Beadle's Dime Library No. 411: The White Crook — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* lees ‘ and he reported the result of his little scout to Captain Lang, who said that there was nothing for them todo but to go right on and let the mysteries solve themselves. hey left their horses at the mouth of the pass in care of a guard, and hastened forward under the guidance of the Mexican, who could find his way there in the darkness as well as in the day- light. | He led them up the cut in the side of the cliff at the eastern side of the plateau, believing that the Apaches would have seen no necessity of guarding it. His conjecture proved to be correct, and he was proud indeed when the dismounted cavalry filed out of the cut upon the plateau. The sharp and rapid firing whih they heard as they were coming up the poss, and which natur. !ly quickened their steps, ied then ceased ; but there were occasional shots in the vicinity of the house, proving that it had not been cap- tured, and:that the hostiles were yet there. A few men were left at the cut, and a few were sent to a point which Manuel indicated, to prevent the escape of stray Apaches, and with the main body, Captain Lang moved in skir- mishing order toward the house, No Indians were in sight when they started; but they soon met them as they passed through the timber, and the sharp reports of carbines and rifles made tho plateau livelier than it had yet been, This attack in the rear was a terrible surprise to the Apaches, and it did not take them long to learm that it was made by a considerable body of regular troops. The soldiers were formidable in such a posi- tion as that, however much the savages might despise them among the hills and in the passes. Confused and scaticred as they were, the Apaches at the moment thought only of flight, and they ran before the skirmish line more rapid- ly than it could advance. So the way to the house was speedily opened, and the soldiers reached the clear space in front of the bui‘ding. The firing with which the blue-coats announced their arrival startled and surprised the people within the house, and it soon dispersed the cloud of gloom that had settled upon them. It was evident, whenthey reflected upon the matter, that the Apaches had been attacke1, as the recent firing began in the direction of the eastern plateau, and the firing at the house had suddenly ceased. . Conjecture became certain when they saw the dark forms of Indians running as if for life, and one of them threw up his hands and fell dead in front of the house, The unanimous opinion at that time was ex- ressed by Mrs. Dunning when she said that Mtr. Sarpy and his friends had returned. This seemed to be quite unlikely; but who else could have arrived? Mark Stepney suddenly came to a different conclusion when the blue-coats came bursting through the timber and neared the house. ‘*They are soldiers!” he cried. ‘‘ Manuel has brought them. Weare safe now, I only wish that poor Barney was alive to welcome them,” He pay! opened the fron» door, and was ted by Captain Lang. ‘‘Hello! Are you all alive here yet?” ‘‘Some of us are,” answered Meek; ‘ but none of us would have been alive much ‘onger if vou had not come.” “Glad that we got here in time. Sarpy?” ‘He went off this morning with most of the men, after the Apaches had le‘t here.” ‘After they had left here. That’s queer. There seems to be plenty of them here now. But I have no time for si a oops as I must see what can be done with these sneaking red- skins.” ; The task of the blue-coats was_not finished, and they had a rather difficult problem to con- front. — Though the Apaches had been stampeded, they were not by any means got rid of. To search for them in the darkness, while the had tho advantage of the trees, and of their knowledge of the ground, would be a winning ame in time, but might cause a considerable oss of life among the hunters. After consideration, Captain Lang came to the conclusion that he had better seek to prevent their escape. through the night, and settle with them in the morning. Ry rgsnn, a few men at the house, he divided the remainder of his force equally, and sent them to occupy the heads of the two passes to the platea 1. nal They uilt fires out on the open, in front of their respective positions, so that no Apache could ane them without being seen. — When he had completed his arrangements, the officer returned with Manuel to the house, where he was warily welcomed, and a full account of both the Apache attacks was given him, “ And so Hark Sarpy has gone on the trail of part of the hostiles,” said he. ‘I wish I was ci noo de eae acre as soon as rhe a ™ , au yim mt be able to straighten up these Indians before morning, and that puts me back,” Where is a q s - > uM rs Sw . ee OO The White Crook, es Before morning the Apaches made an attack | upon the guard at the lower post; but it was easily repulsed, as they had no cover for their | advance. _feebly, and he uttered a few words that were» When day broke it did not take them long to — discover that they were at the mercy of the soldiers. After a few had been shot down—rather by way of intimidation than as a matter of neces- get the rest came in and surrendered, ey were promptly disarmed and sent off | under guard to San Carlos, Having settled this difficulty, Captain Lang saw his way clear to following Hark Sarpy and his party in their pursuit of the other band, and he lost no time in making the few preparations nar for that purpose. He left half a dozen men at the house with Mark Stepney, but took Manuel with him. Indeed, Manuel would not have remained on ' rocks, and his grave was marked bya pile of” | any terms, as nobody was so eager as he to get | on the trail of the Apaches. Captain Lang’s command was considerably reduced by the details of the guard that was | | sent to San Carlos and that which was left at | Bella Vista; but it was still large enough for his purpose, Though the men had had little rest of late, they were eager for the expedition, and were only anxious to get on with as little delay as possible, Under the competent guidance of Manuel, and making few and brief halts, they pushed forward as rapidly as the difficulties of the route would allow, CHAPTER XXX, A STERN CHASE, WHEN Hark Sarpy perceived that his Apaches had got away from bim, his first thought was of pursuit, and he hurried back to his friends to | favorite horse, and Manuel, who had the eager- start them on the trail. As he had naturally supposed, the bucle call | front to make sure that they should not slip the argued the presence of a cavairy detachment, | trail. ‘as and he had hardly reached his f iends when of his men, The Hater at first greeted the new-comers | rather coldly, regarding them as responsible for the partial failure of the task he had lately un- dertaken, ‘What in thunder did you blow that infernal horn for?” he gruffly demanded as soon as he met them. ** Hello!” answered Captain Lang. ‘' What's the matter with you, old man? Has anything bit you?” ‘* That wretched horn of yours has spoiled a fine job of work for me.” The bornblow- ‘Sorry to hear that, Sarpy. ing as you call it wasn’t intentional, I assure you. In fact, it was against orders. But the bugler has got so in the habit of that sort of thing, that when an advance was ordered just as we had dismounted for a halt, he too it out on his horn.” ‘*'What was you doing up thar, anyhow?” in- quired Captain Dunning o py: Hark told them about bis ambush and the trouble he had given the Apaches, and related how, to his great disgust, they had fled at the sound of the bugle call. “That is just into our hand,” exclaimed Captain Lang. ‘‘We had stopped for a rest when we caught sight of a light ahead, and I at once ordered an advance. But I had no idea that we were so near up with the Apaches, Come! let us follow them on.” ‘*Come on, then!” shouted Hark. “I want to see if they have made an end of the poor devil they were worrying when I was up there.” ‘“*By the way, Sarpy,” said the officer, ‘‘ there has been the Old Harry to pay at your place since you left there.” Hark al A was so astonished and over- whelmed by this announcement that his bronzed face turned ashy pale, so he could not command his voice, “What's that?” he stammered. ‘‘ Trouble at my place?” ‘The Apaches came back there,” answered Captain Lang. ‘But it is all right now, and your folks are safe. Take the horse the Mexi- can brought, and I will tell you about it as we ride along.” They hastened up the ascent to the recent camp of the Apaches, where they found ample evidence of the burry with which its occupants had decamped, . The bodias of the two youns bucks who had been slaughtered by the Hater were lying where they fell, and it was understood that the savages must have been terribly demoralized when they got away without caring for their dead. But they had found time to do a villainous piece of spite work before they scampered. Hark Sarpy, looking about for Ephraim Cronkhite, heard a faint groan, and found the unfortunate Apostle of Peace lying. at the foot of the trunk to which he had been tied. The sight was horrible in the extreme, as the savages had torn the scalp from his head while he was yet alive, and had left him to perish. There was no fatal wound upon his person; a) ' | | ————o ———— : — Een 21. 0 but he was clearly beyond the reach of surgery,. and even his minutes were numbered. As Hark Sarpy hent over him, his lips moved heard by careful listening. ‘* Forgive them—tbey were angered.” The next moment he breathed bis last, dying, in spite of bis bitter experience, in the belief that had brought him to Arizona and delivered him up to the savages. He was hastily buried in a hole among the stones that were heaped upon it as a guard against the beasts of prey. Captain Dunning sadly spoke the epitaph of” his wife’s relative, and it was brief and to the. point. ‘* He meant well; but he didn’t know.” Hark Sarpy imformed the officer and his: friends that the Apache camp was near the~- mouth of the pass, and that they would soon emerge from the hills and bave a dead run after~ the fugitives on their way to the Chiracahua. Mountains. They rode forward as rapidly as and soon came out on a broad an plain. As it was quite dark, the flying Apaches were~ not to be seen; but their trail was plain enough at the start, and there could be no» reasonable doubt of the course they had taken. There was nothing for it then but a siern. chase, and in this instance a stern chase was. sure to be a long chase, as the fugitives were’ well mounted, while seven of the pursuers were- unprovided with horses, This evil was partly remedied by the mount- - ing of the men afoot behind the troopers; but- the cavalry horses, not very good at the hest, were wearied by forced marches and little rest, and so were their riders. Hark Sarpy took Jack Bunn behind him on his» posits, sandy~ ness and the hold-out of a hound, ran along in -° si Soon they came to a road, and along the road. _ Captain Lang rode up with Manuel at the head | ran a line of telegraph poles—cheering signs of | \ p civilization when not in the wilderness. &, Captain Lang halted and looked sadly at the line of poles. “Tf 1 knew of a telegraph station amywhere- about here,” said he, ‘I believe I would take time to huntit. Butit would probably beofno — use, as all the operators have been scared off | by the outbreak.” fs»? **'What’s your scheme?” inquired Hark. “Tf there was any sort of a chance I would telegraph to have those red-skins headed off at the crossing of the Gila. It’s a great pityto strike a telegraph and not be able touse it.” ‘*'No trouble about that, captain. My young: — friend here, Mr. Bunn, is one of the scared-og oS : operators, and he has got the tools tofixit for- you.” Bet Jack Bunn had already slipped down from his friend’s horse, and was getting out his storage battery and wire. i sg In a few moments he had made connection — with the line on the poles and called up the office which Captain Lang desired to reach. wena) The officer dictated a message, which Jack © sent off in short order, and he speedily re- — packed his tools. ce” ‘‘That makes me feel a great deal better,” — said Captain Lang. “If those red-skins are not stopped at the crossing, it will be no fault of mine,” * ‘*But we want to catch them, too,” observed Hark Sarpy, “‘and we can’t afford to let mee chances slip. My child is with them, and I _ must get her if I havo to follow them into | Chihuahua.” .. Sea ‘“We will do our best, Hark; but you know that they can travel faster than we can.” 2 It was true that the pursuers were Fs ‘f handicapped, and that it wasa long ridetothe — river; but they did their best and pushed for-- ward as rapidly as tho price condition of mem and horses would allow to. ) tae When day broke, and they no longer needed even the _ eyes of Manuel to keep them on the trail, their progress was somewhat more rapid, but still quite unsatisfactory, especially to Hark Sarpy and Manuel, | i At night they were so completely broken down by fatigue and loss of — t they were compelled to halt and takealongrest. Then they had another range of hills to cross, __ and there, as elsewhere, they found plenty of oof of the sad fact that they were far behind e fugitives. ‘ ne Hark Sarpy was greatly worried, and Man- uel had worked himself up into a fever of ex- citement, but there was no help for them— | they could only do what they could. ae A hen they wormed their way through the hills, they came out in full view of the — plain and the river; but there were no Indians: _ . Pein th that tr might he ie eim hope then was tha oops T thave been sent out in answer to Ca tain Ldngiedie— a gf G : Nang "9 ‘, 7 ea i 4 . at patch, who had captured the Apaches-aria-tak-- “a en them to the nearest militamy post. ae was taken away from them whem they reached the river. See GEomicbooks