El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-04-01

he groaned. I'VE are too few to resist
them. We must fly. but where? Oh,
my wife. my daughter. Truly it is
an evil day that has come upon us. We
must fly from Las Delicas, but where
can we find safety? There are no SOL
diers nearer than chihuahua. and of
truth the Indians would overtake us
before we could go so far" And the
poor man wrung his hands in despair
You forget the railroad Don Enri-
que the vaquero answered Let us
hurry to the station; a train may come
at any moment. and all the Indians in
the Sierra Madre could not overtake
that. it moves with great swiftness.'
The railroad is device of satan
for entrapping our souls" Don Enri-
que replied.
And are the Apaches not satan's
own imps?" the vaquero rejoined with
respectful insistance.
Don Enrique was loath to surrender
the cherished policy of non-interfer-
ence with the railroad, but his wife
and daughter promptly championed the
vaquero's suggestion, and when two
women beset one poor man, that man
has but one course to follow. He yield
ed. and Immediately his household be-
gan its fight. Pell NELL, shrieking,
and gesticulating. they poured into the
station. surprising Evans into speech
lessness. and Don Enrique. his simple
mind agitated no less by fear of the
clicking telegraph instruments than by
his apprehension of the blood-curdline
horrors of an Apache raid, ATTEMPTED
TO explain the cause of their coming
He spoke Spanish. the only language
he knew. and his excitement caused
his words to pour out in an unbroken
stream that was wholly unintelligibIe
to Evans. who could understand Span
lsh only when it was spoken slowly
and with careful enunciation
MeXicanS always amused Evans
when they did not disgust him. Their
| theatrical display of emotion. their eff
fusiveness. startling gesticulation and
comical grimaces when excited were
to him all that the antics of cage of
monkeys are to the small boys. In
puzzled amusement he sat staring at
Don Enrique. letting him talk away I'M
til exhausted. and then coolly inform
ed him that he had failed to catch his
meaning.
Don Enrique gasped with despair;
what could he do to arouse this thick
headed American. he wondered. A
happy thought occurred to him. Grasp
ing Evans by the arm he dragged him
to the window. Mira senor," he
cried, pointing to the west, where a
number of slender columns of smoke
| were rising. "Indios. Apaches. muchos,
muchoS.'
Evans was a frontierSman. and his
| n ind instantly took in the situation
With a bound he reached his telegraph
instrument and began calling Chihua-
hua. while Don Enrique drew back
from the devilish machine as far as he
prompt to respond. and the next mo-
leaping over the wires. There was i'm
mediate excitement in Chihuahua; the
fussy switch engine that was standing
idle for the moment beside the tele-
graph office awoke with a snort, and
darted to the far end of the yard
where it began hastily sorting out
coaches. In hot haste a messenger was
dispatched to the barracks; breathless-
ly he rushed into the office of the COM
mandant and the next minute there
arose an angry snarling of drums and
a loud. excited calling of bugles Then
came the pattering of many feet and
the rattle and jingle of arms. hasty
calling of rolls and counting of fours.
followed by sharp. quick spoken words
of command. and a column of swarthy,
uniformed soldiers emerged from the
barracks Again a sharp command.
and they sprang forward at the double
quick. racing to the railroad station
where train was now waiting for
them. Having seen the soldiers safely
on board. the conductor rushed into the
telegraph office. where he remained a
few moments: when he came out again
he carried a crump1ed bit of paper. up
on which appeared the words. Run
regardless" His hand shot upward
in a signal tothe engineer. and. with
changing bell and the hiss of escaping
steam. the train moved out.
Anxiously the refugees at Las Deli
cias scanned the western horizon In
that direction an almost level plain
away mile upon mile to
where it met a range of mountains that
We're velvety and blue with distance
Midway in this plain cloud of dust |
arose. grew larger with every moment |
and drew nearer rapidly. Now dense |
roll of black smoke appeared and as
cended straight upward to lose itself in