The Young Scout: The Story of a West Point Lieutenant

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

“It must be that in some way he has learned of my change of base. I can’t understand how he got the knowledge, but if he thought I was still sneaking along the side of that boulder he would not content himself by waiting for me to come into range——”

Fortunate was it for Lieutenant Decker that he had made the change described, for, with the same unity of thought that was marvelous, the Apache had resorted to a similar artifice. Instead of confining himself to the big boulder, he had stolen back among the smaller ones, and wormed his way forward and around until he secured a position some twenty feet distant, which allowed him to scan the two sides of the boulder that had been under the eye of the white man for the last fifteen or twenty minutes.

What prevented the perfect success of the Apache, however, was the fact that he did not suspect his stratagem had been anticipated. He expected to find his enemy crouching along one of the sides of the boulder, waiting for the buck to reveal himself through some unguarded movement.

Failing to discover him at the first scrutiny, the Apache silently rose to a half-standing posture, and, with his head thrust forward, peered here and there in search of the man whom he was eager to shoot on sight.

In this position his side was toward the officer, who laid down his revolver and brought his Winchester to the front, carefully sighting at the miscreant, who was not only hungry for his life, but had doubtless dyed his hands in the blood of many an innocent person. No one could have been more cautious than Lieutenant Decker, and yet, when he came to adjust his aim, he made the exasperating discovery that no Apache was in sight. He had vanished like the shadow of a passing cloud. It was hard to say what had caused his disappearance. It may have been due to the slight noise made by the white man in preparing to shoot, or his failure to discern him where he thought he was, may have told the startling truth with that lightning-like quickness which marks the trained warrior, and caused him to drop out of view and withdraw from the post of danger with the same celerity that had brought him to it.

Be that as it may, he was gone, and the problem seemed to revert to its status at the beginning. The two enemies were still maneuvering against each other, with no apparent advantage to either. The lieutenant, however, fancied he had a trifle the better of it, for the Apache did not know where to look for him, while he had a general knowledge of the other’s location.

Now followed fifteen or twenty minutes of the most trying nature. During the interval, the lieutenant neither saw nor heard anything that could give him the slightest clue to the other’s whereabouts or his line of procedure. When the ignorance had continued that long, he began to suspect the warrior had left the place. He might have become convinced that it was too risky to attempt to outwit the white man, or he may have suspected he had a companion in the neighborhood, who was likely to appear at any moment and turn the scales against him.

This was a comforting theory, but the officer was too wise to trust his safety to it. It would have been in accord with the subtlety of the Apache to contribute to the delusion. The strained situation, however, could not last forever. Mendez was expected to arrive ere long, and he would be certain to bring a change. If the warrior was as shrewd as he appeared to be, he would find that instead of one man to contend against, he had two and possibly more.

This reasoning became so convincing at the end of fifteen minutes more that the lieutenant acted upon it. Withdrawing still further from the big boulder, he picked his way among the smaller ones until near the spot where he had seen the Apache rise to view and then drop out of sight again. He certainly was gone, but might be not far off. The lieutenant resumed his cautious circling of the huge boulder until he had passed entirely around it and come back to his starting point. This took considerable time and was accomplished with the utmost skill and care, but he neither saw nor heard anything of his enemy.

“He has vamosed the ranch, of a certainty,” was the gratifying conclusion of Decker, who felt a greater degree of security than had been his since the discovery of his peril. “At any rate, I’ll signal to Freeman.”