The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-24


little company wandered. lost and
helpless. among the fastuess OF Tn
! familiar mountains; no record of those
ten days and nights when the sun ross
and set but to mark another and dark.
err experience Ia the calendar of human
pain
Ned Foster and Harvey Armstrong
| were among the number. Stronger
than the multiplied threads of the ca
bic had grown the bond OF friendship
| between these two men in the awful
realism of danger and 81 fferinG
| For four days the weary and footsore
had travelled down a deep CANYON
whose steep sides narrowed and mar
rosved until they closed and barred
them In Then the retracing of those
same steps
few, sorely weakened, gave up the
struggle and dropped out of the ranks.
Some became deranged and. wander
ing off, slipped down the rocky ravines
and were killed
On the evening of the tenth day they
were net by body of Mexican caral-
~ and hidden to halt and give up their
arms
After three days rest, In which their
half-spent lives were restored by those
arts Of healing the Mexicans know SO
well, they were carried. handcuffed in
pairs into saltillo and thence 70
Salado.
The hoary walls Of the old hacienda
looked down in sinister strength as the
Trimmed ranks fled in Eight Mexicans
were outside digging q trench. Ned
exchanged a look with Harvey. his
companion in irons, and whispered:
THAT means death" He was not
wrong. At two o'clock of the same
day the prisoners were ordered out and
ranged in double line against one Of
the walls.
The officer in command then read
the written decree of Santa Ana, pres
idert of Mexico. a decree which pro-
nourced for these men fate so In
genious In its torture to mind and body
that IL might have been conceived in
the subtle brain CT Rerod.
Every tenth man was to be killed,
the decision to be made by lottery.
Into a jar were to be dropped one
hundred and seventy beans-one hun
dred and ffty-three white and seven
teen black.
Each man was to take ont bean.
Those drawing the black ones were to
be shot before the sun went down; the
rest spared death. but retained as
prisoners.
1t was q dark and cloudy day, this
Goth of March, with high winds that
whipped the sand into great waves and
blew it across the plains.
Beyond the door of the courtyard
nothing could be seen but the flying
sand.
Over all spread the duslzy canopy of
the heavens
A Mexican soldier mounted stool
and held aloft the fatal pitcher.
The roll was called.
As each hand was slowly lifted and
poised for one single instant above the
mouth of the jug life and death must
have met and made salute.
The game was for souls, and the die
was Mexican beanl
Fosters name was called near the
last and he carelessly dropped in his
left hand, with perchance reminis-
cence OF childish days when he had
done such things for luck" and found
he had picked up white bean.
As he returned to his place Harvey
passed him, and Ned saw in the white.
drawn face of his friend no sign of
fear, but the mental anguish of Geth-
semsne.
What was it he had said last night in
one OF the pauses Of that long march?
That perhaps, even now, baby
voice was waking faint echoes in his
little home, and that the anxiety he
was bearing for another was sharper
with pain than any physical torture he
had experienced
Ned looked at the smooth white oval
of the vegetable seed in his hand and
made resolve.
When he looked up Harvey was Just
raising his hand Ned noticed how it
trembled.
When the fingers were withdrawn (
there was something black outlined /
against their bloodless tips.
The change in his face was that of /
death
With quick movement toward his /
friend, Foster made sudden thurst .
md gesture, and-how it was no one /
,ould ever explain-but after the slight /
confusion and peremptory orders to fall |
4 line Harvey was seen standing in his /
I'D place staring with bewiIdered gaza
It white object in his open palm, and
Ned erect and calm, with brow of
more than mortal beauty, awaiting the
ignal of death
As soon as Harvey reRained control
IT his confused faculties he made fran
ie, pitiable efforts TO communicate
With his friend, but was silenced at the
'oint of a musket and compelled TO
brow himself face downward with the !
est, while the seventeen doomed men
we're led forth, bound together with
ords, their eyes bandaged. and sho.
epeatedly until life was extinct. They
sked the privilege Of being sho. from
ne front. but were refused. and made
D sit upon log near the wall with
heir backs to the executioners
SIX were taken out first, then six
Tore and then Eve
Darkness fell ike a great funeral pail
S the last shots were fred. and stars
he'd their holy candle rays above the
cad; the dishonored dead. lying in
ne great heap, body piled atop Of
ody.-Nora C Perry. in Omaha Bee.
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