The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-01-09

The leader. shot through the head, fel:
from hts horse.
20 long that he had hopes that the
rurales would appear In time to res.
cue him. His spirits rose with the
prospect. Looking about him at the
walls. the fireplace and the red cross,
he reflected. II am not the fisst- man.
or even the arst white man. that has
withstood an attack In this place"
In Imagination he constructed the his
tory Of the fort. Here. In ages re-
mote. q tribe Of Indians. defeated and
driven to the mountains. had con-
structed an outpost against their enc
mics Of the plain, but these had cap
tured the stronghold and fortified II
against its former occupants. Later q
band Of Spanish gold seekers had
made q stand here against natives
whom they had reused against them
by oppression. Or, perhaps. as indi-
Gated by the cross. 1t had afforded ref
uge to the mission fathers, those he
roic souls who had faced the horrors
Of the inferno-like desert in their
sanity efforts to convert its fiendish
Inhabitants.
With his mind occupied by appre-
tensions Lane looked at the rattle
snake upon the sahuaro. whose strug-
giles by this time had diminished to q
feeble movement Of the tail.
Poor old rattlerv' he thought. Il
wish l could spare a cartridge to put
you out Of your misery"
At length as Lane peered up the
mountain side be saw brush on a
ledge a little to the left Of the trail
CULVER as if stirred by passing
breath of wind. He aimed his Win
chester through a crack in the wall
at the spot. and when moment later
an Apache rose up from the ground
and leaped toward the shelter Of g
rock below Lane fired. and the savage
fell crumpling. Like an echo Of the
explosion a rife ON the right spoke,
and bullet struck the rock by Lanes
head. He marked the spot whence
the shot came and quickly ran to an
other part of the wall. From here he
saw the edge Of an Indians thigh ex-
posed by the side Of the bowlder he
had noted. Crack went Lanes Win
chester. The leg was suddenly with
head appeared on the other side Of the
rock, as If the Indian had stretched
himself out involuntary. Crack again,
and Lane had got his man.
1.-TWO shots to an Indian is expen-
sive," thought the prospector; 'Other-
wise this game Of tip-jack would be
very interesting"
There was a cry in the Apache
tongue. and suddenly nine half naked
bodies arose from behind rocks and
bushes extending in an irregular cres-
cent above the fort and rushed for
ward ten, fifteen and even twenty
yards to the next cover Lane did not
count number or distance at the time,
but he figured these out in his next
period of waiting from the photograph
flashed on his subconscious mind. At
the time Of the rush he was otherwise
occupied. Crack. crack. and two Of
the Indians fell dead in midcareer.
Crack. and a third crawled, wounded.
to the cover he had almost safely at
tanned. Crack. and an eagle feather
In the head Of the fourth Indian shot
at was cut off at the stem and fell for
ward on the rock behind which its
wearer had dropped just In time to
save his life. There was an answering
volley from the rifles Of the remaining
Apaches. which was directed against
the lookout of loose stones from which
the prospectors fire had come One Of
the bullets penetrated the opening and
plowed furrow through Lanes scalp.