Apache Indians -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Western stories
He learned where they would halt during the heat of the following
midday; he learned where they would camp the next night and the night
following that; he saw that guards were changed every two hours and that
thus the men lost but two hours sleep every other night. There was no
reason, therefore, on this score, why they should be too sleepy to watch
efficiently. He saw that all of the men slept with their rifles and
six-shooters within easy reach. He knew that a night attack would find
them ready and would have little chance for success.
Shortly before dawn the wind, which had been blowing gently up the
valley, changed and blew from the hills behind Shoz-Dijiji and across
the camp. Instantly the Apache noted the change and watched the mules.
At the same time he commenced to worm himself away from the park,
holding the bush always as a screen between himself and the camp of the
enemy.
He saw a mule raise its head and sniff the air, then another and
another. They moved about restlessly and many of them were looking out
in his direction. This he could see in the light of the fire that the
sentries had kept burning all night. He retreated more rapidly for he
knew that the animals had caught the scent of an Indian, and he feared
that the men would interpret their restlessness correctly.
Already the nearer guard had called to his fellow and both were
straining their eyes out into the night, and then, just behind him,
Shoz-Dijiji heard the wail of a coyote. He saw the tense attitudes of
the men relax as they turned to resume their beats, and he smiled
inwardly as he realized that they attributed the restlessness of their
stock to the scent of the coyote. An hour later he entered camp as
silently as he had left it the previous evening.
Geronimo listened to his report, and, after the custom of the Apaches,
without interruption or comment until Shoz-Dijiji indicated that he had
done speaking. He gave no praise, but he asked no questions; rather the
highest praise that he could have bestowed, since it indicated that the
youth’s report was so clear and so complete as to leave no detail of
information lacking.
For two days and two nights thereafter the Apaches followed the
freighters, and there was scarcely a moment during that time that the
Mexicans were not under close observation as the Indians waited and
watched patiently for the moment that the guard of the quarry would be
momentarily lowered, the inevitable moment that the shrewd Geronimo knew
would come. Keeping to the hills, along the foot of which the wagon road
wound, the noiseless, invisible stalkers followed doggedly the slow
moving train.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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