Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/220

 Apaches had just been raiding upon the white and Pima Indian settlements in the valley of the Gila, and had driven off fifteen horses and mules, which, being barefoot and sore from climbing the rocky trail up the face of the mountain, had been abandoned in a little nook where there was a slight amount of grass and a little water. Worst news of all, there had been four large "wickyups" in the same place which had just been vacated, and whether on account of discovering our approach or not it was hard to say.

We were becoming rather nervous by this time, as we still had in mind what "Nantaje" had said the previous evening about killing the last of the enemy, or being compelled to fight our own way back. "Nantaje" was thoroughly composed, and smiled when some of the party insinuated a doubt about the existence of any large "rancheria" in the neighborhood. "Wait and see," was all the reply he would vouchsafe.

By advice of "Nantaje," Major Brown ordered Lieutenant William J. Ross to proceed forward on the trail with twelve or fifteen of the best shots among the soldiers, and such of the packers as had obtained permission to accompany the command. "Nantaje" led them down the slippery, rocky, dangerous trail in the wall of the gloomy cañon, which in the cold gray light of the slowly creeping dawn, and under the gloom of our surroundings, made us think of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. "They ought to be very near here," said Major Brown. "Good Heavens! what is all that?" It was a noise equal to that of a full battery of six-pounders going off at once. Brown knew that something of the greatest consequence had happened, and he wasn't the man to wait for the arrival of messengers; he ordered me to take command of the first forty men in the advance, without waiting to see whether they were white or red, soldiers or packers, and go down the side of the cañon on the run, until I had joined Ross, and taken up a position as close to the enemy as it was possible for me to get without bringing on a fight; meantime, he would gather up all the rest of the command, and follow me as fast as he could, and relieve me. There was no trouble at all in getting down that cañon; the difficulty was to hold on to the trail; had any man lost his footing, he would not have stopped until he had struck the current of the Salado, hundreds of feet below. In spite of everything, we clambered down, and by great