MISS NOBODY

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 214, 8 September 1892, Page 6

MISS NOBODY

OF NOWHERE

A ■•NOVEL by

ARCHIBALD CLAVERING GUNTER, Author of " Mrßarnos of New York," "Mr, Potter of Texas," "That Frenchman," "Small Boys in Big Boots," otc.

—-_-__ BOOK I

*■ WLLEGE COWBOY.

CHAPTER IV

TOE LONE RAN-II BY THE BAN FRANCISCO, They are no sooner all inside than Pete stops quickly to one of the little openings thatservo for windows to the room, and carefully resting tho muzzle of his Winchester upon tho sill so that no protruding portion of his ,un shall give warning, pumps three or four shots right into the advancing Apaches, who havo carelessly como yelling on, hoping to carry tho placo with a rueii beloro the fugitivos are ready for thorn. They are but bwo hundred yards away, and firing with a rest Mr Peters aim 18 pretty true. Ho says grimly, ' That I keep thoso boasts back for a minute ! lhon ne cries suddenly, 'Lookout for this sido ot the houso !' and bolts into anothor room, thab has a door and windows opening in tbe opposito direction, and 'a just >n time. A few Indians aro coming as lasb 09 ponies can bring them for tho open door, When his Winchester cracks. Tho loaders horso is shob under him, the others turn bacK while the dismounted man, who is a wary old warrior, makes a desperate effort to gain a littlo adobe storehouse somo hundred yarda to the west, under cover of which he will be a mo3b unpleasantly near neighbour. But his Yankee blood crowing cooler as the fight grows hotter, Mr Peter, taking n rosb and a careful aim, contrives to drop him just as he is on the threshold, whera he falls, his head upon tho floor inside, hia legs, caught by the knees, drooping over the handle of an old plough which stands beside the door. Checked in thoir first rush, the Apaches get oub of short range. Thon Peto barricades the door and stops back to the other room to find the captain using his gun ab the fronb entrance. To him the Englishman calls oub, with a little savage laugh, 'Whab luck on your side of tho house V ' Pretty fair,' returns Pete. ' I'ye sent one of them to kingdom come. We'll have a little rest now.' •Nob a long ono, I'm afraid,' mutters Willoughby, with a choked-down sigh, looking at his wife and child crouched up together in a corner. But hero in the confusion, for bheir shothave filled the room with smoke, and the two horses, frightened by the noise, are very restless, comes a quieb, woman's voice*, The cowboy hears Agne3 Willoughby say, ' Leb me bind up your wound, Mr Peter,' and looking down sees a little crimson stream running from bolow his knee down; his leather leggings. ' It's only a scratch. I don't know when I gob it,' he says with a slight laugh ; ' bub' I'm very, very much obliged to you.' ' Wounded !' cries Willoughby, following Pete's glance. ' Thank God, there's no bone broken !'

' Just keep an eye on the back door, Capi tain. Those brutes may try to geb in again ; I'll be with you in a moment.] And the Englishman doing so, the cowboy submits hia wound to the ministering hands of the English lady.

As she lightly and quietly binds up the" hurt, Mr Peter feeb himself tremble undei! her fingers. Agnes Willoughby is baying % mother's prayer to him, for ehe is whisper^ jng : ' Whatever happens to me this wofuf day, try, try, and save my little Flossie.! Promise, dear Mr Peter, promise in the! name of your own mother.' For answer Peter simply grips her, delicate hand Jill she almost winces, andi mutters : ' For my mother's sake I' Then he and Captain Willoughby take a> short but careful survey of Comming.' ranch house to determine its capabilities) lor offence and defence.

The first thing the cowboy looks at is the roof; this he is happy to find is made of Mexican tiles, roughly baked red and dry from Gila River clay. These are, of course, lire-proof; consequently they are safe from blazing arrows. The house proper is divided into two rooms, each having a door opening on to opposite sides of the structure, the one by which they entered facing toward tho trail; the other leading from on apartment that has been used as a kitchen, and giving access to a path that runs to tho little adobe storehouse some hundred yards away, and, after passing it, ia continued to the canon of the San Francisco River, that flows peacefully among its willows and cotton-woods to meet the Gila, half a mile farther to the south.

As they make their examination of the ranch house there is one great) advantage that strikes both Captain Willoughby and Pete at the same time; that is, the absence of all cover near it by which their enemie-: can approach unseen to make any sudden assault. With the exception of tho storehouse just mentioned and an adobe corral some quarter of a mile away, the mesa is bare of everything for five hundred yards but gramma grasses, soap weed ami amall cacti, that would hardly give hiding to a jack-rabbib. A few centuryplants, or mescals as tho Mexicans call them, are scattered iibout, but none near enough to tho houso to give its defenders any uneasiness. This fact seems also to have struck the Apaches, who are now holding counsel, sheltered by tho adobe walls of the corral. Though they pause to deliberate, they havo no intention of abandoning the purr suit of these scalps thoy already consider *beira; for theso dusky demons will conduct their raid perhaps even more remorselessly than in the days when they had only Mexican haciendas and farms to harry, and Mexican peons and herders to clay and torture ; before the whistle of the locomotive showed them the happy days of binning ranches and scalping settlers were coming to an ond. Perhaps it it because they know thia raid must be one of the last of their old-time pleasures, thab they will bo as cruel and relentless as of yore—to show they are true descendants of Magnus Colorado and Cochise, these dusky children of desert mountain* and pun-driod plains, who can live and fatten on the baked leaves of the century plant, acorns, and tule roots ; who can travel on horseback acros3 the plain, or on foot over the precipice and mountain trail, a hundred miles in the twenty-four hours, and then porhapa, only tightening the belt to replace food that is unattainable, repeat the journey in pursuit of game or blunder; the only beings who could exist assar.oqe.iirt the iand in which they have been nurtured and which they love even as ifcljey do murder and torture and blood. On the trail and in sight of their prey, these blood-hounds will never leave ib till they worry ib to death. This is portectly well known to Pete, and i« oven quite thoroughly believed in by Captain Willoughby. So the bwo make what preparations bhoy can to meet the stiirm that will soon burst upon them. They immediately drive the two horses into bhe room thab has beon used as a kitchen, for tho beasts are now so restive Irom fright and thirst that thoir frenzied movements endanger Mrs WLUoughby and the little girl. ~, _ • Then Pete suggests bhat the captain

station himself in the room with his wife and daughter, and by his fire keep the Apaches back on the Bide thab faces the trail and commands the northern end of the houso. He himself will take care of the southern end of the house and the side facing tho river, for here he expects the chief efforts of their foes will be made, as tho only cover that can be of service to them is on this Bide, viz., tho little adobe house used for the storage of farming implements and mining tools; for old Comming, tho fugitive owner of the place, had been a ranchman, bub becoming imbued with tbo local mining mania that had been broughb aboub by tho rich argentiferous discoveries ab Silver Ciby, he had abandoned agriculture and taken to prospecting the neighbouring mountain ranges. All thia is easily ngparent to Pete. He can see that the irrigating ditches that run from the river almost to the door of the house are dry, and have not been lately flooded; while piled againsb the old plough thab stands near the entrance to the storehouse are a number of picks, drills, sledges, and obher mining implements. During the time Pete is making thia inspection, both he and tho captain are nailing up ab the windows slats thab they wrench from the deal table of the cabin, so as to give bub libble room for thaentry of bullets, and yeb leave space enough to shoot through.

This closing up of the openings to the houso stops nearly all circulation of oir and makes the place intolerably close and hot under tho blazing Arizona sun ; and now the little girl; who has hardly spokan aloud since entering the cabin, but has looked on In a kind of dazod infantile wonder, says in the confident, trusting tones of childhood, ' Mamma, can't I have a drink, I'm so very thirsty ?'

'Of course you can, darling,' answers Mrs Willoughby, and turning to the American ehe says, ' Mr Peter, won't you show me where to get it ?—l'm thirsty myself.' Bud Mr Peter is already in the kitchen looking wibh a serious face ab the water cask, which is empty; Comming and his man, before bhey had departed, apparently having filled their canteens with the last liquid in ib.

A momenb afber he reburns and says quiebly, ' There's nob a drop of water in the house. This has been such a pell-mell aflair, that I never thoughb of it before; anyway, I could not have gob any, as old Comming has let his irrigation ditches run dry.'

Ab this the captain, who has been ab one of the windows wabching the Apaches, who are apparently about to make a move of somo kind, cries, • No water ! What'll become of all of us wibhoub ib on such a day as this V

' I don'b think ib will affect us vitally,' answers Pote. « We'll have plenty of water in a few hours from now, or else we won't need any—these Apaches won't devote a great while to us. Hatch's cavalry can't be many miles behind, and the miners at Silver City must be moving soon.' ' Ib doesn't make such differance to me,' mutters bhe English lady, with a pale but determined face, * only'—here her lips begin to quiver, ' only ib will be so hard for my poor little Flossie.'

Then wibh bears in her eyes she bends down and caresses the child, who looks ab her mother and says, ' Don't cry, mamma dear, I'll bo brave liko papa and you and Mr Peter.'

At this, Pete's throat, which wis dry and parched before, gets a big lump in it, and ho turns away into tbe kitchen to do what he can to keep the brave little girl and her mother safo from Apache hands this day. But sentiment now gives way to action, and he calls out to Willoughby to look to his side of the adobe, for the Indians are beginning to more.

They divide into two parties, one band, much the more numerous, coming from the shelter of the corral ont upon the open plain on Willoughby's side of the ranch house. These riding quickly about at long range give little opportunity to the Englishman for effective -hooting, though they shower the house with bullets that knock out many a chunk of adobe. The other party of some five veteran bucks ride into the canon of the San Francisco and disappear under its bank among its willows.

Pretty well satisfied thab the long-range attack upon the opposite side of the house is only a feint, Pete pays little attention to it, but keeps his eyes upon the willows and cotton woods on the banks of the San Francisco.

He has looked and looked for nearly fifteen minutes when a sudden and unexpected bullet sings through the air and cuts from his head a lock of hair.

As ho falls backward astonished, a yell of triumph comes to him from the little storehouse only a hundred yards away, and he knows that the Apaches have tricked him ab the very opening of the fight, for by leaving their horses in tho willows of the Son Francisco, travelling down under its bank and then transferring themselves to Comming's largest irrigation ditch that runs behind the adobe storehouse, five or six of them have got possession of this point of vantage without the loss of a man ; a part of tho proceeding wbich pleases the Apache greatly, as he is a very careful calculator of the price he pays for everything —oven scalps. They have slipped round the adobe and inside its protecting walls so rapidly that they have not had time to remove the dead body of thoir comrade, killed in their firsb charge, and he still lies in the same position in which Pete dropped him, his head inside the house, and his legs over the handle of the old plough outside. So they face each other, the Indians, whom Pote now counts and reckons to be fivo, not inclnding the dead one of the former encounter, sheltered by the storehouse, and the cowboy behind the walls of the adobe.

Then the Apaches try to pick him off by close shooting, and tbe American strives to do the same to them, also keeping a sharp eye thab they do not charge and force tbe door of the ranch house, which has no rery secure fastening. Elated by the success of their comrades on Pete's side of the cabin, this is exactly what the Apaches are now trying to do upon tho front defended by the Englishman. Pete can hear the volleys poured in ab close range, and the reports of Willoughby's Winchester as he turns loose its magazine upon them. The rooms geb full of smoke, and the houso, hob and close before, becomes a kind of hades. The horses are panicstricken and kicking things aboub in the kitchen, and over their noise the littlo girl's voice comes to him, crying to her mother tor a drop of water, for now to the whole party comes the suffering of parched throats and burning thirst.

And so the fight goes on. After having tested several times, by feints that draw the American's fire, ! whether he has been called away by, the attack of the other side of the adobe, the Apaches in the storehouse, finding Pete always at his post, try another device. They shoot very rapidly and closely at him ; in fact bo continuously that the cowboy suspects somo new ruse, for by this time he has in him the same dogged spirit but quick mind that pulled the football game out of the mire at Boston, and sent itho blue above the crimson only three short | years before, though the work is much dlfiferent and the stakes much higher in this {game of tho frontier. 1 Being suspicious, instead of shooting back, Pete uses his eyes more sharply, and is not caught napping a second time. 'He sees that one of the Indians, apparently having got out of the back of the storehouse, has crawled into tbe irrigation ditch, and partly sheltered from his fire and concealed from his eye, is working his way toward the ranch house, hoping to get bo.

close under its walla that he will be safe from any bullet from within. Taking things quietly, the cowboy lets this buck crawl along his ditch until part of him is exposed to a slanting, downward fire, and then, mounting upon a cracker box that has done duty for the absenb Comming an a chair, he contrives to put a bullet obliquely into tbe creeping savage that stops hit advance. With a little start of pain, his enemy wriggles quickly back behind the sheltering storehouse, getting there without being touched again, though Pete tries another snap shot ab him. In his hurry, however, he has exposed himself a libble, and when he jumps from hia cracker box to the floor his cheek is torn open by A bullet from the covering savages. This is all forgobben in another momenb as the captain yells,' The brutes are running away, sure 1 Come in and look at them, Peter.' 'No, thank you,' returns the cowboy, ' I've some here who haven't lefb yet,' for he fears stratagem in this sudden stampede. But even as he speaks he sees the warriors ho is watching, in obedience to some signal, moving cautiously; bub of t the back of the storehouse, and taking such care to keep it between themselves and hia rifle that he gets no chance for a fair shot, a difficult matter under the circumstances, as the wounded Indian requires the support of two of his fellows. This apparently gives tbem so much trouble thab they make no disposition of the body of the one killed in the first encounter, who remains, as when firab he fell to the crack of Pete's rifle, his feet hanging over the old plough outside.

As his opponents crawl away Pete counts them, to be sure they have all gone, and makes their number five, the same as originally entered tho storehouse; then he watches carefully until he sees them reappear, mounted, among the willows and cotton-woods coming oub of the canon ot the San Francisco, and still finding five, though the wounded one has to be held on his horse, he gives a sigh of relief, for he knows the Indians have loft none of their number concealed by the trees of the river bank.

Then he goes into the next room and finds the captain in his shirb sleeves, bhe heab having caused him to throw off his shooting jacket. The Englishman is black with powder smoke, bub very happy, as are bhe lady and the child.

The littlo one Bays, 'We can get some water bow, Mr Peter, those bad men have gone away.' And Mrs Willoughby cries, ' God bless you 1' With this they all get to shaking hands together, for this day's danger has made them like old friends. After a moment the captain says to Pete, who has been using his big field-glass looking after their retreating enemies, * What made the brutes move off so suddenly ?'

•That 1' remarks the cowboy, pointing to three columns Of bluish-white smoke rising into the clear air from the distant Mogollon Mountains.

' Ab, smoke signals from their scoutsHatch's cavalry ! No chance of the scoundrels coming back now !' cries Willoughby, and he proposes immediately to go down to the river for water, 'Don't take probability for fact,' returns Pete. 'We musb nob leave this place too soon.'

•Anyway, your Yankee prudence won't object to this,' laughs the Englishman, and he throws open the two doors of the house. ' A little fresh air won't be fatal even if the Indians are.' . . .

This is a tremendous relief, for the place has been stifling, the heab of the day now being ab its height, for ib is nearly three o'clock in the afternoon.

As the smoke drifts oub and the light comes in, Mrs Willoughby cries oub suddenly, ' Why, you're wounded, Tom I' and examines her husband's arm with anxious eyes. Bat he laughs. ' What's a scratch to a 'man as happy as 1 1 Half a yard of old shirt to tie lb up will do as well as a dozen doctors 1'

This doesn't suit his wife, who calls out for water with which to bathe it, and insists the member be placed in a sling, which she does with a woman's deftness tbe captain kissing her and calling her his nurse sent by heaven from across the sea; for this big English ranchman has been so racked with anxiety for bis loved ones, tbat bow the strain is over he hardly knows how to keep himself from blubbering like a boy, a performance which would do him good, and of which he need by no means be ashamed.

A moment after a sudden idea seems to come to him, for his face grows stern and his manner formal as he says: ' Whab made you bring a woman and child inbo such danger, Mr Peter? There is a telegraph office at Lordsburgh— the wires musb have told of this Apache raid.' Before Pete can answer Mrs Willoughby speaks for him. 'Tom,' she says, 'Mr Peter is not to blame for any danger thab has come to me to-day. You yourself wrote me to join you here/

' Yes, bub afterward I telegraphed you to remain in England.' ' I never received it; and hearing thab I was cooiing, your brother Arthur——' 'Yes, Arthur, whab of him?' breaks in tbe captain, suspiciously. 'Arthur said he would accompany Florence and me, as he had some mining interests near by—in Colorado, I think.' 4 Mining interests in Colorado? I never heard of them,' cries Willoughby, auspiciously. ' Well, he came with us, and took good care ot us ab Lordsburgh, where Mr Peter was pointed out to us as being in your employ and about to reburn to your ranch; and I asked him to bring me to you, and he refused, saying there was a rumour of an Indian outbreak— and bhen '

'Then,' Fete breaks in, 'your brother instructed me to bring your wife to you, and I refused until there was furbher news of Nana's whereabouts—he had last been heard of in the San Mateo mountains-—and we all wenb to the telegraph office for the latest news, Mr Arthur wenb in; your wife end child and I remained outside in the wagon. We had not been there five minutes when your brother came out and told me to drive off ab once, everything was all right. A despabch had jusb arrived, sbabing that the Apaches bad gone east, crossing the Rio Grande. Aud so I started out.'

' You Are sure si despatch came ?' 'Certain 11 heard the click of the instrument as I sab waibing.' ■ Why didn't Arbhur come with you? ' Oh, how suspicious you are,' chimes in Mrs Willoughby. ' There wasn't room in the wagon,'

Then the captain, sbarbles bobh of them, for he cries: *I may be suspicious, but you don't know as I do that I have a brother who has a brain as bright as a Machiavelli, and a heart as black as one of those brutes oub there,' and he points to the retreating Apaches. 'If I don't find that lying telegram at Lordsburgh, I'll——' But any farther threat is cut short by Mrs Willoughby say ing suddenly: ' Where's Flossie ?'

Their conversation has been so exciting thab the child has left the room unnoticed. The captain and his wife spring to the door opening on tbe trail. Pete steps into the kitchen, and looking oub sees the little maiden wibh a big bin pail in her hand, tripping across old Comming's neglected garden toward the storehouse on her way to the river. Looking over her shoulder she smiles back at him, and calls: ' Going to geb water for papa aud mamma.'

Tbe cowboy is jusb runping after her to help her, for by. this time all thoughb of immediate danger has left him, when suddenly his heart gives a greab jump. Chancing to glance at the storehouse, he ,SEEJB THAT _HB BODY OF THB MEAD I-TDIaN

HAS MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED. Then forcing himself to calmness, for by this time Agnes Willoughby stands beside him, he calls out: • Flossie, play hide-and-seek. Drop in the old ditch, try if I can ' find you there 1' hoping the drain will be deep enough to shield the child from Apache bullets. Ab bhe same moment he draws the mother from the open door, for now he knows that the wounded Indian assisted off by his fellows was the dead one, and a live demon, lefb in hia place, i. now concealed in the storehouse.

The little girl cries laughingly: • I'll play with you when I come baok, Mr Peter.' The mother says anxiously: ' Why do you want Flossie to hide ?' Then Pete makes a mistake, for which he never in bis whole life forgives himself; he forgets the self-sacrifice of mother's love that drives away all fear—even that of death.

As he mechanically handles his rifle, he whispers: ' Quiet 1 for your child's sake. There's a live Indian in that little adobe,' and the tragedy comes upon them. As ho speaks, Agnes Willoughby, with a cry of anxious love, flies through the open door, and in a momenb has reached her child and is dragging her back; bub even as she doea so, a stream of smoke and crack of rifle come from the store house. And at .this sound the gentle English lady, who had never' suffered blow before, with eyes staring as if astonished, claps her hand to her hearb and falls dead.

Pete has bounded after her, and would die beside hor; but now an insane man, one wounded arm in a sling, the other hold* ing a revolver, and crying hoarse cries ot despair, flies oub of the open door of the ranch house straight for the ambushed Indian ; for Tom Willoughby has seen his wife die, and now only wishes to live long enough to avenge her. Such rage defeats itself, and as his revolver discharges a harmless bullet, the repeating-rifle in the old storehouse speaks again, and moaning out, ' Save my baby, Pete f the Englishman falls dead over the body of his wife. The next bullet will be for the cowboy, and as he drags the child back to tbe adobe, be expects it, but ib does not come, and somehow Fete gets his charge to shelter, saved by a jammed shell in the Indian's breechloader.

Then for a second he stands, dazed and stupid—the horror has come aboub So quickly. A minute ago they were all talking In thab room; now a dead man and woman lying there among old Comming's dried-ap melon vines, and in his arms an orphan whom he has sworn, by the name of bis own mother, to protect and save.

{To be Continued.)