The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1896-12-26

@kT>ooe'' camps had watched for
N<IA the coming OF the
. u Apaches, who had been
O q raiding the outlying
ranches and tho smaller mining camps
by flying forays of small parties not
known to be absent from their reser.
vation. We had grown tired of stand
ing guard and spelling oar winter holi.
days and our eyesight looking in the
darkness for the attack that did not
come although the most recent
"tendertoot" knew that it was more
than likely to como at the most unex-
pected time when there came a
courier from Silver City to tell us that
our camp was billed for the next en-
gagement.
It came upon his arriyal-o. very
nearly so. This courier, who was q
cowboy from the "S-bar," thirty miles
north OF US, had hardly gone to his
supper when the trouble arrived.
Within an hour it seemed as though
millions Of bowling, sharp.shooting,
Government fed loaters had sur.
rounded the camp, and every man
who could handle rifle was needed.
Driven back from the surrounding
hills to the confines Of the camp proper
driven, by sheer force of numbers,
back, back, into our very cabins,
where the women and children were
bullet after bullet sent after IN unseen
enemy who lay behind the rocks
then
There came bugIe call, OF which
we knew not the technical meaning.
But we did know that troops from Fort
Bayard had come to our rescue, and
that VIC and ours were saved.
Tho troopers, nsed to this kind of
work, had iis!uounted and had sur.
rounded the redskins; and when some
OF the latter made g break through
the lines, they were followed by a
number of soldiers, among whom, not
leading, but anxious to be sin the
thick OF it," wns Lieutenant John
Marcus Horton, late of West Point,
who found himself unable to brandish
sword and shout "Follow mel" at
one aud tho Same time, but who
sp1inted admirably, nevertheless.
Lieutenant Horton never knew what
did happen that night, not exactly.
He remembered only that when the
trouble was all over ID this, his first
engagement, he was the poesessor of u
shattered arm, o broken rib or two, q
cut head, and d small, blonde prisoner,
whom he had captured at the point of
the sword when tho troopers found
the obscure canon in which the Indians.
who had evidently PROPOSED to emf.
crate to Mexico, despite the season,
had concealed their families.
Horizons prisoner came along with
surprising willingness. Her COM
ple1ion was tanned by the sun and
winds almost as dark as Chat Of any
Apache; bat the same Influences had
served only to bleach her naturally
light hir to IN Enthusiastically tow-and-
molasses taffy color or two. She
must have retained some recollection
OF her Scandinavian parents, else for
she had not come along With Mr.. Hor-
ton 50 willing y, for she had d temper,
as WAS presently discovered by seye.ai
persons. Yet she could ROE, or would
not, speak - word aside from the
Apache dialect, ana we could learn
nothing, through the interpreters, of
her origin or As to the Time she had
lived among tho Indians.
It Was not embarrassing, merely; it
was distressing, really, to all Of US,
the question Of what We should do
with this waif. Those OF Apache par
entage We could and would return to
the reservation. But this one
The women had talked it oyer, with
doubtful shakes OF the head, when
John Marcus Horton, with more ap.
p"AeAu DlhVe4y suaA AO CScE SHONet
as tplebe," 70 cadet.of]icer, or in
actual fighting service, strobe mod.
estly into the breach,
"I'll attend to her case" ha said.
Then, seeing that the eyes of the as
sembled mothers OF the community
were upon bin, be blushed, but con.
sinued. firmly: *'My people will see
to 1T that she lacks nothing in the way
OF educstion or training. Why not
send her to my, mother in Ohio? and
l will attend to the expenses of her
chaperonage."
That Was the end of OlgA for the
time. Five years afterward she came
back to us, and her re-atlyens was the
undoing OF many susceptibles.
Meanwhile, there had been changes
while Olga was at school. John Hor-
ton was no longer in the army, an M
Gle of his having died and left him his
interest in several valuable mining
properties, the sole condition being