The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-22

MEN RODE BRISkLY AWAY.
spectful distance following.
What's up, Hennicke?" hailed his
troop commander, scorning preliminar-
! les.
Firing. sir. Out on the Prescott road
| to the northwest. l could see the
flashes"
who on earth could it be?" asked
| the major. Captain Foster, let your
troop saddle at once"
CHAPTER II.
That there should be repeated alarms
where Were pine covered crests of the
Black Mesa and the Sierra Ancha-
where were the haunts Of the Tonic and
the White Mountain Apaches-every
one expected. There We're still among
The foothills some parties Of miners and
lprospectors over whose fate there was
good reason for alarm. The Santa
Anita placers had been promptly
abandoned, as we have seen. There was
eager watch for danger signals from
the site of old Retribution, down in the
Sandy Valley to the west, but from the
site of the new post to the crossing of
the Sandy above Apache canyon the
road turned and twisted among the
foothills Of the mountains for twenty
three miles and there wasn't human
lhabitation for nearly forty. Then, deep
in a cleft of the range, a stage station
with corrals and well, and lunchroom
and bar had been built by some daring
spirits, eager to accumulate money at
whatever risk. Beyond them for an
other thirty miles the road lay through
desolation itself and reached the out
skirts of even frontier civilization again
among the newly finished ranches in
the broad and sunny valley of Willow
creek.
In view of the sudden and stimuli
taneous swoop of the Apaches upon
roads east of Prescott everybody had
been warned. Even the mail riders
| held back for mounted escorts. No
stage for Wiclkenberg and the south,
no blackboard for the Santa Anita, had
left the territorial capital for three days.
No mail had been received at Retribu-
ton for forty-eight hours. The daring
troopers who rode in with the dis
/ patches early that June morning had
come through the Sandy valley, as
they frankly admitted, with revolyers in
hand. their hearts in their mouths and
the reins in their teeth. They had
passed no party eastward bound. Who,
then, could it be who, striving now
to. reach the post by way of the new
/ Apaches only a mile or so out?
/ Thorntons first impulse was to say the
sentry must be dreaming. Raymond,
who had known the old trooper nearly
a decade, as promptly declared the
sentry's report reliable. II not only
saw the flashes, said Hennieke, but
1 could family hear the shots, sir
fifteen or twenty. 1t was still as death
out here"
Meantime, sending an eager boy
lieutenant on the jump to order out
"G' troop, Captain Foster had hast
ened to his his temporary quarters
half canvas, half adobe-to make his
hurried preparations. Already the ru-
NOR was running from mouth to
mouth Only three Of the officers had
their families with them at the time.
| Mrs. Foster was one Of those women
who insisted on accompanying her
husband on the move to Arizona,
even though the rudest of camp life
| was to be her portion, and she and
! Nellie with anxiously beating hearts
were standing on the unfinished
porch of the new quarters listening for
further sounds, as the captain FASTENED
UP the slope
ct can't be anything very serious,
dear" he said, reassuringly. Prob
ably some belated miners, whose
mules the Indians are trying to run
I'll send word in at once" Silent and
anxious she followed within the door
way, where hung a Navajo blanket as
the only barrier between their army
nest and the warm outer air. Nellie
lclinging to her mothers side.
We've been watching all evening
for signals from the Butte" murmured
Mrs. Foster. as the captain rapidly
exchanged his regulation coat for a
scouting jacket. I'VE were so anxious
about Leon, and everybody who had to
remain there seems so. exposed now
We never thought Of hearing of trou-
BILE theraway." and Mrs. Foster
glanced out through the open case
ment to where the Prescott road
winding away down the slope, disap-
peared among the black mountain
shapes lying black and silent under
the twinkling pointers of the Great
Bear.
Leon is safe enough if he will only
stay where he is with Kelly" an
swered the captain. buckling on his