San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-04-23
TWO AFTERNOONS.

A hot day. The sun directly overhead,
glowing with fire that made the air in
the shadeless canyon culver as if heated in
an oven Not a tree in sight not a bush
everything brown and barren. Every
where powders of lava immense in size
and sometimes split in twain, as if in rapid
cooling fro,a the intense heat which gave
them birth. Here and there between the
gray green Of tie giant cacti, raising their
thorny forms fifty and sixty feet in the air,
assuming wien their strangely formed
limbs the shapes of immense crosses or
trunks of trees from which all leaves and
smaller branches have been torn. Between
the black and brown Of the sunburnt lava
an occasional tuft Of tall, almost coloriess
grass. Over all a stiffness that to one I'M
accustomed TO the land would seem strange
and oppressive. Not a bird to break it
with its song. Even the lizards sought out
what shade they could, making with their
green, red and variegaJed coats almost the
only dash of color 70 relieve the monotony
of the all prevailing brown and black lava
that each moment grew more oppressive to
look at under the glow of the fierce heat.
Save these, not living thing was in
sight except where off to the west !, buz-
zard foated high in the air, and t,ra .1en,
with a burro lazily following, DOSING
down the canyon.
Prospectors and their outfit.
Opened shirts, showing red, hairy
breasts, while their loosely buckled belts,
heavy with long, bright cartridges, whose
furnished surfaces, made doubly bright
from the rays of the hot sun, seemed
strangely out q place in such quietude.
Neither spoke. Each walked along as if
alone, looking for the float" that might
indicate the presence of some mineral
ledge higher up, more from habit than
from hope, as the formation" gave but
little indication of treasure.
How hot the sun! The burro, patient
eyed, forgot his old trick of nipping the
tops of the lonC gazette grass, and Contented
himself with keeping closely in the trail of
the two men, whose worldly possessions of
blankets, cooking utensils and tools, capped
with an enormous canteen of water, he so
patiently bore Not breath of air ST.:
ring, only the quivering heat that made
the eyes burn and ache. The men shifted
their rifles constantly from one l. nd ID an
other, as il to avoid getting blisJers from
the places where they touched the highly
heated metallic parts of their guns.
Crack crack! crack
Not fifty yards ahead, from behind doz-
en- powders leap out as many jets of fire,
while the snowy white puffs Of smoke float
up few feet and disappear in the CULVER
ing air.
One of the men stops for an almost i'm
perceptible instant, as IL to brace himself
His hands rise to the level of his chest, as if
to bring his rifle to his shoulder, and then
down ne falls headlOng to the ground in a
limp mass. Deadl Shot through the head
Not culver, not motion; without a
sound, were it not for that made by his
falling rife.
As he falls his companion staggers back
a pace or two, catches himself, and then,
half crouching, half falling, drops behind
one OF the many powders. 'Hitr he
thinks to himself, "but, thank God! not
fatally, only a scratch" Life seems new
thing; to live, a new joy.
Only a scratch Where" He hardly
has time to think as he places his gun
across the bowlder and fires at figure,
naked, dark, clothed only in a breech clout
and with red scarf wound around the
head. He notes almost unconsciously how
pronounced Us COlOI 10 dSdluSJ CuC I'LL n
face and darker hair of its wearer. "A
missn he mentally remarks as the figure
disappears But better luck next time"
he thinks as he pushes down the lever of
his gun and throws out. the empty shell,
replacing it with cartridge. "Short
range" he should have hit. 1t can't be
that he was losing his old cunning; that
his aim was bad. "No;" he fired in haste
and was ratified Another shot and he
will show them" are the thoughts that
flash through his mind as he peers cautious
ly ahead to discover his enemies
None in sight. 81
For the first time he feels pain. Half
numbness, half fire; how it tears as ne
raises his shirt and looks at little blue
hole hardly larger than pea near the right
side in the short ribs. "Only scratch, or
it would bleed worse. Did it go through"
he asks himself, rs he passes his hand up
his back to find if there be an orifee of
exit "No." That is bad, for there is no
surgeon to be had to cut the missile out.
Pshaw, what matters it, Other men have |
lived with bullets in them-why could not |
her Night would soon come, and then
with darkness he would 90. He was not |
losing blood SUN Gent to weaken him much, |