The herald., 1893-07-19

now and then we jumped q bear. Deer
was plenty, too, but we didn't stop to
, hunt. We had only ono idee, and that
| was to catch up with that frcighter If
wo had to follow him to Texas.
"A week later, near the head of Black
liver. we WAS iuuped by Apsohse and
lost another burro. How waAit? Well,
1t was lfko this: The sun wsA about two
houra high when tho trail went down
into deep, sandy canyon winding around
between zig bcw!dms Of white granite
that had rolled OF she cliffs above. Some
Of 'em was Inore'n IL feet high. | was
sfoct; Bill rode just ahead Of me, and the
two pack brrros wuz peggin along in
dngle file ahead Of him. The canyon Wild
ened out by degrees into broad, sandy
wash. with mesquite trees and brush on
the east side, while the trail hugged the
west side closs to the big powders. All
at once--spatl spst! spat! come three
bullets. aattenin themselves ON the
bowldors close to us. The three shots
were fired at us from ACROSS tho canyon,
and we could see the smoke curtin mp
from big bunch Of brush over there.
As jumped forward to heip Bill drive
the donkeys under cover behind the
rocks another vclley oame, ard this time
the saddle burro fell dead. Before they
could FIRE again Bill had picked himself
up, and we had our two pack animals
safe behind the rocks.
1--WE found peep holes where we could
look between the powders and get good
view across tho canyon without being
seen. IT wns beautiful place, and we
could have stood off go Injuns as easy as
8, for they could not get behind us, and
our belts were full of cartridges. We
knew we hsd the best Of it, or anyway
an even thing, for the bunch Of brush
where they were hid stood by itself, and
they could not leave 1t without getting
shot from beth Of our wholesalers. They
would have to run about 80 feet further
to the right or left to reach another
bush,. and behind them was perpen-
dicular cliff. Their cover was less than
100 yards from us, and their only chance
to get away was to wait until dark; but
we were also in the same fix.
II tell you, stranger, we watched
pretty close for those red devils to show
themselves. We was mad about our
dead donkey, and we was mad at bein
stopped when we was in hurry. Bill
covered the right side of their bush
with his gun, and took the left. Our
rifles was cooked and ready to speak,
and Just about that time no Injun had
any business to get in front of them, for
we was both good shots and didn't cal
culate to waste any cartridges For
near half an hour we watched, and then
we saw somethin move on the sand at
the right edge of the bush. It was the
top of an Injun's head. He was lyin
fat on the ground, behind cover, and
shown out his head to get better view
of our position. The next minute a
head was showed out the same way on
the other side of the bush. Ready
says Bill. 'Nowr and our rifles rang
out together.
"The heads staid there, but we knew
q rifle ball had crashed through each of
them. The moment we shot the third
red darted out on the north side and
made rush for a new cover only 10
yards away. He almos' reached it-one
more spring and he was safe-but Bill
caught him on the fly. Crack! went his
rifle, and Mr.. Injun fell in a heap, never
maxim kick.
1--WE waited awhile before we moved,
to make sure they wasn't playin possum,
but it was getting dark fast, SO we
slippedtup careful from bush to bush.
We had to make sure work of the KILN,
cos it wouldn't do, to have one of 'em
get and bring the whole tribe
down on us. Well, they was dead
enough to suit anybody, the last one
killed being hardly more than boy.
He was the son Of a chief, as we knew
by his wearin white eagle feathers in his
hair. He had an improved army rife,
and so did the other two.
weren't it a pity, stranger, that three
of Uncle Sans pets, out for little fun,
should "a got done up that way9 They
didn't have nothin we wanted, so we left
'em to the buzzards an coyotes and start
ed down the canyon drivin our burros
ahead. We Travelled all night, for fear
some prowlin Injun should find the dead
bodies in the mornin and take our trail.
ga week later we got to Fort Apache,
tagged out some and pretty near bare
foot. We didn't say nothin about the
KILN, for fear of being arrested. but we
rested up some on soldier whisky at the
suffers store and bought new shoes. We
wasn't disappointed this time about our
freighter. He was still on the move, just
as we expected. He'd left for Wilcox,
on the railroad, three days before. Well,
we had come 300 miles, and there was
nothin else to do but to keep a-goin. 1t
was only 150 miles further, and walzin
was cheap.
"We tramped into Wilcox 10 days
later, and therewe found our man at last.
We'd got so used to follerin him that I'll
be blanked if we didn't feel sort half
disappointed when we had run him down.
One of his wagons had broke, aud he had
to lay over to get it u,ended. Only for
that the darned old read runner might a.
been pikin along yet ard we s-follering
him, just two days behind him. He re-
mernbered sellin Iii the bcans. He said
he had bought the sack ut q little store
kept BY Mexican LII Thesor just be-
fore be started FOR Preacott. We told
him about findin the gold nugget and