Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-04
He bent and kissed her forehead.

l --@-S5SSSSlSsssSSS=E-
 He bent and kissed her forehead.
 of another drunk. Hundreds of the
 names, many could only touch the pen
 mark. :" Another busted clerk" was the general expression when the young Californian came forward to enlist.
 Yet he was the picture of clear eyed,
 athletic manhood, was accepted with much hesitancy by the officers and un- doubted suspicion by the men, yet speed fly proved a splendid horseman, scout,
 shot and, as was the final admission,
 "all round trooper, " despite the fact that he was we'll educated and spoke Spanish like a native. Still, such was 1 the prevailing faith, as it ever is among veteran soldiers, that the old style was the best, it was long before he won pro- motion. No one who has not known
 both can begin to imagine the differ ence between the army of a quarter cen tury ago and the army of today. Just as Feeny was a resolute specimen of the old, so was Wing pioneer of his class
 in the new. At the moment when the
 latter struck spurs to the wearied Hanks of poor Dick and called on him for one more effort, the stalwart and handsome sergeant sped away on the path of duty, confident of the fact that by this time every man in his own troop and every soldier who knew him at all would stake his last dollar on Bob Wing's tao kling the problem before him as fear lessly and intelligently as any veteran in the regiment.
 Having ordered the ambulance up the gorge, he himself spurred away to gath CT in all stragglers within reach, so as l to re-enforce the little garrison at the 1 caves in the event of attack from the | Apaches. To his practiced. aye no yes
 tige of doubt remained as to the char acter and purpose of the signal smokes. Not moment was to be lost. Within that very hour perhaps unseen Indians
 would come skulkipg, spying" snak
 ing upon their refuge, would be able 1 infallibly to determine the number and character of its occupants, and if their own force were considerable and that | of the garrison weak God alone could ! help those innocent women.
 When last noted, the westward signal was puffng slowly up into the cloudless sky from d point in the range perhaps six miles below Patterson s station in l the rocks. The three wearied troopers, | dragging slowly back from the chase, could be seen coming up the valley prob | ably four miles away, some distance, | therefore. ahead of the supposed position of the foe. Wing we'll knew with what i goatlike agility the mountain Indians ,l H. Aor ,.a1x still keep under cover, and every man who had served month ill Arizona could have predieted that if Indians in ! any force were within a days march of those three stragglers ambush and death would be their fate, perhaps even when within view of their longed for goal. | That they had not seen the sign, that they were ignorant of the possible pres enee of Apaches in the range, was man. ifest simply because they rode close along under the foot hills, often over | the powder strewn outskirts of the falda, and, though still far from them, such was Wings anxiety for their safe ty that he rode furiously along, signal ing with his left hand as though to say: Keep out! Keep to your right! Don't go so close to the rocksv'
 In this way. urging Dick to his speed and never thinking of his own safety, intent only on saving his comrades from possible death, believing, too, that no Apache could yet have worked his way so far up the range, Wing was riding, straight as the crow flies, from the little oasis at the nouth of the canyon toward the ambling laggards to | $l.f, south ITic 1n1 I,Sf1n o1H within 100 yards of many a powder or
 'suwarrow, though his path itself was unobstructed. The sun had gone west ering, and he was in the shadow. Pres ently, however, as Dick panted painful ly, heavily, up very gentle slope, and the sergeant came upon the low crest of moundlike upheaval,~ he saw some 400 yards ahead broad bay of sum- light stretching in from the glaring sea to the east, and glapcing to his right D,oted that there was a depression in the something like broad cleft in the mountains, possibly pass through to the broader desert on the other side. He gave it little thought, however. There, only a mile or so away now, came his fellow troopers. two in front, another tagging some distance behind, riding sleepily toward him and danger ous1y close to a number of sheltering rocks. Intent only on them and still wishing to attract their attention, he swung his broad brimmed> hat, waving it off to the left, but with no apparent result. Confound them! Were they sound asleep? Could they never be made to see? Poor Dick was able now only to strike a feeble canter, so utterly was he used up, and just when Wing, looking only to the front, was thinking that he might as well discontinue the spur and let his poor horse rest, they labored forth from the sheltering shade full upon the tawny, sunlit sand. Then, while the sergeant's eyes were tempo rarily blinded by the' glare, there came from the rocks to his right sudden flash and report. He felt at the same instant stinging pang in the leg. He had just time to grasp his own carbine and to attempt to swing off when the second shot echoed loudly from the rocks. He felt poor Dick start and swerve; he felt him going headlong, and the next thing he knew he was vainly striving to peer into the face of the evening sun from over the quivering body of his faithful friend, unable for the moment to see the faintest sign of an enemy, and then the blood came yelling through the little hole in his worn cavalry trousers, midway between the hip bone and the knee, and he