Apache Indians -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Western stories
Shoz-Dijiji withdrew three arrows from his quiver and placed them
between his fingers, he grasped his bow and arose to his full height.
Silently, majestically he strode down toward the white men. He was
almost upon them before he who was watching the bacon discovered him.
The others had been lying with closed eyes. The white man gave a cry of
alarm, that cry that had sent the chill of fear along countless white
spines for three hundred years: “Apaches!” and staggered weakly in an
effort to reach his rifle.
“What the hell are you doing here, you dirty white-eyes?” demanded
Shoz-Dijiji in English; but he did not wait for a reply—the soldier who
had thrown him to the ground at Hot Springs had not and he had learned
his technique from the white soldier. Instead, his bow string twanged
and an iron-shod arrow pierced the heart of the prospector. The two
remaining whites sprang to defend themselves, one seizing a hand axe,
the other the hot frying pan, the only weapons within their reach. With
swift rapidity two more arrows leaped from the mesquite bow.
With the hand axe Shoz-Dijiji made assurance of death doubly sure, then
he scalped the three, selected from their persons and their packs
everything that could prove of value to an Apache, packed the loot upon
the two stronger burros, quenched his thirst and, leading the animals,
moved on into the hills for about two miles. Here he cached in a small
cave everything but a single rifle, a six-shooter and a belt of
ammunition, which he appropriated to his own immediate use, turned the
burros loose and started back toward the camp of his people, fifty miles
away.
Travelling in the lesser heat of the night, taking short cuts across
open valleys that he must avoid in the light of day, Shoz-Dijiji made
rapid progress, arriving in camp about two o’clock the following
morning, some eight hours after he had left his loot cached in the
mountains.
When he awoke, well after midday, he exhibited his newly acquired arms,
boasted of his exploit, and showed the three bloody scalps as proof of
his prowess.
“I, myself, Shoz-Dijiji,” he said, “crept alone upon the camp of the
pindah lickoyee. There were three of them, but Shoz-Dijiji knows not the
word fear. In the broad light of chigo-na-ay he walked down into the
camp of the white-eyes and slew them. He took much loot and hid it in a
cave in the mountains. Here are the scalp locks of the white-eyed men.
Here are the weapons of one of them.”
Geronimo grunted approvingly. Victorio fingered the rifle of the dead
prospector enviously. Juh was not there. With his Ned-ni he had returned
to his own country. To Shoz-Dijiji came an inspiration.
“There are two more rifles in the cave in the mountains,” he said; “one
for Geronimo and one for Victorio, and there are presents for many
braves and their women. If Geronimo speaks the words Shoz-Dijiji will
return with ponies and fetch these things for his friends.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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