The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-03-26
THE eowlDgA WAS ALIVE.
An Apache stratagem That Nearly Cost
q Government Courier His Life.

An Apache stratagem That Nearly Cost
Government Courier His Life.
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
ceiying. An Apache will lie behind a
soapweed on the open prairie, and you
may ride past 200 or 800 yards away
and never have an idea that there is a
redskin within so miles of you unless
he decides to risk shot at you. AS you
pass the soapweed he works his body
around SO as to keep it always III line
with the plant and you. Even on the
open prairie, with no more shelter than
that afforded by some little inequality
Of surface, he will sift dust over his
body, fatten himself out, face down.
ward, against the ground, and lying as
morionless as a stone will escape the
observation of any except sharp and
practiced eyes. Sometimes in a group of
cactus or Spanish bayonet, his buckskin
garments blending with the hues of the
plants, his face and neck concealed by
the head of a Spanish bayonet, he will
stand like a post indistinguishable 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
carry dispatches from Camp Bowie to
Camp Grant, up on the Rio Benito It
was dangerous service at that time
and we had to keep sharp lookout and
be ready to fight or run at moments
notice, for there was no knowing at
what point on the route the Apaches
might not be lying in wait to jump Us
as we came along.
eve were Oh our return to Camp
Bowie and had just crossed the wooded
canyon 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 of
low tree l saw what took to be an In.
dian on the plain, about half mile |
ahead. But on squirting my horse for
ward 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
expense,
Gas we rode along I spoke of the
matter to Tom, who laughed at what he
called my scare, which he said caused
me to see imaginary Indians. We came
opposite low, gray bowlder upon the
prairie 200 PAGES or so from the trail.
" L don't remember ever to have seen
that rock bafore said Tom, who had
been over the route several times. How
in the devil did it get there? I'll ride
over and take look at itl' And he
refined his horse and rode toward the
object. I followed him, a few yards be.
hind.
Ellis horse had scarcely taken doz-
sn steps when the seeming gray rock
moved slightly upward. and there came
from its lower. edge a flash and report
with the scream of a big caliber bali
that tapped Toms coat with its wind
and caused his horse to plunge so sud
denly that Tom, one of the best riders
in the troop, not being on the lookout
for such happening, was thrown. AT
the same instant an Apache leaped from
beneath the gray blanket that had serv-
ed him to masquerade as bowlder and
ran like deer for the canyon, leaping
to left and right as he went to avoid the
shots that Tom and 1 sent after him
from our repeating carbines.
"We knocked up the dust about his
feet and made him do some tall lodging
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 dispatches in E,
haste and needed the last ounce of re-
serve force in our horses. and. secondly,
because with the start he had we should
1ot have overhauled him in his run fos :;
he canyon, into which we could not
nave followed him. So we took the trail
again and rode our way with anotha3 ,
wrinkle added to our experience of In '
lian triokery and cussedness New
York Sun