Arizona weekly citizen., 1894-12-01
THE BowLDER WAS ALIVE
An Apache Stratagem That Nearly Cost n Courier His Life in Arizona.

An Apache Stratagem That Nearly
 Cost a Courier His Life in Arizona.
 Talking of Indians and their strata
 gems," said D. A Marston, lately of the
 United States Cavalry, they are past masters in the arts of skulking and de-
 ceiving An Apache will lie behind
 soapweed on the open prairie, and you
 may ride past 200 or 300 yards away and
 never have an idea that there IS red
 skin within 90 miles of you unless he decides to risk shot at you. As you
 pass the soapweed he works his body l around so as to keep 1t always ln line with the plant and you. Even on the ! open prairie, with no more shelter than that afforded by some little inequallty of surface, he will sift dust over his | body, fiatten himself out, face down
 ward against the ground and lying as
 motionless as a stone, will escape the | observation of any one except sharp and
 prscticed eyes. Sometimes, in grove of cactus or Spanish bayonet, his buck
 skin garments blending with the hues of the plants, his face and neck con- | cealed by the head of a Spanish bayonet
 he will stand likd post, indistinguish- | able to the inexperienced eye, even at | close quarters, from the grotesque plants about hIm.
 "A queer experience of this kind oc-
 cured to me in my service in Arizona during General Crooks last campaign against the Apaches. Tom Merriam of my troop and myself were detailed to n Camp Grant, up on the Rio BonIto. It was a dangerous service at that time, and we had to keep B sharp lookout and ready to fight or run at a moments mo- tice, for there was no knowing at what point on the rout the Apaches might not be lyIng in wait to jump us as we came along.
 ''We were on our return to Camp Bowie and had just crossed the wooded canon where the cold spring is and were coming out upon the open prairie that stretches down to the San Pedro River, when through the branches ot low tree 1 saw what 1 took to be an Indian on the plain about half mile ahead, but on epurring my horse forward so as to get better look, nothing was to be seen save the bare prairie, with no sign of man or beast upon it's expanse.
 As we rode along spoke of the mat ter to Tom, who laughed at what he called my scare, which he said cau-ed me to see imaginary Indians. We came opposite a low, gray powder upon the praIrIe 200 paces or so from the trail.
 ''I don't remember ever to have seen that rock before,' said Tom, who had been over the route several times. How in the devil did it get there? I'll ride over and take a look at itp And he refined his horse and rode toward the object. l followed him few yards be- hiud.
 His horse had scarcely taken dozen steps when the ses ming gray rock mov- ed slightly up and there came from its lower edge flash and report with the scream of a big caliber ball that tiapped Toms coat with it's wind and caused hIs horse to plunge so suddenly that Tom, one of the best riders in the troop not being on the lookout for such a happening, was thrown. At the same instant an Apache leaped from beneath the gray blau ket that had served hlm to masquerade us powder and ran like a deer for the canon, leaping to left and right as be went to avoid the shots that Tom and I sent after him from our re- beating carbines.
 "We knocked up the dust about bis feet and made him do some tall dodging to the whistling of our bullets but that was all, for we didn't hit him. To have chased him would have been folly; first, because we were bearing dispatch es in haste and needed the last ounce of reserve force in our horses, and, sec ondly, because with the start he had we should not have overhauled him in his run for the canon into which we could not have followed him. So we took the trail again and rode our way with an other wrinkle added to our experience of Indian trickery and cussedness."-New V0-,a,, SS2z.