Morning journal and courier., 1891-11-18

joyful for. And so he lay, with the rife by his side, and his unspeaksbly hideous face turned up towards the blue that arched the desert.
 It was quiet there and drestful-no-sound save the music of the wires. Stay, there were other sounds; but they came some time after Coyote-Thst-Bites had thrown himself upon the sand and gone of to the land of Nod. They came faintly at first, and mingled with the murmurings of the wires. Surely they were the voices of children
 Had the red breast been awake he might have imagined that they were the haunt ing voices of the wee Mexican children whose blood he had so ruthlessly shed that morning. But be heard them not. They were very far from being ghostly voices snyway-those tones that now piped forth so merrily as Dubs and Gay trudged down the line. They were walking in the scoop-out along the road d-bed-not on the track, for that was forbidden
 There were other things that were for bidden, too, and one of them was straying so far away from the station. But Dubs was taking good care" of his three-year- old sister, and in the pride of his six full years he was equal to the care of half-s- dozen such as Gay.
 To give Dubs all due credit, he did not know he was half mile from home, and he really was going to turn back pretty soon. But the children had found many interesting and beautiful things to claim their attention. First there had been a chase after & young owl that could not fly, and that made its way along in the most hsphazard manner imaginable. Then @ horned toad had been captured, and Dubs had dragged the disgusted prisoner along by string, until he had tired of the sport and had let him go again. Then, always keeping close to the railroad, they had en- tered a great fsid of cacti, where Dubs had tried very hard to pick "toonies" without getting the insidious, needle-like spines in his fingers. He was fairly sue cessful, but be would not let the fruit of the cactus go into his sisters chubby hands until it had been stripped of its dangers by his ready jack-knife.
 "F on'y had tum matches to build & fire wiv," sighed Dubs, 'I' burn of vese prickles. jus like ve Injuns does" "O-o!" came suddenly from under Gays sunbonnet, "Wot's dat!"
 "W'y, it's jugl" and Dubs left the "toonies" and started towards the pile of rocks where lay the Coyotes demiiohn, and where also lay the Coyote himself. 1ne two uIlle slope, ana Dubs grasped the handle of the demijohn, only to let it drop again and spring back quickly with Gay in his arms. For he had caught sight of the Coyote. and he was smitten with sudden desire to go home.
 But he saw the Indian did not move, and SO he suddenly became very brave. He was certainly sound asleep, and no more to be feared than papa when he lay on the lounge in his midday repose. Then, too, Dubs was quite sure he was ''worky Injun, like the Yaquis, who shov elled and picked on the railroad, and so his mind became wholly at ease. The Coyotes cartridge-belt which had been so loosely strapped, had fallen of, and lay by his side. There were hun dred very interesting bits of brass stick ing in it, and the children soon had these scattered all about in the sand by the snoring Coyote. In the scramble for her share of the innocent toys, Gay let one of them drop on the Coyotes leg. Perhaps the mescaPs influence was on the wane, for big brown knee was thrust quickly up from ths sand, and big brown hand clutched the ugly knife at the Coyotes side; but the hand fell and the noble red man snored on.
 Dubs tried on the cartridge belt and be- came an Indian, all but the indispensable knife, and he concluded to borrow it from the heeper, whose fingers had lost their grip on the buckhorn handle.
 "It's bigger'n Mommie's butcher knife, ain't it, Gayl" the young savage asked, as he grasped the handle of the devilish-look ing blade. ''Now you 'tand over were an | I'll get hind wis wock. Ven you tum along, an I'll jump out and kill you" Gay demurred.
 70, it's on'y make b'leve. Vese kind O Injuns don kill nobody" and he struck a contemptuous finger towards the innocent Coyote. "It's on'y Paches Fat kills, an vey's none wound here Mommie says. I'm | 'Pache, so you better look out" It was dubious sport for Gay, and when | it came to the killing part she screamed | lustily.
 "You'ye woked him up an boiled it all" said Dubs in a tone of accusation. ''Now he'll want his knife"
 Sure enough, the CoyoteThat-Bites did shake his brown legs and arms quite wig l orously, but the last two big swallows of mescal held him down. So, after turning over, and burying his hatchet-like face in | the sand, he lay quiet again.
 | When he had thus turned over was | brought into view the rife, which had
 been concealed by his dirty blanket. Dubs | eyed the weapon with covetous eyes. He
 could not withstand the temptation of feeling it all over, standing it up on its
 butt, and trying to shoulder it. but this
 last feat he could hardly accomplish
 Just what it was that kept his fingers off
 the hammer and trigger, and prevented a
 sound that would surely have brought the | Coyote to his feet with yell, am sure 1
 cannot tell; but Dubs played with that
 fascinating weapon for nearly an hour, | while Gay poured sand over the cartridges,
 hiding nearly all of them from view. | By this time the suns rays were on the | iong slant and the children were very | hungry. By this time, too, the Apache | was growing restless, for the mescal had
 nearly lost its grip upon him. A train
 laundering by, or, much less, a swift
 brushing agsinst his black foot, spider
 dropping on his leg, or even big fly bug | zing at his ear-any of these would have
 set his demon force into play again. But the children could not wait for such | demonstrations as these, though why it | did not occur to Dubs that the Coyotes
 ear needed tickling with a grease-wood
 twig the Lord only knows. The wind was | up and the wires were murmuring louder | than ever. The wee ones had sported in | the black shadows long enough-had
 played with the fangs of the deadly ser | pent until they were tired and their stom-
 achs were empty. So they set of on a trot for home
 Just as they turned the bend and came
 in sight of the low roof of the station a
 "dust-devil" swept by the rocks where
 lay the Coyote That-Bites. He jumped to
 his feet, grasped his empty sheath, gave a
 mad whoop and stared about in feverish
 rage. Thsre was his knife, half-covered
 by the sand, and there was his rife far
 from his side. Here was the cartridge-belt
 empty, and all about him in the sand were
 countless little footprints.
 A bewildered look stole over his face,
 but it passed away when his eye rested on
 the empty demijohn. The expression that
 replaced it was one of demoniacal feroci-
 ty, and the lust of slaughter lay heavily
 upon him. But the cartridges-where
 were theyl He saw Gays mound of sand,
 and kicking it, gave grunt of delight to
 see the brszen capsules that were scat
 tered right and left by his foot.
 He picked them all up, grunting over
 each one. Fillina the belt and grasping
 his rifles, he started of in the direction
 in which the small footprints led. Like
 A bloodhound, he chased along the track.