Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/177

 The Apaches could not, in so dense a forest, see any distance ahead; but did not hesitate to do the best they could to stampede us, and consequently attacked boldly with arrows which made no noise to arouse the suspicions of the white men in rear. The arrows were discharged with such force that one of them entered a pine-tree as far as the feathers, and another not quite so far, but still too far to allow of its extraction. There was a trifle of excitement until we could get our bearings and see just what was the matter, and in the mean time every man had found his tree without waiting for any command. The Apaches—of the Tonto band—did not number more than fifteen or twenty at most and were already in retreat, as they saw the companies coming up at a brisk trot, the commanders having noticed the confusion in the advance. Two of the Apaches were cut off from their comrades, and as we supposed were certain to fall into our hands as prisoners. This would have been exactly what General Crook desired, because he could then have the means of opening communication with the band in question, which had refused to respond to any and all overtures for the cessation of hostilities.

There they stood; almost entirely concealed behind great boulders on the very edge of the precipice, their bows drawn to a semi-*circle, eyes gleaming with a snaky black fire, long unkempt hair flowing down over their shoulders, bodies almost completely naked, faces streaked with the juice of the baked mescal and the blood of the deer or antelope—a most repulsive picture and yet one in which there was not the slightest suggestion of cowardice. They seemed to know their doom, but not to fear it in the slightest degree. The tinkling of the pack-train bells showed that all our command had arrived, and then the Apaches, realizing that it was useless to delay further, fired their arrows more in bravado than with the hope of inflicting injury, as our men were all well covered by the trees, and then over the precipice they went, as we supposed, to certain death and destruction. We were all so horrified at the sight, that for a moment or more it did not occur to any one to look over the crest, but when we did it was seen that the two savages were rapidly following down the merest thread of a trail outlined in the vertical face of the basalt, and jumping from rock to rock like mountain sheep. General Crook drew bead, aimed quickly and fired; the arm of one of the fugitives hung limp by his side, and the red stream gushing out showed that he