The experience of Fred Munson as a prisoner among the Apaches was one
which he was not likely to forget to his dying day. From the back of the
steed where he was held a captive he gained an indistinct view of the
short, savage struggle between Lone Wolf and Sut Simpson, and more than
once he concluded that it was all over with the daring hunter, who had
ventured out with the purpose of befriending him. But when the chieftain
returned to his warriors alone and without any scalp strung to his
girdle, he knew that the fellow had pulled through all right.
Lone Wolf was so exasperated at his treatment that he hovered around for
a short time with his entire force, in the hope of balancing accounts
with his old enemy. But he soon saw, however, the utter impossibility of
that in the present shape of things, and so he summoned all his warriors
together and moved off in a northerly direction, his purpose being,
as the hunter said, to return with a force which would prove itself
invincible.
Fred expected to be handed back to the redoubtable chieftain, who, he
supposed, would subject him to the most cruel kind of treatment; but
that worthy did not seem desirous of receiving his charge back again and
permitted him to remain with his deputy. The lad did not know whether
to be pleased by this or not; for his custodian was the most repulsive
looking being he had ever seen. He was deeply pitted with smallpox, and
the enormous nose which he had once possessed had been splintered by a
blow from a tomahawk, so that in no respect at all did it resemble that
useful and ornamental organ. There was an enormous breadth, too, between
the eyes, or rather temples, the face tapering down to the chin so
rapidly that the contour from the front suggested the shape of a wedge.
An Indian almost invariably has good teeth but the mouth of the one in
question was filled with snags that projected in every direction; his
chin was excessively retreating, and, to add to it all, his countenance
was daubed with different colored paint, in such fantastic streakings
that an Adonis himself would have appeared hideous. Such was the jailer
of Fred, who heard him addressed once or twice by a name which sounded
to him as if it were Waukko.
He was, in fact, one of the most famous warriors of the Jiccarilla
Apaches, his fame depending as much upon his cruelty as upon his
prowess. There are legends in the southwest crediting Lone Wolf with
having shown some slight signs of mercy on one or two occasions, but
nothing of the kind was ever said of his lieutenant, Waukko, who brained
the innocent babe with the same demon-like enjoyment that he silenced
the pleadings of old age and blooming womanhood. Fred, as a matter of
course, knew nothing of these characteristics; but the appearance of the
redskin himself was so repulsive that he could not look at him without a
shudder of terror.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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