“Yes; we have been off toward the Gila; these fellows say that Geronimo and about twenty of his band have been there within the past three days, but we didn’t get a glimpse of them. I’m afraid it’s a false alarm.”
“You’re afraid it is! Don’t you hope so?”
“Well,” replied the young officer, removing his cap and drawing his handkerchief over his forehead, “I suppose I ought to feel that way, for the worst devils with copper skins are those that bear the name of Apache, but when you have to fight it’s a pleasure to know that you are not fighting ninnies and lambs.”
“But no pleasure, as I view it, to fight savages, who violate every rule of civilized warfare, who are more cruel than death itself, treacherous, fierce, relentless and merciless to men, women and children. Lieutenant,” added Freeman gravely, “I must say that while I believe you are a brave young man, I don’t like the hope you show that those miscreants should break loose again. I surrendered with Lee at Appomattox and was all through the war. I was wounded and saw hundreds killed, but I would rather go into a battle like the Wilderness or Gettysburg or Antietam than know that a single band of hostile Apaches were raiding through this section. When the North and South fought, each knew the bravery and chivalry of the other, and we never hit a foe when he was down. Here we are fighting rattlesnakes.”
“Well, captain, I often felt sorry that I wasn’t born twenty years sooner, or that you had waited that long before opening on Fort Sumter, but the unpleasantness between the sections is over; promotion is slow, and unless we can have something to stir us up, there’s no saying how long I shall have to wait for my first lieutenancy or captaincy, to say nothing of the eagles of the colonelcy far, far beyond.”
“Your talk shows that you are young,” said Freeman, who, despite the reproof in his voice, could not help admiring the manly youth of whom he was very fond; “five or ten years from now your sentiments will be more in accord with mine.”
“I can’t deny that your strictures are just; you have a wife and two children——”
“And there are many others with similar ties; some had them once, but have them no longer; you know the cause.”
“Of course, and therefore I am the more anxious to get at those miscreants. So long as they can range up and down the country, burning, shooting and killing without receiving punishment therefor, so long will they keep it up; but, captain, the thing has got to end some time, and the sooner the final struggle begins the sooner will it terminate.”