He was planning surely. He directed that heliograph stations, for the purpose of telegraphing by mirrored sun-flashes, be established upon hill-tops all along on both sides of the border. Then he went to Washington, to get a better agreement with Mexico regarding a joint campaign against the Apaches.
There was a brief period of quiet, except for hard work that kept Jimmie, as well as others, on the move. The final break came about the middle of October.
Jimmie saw the heliostat flashes which spread the news. He was riding back to Bowie from a long trip down to a supply camp at the border. Chancing to turn his head, when only a little way out from the camp, he caught the flash of a message from a station in the south.
The regulation Morse dots and dashes (long and short flashes) were used by the stations. Now he paused, to read. The station was at least ten miles distant. The air was very clear, and his eyes were good eyes.
What was that? No practice message, this, or ordinary routine. The first word—even the first three letters—stiffened him intent.
“H-o-s-t-i-l-e b-a-n-d h-e-a-d-g (heading) n-o-r-t-h f-o-r D-r-a-g-o-o-n c-o-u-n-t-r-y. Q-u-i-c-k.” Signed.
Hah! “Wake up, Chiquito! Gwan with you!” The message read like business, and stirring business. Evidently the Chiricahuas were getting bold. But it did not seem possible that with all these troops, and the railroad, and the telegraph, and the helio stations, and the armed and watchful settlers, a raid could amount to much.
The helio stations were twenty or twenty-five miles apart. A message had been sent from Nacori, in the mountains of northern Mexico, two hundred miles to Fort Bowie, in an hour. But so fast moved this band of raiders, and so cleverly they chose their trail, that by the time Jimmie arrived at Bowie they not only had crossed the line but had disappeared somewhere in Arizona!
Already the troops were in motion, trying to close in and head the raiders off. It was reported that there were eleven warriors. They were not even sighted again, until, suddenly, they struck the White Mountain reservation itself—surprised a camp of the White Mountains, killed twelve and carried away six women and children.
That, then, had been the object of the raid: to take revenge upon the reservation Apaches for sending scouts against the Chiricahuas!