The times., 1897-05-02

cue the women before night, or all die
together. No harm will come to them be-
fore then"
MY God, Dave, they'll be fifty miles
away before night, and we haven'ta horse
lefti" cried the despairing man.
No, the Indians will go only little
way into the foot hills Just now. They'll
never lose sight of this outfit till they've
taken it or have got a laundering good
licking.'' replied the guide. Now half
a dozen OF you go to work and fill every
thing In camp with water. There's no
telling how soon there1l be a couple Of
hundred Apaches between us and the
river, nor how long they'll keep up the
siege. Where's that big tenderfoot? He's
just the fellow TO carry water"
Where, indeed Jake was nowhere to be
founi He and his heavy rifle had totally
disappeared.
i've always thought that miserable
skunk was a coward muttered jim
Saunders, but there's one cornfort-he's
certain sure to be scalped. It's an awful
pity, though, about the rifle
IF the reds do come resumed Ingram,
"wen be all right, for they'll leave the
cattle ani the prisoners in the bills with "A
light guard, and while some OF US keep the
main body busy here, others can sneak up
through that range Of rocks to the left and
likely effect rescue
We had scarcely buried our dead com
rade, filled every available vessel in camp
with water, and eaten sad breakfast,
when a big band of mounted, war-painted
Apaches, numbering at least 125 warriors,
came sweeping down to the north of us, but
out of rifle shot, and, TO our unbounded as
constituent, we saw that encircled by this
crowd were our horses and mules! The
beasts were strung together by lariats, and
on each oneof the four horses sat prisoner,
who was tied, man fashion, TO the rude
saddle.
Why the Indians had not secreted the
captive women and animals in the hills we
could not at first understand; but the
mystery was quickly solved. Keeping care
full out of range, they made slight detour
and finally took up position on the river
bank directly opposite and about 900 yards
from the corral Then they picketed the
horses and mules, head to tail, in long
line in front of themselves, the prisoners
being placed at intervals along the line.
AS there were thirty two mules and twelve
saddle horses, the hostiles thus had liy-
ing bulwark more than long enough to
shield the whole front of their column
should we be so rash as to come a hum
dred or two OF yards nearer and open fire,
regardless of the purposeiy exposed women,
which they well knew We would not do.
by the jumping Jupiter exclaimed
Ingram, "old Big Bear himself must be
in command of the redskins. for there's not
another Indian on the plains has sense
enough to make a move like that. It's a
bad fix for us, boys IL means hand-to-
hand fight at odds OF four TO one, for, even
If it WASH t too far for our rifles, we can't
do a thing while that row of cattle is
there, not To mention the risk Of hitting the
women And boys he so!emnly added.
They've got to be rescued before night,
or their husbands must shoot them
Lead on, Dave; lead on; no more talk
said Tom Graham, Jcssie's brother-:n-law.
We hadnot waited fifteen minutes before
a startlin thing occurred. About 90 yards
from the corral and fully 400 from the
beleaguing Indians there Juuted out from
the foothills a lofty and seemingly mac
cessible crag While we watched our now
motioniess enemies, puff Of smoke rose
from the top OF this cliff, rifle report
was heard, aud next Instant we saw one
OF the Apache warriors tumble headlong
from his pony.
God forgive mei'' exclaimed our cap
tain. i've wronged Tenderfoot Jake
That's the crack of his big rifle. He
slept out last night and was not seen by
the reds this morning. Then he's fol-
lowed in the ruck OF the stampede to mark
the band down. After hiding for awhile
and seeiuo mn cha pca ,T doin, amy pn,a
he's seen this last move ana has some
how climbed that rock to do-what we've
seen him do" All of this guess work
proved substantially correct, but Capt. Jim
had barely finished speaking when an
other warrior dropped, then another and
another, until in the space of three or
four minutes six had fallen. Evidently
the concealed marksman was an adept at
quick reloading, and, shooting from so
great an elevation, his bullets passed safely
over the line of horses and mules into
the ranks of the Indians
On seeing the sixth man fall the super
stitious braves, though well knowing whence
the fatal shots came, were stricken with
deadly terror, for they could not for
moment believe that, unless aided by the
Great Spirit. any mortal could scale that
rock or any gun forged by mortal hands
kill at such distance. II may state here
that in those days frontiersmen and hunters
generally used small charges Of fine pow
der in their rifles, and from / 90 to 200
yards accurate shooting was considered
a long range.)
AS we curiously watched the fast in |
creasing confusion among the savages a |
seventh warrior fell, SO utterly demoraIiz- |
ing the band that stampede seemed iin- |
minent, bat at this Juncture feather-be- |
decked chief-Big Bear himself, as we |
after ward found ont from the throng, |
passed around one end of the picketed line |
of animals, and with uplifted toma ha WIZ ap- |
preached the nearest captive Jessie Clay |
ton, as it Glanced His murderous intent |
was only too oevident. Nothing, wethuIght, |
could save the child. and we closed our
eyes iii borrow. But now that death-deal-
ing report rang out once more. and we |
opened them again to see the huge savage |
throw up bis arms and drop to the ground |
within six feet of hisintended victim
Twas wondrous shot, one that only |
man of iron nerve and supreme skill could,
under such circumstances, make.
No longer able to restrain ourselves, we
broke into round after round of frantic
cheers, while the awe-stricken Indians, |
confirmed in their belief that the great |
Spirit was fighting against them, lost their
heads entirely, leftth stolen stock and pris--
oners behind, and scurried i'll crazed af-
fright toward the mountains. Aiming to
pass on that side of the corral farthest from
the fateful craig, they had necessarily,
owing to the ridge of rocks already men