Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-03-09

notes of the bugle, came the Charger
With ranks unbroken, and cleaning
sabers high in air, sped the gallant
troopers, with the swiftness of the
wind, to meet momentum with momen-
tum. Five hundred yards were passed,
and the white man and the red were
for an instant face to face, eye glaring
into eye, with silent, deadly purpose;
then the wild whoop of the Apaches
filled the air, echoing back from the
mountain side as from a thousand saw
age threats, mingling with the loud
cheers of the soldiers as the surging
bodies met
Turning in his saddle, the captain
called:
''Now, men, each one pick his In
dian!'
There was no time for more. At the
head of the Indian band rode the hercu-
lean Cochise, with lance already poised,
who now in broken English shouted:
'Here, white man! We to fght!'
The point Of the Indians lance was
near the captains breast, when, with
a quick stroke of the saber he severed
it from the staff and sent it whizzing
through the air. Then bending as he
rode, he pierced Cochises arm; but ere
he could seize the advantage which for
an instant seemed within his grasp,
the crowding horses of his troopers
forced him on.
Now the soldiers and the Indians were
a confused dust-enveloped, undistin-
guishable mass, each fighting desper
ately for life. Quickly flashed the sa
Der, alternating the thrusts of the lance
dexterously parried by the practiced
trooper, while from the tightly drawn
bows too surely flew the murderous
f1int-pointed arrows of the Apaches.
Here in the dust they rolled, side by
side, the endorsed trooper and his willy
foeman. Then on foot they fought,
with carbine, with pistol, or still with
lance and saber, with the ferOcity Of
war, and for self preservation, this unto
the death.
Riderless dashed the frightened po-
MES Of the Indians and larger horses
Of the fallen soldiers, with nostrils
wide apart, wildly snorting into the
thickest of the fight; then, as some
faithful brute received his death
wound, sounded that cry of equine ter
ror heard mid the scenes of carnage
where Destiny has ever led humanity.
There was no quarter; to fall was
almost certain death. Quickly was the
ground strewn with the bodies of
those who but now sought each others
lives; together, silently and peacefully,
lay the white man and the Indian in
the arms of death.
All this passed in almost the space of
time it has taken to tell it, and the OPP
posing forces had passed through each
other" On the other side the trumpet
had already sounded the Rally"
Quickly did the captain assemble the
remainder of his men to renew the
charge, but the Indians did not wait; it
was not their method. The Apaches
seemed almost to vanish, so rapidly did
they gain the cover Of the trees and
rocks which bordered the stream at
point above the post.
While the cavalry was charging the
Indians on the open plain to the right,
their infantry companies had not re
NAMED idle. As the troop had moved
out to meet Cochise, there had come
from the cOncealment afforded by the
rocks and mesquite trees above and in
the rear, another band Of Indians, dis
mounted This was even a larger
number than that with Cochise, and
was led by a powerful savage, sec
oud only to Cochise himself Hitherto
their presence had not been discover
ed; and had the first party not been
beaten off, it was their apparent pur-
pose to form junction inside the post,
where a general massacre would have
been the sequence.
The approach of these Indians was
only discovered by the Major who
commanded the infantry, in time to en-
able him to move his men at a rapid
gait to a place in the rear of the line
of officers quarters. Directly behind
each set of these quarters had been
built a "dug-Out,' a kind of outside
cellar, such as is used in warm ell
mates for keeping the family stores;
these were a few feet below the level
Of the ground, the logs forming roofs
| covered with earth. Into these were
now unceremoniously hurried the ter
rified women and children composing
the families of the officers and soldiers
! of the command.
1t was just possible to do this and
reach a point beyond, perhaps one
hundred yards distant, when the at
tack began.
The quiet was broken by the fierce
whoop of the Apaches, which, once
heard, can never be forgotten. The
gaudily painted and ochered savages,
bare to the waist and clad only in
breech-clout and moccasins, came on
at rapid run, in a thin, scattering
line, extending far to the right and
left To throw out skirmish line was
but the work of moments, when the
steady fire of the disciplined soldiers
checked the rapid advance of the In