The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-24
DRAMA OF THE DESERT
MURDER OF CowaoYs ny. APACHE
KID AND THE STORY BEHIND.
Love Affair eliminates in a battle
Heroic self-sacrifice to Save
Girl and Her CowardIy Lover.
San Diego Cali Letter in St. Louis Globe

San Diego Cali Letter in st. Louis Globe
Democrat.
Readers of the GIobe-Democrat may re-
member having read. not so very long ago.
an item in the Associated Press report
dated at Tucson. A. IT,. as follows:
Word reached this city to-day from Ton
to Basin that two cowboys were murdered
on the range last Sunday by Kid and his
band of renegade Apaches.
There is story behind those few lines;
there always is in an item of that sort
stories that have been told often and
with such cold-blooded sameness that now
adays a correspondent to avoid Ere
hash, which conveys to the home Office an
impression that he is writing against space,
confines himself to a statement Of bald
facts, leaving the details to the magma
ton of the reader. 1t is no great task;
the details are not complicated. Only
squirt of fire out of clump of greasewood
or from behind a bowlder, cowboy or
prospector tumbling from his saddle and ly-
ing motionless, stiffness that is death,
while the sands under the quiet figure take
on reddish tinge, then hideous, grin
ming, half-naked figure crawling out of
the greasewood or from behind the bowlder.
and warily approaching to sdespoil and mu-
tilate its victim. Those simple details re-
quire vivid imagination.
1t was my good fortune to know those
two men mentioned in the dispatch. They
.'met up with me in the Chiricahua noun
tains some time ago, when 1 was hard
pressed and needed help at a time when
death was jibing at me from every parched
rock. I had had a nasty fall while pros
pecting along the face of cliff, and badly
wrenched my right leg. I crawled down to
the canyon, where had made a dry camp
that morning only to find that my pack
animals had gone in search of water leav-
ing me with only pint or SO In my can
teen. My situation was becoming decidedly
grewsome, when those two men rode up to
camp. They had been hunting for strayed
cattle, and met my pack mules further down
the valley. had rounded them up and taken
ane question of h. hours RS until they should find
some one that was In need OF help or
burial. I was lifted to the back of my
saddle mule and taken to the ranch house,
good days ride down the valley. The
injuries resulting from my fall and conse-
t tedious attacks of desert fever. and was
forced to remain at the ranch Tor some
weeks, during which time had an excellent
opportunity to cultivate the acquaintance OF
my rescuers
Jerry" and Pete they were called. and
no one in the outfit knew their other names.
They came to the ranch several months be-
fore, from New Mexico, tn y said, Wnere
they. had owned small nerd nerd OF steers ei.s
ne se and then came on West lookn:; for
another location for a rafie,i or wore. Inc
owner of the ranch cared nothing about
their previous history where they were
from or where they We're going 'fhey had
their own outfit proved themselves expert
were .ps1 tners' in the strctcst interpre.a-
ton of the. word. but words calarcr express
all that 'tpardners' implies IN mountain
and desert parlance. 1t means what one
has belongs to the othr 1t means
father, b. other and nurse. it means stand
ing together in prosperity and health in
sickness and in danger, EN- unto death
It means all this and more. a something
forbid that I should ever aSain experience
a sensation like that when a.one out on the
soul, I buried-butg there; am telling you
about Jerry and Pete.
from game of seven-up around -he camp
fire to night ride after thieving Apacfes.
Once, duringza Sentimental pe.rrl ts or my
Pythias' Later, when | was able to get
aroand I was called on to explain what
comment was: HUH that's nuthn they
only done the square thing If they wuz
pardners.'
A DISTURBING ELEMENT.
Everything ran smoothly until the daugh-
ter Of the '.boss'' arrived. She came out
with her father accompanied by broken
down lord, duke or earl, something,
one of those fortune-hunting fellows /
had read about but had never seen. The
father, proud of his immense possessions,
had invited him to pass a month at the
ranch and he had come out with the father
and daughter, ostensibly unable to absent
himself from the charms of the latter, but
really to take an inventory of wealth that
promised some day to be his I can not
describe her appearance accurately. / can
draw for you word picture of an Apache
war party, cloudburst i'll the mountains
a sandstone on the desert, or thunder
storm in the Sierras, but | cannot describe
that she had fluffy yellow hair. china blue
eyes, wore big hats trimmed with flowers
and dresses that fitted like glove
1t was not week until Jerry and Pete
were her slaves. Poor fellows. their ac-
quaintance with the gentler sex had been
ton to them. From the day Jerry stamped
the life of a diamond RATHER in her path
d rSea e na
the trouble began. The wltehery she threw
into IN. her glance gh1 as she expressed gratitude
currences did the business. Then, after
she turned to the house they swore at them
their old sombreros in their hands and grin
and stammer, "Oh. it's nuthin' tall. Miss.
to their desert-tanned checks. After that
they were her slave and she knew it: she
not know IT, and she aelghted to- toy 1--WE with To
the heartstrings OF those two men as / have
seen young honess toy with a rabbit she
Did she admire the beautiful blossoms of
the yucca, there was a CARLOAD Of the tall
lowered stalks in front of her door in the
long adobe building the next morning. Did
She express a desire for the bulbs of certain
species of cacti. there was gunnysack full
of the roots on either side of the door,
When she wanted $50 much to see some
native gold, the boys came to me, at differ
ent times, knowing that had a small sack
OF bullion. ] insisted on presenting each of
them With small nugget / wanted to
caution them, for j feared that there was
parting of the ways just ahead for the
partners, but did not have the courage
l did not know my men, and was needless
" alarmed, but it was I idIed away
my convalescence about the bunk house.
smoked twice much usual and anxious
" waited the finale in this little drama of
the desert
Jerry and Pete had a supreme contempt
Tor the prematurely-aged, spindle-shanked.
narrow-shoudered fellow with the title but
as they considered him their guest were too
gentlemanly to show it. which is more than
can be said of him. Once, after display
of horsemanship their part and a burst
of giriish admiration on hers, he was tempted
to try a mount and show what he could
do, having ridden in gentlemen's steeple
races and to the hounds at home There is
a vast difference between seat on bob
tailed, paInpered, petted, weIl-groomed hunt
er and that on a shaggy. bucking Arizona
broncho, and my lord discovered that fact
almost the instant he was in the saddle
Jerry and Pete ran TO his assistance and