"
It was dusk when Henry began his ride, and it rapidly grew darker as
he hurried along the trail. Neither he nor the pony had been over it
before. Twice he got off the trail, and long and miserable stretches
of time elapsed in regaining it; but the fort was reached at last and
the alarm given.
XVII
PURSUIT OF THE APACHES
With twenty-eight men, including two scouts picked up as we passed
through Prescott, and the post surgeon, I left for Skull Valley. The
night was moonless, but the myriad stars shone brilliantly through the
rarefied atmosphere of that Western region, lighting the trail and
making it fairly easy to follow. It was a narrow pathway, with but few
places where two horsemen could ride abreast, so conversation was
almost impossible, and few words, except those of command, were
spoken; nor were the men in a mood to talk. All were more or less
excited and impatient, and, wherever the road would permit, urged
their horses to a run.
The trail climbed and descended rugged steeps, crossed smooth
intervals, skirted the edges of precipices, wound along borders of dry
creeks, and threaded forests of pine and clumps of sage-brush and
greasewood.
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