The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-01-23
A WAIF OF THE PLAINS.
By LESTER KETCHUM.

and the larger camps had watched for
the coming of the Apaches, who had
been raiding the outlying ranches and
the smaller mining camps by flying
forays of small parties not known to be
absent from the reservation. We had
grown tired of standing guard and
spelling our winter holidays and our
eyesight looking into the darkness for
the attack that did not come-although
the most recent "tenderfoot" knew that
it was more than likely to come at the
most unexpected time-when there
came a courier from Silver City to tell
US that our camp was billed for the
next engagement.
1t came upon his arrival-or very
nearly SO. This courier, who was cow
boy from the "S-bar," 80 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 loafers had surround
ed 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 an unseen enemy
who lay behind the rocks-then-
There came a bugle 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 we and ours were saved.
The troopers, used to this kind of
work, had dismounted and had sur
rounded the redskins; and when some
of the latter made a break through
the lines, they were followed by anum-
Der Of soldiers, among whom, not lead
ing, but anxious to be "in the thick
of it," was Lieut.. John Marcus Horton,
late of West Point, who found himself
unable to brandish sword and shout
Follow mel" at one and the same
time, but who sprinted admirably,
nevertheless.
Lieut.. Horton never knew what did hap
pen that night, not exactly. He remem-
bsred only that when the trouble was
all over in this, his first engagement,
he was the possessor of a shattered
arm, broken rib or two, cut head,
and a small, blond prisoner, whom he
had captured at the point of the sword
when the troopers found the obscure
canyon in which the Indians, who had
evidently proposed to emigrate to Mex
leo despite the season, had concealed
their families.
Horizons prisoner came along with
surprising willingness. Her complex
ion was tanned by the sun and winds al
most as dark as that of any Apache;
but the same influences had served only
to bleach her naturally light hair to an
unmistakable tow-and-molasses-taf
color or two. She must have retained
some recollection of her Scandinavian
parents, else she had not come along
with Mr.. Horton SO willingly, for she
had temper, as was presently discov-
cred by several persons. Yet she could
not or would not speak word aside
from the Apache dialect, and we could
learn nothing, through the interpreters,
Of her origin or as to the time she had
lived among the Indians.
1t was not embarrassing, merely; it
was distressing, really, to all of us, the
question of what we should do with this
waif. Those of the Apache parentage
we could and would return to the reser-
walton. But this one
The women had talked it over, with
doubtful shakes of the head, when John
Marcus Horton, with more apparent
bravery than he ever showed as u
'plebe," cadet officer or in actual
fighting service, strobe modestly into
the breach.
I'll attend to her case" he said.
Then seeing that the eyes of the assem-
bled mothers of the community were
upon him, he blushed, but continued,
firmly: my people will see to it that
she lacks nothing in the way of educa-
ton or training. Why not send her to
my mother in Ohio, and will attend to
the expenses of her chaperonageY
That was the end of Olga for time.
Five years afterward she came back to
us, and her readvent was the undoing of
many susceptibles.
Meanwhile there had been changes
while Olga was at school. John Horton
was no longer in the army, an uncle of
his having died and left his interest in
several valuable mining properties, the
sole condition being that he resign his
commission as titled defender of his
country; and Horton, it is needless to
state, exchanged his chances for glory
for this very substantial consideration
with all the alacrity that army regnla-
lions would permit, thereby becoming
Sol" Horton, by brevet of his admir-
Ing and envious fellow citizens.
That was three years back, and twice
during that time he had been in Ohio
to visit his people, only to return with
glowing accounts of the manner in
which Olga was getting on with her