The Russellville Democrat., 1893-05-11

AUN 50 dh IulunlEUbg WAtA obCNA9 panting and faded, with the pass and tue Pieacho only four miles ahead, the little detachment was tripping noiselessly through the darkness, ard, all alert and eager, Drummond was riding midway be- tween bis scouts and the main body so that no sound close at hand might distract his attention from halls or signals further oat. Suddenly he heard an exclamation ahead, the snort of frightened horse, then some muffled otiurgations, a rider urging reluctant steed 10 approach some suspicious object, ard, spurripg his own spirited charger forward, Drummond came presently upon the corporal jast dis mounting in the darkness and striy- ing to lead his boon companion, whom he could not drive, up to some dark object lying on the plain. l This, too, failed. A low whistle, however, brought one of the other scouts trotting in to the rescue.
 "Hold him a minute,' Y said the corporal, handing up tho reins. There's something out here this brute shied at, and can't get him near it again" With that he pushed out to the front while the others list ened expectant. A moment later a match was struck, and presently burned brightly in the black and breathless night. Then came the startled cry
 My God Lieutenant. It's cor poral Donovan and his horse-both dead"
 And even there Drummond noted that Bland was about the first of the column 10 como hurrying forward to l the scene.
 Ten minutes investigation threw but little light upon the tragedy. Some stumps of candles were found in the saddle bags and packs, and with these the men secured the plain for signs. Spreading well out from the center, they closely examined the sandy level. From the north came the trail of two cavalry horses, sbod alike, both at the lope, both draggy and weary. From the 1 point where lay Donovan and his steed there was but one horse track. Whirling sharply around, the rider had sent his mount at laundering gallop back across the valley; then hundred yards away, in long curve, had refined h m to the south east. The troopers who followed the hoof IT arks out about an eighth of a mile declared that, unwounded, both horse and rider were making the best of their way toward Moreno's ranch. Further search, not fifty yards to the front, revealed the fact that at the edge of a little depression and behind some cactus bushes three human forms had been lying prone, and from this point probably had sped the deadly bullet.
 "Apsches l" muttered one of the men.
 "Apaches, your grandmother! !'' was the sergeant's fierce reply. "Will you ever learn sense, Moorei When did Apaches take to wearing store clothes and heeled bootsf There's no Apache in this, lieuten- ant. Look here, sir, and here. Move out further, some of you fel- lows, and see where they hid their horses. Corporal Donovan was with c troop down the Gilalast week, sir. They were to meet and escort the paymaster most like. It's my belief he was one of the guard, and that the ambulance has been jumped this very night. These are road agents, not Apaches, and God knows what's happened if they we got away with Patsy. Sure he was one of the nerviest men in the whole troop, sir. :"
 Drummond listened, every nerve a-tingle, even while with hurried hands he cut open the shirt at the brawny throat and felt for huttering heart beat or faintest sign of life. Useless. The shot hole under the left eye told plainly that the leaden missile had torn its way through the brain, and that death must have been instantaneous. The soldiers arms and accoutrements, tho horse's equipments, were gone, The bodies lay unmutilated. The story was plain. Separated in some way from the detachment. Donovan and his companion had probably sighted the signal blazing at the pass and come riding hard to reach the spot, when the unseen foe, crouching across their path, had suddenly fired the fatal shots. Now. where was the paymasterf Where the escorti Where the men who fed the signal fre-the fire that long before midnight had died utter ly away. Whither should the weary detachment direct its marchi Ce- ralvo's lay a dozen miles off to the northwest. Moreno's perhaps eight or nine to the southeast Why had the escaped trooper headed his flee ing steed in that direction1 Had there been pursuit. Ay, ten min utes' search o,er the still and deso- late plain revealed the fact that two horsemen lurking in a sand pit or dry arroya had pushed forth at top speed and ridden away full tilt across the desert, straight as the