The Russellville Democrat., 1893-08-17
tCogyIgat, 1899, bg charies King.l
 CHAPTER XI.

morning. u6 not sun 2S pouring down upon the jagged front of range of heights where occasional clumps of pine and cedar, scrub oak and juniper, seemed the only vege- table products hardy enough 10 with stand the alteniations of in .ense heat by day and moderate cold night, or to find sufficient sustenanee to eke out living On so barren a soil. 0ut to the eastward, stretching away to an opposite range, lies a sandy desert dotted at wide intervals with little black punches of "selub mez- quite and blessed with only one re- deeming pa ch of foliage, the copse of willows and cottonwood here at the mouth of q rock ribbed defile where little brook, rising heaven knows how or where among the heights to the west, comes frothng and tumbling down through the windings of the gorge only 10 burv itself in the surning sands beyond the shade. $ narrow and tortuous IS the canon, 70 precipitous it's sides, as to prove conclusively that by no slow process, bas by soma sudden spasm of nature, was it rent in the face f the range. And here in it's leptns, just around one Of the sharp ,ss hends, honey-combed out of be solid rock, are half a dozen Jap lateral Assures and caves where -is suubeams never penetrate, where the air is reasonably cool and still. where on this scorching May morning, far away from home and relatives, two young girls are sheltered by tie natural roofs and walls against Inc fiery sunshine aud by little band of resolute men against the fury of the Apaches.
 Down in the roonie of the caves Fanny and Ruth Harvey are listen ing in dread anxiety to the sounds of savage warfare echoing from crag to crag along the range, while every moment or two the elder turns to moisten a cloth she holds to a wounded troopers burning, tossing head. Sergeant Wing is fevered, indeed, by this time, raging with misery at thought of his helplessness and the scant numbers of the de- fense. It is bitter pill for the soldier to swallow, this of lying in hospital when every man is needed at the front. At 9 o'clock this morning a veteran Indian fighter, crouching in his sheltered lookout above the caves and scanning with practiced eye the frowning front of the range, de- clared that not an Apache was . be seen or heard within riheshot, get was in no wise surprised when, a few minutes later, as he happened to show his head above the rocky parapet, there came dipping dozea bullets about his ears, and the cliffs fairly crackled with the sudden flash of rifles hidden up to that in- stant on every side. Indians who can creep upon wagon train or emi- grant camp ia the midst of an open and unsheItered plain find absolutely no difficulty in surrounding, unsus- pected and unseen, bivouac in the mountains. Inexperienced officers or men would have been picked off long before the opening of the gen eral attack, but the Apaches them selves are the first to know that they have veteran troopers to deal with, for up to this moment only one has shown him. self at all. At five minutes after 9 o'clock Lieut.. Drummond, glancing exnltingly around upon his little band of fighters, had blessed the foresight of Pasquel Morales and his gang that they had so thoroughly fortified their lair against sudden as. sault. Three on the southern, two on the northern brink of the gorge and behind impenetrable shelter, and two more in reserve in the canon, his puny garrison was in position, and had replied with such spirit and promptitude to the Apache attack that only at rare intervals now is a shot necessary, except when for the purpose of drawing the enemy and locating his position hat is poked up on the muzzle of a carbine. The assailant's fire, too, is still, but that, {, as Drummond's men well know, means only Hook out for other dew ilment." :"
 Out on the eastward desert, still far over toward the other side, a little party of Apaches is hUrrying to join the fray. Two are riding. Where got they their horsesi The others-over half dozeh-come along at their tireless jog trot, It was this party that, seen but dimly at first, gave rise to such ebullition of joy among the defenders and de- tended. It was this party that, closely scanned through his field glass, occasioued Lieut.. Drum mond's moan of distress. With all his heart he had been hoping for the speedy coming of relief over that very trail-had counted on it's reaching him during tue day. He was sure it could be nothing else when the cor poral reported something ia sight, and so when he discovered the ap- preaching party to be Apaches no words could describe the measure of the disappointment and dismay.