The Red Mustang

the old hacienda the sun shone hotly down upon the rugged slope of a spur of a range of mountains. At the bottom of the slope ran a wide trail which had been used by wagons, and was almost li

What is a sombrero? It is any sort of very wide-brimmed, low-crowned hat, and can be made to carry much tinsel and feathers. As for a serape, one can be made out of any blanket by cutting a hole in the middle of it, so that it will hang gracefully around the man or w

the trail, a great bowlder of gray granite stood out promine

d, so that two red stocking-legs spanned his broad chest; his silk hat, with a green-veil streamer, was cocked on one side defiantly; his attitu

my, horseman after horseman lifted carbine or revolver and blazed away at the Mescalero leader. Bullet after

difficult to hit, even at short range and in shadow, and t

ble to express his opinion of the marksmen. He had much to say concerning his own great and good qualities and those of his people, but declared that all the unpleasant reptiles and insects and quadrupeds he could name were serving as Mexicans that afte

f granite stood upon the outer rim of a wide, ragged, bushy ledge, and at no great distance there began a shadowy growth of forest. The broken level behind Kah-go-mish was peopled by scores of braves and squaws and younger people, proving that the two sections of his band had reunited. D

retty as her black eyes flashed with admiration of her father's magnificent heroism and oratory. At the left of Wah-wah-o-be, the boy in the Reservation trousers stood sturdily erect, but nothing could make him handsome or take from his broad, dark face the look of half-anxious dulness which belonged there. His beady eyes glittered, and he showed his white teeth, now and then,

and the sound was caug

eard the whiz and thud of the deadly missiles which were coming up from the va

he uttered a loud whoop, as if of pleasure. At the same breath he came

e, look!" he

he ragged edge of the bit of lead had made a deep scratch

as if the sound had a

d Kah-go-m

ion at having been so nearly hit, actually grazed, by a rifle-ball. His sister c

. A Mexican bullet had found its way through the furze bushes, and Tah-nu-nu had

t to their squaws than do some other tribes, and the chief's wif

eat an exploit to lose his temper at once. He was beginning to say something about Mexican marksmanship when he was interr

s and squaws seemed to agree with that of Wah-wah-o-be. All had fallen back from the dangerous margin, and it would have looked a little like a council if a squaw had not been the speaker. There was very little red upon the ear of Ping, bu

, and his hand arose to his mouth to help out the large

sh is a gr

h his hands. Warriors and squaws, boys and girls, they at once seemed to arran

a mean-looking, undersized, disreputable pony, upon w

veil-plumed silk hat and the red stocking-legs. He ostentatiously called attention to the fact that he retained nothing but his heavy bowie-knife. Armed with only that weapon, and mounted upon his worst pony, he, the great chief, the hero, was a

obation. Wah-wah-o-be seemed to overlook any possible peril of losing her husband

e-men make it so difficult for green white men in blue uniforms to catch red runaways. Uniformity of color in quartz and granite, or other ledges, provides for a part of the mystery. Shrubs and trees and distances help, and so, often, does their absence. A great break in the side of that spur of the Sierra was as invisible from the pass as if it had been hidden by snow or midnight. It was a chasm which

evidently well satisfied with the course which affairs were taking. She had picked up the weapons so heroically laid upon the ground by her husband, and she had helped Tah-nu-nu and Ping t

d Sam Herrick and the drove of horses. Lodge-poles had been cut, now that there were ponies to drag them. Hardly anybody was on fo

band went in the other, and both were shortly bur