The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 338: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— 332 THE BOY SOLDIERS OR, GARIBALDI’S YOUNG CAPTAIN. brave lads, word was brought that two Indians had been observed crawling through our camp. “They could have been captured very easily, but I forbade any one to molest them, but ‘on the other hand not to pretend that we had seen them. ‘As night approached, and long before any fires were lighted, I selected a party of men, and placed them up in the trees, with orders not to fire until they heard the signal from me. “ After this we got all the old clothes we could find, stuffed them with grass, and made a great number of dummies, ‘These were placed in reclining positions around the fires, as if they were men asleep. | ‘Others were put against trees, and, when all was prepared, we lighted our fires, and ‘prepared our supper. reat © “After we had eaten it we piled a large quantity of wood upon each of the fires, and laid down, as if to rest. “When the fires grew dim, howeyer, every living man and woman crawled away, and climbed into the trees, 4 | ‘Tn _truth,-about ten -o’clock; there, was not a single human being of our. party who were in the camp, but all perched, ont of sight/in-the trees, “All was death-like silence, “The moon had gone down, |.” | ‘‘We expected the. approach ofthe Indians each moment, and were fully prepared, : “We had not to wait long, however. “The waving of the long grass in the distance told us they were not far off, ‘Red Jacket, the trapper, volunteered to. be our look-out man, and in consequence he was placed.in one of the trees nearest to the path by which the Indians would come, _‘‘ The signal he gave us was an excellent imita- tion of an’ owl. : “When we'heatd this ‘coo-Hoot! cod-hoot !? we knew very well that the Redskins were not far off. “Nor were wé mistaken, | it'” ; “They divided their forces ft two parties. “The first division) under the chief, remained where they were, just outside our camps. “The other “division went round to cut Off our retreat, and to'advance'in adifferent direction. ‘We did not dare to breathe a word to each other for fear of being heard, ‘From our place of concealment in the frees, however, we could plainly see the stealthy ,move- ments of our dusky and treacherous enemies, ‘ Beside the old chief I could perceive my, faith- ful half-breed standing, _ “He was the one who was to lead this division into our camp, ‘' Presently the Second division, gave aloud shout, and advanced into our camp from. the south, “Immediately, this,.was: heard,,our half+breed and his party responded to it with a yell, and rushed into the camp on the north side, “But in-running over. the uneven ground, our half-breed purposely stumbled, and fell into one of our newly-made ‘ graves,’ right upon Master Fatty aud Buttons, who were crouching down in it ready o fire. “The old Indian and his followers did not stop for a moment, but rushed headlong forward, brand- ishing their clubs, and knives, and tomahawks, ‘At that instant, and when every single one of the Indians could be’ plainly seen® in ‘the ‘dim*fire light, I gave the word to fire! Livy © Dhe crash that followed ‘is beyond all descrip- tion.” nish, D8» s¥IedouoO, Oy EI 8s “The aim ‘of each ‘one ‘was deadly, and more than a score of the Indian braves bit the dust at the first volley. , os “How could we help killing them ? . ‘‘From''the newly-made ‘graves,’ or rifle-pits, two of our best'shots rose up and took’ delibérate aim at'the Redskins in the camp, while from over- head we poured upon them an incessant shower of shot. oral! Tor! ve | is 3 | “They were struck with amazement. ““They expected to find us all asleep. “But once they got into our camp, from every side poured in‘upon them a deadly shower of bullets and small shot. “Taken by surprise, they attempted to escape by retreating, but on whichever side they ran, they were met by a sturdy body of Boy Soldiers, who, shoulder to shoulder, now advanced with levelled bayonets. p, [a “The screams, and’ yells, and noise of the In- dians were terrific, ay ; : “They were caught in their own snare, .and dozens of them were already dyeing the turf. with their life blood. ‘ Unable*to-restrain my brave lads any more, we allsdescended from the® trees, andthe fight now became from hand 'to‘handi1075) vot 2 F wee be “The Comanches fought like fiends, and many of our Mexican friends were knocked over and scalped: WA D3 } dO SOU ‘‘But-not one of our Boy Soldiers were hurt, for they were In a ‘compact body, and’ moved hither or thither, obeying my orders as calmly as if only engaged In an ordinary drill. : “It was useless to endeavour to restrain the fury of Red Jacket, the trapper, however, for, directly he saw the Indian chief,;he dashed forward, and a fear- fal hand-to-hand struggle ensued: between them. ‘¢Surrender ! surrender!’ we shouted, on all sides ; but the red ‘devils only yelled out defiance, and fought on to the’ very last. 5 Cnt ae ‘IT did not like to see blood wonecessarily shed, so I gave order to Hugh Tracy, the count, and Caspar,'to move up their men in°conjunction with mine, and thus forma,circlegess « ssw sxsc) * This we did; and-enclosed not only the Indians» but many of our fellows who were still fighting with them, a - “By degrees. we*made the circle Smaller’ and smaller, until at. last we hemmed:in both friend and foe, from which there was no escape, ‘« § Cease. firing ! I cried, ont, loudly. ‘ ‘The Indians stood calm, determined, and pre-. pared to die, . _ we K , hi “They expected nothing else but, death at. our hands. Pron gi ee ety “ Judge of their surprise, therefore, when I ordered out of the circle every man except the Indians, and procuring an interpreter among the Mexicans (not the bulf-breed, for it would have been pss great an insult), and spoke a féw words to them us == | ye “Indians, Comanche braves! you have been caught in your own snares. ‘** You came to destroy us, and are yourselves defeated ; but why should you treat us as enemies ? We wish to be friends. We are fighting for é a GEomicboo Ss ( a as a (©) im