The Press., 1892-01-21
tracks, an l guess ven jest hey ter let

tracks. an guess we'll jest hey ter let the miss sble cuss go
 Meanwhile the innocent looking war riof 1oped along until within fifty yards. when he checked his pony and grunted out q 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 thefenvoys The conference. how ever. had not lasted half minute be- fore tho sayage wheeled his pony and rode of at speed, while the captain re- turned to uswith . comicaT grin on his wrinkled yisage.
 ''sslt's jest ez sposed. boys. he ex- plained, the fool galoot sez thar's band uy thirty bucks ljest thirty. seeO carnped down in the holler, an. they'd like ter trade, foff pony or two fur pork an four an baccy an sugar didn't say nothin much. only jest obsarved in g
 kind of modest, casuwell way that my names Jim Burrows, an, seein the game war up; he didn't wait fur ter say goodby, but moseyed of ter git his paint on agin. Annow, ez the noospaper men sex, we'll hev ter wait further devellup. ments.
 ''All the men of our party were armed with ordinary muzzle loading. single gbarreled rifles, and there were in addi, tion among the crowd nine heavy Colts revoIvers, at that time . rather rare and costly weapon, so that we could deliver thirty-tWo shots at long range and nc less than eighty-six at closer quarters , 9without reloading,, the navy Colt being quite effective up to fifty or sixty yards
 "Jim's developments were not long in coming, for about twenty minutes after the bafaed rag carrier had disap speared q great cloud of hideously painted braves redo slowly out of the coulee and drew up in g body on the plain. Ther one of their number, walked his pony away in the direction of, mound fol hundred yards or so, stopped. turned 1t twice around and galloped back at topspeed to his comrades Whats the meaning of, that little ,caper. Caps' in. quired Sam Bidwell 1t means. re piled Jim, that they're goin to pile in soon's the two bands tines, ar tother ope's ter, hurry up, Jest keer yer eye m the ridge now Them scouts hex bin layin low a-watchin fur a signal. an youHsee ther answer mighty suddin, I reckon. Sure enough, in q couple oi minutes we saw big squad of mounted wsrriors loom. up over the crest of the rise and ride swiftly down in a direct line for the band at the head of the cou- lee. The united forces being then only a thousand yards away. we were able to approximately estimate their numbers which most of us placed at three hun dred, but the captain at two hundred and sixty-a sufficiently alarming dis parity, though the true significance of this would depend good deal upon how the savages were armed. If with bows and arrows, tomahawks and knives only we had not.so much to fear; but if with rifles also, the coming fight might prove . long and desperateI one, and the result extremely doubtful <.
 " "The enemy seemed now to be hold ing an earnest, though by no means har monious, consultation, evidently debat- ing as to the expediency. of an imme- diate attack. Two or three times an ex- cited group of warriors broke of from the main, body. and, setting up the war whoop, dashed for little way toward us, only to turn back again when they found their companions did not follow Them young bucks said Captain Bur rows, is red hot fur fight. an they'll bring the hull caboodle round ter ther way uy thinKin in no time Thar,s too many sealpe an too much plunder in this ere outfit fur sich big crowd ter give up till a pile ny 'em,s wiped out. They're bout ten ter one now. an jest'ss likely ez bot thar more a-cOmin But were aTf fight slong's they don't git inter the corral, an when they do--wai, thar won't be nobody left ter kill then, only the two babies. an they'd likely carry them of alive.
 At this plain intimation of what was expected s6f them. rather than let their wives fall into the hands of the brutal Apaches, the married men turned pale. and thrill of shuddering horror ran through our ranks; but a moment later the brave Anglo Saxon spirit reasserted itself. and a bold, defiant cheer rang out. stunning the astonished savages Into watchful quiet. Soon we noted a movement on their part which seemed to indicate that all differences had been arranged and 2 definite. plan, of action agreed upon. Three warriors. appar- ently chiefs, rode out from the crowd, one straight ahead and the others di- verging, te the right and left, until all were about two hundred yards in ad- vance and at the same distance from one another Then they halted. and to each ieadeEs support rallied separate band of followers, who. deploying on either side of these pivotal points as they came up finally brought themselves into