An Apache Princess

"The general wired for him," answered Wren. "And what is my tall

girlie doing, spiering from windows this time of night? Go to bed,

child." She may be losing beauty sleep, but not her beauty, thought he

fondly, as she as fondly kissed him and turned to obey. Then came a

heavy footfall on the gallery without, and a dark form, erect and

soldierly, stood between them and the dim lights of the guard-house.

It was a corporal of the guard.

"No. 4, sir, reports he heard shots--two--way up the valley."

"Good God!" Wren began, then throttled the expletive half spoken.

Could they have dared waylay the major--and so close to the post? A

moment more and he was hurrying over to his troop quarters; five

minutes, and a sergeant and ten men were running with him to the

stables; ten, and a dozen horses, swiftly saddled, were being led into

the open starlight; fifteen, and they were away at a lunging bronco

lope, a twisting column of twos along the sandy road, leaving the

garrison to wake and wonder. Three, four, five miles they sped, past

Boulder Point, past Rattlesnake Hill, and still no sign of anything

amiss, no symptom of night-raiding Apache, for indeed the Apache

dreads the dark. Thrice the sergeant had sprung from his horse,

lighted a match, and studied the trail. On and on had gone the mules

and wagon without apparent break or interruption, until, far beyond

the bluff that hid the road from sight of all at Sandy, they had begun

the long, tortuous climb of the divide to Cherry Creek. No. 4 might

have heard shots, but, if intended for the wagon, they had been

harmless. It was long after one when Wren gave the word to put back to

the post, and as they remounted and took the homeward trail, they rode

for the first five minutes almost directly east, and, as they ascended

a little slant of hillside, the sergeant in advance reined suddenly

in. "Look there!" said he.

Far over among the rocky heights beyond the valley, hidden from the

south from Sandy by precipitous cliffs that served almost as a

reflector toward the reservation, a bright blaze had shot suddenly

heavenward--a signal fire of the Apache. Some of them, then, were in

the heart of that most intractable region, not ten miles northeast of

the post, and signaling to their fellows; but the major must have

slipped safely through.

Sending his horse to stable with the detachment, Wren had found No. 4

well over toward the east end of his post, almost to the angle with

that of No. 5. "Watch well for signal fires or prowlers to-night," he

ordered. "Have you seen any?"

"No signal fires, sir," answered the sentry. "Welch, who was on before

me, thought he heard shots--"

"I know," answered Wren impatiently. "There was nothing in it. But we

did see a signal fire over to the northeast, so they are around us,

and some may be creeping close in to see what we're doing, though I

doubt it. You've seen nothing?"