Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1895-08-28

| boys. ! don't take no stock in them
dons. They're too skeery and their
weppins is too fine. We can take care of
our own scalps, / reckon
And then it appeared that all the boys,
down to the S-year-Old, had a shootin'
iron, some of them much larger and
nearly as heavy as themselves. They
were all of the now ancient Kentucky
pattern, thick of metal, small of bore
with percussion locks, wooden ramrod
creased deerskin patch. Needless to say
Texas himself and the eldest boy. Gal
weston, were dead shots. Even the
second boy, Marshall, would have
been ashamed to touch the body
of a running quail with bullet from
bowl out jack rabbit on the jump al
though his rifle was almost heavy enough
to topple him over. These weapons and
two or three lighter ones for the smaller
children represented the greater portion
of the wealth Of the family; with the
exception of a pair of stout horses, a
wagon, and their cooking utensils, they
had little to boast of. They were born
nOmads, hunters and occasional trappers;
the children, all nearly white-headed,
their hair becoming a tawny yellow as
they grew older; large of limb, fair of
skin, with steelly blue eyes and delicate
pink complexion which no sun or exposure
seemed to have the power to burn or
dishgure. Indolent, even slOthful, the
whole, family appeared, but they who
should presume upon their SlOthfulneSS
in the hour of peril would be apt to re-
greet it if they lived to realize their mis-
Ike. Even the tall, slender. delicate
looking matron could ''draw a bead
with deadly precision upon occasion.
The Texans had not been in their camp
a week when the Apaches We're again
seen upon the summit of the ridge. There
were not many of them, merely a slender
hunting party, apparently, and the Next
can colonel, thinking he could intercept
and destroy them, started in pursuit, with
nearly his entire force, leaving only a few
sick soldiers in the fort. He had been
gone only few hours when the terrible
redskins appeared. In an incredibly short
space of time every house in the place
was closed and the doors all barred.
Long practice at that sort of thing had
made the wretched inhabitants wonder
fully expert In a few moments the In
dams swarmed over the walls, killing and
scalping the unfOrtunates who had not
been quick enough to reach places of
comparative safety. The appearance of
the party on the distant ridge had been
only ruse to entice the soldiers from
the town while the main body should raid
it in security.
The streets were now black with them
and they were deliberately preparing to
force an entry into the solidly built stores,
Il
dozen deadly rifles laid as many of their
party low, and almost before they could
recover from their surprise another vol
ley, equally deadly, proceeding from
some remote corner, sent warrior after
warrior to the dust. Not one of those
deadly bullets miscarried, and not war
| rior gave more than one short, convul-
Sive struggle. Every one of them had
been shot through the heart. including
three OF their most renowned chiefs. The
party was completely panic-stricken. To
retreat was to expose themselves, entirely
destitute OF cover, and as yet they could
only conjecture the force and position of
the enemy. For the moment they sought
protection behind the massive adobe
buildings. and then, the Infatuated inhab-
itants seeing their dilemma, seized the OPP
portunity, and, firing from the security
of their houses, picked them off one by
one. The soldiers also commenced firing
from the towers; but neither their fire
nor the fusillade from the town did great
execution. 1t compelled the Indians,
however, to shift their base, and no soon
er did they attempt to do so than the
crack crack! resounded again from the
deadly rifles on the ridge, and at every
report an Indian dropped dead in his
tracks.
This was memorable day for the
inhabitants OF Hermosa. for, while the
Indians were still in the height of their
dilemma, the troops returned, Infatuated
at the deception which had been prac.
ticed upon them Dividing their force
so as to enter the several gates of the
town, they caught the Indians in a deadly
trap and glutted their long-denied venge-
ance, while the deadly crack! crack! of
the Kentucky rifles still continued from
the ridge, every shot infallibly claiming
its victim. Very few of the Indians es-
capped, and when the conflict was over,
and the overjoyed townspeople could ven
ture into the streets in safety, they real
lied that the raids of the Indians fiends
upon their beautiful little valley were at
an end, for some years at least if not for
a generation, for your thoroughbred In
dian never forgets a lesson of that sort.