. He
springs to his horse and his rifle flies to
his shoulder. He knows what has hap
pened and knows that unless his horse
can carry him back through storm of
bullets the way he came he has passed
his last day or earth.
But the sudden shot has startled the
horse. A jerk has freed the bride, and
in an instant he is galloping up the hill,
the saddle turning under him.
Then 1t is die game or die coward.
The white man jerks the lever of his
Winchester. The cartridge catches: a
tWlg has perhaps got in among the
bearings.
They see that ne cannot shoot-his
pistol went Off in the saddle, and now
he IS standing unarmed among the ieer-
Ing Indians.
There are 10 white mans bones by
tie skeleton of the pack mule. Die game
or die coward! 1t was no easy, quick
death by a bullet that the man who tied
that pack had to meet.
Quarter OF mile down the canon that
trail runs up OH to a knoll. Down there
are bones. a skull is there with its face
buried III the soil. Those little Jumps
made the spine of the man who was
caught in ambush.
If you search close you will find the
rest OF the mans frame stretched out
there.
What was once a rope is there. 1t is
knotted back of the skall and the other
end is fast III the bush. If you cared to
scratch among those bones you would
md some small strips of rawhide He
died with his hands fast behind him.
But what IS this lace-like line and
delicate framework of slender bone that
lies close to the skull?
When the Apaches closed in on their
victim he fought hard. But how long
OiN
Struggle as he will he is soon over
come, and, with his hands bound so
light that the cords cut into them. thew
force him ahead of them up the knoll.
lhey ind bush strong enough to
hold him, and with his own lash rome
they tie him to it. But four feet of slack
rope is between him and the stake.
Even with his hands tied behind him
he might be able to free himself, SO they
force him to the ground and tie his feet
to another stake.
Ii they simply meant to leave him
there to starve and die under the hot
skies they would have manned his feet
and maybe hands, There would be no
need of tying him.
A shout from some of the Indians
makes him try to look up. Some of
them are coming toward him. They
have stick with little Moose on the
end, and in the DoOSe is one of the rat
llesnakes of the rocks. Now he knows
how they are going to kill him.
Through the skin and muscles of the
snake close to the rattles they put two
long. buckskln thoungs. The SERPENT
sqnirmS with The pain of it, but they
held his head fast in the loop. Ihey tie
the loose ends of the thongs around the
stake and jump back. The snake is
Tree from the moose, but bound fast bv
The cords through its tail.
Inc PROSTATE man closed his ewes.
Maybe he screamed, maybe tainted.
maybe he simply waited for the feel of
the Serpent'S fangS.
Like flash the fat head of the snake
shoots out. The cord stood its spring.
1t falls two inches short of the white
face. ''''o
Two tiny liquid drops come against
ms race ana run down into his beard
1t is the venom from the fangs that
failed to reach. The Indians roar with
laughter.
But they have wasted much time.
Troops are after them. They pick their
victim, they tease the snake, and then
leave him. >' ''-oi'
All the hot afternoon he lies there. the
snakes head playing before his eyes,
NAN VI viz hOllOn DclllS SDdJ Ill his
face.
The sun went down and the clouds
covered the heavens.
The snake has learned that it cannot
reach that face. 1t lies coiled at the
foot of the stake watching. For while
longer it strikes whenever the man
moves his head, but after a while i.
noes Lot move, but lies i'll a sulIen COLT
U, the strain of holding his head back,
back until the cords fairly crack! How
long was it before his mind gave way
and madness released him from his
deadly terror?
Now the rain begins to fall and it is
growing dark. The GOODNESS reviyes
The man, but still before him he sees
those coils and that fat head. The
snakes line-like tongue is darting out;
he is preparing to try il again.
He strikes. but still he cappnt rAa4b