The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1902-01-16
i'....i....
! THE APP ACHE
A STORY OF TWO CHlLDREr
AND AN INDIAN.

Not every Apache can get his fill OF
blood before sun up and his fill of mes
cal before noon. Yet Coyote That Bites
had managed to achieve both those de-
lightful ends, and Of all the happy saw
ages on the Colorado desert he was the
most riotously, unanimously happy.
With what keen delight he had drawn
his sharp blade across the threats OF
Jose Sanchez and his wife after he had
stolen into their wagon in the gray
dawn, and what thrills of joy shot
yells Of their two little children with
the butt end of their fathers own ridel
And then, when he had taken what
gold was in the Mexican's bag, what
mescal was in his demijohn, and had
strapped Jose's rather loose fitting car.
fridge belt about his sun brown belly
with what fierce pleasure he stole away
from the scene of his bloody work and
with the Mexican's rifle on his Shout
der had wandered far down the dry
arroyo, slipping from the demijohn the
stupefying juice of the agave from time
to time until he felt that he, was grow
ing drowsy!
Then he had dragged his uncertain
way along until he had come to the
railroad track. He stared stupidity at
the bright steel rails and looked up at
the RUNNING wires in an awed sort of
way. He would like to lie there be-
hind the rocks, he thought, until some
one should come aluhg the track and
then try a shot at him with his newly
acquired weapon. The demijohn was
growing light, and the rifle was grow
ing heavy. Well, it was getting toward
noon and rather warm even for an
Apache, and he would lie down in the
shade of the rocks over there and rest.
The humming of the wires is a sooth-
ing sound, and no sooner had his head
touched the earth than sleep took
mighty hold upon him and wiped out
his realizing sense of joy, as sleep has
a way of doing with everybody that
he lay, with the rife by his side and
his unspeakably hideous face turned
up toward the blue that arched the
desert.
1t was quiet there and restful-no
sound save the music of. the wires.
Stay; there were other sounds, but they
came some time after Coyote That Bites
had thrown himself upon the sand and
gone off to the land of Nod. They came
family at first and mingled with the
murmurings of the wires. Surely they
were the voices of children.
Had the red beast been awake he
might have imagined that they were
the haunting voices of the wee Mcxt-
can children whose blood he had SO
ruthlessly shed that morning, but he
heard them not. They were very far
from being ghostly voices anyway,
those tones that now piped forth so
merrily as Dubs and Gay trudged down
the line. They were walking to the
scoop out along the roadbed, not on the
track, for that was forbidden.
There were other things that were
forbidden, too, and one of them was
straying so far away from the station,
but Dubs was taking good care" of
his three-year-old sister, and in the
pride of his six full years he was equal
to the care of half dozen such as Gay.
"'F ony had sum matches to build
fire wiv," sighed Dubs, I'D burn Off
vese prickles JUS like We Injuns does"
"O-ohv' came suddenly from under
Gays sunbonnet. 'Wot s dat?'
''W'y, it's Jug" And Dubs left the
"toonies" and started toward the pile
Of rocks where lay the Coyotes demi-
John and where also lay the Coyote
himself.
The two trudged up the little slope,
and Dubs grasped the handle of the
demijohn, only to let 1t drop again and
spring back quickly with Gay in his
arms, for he had caught sight of the
Coyote, and he was smitten with sud-
den desire to go home.
But he saw the Indian did not move,
and so he suddenly became very brave.
He was certainly sound asleep and no
more to be feared than papa when he
lay on the lounge in his midday repose.
Then, too, Dubs was quite sure he was
a "worky" Injun, like the Yaquis, who
shoveled and picked on the railroad,
and SO his mind became wholly at ease.
The Coyotes cartridge belt, which
had been so loosely strapped, had fall
a hundred very interesting bits of brass
sticking in it. and the children soon
had these scattered all about in the
sand by the snoring Coyote. In the
scramble for her share of the innocent
toys Gay let one of them drop OH the
Coyotes leg. Perhaps the mesca's in
fluence was ON the Wane, for a big
brown knee was thrust quickly up from
the sand and big brown hand clutch
ed the ugly knife at the Coyotes side,
but the hand fell and the noble red
man snOred on.
Dubs tried on the cartridge belt and
became an Indian, all but the indis-
pensable knife, and he concluded to
borrow that from the sleeper, whose
fingers had lost their grip on the buck
horn handle.
TITS bigger'n mommie's butcher
knife, amt it, Gay?' the young savage
asked as he grasped the handle Of the
devilish looking blade. Now, you 'tand
over we're, and I'll get hind Wis wock
Ven you tum along, I'll jump out and
kill you"
Gay demurred.
"Oh, it's on'y make b'leve. vcse
kind o. 1njuns don't kill nobody" And
he stuck contemptuous finger toward
the innocent Coyote. Its on'y PEACHES
at kills, an vey's none yound here,
mommie says. I'm a 'Pache, SO you
better look OUT
1t was a dubious sport for Gay, and
when it came to the killing part she
screamed luStily.