Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-11-30
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5 THE GARMENT OF iron. 5
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later.
Yet in Ciego's tribe there was le-
gend of great white chief who had
once married one of their women, and
had ruled over them, and who had
worn suit of shining iron. And their
tradition ran that whosoever should
find and wear that garment again
would be impervious to the bullets of
the White-Eye, would become the
greatest of medicine-men, and rule not
only over his own people but over all
the Apache tribes and those of the
plains of the North. And the very
founder of that family to which Ciego
belonged was reputed to have been the
white chief in the coat of iron.
The Coyoteros believed these things
and SO did the medicine man. So when
the news of the armor suit had reached
him, he had levied heavy fees for his
incantations for some months, and,
adding these to the gold he had ex-
changed for Mexican dollars, collected
from many raids, he took himself down
to the camp of the soldiers to obtain
fairly and by purchase that which was
his very own. But fairness and the
offers of purchase had failed.
Ciego looked the White-Eye officer
over from his scalp to his toes, and up
again, and then with no sound, save
just one grunt, went out from the quar-
ters and from the post
Hartpole told of it at the mess that
night, and forgot all about 1t after that.
But Ciego did not-as Hartpole ought
to have foreseen.
One night an Indian, his body naked
as 1t was born, poisoned knife In his
hand, stole across the sandy parade
ground when the moon was under the
clouds of a coming storm, and slipped,
as silently as none but a savage can,
under the ramada Of Hartpole's quar-
ters, and thence through the open door.
The Indian had missed nothing when
he had been in that one small room a
month before. He knew where every
thing in it was, from the chrome in a
blue frame on the wall to the cot in the
corner, across from the fireplace. He
hid himself behind the piece of calico
that curtained off the nook where Hart
poles clothes hung, and waited until
the moon showed for a moment through
break in the clouds, and he could see
the figure on the cot beneath the mos
quito-net When the room was dark
again, he slid out; and the blade Of the
knife in his hand went straight through
the heart of the man asleep. Then he
took the rattling armor from its nails
and wrapped it in the calico curtain,
and fed through the night, as silently
and swiftly as only an Apache can.
Now it happened that Hartpole had
gone to another post good many miles
| to the east that very day, and he had
| left his striker to sleep in his quarters
| and keep guard over his things. So 1t
was into the luckless soldiers neart
] that the knife was driven, and the next
day telegram apprised Hartpole that
his striker was murdered and his suit
| of mail was gone.
The day after that all the department
war-path, and, having cut the reserya-
| ton, were killing right and left. They
| were led by a medicine-man called
"Ciego," and the scouts reported that
| he was dressed in a garment of white
| iron which no White-Eye's bullet could
peirce. They also reported that the
Chiricahuas and the Pah-Utes and the
Sierra Blancas were joining him. 1t
promised to be an interesting time for
the territories.
Hartpole began to have a dim idea of
| why the medicine-man had wanted his
Spanish mail, now. He was ordered
| out, of course. Most of the department
was. Trouble of the sort that this
promised to be had to be checked at
once, if at all. 1t was serious already;
but there was one thing in favor to get
away. Their fanatical faith in their
medicine-man led them to seek battle
rather than to shun it. And twice,
having done so, they beat off the
troops, because there were, as usual,
too few. But the third time they were
caught in a pocket of the Mogallons,
and there were no less than six troops
against them Hartpole's was of the
| number
The Indians fought from dawn of the
| first day until twilight of the second, in
the open at first, then from behind shell
| ter, then at last they retreated to a
shallow cave high up on hillside, and
there was no getting them out. A
mountain howitzer might have done it,
but there was none with the command
All day the troops fired volleys into SO
much of the mouth of the cave as show.
ed between the pine trunks and the
walls of rock They knew that the
slaughter within must have been pretty
severe, but there were no signs of sur
render, nevertheless. The hostiles
might hold out until the last one was
| dead; they certainly would until theiI
medicine-man should fall. The medi
1 cine-man could be seen from time to
| time, cleaning figure, moving clumsi
ly among the trees and underbrush
| And for all that it went so slowly and
| was so bright, no bullet seemed ever te
hit it. Even the white men began tt
consider it with awe.
/. At sunset of the second day, wheI
| the sounds from the cave had all bul
ceased and the Indians within it were
| without ammunition and at bay, thu
glistening form came clambering delib
erately to the top Of a high rock
whooping and yelling, calling the rem
nant of its followers on. 1t stood SO
for q moment, the red sun rays striking
through the pine branches on the dent