Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-02-25
The Argus Daily Short Story
In the Nick of Timely John Thorndike.
Copyrighted 1910, Associated Literary PrssE

comes. Indeed. the prospect of fight,
even in losing cause. was not unwel-
come to Fuckers. Quickly descending
into the hollow between two rollers, he
rode with all haste toward the wagon
till he knew by the loud cracking of
rifles that those firing were near by on
the other side of one of the rollers.
Disseminating. he assembled the slope,
crawling as he neared the summit, and,
lying fat, he surveyed the scene on the
other side through cacti.
family consisting Of father, moth
er, several boys ranging from twelve to
eighteen years old and 4 girl of TWEEN
ty were using the wagon as a rampant
by which to protect themselves against
three or four times their number OF
Indians, who were approaching from
comparatively level ground, the red
skins being widely scattered with
view to preventing their enemies con-
centrating their fire and that they
might take the party on the TANKS as
well as the center.
That the whites had sufficient arms
was evident from the fact that every
one of them, including the two women,
held a breechloading rife. a compare
lively new gun in those days. He who
was evidently the father Of the fam
lily was giving his little army orders as
to the direction of their fire so that 1t
would be properly distributed. They
we're dong their best to pick of the
redskins, but the latter were so wary
IN exposing themselves that 1t was diff
6cult to hit them.
Fuckers returned to his horse, IN
hooked his rife and, removing all the
ammunition he had in his saddlebags,
placed It In his hat. Besides this am
munition, his belt was full of car
tridges. Taking his load up to the
crest he showed the muzzle of his gun
out between the cactus and was ready
to commence operations
Meanwhile the Indians had changed
their tactics. They were concentrat-
ing on their center preparatory to
charging the wagon. 1t was plain to
the whites that they were lost. In a
quick dash of the Indians some of
them might be killed or disabled, but
there would be plenty left to toma-
hawk their enemies. The fathers
voice trembled as he said:
Let US die hard"
Rut at that moment a surprise oc.
cl~ad to both whites and redskins.
The former heard a crack behind
them, and the latter saw q puff of
smoke on the crest. One of the In
dams fell dead Fuckers instead OF
firing again from the same spot scram-
bled to a point a few yards to bis
right and from there sent another bull
let Without waiting to see what dam
age he had done he moved and fired
again.
The Indians paused in their advance.
Fuckers had produced already the JIM
preston that there were at least sew
eral persons on the crest, and since he
kept up a fire from different points il
was impossible for the savages to tell
how many there were in this re-en-
forcement
Equally interested in Fuckers were
the party directly beneath him They
were casting quick glances over their
shoulders, hoping TO see a party OF
armed whites come over the crest TO
their assistance. But when Fuckers
called 10 them to keep up their fire,
that he was alone, there was diSap-
pointment But there was hope. The
father. seeing the advantage Of Ruck-
ers' strategy, encouraged his family. at
the same time admonishing them not
to FIRE except at an especial redskin-
But by this time the Indians had be-
taken themselves behind a slight rise
In the ground, where trey remained
aat OF saGhL They had evidently