The Silver Canyon | Page 4

he was in the act of
quelling when we made his acquaintance in the last chapter--though, as
we have seen, it proved to be no mutiny at all, but merely a
remonstrance on the part of the rough, honest fellows who had decided
to share his fortunes, against running into what they esteemed to be
unnecessary risks.
Joses and his three fellows were about as brigandish and wild-looking a
set of half savages as a traveller could light upon in a day's journey
even in these uncivilised parts. In fact, no stranger would have been
ready to trust his life or property in their keeping, if he could have gone
farther. If he had, though, he would most probably have fared worse;

for it is not always your pleasantest outside that proves to hide the best
within.
These few lines, then, will place the reader au courant, as the French
say, with the reason of the discussion at the beginning of the last
chapter, and show him as well why it was that Dr Lascelles, Bart
Woodlaw, and Maud Lascelles were out there in the desert with such
rough companions. This being then the case, we will at once proceed to
deal with their adventurous career.
CHAPTER THREE.
THE FIRST APACHES.
Evening was closing in, and the ruddy, horizontal rays of the sun were
casting long grotesque shadows of the tall-branched plants of the cactus
family that stood up, some like great fleshy leaves, rudely stuck one
upon the other, and some like strangely rugged and prickly fluted
columns, a body of Indians, about a hundred strong, rode over the plain
towards the rocks where Dr Lascelles and his little party were
encamped.
The appearance of the Indians denoted that they were on the war-path.
Each wore a rude tiara of feathers around his head, beneath which hung
wild his long black hair; and saving their fringed and ornamented
leggings, the men rode for the most part naked, and with their breasts
and arms painted in a coarse and extravagant style. Some had a rude
representation of a Death's head and bones in the centre of the chest;
others were streaked and spotted; while again others wore a livery of a
curiously mottled fashion, that seemed to resemble the markings of a
tortoise, but was intended to imitate the changing aspect of a snake.
All were fully armed, some carrying rifles, others bows and arrows,
while a few bore spears, from the top of whose shafts below the blades
hung tufts of feathers. Saddles they had none, but each sturdy,
well-built Indian pony was girt with its rider's blanket or buffalo robe,
folded into a pad, and secured tightly with a broad band of raw hide.
Bits and bridles too, of the regular fashion, were wanting, the swift

pony having a halter of horse-hair hitched round its lower jaw, this
being sufficient to enable the rider to guide the docile little animal
where he pleased; while for tethering purposes, during a halt, there was
a stout long peg, and the rider's plaited hide lariat or lasso, ready for a
variety of uses in the time of need.
The rugged nature of the ground separated the party of Indians from the
Doctor's little camp, so that the approach of the war party was quite
unobserved, and apparently, from their movements, they were equally
unaware of the presence of a camp of the hated whites so near at hand.
They were very quiet, riding slowly and in regular order, as if moved
by one impulse; and when the foremost men halted, all drew rein by
some tolerably verdant patches of the plain, blankets and robes were
unstrapped, the horses allowed to graze, and in an incredibly short time
the band had half a dozen fires burning of wood that had been hastily
collected, and they were ravenously devouring the strips of dried
buffalo meat that had been hanging all day in the hot sun, to be
peppered with dust from the plain, and flavoured by emanations from
the horse against whose flank it had been beaten.
This, however, did not trouble the savages, whom one learned in the
lore of the plains would have immediately set down as belonging to a
powerful tribe of horse Indians--the Apaches, well-known for their
prowess in war and their skill as wild-horsemen of the plains. They
feasted on, like men whose appetites had become furious from long
fasting, until at last they had satisfied their hunger, and the evening
shadows were making the great plants of cactus stand up, weird and
strange, against the fast-darkening evening sky; then, while the embers
of the fire grew more ruddy and bright, each Indian, save those deputed
to look after the horses and keep on the watch for danger, drew his