Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-09-23
TOLD BY A SKELETON.

I
the rocky canyons of the Arizona noun
tains between Eagle Creek and Rio
/ Pricto. Ii is a lonely place, with nothing
| but cactus and &c cliff grass for YER
due 1t is deathly still, There seems
| to be no life anywhere among those tUm-
bled crags. But pass along the trail,
upset a bowlder, throw a rock into a
clump of the emf grass you will see
something alive. Coued in the dark
places are great diamond backed rattle
snakes disturb one of them and the
whole dell will hum with the music Of
the oastanets.
In the bed of the canyon, just above
the wash line, are some bones, polished
by the drift of the river, bleached by the
| fierce sun tor wears. AS you pass from
the middle of the heap of ribs, comes the
warning rattle of one of the deadly deni-
zens of the glen. The remains OF a pack
saddle are there and what might once
have been the pack. There is a frag
ment of blanket with L. S. on it. Near
| by is the rusted steel of a Winchester
rifle. Examine it, and YOU will find that
and moIdy cartridge.
That tells the story.
Some time back when this glen, alive
with rattIesnakes. was even loneler and
farther out of the world than it is now,
| some prospector, desertrr, or hunter came
there driving his pack mule.
| Fifty yards away from the whitening
bones. behind that bowldcr that juts
from the cliff, some empty rifle shells
were scattered. There are more of them
concealed by that patch of greenwood,
and ~till Others among the rocks on the
! hillside.
| Did the traveller with the army blanket
| know that he was travelling on the hid
/ den trail that only the Apaches knew
that pulling roundabout path that
! started north and turned back south. the
road by which the San Carlos Indians
| found their way uumolestcd to the Next
can Sierra AIadrc, though the soldiers
were all around!
The story is written in what was left
in the glen
! The Indians saw the white man come
| around the bend of the hill far above.
| The canyon was a perfect place for am
| bush. Riding i'll the stiffness is drowsy
work The solitary prospcctor comes ON
with his rifle hanging carelessly before
him. Down the trail he comes, past the
grease wood patch to Tie water hole in
| the gully. His animals are hot and tired
| He loosens the girth and leads them to
the pool
| Out of the quiet, crashing like a thun-
der-clap, comes The first shot. He springs
to his horse and his rife flies to his
shoulder. He knows what has happened
and knows that unless his horse can
carry him back through a storm of bull
lets the way he came he has passed his
last day on earth
But the sudden shot has startled the
horse. \ jerk has freed the bride and in
an instant he is 2aloping up the hill,
the saddle tuning under him.
Then it is die game or die coward.
The white man Jerks the lever of his
Winchester. The cartridge catches-a
twig has perhaps got in among the bear
ings.
They see that he cannot shoot-his |
pistol went off with the saddle and now
he is standing unarmed among the iecr-
ing Indians
There are no white mans bones by |
the skeleton of the pack mule Die game
on die coward! 1t was no easy. quick |
death by bullet that the man who tied |
;that pack had to meet.
Quarter Of a mile down the canyon
that trail runs up on to a knoll, Down |
there are bones. \ skull is there with
its face buried in the soil. Those little |
Jumps -eajade the spine of the man who |
was caught in the ambush.
II You search close YOU will find the |
rest Of the mans frame stretched out
there.
What was once a rope is there. 1t is |
l,notted back of the skull and the other
nd is fast in the bush. Ii You cared to
scratch among those bones you will find
some small strips of rawhide. He died
with his hands fast behind him.
But what is this lace-lke line and
| delicate framework of slender bone that
hes close to the skull?
When the Apaches closed in ON their
victim he fought hard. But how long
can one man fight against a score:
Struggle as he will. he is soon over
come. and. with his hands bound so tight
I that the cords emf into thp,,, tl,a,- f,,,.,