Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1936-03-27
CHAPTER TX

was very busy. From the first of his
kegs he wrenched out the bung and at
once thick dark stream Of kerosene
spurted out to fall into rough
trough fashioned of stiff red clay and
so be guided down to the placed but
moving water.
"Hi-yah! Hi-yah Yah-yah!" A
Mescalero on painted pony having
reached the obvious conclusion that
the bridge guards must be attacked
from the rear raised that yell dreaded
throughout all the southwest and NOV
ed towards the ford. To take the
hard pressed whites in the rear his
force must cross the San Lorenzo and
swarm up to the right-of-way on the
right bank of the river.
Ken's heart hammered like the tom
tom of the Hopi medicine man when,
lifting his legs high on his horses's
neck the first Apache took to the
water. After him trotted a dozen,
two dozen, fifty more.
Ken wrenched out the bung on the
second barrel and braced himself. All,
the leading Indian was in the CLASSY
black water up to his shoulders and
was holding his muzzle loader and
powder horn high above his head.
"Wait! Wait until there are more
in the water" an inner voice yelled in
ken's ear.
1t was hard to hang on, because the
ford, perhaps a hundred yards wide,
was now dotted with the indistinct
black outlines of Indians and their
swimming mounts. Down to the ford
now surged steady stream of ma
RAIDERS, anxious for their turn to
cross, while above the fierce crackle
of musketry sounded ever louder.
Very distinctly Ken could hear the
squeals Of the Indian ponies as they
Up shot tiny thread of yellow-red
er bank, even over the wet thresh
and splatter of the horses in the shall
lows.
When the whole surface of the San
Lorenzo was alive with life, the from
tiersman, keeping below the rock
breastwork, damned the barrel bungs
back into place, cutting off the flow
of kerosene; clapped a fist full of wet
clay over them. Next he snatched up
a dark lantern and held the candle
flame from it into little pool of coal
oil which had gathered half way down
the trough.
hot, scorching sheets of fire leaping
flame, deadly in it's potentialities
Slowly at first then with terrifying
rush and roar, the flame, fed by the
oil floating on the surface of the
smooth black water, shot out over
the river in terrifying leaps that sent
hot, scorching shetes of fire leaping
into the night sky.
"There, you bloody varmints!" And
Ken, with bated breath and staring
work to watch the terrifying spectacle
which ensued. In half a minute the
whole ford seemed to have become
converted into a sheet of whitening
flame. From bank to bank the red
yellow flames of destruction lit the
sky, the trestle which was the goal
and the gorge above it. Heat hot as
the breath of hell beat against the
frontiersman's face. Then the des
pairing shrieks of the scorched saw
ages in the water who, surrounded BY
the licking flames that defied the
water, could not rid themselves of this
torment, made an inferno of the nigh
The horses, their nostrils, eyes anc
cars enveloped with flame, uttered
piercing, insensate shrieks, reared
and threshed madly about. Madden
ed blinded with pain, they charged
frantically into each other and fel
spilling their bowling riders off int
the billowing seas of flame. Prompt
ly the rank odor of singed hair anC
scorched flesh came to Ken's nose
making him realize that all this wa
indeed reality and not some horrible
vivid nightmare.
The whole river seemed to hav
come to life, but the oil, ever lighte
than the water, kept on burning wit
the fury of volcano.
A few savages, dreadfully burned
did manage to cross the ford, only t.
fall off their plunging mounts and t.
lie in the damp grass smoking an
rolling in pain. But the vast major
ty, blinded, strangled and scared, col
lapsed into the seething waters afte
a few frantic struggles.
Utterly appalled, at the success O
his own ingenuity, the frontiersmal
watched the current carry the fire