The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-07-11
SELECTED STORY.
The Red Scar.

THAT is the mark Of an Indian arrow,
b Navajo arrow" said the colonel as he
applied lighted splinter of cedar to his
cigar This was said in answer to my re-
mark, calling attention to q dark red scar
pm his right arm, about two inches above
Che wrist, which was revealed as he
stretched out his arm toward the fire to
Night the chip of wood.
The colonel and l, with our host, were
sitting around the stove one evening in
October when the nights were getting
chilly. We were living at a ranch which
was situated among the foothills of
range of mountains lying in New Mexico
70 the east of the Rio Grande. The colonel
had driven 80 miles that day in his two
horse buggy, and having as far again to
30 before he reached his destination he
had stopped at the ranch for the night,
availing himself of that hospitality which
Is SO freely offered to travellers by all ranch
men in the wild west
Tell us the story, colonel, said our
host, relighting his pipe and leaning back
comfortably in the rocking chair.
The colonel was an old Indian fighter
and had seen some rough work in the
swimming of the west" With the prelimi-
nary well " which seems the usual way
Tor an American to begin story, the colo
mel commenced:
The Navajoes, powerful tribe to the
west Of the Rio Grande, had for long been
Oh tho wnrpath, robbing and numbering
white settlers, more especially at isolated
mining camps, until most of the mines
were left tenantless, the owners having
either been wiped out" or obliged to flee
90 the towns or more settled districts
The government was at length reused to
ealya 70 nd tlic ctn Of thipcrs A
strong force, composed principally of cav
airy, was sent out against the Navaioes
marching through their country, destroy
ing their towns and killing many of the
tribe in numerous engagements and Skin
mishes.
Finally they returned, escortng about
5000 prisoners. l was there with the -th
cavalry, and pretty busy time we had of
It rounding up these redskins. They were
marched to Fort ;. and located close to the
fort being kept within their camp by cav
Airy patrols. In spite of our utmost vigil
lance, several small parties of Indians es-
capped. AS the force at the disposal of the
sommandant was not large enough to fol-
low all the scattered bands of fugitives, l
got orders to raise a company of scouts in
order to patrol the range of mountains ly-
ing between the fort and the Navajo coun-
cry.
After a considerable time and no end of
difficulty got together a band of as thor
ough rutfians as it was ever my lot to see.
These were hunters, trappers, scouts, min
ers, Indians, half breeds, ruined gamblers
and scamps of every kind and nation, but
all well used to Indian fighting and In
dian ways. l may mention that this was
che band which my old friend, Mayne
Raid calls bn Sca1r hn
After the expenditure OF good amount
Of time and temper, not to mention phys
teal force, l managed to get them into
some sort of discipline. With this band
was camping out ON the east side of the
mountains when news was brought from
the fort that a band of 600 Indians had es-
capped and were making their way west
ward. They would be obliged to cross the
mountains by one of three passes We were
sncamped at the center pass, and the pass
es on either side of us were so miles apart
from each other. After consulting with
my chief scout, Mexican called Santos,
we agreed that they would probably make
Tor the north pass and would likely send a
small party on ahead to see if the coast
was clear. So we resolved to make a rec
onnoissance in that direction.
Leaving the main body of the men with
UTuerS 10 WutCH lne bOutH pass Us well Us
the center one, I rode off with Santos,
taking two led mules with us AS we ex-
pected, we found the trail of the scouting
party and soon came in sight of them, or
rather of a cloud of dust which they raised
as they made their way toward the noun
tains. Keeping well out of sight, we
passed them and made for spring where
i expected the Indians would camp. We
rode hard all day, and toward sunset ar
rived in the neighborhood of the spring.
Hating about mile from it, Santos dis
mounted and crawled forward among the
sagebrush On examining the ground,
he saw that the Indians had not been
there. We accordingly watered the horses
and then retired to a canyon about 200
yards from the spring 1t soon became
quite dark, and as there was no sign of
the Indians we went to sleep.
AT daybreak next morning / went up
the side of the canyon, and crawling
through the sagebrush l examined the
neighborhood with my glass. discovered
the Indians encamped about 200 yards
from the spring, on the farther side. They
had arrived after dark and so had not dis
covered our trail. AS l was watching
them through my glass and trying to
make out their numbers l saw sudden
movement in camp. They began to move
toward their horses, at the same time ges-
ticulating and pointing in our direction.
Looking behind me, to my dismay l saw a
column of smoke slowly rising in the air.
! knew at once what had happened. 1
had many time expostulated with San
tos about his habit of smoking at incon-
venient times, and now after lighting his
cigarette he had managed TO set the grass
on fire. l at once crawled back through
lhe sagebrush, and as soon as was out
Of sight of the Indians arose to my feet
and ran down to our camp, where l found
Santos vainly endeavoring to beat out the
fire.
mo use now" said l. 1--WE are discov-
cred and must run for it,.
We mounted our horses, and leading
the mules set off at gallop the Indians
keeping on our left to cut us off from the
fort, where they supposed we were going
They did not actually chase US but just
kept along parallel to our course, and so
we raced along over the plain, which was
of sand and gravel, with scanty growth
of gramma grass, with here and there "a
cactus or SOaD plant All day long we