Imagine All This Savage Hideousness Rushing Upon You - On A
Yellow Horse With A Mane Of Waving Red!
His very presence on an
ordinary trotting pony was enough to freeze the blood in one's veins.
That he was a spy was plainly to be seen, and we knew also that his
band was probably not far away. He seemed in very good spirits, asked
for "tobac," and rode along with us some distance - long enough to make
a careful estimate of our value and our strength. Finally he left us
and disappeared over the hills. Then the little escort of ten men
received orders from Faye to be on the alert, and hold themselves and
their rifles ready for a sudden attack.
We rode on and on, hoping to reach the Cimarron Redoubt before dark,
but that had to be given up and camp was made at Snake Creek, ten
miles the other side. Not one Indian had been seen on the road except
the Apache, and this made us all the more uncomfortable. Snake Creek
was where the two couriers were shot by Indians last summer, and that
did not add to our feelings of security - at least not mine. We were in
a little coulee, too, where it would have been an easy matter for
Indians to have sneaked upon us. No one in the camp slept much that
night, and most of the men were walking post to guard the animals. And
those mules! I never heard mules, and horses also, sneeze and cough
and make so much unnecessary noise as those animals made that night.
And Hal acted like a crazy dog - barking and growling and rushing out
of the tent every two minutes, terrifying me each time with the fear
that he might have heard the stealthy step of a murderous savage.
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