The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-07

and couldn't fight or protect himself, enc
we never knew it till next morning,
when we found his body about half eaten
up 200 yards from the campfire. This left
us with only one saddle animal, and from
that on we took turns riding. It was an
awful tiresome road through those miles
OF timber, but we kept a-goin every day
and only camped at night. Turkey was
as thick as chickens in barnysrd, and
now and then we jumped bear Deer
was plenty, too, but we didn't stop to
hunt. We had only one idee, and that
was to catch up with that freighter II
we had to follow him to Texas.
A week later, near The head of Black
river, we was jumped by Apaches and
lost another burro. How vast? Well,
it was like this: The sun was about two
hours high when the trail went down
into deep, sandy canyon winding around
between big powders of white granite
that had rolled off the cliffs above Some
Of 'em was more'n Is feet high. I was
afoot; Bill rode just ahead of me, and the
two pack burros wuz peggin along in
single file ahead of him. The canyon wild
ened out by degrees into a broad, sandy
wash, with mesquite trees and brush on
the east side, while the trail Rugged the
west side close to the big powders. All
at once-spat! spat! spatl come three
bullets, fattenin themselves on the
powders close to us. The three shots
were fired at us from across the canyon,
and we could see the smoke curtin up
from big bunch of brush over there.
As I jumped forward to help Bill drive
the donkeys under cover behind the
rocks another volley came, and 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.
eve found peep holes where we could
look between the powders and geta good
view across the canyon without being
seen. It was beautiful place, and we
could have stood off 20 Injuns as easy as
3, for they could not get behind us, and
our belts were full Of cartridges. We
knew we had 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 it without getting
shot from both of our winchesters. They
would have to run about 80 feet further
to the right or left to reach another
bush, and behind them was perpen-
diculaf 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.
81 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 a hurry. Bill
covered the right side of their bush
with his gun, and I 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
fiat 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. sReadyr
says Bill. 'Now!' 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 a rush for a new cover only 10
yards away. He almos' reached it-Aone
more spring and he was safe-but Bill
caught him on the fly. Crack! went his
rifle, and Mr.. Injun fell in heap, never
maxim kick.
eve waited awhile before we moved,
to make sure they wasn't playin possum,
but it was getting dark fast, so we
slipped up careful from bush to bush.
We had to make sure work of the KILN,
cos 1t wouldn't do to have one Of ,em
get away 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 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 way? They |
iidn't have nothin we wanted, so we left |
EN- to the buzzards an coyotes and start
I'd 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.
"a week later we got to Fort Apache, |
tagged out some and pretty near bare
loot. 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
:reighter. He was still on the move, just
rs we expected. He'd left for Wilcox,
IN the railroad, three days before. Well, I
we had come 300 miles, and there was