Evening star., 1930-05-04
Night Near, No
Help in Sight, and
Lee Faced the
Facts One Bullet
for Himself and
One for Eileen.

looked like cubical boulder, little
~ larger than the granite fragments
which strewed the summit of the
hill Here, where the arid mountain
range came to an abrupt ending like promon-
tory falling to the sea, it nestled under naked
cliffs, q hat-roofed building, fashioned from
ragged Jumps of rock. The road climbed to 1t
from q sun-baked plain, where mesquite thickets
gave false green promise and descended from
It to another level waste, where alkan patches
glared at the hot sky. Like the savage land
scape of which 1t seemed part, the station
revealed sign of life; it held no promise
of life to come Yet on this Summer afternoon,
when the breeze which rustled in the clumps
of bear-grass was like the gush Of air from
o furnace various visitors were drawing near
with various projects in mind.
Far I'D in the recesses of the granite outcrop
it was silent. There was not even the tinkle
of falling pebble. This was because the arts
of approach and ambush were to the Apaches
as a part of the days work, small details care
fully acquired, one by one, from boyhood, per-
fected with the same painstaking practice which
a good artisan bestows upon the learning Of
his trade.
They had left their horses behind them on
the ridge. They were coming down the face
of the promontory on their bellies. hugging the
rocks as closely as SO many squirming rattle
snakes. When a warrior had attained one bit
of cover, he seemed to sink into the earth; he
remained motionless blending into the sur
roundings until he had picked the next clump
of Spanish bayonet or bear grass.
GO they came on with the infinite patience
~ of their race to whom the taking of a
chance in battle sin. They were naked
to their loin cloths and their hide moccasins;
fillets of dingy cloth bound their frowsy black
hair. The sun above them poured its hayng
rays upon their bare bodies; the rocks beneath
fy1ey,n fort 70
stove. They crawled, unhurried, now a few
feet, now lying still. Their beady eyes roved
over the wide landscape, taking in the little
cubical building. They knew the station
keeper was inside. Their hopes were rising high
as they thought upon the joys Of massacre
and loot awaiting them down there. :.
Where the sunbaked talus of the hillside
mounted toward the steep escarpments of the
living granite, the man called the Kettle lurked
The blazing heat had brought an unhealthy
mottle to his pursy cheeks; his obese body was
a discordant presence among these wild sur
roundings The very beard which should have
carried suggestion of dignity was offensive.
OF personality, raiment and accouterments, the
only article in good order was the six-shooter
hanging by his thigh.
to his ignobility. Where he was known, men
spoke it with contempt. And now the knowl-
edge extended over three cardinal points of
the compass; east, north and west. The south
alone remained open, and Mexico was one
brief days ride away.
But a ride means at least a horse, and
preferably saddle is included; and Kettles
last departure had been too abrupt to allow
attention to such details. The exit had been
made from the Army post some 10 miles east
ward. Here an inquisitive colonel had diScov-
cred that the government ammunition, for
which the Kettle was surreptitiously bartering
whisky to thirsty privates, was being sold to
renegade Apaches. Take it all in all, the
fugitive considered himself in luck to be on foot.
The stage-station lay 100 yards or so below
him. There were horses in the corral. There
was sure to be some plunder in the little build
ing Kettle lifted his head above the boulder;
in that moment he looked like nothing so
much as an diversified vulture. ..
blackboard emerged from the mesquite
thickets where the western flats ended and the
long grade to the stage-station began. The
wiry little mules sackened from their swing
ing trot to a brisk dogged walk. In spite Of
the heat and dust and the rough miles be-
hind her, Eileen was sitting With an uncom-
promising erectness; her head was back.
She was what one would san slip Of .
girl, but there was that in ene way she held
her lips and in the darkness Of her eyeS-gray
eyes, they were. but they seemed almost black
now-which magnified her presence. It would
have needed such a seasoned connosseur Of
the emotions as a married member Of her sex
to discover the pain which was hidden under
that angry hauteur.
THE mining camp whence she had driven
u was tucked away in a canyon some 10
miles back. On the center table in the living
room of the superintendent's cottage-where
her sister, whose guest she had been these past
three months, would be suse to find it-a note
lay. ~