Our excitement was frightful; trembling with eagerness we fastened our steaming horses to the long branches of the young oaks, thrust our holster pistols in our belts, and advanced, leaving Antonio with the horses, silently and noiselessly after Tiger, when it had been arranged that I should give the signal for a general attack by firing first. The moon was high but lighted us poorly; the daylight, however, had not quite faded away when we emerged from the rocks and reached a small knoll, over which we saw almost invisible columns of smoke rising at various points. We spread out here in a long line, and crept up the hill, covered by some isolated rocks. When we reached the top, we saw the savages about thirty yards from us collected round several fires. A deadly silence brooded over the slightly illumined landscape, which was only broken by the rustling of the rapid stream, on whose banks the Indians were encamped. The glow of the fires cast a dark red reflection over the brown bodies of the reclining savages sufficient to enable us to see them more distinctly, while the light of the moon illumined the sights on our rifles.
All our barrels were pointed at the cannibals, and we could hear our hearts beating, while they did not suspect the approaching vengeance, and were most of them asleep. The wide chest of one of the ruffians was lit up by the fire right in front of me, while he was gazing into the ashes with his head resting on his right arm. The sight of my rifle was pointed at his heart when I pulled trigger. At the same moment the rifles of all my comrades cracked, and directly after we fired our second barrels among the rising Indians, who for a moment raised their war yell, but then fled in great confusion and dashed into the river, beneath the fire of our revolvers and pistols. In this faintly lighted scene of fury and terror, the long red and white striped silk handkerchief on Tiger's head waved, the broad blade of his heavy knife glistened in his right hand, his shrill voice filled the ears of the cannibals with the war cry of the Delawares, and immediately after the first shot he flew, worthy of his name, among them, and spread death among their ranks. Trusty, too, forgot his usual obedience, and pinned one of the savages by the throat who had fired an arrow at him; he killed the Indian in a few minutes, and then dragged him about in the grass, satiating his fury. In a short time the battle field was deserted by the enemy, with the exception of two-and-twenty killed and wounded they left on it, the latter of whom Tiger soon sent to join the former with his tomahawk. His war axe flew from skull to skull, and with every blow drove a soul out of its earthly tenement, after which he raised the hair of several whom he had killed in action.
The fight was hardly over, when a familiar voice called several of our names, especially Lasar's, mine, and Tiger's. It came from a little way off the camp and reached us but faintly. We ran in the direction, and to our joyful surprise found MacDonnell bound hand and foot lying on the grass behind a rock. His bonds were quickly cut, but he was unable to get up; we bore him to the nearest fire, blew it into a bright flame, and now looked at the death-like face of our poor friend, who since his captivity had endured death in a thousand shapes, and envied his two comrades their release from torture. He was so fatigued that he was unable to sit up. The joy at our appearance, and the fear lest we might go away again without finding him, had given him the strength to raise his voice, but now a greater faintness naturally set in, and he could scarce make signs to us to give him water. The fresh draught was handed him, then we laid him on a bed made of buffalo skin and left him to sleep, which, with the consciousness that he was saved and among friends, did him more good than anything else we could have offered him. The large fire lit up the plain around us, and displayed the victims we had sacrificed to the blood of our friends: farther on it shone on the great number of utterly exhausted Indian horses, most of which were lying fastened to lassos among the large stones in the grass. Although we did not apprehend any attack from the fugitive savages, many of whom had doubtless killed themselves by leaping off the high banks into the river which dashed over rocks, and who too possessed no weapons that could be dangerous to us, we still posted sentries on both sides of the camp, and lit large fires in order to be able to watch the horses, as it was very probable that the Indians would attempt to recover them toward morning, after the moon had gone down. Our own horses we tied up in the grass close to camp, and then lay down by turns to rest as far as our state of excitement permitted it.
Morning dawned without our having been disturbed, and with the growing light we began to survey the field of battle and investigate the details of the events of last evening. The savages were a tribe of Mescaleros, and as we afterwards learned the same who had made the attack on Mrs. White a few months before. Among the dead was their chief, who had been killed by the first shot fired, which was the principal reason why the assailed did not offer a greater resistance, for they only discharged a few arrows, one of which hit Trusty, while another passed through Königstein's thigh. The weapons lay scattered about the battle-field. On the lofty bank were distinct signs where the fugitives had leapt off it; but we found below no signs of them on the rocks jutting out of the river, as they had apparently fallen into the deep water between them. For all that, there was no doubt but that many had not reached the opposite bank alive, for the stream was too rapid for a man to swim across it.
MacDonnell still lay motionless asleep, and we did not disturb him. It was bright daylight when John Lasar summoned us to the fires of the savages, where we found the roasted and partially-gnawn bones of one of the murdered men, while Königstein discovered other remains of the dead bodies behind a rock. At about ten o'clock, MacDonnell woke and felt greatly strengthened; we gave him food and a cup of wine to drink, but he was very weak and terribly excited, so that we prohibited him from talking about his own sufferings or those of his own comrades. About noon, we prepared to start and carry off the horses, of which we had captured forty-six, among them being several first-rate animals. Tiger at once sought out the leader of the troop, an old mare, whose head and tail were hung with all sorts of ornaments, and so soon as he led it away all the others would follow it. He bound the mare to a tree, let loose the other horses and wound the lassos round their necks, upon which they all collected round the old mare. We then saddled our horses, selected the best saddle of the savages, very handsome Mexican one, for MacDonnell, put it on one of the captured horses which appeared good-tempered and safe, and covered it with a buffalo hide, a large quantity of which we also found, then we lifted our suffering friend on the horse. Tiger marched ahead of us, leading the mare behind us by a lasso and followed by all the Indian horses, while we rode behind and drove on the laggards. Thus we rode slowly to the south, and camped at sunset in a narrow strip of wood on a stream, where we found good pasture for the numerous horses. We merely fastened up the leading mare and our own cattle near the fire. MacDonnell rapidly recovered; the ride had done him good, and he was now able to walk again. We made him a soft bed by the side of the fire, and he told us the chief events of his captivity.
No sooner had the savages seized the three young men in the field than they bound them, lifted them over the fence, and then carried them to their horses. Here three Indians took them before them, and the whole band flew out of the wood into the prairie, where the savages soon halted and went off in different directions. MacDonnell was taken off to the right with ten horsemen, while Lyons followed the path, and Clifton was carried to the left. The savages rode without halting all that day and the next night with MacDonnell, without giving him water or food, until they allowed their horses to graze for a few hours the next morning, when they gave him some roast meat. Then they hurried on with him again, and only stopped to water their horses, until the latter, toward evening, refused to go any farther, in spite of the incessant blows. They unsaddled in a wood by a stream, and roasted meat at a fire, after laying him with his feet bound among the bushes. His hands had swollen through the bonds, and pained him terribly, but his complaints and groans were unheeded by the cannibals, and it was only after long entreaty that they gave him a drink of water. Toward morning, they rode on, and reached in a few hours a river, on whose bank they unsaddled in a thick wood, and rested with the utmost carelessness, while he was placed with his back against a tree near the fire.
Soon after, another troop of Indians came up, and MacDonnell recognised the man who had given orders at the outset, and whom he took for the chief. He was now wearing a portion of Lyons' clothes and had put on his boots. This savage brought his horse to the fire, and to his horror, MacDonnell saw the severed limbs of his unhappy companion hanging from the saddle, which the Indians now unfastened and threw near the fire. The savages then gathered together and the chief placed bits of the flesh of the unfortunate Lyons on spits and devoured them when roasted. The Indians seemed to pay no attention to MacDonnell, but to listen to every sound, and several times the chief laid his ear on the ground in order to hear more distinctly. Ere long, other Indians arrived, and at noon the last of them with Clifton. He looked at MacDonnell inquiringly, but neither had the heart to utter a word. Clifton's feet were also bound, and he was placed against a tree, while all the savages lay around the fire and talked with much animation, pointing first to Mac and then to Clifton. At last the chief stretched out his hand toward Clifton and said several words in a commanding voice, upon which several men leaped up, carried the prisoner to a tree a little lower down the wood, and fastened him to it in a standing position with leathern thongs. Most of the young Indians, in the meanwhile, assembled with bows and arrows about fifty yards from Clifton, and awaited the chief's signal to commence firing. The signal was given, and the first arrow was buried in the entrails of the unhappy victim, whose cries of agony made the forest ring. Thus one fired after the other, till Clifton's whole body was pierced with arrows and his head hung down. Upon which the chief leapt up, swung his tomahawk over his head, and hurled it at the murdered man. It flew into the tree close to Clifton's head and remained imbedded. The chief went up to Clifton, plucked the hatchet out of the tree, and buried it deeply in the unhappy man's skull. After this the cannibals fell upon the corpse, which they cut up and each carried a piece to the fire. MacDonnell witnessed the whole fearful scene, and now the chief came up to him and said something he did not understand, while pointing to the north, whence Mac assumed that the same fate awaited him farther on in that direction. The savages started again ere long and rode by shorter stages to the camp where we surprised them, and where they had arrived but a few hours before us.
This description had recalled to Mac's mind all the scenes of horror, and he fell back exhausted on his bed. We restored him with a little wine-and-water, and begged him to hold his tongue and rest while we got supper ready and looked after the horses. During the night we posted four sentries and lit up the Indian horses with large fires. It passed without disturbance, and the next morning we continued our progress to the south. We now made but short marches, as our own horses were very tired, but the captured ones were so exhausted that we could hardly drive them on with long sticks.
We on several occasions unsaddled at noon because we found good pasturage on water, and rested till the next morning, so that we might not have to spend the night at a worse spot.