Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-09

van of four wagons and elght men, three of whom had brought their wives along, and two of these last had each babe less than a year old, so that our total number now included thirty-seven souls.
 up to this time our journey had been singularly prosperous, as we had not lost man nor an animal, though we had been engaged in several slirmishes with wandering bands of Flutes while pass ing through Colorado. But we had now reached the country dominated by those incarnate scourges of Arizona and New Mexico-the Apache Indians; and, as Captain Jim said, would hey ter keep our eyes peeled eff we 'spected ter save our ha'r.'
 However, we had come within short distance of tine great pass which cuts through the Chirihuica mountains, and was then the only road between the Rio Grande and Fort Yuma, without seeing a single one of these fierce warriors, and but for the sharp eyes of Gus Taylor we might have entered the defile itself quite 1 unaware of their proximity; in which case, as we afterward knew, not a man would have lived to tell the story, and as for the women-well, I'd rather not think of that.
 "Jim Burrows, an old friend and pupil of the renowned Kit Carson, and him. self famous Indian fighter, had already made two or three overland journeys, and was pretty well up to all the dodges of the redskins, and when we had got things into shape, he said: Now, boys, these varmints hez showed ther hand 1eetle previous. Ther game was ter wait till we got inter the pass, then pitch into our rear and drive us, like ez not, right onto 'nuther lot uv 'em a-waitin fur us 'mong the rocks. Elf thars huff uv 'em ter resk it they'll likely tackle us here sum time fore night an try ther purtiest ter git inter the corral, or coax us out; but whatsomever happens, don't let 'em get in, or not mothers son uv 1 us'u ever see Californy. "The surface of the great plain on which we were camped, although appear ing at first sight level, was really quite ! rolling, and we had lately skirted several I deep, dry coulees, in which numbers of I enemies might even now be lurking. | Meantime, the two videttes had vanished from the ridge, and one of our party ven tured to remark that he guessed it was a | false alarm after all. The captain opined differently and quietly replied: Don't fool yerself with no sich notion. l kin ! read Lnjun signs like a book, an l seen them scouts tell ther band our 'xact number, how many critturs we hev an | all bout us, plain ez preachin, Thar's a \ big slew uv 'em somewhar not far of, an we best git dinner fore ther onto us. We'll hev ter teetotally whip an demor- alize 'em right here, all purity quick, too, l fur we haint got but two days dry feed \ fur the stock, an all the wateru run out bout the same time. These Injuns is 1 Apaches, yer want ter notis'-the all- | fredest fighters, cunninest hoss thieves an cruelest reds ginerally in the hull kentry Thar aint no sized band uv nary 'nuther tribe on the plains 'ud dar ter tackle corralled party sich ez this: but these fellers'n try it on eff they kin skar up bout ten men ter our one, see eff they don'tv
 l Everything around us looked so quiet 1 and deserted that it was hard to believe serious trouble was brewing, and the whole party proceeded to get dinner I with the careless air of men having nothing to fear-this apparent coolness
 having the desired effect of reassuring
 the terribly frightened women. The meal was finished without interruption.
 and some of the boys were just giving the stock half rations of corn and water. when from out a coulee about thou
 sand yards to the northeast emerged 8 single plumed and armed but unpainted Indian, who, to our great surprise, rode straight toward us. waving in the air a
 dingy rag which he no doubt considered
 white.
 "'Wal, I'll be blamed eff that ain't cheekr exclaimed the captain. We'd
 ort ter shoot the skunk right down the
 mint he gifts in range. He's comin ter pretend ter talk trade. Yer see he ain't
 got no war paint on, an he reckons ter git his people 'mong us on that old dodge. so's ter wipe us out easy without fight.
 But white mems habits is so strong on me that l reely can't kill him in his
 tracks, an 1 guess we'll jest hev ter let
 the mis'ble cuss go.
 Meanwhile the innocent looking war
 rior loped along until within fifty yards
 when he checked his pony and grunted
 out lot of gibberish Jim Burrows,
 who understood most of the dialects of the plains, crawled under one of the wagons, and telling a couple of us to cover him with our rifles, walked out to
 meet the envoy. The conference, how
 ever, had not lasted half minute be-
 fore the savage wheeled his pony and
 rode off at speed, while the captain re-
 turned to us with conical grin on his
 wrinkled visage.
 "'It's jest ez 1 'sposed, boys he ex-
 plained, the fool galoot sez thar's band
 uv thirty bucks Gest thirty, seeD camped
 down in the holler, an they'd like ter
 trade of a pony or two fur pork an
 -four an baccy an sugar. didn't say
 nothin much, only jest obsarved in a
 kind of modest, casuwen way that my
 names Jim Burrows, an, seein the
 game war up, he didn't wait fur ter say
 goodby, but moseyed off ter git his paint
 on agin. An now, ez the noospaper men
 sez, we'll hey ter wait further devellup.
 ments.'