United States or El Salvador ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Sometimes bands of whites would take the place of the soldiers and revenge themselves on Apache raiders. There was the raid on the Wooster ranch, for instance. This ranch was near Tubac. Wooster lived alone on the ranch with his wife and one hired man. One morning Apaches swooped down on the place, killed Wooster and carried off his wife.
I judged by the animated gestures of the Indians that we were nearing our destination; my conjectures were not ill-founded, as about midnight we entered a valley, and passing through green fields, came in view of the lodges of the Apache encampment.
A rattling descendo, and the Apache was down the rope again, standing at the bottom of the cave, and Fred was again master of the situation. "Goodness!" exclaimed the lad, when he realized this gratifying state of affairs, "I had no idea that that was an Indian; but I ought to have suspected it when I called to him and he didn't make any answer.
The young riders, where shall I tell him they have gone?" "To the old ranch-house on the San Christobal Arroyo," Jondo replied. The Indian smiled, and turning quickly, he disappeared up the dark street. A sudden thrill shook Jondo. "Father Josef said I could trust that boy entirely. Surely old Dick Verra, part Indian himself, couldn't be mistaken. But that Apache lied to me.
An instant later the Picacho was lighted up with a lurid, unearthly glare; the huge column of sparks went whirling and hissing up on high, and, far and near, the great beacon was warning all seers that the fierce Apache was out in force and raiding the Yuma road.
"'He knows me for a hundred dollars! says Jack. 'I'm an Apache if he ain't allowin' he knows me! Wherever did you get him, Monte? "'Give me a drink, says Monte, p'intin' along into the Red Light. 'This yere makes me sick. "After Old Monte gets about four fingers of carnation onder his belt, he turns in an' explains as how the mother starts along in the stage all right enough from Tucson.
Side by side with the priest was the apache, or the slum-dweller, or the peasant from the fields, who in conversation was habitually and unconsciously foul.
As has been said, Pike's watch-tower and fortress was fully a quarter of a mile south of the road and about a third of a mile from the abandoned camp, but in the absolute silence that reigned in every other quarter the sounds from the Apache war-dance in that clear mountain air were almost distinctly audible.
Go!" and with a bound Apache went, but as though he now fully understood he swept like a shadow across the lawn, out through a side gate and down the pike. Jefferson on his cot in the cottage roused enough to mutter: "Dat hawse a-hollerin'. I bettah get up an' see " and then resumed his snore just where Apache's farewell had interrupted it.
In northern Arizona this required more than genius. Emett secured the best trailer of the desert Navajos. Jones hated an Indian; and Jim, who carried an ounce of lead somewhere in his person, associated this painful addition to his weight with an unfriendly Apache, and swore all Indians should be dead.
Word Of The Day